Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Northwest Slobovia]

Sam Croft/Blizzard
Wyatt's Room, Young Bloods Tower
July 9th, 10AM-ish, Comic Book Standard Time

"I hate to tell you this, but that's not how my glamour works. ... Changing it takes a lot of time and assistance."

Sam blinked back surprise, then nodded, frowning. He hadn't meant to assume anything about Wyatt's gifts. "OK, what do you need? How can I help?

"For my part, serious disguising and acting might take a few days to get ready for. What we pulled last night wouldn't have stood up even to a half-assed ID check."

"I'm still interested, I guess. I know they're not fond of me if last night was any indication. Warwolf uses full body covering armor. Can't see anything on the person inside, so my glamour will still be useful as long as we grab a grunt or two. The sooner we can kick them out of the city, the better."

A huge grin split Sam's face. "You guess? What's a hero without confidence!" He took a breath before continuing. "But seriously, we want more than a faceless grunt. Grunts don't know what's going on; nobody tells them anything other than, 'Go here, do that.'. We really want identities that will get us access to people, documents, and computers that'll talk about Warwolf's big picture.

"I doubt they're here for the pay; there are more lucrative gigs for mercs. And I can't believe mercs care too much about law and order... unless they mean the 'beating up the wrong people' kind of law and order. The SDPS has enough bad cops that they wouldn't have to contract that out, if that's what the real goal was. So, what's Warwolf's deal, and how are they going to try to get it? That's whatt I want to learn."

[The Republic of Atria]

Sam Croft/Blizzard
Wyatt's Room, Young Bloods Tower
July 9th, 10AM-ish, Comic Book Standard Time

Sam was quite a bit more friendly than he'd expected. It wasn't something he was accustomed to, since so few people rarely sought him out for good reasons. "I actually think I know someone who can help me with it." He replied, remembering Onu and her talent. "I don't think there's much you can do to help me with my magic since... It's magic and even I don't know much about it, but I know someone who does know a lot about it and is good with it too. Give me a good picture of someone and if possible, a recording or something of them talking and I'll see what I can do. I don't want to make any promises in the event she can't help me, but I'm going to try." It was so strange having someone talk to him for more than a minute or two. Not that he was complaining.

Wyatt shrugged when Sam brought up wondering why Warwolf was really here. "You've got me. I don't know how much the city is paying them to restore 'order.'" He said with air quotes on the word: order. "But they harassed me, so it's probably deeper than that. And as far as the police being rotten goes, they're probably just outgunned. I know at least 4 people on this team that would give the entirety of the SDPD a hard time alone. I'm on that list. And that's not even counting the amount of people who are much, much stronger and more experienced than us. Warwolf's got power armor and energy weapons, much better at dealing with supers than a handgun. That being said, I'm not fond of being picked out on the streets."

Playing devil's advocate probably wasn't the smartest idea, but if they do have malevolent intent it was best to do away from them. "If we're going to do this, I want to call in... I guess you can call him a friend, for back up. Plans go awry way too often and I'd rather have a safety net if that's up to you. My biggest thing is that my powers don't work at all when I'm disguised. So If I get caught, I'm screwed."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

"You really don't know what I'm talking about? Silly girl." Alexis thought with some amusement upon noticing Angelica's confusion at her comment about the girl being 'dressed for battle'. It was, at least to her, painfully obvious that the attire the ice user wore was intended to impress someone, and in that regard, Alexis was fairly certain that her friend would succeed; after all, even she had to admit that the taller girl looked fairly attractive in that outfit, so surely whoever was her target would think the same as well. That only left the most obvious question, though: who was the target? Angelica wasn't really the type to wear those clothes casually, from what she knew.

The blonde girl's train of thought was interrupted when she noticed that Angelica was blushing. Strange behavior from her, maybe there was something that she didn't want her to notice? "Wait... didn't I spot her sneaking a glance at me and Jacob while we were talking earlier?" She thought. It didn't take her long to put two and two together, and the girl smiled, her thoughts immediately turning to how she could help her friend's endeavors.

Before she said anything more, though, Angelica agreed to go greet the two boys whose birthdays were being celebrated, standing up and heading towards them, not before grabbing a couple boxes. Her gifts, Alexis assumed. "Well, that was easy." She thought, pleased. However, the gesture also reminded her of something, and so, while everyone was conversing, enjoying the food and hitting the videogames, she quietly left the room.

Once outside, she quickly headed to the nearest window, threw it open and promptly jumped off, her rocket sneakers activating when she was halfway to the ground and propelling herself in the direction of another of the buildings that dotted Wonder Island. It didn't take her long to reach it, and she quickly walked in, making her way to the basement, where her laboratory was. Stepping in through the sci-fi door she had recently installed, she quickly scanned the room, spotting a pair of gift-wrapped boxes sitting on one of her worktables. Smiling, the girl nabbed them and made her way back to the party.

Arriving right after the gang had finished their first game of Mario Kart, Alexis took this opportunity and approached the group, handing one of the boxes to Mars and the other to Wyatt; they were identical, but had labels on them, so mixing up the gifts wasn't a concern. "Here you go! I decided to be a bit more pragmatic with my gifts than the others, but I hope you'll like them anyway, I'm sure they'll be useful." She said, giving both of the boys a quick hug, certainly not long enough to make a certain alien girl have to worry about protecting her territory.

As the boys opened their gifts, Alexis would explain what they were, since she was fairly certain it was far from obvious. Wyatt's gift was a simple mechanical device that could easily be fitted around a Dra'Qunni's head. "That's a holographic disguise projector. I figure that, if you're ever too tired to use your glamour or simply don't want to bother, this thing here can help you out. It's preloaded with your preferred human appearance and I'm sure you'll figure out how to tinker with it to change clothes and other things quickly enough." She explained.

Mars' gift, on the other hand, was a small, somewhat heavy green box with various slots and markings on it. "Aaand that's a portable energy generator! It'll never run out of juice. I figured you could have a use for it. I'd advise you to put it on a recharge station or something of the sort, because it has limits, but if you want to put it on Rocket or something else, well, it should increase their battery life by quite a bit."

[Bentus]

Yoshiro
Wonder Tower, San Diego

---

Yoshiro’s eyes were locked on the screen in concentration, her hands clamping on the controller as she guided the little character in her corner of the screen in the final stretch of the race. Just ahead of her, she could see the tail-end of the small animated sprite of Red. He was inching just ahead of her, his lead quickly falling but not nearly fast enough to allow her to overtake in the time that they had left. Red was smirking as he sat beside her, his own face similarly twisted in concentration as he fought to maintain his dominance. However, he hadn’t planned on her keeping one last trick up her sleeve. Just as the pair of them rounded the final bend, Yoshiro triggered her trap and flung her green shell on a direct collision course for Red, knocking him off course just as he was spitting distance from the finish. His eyes widened in horror as Yoshiro’s character took advantage of his misfortune, not hesitating even for a moment before screaming bast his flailing avatar.

“No way where’d you get that from?!” Red called out, shocked that Yoshiro had had the foresight to hold on to the weapon until the very last moment, only to use it to stab him in the back. Grinning, Yoshiro didn’t even offer a hint of an apology as she claimed the victory for herself.

As her character raced across the finish line, landing a solid fourth place, Yoshiro let out a cheer of celebration. Turning to Red, she stuck her tongue out jokingly as his own cart trundled across the finish line a few seconds behind her - no doubt battered and bruised from the near-constant punishment that she’d been sure to send his way. He sighed to himself, shaking his head at his ignoble defeat at her hands but having enjoyed the game regardless. It was awesome to see that Alexis had modded them all into the game, although Yoshiro couldn’t help but find it slightly unnerving. It was weird seeing an animated version of oneself, even if it was just a fun video game like Mario Kart. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alexis re-enter the room and give her gifts to the birthday boys. Thinking for a moment while the next game loaded, Yoshiro decided that her recent discovery warranted desperate measures.

Hey, Alexis - it’s me. Yoshiro reached out for her friend’s mind, directing her thoughts into her head as she started a silent conversation, splitting her attention between that and the game in front of her. I wanted to ask, have you noticed Angelica acting weirdly lately? You know, in the past week or so?

Marionette
Warwolf facility, San Diego

---

Marionette’s scowl deepened as the swordsman dismissed her complaints, entirely ignoring all the trouble that he was causing her. She bristled as he essentially waved her aside, telling her in no uncertain terms what he thought of her carefully crafted plans. However, it was the jab about the Young Bloods and the zoo that took the words from Marionette’s lips. Who did this nobody think he was? He wasn’t any hero that Marionette could remember, which either meant that he wasn’t a hero at all, or just not interesting enough to be worth paying attention to. Although she had to admit, there weren’t that many sword users that could have made it as far as he did. Even if she still thought that he reeked of a stubborn idiocy that was just going to wind up getting him killed - hopefully before she had to listen to any more of his self-assured monologues. Before Marionette could offer a retort however, the Young Blood from earlier went ahead and interrupted.

Turning to look towards the powerless hero as he recovered from her earlier attack, Marionette was glad that he was still conscious. It would make things more interesting once they’d dealt with the distractions outside. Still, she had to admit that he had a point. If she had felt confident in taking on the facility on her own, she wouldn’t have wasted her time trying to take a subtler approach in the first place. And she had no intention of dying at the hands of some uninteresting mercenaries with some shiny toys. The sound of the Warwolf officer’s voice echoed from the courtyard below, Marionette rolling her eyes at the man’s efforts to get them to surrender. Sighing, she shot one last glare at Floyd as she shot out a thread to pull her parasol - resting by a control panel - into her waiting hand.

“Fine. But for the record, I’m only doing this so that I can have the satisfaction of killing you myself. Wouldn’t be as satisfying if these bores just riddled you with bullets.”

Walking to the edge of the gaping hole in the wall, the villain leaned over the ledge to try and peek at all the figures standing down below with their weapons trained on the trio. She whistled, genuinely touched that they’d been greeted with the full welcome mat. Turning back to Nathan, Marionette winked playfully at the hero as she rested her closed parasol lightly on her shoulder.

“Well cutie, looks like you’ll have to take a rain cheque for now.” She offered him a friendly smile and a thumbs up for encouragement. “Try not to die before I get back, okay? Wouldn’t want to let someone else have all the fun.”

[Finland SSR]

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

As it turns out, maybe it wasn't a great idea to pick your character in Mario Kart based on physical likeness alone - Renata's choice to play as Kiris for the following game sessions took her through hell and back. Clearly, this was not a character made to be controlled by a novice such as her - though Kiris had some good speed, controlling her, especially in stages with lots of sharp turns, without getting fully accustomed to the controls first, was a nightmare. Even a slight push of the joystick to the right of left would just send the chibi version of the Hadrian crashing to the nearest wall or pitfall. As a result, Renata would end up consistently scoring in the second half of the leaderboard, even below some COM players.

