Are we Heroes: The New Guard [IC]

[Okayanos]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea

"Oui, oui. I understand. You don't respect your gods." Amalthea mutters, hardly audible above the steady whirr of machine guns. Bullets fall straight down upon hitting her rather than pinging off like they would against most seemingly-invincible metahumans, being robbed of their momentum.

She doesn't just stand in one place and wait for the Convoy to show up. She accelerates to her top speed in an instant, eliminating wind resistance and adjusting friction just enough to push her speed beyond the bounds of human or goat. She barrels through every obstacle in her way, punching goat-shaped holes through all of them as though they were paper. Less than paper. Amalthea busts through incoming fire from startled security officers, occasionally whipping an arm out to split someone in two.

As she closes in towards the ascending helicopter, she briefly bunches up her furry knees- and leaps with explosive force. The ground craters, and she soars through the air, negating gravity and closing in on the chopper- She dives straight into the rotor blades. The spinning props break before her body does, chunks flying off as the craft spirals, losing altitude. Amalthea leaps off, diving down and landing with much less force than a drop from such a height should have.

"You could have stopped this." She says, to the falling aircraft, and no one in particular.

[Sraelyn]

Johan Vermaak
Vektor

As soon as the medic arrived to take away Wraith, and the rest of the Argus agents had spread out to search for The Huntsman, Johan turned towards Argus’ LA Field Office. It was already getting dark, and he wasn’t really in the mood to report on today’s events, but Argus would pester him to no end if he didn’t. First Yaldabaoth rampaging through the city, then Doorman snatching the bodies of heroes, followed by the encounter with Wraith and Tenebrous, and lastly meeting Erwin of all people. It had certainly not been a boring day, if a bit convoluted. There was quite a lot on his mind, and a few things to mull over the following days. Perhaps there were too many threads to investigate, hopefully, with the support of the team Overgrowth was trying to assemble, he could actually do something of significance.

The way to the Office was strangely calming. Although the landscape told the story of today’s destruction, the effort of people trying to help their fellow men could be seen everywhere as well. Through the silence that permeated the night, the cold breeze that chilled his arms, the sweat drenching his clothes, the dirt covering the rest of his body, and the soreness of his muscles, a semblance of hope lingered on. The city would rebuild, the dead would be mourned and new heroes would rise to the occasion as it had always happened. And for a moment it seemed everything would eventually go back to normal.

Opening the doors to the office, grounded him once again in reality. The place was in utter chaos, TVs broadcasting the destruction going on in the rest of the country. The Pantheon had, in their full might and numbers, descended from Olympus like the gods of old, to lay waste to the mortal world. Major corporations, institutions, and even Argus’ HQ were being ravaged and levelled to the ground. And all they could do was watch it all burn.

[Parcia]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea

"Oui, oui. I understand. You don't respect your gods." Amalthea mutters, hardly audible above the steady whirr of machine guns. Bullets fall straight down upon hitting her rather than pinging off like they would against most seemingly-invincible metahumans, being robbed of their momentum.

She doesn't just stand in one place and wait for the Convoy to show up. She accelerates to her top speed in an instant, eliminating wind resistance and adjusting friction just enough to push her speed beyond the bounds of human or goat. She barrels through every obstacle in her way, punching goat-shaped holes through all of them as though they were paper. Less than paper. Amalthea busts through incoming fire from startled security officers, occasionally whipping an arm out to split someone in two.

As she closes in towards the ascending helicopter, she briefly bunches up her furry knees- and leaps with explosive force. The ground craters, and she soars through the air, negating gravity and closing in on the chopper- She dives straight into the rotor blades. The spinning props break before her body does, chunks flying off as the craft spirals, losing altitude. Amalthea leaps off, diving down and landing with much less force than a drop from such a height should have.

"You could have stopped this." She says, to the falling aircraft, and no one in particular.

The MH-53 would shudder, sputter, and fall much faster then it was ascending, sending it and the passengers down to the ground. In a Testament to its builders, the Bird would hold together, leaving a good portion of them to stumble out dazed, man of them injured.

