Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Galnius]

Aislinn and Daniel McHarris, MacHarris Mansion, 11 pm

The McHarris mansion echoed with quiet throughout the many rooms within. The area was enveloped in a dim glow from the chandeliers, lit to their lowest visual settings. Only one light remained shining, on the second story, the fourth window from the right. It was a closet, for all intents an purposes, but could be used as most people's bedrooms out of size.

Three people were found there. Daniel, Aislinn, and a design apprentice Daniel had snagged from New York. The third girl skittered about, putting together a wide array of female outfits to select from.

"Those are some fancy dresses." Daniel looked the outfits over and raised an eyebrow to his cousin, who was known for dressing like a farmhand far more often than dressing for a ball. "Do you have a date tomorrow? Do I know them? Please tell me it isn't 'Cisco."

The red head laughed at her cousins inquiries. For her oldest friend, it always seemed like he knew her so little. Then again, he didn't know much about anything, but she found it more endearing than annoying.

"No, nary a date Daniel. I have a business appointment tomorrow, so I want to make a great first impression. After all, I've been aiming for this for a while, and I only have this one shot."

"Oh? I see. What's the meeting about?"

"Nothing major, actually. I just want te be one of the sponsors for your local heroes. The Young Bloods. I believe you worked with one during the radio tower incident..."

"Yeah, Mask. Still didn't get his autograph."

"Aye that's the one. I also need to apologize to him, for needing to babysit my older cousin as you got into trouble. Especially after you turned off the comm. Oh, emerald or scarlet?"

"Emerald. Emerald gives off a feeling of collectedness and cool headedness. Scarlet is what you would want on a date if you ever went on one."

Aislinn looked between the two and nodded. It was rare to say, but Daniel was right. Besides, the green one would simply go better with the silver necklace and earrings she had picked out. Now there was just one thing left to deal with.

"Now, don't forget Daniel, if you turn off the comms again-"

"If I turn them off again you'll drag me home by the ear. Yeah yeah. Anyway, I'm going to hit the hay."

"Aye, I think I'll do the same. Oh I'm just giddy about tomorrow. Don't do anything stupid while I'm out alright?"

Aislinn and Daniel left for opposite sides of the house, intent on retiring for the evening. Aislinn however found it difficult to sleep, with the excitement of the next day making her heart pound.

[Finland SSR]

Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

October

---

Fidgeting in her desk chair, Mizu watched the spinning loading bubble on her screen, the only thing standing between her and a Messenger video call back home. When it came to the speed of light, the distance between the Earth and the Moon was hardly an issue, but connecting to the International Moon Base down on the satellite was still a chore - without any cables on the ground, they could only connect with wireless communication, and it can get spotty sometimes.

Finally, the bubble vanished, getting the excited girl to stop and pull herself closer to the laptop - only to push herself back when she was greeted not by two, but by five faces at once.

"Mizu!" they all yelled in unison, while the girl yelped and then took a breath to calm down. Her father and mother were both there - both had dropped their usual scientist uniforms and showed up in casual indoor clothes. Among them were Mizu's classmates from back on Luna - all eager to see what their "big sister" was up to. Her not showing up in a fancy, spectacular superhero uniform like they'd see on TV left them mildly disappointed, however.

"You didn't say that everyone else was going to be here..." Mizu muttered back. Hearing the mild complaint, Kenji, her father, snickered a bit, fixed his glasses and replied:

"Yuko got the word out that you'll show up on Messenger, that immediately got the whole class uppity. Everyone's been talking about you and your exploits here ever since you left for Earth."

"Oh..." the girl muttered, moving back from the screen, looking away to the side with a tinge of red on her cheeks, twisting a strand of her hair between her fingers. "I-I mean, I haven't really had my big hero moment yet, so there's really nothing I can say for my exploi-"

"But you did so well in the tournament!" one of the kids suddenly yelled, instantly catching Mizu's attention. That was Dmitry, one of the Russian kids, a few years younger than her - and he continued speaking with such glee and awe that he pretty much zoned out of the conversation, replicating her movements during the match against the Toledo Terrors. "You just jump outta nowhere, stand against that Salamander guy, you just spread your hands, the dude gets all confused and scared and then your buddy kicks him out like nothing!"

"Your team should have sent you out during the quarter-finals. The heroes your team sent were all offense oriented, and so tried to fight the Stars at the thing they do best. None of the Stars would have had any defenses against your powers and so it would have made the fight a lot smoother." Indira, an another one of the students, added, recanting everything in an almost robotic-like monotony. Mizu scratched the back of her head, grinning, and replied:

"Hehe, it doesn't work like Pokemon, unfortunately, you can't just switch out to your best teams with every match..."

"But you didn't get hurt, right? That boy was carrying you away after the battle, was it because you got something broken?" Yuko suddenly joined the conversation, bludgeoning the jolly mood with her concern.

"Oh, uh, no, I'm fine - I didn't even get hurt, just sprayed with slime."

"And that's not poisonous or corrosive, no?"

"Uh... no, no it's not..."

Taking a deep breath, Mizu laid back to her seat, speaking:

"So how are things going up there?"

"Oh, we're just, you know, hanging on," Kenji replied, smiling and folding his arms. "How are things going down there, though? You're the more exciting story here."

"Oh, well... they're going..." This might take a while...

[The Republic of Atria]

Nuclear Plant

Zayda stood back, watching as Floyd grabbed one of the huge demons and simply tossed it at her projection while equipping something she didn't entirely understand. She glanced to the side, seeing Vince trying to pull something large out of his bag. It was by far the largest one, and she recognized it as a project he'd spent almost all of his free time working on. Snapping back to her projection just in time to recall it back as the demon splattered on the floor. She spread her wings and flew back to Vince, knowing he probably had a plan.

"ALRIGHT!" Vince shouted at the top of his lungs as he lumbered forth with a bomb that looked like a fire extinguisher was smashed through the bottom with dozens of wires coiling around and into the device. "Listen here fucko. I think you've got the gist of what I do. Bombs. And you've seen the dinky little ones I shot and threw at you, but this... Hooooo boy... This has enough firepower to blow us all to atoms. It releases a pulse that severs the bonds between the atoms, literally causing everything to well... Atomize." He explained as the side opened up, electricity crackling inside the core of the explosive.

"Been having a rough couple weeks. Might take out a few cop cars as well as us, but we're not exactly the cream of the crop. Be a pretty weird way to go don't you think?"

Zayda stepped back, now scared of what was going to happen.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." He spoke, grabbing Zayda's arm and slamming the bomb down.

Zayda summoned her projection and intended to shove Vince away, only for the world to be drained of color and stop moving. "I-I don't-"

"Listen! You've only got about 15 seconds, It's a time displacement bomb! Time in the area is stopped except for us. You can't interact with anything until it snaps back to normal, but you can move, now go!" He said pushing her towards Floyd. "I'll explain later!"

Zayda, now aware of Vince's bluff, moved directly in front of Floyd, and right as time began to resume it's normal flow, unleashed the full might of her projection on Floyd.

Bael

Red contributing? Madness

Bael snapped his head back away after seeing the amount of blood that dropping his tail caused. His eyes forced themselves shut at the sight of it as he forced himself to slow his breathing and relax. Only for him to not be able to resist, take a quick glance back at the bloody scene and then force his eyes shut even harder as he kept trying to force himself to think about something else. At least until of all people, Red showed up, offering to bandage up what was left of the bloody stump of his tail. "It's not... It's not bleeding that badly." He spoke, eyes still shut. It wasn't, a few drops trickled off the stump and onto the ground, but it looked quite messy.

"I don't think I..." Before he could finish, he sighed, realizing that looking at a bunch of gauze was probably going to be much less disgusting than looking at the meat of his tail. "G-Go ahead. Just please make it quick. It'll grow back, I guess the gauze will be more tolerable for everyone to see than my bloody stump..."

Also Bael, but at the Tower

Roy

Baelsat quietly, still trying not to think about his bandaged tail while Roy had an uncharacteristic outburst about the victory. Partly because a few members of the new squad were signing autographs and soaking in the fame, but because he legitimately felt like something was amiss. Thinking back on it, Bael agreed. Something did feel a bit off. While the fight definitely wasn't too easy by any means, it did feel like they went down with less of a struggle than he'd expected, even counting the loss of half his tail. Roy said that they were to be there extra early for some specialized training against them and he shrugged.

On the surface, it didn't seem like anything they couldn't handle. Now that he was aware of both his and Butcher's own limits, he knew that he could take him out in round two far easier than he did. The other flying one could probably be dealt with by them even easier if they brought Renata. It was purely a numbers game, and they could easily win by that.

That being said, he was never opposed to more training, even if it was a bit overkill to have it that early in the morning when they had plenty of other days. It was probably just to get at the glory hounds. "While I do think that it's a bit early, I'm never going to be opposed to more practice. I do think something weird is going on. The timing is just too perfect, and if we're going to see a surge of more superhuman villains, we need to be further prepared. I do feel like things are changing."

Maybe he should go speak to Orro. All things considered, he could use some advice and see if he has any suggestions on how to further improve.

[Tomia]

Angelica, October 24th
Angelica had been sitting out alone in the sand when she heard someone approach from behind her. He asked her if she was having girl problems and usually Angelica would have responded to that with anger but right now she was just tired and sad.

"Ya" She replied weakly. She wasn't really in the mood to talk, she had come out there to avoid people after all. She used to sit by herself on the beach during her early days on the team but that had mostly stopped once... well when she got closer to Alexis. She was the one who got her out her shell after all. If it weren't for Alexis she probably wouldn't have any friends on the team at all. Normally that was a comforting thought but right now it made her stomach churn.

"Listen Red, I know you probably didn't know I was out here and weren't expecting a chat. So how about instead of awkward small talk, we both just sit brooding in silence okay?" She said to her teammate. Her voice wasn't angry or spiteful just tired and sad.

Mars, October 24th
Mars nodded at Casimir and Viv's words, relieved to hear people agreed with him. Wyatt seemed to agree with Roy and while Mars didn't think he was necessarily wrong but still couldn't help but feel Roy was over reacting. "I'm not against more practice, but these people got put away right? And it didn't seem worse than a usual fight. I just don't get why Roy is all angry all of the sudden..."

[United Kingdom of Poland]

A quiet uneasiness fell over Wendy as she watched Roy chew the team out. She knew more than anyone else the pressure Roy had put on himself ever since she’d told him about his former mentor’s return, and the threat Ares had given her as she lay broken on the concrete after that mission. And truth be told she could see what was bugging him after the last mission. The dive she took into that android made it perfectly clear this wasn’t a bunch of hooligans looking for street cred.

Still part of her felt he was taking too much of this out on Mars and the others simply because they were actually enjoying the fact they were living their childhood dream come true. “Roy been a little stressed out after what happened between us Ares that last mission. I’ll go talk to him and see if I can’t get him to cool down a little.”

Following Roy upstairs to his room, Wendy jumped a little as she heard his door slam shut. Carefully walking up to it she knocked lightly, before opening the door a crack. “Roy, it’s me. Is everything alright.”

[Tomia]

Roy
Roy was in the middle of throwing on a white t-shirt as he prepared to go to bed. He had only been in his room for a minute or so before he heard a knock on the door followed by it opening. Anger surged in his mind at someone opening his door until it receded just as quickly when heard Wendy's voice. He let out a deep sigh. "Ya, everything is fine, Wendy." He told her as she waited outside the door. "You can come in if you want." He told her. Quickly finishing putting on his t-shirt before she came in.

"I know I got angry back there, but it's part of leading. I can't just let them lay back all the time. They need to learn this isn't a vacation or a walk of fame. If we only work hard when there are people to clap for us. Something bad is going to happen." He told his girlfriend. "But I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me." He tried to assure her as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "How about you? How were you feeling tonight?" He knew Ares' reappearance had been as hard on her if not harder than it had been for himself.

[Bentus]

The Nefarious Marionette!
Yet Another Bank, San Diego

---

“Lisette, update.”

The voice that suddenly spoke into her ear pulled Lisette from her thoughts, causing her to blink in surprise as she glanced around at her surroundings. Having become used to the sound of her own thoughts, the interruption was both unwanted and unwelcome. Scowling, the girl hissed back just loud enough for her voice to be picked up by the microphone hidden in her shirt, but keeping an eye out to make sure that she didn’t draw any unwanted attention to herself in the process.

“I said I’d update you if anything happened, asshole.”

She made no effort to hide the bitterness in her tone, scowling even though she knew that the mobster on the other side of the line couldn’t see her face. Dressed in the preppy uniform of a local private school, Lisette was indistinguishable from the tide of students that thronged through downtown after school. Nevertheless, she’d made it clear to the group of mobsters she was working with exactly what she thought of the outfit. Anyone with an eye for fashion would have been aghast at the blandness of it, and she felt like the tie around her neck had dedicated itself to cutting the air off from her lungs. But even with the irritating voice in her ear, she stuck perfectly with the character that she was being forced to play.

“And I told you not to call me that while I’m working.”

There was a light chuckle across the line, and Lisette felt the temperature of her blood climb a few degrees as she imagined the smug smirk that the man must have been wearing. “Hey, we were just getting a little bit worried about you, Lizzy. Thought that ya might’ve run into some trouble. Maybe some teenagers in capes, hm?”

At the continued goading across the line, Lisette silently clenched her fists. She wanted to lash out at the mobster, seething inwardly at the nerve the man had talking to her like that. All while he was little more than a glorified brute: no powers, no costume, nothing of interest about him at all. But she also knew that she couldn’t risk it, both since she had to keep up with her disguise and because she had to make a good impression on this job. With nowhere else left to turn by this point, she just had to. Taking a breath, Lisette forced herself to respond calmly as she buried her anger.

“Actually, everything’s been going just fine. Though who knows how long that’ll last if -”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. Are you lost?”

Lisette froze as a new voice interjected onto her whispered conversation. Whipping herself around, she found herself face to face with an older man. His expression was professionally neutral, the bank teller uniform that we wore kept crisp despite the slowly receding hairline above his forehead. Nevertheless, he assessed the girl with a suspicious gaze as he waited for her response. He’d been watching her for a good minute, noticing that she’d seemed to loiter inside the branch without ever once making her way towards a member of the staff. That on its own would have drawn his attention, but why would some high schooler have walked into a private bank anyway?

Thinking fast, the girl acted as if she were only just noticing the man’s presence, and as if she were surprised that he had come up to talk to her. Appearing to overcome her surprise, Lisette offered him a friendly smile and a dismissive wave.

“Oh, no thanks.” She gestured back towards the private offices, where some of the bank’s fund managers would meet with their individual clients. “I’m just waiting for my father. He’s taking forever.”

