Dedonus

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@Rtron: Could you copy your character sheet into the character tab for the convenience of others? Thank you.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

An Elsewhere Story

Earth-8417

Albany, New York

Courtney had been held up late at work because she had to close up the store for the night. Her mother always complained to her that it was not safe for her to walk home from work at that hour of night, but Courtney was unyielding that there was no danger. She only had a couple minute walk home from the fashion store where she was employed. Even after rumors of a birdman roaming the rooftops started to spread like wildfire, Courtney was unfazed.

Courtney knew of a shortcut through an alleyway near her work that allowed her to get home in no time. This, of course, was no comfort to her mother, who had constant nightmares that someone would jump her daughter one day. Since she had walked this path for years, Courtney took no heed of her mother’s warning. And that night seemed no different from the countless others Courtney had experienced.

However, when she was half way home, Courtney swore she heard something rustle on the rooftop above. She scanned the skies, but she could not find what had caused the noise due to the twilight of the night. Although she tried to calm herself down by convincing herself that it was only her fear playing with her senses, Courtney hastened her pace. She always made sure to pack a spare pair of running shoes so that she would not be walking home in heels or any footwear that would hinder running.

Suddenly, someone leapt from the above rooftop and pounced onto Courtney’s back, driving her to the pavement. She could feel the warmth of the man’s heavy breath on her neck. Even though it was clear that her assailant was a man, he acted more like a wild animal. He hovered over Courtney, eyeing her down like a beast would its prey.

“Carrion. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Carrion turned to see where that voice came from. Up on the rooftop, there stood man dressed in a black, cat-themed costume. He then leaped off the roof. While still in the air, he shot his grappling gun at the neighboring roof and swung down to the ground. In the process of swinging down, he planted his feet into Carrion’s side and kicked him into the alleyway wall. He landed in front of where Courtney had been forced onto the ground.

A second figure slithered down the size of the same building from which the first costumed crusader had leapt. Her snaky body weaved back and forth along mortar gaps between the bricks of the walls as she descended to the alleyway floor. She crawled up to Courtney and helped her sit up.

“I’ll take her to safety, Lyger.” The woman told Lyger. A snake tail that was a couple meters long was attached to where the woman’s legs ought to have been. The rest of her body was entirely human, besides her pale green skin. She also wore a dark green superheroine costume.

Meanwhile, Carrion pulled himself off the ground and lurched forward. He leapt into the air towards the two superheroes and Courtney. However, Lyger caught him in midair and tossed the grimy man into the other alleyway wall with a crash. The impact with the wall dazed the beast of a man. Lyger then positioned himself between Carrion and the two girls, preparing for anything that Carrion might try next.

“That’s what you get for messing up our date night!” The snake-woman chided Carrion.

“Anaconda…” Lyger mumbled, signaling that this was not the time for quips of that nature.

Suddenly, the two superheroes heard police sirens blaring in the nighttime twilight. Since the authorities were approaching, they knew that they had to leave soon. Therefore, Lyger took into his hand a small pellet-shaped object and hurled it at Carrion. When it hit the birdman, the pellet exploded, covering him with some sort of adhesive substance. No matter how much Carrion struggled, he could not escape from the restraints that Lyger put on him. Meanwhile, Anaconda was comforting Courtney.

“Now, don’t worry,” Anaconda told the terrified woman, rightfully so. “The police will be here soon. We will be up above to make sure nothing happens to you until then.”

Lyger then walked over to where the two girls were. He used the same grappling gun to provide an escape route to the rooftops. Anaconda gave one last pat on Courtney’s shoulder before heading over to Lyger, wrapping part of her serpentine body around Lyger, while she placed her arms over his shoulders. Before the police arrived on the scene, the two superheroes rose up to the rooftops via Lyger’s grappling hook.

“The Albany police seem mellow compared to those in Crown Ridge. They would probably be more trigger happy against us than Carrion down there,” Lyger admitted to Anaconda while they watched the Albany police arrest Carrion and help Courtney out.

“Maybe you should move here if the police up there are too anti-vigilante,” Anaconda proposed to Lyger. “Especially since we’re getting married within the year.”

“I can’t just abandon Crown Ridge. Who else is there to defend its citizens?”

“Or I could chase after you. I’m sure my credits would transfer over to Lost Haven University.”

