[Other FULL] Titans: A Superhero RP (T) (IC)

[Jay]

"Jobs to be done already? I suppose it's nice to cut out the need to search."


Bad Dreams​

​

"Eddie!"

Edward looked around gently. His movements felt sluggish, his neck was stiff and he couldn't see anything, he could only hear. Was his mask on? He reached to his face but he felt nothing but his own flesh against flesh. He didn't have his gloves either, in fact there was no costume to be found. Only casual wear. But that didn't matter, someone called him by that old nickname... what a familiar voice. Whom was that?

"Eddie please, help us!"

His eyes widened, still unable to see. He rushed blindly in the direction of the cries. His footsteps made no sound at all. No waves were sent to scan the surrounding area. But the voice grew louder, so progress was made. It was like running in pure darkness, no solids to bounce the noise. He called out, making some noise to hopefully help him find here, he knew whom this was, he knew all too well.

"Mom... Mom, where are you?!"

He cried and his voice hit nothing, not a single wave came back except. A small few, barely audible but they hit off a surface, bodies. Static bodies. He knew the sound all too well. He continued to shout, he knew he was getting closer.

"Big brother... it hurts... please..."

He moved faster and aster, desperately his movements became rabid, desperate. He couldn't stop moving at all. He had to save them, he had to do something. He couldn't let them die, he couldn't. He was meters away from them now, feet, inches... bodies on the floor and a single body standing over them. It was hurting them. He had to save them. He grabbed the standing finger by the neck and held them skywards, aggression coursing through him as he glared that person down. His breath bounced off of this person, the sound of the small droplets illuminating the face. His Father, this was his father, it had to be. It was his fault. He had ruined everything.

"B-Big... gack... b-bro..."

Edward froze. The neck between his throat was thin and feminine. The World illuminated around him and his eyes gazed upon the desperate face of his little sister. He felt her fade away into darkness... and then their was nothing but silence.

Edward gripped his hair and tugged harshly, screaming into the abyss.

***​

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Edward Trayton lurched forward in his bed as the gentle morning light crazed across his bed. He had slept until morning for once, that was rather rare. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and placed his hands on his face as he sat on the edge of the bed. He hated those damned nightmares. The worst part was that every time he was unable to realize, to see that it was all just a dream. Every time they tricked him into thinking he had a chance to save his family and every time they proceeded to remind him that he himself killed them. Not literally, but Edward had always blamed himself.

If he had confronted his Father about the superhero business... even if he had just arrived home a little earlier.

Edward sighed gently and stood up, he was wearing the same attire from yesterday. There was no use in dwelling on the past, he thought, doing so would only make the nightmares worse.

He picked up his jacket and pants, his superhero gear. He went to a cabinet hidden in his wall and pulled out a locked silver briefcase, he input the combination quickly, it was easy to remember. The case opened with a satisfying click and Edward removed and holstered his high voltage knife, on the other side of the open case, he removed his mask and held it in his hand as he moved to leave the bedroom.

He looked at the tranceiver on his bedside locker and grunted, turning away from it and heading to his kitchen.

Placing his mask on the kitchen table. He had a bowl of cereal, Edwad Trayton wasn't a super hero, Renegade was. Edward Trayton liked cereal, even if it seemed a little too "normal" to think about.

Grabbing the remote control, Edward flicked on the television and checked the news as he did every morning. What he saw did not surprise him.

"Breaking news today, we have word from multiple unnamed sources that the Champions have indeed disappeared!"

So it had finally happened eh? The public was informed. Que a massive increase in crime all over the city. There was positive and negative aspects to this. On one hand, more crime meant more innocent casualties. This was bad. But it also made it easier to pinpoint and capture the cities criminals. Which was good. He had seen enough after a few minutes of Titan discussion, so Edward turned the television off and stood from his chair. He held the bow of milk, now devoid of cereal and proceeded to the sink... but when he got there.

"Mew..."

The scampering of paws on his apartments glass sliding door. He turned to see a pair of fairly ragged white paws on an otherwise all black cat sliding up and down the surface of that same glass entrance. This was Socks. One day Renegade had rescued him from a tree during his first few days of attempting the Superhero thing. It had seemed incredibly silly at the time, but Renegade wanted to do silly before anything else. He had built himself up for the big crimes with small and insignificant tasks.

However upon calling the number posted on the missing pet signs, Edward had gotten no response. Not a peep from anyone. He tried addresses, e-mail and a variety of other things but nothing worked. Eventually Renegade just opted to dump the thing in an alley and be done with it. However the next morning after the night he abandoned the animal it had been there, at that sliding glass door, scampering and mewling like made.

He had to admit, it's dedication was admirable, because after three morning of nothing... Edward had finally given in and given the small cat the leftovers of his morning cereal. This was, essentially, how the murderous antihero Renegade obtained his pet cat.

No he did not name the creature "Socks". That had been on the missing pet poster.

Opening the sliding door with a sigh, Renegade grimaced as Socks rubbed against his legs. He quickly placed the milk bowl on the ground for the animal before heading inside and shutting the door behind him.

***​

Edward had placed his mask on and now Renegade came out to play. He quickly used his chi enhanced agility to jump and climb his way up to the roof of his apartment building, hooking himself onto window sills and chips on the familiar wall. The tranceiver sat on his wrist and mere moments after he had started playing with it, it flashes and began to display information. A list of objectives was shown on the screen, presumably this was his "champion duty" for the day. He looked up and down the long list of activities and settled on one that looked doable for a man of his talents, yet not too difficult since he really wasn't in the mood for unnecessary hassle.

He settled on one that looked very doable.

"- Richard Wells, a prominent businessman, has been kidnapped for ransom. His killer left a note demanding ten million dollars in the man's home in Cape Royale."

Renegade had heard of Wells. He was some big wig whom sat on piles of money and made very large amounts of money for very little amounts of effort. In a city like Hyperia it was fairly obvious to see something like this coming. Still, his opinion on the client be damned, this was work and it was easy work too. Just some non-powered human, probably with some lackies around for protection. Easy stuff.

He put his wrist down and stepped forward. Taking a mental note of the direction of Cape Royale. Running and jumping a short distance to the next rooftop, Renegade set out for work.

 

[Pkmn Trainer Butthead]

Theo "Proto" Allen
(With GreyBidoof as Binary)​

As the sun set, Binary rode the elevator down to the lobby for what he hoped would be the last time that evening. He was expecting one more arrival, one that he hoped to find waiting for him at his current destination. He was not disappointed. As the doors slid open, he noticed a figure in a metallic suit sitting on one of the nearby couches.

Ah, our last recruit has finally arrived, he thought to himself.

Walking up to the still-seated man, he spoke. "Well, you must be Mr. Allen. I am Binary, no doubt you are here because of the message I sent. If you don't mind, I will skip the pleasantries, and keep this exchange short. I understand you were delayed, but most of the others have already left, and I have much work to do before tomorrow.

Proto rose to his feet in the presence of Binary, as he was always taught to respect his superiors, and Binary was the man when it came to the Champions. Proto shook Binary's hand, and listened to Binary's speech.

Binary briefed Proto just as he had the others before him, albeit using a small, floating holographic display in place of a computer screen. As he concluded, he looked at his audience, unable to determine his reaction. "Well, I had better be back to work. Be sure to make your decision soon, as I foresee the current peace will not last much longer. With that, he turned back towards the elevator, and strode away.

Proto had quickly made up his mind, erasing any doubt of going rogue and sticking with the people that would keep him alive. Proto watched Binary walk away, and kicked himself for not asking for advice. Proto walked up to receptionist he had met just a short moment ago, and requested his transceiver.

Proto was given the transceiver, and after a short description on how to use it, Proto was given the device. It was a wristwatch, which wouldn't fit around Proto's thick metal exoskeleton. He would have to figure something out, until then he placed the device in a pocket compartment on the exoskeleton. Proto pressed a finger on a button on the side of his head, activating the suit's communication device.

" Call Dr. Phillips," Proto commanded the suit.

"Calling Dr. Phillips," the suit's robotic voice chimed to Proto.

"Hello Proto, your business done with the Champions," Dr. Phillips asked politely.

" Yes, looks like I got a wrist watch, going to have to program to have this transceiver to work with my exoskeleton. The watch doesn't fit," Proto explained.

" Well, I'll get on it once we are back at the lab, I am just pulling out front of the Champions' Headquarters right now," Dr. Phillips informed Proto.

" Alright, I'm leaving the building," Proto retorted.

Proto walked outside to see the van pull up out front. Proto climbed into the back of the van, and took a seat.

"So how was it," Dr. Phillips asked.

" They weren't mad at me for being late, there's a plus," Proto joked.

Dr. Phillips turned himself around and drove away from the Headquarters, and started driving towards the laboratory.

 

[Ice1]

James 'Smiley' Abney
Self-duplication​

Headlines​

James turned the page of the newspaper. The front page was filled with the news of the Champions disappearing. CHAMPIONS MISSING! HYPERIA DOOMED? Read the front page, and a big picture of the portal was included. It was filled with speculation, and it seemed to repeat that no-one knew what was happening. On the second page was more speculation, but this was aimed at who would keep the city safe. The articles seemed to be scared of a rise in vigilantism, but they also talked about the strange activity at the Champions headquarter. I hope that didn't make too much noise, Smiley though. A mysterious van had shown up in front of the building. He did not know who arrived in a fan. Another article called "Wolverines?" described animal cries of exotic animals heard around the headquarters. That would've been one of the shapeshifters. Crikey, why would anyone make a bank so confusing? He thought. It seemed that he had gone unnoticed enough to not end up in the papers.

He jumped behind the counter. The robbers had spotted him. He had silently taken down one of them, but he stumbled upon them when he took a turn and ended up in a room he did not expect. These robbers were extremely silent. He split himself, keeping one of his bodies on the ground, while the other jumped up. He took a spray of bullets, and went up in dust. It seems like they are not afraid to use lethal force. They reacted confused.
"What the hell was that? He just disappeared!" One of the thugs exclaimed.
"Check the corner for others," another answered, they might be with more. James had prepared himself. He stood with nine of him, ready to outnumber the guy. He had decided on just brute forcing the fight. He would've loved to take them out silently but his abilities conflicted with his way of handling. Brute forcing his way to take them down would be a better approach. The thug came around the corner, and gave a high pitched squeal, as he saw nine men in suits with Smiley masks in front of him.
"Good day, chap, it seems we meet in unfortunate circumstances," James said, and pulled the gun out of the thugs hand. "It seems we outnumber you severely, I do not recommend resisting," he said and he hit him on the nose, knocking him out. The other thugs came running towards the noise, guns loaded. James prepared himself, and turned the page of the newspaper.

It was really nothing but pages filled with crime and superheroes. He was used to some news about it, but this took new heights. At that moment, his transceiver began to ring. "Smiley, this is Binary. There is a serious incident that needs to be dealt with." It looked like he had to leave again. One of the duplicates at the bank should go, as those were suited up already.

It was now eight of him, which were fighting the thugs. He had send one of him off, reacting to the transceiver message. In the bank, bullets were flying through the air. He was slowly driving them back. It would be easiest for him to just take the hits until they ran out of bullets, which would be quite fast. Every time one of his bodies went up in dust, he'd send another one round the corner. Sometimes he waited a second, to suggest that it was just a big army of men dressed in suits, wearing hockey masks, instead of being one man duplicating himself. The bullets piercing him hit hard every time, but luckily the pain disappeared as soon as the bodies did. The rain of bullets dried out quickly, though, as they ran out of ammunition. It now came down to hand to hand combat, which was more in James's area of expertise. They used their guns as bats, and James carefully parried every hit. It did not take him long to get the overhand on the four thugs, especially because he could fight them two on one. The criminals were clearly trained in combat, however. They moved quickly, and constantly kept their guard up. They did not show openings that often, but James took every opportunity he got. He got a lot of hits in because he outnumbered them, and they couldn't defend against every hit. They were quite quick, and they moved around a lot. They jumped on counters, and launched themselves against walls, which was a fighting style James wasn't very familiar with. He had taken three of them down. It did not take long, but it was more exhausting than James liked to admit. He had driven the last thug to the ground, while he held on tightly to the other three.

James had come to the final page of the newspaper. It was economic news. He was interested in the workings of the economic market, but with the way he lived, he would not be able to invest. It was a good day for people that invested in Japanese companies, as they finally seemed to come back from the attack they had suffered by that huge lizard. Stocks for anything Hyperia-based were down though. He put the paper down, and as he did so, he felt his leg break.

He held the last thug tightly. He needed two bodies to get him to completely lay still. One of him had already started binding the others thugs together. The last one seemed to be a real fighter, though. James assumed he had taken them down, that they'd see they wouldn't get anywhere from here anymore, that they had lost. The last man standing did seem to think differently, as he kicked James in his leg, with full force, shattering the bone. James punched the man right on the nose, knocking him out, the same way he did with the first thug.
"Hasn't your mother taught you to not break bones? No bloody manners." He searched the room for a sharp object, or a heavy blunt one. He saw a fire extinguisher, hanging on the wall in the hallway, and rushed towards it. With it, he stood over his body with the leg broken. He aimed. It had to be a good hit, otherwise he would not enjoy it. He prepared himself, and let the fire extinguisher come down with his full body weight behind it.

 

[Groc]

Luna Greenwood, Star Gazer
First Day on the Job

Luna takes a breath to steady herself, holding her phone in one hand and a nebulous cloud of starlight in the other. Her door is locked, her curtains drawn, and there's no chance she'll be interrupted. "Okay... go!"

She starts the stopwatch on her phone, dropping it to free up her hands. She quickly sheds her clothes, slipping into her costume as quick as she can. The spandex and leather are easy enough, and while she ties up her hair tendrils of Hard Light grab her armor and affix it to her. She fastens her helmet on, grabbing the phone to stop the clock.

"48 seconds! Not bad. I can get suited up in less than a minute." She looks herself over, noticing that her breastplate is on backwards. "More or less. There's room for improvement!" She turns on the TV and flips it over to the news while she fixes her armor.

"Good morning, and welcome to the Morning News. I'm your anchor, Sunny Sydup. Our top story this morning: we have word from multiple unnamed sources that the Champions have indeed disappeared!"

Luna pauses from working on a stubborn buckle to pay attention.

"While the potential for an upswing in crime is certainly worrisome, police are requesting that concerned citizens refrain from acts of vigilantism. Our heroes may be temporarily out of commission, but please, don't start going after criminals on your own."

Luna nods, going back to her armor. "Don't start, she says. Luckily, I've already started. And I won't be on my own, I've got the rest of the Junior Champions on my side!" With her costume complete, she grabs her 64-ounce coffee cup, already halfway empty.

Just as she's about to refill her cup, her transceiver rings, signaling an emergency. Or rather, over a dozen emergencies, going by the list. "Wow. Word travels fast." Small icons, no doubt representing her fellow Champions, start appearing on the list. Already the team was jumping at the call! "This is Star Gazer. I'll head for the Bridge, rescue the jumper."

She runs outside, leaping into the air and flying toward the Bay. It won't take long, considering her proximity to the waterfront. I should come up with a catch phrase, something cool to shout as I take off...

 

[Sir Bastian]

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Quantum | Louder Than a Bomb

​

A deep sigh escaped Quantum as she stared up at the ceiling from her bed. The day had barely begun, but for some reason, she had way more energy than usual, and no way to really spend it all. She'd already been up for two hours, but hadn't even left her room in that time. Her morning had consisted of checking her transceiver, turning on her computer, checking her transceiver, quickly skim-reading a couple of articles in one of her new magazines, transceiver again, and so on, so forth.

Okay, look, calm down. Just because you -just- got the transceiver doesn't mean Binary is going to call you the very next day. He needs to sort things out with all of the other new... uh, Champions-in-training, I guess. Just... go do something else.

She took a deep breath of air before swinging her legs off of her bed, hopping to her feet, bouncing a little on the spot to try to expel the excess energy. After shaking her head briefly, she stepped over to her PC and pulled her chair back, taking a seat. The concentrated, pink-ish energy that made up her eyes behind the goggles of her suit closed as she seemingly took another breath of air, slowly 'releasing' it, though no air was even moved by the action.

Just as she reached for her mouse, the transceiver she had put on the desk besides where she'd docked her Outer Suit chimed up, barely going for two seconds before Quantum had scrambled out of her chair, almost knocking it over in the process as she quickly picked up the device, pressing the button on the side to receiver whatever it was Binary (She assumed) was sending her.

