Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

---

Okay... maybe I'm supposed to take the biggest one, then? If size is the only thing differentiating them, that is... So I suppose I'll take one of those screens the size of a dinner plate at the bottom of the shelf, they're at least twice as bis as any of their competitors and-

Before she could pick out a tablet as her choice of phone, Bael came up to her, apparently irritated by her shouting across the whole shop, and picked out a phone for her. Apparently, it was the same model as the one he was using, so while Sina was not exactly satisfied with the Dra'Quinni making the decision in her place, at least she could be sure that what she will receive is going to be actually usable. One, two, Bael pays the dough, and soon enough, the two Dra'Quinni walked out of the shop and into the street, Sina now holding a shiny black smartphone in her hands.

"How... does this thing-" Sina muttered to herself as she shifted the phone in her hands to everywhich direction until she finally pressed on one of the buttons at the side and the screen lit up, cutting her short. From there, it was a little more simpler - after a little of hand pressing and swiping, the vigilante figured put how unlocking the screen works. "Honestly, this swiping is actually a little fun."

There was something she had to note of, though. "This thing looks really fragile, though. Don't think I could see it surviving a fifty feet fall. Bael, where do you keep it while in your... well, real form?"

---

July 25th

---

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Renata's sobbing and heavy breathing began winding down as Icarus's reassuring words reached her ear. It's true, isn't it? As much as she disliked the prospect of having to rely on the help of others again instead of reassuring her independence from everyone else... she was now safe. The fight club ring, or the swordsman she almost died against, neither one of them could touch her while she was by Icarus's side.

She slowly pulled back from the blonde-haired vigilante, wiping away a few loose tears rolling across her cheeks, and formed a smile, responding to his offer of escorting her somewhere safe:

"Of course, Carito. If it's with you, I'm not afraid to go anywhere."

However, as Renata turned to the side, recollecting the memory of the bout from earlier, her face instantly soured. Taking a breath to calm herself down a little more, the heroine began to explain:

"You see, Icarus... my research during the last month or so had led me to the revelation that this district holds an illegal bloodsport fight club - underneath this building we're standing on, actually. For prizes and fame, superhumans down there engage in deathmatch tournaments... and I went down there and signed up for a match to assess the damage. Collect a dossier on the club and submit it to the authorities."

Renata's hands, holding onto the vigilante's back, clenched onto the black fabric in front of them.

"I though it's nothing risky, you know?.. I figured I could just have a few matches against some twerps and leave as if nothing happened. But... well... the first person I faced was..." This is where the heroine stopped for a few seconds - during the entire match, she was never given the swordsman's name. Even though she clearly recognized that face from before. Not from any previous meeting of theirs, God knows where the fight would have went if they had known each other before, but from the media. "...You know that live stream of a team of supers and dragons attacking a Warwolf base a few days ago? Where a few of my team members participated, too? And the person behind that stream, and later also Marionette's ally during that whole Hilton Tower debacle two days ago... well, that's who I met. And... he stomped me to the curb... but I was saved..."

This is where she stopped again. Should she mention Marina to him? When she knows so little about her?

Actually... knowing that her accent is clearly Hispanic, much like Renata's, and that Marina knows so much about her, even her real name... the pink-haired girl had a suspicion on what kind of person she was supposed to be. And frankly, the thought terrified her. But it would terrify Icarus even more than her, she was sure of it.

Because of what it would imply.

"...by nobody. I, um, managed to get out of there. And I'm not going down there again."

[Confederation of the Equator]

[minecraft villager sound]

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

Red was surprised to see that on the mention of the walk, not only did the dog seem to understand what he was saying, but actually nodded his head almost as if to say yes. "Did you just...never mind," he said, dismissing the action as nothing more than a coincidence. He was about to close the door behind him when he suddenly realized something. He hesitated for a brief moment. There's no way this dog understands me...right? Red thought to himself before speaking up. "Can you walk without a leash?" Much to his surprise, the dog nodded once more, following with a confident sounding bark, if barks could sound confident at least.

"Okay, maybe I've been drinking too much coffee," Red muttered underneath his breath before shaking his head. I suppose in a world with shadow-benders, teen super geniuses, and fucking aliens, a dog understanding a few words isn't anything to be surprised over, he quietly resigned to himself. After closing the door behind him he placed his hands in his pockets, making no hurry to get downstairs. He occasionally glanced over his shoulder to see if the dog was still following, which it was indeed. If anything, it looked as if it was getting impatient with him. Red could only shrug his shoulders as they made their way outside tot he cool summer night that awaited them outside.

Thankfully, they hadn't ran into anyone else around the Tower on their way, nor did anyone seem to be outside at this time of the night. Red had to admit, the cool ocean breeze felt nice on his face, the night sky above dotted with a handful of clouds which dimmed some of the moonlight above. Making his way down to the beach, Red continued to glance over his shoulder to see if the dog was still following him. While it occasionally wandered off to go check out something interesting it found, it never ventured more than a few dozen yards away from him. Every time he'd look back, it'd stare right back at him with a look of anticipation on its face, almost as if it wanted something from him.

At first, Red just simply ignored the dog, instead trying to think about everything that had occurred. He hadn't gotten anywhere with his investigations into whatever was possessing Yoshiro, and the actions of her earlier in front of Kirsvala and her sister continue to boil within him, albeit far from out of control as it had been. Kirsvala was mad at him, for reasons he could probably guess. Their last mission had been an absolute disaster, all thanks to his lack of clear leadership and judgement when he had confronted Marionette.

Just the simple mention of her name within his thoughts was enough to cause him to scowl. She had known all along what she was doing, purposefully luring him out knowing he'd both seek to take her out while also keeping Yoshiro away from her due to his own fear of what could occur. He didn't know if Yoshiro's possession had been her plan from the beginning all along or if it had merely been a sick taste in luck, but he had no doubt Marionette would have more than pleased to see him in his current state. The only solace he was able to get out of the situation was that Marionette was now safely locked behind bars once more, and Red would personally be making checks to make sure it stayed that way.

Red would have undoubtedly remained lost in his own thoughts, had he not suddenly felt the nudge of something wet poke against his thigh. "What the-" he muttered before looking down to see the dog staring back up at him with a long stick in its hand. Its eyes refused to leave his, what he could guess was a stubborn expression on its face. "Oh for the love of-" he said before stopping himself and letting out a sigh. "Okay, just for a little bit," he said with a shake of his head.

Immediately upon this, the tail of the dog began to wag rapidly in anticipation of what was to come. It eagerly allowed Red to grab ahold of the stick in its mouth. Staring over at the ocean, Red decided to give it a toss not far in distance but high in height to see if the dog could track it in the night sky. He didn't want it going to far out in the water, but he had a hunch that merely tossing it down the beach wouldn't be enough to entertain it. So with a small grunt, he tossed the stick high into the air, the small piece of wood silhouetting itself against the moon-lit sky.

"Fetch!"

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

Thankfully the rest went off without a hitch, Sina messing with her phone as they walked away. Though a little more aggressively than he would have liked. "Take it easy with it Sina." She figured out the power button before he had the chance to show her. "Once we're back, I'll put my number in it so you can call whenever you want." Hopefully that wouldn't be too often. He did have stuff he had to do. Though Sina raised the question of how he carries his phone around when he walks around in his loincloth. "Oh, does your loincloth not have a pocket for stuff? The one I got did. It's kind of a tight fit, but it works." He replied. "I usually don't carry it around when I'm on missions. Too easy to get it damaged. And they're expensive to replace."

"It is pretty fragile." He wondered if Onu could put some runes or enchantments on it that would make it harder to damage. A phone would be useful on a mission. If for no other reason than information collection. Assuming he ever got the chance to go on a mission and do something other than stand there with his thumb up his tailhole. "I'd suggest you go buy some human pants like I did, but I'm reminded that the female ones usually don't have pockets for some reason." To sell purses obviously. Man, he was glad he was a guy. "But you use your glamour more often than not, right? You shouldn't have a problem then."

"Anyways, we got the phone. Anything else you want to do today before I head over to the Tower?" He didn't actually plan for them to do anything, he had completely forgotten since he spent all day yesterday flying around N'Toak with Orro. "Heh. Maybe under different circumstances, you could join my team."

[United Kingdom of Poland]

July 27th.

“Alright, Here goes nothing…” Wendy said to herself as she typed in the last keystrokes on her computer. Hitting enter, she watched as her screen lit up with transcripts of warwolf’s radio broadcasts. “And bingo, we’re in. Blizzards going to love this.” As she watched the radio traffic flow in and began tracking the various unit positions, her phone began to buzz. “Yes Naja.”

“There’s someone on the line for you, Wendy.”

“Okay,” Wendy replied, trusting her mentor. “Patch them through.”

“Hello Isabelle, It’s Agent Murray.” A man’s voice said on the other end of the line. “I see you’re making a name for yourself, so to speak.”

Wendy froze. “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.”

“Relax Isabelle, this is a secure line and no one recording this conversation.”

“You can start by using my real name then,” Wendy replied, tensing up. “And how the hell did you find me.”

“It wasn’t easy.” Agent Murray replied. “I see you erased yourself from the CPS database again. I assume you’re living with Naja then. As for how for how I found you… You forgot I know what your hadywork looks like and use to be the bureau contact for your mentors old team. As soon as the San Diego SAC’s report crossed my desk about your group, I contacted Naja to see if my suspicions were right.”

“Well you know it’s me… are you my parole officer now?”

“Just making sure you’re alright kid. I’ve seen the news reports too, and Warwolf isn’t a group you want to be tangling with if you don’t have too…”

“There not giving us much choice…”

“I know, just… be careful and stay safe out there.”

“Thanks.” Wendy replied, putting her phone away as she turned her attention back to the computer. “That’s interesting…” she muttered as a message flashed across the screen about a squad confronting an alien girl whose description was eerily similar to Kiris. But that couldn’t be, her and Mars wouldn’t have been stupid enough to go confront WarWolf on their own… right.

[Confederation of the Equator]

[minecraft villager sound]

[Absolon-7]

Kirisvala and Seristella

Casimir Herman, July 24th
The frustration ensnaring Casimir since he left Ash with Naja over his recent defeats subsided once Kiris and her visitor reached him. As embarrassing as it was it appeared conversing with his peers placed him in a better mood. Although that really depended on who he talked to as he doubted some of the more irritating members of the team would cheer him up. Thankfully Kiris wasn't one of those. It appeared the visitor was her sister who was wearing the armor to show off. Which was a sentiment Casimir could respect although he still thought his own suit looked cooler.

