[b]CLEVELAND METROPARKS ZOO[/b]

A lot happened to Mama Bear in a very small period of time. Firstly, she looked up as Frankenstein very loudly announced his attack. She was athletic and alert enough to immediately get out of the falling giant's way, but the simple impact of his elbow on the concrete path was enough to knock Mama  Bear to the ground. 

Eradicator's bullet, meant for her knee, instead impacted her torso, right as Drake's flames and Ifrit's fireball hit her. It was impossible to tell exactly which attack did the job, but she didn't even have time to scream. A burning corpse was all that remained of Jessica Schlesinger. 

Freed from her mental influence, the zoo animals began to mill about in confusion. Most ran desperately from the flames and the firepower thrown by the Xeaforge forces, several leaving the zoo entirely. 

A detachment of Ohio National Guard troopers, attracted by the gunfire and general sounds of combat, poured into the zoo, rifles at the ready. Taking in the wandering animals, powered armors, superpowers and mythological creatures on display, the soldiers could do little more than watch in confusion, trying to figure out who were friends and who were foes. 

[b]WYOMING STREET[/b]

Ajax was stunned by Acid Striker's ferocity, as well as the fact that his shield was slowly melting and buckling before his eyes. The man had cut his teeth on gangsters and drug dealers- bona fide Caught supervillains were a little more than he was used to tackling. But as befits a man whose courage outweighs his sense, Ajax gathered himself and pressed the attack. He first hurled several small, sharpened discs from a pouch on his belt, intended as a distraction from the true attack- a vicious slam into Acid Striker with his shield.

Teucer, meanwhile, let his arrow fly, but cursed as the acid on his foe's body ate through the delicate head, leaving only a fiberglass shaft.

[b]BEACHWOOD PLACE MALL[/b]

While the responding police had yet to come across the confrontation between Phoenix and Sun Rising, they did succeed in battering past the crude barricades and making their way inside the mall, to find several injured but no dead. There was a palpable sense of relief among first responders as they took the injured to safety.

Among the responders was more than a few journalists, eager to report on the first major battle to be fought in Cleveland since the breakout. Press was arriving from all over the world.

“Simon Lowell, BBC News,” one man introduced himself in an extremely polished RP accent. He politely held a microphone to the first superhero he was able to find. “Might I ask what happened here?”

[b]THE FLATS[/b]

“Pokerface knew something. He specifically told me something big was going down the first day of summer,” the muscular man whispered to himself, kicking angrily at an empty can. In an A-shirt and jeans, the sheer size of the man was obvious, muscles obviously built from hard labor rather than time in the gym. 

The stylized happy face mask, however, suggested some of his workouts came from somewhere else. He was known by the name Mr. Nice Guy, and he was the sole superhero operating in Toledo, Ohio. 

“He knew something. He knew this was gonna happen. What else did Pokerface know?” the big man muttered to himself. After a few mumbled curses, he sighed. “This is hopeless. Maybe Pokerface had notes or something, but God knows where he kept them. I'm gonna need help.”

Shaking his head, Mr. Nice Guy jumped into his car- a vintage '67 SS Camaro, rusting but otherwise well-tuned, and sped off in search of answers or anyone who might help him with his current dilemma.