Following the girl’s gaze, the man’s initially suspicious expression evaporated. Connecting the dots that Lisette had lined up for him, the teller realised that he might be talking with the daughter of a potential new client. His whole demeanour appeared to change on a dime at once, his dismissive and hostile attitude being replaced with the saturated niceties and well-worn platitudes of the service sector. “Oh, I see! I’m sorry to bother you in that case. If you do need anything while your father’s busy, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Lisette offered the man a friendly wave as he turned to leave. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind!” Holding her friendly smile for a few moments after she was sure the teller was no longer paying her any mind, she turned around to scowl into her earpiece once more. “What the hell!” She hissed under her breath. “That was exactly what I was trying to avoid, idiot!”

“Marionette, what the hell are you doing inside the bank?!”

A different voice came over the radio this time, immediately snatching the angered wind from Lisette’s sails. Hearing the frustration in the man’s voice she hesitated before responding, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse. “Oh, hey Vincent. I just uh, I thought that it would be useful to get a look on the inside, you know? I could hardly see anything from the sidewalk.”

---

Outside of the bank, sitting in the driver’s seat of an unmarked van idling not more than a block from where Lisette was, Vincent listened to the girl’s explanation with a stark frown maring his features. He was a burly man, built like a truck and with the experience to put his strength to use in San Diego’s underworld. A faint stubble covered his face, and he looked like he must have been at east thirty. Even as the former supervillain’s voice came through the van’s radio, the small group’s appointed leader shot a scowl at the other man sitting in the passenger seat. The younger mobster lifted his hands innocently, even though Vincent knew that he’d have to chew him out for goading the girl earlier. Heaven’s knew he already had enough to worry about without him throwing peanuts at a superhuman.

“Damn it, Marionette. What were you thinking? Your disguise is meant to help you blend in outside. You’ve got to be sticking out like a sore thumb in there. I need you to get out before anyone else gets suspicious. Now.”

“I know, but I can handle the people in here.” Lisette tried to explain, feeling a hint of panic in her chest as she tried to defend her decision. “Father often met with bankers and the like all the time.”

Wanting to bury his head in his hands at how the operation was going, Vincent was distracted when he felt a sharp elbow prodding at his side.

“H-hey, Vince…”

Scowling, the mobster turned to glower at his partner. “The fuck is it, Ray?”

Instead of responding, the other man simply pointed out the van’s window towards a car that had just pulled up to the curb. Pristine and pitch black, the SUV’s windows were all tinted to prevent any passer-bys from peering inside, but Vincent got a darn good look at the trio of figures who stepped out. Dressed in crisp suits with red undershirts and matching black ties, they immediately stood out to anyone who had even a passing involvement with the city’s underworld.

“Oh, shit.” Vince said, immediately returning to the radio. “Marionette, we’ve got Russians. You’ve to get out of there.”

“Why the fuck are they here?” Ray hissed, his eyes glued to the window as he watched the rival gang members casually step into the bank, with the idling car no doubt containing more of their comrades.

“You think I know?” Vincent retorted, feeling their plan taking a sharp turn down shit creek. “All that matters is that they’re here now. That means that we’re done for today. We’ll head back to the flat and figure out our next move there. Marionette, we don’t want to draw their attention so be careful on your way out. We’ll pick you up on South street.”

---

Marionette bit her lip at the instruction. She’d ducked into a side corridor, where the public restrooms and a door labelled staff-only were at least a bit obscured from the lobby’s view. Peering around the corner, she saw the Russian mobsters striding confidently into the bank. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the bank teller that had spoken to her earlier appear to jump at the sight of them. In fact, it looked like the focus of the whole room seemed to have shifted as soon as they arrived.
Suspicious, she watched as the bank manager himself stepped out of his office to greet the newcomers and exchange a few words. Lisette couldn’t make out what they were saying, but something about it all seemed too fishy to be a coincidence. They’re being too friendly for a shakedown. Plus we’d have known if the Russians had protection rackets in this part of town, right? Trying to come up with some alternate explanation, Lisette silently watched as the manager guided the Russians into his office, while a secretary appeared to bring them all a tray of drinks. Huh, well I suppose that the customer service is pretty decent -

The girl’s eyes widened as it all suddenly clicked at once. “Vincent...I think the Bratva are clients here. Pretty major ones, too.”

“What? Are you sure?”

Continuing to scan the bank lobby, Lisette noted the more frantic atmosphere that seemed to have descended on the staff. She felt a twist in her stomach as she watched hushed whispers get exchanged across desks, while a few nervous glances were cast over towards the manager’s office. “Yeah.”

“Okay, that’s bloody good information. You need to get yourself out of there, and we’ll report this to the boss as soon as we can.”

Even at the man’s brief praise and insistence, Lisette still remained motionless. “Vincent, I think they’re making a withdrawal.” The tension in the air, the over-the-top service (albeit far less over-the-top than she was accustomed to seeing, but Lisette supposed that was a poor-person thing), it was all eerily familiar to the heiress. “It’s all like when father pulls his accounts from a bank. They’re panicking over here.” The gears in the girl’s head were now turning quickly. “If the Bratva have accounts here, then that makes robbing the place even more of a huge deal, right? But we’d have to do it now. Before they get a chance to grab their money and leave.”

“What?! No!” The shock was evident in Vincent’s voice, even though he silently saw the rationale in the girl’s plan. “We weren’t even close to being ready even before the Russians showed up. Stick to the plan: gather information today, plan things out more tomorrow.”

But Lisette’s mind was already made up as she made her way towards the staff-only door, walking quickly in case anyone tried to have a bathroom break at the worst possible moment. There was a glimmer in her eyes as she recognised this as an opportunity to go above and beyond. She’d come here with the intention to prove herself to her new employers, and to secure herself a safe haven now that her identity had been revealed. What better way was there to prove her usefulness by taking the initiative like this?

“Yeah, but you’ve got me to help out now, remember?” Lisette stated, a confident smile growing on her lips as she used a thread to silently snap the lock on the door. “This will be a piece of cake. And besides, there’s no way the Boss would be happy if we passed up on a chance to steal from the competition, right? You guys should just get ready to help me out.” And with that, she stepped past the point of no return.

And somewhere in an unmarked van, a man displayed his frustration with a colourful string of curses.

[Finland SSR]

The Nefarious Marionette!
Yet Another Bank, San Diego

---

Marcella Salazar, the handsome Changeling!

---

Hmmm.

The fascinator she picked up on the way here was... odd looking, but its large, white frame fit with the theme of her costume surprisingly well. Ah, but maybe it's a little too large - it obscures her eye, that's great, that creates a feeling of menace towards whoever is trying to stare her, down, but... Twitch, twitch. There. Move it slightly to the right, and now most of her face is clear in sight and it doesn't get in the way of her shoulder. Ah, darn, now the feathers in the fascinator are misaligned with the colors all over her head...

Staring at the wide bathroom mirror, Marcy struck a light pout. Then she pulled out a wet napkin and wiped over the stain of blood at the tip of the fascinator yet again. That annoyance was not going away either. And now it's gone dark, almost brown, and so looks even worse. At least the fresh red added some color to her appearance.

Throughout this whole time, the piece in her ear continued chattering - but while Vincent and Lisette continued arguing at almost every opportunity, Marcy stayed completely silent and just listened to any information she could scavenge. Working for the mob was never glamorous, but she had to make a living from the life of crime she has chosen, and today was feeling quite optimistic. Not because the task she's been hired to do was more interesting than the last - anyone could recon a bank for a potential heist, it was child's play - but because today she got a chance to come closer to lady Lisette Aveline. The Marionette herself. So little has been left in her master plan, just the finish sprint.

Throughout the beginning of the mission, Marcy kept a low profile. They were not here to draw anyone's attention, and there could not be a person who drew more eyes than her - she spent her time secretly infiltrating the bank, making a map of the building in her mind, hiding away from security if they showed up, and eventually ending up here, in a locked women's bathroom. By now, however, the situation outside the women's bathroom was escalating. From what Marcy could gather, the Bratva has showed up - and they were here to withdraw their accounts from the back, presumably while coercing the poor bank tellers and the administration. Almost immediately, Lisette came up with a plan - drop all pretenses and attack now, strike the Bratva when it hurts the most, before they've withdrawn the money and put it to use. Ignoring protests from Vincent, she seemed ready to go through with her plan.

The frown on Marcy's face changed to a smirk, and the girl turned away from the mirror. With a flick of her wrist, she activated the hidden blade in Rendezvous and stepped next to the bathroom door. As soon as she unlocked it and opened a tiny gap which would allow her to spy on the main lobby, she pressed on her earpiece and spoke:

"Lisette, I am in the women's bathroom. On standby, waiting for your orders."

---

Mika, Her Room

Jan Sorok, the champion of Heaven!

---

Hearing Mika try to explain herself, Jan tilted his head a bit and raised his eyebrow, staring back at the girl with slight confusion washing over him.

"I'm not trying to argue against that. By all means, if you want to do something nice for a friend, then that's great - but you shouldn't make someone happy at the expense of others. If Casimir and his girlfriend are happy being together, then you shouldn't just go and try to take it away." After explaining that, the Virgil flashed a smile. "Try to make Ash happy without making someone else feel terrible. Everyone deserves to be happy, after all."

The topic suddenly switched to music - Mika offered him to pick the tunes. Jan blinked, stopping for a second, then reached out to the side with his hand. For about ten seconds, it looked like he was grasping at air - then a bright, buzzing portal opened into some ethereal realm, not too different from the portal which Jan opened to get the two of them out of Hell some time ago.

Through the portal, the Virgil withdrew his guitar, placed it on his lap, and let his mind sink to his practice back in the Herman home. Then began.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 3rd

---

---

---

Success!

As soon as she saw that her little trick had paid off and Meridiana's severed head fell into her own lap, Megan pumped her fists into the air and floated up slightly while bending her knees, as if she was jumping and doing a victory cheer, albeit in mid air. Of course, she wasn't nearly as oblivious as she might seem, and so it didn't take her very long to notice that something was amiss. Seeing the wave of fire suddenly released from the succubus' mouth, the purple-haired girl's eyes widened ever so slightly, and she realized that even if her foe was reduced to a head at this point, it wasn't a good idea to underestimate her. Megan watched as the massive blast of fire blasted forward, drawing closer by the second.

"Oh boy. Time to make a quick getaway." She said to herself.

Suddenly, as if pulled by an unseen force, Megan began flying rapidly across the air, headed in the direction of the ground near where Hannah stood after vanquishing the four fire elementals. After a few moments, Megan's right ankle reconnected with her right foot, while her left foot flew straight towards her from nearby once she had reached the ground. With barely any time to spare, she ran straight towards Hannah, grabbing her by the arm and then pulling her behind the corner of a building, which provided suitable cover when the wave of fire raged past them.

"Hey, that was a pretty cool move you did, Hannah, I saw it from up there. Sure showed those walking gases." She mimicked a fart sound to accentuate her mocking remark, and then offered the tall, toned blonde a thumbs up and a cheeky grin.

After a few moments, the fire had passed and the purple-haired girl promptly jumped out of cover and began walking towards where she had last seen Meridiana's severed head and torso. "Come on, we have to catch Horny now that she's reduced to a head."

[Bentus]

Mika and Ash - the Sleepover Adventure!

The Amazing Ashen Moth!
Wonder Tower

---

Ash was about to point Mika towards one of the power sockets in her room when she saw that the other girl had already managed to find one. Making a note to remember to plug her lamp back in before she went to sleep though, Ash buzzed over to the other girl’s bag and began to dig around for the games that she’d mentioned. She remembered the basics of using a DS from when Viviana had shown her Pokemon, and it didn’t take her long before she had the trio of titles held in her hands. Though that led her nicely up to a decision that proved more difficult than she’d initially expected: deciding which one to play.

Squinting at the covers on the cartridges, Ash tried to make sense of the small images that adorned them. She couldn’t glean much from the pictures despite her best efforts, and so opted to simply pick one at random and insert it into the device. Mika had said that they were all good fun, after all, and she was sure that they’d have enough time to try all of them during the sleepover. Booting up the DS, Ash flew over to take a seat on her bed, her eyes glued to the screen in anticipation as she waited for her friend to join her.

“Okay, Mika - I should begin the new game, yes?” She asked, before pausing as she realised that she wasn’t actually too sure what to expect. “Uh, also: you said that these games were simulators? What is it that they simulate? Are they like Pokemon?”

The Amazing Ashen Moth!
Losers’ Table, Thomsen High

---

The others’ excitement for their growing halloween plans was contagious, and Ash was quickly grinning ear-to-ear as she tried to picture the coming night in her head. It sounded like an incredible holiday, with the prospect of finding a costume appearing to be just as much fun as the free candy itself. She wondered if she would be able to invite any of her other friends along as well, thinking that it would be a shame for them to miss out on some halloween fun by sitting in the Tower. The mutant’s expression shifted slightly as Ava suggested that they dress up as villains, however.

Frowning, Ash wasn’t too sure if that would be a good idea. Villains were bad people, after all, and she couldn’t see the appeal of dressing up as a bad person. Surely it made more sense to try and dress up as something good? Hesitating, Ash kept her thoughts to herself for now, although she offered Ava a confused glance from across the table. Her concerns were short-lived however, when Mika pulled out a picture to show off one of her costume ideas, only for the dress to be pulled from the frame and into reality. Immediately, Ash’s jaw practically dropped to the floor.

“What?!” She cried, ecstatic as she leapt into the air to fly over to her friend to get a closer look at the phantom dress. Her eyes wide with curiosity, she gingerly poked at the dress as if to confirm for herself that it was really there. Looking at Mika, Ash offered her an admiring grin. “Mika, I did not know that you had powers! This is very cool, how did you do it?”

[New Finnish Republic]

The Beach

---

Red raised an eyebrow at Angelica’s response, biting at the corner of his lip as he hesitated to find what to say next. While the two were far from close, the two had interacted with one another enough times for him to realize that things were likely much worse than what he expected. The fact that she hadn’t threatened to turn him into a human popsicle or even shot an ice-cold glare at him upon his sarcastic remark made this even clearer. So with nothing to say, Red simply nodded his head slightly, leaning over with crossed arms on the top of his helmet which resided on his lap.

For some time, the two sat in silence, neither of them moving as the sounds of crashing waves in front of them cut through the subtle roar of the city in the background. Unwilling to risk harsh words from Angelica or earn himself a scornful look, Red chose to instead stare vacantly at the moon-lit ocean in front of him, watching as the gentle sparkling waves made their way onto shore only to retreat back into the ocean. His eyes briefly lit up as the crashing waves reminded him of something.

