Heroes of Tomorrow Redux [IC | DONE]

[Lunas Legion]

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

"Совет, а не приказ, псих." Sophia muttered, rubbing her ear, glaring after Kodiak. It was tempting, oh so sorely tempting, to just use her power, twist space and watch her walk through the spatial equivalent of a cheese grater but they'd probably throw her out or execute her or something, and her brother wouldn't want that. She had to keep living for both of their sakes, after all.

She eventually reached the end of the hallway, kicking aside the carcasses of the hellhound-things that had jumped them earlier as she walked and climbing back up the ladder and emerging back into the barn.

"Blyat." She swore as she turned around, looking out through the barn's open doors outside. It was like the sky was a cracked pane of glass, pink something leaking and oozing through, bolts of energy raining down like hailstones. Well, she knew how to deal with stuff like this easily enough, it was kind-of the sole thing she was good for really.

Space twisted and distorted in a long thin line, a roof held up by nothing, the pink light from the not-glass-cracks twisted around in the distorted space of her bubble as she strolled out of the barn, a smug look on her face as she walked.

[Forest State]

Lex Reges
Collab with Lunas Legion

As they stood by the fountain and it displayed the images of the fire that was raining down from the sky outside of the compound where Soli's physical body was being held, Cori continued to walk back and forth in a pacing pattern, gesturing towards it as she waved her hand, changing the images playing on the water to those of an American city, a rather large one, Chicago. "Since you claim to care so much about this world, and the people that are in it... Or maybe because you don't acknowledge my threat and you overestimate yourself... Let me deliver a warning shot to show you what you're up against," she said.

She extended her hand, as if she was exerting influence over the waters and the picture that was projected onto them, and the sky changed in Chicago. Turned darker. Stormclouds appeared.

But this wasn't a regular storm. She muttered in a language that Soli wouldn't understand, stared into the waters as her eyes flashed when she used her power in a way that Soli hadn't seen her do before. Her body began to change, her eyes changing into their true pink color rather than what they had been before, and her body getting covered in a layer of what seemed like dark energy, nine wings sprouting from her back at the same time, with one of them rising above her and the other three split evenly between both sides of her.

Wind displaced the dust and pebbles around them as the transformation took place, and Soli would have to fight to not lose her balance because of it. It was clear that something big was happening. "Trigger... Hellstorm," she spoke more clearly, once the transformation was complete. The picture changed once again. To one of complete destruction, as reality itself was teared thousands of miles away, to allow for the Rift to break through.

There was nothing Soli could do but watch, really. No sound left her mouth, no denial, no snark, her only reaction seemingly being a twitch of her eyes as she watched.

"Does it really mean that much to you?" Soli's voice was a near-whisper as she spoke, shaking slightly as she fought to keep her balance in the winds. "Whatever... The family's mysterious goal is."

"Unlike you, I've always followed my duties. It doesn't just mean that much to me, I would say that there's nothing else that means anything near that much to me," said Cori, stopping her pacing as she continued focusing her energy on the pool. The images were those of projectiles raining down from the sky, massive amounts of Rift energy being discharged from the newly formed tears in the sky, and overall... It was apocalyptic. Like watching a city get nuked, but instead of one blast, it was happening over a period of time, each tear in the sky spitting out more energy and making the condition worse.

"I didn't betray my family for the outside world," she added, walking back around until she was behind her sister, drawing a long blade made from darkness from seemingly thin air. "And while you may not believe that you betrayed anything, I can assure you that you're the only one that feels that way."

"Perhaps, perhaps not." Soli shrugged, her voice wavering as she watched the scene of destruction before her, not turning around to face Cori, eyes locked forwards.. "I've never known anything but the outside world, and... I kind-of like it, or at least where I'm in it currently. Shaitan, well... She isn't the most talkative person around. Or the type of person you ask questions to. I didn't even know you existed, or even that I had any duties to... Attend to."

She fell silent, shutting her eyes, forming her thoughts into words. "Betrayal by neglect, neglect by absence, absence by lack of knowledge. A stretch, and a bit warped at least in my head, sister, but I'll concede it's logical." Twisted and warped, but logical. "Maybe if you'd shown up a few years earlier I'd have jumped at the chance." She added. "But I know hardly anything about you, about our family, or, well, anything at all, so would you care to enlighten me?"

"It's a bit too late for that my dear sister, isn't it? Your friends are finally here after all. If you can even call them friends, considering your presence is going to continue to put them in danger. Because you see, the thing is... How do I put this... If you're not with me, that makes us enemies by default. And you've seen my power already, or rather, you're seeing it right now," said Cori, bringing the sword closer to Soli's back. "So know that if you're going back with them when you wake up, you're making yourself an enemy. And I won't hesitate to destroy any of them when the time comes."

She stabbed the sword through Soli, but this time, she allowed it to 'kill' Soli within the pocket dimension, causing her mind to snap back to her physical body which was in Missouri, being carried by Alyx. Cori cursed to herself as she stood alone, watching the fake 'body' fall into the fountain that was still displaying images of Chicago. She had made some progress but... She hadn't had enough time. And now, the Guardians had taken back the person that she was after.

She could go to war with the Guardians over this... But it was too soon for that, wasn't it? No, when things shifted from limited war to open war, they would have their day. For now, she would leave Soli with a warning shot. A warning shot that saw one of the largest cities in the United States left in ruin.

And then, Soli was back in reality, feeling herself being carried by... Someone as her body shook slightly in motion. She couldn't tell who, everything ached and hurt and she couldn't even open her eyes or say anything, instead just letting out a pained groan, shifting around slightly in the arms of whoever was carrying her to get slightly more comfortable. She, well... She had a lot to think about and to ponder when she was safe.

[Lunas Legion]

Ashley Bryens and Sayfeshr

"I could have killed them all, you know."

