Gods Among Us (IC|Superhero|Open)

[Anowa]

“So, Gauss, are you... okay?”

To be honest, Gauss sort of blanked in regards to what Blink said for the most part, only really picking up on the general gist of what he was saying. Her attention was drawn to the tissue paper thin skin on her recently regenerated hand. her father's way of Pavlovian teaching was to indirectly inflict excruciating pain, in this case, her skin hadn't fully been healed, so right now pretty much her entire right arm was screaming to God, as ever nerve ending supposedly covered by the nigh transparent skin was exposed to the open air. If someone shone a UV light on it, they'd see the entire section was either raw or barren down to the sinew. It would grow fully back in patches of healthy tissue and scar tissue, a permanent reminder of how Gauss fucked up today.

having picked back up on the conversation, Blink's concern flattered Gauss, but the lad had absolutely zero power to actually do anything about it, "No, Blink. I'm pretty far from okay, but thanks for the concern."

Almost immediately after Ophi left to get something, and the new face bumbled in, the Russian, asking if she was alright, once again responding in Russian, Gauss addressed the man, "(No, despite all the blood, I'll be fine.)"

Ophi's reveal that she had come back with a box of gingerbread cookies, and not the fucking gun that Gauss had expected, stumped the red head for a moment. It was easy to pick out that Ophiuchia wasn't lying about them being safe for her to eat, since if they were laced with uncooked garlic, Gauss would already be dead, and gingerbread tended to not cook properly if it was laced with powdered nickel. There was a level of both distaste and humor to be found in their... presentation, on one hand it tickled Gauss' self deprecating sense of humor, on the other hand, it was also making light of the same event that killed close to 200 people. Gauss chuckled, "Thank you." a pause, as Gauss remembered exactly why she'd stopped eating baked good after 'The Incident', "Uh, since my blood pressure is at an all time low, and if I try one, it'll probably tank my blood's insulin level and give me a seizure, so."

[Anowa]

Friday, March 27th

Breakfast was rarely an enjoyable meal for Hannah anymore. It had gone from cereals and bacon to whatever she could stuff into a blender to recoup the calories her body had inevitably dumped into electrical current during her sleep, which was anywhere from 6 to 12 thousand calories. That wasn't to say hannah didn't stock froisted flakes or whatever, just that she didn't eat them for breakfast, if anything a bowl of cereal was a light snack to her.

While she had gotten use to the smell of a whole ass cod, 12 raw eggs, 8 ounces of beef, 3 potatoes, and half a liter of orange juice being melted in a 400 dollar blender, it was unlikely that the 3 other people that had moved in had done so in the last 5 days. Skye was obvious, having moved in with her adorable hippo of a dog, seeing as she had been keen on making sure Hannah wasn't interested in suicide anymore. Blink was another, getting his bed and clothing set up in the room he picked out, he'd been somewhat quiet so far. The last was a tall German man who went by Rosenrot, he was old, given the grey, almost white hair, and wrinkles. In the day he'd been shacked up with them, he had talked a bit about his experiences in the Second World War, not so much the battles, but the friends he'd made, so, either he was doing great for his age, or he had something supernatural about him. he, like Hannah, was a warden, though assigned to Synapse... Skye. The red head very deeply hoped that nothing notable would happen between the two. Outside of that, the old man was pretty amicable, both him and Hannah herself had an appreciation for firearms, and both had the look in their eye that told tales of harrowing experiences in the face of death.

Hannah sighed as she twisted the blender off, before uncapping the spout for the pitcher. She brought the frapped mess of stuff up to her mouth, opened her throat and tried not to gag at the taste... or smell. A good 10 seconds later, she put the blander in the sink and shuddered, "Fuck I hate these powers sometimes."

Her phone started vibrating on the counter, caller ID made it clear that it was work related, picking it up, she gave a single word, "Gauss."

"Herrman, gear up, get to La Guardia, now We've got issues outside of New York. Get Synapse and Rosenrot too."

"Aye aye."

Gauss hung up immediately thereafter, hearing the concern in Herrman's voice, unknown to her, every member of Teams Alpha through Golf were getting similar calls, "Skye, August, Jack! Shit's going down, get geared and meet my by the truck or get your ass to La Guardia!"

The sound of the old man diving foot first into his boots was heard from the floor above, as Gauss immediately made a beeline for her suit in the basement.

Getting said suit on could take upwards of 15 minutes if she pulled off every pre-powering checklist, but she didn't have the advantage of time. When pressed, she could get it on in 40 seconds, and do the check list en route. The sound of a powered drill driving hex nuts into place at various places on the armored assembly echoed from the open basement door. Gauss paused as she spotted one of the more enigmatic pistols she had left partially disassembled on the table. A small part of her mind told her to take it, so, trusting her gut, she slammed the Glock back together and grabbed a box of ammo from beside it.

Within 2 minutes, she was back out the front door and all but diving into the armored vehicle, already keying the ignition. As the others also shuffled into the vehicle or made their own way, the hydraulic doors sealed and the whistles and bells on the roof rack spun up. It took a good 10 minutes and what could be qualified as 13 traffic infractions before they wheeled into La Guardia and were flagged by Epoch security in to one of their private hangars.

Herrman was present, but he was, surprisingly in actual combat gear, he called out over the whine of the trio of quadrotor's engines, and as Hannah and her band of roomies disembarked from their vehicle, and a number of others also showed up, "Alpha and Foxtrot, Tail 344!, Bravo and Echo, 346, and Charlie and Delta 350! Time's short so you'll get your briefings en route!"

Hannah gave a simple nod to Skye and Rosenrot in recognition as the duo boarded their respective chariots. Taking off within minutes as the late arrivals finally got aboard.

---

Team A/F Briefing:

Hannah was quite surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice squeal in on the radio, it was nasally, but it held a depth to it, one of knowledge and confidence. She had felt the take off, and given the orientation after take off, they were heading north a ways, and given those two factors, well... "My name is Doctor Gregory Coomer, head of administration at the White Mountain Research Complex. Normally I'd simply chuckle from any response that said this is for my own company's interest, not today. Right now, in excess of 80 armed individuals stormed the front gate to the complex and breached the main blast door. Communication with the facility below the 3rd sub level is unavailable, and they seemed to blitz past those sub levels in the aims of getting deeper into the facility. Chrono was spotted among them, meaning this is a result of Osteo's syndicate. I am not fully sure what it is they're going after, but there's three distinct possibilities."

"Firstly, the bio labs on Sub Level 7 in the WMRC contain a vast amount of potentially lethal macro and microbioweapons, genetically assigned plagues, as well as vaccines and treatments for a number of supposedly untreatable or incurable diseases and previously mentioned weapons and plagues. Given Osteo's involvement, and his genetic mastery over himself, this is bad news if he's here for that. Ensure this area is secure, don't stress about non combatants, a majority of them will be outside the line of fire, stragglers may be present, but we're all smart enough here not to throw our lives away or to go running about in the open. Evacuation bunkers are dotted throughout the facility, and are hermetically sealed with enough food and water to last 40 people for a month. It would be best to leave them sealed, as security can be jumpy at times."

"Second, the WMRC contains an automated manufacturing plant on Sub Level 6. It is a pressing concern given it's capacity to manufacture and roll out pretty much any design or blueprint created by Epoch or it's subsidiaries since 2015. This ranges from simple prosthesis to autonomous droids and aircraft. It's primary means of access are separate cargo and personnel elevators from Sub Level 1, and an external blast door to the shipping and receiving warehouses. Unfortunately, those blast doors are designed to withstand the shockwave and fireball from a 300 kiloton nuclear detonation within 500 yards. So at best entry through shipping and receiving will be... sluggish. It's fully automated, so it's unlikely that anyone outside of potential trespassers and the 5 man maintenance team are present."

"Finally.... Finally, there's the Experimental Transuranic Exposure and Singularity Reactor Generation Chamber." Hannah's head whipped up, her mind racing with a number of things only tangentially related to the briefing, "It is the entirety of Sub Level 13, and is technically not a sub level, simply an incredibly large attachment to Sub Level 12. It takes up roughly half the space of the facility. Within, are a number of radioactive elements and very very delicate gamma ray absorbing photovoltaic panels and radiation shielding panels. It's sole usage is the creation and utilization of black holes for energy. While capable of booting to full power, we have not gone past a simple kugelblitz yet simply to see the testing purposes of the chamber itself. We don't know exactly what will happen if it boots fully, but-"

Gauss spoke up, "Assuming you're using Californium as the Transuranic Array, you've, in the best case scenario, created a multi megaton bomb. I can't do the math in my head for the destructive capacity of a black hole you'd need 5 square kilometers of space for."

"We've already informed the government, obviously, they're using the EMS to evacuate every one within 100 miles. We advised 150, but they don't want to evacuate Boston over a false alarm."

"You and I both know that's not minimum safe distance for the max yield here."

"Yes." an audible sigh, "Unfortunately, the chamber is only accessible from Sub level 12, which in turn is only accessible from Sub Level 11. Which is currently sealed off due to
the ongoing security breach, which means you'll have to override the programming on the Evacuation Elevator from Sub Level 9 and take it down. It's unlikely it will go back up after being tampered with, so I would ensure everyone is together when you do so. I have a feeling in my gut that you'll all want to be present for tackling anyone tampering with it. The control room, where I am now, can still monitor what is happening, although I do not have a visual of the Chamber. I've been overridden from the emergency terminal inside the chamber itself, it's primarily used for emergency shutdowns in case someone is still in the chamber when tests begin, but it can be used instead to start tests."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

---

Team B/E Briefing

Elisa picked up a radio transmission before the internal system of the Quad Rotor. It was Doctor Cross, as expected, their current bearing indicated they'd be passing Bermuda, likely to the Bucephalus 2 site.

"Sorry to put you folks on such short notice but there's an issue at hand. The Bucephalus 2 Launch Site off the coast of Bermuda was unceremoniously boarded, and the maintenance crew was taken hostage. I'm not gonna get into much science mumbo jumbo for your sake, but I will make it abundantly clear that the destruction of the site is not an option, period. It's got a bunch of ethyl-methyl bad shit that will most definitely pollute or incinerate Bermuda, and that would make the British Government a bit cross with us. From what I've been able to read out from where I am, it's currently assembling a rocket with an orbital payload that is being wired to it from the White Mountain Research Complex. Readings also indicate that radiation is present and matches reading s taken from most fission warheads if it were in a lead lock box, which means we've found our stolen nuke. I'm not at liberty to tell you what is being assembled, only that you have to stop it's operation and clear the platform. I would also be careful, as with comes the inmability to simply bomb the platform, there's also the fact that if any bullet gets tossed into one of the number of tanks, hoses, pipes, and automatons on the platform, you'll be huffing flaming rocket fuel inside of a second. So if not for Bermuda, take care for yourselves."

