Morningstar

This whole scene was sending shivers down Morningstar's spine, her sense of vague unease now coalascending into something almost tangible with menace. She couldn't be exactly sure what was happening here, but it certainly wasn't good, not by any stretch of the word. She, and the League by extension, needed more information to make anything resembling an informed decision. Before heading in gung-ho though, she had to know more about something.

"Binary, I've come across five rooms, each with what appears an unconscious superhuman hooked up to an IV. I want to investigate further, but the rooms are covered in mystic rooms, but I'm not sure as to their meaning. I'm sending you the runes, please advise." She whispered before sending still shots of the rooms to the cybernetic hero. While she knew Binary wasn't exactly up to speed on mysticism either, she was better suited to access that kind of information. While waiting for the Binary to get back to her Morningstar performed a further sweep of the hallway.

Mr Joe Black

Joe shrugged as Shifter and Breakneck passed him, unwilling to get to worked up as his ploy fell flat. Some you win, some you lose, he should know that being dead and all. Still, didn't stop him muttering that some fairly unkind things about the two women as they left, but he ambled away genially enough, eager not to miss the start of the Simpsons. How he loved those couch gags.

"Joe I require your presence in the Sorcery Circle. I need your help with some experiments."

The voice was irritatingly familiar, and the request was accompanied by a infuriating buzzing that was the bane of Joes continued existence. Not quite the same shaking impulse that Destiny himself warranted when he made a demand of Joe, but close, and more than enough to ruin the rest of his day, and make the Simpsons all but unwatchable. The zombie swivelled stiffly, pulling his raybans off to give his best dead eyed glare to Prudence.

"You need my help with an experiment!?! You better hope I never learn how to start disobeying you mages, or I am gonna tear your face off so quick the blood is gonna still be blue when it pools around your feet." This was a pretty standard response from Joe, no doubt Prudence would brush it off like Destiny usually did, as if it was good natured horseplay.

"Ah, that makes sense. So... You wanna rescue Sonja before you start to fight them? She doesn't look too good." Light said, pointing out how Sonja was nearing unconsciousness. "Anyway, I'mma use that gas girl as a weapon til she gives up. Should be fun!" Light said as she dashed in as Sonja lost consciousness, inhaling what toxic gas she could get a hold of, then using the confusion she had caused to blow the gas at the two guys with assault rifles, using the gas as cover as she threw a couple punches in their direction before dashing away to get a better angle. While the gas wouldn't bother her if she only had contact with it for short bursts, prolonged exposure would take its toll.

Light then remembered that there was a vampire also in the fight with these baddies, and made a mental note of where he was fighting, in case he might need help too.

Petya sent her partner a happy grin together with a lazy salute before finding herself a seat, waiting for her turn quietly. Rolling Girl needed more help than the shapeshifter, anyway. She couldn't imagine anyone else taking better care of the woman.

Imagine her surprise when Lan was pushed away after a few questions, another nurse taking her place instead. Petya watched the healer backing away meekly before she turned towards her partner. An embarrassed blush took over Lan's face as she set to work on her instead.

Lan didn't do much more than ask a few questions, and Petya didn't bother her beyond a comforting pat on the arm. Guess some people didn't really want Lan around, since she didn't have any sort of formal education. Apparently even heroes could be assholes.

With a deep breath, the shapeshifter relaxed on her bunk. As Lan set on fixing her cracked rib, the Rolling Girl decided to speak up. She seemed hesitant about joining in, but Petya wouldn't say no for more drinking partners. Before she could tell her as much, she was cut off by Ocean Warrior.

”Cocky? I don't get cocky,” she said, smiling an undeniably cocky way. ”Though I'd rather avoid getting thrown around next time. Not exactly my idea of a good time.” Was the fish guy much of a drinker? Wouldn't hurt to ask him along as well. Energized by the idea, Petya made to sit up, only to be pushed back down by a gentle hand.

”Speaking of which! You much of a drinker? You should join me and Rolling Girl here, we're going as soon as we're done here. You won't regret it,” the shapeshifter continued with a saucy wink. ”Lan's coming too. Right, partner?"

"You have a concussion. I'm not sure if drinking is a good idea," Orchid replied. Petya rolled her eyes in response.
"Drinking is always a good idea."

The Estate

Luckily for Sixgun, most of the guards were on the perimeter of the estate or inside the buildings. A two-man patrol had just passed by and he would likely have several minutes before they returned. Miraculously, the window was cracked open as Music and Marconi talked. Talked might have been too kind a word. Shouted was more accurate. Marconi roared, "I don't give a flying fuck about your caution!! They have my family!! My wife! My children!! My children, dammit! I know you don't have any to not care about Music but us regular humans-" Music coldly cut in, "I understand but this is exactly what they want. They want you to come at them angry and stupid so that they can kill us all so much easier."

Marconi bristled, "If it's a fight they want. It's a fight they'll get. We're getting boys from all around, even up North and down South. Every organized crime syndicate and mercenary worth the name from more than two-thirds of the country. They're all eager to bleed the Legion and the League. We'll fucking destroy them." Music laughed, a rare expression from him, "We may be getting more manpower and material yes but they have the same. Somebody is providing them with weapons and men, more than they should have. And they have the superhumans. Any one superhuman is worth ten regular men at least. And they have a monopoly on criminal superhumans on everywhere except the coasts."

"A good rifle and a good guy to hold it can put down almost any superhuman. And for the ones who'd be left... we've got bigger stuff."

