((Part 2 of a collab post between Letter Bee, Kalas, and Watermelon Tango))
Constantine Ramiel King and Healing Spore had gotten away from the crowds, and were now in a side passage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, exhausted. Constantine fed Healing Spore a ration bar; she needed it more than he did, having healed all those people and evaded near-death at their hands. However, after she ate said ration bar, Arisa - Healing Spore's real name - forced him to eat one of his own bars; he needed the strength as well.
They sat down for a while, before Constantine, in addition to his ration bar, gave himself an adrenaline shot from Healing Spore/Arisa's medical kit, and continued on to the Mayor's position, with Healing Spore right behind him. They were going to protect said mayor, and Heaven help those who would try and stop them...
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Aster turned slowly, simultaneously dropping the unconscious Mayor to the floor. He displayed a look of shock on his face and began to raise his hands just as the woman had demanded. As he rose to his full standing height, he dropped the facade of being shocked as well as his hands, which fell to his sides. "Your friends outside had guns, too. Not that it helped them much." He continued to scrutinize the woman, she looked like an ordinary Human. Probably an Officer too. He could tell by the way that she stood, primed and ready to shoot. If she'd had been a killer, she'd have shot him in the back. As it was, however, it was unlikely that she'd survive this encounter.
Pam tried her best to keep her voice level. This man did have the upper hand, but it would be best if she didn't allow him to know that.
"I'll invite you to test that theory. Why don't you step outside for a moment?" It was completely possible that he could kill her at a glance, but she hoped that she had the advantage of the unknown by her side. He didn't know what she was capable of yet.
"As much fun as that sounds, I'm kinda in the middle of something so I'm gonna have to take a raincheck." Aster smiled a little as he said so, she seemed so serious and he knew that if he could just antagonize her into pulling the trigger, she'd have sealed her own fate. "But I'm guessing you're here because you're upset about what happened on the street?"
Pam flinched as he mentioned what happened outside. Who was this guy?
"Is this some sort of game to you? A meta like yourself is gifted with a bit of power, and immediately you think yourself higher then the law." It was clear that by the tone of her voice that she was emotionally affected by what she had seen. Her grip tightened on the gun, but she didn't fire it.
"Justice will catch up to you sooner or later. You're still human, just like the rest of us."
"Like the rest of you?" Aster began. "Is that some kind of joke? What about all those people out there? Do you honestly think they would have taken a second thought about beating me to death, had they known I was a Meta when I passed through the crowd?" Aster felt himself almost offended by what she'd said. He didn't have time for this. "What I did was act before they did. If it was the other way around, if a Human had massacred a bunch of Metas, would you still be standing there saying the same thing?"
"I don't know what I would say. All I know is that..." She hesitated. She had been pondering this question herself as she stood among the anti meta protestors. He was right. They would both have probably been at the mercy of the crowd had they revealed their meta nature.
"All I know is that there has to be a better way of settling the dispute between us and them." It was then that she realized her mistake and lowered her gun.
"Both sides are criminals, both sides are monsters," spoke a voice from the side passage, a voice filled with conviction and force. Said voice came from a handsome blond man with glasses, carrying a cylinder that, thanks to a miracle of Metahuman-made technology, automatically extended until it formed into a spear, a spear that glowed with unnatural light.
"But," he continued, "we don't have to be like them; we can reject both sides of the argument, find the better way that she mentioned. If both sides are monsters, we can say to them: a plague on both their houses! Including, by the way, the house you seem to have chosen." And with that, Constantine attacked as Aster was forming his reply, his spear lunging the very moment the man's mouth opened to speak -
Aster had limited time to react. He'd initially been caught offguard by this new Meta, but as the man revealed his weapon, Aster had anticipated that moving quickly might be needed. As he was about to form his response, however, the man had attacked. Leaving him slightly stunned but not so much that he couldn't squat down to grab ahold of the Mayor's arm and teleport to the other side of the room.
"Cool spear, I believe you've already seen mine." He said, already raising his palm toward the Mayor's wife and children. The room was thrust into silence, a stand off of sorts. Aster looked toward the woman at the door and spoke again, "You said 'Us' so I'm guessing you're a Meta too." He then regarded the Meta who had suddenly tried to attack him. "And you..." He paused, seeing if the man would try to attack again. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. But your way of not being a monster sure does resemble my way of not being the first casualty." By now a ball of light had formed in his palm, it wasn't the same as the one before, this was just a normal lance, but they wouldn't know that. "There's a war coming and I'll be damned if Metas take the most damage. So you can either join me or get the hell out of my way!"
"Replacing one oppressor with another isn't justice!" Constantine was heated now, his face flush with anger. "And that's all you're doing! Do you not see that this is a question of prejudice in which both sides aren't right? Both sides are the oppressors - or have the potential to be! And I see nothing in you that I do not see in who you claim to fight against!' And with that, Constantine stretched out his hand...and put out the lance. Or rather, it appeared as though the ball of light had vanished, gone, kaput. Aster could pour all the energy he wanted into it, but he would not be able to make the light appear again. Then, on the very moment that the man was mystified, Constantine would open the second stage of his attack: A series of red and blue lights meant to induce epilepsy in its recipient, the same series of red and blue lights seen in the controversial Pokemon episode about the Pokemon Porygon.
"What are you-" Pam began as Constantine used some mysterious power to subdue the rogue meta. Her attention was immediately drawn to one of the children as they ran towards the mayor, concerned for her father's safety. From her perspective, the ball of light was still present in the rogue's hand and with the child involved the risk was just too great for her to allow. She turned to face the most recent entry to their conversation.
"You have to stop! You're risking the life of an innocent child here!" Pam reached out and grabbed Constantine by the shoulders, convinced that whatever he was doing was endangering the child.
Aster's vision returned in an instant. The last thing he remembered was watching the ball of light disappear in front of him. Whatever that Meta had done to him, Aster had been caught off guard. He had stumbled back against the wall and was now vomiting. 'What the fuck did he do to me?!' Looking up, he noticed the woman from earlier grabbing the Meta who'd attacked him and shouting something about a child. He looked at the knocked out Mayor, there wouldn't be a better opportunity. Pushing away from the wall, he launched himself toward the Mayor's limp form. As soon as he could touch him, Aster teleported them instantly. The door had been left open, so his escape was inevitable. Re-appearing on the floor outside of the room, Aster stood quickly, making sure to lift the Mayor back over his shoulder. He needed to get out of this place, and fast.
He teleported again, heading towards the west side of the building. Before coming here to complete the task that had been assigned to him, he'd made sure to study the ground floor layout of the building, which was easily found online. He knew that there was a maintenance level below that lead towards the subway. That would be his route of escape.