"Any questions?"

---

Team C/D Briefing

It wasn't long before the Quads Rotor's PA was patched in to Herrman, "Right, so you're heading to the National Mall, current situation is FUBAR. To our knowledge, hostages have been taken in the Lincoln Memorial, Air and Space Museum, National gallery of Art, and the Capitol Building. Gunshots have been reported from the surrounding area, and the president hasn't been evacuated yet. We don't know why, but the Secret Service have yet to inform us about the situation at the White House. However, that is currently irrelevant, what is relevant is-..." a pause, "One Moment, Jager's on the ground, she'll get you up to speed."

A strained, German woman spoke next, "Hello everyone. I wish we could've talked under better circumstances. But we have pressing matters. As of current, I suspect that the individuals behind this attack are targeting lawmakers specifically, I am unsure what criteria is being used, as I saw both Republican and Democratic senators unceremoniously executed at the WWII memorial. I counted six total." The sound of a high velocity snap echoed through the radio, a sigh following, "Unfortunately, there are at least two snipers in the Washington Monument. One of them keeps taking pot shots at the White House, the other is currently focused on keeping me suppressed." a pause, "and making sure my leg doesn't regrow. Unfortunately, I have reason to believe they've put APERS on Capital Hill, and the lawn outside the Smithsonian has a, and I'll be honest, an ingeniously disguised Surface to Air Battery, U-Hauls seem to be ubiquitous here. The total count I could find of hostages is 13 individuals in the Lincoln Monument, guarded by an equal number of OPFOR. I counted 20 additional OPFOR earlier, but they've moved on closer to the capitol building. The gunshots coming from that direction have slowed considerably."

"The reason TIAMA is being called instead of the Army, is simply because Cyst and Blank are here. The latter we still don't know anything about in terms of mutation or mystical properties. However, the Army is close to-" a pause, before jager returned in a low tone, "Land in West Potomac Park, whatever questions you have, be quick."

[Union Princes]

Maria

---

Physically recovering from her head cut off during training was easy, it was the mental recovery that was painful. Maria still finds herself at a loss thinking how Hans managed to triumph over her. Whether for good or for ill, she wasn't allowed to dwell on her dreams for too long as another mission was called in. While most people would pack a lot of ammo in preparation for an extended firefight, Maria stored numerous amounts of scalpel knives and syringes into her handbag. A jar of poison blood found itself stored in her cooler among the containers of her recent supply of healing blood. As for armor and a bulletproof vest, who needs them? Maria has Patriot as her shield; the man can withstand almost anything thrown at him.

It was only after Team C and D were shuffled into their transport did they get their mission brief. There seems to be a hostage situation at the National Mall with terrorists trying to storm the White House. They also had to liberate the museums and monuments from these extremists. Although she had no sympathy for the lawmakers getting executed, Maria was pleased to have an excuse to enact "retaliation" on the enemy. There was plenty of terrorists to go around so the blondie felt confident of scoring a couple of bodies.

When it came to questions, Maria simply asked: "Can I keep the bodies we killed?"

[Lessoni]

Friday, March 27th
Gauss hung up immediately thereafter, hearing the concern in Herrman's voice, unknown to her, every member of Teams Alpha through Golf were getting similar calls, "Skye, August, Jack! Shit's going down, get geared and meet my by the truck or get your ass to La Guardia!"

...

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Jack Dredd

It had been almost surreal going from a particularly dry alley to what was essentially a mansion, but Jack had managed well. He'd eaten plenty, had been plagued with consistent nightmares that for once didn't wake him up screaming, and didn't wake up with a sore back from sleeping on concrete. It was a special version of paradise for the young man whose luxuries included a secondhand Xbox and at least 3 various energy drinks a day, though he hadn't abstained from that particular habit. Indeed, at Gauss' place he felt nearly comfortable, though the man named August unnerved him. He was cordial enough, but he had a quality about him Jack couldn't quite place, and that always put him on edge around a stranger.

When Gauss yelled, he rolled out of bed, on his feet in a second. He'd been barely sleeping, more dozing than anything; waking up quick was practically second nature. Grabbing a Monster out of the drawer of his nightstand, he slammed it in seconds and got dressed in a few more, a simple affair of jeans, a white shirt, and a black tight fitting hoodie, seemingly not aware that all it did was call attention to his scrawny physique. He teleported across the room to the closet, throwing it open to find the body armor, a simple plate carrier, Gauss had helped him pick out. He gave it an appraising look for a moment and slid it on, not quite liking the weight of it but preferring it to getting shot in the chest. Next he put on the ballistic mask Gauss had scoffed at. She'd told him they were essentially useless, but he'd been taken with the look, and so he'd taken the mask, trying it on in the mirror when he was sure no one was around. He finished it off with a pair of combat boots and a decently thick pair of gloves. Stopping in front of the mirror for another moment, he couldn't help but give a goofy smile. He thought he looked awesome. Clipping his binoculars and a telescoping baton he'd also picked up to his belt loops as he did, he dashed to the garage, hopping in Gauss' small tank.

It was Gauss' reckless driving that first began to chip at his confidence; something had to be up, for her to whip the car like that. It went further when they arrived to what could've passed for a military op; it only confirmed Blink's vague idea that this wasn't small fish. Suddenly he felt very vulnerable; he wished he'd gone for the full body armor rig.

On the chopper he realized this would make a fine crucible; he only hoped he could withstand the heat, and perhaps moreso that he wouldn't have to take the full brunt of it. At least he hoped he wouldn't have to, though he would be lying to himself if he said wouldn't love a chance to play hero.

He held his tongue when the doctor asked for questions. Everything he'd been told seemed plenty enough to indicate to him one thing; head on a swivel or his brains would be on the wall.

Team B/E Briefing

...

"Any questions?"

Boaz Anastasius

Boaz didn't understand half of what was said to him. The science was lost on him, but he understood the gist of it well enough. Don't hit anything that wasn't trying to hit him or the whole thing would be what he had learned could be described as a "clusterfuck". He was glad he carried no firearm; they only thing he would have to worry about was unusually quick foes, because he had met none who could avoid his blade yet. He looked at the assembled team around him, slightly displeased at the sight of them. None seemed warriors, though he reminded himself that warriors looked different nowadays, less like . He placed a hand on the pommel of his sword and bowed his head, whispering a long prayer that they'd make it through this alive. He had no doubt he would; it was the ones sitting around him he worried for.

His ritual complete, he looked up, helmet obscuring his face. He had some questions, though he doubted he'd get good answers. If this "Cross" had them, he would've given them if he were a half competent leader.

"I would like some numbers. How many enemies, if we know, and how many prisoners. Are the hostages all together, or have they been spread out? Do they need the hostages to operate whatever machine they are after?"

[Endem]

Chris Digel
En-Route to Bucephalus Launch Platform

It seems this was something large, larger than what was usually going on at least, by a lucky strike, he had been restocking on ammo for his SIG's two days ago when a couple of guns sparked his curiosity, a pair of Sawed-off Shotguns, he hasn't seen this since that one time in the warehouse in 1999 when he was still a member of the organized crime.

Other than this two, he also picked up two Skorpion Vz. 61 Submachine guns, Czech made if memory didn't fail him, curiously enough he also had a, how would you call it, a suspender attached to his belt, said suspender had many small pouches in which a throwing knife was stored, there was about 6 of them, aside from that he had his trusty Ka-Bar knife attached to his belt, and a second one, just in case, attached to his right boot, he also took a bulletproof vest.

"Do we know if there are any metas on the platform?" Chris asked

---

Elias Sayid
En-Route to National Mall

Well, things were decidedly not good, though, it might have been an understatement, seeing how basically the administrative centre of the U.S government was currently under siege, and for some reason he was sympathising with the hostages situation. He made sure he had a good grip on the two knuckles he brought along before slipping his fingers out of them.

"Can somebody give me a gun for a second?"

He wanted to shoot himself in the shoulder, his healing factor would regenerate any damage done by the time they would engage, and he could then provide cover, as the lain caused by the gunshot would be enough to safe guard him from further gunshots, while he could then provide both a distraction for potential gunmen and a living shield for his teammates.

[Europa Undivided]

The Inventor | Pumped up hacks
White Mountain Research Facility

"How does a bunch of vaguely armed individuals capture a highly secure facility with a blast door capable of withstanding a nuclear explosion?"

Inventor frowned as their benefactor, Dr. Coomer, explained how the entire thing went down. Basically, some grunts captured a massive underground facility filled with some of the most advanced pieces of technology in the entire planet, and now they have to go in and take it back. To top it all off, there was apparently a massive section that was dedicated to powering stuff with black holes. Black holes... who would have that experimenting with such kinds of things was a good idea? Another case of man playing God perhaps?

Ah, right. Inventor himself was a product of cruelty done in the name of science.

Of course, they hadn't gotten farther than a "simple kugelblitz". A quick technopathic search through the internet in his phone told him that a kugelblitz was basically a 'black hole made of light'. Great, definitely won't kill everything within a hundred miles should it go out of control. Of all the things that could be played with... it had to be black holes.

For this mission, though, he had brought five drones, each armed with a pair of harpoon launchers, a taser gun and an AR-15. Given that NATO rounds penetrate too much, he had opted for civilian grade; and unless if told to, he will not use the firearms. That was a bad omen. The more mundane and non-lethal weaponry should just be fine, and by the looks of it, there will be lots of hackable doors and machinery. Best not to tinker with anything complex, though. And, just in case, he had a pair of Smith and Wesson M&P 9mm pistols, along with a tablet that could be connected to anything with a USB port to initiate hacking or transfer.

Not a word.

Hydra Imperator | Hail Hydra
Bucephalus 2

Boaz was right. The rather tiny individual near him did not look like a warrior, at least not yet. Jacques was still himself, his good old self. Hydra Imperator and Jacques Lenard were two different people entirely, and one could say that the latter is a split ego. Either way, it was a good thing that Hydra did not use firearms (unlike the other person in the team), as it was made clear that ranged weaponry is a bad thing in this mission.

Still, the classified information hodgepodge was infuriating. For one, Epoch was keeping its secrets close; close to the point of hiding information that could be very helpful in the mission. They wouldn't even tell what was being assembled; hell, for all they know, they could be building a giant robot or a nuke.

No questions. For now.

Shadowshock | How shocking
The National Mall

Shadowshock looked over as Jager finished explaining the situation at hand, asking no questions as he had none the ask. The mission was pretty clear: get the hostages, take down the hostage takers, and do all of this preferably without destroying the entire place. Death and destruction was becoming too common nowadays, and it would suck if even their payroll got shrunk what with all of the insurance payouts that TIAMA had been throwing out. Losing paid vacations were already bad enough; getting paid less was even worse.

