Hitman

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

"Nooooo..."

Dakota's groan was almost guttural in nature, a most unpleasant noise escaping her lips as she felt Sister Lark's hand against her shoulder. She tried to prattle through some excuses at first. "Sister, it's too early, I had a long day yesterday, I need sleep, my body clock is gonna be ruined, please~..." Dakota attempted, having since rolled onto her stomach, but it seemed as though Sister Lark was not going to budge, so Dakota reluctantly crawled out of her sleeping bag like a butterfly leaving its cocoon for the first time, giving a couple stretches as she listened to what Sister Lark had to say. Roommates. Dakota was surprised that she was so troubled about the rooming list. Dakota was the type of person that could get along with most people pretty well, and she thought that she had a pretty good relationship with most of the girls, at least, but the events of the previous night had planted a seed of irritation in her chest.

"Pancakes sounds nice," Dakota noted, taking in one last whiff of the wonderful outdoors before picking up Astro, who was still curled up by her sleeping bag. "Come on, little guy," Dakota cooed, carrying the ferret in her arms while simultaneously following the rest of the group back to the house, her hands linked behind her head as she strolled back. The smell of pancakes wafted through the air, and Dakota couldn’t help but crack a bright smile as she strolled into the doors of the Coven house. It was when all the newly-inducted witchlings raced into the foyer like a pack of wild dogs hunting meat that caused Dakota to suddenly remember the rooming situation. Dakota did a quick sign of the cross before crossing both her fingers and her toes. She then elbowed past a couple of witchlings and stood on her tippy-toes to see...no Summer! Sadly, Dakota hadn’t ended up with Callie- she matched Calypso’s look of disappointment quickly before looking back at the board- but Rebecca seemed pretty chill overall. And Iris was...well, interesting. Overall, it wasn’t a bad haul at all. Dakota was a little disappointed that she wasn’t with Calypso, but it wasn’t like them being in separate rooms would compel them to live separate lives until the end of time. Dakota had ways, anyway.

The brunette entered the kitchen and deposited Astro on a table, snagging a pancake and tossing it over to the ferret like a frisbee. "Bon appetit!" she called to the familiar, who began to devour the pancake, before she then promptly piled up on pancakes with zeal, the four flapjacks stacked so haphazardly that they looked like a toppling Jenga tower. Syrup dripped like raindrops from the pancakes as Dakota located Calypso and made her way over, aggressively sticking the fork directly into the stack to free up her hand. "Looks like you have a fun room!” Dakota said with a warm smile as she spoke. "Fun rooms for a fun summer, right? Anyway, make sure you leave your window unlocked tonight. I might swing by once it gets dark out if you don’t mind. Maybe bring Curly and Beck too." Dakota smiled. "Might want to hurry up and eat those pancakes before they get all soggy," she commented, using her fork to cut off a corner, before promptly stuffing it into her mouth. She swallowed and smiled again. "I packed a ouija board that I'm 99% sure has a real ghost in it, we totally have to try it at some point. Plus, nobody can possibly stand going a whole summer with no Astro!" Dakota chuckled as she cut off another piece of pancake. "Thanks for...well, thanks for everything last night, Cal. I owe you one, big time."

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Unlike Dakota, who would have slept through the whole month had she not been interrupted, Jean-Luc was an early riser. The early bird catches the worm, after all, and Jean-Luc was not the type to give up the worm so easily. And so he had gotten up a good bit before everybody else, just as the sun began to creep its way into the sky, and made his way back to the coven house. He kept his hands in his pockets, walking casually through the dewey forest, looking down at the path as he went.

Jean-Luc was quite happy, truth be told, to be done with the forest. He liked nature as much as the next guy, and certainly didn’t have a problem with forests, or trees, or living things. However, when he was forced to sleep surrounded by these things throughout the entire night, with only a sleeping bag to comfort him, he became less fond of the natural elements. Jean-Luc audibly sighed with relief as the coven house came into view from behind the trees. Civilization again, at long last.

