Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Scarifar
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Scarifar Presto~!

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After the elevator ride up, Rumi had expected Nero to be expecting them with a big villain speech or a trap lying in wait. He had prepared a rectangular shield constructed from his nanobots as well. What he had not expected, however, was Nero already incapacitated. It seemed Grace had taken the initiative and dealt with the situation as best she could from her current position. However, she had more shocking news to deliver upon their arrival.

"A BLUE BOMB?!" Rumi exclaimed. Evidently, Seraph had invested far more into Nero than Rumi had expected, to have given Nero one of the latest and most efficient pieces of weaponry. After rushing over to the computer, Rumi began to extend his nanobots above the keyboard, forming 5 thin appendages to act as fingers. He opened a console window and began to familiarize himself with the systems, figuring out which commands the OS would accept. Then he proceeded to enter the necessary commands needed to shut down the blue bomb. Rumi let out a relieved sigh and reported, "Alright, the bomb's been deactivated. It's no longer an immediate threat." Rumi also began searching through any files the computer had for incriminating evidence to use against the Wings of law, as well as other important information worth recording.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Zoey Boey
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Zoey Boey better than the alternative

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Pandora was swimming under the streets of Brookside, waiting for her device to do it's boopy thing again. She swam and she swam, but she was having a hard time taking her thoughts off of the Bullet. He was, obviously, an idiot. He was totally onboard for this whole hero thing but he had no idea what he was doing. He was easily scared, had poor situational awareness, and he couldn't go one conversation with a stranger without mentioning how often people made fun of him. In short, a loser.

But it's not like the blame can be placed entirely on him. Of course he would think himself ready. It was HERO who should have known better. Powers sends children to fight his battles for him. Children who were prone to be kidnapped against villains who are so incompetent and arrogant they would kidnap heroes instead of just, you know, killing them. It was a poor show all around. It seemed Blokes and Mugs had devolved over the years. This was exactly what she was concerned about. Exactly why right now she wanted to retreat back to her flowers and just be done with this whole thing. Let the fools tear each other apart. Pandora rolled her eyes, blew bubbles of concrete through her lips, and pushed onward.

Eventually, she heard a beep. Just one anomaly nearby. Hopefully it wasn't Mister Bullet again. She knew that he probably recieved the beep as well.

In front of the Black Knight would appear a pissed off sidewalk mermaid. Leaning forward with her elbows, Pandora was half-submered in concrete. Her glittering orange eyes glanced around, trying to find a costumed hero. Eventually, she put the beeping to a face and glanced over at Zy. She didn't seem too impressed. Other than that there didn't seem to be any immediate threat from her.

"Over here. Just so you don't waste any time looking for me, I'm swimming through the ground, not going through any secret tunnels. I can swim through the ground. See?" The british florist said. To demonstrate she scooped up some of the grey sidewalk like it was water in her hands and then let it filter through her fingers. Pandora was happy to leave it at that and vanish before he could give a response, but just then her device beeped. She grabbed it and held it above the sidewalk and studied it. These were co-ordinates. It seemed somebody had found a lead. It was nearby. Very nearby. Infact, it looked like this person, whoever he was, was on his way to investigate. And he didn't have a beeping device. Was he involved, somehow?

Pandora looked at the device, over to the walled off area, and then back at the Black Knight. Her device continued beeping, indicating she was near the location Powers had sent her. The look on her face seemed to be asking 'You're not a super villain, are you?' and 'I'll be really annoyed if you are because I just assumed you were on my team and I don't like looking stupid'.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by KaijuBaragon
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KaijuBaragon Victoria Concordia Crescit

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Tom continued to brush ash and smoke off his face and out of his hair as he walked over to stand next to the others as Sam hoisted Blake over him for the rest of the journey. Tom was finally glad they seemed to be making some actual headway, even if they hadn't found the key or whatever that they needed to get into the building and save the others. It was time to head up to the basilica anyway, going after Patricia who was frantically running in that direction. Maybe the keycard was over there, and then they could finally get out of his mess and bring some hell down on the Wings of Law, those absolute bastards. Tom was pretty sure they couldn't escape what would undoubtedly be a media storm once him and the rest of the Gang got out of there.

When they finally reached the basilica, Tom was happy to see Brie and Will turn up - he didn't say anything, instead deciding to greet the pair with just a small smile. But that small smile became a grin as Brie revealed what they had brought along - it was the keycard! This mess was finally over! Just after they beat Nero up, that was. And considering Nero was outnumbered and outclassed by a significant degree, Tom didn't have any worry of the group being defeated by Nero at all. He would definitely go down fighting as all villains did, but it wouldn't be a problem. As Rumi was passed the card, Tom waited with baited breath for the doors to be opened. He thought he heard a distant thud from behind the doors, but it was probably just machinery. Tom prepared some moves in his head.

Of course, it turned out that those moves would not be needed at all, because when the doors opened they were greeted with the scene of Nero lying on the floor unconscious, and Grace sitting there with a smug look on her face. Tom blinked as he processed what the hell just happened - he was immediately disappointed that he couldn't be part of an epic fight, but that was quickly washed over with relief that half an hour or so had been shaved off their escape. Tom saw Grace, heard her speak (something about a blue bomb? He wasn't really listening) before rushing over. "Grace, are you okay? Let me just..."

Tom looked around frantically, eventually finding a boxcutter, which he proceeded to use to cut the zipties which were restraining Grace. When she was free, he immediately gave her a big hug, surprising even himself, and covering the girl with smoke and ash at the same time. He pulled away and grinned at her. "What did you do? How did you kick his ass while in your restraints? I bet it was so cool!"

@Hitman @Danvers @Scarifar
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by canaryrose
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canaryrose

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“Oh, thank God,” Patricia muttered as Brie came running up with the keycard. She stepped out of the way for Rumi to unlock the elevator doors. It was almost as if Patricia was imitating Eliza- she fidgeted with her hands, nerves running high. If any of the few video games she had ever played were accurate, this would be the big boss fight. And Eliza and Grace’s lives hung in the balance. Realizing what she was doing, Patricia shook her head. Was she so tired she was making video game references now?! Caffeine would be tempting later, but what she really needed was some sleep. Drug-induced sleep didn’t count. As the elevator reached the top, she went to the front of the group, ready to sing and knock Nero the fuck out.

But then the doors opened… and Nero didn’t attack. Patricia blinked, looking around, confused. Grace must’ve knocked him out, she deduced, because he was lying on the ground looking battered in the corner. She only half-listened to Grace talk, eyes focusing in on Eliza, taking in her injured state. Grace was right. She didn’t look too hot. Her face still slackened with relief, though- she didn’t appear dead. If she was hurt, she’d come back from it. But it still wrenched her heart.

Patricia nodded curtly at Grace. “I’m on it.” She rushed over to Eliza and tugged on her zip ties. “Give me that!” she snapped at Tom, snatching the boxcutter from his grip as soon as he was done with it. With all the care and gentleness in the world, Patricia snapped away at the boxcutters tying Eliza to the wall, making sure not to get her skin. Then, as the last zip tie fell off, Patricia wrapped her arms around the shorter girl and lifted her off the wall, embracing her.

“Ellie. Ellie. Ellie, come on, babe,” she soothed, hugging Eliza tight. She knew that she might be feeling some sensory issues right now, and she didn’t really know how to deal with that, but she figured hugs and pet names might be an okay place to start. “It’s okay. You have no idea how happy I am you're safe. Are you okay? I saw it on the TV and I wanted to punch him in the face so bad but I couldn't but now I can but I didn't because I want to make sure you're alright and I was so worried oh my God...” After her tirade, she glanced over to Nero, debating in her head whether to go over there and talk to him or not. Her power would be good for getting the truth out of him, and she was secretly relishing the idea of mind-controlling him, but… this was more important. She loved Eliza more than she wanted to inflict her revenge. In fact, she wanted to kiss the other girl right now… and she almost did. But she could save it for later. After all, they were still a secret- so she settled for hugging. Hugging was good. Hopefully.

@Amethyst@KaijuBaragon@Hitman
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Duoya
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Duoya

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Running was one of the things that Chad liked most in the world - even before he received his powers, He was one of the best running backs in the entire state. When he scored touchdowns and heard the cheering of his teammates and fans, Chad felt useful and appreciated. Chad enjoyed that feeling, and even though he didn't feel it as much since gaining his powers, he still liked to work and help Percy with anything he could.

As he flew down the various offroads and alleyways of West Watervale, he wasn't feeling very useful at all. His first interaction with a Hero ended with him getting mocked - Chad even began to think that Pandora was making fun of his name and saying wrong on purpose! That caused him to stew somewhat, since it happened all the time on his blog. Pandora, now that's a weird name - it had nothing to do with digging through the ground! Street Shark, now that would be a cool name. Or Malicious Mole, if she was a villain.

A sudden beeping and vibration of the IDD he held caused Chad to slow down, skidding to a stop a moderate distance away. It couldn't have been Pandora, could it? Chad had run the complete opposite direction that she seemed to swim in, so unless he was really unlikely, that had to mean he was kind of close, right? Chad continued to lightly jog in place as he pressed the small button on the side of his device, attempting to use the communicator function.

"Hey, uh, I got a ping off my IDD, I think I might be clo-"

Halfway through his sentence, the device began vibrating and beeping again - Coordinates were coming in, Chad had watched enough Spy Movies to know that they were coordinates by just looking at them. They seemed t automatically go through the GPS on the device, quickly showing an area that the kidnapped heroes were probably located. Downtrodden from his lack of usefulness, Chad pressed the side button once more and spoke into it.

"False alarm, I'm going to the coordinates now..."

Well... So what! Sure, Chad couldn't find where the heroes were, but at the very least now he knew where they were, right? That meant he could be totally badass and save everyone, and then say a sick oneliner just like in the movies! That helped raise his spirits significantly. The real question was what to say...

Chad blasted down the side of the road, headed to the area that was sent to him.



Chad had originally scouted out the eastern border of the location, having been unable to see the massive movie set that occupied most of the area. He hadn't seen Pandora on his way there, but he wasn't especially worried about her - If Chad could swim through the ground, he probably wouldn't hand out on top of the land too much either. By the time he finally encountered the concrete cube of a movie set, the beeping on the IDD was becoming incessant. Chad found how to mute it fairly quickly, and chose to do so now that he had finally found the kidnapped heroes.

Chad clearly knew he was dealing with, seeing the advertisement for Marcus Aurelius on the side of the set. He had watched the film, and while it was fairly accurate to the actual Roman Emperor's life, the Marcomannic Wars portion was a total snoozefest and the ending was anticlimactic as hell. Chad was apparently in the minority since everyone on the imageboards he went to said that he 'just didn't get it.'