Now that he had a little bit of time, Shadowshock was now using his hero costume, though he preferred to call it travel clothes. It was more or less a black cloak, complete with what looked like to be a plague doctor's mask. None of this provided actual protection; it only served for identity concealment as well as for aesthetic. He lived to his name, using dark colors that coincided with his power to disrupt light. Now, they were up, and hopefully, his... personality conflict with some other coworkers won't get in the way.

"Can somebody give me a gun for a second?"

"Elias,", Shadowshock said to the man. "A gunshot will alert the enemy to our presence, so no."

Because of their spar earlier this week, he knew how the Flayed's powers worked. They were fueled by pain, and pain was one of the things that Shadowshock's own powers were good for. "I am guessing you want to fuel your powers. If that's the case, then I can give you what you need."

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Ophiuchia, Team A

"My name is Doctor Gregory Coomer, head of administration at the White Mountain Research Complex. Normally I'd simply chuckle from any response that said this is for my own company's interest, not today. Right now, in excess of 80 armed individuals stormed the front gate to the complex and breached the main blast door. Communication with the facility below the 3rd sub level is unavailable, and they seemed to blitz past those sub levels in the aims of getting deeper into the facility. Chrono was spotted among them, meaning this is a result of Osteo's syndicate. I am not fully sure what it is they're going after, but there's three distinct possibilities."

"Firstly, the bio labs on Sub Level 7 in the WMRC contain a vast amount of potentially lethal macro and microbioweapons, genetically assigned plagues, as well as vaccines and treatments for a number of supposedly untreatable or incurable diseases and previously mentioned weapons and plagues. Given Osteo's involvement, and his genetic mastery over himself, this is bad news if he's here for that. Ensure this area is secure, don't stress about non combatants, a majority of them will be outside the line of fire, stragglers may be present, but we're all smart enough here not to throw our lives away or to go running about in the open. Evacuation bunkers are dotted throughout the facility, and are hermetically sealed with enough food and water to last 40 people for a month. It would be best to leave them sealed, as security can be jumpy at times."

"Second, the WMRC contains an automated manufacturing plant on Sub Level 6. It is a pressing concern given it's capacity to manufacture and roll out pretty much any design or blueprint created by Epoch or it's subsidiaries since 2015. This ranges from simple prosthesis to autonomous droids and aircraft. It's primary means of access are separate cargo and personnel elevators from Sub Level 1, and an external blast door to the shipping and receiving warehouses. Unfortunately, those blast doors are designed to withstand the shockwave and fireball from a 300 kiloton nuclear detonation within 500 yards. So at best entry through shipping and receiving will be... sluggish. It's fully automated, so it's unlikely that anyone outside of potential trespassers and the 5 man maintenance team are present."

"Finally.... Finally, there's the Experimental Transuranic Exposure and Singularity Reactor Generation Chamber." Hannah's head whipped up, her mind racing with a number of things only tangentially related to the briefing, "It is the entirety of Sub Level 13, and is technically not a sub level, simply an incredibly large attachment to Sub Level 12. It takes up roughly half the space of the facility. Within, are a number of radioactive elements and very very delicate gamma ray absorbing photovoltaic panels and radiation shielding panels. It's sole usage is the creation and utilization of black holes for energy. While capable of booting to full power, we have not gone past a simple kugelblitz yet simply to see the testing purposes of the chamber itself. We don't know exactly what will happen if it boots fully, but-"

Gauss spoke up, "Assuming you're using Californium as the Transuranic Array, you've, in the best case scenario, created a multi megaton bomb. I can't do the math in my head for the destructive capacity of a black hole you'd need 5 square kilometers of space for."

"We've already informed the government, obviously, they're using the EMS to evacuate every one within 100 miles. We advised 150, but they don't want to evacuate Boston over a false alarm."

"You and I both know that's not minimum safe distance for the max yield here."

"Yes." an audible sigh, "Unfortunately, the chamber is only accessible from Sub level 12, which in turn is only accessible from Sub Level 11. Which is currently sealed off due to
the ongoing security breach, which means you'll have to override the programming on the Evacuation Elevator from Sub Level 9 and take it down. It's unlikely it will go back up after being tampered with, so I would ensure everyone is together when you do so. I have a feeling in my gut that you'll all want to be present for tackling anyone tampering with it. The control room, where I am now, can still monitor what is happening, although I do not have a visual of the Chamber. I've been overridden from the emergency terminal inside the chamber itself, it's primarily used for emergency shutdowns in case someone is still in the chamber when tests begin, but it can be used instead to start tests."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Ophiuchia sat quietly in her armor while Gauss spoke with Dr. Coomer. Discussions about extensive secret facilities of loaded with experimental devices, weapons and research invariably brought her back to memories of her childhood, being such a 'weapon' under research. As such, she knew that while there was plenty that she would like to ask and know about, information about the facility was unlikely to be forthcoming where it could be avoided, so there wasn't much point in wasting breath asking. As for the hostiles they had to dral with, she assumed that they'd likely told them all they knew for themselves and if they hadn't, asking probably wouldn't get all that much either, She'd let others do the talking for now, perhaps she'd choose to speak later.

---

Cryoconite, Team D

"Right, so you're heading to the National Mall, current situation is FUBAR. To our knowledge, hostages have been taken in the Lincoln Memorial, Air and Space Museum, National gallery of Art, and the Capitol Building. Gunshots have been reported from the surrounding area, and the president hasn't been evacuated yet. We don't know why, but the Secret Service have yet to inform us about the situation at the White House. However, that is currently irrelevant, what is relevant is-..." a pause, "One Moment, Jager's on the ground, she'll get you up to speed."

A strained, German woman spoke next, "Hello everyone. I wish we could've talked under better circumstances. But we have pressing matters. As of current, I suspect that the individuals behind this attack are targeting lawmakers specifically, I am unsure what criteria is being used, as I saw both Republican and Democratic senators unceremoniously executed at the WWII memorial. I counted six total." The sound of a high velocity snap echoed through the radio, a sigh following, "Unfortunately, there are at least two snipers in the Washington Monument. One of them keeps taking pot shots at the White House, the other is currently focused on keeping me suppressed." a pause, "and making sure my leg doesn't regrow. Unfortunately, I have reason to believe they've put APERS on Capital Hill, and the lawn outside the Smithsonian has a, and I'll be honest, an ingeniously disguised Surface to Air Battery, U-Hauls seem to be ubiquitous here. The total count I could find of hostages is 13 individuals in the Lincoln Monument, guarded by an equal number of OPFOR. I counted 20 additional OPFOR earlier, but they've moved on closer to the capitol building. The gunshots coming from that direction have slowed considerably."

"The reason TIAMA is being called instead of the Army, is simply because Cyst and Blank are here. The latter we still don't know anything about in terms of mutation or mystical properties. However, the Army is close to-" a pause, before jager returned in a low tone, "Land in West Potomac Park, whatever questions you have, be quick."

Despite being able to create a variety of types of armor for herself on demand, Cryoconite still prefered wearing the basics in tactical gear into the field, a bulletproof vest included, along with weighted gloves and steel toed combat boots. Maybe she'd finally get to use them on someone.

She paid close attention to Jager's briefing, she was after all, a living legend, though fangirling over that at the moment would be a distraction. Instead, since Cryo had been thinking deeply about Osteo's group for a while now and was particularly intrigued by Blank, she was interested in hearing anything she had to say about him. Blank was a known meta, but the nature of his powers had yet to have been as yet confirmed. Cryo had a few hunches based on past information and Jager's odd conclusion of her briefing only strengthened said hunches, Cryo would ask a quick question, because if what she worried might true was indeed the case it was the sort of thing they'd be better off dealing with before getting on scene.

But before that, she heard quite a bit of foolishness she wanted to dress down.

Can I keep the bodies we killed?"

"Holiday, that's your alias, right? Of course, how could I forget crazy you,Idealy, we don't kill anyone, but if we do, no, we don't get to take away human corpses like hunted game, to mount them on walls or whatever weird thing you want with them."

"Elias,", Shadowshock said to the man. "A gunshot will alert the enemy to our presence, so no."

Because of their spar earlier this week, he knew how the Flayed's powers worked. They were fueled by pain, and pain was one of the things that Shadowshock's own powers were good for. "I am guessing you want to fuel your powers. If that's the case, then I can give you what you need."

"Oh and umm, Shadowshock? I really dont think this gentleman here intends to shoot himself while we're in an aircraft, thousands of feet in the air, just to activate his powers. That'd be dumb, wouldn't want to puncture our fuselage and bring the whole aircraft down, unfair of you to think he'd be that stupid.

Cryo, having finished her admonishments, went on to ask Jager her question

"Jager, can you repeat what you were saying the army was close to doing, before you kind of just stopped talking about it?"

[Gudmund]

Fulldive, Team A/F Briefing, En Route to WMRC

It had been a good week for Fulldive, a whole five days just to himself, churning out progress on his latest construct. Just a single image uploaded to Twitter was enough to land on trending. The cause? The winning result from his poll last week.

Winning by a landslide, the choice of a magical girl for his next construct was certainly odd. The reveal obviously brought a lot of positive and negative attention Fulldive's way, and to be honest, he struggled to comprehend the scant few in outrage. For one, this new transformation was just what he needed. Something small, yet powerful, while also being more approachable and less prone to injuring civilians. During his time rescuing people buried under rubble, he'd learned that being a towering badass was not suited to getting into tight spaces.

And sure, while he could've gone with a magical boy, or simply an enhanced version of himself, he wanted to go along with the joke his fans had coined. Hell, he'd received a number of emails from potential sponsors and job opportunities about it. Just as he was downloading the finalized project onto his phone, a call rang in, spurning him into action. Finishing up as fast as possible, Fulldive donned a simple ballistics vest and left his room.

Taking an armored vehicle to the rendezvous, Fulldive entered his joint-team's designated aircraft. Strapping himself in, the aircraft took off, his body lurching this way and that as the breifing began. Fulldive admittedly wasn't a big fan of Epoch, the massive company had their hand in everything, and while their tech was impressive he wouldn't exactly call them a pillar of ethics. Regardless of his personal opinion, Osteo and his cronies clearly needed to be stopped. Besides, he saw no reason why he couldn't snoop around while hacking their way in.

Fulldive frankly struggled to comprehend how Osteo and his men even broke into the underground facility, let alone how they planned on getting out. Either the goons were exceptionally well equipped, a mole had let them in, or a specialized super breached the building. No matter how Fulldive put it, there simply wasn't enough information to go around. Osteo could be targeting the bio labs, Chrono could be after the singularity reactor, who knows. The only positive outcome from this situation was that he could test his new construct in the perfect location.

When the time for questions began, Fulldive held back.

[Anowa]

Team B/E Briefing:

"I would like some numbers. How many enemies, if we know, and how many prisoners. Are the hostages all together, or have they been spread out? Do they need the hostages to operate whatever machine they are after?"