As he made his way over to the porch, he saw one of the elders- Sister Lark- pass him by and walk out to the forest, from whence he had come. "Just a touch early, then," he said to himself as he made his way into the house, hearing the hustle and bustle of the kitchen immediately. His eyes, instead of wandering towards the source of the commotion, however, instead moved towards the bulletin board; notably, a new document that had been freshly pinned moments before. Jean-Luc walked through, glad he had just dodged the crowd, and leaned in to take a glance. "Charlie..." he noted, again to himself, as he looked at the list. He was rather familiar with the other youth, though neutral in opinion of him, as he was of a great majority of people in the Coven. He was a bit too nice, in his opinion, but not too annoying, which was good. Jean-Luc didn’t know who this other Jeremy fellow was at all. Maybe a younger witchling that got thrown into the bunch? Still, Jean-Luc would’ve thought that he would have heard of them by now. Lovelie was a gossip machine.

"Well, let’s get situated," Jean-Luc instructed his luggage, before waving his hand. His bags gently lifted off into the air and followed Jean-Luc up the stairs, into the as-of-yet empty room. ”Go. Unpack. And hurry," Jean-Luc snapped, and the bags wasted no time, immediately depositing all manner of stuff on top of the nearby single bed and into the closet as if all his luggage had a mind of its own. The last bag was less of a bag and closer to a carrier box, which Jean-Luc happily flicked open, a tanned and patterned boa constrictor slinking out. Jean-Luc took the snake into his hands, looking at it with much more appreciation and joy than he ever did with any of his peers. "Here’s your new home, Ghede. Hope you find it suitable," Jean-Luc said, allowing the serpent to slither from his arms into a glass vivarium that had unpacked itself. Smiling as he fell back on his bed, Jean-Luc snagged a book on charms that he had left on his bed, and began to read, kicking his feet up and relaxing. Soon the other two would be coming to disrupt him, but for now, Jean-Luc was alone, and that was the way he liked it best.

Coil: Pantheon Divided (A Modern Day Mythology/Urban-Fantasy)

Saw the word "Pantheon," I'm in

《 H. E. R. O. 》

"Police officer. Trust. Right," Grace said, her face taught with visual reluctance, but the facts of the situation did not lie. Alpha was sorely outnumbered by the rest of the group; Grace considered the idea of a single cop/hero overpowering four other trained heroes (alright, three heroes and Chad) rather improbable. He could call for backup, which was a lingering threat, but as Pandora had said earlier, there was no reason for Alpha to risk coming alone to the flower store- if his plan was to come and arrest them, it was likely the group would either be busy fending off hordes of SWAT intruders or in the back of a police van already. Considering that neither of those options were the case, and that Christina had already confided in Alpha, Grace figured it would be reasonable enough to give the cop some trust. Not too much trust, mind, but enough. Grace turned to look at Patricia. "I think it's safe to trust him. For now," Grace said, looking over to examine the man again. He seemed very dignified, monotonous, and respectful- something that Grace would normally find to be superior characteristics to have, but in these times, she saw them as much more unpredictable. At least with somebody like Jamie, you can instantly know who you're working with.

"Let's go upstairs. I have a plan...well, I have the fledglings of a plan, which I guess will be enough for the time being," Grace said, rubbing her temples to let the thoughts flow as she made her way up the stairs. Once she ascended back into the apartment portion of the flower shop, Grace made her way across the room, crossing her arms and tapping her foot in a way that indicated 'I am the one with the plan, I am in charge, listen to me.' Once she was reasonably sure everybody was paying attention, she spoke. "Alright, so, with a little bit of research, there are 3 locations that I think are crucial to EAGLES at this point in time. One of them is Seraph's private island, Elmore Island." Grace put a potted bonsai tree on the table, apparently to indicate the island. "All indications suggest that this is EAGLES' temporary headquarters and a sort of meeting place for the organization, and for good measure. The entire ground floors are insulated from an intrusion with heavy security, so no boating in, and Seraph likely has some measure of air security in place to prevent us from flying in. I've also never been to Seraph's private prison hellhole before, so portaling in would be a crapshoot, and considering that the whole place is probably secure, it's not one that favors us. We'd probably just get arrested on the spot, so for now, I think we should save an invasion of the island for later." Grace draped a handkerchief over the mini tree.

