AKA [IC]

[The Cyberiad Council]

Chicago

Alessia stumbled upwards as the silhouette of a massive human stepped into view, giving him a weak thumbs up as she stretched her neck and back from the force of the impact. She turned and look around, finding Risha cowering under the seat after he had been thrown from her shoulder during the impact. Softly cooing to him, she slowly lifted the owl and placed him back on her shoulder, and then looked back at the large shape as the details of his face slowly came into view.

When recognition finally struck Alessia, she almost doubled over in excitement.

"Vin-dee-cator!" She exclaimed, smiling underneath her veil, "I have heard so much about you, it is an honor. Hopefully, we can be of some help to you all."

After an hour of uneventful silence, the pilot informed them of their arrival to Chicago. His calm yet determined tone was soon washed away for a more panicked one. "Warning, incoming-" Ollie's British voice was interrupted by the sound of metal grinding and squealing as the dropship shook violently. Richard's mood dropped as the bottom of his boots magnetized to avoid being thrown about. The dropship soon leveled out, much to Knight Owl's surprise as it lowered to the ground. "The hell..." Richard said as he unbuckled and approached the rear door just as it was brutally forced down, revealing Vindicator, one of the legendary Regents. "Vin-dee-cator!" he heard from behind him, as Alessia moved past Owl to greet Vindicator. Owl turned back around to investigate how the rest of the team was doing. "Everybody alright?" he said, his voice slightly distorted by the helmet.

Zeke tensed up as the ship crumbled after an attack by some entity he didn't quite see. "Fuck..." He said as his body tensed up. He'd survive the crash, most likely. The rest of the team, maybe not so much. Instead, the ship was saved by one of the Regents. As the door ripped open and revealed Vindicator, Zeke unbuckled from the seat and moved to the back of the ship, moving past the rest of the Argonauts and the Regent to examine where they'd crashed.

Chief already hated flying plenty, and the near-crash landing didn't help his upset stomach. When they started to plummet, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep the contents of his stomach private. But thankfully, they were saved by a true hero- Vindicator. Chief heard Knight Owl call out, and he responded quickly, "I'm alright."

Pending quickly unbuckled himself and went up to see Vindicator- walking slowly so as to quell the remaining urge to vomit. "Hello, sir." He said, throwing up a small, quick salute, "I'm Chief, and I think I'm in charge of these guys- I mean this group of Argonauts. Is there anything you would have us do?" The ape took some calming breaths. He knew that if he was going to be the leader of this mission, he'd need to have more confidence than what he'd displayed thus far.

Vindicator remained mostly stoic, brushing off the bits of pulverized asphalt that had gathered on his jeans and boots from catching the dropship. He gave a rehearsed, faint smile and nod to Alessia, but furrowed his brow when Chief approached.

"If you're in charge, you'll want to talk to the boss," he said, putting a hand to his ear.

"You getting this, Cypher?"

"Indeed," a voice replied over the shared comms.

A burst of gunfire rang out, before the number 1 hero in the world continued, "Pending Chief, Pan Melior, I'm afraid we don't have time for pleasantries. This is all a big rouse, but I don't want to tip our hand just yet. Several villains are causing distractions and keeping the Regents spread thin. I need your team to relieve Wrath and Quatermain at West Washington and North Clark."

Tuccia was looking decently frazzled from the drop, but at this point was clearly more perplexed that the simian of all people had managed to get a position of influence over the group. He didn't even have a proper name. But then, who was she to judge? Regardless, as she properly stowed away her device, Tuccia looked at him with some level of scrutiny. After all, one could be forgiven for considering such circumstances extraordinarily strange.

Knight Owl looked over to Chief for an order. "Where'd you want us, Chief?" Asked Owl, putting the pressure on Chief. If he's gonna be Team Leader, he needs to handle being put on the spot.

Chief looked at Knight Owl and knew the easy answer to his question. Obviously. they'd have to go help Wrath and Quatermain, but Pending was having troubles thinking of a plan to do so. Leaders needed strategies and plans to carry out their missions quickly and efficiently. To make said plans, Chief figured he could start by learning more about who they were up against. He looked at Vindicator and said "Do we know who Wrath and Quatermain are fighting?"

Chief looked back to Knight Owl and the rest of the Argonauts. Leading was really stressful for the ape, and he didn't know if he should actually be doing it. "We should all stick together, because few of us have fought actual villains." That would be a good start. Numbers kept the family safe from predators. Apes together were stronger than apes divided. "We will make our way to West Washington and North Clark, meet up with Wrath and Quatermain, and hopefully get a clear idea of what we're up against. We know that there is a deer, but deer rarely travel alone. Perhaps I could find something related to the villains and use my power to learn more about them. Otherwise, listen for Cypher's orders and look out for civilians on our way to the rendezvous." That felt like a good enough plan.

"The Gold Diggers were seen in the area; that's the 'deer' who downed your plane, and who's been keeping me busy," Vindicator grumbled, gesturing to the numerous damaged and nearly destroyed buildings.

"From what I heard, Wrath and Quatermain got some civilians they're protecting from random street thugs with powers. Honestly, you better get there before Wrath microwaves them."

As the hero was speaking, the ground seemed to rumble, followed by a large, almost human hand appeared around the side of a building.

"Well, looks like Tiny's back!" Vindicator bellowed, turning to face the towering gorilla lumber into the street.

The poor animal had horns and armor plating growing from its skin, along with an extra pair of limbs sprouting out from under it's arms. Combined with it's dozen or more foot-tall height, it was an imitating foe.

"Tiny here has some kind of regeneration. I've been fighting it all morning. You kids run along, I can keep it at bay."

To prove his point, Vindicator gave a superhuman leap. His strength carried him clear of the buildings that flanked the street, but then he suddenly halted his ascension and dropped like a human meteor. He slammed into the mutated gorilla like he weighed thousands of tons, creating a crater and sending debris flying in every direction. The ground shook, followed by smaller quakes as the hero launched a barrage of massive blows.

The 12-foot tall gorilla was a creature of action, not words. Its thick brow had furled as it felt an emotion that humans would call confusion- a creature similar to it was standing amongst the hairless ones. One of the smaller, black-furred apes. Were the gorilla capable of language, it would certainly identify the being called Chief as a traitor. But of course, the gorilla had other priorities.

The hairless one who had given it horns, scales, and more hands had put an idea in its head. Cruel predators were coming to harm the gorilla and the ones who had brought it from captivity- naturally, its instinct was to fight against such threats. The one-eyed hairless one- Vindicator- was the worst of them. As the gorilla rounded the corner, Vindicator barreled into it with the force of a wrecking ball, crashing into its massive, muscular form and following up with a brutal barrage of blows.

But the gorilla had gifts- powers -of its own. As Vindicator's fists battered the gorilla, gouged flesh and shattered bone knit themselves back together. Even the exhaustion that should come from such an intense battle was nothing. The gorilla's gift was to enjoy the thrill of battle without risk, to fight without ever worrying about losing- or so it figured in its primate mind. The attacks of the mighty hero barely missed inflicting any kind of crippling harm- with the gorilla's regeneration clocked in, it was as though the animal had avoided the attacks altogether.

Primal Conflict

The four-armed gorilla managed to deflect one of Vindicator's punches with it's lower arms, leaving the hero open. It counterattacked, upper arms swinging at the hero. Its technique was instinctive, but its strength was overwhelming. As its flurry of punches subsided, the gorilla opened its mouth, roaring at Vindicator. The display was not for show, as a centipede-like arthropod extended from its mouth,
spewing a dark purple bile at the hero. An acidic compound, designed to eat through flesh- and meant to counter Vindicator's immense durability. Brute force would be of little consequence to him, so more insidious means were designed by the gorilla's master.