"Quantum, do you copy?" Binary's voice came through the device, tinged with an electronic tone.

"Yep, I'm-" She began, almost dropping the device for a brief moment in her haste, before clearing her throat and bringing it up to her lips. "I'm here, Binary! What's up?"

"We have a situation in Suburbia. A previously unknown terrorist sect has planted various bombs around the residential area, and they demand the city be handed over to them in return for it's safety. I need you to get over there, and locate the bombs, then defuse them. I've already traced the location of the first device, but I won't be able to find the rest in time. I'm uploading the coordinates to your transceiver."

She pressed her lips together, her grip on the transceiver tightening a little. This was it. She'd been waiting for this for a long time. "Got it, I'll go take care of them! Uh, Quantum out!" she pulled the device away and fiddled with the buttons on the side, before managing to hang up the call.

Okay, here we go! Time to show Binary and the Champions what I can do! She thought to herself as she put down the transceiver and quickly stepped over and into her Outer Suit, which began closing up in her back, sealing her up properly. I've just gotta find these bombs and... uh, defuse them. And I only know where one of them is... and there're terrorists involved.

Her train of thought paused as the suit finished sealing up. She grabbed the transceiver, strapped it to her arm (With the help of it being stretchable thanks to Hilda) and hurried out her door, shooting past the doctor, who was currently reading a newspaper at his lab table, lifting his head to say something. He didn't even manage to get a word out before she was gone though, and he simply shrugged and went back to reading.

After taking the elevator up through the underground lab and into the house itself, she made sure nobody was watching before shooting into the sky, heading straight for the city. Okay, calm down Q. It'll be okay. You just gotta focus on one thing at a time. You know where one bomb is, and that's a good start!

She kept trying to calm her nerves mentally as she checked the transceiver on her wrist, glancing down at the city to locate where the bomb was, exactly. After a good ten minutes of flight, she managed to locate where Binary had marked on the map within her transceiver; a rather normal-looking house with a red-tile roof, and a rather large garage.

Slowing down, Quantum carefully descended before landing gently and almost soundlessly in front of the house in question. She checked her marker again to make sure this was the place. Alright, so... this is definitely the place. How would they have put a bomb inside of a house like this without anyone noticing, though?

She glanced over at the garage besides the house and narrowed her eyes before marching towards it. Raising a hand, she flexed her metal-clad fingers, coming to a stop in front of the door. She lifted her arm, pulling it back before slamming it against the gate, causing it to collapse in a heap on the floor inside of the garage.

The two men who were inside were both seemingly middle-aged, wearing black balaclavas, wearing what looked like a rather simple bullet-proof vest, but otherwise normal clothing, and carrying a pair of military-grade machine-guns. As soon as Quantum knocked down the door, however, they both jumped up, one having been kneeling next to a barrel, both of them grabbing their guns and aiming them at Quantum with wide, panicked eyes.

"An alien!"
"A robot!"

They both cried out at the same time, taking a moment to glance at each other, quickly looking back at the metallic heroine, who raised her hands, palms facing the two, the rings on them pulsating softly as she spoke. "Stand down! I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to!"

One of the guys leaned towards the other and muttered "It's cool, it's just a girl in some sort of armor. The boss told us that these guns could penetrate almost any kind of metal!"

The other one looked slightly more at ease, though the both of them still looked rather unsure. He leaned over towards the other guy. "Okay, but... are we just going to shoot her? Just... like that? I dunno if I can do that."

The first guy sent his friend a glare. "Kevin, we practiced with the guns for a reason! You told the boss you'd be cool with this plan!"

"Well yeah, but I didn't imagine I'd be shooting anyone, Derrick!" Kevin said back, their muttering having turned into a full-fledged shouting. "Boss said we'd set up the bomb and then get out of here!"

While they were arguing, Quantum shifted her weight from one foot to the other, glancing between the two a little uncertainly. Her first, big hero moment was kind of stunted when the two began bickering, and she wasn't quite sure what to do now.

"Look, if you're gonna be like that, then let me take care of this." Derrick growled back at Kevin before returning his attention to Quantum, leveling his gun with her torso once again. "Alright, look missy! You've got exactly ten seconds to back off before we open fire, and SWEET JESUS!"

A blast of purple energy had just shot past Derrick and blown a small hole in the wall of the garage behind him, giving a nice view out to the backyard. The two men looked terrified, and if it wasn't because of Quantum's helmet covering up everything but her eyes, they would've seen the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

She hadn't meant to shoot, but the suddenly adrenaline-rush from things starting to happen again, had made her energy a little hard to control. Slowly snapping out of her frozen state, she began speaking. "... You..." She kept trying to think of a good way to continue the sentence from there, but came up short, instead slowly coiling her hand into a fist, snapping it over to point it at Derrick, who instantly dropped his rifle and threw his hands into the air, Kevin doing the same quickly thereafter.

"... Should... know better than to... ah, challenge one of Hyperia's new heroines!" Okay, there we go. Nice save. Now just keep it cool, keep going. She breathed in and out a few times before taking a step closer, still pointing at Derrick. "Tell me where the other bombs are! And where this boss of yours is hiding! Or I'll-"

"54th Grove Street, 29th Baker's Place, Jerry's seven-eleven and the boss is hiding out in the big, white mansion at the cliffs overlooking the bay!" Kevin quickly rambled off, leaving Quantum blinking a little in surprise. Wow. I guess I'm better than I thought! Alright, time to knock them out and get Binary to call the police for a pickup.

Stepping forwards, the two threw up their hands even higher, but Quantum simply grabbed them by their collars, lifted them up and slammed them together and dropping them on the ground, out cold. For a second, she glanced between the two, tapping a finger against the mouth-cover of her helmet. "Oh, uh... I hope that didn't cause any real damage. Erh. Sorry."

Quickly moving on, she noticed the device strapped to the barrel at the back of the garage, next to the hole in the wall. Oh crap, the bomb! I almost forgot about it[i/] She hurried over to it and knelt down, looking at the various bits of wiring, buttons and... well, everything. After a solid minute of staring at it, she slapped her hand against the side of her helmet. "What am I doing? I have no idea about bomb defusal!"

Quickly moving up her transceiver, she patched herself into Binary's frequency (She hoped), trying to get through to him. "Binary? Binary, come in, I need your help!"

"I read you Quantum," the device spoke back. "What do you need?"

"Well, I, uh... I found the bomb! But I'm not exactly a... bomb expert. How do I diffuse it? It's like... hooked up to a barrel and looks like something out of a movie."

"Alright, do exactly as I say. First, remove the metal plate covering the wires just below the countdown timer."

Quantum nodded and slowly, very carefully, did as Binary told her to. After a few tense moments and deciding which wire to snap, she finally managed to defuse the bomb, resulting in her letting out a held-back sigh of relief, lifting the transceiver up again.

"That did it, Binary! And I know where the rest of the bombs are, so I'll go take care of them right away. There were two... guys, here. Uh, terrorists, I guess. Although they didn't really act much like it, to be honest." She commented, glancing down at the two unconcious men.

Binary's voiced responded, sounding slightly more relieved. "Good work. I'll arrange for somone to pick them up. You've got to get to the rest of the bombs, before we run out of time here. Don't worry, you'll do fine, just make sure do the same with others as you did this one. I'll see you back at HQ when this is over."

A light smile spread on her lips and she nodded firmly once again. "Alright, got it boss! Quantum over and out!"

The next fifteen minutes was spent flying from location to location, given out by the man she'd knocked out, disabling the bombs. Thankfully, there weren't any guys guarding the other sites, all of which were oddly suburban, minus the one seven eleven. Quantum figured that the reason she ran into those two, was that they were the last ones to set up the bomb, whereas the other teams had already finished at that point.

Once she'd dealt with the bombs, there was only one place left to go. Quantum dove straight up into the air, hovering in the skies above the suburbs as she scanned the horizon towards the coast. Spotting the largest, white mansion near the cliffs, she narrowed her eyes and flew towards it. That -had- to be the place.

The building was -very- modern. Overlooking the bay, very angular in three stories with many floor-to-ceiling windows here and there, along with a huge driveway, in which several cars were parked.

"Alright, here we go." she muttered quietly, before letting herself plummet, feet-first towards the building's entrance hall.

As she crashed through the roof, sending debris and rocks scattering everywhere on the otherwise modernistic, equally white floor, Quantum landed firmly on her feet. The mansion was just as fancy and modern inside as it was outside. Large paintings, a massive fireplace, a -very- large, open room that was at least two stories in and of itself.

The thing that stood out from the room, however, were the several masked guys, looking alot like the other men she had faced earlier, with their vests and automated guns, with regular clothes underneath, standing around. There were about eight of them, and as soon as she came crashing down, they all whipped around to look at what had happened. Some of them drawing their guns and aiming them at her, some seemingly too stunned to be able to react.

As the group of terrorists and Quantum stared each other down silently, a deep, slightly raspy voice came through the speakers of the mansion, which must've normally been used for listening to music.

"A visitor. That's very unexpected. Who might you be, and why are you crashing through my ceiling, scaring my colleagues?"

Quantum kept herself in her ready-stance, hands clenched to fists, staring down the men aiming at her. "My name's Quantum, and I've disabled all of your bombs!" Several of the men glanced between each other, but kept their aim on her. "Now it's time for you all to come quietly and -not- blow up a large chunk of the city."

The voice from the speakers laughed for a brief moment, coldly. "You disarmed all of our bombs? We've barely managed to set them up. Very impressive, but I'm unconvinced of your abilities. You don't even know why we -did- set up the bombs, do you?"

"Bin- I do! You wanted to take over the city!"

"Uhuh. And why do we want to take over the city?"

Quantum paused, blinking a few times. "I- uh. Money and power?"

The voice sighed, and you could almost hear him shaking his head through the sound system. "This is exactly the issue. Nobody in charge -thinks- anymore. We're trying to make this city a better place, -that's- what we're doing. The economy, the government, the police force, everything is corrupted to the point that it doesn't work anymore!"

"What do you mean? Majority of people are happy, from what I've seen, and it's not like you can make everyone happy at once. There's bound to be some unhappy people!"

It sounded like the man behind the voice got up and began pacing, wherever he was. "That's not the point, though. The system just straight up doesn't work. More and more people are becoming 'unhappy', if that's what you want to call it. Factory workers are fired, business are being ruined, people are going bankrupt. Immigrants, outsourcing, incompetence within the management, loan sharks, rich people taking advantage of anyone who -isn't- rich. There are holes and tricks that people are abusing, and the man on the street is the one taking the fall for it."

He took a pause, breathing quietly, a finger tapping against a hard surface. "And now you've disarmed our bombs, so the cycle can continue. I cannot allow that to happen. Open fire."

All at once, the terrorists opened fire, spraying bullets at the armored woman in front of them. After a good, solid minute of firing, some of them lowered their weapons to see if they managed to take down the would-be hero.

Quantum had lifted her arms to cover her face and torso out of pure reflex, slowly lowering them down once they had all stopped firing. She blinked a few times and looked at her metallic arms, the bullets having only scratched the suit a little. She broke into a smirk behind her helmet and turned to stare down the now rather anxious-looking men. Turns out I -am- bulletproof. Thanks, doc.

In one quick movement, she shot forwards in a blue of black and purple, grabbing one of the men by the collar, spinning around and flinging him into one of his friends. They all seemed to snap out of their daze and began quickly reloading their weapons. Quantum didn't wait, however, and flew straight towards another guy, slamming her fist into his gut, which sent him almost flying backwards and onto the floor with a loud "HURK!".

A couple of the men had reloaded their weapons and began firing once again, though this time, Quantum was less worried about the bullets, and she proceeded to grab the nearby, blocky, blue couch and pull it over her head, proceeding to throw it at two of the guys currently backing away from her, which slammed into them, knocking them out underneath it.

The three remaining guys spread out as much as they could, but Quantum was already on her way to the next guy. He took aim once more, just as she raised her arm, clotheslining him on her way past, sending him straight to the ground. Spinning around, she raised her right hand and sent a quick blast of purple energy from her palm into the chest of one of the two guys left, making sure to have given it as little power as she could. It proved effective, in that it only seemed to send him into the wall behind him and then onto the floor, his vest smoking a little from the impact.

She turned to face the remaining guy who was nervously aiming his weapon at her, eyes wide behind the mask. Slowly, she raised her fists in front of her, pushing one foot slightly in front of the other, as if preparing to box with him. "Ready to see if what your boss pays you is worth it?" She couldn't help but grin behind the helmet, thoroughly enjoying her new 'job' at the moment.

The guy seemed to weigh his options before slowly lowering his gun onto the floor, and then proceeding to get on his knees and onto the floor, splaying his limbs out as if he'd been knocked out. Quantum stood up straight and dusted her metallic hands off against each other. "Yep, that's what I thought. Now, where to find your boss..." she muttered, glancing up at the second story balcony overlooking the room.

"... Second floor, last door on the right." Came the meek response from the guy she'd just 'knocked out'. Quantum leaned down and gave him a pat on the head. "Thank you."

Floating up into the middle of the room, she moved over and landed softly on the balcony with a light 'thunk' from her suit. Looking down the hallway, she saw a door that must lead to some sort of office. With purpose in mind, she strode towards it, and once she reached it, she pulled her hand back and knocked it once against the wood, making it collapse inward.

The room on the otherwise was definitely an office. Bookshelves, a desk, a couple of monitors and three floor-to-ceiling windows. One behind the desk, one on the left and one on the right, as well as a skylight in the roof. In front of the desk was what looked like the other bombs she'd found, though strapped to a metallic box rather than a large barrel. A man in a dark-red suit was sitting behind the desk, wearing a carnival mask of what seemed to be a puma. He had his fingers folded together, staring straight at her.

"Figures they couldn't take you out. That armor of yours doesn't seem quite... swat-standard. No matter." He raised his hand and snapped his finger. In a split-second, she heard the sound of a weapon cocking, quickly turning to the right, just in time to see another guy in a gorilla mask with a shotgun, aimed square at her. Before she could react, he fired the weapon into her chest, the surprise of the moment and the force sending her backwards, through the window and into the bushes below, glass shattering everywhere.

"Looks like that armor wasn't up to snuff with a military-grade shotgun, eh chief?" The man in the gorilla mask said, glancing over at the man in the suit, shouldering his shotgun. The man in red was about to say something, before they both looked at the shattered window, where Quantum was now hovering, the purple lines on her suit glowing and pulsating a firm purple.

The gorilla-guy only managed to pull the shotgun from his shoulder before Quantum had flown forwards and sent her fist straight into his cheek, almost causing him to cartwheel in the air before slamming against the ground. "Looks like hired help isn't that easy to get these days, hmm?" She commented.

Turning to the panther-masked man, she took a few, quick steps closer as he stood up, holding up a finger. "Ah, please wait a moment."

Quantum wasn't in the mood for waiting, however, as she simply stepped around the desk and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up into the air and pulling her right hand back. "Give me one reason I shouldn't just punch your nose into the back of your head and hand you over to the police."

"Mrgh... very violent, aren't you?" He commented, writhing a little in her grip, his right hand holding her hand to keep himself somewhat upright. "Well, ah... you didn't seem to react well to the fact that we're just... outcasts, seeing a flaw with the system and trying to fix it..." He began. Quantum's fist tightened, which he noticed, clearing his throat quickly.

"So, ah, instead, let me just say this. I -always- have a backup plan." With that, he lifted an item in his left hand, which looked like a remote control to a garage door, pressing a red button on it. The metal box with the panel on top of it in front of the desk let out a loud beep, which caught Quantum's attention, quickly looking back at him. "What'd you do?! Deactivate it!"

The man, now seemingly alot more calm, let out a huff. "I and my brethren are prepared to die for our cause, if only to sow chaos into the government's ranks. Beat me all you want, it cannot be defused now."

She growled and let him go, stepping to the other side of the desk, kneeling down at the bomb. "Fine. I know how to disable these! I'll just open the panel and-"

Pausing, she stared at the device in front of her. It wasn't like the others. It had a countdown timer, but no visible way of opening it. No wires sticking out, no buttons, nothing. All in all, it looked alot more professional than the other ones.

"As you can see, this is slightly higher tech' than the other bombs we placed around town. You know. Just in case." The man continued, straightening out his suit, all the while Quantum was fiddling with the box, trying to open it. "Now, the only way to prevent -that- from blowing up everyone in here, which I'm assuming you don't want to happen... is to use that handy flight of yours to get it out of here. Unless you have super-speed as well?"

