Heroes of Tomorrow Redux [IC | DONE]

[Forest State]

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Death Battle

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It seemed like a solid strategy. If precision attacks didn’t work out, throw overwhelming force at the enemy and see if you could take them out that way. The enemy in the sky was still ascending but the one on the ground with the tendrils, the one who was in the doorway, or at least the place where the doorway had been, didn’t move when the explosive attack came. Didn’t seem to notice it in time to react properly and get out of the way of the blast radius.

The thing did damage and for a minute it would be possible to wonder if they had taken their enemy out quite easily. When the smoke cleared, though, the figure, the one with the pale hair and the dark tendrils that seemed to emerge from her back… Was still alive. Injured, but alive still. Her face had been blacked by the explosion and it looked like she was cut all over, and some of the tendrils that had been used to partially block the explosion were burned away, but unfortunately for the Prodigy team, it didn’t seem like she would be injured like this for long.

She reached out with the tendrils that were remaining and went for the debris. Once they touched the materials, they seemed to absorb them and take them in. Not in the same form that they had started in, but in the form of energy which rebuilt the tendrils and seemed to heal the girl that had just been attacked by the explosions. The cuts started to go away, her face started to clear up, and she looked fit for combat once again. Which… Was concerning for the ones that had to get past her.

“You’re dealing with someone who has rapid healing,” said Lilith, looking at the target through her scope and cursing the circumstances. Wasn’t an easy power to deal with at all. There were plenty of powers she’d rather face than this one, out of every one that it could have potentially been.

Why did it have to be a regenerator? They’d had pretty decent luck in the first battle… But it looked like that wasn’t going to be the case in the second meeting between these two teams.

[Vanquaria]

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August 10th, 2024

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The butt of the rifle bucked against his shoulder but his body held steady, having expected the buckle and prepared for it by tensing the muscles in his deltoids. In his grip was the SIG MCX-MR, the semi-automatic sniper rifle variant of Bu's preferred SIG MCX series of firearms. Although it failed its bid to become the US Army's primary semi-auto sniper system, that didn't mean the rifle was useless. Far from it, in fact.

7.62 NATO rounds clattered onto the concrete floor, next to his prone body, falling almost rhythmically, in tune to his firing pattern. Bu wasn't an expert marksman by any means of the word and his target reflected that. It was a simple, stationary target roughly a kilometer away from where he was laying on the ground. His goal for the training session was to get as many hits as he could into the depiction of the target's head.

So far, he was not doing so well. Some missed shots and the rest striking the torso. He hadn't even got lucky with any headshots. To others, it may have been a sign that that day was not their day. To Bu, it was a sign that he needed to work harder on his proficiency as a sniper.

When Ash entered the range, he was already drenched in sweat, having taken off his shirt to lay on the ground with his upper torso bared. Refusing to activate his powers to extend his endurance even further since he was currently also undertaking SERE training and SERE training catered to humans and not those who would be able to cheat the system. It was good mental training, in Bu's opinion, it tested his fortitude and reminded him of his mortality.

Thus, a worn-out Bu finally pushed himself with his knees off the ground and walked back to a table where his duffel bag was. Dousing himself with water, he took mega gulps of his bottle until it was all empty. His eyes swayed to the figure near him. It was an old man doing maintenance on his assault rifle. And he seemed to be enjoying the act. Seeing the expression on the man's face piqued Bu's interest.

Wiping his body dry with a towel which he then flung over his shoulder, Bu walked up to the man with graying hair, leaning against a pole extending downward from the roof of the range's shelter.

"Never thought I'd find a guy who found standard maintenance so enjoyable. It's always been bothersome for me, even my favorite rifle doesn't get beauty treatment. Care to share your secrets, old man? You're GSF I presume?" Bu asked with a hint of amusement in his smile.

[Lunas Legion]

Ashley 'Ash' Bryens a.k.a Wildfire

"Slightly too old for the GSF. I guess you could call me someone the Guardians have in their reserves and given the current situation they shelled out enough to get me to come back." It wasn't the most accurate comparison, but it got the point across. Ash shook his head, not turning away from the neatly-organised pile of rifle parts as he shuffled them around so he knew exactly where each of them was. It honestly took him more time to find a part sometimes than to get it back into its proper place, sometimes things just had a way of hiding when they were right in front of you sometimes.

"And the secret is it's relaxing." He let out a low chuckle, glancing over the parts, satisfied everything was just so as he began to reassemble his rifle. "If I'm making sure this thing's clean, it means I'm not getting shot at or in a position to be getting shot at. I might be about to shoot someone or something, but not quite yet. Helps me get back into the state of mind for battle. Also means I can trust it not to start acting up if it gets fucked up by sand or snow or mud or whatever-fucking-else the world's going to throw at it."

He paused, falling silent momentarily, turning his focus back to reassembling his rifle for a few moments, fully assembled as he looked over it, turning it from side to side.

"And I trust this thing more than anything else, including my power." He brought the HK 416 up to his shoulder, looking down the sights. "Too many people view powers as their main weapon, they aren't. They're a bonus. Never know when you'll run into someone who tells your power to fuck off and sends it crying in a corner since they're a nullifier or whatever."