“You know, when I was a kid, I used to sometimes go down to the piers at night and do exactly this,” Red said in a soft voice, finally breaking the silence between the two. “I’d look out over the ocean to watch all of the cargo ships coming in, and I’d imagine sneaking onto one and becoming a stowaway.” Red paused for a brief moment, as he thought over his memories a bit further until a soft smile appeared on his face. “I can’t even begin to imagine how damn angry the crew of one of those ships would’ve been once they found some little redheaded shithead stowed away halfway across the ocean,” he said, a small chuckle erupting from him at the thought.

“But I never did seem to have the balls to do it, even when I knew I was going to come back home to get my ass kicked for sneaking out again,” he continued, the smile on his face fading away as his gaze remained fixed on the waves ahead. “Looking back at it all now, I think the reason I always came back was because I was scared to imagine the world being an even meaner place than where I was at. And now that I’m older, I can’t really tell if I was right or not.”

After a few moments, Red realized that he had done the exact thing Angelica had told him not to do, causing him to look over to where Angelica was with wide eyes. “Sorry, I think I just messed up the whole ‘Brooding’ thing there. Especially with telling you such a stupid story,” he said, his eyebrows furrowing on the final part of his apology.

Angelica was silent for a few moments which gave the impression she was ignoring Red. “It wasn’t stupid.” She said finally in a gentle tone. “But ya you do suck at brooding.” She added playfully.

A sense of relief washed over Red upon the response as a small grin appeared on the corner of his lips. "Yeah, just add it to the list of things I'm currently sucking at," he replied jokingly. Turning his gaze down towards the helmet resting on his lap, he spun it around for a few moments in his hands before finally letting out a small sigh. "Including being a good boyfriend, I guess," he said, his words soft as a defeated look appeared on his face.

"Ya… well I guess you're not alone in that category. I don't seem to be doing much right myself lately either." Angelica shared glumly. "I wish talking to other people was as easy as fighting bad guys."

A small sad chuckle escaped out of Red in response to Angelica. "Yeah, tell me about it. At least when it comes to dealing with the latter, you know what to expect. When it comes to people not trying to kill you, well, things seem to get…complicated."

"Ya" Angelica said simply in agreement. "Sorry to hear about you and Yoshi by the way. I know that can't be easy and all."

Red pursed his lips for a few moments before nodding in agreement. “Yeah, it’s hard. It gets even harder when I realize that it’s my fault that things happened the way they did, you know?” Red sat silent for a few moments until he let out another small sigh. “Yoshi’s a good girl. The fact that she ended up with me is both a miracle and a curse all wrapped up in one ironic bow. Sometimes I’ve got to imagine if she’d ended up with someone like Wonder Boy, if she’d be going through everything...else she’s going through right now. And I feel responsible for all of that, you know? I just…” Red’s words trailed off as a frustrated expression filled his face, glancing down at the helmet in his hands with feelings of disgust.

"Sorry I didn't mean to dredge things up. If it helps though it's not your fault Yoshi fell for you. She made her own choices, and there's no guarantee things would have gone better."

"Looks like we're both pretty shitty at making the right choices then," Red said, a small scoff escaping guys lips. Letting out a frustrated groan, he leaned back against the bench, his gaze centered on the stars above them. "So, now that I've done an excellent job at screwing up the whole "Silent Brooding" moment, you ready to talk about her?" Red asked, his tone of voice making it clear he was ready to be done talking about Yoshiro for the time being.

Angelica went silent again for a few moments, turning away from the red head. "No not really." After another minute or so of silence however she spoke again. "There isn't much to say honestly. Alexis made a joke, it made me angry and I yelled at her. I wasn't really mad at her, I was just… mad. I don't know how to get things back to normal now."

Red turned his gaze down from the skies above and gave her a curious look. "Must have been a hell of a joke. What did she say?"

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Angelica said a bit quickly. “Sorry, just kind of personal.”

Red paused for a brief moment, before giving her a small nod. "That's understandable. I don't have a clue what it was she said, but it must have hurt a lot. I'm sure Alexis understands that just as much as you do...” Red went quiet for sometime before eventually continuing on, letting out a small sigh as he did.. “...or maybe she doesn’t. I think we’re both on the same page when we say people are hard to read. We’re no different in that regard. Hell, we’re probably worse.”

As his voice became silent, a heavy look fell on his face as he locked eyes with Angelica and reached up to give her a small pat on the back. “I guess my only advice here, Ice Queen, is that you need to let yourself thaw out a bit. You’re hurting, and that’s not your fault. But if it’s something Alexis did on accident, you’ve got to try and talk it out with her while you can. Trust me, the last thing you ever want to do is regret not telling someone how you really felt when you still had the chance.” As Red’s hand fell down, he tried to feign a comforting smile in hopes of encouraging Angelica, but his eyes made it clear that those words had less been for her, but for himself.

Angelica sat and thought for a moment before finally speaking. "Thanks Red, I appreciate it." She said as she stood up herself. "I should head inside and get some rest. This talk helped though."

Red gave her a small nod as she got up from the bench next to him. "Glad to help," he replied, choosing to remain sitting where he was. He gave her a small wave as she began to leave, waiting until she was out of sight to let out a small groan.

"If only it was easy as I made it sound, eh?" He muttered to himself, glancing out towards the ocean for one last time before he too eventually made his way back towards the Tower. Although by the time he had arrived it appeared most of the excitement from earlier had died down, mainly due to an announcement of early morning training from Roy, Red made a conscious effort to avoid getting caught up in any further conversations with anyone else, choosing instead to make his way straight towards his room.

[New Neros]

Mark Nemo | Ava Waldstein

Seated with the victorious members of Squad 4, Mark and Ava tended to stay in the background and not cause waves with the main cast who came and went. They both looked to Shi for guidance and support, and with her running to tell Naja her own suspicions, it was clear that Roy had come to similar conclusions and came down hard on the team because of it. Surely he was pissed at the behaviors of the showboaters and autograph signers, but not an ounce of recognition given to the squads and individuals who did as they were told, followed orders, directions, got in and got out of the building with everything accomplished and a low profile.

Mark stirred, ready to say something for once, but was nudged by Darklight, who quickly hissed at him, "Best not to stir the boat right now. Not with him, at least."

"I'm not fuckin' scared of Roy," Mark shot back softly, "I train every night before bed and every morning before school. Is he implying that this is some new, radical idea I need to get with in order to be the best hero I can be?"

"It's not for you, dumbass." Ava sighed, "We don't need a pat on the dick every time we do what we're supposed to do. You're not a problem they worry about, I promise you. That last mission Roy went on really flipped his world, he's trying his best even if we don't think it's the right thing to do."

"Psh," Mark spat, leaning back into the couch. "Would be nice to get an 'atta boy' once a while." As Roy made his exit though, leaving Mars looking around for some support, Mark jumped up and started to head towards the hallway connecting to the front door. "Well, you heard the man, see you all at six o'clock in the morning, I'm going for my midnight stroll and various hood rat activities. Go team." He said sarcastically, flinging open the door and walking away from the Tower briskly, taking the shortest route on the island to get back to the mainland on foot.

---

[Absolon-7]

The Great Kabuto!
The Blazing Stella!
October 21st
Wonder Tower, San Diego

---

In a pleasant afternoon in Wonder Tower, Casimir was in the building’s incredibly vast gym floor and was in the middle of curling dumbbells worth several tons thanks to gravity plates in a slow rhythm as incredibly loud power metal blasted in the gym’s speakers. An angry expression filled his face as he sat on the bench holding onto his arm to keep it steady as beads of sweat dripped down his messy hair. It sure was a lot more convenient having equipment of this level in the Tower rather than going to Dunkmaster’s Gym. Upon one last repetition his arm began wearing out and he cursed under his breath as he let the equipment down to the ground gently to the ground. He glanced over at a spot on the floor covered by a random mat that hid a crack from a certain accident with the equipment when it had first arrived but he also caught a certain crimson haired girl making her way towards him.

“Why the hell is she walking towards me,” muttered Casimir.

“You know, I can hear you, idiot,” Renata suddenly called out, stopping in front of the bug themed hero with her arms folded and a scowl on her face. The girl was wearing a tank top and jeans today, but her shock absorbers rest on both her arms and her legs - it was combat training day, and she was ready to blast something to smithereens today.

“You’re at the top of the list of people on this team I have yet to have a spar with. So that’s what I’m here for. No ifs or buts, this is an order.”

“What?” blurted out Casimir confused at the sudden challenge, “What makes you think you can order me around?”

“I said no ifs or buts!”

The idea of fighting Renata wasn’t really that appealing to him as he figured she’d break something if she tried hitting him and he really preferred opponents that could put up a fight in a close quarters brawl. Although he might as well amuse her and take up the offer.

“Well whatever. I’ll take up your offer,” he said standing up from his seat. He was wearing a dark green tracksuit with the front of his chest open to reveal a white undershirt. “So where are we going for it?”

Hearing the answer she wanted, Renata struck a smile. She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, towards a wide, blue square boxing mat. Simple enough that both sides have an equal footing, yet large enough for Renata to gain the space she needs during battle.

“That should be fine. The side which gets the other down on the ground or pushes it out of bounds wins.” the girl explained, making her way towards the mat, as sparks of light and plasma flashed in and out around her hands.

“Sounds easy then,” exclaimed Casimir as he began to stretch on the other side of the mat once he got there, “No hard feelings but I’ll have the match over within a minute.”

After stretching he bent his legs slightly, ready to tackle her away from the mat and end the match right then and there.

Renata did not come to the fight unprepared, however. Casimir might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even she knew that he was one of the physically strongest members of the team and, if the two of them got into melee, he could easily end her. But he was oozing his bug theme to an absurd degree, and when it came to bugs and their weaknesses…

“...we’ll see about that.” she replied with a toothy grin.

Suddenly, the girl spread her arms forth, releasing a pulse of infrared from her body - it washed over the boxing ring, then returned like a wave and began to circulate, rapidly heating up the air in the battlefield. Already, the heat began to rush past the hottest spots in the Death Valley and continued to grow unabated.

Renata felt nothing - hell, to her, the infrared-saturated air was refreshing. With a blast off her feet, the girl suddenly took off to the sky, taking aim onto Casimir.

Casimir himself leaped upwards at the same time as her and spun himself forward to kick her hands away from aiming at him before plummeting downwards to dropkick her if she came back down.

“Agh!” Renata yelped, the concentrated plasma between her palms fading as soon as Casimir’s kick swept past - it came so fast that she barely got time to register it, much less react. And the hero was already winding up for another strike, too. Starting to descend back to the ground, Renata suddenly thrust her legs forth - a blast fired off from her feet, aimed at Casimir’s solar plexus.

The blast caught him completely off guard and the scorching attack launched him into the ground where he rolled away from her. He suddenly jumped up and patted down his chest in a vain attempt to quell the heat. “Hot, hot, hot!” he huffed out before looking back at her. Casimir then threw his fists to the side and clenched them before rushing towards her before suddenly dropping his knees. He swiftly followed up the maneuver with a karate chop on her knees to get her on the ground.

Charged by a blisteringly fast Casimir, Renata could only release a yelp before a painful karate chop slammed her back to the floor. The girl spun in the scorching hot air for a second before landing on the floor with her left hand. Immediately, she pushed herself off to hop back onto her feet - then grasped to the side, gathering plasma in her hand.

Instead of an energy blast, however, the plasma started to solidify and take tangible shape - the girl was applying a slow burn of radiation instead of a blast all at once, leaving the plasma stable.

The construct began expanding from Renata’s grasp, starting to resemble a stick, before suddenly rapidly expanding in Casimir’s direction, aiming to strike.

The rod struck Casimir directly in the stomach staggering him enough to make him wince. However, after being pushed back a few inches he dropped downwards onto the ground letting the rod fly over him before twisting himself around flop onto the ground. He rapidly spun around on his back like a breakdancer before leaping back up to his feet.

“Oh shit I didn’t know you could do that!,” he loudly said, clenching his fists up to his chest, “That’s badass!”

Without another word he rushed back towards her to aim a light kick to her hip but it was in fact a feint meant to hide an elbow strike at her forehead.

“Yeah, I-” Renata’s focus broke for a second and the girl was about to start explaining, only to get suddenly tricked and an elbow clocked in between her eyes. Stumbling back from the sheer force, she stopped a few meters away, clutched onto her forehead with her free left hand and hissed. “...I was going to explain how I figured it out, but I guess if that’s the sort of game you wanna play...”

Most of Renata’s plasma stick dissipated, its energy fading into the air, and the heroine suddenly swung across the air with the remnant. Its bits and pieces popped off, all turning into fast and scorching hot shards of plasma, speeding off at Casimir.

“Game? What game?” blurted out Casimir blankly before spotting the burning shards, “Oh shit! Fly Power!”

As the scorching shards shot past Casimir the suffocatingly hot air currents made the fly power quite potent in its detection and in a messy blur he twisted and turned to dodge the shards. The power had saved him from some sore spots but it also left him unable to use it again during the fight. A familiar feeling began welling inside Casimir that was reminiscent of the vile feeling he felt when he grossed out Renata with his joke a while ago. He didn’t know what it was but he didn’t like it.

“So uh how about a short truce? Kinda want to hear you got it,” he said standing idly.

“Huh?”

Genuinely baffled, Renata dropped her guard, the remains of the plasma construct in her hands dissipating as soon as her focus upon it ceased.

“That’s... an odd change of pace for you,” she replied, placed her arms on her hips and turned to the side. “Mizu helped me out. We’ve been sparring a lot together, she uses her illusions as shooting targets for me... She’s studying about metastability and electromagnetic radiation right now, and she gave me an idea that instead of blasting the air in my palms with as much energy as I can to create a blast, I could use a slow burn to stabilize the plasma. And so I ended up with this.”

Casimir blinked for a few seconds as some of the words flew right over his head but he managed to get the gist of it being about condensing her plasma. He crossed his arms in contemplation before speaking out in befuddlement infused excitement, “So you got stronger by getting help? Can’t say that’s occurred to me before it looks you got a pretty badass result. So let’s see how far you can go with them.”

“I mean, uh...” Renata muttered, then scoffed. “Shut up.” The girl moved into a fighting stance, starting to apply radiation in her right palm to build up a construct of plasma, all while ready to jump back in case Casimir tried to blitz her. The raging heat above the boxing ring continued to build up.

“Feeling a little hot?”

