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The images of Philadelphia’s destruction were burned into Icon’s mind as he rocketed from the ruins of the City of Brotherly Love back to Lost Haven. He had done what he could to help with the rescue an recovery efforts,  however, a surprise message from Chris Arthur had lured him back to his home city. 

“We are currently experiencing a crisis. Please report to Sherman Center immediately.”

Icon had assumed that Arthur has somehow tagged his suit with some sort of device the last time they had worked together during the Pax Metahumana crisis. Though some would see this as a breach of trust, he didn’t, not completely anyhow. And in this case, he was glad that Arthur had done it. It was clear to Icon that it would take a united front to take down the Hounds. 

As he flew over Lost Haven, he found it striking at how empty the streets were, though, the empty streets were not isolated to Lost Haven. It was clear that the Hounds had succeeded in instilling fear into the entire country. Icon slowed and began his descent as he approached Sherman Square. Though Arthur had indicated that the meeting would be in the high rise Sherman Center, Icon felt that it was more important to remind the people that he was still here, so he touched down in the middle of the empty street.

 It seemed that others had the same idea. 

A moment later Icon could hear what sounded like a jet approaching. He looked up and to the left and saw the familiar figure of the Iron Knight approaching, with Radiance right behind him. Slipstream was the next to arrive, with Lyger following suit.

“Was it as bad as they’re saying?” Radiance asked Icon as she put a hand on his arm.

[b]“It’s worse. Paris and Nautican Island are gone. Philadelphia is completely devastated.” [/b] Icon told them.

“How did this happen?” Slipstream cut in, her tone resonated with doubt.

“What’s important is how do we stop it from happening again.” Lyger said.

As the heroes talked amongst themselves, none of them noticed that they when a tall, masked woman began to approach them, calling out to them.

“H-hey.” She had said, yet the group of heroes didn’t acknowledge her, they just continued their conversation.

Suddenly there was a banging sound, as if someone had hit something against the street, and the troupe of heroes were engulfed by dust and wind. They all looked around in surprise, and when the dust had settled they all laid eyes on a single tall, slim woman who’s face was concealed by a mask and a pair of goggles.

“You don’t know me. There isn’t a single person here to represent the magic folk getting terrorized by the Hounds of Humanity the same as you guys. My name is the Alchemyst.” She told them as they looked at her, clearly surprised by her approach.

“I was at the university the day it was attacked, I destroyed those towers. This is the bit of technology I fished out that they used to hurt metahumans with - a special sound frequency. Probably the same shit we’re going to run into again. If you want to dismantle that satellite you’re gonna to have to do it properly.”

“I’m the woman for the job. I have as much at stake, Lost Haven is my home. And. . .” She paused looking each hero in the eye, “I’m going to help whether you like it or not.”

[b] “If you’re willing to fight, we can use all the help we can get.” [/b] Icon said to the woman. [b] “Maybe it’s time we took this conversation inside.” [/b]