Renata was not the type to just give up and try a different character, however, so she stayed faithful to Kiris match after match after match. Even saints have their tipping points, however, so the heroine decided to not try her patience too much, lest she ends up melting the custom built controller in her hands. Knowing Alexis, she probably made the controllers heatproof, but you never know... After one more match, this time on Rainbow Road, where Renata scored dead last, the heroine finally stood up, took a deep breath and spoke:

"...I think I'll get something to drink."

Maybe a glass of Fanta will make her feel a little better.

Or a different game.

Marionette
Warwolf facility, San Diego

---

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

The swordsman snickered in response to Marionette's comment. Really now? This pretentious teenager who looks like she's dressed for an anime convention is confident that she'll get the chance to kill him? Bloody hell, Floyd probably has pubic hair older than her. On the other hand... he knew better than anyone that bloodlusted sociopaths make for some pretty entertaining battles. Who knows, maybe he could actually look forward to this "Marionette" hunting him down?

"If you think I can be taken down by some bullets, then you've got some homework to do." Floyd muttered, turning his gaze back towards the Warwolf platoon surrounding the watch tower. They were ready to fire at any moment now, even the slightest change in status quo could tip them off. Floyd slowly, carefully pulled out his sword, trying to make sure it doesn't raise too much of a sound, then clenched onto the wall outside of the hole much like a paratrooper would moments before leaping out. Blood red energy started to crackle around his body, the pupils of his eyes shifting to that same color.

Might as well attack first, while we still have the advantage of a first strike.

Suddenly, without warning, Floyd leaped into the fray, speeding through the air like a torpedo and descending onto the unexpecting commander in the form of a sword pierce through the chest. Chaos, commands, shouting and automatic fire immediately spread across the battlefield. Not wishing to lose his momentum any further, Floyd, upon touching down on the ground, swung his sword forward, the impaled body now serving as the top of a makeshift heavy hammer. One hundred and fifty kilograms of power armor and human flesh slammed into a nearby grunt, loading a rocket launcher, with superhuman force mere seconds later.

The first modified rounds were starting to reach Floyd's body, bouncing off his skin or, at best, scratching it. Even though the first bullets did little damage, however, the swordsman was well aware that he couldn't just stand around and tank them for the whole fight. When fighting supers with enhanced condition, bullets don't serve the same purpose as with normal humans. They're meant not to kill instantly, but to soak up minor damage and thus soften enemy endurance. That's why I'll need to take care of those bastards before they can do that to me.

Warwolf, apparently, knew of this as well, as a grunt soon opened up a few smoke grenades, while the others turned on infrared vision modules in their power armor. Smoke and dust began to shroud the battlefield.

Well that's not very nice.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

Red couldn't believe it. His victory had been secured, having done his best to successfully navigate across treacherous bridges and used cunning strategy to pass his opponents, only for Yoshiro to betray him at the last second with a green shell. He wanted to be angry at her, but the playful expression on her face caused him to just shake his head with a sigh. Looks like I'll just have to redeem myself next game, he thought to himself as he was prepared to give Yoshiro a mocking lecture for her actions when he noticed her attention was no longer on the game, at least fully. She seemed to be concentrated on something else, which caused Red to raise a suspicious eyebrow. However, he didn't press on any further with his questions as he instead waited for the next game to start up.

As he waited, he began to try and think of what he could give Mars and Wyatt for a birthday gift considering Naja's confiscation of his intended gift. It was far from too late to run out and grab something for them, and he doubted they'd be interested in him gifting them some of his gear. And knowing Wyatt, he'd probably electrocute himself or spray pepper spray into his eyes by accident, he thought as he rolled his eyes.

Pondering what to do, an idea suddenly popped into his mind. It was a bit of a long shot, and he knew if Naja or the rest of the girls found out they'd probably tie him up into the nearest tree to stop him, but if the two boys plus the other male members of the team agreed to it, it'd be a gift that they could all enjoy together. A small grin slowly etched its way onto his face as he began plotting for his improv gift.

You know what they say, he giddily thought. Saturdays are for the Boys.

---

Brianna

"Sooo...what do you think? Can we do it?"

"Вы можете рассчитывать на меня по крайней мере."

Based on the shocked reactions on her teammates faces, it appeared that Brianna's response in Russian did more than surprise them. She glanced at them for a few seconds before letting a shrug go.

"What? Do you honestly believe I've only learned English after all of these years?"

Nick stared at Brianna for a few more seconds, taking a longer pull than he normally did from his cigarette before speaking up, smoke rolling out of his mouth as he did.

"I suppose the language barrier won't be an issue for us then. Although I'm now curious as to what other tricks you've been hiding from us."

Brianna frowned at him, sticking her tongue out slightly before replying.

"Trust me, Brusi, you don't want to know all of the tricks I know for making grown men weep like babies."

Nick seemed to ponder her words for a few moments before shaking his head and taking another pull from his cigarette, this one even longer than the last.

[The Republic of Atria]

Right as he was about to go play video games with everyone else, Alexis stopped him to give him a gift. As he opened it, he was a bit confused about what he needed some kind of helmet for until Alexis explained what it did: Basically a more convenient version of his glamour. The guise it put could even be modified without having to go through the hassle of dealing with his magic. This would make his mission with Sam significantly easier as well. "Alexis, this is amazing! Sam was talking to me about some sleuthing on Warwolf he wanted my help with and this just made the both of our lives about a thousand times easier. Plus, I imagine it's a little less intrusive than my glamour is, so that's a bonus. Thank you so much!"

He gave a gigantic dragon hug to her, not realizing how light she was when he lifted her up and quickly put her back down. "Seriously, this is going to be so much easier than using my glamour." Learning his magic would obviously need to happen, but it was unlikely that he would need to go through the ordeal of messing with his glamour anymore, a bigger relief than he could explain to Alexis. "I can already tell you that I'm going to get a lot of miles out of this. Thank you." He said and fit the device over his head to try it on. It fit very well, and once he flicked it on, he got the same guise he used normally, a bit taller but otherwise identical. He switched it off and put it with his other gifts and followed the rest of the group who was setting up for what appeared to be Mario Kart.

The key difference is that the game was heavily modded, with most of not all of the normal characters replaced with the rest of the team, barring the newest arrivals. As one would expect when playing a video that featured oneself as a playable character, Wyatt picked himself. Extremely high speed, but low handling. It made sense thematically, he was strong, but his lack of control until recently was evident.

Boy did he wish that his handling was better, there were enough straightaways that he was able to keep up and even passed a few of his teammates until he got the idea of drifting around corners was better than smashing into the guard rail and even let him keep a good chunk of his speed. He did fine despite having not played Mario Kart much, and it was fun. Watching Yoshi "betray" Red by hitting him with a green shell almost made him snort from just how offended Red looked after she did.

This was probably the best hatching party he'd ever had simply because it was the first one he'd had with friends.

[Aidannadia]

The air nearly hummed with activity. The streets cooled down slowly, leaving a stuffy thermal presence to pedestrians. The girl walked confidently along in her leather jacket and discount tee, her very walk commanding attention. Brimming with confidence, she turned a corner into an alleyway, hopped a fence, and ended up at a heavy metal door. She didn't even bother knocking, pulling the weighty portal open and entering the room and nearly slamming it behind her.

Lights flashed. Yelling and hollering ensued. Loud sounds reverberated against the walls, and the dank smell of human bodies nearly overpowered the smell of booze. "Now this is a party!" Aleta hollered, a drunk college girl giving her a barely intelligible Woot! of support in her statement. The night went on, the music banging loudly and the pit churning. As the concert began to heat up, Aleta began feeling somewhat... bored.

What's wrong with me? This is definitely my scene. Aleta thought to herself, hanging out against a wall. She grabbed the nearest body, and began to lock lips with them to no avail. It wasn't long before she got bored, but the partygoer was definitely into it. Aleta gave them a swift punch in the jaw, knocking them to the floor when they got a little too close. She smiled as security came over, trying to carry her out. She pushed one guard into the other and disappeared into the crowd, heading towards the door. Another three guards tried to cut her off, but Pitch was prepared. The super jumped a clean two meters into a kick to the gut, using the momentum of the resistance to flip over herself, cleanly landing on both feet a distance away. A dodged sucker punch whiffed past as a smile crept across her lips. She elbowed another guard and run past the rest, escaping into the night.

It wasn't long before she felt the urge to go out on patrol once more. Pitch's blood had already gotten pumping, and she was definitely looking for somewhere to put it. The dark heroine was swinging from rooftop to rooftop in the night, the moon barely lighting her movement.

"Halt. You are in danger. Stop what you are doing immediately. Go home." Pitch heard a speaker shout at her from behind. Her form stopped swinging, instead launching itself at a wall and attaching there, looking back at the source of the noise. Warwolf. Pitch thought to herself, confirming her suspicions with her new angle of vision. A militarized vehicle followed her throughout town. "We have any situation under control. Return home immediately. You're not wanted here."

Not wanted? What the fuck... Pitch kept her cool for the time being. "Hey, you're one to talk buddy!" She called out, not consciously changing her voice like she normally did in her frustration. A pedestrian, possibly tipsy, began recording on a cellphone. "Aren't you the ones that have Duke locked up somewhere? And for what? Helping out around the city? Please." Guns were drawn on her now.

"Citizen, comply immediately or you'll be detained." A few soldiers stepped out of the vehicle and began moving towards her location. Pitch slid down the wall she sat perched on, blood hot with frustration.

"Detained? Is that a threat?"

The guns didn't go away. No one moved.

The hero weighed her options in nearly an instant. If this goes any further, I position myself as against Warwolf. If they are malicious, I look like I knew all along. If I walk away, I look reasonable. I mean, I already complied with part of their order. There's nothing stopping me from walking home right now except... She glanced over at the pedestrian recording. I'll look weak. Like I backed down in front of a challenge. She bit her lip in thought, sighing slightly before relaxing her stance a little.

"You know, I wasn't feeling like having bacon tonight anyway." Aleta said, beginning to walk towards home. The soldiers stayed for a bit, but decided after chattering on their radios to leave it be. The video was uploaded soon afterwards.