The Tinkers were rushed by Security teams to an armored car in the building's garage (on the side of the building) A pair of Humvees peeled off and fallowed it out in to the parking lot, by this point the Convoy had arrived and began to disembark its troops and setting up. The Bradly's readied their TOW II launchers, as did the men do so with the AT-4s and Mk. 153s. If this goat women chose to come out the other side of the building, she would be met with a wall of lead and hellfire.

[Triassica]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

Snake Eyes was on Search and Rescue duty with some other heroes spread out across the city looking for citizens as well as villians. Los Angeles was a big place, which meant that there was probably still plenty of people who didn't escape, and now trapped or injured somewhere. Plus, villains tended to take advantage of disaster situations, being, well criminals, which was a big problem with only so many free heroes around. He took part in a carpool of his peers before being dropped off at his designated area, Rango the boa constrictor looking around to give his master a good look of the damage.

Looks like Los Angeles is going to take a while to rebuild. Andrew thought, So many people to relocate... Come on guys. Let's get to work.

Andrew wandered around, his snakes spread out and slithering about in search of both kinds of trouble. Arthur the Copperhead found a couple 'normies' trying to break into a pawn shop, and Snake Eyes called them off. He promised to let them off easy with a simple warning, only if they put everything back and immediately head straight to the evacuation sight.

As the two thieves ran off as told, however, Andrew's special cell phone went off with a message.

ALERT ALERT, Argus Sanctioned asset "WRAITH" is requesting assistance, this is an automated signal generated by a loss of consciousness and possible medical emergency, GPS coordinates to fallow, this message will repeat.

Snake Eyes frowned as the audio gave off the coordinates as this Wraith Character was simply too far away. Luckily, some other heroes had to be close to give help where he couldn't, or at least the snake man hoped. Andrew didn't know who this Wraith person was, but his thoughts were eventually overtaken by a message from Susan the Black Mamba of a dark shadow hoping on rooftops, only to vanish mysteriously.

It was beginning to get dark and Andrew gathered all of his snakes as the van came back to pick him up. Snake Eyes managed to find some citizens and luckily hardly any were injured too badly. Nor, thank the Gods, were any more playing criminal. Feeling tired, the snake man gently closed his eyes for a short nap, feeling proud of himself for another honest day of hero work.

Andrew woke up when they arrived at Argus’ LA Field Office for briefing. Only Rango woke up with him and acted as his eyes. However, both man and snake were welcomed to the sheer chaos on the television screen of an entire area burning to the ground. Andrew cursed under his breath at the sight of it all, his good feelings dismantled by sheer powerlessness.

The boa constrictor, Rango, after a moment of being transfixed, glanced around and found Johan Vermaak, also known as Vektor right next to him. "What are we going to do?" Snake Eyes asked, not looking at Johan, though the latter should know him well enough to know that Rango was looking right at him, "First that Yaldabaoth thing, now Pantheon? We got to do something..."

Filia "Tenebrous" Umbrarum

Filia decided to retire her cat burglary work for the night, as nocturnal she normally was, and disappointed she was as well from the lack of loot, and for abandoning Wraith. Yet the woman thought it best to lie low for a while and avoid provoking the wrath of Argus even further. The threats of being sent to Site III was enough to put her on edge, knowing that normally Argus would see her as a Site II or even Site I kind of Villian. So, as much as Filia disliked it, tonight was going to have to go without any thrilling chases and lots from old corrupt folk.

She managed to get to her penthouse, thankfully unnamed and got out of her suit, tossing it aside in her secret wardrobe before heading into the bathroom. After a quick shower, Filia changed into her usual black and white dress, and sat on the couch with a glass of wine to think about what to do next. The city was empty with the heroes lurking about and all the citizens at least were at the Evacuation site, including the business people she was supposed to meet.

