[hr][h1][i]The Final Clash.[/i][/h1][hr][hider=Silversun Pickups - Simmer][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL6q51oKYoY[/youtube][/hider][hr]


The lead up to this explosive finale was quite tense. RAVEN and friends were getting ready, while the Changelings were gradually getting closer and closer. Heartbreaker let out a murderous grin, and licked the barrel of her gun as she looked at the RAVENs. 

Each group on a different side of a destroyed street. Heartbreaker was whispering some plans to the other Changelings, which gave RAVEN some time to do the same.

"...You got a plan, Maximilian?" Lihua asked under her breath. "I suggest we take Heartbreaker out fast as possible... an open fight like this could spell the death of us... especially with her."

She drew attention to the Berserker, who was pounding her fists.

"I'll put pressure on Heartbreaker... everyone else draws the attention of the others and tries to ween them down." Maximilian whispered to the group. "If we start to get overwhelmed, then just use the gas to push them back. And [i]don't[/i] use them early. Only when we absolu-"

"...Oh shit she's coming for us!" Cindy shouted, signalling the others to get the [i]hell[/i] out of the way.

The Berserker started charging right for the NEST numbers. Everyone dodged in their own ways - which was the moment a portal opened behind Heartbreaker, and stepped through, and ended up on the rooftop.

Lihua shot a pillar of concrete out of the ground, and used that to take flight. However, Primitive Light lunged right for her at high speeds like a rocket, cocking her fist back. Her only response was to jump off the pillar and use it as a shield. In which Primitive Light punched clean through using kinetic impact. Lihua grabbed the stone, but Primitive Light exploded outwards, and sent Lihua flying backwards into a side street.

Which she ran down, and lunged at her, and her hands were glowing brightly with kinetic energy.

Maximilian looked down the side street, but was interrupted when a blast of green energy came flying towards him. The Changeling Unit were rushing towards them, using Count Vicious' ability to create cover.

The Berserker came to a stop behind RAVEN, which created quite a problem since the Berserker could flank them. However, Maximilian saw the portal open on the roof, and he [i]knew[/i] where Heartbreaker was.

"...Let's finish this!" Maximilian shouted as Echo took position in front of him. Both the Changelings and NEST went into combat with each other. Bullets, superpowers, and more, went flying.

However, Leon split off from the group for a moment.

[hr]

Lihua threw a concrete barrier up in front of herself, and braced herself for the upcoming attack from Primitive Light. She propelled herself through the air, and punched the wall so hard that it shattered into chunks. Lihua could only will them to stop before they hit her as she threw her hands up into an X formation. Once the dust settled, she came face to face with the Changeling. Standing on what's left of the barrier.

"...Come and get me, whore," Lihua spat out the words.

Letting out a shriek, Primitive Light cocked her fist back, and lunged at the matriarch. Lihua pulled the stone underneath her feet from under her, and flipped backwards - throwing up a cloud of dust rocks, blinding her. Primitive Light let out a screech of pain as stone dust went up into her eyes.

Lihua grinned as she raised both hands up into the air, pulled two stones the size of her head out of the ground, and shot both hands forward. The rocks flew through the air, and hit her in the chest. However, her ability to absorb kinetic energy negated the potential damage.

Then it was Primitive Light who was the one that was grinning. She pushed both hands out, and fired a shockwave of pure kinetic energy that sent Lihua flying. The matriarch rolled, and flipped some stone upwards to stop her. She quickly came to a skidding stop on her knee as she hissed at Primitive Light.

The Changeling switched to electricity, and arced electricity in between her hands. Reacting in advance, Lihua ducked down and threw her arm up, and threw some stone up into the way. The electricity struck the barrier, and Lihua hissed as she just [i]felt[/i] the electricity hitting near her. She peeked out for a moment, and swiped her hand across and pulled the street that Primitive Light was standing on from under her.

Lihua tried to bury her underneath the stone - but she merely exploded outwards with as much kinetic energy as possible. Which made Lihua grit her teeth in irritation.

Hope was fading... but Lihua was going to [i]die[/i] before she let the Changelings leave this city before Meifeng or Lijuan did.

[hr]

Just as Count Vicious was creating metal barriers for the Changelings, Cindy was doing the same. She took cover behind a wall, peeking out for a moment as she cupped her hand as if she was holding water. A glowing orb of green glass formed in her hand, that was somewhat fluid like a liquid. She threw it around the corner, and when it hit the ground, it was a straight pane of glass, before it "expanded" outwards like a fan. Providing instant cover for Trevor who took position behind it to save himself from one of Fig's blasts.

"Ah, shit!" Trevor shouted, as he pressed his back up against the glass. They needed to take out that bitch who was shooting all this hot stuff at them. Trevor thought about taking a pot shot out at her, but with Heartbreaker still doing her thing, that would be stupid.

Fig was standing on the other end of the block with both hands outstretched, and firing a barrage of the energy. Everything they hit were left with a burning scorch mark. More than that, it was enough to keep the RAVENs quite surpressed.

Meifeng was more worried about the God damn Berserker. She gathered water around herself to create an orb, and froze some of the water within the orb, and shot them at the Berserker. The brute just swiped her hand across and shattered them like it was nothing as she was going towards Meifeng in a slow charge - she slammed her hand downwards in an attempt to crush Meifeng, but all she did was use her water abilities to propel her through the air. She was wondering just [i]what[/i] would stop the Berserker.

However, Heartbreaker called the giant up into the roof, and she started going after Maximilian. Meifeng just wished that she could have helped him, but her fight was here, with her friends. She was going to make sure that nobody else dies. She ran back to the front lines.

Nikki had gathered a swarm of insects, before she blanketed the area with them. Using them as a means of long ranged detection. She wanted to keep track of all the Changelings... which was why she specifically tagged each and every one of them with an insect. She kept behind cover.

For good reason, because Count Vicious created spikes of metal out the ground, raised them up into the air, and sent them flying at RAVEN. They were fortunate enough to get some forewarning before the barrage of metal came flying at them. However, Adam stood in the center of the barrage, and deployed his own version of Echo. The metal spikes were punched so hard they were sent flying in another direction.

And once the large of the metal barrage came, his Echo caught both of the spikes, and he threw them at Count Vicious at high speed.

The ferrokinetic caught them, but Adam had switched to his wind powers, and summoned a wind so powerful that it slipped the metal spike out of his grip and would have killed him if it wasn't for the fact that he covered himself in metal. Which caught him off guard.

They needed a quick way to turn this fight around. Cindy thought it was a tad rash, but she created another one of her glowing glass seeds, and popped out from behind cover to throw it. The glass seed traveled far, but...

Fig raised both her hands up into the air, and produced her gaseous green energy - which took a solid shape until it was almost like a pane of glass. It took solid properties, and acted as a shield. The glass seed bounced right off it, and exploded harmlessly some distance away.

"Well, damn it." Cindy wondered if they could use the gas now. They needed a plan, because shooting stuff at each other wasn't going to cut it.

[hr]

Maximilian was keeping the pressure on Heartbreaker. His rage over the deaths of Sonya, Cass, and [i]everyone[/i] else who was killed by the Changelings empowered him. He flew upwards, and used Echo as a shield as he went straight for Heartbreaker's new position on the roof. She fired off a few shots at him, but the shots did nothing but ricochet off Echo.

Flipping backwards, Heartbreaker barely managed to dodge Echo punching the buildingside she was standing on. Echo was quick in grabbing a chunk of stone out of midair, before he threw it at Heartbreaker at high speeds. She quickly moved out of the way, and fired off a pop shot at Echo - which did nothing but collide with his frame. Echo flew towards her at high speed, and she tried to dodge - but Echo punched the rooftop and made her fall over.

Putting her superior reflexes to good use, she braced herself for the fall, and hit the ground with both hands to disperse the impact. Heartbreaker held her guns tightly, but one slid out of her hands, and Maximilian made good use of that when he commanded Echo to kick the gun so far away that it disappeared into the distance.

Heartbreaker hissed... she realized that up close and personal fighting was not her forte.... Which is why she's getting someone who [i]specialized[/i] in these up close and personal brawls.

She quickly shoved two of her fingers into her mouth and loudly whistled, "...Oh Berserker!" She said like an innocent schoolgirl.

Letting out a hellish roar, the Berserker hopped up far into the air as Heartbreaker jumped off, gracefully landing and hitting the ground.

Maximilian grunted in anger as he flew backwards to avoid the Berserker crushing him. She hit the roof... but didn't fall through it like Maximilian once thought. She just landed on the roof, and faced him. Echo flew forward and tried to deliver a punch to her, and the Berserker just caught it. She threw Echo aside as she began to run straight for Maximilian.

With an unstoppable beast on him, Maximilian choose to fly straight upwards - the Berserker hopped right up after him. And literally didn't show any signs of stopping no matter how high he went. Which gave Maximilian an idea. He reached up to his belt, and grabbed a canister of meta-suppressant gas.

When the Berserker got close, Echo appeared, and Maximilian quickly handed his golden clone the can. Before Echo jammed a hole in the can with his fingers, and shoved it in the Berserker's jaw.

"Eat that!" Maximilian shouted as the Berserker was engulfed in the gas.

She felt back down to earth like lightning, and Maximilian figured he should try to finish her off - but he's a big target for Heartbreaker up here. 

The Berserker stumbled out of the gas cloud, waving her hands around to get the gas out of her face.

[hr]

On the other hand... Leon stepped back over to Sonya's corpse. He crossed his heart... damn, he was going to miss the frog-gal, but this was a sign. A sign that they had to do everything in their power to bring an end to the Changeling Unit. Because them... they're monsters. Leon always thought that Luis was a madman - and this Godhood nonsense just proved it. But just [i]who[/i] else were they going to hurt in pursuit of this "Godhood."

Lots and lots of people.

Which was why Leon was going to make sure that they never get out of here. That Verthaven became their grave - but, they didn't deserve to rot alongside all the innocent people they killed here. Leon looked at Sonya's choice of weapon... which fell when she did, but was otherwise undamaged. He wanted to use her sniper gun... in her memory. He could just [i]picture[/i] the little frog smiling from heaven as the Changelings were wiped clean off this earth.

No matter what the Changelings had, Leon could see [i]everything[/i]. It was that way from the beginning and he was a little boy. Just realizing that he could use his power for [i]more[/i] than just perving on women. He learned that he could see things that nobody else should be able to... which was what gave him a wisdom, an insight, like no other. What had drawn him to NEST was the need to make sure that some of the shit he'd seen didn't tear apart this fragile piece he got comfortable with.

Leon knelt down and grabbed Sonya's rifle. Their only shot at the Changeling Unit is taking Flashbang and the Berserker out of the equation. The Changelings had a horde of maniacs, NEST had good souls out there to stop them. Leon was possibly the only person who could find their weaknesses, and exploit them.

Throughout all the fooling around, getting drunk and high, and driving Maximilian up the wall, Leon knew that this was coming.

He could see things through the camera's eye of the world.

[i]The past.[/i]

[i]The future.[/i]

And there wasn't any place for him in the latter. He's going to turn this fight around in NEST's favor while he had the chance. He slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder and started running for an alleyway. He quickly climbed up the ladder of the tallest building (that was still standing, of course), and made it to the rooftop. He knelt down, and used his observational powers to find Heartbreaker... She was the one calling the shots. He'd love to kill her, but if he took Flashbang out the picture, he could remove their mobility, and helped even the playing field a lot more.

He peeked into her mind, and saw her battle plans. Flashbang was out of the way of the fight... on standby inside a ruined apartment just in case she'd need to open portals for them. However, she wasn't that far away from the rest of them - he was in the direct line of sight of Heartbreaker. Which was why he's not going to get spotted... Until Flashbang's dead.

Leon got off the rooftop, and slid down the iron ladder, and started running while the battle was going on. He had two options on going about this: sneaking up on her, or catching her off guard.

Both would end the same way.

[hr]

"Reed... are you there?" A familiar voice rasped through his comm-piece.

