Gods Among Us: The Big Apple (IC|Superhero|Open)

[Talion Union]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Atlas's vitals popped up in his helmet's HUD... And for once it surprised him. He had a few ruptured organs, every bone in his body was damaged in some way whether it be merely fractured, broken, or bruised, he had a sizeable pneumothorax, a concussion, his right ear drum had ruptured, had second degree burns on his back and legs, and his body was 80% bruised at this point... The list continued.

Although he'd received all of those wounds at one point in his life, he hadn't gotten all of them at once. Then again his suit was pretty fucked after fighting Mother, Heamet, and Alrick in succession, so he couldn't tell if he'd gotten more banged up then or here.

He was thankful that the titanium casing on his suit had held up well enough that it was keeping all his broken bones in place. He pried himself out of the man shaped dent in the shipping container. His one good ear picked up something he found odd in this situation: a turbine engine.

'Wierd, why would a plane...

Then he realized the sound was coming from a group of shipping containers to his left. His heart dropped as the front was blasted down. Out came a prototype tank that went missing from Agency R&D after a certain member defected. It was given the classification M1A3E4 after the Abrams it was based off of.

The difference between the prototype and the production Abrams was that it was coated in Starlite and amphibious... it was also aiming it's main gun squarely at Atlas.

Atlas ran as the tank accelerated, a 120mm HE round screaming past Atlas as he tried to find someone to use as bait... or rather help.

---

-----Knights Fortress-----

---

Anthony continued onwards, his nerves slightly less calm after what sounded like an explosion reached his ears. Within twenty minutes of methodical work and accurate estimations, he had a viable cure, now all that was needed was a way to disperse it. Anthony sighed and facepalmed as he figured something out, "The virus is being dispersed from the WTC. We could probably disperse the cure the same way. I'm gonna need another ten minutes to make enough of the cure for it to be effective, but we're pretty much done at this point."

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Shannon shook her head, she thought of something to say in rebuke, but she couldn't think of anything. But something did come to mind, to maybe, just slightly explain her actions.She'd only introduced herself as Chrono to everyone in the past three days, perhaps it was time for a change, "My name is Shannon Carmichael, and I'm the cause for Arlen's empowerment." She didn't know what Hyper's reaction would be but chances are that he'd know the name Carmichael and he'd understand that Arlen was her fault, "Now I believe we have an abomination to kill."

---

-----Long Island Sound-----

---

Abel simply stared at the place that NUMB was, "Right... He can teleport.... Shit."

With an automated sigh, he unclasped a few buckles on his armor, revealing not a human body, but a shaped charge secured within the armor. Pulling it free he clasped his armor closed and put the shaped charge on the floor. He dipped below the liquid fungicide and started setting up the explosive.

Sound echoed through the water as the shell of a man spoke, "Oh hey, Arlen! Can the big red angry blob I'm gonna be trapping do anything of note?"

His voice changed pitch, "Oh no, Abel. All he can do is absorb bodies and be a fungoid."

Shaking his metallic head he sighed, "My non existent dick." He pressed a button and the charge exploded as the room filled with fungicide. The shockwave from the blast would've killed a man, but without an organic body, Abel was fine. Dipping through the hole, he sunk to the bottom of the sea as the Yacht started to sink.

Iroquois stood up shakily as the tank appeared. He clambered up onto a shipping container, laying flat against it until it came close enough. When it did, he'd leap onto the top of it.

When it drove past, aiming at the strange man, he lept onto it. He held on for dear life, and began searching for a way into the raging war machine.

[Serah]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Atlas's vitals popped up in his helmet's HUD... And for once it surprised him. He had a few ruptured organs, every bone in his body was damaged in some way whether it be merely fractured, broken, or bruised, he had a sizeable pneumothorax, a concussion, his right ear drum had ruptured, had second degree burns on his back and legs, and his body was 80% bruised at this point... The list continued.

Although he'd received all of those wounds at one point in his life, he hadn't gotten all of them at once. Then again his suit was pretty fucked after fighting Mother, Heamet, and Alrick in succession, so he couldn't tell if he'd gotten more banged up then or here.

He was thankful that the titanium casing on his suit had held up well enough that it was keeping all his broken bones in place. He pried himself out of the man shaped dent in the shipping container. His one good ear picked up something he found odd in this situation: a turbine engine.

'Wierd, why would a plane...

Then he realized the sound was coming from a group of shipping containers to his left. His heart dropped as the front was blasted down. Out came a prototype tank that went missing from Agency R&D after a certain member defected. It was given the classification M1A3E4 after the Abrams it was based off of.

The difference between the prototype and the production Abrams was that it was coated in Starlite and amphibious... it was also aiming it's main gun squarely at Atlas.

Atlas ran as the tank accelerated, a 120mm HE round screaming past Atlas as he tried to find someone to use as bait... or rather help.

As the jet started to lower, the door of the jet suddenly opened, the pilot had warned them in advance, if they wanted to do what they were about to do, which was dropping from the jet at low altitude, not only would the jet need to slow down a lot but the door would have to get busted, or at least opened forcefully.

However, given Richard's powers, he managed to simply open it by manipulating the cables and by extent the electrical current blocking the door.
As soon as the door opened, they were almost sucked out as the door closed right after their leave.
As much as they could've brought the parachutes, they weren't needed as Richard could just make an elastic platform using his cables to cushion the fall.
Hopefully, he could redirect the cables directly on the enemy, should there be one.

Gwyn however would evacuate Heamet as soon as possible and leave the fight to bring him to a general hospital at first then have him transfer.
He was completely out of commission for now.
And it was Richard's job to handle what he couldn't.

Seeing the tank, he did what was logical to him on the moment, and that was plugging the cannon.
Logically, if the cannon was blocked, the shell would blow itself in the cannon itself, completely killing off the tank.
However, before he could do that, he noticed Iroquois, putting his initial plan to rest.

Instead, he went and tried blocking the turret.

"OI, THE GUY WITH THE ARMOR! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!" He shouted, the cables slowly setting up.
Of course, he didn't have much knowledge of tanks in general, as such, maybe that plan would fuck up too.

Meanwhile, Gwyn was frantically searching for Heamet, not finding him, yet feeling his energy dwindle, little by little.
She was starting to seriously panic, even if Heamet was alive, he wouldn't be for long if she couldn't find him.

[Anowa]

The tank in question

"OI, THE GUY WITH THE ARMOR! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"

Atlas heard something to his right, someone saying something, turning he spotted someone fucking with some cables on the ground, "WHAT!?"

Behind him he heard the Proto-Abrams approaching, turning he spotted the barrel once again aimed at him, but not firing. As to why, Atlas figured out only a second later, as the bloody thing split into four sections and started glowing.

As what looked to be Iroquois hopped onto the hull, the turret mounted machine gun swiveled around and started firing at the cyborg from nigh point blank range.

Atlas was faced with another problem, as the ferric tungsten SABOT round sped down the aligned barrels and magnets, his first thought was wondering why everyone was obsessed with magnetically accelerated weapons these days. His second thought was like a flip had been switched in a dark room.

Atlas's vision slipped into greyscale, as a multitude of things about his altered biology took place. His bone marrow started to work in overdrive, churning out platelets and blood cells in anticipation of immediate wounds as well as to control the bleeding from his ruptured insides, his blood pressure spiked and his heart began to beat much faster than would be healthy for a normal human. Modified osteoclasts began breaking down fragments of carbonadium and bone in David's system, and delivering it to osteoblasts, who began to repair his carbonadium laminated bones at an extremely fast rate.

The shell finally passed the end of the barrel, as everything slowed to a crawl. The superconductive fibers that constituted Atlas nervous system now at their peak performance. Atlas moved millimeters at a time, avoiding the hypersonic projectile. As it whizzed by him he took a step forward, though his body was still at a crawl, his mind was racing, planning as many steps ahead as one needed, but so many as to remain inflexible.

After the second step Atlas body started to react to the tripled blood pressure and obscene heart beat, capillaries in his lungs mouth and other mucous membranes began to burst, the metallic taste Atlas was so accustomed to at this point reaching his mouth. No doubt his sclera had already become fully red.

Within what seemed to be a duo of seconds to the outside world, Atlas dodged the alloy spike and dove underneath the tank. He quickly spotted what he was looking for. Normal Abrams didn't have one, but it was standard Agency protocol for all armored vehicles to have a belly hatch for their operators. A swift punch dented the hatch enough to stick a few fingers under. The tank noticeably stopped in it's tracks.

[Talion Union]

The tank in question

"OI, THE GUY WITH THE ARMOR! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"

Atlas heard something to his right, someone saying something, turning he spotted someone fucking with some cables on the ground, "WHAT!?"

Behind him he heard the Proto-Abrams approaching, turning he spotted the barrel once again aimed at him, but not firing. As to why, Atlas figured out only a second later, as the bloody thing split into four sections and started glowing.

As what looked to be Iroquois hopped onto the hull, the turret mounted machine gun swiveled around and started firing at the cyborg from nigh point blank range.

Atlas was faced with another problem, as the ferric tungsten SABOT round sped down the aligned barrels and magnets, his first thought was wondering why everyone was obsessed with magnetically accelerated weapons these days. His second thought was like a flip had been switched in a dark room.

Atlas's vision slipped into greyscale, as a multitude of things about his altered biology took place. His bone marrow started to work in overdrive, churning out platelets and blood cells in anticipation of immediate wounds as well as to control the bleeding from his ruptured insides, his blood pressure spiked and his heart began to beat much faster than would be healthy for a normal human. Modified osteoclasts began breaking down fragments of carbonadium and bone in David's system, and delivering it to osteoblasts, who began to repair his carbonadium laminated bones at an extremely fast rate.

The shell finally passed the end of the barrel, as everything slowed to a crawl. The superconductive fibers that constituted Atlas nervous system now at their peak performance. Atlas moved millimeters at a time, avoiding the hypersonic projectile. As it whizzed by him he took a step forward, though his body was still at a crawl, his mind was racing, planning as many steps ahead as one needed, but so many as to remain inflexible.

After the second step Atlas body started to react to the tripled blood pressure and obscene heart beat, capillaries in his lungs mouth and other mucous membranes began to burst, the metallic taste Atlas was so accustomed to at this point reaching his mouth. No doubt his sclera had already become fully red.