The pair of them stood around a car parked on the tarmac of Abu Dhabi as they watched the VTOL that the Young Guardians had arrived on vanish into the brilliant blue sky.

"Yeah." Ash nodded, taking a long puff of a cigarette. Normally he didn't smoke, but after this last mission, well, old habits had resurfaced. Omar had vanished off into the desert as planned, Ash handing his Saudi minder a large wadge of cash as they departed the FOB. Corruption and bribery was useful sometimes after all, and the Saudi government was no stranger to such things.

They'd made good time back to Abu Dhabi, and then he'd all but shoo'd the Young Guardians onto their VTOL, eager to get them away from him and his part of the world before they did anything else. Omar had shown up a few hours later, and the three of them were reunited once more, only for Omar to soon leave after getting some advice from him on metahuman mercenary work, leaving just him and the kid. He'd never gotten married, and now he had a kid to look after.

God, what had his life come to?

"It'd be so eeeeeeasy..." Sayfeshr continued, kicking the backs of her feet as she sat on the roof of the car. "Boop. Just... Grab the strings, and crunch." She made a crushing gesture towards the vanishing speck of the VTOL. "And then wheeeeeee.... Boom." She made a crashing gesture with her other hand. "But mother said I shouldn't pull the strings on people or near people or just don't pull the strings."

"Your mother knew her stuff." Ash nodded. "Your father was a ballsy man, lying to us like that. Really played everything well. Even if we'd had a telepath or something, Sheba would've eliminated them revealing that ruse. He really loved you."

"Yeah..." Sayfeshr's voice was sad as she looked off into the distance. "I'll avenge him. And mother." She made another crunching gesture with her hand. "I'll kill them. And their families. And tribes and clans and cities and-" Sayfeshr's face scrunched up in confusion. "Whatever's bigger than that."

"Not while I'm around, kid." Ash grunted. "Your mother told me to look after you."

"You're old." She pointed out with brutal honesty, Ash mock-wincing.

"Yeah." He wouldn't be around to keep her in check for ever. And when he did finally die, well.

That would be a problem for the Guardians when she, and they were older.

[Forest State]

---

Jiayiang Meng and Mari Easton-Roux
Collab with Lunas Legion

---

The MAB had what they wanted. It was impressive, really. They had taken the daughter of one of the most well known Guardians heroes around, someone who was quite arrogant naturally, and quite stubborn, and they had managed to crack her in only three days, transforming her from someone who refused every demand for a confession to someone that was ready to say exactly what they wanted. Jiayiang Meng was standing at the edge of the room as one armed guard injected Mari with the power dampening drug and let her free from her restraints, having her sit down on a couch in what was set up as a mock living room.

It was pretty homey. It had everything a decent hotel room would have. A couch, a coffee maker and a stove, a television on the other side of the room from the couch. However, the nice look of the room contrasted with how worn out Mari was from the last days, even if they had given her a fresh orange jumpsuit to wear instead of the clothes that she had arrived in China with. As Meng watched, someone set up a camera tripod in front of the couch while Mari was guided there.

"You aren't going to read something off a paper," Meng said, a finger on her own chin as she leaned against the wall and watched the setup. "No, you're going to come up with these lines yourself. Makes it much easier to sell the authenticity to the audience when they watch it."

Mari said nothing, just nodding in silent, defeated acknowledgement towards Meng as she sat down on the couch, placing her hands on her lap before looking down at the floor.

"Say when you're starting." Her voice was tired and weary, completely unlike her usual arrogant, brash tone.

Meng growled, moving to the edge of the room where the couch was and lifting Mari up, a bit forcibly by her hair, as she forced her to face her and look into her eyes. "Look alive. Unless you want to go back to where you were before, you hear me? You're near the end of the line. Don't make it longer for yourself," she said, warning the girl against her apathetic and tired tone. "Unless you can win over people that this is authentic, everything will have been a waste. And if that happens, we'll make sure that you never get home again."

Mari simply nodded, but for someone that'd been put through what she'd been put through, from where she'd come from and what she'd been used to before, it was difficult to muster up any energy at all, really.

"You can do retakes as many times as you like, can't you? I'll do it until you're happy it's authentic. A few more minutes is nothing compared to days. Just tell me when to start, I've figured out what I'm saying. Mostly." Her voice was more determined, still slightly tired, but it was less obvious.

The answer wasn't completely satisfying, but Meng seemed to accept it without doing anything further to Mari. She did, however, turn her to face the cameras without letting go of the grip on her hair. There was a camera man behind the main camera with a DSLR, who raised it and took a picture as Meng flashed a peace sign with her right hand, posing as she held her 'trophy' with the left. After putting in this much work on this case, she might as well have something to remember it with. "Send me that one," Meng remarked, dropping Mari back to the couch and stepping out of the frame of the shot while remaining close.

"Fix your hair up," she ordered, waiting before looking back to the main camera man, who was capturing a shot of the coffee table, the couch, and then Mari. Two things that looked very normal and then someone who was obviously not in normal condition. "Take one... Five... Four.... Three... Two... One. And action."

She gave a hand signal and the cameraman pushed the record button, with all of the eyes in the room going to Mari pretty quickly.

"Well. Can't say I expected to end up on TV in this situation, but here I am." Mari smiled slightly at the camera, being put into a situation she normally thrived under seemingly having recalled ingrained instincts back to the surface. "For those of you who don't recognise me, I'm Mariam Easton-Roux. You probably know me better as Mari or Trailblazer though, or just as the eldest daughter of the Easton-Roux family. Regardless, that's largely irrelevant here and now. I'm here to confess to attempting, and failing, to conduct espionage and distribution of seditious materiel against the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China and the Metahuman Affairs Buerau, on behalf of the Guardians."