Chad shook his head, trying to remember what his train of thought was. That's right - Nero. If anyone decided that a movie set for a roman Emporer was a good idea, it was most likely that guy. But how the hell did he kidnap a bunch of heroes, one of which could teleport? That thought bounced in his skull, and Chad began to sweat in the heat and anxiety. Why was it so freaking hot suddenly!?

Chad ran straight towards the building. Thinking never worked out - he spent a month thinking about how to join H.E.R.O and it did nothing for him. The second he started actually doing something, things seemed to work out just fine. The ground was littered in gravel, holes, and various other obstacles that Chad avoided with fast reactions. The heat was more concerning than anything else - Chad's suit did not breathe well at all.

Chad had to circle the building before he managed to find an entrance. Whether it was to remain inconspicuous or simply because they were busy restraining the kidnapped heroes within, there were no guards posted outside. Of course, the door wasn't unlocked - supervillains were evil, not stupid. Chad paused briefly, before running away from the doorway. Even if the doors were locked, they were still made of wood.

A loud crash could be heard by anyone even somewhat close to the entrance, as Chad ran through one of the doors. He then proceeded to tumble across the ground for several feet before slowing to a stop and slowly rising to his feet. Thanks to his durability he didn't break anything, but he would have some bruises the next morning from that tumble. It was at that moment Chad realized, instead of charging at the door like a bull, he probably could have just punched through the door really fast and unlock it.

He would probably avoid telling that to anyone that asked.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by DClassified
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DClassified Kung Fro Killa

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Location
|| Roman Replica ||

Time
|| Morning ||

Interactions
|| None ||


Samson patiently paced himself to the inside of the basilica where Aria had jutted to so quickly. Once near enough, she seemed to be in front of a door of sorts. With the panel on the wall beside it, it seemed to be an elevator door. This certainly seemed an odd addition when considering the ancient roman theme they had been faced with so far. Then again, the television monitors that their captor felt the need to install around them, perhaps it wasn't as foreign as he imagined.

The fact that they needed a key of sorts to get through this door was an issue. It occurred to Sam that the metallic man was more interested in toying with them opposed to being lethal, or effective. That made him think twice about going to either of the other locations. Perhaps those had clues as to what was to happen here. Though, now holding to the unconscious Firebird, he didn't believe it would be best to put him in jeopardy by going back.

Instead, his hope lied in the comrades that took those separate paths. In the meantime, he felt the urge to once again remove one of his inner-ear plugs. When he did, he was immediately bombarded with the sound of a man's shout, followed by a hard thud from above. Then, more faintly, machinery and rolling. The rumblings and roars sounded like automobiles...Cars on a street...? Could they have perhaps still been in Castleburg? What was happening up there?

It seemed it wasn't long before he'd learn the answer to his auestions as he noticed Will and Brie return. Whatever they had been through, they managed to guess correctly and find the key to this elevator. That was a welcome surprise, and before he knew it, he was on the elevator with the others going up.

When the doors opened, the sounds got louder and he replugged when the elevator abruptly 'dinged'. The scene was rather odd, as the man who seemed so arrogant and vile on the monitors was currently writhing on the floor in pain. Although tied up, it seemed, their opponent didn't anticipate the capabilities of the ones he hauled as hostages.

As it were, Nero had set off a bomb that Rumi quickly went to difuse. With more allegations on Seraph from his comrades, he narrowed his eyes some. Sam didn't know much of this fellow truly, they had never met. However, the list of things he was being painted as being responsible for, looked worse with each passing moment.

As the situation seemed to be calming now though, he relaxed his shoulders some. Just when Sam's head was on a swivel for the exit, he caught the sound of many small thuds surrounding him. As he was bracing and opening his mouth to alert his teammates, a door to the outside burst open.

Could this have been another villain sent to dispose of them now that they were on the verge of escape? If so, the way that he tumbled through the door didn't seem very intimidating...or very well thought out.

Still, the giant remained tensed, prepared for whatever awaited them next.





Location
|| Brookside ||

Time
|| Morning ||

Interactions
|| @Zoey Boey ||


Zhaire was eyeing the odd 'Marcus Aurelius' building as he was approaching. This building placement seemed way too out of place. Yes, they were across the road from an italian food joint, but if that place wasn't renovated, it was hard to believe that there was a true connection between the two. With Smokey's tip, this place was obviously a facade for something.

His train of thought was interrupted though, when the sidewalk in front of him morphed into the form of a female. Immediately taking a step back, it now became a woman with red hair. His eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke rather casually about her ability. As it seemed, she must have thought of him as an ally of sorts, but he didn't see a person with her profile on any of the HERO records. He'd remember a face like hers.

So, now he debated as to what this could have been. Perhaps she was associated with all this. If she thought he was an ally of some kind, maybe he could use this to his advantage. Just ask he was going to speak though, a breeze caught him as a blur zoomed past him towards the building in question. Noticing the blur going around the perimeter, Zy's paranoia spiked.

They might have been trying to contain the heroes inside.

Using the spare second that reflex would mandate of a sentient being to process the situation, he managed to check his phone. From the looks of it, the Director seemed to call in reinforcements to retrieve the heroes. Zhaire needed a better vantage point. Thus if the woman had decided to look back, the young man would already be gone, already nearing the top of an adjacent structure via parkour methods.

Going by gut instinct that the bluring motion was one of the reinforcements, as well as the womanly land shark, Zy decided he'd keep watch from up here. The fact that the Director just as quickly decided to send in backup, made him weary of any surprises. Hopefully Brie would be alright in there.

If not, someone was getting a visit from The Hood...
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Amethyst
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Amethyst

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Interacting: Grace, Patti, etc.

To say it had not been a good day for Eliza would have been an understatement. For the last however-long (since she honestly wasn’t sure how many minutes or hours they’d been here) she’d found herself in a state of complete mental shutdown. Her instinct was, of course, to become invisible – logic said that if terrifying sadistic Romans couldn’t see her, they couldn’t hurt her, but the unfortunate implication was that every time she tried to disappear she got a nasty zap and was thus snapped violently back into visibility.

Beyond that lingering twitchy, tingling pain, her hands and feet had gone entirely numb, her vision blurring and the room spinning around her. She felt like she might vomit, or faint, or both of the above, and she wasn’t entirely sure why, though the buzzing of fluorescent lights and the rack that she and Grace were strapped to were likely contributors. Sensory overload evidently still happened and still sucked when one was trying to decide if they were going to die or not…

At least she had been spared much of the conversation. Or rather, lecture might have been a more appropriate way of describing that neverending stream of dialogue that emanated from Nero. She hadn’t been able to focus on very much of anything for a while, then, not until the door burst open and she was abruptly surrounded by the sound of her friend’s voices.

In particular, Patricia’s.

She couldn’t see for a moment, but she felt the tension in her wrists and shoulders abruptly release, her body falling against Patricia’s, the older girl’s voice soft and soothing in her ear and strong arms reassuring around her shoulders.

She was really here. She was safe! They were both safe.

Eliza pressed her face into the hollow in Patricia’s shoulder, arms clumsily and uncertainly wrapping around the taller girl. She took a shaking breath, then another, letting the faint familiar scent of Patricia’s shampoo calm her racing heart. Tears began to drip down her cheeks again, leaving stains on her girlfriend’s shirt.

As she became more aware of her surroundings, she realized two things. First of all, she was tasting blood – that was something that could be dealt with later, she’d probably bitten her tongue or gotten a nosebleed in her flailing around on the rack thing. That was fine. Just something to be mindful of for the medics. Second of all, and more importantly, everyone was actually here. They were all safe.

Seraph hadn’t stood a chance after all.

Her legs were shaking as she finally dared a glance up at Patricia, eyes still welling with tears and taking a painfully long time to focus on her girlfriend’s lovely face. She hadn’t entirely processed a lot of what the older teen had said, but it was her beautiful voice and lovely words and that was all that really mattered. “You’re lovely,” she mumbled, resting her head against the other girl’s chest and letting her eyes blink shut for a moment longer.




Interacting: Blake, and the rest of the gang sort of.

This would be the last time Angie ever got drunk, she was certain of it.

While the more habitual drinkers seemed at least marginally functional, plowing ahead with their usual reckless abandon, Angelica found herself stumbling and swerving all over the pavement, scarcely able to track a straight line with her swirling vision. As the others rushed into a she found herself collapsed into some drunken approximation of “sitting” on an aesthetic pile of rubble just outside of the temple they’d emerged from, trying and failing to not paint the cobbled ground with whatever had been left in her stomach.

Even her hungover stupor was not enough to render her less awestricken by the havoc that her friends could wreak, however; they made short work of the ogres and two of the most prominent buildings around the forum…

After several moments of being useless, she wobbled off in the direction Blake had gone, absently clutching a twisted (and decidedly NOT authentically-Roman) and hefty piece of rebar that she’d pulled from the rubble of one of the structures as they walked past. It wasn’t much by way of a weapon, but it was better than nothing, she supposed, even if it did take her back to her freshman year of high school and her ill-fated popularity stunt of trying out for color guard… she shuddered at the memory, forcing her addled brain back to the present.
Blake had been bitten by yet another Vermile, she realized quickly – judging by the screams it was the second or third bite. She rushed towards him as he drunkenly grinned, his flirty comment drawing color to her cheeks as a giddy smirk bloomed across her lips. It was not a there for long, however, as he promptly toppled over. Lacking in the physical strength to carry him, she was left helplessly standing beside him until Sam hefted her cupcake up over his shoulder as though he weighed nothing… delightful, that. She couldn't even render assistance.

She was once again left trailing along after the group, uselessly clutching her useless rebar and following, watching behind for any enterprising Leftovers or villains who might be after a softer and unprepared target. It was a quiet journey into the elevator, however, and even down into the office the situation was (surprisingly) readily dealt with.

