The Regents [IC | Superhuman | Open]

[The Cyberiad Council]

Washington D.C.

November 10, 2055

OOC | Character List | Theme Music

Twenty-Five minutes ago, an unknown number of assailants with the aid of military mechs launched a surprise attack on the capital. The United States Military continues to be overwhelmed and is being driven back towards the capital building. They have asked for our help to repel the attack; Keep collateral damage at a minimum and save as many civilians as possible. We touch down in three minutes.
-Cypher's Breifing

The Torus Flew low over the National Mall as it swung around to offload the Regents behind friendly lines. It touched down for just a second as heavy enemy fire flew overhead. The rear ramp lowered, and the Regents charged out to take cover. Their ship took off again to move to a safe distance until extraction was necessary. "Alright, team; we are up against heavily armored opponents carrying equally heavy armaments. Play it safe, and kick some ass!" Cypher leaned out from behind the marble rubble he was hiding behind, and his powers kicked in. He quickly analyzed the armor of the enemy soldiers and fired three rounds into just as many soldier's helmets. The bullets struck the glass eyeholes of the faceplate and killed the soldier's inside.

One the Mechs rounded the corner and opened fire, causing Cypher to duck behind more sturdy cover. He calculated the firing pattern and made a break for it, he dodged between different piles of rubble and eventually made it inside the war machines firing arc. Cypher ran between the legs of mech and threw several metal disks on weak points in the armor. Cypher rolled to a safe distance and detonated the disks, causing the machine to fall to the ground in a flaming heap.

[Korhal IVV]

The Dark Angel

As Cypher threw his explosive disks, the Dark Angel strode forth. The witchblade flickered with ghostly light, and at his side were Karathos and Stellasir, blades drawn and shields raised. The soul constructs charged with supernatural speed, with the eye only being able to register them as blurs in the air. But as they slashed and hacked their targets, bisected corpses and decapitated heads were all that were left in their brutal wake. Their flaming ghostblades penetrated the soldiers' armor as if they were no more than cardboard, and they brought their killing blows with the skill of an artist with his brush. One soldier managed to hit Karathos with his gun, but to no avail. The sorcerous machine reared its featureless head, sparking utter terror at the usurper. In one fell swoop, Karathos cut the man in half, entrails and ichor spilled all over the groubf.

Meanwhile, another mech turned, firing its weapons against the Dark Angel, but its bullets found only empty air. The sorcerer had already made advances, and from behind the mech, he conjured the Curse of the Dark Angel against the pilot within. As the screams and hallucinations schreeched against the pilot's mind, the mech began to stumble around until it collided with another one, destroying them both. Gleefully, the Dark Angel charged towards a soldier, glancing the bullets with his blade before draining away at the mortal's soul, reducing him to a lifeless husk.

[Terranihil]

Gravita crouched behind a car for cover from the incoming fire. She watched Cypher bolt between the legs of a mech and take it down using his detonatable disks. The mech's legs collapsed and it collided with the floor in an explosion. The enemy fire continued and a bullet ricocheted off the hood of the car, inches from her head. She stood over the car and focused her energy on a collapsed pillar. She raised her hand and the pillar quickly moved forward, colliding with the base of a mech and toppling it backwards. It laid on its back while randomly firing rounds into the air. Gravita slumped back down behind the car to regain her energy. Then she stood back up once again and focused on increasing the gravity on the machine gun arm of the mech. The arm bent downwards at first; then it was completely crushed. Gravita then created a gravitational forcefield, allowing her companions to take cover within the spherical shield as bullets were repelled back at the enemies.

[Higher Japan]

The White Goddess

As the transport flew down and the ramp was released, Victoria quickly jumped out and dove for cover as she heard a few bullets hit the concrete she was ducking behind. "Master, please give me your blessings." She silently prayed to her master, feeling her powers enhanced. Although it was most likely just by placebo. After a silent prayer, she closed her eyes and felt her rapier materialize in her hands as she gripped onto it before charging out into the battle. Quickly charging out and blocking some gun fire with her shield of light, she quickly jumped up and threw her rapier into the head of one as it broke through the armor before she materialized another weapon, a battle ax. Screaming, she quickly brought it down onto the same mech as it smashed through the armor, killing the pilot and bringing it down as the two weapons disintegrated.