"I attempted to smuggle a microphone with the intent of bugging a location to obtain intelligence from, and dissident materials to distribute amongst the populace." She continued, eyes not wavering from the camera.

"Obviously, I was caught during my act of espionage, and to avoid prolonging a situation in which I was quite obviously guilty, I was allowed to confess to all the aforementioned crimes, which I do so in full and without any reservation." She fell silent, glancing briefly towards Meng. She thought she'd covered everything there, but she was slightly terrified she'd simply forgotten something.

"Cut," said Meng, and the recording stopped once the confession had been gained. She walked over to the camera, looking at the playback and listening to it, and deciding that it was decent enough to keep. They would soon distribute it to the news companies of the world, and to the United States and the Guardians particularly, as Mari's country and organization respectively. She turned after stating that she was satisfied, and looked back towards Mari.

"And now that you're done filming... We don't have to worry about keeping you in the best state."

She approached Mari and pulled back for a punch right to the middle of the face, one that was strong enough to knock her out cold so they could carry her back to the holding area while they waited for the Americans to call and negotiate for her release. Nobody had said that this would be a clean job... They had achieved what they wanted. But that didn't mean Meng was afraid to get her hands dirty.

Served the arrogant hero right, anyway. Now that she had finally experienced pain and struggle, she could have a healthy dose of it.

---

工资奴隶
Guangdong, China

127 PEOPLE LIKED THIS POST

Unsurprising that the Guardians attempted espionage against China, this organization has always been run by imperialists attempting to spread their influence over foreign countries! #MariConfession

HumbleTruthSeeker
Proxy

645 PEOPLE LIKED THIS POST

If you need more evidence that the Guardians are part of a New World Order, look no further than the Easton-Roux confession. What business does an organization meant to protect the public have committing espionage against its host nations? It's almost like the Guardians are of the tribe. #MariConfession

Guardians Official
Angel's Village

755K PEOPLE LIKED THIS POST

We can officially confirm that Mari Easton-Roux is being sent back to Angel's Village by Chinese commercial flight, after negotiations between China, the United States, and the Guardians have succeeded. We ask that in this time, the privacy of Mari and her family is respected. Thank you.

Anonymous Boomer
Proxy

572 PEOPLE LIKED THIS POST

Can't believe so many people are falling for Chinese tricks, the MAB is known to construct evidence and somehow you fools think the Mari confession wasn't forced, very sad. Will be praying for this girl and her family. #MariConfession

Serge Easton-Roux
Abu Dhabi

845K PEOPLE LIKED THIS POST

Sometimes bad people get what bad people deserve.

[Lunas Legion]

Shanghai Hustle Part III
A Collab With Forest State and Vanquaria

Downtown Shanghai

"FUCK!" Sun shouted, the smell of blood distinct and pervasive, assaulting his senses with ease. His face contorted into a fiercesome expression, the immediate threat of death awakening his primal instinct to stay alive. He pushed past the others to the front and extended his arm, an arc of bright blue, crackling electricity shooting out of his hands towards the gunwoman.

The woman moved with reflexes that matched her inhuman looks, getting out of the way quite quickly and easily as she backed away and went back around the corner where she had peered from in the first place. As that happened, Atom accelerated forward and turned to Sun as he passed, telling him to get away. "Go, head in the other direction and I'll handle this attacker," he said, before making the turn around the corner and giving chase.

At the same time, Jess pushed herself up and off of Gabriella and looked down at her for a moment before moving to pick up Ursula from the ground, where she was losing blood quickly. "You owe me," she said to Gabriella, heaving Ursula onto her shoulder and starting in the direction opposite of the one Atom had gone in.

"I'm going to put her down in the elevator and we'll head to ground floor, it's not safe up here. You might be able to examine her while we're on the way there," she added, looking to Gabriella as they went towards the elevator at the end of the hall.

Gabriella said nothing, simply nodding in acknowledgement towards Jess as she pushed herself up off the floor, following her down the hallway, away from where the attackers had been.

"Power's out, elevators won't be working." Gabriella shook her head as she ran. "We'll have to take the stairs, but we can probably stop in one of the stairwells and I can give her a once-over. Won't be able to fix her completely, but I can patch her up. You'll, um, have to punch me or something though. Hard. My powers don't work unless I've been hurt."

Nodding as Atom pursued the assailant, Sun restrained himself, closing his palms where his magic circles had been etched. He wordlessly accompanied the other Guardians, with Ursula injured he felt nerves run through his body, their enemy had the ability to incapacitate veterans like her...so who knows what other things they could be capable of.

"Son of a bitch," Jess muttered, pressing the button on the elevator and seeing that Gabriella was right. Nothing happened, and they would indeed have to take the stairs when they were a good twenty floors up, maybe higher. It was hard for her to remember the exact number off the top of her head during the heat of the moment like this, after being shot at not even minutes ago. The entire situation... It was just surreal.

She turned to Gabriella after she requested that she punch her or something. There wasn't time to argue, and so she just did it, setting Ursula down and throwing her leg up for a front kick that would catch Gabriella on the side of the jaw and hurt plenty. Not a punch, but she had always wanted to do it to someone and it would hurt plenty. "Masochist powers, huh? Seems like some joke from a higher power," she said, heaving Ursula back onto her shoulder.

"You're telling me." Gabriella grumbled, rubbing the side of her jaw as she placed a hand on Ursula briefly. It wasn't much time to work, but she did what little she could for a wound of the size Ursula had suffered before Jess hauled her back onto her shoulder. "Has its perks though. More it hurts, more pain I can take. Get me rolling and I'm unstoppable." She added as Jess hauled Ursula back onto her shoulder.

