Heroes of Tomorrow Redux [IC | DONE]

[Union Princes]

Tadeusz Rybinski

Okay, enough of being in the water for now at least, Tadeusz transformed into a small crab and slowly walked on land and then onto his towel and transformed into himself

"Quite the swim"

He said to himself quietly, he then looked at the beach and to his once again surprise saw another new face here, but for now, he would need to dry up before even trying to talk to anybody

Elek Mohave

The beach was nice for Elek but he didn't know what even people do there, don't get me wrong he saw adverts of beaches in shop windows with playing tv's in Detroit but he never paid them any real mind, maybe someone from the beach could help and teach him something about the beach stuff, one man was on his towel looking like he was not in a mood to talk ( which is a wrong opinion ) Jack was in the water and Elek didn't had anything for swimming on him, and the girl that was just sitting on her towel, maybe she could help, so Elek walked over to her

"Hello, I'm sorry to interrupt... Whatever you were doing, I'm Elek, and this is my first time on a beach, could I ask what do people do on beaches?"

He sounded very awkward to himself

Szarlota Raczkowska
The Polish girl was relaxing under her shade while she watched her comrades play in the water and the ocean waves lapping at the shores. Seagull here, a seagull there flying and wandering among the sand. Szarlota notice a shadow encroaching into her shade. She looked up and saw Elek. Obviously embarrassed to ask her about something.

"Well, it's simple." Szarlota scanned the surrounding area to see what other people are doing. "As long as you put on some sunscreen first, you can take a swim, walk along the shore, collect seashells, surf, and build a sand castle. Or be like me and sit under a shade and relax."

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Apothecary and Park Ji-hye

"See, now that's the type of thing I like to hear." Gabriella smiled under her mask, pushing her now empty shot glasses off to one side. "You may as well savour your time in this little shard of civilisation while you're here, and I think we're going to need a few more shots for you and your..." She glanced to her side as Ji sat down next to her, still as emotionless and impassive as ever. Her hands were together, resting on the bar, while her head was turned to one side, looking down the bar at all three of them at once, saying nothing at all.

It was... Oddly unnatural. It reminded her of one of her cousins, who was particularly empty-headed, always lost in her own little world of fantasy and make-believe where nothing could go wrong.

"Companion." She finished, turning back towards Joker. "Anyways, names. I'm assuming you know ours."

---

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

"Probably." Sophia shrugged. "It's just a different alphabet for the same language. Like writing Russian in Latin script. As unnatural as that is." She kept her paces slow and measured, walking was always slightly difficult for her owing to her missing almost all of her toes. It made it difficult for her to keep her balance if she walked too fast or she lost focus and got distracted.

"And there'll be snakes. Somewhere. Probably. You wouldn't like my hometown. No life, not plants, not snakes, for hundreds of miles, no road, no passenger trains, only way out is by plane. Even the people aren't alive, they're just... Mindless robots, with drunken episodes every other day." Her voice turned sad as she spoke, but there was an underlying edge of hard anger to her words. "I'd burn it to the ground if I could."

[Durmatagno]

Sage Shields

Sage followed Shyla, hands back in her pockets as she just enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Most of the time simple things like this were enough to get her to relax. Maybe not ideal, but enough. She was still catching up with a...lot of missed pop culture, but she couldn't sit still and watch things like that all the time without getting restless. She preferred to be up and moving. Sitting around was not what she thought of when she wanted to relax, most of the time anyway. A good book, or a warm park bench were sometimes all she needed.

"I would call myself a friend yes, at the very least she talks to me, she doesn't talk to most of the others outside of missions."

Sage said with a shrug. Her friendship with Kodiak was new and slow growing, neither of them exactly knew how to work things. Aqua of all people had made their first interaction....awkward.

"And I probably understand better than most. From what I've gathered, she was made into a soldier, probably against her will, and fought for quite awhile. That's all I gathered, I don't press her for information. I don't know it all, but I'm probably the closest someone can come to understanding without having actually gone through it."

Sage thought back after Shyla's next question, rubbing her chin in thought for a moment. After a moment, she shook her head as she answered.

"No, not that I've heard from her or Aqua. There was an attempt to kill or kidnap her, which is sort of how we became friends, or started to anyway. I got dragged into it. My sister was livid about some things Kodiak did, but Kodiak was just looking out for Aqua. I know she doesn't like most people who actually call themselves heroes. Herself, a girl named Sophia, and myself almost got into a fight with a guy because he let an enemy escape rather than shooting her when he had a chance. Beyond that, she's uncomfortable in normal situations, rarely shows emotion, and generally keeps to herself."

[Endem]

Elek Mohave

"Thank you"

Relax, that was probably the best thing he could do right now, he didn't have much time to relax ever before, maybe somewhere in the resort there is some bookshop or something like that. He found one eventually and even managed to buy himself some Science Fantasy Novel, Dune, the shopkeeper said it was good ( and one of few books she had in English ). Elek returned to his towel and started to read.

Tadeusz Rybinski

He dried eventually and saw a new figure over him

"Who you are?"

"I'm representative of JuraOil, you are the one that can transform into dinosaurs right?"

"Yes, and much more than, but why are you asking"

"Because we want you to be our next face in marketing, or in other words we want to sponsor the Young Guardians program"

"I think it's okay, but ask Mr. Bastani, he is the one that rules the whole thing"

"One more thing, you will need to saw in our logo into some of your shirts"

"Okay"

With those words, the woman walked away, Tadeusz probably just got a new sponsor for Young Guardians unless Samson says otherwise

[Triassica]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

"Sounds like horrible place. Perhaps it should be burned." Andrew noted on Sophia's home, "My home, San Diego is a cool place, being by the ocean, having plenty of parks and good food to eat. Though I much rather want to live in places like Australia, Africa, the Amazon part of South America, or even the Deserts of North America. Those places have tons of Snakes..."

