Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Absolon-7]

---

Casimir Herman October 8th

---

Casimir flashed a toothy grin once Icarus accepted his challenge and Casimir could just anticipate the match. The only timed he had faced off against Icarus was during his berserker rage during the Warwolf occupation and he wanted to see how well he'd do against it now. Granted Icarus wasn't going berserk thankfully nevertheless it was a mighty power without that state. And if there was anything that made one ant colony stronger it was brandishing its power against another. Now getting into a fist fight might not be your average person's idea of fun but when you had as amazing powers as him it would be a tragedy not to test them when the opportunity arose. Plus it was just a spar. It was really nothing more then advanced roughhousing.

"Let's go to the gym. We're getting upgrades for it soon so might as well rough it up a bit," snickered Casimir cracking his neck. He tossed his controller to the sofa and obliged himself to Icarus gesture to lead him towards the gym and whichever other stops appeared along the way.

---

Casimir Herman October 26th

---

Casimir stood over Butcher Bird's battered body, devastation all around them, but Casimir's attention was soon drawn by a series of loud gunshots across the shop. Rage welling up inside him he forsook finishing off Butcher Bird and leaped into the air like a cricket on cocaine aiming a powerful kick right at Lady Hawk on her shelf based perch. However Casimir's attack was interrupted right before he got to her by Sky Sword activating his rocket boosters and tackling him away. The bug hero and machine crashed all the way to the front of the store and while the machine used the last spurts of its rocket boosters to maneuver itself on its feet Casimir crashed into the stands aligning the store front.

"The sharp-edged sword, unsheathed, cuts through the void—within the raging fire. A cool wind blows," said Sky Sword as he unsheathed a second sword that had a red glowing line slowly light up in its blade. He menacingly pointed both swords at Casimir as his voice lowered into a deeper and malicious mechanical baritone, "One day you are born. You die the next—today, at twilight, autumn breezes blow."

"I'll tear you limb from limb!" shouted Casimir rushing towards Sky Sword, "I'll crush her skull with her own rifle for hurting Ash!"

The hulking android swung its sword down at Casimir but he thrusted his palm upwards and slammed it into the hilt of the incoming sword. The counter made the robot lose its balance as the force made his entire arm ricochet upwards. Casimir punched forward with the same arm and collided his fist into the android's abdomen. The force of it blew back the machine right towards where Roy and Lady Hawk where it would stop its fall by jabbing its swords into the ground to use as a platform to step on.

Casimir huffed out in anger ready to blitz the machine again but a whirl of read feathers to his side signaled a puncture wound. Casimir grimaced at the injury as Butcher Bird had flown back to retaliate by jabbing his talons into Casimir's shoulder. The birdman unleashed a fury of swipes at Casimir that kept him repeatedly back stepping away to avoid the lightning fast blows. Butcher Bird aimed a kick at Casimir but he slammed his elbow on it to block it before returning his own punch. Butcher Bird was clocked across the jaw and flapped backwards before lifting his wings up to send a large pinion right at Casimir. The feather stabbed into Casimir's chest only being stopped by his sternum as Casimir clenched on the middle to pull it out. Butcher Bird swiped at Casimir but the bug hero grabbed onto the scaled wrist and yanked Butcher Bird forward throwing him into the doorway to the store.

The birdman crashed outside into the spacious area outside the store as Casimir leaped towards to slam his boots into him. The birdman blocked it with his wings and made Casimir flip back as he unfurled them. They stood there staring at each other waiting for the other to make the first move.

"So where you really serious about wanting to take us all on?" asked Butcher Bird rubbing the back of his head, "Seems pretty pointless. You have to get through me first as much as I want to get this over with."

"Fuck you!" shouted Casimir attempting to point at the villain but he mistakenly used his broken arm and the swift motion made him double over in pain. The wrapping of webbing provided only minimal support to keep it in place.

"Won't last too long with one quarter of your limbs out for the count," observed Butcher Bird as it was as obvious as the sky being blue and with just as little interest.

"Strike me first," commanded Casimir daring not to blink, "I'll show you how out of the count I am."

"Nah," said Butcher Bird, "You do it."

"Bastard!" shouted Casimir leaping forward to spin kick Butcher Bird.

The birdman flicked him away with his wings and shot several feathers at him which he barely managed to dodge by running to the side. Casimir shot webbing at a sofa in a rest area close to them and he swung it forward like a mace. Casimir flicked his wrist out towards a vending machine and whipped at Butcher Bird who this time sliced it in half with his longest feathers. Casimir winced as another wave of pain shot through his broken arm. He glanced forward to see his webbing gauze stain with blood from the injury. Casimir clenched at the broken part of his arm in a futile effort to have pressure ease the pain. Sweat had mixed in with the blood on his face and the sheen highlighted his furious snarl. He watched with fury filled eyes as the birdman nonchalantly stood there eyeing his talons as if this fight was the most routine thing in the world.

"I wonder how the rest of your chums are doing. I think Buckshot and Automata where going for the all girl group. Poor them I guess," shrugged Butcher Bird.

Casimir eyes widened in horror. He had been far too distracted but of course everyone else was in a fight. Including Squad 2 where Viv was for sure in her own fight. This wasn't fair. How was he having such a hard time against someone with so little drive. So little fire inside them. He had worked his ass off to get stronger day and day out but here he was at the end of his rope. No. His rope had no end. He was too angry for that. He was absolutely livid. He withdrew his broken arm closer to his chest while he let his free arm hang in front of him. He wasn't going to let them hurt Viv or anyone else. He was going to hurt them. He had a burning feeling inside like his veins where filled with nothing but gasoline. Its spark felt like it was going to be the biggest fire the city's ever seen.

The hand on his unbroken arm felt like it was getting hotter and hotter by the second. He clenched its fist and in a bright flash an orange explosion burst out of his fist. Like ongoing fireworks the explosions kept coming out in short bursts as Casimir leapt forward to slam his good fist into Butcher Bird's chest. The crackling bursts aided his power and Butcher Bird was slammed right into a support column. Casmir leapt forward and crashed his fist into Butcher Bird's face crushing the villain into the floor in one fell swoop.

"Fist of the Bombardier Beetle!," shouted Casimir as his fist continued to crackle with orange explosions.

Casimir swung downwards and the fist its its mark dead on exploding in faster succession into Butcher Bird. In the blinding light however obscured Butcher Bird's death glare as he took the hit. He flapped away from Casimir with his face and chest singed from the explosions but he breathed out slowly. Casimir aimed to attack again but the bombardier beetle explosions sputtered out to nothing. Casimir looked at his fist in confusion as Butcher Bird's body started to morph into a a more hunched over and muscular form. A sea of feathers swept through his body as his growing mass tore apart his clothes and his face contorted into a pronounced beak until he finally finished into a eight foot tall figure of pure muscle and feathers.

Butcher Bird stood over Casimir as drool dripped out his beak and he clenched his giant taloned fists. Casimir stood there not daring to look away as he shifted his position to that of a boxer's with his good arm to be used a both a sword and shield.

Yoshiro Nakama

Viviana Couture October 26th

---

Viviana yelped as she hurried to scrape off the ice of her and she could only watch as Yoshi once more went to face Buckshot. She dusted off the last of the ice and felt around herself. Most of the ice landed on only her upper left torso so she couldn't make it rubbery but it was still good enough. She hurried off to back up Yoshi and formed the arm that could still stretch into a giant brick. She hurled it forward at Buckshot and it slammed into the villain face right in the nose. The villain backed off against Yoshi as Viviana got in front of the esper forming her arm into a rot shield. Viviana looked over at Yoshi and cocked her head towards Buckshot while making a fist with her unstretched hand. She said in their mindlink, Alrighty Yosh. Let's attack her together but you can be a feint while I tank. That means you can do your hand-on-head-sleepy-time trick like with Conductor in the tournament.

[Bentus]

The Amazing Ashen Moth!
October 26: Mission Night

---

Skysword watched the battle between Casimir and Butcher Bird with a passive gaze, the red sensor in the centre of his mechanical face monitoring the exchange with a cold dispassion. Lifting his sword lightly in his hand, the machine waited for the inevitable opening that would allow him to plunge in like an arrow from heaven. The cool metal of his blade would be the instrument that would silence this battle, and bleed the life from his opponent before he even registered his presence.

Readying himself to pounce, Skysword was unprepared when he was suddenly knocked off balance by a fist ploughing into his metallic face. Stumbling backwards under the weight of the blow, the machine twisted himself around and adopted a defensive stance as he met this newest interruption. His sensor narrowed at the four-armed figure that stood defiantly before him, a grimace etched onto her features as she fearlessly stared him down. One of Ash’s arms hung limply by her side, and she ignored the growing pool of blood staining her uniform around her shoulder. A thin sheen of sweat coated the mutant’s forehead, and her breathing was abnormally heavy, but a flame remained lit behind her eyes.

“I will not let you hurt my friends!” She declared, hissing through gritted teeth. Ash forced herself to push out her chest, standing tall and confident despite the dim haze that threatened to descend over her vision.

Things had seemed to happen so fast. One moment she was fighting the robot, and the next she felt like a superpowered flea had struck her shoulder, causing her to yelp in pain and surprise as she stumbled forward. Skysword had dismissed her at that point, turning his attention back to Casimir as Ash was incapcitated by her injury. But she knew that she couldn’t allow anything to stop her from standing up for her friends, not when they were depending on her to play her part. Kabuto would never have allowed himself to be stopped, and neither would she. Now, she hardly even felt the pain from the bullet wound, instead finding that it had been swiftly replaced by a cold numbness that gradually emanated from her arm.

Skysword didn’t act immediately, instead turning his gaze to assess the damage that had already been dealt to the girl. A moment of concern flashed through his processor, his analysis comparing his predictions for her wellbeing to the parameters that had been applied to his mission.

“You should not be fighting anymore, child.” He spoke, a forceful tone creeping into his voice. “You are acting foolish, and doing so will exacerbate your existing damage."

Ash’s eyes narrowed towards her opponent. “Heroes do not give up, no matter what!” She replied, imagining for a moment what Kabuto would do if he were in her place, what any of the others would do. Clenching a fist, Ash suddenly darted forward once more. “And I am a hero!”

Raising his sword to parry any blow from the mutant, Skysword had to take a stepback as she deftly shifted herself midair, using her wings to suddenly change her speed and direction to strike from an unexpected angle. Weathering the blow, the villain nevertheless felt that the force behind the strike was weaker than what he’d measured in their earlier encounter. It was a symptom that was inline with his predictions, and that limited his options for dealing with the insect.

“My instructions are to avoid causing your demise, if possible. Your actions are jeopardising this objective, Ashen Moth.” He cautioned, parrying another blow with his forearm only for Ash to follow it up with a savage knee that ploughed into her opponent’s torso, sending him skidding along the floor once more. “Your breathing and heartbeat are both elevated, indicating that you are going into shock. You must seek medical treatment for your damage.”

Ash growled at the villain, feeling her frustration grow as he tried to talk circles around her. “And leave you to perform your villainous schemes against my friends? I do not think so!” Roaring as she lurched forward once more, the mutant redoubled her efforts as she forced the robot onto the backfoot. Her strikes had become more aggressive, relentless even, as they struck with an almost wild ferocity. Even when Skysword parried or deflected one of her blows, another swiftly followed closely behind to exploit another opening. Ash seemed to be throwing herself at him, determined to finish their fight with an all-out offensive rather than continuing with their back-and-forth. And for a while, it looked like she might be successful.

Ducking below a punch, Ash’s arm shot up and grabbed onto Skysword’s wrist, exploiting the slight hesitation before his attack in order to grapple the limb. Holding tightly onto the robot, Ash yelled as she threw what was left of her strength into her next attack, striking down at Skysword’s arm as she held it outstretched. The sound of crunching metal and punctured pneumatics pierced the air as her fist cleaved through the robot’s hardened shell, causing warnings to flare in the villain’s vision as his system reacted to the damage. Forcefully pulling himself away from the attack, he glanced down to see sparks and oil spewing from the injury, his diagnostics working quickly to assess the impact.

Sensing that she had the advantage, Ash charged forward once more to close the distance between them. She was determined to win, knowing that anything else would mean that Kabuto would be facing both villains at once. She wouldn’t allow that to happen. Roy, Casimir, Mizu: they were all counting on her to play her part in this fight, and she knew that she’d never allow herself to fail them. No matter how many times she had to get back up, Ash would never stop as long as her friends were standing behind her!
And then, she caught a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye.

Moving with a swiftness that defied the powerful weight of his body, Skysword’s functional arm lashed out and clasped itself onto Ash’s fist. Stopping the mutant mid-swing, the villain had completed his reassessment of the situation. While his orders were to keep the heroes alive, achieving victory was still his leading prerogative. And Ashen Moth was beginning to threaten that goal.

Ash blinked in surprise at the strength that Skysword had mustered to so easily catch her punch, but she refused to be deterred as she tried to swing another of her arms instead. The blow wasn’t given the chance to connect however, as Skysword suddenly pulled the mutant forward and slammed her own fist into her face. The blow knocked Ash off-balance and sent a flash of stars bursting into her vision, though the robot was far from finished with her. Stepping forward, Skysword rocketed one of his knees into the girl’s belly, immediately chasing the air from her lungs as she keeled over with a gasp. Stumbling backwards, Ash tried to put some distance between her and her opponent in order to regroup.

“You fought well, Ashen Moth. But this fight is proving to be detrimental to my objectives.” Coughing as she struggled to gasp for air, Ash was unable to respond as the robot approached her menacingly. “I apologise in advance, for what must come next.”

Ash’s eyes shot open as she suddenly felt a surge of pain through the side of her torso. Crying out as Skysword plunged his fingers into her shoulder injury as he used his two arms to lift her off the ground, she felt as if her strength was suddenly all leaving her at once. Holding the mutant above his head, Skysword noted how her struggling seemed to have rapidly weakened, before he turned to hurl her through rows of shelves towards the back of the store. Nearly unconscious already, Ash made no effort to slow or even break her fall as her limp body tore through the aisles and plummeted to the ground below.

Stepping up to the edge of the storefront Skysword’s optical sensor zoomed in on the motionless body that lay weakly in the distance. Monitoring the figure for a few moments, he eventually appeared satisfied with his work before he turned back to the remaining heroes.

Yoshiro Nakama
October 26: Mission Night

---

Meeting Viviana’s gaze, Yoshiro nodded firmly towards her. “Right! Let’s finish this and go help the others.” She knew that she was being overconfident, but she also knew that acknowledging the gnawing doubts that were plaguing her chest wouldn’t have done them any good. They had to win this, and that was that. Turning back towards Buckshot as she recovered from Viv’s attack, Yoshiro was pleased to see a look of frustration flash across the other woman’s features. It was maybe only a sentimental achievement, but she still felt a surge of triumph as they managed to get under the villain’s skin.

Both Yoshi and Viv rushed forward together, leaping towards their opponent with their fists raised as they each launched a flurry of attacks. Despite her cybernetic enhancements, Buckshot was forced onto the defensive by the pair of aggressors, and their close proximity meant that she couldn’t bring her shotgun to bear against them. The tight quarters also meant that she could have retaliated against their attacks with her own enhanced strength, but the two heroes refused to give her any such opening. Yoshiro would launch a series of rapidfire blows, none landing with enough force to severely hamper the cyborg, but still managing to slide past her defences as the hero preempted her movements, and together they would knock her off-balance. And then, she would take a step back to retreat while Viviana would dart in to take advantage of the opening she left, rubberbanding blow after blow into the cyborg’s figure with such force that she felt the impacts even through her metallic limb.

Grimacing at the pair’s onslaught, Buckshot increasingly felt her frustrations bubbling to the surface as she wasn’t given even a moment to launch her own counter-attack. Furious at being hounded and herded by the heroes, she threw caution to the wind and silently released a guttural cry as she swung her shotgun round towards Yoshiro’s head. The movement provided the girl with the opening that she’d been waiting for, and the telepath ducked under the slower strike before stepping well into arm’s reach from her opponent. Buckshot’s eyes widened in surprise, confused by the action that left Yoshi so exposed. Then she felt the other girl’s hand press into her forehead. In an instant, the whole world went black for the both of them.

Opening her eyes to find herself standing in the middle of a howling maelstrom, Yoshiro struggled to maintain her footing in the midst of the screaming winds. Looking around, she found that she was standing in the middle of a small apartment that was being torn asunder by the elements. Flashes of lightning and the crashing of thunder echoed through the menacingly darkened skies, but even they struggled to be heard over the winds that seemed to be ripping entire buildings apart in the distance. Grimacing as she remained on edge, Yoshiro tried to control her breathing. She would only have one shot at...whatever it was that she was hoping to do. She just had to focus on pushing back against Buckshot’s mind, even as it resisted, keeping up the pressure until it gave in to her will. Glancing around her immediate surroundings, Yoshiro froze as she realised that she wasn’t alone in the apartment.

Standing in front of her, a young girl was clutching a piece of furniture with her one good arm, struggling to fight against the force of the winds. Her frightened tears were being whipped away by the horrific storm, her short brown hair tearing against her face as the winds seemed determined to lift her from her feet and pull her into the abyss. Turning to glance towards the intruder in her mindscape, the girl cried out to Yoshi as she struggled against the devastation around her.

“Please, stop it!” She pleaded, her grip slipping even as she spoke between sobs. “It hurts!”

Hearing the young girl’s voice, hoarse from her tears, Yoshiro was frozen in place. Her eyes were wide as she watched the small figure struggling in desperation, knowing from the child’s aura that she was speaking truthfully. I’m...I’m really hurting her, aren’t I? Yoshiro thought, looking out across the cityscape in Buckshot’s mind as the winds tore another tower apart. This wasn’t what she’d wanted...this wasn’t how it was supposed to work, was it? Yoshi’s mouth opened and closed, struggling to find words that she could use to explain herself. She had to do this in order to win. How else were they supposed to defeat Buckshot?

The telepath felt overwhelmed, doubt creeping into her mind as she looked down to meet the pair of bright blue eyes that looked up to her in desperation. It was then that her heart skipped a beat, seeing the young girl for what she was: scared and alone, being hurt and attacked within the safest place she knew even as it was torn apart around her. Her shoulders slumping, Yoshiro had to tear her eyes away.

“I’m sorry.”

And then the world snapped to black once more.

---

Her eyes fluttering open as she felt a dry taste in her mouth, a growing headache from her effort to invade her opponent’s mind, Yoshiro was totally unprepared when Buckshot’s fist slammed into her chin. The uppercut sent a jolt of pain to the telepath’s brain, but she wasn’t allowed to escape as the cyborg grabbed onto the cuff of her costume. Scowling in fury at the heroine, the villain forcefully pulled a dazed Yoshiro into a headbutt that caused her face to explode with pain. Next, Buckshot’s grip shifted to her opponent’s neck. With a brutal ease, the cyborg lifted the Young Blood into the air as she clamped down on her windpipe.

Helplessly trying to peel the metal fingers from her throat, Yoshiro gasped for air as a trail of blood dripped down her face from where she’d been struck. One of her eyes was already swelling up to the point of being blinded, and the lack of oxygen was causing the telepath’s vision to gradually fade even further. Sneering at the other girl, Buckshot’s earlier playfulness had evaporated, with a cold callousness coming to replace it.