Relief washed over her as she saw Grace and Eliza, mostly intact and seemingly in one piece – part of her longed to rush to her sister, but she saw that the role of caretaker was being taken up by Patricia at the moment. So, she shut down the emotions of worthlessness that once again welled in her chest, amplified now that the obvious dangers were passed, and began clumsily searching the office for any sort of tool or weapon that might help them find their way out. Pragmatics first, emotions second. She had to redeem herself somehow.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Hitman
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Hitman Loosey Goosey

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Grace couldn't help but blush faintly as Tom wrapped her in a surprisingly tight hug, but quickly reciprocated nonetheless, wrapping her own arms around him for a brief moment as they were reunited. "I'm fine, I'm fine," Grace quickly insisted as the two embraced, before nuzzling her head against his chest. This would spell the end for their moment together, though, as Grace sniffed in the aroma emanating from Tom's clothes and pulled away from the hug. "Is that soot? Ugh..." Grace complained as she stepped away, nose wrinkled, but her good nature quickly returned as she looked up and smiled at Tom. "It was nothing much. It was you guys taking out the ogres that gave me the opportunity...but yes, it was pretty cool. Not easy, either. It's difficult to calculate the malleability of an ancient Roman helmet and the properties of a portal while you're kidnapped and tied to some sort of disturbing lightning rack..." As she trailed off, she found herself grinding the bottom of her shoe against the ground. She had something on her mind. "Sorry...about everything I said last night. You're not an idiot. Normally, at least," she finished somewhat lamely. She looked down again before her eyes drifted back up. "Anyway, I...well, I was an ass, so...sorry about that. She put a hand on his arm. "Heol, Tom, how did you get so much ass on you...ash, shit, sorry," she quickly corrected herself, silently cursing her accent as the blush flooded back to her face, and she quickly pulled her hand back (causing some soot to sprinkle through the air) before turning away and heading over to Nero's computer, which Rumi was currently manning.

Grace's eyes scanned the screen as Rumi scoured the computer for evidence. Grace had thought of that possibility, but she was not nearly gifted enough with computers to break the level of encryption on Nero's well-fortified (and very not-Roman) device. Rumi seemed to make mincemeat out of it and began to sift through the heaps of data, looking for anything that could incriminate the Wings. It wasn't exactly hidden very well. Phone call transcripts between the Wings and Nero, purchase receipts, blue bomb instructions, e-mails, and all-in-all a massive mountain of evidence against the Wings. It was clear that the Wings had overestimated Nero and vastly underestimated them, as they had been caught with their hand showing. Grace reached over Rumi's fingers, hitting a couple keyboard buttons to download the information and then clicked a few more to send it to Powers.

"That ought to do it," she said confidently, her eyes scanning over the gang, and she felt some emotion tug at her chest as she looked at them. They had somehow done it again, come out mostly unscathed. Grace smiled weakly as she looked at them, feeling proud to be a part of this little crew of nutballs, before she heard what sounded like a fairy laughing. Her text message notification sound. "Bastard has my phone..." she grumbled as she rummaged through the office, searching for her phone, as everybody else's phones sounded off like a chorus. She eventually managed to find her phone stuffed between two sofa pillows, and yanked it out, turning it on to reveal a text message from powers, which Grace inferred that had been sent to everybody (unknowingly, it was also sent to some of the newer heroes that Grace had yet to meet). The message read, very simply:

𝙼𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝙲𝚕𝚞𝚋 𝟸𝟽 𝚒𝚗 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝙰𝚂𝙰𝙿.

Grace recognized the name of the club. Club 27. Kingsdale. The Wings of Law headquarters.

What the hell was Powers doing?

Grace was about to make a portal out when she noticed another individual having arrived. Tall, black, muscular, and thoroughly unfamiliar. Grace did not think he was one of Nero's lackeys, considering that none of the files on his computer mentioned anything about any sort of henchman, but it was worth checking out. Grace motioned out the window before opening a portal and hopping through, leaving it open on the other end for the rest of the crew to follow out.

The other portal opened just a few feet in front of Chad, and out from the portal stepped Grace, looking a bit beat-up (and dusty) but otherwise mostly alright. She looked the taller figure up and down before asking him, "Who the hell are you?"





Powers' car, a custom-made Bugatti Chiron, rocketed down the side streets of Castleburg heading towards Kingsdale. Powers' ability to get from point A to point B was remarkably fast, in part because A) he knew Castleburg like the back of his hand, B) he had one of the fastest
cars available, and C) he was breaking every traffic violation in the books. Powers' fingers were gripped tightly around the steering wheel, and his vehicle took off down the highways of Castleburg like a bat out of hell. It wasn't long before the car pulled up in front of Club 27. It was a quiet day at the HQ today, only a few expensive vehicles parked outside.

Powers swung the car door open and stormed to the back, popping the trunk to a reveal an impressive collection of weapons. Powers removed a pump shotgun from the back, slinging it over his back, before storming up to the glass doors. He didn't even bother to knock, instead walking directly through the door, the glass shattering helplessly as the monster of a man walked directly into the club. The patrons inside (the three main Wings of Law, plus Rubber Man), quickly jumped to their feet as the alarms set up, eyes falling on Powers. Seraph was the first to speak up. "Ah, Director. I didn't realize you were coming. The occasion?" Seraph asked, his voice cordial and polite but eyes frosty.

Powers swung the shotgun from his back and pumped up. "I'm here to announce your termination."

Before any of the Wings of Law could even bother to question this expression, Powers aimed the shotgun upwards with one hand and fired a round, blasting out the massive, expensive glass chandelier that hung from the ceiling. The lights quickly went out, shards of glass and wiring falling everywhere, as the room was submerged in darkness. The only light that was coming in was from the door down the hallway, and it was too faint to be useful in combat, and unfortunately, combat was the only thing on Powers' mind. He wasn't there for any more bargaining and games.

After a minute of darkness, the emergency lights, a series of dim red bulbs that lined the walls of the facility, turned on, illuminating the room enough to see. Mr. Impressive was currently hung from the wall in a wedgie, hanging from his underpants, which were in turn hanging from his own sword, which was pinned in the center of an oil painting. Sea Serpent was planted face-first in the bar in a pool of liquors and glass. Rubber Man was across the room, headfirst in a fireplace. The only Wing of Law left standing was Seraph, who had a couple nasty bruises to his face. His pretty (plastic) features curved into a scowl, he flapped his wings and sent a rain of feathers at Powers, who simply walked through it like it was a light drizzle. "Listen up here, Zhenka. I'll make this quick," Powers said gruffly as he approached the injured (former) hero. He discarded the shotgun and lifted Zhenka by the collar."If I ever see your ass around HERO One again, I will make it clear who's the boss. Very, very clear. Even more clear than today. Understood?" Powers said, glaring at Seraph, nothing but pure blackness in his eyes.

Seraph muttered something about 'being the boss' and a few curse words, but was shut up by Powers' violent shaking. "I SAID, DID YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" Powers roared. It was a scary sight to watch, really.

Seraph nodded reluctantly.

"Good." Powers tossed Seraph in the air like he was pitching himself a baseball, before executing a devastating roundhouse kick to his side, sending Seraph hurtling across the room into a bust of himself, shattering both the bust and likely something of Seraph's.

As Powers strolled out, Seraph yelled after him, "You'll regret this, Hugo! You'll regret this badly!"

Powers turned back, stopping his stroll for a moment. "That's Mr. Powers to you."



Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Jumbus
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Well, well, well HERO was finally putting Starbright in the captains seat. It is just about time, find the rest of the gang and stomp out Wings, after that there is nothing that could stop him from being HERO’s top dog. Thoughts like this ran through Starbright's head as he stood before himself in the mirror, styling his hair for an upcoming stealth mission. As much as he hated the idea of stealth, he had a duty to do and he planned on carrying it out. First thing was first though, he had to round up the other two and, as luck would have it, he had their locations on his phone right now.

"Let see here, Watervale, not the best place to go and the other one is at... ew gross Brookside. Well Watervale it is then, I'll get an Uber or something to pick up the hero in Brookside." Starbright's driver put the pedal to the metal and the bright white limousine speed off toward Watervale and the coordinates on Starbright's phone. Starbright himself was lazily sprawled across the seats and took an occasional sip of a mocktail.

While he was waiting he thought he might as well read up on who these other two are. Apparently they're new to HERO, which was good news, helping a hero in their breakout mission is great for publicity. The three didn’t have the most cohesive look but a wardrobe change to the other two could certainly solve that. He looked further into their profiles. But eventually Starbright just got bored, all this leader stuff was tough and he needed a break. So he tossed the files to the other side of the limo, having only looked at the two’s pictures then promptly returned to his phone scrolling through social media.




The limo pulled up to a movie set? What was everyone trying to find here and… oh it was for Marcus Aurelius. Starbright still couldn’t believe that the movie had outsold his autobiographical film ‘Shine’. What did the life and times of someone who died like a hundred years ago even have to offer? Like hello? He’s clearly long gone and irrelevant. Nevertheless Starbright slammed the door open in usual fashion, bathing the nearby area in light.

Paparazzi were already lined up to get a picture of the star, and Starbright could help but oblige. "Yeah yeah ok remember to get my good angle. Oh wait they’re all good angles ha ha. You guys work fast huh?" “What brings you to the old set of Marcus Aurelius Starbright? Wanting to get revenge for it outselling you in the box office?” "I’ll have you know ‘Shine’ was a dazzling success. If you look at the online sales with it you’ll find it beats this tacky movie by miles." It was a blatant lie but Starbright said it with enough confidence that the press believed him on face value. "Now I’m going to need to ask for some privacy, this is official and confidential HERO business. So you will all need to scram unfortunately but I still love you all.” As the group left he grabbed the sleeve of the nearest one and in a subtle tone invited him to join. "I don’t think HERO would mind a little bit of publicity on this, come along.”

Shortly after this a loud crash could be heard from within the movie set. Starbright and his new camera wielding friend rushed over to see what had happened. "Hello? Can you hear me? Are you from HERO or are you a villain?” Starbright made a motion to the paparazzi with his hand to indicate ‘keep the camera rolling.




@Duoya
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Duoya
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Some people might not know this, but crashing through a door of solid wood doesn't feel very good at regular speeds, let alone superhuman ones. And tumbling on the ground isn't much better. Chad knew that he was tougher than most, but even he felt a little beat up as he rose to his feet.

At the very least, now he was actually inside the Movie Set - it was like going back in time, dirt roads and roman style buildings dominating the landscape. Chad wasn't very well educated on roman architecture however, and the only structures he recognized on sight was the Temple and the Coliseum. Chad covered his nose and mouth to block out the sudden stench that assaulted him - massive, charred corpses littered the ground a short distance away. The heat from outside was even stronger here - and considering he read his file, Chad felt pretty confident that Firebird had been the one behind this. The corpses were far too large to be human, but Chad still did his best to avoid looking at them.