"That may be true. But they know where we live. They know where to hit to make it hurt. Look how easy it was for them to take your family. They've consolidated their power while the crime families continue to squabble. If we keep going how we are, we'll all be wiped out. We need to do three things."

"And what would those be if you'd be so kind?"

"We need to find out more about them before we fight back. We need to get superhuman firepower of our own, as many independent operatives as we can get. And we need to get rid of all the bosses who won't fall in line. If we beat the Legion, after the dust settles we'll have control of one of the largest crime operations in American history. One that stretches all the way north and south and reaches as far west as Colorado and as far east as Ohio. Eventually the Cartels and the old Families in the east would get wiped out by us."

Marconi snorted, "And how would I be sure you'd be interested in partnering after?" Music's sardonic grin could almost be heard, "Well you don't. You'll just have to trust me won't you?" Marconi laughed, "No such thing in our line of work. But for the moment, I suppose I have no choice." Music said, "Then the first order of business is to put thte word out to anybody the Legion hasn't snapped up. Then we get our guys on information retrieval. And we call a meeting. We're going to have some.... cutbacks in the management positions among our friends. We should do it before the week is out. Tomorrow."

"I'll get the word out." Nearby Sixgun heard the crunch of footsteps as the patrol resumed their circle, perhaps a few hundred yards away from him and out of sight.

The Den

Binary cursed and she said, "Got them. I'm sending them to the Sorcery division. Hold on..." the technopath came back on the line, "Destiny is out but Madame Rosario says they're classic examples of enthrallment magic. They're drawn to help keep them unconscious as well as slowly and subtly altering their minds to come around to Legion's way of thinking. The drugs are probably potions that help with that as well. From my records... these are some of the civilian superhumans who have been going missing. But... there's dozens more where they came from. And that girl...."

Binary paused before saying, "She's registered as a metahuman but no mention of a specific power-set. Big guy's a bruiser, construction worker for the Barclay-Hoffmeyer outfit in town, one's a super-contortionist and acrobat for the Circus, the woman is a flyer with enhanced physical abilities and is a super-cop, and the last guy is a suspected mob hitman. But there's nothing on the girl. Average everyday little kid, nothing out of the ordinary that I can see."

"Rosario tells me the runes will warn the Sorcerer if the victims leave their trance or are removed from the bed. I recommend you try and gather more intel. There might be files or data you can look into. There's something about that girl..." In one room, the room with the girl there was a laptop computer perhaps left behind by whoever had been there last, "We need that computer. Rosario says that if you can keep from stepping directly on the runes you should be fine. They weren't designed to detect people coming in." The runes covered much of the floor but there were some bare patches of concrete floor including a five foot square area where the laptop sat on a desk.

The Hall

Anima smiled at St. Francis, "Here fill out these forms. We have files on you and the registration has lately been... streamlined. There's nobody to show you around right now but the League should be getting back soon. Pariah and his team just got back and perhaps you'll find somebody in the common room." Prudence giggled, "Oh Joe, you're so funny when you're murderously mad. You can just record your shows you know."

When he arrived in the Sorcery Circle, there were few mages around. It was mostly the apprentices and the sorcerers not suited for direct combat including Madame Rosario who sat in the corner talking into a screen. Prudence was a young waif of a woman, in her late teens with long brown hair and green eyes. She smiled at Joe and said, "You're in luck Joe. Thomas has been working on something so you and other more... appearance challenged members can walk around without scaring little kids. You're lucky he took the time off from working on those rings of his." Said rings were on Thomas's work table, one of them plain but of a suspiciously bright green color.

Prudence held up a chain with a simple brass locket on it, "Glamours. Just put an image or drawing of what you'd like too look like and you can change into that person as long as you keep it on and the charm isn't disrupted. You'll need to recharge every few days but it'll even hide the smell," She said this with a joking wrinkling of her nose, then she smiled, "Joe... we can make you look like you did when you were alive. Do you want to try it or what?"

The Prison

Sarin's eyes widened as the bat fell on her and her head snapped back into the concrete with a sickening crunch. Her eyes remained open as blood started pooling on the ground and her remaining organic fingers twitched for a few moments. Either she was dead or she was grievously hurt. There was no time to tell which as Sonja passed out on the floor next to her enemy.

Knightmare was about to exit when Light entered. Her attack confused Reaper and Xaxx, but the gas did not reach far enough to harm them simply making them back up as she came to punch them. Their armor protected them from the hits but Reaper managed to grab Light before she retreated, draining some of Light's power before she and Xaxx sprayed the corridor with assault rifle fire. Diluvian created a wet mist that concealed the villains as they began backpedaling towards the portal with rifles trained in front of them. Sarco snarled and decided he didn't want to be left behind, the Growth and the Behemoth falling back as the mist came up. The villains were about to leave.

Outside the prison the last enemy creature was crushed under Zenith's grip. The hero surveyed the battle and was pleased to see minimal casualties. The animalistic supernatural army had been no match for modern firepower and superhumans working together. He looked to the sky as their reinforcements came, Leaguers from long-distance missions who were finally coming to their aid. The tide was about to turn.