“W-wait…” Yoshi tried to stammer, although she couldn’t force the word from her throat. Instead of responding in kind, Buckshot simply maintained her grip until the other girl’s struggles slowed, and ceased. Her arms and legs falling limp as she slipped into unconsciousness, Yoshiro’s mental connection between her squadmates simply blinked out of existence. The hero continued to dangle in the villain’s grip for a moment before Buckshot simply tossed her aside, a murderous glare in her eyes as she offered her remaining opponent a twisted smirk.

The Amazing Ashen Moth!
Wonder Tower

---

Ash looked at her friend with concerned surprise, confusion muddling her features as she tried to process Mika’s instructions. Shifting, she wondered if she might have misheard or misunderstood some kind of joke.

“I was not aware that the eating of the heads was an option.” She admitted, slightly off put by the thought. She focused her attention on the screen, trying to keep her mind focused on the pair of boys that were being presented to her. But despite her best efforts to try and concentrate on the choice at hand, Mika’s earlier words continued to creep into her thoughts. Biting her lip, Ash put the handheld down as she turned to look at her friend.

“I am not a monster, Mika.” She said forcefully, a hint of anger having crept into her voice as she studied the other girl’s expression. “I...I do not want to eat peoples’ heads.”

It was obvious that Mika’s words had struck a sore spot, and memories of the riot crept into Ash’s head. She remembered the feeling of biting through the boy’s finger, with her body simply reacting to the threats around it. She hadn’t felt like she was fully in control at the time, and seeing it on the screen during the interview, and watching how everyone had gasped and reacted, she knew how she had looked in their eyes. And then, Ash blinked as she registered her friend’s surprise at her reaction. She offered Mika an apologetic smile.

“I am sorry, I understand that you did not mean to be mean.” She explained, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head with a free hand. Hoping that she hadn’t derailed the sleepover so quickly, Ash turned back to the game. “We will go with the James Dean, yes? He sounds very friendly, and it will be different to how you normally play.”

[Galnius]

Mika, her room

Jan apparently had decided that now was the time for humility. He can't teach, he doesn't know it that well, blah blah blah. Bullshit. It was complete and utter bullshit. Hell, he had even tuned the guitar....with his mind! Did he think she was blind? She could see the knobs moving on their own.

Mika sighed loudly. Her brow raised as strummed the now perfectly tuned strings, still adamant about having no clue what he was doing. Meanwhile Mika, who had dreamed about rocking out with her favourite bands, didn't even know when they were at the right spot. Well, if Jan was going to act oh so modest, then Mika had to pull out all the stops. She had to go fully against her very being, and do something that broke her very moral code. She would have to....use her manners.

"Look, just teach me a few chords. Or that song you were playing. Playing the guitar has always seemed kinda awesome, but I could never care enough to learn it. Now you're here, and you know how, clearly, obviously. So...please? I never say please. I'm please'ing right now. Could you teach me something, just this once?"

---

Mika, Wonder Tower

Ash's reaction to her earlier comment about eating heads made Mika feel all...bad inside. Was this guilt? Actual guilt, not being forced to feel like you've done something wrong guilt? What the hell was happening to her. This didn't happen before.

"I'm....sorry, Ash. Look I....I didn't mean it like that. It was stupid to say and..." Mika ran her hand through her hair and collected herself. "I know you aren't a monster. The head thing was dumb of me to say. Let's just...get to the game, yeah?"

Mika hoped to divert the conversation, and waCo rewarded with Ash announcing that she was, indeed, going for the arrogant tough guy choice. Conversation diverted, crisis averted. Captain, the mission is go.

"Okay, before you start though, you've gotta know one very important thing. From what I know, from my years of experience, you need to test the waters a bit. But you'll find a guy you like pretty quickly. At least, you will. It usually takes me a while. So, what you've gotta do is simple. Once you find the guy, you hang out with him. A lot. It's what you do in real life too. Then, you tell your guy you love him. But be careful, if you do it too early you'll get rejected, too late and you'll never get to say it, and if you do that too often no one will believe you, and you'll eventually end up with a kid no one wants that would do anything to get rid of you. Trust me, you've gotta be careful with it. Though from what I can tell this Kabuto guy is your choice, so now you just need to time it right. And that's what I'm here to teach."

[Tomia]

Roy
Roy's first thought after seeing Ash tossed across the room was to go help her, but he saw Mizu coming out of hiding to help her. That allowed him to focus on the two villains who were still staring him down. Skysword charged him once more, damaged but not fatally so. The machine jumped into the air about five feet away from Roy and prepared a vertical strike mid air. Roy dived forward underneath his opponent and they both landed at the same time, their weapons striking simultaneously as they turned to face each other. Roy spun left avoiding another strike as he threw his staff like a spear into Skysword's mechanical face. His foe recoiled and Roy recovered the weapon in that moment pushing Skysword back with consecutive blows. Roy's momentum was interrupted however by a BANG on his right side.

He turned to see Lady Hawk smirking as she reloaded. It was clear she was not going to let his fight with Skysword go interrupted. The moment he had gained was lost and Skysword set upon him with extreme speed. Roy barely had time to raise his staff in response and it was clear that this time his opponent was going to try a different approach. Skysword planted his sword into the crowd and vaulted himself forward into the Young Blood leader. His kicks slipped past the staff and nailed Roy in the chest, sending him flying backwards onto the ground. Roy just barely managed to roll to his right to avoid an overhead strike and flipped over before grabbing Skysword by the side and lifting him into the air with great effort that cause extreme pain due to his injuries. Still he managed to toss Skysword aside, getting rid of the advantage the swordsman once had. Roy approached the downed robot and placed his foot on its throat.

"That's enough of that." Lady Hawk said, cocking her gun and pointing it over at Cas.

"You step back and surrender now, or I put your friend here in the morgue." She told him, a very serious look in her eyes.

Roy froze, contemplating his next move. If he surrendered they would be at the mercy of these criminals, but if he didn't risked his squad mates and friends dying on his watch. He couldn't do that, he wasn't going to sacrifice them like that. He reluctantly lifted his foot off Skysword's neck and lifted his hands in the air.

"If you hurt him I'll kill you myself." Roy threatened darkly.

Lady Hawk smirked, "Whatever you say, Nightshade."

Hannah
"Before we have any of this team talk, not only are introductions in order, but also I want a better explanation before we go any further." She said before nodding at Vince's words. "He's right anyway, I'd say that was too chaotic to be called teamwork. Then again I'm used to fighting alone so I wouldn't really know." She told their strange collection of people. "Anyways if this is what being on this 'team' is going to be like, I'm not sure I'm super eager for a repeat."

Angelica, October 8th
Angelica was in the gym, doing her usual workout routine when Casimir and Icarus showed up. She was wearing tights and an athletic tan top as she worked on her cardio. She stopped working out and got a drink of water as she turned to see the visitors. Her eyes narrowed at Icarus who just recently was at the center of a fiasco that led to Yoshi being embarrassed.

"Hey Casimir, what is he doing here?" She asked, looking pointedly at Icarus.

[Finland SSR]

“Ash!”

Mizu burst from the depths of the sports shop, running among the rows of shelves towards the impact zone. Having escaped the battle in fear before, she cast an illusion on herself to leave herself completely imperceptible to the villain party, so she had no worry with screaming her heart out as she ran.

“Oh my god, uh...” the girl called out as soon as she stopped by Ash’s body. Immediately, she snapped at Sky Sword and his teammates to cover up Ash with her illusion and make sure neither of them pay unwanted attention to her - then, she began pulling at Ash’s shoulder.

“A-are you okay? Are you... well, I’d rather not ask if you’re alive, that’s not a very good omen, uh...”

Lacking anything else to go by, Mizu pulled Ash’s body over her shoulder to try to start carrying her - as strenuous as another person on her back would be. Her Lunarian body wasn’t fit for labor this hard.

“I am okay...” Ash half mumbled in response, her voice hoarse and quiet as she tried to help Mizu lift her off of the ground. The pain had subsided, despite the appearance of her injuries. Instead, the mutant felt a cold, numb chill spreading throughout her limbs, touching her muscles with weakness wherever it spread. It was a surreal feeling, an overwhelming fatigue that made the hard ground look like the most welcoming bed. Hearing her voice, as weak as it was, got Mizu to release a sigh of relief. The worst thing that could have happened was avoided, so now they just need to get out of here and make sure nobody else dies.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe,” the purple-haired girl whispered. “Well, not yet, I suppose... but we’re gonna get out of here, I promise.”

Focusing on her own breathing, Ash narrowed her gaze as she concentrated on keeping her heavy eyelids from snuffing out her sight. “I can still help, I know I can.” She had to pause after speaking, taking a few deep breaths as she was surprised by how much energy simply talking took from her. Scowling with determination, the mutant forced herself to continue. “Heroes never give up, and everyone is depending on...” Another quick breath. “...depending on me.”

Ignoring the complaints from her body, Ash used Mizu to prop herself up onto her own two legs. Looking back to the shop entrance and the ongoing brawl outside, she felt a hand of fear creeping into her chest. Not fear for herself, but fear for what would happen if she didn’t get back in time. If she failed, what would happen to the others? What would happen to Kabuto? Shifting her weight from her friend to her own two legs, Ash took a defiant step forward only to let out a pained yelp as a jolt of pain shot up her leg. The limb gave out from under her, and she would have fallen back onto the ground if Mizu hadn’t acted quickly to catch her.

Shaking her head as her vision increasingly began to swim, it was all that Ash could do to simply cling to Mizu with what strength she had left. With a growing sense of desperation, she turned to look towards her friend. “I...I have to help...Mizu.” Tears were starting to well up in Ash’s eyes, her consciousness slipping away as her eyelids slowly fell shut. “I...have to tell Kabuto that I...love...” Finishing the sentence was so difficult. It felt like she was climbing a mountain. But Mizu said that it was important, and what if she didn’t have another chance? “That I love...” It was no use, even as Ash tried to repeat herself in her dazed state, Mizu felt her full weight fall onto her body as her eyes fell shut. “Mizu...I am very tired.”

Mizu stared back at Ash for a few seconds, then stopped the two of them, lifted Ash up by one of her arms to make sure she doesn’t fall or bring the girl down with her, and yelled:

“Ash, stay with me, just for a few more minutes!” She wasn’t even sure how to respond to what Ash had been saying. Was she even conscious at this point? Or is this the same principle behind which some people mutter incomprehensible things while sleeping? Sure, she knew that Ash had been clingy towards Casimir for the entire time she’s known the two of them, but if she meant what she’s saying now, then it’s a league and a two beyond that.. What Mizu did know, however, was that you can’t let yourself fall asleep when you’re in a critical state.

“Listen, the best way we can help everyone is if we stay out of their reach,” the purple-haired girl continued. “It would break Kabuto’s heart a lot more if you ran back in and died, wouldn’t it? And if we get out of here, we’ll be able to train up, grow stronger, and get back in here to beat ‘em up easy peasy, right?” Trying to dissuade the somber mood somewhat, Mizu tried flashing a smile to reassure her teammate.

Ash grimaced as Mizu yelled in her ear, her words sounding muddled through her fatigue, but she tried to follow along with her friend’s words anyway. Even if she wanted nothing more than to lie down, it would have been rude of her to try and sleep when her friend was trying to say something. But despite her best efforts, the mutant struggled to keep up with what felt like Mizu’s rapidfire pace. She was saying that they had to stay focused on their training so that they could get stronger, and so that they could defeat the villains that were attacking Kabuto. I...I had something that I needed to say to him, didn’t I? Ash’s brow furrowed in confusion, concerned at how difficult she was finding it to recall something that felt like it should have been super important.

Whatever it was, she was sure it could wait. Mizu was right, if she didn’t get stronger and prove herself as a hero, it would break Kabuto’s heart. Blinking away her fatigue, Ash offered the other girl a weak smile. “Yes, you are right.” Doing her best to shuffle along with Mizu as she supported her weight, Ash hardly even noticed that she couldn’t move one of her arms at all. “I am sure that the others will be okay, yes? Until we are strong enough to help, I mean.”

Mizu stopped short of answering at first and took a glance towards the ongoing battle. Now that Ash was down, Roy and Casimir had to deal with the entire villain party all by themselves - and as much trust as she held in her teammates, she... could tell it was a losing fight for them. But when Ash was asking for reassurances, she couldn’t just go and explain how low their chances could be, right?

“I promise, the others will be okay,” she replied and began making her way out of the sports shop, with Ash in tow. “Just please stay awake...”

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 3rd

---

---

---

Megan chuckled as the other members of their team of demon slayers spoke, chuckling at the nickname that Vince the grenade launcher man used to refer to Jan. He does look somewhat delicate, I suppose. She thought, an amused smile on her face. Hearing the man point out that they hadn't exactly worked together as well as Jan claimed, the hooded girl put a finger to her chin. "Well, I would say in a sense we did work together nicely, didn't we? After all, we would've been overrun if we went in alone, and if we succeeded it was only because you two distracted the edgelord over there while Hannah dealt with the fire things and I chopped up horny." She said casually, accentuating her words with a light shrug and a smile.

"That said, I didn't really do much with angel boy over there. I mostly worked with Hannah, I think we did a good job." She said, giving the tall, toned blonde a thumbs up. However, it didn't seem like she was very content with the job they had done that night, saying that she wanted introductions and some explanations before continuing, and that she wasn't sure if she wanted to play again, as it were. This made Megan raise an eyebrow.

"Wait, so you're telling me you decided to listen to a boy with angel wings, follow his magic map that he made from a feather and start pulverizing demons left and right without knowing what you were getting into?" She asked with a very amused grin on her face, her eyes scrutinizing the athletic girl's expression. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but for someone who's already at this stage, that sort of thing seems trivial. I'd be more interested in why there were demons at the nuclear plant, if anything." She remarked.

"But, who am I to refuse a girl's request? I can at least introduce myself. Megan Salem, humble hairdresser." She said with a bow and a flourish of her cloak.

---

October 8th

---

---

---

Icarus rolled his eyes as Casimir expressed his enthusiasm for wrecking the soon to be renewed Wonder Tower gym. Waiting for him to get up, the blond boy followed once the bug themed hero began leading the way towards the gym, and while a part of him anticipated the coming battle and the rush of adrenaline that would inevitably come with it - he was already thinking back to what he knew of Casimir's fighting style and what he could do to counter it - another wandered as he looked at all the identical doors that lined the walls of Wonder Tower's hallways. One of them could very well be Renata's, and the youngest of the LA Stars couldn't help but wonder how she might be. After not seeing her either today or yesterday at the gala and after hearing what he'd heard, the urge grew inside of him to check on her, to knock on those doors to see if she was behind any. Perhaps after this sparring match he should cut the visit short to go check on her.

Yes, that sounds like a good plan. Shouldn't take too long to beat Casimir up regardless.

Arriving at the gym, Icarus looked around with curiosity. It wasn't quite the state-of-the-art facility that was the gym the LA Stars frequented, with a myriad machines catering to the various superpowers of its members, but that didn't mean it was to be understated - it was certainly well-equipped for a team that had only been around for a couple months at most, which just went to show how much support they had from their many sponsors since day one.

The place was not empty - besides Casimir and himself, there was a toned blonde girl working out inside the gym. It took the blond boy a moment to recognize her, as her current attire, while arguably suiting her better, was a far cry from the fancy dress she had worn to the previous night's gala, but either way he soon realized it was Frost Bite, Quake's daughter. What he didn't understand was why she narrowed her eyes at him and harshly asked Casimir about his presence here. Not wanting to cause trouble, Icarus quickly raised his hands in a conciliatory manner.

"I'm just here on a visit, I'm friends with Casimir and decided to drop by since I was in town. Didn't think it would cause any trouble." He sid.

[Absolon-7]

---

---

Casimir Herman October 8th

---

Casimir was leading Icarus into the tower's gym when Angelica called out to them with her tone morphing quite bitterly once Icarus was alluded to. Casimir blinked for a few seconds confused at the hostility towards his friend but shrugged it off. She wasn't trying to freeze them so it couldn't be that bad of a problem they had. Casimir stuck one hand into his pockets while having his other grab onto Icarus' shoulder.

"My pal here's just here for a visit to the tower," said Casimir patting Icarus shoulder a few times after he exclaimed his lack of ill intentions, "Relax Angie. Icarus here is as a cool a guy can get."

---

Casimir Herman October 26th

---

Casimir stood there staring into the wild eyes of the feathered behemoth before him with the blood rushing through him and his war drum of a heartbeat he had drowned out any noise in the mall. He had his body turned to the side with his broken arm hidden behind, limply hanging like a bloody rag. His other hand was pointed fist forward at Butcher Bird as the giant werebird twitched its head a few times and blinked its dead yellow eyes. The moonlight that seeped in through vast skylights and windows of the mall shined down a drape of light upon them as if they were encircled by ring of darkness. Casimir drowned out the pain coursing through his body his mind as it was replaced by burning hatred eating away at his reason and clarity.

"All your body, all your bones, all your flesh, all of your blood, I will beat it all out of you," challenged Casimir as he retracted his arm to a clenched fist, "I'm going to beat you into the earth's core. Then I'm going to beat the rest of your dumb gang. THEN I'm going to beat you again for every single injury my team has. AND THEN I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU AGAIN CAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT!"

"Cool," cawed Butcher Bird.

"FUCK YOU!" shouted Casimir as he leapt forward to spin kick Butcher Bird's head.

The birdman took the hit directly but easily flicked him away with a jerk of his neck sending Casimir sliding away once he landed on the ground boots first. Casimir repeated the action running around and jumping forward to kick Butcher Bird from several different directions but the giant werebird shook them all away quite easily as if he was nothing more then a pesky gnat. With a battlecry escaping out his lungs, at full throttle Casimir once again ran towards Butcher Bird to spin kick him but he suddenly retracted his kick and rolled over Butcher Bird's hunchback and landed behind him. Casimir then swung his missile-like fist towards the werebird’s raised ankle. A violent crunch emanated from the attack that made the werebird flap away squawking in pain. Casimir then shot a strand of webbing at the flying foe and pulled on the webbing with his immense might.

The werebird was pulled downwards suddenly losing its altitude before Casimir jumped upwards and crashed his knee into Butcher Bird's forehead. He then grabbed a handful of feathers from the scruff of the villain's neck and spun the villain downwards right as they crashed into the ground. After a loud crash onto the hard tiles Casimir began a relentless whaling on the beaked face with his arm. Butcher Bird however suddenly jerked his wings which threw Casimir off him which allowed the villain to turn around to punch him dead on. Casimir didn't even process what happened afterward as he suddenly found himself deeply embedded into a large support column all the way across from where they were fighting.

Casimir’s thoughts raced back to beating Butcher Bird bloody. He clenched his teeth and tried pushing himself out of the column but his body felt weak. This wasn’t possible! He wasn’t weak in the slightest. He was strong and one day every villain would fear his might. And yet he could barely move. This concrete pillar felt like a chrysalis but instead of protection it felt like a coffin.