"Quent?" He'd stopped once he'd been certain they weren't going to get caught up in the tidal wave. Since then, Reed hadn't heard a word from any of the others up until now. "I'm here with a couple survivors. What happened at HQ, is she dead? Is everyone alright?"

It took a little while before he got an answer that felt like a weight dropping in his stomach, "Cass is... they... those fuckers turned on us and killed him."

Reed had no answer for his brother, feeling his stomach churn over. [I]No,[/i] he thought. "No, Quent... you're not... no... no, no!" Reed's fists smashed against the dash in his denial until they were raw, tears welling in his eyes.

And his brother could hear it all. "They killed Mayfield too..." Quentin continued, "Just before she killed Cass - that bitch shot her in the back of the skull before she had a chance." An unrestrained fury lay dormant in his tone. "[i]Heartbreaker[/i] killed them."

Meanwhile, Shizuka left the Taylors to catch up with each other; he tried not to listen in (recalling those bad news made his stomach churn) and chose to focus on keeping a lookout. There were loud noises - shouts and explosions - not too far away from their current location. "Sorry to cut your conversations short, but it sounds like the RAVENs are fighting... Probably with the other Changelings," he said grimly, turning to face Quentin. "...Looks like you're much better now - I guess we're even, then."

He gestured from the comm-piece to the agent, telling him to have it. "I'm gonna rejoin the other agents and help them." (Well, he still had a 'promise' to keep.) Then he raised his voice, "To the cop over the comm: I'm handing your brother to you, so it's your turn to watch over him - and stop him from doing stupid things like that suicide attempt just now. I won't be around to save his ass the second time, yeah?"

With that, he gave Quentin a lazy wave and disappeared through the wall.

"Get 'em..." Quentin mumbled, before setting off to rejoin the others. "Reed.. if you're still there, I'm going back for the others. Not about to let them face these assholes without me, especially not [i]her[/i]."

[hr]

"...Ugh!" Luis exclaimed as he stepped through the portal, followed by Witch Mother, in a position far away from the fight. He was clenching his head, feeling a sharp pain inside his skull. This was strange since he shouldn't be feeling [i]anything[/i]. This new pain only angered him. "...What did that brat do to me?" He hissed as he grasped his head in pain.

"Boss..." Witch Mother somberly said. "I did the best I could... but he damaged your brain in a way I'm not familar with."

"Damn it..." Luis hissed as he clutched his skull tightly.

This was when the Mannequin crawled down from the side of the wall, and landed at Luis' feet. He was bowing before his master. "What happened?" The monotone whisper would send chills down anyone else' spine, but it did little to affect Luis.

"I don't kno... that doesn't matter," Luis barked. "Mannequin, what is going on in the battle against NEST?"

The Mannequin looked up at Luis, his fleshy eye twitched.

"It is a stale mate," Mannequin said. "However, Heartbreaker is devising a plan to turn it around in our favor."

"Good," Luis said, clenching his head. "Let's kill these bastards already and then go after the Hands." He hissed, letting out sighs of pain.

[hr]

Using the still-standing buildings and walls as cover, Shizuka had been slipping through them, moving towards the source of explosions so as to regroup with RAVEN as quickly as he could. He nearly head-butted into Cindy when he popped out of the wall facing the glass girl. He quickly pushed his palms against the wall behind Cindy to put a distance between himself and her.

"Hey!" Cindy hissed, almost scared out of her mind that she would be coming face to face with an actual Changeling. Only to see this loony boy almost running into her.

"Sorry...didn't know you're here," he panted, completely oblivious to how he had almost gave her a (painful) kiss if he didn't stop himself fast enough. "Anyway, I've got some news - good and bad at the same time," he began with a rush as he stepped backwards and straightened up.

"The bad: that goddamn bloodsucking leader is sure tough as fuck - he refused to drop dead even after I stuck a freakin' knife all the way into his brain...to save that power-imprinting agent from a suicide attempt."

"Damn it..." Cindy hissed... no one knew where this crazy ass boy ran off to, but he and Quentin were planning this suicide attack on Luis? Damn, Cindy didn't know to commend him on his balls, or call him stupid - in either case, they got another hit in on that bastard Luis. "We'll... have to try something else. I don't know - have Lihua bury him under a mountain or something - [i]anything[/i]." She was getting desperate here.

That made Shizuka raised an eyebrow at her, amused at her suggestion.

Actually, where [i]was[/i] Luis at.

While Cindy was talking, Trevor was still taking cover from the barrage from Cindy's glass shield. He turned his head to see a newcomer, and nearly drew the revolver at his waist - when he realized it was his boy Shizuka! It was great to see a friendly face- 

Another blast of Fig's energy caused the fan-shield to explode, and cut Trevor's face.

And oh boy, that wasn't pretty. He felt the full brunt of the pain. He wiped the blood away, as he turned towards Cindy's little alleyway, and ran inside of it.

"But the good is: his regeneration won't be able to properly heal that knife wound since I merged the blade with his brain cells...on an [i]atomic[/i] level." He permitted himself a small smirk. "It should affect him enough that he's no longer able to use his powers at their fullest potential, giving us a chance to finish him for good."

He rubbed the back of his neck, shrugging awkwardly. "Well, I've returned what they did to Jen's gut back into his head... You can say that's what gave me this crazy idea. And found a potential weakness to his [i]near[/i]-immortality."

"Maybe..." Cindy thought about it for a moment. God damn, Luis is an immortal in every sense of the word. Instead of focusing on [i]killing[/i] him, maybe they could disable him - or kill the other Changelings. "You did a good thing.... all we have to do is find him, and finish this."

She didn't know the full extent of Luis' abilities, or what his crew was capable of, but she was wondering if he would have retreated by now. The Hands had the Metahuman he's so desperately after.

Trevor was wiping some of the blood off his cheeks, he hissed in pain as he grazed his wounds the wrong way. He then panted - he kinda wished that drug of his worked on himself now. It just inconveniently didn't affect him. Trevor was, for the most part, just keeping watch. In case one of the Changelings showed up out of nowhere.

The fog sure was mighty thick around here - he didn't know if it was the clouds of debris from NEST HQ falling, or whatever the hell the Devil did, but it was a double edged sword. 

It makes [i]them[/i] hard to see as the enemy.

However, Trevor's sharp eyes noticed a silhouette slinking around. It was fortunate Trevor was able to spot him - he didn't know if it was a Changeling or not. They were totally exposed out here, and Trevor quickly drew his revolver. He took a step back, and tapped Cindy on the shoulder.

"Okay, I don't know what the hell the two of ya' are talking about," Trevor intruded, pointing ahead. "But we got company."

"Christ, we don't ever get a break, do we?" Cindy asked. Ugh. They don't have time for this, she quickly gathered the broken and discarded glass off the ground, and broke them up into sharp, triangle-shaped, pieces. If she threw this at the unprepared, they're in for a bad time. She aimed it towards the target.

Shizuka pulled out the  knife on his right - the only one he was left with - and twirled it in his hand, before he crouched forward and made a stance.

Trevor himself took a few steps out of the alleyway, and aimed his revolver at the silhouette, and pulled the trigger halfway...

"Stand down, Daniel! They're friendlies!" A voice rang from behind the silhouette. A wind was picking up, blowing away some of the mist and debris that remained, allowing a clear image of the person approaching. It was a familiar face, and he his gun dropped down to a relaxed position.

"I'll be damned..." Grit murmured aloud. He looked at Trevor and the sight of the kid rang a bell in him, back during the last time they were town. Back when he wrangled with the ringleader of the Changelings. Washe was able to be seen from a distance behind Grit, making a power walk towards them. The faintest appearance of another further behind, Baron.

"Hey, wait, you're..." Trevor immediately recognized the dude that stopped Luis from killing him before all of this went down. He immediately turned towards Cindy, and put his hand on her shoulder, ordering her, "Cindy, drop the glass! They're on our side."

"Wait, you know them?" Cindy asked... even though that was painfully obvious. She ignored the redundancy of her statement, and lowered the glass as ordered. She was taking a chance here... Trevor might have matured a bit, but that doesn't mean he stopped being an idiot.

"Danny. You're Trevor, right?" Grit said, trying his best to perk up with a smile on his face, despite the solemn conundrum they found themselves in.

"Y-yeah." Trevor hesitantly answered, as he was trying to remember what [i]his[/i] name was. Because, boy, he's been through so much shit that the time Grit saved him almost feels like [i]years[/i] ago. "Grit, right? Didn't expect to see ya' here - of all places. Heh." Trevor couldn't help but grin a little.

"I'm sorry we had to leave when things started gettin' rough," Grit apologized, "but we're back and got no one holdin' us down no more. We ain't leavin' this time."

"Hehe... Thanks." Trevor quickly looked around. "We gonna' need all the help we can get since..." He looked over towards the ruins of NEST headquarters. "...You know." He shrugged.

Shizuka watched the exchanges between Trevor and the three newcomers with narrowed eyes; after a moment, he finally slid the knife back into its sheath, staying a little behind the teens, hiding in their shadows and keeping himself out of everyone's way.

"Hey, wait, do you all want to talk to Maximilian?" Cindy asked - since she recalled seeing the big guy on the news. Something about mercenaries? Cindy didn't have the slightest clue (or care) at this point.

"That'd be just [i]dandy.[/i]" Washe said bluntly, not breaking his stride as he passed Grit and Trevor and towards the main group. "Could someone kindly let us in on these [i]fine[/i] developments?"

"Okay, um... how the hell do I work this again...?" Cindy said under her breath as she pressed her earpiece. She heard a buzzing, and she hoped that means they can hear her. "Maxi- Praetorian? Can you come over here? There's some people who want to help." Cindy said.

[hr]

At the moment, Maximilian was focusing on the Berserker. She was stumbling out of the cloud of red gas, and was trying to fan it away. It [i]definitely[/i] had to have been affecting her. Which was when Max sent Echo out with his fist cocked back. The Berserker managed to parry the blow, and threw Echo away. Even with the gas doing it's work, it still wasn't enough to stop her.

She grumbled some words, before a portal opened up in front of herself. Maximilian let out a groan of irritation as she escaped, but it was what happened.

He heard his comms come alive for a moment, and heard Cindy mention that there were some people coming to help. He narrowed his eyes. Just who would be helping now in their hour of desperation? He was the leader of this group, so he figured that he'd go to meet them.

But,

His fingers went over to his earpiece, and he spoke, "Agent Taylor, would you accompany me to Cindy's location?" 

He nodded his head, and started flying straight for her.

[hr]


It took a while for him to rejoin the group, but when he did, Quentin found Max first - the caustic burns already starting to heal while the adrenaline kept him from noticing or even caring about the pain anymore. "I went after him," he announced his return, cryptically adding, "Got what I came for."

Finally finding Cindy's position, Maximilian descended from the buildingline, and caught a full view of the "people" Cindy spoke of. These weren't just nobodies - if Maximilian was correct, they were the Dreadnaughts that were hired before he was stationed in Verthaven. He wondered just [i]why[/i] they're back here of all times, but now was not the time to ask those questions.

Maximilian landed off to the side and walked up. "Hello, I don't think we've been acquainted." He said. "I am Maximilian Cornell... the leader of what's left of NEST."

"And I'm part of what's left," Quentin added, paying no mind to the bare patch of exposed skin along his back.

Washe gave Quentin a brusque nod, but focused his attention primarily on Maximilian - he figured that [i]he[/i] would be the strategic genius that led the reduction of NEST's tower to a flattened development of an apocalypse theme park or something. "Sir, Isaiah Washe. Used to be Dreadnaughts, but we came back to finish the job at the cost of our careers, [i]so forgive me if I seem a little short."[/i]

Short indeed, he introduced himself as quick and snappy as ever. Baron came riding up the tail end finally with hands on his hips. Not as built as the other two, and his signature dapperness now not existing, his purpose here seemed a touch more foggy. Washe continued, "what's the situation?"

"We're going up against the full brunt of the Changeling Unit. The Changelings are keeping their distance, but putting pressure on us by using their abilities to keep us within cover." Maximilian started off. "They also split Agent Vuhong off from us in order to stop us from using her abilities to turn the battle around in our favor."