Cross hummed, "From what little visual record we got before the scrapped the platform's camera system, between 10 and 15, all armed, not wearing a distinct uniform. The maintenance crew is an 8 person team, their location and grouping is unknown, as again, the camera system got busted. As for requiring them for operation, no. They're just there to make sure things aren't about to explode or break."

"Do we know if there are any metas on the platform?"

A sigh, "I was about to get to that. The platform's temperature sensors and various weather instruments aren't reading correctly. It's cold, and not 'I'll throw on a pair of sweats to take the garbage out' cold, it's 'my piss is freezing before it hits the ground' cold. -46 degrees Celsius, cold enough to freeze the water it's rocking on and make the humidity in the area turn into snow. Based on weather stations in Bermuda, there's a drop in temperature there too. So either there's more than a few metas present, or Boneworks finally got the HAARP weaponized."

---

Team C/D Briefing:

"Can I keep the bodies we killed?"

A curt "No." came through the radio. It was hushed, a low tone, if someone was attentive they'd hear a very faint scraping, as if someone was crawling or shifting a bulk of their mass across the ground.

"Jager, can you repeat what you were saying the army was close to doing, before you kind of just stopped talking about it?"

Silence for a few lasting moments, the radio cut out for a few seconds, before once again turning back on, "Moving in before you."

Herrman spoke up at that point, "Be advised, you do not have permission to engage forces inside the Washington Monument. I'll keep trying to dissuade the VP from that line of thinking, but as of current, don't damage it."

[Remnants of Exilvania]

En route to Bucephalus 2
TIAMA VTOL
Hans

Hans was not happy, not happy at all with the current situation. Getting a call out of nowhere while at work was bad enough but it then also calling him away on an urgent mission was even worse! He didn't even have time to get back home and pick up his armour and his weapons! By god, how much he would've given to wear it next to this knight that was sitting in the VTOL with him...they could've totally worn a sort of partnerlook. Double chivalry or something! But no, here he was, stuck in his Burger Lord uniform, a used spatula stuck into his belt and a broom in his hands. The fact that this was possibly inadequate for the mission didn't even come to his mind. No, he was just concerned with how awfully normal he now looked next to everyone else.

There was this Doctor Cross...Hans was pretty sure he had seen the man at the meeting like a week or two ago, talking to them through the loudspeakers. Hans silently wondered if Dr. Cross could pilot a VTOL but figured it would be a dumb question to ask. Anyone who had a title such as Doctor or Professor could likely do anything he wanted.

There was a lot of information to chew through. Bermuda, launch sites, hostages, orbital paylouds, White Mountain, stolen nukes and possible explosions. Chris and the knight of course knew exactly what to ask, asking if there were metahumans present and how many enemies or hostages they were and where they were. Hans was jealous, wishing he had thought of such questions. At the same time he was however quite proud that they hadn't asked his question, making his chest swell just a little bit and his eyes glimmer. However, before he could ask anything, Cross was already answering again, telling them about the enemies, the hostages and...a very low temperature. This just added to the questions Hans had.

And so he did as he always did when trying to gain attention, his arm shooting up before he realized that Cross was communicating with them through a loudspeaker and likely had no camera to watch them through, making him awkwardly drop the arm again.

"Herr Cross...I just wanted to ask a few things.

Firstly...you say there is an orbital payload, ja? That is normally something we can touch or stuff like that? But you also say it is being wired to it from White Mountain? Like, like isn't wiring supposed to be for something like messages or signals? Stuff we can't touch? Would make sense since the White Mountain National Forest is up in the northern United States of America and this platform supposedly is in Bermuda."

He looked at the others defensively, as though he expected to hear any inquisitive questions as to that, quickly adding:

"What? I too plan to have holidays sometimes. A hiking trip in the National Forest sounded pretty good to me.

Anyway, the other things I wanted to ask are...what is a HAARP? And uhm...do we have some winter coats stored here Herr Cross? I don't want to say anything but I heard that -46°C is supposed to be very cold. Like, very, very cold. Like, colder than anything I've ever experienced, save for maybe one or the other brief exper-"

Hans shut up at the point, his eyes getting kind of glassy before shaking his head wildly and reclining in his seat, busy staring at his knees while playing a bit with the broom in his hand.

[Union Princes]

But before that, she heard quite a bit of foolishness she wanted to dress down.

"Holiday, that's your alias, right? Of course, how could I forget crazy you, Ideally, we don't kill anyone, but if we do, no, we don't get to take away human corpses like a hunted game, to mount them on walls or whatever weird thing you want with them."

"Crazy?" Maria screeched, almost offended that Cyro dismissed her honest question as something silly. "There is nothing crazy about me. Do you not understand? We're here to hunt and kill! The fact I get to bring my chainsword proves the notion!"

The German leaned in closer to make sure her point gets across. "Besides, their lives are forfeit the moment they killed the hostages! They've become a waste of skin, a waste of bone and flesh! Where we're going, the targets won't need a heart in their bodies, they won't need a spine nor a pair of kidneys. If they're not going to take good care of their organs, then they don't deserve to keep them."

"I am gonna harvest once we're done." Maria affirmed her stance, conveniently ignoring the refusal given by Jager.

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

"Crazy?" Maria screeched, almost offended that Cyro dismissed her honest question as something silly. "There is nothing crazy about me. Do you not understand? We're here to hunt and kill! The fact I get to bring my chainsword proves the notion!"

The German leaned in closer to make sure her point gets across. "Besides, their lives are forfeit the moment they killed the hostages! They've become a waste of skin, a waste of bone and flesh! Where we're going, the targets won't need a heart in their bodies, they won't need a spine nor a pair of kidneys. If they're not going to take good care of their organs, then they don't deserve to keep them."

"I am gonna harvest once we're done." Maria affirmed her stance, conveniently ignoring the refusal given by Jager.

Cryo absolutely hated, hated being yelled at and were not for her near complete control over her outward expression, her face would have been reddening with rage. But, she remained outwardly calm and steady.

"Woah, no need for shouting. We're here to rescue hostages, if we have to kill to do that, it's a nessecary evil, not the purpose of this mission, nore an excuse to 'harvest' , creep. Your sociopathic urge to kill doesn't change the mission parameters. Last thing we need is you wasting time getting yourself covered in blood and guts in public. At least try to pretend to be sane, please?"

[Endem]

"Elias,", Shadowshock said to the man. "A gunshot will alert the enemy to our presence, so no."

Because of their spar earlier this week, he knew how the Flayed's powers worked. They were fueled by pain, and pain was one of the things that Shadowshock's own powers were good for. "I am guessing you want to fuel your powers. If that's the case, then I can give you what you need."

"Oh and umm, Shadowshock? I really dont think this gentleman here intends to shoot himself while we're in an aircraft, thousands of feet in the air, just to activate his powers. That'd be dumb, wouldn't want to puncture our fuselage and bring the whole aircraft down, unfair of you to think he'd be that stupid.

"I wanted to hold on until we land, if they would start shooting it as soon as we would disembark, if not, I would give the gun back, asking only for the owner to shoot me in the shoulder if they would start firing at us in a future" Elias explained, he hoped nobody would offer to stab him instead, he knew of his weakness when it came to knifes

He then tried to whisper to Shadowshock, hopefully people would be more concerned with the sociopathic blonde planning a organ harvest from bodies of those killed, Elias felt disgusted by it, "Shadowshock, whatever you were planning to do, as soon as they turn their guns towards us, do it, I'll then serve as a literal shield for the team"

[Segral]

Dwayne Okafor, Team A/F Briefing
Status: Landlocked

On one side of the massive quadrotor sat an equally massive man, all vertical and little that was horizontal. Well, normally massive. His 6'4 frame usually cut an imposing figure through any crowd, but amid the group of ten heroes assembled in the helicopter, three of whom were women that somehow managed to cut an even larger figure, he was practically average. Really, the most interesting thing about him wasn't his height, it was his uniform, if you could even be as kind as to refer to it as that. It held the basic foundations of a flashy superhero's costume; a red body and leggings, complimented by a stylish black wrap of storage pockets around his waist that almost looked like a money belt, as well as bright green gloves, boots, and cowl. The adaptation of a yellow marijuana leaf-shaped print in the middle of his chest was the first sign of things going awry. The equally marijuana-leaf-shaped dark green cape hanging in a knotted, crumpled mess down his back was the next, and the long, frayed, ear-like...things poking out from either side of his cowl were the one afterwards. Couple that with the long, cloth-made and leaf-shaped frills hanging off of his gloves and the profusely sweating face hidden behind his mask, and he was quite possibly the strangest hero inside the flying machine. It was eccentric get-up at best, and was bizarre at worst.

It was the average day for the hero known as Euphoria.

Usually, you'd expected the second-oldest man in a crew to be one of the most confident and experienced, close to a leader if not a leader in full, but if he was being true n' all, he didn't know what the FUCK he was doing here. With every passing second in Dr. Coom's briefing, he became more and more sure that the best way to survive this goddamn trip down to Hell's asshole was jumping right out of the chopper and praying to Allah for a safe landing. Who's idea was it to transfer his ass to the team that was in charge of beating back some crazed terrorists from the Fort Knox of WMD's? Who's idea was it to transfer his ass to any team? Was there no option to, maybe like, stay home?!?! He didn't know a single armored ass here, but from the way they all stared into empty space, completely silent when it came time for questions, they were either already so prepared that they didn't need to ask questions or already catatonic, both of which were bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Everything about this screamed bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. A lab full of "potentially lethal macro-somethings", an "automated manufacturing plant", AND black holes? They might as well throw a few nukes in there too, surely that wouldn't be too much for a full ten people! Idiots, so many idiots. Idiots at TIAMA, idiots at this research facility, so many idiots. How had they let 80 damn people through the front door? And why the hell were just ten scrawny asses going up against eighty? Shit made no sense, and it made him panic too. He could feel his hands beginning to shake, and his breathing becoming all heavy and shivery in his throat, and his heart punching up the inside of his ribcage. The end of his service had been so close, so damn close, he had been just weeks away from freedom, weeks away from getting through his tenure without ever having to have drank protein through a straw in a private ward, and now, he'd be lucky if he even made it to the private ward. Everybody else looked so calm, sitting there armed to their uvula with tasers, guns, swords, and ballistic armor, but he felt like a hot, trembling mess inside this stupid costume, and the only things sitting in his belt were a hip-flask full of hard liquor, a few clear pill bottles, and a dozen or so syringes filled to the brim with THC bong juice.

Bong juice didn't sound so bad though.

He began to reach for the clasp that held his pouch of syringes closed with unsteady fingers, but just before reaching it, froze in the act, peering around at the rest of the crew assembled with the cabin with slight apprehension. Everybody was still silent, the only noise in the cabin being the muffled sound of the chopper's blades whirring away. Might as well ask for permission before one of the Amazon women crushed his skull with a scissor kick.