Casimir threw himself out of the hole his body had made in the column and found himself unable to breath or think. It was if his entire world was expanding at light speed but crunching in on itself at the exact same time. A sharp ringing filled his ears like the full blast of a jet engine. So much was his world falling apart that he failed to notice Butcher Bird landing right in front of him attempting to speak to him but Casimir failed to hear it. Instead he shot his arm forward and shoved his arm into the open beak of the werebird. He grasped onto the tongue and spun the werebird high into the air before slamming the massive body into the ground breaking the floor into a deep crater. Butcher Bird however swiped at him with his massive talons but Casimir dodged them and jumped away.

Butcher Bird lunged for him but Casimir reached upwards to grab onto Butcher Bird's head and yanked him downwards. He threw his head back before slamming it down like a hammer onto Butcher Bird's head. The colossal headbutt created a shockwave around them as they both staggered backwards. Butcher Bird reached upwards to touch his face and a streak of blood seeped out his forehead. Meanwhile Casimir looked on at him huffing out deep pained breaths but flashed a grin at the end.

"This fight is just beginning you bastard!" shouted Casimir before he slammed his foot on the ground to dislodge a large tile. He then kicked it up high into the sky to shatter a skylight's glass which signaled the arrival of a giant swarm of flying insects. The swarm coiled downwards and it dive bombed Butcher Bird letting loose their surprising cargo. Each insect was holding as many fire ants as they could and the cloud of insects let loose a shower of red debris that swarmed all over Butcher Bird. They could do nothing to his skin thanks to his sheer durability but Casimir ordered them all to go for his eyes and nostrils. The order was enough of a distraction to let Casimir rush forward and unleash a devastating punch into Butcher Bird's gut which made the werebird fall to his knees. The villain screeched at Casimir before sending a meteor-like punch right at Casimir.

Casimir caught it with his good arm and the floor beneath him collapsed as he was buried knee deep into the ground as the punch's force crushed him. Casimir suddenly dropped below the large arm and rocketed forward to deliver another punch into Butcher Bird's stomach. The werebird squawked out in pain before raising both arms up and slamming them onto Casimir's back, crushing him into the floor in an impact that created a bombardment of cement all around them. Butcher Bird stepped back to look at the hero before turning around to fly away. However, his take off was interrupted by a chunk of debris hitting his back. He turned around to see the bruised and battered Casimir shakily standing up his face and hair matted with dry blood.

It was if the world was being consumed by darkness every second through his eyes. He couldn’t lose now as the stakes were far too high for defeat. Every single bone in his body was screaming to move forward and strike down the villain. He dared to take another step forward and onward to glory he’d go. Every single fight he'd been in, every single time he got hurt, every single time he made someone he loved sad by getting hurt. It was meant for this where he'd rise up and beyond anyone's expectations. Their stupid expectations of what they thought he should be. But he knew better then them all of what he could do. He had a bonfire within greater than any other man. He had no equals among anyone because he was none other than the Great Kabuto.

"I didn't hear no bell, bitch," he huffed out staggering forward before abruptly stopping.

Butcher Bird scoffed at the remark before jumping right back towards Casimir to deliver a one last blow but when he arrived he noticed Casimir's eyes blankly staring into the distance. Butcher Bird poked him and finally Casimir fell to the floor in a ruined mess. The faintest of breaths could be heard from him but Butcher Bird paid no mind to it.

"He passed out standing up?" questioned Butcher Bird before snorting out blood, "Disappointing."

He flapped his wings and the werebird flew off into the mall having defeated the Great Kabuto.

---

Viviana Couture October 26th

---

Viviana gulped in nervousness as Buckshot finished off Yoshi with fear piercing her heart once their plan failed miserably. Yoshi getting choked out happened so quick she could barely muster any idea of what to do next. She morphed her hands into giant maces and sent them flying towards Buckshot. The cyborg was clocked across the jaw from one mace but they were quick to grab onto the next one. She clenched it in her metallic arm before yanking Viviana forward like a yo-yo. Viviana was punched in the face by the silver fist of the woman and slammed into the ground but luckily for her she deflated her head and squirmed it out of the floor to roll away from Buckshot.

"Still got your arm little lady," mocked Buckshot waving Viviana's arm.

Viviana scowled at the cyborg before sending out a kick to Buckshot's shin which was easily raised up to avoid the attack. She tried stomping down on it but the leg snaked its way up hers and coiled all around it. Viviana was hopping on one leg when she suddenly turned and twisted herself around her other leg as fast a top bringing Buckshot along for a ride. The cyborg ended up letting go of her arm and was sent flying to into the metal gate in front of a closed restaurant close to them. Viviana didn't stop her assault and coiled up her arms before releasing them to whip Buckshot every which way in rapid fire succession.

The cyborg shielded herself with her metallic arms and got to her feet while squatting low to the ground. Using her might she then rocketed towards Viviana to clothesline Viviana across the neck and slam her into the floor. She grinned and took out an ice grenade and crushed it her hand coating her fist in the cryogenic solvent. He hurled her fist downward and slammed it into Viviana's stomach before picking her up by the hair painfully and throwing her towards Yoshi's unconscious body. Viviana whimpered in pain before looking up to see Buckshot stomping towards them. A deep fear filled up her heart and she just wanted to go back to the Tower and hang out with Casi or goof around with Mizu and Alexis or literally anything else. She just wanted this to stop. Her eyes wandered to the unconscious and battered esper next to her and she felt an urge to at least stay for her. Yoshi had risked herself when she was comprised twice already. Viviana moved herself to get on top of Yoshiro and hoped she'd be enough of a shield for her friend.

"Aw is the little piggy trying to protect her wittle friend. How cute," spat Buckshot.

"I...I give up! I don't want to fight you anymore!" cried out Viviana her voice breaking into a cry cut short at the end, "Just don't hurt us anymore..."

"Womp womp. Heroes lose today it seems," snickered Buckshot before prodding her in the side with her boot which illicited a whimper.

Buckshot herself would swagger onward to help her own teammates once her foes were down for the count.

[New Neros]

---

---

---

Ava Waldstein

The heroine choked back a bit as Mika casually showed a power, "Oh man," She laughed, covering her lips a bit as she was in the middle of chewing down the remnants of her food. "How brave you are to reveal your powers so casually! What about your secret identity?" She teased, "But for real though, that dress looks pretty fuckin' cool. I mean, you can try on as many as you want, right? That way you can get the perfect one. Or like, have a sword whenever you wanted." Before transforming the conversation entirely about powers, Ava continued on the earlier thread with Mika's hair as she seemed interested in their thoughts and opinions.

"I think you'll look nice in longer hair, as long the extensions are like, realistic, you know?" Ava flipped her hair and smirked, "I'm too well-known for rocking the lesbian pixie cut. I look like Violet from the Incredibles when I grew out my hair. Keep it tight and interesting, though! Wear a dress short enough that you feel like a slut if you try to pick anything up off the ground. Those are always hot." She declared, wiping some drool from the corner of her mouth.

Without warning, Ash abruptly slammed her hand on the table, nearly shouting as she spoke, "BUT!" She hollered, "Let's just hang out on Halloween and see where then night takes us. We can drift to a party or grab some candy, just, er, have fun, you know?" She slinked back in her chair, a bit embarrassed for causing a quick commotion. "I just like hanging out with you guys wherever we're at." She said blushing and looking away, feeling a sense of love for her friends. But, that exterior emotion did not betray her inner thoughts, which worked the wheels at uncovering Mika's powers and what she could do with pictures. She mentioned objects, but not people. And if the things she pulls out are real, or some copy that decays over time. Ava was very keen on finding out, but differing to Astrid's chastisement of Ash, she wouldn't press the issue until much later.

However, this also opened the door to her other friend, Astrid. Her response felt calculated, like she too had thoughts and ideas about Mika's powers. Three of the four in the friends' group having powers seemed a bit... unlikely, at this point. Ash was a given, Ava was a superheroine with a semi-secret identity, but she took no precaution to hide it or her powers. It took no genius to figure out Cosmic's sidekick was the same frame and build as Ava, but Mika had no prior indication of her abilities. She flashed a quick stare to Astrid, thinking several trains of thought on how she could coax that answer out later. She snapped back to normal as her friends spoke, though.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 24th

---

---

After saying her piece, however brief, Astrid leaned back on her seat and continued listening to her friends chatter excitedly about Halloween, only to find herself unable to suppress a short-lived bout of laughter as she bore witness to not one, but two of Ava's outbursts, the first regarding her love of short skirts and tight outfits, and the second regarding her love of her friends. The half-French girl shot her a playful look, wondering if the two things might not share a common origin. She knew better after all their conversations, of course, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to bring it up.

"I did not have you pegged for such a passionate girl lover, Ava." Astrid spoke with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile on her face. "Perhaps the reason you hang out with us so much is not the result of a sincere friendship? Hmm?" She teased the other girl, with little seriousness behind her words.

"As far as outfits go, I'll confess I'm not a big fan of short and tight." She continued, figuring she might as well offer her own opinion on the matter. "I like clothes that show off my figure without necessarily showing off my skin, they make me feel attractive and more elegant." She stated, a smirk appearing on her face. "Plus, the anticipation makes boys go crazy when they only get a small taste of what' coming." She said with a wink towards Ava.

"And yeah, let's just see what happens when we're there, the best times are had when there's no plans involved. I'm not much of a party girl, but I'm sure any night spent with you girls will be plenty interesting." She said sincerely. "So it's official then? Girls night out on Halloween?"

---

October 26th

---

---

Angelica's mental confirmation was all that Alexis needed to commit to her current plan. Running past her girlfriend, she saw the wall of ice that the frosty heroine had formed to cover her retreat. Behind it, Ice Pick grunted with annoyance, using his power to open a path through the wall, only to see a large, pissed off pink mech armor running straight towards him. Gulping, the supervillain used his powers to close the wall once more in a vain attempt to protect himself, but in response Alexis simply lifted her armor off the ground and rocketed forward aided by her armor's energy wings. With such momentum, Oberon plowed right through the ice and slammed shoulder-first into a very surprised Ice Pick.

Seeing the flash of an explosion in the corner of her eye, Alexis smirked. Angelica was doing a good job holding her own against those robots as well, it seemed, so now it fell to her to deal with Ice Pick so that they could begin turning this fight around. Holding a hand to his battered chest, which now had cracks running across it. He opened his mouth to curse, but no sound came out, and then placed both hands against the ground, summoning a massive wave of ice spikes growing from the ground and advancing straight towards Alexis, the spikes reaching a height even taller than Oberon itself was. However, the blonde girl was not intimidated and did not move away. Instead she and her armor stood impassible in the face of danger, refusing to back down. Ice Pick chose not to think much of it - if she didn't move away, she'd be frozen over. Either way, another enemy down.

But that's not what happened at all. The ice spikes slammed into Oberon's chest, arms and legs, breaking against the force-field that surrounded its metal shell, but shortly after the machine was covered in a thick, sturdy layer of ice that would've been more than enough to stop most superhumans.

A moment later, the ice cracked and then shattered, and Oberon's arms, morphing into cannons, were pointed forward. Blue energy built up within them before an energy beam shot forward, smashing through all of the ice and eventually reaching an incredulous Ice Pick, who could only shield himself with what ice he could to cushion the impact as the beam slammed into him and sent him straight into a wall, creating a small crater around him quite like the one that had been created when Buckshot had kicked her into a wall during their previous battle with this mysterious group of villains.

Attempting to get out of this crater and protect himself against the overpowering foe that was the pink mech, Ice Pick covered the cracked wall in ice and slipped right out, only to find himself at the feet of an annoyed five feet even blonde in an eight feet even armor.

"Wait-" Ice Pick pleaded while raising his hand, only to notice with shock that his words did manage to come out. Raising an eyebrow, Alexis nonetheless decided that leaving him awake was more trouble than it was worth.

"I don't think you showed mercy to my friends, don't expect any from me." She said before decking him in the face, hard enough to knock him unconscious.

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

Should she be diving for cover by this point? Out of absolutely nowhere, a blast of heat began to radiate from Renata's location at the opposite end of the living room, accompanied with what looked like bolts of...some type of energy, all of it arcing and twitching around her skin like a cartoon villain. Except, this wasn't a cartoon, this was real life, and she was watching her teammate have a breakdown right in front of her eyes, with nothing she could do to stop it. Sure, the pink-haired girl wasn't looking directly at Whitney, but she didn't trust those bolts to have the same level of focus. A few weeks ago, she had been watching this girl on TV shoot lasers out of her goddamn hands at the NASL Tournament, and now, there was a solid chance her face would be on the receiving end of those shots. She knew she had let Renata down, but what was she supposed to do, pull an idea of how to save the team out of her ass? Why was she being punished for something she had no control over, that she was powerless to stop? She had barely spoken to a single person on this team before joining three weeks ago, and now, she was expected to be the one with the plan to save the group, and take the blame and guilt for doing nothing if her non-existent plan failed and got everyone inside the mall killed?

No, she was overreacting. Nobody had died yet. One look at the screen showed heart and breathing rates that proved that everyone was still clinging on, even if in some cases, it was as good as a few fingertips on the edge of a cliff. Plenty of people were still up and at 'em, continuing to fight off whatever active threat was brewing inside of that shopping mall. Maybe they had just gotten into a bad scrape, ran into a threat that had briefly overwhelmed them. A small roadblock, one that Nightshade or Makeshift or Bael could easily throw, teleport, and blast aside, and keep on driving right through. But what if they couldn't? What if the team had finally bitten off more than they could chew? She wasn't just being cynical, she could tell the fame was getting to the heads of some of her new teammates. Half of them hadn't even bothered to show up to that 6:00 AM practice session. True, they were entitled to get a little swollen in the head, anybody would, and they certainly weren't the first, last, or worst case of it. But the last time a group of young heroes from San Diego had gotten a little too egotistical, things had gone...awry, to put it mildly, and who knew if the same forces were still hungry for blood.

The tension in the air was suffocating, causing Whitney to tug at the already-loose collar of her sweatshirt as she warily eyed Renata's lit-up form with a growing amount of panic. She was petrified, unable to stand up, run away, shield herself, even make a single noise besides some baby-like stammers, and she stayed that way until Renata suddenly seemed to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. Whitney gave out her own deep sigh as she did so, shoulders slumping over and fists finally unclenching as a wave of relief passed over her. She had pressed hard enough with her nails to leave a series of red welts in her palms, but it didn't stop her from clutching her face and chin in embarrassment as Renata tried to tell her to "keep her chin up". Heh, right. Keep her chin up. Easy for her to say it. It wasn't like she was the useless one. Ugh, everything was just a mess right now, even more than it usually was. She felt so frail, so weak, not just mentally, but physically too. She needed water, her throat and mouth were bone-dry by this point. The crappy coffee had only been able to keep the exhaustion at bay for a short while, overwhelming her with a tired feeling that only grew worse as she cast another side-eye at the laptop screen.

Casimir was down for the count, his vitals had fallen to the same level as Red's. Same with Ash, the weird, oddly fashionable moth-girl that kept sneaking through the halls at night with a lamp in her arms. So had Yoshi, a girl Whitney had barely exchanged so much as a word towards. Viviana was fairing a little better, but still didn't look great. Squad 3 had been torn apart, Squad 1 was bursting at the seams, and even Squad 2 was starting to crack and splinter. She should've been terrified, or panicked, just like she had been thirty seconds prior, but all she could do was sigh in resignation as she gently closed the laptop, picking it up with a slightly shaking hand and setting it onto the desk's surface. From the way Renata looked away, it was clear that she wasn't exactly eager to watch her close friends get pummeled in real time, and honestly, neither was Whitney. The pinkhead had chosen to vent instead, something about preventing Bael from dying of hypothermia, and getting herself locked up in the living room for being "stupid" and "selfish". Truth be told, she had no idea why the heroine wasn't out there getting pummeled in the same damn mall as everyone else. She must have done something really shitty, from the way Alexis constantly shot her glares about as warm and friendly as her girlfriend's powers, but she had never really bothered to ask one of the few Young Bloods he had actually had a full conversation with in between labwork sessions. It had always felt rude. Although, there really was no better time to ask than now. Maybe if she asked nicely enough, it would take Renata's mind off of her teammates dropping like poisoned flies, even if just for a little bit.

"How exactly di-" she started, only to be cut off as an itch in her throat caused her to break off into a fit of coughing, pulling up one arm to muffle her hacking and another arm to put up in a gesture of 'hold on for one second'. After a few agonizing seconds, she was finally able to swallow the cough back, pulling a wadded up tissue out of her pocket to press to her lips before speaking again. "How erm...how exactly did you get yourself 'locked up'? I-It's fine if you don't want to tell me or anything, but uh, if you don't mind...?" she asked, shifting her weight from side to side as she waited for her answer. Her eyes wouldn't meet Renata's, out of fear that she would set off another few bolts of energy, and ones that probably wouldn't miss her this time around.

[Finland SSR]

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Maybe she should just go. Like, right now. Have a shower, or go to the gym and start blasting things until she starts feeling better. Every second she stays in the living room, doesn't matter if she's looking at the laptop screen or not, was taking a serious toll on her and she couldn't ignore it. And it clearly wasn't like she was able to head out and try to change things herself, either, so...

Whitney then brought up the thing she had just blabbered about, asking if Renata could explain it in more detail. For a second, the girl stared back at her peer, unsure how to respond.

"-oh, you weren't around at that time, right. Makes sense you'd ask," she finally broke the silence and sighed, staring off to the side as she placed her hands on her hips. She could tell that her brief show of visible rage was enough to leave Whitney seriously frightened - the girl stopped looking at Renata face to face and her stance on the sofa was clearly a lot more withdrawn, so Renata chose to not agitate her teammate any further.

"I... well... um, uh..." the girl tried to find the best way to begin. "The team was on a mission a bit less than a month ago. I got into a fight with the main bad guy, he's a real big shot, and apparently has a history with Roy too... So I wanted to take him out myself, threw myself at him, and when Mars flew in to try to help me out, I blasted him to have him get out of the way. And, uh... that's not a good thing to do, y'know. Well, not at all. So Naja suspended me, it means that I'm not able to participate in any missions for a whole month, and if I go out of line and violate the rules I'll be kicked out."

Renata finally waved her hands in the air. "...None of us thought this would happen while I'm out."

---

Mika, her room

Jan Sorok, the champion of Heaven!

---

That's... not what I meant... And yet, Mika was insistent that he can teach her how to play the guitar. He meant that he didn't know how to teach this to someone, not that he doesn't want to... But now that the idea got brought up, the girl wasn't going to drop it until he finally gives in, does he? Jan took a sigh, then picked up his guitar in preparation.

"Alright..." he muttered, taking a breath to concentrate. "But I only promise to try." This might take a while.

"Now, to start off, you should ... "

---

Vince and Zayda

Hannah

October 3rd

---

Jan Sorok, the champion of Heaven!

---

Of course, Jan's thought wasn't universally welcome. Vince and Zayda were rather sceptical towards the whole affair, Hannah wanted nothing to do with it anymore - at least Megan was as enthusiastic as always, so that was a bit relieving... Jan struck a frown and folded his arms.

"Well, of course I don't mean that we're as good as actual superhero teams, not yet at least," the Virgil replied to both of their concerns. "But, you know, it's just like Megan said - you're all a group of people I found and got to help me out with no preparation whatsoever - and yet we not only did not fall apart completely, we managed to team up against actual villains and defeat them without any outside help. That's... honestly a really good start. I don't know how superhero teams form, but I doubt they start on any better footing..."