"Where are the locations of current engagements?" Washe pried further.

"Agent Vuhong's engagement is just south of us," Maximilian noted first. "As for where our Agents are pinned... it's to the west of our position."

"We really need to take out that girl throwing that burning stuff at us." Cindy noted. "We can't make any progress against them until she stops... I can maybe make a shield."

"You fuckers and your fancy ass powers..." Washe silently muttered to himself. He took a gander around their barricades to check out what was holding them up - seeing naught but a small child, a girl, smiling wickedly and beckoning him forth with her finger. Washe withdrew his head.

"It's Stephen King's wet dream down here." Baron commented. Washe scratched his chin for a moment and then pointed at Maximilian. "I take it she can do whatever she wants with the burning stuff? Walls and the like?"

"That's what she has displayed thus far." Maximilian said. "We are unaware of her [i]exact[/i] capabilities, we tried to prod her, but she wouldn't respond."

"She has [i]no[/i] other means of protection?" Washe said, head forward, eyes wide open, looking as though he thought the NEST agent was stupid or incapable.

Maximilian narrowed his eyes. "Other than the other Changelings, no." Maximilian answered.

Washe simply rolled his eyes and shakes his head in disbelief, unholstering one of his revolvers and pushing it into Baron's hands. "Be a dear, would ya?" He asked as he started marching south. "Gonna see if I can save yer girlfriend."

Baron raised an eyebrow and looked at the .45 Colt he's been handed, and called out to Washe. "You know I have my own, right? The Caracal?"

"I'd rest better knowing you just blew the creepy kid's head off." He called back.

"Ah... fair enough." Baron submitted. He looked at Maximillian and shrugged. "If you could take her attention, it'd give me a little more time to keep up."

Both Maximilian [i]and[/i] Cindy raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, what-" Cindy said, before Maximilian put his hand up in front of her to silence her.

With all due respect, Maximilian gave Baron one look, and wondered just [i]what[/i] he'd be able to accomplish with a bad leg, and just a pistol. Far as Maximilian could tell, he was just an unpowered mercenary. However.... Maximilian peered over at Washe. The other Dreadnaught was clearly cooking up a plan of some sort. He didn't know what, but if he was willing to put trust in Baron, then Maximilian was going to at least give him a chance.

"Very well, I can draw her attention." Maximilian said.

"Oh, and Daniel!" Washe called out from even further away. "Find a nice little post or something, I don't know. Ask that Max fellow where a good spot is!"

"Righteo, daddy-o." Grit mused quietly. "I wanna see this first, though."

Baron made a soft laugh to himself in reaction to the exchange between his colleagues. He turned back to the NEST director and bowed his head in respect. "Much obliged, Max. You don't worry about me, just watch your back."

Maximilian nodded his head. He wasn't sure if he wanted to raise objections, but, he should just go along with it (even though he didn't want to see this man get splattered by the Changelings). Echo appeared behind him - who would be invisible to the Dreadnaughts because only a Metahuman can see Echo - and Maximilian pulled out his Beretta m9a1 from his belt. He crouched down, and started walking to the edge of cover.

"Oh, and another thing, Ms. Keagan." Maximilian suddenly said.

"Yeah?" Cindy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Give me cover. Your glass abilities should block most of what they can throw at us." Maximilian stated.

Cindy nodded, as she gathered the glass around herself, and created two multilayered panes of glass for Maximilian. They both flanked him, and the larger agent stepped out from behind cover, and sent Echo flying forward right for Fig.

The Changeling focused her fire on Echo, and fired a barrage of her green orbs at him, while Baron casually turned to walk around the barricade that was set up, and started making a steady pace towards Fig while she was distracted by Max's flashy display. Echo approached Fig and pulled his fist back - but Fig put both hands forward and created a solid shield in front of herself.

Which took a solid blow from Echo, and began to crack on impact. Fig (and the shield) was forced back a few steps. Echo began punching the shield so fast that it was nothing but a blur.

[i]'Oh, that's quite impressive.'[/i] Baron thought as he continued his steps toward the anti-Christ child. [i]'I'd probably flinch.'[/i]

The barrage was followed by a wide-arced kick that broke through the burning barrier. Shattering it like glass, and making Fig pace backwards lest he wanted to take the full force blow of Maximilian's Echo. Echo flew forward - before a wall of metal erected itself out of thin air between Fig and Echo. The handiwork of Count Vicious coming to Fig's aid.

Another Changeling, Skin Walker, stretched his way over to the fight. He couldn't compete with Echo, but he can at least distract him.

Count Vicious suddenly created a pillar out of the ground that sent Echo flying upwards, and Skin Walker stretched his arm to grab Echo by the leg, and managed to slam him into the ground.

"Oh dang, not good, not good..." Grit began muttering to himself as more Changelings appeared. Alright, back at base, they had trivia cards and the like. Metal guy. He's gonna need stopping power for that dude. AP rounds were expensive, and he doubted they'd work on him. Shotgun rounds. Same went for the freakshow guy. He let go of his automatic, letting it hang around his shoulder by the sling, and procured the shotgun from his back. He was prepared to give Baron support when he had a good shot. Vicious put up a wall, but he wasn't in sight. Grabbing the skinny dude's attention was a recipe for trouble though.

Baron started breathing a little heavier now. Great. This kid was able to overwhelm the blockade, why start sending her reinforcements now? [i]'Focus.'[/i] As long as they sent unnarmed metas, he should be in the clear. He glanced at Echo as he walked past, and the creature that pursued him, then took a good look at the metal wall "blocking" his way. Fig was on the other side. Well, it was now or never...

With his other hand, he touched the wall and watched with wonder as the bonds holding it together disappeared, a hole nigh instantly crumbled away, forming an opening large enough for him to step through. On the other side was the young Changeling. Baron's face grew cold and grim, hardened by years and years of the same sort of task. It pained him to acknowledge that this wasn't the first time a child had to die. He said nothing, only trudging forward through the hole with his other palm forward to grab her around her forehead and to leave her powerless and at his mercy.

On instinct, Fig stretched both hands forward, and fired a giant stream of her burning hot energy at Baron. Enough to engulf him. But the plasma left his clothes unsinged, skin unburned - as his hand reached through the plasma, it left a trail of absence, until his head gripped around the young girl's forehead, and all of the plasma began to cease. Baron was untouched, and the ground around them was steaming with heat. Under normal circumstances, he'd leave a last word with the children that had to go. Such as, "I'm sorry". Not this one. This one knew exactly why they had to die. He raised the Colt to the space between Fig's eyes and pulled the trigger.

Fig was too caught off guard by Baron [i]surviving[/i] to properly react. Could she have dodged? Could she have done better? She was wondering what lead to this one event - starting off as a terrorist, then switching to another. Only to further Luis' goals of becoming a God this time. All of that didn't matter now - because she'd only go down as another of humanity's greatest monsters.

Once the trigger was pulled, Fig went falling backwards as her brains were blown all over the pavement. Spiraling down until she hit the ground. What was left of her head was quickly emptying her supply of blood, and created a puddle of blood at her corpse.

"The hell?!" Count Vicious said as he turned towards Baron, and saw a deceased Fig at his feet.

"Go!" Maximilian shouted in the comms. "Push up!"

Baron looked at Count Vicious curiously, recognizing him from the cram sessions back at base. He then looked back to the wall he had made to protect Fig, and the hole Baron made in it. "Oh, I'm sorry." Baron said sounding truly genuine, looking at the wall, pointing at it with the gun in his hand. "Was this supposed to stop me? I hadn't read the manual."

"To hell with you!" Count Vicious crafted a spear out of thin air, and sent it flying at Baron at high speed.

To his dismay, the spear had evaporated into nothingness as it came within inches of Baron's person. Baron smiled.

"I hadn't read that manual either. I'm a poor student."

Grit was getting anxious. He was poised around the corner of the barricade with his shotgun, but now Vicious was in a position he didn't feel comfortable shooting in. Grit was a good shot, but he can't control shotgun spray. He quickly turned around to Cindy, "Hey! Get him some cover!"

"On it!" Cindy said, and shards of glass flew forward and flanked Baron on each side - taking a V shape as they blocked him from further attack from Count Vicious and the Skin Walker.

Heartbreaker viewed this all from her hidden perch in a window. He clenched her fist tightly, and wondered just [i]who[/i] the fuck is this guy. He sure as hell ain't NEST, and he sure as hell isn't some random fucking civilian.

Worst of all, they didn't know what he was capable of.

Where Luis would blindly charge in and slaughter everyone... Heartbreaker would pull back and make them fight on [i]her[/i] terms.

Quietly, Heartbreaker pressed her earpiece, and said, "Changelings, pull back before they pull some more weird shit." She ordered. "Flashbang, would you do the honors?"

On cue, a portal opened in the heart of the Changeling group. They all quickly retreated inside, and the portal closed. [i]Another[/i] portal opened up further away from the group. Heartbreaker thought about taking a few pot shots, but she had another idea in mind.

"Another time, fellows." Baron said in a bid farewell. Well, wasn't that just a stressful situation? A shame that he couldn't deal with the biggest annoyances just yet... as he recalled, there were three. Bloodsucker, the ring leader that Grit had gotten in an altercation with. Flashbang, the teleporter, and their gunslinger. Heartbreaker. That was one that he had to look out for especially. His power didn't protect him from bullets. He looked back at the group and nodded to them. The kill was secured.

"Has the Berserker gotten over that shit yet?" Heartbreaker spoke into the comms. "Witch Mother, I thought you said you can clear that up just like that...." She groaned in irritation.

"For now, we're regrouping with Luis."

[hr]

Lihua's skirmish with Primitive Light continued, and the Changeling rushed her, and Lihua dropped to her knees, and slammed her hands into the ground. Several stone pillars came flying out the ground at high speeds and hit Primitve Light right in the gut. Sending her flying backwards into a wall (which actually broke on impact). 

It did nothing to Primitive Light as she just absorbed the force of the blast.

Which made Lihua's previous plan of "overload her with so much energy that the bitch explode" seem so much more unlikely. Primitive Light got up off the wreckage - but she recieved word that they were going to retreat.

A portal opened up just for her, and Primitive Light stepped inside - Though Lihua launched a rock inside, hoping to hit someone other than Primitive Light.

With her opponent retreating, Lihua let out a sigh.

"Well, that's a fuckin' shame, innit?" A voice yelled.

Immediately, Lihua raised an eyebrow and turned around - somewhat shocked that she was hearing [i]his[/i] voice of all people (that, or she finally snapped).

"I had a nice lil' present I was hoping to give to [i]that[/i] one in particular!" Washe complained as he marched toward the scene. He was tapping a grenade that was on his belt. "Looks well and good like your typical fireworks, she would'a loved that. Except it's actually pressurized SO2."

Lihua was still in utter disbelief that she was seeing Washe again, of all people, coming to her aid. There were some chatter about people coming to help in the comms, but Lihua was too focused on the fight.

"So you returned..." Lihua muttered underneath her breath with a faint grin etching across her lips. She wanted to ask if Baron was around.

"Oh, you can always give her your gift later - I [i]doubt[/i] we've seen the last of her." Lihua said, out loud this time, in a more playful tone that was almost inappropriate for this scene. "So, I take it that everyone managed to force the Changelings to retreat while I was busy?"

"Seems they did, killin' the kid." Washe mused. "You didn't hear that lovely little bang? That's the sound'a one o' my guns, ain't it somethin'? I s'pose doc got the stones to go through with it."

"Heh," Lihua laughed a little. She looked around, and realized they were sitting ducks out here. It would be very unfortunate if Primitive Light came back with reinforcements. "Now, I suggest we regroup with the others, and devise a plan to pursue the Changelings."

"Yeah." Washe agreed. "A plan. Except us [i]normal[/i] people fight [i]normal[/i] wars, [i]without[/i] magic. If you don't know where their PoC is, pursuin' them is gonna be a touch harder."

Washe gave an exaggerated shrug, turned around and began walking. "But what do I know? Let's just blow this pop stand."