Chief was in shock that another ape had powers. He thought he was the only one, but unfortunately there was no time to talk to his compatriot. "Everybody move to the rendezvous!" Chief shouted to his team. He went on all fours and started running past the chaos to get to the heroes that needed the Argonauts' help. He figured that his team could fight a few powered goons just fine, but not a gorilla.

[Skyggeheim]

Operation: Cleaning Detail
February 2020
Mexico, Undisclosed Location

---

The hum of the Jeep's engine as it rolled down the empty town's street was enough to keep the grey-haired man from closing his eyes and nodding off to sleep. He had been awake for 48 hours, and at this point even his half-robotic body was beginning to feel the fatigue of operating at such a high tempo. However, he simply pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head once, and willed away the exhaustion. If the next 45 minutes went smoothly, he would be boarding a plane for the United States in less than a day. Then, he would be able to sleep. But now, he simply checked and double checked the magazine on his rifle and looked behind him at the headlights that were trailing his vehicle.

"You good, Six?" Came a gravelly voice from the passenger seat of the Jeep. A young man turned around, furrowing his brow in worry. The boy's features were half-obscured, shadows playing tricks on Six's eyesight as his car progressed through the dark roads. Still, Six could make out a look of genuine concern on the boy's face. They all had been moving and shooting for too long without a break, and some of them were starting to show the wear more than others. Apparently, in Six's age, he was one of those who was obviously fatigued.

"Eyes on the road, Winter," Six replied, to which the boy simply turned around and shrugged, shooting a glance to the driver.

"Two minutes to target, break," Six's radio suddenly blurted out, a voice with a slight Scandinavian accent breaking the relative silence, "Longbow is in position, have eyes on the compound, over."

Six gripped the radio in response, clicking his own push-to-speak button. After the harsh bleat to confirm that his voice would be picked up, he spoke.

"Switch weapons to black. If we have to go loud, we have six minutes 'til the Federales respond. I briefed you all the details, so just execute your T&P's, watch your corners, and let's get this done. Over."

Not long after he spoke, the Jeep's headlights switched off and it rolled to a stop. Six flipped his night vision goggles down, and the world went bright for a moment before switching to shades of black and green. Slowly, he opened his door and stepped outside, quietly shutting the door behind him. As he did, the other five team members formed a wedge around him. After a brief moment of checking the security around their vehicles, the team moved forward. Their steps were almost in rhythm as their weapons swept wide semi-circles around the empty city street. All around them, the deteriorated condition of the buildings were evidence of the poverty in the area. Turning a tight corner and stepping down a long and wide street, the team paused and took a knee. Not 50 meters ahead of them was a two-story building surrounding by a tall brick wall. Guarding an entrance to the building were two men, dressed in nothing more than a tanktop and jeans, but holding submachine guns. Illuminating the area in front of them was a street lamp, and they slowly turned their heads, searching for any signs of threat.

"Let me get the door for you," came the Scandinavian voice over the radio again, this time quieter. Six craned his neck and looked west, towards an unfinished skyscraper about a mile and a half away. Suddenly, he saw two faint blips of blue light. Almost as soon as the lights came, the sharp snap-hiss of hardlight rounds impacting their target broke the silence of the night. The two sentries slumped to the ground in heaps, their chests smoking from the inflicted wounds. Immediately, Six's contingent stood and once again pressed forward. Six kept his rifle firmly trained on the door as they moved, covering the fifty meters in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, the door to the building creaked open, and another man stepped outside with a cigarette hanging out of his lip. He looked down at the bodies of his two comrades and opened his mouth to shout a warning, but the words never came.

Thwapthwapthwapthwap.

Four shots from Six's silenced rifle sent the man tumbling, bleeding and twitching as he died. Now picking up his pace, Six stepped up to the door and jerked his head at his teammates, who fanned out around the building. One simply slung his weapon and leapt up the side of the building, using claws he grew on his hands to run on all fours up the side. Sliding a glance to his watch, Six let thirty seconds pass. That was the time that his team had to place themselves at their respective entry points. Once the moments had passed, Six simply opened the door and stepped inside. On the other side of the compound, a muscular man smoking a cigar stood and reached for his pistol. He disappeared behind a corner as Winter wrapped his arm around the man's throat. Sweeping left, Six stepped into a room that contained two sleeping individuals. Another young man crept through the window, and Six and the man pressed their barrels to the men's heads and pulled the trigger simultaneously, sending blood and brain matter to the floor. Turning and exiting the room, Six progressed down the hallway, with his teammate in tow. Another sentry stepped out into the hallway, and barely had time to turn his head by the time Hatebreed rushed forward and slid a knife through the man's throat. Six simply stepped over the body as he walked, turning a corner and walking up the stairs. As he did, a body tumbled downwards, its face and neck mangled and torn agape. Prototype stood at the top of the stairwell, his clawed hands dripping in blood.

As the team coalesced upstairs, they faced a heavy metal door with no windows, concealing another room. Their target was on the other side.

"Oxide," Six uttered in a harsh whisper, and the powerfully-built man stepped forward. Simply pressing a finger to the metal door, he converted potential energy in the door to kinetic energy, and it simply crumpled and flew off its hinges, revealing the contents of the room. Two men shouted something in Spanish and stood up, spraying bullets at the man to no avail. Behind Oxide, Six and Winter swept in, offering their own hail of gunfire. The pair folded and fell. Behind them sat a rather well-dressed man, who seemed unbothered with the whole affair. He was scrolling on his phone, and barely gave the intruders an upwards glance.

"I assume you want to take me captive and-"

The man never finished his sentence, the impact of a bullet spraying the contents of his head on the wall behind him before he could conclude his thought. Six turned angrily, looking at Hatebreed's smoking barrel.

"Fucking drug lords," spat the angry man, looking at Six with contempt in his eyes.

"Hey, five minutes." Bleated Six's radio, warning of an incoming police response. Six sprung into action, procuring a small USB device and approaching the now blood-stained laptop that sat in front of the well-dressed dead man. Plugging the device into the computer, he clicked his radio on.

"Binary, you're up." Six said, focusing intently on the computer screen. He watched as hundreds of different tabs and files opened in rapid succession, code rocketing into the command terminal at lightning pace. A minute passed, and soon the files closed themselves and a smiley face appeared. That was Binary's signal, she was finished. Removing the USB device, Six took the laptop and snapped it over his knee before looking at his team.

"Four minutes," proclaimed the voice in the radio, and the team made a hasty exit. Moving back to their Jeep, they started the engines and drove off without headlights just as the whine of police sirens rang out in earshot. By the time the police cars pulled up to the house, the team was well on their way down the street and out of sight. Six looked idly at the USB drive, turning it over in his hand. It contained the name and information of nearly every single Mexican politician and military officer who was on the cartel's payroll, and would serve as a valuable tool in cleaning out the Mexican government for a...sudden change of heart...in their attitude about illegal drug trafficking in their country.

But, to enact a change of that magnitude, Six was going to need to expand his team.

"Good hunting, folks," He said into his radio, patting Winter on the shoulder and breathing a sigh of relief, "We're back in the States tomorrow."

"Where to next?" Came the reply from Winter.

"Well, actually we get to pick. Anywhere where there's easy pickings on new recruits."

"I've never been to San Francisco," squawked a rather robotic sounding voice in the radio, who Six identified as Binary.

"Any objections?" Six asked, looking at his carpool. Hearing none, he nodded and sat back in his chair, letting his eyes close. San Francisco it was.

[The Cyberiad Council]

San Francisco

"So, who exactly are we investigating here?" Tara questioned as she stepped off the hovercraft, stretching from the relatively long flight. She already had a cigarette illuminated, and was simply scanning the surrounding area for any evidence of...she wasn't sure really. This was, after all, her first mission as a sanctioned hero.

