Gods Among Us (IC|Superhero|Open)

[Europa Undivided]

As Chris Digel began firing, the sound shattered glass and the ferocious hum of chopper blades on maximum thrust resounded within the fine establishment. Two drones, fairly armored and well armed, had just pushed through the glass windows. The three outside called Patriot, Tesla, and Gauss would catch a glimpse of their flight as they entered with thunderous applause. As soon as they did, chains of energy emerged from behind one of the couches to bond with both of the drones. If one was familiar with the news that has been going on in Manhattan for some time, they'd recognize these as the drones used by the Insurgent; a mysterious individual that does what can count as hero work in the city.

The chains were quick to disappear as soon as they touched the flying machines, but once they did, their bellies opened to reveal an assault rifle on each of them, which began firing a hail of bullets against the Revenant. Should the Revenant fire back, the drones would move with precision and speed that wouldn't be possible in most cases... except if they were being directly controlled by someone.

"Marcus, get out of here and alert law enforcement to evacuate the surrounding area.", Insurgent said to his friend, who nodded and ran out of the door while the hailstorm of bullets from the drones covered his escape from Lucky Strike.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

Jack heard gunshots. It wasn’t a sound he was unfamiliar with, but it wasn’t one he was expecting during a party, to be sure. He’d been slow to react, but was quickly on his feet, following his compatriots. What he planned to do when he reached the danger wasn’t well planned, but he was following nonetheless, close behind Maria, slightly freaked at her makeshift weaponry. He made a mental note to keep his distance from her, if he could.

“Hey, what’s going on ou-”

He shut himself up when he saw the scene outside. Guns, drones, Chris was unloading, and an air of general chaos reigned. He dashed back, flipping a table and hopping behind it. Not much, but better than nothing. This wasn’t his fight, not without a weapon.

[Jerno]

Emma Greenwood/John Farrow

Emma happily ate her food and bam! One, two, three shots rang out. Emma jumped from her seat only to fall down on the floor. It would have been a hilarious sight, but for the moment everyone was fixated on the party crasher. Shit, she thought. Emma hadn’t expected someone to ruin her night off and she was overly annoyed. That dumbass is going to pay. Emma ran across and spotted Jack behind a table. She quickly dove beside him. “Hey, I’m Emma.” She said. She quickly looked up from the hiding spot and quickly spat out three globs of green liquid from her mouth aimed directly at the intruder. Unfortunately she couldn’t raise her Toxic area or Poisonous Aura as she didn’t know how it would affect her new allies. So she kept spitting round after round of lethal poison, most found their mark while others barely missed and landed on various abject sand the floor. Hissing and smoke rose as the objects and floor corroded from the poison.

Meanwhile John who was now on full alert scanned the room. He quickly ran and took cover. From his position he could see several people behind a couch and what looked like Emma and a fellow named Jack behind a overturned table. From all the people firing different projectiles it was obvious that John wouldn’t be able to charge straight into the fray, he would have to think of an alternative method. So he decided to use his different abilities. Normally he would just shapeshift and charge head on, he rarely used his other unique abilities but now he decided it was time to use them. Looking around he took several cups and destroyed them. He then turned the cups into a swarm of African Killer Bees. 700. That many bees were in Johns swarm. Normally there could be as much as 800,000 in a swarm, but John decided 700 should do the job. He quickly sent the bees to do their job. Attack the intruder. Immediately the bees went to follow Johns order and deliberately and ruthlessly attacked the criminal that had pointed a gun on his fellow hero.

[Mandicoria]

-snip-

Patriot and Tesla were readied up the moment they heard those gunshots. Patriot losing his relaxed demeanor, and cracking his knuckles. An extremely annoyed sigh escaped from him as he looked to the others. "Always on the days off. It's from inside, and we're blocking the only exit for whoever is doing the shooting. Tesla, stay out by the door and make sure nobody fucking leaves."

"Kurt that's awful dangerous to an actual plan." Tesla teased as he held the door open for Patriot and Gauss.

"Gauss. You can help Tesla hold the door if you want, or you can come in. Your call. Either is a useful choice." Patriot stretched as he readied himself. "I don't want another motherfucker escaping on my watch." He stormed ahead, facing forward to where the gunshots came from.

[Anowa]

Upon seeing motion from the rest of the assembled heroes, Revenant let out an incredibly brief sigh, before everything started slamming into him. The 8 or so 9mm rounds fired by the Gunslinger found their way into Revenant's chest, blowing hole through him as they embedded into the wall behind him or got lodged in his skeleton.

The next few dozen 5.56 rounds fired from the drone mounted AR-15s did much worse. A hail of rifle fire started to remove full on chunks from the man, a medically inclined individual might be able to spot what chunk belonged to which organ. Needless to say the armorless man was torn asunder, a a round cracked through his skull, his head snapping back in response . Adding insult to injury, splashes of acid began to melt his clothing and swathes of flesh, as bees began to relentlessly sting the man.