However the up and down look her sister, named Seristella, made him suspicious. He recognized that action one of sizing up an opponent or perhaps prey. Nevertheless, he couldn't blame her for he was the Immortal Hero Kabuto! Surely she would recognize his greatness from his demeanor alone. Except she didn't. Far from it in fact as her deriding laughter gave away how her first impression of him in a belittling manner. She dared to point out his own slim physique as a thing of mockery. An audible irritated tch sound escaped his mouth but he held fast in his resolve to stay calm.

"Well pleasure to meet you Seristella," said Casimir crossing his arms with a cocky grin, "While my appearance might be deceiving I can assure you Kiris' statement is correct. If you ever see the Young Bloods in action you'll very well see me at my best as the masked rider Kabuto."

While Casimir would've enjoyed praising himself more he was curious about the family member of one his teammates. It couldn't hurt to ask a few questions or talk if anything.

"Anyways, I'm guessing you're showing her around, Kiris? I'd recommend against going near Carter's room. The dog he brought yesterday left fleas in there to put it lightly. "

[North America Inc]

The Wolf is Alerted
July 24th

In one moment, the whole tone of the office changed from tense to a state of outright panic. As the middle-aged man pounded against the glass, the sound of gunfire immediately held center stage. All the employees and customers stared slack jawed to their left, staring at the door that led to the outside compound. Unable to move for a few seconds some were unable to even comprehend the sheer amounts of ammunition being spent,while others stayed frozen in their seats; a few smart ones ducked behind their desks. It wasn’t until the deafening roar of an explosion that people were shaken back to reality; the real chaos came right after. Everyone ran out from the office, holding their kids or nothing within their hands. The Uber Driver was one of the last ones out, as his curiosity almost tempted him to open then the door and peak out. That is, until three armed men stormed out from the stairs caring pistols and bats in their hands. Seeing them out of the corner of his eyes, he bolted towards the doorway; almost tripping as he passed a buxom teenagers stupidly standing in front of the office. He stopped a few seconds, contemplating whether to grab her, to pull her away, but the roar of another explosion was more than enough to take any sense of confidence out of him. He ran across the street, behind the burger joint as he nestled himself near the parking lot and the establishment itself “What the hell is going on?” He said out loud as he peaked the corner and fumbled through his coat pocket. The sight of some large machine and a figure standing behind it using some sort of flame thrower was so odd, that he almost had to do a double take. You read about meta humans everyday on the news, you never expect them right here of all places.

“Sir! Sir! Can you hear me?” The man snapped back behind cover and reality as he realized his phone was now in his hands. He could of swore that he just took it out, did he already call 911? The operator spoke again clearly into the microphone, Tte sound of gunfire was more than enough to alert her about the dire situation. “Sir are you safe?”

“Yes…” he said with a labored sigh, “I’m safe. There’s like a firefight or a gang turf war happening at the intersection of…” he paused as he looked towards the nearest cross street. “Fifth and Main. At a towing shop called Stanford and Son.” He partly cut out at the end.

“Sir. Can you repeat that?” She said as she typed on to the computer and alerted the nearest first responders. WarWolf was being alerted as they spoke, and the local Kaiser Permanente was already deploying ambulances to the site. The Operator looked around the office, hearing other frenetic calls and feigned confidence. Her boss, a thirty something with a notable clip on tie, stood behind her looking at her.

“What is going on right now?” He muttered into his breath. Tapping his fingers against his right bicep,he looked up to the center of the room. Before him were multiple large screens displaying different maps of the same area: the Southern San Diego District. Even before anyone else called, the ‘ShotSpotter’ system picked up multiple caliber shots being fired at the shop. The system relayed each time a gunshot was fired back to this station; allowing first responders speed in scenarios where time was paramount. The screen to its far left tracked WarWolf convoys and patrol units. The closest was a small five vehicle patrol, seven minutes away from the epicenter. Walking away from the operator and towards his assistant’s computer station, he told her, “Put me on with the lead Patrol head in that group now!”

The girl typed into her monitor and stayed quite for a few seconds. The Squad Car’s dashcam activated giving them a great view from the street, as well as hazy images of the insides of the truck. Typing a few more command codes, his blue tooth piece began to beep before he heard a voice on the other side, “This is Crook. Talk to me.”

The light five vehicle patrol had a preordained route that it followed, from Seaport Village to the Border. The first and last cars were your typical police patrol cars painted and stylized with the WarWolf logo on both sides; the other three trucks held six men each inside their pick-up bed. Resting against the top of the car, some of these men were armed with M240 Saws while the rest carried augmented AUGs. The images of these vehicles driving down your normal American street has so far not been accepted as normal for the majority of San Diego citizens; however, its not easy to argue against the immediate results that they had accomplished in the last few weeks. Inside one of these vehicles were two former US Marines, now working as glorified policemen within their own country. They rested their AUGs in one hand, and held tightly against the support beam on the other. Hearing the Sergeant mumble something inside was enough to alert them; not to mention how fast the cars were now driving.

“What do you think? Supers or gangbangers?” the one wearing heavy exo-armor said as they turned the corner onto Main.

The other much more laid back and wearing just black SWAT armor shook and nodded his head as he thought it over. Wearing a baklava maid it difficult to hear him, but his partner was able to get the gist of it. “I’m going to say its some cholos.”

“You think so?”

“Yea...I just got a feeling. Especially after that Hotel Mission, I don’t want anything to do with those powered cucks…it’s not great for my blood pressure.”

“Yea but still. Get doubled tapped and its all over. Doesn’t matter if its some laser, punch, or a pistol. You die...you die.”

“Oh don’t go all nihilist on me again…” the masked man said in jest.

“No I’m serious. There was one time in Iraq. Recon job. A bunch of sandni…”

Their comms came to life with the booming voice of Sergeant Crook, “Listen up men. We got some shootout between a gang and some powered teenagers. We have yet to identify their affiliation, but what we can say about the noncombatants on the ground is that…”

---

Vargas: The Only Sane Man
Vargas ducked around cover from behind the defunct Ford pickup as he took a breath and reloaded. Sliding another 30 round clip into his automatic pistol, he tried chambering a round only to feel a dull pain on his left shoulder. When he went flying he must of definitely broke something, and it was going to hurt a lot more later. Looking up from the hood of the car, the sound of some new large mech was enough to send some shivers down his spine; its immediate speech after did not help either. More of the guys were spewing out of the office or the mechanic shop to reinforce him. He did a quick glance toward the office and said aloud, “Where the hell is Nacho?”

Another gangster with a few cuts and bruises around his bare chest slid behind the truck as he took a few shots at the mech. Just then a burst of blue fire smacked against the Ford, knocking both of them onto the floor. As both regained their bearings the gangster noted, “Vargas. We’re out of our league here. We need to get the hell out of here now.”

Vargas fired a few sporadic shots, only to be met with suppressive fire from Cassandra; he ducked back and finally thought it over. Most of his crew were back at the Palms and he didn’t even have an AR on him. Should he just take off? They had a passageway towards the streets through the small section of the gate on the other side, then he could at-least still do the pickup. Crap. In an outburst he kicked his legs against the asphalt; the bloody kilos were sitting in the office building. If he didn’t get to that meet, he was a Deadman either way. Banging his hand against the car, he looked over at his man and said, “I need to get to the office. Buy me some time!”

The gangster reloaded and nodded, “I will…but like we only got these pieces. I don’t know much I can really do.” The mechs suppressing fire shot briefly above them before moving to the other men shooting back.

“We need that dough.” Vargas rubbed his bald head for some good luck before making a beeline to the mechanic shop. Luckily not getting hit, he ran inside and caught his breath. There were twenty two guys directly under him, including the two security officers. Seven went with him to deal with the two, three stayed back in mechanic shop, six were with Nacho in the office upstairs, and the rest he had no idea. He had at least five guys down; plus, there had to be something going on at the office. No way Nacho would not have stayed this quite for so long. As he walked through the mechanic shop, he found the mechanics and drivers taking cover beyond their own equipment.

“Vargas…” he heard a familiar voice near him.

“Sal!” Vargas went up to help the overweight old man get up; his knees were not as spry as they once were.

“Son, what’s going on out there?” Sal leaned against the now broken shoulder of Vargas, trying to get some semblance of balance.

“To be honest, I have no idea.”

---

The Girls Surrounded
“Boss!” Eric said as he fired a few rounds at Elle from the safety of crates. However, this was concealment, not cover. The cheap plywood would instantly be torn through by an actual bullet; if he had thought it through, he would of realized that she was firing rubber bullets. Looking over at Ignacio, who had just been launched in the air not once, but twice; he saw his body laying near the wall of the office. His face bloodied from the launch and his back held a large, pulsating burn; you would almost assume that his fight was over.

Except it wasn't. He stood up and wiped the blood away from his eyes. “Why did you do that?”

The door swung open to reveal a few more gangsters with bats and pistols in hand. Elle immediately began suppressing them, but they were quick enough to get out of the way and return fire. Two pit bulls could be heard running in the distance as their masters unleashed them. They ran straight towards Harley, being edged on to go for his jugular.

As Elle was dealing with office group, a few stragglers saw the commotion and decided to act. While they only had knives on them, they new that if they could just close the distance, than maybe they would have a chance. Hopped up on something a little stronger than weed, their jittery hands shook anytime they even got close to the girls. Sliding as stealthily as they could towards the brunette and masked girl; they waited for just the right time. As Eric emptied another round into Elle’s and Viv’s cover, they acted. Shouting at the top of their lungs, they approached from their right; one was immediately downed by Elle before the other two reached the Young Bloods. Each focused on a separate girl, Elle’s attacker having lost his knife in the charge was wrestling with the girl; doing his best to knock the Assault rifle away.

Eric smirked and waved towards the other guys behind him, “Let’s move up!” they began encircling our two young heroines. As for Viviana, the other attack tried desperately swinging with his knife. His eyes bloodshot and face covered in sweat, he was going for the kill.

