Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Grace watched as Vinnie was roughly thrown sideways by gravity, staggering as he tried to regain his bearings, while Tom slid across the floor effortlessly with his powers. As she watched Tom scramble to come up with a solution, her eyes examined the corridor. There were guards coming out from the dining room earlier, but they had vanished into the wine cellar for some reason instead of engaging them. The flow seemed to have stopped, though, which meant that the dining room was most likely safe. "Come on, let's hurry...we don't exactly have all day," Grace stressed as she tried to help drag Angelica along without hurting her too much. She glanced back to see Tom was wielding a coat rack like a spear- smart!- and had quickly lanced Vinnie through the stomach with it. Vinnie coughed, blood spurting out, and Grace, despite flinching, felt confident that this time, they had done it. But almost as soon as Vinnie had been stabbed, he yanked the coat rack back out, the wound sealing quickly, as he swung the weapon at Tom, catching his feet and throwing him back to the floor. Grace winced yet again. She longed so badly to help Tom or to get him out of this situation, but her powers were worse than bone dry. Grace looked down at her hand again. She wouldn't admit it at this time, in fear of getting unwanted attention by the others, but it hurt like shit. She looked back over at the scene, and she felt her stomach flop as Vinnie pressed the spear-like weapon against Tom's chest. "My turn," he hissed, prodding Tom a few times before pulling back the coat rack, preparing to run Tom through.

Grace wanted to scream or do something, but in the next few moments she was stunned as a series of events quickly happened before her eyes. There was a loud smash from the wine room as the door flung open, and a bright red-headed young boy burst out into the corridor where all the action was taking place. The young man that Grace recognized faintly then turned towards Vinnie, whose impaling was postponed due to this interruption. As Vinnie and Firebird locked eyes, Grace suddenly felt a wave of intolerable heat fill the room as the temperature rose sharply. She was now very glad she had taken off that jacket. The heat continued to pour through the hallway as Blake glared at Vinnie, lifting both his palms to face him. "Get away from him, you bastard."

Vinnie chortled, spinning the coat rack in his hand like it was a twirling baton in a marching band. "Oh, boy, another hero? What're you gonna do, huh? I dare you, try and take a hit on ol' Vinnie. I dare you."

Grace started to sweat, tugging at her shirt to try and let some air in, as Blake glared directly at Vinnie. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he grunted between clenched teeth, before brilliant scarlet fire shot from his hands. The swirling flames condensed into a single stream that blasted directly into Vinnie, throwing back backwards into the wall. Vinnie's load moaning echoed through the hallway as the fire kept coming, pushing him into the wall and scorching him alive. The thin wall, already damaged from the earlier scuffle, began to crack as the flames kept pouring from Blake's hands into Vinnie, and then the wall, from Vinnie's mass and Blake's forceful assault, cracked open, and Vinnie was sent crashing through the hole in the wall into the lawn outside, much to the horror of the groundskeepers. Visible through the smashed hole in the wall was a very, very badly burnt man, one that seemed, for all intents and purposes, very much dead.

Blake was panting as he turned around, looking at Patricia, Grace, and then Angie, his eyes visibly saddening as his eyes fell onto the girl. "Shit, Angie..." He looked at the bloody jacket wrapped around her leg, before looking around. "Did he...?"

"She got shot by him," Grace said plainly.

"Well, fuck..." He rested his hand on Angie's cheek. "Joseph, you still there? If you could, uhh, rune her up a little?" He looked over his shoulder before standing, rushing over to Tom. "You got fucked up, man," Blake said with a weak grin, holding out a hand to grab Tom's and pulling him to his feet. "Don't ever not invite me to a secret mission again, by the way. Because this ended well." Blake's weak smile eventually widened a bit. "Glad you're OK, though. Well, I mean, alive, at least. Not shot." Blake was about to turn back to go check on Angie again, see if Joseph had worked his runic magic or whatever, but he saw a rather disturbing sight.

Vinnie was alive.

And not only was he alive, he looked nearly unharmed.

Blake started to panic for a moment- he had poured all of that energy into an attack for almost nothing?- but he quickly returned to Earth. Grace felt the heat start to return to the corridor again as he looked at Tom. "You get these guys out of here, OK? I'll go fuck him up." He blew a quick kiss to Angie before picking up speed again. He looked out the hole in the wall before rushing towards it, spheres of fire forming at his fingertips as he leaped outside, into the spring air.

He reeled back an arm, preparing to sling a fireball, but Vinnie was much quicker, grabbing Blake by the shirt and throwing him into the dirt. Blake tumbled on the ground as a very angry Vinnie followed the downed fire hero. "Great. One more hero for me to deal with." He picked up Blake by the throat, lifting him up into the air with one arm easily and looking into his defiant eyes. "Now, do I just kill you quickly or save you for some special hero torture? That fire shit you did hurt like hell, after all. Might be worth a little vengeance. Eh?"

Blake spluttered out a response. "Y-you're torturing me with your breath. Tr-try mouthwash," he managed to cough out, before spitting into Vinnie's face. Vinnie scowled, before he angrily threw Blake to the ground like a broken toy, then pressing his foot against Blake's ribs. "A slow death it is, you little shit!"

Grace, who was still next to Angie, heard this yelling from outside and cursed. "Somebody should help him," she muttered, looking at her hand again. It was still very much fucked up. "And I guess it's not gonna be me."

@KaijuBaragon@Amethyst@canaryrose@Rabidporcupine

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The Sisters of the Dying Branch

As Kota had walked over to Calypso to talk to the girl, it seemed a few more people had arrived to the table (that, or, more likely, Dakota had just not noticed them on the onset.) First noticed was Uaithne, or, as Kota referred to him exclusively, "Shorty," due to his lack of size, especially for a male. It was all in good fun, of course. She hoped that he knew that. He probably knew that, right? Yeah, definitely.