Though despite the presence of so much flesh and blood, the man still stood. For a few agonizingly slow moments, the man brought his head forward. The bullet holes across his body already fully healed, as the acid's ability to corrode flesh was overtaken by the rate of regeneration. The bees, despite stinging the man very thoroughly, either had no effect or the man had little concern for them. The grisly sight of a man who had made no sound through the whole ordeal finally pulled what he was grasping for out of the bag. Took aim with the newly revealed sawn-off M79, and fired the singular 40mm HEDP round at Ophiuchia, as the last two rounds of the Walther in his hand fired the last three rounds at Digel, before he dropped it wholesale.

"Gauss. You can help Tesla hold the door if you want, or you can come in. Your call. Either is a useful choice." Patriot stretched as he readied himself. "I don't want another motherfucker escaping on my watch." He stormed ahead, facing forward to where the gunshots came from.

Gauss' reply was nothing more trhan the high pitched whine of her suit being fully powered on. The coilgun previously folded up at the small of her back was yanked free and unfolded into an impressive looking weapon, "I never saw myself as a valet. I'll follow you in."

[Segral]

Emma Davis

Well, this had escalated quickly.

When she had heard the first gunshot, echoing loudly from the far side of the room, she hadn't known what to expect. It was far from the first time she had heard a gunshot in her life, but certain instincts had an annoying tendency to never go away, and it was in that way that Emma found herself joining the Korean guy in jumping behind a nearby table, dropping her champagne glass with a resounding smash of glass as she did so. Shame. It was pretty good too, Birdie had a solid palette, or at least an expensive one. But she had other things to worry about besides the current condition of her champagne glass. Such as, the fact that what had sounded like one gunshot had now turned into two...plus three...plus ten...Jesus Christ, how many shots were there? By the time Emma had so much as slipped on her gloves and pulled the baton from its sleeve on the inside of her leather jacket, acid and...bees (?) had joined the mix. Why couldn't things be...normal, just for once?

Sighing, she slipped her thumb over the small toggle button on the baton's end, gently pressing it down and hearing a familiar, almost comforting crackle. The dial was locked into its usual 5 mA setting, but with a simple roll of her index finger, those 5 mA soon became roughly 200. More than enough to kill the average human, but considering her eardrums were still raw from gunshots, it was safe to say this guy could take more than his fair share of shocks. Besides, her plan wasn't to go full cop on his ass; if she somehow managed to wade through enough gunfire, acid, and hornets to even get close to touching him, he'd likely blow her head off right then and there. No, her specialty was supportive, a game of intimidation over pure offense.

She chanced a glance over the edge of the table, only for her jaw to drop right back to the ground as she watched the scene that was unfolding. What had started as a man who was practically shredded apart by a mixture of high-caliber gunfire, corrosive acid, and the biggest goddamn hornets known to man was slowly repairing and reforming...somehow. In what felt like the blink of an eye, the holes were gone, the stings were gone, and the acid might as well have been that $400 bottle of champagne. Oh, and he wasn't happy about the barrage, considering the fact that he was now aiming what looked like a sawn-off shotgun (among other things) at the crowd. She needed to act now.

As subtly as she could, she moved her head eveeeer so slightly from behind the table, just enough to catch a steady glimpse of the battle unfolding. Her baton was securely gripped in her right hand, but she was sort of hoping to not have to use it. She had more pressing concerns, such as focusing on casting an illusion to this mystery gunman/regenerator's eyes. While the real Emmeline Davis was still behind the table, anybody under her influence would see two Emma's leaping over a nearby counter, baton in hand. And three more coming in from the right. And another five fanning out from the back, attempting to duck underneath the stream of bullets firing from the sawed-off. Soon, the ten Emma's had surrounded the entire field of pandemonium, forming a wide semi-circle that lay well beyond the backs of those fighting him head-on. They all had their own mannerisms; stretching, fiddling with their batons, a few with crossed arms, but they all gave off the same, distinct vibe: "You're surrounded". That was what Emma saw, at least. Nobody else in the room would see them, and for all she knew, the Regenerator had some sort of mental resistance that prevented him from seeing it too. If he started blasting at thin air, she would know that her little trick had worked. If he didn't, this whole thing was a bust.

Meanwhile, the 11th (and real) Emma was still stuck behind the table with only Korean guy for company, hopefully too far away for the gunman to see. He looked terrified, and her heart broke for him a little. She had been just as terrified when she had first started out. Making conversation wasn't ideal right now; she could barely hear her own thoughts over the sound of guns banging in every direction.