[The Rebel Alliances]

Scott Green/Spectrum-Wonder Tower, San Diego

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the party. Giving gifts, eating and playing a modded out version of Mario Kart. But for me the entire scene that played out seemed both familiar and alien. I remember birthday parties, I was not gone that long. But I have not even thought of one in some time and honestly had this one not been such a big deal in the Tower I probably still would not have missed them. While everyone seemed to be having fun, either by talking or playing together, I just kinda seemed at a loss of where to start. I spent several months alone in a damaged ship travelling back to Earth only to suddenly be thrown into a hive of interaction.

It is jarring to say the least.

So, for a short while I just stood to the back. Enough so not to be in everyone's way as they gathered around the large television but not so far back as to appear creepy.

I watched as Red, Yoshi, Renata and Wyatt all played together and how Yoshi managed to rank the best in that race after stealing the win from Red. From his reaction, I assumed the two had a thing for each other. Renata on the other hand picked the alien girl and lost several times. I gave a slight chuckle as I watched her latch on to the character with some determination. I do remember playing this game years ago, well, not this one specifically but a past installment. While I preferred XBox and Sega depending on how far back you go Nintendo was always a fun time.

Except for those blue shells. That is just pure terrorism.

I poured me a Pepsi and sat down on a seat behind the main row of players and watched as Renata finally called it game and left, leaving her controller behind and grabbing a fanta. I considered speaking to her, but I did not want to look like I depended only on her for a social life around here. That being said, she is also the most free at the moment. I was about to walk over to her when I remembered our past conversation. And that it may come up again was a good probability if I speak to her again so soon. To that end I sighed and decided to approach the gaming crowd.

"A new challenger approaches." I announced jokingly. Before sitting down in front of the controller that Renata abandoned.

"So, mind if I jump in on this?" I asked looking around as I took another sip from my Pepsi.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Sam Croft/Blizzard
Wyatt's Room, Young Bloods Tower
July 9th, 10AM-ish, Comic Book Standard Time

"I actually think I know someone who can help me with it. [...] I don't think there's much you can do to help me with my magic since... It's magic and even I don't know much about it, but I know someone who does know a lot about it and is good with it too. Give me a good picture of someone and if possible, a recording or something of them talking and I'll see what I can do.[...]"

"Pictures, audio, video: sounds like what I need too." Sam nodded as he spoke. "So: we'll need to search online for that, and if we can't get find what we need, then hidden cameras and mics. Hmmm..." His gaze wandered around around Wyatt's room as he thought about mission gear. "Alexis might be able to help with some of that, if she's free. Hm..."

His eyes settled on something on the desk. "Oh! Is that a book of magic? I've never seen one before."

"If we're going to do this, I want to call in... I guess you can call him a friend, for back up. Plans go awry way too often and I'd rather have a safety net if that's up to you. My biggest thing is that my powers don't work at all when I'm disguised. So If I get caught, I'm screwed."

"Interesting, interesting. I avoid using my powers except when I'm in uniform, to avoid blowing cover, but... huh. OK, I'll keep that in mind. If you really think we need back-up, I'm not going to object, but could you tell me about this 'friend'? I'd like to know who's watching my back before I need it."

[Anxiety Cafe]

Some hospital/base

Nathan had expected a couple different things to come from his words. He thought maybe one or both would turn around and try to kill him. He thought maybe they would come up with a plan to escape. What he didn't expect was for the swordsman to simply jump into the chaos of soldiers outside, as if without a care in the world. The subsequent "cutie" from Marionette, mixed in with some sort of threat, made him blush a little, before he caught himself and decided he needed to check himself into a psychiatric ward if he didn't die.

Sighing at the idiocy of the two, it didn't take long for Nathan to realize he wouldn't be able to do much without his powers. Instead, he focused on dragging the unconscious soldiers inside towards the door and kicking them down the steps, after stripping them of all of their weaponry. They hadn't been wearing the power armor of the soldiers outside; perhaps protection wasn't deemed necessary since they were inside a watchtower. He figured Warwolf would probably fix that after Marionette's attack.

After locking the door for some sense of security despite the broken window, Nathan began looking at the rifles in front of him, picking one up and trying to aim it out the shattered window. He hadn't had much training with guns, so his aim wasn't exactly the best. Not to mention the smoke clouding the view of the fight would've hindered using guns even more, and eventually he decided against it, setting the weapon delicately atop the other ones.

He felt...useless, and he hated that feeling. He had to rely on psychos who he barely knew to protect him, when he knew he could've at least made a big dent in the mass of soldiers outside if he had had his powers. Nathan was desperate to do something, and it seemed he would have his chance. Seeing a coffee mug in the corner of his eyes, he smiled devilishly. Those psychos were his best chance of surviving everything, considering he couldn't exactly sneak out. That meant he had to help them, and what better way to do that than by distracting the soldiers?

Chucking the mug in a random direction, unable to see through the fog, Nathan began looking for something else, before deciding on one of the chairs. In a matter of minutes everything from keyboards to hats had been thrown out. He knew he couldn't have possibly been making a difference, especially considering the power armor most of the soldiers had been wearing. But still, it got rid of his feeling of being unproductive, and the thought of random stuff hitting the soldiers in the middle of the fight seemed funny.

[The Republic of Atria]

July 9th, 10AM-ish, Comic Book Standard Time[/b]

"Alexis can probably whip something up that'll help, if she's not super busy. I'll talk to her later and see what she can come up with." He replied. Assuming she heard him, which was as likely to happen as it wasn't. Just as he thought everything was wrapping up, Sam decided to poke around his room, which made him slightly thankful that he didn't keep anything too personal in it. Just a few pictures of him and his family and the books Onu gave him. "They're magic books, yeah." He replied. "They were gifts from a friend. It's mostly history and stuff about my people and since I've got very little knowledge on that topic, it was a perfect gift. The other two are an idiots guide to Dra'Qunni magic and a personal journal." He explained. "They're enchanted with a bunch of stuff. Keeps them in pristine condition basically forever, and the journal has a seal so no one can read it but me and people I'm okay with. Which is very few."

"I'm supposed to keep mine on as much as I can to get used to them. Not an issue most of them time, but the magics don't like mixing or at least I haven't found out how to mix them yet. As for who's gonna be watching our back, it's a... He's of the same species as me and he hates Warwolf even more than I do. His name is Kaban, he's basically immortal and insanely strong. He saved my scales a few nights ago from Warwolf. You can't miss him unless you're actually blind, he looks like me, except with white scales and is a good foot and a half taller than me at the very least. When I say that I think his arm weighs more than I do, I'm not joking." He explained, covering all of the most pertinent details. "If we get caught, he can go in and make a mess to cover our escape."

Onu, July 15th, Mid morning

Thanks to Warwolf, Onu was concerned about leaving the house. Whenever she traveled with Kaban, she used her perception filter spell to sneak around without having to people running in terror at the sight of her brother, who surprising no one, left the house and did whatever he wanted. Mostly antagonizing Warwolf against her and Bael's wishes. They only relented when they demanded that he not kill any of them and he agreed to that. She normally didn't have too many problems working around humans, sure she got some looks, but as long as she wore a dress or something it wasn't too bad. Kaban harassed the local drug dealers enough that they paid him quite a bit of money, enough that they paid off the house in full and still had enough to buy almost anything they wanted without cause for concern.

She could only imagine that they're happily paying through the nose to keep Warwolf out of their neighborhood, but what good was all that money if she couldn't use it on anything? It was then that she put her foot down and grabbed a bunch of money from one of the many duffel bags they had sitting around and carefully placed them into the purse one of the vampires left when she and Kaban moved in. "So what're you doing?" Her brother asked.

"I'm tired of being stuck in this stupid house. It's been 4 days. I'm going out. Shopping most likely, I just need some fresh air and to do something than watch the human's news and children's cartoons." She replied, ever so slightly frustrated. "Bael walks around without any issue for the most part. These Warwolf humans only seem to strike at night."

"Okay. Don't die. That would be awfully inconvenient for me." Kaban teased. "I'm gonna go flip some more of those armored vehicles the Warwolf soldier ride in. They get so angry and it never stops being funny. See you this evening." He said and walked out the front door.

She grabbed some of the clothes she bought the human women wore. It was mostly dresses, which worked decently well for her since they had extra room for her tail and wings, but she felt they were a bit dull. Plus they were made for human women, who had breasts. She did not, so it looked slightly odd. Human women seemed to enjoy shopping for clothing, so maybe she should try as well. There was a clothing store within walking distance, so she decided to go there first.

The walk was pretty uneventful, save for the occasional weird look, nothing happened. Maybe humans were already starting to embrace the fact that non-humans were among them, or maybe it was that most of them simply didn't care anymore. It did help her feel less alien on her own planet, which was always nice. The clothing store was fairly upscale and looked nice. It was fairly vacant so she felt she could explore without disturbing anyone. She made her way to the women's section and looked around aimlessly. A few minutes passed and the silence was broken by an employee who approached her. "Good morning... Miss." He guessed. "Do you need any help?"

Onu jumped just a bit and let out a breath when she saw the well dressed human offering her some assistance. "...Yes." She admitted. "I'll be honest with you. I came here to get out of my house for a while, but I don't really know what I want. You don't have to worry, I brought plenty of money with me. I will tell you this, I don't want more dresses. I want something... More. Different."

"More?" He asked. That was much too broad a request, but he decided that an equally broad answer might just be the answer. "How about this. I'll show you around, and you let me know if you see something that catches your eye. My name's Jacob."

If nothing else, it would kill time, and the human seemed quite friendly. "I apologize for taking so much of your time. My name is Onu."

"Nice to meet you Onu, and it's no trouble at all, today's slow anyways."

[Finland SSR]

July 14th
San Diego

Before Icarus had the chance to say anything else or Renata had a chance to reply to his comment about such different people being on a date, the waitress approached once more, placing on the table two plates, one with cold borscht and the other with kalamaki, along with a pair of sodas. “Here’s your food, hope you enjoy it!” The cheerful woman stated before heading off again, leaving the two teens by themselves.

“Thank you!” Renata exclaimed upon being handed her borscht, then looked down to see what she had just ordered. Well I’ll be damned, it actually is cold. Of course, the word “cold” is in the name, but the girl didn’t imagine the soup itself being cold, rather than it being made with a some sort of cold process, or else… Well, at least it looked edible. Renata turned her focus back towards Icarus to continue the conversation.

“Well, I hope that ‘one day’ is pretty far away, then.” She spoke in reference to the boy’s earlier comment and smiled. “I… don’t really think I’m prepared to rule a country yet. Plus, I’d have to abandon everyone I know here, especially you. And who would want that?”

She isn’t even 18 yet. If fate ever gets the urgent desire to kill off her father as soon as possible, could it at least wait until she is legally allowed to drive, please?