Within what seemed to be a duo of seconds to the outside world, Atlas dodged the alloy spike and dove underneath the tank. He quickly spotted what he was looking for. Normal Abrams didn't have one, but it was standard Agency protocol for all armored vehicles to have a belly hatch for their operators. A swift punch dented the hatch enough to stick a few fingers under. The tank noticeably stopped in it's tracks.

As Iroquois straddled the gun turret, the barrel between his legs, he grabbed a hold of it, and began to pull upwards, looking to disable or destroy the gun.

When it came to a full stop, he was nearly thrown off, though he kept his grip on the gun turret. "What the hell is going on in there!?"

[Serah]

The tank in question

"OI, THE GUY WITH THE ARMOR! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"

Atlas heard something to his right, someone saying something, turning he spotted someone fucking with some cables on the ground, "WHAT!?"

Behind him he heard the Proto-Abrams approaching, turning he spotted the barrel once again aimed at him, but not firing. As to why, Atlas figured out only a second later, as the bloody thing split into four sections and started glowing.

As what looked to be Iroquois hopped onto the hull, the turret mounted machine gun swiveled around and started firing at the cyborg from nigh point blank range.

Atlas was faced with another problem, as the ferric tungsten SABOT round sped down the aligned barrels and magnets, his first thought was wondering why everyone was obsessed with magnetically accelerated weapons these days. His second thought was like a flip had been switched in a dark room.

Atlas's vision slipped into greyscale, as a multitude of things about his altered biology took place. His bone marrow started to work in overdrive, churning out platelets and blood cells in anticipation of immediate wounds as well as to control the bleeding from his ruptured insides, his blood pressure spiked and his heart began to beat much faster than would be healthy for a normal human. Modified osteoclasts began breaking down fragments of carbonadium and bone in David's system, and delivering it to osteoblasts, who began to repair his carbonadium laminated bones at an extremely fast rate.

The shell finally passed the end of the barrel, as everything slowed to a crawl. The superconductive fibers that constituted Atlas nervous system now at their peak performance. Atlas moved millimeters at a time, avoiding the hypersonic projectile. As it whizzed by him he took a step forward, though his body was still at a crawl, his mind was racing, planning as many steps ahead as one needed, but so many as to remain inflexible.

After the second step Atlas body started to react to the tripled blood pressure and obscene heart beat, capillaries in his lungs mouth and other mucous membranes began to burst, the metallic taste Atlas was so accustomed to at this point reaching his mouth. No doubt his sclera had already become fully red.

Within what seemed to be a duo of seconds to the outside world, Atlas dodged the alloy spike and dove underneath the tank. He quickly spotted what he was looking for. Normal Abrams didn't have one, but it was standard Agency protocol for all armored vehicles to have a belly hatch for their operators. A swift punch dented the hatch enough to stick a few fingers under. The tank noticeably stopped in it's tracks.

As luck would have it, Richard wasn't the one having the gun aimed at him.
It wasn't necessarily good, since Atlas was the one getting into it, probably half killing himself in the process.

But then again, it did seem like whatever Atlas had done was efficient.
However, he was mostly minding the fact that the supposedly Abrams tank was actually a walking, or rather rolling rail gun machine.

"Oh you cheeky cunt." That would've meant that not only his first plan would have gotten him severely wounded, but also completely useless.

Running towards the tank, he had another idea.
What if he short circuited the tank? It would work in some way after all, every single thing in this day and age had cables into them, no matter how small.
As such, short circuiting the commands and by extension mobility and attack prowess, it would render it completely useless.
That is, if this monster of a tank worked by regular military logic.

It seemed like those were way different, but logically, the commands should be linked between each other through those.
And even if they were linked individually, the plan would technically work, however, well...
The problem was getting in there.
Ideally, since the tank stopped, he could always go for it.

"Ah bloody hell, this is like Aberdeen all over again." Running as fast as he could possibly, he retrieved his cables, earning a fair amount of bruised skin on his arms, and started climbing on the tank itself, immediately trying to block the turret mounted machine gun by stuffing cables within the barrel, thankfully enough, it was a single barreled gun, otherwise, it would've proven to be quite problematic, given the nature of the idea, it wasn't all bad, given that the cables managed to successfully stop the bullets from coming out, however, it probably wouldn't be for long if he couldn't stop it from firing at all.

Now that the main problem was out for the moment, he needed to open the latch, of course he didn't know about the one under it, given he knew nothing of the Agency at all, he knew even less of their prototype tanks.

"Now, how the hell do I open you up?"

[Primordial Luxa]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

High above the chaos that was raging in the container yard Calamity floated with the Gold Spirit. Calamity was watching the yellow girl keenly, both of her legs were little more than dangling stranges of bone with scraps of meat attached to them and she was panting like a dog.

“Kos...do you really want to do this? I can always call someone else,” Sydney asked her friend.

“It doesn’t matter what I want. People are in trouble and we’re here.”

“Still...”

“No excuses, I’m gonna die a god and that the end of it.”

Gold tapped into the surrounding carnage, the crippled SWAT, Agency agents and unlucky nearby civilians flooded her body as she dropped like a stone towards the tank on the ground. A trail of rustic agents flowed from behind her as the power of her own ruined body, mind and soul. She screamed as she descended towards the ground a sound that was quickly drowned out by the sound of her slamming into the tank.

She felt something break, but at this point the pain and sorrow just pushed her forward to greater extremes. Her fingers hooked under hard metal plates, and as her wounds oozed chemicals that made hydrofluoric acid look like soap she pulled intent on tearing apart the vehicles. She knew that a tank like this could filter her toxics out so she would need to dig her way inside.

Not far behind her was Calamity who kept a safe distance from the tank while she nurtured her parasitic ally. Those who looked up saw the glowing halo of unrecognizable color that had no name on this planet. It was a truly sickening color that caused the stomach to turn and filled the mouth with the taste of metal.

As she drifted down towards the ground she let her “friend” feed on the injured Agents and SWAT nearby. She didn’t let the Spectrum kill anyone but if any of these people survived this even they could expect to live only a few more decades if they were lucky. The strength she stole flooded into her suit which began to hum with enhanced power and also fed into the Spirit. As the injured wither in pain due to the sucking burning sensation another rush of power flew into the limbs of Kos as he tore at the tank.

---

-----Knights Fortress-----

---

Edgar smiled and nodded. “There’s a SWAT team outside with a group of CIA agents who will do whatever we say. I’ll give you a hand and we can pass it on to them when we’re ready.”

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Hyper simply vibrated for a second before returning to a more human speed. Trails of red liquid hyperspace wafted off of him and created a cloud of bloodlike rain around him. It was the energy he would draw on later and burn to create the extra-physical rules that dictated his version of reality.
“If that is the case then you should probably consider suicide, turning yourself in, or not being such a bitch about. Arlen killed four hundred kids for a lot of reasons, insanity, ego, crazy ideologies. I’m sure whatever you did or said wasn’t as relevant as any of those things. But i’ll tell you what won’t help, crying and hugging the soldier of a mass murder.”

Without waiting for Chrono to follow along Hyper began walking casually down towards the basement.

[Anowa]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Atlas tore the belly hatch off and tossed it behind the tank, it was then he encountered the first problem, he was too big to fit through the hatch. Normal people would have to squeeze through it, but being a foot an a half taller and roughly half a foot wider it would be impossible to fit anything past his head into the vehicle. So he did just that.

Poking his head in he looked around, only to find the vehicle absent of any people. What he did see was the main display on the gunner's seat:

:://REMOTE SELF DESTRUCT//::
:://Y/N?//::
:://Y//::

Due to obvious reasons Atlas didn't want to be close to any explosions, so he started crawling out from under the tank, and then he heard a pair of feet stepping on the vehicle. And then what sounded like a body slamming into it. Followed by some form of acid seeping through the entirety of the tank in scant seconds.

As he came into view from the front of the tank he yelled, "Get clear NOW!"

Not waiting for the other to move he stood and started to move away from the fully loaded vehicle. Because despite the smaller size of explosive objects, a few dozen SABOT and tungsten slugs, along with however many gallons of jet fuel weren't fun to be around when they ignited.

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Chrono remained silent, vying to follow the rather Black and White shaded man. She brought her left wrist up, a holographic display showing up, a little bit of scattering on the display and a list showed up.

ACTIVE NANITE SWARMS
SN-00147 [GREY BOX] - ACTIVE REPAIR
SN-00148 [WLADYSLAV KOWALSKI/ARLEN GOODWIN] - REACTIVE REPAIR

Shannon looked at the screen, when she first gave Wladyslav the nanites that gave him a rebirth, they were set in a mode safest for a human to occupy. Safest being the key word, setting them to active repair was the other option, which would've simply kept his body in it's current state, a nearly hundred year old body which was about to give in.

That and the fact that she hadn't worked the bugs out, in which a human's nervous system became more acute, but extremely delayed at the prescence of the nanites.

A few button presses was all it took, with Arlen's body now producing an abundance of nanites, his senses would be increased, and his ability to react severely undermined.

They started down the stairs into the basement, and the final confrontation with the monster that once had a solid mind.

[Serah]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Atlas tore the belly hatch off and tossed it behind the tank, it was then he encountered the first problem, he was too big to fit through the hatch. Normal people would have to squeeze through it, but being a foot an a half taller and roughly half a foot wider it would be impossible to fit anything past his head into the vehicle. So he did just that.

Poking his head in he looked around, only to find the vehicle absent of any people. What he did see was the main display on the gunner's seat:

:://REMOTE SELF DESTRUCT//::
:://Y/N?//::
:://Y//::

Due to obvious reasons Atlas didn't want to be close to any explosions, so he started crawling out from under the tank, and then he heard a pair of feet stepping on the vehicle. And then what sounded like a body slamming into it. Followed by some form of acid seeping through the entirety of the tank in scant seconds.

As he came into view from the front of the tank he yelled, "Get clear NOW!"

Not waiting for the other to move he stood and started to move away from the fully loaded vehicle. Because despite the smaller size of explosive objects, a few dozen SABOT and tungsten slugs, along with however many gallons of jet fuel weren't fun to be around when they ignited.

Richard tried to grab the tank to avoid falling, however, hearing Atlas suddenly yell at how he should get clear of the tank made his revise his judgement.