"When mutant metahumans are born, they're placed on the Registry. Argus keeps an eye on them and their powers, just in case any of them suddenly manifest. It helps us know if anyone is using them to commit crimes, or in this case; try and kidnap them. And, of course, if they do manifest powers suddenly, that sometimes causes 'meta-madness," Arsenal explained as he flicked open the door that led into the building with his powers.

"Argus splits the list up, and keeps it at the nearest Field office, so the Agents are relatively close to the people they look after. We think someone compromised this Field Office and got all, or part of the SF Registry."

Tara thought for a moment as she stepped inside, observing the field office. Most of the faces meant nothing to her, and she scanned them and retrieved their information from the Argus registry as she looked around. One or two looked familiar, but she couldn't place from where or why. It didn't matter, their information checked out.

"So am I gonna be digging through some spaghetti code, or does Argus keep this pretty up-to-date?" She asked Joseph as they walked, her cigarette still illuminated and smoking.


Fionn began suiting up as soon as his stomach finished doing acrobatics. It had been bad enough for him sitting on his own- the others, crammed together like sardines in a can, would've had an even worse time of it. The Coronis remained suspended as he fixed himself into the limbs, giving the entire process an entirely different feeling than usual. The helmet came down over his head, and as before, Fionn had his brief moment of darkness before the HUD activated. He held a breath in, and let it out as he felt his mech swing down to a vertical position, the cargo hold opening below him.

"...Alright, I'm going." He told the pilot. The clamps holding him in released, and for a time, Fionn fell. He fired all four thrusters downward, stopping himself from tumbling, slowing his descent until it was something more controlled. Eventually, his fall came to a stop, leaving him hovering in the San Francisco sky. "Avalerion in position. Watching over the field office... nothing out of the ordinary there yet. I'll let you know if I spot something. House investigation team, call me if you need backup."

Unbelting himself off the dropship, Silvester, noting that the android girl had lit up a cigarette before entering the office, got himself one as well, inhaled a few breaths, and followed the others inside. Once Arsenal finished explaining the basics of why the Registry exists, he posited: "Do we have reasons to believe that inside security was breached, which led to access to the Registry, or is it most likely an inside job?"

"At this point, we're not sure. However, the people that have access to the complete San Francisco Registry comprise a very short list. They're being vetted by telepaths, and so is the agent assigned to the missing boy. Other than that, the logs don't show any access by site personnel, making us think it was an external assault."

"Do we have a last known location for our missing agents?" Sabina asked. "Might not be a bad idea to send a couple of us there to see if we can find any additional clues while the others go to the homes of the missing kids."

"Their car is still parked outside the missing boy's residence. I'll forward the address to your tablets and you can get going. Good idea," Arsenal said, pulling out his own device and tapping the screen a few time.

"Argus should have some vehicles at your disposal in the lot outside the building."

"Just get me to a terminal and let me do my thing," Tara said, looking at Arsenal and then surveying the room. It seemed relatively modern, but she held no optimism for the code she had to dig through to access the Argus files. It wasn't outdated by any means, but whoever was behind designing Argus' database was particularly adept at making it complicated and convoluted for anyone without proper access codes to peek. Perhaps, she considered, it would be different when she was actually authorized to look.

"I am willing to leave now for the premises if everything is prepared for our departure." nodded Silvester towards Arsenal, finishing off his cigarette. Then, towards Tara: "If I may ask, you do not need to be within proximity of the database to explore it, provided you were already granted authorization, right?" At the end of the day, Silvester didn't want to split the team. Considering the enemy worked so smoothly to cover their tracks here, at the facility, it seemed unlikely to him that they would've behaved sloppily at the crime scene by accident. He was smelling a trap.

“I just need to be in general proximity of a terminal. I can start pulling files anywhere, but if shit goes sideways there’s a whole staff here in the office for backup.” Tara replied, leaning against a desk as she waited for the go ahead to start accessing information.

"Like I said, check out a vehicle from the lot and you can be on your way," Arsenal said to Silvester.

"As for the server, come with me," Arsenal said, leading Tara through a series of offices to a heavy, metallic door.

He presented his Argus badge to a reader mounted next to the bulkhead, and a beep of confirmation let him swing the nearly vault-like door inward. The opening revealed a set of stairs that led into a sublevel of the building built to house their more sensitive servers.

"They've isolated the hard drive containing the Registry, so this server is yours to play with. I'll do my best to help, but this isn't really what my powers were made for."

"Arsenal" Sabina asked as she started towards the vehicle lot with the others. She seen enough kidnappings in Mexico to know the most important part or them was getting to the crime scenes and find a trail to follow before it was too late, if it wasn't already given the bad guys had a three day head start at least. "Who were the two officers reported MIA?"

Tara simply sat down in a chair near the server, which was a big and beastly thing, and began by lighting a cigarette. Invisible to the observer, she summoned endless streams of data and displays before her eyes. Flicking her gaze back and forth and processing the information, she frowned slightly.

"Most everything is clean, I'm not detecting any malicious code..." Tara began, trailing off as she dug deeper. Whoever was covering their tracks was doing it well. Frustrated, she leaned forward and began scrubbing faster. There had to be something, some evidence of tampering. Soon enough, something caught her eye in the corner of her vision.

"Hold on..." She said, taking a long drag of her cigarette, "There's some out of place code here."

Suddenly, her expression changed to one of shock. Her eyes flew in every direction, and her hands subtly twitched as she worked. Again, to the observer, she almost appeared to be having a seizure. However, in Tara's vision, code formed itself and was shattered just as quickly.

"Someone's breaking in right now, they're scrubbing the system, deleting files and pulling addresses," She said, gritting her teeth, "I'm putting up firewalls and backing up information as fast as I can, but whoever is on the other side is busting through them like they're nothing."

Suddenly, she cried out in pain and put her head in her hands, trembling.

"They're hitting me, not the server, can you get a fix on the signal?" She asked, looking at Arsenal with a pained expression. Even as she did, she continued to assemble blockers and walls around the Argus database, and they continued to be broken down. She was slowing down the attacker, but they kept accessing the system, finding vulnerabilities that were invisible to Tara before the attack started.

"Double that request for a signal." Fionn chimed in over the comms. "If they're getting into the system right now, they could still be nearby. We could send our stealthy people to grab them- take the hacker and probably kidnapper too. That'd be a huge lead on our missing person." His eyes scanned the ground below through his visor as he flew a lazy circle above the Argus building. "Any details about the house, house team?"

"I'll do what I can, but code isn't my thing. I can only control the mechanical parts of the computer," Arsenal said, his metal arm becoming a cloud of small parts that seemed to surround the main server, helping him channel his power.

"We'll help with that," James said over comms. "All of HQ is helping trace it; hold out as long as you can," He said to Node.

"And whoever is in the field, they are within 8 miles of you, somewhere to the north, we're working on narrowing it down."

"Roger all that, sir." responded Silvester in his earpiece, has he was making his way to the parking lot. Then, as he made his way into one of the cars provided and started up the engine: "I shall make my way north to deal with the more immediate concern. Investigating the house can wait. Please return with more accurate pinpoints of the location along the way so I may adjust my route."

[Okayanos]

Chicago

With Chief's order, Knight Owl sprinted forward alongside the Team Leader. Just as the rest of the team stood momentarily in awe of Vindicator's display of force against the enemy, so did Owl, though he wanted to give the Regent some edge before departing and leaving him behind to deal with it. As he sprinted away, he jumped forward activating the jump jets underneath his boots.
Just as Richard propelled forward, he gave a quick spin, his back running parallel to the cement under him. Raising his right wrist to the four-armed gorilla, a ring of mini-darts protruded out, a mix of high explosive and stun darts. Two explosives and two stuns, launched off his wrist, leaving behind faint trails of smoke as they spun and danced their way towards the gorilla. Ollie ran the quick math and ensured the explosives would hit the villain first, hopefully disorienting him enough that the stun darts could find their target unmolested.
Owl didn't know how the darts would work on something like....that, but he hoped it would buy Vindicator a few seconds. The dart array slid back into the housing onto Richard's wrist as he spun back around, deploying his Owlwings and rising into the air, looking for his way to a rooftop to get additional intel on the threat for the rest of his team.