She looked up, glaring at the smug-looking man. Or, panther-headed man, who was -probably- looking very smug behind the mask. Looking between him, the bomb and the skylight. Clenching her fists, she knew that she had no other options than that, despite how much she hated him for forcing her to choose.

Quickly grabbing the bomb, she got to her feet and shot upwards, through the skylight, sending a shower of glass into the middle of the floor, leaving the man in the panther-mask and red suit behind.

She shot straight upwards, carrying the bomb between her hands, trying to calm her chaotic thoughts, all the while checking the timer, which was now only on twenty seconds. She couldn't fly horizontally, if the blast was as big as she thought it would be, so she did the only thing she -could- do. Fly up as high as she could and make sure it didn't hurt anyone.

Damnit! How did I let him trick me like that?! I had him right where I wanted! What a mukty start to a first day...

She decided to give herself a boost upwards, the purple-pulsating rings on her soles sending out a continous blast of energy, lifting her up even higher, all the while draining her energy much quicker. She rose above the city skyline, until the sky above her began turning dark-blue, reaching above cloud level.

Checking the timer, only five seconds was left as she stopped dead in mid-air, grasping the metal box tightly before flinging it upwards with as much strength as she could muster. Right as she'd thrown it, she turned and dove towards the ground once more.

She looked behind her as she flew down, the small, metallic object suddenly igniting into a massive, red and orange ball of inferno. After a second or two, she was hit by the blast-wave, which caused her to stagger and lose grip on her flight for a moment, but she managed to steady herself again, diving straight towards the mansion again.

Once she arrived, all traces of the two men in the animal masks had disappeared, along with five of the guys in the living room. Quantum sighed quietly, lifting a hand to rub the back of her helmet. "Well... at least I sorted out the bombs. I just hope it takes a while for that guy to show his head again."

Lifting her transceiver, she turned it on, casting a last look around the rather ruined living room and the three unconcious guys still lying spread out on the floor.

"Binary? It's Quantum. Mission accomplished, with... uh, a bit of a hiccup. I'm on my way back to the tower now. Uh, roger wilco, over."

[/div]
​

 

[JukeboxTheGhoul]

SEA CHAMPION
Πρωταθλητής Θάλασσα
Pro̱tathli̱tí̱s Thálassa

The water, it felt different, it felt unclean. The water was stale, unnatural. Alex's body was highly sensetive to water composition and quality, this meant, that he could tell the difference between rain water and spring water (etcetera). Alex pondered the water as he looked up at the ceiling. It felt like it had been industrially pumped through the city. As Alex looked up to the ceiling he noticed the industrial light flicker. He felt cold and constrained. Looking from left to right, Alex saw the cream sides of the bath. His arms were locked to his sides. His human feet couldn't fit in the bath fully submerged, nor his tail, which was larger. The bath was too small to fully submerge so either his tail or head felt colder than the rest of his body. The metal plug suprised him when he got a metallic cold sensation. Among other things, it took about an hour to fill up the bath half way. Alex could fill up the bath faster. Confined in a ceramic basin the water couldn't soak in to earth and then get renewed, so it stagnated quicker than ground water.. The water was forever vibrating from radio signals and radiation. The worst thing about it? He couldn't observe any wildlife.

Alex transformed his tail back in to legs. Then tried to figure out how he would get out, using his legs to lift himself up would be difficult. So he sat up, his body shivered as the cold air (colder than the water.) hit his chest. He lifted himself out of the bath. He had purchased this apartment with furnishings, something he now regretted, and thus cannot buy a giant tank to put in the lounge. His landlord had laughed him off when he suggested if he could flood the appartment. The room was always filled with some kind of noise. Alex went up to the window, after a few minutes trying to figure out how the window handle, and tried to did so. But, much to his surprise, the window had been superglued to the frame. To be honest, Alex hated living in the city, especially the appartments. He sat down on the sofa, awkwardly.

Alex turned on the TV, after an hour of reading manuals and analysing the remote control, he flicked through channels. Alex expected for such an elaborate device and it's display screen, it would show more then static. He found one channel, Hyperia Broadcasting Station. The news was on for hours. Alex had heard about these channels, the news only channels that you didn't pay for. When hearing about it at first it perplexed him because he thought of it like channels such as the English Channel or so on.

The newsreporter was in the middle of a sentence, "-incidents have been emerging from all corners of Hyperia. Now, the question is, does this have any correlation with the rumours of the Champions going missing? In other news, the waves of jubilation have erupted around the world at the news of another royal pregnancy, more on this on our UK correspondant, Mike C-" Alex had found the off button. He opened the bag of things he grabbed out of his car before it got towed. He slipped on his jumper and jigged around the lounge putting on his faux-jeans. He made his way down the spiral staircase before whistling a cab. He'd go to the impound and get his car back. As he got seated in the car. He felt he missed something. He realised he had forgot his transciever. Quickly he ran in to the building and took the transciever and a small gold bag out of the mail locker, which he had assumed was his "stuff" closet. He returned to the cab.
"Where'd you want to go?" The man driving the vehicle was a rotund man with a open leather jack, which seemed to be failing at it's purpose, which seemed to be preventing people from seeing the three blotchy grease stains on his fat stomach.
"Hyperia County Police Station."
"Here we go..." He seemed to be searching his mind for a word. "... sir."
The streets were packed, police prescense had skyrocketed. Lane after lane blocked off by Police. In an emergency measure, it seemed, they had armed police patroling the streets. The backed up traffic grinded to a halt, followed by a chorus of horns. An ear-piercing screech emanated from a close proximity. Alex looked around the windows. The wave of cars seperated a lane through sloshed about in an frantic moment attempting to clear a lane, but for what? Ahead, a giant red fire engine swung around in an attempt to go off on a side lane, much to the surprise of Alex, it did not have any street lights. The blaring red and blue off the fire engine bathed the surroundings in a flashing eddy of colour along with a cacophony of sirens and wailing. Alex looked down at his transciever, it had started to vibrate and flash in a blue colour, but it was hard to read the text. Suddenly, a police car stuck in the traffic engaged its sirens, indicating left, the same place the fire engine had went down. But the police car had a struggle trying to open up a space in this wall of cars. Alex groped an indeterminate mound of money out of his wallet and slapped it in the Taxi driver's shoulder. He knew that this would be it.

Swinging the taxi-cab door open, neglecting to close it, he weaved through the web of automobiles. The fire engine was sped down the lane, and Alex broke in to a run, the Fire engine had two standing posistions at the back, allowing for two extra occupants. Alex lunged at the pole which, even with his momentum and long arms was difficult to grasp, he fell short. But he had an idea. He sent an blast of water to push him forward enough to reach the pole. He clung to it, wrapping his legs around it. He took a few minutes to think about what he had just achieved, but after he leant out slightly feeling the wind in his hair.

The behemoth red bumblebee came to a stop, simultaneously the sirens also stopped, but the oscillating blue and red lights still spun. With a click, the cabin of the fire engine swung open and a bunch of fully geared firefighters ejected themselves. Alex peered around the side. The multi-storey building was alight in flames, the windows ebbed smoke that towered in to the sky. A surging crowd was draining from the building, Great day to keep anonymity! he sarcastically remarked in his brain. The firefighters had went to the left side of the vehicle, so Alex unzipped his small gold bag he took out a dull, metal, ancient helmet, which seemed to make him unidentifiable. Putting it on quickly, Alex walked out from the other side of the fire engine proudly. The firefighters noticed him passively until he got up to the safe zone barrier.
A firefighter ran over, "You can't go in there!" The firefighters were obviously not convinced by Alex's appearance.
Alex ignored him and proceeded to walk in to the centre of the campus. Looking around at the crowds behind the yellow tape. Alex grinned. He clenched his fist, punching his fist in to the air, and cheering. He then pulled it to his chest. A salute. Alex then pulled his arm from his chest then wound it back. He thrust his fist in to the grassy dirt. In a matter of moments, Alex's body illuminated in a bright aurora of blue energy, his veins pulsated with power. The crowd stated at the amazing spectacle that unfolded before their very eyes. His body was encased in a vortex of blue energy, His plain helmet grew a magnificent cerulean blue, His skin became scaly for a split second before forming parts of armour. His abdominal definition created a perfectly fitting scale abdomen plate, it hardened to a metal bronze armour. This continued through out his body. His faux-jeans reshaped in to the armour, and long gloves grew on his forearms. The scales built upon each other at his back, before flashing and then mutating in to a blue cape that draped over his back. He stood up, feeling an exciting vibe form amongst the crowd. The firefighter who had ran to stopped him was stood there, paralyzed. His lips trembled. "W-who are you?!"
Sea Champion looked at him. "I am Pro̱tathli̱tí̱s Thálassa."
A confused murmur came across the crowd. The firefighter replied, "Who?"
"Sea Champion."

He walked up to the fountain in the common plaza. He absorbed the water, drying the fountain fairly quickly. He projected the water backwards so he could fly up. He went of a few stories up, smashing the window before combat rolling in to the hall. He hit a doorknob on the way past but it just plinked off the helmet. He motioned to the firefighters who started spraying water up in to the building. Sea Champion regained his bearings, fire was all around. Sea Champion smothered the closest flames with bursts of water. Smoke drifted in to his face. He breathed it accidentally, the smoke him sputter as he meandered around the hall, he put out the fires he came across. The floor boards creaked. The fire in front of him was doused and he thought about the location of these fires. Suddenly, the ceiling gave way, a mess of planks rained down in a mess. This mess of splinters and planks pushed Sea Champion to the side, Sea Champion looked at the ceiling, a small red thing... A smoke detector. This is was planned, it's no accident. He looked closely at the surroundings. Singed paper and pieces of glass... Sea Champion clambered up the hole in the ceiling. More and more fires. I need to bring in the big guns. He walked to the window, several Fire Engines had pulled up, escorted by the Police. One of the Fire Engines had a tanker on the rear of the machine. Sea Champion glided down to the scene barrier.
Sea Champion stared at one of the Firefighters. "Open the Tank." He looked at him strangely, he had just been conversing about Sea Champion. The firefighter had a white helmet. He hesitated. "Well then, I'll have to do this myself!" Sea Champion declared. A young firefighter pre-emptively guessed what he was going to do, he ran in front of the Fire Tanker. Sea Champion sneered, "Out of my way, mortal." Sea Champion yanked off the hose cap, water started to race to exit. Sea Champion inserted his hand in to nozzle socket. He stressed all of his absorbent powers to his hand. As each gallon built up in to his body he grew more powerful. He had drained the Tanker. Sea Champion walked in to the building. Walking up the stairs, he sent a wave of water to flush out the fire and went up each level and did this. Until he got to the sports hall.

The three young adults were gathered together in the middle of the room . Sea Champion kicked open the door of the sports hall. The man and the two women were shocked. Since it wasn't common to see an Ancient Greek Soldier enter the room in a 'This is Sparta!' Fashion. Sea Champion called, "Did you not hear the Fire Alarm?" The group scrambled to the edge of the room, and started to run up the stairs and a pursuit ensued. They rallied around several ping pong tables and stairs, but finally they ended the pursuit on the roof. At one side, Sea Champion, at the other. The group of students. Sea Champion walked forward. "Now, if you come with me, I won't have to waste my time running around like a headless chicken."
The man was trembling, behind his legs was a final petrol bomb, it rattled. Sea Champion played with a bubble of water in his hand. The girl asked, indignantly. "Who are you?"
"I am Sea Champion, your captor. At your service." He bowed mockingly.
"You think you'd get us?" She teased.
"I know I will." Sea Champion walked forward. The group stared at him. A distant sound of an engine began to get humming.
"Do you even know why we ran from you?" The girl with a ponytail asked.
"You set fire to the university." He replied.
"Don't you think they deserve it? They take away our future, we take away theirs!" The girl with a ponytail had very dark make up. "I've said too much, do it Rick!" The boy with the petrol bomb hesitated, but eventually flung the bomb forward. The Police motorcycle came out of the shadow of the trees. Sea Champion reacted rapidly. He projected a water stream at the mid-air petrol canister. The water hit the side with such force that it redirected it towards the group. The group saw this coming towards them. Screaming, they instinctively jumped off the roof. Sea Champion rerouted his water stream to propel the students towards the nearby lake. The group landed with a splash. Just as the cavalry arrived with the prison vans. Sea Champion put out the petrol bomb.
"My work here is done."


​

​

​

​

​

 

[Jay]

"Objective complete. All threats have been dealt with."


"The Renegade"​

​

"All units. I repeat all units do not approach the building. I repeat do not approach the building. The hostage is in extreme danger."

Renegade heard them, the frequency of a radio that was a good few feet away from him. He walked forward, the cops had their backs turned to him as he slowly trod along towards them. He wasn't afraid of the police. The place was a large waterfront villa in Cape Royale, really fancy and over the top, the kind of place that just LOOKED like it was unnecessarily expensive. A long beige, sandstone bridge crafted meticulously onto the edge of the coast lead out to a large building of similar design and architecture. Three stories with many open areas for walking, the bridge connected to the lowermost position. Renegade could only sigh gently as he saw the cops crowded around the entrance to said bridge.

He stopped for a moment to listen, two men were position on the top floors balcony. They had long range weaponry, judging by the sounds of their shuffling and fixation of their ammo cartridges for assurance... they sounded like any common sniper rifle. He didn't know specifics, he wasn't some gun buff, he didn't use them. Too messy. The cops didn't dare step onto the bridge for fear of being shot, a smart play for a normal man. They seemed to be trying to communicate someone inside the building, presumably the kidnapper, but due to problems with the connection they weren't getting through. When he really REALLY focused himself Renegade could just barely here a faint muffling and struggling against...

Duct tape.

That was his guy.

Renegade walked out in front of the police and towards the bridge and as expected the lovely law enforcement officers stepped forward in an attempt to hold him back. He waved them off and held out his transceiver. With a sigh he spoke as if annoyed and tired.

"Look guys... I know you think you're doing the right thing here. But I'm with the champions see? Let the big boys handle this one."

A few men grimaced, but begrudgingly lowered their guns. Renegade looked like a hero, had the confidence of one and his wrist watch communicator looked advanced and believable enough for the men to back down as Renegade continued to move forward onto the bridge. He heard the two men on the roof load their guns and behind him he heard the murmuring of the baffled police force.

"Wait a minute... aren't the champions gone? Who is that guy? Wait a second..."

"Doesn't he match the description of that murderer vigilante. "The Renegade" they call him? The guys killed dozens."

"Wait a second... if he's going in there..."

Renegade smiled to himself as he heard the gun barrel above fully loaded and a police man rushing onto the bridge towards him.

"Hey you! Hold it! You're under-"

Too little too late. The gunmen recognized the policeman as their enemy and a priority over the mysterious Renegade. They weren't about to let an officer cross the line, even if the bullet had originally been intended for the psychopath on their twelve.

The shot made a resounding bang as a necessary sacrifice was made.

Shouts were heard as the cops ducked beneath their cars. Renegade dashed forward at the first sound of a bullet and rushed across the bridge with adrenaline fueled speed. Five paces, he heard the body of the now dead policeman fall to the floor. Ten paces, the second gunmen recognizes Renegade's intend and aims to fire.

*Click.*

Renegade heard the pull of the trigger and the very subtle whiz of the bullet, his refined reflexes kick in and he sidesteps in motion to avoid losing momentum as the bullet harmlessly drives into the bridge where he had once been.

"He... He dodged it?!"

30 Paces, Renegade hears the confused cry as the shooter goes to reload his bullets. and the first attacker reaches for his walky talky.

"Boss. Boss! Code red! Code red! It's actually him! It's the ****ing Renegade man! Do something."

Renegade's name was known among the criminal underworld, he had already wiped out an entire gang in his time as a solo hero. A bunch known as "The Silver Wolverines". Ironically enough. Petty gang members like these gentlemen seemed to be were of no concern to him, still it was rather odd that common street rats were capable of affording such expensive weaponry as two high powered sniper rifles.

75 paces.

Renegade is inside the buildings first floor.

***​

A large foyer, porcelain floor and a large staircase leading up to the next floor. Echolocation scouts the building and Renegade hears four heartbeats. Two sniper shooters, one main target, one victim. Tied to a chair, Mr. Richard Wells. The names of the criminals are irrelevant. They wouldn't be doing anything else under them when he was finished.

The rest of the floor was unnecessary to search, nothing else of note was down there. Only the targets and the goal were important now, he just had to- Footsteps.