As she caught her breath, she felt something go past her face as a bullet cut her face before she realized that she had just jumped into the small concentration of the forces. As soon as their guns began to fire, she quickly took cover behind the fallen mech as she caught her breath for a moment. There were too many of them for her to even consider taking on, so it was time that she took to her last resort. "Help me take them out! I'll distract them!" She shouted over to the others as she quickly gave them the blessings of light before walking out and getting to her knees. On her knees, she began to chant something in an ancient language as a shield was raised around her, tanking the gunfire while she waited for support.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Cypher

Seeing the White Goddess pinned down, Cypher ran from his cover; he was exposed, but to him, the world was at a near standstill. Before the enemy soldiers could register that Cypher had revealed himself, he had already mapped out the most efficient motion to eliminate them. He unloaded nearly twenty rounds from his pistols, and twenty soldiers fell to the ground with a bullet through their right eye. Cypher spotted another soldier a few yards behind unclip a grenade from his belt and arm it. The grenade didn't even leave the soldiers hand; Cypher let loose a round that struck the grenade causing it to detonate, but with his powers, Cypher had aimed the bullet so that after being knocked slightly off course by the impact with the grenade, it continued on and killed another soldier.

Cypher retook cover and ejected the spent clips from his guns. While he was reloading, he spoke to the team over comms. "Goddess, stay aware of your situation. Dark Angel, conserve your energy, we don't know how many we're facing yet." Cypher analyzed enemies formation, and where they were advancing forces.

"Based on their troop movements and the number we've already seen, I think we're looking at around 90-100 foot soldiers and around 20 mechs; Be cautious."

[Lunas Legion]

Erin

Erin didn't bother scanning for cover as she jumped off the ramp, rifle held at the ready. She didn't need cover; nanites were inherently disposable, a bullet would simply chip away at the mass that were currently formed into the human shape of her combat chassis. A bullet tore through her, two, three, four. Expected, but ultimately fruitless. Nanites were destroyed, holes carved into her form, but that was how it is. Eventually they'd realise that bullets weren't working and they'd break out the grenades or missiles.

Regardless, she walked forwards, raising her rifle to lay down the occasional burst of suppressive fire. Nanites could be formed into ammunition after all, even if the process of firing did destroy them, so she had as much ammo as she had nanites left on her chassis. Nowhere near unlimited, but enough for this mission. Probably.

"Roger, gonna see what I can do with their mechs and comms." She spoke over the comms in an artificial voice. The mechs were piloted, which made this easier and harder; no AIs to fight, but no ability to take control. Even as her combat chassis continued its pattern of suppressive fire, she began to multi-task, scanning EM bands in the area for any sign of whatever communications hardware they were using. Once she'd found that, cracking whatever encryption they had on it would likely be only a matter of time.

[Korhal IVV]

The Dark Angel

"Affirmative, command.", the Dark Angel replied over the comms as he stabbed another of the soldiers with his witchblade with casual violence. Another mech reared itself towards the Dark Angel, but he slid beneath its legs and penetrated the underside with his force sword, cleaving it in half. "Oh...", he muttered to himself as he saw the mech's form crumple to the ground. "Should conserve energy.", he went on as he cast Soul Drain upon another soldier. The man screamed as he felt his very life force taken from him, before the corpse fell to the ground, lifeless.

Meanwhile, the Dark Angel's sorcerous constructs fought with undying vigor, reaping their foes as their swords crackled with otherwordly energies. Stellasir jumped on top of a mech, seemingly hacking away at it ineffectually, until another of the mechs turned towards them. The pilot within fired his heavy weapon, intent on destroying the soul spawned machine. Instead, it blew away at his own ally, as Stellasir jumped to safety just in time. Karathos jumped on a different mech and tore away its hatch, before stabbing its blade into the startled pilot. With the pilot within slain, the mech stumbled to the ground and never rose again. Machine gun fire could do nothing but scratch their inviolable forms so ineffectively, as only heavy grade weaponry can breach their armor.

[Higher Japan]

The White Goddess

"Got it" She acknowledge as she drew another rapier of light, getting up and immediately rolling for cover as she heard some gun fire behind her concrete cover. 3 troops, an easy target. As she sat in wait for them to run out and reload. The moment they stopped firing to reload, she took her chances and immediately charged forward. Jumping over her cover, she charged forward with feather light steps and quickly pierced the head of one as she turned him around his other friends, letting the body suck up the gun fire before throwing it towards them as she took another two steps before slicing their throats, letting their lifeless bodies fall to the ground as she sheathed her blade.