"Alright, alright if the cunt's gonna explode, fine." He jumped off and managed to grab off to a far enough point, but close to enough to rush back in if needed.

On the other side of the fight, Gwyn had finally found Heamet, she couldn't really bandage his wounds, so she simply carried him and went for the nearest hospital.
She was out of the fight, just like Heamet, and they wouldn't be stopped either.
After all, who would stop a woman carrying a wounded man on their back?
Plus, she had her insignia if needed.

[Talion Union]

Just as the large acidic mass slammed into the tank, Iroquois dove off, thudding against the hard ground. He was up in a matter of seconds, running as far as he could before the explosion.

[Primordial Luxa]

[quote="Anowa";p="29421287"]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Floating high above Calamity was well shielded from the blast both by distance and the energy she had stolen from those surrounding her. She floated farther way as metal scraps plinked harmlessly against her armor. He hands raised defensively she made it her job to melt the larger pieces of metal and shrapnel which flew away protecting those nearby from more potential harm.

Gold Spirit however was less lucky and while she had tried to fly away she was engulfed totally in the fireball which once again sent her sprawling into the nearby ruins that used to have been a warehouse. Even her advanced powers and the glut of misery present weren't enough to protect her from a second explosive. The skeletal stumps that had been her legs were torn off along with one of her arm’s as she collapsed in pain and shock. Calamity was quickly on the scene and tending to her wounds as best as possible.

Stoic as always only the slightest traces of emotion hinted at how the potential loss of her teammate was effecting her.

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Hyper didn’t waste any time smashing doors apart as they came up and power through the obstacles he could until he came upon the room which Blank was in. Once he found him he tapped fully into the Hyperspace forces he had been building up in order to quickly react and to attack but he first absorbed his surrounding.

[Anowa]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

The tank went up, and with it the 'battle'. Atlas felt the relatively gentle slam of the shockwave, and as the dozen or so rounds of ammo cooked off, he spotted Calamity tending to Gold Spirit. The others were of no current concern seeing as they seemed to be in stable condition.

As he made his way over to assess the situation, he remembered he had his own IFAK. It's contents not exactly baseline, for starters it had a thoracostomy needle, as well as a FAST 1 needle. It had an absurd amount of blood thinners and tourniquets, as well as nitroglycerin pills. It had painkillers too, but those didn't help all that much anyway.

As he strode over he pulled the pack off of his belt and opened it, fishing out the thoracostomy needle, the nitroglycerin and blood thinners. Taking a knee beside the duo of Knights he slid the remains of the IFAK over to Calamity. Setting down the stuff he needed he took his helmet off, and promptly vomited semi-coagulated blood and bile onto the rubble. It wasn't Atlas first extended period in the -so called- Olympian Adrenaline Rush. Mind you this was the only time he had ruptured organs while in it. Unphased he quickly downed the pills and found a port in his armor, he jammed the needle inand pulled it out, leaving the plastic catheter in place. His chest now decompressed cam the more difficult part, with certain parts of his lungs no longer compressed, there was now a small amount of blood leaking out of the damaged capillaries.

Atlas went into an extended coughing fit, blood still coming up. Atlas mentally chuckled, the pool of blood underneath him reflected his appearance, his sclera were crimson, nearly all the blood vessels burst, he was bleeding from the nose and ear canals, his mouth was pretty much drenched in blood. Were it anyone else, he'd have written them off as a dead man walking, maybe he was pretty much dead, but until he dropped stone dead he still had a job to do.

The sounds of Helicopters now reached his ears, as he was n longer bust with ejecting the blood from his system. A collection of V-22s and Little birds swarmed the site as emergency and armed personnel. Everything was still greyscale, but Atlas couldn't tell if it was because of blood loss or because his body was still in a heightened alert.

A little bird touched down near to the trio of human Gods. Out stepped both Agent V, as well as Anna. V had looked like he was about to say something, but the shocked look on his face, and his increased pace indicated that he was more concerned with David's health.

Anna was more blunt about it, "Holy fuck... David are you?-"

In response David stood, "I'll be fine."

V's face didn't change much, "We have a situation near Raven Rock, I'm not gonna force you but-"

David simply put his helmet back on, his voice ragged, "I'm still combat capable. I'll go."

V hesitantly nodded, "You and Anna get in the little bird, I have to oversee things here. Good luck."

A trio of medical personnel found that the ample time to arrive in helping Calamity and Goldie. As Atlas and Ann got in the smell helicopter. Around the rest of the site, medics swarmed the still alive Agents, and SWAT. Fished Duncan out of the water, and pestered Iroquois to see if he really was okay. A helicopter hovered over Heamet and Gwyn, a man leaning out with a large red cross on his chest made thing rather clear.

It was then that nearly every radio played the Emergency broadcast tone, and then started playing one of RFK's most iconic speeches, on the Mindless Menace of Violence.

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Hyper opened the door the the view of Blank sluggishly crawling towards a one man sub in a hole on the far side of the basement. As well as a blue glow appearing from his legs as well as Chrono. Blank was quickly yanked back, as the blue glow swapped from that of his legs to immediately in front of his face. A rather potent explosion tossed him further towards the duo. He came to a rest between the two his face slowly reforming around the baked skull. When it finally reformed his face was that of incomprehensible terror. He looked to be screaming but no sound came. Slowly he curled into the fetal position and began to shake.

"Today's lesson Wladyslav, gravity stretches time. And the fear of a thousand perceived years of something blowing up your face, is nothing compared to the pain felt by over 1400 parents, siblings, family members and spouses of the children, teacher, and innocents you've killed." Looking up at Hyper she continued, "I believe we're done here. Now if you'll excuse me, I suppose I have to stop being so bitchy about my life's greatest regrets." With that she started out of the basement, leaving the rest to Hyper.

[Talion Union]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

The tank went up, and with it the 'battle'. Atlas felt the relatively gentle slam of the shockwave, and as the dozen or so rounds of ammo cooked off, he spotted Calamity tending to Gold Spirit. The others were of no current concern seeing as they seemed to be in stable condition.

As he made his way over to assess the situation, he remembered he had his own IFAK. It's contents not exactly baseline, for starters it had a thoracostomy needle, as well as a FAST 1 needle. It had an absurd amount of blood thinners and tourniquets, as well as nitroglycerin pills. It had painkillers too, but those didn't help all that much anyway.

As he strode over he pulled the pack off of his belt and opened it, fishing out the thoracostomy needle, the nitroglycerin and blood thinners. Taking a knee beside the duo of Knights he slid the remains of the IFAK over to Calamity. Setting down the stuff he needed he took his helmet off, and promptly vomited semi-coagulated blood and bile onto the rubble. It wasn't Atlas first extended period in the -so called- Olympian Adrenaline Rush. Mind you this was the only time he had ruptured organs while in it. Unphased he quickly downed the pills and found a port in his armor, he jammed the needle inand pulled it out, leaving the plastic catheter in place. His chest now decompressed cam the more difficult part, with certain parts of his lungs no longer compressed, there was now a small amount of blood leaking out of the damaged capillaries.

Atlas went into an extended coughing fit, blood still coming up. Atlas mentally chuckled, the pool of blood underneath him reflected his appearance, his sclera were crimson, nearly all the blood vessels burst, he was bleeding from the nose and ear canals, his mouth was pretty much drenched in blood. Were it anyone else, he'd have written them off as a dead man walking, maybe he was pretty much dead, but until he dropped stone dead he still had a job to do.

The sounds of Helicopters now reached his ears, as he was n longer bust with ejecting the blood from his system. A collection of V-22s and Little birds swarmed the site as emergency and armed personnel. Everything was still greyscale, but Atlas couldn't tell if it was because of blood loss or because his body was still in a heightened alert.

A little bird touched down near to the trio of human Gods. Out stepped both Agent V, as well as Anna. V had looked like he was about to say something, but the shocked look on his face, and his increased pace indicated that he was more concerned with David's health.

Anna was more blunt about it, "Holy fuck... David are you?-"

In response David stood, "I'll be fine."

V's face didn't change much, "We have a situation near Raven Rock, I'm not gonna force you but-"

David simply put his helmet back on, his voice ragged, "I'm still combat capable. I'll go."

V hesitantly nodded, "You and Anna get in the little bird, I have to oversee things here. Good luck."

A trio of medical personnel found that the ample time to arrive in helping Calamity and Goldie. As Atlas and Ann got in the smell helicopter. Around the rest of the site, medics swarmed the still alive Agents, and SWAT. Fished Duncan out of the water, and pestered Iroquois to see if he really was okay. A helicopter hovered over Heamet and Gwyn, a man leaning out with a large red cross on his chest made thing rather clear.

It was then that nearly every radio played the Emergency broadcast tone, and then started playing one of RFK's most iconic speeches, on the Mindless Menace of Violence.

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Hyper opened the door the the view of Blank sluggishly crawling towards a one man sub in a hole on the far side of the basement. As well as a blue glow appearing from his legs as well as Chrono. Blank was quickly yanked back, as the blue glow swapped from that of his legs to immediately in front of his face. A rather potent explosion tossed him further towards the duo. He came to a rest between the two his face slowly reforming around the baked skull. When it finally reformed his face was that of incomprehensible terror. He looked to be screaming but no sound came. Slowly he curled into the fetal position and began to shake.

"Today's lesson Wladyslav, gravity stretches time. And the fear of a thousand perceived years of something blowing up your face, is nothing compared to the pain felt by over 1400 parents, siblings, family members and spouses of the children, teacher, and innocents you've killed." Looking up at Hyper she continued, "I believe we're done here. Now if you'll excuse me, I suppose I have to stop being so bitchy about my life's greatest regrets." With that she started out of the basement, leaving the rest to Hyper.

Iroquois waved off anyone trying to talk to him. He'd had his fill of things exploding, and he was too pissed off to not snap at someone. He just kept walking, ignoring anyone who came.

He was going....somewhere. Anywhere but here, he supposed. A bar he hadn't destroyed, a safe house, his apparent new workplace, it didn't matter. Whatever he found first.

But at least in the end, he got what he wanted. A dead memory, the man who changed his whole life, crushed to death by a desk like the parasite he was. Maybe tonight he'd sleep without screaming.