“A bit stuffy in here, maybe,” smugly retorted Casimir flapping the collar of his tracksuit a bit but huffing out a bit more than usual as sweat built up on his brow but it was curtailed by a sudden clap of his hands, “Round two! Ding ding!”

Casimir hopped forward to face her, first kick the inner part of her ankle with his opposite foot in an attempt to unbalance her before attempting to shove her to the ground with an open palm strike to her upper shoulder.

Having expected a blow to the upper half of her body, Renata ended up swept off her feet and slammed down to the floor rather easily - after a pained grunt, however, the heroine immediately jumped back into action. Powered up by a sudden burst of plasma, her right leg shot forward, aiming to clock Casimir in the jaw - meanwhile, Renata herself hopped back on her feet and poured more energy into her construct, letting it grow and turn into something resembling a three meter tall claymore, one which she immediately slammed down onto her opponent.

Casimir bobbed and weaved under the powered up kick but it left him open to take on the giant claymore striking him dead on to the face. The giant weapon made him buckle his knees and almost had him hit the floor but he had slapped his hands on its sides right as it struck him. He gnashed his teeth and with a grunt he slid it off his body using its own force against his and countered Renata with shoulder tackle towards her own.

Suddenly yanked to the side, the fragile plasma construct lost its shape and began to break apart, its energized atoms dissipating into the air. The girl herself, caught off-guard, got easily blown back by the tackle. Competing with Casimir’s physical strength was not an option, so Renata, as soon as her stumble stopped, chose to not challenge it. Instead, she began backing away, all while tossing plasma blasts and shooting lasers at her opponent with each step back.

Casimir tried dodging the plasma blasts but some managed to hit him, burning off parts of his tracksuit and the near instantaneous lasers landed on their mark directly each time. He winced at the hot spots that were starting to sting severely all over him but the fight ramping up simply widened his grin. Casimir leaped upwards in a rapid spin before swinging one arm upwards to shoot webbing at the ceiling while his other arm shot webbing at her foot and then wrenching her upwards towards him before flinging her away like a yo-yo.

“Aah!” Renata yelped, suddenly picked up and thrown against her will, before getting flung across the battlefield like a ragdoll. As she flew across the air, descending closer and closer to ground outside the ring, her senses kicked into overdrive.

The air behind her back suddenly exploded, saturated by a sudden burst of infrared radiation, and turned the girl around. Still flying across the air, though not in immediate trajectory out of the ring this time, Renata raised her hand, closed one of her eyes to aim, and sliced across Casimir’s webbing with her laser.

Casimir didn’t wait a second to let go of the webbing attached to the ceiling and he followed up with shooting webbing across the ring where she should’ve fallen out but was instead flying right back. He then swiftly pulled himself forward to clothesline her across the legs as she flew back.

It wasn’t hard to tell what Casimir’s plan was, and Renata, seeing herself getting suddenly dragged along as the bug hero flew outside the ring, reacted accordingly. In the few seconds she had, the girl reached forward, placed her hand on Casimir’s back, and suddenly released a powerful blast of plasma.

The plasma burnt away a hole in the back of Casimir’s tracksuit and the great force from it was enough to completely disrupt their trajectory with Casimir himself crashing onto the mat. He got up while keeping his profile low to the ground and clenched his fist towards his chest in determination. Casimir leaped into the air and spun enough to land near Renata where he grabbed onto her wrist to throw her in one final spin.

Seeing Casimir safely land on the mat instead of outside of the ring was a wrench in Renata’s plans - and the hero tossing her around was certainly not helpful either. The girl kept up an appearance of confidence as always, but she could tell that with all the constructs and blasts she’s thrown, she wasn’t going to be able to keep up the pressure for much longer. She’s blasted him so many times, how is he still going like nothing happened?

Might as well go out with a bang.

Still flying across the air, her trajectory sending towards the ground outside of the ring, Renata cupped her palms and powered up the air between them with as much radiation as she could - a ball of plasma appeared instantly, growing further and further, until it finally burst forward into a massive, blindingly bright beam of energy, aimed at Casimir.

“Shit!,” gasped Casimir as the bombardment of plasma went right towards him. The formless mass of energy blasted him right as he crossed his arms in front of him before exploding in a white flash engulfing him knocking him back several feet towards the center of the mat. The entirety of his forearms’ sleeves were burnt away as he staggered back a few steps before falling flat on his butt and almost tipping over on his side. The area around their fight was suffocatingly hot now and it felt like his brain was pounding against his skull. He huffed out labored breaths before slicking his hair back and wincing at how much of his body stung, especially his arms.

“You alright over there?” said Casimir rubbing his sore arms as he slowly got up, “Shit. That damn last attack hurt. Wonder if Angie wouldn’t get too mad getting asked for some ice pads.”

Falling from the air, Renata landed with a loud and painful tumble across the floor, rolling for several meters before finally coming to a halt and sighing.

“I-I’m okay...” she called out, dazed. She wasn’t - everything hurt, it was almost a miracle that a fall this high didn’t break at least one of her bones. Struggling against the pain, Renata pulled herself back on her feet, groaning a little.

“If there were no boundaries, I could have won...”

“If there were no boundaries I’m pretty sure I’d still win,” snickered Casimir as he walked over to get two water bottles from the bench he was previously lifting on. He went near Renata and offered up an ice cold water bottle, “Want one? Oh you know what you need? A really badass name you can shout for that huge sword you summoned. Something like Burning Breaker.”

“A what?-” Renata blurted out after snatching the bottle from Casimir’s hands. “Why... why would I need that? That’s dumb, and childish...” Turning to the side, the girl scoffed. “Just because you yell ridiculous names while fighting, doesn’t mean everyone does. Well... you and Icarus - but that’s just proof of your bad influence on him, really.”

“Bad influence? Ha! Good one,” laughed Casimir before he took a swig of his water bottle, “Those dumb names are great hyping yourself up in the middle of a battle and making yourself put more into the attack. Think of it sorta like your lazers. Pure concentrated confidence in a few words.”

“That’s not...” Renata tried to interject and respond, but, ultimately, she merely let out a sigh and sipped from her water bottle instead. It was just going to be yet another of those things where she cannot possibly convince Casimir to think otherwise.

“What if I blast you while you are yelling your ‘Superhuman Heterochromial Fearsome Bug Bite Storm!’ or whatever?”

"Well my names aren't that lame of course or long. Kinda actually finish some attacks before I even finish which sucks" said Casimir very matter of factly as he rubbed his chin, "And if you blast me you blast me. I'll just take it head on."

“Look at that, you admit that it puts you at a disadvantage,” Renata replied, grinned, and folded her arms. “Maybe I wouldn’t be able to knock you out when you’re yelling your whatevers, but someone a bit more bulky would. Or Mizu can snap the sight outta you.”

After one final frown, the girl tossed her bottle onto her shoulder and turned around. “I’m off.”

“See ya later,” said Casimir waving her off before wincing slightly at his arms. He then turned to look at what was left of his shirt which at this point was nearly charred off entirely, “Dammit. I really liked this one.”

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Roy
Roy was in the middle of throwing on a white t-shirt as he prepared to go to bed. He had only been in his room for a minute or so before he heard a knock on the door followed by it opening. Anger surged in his mind at someone opening his door until it receded just as quickly when heard Wendy's voice. He let out a deep sigh. "Ya, everything is fine, Wendy." He told her as she waited outside the door. "You can come in if you want." He told her. Quickly finishing putting on his t-shirt before she came in.

"I know I got angry back there, but it's part of leading. I can't just let them lay back all the time. They need to learn this isn't a vacation or a walk of fame. If we only work hard when there are people to clap for us. Something bad is going to happen." He told his girlfriend. "But I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me." He tried to assure her as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "How about you? How were you feeling tonight?" He knew Ares' reappearance had been as hard on her if not harder than it had been for himself.

"Honestly, I'm a bit worried about everything that happened tonight." Wendy quietly admitted. She caught Roy glancing at her about to say something. "I don't know if it's him, but who ever was behind that group wasn't your average street gang. The encryption and software on that android were high end, even compared to War wolf and the military." She leaned into Roy and gave him a kiss. "I know your doing what's best for the team, but we might want to try a little honesty as well. I don't think most of them know what Ares is truely capable of, and telling them what's at stake might not be a bad idea."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 24th

---

---

---

---

Astrid couldn't help but roll her eyes as Ava quickly shot up to Mika's defense, claiming that free candy was more than enough reason to dress up and go trick or treating even at this age, and dressing up was good fun in its own right. It still struck her as a very childish pastime, and she didn't have the sweetest tooth in the table - obviously, given how excited all the other girls were about getting candy - but... perhaps she was judging the festivity a little harshly. The truth was that the reason she hadn't celebrated it much and thus didn't have fond memories of it was largely that she hadn't had anyone to go trick or treating with when she was younger, and her father didn't think too highly of Halloween either. So perhaps with these friends...

She kept her thoughts to herself for the time being and simply sipped on her soda as she listened to her group of friends continue to excitedly talk about Halloween. Despite her general less than energetic demeanor that morning, Ava seemed to be the most excited by far, at least at first. She went ahead and suggested that they all make sure to give Ash a great first Halloween, and tried to convince her to join in. The half-French girl simply smiled as her friend went on to assure her that they didn't have to limit themselves to trick or treating and could do really anything they wanted, and her suggestion to dress up as villains instead of heroes certainly piqued her attention.

"I love that idea. It's a nice change of pace from poorly made monster costumes and over exploited superhero outfits." She commented.

Turning her attention back to Mika as she spoke, Astrid rolled her eyes yet again. Female Napoleon? Just because I speak French? Mon Dieu. She thought, but again kept it to herself. Wouldn't do to aggravate her friend further. Looking at the picture of the girl's intended costume, Astrid nonetheless was surprised to see Mika interact with it directly. Her eyes narrowed as she immediately recalled their chance meeting during the first day of school, which had happened precisely because of a failed photograph.

Suspicious, she glanced at Ash and bit her lip. Now is not a good time. Just play along.

"Asking how someone with powers does something isn't a very useful question, Ash. No one really knows." She told the white mutant before looking back at Mika. She made sure not to let her expression betray her inner thoughts, instead flashing a pleasant smile. "Hair extensions would look good on you."

[Tomia]

Hannah
Hannah's trick had worked and the strange woman named Megan managed to decapitate her opponent who to Hannah's shock(and a bit of disgust) was still alive. After then having to dodge a blast of fire from said body-less head, Hannah turned to see Megan offering her a thumbs up and saying she was impressed with how she took out the fire constructs.

"Uh, thanks I guess." She said before Megan told her they had to chase down the head that was now trying to escape.

"You realize how crazy that sounds right?" Hannah asked her ally. Still she decided to follow regardless. This whole situation seemed absurd but she didn't really have a choice but to see it through. When she had been kicked out of boxing she had never expected this would be the direction her life would take.

Roy, October 24th
Roy kissed Wendy back gently, feeling comforted by her presence. But still, he couldn't help but shake his head at her suggestion. "I don't know, they either won't believe me or they'll freak out. I don't want either to happen. But I'm glad I have you to talk to Wendy. And thank you for believing me." He said, pulling his girlfriend into a hug. He pulled back slightly, looking endearingly into her eyes.

"I love you, Wendy." They hadn't said that to each other before and he was a little worried how she would react. But with what was going on with Ares, he didn't want to leave his feelings unspoken.

October 26th, Wonder Tower
A few days passed after the scene at the abandoned apartment building and things were mostly going on as normal. Their meeting to discuss the powers of their most recent opponents was well attended though not exactly with a sense of enthusiasm. They then trained after school and the enthusiasm was similarly low though still compliant with the training. Still Roy grew increasingly on edge, feeling that this wasn't being taken seriously enough by some of his teammates. He was sure that Ares was up to something but most people he told told him we were working too hard or that he was overthinking this.

When the 26th came his frustration was palpable and he was far from in a good mood. At around 8 PM Naja called him into her office in a fairly similar fashion as she had before. "Roy, we've got another situation. This one is...strange."

Roy raised an eyebrow. "Strange how?"

"Well there's this big mall downtown called Grand-Valley Mall. I'm sure you've been there. Well it's closed now, but people are inside."

"So... someone broke into a mall, how is that something we should deal with?"

"Because this..." Naja said grimly as she handed him a photo. One of the mall's outside walls was covered in a dripping red liquid that spelled out in big letters, Young Bloods we're your biggest fans.

"Is that?" Roy began to ask but Naja finished his question for him.

"Blood." Naja said, finishing Roy's sentence. "Yes, the police believe it is. It's a clear sign Roy, whoever wrote this is trying to tell us they've either killed already or they have hostages."

Roy was silent for a moment. "Naja we're not going. Let someone else handle this." Roy said sternly. He wasn't one to argue with Naja but he was serious about this one.

"Roy we can't ignore this. Someone could be in dan-"

"Naja, I'm serious. Whatever this is, it's bad. I'm not leading my team into a massacre."

“Roy, you’re not thinking straight. Whatever the risk there are innocents in danger here. You know the team will want to help.”

“Am I the leader of this team or not?” Roy asked defiantly.

“Not alone you aren’t. I’m calling in the other squad leaders. We’ll see what they say about this.”

Roy begrudgingly sat down on the couch waiting for the others to be called in.

When everyone arrived, Naja delivered the same details she had to Roy and added, “Roy has expressed his desire to keep the team out of this, but you are all leaders. There are five of you and so each of you has a say in what the team does. So, what will you do?”

Bael sat down, listening to what was being said while trying to keep his injured tail hidden from sight. “I don’t like it. Something smells… Like an ambush honestly. A closed mall? There’s nothing there worth stealing, and I don’t think there’s too many people worth taking for a hostage either.” He replied. “Plus, this is happening pretty close to our last encounter. Normally super morons quiet down for a few weeks after a big defeat like that is made public. I’ll go if you all insist upon it, but something isn’t sitting right with me.”

“We can’t just not help!” Mars insisted. “Look at all the battles we won, we can’t run from a fight. These could just be some unstable person looking for fifteen minutes of fame. We can handle whatever they have in store for us. I vote yes.”

Shi listened to what everyone was saying but kept a close eye on her tablet; the stream of the police perimeter had been relatively uneventful. As Mars interjected his own thoughts, she spoke up. “It’s at best a publicity stunt and a trap at worse. Two fights in a row where the criminals establish themselves in a closed off building...that can’t be coincidence.” She paused for a second as she mulled over her options, “I’d say we go but we have to be cautious about it. We can’t use the same technique, hoping to overpower them with sheer numbers. We should only go to observe until we know more”

“I’m with Shi here.” Alexis spoke up, the last squad leader to cast a vote. “We have to be careful about this, odds are it’s nothing important but if it’s an ambush or a trap like you guys believe, we have to be on our best game and make sure to not use the same tricks as always - for better or worse we’re public figures now, which means people know how we fight.” She stated, having made an attempt at thinking things through more carefully. “But… we can’t exactly not go. That would be akin to betraying the trust this city’s people have put in us, especially if the villains have hostages like Naja suggested. So, I vote to go as well.”