"I can't fight on the front for too long, I'll retreat to the back to offer support." She said through her communication link, jumping past a few more concrete covers before eventually coming to a somewhat remote area still within her range. Getting down on her knees, she held her hands together as she began to mutter and pray in an ancient language. Soon, the others would be healed and receive increased performance as a small shield surrounded her.

[Kenmoria]

Nyctos

Watching from a distance, Nytcos saw the fight being battled across his field of view. A mech turned and noticed him then prepared to fire a large, thermal detonation gun. A problem that was easily fixed; Nyctos covered the area in a sheet of darkness and ran as far as he could to one side. The mech's gun blast was launched harmlessly to his left and then walked towards him. Nytcos covered the pilot's area with another ball of shadow, blinding the unfortunate occupant, resulting in the metal body crashing to the floor. A spark nearly hit him in the side causing a twang of pain. A small price to pay for a complete mech destruction.

Quickly, another one approached with a thud like the sound of a clap of thunder. Nyctos covered it in a layer of darkness but the machine kept on going unstoppably. He realised they must have reacted to his earlier attack by making this one have laser lights. Those sorts of illumination were powerful enough to cut through the blackness, though it would cost thousands of dollars in electricity bills. Or, it would if the currency hadn't destabilised months ago. Still, they would have to run out of battery eventually. Increasing the darkness pressure soon rendered the lights useless. A bang, and Nyctos knew it was down. That said, he couldn't keep this up for ever, so he used nyctoportation, a Greek term he had coined for teleporting via the darkness, to perch on an outstretched piece of debris, to help with the battle below.

[Terranihil]

As Nyctos cast shadows and the Dark Angel's Automatas slashed through enemies, Gravita felt the healing powers of White Goddess affect her. Gravita charged forward, her invisible shield repelling any incoming fire in the opposite direction. Several soldiers ended up shooting each other because their rounds reflected off of the shield and into the bodies' of their fellow soldiers. Then 5 soldiers, 3 of them with rocket launchers, stood in front of her preparing to fire. Gravita knew her shield wouldn't hold up against 3 rockets, so she immediately dropped her shield and decreased the gravity on the soldiers; Consequently, it caused the soldiers to be launched straight up into the air. They screamed as they were lifted 3 stories off of the ground. Then Gravita increased the gravity while they were still in the air, causing the soldiers to smash down onto the concrete. The soldiers' screams went silent.

Several bullets flew past her, one slicing the leather padding on her shoulder. "Ah" It's only a scratch. she thought. She decreased the gravity on herself, which sent her flying into the air above the mechs and soldiers. She aimed her self directly above the hatch of one of the mechs. Then she increased the gravity on herself. She rocketed downwards with the force of a one ton block falling 40 feet. Her legs hit the metal hatch, causing it to crumple over the operator's head. Gravita hopped off the mech and behind cover near the White Goddess as she watch the mech trample over a soldier and then fall to the ground.

[IOTA Corp]

Prophet

A breach opened behind Cypher as Prophet finally arrived. "Sorry I'm Late, I made a wrong turn," He called out as he rushed forward and delivered a punch to the chest plate of an advancing soldier, causing him to fly backward with a dent in the middle of his chest. Dropping low to avoid a spray of fire, Prophet fired two blasts of energy from his hands in rapid succession. The targets were launched into the brick wall behind them and they fell unmoving to the ground. A fourth soldier advanced from behind, firing his pistol into Prophet's back, but they just hit the shifting form of the void armor and fell harmlessly to the ground. Prophet whirled around, grabbed the gun and pulled the assailant forward into a cocked fist. The blow knocked the man's helmet off, and he slumped down.