Lihua responded with a brief nod of her head and began walking back to the group.

[hr]

The group gathered itself together - with Leon finally rejoining the group.

"Agent Vahan," Maximilian asked, irritated. "Where have you been?"

"Oh just..." Leon looked off to the side, realizing his mission didn't go as planned. "...Scouting." He put his hand up. "Don't worry, I know exactly where they are."

"Where?"

"One or two clicks to the north." Leon pointed forward. Before he shrugged. "At least that's where Heartbreaker told em' to gather."

"Well that was fuckin' easier than I expected..." Washe mumbled.

Lihua walked up the side gracefully, before crossing her arms, with one hand on her jaw. "Okay, we'll only have a few minutes before they pull any plans they might be cooking up - so we have to be quick." Lihua looked around. "...And we [i]have[/i] to take into account their portal creator - at the moment, she gives them mobility that puts them shoulders above us."

"As it happens, their extractor is just a pack rat." Baron inserted. "They heed their team's whims. They serve, totally, for the team itself. The extractor is only [i]useful.[/i] We can take advantage of that since now we know where they are - thanks to Leon. If we can force them to use that power so often, by exhausting them or finding out a limit to those portals, the extractor is ultimately expendable."

There was a hidden meaning to Baron's words that Lihua picked up on. She simply nodded her head - as others would come to the... obvious conclusion.

"So the goal, as I'm hearing it, is to not give 'em a moment of rest." Washe replied, picking up on the psychologist's analysis. 

"Then, we should get to work then?" Maximilian rhetorically asked as he tried to piece a plan together in his head. He thought hard about it, rubbing his chin. "Leon, what can you tell us about their position? Any hazards?"

"Hmmm..." Leon said as his superhuman gaze went forward and gave him a bird's eye view of the Changeling's position, and he gave it a good hard look. "They took position in an apartment... or what's left of one. Not super big, like four floors."

"Lihua," Baron said softly, "you control concrete and the like, yes?"

"That is correct." Lihua answered.

"Great!" Washe interrupted. "Knock the whole fuckin' thing down. Crumble the foundation, or is that too big a job?"

Baron could only bring himself to sigh at the man's deliberate antagonization. Truly, it was his way of trying to challenge his recruits and soliders, encourage them to push harder. But this wasn't the marines, or even the Dreadnaughts anymore. It added unnecessary stress.

"... Unfortunately, I can't knock a whole building over with flick of my wrist." Lihua sighed. "... But," She raised a finger in the air. "If I can get under the building, I can destabilize it enough... but I'm definitely going to need some cover for that one."

Baron furrowed his brows. "There must be a better method other than putting you underneath all the debris."

"He's right, you know." Maximilian chimed in. "And if we don't take out Flashbang, it's not going to matter [i]what[/i] we knock over."

Grit's eyes was going back and forth between all the strategists and commandos and psychologists and the like - this sort of thing was beyond him, but he couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a super obvious detail that was evading everyone. He looked for a moment to intrude and raised his finger. "Uh... it's kind of a busted up building though, right? It's probably not hard to knock it over anyway. And if we put two snipers up around the building..."

Everyone looked at Grit.

"Oh fucking hell..." Washe muttered. "This is the day I slash my wrists..."

"Oh." Lihua shrugged, forgetting that simple fact. Ah, must be force of habit now. "But, it'll still be a feat, and I'll still need to be [i]somewhat[/i] close."

"We have that kind of support in abundance." Baron assured, gesturing toward Maximillian.

"Leon," Maximilian turned towards his fellow sniper. "You can take position on the rooftop."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Leon trailed off. "But, I get the feeling they're up to something..." Leon thought about it for a moment.

"[i]Of course[/i] they're up to something." Washe interjected.

"I'm a swell shot." Grit offered. "I can join him."

"Alright, everyone else will be engaging the Unit." Maximilian said, nodding his head. "Let's move out."

"Actually..." Baron began. There was still some unfinished business he wanted to attend to before they went head first into the bloodshed. "I'm sorry to do this now, but as a doctor, I was meaning to look for something. A particularly important collection of notes..."

Lihua shifted her weight off to the side, and crossed her arms. "If there was anything important here..." Lihua looked around. "...It's [i]long[/i] gone." She answered.

"That'd be... [i]bad[/i]." Baron sighed in concern. "Because I was referring to the research notes of the late Dr. Brooke."

Lihua immediately raised an eyebrow. What does Baron know about that bastard? Though, Lihua couldn't quite call him a bastard anymore since they got him to change sides. Which brought into question just [i]why[/i] he didn't just take his research and leave everyone to their business. Why he didn't just turn on them again. These were questions that were never going to be answered.

"They were, last time I checked," Lihua started. "In the R&R section of NEST headquarters.... we gave him his own private room to continue his work and everything."

Baron nodded, and combed his fingered through his messed up hair. "Well... I suppose I could degrade myself further by rummaging through trash. I don't think all of you could find much use for me in a firefight... in fact, I'd probably be more useful leaving them to wonder where I am."

Lihua sighed, "...Very well." A fake sigh. She just felt it that Baron was planning something.

She's learned to expect as much from him.

"I would love to help you dig through the rubbage... but maybe after we get out of this?" Lihua said. "It'd make for an... interesting date, I'd have to say."

"Yooooo-" Meifeng tried to chime in, before...

"That was the second thing I--"

"Oh for the love of [i]God!"[/i] Washe groaned. "Enough already! Baron, do your thing, but the man said move out, let's [i]move out.[/i]"

"...That escalated faster than I thought," Shizuka commented, amused at the man's short temper.

"Well," Lihua shrugged... unsure of how to respond to Washe's outburst. "Alright, then. Let's go..."

The group started moving, ready to finish this fight once and for all.

[hr]

The group moved into position, using Leon's idea of the place's layout to their advantage.

The group hugged the walls as the apartment came into direct line of sight. Lihua knew that, at this distance, she couldn't bring down the building without killing herself. Which was why she needed to get close. She narrowed her eyes. That bitch Heartbreaker was around here somewhere... She intended to get revenge against her somehow.

Leon and Grit got in position on the ledge of a roof that was in clear sight of the apartment building. He checked Sonya's rifle... it had a few shots left, but Leon brought some these heavy ass rounds. "Alright, imma give the place a look before we go chargin' in..." 

Leon quickly projected his vision into the apartment building... and he couldn't find anyone.

Other than...

Heartbreaker was on top of another building not too far away. Cooly spinning her pistol around as she spotted them coming up. "Oh yeah... they fell right for it." Heartbreaker spoke into the comms. "Berserker, give 'em a spook." She said with a grin.

"Oh no..." Leon muttered into the comms. Grit immediately shifted his rifle towards Heartbreaker, his crosshairs steady over her head. "They're pullin' a fast one on-"

That was when the Berserker exploded out of the destroyed apartment buildings. She sent bits and pieces of the building in all directions. However, that wasn't the end of her destruction. She kept running, even picking up speed, as she ran head long towards the group. Grit's attention was immediately taken away at the sound of an explosion coming out of the building, watching a behemoth of a woman begin charging the rest.

"Everyone, focus on staying out of her way!" Lihua loudly shouted into the comms. She noticed that the Berserker was coming straight for her. She put her hands out, and gently raised them up into the air. She pulled some concrete dust from the ground, and threw it up into the air to act as a blanket.

Right then and there, Lihua and the others dove out of the way. The Berserker ran right on past them, before the Berserker charged right on past the group and went through a building like it was nothing. The impact sounded like an explosion going off. The building fell over, but the Berserker didn't stop running. She quickly circled back towards them - running through another building.

A few blocks over, obscured by the buildings, the Changeling Unit appeared out of a portal in the air.

Luis grinned as he unsheathed two knives out of his holsters. "Looks like your little plan worked after all, Heartbreaker..." Luis said with an evil grin on his face. "Let's go, boys. Let's finish this!" He was still injured by that boy's attack, but he'd be over it by the time he tore that child's heart out.

The Berserker had made another run back through the NEST group - appearing through a building. Almost everyone was fortunate enough to get out the way. Almost. When the Berserker made another run through the group, Nikki tried to dodge, but she tripped over a loose rock. She barely had a chance before the Berserker stepped on her torso and crushed her, she let out an agonized scream as she expired.

"Nikki!" Maximilian shouted as he stretched his hand out. Damn it. They had to take the Berserker out.

Washe turned away at the sight of crunching bones and screams. Yeah, this was a war. But this wasn't like the normal ones. This was crazy.

Lihua grunted as she tore a chunk of the street out, and started floating on it. The Berserker was unstoppable... However, Lihua had a theory as to how they could kill her. But, they'd need to [i]give[/i] her that reason to stop.

"Agent Vahan, where is Heartbreaker?" Lihua asked.

"She's..." Leon was ducking down next to Grit, because they knew that she was aiming for them. "...On top of a building to your east... please throw a rock at her so she stops shooting at us."

"I have a better idea..." Lihua trailed off. "Shizuka!" She called. "I need you to go east of our position, find Heartbreaker, and pin her down - capture her, anything." Lihua said. "You're the only person who is capable of sneaking up on her."

"Roger that...ma'am," Shizuka drawled in response before turning off his comm - he was way past the point of wasting his time to feel irritated at how the Vuhong woman had spat out his name. Ducking into the shadows in between whatever's left of the buildings around the area to hide his tracks (especially from the watchful eyes of the Changelings on the rooftops), he ghosted through the walls, heading in the direction that Vuhong had pointed out.

He quickly reached the ground floor of the building Heartbreaker was on. He looked up at the ceiling, exhaling slowly. [i]Well, here goes nothing.[/i]

Taking in a deep breath, he let his meta-power coursing through his whole body, expanding to every fiber of his being; every atom of himself felt the air molecules around him, and he began to feel a sense of weightlessness, as if gravity had lost its hold on him... He raised a foot into the air before placing it down cautiously.

His foot stopped in mid-air - he could vaguely feel an invisible ledge just beneath his sole. However, he didn't have much time to be smug about this little trick (which he had finally mastered while helping to train Haruka) - he quickly ran upwards and appeared onto the floor above. Luckily the building was only as tall as the four-story apartment the Changelings had used as their hideout; he repeated the same process and quickly reached the level just below the roof, surprisingly just a little breathless (all these retarded fights and shits had given him more than enough stamina training for a lifetime).

He switched on his comm-piece. "Leon - Vahan - or anyone else who can see Heartbreaker," he whispered into the device. "I'm now on the level below the gun-bitch, but I need someone to point me her exact position."

"On the center edge toward the street." Grit muttered into his comm, slowly trying to peak his head around. He quickly ducked back under cover, and puff of dust exploded in the concrete right where his head used to be. Damn, this lady gave him a run for his money.

"Right," was Shizuka's only reply as he moved closer to the spot where Grit had instructed, before he turned off the device again; he broke into a sprint and leaped into the air.

His hands popped above the roof, and his fingers in a vice-like grip around Heartbreaker's ankles. He yanked her down as hard as he could before she could react; he had made sure to expand his power only to Heartbreaker herself, expelling the revolvers out of her hands and leaving them on the roof.

"What the fuck?!" Heartbreaker loudly screamed as she began her sudden descent. She had no idea what was going on - but that hand of hers couldn't travel to her earpiece fast enough to get out a cry for help.

The two free-fell down the building floors; in no time Shizuka had her stuck halfway into the concrete (maybe [i]a little more[/i] than the halfway mark) - shoulder down embedded into the ground, only leaving her head and neck above the stone floor.

She had no god damn idea what just happened, but she was [i]pissed[/i]. She started struggling, loudly crying, "Luis! Get your stupid ass over here and get me out of this mess!" Heartbreaker loudly screamed - but the cry didn't reach anyone.

He later resurfaced outside the building wall and smirked - let this fucker savor the well-deserved agony of having concrete merged deep into her lungs, her heart...all her vital organs save for her brain. A painful payback in tribute to all those who had died under her guns. He turned on the comm again and spoke into it coolly, "I got her nicely immobilized in Vuhong's element. Weaponless and screaming like a lil' girl for added bonus."