Moving forwards, Chad decided that the Coliseum would be his best bet to investigate first. If Chad was a crazy roman themed supervillain, after all, having Superheroes fight each other to the death would be pretty badass! Hell, that'd probably be a good idea for a story on his blog! Chad was about to reach into his pocket and pull out his notepad and pen when a strange portal manifested itself right in front of Chad. The Hero was prepared to immediately run around it and towards the coliseum when he stopped himself. Bypass was kidnapped, and her power was to make portals.

Stepping out of the portal was Bypass, albeit more roughed up than the picture Chad had seen. She seemed to look Chad over before speaking, causing the Younger hero to step back.

"Who the hell are you?"

Chad did his best to assume a Heroic (read: Stupid) pose as he spoke.

"I'm the man of a thousand velocities - THE BULLET! I race through Castleburg with the speed and justice of a Bullet, ready to stop evil at any turn!"

Chad seemed to deflate slightly as he came to the end of his introduction, however.

"I was, uh... also supposed to save you guys... Is there anyone else that still needs saving, or did I mess up my first-"

"Hello? Can you hear me? Are you from HERO or are you a villain?”

Chad jumped and turned around with incredible speed, shocked by the voice behind him. Was there really a guard that Chad had not seen, or did Pandora arrive (and have a deeper voice than he remembered) to provide help?

Chad didn't recognize the voice without the copious amounts of autotune, but he could identify the man from sight alone. Even with his mask on, anyone present could tell that Chad was shocked by the fact he was shaking.

"Oh my god... IS THAT STARBRIGHT, THE GREATEST HERO TO EVER LIVE?!?!"

Chad quickly patted his pockets before cursing under his breath - normally he carried a poster of Starbright just for kind of situation, but he hadn't brought it with him for fear of damaging one of them.

"I-I'm the Projectile of the Gun of Justice, THE BULLET! I'm a new H-hero, and your biggest fan!"

Chad had to use every bit of willpower he had not to run back home and grab his Collector's Edition Starbright Poster (Only sold with the first 100 copies of his Bright as a Star album). He didn't even notice the paparazzi standing next to Starbright, and barely remembered that Grace was still present.

"D... Did you come to save the kidnapped heroes with your incredible posing and blasts of light!?"
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by canaryrose
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Patricia giggled breathlessly, tightening her arms on Eliza. She really was alright! Heart soaring despite the situation, she swayed with the shorter girl for perhaps a moment or two longer than was necessary, dancing to some inaudible music that only she knew. “I love you.” It was said simply, but full of intent. Making sure no one was watching, Patricia pressed a chaste kiss to Eliza’s forehead, drawing away quickly and blushing. “Sorry. I’m just- I’m just so glad that you’re okay.” She fiddled with her own hair, spinning it around her index finger and smiling sheepishly.

Just then, a chorus of ringtones went off- Patricia’s among them. Hers was the original Samsung ringtone, as she had never bothered to go through the effort of changing it. Her eyebrows furrowed. Hadn’t their phones been taken? If not, then why hadn’t H.E.R.O just tracked them? Following Grace, she retrieved her phone and Eliza’s from Nero’s hiding place. It was purple, much like everything else she owned. She entered her passcode, reading the message carefully. It was an order from Powers. He wanted them to go to Club 27? To Kingsdale? Patricia didn’t even know where they were right now. This was going to be hard.

She saw Grace open a purple portal from out of the corner of her eye and blinked. Was there something out there? She should probably follow- it looked like Grace wanted them to anyways. Patricia went back to grab Eliza’s hand and to hand her her phone. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” she told Eliza. “Powers wants us to meet up at the Wings of Laws’s headquarters, for some reason. We can go home afterwards. Get some sleep.” Patricia gently tugged Eliza with her into the portal, going through to the other side.

As soon as she went through, she felt a slight nausea creep up on her. It was the same as every time she went through Grace’s portals, of course, but it got better every time. She didn’t throw up anymore, though, which was good! Still, though, it was sickening, and she had to stop for a moment to catch her breath. And her stomach. Once she recovered herself, she glanced up, looking at Grace and the person she was talking to. He didn’t sound like a villain- in fact, he sounded kind of delusional. Patricia rolled her eyes and strode forward, ready to introduce herself. If he was a hero, she might as well. She was just about to when she was interrupted- by a horribly familiar voice. She turned around, dread filling her chest.

Of course. It was fucking Starbright. Her mild annoyance turned to full-blown irritation, a vein twitching in her neck. And of course he had brought his fucking paparazzi. The teenage girl looked at the superstar with derision in her gaze, like he was an ant and she was the thing about to step on him. She knew exactly what he wanted. To claim their success, their own resourcefulness, for himself. Just like the Wings and everybody else, and there was no way Patricia was letting that happen. So she'd make a fool out of him.

Plus, his music really sucked.

“Of course you’re here,” she groaned, slinging her head back. “And you brought one of your stalkers. Great. He can’t be here, you know. Confidential H.E.R.O business and all. Not that you’d know anything about that.” She turned to Chad after his comment, glaring. “I’m Patricia, by the way, or Aria. Whatever the hell you want, I don't care. And he didn’t save us. We saved ourselves, because we’re real heroes, unlike this third-rate poser over here.” She gestured to Starbright, not turning her gaze from Chad.

Then, looking very irritated, Patricia strode over to the paparazzi, putting a hand very firmly over his camera and the other over his forearm. Then, suddenly, she yanked it away, tossing it down the street. It broke as it bounced, pieces scattering everywhere. Her original thought had been to mind control him, of course, but had quickly ruled that out as a little too villain-like for her. Wouldn’t want to be completely demonized. “You can go now,” she told him.

Patricia glanced to Grace, who was looking very starstruck right now. Figures. The girl did have Starbright posters in her bedroom. She stared at her, looking almost disappointed before speaking. “Grace,” she snapped. “Stop undressing this man-child with your eyes and focus. We have somewhere we need to be, remember? He's not even worth it, anyways.”


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Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Zoey Boey
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Pandora blinked in surprise as the stealthy figure had vanished. She span around to make sure he hadn't teleported behind her somehow, but no, he was really gone. It was either that, or he had the ability to turn invisible. Pandora swam a few meters back, but there didn't seem to be any apparent danger.

"Alright..." She muttered to herself. The device beeped and she glanced down to see text on the screen. It was Hugo Powers, and he wanted everyone to meet up at...the Wings of Law headquarters? Pandora had heard of them, of course, because as much as she didn't want to admit it she had kept a thumb on the pulse of the politics of HERO and it's various branches. Not terribly so, but enough to know the important place names. In Pandora's past, remembering important place locations was important.

ASAP meant As Soon As Possible. Frankly she was happy for an excuse not to dive head first into meeting a whole bunch of new 'heroes' at the same time. So, she plunged under the 'water' once again and began to make her way to Kingsdale. It was a long trip but Pandora moved quickly.

Hugo Powers, were he still within line of sight with the Wings of Law headquarters, would see Pandora emerge from their perfectly maintained lawn. "Powers? Have your missing children been returned to you, yet?" She asked, a little sarcastically. It seemed her favorite thing to do was to prop herself up using her elbows while half of her athletic form remained underground. It was quite comfortable. She could basically sit wherever she wanted, but her spine was still aligned. A comfortable repose, wherever she wanted. It was probably one of the only things she had used her power for in the last twenty years.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Hitman
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Hugo Powers was currently standing outside Club 27, waiting patiently, foot tapping on the ground in rhythm, when he noticed Pandora emerging from the ground like some sort of cement mermaid. The massive, hulking human being walked over to Pandora's location, looking somewhat more pleased than usual, though "somewhat more pleased than usual" in Powers' case was still "much less pleased than usual" for your average person. The stoic director squatted down next to Pandora (or more accurately, the half of Pandora that was there) and spoke, his gruff voice matching his towering, threatening figure.

"First, a pleasure to meet you, Pandora," Powers said, extending a hand over to the ground-submerged woman. "It's a pleasure to see you in person. Second, as for my employees, from the reports I've received, they've managed to save themselves. They're quite the bunch. You'll like them." Powers said, contemplating for a moment, before shaking his head. "Actually, you won't. You'll hate their guts. But they'll grow on you. They did for me, anyway," the Director said, before standing. "They should be here any second...ah." Powers turned over to a portal that had formed across the lawn. "Here they come."

Back over at the Roman coliseum, Grace was very busy oogling a certain somebody that had just entered the Coliseum. She was about to laugh at Chad, poke fun at him a bit for his flair for the dramatic (not to mention exaggeration), but the arrival of Starbright had saved him from any sort of brutal rubbing. Grace instead found herself staring at Starbright, the beautiful sculpted man that was Starbright...hot damn, it must've been illegal to be so incredibly attractive, what type of phenomenal genetics caused this beautiful man to exist...Grace stared at Starbright for what felt like a few days before Patricia's harsh words cut into her stupor. “Stop undressing this man-child with your eyes and focus. We have somewhere we need to be, remember? He's not even worth it, anyways,” Patricia had said, and Grace blinked, having been freed from Starbright's unholy trance. Grace made sure to avoid eye contact with Starbright as she got to work crafting a second portal. She sincerely hoped Starbright never betrayed HERO, because his looks would make it impossible for the Korean girl to take him in. "Right, right. Club 27, portal, got it. I have a good idea from where it is, it's not far from my place...alright. You think Starbright is single? He can't be, right, not with shoulders like that..." Grace mused, before pulling herself out of this trance again and swiping her hand, opening a second set of portals. "Alright, this is pretty far for a portal, I've stretched my limits pretty thin, so the wormhole experience might be a little more unpleasant than usual...make sure you're not eating or drinking anything before hopping in. Also, don't hold your breath. Your lungs might collapse." With that, she shoo'd the gang through the portal, making sure to look away if Starbright decided to use her vastly more convenient form of transportation. She then used her remaining strength to haul the nearby unconscious Alpha through the portal (luckily for him, Grace had caught a glimpse of him as she was scouting the area), before practically flopping through herself.

The group was deposited on the lawn of Club 27, a gorgeous club belonging to the Wings of Law. Grace was the last to be thrown through, and she found her arms wrapped tightly around Tom for balance as she made it through. She looked a bit green- this portaling had taken quite a bit out of her, for sure. Powers folded his arms as he waited for the entire group to finish materializing, before speaking. "Pleasure to see you all in one piece. Glad you could all make it," the Director said, before gesturing towards Club 27. "Thanks to Mr. Polamor and Ms. Mok's timely cooperation, I was able to see that the Wings of Law were not abiding by HERO's code. So I decided that enough was enough, and to take matters into my own hands. The Wings of Law are no longer going to be employed at HERO."