The team was starting to introduce themselves to one another, too. Was that not a perfect sign of a soon to be longstanding friendship? "I guess I don't really need to say anything, I've introduced myself to everyone already... My name is Jan, though, if someone forgot."

[Galnius]

Andrew, El Cajon

"Good questions. Luckily I came with answers."

Jackrabbit pulled out video footage of the security cameras, sped up drastically. They paused and highlighted certain people going in. However, there seemed to be no footage at all in the clips of anyone leaving.

"The warehouse manager, the police, and the people in charge of security all basically told me the same thing. The people we saw going in never left. From any exit. It's possible that they all avoided the cameras, but still rather unlikely. The police also put up missing person reports. People don't just disappear into thin air. Not this many from one place."

Pocketing his phone that had doubled as the video display, he looked to the door. "The main issue I have is simple. I don't know what's in there, or what's causing it. No one seems to. When we go in there be easy for anything."

---

Mika, Losers Table

You got me Ava. I'm secretly Kiris. Can't you tell by the curvaceous figure and pink hair?" Cracking a grin, Mika listened to the other girl's rambling. It seemed everyone was on board with halloween, and Mika gave herself a mental pat on the back. She was getting really good at this whole friends thing. She even helped set up a hangout. It was so easy she wondered why she hadn't tried it sooner.

Soon though, conversation turned to something Mika honestly couldn't give a damn about. Clothes. Sure, she loved costumes and could cosplay with the best of 'em, but there was just a tediousness to 'fashion' that put her off.

"Yeah I'm not really a...skirt girl. And I don't have much of a figure, so Astrid's way doesn't really work out either. I kinda just throw on jeans and a sweatshirt. Besides, clothes shopping is so dull. I'd fall asleep after the first ten minutes."

Finishing her lunch, she looked to the others. "Girls Night on Halloween sounds awesome. Ash, we need to pick you out something to show off. Now the real question is....school party or party on our own? I've got the room and the booze at my place if I can convince my mom to leave, which really isn't that hard. I get what i want for the most part."

[Tomia]

Angelica, Wonder Tower
"Well it doesn't seem like you think about the consequences of your actions a lot then." Angelica shot back before she heard Casimir vouch for him. Not wanting to start a fight amongst her team she merely shrugged in response.

"Fine, do whatever you want. Just stay out of my way while I work out." She told him as she headed back towards her nearby corner of the gym and picked up a jump rope. As she returned to exercising she considered that she might have been being a bit too harsh, but still her friend had been pretty upset the night before and Angelica couldn't just forget that. Either way he'd be gone soon enough so it wasn't like it would matter. She then pushed the thought from her mind and tried to focus on her workout while pretending the others weren't there.

Hannah
"Alright, well hey there... Megan... the head dresser." She said, a little taken a back at how casually she talked about this whole situation.

"Look, I didnt exactly expect to be fighting demons at a power planet. If I'm being honest I didn't really think he was telling the truth when he spoke to me." She said before turning to Jan, "you keep throwing around the term superhero, but I'm just a boxer who can now punch really hard. I'm not Captain Quake or Reactor for christ's sake." She told the short man who would seemingly be their leader. The whole thing just seemed so bizarre to her, and seeing others act so calmly about it made the situation even stranger.

Angelica, Warhound Fight
Angelica's fight against the second mech continued and she found herself confident she could deal with this next robot, but how many more would they be? This horde seemed endless and she didn't know how long she could keep things up. But her friends were in danger, Alexis was in danger. She couldn't fail. She'd keep fighting until she couldn't anymore, she didn't have a choice. With that thought in mind she charged forward towards the nearest robot. The six armed machine roared to life as it charged forward, four of its arms moving down upon Angelica at high speeds. Angelica saw this coming and deftly slide underneath the attack, sliding through her opponent's robotic legs. While on the ground she gripped the right leg of her opponent and froze it solid. The machine tried to turn around to face her but soon realized its foot was obstructed. As its lower two arms worked furiously to chop apart the ice, Frostbite got to her feet and formed a razor sharp ice pic in her hands as she charged towards her foe. Just as the machine managed to carve its foot out Angelica sliced at it with deadly precision. The ice cute through the metal, and the foot went flying as oil splattered onto the ground. The robot hobbled for a few moments before falling onto the ground and ice formed around Angelica's foot as she kicked its head clean off.

As the mech continued to squirm around headless Angelica turned and noticed the woman sitting with headphones at a nearby table. She was the one blocking communications and if she was taken care of then they would be able to speak freely once more. She didn't seem to be paying much attention to Angelica and that played to her advantage. Angelica stepped forward, careful to avoid the robot as she didn't know if Aiode could hear her or not.

Soon she was about twenty feet from the table and now Aiode had seem to take notice of Angelica's presence, but it was too late. Frostbite send a wave of ice straight towards the table, which went flying against the back wall of the food court. Aiode looked visibly alarmed as she managed to jump off the table just in time. Angelica barely had time to even approach her before a portal opened up and she disappeared from sight.

That damn portal maker... Angelica thought, but she barely had time to contemplate the situation before she hear the cocking of a shotgun.

"Ready for another beatdown?" Buckshot asked with a cocky grin. Angelica clenched her fists, a thin layer of ice covering them now.

"Bring it."

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

"Jesus, that's...that's brutal." Whitney said in amazement, daring to peek up at Renata's face as the shorter girl spoke. Really, it was all she could say, and all that she really needed to. The idea of the fragile, vulnerable-looking girl standing before her shooting her own teammate in the back was difficult at best to imagine. For that matter, the idea of any Young Blood shooting their own teammate in the back was difficult to imagine. They were supposed to be the dream team, the group that dared to storm down town hall and burn Warwolf's forces (and credibility) down to the ground for the sake of one teammate. It probably would've been way easier to leave that alien girl to sit tight in custody until Warwolf eventually let her go in a few months, maybe drum up some good PR in the meantime to distract the public from the whole scandal, but instead, they bit back and drove Warwolf right out of San Diego to go lick their wounds, all for their teammate. They always had perfect chemistry, moved like one mind, one body, they were...they were...unbreakable. At least, unbreakable on the surface. Were they all the type to stab each other in the back when the cameras were off, or was Renata just the lone wolf? Probably the latter, if it was a regular occurrence, then Naja wouldn't have benched her for an entire month. Maybe she was the first.

Either way, the thought didn't exactly do much to stifle Whitney's shock, awe, and newfound apprehension at the tale. She could feel her jaw practically hanging open with surprise, a realization that almost immediately caused her to face to flush over and her eyes to peer back down in embarrassment, leaning back down into the couch. What the hell was she doing, gawking at her like some exhibit at the zoo? The poor girl probably had enough people doing that as it was, she didn't need yet another pair of raised eyebrows and looks of fear headed in her direction. Hell, she probably hated every moment of this conversation, judging by the way she wouldn't even look at Whitney, her hands on her hips as if she had someplace better to go. She probably did have somewhere better to go, somewhere where she wasn't constantly reminded of the fact that her teammates were getting beaten hard enough to squeeze their shit out of their spinal cords. Was it impossible for her to hold a regular, ordinary, normal conversation without constantly pissing everyone off, or staring at them like a massive perv? Bottle after bottle of Prozac and an armored-bank-truck of wasted money down the drain, and she was still a nervous wreck everywhere she went.

All she wanted to do was curl into a ball and wait for the couch to turn into a black void and swallow her whole. Or the floor, whichever came first. It was the middle of fall, and the Tower was likely already climate-controlled to the nearest tenth of a degree, but her face felt like it was on fire, the stuffiness enough to make her increasingly light head spin a bit. She couldn't find a comfortable position to sit in, so she kept shifting around, rubbing her hands up and down her forearms when she wasn't busy fidgeting with them in her lap. Her jaw felt a little tight and her teeth ached, she was probably clenching and grinding them down. Better than giving into her usual nervous tic; biting her own nails. She needed to get up, and she needed to find fresh air, or she would break down right then and there, all for Renata to see. The window. There was a window on the side wall of the living room, a huge, long one too. Things would be better if she just cracked it open, had a smoke, got some fresh air. She didn't care if the "sub-optimal air circulation" or whatever pissed the robo-butler off, she was opening that damn pane of glass.

With a long sigh, Whitney slowly stood up from the couch, giving her jeans a quick pat-down before stiffly making her way over to the window, her hands making a beeline for the latches at the bottom. They practically glided open, and so did the hinges as she pushed the window up, a cool, friendly blast of air striking her face in response. Robo-Butler must have oiled the hinges on her daily rounds. Not that she minded, the faster that she could get a clear breath in, the better. And what a clear breath it was. Almost immediately, she could feel the heat draining away from her cheeks, the breathe starting to fill her lungs again. By the time she had lit up another cigarette from the pack in her right pant pocket, all of the tension had disappeared from her body, leaving her more relaxed than she had been since the moment she had first entered the living room. Of course, everything had gone to shit five seconds later, but that was far from the first thing on her mind at the moment. Pinkie Pie almost slipped out along with it. It took her a second to remember the Latina girl behind her, turning around to face her with one elbow still propped up on the windowsill and another holding the pack out at arm's length, offering a silent invitation to take one. Of course, there was a 90% chance that she didn't smoke, and if she was being perfectly honest, she'd prefer if Renata didn't have a chance to notice her panicking and freaking out like an idiot, but it would be rude not to at least ask.

"So..." she croaked at last, coughing slightly as she attempted to break the silence that had begun to stretch on between the two. "Did you, like, win? The main, bad guy, did you end up beating him?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 26th

---

After making sure that Ice Pick was down for the count, Alexis looked back to survey the flow of battle, though her expectations were grimly realistic. Even without quite being able to look at her teammates while fighting against the frost villain, she had kept an eye on the vitals of her teammates, present on the periphery of her vision thanks to her heads-up display, and the results weren't encouraging. However, she wasn't quite aware of how bad her squad had it until she saw Yoshiro unconscious on the floor and Viviana over her, as if attempting to shield her, while Angelica faced off against Buckshot all by herself. Though she and her girlfriend had done quite well in trimming their numbers by dealing with Ice Pick and several Automata robots, it seemed that they were down to only half their members, and Alexis gritted her teeth at the realization.

Even after all this, we're fighting a losing fight, huh?

The thought worried her greatly. She hadn't heard from the other squads due to the radio silence that Aoide had imposed on them, but a quick look at the other squads' vitals told her that the others weren't faring so well either, with squad 3 - or at least the sole two members that had rushed into the mall - clearly out for the count. I need to finish up here and help the others, we can't lose here! She told herself, the thought carrying a clear sense of urgency as she continued surveying the battlefield. The white-haired girl who silenced the team was gone, which explained why she and Ice Pick had been able to talk, and why she once more felt the hum of the background instead of a complete sound void. Buckshot was still there and clearly still more than ready to fight, and while more Automata drones existing wasn't out of the question, she didn't see any of them at the moment, which gave her hope.

If they're all down for the count, then there's only shotgun girl left. If I help Angelica take her down, we can still turn around this fight!

With that singular goal in mind, the genius girl ordered her towering mech to begin sprinting towards Buckshot. The woman didn't seem to have any abilities other than her combat prowess, her physical strength and that shotgun of hers, so Alexis was certain that, if she got the chance, then Oberon would be able to overpower her easily. It was just a matter of getting close enough to take her down while Angelica distracted her...

But of course, it wasn't going to be that easy, not by a long shot. Before she could advance to where the blonde heroine and the villainous brunette were duking it out, a six-armed metallic shape landed in front of her, and then another, and then two more. Four in total, each armed with their bladed shields, standing in her way. Where the fuck do they keep coming from?! She wondered in frustration, sick of having to fight them off at every turn. They spread out to surround her, with one of them charging straight towards her, but instead of trying to back away and analyze the situation, Alexis activated Oberon's wings and charged forward. Before the robot could swerve out of the way or do something else to dodge the attack, a large hand clasped its head and violently crushed it, slamming the rest of the body into the ground afterwards and crushing its chest.

"Get out of my way already you glorified tin cans!" The blonde girl shouted in anger. The remaining three robots approached her from different angles and used their razor sharp blades to unleash a coordinated flurry of slashes upon her, causing no harm but quickly draining her shields, causing their power to dip under half of its normal capacity. It didn't matter however - as soon as she turned around the robots tried to disperse, but despite their agility, a blue blast of energy quickly punched through one of them, and then there were only two left. As they closed in to attack once more, she withdrew one of her blades from her back and deftly sliced through the one approaching from her left flank, leaving only one robot remaining.

The last automaton fought very cautiously, almost as if it feared for its life, though such a thing was impossible. It carefully evaded her attacks and slashed at her shields only when the risk was minimal, but in the end it too was caught, and in her fury Alexis tore it apart limb from limb, starting with its leg, continuing with its six arms and finishing with the head before tossing what remained aside. Despite such grievous damage, the torso did not explode, technically still able to function, though now it had no way to cause harm.

Alexis took in a deep breath. Though the stakes were high, she couldn't help feeling thrilled at her success in fighting Automata. Those robots were clearly sophisticated, created by someone with funding and resources, and even so Oberon had managed to tear through them with blast, sword and bare hand alike as though they were made of tissue paper. It was a great stroke to her ego, and she allowed herself only a second to bask in it.

Wait... what's that?

Looking up, the blonde girl noticed a small object flying through the mall, close to the ceiling. It appeared to be a small drone with a camera lens, and as she stared at it, she noticed a few other such objects flying around nearby. Wait, how many of those are there? Have they been here all along?

Unfortunately, those questions would go unanswered as more pressing matters presented themselves. Right in front of her, a razor thin black portal opened up and out of it stepped three people. The first was Aoide, back after briefly escaping from Angelica. The second was a man dressed in a sharp suit whose body seemed to be made out of corporeal darkness, the one behind the portals. And the third was a teenage girl, barely older than Alexis herself, with short hair dyed purple and a few matching clothes, devoid of armor or weapons of any sort.

"Were you looking for me?" Aoide asked with a carefree smile on her face, spreading her arms. "Here I am now. Come get me."

[Tomia]

Angelica, Warhounds Fight
Buckshot smirked as Frostbite confidently responded to her challenge. Angelica heard the distinct sound of her shotgun loading as the cybernetic fighter prepared to fire off another round of her powerful incendiary bullets. This time the hero was far more prepared for the attack than she had been before. Frostbite raised a massive wall of ice in front of her, much thicker than when she had fought Buckshot earlier. The bullet slammed into the wall which eroded heavily but managed to remain standing.

"So you're jacked up on ice or something? Won't matter, your daddy ain't here to protect you girl." Buckshot taunted.

That clearly angered Frostbite who rolled away from her barely standing wall and sent a speeding streak of ice across the floor towards her foe. "Shut up! You don't know anything about me!"

Buckshot fired her second bullet at the ice speeding towards her and managed to slow it down just enough to dodge. As she reloaded she chuckled at Frostbite's reply.

"You rich girls are all the same. Your daddy didn't pay attention to you, wah-wah-wah. There's nothing special or tragic about you snowflake, not yet at least."

"SHUT UP!" Angelica was steaming with anger now as she sent another huge blast of ice towards Buckshot. This one was in the air and frost started to form on Buckshot's legs. The criminal didn't look particularly phased however as Frostbite approached and grabbed her by the collar.

"Girly throwing a tantrum? Looks like I hit a nerve." She said before an icy fist slammed into her face. Buckshot seemed unphased by the attack. "You're pathetic, a wanna be who is just acting out to piss off old dad. You're just as selfish as he is."

Angelica roared in anger at that. "SHUT UP! YOU'RE JUST A MONSTER THAT HURT MY FRIENDS! I'LL KILL YOU!" She shouted, slamming her fist over and into Buckshot's face. She didn't stop there however as she used her ice to lift Buckshot into the air and slamming her into the ground.

"Heh, and they call you a hero. Welp, that's about to change." Buckshot said before seeing Frostbite preparing to freeze her to the ground. "Not so fast, that shit isn't going to work on me again." The mercenary quickly swept her right leg and knocked Angelica onto the ground. As the hero stumbled back to her feet Buckshot had enough time to grab a spherical object that was previously resting on her belt.

She grabbed Angelica before pressing a red button that suddenly began beeping.

"Let's see how you like this ice bitch." Buckshot said as Angelica frantically starting growing as much ice around her as she could to protect herself from the coming blast. She only had a few seconds but she made as thick of a wall as she could between her and Buckshot.

Then the explosion happened.

The blast covered about a thirty feet radius, and sent Angelica and her ice flying backwards. The ice had luckily largely protected her but she slammed on the ground hard from the fall and she felt a searing pain on her right arm. She tried to force herself to her feet, but exhaustion was setting in and she found she couldn't move a muscle. A few seconds later she heard footsteps approaching, it was Buckshot standing over her with a grin. However Buckshot was not unscathed by the attack. In fact a good deal of her skin had been burned off, however it was clear her cybernetics were already working furiously to heal her body.

"Here's the difference between you and me hero, you think you're tough but you're really just a scared little girl. I know I'm tough, and I don't need to play dress up to prove it." With that Buckshot walked off whistling a tune while Angelica struggled in vain to rise to her feet.

[Finland SSR]

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Yet again, an uneasy silence set in the room. Whitney just commented about the brutality of the event and closed shut, staring at her peer, while Renata simply stood in the middle of the room. Unsure if she should just leave and go to her room, or continue talking with Wendy, the girl ended up choosing neither. Eventually, Whitney stood up from her seat and made her way to the window - there, she cracked it open and pulled out her cigarettes, smoking one and then another.

To relieve tension, presumably. Renata's heard those things work for some. And then give lung cancer. But at least you're relaxed while at it.

Maybe that's why Whitney turned around to raise the pack forward, offering Renata to have one too. The pink-haired girl blinked for a second, considering her options, then walked forward to pull a cigarette out. As she fidgeted with it between her fingertips, she listened to her teammate's question, and let out a frustrated sigh in response.

"No..." she muttered, defeated. "I-I mean, we had him on the ropes. For a bit. Then he just kinda... broke from our grip and ran away. Chances are that's not the last we've seen of Ares, either, given that he's clearly invested in taking down our team... If our team survives tonight, of course."

Renata shook her head to shoo the unwelcome thought away, and retreated her focus to the cigarette instead. The girl held it up to eyes height, fiddling with it in her fingertips, before she finally spoke:

"I... don't really know how these things work. You're supposed to, like, light it on fire on one end and suck on the other, right? Does it matter which side I light up or is either side fine?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Third of Fire
Day 6 of Green Light

---

Kirisvala's eyes opened, slowly, narrowing in reaction to the sunlight streaming in from the wide open windows before adjusting and fully opening, taking in the sight of half of her bed and half of her room, exactly as she had left it the previous night before crying herself to sleep, only bathed in golden light.

Unlike the previous morning, or the previous night, the young sorceress did not feel overcome with emotion, overwhelmed by sadness or rage. All of those things always applied a pressure, had a certain... presence, that made them unmistakable, and were all-encompassing, like a cloud around her mind that took away her clarity. Today, however, she felt no such things. Gone was the fog, the cloud, the noxious haze, but it was not replaced by a sunny brightness or a sweet, bubbling delight. There was only a weariness left, a certain exhaustion, an absence of energy, whether positive or negative. There was no fire nor pit nor infection, just the sensation of how heavy her body felt around her and the feeling of not knowing what to do anymore.