She then, continuing on this motif, removed two more potted plants and put them on the table, in front of the now-covered bonsai. "I think our better bet is to focus on two other locations that the Wings have their eyes on. HERO One and Club 27," Grace continued. "Club 27 is where Patricia allegedly murdered a whole bunch of people, but that's an obvious lie, so I think if we want to get Patricia off the hook, we should go there. It's probably still crawling with cops, and it's likely going to be a trap, but we'll be prepared for it. Hopefully the club will give us a clue as to how the Wings of Law managed this coup in the first place, anyway. I have a sneaking suspicion that they aren't working alone. The last time they tried to kill us, they dumped us on a movie set full of ogres. This attempt seems too serious and successful to be just Seraph's handiwork." Grace pushed the pot of magnolias next to the covered bonsai before moving over a nice pot of daffodils. "The other location of significance is HERO One. Seraph probably has some heroes set up around there, but from what I've seen he's been locked out of the tower, and considering that his HERO clearance was revoked, I'm fairly certain that neither him nor the other two of his head cronies could get in. " Grace surmised. "He'll probably have some old heroes on his payroll at HERO One, and maybe some...old friends," Grace finished weakly, before taking a deep breath. "Sorry...anyway, HERO One has a lot of weapons and gear to make use of, and it also probably has floor plans of Seraph's island, considering that Seraph used to contract his prison out to HERO. Both locations carry a lot of significance, so it might be wise to split up, divide and conquer. Of course, if any of you are going to duck out, now would be the time to speak up. I would hate to drag your personal life into our mess for no reason," Grace said solemly.

"If anybody has anything to say, or anything to add..." She looked to Pandora, then Chad, then Alpha, "...your information would be much appreciated. If not, we should get ready to go. The longer we wait, the more time it gives Seraph to prepare himself, and the more time it gives to his henchmen to hunt us down and haul us to Coldwater."

@Duoya @Zoey Boey @canaryrose @Amethyst @DarkRecon

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The Illuminator (also known as "Bulb Bongo") stared at Starbright in a combination of suspicion, disbelief, and plain hysterics. This guy thought that he could just BRIBE him! Hah! That was sad! The Illuminator laughed heartily, now confident that Starbright was just dumb, before charging up his power suit, preparing to blast him to oblivion. Just before he could do so, though, he was hit in the side by his Australian friend, who Christina had roughly thrown off of her, and the two crashed in tandem into the wall. Meanwhile, Perfected Physique had just as little luck. After being slammed up and down several times, he had managed to get close enough to sock Tom in the face, but before he could do it, he was thrown into the ceiling again, and that was one too many flips for him to handle. Perfected Physique's perfected physique fell to the ground with a thud.

Christina dusted off her hands. "Nice work. Lucky thing that ol' Brad here's ego is much bigger than his brain is," Christina quipped as she casually picked up Perfected Physique and put him inside one of the large armor suits underneath Jamie's name. The armor suit slid shut, encapsulating his body inside. Christina explained, "The AQS only operates with Samantha's permission, which Perfected Physique doesn't have. So he'll just be stuck inside this impossibly heavy suit of armor. Hopefully he doesn't have claustrophobia," Christina said as she tied the other two heroes/villains together with a length of cord. "Anyway, let's go," Christina said, walking over to the elevator. Unlike the regular HERO elevator, the elevator in the vault was smaller, glass, tubular, and even more advanced-looking than their regular counterparts. "Private elevators. They move unseen behind the regular elevators. Get in," Christina explained as she stepped into the elevator. "Samantha, take us to the executive offices."