“Three votes to two then, tell your squads to get ready to go.”

Roy rose from his seat and marched out the room, clearly unhappy with the results.

With the squad leaders voting to go, Roy reluctantly called the squads into action and they prepared for the mission just as they normally would; however this time there was clearly tension in the air. Not everyone had agreed with going on this mission and the fact that one of them was Roy made things even more awkward. Roy himself had considered sitting out in protest, but he knew that would only put his team at greater risk.

As they were gathering Mars approached Roy, “Roy I know we disagreed but…”

“Stop Mars, there’s nothing to be said.” Roy cut him off. “We’re not going to agree on it. Let’s just get on with this and handle this mission alright?” Roy said curtly. Mars looked slightly hurt but nodded.

“Sure, I can do that.”

With that they went back to waiting and soon everyone was gathered and the team flew to the mall. The nervous energy continued onto the plane but soon enough they arrived outside the mall and joined the line of police cars that had formed in the parking lot.

“Any developments?” Roy asked one of the officers on the scene.

“Nothing Nightshade, it’s like there’s not even anyone he-”

He was cut off from the sound of a scream coming from inside the mall.

When Mars heard that he started bounding towards the mall from inside Rocket.

"Mars! Damn it come back!" He then cursed under his breath and turned back to the rest of the team.

“We’re going in now. Stay with your squads, don’t break formation.”

He told them as the group rushed forward towards the large mall after the voice they had heard. Roy opened the large double doors that served as the entrance to the mall. From what he could tell the mall was indeed empty. In front of them was a large courtyard with a fountain at the center. At the far end where two escalators that led to a second floor and on each side were various stores and other venues. He saw an arcade, a home depot, a shoe store and a bunch of others that Roy didn’t immediately identify.

Just then they saw a teenage boy with shaggy brown hair and tattoos over his body approach them looking frightened.

“Thank god you guys are here. These people are crazy!” He exclaimed. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m really here in front of the Young Bloods!” His tone suddenly changed to excited in an off putting way. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

At this point Roy’s fists tightened around his staff.

Suddenly the young man began to transform in front of their eyes into a towering monster.

“Can I have your autograph!”

“Team get re--” Roy was about to shout a command when his voice was suddenly stuck in his throat.

A woman appeared suddenly through a strange razor thin black portal and she wasn’t alone. Thirteen other people came through that portal one of which had a sniper rifle with her and a hawk companion on her arm. Among them were also the ones that they had fought two nights before.

Roy felt genuine fear sink in just as his voice came back but before he could even think to speak the girl with the hawk was speaking.

“Hello Young Bloods, we thought it was about time you faced some real competition. So, let’s get the fun started shall we?”

Just then black portals opened up beneath the feet of the Young Bloods and they found their squads scattered throughout the mall.

Roy and his squad found themselves in what looked like a large sporting goods store. There big displays of tents, canoes and other things all around them. Roy looked around clearly on edge.

"Squad leaders check in where are you?" He called but before he could listen for a reply he heard a familiar swooshing as the bird like man from before slammed into one of the large canoes which toppled down towards the squad.

Roy rolled out of the way just in time as he saw another robotic creature approach an alien looking sword.

Meanwhile Mars found himself in a very dark room. He didn't realize where exactly he was until he was nearly blinded by a bright screen.

A loud action movie started to play and startled the teenager hero who ran off towards the exit. He made it to the lobby only to be confronted by Shock Troop and some strange woman who had fire balls resting menacingly on her finger tips.

"Sorry to interrupt your movie kid, but trust me we're far more entertaining."

[The Templar High Council]

Jackrabbit
El Cajon
Andrew waved lazily to the two girls as they quickly approached. It had taken them a small amount of time longer, but that was to be expected when one followed the winding paths that were South California's roads. Still, friendly banter seemed to be in order.

"Good of you two to join me. I was afraid I'd have to camp out waiting for you guys. And Impulse, don't forget, I can carry you. It would probably have less motion and less groping than I'm sure Paragon has planned. At least, from what I've heard from some other teammates. Speaking of...its Mr. Bunny Rabbit to you missy. Or just Mr. Bunny, as I belong on the front page of a magazine. Now come on, the chief is waiting for us to do a job. I'll fill you in on the way."

Andrew set off with the two in tow, staying on the roads to lead them and using google maps, just in case he got lost. He didn't glance at it too often however. He had made sure to memorize as much of the trip as possible.

"So, when I came up with this idea, I had it in my kind that we were probably going to get some people that fled San Diego with Blood or something. No such luck however. If they came here the vamps are in the shadows. And no highly wanted villains came this way either, yet. There's reports of a catburglar but....meh. Instead..."

Andrew hit the breaks, stopping instantly in front of a small factory. "This is our destination. The factory has lost 3 workers in a span of a day, and they have no clue what is behind it. Basically, we're going in blind. Luckily for us that's not a concern. Any questions?"

El Cajon

"Keep it up and I'll get more creative with the nicknames, Jackass." Paragon retorted, admittedly a little satisfied with the amount of touching that was happening on their bike ride through San Diego. "So, a missing persons? I mean, are we sure they didn't just quit? Seems like a loose lead to be going off of; Do you have any more details? Do we have any solid evidence anything weird is actually going on?"

Zoe Foster - Impulse
Streets, El Cajon
October 20th

"I can get around on my own!" Zoe pouted, looking between her two friends. "I just wasn't sure how far it'd be to El Cajon and didn't want to tire myself out..." She leaned down and tapped herself on the knee, lightening her own load as she prepared to follow Andrew leaping and jumping across the town by increasing the force her legs put out.

Her trip was halted right next to Andrew, as he outlined the finer details of their patrol. "Well, do we know at all how they were lost? Anything in common? I guess if they all went missing at work, that's something, but it could just be a coincidence." Zoe nodded along with Aleta, the other heroine sharing the same thoughts as she did. "Not that I don't want to follow up on this, just sounds kinda... weak?"

[Segral]

Carter Graystone

"CAAAAAAARTER!" crowed a flamboyant, bright voice, one that practically blew down Carter's hair...and his door. The loud "BANG!" noise had been his first warning, and the sight of his small trailer door being torn right off its hinges and slammed right into the back wall basically confirmed it. Basically? No, it did confirm it. Who the hell had the strength to do something like that, and shout his name with such force? Did his Mom fly out to India?!

"Now that's what I call a take, machan! Sorry about the door, I'll get V to send the repair guy over..."

Nope, just Garuda. For the third time that week. The guy really did have a flair for dramatic entrances, and that meant a lot coming from Carter. It was hard not to feel...threatened every time this guy jumped, rolled, or smashed through any door, sometimes jumping through with so much spring that he banged his head on the ceiling. Not cool at all, especially considering the fact that banging heads against the ceiling used to be Carter's thing, he couldn't just take that from him! Still, despite all of the signature-stealing and wanton door-based violence, he seemed to be a nice guy, and he was craaaaazy powerful too, not just in the door-ripping way. He had brought an entire cargo ship down in one punch during his fight with Black Mandarin in Chennai, kept a tank up with his bare fist during the West Bengal Base Revolt, and sold ten million copies of "Garuda Punch" worldwide. He was strong, rich, and had the coolest damn beard...three things that Carter was so far away from achieving. Hopefully this movie wouldn't be a horror scene at the box office, and he could get a little closer to his lofty net-worth-based goals.

"Lemme guess, you need the foundation again?" Carter said with a grin, pointing towards a bottle of dark brown makeup sitting plainly on top of the small desk he was sitting at. In actuality, it was makeup for Carter, intended to give him a "slightly more authentic tan", which was probably code for "brownface", but it also worked as fantastic makeup for natural South Asian skin tones, or so Garuda said. Truthfully, Carter didn't really see any difference, but hey, power to him.

"You know me too well, young one." Garuda chuckled, taking the question as an excuse to reach over, plucking both the bottle and a small brush for application. "But you also wound me! Trust me, the purpose of my visits is not simply to borrow your cosmetics, or strain your generosity. I wanted to congratulate you on a flawless scene, the take was fantastic!"

"Than-"

"Seriously, what a thrilling, beautiful chase! So exciting!" Garuda barreled on, completely cutting Carter off as he bent forward to stare at himself in the large mirror that had been left to lean against the wall, a brush coated in brown paste in between his index finger and thumb. "The way you wove around those cars, and pulled those moves. The drifting, the swerves, the maneuvers! It waso exhilarating to watch!" he said, beginning to dab and pat his face with the little spong.

"Well, thanks, it wa-"

"And that final dive!" he exclaimed, turning to face Carter with a patchy coat of makeup on his face. "It was such a dangerous, such a tricky stunt, and you pulled it off perfectly! Not an inch or a second out of place! I must ask, how did you get such a clean release from the bike? I've seen professionals struggle to pull off moves like that!"

"I, uh..." Carter started, blinking slightly as Garuda finally paused for breath. "I just used some of my powers, y'know? Back home, parkour was my thing. I used to train by doing parkour all across my team's base, using extra wind to get bigger jumps and pad out my falls. Same idea here. I just took one big blast off when the truck hit, and used the air to give me a little bounce so that I didn't shred through the costume. Don't think it worked, though." he said with a grin, pointing to a rough-edged, sizable hole in the knee of his leather pants, a slightly damp bandage covering up the nasty cut underneath.

"Oh, of course, but...you were remarkably precise with that leap." Garuda replied casually, turning back to the mirror and continuing to paint his face over with foundation. "It was almost as if you could sense it coming. Did it have anything to do with that forcefield around your skin?" he asked in the most casual tone possible, jerking his thumb towards Carter's limp wrist. The air around it shifted in thick waves, leaving his skin a little blurry to his own eyeball. Blushing slightly, he covered the wrist with his calmer hand as he replied.

"Yeah...a little bit." he conceded, turning in his chair to face Garuda. "It's hard to explain, but I can sort of like...sense things in the wind. I haven't really gotten it under control or nothing, it's all a bunch of weird physics, but I can feel sound waves, and the little details in surfaces, and objects nearby. It's kind of like...like..."

"Radar?"

"Exactly! And sonar!" Carter exclaimed, practically jumping out of his chair. "That was how I knew. I could feel the truck coming without having to turn my head, so all I had to do was time it!"

"Hmm..." Garuda said, examining his slightly rough handiwork in the dimly lit mirror. "Interesting. Is that air also what keeps your footsteps muffled?"

"Oh, that..." Carter said, making an involuntary glance at his feet. "I...guess? It's kind of always been there, like a heradity thing, y'know?"

"...Do you mean 'hereditary'?"

"...Yeah, that. I've always had it, it's sort of a condition thing. I have high speed, agility, instincts, stamina, reflexes, stuff like that. Those also came in handy with timing." he said, rattling off his traits in a video-game-stat like fashion that was both unbearably nerdy, and somewhat endearing, as evidenced by the broad grin on Garuda's face.

"I see. How long have you been able to do these things?"

"Depends. The reflexes and that other stuff? I've had 'em for as long as I could remember. The radar? Only for like two months or something, I'm still trying to get it down. It doesn't go very far, and a lot of times I let something slip through the field, or I sense one soundwave too much, and then my ear get blasted off. It's just so much info to take in, y'know? There's so many details and sounds and things, and it all turns into massive blur, and...what, what is it?!" Carter suddenly asked, growing slightly red as Garuda's goofy grin caught the corner of his eye.

"I have an idea. Get some rest, and tomorrow, meet me at 8:00 AM, in the hotel gym. I'll tell you more soon." Garuda said, briefly clapping Carter on the shoulder before turning on his heel and making for the door, just like that. No "this is my idea", or meet me at 8:00 AM for...", just...suspense. What gave? 8:00 AM?! Who even woke up at 8:00 AM?! He sure hadn't. He was quite used to his 10:30 AM brunch cycle, and now he would have to give that all up?!

The sacrifices he made for this job were truly astounding sometimes.

"W-wait, Garuda! What do you mean, 'you have an idea', what the hell does that even mean!" he called out at Garuda's retreating back, pacing the few steps to the open doorway to chase after the fleeing form.

"Goodnight, Carter! Remember, 8:00 AM!" he called back, lifting a hand in a stupid little wave behind his head as he walked off into the night, that dumb grin probably still etched onto his face. He was already out on the front steps of the trailer, cool breeze stinging his face, but there was no point in chasing after him. He could catch up easily, but it would be like Baker's physics lessons; no straight answers or explanations. Sighing, he placed his hands on his hips, a mixture of sheer confusion and annoyance building up inside of him so fast that it was making his right eye twitch.

Just like in Baker's class.

"YOU BETTER GIVE ME BACK THAT FOUNDATION! AND THE BRUSH!"

---

Carter hadn't known what to expect upon walking into the gym. It was nothing compared to the Tower's gym, but it was pretty alright as far as hotel ones went. You had your treadmills, your bench presses, your lateral pulldown bars, everything that the average gym had. Although, most "average" gyms did not have a massive space cleared in the center, with two red, thick, plush circular rugs in the middle, and an entire boutique's worth of candles scattered around. Most average gyms did not have the lights off either. And, most average gyms did not have the legendary Garuda sitting cross-legged on one of those rugs, his eyes closed, his chest barely moving in and out. Hell, Carter would've thought he was dead, if a deep "hmmmmmmmmm" hadn't been thrumming from his chest, filling up the room and echoing off the walls.

What the hell even was this? He had signed up for an action movie, and nowhere in his contract did it say anything about horrors, murder mysteries, or whatever crazy set-up this was. Was there a sigil under the rug? Was he summoning a demon? Was he in a coma? WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THIS GUY??!! Why was it so hard to get a straight answer out of this guy? Bollywood movies were suspenseful and all, but this was too much suspense. This was agon-

"Carter!"

"Gah!" Carter yelped, jumping high enough to brush the ceiling with his hair out of pure shock. He fell back down with a heavy thump, bracing himself with his knees and taking several deep breaths to calm himself, clutching his chest as if he had run a mile.

"You're late! No issue, it's only two or three minutes, but next time, try to be a bit more...aware of your time." he said with a knowing, wise air, opening one brown eye to critically look Carter up and down. "You look casually dressed today. Planning on a workout later?"