Filia drained her glass before she suddenly yawned and stretched were she sat, feeling exhausted. Having already thought of what to do next, the beautiful woman gently closed her eyes and fell asleep right where she sat. Her last thoughts before entering the dream world was the countless possibilities of future proper heists, as well as the hoping that the young woman she met earlier would be okay and not end up in a cell for something not her fault...

[The Cyberiad Council]

Allan Crane, aka Overgrowth

"Oh my God..." Allan said, wide-eyed, as he saw the destruction the Pantheon brought. One Hero had already fallen in New York and another was severely injured. It wasn't clear if other heroes could get there in time, or even if they should. Allan glanced over to where the pro heroes were standing, all of their expressions grim. The Eagle, especially, looked infuriated.

"We have confirmed that the Pantheon are attacking at least three different targets in the Eastern United States. Local heroes seem overwhelmed, and the number of civilian casualties is growing by the minute. Argus has issued three separate Class II Threat levels, due to the apparent lack of heroes in the area. There is no sight of either the Eagle or Cypher, and Argus is not available for comment at this time."

The Eagle seemed to have had enough. "Let's go," The Eagle said, turning to walk out the door. "We won't make it in time," Kindle tried to protest. "I can," The Eagle snapped back. "So can Prophet and Abrams. Grab a dropship and meet us when you can." With that, The Eagle dashed off in a blur with Abrams running after him. Prophet gave the rest of his team a nod before disappearing in a swirling void portal.

"What can we do?" Allan asked no one in particular, glancing at his newly formed 'team'.

---

The Regents

"Sol, you have incoming," Mimir called over comms. Cernunnos' long ears swiveled to listen for the pending threat, and Proioxis lowered her stance. "Something's coming in fast... Shit, its the Regents, get clear!"

Invictus shot into the sky as Proioxis grabbed the nature god and sped away. Chernobog simply disappeared into the shadows that surrounded him. Suddenly, the ground where they were standing exploded. Vindicator emerged from the crater and stomped over to Invictus, the ground cracking under his weight. "Where's the rest of your te..." Before the solar deity could finish, Peregrine slammed into him, launching him forcefully into the ground.

A blast of golden light shot out of the crater the impact had made, but the flier was already out of range. But he was back almost immediately, depositing Wrath and Animus who hit the ground running. Another pass of Peregrine dropped off Cypher and Quatermain who both fell in step behind their team. Invictus climbed to his feet and unleashed another barrage of the burning energy at the Regents. Wrath tanked the shot while the rest of the team had to dive out of the way.

By then, Vindicator reached Sol Invictus and unloaded an earth-shattering punch. The villain flew back through the wall of a building across the street like a rag doll. Still, that wasn't enough to put him down. Chernobog reappeared in the middle of the largest group of Regents who were still charging into the fight. Tendrils of darkness quickly formed around him before lashing out. One sped towards Cypher who unloaded a modified throwing disk that acted like a flash bang. The bright light was strong enough to destroy part of the tendril and allow him to slip past the rest.

Wrath peeled off his initial trajectory and charged the shadowy villain. The arms couldn't seem to get close enough to the aura of brilliant red that surrounded the hero, but if Chernobog pushed them, Wrath only flared up more. The hero unloaded an atomic punch, but the Villain seemed to disappear into the darkness only to reappear a short distance away.

Proioxis returned, dropping Cernunnos off to fight Quatermain while she slammed into Animus who went flying.

It appeared that the Regents were pushing the Pantheon back, but the Villains weren't to be underestimated...

[Okayanos]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea
Tex Mechanica Weapons Development

Simone steps through the wreckage lightly- except when her hooves come down on bodies of survivors, which results in the poor sods getting holes punched through whatever part of their body she steps on. Security forces rush in to escort key members- the fabled Builders of Skunk Works. Metahumans daring to lower themselves to work for mortals. As per the Pantheon's code, Amalthea is disgusted. She tails the security team far slower than her maximum speed, taking the reactionary bullets fired at her by paranoid officers.