The elevator whirred and carried them upwards, moving silently through the floors of HERO undetected. As they passed by unseen, the group could hear the words of some of the HEROs (or more accurately, EAGLES) as they passed along, statement such as "wow, can you believe Powers is dead? I can't," "I mean, I didn't LIKE Aria, but I didn't think she was a mass murderer...apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess," and "how many abs do you think Starbright has? I mean, he's gotta have at least an 8-pack...maybe a 10-pack," and other assorted nonsense. The elevator stopped on the 14th level, and slid open smoothly to reveal...the inside of a broom closet. Christina swung the broom closet door open, though, to reveal a familiar hallway. The hallway was where Christina and Powers' offices were. Right down the hall was Powers' office, the common destination for any miscreant behavior, but Christina made a right and opened the door to her office instead. Christina's office was nearly as spacious as Powers', but much less meticulous- there were papers strewn about everywhere, all manner of forms spread out across the table like a blanket, a couple framed pictures of Zoe and Christina together sitting on the desk as well. Around the room on various racks were a variety of guns. Christina sat down on her desk. "Place looks as neat as ever; EAGLES haven't been able to get here yet. Good thing. Alright, here's the plan. Step one: we take back HERO One. Take out the actual traitors that actually jumped boat, you know, and get this building back. I'm going to activate the flare up on the roof, which'll signal for any of the other heroes to get the hell over here. Tom can hopefully help me out- the flare is tough to activate, don't know why, but it is. As for Starbright..." Christina rummaged through her draw and pulled out a Macbook a moment later. "Take this and make a video. Get people rallied up against Seraph, put it on YouTube or some other streaming site," Christina said, giving him a serious look. "If we're gonna take out Seraph once and for all, we need people to really hate him. Seraph is empowered by success. So, go do what you do best and make the people swoon. And also, don't look at my personal photos, please. There's some very private stuff there. Now, come on, Tom, let's go."

Christina guided Tom back to the broom closet and tapped on a few bricks of the wall, like she was playing piano with the stones. The hidden, private elevator slid open again, and Christina stepped inside again, directing it up a few floors. The doors swung open again to the crisp air of HERO's rooftop, way up in the sky, overlooking much of Castleburg. It was raining, but not heavily, a light drizzle and cool dusky air making the summer heat much more tolerable. There were two guards standing on the rooftop, but Christina didn't even need Tom's help with them, quickly incapacitating them both before they could say "jackknife." Christina then ushered Tom across the rooftop, gesturing towards a large metal cube jutting out of the ground. "Here it is. The HERO flare. If you remember, it's only activated during emergencies, when all heroes are needed at HQ," Christina said, pressing a button on the top of the box. The sides of the metal slid down, revealing an old, cannon-like machine beneath, halfway inside the roof of the building. "Grab onto the side and pull it up...this thing is halfway inside the fucking roof, and it's heavy as fuck, I don't know why Powers insisted on keeping it, it's from, like, the 1990s," Christina said condescendingly as she grabbed one side of the cannon, pulling up. Even with their combined force, the cannon only moved up slowly, creaking along as it did.

As the two pulled the cannon out of the roof, Christina looked at Tom. "You look worried about something, and you aren't hiding it well...is it you-know-who?" Christina asked, raising an eyebrow. "Listen, I'm sure the two of you will hammer things out. You guys have great synergy. Bounce off each other really well. Let's just focus on the here and now...Grace won't hate you, I'm sure, once she realizes. And she's smart; she'll figure it out quick," Christina said comfortingly, as the cannon creaked to a halt, now positioned atop the roof at an 85-degree angle. "You need her, anyway. I'm not sure how you made it for so long without somebody taking care of your ass..." Christina said with a smirk, bending down and putting her finger on a button on the cannon. "Now, cover your ears, and watch."

With a loud bang, Christina sent the flare soaring midair, a sparkling red star of fire that hovered way up in the sky, as if my magic, red sparks fluttering down from it in the rain. Christina smiled proudly as the flare glowed brightly in the sky. "Alright, good news, that'll probably get some attention. Bad news...that'll probably get some attention," Christina said, before spontaneously ducking behind an air vent. "Deal with it!" Christina whisper-yelled at Tom."You're still in their good graces, play the part!"

Two heroes ran out of the normal elevator, running over to the flare cannon, and seeing Tom. "Spacewalker! Tom!" one of them, a young woman with shiny blonde hair in a latex suit named Brightside, called out, waddling over to Tom's location. The other hero, a heavily mustachioed man named Beardman, was examining the cannon. Brightside looked at Tom, a bit suspicious and a bit confused. "What's going on here? Who fired the flare? What are you doing? You know Seraph gave specific orders not to touch that thing, right? Arrrgh...you've screwed everything up, I'm going to call Seraph right now, he's going to be pissed..." the woman ranted, grabbing her phone. "This is a fucking nightmare, Seraph is going to KILL US...uggh..."