"You might get hurt more than this if current trends keep up," Jess remarked, before starting down the stairs. They would have to think about Ursula later, it wasn't safe right here. Not when they had just been shot at just before now, and they didn't know how many enemies there were. She waited for them to get down a few flights, before placing Ursula down in the stairwell. "You going to be able to do anything or is this pointless?"

"Keep her alive and stable, yes." Gabriella nodded, kneeling down besides Ursula and placing her hands onto her hips to use her biokinesis on her, effectively biologically welding the more dangerous parts of her wound shut with a rushed patch-job. "Conscious, fuck no. Brains are messy, so I'm afraid you'll still have to lug her useless ass around." She continued talking even as she used her power. "Say if you hear anything and we'll run."

Jess focused inward on all of the anxiety and tension of the situation and allowed herself to charge up her power with it, holding a ball of energy in her hand as she channeled the emotion into her abilities and stood behind Gabriella, watching in the direction they had come from as the energy provided some light in the dark hallway. "Tell me when you're done," she said. "I'll keep watch... And try to hold off anyone who shows their face here."

"Thanks, although I'll probably have to fix her up better once we're not about to die by whoever." Gabriella replied, turning her focus back to Ursula. Healing people was a long process under ideal conditions, and these most certainly not ideal conditions. It was hard to focus, so she found herself double-checking everything she did as she essentially forced Ursula's body back into one piece, trying to deal with the more major problems like blood loss first before moving on to anything else so if they had to move, they could.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Holy hell that was cool. He hurried to stay with her, seeing the pink energy rain from the sky.

"Hot damn is this a shitshow."

But it was over. They were gonna make it to the VTOL, and the mission was done. His second mission, a success, even if he'd pissed off a teammate. All in all, a success.

[Endem]

Elek Mohave

Soli was secured, and everything looked just fine but Baroness wasn't captured and two out of the team were in the middle of some squabble, Elek wanted to intervene but it might have been pointless.

"Alright, let's go then"

Elek muttered to himself and started to move the way they came from, he ran for quite a bit and started to climb the ladder soon enough he was in the barn or what was left of it. Elek, fortunately, noticed the shield Sophia made and moved under it into the VTOL. This mission was quite big, he needed a nap.

Tadeusz Rybinski

They got on the VTOL and Tadeusz was thinking on how to get his hand back, it shouldn't be too hard since there were many animals with regenerative capabilities, hell he heard of some snail that could have had his head chopped off and regrow it or sponges those were some "hardcore" of regeneration if you can say that. Tadeusz eventually settled on becoming a spider and feeding himself many crickets, this way he should be able to get his hand back in 15 days, Brown Recluse was good, fortunately, he had money to buy himself a box worth of crickets but he would need help to get it to his room, his best bet was Szarlota and so he asked her.

"Hey, could you give me a hand when we are back in New York, I'll need to get something and I'm one hand to less to do it"

[Forest State]

Lex Reges

The VTOL was coming in hot and trying not to stop for too long with the storm that was raging around them, and even then, there was still a chance it would get hit by the fire that was coming down from the splits in the sky. The situation was surreal but there wasn’t time to admire the dark beauty of it. Coming down in these conditions, it required a lot of concentration and a lot of bravery, too.

“This is Valkyrie One, I’m closing in on your position,” said the pilot, over the radio. “If you’re still underground, hurry up and get out. If this gets any worse we’re not going to be able to stay here for more than a minute or two, anyone that isn’t on the transport will have to find their own way out of here. Over.”

Kodiak sighed as she followed after the others, heading to the top of the ladder and looking down to see that Alyx was trying to figure out how to get Soli out. She sighed, using her own radio to contact the others. “We need some kind of rope or something before the VTOL gets here, that’s a deep pit and we have no way right now of getting Soli out of there, over. And whoever is going to come up with something, make it quick, we’re running out of time here.”

Ainsley didn’t have a solution herself, as the VTOL made its approach and came down softly in the central area between the buildings. “Can anyone see if the VTOL has some kind of rope we can use?” she asked, knowing the vehicle would have such supplies and others on board.

[Endem]

Elek Mohave

Elek was near the VTOL when they called for a rope of some kind, it was an easy task comparing it to the mission that was just behind them, Elek went onboard and started searching while muttering to himself "rope" over and over. He found it and ran to Ainsley with a shout

"Here! I found the rope on VTOL!"

He gave the rope to Ainsley and went back to the VTOL, he had no business there and was just frankly tired by the situation.

[Forest State]

Lex Reges

Ainsley took the rope and held one end in her hands while tossing the other end down to Alyx, who set Soli down on the ground and started to tie a makeshift harness, hoping that it would be enough and that it wouldn’t risk breaking under her weight once they started pulling it up the dark shaft.

“We’re almost out of here, Soli, just hang on a little bit more,” Alyx promised, finishing with a second knot just to be safe and then calling out to the ones who were standing above. “Alright, I have her tied up, give me some help here!” she shouted, waiting for them to start pulling.

Ainsley pulled against the rope but even with her enhanced condition it was going to take a bit, to lift an entire person up this shaft. It wasn’t, after all, a short distance down. “Could use a bit of help,” she said to anyone that was listening, straining against the rope as the VTOL engines idled off in the distance.

“This is Valkyrie One, we can’t hang around here for much longer… Either figure something out in the next minute or two, or get out of here on foot,” the pilot said, as Kodiak joined in pulling Soli. The faster they brought her out of the shaft, the faster they could return home.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Ah. His speciality, lifting things.

"Hold on, I got her."

She was disturbingly light as he pulled her up, like a feather. That perception was slightly disturbed by his broken leg, but he'd deal with it later. It wasn't an issue at the moment.

He reeled her up as fast as he dared, and in moments she was at the top. He took her in his arms bridal style.

"Let's move out all! I'm not looking to get fried and I got a feeling y'all aren't either!"