*Click. Click. Click.*

Renegade quickly rolls behind cover as one of the sniper fires a three bullet burst from an automatic pistol in his direction. Pistols were easy to deal with, generally ten bullets a clip, this one was semi-automatic so that limited to most likely nine or twelve, three bullets expended. Maximum ammo before reload was six to nine bullets. Very doable.

"Y-yeah! Not so tough when faced off against directly! Are you?!"

*Splish.*

Ren smirked. Water. There was a puddle on the floor, Renegade could sense it now from the travelling ripples made by the mans footsteps, it stopped right beside him behind his cover. The set-up was almost too perfect to not be convenient. Without a word Renegade drew his knife and charged it to max. Small sparks erupted from the end and Ren quickly drove it into the porcelain tiles through the small pool of water.

"BZZZZRRRRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Another body fell to the ground. The smell of crispy meat wafted through the air and Ren could hear one less heartbeat. He came out of cover. The other shooter was still on the roof watching the cops closely, this actually worked in Renegade's favor since the police didn't dare to move inside while a sniper was trained on them.

Renegade stepped over the body without so much as hesitating and continued up the staircase to the second floor and further on to the top floor after.

***​

Renegade froze at the top step as he heard something very worrying. Four heartbeats.

Why was there still four? He had just killed the first of four in the building. He thought and listened intently until he saw the discrepancy, this heartbeat was quieter, fainter. A different frequency to the rest. It stood with the other two in the penthouse where the hostage was being held. It was small and accompanying it was... faint sobbing.

"D-Daddy... I'm scared..."

An estranged muffle of anguish was the only answer. There was a second hostage. A child. This complicated things. Renegade had had a plan to kill the kidnapper without having one hostage shot, but two would be much more difficult to deal with.

Not to mention, it was just a kid. He couldn't let a kid die. No way, not in a thousand Hells. He had to rethink his plan.

The penthouse was a large rectangular room atop the sizable villa building. It had four straight walls and two balconies one at the front and one at the back. The balconies for sizable for their purpose and almost served as verandas to look over the ocean and docks respectably. The entrance to these balconies from the penthouse were large glass doors upon two large glass walls. Allowing the scenery and balconies to be viewed openly from the inside. The staircase Renegade proceeded up connected directly to the back balcony, which faced the ocean and was empty. The front balcony was through the penthouse on the other side of the room and only accessible from such. The penthouse interior was a large wooden room, the two non glass walls consisted of bookshelves and a large mahogany desk sat in front of the leftmost wall when facing inwards from the back, where Renegade now stood.

The front balcony on the other side of the area from Ren had the single remaining guard standing resolutely upon it, the barrel of his rifle still prepped and ready to take out any cops foolish enough to step forward. In the direct center of the room stood a little boy, no older than twelve. Tears and sweat ran down his face as he physically strained to stay still. The kidnapper stood behind the desk, beside Mr. Richard Wells whom was tied up and muzzled to his desk chair by industrial strength duct tape. The kidnapper was a fat and bald Hispanic gentleman in a brown striped suit. His stomach swelled in a grimy white shirt that clearly was forcing him to keep that suit jacket open.

He had his gun prepped and aimed at the boy. The sick bastard.

Renegade took a second to consider his options. Looking over the balcony he was on he saw a speedboat facing outwards towards Cape Royale's waters, the glistening mid-day sun sending shimmers across the waters surface. A pair of keys was gently glinting on that desk at the same time, the key ring had a small buoy charm attached. How quaint.

Renegade stood for a few more moments, when something unexpected was noticed. Renegade's echolocation showed something strange. Was the boy... looking at him? He pressed a button and the holes on the front of his mask opened to show his eyes. It was hard to get very precise details through his ears when there were glass walls in the way. But sure enough, the boy was staring right at him. There was desperation and tears in his eyes. His eyes were painfully bloodshot from excessive crying and the boys scruffy brown hair had a tinge of red from what was presumably blunt trauma. The child was mouthing a word desperately and Renegade himself winced as he realized what was happening.

"Help."

The boy needed assistance so badly he was willing to ask a terrifying masked stranger for it. Renegade needed to calm the child down, perhaps if the child knew they were on the same side then Ren could use it to his advantage.

Renegade removed his mask slowly and revealed Edwards face to the boy. Edward put on his best "reassuring look" and put a finger to his lips to indicate that the boy should try to be as quiet as possible. The child hadn't said anything out loud yet, but Edward had to be sure. He proceeded to do a few hand gestures. He pointed to the ground and put his hand to his head as if sleeping. He was telling the boy to lie down quickly and with a slight nod it seemed that the child understood. Edward sighed in relief and anticipation as he put the mask quickly back on his face and closed the eye holes to return to pure echolocation for the confrontation ahead.

Once certain that the boy was watching, Renegade put his three fingers in the air and slowly counted down.

3...

2...

1...

0.

The boy dropped onto his belly as Renegade bursted into the room, smashing the glass window as the panicked kidnapper shot at the boys position and missed completely. Shocked and surprised, he didn't have time react as Renegade kicked him hard in the face and knocked him back. Quickly grabbing the mans gun, he turned the weapon against the remaining sniper whom was fumbling to load his own pistol. A quick single shot put a bullet into the fellow and he fell down to the ground. Headshots were somewhat amusing, but Renegade as previously stated, hated guns. So he threw the weapon aside as he heard the snipers heartbeat disappear completely and his breath stop exuding from his lips.

The kidnapper was fumbling across the floor away from Renegade, desperately searching for a weapon. He rushed for the balcony then, through the shattered glass but Renegade was too quick. Using the wire to swing the knife like a whip, Renegade slices the back of the mans legs with the HVK at an extended distance and knocks him to the ground. In a rage he runs forward and drives his boot hard into the mans gut. He hears ribs breaking. He'd finish this now, quickly. A quick charge and Renegade quickly plunges the blade into the overweight man, his blubber does nothing to stop the penetrative shocks to his organs and in seconds the fools heartbeat and breath disappear into nothing. It was over.

Or was it? Renegade listened carefully and heard the sounds of footsteps rushing across the bridge. The cops were moving in and heroic actions or not, they would not be impressed with the amount of deaths in the building. Moving quickly as he could, Renegade released all charge from his knife and cut the businessman loose, Mr. Wells quickly fell to his knees and embraced his crying and trembling child. As a "thank you" gift, Renegade grabbed the boat keys from the desk and quickly made his way back to the rear balcony, he stepped up onto the edge and prepared to escape when he heard a mature and middle aged voice call after him.

"W-wait!"

The voice was gasping for air, but it was Mr. Wells whom made the call. He held his hand up and Renegade rolled his hand clockwise to inform the businessman that he should hurry himself if he wanted to make conversation.

"Just... thank you. You, you saved my boy, I am forever in your debt. Do you have a name? Something I can repay you with?"

Renegade sighed inwardly, he wanted for nothing really. But this was a nice way to earn trust with his allies. He smirked beneath the mask and turned back to the water below.

"If you want to repay me that badly... the Champions are always accepting donations. We'll be in touch."

With that, Renegade stepped off the edge and fell down into the boat below, keys and adorable buoy keychain in hand.

***​

 

[Groc]

Rescuing the Jumper

Star Gazer flies over the Bayside Bridge, looking for the distraught individual. She soon sees a section of the bridge blocked off by police cars and barricades, with a news chopper overhead. A man has climbed onto the guard rail, perched precariously over Liberty Bay. The police are primarily concerned with keeping people back, though they are making a token effort to coax the man down.

She fiddles with her transceiver, discovering it can pick up police chatter. "The negotiator's on his way, but with the barricades up traffic's halted all the way down the bridge. Approximate ETA is five minutes.

"Not soon enough. Someone needs to do something!" Star lands on the bridge behind the man, startling several officers. The man himself doesn't seem to notice her, so she tries to get his attention. "Um... hey." Think of something! "I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend."

The man turns to look at her, clearly confused. A few officers recover from their shock and move forward. "Who is that? Get her out of there!"

Star raises her hand, motioning the police to stop. "I'm here to help. Let me just... talk to him." Seeing the man lean forward as they approach, the cops slowly back off. Star moves closer, and while the man is still leaning out as far as he can, he does look at her instead of the water. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"My name's... Star Gazer. I'm with the Champions."

"Star Gazer? That's not a name, it's a joke! You don't take me seriously? I will kill myself, here!"

"Okay, okay, you're right!" Star raises her hands, as though she were surrendering. "It's not my name, it's a call sign. My hero identity." She moves in closer, lowering her voice slightly so only he can hear ger clearly. "My name is Luna. You want to tell me yours?"

"Why should you care? I'll be dead soon, anyway." He gulps audibly, looking at the water far below. "It's Steven. Steven Jenkins."

"Okay, Steven. Why are you out here? Why do you want to jump?"

"I'm dead either way! At least this way it'll be quick, and that prick Ivan won't torture me."

Star takes another step, now right beside the guard rail, though still several feet away. "Who's Ivan? And why would he torture you?"

"He leads this gang I'm in, we're the Red Bears! Last week we was buying a shipment of drugs, but the cops came in. We ran, some of us got away, but the money went missing! Ivan thinks I took it. He said I had a day to get it to him, or he'd make me talk. He has ways, man... Nasty ways..."

Star leans against the railing, appearing casual and interested. "Why does he think you took it?"

Steven laughs nervously, leaning back from the edge slightly. "'Cuz I did! No way was I letting the cops get that money. I took it and ran, hid the money in a tree! Only... I go back, the money's not there. And I needed that money for my brother!"

This gets Star's attention. "Your brother?"

"Yeah. My brother Leroy, he's got a condition. His heart's not so good, and he needs a new one. I was gonna take the money to pay for his surgery, but now I'm just gonna get tortured to death!" Steven tears up, tensing up and preparing to jump.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait! Think about this! You said Leroy has a bad heart! What will your death do to him? And if Ivan can't talk to you, he'll do the next best thing and talk to your friends and family! Maybe you told little Leroy where you hid the money. Maybe it's Leroy he needs to talk to. And he has ways to make you talk."

All the color drains from Steven's face, and he stares at Star in horror. Okay, now bring it home! she thinks. She softens her voice, sounding as sincere as she can. "I can help you. We'll talk with the police, take care of Ivan. He won't be able to hurt you or your brother. Just please... don't jump. For Leroy."

She holds out her hand, offering him help down. Steven nods, crying silently, and turns, reaching for her hand...

When a massive explosion far overhead makes everyone jump in surprise. Steven, his balance compromised, slips and falls toward the water, hitting his head on the concrete railing as he falls.

"Oh, damn it!" Star exclaims in surprise and frustration, leaping over the railing and diving after the unconscious Steven. Translucent blue starlight forms in her hands, shaping itself into a pair of whips. She thrusts her arms down, flinging the whips toward Steven, managing to ensnare an arm and leg. She shapes the whips into a sort of harness, supporting his torso and all four limbs as she puts on the metaphorical brakes, flying back up toward the bridge.

Several police officers had rushed forward to look over the edge, and are startled to see Star dragging Steven back up. She flies past them, depositing his body on a bare patch of bridge. She dispels the Hard Light Harness, immediately moving in to inspect his wound. She puts her hand to his head, her hand glowing blue. Officers move forward, but she puts her hand up to stop them. "Give me some room!"

After a moment of tense concentration, her hand stops glowing and she slumps forward in exhaustion. "There." she pants. "He'll be alright." She recovers her energy a moment later, rising to her feet. "Make sure he gets some proper treatment, though. And maybe send someone to check on his broth-"

*CLICK*

An officer snaps a handcuff to her wrist, but before he can attach the other one, she summons a shield, blocking the offending cuff. She flies straight up, out of reach, and immediately flies away from the scene. "So much for gratitude! What was he thinking?! I'm one of the GOOD GUYS!"

Her blue outfit allowing her to blend in with the clear sky, she quickly is lost from the cops' sight. She sighs as she activates her transceiver. "Star Gazer to base. Crisis averted, but I've hit a slight snag. ...anyone know how to pick a handcuff lock?"

 

[Sonata]

Deuseas

Sam woke with a start. He'd just been having the weirdest dream. He was a baby again and he was in some factory. His father put him down on a table and then his mother had a surgical knife in her hand and then everything went red. Really weird, not a very good way to start the morning if you ask me. But he put it in his dream journal nonetheless. It's not the first time he's had a dream of something similar. The surroundings are always the same, some kind of factory or hospital setting. His mother and father are always there, sometimes along with a handful or so of other people who are almost always just taking notes.

In the past few months it had started to bother him, but they hadn't reached the point of him dishing out the cash to go see a psyche yet. He wasn't a loony, and he wasn't a millionaire either. He barely even had enough money to pay his phone bill. Wait a minute... he felt around his nightclothes and started pulling the drawers out of the stand next to his bed.

"You're kidding me right?" He laid his head on the nightstand and sighed. "I can't believe I forgot to get a new phone." He had begun hitting his head against the desk when he heard a few high pitched dings. "Wazzat? Oh, just the transceiver. That guy doesn't waste any time in finding something for me to do does he." He put the earpiece in.

"It's about damn time you answered. I've been trying to get a hold of you all morning." An aggravated Binary came through his ear.

"Agh don't get pissy with me. What are you even talking about? It's not even that late in the day. It's only- oh come on. Ugh, listen, I'm sorry. I could have swore I set my alarm. I was supposed to get up at eight a.m. to go into work anyways since I missed yesterday."

"Yeah well, you might as well quit now. Not only is it well after noon, but being a hero is your job now. At least until you die that is..."

"Let's not talk about dying okay? That's not in the gameplan. Speaking of which, what do you want?"

"Have you not seen the news?"

"Well, I did just wake up and I don't have my tv programmed to come on at any certain time. So no, I haven't seen the news. What chaos is there?"

"A lot more than any one person could handle. Right now I've got two things I want you to do. You can do them in any order, doesn't matter. One you can do by yourself, and the other one you'll be working with Spirit."

"Alright. Uh, refresher please. What does Spirit do?"

"Manipulates elements. Now as I was saying, for the solo mission you'll be taking on the horde of robots that are terrorizing Old Town. And then for the other mission-"

"I'm going to have to cut you off right there. A horde of robots? Like, what kind? What do they do?"

"Humanoid metal robots with energy blades. They're about 9 feet tall and that's about all the information I've got on that. So as I was saying-"

"Yeah you can tell me the rest later. I want to go see how they work and take them over. I've always wanted my own robot army." He said as he pulled on his suit and the mask from yesterday.

"This is just like a dream come true." He smiled and pulled open the door to his third story apartment. He hopped on the slide he had made when he first got his powers and rode down to the ground.

He made another bicycle out of one of the nearby apartment complexes that was beginning to fall apart. For some reason this part of town was more or less deserted, so he had no qualms about using his powers in the open. He hopped onto his bike and headed off towards Old Town. As he started off he could faintly hear the screams of the residents of Old Town. He had to hurry.

---

After about twenty minutes of constant pedaling he had arrived in Old Town. People were running past him as he came in, and now even more poured out past him. Buildings were scratched, cut and broken in places. The smell of oil lingered in the air and children who were left behind sat on the curbs crying. He heard crunching sounds all around him accompanied by a low humming sound. He got off his bike and walked over one of the kids who were crying on the curb.

"Hey. Hey, kid you seen any robots around?"

"D- do you know w- where m- my mo- mo- mommy is?" She sniffed, choking on her own tears as she tried to speak.

"Nah, I don't care about your mommy right now. I'm trying to find some big robot things so that I can beat them up before anyone gets really hurt."

The little girl wiped her face off. "I don't know. I just want to find my mommy. I'm scaaaawred. Please mister, help me find my mommy. I don't know what to do without my mommy." Tears started to form in her eyes again and the snot rolled back down her chin.

"Look, kid I don't have tim-"

A car flew over his head and he fell on top of the girl who started screaming bloody murder.

"Get off of me! I need to find my mommy!" The girl squirmed out from beneath Deuseas and then ran off towards the car.

"I reeeeally don't have time for this." Deuseas said as he stood up, brushing himself off.

He turned to look in the direction that the car had came from and another one came flying towards him. This time he was prepared. He dug his hands into the ground and pulled up a thick metal wall in front of him. The car was crushed like a can upon the impact and then threw the wall in the direction that the cars had been coming from. He heard something hit the wall and then he curled it around whatever it was.