Lyger would have tried to talk Anaconda out of this, since he knew that Crown Ridge was a dangerous place, even for a superhuman like his fiancée. However, he also knew that she was as hard headed as a mule and, once she had set her mind, nothing could change it.

“Let’s put this decision on the backburner. Why don’t we head back to my apartment and celebrate our engagement with a little game of Twister?” Anaconda teased Lyger while having a smile on her face.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Kyra Muller

Kyra watched as the robbers aimed their guns in her direction. Little red dots appeared on her costume, revealing where the laser sights were targeting. Then, one of the robbers began to give a little minacious monologue about water and Saturday morning heroics. She concluded that this man was probably the leader of this motley crew, since he was the one doing all the talking.

“Killing those innocent people or me will do nothing but exasperate the situation,” Kyra declared while she still planted her foot on Hermit’s hand. Although she felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach because of all the firearms locked onto her, she knew that the robber’s demands were slightly ridiculous. It would be like street criminals making demands of the Avengers or the Justice League. “If you turn this into a bloodbath, all y’all would have accomplished would be a one-way ticket for a needle.”

“Even if I let you guys go, you’re not getting out of this building without cuffs on your wrists. My teammates know I’m here. The authorities probably are already on their way here. I wouldn’t be surprised that y’all be receiving a call sooner than later.”

“Also, you need to crack open a chemistry book sometime. While water can smoother certain fires, others are not as obliging. When you heat up water enough, it changes into a gaseous state.”

Suddenly, in an area of a few feet around Kyra, the water that was poured down by the fire sprinklers boiled into steam, creating a think mist around the kitsune heroine. Since the mist obscured the robbers’ view of the girl, they blasted their bullets in her direction. Once the mist faded away, they discovered that the fox girl was no longer standing there. Only Tower and Hermit were there. Unbeknownst to the robbers, Kyra used the momentary cover provided by the mist to create a portal to teleport herself to the far-right side of the store.

---

Gajana panted as he tried to catch his breath. Since Talus had left him behind to find Firefox, he had to run the entire way to the Bed, Bath, and Beyond store where Firefox ported to. The Tri-PD had already created a perimeter around the store, while the SWAT was preparing to storm the building, if it turned out to be necessary. Talus, too, was already present. He was conversing with the commanding office of the operation.

“Thanks for the ride,” Gajana sarcastically told his teammate.

“A little exercise here and there is good for you, G-man!” Talus retorted. “You can’t stay angry at me, especially after I bought this giant bag of peanuts.”

“Really? Isn’t that a little cliché, even for you?”

“You know you want them,” Talus teased his teammate with the bag of peanuts. Gajana begrudgingly snatched them out of Talus’ hand, tore open the package, and started to munch on the snack.

“So, what’s the situation?” Gajana asked while he took another mouthful of peanuts.

“Before this guy showed up, no much,” one of the nearby officers stated. “Tinman here somehow hacked into the store’s security cameras to get some intel.”

“Although I’m sure you guys have this handled, we’ll be here, just in case.” Talus offered the policeman.

“Hopefully it does not come down to that.” The officer replied. He then dialed the store’s phone so that he could contact the store intruders to see if they could resolve this situation peacefully.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Aubrey Adkins | Amanda Allen-James

Written with @nitemare shape

While the nightlife and the bar scene never dies down in downtown Pacific Point, the rest of the city falls into a slumber during the twilight hours. The streets were almost completely devoid of local traffic. The citizens of Pacific Point knew well not to be wandering about the city after midnight, since the crazies and the criminals came out like nocturnal animals once the moon peaks in the sky.

Arachne used the cover of the night to hide her movement across the rooftops as she journeyed home. Since the business hours for the majority of the businesses in the area had long ago elapsed, only the street lamps lit up the roads. Therefore, the buildings themselves were still shrouded in darkness. Even if someone were to notice a drider hopping from rooftop to rooftop, the bystander would believe his eyes were playing tricks on himself because of the nighttime darkness.

Once she landed on the next rooftop, Arachne stopped in her tracks to pull her cell phone out, which she had fastened to her arm with several strands of spider silk. She pulled the glove off of her hand so that she could use her smartphone.

I really hope I’m heading in the right direction. Arachne thought to herself as she brought up Apple Maps on her iPhone. After examining the map, she confirmed that she was traveling towards her apartment. She then reattached her phone to her arm with a fresh batch of webs and prepared herself to make another jump to the next roof.

