[hr][h1][color=Powderblue]Taylor Pierpoint[/color][/h1][hr] 

[i][color=0072bc]"As for backing off, I’d really like to see you fucking make me. If you can, that is?"[/color][/i] 


That pushed Taylor over the edge. She clenched her fists and the snowflake dropped to the floor. Instead of shattering, however, it transformed into snow and began to swirl around Taylor's feet. The other water bottles in Taylor's bag then bursted and joined it, causing her amount of available ice to increase. She pulled as much water from the air as possible as quickly as she could and borrowed some from Meifeng's seemingly unlimited supply of water. Now knowing that she had enough resources, Taylor stomped as hard as she could. A thin layer of ice spread out twenty feet in every direction, coating any solid object that it touched (it did not, however, freeze Meifeng's pool). People all around began to back away as they could feel a meta fight about to begin. Some took out cameras and iPhones, videotaping it to put on Instagram. At Taylor's command, a thick palisade of ice shot forth from the ground, its razor-sharp edge stopping close enough to Aiden's throat that he could feel the point just above his scales. It did not touch him, however. If she could, she'd write this off as self-defense. Behind herself, Taylor caused six daggers of ice to form, all of them pointing towards Aiden. 

"Yes, get her out of here if you'd like," Taylor said behind her. "Meet us at the piers in five minutes." She turned to Aiden. 

"You have two choices," Taylor said to him. "You get your scaly ass out of here, or you freeze to death. Which would you prefer?" Taylor slid her flip flops off, allowing her bare feet to touch the ice. It was cold as God-knows what, but it would prevent the ice from melting, giving her a definite advantage in combat. The teachers at Academy 218 had taught her well. Control the battlefield, and you control the battle. 


[hr][h1][color=gold]Carole Elias[/color][/h1][hr] 

Carole Elias was renowned for her ability to completely ignore entire situations that were right in front of her nose. In the past, she had completely ignored the fact that Academy 218 was being attacked by terrorists and took the time that everyone was away to figure out how much more closet space she'd get if she kicked Taylor out. Now, she was ignoring a fight between three rather powerful metahumans whilst flirting with an attractive boy named Brayden. This is what she had learned: 

-Brayden was seventeen 
-Brayden was cute with really good hair 
-Brayden had very pretty eyes 
-Brayden also had a very pretty voice. She wasn't sure exactly [i]what[/i] he said, though. That stuff was never important
-Brayden liked her for her personality and extrovertedness, not for the fact that the more they talked, the more Carole puffed out her chest to make her large breasts even that much more fantastic. 

Carole turned around finally when a very cold breeze touched her shoulder. She saw quite a standoff. Taylor had her icicles out, meaning there was about to be a fight, and there was a water manipulator with her. She looked at the guy. He didn't seem that strong. Hopefully NEST didn't show up anytime soon. Taylor would be fine, though. Carole was certain that anything her friend couldn't take, she couldn't help her with. She turned back around. 

"Woah," the boy said "There's about to be one hell of a throwdown." 

"Yeah, yeah," Carole said. "I see metahumans fight all the time." Oh God, she was losing him. Carole thought about how to get his attention back. She sat back on a table, placing her hands behind her, and casually tossed her hair with one hand. She began to speak in a much more sultry voice. 

"So Brayden," she said "I'm having a party tonight at my penthouse. Maybe you should come. It'll be fun." She ran her fingers gently across his chest. That got his attention. 

"Yeah, sure," he said. "I'll be there. Damn, this fight is going to be off the hook!" He took his phone out. "This is what people really come to Verthaven for. They come to see these freaks beat each other up!" She was losing him. Fucking Taylor! She always stole the show! She had more boyfriends than Carole did back at the Academy, and she always attracted more attention than she did by showing off her stupid powers! This one wasn't going to get away from her, though. Not this time. Not again. Carole took a few steps forward and leaned her head on the boy's shoulder, as if looking at his camera. 

"Hey," she said. "You know, I really like you. How about we, um, get out of here and go do something [i]else[/i]. She placed one of her hands on his hip. 

She got his attention again. 