Up next over to the group was Rowan, a girl only slightly older than her. The girl was sweet; a bit introverted, a bit nerdy, which were certainly fair game for Dakota's teasing, but sweet nonetheless. Dakota grinned as she walked over, flinching as she mentioned her forest flight. "Oh, yeah, yeah, thanks, I have improved a bit. Thankfully I didn't fall or anything," Kota emphasized with a wide smile as she grinned at Rowan. "It has been a while," Kota agreed as her eyes slowly moved towards the newcomers at the table. She did not like what she saw. Summer Abernathy. As Summer walked over, lobbing a very clearly half-hearted compliment her way, Dakota held herself back from releasing a nice burst of wind to see how Summer enjoyed falling from heights. She decided not to say this, instead sufficing with a grin. "Err...thanks," she forced out, looking over at Charlie, who was...fiddling with his nametag? She didn't care much for the boy herself, but at least he wasn't mean. An ass sometimes, yes, but not mean.

She felt her arms get crushed to her sides as Calypso sweeped her into a bear hug, giving a weak grin. "Missed you too, Callie. If you could maybe lighten up on the hugs?" She sighed as Calypso finally let go and instead turned to give Summer and Charlie a hug. Watching with a grin, Kota subconsciously ran her hand through her hair as she looked around. A few other people had arrived (or at least, she had noticed them). Talking with Shorty was Cassandra, or as Dakota had nicknamed her, Moody Blues, and elsewhere over the party was Hana, the Korean girl (her Oriental features made her easy to remember) and another lonely girl with a cute face and brown curly hair. Dakota scratched her head as she tried to remember her. Had she ever spoken to her before? She probably had...Dakota just went with "Curly" for the time being. She could ask later. Her eyes wandered back to Calypso as the girl suggested getting some food. "Ooh, good idea, Callie! I am starving from the flight, y'know. We should go get something to eat real quick! We'll be right back." Dakota caught onto Calypso's cue very quickly, giving her elbow a gentle yank as she made her way over to the food table. She looked over at the large selection of barbecued foods (there were many, most of which Dakota had never seen grilled before) as she grabbed a plastic cup, pouring a glass.

"Funny, the only thing that could ruin summer...is Summer," Dakota quipped as she topped off her lemonade, peaking over her shoulder to make sure the girl wasn't too close by. "Also, you're right. This zucchini looks fantastic. I didn't even know you could grill zucchini in the first place. Guess cooking is an art, after all...no wonder I'm so bad at it." Dakota grinned at her joke before turning to look at Calypso, warmth filling her smile. "Seriously, it has been a while, though. What've you been up to?"

_{Speaks to: Calypso Barnes @canaryrose, Rowan Moore @Jumbus, Summer Abernathy @Danvers
Mentions: Uaithne "Shorty" Orvar @Tracyarmav, Charlie Hamlyn @KaijuBaragon, Hana Song @Akayaofthemoon, Iris Aderast @Blizz}

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Blake pressed his back against the large assortment of crates, knowing that they wouldn't last long. Blake could practically hear the cocaine spilling out from his shelter behind. He peeked out to see that a few of the guards had been downed somehow. Blake looked over to see Zee. Weird, he didn't remember Zee having come into the warehouse, but he was certainly not complaining about the newfound company. Blake nodded over to the younger death creature, giving him a thumbs up. Heat poured around his body as he made a break for the door, the air igniting into fire around him as he rushed towards the door. There were two men that had just come out with assault rifles, but obviously shooting the speeding fire man was above their pay grade, so they instead leaped to the side in fear as Blake ran over to the door. The door was thick metal, but luckily for Blake, some poor idiot goon had opened the door right as Blake was there. Blake charged directly into said goon, ramming his shoulder into their face, and sending them spiraling into the wall, their clothes scorched.

Blake stepped into the chamber as the metal doors clanged shut behind him. The room was modestly sized, with steel walls and plumbing running around the area, and a steel door sitting in front of him. Next to the steel door was a green pad that was glowing softly. Examining this, Blake reached down and picked up a lead pipe that was laying on the ground, twirling it in his hand. He assumed that there would be more goons en route, and for once, his assumption was correct. Just a moment later, a goon holding a pistol ran out of the metal doors, and said goon was promptly thwacked in the face with a metal pipe, causing him to fall to the ground, the pistol falling to the floo with a clatter. Blake grabbed the man roughly by the collar. "Where are the rest of the heroes?" Blake asked demandingly as he planted the man's hand against the green pad. The man quivered as he spoke. "Up-upstairs...V-Vinnie was going to finish them-"

"Shut your piehole." Blake pulled the man back and smashed his head into the wall, letting his body drop to the ground. He stepped into the now-open doorway, ascending the stairs. "Let's see how well this Vinnie guy handles fire."

He stepped out of the hidden staircase into what appeared to be a wine room with two men pointing guns at him. Blake blasted them both directly with a burst of fire, sending them sprawling on the ground, scorched, before looking at the door to the wine room. Fire welled around his hand as he began to burn his way out. There was nothing that was going to stop him. He looked over his shoulder, noticing that Joseph caught up. "They're in trouble up here," Blake muttered, stepping back as he had burned the lock clean through. He took a breath, getting ready to engage.

@canaryrose @Scarifar @Shard @Rabidporcupine

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Grace couldn't help but crack a faint smile as Tom promptly thrusted Vinnie into the attic, but her attention quickly turned steely again as she tightened the jacket around Angelica's leg before helping Tom hoist her to her feet. She looked at Tom nervously. He had hit his shoulder while tussling with Vinnie, and though his injury was less of a priority than that of Angie's, Tom was the only one of them with any fight left in him, so having him be awake and in shape was a highly important in this situation. Him talking snapped her back to the gravity of this situation- Angie had been shot. Grace had never been shot before, but she could imagine it was a highly unpleasant and precarious situation to be in. "Right," she responded to Tom as she helped Angie to her feet and began to rush down the hallway. She turned towards Patricia, giving the girl as strong of a smile as she could muster. "Patricia, uri gangaji, Angelica was just shot. We have more important things to worry about..." She trailed off as she looked back to where Tom had blasted Vinnie into the ceiling. Strange, Vinnie would have surely come down by now. The only way that he could still be up there is if he was inside...