@KaijuBaragon@Jumbus

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Grace smiled as Patti rejected her offer to get portaled off to Australia, before being enveloped inside a giant hug. She gave Patricia a few comforting pats on the back, both to signal her approval and tell her that she was squeezing way too damn hard. Regardless of being crushed slowly to death but Patricia's hug, Grace was still highly pleased. She was pretty sure that what she had said would be more than enough to not have Patricia leave, but these were uncertain times. "I'm glad," Grace wheezed out as Patricia crushed her ribs, before audibly gasping as Patricia let go (she was really out of shape). "You are one of the bravest people I've ever met," Grace mused as she nursed her ribs. "If I was in your shoes, I might've caved in already, really. I feel so sorry for you...but now isn't the time for a pity party, I guess," Grace quipped as she looked over towards the closed door that led to the stairs. "You're right, though, " she commented she gave a nod. "We should deal with that police officer. If we get the drop on him, I can suck him into a portal quickly, though if that doesn't work you could probably hypnotize him...odds are, he's equipped with some sort of contingency against you, though, so it'll be mostly me..."

As Grace thought up a plan for how to best incapacitate the police officer, she heard a pissed-off sounding voice that she remembered as belonging to Pandora's calling out to them again, saying "Bypass? Aria? Bullet? This cops on our team. He's a traitor." Grace looked down at the floor, as if she could see Pandora through it. "Well..." Grace began quietly. "Unexpected..." Her eyes laid focused on the ground. She didn't exactly trust Pandora, but the young(?) woman was a hero, as burned-out as she seemed to be, and she was would certainly have had reason to assume the mysterious officer was a traitor, or else she would've have publicly yelled it out. There was the possibility that Pandora was selling them out to save her own skin, and unlikely as it was, Grace was still aware of the possibility. She had been betrayed once already; another one seemed natural.

Regardless of her misgivings, Grace still opened a portal on the ground, giving a nod to Patricia before jumping through. She materialized on the other end as though she had fallen straight through the ceiling, landing gracefully on the ground next to Alpha. Stepping out of the way of the portal, she lifted her hand, purple energy sparking around her fingers as she pointed at Alpha threateningly, in case he tried anything. "What do you want?" Grace asked, a stern look on her face as she stayed locked-on to Alpha, ready to blast him in a moment's notice. The girl that had fallen through the ceiling was not the same one that had come into the shop, and while her makeup was messed up, the expression on Grace's face displayed a thousand times more confidence than it had before.

@Duoya @Zoey Boey @canaryrose @Amethyst @DarkRecon

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"Just about. We're making a quick stop over to HERO One before we head over to have a lovely chat with Seraph. I have some new judo moves I've being dying to try out," Christina said ominously as she piloted the helicopter through the rainy weather. She tilted her head as Starbright spoke. "That's an old movie, you know...but interesting idea. I think you might be underestimating Seraph, though, he'll just have his lawyers strike the footage down under some bullshit law, and he'll probably pocket some money for libel on the way. But hopefully we can keep stirring the water. The more things are messed up for EAGLES, the better." she said, tapping her thumbs against the yaw as she piloted the helicopter. "Besides, I'm too cool to go to jail. Tom, on the other hand..." She snickered, but quickly regained her composure. "I did have a better plan, if I might say so myself. We get some gadgets and secure HERO One, then we head to their little castle and clobber the ever-loving shit out of them," Christina said as the helicopter flew towards HERO One, but instead of moving towards the heli-pad, shot right past it, instead going towards the coast of Passenger Island. "Anyway, I wouldn't say that we really needed your help, more that you needed ours. If we bailed on the mission, the Wings would've sent somebody much more devious that would probably have finished the job." Christina shrugged. "Would've been more work for Seraph to shelve, true, so that might've actually worked out in our favor, but probably not in yours, which means that you owe us. Luckily, part of my master plan could use somebody of your...special talents," Christina said after a moment of consideration. "So considering that we saved your ass, you should probably come with us out of honor. Plus, if you do survive, which is most likely, you'll be more famous than ever before. They'll make movies out of you. Well, they already do, but they'll make better movies about you. Here's the landing."