Binary said in his ear, "Zenith, maximum security prisoners are escaping! Pestilence, the Schizoid Man, Sanguine, Sickle, and Siren have escaped through a magic portal. They're all almost gone!" Zenith cursed, "And Damien?" Binary sighed, "He's out too." Zenith shook his head, and turned to the Founders near him looking Olympia in the eye, "It's Damien. He and the other villains in maximum security are escaping." All of the Founders turned grim. The last time they had fought Polaris, it had taken all eight of them plus Pariah, Savant, Destiny, and one other to fight him. Polaris was one of the most powerful superhumans alive. He was dangerous. He was smart. He was deadly. And he used to be their friend. He knew everything there was to know about them. If he escaped it would be a disaster.

Zenith grimly said, "We have to bring order to the prison. We can only spare myself, Olympia, and Raptor to fight him. I need the rest of you to help the members in the other wings of the prison." They all nodded their heads slowly, except for Olympia who said, "It'll just be the three of us? Against him? If we don't use lethal force.." Zenith shook his head, "He may be a villain now but once he was our friend. We give him a chance to surrender and we don't use lethal force unless we absolutely have to." Olympia snapped, "Remember what he did to-" Zenith held up a hand and stared, "I remember. But he does too. If there's anything left of the Damien we knew it won't come to that again." Olympia looked away without saying anything. Zenith wondered what she was thinking. Out of all them Ariadne knew Damien the best.

Zenith called out on the channel, "Chrome I need you with me. St. Michael too and everyone that can be spared. We're going to maximum security." Zenith, Olympia, Chrome, Michael and several others rushed off to subdue the worst of the worst while the others went to assist the League and the government in quelling the riot. Zenith flew towards the prison and memories came flooding back. Memories of a smiling blonde haired and blue eyed man. A happy and charming man. A friend. Now one of his greatest enemies. Zenith had hoped he never had to face him again. He just hoped that this time would not turn out like the last.

MC meandered around the hall, looking for something interesting to do. Eventually he made his way to the medic bay where the other heroes from his last mission were resting up. He decided to pay them a visit, looking for something to do.

"Hello all of you. Annoying mission, huh?" MC said once he flew above Ocean Warrior, Shifter and their group. He had just heard mention of drinks, and began to conjure the fixings for tea. "I mean, seriously, that barrier was sooo annoying. I wanted to beat more than one person into the ground you know! Well, metaphorically speaking, I'm more of a 'blast with chaos' sorta person but hey." He continued to ramble, conjuring a small table to set the tea fixings on.

"I mean, apparently all I did was cause something to turn pink, whatever that color looks like. Boring. I was hoping for cheese or something. Oh well. Anyone want Lemon in their tea?" MC said, rambling some more before conjuring some limes for everyone.

Getting an idea, due to the company that was there, MC said. "Hey, do you people wanna see something cool?" Or I'm told its cool, anyway." After which he did a motion of taking a breath, his form shifting to a female form with overexadurated hips and hourglass shape, a smaller head, but noticeably small breasts. "See? Cool huh?" MC said, her voice also being more feminine sounding. "Use him, her, or it. I don't care, all sorta work for me. yay for living energy!"

---

"Cowards!" Light said at the retreating villains, feeling first a little woozy from reaper's touch, then taking some assault rifle fire in the gut, muttering "ow" when a bullet hit. When she regained her composure, Light grabbed some of the blood that was leaking from her bullet wounds, and dashed by the portal, throwing the blood at the villains heads as she passed them. Putting herself right next to the portal, Light stuck one of her hands inside it, fending off attackers with her other free hand.

Due to her Entrophy, the portal began to destabilize, being made of of magic, and it would soon collapse, sealing herself and the other heroes in with these villains. After all, most of the big guns had already left, or what she considered big guns anyway. "Woe to anyone who tries to take a collapsing portal" Light thought ot herself, knowing what was going to happen to the hand she had stuck inside the portal.

Wire

"I don't get it; why do you all have codenames? Just makes you sound like you have issues."

Howard and Wire walked through the gloom. The car had dropped them off close to the residence. They had had bags placed over their heads on the ride there, but Wire already knew where they were. Maps were the first thing he had to memorise if he was going to do his job efficiently. But as to who lived there? He wasn't entirely sure. A few names came to mind, but he had no way of being certain which of those this place belonged to. Either way, it would be someone who has their guns aimed at Legion, and Legion had their guns aimed at them. Seeing as there was word of trouble for the big boss, the few meta's the Outfit had were being sent this way. Or at least, they should be: they were valuable assets to the lower level bosses, and most wouldn't willingly give them up. Not to someone whose power was currently questionable. Well Howard here had a track record for being unruly, and given the latest incident, they happily would send him to back up the boss. The police they can handle, but having an unruly meta would only attract the League. And no one yet could handle the League.

The opportunity he had been working for arose: Howard was being sent directly to the big boss, the head honcho, and Wire just so happened to be able to calm him down. He easily negotiated to tag along with him, and entertained the idea of acting as a bodyguard. He'd get closer to the man behind the crimes, and he'd find himself in the good graces of one of Legion's main competitors. And Legion was a threat he was determined to neutralise.

"Issues?" Questioned the masked man.

"Yeah, issues. Like you got diddled by your creepy uncle or someing."

Wire gave Howard a two second pause. "Well. I can't exactly speak for everyone else; but for me, its a bit more practical than 'just sounding cool'."

"How d'ya mean?" The large man queried.

"I work with some dangerous people. What happens if they're unhappy with my performance? What happens if people I'm working against are unhappy with me for working against them?"

"Ah, ok. So it's to cover your ass.. But whats with the poncy names? Why're you not just anonymous?"

"Doesn't really help your business if you don't have a name." Wire replied factually.