Powers paused. "It's a shame that it had to come to this, watching the Wings devolve from legitimacy to their current state, but it shows what happens when you let power and fame get to your head. Never let that happen to any of you. You're all young, impressionable people that can have much brighter futures than Seraph, Mr. Impressive, and Sea Serpent will be having," Powers said sagely, before clasping his oversized hands together. "With that said, I'd also like to be introducing two new heroes to our organization. Pandora here is...a veteran hero, to say the least, and the organization as a whole is very pleased that she'll be lending her talents to us," Powers said, a rare honeyed kindness in his voice. Either he was sucking up, or there was a deep respect that existed from the Director to the Brit, something that was rare in HERO. "Also joining us is a much younger hero, Chad...he's a character, for sure, and I'm sure there's plenty of work to be done in regards to his abilities, but I'm confident he'll be a very capable hero soon." Powers nodded, having cleared up what he wanted to say. "That's all there is to it. Hopefully your days of hero-ing will be much more pleasant without the looming presence of the Wings of Law," Powers noted, before putting a hand to his earpiece and turning away, walking towards his expensive car. "I'm going to need a Restoration Unit at the old Marcus Aurelius set in Brookside...there's been an incident there..." he said as he entered the vehicle, before driving off.

He left behind an awkward silence as his car slid quickly down the streets of Castleburg, unknowing that his decision might not have been his wisest to date.



One Week Later



3:05 PM
July 12th
Acre Plaza
New Athens, Castleburg


Blake wasn't the type of person to have much alone time. He was a social creature, always looking for somebody to hang out with. Whether that somebody be a romantic interest, a co-worker, or just Tom (a common choice), Blake tended to be part of a duo or more when it came to his social outings. However, today, Blake was walking through Acre Plaza, moving through the intense bustle as he pushed through the crowd. Acre Plaza was often referred to as "the center of the galaxy." It was located in the heart of New Athens in the middle of Castleburg, and was a massive commercial intersection and a very busy pedestrian area. People ran back-and-forth up an down the plaza, underneath the flickering lights of the thousands of brilliant billboards, all shining down in an impressive display. Acre Plaza was the home of so many businesses, places of interests, tourist spots, and theaters (it was also smack dab in the center of Grand Avenue, the massive boulevard that cut through Castleburg and was synonymous with show business and theatrical entertainment). Blake was currently wandering almost aimlessly, looking for something to do. The summer air heated his skin as he looked at the storefront location of Disney Acre Plaza, staring at the giant Mickey Mouse head protruding from the glass, wondering if Jamie would prefer some sort of Disney memorabilia or a ton of chocolate from the Hershey's across the way.

Eventually, Blake decided on the latter, and he turned towards the massive chocolate-y store nearby. He didn't make it all the way there, though, as he noticed something very peculiar. All of the glowing billboards on Acre Plaza, including the massive jumbotrons on some of the skyscrapers, blanked out for a second, before changing instead to an image of what appeared to be a large black wing, with sleek edges and a dangerous-looking design. It looked like a logo, like something a gang would use as their representation, but Blake was unfamiliar with the design. The symbol flickered onscreen for a few moments, drawing attention, before changing to an image of a person that Blake had never expected to see again.

"Seraph...” Blake muttered under his breath, clenching his fists. He was not happy.

Seraph had all but vanished in the week following his mysterious removal from HERO. According to news organizations, Seraph had amicably parted ways with the organization and quietly retired. Blake knew that was not true, but it was better this way, truth be told. There would be no fighting on-air or media dispute about HERO, just a casual retirement and dissolution of a longtime group. It was surprising, true, but as far as the media was concerned, it was just a hero retirement. Nothing particularly spectacular, considering heroes retired all the time. It was a dangerous line of work, after all, and the pension definitely made it worth it. Blake had never expected to see Seraph again. He had hoped that Seraph would just take his piles of cash and move to Florida or something, go bother people down there instead of hanging around. Obviously, the former HERO had not heeded by his wishes.

Seraph began his speech, gesturing out with his arms and wings. "Citizens of Castleburg, this is Seraph. Now that I have your undivided attention, I would like to speak to you about something near and dear to my heart, and that is this city. Castleburg has been a city of wasted potential. The failure of our institutions to protect and serve is apparent in our society. Thankfully, with the recent retirement of Hugo Powers, I will be taking actions to help remedy this problem as your new superhuman leader."

Blake's head spun. What the hell? Powers wasn't retiring; he would've definitely known if he was, and Powers would never, ever appoint Seraph to be his replacement. Something was up here. Blake watched in horror as Seraph continued. "I've worked with HERO for many years, and they've given a great deal to this city, but to truly elevate Castleburg as a city, new measures will be necessary. That's why I'm announcing Castleburg's newest hero organization- EAGLES, the Elite American Group for Law Enforcement and Security, headed by me, Seraph. I've decided that I can't retire while I watch this city burn from scum and villainy. I had to take action again, take to the skies, and EAGLES will be the way to do it.” That same black wing logo appeared on the screen behind him, and Blake heard some pedestrians cheer. Cheer. Jesus, some people were really stupid.

"Unfortunately, with this good news, I have some more tragic news to announce. Very tragic news, in fact. Just today, not long ago, at my private club in Kingsdale, there was an unfortunate incident of mass murder. The entire club was found mysteriously dead. The autopsy revealed that there was no signs of any force or trauma, just a sudden death. Investigators are convinced that this is the work of the Maestro, or much more likely, the Maestro's daughter, Patricia Donnelly. I've spoken out against her countless times before, but it seems my warnings were too late and not heeded in time.”

Blake heard gasps in the crowd as the screen flicked to what Blake vaguely recognized as the interior of Club 27, the Wings' former hideout and an operating high-end nightclub, full of what appeared to be sleeping people- people slumped over the bar, laying on the floor, sprawled everywhere. Blake breathed heavily. It certainly didn't seem violent in nature- Blake would've assumed that his dad's house would've looked the same way after they were all gassed. Blake knew roughly of Patricia's capabilities, and that if she tried to death-sing a whole room of people, it would probably look something like that, but he also knew Patricia, and knew the teen would never, ever, EVER do anything like that. Also, he knew Seraph was a cold-hearted lying bastard, so there was that.

The screen flashed back to Seraph again. "EAGLES' first act as your new protectors will be bringing Patricia Donnelly to justice. My assistant director, Mr. Impressive, is already en route to bring Donnelly to justice. We're also seeking to bring any potential accomplices of Donnelly, some former HERO employees, in for questioning as well.” The screen flashed to a bunch of photos, with Patricia (Seraph had not gotten a flattering picture of her, that was for sure) in the front-and-center of it. Underneath Patricia's photo was a row of pictures including all people that Blake knew well, including Tom, Grace, Brie, Jamie, Rumi, Joseph, Eliza, and...shit, that was his picture too!

Blake noticed some people were turned to face him, and that he heard some dialing of phones, and he quickly realized that this was not a good place to be right now. "EXCUSE ME!” Blake loudly declared, pushing through the crowd quickly as he shoved his way through the crowd of people, before going into a sprint. This was probably highly suspicious behavior, but Blake didn't care. As he shoved through the crowd of pedestrians, he grabbed his phone and quickly dialed Tom as he ducked into an alleyway, sprinting down before making a few sharp turns to get himself away from prying eyes. Once he found himself in a dark, secluded alleway, he put the phone to his ear.

"Dude,” he panted into the phone. "What. The. Fuck. Is. Happening?!”





3:05 PM
July 12th
Koreatown
Waterside, Castleburg


Castleburg's Koreatown neighorhood was small but fascinating to Grace. As much as she loved her new life in America, working for HERO with a new group of people she was very happy to call friends, she missed her old life in Seoul sometimes. She missed Korean food almost every day, speaking Korean, really every facet of life back in Korea. She made it a habit to spend some time in Castleburg's Koreatown as much as she could. It wasn't a massive community, and it wasn't the most pristine she had ever seen, but it was authentic and Korean, which was what Grace cared about more than anything else.

Grace strolled down the sidewalk of the small neighborhood, waving and greeting and occasionally picking up a small thing from a street vendor. She was dressed lightly for once, wearing a t-shirt and jean shorts, a blue plaid jacket tied around her waist, her stand-outish violet hair running messily in knots down her back. She ducked her way off the sidewalk into a Korean supermarket that was abuzz with energy. The market was full of people and foods that most of Castleburg would consider strange (for starters, there were eel hanging from a rack only a few yards from the entrance), but to Grace, it was home sweet home. As she walked through the aisles, looking for something good to take home, she noticed something on a corner-mounted TV. "Motherfucker..." she cursed as she saw Seraph's face fade in from what appeared to be a black wing logo (she cursed in English, as a good portion of the patrons in a Korean supermarket would definitely understand her Korean swearing). Her expression went from annoyed to mortified as Seraph spoke. This was bad. Really bad.

Grace comprehended the information as quickly as she could. Seraph had somehow staged what could she could only describe as a coup d'état. He had somehow gotten rid of Powers (how he had done so made Grace shiver), and had now framed Patricia for a crime that she could not have done...and on top of that, now she was on their wanted list?! This day had turned into a waking nightmare very quickly.

Grace knew that she didn't have much time to act, and so she quickly thought of a plan. The first step to this mystery seemed to be HERO One. Grace knew that Powers could not, and would not, stand for this. That was clear as day. But Grace knew that if Seraph was even remotely cunning, there would be some sort of trap waiting for them. The same could be said of Club 27- Grace knew that if she was in Seraph's shoes, she would throw them the location as bait to investigate, and then promptly reel them in. Grace then realized something. Patricia. Seraph definitely wanted her, probably for revenge, definitely for nothing good, and it seemed as though she was the top priority here. Patricia also lacked the ability to portal around the city with ease. She would probably need help. Of course, teleporting directly to Patricia's apartment would also be putting Grace into risk, but Grace decided that if there was a problem, she would be able to hopefully just grab Patricia, get out, and work out a plan from there. Thankfully, Patricia's failure in pre-calculus ("it's really not that hard, Patti, it's actually really fun!") had necessitated Grace's tutoring skills. It turned out that as good as Grace was as math, she was a very frustrating tutor, but their private time had given Grace knowledge of Patricia's apartment.

With that plan in mind, Grace grabbed her phone and chucked it down the supermarket aisle, landing it in a nice pile of cod, before she then traced her finger over a few cans of kimchi, opening a portal smack dab in the middle of the supermarket shelf. The second portal opened in the middle of Patricia's living room with a gentle "pop" and a bright swirling of magenta light. Grace tried to teleport outside doors and knock, but time was of the essence here, and the situation definitely necessitated a little breaking and entering.