Duncan was limp in the arms of the men carrying him out. He was loaded and carried off, drenched with water. He just wanted to sleep and never wake up at this rate.

[Primordial Luxa]

---

-----Global Terminal & Container Services Yard-----

---

Calamity was doing her best to stabilize Kos but it was not easy given how she had just lost three of her limbs. Acid cooked the metals around them and was it not for the years she had stolen from her human allies she wouldn't be able to stand the toxic discharge from the woman. Calamity had to melt her iron-hard skin close with her disintegration powers in order to stem the tide of chemicals and allow medics to assist her. For the rest of the day, she sat there in the crater with Kos trying to snap her out of the coma she was slipping into until eventually Hyerophant and NUMB appeared to teleport her away to the Knight’s DEiMOS.

---

-----North Brother Island-----

---

Hyper dragged Blank to his feet by his collar and looked him in the eyes. His own were red pinpricks of light in a middle of a grey and white sea. He had enough speed in his bones to vibrate the man molecules apart at the seems and perhaps hurl him into Hyperspace. But the speedster had an even more horrific plan.

“They say you can’t die? We’ll I have some friends who are just dying to meet you.”

---

-----Knights Fortress-----

---

The door to the white room slid open and the lights dimmed slightly as Calamity carried NUMB inside. The silver canister was unnaturally shiny after his chemical bath to purge himself from the worst effects of the fungicide. Calamity looked like she hadn’t slept in days and that was true, beyond occasionally passing out she hadn’t seen a bed in six days and was just happy to be here.

“So which of us gets to use it first?” Calamity asked.

“We’ll I need it to survive.”

“Ditto.”

“Perhaps I should go first, the spectrum has some aetheric properties which may permanently damage it.”

“Fair enough.”

Calamity set the canister down in front of the chair and stepped back as red and white slime and gelatin began to seep out of the can. It flowed up the chairs legs and wrapped around the back as it covered the body of Arlen which was secured with handcuffs. Think liquids poured into his mouth and mycelium pushed itself under his skin as NUMB plugged himself into his nervous system and nanites. Using the advanced strength of his growths he shattered the bonds and stretched as he looked around the room. At his center, Arlen struggled as he was consumed and it was not long before he suffocated to death and NUMB sucked the blood from his veins. But at the same time, Arlen started to heal and NUMB prepared to drain his new host again.

“An infinite amount of flesh for us. An infinite amount of fuel.”

Calamity smiled.

[Serah]

NYMD precinct, Manhattan

Some music was playing.
Almost all of the NYMD was present, save for a few people abroad, well as most people could be around when most of the people of the NYMD were metas.
Vacating to their occupations, waiting for the meta humans of their team to come back from their hospital trips.
So it basically meant that only about four people were around.

"Lonely innit?
Now that neither Heamet nor Carly is around, it's kind of silent, save for the music.
I hadn't heard it in a while." Actually, the music that was currently playing was basically used as a background noise.

It did its job, but it was true that now that it was silent and not filled with the constant noise of having someone argue with another or the constant clicking of the computers and those that were gaming.

"Yeah. I gave Heamet to the guys in the helicopter.
It's likely they've stabilized him, but he was unconscious when I took him up.
Given the state of his body, he's likely going to be stuck in the hospital for a few months in a coma.
I don't like those news... But it's better than to hear about him being dead." Gwyn responded, earning a laugh from Richard, that was sitting in Heamet's seat.

"Come on, it's Heamet, he's taken so much punishment over the years it's a wonder how he hasn't died yet.
And if he didn't through that whole ordeal of having something blow up in his face while being barely protected by a barrier and weakened by disease, there's no way he'll keel over anytime soon." However, a shadow of doubt cast itself upon the man, he knew that Heamet had gone through a lot of punishment, several of these instances bringing him near death.
However, it had been a few years since Heamet had been so wounded.
The last time it happened was in Ireland, and things did not end up looking pretty for either party, as much as he was used to being brought to a state of near death, there was no way he could go on forever getting this blasted.

Then again, it wasn't like he was always searching for trouble, it seemed trouble always wanted to find him.
So far, every explosion, every debris, mucus/whatever, in New York has landed on him at least once.
That wasn't even accounting the multiple cases of cartoonish potted plants falling on his head, the rumor goes that even the legendary piano had fallen upon him at some point.
Then again, he did find his furniture that way as well, his already well furnished house had all kinds of potted plants in pristine shape, and at least three pianos he took the care of reconstructing after them being broken.
Of course, it was a time consuming side job/hobby that took way too long but it was somewhat worth it to his eyes.
Then again, he didn't really live in that house either, he was mostly around the precinct most of the time, and almost everyone in the NYMD had access to it as long as they cleaned the potential mess.
It wasn't a manor, but it was a rather big house for what it was, having three floors and a rather big garden.
Carly was the one that lived in it most of the time, with Heamet taking care of the bills and Carly handling food and whatnot.
A nice lifestyle all in all.

Richard sighed at the thought.

"And to think this guy's our boss."

Gwyn responded almost immediately, almost shocked.

"Well, he's basically made this whole police force for people like us.
We should be somewhat grateful, plus, he's not that bad, we could be having it worse."

"Eh... True."

[Anowa]

---

-----Raven Rock Mountain Complex-----

---

The absence of sound over the Blue Ridge Summit was as eerie as can be. The only sound being the shuddering of the MH-6’s rotors cutting through the air as it came in to land. As Atlas and Anna stepped off, they surveyed the scene.

Several bloodied bodies were immediately apparent, and as the duo walked up the path they began checking for pulses, every one that Anna surveyed had one, while David had no such luck. David found it odd, since two of the bodies that Anna checked were stabbed in the heart.

Shaking it off as a mirrored abdomen they continued. As they entered the actual structure they heard the echo of RFK’s voice at the tail end of his speech. The lights had failed, and it was pretty much pitch black. Anna pulled her pistol and removed the safety, she grabbed a hold of Atlas shoulder as he leaned down to grab a soldier’s rifle, his ribs screaming in protest.

As the two advanced further from the entrance, Atlas found it harder to see, after clicking the IR on his helmet on spotted something of concern, there were multiple sizes of shell casings on the floor. Both for Armalite rifles and AKs. He racked the bolt on the rifle he picked up and continued onwards, Anna’s hand still on his shoulder. He didn’t know what was worse, the fact Anna couldn’t see, or the fact that Osteo probably wasn’t the only combatant they’d be fighting.

Around three hundred meters in and visibility was beyond zero for the pink haired girl. She was reliant completely on Atlas to guide her. Eventually Atlas stopped, and sound reached her ears, but just barely, it sounded like-

Whatever the sound was, it was quickly drowned out by Atlas opening fire on something, likely Osteo as ricochets became apparent.

The glow of red eyes and sternum came into view, and were promptly shut as something jammed itself into Anna’s entire front. If porcupine acupuncture ever became a thing, this is Anna mused it would feel like. The lack of vision and the pain of moving her eyes shoved Anna into the conclusion that whatever it was that happened had rendered her blind. The sound of struggle echoed through the halls as Atlas and Osteo butted heads.

Osteo swung for Atlas head, who in turn ducked, letting the bladed arm fly overhead. The soldier grabbed the boneman’s neck and slammed his head into the wall, hard enough to dent the reinforced concrete.

Osteo replied by elbowing Atlas in the ribs, the recently set bones snapped right back apart as Atlas impacted the wall behind him. Osteo continued by grabbing Atlas by the throat and slamming him into the wall.

Atlas deftly pulled his own sidearm free, and jammed it into the glowing spot on Osteo’s sternum. Fanning all five heavy caliber rounds into the bioluminescent chunk of flesh revealed a large sore.

Osteo began to mutter things in German, and promptly tossed Atlas clear out of the hallway and into another. The Super-Soldier slammed into the floor knocking the wind out of him. Osteo quickly set upon him, forming a massive weight upon his arm. Ready to turn Atlas’ head into paste. As Osteo brought the arm down, it was torn clean off.

Anna had acted, and as the heavy limb smashed Osteo off Atlas, he acted. He rolled, simultaneously grabbing a grenade from his belt. As Osteo quickly recovered, he very quickly realised that a fist had entered his chest cavity. Leaving behind the present of an M67 frag grenade.

Atlas shouted something he’d been saying a lot recently, “DOWN!”

The scuffle of Anna diving to the floor and a whimper of pain indicated she was out of immediate harm. So Atlas booted Osteo in the abdomen sending the former Nazi backwards. Diving to the ground he counted a single second until the the grenade detonated. The shockwave made his one remaining good ear ring in pain.

As he stood he called out, “Anna?”

A voice from nearby, “I can’t see.”

“I know it’s dark kiddo.”

“No, my eyes are gone. I had to tear them out, they were just.. goop and-”

Atlas made haste in her direction, “Alright, calm down you’ll be fine.”

The sound of someone standing made Atlas wheel around, just in time to be impaled against the wall by a seven foot bone like pole. He yelled in pain as his lung was perforated, and his ribs were pushed aside like pool noodles.

He wasn’t able to snap the pole off fast enough, and Osteo was laying punch after punch into his head. First he display gave away, leaving him blind to what was going on, then his helmet bent open, being sheared clear off a moment later. After that the only thing keeping his brain from being mush was his laminated skull. And even then it gave out, his temple crumpled under a rather harsh blow, his eye going with. Blood began to flow freely from the crumpled bone and eye structure.

The next blow didn’t come, instead Anna gave a war cry and jumped onto Osteo’s back. She proved only a momentary distraction. As Osteo quickly tossed her into a wall. A crack came and Anna slumped to the floor.

Atlas didn’t have the strength to scream. Instead, he only looked up, to see the two SS lightning bolts in Osteo’s forehead. Wait… he could see, the emergency lighting came on…SS.. Lightning bolts… [i]yes.[/]

Atlas brushed his arm across the wall behind him as Osteo ranted in German. He grabbed what he thought was the right one, and grabbed it. Using the last of his strength, he pulled himself off the pole, snapped the cable, and as it sparked jammed it into Osteo open chest.

The Nazi soldier soon began to scream, as the SS bolts disappeared from his forehead, and the metal fragments gave away. Soon enough all that was left was a scrawny, naked, man. Atlas passed out very soon after.