Andrew pointed forward as Rango spotted a desk with a lady and a whole bunch of keys behind her. "That where our key is?" He asked, as they marched onward, "What room number are we? Will it have two beds? Would hate to have to sleep on the couch..."

[Forest State]

Shyla Hale

Shyla leaned against the wall and waited a moment before she offered an explanation, taking a vape pen out of the inside of her jacket and taking in a drag, only speaking after exhaling the vapor in Sage’s direction. “I know a lot about that background because we were both taken as kids. We didn’t have any powers at first, we gained those after we were taken in by… The Hawk Institute. You can believe it exists or you can not believe it, but that’s who kidnapped us and gave us artificial powers. We worked, however, under the front of a number of other companies. Hawk was always good at covering their tracks.”

“And yes. We did serve as soldiers on a number of fronts ranging from the cities of Brazil to the mountains of Chechnya and Afghanistan and back. We fought for basically anyone who hired us, whether that was governments or private companies or other groups. Played a number of roles, too, from security work to outright attacks on the enemy. We had to be a lot of things at different times, sometimes we played the spec ops role and sometimes we did more basic stuff like guarding a specific location for a couple of weeks. The reason they sent someone after her is because you can’t exactly leave Hawk. Not when you would be in a position to reveal the overarching organization to the world, and she drew attention by being here and having Aqua with her,” Shyla continued, taking another drag.

“Thing is, we weren’t together when we were inside. We were together for a bit in training but I was brought deeper into the organization and Kodiak was put on the front lines. I was in a position where I could watch over her to an extent but she didn’t and couldn’t even know that I existed, that I was alive and well. She was assigned to the 33rd Spares Team, which was an experimental unit and one of 50 or so overall units. This team was, to put it simply, something of a testing ground where Hawk tried different things they didn’t do with other teams. Which is part of the reason they gave their members more independence, which you see now with the defection of two of their members at the least,” she explained, before sighing. “But the experimentation also made Kodiak subject to… Some things the others didn’t have to deal with.”

“She was subjected to the Rex Protocol which… Well, let me put it like this. She wasn’t always in control of her own mind. There were some points where she looked just like the soulless attackers in Shanghai, the ones that were extremely efficient but didn’t look like they were in control of themselves. Did she… Has she said anything to you about her lover, Minerva Driscoll?” Shyla asked, dropping the news for the first time that Kodiak had, at some point at least, a lover.

Jessamyn “Heartbreaker” Easton-Roux and Chae-won “Joker” Ryeon

“Sixteen more,” Jess said to the bartender, ordering enough for all of them to get wasted. She didn’t intend on going halfway with this, they were already getting drunk on a business trip, they might as well go the full way and make it so they could hardly walk when they were done. If they all ended up too drunk to work with their visitors, they could always think about sealing the deal later. They would be in Dubai for as long as it took, anyway, it wasn’t like they could head back to the west right now when there was a lot of heat around them.

Joker, meanwhile, offered a bit of a bow to Jess, lowering her head respectfully. “I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you, I’ve followed you for awhile, I actually have my own copy of the jacket that you guys at the Gamblers used to wear, I’m sure some people liked to ignore you in favor of your sister but I never liked her and I was happy when you-”

“We’re trying to stay on the downlow, don’t just tell everyone about that,” chuckled Jess, pointing to her mask and gesturing to how there were still plenty of people around them.

“Oh, uh, right, sorry… But anyway, my name is, uh, Joker and… Ji, do you want to take it from here,” Joker continued, getting a bit nervous around her idol. “But my name isn’t actually Joker by the way, it’s Chae-won, I just uh… It’s my callsign.”

[The Batavia]

-

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Jack had left the beach, and headed to a nearby food stand. He was hungry as all hell, and a burger sounded real good. As he sat down, ready to eat, he was approached by a tall women.

"You're Jack Dredd, of the Young Guardians, right?". Her accent was hard to place; it seemed midwestern.

"Yeah. Who are you? Fan or foe?". He was a little on guard, but mostly relaxed as he ate his burger.

"Excellent! I'm Christina Elms, from Engi. Corp. We're an R&D company in household products, and we were hoping we could sponsor you. We've watched your performance, and your powers seem to fit out motto of "Protection above all". You were a hometown hero in Chicago, correct?"

This lady asked a lot of questions, thought Jack.

"Yeah... I assume you've done your research on my history?"

"Of course. You have a very nice record; not one unnecessary fatality in your whole career. Quite impressive, considering your raw strength."

"It's nothing. Just a matter of control. Now, about this sponsorship..."

"I've been authorized to offer you a trial run of $50,000 over the next six months."

"Damn. Lotta money. What're my responsibilities?"

"Nothing strenuous. Some commercials, a photoshoot or two, maybe some t-shirts. You'll of course receive royalties for any apparel."

"... Deal. Where do I sign?"

"Right here! I do hope to see you again in the future; but now that my official duties with you are done, perhaps you'd like to get drinks?"

"I think you read me wrong miss. I don't swing that way, if you catch my drift."

With that, Jack left, heading back for the hotel. He needed to find a certain inventor.

[Skaldia]

Eamon Donovan
Sardinia

The limo that pulled up was a beaut, all black matte and shiny tires and shit. Eamon, now flanked from the rear by the muscle heads that had turned out to be bodyguards for the Cratos rep', stopped to admire the limo for a moment before climbing in the back with just the sweet, and entirely edible Miss Ambrosia. The meat heads went to the front seat, leaving Eamon alone with a woman so beautiful that Eamon might have tried to bed her if he had been more sober. However, the whisky was too damn fine, even for Miss Ambrosia. It allowed him a drunken clarity of mind that a more sober hornier Eamon might have fallen too. Which, knowing how those big bizz' types acted, was probably their plan all along.