Grace hopped out of the portal, the dimensional oval closing behind her, as she looked around for Patricia. "Patricia?" she called out. "We need to go. Soon. And by soon, I mean right now."
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Jumbus
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@canaryrose@Duoya




Starbright was taken aback by the positive reception and taken even further back when the body to the voice came into focus. It is pretty clear that he expected his fans to be on the, well, smaller and less masculine side of things. "I read your file, but I didn't expect you to be such a big fan. Its good to meet you but we have people to save." Starbright could appreciate Bullet's style, it would be easy to sell the heroic look like that. The only thing he needed to work on was that voice quiver and he would be a fitting team mate. "D... Did you come to save the kidnapped heroes with your incredible posing and blasts of light!?" "Well I like to think I do that everyday through song but today I get the priveledge of doing it in person." He turned around and gestured to James, the paparazzi, to take a picture of the two. Tomorrows headline, 'Starbright leads team to save kidnapped heroes' the people would eat it up and could bring more attention to the matter.

And then the others arrived, and it didn't take long for Patricia to start insulting him. Usually Starbright liking toying with her and loved the back and forth, however with all the steps he had taken to save them he did not expect to receive a metaphorical slap in the face. But when she threw the James' camera down the street breaking it he lost his cool. "Optics Patty! Grab a book and learn about it!" He then turned to James, "I'm sorry about this, just know this doesn't represent everyone at HERO. I'll reimburse you for the camera and give you a little bit extra. Now I believe you should probably leave."

Starbright made sure James was out of earshot before continuing as he would bring up matters that should stay out of the papers for now. He realigned himself back to address Aria. "You ever think to yourself 'hey maybe if I spent a little more trying to look good in the public eye. Maybe Wings of Law wouldn't be able to so easily get away with kidnapping us all.' Because news flash thats the reality of it. If it weren't for people like me and Powers this whole thing might have gone completely under the radar. Even then, do you think we are going to be able to just hop over to Club 27 and burn the place down? No, that might work with those gangsters you roughed up. But we are dealing with stars here and they play by different rules. Blowing up Club 27 will dissolve HERO almost instantly. So yeah you could say Wings has basically gotten out of this scot-free. Screw me for trying to stop that." Starbright had to take a deep breath after that, it was clear this had made him quite emotional. But he quickly reverted back to normal Starbright, a skill only years of stardom can teach.

"I'm sorry for all that everyone, I don't know what came over me. Not very leader like hahaha maybe I'm not so cut out to lead this rescue squad huh." While he said that he adjusted his outfit back to normal, gaining back physical composure as well as emotional stability. "Now lets go see the situation at Club 27."

Starbright knew this would be far from the end of all this.




3:05 PM
July 12th
Starbright's Mansion
Kingsdale, Castleburg


Starbright lay on his couch watching TV on one of his few off days. But that wasn't true for this past week, in fact, Starbright had been keeping a close eye on the news. He was scared, it was only a matter of time before Wings came to take their revenge and he had arrived at Club 27 with the rest of the gang on that day. Or could he be wrong, could his knowledge be off and he was just taking a very important week and spending it at home for nothing. A week on low star activity Starbright could handle but if he let this whole thing affect him any further, it would harm his relevancy. Luckily a certain news broadcast ended his current suffering, but brought a whole new one.

Seraph had most certainly made his move, claiming to lead HERO was a natural step. With Powers popularity dropping greatly over this past year, Seraph and the Wings of Law had only grown. It was clearly the most effective action to take and would collect little protest from the public at large. But it was the last part that shocked him. Seraph had accused Patty of mass murder, a feat the teen clearly was not capable of. She may be very mean and prone to abusing her powers, but she was clearly not capable of murder. Starbright almost snapped the remote at the thought that Seraph had killed innocent people just to frame a teenage girl. While the teen pop idol may be eccentric, fame hungry and egotistical, he still had a very strong sense of right and wrong.

The thing that made him turn the remote into little pieces on the ground, was how little he could stop any of this. "Patty, I hope you can make it through this." As it would turn out, the gang's rescue squad would need to be formed again. Starbright began by calling up a few media publications, then back to James the paparazzi. A non-HERO judge of character would be essential in all of this.









3:05 PM
July 12th
South Brookside Boxing Gym
Brookside, Castleburg


Midas had been continuing his march into Watervale territory, the Brookside Bruisers were starting to become a feared name. It was strange because the gang almost had more territory in Watervale than Brookside now, despite the name. From his office, he had the TV on and a peculiar news broadcast was airing. Midas dawned one of the widest grins he has had in a while. Wings of Law was going to lead HERO and that meant good business for him. Midas had been in Wings' pocket in the past and it looked as though he would be getting very little hero resistance for the time being. It was time to expand further.



Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by KaijuBaragon
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KaijuBaragon Victoria Concordia Crescit

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Tom felt a sharp pang of annoyance as Grace looked like she was going to back off just because of the soot, but luckily that was all quickly dashed by her quickly stepping forward again. And it was dashed even further by Grace actually apologising for acting like she acted at Blake's party. Tom had completely forgotten about that, as most people would have considering the circumstances - being kidnapped by a Roman villain is a lot more important than a small argument, after all, but Tom was still happy about the apology and smiled at her, before looking down at his ash-covered body and responding to her question. "Oh, Blake made some giant fire bird and when it died it more or less exploded all over me..." He chuckled good naturedly at her verbal misstep before watching her walking over to the computer to do her smart stuff on the computer.

Tom then heard a familiar sound at the same time everyone else did - it was his ringtone. It took him a while to find the source of the sound, scurrying about the room looking for it (especially hard when everyone else's phones were going insane at the same) and eventually finding it and peeping the message that everyone else had gotten - to meet at Club 27. Tom was feeling pretty damn relieved that this whole thing was finally over, for real this time. His relief was short lived, however, as damn Starbright arrived. Starbright annoyed Tom enough on his own, but his annoyance was multiplied tenfold when Tom spotted Grace staring at the singer. Tom crossed his arms angrily, thanking Patricia in his head as the teenager elected upon herself to stop Grace staring at Starbright. Nevertheless, Tom let Grace use him as a support just to take them both through her portal before she shut it.

When they reached Club 27, it was time for another Powers meeting. Tom was reminded of the meeting after their mafia incident - only this time, there were two new faces. A big muscular guy who looked pretty cheerful and pleased with life, and a grouchy (even more grouchy than Patty, which was saying something) woman who looked about his age. Powers soon revealed them as Chad and Pandora respectively. However, that news was overshadowed by the big one - the Wings of Law had been fired! Tom audibly said "Holy shit!" When he heard that bit of news. It was a bit of news he never thought would have ever come, but at the same time was totally overdue. Seraph and Mister Impressive in the unemployment line was an amusing mental image. Tom looked forward to the things that would happen now - surely they would be only positive.




Tom was definitely not having a positive day.

First off, he had woken up later than he wanted to. He was planning to go out for a nice morning fly, but he slept in, so that was annoying. Second, he had tried to make himself a bagel when he eventually did wake up, but he had burnt it by accident and had to eat a slightly stale croissant he had found in his apartment. As far as Tom was concerned, the morning was already written off, so he may as well sit around and watch TV until the afternoon, when he had an interview booked with some hero magazine at a cafe in Kingsdale. When that time looked like it was rolling around he got up, put on a shirt and jeans, made his hair look perfect before opened his apartment window and heading out - it was still a nice day, so he thought he would fly there.

He landed in Kingsdale a couple of blocks from where the cafe was, planning to walk the rest of the way. On the way there, he happened to pass by a bar that had the door swung wide open. He glanced inside, seeing Seraph on the TV and continuing his... Wait, SERAPH? Tom pulled himself back and looked at the TV, before slipping inside so he could hear what the hell was going on. Luckily the bartender also seemed pretty interested in the broadcast, and turned the volume up. He just caught the words "retirement of Hugo Powers" and tensed up, his eyes wide like a deer in the headlights. The rest of the information washed over him in waves.

A new hero organisation. Mass murder... Eagles... PATTY! Oh god, what if she'd been taken already! Wait, no, Seraph said she was still being brought to justice, so she was still alright. If Tom was panicked already, that was nothing compared to when he saw his own picture suddenly flash up on the screen, along with all his friends. Tom immediately felt the weight of dozens of pairs of eyes weighing down on him. He ducked out of the bar, hearing someone yell something he couldn't hear properly and running back the other way down the street. When he felt he had gone far enough, he quickly floated up onto a nearby building and lay down flat, trying to process everything. Was Powers dead? How had this happened?

Just then, Tom heard his phone ring, grabbing it frantically and answering it to hear his best friend's voice blasting from the other side. "I don't know, I don't know! How the hell did this happen, do you think Powers is dead? We have to go and get Patty... And Jamie, she'll be caught in seconds... And Grace, because... I need... We need to make sure she's safe. Where are you, can you get to Kingsdale?"

@Hitman
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Scarifar
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Scarifar Presto~!

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As the week passed, Rumi had gotten to work renovating his workshop in Polamor Inc. Extra space was dug out and outfitted with plenty of high-tech machinery and gadgets. The testing chamber was also upgraded, with new wall panels made of highly resistant material and more automatons to function as both test dummies and janitors. Currently, Rumi was at a workshop table, fiddling with the inside of a gauntlet, using a precision screwdriver to slide in a panel through some wires. Once finished, he then held the screwdriver up in the air, ordering, "Tweezers." A hole opened up within the nearby wall, and two metal appendages extended from it, one of which was holding a pair of bent needle nose tweezers. The other plucked the screwdriver away from Rumi's hand, while the other placed the tweezers in it, and both retracted back into the wall. With the tweezers, Rumi then began to carefully place wires within the gauntlet into their respective sockets and around screws. It was a slow process, and he could've just used his nanomachines to quicken it, but Rumi enjoyed the feeling of using his own hands for such tasks, immersing himself in the challenge. After all, if everything was made easy, then it would quickly bore Rumi.

Rumi slid a metal panel over the circuitry after he was done, letting out a content sigh. He flipped it once in the air, then set it down onto the table. A beep sounded off near the entrance, the security device alerting Rumi of someone coming down the stairs to his workshop. Soon after, Chris came barging through the door, slightly out of breath while holding a tablet. At this point, all of Rumi's attention was on him. Chris had never rushed to Rumi before, which meant whatever had happened was pretty serious. "Sir," Chris panted, extending the tablet towards Rumi. "You have to see this."