He sprinted over to the roughly eleven foot tall ball of metal and started to put his hand against it when something ripped out of it. A glowing blue wedge piereced through the metal wall that he had created and then began spinning around - ripping the ball open as if it were made of something weak like paper or Raditz. After a few seconds the top of the ball flew off high into the sky and a rather large humanoid metal structure was now visible.

"So you're the robots I've been looking for. Seems about right. Tall as heck, energy sword things, metal bodies. It all checks out. Alright, so how are we going to do this? I don't see any of your friends around, so I could probably mess around with you for a little bit before anything notices. The only question is... ah I've got it. Just you stay put for a second."

As he spoke, the robot started cutting at the lower half of the sphere so that it could move about. And by the time he had finished it was already heading his way.

"I thought I told you not to move?" He put his hands back in the ground and locked the robots feet into place with hooks that pierced through the metal of its shell and then hooked back in to the ground and reconnected with the spike several feet down below the surface. After making sure that it could no longer move, Sam made sure to lock down its arms so that it couldn't just cut itself free. He erected a giant steel wall behind it and then sent more spikes flying through its hands and arms. After crucifying the oversized metal Jesus and making sure it was properly restrained, he started his climb up to the top of it.

He sat down on the top of the wall and started to fiddle with its head. He tried to just move the metal that made up the shell, but for some reason his powers had no effect. The only time he had ever ran into something he couldn't manipulate is when he had already manipulated it. He sat there puzzled for a few moments and then leaned back on the metal wall. He looked up at the sun and started to think of a new plan. He had intended to just open it up take control. Easy peasy. Except this was real life, and thing's weren't always so easy peasy as he had just found out. He started to doze off when the vibrating sound he had heard before started to intensify.

"Don't tell me it can still move. I don't want to have to go through the effort of restraining this thing again." He leaned up and his eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me."

He shouldn't have laid down to think. He had wasted time, and it had come back to bite him in the ass. He was completely surrounded.

 

[Groc]

Wrapping Up a Loose End

Star Gazer keeps her eyes on the ground, unable to meet her savior's gaze. She holds a coffee cup in her left hand, while her right hand was occupied.

*click*

The handcuff unlocks, and Star awkwardly puts her hand on the cup, still not looking up. "Thank you, Amanda..."

The receptionist just smiles, putting away her lockpicks. "You're welcome, Luna. Honestly, what did you expect?"

Star doesn't answer, since she's hiding her blush behind her coffee.

Amanda goes back to her desk, going back to her computer. Luna finishes her coffee, leaning over the desk to see the screen.

"...move that three over."

Amanda considers, then does so. "I appreciate your help, Star Gazer, but my Solitaire game isn't as important as the city. Why don't you go on patrol?"

"Oh. Right. Got it. ...later, Amanda." Star goes to the elevator, taking it to the roof. Once there, she jumps into the sky, taking a leisurely flight across town. She doesn't have any super senses, so she has to stay vigilant while flying so she doesn't miss something.

 

[Sonata]

Deuseas

Sam sat perched on a metal cube in the middle of a city street. He was about fifty feet up in the air, and all around him was a small army of robots. He had counted nearly one hundred of them. Most were the same height as the one he had trapped - which was now free - but some were shorter and others were taller. These weren't cookie cutter models. Someone had went about hand crafting these it seemed. He deduced that it might have been done by someone else with powers similar to his given the fact that his powers had no effect on them. It was either that, or they had something in them that negated his powers. However this second idea was founded only on the fact that his main power didn't work on them. He still hadn't tried simply moving them with his telekinesis yet.

He put up another quick layer of metal around the cube that he continued adding on to whenever they would start to cut through. If he was going to die here then it wasn't going to be from falling off of something that he made. He took a deep breath and concentrated on one of the smaller robots. It was roughly the size of a teenager, but several times heavier. He felt the veins in his forehead start to bulge outwards as he concentrated. His head started to shake, followed by his whole body. Blood ran down his nose and then the robot seemed to take a step back.

Deuseas broke his concentration at this. He started the massive hunk of metal down and watched to see if it was just his imagination, or if he had actually managed to move it. The other robots stopped moving and started looking around. Their heads swiveled around until they all fixed on the robot he had been trying to move. A faint whirring sound appeared, and then all of the robots closed in on the one that moved before repeatedly slashing and stabbing it with their energy blades. They did this until there was only a pile of parts, and then they refocused their attention on Deuseas. He was no longer safe up here. The robots who hadn't managed to reach the rest of the group turned towards him and began attempting to climb up to him.

"This can't be good." Sam whispered to himself.

He stroked his beard and looked around. There was plenty for him to use, he could hit them with something heavy but he didn't know how much that would accomplish. He looked over the side at the robots that were attempting to make theire way towards him. One would put an energy blade into the cube and then put the other one up above it. Then they would follow up by putting one foot onto the wall, and as soon as they put the other one up they would simply slide or fall back down.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself, "I wonder if my attack brought on this change. I wonder..." he looked around him.

A few streetlights were within reach of his telekinesis. Again, he wasn't sure about what if any damage he could do with something like that, but it was worth a try to test his thesis. He reached his hand out towards the lamp post which uprooted itself at his call. It floated over towards him and then hovered slightly away from his hand. He pulled his arm back as if he were a pitcher about to throw a baseball, and then launched the light at one of the nearest constructs.

The force with which the massive object was thrown was enough. It ripped through the head and neck region of the robot and pinned it to the ground. For a moment or two the machine twitched violently and clutched at the metal pole stuck through it. The swords had been deactivated, though Sam wasn't sure if that was some sort of sophisticated self preservation mechanism or if he just managed to break up whatever it was that made the things. From the time that the robot began the flailing motion, to the time that it clutched the pole and finally ceased its activity, something interesting occurred. All of the other machines mimicked its every movement. The energy swords simultaneously cut out, the flailing motions started at roughly the same time, and then finally they all came to a standstill. It seemed they shared a collective conscience.

A low whirring sound broke through the silence. Each and every robot's head fixated on Deuseas, and then at once they all rushed the cube. They were moving surprisingly faster than before. It now seemed as if they had simply been testing him before and that this was their true ability. Their blades remained off, and as they climbed his pillar of safety their hands and feet turned to claws and latched into the metal. In no time they had scaled the walls and had him once again surrounded.

"Come on. This isn't even fair." Sam complained as he ran headlong at one of the taller machines.

The robot rushed at him and pulled back its arm to punch through him. One hit from one of these things and I'm done for. he thought hurriedly. Had he been a moment slower then it would have been over. He fell to his knees at just the right time and managed to slip right between the machine's legs.

He flew off the side of the cube as the robot slammed its massive fist into the space where he had just been. Sam formed a ramp beneath him and slid to the ground. He didn't take the time to look behind him, he knew they were after him. He took off at a sprint, a thin stairway beneath his feet as he went. It was thick enough to support his weight, but any of the things that tried to follow him would simply fall through. For now he was safe aga- nope. He turned his head to look behind him, and as he did he ran into something big, cold and hard.

"You've gotta be kidding me man." Sam sighed as he turned back to face the legion of robots that were now floating in front of him. "This adaptability thing is turning out to be a real pain in my ass."

Deuseas looked down as the robot reached out for him. He was higher up than before, but if he made enough of something lighter down on the ground... he might be able to survive with minimal injuries.

"I don't know that it'll work, but I'm probably dead either way." Deuseas rolled off the platform he was on and closed his eyes. "Please work."

-----

Sam bolted upright. Everything around him was white. The last thing he remembered was falling from the sky and then...

"Am... am I dead?" he asked himself as he looked around.

His head was throbbing and he felt something cold beneath him. He turned over and realized he was on the ground. Being the mouth breather that he is, he only now realized why everything was white. Salt. He had managed to pull together a rather staggering heap of salt and used that to cushion his fall. He closed his eyes and tunneled his way out one of the sides.

What he saw outside surprised him even more. All around him were the busted and broken remains of the army of robots. A few still high up in the sky circled the salt heap but their numbers were severely damaged. He counted four above, and about six on the street that were still able to pull themselves around with their upper bodies. It seemed that though they were great at adapting quickly, they still weren't that smart and couldn't adapt quickly enough.

When he jumped, the majority of them followed. The handful that remained functional, or at least partly functional were the ones that had been far enough towards the back of the flock that the new information reached them before they crashed head first into the pavement.

"Now this I can handle." Sam put his hand on the ground and formed a small pistol. "I'm sure you are, but I'm going to check anyways. Let's see if you're bulletproof too."

He walked towards one robot that was crawling around on the ground lazily enough that Sam would be able to outrun it. The robot had lost both of its legs, most of its midsection and one of its arms. He pointed the gun at the head unit and pulled the trigger. Of course, the bullet reflected off of it.

"Didn't hurt to try. That really takes some of the fun out of it. But I think I'll let you live. There's still a lot that you could tell us." The robots that were still alive had all started rushing towards him and his new pet who was too weakened to escape.

Deuseas went down to one knee and formed a pyramid around the two of them. The pyramid was left with slots about every foot or so which allowed him to see outside. The nine robots that were still functional started beating on the pyramid he had erected. Their energy blades turned back on and they started pushing them through the holes as well as cutting new ones.

"It's really a shame. Your efforts are in vain." Sam crossed his arms, forming thin sharpened sheets of metal out of the ground as he did so. "Hata la vista, baby." He threw his arms out from him and with this motion he threw the sheets of metal through the slots he had made in the pyramid.

That was that. He lowered the walls of the pyramid and looked at the robots he had sliced apart. Besides the one that he had decided to keep, one other was still moving. He had only managed to take off its hands and so now it was simply flailing around on the ground. Sam made a gauntlet around his hand and reached up inside. He twisted around inside of its head, trying to find what made it tick. He pulled out a cluster of wires, circuits, cameras and other small electrical parts along with some sort of crystal blue ooze. He formed a small container and plopped the ooze into it along with the cluster of electrical parts before making a lid to cover it with.

"One pain in the ass down. One to go." He pulled out his transceiver. "Binary, are you there?" A few moments went by. "Binary? Come in?"

"Yes, yes what do you want? I'm busy. Make it quick." Binary spoke hastily and sounded disgruntled.

"I took care of the robot things. I got some kind of goop from inside one of them and I've got another that's still active, though it's not exactly a threat. I thought I might take some time to fiddle around inside of it later."

"Okay, that's fine. Whatever. What about the other mission?"

"You never told me what it was."

"I didn't? I could have swore... oh right. You ran off before I could explain. Anyways, just find Spirit for now. Meet him at HQ, drop off the stuff you got and then I'll give you a quick briefing about your next assignment. Got all that kid?"

"Yeah, I got all that." Sam pulled the transciever out of his ear. "This is going to be a long walk."

 

[Jay]

Character Perspective:
Renegade

Renegade flicked the little buoy key ring pleasantly. It was a nice touch, he had always appreciated little details like that. Even if it was just some corny key ring. He honestly had to wonder if that was him done for the day. It was still fairly early and he had already done his assigned duties. Usually it took him much longer than this, though without Binary telling him what to do he did have to deal with the tedium of assigning his own objectives and finding his own targets. That was usually rather bothersome and long winded. He didn't enjoy it, not one bit and while he certainly didn't enjoy taking orders either he had to admit that at least that had a small silver lining.

So what was he to do now? He glanced down gently at his transceiver and remembered reading something about optional objectives. As well as something about organizing lodging at the tower. He supposed that if he had to stay there that it would at least benefit him by allowing more regular surveillance of his new team mem-

*Beep Beep Beep.*

What on Earth? Why the Hell was it beeping? He pressed the button to activate the device quickly as he began to pull his "borrowed" boat in on the other side of Cape Royal, far away from those damned persistent police officers. As he read the message that then appeared on the small screen, his eyebrow raised.

Incoming Message:

Class Two Objective Incoming:

Renegade, Smiley, this is Binary. There is a serious incident that needs to be dealt with, and you two are the closest.

Behemoth, a powerful supervillain, is inside Hyperia General Hospital, and is breaking the place apart. He is looking for an experimental strength-enhancing drug that is being developed in the R&D wing. Letting him obtain this is not an option. He has already tore through nearly half of the east wing, and is headed deeper in. Stop Behemoth, and evacuate the damaged sections of the hospital. Remember, we are looking to limit the number of casualties. Also, in case you were wondering, killing Behemoth is not an option either. You have a reputation to uphold.

Criminal Database Entry 5001
---------------------------------------
Name: Bruce Danvers, aka "Behemoth"
Powers: Enhanced physical strength and durability. Can lift upwards of several thousands of pounds, and can survive the impact force equal to that of a wrecking ball.
Personality: Tough, Brutish, Unintelligent
Other notes: He is quite large in stature, standing at about 7 feet.

​

Renegade sighed and shrugged his shoulders gently, he knew that the day wouldn't end that easily. He knew the hospitals location, he had visited many times before and he was indeed close, as Binary described. So there was some big, tall and presumably ugly fellow thrashing the place was there? All in the pursuit of some super drug? Seemed a little odd, no that he, an adrenaline junky nigh superhuman being, could say much in that respect.

Still, he wondered how bad the situation was exactly, if the guy really was a "Behemoth" then the noise he was making would definitely travel far enough for Renegade to hear from where he was, with the appropriate amount of focus. Closing his eyes, he felt his ears twitch gently as he channeled chi through his ear drums and out to the grander body of flesh. He heard... screaming. The crumbling of concrete and the smashing of some sort of electronic material. The beeping of heart monitors were running flat lines, one by one the very dull beeping beneath the carnage began to go quiet.

This man, if he could be called that, was destroying equipment in the hospital. Said equipment included lifelines that ill and injured patients required to live. This was his conclusion.

His secondary conclusion being that he was going to slaughter this Behemoth. Nothing so callous deserved to live, regardless of direct orders from Binary to leave the victim alive. This was why Renegade killed super powered beings in the first place. Things like Behemoth, every super being "hero" or villain would end up like that eventually. No mere sentience can contain such powers forever, not on a planet as corrupt as his. Not in a city as rife with crime as Hyperia.

There was one problem. Smiley. The old man, if he remembered correctly, age brought obedience through years of conditioning. The damned fossil would probably want to do things by the book. He might get in Renegade's way... or perhaps not. It wouldn't be too hard for Renegade to beat something so frail into submission, regardless of training and copies surely, at least that's what it seemed like through his perception. Regardless, this seemed like the sort of situation that had little time for planning.

People were dying, after all.

With that thought flashing in his mind, Renegade broke out in a chi powered sprint into a nearby alleyway. His destination set to the HGH, Hyperia General Hospital.

It wasn't that long until he found himself standing outside the building. It wasn't anything special compared to most high end hospitals in big cities, though that description alone was enough to leave a somewhat impressive impression. A large white building, plenty of parking out back, lots of nice open windows and a front door large enough for stretchers. However, that same doorway was made a little bit less inviting by the fact that it had already been smashed to bits. Ren listened intently to the area, the sound waves from his echolocation bouncing and scattering until they hit something vaguely familiar. A hockey mask upon an older gentleman. So this was to be his partner for the mission? He certainly hoped that his actual ability outmatched his fairly plain appearance. Hockey masks didn't make killers outside of cheap horror flicks, he supposed the same applied to superheroes.

Moving out from his position in the alley, Ren approached the man with no greeting of any sort. There was no time for pleasant little "howdy do's" and Ren wasn't too fond of them anyway. "I see you're punctual. That's a plus. How long have you been here? Have you learned anything about the situation?"

"I only just arrived. I know nothing outside of the information we received from Binary," his voice was stern, "The door would suggest that this Behemoth's description might be an understatement." He starting walking towards the hole in the building. "Time for fisticuffs," he said, as he disappeared into the hospital.

He watched this man as he walked. His voice was distinctly British, not that this inherently was a bad thing, but Ren wasn't particular fond of the accent. Then again, even he had to admit that he was a bitter man and that said dislike was rather unfounded. "Fisticuffs?" He questioned, following this "Smiley" into the building. "I prefer knives old man. Fists are all well and good but they're hardly efficient."

He moved with the other man silently through the halls for a bit, as they moved forward even Renegade was taken aback by how seamlessly he seemed to duplicate. By the time they started closing in on their destination their numbers had more than doubled. Perhaps with such ease of duplication, this man would be more capable than Renegade had originally assumed.

Eventually they reached a t-junction and Ren placed a hand in front of the suddenly larger group of two people, before they turned the corner. He furrowed his brow and listened carefully, though the Smileys would obviously be unable to see any expression behind the mask.