"May I just say, it's an honor and a privilege just to be talking to a member of the Guardians, Mr. Donovan."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He waved off the compliments, suddenly embarrassed. He busied himself by taking a heady sip of his whisky from the reliable flask."I'm a Young Guardian." He emphasized the adjective with in the air quotation marks, before crossing his hands over his chest,"Hardly the same..," he trailed off as he looked out the window. Now that he was allowing a moment of introspection, he realized that maybe the corporatoh's she represented might be able to throw a little more cheese his way. He had become used to a pretty sizable income when he had been a mercenary. Metahumans mercs were high bizz. The Guardians paid a pittance in comparison.

Turning back to stare at Miss Ambrosia, eyes locked on hers and not the plunging neckline or the way her dress had shifted halfway up her thigh. Oh, thighs like that demanded to be touched, caressed, bitten.. -no. Can't go down that route, eyes focused on her almond shaped ones.
Miss Ambrosia went to speak before Eamon had the opportunity."No, not yet. But, with the right corporate sponsorship and the right look, you could be great. Let me be clear, a sponsorship with Cratos comes with an annual salary of three million dollars, a home in the Bahamas, and a monthly expense account of two hundred thousand dollars."

As Eamon found himself suddenly with a mouth feeling like the desert he had just left. He went to his vest pocket for Mr. Flask but Miss Ambrosia halted his move with a soft, warm hand on Eamon's wrist."No, no. Try some of this." Reaching over to the console in the center of the back of the limousine, she removed two crystal goblets from a hidden compartment in the console. While holding these with one hand, she reached back in and removed a beautiful bottle of clear amber liquid."This is a Glenlivet single malt scotch, aged for sixty seven years and costing over fifty thousand dollars." She said as she opened the bottle and poured a measure in to the glasses. She giggled as a bump caused a bit of the scotch to spill on to the front of her dress, soaking it expertly just enough to bring out the pointers.

Eamon suddenly forgot about old whisky, money, and trying to be clear, drunken Eamon. When next she looked up at him, cheeks red from mirth and embarrassment, eyes all but innocent, Eamon made his move.

Luckily, the trip to restaurant would have to wait while Eamon had his dessert first.

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Apothecary and Park Ji-hye

"See, now that's a number of shots that's actually worth ordering." Gabriella clapped her hands together as their new mass of shots arrived, carefully sliding the small glasses out, four to each of them. She downed her first shot quickly, Ji just looking at the four glasses in front of her confused, as if unsure of what these strange alien things in front of her actually were.

She picked one of the shot glasses, peering at the contents suspiciously. Seemingly satisfied it wasn't poison or something, she mirrored Gabriella, downing her shot. She coughed, managing not to spit any of it out, feeling the unexpected burn in her throat as she set her glass down on the bar, still coughing lightly.

"First time drinking?" Gabriella asked.

Ji nodded, saying nothing.

"You'll get used to it." Gabriella shrugged. "You've got catching up to do, since you two are both behind."

Ji just nodded, picking up and downing another shot. She didn't particularly want to, but she'd been ordered to integrate these people, to win them over, and that meant doing what they asked. Even if that meant completely ignoring that she wanted nothing more than to ask these people if they wanted to join them and get this over and done with quickly and methodically.

---

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

"You can call it horrible, but it doesn't really hit until you've been there." Sophia shrugged. She didn't really like talking about Norilsk, but it was something. She was terrible at small talk at the best of times. "Place stinks of ash and smoke and molten metal, its freezing at the best of times, food is shit, there's no plants or anything for miles, we have some lakes, but they're about 90% pollution, toxic chemicals and so fucking cold you'll freeze to death if you try swimming in the things."

She stopped in front of the desk, collecting their key and holding it up to look at the number. "39, probably, and if it doesn't you can have the bed. I've slept on bare concrete or on the side of a moving train in freezing temperatures, I can sleep anywhere."

[Durmatagno]

Sage Shields

Sage nodded along as Shyla told her more about who, and what Kodiak is. Much of it Sage couldn't have guessed...okay, none of it, but she liked to pretend she wasn't completely useless.

"If the powers are artificial, well.....the small handful of ways I know of to give someone powers are inefficient and brutal, so I can't imagine however Hawk does it is pleasant."

Sage avoided saying why she knew of ways to artificially induce powers. Instead, she pulled out her found, and shot a text to Bellamy while she listened to the rest of what Shyla had to say.

"I don't know if you had anything planned, but I might be busy for awhile. Some old friends of Kodiak showed up, and are asking me about how she currently is. If you do need anything, or want to do something, just let me know. I am bored out of my mind at this place."

Tucking the phone away, she frowned at the last part of what Shyla said. She did her best to think back to her interactions with Kodiak, including what she'd seen before the fight. She'd deal with figuring out how someone generally as.....isolated as Kodiak had a lover later, her concern for now was the name. After a moment, she shook her head.

"Not that I can remember, she was in the middle of having some kind of breakdown before the Assassin-Kidnapper attacked, but I only caught the tail end of it. So no, I'm afraid I don't remember ever mentioning a Minerva. I don't think Aqua has either, but Aqua is....odd at times, not that I can say much. Just look at me."

[Forest State]

Jessamyn "Heartbreaker" Easton-Roux and Chae-won "Joker" Ryeon

Jess downed a couple more shots with no problem, although she was basically drunk by now despite saying that there was no way she would be drunk at this point. Still, she wasn’t the type of person that was ready to fall out of her seat by the time she was a little tipsy. She could still talk and if she could still talk she would be fine for this meeting. Right? “So, ya’ll said you would make it worth our while to join, I’m wondering what you mean on that since North Korea isn’t exactly New York and it’s going to take some convincing for me to go there after being used to the city,” she said, her words coming out just a little bit slurred.

“There’s a lot of things we could do for that…” said Joker, before drinking another shot and closing her eyes tightly, not used to the feeling of strong alcohol like this. She did drink sometimes, but vodka, that was something new for her. And at this point she was drunker than Jess was, after drinking less shots.