"Alright, get your point. Still don't get the poncy names."

"Probably to inspire hope. Or some other idealistic crap."

"Heh. Probably, the self righteous idiots."

They walked along up the path, and Howard furrowed his brow. Wire let some static creep through his mask as he let out a sigh.

"Ask away." He said with a tired tone.

"Why Wire? I mean, Olympia is some chick from the olympics or some sh.. crap. But why Wire? What the hell's that all about?"

Wire gave him a hard look through his mask. "On my first job, a guy tried to choke me out. I still don't know how I didn't end up dead, or killing him." He lied.

Howard raised his hands in a mock apology for bringing it up. It would seem he didn't like talking about the grimier side of the business with him. Maybe because he showed his vulnerable side to him, albeit unintentionally. Maybe because he'd gained some respect for him. Wire didn't want to put that to the test, but for the time being, he had made an ally. And he noted that Howard had stopped himself from swearing. A smiled crept inside of his mask.

They were coming up to the front entrance now when some guards stopped them. They seemed to recognise Howard, but they kept their guns tracked on Wire. He now had to rely on his new friend to get him to where he had been working towards for months. He was exceptionally nervous, although his relaxed posture as usual gave none of this away.

Hot Rod tried to stop Light from making her move, but he couldn't and now they had to move quickly otherwise their method of surprise would be completely blown. Damn it! why can't people listen? he thought to himself. Hot Rod made his move and took off at hypersonic speed. He first fired two fire vortexes out of both of his hands straight the villains and then while they were distracted, Hot Rod began to move around at insane speeds landing lightning fast punches at different villains. His eyes soon focused on Polaris and Hot Rod cursed inwardly to himself. He'd heard about the fallen League member and how the powerful metahuman had become a criminal.

He knew that he almost had no chance against the fallen hero, but he had a duty to fulfill and he wasn't going to let a murdering psychopath stop him. He quickly spoke into his com hoping that all of the heroes outside of the maximum security area would hear, "Guys, I am facing down Polaris and will try to hold him off until you all get your butts over here, but please make it fast."

After he was finished speaking, he took off at blinding speed and began to punch at Polaris from different directions in order to make his movements more unpredictable.

---

St Francis said a polite thank you to the woman and began to fill out the papers. Once he was done, he handed them to the woman and he began to wander around the hall, looking for the members who had returned from their mission with Pariah.

"This place is pretty big" he said to himself.

---

Ocean Warrior was slightly taken by surprise when Petya asked if he was a drinker, it felt like a strange question to be asking him.

"I am not a heavy drinker, but I do like to drink in a social fashion so I guess I'll go along with all you. Also Shifter, her name is Break Neck now, she doesn't like the name Rolling Girl" he replied to her. Then MC appeared and began to make what looked tea with his magic, this was getting to be a little weird for Finn and he wandered if it would be a good to have them drinking.

Morningstar

Get the computer without standing on the runes? Piece of cake. Wasn't like they were set out to be un-traversable, Legion probably never imagined anyone would ever find this place, never mind needing heavier anti-intruder precautions. Anyone with decent balance and coordination could get in and out easy enough, and if there was one thing Lucy had it was balance and coordination. She wouldn't have lasted long in this life without it, especially powerless.

She pushed open the door and circumnavigated the wards like a dancer, graceful and smooth with the sort of easy movements one would expect from a cat. It didn't take long for her to make it to the lap top.

"Binary, you wanting the whole laptop or just the drive?

Mr Joe Black

"Maybe I like scaring little kids," Grumbled Joe at Prudence's comment. Fact was kids were about the only people he didn't like scaring, but her observation had been too close to the truth for his liking. Mages, always knew more than they should. He pulled another Marlboro from his jacket and lit up, despite knowing how much it annoyed Destiny and his acolytes. They wanted their sanctuary to be a smoke free zone. That was damn tough, because Joe wanted their sanctuary to be a Joe free zone, but he didn't get his way, so he didn't see why they should get theirs.

Thomas latest work was interesting though, even if Joe never felt particularly 'lucky' whenever any of the Magus's work could involve him in anyway. Almost meant he would have to do stuff, a horrible waste of his time and effort. Still, to be able to look like anyone would have it's advantages. The mere thought of the scams he could pull of with this. He breathed smoke all over Destiny's desk as he inspected the glamour.

"Look like I did when I was alive?" He chortled, an empty rattle of a sound "Fuck no, I was almost as ugly alive as I am now. I wanna look like that Ryan Gosling fella, something that will really get the girls wet." He looked across the room and gave Madame Rosario an ugly wink at that, knowing the nosey bag would be listening in. She never had trusted him.

SIXGUN

Ben nodded to himself, then decided he had heard enough. It was pretty much as he expected- Marconi was thinking self-defense, while Music was thinking in grander terms. Still staying low, he placed one of the micro-cams just beneath the window- it wouldn't see anything, but the sensitive mic would be able to pick up the conversations occuring within. Somehow. Maybe it was magic. He crept away from the window until reaching what was obviously the better-worn path leading to the compound's gate. Hands in his pockets, whistling softly, he made no attempt to look like he was trying to hide, even giving a friendly nod to one of the patrols he passed.

Sixgun let himself out of the compound, making a beeline for the the nearest El station. Pariah had picked it carefully, close enough to be reached by a short trip, but too far away to be watched by the Outfit. After all, who in this neighborhood would use public transit?