She continued blankly staring ahead for some time, not fully aware of its passing, her gaze fixed on the window and her mind remaining in stunned silence until finally, it began to roam. When was the last time she felt that way? Had she ever? The thought ignited a spark of curiosity, but a brief trip through her memories revealed no such thing. She had never experienced a whirlwind of emotions like the one from the previous night before, never had so much pent up inside of her. Despite the recent turns it had taken and the events that drove her to run away from Adai, she hadn't thought of her life as particularly tragic in the past. Though sheltered, she had always been somewhat aware of her good fortune - she knew that the children of Toraven and other villages went on hunts with their elders out of necessity, not sport, and she knew that their homes were not as large, or as warm, or as lavish. She knew less of the city as she had rarely ventured, but she was sure the same was true of them.

And even when she willingly chose to leave all of that behind, rather than find herself on her own in a strange land, a strange world, she was found by a kind couple that, despite owing her nothing, decided to aid her and shelter her until she knew what she wanted to do - until she found her calling.

It was not a bad life by any means, and she wondered if she even had a right to resent what had happened recently. People died, that was one of the few truths in the world. Her mother, and her grandfather, and likely their parents before them had died, why was her father going to be any different? It seemed so obvious now, but if she had realized it before, perhaps she would have agreed to come back. Perhaps she could have offered her father comfort, closure, forgiveness. But she hadn't. Now it was her who had to apologize, and there was no one to apologize to.

She discarded the thought. She didn't have the energy to feel sorry for herself or anyone else at the moment, and she had already accepted, at least she liked to think she did, that he was gone and would not come back. They would not meet again... at least not in this life, and Kiris wasn't sure if she was looking forward to the next. She was in no rush to get there of course, but that aside, would he have forgiven her when she arrived? Would he resent her for leaving him alone in his last moments? It was a somber question, one that made her feel uneasy.

Instead of spending any longer thinking about that, she allowed her mind to continue roaming freely. The question of whether she had ever felt anything this peculiar was still on her mind, and she recalled her grandfather's funeral. Watcher Zanatar had been one imposing Hadrian, moreso than both of his sons, Telthalos and Teltesser. In fact, she was pretty sure he was the one Seris had inherited her size from, as she was taller than even her father. The old man was not quite as tall as Torvalt, who belonged to the towering Lokiva, the mighty clan of warrior-poets who dwelt in the lands near the Obsidian Sea; but he was quite imposing nonetheless, and had a greater presence whenever he walked into a room.

He also loved his family dearly, and in fact the memories that jumped to the front of her mind first were not of him giving out orders or intimidating unruly relatives, but of him giving her piggyback rides and reading her books. There weren't too many of those however, as he was often away on official business and ultimately passed away from old age when she was still but a child. Watching him burn away in the great pyre, she understood to some degree what was happening, but she did not feel the anger, or sadness, or... emptiness that she had felt yesterday and was feeling now.

That was the only other death in the family she remembered - her mother had died giving birth to her, so she wasn't there to see it.

She concluded that all of this was indeed new to her, and her mind quickly got to wandering once again, thinking about feelings that were new to her, or had been at some point, something that quickly took her away from somber thoughts and to happier ones. Among the memories that came to mind, one set stood out over the others, drowning them out. The first time she hugged Mars. The first time she kissed him. The first time she voiced the love she felt for him. All of those experiences carried with them new emotions. Unique. Wonderful. Basking in the fond reminiscence, she smiled.

Looking at the empty half of her bed, Kirisvala let her imagination run wild and envisioned a familiar face, his face, looking back at her as a rush of color tinted her cheeks. It wasn't the first time she did something like this, not in the slightest - what young girl hadn't at least once imagined herself meeting a strapping young man and living a happily ever after? But this time was different. This time she didn't imagine a dashing Hadrian knight, or a gallant prince. This time she envisioned her darling Mars. Only her Mars. Looking back at her with loving eyes and inviting lips.

The pink-haired girl giggled at the fantasy, and the sound seemed to inject the room with life. No longer did it seem so strange - why would it? It was her room after all. Feeling much more at ease than before, she rolled onto her back - as if rolling closer towards her love - then wiped some drool off the corner of her mouth and began humming to the tune of an old song traditionally sung by brides in ancient marriage ceremonies. Now and then she would laugh at the silliness of it, but even then she closed her eyes and continued to bask in her fantasy.

A sudden knock on the twin doors, however, startled her and caused her to snap out of her reverie. Looking upon her actions without the rose tint from before, she felt herself quickly become embarrassed, hastily covering herself with her blanket on impulse, even though she was wearing the dress from the previous night, not an immodest outfit by any means. Another knock on the doors let her know that her visitor hadn't left yet.

"Lady Kirisvala, are you awake?" Torvalt's stoic voice inquired from the other side.

"Yes, I'm awake! Come in!" Kiris replied without moving from the bed. Torvalt obliged and pushed the twin doors open before stepping in, taking care not to hit his head or his horns on the frame. Or the ceiling, for that matter.

"Lord Rannel invites you to breakfast. His study, in half an hour." The towering servant spoke laconically, unable to express the invitation in a more pompous manner due to the strain on his throat. Regardless, Kiris was surprised by the message, and wondered what her cousin might want. However, he had been very kind and supportive towards her since his arrival, so refusing his invitation would simply not do.

"Alright." The girl nodded. "Tell him I'll be there!"

---

After roughly thirty minutes had passed, Kirisvala stepped out of her chambers and began heading towards the Watcher's study, a room she had been quite well acquainted with in the past, but hadn't visited in a long time. After a short bath she had dressed herself with a light pink sundress that was among the clothes she had acquired on Earth, knowing that showing up in the same clothes she had worn last night was hardly the proper thing to do. Making her way through the hallways of the sprawling Ranwynn Hall, the young sorceress couldn't help but feel a creeping sense of anxiety, fearing any encounter with a relative or member of the household that wasn't one of the five she was on friendly terms with. However, as she advanced, she realized that things weren't as bad as she suspected. Of the few people she encountered, all were amicable, most expressed sympathy towards her and one or two even went as far as to express sorrow for not having done anything to support her during her uncle's reign.

Perhaps... I overreacted last night? She thought, recalling how she had thought everyone was glaring at her by the end of the night. Now that she was not overwhelmed by her emotions, she realized that that wasn't true. That was just her projecting her own feelings on them - when she conjured those memories and looked at them in an objective manner, she realized there was no hatred in their eyes. Perhaps I should stop being afraid of my own family, now that uncle is gone... She reasoned. Now that he was gone, letting him continue to have a negative impact on her life was just silly, wasn't it?

After walking for a few minutes through the winding halls, the pink-haired girl finally arrived at the Watcher's study. Outside the twin doors, which were remarkably larger than the ones leading to the bedrooms, Torvalt stood waiting. Upon her arrival, he offered her a nod, then promptly turned around and spread open the doors before stepping aside, allowing her to walk into the study. From what she could see, the room hadn't changed much since the last time she had been there, accompanying her father for a meeting with her grandfather: she could still see the same bookshelves, although the contents seemed to have changed, and the desk likewise remained the same even if the decor was now more in line with Rannel's tastes than Zanatar's. The computer terminal in the corner, which had always contrasted with the overall aesthetic of the hall, had been upgraded to a sleeker version as well.

Kiris didn't get any time to take in any more details about the room, however.

In the center of the room was a medium-sized circular table, generally reserved for private family reunions such as these or occasions when the Watcher needed to meet with or entertain foreign diplomats and the like. Around it were six chairs laid out. Four of them were empty, while one was occupied by Rannel himself and another by Seristella, who promptly turned around to look at Kirisvala as the girl walked into the room.

"Kir-" The redhead began, only to scowl as she was promptly cut short by a sudden interruption.

"Kiris!" Maya shouted as she practically tried to tackle the pink-haired girl, hugging her tightly.

"Good morning!" Naya promptly followed suit, nearly throwing Kiris off-balance, though she managed to quickly readjust her footing to avoid falling over, all while responding to the twins with a hug of her own.

"Is that dress from Earth?" Maya asked upon noticing her pink sundress.

"I want one too." Naya added afterwards.

"Maybe we can go shopping together if you come visit me on Earth sometime." Kiris said with an enthusiastic grin. The twins eagerly nodded in unison.

"It's always a treat to see you three get along so well." Rannel spoke up after chuckling at the sight of his sisters tackle-hugging his cousin. "Please, have a seat Kiris. We have much to discuss, but it would not be productive to do so on an empty stomach." He spoke, gesturing to the empty seat next to Seristella. He then turned to Torvalt. "You as well, Torvalt. In here you are a friend, not a servant."

Without speaking a word, Torvalt complied. Maya and Naya sat to the sides of Rannel, while Kiris took the seat she was indicated, directly across Rannel, though not without first giving her sister a good morning hug. Torvalt, meanwhile, sat on the sole remaining empty seat next to Kirisvala.

"How are you feeling, sis?" Seristella asked her sister. The hug as well as Kirisvala's overall cheerful disposition seemed to mean she felt better than yesterday, when she had rushed out of the feast by herself, only returning very late that night after most had gone to sleep. Asking wouldn't hurt, though.

"I'm feeling good, much better than yesterday." The pink-haired girl replied with a smile, giving her sister's arm a little squeeze that caused the redhead to smile as well. With that done, Kiris turned her attention to the food laid out in front of her. There was understandably less of it than there had been at the feast, but it looked every bit as scrumptious: roasted swimmers as the main dish, accompanied by stir fried mushrooms and vegetables, with sliced fruits available as well and a pitcher full of honey to pour on them if so desired. Six horns laid on small stands on the table were filled almost to the brim with spring water from a large jug located near the center of the table.

Feeling her appetite open up from taking in the scent of cooked food, Kiris wasted no time in grabbing a swimmer for herself and digging in, noticing with delight the strong taste and scent of the spices used in preparing it. The others all joined in on the feasting as well, though Torvalt ate remarkably little, and Rannel and Seristella seemed to prefer the mushrooms over the fish.

"So what did you want to talk about Ranny?" Kiris asked during a lull, after everyone seemed to have had their share of food.

"Well, you, for the most part." Rannel replied, prompting the girl to tilt her head in confusion. "Your sister has told me that you plan your stay to be brief, and that you intend to move back to Earth to live there for the foreseeable future. While I have no issue with this, as the head of the clan it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of all members of the clan, and keep a close eye on them, especially those under the age of seventeen." He paused briefly to let all of that sink in. "That means you of course, Kirisvala."

"What? Does that mean I can't go back until Wise Wind? That's almost five months away..." The young sorceress asked. Though her cousin's words were calm, they nonetheless frightened her, reminding her of the same sensation she had felt back when Riaran had threatened to hold her there against her will. She doubted Rannel would do something as awful as that, but even so...

"Not exactly, no." The young Watcher promptly replied. "It would reflect poorly on me if I let someone as young as you live in a place as far as Earth unsupervised, but I have no intention of keeping you here against your will - that would be an abuse of your trust and my authority." He stated very clearly, not wanting his cousin to panic. "You could leave today and I would not stop you. It would not make a significant difference regardless, you will be legally an adult in less than a third." The white-haired sovereign spoke before pausing briefly to take a sip of water. "However, if you were willing to do a favor for me, I think there is something that would benefit us both. Why don't you take the rite of the white rose?"

Kiris was visibly surprised by the proposal. She knew of the ceremony mentioned, of course, it was a rite of passage that members of aristocratic families - like her - traditionally went through on the year they turned seventeen - after the fact, that is. Rannel had gone through it, as well as Naya and Maya, and likely even Seristella herself, though Kiris had no idea how that would've worked, given that she turned seventeen while abroad.

"I don't get it." She admitted. "I'm too young for that, am I not?"

"The tradition is that only people who have turned seventeen can undergo the ceremony, yes, but the only rule written about it is that it must be on the same year the person turns seventeen, and if I recall correctly, for you that would be on the eighteenth day of this year's Wise Wind." Rannel replied. "I understand that it is a little unorthodox, but if you'll have to do it eventually, why not do it during your stay here? That way you will not have to come back this year or the next unless you want to, and we would all be here for you." He explained.

The logic was certainly sound, if she didn't do it now, she would have to do it before she turned eighteen anyway, and she likely would not be able to count on logistical or moral support from Rannel, Naya, Maya or Seris, given their frequent traveling. And yet... it was frowned upon for members of important families not to undergo the ceremony, yes, but would that mean a thing to her if she chose to live on Earth?

Kiris discarded those thoughts. She did not want to forsake her traditions just because of her uncle, even if she chose to live elsewhere.

There was one question left on her mind however. "Is this going to help you too, Ranny?"

The young man nodded. "Yes, it would be very helpful if you took the ceremony before heading back to Earth. A Watcher as young as I faces many hurdles, and there are undoubtedly many who would want to use you as evidence that I cannot properly see to my responsibilities, if you were to leave before coming of age or taking the ceremony." He explained calmly. "If at all possible, I would like to avoid that."

Kirisvala paused for a moment to take Rannel's words in. Any doubts she might've had were quickly dashed - she simply couldn't leave her cousin's unending kindness go unanswered after all, not when he had been supporting her since the day he arrived.

"Alright, I'll do it." She said with a resolute nod. "When is the next full match?" She asked, as she knew that the ceremony was to happen only on the day when both moons of Adai were full. Rannel glanced at a small calendar attached to the wall and paused for a moment, surprised.

"Oh." The Watcher mumbled. "Today is a full match, it seems."

"What?!" Kiris cried out in shock, standing up from her seat and nearly knocking over her horn. "But that means the next one is in three months! That's not much better than just waiting until my birthday!" She complained. It was true that she said she didn't know when she would be heading back to Earth, but spending that long away from the Young Bloods, away from Mars, it scared her a little.

"Kiris, calm down." Seristella spoke up, placing a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. "When you called me for help you said you were scared of hurting others, that you wanted to learn to control yourself and better channel your emotions, right?" The redhead asked, to which Kiris nodded weakly as she sat back down. "Why don't you take this time to improve yourself? It's only sixty days, give or take. I'm sure your friends won't forget you so quickly, and you can return to them more confident and in control of yourself, better prepared to fight alongside them."

"I guess..." The pink-haired girl said, uncertainty still plaguing her mind. "It's even more time than I spent in San Diego, though..."

"Don't worry about that." Seris replied, offering her a reassuring smile. "Bonds forged in fire are not so easily frayed." She said confidently.

"Okay..." Kiris nodded along, feeling a little better about the prospect of spending so long away from her team. "Just don't break my nose again."

Seristella sighed. "I promise I won't do that again, it was not my finest moment." She admitted. "But I know that martial training helped me better control my short temper, and I can try to impart some of that to you. Torvalt here can teach you a thing or two about meditation, as well. And you can keep practicing that magic you love so much, too. When you go back to Earth, you'll show those humans what a real heroine is like."

Kiris giggled, inwardly rolling her eyes at her sister's usual demeanor slipping through. "That sounds pretty good." She said, before turning back towards Rannel. "I'll do the rite of the white rose, Ranny. I don't want to do anything that might cause you trouble after everything you've done for me."

Rannel nodded. "I appreciate it, cousin." He said with a kindly smile. "Now then, there is one other matter I wanted to discuss while you're all here." He stated, looking in turn at her, at Seristella and at Torvalt as well, his gaze lingering on the latter. "Torvalt, you served Teltesser well during his life, but now that it has ended, the pledge you made is complete. You are no longer beholden to him or to this family, which begs the question, what will you do now?"

Torvalt said nothing for several moments, seemingly deep in thought, although it was hard to tell with how little his face betrayed his thoughts. "If it's at all possible..." He spoke, pausing briefly before continuing. "I would like to continue serving his daughters."

"Hmm. Well, I travel abroad quite often and the nature of my job doesn't really lend well to having a babysitter, I'm afraid." The redhead stated, before glancing at her sister. "How about you, Kiris? Want to have your very own moving muscle mountain?"

Kiris was clearly surprised by this, glancing between Seris and Torvalt. "Oh! Um, sure, I would be happy to have him with me!" She hastily replied after a moment of hesitation. "Would you like to come to Earth with me, Torvalt? It's not what you're used to, but it's a nice place and I have lots of friends there!"

Torvalt nodded in response, and the girl grinned. Satisfied, Rannel stood up.

"In that case, all of the issues I wished to discuss are now settled. Thank you all for coming."

And with that, everyone dispersed. The twins headed off to talk about their latest gossip, while Rannel remained in his study to take care of a few matters of his own, calling the servants so that they'd take away the empty dishes and leftovers. Torvalt walked off towards the forest to meditate, which left only the two daughters of Teltesser. As Seristella began heading back to her room to meditate, someone suddenly hugged her from behind.

"Hey Seris."

"Hey." The redhead replied, placing an arm around her younger sister. "What do you need?"

"Oh, well, I was thinking we didn't really get to talk much when you visited me at Wonder Island, and because of the business with father and well... my nose, we haven't talked much these days either. And before you visited me, I hadn't seen you in six years!" The pink-haired girl explained. "So I was wondering if you want to talk? I want to know what you've been up to." She said, looking up at her sister expectantly.

Seristella blinked, surprised at Kiris' request, but then chuckled. "So you want to hear about your big sister's exploits, hm? Well you are in for a treat! You're not the only one who has been going on adventures while living so far away from home, you know?" The redhead spoke in her usual proud, confident manner, affectionately ruffling her sister's hair. "Come on, let's go to my room. I'll tell you all about it."

Kiris grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay!"

---

Night had fallen upon Ranwynn Hall, and after a day spent talking to her sister and walking around the estate, a tired yet happy young Hadrian made her way back to her room, walking through the doors and closing them behind her before looking around. The first time she had walked into that room after a year away, she had felt like a stranger intruding upon someone else's domain, as if the girl that had lived here wasn't the girl that went to San Diego and became a heroine. But that wasn't true at all. They were one and the same, one of them had simply been in denial for a long time, and once that stopped, a heavy burden was lifted from her shoulders. Kirisvala, the daughter of Teltesser and scion of the Ranwynn clan, was the same person as Kirisvala, the heroine from another world who had helped found the Young Bloods. And that was fine.

Walking up to her bed, she ran a claw across the soft, velvety covers, pondering whether to sleep already or not. It had been a long day, but she wasn't too tired yet, and a quick glance at the window reminded her that today was the night of the full match, a night that took place only once every three months approximately. It would be a shame not to head outside and enjoy it at least briefly.

But with Rannel busy, Seristella meditating and Torvalt off trying to learn about what Earth was like, she had no one to hang out with outdoors.

Thinking of what to do, her eyes wandered to the shelves on the wall, and the girl walked over to them, ignoring the old, faded crystal figurines on them and focusing instead on the books. Despite the fact that she was quite young when she last set foot in here, she had accrued quite the collection, though she understandably hadn't read all of them - some were gifts from her father and other older members of the clan, meant to be read once she was older and had a greater understanding of things. I guess I fit the bill now, don't I? She thought as she plucked one of said books from its spot and looked at the cover. It was titled Intermediate Teachings of the Builders: Songs of Stone and Glass, and it featured a symbol composed of a flame within a diamond shape, itself contained in an eight-pointed star: the symbol of the enigmatic Builders, said to be the first Hadrians who learned how to weave crystals from their voices and the blessings of the Goddess.