At the side of the building, she crashes through the wall of the garage, dropping the slow stalking and rushing the armored car at a full sprint. The vehicle's driver peels out in a panic, flooring it towards the parking lot- only to find the goat woman easily keeping pace alongside, shrugging off futile fire support from the Humvees. Amalthea sticks her arm into the side of the vehicle, reaching down until she finds one of the wheels. As she runs alongside it, she brings her arm down and cuts the wheel from the axle. The armored car rolls to a halt, and Amalthea tears herself an opening, and steps inside.

The bloodbath is thankfully brief. The salvation of the parking lot is denied to the Armored Car, while the Humvees circle it like moths around a light. When Amalthea steps out again, fur stained a dark crimson, this time walking towards the parking lot. Her jacket is a shredded mess, revealing the only human skin left on her. She's toned, athletic, but without injury. A wall of Military Pornography faces her, and it makes her goat mouth curl into a small frown.

"I thought Americans loved their guns too much to waste so much munition."

Alaric Kirin
Shine
Los Angeles, Argus Field Office

The office is a welcome return to normalcy. Whoever the Skull-and-Raven villain had been, they'd gotten away. From what Shine could pick up about Sourkraut (Argus soldier's nickname, not his own), it was a low-power meta with a hateboner for Argus and ASET. Not enough of a threat to warrant any heavy action, as well. Just another kid that thinks they're the only one doing right when the truth was completely different.

His power is still too much on cooldown to spy on anything, but the TVs paint a fair picture for him anyways. The Pantheon, out to be the Meta Supremacists they'd always been. This time, taking out a whole group of big corporations. Shine isn't too miffed about that- the big companies deserve a good sacking. Gencore was shady, Argus was controlling, and Daedalus was just pure out of touch. Better to knock off the fat cats to give something to the little guys.

But of course, The Pantheon can't even do this small act of good without fucking up and doing everything else evil. Proclaiming their superiority in a cartoonish manner, picking a fight with the Regents, and doing the whole anti-human speciesism schtick. "We can draw straws to decide who gets to go where." He speaks up in response to Allan.

[Sraelyn]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

Snake Eyes was on Search and Rescue duty with some other heroes spread out across the city looking for citizens as well as villians. Los Angeles was a big place, which meant that there was probably still plenty of people who didn't escape, and now trapped or injured somewhere. Plus, villains tended to take advantage of disaster situations, being, well criminals, which was a big problem with only so many free heroes around. He took part in a carpool of his peers before being dropped off at his designated area, Rango the boa constrictor looking around to give his master a good look of the damage.

Looks like Los Angeles is going to take a while to rebuild. Andrew thought, So many people to relocate... Come on guys. Let's get to work.

Andrew wandered around, his snakes spread out and slithering about in search of both kinds of trouble. Arthur the Copperhead found a couple 'normies' trying to break into a pawn shop, and Snake Eyes called them off. He promised to let them off easy with a simple warning, only if they put everything back and immediately head straight to the evacuation sight.

As the two thieves ran off as told, however, Andrew's special cell phone went off with a message.

ALERT ALERT, Argus Sanctioned asset "WRAITH" is requesting assistance, this is an automated signal generated by a loss of consciousness and possible medical emergency, GPS coordinates to fallow, this message will repeat.

Snake Eyes frowned as the audio gave off the coordinates as this Wraith Character was simply too far away. Luckily, some other heroes had to be close to give help where he couldn't, or at least the snake man hoped. Andrew didn't know who this Wraith person was, but his thoughts were eventually overtaken by a message from Susan the Black Mamba of a dark shadow hoping on rooftops, only to vanish mysteriously.

It was beginning to get dark and Andrew gathered all of his snakes as the van came back to pick him up. Snake Eyes managed to find some citizens and luckily hardly any were injured too badly. Nor, thank the Gods, were any more playing criminal. Feeling tired, the snake man gently closed his eyes for a short nap, feeling proud of himself for another honest day of hero work.