"What? This is my usual fitness-wear, what's wrong with it?" Carter asked with a growing frown, his crossed arms, tilted head, and confused gaze making his inner sense of...well, confusion, loud and clear. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with his clothes? All he had on was a tank-top and shorts, the top in white, and the bottoms in black. Was it the shoes? No, they were standard running shoes, black and orange. His hair? No, he had tied that back. What gave?

"We're uh...we're not quite engaging in traditional gym activity, Carter." Garuda said, a hint of amusement working his way into the voice. Was he...was he smirking at him?

"Wha...what do you mean, 'traditional gym activity'?"

"You were under the impression that we would be spending time to hone our physical forms." he said in a maddeningly calm tone, still refusing to open the other eye. "Instead, I would like to focus on our mental awareness."

"Soooo, like...meditation?" Carter asked, already beginning to internally regret walking into this stupid gym.

"Why yes, just like meditation!" Garuda said cheerfully, patting the carpet directly beside him as he spoke. "Come sit, we have much to discuss."

"I, uh..." Carter started, scratching his head sheepishly. "I-I'm not really into meditation, or yoga, or veganism, or anything hippie-stuff like that, I'm more of a fighter y'kn-"

"Trust me, Carter." Garuda said in a firmer tone, once again patting the rug beside him. "This will help you. You mentioned that you were struggling to control your radar sense, your telepathy, correct?"

"Well, it's not really telepathy, there are other people who can do that, but yeah, its still got a few kinks I need to work out." he admitted, folding his arms and shooting Garuda his own glare. "Irregardless, I don't see how meditation is going to help me with my superpowers. I've already gotten pretty far with it, and I haven't spent a second meditating."

"Carter, you have a very powerful tool. A 'sixth sense', so to speak." Garuda said with a slight sigh, finally opening both eyes and shifting to face the blonde boy directly. "Extrasensory powers like yours rely on mental strength, not physical. A man can train his body for years and years, but without mental awareness, mental clarity, he cannot even hope to master a sixth sense. The air is made up of millions of molecules, where even one, tiny, foreign atom is a disturbance that can be read. You cannot possibly hope to use your powers, your gifts effectively if you cannot even process the information to provide you with." he explained, a shadow beginning to cross his face as he continued on. "When I was your age, my mental prowess was...not as sharp. I was strong of body, but weak of mind, with so many tools and skills, but no smarts to put them to good use. I...I fought a lot of foolhardy battles, and lost many too. Not because I was weak, but because I was stupid, reckless, and stubborn. Meditation is not the only way to achieve mental strength, but it is a good way, an easy way. So please, humor me, for my sake?" he finally pleaded, looking up at Carter with a big-eyed, eager look. Jesus Christ, this was exactly what Harley did, peer at him with those big buggy eyes and frown until Carter relented, and took him on a walk, or gave him another treat, or something. There was a grown-ass man pleading on the ground in front of him, a grown-ass superhero begging on the ground in front of him.

He was really starting to hate this guy.

"Alright, fine." Carter conceded with a sigh, loosening his stance and dropping onto the rug beside Garuda, doing his best to imitate his cross-legged, yogi-like position. "But just for a bit, I already know that I won't be able to concentrate for hours, like that Baba Ramdev dude."

"You know who Baba Ramdev is?" Garuda asked, looking somewhat pleased and impressed with Carter and his growing knowledge of Indian culture.

"Of course I do, his stupid live show is the only thing that's on in the mornings." Carter groaned, his scowl growing even deeper, turning into something resembling an odd pout. "Now, let's get this thing started already, what do you want me to do?"

"Alright. I want you to begin taking deep breaths, in...and out." Garuda started, settling back into his tranquil, shut-eye position while Carter nervously fidgeted and squirmed in an attempt to find a comfortable sitting position. "In...and out. In...and out. Nice and soft, feel the breath moving from your head to your chest, and back out. Let it sit, and swirl inside your chest, like a friend returning home." he coached, his voice turning into a passive drone as Carter's eyes slowly fell shut, the early wake-up call beginning to get to him. He couldn't help it. The voice. The heat. The smell in his noise, it was all...sleepy. Was that incense? Was he breathing incense? What the hell was wrong with him?! There was no "friend" in his chest, all he could feel was his breath stuttering in and out of his throat, jumpy and light like had just gotten bronze medal again, because Alexis and that stupid prick Johnny kept taking home silver and gold.

"Relax, Carter. Clear your thoughts." Garuda said, as if he could read his mind. And Carter was supposed to be the one with telepathy. "Clear your thoughts". Ha! Easy for him to say, he had done this hippie shit ten times in the past week, and a hundred in the past month! Carter wasn't like that, he needed thoughts, feelings, desires, Oh, how he desired for desires! If he didn't think about something else besides...everything he had been thinking about, he would go mad. MAD! He had questions. So. Many. Questions. Maybe he would stick to just one. With how cryptic this guy was, it was the best chance he had at getting any sort of answer.

"Garuda?"

"Hm?"

"When can I get my foundation back?"

"..."

"...Garuda?"

"Breathe in...breathe out. Breathe in...breathe out...breathe in......breathe out........."

[Absolon-7]

The Mission

Casimir Herman October 26th

---

Casimir had expected just another group of thugs with their heads up their asses like the group from the previous night although that giant sing written in what appeared to be blood made them seem a bit fiercer then the last group. His expectations, however, were thrown out of the water when after he and the rest of the team had followed Mars where they were met by a strange heavily tattooed young man before everything rushed by immediately with a portal opening up to reveal a huge villain team. He had not time to even curse as black portals opened up beneath the entire team letting them fall straight through as if they was no space in between. Casimir landed perfectly on his feet and looking around it appeared Squad 1 had been dropped down into a sporting goods store. The swooshing of feathers above them that toppled a large canoe onto them which Casimir proceeded to jump kick it away breaking it apart and saving the effort of Ash and Mizu dodging from it.

The birdman flew upwards before stopping to land on a mounted bison head in front of them looking down at them with utter boredom. The low hum of machinery also signaled the arrival of large machine that had its red lights around its body glow like scars in the dark.

"We meet again Young Bloods. Not like it matters that much to either of us," said Butcher Bird with a yawn, "Get ready to decapitate them or whatever Sky Sword."

The android held its sword in front of its body holding it perfectly angled in front of him before he spoke in a deep electronic voice, "Holding forth this sword I cut vacuity in twain; In the midst of the great fire, a stream of refreshing breeze!"

"This fucking pisses me off...this means war you dickless cunts!" shouted Casimir clenching his fists, "Ashen Moth, Selene! Get behind me!"

Casimir blitzed forward to side kick Sky Sword in the head but the robot blocked the attack with the back of his blade before pushing him away. Casimir landed back before going in again ducking under the sword's reach to uppercut the machine with the attack violently jerking its head upwards but it swiftly regained its composure and front kicked Casimir in the chest sending him flying back at blinding speed. It was then when Butcher Bird swooped downwards from his taxidermy perch and stomped down on Casimir crunching him into the ground. Meanwhile, Sky Sword ran towards the group preparing for an overhead swing with his glowing sword.

[Finland SSR]

Roy

Casimir Herman October 26th

---

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

---

Everything about this mission felt... suspicious. Mizu silently agreed with Wyatt and Shi - something about this didn't feel right, even if you ignore the fact that the message to them was written in blood. For a little bit, the girl was considering if she could ask Roy to drop out of the mission, but in the hours after the team meeting, she disciplined herself to follow them to the locked down mall regardless. Everyone else in her team was brave enough to go there, so why should she be any different.

Following after Roy's squad, Mizu ended up dropped through a portal alongside the rest, flailing and screaming before she crash landed to the floor of what seemed to be a sporting goods store. She had no time to look through and make sure, however, as action began immediately - two villains descended down upon them, the same Butcher Bird from last time, who tipped over a canoe and sent it crashing down to the team, and a more mysterious robotic swordmaster which was introduced as Sky Sword. Casimir took care of the crashing canoe and ordered his fragile teammates to stay behind him, but Mizu had leapt away from the action already - she transformed herself to a small toy car and dove into the stalls, hoping to use all the items in the store as cover among which she can camouflage.

Sky Sword was clearly robotic, so the girl did not even attempt to cast illusions on him - instead, she focused on Butcher Bird, casting an illusion to flood his sight with illusions of dove birds appearing out of nowhere and flying around him.

Back in Wonder Tower, Renata placed a cup of coffee on the table in the center of the team living room, her button hooked up to her laptop to display the team's vitals and chatter on a larger screen, all while the TV was playing, tuned to San Diego news, which were filming the events in Grand-Valley Mall as they spoke. Much like Mizu, she was left worried by the team briefing - to say the least. How could it not be worrying to see a fanatical invitation to their team written in fresh blood?

She couldn't fault her team for deciding to storm the mall regardless, even if Wyatt and Shi voiced their concerns about this being a trap, and many others presumably felt the same way despite staying silent. It was the right thing to do when the lives of innocent people were on the line, and if Renata were the one to make the decision, she knew that she would have surely stormed the mall as well.

It even made her feel a little bitter, still being locked out of missions and staying on timeout, while the rest of her team get to fight... but as she watched the first small dents in the team's vitals on her laptop screen, Renata gripped her cup tightly, clenching her teeth.

Come on, guys...

---

Nuclear Plant

October 3rd

---

Hannah

Jan Sorok, the champion of Heaven!

---

"Atomize." Floyd repeated after Vince's explanation of the absolutely definitely hyper duper deadly super-bomb, snickering. The man was surely trying his hardest to drive the point home, wasn't he? All while holding the bomb in his hands, and clearly not having enough upper body strength to throw it far enough to escape its effects... it didn't take a genius to figure out that something was amiss with that. Floyd ran forward, aiming to rugby-kick the bomb as soon as it was planted, but he barely failed to get to the canister in time - much like he expected, the bomb didn't drop him in the afterlife.

Instead, it felt as if he accidentally skipped a few seconds - the bomb was gone, and a flurry of constructs was now slamming down to him. The Dra'Quinni lass suddenly appeared in front of him and stormed him with all the projections she could throw, immediately sending his instincts into overdrive and pushing him to start defending at a near-sonic speed. He didn't have much time to think while blocking all the strikes and blows with his sword and inching back from the pressure, but he figure the bomb had something to do with time displacement.

Neat trick...

"Haaaah!" a voice suddenly yelled from above, before a massive hammer of a psionic construct slammed down onto Floyd, smashing him into the dirt and sending a small shockwave across the battlefield. Taking an easier breath, Jan flapped his wings, taking some distance from the demonic swordsman while his construct dissipated. A grunting, grumbling Floyd arose from the rubble, but before he could retaliate, a screeching, desperate, pleading voice caught his attention.

"Flo-o-o-o-o-o-yd, heeeeeeeelp!"

Meridiana's head had fallen from the sky, straight to Hannah's lap - and the succubus, left completely immobilized, could only call for help - getting the swordsman to sigh in frustration. As soon as Jan lunged at him again, he suddenly grabbed the Virgil's blade, spun him around and tossed him straight at Zayda, then ran off. Meridiana's body parts were scattered all across the battlefield - a hand and a leg there, the rest of her lower body there, a torso there... Floyd picked up the lower body and torso, not sure how the powers at play were supposed to work, and tried pressing them against one another - unfortunately, they didn't glue themselves back together.

"Uhhh..."

Lacking any other options, Floyd tossed Meridiana's body parts over his shoulder instead, into one of the numerous portals dotting the reactor. Then he saw the head in Hannah's arms, and reached out with a hand saying:

"Could I have that head back, please? I know you might want a souvenir, but she can't give head without it."

"Give what now-"

"I'll be off to fight those three, don't worry, I ain't gonna slap you or anything."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 3rd

---

---

After running through the badly damaged nuclear plant in order to find, retrieve, and possibly restrain Meridiana's head and torso, Megan realized that they must not have landed yet, and stopped on her tracks before looking up to the sky. Just then, the succubus' head fell right into Hannah's lap, and the purple-haired girl could hear a loud thud as her torso fell not too far from where they stood. She snickered at the sight.

"Well now, I guess you didn't have such a good head on your shoulders after all, hm?" She grinned, leaning over Meridiana's head to gloat.

It wasn't too long until the succubus' call for help was heard, and the person who had come alongside her, the swordsman, quickly approached. Megan was unable to suppress a laugh as she watched him awkwardly try to press together the demon woman's waist and torso. He's so silly!

After understanding the futility of his efforts, the swordsman went on to unceremoniously toss Meridiana's severed parts through the portal that had spawned the demon hordes earlier, and then turned to Hannah, asking for her head back. Megan put a finger to her chin in thought, wondering what to do in this instance. Today had been exhilarating, what with helping save the city from a demon invasion and making a very powerful demon cry out for help, but she was beginning to tire of combat and their purpose here was to stop the forces of hell, not wipe them out.

With that in mind, the hooded girl gracefully twirled her scythe before slamming the shaft into the ground. "Fight us? I don't think so. You said you want the head? Well, catch it!" She spoke. As if on cue, Meridiana's head shoot towards the portal as if returning to its body.

---

October 8th

---

---

"Well ya, I mean I'm sure other people could have helped just as well but... Basically one of their mechs turned into a bomb so I had to fly it in the air to keep it from hurting people. I couldn't manage to get away from it in time to keep it from wrecking my own mech though." The genius boy's response came just as everyone finished picking their characters and the first game began.

"Yeah, I actually saw about that on the news, well, not when it happened..." Icarus replied, somewhat awkwardly as he recalled what had done that day, unknowingly. "...But I learned about it later. I was very impressed, it takes a real hero to do something like that." He said with a friendly smile, albeit one that quickly turned fairly arrogant as Weatherman kicked Casimir's Rusalka out of the battlefield with a miniature tornado.

Mars blushed ever so slightly at the comment of him being a real hero. It certainly made him feel happy coming from someone who was on a pro hero team. "Well, I was just trying to make sure my friends were okay..." He said modestly as he watched the Weatherman character handedly dispatch Casimir's Rusalka.

"Nice combo!"

"Thanks. My other best friend plays this all the time and it turns out getting your ass kicked does teach you a few things." The blond boy said in resposne to the compliment. "Also making sure people are okay is part of the job description isn't it?" He added as he made Weatherman narrowly dodge a venomous barrage from Toxin. "Well, unless you care more about movie contracts and tournaments, but you didn't seem that way to me."

"Ya I guess you're right, it's just that I feel like anyone else on the team would have done the same." He told Icarus as he continued to watch the game. "And I know what you mean about practice, look me forever to get good at Hero Rumble when I was a kid."