Grace blinked. "TOM HE'S IN THE CEILING!" she called out just as the ceiling directly in front of Tom literally splintered open as Vinnie cannonballed out from the attic, landing with a crash on the ground as though this had been his plan all along. Grace instinctively grabbed Angelica and pulled her back as Vinnie took hold of Tom, grasping his neck and promptly throwing the young hero roughly into the floor. Grace winced as she pulled Angelica back, looking in horror and taking a deep breath. She felt genuinely bad standing back from the fight, but Angelica had just been shot, which was a bit more of a concern to Grace at the moment. She stared as Vinnie cracked his knuckles, standing over Tom. "Just give up already. I beat your boss mano a man; your chicken shit ass is just asking for a beating." Vinnie reeled his fists back for another devastating punch. He might not have had the most devastatingly offensive power, but damn was he strong.

@KaijuBaragon@Amethyst@canaryrose

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Meanwhile, upstairs, as Samson walked towards the sound of conflict, he found a man standing in his path. The man was not tall, probably standing at a fairly dismal 5'7" or 8" compared to the hulking form of Samson, but the man was also very well-built, immensely so, and several prominently scars on his unsightly face indicated his experience. The man, Sal Gugliano, the heir to the Gugliano Empire, drew a knife from his jacket. "Listen here, punk," he said with a sneer, twirling the combat knife in his hand. "Your hero ass is going to be hanging from the balcony by the time I'm done with you."

With those simple words, Sal threw his combat directly at Sam, the blade spinning as it sliced through the air on a warpath towards Samson. Not wasting any time to see if it hit or not, Sal jumped towards Sam, winding back a punch and throwing it directly at Samson's chin. He grunted as he did so, his face angry. He would protect his family's legacy, or die trying. Most likely the latter.

@DClassified

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The Sisters of the Dying Branch

_{I can almost remember their funny faces
That time you told them you were going to be marrying soon
And Jet, I thought the only lonely place was the moon}

Dakota smiled, singing along loudly, as she zoomed through the forest at breakneck speeds. She soared under and over tree branches, occasionally going directly through some innocent branches, as she laced her way through the Virginia forest. A wide smile was plastered on her face as she twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding a particularly sharp branch that was jutting out of a tall oak tree, before re-stabilizing, looking forwards with determined glee.

Dakota was wearing a loose white tank top with blue stripes and a pair of cut-off jean shorts, a pair of white wired earbuds tangling from her ears loosely as it blasted music at a volume that was definitely unhealthy for her. Her bright blue, sneakered feet were planted her even brighter blue skateboard, Blue Jay, and she was currently practicing her flying skills in the forest. She loved the forest outside the Coven House- whenever she came down to the house, she always made sure to get some time in to fly. She and her dad and gotten to the House rather early, and so she had taken the opportunity to get a few laps around the forest in. A quick flight through the trees to enjoy the fresh smell of nature and get some practice in before heading back for the party. Dakota had already gone through the loop around three times now and was currently halfway through her fourth. After this, she promised herself that she would head back.

Approaching a particularly large, rotting tree, she swung Blue Jay sideways, pulling a tight loop around the old piece of nature and zooming back towards the Coven House, rock music blasting into her ears. She bobbed her head absentmindedly as the song continued. This was a classic tune and one of her favorites for sure. A nice, upbeat rock song with a great vibe. Nothing not to like.

_{Was your father as bold as the sergeant major?
How come he told you that you were hardly old enough yet?
And Jet, I thought the major was a lady suffragette}

Dakota ducked swiftly to avoid a high tree branch and was flying at a comfortable but swift speed when she noticed something that caught her eye. A hawk! Dakota loved hawks. They were such a neat animal, with their sharp talons and cool beaks. The hawk gazed at Dakota (or so she thought), and Dakota looked back at the creature with admiration. It was so cool, able to fly far and wide in search of prey, at speeds Dakota could only hope to achieve, just soaring constantly over the forest, unimpeded by any sort of distraction-

As she got lost in thought, she felt a tugging sensation and looked down. Her earbud wire had gotten snagged on a tree branch. Before it all happened, she knew what was about to go down. "Oh, no...no, no, no, no, no..."

Blue Jay launched out from beneath her legs and, without her magic, began a speedy descent towards the ground as Dakota promptly toppled towards the ground, the offending branch not nearly strong enough to hold her weight. Dakota promptly began a downwards spiral towards the Earth. Luckily, this was not the first time that Dakota had fallen, and she knew exactly what to do, her instincts sharpened from many other incidents. A gust of wind picked up beneath her, which helped slow the falling teen girl. Also luckily, Dakota was positioned above a nice pile of leaves and moss, and so she plopped down directly into the pile, sending the leaves scattering everywhere.

Dakota moaned as she rolled over. Her instincts and luck had saved her from broken bones, but that didn't mean that she was OK. After lying on the mossy, forest floor for a few moments in pain, she mustered the strength to pull herself to her feet. Staggering forwards, she scooped up Blue Jay, which was lying a few yards away, tucking the board under her shoulder, and beginning to walk back. She wasn't too far away, at any rate.

---

A moment later, Dakota walked over to the field. She had hastened to try and make herself look presentable to the rest of her Coven acquaintances, and she was pretty sure she had gotten rid of all the leaves and those other burrs and the like, but she still had the look of a windswept person, her brown hair all tangly, clothes wrinkled, but her face had a bright smile as she walked over to the celebration area. It looked nice! Dakota started to feel the energy of the party as she inconspicuously slipped in, hoping to avoid some of the Elder's glances. She hadn't been early for sure, but she wasn't late yet, at least. Luckily for her. She began to move towards what appeared to be the initiate's table when she was pulled into a back hug.

"Kota!" the person said with a smile, and Kota looked up to recognize the tall figure of her father. Though Kota stood at just above average height, her father was well above that benchmark, standing at an impressive 6'4", and the term "dad bod" did not apply to him in the slightest, his figure covered in thick, defined muscles, unlike Dakota's more lithe, sturdy build. Outside of these body differences, though, and the different genders, Kai Lawson resembled Dakota in many ways. They had similar facial structure, same color hair (though Kai's hair was quite short and well-kept compared to Dakota's), same wide eyes, and similar skin tones, though Kai had a little bit more melanin visibly. Kota's father was, simply put, a looker. Dakota had never seen her mother in person, but she had always imagined that she got her own good looks from her father. At least, she would say they were good looks, at any rate.