The gorilla roared at a sudden burst of pain- four mini darts buried themselves into its flesh, two delivering a shock to its nervous system that left the monster in a paralyzed state. The second two detonated, gouging out massive chunks of meat. The creature cried out in agony, only to be silenced by Vindicator's fist crashing into its jaw. Knight Owl would have a good chance of being remembered by the Regents for this stunt.

After running away from the Gorilla, Chief was en route to Wrath and Quartermain. He hoped that his teammates followed closely behind him. It wasn't long before they arrived at West Washington and North Clark. "This is it guys, be on the lookout for any villains." Chief said into his comms, "Knight Owl, you see anything up there?"

"Direct impact. Enemy neutralized." Said Ollie, who informed Richard of how his darts performed against the new threat. "Hm, good." He said pleasantly as he deactivated his JumpJets and rolled onto the rooftop of a ten story building. The visor's magnification ability automatically enhanced his view of the two Regents that his team was inbound to assist.

First, he saw Quatermain, who was using his firearms with deadly precision as he non-lethally dropped enemies with his rifle. Richard was impressed, immensely impressed. He panned his view to the right just a few dozen feet away, connecting to Wrath.

"I've got eyes on Quatermain and-" his sentence was cut off as a sharp sting and burn hit his eyes. He let out a quiet grunt as he shook his head and blinked a few times. The visor had adjusted near immediately, but the sudden change in light killed his eyes for the briefest of moments. Wrath was lit up like a Christmas tree as he dished out haymakers to any bad guy that got close enough. "Got eyes on Wrath. They've got civilians with 'em, counting seven. At the corner of Washington and North Clark in a plaza. Counting a dozen or so bad guys with an assortment of powers and more on the way. Where'd you want me, Chief?" Richard said as he returned to his normal HUD setting, awaiting orders from his Team Leader.

"'Bout time you got here," Quatermain said over coms as James patched them through

He chambered another round and took aim before taking out the leg of another meta running up behind Wrath. It was more of a mercy than anything.

Red, violent energy swirled around Wrath, as he lashed out at the metas that made it too him before Quatermain could stop them. One of the metas with fire wreathing his head and hands charged Wrath who whirled around and charged him.

The screaming nuclear hero must have been a frightening sight. The meta slid to a stop and tried putting his hands up for an attack, but Wrath's aura flared with a small explosion of energy that carried the hero over the ground so he could deliver a punch strong enough to send the would-be villain clear across the street, a smoldering fist burned into his shirt.

"Who else?" Wrath snarled.

"Calm it down a peg," Quatermain said, pulling a canister from his belt and lobbing it towards a group of villains trying to help their friends up. Thick smoke suddenly cloaked the area in white, but Quatermain swept his arm to the side, and a compartment on his gauntlet opened up. Sever or so small silver object flew out and hovered around the older man like a swarm of silver bees before launching themselves into the smoke bomb, eliciting several cries of pain.

[Okayanos]

San Francisco
Fionn Szabo
Avalerion

Fionn looked northward as chatter continued over the comms. The culprit behind the kidnapping and the data theft could be waiting there, laughing at the Argonauts as they continued bumbling through their mission. "I'm heading north too." He said. The thrusters on his back flared a clear blue as he began to accelerate northward. Flight was an easy thing for him now- the push from the thrusters angled him forward, letting him streamline his body with ease. The jets under his feet fired as well, giving him finer control over his trajectory, and keeping him from spinning out of control.

The ones behind this were more skilled than any sparring opponent or training instructor would be. More ruthless. Fionn's suit was still technically untested in a proper combat field, he realized. "No finer time for field trials." He thought somewhat grimly, unlatching one of the Beam Magnums from his back. The weapon hummed to life in his hand, a faint violet glow emanating from the end of its square barrel. Better to be armed now than to be caught empty-handed later. "James, keep updates coming. We might have trouble on our hands, and I don't want any of our team walking into an ambush."

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
San Fansico
Was Onroute

---

Upon arriving at the San Fransico Field office, Mireille did not stay long. Knowing that her skills would be more useful at the house, she made her way to the lot. Getting in a veichle, she made her way for the house.

"I hear you." Mireille responded into her comms after Jame's call and hearing Silvester's response, "Seeing as I am still on route to the house, I'll start making my way north as you work on narrowing the location down."

[The Cyberiad Council]

James Owens
Argus Comms

"Okay, San Francisco crew, it looks like the attack is coming from Inner Sunset near UCSF, I've routed directions to your vehicle's GPS. Be advised that it could be coming from the college itself."

Meanwhile, Arsenal was doing his best to wrangle the server. "I think I can cut off their access to other systems, but I can't do much to help you unless I cut them off completely," He said to Node.

---

As the Chicago-bound Argonauts made it to Quatermain and Wrath, the older hero was starting to rally the civilians that were with them. "Come on, come on; there's a shelter just up the street."

Wrath, whose aura had calmed to a dull red looked at the Argonauts. "We'll take care of them, you mop up here," he snarled, pointing at the villains who were starting to pull themselves together.

[San Har Jasta]

Pending Chief
Chicago

Chief looked to the area Wrath had pointed. Surely enough, there were some villains there. Pending felt that it would be best if he held off on going feral at this moment. He could handle himself without having to sink into beastliness. He was still stronger than the average human, and could climb extremely well, due to being a normal chimp. But the bad guys were all the way over there. Chief moved his hand under his left arm, finding his shoulder holster and the AF2011 kept within. The pistol gleamed in the sun as he drew it, showing off the care that the simian had put into this double-barreled beast of a handgun. After drawing his firearm, he centered his sights on the oncoming villains, and pulled the trigger.

[Okayanos]

Wintrust Bank, Chicago
The Gold Diggers

"We've got trouble." The Anarchist informed her teammates. Among the collected gathering of supervillains, she was hardly a stand-out. A 5'2" girl with short blonde hair, glasses, and bright blue eyes hardly seems like the kind of person that any known villain would listen to. And yet, when she spoke, all of the more traditionally intimidating members of the Gold Diggers listened. "Wrath's outside, judging by the absurd amount of anger I'm picking up. And if he's there, another one of the Regents is gonna be babysitting him." Barely visible in the center of her pupils, a pink glow signified the use of her telepathic abilities.

"We're going to have to fight our way out. Again." Cerf Tueur grumbled. He was a considerably more intimidating figure, tall and muscular, with a helm made out of some kind of organic material, twisted into the shape of a deer's skull. Around his fist, another set of the same kind of growth emerged, coiling into a sharp point. "I thought they'd leave when I shot their ship down."

"Maybe a bigger spear would've killed them proper." Shepherd commented. The second youngest of the team, her appearance was... eye-catching, to say the least. Incredibly pale, with stark-white hair and, most notably, a pair of curled ram's horns growing from where her eye sockets should have been. Her costume was simple- a white dress, with similar white bandages wrapped around her hands. Her apparent blindness did not give her the appearance of a combatant- yet, a sudden flash of steel revealed the thin-bladed sword concealed under her clothing, and the sudden death of a persistent fly betrayed her precision as it fell to the ground, split down the middle.