"Alright, let's see what we got," Rumi said, taking the tablet to look at the screen. It was a news article, with the headline titled, "HERO done for? EAGLES swoop in!" As Rumi continued to swipe up to read the article, his brow furrowed as he tried to comprehend just what this drivel was. Powers retiring? The former Wings of Law forming a new hero organization? Something about Patricia Donnelly being a mass murderer... and a majority of the Gang being accused as her accomplices, Rumi himself included. He played the attached video of Seraph, which confirmed much of the information on the article itself.

"This is ridiculous," Rumi concluded, handing the tablet back to Chris. "We'll need to take action."

"So what, exactly, are we doing to get out of this situation?" Chris asked.

As Rumi began to meander around his workshop, picking up various gadgets and discarding the ones of no use, Rumi answered, "First, call our lawyers. Have them search for evidence and get them to dismiss the EAGLES' claims of me being an accomplice to Patricia's supposed crime. With any luck, it will also blow holes in their case entirely and may get them to retract their claims. We might also be able to sue them for slander, loss of profits, among other crimes, but that's a topic for another time. Second, spread the word to not do business with anyone affiliated with EAGLES. Polamor Inc. is still one of the largest suppliers of tech to HERO, and to Castleburg in general, after all. It was impossible to not interact with them when they were still the Wings of Law, being affiliated with HERO, but now that they're a separate entity, it'll be a bit easier. I'll need to make some calls of my own, see if some of my contacts can help ease up a bit of this chaos and hopefully get things to settle down quickly. I'll also be searching for information about Powers, see what happened to him. No way a man like him would just retire, and I don't even want to know what could have taken him down. Finally, gather the Gang. Have them find Patricia Donnelly. I may not have interacted with her much, but I doubt she's truly guilty of what the EAGLES are accusing her of. Even with her Siren ability, I don't think she's capable of the task. She wouldn't have been part of the Gang for so long if she was."

"I'll be right on it, sir," Chris said, making his way back outside, leaving Rumi alone again. He sighed, this time with frustration. He had predicted the Wings of Law to make a comeback, but Rumi hadn't expected them to play such a large hand. They were moving fast, and Rumi had to respond quickly if he and the gang were going to stabilize from all this chaos. Rumi then clapped twice, ordering, "Suit. Formal wear." A wall panel extended forward and flipped around, revealing a black three-piece suit and a pair of black shoes. A group of mechanical arms extended from behind the panel, which quickly helped Rumi change into the suit. After it was done, Rumi stepped out of his workshop, and out of his office. At the lobby, he was greeted with groups of news reporters and Heroes. Here we go... Rumi thought to himself as he stepped forward to face the horde.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Rabidporcupine
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Rabidporcupine Depression Tree.

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Joseph


"Hey idiot, living room! Now!"

Joseph groaned as he stood up. He'd been busy experimenting with the runes he'd need for his latest creation at his workbench, when he'd been interrupted by the grating sound of his landlady summoning him. He had half a mind to just ignore her and get back to work, but it seemed like there was something a little more urgent in her tone than usual... or she just had a sore throat from cursing out some poor idiot who had come to see her after ignoring her previous advice, which wasn't exactly uncommon. Still, in order to avoid becoming one of said poor idiots, he decided to bite the bullet and see what she needed him for.

He was glad he did. When he got to the living room, she was just staring at the TV, and more specifically a particularly misery-inducing face that he'd been pretty sure he'd be seeing again, but he'd really wished he wouldn't have to. As he continued to listen to Seraphs speech, what had started as mere frustration turned in to anger, which quickly turned into full on rage. How many people had he killed, just to justify his stupid little grudge to the rest of the world? And now he was going to try and finish it. And not just with Pattie, but all of them. Even little Eliza, who he didn't think had ever even done anything to them.

And Jamie...

"Hey Hag, I think I'm gonna head out for a bit." He said, his tone as casual and lazy as ever.

"Sure, sure, probably out searching for more strays like that rat." She said, waving a dismissive hand at him as she started to leave the room. "Then again, I suppose this is one of the more welcoming places for strays to live. If you find anymore, I could probably make room for them..."

With the Hag's show of support, Joseph ran back to his shed to stock up. Runic tags, weapons, extra ink, and a new jacket with more powerful protective runes than usual. It had been a while since he'd been able to go into a fight he was prepared for, and by god, he was not going to let the opportunity pass him by. Once he was prepared, he began to head out, only to be stopped by a familiar face... snout... thing snuffling at his feet.

"Sorry Amadan, we can play again later." He said, giving the vermite a quick scratch before heading out.

Barely a couple of minutes later, he was already on the road, driving far faster than he usually preferred. Road safety was important, yes, but friend's safety was somewhat moreso. This was how he justified ringing Brie as he drove.

"Did you see the news?" He asked, not even bothering to tell her who it was. She probably already knew, after all. "We all need to meet up as soon as possible. Is Jamie with you? Are you guys alright?"

@Danvers
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Hitman
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Blake listened as he heard Tom through the other end of the phone, nodding along absent-mindedly as he spoke, silently relieved. Tom was alright, which was good. They hadn't managed to get him yet. "I...I don't think so. No way," Blake responded as Tom asked about Powers. "Powers is crazy strong. Like, we're talking Jamie-level here. Dude is crazy strong. No way Seraph and co could take him out," Blake said with an assured tone of voice, though he wished that he was as confident as he sounded. Powers was strong, but he wasn't immortal, and the fact that this entire shitshow was going down meant that he was out of commission, one way or another. Blake prayed that it wasn't the type of "retirement" that involved black suits, a casket, and a lot of crying. He leaned against the alley wall as he listened to Tom talk. "They'll be fine, man, they all have powers that make them very slippery. Well, not Jamie, but Jamie can handle herself...we need to get to the bottom of this." Blake took a few deep breaths, much more panicked than he would care to admit. Being wanted and having one of your close friends accused of murder tended to raise the stress levels a bit.

"Listen, let's just meet up, then we can figure something out...should we meet at the club? Club 27? There might be some clues there or some shit...if we're lucky, Seraph will be there, too, and we can end this shit quickly. Is that cool?" Blake said, before frowning. He couldn't hardly hear Tom's voice anymore, his best friend's speech instead overpowered suddenly by a loud static noise. "Dude, you're breaking up, I'm not sure what's going on, did you fly through a tunnel or something...I'll meet you at the Club, if you can still hear me...don't do anything stupid, OK?" Blake said before hanging up, sliding his phone back into his jeans pocket. He wasn't exactly dressed to impress at the moment, wearing a light orange t-shirt and a pair of jeans that probably needed to be washed again, but that did help him be a little more incognito. Then again, considering his face had been plastered on every TV screen in the entire city, and considering that he had rather distinctive hair (not to mention absolutely irresistible good looks) and a decent bit of fame, his attire wouldn't do him enough favors to get him off the hook. He needed to be careful.

"Being careful" didn't last very long, though. Less than a minute after Blake started to get a move on again, he nearly ran into a figure that he almost didn't recognize. Rubber Man. Rubber Man was a very distinctive member of the Wings of Law, considering his pink, oddly geometric, bald, rubbery face, which was droopy and melted on one side because of Firebird's very timely intervention to help his friends. However, Rubber Man looked rather different from usual. Normally, he wore a golden pinstripe suit that made him like awfully like a pencil, and sometimes a matching hat to boot. However, today, he was wearing a heavy, padded black suit that seemed to be covered in all sorts of knobs and other doodads that would probably fascinate Rumi but meant next to nothing to Blake. More intriguingly, though, Rubber Man's right arm was covered in a thick gauntlet that Blake would note looked awfully like the "Infinity Gauntlet" from an old superhero movie he had seen, though this gauntlet was metallic gray instead of gold and had pulsing red orbs instead of gemstones. The idea was similar, though. Rubber Man's fists were both clenched menacingly as Blake nearly crashed into him, before hopping back like he had just seen a particularly large bug (in this case, that analogy is even more apt).

"Blake von Brandt, you are wanted in connection to the Club 27 murders. If you come quietly, we can avoid the violence."

"Come quietly, my ass. Don't you have a brain in that thick slab of crap you call a head? Wake up!" Blake said, his teeth clenched, anger rushing over him. His friends were in danger, and he had to deal with this crap first. "Fuck off before I make you fuck off."

Rubber Man lifted his gauntlet. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time."

"Waiting for what, me to even out the other half of your face?" Blake taunted, and his taunting clearly struck a nerve with Rubber Man, who pointed the gauntlet directly at him, palm aimed at his torso. Blake responded by flaring up his powers, a wave of heat surging through the alleyway as flames wrapped around his body. "Nice toy. What're you gonna do with it, turn yourself into a tire or something?"

"No, no, something much better," Rubber Man said, tapping the gauntlet. The orbs went from red to cyan, before a sudden blast of similarly-colored energy launched across the alleyway. Blake tried to manipulate the fire to block it, but it phased right through and hit Blake in the chest. The energy hardly hurt, only having enough force to knock Blake down to one knee, but it was the after-effect that annoyed him- Blake's powers were betraying him. He could hardly light a cigarette without the amount of energy he had left, let alone melt this rubbery bastard. He growled. "Isolene?"

"Good guess. The blast actually is lowering your body's ability to produce heat to a certain limit." Rubber Man sneered as he lifted his gauntlet, which Blake noted was smoking- it seemed that it had to be recharged between blasts. "I thought the big corporations were the top of the game, but there's actually so much bigger. Our new sponsors have given us a lot of new technology. This here glove is called an Ability Impersonation Gauntlet. Basically, using splices of superhuman DNA, it allows me to create a synthetic attack using somebody else's power. Of course, the amount of energy required means that I only get a few uses out of it before it needs to be recharged for a long time, but it's still- hey, what are you- ARGH!"

Blake, who had gotten bored of this science talk, had shoulder-rammed Rubber Man roughly and sent him directly into the ground, having caught him off guard. Blake then made sure to stomp him directly on the nose (he heard a very satisfying crunch sound to indicate success) before bolting down the alleyway. He felt his teeth chattering as he ran, which was very peculiar considering that it was a very warm day. All Blake knew was that the bastard had hit him with some sort of freeze blast, and that was messing with his powers. Blake had gotten fairly far, but not far enough, and suddenly he felt his momentum stop as a painfully cold sensation enveloped his foot. Blake groaned as he looked back, pulling on his right leg, but found it frozen to the ground.

"Well, fuck me," Blake grumbled before he felt something very cold and hard hit him roughly across the side of the head, and he was out like a light.