"It's your big day today!" her father said with a wide smile. "You excited?"

"Dad, stop it, you're embarrassing me!"

"I will keep embarrassing you until you answer my question."

"I'm...I'm really excited, yeah. I've waited a while for this." She smiled flashily. "Hope the Coven is ready for me!"

Kai laughed heartily. "Now that's my little girl. You go hang out with your friends, now. I'm going to go get a quick snack."

"OK! Have fun, Dad!" Kota said as she was finally released from her dad's monster hug. She smiled and waved as her dad walked off, hands in pockets. Her dad was the best, even though he could be embarrassing sometimes, and even though his hugs were way too tight. Rubbing her ribs and checking for damage, he made her way over towards the very elaborately decorated initiates table of black and gold clothes. Noticing the goody bag first, her curious eyes wandered over to the other dark-skinned girl. Calypso, Kota recalled, as she made her way around the table, her usual happy-go-lucky smile apparent for the other girl to see. "Hey!" she chirped with a wave of her hand as she approached the darker girl. "Excited for today?"

_{Speaks to: Calypso Barnes @canaryrose
Mentions: n/a
Song: "Jet" - Paul McCartney and Wings}

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Christina gave a curt nod as the two descended down the ladder. "You going too, Blake?" she asked, though the redheaded young man had already made his way over to the tunnel and had one leg in. He looked up at Christina with a determined expression plastered on his face. "No shit I'm going in. My best friend and my girlfriend are in there. Also, like, my other two closest friends. And also...uhh, Patricia's there too, I guess." Blake took another step into the tunnel as Christina nodded knowingly. "Alright, Blakey. Good luck in there. Oh! And also. This is very important. You have to make sure that you-"

Blake was already gone.

Christina sighed. "He can be such a meathead sometimes."

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Blake was descending the ladder into the hidden tunnel as rapidly as he could without descending directly into Rumi's face. As he clambered down the ladder like a chimpanzee, he thought about the situation. He might've been a little hurt that he hadn't been invited on this cool, top-secret mission, but he totally understood why. His powers weren't exactly subtle or suited for an undercover operation, and neither was his personality. Any pain about his exclusion from this secret group was overridden, though, by the pain of his friends being in danger. Tom was the type that was confident in himself and his powers. He wouldn't send an urgent text to Blake without really being in trouble, and Blake couldn't help but be a little worried for his friend. Tom had saved Blake's ass more times than he cared to admit- hell, he had saved his ass just a week ago when they were fighting all the damn Ambleweeds. Blake would be crushed if he wasn't able to reciprocate that when Tom needed him.

His mind drifted away from Tom to Angelica, worry still gnawing at his mind as he thought about the situation. He'd be sick to his stomach if he was too late to be able to help her. The same went for Brie, William, Patricia- they were his good friends, a second family to him, and he would be damned if he was about to let them get fucked up by this creepy-ass mafia organization.

Blake's feet hit the ground as he looked around. It was a dark tunnel with a damp, mildew-y scent to it that ran down straight. With no visible light switch, Blake simply conjured a small fireball in his hand, casting some light over the area, and went first, guiding the trio down the corridor. It looked the way it smelled- damp, disgusting, stone walls, like some sort of access tunnel. The corridor ran for a while down to a steel door with a small, flickering lamp above it. Blake put out the fireball and quietly tugged on the door's handle. Locked, of course. Blake quickly noticed the flimsy door handle, though, and he put his fingers up against the doorknob, sparks flying as he did some makeshift Firebird "repair." Before long, the door handle had fallen quietly to the ground, and Blake slowly opened the door, intending to peek through and examine his surroundings. He saw a small shipping facility area with several large crates sitting there, a few armed men sitting about the room, a couple of them smoking in the corner. Just then, out of nowhere, the villain struck.

Cr-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-ak.

The door creaked, very loudly, and all eyes went to Blake's red head that had appeared in the doorway. He frowned as they slowly lifted their guns. Blake gave an annoyed "Shit!" before casually lobbing a fireball at a guard and slamming the door shut. Luckily for Blake, the room was a shipping area for moonshine, and much to Blake's surprise, he felt a wave of heat hit the steel door as the moonshine exploded. When Blake opened the door a few seconds later, he saw no more crates and all the goons lying, literally smoking, on the ground. Blake blinked. Now he knew how it felt to be Jamie.

Blake walked across the shipping facility, stepping over a few unconscious bodies (possibly soon-to-be cadavers) as he made his way across the room. On the other end of the room were a pair of metal doors with windows, and through said windows Blake could see a large open space layered with doors, guards patrolling the open area, most of them armed to the teeth. So this was the main area of the compound. Blake looked back at his mini-crew. "Alright. I'm gonna try and get into the actual mansion itself. You guys look around here. Don't get killed. Sounds like a plan?" And before they could disagree to Blake's non-plan, Blake barged through the swinging doors and lobbed a few fireballs at the unfortunate guards that were closest to the door. Blake leaped for cover behind what appeared to be several large crates of cocaine as the guards were alerted. The facade of stealth had been dropped, but considering the large open warehouse-like area didn't leave much room for sneaking, the facade was likely to be dropped anyway.

Blake lit a few fireballs, lobbing some more, before jumping behind another pile of illicit substances, no doubt. "Don't worry, guys," Blake muttered. "I'm coming. Just hold on. One moment and I'll be there." He smiled as he lit two more fireballs. "One moment and they're gonna regret ever laying a finger on my friends."

@canaryrose @Scarifar

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As Grace fell to her knees in submission, she looked over at the other girl, Angelica. Grace had sensed that Angelica was quite reasonable from their limited interactions thus far, and so when she started moving closer towards Vinnie, instead of away, Grace decided that she definitely needed to do a better job on this "first impressions" thing, because Angie was either clearly insane or attempting suicide by crazy mafioso. However, Grace was surprised to see that somehow Vinnie wasn't shooting. Instead, he seemed to be weakening, his gun hand dropping to his side, his body quivering like the mobster was crying.