[Forest State]

Jeju Island Raid

Bryanne stopped her team when they saw the plumes of smoke rising from the buildings, and the gunfire that was going on around the runway area. Someone had already hit this place and they were hitting it thoroughly, not leaving many behind as they went the loud route and methodically took out guard after guard. That was the way that Bryanne and her team would have had to handle this. What they were looking for, it was too well guarded for them to take a stealthy route with.

They would have run into contact eventually. But they hadn’t been the first ones here, and now that contact had been made by someone else.

“Hold it,” said Bryanne, keeping any of them from moving beyond her as they stood on the hill and looked down at the other team that was attacking this place. They couldn’t see anything that would denote their affiliation, unfortunately. But Bryanne did have the feeling that this new team shouldn't be messed with.

“We’re not jumping into this fight, if some other faction is already wrecking the place I don’t want to go up against them,” she said, taking a step back. “Look at what they did to it, after all. Obviously, they’re pretty strong in a fight.”

Lex Reges

Alyx watched as Soli was pulled up the shaft, and she hoped that the trip upwards hadn’t been too rough on her. It wasn't like they had a precision way of getting her back above the ground. She climbed up as soon as she was sure that Soli was up, keeping her body low to the ground as she followed after Kodiak and Jack and the others and went into the VTOL, which was still sitting there with the rear hatch opened up.

“Hey, give her here,” she said in a bit of a snippy tone to Jack, who had Soli. She wasn’t going to let her out of her sight right now, let alone have someone else carry her around. And while Soli was conscious and stable, there was still healing work that Alyx needed to do.

“I’m not done healing her,” she added, as if she had to explain why she was being snippy right here.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Jack handed her over without a fuss. He could hear the concern in Alyx's voice.

"You know, it might not be the best time to say this, but I hope I have a friend like you one day."

And with that the leg caught up with him. He collapsed to the ground, laying on his side.

Muffling cries of pain, he said, "Don't worry about me. I'm fine, just make sure Soli's stable. We don't need her dying in the evac."

[Lunas Legion]

Raphaella Alexa Bianchi-Costa and Nike and Aella Mezerova

"Then we don't get in to a fight." Aella responded curtly. There was no time for delay or to be wasted on talking and the like, this was a time for action. Yes, she'd seen the smoke and the signs of battle and the trail of destruction left by their unmarked and most importantly unknowing opposition as they moved through the blacksite, likely also in search of whatever they were after.

There was only going to be one valuable thing on this blacksite, after all.

"We go in, we find what we came here for, we get out before the other team even realises we're here." She continued, eyes locked on watching the blacksite from the top of the hill, tapping her foot against the ground. "We should be fast enough to manage it. Or we fall back now, inform our employers, and we hit one of the other two possible sites. Your call." She gave a small, indecisive shrug, willing to go along with either option.

[Forest State]

Jeju Island Raid

“No, I don’t have a good feeling about this…” said Bryanne, turning to look at the plumes of smoke and the flashes of energy once again before turning back to her team and shaking her head as she started walking back in the direction of the car. “We’re not taking on that enemy down there, I just don’t like our odds. They took out the entire place faster than we could have ever hoped to do so, from the looks of it. Let’s not…”

She paused, contemplating the decision. Of course, they could hit one of the other locations, but they had already come this far here. Did they really want to turn around? “Let’s not bite off more than we can chew with this. We’ll head to Japan and think things over once we’re back at the hotel.”

Back on the ground in the camp, it was a different story. Most of the opposition had been eliminated by now, and Joker was drawing energy from the power truck and rapidly approaching full strength. Once she hit full charge, there would be basically no hope for the others who were trying to defend this camp from the North Korean attackers.

“Done,” she said, pulling back and turning her attention to Fakerr for the orders. “And now…?”

“We go for what we came here for.”

Joker nodded, and they kept their guard up as the entire group started moving from the power truck one end of the runway to the building that was located right in front of the other end, the large one which was constructed like a hard-bodied tent. There were a couple more guards that came out of the building but Joker threw energy bolts at them almost as soon as they did, striking them down precisely as the group continued on.

“Be careful not to cause any damage that you don’t need to,” said Faker, not wanting them to accidentally hit the thing that they were searching for.

“You already know that I’m a pro at this,” Joker replied simply, pushing through the entrance to the tent and sending a wide arcing blast forward, taking out the two or three guards on the inside without a second thought, before looking around for what they had come here for. And it was obvious where it was.

There was a metal container near the center of the building, which only had some tables and computers on the interior, with a dirt floor, and Joker approached the container quickly before firing a bolt into the lock to sever it, opening the box up. On the inside, there was packing material and there rested a capsule which could fit in her hand, sealed and seemingly of some importance. It matched the pictures of what they were looking for.

“The hell even is this thing?” she asked, pausing as she picked it up in her hand and turned it over, examining it closely.

“I don’t know exactly…” Faker replied, moving forward and taking it out of her hand. “But according to command… It’s the future.”

[Lunas Legion]

Jeju Island Raid

"Aw." Raph let out a whine, but it wasn't really an annoyed or irritated one, more one that was vaguely mocking, before sheathing her sword as she continued. "We just came all this way for nothing, but-" Her eyes flickered briefly over towards Mercury as a smirk formed on her face. "I guess that gives us plenty of time in Japan whilst we reform and reorganise for whichever target we do end up hitting."

Aella simply nodded once. "Very well, back to the car and then the RHIB and we'll get off this island before the South Koreans show, we can report back to our employers. I'm sure they'd appreciate the information that another faction is also interested in what we were hired to acquire."

---

Ji followed the others in silence; with Joker back at full charge, well, there wasn't much for her to do than cover her back, really, so that was what she did, moving slowly and methodically, weapons ready, watching for any soldiers that tried to come at them from behind, but none did. They were probably either dead, or had figured their lives weren't worth whatever they were protecting.