He found the trash can he had been informed of, reached to the small ashtray atop the metal cylinder. Digging his fingers into the butts and black grit, he dug until he found the hidden catch that unlocked the device and lifted the entire tray out. Looking to see if anyone was watching, Sixgun reached into his pocket and deposited the vial labeled Apex into the small chamber beneath. Ben deposited the ashtray back in its proper place, carefully brushed the butts and sand to look undisturbed. "Alright, folks, I left the vial at the drop," he whispered. Did this implant thing even work like that? Could they read his thoughts? Christ, there was a bit of metal inside his head. That couldn't be healthy. "Also, start looking into superhumans for hire in the Midwest, the ones that haven't thrown in with Legion. Music is lobbying for superpowered muscle and it looks like he might get his way. Let's get an idea of what we might potentially be up against."

On his way back to the compound, he stopped at a convenience store and bought a pint of cheap whiskey, a pack of cheap cigarettes. In his day you went to a proper tobacconist- even the smallest town had one- and carefully blended different leaves, then rolled them in paper when you felt like a smoke. None of this machine-made prepackaged stuff. He might give those away, too.

Letting himself back into the compound, he headed back for the guest house. "Don't never say Fletcher Ross never came through for y'all, gents," he said with a wink as he tossed the whiskey to the men guarding Fontana's room, continuing to walk back to his own chambers.

Rift Hound - The Hall

Joshua, having pulled himself out of his darkening thoughts, was wandering around the League headquarters when he came across MC, Ocean Warrior and the rest of their group. Of the group, one seemed to be made largely of energy and conjuring... things from thin air. After their latest mission, Joshua was hardly surprised.

"Hey... So, I heard an offer of drinks back at the restaurant," He said, approaching the group, "I'm more than keen for a post-hostage-situation-cool-down." Being possibly the newest member there, he felt it couldn't hurt to start making friends.

---

E-Vyle

E-Vyle was content where he was, having located the library. Their collection was sizable and he was originally awestruck by the collection, naturally gravitating towards the horror and arcane studies sections. He had no idea whether he would be even capable of learning magic of any sort, in his current form or otherwise, but it never hurt to be well read on a subject.
The members of his swarm that he had sent out to map the HQ had already returned, providing him with a basic layout of the building that he would hopefully commit to memory in time. He would likely send out swarms on a daily basis to aid his memory. For the time being however, he was content to read. There seemed to be a grouping of members discussing drinks in one part of the building while the zombie discussed the benefits of his decomposing visage in another, but they didn't particularly interest E-Vyle, firstly because he had a tendency to lose the ability to lose cohesive form when drunk and secondly, he could change his appearance whenever he so desired. For the time being, E-Vyle returned to his books.

The Estate

Binary said, "Thanks Sixgun. We'll send somebody to pick it up. As for Midwest supervillains...." there was a bit of a pause before she said, "There aren't very many active supercriminals that remain on the radar. It seems they all went to ground when Legion started recruiting. There's a few dozen metahumans allied with the Outfit and there are international mercenaries that they might be able to hire. As for local boys... sources say the Panamanian is still unaffiliated and there are a couple dozen other lower-level supers that could be hired. I'll work up dossiers as soon as possible."

The two men nodded at Fletcher Ross, one catching the bottle as they began another argument. It seemed this one was a debate on who the best villain rapper was. One man argued that Quickshot's rapid rhymes beat out Freakshow's shapeshifting showmanship. His partner vehemently disagreed. They both seemed to agree however that Outcast was one of the most profound artists out there. They forgot all about Ross and Fontana's room remained empty.

Wire was shown in to Marconi's office where the two of them had since regained their composure. Marconi sat in the chair while Music leaned on the wall. Sixgun's bug had not been noticed and probably never would be. Marconi nodded at Howard who kept a blank face, "Glad to see you're alright Howard. I would have hated to have lost you." He stared at Wire, "You must be the go-getter. Tell me how did you find our boy here? And how'd you get him back?"

The Den

Binary said, "Just look at it, I'll use your implants as a wireless booster to... and got it. Downloaded all the files skimming now." Binary hummed as she speed-read through the information, "A lot of it is manifest stuff. Incoming and outgoing "converts" there seem to have been a few dozen superhumans and even more young women that went through here. Plus a bunch of shipments of potion crap. There's references to the Master and to that dead alchemist. It seems these women are all captures from their previous pimps. They took all the best girls, got rid of the pimps who wouldn't play ball, and started enthralling them. They've been keeping a record of customers and... damn there are a bunch of local businessmen and officials on here."

"The.... private rooms are on the second floor and they usually get business at night. First floor is a bunch of storage for their potions and where the Enchanter sets up shop. Apparently they keep all the girls they turned in the basement. They ship off the Superhumans but they don't say where. As for the girl..." Binary hummed even more while she read but then it died in her throat,

"She's a.... my god she's a Conduit." Conduits were among the rarest and most powerful superhumans of all. A Conduit's power was the ability to manipulate other powers, both meta and magic. A Conduit could weaken or even negate a Superhuman's power to nothing or accelerate their power to massive levels temporarily. They could detect powers and it was said they give themselves temporary powers. The duration and potency of the power changes depended on the Conduits's power level.

There were only two, perhaps three known Conduits in the United States. American Dream, a supersoldier in the Superhuman Operations Corps, Lady Liberty of the superhero team the Metropolitan Watchmen, and it was always suspected but never confirmed that Apex, public enemy number one, was a Conduit. There were no more than a couple dozen Conduits world-wide. Now it seemed there was a fourth American Conduit. And she was in Legion's hands.