Grace deduced that she had some type of suppression-based ability, able to inflict some sort of emotional trauma on targeted people. A very useful power indeed. And it was working!

At least, it was working until Grace realized Vinnie was not crying, not at all. He was laughing. The sick bastard was somehow laughing through this, his body heaving as he began to audibly chuckle, his voice echoing through the hallway, like some ugly Italian version of the Joker. And now his gun hand was coming up...oh no...

Grace tried to muster up some more power to open a portal, to do anything, but she was too late as a loud BANG! resonated out from the pistol, the bullet streaking through the air. The shot was luckily not intended to be fatal, instead piercing Angelica's right thigh, slashing it across the side. Grace winced at the sight of the blood, forgetting everything as she got off her knees, running over to Angelica and kneeling by her side. "Shit...hang in there, OK?" she whispered to Angelica, looking up at Vinnie defiantly.

"A lot of gusto to use that power on me. I don't like mind games. Not one fucking bit. And you know what I do to people who play mind games on me?" Vinnie lifted the gun, the weapon aimed at Angelica's forehead. "I blow them to fucking bits."

Grace concentrated as Vinnie aimed at Angelica again. She would have only one opportunity to do this, so she'd have to make it count. As Vinnie squeezed the trigger, Grace opened a small portal in front of Grace's head. the bullet whizzing into the portal instead of turning Angie's forehead to mush. As Vinnie stared, confused, at the glowing purple portal where there should have been blood and gore, a second, even smaller portal the size of a mitten opened up in front of Vinnie's chest, the bullet launching out of the small portal and piercing directly through Vinnie's chest. As both portals closed soon after, Vinnie staggered back, blood splattering over his nice shirt and the nice carpet as he clutched at his chest wound, surprised. Grace pulled Angelica back, hoping she hadn't lost too much blood. She began to shrug off her nice jacket (it would be ruined, but she didn't care) as she looked over at Tom urgently. "T-Tom...kick his ass," Grace said confidently to her ally as she prepared to wrap the jacket around Angie's wound. She ignored the fact that her right hand was stone gray, her veins purple, her skin on said hand flaky. She could get that fixed later.

Meanwhile, Vinnie was livid. The hole in his chest already healing, he found his bearings and began to lift his gun again. "I should have killed you bitches the moment I laid eyes on you," he muttered as he raised his weapon, prepared to take action once again.

@KaijuBaragon@Amethyst@canaryrose

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Meanwhile, back over at the trapdoor entrance, Christina waved as she saw Zee get out of the car. "Nice seeing you, Zee!" she said with a joyful wave as the deathly mutant got out of the car. "Thank you for coming. We need every hand we can get. And is that Joseph in there?" She raised an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose he's another pair of hands, even if he is drunk. Listen, here's the situation."

"Blake, Rumi, and Jamie went down there already. They've been down there for, what, five minutes or so? Hopefully, they're OK. That tunnel should lead over to their base. Once you're there, find everybody and get out. Be careful, too, don't let them catch you, because I think their morals are definitely off at this point. I've called Division X, and they should be here in..." Christina glanced at her watch. "Ten minutes tops? We'll launch a split push on the actual manor and through the trap door at that time. Director Powers'll also be on his way back, and I'm going to assume he wants a bit of vengeance." Christina smiled at the thought, before getting serious again. "Be careful. The people in there...are no joke." She gave Zee a pat on the back. "They're counting you, buddy. Go give them hell."

Little did she know how seriously Zee was going to take that phrase.

@Shard@Rabidporcupine

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

"Ouch..." Blake grumbled as he kicked aside a few heavy-looking pieces of pavement. Even though Rumi had begun searching for the trap door, Blake was still looking, in part because he had nothing better to do. As he sifted through the piles of rubble, his mind drifted towards his friends that were trapped in some sort of death trap mafia mansion. Blake had watched enough classic mafia films to know that whatever was going on behind those walls could not be anything good. Angie, Brie, Tom, Patricia...they were all stuck in there, and that dire thought made his body rumble with fire. Unfortunately, not much could be done right now, except for helping to search by kicking over some rocks, and so Blake continued his rock-kicking crusade.

Meanwhile, Christina spoke to Rumi as his robots did their scanning thing. She nodded as they mentioned the dead body. "There'll be an investigation, of course, but I'm sure you guys are in the right. You always are. Well...you normally are. Sometimes," Christina corrected herself as she walked slowly after the robots, speaking to Rumi. "Mmm...Paradox is an interesting character. That is his real body, by the way, or at least I think. I can send you the specifics after this is over. His files are supposed to be sealed right now...but I think, considering this run-in, you've done enough to learn more." Christina stopped in the epicenter of the destroyed house, removing a small pyramid silver device from her belt and attaching it to the ground. The pyramid begin to spin as a green light shot upwards from the pyramid, into the sky. The device was a HERO Beacon- it would provide direct coordinates to the location for any HERO that was currently interested, which Christina hoped would be quite a few. She then looked over at the drones. "Looks like they found something," she noted as she walked over, shoveling a large slap of granite (likely once a kitchen counter) out of the way to reveal a heavy oak trapdoor. With a strong thrust of her leg, Christina smashed the door in, the trapdoor splintering and falling down, revealing a long ladder down into a secret tunnel.

"That's our way in. I'll be staying behind for a moment to gather some more heroes in this area. I would command you guys to stay back, but I have a feeling that you're going to want to charge in and save your friends. If you want to do that, my eyes are closed. Just please don't get yourselves killed in there, if you do?"