The Agency reinforcement team arrived just in time for Anna to wake up, and just in time for Atlas to be saved from death. As they cleared the compound they came upon a collection of notes from Osteo outlining his plan, and asking those who read them not to disclose his reasons. Among other things they found an urn of what seemed to be magically active ashes. Both the lid and the actual container were separately filled, it was first suspected of being a really old and misplaced museum piece, and with the carvings of birds tearing apart a duo of nobles on the sides it might’ve been shipped off to the Smithsonian….

...Except that the lid had "Nevermore" etched onto it.

V had it immediately shipped to Site-18 classified the urn N-class. It was placed in a hermetically sealed uranium and iridium chamber with a thermobaric dispersal system. No chances were taken.

---

-----Agency Site 02 (Medical recuperation and research)-----

-----2 days later-----

---

Anna lay alone on an operating table, surprisingly she’d been cleared for surgery despite the fractured skull she’d received. Apparently stem cell research with the Agency had progressed leaps and bounds from the public sector. Regardless she was anxious, despite what the doctors and nurses said, not being able to see made things like that.

Though after this surgery things would be different. Anna had opted for green eyes as a replacement, an added bonus being that they weren’t as squishy anymore. The same would be done to Atlas’ eye, though the same color he was born with though he was elsewhere in the facility.

She fell into a deep sleep as the anesthetic worked it’s way into her system.

---

-----Agency Site 02 (Medical recuperation and research)-----

-----3 days later-----

---

Atlas knew this was the right thing to do, and that there wouldn’t be a better time than now. But he was still apprehensive about renewing his augmentations. The last time he’d done this was back in his home universe, and it took three hours. Now it’d take a little over thirteen, just so his body wouldn’t get bombarded with so much at once.

Hopefully he wouldn’t wake up from the pain this time either. Bandages still wrapped his head from his replacement surgery. Supposedly the process here would make it heal faster, but Atlas didn’t bet on it, recovery either way would be a few weeks.

Like Anna the day before, David slipped into a calm unconsciousness.

---

-----Agency Site 18 (Subject Imprisonment Center)-----

-----4 days later-----

---

Agent V was separated from Osteo by fifteen feet of concrete, despite that he still felt a bit uneased by the man. It was a feeling classified as: anything but odd. Everyone in the Agency who was a normal human felt a bit of uneased when communicating with a J-Class or a above subject, object, or other. Osteo was no different, but at least he cooperated with Agency forces.

The Bone mutant was captured with no casualties, not even from the Raven Rock guard forces. Which was why they were speaking.

“Mr. Carmichael, can you hear me?”

Alexander’s gravelly voice replied, “Yes, I can hear you clearly. Though the titanium casing and the amount of Concrete is unnecessary.”

“If you answer my questions we’ll see about moving somewhere more humane.”

“Thank you.”

“Alright, I have to ask, why didn’t you kill the personnel?”

“I assume you mean at Raven Rock? Simply because it’s not my business to kill anyone.”

That made V frown, “You dislike killing, yet you very nearly killed two of our operatives. Why?”

A pause, “That’s a complex answer. The personality that harmed them to such an extent was not the one you speak to now. It’s the same personality that the SS brainwashed into me. During the Battle of Berlin in ‘45 I was struck in the head by a tank shell, I know not which side, but after that I became myself again.”

V thought for a moment, “I take it being struck caused your other personality to come out?”

“Yes, the grenade that was shoved into my chest triggered it.”

“I see. But now I’m more confused, how did you get the guards to appear dead.”

A chuckle came from Osteo, scaring V, “The same way I make anyone appear dead or transformed. Pheromonal hallucinations and anesthetic and mutated rodents. In the sewers, I encountered an NYMD officer, he encountered mutated rats of my own design, easy enough to kill, but still wanting death. My main goal was Haegler, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s also how I was able to tail them without being spotted.”

V nodded, it made sense for Carmichael to go after Haegler, hell at this point everyone seemed to be after Haegler. The man was hardly Class B, but he was still a threat. “I take it there’s more to this?”

“Yes. I believe you may have noticed that the only casualty from the Station explosion were Alucard of Byzantion? There were no bodies despite witnesses? And the CCTV showed no bodies or transformed humans?”

“So you never legitimately killed anyone other than Alucard?”

“No.”

V nodded, so the man wasn’t a remorseless killer, but his goals in Philly were something else, “Alright, so what were you planning to do at Raven Rock?”

“I originally intended to prime the nuclear arsenal, so people would flock to the installation in an attempt to stop me, and people would realise that the Metas weren’t as monstrous as people thought. However I quickly realised that the alphabet soup of agencies likely wouldn’t allow anyone but themselves into the installation, and my plans would be for nought. So I recorded an RFK speech and played it onto the emergency broadcast system. Much less bloody, and dare I say effective.”

V thought for a long while, of course he couldn’t just release Osteo, but the man hadn’t really done anything against the Agency. Hell, he’d done less than most current field agents had. “I take it you’d be appreciative if your life took the slow lane from now on?”

“Yes, I’d rather study seashells and alien biologies. Chemistry tickles my fancy as well.”

V smirked, he’d definitely be getting a pay raise soon. “Welcome to the Agency then, I’ll try and get the paperwork done as soon as possible.”

“I appreciate that, here’s hoping I’ll never have to scare the public again.”

---

-----Libyan Sahara-----

-----4 days later-----

---

In a large tent among a group of armed Nomads, a meeting was taking place. In the dark of the night, a crude table was set up and three individuals were assembled around it.

Two had actually met NUMB though both only briefly. Chloe Glanzman and a man known by Abel stood next to a woman, if a woman had been skinned to the muscle, painted black, and given combat boots and a fancy helmet.

Chloe spoke, “So blanked fucked up?”

Abel answered, “Yes.”

Chloe looked at the black suited woman, “And your equipment failed?”

“Technically wasn’t my equipment, the Agency designed it, I just stole it.”

“It doesn’t matter I guess. Our goals just got set back multiple months… maybe even years…. It’s depressing knowing that the man that motivated us to become more radical just failed miserably.”

Abel continued, “Adding insult to injury, they have a cure for out virus now. Made by one Anthony Cross.”

Chloe sighed, “Dew?”

The seemingly skinned woman replied, “Yeah.”

Chloe was glad she didn't need to say more. Anthony Cross was going to be killed, if only to help the next generation.

---

-----Cross Residence-----

-----1 Week later-----

---

Anthony just answered the door, he was expecting a package. And he got one he guessed, a bullet to the head. Thankfully he had the right mutation to remain conscious, albeit he was pretty much paralyzed.

He watched as Jason got his chest caved in and was promptly executed, and as his mother and her three closest friends -all trained VDV- get similar treatments. Then the form of a skinned woman faded into thin air. Anthony would have to wait twenty minutes for EMTs to arrive. But his family was dead, and nothing would change that.

---

-----Bellevue Hospital Center-----

-----1 Week later-----

---

A flatline is what echoed through the room. The anguished cry of a father came afterwards.

Robert Schmuckatelli, a sixteen year old, who lasted a whole week as his flesh slowly fell off, had passed on. There was nothing to be done, every treatment failed, too much of his system was so radically different from a normal human that nothing worked, not even the Virus’ cure.

He lasted so bloody long though, but after having one final heartfelt talk with his father, his body finally gave out, his will no longer there.

---

Across all this, the shutdown of the Blue Brain project, and the sudden appreciation for Meta-Humans across the US seemed almost unnoticeable.

Dead character tally: Psychonaut, Cyst, Alucard, Big Brother, and Blank and Osteo (technically).

---

-----End of Arc 2-----

---

[Primordial Luxa]

Do not post in the thread just yet but it's up.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

SS Standartenführer Dietrich Ekerhart Haegler

Man, things in the asylum had certainly been rough, he guessed. Not only did one of the helicopters crash, no, there had been a heavy firefight and Metas running around. He couldn`t deny that he had welcomed this little distraction. He`d have to face the Scarlet Baroness soon and seeing others from the distance bashing their heads in was certainly more enjoyable for him than the Baroness would be. Not to mention that it would give Dirlewanger some more time. And so he had watched how everyone had overcome the obstacles outside and entered the asylum. He also watched everyone who had arrived before leave again. That was his time to act. He was sure that cleanup squads would soon arrive. People who`d dispose of the bodies and examine the enemy metas.

He hurried to get over to the asylum though he didn`t really care about visibility anymore. Nobody was on the island anymore. And if some punks had actually stayed around during the whole battle, then nobody would believe them what had happened here.

Entering the asylum he suddenly had the eerie feeling of being watched. His head jerked to face every possible direction but he couldn`t see anything. Shrugging he just continued his walk deeper into the house. He climbed several almost broken down stairs before he reached the highest floor. There he searched the rooms for one that would eventually suit his tastes. And eventually he found one. It was a round and almost emptry room safe for some rubble. It had a few broken windows facing New York CIty and in the centre of these windows was a single doorframe. He could guess that there had once been a balcony. It probably fell off.

With a sigh he continued his preparations. Looking through the doorframe he could see the moon. Really wonderful view. The vampire would most certainly come. And was that his imagination or did the moon have a reddish colour? Ah well, he did a lot of shrugging this night, didn`t he? Cause he shrugged that off again. Taking out a little unfolding broom he started to tidy up the floor a little bit, sweeping lots of dust and rubble to the walls where it wouldn`t hinder him in his efforts. He then took out some chalk and started drawing a big circle encompassing almost the whole room. Once finished he started writing strange words in german and latin within the circle. Not to mention that he used lots of strange sings. He also didn`t forget to draw himself a Pentagram into the center of the circle.

Once finished he stepped back a little to look over his drawing. He was satisfied. Everything was in place. Now for the last ingredient. The vial with the last drops of blood appeared in his hand. With a few firm steps he went to the center of the circle and dropped the last bits of blood right into the center of the Pentagram. After making sure that nothing was left in the vial he wanted to throw it over his shoulder out of the window. But he didn`t hear the clinging of breaking glass. He froze. Just then he heard this voice. Sooo young and innocent yet at the same time so incredibly old and malicious.

"Tststs. You don`t just throw garbage out the window. Need I teach you how to properly dispose of your trash before I kill you? I guess you would be the best trash I could use."