That was enough to break Quentin's long period of radio silence. "Good," he sharply acknowledged, "Now let's finish it."

"Alright," Lihua started off. She had a plan cooking up in that head of hers... She knew that this boy wouldn't go along with her plan. If it wasn't him, then she'll have someone else do it.

Shizuka looked around to check his surrounding quickly before he said, "I'm bailing out now before any of the other Changelings can catch on me. Late---"

"Wait, Shizuka," Lihua started off, before sighing. "You're going have to trust me on this one... but I need you to draw the Berserker's attention over to Heartbreaker..." Lihua calmly stated. "I have a plan - more of an idea - but it's the best shot we have to kill that bitch. Otherwise, she'll tear us to bits and pieces."

Shizuka thought for a moment - trust issue aside, he knew that Vuhong woman was right. Out of all of them he had a slightly better chance of outrunning Berserker. "Fine. I'll do it," he sighed into the comm. "Anything else I need to take note of?"

"Throw an object at her, or make yourself a big target - anything - and get her to run in a direct course with Heartbreaker." Lihua started off. "...And don't die."

"Of course." Shizuka grinned. "Because I still need you to owe me this one time," he joked - keeping his usual sarcasm out of his tone.

Lihua sighed. "...I guess so." She said in the same way. "Tell me when you are ready."

Shizuka had been picking up a few bricks around him while listening to the agent (throwing his only weapon left at that brute was obviously a dumb idea). "I am - and I won't be able to use the comm once I get her attention. So...where's that monster now?"

The Berserker erupted from another building which collapsed behind her. She came in full sight of the group. Maximilian had no choice but to try to bait her in some attempt to redirect her charge away from the group. Echo appeared behind him so that the shining copy appears to be a bigger target. Echo punched the ground, and picked up a rock - chucking it in the Berserker's course so it'd hit her in the head, and, just as planned, she changed course towards him.

"...She's... [i]around[/i]." Lihua said, looking over her shoulder at the explosion of debris.

Shizuka rolled his eyes when he heard the explosion - which was closer to his current position than expected. He set off towards the source; it just happened to be only a few blocks away.

[i]Talk about unnecessary luck.[/i]

Seeing Maximilian's huge, shining clone gave him a [i]better[/i] idea than Lihua's suicide plan. "Oi!" he called the de facto NEST leader, waving at him to get his attention. "Use your Echo to keep her occupied, and follow my lead!"

"Alright!" Maximilian responded. Echo flew forward, and the Berserker swiped her hand at him mid-charge. In which Echo disappeared, and dodged the Berserker.

"You're not alone!" Quentin's voice crackled over the comms once again as he popped one of the last few grenades into his M320. "If you need support, shout me - I'll do what I can to bring her into that bitch!"

"This way!" Shizuka gestured and ran down the street - retracing the shortest route to the building where he had Heartbreaker imprisoned inside the concrete on the ground floor - while dodging any flying debris the Berserker was spewing up as she charged after Maximilian's Echo, whose mere presence had the brute on an attention leash behind the boy. He finally reached the said building. This was it.

He turned and ran into the building, stopping short before Heartbreaker, who was still trapped in the concrete ground. He sneered at her; then he hopped over her head and continued running, before he popped out of the wall on the other side of the building.

The Berserker kept following after Shizuka - when he ran in, the Berserker ran [i]through[/i] it. She kept running after Shizuka, with the only thing on her mind being trampling him. She started smelling (and hearing) a very familar person.

"Berserker, god damn it, [i]stop![/i]" Heartbreaker shouted, trying to get the brute to go around her, so she doesn't get crushed.

In a desperate attempt to avoid killing one of the leaders, the Berserker came to a skidding stop by jamming her hand into the ground, and turning off her unstoppable momentum. She tore the ground apart with her hand, and the Heartbreaker turned her head aside in hopes that she doesn't get hit in the face.

Fortunately, for Heartbreaker, the Berserker came to a stop right before her. She let out a sigh of pure relief, and barked, "Get me the hell out of here! They're gonna' pull-"

The moment the Berserker went in, Lihua followed. Floating inside on two pieces of stone as fast as she could. Hoping that the Berserker's senses weren't [i]that[/i] good. The Berserker's destructive rush didn't do anything but give her a window of opportunity. She was in clear view of the brute, and no one noticed her.

[i]I only have one shot at this.[/i]

Narrowing her eyes, Lihua balled her fists, and pulled it back. She focused on the ground that the Berserker was standing on, and time seemed to slow down as she went into a level of concentration that was seemingly unheard of. Until she came around, of course. She had one more moment before she was detected.

Channeling as much of her ability as possible, Lihua let out a silent cry as she thrusted her fist forward with all of her strength. She channeled her ability into this one desperate attack. A volley of stone spikes came out of the ground, jagged and brutal, and, just as her theory predicted, impaled the Berserker in the legs.

The brute let out a cry as the concrete spires were retracted, leaving nothing but holes in her legs. She almost fell forward on Heartbreaker if she didn't brace her hands in time.

A smile formed on Lihua's lips. "Haha!" She laughed. "You're an unstoppable beast, yes? But, what happens when you don't get a chance to even [i]move?[/i]" She asked, rhetorically.

The Berserker slammed a fist into the ground, and cracked the floor.

"Aw fuck." Heartbreaker groaned. They found her weakness. "How the fuck did you know?"

Lihua shrugged. "...I [i]guessed[/i]."

The Berserker, in a fit of rage, started crawling over to Lihua. In one desperate attempt to make sure that she goes down, too. However, Lihua had enough of the Berserker and these Changelings. She hopped off her stones, and slammed her foot onto the ground. Creating a massive impact as a stone spike came out of the ground, and impaled the Berserker in the gut (all the way through). The beast let out one final death cry, as her alternate form began falling apart - burning away into ash.

Lihua calmly stepped over with her hands behind her back, and made the spike detach from the base, and spin through the Berserker's gut. Until it went through to the other side, and stopped, allowing Lihua to grab it. By this point, the Berserker was reduced back to her human form. Lihua raised the spike high up into the air, and brought it down on the Berserker's head. Crushing it like a fruit.

Afterwards, she dropped the spike, and pressed her earpiece, "[i]Berserker neutralized[/i]."

"...Well, congratu-[i]fuckin'[/i]-lations." Heartbreaker seethed from her stone prison. "Your stupid ass gambit actually worked. You killed the Berserker. [i]Good job.[/i] It won't matter, because we're going to kill you either way. And after I'm done, I'm going to find that baby of yours, and [i]boil[/i] her alive. Take her out before she dies, have the Witch Mother fix her up, and do it again, and again, and again..."

Lihua didn't even react. She couldn't feel the slightest bit of anger - honestly, all she could feel was [i]pity[/i]. Pity that, at some point, this woman was a kind little girl... well, Lihua still viewed her as a child. All the Changelings were just children that thought having powers gave them free reign. But it ends tonight.

"...Quentin," Lihua pressed her earpiece. "Would you mind coming in here? There's something I want you to see."

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Heartbreaker started turning her head left and right. "Don't hand me over to that-"

Lihua cut Heartbreaker off with a sharp kick square to her face. She could feel Heartbreaker's teeth break on her toes. Heartbreaker let out a cry of pain as her mouth got really bloody. She spat out a tooth.

"...Motherfucker." Heartbreaker seethed.

A thin smile formed across Quentin's lips when he saw her bound in place by concrete. [I]No escape now, you fucking bitch.[/i] How many had she killed, hurt or maimed? "You could've walked away," he growled, "You and the others..."

A hand shot out for her exposed throat, raw fingers clasping around it and tightening. "You didn't. You hurt people I cared about. [I]Killed[/i] people I care about. So you know what?"

"Heeeey...." Heartbreaker said, her tone took a sharp change. "I'm sorry about that, friend!" She tried to plead. "We can talk this out - just let me out, I'll drop my guns, give you all my money, and you'll never hear from me again."

A thumb hovered over Heartbreaker's right eye."You were right, I'd have made a good Changeling. [I]A better one than you[/i]." he growled, before pushing it inside her eye socket and holding on as tight as possible, using his other hand to draw out those reflexes that made her the gunslinging murderer that she was.

Heartbreaker let out a hoarse cry as this bastard jammed his thumb square into her eye. "Fffffffffffffuck you!" She hissed in anger. 

"This is for Cass...." he muttered, then drove his thumb even deeper into the socket, "And this is for Sonya."

When her voice finally cut out, he let go of her throat and took a step back. 

[hr]

"Alrighty, Leon!" Grit chirped as he turned around and set his rifle up on the ledge. "We can finally put ourselves to work!"

He began scanning the battlefield, where only Heartbreaker and the Berserker were in their line of sight. This was a little concerning. Where are the other Changelings? Surely they don't think these two alone can handle all of them. Heartbreaker was preoccupied, and Lihua had a plan to take care of the Berserker - Grit and Leon don't want that one's attention.

"Let's keep an eye out for any more o' them doggies." Grit said to his new partner, keeping his eye peeled in and out of his scope.

Leon was a master at this spotting stuff. Especially when he had the power to see [i]everything[/i]. Now that Heartbreaker was out of the picture, they had to find out where the others are. If Leon were to take a guess... they sent in the big one to use as a distraction while they slip through the cracks and catch them off guard. 

Projecting his supernatural vision above them, Leon gave himself a bird's eye view of the area. 

A portal opened up on the rooftops with full view of the carnage on the ground level, and Primitive Light stepped out with both hands arcing with electricity.

Leon, of course, was the first to pick up on this.

"Guys, watch out!" Leon warned in the comms.

The electrical aura around Primitive Light's hands got thicker, until she pointed one hand forward and fired a mighty bolt of electricity that filled the area with a white light.

The flash was blinding, causing Washe who was behind the line for the purpose of providing supportive fire, shielded his eyes with his arm after the effect already took place. "Ugh!" Washe pressed his comm with his other hand. "Damn it, Leon! Yell for flashbangs!"

"That was no flashbang." Leon answered. "That was [i]lightnin'![/i]"

Grit also felt the effects, even from a distance, but it was less severe. He felt like he was going to be seeing spots for a couple minutes after that one, and was pressing his eyes with his fingers. That thing was like looking at an arc welder!

This was merely cover for Luis and the rest of the Changeling Unit's approached from the rooftops. Despite his injuries, he still had enough strength in him to finish this, once and for all. The lightning strike sent by Primitive Light missed, but it allowed Luis to pull his plan.

"Count Vicious," Luis said, snapping his fingers. "Show them the iron rain." He started laughing.

Count Vicious nodded his head and raised his hand up into the air. On cue, a bed of small metal spikes started coming out of the ground, and flew upwards, before flying towards NEST in a truly terrifying sight. An utter barrage of blades rained down upon the group.

Adam was using his wind-based abilities to deflect the metall spikes. Raging winds managed to bounce the attacks off from the group. Though, all he did was make himself a target. Primitive Light directed her hands at Adam - and fired a bolt of electricity at him (Not as powerful as her bolt). Adam loudly yelled as the electricity raged through his system - before he was impaled through the skull with a metal spike. He dropped dead.

"Adam!" Maximilian shouted, he sent Echo forward, who caught Adam before he fell dead. He flew over to his fallen mentor, and couldn't help but shed a tear for him.

"Oh shit!" Cindy said, she quickly threw her shields of glass above herself to take the force of the blows. Some of the spikes impaled the glass.

"Leon!" Grit said, trying to blink away the dots and the shadows framing his vision. "I'm outta commission right now, bud. You got yourself that .50 cal, right? Got AP rounds? See if together might be enough to down that metal slicker!"

"Yeah...." Leon first used his ability to spy on Count Vicious. They were on the roof, and Count Vicious was in clear view. Leon had the perfect chance to take the bastard out. With Heartbreaker disabled, he could probably take the shot. He set the rifle up on the ledge of the building, and aimed it at Count Vicious. That metal fucker was tough as nails, but as Sonya would have proved, nothing that a little bullet couldn't handle.

