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[color=Lightgreen][b]Location:[/b][/color] Star City Bank, 5th floor - 6th floor  
[color=Lightgreen][b]Interactions:[/b][/color] Quiver, Stormcaller, Mirage, Metamorph, Cybergirl[hr]
Daphne waited for Kila’s reply to Cora. She wasn’t supportive of the idea of using the stolen weapons against the robbers. It felt too dangerous. Despite her apprehension she didn’t speak up. Her attention was on the hostages. 

A woman walked up to Daphne with an exasperated look on her face. 
[color=Violet]“I guess you guys aren’t with them?”[/color]

There was a little boy clutched onto her leg. He was hysterically crying, big tears running down his brown cheeks. It drew Daphne’s eyes to him. 

She shook her head and answered the woman. 
[color=Lightgreen]“We’re the good guys.”[/color]

Daphne lowered herself to the little boy’s level, their brown eyes meeting. 
[color=Lightgreen]“It’s okay you’re safe now.”[/color] Her voice was gentle.

He looked at Daphne, trying to judge if she was safe or not. She smiled encouragingly. 

Daphne opened her palm and produced a small flower, the petals folding into each other. The little boy watched in awe, forgetting about his tears for a minute. Daphne nodded for him to take it. He plucked it from her palm, holding it gently between his small hands. He brought it up to his face to take a closer look. It opened and dispersed into the air around him. 

The boy tried to catch the petals floating around him and while he was doing that he steadily grew more calm. 

They needed to take these people to a safe place. Alisa had eyes on the building, she would know where to go. 

[color=Lightgreen]“Nymph to Cybergirl and Mirage. We subdued the robbers on the sixth floor. The hostages are safe. The rest of the team is still sweeping the floors to free the remaining hostages. Are you two able to take them somewhere safe until this is all over?”[/color]

Mirage had been keeping an eye on the situation with Cybergirl. She'd been deliberately holding back during the mission. Not only was it the new teammates first major crisis, it was Metamorph's opportunity to lead the team as a whole. Things were going well. She tried to ignore the pessimistic instinct saying it was going [i]too[/i] well. [color=Orange]"Mirage here. We've got a few secure areas. How many people are we talking about?"[/color]

Alisa deftly skipped through the footage feeds, as she had been doing for the better part of the last hour. [color=Cornflowerblue]“Where do you want us to put them?”[/color] she asked. 

The areas that Mirage and Cybergirl had cleared out were all free of windows and fairly centralized. The sizes were all different, though. They couldn't do much about the furniture either.

Daphne thought about the safest place to bring the hostages. The lobby. It was secured by squad A. It was also closer to the exit of the bank, which would make it easier for the hostages to escape unseen, hopefully. She wasn’t fully confident they could rely on stealth anymore. By now the robbers must know something was going on. 

[color=Lightgreen]“I think the best place for them to go is the lobby.”[/color] Zach would still be there and he was more than capable of defending them. 

Mirage frowned, very delicately. There were a lot of hostages, and though Zatara's magic had improved quite a bit, his attitude, well… 

Then again, he was charismatic and lit up for crowds. [color=Orange]"I agree. As long as we keep everyone clear of the windows, Zatara is the best choice."[/color] She started in that direction, but didn't make it out of the room before Iceburn pinged all three teams with news that made her immediately nauseous.

[color=Orange]"What do you mean, Metamorph's missing?"[/color]

[hr]
Daphne’s squad made their way to the fifth floor as per Viktor’s orders. They moved quietly. It wasn’t just the robbers they had to watch out for anymore. She repeated the information they received on comms to Quiver in hushed tones. 

The sixth floor was eerily quiet. It set Daphne on edge. There was a man on the floor close to the entrance of the main office area. His face was turned away from them and he wasn’t moving, it was hard to tell he was even breathing. Daphne checked for a pulse. It was weak, but she could feel it. A chill ran down her spine. 

Daphne glanced over her shoulder at Quiver and Cora. The animalistic lack of restraint frightened the young heroine. They stepped over the downed robber into the main office. Her eyes widened at the destruction inside. The cubicles were trashed, cracked computer screens and paper everywhere. In some places there were heavy indents, as if something large and heavy landed there. 

[color=firebrick]“H…Help..”[/color]

A weak voice cut through the silence. It came from one of the robbers who crawled from underneath the destroyed cubicles. 

[color=Firebrick]“Girl y…you”[/color] He coughed and clutched at his chest. There were claw marks across his neck and shoulder. 

[color=Firebrick]“You have to…to call this thing off-“[/color] With that, his breath was overtaken, as a body crashed into the weakened thief. 

Impossibly quiet, yet undeniably present, a Beast had leapt from behind one of the only cubicle walls left standing. It wore the garb of the teammate they had seen moments earlier. Yet, the Metamorph uniform was colored with red opposed to the black that Kila had started their mission with. Iwisa’s gauntlets were painted with the scarlet life-liquid of the other thieves from below. His hair had become more of a mangled mesh of a mane that obscured his facial features almost completely. All that could be noted was the faint glow of crimson at his eyes.

Only now could they hear the breathing, with what could only be described as the guttural growls of a crocodile at each exhale. The Red Beast had its prey pinned under foot. It hunched to stare down at the man, who reeked a primal fear that only a predator could pull from deep within a human. 

The only thing that seemed to make him hesitate, became more prevalent as he sniffed the air. With a snapping motion, the Beast’s head jerked upward to the trio of young heroes. His shoulders rose and fell as it regarded each of them.

Daphne subconsciously took a few steps back until she was standing closer to Quiver. She grabbed his arm when Kila snapped his head into their direction. The Nymph’s eyes met with the Beast. He’d become unrecognizable, embodying the savage part of the natural world. 

Inherently aware of the danger they were in, Daphne still attempted to reach out to her friend. [color=Lightgreen]“Kila…..”[/color]

She had to stop him, before he would do something he’d regret. Pushing through her fear she approached. From the sidelines it would be hard to watch, as it was comparable to seeing a faun walk up to a tiger. 

[color=Lightgreen]“You don’t want to do this Kila….you have to let him go.”[/color]

There was a moment of silence, not a word to be said by anyone as the Beast continued to stare them down. Like a starting blank had been fired, he raced towards the Nymph like a raging gorilla. And yet as soon as he was in arm’s reach, he stopped. His breaths still came out heavy as he stood up bipedally. He studied her face between the fur cage that hid his expression. 

The strength in her eyes seemed to be something he recognized, despite the fear in her initial posture. She was there for him during a time of loss and pain while far into the deep blue. She was different now, yet all the same. She pacified the beast before, thus as the Red’s fire left his eyes and his headbush slowly loosened, it seemed she had again.

As if determined to disturb the fragile peace between them, the elevator dinged. The roaming guards exited with weapons drawn. 

[color=Darkolivegreen]“You four! step away from him now!”[/color]