He slowly turned around and there she was, standing in the doorframe and holding his vial in one of her hands. And now it wasn`t just his imagination anymore. The moon had indeed turned red. It was standing in the sky right behind her, making her very well visible for him. Oh fuck does that look beautiful, was all he could think.



The Scarlet Baroness Antonia I. of Bohemia

She had done well to stay in the background. All this fighting was nothing for her. And she didn`t like the people who had been here. Especcially that woman was unsettling her. And the CIA members had found her coffin. Something she had feared ever since they had all entered the basement. She certainly would`ve to move after she had dealt with Haegler. Speaking of him, he had surprised her. At first she hadn`t minded the shadowy figure hurriedly coming over to the asylum but a glance of moonlight had caused his silver SS runes on his collar to flash up. And Antonia didn`t know too many still running around with these runes. Adding to it that she had felt Haegler`s blood coming ever closer it was safe to assume that this was Haegler.

But Antonia had never acted on nothing but pure assumptions. She had observed Haegler on his way through the Asylum and later when he was painting the floor. It really was Haegler. Even though he was wearing a gas mask, his figure as well as the way he moved had betrayed him. Now what had he put so much effort into? A quick look revealed to her that this was an unholy satanic ritual. She smirked. It was supposed to get one into contact with the realm of hell. She knew because a few centuries ago she had been in the centre of a similar ritual. However, back then they had had magicians with them to fuel the ritual with magic while additional power had been recovered from the blood of her sacrificed mother. Well, looking at what Haegler did, it was sure that atleast the blood part was taken care of. He dropped it out of a vial and the smell, hell, it`s whole aura was so intense to Antonia that had to close her eyes for a second. A bad effect of all the spells and powers she had used to track this blood.

And then he mindlessly threw the vial out of the window. It slightly annoyed her. She did like dead landscapes but she didn`t like them to be filled with rubbish. And so she quickly caught it and came in through the doorframe, teasing Haegler a little with the vial.

It was obvious that he was shocked. She couldn`t see his face but his movements made it clear. Now, she could begin a little questioning time first.

"Surprised to see me? Trying to lure me here with your blood and then not being ready to face me or what?"

She entered the cirlce and began to walk along it`s borders. Haegler on his side did the same and made sure to always stand on the exact opposite position. He seemed to have himself under control again. His voice wasn`t shaking when he spoke.

"Not exactly surpsied to see you. More surprised to see you so soon. And as you can see I`ve made all preparations I had to do."

His confidence threw her off a little. Was there maybe something that she hadn`t noticed? She once again took a good look at the circle and all it`s components. No, she knew all of this. There was nothing here that could potentually harm her. Maybe she could ask him when he had started with learning about Satanic Rituals in the first place? Wasn`t he the head of the Ordo Teutonicus? How could a christian such as him know about this?

"This circle of yours? It is neat I have to say. And so well done that I`m about to ask where you learned about it and why? Aren`t you christian?"

Haegler simply chuckled and answered her accordingly:

"Ehehehehe. Well, the end of the war made us rather desperate. We weren`t simply hunting your kind and all the other supernatural creatures anymore. No, we were experimenting on you and weaponizing all of our specimen and their abilities. Besides, the knowledge how this ritual was performed was well known to the Order. We knew about all these unholy rituals. It`s about knowing your enemy in order to defeat him."

He still was way too confident for her taste. What was it that was giving him confidence? Maybe she should ask him if he really knew what the ritual was for.

"You do know that this ritual can`t save you? It can`t even harm me! What is stopping me from simply ripping out your heart and drinking the blood and your soul with it, adding them to the hundreds of thousands already within me?"

And now he stopped with the walking in the circle. She stopped as well. He was now standing in front of the doorframe and behind him she could see the river and NYC. He lifted his arms like the dirigent of a grand orchestra while saying:

"Oh my dearest Princess Antonia. You may be cautious and always look out for traps but it seems that this one will catch you unprepared.

RISE SOLDIERS OF THE THIRD REICH!"

Once had had said this, Antonia believed to see movement within the sea. While Dietrich still had his arms up she looked past him and focused on the river. And there was no doubt that heads were in the sea. But it didn`t stay with just heads. Strange figures in all forms and sizes were just walking out of the water. She could hear the mechanical clanking of their limbs all the way till up here. So this was why Haegler was so confident. He had trapped her with a whole hidden army. Well, guess this was the end of the line then. She couldn`t fight against this many of Haegler`s creations at once. They could be armed with all sorts of weaponry and have the strangest abilities. And knowing Haegler she was already encircled. And she also couldn`t just fly away. She didn`t doubt her flying skills but these abominations surely brought a crapton of ranged weaponry with them. She focused on Haegler again. So he would be her downfall? No, she wouldn`t let this arrogant swine get away so easily. With a quiet voice she slowly said:

"Take off your mask."

And to her surprise he actually did, revealing to still look like the old sadist she had met decades ago. Well, this would make killing him so much more satisfying. In less then a second she had closed the small distance between him and her and before he could do anything she grabbed his chin with one of her hands while putting the other one onto his shoulder. And then she started pushing. With a disgusting sound Haegler`s head came off, blood flowing out of it like crazy. Ah, yes the blood. She wanted to drink it. She quickly held the head above her mouth to let the blood flow right in, not minding the still standing body of Haegler.

But once the blood met ther lips she had to cough. It was cold, tasteless and it just felt empty. It was...yes...this was the only explanation! Haegler was soulless! She could feel the hint of power having once cursed through the blood but now it was just completely empty. Hell, next thing she did was to cough. The blood had turned into nothing but dust. And while she was coughing a punch suddenly hit her from the side, causing her to let go off Haegler`s head and making her stop coughing.

Looking up she saw Haegler`s headless body, with blood all over the upper part of the uniform, getting down on it`s knees to get the head. But it didn`t put it back onto it`s neck. It actually turned the head around to face Antonia. What she then got to see froze her in shock! Haegler`s head was alife. She could see the eyes fixating her and the mouth opening before he laughed maniacally:

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Was denn? Surprised? The allies couldn`t kill me with cutting my head off and now you think you can?"

Realization hit her. This was an undead just like she was. Maybe not a Vampire but certainly also undead. But how? How did he become an Undead? Calm down she said to herself. The Undead usually didn`t really act on their own. It would have to be really powerful undead creatures like liches or vampires to act on their own. But Haegler was no vampire, she could see that. And he was missing the magic to be a lich. This meant that he was controlled. It hurt her that all these decades she had hunted nothing but an undead puppet. Well, she could atleast try to banish whatever was controlling his body. Though it was very interesting to see that it had managed to keep Haegler`s body in the same state for all this time.

Opening herself to the powers of her own blood magic she could see what she should have seen long before. It seemed as if threads of a sickening green light linked up with Haegler. And they seemed to come out of the ground. Well, she would purge the body. Sadly, most of the spells against possesion that she knew came from the religion. Given her own unholy origin it would be painful for her. She slowly began chanting.

"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem:"

Dietrich in the meantime had put his head back on and with a slight hint of annoyance she noticed that it was already growing back on. How dare this puppet mimick immortality.

"exaudi orationem meam,
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine …"

Now Dietrich heard her and noticed her. He let out a scream and hastily waved someone from the window. Probably his army that was advancing on her position. When he turned around again she could see the anger in his eyes. But wait a minute! His eyes were dissolving in front of her. Hell, his whole skin, flesh and so on just seemed to turn to dust and slowly fall of him. He slowly made his way towards her, every step seemingly costing him a lot of strength.

"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
In memoria aeterna erit justus:
ab auditione mala non timebit!"

She finished her chant. And Haegler noticed. With an inhuman scream the remnants of him, nothing more than a Skeleton in Uniform with 2 green lights burning there where his eyes had once been, pounced onto her and started trying to hold her down. She was surprised about the inhumane amount of strength put into his actions. It seemed that whoever was controllling the body put an awful lot of power and effort into it now to keep it going and take her down. But it was a lost fight. The Skeleton already got weaker again with every passing moment. With an angry howl it vented off it`s anger.

"DIRLEWANGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

And then she saw the light in his eyes slowly vanishing. Green light seemed to flow out of the skeleton and vanished into the ground. And then the Skeleton that had once been Haegler fell apart on top of her. She stood back up and rubbed her arms where the Skeleton had grabbed her. It really hurt. Looking around she saw the bones all over the floor. Atleast she had won this fight. Now she could die. She had cut of the head of the snake.

But then suddenly a mechanical arm grabbed her from behind. Another arm quickly came into view, holding a red and black crystal. She could only stare in shock. It was a Hellstone. They were incredibly rare and said to hold massive amounts of unholy energy. Energy that could only be used when powerful and potent creatures were around. And she met the criteria. Plus she was too shocked right now to resist. It all happened too fast and sudden for her to react. They had planned this well. Against Haegler she had been on guard and would`ve noticed the aura of this thing immediately. They had snuck up on her. A mechanical voice whispered into her ear.

"You may have defeated the Standartenführer but he also defeated you."

The stone suddenly started glowing. And together with it the signs on the floor also started glowing in an evil red. The mechanical voice spoke again:

"Let`s have a talk with your creator."



Antonia later couldn`t remember exactly what she had seen and what had happened. She had just remembered the endless pain and the presence of something so immensely powerful that it overshadowed all of the world`s heroes and villains combined by far. She remembered what it told her. And she didn`t like it. But one does not stand against the creator of oneself. Looking up to the night sky and the red moon she sighed. Then she turned around. Dirlewanger was standing there while some of his abominations of soldiers were collecting Haegler`s bones. She looked down when something suddenly hit her foot. One of the soldiers had accidentally hit Haegler´s skull with his foot and it had rolled all the way over to her. She picked it up and held it in front of her face.

"Alas, poor Haegler. I knew his blood very well. I knew his atrocities very well. But I never knew his pain. A miracle that he hasn`t gone mad. And now that I finally disposed of him we`re on the same side. Fate sometimes follows strange paths."

*cough*

"Bitte, Prinzessin, would you please hand the skull over? It`s better to have all of his parts together."

She sighed and turned around. It was Dirlewanger who stood there. He and the couple of men with him were all staring at her. Blushing, she handed the skull over. She then stood next to Dirlewanger and and watched how the Soldiers were returning back into the water. They would come back out in the secret bases and hideouts of the SS.