"He's at the end of this hall, around the right corner at this junction. There are two nurses in the room alongside him. One cowering behind a desk and the other backed into a corner. He's questioning her, though he's hardly eloquent." He listened for a few more moments. "He's asking for the location of 'the drug'. I assume that's the substance mentioned in Binary's message." He tilted his head to 'look' at Smiley, one again only as formality. "I don't want to accidentally let a nurse die here. But it might be unavoidable if we don't do this perfectly. I suppose out of politeness I should ask you if you have any plan?"

"You're a talkative fellow, aren't you?" He said, "I'm currently nearing the second floor. The cracks in the wall suggest serious damage to the structure already, and I do not want to risk the building collapsing with innocents still in here. As for the Behemoth, I do not have a plan. I suggest we research the limits of his abilities."

Renegade smirked gently under his mask, though his voice showed no signs of emotion either way. He didn't wait to say much else on the topic. "Not talkative unless I find it beneficial. Don't get your hopes up. Now then, if you'll excuse me, it's time to do some 'tests'" There was not a second more wasted before Renegade was sprinting around the corner and down the hall, his ears would gently pick up on Smiley's reaction to this. But he mostly ignored it since it didn't matter much. Still it seemed that the old coot was following. As expected he was no match for Renegade in speed. Though the younger hero had to admit that he was faster than his appearance let on.

The door burst open rather easily as Renegade kicked it open without losing momentum thanks to a minimal burst of chi energy. The noise was loud enough to startle a scream out of the cornered nurse and the two men's appearance coaxed the one in hiding into running past them and out the door. Behemoth himself, large and hulking, turned around in surprise and dumbfounded awe as to what he was seeing, weren't the heroes of Hyperia all gone?

"Who the hell're you?!" The large man barked, lifting a meaty finger to point in Renegade's direction. The man was massive and ever so slightly hunched over. The finger pointed at the would-be hero was almost as thick as a regular person's palm and his face was twisted up in barely held-back anger. He was wearing an orange prison-jumpsuit with the sleeves torn off, giving way for over-muscled, tree-trunk arms and he had a surprisingly neatly trimmed beard set around his mouth. His hair, on the other hand, was black, long and looked very messy. "You ain't no champion, so you better stay outta my way, squirt!"

"Why thank you. I try." Ren said aloud, he caught the nurses gaze on him as he spoke and for a brief few moments flicked his eye slots open. He looked at her, eye to eye for those brief few seconds and made a gesture with his gaze to move. He wasn't sure if she had picked up on it, but he had already closed the slots before he could be sure. So he hoped that for her sake, she did. "Now then, allow me to show you exactly why I'm not one of those so called 'champions'." He took a moment, to 'look' back at Smiley, he gestures his head towards the civilian nurse without a bit more explanation and proceeded to strike.

Moving forward as fast as he could and presumably catching the large opponent off guard. Renegade dashed forward and leaped upwards. Using his chi he was able to move faster and jump higher than the average man. He swung his leg mid leap towards the large opponents head and collided. There was a striking impact, but not the one Renegade had intended. He felt his leg shudder, even with the chi coursing through it as he found the opponents muscle fiber to be tough as a rock. His leg bounced off and barely made the Behemoth flinch.

"You're right little man, that's proof plenty that you ain't worth my time."

Anticipating a strike, Ren quickly used his other foot to kick back off of Behemoths chest, he pushed himself just far back enough to avoid a crushing downward strike that left the ground dented and cracked. That impact would have been enough to crush him instantly. Ren grunted in disapproval at the failed strike on his part, but the initial idea behind it had seemingly panned out as the cornered nurse had begun to move towards the door and the various Smileys present there.

This would be more difficult than he had anticipated.​

Writers:
Deceptio
MorallyIncorrect
Sir Bastian

 

[gimmepie]

Giron // Basil DeLeon

Giron vs Disco: Part One​

Giron awoke to sound of his transceiver buzzing in his ear suddenly… causing him to bite down hard on his tail, which had somehow ended up in his mouth. Giron shot up, biting down harder in his surprise and causing himself more pain with the rather stupid response.
"OW!" the alien exclaimed, his injured tail falling from his mouth.

Checking his tail for blood, and pleased to see he'd managed to not break through the skin, Giron sat back down to check his transceiver. It took a few minutes of fiddling around with the communication device before he was at last able to open a message from Binary. Binary wasn't wasting time, he'd already sent out a list of possible missions.

Giron scanned through the list, watching as some of them suddenly vanished from the tiny screen of the transceiver.
"Oh, it looks like the others are already taking missions!" Giron looked more closely at the jobs he might have available. He couldn't help but feel kind of uneasy. He was just an ordinary person as far as he was concerned and yet so many of the missions looked like they'd require extreme abilities, bravery and skill.
"I don't think I should be doing anything too crazy yet…" Giron flicked through a few more before he was able to locate a mission that he thought he would be capable of handling.

Is bad that I think this guy sounds kind of fun? Giron thought as he read over the information a second time

Disco is causing mayhem in the Financial District, causing unwilling flash mobs in the streets.​

Giron shrugged, at least it didn't seem like he'd have to get violent with this one. He didn't have the slightest idea how to be violent. The alien opened his window, turned into a pelican – why he chose a pelican of all things even he couldn't say – and took off for the financial district.

Giron sored towards his destination, wondering how he was supposed to find Disco. He figured that he was looking for a large group of people but in the financial district of a big city, large groups of people weren't exactly uncommon.
I wonder why Binary couldn't give me an address?

The answer to that question was revealed soon enough. As Giron reached the financial district, the surprisingly good eyes of his pelican body noticed an enormous mass moving through the streets. As he got closer, it became clear that this group of people must have been those targeted by Disco. Giron had been imagining a group of fifty people tops… not what seemed to be every person in the general area.
"Oh wow… well I'm sure I can do this."
Giron glided down to the road in front of the seething mass of people, now noticing a man of average height and build with black hair wearing a shiny white suit and carrying an enormous stereo over one shoulder as he bounced and gyrated down the road, everyone he walked past joining the enormous conga line had formed.

Giron, still as a pelican, took a deep breath and tried to stop his foot from tapping along to the villain's music. Giron stepped forward as the group reached him and yelled at the group at the top of his lungs… which were unfortunately quite small considering he was still in the body of a bird.
"Stop right the- agh!" the sentence was never finished as the enormous flash mob had taken no notice of the talking bird and practically danced right over him, knocking him out the way.

Somewhat sore, Giron flapped hard and flew back up, winging his way over the top of the group.
"I said stop!" he yelled out, only to be smacked hard in the face by the waving arm of one of the dancers. Exasperated and somewhat panicked by how poorly he was doing on one of the easy missions; Giron struggled to stay aloft and headed past the group again.

Giron landed ahead of the group, returning to his own form as the flash mob reached him. Screams rung out through the area, the sudden appearance of a giant lizard in the middle of the street terrifying several of Disco's less-effected victims and sending them sprinting away yelling "monster" at the top of their lungs.
"Monster?!" Giron yelped, whirling around to fend off what he assumed was a surprise attack on the new hero… only to find empty space behind him. "Wha-" he started, only to be interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. Giron turned around to see Disco standing there… well standing wasn't the right word, he was dancing on the spot.
"Um… yes?" Giron asked, unsure how to react to his target behaving in such a strange way.
"They mean you monster-man."
"Monster man?"
"Yeah, you're vibes are bringing down the mood and makin' you look al scary baby." Disco said, still dancing as he spoke. Giron had to admire the man's stamina even if he found his speech patterns bizarre.
"Baby?"
"Don't worry, just come join he party!" Disoc continued, ignoring Giron's questions "Dance the bad vibes awaaaayyyyy"

Ten minutes later a giant lizard was in the middle of the flash mob, waving his arms in the sky and bopping around like a lunatic as he attempted to moonwalk up the street.
"STAYIN' ALIVE! STAYIN' ALIVE. AH HA HA HA STAYIN' ALIIIVVVEEE!"​

 

[Mana1]

Kariyai
Power: Soul of Fire

The streets of Downtown Hyperia were luxurious compared to the slums of Old Town. The alleyways were almost glamorous, lacking the scurrying rats and putrid smells that Kariyai had become accustomed to.

A soft vibration, different to that of Firis' purring, caught her attention. The small, blue wrist device had lit up, pulsing a warning. Tapping the screen, assuming the device worked like modern touch phones, Kariyai awaited instructions. Sure enough, Binary's voice soon hummed through the speaker.

"There's been a break-in nearby, can you check out the area?" The Champion asked. Having no other plans for the evening, Kariyai obliged. Under the cover of darkness, investigating was an easy enough task.

"Sending the co-ordinates now," Binary confirmed. A small loading bar appeared as the data downloaded, a miniature map showing Kariyai the way towards the target building. Tapping on the screen a small label popped up, The Chronicle building.

The Chronicle was one of the main media outlets of Hyperia, running the most successful newspaper in the city. Someone breaking into somewhere so prestigious must have a good reason - luckily, it sounded like Kariyai would be able to keep her powers under wraps on this mission too. The less known she was to the public, the better.

Luckily for Kariyai, Downtown was by no means a quiet place. Enough people wandered the streets, even by night, for her to walk freely. Casually glancing at her surroundings, waiting for the prestigious Chronicle building to come into view. Sure enough, the building soon came into view. From across the street, Kari could just about make out the huge metal quill and scroll statue that sat on the tapered roof - as she got closer the immense size of the building became more obvious, as the building's shadow enveloped her.

Pushing herself against the wall, Kariyai checked that there were no eyes on her. The side of the building she rested on was mostly clear anyway.

Drawing Firis out of her shirt, the Akansu woman whispered to the rock. A gentle orange glow was emitted, not a flame of wrath and power but a delicate aura of fire. Together, the pair scried the area for lifeforms, picking on their target's heat signature.

The culprit was easy enough to find, it was the only signal from above. The scrying wasn't enough to pinpoint a target exactly, especially a moving one, but Kariyai estimated the fourth or fifth floor. The problem was getting inside, with no windows on the ground-floor level and no climbable features - how did the intruder get in so easily?

Kariyai decided to do another lap of the building, searching for an entry point. The worst case scenario might be melting some locks. As she was undercover, Kari preferred to avoid leaving evidence. Soon, however, the pacing became tiring. Restless and impatient, Kariyai was ready to abandon her principles, when suddenly the game changed.

A jolt from Firis was the first sign of change. He was worked up, agitated. Kari went back to tracking her target, but couldn't lock on. His movements were too quick, he was building momentum within the building, travelling faster and faster at a pace the alien girl couldn't keep up with.

Relying on her instincts, with subtly nudges from her gemstone, she picked a direction to run in. Away from The Chronicle, towards another nearby building. An exterior fire exit was the perfect opportunity to gain some height, Kari followed the stairs to the highest floor before swinging her body up over the final distance and on to the roof. As her feet hit the dust so did another's, brick powder was kicked up into the sky as the target landed on the rooftop with phenomenal force.

to be continued...​

 

[Groc]

Patrolling the Streets

Star sighs, almost bored. She is perched on the roof of a small coffee shop in Suburbia, sitting on top of the giant coffee cup sign, idly munching on a donut. "Did all crime decide to take a holiday or something? ...maybe with so many new heroes, we're busting all the crooks and solving all the problems easily. Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough..." She thinks about that for a second, before leaping back into the air.

"What am I doing, sitting here feeling sorry for myself? I'm a Champion! A day without crime is a good thing! I should be glad!" Her righteous tirade is interrupted when she hears a small voice below her, barely holding back tears.

"Fuzzle! Why won't you come down? Mom says you're not supposed to be outside!"

Star floats down to get a closer look, unable to bear a child crying. Sure enough, a young girl is standing under a tree, trying in vain to coax her kitten down.

"A cat stuck in a tree? What is this, a cartoon?" she mutters to herself. Despite her snark, that girl obviously needs help, and that kitten is just too cute!

Spoiler:

"You okay, little girl? Anything I can do to help?" Star floats down to the ground, landing on the sidewalk behind the girl. The girl turns to look at Star, sniffling.

"M-my kitten... he's in that tree and won't come down! And Mom says he can't go outside 'cuz he'll get eaten, but I accidentally left the door open and now he's stuck and it's all my fault!" She had been holding back tears before, but now the metaphorical floodgates were open, and she's crying uncontrollably. She throws herself forward, burying her face against Star's stomach.

Oh, no... "Hey, hey, don't cry! Everything is gonna be fine! I'll help you get him down!" Star comforts the girl, gently pushing her back. "Watch this!"

Her hands glow blue, creating a shimmering aura filled with tiny white lights. The girl gasps in surprise and amazement. Star concentrates on the aura, shaping it into a flat star shape. She moves the star up into the tree, right below Fuzzle. The kitten sniffs at the construct curiously, then slowly steps onto it. Star Gazer moves her construct down, which startles the kitten into leaping off.

The girl gasps, and Star quickly dispels her construct and flies up to catch Fuzzle. The cat's claws scratch her breastplate, but she catches him safely and brings him back to the girl. "Easy, easy now, kitty... There, see? Safe and sound!" Star hands the kitten off to his owner, who is overjoyed.

"Fuzzle! Thank you so much, lady! I'm never letting him out again!" She hugs the kitten close, eliciting a soft purring.

"My pleasure, little girl. Happy to help!" Quick, think of something cool to say! "Shoot for the stars!" With that, she leaps into the air, flying back towards Headquarters.

☆☆☆☆

Instead of going inside, Luna happily types on her transceiver. "Amanda! I just rescued a cat from a tree!"

A moment later, a response comes back. Good job! No act is too small!

Luna giggles, typing again. "Hopefully the cat leaves trees alone from now on!"

No response.

Frowning, she tries again. "He should stick to staying inside!"

Still no response.

"I'm sorry if the delivery of these jokes is a little wooden."

Finally, a response. The transceiver is for official messages only, Star Gazer.

Luna sighs, disappointed. Then grins, sending a reply. "I'll make note of that in my log." She laughs at her own puns, in a good mood now.