As Nacho stood in front of Renata, heaving and wheezing, he looked down at the little girl before him. Nacho really did not want to hurt her, she looked so fragile; but then again, she did try to kill him. Not to mention the dog; Ignacio had such a soft spot for dogs that he tried so hard to just disarm it. It’s during this internal dialogue that the second subset of his abilities manifested. His burn began shrinking in its diameter, the skin returned to its brown luster with relative ease. The cut no longer visible, and only dried blood remained stuck to his beard. Cracking his neck as he crossed his arms, he had thought about grabbing her wrists; but even than that might hurt a little too much. “That was kind of fun. But I think it would be best if you were just to walk away from this. I don’t like to mess with little girls. No offense.”

---

Unexpected Visitors
Of course Renata would complain. Shi took a deep breath and unleashed more blue fire,“The Gang began firing like I said they would. You think a racket like this wants us looking around? Never. That’s why I sent you through the side. CASS is such an imposing threat that they all just rush to kill it. Giving you, Viv, Harley, and…well enough time to flank and secure the mechanic shop. Highest vantage point and all that. Make sense?” Shi looked around from behind the top of CASSANDRA, firing another around of blue to another three men desperate to land a shot on her. These three men, one of them looked like a teenager, had hoped that by closing the gap they could end Shi and Cass once for all. Shi smirked and as soon as they stood out of their cover, they were knocked back by her kinetic blast. Shi always had to gauge it right. Too weak and she would endanger her life; too strong and she would endanger theirs. Not that she really cared, but somebody has to think of public opinion.

“I’m almost out!”

“Somebody get a clear shot!”

“Let’s get out of here!”

Various other vulgarities were spoken, and Spanish was peppered in-between all of it. Shi turned to her left and fired at one man whose cover had been destroyed by CASS. Hitting him square in the chest, he smacked against the pavement and felt all pf his oxygen knocked out. Gagging for more air, he was done for the fight. Another to her right, almost lined a shot on her before CASSANDRA just blocked the line of sight with and she blasted him away. “I don’t even understand why you’re still fighting at this point!?” she shouted from her lungs.

One guy was tucked too far behind a jalopy to get hit by either her fire blasts or the machine gun. Deciding to toy with her prey, she formed a fire like whip from her left palm. Aiming just right and building the momentum too; the fire acted like its namesake and began to swipe behind cover. Getting hit by the fire caused him to run out in panic,only to be hit in the leg by his own team.

“This is the Department of Defense. I am arresting you on charges of assault, damage to private property, the danger posed to civilians and more. Drop your weapons or you will be-” Three girls shouted and approached behind her as she had her fun. Internally she was chastising herself, that could have been reinforcements with a kill shot. Turning her head she saw some Asian girl, a dark-skinned teenager and a girl with skull war paint; odd indeed. Wait? Can the American Defense Department even arrest people?

Before she could even finish her thought, the Asian woman unleashed an MP5 and began murdering the perpetrators that she had spent the better part of five minutes trying to incapacitate. Confused by their arrival, she shouted to Cass, “We have some visitors behind us!” Only from there, the situation got a lot worse. The teenager and Skull face ran into the gate. The man who had just regained his breath stood up, only to see a girl on all fours charging him. Trying desperately to fire some shots, they all seemed to bounce off of her; and within a few seconds his body became a bloody carcass. Blood went flying and his gurgled scream froze the others in fear; Shi watched with morbid curiosity not even understanding why they attacked the gangster first. Than Skull face began eating him. And that was too much even for her. The air was pierced by the sound of a vacuum as Shi launched a deafening strike on the side of the erratic beast. The animal went flying, towards the other girls. Shi then began barking orders, “CASS deal with the new gun man now! Girls look out, there’s some feral woman near you. She will eat you! And before you ask, I have no idea where they came from.” Turning her head towards Oasis, she smirked below at her before conjuring some more flames.

---

A Morning in the Life of the Red Princess
July 25th
4:30 AM

♪♩I've got sunshine on a cloudy day ♪♩
The music blared into the sparse room, as the bright lights of her phone lit it up. It was early, much to early for most of the sound asleep teenagers that littered the rooms of the Tower. But for Shihong Smith, it was the norm. Lying in her sheets, her Kimono Robe held loose; her hair, usually styled, hung freely. Like every other night she contemplated whether she should just grab the pillow and nestle herself comfortably in the sheets. That would be nice, an actual break; but of course, she didn’t, she pushed the sheets off and stood up. Tightening her black robe around her waist she walked a few feet to the blinds and pulled up to reveal the bright San Diego skyline. A great room in the Tower afforded her a stupendous view of the city. While traffic lacked cars, and the office lacked people, everything else still shined bright. Shi couldn’t help but stare at it; it wasn’t exactly a sunrise, but it still had its own certain allure. Looking over her should at the default wardrobe, she eyed the little cylinder resting on it. “Siri, turn the lights on for me.”

The cylinder took a second to glow blue and boot itself before answering, “Yes Miss.” The room lights blared on and Shi grimaced in surprise as her eyes took a few seconds to adjust. Looking around the room to notice the rather dated furniture and gross misallocation of spacing and design.

Shaking her head as she loosened the gown, mere moments after tightening it, she rummaged through the nearest suitcase to pull out a bra. Fastening it on, she got to work. Going on the floor to start with simple push-ups, she started ascending and descending quite rapidly. Beyond that, she had other things were on her mind. “Hmm if I move the bed over there than maybe I can get enough space and then maybe I can move another drawer over there?” She looked over at the empty corner of the room in between the walk in closet and bed she thought Hmm, maybe I can get the closet expanded even further? The room next door is empty? Or is it occupied? Wait a minute, do I have neighbors? Like immediately? There’s so many rooms in the tower, would Ms.Naja put everyone together?” Coming back to reality, she continued from the eleventh push-up. With only her muted breath being the sound of the room, the silence soon began to get annoying. Fifteen to Twenty-seven, she didn’t do anything about it; but the nagging feeling of isolation proved to just be too much of a distraction. “Siri turn on Spotify.”

5:15
The shower blasted at full heat; steam escaped from the private bathroom and filled the adjacent mirror. Protected from the eyes of her other team members, she sang her heart out. Holding a large shampoo bottle to her face, her angelic voice carried its way even toward the hallway; something that she would hate if she found out. But for now she just lived in the moment; the melody just a cover of a classic. Reaching into her soul, she could no way deny that these were her true temptations. "♪♩What can make me feel this way? My girl!♪♩"

6:25
"So if you watch the way I apply eyeliner, you have to be real careful about the line right between your eyebrow and like your actual eye." The cute, but vapid internet personality said as she carefully spoke in front of the video. Beauty tips were always nice to have, and Shi always had a soft spot for these makeup tutorials. Her Asian genes had some...interesting qualities about them, so cosmetology for her involved a lot of trial and error. Looking away from the bathroom mirror and towards her laptop, she saw the Asian personality doing the same. Pausing it and unpausing it in between her own curled eyebrow session, she wasn't following the Do-it-yourself video but still kept a cursory glance over at it. ""You’ll want the thicker consistency and heavier pigment of a gel liner since you’re going over a larger surface area of your lid.”

Shi took out a pencil liner and added a little silver to both lower lash lines. Pulling back soon after to look at the finished product so far, she posed and giggled in front of the mirror. Having already done and glamorized her brunette hair to the usual style, she then moved onto her makeup. Pulling on her hair bun and the fire piece within it, she tried to make sure its symmetry with a few halfhearted tugs to the side. Getting it just to the right place, she then turned her attention to the contouring for her cheek's skin tone. Her connections with the best cosmetologists in the world gave her premium access to the finest products that the industry has to offer; lightly rubbing in the make up into her lower cheek bone, she tried her best to go for the 'natural skin' look. Even though the clarity of it made it obvious it wasn't. “Yea let me just do that side a little better.”

7:10
“Oh you girls are so sweet!” Shi looked into the camcorder on her laptop and reiterated what she had been saying for the better part of a few minutes. She wanted to keep these interactive vlogs a little short, a little too tired to be this preppy. Wearing this cute, but revealing, red v neck with matching white pants; her mostly female fanbase were more than willing to comment on how great she looked today. From China to the United Kingdom, Shi spoke to all her fans and read their comments through chat. Going over yesterday and how exciting it was to already lead a mission; they all listened to their idol speak to them about her struggles. Of course it was a façade, her personality too sweet and spewing out meaningless quotes.

“Now I need to go to San Diego! Lol.”

“XOXO from Hong Kong my Princess! Slay!”

“Shi! You have to tell me what you do with your eyes? I’m Asian and I never seem to get eyelids, just right? What can I do?”

“I have boytoy troubles can you help me?”

Sitting on her bed, holding her favorite little plush animal in her arms, she listened to them for a better part of another half hour. Despite how trivial most of their questions were, it was still sort of fun to talk with all these girls; seeing their uncontrolled happiness and glee of her did seem to make her feel sort of odd inside. Beyond just the validation. Hugging the neck of Morris the Moose she looked into her camera and said aloud, “So you won’t believe the cutest boy I saw at the beach!”

8:15
And now here she was. Fours hours after waking up. Sitting at the same lounge as before. With one hand scooping up a strawberry, and the other hand holding her orange juice; she happily ate as most of the other Young Bloods were struggling to get up. Scrolling through her phone about the latest news stories back home, she looked up to see somebody coming.

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

---

"Am I supposed to have a pocket in my loincloth?" Sina raised the question, the question immediately answered when Bael explained that his one did have one, even if it was a tight fit. The vigilante had never even considered it, to be fair - carrying additional baggage with you in your pants, even if it's only a couple of coins and a phone, is the last thing you wnat to do when you spend most of your time flying faster than a racecar. Maybe I could find myself a better pair, though, if I'm gonna have this black box with me from now on.

Bael, on the other hand, offered that they should get her a pair of pants. Sina scratched her head for a second. "You mean like the things human females wear? No thanks, I'm not gonna fit in those." Why would you ever want to wear clothes which attach to your body like a tight tape, anyway? Looks uncomfortable. "I'll find a way how to deal with this one way or another, don't worry. Worst case, I consult the Outriders on this, they still know more about these things than I do."

The last thing which Bael mentioned was a question on anything else they wanted to do now that Sina has gotten herself a brand new phone, as well as an off-hand comment about her being able to join his team if they were under different circumstances. The vigilante pressed her finger on her chin and replied:

"I don't know, does your team really need more fliers? Speaking of flying..."

Sina's eyes trailed off to the distance. A tall hotel - the humans, last she recalled, call it American Plaza - extending at least fifty meters to the sky, stood a block or two away from the disguised Dra'Quinni - and, surprisingly, one which the vigilante had not gotten a closer look on before. With all the other buildings in its vicinity pitifully shorter, it's bound to give a nice panoramic view from the top - and an exciting leap downwards.