If the sawed-off shotgun didn't do her in, maybe an eardrum rupture would.

[Europa Undivided]

"It looks like we didn't kill him hard enough.", Insurgent sighed as he watched the Revenant regenerate all of his wounds through the drones' cameras.

Insurgent sighed, again. It appeared that the mystery assailant had the power to rapidly regenerate his wounds from even the worst kinds of attacks. Metahumans with super strength and wierd abilities were one thing; one that simply wouldn't die is something else entirely. A serial killer that grew claws out of his hands was far easier to deal with than a man who would regrow literally every body part, no matter how grievous the injury was. He recieved a round right into the skull, for crying out loud.

The drones had just finished reloading when the man finished regenerating his injuries. He grabbed a sawn off rocket launcher, aiming it at Ophiuchia. Crikey!

Before Revenant was able to aim the thing, Insurgent withdrew the drones in short order to prevent them from being caught in an explosion. They were sturdy, sure, but it was better safe than sorry. Insurgent didn't look back as the explosion ensued, but once it had passed, he spoke to his digital assistant yet again. "AIDA, search for a match for the assailant in the net..."

"Negative boss. No records."

"That's unfortunate.", Insurgent shook his head as he extended a chain of energy towards a pick up truck parked outside...

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

The whole time Ophiuchia flew backwards, she made sure she kept a close eye on this attacker's actions, which proved particuarly important when he had succesfully pulled out a weapon from his bag. From a distance, Ophiuchia made out, from it's wide muzzle, that it had to be a grenade launcher. That wasn't particularly worrisome for her, she could take a shot and keep on ticking, thanks to her inate durability working in combination with her shield.

However, there was something much more worrisome and that was the potential durability of her comrades. A bullet hit it's target, a grenade puts out a blast that hits others than who it was aimed at. So she had to do something to weaken the explosive blast that might reach them. So Ophiuchia made sure to target the muzzle of the gun, waiting for the grenade. She had also unsheathed her sword, to more accurately channelwhat she intended to do next. The good thing is, grenade launchers didn't exactly sling rounds at the speed bullets did, so it was entirely feasible for Ophiuchia to attempt have a forcefield prong redirect the 40 mm grenade into the ceiling.

[Mandicoria]

The sounds of more gunfire rung out all the way to where the group was. Causing Patriot to stop, and turn back to Tesla. Gesturing him to follow. "Change of plans, Tesla! Lock the fucking doors, nobody fucking leaves without stopping at the doors." He stopped to sigh, turning back to continue once more. "I'm authorizing lethal force."

Tesla of course locked the doors before moving as fast as his heavy body could allow. A loud click coming from both of his wrists as a high pitched scream of electricity charging up filled the halls. Two small prongs sticking out from his upper wrists, looking like they're about to release further. "Wires are segmented, just have to lower them out further when things happen. I hope I don't have to use full lethal force."

"Do the highest power level you can for those. I don't wanna risk this." Patriot glanced back to Tesla, nodding to him.

"Ah yes, a mixture of heavy metal wires and ridiculous levels of amps to kill someone. Humane." Tesla responded in a not-so-happy manner.

-snip-

Patriot turned his head over to Gauss as the group came to the stairs. "If they're armed, don't hesitate to kill them. I don't want a repeat of the reserve."

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Ophiuchia looked around at the destruction and chaos in the bowling alley that was created by their collective efforts to kill this criminal, all the rounds being fired at this man, only for him to regenerate. She took time to consider what they'd be left with at the end of this all, even if they did manage to kill him. A wrecked bowling alley, a dead body and no idea of what this guy's purpose was or if anyone put him up to it.


Objectively, this would be an utter failure, however, based on what her fellow metahumans considered to be a success at the federal reserve, they'd likely consider this a 'victory' nonetheless. Ridiculous, if they were doing all this damage, the least they could do is get some information, by capturing the attacker. Perhaps if they could have killed him early they'd at least limit damage and have that to show.

But what sort of victory was one more dead villain, with this type of destruction?

If anything, this type of destruction, if brought to bare in most of their missions was more likely to inspire more villains than they'd mange to kill. Nevermind the civilian casualties that'd be occurring right now were they in a crowd of them.


"We need information out of this guy, the place is already wrecked, we need to get something out of this!" Ophiuchia yelled, to no one in particular, but within range of multiple heroes.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

If nothing else, Jack was glad the place seemed clear of civvies, considering some of his team seemed intent to cause as much damage as possible to both their assailant and their venue. As another woman hopped behind his table, he heard Ophiuchia yell to not kill him.

It seemed logical, but he doubted the more militant of his companions would listen. He made the decision to take things into his own hands.

He took a quick stock of what he had, a plan flying together in his head. In a moment, it all clicked. He only hoped the other heroes were quick on their feet.