Renata took the first few spoons of her soup, the initial taste finished with one of the boiled potatoes served at the side. After a gulp, the heroine spoke again:

“This is actually really good! Refreshing and all… How is your dish?”

As the girl asked this, Icarus was actually in the process of finding out. Grabbing one of the three skewers on his plate, he lifted it up to his face and took a good bite, taking a few moments to munch on it and enjoy the taste before swallowing. “It’s great.” He stated, a small smile appearing on his face afterwards. “As always, I suppose. I love these and the cook at this place is pretty good, so I’ve come to expect it. It has been a while since I last had them, though, so this is nice.”

After answering Renata’s question, the blond boy enjoyed a few more bites of his meal, thinking of what else he could say to the Ecuadorian. While their lengthy heart-to-heart had been quite enjoyable for him, he wasn’t sure continuing in the same direction was a good idea, but fortunately, he soon remembered something he wanted to ask since they first met out of costume.

“Say, I’d been meaning to ask, why the parasol? I don’t see why you’d need one in the middle of the night.” He asked. Renata sniggered in response, doing her best to hold back an open laugh. Not just because she had been in the middle of eating, either.

“It’s fashionable, Icarus! To walk around, especially for evening events, with a parasol in hand… I’m even surprised you asked.” she explained after taking a gulp to clear her throat. “Well, at least that’s what I like to take with me for things like these. I suppose hiding from the sun doesn’t really make sense for someone with my powers… but, then again, if I didn't care about how I look and only bothered with functionality, I’d probably wear something completely different.”

Renata stopped for a few seconds to have a few more soup spoons, which gave her ample time to think this exchange over a bit more. Maybe Icarus was going for a different angle than she initially assumed. Though, even if he didn't, Renata didn't want to kill the momentum of the conversation so easily - and as such, after cleaning up her lips a little with a nearby napkin, she continued:

“Or are you trying to tell me that I don’t look good with a parasol?”

Icarus smiled with amusement as the girl began to voice her reasons for carrying a parasol in the middle of the night, and simply continued to munch on his skewer during the explanation and the ensuing silence. Hearing her last comment, though, he was clearly taken off-guard, pausing for several moments as he swallowed his current bite. Afterwards, however, the boy simply let out an amused, perhaps somewhat nervous laugh. “No, no, you look wonderful with a parasol, Renata.” He said with a grin. “It’s just that I’m not really used to the idea of wearing something solely for it’s, um, fashion value.”

The compliment instantly placed a blush on Renata’s face, but Icarus’s following comment slightly eased the tension - the heroine snickered, smiled and replied:

“Aw, don’t sweat it, Icarus - even if you don’t follow the last beats of fashion, I’d say you still look pretty great!”

Renata moved her focus back towards the dish in front of her - which was already nearing completion. Hm, maybe she should have ordered something bigger after all - cold beetroot soup was more of a side dish, as she was now aware. Oh well. Renata turned her gaze back towards Icarus, whose face was red from the compliment. Since they were talking about fashion already, why not ask something which had been bugging her?

“I’m wondering, though… um...”

Oh god, asking a boy on his looks.

“...about that long hair of yours. Is it… uh, a thing with people from your country? Or is it something you prefer? Either way, I’m not attacking you on it, but… I don’t ever see men with hair to the waist.”

“Oh, that? No, it’s not some sort of custom from my country, I just happen to like it that way. I could tell you the reason behind it… but it’s a bit of an embarrassing story.” Icarus replied to the girl’s question, an awkward smile on his face. “Well, it’s not even a very long one, so I won’t make it longer than necessary. Basically, back when I was still living in Diluvia with my parents, my mother was rather fond of my hair and insisted that I let it grow free. I did just that to please her, and I guess it became a preference out of habit after that.” He explained, pausing to eat the first chunk of meat on the last of his skewers.

“Do you like it?” He asked afterwards, purposefully doing a little hair flip and then offering his date an amused smile.

Renata, meanwhile, instantly placed a hand on her mouth to try to not laugh out loud with food in her throat. Thankfully, she maintained control of herself, didn't end up choking on a potato - that would have been a pretty awful way to go - and gulped.

“It looks… beautiful.” She replied, a light blush forming on her face yet again. “Clearly well maintained, looked after and everything - so it’s hard to not admire the effort.”

The comment earned a shocked, nervous laugh from Icarus, who had clearly been unprepared for such an earnest and assertive answer to his question; that is not to say that he didn’t appreciate the bold compliment for what it was, of course, but, disarmed as he felt, he opted to say nothing and continue munching on his food instead.

With the last pieces of her meal done, Renata slightly pushed the two plates forward and placed the cutlery she had been using on them. Given that Icarus was close to finishing his dish, too… the waitress should arrive any minute now. Perfect time to ask something else which had been bugging her.

“So, um, Icarus,” Renata opened up a conversation. “So… um… you’re from Diluvia, I know that - so then what brought you to the New World? You don't sound like you hate your home country or something…”

At the sudden question, Icarus fell silent for several moments, due to various factors. Most obviously, he was still chewing the last bite of his meal, and speaking with his mouth full was a no-no; there was the fact that he had to formulate a coherent answer to the question, as well. But, most importantly, he hesitated because the topic that Renata had chosen was one he did not enjoy talking about, so when he was done with his food, he put the empty stick back on its plate and looked down for a few seconds with a thoughtful expression on his face, before finally speaking.

“I… no, I don’t hate my country. Far from it, in fact. The days I spent living in my hometown with my parents were some of the happiest of my life.” He said. Despite the fact that he spoke fondly of it, though, there was no smile on his face this time. “As for what brought me to the States…” He paused, hesitating once more. “Well… you know, business and all. My father had to move, not that it went well for him.” He joked, making a feeble attempt at a smile.

Immediately afterwards, however, a wave of guilt washed over him. Throughout their date, and on their previous encounters, they had been very open with each other, laying their thoughts and stories bare. Thus, it made him feel terrible to lie like that to Renata. In the end, he decided it wasn’t worth it.

“...Sorry, that’s not true at all.” He admitted. “I… it’s just… it’s just not the kind of thing you talk about on a date, you know? I… I’ll tell you sometime, I promise. Just not now.” He stated, the pain that the topic brought him evident in his voice.

As if to salvage the situation, the waitress arrived in the nick of time, picking up the empty plates from the table. “Will that be all?” She asked, to which the blond boy simply nodded, before standing up from his seat, picking up his soda.

“I’m gonna pay. It’ll only be a moment.” He stated, walking towards the counter before the girl could respond or, potentially, protest. The boy downed his soda and tossed the can to a nearby bin before pulling out a few bills from his pocket and handing them to the old man the pair had seen upon first walking in, the owner of the locale, who doubled as its cook. A brief chat ensued, but before too long had passed, Icarus returned to the table, seemingly in a slightly better mood. With a faint smile, he offered his hand to Renata.

“Shall we go?”

[The Republic of Atria]

Onu, July 15th

Jacob took Onu around the store, letting her look at anything that might catch her eye. So far, nothing had caught her interested until they walked by the men's section of the store, where there was a mannequin with some suit jackets. She stopped and looked at the area. "I think I found what I'm looking for." She said and wandered into the area looking at everything, shirts, ties, vests and more. It offered so much more than what she could get with a dress. Not that she minded them, they just seemed dull, like she couldn't make it her own.

"Well then, do you you want me to get you a cart while you look?" He asked. "And if you want to try anything on, there's a fitting room right over there." He pointed, and Onu nodded in reponse. "Alrighty then, I'll be right back." The dragon lady was definitely one of the weirder customers he'd ever dealt with, but he'd take a million more of her over some of the customers he's had to deal with. He grabbed her a decent sized one, mostly because he didn't know how much she was going to buy. When he returned, he saw her looking some stuff up on a smartphone and nodding. "Excuse me, but here's your cart."

"Thank you Jacob." She replied and put her phone in her purse. "You've been a great help to me. Should I decide that I want to do more shopping, I know where to come." She said, gently grabbed his hand with both of hers and shaking it carefully. To her it was a sign of respect and thanks. To Jacob, it was odd to have someone thank him like that. Was she an alien? She did look slightly like the one he saw on the news. The one who had an odd fascination with flipping over Warwolf's vehicles, but rarely did anything to the soldiers, even when being shot. He figured bringing him up would open a can of worms he'd rather not.

"Oh, you're very welcome. If you do choose to come again, just ask for me and I'll be right there." He replied and nodded. "Do you need anything else?" He asked as she started filling the cart with anything that she thought looked mildly interesting.

"Hmm... No. I think that I have it now. Thank you again, Jacob." She nodded and smiled. Kaban was probably going pitch a fit about her wearing human clothes, but that was almost part of the fun. Half the fun of her messing around with things that humans did always aggravated him a bit. He always insisted that they weren't humans and what they were doing was temporary. She wasn't so short sighted, they were going to have to live with the humans no matter what. So why not get to know their neighbors? They lived among them, so they might as well do what they did to a certain extent. Onu made her way over to the cashier who was clearly not looking forward to ringing up the sheer amount of stuff she was going to buy. Not like he had much of a choice in the matter.

A solid 10 minutes of him ringing stuff up later, Onu's total ran out to be about thirty four hundred dollars. She paid a little over in cash, much to the surprise of the cashier. As much as he wanted to ask why she was carrying that much money on her, it wasn't his business. "And here's your change." He said and offered her the remainder. Onu took it and placed it back in her purse. She understood the paper currency well enough, math was a universal language, it was the coins that she didn't understand. "You bought a lot of stuff, do you need help carrying it out?"

"Oh, no. Thank you for offering your assistance though." She happily replied, summoning her magic with a bright purple glow around her hands, floating the bags in the air for a moment before they all vanished and the glowing stopped. "Done. Good day." She mused as she left the store. Most onlookers, customer and employee alike watched the light show that Onu had put on. Just part and parcel of living in a city with a high super population.

Onu couldn't wait to get home for the first time in a long time. She walked at a slightly brisker pace, wondering just how much had gone wrong that she was excited by the prospect of buying and wearing clothes. Sure, they were basically alien clothes, but it was still an odd think to look forward to. She made it home before she knew it and her purchases were right where she'd expected them to be: on the couch. No Kaban, she silently thanked the Spirits for that as she moved everything back to her room with the use of her magic and started debating what she was going to wear.

She had to enchant the clothes so that she could wear them without her wings and tail getting in the way, but that only took a few minutes and had the benefit of her figuring out what she wanted to wear first. THe shirt and vest were easy, but she had to look up how to tie a tie for the last bit, and finished it off with a pair of tan slacks. One look in the mirror and she nodded.