Binary gasped, "Morningstar.... if they manage to bend her to their will. And if she's top tier... she could wipe us out. They might be able to depower Zenith and the Founders at least for a short time. Then they could have the run of the crime rackets for the majority of the country. Beyond even. We can't let Legion enthrall her. No matter what you have to make sure they don't get control of her."

Binary's nervousness came through the line, "If you grab her now they'll know and you won't be able to recon any further. But they can't have her. It's your choice, if you think you can scope out the place for the League to raid great. If not, grab the girl and haul ass out of there. I'll set up the evac just in case."

The Hall

Prudence wrinkled her nose at the smoke but didn't comment instead conjuring a small hand-held fan to blow away the fumes. At this point there was nothing to be gained from even trying to get him to stop smoking. She sighed but grinned right after, "Those things will kill you. Oh wait. Not a problem I guess," She giggled and continued, "Thomas is going to know you blew smoke all over his work." She picked up the emerald ring and buffed it on her sleeve before setting it back down.

Madam Rosario snapped her head back aghast and turned, muttering under her breath about back-talking familiars and sorcerers who were too curious for their own good. Prudence chuckled, "I always liked Ryan Reynolds better. Especially ever since they actually came out with the Deadpool movie. And I forgot to tell you. It only works if you have something of a person to put in the locket too. A hair, a nail clipping, anything like that. You wouldn't need it for a drawing but it wouldn't look as realistic." Prudence grinned mischievously, "I snagged some of Thomas's hair after he got into the fight with the demon lord."

The Prison

Since Light did not gush blood like a fountain, a few droplets splattered Xaxx and Reaper. Knightmare lost his balance actually fell into the portal when Light hit him and Copycat dove back and his fingers turned into long claws. Diluvian raised his hand and the droplets of mist started moving. They coalesced into almost solid streamers of stinging liquid that shot straight into her eyes. Polaris raised a hand and a beam of light slammed into her and slammed her against a wall. Xaxx and Reaper began firing bullets at her while they side-stepped closer and closer to the once-again stable portal followed by Diluvian.

Sarco, Growth, and Behemoth were almost upon the portal as well. Polaris saw Hot Rod and chuckled, "That poser. I'll hold him off. Get them out of here." Copycat was about to protest when Hot Rod's punches slammed off of Sarco, Behemoth, and Growth with almost no effect other than startling them and making them even angrier. Hot Rod got in the first punch and a second but no more. Polaris turned into a corona of light and every-time Hot Rod zoomed in he zoomed away. He was as fast as him if not faster and Polaris's hard-light fists punched at Hot Rod in rapid succession as he blocked and dodged the majority of his blows, cranking up his brightness to disorient Hot Rod.

Zenith spoke into the comm, "Hold him off for a few more minutes we're almost there."

Killshade finished his workout, putting down the free weights, He had finished his pullup set several minutes ago and had gone to lifting various freeweights which he just finished as well. He sighed, which helped bring his heart rate back down to normal speed, then he grabbed his towel, rubbing it on his sweat covered face, the material feeling nice for a moment as he exited the gym, tossing the towel over his shoulder as he walked through the hallways, slipping out of the way of any League members in his walk back to his room in the dormitories which he reached shortly, then toweled his whole body off, applied deodorant and changed into more casual clothing, jeans and a plain grey t shirt, tossing his towel and sweat filled clothing into a laundry basket in the corner of the room.

He came out of his room, closing the door behind him, then made his way to the bar where he suspected his teammates were, couldn't hurt to get to know them, plus he really needed a nice tall glass of water. Killshade arrived, noticing that none of the others were there, they would show up eventually, regardless he approached the bar and got his glass of water, then strolled on over to an empty table, sitting in the chair. He set the glass down, then crossed one leg over his other, relaxing for once. It felt nice, he had to admit that as he took a sip from the water which was perfectly cold.

Wire

Some surprise wriggled it's way across Wire's thoughts: there were two of the big bosses here. Things were obviously in bad shape if Marconi and Music were working together.

"Glad to see you're alright Howard. I would have hated to have lost you."

Oh wow, things must be really bad if a notorious loose cannon of a meta is being welcomed.

Howard seemed to clock on that something was wrong; his face remained blank, as the sudden burst of anger didn't come. Then the crime boss turned to him and Wire gave him his full attention.

"You must be the go-getter. Tell me how did you find our boy here? And how'd you get him back?"

He took a small breath, and restrained himself from tapping on his helmet. Static came through his mask as he sighed.

"The go getter.. is that what you guys have been calling me? I'm a private investigator with a mastery of martial arts. I just did my job. And as a client, you have yet to challenge me."

His words were tired and provoking. He was probably as close to the heart of the Outfit as he could get, and Wire needed to show his competence in person as his actions had in his string of recent cases. But no one was to know of his powers. And as it stood, no one did. No one but her. Wire briefly wondered what she might currently be doing, but proceeded to dismiss that distraction from his psyche. He couldn't afford distractions right now. His hidden eyes watched the two men intently.

Petya nodded at Ocean Warrior's words(social drinking was the best kind of drinking) before turning a curious eye towards Break Neck. ”Break Neck is very fitting. I'm guessing we can thank the press for 'Rolling Girl?' It's ridiculous how bad they're at naming new heroes.”