Another one of the very large battle mechs roared into the scene with a spray of machine gun fire. Prophet disappeared into the swirling recesses of a breach only to reappear a second later on the Mech's head. Void energy coalesced on Prophet's fists like tounges of blue fire and electricity. He brought both of his hands down together and the surroundings lit up bright blue as he fired a beam of energy down into the cockpit of the mech. The metal crumpled and melted and the pilot inside was eviscerated. The burnt-out husk of the mech clattered to the ground, and Prophet rushed off to engage a new group of enemies.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Cypher

"It's time to finish this fight," Cypher said into this earpiece. Sprinting from his cover, Cypher ran up the hood of a car and began leaping between pieces of rubble like stepping stones, and the occasional helmeted head of an enemy combatant. When Cypher reached his intended location, he jumped down and tucked into a roll, dodging fire from the group of soldiers which quickly surrounded him. He jumped up to his full height, and immediately disarmed the nearest soldier, and used him as a human shield. In a flurry of gunfire, and jumping swapping cover from man to man, The group quickly dwindled allowing Cypher to throw and shoot an explosive disk that took out the remaining men.

Cypher then turned his attention to his target, one of the mechs that The Dark Angel's automatons had cut the pilot out of, but had left relatively unscathed. Cypher clambered up to the cockpit hatch and pulled the body of the pilot out before dropping in himself. He quickly glanced at the controls, and his powers allowed him to learn how to operate the mech in a few fractions of a second. The Mech roared back to life, and Cypher called to the team over comms. "Everyone, take cover. Nycto, I need as much darkness as you can muster at my location." Cypher had memorized every detail of the war zone and calculated all possible outcome of the fight. As soon as the darkness was summoned, Cypher was going to systematically eliminate the soldiers and mechs with machine guns and missiles, respectively.

[Kenmoria]

Nyctos

"I need as much darkness as you can muster," the words were music to Nyctos' ears, and he happily obliged. It seemed like an odd tactical choice, most of the team would be blinked apart from maybe the white goddess, but he obliged anyway. A sheen of shadows fell across the battleground, painting the floor black. Then, Nyctos rose up the tendrils of blackness to cover even the tallest mech. Swirls of ink lept around the mech laser lights, overpowering them. It was very taxing, and around the edges some of the darkness was already bleeding away. "Whatever you're planning to do," he shouted to Cypher, "You might want to do it now."

[Higher Japan]

The White Goddess

"Darkness? What is he thinking." Immediately after hearing Cypher's order to Nycto to muster darkness at his location, she quickly began to increase the intensity and speed of her prayers as the others would still be able to see through the darkness with her blessings, eventually moving up to meet them with her range as the wings on her back opened up, the size of her blue wings increasing as she soared upwards, wings flapping as she released a burst of light which did not affect the darkness, but instead covered her in light so as to prevent the darkness from weakening her. Looking over at the bodies of the dead pilots, she clasped her hands together as she helped to cleanse the bodies of any remaining darkness that may have entered their bodies.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Cypher

"Alright, everyone stop moving and find cover." The darkness was totally blinding; the enemy soldiers and mechs were disorientated and unable to fight through the shadow, but Cypher didn't need to see. He swept the gun arm of the mech from target to target in the darkness. He timed the movement to the firing rate of the rotary cannon so that it always was firing by the time he brought it to bear on another target. One by one the enemy soldiers met their demise by the mech's gun. When Cypher aimed at an enemy mech, he fired a missile from the left arm which struck weak points on the other war machines. All that could be seen was the occasional spark of light from the muzzle of the gun.

When the darkness finally cleared, the only things standing were the Regents and Cypher's "borrowed" mech. Cypher climbed out of the hatch and nimbly jumped to the ground, rolling to absorb the impact. He looked around and surveyed the destruction. "Good job team, that's almost a two percent improvement in collateral damage." He turned and looked at the last remaining enemy mech. "Leave this one undamaged, maybe we can learn who our mystery attackers were."

The Military quickly approached from their defensive line, trying desperately to preserve some shred of competence. An officer broke free of the crew, and rather boldly approached Cypher. "Thank you for your assistance... Cypher, is it? We were just starting to turn the tide when you arrived; now if you'll stand down we'll take it from here."

Cypher studied the Officer's face and looked at the name stitched on his uniform. "Captain Montgomery, you have commanded over 13 defensive missions, and successfully led your men through the two years of the Bio-crisis. You took a bullet to your right thigh; the wound has healed, but it is still apparent by an ever so slight limp. Your lower back gives you trouble: you have an overly tense muscle in your jaw to show for it. You need contacts but refuse to wear them; probably because you don't like things touching your eye, and you ate some onions for dinner two nights ago."