Andrew woke up when they arrived at Argus’ LA Field Office for briefing. Only Rango woke up with him and acted as his eyes. However, both man and snake were welcomed to the sheer chaos on the television screen of an entire area burning to the ground. Andrew cursed under his breath at the sight of it all, his good feelings dismantled by sheer powerlessness.

The boa constrictor, Rango, after a moment of being transfixed, glanced around and found Johan Vermaak, also known as Vektor right next to him. "What are we going to do?" Snake Eyes asked, not looking at Johan, though the latter should know him well enough to know that Rango was looking right at him, "First that Yaldabaoth thing, now Pantheon? We got to do something..."

Johan Vermaak
Vektor

He gave a slight glance at Andrew, placing a hand on his shoulder before turning his attention once again to the TV screens. “Good to see you Snake Boy, you too Rango. Sadly, it’s not in the best of circumstances.” Johan exhaled slowly, his tiredness notorious while he closed his eyes as he rubbed his face for a moment. Once he opened his eyes again he spotted both Allen and Shine, who were at the Field Office as well. “There might be something we could do. Come with me.” He said to Andrew as he walked towards the other heroes.

“Hey Gardener and Oracle, about that team you mentioned earlier. You can count me in. And here is someone who I think might be interested as well.” He motioned towards Andrew. “Anyway, this seems like the perfect opportunity for us to go on a nice little road trip and strengthen our bonds as a new team. Don’t you think? Cause I heard the East Coast it bloody lovely this time of the year. Plus, if we end up going to DC I can have a shot at taking down that speedy bitch.” Said Johan pointing at the TV, almost transfixed, the screen showing a still shot of Proxioxis.

[Parcia]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea
Tex Mechanica Weapons Development

Simone steps through the wreckage lightly- except when her hooves come down on bodies of survivors, which results in the poor sods getting holes punched through whatever part of their body she steps on. Security forces rush in to escort key members- the fabled Builders of Skunk Works. Metahumans daring to lower themselves to work for mortals. As per the Pantheon's code, Amalthea is disgusted. She tails the security team far slower than her maximum speed, taking the reactionary bullets fired at her by paranoid officers.

At the side of the building, she crashes through the wall of the garage, dropping the slow stalking and rushing the armored car at a full sprint. The vehicle's driver peels out in a panic, flooring it towards the parking lot- only to find the goat woman easily keeping pace alongside, shrugging off futile fire support from the Humvees. Amalthea sticks her arm into the side of the vehicle, reaching down until she finds one of the wheels. As she runs alongside it, she brings her arm down and cuts the wheel from the axle. The armored car rolls to a halt, and Amalthea tears herself an opening, and steps inside.

The bloodbath is thankfully brief. The salvation of the parking lot is denied to the Armored Car, while the Humvees circle it like moths around a light. When Amalthea steps out again, fur stained a dark crimson, this time walking towards the parking lot. Her jacket is a shredded mess, revealing the only human skin left on her. She's toned, athletic, but without injury. A wall of Military Pornography faces her, and it makes her goat mouth curl into a small frown.

"I thought Americans loved their guns too much to waste so much munition."

That wall of Military Pornography was centered on her, and with out a seconds haste, unleashed hell fire at the hostile Metahuman. The 4 turrets would snap to her first, catching her in a cross fire of CS gas explosives and 12.7mm Gunfire, then the Cannons and TOW launchers on the Bradley, with the warheads set to proximity detonation rather then direct hit. Then the Launchers, firing a mix of HE-Air Blast warheads and HEFRAG. Lastly there came the Small arms and HMGs on the waiting Humvees, Fallowed by Underlung grenades and AT-4 HEAT warheads. (while read out in a list, all of these would fire with in a second of the first shot). Blanketing the women in a maelstrom of Lead, explosive force, and Riot gas. This should be enough to at least cause her pause...Right?

[Okayanos]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea

Hell is unleashed around her. Simone is nonplussed, standing amidst the hail of lead while she waits for it to end. When she catches the thoonk of grenades, the heat of the blasts, and the smell of gas, the goat-headed woman takes action. She kicks off the ground, launching herself backward, back into the building. She breaks the doors off their hinges, regardless of reinforcements or armor.