Human clothes weren't bad at all.

[Tomia]

Mars and Angelica were both playing Mario Kart, Mars was clearly taking it more seriously than his icy friend. Mars was in the front for most of the game, playing carefully and towards the end of the game he had a comfortable lead. Pleased with himself Mars started to smile and relax, confident that victory was his. However as he got very close to finish line, a blue shell suddenly flew towards him. Mars panicked, doing his best to rush towards the finish line but he was smacked with shell before flying into their air in a cloud of blue smoke. He watched helplessly as a dragon character flew past him.

"I won!" Wyatt shouted in glee. Mars finishing a few seconds later in second.

"Nooo! Who did that?!" He shouted in dismay.

"I wanted to see what that shell thing did." Angelica said casually, having never played Mario Kart before. "It was pretty cool." She said non nonchalantly.

Mars' rant about his defeat in Mario Kart was interrupted by Alexis who presented him with his gift. "Thanks Alexis!" He said in a cheerful tone. As he took the box in hand he was surprised at how heavy it was.

When he opened it his face lit up. "Wow, this is great! I can finally use this to solve Rocket's output inconsistencies. I can add so many cool things to him now! Maybe Cass would like to borrow it too, this could really help her systems recover from a strenuous fight." Mars was so busy rattling off possibilities he had almost forgotten about Alexis. "Great gift Alexis." He said, giving her a quick hug. "I'll make sure to make you something extra special when you're birthday roles around."

[Bentus]

Marionette
Warwolf facility, San Diego

---

As Floyd launched himself from the watchtower, a small shockwave reverberated out from where he was standing, causing Marionette’s hair and dress to blow gently as if in a sudden breeze. Blinking in surprise, the girl pouted as she turned to look at the mercenary run his blade clean through the warwolf commander’s chest. That was rude, he hadn’t even given her a warning! Wasn’t it meant to be ladies first?

“Hey, no fair - leave some for me!” She called out, refusing to waste a second more as she jumped off of the tower herself in an effort to chase after the demonically-enhanced vigilante, leaving the Young Blood entirely to his own devices. Landing behind one of the power armoured mercenaries who was still focused on the swordsman now using the corpse of his commander as an improvised hammer, Marionette casually stabbed forward with her closed parasol. The warwolf soldier didn’t even have a moment to react as the razor sharp tip of the faux-umbrella pierced clean through his armour and chest, protruding viscerally out the other side. The man screamed out as the pain suddenly registered in his mind, causing his immediate neighbours to turn around and see Marionette smirking at them gleefully.

As the first of them lifted his rifle, Marionette grabbed onto her parasol with both hands and swung the both it and the dying man still impaled upon it into the hail of incoming bullets. She felt the vibrations through her parasol as her meat shield was riveted with rounds, putting the soldier quickly out of his misery. The fire quickly stopped as Marionette’s opponent realised that he had unloaded into his own ally. Taking advantage of the pause, Marionette planted one of her heels into the dead soldier’s back, and with a push extracted her parasol from his chest. As the body flopped lifeless to the ground, a thread shot out from behind it towards the soldier who had initially fired upon the villain. The red strand wrapped quickly around his neck before pulling taut with enough force to crack his armour. Severing her thread, Marionette left the man clawing at the noose as he found himself suddenly unable to breath. However, she was unable to enjoy who victory before the ground began to explode as bullets impacted around her.

Opening her parasol, Marionette took shelter behind the reinforced membrane a smirk on her face as she found herself enjoying the melee of the battle. However, there was a loud crack and Marionette looked up in mortified horror as a large hole was suddenly torn through her precious parasol. Glancing through the gaping wound, Marionette scowled as she saw the smoking barrel of a larger calibre rifle being wielded by one of the soldiers. It had taken her hours to weave her threads into the specially made umbrella, and she’d had to ensure that it was both functional and a good match for the rest of her wardrobe. Feeling a growing anger, Marionette smiled menacingly as she decided upon her next target. While the sniper was reloading, the villain lowered her shield to once again lash out with her thread. Instead of striking at the trio of soldiers who were attacking her, Marionette grabbed onto a lampost just beside them and pulled herself forward towards them, quickly closing the distance. The two soldiers with the regular assault rifles wasted no time in continuing their assault, but it was much harder to hit a moving target and they hardly had time to react before she was standing right between them. Grabbing onto one of the mercenary’s rifles, Marionette forcefully pulled it so that it pointed at his comrade before using her threads to depress the trigger and empty the clip at point blank range.

With one of the threats dealt with, she followed with an uppercut that sent the soldier’s head shooting backwards, exposing a seam in his armour that she immediately exploited with her threads. The merciless strands dove through the thin gap in the plates, piercing through fabric and flesh with ease before piercing the man’s throat and killing him instantly. However, as Marionette glanced up, she found the sniper had had sufficient time to reload and was now aiming his weapon straight at her head. His finger resting on the trigger, she knew that there was no way that he would be able to miss from this distance. And he knew it too.

Neither of them were expecting the coffee mug to come flying from above and smash into the soldier’s rifle with enough force to shift his aim. As the gun fired, Marionette could feel the heat from the bullet as it past close enough to cut a few strands of her hair. Both the girl and the soldier blinked in surprise, frozen for a moment as each tried to make sense of the sudden turn in events. But gradually a predatory smile spread across Marionette’s features as the sniper felt a pit forming in his stomach. Desperately, he looked down to try and reload his weapon for another shot, but Marionette was already far too close. Swinging her open parasol, Marionette brought its razor-sharp edge down onto the sniper’s wrists, severing his hands cleanly from his arms and causing his weapon to clatter onto the ground. Before the man could react to the pain, Marionette sent a swarm of threads in through the breaches in his suit. The red strands proceeded to flail around mercilessly within the tin-can of the sniper’s armour, acting like a grisly blender for the unfortunate soldier until Marionette finally felt that her parasol had been properly avenged.

Content with her work, she was about to press on to find her next set of victims when a pen landed on the ground just in front of her. Pausing, the girl raised a confused eyebrow. Wait, where did that come from?

It was precisely at that point that a chair, hurled without any particular aim from the top of the watch tower as part of Nathan’s ‘contribution’ came crashing down onto Marionette. The girl let out a squeak of surprise as she tried to throw her arms forward to cushion her fall, but it was too late, and she ended up sprawled ungracefully in the dirt with an audible oof. As she began to pull herself back to her feet, Marionette looked up with a glare for the source of the undignified attack.

“Hey B-lister, watch it!” She called out, flustered and slightly embarrassed at having been taken by surprise like that. Rolling her eyes, Marionette took a moment to survey the battle, surprised to find that a glowing cloud of thick smoke was spreading out from a whirlwind of activity. Smirking, she suspected that she would find the mercenary at the centre of the commotion, and most of warwolf’s attention seemed to be directed towards him as he probably carved a path of destruction through their ranks.

Marionette rolled her eyes. Show off. Her first thought was to jump back into the thick of things, but she hesitated. Glancing down at the corpse of the sniper, the villain noted the rank insignia on his shoulder. He had been more than the typical grunt, and would probably have enough clearance to allow her to continue with her initial plan - especially with the base’s attention being drawn by the Young Blood and the mercenary. With her mind made up, Marionette swiped one of the soldier’s dismembered hands before making her way towards the central facility - doing her best to avoid drawing any unwanted attention.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

July 14th
San Diego

You could have at least let us split the cost and not make me look like I’m using you... Renata thought to herself, her inner conflux of surprise and frustration at Icarus paying for everything bottled for the most part, only visible through a slight frown forming on her face. I guess you could say that it was a gentleman-like act… but, come on, this is two teenage friends going to a cafe at night, of course Renata would at least be a little surprised by it. Regardless, the girl accepted Icarus’s hand - slightly reluctantly, of course, - standing up, and nodded to the boy suggestion of leaving. Though she definitely wasn’t in a rush to leave so quickly. Soon enough, they were already outside. Time passed quite quickly during their date, apparently - the twilight of the moment when they entered the diner had been replaced by a black, starry night.

She hadn’t even gotten enough time to analyze Icarus’s short monologue before they were interrupted by the waitress picking up their plates. This was the first time when Icarus actually decided to withhold the answer from her - and knowing how open they have been to each other, that was quite a surprise. Icarus certainly wasn’t alien to speaking his heart out to Renata - however, judging from the way he spoke about it, this was clearly an event which had left a scar… It’s probably a good idea to not touch that scar, then. Her curiosity had already raised its ugly head, however.

Icarus said he googled about me soon after we met for the first time, so would it be much of a sin if I did the same? Or even asked Dad if his secret services have a clue...

Wait a second… No, no, no!

Renata suddenly shook her head, trying to clear it out of all those poisonous thoughts - then, to try to bring some sense back in there, she turned towards Icarus, speaking:

“So, what’s our plan now?”

Icarus looked up at the sky for a few moments after hearing the girl’s question, pondering what to answer. On the one hand, despite a few setbacks, this date had been quite enjoyable for him, not to mention it was the first he’d had in a while, so he obviously didn’t want it to end just yet, but on the other, it was night already and he wasn’t sure they should be out much longer, especially with Warwolf around. In the end, perhaps it was better to leave the decision to her?

“Well, we could keep going for a little while, I suppose. Do you have any ideas for what we could do next?” He asked her. “If you don’t, or if you’d rather go home, well, I can at least walk you there. Unless you’re the type of girl who prefers calling an Uber or whatever I guess… but, you’ll have to pay that yourself.” He joked. Truth be told, he felt a little embarrassed, offering to walk Renata home when she was a superheroine with far more experience in the field than him. But even if she didn’t need it, he wanted to do it, as it was a way to stay together just a little longer.

Though Renata couldn't read Icarus’s thoughts, her reaction to the proposal echoed his concerns.

“Offering a professional heroine to walk her home, hmmm?” She commented, slightly sarcastically, and placed her free hand on her hip. Though the act she put up was a little confrontational, a different voice soon won out in her head, and her tone swiftly changed. Renata clenched Icarus's hand more tightly and turned towards him directly. “Yeah, that would be great - who knows what might happen out at night. I prefer to walk fast, though, as you might expect… so you might need to hasten your pace, then.”

With a smile, Icarus nodded at the heroine. “Lightning isn’t exactly known for being slow, you know.” The boy said, making a gesture to tell Renata to lead the way.

With that, the two teens set off, first walking through the streets of San Diego, then striding, and then outright running under the moonlight, the boy keeping up with the girl’s pace with ease thanks to his supernatural gifts. Ignoring the stares they were given by the few passerby they came across, and thankfully not encountering any Warwolf patrols during their brief tour, the pair soon arrived at their destination.