"It doesn't matter what it is." JI said impassively, glancing briefly at the capsule just to verify it was indeed what they were looking for but not taking it from Faker.. "We have it, let's return to the evac point before reinforcements show up. Come on." She turned away from the others, moving to leave the building, not bothering to see if they were going to follow.

[Union Princes]

Elek Mohave

Soli was secured, and everything looked just fine but Baroness wasn't captured and two out of the team were in the middle of some squabble, Elek wanted to intervene but it might have been pointless.

"Alright, let's go then"

Elek muttered to himself and started to move the way they came from, he ran for quite a bit and started to climb the ladder soon enough he was in the barn or what was left of it. Elek, fortunately, noticed the shield Sophia made and moved under it into the VTOL. This mission was quite big, he needed a nap.

Tadeusz Rybinski

They got on the VTOL and Tadeusz was thinking on how to get his hand back, it shouldn't be too hard since there were many animals with regenerative capabilities, hell he heard of some snail that could have had his head chopped off and regrow it or sponges those were some "hardcore" of regeneration if you can say that. Tadeusz eventually settled on becoming a spider and feeding himself many crickets, this way he should be able to get his hand back in 15 days, Brown Recluse was good, fortunately, he had money to buy himself a box worth of crickets but he would need help to get it to his room, his best bet was Szarlota and so he asked her.

"Hey, could you give me a hand when we are back in New York, I'll need to get something and I'm one hand to less to do it"

Szarlota Raczkowska

There was a lot in thoughts swimming Szarlota's head right now. Quite frankly, she still wondered if she was dreaming ever since that night. The arrival of three strangers and a gunshot that still ranged in her mind. It was so casual, so normal that Nev had just headshot a man in cold blood. Ironic that she was finding the seen more reasonable if Nev shot him with a gun made out of scrape metal and junk or simply ran him over with his very loud motorcycle. While Szarlota's train of thought took a new direction when Tadeusz asked her for her assistance.

When he mentioned his hand, Szarlota had a flashback to when he lost it. "Sure, I'll help you, if I can." the Polish girl answered with a half smile.

[Forest State]

---

Arc Three: The Valley of Death

---

Click the gif to watch the Arc Three trailer.

---

Time Skip
July 3rd, 2024

---

Things had changed within a short time span.

It was sort of the nature of a world like this, where so many people had the power to cause tremendous destruction with, say, the snap of a fingers. They had the potential to help, too. But it was easier to destroy than it was to create, wasn’t it? That was to say, it always seemed like there were more villains than heroes. More people willing to create chaos than people willing to do something to stop it. And right now, the world was being thrown into chaos by just that, the actions of metahumans.

Chicago had been slammed by the first instance of a Rift energy storm, the sky splitting and breaking like glass as reality itself was torn and the Rift was allowed to enter this world in its raw and destructive form. Why? For a metahuman to make a point, a show of force of sorts, and to show someone else what the consequences would be for not switching sides. Thousands of people were now lying dead so one person could send a message to another that as long as they aligned themselves with the outside world and with the Guardians, there would be deaths not just of innocents, but of people they loved.

It also showed who the enemy was here and just how strong they were. One moment, Chicago had been a thriving city and everything had been going well with no threat of something like this happening. The next moment, the city was in flames, and by the time days had passed since the initial attack, the city was in anarchy. The Army and the National Guard had been deployed but metahumans made things dicey and even they hadn’t been able to restore order successfully. The most they could do was keep things from spilling outside of the city and occasionally raid the interior, punishing anyone who caused too much trouble.

Or they would try to, anyway.

Because of this magical attack on Chicago, things were practically lawless. The streets weren’t friendly to the government. Those who would be friendly to it were quickly silenced and threatened by the ones who had embraced the anarchy, and armed groups seemed to pop up in every sector of the city and the suburbs, usually led by metahumans who could exert their will over the others around them using their powers. With no law enforcement capable of keeping them in check, metahumans in general were a lot more powerful right here, in this situation.

It was the most pressing issue for the Guardians right now, a true crisis in their own backyard for the first time in awhile. They had dealt with villains before, even high end villains who were plenty dangerous, but one thing they didn’t normally have to touch was an entire city ravaged by anarchy, where they didn’t just have to worry about dangerous crime bosses, but the common man. After all, their international fame put a large target on their back.

Going forward, it was clear that things had changed and that, well… They would need everyone that they could to help out and bring back law and order, to end the crisis that the government hadn’t managed to. And in this case, ‘everyone’ included the Young Guardians, too. They were young, but all hands on deck were needed, and they would have to prove soon enough that they weren’t just ordinary heroes in training, but ones who could stand on their own two feet.

Whether or not they could do that was… Uncertain.

---

It had been two weeks since the initial attack and there was no word on whether or not the Young Guardians would be involved in the Guardians operation in Chicago, something that was being hotly debated by the Council of Five. On one hand, they needed all the help they could get. On the other, it wouldn’t be a good look if anything happened to some hero that was still receiving training, because of being sent into a dangerous area like the Chicago wasteland, as it was being called by those in and around it.

At the start of what would be the third week, no decision had been made and those within the program had been kept back at the Village and not sent on any missions during this period. Which was fitting.

They didn’t do missions partly because the focus was all on more important things. It was hard to worry about things like minor villains when there was an entire city where the situation needed to be stabilized.

However, even in a time like this, it was important to relax at least sometimes. The Guardians were a huge organization, they had a lot of corporate sponsors and some of those sponsors offered things as a part of their agreements. They would often receive these perks like cars, free tech, sometimes trips. In this case, one of those trips was being given to the Young Guardians Program and it was to a resort on the coast of Sardinia, somewhere with great scenery and a good climate at this time of the year.