The officer was obviously unnerved and tried in vain to hide it. "Your point?" he almost seemed to growl. "My point, Captain Montgomery, is that you are a man that has had his fair share of combat, and I am either too smart or too observant to be convinced by your bullshit. Your ranks were broken and you were holding on for dear life. We don't ask for payment for our help, but I would appreciate it if we were respected in the slightest by someone too incompetent enough to realize that they are, in fact, Incompetent." He took a small step towards the Captain. "We will be taking this mech for analysis. I hope that won't be a problem."

"I can't let you do that, Sir." He seemed to spit the words out like they were bitter in his mouth. "That mech is evidence in a military investigation."

"If we take it, we will be able to find out who tried to siege the capital."

"Don't worry, we know who launched this attack." Montgomery seemed rather smug.

"I don't think you'll share that information, will you?"

"It's classified. Now, you'll have to take your team and leave the scene, or I'll have to arrest you for interfering with a military investigation."

Cypher turned and walked back over to Erin and the rest of the team. "Erin, call back the Torus, we're going home." His voice didn't betray any anger or suspicion, but he motioned with his head and his hand for Erin to conceal one of the dropped rifles inside of her reconfigurable nanite form.

[Kenmoria]

Nyctos

Most of the darkness had gone, only a few tendrils survived within some of the wreckage left by the attack. With a thought, Nyctos recalled them into himself. They hit him with a slight thud but it was nothing like the blows he had received earlier. The military had arrived to follow some bureaucratic guidelines and look effectual but it appeared Cypher had at least managed to annoy the captain of the rubber bullet parade - a semi-affectionate name he had given to any military organisation who would have become dead if it wasn't for the Regents. Which nowadays meant all of them.

Everyone else was boarding the Torus so Nyctos followed suit into its entrance. Inside the nondescript boarding room served as a place to regroup and clean any weaponry. This served little function as the only weapon he had was a small pocket knife he kept in his back pocket, one he hadn't used in around four years. In some battles he would faint upon entering, usually ones were he used nyctoportation, but this one meant he had to use the room only as a small breathing space before heading inside to the main body of the ship.

[Lunas Legion]

Erin

It was all over so quickly. She'd had to fake reloading, then Nyctos' darkness had poured over everything and when it cleared the battle was over. She gave Cypher a simple nod as she reached out to the Torus' systems, their transport swiftly returning to where it originally had dropped them off.

On her walk over to the drop point, she stopped and crouched by the body of a deceased soldier, ostensibly to check to see if there was any unconcealed insignia as she rolled the body over and gave the back a glance, but in reality so that her leg, positioned over the fallen soldier's rifle, could absorb the rifle into it. The displaced nanites filled the gaps where bullets had torn through earlier, mimicking a healing factor. When the gun was fully within her leg, she stood, shook her head, and her combat chassis boarded the Torus.

[IOTA Corp]

Prophet

"Nice job guys," Nate remarked while looking at the destruction; which wasn't as bad as it had been in the past. He dropped the void armor and started walking back to the Torus. Unlike most of the other Regents, he didn't wear a uniform; instead, he elected to wear old blue jeans and a t-shirt. He strolled to the rear ramp of the ship when his eyes suddenly burst into blue flames.

Prophet reeled for a second, but then it looked like he came to his senses. He whirled around and fired a blast of blue energy at seemingly nothing, but at the last second, a soldier stepped out of cover just to be struck in the chest by the void blast. Nate looked over at Cypher, who had drawn his guns at the first notion of trouble, "Looks like you missed one." He chuckled as he finally boarded the dropship.

[The Cyberiad Council]

The Regents

Cypher rolled his eyes under his mask at Nate's antics, but the tinted glass didn't show it. He was the last one on board; Cypher walked up the rear ramp and pressed a button on the wall. The ramp closed, and the dropship launched skyward, breaking the sound barrier shortly after exiting D.C. airspace. The trip back to the base wasn't long with the incredible speed of the Torus. After about thirty minutes, the landing pad came into view. The aperture opened, and the ship lowered itself down into the base. After touching down, Cypher picked up the rifle and headed down the ramp. "I'm taking this to the lab. The rest of you have some downtime."