He took off his button up, praising himself for his decision to wear layers, and popped up out of his cover.

“Don’t fucking shoot!”, he yelled out a moment before he teleported behind the regenerating man. He took the flannel shirt and slung it around the man’s legs, then pulled as hard as he could, hoping to take him off his feet. If he had enhanced strength, Jack was a special kind of screwed, but if he didn’t, this just might work.

[Transoxthraxia]

Everything seemed to happen so fast. Rachel could barely remember the last time that she had heard gunshots - in her vigilante days, she liked to disarm her adversaries before they had a chance to shoot. Four quick shots rang out. Rachel instinctively dove off her chair and hit the floor. As chaos ensued, Rachel activated her suit and it overtook her clothes, spreading across her body until she was completely enveloped by it. She could feel the changes come over her as the interdependence began pumping its powers through her veins. "What the hell's going on?" she asked.

Nimbly jumping up off the floor, the now-Silver Shepherd surveyed the situation. Things seemed to have happened incredibly quickly. Overwhelming firepower was unleashed on the hostile while the Silver Shepherd watched - only to witness, despite the man being all but gibbed, regenerate himself. "Merde, it's a meta." She whispered under her breath. She watched as the hostile pulled out what appeared to be a grenade launcher and fired it at Amalure and continued to shoot his gun at Chris Digel. Rachel looked to her left to find Jack, but he was long gone. Teleportation, right. She reminded herself. However, she caught sight of Jack again, this time right next to the man, seemingly wrapping his shirt around the man's legs in an attempt to take him down. That's not going to work, she immediately thought. He's going to need some help.

Crawling on all fours from her position to one of the tables like a predator stalking its prey, and, once she calculated exactly where she needed to be, she launched herself at the Revenant, her left hand transforming into its clawed form. As she launched herself, she could hear Amalure yell something out, but she couldn't quite hear what she had said. Regardless, the Silver Shepherd knew that they needed to keep this guy alive. Impacting on the man's upper half, her shoulder meeting his neck. She slashed at his left arm with her claw, aiming for his wrist - looking to sever it at the base. She hoped that, while he probably would regenerate, it would at least put the hand out of action while it heals. The combination of the slash and her super-strength leap impact on the man's neck would hopefully stagger him into falling over in a way that would allow the group to subdue him.

[Dyelli Beybi]

Imogen had bounced for cover the moment the first shot had sounded, reacting with surprising agility to squeeze back behind a row of chairs. Her small stature kept her surprisingly well concealed. It was like the Federal reserve all over again, with the team letting rip with as much heavy artillery as they could destroying everything in their path with little thought to what might constitute a reasonable response or what might be an optimal outcome - in Imogen's head, an optimal outcome was capturing their assailant so that they could question for motive. Few of the team seemed to have considered that though. Not when they could take the opportunity to 'ruin someone's day'.

She risked peeking over the top of the chairs for a moment. The mystery assailant was regenerating. She considered helping, but really the rest of the team ought to have this one covered and besides, while she couldn't quite put her finger on what was worrying her, this didn't feel like a disorganised lone-wolf attack. She grimaced, then reached into her pocket for the black marker pen she carried for emergencies, drawing a two-foot circle on the ground. As she did, her aura, a nauseating, dancing light show sprung into life about her, pinpointing her location for anyone looking for her specifically, though she reasoned the assailant had more than enough to deal with at the moment; Kaleidoscope was a rather apt nickname for her. The mages would probably realise Imogen was casting a spell, funnelling magical energy through her, powering the aura as she did.

"Move any civilians in this direction," she called, without looking up from her work as she began to fill the circle with details, "On my signal, send them running to me."

[Endem]

Chris Digel

Chris, as if on command, dodged both of the bullets, and kept charging without a second thought, even speeding up when he saw that the enemy had dropped the Walther and even when he saw that he fired off a grenade at Opiuchia, at this point, the only thing that mattered was to reach that guy.

Soon though he swapped his SiG's for his Ka-Bar knife, mostly because he saw that two heroes got themselves up close with the bad guy, but by then the thing was settled, Chris would soon slam into the attacker, and so he did, shoulder first, while also trying to stab him in the gut with his knife in his second hand.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

New York City
Lucky Strike Manhattan
Hans

Hans appeared rather torn between getting the fuck out of there or staying where he was. On one side it was pretty clear that he'd be way more in harms way here than he would have been further away. On the other hand...he was pretty sure that him being here and potentially being able to quickly close the distance to the hostile and perhaps tackle them or something could potentially ensure that they'd not get blown up and maybe even capture the man alive. When he finally came to a conclusion, he opened his mouth and said:

"I won't be moving-"

Which was apparently enough for Ophiuchia who immediately took off, leaving Hans to mutter:

"-anywhere without some help..."