The metal shards made shallow cuts over Washe's arms and neck, but nothing that would put him out of commission. He quickly hurried over to Cindy's side - though unable to see clearly, he had awareness of his ally's location. It was fortune that it turned out she was the one able to conjure glass. He heard the tapping of the metal against the glass as he went under its cover. A small drop of blood started streaming into his eye.

"Damn it..." He grumbled. He heard a crack. What the hell? "In God's name, can't you make it thicker? Freedom Tower uses window panes just twenty to twenty five millimeters thick, and even that's enough to stop bullets from shootin' through."

"Sorry!" Cindy shouted as she tried to will the glass to piece back together - but with every hit, it was getting weaker and weaker. "But I didn't have enough time to make that tough glass." 

On the other front, Meifeng was taking a more direct route. She slammed both hands onto the ground, and she managed to gather as much water as possible, and splashed it upwards in a curve. She immediately willed it frozen - and Trevor immediately run up behind it.

"Thanks!" Trevor said. "'Fraid one of those spikes would hit me in the ass."

Unlike Cindy's glass, the ice was capable of taking several hits of the iron rain.

While everyone was trying to withstand the barrage of metal.


[hr]

The others were in trouble; Reed knew it for a fact and he wanted to join them, to help put those bastards down for what they'd done to the only real parental figure he'd ever known... yet with the people in the back of the truck, he knew he had responsibilities. Cass would've said it, of all people.

Battling his own grief, he glanced over his shoulder to check on those he'd saved from NEST's HQ before it was destroyed. Adults, parents with kids, an elderly or two and a few teens - one was Mika, holding who he could only assume was Meifeng's baby sister in her arms. He'd told none of them about any of it, not even her.

"Mika, can you watch these people?" he finally broke the silence.

"Me?" Mika asked, somewhat confused by the request. She was holding Lijuan the whole time, and didn't know what to really do. She had telepathy and telekinetic abilities... but she was far from a fighter. Not like her cousin and aunt. "I'll..." Mika trailed off. "Do my best." She nodded her head. She switched to her telepathic abilities, and started scanning the area.

"Alright, Reed nodded as he unloaded the truck and ushered the group to safety inside a building. "Hold on," he told Mika, "Take this."

For good measure, he handed her his sidearm, then turned to get back into the truck when he heard Mika again.

"Thank you, by the way."

[hr]


Holding his breath, Leon took aim at Count Vicious' center of mass. He aimed a little bit off to the side - the opposite direction the wind was going - to compensate for the wind throwing the round off a bit. He cleared his mind.... before pulling the trigger, and the mighty bullet came flying out of the barrel of Sonya's former weapon. The bullet hit Count Vicious at super sonic speeds - and just as Leon predicted, the bullet pierced him. Count Vicious began coughing blood, before he dropped dead.

"Got 'im!" Grit chimed. "Let's find us another one."

Luis hissed as [i]another[/i] of his Changelings went down.

"That's it!" Luis shouted. "I've had enough of these bastard RAVENs!" He growled.

"Luis..." The Mannequin spoke into the comms as he came across what was left of the Berserker, and Heartbreaker. He regretted that their deaths went unnoticed. "...Heartbreaker and the Berserker are dead." He whispered.

"What?!" Luis loudly shouted into the comms, practically shaking with rage. Now, he's mad. They killed the one woman worthy of sharing the perfect world with him. "I'm tired of these stupid plans... time to kill them plain and simple."

"Luis," The Mannequin said. "I suggest we retreat... they're thinning our numbers - and without the Berserker, we lost a major advantage." He let the words hang in the air. "[i]This is no fight we can win.[/i["

"Forget that..." Luis hissed into the comms, grabbing his earpiece, and speaking into it, "We're going to get revenge for Heartbreaker here and now - I'm done playing games with NEST."

"Luis, have you gone insane?" The Mannequin asked, but got no response.

 He crushed the earpiece, and pulled both knives out of the holsters. He walked over to Count Vicious' corpse, and jammed his fingers into him. He sucked the blood clean out of him until he was nothing but a withered husk. He had recieved a power boost. "Whoever wishes to fight and die for a perfect world, join me! We'll bathe in their blood!" Luis shouted as he leaped down from the rooftop he was standing on into an alleyway.

Primitve Light also hopped down behind him.

However, the Mannequin had no interest in Luis' insane plan. He was being blinded by rage... and there were... alternatives to Luis. The Mannequin dropped down to all fours and crawled his way out of the building. Using the stealth of the night, he started to crawl away. He crawled through the wet streets, heading towards where Flashbang and the Witch Mother were hiding. An apartment far out of the way of the conflict. The Mannequin crawled through the window, and both women looked at him.

He stared at them with his fleshy human eyeball. "I suggest we retreat while we still have time," The Mannequin started off. "This is no fight we can win."

"What about Luis-" The Witch Mother asked.

"He has gone insane... and he is no longer [i]useful.[/i]" The Mannequin said. "... There is [i]another.[/i]"

Flashbang opened a portal, and the trio stepped inside.

Meanwhile, Grit's sight was rapidly improving, and was able to once again look at the battlefield undettered. Two of the hotshots jumped down from one of the buildings to engage the remaining RAVENs and Washe - fortunately, the old man hadn't drawn too much attention to himself, so Grit doubted he was in danger. But two of them he recognized. One was Bloodsucker. The guy Grit tangled with before. He had an idea of how to deal with him, that being to delay him as long as possible. The other was someone that Grit was told to never - ever, under any circumstances - to engage. Kinetic energy or whatever the heck. Bullets would fuel her. Which is why Washe hatched a plan of his own.

"Hey," Grit whispered to Leon while still looking down his scope, "let's keep Bloodbug preoccupied. My old man can take care of the other."

"Alrighty, sounds like a plan." Leon said with a wink.

If nothing else, he hoped that the bullet impact the both of them were packing were enough to slow Bloodsucker down and divide the two of them.

[hr]

The Skin Walker had been skulking at their flank, waiting for an opportunity to ambush someone, anyone, when Trevor had come into view. Unaware of their presence, that made the old man's wrinkled face form into a perverse smile.

Luis could have his way and make an end to this - all he wanted out of it was the kill. The feel of their skin intertwining with his own, becoming part of him - and watching the panicked look on their face as they then realised they were trapped - both were what made this worth it.

Hungry, the Skin Walker stepped forward, ready to pounce when the sound of an engine distracted him...

The truck slammed into the elderly serial killer's flexible mass, then the wall behind it - bricks and mortar crashing against its reinforced frame. And the Skin Walker was still alive... writhing in silent agony, his skin flexed out around the smoking hood of the truck, blood seeping through.

Staggering from the driver's seat, Reed finished the job with a bullet to the head.

[hr]

Primitive Light, of course, was acting as a distraction. She ran headlong close to the group as possible, before she slammed her fist into the ground. She released as much kinetic and electric energy as possible to creative a massive explosion that rocked the ground around her. Anyone who was unprepared was in for a surprise.

"Shit!" Meifeng shouted as she moved her ice barrier off to the side - but that was barely enough to block it. The shield crumbled, and both Meifeng and Trevor were sent spiraling backwards until they stopped when they hit a wall. Injured, but still perfectly alive.

Maximilian threw his Echo up in the way, whom blocked most of the explosion. He threw his arms up to block himself from any stray debris.

Lihua was the one who was taking the barrier duty. She flipped a large chunk of the street upwards to act as a barrier, and willed it to hold together. Several of the RAVENs took position behind it. When Meifeng and Trevor were hit by the explosion, Lihua exclaimed, "Meifeng!" She said, before focusing back on Primitive Light. Far as she could tell, this bitch was as immune to their powers as the Berserker. Only difference was that Lihua didn't have the slightest clue as to how to kill her.

Instead of rejoining the rest of RAVENs with Maximilian and Lihua, Shizuka chose to stay behind, hidden in the shadows. His power wouldn't protect him from getting fried by lightning - he couldn't pass through electrical currents, unfortunately.

Maybe he should go back inside the building; even though the sight of Berserker's and Heartbreaker's dead bodies disgusted him... [i]Well, as the saying goes: the most dangerous place is also the safest place[/i].

Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to rush headfirst into the building - he had to check and be sure it's really safe. He poked a head cautiously through the wall...

And he immediately pulled back, cursing silently. [i]God damn it - not the fucking bloodsucker again.[/i]

Luis was going over to Heartbreaker and the Berserker's bodies. He let out a somber sigh as he knelt down and jammed his fingers into Heartbreaker. Absorbing the blood out of her body, until she was a dry black husk. He then moved over the Berserker, and did the same. He felt the power charging him with as much strength as possible. 

But he needed [i]more[/i].

He managed to go over to the battlefield, and saw the bodies of the dead RAVENs. He stepped over to Nikki's body, and knelt down. He drained the blood out of her, and felt another [i]rush[/i] of power. At this point, his skin started taking a red hue. There was more blood to be drained.

However, the shockwave of Primitive Light's attack wore off, and everyone began to regain their bearings. In which case, Luis ducked back behind cover. He decided to slink into the shadows and . 

"Everyone! Rush her!" Lihua ordered. "She can't take on all of us!"

Primitive Light had electricity arcing between her hands - and she pointed both hands out and shot a bolt of lightning at Lihua's shield. Forcing her back behind cover. She could have threw the wall at her, but she recalled that Washe had a plan of some sort.

"Washe," Lihua stated. "Do you need any assistance?"

"Yeah." Washe confirmed sarcastically as he unclipped what looked to be a grenade from his belt harness. "Need y'alls help to [i]get the fuck out of my way.[/i]"

Lihua rolled her eyes.

He threw his arm back to wind up his throw, seeking to throw it directly at Primitive Light - with any luck, the dunce would catch it and attempt to absorb all the energy coming out of the anticipated explosion. The gambit was to hope this idiot believed they didn't know anything about her. With a hefty toss of the bomb over the barricade, Washe bellowed at the top of his lungs for all his allies to hear and take cover: [i]"Grenade! Outta the way!"[/i]

Primitive Light grinned. Almost like they thought a [i]grenade[/i] would work after everything else failed. She put her arms up in a blocking formation, and prepared to absorb all the energy out of it. The grenade hit the ground and rolled to her feet - a planet's weight of suspense weighing down on everyone...

There was no explosion. Just a faint smell of sulfur. A pin abruptly popped out of the faux grenade, and a pressurized stream of white gas suddenly shot out into Primitive Light's face. The effects were instantaneous - dizziness and nausea, an inability to breathe, and eye irritation all at once, overwhelming to the senses. Washe smiled as his gambit finally payed off. Sulfur's power was the driving inspiration for this little device of his making. A shit ton of sulfur dioxide packed into a tiny contained, and a touch of ammonia that made the gas visible. With this concentration, she'll be blind and suffering from lung collapse before long... then death. The SO2 grenade doing its work.

There was nothing that Primitive Light's ability could do against such an attack. She started loudly choking for air as she desperately tried to get herself out of there. She fell down on all fours, and kept choking.

"Man, haven't I been waiting to do that!" Washed said proudly as he crossed his arms. Though, honestly, part of him wondered if he would be convicted of war crimes - but given the circumstances, he was pretty sure that officials could overlook a chemical weapon or two.

Since Primitive Light was disabled, Lihua wondered if her abilities to absorb energy would still work. She raised her foot up into the air, and slammed it down - just as a test, she summoned a spike that impaled Primitive Light through the chest. She started gasping for air some more before finally dying.

"Oh," Lihua shrugged. "That was easy."

"Yeah. Right. SO2 is safe at two parts per million, so it's best we keep clear of this area for now." Washe informed. "It also bonds to moisture and the like, so treat the body as contaminated."

"Okay, there was at least ten Changelings." Lihua noted as she started counting with one hand. "We killed Heartbreaker, Vicious, Primitive Light, Fig... Berserker.... which means there's only four of them left."

"Leon." Maximilian spoke into the comms. "Do you have any idea where they are?"

Leon used his ability to quickly run through the area. No sight of any of them. "Nope... they mighta used Light as their chance to run off." 