"Uh..." Dwayne finally said aloud, breaking the silence with his signature dry, California-honed drawl. "This ain't really a Sun-Tzu-Art-of-War question or anything, but do y'all have a deathly fear of needles, or can I shoot up?" he asked, managing to unclasp the pouch and extract a single syringe as he spoke, tucking the spiky part away behind his fingers. "It's for power-related reasons, I assure you."

---

Emma Davis
B/E Briefing

Well this was a predicament.

A hostage situation was bad news, anybody could tell you that. A hostage situation on top of a rocket platform stocked to the brim with every explosive, flammable, toxic, and corrosive liquid known to man, most of which would likely go up in flames at the mere lick of a stray bullet and create an environmental wreck big enough to make the Gulf War look tame? "Bad news" had long been passed. Clearly, there had been some rhyme or reason as to why Teams "Beta" and "Echo" (the latter of which she was now part of following an email warning of "widespread restructuring") specifically had been shipped out to deal with this mess, but who knew why. She recognized a few faces within the quadrotor's cabin, their figures spread out all across the cabin. There was Synapse, the viral-Internet-famous supersonic CQC coach sitting a few seats down. Much to her surprise, the French asshole from a week (?) ago was also strapped in for the ride, arms and all. And somehow, Chris and Hans were crossing her path yet again, the latter of whom was decked out in a grease-stained corporate uniform, complete with a filthy spatula and a...broom? It wasn't even the weirdest thing Hans had pulled, and yet it still forced her to focus her eyes elsewhere to prevent herself from involuntarily giggling.

Really, it was no laughing matter. This was dangerous business, business that for once, she was woefully unprepared for. Aside from her usual uniform, the only pieces of gear she had with her was the usual set of knives, her baton, her hidden grappling hook looped around her belt, and most notably, what looked like thick, square chalkboard strapped to her back, a chalkboard that had the handy ability to stop a bullet or two. Not that it would be helpful; if she had known that they would be shipping off to a platform-shaped bomb, she probably wouldn't have bothered. Really, she didn't know much about this entire mission. Sure, there was a basic objective; stop the massive weapon currently being assembled from potentially killing thousands of innocent lives, but beyond that, the briefing was skimpy on the details. It was relieving when a few of her teammates spoke up with questions, forcing a few more details from the voice behind the radio. Like how there was anywhere from ten to fifteen armed men on the platform, and how there were eight maintenance crew hostages, and how it was...negative 46 degrees Celsius?

The number caused Emma to jerk up in her seat slightly, eyes widening as the description went on. It was cold enough to coat the platform in snow and freeze a chunk of the ocean into ice, and if something was that cold, then it was way too cold for at least a solid half of the people in the quadcopter. She had been in -40 weather...underneath multiple layers, with skis on. Dodging or taking down ten to fifteen armed men in attempt to dismantle a potentially dangerous weapon in nothing but a modified pantsuit? Nope. Not doing it.

Hans seemed to echo her sentiments, and she picked up where he left off, failing to even notice his sudden change in body language as she ploughed along. "He's right. If piss will freeze before it hits the ground, then we will too. Is there any plan you got to keep us from freezing down there...Sir?"

[Mandicoria]

Team C/D Briefing

It wasn't long before the Quads Rotor's PA was patched in to Herrman, "Right, so you're heading to the National Mall, current situation is FUBAR. To our knowledge, hostages have been taken in the Lincoln Memorial, Air and Space Museum, National gallery of Art, and the Capitol Building. Gunshots have been reported from the surrounding area, and the president hasn't been evacuated yet. We don't know why, but the Secret Service have yet to inform us about the situation at the White House. However, that is currently irrelevant, what is relevant is-..." a pause, "One Moment, Jager's on the ground, she'll get you up to speed."

A strained, German woman spoke next, "Hello everyone. I wish we could've talked under better circumstances. But we have pressing matters. As of current, I suspect that the individuals behind this attack are targeting lawmakers specifically, I am unsure what criteria is being used, as I saw both Republican and Democratic senators unceremoniously executed at the WWII memorial. I counted six total." The sound of a high velocity snap echoed through the radio, a sigh following, "Unfortunately, there are at least two snipers in the Washington Monument. One of them keeps taking pot shots at the White House, the other is currently focused on keeping me suppressed." a pause, "and making sure my leg doesn't regrow. Unfortunately, I have reason to believe they've put APERS on Capital Hill, and the lawn outside the Smithsonian has a, and I'll be honest, an ingeniously disguised Surface to Air Battery, U-Hauls seem to be ubiquitous here. The total count I could find of hostages is 13 individuals in the Lincoln Monument, guarded by an equal number of OPFOR. I counted 20 additional OPFOR earlier, but they've moved on closer to the capitol building. The gunshots coming from that direction have slowed considerably."

"The reason TIAMA is being called instead of the Army, is simply because Cyst and Blank are here. The latter we still don't know anything about in terms of mutation or mystical properties. However, the Army is close to-" a pause, before jager returned in a low tone, "Land in West Potomac Park, whatever questions you have, be quick."

Patriot and Tesla both remained silent during the whole ordeal, the duo being seated right next to each other as they paid close attention to everything Jager was saying. Nodding along and understanding clearly what she told the group. They would be understanding everything perfectly if it wasn't for their coworkers immediately beginning to argue among each other. Enough to get on both's nerves, and get them both irritated.

"I am gonna harvest once we're done." Maria affirmed her stance, conveniently ignoring the refusal given by Jager.

Tesla let out a sigh as he turned to the others arguing, Maria specifically. "No, no you aren't." His suit let out a few high pitched whirrs and clicks as he turned more towards them. With another sigh following, this one being more annoyed. "You're not going to be doing anything but be a Medic for the actual combat ready members of our little strike team. To be frank, it's quite annoying that-" Tesla would be cut short by Patriot's hand tapping on his shoulder.

The much more aggravated Patriot was looking more like he was about to detonate on the others. Being annoyed in the fact the others were this willing to have a spat when there were terrorists out there. "Look, I don't fucking care about the "rights" about these goddamn Terrorist fuckwits who dare to start shit against this nation. We're here to do one thing and one thing only, crush this resistance and make sure people get out safe. I'm quite frankly sick and goddamn tired about these FUCKS managing to pull everything they do. So sick and tired that when I see my fellow coworkers argue instead of making up a gameplan, I get even more aggravated, yeah? So how about we stop this bullshit and get a plan drafted up." He glared at the others for a good second, crossing his arms as he sat back. "Now, how about we think about how to handle possible hostages."

"We can't let ourselves be violent here, there's always a way to negotiate." Tesla sighed, acknowledging Patriot's words. "We don't want to look like we're the bad guys here, especially not after what happened in New York with the other attack. Caution should be maintained during this, we need to prevent as many deaths as we can..."

"Look Sparky, I understand you don't wanna fight and all but this is a scenario where we have to fight. These fuckers have the goddamn nerve to-" Patriot tried to get his response out, only to be interrupted by Tesla.

"I don't want a bloodbath. I don't want innocents caught in a crossfire. I want there to be a resolution where we save as many as we can, even if they're aggressors. We shouldn't let blind patriotism and bloodlust take over our job to actually inspire hope in the populace, for God's sake..." Tesla sighed once more, turning to the others. "Please for the love of God can we draft a plan that doesn't involve bloodlust? Violence should only be a last resort."

Tesla's words of kindness were met by an angry glare from Patriot. The latter of which could be seen adjusting a dial on his wrist, setting it to a higher setting, before flipping the cover of it back on.

"I wanted to hold on until we land, if they would start shooting it as soon as we would disembark, if not, I would give the gun back, asking only for the owner to shoot me in the shoulder if they would start firing at us in a future" Elias explained, he hoped nobody would offer to stab him instead, he knew of his weakness when it came to knifes

He then tried to whisper to Shadowshock, hopefully people would be more concerned with the sociopathic blonde planning a organ harvest from bodies of those killed, Elias felt disgusted by it, "Shadowshock, whatever you were planning to do, as soon as they turn their guns towards us, do it, I'll then serve as a literal shield for the team"

Turning over to their quite... Masochistic sounding teammate, Patriot gestured to them. "I got a gun, just give me a shout if you need a .45 in you." He chuckled, a sinister tone to it, but a weird mix of joking in there as well. "After all what are teammates for?"

---

Team B/E Briefing

Elisa picked up a radio transmission before the internal system of the Quad Rotor. It was Doctor Cross, as expected, their current bearing indicated they'd be passing Bermuda, likely to the Bucephalus 2 site.

"Sorry to put you folks on such short notice but there's an issue at hand. The Bucephalus 2 Launch Site off the coast of Bermuda was unceremoniously boarded, and the maintenance crew was taken hostage. I'm not gonna get into much science mumbo jumbo for your sake, but I will make it abundantly clear that the destruction of the site is not an option, period. It's got a bunch of ethyl-methyl bad shit that will most definitely pollute or incinerate Bermuda, and that would make the British Government a bit cross with us. From what I've been able to read out from where I am, it's currently assembling a rocket with an orbital payload that is being wired to it from the White Mountain Research Complex. Readings also indicate that radiation is present and matches reading s taken from most fission warheads if it were in a lead lock box, which means we've found our stolen nuke. I'm not at liberty to tell you what is being assembled, only that you have to stop it's operation and clear the platform. I would also be careful, as with comes the inmability to simply bomb the platform, there's also the fact that if any bullet gets tossed into one of the number of tanks, hoses, pipes, and automatons on the platform, you'll be huffing flaming rocket fuel inside of a second. So if not for Bermuda, take care for yourselves."

"Any questions?"

"How many hostiles are we expecting immediately?" Immortal shockingly responded first, turning down their headset's volume. The faint sound of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" coming from it. "Will we have the element of surprise?" This was an unusual ping of confidence from them, almost as if this event was empowering or something. This being followed by them loading their two glocks, cocking them both and safely placing them back in their holsters. A small sigh coming from them as they relaxed a little, expecting a response from the radio.

---

Team A/F Briefing:

Hannah was quite surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice squeal in on the radio, it was nasally, but it held a depth to it, one of knowledge and confidence. She had felt the take off, and given the orientation after take off, they were heading north a ways, and given those two factors, well... "My name is Doctor Gregory Coomer, head of administration at the White Mountain Research Complex. Normally I'd simply chuckle from any response that said this is for my own company's interest, not today. Right now, in excess of 80 armed individuals stormed the front gate to the complex and breached the main blast door. Communication with the facility below the 3rd sub level is unavailable, and they seemed to blitz past those sub levels in the aims of getting deeper into the facility. Chrono was spotted among them, meaning this is a result of Osteo's syndicate. I am not fully sure what it is they're going after, but there's three distinct possibilities."