The flight, for once, had been commercial instead of on a military style VTOL, which was a nice change of pace. For most, at least. There were sure to be some that preferred the rougher style of the transport, which could pull more aggressive moves in the sky despite not being as comfortable for passengers. One way or the other, they had all arrived on the Italian island without problem, and they were just now getting out of the taxis that were taking them the rest of the way to the resort.

The buildings were villa style and each building would have a number of rooms, with each one housing two people. There were also other facilities, such as a gym, cafe, multiple pools for if someone didn’t feel like walking all the way down to the beach, which was only a couple of minutes from the housing, and there were also gardens and other such areas for relaxing. They were also about ten minutes away from the city of Cagliari, where they would be able to go for nightlife or other entertainment if they so felt like it.

“This is the place,” said Samson Bastani, climbing out of a taxi and speaking in his usual calm, even if it was somewhat flat, voice. “There’s a front desk inside each of the housing buildings where you can check in. Be sure to talk with someone else and figure out who you’re going to be rooming with… The rooms are meant for two, after all, and we only have enough rooms to house you all if you share. When that’s out of the way, feel free to get lunch, or head to the beach or the city.”

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Ahh, vacation. He needed it, especially with his unexpected amount of injuries. Even if they'd been healed, it was still pretty sucky to experience them. And Italy was beautiful this time of year.

He hadn't made any particular friends, and Brock had dissapeared somewhere. Probably hero work at home or something. He needed to find a roommate. He finally decided at random; Elek. He'd been in Missouri, at least. There was some connection. Jack walked up to him.

"Hey, you're Elek, right? Wanna room? I haven't really had much time to make friends yet."

[Lunas Legion]

Soli Vanhanen-Amori a.k.a Prodigy

Soli didn't want to be here. If this had been a few weeks ago, she'd have quite happily jumped on the chance to go off to Italy for some mindless relaxation. Now, though, after everything she'd been through, everything that'd happened?

She wanted to be anywhere but here.

Chicago was her fault. All her fault. One of America's largest cities was in anarchy, the government had lost control, and tens of thousands of people had died at a minimum, all because of her stupid fucking stubbornness. She wanted to be out there, doing something, anything, to fix the screw-up that was her responsibility and hers alone.

Being out here on holiday while all that went on... It just wasn't right. Never mind she hadn't completely recovered from her torture, never mind her mind had been replaying everything Cori had said to her, everything she'd done... She just couldn't relax, not with all of that going on in her head, and knowing what was happening was entirely her fault.

"Come on Alyx." She said, her voice subdued as she began to move at a slow walk, heading off to check in. "Let's go grab a room."

---

Sophia Anya Rykova a.k.a Euclid

Sophia didn't want to be here either, but for entirely different reasons. She didn't like the heat. Didn't like Europe. Didn't like being around people. And she already had plenty of time to relax, given, well, they hardly ever dragged her out for missions so coming out here seemed... Rather pointless to her. What was she going to do out here that she didn't already do?

"Alright, cyka." Sophia declared. "I'm stuck sharing a room with one of you, so whoever beats me in a fight gets it. To themselves, and I'll sleep somewhere else. No one beats me, mine and whoever doesn't get room can fuck themselves. Da?"

[Theyra]

Zekulu Alemu Nazwari

A vacation, that was not a thought Zekulu would think while being a hero. He took a deep breath of the fresh, and to a place like this. The benefits of being a hero, be able to travel and seeing new places. Though traveling to these places was for a mission and rarely he could enjoy being there. New York City, Saudi Arabia.... then again, he would rather forget the mission to Saudi Arabia. That mission was well something he wished had gone now differently but, there is no changing to what went down. Zekulu pushed those thoughts out of his mind, this vacation was a rare treat. One that he will enjoy to the fullest while he is here and perhaps even get to know more about his fellow Young Guardians. He had not really got a chance to get to know the others outside of their names and other basic things about them.

Zekulu had a blank look on his face when Sophia spoke about someone will have to fight her in order to get a room with her. "Yeah, so maybe I find someone else to be my roommate", he thought to himself. He probably could not beat her anyone if he tried, more suited to fighting from afar then in close combat. He looked the lobby for faces, "Anyone willing to be my roommate?

[Forest State]

Cori Amori

Private jets and other assorted luxuries didn’t mean much when you lost. At least, they didn’t mean much to someone like Cori Amori, who would have traded in the private jet and all of the other extravagance for a victory where she had just failed two weeks ago, in what could have been a major gain for her and the most important thing to her, her people. Instead, it was a defeat that had cost them far more than they earned in the end. They didn’t come out with anything, instead they had just revealed their hand in a way to the Guardians, an organization that was their natural enemy. And word would spread beyond the Guardians and to the rest of the world.

That was the biggest disaster in all of this.

The Order of the Golden Rose had always pursued big goals from a position of secrecy, but that secrecy had been blown when Cori threw their “move from the shadows” doctrine to the wind in favor of a more aggressive approach towards completing their goals, one which had failed in this instance. That wasn’t to say that her style wasn’t effective, but it hadn’t left a good first impression on anyone else, and all it did was cause her to lose the confidence of some of the powerful figures within the Order that had put her in this position in the first place.

Their goal was a simple one, really. Hegemony, and it had been the same thing for thousands of years. But everyone had a different way of actually going after that. And when Cori began shifting up their tactics, there were plenty who weren’t happy with the changes and preferred to keep things traditional. In Cori’s mind, all they were doing was holding her back, but there was a delicate balance of power here and she had to be careful to not tip things too far in one direction. If she wanted to win conflicts with the outside world, she needed to avoid a major rift forming within her own realm.