Icarus said nothing for the time being as he concentrated on the match, which was now on its last legs - after dodging several long-range toxic blasts, Weatherman managed to stun Toxin with a lightning bolt and then send her flying off the stage with an icy gust. With that, the only two characters left in the game were Weatherman and Red Mammoth, who proceeded to pummel each other with a wide assortment of techniques incorporated into the game.

After several seconds of an intense duel, Weatherman made a misstep and was promptly sent flying off the stage by Red Mammoth's stamede, marking the end of the match. "Nice work, looks like you've got more practice than me." The blond boy conceded as the results screen came up and he appeared second. He decided to switch characters to Armorer for the next match, which started soon enough. As before, he went after Casimir - easy pickings, plus it was fun to see him frustrated.

"So you say anyone else on the team would've done the same right?" Icarus spoke up halfway through the game, picking up his earlier conversation with Mars where it left off. "...Do you think Renata would've done it, too?" He asked, already knowing what had happened between the two of them earlier in the week.

Mars was taken a little aback by Icarus' question. He wasn't exactly sure how he should answer. "Well... I mean Renata can be reckless sometimes and I guess she has trouble working with others. But I still feel like she wants to help people, so ya I think she would have done it too."

Icarus smiled a little and focused on the game once again, content to hear that answer. It spoke more about Mars' character, he felt, than about Renata herself, but even so it made him feel better that things in the team weren't as bad as they seemed.

The second match was more favorable for Icarus, who managed to steal a victory from Whitney much to the latter's irritation. With both her and Casimir demanding a rematch, there was no choice but to start a third game, and the blond boy decided to pick Lady Pendragon this time, a character he wasn't as familiar with as the previous two.

"I got it this time! I just know I do! I practiced half an hour on this in the morning!" Casimir shouted.

"Half an hour is not enough to compete, bug man." Icarus replied before kicking him out of the stage with a hammer made of light.

Unfortuntely for him, this time the young hero came in third, knocked out right after Casimir.

"Well, I guess the only constant here is that I'll always kick your ass." He teased his friend.

---

October 26th

---

---

After Alexis and her squad followed Mars and Roy into the mall, they were taken by surprise and unceremoniously dumped into a portal and out of another, arriving in a completely different area, away from their comrades. The genius girl herself was unharmed by the rough landing, as she had brought Oberon along for this mission, the towering suit remaining on its feet after being transported. Looking around, it didn't take her long at all to ascertain that they had ended up at a food court, with several tables bolted to the floor on a large open area, and several (currently closed) food stores of various types. There didn't seem to be anyone nearby except for the other girls - sans Makenzie, who wasn't available for reasons unknown. Had they been dropped there so that someone could take care of them, or were they simply sent away from the others so that they couldn't help?

"Alright, girls-" Alexis tried to say, only to notice that even though the air left her throat, she was unable to produce any sound whatsoever. Scowling, the blonde heroine took a deep breath, visualized herself inside her own mind, and then focused completely in a single act: screaming inside her own head as 'loudly' as she possibly could.

YOSHIRO! LINK US!

"Greetings, Young Bloods." An unfamiliar voice called out. Ignoring the fact that such a thing sounded completely alien in a space otherwise devoid of sound, Alexis quickly turned around, only to find herself face to face with three villains. One of them was the same cyborg woman they had fought in the apartment building, Buckshot. Another was the white-haired teenager that had appeared in front of them along with the other villains, and the third and last was a six-armed robot that he recognized as Automata, one of the villains that Roy's squad had fought two days ago. From their intel sharing session, she knew that it seemed somewhat evenly matched with Roy and Casimir, though it didn't sound like it could take too much punishment.

From seemingly out of nowhere, Buckshot pulled a large piece of paper with something written on it: You ready to get punted into the wall again, girl?

Alexis, however, ignored the taunt, instead deciding on a course of action in her head. Alright, let's try this.

The pink mech suit put one of its hands behind its back and made a three sign before pointing left, where Buckshot was. Then, she launched herself towards Automata, leaving the other girl for later. The six-armed robote was quick to dodge Oberon's charge, and rushed at it from the side, lashing out with its swords, which bounced harmlessly off the mech's energy shield. Whirling around and taking a moment to wind up, Oberon delivered a devastating uppercut that sent the robot's head flying off, though the rest of the body seemed to continue fighting regardless.

Oh, its processing unit isn't in its head. That... makes a lot of sense I guess. She thought, before grabbing two of Automata's arms and tearing them off. However, before she could continue beating down on it, something slammed into her back. Turning around, she saw two identical robots there, one that had attacked her, and another that held a cannon of sorts that sent a blast of energy towards Oberon. The pink mech slid back a few paces despite the force field absorbing the blast, making it clear that this was indeed a dangerous foe.

Damn it... how many more do I have to deal with?

Meanwhile, as the battle began, Buckshot threw her piece of paper away and instead grabbed a shotgun from her back, albeit this one was much different from the mundane one she had used back at the apartment building: it was heavily modified and painted a clear silver to match her cybernetic augments. Lazily, she trained it at Angelica and waited a moment before pulling the trigger, as if to give the girl a chance to react. However, this time instead of shotgun shells, what was fired out of it was a stream of flames and sparks. All the while, the mercenary grinned.

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord
October 8th

It seemed like the games were on, and with a fourth player. Mars. Rocket. Right, she remembered Mars. Well, if she was being honest, she only really vaguely recalled Mars, much like the rest of that shitty year. Nice guy, very golden-hearted. Religiously wore LA Stars t-shirts, wore a slightly overbearing amount of cologne, and had hair that hadn't seen a wet comb since the Industrial Revolution. Oh, and he was a goddamn genius. The fucker was way too smart for his own good, it creeped her out. She had no idea why he was still in high school; he could easily grab a Bachelor's and a couple Associate's on the side before most kids had aged out of the middle school system. Sure, there were social reasons, but Mars had never seemed like a socialite to her, whatever social life he had was usually the table scraps of Roy's social meals. Although, it did look like a life of superheroism had cleaned him up somewhat. He had ditched the LA Stars t-shirt for something a little simpler, cut back on the cologne, and maybe it was wishful thinking, but a wide-toothed combing wasn't...out of the question entirely. He looked older, cleaner, maybe even a little mature. She envied him. Change wasn't easy, and Mars-level change was even further from easy. Part of her wanted to ask what his secret was. Getting promoted? Getting praised? Getting publicized, as every other Young Blood had? Getting laid?

As it turned out, the answer was putting one's life in danger. It was pretty surprising to learn that this guy was the one responsible for that little bomb-hug during the "Siege on Warwolf" or whatever it was called these days, but, admittedly, it was pretty impressive. Really, it was a little humbling, although she didn't spend too much time dwelling over it. The entire side conversation was sort of floating through one ear and out the other, as she was a little focused on trying to beat the living crap out of the other three with her choice of Toxin. However, as proving difficult, thanks to Weatherman being an absolute pest with those goddamn thunder-bolts that kept stunning her while she was trying to charge up her long-ranges, and caused her to ring out for a measly 3rd place. Which, in turn, caused her to spend several minutes scowling at the screen, glowering as Icarus and Mars proceeded to take their sweet time in duking it out, rubbing as much damn salt as they could in the wound. This was ridiculous, she should be winning this! This was easy, she had been decking her cousins left and right in Hero Rumble for years, and now she was losing to three novices that couldn't squeeze out an effective combo if their lives depended on it? She knew she should've gone with Archangel. Archangel had always been her main, she never lost a fight with Archangel.

Thankfully, the other three agreed to a rematch, which was perfect. It gave Whitney ample opportunity for redemption, this time with a character she could actually compete with, and competing she was. This match was even more heated than the last, with Casimir ringing himself out in a record fifteen seconds from a hilariously inaccurate and over-the-top combo vaguely directed at Icarus, and the somewhat competent players getting locked into a heated battle, mostly thanks to Icarus being a little in-game punk as usual. Her intent on beating the crap out of Armorer with the most complicated aerial maneuvers she could muster was great, so great that she became all but tuned out to Icarus and Mars' ongoing conversations, only clocking back in at the sound of a foreign name. Renata.

"Who's Rena-" she started, only to be cut off by Armorer knocking Archangel right out of the ring with an uppercut, leaving Icarus to claim 1st, and leaving Whitney to take home a lousy 2nd. It was a sight that caused her to both completely forget about her question, and to let loose a string of wild profanity that would make even the rowdiest of sailors blush. Both her and Casimir were immediately demanding a Round 3, albeit for very different personal reasons. Bug-Boy was a far cry from the confident, charismatic hero that she had seen just a few minutes ago, the stress of two straight 4th place finishes reducing him to the brink of a carpet-chewing tantrum. Good, he would be easier to beat this way. The emotional ones were always the first to go, whether they be at the hands of a flying tackle from Archangel, or a glowing hammer courtesy of Lady Pendragon, the latter of which ended up being the server of Casimir's third consecutive dead-last finish. It was a fruit only made sweeter by Icarus' follow-up taunts, which Whitney soon joined in on with a slight giggle.

"Maybe you should try playing with a non-DLC character." she said helpfully, a slightly mocking air surrounding her words. "You know, someone that you've spent more than half an hour practicing with. Who knows, you might move up from 4th place to 3rd pla--OH NO YOU DON'T, YOU WELSH BASTARD!" she suddenly shrieked at her in-game assailant while leaping to her feet, flicking her joystick and practically slamming the buttons at a rapid rate as she attempted to send that stupid photokinetic out of the arena with a back throw. Her attempt that proved to be quite successful, knocking Icarus down to 3rd place and leaving her with only Mars for an opponent...for now.

"Anyways...what was I saying?" Whitney asked, settling back down into her position on the couch, eyes still refusing to detach themselves from the screen. "Oh, right. Speaking of new characters, who's this Renata? Someone on the team, I'm guessing?" she inquired with a slight tilt of her head, daring to slightly pull her eye away from the TV screen and shoot a sideways glance with the corner of her eye at her fellow players as she did so. That was all she could afford at this point in time, breaking eye contact for one second could mean the difference between her wiping the floor with Mars, and Mars wiping the floor with her.

---

October 26th

"Well, don't you look stressed?" came a voice near the entrance of the living room, belonging to a head of thin blonde hair that was currently poking in from the other side of the doorway, as if scouting out the living room for...something. She wasn't sure why she kept poking her head into the Tower's various rooms a solid three weeks post-joining, it had just become a weird habit, something she did without even noticing. At the beginning, she had told herself that she was just being courteous by giving the room a quick scan before heading in, instead of barging in and potentially disrupting something important. But there was nobody here. Well, nobody besides herself and Pinkie Pie, and she knew that full well, so why was she still peeking in?

"Just walk into the damn room, you idiot!" she thought to herself, hesitating slightly before deciding to listen to that voice in her head, trudging into the room with a coffee cup of her own clenched in one hand. She needed the coffee. No, scratch that, she badly needed the coffee; she had been up late working last night, and had barely slept a wink by the time she had collapsed into bed, at roughly 4 AM. Night before that hadn't been any better. The dark, baggy circles under her eyes made it all apparent, despite her best attempts to cover them up with a copious amount of makeup. The massive yawn she gave upon flopping on the couch next to Renata made it even more apparent, and brought a sobering realization to Whitney's mind;

She was going to need a lot more coffee if this mission went to hell.

The mission was a...sketchy one, from the limited info that Whitney had picked up through the grapevine. Judging by the news feed on TV that was currently being broadcast at a loud enough volume to reach the entire population of the San Diego Metropolitan Area, it looked like an expedition to a mall, that had both people trapped inside, and creepy fangirl messages written in human blood on the walls, blood that possessed a strong likelihood of belonging to the people trapped inside. Truth be told, she didn't know why Naja or Roy hadn't put their foot down on this whole operation, and leave Quake and his band of tools to do the clean-up, but clearly, they felt as if the team could handle it. Mars clearly seemed to think they could handle it, considering his relative eagerness to bound right through the front doors. She didn't know whether he was right or not; she'd count up the number of used infirmary beds at the end of the night before coming to that decision.

Just then, the corner of her eye caught some movement on Pinkie Pie's laptop screen, the object of her eye. As much as she hated to disturb the intimate relationship between a woman and her laptop screen, Whitney couldn't help but feel just the slightest bit curious, motioning with her chin towards the screen to get the other girl's attention.

"Whatcha looking at?" she asked, a slight frown beginning to form on her face as she not-so-subtly craned her neck in an attempt to catch a glimpse of what the other girl was so obsessed with.

[The Templar High Council]

Zoe

Butcher Bird stared blankly at the asphalt in front of him as the red haired girl pinned him down with her toddler strength as the sneak attack was enough of a break in his concentration to lose his focus on his feathers threatening Mike letting them drop to the floor. He thought about just maneuvering his arm away thus manhandling her along with it and possibly making the scene very messy thus his next idea would be much better to execute. Chunks of his wings seemed to disintegrate and rise into the air above the two where they laid before aligning themselves points first at Zoe's back. The girl saw the swarm, excusing herself out of the arm lock by releasing her grip, and was forced to retreat away from Wyatt location. Without another word Butcher Bird flapped towards her spinning in the air to send another swarm of feathers right at her like a single machine gun's spray. Once the spin was over Butcher Bird aimed his falling self towards her to deliver a brutal spin kick towards Zoe's temple.

Paragon, still dizzy from the concussive blow she took from the Butcher Bird, was struggling to concentrate on the fight. Should she engage the enemy? Her Pitch reserves were rather low, but she could make use of that which was already out on the ground. The heroine stood up, only swaying a bit now as she refocused on the fight; It seemed that Rocket had already subdued the Abomination, but currently the rest of the team was engaging the one with the killer grip, the Butcher Bird.

She cursed under her breath; Perhaps Paragon could do something at this distance, but her options were limited; Judging by his strength, binding him with pitch would be difficult. It'd required a lot of investment of the pitch, and while there was only one foe remaining, in the time that it would take to bind him, he'd free himself once more. Moreover, the independent control of his feathers being able to cut through said bindings made it a nonfactor. She wasn't a threat to him; she could harden the pitch into spears and launch them, but with her comrades around, such a move would no doubt not play well with anyone involved.

There she was again, on the team, and yet still being outshined by these brats, relegated to the sidelines and contributing little to the battle ahead. If only I could- She saw the fight take a turn for the worse as Impulse was forced back, and she moved instantly to cover for her, the lake of pitch now at her feet slinking across the floor to defend her teammate. While Impulse was dealing with the feathers well, Paragon moved her pitch to catch Impulse as the spin kick connected with the side of her head, covering her in the black ichor and dragging her across the battlefield towards herself, out of harms way.