"Damn it..." Lihua seethed. If Luis gets away, he'll just rebuild the Changeling Unit from the ashes.

"Awwww, ouch." Trevor groaned as he got up, and started walking towards Lihua, with Meifeng at his side. He was in pain. A lot of it. Due to that stupid power of his. "That hurt like a bitch. I think that relocated my balls into my stomach."

Meifeng stepped over to Lihua alongside Trevor. She started stretching her arm. "Ew." Meifeng nonchalantly responded.

"Rebuilding the Changelings, eh?" Grit mused. "They got a hiring form? We could use that to... to..."

Grit stopped.

He quickly put his hand to his comm piece in a panic. "Washe? Washe!"

"What [i]is[/i] it, kid?" Washe asked in an annoyed tone.

"Where's doc? Why isn't Baron back yet?"

"Y'know," Trevor said, taking in a deep breath. "Even though I didn't do much... it feels great to finally be rid of those bastards. Like, those guys give me nightmares - great knowing they're six feet under. Y'hear?" Trevor started talking, he shook his head. "But...."

"I wouldn't get comfortab-"

It happened so fast, that Lihua barely had a chance to react. All she saw was a moving blur, and someone scream.

[hr]

What they hadn't realized yet was that Luis was still there. He was hiding behind a dumpster. He clenched his fist. The Changeling Unit he worked [i]so[/i] hard to build was coming to a crumbling wreck. He calmed himself. Nonetheless, he would just build another. Because as long as there is people out there who want to watch the world burn - there will be a Changeling Unit. However... Luis unsheathed a throwing knife from his coat. One of the few he had left.

He was going to take this time to take out one more of them. Just out of spite. 

With his enhanced abilities, he should be able to throw a knife from [i]meters[/i] away and it'll still be a devestating attack. He grinned. Luis, taking advantage of every ounce of his speed, quickly dove out from behind the dumpster into clear view of the RAVENs. He was so quick they barely had time to react to him throwing a blade through the air like a blur...

He had one target in mind. 

He could have taken out [i]anyone[/i].

But he had a long grudge to settle.

The blade flew through the air. RAVEN didn't know who it'd hit, until it was too late.

[hr][hider=Sonic Adventure Ost - End of E-102][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdDSiRaq-78[/youtube][/hider][hr]

However, the blade was meant for one person, and one person alone.

The sickening crunch of his skull as the knife embedded itself inside announced the death of Trevor. The knife hit him right between the eyes and almost went in to the hilt. His eyes were twitching as he fell to his knees.

"Trevor!" Meifeng screamed as she ran over to him, putting her hands on his shoulder. 'Trevor, what... are...." Tears started running down her eyes as Trevor finally fell to the ground onto his side.

"Holy shit - Trevor!" Cindy shouted as her hands covered her mouth, and tears started running down her eyes as she dropped to her knees to. "No..."

Grit's years as a sniper forced his mind back into action and reflexively swung around and immediately set his crosshairs on Bloodsucker's head. He fired off one shot - two shots - repeatedly firing off as many shots he could in rapid succession, in a way that sniper rifles were never meant to be used - but the cold calculation of the moment fueled by the want for revenge of Trevor's death kept him steady.

Luis was laughing madly as the bullets hit him. One hit him clean in the chest, putting a hole in it, and the other grazed his head - blowing a chunk of itoff. The other shots missed. 

But he kept [i]laughing[/i]. No amount of prodigal skill or luck could force a bullet to kill something that couldn't die.

"I told you that this was set in stone!" Luis shouted. "Flashbang!" Luis reached for his earpiece to call for his teleporter... only to realize that he had broke it. Though... where are the others?

"They're dead," A voice snarled as one of the last two Taylors in Verthaven emerged from the smoke, hands red and raw from where he'd killed that [i]bitch[/i].

Luis looked around and realized that his fellow Changelings have finally abandoned him. He stopped laughing out of sheer surprise. Right now, he was facing a group of Metahumans who would gleefully tear him to pieces. He was back to square zero. No Changelings... just him and his dream against the world. He had two choices:

Fight them and die [i]gloriously[/i], or run.

Luis cracked his neck and unsheathed his knives. "...Die gloriously it is." He said to himself with a grin as he began charging RAVEN head-on. Laughing as he accepted that, after two centuries, his brutal legend is coming to an end.

Regardless of what happened, he would die as humanity's greatest monster.

Meifeng was still sobbing over Trevor's body as she heard Luis running up to them. She was immediately overcome with pure rage. Water began floating around her.

Another shot fired from Grit's rifle, aimed at Luis' knees. The young man was at his prime, in no other moment was he more quiet, more focused. In a calm, steady tone, he spoke to Leon with a peculiar softness. "Leon. You n' I can't kill him from up on here. Let's do what we can to slow 'im down."

The bullet hit Luis right in the knee, and he fell forward. In which Meifeng took advantage of, running towards Luis and throwing a devestating punch that was enhanced by a powerful splurt of water. It launched him across the street, and he hit the wall with a thud. He still had his knives in hand.

"...Come on." Luis said. "Is that the best you got?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Agent Vuhong," Maximilian said as Echo appeared behind him. "Give me a spear, anything."

"On it." Lihua broke a concrete spear out of the ground, and handed it over to Maximilian's Echo. Whom flew across the field at high speeds, and impaled Luis right through the jaw with the stone weapon. His face visibly deformed as he was run through. That was enough to stop him from laughing.

"Everyone, pin him down!" Lihua said.

Before everyone else did anything, Leon aimed his 50. cal at Luis' chest, and fired. Putting a giant hole through his chest that went through him and the wall behind him. It wasn't going to kill him, but as Grit said, just slow him down.

"Vuhong?" Washe asked right after firing a long two-barrel shotgun toward the pinned Luis. He cocked the gun "Correct me if I'm mistaken - I'm not good at this meta stuff yet. But if he overuses his power... that will lead to the ashing phenomenon, right?"

Another shot went off. He cracked open the chamber and reloaded.

"Yes." Lihua said. "Everyone unload everything you've got on him!"

Lihua, Maximilian, and Savannah brandished their pistols, and aimed it right at Luis. They unloaded every shot they had, while Echo pulled a stop sign out the ground and threw it at him.

Meifeng in a fit of anger, created small, pencil-sized blades of ice out of the rain. Every icicle impaled Luis. Cindy had broken her glass into pieces, and willed it to wildly whirl around Luis.

Quentin pulled up shards of concrete at the Spaniard's feet and twisted them around as they shot up through them, trapping him in place. Then Reed was beside him; emptying bullet after bullet into the Spaniard's central mass.

Everyone unloaded everything they had on Luis. Until their guns had clicked, and they had pushed themselves to exhaustion.

Luis' laughter began once again the moment onslaught came to a halt.

The dust settled, and...

"... My perfect world." Luis somberly said. The moment the dust settled, it was revealed that Luis had begun the ashing process. Flicks of black ash started to float off of him, and he stopped regenerating. He was already in the process of quickly regenerating all the damage done to him - but the mixture of his power boost and the sheer ferocity of their attacks had pushed him over the edge. "It was so close... it would have been [i]great.[/i]" He mused.

Meifeng shot Luis one more time with a thick needle - it went right through his eyeball, and he could barely react.

"Now you must know how it feels to be one the loosing side." Meifeng crossed her arms.

"Oh.... well... I haven't lost here." Luis warped the sides of his mouth upwards to form a grin. "Even with my death, there are others who share my dream of a perfect world... and they will continue where I left off."

"... And we'll stop them." Meifeng said.

"Ain't no such thing as a [i]perfect world.[/i]" Washe spat, throwing his emptied guns down.

"Hmph," Luis spat out the sound. "Besides that... there is a new era rapidly approaching... You think anything that happened here in Verthaven will bode well with... anyone?" He asked. "The Devil didn't just destroy the city... she shattered the existing status quo... whether or not it's good, well... I can't really tell.... But, regardless, each and every one of you have earned the right to press on and see where your roads take you."

Grit looked at Leon beside him. "So, this whole ashing process..." He began. "How long is it supposed to take?"

"Who knows." Leon said. "He could die any second now.."

"Are you done, Luis?" Lihua asked, annoyed. 

"I guess so." Luis said.

"Good, then I'm going to put you down like the [i]animal[/i] yo-"

"No." Meifeng interrupted. "Let [i]me[/i] do it."

Lihua had no objections... if it would satisfy Meifeng's need for revenge, then so be it. She reached to her hip, and handed Meifeng her gun - holding on to it for a moment as she looked her daughter in the eye. "... You remember how to use this, right?"

Meifeng nodded her head, before Lihua let go of it.

"Wait--" Grit interrupted over the comms. From way up there, there wasn't much he could do to actually prevent anything. He just felt that... being the next closest person to her age, and being an actual killer, his insight might be worth something. "...you know if you do this, there's no turning back from it. You could always hand the gun to one of the older folk. What's one more sin to us anyway?"

Meifeng sighed as she considered Grit's words carefully. She didn't know him in the slightest... but he had a point. This is going to be the turning point in her life. But, she had such a hatred for Luis for what he did to Jen... what he did to her family... that she could look by that. She looked at Lihua for a moment.

"Regardless of what you do," Lihua started off. "I support your decision to the very end, and I will be behind you all the way...."

Hearing these words, Meifeng came to a decision. She pressed her earpiece, "... I know... but just let me do this." She sighed. 

Now came the moment of truth. She walked over to Luis, and pressed the gun against his head, pulling the trigger halfway.

"This is for Jen, her family, Trevor, and whoever else you killed." Meifeng hissed out the words to him. "I hope you [i]rot[/i] in hell, you monster." 

Luis could only chuckle before Meifeng finally pulled the trigger and put a bullet through his head. His regeneration couldn't save him, and blood splattered the wall. This only quickened the ashing process and soon enough...

... There was nothing.

"Oh my God...." Meifeng said as she took a few steps back, her eyes were welling up with tears as she put hands on the sides of her head. "I can't believe I did that...." She walked back over to Lihua, who embraced her with a hug. It was so easy to put the bullet in his head, but now... now she's not sure if she should have just passed the gun to someone else.

"It's..." Lihua sighed. ".... Okay. It's finally over."

"Shit, I was afraid of that." Grit muttered. He slowly stood up and collected his gear before riding the scaffolding down to the ground floor. Washe only stood back and watched somberly.

"Hey, what about the rest of them?" Cindy asked. "Weren't there more?"

"If I were to take a guess..." Lihua thought about it for a moment. "They most likely abandoned him.... which is why he so recklessly charged at us. He had nothing left to lose."

"And what about them?" Cindy asked.

"... I don't know." Lihua said. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"We'll finish them off like we did here." Quentin interjected, spitting at the ground beneath what little proof remained that Luis had ever been here.

"... The Changeling Unit has been neutralized." Maximilian spoke into the comms.

Meifeng let go of Lihua, and sighed. "What now?"

"We're getting out of here." Lihua answered. She turned over to Washe, and put her hands on her hips. "Oh, I was curious... but how did you get back in with the shield up?" She asked him.

"Shield?" Washe asked, not understanding what she meant.

"Wait...." Lihua wondered for a moment. ".... The blue dome over Verthaven? Those bastards at high command put it up when they left us for dead. We would have left by now if it wasn't up."

"Wait, speakin' of that shield...." Cindy said, before she pointed upwards. "Look."

Everyone looked up.

[hr][hider=Breton - 15 Minutes][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIb7nJrBiE0[/youtube][/hider][hr]

Just as Cindy noted, the shield started glowing red and flucuated. Dipping in and out, the shield was damaged after the Devil's all out attack. It did all it could to remain up, but the damage was too extensive. 

The shield began to fade away... Seemingly disappearing into red sparkles. After the shield of light had disappeared, it revealed clear sunny skies that everyone had forgotten about. With the Devil's power disabled, the Changeling Unit finally dead, and the shield gone, it seemed like everyone's problems had vanished.

"Oh shit...." Cindy said, as a childlike smile formed on her face. "It's... it's finally over." She said, smiling.