Meanwhile, in Kingsdale, Tom would discover that his phone started to break up with static as soon as Blake said the word "tunnel," his voice replaced by overbearing static. Moments later, a figure began to approach the building that Tom was on, midair. The figure was soaring through the air, a pair of golden wings spread from her back. The figure landed, before standing and walking over to Tom. She was undeniably gorgeous, with flawless tanned skin, locks of gorgeous platinum blonde hair, and a body of a supermodel, wearing white halter top and matching white pants, with sleek black boots and a shimmering golden necklace finishing off her appearance. From her back, her two golden wings were glimmering in the sunlight. Priestess.

"Tommy~!" she cooed, walking over with a saunter to Tom, her emerald green eyes locking with his. She had a smile that could drive a man (and some girls too) absolutely mad, two sets of stark white teeth to match. "It's been ages since we've last...well, you know," she said, batting her eyelashes at him. Priestess was practically the female version of Starbright- she was a model, first and foremost, but also had a singing and acting career, all of which she juggled on top of hero work. "You've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble, you know, helping people like Aria...well, you see how that turned out. But I don't want to see you get hurt..." She was shimmering with golden light as she made her way over to Tom.

"You don't have to do all this, you know. Seraph still has hope that you'll join the Wings...or EAGLES now. Such a lovely acronym..." She walked around Tom slowly, wings outstretched. "You can be rich, have anything you want, anybody you want...we had such a grand night together, Tommy! Seraph is nice, but he can be so crass and, to be frank, he's too old for me..." She sighed. "You and me, we would be a real power couple...we would be perfect together!"

Priestess' speech was interrupted by a chirping noise, and she held one finger up to Tom as she took out her phone, looking down at it. "Looks like your little friend just got taken to the cleaners...the one with the red hair? Phoenix, or something?" Priestess shrugged. "Listen, Tommy, this is your chance to get out of this mess...just say the word, and I'll call it off." She held out a delicate hand, each of her fingers flawless manicured with glimmering golden nails. "What do you say?"



Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Duoya
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Duoya

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They say that meeting when meeting your stars, they're nothing like you expect. Clearly, whoever said that hadn't met Starbright! Chad had interacted with many heroes in the past at various conventions and meetings, but he had never spoken to Starbright directly - only seen him perform on stage. Not only was he a nice guy in person, but Starbright was even professional as well - thinking about the mission first and foremost!

While Chad was very engrossed in his Starbright-induced daze, he was brought back to reality when he heard a voice he hadn't earlier. Standing behind Bypass were two other girls - he couldn't remember either of their profiles since he only skimmed them and they weren't in costume, but he felt bad that he hadn't addressed them earlier. He was about to greet the people he hadn't met and ask for their names when the taller of the girls glared at him angrily.

“I’m Patricia, by the way, or Aria. Whatever the hell you want, I don't care. And he didn’t save us. We saved ourselves, because we’re real heroes, unlike this third-rate poser over here.”

Well... She was a bit rude towards someone like Starbright, wasn't she? After all, he did come to save them from trouble, even if he might have been a little late. Chad chose to refrain from commenting, however - he didn't know anyone present, and all of the girls that were there had just escaped from being kidnapped by a FREAKING SUPERVILLAIN. Anyone would have been a bit aggressive in that kind of situation, so Chad decided to refrain from getting a negative impression of the girl.

Starbright didn't seem to think the same way, however. After Aria threw the camera that the Paparazzi with Starbright had, he started grilling her pretty roughly. Chad kind of felt bad for the girl at this point - it was never fun to see someone get yelled at, especially after they just broke something expensive. Chad broke a vase his mother owned one time, and he was in tears by the time she was done talking to him.

Turning his attention back to the situation at hand, Chad chose to remain silent. It was kind of awkward, even after Starbright apologized for his outburst - besides, it wasn't like Chad knew anyone there. Yeah, talking would probably be the wrong thing right now. Instead, he followed the others through the portal that Grace just created, and by the time he emerged at Club 27, he was dry heaving in his helmet. Chad was very glad that he was still on a cut and hadn't eaten today, because cleaning vomit from the inside of his suit would have taken a long time. He was also glad that he had super speed - if he was lucky, he could minimize the amount of time he'd have to use portals like that for transportation.

"Also joining us is a much younger hero, Chad...he's a character, for sure, and I'm sure there's plenty of work to be done in regards to his abilities, but I'm confident he'll be a very capable hero soon."

Chad quickly fixed his posture and ceased his dry heaving, holding his hand in a thumbs-up position while smiling beneath his helmet. First impressions were everything if Drama club had taught him anything, and Chad felt that he already made a few people view him a little less respectfully than he wanted them to. In the end, it didn't really matter too much though - he'd have plenty of time to fix any relationships he might mess up now that he was A FREAKING SUPERHERO!!!

After Powers' left, Chad turned to the other heroes present and tried to introduce himself properly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all - I'm, uh, Chad. Or you could call me THE BULLET, if Secret Identities are what you guys are into... haha..."

Jeez, it was... a lot more difficult to keep the whole Heroic Attitude going when there were so many actual Heroes in the room. Not to mention how awkward everything seemed to be. Chad had to keep reminding himself that these people were held captive by a supervillain, and he would probably need to wait a while before he could really get to know them. Whatever the case though, he was just glad he was finally a part of the team! Today was one of the best days in Chad's life!



Today was one of the worst days in Chad's life.

So as it turned out, becoming a Hero was a lot more work than Chad initially thought. He had to fill out several forms, sign waivers that prevented him from suing HERO in the event that he sustained permanent injuries, set up an automated payment account, and dozens of other things that mentally exhausted Chad to understand. And when he finally thought it was over, he had to actually go through the application process by doing an examination - and while the Physical section was fun, everything else just made Chad feel bad about himself.

Of course, the nice lady that helped Chad get through the paperwork did tell him that the process was significantly more complicated and lengthy for him than most others because of how... unique his application was. As a result, it took 6 days just to get through all of the paperwork and take the proper examinations. After he finished everything, he was told to wait while they processed his application.

And after spending nearly all day sitting next to his phone, the only call he received was how he was overpaying for car insurance, despite the fact that Chad did not own a car. It was so stressful that Chad had even used one of his vacation days just to make sure he wouldn't miss it. After all, it wasn't like he'd need the Pizza job for much longer after he started getting a Superhero's paycheck!

That's what the problem was, though... Percy was the one that called Chad to watch the announcement that appeared on the TV in his office a few minutes ago.

The reason today was so awful was that, apparently, Chad would not be employed at HERO. The only reason that he even managed to apply in the first place was that Powers took pity on him and didn't arrest Chad immediately. And while Chad used to be a fan of Seraph in the past, he had managed to talk to several people that worked in HERO over the last week - and none of them had anything good to say about him or the rest of the Wings of Law.

Now that Seraph was taking over, it was unlikely that Chad would ever manage to get hired, especially considering he had run straight to HERO One in search of a job.

...Wait a second. More importantly, the photos they showed of all those dead people looked super real! That was bad... Chad didn't really believe that Aria would kill a bunch of people, even if she was the child of a supervillain. Not because he knew her in any real way - after all, he had only been at HERO for a week, and most of that was spent by himself or with staff rather than actual heroes. No, Chad knew Aria was innocent because a Hero wouldn't kill a person - let alone a whole room of people.

Chad thought over his options carefully - he hardly knew any of the people at HERO and Seraph said they would be brought in for questioning, so contacting them somehow would be difficult at best and impossible at worst. Club 27 was probably covered in police officers, and the only thing Chad would accomplish by investigating the crime scene would be to get in the way of anyone trying to find the real culprit. Going to HERO One to question people was just plain stupid, he had already done that a week ago and he got slapped so hard he was knocked to the ground.

Nope - the solution, as always when it came to Chad, was to not think. Grabbing the IDD he had hid under his bed, Chad quickly grabbed the gym bag containing his Costume. After a short walk to the gym, Chad changed clothes and was blaring down the streets of Watervale. When it came to speed, Chad was probably one of the fastest people in Castleburg. It might take a few hours, but Chad felt confident that he could comb most of the city and run into someone that would be useful. Maybe a Hero that could help him contact the others, one of the Wings of Law that he could question in some way - or, as Chad was hoping, he might manage to find Powers and ask why he would leave HERO to a guy like Seraph.

Of course, Chad hadn't thought ahead enough to think that Powers was probably kept in a secure location that wouldn't be detected by an IDD. Or realize that an IDD could easily be tracked by EAGLES.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by KaijuBaragon
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KaijuBaragon Victoria Concordia Crescit

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As the phone started to crack up and the call to Blake fizzled out, Tom angrily shook his phone in his hand - not that he thought it would actually help, but he was just expressing how annoyed he was. Maybe somebody had got to Blake... Wire Man could probably do something like that. Or maybe his phone was being interfered with. Did the Wings of Law have a technology guy like Rumi who could build tech to do something like that? Tom didn't know. At least Blake gave him a location to meet at before the phone cut out. Club 27 - if he was right and Seraph was there then they could totally end this shit before it had any chance to begin. Tom sat up and was going to go and fly to Club 27 when he saw something moving quickly towards him from above. He saw the wings first - and his first thought was that it was Seraph coming to find him - that meant a fight was coming. And then the figure got closer.

"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Tom muttered.

It was Priestess. Tom hadn't talked to her in a good two years, let alone had any long term interaction with her. What the hell was she doing here now? Did the Wings of Law send her to fight him? Wait, where the hell did she know where he was? These questions bounced around in Tom's mind as the gorgeous hero gently touched down in front of him. He was expecting a fight, but as Priestess began to speak in her alluring voice, Tom came to the quick realisation that she wasn't here for conflict. He began to counter "Patty isn't a-" but decided the best course of action probably was just to stand and listen to her.

Okay, she was going on about their night together... Admittedly it was a pretty great night... When she stopped, Tom would just gently make her fly off and then make a run for it. At least, that was his plan until Priestess delivered some very upsetting news. "Blake?!" Tom said, his mouth immediately running dry... Who else had been caught? What if Jamie, Brie, Joseph, Grace (the thought made Tom feel extremely upset) had been caught. It seemed like she was offering to let Blake go if Tom went with her. And then Tom had another realisation... If he pretended to join EAGLES, he could act as a mole for the Gang on the inside! It was like the mafia mission all over again.

Tom looked up and smiled. "Well, I can't say no to you, Emily... But Blake is being released because of this, right?" He tried to say the last part as casually as possible. He was feeling a deep weight in the pit of his stomach. His friends would think he had betrayed them... He would have to find a way to relay a message to them that this was all an act, if they found out. Secretly of course. He took Priestess's hand.

@Hitman
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