He sighed before painstakingly deciding to atleast get out of the way a little and seek some more solid cover. There were pillars out of what Hans hopped to be concrete placed down in certain intervalls between the lanes and to his great luck, one was right next to his cough. Continuing to clutch his arm with his sort of bandaged hand, he used his feet and some torso movements to slowly slide over there on his bum, even as a firefight broke out over his head, automatic and semi-automatic fire ripping through the air. Hans managed to reach his pillar though and there decided to keep his head down, atleast for the moment.

That moment ended when Hans, his head still buried between his legs to not go deaf from all the shots being fired as well as to decrease his size and as such the risk of him taking a bullet, heard something else coming from much closer, in fact, practically in front of him.

"Hans, my dear, who hurt you?"

The words themselves were nice. The way they were spoken though anything but. There was only one person he'd expect to talk like that.

Looking up his fears were confirmed as he faced the madly smiling Maria, holding a butter knife in one hand, wherever she had managed to find one, a broken beer bottle in another and her entire shirt seemingly soiled by most likely beer.

But while this get-up would perhaps spook others, it made Maria somewhat less scary for Hans. The bad doctors never had butter knives in their hands. Or broken beer bottles. And their clothes were always, except for blood or other strange substances at times, completely clean. Still, it was a bit bewildering just having her here all out of a sudden and when she asked him who had hurt him, Hans didn't know who she meant as he had suffered two wounds. Rationalizing that she probably knew where one of them came from, he stammered:

"Uhm-uh...it was...it was the man in the mirror..."

Meanwhile the firefight seemed to have died down, most heroes apparently reloading while Ophiuchia was yelling about having to capture the guy...and how the place was already wrecked, making Hans internally curse. He had to hope that there was some form of insurance to cover this or else he'd be done for. Or maybe he could ask Zinnia Howard...she had seemed amicable enough, despite the bad first impression she had made.

He saw a blur from the edge of his vision, something having just jumped past him. Then he suddenly saw Chris sprinting past him as well before jumping over the couches that separated him from the bad guy. From the sounds Hans could hear, there was quite a struggle going on over on the neighbouring lane, sounding like multiple people struggling, probably trying to subdue the man. He'd probably join in but right now he was injured and with Maria right next to him...well...it was better to take that bit of time and enter the fight with his limbs intact rather than now.

[Union Princes]

Holiday

---

"Man in the mirror..." Maria repeated slowly as if the answer was a foreign phrase she had never heard before. She got down on her knees to closely examine her wounded comrade. Her blue eyes were looking over Hans like she was dying to have this opportunity to get this close to him as she she reached out to grab his injured armed. While she was mentally undressing him like a corpse in a morgue, the bandages covering the bullet holes were the only ones unwrapped by her hand. "I wonder if the bullet went through..." Maria muttered as she used both her hands to hold Hans's arm. "Oh, it doesn't matter. I know what to do."

With a demented smile on her face, Maria grabbed the broken beer bottle to slam it onto the palm of her hand before grinding it against her flesh to draw out the healing blood. Once there was a large pool of her blood forming in hand, Maria quickly poured it over Hans's wound before clasping her hand tight around his arm to ensure that the injury was healed before the self-inflicted cut closed itself. Sure enough, the healing blood did not disappoint. He could feel the near-spiritual sensation of his hand being restored to a very healthy limb.

"Now," Maria cheered menacingly as she forced Hans on his feet, "Get your weapons, Hans!" She brought out the butter knife and the broken beer bottle and pointed them at Revenant. "We have someone to put in a full-body cast!"

[Anowa]

-snip-

Revenant hadn't moved for a few seconds, instead staring at the 40mm hole in the ceiling that a live explosive had just popped through. He had to strain his ears as he heard the inactive explosive bounce around the gap between the actual steel floor of the level above and the ceiling on this level. The time he spent looking at the hole was more incredulous than worried, sure, 40mm grenade didn't actually detonate until they reached a certain distance... but even if they did explode regardless of range... it just would've put a hole into the ceiling. Revenant simply looked back at Ophiuchia with a confused stare.

-snip-

Which quickly turned to him looking down at the lad trying to trip him. It wasn't working, but hey, he was doing something that didn't immediately resort to lethal force, props for that. props that, of course, were immediately removed from the rather lacking plan he had. Except it had distracted him, both to the degree that he completely missed the mass illusion of clones, and for just enough time for two human cars to slam into him.

-snip

-snip-

A single person would've knocked him over, Rachel impacting first, and slashing his wrist rather deep. With a momentary loss of grip on the M79, and the combined strike and stab of Chris, the trio of bodies went sailing into the actual lane. As the duo kept him from moving as a result of their bulk, Revenant's hands went flailing in an attempt to grab, really anything to help avoid incarceration. To avoid The Chair.