As Zoe approached Aleta, the pitch began to fade away. "You good?" Paragon said, walking between Impulse and the Butcher Bird, still a ways from the actual fight going on and ready to take any follow up coming their way.

Bael hesitated during his fight when Butcher grabbed ahold of Mike and threatened to eviscerate Mike unless he... Hit him harder? Now there was confusion piled on top of the hesitation, but the good news was that one of the newbies, Impulse specifically, was paying attention and kicked him into the ground. It didn't seem to bother him that much as he got right back up and was about to attack Impulse, but Pitch intervened just in the nick of time and saved her teammate's head.

It was as good a time as any for him to step in while he was distracted, dashing behind Butcher and grabbing him into a bear hug. "Alright. That's enough." Bael said and squeeze hard enough that Butcher's face began to turn red. "How about you give up while you're still conscious? Great work you two. I'll take it from here." He said, increasing the pressure of the squeeze. Anyone who wasn't superhumanly durable would have popped, but Butcher was proving himself to be very resilient. "Last chance..."

"The... Fuck... you will!" A single pinion shot from one of Butcher's wings, and the point-blank range helped as it stuck into Bael's arm a bit deeper than the rest. Bael dropped Butcher who spun around and punched Bael in the chest, staggering him. He continued his assault, striking Bael in the gut and across the head. "Come on! You gonna hit me back, you giant bag of scales?!" He taunted. Bael swung at him, his blow striking Butcher across the jaw, sending him staggered back farther than he did Bael who pulled the pinion out of his arm. "About damn time!" He spat, some blood in his saliva.

The two charged at each other, however, Butcher used his wings to jump over, and land behind Bael, grabbing ahold of his tail. "Lets see how you like being tossed around!" He said and yanked with all of his might. However, instead of Bael being pulled back and thrown there was a wet popping noise and butcher fell on his back. There was blood, and in his hands was the back half of Bael's tail, still wriggling and flopping around. "Ew!" He dropped it on the ground, stepping on it. "That's disgusting, what the fuck?!" He shouted, now looking up and seeing Bael towering over him with a death glare that he'd only seen a few times in his life. the fire and hate he saw in the split second before Bael hit him.

He didn't feel it at first. He wasn't even sure what was happening as his mind felt like something was bouncing around inside of his skull as he smashed into the SWAT van with such force that it slid several feet before it finally tipped on it's side while Butcher fell unconscious inside the massive dent on the van's side.

Bael struck Butcher harder than he'd ever hit anyone in his entire life. Time felt as if it slowed as his knuckles slammed into Butcher's nose. The blood sprayed from his nose as his feet left the ground, as he smashed into the van. He came too not long after, at first too scared to look, but finally mustering up the willpower to investigate how bad it was. He glanced down, seeing half his tail missing, with blood leaking out of the end of the stump that was left. It would regenerate, but that would take at least a week or two. "<ASSHOLE!>" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Zoe Foster - Impulse
Abandoned Building, San Diego
October 24th

Zoe scrambled away from Butcher Bird, dodging the feathers but unprepared for the divebomb. She would have been clocked clean across the side of the head if it weren't for Aleta's quick action, covering her and pulling her out of the fight as Wyatt recovered and tagged back in. "Yeah, good enough." Zoe rose to her feet after landing on her rear, rubbing the side of her face. Even shielded, the kick hurt like hell, but it wasn't enough to take Zoe out of the fight.

She was just about to dive back in when she realized the fight had ended while she was recovering. Wyatt blasted the bad guy into the side of a truck, and was quickly tended to by one of his teammates. It seemed the Young Bloods had won the day.

Zoe spent the ride back very excited; celebrating with her squad after Dalin did a little patch job on her injured face. The good vibes continued on back to the tower, until...

---

Wonder Tower
After the team had changed out of their uniforms and gotten cleaned up, a large number of them gathered in the living room as became customary. They had the news on which was favorably covering their latest victory. Mars sat on the couch with the others and looked fairly pleased as he watched the news. Things could have gone a little smoother with his squad but they had managed to win with no serious causalities or risk to civilians and that of course made him happy.

As people were mulling around and generally having a good time, Roy came into the room with a serious look on his face. He grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, turning to address the group. "Head to bed, all of you. We're having an early morning practice tomorrow before school. We're going to analyze the villains we faced tonight and then after school we're going to practice counter measures." He said firmly.

Mars looked a bit stunned at the announcement. "Uh Roy, is that really necessary? We won after all, those guys are going to jail. Why bother with studying them?"

"This isn't up for debate Mars. Something was off tonight, and we're going to be prepared if something comes of it. End of story. 6 AM tomorrow, meet here." Roy said and with that he walked out of the room without another word.

Mars surveyed the room, wondering if anyone understood exactly where that was coming from. He waited to see how people would react, he knew it was probably best to listen to Roy but he also didn't want to look like the nerd always listening to what Roy tells him to do.

Zoe Foster - Impulse
Wonder Tower, San Diego
October 24th

Zoe didn't seem too pleased with the mandatory curfew, or the early training, or the way Roy dismissed her team leader so roughly. She walked over to reassure him, but everyone was responding to the announcement in their own ways and her words were swept up with the rest of them.

"Don't worry about it, Boss. Also, sorry in advance," Zoe's face quickly morphed into a sheepish grin, "but Andrew, Aleta, and I have been putting in some extra hours on patrol, so forgive me when I don't show up tomorrow morning. Night!" Without waiting to be reprimanded, Zoe ducked her way out of the common area all the way to her room; so she could catch some sleep before whatever came tomorrow.

[Tomia]

Roy
Skysword sent a vertical strike down towards Roy but it was too long of a strike to catch the squad leader who spun to the right and then did a quick stab with his staff into what would have been the robot's guts if he was human. He knocked Skysword back but not only did he not seem to hurt the machine it turned its attention to Mizu who was using her illusions to distract the bird man. Roy obviously couldn't let Mizu get hurt but the robot was fast and it already had a step on him.

Roy's only choice was to throw his staff, which knocked into Skysword's blade just before it had reached Mizu. The machine once more turned back to the unarmed Roy, its dead eyes staring into him. "Your defeat is inevitable. End this futile resistance." It said in a robotic tone before lunging towards Roy. Without his staff Roy was forced onto the defensive. He ducked back twice to avoid a slash at his ribs but the robot was quickly closing the gap between them. Roy needed to change things quickly. When Skysword went for his latest stab Roy jumped out of the way and grabbed his enemy's arm just past the sword and jerked him forward. With the robot unbalanced, Roy slammed his fist into the robot's face and knocked it onto the ground. Nightshade felt good for a moment until he looked down to see Skysword had cut him. His uniform was now cut and there was a gash across his ribs. It wasn't too deep thankfully but it hurt and it was bleeding. Unfortunately Skysword was getting up and appeared very ready for round two.

"If anyone has a free hand... I could use it." He said through the comms, breathing heavily as he picked up his staff.

Angelica
Angelica found herself face to face with Buckshot once more. She was unnerved by the fact that she couldn't speak but was glad that they had Yoshi with them. Buckshot had been easy enough to defeat last time and so she didn't have to be too worried right? But something was different this time around. The shotgun she wielded was far more sophisticated than before. Buckshot hesitated which gave Angelica amble time to create a wall of ice but this time went very differently. Instead of a normal bullet, Buckshot's was a blast of fire that streamed towards her. It cut through the ice like butter and Angelica barely managed to roll away in time.

But Buckshot was relentless as she followed Angelica blasting more fire towards the fleeing Angelica who barely managed to keep enough ice up to block the attacks. Soon she found herself pinned against a condiment bar, Buckshot's fire eking closer and closer to her face.

Guys, I really need help! She said through Yoshi's mental connection.

[Absolon-7]

Video Games

Whitney

Casmir Herman, October 8th

---

Time and time again Casimir was losing in these video game matches ups that he clearly should be winning without a shadow of a doubt. It was only thirty minutes he had practiced but it was an incredibly strenuous practice on the highest difficulty. He should've been wiping the floor with the others and yet he wasn't. He was grumbling to himself with his hands swinging below while he leaned over closer to the television but Icarus' response about his ass getting kicked being a constant made him sit straight up in indignation.

"You know what. Let's see if it really is a constant," said Casimir smugly leaning back, "A spar between you and me in our gym. How's that sound?"

Whitney's turn to dunk on his ego came with her recommendation to not play a DLC character but also curiosity about a certain crimson haired girl. Casimir placed his controller down on the coffee table in front of them while answering, "Yeah she's part of the team. You'd know her as Stella aka Laser Girl."

Mizu

Casimir Herman October 26th

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Casimir gritted his teeth as the floor tiles crunched beneath his body after Butcher Bird's stomp attack but the villain bounded off and was seemingly distracted. Casimir got up clutching his stomach as he stared down the avian villain with the moonlight seeping in from outside the store's windows shining off his helmet's red eyes. He brought up his fists to his face clenching them as he huffed out in anger.

"Whoa where'd all these birds come from? I thought your theme as all about bugs, man," said Butcher Bird swiping away at the air in front of him, "Doves are pretty boring if you ask me."

Casimir blitzed forward and hopped on one foot before lashing out with his other at Butcher Bird's waist forcing him to lurch forward and with his head lowered Casimir switched the next kick to his other foot striking the birdman's temple. Casimir then spun forward smashing his heel on the top of Butcher Bird's skull making both fall downwards. His foe simply laid there limply as Casimir scrambled back to his feet ready to return another blow. Butcher Bird instead slowly got up propping himself up one arm at a time which made Casimir scowl in anger. He lashed out with a low kick to the shoulder but it was blocked by a sudden move of his wings. Casimir backstepped away as the wings flapped once to bring the villain back to his feet with a gale of debris afterwards.

Butcher Bird lowered his knees slightly before bounding off to Casimir to strike at him but Casimir ducked under to avoid the punch. However, it was a feint as Butcher Bird flapped his wings to power up a front kick that crashed into Casimir's chest sending him flying into the air. The birdman flew towards him but Casimir shot webbing at a nearby wall and pulled himself towards it just missing Butcher Bird by a second. He crashed into the wall boots first and lowering his legs all the way down he bounded off right back to Butcher Bird leaving behind a blast of air and cracks on the wall. Casimir shot webbing right at Butcher Bird as he circled back and yanked him towards him. Butcher Bird's expression seemed as bored as ever as he was pulled into a brutal clothesline across the neck the sent him into a tailspin along with Casimir.

Right before he hit the ground he released a great flap and shot upwards into the sky puncturing a hole in the ceiling as he brought Casimir along with him. As Casimir fell midair Butcher Bird proceeded to swoop towards Casimir violently kicking him upwards again and again to cruelly slow down his decent. In one last kick Casimir was kicked to face a news helicopter circling around the mall that he gave a thumbsup to before flicking his wrist to shoot Butcher Bird in the face as the villain came in for another kick. Casimir yanked the webbing bringing both closer before Casimir smashed his knee into Butcher Bird's face splattering blood everywhere from the villain's nose. They went into free fall with the air deafening both as they fell faster and faster and soon Casimir shot webbing into the edge of the hole in the ceiling to bungee off it and tackle Butcher Bird midair. Butcher Bird crashed into the wall of the store but he got no reprieve as Casimir palm struck his head embedding his skull into the wall.

In seconds Casimir shot another webbing onto the ground with the hand opposite of the one holding Butcher's into the wall and yanked himself downwards. In a cascade of wall debris Butcher Bird's head was crunched downwards until it slammed into the floor. Casimir huffing out deep breaths prepared to punch him again but the bug hero was slammed in the back of the head by a wing before a powerful fist punched his throat blasting him away further into the store. He spun midair before falling down onto the ground on two feet and a hand to keep himself up. Butcher Bird flapped right towards him and stayed up. His face was a bruised bloody mess but the bored expression had not changed.

"Just give up already, kid. You and the rest of your team is on borrowed time," he said in pained breaths.

"You don't know me very well!," shouted Casimir, "My whole life has been on borrowed time!"

Casimir lunged forward to punch him but Butcher Bird blocked it with his massive wing as he turned midair which made Casimir crash into a series of display racks making them fall one after the other like dominoes.

"Have you ever heard of the Lake Erie Enforcers, kid?" Butcher Bird asked in a hoarse voice.

"Fuck no!" said Casimir getting off the shelves to pick one up with a single hand to throw it.

Butcher Bird flew to the side and easily dodged the large rectangular projectile, "Of course. That's because I killed them all some time ago. I don't really know why I did it."

"Fuck your sob story!" said Casimir throwing two more shelves in rapid succession.

Butcher Bird dodged these two by dropping down to the ground to land on his feet, "Let's take things down a notch...uh Kabuto right?"

"NO! I never take things down a notch!" yelled Casimir at the top of his lungs as he leaped forward to slam a shelf onto Butcher Bird.

In an instant the shelf was sliced and diced to pieces leaving Casimir with a single block to hold that didn't go anywhere near the villain as he slammed it down.

"You know why butcher birds have their name? They impale their prey on thorns sometime while its still alive," sighed Butcher Bird as his wings disintegrated to a cloud of free floating feathers, "Now let's show you how I got that name."

Girl Squad

Gondor called for aid

Viviana Couture October 26th

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Viviana gave out a squeak as she fell into the portal that had appeared under her squad's feet and she fell flat on her butt as the girls had been summoned to the mall's food court. She turned to Alexis for orders and she tried to speak out but nothing came out which made her rapidly reach for her neck with both hands. She backed away as soon as the bizarre sounding greeting announced the arrival of three foes. Buckshot, a new white haired girl, and the robot Casi had smashed two days prior. Wooah woaah woaah wasn't that multi-armed multi-threat destroyed? Her frightful mood was interrupted by as hand sign Alexis did with Oberon as the giant machine moved an arm behind its back as it pointed to Buckshot with its thumb.

Buckshot appeared more then ready to get revenge on them as she had a brand new shotgun and for some reason hesitated to shoot at Angelica. That respite didn't last long as a great burst of flames shot out towards Angelica who had thankfully shielded herself with an ice wall. Viviana trembled in place as Buckshot continued her onslaught at a fleeing Angelica. Her breathing quickened as sweat dribbled down her brow and the complete silence of the fight made it seem like some deranged nightmare. Viviana closed her eyes right as Angelica's plea for help went throughout their mental link which made the brunette jump right behind Buckshot.

She snaked out her arms to could around both of Buckshot's as they held onto the shotgun and the girl yanked the arms upwards to have the next shot of flames explode upwards into the air. However, the cyborg's immense might proved too much for the long term and Buckshot heaved her upwards over back to slam Viviana into the ground.