However, before she could begin her running start for her next jump, Arachne noticed a dim flash blink past her. She could also sense a slight change in air pressure because of whatever had just sped past her. Arachne peered back at her phone and checked the time. She still had at least two hours before the charity event would end, let alone her double arriving back at her apartment.

I know I’m going to regret this, but I might as well check this out. I’ve got some time to kill. Arachne thought as she turned herself around to follow whatever she had just saw.

---

For Slipstream, the images that Izzy had shown her raced through her mind. So much death and destruction brought about by the so called Hounds of Humanity, and for what? As she zipped through the city, she found it difficult to think of anything else. The burnt and mutilated bodies that seemed to litter the scenes of the attacks. The individuals who had been brutally murdered, stripped of their dignity and strung up as a warning in cities all across the country, and her own encounter with the group, or at the very least, people who were working either with or for the Hounds, who were holding a truckload of kidnapping victims right here in Pacific Point. That first encounter hadn’t gone well for her, if it hadn’t been for the Iron Knight showing up, she may not have walked away from that in one piece, or at all for that matter.

Although she and Iron Knight were able to take down the guys behind the kidnappings, they didn’t figure out where they were taking those people, or why. Though, if they really were working for the Hounds, she had a pretty good idea of the fates that awaited the victims...and it was enough to send shivers down her spine. It was perhaps this uneasy feeling that she had about the entire situation that drew her back to the location of the first encounter.

She came to a sudden stop right where the van that was used to transport the victims had been parked. She didn’t know why she was drawn back to this place, or what she hoped to find now that she was here, but there was just something that seemed off about the entire situation. She had barely begun looking around the area when the streets began to rumble as the sound of several large, black paramilitary trucks rolled onto the scene. Slipstream braced herself for an attack, however, there was none. Instead a lone man climbed out of the passenger side of the first truck and slowly approached her with his arms outstretched.

“Well, well. It seems that we are at a bit of an impasse.” the man said as he stepped toward her. He was a tall man, athletically built and a bit wiry, with a receding hairline and a neat mustache that met the five o’clock shadow just below his lips. It was clear that he was a confident man, that confidence flirting with cockiness, and he had a certain air about him when he spoke, like that of a sleazy used car salesman. Yet, every time that he spoke, Slipstream could feel the malice behind his words. “You’ve been a naughty girl, and I think it’s time that you paid for your transgressions.”

As he finished his last statement, the doors to the trucks opened and men in black body armor filed out of the vehicles, blocking her escape route.

“Alright boys, take her down.” The man said as he pointed towards Slipstream.

However, before the men in black body armor could lunge forward, a webline darted out of the twilight of the night, attaching onto the back of one of Slipstream’s soon-to-be assailants. This man was then yanked back by whatever was holding onto the other end of the spider silk. The man struggled in vain to hold onto the ground, but whatever was pulling on the strand of silk was stronger than the man.

“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t head straight home,” a feminine voice announced from where the webline originated. Slipstream and the men who surrounded her could only see a silhouette of a giant spider that had the body of a woman from the waist up attached where the spider’s head would normally be. With one hand, she picked up the man she had dragged away from the rest of the group and pressed him up against a nearby street light which needed its bulb changed. With the other, she wrapped the spider silk, which she used to capture the man, around him so that he was tied to the pole.

Once she had neutralized that black-armored man, her arachnid agility allowed the drideresque heroine to cover the ground between herself and the men who surrounded Slipstream in no time. She then jumped onto the roof of one of the nearby paramilitary trucks. When she had landed on the roof, she then raised her front two pairs of spider legs into the air, in a similar manner as a tarantula would if it were trying to warn an animal of its lethality while making itself look more intimidating.

“How about you make this easy for all of us by telling your men to file their butts back into your shady, probably illegal trucks so we can all catch some z’s. How about it?”

However, instead of surrendering, the cocky leader of the men who surrounded Slipstream burst into laughter. Despite now facing two superhumans, the man was not at all sweating. He was just as calm and collected as he had been when he first stepped out of the first paramilitary truck to confront Slipstream.

“You think we’re shaking in our boots?” The man finally boasted while he pulled out his side firearm and cocked it. “On the contrary, you should be the ones running for the hills. We are the scourge of you metahuman scum. We will not rest until this world is purified of your filth.”

“Why don’t we start with you?” The man then pointed his pistol at the drideresque heroine who was standing on the roof of one of his paramilitary trucks. “No matter whatever curves you have to deceive unsuspecting men, they can’t make up for the abomination and monstrosity that is the rest of your body. We can’t let that enter the human gene pool.”