He found it, sitting in the gutter of the lane, was his salvation. Grabbing it, his thumb flicked a switch, and the cold muzzle of a Glock 18 on full auto was pressed into Chris' neck. A yell with enough ferocity and almost animalistic fervor, "Get off me or I'll fucking kill him!"

---

Patriot gave an order to kill on sight. Gauss elected to ignore such terrible advice, stories from her parents had made her life of crimefighting a career that used her brain more than anything else. You didn't know how someone could counter something, what would happen if you shot them, punched them maced them, or whatever. On the flip side, you had to do such things to learn about them, watch how they reacted to something, if they even did so.

Stepping through the hall to the lanes, the sound of fighting became clear, she rounded the corner...


...Only to immediately slip on shell casings and land on her ass with a resounding thud. The sound of brass tinkling down the stairs as the 5.56 cases bounced and rolled away from the woman. Sitting up, she looked at what had transpire so far, her voice barely audible to anyone but herself. "What. The fuck."

Mass amounts of blood, an abundant amount of bullet holes, a man tackled to the floor by what seemed to be 3 people, and... he was screaming bloody murder. Given the venue, the nature of the event, and the fact that there were several faces she didn't recognize, she was starting to doubt this was a justifiable operation.

[Lessoni]

Jack Dredd

This was not how he expected this to turn out. At all, really. The guy didn’t even seem phased by his attempt to trip him up, but the two people crashing into him at full tilt seemed to do the job. At first he was thrilled, and also amazed that his plan had worked, considering how little he’d thought about it. The guy was on the ground, he himself didn’t seem to have any bullet holes in him, though there was a moment when the man looked down at him when he fully expected to die, and it seemed more competent heroes would handle it from here. That was, until he saw the guy put a gun on Chris’ neck. This had taken perhaps the worst turn it could’ve.

“Rachel, do what he says, like right now!”, said Jack, panic slipping into his voice as he lifted his hands into the air, showing he had no weapon. His first proper brawl in TIAMA and it was looking increasingly like another hero would end up dead. For a moment he considered trying to reason with the frenzied man, but scolded himself at the thought. He would inevitably bungle it, and it was better to leave the bungling to people whose reputations could take it.

[Europa Undivided]

The Insurgent
Lucky Strike Manhattan

Insurgent gasped a small gasp as he saw Chris get held on gunpoint by the Revenant. It was a dirty trick indeed; but again, he was all alone against a whole team of TIAMA members and associates, along with his blessed self who was just there to play bowling with his friend. The Revenant seemed to be clever man, if not a little reckless, and the Insurgent can congratulate him on having the bravery to attack a whole bunch of superpowered heroes and heroines all by himself.

This was bad. Very bad. By the looks of it, Chris didn't have the superhuman durability required to shrug off a bullet, especially one aimed at his neck. Sighing, Insurgent sent one drone forward, while he sent the other through the broken windows in order to find a backdoor. Hopefully, AIDA would do her job in time.

Seeing no other option available that wouldn't place the life of the man at further risk, Insurgent finally spoke through the drone that remained inside. "Alright, alright, stop it.", he said with a creaking voice that spoke of terrible experiences.

The drone would turn towards the duo that was keeping the Revenant pinned down. "Do as he says."

[Central Crew]

Matthew Octave

Matthew watched it all hell unfold slowly in front of him. His all magician team ducking to cover from the firing and fighting that was occurring. Matthew let out a sigh. It would seem that his (proved)theory about the multiverse would have to wait a little longer till it could get it's chance to shine.

He considered taking cover but decided against it. He took another sip of his tea, watching the situation with bored eyes. As much as he would love to jump in and help, he didn't have the slightest idea of who or what was attacking them, and what circumstances they were currently in.

He took notice of Maria healing Hans with her blood, considering going there and providing them assistance, when their newest enemy took Chris as a hostage.

Matthew honestly didn't wan't to go and help. He had no knowledge about what they were fighting, and that honestly, even if just a little bit, scarred him. Of course, that had never stopped him before. Besides Chris death would be too much of a waste.

He set down his cup, and moved closer, not attempting to hide his presence but neither attempting to stand out too much. He slightly took cover when he saw the rest starting to back down from attacking. He decided he'll wait just a little longer.

[Dyelli Beybi]

Imogen had mostly ignored the commotion, waiting until her portal was a stroke from completion before sticking her head above the parapet of chairs, "Guys, back the hell down!" she yelled, doing her best to avoid grinding her teeth in irritation, "Let the guy speak and maybe we can resolve this without anyone getting killed."