“We take care of our agents,” she continued, once she was able to get her bearings again after the last shot. “New York might be a big city but you don’t have people there making sure that your every wish is filled, do you?”

Joker took another shot from her plate and drank it but choked pretty much immediately, glancing at Ji to continue. She couldn’t exactly talk right now, she had bitten off a bit more than she could chew.

Shyla Hale

Shyla took another drag from her vapor pen at the mention of Aqua. “Ah, Aqua Schone… You don’t know the half of it when you say that she’s odd. At least, I don’t think you would know. It doesn’t seem like Kodiak has told you that much about what Hawk was like. Aqua was brought in at about the same time as me an her, but she was put through an experimental program to test alternate methods of granting powers. She was bonded with a dark spirit from the otherworld, which gave her some magic based abilities as well as her physical enhancements but resulted in her losing her mind.”

She paused, looking off in the distance as she remembered the past, and some of the pain that was involved with it. “Minerva… It’s hard for me to say enough good things about her. She was one of those people that burned brightly, even if it was for a short time. Picked Aqua up and helped put her back together. Kept some of the others from snapping, too. Minerva started off as the heart of the 33rd, but was forced into a role that she never wanted, leader, when the former unit CO was killed in action in Yemen. Happened out of the blue, no one could have saw it coming. The leadership came down to Minerva or Tali Couture, one of Kodiak’s best friends. In the end, it was Minerva that came out on top. From what I read on the reports, more of the squad preferred her, even if Minerva never saw herself as a leader.”

“The story of the two is also the story of how Kodiak ended here after the 33rd as we know it collapsed. Minerva was someone that a lot of the others inside and outside of the unit looked to as a savior, while Tali… Tali was Kodiak’s closest friend but she was never the same type as Minerva. Went through a lot at the hands of Hawk, she had… Well, from what I know they cut her open and implanted Swarm DNA, she managed to survive but getting increased attention from management didn’t help her. Just like Minerva saved Aqua from insanity, Kodiak kept Tali from going mad from it all. Especially when they practically tortured her during her training after the experiment,” she continued, taking some time to recall all the details.

“But the story of the unit, that ended with the two of them fighting. Not on paper right away, but it wasn’t a cohesive group. They had an altercation in China, Tali nearly killed Minerva and Kodiak is the only reason it didn’t happen. The next relevant thing to happen to the unit, the thing that was the death knell, was Minerva’s rebellion which caused Hawk to step in and.... That’s a story for another day. Tell me Sage, did Kodiak… Say anything about any of this? Do you think that any of this was related to the breakdown you saw?”

[Theyra]

Zekulu Alemu Nazwari

After talking with Alasdair, Zekulu made his way to his room to unpack. He did not bring alot, he just had what was needed for how long they would be in Sardinia. One thing he would take with him would be his camera. Zekulu always did like taking pictures and this place is bound to have great photo opportunities. Once he was done, he left the room and continued down to the lobby. Zekulu had his own plans for this vacation and since they were probably one of the few times that they would be on a break from missions. He intended to use this time to the fullest, starting with exploring the island. Since Alasdair was a no go, he guessed he would be exploring the island on his own. It would be nice if he found someone to explore with but, he was fine with doing it solo. He made one final check of the lobby for anyone that he might get to go with him. If he found no one then he would depart the hotel and explore the island in earnest.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Jack was wandering back to the hotel when he saw Zekulu standing in the lobby. Jack was feeling bored and more importantly, lonely. He'd run out of things to do, at least things he could think of. He approached him, walking at a casual speed with a smooth gait of a much smaller man.

"Hey Zekulu. Remember me? Jack? We were on the mission with the zombies together. Wanna head out with me? I hear there's a lot to do around here."

[Theyra]

Jack Dredd

Jack was wandering back to the hotel when he saw Zekulu standing in the lobby. Jack was feeling bored and more importantly, lonely. He'd run out of things to do, at least things he could think of. He approached him, walking at a casual speed with a smooth gait of a much smaller man.

"Hey Zekulu. Remember me? Jack? We were on the mission with the zombies together. Wanna head out with me? I hear there's a lot to do around here."

"Oh hi, uhhhh, wait I do remember you Jack". Zekulu snapped his finders upon remembering, "Yeah, we were on the same first mission together in New York City, I was just about to head out and explore the island myself". Zekulu reached down into his pocket and got out his camera. It was nothing fancy, a normal camera that was easy to put in his pockets. "I was also going to take some pics, they are bound to good locations for a great pic and I was wondering if I would explore those place solo. So yeah, let's head out and see what this place has to offer".

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

"Cool. Let's head out; if you're looking for a photo op, may I siggest the beaches? I saw them a bit earlier; absolutely beautiful."

Jack was happy. Off to explore, a friend by his side. Truly a dream after the batterings he'd taken the past month or two.

"Or, if you're hungry, I spotted a few decent looking restaurants?"

[Durmatagno]

Sage Shields

"Ahh, magic experimentation and abilities, now that...that I very much can understand. I have my younger sister to thank for having any mind at all, she's the only reason I'm not a mindless drone listening to every order thrown my way by the right people, let alone mad from the conditions. Anyway, not important right now, moving on."

Sage wasn't really in tune with her magic very well, she'd always preferred her physical abilities. She did practice sometimes with it, she did work on it, but it wasn't her best topic. She moved on, that wasn't the most important thing here. Instead, it was probably the mentions of this Minerva. She thought back to what she had seen, and kept the names in her head as straight as she could, which was straighter than you'd expect given the fractured state of her head. After listening to it all, she described in the best detail she could what she saw.

"It could be related, she was screaming for answers, and screaming tell me, but I don't know for sure. I caught the end of it, and before either of us could really process it all, the assassin struck."

Sage shunted aside that the only reason she'd met Kodiak before then was that Aqua had helped her completely break Kodiak's bed. Shyla didn't need to know about that. Sage force the thoughts aside, and scratched her head.