 

[JukeboxTheGhoul]

SEA CHAMPION
Πρωταθλητής Θάλασσα
Pro̱tathli̱tí̱s Thálassa

The arsonists were herded in the Police Vans, the scene was clear. Yet faced with an interesting dilemma, the Police were unsure if he could be a champion or if he was a criminal. He acted and sounded like a Hero, but he couldn't be a Champion as they were gone. Gingerly, the police officers held the grip of their gun in their sheaths. Sea Champion looked around at the nervous police officers looking at him. He brought up his transceiver skimming through the options, he tuned it in to the radio of the Police, the channel allocated to the university scene was found easily. He held it to his helmet opening. "Relax, I am a Champion, the Sea Champion." He talked in to the transceiver. Momentarily, he was met with a stunned silence of the radio, sensing a dumbfounded recognition.
Then a voice crackled through, "All units in Area 04, go 10-8. It's Code 4 here. Suspect verified, a champion." the radio chatter continued. From a police motorcycle, an officer dismounted and walked over to Sea Champion. He took off his bike helmet, "A champion, I thought they were extinct, but I just got verification from the HQ." He extended his hand.
"Lieutenant Turmal, Hyperia Police Department."
"I have limited time to chit-chat." Sea Champion spun around, leaving the officer perplexed. Sea Champion strode out on to the street, weird looks and condemning gazes washed over him. Sea Champion looked at his transceiver, it buzzed gently. He browsed through the watch, several different notification filled the screen. He pressed one, it came up with a map and a blue line snaking around in the roads. It directed him to the docks, a flashing red bar on the screen said "URGENT" Underneath it said "Priority." He couldn't go all the way to the docks on foot. He needed to grab a ride.
--
The radio was flooded by emergency chatter. Noise blaring from their sirens. The Paramedic gripped the steering wheel firmly as he forced the accelerator to floor. His brow was lined with sweat, his dreary eyes yearned for sleep. He took the flask from the glove compartment, he needed to be awake, he chugged down the coffee, the caffeine invigorated him. The usual graveyard shift was tame compared to the current panic sweeping the city. The EMS was spread thin. The traffic was as thick as mud. Fortunately, the Fire/Ambulance lane was free, he raced down it a top speed. A small thud was heard from above him but he ignored it. He picked up the radio.
"Medic 43 Control." He paused, the radio responded.
"Control."
"Can I get the details on my current call?" He talked in to the microphone.
"48-year-old male, complained of chest pains, now unconscious, possible heart attack, he is on a boat, away from shore. Police are on scene and have cleared the area." Dispatch paused, "Medic 43, be advised, Life Guard services are unavailable."
What?! How are we meant to deal with someone out in the water?! His heart began to thump loudly, the blood racing pulsated in his ears. The bay was approaching, the paramedic spun the steering wheel, turning the corner sharply. Another small thud was heard as the ambulance turned. Racing through the blockade, he pushed down the brakes suddenly, the vehicle skidded to a stop. The ambulance lurched forward as it ground to a halt. In doing so accompanying a loud thud from the roof of the vehicle. What was that? He didn't have time to look. Determined to save a life, he jumped out of the ambulance, he grabbed his EMS kit and sprinted towards the group of officers on scene.
"Situation?" He asked hastily.
"Looks like he was rowing a boat when he had some chest pains, we can't get any boats to him, they're tied up in other calls." The Police Officer responded factually, while his companion seemed worried.
"So, we have no way to reach him?" He sighed, he couldn't let another get on his record.
A deep voice came from behind. "You do."
The paramedic swung around to face the voice, before him was a fully clad ancient greek soldier, standing proud with a bronze chestplate that emulated a six-pack, a metal clad arms and boots with a metal shin guard, he even had a blue cape and a dark blue plume. The sides of his armour were bare but the two pieces of metal were tied together. The Paramedic couldn't believe his eyes, partly due to the astonishing sight of a Hoplite in the flesh, and the other part was due to his surprise that having a geeky re-enactment goof was going to give them a chance to save the man.
"Sea Champion, at your service." He responded.
--
It wasn't the first time Sea Champion had ridden the top of a vehicle, but every time he did it, it felt exhilarating. Though, the journey was bumpy and his fingers ached slightly. Nevertheless, it was time to work. Ignoring the hassle produced by the worrisome officers, he brushed them aside. He readied himself at the edge of the bay. The officer attempted, once again, to stop him. He placed his hand on Sea Champion's shoulder. He turned around to the police officer who started to order him around, Sea Champion grasped the Officer's shoulder, he leaned in and whispered, "You either let me do my job or that man dies." Without waiting for a response, he lunged forward propelling himself upwards in to the air. Mid-air, his body became a flash of azure erupting like newborn star. His torso armour melded with his body and became absorbed. His lower armour also returned to his skin, his legs lit up a bright cerulean, mushing together and spiralling in to a large mass of energy. The energy throbbed like a beating heart, the blue energy than dissipated in to a shape, the shape then faded revealing a long, scaled tail with fins the colour of lapis lazuli. Gills opened at his neck. This was but a moment suspended in mid-air he had transformed.

He angled his body for the impact. The water washed over him, filling him with an intense surge of intoxicating adrenaline and the nourishing aurora of the sea. Sea Champion shot forth, his body charged forward at an incredibly high velocity, pockets of nothingness and bubbles trailed him like a tunnel under the water. Nearing his target, he de-accelerated, the rowing boat made a large shadow slicing in to the water below. Sea Champion broke the surface. The man was definitely unconscious. Sea Champion didn't waste even a second. He fiddled with the oars, shoving them out of the way. He reached for the man but failed. He decided he would have to roll the man in to the water. He heaved the side of the boat, the rotund man rolled off the boat and plopped down in the water, he swam under him and slung the man over his shoulder. His weight being supported by the water aided Sea Champion greatly. He swam forward, he made a beeline straight to the dock. The water sloshed behind him, leaving a frothy trail. Gripping the wood of the quay, his journey had come to an end. He lifted the man up on to the jetty. The man was quickly attended by Paramedics who placed him on a stretcher. The paramedic he had talked to before shot him a glance. Sea Champion responded, "You're welcome!"

Sea Champion retreated to a secluded part of the beach, under the pier. He transformed back in to a human, he also re-generated his disguised scale attire. He trudged back up to the pier. He noticed a small hot dog shack. The jolly owner of the van smiled as he saw Alex walking up. "Burgers, Hotdogs, Bacon Sarnies! Get them while their hot!" Alex nodded to him. "What will it be, mate?"
Alex looked at the menu, the foods listed made his stomach churn. "Hotdog." He decided.
The Chef quickly placed the sausage in the long bun. Alex placed some money on the counter. "Pleasure doing business."
Alex turned away, walking on, taking out the sausage and throwing it in to the water. Then he proceeded to eat the bread roll. He walked along the pier. The sea gulls were squawking above him but just as he was going to let his mind wander he heard a scream.
--
Jody had decided to treat Abby to a trip to the beech, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with her 8-year-old daughter before the new addition to the family is born. She knew that this would be a hard time for Abby, Jody bought Abby new swimwear a few weeks ago, ever since she's been ecstatic about being able to use it. Jody was sunbathing on the beach, Abby was playing in the sea but then a large wave swelled up and slammed in Abby, smashing in to the water, she was sucked under, her blow-up ring floated away. She screamed for help but only ended up with a gargle and a mouthful of water. With the lapping waves pushing her down every time she struck the surface, she scrambled around trying to swim but ended up failing. Her foot caught under something, she was helpless. Untill a trench provided by a wave dipped down to her head for a brief second where she let out scream, half gargling and a bit of sputtering but the scream was heard by Jody, who had just looked over. Where was Abby?! She panicked. She looked around frantically for a lifeguard.

Abby hoped that someone had heard her. She was panicking, unable to swim and stuck underwater. Her trapped foot sent a sharp jarring pain. A splash entered the water, emitting a shockwave through the water. Through the cloud of white froth, emerged Alex. Alex clenched his fist slightly, leaving a small opening, in the opening he absorbed the water to create a bubble of air. Alex expanded the bubble and and then moved the bubble to her mouth.
"Breath this and hold your breath." His voice carried clearly through the water. Alex attempted to grab the girl and pull her up to the surface but she cringed with pain, her foot was unable to move. Alex swam deeper inspecting the foot. Her foot was stuck in a chain link. There, under the water, was a large rusty anchor that had sunken in to the ground. The chain was wedged in to a rock with a small semi-loop in which she had her foot stuck in. He examined the chain, he couldn't pull the foot out, and he couldn't twist the chain in to a better posistion. He realised what was necessary, He summoned power to his hands. He placed his hand on the chain link and forced the metal to bend. The metal chain link bent in to a circle, releasing her foot. However, bending it was tiring, but Alex had no time to pause. He swam up and linked his arm around her and swam up to the beach. The mother looked on worriedly. Strategicly keeping his face away from the girl's mother and keeping his tail under water. He absorbed the water from the girl's lungs and then got ready to transform when the girl tapped him.
"You're like Ariel aren't you?" The little girl asked him, judging from Alex's puzzled face, she explained lowering her voice, "You're a mermaid?"
Alex looked down at his tail, blushing slightly, "I guess so... yes." he observed her childish smile. "But it's our little secret, ok?"
She nodded eagerly. The girl's mother ran over to her. "Abby, you're safe!" She scooped up the girl and hugged her, the girl sat on her mother's belly. While the two were preoccupied he slipped on his helmet and transformed in to a human. The woman looked up at Alex, "Thank you for saving her!"
Alex felt a strange feeling of honour wash over him, disarming him. "Any time, ma'am"
"Jody." She smiled, "How can I repay you?"
"No payment needed."
"Abby, what do you say?" She queried her child, prompting her.
"Thank you, Ariel!" Abby beamed.
Alex felt oddly heartwarmed by the nickname.
"Ariel?" Jody chuckled, perplexed by the name.
"I have to be going." And with that Alex walked off the beach, hearing the faint echo cry out, "Mummy, he's really a mermaid!"



​

 

[Nathan]

>> Alex Smith [Axel]
>> Bloody Ravens vs Ant Man [Part 1]
Okay he had settled everything now. His boss had gladly accepted to give him an extended vacation. Something he would probably need since, well, he would probably have to face some villains. After all, wasn't that the purpose of his job? While he was pondering those thoughts, a message appeared on his transceiver.

The Blood Ravens have been spotted in Cape Royale. Find out what they are up to!

Blood Ravens? He wondered what they could be. A group of thugs with a fancy name? Anyway them being in Cape Royale surely meant something. Alex jumped from excitement, he was finally gonna pop some baddies. But if he were to take out a whole gang, he was going to need some ammunition and he knew exactly where he could get some of high quality. He had a taxi take him quickly to the park. Alex often went to the park to practice his powers with animals by talking to them and bringing some food over. He knew a large group of ants that would happily assist him in his mission. Sitting on a bench and concentrating for a little bit, he called them to him and gave them some fruits to eat. Picking one on his finger, he looked intensely at it.

"There are some bad humans that are trying to hurt me. Do you think it would be possible for you and your friends to help me beat them?"

The ant's answer was positive as he knew it would be. So as of now, he had around 150 ants that would bite anyone he wanted. Whoever those Blood Ravens could possibly be, Alex highly doubted they'd expect an army of ants to attack them so he had the surprise effect on his side. Now it was time to go to Cape Royale and track down those villains. He had the ants crawl up his skin so he could transport them easily. Since going to Cape Royale from Suburbia on foot would take too much time, he hailed a taxi again (Alex really hoped that the Champions would receive some sort of financial compensation for their jobs) and made his way to where the Blood Ravens were spotted. After a few minutes of silent traveling, he finally reached Cape Royale. This place was literally breathing luxury, ordinary gangsters couldn't have ended up here easily. Those guys were surely something big. He quickly spotted a villa guarded by three men, each armed with laser guns. Based on the infos he gathered from Binary, he concluded that he was at the right place. He smirked a bit as he communicated with the ants.

"Now, little children, is the time to go bite some nuts."

 

[gimmepie]

Giron // Basil DeLeon

Giron vs Disco: Part Two​

Giron had just never felt the music like this; the freedom, the excitement and the way that the beat pulsed through his veins was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He was one with the music, a living embodiment of festivity as he bopped and twirled down the road behind disco, completely unaware of how comical (or perhaps terrifying) the sight of a gigantic lizard dancing around at the head of a colossal flashmob was.

Giron was busting every dance move that popped into his head, he whipped his tail, did the robot, moonwalked along the street, pulled every cheesy disco step in existence and did something resembling twerking that really just should never have happened. Suffice to say, his attempt to thwart Disco was probably not going as well as it could have. Of course, as he was under the "villain's" influence anyway, at that particular moment Giron really could not have cared even a miniscule proportion less. He was one with the dance. He was doing a very bad job.

"That's right Lizard baby! Shake that!" Disco yelled from the front of the portable party he had created. To anyone not under his power, he'd probably seem completely insane, but at this point practically everyone in the financial district was under his power since it had been almost an hour since Giron's completely botched attempt at halting the gigantic flashmob.

Sirens wailed, barely discernible over the singing-along and cheering of Disco's flashmob and the music he was blasting from his ridiculously good stereo. Police, many of whom were in riot gear, poured from their vehicles into the streets.
"Everyone freeze! We do not want to resort to force, but we will if necessary."
"SUMMER NIGHT CITAAYYY!!!" Giron sang along to the music as he twirled passed Disco, taking no notice of the police… or of the fact that his tail flew up towards Disco's head.

Giron's runaway tail slammed into the side of Disco's head, instantly knocking the lunatic out. Disco fell to the ground, his stereo smashing on the ground halting the music even as his power came to a stop and everyone suddenly stopped dancing.
"W-what happened?" Giron found himself saying, his memory foggy and his head dizzy, several similar responses coming from behind him. That's when he noticed the police. "Oh, officers. Thanks for the he-"
"Not another word, not another step monster!." The police officer with the megaphone yelled.
"Monster?! Where?!" Giron yelled in a sudden panic, wondering how something like that could sneak up on him. He whirled around, looking for the source of everyone's panic as the crowd of former flashmobbers begun to scream in terror when the realised a very large lizard was standing before them.
"Run!"
"Demon!"
"Monster!" Giron was becoming more agitated, why couldn't he see it?! He begun to move about more frantically, searching for whatever it was that was scaring everyone. Then a voice from the police side of things screamed out over the top
"The monster's lost its mind! Prepare to fire!"
"Wait… they couldn't mean me? Could they?" Giron said to himself, suddenly remembering his encounter with Quantum.

"Try to lure it away from the civilians, there's too many of them around it!" That was all Giron needed to confirm the situation. He turned and sprinted down the nearest street. Only minutes later he could here the sound of sirens starting up as the police begun to give chase. Giron brought his transceiver to his mouth
"Binary! Mission accomplished, well I think. Disco is unconscious and there were plenty of police around to take care of him… it seems they also want to take care of me though. Help!"​

 

[Nathan]

>> Alex Smith [Axel]
>> Bloody Ravens vs Ant Man [Part 2]

He was calmly sitting on a nearby bench, sipping some juice he had bought earlier. He had sent some ants scout the area and was waiting for their return to decide on a plan. He smiled a bit as he finally saw them returning. Alex picked them up and carefully listened to their reports of the area. Apparently there were less guards than he had thought. He dropped the ants to the ground.

"Alright guys, go bite those three meanies in their privates."

Surely, those three guards would soon be too busy to notice him slipping into the villa. And a few seconds later, just like he had predicted, the guards all dropped their guns to the ground to reach out for their belts. Alex laughed, that was a rather hilarious sight. Still, he managed to regain enough composure to slip unnoticed into the villa. Now that this was out of the way, proceed carefully and quietly into the house and discover what the Blood Ravens were up to. But it seemed this phase of the plan wasn't going to go as smoothly as he initially hoped. At this very moment, his other persona decided to kick in. And only one thing was on his mind : hit people. His angry thoughts echoed through all the ants and they scattered in the villa, with the clear goal of ferociously biting every unfortunate soul they would meet. As many cries could be heard (and many pants being dropped), Alex did a partial transformation and started ravaging everything near him. A lucky guard, who had somehow escaped the ants, spotted him and fired with his gun. This had the effect of ripping some fur out of his arm, as he dodged at the right moment. He groaned and, with a swing of his arm, sent the guard flying across the room. But the spot where the laser hit him was kinda burning and that seemed to decrease his thirst for rampage. So he was just going through the rooms, searching for clues and ignoring the guys squealing on the ground. Even in his state, he felt bad for them because that must've been hella painful. He took a few deep breaths and returned to normal state. Thankfully the angry side of him wasn't very demanding lately. Axel reached a secluded part of the villa with no luxury items, just a few tables and a metallic door. He approached calmly and smashed the door with his fists. There he had the pleasure to discover boxes labelled with the word "Explosives". Now why would anyone tag their parcels like that? Seems they didn't know about discretion.

"Alright, now what? I should prolly call Binary to deal with this stuff."

He left a message for him through the transceiver and was preparing to make his way out when he heard sirens. He had totally forgot that alarms existed. "Okay Axel play it cool. Don't mess up." Still transformed, he walked out with a big grin on his face and started at the surprised policemen.

"Hey guys, lovely weather um? I...uh...kinda took care of some villains inside with explosives and stuff and I'm just...well...just gonna head back now. Have a good day."

They could barely utter a word and didn't even try to stop him when he waved and went away. After all, what sane and normal person would go bother a talking human-bear? Especially when there a lot of gang members laying on the ground and grasping their crotch with an expression of pain. One of the policemen sighed as he took out his handcuffs.

"Seems we have new freaks in town I guess. First that weird lizard and now a bear. I won't even try to understand."

 

[GreyBidoof]

11:31 PM Hyperia Standard Time
Location: Unknown

It had been a long, uneventful day at the office. A man dressed in a black business suit sat at his desk, sifting through a stack of paperwork, ready to clock out for the night. As he glanced at the last few sheets and envelopes, glanced at the clock on the wall. It was about time he got some rest. He picked up his nearby briefcase, dumped the rest of the stack of papers into a desk drawer, and turned to leave the room.

As he did so, though, he turned around, surprised. A dull 'thunk'ing sound had been omitted when he had dropped his papers back into his desk. Pulling the stack out again, he quickly went through them again, this time looking more closely. After a few seconds, he found what he was seeking: a slim, unmarked envelope, slightly heavier than the rest. Opening it, the agent pulled out a small, handheld device similar to a cellular phone. There was only one button on the exterior of the device, and without hesitation, he pressed it.

The small screen powered on, and the image of another figure appeared.

"The Champions have been reported as MIA. You have clearance to activate phase two of Project Vigilance."

Agent White smiled. The time had finally come.