Her jet touched down at the Canadian airstrip, deep off of the beaten path, and she was home once again as the doors opened up and her assistant waited for her, to brief her on what she needed to know before she would head inside the mansion just next to the airstrip. “Welcome back, Lord Amori,” said Caffrey, but she raised a hand to shut him up for now.

“Just tell me the essentials, and none of the fluff. I don’t need that right now, not after I… Lost,” she said, spitting out the last word like she hated the taste of it. Of course she did. She almost never lost at anything, losing in something this important and to someone that was both related to her and much weaker than her right now was enough to rattle her hard, to the point where it was still the freshest thing on her mind even two weeks later.

And the worst part was, they wouldn’t let her pick up where she had left off. ‘They’ were the electors within the Order of the Golden Rose in this case, the ones who had selected her to lead - even if she had bloodily trimmed down the field of competition beforehand - and the ones who could mount a challenge to her leadership. She doubted they could take it from her, because she wasn’t giving it up under any circumstances, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t make her life far harder.

“Right. I’ve already told you the basics but as far as things that weren’t on that report, you should know that the electors and just about everyone else are pissed at you for the Chicago attack. You didn’t just step out of bounds, but you revealed Rift magic to the entire world as well as showed Rift energy in general, and now the outside world is paying extra attention to studying it. And because you escalated things from a simple kidnapping to leveling a major city, there’s going to be a lot more interest in-”

Once again, Cori silenced her assistant. “Maybe, we shouldn’t hide our strengths as much. If it’s our right for the world to be under our heel, they should know who to look up to,” she replied. “Give me about six more months to work on this and it won’t seem like such a crazy idea to everyone else. The age of moving in the shadows… Is ending. And I want to be the one that ends it.”

“That’s all good and well, but if you want to avoid civil war, you’ll have to convince others-”

Cori leaned in, bending slightly because of her abnormally tall height as she leaned next to Caffrey. “Just worry about your job and don’t underestimate me… Give me six months like I said and I’ll have them singing my praises, all it takes is a bit of success to make them forget their past positions. And I’m going to have more success than anyone. You know that, and this is why you stay with me.”

Caffrey paused and nodded. “I trust your judgement, but we’re in a tough-”

“Doesn’t matter. Between myself and the others around me, we will accomplish everything that I’ve said we will. I don’t care that it’s a tough situation because I have absolute faith in myself, something that sets me apart from all the others that have led here,” Cori continued, backing off slightly and staring into the distance at the mansion where she would have to face the music for things going wrong. “They may not like what they hear now… But I still have full confidence that we’re going to become stronger than we ever were before, kill the bitch that got away, and move further towards domination. And they’re going to forget everything that happened at the start.”

She paused, contemplating something before she started walking again, revealing that thought. “Or I destroy them and we keep moving forward anyway. Either way… Our people are better off. If the electors don’t want what’s in the best interest of our people, all it means is that they should be destroyed as soon as possible.”

---

Alyx "Stormcaster" Jane Gray

Even on vacation, it was hard to not have Chicago on the mind. Not when it was the biggest crisis that the Guardians were dealing with right now, and the largest one that they had dealt with in years. There were plenty of news headlines coming out every day about the situation and they were able to do nothing, stuck behind red tape from the Council as it was decided whether or not the Young Guardians would be sent into the wasteland or not.

And Alyx was on edge right now, not just because of Chicago but because of the last weeks in general. Because of the last mission. Because it turned out Soli wasn’t really who she said she was. Because Soli had been stupid and caused all of this to happen. And because she herself hadn’t been there to keep it from happening, hadn’t been able to protect Soli back when they were out together and she was first taken.

She gritted her teeth but kept her mouth shut as she climbed out of the taxi, following after the rest of the group, putting on one of her usual faces but not feeling like her usual self. It would take awhile for her to be herself again, really.

She kept her head down and kept walking past Soli, leaving her for Ellie to deal with. It would be better that way, anyway. Ellie was the one that was still bright through all of this, while it was like there were storm clouds following Alyx. Not literal ones from her power, but proverbial ones. She went to the check in desk, asked for any key that they could give her, and then turned and headed deeper into the resort without saying anything else.

Right now, she really needed a drink.

[Endem]

Elek Mohave

The travel was nice, even if Elek would get stressed whenever a metal detector appeared in his sight even if Elek dumped all metal of himself. Sardinia was a beautiful place, the trip from the airport to the resort was quite fast, and the resort was just stunning or was it just that it was the first time Elek traveled abroad. Jack walked up to him and asked a question about sharing room

"Yeah, why not, I'll get the keys or keycards or whatever there is"

Elek then walked to the counter

Tadeusz Rybinski

When it was said they were meant to get roommates Tadeusz footsteps almost instinctively directed towards Szarlota, but he got his footsteps the other way, although struggling both physically and mentally eventually he stumbled on quite large women, her name was Admina or something like that and since he didn't have many other options he asked

"Hey, do you want to be my roommate"

His small ( 1.70 meters in comparison to 2.16 meters ) posture made it hard to look at the woman's eyes

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Well there's the hard part over. Retrieving his keycard, he went to the room. And damn it was nice. Letting out a low whistle, he said, "Better than Angel Village, that's for sure." And then he saw something that quite peeked his interest. A minibar. But that was for later.

He unpacked, moving his clothes to the dressers. He had $1000 to spend and a country full of men. Life was good. For now, though, he had to hold off. He had to look for a couple men; Nev and Kane, the two inventors of the team, or so he had read. He had some questions about some gear, mainly if they could make it.

[Endem]

Elek Mohave

Elek got into the room just after Jack and damn it was nice, for Elek it had everything, but it was time to unpack and with 1000$ in the pocket he has bought himself some summer clothes, the first time he was buying clothes, and the best part he still had 700 more to spend.

"Damn nice"

He muttered to himself