"Sorry I'm not more help, mostly we just talk about missions, training, that sort of thing. I do spar with her more than anyone else though."

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Apothecary and Park Ji-hye

"Hmm?" Ji made a somewhat confused sounding noise as she glanced up to Joker, having started to pile her empty shot glasses into a pyramid in front of her, already having downed three of her shots in extremely rapid succession, the fourth of her shot glasses sitting in front of her. She'd never drunk before, and she wasn't the largest person around, so needless to say she had zero idea how to handle alcohol at all.

"Oh, uh..." Ji paused, trying to think through the drunken haze of her mind for reasons to go to North Korea that weren't her usual ideological reasons since according to Joker those wouldn't work. Right, okay. She paused, holding up a hand as she downed her fourth shot, not coughing or choking like Joker. She'd been hardened against having such reactions as part of anti-interrogation training, after all.

"New York is... Many things, but its all so... Unstructured." Ji gestured vaguely, having no idea where she was exactly going with this, but rolling with it anyways, her voice noticeably slurred. "The Guardians or whoever paid you and you got sponsorship deals and uh, whatever, but-" She placed her final empty shot glass on the top of her pyramid, Gabriella beginning to move her own shot glasses into a taller pyramid next to Ji's. "There's no... Respect for the power. You can't just walk up to someone and tell them to do whatever and expect them to jump like their lives depended on it. Back home, power... Means more. They treat us pretty well, we get to order around everyone below us as long as we don't piss off the higher-ups, and since you're a merc that's only, like the Chairman himself."

"You tell people to jump and they ask where and how high." Ji continued. "They'll do whatever you damn well say. Your pay will be... High. Dunno how high, but high. You just have to suffer it not being bloody New York or some big city for some money and a few thousand people you can order shot or something..." Ji's voice trailed off as she crossed her arms on the bar and leaned down to rest her head on them, the alcohol finally having gotten to her head.

"I think they're both a... Tiny bit too drunk to negotiate." Gabriella pointed out dryly, shuffling her seven empty shot glasses around in front of her, having been downing them one by one as Ji talked. "And will probably be too hungover to negotiate tomorrow too, just to be fair to them. So what should we do with this pair of lightweights?"

[Forest State]

---

Interlude: Grey Alert

Post Soundtrack

"Desperate times breed desperate measures." - William Shakespeare

---

Air defense in Europe… It was a much more interesting job in the older days, back when there was always a standoff between NATO and the Soviets and the world wondered every day whether or not there would be a rain of nuclear fire. These days, it was a considerably more boring job. Tensions with Russia existed, but few believed that it would amount to something. Too much to lose over both sides and not enough to fight over. The issue over Ukraine had somehow moved from the forefront to the backburner an while there was always talk of Russia moving into the Balkans, most of it was simply propaganda and wild speculation.

And yet today, there was something out of the usual for those who were working air defense. Something that many of them hadn’t seen before, really… Since ever. They were watching an intercept taking place. But it wasn’t their jets doing the intercepting nor did they know what the target was. If the pings that they were getting back from their radars were correct then, well… The thing that was being intercepted wasn’t even something from within this world.

“I’m seeing two bandits, no, three bandits, two of them appear to be pursuing the third one. Radar signatures we’re getting back are showing them as… SW-7 Warhounds? Can you come take a look at this?” asked one of the soldiers within one of the many radar stations spread out across Europe.

“You know that’s a Swarm interceptor, right? Don’t yank our chains-”

“I’m not the one yanking your chain, blame the radar if it’s not right. It’s coming up on the screen as two SW-7s along with an unknown radar signature,” the soldier said, gesturing to the screen where three symbols were moving rapidly among the other clutter that filled the sky, including civilian flights that were considerably slower.

The radar screen was suddenly crowded around by others as they came to confirm what was being seen, and unless it was a malfunction, they were indeed watching a pair of Swarm interceptors following an unknown bandit with a strange radar signature. “By God…” muttered the highest ranking officer in the room, gesturing to one of the others. “Get on the phone with the other radars, see if they’re seeing this too-”

That phone was already ringing by the time someone went for it. After it was picked up, it was confirmed quickly that they were indeed looking at this and that it wasn’t just a malfunction in the radar system. “Let’s report this and wait for orders.”

They worked on sending a message back to their higher ups and waiting for orders, while the Swarm interceptors were still in the area of sky that they were assigned to look over, and returned to looking at the radar. The third vessel, that wasn’t one that belonged to the Swarm, at least not unless the Swarm had made major changes in their design ideas which changed the way that it showed up on radar. Unlikely. They had a specific school of design, really, that wasn’t deviated from very often. “The hell are we looking at here? What’s that third ship?” asked someone, pointing to the third item on the radar.

“No clue, either the Swarm have something new up their sleeve or there’s more out there than we thought,” said someone else, as the interceptors and the unknown bandit grew closer to the Patriot battery. “We going to fire on them? I think we can assume that the Swarm are hostile-”

---

---

“Like a PAC-3 is going to do shit against a long range interceptor from the Swarm. They’ll just outrun it, maybe evade it, it’s not going to do anything. Better to not draw their attention and have them on us instead of whatever the hell it is that they’re following,” someone of a higher rank stated.

There was a bit of a silence as they looked at the screen. Meanwhile, their message had been passed through to the nearest airbase, who in turn was passing it along to their regional command and asking for orders on what to do. “GREY ALERT, NORTHERN ITALY AND AUSTRIA. THREE BANDITS, TWO CONFIRMED AS SW-7 WARHOUND TYPES, ONE UNKNOWN. ALL THREE BANDITS EASTBOUND, HEADED TOWARDS RENATICO COMMAND AND CONTROL CENTER. SCRAMBLE TYPHOON SQUADRON TO ENGAGE BANDITS?” the message read when it came across, at the Ramstein airbase where the orders were sent down to the regional branches.