The guy made of energy flew at them, talking as he went. MC seemed like fun company, even if Petya had trouble understanding what he truly was. It was pretty great to finally meet someone else who wasn't restricted by something as unnecessary as gender.
”It's so much fun when you're not bound to a single shape. You can do all sorts of things,” At Petya's words, Orchid glanced at MC before she sent a slight smile towards her partner, patting at her partners now healed arm. The shapeshifter stretched, letting out a pleased, drawn-out groan. Her whole body felt stiff, but at least the pain was gone.

”You're the best, Lan,” Petya thanked the healer by pulling the slender woman into a tight, one-armed hug before she had the chance of retreating. The healer awkwardly pat at the shapeshifter's back, a quiet plea for her to let go.

Ignoring her friend, she watched as yet another familiar face found their way into the hospital wing. A delighted grin crept on her face. It seemed like they'd have even more company.
”What do you think, should we stay here or get our drinks elsewhere?” she asked the group. She could use a bit of money. Going outside would make it easier for her to find a mark or two.

Morningstar

You would never see it through her devil's head mask but Lucy's face slowly paled as Binary spoke, a combination of fear, apprehension, disgust and fury contorting her features. How could anyone do this to another human being? How could they look at that little girl and instead of seeing a person, instead see a resource to be exploited. Somehow it was worse that it was superhumans doing it to their own. It was perverse. She was filled with a sudden and intense urge to burn this place to the ground, to watch the cockroaches who did this flee the flames, then crush them under her heels.

But she didn't work like that. She couldn't work like that. In a world were men could leapfrog buildings or crush coal in their hands and turn it to diamonds a rash plan could get a mundie like her killed. Pariah had taught her how to fight with her head before she fought with her hands, and now was the time to use those skills. She knew she had to get the Conduit out of here, that much was obvious, but could she really leave those other captives in the thrall of Legion? The short answer was she could, but she wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

“How fast can you get a strike force here Binary?” She asked, careful stepping around the room to strategically place sticky-cams, flash bangs and remote charges. Morningstar knew the League was stretched thin, but she also felt they had to bloody Legion's nose here. Everywhere else the elusive criminal organisation had kept them on the back foot, striking then fading into the shadows. The League needed a victory.

Pariah's former apprentice stepped back into the hall, placing more charges in strategic locations.
“If it comes down to it I'll grab the girl and run. I'll do it smiling, knowing how much it'll piss these guys off. I'm thinking I'd rather get all the hostages out though, then blow this place to hell. I could use four other sets of hands, five if we can spare them, and a readied evac.”

Mr Joe Black

“Thomas can bite my rotting, decomposing ass.” Stated Joe calmly, folding his arms like he wouldn't be moved on the subject. Stupid mage, trying to recreate a Green Lantern ring. Even in this day and age everyone knew that was impossible, willpower was just not a viable energy source. Joe had told Thomas this, often, loud and insultingly, but the magus never listened to him.

Joe's dead eyes lit up when Prudence revealed she had snagged a lock of Thomas's hair, but for more reasons than she would have imagined. It wasn't a surprise that the glamour needed a touch of the essence of the person the wearer wanted to emulate, a lot of those 'chameleon' type spells did. Hair, blood, nail clippings, any of it would do. Once you had some of that you had a terrible control over a person if you knew the right spells. Magic users were very protective of such things for just that reason, and the fact Pru had some of her bosses hair was more than a touch incriminating. Maybe it was nothing more than a bit of harmless fun for her, but in wizarding circles it was incredibly bad form of her to have it. Joe filed that wee tasty bit of information away for future use. After all, having leverage over one of Thomas's apprentices was a useful thing indeed.

“Ooo Thomas huh? I could have some fun with that. Lets see this glamour then, and make it snappy. I ain't gonna live forever.”

The Desert Vampire - The Maximum Security Wing

Several other 'heroes' had arrived, and Azar was sure that the League would be sending in enough firepower to neutralize all the remaining threats. The majority of the wing's prisoners had escaped. Slouching his shoulders as he stood tall, Azar began to transform into a mass of sand. The trio of Sarco, The Behemoth, and The Growth were certainly anxious about the possibility of being recaptured, so he began to feed on them, gorging on their fear and anger and adding it to his own power.

With a powerful gust of wind blowing into the room from the doorway, Azar was nigh instantly taking flight through thw air, pushing as hard as he could and aiming his mass at the side of Sarco's face, striking with the force of a sledgehammer. After impact, his particles dispersed and blasted around, ricocheting off his face before Azar summoned another wind, using it to cycle around Sarco's face, attempting to make him choke after hopefully knocking the wind out of him.

*

Chris grinned happily feeling a warm glow. She always loved being complemented (who didn’t?) which was a bit of a problem when being the centre of attention sent her running for the hills. The arrival of MC was as unusual as Chris had become to expect, a guy shaped thing bringing bubbles into being before a big fight is bound to be very odd no matter where they are, and simply watched with mild interest as various tea cups that didn’t match popped into being.

A rather entertain transformation and a giggle later Chris had been separated from the others by the now slightly grumpy nurse drawing the curtain close around her bunk. With the bandage on her arm humming quietly away, hurrah for magic, Chris was able to remove her shirt with relative ease thankful to have the sweaty garment off.
“Fraid so.” Chris answered through the curtain earning her a roll of the eyes from the nurse.

The nurse simply made a very thoughtful noise as her cold hands gently explored Chris’ belly prodding every so often and checking Chris for a response. Chris had been fine up until the nurse gently prodded around her upper abdomen, just below her rib cage, causing her to hiss in pain once again. The little area that stung was already beginning to darken and looked as if it had swollen slightly.