7:00 AM HST
Location: Hyperia Special Defense Force Training Facility

Three figures stood in front of a large five-story building. One was perched patiently on the stairs, resting her chin gently on her hands. while another was sitting down sucking on a lollipop. The third had its back to the others, looking around the area instead. It seemed casual, as though they were awaiting something. Out of nowhere, each of them perked up, as a voice spoke to them through their earpieces.

"The building is filled with armed hostiles. They have taken three hostages, which are all located on different floors. You have ten minutes to rescue the hostages before they are executed. Minimize collateral damage where possible."

The three looked at each other, nodding knowingly.

"Begin."

The words were heaven to Helen's ears. Codenamed "Overdrive", she was aptly named and did not enjoy wasting time. Then again, based on the mission, she really couldn't. And she wouldn't. Blasting through the doors at a blazing speed, she left her teammates in the dust. A five story building was nothing to Helen and she easily ran through the entire building, barely alerting the guards to her presence. After running what she could only really call "recon", she took a quick breather (not that she needed it) and popped back on the radio.

"Alrighty, we got hostages on floors 2, 4 and 5. Gotta bunch of baddies too with some automatic weapons. No biggie for me, but ya know, you guys can't exactly dodge bullets too easily," Helen said, basically taking the whole situation as barely anything to really worry about. "Your call on what you want me to do."

Harper gently sighed, as she watched her team-mate completely abandon ship.

"Does she think she can tak-" She looked up to see that her other teammate had already began walking off. She let out a second sigh. "Well, guess I better get my job done." Her expression oozed disappointment. She tapped her earpiece, to get a better reading of the situation inside. "Helen, I'm gonna need you to lay low for a sec, you think you can do that?" The patronising nature of her tone, stemmed from the difficulty she found in talking to her eccentric comrade.

After finding herself some leverage in the form of a small building, not far from the one they were supposed to be infiltrating, Harper popped her head up above the ledge to get a decent view. She noticed one of the bots look directly at her, and quickly withdrew to a prone position. She stared down at the roof beneath her with a scathing skepticism. Had her cover been blown? With a deep breath, she again tapped her earpiece in the hope that one of her squad mates had eyes on the bot that had spotted her. "Helen, where are you exactly?" She groaned, again with a sense of condescension in her tone. She took it upon herself to risk it and pop her head back above ledge. Annoying as it was that her blonde hair stood out so much in situations like this, she knew, neither: her parents, her friends, her boyfriend, nor Agent White would appreciate an act as bold as dying it.

Agent white feared civilians would make the connections, if her change in hair colour directly corresponded with that of the emerging hero 'spectrum'. Her parents seemed to have an uncanny pride in their golden blonde hair, which Harper herself identified with up until that very moment. Clearly her target seemed to find it pretty useful; since again, her bright, golden hair was glistening in the sunlight.

In a more panicked manner, she again tapped the earpiece. "Helen?" She repeated, attempting to mask her frustration as she did so.

"I'm hanging tight on the roof still, like you told me to...well basically told me to," she answered quickly. "What do you need?"

Harper clenched her body. The frustration began to build, as she couldn't act upon the news that her partner was on the roof. "There's a guy, I think he's on the third floor. I'm kind of worried he may have seen me. I need you to give me a heads up on how they've reacted." As her breaths shortened, so did her sentences. "Are they sending guys in my direction?" She asked, as she attempted to compose herself at the thought of a combat situation.

Bored of Harper's complaining, Helen rolled her eyes and sprinted through the complex again. To the robots, Helen wasn't a concept, as she bolted through the hallways quickly. She did not want to risk trying to grab the hostages at the moment for a couple reasons. One, she could risk harming them. And two, Harper (maybe Mai) may have been in some precarious situations. Helen seemingly spawned back on the roof after about five seconds of silence. "I don't think they know you are there. You are probably fine. They are centered around choke points and the hostages, so anyone going in not named me should . . . eh, not maybe. Want me to just cause a ruckus and draw their attention?"

Harper breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright slow down, I got an idea, but we need to know where Mai is. Having her wandering around on her own just scares me."She did her best to hide her hair, before, poking her head out for a third time. Then again, Helen in there by herself doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either. She came to the realisation in her head. To be honest, I kinda feel sorry for those robots a little. She chuckled at the thought. On that note, her attention switched to her other teammate. She pressed the button on her earpiece. "Mai . . . where exactly did you go?" She kept her hand on the button. Though she found working with Helen difficult, working with Mai was definitely not a better alternative.

"Well I assumed you would have followed me. It's not like I ran off like someone did." Mai's voice broke through the radio.

She had walked off after Helen ran, muttering to herself about her reckless teammate. It was hard to work as a team when no one would stay together. Of course, when she glanced back to say something to Harper, she'd noticed the girl had not followed her.

That wasn't Mai's fault, so she just kept walking.

Now she was somewhere within the building, hugging the wall as she carefully made her way through.

"So, what's your plan? I assume you have one if you're looking for me."

"We're going to need to split up." Harper suggested, while checking over her shoulder.

Mai frowned. "I think we've already got that covered, dear."

"Let's not get smart." Harper began with a sigh. "I meant at the hostage points." She rolled her eyes. "Right now, I've got eyes on floors two and four. I can block the stairways on each of those, so that means which ever of us get floors four and five will have to share. Think you're capable of that Mai, or do you want floor two?" She taunted with a slight snicker.

"Get smart? I'd like to think I'm already there," Mai retorted. "And I'm on floor three at the moment. I can take whichever. Going down one floor isn't a large trek, and I assume it'd be faster for you to get into the higher floors from where you are."

"Alright, contact me when you get there, and don't attract any attention. I need to pass the word on to Helen." She clicked her earpiece, and switched over to Helen. "I'm gonna make this quick, since you're on the roof I need you to get on floor five, I'll handle the rest." She didn't take the time to listen to any response Helen may have given, before switching to her neutral dial. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to initiate the plan until both floors had been occupied.

Helen sighed at the order, but eventually conceded. All she wanted to do was barge through and finally decided to somewhat rebel on her orders. Bolting off from the roof, Helen barged through the fifth floor, disarming the few robots on her first pass before clubbing them with their own weapons on the second. It was a blitz with the guards not knowing what hit them in the couple seconds of action. A gust of wind was left in the wake of everything and Helen was pleased with her own work. Harper's approach was taking too long and considering the time limit, she was strongly considering knocking out the rest of the building and letting the other two secure the hostages. That probably was the sharpest idea, but Helen didn't really care at this point. Approaching the hostage, Helen patted "her" on the back before radioing in: "Hostage secured, in case you were wondering."

"Helen, what the hell?" Harper began shouting in frustration. "I thought we were doing this as a team." Her voice softened for the statement. It was hopeless now. She tapped her earpiece again. "Mai, Helen's gone rogue, we're gonna have to improvise." It wasn't even worth trying to feign composure-she was annoyed. "You take floor two, I'll try to cover you when I get done with floor four. It could get sticky since one of us will get all the floor three guards and I'm pretty sure you'll get stuck with floor one's as well. Good luck." After explaining how she'd analysed the situation, she looked up, to see a cluster of guards all making their way to the fifth floor. "Thank you, Helen." She groaned to herself sarcastically.

"You're welcome, by the way," Helen said at the rogue remark. "Ain't like planning something out for five minutes is going to pause the clock or anything. But if you really don't want my help and insist on working together in a scenario that I could easily dispatch half of your problems in the blink of an eye, fine! Go be a hero without the speedster~"

With another sigh, something she'd been doing a lot that day, she took to her feet and extended her arms in the stance of an archer drawing a bow. In her left hand formed the arch of a rainbow; she used her right to slide through the spectrum and draw the green strand, which extended backwards akin to the string on a bow. As Harper pulled the green strand out of the rainbow, an arrow of the same colour also stretched with it. She took a short moment to breath in. With the release of her breath, she released the arrow, straight through the open window of the fourth floor.

Harper's body materialised on the spot where the arrow landed. The young hero was greeted by a mob of guards, holding guns.

"I hate Helen." She sighed, as she quickly fired an orange arrow at the ground to block the incoming bullets. She was surrounded by an orange, spherical light shield. Fourteen guards huh. She looked around at the confused mass, who were waiting for her shield to dissipate. A few tried to fire at it in the hope that their bullets could penetrate the force field. With an empathetic sigh, she clicked the button on her earpiece. "Mai, please tell me you're having more luck than me."

Back on the second floor, Mai was working her way through the halls silently. She'd avoided alerting any of the guards so far, but they would no doubt kick into action momentarily due to the disturbance on the higher floors.

She found a door with a small window on it. The door was made of steel, and inside was the hostage.

How cliché.

She tried the handle. Locked, of course. Breaking it down wasn't really an option.

She pressed her finger to her earpiece. "I've about got it. The guards haven't noticed me, but I'm sure your little antics upstairs have them on high alert. Chances are I'll walk into a trap in just a few seconds, but that's okay."

My antics? Harper frowned to herself.

Mai returned her attention to the barrier in front of her.

She'd have to go through it.

She concentrated on her form, clearing her mind of distractions. She wasn't very good at this part yet.

She felt her body soften and evaporate around her. Her arms became smoke-like, followed by the rest of her body.

This still felt weird as all Hell.

She laughed a little at her own joke.

She maneuvered her Nether form to the ground, where she began to seep through the crack under the door. It was slime, practically nonexistent, but she managed to fit through it.

The instant she was on the other side, she returned to her corporeal form. She didn't want to be like that any longer than she needed to. She ran over to the hostage, only to be stopped by two guards that had been standing off to the side.

If two was all she had to face, then this was going to be easy.

She heard the door slam open behind her. Psyduck. She'd gone and jinxed herself. Well, at least that meant she wouldn't have to get the door open in order to get out now.

She slowly glanced around the room, keeping as many of the guards in her field of view as she could. She counted twenty. Okay, a little more difficult than two, but still manageable.

"I was right about that trap thing," she muttered through her earpiece.

"Loud and clear. I'll try to back you up when I can." Harper responded. At this point she was sitting down, while being eagerly watched by the guards on standby. She looked up a them. "So, do you guys talk at all or...?" She received no reply. A few of the hostiles were sent upstairs to deal with the situation on the fifth floor, as they lost patience with the fourth floor situation. "Wait guys." Harper called out, encouraging intrigue from both those who had been ordered upstairs and those who had just arrived from downstairs. "You guys know that light can pass through light, right?" The expressions of the guards resembled that of confusion. She grinned, before again conjuring her colourful bow.

This time, the violet strand was the one to be pulled back. Instead of firing at an enemy, or at a certain spot, Harper fired the arrow at her shield. Everything within the large semi-sphere was no longer visible to everything outside of it. Only down side is that the hostage was outside bubble. A minor inconvenience.

The guard who was holding the hostage felt a sharp pain in his crotch, urging him to clutch on to it in agony. She stuck her tongue out at the squirming guard. Obviously he couldn't see the insulting gesture, but the intent was there.

Realising that the other guards were now acting upon what they'd just seen, Harper grabbed the hostage and dragged him to the window that she'd come in through. He was far too shocked and scared to put up any resistance. The guards didn't seem interested in helping their 'spontaneously' injured friend anymore. They seemed intent on recovering the hostage.

She drew the green strand, upon doing so, her body was once again visible to everyone in the room. The arrow was fired through the man leaning over the windowsill, and landed on the roof Harper had been on earlier, the hostage now reappeared where the arrow landed.

With guns again cocked against her back, and an open window four stories high in front of her, Harper only really had one choice. She quickly dove head first out of the window, with a couple of bullets flying out of the same window behind her.

As she fell, she quickly drew the green strand.

"Gotta get this right." She uttered, while trying to concentrate under the great forces acting upon her as she fell. She let go of her bow as she reached the window of the second floor. Before she even reached the window of the first floor, she re-materialised in what seemed to be some sort of storage room. Of course being upside down didn't exactly help her orientation skills. When she did manage to get a look at her surroundings, she noticed a woman tied to a chair and a woman standing in front of that woman, being harassed by two large men. "Mai!" She shocked herself with her own enthusiasm. It took her standing up, for her to realise she was still in a combat situation. "Soooo, traps. I get it now." She groaned, as she stared down the fifteen plus guards that her comrade was about to face.

"Nice of you to drop by," Mai remarked, noticing Harper out of the corner of her eye.

She returned her full attention to the guards surrounding her. The two that she'd seen when entering the room stood between her and the hostage, and the others dotted the perimeter of the room, slowly closing in around Mai. One hostage, twenty guards. This wouldn't be too difficult.

She lurched forward before sharply turning and getting low to the ground, confusing the guard as he blocked upwards at first. She kicked his feet out from under him, brought her hand up and shot a concentrated blast of celestial energy into the second guard, sending him flying. She pulled out a dagger and, in one swift movement, cut the hostage free from her bindings.

She grabbed the hostage by the hand and pulled her to her feet, running towards the door. The other guards lunged at Mai and hostage. Mai pulled the android woman in close to her, waving her right hand through the air and opening a dark tear in the atmosphere. She ripped it open wider as a handful of guards neared her. The black hole sucked them into the abyss, getting rid of them permanently. She swiped her hand through the air a second time, opening a lighter tear through which a barrage of alien stone poured out, striking three other guards and knocking them out.

By her count, eleven guards remained.

She glanced at Harper, then back at the hostage and the second tear in front of them. She grabbed the edges of the tear and molded it, before throwing it towards Harper. She opened a third tear and pushed the hostage through it, causing the android to reappear through the tear she'd thrown at Harper.

"Take her!" Mai commanded as she closed the second and third tear.

"But..." Harper began to respond in protest.

The final eleven guards circled Mai.

The first tear was still open, however, and she could feel herself being pulled towards it.

Muk.

She looked at the black hole. It was slowly expanding and trying to consume as much of the world around it as it could. Two more guards were suddenly sucked into the void. She needed to close it before it got out of hand.

She ducked under one guard and then launched herself off of the arm and then head of a second, gaining an aerial view. She crossed her arms and let black sparks dance across her frame, loosing three bolts of black lightning that rained down upon the guards. One caught fire and two more were knocked back, with the electricity shorting their circuits.

She landed by the black hole, slamming her hands against its edges as she attempted to close it. It barely budged. She reached her hands into it and tried to pull it closed. She gritted her teeth and dug her heels into the ground, trying to gain a better foothold.

The six remaining guards, the idiots that they were, decided to try and attack her while she was fixing the problem. The effort of closing the hole was a strain, and the stress of that combined with the stimuli of six pairs of arms lashing out at her caused her to unintentionally shake the earth around her. Tremors wracked the room and darkness seeped out of cracks in the ground, congealing into a dark mist that swirled around Mai.

She let out a yell as she quickly turned and caused the ground beneath the guards to erupt in a spray of concrete and shadows, immediately returning her hands to the tear as she hoped the last of the guards had been dispatched.

With one final, strained grunt, she managed to close the rip in the dimensions, practically collapsing afterwards as she tried and catch her breath.

"Note to self," she muttered. "Black holes are annoying as muk to handle."

A small chime sounded in the team's earpieces.

"Simulation Complete. Proceed to debriefing."

---

Agent White stood at the base of the building, not far from where the team had started their mission. As they approached, he scowled.

"That was sloppy. It took you eight minutes to secure the hostages. I know normal agents who could have done it in five."

Helen scoffed at the criticism and turned her head away: "Well, if Harper let me do what I wanted, it would have been done in like three minutes. But noooo, we had to do it all team-like with a slowpoke and someone who goes off the grid for a few minutes."

Harper glared at her teammate in response to the outrageous remark. She daren't be foolish enough to start arguing with her Helen in front of Agent White.

"Sorry, I'll try to be faster next time." She feigned remorse. She didn't need Helen or Mai to buy into the act; as long as Agent White did, it hardly mattered.

"The time for training has come to an end." Agent white continued, in the same matter-of-fact tone. "The Champions, the so-called 'guardians of the city', vanished during a fight with one of their particularly powerful nemeses. I have received clearance to put you three in the field. It's time to show Hyperia that we are just as capable of defending her as these costumed vigilantes."

Mai crossed her arms and cocked her hip, taking on a more interested expression. It seemed like the were actually about to do something interesting.

"I have also received word that Binary, the last remaining Champion, has attempted to assemble his own ragtag team of street mutants. I doubt a team of agents such as yourselves will have any trouble dealing with them."

With that, Agent White turned around, and began to walk towards the training facility exit. Without even so much as looking back, he addressed the three female agents for the final time that night:

"I'll contact you with your orders in eight hours."