Christina pulled the yaw, bringing the helicopter down to the ground and landing it right by a small park bench and trash can that was facing HERO One. She stepped out of the helicopter, giving a longing glance to HERO One before looking back at the passengers. "This is highly confidential stuff I'm showing you, OK?" Christina asked, looking over at the two. "So don't blab about it to anybody you don't trust. I'm looking at you, Noah. If word of this gets to any publication, news source, anything, I will put you through a world of hurt. Ever tried starring in a movie with two black eyes and missing teeth? Make-up can't fix everything," Christina said darkly, before smiling again almost too suddenly. "Alright, follow me!"

Christina walked over to the trashcan, looking around as she did so. "Nobody here...the perfect spot. Nice treeline blocks off the view, and no path means no old people really use this place...Powers knows his stuff," Christina said admiringly, before coughing and speaking. "Samantha, this is Assistant Director Christina Lavender, here with heroes Spacewalker and Starbright, under my authority," she said, speaking to what seemed like the trashcan, and miraculously, the trashcan responded in a chirpy, light female voice. “Greetings, Assistant Director Lavender. The tunnel is ready to use.”

"Excellent," Christina said, and then she did something very strange. She stepped into the large trashcan, submerging herself about halfway into the can. "Follow me after. Don't worry, there's no trash in here," Christina explained, and then she suddenly vanished, like the trashcan had sucked her inside. She was gone in the blink of an eye.

Where Christina went was probably the single most exciting thrill ride in all of history. She had gone down a streamlined white tube that shot down and then across at rapid speeds, like some sort of extremely high-speed intense tube waterslide, zipping across parallel to the water at high speed for a longish period of time before rapidly dropping them into a chamber with a stretchy foam floor to cushion from the fall. Christina was leaning against the wall, smiling. "Fun, isn't it? Powers just wanted to have a walking tunnel, but I figured this was much more time-effective and much, much cooler," Christina briskly guided them into the hallway beyond the bouncy room. "Welcome to HERO's negative third floor. Advanced weapon storage," Christina said, guiding them into the hallway. "We have some gizmos we need to pick up quickly."

The -3 Floor of HERO was made of stark white walls and corridors. The walls were covered in all sorts of high-tech weaponry, including all manner of futuristic-looking pistols, rifles, machine guns, swords, shields, everything. Christina seemed mostly disinterested in these gadgets, though, only briefly stopping to snag a silenced pistol off the wall and holstered it on her waist. "Nice gun...but we have bigger fish in this lake," Christina said as she approached a large steel door. She pressed her palm against the scanner, and in a second the doors slid open, revealing another corridor. "Welcome to our Contingency Hall."

The Contingency Hall was a long hallway that looked similar to a museum, with glass exhibition cases lining the corridors. Inside the cases were a bunch of varying items, some that looked like weapons, but some that looked like household tools and everyday items. There were labels in front of the cases, but instead of describing the items, they had hero names on them. Christina walked in front slowly like a docent, speaking informatively. "This is where we keep all of our specialized gadgetry, in case any of you decide to betray us like Seraph just did. It happens very rarely, but you never know. Plus, some of the villains we face can be subdued using the gadgets, and Coldwater sometimes reverse-engineers the gadgets for their cells. It's some top-tier tools in here, though hopefully we won't have to use most of them anytime soon. Here's Piranha Man's, it's a fish repellent, we got the idea out of an old Batman TV show," Christina explained as she walked, elaborating on the various strange gadgets found in the hall as she continued on. "As you can see, the hallway is ordered from B- to A+. We don't have anything designed for most C-tiers, we just keep some general equipment in a storage room over there, it would be too expensive to make gadgets for every single HERO, so we cut back a bit...here's yours, Starbright, it's a camera whose flash causes your skin to turn green and makes you all ugly, it's a fun bit of tech..." She continued walking. "Here's Patti's, we call it the Anti-Mic, it looks like a microphone but it actually absorbs most sound within about 15 meters, pretty cool stuff. We also have Grace's, but I'm not sure what it does exactly, all I know is that it messes up her powers, makes it so her portals don't work, and we have Brie's, it's a mini lightning rod...and here's the A-tiers!" Christina slowed down a bit as she looked around. "There's Blake's, it's basically a freeze ray that functions as a fire extinguisher, cool stuff, and here we have yours, Tom, there's some anti-gravity grenades, they make a bubble where gravity just doesn't work...a-ha!" Christina stopped at three adjacent cases with various equipment inside.