Kiris frowned, her eyes wandering across the shelf, which was full of similar books. Lesser Teachings of the Builders. Principles of Song and Magic. Secrets of the Ruiners and the Dragon's Flame. All of them advanced tomes on spellsinging, and a few basic ones that she had read - and largely mastered - in the past. Seeing them again brought her memories of when she was still learning the basics. Her father would sit her on his lap and read to her various passages, explaining them as he went and showering her with affection and praise when she displayed that uncanny talent for magic that she'd had ever since she was a child, as if he was in wonder at her just as much as she was in wonder at his teachings and the magic he taught her. A small miracle, that's what he had called her, wasn't it?

She no longer felt bitterness towards the memory, and cracked a faint smile, though it was a short-lived one. Just like she realized earlier that the clan no longer looked upon her with scorn, that it was all in her head, she also realized that, over time, she had vilified her mental image of her father far more than he deserved. While she often thought of him as her uncle's right hand in causing her misery, now that she looked upon her memories with eyes devoid of hatred's red haze, she saw that his sin was only to act coldly towards her. Not once did he lay hand on her or insult her, and others dared not do so in his presence. Why then did she resent him so?

She sighed. It was no surprise, of course. To a child bereft of a mother's love and so accustomed to her father's, such a stark change was nothing short of wickedness. But now she knew better, she knew his motives and his burdens. She could forgive, but she knew not if she would be forgiven.

The girl turned the book of the Builders over in her hand one last time before setting it aside, not yet placing it back on its shelf. If she wanted to start honing and perfecting her magic, now was a perfect time to begin. Before that though, she glanced at the shelf just above the one full of arcane tomes. This one was instead stocked with fables, myths and legends written down by famed scholars, along with studies that dealt with the symbolism and meaning behind such legends, and a few others odds and ends. She knew most of them by heart, and smiled warmly as she looked at their spines, quickly recognizing them. Looking through them, she saw a book with a faded white spine, adorned with black, red and yellow swirls of color.

The cover read Serisaeda ad Landemel. Crystal Heart and the Black Forest. It was her favorite book as a child, and even now she fondly recalled many of its lines, its songs and verses, though the memory had faded somewhat. Perhaps now would be a good time to relive it?

Making up her mind, she grabbed it and the Songs of Stone and Glass and headed out of her room, closing the twin doors behind her and navigating the winding corridors of Ranwynn Hall until she found herself outdoors. The two moons, Nayathal and Nayaval, shone brightly on the skies above, showering the landscape in pristine white light. The cool, refreshing wind of the mountains blew on her, tousling her hair, though she realized that it would quickly become a problem if she didn't find herself a spot that was shielded from it. With that in mind, the girl began walking.

It was only a couple minutes until she found a rocky outcrop jutting out the side of the mountain, in just the perfect position to shield her from the wind. Making her way towards it, she set her books down for a moment in order to find a snug cranny to rest on. As she was doing so, however, a soft cry suddenly caught her attention, prompting her to turn around.

"Oh it's you!" Kiris' tone was happy as she reached out towards the azure howler, who promptly rubbed his head against her palm. "You're such a good boy! Come to keep me some company?" She spoke, receiving an enthusiastic yip in response. "That's great! I was going to do some reading, would you like me to read you my favorite story?" She asked the creature, and another short cry gave her the answer she wanted.

After a few moments, Kiris found herself resting with her back against the soft fur of a curled up azure howler, both of them comfortable under the stone and the moonlit sky. The young sorceress opened her book and began to read out loud.

"A long time ago, in the faraway realm of Landaman, known for its harsh winds, there lived a princess known as the Crystal Heart..."

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord

In hindsight, she wasn't exactly sure how to feel about her decision to invite Renata to share her smokes. On one hand, it meant that Whitney hadn't been out of line in offering up her smokes, and that, at the very least, the other girl didn't mind their little chat. On the other hand, judging by the way the pinkhead held the cigarette up to the light, as if it was some indecipherable enigma or mysterious piece of treasure, it was clear that she had never so much as touched one in her life, let alone put in her lips, and let well alone actually lighting one up. A slightly bemused expression began to form across her face at Renata's expense, but behind it, she couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of worry at the sight of it all. Whitney had known what she was getting into when she had started smoking, and still did. It was still under control, to the point where if she wanted to, she could clean out her drawers, drop her cigarettes in the toilet and flush it all away, never to smoke another again. It wasn't about whether she could stop or not, it was whether she wanted to stop or not, and for now, it was way easier to not want to stop. But would Renata be able to do the same? What if she wanted another one after this? And another one after that? What if she wanted tomorrow? Whitney had already hurt so many people, gotten so many people hooked, was it worth risking another weight on her conscience?

Maybe she was overreacting. It was just one cigarette, it wasn't like she was giving Renata heroin. There was a chance she wouldn't even like it. She needed to relax, maybe if she actually loosened up for once instead of acting like a stiff, paranoid bitch all of the time, talking to her wouldn't feel like pulling teeth. If Pinkie Pie didn't have a problem with it, why should she? Besides, she couldn't exactly pretend that Renata's obvious confusion at the finer points of smoking wasn't even a little funny. At the very least, it was funny enough to elicit a giggle from Whitney as she watched the shorter girl struggle with the concept of the little paper tube in her fingers.

"Usually the side with the logo goes in your mouth, although I guess it doesn't really matter." Whitney said with a shrug, eyeing Renata with a growing smirk. "Generally, most people advise that you light the end opposite to the one that you're sucking on, it's usually a lot less painful that way." she added dryly, offering another hand forward as she spoke. However, instead of a pack in her fist, the gift this time was her lighter, thumb flicking upwards with a sharp *click* to light a small, sparking flame at the end. Renata could grab the light and do it herself, or accept the help and let Whitney do it, she didn't really care either way.

[The Templar High Council]

Squad 5 VS Some Warhounds!

Meanwhile Mars found himself in a very dark room. He didn't realize where exactly he was until he was nearly blinded by a bright screen.

A loud action movie started to play and startled the teenager hero who ran off towards the exit. He made it to the lobby only to be confronted by Shock Troop and some strange woman who had fire balls resting menacingly on her finger tips.

"Sorry to interrupt your movie kid, but trust me we're far more entertaining."

---

As the team responded to the call, Aleta couldn’t help but feel the tension in the air. There were glances between the team leaders constantly, and he could tell there had been some sort of argument. From the way Roy was acting, he was obviously on edge, but that was hardly her business.

Or at least, it wouldn’t be until he moved the entire group in the front door of the mall. She started to object, “Are you sure we sho-” But the group moved on regardless, and she followed despite her apprehension.

When the boy came out, she didn’t drop her guard for a moment, looking in the corners of the mall for the people to spring their trap, but soon the boy began to transform, and the Young Bloods were sucked into a pit in the floor. When she opened her eyes again, she felt the ground, feeling something sticky and dirty on the floor. Lights flickered above her. Gunshots made her rise with a start, only to realize that she was in a theatre with an action movie playing. She made her way out of the room, and into the hallway, looking out onto the lobby, and Rocket was already engaging with two opponents.

They were exchanging banter while Aleta assessed the situation. I remember from the strategy session with Roy that that one has electrical powers, but he seemed kind of a push over, and judging by the way her fingers are lit up, I’m guessing that the lady has some sort of fire power? Paragon cursed and her plates immediately fell off her body onto the floor, clinking against the tile. She lifted her Team 5 communicator and spoke. “If I get hit by Firebug, my defenses are shot. Keep her busy and I can take care of Sparky.”

Not waiting for acknowledgement, she threw out a strand of Pitch at Shock Troop, connecting it to the wall behind her and then let the tension on the string pull him closer as she wound up a punch.

Shock Troop felt himself pulled forward and braced himself for the punch which he managed to block with his forearms. As the pitch suddenly pulled him back towards the wall he aimed an electrical blast at Aleta.

Zoe fell through the floor as everyone else did, landing squarely in a seat in the empty movie theater. As the rest of her squad recovered and made for the exit, she bolted up from her seat, nearly slipping on a patch of abandoned snacks as she slid onto the stairs and joined the fight.

She hit the lobby just as Aleta was going on the offensive, hearing her callout over the comms. “On it! Other way around for you, Rocket?” Zoe charged out of the theater towards the flaming woman, looking to draw attention for someone else to land a good hit.

"Ya, that much electricity won't go well for me… I can target whatever the other person is though. Impulse and Pitch can you deal with the electric guy? Jackrabbit and I can fight the fire user." Mars said turning to Jackrabbit to see if that was acceptable. Zoe gave an affirmative grunt and turned on her heels to join Paragon in her struggle.

Jackrabbit nodded in a quick agreement. "I was hoping you'd say that Rocketman. Think they'll mind if I borrow a piece of the wall?"

The question was more rhetorical than anything, as Jackrabbit ran up the wall and scooped out an upper piece of it. Coming back down, he threw it at the fire user like a major league fastball, and sprung into melee.

Angelica, however, seemed incredibly lost in what to do. "Uh Rocket? Pitch? Need any help? Umm…Impulse! I can help from above!"

Phoenix took to the small area above, rising with her flaming wings just into the air, hoping and praying that the sprinklers wouldn't go off.

With Jackrabbit’s attack Caster’s hands swirled in a circular motion and the fragment of the wall froze in the air before it hit her face. She smirked at the attempt as if reveling in the failure. Still it wasn’t a total failure and Rocket took the opportunity to charge forward and close the gap between him and Caster.

Shock Troop wasn’t just sitting around though he prepared an electrical blast. “Phoenix stay back! If you see anyone in trouble go help them. Pitch, Impulse cover me!” He shouted as he moved full speed at Caster with a punch cocked and ready.

"Got it! Um, sorry!" Angelica quickly descended until she was barely a foot off the ground. Then, gingerly, she one foot landed on the ground, soon followed by the other. She felt a bit helpless here, but she would do what she was told.

As she touched down, so did Jackrabbit, who used the momentary distraction of his thrown stone to go above and behind Caster. Seeing Mars charge forward, it was now his turn to be the distraction. Jackrabbit whistled loudly and proclaimed his presence, kicking a piece of the floor to try and make sure he had her undivided attention, as he launched himself forward as well.

Caster let out a small chuckle and turned her head for a brief moment. Her hands moved like lightning, and a large fireball burst out destroying the small fragment and heading straight for Andrew. Dodging around it wouldn't work, so he instantly changed directions to outspeed it. Colliding with the opposite wall, he redirected everything he had at the blast, dissipating it.

"Hey girly, I think you missed. Don't tell me they sent us here to fight baby villains."

Caster muttered something and suddenly an anvil was dropping down straight towards Andrew at high speeds from on top of him.

“It’s cute that you think you’re winning. Like a dog chasing its tail.” She mocked him as suddenly Mars came up from behind her blasting an energy blast at her. She barely managed to duck under the blast but she did and raised her hand at Mars as it shot sparks of electricity at him.

“You tin can! You think Shock Troop is the only one who can create sparks?”

Mars watched as his monitors started blinking red with warning signs. “Ugh, I can’t take much more of this!” Mars told his team as he set up his shields to try to block the electricity.

On the other end of the lobby, Zoe blindsided Shock Troop with a supercharged punch to the jaw before landing on her hands and knees. Quietly congratulating herself, she stood back up to full height as her opponent dug himself out of the snack bar. “Look here you glorified nine-volt, I’m not sure what y’all have against us…But the best way to find out is after you’re behind bars. Capisce?”

Shock Troop lifted himself out of the broken glass with little effort, setting his arms alight with arcing electricity. He thrust his arms forward one after the other, sending multiple lightning bolts toward Impulse who had already started circling around him. But as fast as she was, Impulse wasn’t faster than lightning itself, and she took a hit to her side as she was sliding to cover on the other end of the snack bar. “Paragon! Little help!?”

As he saw his opponent go down, Shock Troop climbed on top of the long counter and began approaching his cornered prey.

Paragon swung in front of Shock Troop, causing a lightning blast to course through her suit. The Energy rippled throughout her body, but eventually found the ground and dissipated. “Performance issues… it happens at your age.” Shock Troop hit Paragon with a solid punch, only for the black tar suit to absorb the blow. Tar tentacles reached out around Shock Troop’s neck, pulling his head in for a solid knee to the face, making him stumble back. Paragon continued the assault, striking his fumbling form, and making him fall to the ground.

She stepped on him, pressing his body onto the floor. “Stay down.” She said, but Shock Troop had other plans. He flipped suddenly, twisting her torso and grabbing her ankle, electricity coursing through his fist. Aleta scoffed, but the current didn’t let up, and she began to realize her mistake. Any good insulator gave off electrical energy as heat, and her pitch around her ankle began to slowly melt under his grasp. She quickly shed the armor around her foot, pulled her foot out of her boot, and let the pitch cover her bare foot once more, cursing under her breath as she realized the slight charring of her skin.

Angelica was once again at a loss for direction. Neither pair seemed to be doing very well. So where did she jump in? After careful deliberation, Phoenix took a shot in the dark.

"Not today hero!" The fire was quickly blocked by a wall of force, but still, it did what it had intended. An opportunity for Rocket to recover slightly had been given.

Now let's see if I can double that time. Jackrabbit deftly rolled back and dodged the fading anvil. He had been delayed, but far from stopped. All he had to do was close in the ranks.

"We are changing your villain name there chika. I think Ms. E. Coyote is a better fit. An anvil, really?" Careful now to zig zag in an incomprehensible pattern, Andrew advanced and began to close in on his magic wielding target, like a hockey player faking out a goalie.

“Enough!” Caster shouted, before an energy field formed around her. She went on the defensive now and Rocket had an opportunity to recover. His systems had adjusted and he fired his blaster at Caster, clearly pinning her down.

While things were going well for the moment however, a portal opened up near Shock Troop and a young woman appeared. Her hands glowed a blue color and covered Shock Troop in a strange energy.

“Oh ya, that’s the stuff!” He shouted as suddenly the electricity around him went wild as he sent renewed blasts of energy towards Zoe and Aleta.

“Jackrabbit, I have an idea.” Mars told his squadmates as he continued to fire at Caster. “I’ll keep her busy, use your power to push her towards Shock Troop. Get her as close to him as you possibly can.” He told him as he continued to blast at Caster with full power.

"Sounds like a plan, Rocketman." Jackrabbit zigzagged forward, gaining momentum with each time his foot hit the ground. However, he didn't go straight for here. Instead, his heel struck the ground before the energy field, sending up rocks and dust.

The field made short work of the debris, but now Caster was covered in a cloud of dust, with no way to see out of it. To remedy this, she simply blew it all away with a large gust of wind…. just in time to see Andrew shove her to the side with renewed vigor. She created a blast right on him, but it was too late, as she was sent careening towards Shock Troop. Andrew went the opposite direction, rolling across the ground in a heap before he stopped, unmoving.

As Shock Troop and Caster collided into each other, Mars made sure not to give them a second to recover. He sent another energy blast right towards Caster who barely managed to raise an energy shield in time. Now the two villains were truly pinned and that meant that this was their chance.

"Phoenix! Set off the sprinklers! Use your fire!" Mars shouted at her, hoping this plan would work.

Angelica moved quickly, finally having a task. She didn't know the cause, but she had faith in her leader. Her fire spread out just below the ceiling, the steam and smoke from the ignited debris causing the sprinklers to downpour, soaking her, and everyone not protected from it, to the bone.

Shock Troop was caught off guard by the sudden barrage of water that made his powers go haywire. Suddenly the electric charges that surrounded him surged out of control and he was knocked back hard against the wall by the sheer force of them. The blast also shot towards Caster, nearly overwhelming her shield but she was just barely able to hang on.

With Shock Troop seemingly out of commission, Caster gave an annoyed huff. "I have to do everything myself", she grumbled as she prepared a spell from behind her shield.

“Jackrabbit’s down!” Zoe shouted, zooming out of cover towards her fallen friend. Just in time to get blasted in the side by Caster’s bolt of energy. Zoe went tumbling to the ground near where Andrew had fallen, down but not out, as Caster continued channeling energy.

Angelica's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. She wanted to cry out, but her voice wouldn't come. Still, she rushed over to Zoe, moving on pure instinct. Caster, for now, was far from the forefront of her mind.

"C'mon, don't be dead. I can't lose more people. Please don't be dead." A white flame erupted from her fingertips. Instead of burning, it closed up the other girl's wounds. Anything internal would have to be done later, but she could get any bleeding, burning, or minor head trauma or of the way now. Impulse's heart was still beating, and with any luck she'd get up on her own. For now, Phoenix would just hold the flames.

Zoe coughed and gasped as her body started patching itself back together, obviously with Angelica’s help. “Shit, that hurt… thanks.” She sat up just in time to see Caster turn her ire towards Aleta, who was still ducked down on the other side of the theater. Shards of magical ice began forming around Caster’s hand, and Zoe acted without thinking by stumbling to her feet and running all-out back towards the theater’s bar. Zoe took a running leap, clearing the counter where Aleta was hunkered down and grabbing hold of her while the redhead was still in the air. “Hey, you can thank me later~”

Impulse lightened Pitch’s load using her powers, and twisted in the air so that her feet landed squarely on the back wall of the bar. Right as the frozen projectiles were sent squarely at them, Zoe pushed off of the wall with all of her might and power, launching both her and Aleta back towards Angelica and Andrew together on the ground, landing in a heap.

Phoenix moved over to the other injured teammate. Namely, Jackrabbit. She poured what she could into him, but her breathing had become erratic and her heart was pounding through her chest. She couldn't continue this here. She had to get out.

Grabbing a hold of Andrew, she pulled with all her might and tried to take to the air. However, it seemed futile, as her unconscious teammate barely moved an inch and Phoenix was running out of breath. She felt her tears become hot as her eyes blurred, and her fingers began to grow numb.

Oh god, oh god we're gonna die here. Why can't I move him? Oh god, please. "Someone, please help."

Rocket saw his team struggling under Caster's furious attacks and he knew he needed to step in to help them. First he quickly pulled out a circular disk from his right arm and tossed it between Phoenix and Caster. Suddenly an energy field came between them and Caster. Her attacks were now bouncing harmlessly off the shield.

"Come on, this is our chance to move." He told Phoenix, Pitch, and Zoe as he grabbed ahold of Andrew with a mechanical hand and gently pulled him into the machine's arms. With that taken care of Mars needed to decide what they were going to do next. Before he could however, portals started opening underneath them and before Mars could even think he felt the movie theater disappearing around him.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 26th

---

---

---

Three of them together... I don't know what they're capable of, but if I manage to defeat them, it would be a huge help to the team. Alexis thought as she stared down Aoide, Aperture and Overdrive. Not just her squad, but the entire team was fighting a losing battle, and she knew it. If she managed to edge out a victory here and run to help her losing teammates, then...

Right! There's no time to lose then!

Resolving to turn the tide, she aimed Oberon's arms forward. They promptly shifted into cannons that let loose a large barrage of energy blasts upon the trio of villains in front of her. Far from displaying any sort of concern, however, the white haired teenager in front simply flashed an amused grin.

"Aperture, if you please."