"Firstly, the bio labs on Sub Level 7 in the WMRC contain a vast amount of potentially lethal macro and microbioweapons, genetically assigned plagues, as well as vaccines and treatments for a number of supposedly untreatable or incurable diseases and previously mentioned weapons and plagues. Given Osteo's involvement, and his genetic mastery over himself, this is bad news if he's here for that. Ensure this area is secure, don't stress about non combatants, a majority of them will be outside the line of fire, stragglers may be present, but we're all smart enough here not to throw our lives away or to go running about in the open. Evacuation bunkers are dotted throughout the facility, and are hermetically sealed with enough food and water to last 40 people for a month. It would be best to leave them sealed, as security can be jumpy at times."

"Second, the WMRC contains an automated manufacturing plant on Sub Level 6. It is a pressing concern given it's capacity to manufacture and roll out pretty much any design or blueprint created by Epoch or it's subsidiaries since 2015. This ranges from simple prosthesis to autonomous droids and aircraft. It's primary means of access are separate cargo and personnel elevators from Sub Level 1, and an external blast door to the shipping and receiving warehouses. Unfortunately, those blast doors are designed to withstand the shockwave and fireball from a 300 kiloton nuclear detonation within 500 yards. So at best entry through shipping and receiving will be... sluggish. It's fully automated, so it's unlikely that anyone outside of potential trespassers and the 5 man maintenance team are present."

"Finally.... Finally, there's the Experimental Transuranic Exposure and Singularity Reactor Generation Chamber." Hannah's head whipped up, her mind racing with a number of things only tangentially related to the briefing, "It is the entirety of Sub Level 13, and is technically not a sub level, simply an incredibly large attachment to Sub Level 12. It takes up roughly half the space of the facility. Within, are a number of radioactive elements and very very delicate gamma ray absorbing photovoltaic panels and radiation shielding panels. It's sole usage is the creation and utilization of black holes for energy. While capable of booting to full power, we have not gone past a simple kugelblitz yet simply to see the testing purposes of the chamber itself. We don't know exactly what will happen if it boots fully, but-"

Gauss spoke up, "Assuming you're using Californium as the Transuranic Array, you've, in the best case scenario, created a multi megaton bomb. I can't do the math in my head for the destructive capacity of a black hole you'd need 5 square kilometers of space for."

"We've already informed the government, obviously, they're using the EMS to evacuate every one within 100 miles. We advised 150, but they don't want to evacuate Boston over a false alarm."

"You and I both know that's not minimum safe distance for the max yield here."

"Yes." an audible sigh, "Unfortunately, the chamber is only accessible from Sub level 12, which in turn is only accessible from Sub Level 11. Which is currently sealed off due to
the ongoing security breach, which means you'll have to override the programming on the Evacuation Elevator from Sub Level 9 and take it down. It's unlikely it will go back up after being tampered with, so I would ensure everyone is together when you do so. I have a feeling in my gut that you'll all want to be present for tackling anyone tampering with it. The control room, where I am now, can still monitor what is happening, although I do not have a visual of the Chamber. I've been overridden from the emergency terminal inside the chamber itself, it's primarily used for emergency shutdowns in case someone is still in the chamber when tests begin, but it can be used instead to start tests."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Trauma was pale underneath his visor, hearing all of this talk of black holes and massive bombs. Definitely not the place to be, but he knew he had the crew to back him up. Shaking his head he rose his hand and began speaking in his native language to the others. "(Not a question, but I just want people to know you should immediately fall back to me if injured, or you find someone wounded. Obvious, yes, but just a reminder. Also, does everyone have their equipment checked?)" He'd look around to the others, then remembered he had non Russian speaking team mates. "Er, yes. You find hurt people, or you hurt... Come to me yes. Equipment good everyone, yes?"

He followed up his question with the loading of his pistol, and attaching his holsters for both his taser and sidearm onto his thighs. Making sure they were properly fastened. Then followed up by making sure his suit's medical system's were in full working order through his helmet's HUD.

[Anowa]

Team A/F Briefing:

"Uh..." Dwayne finally said aloud, breaking the silence with his signature dry, California-honed drawl. "This ain't really a Sun-Tzu-Art-of-War question or anything, but do y'all have a deathly fear of needles, or can I shoot up?" he asked, managing to unclasp the pouch and extract a single syringe as he spoke, tucking the spiky part away behind his fingers. "It's for power-related reasons, I assure you."

Gauss simply flashed a thumbs up at the man as she started reassembling the Glock in her hands. It wasn't so much for any practical purpose, just something to do with her hands, so it wasn't so blatantly obvious they were shaking.

Even with the genetic gift of regeneration, the aftermath of her fight with Ophi hadn't fixed itself fully yet. Her right hand still hadn't fully healed, her blood volume was drastically lower than should be normal, and pretty much every bone fracture was at the stage where it was a ball of bone cells instead of a proper structure. her father had only kept her from dying, he hadn't done anything to make her process any easier. She hadn't gotten around to fixing her armor fully yet either, there was still a gap where the punctured abdomen plating from the Bronx, where it had to be replaced, the magnet under the section also missing, leaving a 15 centimeter square gap where metallic frame components and a few wires could be seen. A lot of her time the previous week had been administrative bullshit trying to juggle HR complaints, living conditions, requisition forms, PR events (which she'd all declined), and suggested therapy sessions.

"Doctor, how did they get through the blast doors?"

The man blew out a long breath, "I... quite honestly, I don't know. From what I can tell, it seemed like it started to fall apart on a molecular level. I think it might be a similar method of action to what happened with the Guard from the Reserve... We still haven't figured out how to save him, but he's moved, albeit barely."

Gauss clicked the magazine back into place on her pistol and secured it to her right thigh, "The whole door?"

"No, not all of... well, most of the door is damaged, there's some mild pitting closer to the impact site and mild warping elsewhere, but for the most part the damage is contained to an 8 foot diameters hole in the door."

Gauss nodded silent, "Thank you."

The pilot called out over the PA, "We're on site in 3 mikes!" As this was said, the Crew Chief stood from his spot and walked towards the rear ramp.

Doctor Coomer again, spoke, "Well, any last questions?"

---

Team B/E Briefing

"Herr Cross...I just wanted to ask a few things.

Firstly...you say there is an orbital payload, ja? That is normally something we can touch or stuff like that? But you also say it is being wired to it from White Mountain? Like, like isn't wiring supposed to be for something like messages or signals? Stuff we can't touch? Would make sense since the White Mountain National Forest is up in the northern United States of America and this platform supposedly is in Bermuda."

Cross took on a tone many teachers would have, at least the good ones, it wasn't patronizing, simply informative, "The platform is fully autonomous, the actual construction is done by robots, the only humans are there to make sure the robots don't break down. Of course, then arises the question of how you tell it what to do. We send these blueprints wirelessly from previously authorized channels, either the Headquarters in New York, or from our manufacturing locations in Carbon or White Mountain, in this case, the latter. Again, I can't tell you what's being made, but it's imperative you find a way to cease it's manufacturing. I should've mentioned this, but typically the maintenance team's barracks has an emergency shut down. If that doesn't work, smash the receiving array, we can fix that."

Anyway, the other things I wanted to ask are...what is a HAARP? And uhm...do we have some winter coats stored here Herr Cross? I don't want to say anything but I heard that -46°C is supposed to be very cold. Like, very, very cold. Like, colder than anything I've ever experienced, save for maybe one or the other brief exper-"

"He's right. If piss will freeze before it hits the ground, then we will too. Is there any plan you got to keep us from freezing down there...Sir?"

"The HAARP, is the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. Conspiracy nuts thought it could control the weather, it doesn't. As for keeping warm. I wish I could pull an Oprah and tell you that there's winter coats under your seats, but that would be a lie. Instead, we have a slight work around. Elisa can explain."

Elisa very suddenly received a data packet. What it told her she already knew, after all, it was about her body, and she had fully explored every avenue months prior, "Under normal circumstances, my internal temperature maintains a steady figure of 32 degrees Celsius." Suddenly, she pulled her shirt up to reveal a notably barbie doll like anatomy, and her chest cavity split open, revealing a number of internal mechanisms, armor plating (which also parted) and finally, a metallic casing that was quite barren of much besides , "Within my torso is approximately 20 pounds of plutonium contained within two rods. The radiant heat of which powers the thermoelectric generator which feed the batteries keeping me alive. Under normal circumstances, they are powered off and remain distant, as I can rely on solar power from the photovoltaic cells in my limbs and neck assemblies. However, I can power them on," her limbs, and a good portion of her torso glowed blue for a faint moment, Chernenkov radiation, "I can increase their proximity, increasing waste heat but also increasing power output."

Her torso then closed, and she dropped her shirt. "My body can withstand up to 440 degrees Celsius without damage to my so called 'flesh'. Up to 2800 without deformation to my skeletal structure or internal components. Without damage to my flesh, I can emit a radiant area of heat approximately 4 meters in radius that will keep you from dying of hypothermia. Obviously, I can reach higher temperatures."

Cross interjected there, "Simply put, stay near Elisa, and you'll make it." a pause, "I will remind you that your intro interview when you were hired advised you to be prepared for all weathers. Hoodies are cheap, frostbite isn't."

"How many hostiles are we expecting immediately?"

"Will we have the element of surprise?"

"Based on the limited coverage of the cameras, 8 people was the final visual count. Unfortunately, thermal sensors aren't that sensitive, so we can only guess after that. We don't know if they sent more after either. So at best, 8, at worst, they could've floated a defunct aircraft carrier beside it and jacked that number in excess of 300. As for the element of surprise, well, the station has a Doppler Weather Radar to judge when to launch. Chances are if anyone on that tub is smart, they can already see you coming. So surprise is gone."

---

Team C/D Briefing

-snip-

Jager was quiet for some time as this all blew over in the cockpit, a rather rapid spray of static and what sounded like a gunshot cut off connection.

Herrman spoke up, "Jager, respond." a pause, "Fuck. Alright, you're effectively blind now. Tesla, as unfortunate as it is, negotiating here likely isn't an option. Otherwise they might've been talked down from executing people. Patriot, I didn't think I would need to remind you, but acting half cocked and going into this situation like a fresh off Parris Island jarhead is a bad fucking idea. You should remind yourself that there are US Representatives, US Citizens, and foreign tourists present in this situation. Furthermore, you aren't under the authority of the United States right now, you're under the authority of the United Nations. Which means that in this case, you'll treat any person down there with the same respect you would a common criminal. They're human, and so are you." a pause, "And for fuck sake, wind that dial back down before you get someone killed. We can see the settings from here dipshit."

"As for you, Holiday, you're already on what amounts to a paper thin sheet of ice. If I find out that you started dissections on any corpse down there today, you will spend the rest of your life in a straight jacket. As it stands, you'll be getting a mandatory psychiatric evaluation when you get back. Failure to attend will also result in a straight jacket."