Surprisingly, Renata did not live in an apartment, a hotel, a dorm or any of that sort - she could proudly call herself the owner of a fairly compact, but still fairly luxurious house in the suburbs of the city. Well, how much the house was “hers” is up to debate - after all, it was her father who bought it out from a local family and gave it away - but it was a debate Renata brushed under the rug. It was a two story house with a dark tiled roof - nothing that would stand out too much from the scenery and scream “Look at me and my money!”, but far from shabby either. Though the front yard was looked after fairly well, the road leading up to the door decorated with a few sets of flowers, a glance through the windows would give a different impression - many of the rooms were almost completely empty. Yeah… as it turns out, when you are a single person living in a house designed for a large family, lots of space ends up left unused. The fact that Renata was in the middle of moving most of her basic appliances to her room in Wonder Tower only made the situation worse.

The sidewalk in front of this house was where Renata came to a sudden halt and turned towards Icarus.

“Well, we’re here,” She spoke, raising her hands towards the house. “I’m well aware that a person my age living in a house all by themselves is not exactly… common, but it has been quite an interesting experience.”

And not just in having to learn to wash and dry your clothes without anyone's help, either.

“I suppose this is where we say each other goodbye. But-but only for now, right?”

In response to Renata’s words, Icarus gave her hand a little squeeze and nodded at her. “Yeah, only for now.” He said with a smile. “Honestly, despite some awkward moments… I had a lot of fun today with you, I really did. You’re probably the first person I’ve met in a while that knows about me and still doesn’t judge me or look at me like I’m some sort of dangerous animal, even though we have such different views on what we do. I… I really appreciate that, Renata.”

Maybe things were getting a little too serious for their first date, Icarus thought. Perhaps a little more lightheartedness was in order.

“I’d hate to lose all of that after just one date, you know?” He grinned. “Who knows, maybe next time you can treat me instead.”

In response, Renata gave a hearty smile and responded to Icarus's hand clenching in kind. Truth be told, what he had just told her about not judging him negatively despite all that he had revealed to her was nothing new… but it was the thought that mattered. After all, though her father would probably disagree with her on this, a hero can be more than just an enforcer of the law - they can save souls as well as bodies. Although her relationship with Icarus had gone far beyond that of a hero helping with someone's problems and she was aware of that.

“I agree - even if it might have been a little modest, I enjoyed every minute of being with you.” Renata replied, then, suddenly, using the hand holding as an anchor of sorts, pulled Icarus in for a goodbye hug.

“Just… don't die in the meantime, okay?”

After a few seconds, Renata pulled back, blushing a little from the intimacy, but continuing to speak regardless:

“And don't do anything reckless, either. Promise?”

She didn't voice exactly what she meant by that, but in her mind, she figured Icarus could put two and two together.

Not that he was in much of a position to put two and two together at the moment. After being released from the hug, the boy had a big, silly grin on his face, having thoroughly enjoyed the embrace despite the initial shock at the girl being so bold. Perhaps he shouldn’t have even been surprised, really, considering how close they had been in other situations already, having practically fought back to back against a superhuman mercenary among other things. But there was still something about her doing it out of costume and during a moment of intimacy that made him enjoy it that much more.

When he actually managed to process what Renata was saying, though, his grin slowly toned down to a thin smile. Her words reminded her of the path that the two had chosen and the risks that came with it, something that had been on his mind ever since the battle with Inferno, though he didn’t let it bring down his good mood. More importantly, it reminded him of the differences in their outlooks, and their clashing opinions on things such as Warwolf. This made him hesitate to say yes, but, seeing how she was looking at him as she waited for his answer… with some dismay, the boy realized he couldn’t say no to those eyes.

“Promise.” He replied after a short pause. His hand softly squeezed hers once more before his fingers slowly uncurled and his hand separated from hers. “So, I guess all the people that tease us about going out aren’t wrong anymore, huh?” He commented offhandedly as he began taking a few steps back, away from Renata and her lonely home. “Well, this is it I guess, I had a lot of fun, hope we do this again soon. Bye!” He said at last, before making a half turn and walking away at a brisk pace, looking at the girl over his shoulder a couple of times and smiling at them until he was far enough for this to stop being meaningful.

Once he was away from her, Icarus slowed down his pace and looked up at the sky, the stars and the moon bathing the city in faint, pale light. He smiled up at them for no reason, elated after the events of the night. Maybe things are starting to look up for me after all. He told himself in hopeful thoughts. A part of him felt somewhat disappointed that nothing else had happened, but he quickly brushed those ideas away. No need to be greedy. This was only the first date, and hopefully not the last.

As he continued heading towards his own home, however, the last words the heroine had spoken to him echoed inside his head, causing the vigilante to mull over them. He had promised not to do anything reckless, yes, and he had a pretty good idea of what Renata had meant by that, but, thinking over it more carefully… he wasn’t sure if he would be able to uphold that promise. He would not oppose Warwolf as long as they acted properly, but he had a feeling that they wouldn’t do so for long, and if push came to shove, he’d have to fight. It was his calling. Surely she would understand that?

Suddenly, Icarus heard a distant sound, and looked in its direction to see a Warwolf humvee on patrol a couple of streets over. Narrowing his eyes, the boy looked away and continued walking.

Meanwhile, Renata, having been left alone after final embrace, promises and goodbyes, walked back to her home, unlocking and locking the door as she went, and instantly collapsed on her bed from a combination of exhaustion and a need to think over everything that had happened in the last few hours. It may have been nothing more than a brief meeting and a late dinner at a first glance, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s get the simple things out of the way first. This was the first real date she had had ever since she arrived here from Ecuador, and with a person she wasn’t all that familiar with, either. Not that she had brought much experience in relationships and dating from Ecuador, either - she was certainly popular in school, no doubt, but everyone sort of kept a large distance from her, after all, would you dare to get too close to the dictator’s daughter? Taking that into account, this meeting certainly went a lot better than it could have, even if it was awkward from start to finish.

But… what the hell was that all about? That promise she solicited out of him at the very last moment about not doing anything reckless? Renata said it almost without thinking, and yet it clearly had some impact on Icarus… Being a hero, a vigilante, is all about being reckless and taking risks, so why in the world would she suddenly try to challenge that?

Still immersed in her thoughts, Renata turned her head to the side, looking at the alarm clock set up on the table next to her bed. Quarter past midnight. Jesus. She’s usually dead asleep by this time.

Perhaps… perhaps it boils back down to their differences, differences only further confirmed and deepened during their date. She was a traditional heroine, approving of Warwolf and conforming to the rule of law. He, on the other hand, was a vigilante beyond the law, already in trouble for assaulting a hero, and, despite holding good intentions, only a hair away from being declared a villain. This was already getting really close to a forbidden friendship, and if Icarus got into further trouble one way or the other, then she would have no choice but to bury it all.

For some reason or another, Renata got reminded of the weird dream she had back in Wonder Tower two days ago - and especially its ending. The moment where she tried to kiss Blackout, only to suddenly fall through him into an endless void of darkness…

It was all too cryptic for Renata to fully understand, but she could tell that whatever gave her those premonitions probably did not view their relationship in a positive light.

[Finland SSR]

Marionette
Warwolf facility, San Diego

---

Some hospital/base

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Floyd was having the time of his life.

The clouds of smoke surrounding him and the battlefield presented a problem, especially since Floyd couldn't just turn off his eyesight and focus completely on his hearing like a blind martial arts master, but all this changed was that the swordsman took a different approach. Moving across the clouds at superhuman speed, faster than the soldiers could take a clean shot on even with aimbot-equipped power armor and infrared vision, then begin taking out the soldiers one by one.

Just look at this situation. One poor soul, wielding an electrified baton and trying to smack the silhouette of the mercenary brushing past him, got his lung impaled and practically ripped out by a demonic-powered sword and collapsed to the ground. His buddy a few meters away, equipped with a heavy machine gun that looked like something ripped straight from a superheavy tank, opened fire, but only a few bullets managed to escape the barrel in time before the weapon got cleanly cut in half, followed by the soldier's neck. That wasn't even all that the body had to endure, as it soon got turned into Swiss cheese by two newbies, standing on each side of the body and thinking that they got a kill on the bastard. No dice. One of the two got caught in the middle of reloading, barely realizing that Floyd was approaching him before the swordsman ripped out the electrified baton attached to his thigh and jammed it down his throat in one swift motion. The second buddy, as a reward for riddling their dead buddy with bullets, received the ever so sought prize of a tackle imbued with demonic force, sending the soldier rolling across the field, dropping pieces of his power armor as he went.

Floyd was about to go for a fifth soldier while the battlefield was still in chaos, but there, he met a bit of a surprise - the Warwolf officer, clearly a veteran, suddenly turned around and drove the butt of his assault rifle straight into Floyd's left cheek. With the power of an advanced set of power armor behind it, it was enough to slam the swordsman away and kill his momentum, though not enough to have him fall off balance. Floyd simply slided across the gravel underneath his feet before coming to a full stop, and cleaned away a drop of blood streaming across his cheek.

Drawing out blood at first strike, that's always the sign for a good fight. Hehe...

"Have you had your fun yet?" the officer exclaimed towards Floyd from under his helmet, tossing the assault rifle to the side and pulling out a metallic, sword-like weapon. Floyd's smirk slightly widened. A vibroblade. One of those cool pieces of sci-fi looking tech that's situational at best. Don't think I've fought someone with this thing before, though... "Assaulting an officer, damaging private property, series of first degree murders. That smirk of yours better be cut short in an electric chair."

The swordsman snickered. "I thought I could choose the way I'm executed? My preferred choice has always been firing squad. Feels like the most honorable way of going out to me."

Perfect, he'll think about those words and wont be as combat aware. Suddenly, without warning, Floyd lunged forward, running forward with his sword ready to strike. The officer wasn't dumb enough to just fall for the distraction, however, and straightened his stance, ready to block any incoming attacks. Not good. While running, Floyd went over the situation yet again.

He's using a vibroblade against me. It's a weapon which weakens the molecular bonds of matter in front of it by causing vibrations, which makes it exceptionally effective against those with unnatural durability. Makes sense that they would use it against supers, then. And so, I can't let myself even get touched by it. For the duration of this fight, I'm only human...