The majority of the base was subterranean, except for a ground-level entrance and the landing pad built into the top of a butte. It was quite large and included dozens of individual apartment-like rooms, several training facilities, indoor sports fields, laboratory spaces, superfluous armories, and some comfortable common areas. Cypher had directed millions of dollars from Daedalus Technologies to the base's upkeep, and it paid off. The base was stocked with state of the art technology, especially computer systems, much to Erin's enjoyment. Cypher used them to scan as many information sources as he could gain access to. The more raw data he had access to, the more he could "see" what was really happening in the world. He could nearly perfectly predict the stock market, crime patterns, weather patterns, etc.

He walked down a pristine hallway kept clean by a small army of cleaning robots, and he finally arrived at one of the laboratory areas. He placed the gun on a table with an LCD display, and the room's scanners began to analyze the gun's mechanics. Cypher took a deep breath, and under his mask, the amber glow faded from his eyes as he deactivated his powers. He winced as a small mental stab pierced his skull, a normal side-effect of his powers. He leaned heavily on the center table while the pain cleared. Straightening up, he slung off his coat and body armor, leaving him in a combat shirt and pants along with his seemingly ever-present mask.

[Korhal IVV]

The Dark Angel

As Il-Kaithe entered the base, he put the witchblade back into its sheath, and took of his mask. Karathos and Stellasir followed him around like ducklings to their mother. Their featureless faces and seemingly unetched forms seemed to evoke a feeling of dread and hauntedness in their wake, but if it did, the Dark Angel did not seem to notice. However, out of consideration, he sent the two back into the pocket dimension from whence they come, to be summoned only when needed. With that done, he walked back to his own quarters.

His "quarters" would look like a hybrid of a small library and a bedroom. Il-Kaithe was an avid reader, and only came out of his hidey-hole when he was called to cook or for combat briefing. Truly, he did not really speak all too much to the other Regents. We could say that he is the... loner amongst them. But in truth, the Regents were the only friends he made in at least a few years so far, and even if he does not say it, the others could probably deduce that the one they call the Dark Angel in their midst cares for them very much.

As he wasted away in his section, he looked back to the old days, when the Servioj family was still complete...

[Higher Japan]

The White Goddess

Upon returning to the base, the blue wings of the goddess quickly disappeared as the mechanical item on her back closed, the three blades on each side closing up into one each. Before they eventually converged into one single part, floating behind her. Walking into the base, she pulled her hood back as she took a few turns before coming to her living quarters. Entering it, she quickly tied her hair up into a ponytail as her mechanical item quickly mounted itself onto the wall.

Her living quarters were filled with various relics of light and cleansed darkness placed onto the shelves and massive display case, a sword even being hung up onto the wall. On the first shelve, the were many books on the writings of light and darkness by her master and the other goddesses, one book even being of her own personal writing. The rest held various artifacts, from jewelry, to armor to other relics, most were usually necklaces or pendants. Walking over to the mediation area, jewels levitated around the area as some had mechanical attachments to it before she began meditating, releasing an aura of light around the area of her quarters.

[Kenmoria]

Nyctos

The initial run-down of equipment completed, Nyctos decided to endulge in a electronic card game. He walked over to his living quarters, for that was where It was situated, and connected the power source. It was a version of solitaire with six suits instead of four and was an item he had purchased during the 2020s, in his youth. The sands of time had weathered it, of course, but not to the point where it's function was in any way impaired. At some point, Nyctks had attempted to start a tournament with the members of the Regent, one his incessant would make sure he would win - that idea ended along with his favourite jumper after a particularly dangerous mission he once went on.

One of the best things about solitaire, is it appears to have propoperties affecting time; when one engages with the pastime, the many minutes making up a day seem to fade into a blur. It was quite possibly the reason that card games became as popular as they were instead of remaining as an activity solely for characters in 4D Western movies. It was with this temporal property, a great deal of time passed before Nyctos noticed the room was covered in tendrils of shadow. Swearing, he quickly banished them. One of the downsides to his powers was that they could be rather uncontrollable cpdue to their mystic nature. Nobody, not even Cypher, could work out where the shadows came from. One of life's great mysteries.

[Terranihil]

Gravita

Gravita exited the Torus and walked to her room. Once inside, she raised her hand in the direction of the door which caused it to shut it. The walls of her room were decorated with posters of some of her favorite bands and movies, and she had an electric guitar hanging on the wall. She also had several heavy objects including a dumbell and a bowling ball on the floor. The ceiling and walls were covered in holes and dents caused by Gravita practicing her powers on the heavy objects. She turned on her mp3, which started blaring loud rock music through a large speaker. She changed from her black leather attire to more comfortable clothes and laid on her bed to relax from the stressful mission.