Little did they know, though, that the chase would be over before they could make that decision.

***

Desperation was a great motivator.

Many things through history had been achieved because one side had their back to the wall and had no other option but to reach inwards and come out with something that had been thought of as impossible in the past. The Soviets had defeated Germany in World War Two even after being defeated in the initial push, and sent back for miles and miles behind their original lines. The war in Afghanistan had been drawn out for longer than it had to last, because of the desperation of the defending party and the fact that they had no comfortable life to fall back on. Humanity had somehow survived the Swarm, a foe with better weapons and a seemingly endless supply of forces.

The foe that had no name and that couldn’t be reasoned with. The same foe that, right now, was showing up again and chasing after a target that was wholly unrelated to the conflict between themselves and the humans. But the thing that the opponent had this time, just like the humans had possessed during the fight with the Swarm?

Desperation.

There was a lot at stake here. Ideas such as freedom, a noble bloodline, and fighting back against tyranny. The Swarm didn’t need this victory, even if they were indeed hoping that they won. Their opposition, on the other hand, needed the win here as badly as they needed to breath. That was to say, it was quite possible they would cease being if they managed to lose here. And that was possibly the best motivator there was.

“We need to get these interceptors off our tail right now!” shouted the person sitting in the seat next to the pilot, staring at a radar screen that showed the enemy getting closer and closer, before changing tones as there was a lock.

“And how the fuck do you suggest we do that?” asked the pilot, turning his head briefly to look at the one giving the order, and then back to what was in front of them. “We can’t beat them in a climb, we can’t beat them in a dive-”

“Then we beat them side to side, it’s not like an interceptor can turn with us.”

“Not going to stop a fucking missile.”

“It’s fucking something.”

The radar tone changed to show that a missile had launched and the heavy spaceplane went into a hard banking turn that could have ripped the wings straight off from the G forces if the pilot behind the controls wasn’t so skilled. He was soon flying in the complete opposite direction of the interceptors, knowing they would have a slower turning circle because of their high speed, and descending towards the ground to try and gain speed and outrun the missile that was still on their tail. But the thing is, the missile was faster than the interceptors. “I did my part, you’re going to have to come up with something on your own here.”

The warrior in the co-pilot seat closed her eyes to think, at which point the pilot spoke again. “And you’re going to need to come up with it fast.”

“Shut up, I’m working on it.”

“And there’s a missile that’s gaining on us with every second you spend doing that.”

She closed her eyes once again. “I’ll come up with something,” she said, reaching out with her abilities, feeling herself becoming one with the world around her and then… She reached further outwards, with her ability rather than her physical body. If there was one thing her people were good at other than fighting, it was with messing with the metaphysical. Right now, they needed her skill with the metaphysical more than anything.

The reality around them ripped and tore and they blinked in and out of existence, as they continued their downward path while being chased by the missile. That missile slammed into the right engine and caused quite a large fire, but one shot wasn’t enough to destroy the vessel. Suddenly, the radar changed again. The second missile was fired and they would only have a short time to do anything before it hit them and potentially took them out of the sky. The warrior opened her eyes. It was now or never. She pushed herself, pushed her abilities, as far as they would go and hoped for the best as the sky in front of them shifted to black, and the entire world seemed to fall out from under them. They were both traveling at hundreds of miles per hour and standing completely still in that one instant, where time both passed and was frozen.

She let out a yell as she strained herself. Doing this wasn’t pleasant. It was painful. It might kill her. But if she wasn’t willing to die for her prince, what was the point of this entire thing? A warrior didn’t stop fighting when there was still something left to do. When there was a way out, a true warrior took it even if it was at the cost of themselves. She didn’t hesitate. Especially when there was a good chance she would die even if she didn’t attempt what she was trying now.

The world around them changed from the black that it had been before, as the vessel jumped out in a completely new direction, following the reality tear which had allowed them to get out of trouble. While trouble might still be lurking, they now found themselves over… Sardinia? The warrior han’t been thinking of where she was making the reality jump to, when she did it. It was just a move of desperation, to survive. And she could tell herself, honestly, that whatever happened next, she had done her best. She’d tried to help them survive. She’d taken them hundreds of miles away from the danger. The rest, that was in their hands.

***

“Seya… Seya, you need to wake up… Seya!”

Seya opened her eyes once again and sat up to a sitting position, reaching to her side for her extendable spear and then remembering that she didn’t have it on er. She reached down with her other hand, her left, and it touched the pistol that was in its holster. But the person in front of her wasn’t a hostile, and she realized that and moved her hand away from her weapon, bowing her head slightly as she looked up at the person.

Prince Jurei was safe and that was the only thing that mattered right now. She stood up and bowed fully to her prince, who was standing in front of her and trying to get her to get up from where she had been knocked out, blood running from her nose because of the stress she had put on herself. “We’re detonating the wreck to make sure that there’s no information that gets back to the enemy, you’ve gotta come on,” Jurei said, and Seya blushed slightly, somewhat embarrassed that she had been knocked out by the use of her powers.

“Right. On it,” she said, running towards the hatch and jumping seven something feet to the ground, since they had landed at an odd angle and the rear part of the vessel was at an odd angle. The front of the cockpit had caved in, which left Seya wondering how they had survived. “Did we… Go to the back before I passed out?”

“We did the thing with the best chance to survive, the computer landed the ship for the most part.”

And then she remembered the pilot, and her heart picked up as she wondered what happened. Had he been in the front when the nose was caved in completely?

“Um… Hasarei?” she asked, looking around, at which point she heard a voice coming from behind her.

“Right here,” said Hasarei, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to detonate this wreck and move out of here, we just had to get you out first. I’m headed back in to help Jurei rig things, you can stand guard here and make sure that you tell us if you hear anyone approaching…”

Seya nodded resolutely. “If that’s what Jurei wants me to do,” she started, looking around and seeing that they were in a clearing with nothing really around them for… Awhile. Which wasn’t the best spot for them to be. Not when they were being actively hunted and when the people of this world would soon be on them and wondering just what the hell was going on.