Suddenly, moments before striking the Warwolf soldier, Floyd rolled to the left for a feint and made a sweep with his legs, which, though noticed by the officer in time, gave him a whole new front to worry about. As such, while he was busy stepping back, the swordsman raised his body up with his left arm, now resembling a break dancer more than a warrior, and struck forward with his blade. This caught the officer off-guard, and the blade slashed across the side of his helmet, cutting through a bunch of electronics and revealing a small glimpse of his face - a tanned cheek with a fresh cut.

Still holding himself up with only his left arm, Floyd moved his center of mass backward, this resulting in a swift backflip and a Floyd standing on both of his feet yet again. Just in time for the soldier's counterattack, a forward thrust with his vibroblade, which the swordsman parried with a slap across the flat side of the weapon. Perfect, he''s been redirected away and his upper side is defenseless, I'll just-

Floyd's vertical slash with his sword, however, ended up blocked by the officer grabbing the incoming blade with his hand. Shit, he can do that? His power armor must be stronger than that of the others, then.

And now he can cancel his momentum by holding onto my sword... this might be a little problema-

Suddenly, the officer got almost knocked out of balance by a heavy leather book slamming into the back of his helmet. Raising his eyes, Floyd noticed a familiar face throwing various items one after the other into the Warwolf grunts. Yeah, it was that kid from the watchtower, right?

Thanks for that, kid.

Floyd took the opportunity granted and drove his knee straight into the officer's skull. It did not kill him or knock him out of the fight, but tossed him forward for a good dozen meters regardless, dropping his grip over Floyd's sword in the process. The Brit took a slightly easier breath, then, while he still had time, turned towards Nathan and spoke:

"What, is your power household item manipulation?"

[Auropa]

Mike Mathews
Wonder Island

“Congrats you two! Another 365 and a bit days without getting deaded!” Mike called out as the surprise party unfolded.
In the instant after the shower of confetti 'and one airborne Carter,' a mob of cheerful teammates swarmed the birthday duo giving a mixture of well wishes, hugs and a little bit more in the case of one alien girl. A little bit after, the group began to dissipate and spread out. Mike on the other hand decided to stay back for a bit and watch.

He couldn’t help but smile at everything happening around him. The fact that they, a bunch of adrenaline fuelled kids, had made and developed into a team, or the fact that they were steadily growing into something, more, it gave him a nice warm feeling, borderline optimism. While Mike wasn’t one to get sentimental or too emotional (at least out loud) he had to admit, he was starting to feel hopeful about the future. Weird to think how just a few weeks ago he hardly knew any of the people here. Now, here they were having a party as a team. Odd how celebrating a birthday, probably the most normal thing they’ve done yet, somehow felt so strange to him. Looking around and seeing how despite the danger and death they’d all seen and fought before, they could all still be happy and act like teenagers should. ‘Huh, I wonder if that was Naja’s idea’ he thought to himself.
‘Welp, no point standing around’ he figured as the mention of Mario Karts began to bounce around.

“I call next game” He said as he sat on the floor next to the couch and watched the screen. Joining in with the whoops and cheers especially after seeing Yoshi’s brutal takedown. “I think I finally found out where the name comes from” He said as he fell on his back laughing at Red’s sudden defeat. As the race began to wind down Mike remembered a key set of items he had been forgetting. After getting to his feet and back to his bag, he promptly pulled out two neatly wrapped boxes and made his way to Wyatt and Mars.

“Not sure if my presents can compete with the super-genius, the wizards and such but I thought these might be cool” As he spoke he handed each a parcel.
“They’re paradoxes. Or at least that’s what I think they’re called. My uncle loves to collect weird things, so I did a few chores and asked to take a few of his older ones. I got Mars a small flask that can hold about three times its volume. I thought it could be a cool brain teaser, I can’t really confirm it but there’s apparently no magic involved in it, something about a pocket dimension thingy that went way over my head. And for Wyatt I got a D&D dice set that lands on whatever number you think of, psychic dice. I thought it’d be funny, because, well. Dungeons and dragons. Not exactly useful but some old things I thought were cool.” Pausing for a moment Mike took a second to gather his thoughts and continue.
“Look, I know I’m not the most social or open person. But I’m proud to be here because of people like you two. We’re lucky to have you with us, happy birthday guys. Anyways! Mush aside I’m going to go crush someone at Mario Karts.” At that Mike promptly turned on his heel and made his way back to the games to avoid any potential awkward ‘feel bombs’. Besides, he had seen his character in the game and was excited to give it a shot. To him, it seemed unbeatable, or at least he figured it was, its stats were all around the midpoint which of course meant he wouldn’t have a weakness, ‘that’s how the game works right?’

[Turmenista]

Johnny Swift

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Johnny Swift

Johnny could only just watch as the Weirdo Clique's van began to become smaller and smaller in his vision, barreling down the road away from them as if to taunt them for the loss of their car. Johnny scowled at them in a mix of fury and pain as he pushed himself up off the ground, holding an apparently sore shoulder. "Great. Now they're hauling ass post haste thataway and we don't got a car. Just great, man. Now how the hell am I supposed to g—"

Then, he nearly facepalmed himself for being such an idiot. Oh wait. I have SUPER SPEED and Floyd has... whatever. He'll make it. I'm such a goddamn idiot!

"I might take a while to catch up to that truck, so you'll have to keep up with it on your own, or at least slow it down somewhat," Floyd had apparently telepathically caught onto Johnny's idea, walking up to him and staring at him as he explained what he would be doing in the next five seconds. "I'll give you a headstart in speed, work your magic and don't even think about falling flat on your face."

"Now, hold on, Floyd, let me get some room to pick up some—"

"Three, two, zero."

Grabbing onto the collar of Johnny's T-shirt, Floyd would then lob the speedster straight towards the van as hard as he could, causing Johnny to go airborne as he ran after him. Stopping his screaming, Johnny quickly leveled himself and prepared to hit the ground running, which he did in an almost textbook maneuver looking like the badass youthful protagonist to some Shōnen manga series as his foot dug into the pavement slightly, leaving behind a small crater and cloud of dust as he sprung off his feet and barreled straight towards the van.

In just under three seconds he'd already caught up with the van and made his way to the driver's side, Johnny taking note of the driver rolling his eyes from the mirror on the driver's side. "Hey! Edgar Allen BITCH! We aren't finished!"

Johnny heard the driver sigh. "Malkuth, take the wheel."

Another black-haired Goth female (not as pretty as Clara, Johnny needed to remind himself) took the wheel as the driver seemingly clambered his way to the back of the van, past Gabriel queen, where he opened the rear doors. As "Malkuth," otherwise known as Thelma Graves, took the wheel, Johnny saw himself face to face with Keith Westwoods, otherwise known as Keter. What was stranger than his apparent powers was his attire, looking like the mixture between a Gucci model and a BDSM enthusiast. Clara truly did have some weird friends.

"Clara, you told me you had something to tell me. Now's your chance." Johnny grinned as he made a small hop, leaping into into the open rear of the van, where he was practically held at knifepoint by a bladed bone protruding from Gabriel's forearm inching towards his neck. "Move, and I'll hit your Jugular, speedy."

"Try me, clown."

Clara motioned towards her cell phone, as if to telepathically tell Johnny that he should've texted her on his goddamn phone like she'd asked him to do, but it was too late to tell him now. Keith quickly stepped between Johnny and Gabriel, slightly crouched due to his height, seemingly calm and unfazed by the speedster in the back of their van as he stood ominously. "Whatever you and your friend currently sprinting after us want to do with Clara will have to wait tomorrow, Johnny. Her priorities have since shifted, and, as much as I would like to tell you about this, that would mean I'd have to kill you. No one would like that outcome."

"I've got a schedule myself, and it can't wait for tomorrow," Johnny smirked, causing Clara to turn around to face him finally. "Look, Swift, I—"

She was silenced when Keith raised a finger, shushing her as he turned to his speedster friend. "It's okay. If he cannot be told the truth, I'll simply beat it into him. Malkuth, drive them to my house. I will meet you there after I'm... finished."

His eyes met with Johnny's as the speedster became uneasy, both on the inside and due to the fact that a strangely-clad guy his age was staring him down. He found himself suddenly falling out of the back of the van and then up into the air again as Keith simply stepped out the back of the moving vehicle, folding his arms behind his back as he watched Johnny sprint down the face of the building, before coming to a sliding halt in front of him.

"Floyd..." Johnny walked backwards uneasily as his partner caught up to him finally, Keith simply standing still and staring at them. "I've got a bad feeling about this guy. Maybe we should, y'know, head home?"

[Segral]

Carter Graystone

Ouch, that stung. Mars completely ignored Carter’s gift, throwing it on the pile beside them without even looking or even acknowledging them! He had to admit, he was a carefree guy, but that hurt, especially with how much thought and money had had put into it. He wasn’t the best at gift-giving, but he could’ve at least thanked him.

His mood only deteriorated further once Mario Kart started. His kart had crazy fast acceleration and speed, and somewhat decent handling, but as it turns out, he needed a bit more than “somewhat decent”. He started off pretty strong, placing 1st in the first race, and 3rd in the second, but that soon collapsed into 9th in the third and 6th in the fourth, mostly caused by him taking a massive nosedive off Rainbow Road on the final lap. Eventually, he was left in fifth place, which in his opinion, was five places too low.

So, ignored and toppled from glory, he resigned himself to moping on the couch, with a cookie in one hand and an almost empty soda can in the other, an extremely angry glare on his face.

[The Starlight]

Tanzanite Davidson

An elderly nurse reached for the door to the new patient's room as part of a regular check-up. She felt a familiar and unpleasant twinge in her shoulder as she moved, and looked at the clipboard with the patient's information to distract her. What an odd name the boy had, she thought. The nurse wondered if he had received some flack from his classmates for the irregular name he bore. Well, in any case, it wasn't any of her business. What was her business, however, was the scream that clearly came from the boy's room. Bursting in, the nurse was just in time to witness a blinding blue light crash into the boy. Was this how superheroes were made? Her grandchildren had always tried to get her into superhuman news but she had never really bothered. Or perhaps this was a plot of some villain? But why this boy in particular then? There didn't seem to be anything special about him. The blue light seemed to be contained within the boy's hand, and at least he seemed stable after the initial scream. She began to back out the door to find a doctor, this was above her pay grade. However, the boy's body began to levitate, with a shimmering blue field sliding over his body, held by some power a couple of inches off the skin.

Then she heard a voice come out of nowhere, and for some reason, it seemed old and considering.

"Transporting to Aura..."

Tanzanite's unconscious body began to float over to the broken window and was about to make its exit when the nurse spoke up. "You can't just kidnap him! He has a life, a family! And he's just a kid."