"I know what we could do." Sina spoke as she stepped forward, hands placed on her thighs and eyes set towards the hotel. "Bael, have you ever done a leap of faith before?"

---

The Girls Surrounded

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

"Yeah, sure, I get that, but did you really need to bring in the heavy artillery for a mechanics shop, Shi?!" Renata exclaimed into the earpiece as she landed back on her feet and stared into Nacho, hoping that he was taken down with the energy blast to the spine. The last thing she wanted was a prolonged fistfight against someone who looked like he could squeeze her into a plate much like he did to his drink can. "We're not trying to kill anyone here, you know! And you were going to-"

Oh.

"I'll call you back."

This gangster just regenerated the damage placed on him. The cut on his face pretty much vanished and the burn on his back faded from view as well. This... slightly complicates matters. Oddly, however, Nacho did not seem to take advantage of Renata's surprise and instead pretty much gave her a free hand, spending valuable time by trying to convince her to stand down and walk away, calling her a little girl who he wouldn't really like to bother with. The heroine's fist clenched and her left eye slightly twitched - however, the more collected forces in her head suddenly won over, and the first unclenched yet again.

"Harley, halt." Renata ordered the team dog and shot a glare towards Nacho, hands placed on her hips, speaking:

"Fine, we can consider a halt. However, it is not us who will have to surrender here - you will. If you haven't noticed, your little car disassembling business is currently assaulted from all sides by some of the strongest superheroes in the city, including a walking mech with enough firepower to take on an entire battalion. Not to mention that this is not even a quarter of our entire line-up and we can call Warwolf and their manpower here on a short notice. There are only two ways this can end. You and your gang surrender to the law peacefully and nobody else gets hurt. Or we force you to surrender to the law, but with a few more ribs broken and prides shattered."

Renata raised her chin. "There is no third option, mister."

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

"I'm sure you can get one or modify the one you have. Sewing is pretty easy." Not that he was going to go anywhere near her unmentionables. "You'll fit just fine. I fit just fine and I've got a much bigger waist. Plus, you know, pockets." Maybe she could grab something when he got her into N'Toak. Though he couldn't imagine she would enjoy the city too much. She enjoyed the dirty, dingy crap hole for a reason. The only thing really tying him to the humans was his team that he was apart of pretty much only on paper, but mostly his friends... Primarily Alexis, Kiris, and admittedly, Jason. He couldn't help but wonder if there was some way he could get them into it. Onu seemed to be more knowledgeable about that, maybe he should talk to her.

He snapped back to reality when Sina asked if his team needed another flier. "Believe it or not, I'm the only one who can fly unassisted, and based on what I've seen, you're better at it than me." He said as Sina stared at a large hotel, heavily implying what she wanted to do. "Yes. Literally and figuratively... And I think I know what you want to do." He sighed. Technically, it was only trespassing, which at most would get them scolded if anyone saw, but Sina wanted to jump off. He'd jumped off of buildings before, but none of them that tall. Though he had to figure that the worst thing that could happen was him smashing into the road, which would probably damage it more than him, but he wanted to avoid that. "If we're gonna do that, let's not spend too much time up there."

He ducked into a quiet alley, dropped his guise and stretched. If nothing else, it would kill a few minutes and he'd get to fly really fast. Hopefully they didn't run into any pigeons during the flight. Or lose control and slam into the side of a building. Or both. "Meet you up top. You have an endpoint or goal in mind?" He asked as he took off towards the top of the building.

[Segral]

Carter Graystone

OK, he loved Mike. The dude wasn't around much, but when he was, he was always fun to have around. He was one of the few people with the patience to put up with Carter's antics, and they both felt like they were overlooked by the team, so not only could they bitch and gripe to each other, they could talk more freely with each other. Honestly, he wished Mike would stay around for longer periods of time, he was a cool guy.

However, now was a rare occasion when he wanted to murder Mike and burn his body in a landfill trash incinerator. He ruined Carter's trick!

"HeeEEEYyyyYYY, Mike!" Carter yelped weakly, voice breaking about seven times in the process. With a quick start, he tried to cover up his orgasmic voice crack with a cough, pretending to clear his throat. It didn't help Mike was staring at Carter and "Samantha" like his best friend and dog were being murdered in front of him, flapping his mouth like a fish out of water. Oh god Mike, say something, say anything. OK, ye....no! Not "Oh, ummm, hi"! Anything but that! Say words Mike, words!

Well, he did eventually speak, going on some very strange rant about pet weapons and turning people into criminals, before capping it off with a slightly forced laugh and the very mysterious explanation of "it's been a long morning". O...kay? He wasn't sure what the hell he was saying, but it was good to know the cognitive functions in Mike's brain had been restored. Just good ol' Mike. It was hard not to laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation was, considering he was literally trying to sneak his best friend around another one of his good friends by playacting as a couple, but what could you do?

"No worries, man," Carter said with a shred of pity, slapping Mike on the back. "This is Samatha, we met a couple months ago. We're just heading up to the roof for a little bit. Although you will have to tell me about pet weapons later though, seems plenty interesting."

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

---

Sina grinned a little once Bael pretty much read her mind and accepted the offer to leap off the American Plaza, transforming into her Dra'Quinni form immediately after her peer and taking off to the sky. He didn't even seem aware of what was about to come for him... Once Bael raised the question of what goal or endpoint was on her mind, the vigilante stretched her hand towards the long boulevard stretching from the hotel, merging with the freeway across the city before finally reaching to Mission Bay and the parks sprawling across the islands there. A distance of about five miles.

<"This is what we'll be flying through. Maximum possible velocity. The track has got a few sharp turns and is swamped with all these lumps of metal the scaleless travel in, but that's no biggie."> Sina explained. As she set her foot on the rooftop of the towering hotel, however, she pointed out something else:

<"And I'll need you to use your real Glamour spell this time, okay?"> In solidarity, she activated her own spell, transforming back into her human shell and turning around to tap the waist-high cement border between the rooftop and freedom. The designated track stretched before her eyes, myriads of car lights flashing all across it. <"Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna leap off in Glamour and transform into our real forms mid-fall. That way, because of less air resistance, we'll build up more speed, and it's gonna be a lot more fun. Then we're having a race to see who can get to the park the fastest.">

Sina leaned a little over the edge to check how much they had to fall, then turned back towards the fall. <"As a ballpark estimate - if we start transforming in the exact middle of the fall, we'll complete the transformation about five meters away from the ground. That would be amazing, don't you think! Flying right in between of all those metal lumps! I'm gonna try to pull that off, you in?">

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

At first it seemed like something that made sense and even a little fun. Jump off the building, gain a ton of speed and then use that speed to get somewhere fast while racing with Sina. He was perfectly okay with it, at least until Sina revealed how they were really going to do it: Using their human glamours and then jumping, changing back mid fall to gain even more speed. Which honestly sounded like suicide. At least it explained just how crazy she was.

"<Alright. I'm going to list the problems with that. First: I'm not good at undoing it on a whim.>" Though that was before he got his elder powers. "<Second: In the event you missed it, I am quite a bit larger, and therefore heavier than you by a considerable margin. Five meters is not enough of a distance for me to pull up when I'm going slower. Believe me, I gotten enough road rash to confirm it, going faster is only going to make that much worse. If not for me, than for the street. THIRD AND MOST IMPORTANT: If I screw it up I'm going splat. I'm okay with jumping off the building and not immediately taking flight for some extra speed for a race, but worse case scenario is I die because I'm not as good at flying as you are.>"

Probably not the greatest defense considering what he spent most of his time doing. Or rather told himself he was doing. "<And let's say I do manage to pull it off, I'm not a very dexterous flier. And at the speed we're going, If I crash into one of the cars... I'll probably be okay, but the people inside won't be. I'll still jump off, but I'm not using my glamour.>" He finished, firm on his stance. "<If it were a risk to just me, maybe. But other people could get hurt and that is the exact opposite of what I am trying to convey to the humans.>"

Amir

"Yeah, if I'm being completely honest, I have no idea what that feeling is. We're still trying to figure stuff out." Jason explained, realizing that after all this time, Amir might think he was a little crazy. Though he seemed to be okay with it, even turning the same joke he used against him and even saying that he wouldn't be calling a mental ward. "Well, if you want, I can introduce him to you. I'm sure he's more than okay with it, and as long as you don't set him on fire, I think you two will probably get along fine." Jason explained. "Come on out buddy."

Almost immediately, the black tar oozed out of his chest and spread across his body, he face looking almost to "swallow" Jason's head as he grew considerably in both height. The toothy smile and white marks across his eyes were the only discernible facial features. Immediately the form's sight was set on the food that Jason was making: Leftover spaghetti. Not even bothering with cutlery, Sludge grabbed the plate and unhinged his jaw, letting the food simply fall in, with the food vanishing to who-knows-where. "Muuuuuch better." Spoke the voice of Jason's companion as he turned his attention to Amir.

"You're Amir? You look taller from Jason's eyes." He said, leaning in a little closer. "What is that we're sensing? I don't get it. You have it. The one other skinny kid has it. The dragon has it. That girl with the pink hair has it. But no one else does." Jason was probably going to pull him back in within a few minutes. Even sooner if he tried to act on his urge to go get back at Shi. Even though he really wanted to.

"If you happen to figure it out, tell me. Or Jason. Whoever is available at the time."

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

---

Sina snickered a little upon hearing Bael list his complaints with the idea of jumping off while under Glamour and the risk which it would inflict upon him and everyone else. A part of her mind - well, pretty much her entire mind at this point - expected him to tatter off exactly that. His view on risky activities was clearly different from hers - Sina actively sought to make any situation she was in as risky as possible for maximum excitement, while he was the complete opposite.

<"You're speaking like I'm demanding you to do exactly as I say, Bael."> the vigilante replied, her hands placed on her thighs and a smirk still present on her face, <"I think I was pretty clear when I said that transforming mid fall is what I'm gonna be doing, and I offered you to do the same. If ya want to pull off something different, that's a-okay by me.">

Sina leapt up on the cement barrier separating the rooftop from the vast expanse of the city in front of her, balancing on the edge with her toes.