"Is this the end of the Abteilung für Paranormales? Haegler, the head, the one who controlled everything, is gone. All thanks to me."

Dirlewanger at first said nothing before galantly giving her his claw hand and leading her through the asylum and down the stairs to the outside. After some time he finally spoke:

"You`ll definitely cause some ruckus. People will notice that Haegler is gone. Even if they`re supposed to be an incredibly loyal bunch, the leader is still gone. And then others will start proclaiming themselves as leaders. I`ll have to send Reichhart to take care of some of the higher ups. And even if we do that we won`t be able to keep the SS from seeking revenge. There will be blood. There will be Chaos. SS Troops will start murdering people and metas in revenge."

She looked up to him. They were now walking through the rich flora of the Island.

"Did anyone ever notice that it was not Haegler you were following?"

Dirlewanger immediately stopped. The slap on the face came so quick that she noticed it and the pain coming with it 3 seconds later. Given that Dirlewanger`s hands were claws he had also caused some deep cuts on her cheek. She healed them quickly.

"Don`t you ever dare to talk about him like that. You know that it wasn`t the full Haegler you were fighting. You were fighting his mortal remains. Haegler`s soul is long gone into hell. But you saw that something was controlling the mortal remains. It was Haegler`s soul."

Antonia remembered that the threads were seemingly going into the ground. She knew that hell wasn`t in the ground but she knew that entering the dimension of hell was due to strange magical occurences much easier when deep inside the earth. But that didn`t have to mean anything. Maybe someone on the other end of the world had been controlling Haegler`s body. Or maybe another soul had taken possesion of the body. Or actual demons had possesed him.

"How can you be so sure that Haegler was possesed by himself?"

Dirlewanger proceeded his walk and in 100 metres distance she could already see a boat. Probably the one that Haegler had come with.

"Back in 1946 he gave Reichhart a secret codeword before his execution. When he returned from the tomb we had buried him within he knew the codeword. So simple."

Antonia could guess what would come now.

"I guess we will now have a nice journey to this mysterious tomb of his?"

Entering the boat and starting the motor, Dirlwanger said:

"Exactly. Now come. We need to prepare things so that the damage done by Haegler`s disappearance won`t be high. And we need to prepare our journey."

With a sigh Antonia entered the boat. She guessed that she never would`ve dreamed of driving in a boat with a mechanical monstrosity that had committed countless warcrimes on their way to save a giant organization that had the downfall of the world in mind by reanimating the man who had imprisoned and tortured her. The world had gone crazy.

[Kingdom of Irhk]

William Brookes

The days went by quietly. No big or complicated cases, no demons hunting his head, no spirits trying to possess someone or to come back to life. All in the monotonous routine of a common man, which was only called to make exorcisms of inexistent demons, given the fact that they were sick most of the times, and sometimes observing Mary in school: After all, he could only watch her, as her father would certainly hunt him to the end of Hell if he knew he contacted her in any way, shape or form.

And then, coincidence played its part once more. A call from his comrade, Gary informing him of certain "people in black" doing way too much movement on an island. And William knew who those people were. And after some time, here he was, standing near the distance, carefully moving to not be seen. People moved all around the building, hurriedly yet with unusually attention to the minima details. William wouldn't be able to pass without some magic, and in this case, invisibility.

Slowly, he went inside, headed to a specific part of the building. A circle was half washed in the ground, an unusual one at that. Using his knowledge, he ended up discerning that the circle was made in an attempt to pin down a creature, but the signs around gave away that a fight happened. And while he was observing, he had to put his invisibility down, and that could be his end, specially in the point where he stepped on a piece of glass, a loud crack could be heard all around the place.

"Shit."

[Remnants of Exilvania]

SS Sturmführer Hermann Engel

"You know, we`ve been expecting someone to show up. It`s quite pleasant to see that it is the much dreaded Herr Brookes who honours us with his visit. Then again, from what our sources told us pretty much everyone else got beaten up a bit."

Hermann was simply leaning against the doorframe. He seemed to be alone but also a little overconfident. It didn`t take long to find out why. From the balkony several SS soldiers quickly stormed in, pointing their SMGs at Brookes.

"We`ve been waiting for quite a while now. The feelings are close to boiling over. And here you come, someone who has caused so much grief to us and especcially to Haegler. We`ll take quite some pleasure in doing what he didn`t manage to do in his life."

With that Hermann got a metal pipe from somewhere and slowly started getting closer, a cold and emotionless facade on his face, barely able to keep the anger and hatred he had for this magician within him. It was all to clear what he wanted to do. He simply wanted to beat Brookes untill he was nothing but a bloody pile of meat and broken bones. And the soldiers did the same, seemingly completely forgetting that they had guns in their hands and instead all ready to pummel him to death with their SMG butts.

[Kingdom of Irhk]

SS Sturmführer Hermann Engel

"You know, we`ve been expecting someone to show up. It`s quite pleasant to see that it is the much dreaded Herr Brookes who honours us with his visit. Then again, from what our sources told us pretty much everyone else got beaten up a bit."

Hermann was simply leaning against the doorframe. He seemed to be alone but also a little overconfident. It didn`t take long to find out why. From the balkony several SS soldiers quickly stormed in, pointing their SMGs at Brookes.

"We`ve been waiting for quite a while now. The feelings are close to boiling over. And here you come, someone who has caused so much grief to us and especcially to Haegler. We`ll take quite some pleasure in doing what he didn`t manage to do in his life."

With that Hermann got a metal pipe from somewhere and slowly started getting closer, a cold and emotionless facade on his face, barely able to keep the anger and hatred he had for this magician within him. It was all to clear what he wanted to do. He simply wanted to beat Brookes untill he was nothing but a bloody pile of meat and broken bones. And the soldiers did the same, seemingly completely forgetting that they had guns in their hands and instead all ready to pummel him to death with their SMG butts.

William Brookes

Yep. That might be my end. Or not. I mean, you walked through Hell. You visited Nilfheim. A metal pipe and guns? Nope, not working. Let's play.

"See, this is why I actually liked Haegler. I had the opportunity to send him to Hell, to the space between dimensions, to another dimension, and yet this climax of the fight happened only once or twice. But did you say 'in his life'? He's dead then. Shame. I'll remember to pray when I get home, because you know I'm going to get home. While I was pacing around you didn't even notice, did you?"

In a split second, dust filled the place completely, rendering it impossible to see anything. Although it could work as a distraction, the definitive trick would be played now. The sound of windows shattering indicated a hurricane of glass shards as the shouts of agony from the soldiers could be heard from everywhere, leaving only Hermann with small cuts. When the dust settled, the scene seemed to get out of an horror movie.

The soldiers with the SMGs were bleeding heavily, with some of the shards incrusted in some parts of the body. Hermann was alone, right in front of a William that sat on the ground, his back against the wall and a small canteen by his side.

"Can we talk like gentlemen now, Herr...?"

[Remnants of Exilvania]

SS Sturmführer Hermann Engel

"Engel. Hermann Engel. Sturmführer of the SS Abteilung für Paranormales.

And if you want to do this the gentleman way then we may very well do so."

Hermann showed no sign of the slaughter affecting him in any way. He just calmly extracted a handkerchief from his pocket and started dabbing off the blood from his face. He hadn`t expected Brookes to pull of such a move. And then there were his solders. He simply unholstered his handgun and walked over to where they were all lying on the ground and rolling around in agony. He ended said agony with clean shots to the head. Blood was spilling out of the corpses and washing away the remnants of the ritual circle. Atleast this part of the mission was now done.

But what to do with Brookes. He still had to kill. Hell, he wanted to kill him. This little son of a bitch was a little too arrogant for his taste. Not to mention that he was a dreaded magician. Maybe he could kick the canteen at Brookes before shooting him into the head with the last bullet? Or he could...

Hermann`s thoughts were interrupted by a voice suddenly coming out of his radio:

"Krcht This is Dirlewanger speaking. Sturmführer Engel, I want you to double your efforts on cleaning that place. You should get out of there as quickly as possible. Agents have found out that the magician William Brookes has left his current home. They lost him in Port Morris. I believe he will come to you. Make sure to get out of there and let no one follow you. If he manages to show up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard within the hour then you will be made responsible. Or well, I guess if he shows up then you`re already too dead to be made responsible. Just get moving! Dirlewanger out! Krcht"

Things couldn`t have been any worse. Now he had no other choice. He quickly jumped at the canteen, pointing his pistol at Brookes while shouting so that the cleanup guys could hear it:

"INTRUDER ALERT IN SECTION 0!"

And in the whole building the SS cleanup guys and guards got out their weapons and hurried to surround the room.

[Kingdom of Irhk]

SS Sturmführer Hermann Engel

"Engel. Hermann Engel. Sturmführer of the SS Abteilung für Paranormales.

And if you want to do this the gentleman way then we may very well do so."

Hermann showed no sign of the slaughter affecting him in any way. He just calmly extracted a handkerchief from his pocket and started dabbing off the blood from his face. He hadn`t expected Brookes to pull of such a move. And then there were his solders. He simply unholstered his handgun and walked over to where they were all lying on the ground and rolling around in agony. He ended said agony with clean shots to the head. Blood was spilling out of the corpses and washing away the remnants of the ritual circle. Atleast this part of the mission was now done.

But what to do with Brookes. He still had to kill. Hell, he wanted to kill him. This little son of a bitch was a little too arrogant for his taste. Not to mention that he was a dreaded magician. Maybe he could kick the canteen at Brookes before shooting him into the head with the last bullet? Or he could...

Hermann`s thoughts were interrupted by a voice suddenly coming out of his radio:

"Krcht This is Dirlewanger speaking. Sturmführer Engel, I want you to double your efforts on cleaning that place. You should get out of there as quickly as possible. Agents have found out that the magician William Brookes has left his current home. They lost him in Port Morris. I believe he will come to you. Make sure to get out of there and let no one follow you. If he manages to show up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard within the hour then you will be made responsible. Or well, I guess if he shows up then you`re already too dead to be made responsible. Just get moving! Dirlewanger out! Krcht"

Things couldn`t have been any worse. Now he had no other choice. He quickly jumped at the canteen, pointing his pistol at Brookes while shouting so that the cleanup guys could hear it:

"INTRUDER ALERT IN SECTION 0!"