Without saying another world, the man pulled the trigger, unloading the lead in his pistol at the drideresque heroine. However, the spider woman performed a backflip off the truck, narrowly dodging the bullet that would have otherwise been right on the mark. She landed on the side of the truck opposite of where all the men, including their leader, were standing, using the vehicle as cover against them.

The group of Hounds turned their attention to the new arrival and immediately opened fire. However, the spider woman effortlessly dodged the gunfire, which frustrated the attackers. Not to be outdone, Slipstream rushed at the Hounds of Humanity thugs. As she zipped toward the men, the entire world seemed to slow down around her. From her perspective, everything but her was moving in slow motion.

She raced up to the first Hound and hit him, then hit him again. And again, and again. She had punched him up and down his upper body, from his face to his solar plexus several dozen times in the time that it took to blink, the final blow knocked the man off of his feet, leaving him sprawled out in a heap on the ground. However, the leader of this particular group of Hounds, the man who had initially approached her, was ready. Before Slipstream had even made a move on the Hounds, he had tossed a small silver cylindrical object in her direction. By the time she had finished with the first Hound in her path, the object delivered its payload, flash freezing the surface of the road and alley in which they were engaged. Slipstream was unable to get traction on the street’s new icy sheen, and instead of making her way to the next Hound, she found herself sliding out of control, where she slammed hard into the side of one of the Hound’s paramilitary trucks, nearly knocking it over onto its side.

Slipstream was in a bad spot now. The frozen street made it impossible for her to use her powers without becoming a human-sized pinball. Furthermore, the Hounds had their firearms locked onto the speedster. All seemed hopeless for Slipstream, until she noticed that a webline had been shot at and attached to her ankle. Right before the Hounds unleashed their weapons, Slipstream was yanked out of the way across the ice until she slid underneath another of the Hounds paramilitary vehicles.

“This might not be the time for this, but I’ve haven’t seen you before. I’m Arachne, if you were wondering.”

“I’m Slipstream.” She said, lacking a better response. Between the sudden winter wonderland that had made its presence known, and the giant half woman, have spider that had snared her in her web, she didn’t have much to say about anything. However, she suddenly realized that she did in fact recognize the spider woman. As a resident of Pacific Point before she got her powers, Amanda had seen reports of her exploits, as well as her role in bringing down the meta domes which were responsible for her gaining her powers. Suddenly, Slipstream wished that she had paid more attention to the comings and goings of superheroes prior to her becoming one, because as loathe as she was to admit it, she couldn’t remember the spider woman’s actual name. Before she gained her speed, Amanda rarely paid heed to the different heroes that appeared around the country. While she obviously was aware of the big names like Icon and Iron Knight, some of the others...not so much. And while the spider woman was becoming a big deal around Pacific Point, Amanda had always just called her “Spider Babe,” which given the circumstances seemed wholly inappropriate at this point in time.

“Thanks for the assist.” Slipstream said as she saw the Hounds advancing on them.

“We need a plan to take out these creeps.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@DearTrickster: I think the point is not to scare away people.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Kelly Brown | Zac Wilson

This had been a crazy week for Zac. First there was the incident in Washington Park that left dozens of individuals transformed into metahumans. Then the Hounds of Humanity announced their intent on ridding the world of anyone who was not a regular human. They even went as far as tracking down the meeting place that he and Kelly had set up to run a support group for the people who just gained metahuman powers. After some of Doctor Diplodoc’s minions had defeated the Hounds who staged the attack on campus, Zac and the other metahumans who were attending the meeting made a run for it, just in case the Hounds had any other tricks up their sleeves. Kelly exchanged numbers with the Jeanette and Darren so that they could contact her and Zac if anything happened in the next 24 hours.

Zac barely slept that night. While his identity was still a secret except to a few select heroes, Kelly’s status as a metahuman was public knowledge. For most of the night, he worried whether the Hounds would break into their apartment while they were unprepared. He was not sure whether that was on Kelly’s mind, but he did not mention it to her. Making her worry was the last thing Zac wanted to cause. Even when the sun began to peak through their bedroom windows, Zac still felt restless.