“I’d appreciate it,” called Jurei, from the wreck, and Hasarei moved to climb back up the wreckage and into the back of the ship, which was still intact. They’d have to make sure the black box was completely destroyed to avoid showing the Swarm where they had come from. But would they be able to do that before they drew attention, from the Swarm or elsewhere?

That… That was the question.

---

[Forest State]

Shyla Hale

“The fact that she was screaming for answers makes sense. The fact of the matter is that she doesn’t know everything. I would tell you the full truth but I don’t even think I can do that because, well, you see, I’m looking to protect her. And I don’t know you all that well and know how well you can keep a secret. I can tell you everything, but there’s a chance that you let it slip and you end up telling Kodiak something that she… Doesn’t remember. She’s had her memories messed with, altered, had things removed that she still hasn’t remembered to this day. And I suspect that she will eventually let them resurface, but for now, a lot of things are hidden,” Shyla continued.

“Someone once said… ‘Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together in new shapes of your choosing.’ Hawk has mastered that idea. As long as you’re a member of Hawk, you can never assume that you have any real power, regardless of how much it seems like you have at the current moment,” she said. “Your memories, they can be removed or altered if they hurt the organization. Your desires, they can be.. Changed, to make you more loyal. Your thoughts, hopes, and dreams, crushed. Through technology, not just brainwashing. And if that doesn’t work, you might just find yourself shot.”

“There’s another important quote, one which Hawk has adopted and that they’ve made their most important members memorize. Something along the lines of this.‘Power is collective… The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. The slogan ‘freedom is slavery’, it’s reversible. Slavery is freedom. Alone, the human mind is always defeated. Every human will die. But if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal…’ These are words that Hawk lives by and you can see them in the way that they operate. Some manage to survive it, like Kodiak. Others, like Minerva, burn too brightly and are snuffed out. Really, Hawk messing with memories isn’t even the half of it.”

She put away her vapor pen and went for her phone, finding the right picture and gesturing towards Sage to come closer. She showed her what Kodiak’s old team had looked like, as they stood in front of a camera for a picture in what appeared to be a Middle Eastern country, wearing casual clothes that mostly consisted of jeans and cargo pants, and tee shirts as well as a couple of tank tops. “In order… Empress, Hellcat, Phantom, Pitbull, Kurfurst, Halfpint, and Scribe. You’ll recognize Phantom as Kodiak and Kurfurst as Aqua. And Hellcat… Hellcat is Minerva. Was Minerva,” Shyla pointed out, gesturing at the one who was standing proudly near the front of the photo, with all the confidence in the world.

She seemed to tower over both Kodiak and Empress, but she had a hand on both of their shoulders and she seemed close to them. She had a bright smile on her face. It was like she really was the heart of the team. There was a bit of a contrast in the picture, though, with Pitbull glancing to the side somewhat awkwardly as she stood almost by herself, hands in her pocket and looking off while the others looked into the camera. A minor thing, but something to be noted nonetheless. “And Minerva tended to put others before herself. Even when it costed her in the end because she tried to make a new life not just for herself, but for Kodiak and her friends.”

“Kodiak really loved her but… I don’t think she remembers her now. Or if she does, she doesn’t know how it ended. I’m not going to be the one to tell her, nor am I going to tell you, since you might let it slip. Aqua might know but, I think Aqua is on my side with this one. What Kodiak doesn’t know… Can’t hurt her. And I would hate for Kodiak to get hurt again after everything that she’s been through,” Shyla finished, with a sigh. “Someday, me and the JFU will avenge everything me and her suffered with them. For now, we just have to try getting through the days and not letting it get to us.”

---

Jessamyn "Heartbreaker" Easton-Roux and Chae-won "Joker" Ryeon

“So what you’re saying is that we’re going to be the biggest fish in the pond,” said Jess, drunk after finishing her shots but not nearly as bad as Ji and Joker were. Joker was, well, getting shitfaced already, after her fourth shot, and she was slightly slumped over as she tried to stay up and keep herself from falling forward on the bar counter. Still, that was surely going to be a losing battle, she was holding out for now but she didn’t know how long that was going to last before she gave in and just let herself collapse.

“Yeah,” she muttered, but mutteed was a bit of an overstatement. Whispered was more like it. She couldn’t talk that well right now, she wondered if she was going to throw up this quickly. Was that possible? Was she just very weak when it came to alcohol?

“I say we go with what they want,” said Jess, to Gabriella, stretching and looking back towards her partner. “But I’m not signing shit, at least not until we’re actually there and we’ve seen everything. As far as verbal agreements go, though… I’m in. It’s not like I can go back to New York anyway, I kind of have heat there right now,” she said. “Now, about where to go next… We could always head back to the hotel and continue the party there, the North Koreans did say they would be giving us a good time and I don’t think this qualifies enough.”

[Triassica]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

"Now it really sounds like a really terrible place." Andrew added with a big frown as he listened further to Sophia's description of her home town, "I don't do well in cold places. Snakes don't like the cold at all either. We always have to stay indoors when winter comes with the heat lamps on at all times. Ectothermic, I think they call it, being unable to be in the cold The cold will kill me and my snake friends."

Andrew nodded Sophia's offer as they took the key and felt bad for her when she explained her sleeping habits. Part of his mind nagged at him to let her sleep on the bed should there be only one. After all, regardless of room division, it would be awkward sharing a bed with a stranger, especially a girl . Luckily, however, when they arrived at the room 39, Andrew smiled upon, through the eyes of Rango, finding exactly two beds as needed.