And in the whole building the SS cleanup guys and guards got out their weapons and hurried to surround the room.

William Brookes

We simply can't have a nice talk. Well... That's sad.

With the canteen kicked, its contents poured out of it, drenching the ground with alcohol. With a hint of satisfaction in his face, he let out a slight smile with Engel's shouting to the rest of the crew. It was becoming more difficult than it should be. Quickly taking it from the ground, William saved enough for his last trick.

"I'm offended, really. I mean, I sit here, want to have a nice chat with you, and you point your gun at me, kick my canteen, and call me a magician? I'm a mage, by the sake of whatever you guys believe. I don't know, for the sake of the Berlin wall? A wizard, an arcanist, but a magician? Well, if I die, may I die drinking."

With that, he put the rest of what was left in the canteen in his mouth, as he was going to drink it all... Only to spit it out in the form of fire right on Engel. Without Haegler's healing factor, it was going to be an agonizing experience before he died.

"Sorry, but I really have to go now."

With that, the same hurricane of dust filled the building, as William started to make his way out, avoiding to be seen by any soldiers.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

SS Sturmführer Hermann Engel

Hermann couldn`t evade the fire. Wit his eyes widened he saw it coming right at him before it splashed into his face, taking his eyesight in the very first moment. It burned through his skin quickly, his hair was on fire and he screamed his lungs out. He died much quicker than one would expect though it still was an excruciating death.

The SS members coming in only found his still smouldering body. Filled with rage they searched the whole island for Brookes but couldn`t find a trace of him. And so they resorted to piling up all those recently deceased in the yard of the asylum before splashing petrol all over them and setting it alight. Only once they had done that they left the island, a sizeable fire raging on the island as they drove away further and further.

Brooklyn Navy Yard
01:30 AM
SS Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger

The Brooklyn Navy Yard was bustling with activity tonight. Heavily armed black uniformed SS Guards were patrolling the area while SS troopers where busy loading a submarine not unlike the one sunk at Block Island. The whole scenery felt a lot like it was something that could`ve happened in Germany at the end of the war. Only thing missing was the distant sound bottle, the lights of searchlights cutting through the darkness on their search for bombers and of course the rythmic hum of enemy bomber squadrons. So many memories came up with this picture, Dirlewanger thought.

He was driving the armoured transport containing Haegler`s mortal remains. All he had to do was to bring them into the Submarine and get away with it. The Vampire had disappeared when they had reached land again. Something about having to wash of the taste of Haegler`s dirty fake blood from her tongue. Goddamn Supernaturals. They and their strange habits. Well, now he was driving up to the submarine, SS troopers jumping out of his way. He didn`t want to be exposed for too long so he moved the armoured transport as close as possible to the submarine before turning off the engine and disembarking.

SS soldiers were now doubling their efforts in not letting anyone come in. Search dogs were let off their leash and SS soldier in power armour and with particle cannons were accompanying the patrols. Dirlewanger had spared no expense for this mission. Almost all units of the NYC cell where located here. Except for some specialized personnel, informants and the heavy weaponry.

He quickly got to the back of the transport and typed in the code to unlock the door. With a hiss it slowly opened and presented him with the steel coffin lying within the transport. He didn`t hesitate to walk in there slammed his claws into both sides of the heavy coffin before lifting it up as it it was nothing but a medium sized, half empty ammunitions crate. He was quickly marching towards the sub now, with SS guards staying everywhere around him.

[Kingdom of Irhk]

Brooklyn Navy Yard
01:30 AM
SS Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger

The Brooklyn Navy Yard was bustling with activity tonight. Heavily armed black uniformed SS Guards were patrolling the area while SS troopers where busy loading a submarine not unlike the one sunk at Block Island. The whole scenery felt a lot like it was something that could`ve happened in Germany at the end of the war. Only thing missing was the distant sound bottle, the lights of searchlights cutting through the darkness on their search for bombers and of course the rythmic hum of enemy bomber squadrons. So many memories came up with this picture, Dirlewanger thought.

He was driving the armoured transport containing Haegler`s mortal remains. All he had to do was to bring them into the Submarine and get away with it. The Vampire had disappeared when they had reached land again. Something about having to wash of the taste of Haegler`s dirty fake blood from her tongue. Goddamn Supernaturals. They and their strange habits. Well, now he was driving up to the submarine, SS troopers jumping out of his way. He didn`t want to be exposed for too long so he moved the armoured transport as close as possible to the submarine before turning off the engine and disembarking.

SS soldiers were now doubling their efforts in not letting anyone come in. Search dogs were let off their leash and SS soldier in power armour and with particle cannons were accompanying the patrols. Dirlewanger had spared no expense for this mission. Almost all units of the NYC cell where located here. Except for some specialized personnel, informants and the heavy weaponry.

He quickly got to the back of the transport and typed in the code to unlock the door. With a hiss it slowly opened and presented him with the steel coffin lying within the transport. He didn`t hesitate to walk in there slammed his claws into both sides of the heavy coffin before lifting it up as it it was nothing but a medium sized, half empty ammunitions crate. He was quickly marching towards the sub now, with SS guards staying everywhere around him.

William Brookes

The coated figure observed the scene from a safe distance, as the whole movement unfolded at the yard. If anything, this 'Dirlewanger' guy was someone worried with security. However, the scene at the island was somewhat confusing.

Haegler is dead. Certainly it was something considerably stronger than him, to kill him with that bizarre healing that he had. Just mirroring the circle proved to narrow down the perspective a little bit further, and with past evidence it's a safe enough guess to say that he tried to lure the vampire there, and the said vampire killed him. Always call a professional to contain them, that's what I say. Now, to screw up the works.

The natural fog would prove useful to William. He didn't control the weather, but he could certainly modify it a little bit. Inhaling and exhaling, he turned his breath into a small cloud that started to aggregate the fog and multiply it, one of his "snowball" magics, as he liked to call them.

The dogs, being animals, weren't a problem at all when you knew what to do with them. When the spell was cast, the patrols with the dogs would notice that they became playful and docile, seemingly interested in playing with those holding their leashes than to hunt anyone.

With the defenses down and the distractions set, William started to make his way through the buildings, noticing a submarine near. Stopping at a safe distance, he decided to just observe what would happen, or better: Who would appear?

[Remnants of Exilvania]

Brooklyn Navy Yard
01:40 AM
SS Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger

The SS guards were getting nervous at first about the fog. It was highly unnatural to suddenly increase so much. But they got something else to focus on pretty quickly. Their dog acted weird. And no kicking, rewarding or ordering helped in getting them to move again. With curses on their lips the patrols tethered the dogs to whatever they could find before continuing their patrols. Though this time they were going much more cautious. The SS had never particularly liked the supernatural. Though they hadn`t been very picky with their tools.

From Williams point of view he couldn`t see much himself due to the fog. Just the dark shadows of the black clad SS men moving in the shadows. And of course the figure of Dirlewanger easily recognizeable by the large dark object he was carrying on his shoulder. But suddenly, strange things started to happen. Darker shadows were quickly approaching Dirlewanger and the SS escorts from every side. And with them came the cold of the dark grave. Faceless Men in Leather Trenchcoats they were. And they were no living thing. They were the new Gestapo. The ones moving through the shadows and doing the most subtile works which had to be done. And where they were in such force, their leader wasn`t far.

And it was true. William could probably sense it as well. An deadly chill creeping up his spine. Something was happening down there. The breath coming out of the masks of the conventional SS soldiers gathered in small clouds above their heads. They did their best to not move an inch though the weapons were pointed at the scary and not at all moving Gestapomen. They didn`t show any sign of life. Dirlewanger didn`t as well. He had frozen in the middle of his movement and seeme to be waiting for the very thing that William could already feel coming.

Suddenly the ground before the SS men seemed to come to life. A horses head quickly rose from it. A head made out of concrete. And with the head came a full horse. With a horseman. The horseman`s head seemed to be unusually broad and inelegant. No details could be seen through the fog. Well untill the rider suddenly grabbed his head and lifted it into the air. And there it all came awake. The horse suddenly got eyes glowing in a hellish fire and the head showed a visage that simply couldn't be human. And the whole concrete look seemed to simply peel off the horse and it`s rider, making them look more human. Though something that had just looked like concrete and a moment later seemed to be burning inside and not anymore made out of concrete could potentually seem even less human.

The headless horseman put his head back on and got closer to Dirlewanger before talking with a cold and unearthly voice:

"Hail to you, Dirlewanger. It is I, the Executioner and enforcer of Haegler´s justice, Johann Reichhart. I have completed my task of bringing order to the North American cell again. I have also visited the realms of death again. Haegler is there though I didn`t get to see him. However, while I was there, I saw the soul of the Sturmführer Engel falling down into the bottomless pits of hell. Somebody has been on North Brother Island. Someone who might just turn up again. Engel was shouting one single name in rage while falling. The name was Brookes..."

The SS guards on the whole compound had somehow heard the voice of Reichhart. It just seemed to creep into every corner like shadows. And those were everywhere. And even though the had initially been frightened by it they had soon figured out that it was an ally speaking. And the last information dampened the mood quite a bit. If that was even possible. SS guards stormed out of a nearby barrack, Assault Rifles in their hands and began searching in the fog. On some rooftops some searchlights were actually put to use, cutting through the fog with their light cones and illuminating every silhoutte.

And Dirlewanger responded in his creaking mechanical voice:

"I already guessed so. In this case you and your men better help protecting the package. I don`t fear Brookes. In fact, I fear no enemy we have right now. Death is the worst they can do to me and that is a generous present to me at best. Besides, Haegler always said, don`t fear your enemy. Hate him and all who work with him. It works out mostly. Really boosts the morale."

Suddenly, another silhoutte came running through the fog and ran through the circle of Gestapo and SS right up to Dirlewanger, giving the nazi salute before leaning towards Dirlewanger, probably showing him something or whispering into his audio sensors. And then Dirlewanger started talking again, though this time in a volume so that he could be heard in the whole compound:

"Besides, he is already here. The scanners showed a heat signature that could only belong to a human entering the compound just minutes ago. Show yourself magician! If you won`t do so then we can play the hide and seek game. And to your disadvantage the Gestapo is much better at that than you are..."