Right on cue, the shadow man stepped forward, and another black portal opened up in front of them, absorbing the energy blasts before closing. The group of evildoers remained unscathed, but after a moment, Alexis' own energy blasts slammed into her back, depleting what power remaind in her energy shields and causing the blonde girl to let out an alarmed scream before she realized what was going on.

"Damn it!" She cursed. A ranged attack is a no-go then. I'll have to get up close and-

She didn't finish the thought. She wasn't given the chance. All of a sudden, an explosion ripped through the air, and Alexis turned in shock to look at its source, only to see her girlfriend lying on the ground and a disfigured, yet seemingly victorious Buckshot gloating over her before turning around and calmly walking away. The sight filled the genius girl with anger, and before she realized what she was doing, she charged at the shotgun-toting cyborg.

"You'll pay for that!" She screamed in rage as the mech sped towards Buckshot.

"Nah. Crime doesn't pay, remember?" The mercenary replied, pumping her shotgun and shooting in Alexis' direction, only to see the bullets harmlessly bounce off the metal without so much as a dent, despite the forcefield having been depleted. Buckshot raised her eyebrows, looked at her shotgun and then shrugged, discarding the weapon just before Oberon grabbed her by her throat and took off into the air, slamming her into the mall's ceiling.

"At least you've got some spunk." The brunette spoke in spite of her injuries. "The rest of your team went down like chumps." She laughed.

Alexis gritted her teeth, but said nothing. Oberon's free hand morphed into a cannon and pointed at Buckshot, blue energy menacingly building up within.

"Don't forget about me. You were going to dance with me, remember?" Another voice called to her from behind. Alexis chose to ignore it, but that quickly proved to be a mistake. Suddenly, a deafening blast of pure sound struck Oberon, immediately disabling its flight and weapons systems, causing it to plummet to the ground as its cannon lost power. As it fell, a black portal stole Buckshot from her grasp, dropping her next to her colleagues.

"Wow! Don't tell me your weakness was sound all this time?" Aoide spoke with genuine surprise mixed in with amusement. "I would have saved Pick and Automata so much trouble if I had known that earlier!" She said, letting out a soft, musical laugh at the end.

Alexis was far from amused, however. She had known that Oberon's design wasn't perfect, that it had some exploitable weaknesses that it would be too costly to fix, but to have them come into play at a time like this? What sort of cruel joke was that?

No... I can't give up! My squad, my whole team is counting on me! She thought, trying to hold back her growing fear. Oberon stood up once more and charged at Aoide - perhaps it couldn't fly or shoot anymore, but it could still move and punch and kick. It would have to do.

The white-haired girl was far from intimidated however. Instead of shrinking away from the towering mass of metal running towards her, she calmly walked in its direction, raising a hand with the palm facing towards it. Another blast of sound stopped the mech in its tracks, and as she raised her other hand, the blast became powerful enough to begin driving her back.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! Alexis panicked. She didn't seem to be able to advance towards Aoide, and there was little she could do - with the awful noise the girl's power was generating, she could barely think. The whole situation was starkly similar to her fight with Shockwave Tyson, but she couldn't do what she had done back then - the soundwaves had also shut down her personal gear.

After a few moments, Aoide let up the attack. The mech fell to its knees, a few plates here and there falling off after being loosened by the attack.

"It's time to finish this and leave." The girl turned around to look at her allies. "Overdrive."

The purple-haired girl promptly reacted to the call, stepping forward. A blue glow appeared around her hand as she touched Aoide, who was immediately covered in the same strange energy. Suddenly, the world around her seemed more... muted.

"Perfect." She said, her voice suddenly loud and overwhelming, a stark contrast to the silence that surrounded her. With these growing powers, she once more pointed her palms towards Alexis. The blast of sound was several times more powerful than before, causing everything made of glass within the mall to suddenly shatter and completely drowning out both the sound of Alexis' scream of pain and that of metal being ripped apart from the vibrations. Oberon was torn apart plate from plate and limb from limb as it flew back from the blast, becoming little more than a pile of scrap metal, loose wiring and electronic components, its pilot buried underneath.

"Damn, I guess Elysium's disciple is nothing to scoff at." Buckshot whistled, casually walking up to Aoide and throwing an arm around her. "Good show, girl, can't believe you handled her that easily after all she did." The brunette spoke. By now her face had mostly regenerated.

Suddenly, there was a beep. "Yes?" Buckshot asked as she pressed a hand to her ear.

"Heroes are about to swarm the place. Time to leave." Lady Hawk's voice spoke over the comms.

"Got it." The brunette replied before glancing over at the shadow man. "Aperture, get us out of here before we have to fight our way out."

Without saying a word, Aperture opened a portal and gestured towards it. The three women at the food court promptly walked through the portal, and Aperture promptly followed through. The portal then closed behind him, leaving only four young heroines lying on the floor, defeated.

Underneath the pile of scrap that had become of her precious pet project, Alexis was in pain and too weak to break free by herself.

"Help..." She croaked.

---

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, four aliens suddenly materialized on the beach of a small island off the coast of San Diego. One of them was a towering mass of muscle, with a flowing white mane, a loose red wrap around his legs and a single piece of cloth blanketing his arms and torso. Another was a tall redhead dressed in a suit of ornate armor, partially hidden by a purple shroud lined with razor-like silvery feathers. The third and perhaps also the most important of the three was a teenage girl with milky pink hair - and a red streak running through it on the left side - red eyes and a bright smile on her face. She wore a white sundress stamped with a pattern of flowers not native to Earth and a pair of bracelets made from crystal beads of several colors.

Next to her was the fourth and final member of the group, and the only one that was not a Hadrian: a small alien wolf, whose fur, colored in several rich shades of blue, created an exotic pattern. He seemed to share in his master's excitement, promptly running off and teleporting across the landscape as if to acquaint himself with the terrain of the island - his new home. Azure lights flashed as he repeatedly vanished and materialized again.

"Wait up Korin!" Kiris shouted at the young azure howler - Korigan was his name - before turning to her sister and her... servant? Bodyguard? She still wasn't quite sure what to call Torvalt, though she liked to simply think of him as an older friend and family member she could look up to and depend on, like a godfather perhaps. Looking at them, she gestured towards Wonder Tower. "Come on, let's hurry! I can't wait to see my friends again!" She said, practically bursting with excitement. After about two and a half long months - and almost four going by the Hadrian calendar! - she was about to be reunited at last with her friends, with Mars! It took her genuine effort to avoid simply running off and leaving Seris and Torvalt in the dust. Instead, she walked alongside them, urging them to keep a brisk pace as they approached the tower and walked through the front door.

Needless to say, it surprised the pink-haired girl how quiet the tower seemed to be at the moment, but she didn't let that put a dent in her enthusiasm. Once all three Hadrians - and their pet wolf - were in the elevator with their luggage in tow, Seristella spoke up.

"Kiris, how about you let us take your stuff up to your room while you go on ahead to meet your friends? I know the way, and we don't want to keep you waiting any longer." The redhead said. Kiris turned to her, looking at her wide eyed.

"Really? Thanks a lot sis! You're the best!" She said, promptly hugging her sister before turning around yet again and punching in the living room's floor number. It wasn't long until the elevator made its way up there, and once the doors opened, the girl got off with a little hop.

"I'll see you guys in a bit, okay? Maybe I'll even introduce you to the team!" She waved at the two, who waved back before making their way up to her room. With that done, Kiris made her way to the living room. The layout of Wonder Tower hadn't changed at all, so it wasn't too hard to find, and Korigan teleported to her to keep her company just as she arrived at the door to the living room and pushed it open, stepping inside.

"Hey everyone!" She greeted them, in English of course. But her enthusiasm finally took a dent when she noticed that the team wasn't here, either. She only saw Renata and a tall blonde girl she didn't recognize, both of them standing by the window and... smoking? Since when does Renata smoke? She wondered. In fact, she wondered a lot of other things: who was the other girl? Was she a new member? How much had the team changed since she left, were there any departures she was unaware of? All these questions began swimming around in her head, making her self-conscious. What if the team had changed too much since she left, or if they'd forgotten her or hadn't missed her? She knew Mars was still here and missed her very much, thanks to his texts, but as for the rest... he hadn't given her a lot of details beyond the occasional anecdote.

However, all of that was secondary right now. For the time being, there was something else far more important that she wanted to know.

"Renata...? Where's everyone else? What's goin' on?"

[Finland SSR]

Whitney Alvord

October 26th

---

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Well this is quite a change of pace. A little bit earlier, the two girls were on the verge of breakdown, scarred by the cockup cascade which the mission had become, each one searching for a way to blame themselves for what happened - and now, they were sharing cigarettes and having a brief lesson on how to smoke. Hell, Whitney even released a little giggle - a jarring change for a girl who struggled to speak from the fear earlier. She explained the way which a cigarette is supposed to go in Renata's mouth, that it has to be the opposite from the one she lights up, and offered a lighter to help with exactly that.

"Oh, right..." Renata blurbed under her breath during Whitney's explanation, but gently pushed away the lighter instead of using it to light up. "Don't waste the fuel, I've got this." After focusing for a bit, she tapped the end of the cigarette with her finger, the built up heat lighting it up just fine.

Before taking a smoke, however, she stopped, freezing and turning her eyes towards the door.

"...Everyone else is out the tower, right? I mean, from our team," Renata muttered. Someone was coming, and if it wasn't one of their teammates, then there were only a few people whom those steps could belong to. She didn't know if Naja approved of their team members smoking, but just in case, the girl lowered her cigarette from her mouth, ready to drop it on a moment's notice.

Then, the door swung open, and a loud, cheerful yell followed.

"K-Kiris?!" Renata exclaimed right back, the cigarette dropping from her hands and ending up stomped by the girl's slipper. Frozen in shock, she watched Kiris's mood increasingly sour - having realized that the rest of her team were not here, she began asking questions. Where is everyone? What's going on? And that...

That was complicated. Now that the initial shock wore off, Renata swiftly put everything back together. Kiris had dropped out to return to her home planet for a few months, whether it was for vacation or soul searching, Renata didn't know, but it was clearly important. But she never planned it to be permanent, and now the Hadrian's here, obviously missing them all, and Mars in particular. And she just so happened to return at the worst possible time, when the team she so wanted to see again was in the midst of being destroyed, and possibly murdered.

"Everyone's... everyone's on a mission," she forced out her first words, struggling to put them together. "Down in the city. A team of villains took over a mall, invited the team to challenge her and... they're now out there and... well, uh... we were watching their progress and uh..."

Finally stopping for a second, Renata grunted in frustration and scoffed to the side - she still hasn't gotten to the point, and couldn't figure out how. I'm sorry. Suddenly, she reached forward, grabbing Kiris by both of her shoulders, and yelled:

"They're dying, Kiris! They're all dying! And we're forced to watch!"

[Finland SSR]

Wonder Tower
Several days prior to the mall mission

Sitting on a couch in the Tower’s rec room, Mike was locked in deep in thought as he stared at his phone and tried to come up with the best plan of action. Recently he had been becoming more aware of his ever so slightly ‘prickly’ nature and while he had been trying his best to smooth out some of the more prominent issues, a string of bad luck and admittedly poor choices had made his interactions with the team that much more tense. And so that led him to where he was now, sitting alone on the couch trying to come up with some ideas on how he could extend an olive branch without actually having to say anything like he ‘was sorry’ or that he ‘regretted what he said’. Calling it a drain felt like an understatement, apart from having the admittedly embarrassing realisation that he barely knew anything about most of the people on the team he also had no idea what people generally liked to do. Maybe it was from spending too long focusing on the team or maybe it was from him not exactly being the most popular person at the best of times but he felt borderline clueless when it came to finding interesting things to do. Letting out a somewhat defeated sigh, Mike slumped further into the couch as he gave up on the search and flicked to his own feed only to be struck with inspiration.

And then, a message too. Straight from Mizu into the former Squad 4’s team chat - the girl had just finished the last of her homework tasks and plopped onto her bed, yawning and pulling out her phone to start lazing off. Just like every day in the past two weeks, she sent a poke to the empty chat, crossing her fingers that maybe one of her former teammates would respond this time. If not, then she’s always got Squad 1...

Figuring it was as good a sign as any, Mike sent back a simple message to Mizu “Still interested in going out for a bit? That bakery I mentioned is trying out a few new desserts and I could use some help finding the best ones.”

“Oh!” Mizu called out to herself as soon as she saw the message. Who could have known, if you try to get attention long enough, you’ll eventually see someone wave back? “Sure thing! Meet me at the living room!” Immediately, she hopped off her bed, pocketed her phone and left her room. Having expected to come to the room first and thus have time to lay on the sofa browsing the Internet for a little bit, however, Mizu was left slightly surprised when she found that Mike had been in the team living room all along.

“Oh, hi there...” she muttered with a brief hand wave. “So, are we ready?”

“For food, always!” He smiled back as he got up from the couch before immediately stopping in his tracks and backpedaling for his phone. “Okay now I’m ready.”

“All riiiight!” Mizu called out with a cheer - only to suddenly stop Mike with her hand when he was about to walk past her. “Wait wait wait. Not yet, I’m afraid.”

The girl stood in front of her peer and pulled his collar - she thought she was yanking it a bit too forcefully than needed, it really wasn’t much at her level of strength - then pushed it around to fix it. “You can’t go out looking so messy, you know,” Mizu explained with a smile, then stepped back and spun on her heels to shapeshift her pajamas away.

Doing his best to ignore a growing warmth to his cheeks, 2 thoughts came to Mike as he got ready to leave ‘illusions can be a really convenient power and-’ “Wait… What actually are you wearing?” He asked as he resisted the urge to poke the smaller girl.

“Uh...” Mizu muttered, blinking for a second, unsure where Mike was trying to lead the conversation - then she waved her hand over her light blouse and skirt. “I’m wearing this - it’s shapeshifting, not an illusion, so it’s the real deal. Well, kind of - actually, Iiiii kinda forgot what I was originally wearing when I first shifted them away years ago and I kinda don’t wanna check here...”

Scratching her cheek and looking to the side, Mizu then spun on her heel again, this time to show off, and cracked a smile while saying:

“Do you like it, though?”

“Erm, yeah. It looks great.” Mike managed to mumble out suddenly feeling a bit awkward and wondering if his question might have been a bit too weird. “Anyways, come on. We should get going before we end up missing the next bus” He added quickly in an attempt to change the topic.

---

For once, things seemed to be going well. The day wasn’t too cold, the sun was shining and despite how chaotic everything often felt in the tower, the world outside still spun like it always did. Stretching out his arms in front of him after hopping off and bus, Mike took a quick glance around as he waited for Mizu and tried to spy their destination.

“So you’re really having to learn rocket science? That wasn’t just an expression!?” He commented still half in shock from hearing about the Lunarian curriculum. “Wow that sounds rough. I mean it's cool, it's really cool actually, but still…” He said as he let out a low, somewhat continuous whistle.

“I mean, that one was actually an optional course, I just picked it up because it sounded interesting...” Mizu replied, making a note to herself to not brag too much about her curriculum. “But, yeah... It’s actually kind of necessary, though. Since our base is planning to become a permanent settlement eventually, everyone born there has to learn to operate its technology, repair and be able to expand the base in the future, you know... So, we have to study advanced electronic engineering and quantum mechanics.” The girl made sure to stay right next to Mike as they made their way, almost shoulder to shoulder - the bus dropped them off at a part of the city she was unfamiliar with, and so she figured she’d rather stick with her only way of navigating here without getting completely lost.

“Anyways, here we are!” Mike added with a slightly over the top hand gesture to a small, cosy, cafe-looking shop front. “Best bakery in the city, probably. Well best one I’ve seen so far, not to mention they make some great hot chocolate” he went on as he opened the door for them and was immediately hit by the clean scent of slightly sweet bread being baking and a familiar slightly exaggerated french accent. Mizu stepped inside first, immediately overtaken by awe at the sight and the smell.

“Ahh, Michael! The prodigal son returns! Come, come ‘ave you finally come to your sense about my offer?” a large, flamboyant man called out from behind the counter.

“Hey Louìs, and maybe next time. I’m just here with a friend to try out a few things this time.” He said back cheerfully before quickly whispering “That’s Louis, I’m pretty sure he’s from New York, whatever happens do not, ask about the accent.” to Mizu as she passed him.

“I wasn’t thinking that!” Mizu called out, moments before she was about to point out the cook’s comical accent.

“Ahaahaa, so a table for two then?” Louis stated as he spotted the lunarian and an oversized grin spread across his face. “Say no more, take a seat and relax. Whatever you two need we will be happy to provide.” He added as with almost unnatural grace and precision he readied a table before disappearing into the backroom and an almost inaudible maelstrom of whispers and gossip.

“Yeahhh, so I used to work here during the break.” Mike said with a shrug as he went to the table. “The people here are great but I’m also pretty sure that they’re all insane. Still, they definitely know how to bake and despite everything, they’re a fun group.” he commented with his own smile. “Anything you feel like getting? I’m always torn between waffles and crepes.”

“I mean, our team is pretty insane, too, so it checks out!” Mizu replied with a bright, cheeky smile, leaning back on her seat and picking up a card on the table which listed several available dishes - all with names, ingredients and prices. The girl groaned under her breath and stopped leaning, stuck reading for almost half a minute before she finally broke and spoke up:

“Mike, you’re tearing me apart.”

She turned the card around, showing it to Mike, all while a frown set on her face.

“You place me here, give me a list of so many amazing looking things to choose from, and I... Can I just buy them all?”

Just about to laugh off Mizu’s suggestion, Mike paused for a second, then for another as he began to think. “Actually… That’s not a bad idea.” He mumbled. On one side of things, he wanted to have as much as he could but on the other while he knew they couldn’t finish everything alone, they could still take the rest back to the team. ‘That sounded like a good and definitely not weird thing to do.’ he decided. “Yeah screw it, let’s grab one of everything and just take back what we don’t finish. We came here to try things so why not?” He said cheerfully.

Mizu folded her arms behind the back of her head and leaned back, staring at the ceiling and thinking to herself for a moment.

“You know that’s not fair though, right?” she replied. “It means that the two of us will eat the things which are the most delicious and leave the rest of the less delicious things to the rest of the team. I mean, we’re not going to leave any of the tasty waffles with chocolate and syrup and whatever intact...” Then her eyes lit up a little, with an almost malicious smile. “...Unless you’re trying to imply that everything is delicious here - are you?”

“I haven’t found anything I haven’t really liked so far, but if we get a bit of everything then there’s probably going to be one or two things that are pretty meh by comparison I guess” Mike replied completely missing Mizu’s tone with his mind already long gone and working on the logistics of their idea. “Screw it. Let’s do it! my treat for.. Well I mean take your pick of dumb things I’ve done. And I’m not gonna complain about eating the best stuff. Though, if you’re feeling guilty you can leave some of your portions for Casimir to feed to his pet ants.” He joked back before pausing for a second to question whether or not that was something the rather ‘unique’ bug hero would do.

“Well, if we’ve both decided...”

Mizu raised her hand and called out to the chefs, yelling with a big grin on her face:

“Alright! We want everything in your menu!” As soon as she completed her order, she withdrew the hand, snickering. “We might need to move to a bigger table.”

“Yeah, I didn’t really think that far ahead…” Mike added a little sheepishly.

“One of everything then, we’ll clear some room and pack things up as you two go” The chef responded cheerfully before disappearing back into the kitchen.

