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Icon soared above the vast wooded area outside of Lost Haven which contained Settler’s Clearing, which would serve as the site of this meeting of metas. He still didn’t know exactly what this was all about, but with recent events he was pretty sure that it had something to do with this Pax Metahumana, or perhaps the entity known as Umbraxis. Icon also feared that it could be some sort of trap, however he was confident that he could deal with whatever situation arose.  Within moments, Icon could see the motley crew of assembled heroes in the clearing below. From his vantage point he could make out the two speedsters that he had met during the battle with Umbraxis, who he remembered were called Thunderbolt and Boom. There was also a young woman who he remembered from D-Day, though they never formally met, he also saw the black clad cat-like hero he knew was the one called Lyger pull up in a muscle car.

Icon made his descent and landed among the other heroes, minus the host of this get together who was conspicuous by his absence. That soon changed as a limo pulled up to the group of gathered heroes. Soon, the host of the “event” emerged from the car and approached the gathering of heroes.

“I apologize for the delay. My appointment with the Miss March from the Viera Magazine ran over a little longer than I expected.” When Chris realized that the others were giving him a blank stare as their response to his comment, he tried to qualify his statement. “Hey, when someone, who usually dates superstars and models, discovers that their date actually understands half of the scientific mumbo-jumbo, he might want to extend the night out a little bit.”

“Okay, so before we begin, I would like to match up names with faces. While we all know who Icon is,” Chris gestured towards the blue and silver superman, “Unless you want me to refer to you all as the Quicksilver twins, the Black Panther, and Electra, we might want to do a short little ice breaker.”

“I’ll start. I’m Christopher Arthur III. Playboy millionaire and philanthropist. However, you might better know me as Iron Knight, who helped most of you, whom, if my memory serves me correctly, were all involved with stopping that whole Demon Invasion fiasco.”


”Well, if the invitation was not clear enough, we’re here to discuss this situation.” A recording of the broadcasted message of the man, who had threatened to give everyone in the world superhuman powers, was played by the holographic projector. “A little over 24 hours ago, this aired on national and international television, as I am sure you all have seen. I have called this meeting so that we could decide the proper course of action. While S.T.R.I.K.E. is scrambling around Lost Haven to find this device, I would like to be able to have a ‘Plan B’ in my pocket, just in case everything goes to hell.”

“About a few weeks ago, I had encountered a small facility in West Virginia that was producing a chemical that seemed to develop metahuman powers in regular people. At first, I was not quite sure whether the man in that broadcast was associated with the people who I encountered in West Virginia. However, after corroborating the broadcast’s story about his followers stopping a ‘terrorist’ from tainting one of Lost Haven’s water supplies with this crude video that was taped by an eye witness, I am convinced that they are one and the same.” The video changed to the home video of the event where the group of metahumans were confronting War-Pulse. However, the quality of the video made it difficult to discern the identities of the metahumans captured in the tape. “In this video, you will see this large, shark-like man. I fought that same man in West Virginia. So I feel it is safe to assume that these two events are not mere coincidences.”

“Therefore, before we decide anything, I would recommend that we recruit a few others who might provide us with some useful intel about this group.” The holographic projector changed the image that it was displaying again, this time showing images of Raptor, Wasp, and Arachne. “I found these three artificial metahumans at that West Virginian facility. I don’t know whether you all have seen them before, but hopefully they can give us some more insight into what we’re getting ourselves into.”

Then, an image of War-Pulse appeared over the holographic projector. While S.T.R.I.K.E. did not have much on this figure, by using his own memory and the video feed from his armor, Chris was able to develop an approximate recreation of what War-Pulse might look like. “For those who helped us during the Demon Invasion, this guy might look familiar. I cannot for the life of me remember if he mentioned his name then, but for our purposes here, let’s call him ‘Winter Soldier’, in order to keep with the ‘Marvel’ theme. From the video footage that I had just shown you a few minutes ago, it appears that this metahuman had quite a scuffle with the people who are threatening to change everyone into metahumans. Just as with the other metahumans, hopefully this ‘Winter Soldier’ will know what we’re up against.”

“So, any questions before we continue?”

[b] “I know these three.”[/b] Icon said as he pointed to the images of Raptor, Wasp, and Arachne. 
[b] “The spider girl and I fought together against Ares and Polemos. And as for the other two, I helped them get rid of some kidnappers and took them…to a place I know. They mentioned they live in Albany.”[/b]

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Lyger waited impatiently as the other heroes arrived. This was the very spot that he and Addy had revealed their dual identities to one another, and the memories of that night made him feel uneasy, especially with the abrupt end of their relationship. Icon was the last hero to arrive before a stretched limo pulled up in front of the assembled group, and Chris Arthur himself got out of the vehicle and casually made his way over to the group. 

Lyger listened as Arthur prattled on, giving each of the heroes a cute nickname expect for Icon, and he figured that Icon was left off that list because Arthur knew that Icon could probably punt him into the sun. As Arthur went on about ice breakers and then, unsurprisingly talked more about himself, Lyger found himself growing more and more impatient as the seconds ticked by.

“I’m Lyger.” He growled when Arthur looked in his direction. “And we’re wasting time. We aren’t doing any good out here playing in the woods. What’s your plan, or are you just going to keep us here singing ‘Kumbaya’all night?” 

Then Arthur pulled up holographic images of several other meta humans. Lyger didn’t know any of them first hand. But then, he saw an image that he did recognize. A man that he had hoped he would never cross paths with again, War-Pulse, who he had encountered when a local gang had attacked the Lost Haven University Fall Carnival. War-Pulse was ruthless as he gunned down the gang members, and was more than indignant when Lyger had confronted him about it. 

“This…Winter Soldier. He’s a mercenary that goes by the name of War-Pulse. He’s almost as powerful as Icon over there, but he’s nothing more than a murderer for hire. He won’t help us, unless you write him a very big check.”