Andrew walked over to his side of the room and plopped on the bed on his side of the room. With a grin, he relaxed himself, especially his arms, and suddenly several snakes slithered from the sleeves and inner pockets in his light jacket. "Hmmmm... Very comfy bed with warm soft sheets." he said, brushing his scaly green fingers along the bed, "There's heater by the bed. Could put the temp up as we're aren't going to have a heat lamp, don't you think, Sophia?"

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Apothecary

"I... Don't think either of them are in much of a state to witness us signing shit anyways." Gabriella said slowly, carefully enunciating each word as she leaned forwards, resting her chin on her hand. She was... Slightly drunk, well, more than slightly, she'd just gotten very, very good at covering up precisely how drunk she was at any given time. It wouldn't do to have her be seen lurching all over the place or vomiting in public or something like that.

"And I'd follow you anywhere, but..." She glanced to the slumped-over form of Ji next to her, who gave her a strange-looking glare. "Hauling this pair back to the hotel seems like a good first step. Don't want to let this pair of... Drunkards get themselves arrested for being, well, drunkards. They can't exactly show us a good time or pay us or anything at all from the inside of a jail cell."

She stood up, slightly unsteady on her feet as she pulled Ji up. "Come on, short-ass, let's get you somewhere else where you can shake off your inability to drink any decent amount of alcohol..." She shook her head disapprovingly. "Four shots, really..."

---

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

"You can if you want." Sophia shrugged dismissively, throwing her duffel bag down unceremoniously next to her bed. "I've slept through blizzards before, outside, and next to an engine. Heat and cold don't bother me until they start literally trying to kill me so I'm not going to touch it." You learned to ignore small discomforts like that living on the streets of wherever you ended up last. There were normally more immediate issues to worry about than comfort like not starving to death.

"Also, what is a heat lamp?" She seemed honestly confused as she flopped down onto her bed, sliding her hands behind her head. "Heat is from like radiators, not lamps. Aren't those for light?"

[Triassica]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

"Heat lamps are what you use to keep reptiles, like snakes and myself, nice and comfy when they're not in their proper environment." Andrew answered, his snakes looking at Sophia while his own eyes hidden by his sunglasses glanced down at the floor, "I don't know how they work compared to regular light-bulbs, but they make my bedroom a whole lot warmer than a normal room, even with a radiator. Nice and toasty and so relaxing for my bones."

The snake man stretched and swung his arms out, relaxing his joints with a satisfied grin, groaning a little with a growl from his stomach. "So... now that we have our room all set, shall we go take a look around?" he asked, summoning Rango onto his shoulder, the other snakes sprawled along his bed, "I'm starving. Perhaps the hotel has a place for us to eat? Snakes are hungry, too. Are our bags here, yet? I brought a whole bunch of packed rats they like."

[Forest State]

Jessamyn "Heartbreaker" Easton-Roux

“It’s still pretty early in the night, we’re at a club and we haven’t even hit the dance floor yet,” complained Jess, standing up. “But I guess you’re right when you say they’re not going to be able to do anything when they’re drunk. My fangirl over here looks like she’s going to pass out from four shots. Not going to lie, it’s a little disappointing.”

She lifted Joker up and didn’t give her that much warning or time to adjust, dragging her after Gabriella and Ji and holding onto her arm to make sure that she didn’t fall, which was something of a precarious situation when Joker was nearly tripping over her feet with every step. But getting dragged along by one of her idols? That was worth it for Joker, even if she wished she was more sober so she could be sure that she’d remember it.

“Don’t move too fast,” Joker muttered as she tried not to trip, but she wasn't going to complain too much in this situation. She just didn’t really want to faceplant and embarrass herself in front of the person that she looked up to.

They had to cut through the dancing area and avoid running into anyone, and they were standing on the street once again and were only a quick ride away from getting back to the moderately fancy hotel where they were staying under alias. Jess kept her mask on for now… It drew attention but the last thing she needed was to get sighted here in Dubai with her actual face out.

“We can ride back or walk back, your choice, but I don’t think the others are going to be walking very far,” Jess said, glancing towards Gabriella.

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Apothecary

"Tell me about it." Gabriella rolled her eyes as she adjusted her grip on Ji, holding up the smaller and much lighter woman easily with just one arm. "No dancing, we aren't even properly drunk like these two-" She poked Ji lightly in the chest, who didn't react, either not registering it or simply not bothering to. "But it isn't surprising, I doubt they get much alcohol back in North Korea."

As they began to walk, Ji placed an arm over her shoulder to hold herself up, walking slowly and unsteadily even with Gabriella's help. Ji didn't complain, or really mind, if anything she was mentally berating herself for drinking too much so that she wasn't able to fight. Even now her mind was still thinking of combat readiness, nothing else. It was what had been drilled into her.

They waded across the dancing area, Gabriella holding her free arm out in front of her to guide people out of their way, flicking a brief glance behind her to make sure Joker and Jess were following them, and then the pair of them stumbled out onto the street. Gabriella pulled her mask up, revealing her face and placing the mask over her forehead.

"Yeah, we'll catch a ride." Gabriella nodded towards Jess. "These two aren't walking anywhere, and we don't need the cops arresting them thinking they're just drunken Asian tourists."

---

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

"Ah." Sophia said. She didn't really have much else to say, and she didn't really have any experience with animals of any kind, never having had pets. There weren't even rats on Norilsk, too cold and barren even for rodents to survive with humans around, so she tended to just ignore them unless they started annoying her for whatever reason.

"In order-" She said, rolling over to unzip her duffel bag. She traveled light as a rule, old habits died hard. If it didn't go in one bag, it didn't come. "You can, but I don't really see the point in being here since I spend all my time being lazy anyways. It's just a different place to be lazy in." And with more people around. "Probably, if not there's a whole city out there for food. I only brought one, but yours should probably be in a pile in the lobby or something. And you can feed your snakes rats or whatever when I'm not around." She shivered slightly as she rolled back over. "I'm a fairly tough person but there's some things I'd rather not see if I had any damn choice in the matter."