She instantly turns 90 degrees and dashes to the side when in the building, breaking the line of sight for the Military Pornstars- even more than their ridiculous unloading already had. Amalthea is inside, free to wander- and safe from further heavy artillery, unless they'd fire on their own building. A quiet buzzing makes her ear twitch- Vulcan's drone, still faithfully hovering with her. She gives it a pat, and makes her break down the halls of Tex Mechanica's base, off to find a computer for her team before leveling the place.

[Triassica]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks

Andrew returned a friendly smile at Johan, seeing him through the eyes of Rango, who also, in his own snake way, gave a greeting smile as well. However, friendlies was cut short after a few seconds after immediate reminders that the world was being quite literally set on fire by villains. Snake Eyes gave Vektor a grave nod in determination as he followed him to meet up with the other heroes, Overgrowth and Shine who were putting together a team.

"Yeah, count me in too." Andrew greeted extending a hand to the others with a sardonic smile, "Always wanted to go to the Capital and 'see' the sights there, or at least see as much as a blind person with snakes for eyes could see. Shall we get going? Thought now would as good a time as ever to visit. "

[Parcia]

Simone Walsh
Amalthea

Hell is unleashed around her. Simone is nonplussed, standing amidst the hail of lead while she waits for it to end. When she catches the thoonk of grenades, the heat of the blasts, and the smell of gas, the goat-headed woman takes action. She kicks off the ground, launching herself backward, back into the building. She breaks the doors off their hinges, regardless of reinforcements or armor.

She instantly turns 90 degrees and dashes to the side when in the building, breaking the line of sight for the Military Pornstars- even more than their ridiculous unloading already had. Amalthea is inside, free to wander- and safe from further heavy artillery, unless they'd fire on their own building. A quiet buzzing makes her ear twitch- Vulcan's drone, still faithfully hovering with her. She gives it a pat, and makes her break down the halls of Tex Mechanica's base, off to find a computer for her team before leveling the place.

The Assumption would be a bad one for a number of reasons: 1. This unknown meta has already established clear hostility. 2. it has killed multiple unarmed civilians as well as armed security contractors. 3. In doing so, she would find her self all alone in the large concrete building.

How ever, the order to fire was with held by the Commanding officer as he was, being an inexperienced commander, unsure about leveling the building on top of the women. How ever, she wouldn't need to worry about that, as she had one last problem to deal with.

One of the pet projects of the Skunk Work's Tinkers, (one, who by sheer coincidence was attending a robotics convention in Osaka), would come to life. This project would come in the form of 100 "TXM-31" Autonomous Robotic drones. This project had originally been aimed at a variety of roles, one of which being construction, exploration, and Search and rescue. These Robots would be fairly large, about the size of a large Mastiff, made of composite titanium meshing, toting a powerful Laser based cutting tool, and be propelled by a set of 4 insect like feet that would double as a set grasping pincers. Their key feature was something they drew heavily from their Insect inspiration: Hive Mind based Intelligence.

Alone, they were fairly...stupid, often requiring manual control to properly operate, but in groups of roughly 5 ore more, they reach a level of most Dogs. in groups of 20 or higher, they posses a collective Processing capacity of a small Child.

How ever, all 100 test models were now active and searching for un-identified intruders, and in such a large group, they possessed the capacity to properly engage this Meta Human. A she would barrel her way through the halls, she would hear a distinctive chattering noise, not unlike that of a crab when it walks...yet there would be the sounds of several hundred crab like legs hit the ground in rapid succession. As she would fine her self at the corner leading to the IT Office, she would find her self staring down as well 100 of them, lining the walls, floors, and ceiling, in unison, they would turn to her, each possessing a set of glowing red optical sensors.

In unison, they would stare, and after a few seconds they would unleash a ear piercing mechanical whine, not unlike that of a battle cry, before racing towards this goat women.