Cerf Tueur muttered something under his breath, likely a mix of curses and insults. "Cerf, stow the attitude." A gruff, female voice commanded. The fourth member of the Gold Diggers present, an Asian woman in a light suit of armor. The most notable features on her were her golden, animal-like eyes, and of course the oversized fangs sticking out from her mouth. Her teeth weren't for show, as more than a few now-deceased heroes learned in their last moments. Her name was one most often spoken of with fear- The Butcher.

"Everyone, stop." The team's final member ordered. The leader of the Gold Diggers, and a rather infamous name in the metahuman underworld- Hellequin. More than all other members of the team, he cut a striking figure. His uniform had a kind of military opulence to it, a mix of fabric and armor with two crimson strips crossed over his chest. He wore a golden helmet styled like a demon's head, with glaring eyes and pointed horns. He swept his arm to the side in a dramatic gesture- and as if from thin air, an elegant, elaborately decorated rifle appeared in his hand. "Hold your insults until we've gotten ourselves out of this. We'll argue when we're safe."

Simian Skirmish

His authority was immediately apparent, as the other Gold Diggers immediately abandoned whatever grievances they had with each other, preparing their respective weapons- both organic and mechanical. Hellequin waited beside the door, barely peeking to the outside. There was a signal of confirmation from The Anarchist, and then another from Shephered. Butcher and Cerf Tueur were the first out the door, being the most durable members of the team. Cerf's antlered head scanned the gathered heroes, with one in particular catching his notice.

"Is that a monkey?" The villain wondered out loud.

"He's got a gun!" The Butcher bellowed as her fingers extended into 6 inch blades. "Cerf, take the ape and the children! I'll handle the real heroes." The monstrous woman bounded away, her physical form already beginning to mangle itself into some sort of inhuman shape. Cerf was grimacing under his helm of antlers, but he began to advance toward the Argonauts, and more specifically, the heavily armed Chimpanzee. The deer man sprouted a long, needle-sharp growth from his wrist- rather than letting it remain as a close combat weapon, he gripped the weapon and pulled it free of his flesh- revealing a 3 foot long spike. He hurled the makeshift spear at Chief, sending it forth like a missile.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Samuel Connors
aka Wrath

Today had not been a great day so far. They were supposed to be off duty, letting Eagle and the Shield of Freedom take the reigns for a day or too. It had been nothing but back-to-back missions. Wrath surveyed the numerous metas laying around him as the Argonauts moved in and Quatermain started pulling the civilians up the street. Reaching to his wrist, he turned the dial on his wrist. He could feel the tranquilizer flood his system, artificially calming him down. The nuclear fire that wreathed his form subsided. He could feel the tensions on his bones as they resorted themselves, returning to their normal size. Looking down, Wrath saw that his knuckles were bruised.

"Great," he muttered.

Before he could make it more than a few steps, another shot rang out. Turning around, a bit lethargic from the carfentanil, he saw The Butcher running at them while the rest of the Gold Diggers fought the Argonauts.

"Even better."

With a sigh, Wrath reached back down, and turned the dose of the tranquilizer to zero. It took a second or two, but soon his body burned through it, and he could feel the unadulterated rage coming back. His face contorted into a scowl as the air started to shimmer in his immediate vicinity.

This time, he wasn't holding back. Unlike with the nameless thugs, he knew that even if he overdid things, Cypher wouldn't really be mad.

"Fuck..."

Blinding red light surged from the aura that surrounded the hero as nuclear heat made the asphalt around him begin to boil.

"OFF!" he yelled as he threw a punch, sending a wave of power roaring down the street to hit Butcher.

[Okayanos]

Pending Chief
Chicago

Chief's instincts kicked in when he saw the spear get thrown at him. The ape rotated his body out of the way and moved his left hand, grabbing the spear as it flew by. Chief quickly scanned the area to see who threw it, and spied the man with the deer skull. This man was a villain, and Chief would not hesitate to apprehend him. He aimed his firearm at the Gold Digger and fired.

"I'm engaging with the deer man. Knight Owl, go up and over him. We can't let him or anyone else get to the civilians!"

Gunfire impacted Cerf Tueur's antler shell. The armed monkey had been quicker than he'd expected, catching his spear mid-flight and returning fire. The bullets, thankfully, had not been strong enough to break through his protective armor. "Not bad, for an animal." Spikes grew around his fists as he began approaching Chief, menacingly. He'd never taken on a primate before. Part of him was looking forward to it.

BANG! A loud gunshot rang out- Hellequin, peeking out from inside the bank, firing on the ape with his rifle. "Anarchist, Shepherd, move now! Our payday's waiting on the other side of this headache." The blonde girl and the pale girl with the ram horns ducked out of the bank, starting to make their way through the fray. Shepherd clutched the Anarchist's hand, guiding her teammate with more accuracy and precision than a blind person should be capable of.

"Got it!" Yelled Owl as his JumpJets propelled him upwards and over. With a quick swipe of his arm, a single explosive dart shot out from his wrist, targeting Cerf Teuer's back. He turned to face Hellequin whilst maintaining altitude. "Let's show 'em what we got, Ollie." He whispered as both his arms rose, revealing an arsenal of darts on both wrists. Knight Owl launched three tear gas darts at Hellequin and two stun darts at the fleeing Anarchist and Shepherd.

Pending heard a very loud gunshot and moments later felt a very large pain in his stomach. He let out a yell and looked down and saw a bullet hole in his stomach. Beyond his new wound, Chief thought they weren't doing terrible and he liked how Knight Owl was making himself useful. If they could distract all of the villains, then more heroes could come and help once the civilians were safe. The problem was that they were two inexperienced heroes against very experienced villains. Hellequin would have to wait because Cerf Tueur was getting closer and closer to the ape with a very violent intent. Chief realized that if he were to stand a chance against this deer he will need to be feral.

"Knight Owl, I'm going to go feral. I won't be able to command us, so you are now in charge!" With that Chief holstered his gun and hunched on to all fours. He felt primal instinct pull on his mind and gave in. He snarled a few times, letting the pain from his stomach feed the beast and he looked at the deer like a carnivore looks at it's prey. Chief howled and beat his fist on the ground, leaving cracks in the asphalt. The ape propelled himself forwards at alarming speeds, and pushed off from the ground. The feral simian flew high into the air and grabbed a lamp post, swung off of it, and leapt at Cerf Tueur with the spear aimed at the villains chest.

Cerf Tueur felt like, for once in his life, he was on a roll. A hero he didn't recognize, one with a fancy suit of armor, leaped high in the air, firing a whole barrage of projectiles at the Gold Diggers. A small, silver needle flew at Cerf Tueur, but the deer was able to dive to the side just as the dart lodged itself into the ground and detonated. The explosion shook him to his core, but he'd held up through worse. A crazed-looking ape wielding one of Cerf's own growths like a spear might have been worse. The crazed simian lunged through the air, with the tip of the spear lodging into the ground just beside Cerf's head. He had no time to consider how he'd nearly been stabbed by his own weapon, instead taking advantage of Chief's miss to headbutt the ape, taking advantage of the sharp antlers on his helm.

Hellequin was far worse for wear. He'd fumbled to seal his mask against the gas, but time had not been on his side. The masked villain covered his eyes, finding himself coughing. His skin felt as though it were being clawed off. He stumbled out of the gas, racked with irritation. "Anarchist! Traiter avec lui!" He yelled, gesturing towards Knight Owl as his rifle vanished into thin air in the same way as it had appeared.

Anarchist was shaken, but standing. Shepherd had dodged the stun dart with an unnatural ease, and had been quick to pull the other one out of Anarchist's arm where it had lodged itself. Her hand was numbed, but she wouldn't be needing it to aid in the fight. The pupils of her eyes became pink again as she focused on Knight Owl. His body was covered in armor, but his mind was open to her. She lashed out telepathically, an indiscriminate mental attack that carried no command, just pain.