@canaryrose @Scarifar

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"It's fine, Patricia. Think you might want to consider losing some weight, though," Grace commented dryly. She listened quietly as Patricia explained her circumstances and the mysterious organization known as Zero. She shivered as Patricia said the word Zero. "Never heard of them," she whispered as Patricia described a horrifying process that this strange entity was using to somehow kill heroes. If it weren't these circumstances, Grace would not have believed Patricia, butt she could only assume that the girl was telling the truth. That, or she had somehow been addled with, but she was inclined to presume the former. She then listed to Tom's plan (or more accurately, lack of one) and followed him back. She felt worry in her veins- she was, in essence, relying on Tom's powers, the tiny bit left of hers, and a suspicious machete that Patti had found to fight an entire mafia. That was not a strategical advantage, but Grace supposed they would make it work.

She watched as Tom peeked through the whole, whitening as she heard the news that Angie had been caught. "She looked like she had it under control..." she murmured as Tom seemed to formulate a plan. After telling her to crush someone with an incomplete portal or whatever, which was not how her powers worked at all, Tom then very daringly decided to kick open a hatch and float himself, along with the two girls (without their permission, of course), down to the ground. There, Grace noticed one of the goons already downed by the falling door ("the idiot"), and that Tom was currently fighting Tommy, which left one goon for her to deal with, so she made haste in doing so. She looked over at the shell-shocked goon and quickly manifested a small portal in her hand, the size of a dinner plate, and sent it careening towards him. The portal rammed him in the gut, sending him spiraling backwards head-first into a gold light fixture. The light fixture did not break, but Grace was pretty confident something else did, so success.

She turned back to face Tom, seeing the younger Gugliano sprawled on the floor in front of him, and noticing his nosebleed as well. "Tom, your nose-" she started, quickly forgetting the circumstances that they were in, before snapping back to reality. "Right. We should go before we get-"

"You get what?"

At the end of the hallway was a tall, muscled mafioso with an instantly recognizable ugly face. Vinnie Gugliano. In his hands was a gold handgun that Vinnie was aiming towards the girls. "Caught? I'm afraid it's a little late for that. Now, be a good boy and come quietly, or I won't hesitate to pick off one of these ladies. I hate to lose out on a paycheck, but I'm sure I can afford to lose out on one or two." He twiddled his trigger finger. "Now everybody get your asses on the ground and wait for my men to take you away, or else good ol' Chompy the Swampjaw will be taking a break from his all-fish diet for some teenage girl."

"Teenage? I definitely don't look that-"

"Shut the hell up, bitch, and get on the ground!"

"Alright, alright, fine," she muttered as she sank to her knees, giving one desperate look up to Tom. She did not want to get shot right now.

@KaijuBaragon@Amethyst@canaryrose

Important Message

I'd like to take this moment at our 200th IC post to thank our sponsor.



Chick-Fil-A! When you want a chicken sandwich, head to your local Chick-Fil-A! We may have said some naughty things, but our food is TOO DAMN GOOD.

Chick-Fil-A!

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tommy Gugliano

As Tommy lifted his head, his eyes fell onto Angelica, a different look in his face, like his features had frozen over. He blinked a few times at her, looking somewhere in between mad and hurt. "You neglected to mention you were already seeing somebody, you know." As Angelica tried to step away, Tommy kept his grip on her hand, still holding onto Angelica's fingers, tighter now than before, like a vice grip. His eyes fell onto her struggling, terrified face, his eyes cool and reserved. "A bit ironic how if you'd stayed faithful, you wouldn't be in this situation, hero." he said vacantly, pulling her arm back towards him. All eyes were on the two of them at this point as Tommy wrenched Angelica's arm behind her back (this seemed to be a move used by the entire mafia, apparently).

He held Angelica tightly in front of him, arm pinned in place. "Wish, huh? Credit where credit is due, you almost got out." He smiled coldly. "I hate to turn you into Zero...but my hands are tied, I suppose. As are yours, I suppose." He roughly pushed her along. "Let's go. La troppa bonezza finisce nella monnezza," he muttered as he pushed Angie slowly towards the door of the hall, some grunts walking over to help support their boss' son. Vinnie watched along as a proud parent. "Well done, Tommy. Proud of you, mio figlio."

Tommy stopped shoving Angelica, looking over at his dad. "Thanks..." he said with a nod.

_{La troppa bonezza finisce nella monnezza: Italian proverb essentially meaning "Nice guys finish last"}

@Amethystnot sleepy

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The Sisters of the Dying Branch

@sassy1085 HELL YES ANOTHER ENBY WITCHLING I AM H E R E F O R I T 💜

@Amethyst

I have never seen you type anything all-caps before so I can tell you're excited XD

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Blake nodded as Rumi left him to go help fight this weird Paradox robo-guy. "You get him, Rumi!"" Blake called out as Rumi shielded Jamie before turning his arms into what appeared to be some sort of blaster, and proceeded to blast Paradox. Unfortunately, Paradox was quick to move, and before Rumi could even try to land a hit Paradox was midair, green fuel thrusters activated on his legs, and he soared around like a bumblebee, not staying still for a second. "You should know by now, Sir E. Brum, that the likes of me cannot be matched by the likes of you." He continued to zip around as another weapon appeared on his shoulder, another bazooka-looking one. "I am Paradox, the pinnacle of humankind. I am unbeatable." Blake gulped as the large missile weapon seemed to be angling towards him. "You will be made examples of and terminated as such. Warhead ready. Preparing to-"

Blake was saved as an actual explosion hit Paradox in the side of the head, smoke billowing from the side of his helmet. It seemed as though it hadn't done much damage, but it stopped his onslaught of attacks. Another explosion hit him in the torso, again not dealing much visible damage but sending him careening sideways. "Reinforcements detected. Did not anticipate arrival of other heroes. Abort operation." His feet thrusters engaged once again as the robot/man soared upwards, zooming away from the area like a plane once more.

Blake looked over to the source of the explosions to see Christina walking towards them, a large, dangerous-looking sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. She grinned at them. "Fancy seeing you here," she quipped, pulling out a large, very futuristic looking knife from her sheath and beginning to go to work on Blake's net. With the progress Rumi had already made combined with the prowess of this fancy new knife, Christina was able to cut Blake free pretty quickly. Blake blushed a little, a bit embarrassed. So far, he was chalking up to be pretty useless overall in this entire operation, and he did not enjoy that one bit.