He then rolled over onto his side, wrapping his arm around Kelly, who was still sound asleep beside him. But he immediately noticed something was amiss: her skin was no longer the pale-yellow color that it normally had because of her wasp-based powers. This should have been impossible, since Kelly’s power nullifier was ruined when they tested it on Taylor. Zac inched closer to his girlfriend to see if he could figure out what was going on. He did not see a power-nullifying band wrapped around her wrist. Her other wasplike characteristics were also absent: no wings, no wasp abdomen, no antennae.

“Morning,” Kelly said with a yawn, definitely aroused from her sleep by Zac moving closer to her in their bed. She turned to face Zac and threw her arms over his shoulders. However, she noticed that something was bothering him.

“What wrong? It doesn’t have to do with last night, does it?”

“No, no,” Zac half-lied. He was worried about the Hounds. However, what seemed to be Kelly strangely losing her powers was far more pertinent to him than any potential attack by the Hounds. “What happened to your powers?”

“What do you mean?”

“How are you suppressing your wasplike appearance without one of these suppressors?” Zac held up his wrist, pointing to the wristband on his arm.

“I haven’t had those powers since Doctor Diplodoc kidnapped us and took us to West Virginia over three months ago.” Kelly reach out for an empty glass on the nightstand on her side of the bed and waved her hand over the rim. Then suddenly water spontaneously filled up the glass. Kelly snatched up the glass and took a sip.

“Wait. How did you do that?”

“I swapped powers with Victoria back in West Virginia when we both fell into a batch of Diplodoc’s serum. You were there.”

“What? That was Aubrey and Black Widow.”

“Are you feeling alright?” Kelly pressed the back of her hand against her boyfriend’s forehead. But she did not feel a fever.

“Ask Sammy. She’ll clear things up.”

“Yes, by proving me right.” Kelly gave her boyfriend a wink before jumping out of bed and grabbing her phone. She dialed Sammy’s cell phone multiple times, but she kept getting voice mail.

“You don’t think the Hounds have…”

““Of course not.” However, the tone in Kelly’s voice revealed that she was not certain about whether the Hound might have attacked their friend.

Kelly waved her hands down her body. As her hands descended, her pajamas transformed into a dress that was almost identical to the one that the Silver Sorceress wore, except that Kelly’s was scarlet while Victoria’s was silver. She then offered her hand towards her boyfriend.

“Let’s check just in case. Suit up.”

Zac pinched himself just to make sure he was not dreaming or imagining things. How did Kelly now have abilities like the Silver Sorceress? Was he going crazy? He then decided that question had to wait. They first needed to check if Sammy was alright. Once they make sure Sammy was safe, they can sort this out. After he deactivated his power nullifier and switched into his superhero threads, Zac took his girlfriend’s friend. The two metahumans then were teleported out of their apartment by Kelly’s powers, leaving their home empty.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Kyra Muller

Kyra thought she had been spotted when she heard one of the robbers wondering about whether he was seeing fox tails. However, she lucked out since the two men who were approaching her position had the attention span of a gerbil. Someone else, another costumed crusader from the individual’s word choice, had drawn the two men’s attention. Kyra was concerned for the individual when the men began unleashing a barrage of bullets, especially since the person either sounded like a girl or a young boy. Kyra knew she had to intervene to help out the individual who had been pinned by gunfire behind a heavy bathtub.

“Talus, how far out are you?” Kyra whispered into her communicator, trying to keep her presence hidden from the robbers.

“Well, Ninetails, I should be there shortly,” Talus told Kyra. “Gajana might take a few minutes to get there, though.”

“What? You’re going to leave him behind?” Kyra protested. “Also, stop calling me that. I’m not a Pokémon.”

“I can’t carry him. Even if I could, he would just slow me down,” Talus tried to defend his decision. “And a mirror would argue with your last statement. And how do you know whether I’m spelling it t-a-i-l instead of t-a-l-e?”

Kyra only rolled her eyes at Talus’ attempt to justify his nickname for her before turning off the communicator. She had more important matters on his mind, such as how she was going to disarm these thugs who were burglarizing a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, especially without getting shot herself.

While the two robbers were distracted by the newcomer, Kyra concentrated on generating a small portal that would allow her to cross the distance between herself and the two robbers without alerting them to her presence. Once she produced a sufficient portal for herself, Kyra took a few steps back and then dashed forward towards the portal, jumping into it once she approached. In a matter of seconds, she was teleported right beside the robbers. Kyra landed a kick in the face of the smaller burglar, causing him to tumble to the ground.