"It.. it is." Reed ran a palm across his brow, wiping away dirt and debris whilst Quentin looked on with a certain longing.

"I thought I'd never see sunlight ever again....." Lihua trailed off.

"Well I'll be..." Leon said as he tipped his sunglasses.

A tear ran down Meifeng's cheek. "Jen, Trevor..." She said to herself. "... I wished you [i]both[/i] could have been here to see this."


[hr]

On the roof of one of the still-standing buildings in the aftermath of the Devil Apocalypse, Shizuka looked down at the mixture of joy and grief from the surviving members, motionless save for the wind sweeping back his silver hair.

He was too late about Trevor - he could only stare at his lifeless body, stunned at his unexpected death. He couldn't even move, only watch the group fed Luis with everything they got and pushed the former Changeling leader beyond his limit.

Even when Meifeng pulled the trigger and ended the bloodsucker with her own hands.

He couldn't feel a thing - no joy at the energy shield overhead that had flickered out and disappeared, no anguish for the unfortunate who had fallen or lost, no anger for the betraying villains who had fled and gone into hiding...

There was only a strange tranquility; just emptiness.

[i]This is the true nature of a war - where blood is spilled over the battlefield, where only death awaits for the many...where it becomes an eternal nightmare for the survived.[/i]

Just then, his comm-piece suddenly buzzed: "Shi--- can yo--- me? Wha --- pened?" Then the static noise died down, and the slow voice of Holly came out louder from the device, "---Ah, that's much better now. Shizuka, are you all right?"

"...Yeah." A deadpan reply.

"I have Dana, Ms. Shinoda and your twin brother with me," she began. "We are all fine, although it was quite a feat trying to outrun the tidal wave in a banged-up APC."

This was when Shizuka finally showed any sign of emotion - he let out a deep sigh of relief knowing that his family was safe. "Thank God...and thank you."

Daphne chuckled; then her tone became serious, "What happened to the Devil? How about the Hands? And the Changeling Unit?"

Shizuka told her everything - that the Devil was in the Hands' custody, that the Changelings had turned on them and more lives were lost...and Luis' last moment before he ashed.

A long silence followed after his monotone recount. "...Ah, I see," Daphne finally spoke. "I guess you may not like to hear what I'm going to tell you, but please listen to what I have to say: don't blame yourself - there was nothing you could do to save Mr. Obott. The whole situation was not something you could control to begin with, and you are a victim of all this as much as everyone else in this city."

Shizuka didn't respond; he just kept quiet.

The chloropathic agent continued, "Even if we, the Metahumans, are blessed with superpowers, that doesn't equate our existence to that of a God - we are ultimately still no different from a human being, just a little more special. Of course, there are a few extremists out there who did try to reach Godhood...people like Luis."

[i]Godhood.[/i] Luis' sick dream had turned this city, the countless innocent lives who lived here, into a massive graveyard... A living hell that would soon send a terrifying ripple across the world.

"I know," Shizuka sighed heavily. "I know this better than anyone - that it's impossible to save every single person in this world." He clenched his fists. "In order to save one life, another must be sacrificed to fill in the dead role."

"Then I don't need to go on further," Daphne said, her tone softened. "As long as you keep that in mind, I'm sure you will be alright."

"This isn't the end yet." Shizuka's quiet voice was enough to send chills down the agent's spine. "[i]This is only just the beginning.[/i]"

[hr]

The whistle of the wind did little to mask the sounds of distant gunfire and explosions. Baron scratched the back of his head as he kicked another brick out of his way. His skin, sweaty, the dirt caked onto him like make-up. He was surprised if he was gonna find anything. NEST records were valuable on their own, of course, but he didn't know the layout of the base. If he knew where Peter Brooke's quarters were, it'd narrow down his search. Already he had gone over so much wreckage, but still no sign of the medical research. There was one section left to look, but if there was no sign even then, he may as well give up and accept that they were destroyed.

He hobbled over more piles of debris, being careful not to trip over anything. He grabbed a piece of metal that was used to keep the concrete together and shoved it underneath a particularly large boulder. God, he had been putting off this area since he got here. Using all the leverage he could to get it to budge. Sweat was dripping off the sides of his head. Nothing. He moved around the other side of the boulder to see if he can loosen up some of the smaller rocks that was keeping it wedged. Once more.

He shoved the rod back under the boulder and heaved. It moved a bit, and then the whole boulder shifted, causing it to fall deeper into the hole he had just made on its other side. Baron groaned in frustration, sitting down on a piece of debris and throwing th rod to the side.

[i]'Ding!'[/i]

Baron looked over to see what he hit. As far as he could see, it just landed on a pile of dust, but... it landed in the little space the boulder used to be. He forced himself back up  and sifted through the dust, feeling a metallic surface underneath it. He dug his fingers through the debris, pulling out stones and the like to uncover what he might have come across this time. It was yet another filing cabinant. Oh joy. But just in case, he didn't want to leave something unsearch. He pulled out a drawer. Empty.

Huh.

He tried to pull out another, but it was so damage, the rail broke off and he took the whole drawer with him. It was light. Also empty.

He didn't think NEST was the type that'd have the luxury of having empty filing spaces. Bureaucracy was their shtick. The last one. He pulled on it, but it wouldn't budge. Only rattle. This one was locked. Baron thought to himself curiously and procured his old Apache from his pocket, undoing the thin blade, and started fiddling with the lock. It might mess up the tip. Might not even open the lock, for all he knew. This wasn't designed for lockpicking.

But luck was on his side. The tumblers were likely damaged in the building's collapse, and it allowed him to crack open the drawer. It slid right open and inside was just a singer binder, stuffed with folders. All labeled meticulously.

"Don't tell me..." Baron muttered. Had he finally found it? Against all odds? He swiftly grabbed it and started looking through the papers that were arranged in it.

This...

"This is nonsense!" Baron said out loud. Sure, these were medical notes, but it looks as though someone disorganized and scribbled at the last minute, linking together various, unrelated, and meaningless phrases. Did this even have a name to it? Who wrote this jargon? All it said in reference to an author was "Polly", and it was suck in a phrase like: "Please put Polly past the pressure." Which was a meaningless alliteration on its own! It wasn't cohesive at all.

God.

Please put Polly past the pressure.

A five p alliteration.

Baron paused. That has to be a coincidence. Baron looked at the notes again. If this was the work he was looking for... Dr. Brooke wrote in code before.

There were four e's in the phrase.

Three t's in the phrase. Baron felt like he was beginning to connect the dots now.

But then... wait, no. The last word has two e's.

One letter r in the phrase.

P-P-P-P-P-E-E-E-E-T-T-T-E-E-R.

Peter was a five letter name.

"Dr. Brooke, you pain in the ass." Baron muttered. "Even after you're dead."

On the bright side, now he knew this was what he was looking for. No wonder it took so many years to collect this data. He was looking for ways to hide all of it. But there was still no doubt in Baron's mind there was a ton of information to be gleaned from here. But right now, it wasn't just his notes Baron was looking for. Brooke didn't keep secret from NEST that he had no love for the Hands. Baron was looking for clues. He turned to the very end of the binder. On the down side, it would take a while.

Take a while it did.

It was quite some time after the dome had dissipated when Baron closed the binder and scratched his head. It made mention of the Hands. It also made mention of the Changelings, but Peter only knew them as the Hands' associates at the time. Ignorant is not the same as dim. The man had a habit of picking up on things quickly, likely as a result of his procssing power. Bloodsucker, which they now knew as Luis, was the glamorized leader of the Changelings. Dr. Peter Brooke, at the time when he wrote his code, suspected that "a man so outrageous and haphazardly, so ultimately irresponsible, that no one of the sort could hope to lead any level of successful organization. A mind behind the scenes must set the tracks for where they might lead. A mind superficially like mine."

Which, in the end, was another riddle. He didn't want to let on that he might knew the truth should he be right in his suspicions. Nobody might know, but Baron could read people quite well, and had enough intel to connect a couple more dots. First, Baron had to hand it to Peter: the man knew how to read people like Baron could. Anyways, the late doctor made no secret of his disgust for his given form. He was made into a weapon. For all intents and purposes, he was a killing [i]machine.[/i] That was what others would see him as, too. Anybody who read this would have their minds changed. They wouldn't look at both sides.

Someone who, on the surface, would look like the same type of person as Peter leading the Changelings.

Baron's eyes widened. He knew who his last target had to be. He stood up, and tucked what he had under his arm. First place to look... well, familiar grounds most likely. It was time to pay the old ghost town a visit.

[hr]

It was only a matter of time until high command reacted to Verthaven.

However, for the Vuhong women, there wasn't a care in the world. The worst week of their lives had finally come to an end. While everyone else was celebrating, Lihua dragged her feet away from the group, and found herself a park. A nice park - well, not barring all the destroyed playground equipment, the water, or... it didn't matter at this point. 

This hell was coming to a close - whether or not High Command just decided to drop a nuke on the city, or come to their rescue.

Well, someone had to have been fighting to get this shield down.

Still didn't matter. Lihua merely found the nicest patch of wet grass, and lied down on her back. Staring at the clear blue skies like she's been locked in a prison for years.

It wasn't long until Meifeng had found her. Without saying a word, Meifeng lied down on her back on the grass with her. Not a word came out her mouth. 

Just staring into the sun.

"... You know, it's been so long since I've... lied down in the grass, and stared into the sky...." Lihua mused.

"Yeah... it felt like we've been in here for [i]years[/i] now." Meifeng answered.

"I... there's something I have to tell you." Lihua started off.

"Something else?" Meifeng said in an almost playful tone. "I thought you already poured your heart out with your dark and tragic past?"

"More than that...." Lihua let out a sigh. "Ever since you entered my life, I wanted you to have the best out of life... to have a better childhood than I had. And to accomplish that, I thought the best way was to climb my way to the top."

She looked over to Meifeng for a moment.

".... At any cost." Lihua said. "All my life, I've been stepping on other people to climb that ladder - at times ruining the lives of other people - without a care for whoever I piss off. Because... I always thought of myself as [i]above[/i] everyone else. I put myself on a pedestal of arrogance. No matter what they did, they were always insigificant to me. Their petty little conflicts were all irrelevant, and I didn't join NEST to save the world or anything silly like that - all I wanted was a paycheck...."

Lihua continued, "I did it all for you and Lijuan. I always thought that if the two of you were happy, it didn't matter. It didn't matter that I became a bitter, bitter woman. That was too proud to care about other people. I was just so disconnected from the people around me that it didn't matter."

".... And look where it got me." Lihua groaned in anger.

"I was the most hated woman in NEST, but they always tolerated me because I was so [i]good[/i]," Lihua sighed. "But everything that happened... fighting the Fiends, charging headfirst into the Hands base, meeting Maximilian and the transfers, facing off against the Changeling Unit and eventually Peter... all of it has expanded my worldview a little bit, it taught me that some people just needed to be fought." 

"I realized how deluded, and blinded by my own hubris I was... Instead of being the person I [i]always[/i] viewed myself as, I was nothing but an arrogant bitch." Lihua almost sobbed. "I know how out of touch I was with my own humanity... I used to think that I could justify going to absurd... inhuman lengths was okay long as I said it was "necessary"..."

"I... always thought of myself as a bad person - I was never someone like Sonya, Maximilian... or even you. I was just the lonely woman that had [i]long[/i] past redemption that only had her own children to stop her from going [i]mad[/i]...." Lihua started to cry a bit. For the first time in what felt like years.

"... You're not irredeemable." Meifeng said, trying to reassure her mother. "I know you've done some stuff. I know you're not [i]perfect[/i] - hell, no one is - but... I'm certain that you can move past it all if... if you're willing to just [i]stop[/i] doing all this nasty shit to people."

"... I don't want to be this kind of person anymore, Meifeng. I... want to change." More tears started streaming down Lihua's face. "For you, and Lijuan... I want to be a better person..."

Meifeng scooched over to Lihua a little bit. Holding onto her hand.

"I know you can." Meifeng said, with a smile on her face. "It's not going to be easy, but anyone can change if they give it a shot...." She looked at Lihua.