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Despite the recent destruction caused by the Hounds, the people of Lost Haven were eager to move on, and what better way than to lose themselves to festivities. Summer was still going on strong, and at the Lost Haven mall they had several summer specials going on, perfect for a new swimsuit or anything summer related. With the Jones family eagerly taking advantage of the time and season. But that didn’t exactly fill David with excitement.

His daughter Maddison, along with his wife Cecily, had found another department store, and eagerly dived in looking at anything that caught their eye; while David himself sat just outside on one of the conveniently placed sofas, and keeping him company were several other ‘family’ men.

“I’m happy they’re happy, ya’know? Especially after all that meta stuff. But we all know they’re not gonna wear even half that!” Another man walked up to the circular formation and fell onto a chair, with his bags falling onto him or the floor in a ruffled mess.

“Tell me about it, ‘bought the kiddo a nice summer dress with her mom a while ago, and I’ve never seen her put it on again!” David yelled out too, feeling relieved.

“But we’re going to Hawaii after today, so maybe some of this will get some use soon.” He gestured to the bags resting in between his feet.

“Ohh, that’s nice, I heard they’ve got this new beach show that’s gonna-” One of the other men started but was interrupted by several screams and shouts coming from the Marcy’s just next to them.

“Uh oh.” David muttered, with the other’s saying something similar. It took only a moment for the rest of them to start running inside, bored sons and father’s quickly sprinted into the store, while David started moving away.

“I’ll call the cops!” He shouted to nobody in particular.


Scott and Alexa sat in the food court of the new Lost Haven Mall. They found themselves on the far end of the food court, next to the large windows which overlooked waterfront. The new mall was nice, and it was a good way for Scott and Alexa to spend some quality time together, since between her time as the head of the East Coast division of Winstone Industries, and his time split between helping to run the Hub, as well as his “extracurricular” activities as Icon didn’t leave them with much time together as of late.

“You know, I never figured that Shaggy would be the badass of the Scooby Gang.” Alexa teased as she slurped down her Thai noodles. 

“You and me both.” Scott said with a chuckle. 

“You know, when I was a kid I kind of had a crush on Shaggy. Though, naturally my dad would have preferred that I liked Fred.” She joked.

“Naturally.” Scott said. Truth be told, he didn’t care much for Alexa’s father, though, to be fair, Jonathan Winstone had made it perfectly clear that he did not approve of Scott’s relationship with Alexa, in fact, he hadn’t spoken to her since they had gotten engaged. However, Scott was determined not to let that ruin their day. 

“So…” Scott began, before stopping mid word, as if something had caught his attention. 

“What is it?” Alexa asked, suddenly concerned.

“I’m not sure, but there’s a commotion on the other end of the mall. I better go check it out.” Scott told her.

“I’ll come along.” Alexa said.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I’ll go check it out and I’ll come right back.” Scott told her. “Enjoy your lunch, I’ll be right back, and if I do need your help, all call you.” Scott said as he got up from his seat and began to make his way down to the other end of the mall.


The store was big, but in between shouting and running, it wasn’t hard to find the source of the problem. It didn’t really seem like this called for his kind of muscle, so David leaned behind a clothes rack and watched. A pudgy man holding several purses and random products had already been surrounded by a group of angry men and women.

One of them moved to grab the thief’s arm, only for his hand to swipe right through, and an arm fell onto the ground. This was met by screams from everyone, including David, as the thief deftly caught the tossed merchandise with his other arm and quickly barreled through the crowd. 

With both arms?

‘Now, this is a job, for me. Probably’ David thought as he walked out from behind the rack, and stopped the man with his palm stretched out.

[color=red]“This isn’t your day, just give up the merch and-”[/color] David stuttered for a moment as he recognized one of the purses, and in his hesitation the blew right past him.

[color=red]“Wait a minute you!”[/color] David shouted as he threw both his arms, in a half-baked attempt to get around what he saw earlier, only to be just as shocked. The man had tossed the stolen items into the air, and swallowed them. Leaving behind another pair of arms on the floor.

As Scott approached the source of the commotion, several people ran past him coming from the opposite direction. He picked up his pace as the panicked shrieks grew louder. He was about to press the nano activation button on his bracelet to change into his superhero identity, however, being in the mall presented a certain problem: security cameras. The mall had dozens of cameras all over the place, and changing into his uniform here could potentially compromise his identity. However, as he moved closer to the disturbance, a solution presented itself. Just up ahead, there was an archway which served as sort of an overpass. Not only did it not have any cameras of its own, but it served as a natural blind spot for the other cameras in the area. So, as Scott reached the archway, he pressed the activation switch on his bracelet and almost instantly, the nanites in the bracelet covered his body in the instantly recognizable uniform of the masked hero, Icon. After making his way out of the archway, Icon lifted several feet off the ground and flew toward the center of the disturbance. 

When he arrived at the Marcy’s Department Store, he saw a number of shoppers trying to take down what he could only assume was a shoplifter, trying to make his way out of the store with a large quantity of merchandise. However, to his surprise, the strange bandit was tossing the goods into the air and swallowing it. If it hadn’t been for a certain overpowered animated stoner that he had thrown down with just a day prior, this would have been the most bizzare thing that he’d ever seen. Icon hovered over to the entrance of the store and touched down on the ground.