<"Well, I mean, if you want to lose this race.">

[Absolon-7]

A Morning in the Life of the Red Princess

Casimir and Viviana, July 25
To say he was pissed was an understatement. For some unfathomable reason his damn clock had set off its alarm much earlier then expected. Casimir had attempted to go back to sleep but it was a futile task as all he did was toss and turn. He thought of going to his jurry-rigged weighlifting set of tree trunks but he was fed up with getting splinters all the time. There had to be a better alternative surely. After getting out of his pajamas he decided to wear another tracksuit he has recently bought with it being it being grey instead of the usual black. Casimir was walking the tower's hallway leading to the kitchen and living room for the tower when suddenly he felt a heavy weight jump on his back.

"Kurwa!," shouted Casimir as he almost doubled over.

"Surprise boyo!," gleefully said Viviana clinging her arms around his neck, "For it is I the great Kabuto." Viviana made sure to mockingly mimic the deeper voice Casimir assumes when in his persona.

"I don't sound that ridiculous," defensively said Casimir, "In fact I sound quite intimidating."

"Whatever ya say Casi," said Viviana getting off his back and opting in to walk to his side in order to hold his hand.

The two walked along in comfortable silence until they reach the doorway entrance to the living room. Casimir did wonder, however, about Viviana's state after that mission she went with some of the girls. She was quite startled by one specific aspect of it and he hoped that it didn't affect her too badly.

"You blushin,?" said Viviana with a cheeky smile.

"I'm not!," said Casimir grumpily.

"Hiya Shi!," said Viviana as she spotted some unfamiliar person and tugged Casimir along to follow her, "Hey Casi this is the new girl I told ya about! The one who took us out on a mission."

"Who the fuck....oh," said Casimir realizing Viviana was talking about a girl on her phone, "So you're Shi right? Doubtless you must have heard of my alter ego, the immortal Kabuto: one of the team's founders, but you can just call me Casimir."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

July 24th

---

---

"I'll take your word for it then, Kabuto." Seristella replied to the Polish boy's comment, pleasantly surprised about his confidence. He certainly knew how to take some friendly ribbing, unlike the boy named the same as his hair's color, who looked disheartened after a simple critical glance. At least one of these Young Bloods has some confidence.

"Yup! I gave her some of my favorite food and I'm showin' her the tower since she came to visit." Kiris answered Casimir's question. "I've also been tryin' to introduce her to the team, but I'm not havin' a lot of success there. Believe it or not, you're only the third person we've bumped into so far!" She said before shoveling another spoonful of spaghetti bolognese into her mouth. Her subsequent attempt to talk wasn't very successful.

"Come again?" The older Hadrian asked.

"I was sayin' that he doesn't need t worry about us goin' to Harley's room." Kiris repeated after swallowing.

Seris blinked. "Harley? Who's Harley?"

"The dog." Kiris replied.

"Dog?" Seris asked her sister.

"Bark-bark." She replied.

"Oh, right." Seristella nodded to herself. "Anyway, you there, Kabuto, right?" She asked as she turned to face Casimir once more. "I didn't see a lot of interest outside this tower here. What do you all do for fun in here, besides going out and fighting the forces of evil?"

---

July 25th

---

---

Icarus smiled as the heroine took him up on his offer, stating that in his presence she had nothing to fear. But the smile was short lived, and faded away as Renata began explaining what had caused her all that harm and distress. Carrying out an investigation all by herself was not something he could fault her for; after all, he was pretty much doing the same thing, even if in his case there really wasn't an alternative - he didn't have a team he could have fallen back on even if he didn't want to work on his own. The most he could do was contact Renata, Casimir or Pitch, but he was rather hesitant to involve them in his matters.

Leaving that aside, however, the vigilante was still very much astonished when she confessed that she had signed up, alone and with no backup, to one of the death match tournaments she mentioned. The blank expression on his face belied his shock, which quickly gave way to anger directed at her for endangering herself like. But he suppressed this and continued listening, thinking it unwise to interrupt.

Renata then mentioned the raid on the Warwolf base and the attack on the Hilton gala. Around the time the first of the two events came to pass, he had been rather occupied with other things, so he didn't pay much attention to it. The same applied to the Hilton gala: beyond a passing sense of satisfaction over the fact that Warwolf's reputation had taken a hit due to their poor response to the incident, he had kept his attention focused elsewhere.

I guess that will have to change. He thought. He had no idea how likely one of these blood sport participants was to hold a grudge, but in case they did and he was in any position to help Renata, it would pay for him to be prepared.

The blond boy couldn't avoid raising an eyebrow as the heroine finished her tale. The abrupt way she interrupted herself was a clear hint that there was something more to it, but for the time being, he refrained from bringing it up. Instead, he took a deep breath.

"...I'm sure at this point you don't need anyone to tell you this, but that was incredibly stupid." He said sternly, though his tone softened quickly. "Please don't endanger yourself like that. You've got a team that's more than willing to watch your back, and if something had really happened I..." The boy trailed off. He doubted he needed to say anything else. Their roles, curiously, were swapped this time, which meant that for everything he felt, she had likely felt something similar on the many occasions he had put himself in peril.

Amidst these thoughts, Icarus let out a soft chuckle. "Well, I guess I'm no one to be talking about this sort of thing, huh..." He mumbled, letting out a sigh. "I won't say any more. I don't think anything I can say will stop you from trying to be a hero, because that's what you are. That's what makes you special. That's why you're my light in the tunnel, and why I..." He paused. Am I speaking too much? I probably am. Best to put a lid on it now.

The blond boy suddenly switched gears, gently lifting Renata in a bridal carry and smiling down at her. "The condemned isn't a very pleasant place to talk, is it, asteri mou? Where do you want me to take you?" He asked her.

[Rupudska]

July 25
Reem

An Excess of Words

Like clockwork, the alarm on Reem's phone [Unravel, the opening to Tokyo Ghoul] sounded at 5:30 on the atomic dot - appropriate, as it was an atomic clock. Shower, cold-hot-cold. Brush teeth, comb hair. The lightest makeup imaginable - it looked natural because it mostly was - YouTube tutorials were for brushing up skills learned from professional makeup artists. Dress for the day, and eat a light snack and have a small amount of coffee to get the digestion system running - check Twitter in the meantime. Reem followed enough people to the point that she could always see something new after refreshing her timeline, so it took quite some time to scroll all the way back to the top. When she did, it was almost six o'clock.

Six o'clock. Reem put on a pair of sandals and headed for an elevator that went straight to the east observation room - a room that sat just beneath the roof, facing the San Francisco Skyline - and more importantly almost always empty at this early hour. A spot in the corner had been cordoned off for her. She took off her sandals and did her morning prayers, then headed back to her room. Breakfast today consisted of Greek yogurt, grilled halloumi cheese on toast, a khameer bun, and a fruit cocktail to go with her coffee - black with saffron and cinnamon as she always took it. The real saffron, not the fake kind they sold in most American stores.

With all this on a tray, she carried it down to the living room where fellow members of the YB were already starting to gather, including yet another new girl - and another member of the economic elite, no less.

"Good morning Casimir, Vivian, Shihong," she said to the three heroes already there as she selected a seat near all three. "How are you adjusting to the team, and life in the tower," she continued in a question to Shihong in flawless Cantonese.

[Auropa]

Carter Graystone

Mike Mathews
Wonder Tower
July 24th

‘Oh so that’s Samantha huh. Not bad Carter, not bad at all… You short-ass lucky piece of lovey-dovey crap!’

Apart from a sudden puberty strike, Carter seemed to be his usual energetic self. ‘Good on him’ Mike forced himself to think.
“I will man, though for now I’ll go ahead and leave you two too lovebirds alone.” he said in response as he resisted the urge to grind his teeth together and instead began to make his way towards the nearest exit before stopping in his tracks as a sudden stray thought entered his head.

“Ummm, actually Carter. So funny story, you ughh, you might not want to take Samantha to the roof, or anywhere in the tower today.” In Mike’s head, despite being annoyed, he didn’t want to ruin Carter’s chances with the girl and in all fairness a giant potentially stab-happy bug-thing on the loose might do exactly that. Suffice to say that maybe the tower wasn’t the best place for a date at the moment. Of course, at the same time, he couldn’t just tell him all that, for one thing he’d be bad mouthing the Young Bloods to an almost complete stranger and on top of it, Carter would probably just think he had gone insane, which was saying a lot all things considered.

“Yeahhhh” Mike continued “There’s a bit of a bug problem on the upper levels. Cas-I mean Kabuto apparently had a bit of an accident with his powers and well, now we’ve just got a whole moth, wasp, bug infestation up there. It’s a complete mess, I even got stung on the way out.” Then pausing for a moment from a realization he turned to Samantha “Oh sorry! Kabuto is the one that wears the edgy suit with the antlers. Kind of skinny and a bit over-the-top at times, I think he’s trending as Bug Boy or something again. Really nice guy though, just a bit uhh, energetic at times.” He said to the girl stopping himself before giving away what Mike considered to be his newfound love of strays. It wasn’t that he thought it was wrong of Casimir to bring in his newest fan. It just all seemed a bit dangerous and far too reckless for Mike’s liking. ‘Still’ he thought to himself ‘these are all thoughts for another time. No point to keep bringing everything back to it. And besides, he had given Carter his warning and was more than happy to head off and spend some time anywhere without bugs.'

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

She rebutted by saying that was what she was going to be doing. "<Really? I believe your exact words were: I'll need you to use your real glamour spell this time. So I had the impression that was what you were demanding.>" He crossed his arms, smiling a little. "<That being said, I'm more than happy to race you to the park. I might not be able to do all the crazy tricks you can, but I am quite a bit faster than I look.>" Thanks in part to his powers, but no need to rub that in. "<You said the park. So I'm assuming that once you're inside, you've won. Or rather, I've won.>"

He wasn't quite sure what she meant by "metal lumps." "<You mean the cars? I'm not going to go that low. After all, if you're that low, you're not taking the fastest possible route and have to go around all the buildings. Slowing you down. In short.>" He said, perching over the edge. "<Eat my dust.>" He said, diving off the building without warning. It took a little bit, but he finally started to understand Sina a little more: she craved action, a lot of it, even so much so that it made her pick fights with people who would gut her the first chance they got. Onu apparently made Kaban the way he was, maybe she could do something similar for Sina? Unlikely, since Kaban was her brother and she hadn't even met Sina. It would probably be a tall ask on top of that.