It would be a small miracle if a stray bullet hadn't hit a bystander, but she couldn't focus on that right now. Far too many of the team were behaving like a sloth of wounded bears, roaring and throwing their weight around in an attempt to satisfy the primal need to show their dominance over the newcomer. It was frustratingly short-sighted when they didn't even know the mystery assailant's motive, and not even remotely heroic.

[Europa Undivided]

Agent Koruskant/The Replicant
Gemini's Grocery Store, Manhattan
50 meters away from Lucky Strike

A man stood behind a counter inside a grocery store, watching the football game that was playing on the television that was placed on the corner of the store's ceiling. He was 5"8', blue eyed, and wore a navy blue checkered jacket that he had over a black shirt. He apparently was the clerk.

Outside the store, there was another man that looked exactly like him except for that fact that he wore a long navy blue coat, sitting on a bench. This one was reading the newspaper, one leg placed on top of the other.

There were still more of them, however. Another was sitting inside a car, sleeping; one was also in the store, this time acting as a shelf filler. Still one more was sweeping the trash. Finally, the last one was sleeping on a table inside the grocery store, snoring loudly as he went.

Of course, no one but the CIA and TIAMA knew that four out of five of them were duplicates of a metahuman. This metahuman, codenamed as Replicant by the spy agency, was an agent himself. Gemini's Grocery Store was a mere cover for an agent that kept watch over metahuman affairs in Manhattan. Replicant, or as he is usually known, Alfred, appreciated that his cover was to be a business owner; after all, it paid twice as much as his salary in the agency.

After a few moments, the original Replicant stood up from the bench and entered the store before putting a CLOSED sign on the glass door. He had a cane, which seemed strange for a man for his age. However, this cane was but a cover as well; it hid an uncurved saber that was still quite sharp. Perhaps that was why the handle of the cane had the appearance of a sword hilt.

As his duplicates finished lowering the metal panes that slid over the glass windows, Alfred entered into his office, which had a wide screen computer and a load of books, to name a few. He continued walking towards a panel inside. Once he reached it, he opened the panel and pulled out a telephone after registering his fingerprint.

"Mission log 97. Insurgent has terminated Night Hunter, though he destroyed a Toyota Corolla and a Ford pickup truck in the process.

"Acknowledged, Agent. I will forward this to mission control."

"Good."

---

Later

"Mission control, are you seeing this? The assailant has incredible regenerative abilities, and he is taking on an entire team of TIAMA agents. This is surreal!"

"Affirmative, Agent Korus. We are alerting local authorities to evacuate all civilians from the vicinity."

"What should I do?"

"Monitor the situation the way you always do. If the TIAMA agents are able to kill him, then you are to retrieve the corpse for study. If not, your orders are to take him in."

"As you say, sir."

Replicant set down the phone, still staring at the live footage from within the bowling alley. At this point, the attacker was keeping a member of TIAMA hostage.

"Alright.", Alfred said to himself as he put on shades, a grey scarf, and a cap. "Time for work."

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Ophiuchia watched as Chirs, Blink and Silver Shepard haphazardly worked together to being down the attacker, unfortunately in the struggle, the criminal managed to grab hold of the pistol that Ophiuchia had knocked out of his hand and was now holding it against Chris's neck, demanding that the other two heroes get off him or he'd shoot Chris.

In that moment, it was as if the battlefield started to freeze, and this lead to a tension that settled toward silence. The Patriot, if Ophiuchia recalled correctly from the federal reserve, entered the scene, and close behind him, a much taller figure in power armour, presumably with him, followed. As this figure turned the bowling alley, they apparently stepped and slipped on some debris, and fell flat on their metal rump, interrupting the scene with a thump from their fall and the clattering of empty shells


Were it not for chris having a gun to his neck, Ophiuchia would laughed at the sight, the intensity of the situation and this deadly armored soldier juxtaposed with a trip and fall as slapstick as a cartoon character tripping on a banana peel. If they all made it out of this alive, it'd be worth a chuckle or two later

If they made it out of this alive. As that remained to be seen, given the precarious situation they found themselves in. At this point, the safest thing they could do is not make any rash moves. Again, she'd try asking, to noone in in particular, that they use restrait, before it was in the hopes of capturing the crminal to intrrogate him, now it was about him not shooting one of her comrades.

Kaleidoscope, started expressing that sentiment and Ophihicua felt it best to back it up.

"Yes, what Kaleidscope said, let's stand down and try resolve this rationally, without anyone having to die." She shouted.

Ophiuchia sheathed her sword in full view of this attacker, her invisible force field was up, and over the last 10 seconds, charged back up to full capacity, so she was by no means unarmed, but at least it symbolized de-escalation to do so.