"Got it, Chief. Argonauts, engage." Knight Owl said as he watched his gas dart prove effective against Hellequin. He would take that chance to take the shot and target Hellequin. His focus was shattered as he felt a....presence inside his head. He couldn't describe it but felt the ill intentions it had for Richard. In mid-flight, Owl closed his eyes momentarily, shaking his head. "Hrrg, fuck off!" He said as he pushed the presence out and used his JumpJets to send him rocketing towards Hellequin. At just the right moment, the JumpJets switched off to vent. Knight Owl reached behind his back and activated his staff. With a heavy grunt, he used his full strength to sling the staff vertically at Hellequin.

As the rest of the Argonauts committed to their assault on the Gold Diggers alongside the Regents, Zeke would take this opportunity to release some much needed anger. With the order from Knight Owl to engage, which he couldn't care less about, he took the opportunity to pounce while he was already engaged with the ape. With a vicious grunt and a heavy right hand, Zeke thrusted his first towards Cerf Tueur.

Chief grunted as the deer unexpectedly headbutted him. The ape took a step back, reeling from the blow to his noggin, but was quick to rebut. He quickly leapt at the deer, pulling back his lips to reveal his teeth. He aimed his bite at the deer's throat. Pending always had a little bit of control with the feral mind, but because of all of the pain and craziness in the fight, he knew this transformation was different. He hoped that he wouldn't attack any friends, or be too violent with any villains if he brought any of them down. With that last thought, Pending felt himself disappear, and the feral minded Chief completely took over.

Cerf Tueur's antlers sunk into Chief's simian hide as he'd headbutted the ape. A large man- another one of the heroes- struck at him, with Cerf just barely managing to roll himself out of the way, tearing his antlers out of Chief's flesh as he did so. Freeing himself from the ape turned out to be a mistake, as the animal lunged at him violently, sinking its teeth into him. The deer man grunted in pain as the Chimp's teeth re-opened old wounds from some of Saint's creatures that had gotten violent with him. "Fuck off!" He shoved Chief away, roughly- putting space between himself and the rabid monkey. The animal was just begging to be put out of its misery, but there were now two threats before him. Cerf Tueur let a fresh set of spikes grow from his helm, rebuilding his antlers. "You both want to go? Pity, I'd take you both on right here if things were different."

Hellequin was only just regaining his senses when the caped metahuman descended upon him with a long, metal staff. The effects of the gas were still addling his mind, but he managed to use his rifle to block the attack. "Shepherd, get back over here! Map a path for Butcher to get back to us, now! These children have some talent after all." Hellequin used his rifle to force Knight Owl's staff aside- with a flicker in the air, a finely-crafted knife appeared in his hand, the blade surrounded by a field of glowing golden energy as he thrust it toward Knight Owl.

Shepherd put a hand to her throat, finding Butcher on the comms. "We need you back with us, Melissa. You'll have to dance with Wrath later." The blind woman grinned at the Butcher's inevitable annoyance at her savagery being called a 'dance'. Shepherd drew her blade in one hand, and in the other, she produced a long-barreled, silvery handgun from inside her robes. A gift from her team's dear leader. She advanced toward Knight Owl with perfectly precise footsteps, aiming her sword at his back as Hellequin stabbed from the front.

[Futrellia]

"Talk is cheap, you fuckin' freak. Lemme see what'chu really got." Zeke said with a smile on his face, cracking his knuckles as he slowly walked forward. He rushed forward, throwing himself in the air, orienting his feet towards the deer, hoping to connect with a dropkick.

The staff rebounded off of Hellequin's rifle with a loud clank, vibrating intensely as he moved to try to defend a counter-attack that he knew was coming. Instead of a counter, Hellequin's rifle slung towards Knight Owl, catching his staff with immense power and slinging it from his hands. In a split second, a blade materialized, it's edges tingling with golden light as it thrusted itself towards Knight Owl, within striking range. Fuck... Owl thought as he prepared to take the hit, though Ollie had informed him of another threat behind him. He was about to be minced meat. His armor would either hold the blades or he was about to be evacuated from this battle as the first Argonaut injured in battle. He felt the massive energy collide with his breastplate armoring as another struck his back. The suit's thin tungsten carbide exterior plating and the inner kevlar-nomex mesh held up against both attacks. Need to get out of this....now, now, now Knight Owl repeated in his head as his JumpJets boosted him up. In what felt like slow motion, his left wrist dart array opened up, launching out a single smoke dart that landed between the two villains, exploding into a massive cloud of thick white phosphorous. Knight Owl landed by his staff, scooped it up and pointed an end of the staff at the two shrouded in the smoke, utilizing the sensors in his HUD to make out their shapes, and pulled a small trigger at the edge of his index finger, releasing a tight spread of buckshot at Shepherd.

[Okayanos]

Chicago
Cerf Tueur

Cerf Tueur had to give it to Zeke- the big man could move. The deer-headed villain had been dodging attacks like a prize fighter until Zeke had charged him with that dropkick. He'd seen the attack coming, but the Zeke closing the distance between them as quickly as he had was not what Cerf had expected. The impact forced the air from his lungs- a dry CRACK came from his armor as it finally gave under the sheer force of Zeke's strength. A gap in his defenses, and- Cerf felt a sharp pain in his abdomen- something broken inside. Might be a rib or two. He'd eaten more big hits than either of the heroes facing him- at this rate, he might not be able to win a two-on-one.

"We need you back with us, Melissa. You'll have to dance with Wraith later." Shepherd's voice spoke through Cerf Tueur's earpiece. Ah, there would be help arriving to turn this around after all. Still though, it was unlike the Gold Digger's employer to simply leave them to the wolves like this. The Gold Diggers had been nothing but loyal, on numerous occasions. Betrayal was something reserved for only the most base of supervillains, given how quickly it could tank one's reputation.

The Butcher

Crimson red energy washed over Melissa Adelman's body like a tidal wave. There were so few heroes out there who would- or even could- hurt her like this. In a way, she was excited by it. If there were people in this world who were still stronger than her, what would she become if she consumed them? The question was almost always gnawing at the back of her mind. Her flesh blackened and melted from the nuclear fire that enveloped her, sending needles of pain and agony through every part of her. Melissa let out an inhuman growl as her body began to knit itself back together, hardened armor forming over her skin. Her clawed hands extended into talons with jagged edges, and her mouth widened into a predatory grin with far too many teeth.

She bounded toward Wrath with murderous intent, brandishing her newly formed blades. A truly bestial enemy would lunge at the burning man, skewering him but inevitably meeting their own end in the flames of his anger. The Butcher, despite what appearances would indicate, still retained her ability to think and reason. This fight was one she had limped away from before, the last time her team had the misfortune of battling the Regents. She knew better than to meet Wrath blow-for-blow when he was melting asphalt with his mere presence. In the middle of her seemingly berserk charge, the Butcher turned on a dime. It was only a matter of extending the length of her arms- combined with her superhuman speed, she reached her goal. A simple streetlamp on the side of the road. Her long fingers fit around the pole with ease, as easily as her strength enabled her to rip the lamp from the ground.

She swung the length of it outwards, the sheer area covered by the attack making it nigh-impossible for Wrath to avoid. Even as she batted him a good couple of feet back, the metal was beginning to glow from the heat he put out. No time to waste, then. The Butcher leapt toward Wrath's prone form with her improvised weapon in hand, plunging the sharp, broken-off end through the here's chest, pushing further until it impaled itself into the asphalt below him. As powerful a blow as it was, her enemy was still on fire. She sprung back, scratching at the armor on her chest that had been left heated and fragile. It flaked off of her, some small pain coming from her discarding her protection- but nothing compared to what she'd endured already.

"We need you back with us, Melissa. You'll have to dance with Wrath later."