About three fourths of the way down, he spread his wings and shot through the air. He'd never gone this fast before. The awkward smile and wide eyes on his face did further help him understand why Sina did things this. It felt great to be shooting through the city, cutting through the wind while onlookers wonder what the heck was going on.

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

---

Being presented with the challenge against Sina and her statement that he must want to lose if he's trying to play it safe must have ticked off something in Bael's mind, because the whole tone in how he spoke to the vigilante seemed to have changed. The Dra'Quinni pointed out that her decision to fly closer to the street is going to cost her the race - and apparently, he's convinced that he is going to win. Hell, he even offered her to eat his dust - that's what she was about to tell him! The smirk on Sina's face grew wider.

We'll see about that, elder boy.

As soon as Bael leapt off the rooftop and spread his wings, Sina followed right after, springing off the edge and straight towards the street below. The vigilante spread out her human arms, accelerating with each second, powerful wind brushing past her, flailing her red hair and the drapes covering her chest - until, about halfway to the asphalt, the Glamour began to break down and two wings sprouted from her back, immediately sending the Dra'Quinni forward with an immense speed.

With the corner of her eye, Sina caught a glimpse of Bael flying in the sky above the boulevard, while she descended much closer to the street, streetlights rushing below her and the wind picked up by her flight tossing aside papers, dust, headwear and leaves from nearby trees. Well I'll be damned, he is pretty fast.

For a novice, anyway.

---

July 25th

---

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Much like one might have expected, Icarus immediately followed her story with a clear and blunt statement that what she had done was incredibly stupid and that she should refrain from anything like that ever again. Now, it was true that Renata had no objections to that conclusion, but... well, if there was any person who she might have expected to assure her that what she had just done was not as stupid as she imagined and help her broken confidence, it would probably be him. The poster boy of getting himself into trouble and then suffering for it.

In fact, Icarus even jokingly pointed it out, stating that he is in no position to tell her what's dumb and what isn't. It didn't seem funny to Renata at all, however - her eyes were trailing to the side and a frown had formed on her face, while her mind was reminiscing about the fight a few minutes earlier, until Marina's appearance, and wondering where it all went wrong. Icarus did make a point that she was now a part of a team and she should get into the team rhythm instead of trying to take on something as dangerous as a deathmatch tournament all by herself.

That's true and all, but...

A faint sigh left Renata's lips. I just... didn't want to be left as some secondary player in this team, you know?..

What Icarus spoke next soon drew Renata's thoughts to something else. This really is just a reversal of their roles, isn't it? Renata was being the reckless idealistic one charging headfirst into danger and Icarus was being the collected one worries about the other's safety, yet understanding that nothing is going to change and they'll always remain a hero first and foremost. So how can Icarus fend off not only criminals and villains, but also Warwolf itself, all by himself, while she always ends up relying on someone else?

Maybe-

Did he just... call me the light in his tunnel? That's-that's so cute-

Renata's thought got suddenly cut off, however, when she felt Icarus pick her up by her legs and lift her up in a bridal carry. The position they were in immediately put a deep blush on the heroine's cheeks and her body started to instinctively release stored up radiation, heating her up.

"You didn't need to go that far, Carito," Renata muttered and giggled, holding onto her boyfriend's neck then placed a peck on Icarus's cheek. She ordered an Uber to pick her up, right? Should probably call the same number to tell them that they don't need to come here anymore... Eh, she'll get around to it later. "If you have something to talk about, then you could drop us off at my house, if you still remember where it's located... Not sure if many places are open to Blackout the vigilante on the run, are they?"

[Turmenista]

Harley the Dog, on a mission

What the heck is going on?

Shaking his head after Nacho kicked him away from his leg, Harley stepped back, readying up to go in for another go at his rather juicy (and otherwise impervious) leg. However, right as he was planning on doing so, the doors nearby swung open, and more gangsters streamed in, all with weapons. The jingling of something metal, which he almost barely missed hearing, caused Harley to perk up as he snapped his head over to the direction, his heightened senses picking up the sound of hardened paw pads against the floor... as well as the smell of more dogs!

Elated, Harley's personality practically switched as he saw the pit bull duo enter the room, wildly barking expletives and "DIE!" at him. To this, he tilted his head, attempting to talk to them. "Hey, guys! Don't bite me! I'm your friend!"

"INTRUDER! INTRUDER! INTRUDER! GET OUT OF HERE, INTRUDER!" Was all Harley received as one of them ran into him, going for his jugular. Growling, Harley dropped down onto his back and kicked him away with his hind legs, briefly causing the pitbull to go airborne as it landed roughly away, apparently unfazed by the damage. Bringing himself back onto his feet, Harley flattened his ears and bared his teeth, growling. His eyes changed from their regular amber tone back to the blue once more as he narrowed his eyes. "Here we go again."

He lunged, narrowly evading a snap at his neck and responding with his own to the pitbull's neck. Making sure he didn't go to deep, Harley lifted the other dog up and over his shoulder, lobbing him away and sending him careening and whimpering through the air. The second received a hard shoulder as Harley got up onto his hind legs, dodging the other dog's attempt to snap at him as he did the same. He executed a sort of feint, dodging a swipe sent at him and responding with a powerful bark, which blasted the dog off of his feet and shook the room.

Before he was up, Harley was on top of him first, responding with another sonic bark that ensured both Pitbulls were running away with their tails between their legs, literally.

Once he was done fighting, Harley moved in besides his friends, standing guard dutifully. Most of the fighting had seemed to stop, at least, indoors, but outside was a different story, judging by the commotion that his heightened hearing could pick up outside.

Alright, I'm back! Anyone else need to go bye-bye? He eyed the others, unsure of what to do now as he bobbed his head around.

---

Red

Harley, but later on

Harley didn't hear, see, or smell anyone else in the Tower on their way out, given how most people seemed to be sleeping or just not in sight at all. Once they were outside, Harley followed Red, occasionally straying away from him to check out something interesting he smelled or saw, but never truly leaving his side. Occasionally, Red would turn around to look at him straight in his eyes, his face a mixture of someone who was tired, depressed, or just in need of someone to help out.

He recalled what Carter said—that he could be used to cheer Red up. If it meant doing things like this and just generally acting nice to him, Harley was more than happy to do so. After all, who didn't want to have a furry friend that could cheer you up and stay by your side?

At first, Harley saw that Red was trying to ignore Harley's calls for attention, deep in thought. Ears lowering in disappointment for a moment, Harley's head bobbed to the right, spotting something that immediately piqued his interests. A stick! And a good one, at that! Taking the stick from the brush and carrying it out in his jaw, he jogged back over to Red, poking the stick against his leg to grab his attention. Red turned around, looking right back down at Harley who was doing the same up at Red, wagging his tail excitedly as if he were expecting something in return for his services. Hi Red! I got you this stick. Maybe we can do fetch with this stick?

"Oh for the love of-" Harley, although he could understand what humans said, tried to interpret what this meant, tilting his head. Red stopped himself, sighing. "Okay, just for a little bit."

Elated, Harley's tail wagged rapidly, as he knew what was about to happen. He let go of the stick, allowing Red to grab it and take it from his mouth. Aiming out towards the ocean, Red gave it a shallow toss, followed by a "Fetch!" command, which Harley immediately began tracking, sprinting across the sand to catch it. Once it was in range, Harley leaped up, using his powers to sail over and grab the stick in his mouth, reveling with success. Yes! I caught it!

Lowering himself down, however, Harley's legs hit something wet. Looking down to see what it was, he immediately perked up, yelping as he leaped out of the open water and out of the way of an incoming wave. He darted around behind Red at speeds one would expect from a cat, cowering behind him.

No, no, no! I can't go in there! What is that?!

[Zarkenis Ultima]

July 25th

---

---

Icarus couldn't stop a grin from appearing on his face as he felt the girl's lips pressing against his cheek, no doubt leaving a small red stain on it, though he didn't mind; he'd had the blood of criminals on his clothes, he wasn't going to complain about this. He would've preferred if the black mask he wore hadn't been in the way, but as things stood for him right now, he could never be too careful with his identity.

The heroine then mentioned that they could go to her house if he wanted, raising a good point that no establishments were likely to serve a man that was on the run from Warwolf. At this, he let out a sigh. "No, I don't think so. But I've got a change of clothes hidden nearby, and you could always order something with that magic wallet of yours." He joked. "Your house it is, then. I can't say I have anything in particular I'm dying to talk about, but I'm not going to pass up the chance to spend some time with you." He smiled at her, before beginning the trek back to her former abode.

Especially since these chances are becoming scarcer...

The trip was thankfully uneventful and, after a while, they finally arrived at Renata's house. As stealthily as he could, the vigilante approached the back door, letting the pink-haired girl down before extracting some energy from one of the batteries he kept in his pockets. The crackling blue mass took the shape of a key, and he inserted it into the lock, struggling with it for a little bit until the door finally opened. Smiling at his success, Icarus threw it ajar and then stepped aside, motioning for Renata to step into the house.

"Ladies first."

[Tomia]

July 27th, Wonder Island

Mars and the informant headed onto the train the second it arrived, hearing Kiris' battle roar just as the doors closed. Mar's heart raced a he heard it. He was succeeding in bringing the informant to the tower, but he had left Kiris behind to deal with the consequences. He knew he needed to trust Kiris' decision, and her capabilities to handle herself, but he could help but feel enormous guilt for putting her in danger. Still, he was hopeful that she could get out safely and as the train pulled up to the station that was close to the island, Mars was feeling better and better about his success. Neither spoke much as they approached the island, clearly shaken by the events that happened.

Still, when they finally reached the island Mars' nerves started to calm and he was excited to share his success and see Kiris again. They passed the bridge onto the island and soon Mars saw Roy, standing half way towards the tower looking distressed. Mars immediately got concerned, did Roy know about they had done already and was he mad?

The second they reached him Mars opened his mouth, trying to explain himself, "Roy, I know it was dangerous but look..." He said before being cut off.

"Mars... There's something you need to see." Roy said, handing his phone to the boy genius. Mars was surprised that Roy didn't seem mad, and took the phone with tense anticipation. His stomach dropped, and Mars almost vomited when he took the phone. It was a news article titled,

"Hero of the Hilton gala arrested in clash with Warwolf"

He felt dizzy, like the world was spinning around him. A picture of Kiris sat in the center of the article.

"No... this couldn't have happened..." He said, feeling like there was no oxygen in his lungs.