[b] “That’s enough.”[/b] Icon said to the strange thief. [b] “You’re done, come quietly before you get yourself into any more trouble.” [/b]



With the sudden appearance of two heroes, both of which he seemed to recognize, as a new panicked expression coated his face. The man tucked both of his freshly grown arms tightly on his chest, along with his legs, and dropped onto the floor. Bouncing forward towards Icon, then back into Terra Firma’s faceplate, and through the overhanging sign at the front of the store, making his escape outside.

David, having barely recovered from seeing the man’s arms fall off, had been caught by surprise and was given a good toss back into a rotating clothes rack; breaking it, along with sending an avalanche of clothes falling down onto him.

‘Damn, he got me, and in front of Icon too.’’ David shamefully thought to himself as he quickly tried to brush himself off.

Icon watched as the thief sent Terra Firma crashing into a clothes rack, sending  the merchandise cascading over him. Icon moved in to grab the still bouncing thief, however, much to his surprise, there was something different about the man. He felt strange, almost gelatinous to the touch. The man’s strange texture took Icon by surprise, which caused him to let go of the man, if only for an instant. However, that one instant was all the crook needed, as his body began to twist and change. The strange man suddenly hunched over, and an arm seemed to force its way out of the man’s back. However, it was more than just yet another arm. A second man, identical to the first, emerged from the crook. 

[b] “Well, that’s disgusting.” [/b] Icon said to himself as even more copies formed from the original thief.

David had only just removed a clingy sweater when the second man had appeared.

[color=red]”Two of them? Now this is getting out of hand.”[/color] David said as he sprinted after them. In just a few strides he had chased them to the front exit, only to stop right in his tracks. The people in the mall were all over the place, running and overall just trying to avoid the men. The men, that were all exact duplicates of each other, and all of the clones were running out of different stores; some were even pushing carts along.

[color=red]“Icon, you ever see anything like this? There’s way too many of them to catch like this.”[/color]

[b] “No, not quite like this. But sadly, this isn’t even the weirdest thing I’ve seen this week.”[/b] Icon told Terra Firma as he watched half a dozen identical men scatter from the store. [b] “We need to try and coralle them. We can’t let them get out of the mall.”[/b]

[color=red]“Right.”[/color] He muttered. 

[color=red]“But where?”[/color] As David searched his thoughts he remembered that they were closer to the west and south exits, and that he had parked the SUV on the west side.

[color=red]“South exit, let’s see if we can group them up there, less people. Then I can trap them in one place.”[/color]

[b] “That sounds like a plan.” [/b] Icon said as he darted off in the direction of the fleeing clones. 

As he reached the first of the clones, Icon reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and hurled him toward the south exit before the clone could react. He then went after the other clones nearby, grabbing them two at a time and bringing them back to the southern exit. Then, without missing a beat, he bound the clones together with the velvet rope of the nearby crowd control barriers, leaving this batch of clones contained, he then raced off to assist Terra Firma with the remaining clones. 

David for his part moved towards the other end of the mall to catch the men who were trying to avoid Icon. He tried to grab one by the back of their jacket but missed when he suddenly dipped and rolled into two more.

Deciding he was done with this game of keep away David flung his arm towards them, zapping one of them in the rear with a small jolt of lightning, drawing a quick yelp from the other man, and helped to hasten their pace. David did this several more times, sometimes at the ground with a stronger bolt, and herded them towards the southern exit. It struck David as odd, though, that they never tried to converse with each other, or otherwise plan for this.

Moments after Icon had left the clones bound at the southern exit, he came across several more of the clones as they were passing through a crowd of bystanders who were running in a panic, doing whatever they could in order to get out of the fray. Icon flew just above the crowd, plucking the clones out one by one and depositing them in a heap back near the south exit with the others. 

The southern exit led out into a parking lot, that may or may not have been as empty as David had implied; with several cars still parked around, along with their owners dodging David fearfully, or rushing towards their cars.

“Everyone, get out of the lot!” He called out to the civilians as knelt onto the ground and tried to shake up the areas where the thieves were before finishing them off, trying to bid some time for the people to clear out. Some of them fell, even toppling over one another sometimes, but suddenly they all looked at him.

“That’s it, I’m at my limit!” The men shouted at him. One of the nearest doubles moved to punch him, and David tried to counter by grabbing his arm firmly. Except when he tried to grab them the arm curved around his hand, and clocked him in the jaw. A surprised David reflexively tried to jab the man in the chest, only to find his fist going right through. This put a pause on his brain, taking advantage of this, the man shifted his left arm into a giant mallet and slammed it into David’s side, throwing him into a Toyota Camry.

With the numerous clones now accounted for and detained, Icon turned his attention to who he assumed was the original thief who had surprised Terra Firma with a bit of a shape shifting, and had taken the hero off of his feet. 

With Icon’s attention turned elsewhere, the restrained clones began struggling to free themselves from their bindings. They tried contorting their bodies, they stretched and pulled, working in concert in order to get loose. However, nothing they did loosened the rope that bound them. After several moments, almost as if resigned to their fate, the clones stopped struggling. Then, something began to happen. 