Ah, pity. She'd have to leave the hero nailed to the road to die slowly and painfully. At least the heat continuing to pour off of him would cauterize the wounds. The Butcher would have smiled if her current mouth were capable of expression. Instead, she simply gave a brief bow towards Wrath before sprinting off towards her cervine compatriot. Shepherd and Hellequin were dueling a man in high-tech armor, with a billowing cape that flowed behind every practiced movement. Not bad, but a little beneath her level. The ape and the brick wall of a man taking on Cerf Tueur? That was more her speed.

The Butcher barreled forward on all fours, lunging at Zeke with her jagged claws outstretched, aiming to gouge out chunks of the man's flesh. She'd make a veritable feast out of this one's carcass, if victory favored her team now.

Shepherd

Zoe Cole didn't see color, texture, or even proper shape. She did, however, see movement. Every minute motion of the hero that fought against her was a look into his life, his capabilities- his weaknesses. The man- what little of his voice she'd heard made her think it was a man, at least- had clearly learned to fight with the best of them. There wasn't any street brawling roughness to his fighting style- every motion had the ease of practice to it, sometimes aided by outside force. From the whooshing sounds she heard, it was some sort of propulsion system. Either this hero could generate rocket thrust from his body, or he was wearing a suit of armor. Judging by the feeling of her blade pinging off of him and the types of attacks he'd favored, she figured it would be the latter.

Shepherd had little experience in the area of fighting, but when it came to physical motion, she always understood it on the first try. The armored hero whirled a long weapon about, clashing with Hellequin's rifle until the boss had disarmed them. Then the hero had flown up, firing something down between Shepherd and Hellequin. From the smell, she assumed smoke. Shepherd was, of course, unaffected by the obscuring of sight. Hellequin, however, would be. He'd been in the middle of the fray for too long, and had taken too many hits. Shepherd didn't like that. She shoved Hellequin to the side as she felt the hero pick his weapon up, raising it to fire like a gun. Her power, as it was wont to do, showed her the spread of each pellet from his gun before the trigger was even pulled. She'd pushed Hellequin from the line of fire, and that was her only main goal. Shepherd dropped to the ground prone, falling forward and catching herself just in time to slow her fall. The shotgun blast thundered above her head. The fabric of her costume billowed behind her as she dropped, and some pellets from the blast tore holes through the fabric, yet her timing was such that none managed to mar her flesh.

She'd let her gun hand extend in front of her as she fell. When she felt her chest hit the ground, she also felt her gun's barrel now being pointed perfectly towards Knight Owl. The explosive BOOM of the shotgun being fired so close to her had left a ringing in her ears, enough so that the CRACK of her own gun firing only slightly registered as she pulled the trigger.

[Futrellia]

Zeke

Her speed and her demeanor took the superhuman off-balance as he turned just in time to see her morbid claws reach out at Zeke. He clinched his body as he prepared to take the hit, his eyes wide and staring her down. Her sharp claws met Zeke's skin and they stopped cold. They made a chinking sound as they collided with his chest and did not puncture. He felt pressure and felt some oxygen be forced from his lungs, but it only fueled his anger. He snarled as he grabbed the base of her right arm or appendage or whatever it was, he backed up, extending his arm fully as he wrenched down with his left hand. "Take the deer, monkey-man." He said to Chief as He pulled her forward, raised his right fist and slammed it towards her, aimed right at her face.

Knight Owl

The smoke began to clear as a secondary shot could be heard. Owl's HUD momentarily shook and registered a red, flashing color as Shepherd's round struck hard against Owl's left breast, right where his heart would be. The shot forced an audible groan from him as the force twisted his torso, forcing him down to one knee. He groaned once more as he breathed heavily, feeling the full effect of the round. His HUD lit up with diagnostic checks in milliseconds. The round had torn fabric and padding from his armor, but the plating had remained, though dented. There would be bruising, a good amount of it and it hurt much more than if the bullet had actually gone through him. She was good, he gave that to her. The external speakers in his helmet turned off as he relayed a message to any of the two teams that would listen. "Could use some help over here." Owl said lowly. He got up from his knee and stared down the two villains as the smoke cleared. "Look, we could do this all day, but I've got better things to do. Don't suppose you'd just come quietly?" He said in a half sarcastically, half inquisitively tone. He was running ammunition count and suit integrity as he waited for a response, checking to see if he still had enough munitions to keep this up. Luckily, he was still in the green on darts and more than enough rounds for the shotguns in his staff.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Sabina frowned as her SUV sped down 19th ave. "That doesn't sound right Arsenal. That part of UCSF is a medical center. I'm not even sure they have a computer lab there, a guy sitting on is laptop for hours on end will stand out a lot more than at your average coffee shop." Ash said the last part, an idea hit her. "Arsenal, I'm going to cut down Irving and recon on foot. There's a couple of coffee shops and restaurants right next to the college that might be where our hacker might be hiding out."

Heading down Irving and finding a parking spot near the college. Making sure that the Argus insignia on her shirt wasn't visible, she started making her way to the Snowbird Coffee Shop. as she expected, inside were almost a dozen people typing away on their computers. "Excuse me." Sabina said to the cashier manning the order desk as she discreetly showed her the Argus ID card. "We're looking for a person of interest in an ongoing case. Has there been anybody here acting strange."

[Mercatus]

Marty

After the somewhat rough landing, Marty was still unfazed. He ran with the rest of the team away from the giant gorilla that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Marty didn't recognize Chief as team leader, unlike the others, but he didn't express it. He ran up ahead of Chief using his unnaturally fast running speed, but still slow enough not to become dehydrated. He took a similar route to Night Owl, forming climbing picks with his hands and feet and swiftly climbing up a shorter building. Suddenly, the bright flash of light generated by the presumed target, Wrath, blinded Marty. "AAAGH!" he yelled as the flash disoriented him, causing him to fall off the edge of the building he was standing on. He caught himself only moments before impacting the ground with a climbing pick he dug into the wall. He slowly regained his sight, and reformed the climbing pick back into a hand.

Then, everything happened very fast. A group of metahumans began to attack the Argonauts. Marty, despite his aching eyes, quickly acquired a target.: Shepherd. The woman seemed to be engaging Night Owl, who had been hit with a rifle round. Marty rushed forward silently, wielding his shotgun in his right hand with the stock folded, and forming a blade on his left. He leapt an astounding 12 feet in the air, giving him more than enough time to empty the tube of shells. 8 loads of 00 buckshot left the barrel within seconds, and Marty positioned his blade to strike Shepherd in the head.

[San Har Jasta]

Pending Chief
Chicago

Chief had heard what Zeke said, but his primal mind couldn't comprehend the words. All the ape knew was to remove the threat before him. Chief felt great anger towards the deer, and he wanted him dead and gone. When he was this deep into the feral mindset, there was no room for morals or caution. Chief stalked around on all fours and stared down the deer man for several seconds.

Chief had held onto one shred of knowledge from Pending. The best ways to kill someone. The blacked out, moral, intelligent, Pending side of the ape's brain had slowly started to show itself. Not the part that would tell the animal not to kill the deer, and to take him to jail, but the part that helped the animal know how to kill the deer. Chief let out a blood curdling yell and jumped at the Gold Digger with as much force as his simian body could muster. The chimp stretched out his hands, aiming to crush his enemy's throat.

[Okayanos]

Chicago
Melissa Adelman
The Butcher

The junior hero in front of her was tough. She'd been expecting to rend flesh from bone, but her prey had held itself together. Melissa half-gasped, half-growled as Zeke grabbed hold of the eviscerating instrument that had once been her right arm. His grip was... crushing, to say the least. The Butcher felt her bones creak and snap as her arm was wrenched downward violently. One of her precious weapons, made into a useless pile of limp flesh. She had no time to grieve her loss, as the next thing Melissa was aware of was Zeke's fist crashing into her skull. Her jaw popped from its proper place, and a sudden stinging sensation and slight vision loss told her that one of her eyes had been popped, likely from its socket being violently reduced in size.