“Well I see no way this is gonna come back to bite us.” Mike stated clearly happy with the small burst of chaos.

---

A few dozen dishes later, despite the initial enthusiasm and wide array of varied sweets, the duo’s pace was rapidly coming to a crashing halt.

“I think my stomach might have just exploded.” Mike finally admitted with his head against the table as his eyes and gutts continued to wage war over how much he could manage to eat. After stuffing one last bun into her mouth and pushing it down, Mizu let out a deep breath and began to flatten. Her body comically grew in size, way past the size of her seat, to the point where she looked like a Jabba the Hutt version of herself.

“I’m full... I can’t move...” she began to mumble under her breath, in a thicker, deeper voice, then it grew more pleading and distraught. “I didn’t even get to try the coconut cream pi-i-i-i-e...”

“...I did.” Mike managed to mumble without moving. “...It was so good! Why do good things have to hurt so much?” He added as he pulled his head up and had to stifle a laugh from Mizu’s new form. “Don’t, don’t make me laugh right now I’ll die… I hate to say it but I think we might be at our limit. Though it looks like we’re pretty far from leaving everyone else without anything to eat huh.” he stated looking at the pile of food they still surrounded themselves with and felt a very less than pleasant sensation in his stomach. “Yup, Louis! We’re gonna need a few ‘to go’ bags” He called out as he forced himself to his feet and hobbled over to Mizu’s side. “Come on, time to go home.” He announced as he just barely resisted the urge to poke the girl’s new form.

Mizu took a deep, heavy breath, then poked herself with a finger - air began to blow out of her inflated form like a popped balloon, until she decayed back to her normal form. Weakly, she pulled herself back onto her feet, then wrapped around Mike’s arm to make sure she didn't wobble back down to her seat.

“Waaait, wait wait wait...” she muttered under her breath, taking a glance at her peer. “Mike. Mike Mathews. I know we’re both on the edge of death and all and it might feel like we can’t fight anymore, but I’m gonna ask you to be strong just once and help me.”

Mizu faked a brief cough for a dramatic pause. “There’s a new horror movie out and I’ve been begging for a chance to see it, and this is probably the best one I’ll get while it’s still fresh. Especially since it’s gonna be scary to see it alone, y’know?..”

Initially turning away to hide his surprise when Mizu held his arm to steady herself he was happy but a little surprised to hear her suggest they keep hanging. “Hmmmm” Mike began as he pretended to ponder the question. “I don’t know, I mean I really do like the idea of going back to the tower and emptying another can of bug spray in my room. Buuutt, I suppose it can wait.” He said with a smirk as he started dumping bags of leftover pastries into his bag. “Alright, where to?” he finally asked as he slung the stuffed bag over his shoulder.

“Heeeey, no trying to poison Casimir immediately after lunch!” Mizu called out as soon as the two of them stepped out of the shop, with a smile on her face, still holding onto Mike’s arm with a smile. “Well, of course, first thing’s first is to get to the nearest movie theatre. You, uh, know your way around these parts better than I do, I suppose, so...”

Recalling the posters and movie trailer she saw in advance, Mizu tapped her chin with her shoulder. “But it should have screenings anywhere. It’s called “The Hedgehog”, you might have heard about it, it’s been buzzing around the Internet... it’s about, uh, a blue kid’s mascot going crazy and starting a rampage, and it looks really creepy, and...”

Suddenly, the girl sped forward, pulling Mike along with her. “Come on, let’s just go, you’ll see what I mean on the big screen!”

“Alriiight.” Mike half chuckled as he let himself be pulled along by the smaller girl. Despite his initial worries with heading out with someone from the team, he was enjoying himself. In fact, he felt like he was enjoying himself a lot. He didn’t realise it at the moment but he couldn’t even remember the last time he had just relaxed and had some fun then out of nowhere, here he was grinning like an idiot with a bag full of deserts and being taken to watch a movie he had never even heard of. “I know a good cinema a few blocks down from here.” He said as he took the lead and started pulling Mizu along for a change. “Plus they won’t care about us smuggling in our body weights worth of food” He added as he realised they were likely going to be the most well supplied movie snackers in the history of cinema.

---

By the time the two Young Bloods got their seats in the cinema, the advertisements whizzed by one after the other, and the movie finally concluded, the day had switched to the evening and the summer sun was creeping upon the horizon. Mike and Mizu departed from the auditorium, their back of pastries noticeably thinner, yet still full enough to provide for the rest of the team.

From the side, the girl suddenly snatched a plush hedgehog toy, a cartoonish representation of the terrifying movie villain, and shoved it at her peer’s face, yelling:

“Boo!”

Pausing in his tracks and finding himself face to plushy face with a demonic but somehow cute hedgehog, Mike did his best to stifle a laugh and keep some level of composure.

“Yup, terrifying” He finally admitted as he petted the hedgehog. “Though the puppet master’s cuteness offsets it completely” He added as he moved his hand further and lightly patted Mizu before flipping her hair over her face. “Nope, still not scary.” He teased as he let out a chuckle at the sight.

“Uh, hrm-” Mizu mumbled under her breath, unsure how to respond to the unexpected headpat. With a slight tint on her cheeks, she looked away and withdrew the plush toy, then struck a frown.

“Y’know, just because I’m not scary now doesn’t mean you won’t regret your words later...” she muttered with feigned bitterness. “I can transform myself into nine million types of demons and one type of really angry pig. I can be anywhere, anytime, and you will live in terror never knowing when I will appear and ruin your sandwich with a sneaky slick of mayonnaise.”

Suddenly, the girl spread her arms to the sides, cackled maniacally, and yelled:

“My powers are maximum! And what do you have, Captain Forge?!”

“Your share of the pastries” He replied smuggly. “Buutt, if we’re going to war I guess I can give them to Wyatt or Alexis. Bribe someone tanky to my side and bravely hide behind them for a while.” He added puffing out his chest before pausing for a moment. “Wait mayonnaise? Your plan as an evil demon is to randomly and sneakily add mayonnaise to my food? I take it all back. You are terrifying.” He stated with a feigned look of horror as he did his best to hold back a laugh at Mizu's evil persona. “Truly you are the end of humanity, a punishment for our hubris!” He managed to say before finally giving in and breaking into a fit of laughter.

"The world will tremble before my might!" Mizu kept on with the joke for a little bit longer, before breaking into laughter herself. "Just... just... I will let you live in peace... if you give me my share back..." she muttered in between laughs and breaths. The girl sat down on a nearby bench and finally calm down - the smile was still etched on her face and ever so often she'd break into a giggle remembering the scene before.

"So, where are we going now?" she asked.

“Huh… I didn’t really think about that.” Mike admitted as he looked at the setting sun and tried to guess the time. “We should probably start heading back. You know, make sure the tower’s still there and not fully burnt down just yet.” He added as he plopped himself down next to her. “Thanks for coming out with me by the way, I probably would’ve died trying to get through all those desserts by myself and I definitely prefer having a demon hedgehog thing in my nightmares than just getting some sleep.” He joked with a light nudge. “Though getting out a bit and having fun wasn’t too bad either…”

“You think Viv would like it out here?” He eventually asked after a slight pause.

"A-wha?.." Mizu mumbled out, caught by surprise, and scratched her cheek in confusion while trying to figure out an answer. "I guess she would, she's got a sweet tooth, I don't know if she is a fan of horror but, y'know, maybe it'd work out..."

With a puzzled expression of her face, she stopped and turned to Mike directly. "Why are you asking? I mean... why her in particular?"

“Well, I mean other than you and Alexis, she’s pretty much the only person on the team who doesn’t seem to hate me. Its dumb I know, but I mean, I barely know anything about anyone on the team. I figure that maybe if I start doing this sort of stuff more, going out and having fun instead of telling everyone about all the different ways things could go wrong, then... I don’t know.” He admitted with a shrug. “I just want people to trust me to have their back, instead of thinking that I’m somehow working against them. It’s crazy right? We’ve literally fought super powered villains and somehow this is the thing that’s bugging me!”

Having stared in confusion just moments before, Mizu struck an apologetic smile in the end. The attempt to explain himself was amusing and full of bluster, and yet, that made it all the more endearing. The girl stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Mike and pushed herself forward for a hug.

"I trust you. And I'm sure if you keep doing the right steps, I'm sure everyone else will too," she explained. "And besides - think of it in another light! If all you're afraid of is that your teammates won't trust you, more so than Ares or anyone else, then someone so fearless is on a track to become a great hero too!"

Already caught off guard by the hug, Mike went completely blank after Mizu’s words. He was expecting some sort of jab or joke about him being squishy or paranoid but definitely not this, though whatever this was, it was nice. Eventually collecting his thoughts and the ability to speak again, he hesitated for a moment, then returned the hug. “Well, I am pretty amazing?” He joked “But thanks for saying that. Its um, its good to hear that I haven’t ticked off everyone in the team.” He added a bit more sheepishly while still trying to figure out his own response.

“Eheh, just don’t get too overconfident...” Mizu replied after stepping away from Mike, the same smile still plastered on her face. “Well, I guess you can also be proud that this was honestly really fun. Thanks for asking me out to this...”

Wondering, the girl tapped her chin. “I-I guess an outing? A visit? But we visited more than one place... Maybe it still counts, I’m not sure how English language rules work in this situation.”

“An outings? Outen? Out-i? Huh, I think I finally understand why english teachers seem so on edge. This stuff makes no sense.” He admitted in mock solace. “Come on, let’s go grab a bus before one of us tries to figure out the difference between wind and wind. After that, I reckon we’ve still got a good few desserts to share with the others. I mean, after grabbing a few more for ourselves of course.” He added in a surprisingly upbeat mood.

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord

There were a lot of potential faces that those footsteps could've belonged to. They could've belonged to Naja, busting in on two of her wards having a smoke in her Tower's living room. They could've belonged to Cass, probably coming in to complain about the ruined air circulation and the dangers of second-hand smoke in her usual monotone. They could've belonged to some other young, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed prospect, lost on their way to their interview just as she almost had. They could've belonged to some "villain" or criminal taking advantage of the distraction and the empty Tower to hit the team where it hurt, the mere thought of which was enough to send a sharp pang of fear through her chest and a wave of seasickness through her stomach despite her best attempts to push it away as she gave an anxious, wide-eyed look towards Renata. The pink-haired girl was right; everybody else from the tower was out, which was why Whitney responded with a slow nod, slowly peeling her eyes away from the girl's upper body and fixing them towards the ever-so-slightly ajar living room door.

Maybe she was just imagining things, but as she watched the door and the thin slice of shadow that it cast on the rug, she couldn't help but wonder if it was...growing slightly, as if the door was tilting open ever so slightly on its hinges. She had no idea why her throat was clamping up and her chest was prickling with stabbing pins and needles; it was more than likely Naja or Cass making some routine sweep of the rooms for contraband, contraband that she could easily drop out the window and or stuff back into her pocket. But instead of imagining a reptilian woman with a friendly smile or a butler bot with a blank face coming out of the door, all she could think of was a figure in a massive set of power armor, cannon aimed directly at the two of them, or a grinning criminal with glazed-over eyes and one knife in each hand, or a severe-looking middle-aged woman with blonde hair and brown eyes, all sharp edges and no round curves.

She had not thought of a short pink-blonde-haired girl in a sundress.

The door practically flew open, revealing not just a short pink-blonde-haired girl in a sundress, but one with massive horns on her head, a pet wolf at her side, and an Australian accent too, of all bloody things. She had barged into the room with a cheery shout loud enough to make Whitney jump a good six inches in the air, but her enthusiasm quickly dulled over into and crestfallen confusion at the sight of her sorry welcome party. She recognized Renata, and Renata recognized her as one "Kiris". Wait...Kiris. Kiris! This was the Kiris that everyone kept talking about! This was the Kiris that Mars wouldn't shut the fuck up about for five minutes at a time! The team member that had taken a sabbatical to another planet for some reason or another, and the one who's first impression of her new teammate was..."the girl who's trying to get Renata hooked on nicotine". God, this was embarrassing. Hell, this was almost as bad as her mom busting in on her smoking. No, even worse, because Kiris wanted to know what was "goin' on", and now, her and Renata would have to break the awkward news. Whitney could tell from the way that the horned girl looked at her that she had so many questions, likely about both Whitney herself and about the rest of the team, but what kind of answer could she give in response? "Oh, nothing much, the team headed out on a mission, where they're currently getting the living shit kicked out of them, all the way to the brink of death in some cases. We stayed behind, because one of us is useless and the other's suspended. Your boyfriend's probably alive, might be dead. Who really knows? Oh, by the way, would you mind telling your dog or wolf or whatever to back off, because I'm 99% sure he can smell my fear, and I'm trembling so badly I can barely hold on to this damn cigarette. Oh, never mind, clumsy me, just dropped it out the window, it's gone now. What was I saying about the brink of death again?"

She felt lightheaded, and it only got worse as Renata rushed forward to grab and shake Kiris' shoulders, hysterically yelling something about how the entire team was dying, and how everyone was being forced to watch. Was this really her life? Here she was, Whitney Alvord, watching her celebrity smoking buddy having a nervous breakdown in front of her Hadrian celebrity teammate and her magnificently blue pet wolf, who had just come back from some extraterrestrial vacation to a team headquarters that had been vacated by a group of San Diego's finest young superhumans, some of which might never even make it back. And she was afraid of the dog. And her throat was sore. And she was starving, she was so goddamn hungry, to the point where her stomach felt like it was going to split in two.

It was so...so...

Stupid.

It was stupid, it was so, so, stupid. Not in the annoying way, in the funny way. It was so absurd, so unbelievable, so...stupid. Whitney couldn't hold it back anymore. Once the first chuckle escaped her lips, she couldn't stop. It was like a ball rolling down a hill, picking up speed and getting faster and faster and more uncontrollable, and then before she knew it, she was stumbling over to the couch, trying to walk straight despite the fact that she was literally doubling over with laughter. All she could do was plop down heavily on the couch and try to stop her shoulders from shaking, force her mouth of its grin and into normal sentences. "It's...it's..." she started, only to be overcome with a fresh wave of giggles, forcing her to bury her face into her hands. Groaning, she leaned back in place, taking several deep breaths through her nose and chest as she attempted to calm down and slowly pull her hands away from her face.

"It's...awful." she said at last, wiping the tears from her eye with an index finger as she spoke. “Everything's awful. The team was sent to deal with a threat at a local shop...shopping mall, and left me and Renata...I mean Renata and I, a laptop so we could monitor their conditions from back here." she said, pointing to the computer in question sitting on the coffee table, still lying dormant in the same place that Whitney had left it last, before turning back to face Kiris. "They're losing. Badly. For we all know, a few might be dead. M-maybe even more than a few..."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 26th

---

---

---

Hearing Renata mention that everyone else was on a mission, Kirisvala felt relief washing over her, at least at first. If the team was out on a mission that meant it was business as usual for the Young Bloods, that they would be back soon after kicking the butts of whatever poor sods had decided to cause trouble today, and likely with an appetite, ready to partake in whatever that night's victory meal would be. Perhaps it would be tacos again, or pasta, or pizza... or perhaps Naja might get creative and organize a nighttime barbecue out by the beach? Who knew! Alas, those hopeful initial thoughts were quickly dashed. Had that been all there was to it, clearly Renata wouldn't have been struggling so much to say it, mumbling and stuttering as she did. And, of course, there was the fact that she promptly stepped forward, grabbed her by the shoulders and then proceeded to scream in her face about how the rest of the team was being killed out there.

Confused - and understandably so - Kiris blinked and stared at her friend. "What the heck are ya talkin' about?" She asked, her tone decidedly less friendly than before. It wasn't that she was angry or hostile, but she was clearly annoyed, impatient and a little frightened. Saying that the team was being killed, that Mars was being killed, was obviously nothing to make light of.

Making light of it seemed to be exactly what the other girl was doing however, what with bursting into a fit of laughter and practically falling on the couch while trying to control herself. By now the pink-haired girl was completely at a loss for words - not only was she worried about her team and about her boyfriend, she was starting to feel very awkward and out of place here at the tower as well, in no small part thanks to this... less than comforting welcome. Upon overcoming her laughter, the blonde managed to give an explanation slightly more detailed, and just a little less melodramatic, than Renata's: the team was at a nearby shopping mall dealing with a threat, and while they didn't know if anyone was dead, they were getting pummeled pretty badly. It was not much of a relief, but it let her hold onto the hope that no one had died yet.

After just standing in silence for a moment, as if frozen, the young sorceress ran off to look at the computer screen where her friends' vitals were being monitored, only to look in horror at how... bad it was. Wyatt and Casimir, some of the strongest members of the team, looked like they were almost dead, along with Red and a few others. The others weren't doing great either - many, like Yoshi and Angelica, were unconscious, and there were precious few Young Bloods that didn't seem to have been harmed just yet. Among them was Mars, and Kiris quietly uttered a few words of gratitude to the Goddess in her native Lokwynn upon noticing this.

Kirisvala turned to look at Whitney and Renata, and this time she felt anger welling up inside of her. Not just at the awful welcome she had received, not just at the overly melodramatic words Renata had scared her with or the way Whitney just laughed at the potential death of people she loved. What made her angry was that they were sitting here having a smoke during all of this, and that because of their shenanigans, she was here wasting time too instead of going to help.

"Well if you're watchin' the rest of the team gettin' hurt and... and dyin' like you say, why aren't ya doin' anythin'?!" She shouted at the two of them before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She knew better than to let her emotions get the better of her now, and blowing up at those two wasn't going to accomplish anything anyway. "Where exactly is..." She began to ask, only to trail off as she looked at the large TV screen on the living room, which was displaying a live feed of the mall's exterior, with police vehicles barricading the place and officers with their weapons drawn stationed outside. Of course, there it is! You should've looked there first, silly Kiris.

"I'm goin' to help. Ya stay here or come with me, I don't care." She said, speaking far more briefly and harshly than she normally would, but time was of the essence here. "Korin!" She called, and the azure wolf swiftly returned to her side after casually sniffing the room. Crouching next to him and placing a claw on its fur, the Hadrian girl began chanting one of her signature spellsongs. Allowing the two other girls plenty of time to approach her and enter the spell's radius if they wished to come with, Kiris reached the crescendo and suddenly her surroundings vanished before swiftly being replaced with the night sky outside of the shopping mall. She was just behind the police barricade, and several costumed figures she had seen on the TV were currently rushing into the mall. A nearby officer noticed the new arrivals and approached.

"Miss, you can't be here-" He began, only to flinch as Korigan bared his teeth at him.

"I'm a Young Blood too!" She hastily explained. "What's the situation?"

"We-we're not sure. We can't hear any fighting going on inside anymore, but we were instructed to maintain our position. Other heroes are going in to help your friends now." The officer explained, his eyes focused on Kiris' pet rather than on the girl herself.

Speaking of Korigan, he suddenly tensed up and began sniffing the air, as if detecting a familiar scent. Growling to get Kiris' attention, he gestured towards the mall's entrance with his snout. Looking in that direction, the pink-haired girl saw Mizu escaping the mall with an injured Ash in tow. Without wasting another second, Kiris promptly ran towards her teammates, with Korigan trailing behind her.

"Mizu!" She called out as she ran towards the Lunarian girl.