"First off, no blushing, we're both taken. Second, I expected a 'thank you.' And third, let's move, you guys. We don't have all day here." Christina began to walk over to the now-destroyed house.

"Uhh...what's going on? How do you know about the Leftovers?""

"Leftovers? No, we're going to go save your friends."

Blake followed Christina, who was currently standing inside the rubble, looking around. "I think I speak for everybody when I ask, 'what the fuck is going on here?'"

Christina looked over at the three like they were lost puppies. "Basically, your closest friends were on a secret undercover that they didn't invite you on, and now they're in very deep shit, and we have to bail them out."

"...oh. What friends are we talking about here?" Blake remembered the text message.

"Tom, Patricia, Angelica, Brie, Will, and Grace. New girl from PHANTOM."

"Ah, I see- hold on, MY Angie?!"

Christina rolled her eyes. "She's not yours to own, Blake. But yes, sure." Christina said as she pressed her foot against the ground.

"I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"I know, you're a bit too dumb to be a domineering partner. Rumi, could you do be a favor and do a scan of this vicinity? According to my personal research, there's some sort of secret link between this location and the Gugliano manor? Well, it's not very secret anymore, but still." She gestured towards the ground, which was currently covered in rubble and the like. "Also, nice work against that villain. He isn't exactly a pushover...I have a feeling we're going to be seeing more of him soon."

@canaryrose @Scarifar

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Grace listened to Tom's comment. "Come on, you're not useless at all, and you know it. Without you we wouldn't have even got in the complex at all, you portalled us in. And it's sort of my fault too, I shouldn't have encouraged you to send that fourth mobster dude along all the way to Chick-Fil-A, I should have known that might have drained your energy." Grace shook her head at this, having since taken off her hat, allowing her violet hair to fall loosely down her back. Subtlety was dead, at this point; might as well let her head air out as she sat there in the weird attic/cellar. "It's definitely not your fault. If I wasn't this weak..." She sighed once more, preparing to say something else, but Tom was already on the move, and Grace shuffled after him quickly, following him through the attic system that was built in place.

As Grace was thinking on just how terrible this system probably was, she heard a loud thump followed by a young girl exclaiming "Motherfucker!" quite loudly. Grace could tell from the voice as well as the circumstances that this was none other than Patricia. She gave a relieved sigh. She was OK, at any rate. Tom began to speak to Patricia after a moment of silence."Patty! PATTY! It's TOM! And Grace, we escaped into a crawlspace between the floors... What the hell happened, how did you get away?! Nevermind, tell us in a second, Grace will portal you down here.. Grace?" Before Tom had even finished his sentence, Grace was already hard at work. Tracing her finger through the dust on the ground, she sketched out a few equations on the floor into the dust, looking at them before looking up at the ceiling. "How thick do you think this floor is? Not more half a meter for sure...almost certainly less..." Grace added another equation into the dirt, sketching out a cylinder on the ground next to it and writing the equation of the cylinder next to her diagram. She tapped her finger to her chin before tracing her finger along what for her was the ceiling, a portal opening up in front of Patricia. "Not too bad..." she panted, the portal clearly having taken a bit out of her, as she stuck her head out of the portal. Looking around seeing nothing, she quickly grabbed Patricia's arm. "Let's go," she whispered, yanking with all her might and hauling Patricia into the portal.

As the portal swirled shut, the two girls successfully moving through, Patricia fell into the room directly on top of Grace, who moaned as Patricia crushed her against the ground. "You weigh more than I thought..." Grace grunted, her thin frame struggling to wiggle out from underneath Patricia. "I mean, are you OK? That's more important. But also, when you get a chance, if you could get off me, that would be great." Grace smiled at the sight of her friend. Call her negative, but she was mentally preparing in case she never saw Patricia again, and the sight of the girl in mostly OK shape relieved her greatly. Even though said girl was currently crushing her into the wood floor.

@KaijuBaragon@canaryrose@Amethyst

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

"There, there..." Patricia was patting Katharines's shoulder. "I-I get it. Some of my older coworkers do that to me all the time. Insult me, that is. You wouldn't believe some of the things they've said," Patricia laughed, though Kat could tell it was empty. "You just... you have to remember... you're your own person. N-not defined by someone else. He just hates you because he's bitter. Or, well, I don't know. Th-that's just how it is for me."

Kat nodded a few times, still sobbing, before grabbing onto Patricia's shoulder and sobbing directly into it. "I want to be a hero! I r-really do!" she basically yelled as she cried into Patricia shoulder. "I don't want to kill people anymore, or have to stay hidden from HERO or hurt people or do bad things or help the mafia! I j-just want things to be...more normal," the girl moaned, her face planted directly into Patricia's arm, two waterfalls flowing from her eyes as she ranted. "You have to understand, I don't w-want to be a monster! I r-really don't! But my dad...he's always watching, he'll f-find-"

Kat stopped talking all of a sudden, looking up from Patricia's shoulder as an eerie, almost unnatural coldness filled the room out of nowhere. Kat looked over, eyes red and leaking tears like mad, as she saw that across the room, on the little perch, Bellatrix had awoken. The blue creature with the single golden eye stared at the two, and Patricia could immediately feel that this creature had unholy powers, that it could change people. While Patricia only felt a slight sensation from the creature, not enough to cause drastic changes in her personality, the creature was staring directly at Kat, and the girl seemed to be changing. She pulled away from Paricia, sitting on the bed, staring at the creature.

"Katharine~" the Spectator said in an unfitting, feminine tone, the bat-like creature still watching Katharine. "That was a very naughty thing to say."

Kat wiped her eyes, her face returned to that steely, cold, villainous glare, the one on her face when she took out Martino and Brie. "Right. That was foolish. Of course I want to be a villain." She giggled, but this giggle wasn't a teenage 'oh, that was funny' giggle- it was a giggle of an insane person. Kat stood. "I should go. Shouldn't keep the prisoners waiting long. Where did I keep those pliers?"