[hr][h1][color=dimgray]Sam Clarke[/color][/h1][hr] 

[hider=Mr.Jones by Counting Crows][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuHVZ_-b868[/youtube][/hider] 
"Well fuck," Sam said, drinking the end of his second beer. He nodded to the bartender, and he brought Sam a third beer. This was a fine amount of alcohol, especially considering that he was off-duty. Michelle's story had made him roll with laughter, but Carl's sobered him up a bit. He was reminded of exactly how dangerous this job could be. He sighed, and the bar counter became momentarily silent. At this point, the bar was beginning to fill up with more people, some NEST agents and some citizens just off of work. As no one else spoke, Sam figured it was his turn to tell another story. 

"Oh, I've got a good one," Sam said. "Back in Mendel, there was this meta who was known by the name Titus MacArthur who acted as an enforcer for the Fiends." Condor looked down at his beer and tried to prevent himself from bursting out into laughter. "Now this guy was big. Like, really big. Probably a tad taller than Michelle and at least five hundred pounds. Now Titus was a really belligerent guy, and so the Skulls would have him run down people who owed them payment money and beat the tar out of them. He was strong, like, strong enough to lift a train car, and he had regeneration that made wolverine look like a sickly orphan.

"But this guy was, how do I put it gently, an idiot. My god, he was dumb. But this guy had killed a few people so NEST decided to send CONDOR and I to go take him out. We find him in an alley, straight running down a guy who owed the Fiends some money. We jump out, start shooting him. Doesn't do shit. We might've well been shooting him with beebees. Guy gets all pissed off, starts chasing us. Seeing that a literal giant was chasing us, we move our asses, jump over CONDOR's car, and make a break for the other side of the street. But dumbass is paying so little attention to his surroundings that he trips over a fucking car and landed on his face in the road. Like, he tripped over a damn Crown Victoria. Car was crushed, but he literally took himself out. We chained him to a flatbed and shipped him down to the prison. He's still there, the damn idiot. Tried escaping a few times, every time he does something so monumentally dumb that they catch him again effortlessly." As he spoke, Sam noticed Nightingale's eyes on him. She had such beautiful eyes. Shame he was married. 


[hr][h1][color=darkslategray]PLAGUE[/color][/h1][hr]

The monster attacked, and Plague and his troops responded. The Fiend mook was killed effortlessly. The monster broke his neck and then tore him clean into pieces, throwing his leg at the retreating crowd. That drew some muffled screams from the group, Plague included. It tossed Talia, sending her flying against the wall and, as Plague correctly predicted, breaking her arm in two places, as well as bruising her right side pretty badly. Seeing no alternative, the group of Fiends ran away, running down the tunnels and finding the nearest grate to enter the rest of the sewer system. Byon carried Talia after a while, as she was lagging behind. They came to a grate, and using his last RPG Daniel blew a hole in it. They climbed through and got to the city's main sewer lines. 

They walked across the maintenance paths on the side of the tunnels, being sure to stay away from the diseased sewer water. Every once in a while, Plague would stop and spread some of his sweat on the walls. If investigators followed them, he could infect them. He wasn't worried about fingerprints. He was already one of the six most-wanted people in Verthaven. Roark kept his eyes on the water with his gun at the ready. He had heard stories about these tunnels containing giant sewer monsters, and he wasn't convinced that the red behemoth was the only one. At one point, he swore he saw the head of a salamander staring up at him, but he convinced himself that it was his imagination. Daniel walked at the front of the group, his flashlight lighting the way. He was always the one who came prepared for things like these. The pipes were narrow here, and they absolutely reeked. Plague assumed these were the pipes spanning the channel between Estella Isle and Isabella Isle. 

Soon, the group arrived in a wider set of tunnels, which Plague assumed was Knightdale Rows. This was now a rather hairy situation. NEST Headquarters and Academy 12 were both on Estella Isle, and both would be under tight security at a time like this. If they got caught by NEST agents, they'd be in deep trouble. Plague scoured his mental map of Verthaven. There was only one place on this island where they could be safe. He sighed. 

"Follow me," he said. He took the flashlight from Daniel and led the way.