"There is a lot on the line here, and it's a risky situation, but that doesn't mean you can start going insane at the prospect and play stupid games."

"Any further questions, ask now, you'll be landing in 3 minutes."

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Ophiuchia (Team A)

There were many benefits to Ophiuchia going on this mission in her full body ‘gauntlet mode’ armor rather than using her sword. She didn’t exactly need her flashy uniform for PR purposes when going on a mission so it sense to make use of the physical enhancements the suit provided. One minor side benefit allowed her to put a lot less effort into hiding and faking emotions as her head was entirely concealed in a helmet. So nobody could see her reaction to watching Gauss diddle with her pistol, her hands very slightly shaking. Ophiuchia thought she'd still feel good about what she did to Gauss five days ago, beating her nearly to death after Gauss tried to punch Ophi for hitting a nerve about her parents. During the fight it was satisfying, but as soon as it concluded Ophi was left with a feeling of regret she was very unfamiliar with having in such a circumstance. Usually, she took great glee in causing severe damage to other metas when she got the chance. She thought It’d go away with time, in a way it did, but seeing Gauss like this again brought it back. She had talked to Aethelind about it, expecting chastisement, but weirdly she didn’t criticize her for getting emotional about Gauss, even encouraging Ophi to talk to Gauss if it bothered her so much. That however was something to think about later, right now Ophi needed to be focused on the mission, as making this run as smoothly as possible was the best way she could make it up to her at the moment. To that end, she had a few things to ask of Dr. Coomer:

“I have some questions I’d like answered.” Began Ophiuchia.

"Firstly, When Chrono was spotted, were any sensors in the area able to detect any unique signatures of her presence or at least ways to tell that she had been somewhere? It'd be useful to have ways to detect and/or track her when she's not immediately visible.”

Ophiuchia asked first, the last thing she wanted was anyone getting caught off guard by Chrono, based on what she did at the reserve to the guard and her ability to break doors down on a molecular level< It was clear she was exactly the type of person you wanted to checkmate or take out before she had much time to react.

“Secondly, Based on the time and location Chrono was last spotted, about how deep could someone with extensive knowledge of the layout of the facility get, if they could make their own shortcuts by the same means the blast doors were blown open by, since then? You mentioned that they were blitzing through the facility, it’d be nice to know if they might have already reached any of the locations you mentioned before. Perhaps if we know how quickly they advanced from first and last contact, entering the facility to losing contact below the 3rd level, it’d be helpful as well.”

Ophiuchia wanted to know if the hostiles might have already reached where they were heading or what type of equipment they could have already picked up on their way to achieving their goal.

"Lastly, as I understand it, Epoch was adamant that Gauss be among those that respond to this crisis, I think it'd be useful, given that this request has been met, if we all knew why this request was made."

Ophiuchia had little way of knowing how this information might be useful, but it was unlikely to hurt to know, though Ophiuchia had already faced learning something about Gauss that left her off worse than not knowing.

---

Cryoconite (Team D)


Knowing that they weren't expected to attempt to negotiate simplified things a whole lot. While she wasn't a a murderous sociopath like the insane german girl across from her, she did like being given straight forward orders to neutralize targets more or less on sight. Obviously, however, where likely lethal force is the safest way to save hostages, it'd make sense to use it and warn the target to stand down first when possible.

"As for you, Holiday, you're already on what amounts to a paper thin sheet of ice. If I find out that you started dissections on any corpse down there today, you will spend the rest of your life in a straight jacket. As it stands, you'll be getting a mandatory psychiatric evaluation when you get back. Failure to attend will also result in a straight jacket."

The moment Holiday's name was mentioned, Cryo turned and stared at Holiday, hoping to that she'd see her looking at her. Then when 'straight jacket' was mentioned Cryo gave Holiday a clear, smirking smile.

"Any further questions, ask now, you'll be landing in 3 minutes."

"Yes, just one more question from me. About where is Jager relative to the Washington Monument?" Cryo asked, already trying to hatch a plan to take out the snipers.

[Anowa]

A/F Briefing

"Firstly, When Chrono was spotted, were any sensors in the area able to detect any unique signatures of her presence or at least ways to tell that she had been somewhere? It'd be useful to have ways to detect and/or track her when she's not immediately visible.”

“Secondly, Based on the time and location Chrono was last spotted, about how deep could someone with extensive knowledge of the layout of the facility get, if they could make their own shortcuts by the same means the blast doors were blown open by, since then? You mentioned that they were blitzing through the facility, it’d be nice to know if they might have already reached any of the locations you mentioned before. Perhaps if we know how quickly they advanced from first and last contact, entering the facility to losing contact below the 3rd level, it’d be helpful as well.”


"Lastly, as I understand it, Epoch was adamant that Gauss be among those that respond to this crisis, I think it'd be useful, given that this request has been met, if we all knew why this request was made."

Coomer shrugged, a motion not conveyed through the radio, "No... at least not directly. We didn't sense or pick up her actions immediately, but after looking over some of the records of the various radars, sensors and such, she puts out a high level of Cherenkov radiation when she does use her powers... at least, that's an estimated guess. Outside of that we can't tell, those sensors were mostly external. Best I can tell you is, that if any walls start glowing blue, you're close."

"As for speed, well, the fastest evacuation drill we had was two minutes for the whole facility to meet topside. OPFOR pretty much matched that but in reverse. I think they used the head of the physics division's employee ID to bypass a few doors and institute a lockdown on the lower levels. There's still someone in the bio labs trying to call, but I'm not sure who." furious typing followed, "Yeah, they used Carmichael's Security Card. Shit. That explains most of their speed but..." a pause, 'I'll get back to you on that one. There's something I have to check."

"As for the last question." the man paused, for some time, "Gauss, Harvest?"

Gauss stopped her movement, not looking up from her stare into the floor, Harvest was the first half of her release phrase, most individuals in TIAMA were given one. If there was a reason to release info on them that would be apt to the situation at hand, the one to explain it would give the challenge, and the person in question would give the counter. Gauss contemplated giving a negative answer, she was smart enough to know how Coomer would explain it, after that it would only be a skip and a jump to find out who authored it, and anyone in this tube would have her full name, and could very easily bounce connections off of her parents, and the people she knew. In the corner of her eye, through her helmet, she observed Ophi, before looking across the bay and observing the two Russians, and the duo of hackers. "Black."

Coomer responded, "Alright. Best I can say is that she's well versed with some of what's inside."

---

"Yes, just one more question from me. About where is Jager relative to the Washington Monument?"

Herrman hummed, typing a bit, "The GPS tracker on her radio is showing that she's stationary at the John Paul Jones memorial, it's not too far from your proposed landing site, A lot of tree cover, but also pretty close to the Washington monument."

[Mandicoria]

"Tesla, as unfortunate as it is, negotiating here likely isn't an option. Otherwise they might've been talked down from executing people."

Tesla shook his head, the realization hitting him that his pacifistic pleas really wouldn't work. The slow burning truth of cruel reality snuffing out the flame of compassion. Staring at the floor for a good second, letting out a sigh. "Surely we can-... No, nevermind..." For someone who was no longer human, he sounded like he had finally been hit with a human feeling after years of nothing. Regret, sadness, anxiety? Anything possible. For he had that all too familiar strain in his voice.

"Patriot, I didn't think I would need to remind you, but acting half cocked and going into this situation like a fresh off Parris Island jarhead is a bad fucking idea. You should remind yourself that there are US Representatives, US Citizens, and foreign tourists present in this situation. Furthermore, you aren't under the authority of the United States right now, you're under the authority of the United Nations. Which means that in this case, you'll treat any person down there with the same respect you would a common criminal. They're human, and so are you." a pause, "And for fuck sake, wind that dial back down before you get someone killed. We can see the settings from here dipshit."

Underneath his helmet, a wicked grin spread across his face. It was incomprehensible how someone could be naive enough to think terrorists deserved to be treated like humans of all things. After all they were taking action against this god blessed nation, why would they deserve anything better than to be pasted across the pavement. Shaking his head and giving a hearty chuckle. "Oh relax my man, I was just fucking with you guys. I know these guys gotta be treated humanely, I mean come on we gotta have someone to interrogate right?" He continued his chuckling before letting out a loud cough. "Oh relax about the dial, I was just fucking with Sparky and hope he'd notice. I mean I've done that before and it didn't result in anything! Isn't that right, Tesla ol' buddy ol' chum." He nudged at Tesla, right before readjusting the dial.

Tesla didn't respond, just staring right at the ground. Almost in a daze of sorts from the realization hitting him of how this fucking moron next to him could be the death of him and his team mates.

"Tesla, stop being melodramatic." Patriot chuckled, nudging him again.

"You're going to get us all killed you fool." Tesla responded, turning over to him. "If you keep up the sociopathic act, we're doomed."

A sinister glare came from Patriot, staring right at Tesla for a good few moments before Patriot shook his head once more. Giving a hearty chuckle as he pat Tesla. "I'm just fucking with you guys, cmon. You know damn well I intend for us to protect this blessed land..."

"Uh-huh.... Sure...."

Patriot shut up after that response, looking back at the floor of the transport. Knowing damn well if he kept up he'd get an even worse treatment than that crazy medic chick was receiving. These fuckers, did they know who they were talking to? Patriot was a goddamn war hero, a legend with the troops. He helped topple the regime in Iraq, and he killed mass quantities of Taliban in the Afghan mountains. The FUCK did these idiots around him think that it was okay to treat him like this? Cracking his knuckles he pondered to himself once more. Oh he knew he'd do as ol' Hermann said, he'd definitely treat those terrorist FUCKS down there with "respect", and "dignity". The same amount he'd give to common criminals... The same common criminals that he'd turn into a thick red paste on the pavement.

[Scotatrova]

Mateo Serrano
Lower East Side, New York City

Soil and flowers flew in the air. The sound of glass and pottery breaking as it smashed against the floor was abundant. Mateo hid behind the counter, seeking refuge from Catarina's barrage of blasts. "Oh don't hide now Serrano. Not when I'm just starting to have fun." She shot a blast of energy at the wall in front of him, causing a shelf of roses and poppies to fall in front of him. Dirt blankted the floor and some landed on him as he covered his face. In that moment, the barrage stopped, and he could hear her footsteps as she walked around the shop. "You know, I came thinking I was going to meet some resistance. Maybe you'd put up a worthy fight, but this? Hiding away like the child you are, I should've known. You're nothing like your parents." Mateo looked at his surroundings. The flowers that littered the floor, the jars of petals that lined the shelves, then he got the idea. Catarina slowly approached the counter, and as she did, Mateo quicky stood up and throw a fistful of dirt. The action surprised her, and she got temporarily blinded. In that moment, Mateo used his hands to emit a blast that sent Catarina flying into the wall behind her. Shelves upon shelves came down on her. "Did anyone ever tell you when to shut up?" He took the opportunity and bolted out the shop. When he looked back inside, anyone could tell the shop that something major had happened. He made a quick glamor to make it seem like the shop was fine, and that it was closed before he bolted down the street. Of all the things to go on, this is something he never expected. Mateo had to contact his parents, and he had to do it soon. Catarina had returned, and that in itself is a dire situation.