"We have to go after her! We have to find her!" He shouted tears forming in his eyes.

"Mars, Mars, we need to think this through. I'm upset too but..."

"Roy!" Mars shouted, which was strange considering he'd never actually yelled at Roy before. "This was my fault... I put her in danger, she didn't want to... It's my fault." Mars said, tears flowing down his cheeks as he chocked out the words. Roy's expression grew dark, a tear forming in his eye as well as he approached Mars for a hug. Mars pulled him in tightly, sobbing on Roy's shoulder.

"We'll get her back Mars, I promise. Whatever it takes, we're going to make Warwolf pay." He said softly as the two embraced for multiple minutes.After that Roy interrogated the informant, discovering his name was Craig Anders, and he turned over the flash drive to Roy.

"We need to call a meeting Mars, the rest of the team needs to know." Roy said, leading Mars back to the tower before assembling the others.

Once the team had gathered, Roy turned on the tv, showing the continuously playing news story of Kiris' arrest. She was being charged by Warwolf with disturbing the peace, misuse of super abilities, and assault. Mars was furious and panicked, sitting in the corner looking sullen. "Kiris..." Roy said, his voice cracking a bit. "was taken by Warwolf. She and Mars went off on their own to collect information, and she was taken in the process." Mars didn't say anything in response, not even wanting to look at his teammates' reactions to the news.

[Finland SSR]

July 25th

---

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Thank goodness, at least the trip back home was uneventful - being unharassed any further after all that happened earlier today was the least she could ask for. The bigger thing she had to worry about was how to not fall out of Icarus's grip and remain comfortable while the vigilante was running across the streets and alleys of the city, always maintaining a quick pace. This was definitely a new experience to her - being carried like a bride, and across the entire city no less.

Their little trek ended once the two heroes reached Renata's home - a fairly compact, two story home her father had rented for her right before her arrival to San Diego - and stopped in front of the door, where Icarus set Renata down on her feet and unlocked the door with an electric construct before she could even pull out the key. Really now, his powers extend that far into utility? Renata shot a surprised look.

He better use THAT power only for good...

The inside of the house was surprisingly empty for the home of someone wielding a monthly allowance larger than most people's yearly wages. The bedroom at the back of the house was completely swept clean, only a double bed remained, while all the other rooms, such as the living room on the right from the front door, only had a few items left. Most of what she had and valued had long since been brought to Wonder Tower and placed in her new room, after all. The kitchen on the left, on the other hand, was still fully decked out and operational - she did not have a personal kitchen in Wonder Tower, after all, and didn't plan to install one for herself, so she figured all that she had here can remain. And the kitchen is exactly where Renata went first, heading straight to the tap to wash away the drying blood on her face and evaporating the water afterwards by applying some infrared radiation.

"Alright, now what..." the heroine muttered to herself as she shuffled through the drawers and shelves above and below her, as well as the fridge at the corner of the table, hunger starting to grip at her stomach. Unfortunately, she had either thrown away most of her reserves or brought them to Wonder Tower, and what remained - cereal, canned tomatoes, a small pack of malasadas - didn't seem like they'd fit for dinner.

"Well, I guess we're not having something to eat after all." Renata muttered, then turned towards Icarus. "So... this is my humble abode, or was, until I moved to Wonder Tower... If you want, I can give you a quick tour, but there isn't really anything interesting for me to show you."

The heroine's eyes suddenly glared towards Icarus's eyes directly - not exactly with any anger, more with curiosity. "I've been wondering about something, though... What were you doing out there in the Condemned District? Simply patrolling for anything off?"

---

July 27th, Wonder Island

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

The day has arrived at last. A new day shines upon Ecuador. Thousands of people, civilians and soldiers alike, have gathered outside of the central airport of the city of Quito, their eyes watching a small roaring plane fly across the bright blue skies, softly descending towards one of the runways until finally coming to a halt. On the other side of the unfolding staircase separating her from her people, a pink-haired woman in uniform stood, a mix of excitement, anticipation and anxiety in her eyes.

It took a while to sort everything out and get all of the preparations in order, but she was finally back in Ecuador, and-

Something is missing.

Right, she caught the answer immediately. She was standing in front of the staircase, the Quito panorama unfolding before her eyes, all alone. And she had specifically planned to prevent that from happening.

"Give me a minute." She muttered to herself, turning away from the Ecuadorians awaiting her entrance down below, and instead made her way through the plane to the passenger seats, lined up one after the other, each one occupied by her friends from America, the absolute majority of them Young Bloods. All of the Young Bloods had followed her to Ecuador, in fact. Even the ones she didn't have much of a liking for, like Wyatt, Carter and Shi... There's no way she is going to let them miss this moment! And she has so much to show them! The beautiful sights of Quito, her palace, the Galapagos, and...

None of them seem to be concerned with what was going on! Hell, not a single one even gave a passive glance towards her, every single one either staring through the nearest window with boredom, immersed in their phones or books, or napping, as if the long flight from San Diego to Quito was still ongoing and they weren't even aware that this was going to be Renata's big moment.

"Heeey, we're here! Wake up, people!" the heroine exclaimed, clapping with her hands. Didn't help, as if every single one of them was completely deaf and blind. Fuming, Renata came to the conclusion that if something neutered their sight and hearing, then at least touch is bound to work - with that in mind, she walked up to the nearest of the passengers, Elle, who was immersed in a some sort of journal. "Come on Elle, we're going to be-"

As soon as Renata's hand touched her friend's with the intention to tug it, Elle's body dissipated into thin air right in front of her.

"-late?"

Like a domino effect, Elle's disappearance sparked the rest of the passengers to start vanishing one after the other. Stumbling at her feet, barely remaining standing upward out of the sheer shock, Renata watched the disappearances unfold before her eyes, until she desperately began running forward, shouting:

"Wait, no, stop! What's happening?!"

Someone must remain, right?! She tried grabbing Viv, Roy, Kiris, Aleta - nope, every single one of them dissipated the exact same way upon the first touch, as if they were never there in the first place. And she had zero clue why. Why?! Why are they all vanishing?!

With the corner of her eye, Renata caught a glimpse of Icarus, sitting at the very back of the plane, on the last seat, staring through the window. Already, the wave of disappearances was starting to encroach on him - Amir and Wyatt, who were sitting on the seats in front of him, were both starting to dissipate.

No, no, no...

I can't lose you...

Renata ran forward, fueled by pure desperation, and leapt straight at Icarus, breaking the double seat she landed on in the process and landing on the ground with a painful thud. In her tight grasp was... nothing. Nothing but a speck of dust, dissipating into the air.

Why?..

Renata's hands clenched to the broken seat underneath her, the energy released by her palms melting the plastic almost instantly.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh..." Renata stumbled upon her words, still staring into the empty seat in front of her with complete disbelief in her eyes. "Where did you go?.. Where did all of you go?.. What happened?! Why did you all disappear?!"

She received no answer. What she did receive was the sound of a loudspeaker from outside - apparently, the thousands of people waiting for her appearance were finally starting to get sick with getting to wait for so long.

"We request our new Caudillo, Renata Martinez, to show herself to her nation!.."

---

Renata woke up from her sleep covered in cold sweat, her head instantly leaping off the pillow and frantically looking around. It was all a dream. It was all just a horrible dream. She was in her room in Wonder Tower, lying in her bed, covered in a sheet... In a fairly dark room, in fact. Sure, the curtains were closed, but usually, the sun would already be up and shine through those curtains even at the earliest morning. Taking a yawn, Renata pulled up her phone, lying on top of her bedside table, and checked the time.

"Mierda..." It was four in the morning. That explains the darkness... Throwing the phone back on the table, Renata placed her head back on the pillow.

What's up with all these constant weird dreams?

It started a week or two ago, with that... admittedly weird lucid dream where she kept falling down deeper and deeper depths, her father and Icarus both making an appearance. Thankfully, she wasn't falling down anything this time, that was scary whether or not it was in a dream or in real life, but it made up for that with scenes of her friends dissipating into thin air in front of her eyes. Renata was not the type of person to believe that there's something spiritual or clairvoyant about dreams... but this really did seem like her mind trying to tell her something and-

I'm not going back to sleep, am I?

Who cares, she's not that tired, even if she underslept. And with that in mind, Renata threw the sheet on her to the side and stepped on the floor of the room. A minute later, she was already in the shower, starting her daily morning routine, even if a few hours earlier.

Showers for Renata were always a time when she'd spend a few minutes reflecting on what had happened recently, and there was a lot to have reflections on. These few days were supposed to be a some sort of lull in team activity now that the Cabal was driven back from Wonder Foundation and the Hilton mission was dealt with, and yet during this short period of time, Renata had gotten into two missions, almost died once, and met two mysterious allies using fire-based abilities. The former was Shi, and the less mental power is spend towards thinking about her, the better, while the latter was... Marina.

At this point, Renata was convinced - the blonde catgirl definitely had something to do with Ecuador. Her Hispanic accent, the fact that Marina knew her real name, and referred to herself as the heroine's "guardian angel", at least betrayed that. And it's definitely not some random person who just happens from the same country, either - again, the last point still stands. Was this her father's doing? Was he worried about something? Or suspicious...

Okay, okay, next thought.

Icarus.

God damn it.

Not that she felt any bad feelings towards the blonde vigilante - God forbid - it's just that... She was starting to feel that in her duet, she was constantly being the baggage holding him down. It was her who was at fault for Icarus ending up in the terrible situation he was in, if his explanation on how the accusation of murdering those innocent teenagers in an alleyway in front of Warwolf holds any merit. And two days ago, without any backup alongside her, she tried to infiltrate a deathmatch tournament and nearly ended up dying as a result. Hell, even Icarus, the poster boy of getting himself into danger and suffering as a result, confirmed that it was incredibly stupid of her.

This wasn't even limited to him, either. What did she achieve in the Inferno fight besides throwing a few pointless projectiles, constantly being guarded by her allies and thus sapping necessary manpower, and getting beaten down in two strikes as soon as she attacked all by herself? What did she do against Beast aside for getting blown back and trapped, bailing immediately as she escaped? Sure, she then defeated a giant rock monster pretty much all by herself... after it got pinned down by Amir... and maybe there is a reason why she was so happy upon seeing that she actually achieved something on her own merit for once, instead of relying on others.