The nurse made another thoughtful noise. “Very tender. Have you been feeling dizzy or nauseous at all?” The nurse leant back with a serious face and her eyes changed to a florescent blue.

“A little it, especially on the journey back.” Chris replied feeling slightly nervous at how serious her injury might be. Overall she had thought it was simply just going to be a bruise but the look on the nurse said otherwise.

“Internal bleeding.” The nurse nodded and her eyes returned to normal. “Please wait here and I’ll be back in a moment with a colleague of mine.” And the nurse left making sure to close the curtain back behind her.

“Oh this doesn’t seem good.” Chris sighed a minute later as she rubbed her aching temples.

Ocean Warrior listened to Petya talk about the media giving bad names to heroes and smiled, "I know what you mean about that. When I first became a hero and saved some lives, the news media called me Fish Face, I'm completely serious."

He laughed pretty hard when he told that story and had to lean against his trident for support. He then noticed Chris being taken away by a nurse and this slightly worried him.

"I hope she's okay" he said to Petya in a concerned voice.

---

Hot Rod was glad to see that his initial attack did manage to take the other criminals off guard, but his celebration was cut short when it seemed like his punches were doing little to nothing against Polaris. This made him worried, and when the ex hero began to glow brighter, Hot Rod had to switch the setting on his sunglasses to infrared vision to see his target without being completely blinded by the light. He then heard Zenith's response in his communicator and now knew that he had to keep the villain from escaping or killing him for a couple of minutes.

"No problem, just take your time, I've got everything under control" he said with his voice full of sarcasm. Polaris did manage to land several fast punches on Hot Rod and the force of them sent him tumbling to the floor. He was hurt but not enough to keep him from continuing the fight, and since his speed appeared to not be working very well against the fallen hero, Hot Rod decided that he would switch to distance fighting. He intensified the aura to make it burn very hot and two large vortexes of fire at Polaris, hoping that his fire power would burn away the ex hero's chances of escaping.

---

After walking for a little bit, St Francis came upon the group of heroes with Shifter and Ocean Warrior among them. He walked over to them and introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is St Francis, I am the guardian of the wild and I am new to this League, so I am curious to get to know my new teammates," he said to them giving a bow out of respect. He hoped that he had made proper introductions with them and that they would be pleased with him joining on their conversation.

Emmanuel breathes a sigh of relief as the dampening field goes down, power flooding back into him, energizing his body once more. "Oh YEAH baby it feels good to be REALLY back in the game! Now it's time to get serious." Emmanuel chuckles, as if he wasn't serious before? Come on man, half health isn't the time to get serious, you should have been so from the start. Not yet releasing his grip on the chains, Emmanuel directs them to wrap up the PscyoPath, restraining him just like Apogee told him to. He makes it so that they don't shock him to death, but they give him a fairly good jolt as it is. In his weakened state, Emmanuel wouldn't be surprised if it knocked him into unconsciousness. Anyway, he's now bound and gagged by the two chains. Emmanuel severs the chains from his feet, leaving him able to move. Before moving however, he makes very sure to suck every last drop of power out of this section of the prison that he safely can, the lights heavily dimming. He doesn't take all of it, cause that could potentially cause more problems. With that, and him having regained a slight amount of power from that, and feeling at least partly refreshed from the field going down, he powers up and bolts off to the maximum security prison ward.

He gets there in a matter of seconds, a sonic boom following him as he breaks through to the ward. Serious business going down here. Portal to who the hell knows where, and Hot Rod duking it out with some man made out of light. That must be the one called Polaris. "Shit, I've only heard stories about that guy. Nasty piece of work." There's nothing to be done about it then. He's been trying to avoid this the whole time, but with Polaris here and ALL the other badguys, there's really no other option. He's just gonna have to do this quick and hit them, well. He's gonna have to hit them like Lightning.

While the others are all distracted, Emmanuel begins his powering up sequence. Taking the Electric Halo out from his pockets, all eight chakrams this time, they attach themselves to different parts of his body, burrowing into his skin, connecting to key pressure points. One each on his hands, shoulders, two on his lower back, one over his heart, and one on the top of his head. Its not a pleasant process, to have eight sharp blades puncture into you, but it's what he has to do to achieve full force. Once in, he begins to channel electricity through them, as much as he can. The Halo acts as sort of an amplifier and rebounder all in one, surging the electricity back through his body to the one in his heart. That's the one that draws upon all the electricity his body produces and stores, unlocking his full might. His scars begin to churn and crackle, lighting up with blindingly bright gold plasma. Powered by enough electricity to run New York City for a full day, in total a massive eleven trillion volts, Emmanuel becomes a fusion of man and lightning.

With Hot Rod having backed up and started firing blasts at Polaris, Emmanuel takes his place in melee range, where he belongs. Acolyte Mode allows Emmanuel to move at lightning speeds, figuratively speaking of course, but still far faster than he can normally move. Launching into a flurry of finger thrusts, Emmanuel aims directly for Polaris's chest and stomach. Should a clean blow land, Emmanuel's fingers will easily pierce flesh, bone, anything really, and he'll then pump as much juice into Polaris as he can. He also doesn't have to worry much about the fire from Hotrod right now. He's superheated, which means he isn't easily burned. This power comes with a price however. Already he can feel his legs tearing themselves apart.