The second man was going to be a challenge. He was a giant of a man, almost seven feet tall. Kyra, on the other hand, was only 5’ 8” tall, setting her at a disadvantage to the man dubbed the “Tower.” However, Kyra had one advantage over Tower. Unless he was hiding his abilities, Kyra’s metahuman status would give her a weapon that Tower did not possess. She did not have to try to fight him pound for pound. Instead, she could fight muscle with fire. Kyra took ahold of Tower’s clothing and ignited it.

The man called “Hermit,” who Kyra had knocked down with a mid-air kick, started to pull himself off the ground. Although he was still sprawled on the ground, Hermit aimed his assault rifle towards Kyra. However, she had enough time to reach before he pulled the trigger. She formed a baseball-sized fireball in her hand and tossed it at Hermit, aiming at his hands so that he would drop the firearm.

Meanwhile, Tower had an opportunity to grab and yank back on Kyra’s nine fox tails when she had her back to him. When he pulled on Kyra’s tails, he realized that they were actually attached to her, instead of being a weird gimmick that was part of her costume. Kyra, on the other hand, when she felt that Tower had started to yank her back by her tails, used her fire-based power to increase the surface temperature of her tails until they scorched the man’s hands, causing Tower to let go of her. Tower stumbled backwards after being burnt by Kyra’s tail. The kitsune heroine followed this up with a kick to his gut, causing him to trip over his “makeshift” gun.

Kyra then turned her attention back to Hermit, who was trying to take hold of his assault rifle and fire a round at her. However, Kyra was swift enough to close the distance between herself and Hermit so that she could plant her foot on Hermit’s hand at the same time as he placed his hand on his weapon.

“Don’t try it.” Kyra threatened.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Kelly Brown | Jeanette Forestier | Samantha Kadowsky | Darren Norton | Taylor Parks | Zac Wilson

“We’re going to have to smoke these furries out,” one of the Hounds of Humanity who were besieging Jefferson Hall shouted to his compatriots. Since they knew that the Albany police and their S.W.A.T. team would be responding to their assault on the local college campus, the Hounds made sure to bring along their own vehicles to give them cover against the imminent counterattack by the authorities. They had several black SUVs that were equipped with bullet-proof glass and reinforced frames.

“We’re not furries!” One of the girls on the roof shouted down to the Hounds. The man who had spoken first raised his rifle and fired a warning shot into the air above the roof. Although he did not hit anyone, it did cause the girl to let out a scream.

“That’s what I thou—” The man began to gloat until he felt a sharp pain originate from his ankles, as if something had bitten him. He brushed at his legs until he discovered that an ant was the culprit. After he had flicked the insect off himself, he crushed it under his boot. Almost as soon as he terminated that insect, a swarm of ants appeared out of nowhere, darting towards the man. Even though he got a few rounds off at this army of ants, the mass of insects engulfed him in a matter of seconds.

“HOLY SHIT!” Another of the Hounds of Humanity yelled while watching in horror as his comrade screaming from the pain of hundreds of insect bites. He hesitated from shooting at the army of ants, since one of his allies were hidden under that mass. This gave the ants an opportunity to turn their attention from the first man to the second, engulfing him, too.

Once these two men had been taken out by the army of ants, the swarm began to collate together until they created a humanoid frame, made entirely out of live ants. This figure’s only discernible feature was its glowing red eyes. Otherwise, its entire body looked like a general human, as long as you ignored the fact that it was composed of thousands of living ants. The other Hounds had by now realized that they were being flanked by what they assumed was a metahuman. They began to unload their weapons at the unknown combatant. However, even though their slugs would blast off some ants from this individual, there were plenty of replacements standing by to take the dead insect’s place.

Unlike what most people would do in this situation, the ant-composed metahuman rushed forward the soldiers who were shooting return fire at her. The bullets did not slow her down, although she did appear to wince with the death of each ant. Then, she dove towards the ground, as if there were a deep swimming pool in front of her. However, instead of faceplanting into the dirt, her body separated out into the individual ants that she was composed of. This swarm of ants darted forward, intent on taking out these men just like the first two.

“We need the flamethrower!” One of the Hounds shouted while/ being engulfed by the swarm of ants. One of his comrades dashed over to a nearby SUV and scrambled to pull out a flamethrower, if they had one in it. However, the man paused when the he heard a heavy thump land beside the SUV. He peered past the side of the truck, where he saw a giant of a man with the musculature of a weightlifter. His muscular body was covered by a black, insect exoskeleton. If this was not bizarre enough, the giant man also had a second pair of arms, which were just as muscular as his first pair, halfway between his shoulders and hips. Although his human head was covered by a mask that matched the black hue of his exoskeleton, three horns protruded from his head, arranged like those of an Atlas beetle. Two of them jutted out of the man’s temples, like giant devil horns, while the third crested his nose.