Her regeneration began to kick into high gear, almost as much as it had when she'd been fighting Wrath. "How fortuitous." The Butcher thought. When she walked away from this fight- and she would- she'd have to keep her eye on a hero with power like this. More of her armor, an almost chitin-like substance, began to form a sort of helm over her head. Her toothy maw, now more of a mangled mess than anything else, was covered and sealed in by biological plating. Even her eyes were concealed and protected. Her limp arm realigned itself, twisting until everything inside snapped into place. Despite how violently she'd jerked her own insides back into pace, Melissa felt nothing but a kind of relief. Now armored and with her jagged claws fully functioning, the Butcher made ready to again test her power against Zeke...

Cerf Tueur

Erwan Laurent's day continued going from bad to worse. The Butcher had taken the big one's attention off of him, but now the damn ape was at his throat in the most painfully literal way possible. Cerf's protection had broken from Zeke's blow, which made him painfully aware of the chimp's hands tightening around his throat and cutting off his supply of air. Erwan didn't have the time nor the education to figure out how long he'd have before the monkey choked him out of consciousness, but he figured it wouldn't take long- with this thing's strength, it might just crush his windpipe through raw strength.

Erwan acted as quickly as he could. He struggled, man against ape, clawing and shoving at his attacker- and once he found purchase, he let his power flow through him, and push outward. From the palm of each hand, antler-like spikes sprouted, in a desperate bid to inflict some harm upon Chief- and, potentially, to let his natural venom take revenge on the damn dirty ape.

Zoe Cole
Shepherd

Motion/Stillness

Chaos erupted around her. Everything was a blur, frantic, instinctive. Her shot had hit home on the armored hero, but he didn't sound especially hurt. Shepherd's head cocked to the side as she listened to Knight Owl's words.
"Look, we could do this all day, but I've got better things to do. Don't suppose you'd just come quietly?" He asked. Shepherd considered for a moment, ever so slightly loosening her grip on her weapons. She willed her heartbeat to slow itself, to cease its distracting pace so that she might think clearly.
"...I don't know about coming quietly." She answered after some time deliberating. "But we would be willing to negotiate, for our safe passage out of this warzone."

"What she says is true." Hellequin, having finally regained his composure, striding beside Shepherd with a renewed confidence in every motion. "This chaos is a far cry from how our group prefers to operate. Frankly, I'd rather avoid any of my people being more seriously injured- Butcher, calme toi!" Hellequin suddenly ordered, in the midst of his speech. The Butcher, baring her claws at Zeke, looked toward her team's leader with an unreadable expression. But, she didn't attack.
"There, see? Let's be civilized about this. My first term is for you to call off your chimpanzee before I shoot it, s'il vous plait." With a wave of his hand, his rifle appeared once again, leveled toward Chief. As polite as he sounded, the gun was a reminder of his position as a villain.

Shepherd was comfortable standing aside and letting her boss speak. She wasn't lacking in social confidence- but she had a tendency to talk herself into trouble rather than talking out of it the way Hellequin could. She felt multiple movements toward their position, familiar ones. Hellequin's negotiation wasn't just him trying to get his team out safe- it was buying time for backup to arrive if the heroes wouldn't go about their work peacefully.

And then, Shepherd's precognitive power sensed that they wouldn't. "Throw up one of your nets at a 50 degree angle, to your left. Detonate it at the peak of the arc." She interrupted any further peace talks that Hellequin could attempt. The masked villain was confused, but he had seen Shepherd long enough to trust her the second she spoke. He unclipped a gold cylinder from his belt and hurled it upward and to his left, at the right angle-

BLAM BLAM BLAM

An unknown metahuman wearing far too much ballistic armor leaped inhumanly high into the air, emptying a shotgun down towards Shepherd. Hellequin's golden cylinder- the net- exploded at the right time, down to the millisecond. It released a shimmering wall of golden energy that hung in the air, blocking the shotgun shells- not simply stopping the buckshot, but seemingly consuming it. The second Marty's feet hit the ground, the wall had vanished. Shepherd felt the new combatant charge her, stabbing savagely with a blade at her head. She leaned out of the way easily, just enough to feel the attack whip past her horns without quite hitting. She retaliated, stabbing her thin-bladed sword upward, to pierce her attacker's shoulder.

Hellequin sighed. The idiocy of one had put an end to any peace that could be had here. Now, The Gold Diggers would have to fight their way out. The silver lining was that they would have help soon enough. Hellequin saw no reason to hold off from shooting Chief, and with a thundering BOOM that outdid the sound of Marty's shotgun, he fired his elegant, engraved rifle. For a moment, blood-red flame and smoke seemed to explode from the barrel, before fading as the spend cartridge dropped to the ground.

[Nagakawa]

Kenny Lim
Chicago
23/03/2020

Rounding civilians up and getting them to go indoors to safety (rather than stand around and take videos of the happenings outside as people so loved to do) was the easy part for Kenny. Though he had kept one eye on his surroundings, making sure to watch out for potential threats, there was nothing that suggested that the asphalt would suddenly liquify and be thrown about in what could only have been a duel between two metahumans.

Still somewhat dazed from the aircraft crash- he'd spent a bit of energy patching up a hairline crack in his femur- and busy trying to get people to safety, it was all the more shocking when he turned around, only to find the road mangled from whatever had happened earlier, and Wrath lying impaled to the road by a street lamp.

"Looks like I've got work cut out", he murmured to himself, quickly heading over to where Wrath lay pinned to the street. "Hey, you still with me? Great. I'm gonna help you."

He crouched beside Wrath, placing a hand over the side of his body and opening a small healing field that encompassed just the two of them, stymying the bleeding until such time as someone could come along and remove the street lamp, after which a more thorough healing could be done.

10% of available energy used for my own hairline fracture. For every one minute here in stopping the bleeding, it'll be another 5%. If I provide 40% to regenerating his internal organs, that leaves me with ten minutes max...

"Yo, team", said Kenny into his comms, too distracted with preventing Wrath from bleeding out and from maintaining the healing field to speak in proper comms speak, "I need some help here. Someone who can lift a lamp post."

[Futrellia]

Zeke

Zeke was entranced with the damage he caused to the villain's face. It was what he lived for, smashing things and watching the biologic carnage unfold in front of him. He wouldn't enjoy the fruits of his labor for long, as the Butcher's face began an almost eerie restoration, covering with a chitin-like armor. Zeke was visibly disgusted as he slowly backed up, listening to the cracking and snapping as her body returned to normal. "See, now that's just fuckin' wrong..." He said as he readied himself for the Butcher. Then just as the villain leapt to Zeke, she was halted by orders from another villain, one that seemed to be negotiating with Knight Owl. They both turned to face them and watched as the short negotiations crumbled with Marty's assault. As the two sides continued the onslaught after the short half-time, Zeke was the first to engage. With all the strength he could muster, he wrapped both hands around the villain's neck, picked her up and summoned every bit of strength he could and slammed her to the ground.


Knight Owl

He hadn't expected the two to be so cordial. He expected them to continue the fight, ignore his requests for negotiations. He was about to open his mouth just when he saw Marty leap into action. He was glad to see him, no doubt, but understood that this meant that there would be no halt in this battle. As Marty engaged Shepherd, he kept his eyes on Hellequin, who had moved to fire on Chief. There was nothing he could do to prevent Chief taking the hit, but he'd try to make him pay for it. Owl activated his Jumpjets, flew upwards and fired two explosive darts at Hellequin shortly before he angled his feet back and charged in at Hellequin, staff angled towards him, waited for the darts to impact, then fired a deadly burst from the staff's shotgun.