The clones began to lose their consistency. It was almost as if they were melting away where they sat. They no longer struggled, they simply began to dissolve, reverting to a pinkish gelatinous sludge. It wasn’t just the clones that were bound by the velvet security rope, but the other clones that Icon had deposited nearby, who lay unconscious on the floor. Another moment passed, and the individual “puddles” of pink goo seemingly came to life, moving toward one another and combining their mass until there were no more individual puddles, but one single mass of jiggling ooze, which then began to move toward the exit, toward the original thief. 
 
Panicked mall goers shrieked as the slithering ooze made its way out the door and into the parking lot. The sudden commotion got Icon’s attention, causing him to look in the direction of screams.

[b] “Well, that’s disgusting.”[/b] Icon said as he saw the slimy pinkish mass moving slowly away from the mall. 

As the mass of slime got closer to the shape shifting thief, it began to accelerate toward him, not stopping until it had reached the man, where at first it seemed that it would cover him. However, rather than coating the man in the pinkish goo, it [i]merged[/i] with him, causing him to grow rapidly in both height and girth. Now standing at over seven and a half feet tall, the grotesque being turned to regard Icon, seemingly with a newfound confidence. 

With the newly formed monster focused on Icon, Terra Firma had gotten back to his feet and was determined to put it down before anyone was hurt. He advanced on the figure, striking at it with a punch that would put down most foes, however, he failed to make contact. Just as the punch was about to land, the creature’s body separated, causing Terra Firma’s fist to pass harmlessly through it, and then reformed once the attack was no longer a threat. Terra Firma threw several more punches, however, each attack met the same results. 

[color=red]”H-he’s fast.”[/color] David stammered out as he struggled to land even a single punch.

Icon heard Terra Firma’s words and nodded in acknowledgement. Then, he took a step toward the creature that stood before them, lifting himself several feet off of the ground, and flew toward it. However, instead of attempting to make an impact with the creature, he began flying in circles around the monster. He peppered the creature with punches as he flew around it in a clockwise rotation, and then, he quickly shifted and reversed his track, moving counterclockwise while still punching the creature just hard enough to stun it. Several moments later, with the creature staggering, barely able to stand, Icon touched down on the ground as he and Terra Firma prepared to end the assault for good.

David nodded as he stepped forward to the misshapen monster, then took a quick accounting of his powers, and a thought occurred to him. He could put out heat, why not the reverse? Looking up and down the villain, David quickly jabbed his hand in, with some visible disgust as the ‘goop’ stretched and contracted from the energy of Icon’s blows. He channeled heat only for a moment like exhaling, then ‘inhaled’, sharply drawing in nearby heat.

The villain recovered from its stunned state just long enough to realize its lower body had been dried over and frozen almost instantaneously, it tried to stretch the rest of its body away, but as it stretched out it reduced its mass and temperature allowing David’s heat reversal to travel faster, and finally ending this; leaving a giant icicle in one end of the parking lot, that thinly stretched towards the street.

David waited a moment to observe his handiwork, and to make sure the deed was done, before popping his hand out with a soft snap. Small shards of ice followed his arm out, but the villain managed to stay in mostly one piece.

[color=red]”Well. I suppose that’s our, uh, Goopman on ice.”[/color]

[b] “Oddly enough, not the strangest thing I’ve seen this week.”[/b] Icon told Terra Firma as he shifted his eyes from the frozen “Goopman” to the other hero. [b] “You did good work here today.”[/b] Icon said casually.

[b] “Listen, I’m actually glad I ran into you. You were a big help with the whole Hounds fiasco, and again here today. I’m sure you noticed that things are getting worse out there, and we need to be better prepared for the next Hounds of Humanity. Which is why we’ve decided to put together a team. We could definitely use someone with your skill set, if you’re interested.”[/b] Icon said to Terra Firma as a crowd of people began to approach the scene now that the threat had been neutralized.

[color=red]”And here I thought it was just me. It really does seem like the world is getting busier, and in all the wrong ways. Sure thing, it’ll be good to have an organized effort the next time we have an Hounds attack. Hopefully, there won’t be another one.”[/color]

Icon nodded in agreement, then his face became slightly sullen. 

[b] “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that there is always another one. If it’s not the Hounds of Humanity, it’ll be someone...or something else. But next time, we’ll be prepared.” [/b]

[color=red]”Then that something will have to deal with the likes of Terra Firma and Icon. They don’t stand a chance.”[/color] David said as he extended his hand.

Icon took Terra Firma’s outstretched and gave him an earnest handshake. After releasing the other hero’s hand, he pressed a button on his belt, and the chevron shaped buckle opened. Icon took a small device from the hidden compartment and handed it to Terra Firma.

[b] “This is a communication device that Iron Knight cooked up. If we need to reach you, or vice versa, this thing can reach us anywhere on Earth, or in the outer orbit...so far.” [/b] Icon told him. [b] “Welcome to The Guardians.”[/b] Icon said before the both of them took off, disappearing into the skies.