[Aserais]

The man suddenly looked a bit more upbeat, finally setting up his own plate and taking a seat, "Speaking of lawyers, I have someone you should meet." a pause as he took a bite of eggs. "And no, it's not in regards to the surprising decent outing at the Federal Reserve. It was certainly better than the time Ha-" he cut himself off, realizing he was about to say 'Hannah's Parents' rather than 'One and Jager' "The Cabal let Mighty Marine put a hole in Brooklyn Bridge."

From upstairs, heavy footfalls moved towards the stairs leading to the actual kitchen.

Skye Cross, AKA Synapse. Cross Residence, East Hampshire.

"Hm, true," Skye muttered as they continued to chow down on their second plate of bacon and eggs, only pausing to tap the fork against their lips as they considered their cousin's contemperary's suggestion. "A contained singularity might make it easier to anchor the tunnel on either end, but that runs the risk of... well, like you said, no more New Hampshire."

They let out a giggle at that thought--as if either of them would allow an experiment that dangerous to go forward.

"Oh?" they asked as Anthony said that there was someone he would like them to meet, only for them to hear the sound of something ridiculously heavy walking down his steps. Skye turned as they put a piece of egg into their mouth, only to be greeted with the sight of a woman with dripping wet hair, walking with the footfalls of an African Elephant down the stairs. Skye almost choked on their meal at the sight, having to slam their chest with their fist to dislodge the piece of egg from their windpipe.

They spent the next few seconds hacking and gasping for air, trying to clear their throat of any remaining obstruction, before they turned with wide eyes toward their cousin.

"Wh-Anthony! You sly dog! Since when did you start dating..." they started to ask, only to trail off when they noticed several things about the woman that didn't quite lend themselves to her being human. The "scars" on her face looked more like the seams for a realistic-looking android's facial plates. Several parts of her body were obviously synthetic, and she didn't appear to be actually breathing.

"Oh... wow. I knew you were working on something, but this is amazing. I thought we were years away from something like this," they said as they stood, grabbing the last of the bacon and popping it into their mouth as they walked towards the android. They stuck out a hand and grinned.

"Nice to meet'cha. I'm Skye," they introduced themselves, waiting for the android to shake their hand--to see if it understood social conventions.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

New York City
Lucky Strike Manhattan
Hans

Hans wondered why Maria was staring at him so intently. Like, she wasn't even looking him in the eyes, she was just staring at his body to the point that he wondered if there was something weird about it or if doctors just kind of did things like this. The doctors he knew...no, he shook his hand, trying to clear his head of those memories. It would be bad to think of those now. Meanwhile Maria had unwrapped the paper towels he had so carefully wrapped around his hand, revealing the bloodied, cut mess of a hand he had there, with wet pieces of paper still clinging to it. Atleast she seemed to know what she was doing.

Hans let out a shocked gasp as Maria slammed her sharp, makeshift weapon onto her hand, his one good arm twitching forward in a motion to try and stop her as she started grinding it through her soft flesh, creating terrible, bleeding wounds. But before he could grab her hand with his, she was already grabbing his hand, clasping hers tightly around his. Hans, fairly oblivious to her powers, asked:

"Ahem, it is nice of you to wish to stem the bleeding but I believe I-"

And yet again he gasped as a strange sensation enveloped his hand. It did not take long and when Maria took away her hand, Hans was looking at a bloodied yet clearly fine hand. In silent wonder he gripped the thin air a few times, as though not believing that the hand just worked so well now. He looked up as Maria, smiling menacingly though Hans mistook it as an almost angelic smile, got him back onto his feet, demanding that he get his weapons while she got her improvised ones back. She seemed hellbent on raining down righteous fury upon the scarred man...who currently seemed to be sliding across a bowling lane, with multiple of their comrades on top of him.

Given that Hans did not have a weapon and realizing that no weapon or anything he could do would be of any help in resolving the situation, he instead decided to look around wether anyone had gotten hurt, so he could bring them to Maria to patch them up again.

He saw atleast three over with the bad man. Maria was where he had left her. New people were coming in from the door in back armoured suits, one slipping and falling, making Hans veer of course to try and help the person up, not realizing how dumb and useless of an idea it was considering that Gauss in her armoured suit probably weighed far more than Hans could ever lift. Still he showed up at her side, asking:

"Are you alright? You didn't break anything on yourself, ja? Can I help you?"

He was already extending his hand as though he actually expected her to take it, apparently still not having fully realized that he could not really help armoured Behemoths back up onto their legs.

This was when the yelling started behind him and Hans' eyes went wide in shock as he figured out who was yelling and what was being yelled there. This was a most unfortunate turn of events, one he hadn't expected. Both because he had thought those three to have things entirely under control if necessary...and because he still believed that the scarred man was actually, probably nice. Sure, they had gotten off to a rocky start but they surely could've resolved things peacefully on that walk he had wanted to go on with him.

"This is...troublesome...sad...I had hoped this would be a more relaxing learning and socializing experience..."