"That's right," the Spectator crooned. "Now, let's get our guest here acquainted to Zero." As Bellatrix the Spectator's gaze focused onto Patricia, Patricia felt a splitting headache come on and disturbing thoughts fill her head. Murder, bloodlust, murder, brutality, murder, betrayal, murder...all of these dangerous, evil sentiments swarmed her brain, accompanied by a pounding migraine. Fortunately for her, this only lasted a few seconds as Katharine literally swiped at the Spectator. "Leave her alone!" Kat shouted at the creature, who fluttered up back to her perch quickly, the effects on Patricia wearing off as quickly as they came. Bellatrix shook her one-eyed head. "So protective, almost heroic. Well, at your request, Madam Malady. Let's go get that torture out of the way. Leave her here. We can deal with her later."

Kat nodded obediently. "Right, later," she said, grabbing a pair of pliers from her drawer as the creature fluttered onto Kat's shoulder like a pirate's parrot. Kat walked out, unlocking and opening the door, She turned her head back to face Patricia, looking into the room, her scary crimson eyes tinged with sadness. She opened her mouth, and she appeared to mouth the word "escape" at the girl before closing the door. As Kat's footsteps faded down the hallway, there was no familiar turn of the deadbolt. The room was unlocked.

@canaryrose

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Blake moaned as he struggled against the net. It was very uncomfortable and very tight, and had him been very roughly to the ground. He looked over at Rumi, who had managed to dodge the net and was currently questioning him on why he didn't do the same. "I'm not used to people coming out unscathed from that much fire, Rumi. That was enough fire to toast even Will with his water shield. This guy is intense," Blake muttered as Rumi continued to go to work on the net. Though his knife cut quick, the net was very thick ad and composed of many different fiber ropes. "Listen, give me a moment and I can burn my way out once my fire comes back. G-go help Jamie," Blake said, nudging his head over in Jamie's direction. He was watching the fight from his position on the ground, and for once, he wasn't confident that Jamie had this one in the bag.

Meanwhile, over by the fight, a loud gong-like noise echoed out as the vibrational blasts hit Paradox, but the robot-man, or whatever he was, was hardly affected. Paradox, instead of being blown to kingdom come, only stepped back three steps, his mask (or helmet, or headpiece, or head, whatever it was) still analyzing Jamie like she was a guinea pig (which she possibly was). "Damage capacitance calculated. Result: wholly inadequate output. Damage to outer shell: 7.4%." There was a whirring of metal as what appeared to be two gatling guns, one on each of Paradox's forearms, formed, and Paradox aimed both weapons at Jamie. "Lethal force: unnecessary. Plasma incapacitators readied. Firing now."

A barrage of green pellets of energy rained down on Jamie from the two gatling guns. The weapons were not lethal, and did not even pierce the skin, but they hurt like a bitch, and they stunned, like there was was some type of charge. After bombarding Jamie with the stun pellets for a solid 10 to 15 seconds, Paradox raised his arms, the gatling guns disassembling and re-entering his forearms. Paradox waited for the dust to clear patiently. "We will see if my plasma incapacitators are sufficient to deal with HERO rated S-tier threats."

Meanwhile, as Blake watched in near horror, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and he heard Tom's voice say, "Hey, Blake!" That meant that Tom was texting him. Blake kind of wanted to check his texts, but he knew it was a very bad time to do so, so he instead waited. It probably was just a funny meme or something anyway, not an emergency, after all.

@canaryrose (again), @Scarifar

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Grace sat there helplessly. She did not like the feeling of being helpless. She hated this feeling. Portals had given her the ability to be anything but helpless, to be useful, and feeling this emptiness, this lack of power, it hurt. She did a smile a bit as Tom gave her a hug, though. She did like hugs, and the re-assurance from Tom gave her enough energy to pick herself up and crawl over to the hole where Tom was looking before. She peaked through again to observe the scene below, where thankfully they hadn't noticed any of the light or the kerfuffle above. She saw a superbly attractive young mafioso talking to Angelica.

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"Well," Tommy was saying, looking over at Angelica. "He's been...he's been doing work with this organization. Zero, they call themselves. They're a real shady organization. I don't like them one bit. But apparently, they have a lot of money and influence, and my old man is all about money and influence, so they've been in cahoots. Trading heroes for money. It's some sick stuff to be messing with human lives, though. I can live with coke and guns. Heroes, though?" Tommy shook his head, and continued to shake his head as Angelica offered any sort of help.

"Listen, I don't want a nice lady like you getting caught up in this. This isn't just some normal mafia stuff you see in Goodfellas. I've met two of Zero's guys, and they're scary powerful. I mean, Dad is a good fighter, one of the best, if not the best, but I think even he would have a tough time going toe-to-toe with one of Zero's goons." Tommy shook his head. "Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't like putting ladies in harm's way. Especially ones that are so sweet as you are." His hand had found Angelica's hand, and he lifted it up, looking into her eyes. "A quick kiss, m'lady?"

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Grace stopped looking then, pulling her head up as Tom finished sending the last text. It seemed Angelica was doing well for herself for the time being, getting all lovey-dovey with the Greek god mafioso boy, though the facade couldn't last forever. She turned to face Tom as he sent his last text. "I think I said this already, but I'm sorry for being useless." She sighed, looking down and scooting closer to Tom, as she waited. Her violet eyes moved over to his own, and she started to speak, but then shook her head and sighed again, looking away. Her whole body was shaking. She knew that any wrong move, and they would likely be very forcefully dragged out of the cellar to their demise.

Well, she did sign up for this, she supposed.

Meanwhile, not long after Tom had sent his text, Christina responded.

"Hi Tom, this is Christina. Powers briefed me about your mission ahead of time, so I know. Thank God you're OK. I need you to listen to everything I say closely.

I sent an alert to Division X and some other heroes, they'll be on their way shortly. I also sent an alert to Powers, hopefully he'll be back soon. Everybody is on their way, we will help ASAP

Try and find everybody before they get killed, and pls don't get killed yourself. Stay safe. See u soon.

-Christina

PS- if u run into Vinnie, try and lure him outside. trust me. otherwise, kick some ass

@KaijuBaragon@sleepy

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