"Samantha, open cases 37, 38, and 39," Christina said, and the glass slid open a second later. Christina removed what appeared to be an awl, a paper bag, and a dart gun from the exhibits, before closing the cases. "These are for the Wings of Law. This pointy thing is made of some really weak metal, so it turns Mr. Impressive into a melting heap of crap, it's probably hilarious, actually...this bag is full of hyper-absorbent sponges, good for any water user, so you could shrivel up Will pretty easily with this as well, and this dart gun has a nerve agent that turns off wings. It's for Seraph, but you could use it on Priestess if you want, it'd probably be funny," Christina mused, clipping the awl to her belt and handing the bag of sponges to Starbright. "Don't drop those..." she noted as she moved over to a second door, this one a large dark vault door with a giant golden S on the middle. "This is the S-Tier vault. We'll use the private access elevator to get up to the top floor, and we'll take one of the jets over to Seraph's place," she explained, opening the vault door in the same manner she did the last. After releasing some steam, the vault doors slid open, revealing a large chamber that was lined with a variety of gadgets. Each S-Tier hero's name had an abundance of gadgetry underneath it. Jamie's had several suits of armor and a variety of futuristic-looking weapons underneath it, while Pandora's had a terrarium and a few sniper rifles there. More troubling than these measures, though, were the two three individuals standing in the middle of the room, facing the heroes with looks of victory on their faces.

The man standing in the middle was the unmistakable figure of Perfected Physique, a 6'3" hunk of a man with massive pectorals, a chiseled form, wavy brown hair, and a face that was very clearly modified to be youthful, but still betrayed his age. Perfected Physique was a member of the Wings of Law that transitioned successfully from a career in superheroism to one in modelling, and his fame had gifted him an upper-echelon position in the Wings of Law. Gifted with super strength, Perfected Physique (real name Bradley) dazzled the ladies for 20 years, and if he had his way he would be dazzling them for 20 more. He was, like most of the Wings of Law, a notorious womanizer, having had a long list of ladies to his name, but he had fallen out of the limelight in recent years, replaced by the younger heroes, whose attractiveness did not have to be kept with plastic and surgery. Standing at his flank were two (former) villains of familiarity. Devious Dingo was an Australian migrant with a propensity for explosive firearms that had run bazookas to crime families before being taken down, and The Illuminator was a villain that had tried to make a superweapon out of household lightbulbs, after having succeeded in creating a super-suit that could absorb light and fire energy blasts with it.

"I knew you were too crafty to be dead, Miss Lavender," Perfected Physique said with his syrupy, annoying voice. "The same with you two...I knew Seraph was wrong to trust you, Spacewalker, Zhenka is far too cozy with the younger heroes. I knew I had to go out on my own, find out what you were up to, so I snuck a peek at the phone reader, and I found you here...well, I guess it's time I let him know your true colors, eheheh?" Perfected Physique reached for his phone, but before he could put it to his ear, Christina had drawn her pistol and, with pinpoint accuracy, shot it out of his hand, sending it skidding to the floor, a perfect hole in the middle.

"Snitches get stitches, Brad," Christina quipped, but before she could line up another shot, Devious Dingo had rushed into action, drawing a baseball bat and smacking her roughly. Christina just avoided the blow, and rushed at the villain, pinning him against the wall and struggling to keep him still.

"Tom, fuck these pricks up!" Christina shouted as she wrestled with Devious Dingo. Meanwhile, the Illuminator approached Starbright, cracking his knuckles, and Perfected Physique cracked his neck as he stepped towards Tom. "Get ready to go down, pretty boy!" he said with a growl, before charging at Tom, aiming to tackle him to the ground.

@KaijuBaragon@Jumbus

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Grace held her sobs in as Patricia came into the bathroom to comfort her. Her ceaseless tears were replaced by heavy, distressed heaps of air as Patricia, much to Grace's surprise, gave her a big hug. This was not usual Patricia behavior; then again, this was not a usual time. She heard Patricia suggest, “Maybe we should leave the city...we can hide out somewhere in- in Chainstown, or something, until this whole thing blows over and everything is fine and normal again. I couldn’t- I can’t go to Coldwater, Grace. I can’t. And I know, like, Tom betrayed us and everything...” The words were like a punch to the gut for Grace, “but I know you’ll always be on my side. That makes you better than him.”