The hand of the boy turned to face the nurse. ""I understand your worries Mrs. Johnson, but the universe is at war for its very soul. Your world has some aversion to child soldiers. But among the stars, there is no mercy for the young. There are many who would see your vibrant world stripped of its color. They must be fought. And within the young, there is the greatest spark for some of the greatest forces in the universe. Passion. Creativity. Instinct. Logic. Memory. Imagination.
Do not fear, he will return, one way or another."

And with that, Tanzanite Davidson floated out of the window and shot off into space. Carol Johnson watched him go until the indigo light disappeared, wondering what she was supposed to tell his parents.

Far above the world, Tanzan awoke to hear the same voice he had heard in his head a little while ago speaking to him. "Tanzanite Davidson, you are needed."

Tanzan opened his eyes and immediately screamed, his voice cracking in a sign of his youth. "Why? Who are you? Why am I in space? I'm in space!" He spun around to take in the sights and was silenced by his view. The Earth lay behind him, and never had it seemed so large and yet so little at the exact same time. With his eyes he traced the outlines of the continents, partially obscured by wispy clouds. There were the oceans too, cerulean and indigo intermixed with wind currents. But the greater sight was the stars. He let out a deep breath as he beheld their shimmering, glittering light. He looked down at his hands, feeling that he was covered by some sort of field that had allowed him to survive. "Ok, question time, mysterious voice."

Its voice sounded amused, yet still with a firm calmness that was keeping Tanzan from screaming again. "Very well Tanzanite Davidson. My name is J'uteraz, and I am a Rainbow Spirit in crystallized form. You were recruited to be an Indigo Rainbow Warden, to protect the universe against all and any threats to its sustained existence, predominantly from the Grey. They seek to absorb color, aura, and life out of all worlds and peoples until unfeeling, grey automatons remain. And after your training on Aura is complete, you will fight in the 75th Chromatic Crusade against the Grey."

"So I've been conscripted by some aliens to fight against some bad aliens in a neverending crusade as a child soldier?" Tanzanite said glumly, sneaking another look back at earth. "You can call me Tanzan by the way J'uteraz."

The voice of J'uteraz sighed, muttering something that Tanzan couldn't quite hear. "You won't be a child soldier with the Rainbow Wardens, Tanzan. You will be a hero. On your world there are villains, are there not? Or hostile races coming to destroy all life? These things cannot be ignored, they must be fought. I will not lie to you. Your job will often be a thankless one. On some worlds, Wardens are meddling strangers and on others they are larger-than-life. The fight will be long and hard, and some have fallen in the line of duty. As a Rainbow Warden, you will see wonders you have never even dreamed of, meet ancient races older than time itself and behold the beauty of the universe, in music, color, and art. And now, let me ask you a question, Tanzan, borrowing if you permit, from your planet's culture. Do you believe in color, in art? Can music save your mortal soul? "

Tanzan couldn't restrain the smile that spread over his face. "Yes, I do. So I can become a hero?"

"Yes Tanzan."

"And I can go home, right?"

"That is correct."

"Then let's get started," Tanzan said, clenching his crystal-embedded hand. Indigo light pulsed forth in response.

[Scotatrova]

Diego Belcourt

Diego followed Steven back to his home where the two of them began prepping for a locator spell. The way Diego did them, all he had to do was say "show me the way to" and then his destination would come to him in his head, but it seems that Steven still did things the old fashion way, just as his brother and father did. Diego's father used to do his spells the same way, where as he got his way of spellcasting from his mother's teachings. Steven set candles around his room, and a map lay in the center of the floor. Black sand and the post card lay atop the map, as a way of tracking the huntress. Steven sat down on one side of the map and Diego at the other. They held the sword of the huntress, with Diego holding the handle and Steven the blade. It was retrieved from Diego's house shortly after his parents murder and sent to Steven's mother for safekeeping. Steven starts chanting in Latin, the traditional language for spellcasting, though Diego usually heard his father recite them in French, his native and ancestral language. Diego also begins to recite the spell to further enhance the spell's effectiveness. The unlit candles around them catch flame as the spell takes effect.

"Spiritibus, inveniet venatrix huic gladio, spiritibus, inveniet venatrix huic gladio." (Spirits, find the huntress of this sword)

The sand makes its way from San Francisco and makes its way southeast. When they look down at the map, the sand has made a line from San Francisco to Phoenix, Arizona. Diego look up and gives Steven a skeptical look.

"Arizona, are you sure this isn't a prank or something?"

"This isn't a prank Diego, a ruthless killing machine is on her way to hunt us all down."

"But why announce herself with a cryptic postcard? Isn't the element of surprise a basic principle of good hunting?"

Just then, Veronica steps in the doorway and has the same worried expression that Steven has.

"Not for Seline Devereaux. Seline has a taste for taunting her victims. Like a cat nibbling the legs off a spider."

"Well, it seems our huntress is residing somewhere in Phoenix."

"Well, let's get going, the sooner we deal with her, the better."

"I call shotgun."

[Anxiety Cafe]

Warwolf Facility

It didn't take long for Nathan to run out of ammo, but from the sounds of it, he had been at least a little bit successful. Marionette's comment especially drew a smile from him, for he knew, even though they were technically on the same side, he had hit her, and nothing could've made him happier. Except, of course, for hitting her again, which he tried, but to no avail.

His feeling of uselessness, however, soon returned after he had finished his job. Sighing and trying to hold back a laugh at how fun the whole ordeal had been. The crazy swordsman's question floated up in the middle of his reverie, and Nathan couldn't hold in his chuckles any longer.

"Let's turn my powers back on, and you'll see," he teased, still laughing.

The only things remaining in the room light enough to throw were the piles of stuff he had grabbed from the soldiers in one corner: bulletproof vests, rifles, ammo, and some sort of baton, which he had deduced were electric. Those might come in handy later, he thought, grabbing two and sticking them in empty pockets of his belt, with them sticking out over the top.

While debating whether or not to throw those, however, the smoke cleared from his frame of view just enough for him to target those outside the cloud. However, it also meant Nathan could be targeted from there, and gunshots soon rang out. Hidden behind the piles of weapons, Nathan was all but trapped, and, deciding quickly, slipped one of the vests on as fast as he could, while also picking up a rifle. His lack of experience with guns had prevented him from using them before, but there was little he could do. Aiming and clicking the trigger, Nathan closed his eyes, only for him to realize his gun didn't shoot. What the hell is wrong with this thing? he thought. Is there like some button I gotta press?

Throwing it away in frustration, Nathan glanced up over his pile, as the bullets stopped. Curious, he stood up over the window, trying to get a better move. It was a bad move. He was soon thrown down against the ground with an intense pain in his chest area, making breathing difficult. The echoes of a gunshot reverberated in his ears.

"Aw, shit," he groaned, trying to get up but unable to. "That hurts like hell."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

---

Needless to say, Alexis was quite happy that her gifts were being received so well. Wyatt, for one, seemed super thrilled to have her disguise projector, certainly more so than she had expected; as far as she was concerned, it was more for comfort than a necessity, but the dragon boy seemed to think that her device was an absolute lifesaver. The fact that he mentioned he wanted to do some 'sleuthing' on Warwolf with the use of her gift reminded her of a request for gear she had received a few days earlier for the same purpose, a request she was happy to fulfill. For a moment she was concerned about how Wyatt might fare out there, but he was a big guy, so he'd probably be fine.

She was a little bit surprised when the dragon boy picked her up with ease, but quickly reacted and patted his back before he set her down; she supposed she would have to get used to it during birthdays, what with the Young Bloods being an effusive bunch and her being light even for someone of her size and shape, another of her many unexplained, seemingly random quirks. Either way, she smiled at Wyatt, nodding at him as he said that he was going to get a lot of use out of it. "Well, I'm glad! Just try not to put it under too much physical stress for whatever reason. If you break it or it needs maintenance, you know where to go!" The blonde girl said, patting the dragon on the back.

Next came Mars, who was apparently no less eager to receive her gift than Wyatt was. "Wow, these are way more popular than I thought!" The girl told herself with a not so small measure of pride. Immediately, the genius boy thought of several applications for the perpetual energy generator, something not at all unexpected considering his talents. Hearing him thank her again for his gift, she simply grinned, pride and happiness with a side of hidden mischief. "And you've no idea what you're getting tomorrow." She thought.

Hearing him promise to give her something special when their roles were swapped around, she simply nodded at him with a smile on her face. "Bold words, Marsy-boy, I'll hold you to them! Make sure you give me something that I can't just make myself, alright?" She teased him in a friendly manner.

Of course, while all of this took place, Alexis certainly hadn't forgotten her other friends, especially the one that had gone and established a connection with her to talk in private. Fortunately, she was perfectly capable of holding conversations both inside and out of her head, without one affecting the other, so Wyatt and Mars wouldn't notice her secretly communing with Yoshiro. "Why, as a matter of fact, yes, I have! She's been acting rather out of sorts ever since that night eight days ago, you know, after we beat up Inferno. I wonder what else of importance happened that night? Perhaps it was someone she met?" The girl thought, the mental equivalent of a knowing smile appearing before Yoshiro's perception.

---

Meanwhile, Kirisvala had been enjoying the party, more or less. While many of the others had decided to start playing videogames, in particular one about racing, she opted to simply sit a little off to the side and munch on some cheeseburgers with a cool glass of strawberry Fanta by her side. Needless to say, over the year she had spent on Earth, mostly living in New Adai, she hadn't played or learned much about videogames, so she didn't know the franchise, but she could appreciate the fact that it had been modified to have most of the Young Bloods as characters instead of whatever the original game had. Unfortunately, the one person that had picked her instead of themselves was Renata, and she hadn't been doing very well in the races, clearly unused to the game. She knew this had no bearing on her or any of the other members, of course, but it still bummed her out a little.

When the spot was left vacant, the Hadrian briefly considered joining in on the fun, but quickly decided against it. Not only was she unlikely to do any well in it, since she had never played, she also doubted she would be able to use one of those small human controllers comfortable (or safely, even), and while she was fairly sure console controllers modified for use by her kind existed already, she doubted the team had one laying around for her. Scott soon filled the vacant spot either way, and so, instead of attempting to join, the alien girl continued eating, soon finishing off what was left of her meal.

Rather than head over for a refill, as she wanted the rest of the team to have enough to eat as well, Kiris decided to stand up and find someone to talk to in order to pass the time. After all, not everyone in the party was interested in Mario Kart, so she quickly spotted one of them and made her way over.

"Hi Roy!" The girl greeted him, cheerful as ever. "What do you think about the party so far?" She asked him, figuring that it was as good a topic as any to begin a conversation.