[IOTA Corp]

Nate, aka Prophet

Nate stood on the ramp and watched rather disappointed as the team all rushed off to their rooms, and Cypher off to the lab. They weren't the most social group, and they all carried their own prisons, especially Cypher. Nate had known him the longest of the other Regents, but it was like being friends with a completely aloof yet insanely intelligent cat. The group had their moments of warm and fuzzies, but they weren't all that common.

He walked to the kitchen and grabbed some food before walking to one of the training areas. He scanned the exposed rafters before opening the swirling mass of a breach around him. A second breach opened, and Nate stepped out onto the narrow piece of metal. He sat down and reclined on the rafter behind him. He liked to come in here to think, and sometimes just to sleep and relax. Nate shut his eyes, he knew they would have long before some other danger arose.

[The Cyberiad Council]

"...and in other news, economists celebrate what they are claiming is the 'restabilization of global currency'. The United Nations just implemented a new piece of global legislation that promises to bring some much-needed security to the issue that has hampered the spread of the Corporations..."

"...In other news, An attack aimed at the Capital of the United States by an unidentified force was repelled earlier today by the superhero group known as The Regents. Their defense was hailed as an act of patriotism as well as heroism by many of the group's fans, but it once again sparked calls for the organization to submit themselves to UN authority by the critics who view the group as nothing but vigilantes..."

Cypher turned on a television in the corner of the lab but was only half-listening at the endless drone of the computerized voice as it delivered the latest news stories. It was a channel sponsored by the United Nations to spread their globalist ideals. It was a good source of information, but it had a steep slant that could be easily glanced over if you weren't paying attention.

He turned his attention back to the gun and typed on a touchscreen keyboard. The room's powerful scanners peered deep into the weapon and gave a holographic recreation with readouts on the material composition and density, as well as the shape of the internals. None of the parts had any serial numbers or identifying marks; it was a black market weapon created by one of the more advanced tech companies. The rounds left in the magazine were likewise unmarked and could have come from nearly anywhere. He instead looked at the actual parts and tried to use the computer to try and reverse engineer the components to see if that could give him some clue as to what kind of milling equipment was used. It was unlikely that a Corporation would use a third party, and was also unlikely that two Corporations would have the same technique, granted that no corporate espionage was involved. Cypher cross-referenced the reverse engineering model against objects in the Regent's database, but it was unsurprisingly inconclusive. Growing frustrated, Cypher started looking for other ways to try and figure out where the weapon had come from.

A few hours passed, and the gun lay taken completely apart on the lab table. Cypher was about to give up and use his powers even though doing so would mean headaches for a few hours, but the hologram drew his attention to a few specks of sand in the corner of one of the parts. He furrowed his brow and scraped some of the granules into a test tube which he filled with a liquid medium. Placing the tube into a receptacle, Cypher watched as the computer analyzed the sand's chemical makeup.

"Bingo."

He did some extra research to confirm his suspicions, but he had a working theory for who had made the guns.

---

Cypher was in the briefing room preparing to call the regents but his phone broke him out of his focus. He glanced at the caller ID and quickly answered, "What is it, James?" James was the Regent's "liaison" with the United Nations; he was a good man, but the UN would replace him in a heartbeat if they could. He fully supported the Regents and tried to give them a hand whenever he could. The only reason he hadn't been replaced yet was that Cypher refused to work with anyone else. James was privy to many things his superiors didn't know, like where the Regent base was. He kept their secrets and the fact that he knew them, secret.

"Hey, Cypher, nice to talk to you too. The UN wants you to report to the International Observatory, and before you can ask, I don't know why. All they told me was that they've spotted an unidentified object nearing Earth's atmosphere."

"How important is it?"

"Apparently it's important enough for them to swallow their pride and ask you for help."

"I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I'll send someone."

"They asked you specifically."

"I'm not a dog that comes when called."

"I didn't say you were, but..."

"Will you be there?"

"Yes, I made sure they let me come. I'm boarding a plane now..." *beep* "Hello?" James asked into the phone's microphone. "Cypher? Damn it." James stuck the phone in his pocket and hurried to board the plane.

---

Cypher walked over to a computer screen built into the wall, and pressed the intercom button; "We have a gig, everyone get to the briefing room."