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Cryoconite (Team D)

As the landing was only minutes away, Cryo felt her first bit of apprehension that she had felt the whole flight. Picking and choosing fights with crminal scum on the streets of New York was one thing, fighting trained, committed terrorists lead by metahumans with unknown powers in the nation's capital, taking federal representatives hostage, was another. She was going to be stepping out into war zone in moments. Was she really ready?

Despite how she felt, however, she refused to give off anything but an aura of confidence and competence. She had one more question to ask.

"I heard that shots are being fired at the white house, though we don't have an update from the secret service on it's status. Are we authorized to check in on the white house before we get any updates or must we wait?"

[Anowa]

Team A/F

The landing was notably calm. As they stepped off the loading ramp, the craft took back off with the promise of being back.

It was a small hike up a freshly paved road to get to the actual facility entrance, any closer and the quadrotor wouldn't be able to squeeze in between the trees. Gauss couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness when she passed by the checkpoint, and the duo of gate guards now laying dead in a puddle of their own blood and indignity. She didn't have to check for a pulse, just at a glance she could tell they weren't breathing, and their skin was the same shade as marble. What she did take note of however was...

"They're unarmed." came the baritone from the 8 foot Russian, "Pouches are still on their vests. Hostiles took them. Damn."

Gauss shook her head, "Not really a problem to think about until they start shooting at us, OPFOR was armed to begin with."

A voice broke over their radio, "-ere we go. Sorry, Coomer again, had to fuck around with a few setting to get you guys' frequency on the ground." a pause, "I'll give you a rough map when you get here, I'm just sitting behind the reception desk, in the control room. James is currently sat in the main foyer, don't mind him he's just- Shit!"

There was the sound of metal wrenching and a panicked cry as Gauss immediately started running, Mother Russia following suit.

"Some asshole with a sword just cleaved James in half... fucking hell, h-he's heading out the door I think they know you're here!"

Sure enough, as the teams stepped into full view of the blast door, a single man stood, ready to draw the sword at his belt. he was dressed pretty accurately like a samurai, mask and all. But for some reason, Gauss didn't think he was a simple poser.

As she paused, she spoke in a soft tone to the others, "Any plans?"

---

Team B/E
"Alright, we're coming in. landing Pad's close to the bottom... don't get ambushed."

The craft shifted from it's previous route, tilting slowly to the side and then pulling up, first gently, then very, very harshly. No alarms had sounded, and no worry was in the Crew Chief's posture. The Chief lowered the rear ramp, and the wash of the rotors was throwing snow on the landing pad every which way.

Elisa stepped out, and was immediately assailed by a flurry of impacts. Orange-red mist started drenching her form as she started taking steps away from the quadrotor. Rosenrot followed suit, with some of the notably round and slow moving projectiles slamming into him. The crew chief began coughing as he stepped back.

Elisa spoke up as Rosenrot dived for cover behind a stack of metal sheeting, "Pepperballs."

No sooner had she said this, than actual bullets started bouncing off of her, shredding parts of her synthetic skin and forcing her to bundle up behind an I beam. Some 12 meters ahead, a collection of barrels and construction supplies barricaded 4 men, behind them stairs leading up to the next level and down to the one below, and behind that, a holding tank of some kind, preventing Rosenrot from firing his weapon. Above them on the next level up, two more assailants took a position, one was armed with a common rifle, the other holding what looked like a fire hose.

From where they were, they could see what looked like a control room overseeing most of the platform at the top level.

The Crew Chief gave a yell, "We're taking fire, get moving! We'll be back around!"

---

Team C/D

"I heard that shots are being fired at the white house, though we don't have an update from the secret service on it's status. Are we authorized to check in on the white house before we get any updates or must we wait?"

"Don't chances are the SS are gonna perforate you a few dozen times just to be sure you aren't a risk to the president. You'll get updates if you need them. But right now your priority is the rest of the mall."

The Pilot came over the PA immediately after, "Speaking of, we're diving to basically ride the Potomac. Hang on to your ears."

The craft went nose down for a number of ear splitting seconds, before leveling out. The Crew Chief started making his way to the rear ramp, muttering to himself about kids and idiots pretending to be retarded. His musings, as well as his progress immediately stopped when rapid beeping started echoing through the cabin, at which point he all but threw himself ass first into the nearest seat, "BRACE!"

The sound of an endless drone of thunder ripped through the cabin, as massive holes were punched in the dividing barrier between the cargo hold and the cockpit, and tearing open portions of the fuselage. The sound of rushing air was barely audible over the 20mm shells ripping through the craft. Immediately the sounds of detonations from the front, followed by a belayed one at the rear reached the ringing ears of those on board. In the distance a simple *BRRRT* was heard.

Miraculously, most holes were in the floor, or in places where no one was sitting.

Unfortunately, this did not include Shadowshock, whose upper body and head had been reincarnated as a thick paint that now decorated most of those on board. His legs and some of his abdomen were still strapped in, twitching creepily.

The airframe was groaning as it started to both list and yaw, hydraulic fluid was dripping from several holes across the cabin, and the smell of aviation fuel was pungent. The crew chief wasted no time as he unbuckled and made a mad dash for the cockpit, "Lewis, Mark!"

Throwing open the cockpit door, all that could be seen was a crimson stain across everything. Bells and whistles now fully audible as the Crew Chief tossed a gibbed torso out and took the spot in the seat with a notable squish.

He didn't bother strapping in, instead focusing on wrestling with the mangled flight controls. As the human remains dribbled down the busted windscreen the view of trees was a distinct and forthcoming omen of death.

Yet the craft was moving, the crew chief bracing both feet against the busted dashboard he was managing to get the craft into position where a crash wouldn't be immediately fatal.

And then they struck.

The craft rattled and shook like the titans themselves were taking their anger out on the vehicle. Already ravaged by anti aircraft fire, the fuselage started to split on one side, right between Tesla and Patriot. The ramp fell clear off, revealing the now growing trench behind them. Sounds of wrenching metal were heard as trees ripped the engines and winglets brutally free from the craft. The vehicle split finally as it slowed and then stopped. The front end of the craft and the rear end some 20 feet apart. Close by, was the MLK memorial, on the opposite side, a book store.

The Crew Chief groaned from the cockpit and he stumbled his way back into the cabin, "I'd get a move on people. I'll put money on them swarming this crash site." he grabbed a rifle off the wall and loaded it, "Best for everyone if they only found me. Folks are depending on you right now."

[Gudmund]

Fulldive, Team A/F

As the group walked up the paved road, Fulldive donned his latest construct, taking on the form of a red, gold, and white magical girl holding a staff. This particular form excelled at energy-manipulation, condensing his energy into a smaller figure and doubling its output through said staff. His stride now smaller, Fulldive's pace quickened to catch up with Gauss and Mother Russia.

Finally reaching a checkpoint, his eyes glued to the corpses before them, feeling exceptionally out-of-place in their new form. Disrespectful, even. Unlike his time slogging through search and rescue, these deaths were no accident. Looking over his teammates, his gaze lingered over Euphoria, and he suddenly felt far less insensitive. In a situation like this, it didn't matter how you looked so long as you could finish the job.

As Mother Russia pointed out the missing, and likely stolen, firearms of the guards Fulldive readied his fake magical-staff, unsure as to whether he should immediately summon his other constructs. No sooner had Coomer chimed in had something gone wrong, the sound of a violent scuffle crackling over the radio, spurring the group into an open sprint towards it's origin. Stepping through the blast door, Fulldive couldn't help but bawk at the samurai before them, snapping out of it the next moment.

Hearing Gauss' uncertainty, Fulldive spoke the obvious in a distinctly higher voice, "They just killed James, so I say we catch the bastard!"

[Lessoni]

Team A/F
As she paused, she spoke in a soft tone to the others, "Any plans?"

Jack Dredd

Blink did his best to keep pace with Gauss and the big guy, thankful for his long legs and the fact that this wasn't a distance sprint. Coomer's message, that a swordsman was swording, was quickly verified by a guy with a sword stepping into view. He looked pretty legit, at least for a guy with a weapon more outdated than a computer from the 60s, but Blink had something of an idea, his confidence helped along by the ten vs one fight he found himself on the right side of, for once.

"I-I got something, I think. I'm gonna tackle him from above, with the whole teleportation thing and while I got him o-occupied, you guys rush up and kick the shit out of him. Or maybe like throw some ranged stuff at him, I'll be able t-to get out of the way. Probably. No, defint-definitely."

Team B/E
No sooner had she said this, than actual bullets started bouncing off of her, shredding parts of her synthetic skin and forcing her to bundle up behind an I beam. Some 12 meters ahead, a collection of barrels and construction supplies barricaded 4 men, behind them stairs leading up to the next level and down to the one below, and behind that, a holding tank of some kind, preventing Rosenrot from firing his weapon. Above them on the next level up, two more assailants took a position, one was armed with a common rifle, the other holding what looked like a fire hose.

From where they were, they could see what looked like a control room overseeing most of the platform at the top level.

The Crew Chief gave a yell, "We're taking fire, get moving! We'll be back around!"

Boaz Anastasius

The barricades the men had formed weren't enough to protect them, at least not when a sword that cut steel like butter was in play. Not speaking up, he dashed forward, shield up, feeling bullets ping off of him; he barely noticed them punching holes in his shield. He had every intention of bringing the barricade down, and would begin pulling it apart, slicing what he couldn't lift, the moment he reached it. He kept his eye on the guy with the hose; he knew vaguely that they shot water, though he didn't quite know what the man intended to do with it.

[Endem]

Chris Digel
Bucephalus 2

He jumped out of the VTOL, hoping he wouldn't be ripped apart by bullets, right after the Knight jumped out. After reaching the ground, thankfully still hole-less, Chris rolled to the side behind what appeared to be a couple of steel beams lying on top of each other, trying to decide what kind of gun he should take out he saw Boaz charge the guys behind the barricade.

"Looks like those guys are minced meat"

He muttered to himself before taking out a knife from his belt, and one of his SIG's, if the Knight guy managed to draw enough fire to him, and not die along the way, he'd help him.

Flayed
National Mall

That was a rough landing Elias thought to himself as he unstrapped himself, a couple of metallic pings as his regenerating body pushed out shrapnel from his arms and legs, he nearly suffered the same fate as Shadowshock, as a shell flew too close to comfort next to him, he was promptly showered with shrapnel which thankfully would be regenerated from and activate his powers.

"Looks like you won't have to shoot me after all"

He said to Patriot as he put the brass knuckles on his hands.