These thoughts continued plaguing Renata's mind as she went through the rest of her routine - brushing her hair, getting a snack for breakfast, washing her teeth, and finally settling on her bed, picking up one of the novels lined up across the shelf and continuing where she left off. A fairly generic urban fantasy novel about vampires and romance, but enjoyable to the pink-haired girl regardless. Since fairly recently, she's begun reading them as less of a fantasy story to immerse herself into, but instead as a roadmap, or a blueprint.

The problem is that... sigh, I think Wyatt and Wendy did have a point back then. I'm just so fragile. I can attack, but I can't defend, I need someone else to do it for me... and that's just not how a real hero is supposed to work.

Nobody else is suffering from this problem, either! Wyatt is a flying brick, Roy, Angelica, Kiris, Red... they're all great close quarters fighters too, Alexis and Mars have their suits of armor, Casimir has enough tenacity to survive a nuclear bomb dropped on him, and-

Hold the phone.

The mention of Casimir immediately reminded Renata of something. The heroine's eyes trailed off from the book in her hands towards the desk on the other side of the room. Scott's Spectrum Gauntlet, which she had picked up after his battle with Casimir with the intention of returning it to the fellow hero one day, was still lying on the top of the desk, collecting dust. Scott was no longer a member of the team, and he seemed to want nothing to do with the gauntlet anymore after lashing out against Casimir in his envy state. If he doesn't return, that gauntlet is going to remain in her room forever. Tempting her.

Before he departed from the team, Scott mentioned that she would be a better wielder of the Spectrum Gauntlet than he ever was. He saw her as a lot more courageous and willed than he ever was, and less prone to falling to his negative instincts, like envy and rage... And Renata could not deny that the Spectrum Gauntlet was powerful. She didn't know much about how its powers work beyond the basics of "using your imagination to generate constructs from your emotions, and also fly", but Scott was able to duel Casimir to a draw with it, and even seemed set on having the Polish hero's head if it were not for Renata's timely intervention. Sure, there is a risk of falling to negative emotions while wielding it, but...

Renata shook her head. I... I can't take it. It's Scott's. It's his gauntlet, I'm not allowed to use it.

And yet...

He told me that I would be a better wielder of that gauntlet than him, right?

And he doesn't want anything to do with it...

Renata set down the novel in her hands and leapt off her bed, eyes focused towards the gauntlet on her desk.

I'll just try it once or twice and see if I can wield it properly, then put it down. Gotcha?

God, it's like I'm being tempted by the devil right now or something...

Carefully and slowly, afraid of accidentally breaking something or activating the device, Renata picked the metallic gauntlet up, inspecting it in her hands. It was definitely stylish and well designed, having this alien-like mystique in its appearance... Of course, it was an alien design, after all. The gauntlet seemed pretty big, clearly designed for a larger arm than hers, but Renata pulled it onto her hand regardless. Immediately, a metallic clanking sound came from the device, almost causing her to jump back - thankfully, it was not trying to kill her or crush her arm, it merely tightened to fit the pink-haired girl's arm like a glove.

Ah, nice...

Surprisingly, it wasn't as heavy as she initially imagined, and as Renata moved and rotated her hand to check out the gauntlet from all sides, it didn't seem to impede her movements at all. So... how does it work? There was a button on the other side of the hand, and Renata's mind immediately recalled to when Scott pressed it to activate his Envy form right before his battle with Casimir. That's it.

Here goes nothing...

And-

Right before Renata was about to press the button and see what happens, she heard her phone ring and dropped the matter of activating the Spectrum Gauntlet for now, running up to the bedside table and grabbing the device to check who was bothering her at this time of the day.

It was Roy.

They were organizing an emergency team meeting.

---

With the unactivated Spectrum gauntlet still on her right arm, Renata ran into the living room moments before Roy turned on the TV to present numerous news stories on Kiris's arrest. As it turns out, Warwolf had taken her in for charges of disturbing public order and assault with superhuman abilities. That's... the second member of their team who's gotten into deep trouble with the authorities and it hasn't even been a month.

But at least with Red, she could see where it was coming from. The redhead never struck her as the most compassionate member of the team. Kiris, on the other hand... God damn Kiris, charged with assault and disturbing public order! The nicest ball of sunshine rolling across the entire island! How the hell could that happen?! Roy soon clarified the situation - she and Mars had gone off on their own to collet information, and while the technopath managed to escape Warwolf, his girlfriend could not. Well. At least it's a small reassurance that Renata was not the only member of the team who can go completely nuts and try to take on such threats all by herself.

That's not to say that she wasn't shocked. Watching the news report and Roy's following explanation with her mouth agape, she clenched onto the edge of the sofa she was standing behind, small puffs of heated gas exiting from between her fingers. Renata soon took a breath to calm herself down, however, and spoke towards the leader of the team:

"That's... Roy, before we do anything hasty, I need clarification on a few things. First, since Kiris is charged with all of these accusations of crime, what sentence is the prosecution trying to achieve? If it's only a fine or a few months of arrest, then I-well, we, can try to bail her out. And second... what in the world was she and Mars trying to investigate that Warwolf decided to go after them?!"

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

Maybe, just maybe, he should jump off tall buildings more often. Watching the streets, the people and traffic below, all looking so small... And Sina as she shot through the streets with practiced ease. I guess I'll add Flying Lessons to the list of things I need to do. That and more practice with my powers. He only practiced the day that he learned about it. The day after he spent in N'Toak and now he was hanging out with Sina. He definitely needed to spend the rest of the day working on controlling it and using it. Having something other than "punches things" under his belt would be useful... If he ever got the chance to use it.

But that was for later. Racing was for now. Already, he could tell that he was starting to lose speed. Maybe he should dive down to get it back... It would probably impress Sina-

-Why did he care about impressing Sina? Sure, at this point he might as well consider her a friend, but still. His thoughts were interrupted as he shot down a bit to avoid a flock of pigeons that were headed straight for him. Stupid birds.

Giving it a second thought, what did he have to lose? Worse case scenario, he leaves the city and goes to live with his own people. Maybe would he come back to visit every now and again. He rapidly shook his head, trying to rid himself of the bad thoughts. Why and how did they keep coming back? Who did he talk to about this?

Ignoring them was probably the best thing he could do. Hopefully they'd stop eventually. Perhaps a little more adrenaline would clear his head. He dived down closer to street level, though still above the street lights, if only just. Focus on beating Sina. Don't let anything else drag you down... He reinforced his thoughts, putting a laser focus on as he rounded a corner, coming just a bit too close to a building, but ultimately missing it and getting back on track.

July 27

Jason spent the last few days trying to get to know the team. Carter was cool and friendly, like Amir but more vocal. Red was put on the same shelf as Shi, but much lower on the threat rating. Bael needed to stop vanishing all the damn time. Kiris was friendly and weirdly desensitized to violence, much like his partner. Renata was your standard spoiled rich girl, but nothing truly offensive. She'd probably get that blasted off with time. Roy was so busy that he barely had time to introduce himself, Mars spent a lot of his time either working on his tinker stuff or with Kiris. Clearly something going on there. "I ship them."

"Are you spending your free time on the internet? Really?"

"Yes. There's so much to learn. I wanted to learn more about us. More of what I am."

"Couldn't tell you dude. But I guess that's why you're on the internet. Just don't believe everything you read unless it's got credible sources. Last thing I want in my head is you thinking the earth is flat."

"I'm not an idiot." He replied. "It's obviously shaped like a cube. Spheres don't have corners, but earths is referred to as having corners."

Jason snickered. "Fair enough." He finished, recollecting his thoughts on some of the members of the team.

Harley was a dog, a friendly dog who was a good boy and deserved many more pets and treats. Kudos to Carter for bringing him in. Alexis, he'd seen around, but never got around to meeting. She gave off a weird smell, but not one like the others he spoke about like Amir or Bael. Seemed friendly enough, was a tinker like Mars, though she seemed a bit more focused on her tech than anything else. "Haven't eaten dog before. Might be tasty."

"Dogs are a no-no for eating. Same with cats. The only animals I want you eating are cows, fully cooked of course, chicken, also cooked, fish, up to you, and any wild boars we come across. And that's assuming I'm blacked out at that point."

"I know..."

"Just checking. You always make sure your best bud is on the same page as you." Jason said, about to go back to thinking about the team, when he was interrupted by a team meeting being called. His first one, he had to make a good first impression. He entered the meeting room at about the same time as Bael who silently took his seat. "Wonder how his date with Sina went..." He spoke very quietly and found a good place to sit.

Apparently, Kiris and Mars went out to some nebulous person for information on Warwolf. While the information was good Kiris got captured, much to the chagrin of Mars who wanted to go rescue her. Renata suggested that maybe they try to wait it out "The pinkheaded, horned girl was taken? Hmmm. We should go save her Jason!"

"Hold on there." Jason spoke up, both to Sludge and the team. "Okay, what's the point of being a team if people are going to charge off to try to take down something like Warwolf alone? Second, if we're going to respond to this, and I expect we are, we have to do so in a calculated manner. Warwolf probably knows that Kiris is on the team, and I assume they're also expecting us to react to this. As much as I would love to go in guns blazing and kicking authoritarian furries out of my city, I doubt that's gonna work with the media sucking them off as hard as they are."

"Third: Where is she being held and what information did you guys get? If it's sufficiently juicy, we can probably strong arm them into releasing her without having to start a war." He explained. "I don't know Kiris as well as you guys, but she's a member of this team and I want nothing more than to get her back safely...But." He glanced at Mars. "As badly as it hurts, we can't act irrationally. No matter how badly we just want to explode and go show them what for, that's exactly what they want and will do us more harm than good. Emotional responses to things like this aren't the answer." He spoke from experience, recalling when he and sludge first started. Arguing and yelling achieved nothing. Only when they both met in a relaxed tone did they actually work it out.

"Let's start with the good news and our biggest advantage. What's on that flash drive?"

Wyatt didn't have much to say. Instead trying to keep a straight face even though he was trying not to explode. His heart rate was probably double what it was normally, and he kept his hands behind his back, balled tightly into fists. Kiris was one of his few friends, and he dearly loathed Warwolf. He had an excuse, but Jason was right. He had no idea where she was being kept, and a measured, careful response was the answer to saving her.

But for the first time in his life, he wanted to inflict damage. Pain. He wanted to walk into a base and show what he was truly capable of... Even though he knew that would only cause more problems. Instead he focused on breathing, trying to calm his heart rate and refrain from doing another thing he would regret.