The giant of a man lifted the SUV over his head and tossed it aside as if it were a little toy car. The Hound goon did not have enough time to grab the flamethrower and therefore was empty handed. The giant of a man stomped forward, each footstep causing a small rumble. The Hound goon tried to back away from the new hostile, but the giant snatched him up by his legs and tossed him at the other Hounds, knocking them down like pins at a bowling alley.

While the Hounds were distracted by these two new challengers, a third figure rushed towards Jefferson Hall and scaled up its side. This woman had a drider-like physique, while she wore a skin-tight costume that matched her black-hued spider half. Her black hair was styled in a short pixie cut and her skin was a pale white color.

“You know what they say. The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Black Widow told the six metahumans who were trapped on the roof.

“Quite the coincidence that Diplodoc’s goons would show up when the Hounds attack, which begs a question. Which of us is your enemy and which is your so-called friend?” Zac gestured between the Raptor Pack standing behind him and the Hounds below when he asked his question.

“Don’t be silly,” Black Widow answered. “We have as much to lose as you do if those human extremists succeed. Maybe even more since you heroes could probably rely on public support. Villains can’t.”

“Wait, when did that spider-girl turn evil?” Jeanette whispered to Kelly while Black Widow and Zac were holding a conversation.

“And I thought she was recently sighted in California in the last two or so months?” Darren butted into Kelly and Jeanette’s conversation. Black Widow, on the other hand, was trying her best to restrain herself from lashing out at the people she was trying to save because they were confusing her with Arachne. Although they both did have a driderlike physique and her heroic lookalike did acquire her powers from falling into a pool of Doctor Diplodoc’s serum at the same time as Black Widow did, she expected that their costumes’ color schemes and hairstyles would at least make the two of them discernable.

“Don’t confuse me with that blonde bimbo,” Black Widow cursed.

“As the resident blonde,” Taylor suddenly spoke from the trashcan that Sammy had sat down on the rooftop after Jeanette had flown them over from Adams Hall. Her voice almost sounded like she was talking in a liquid medium. “I take offense to that comment.”

“‘Scarlett Johansson’ called you a blonde bimbo,” Kelly read aloud the text that she was sending to Arachne via her cell phone, which she had just pulled out of her jeans’ back pocket.

“When did you get her number?”

“She finally accepted my friend request on Facebook,” Kelly replied. When her phone buzzed, signaling that Arachne had sent a response to Kelly message, Kelly peered down at her phone again. “She said ‘that female dog.’ I’m obviously paraphrasing that, of course.”

“Why do I even try?” Black Widow mused, facepalming as the metahumans whom she was trying to rescue from the terrorists who were trying to kill them continued cracking jokes.

“You know what? I think she had one thing on Arachne. I think her spider abdomen is a little bigger than hers. I think that’s a sign in spiders when they’re pregnant. Could you google that for us, Kelly?” Sammy chimed in, ignoring the death glare that Black Widow was giving her due to her comment.

“Let’s see, do spider’s abdomen expand when they’re pregnant.” Kelly pulled out her phone to research Sammy’s question. However, before she typed anything into her internet browser, Kelly paused. “On second thought, maybe those aren’t the safest search terms.”

Meanwhile, a fourth insect-themed metahuman climbed up the side of Jefferson Hall. She was wearing a green-colored costume with a mask of the same color that covered her entire face. Her body had a second pair of arms attached to her hips, just like Kelly, while the woman’s top pair of arms had scythelike appendages instead of hands.

“Time to go,” the green-clad woman told Black Widow once she reached the roof. “The police are beginning to show up, now that we’ve neutralized the Hound threat.”

“I’m done with these ungratefuls, Mantess,” Black Widow grumbled, throwing up a middle finger at the six metahumans who had been trapped on the roof before turning to scale down the side of Jefferson Hall, with Mantess following shortly behind.

“Thank you!” Kelly yelled back to Black Widow and Mantess so that they could hear her.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@Afro Samurai: Looks good. Accepted.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@Indy Cooper@VATROU: Tiamat and HD are approved.