Grace felt Patricia's face lodge into her shoulder, and a wave of guilt washed over here like an ocean wave. This poor girl was wanted for a mass murder she didn't commit, and here Grace was crying over what? Some boy? Wiping her face again, she lifted herself off the ground, patting Patricia's back. "It's OK. It's OK," she said, giving her a gentle pat on the back. "Listen, Patti, if you want to go, that's your choice. I won't make you fight against your will," Grace said as calm as she could be. "But I...I have to stay here. Things aren't going to change, Patricia, you don't understand. ICOSA has wanted to get rid of HERO for a while. Seraph's coup is unorthodox, and he'll probably be fined or something, but EAGLES is here to stay unless somebody does something about it. And so long as EAGLES is in charge, you'll still be wanted, and they're going to hunt you until they find you, and they will find you," Grace said grimly. "Leaving now would just be giving up HERO, giving up on the city, giving up on Director Powers, giving up on yourself," she continued, her breath shaky but still holding onto conviction as she spoke.

She heard Pandora yell at them for crying from downstairs, and felt a pang of embarrassment, but continued on with her speech nonetheless. "If you want to leave...I'll get you out of here. One of my old teammates is Australian, and he's a good guy, he'll keep you safe and you can start a new life down under as an American transfer student. New name, new identity, new everything. If Eliza wants to go I'll take her out of here too. It's a long portal for sure, but if that's what you want I can do it." Grace wiped her eyes with her sleeve, though she wasn't crying anymore- she had found her stride now. "That's the only way you can escape for good, otherwise some overzealous hero will recognize you, and you'll be back here again. If that's your choice, it's your choice. But...I have no plan of running away. I'm going to bring that winged bastard and all his friends down...whatever it takes. And if you want to get everything back to normal, we're going to need everybody we can get," she said, looking Patricia dead in the eyes. "'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' Five hero organizations have that as their motto, for good reason. You're a hero, you make the change," Grace said firmly. "Being a hero isn't about the money, or the glamour, or the news coverage and media pampering, or about your hot new winged model girlfriend," Grace added pointedly."That's what Seraph and all his lowlife friends do it for. But that's not what it's really about. Being a real hero isn't about doing what's right when everybody loves you and the cameras are rolling. It's about doing the right thing all the time no matter what. The right thing right now, Patti, is to help me kill those bastards. OK, maybe not kill, but you know what I mean."

She took one last deep breath. "If you want to go, then this is the best time to say goodbye. I won't judge you. Promise." Grace waved her hand, opening a portal next to her. "But you have a commitment to HERO. A commitment to the Director...ex-Director...and that's not a commitment that can be easily broken." She looked at Patricia, a fierce fire in her eyes that was very rare in the young Korean girl, before adding, "and you know that I would die before I let them take you to Coldwater, Patti. No joke."

"Now, wipe your eyes and make your choice. Every second counts."

@Duoya @Zoey Boey @canaryrose @Amethyst @DarkRecon

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

Christina laughed at having caught Tom off-guard, giving him a bright smile as she piloted Seraph's helicopter through the Kingsdale sky."Smart. I think you have them fooled," she said, tilting the yaw and causing the helicopter to dodge out of the path of a weather balloon, before looking over to Tom again. "I graduated from Hahn with a degree in drama, actually. I was going to be an actress...then stuff happened," she said vaguely. "But I'm pretty good at acting, and I've been trained by Mossad in undercover operations, so I know a few things. I guess that's kind of my superpower, in a way." She smirked. "It also helps that the Wings are a bunch of dumb donkeys...that's really an insult to donkeys, though, if you catch my drift," she added, slowing the helicopter down significantly and lowering it down a couple clicks. The white-and-gold helicopter hovered midair in the sky, and Christina turned to face Tom.

"Powers is OK, but he's out of commission for a hot second. Wings poisoned his coffee with isolene, then they ambushed him in his office. Powers put up a fight, gave Mr. Impressive a nasty bruise on the eye, but they managed to get the upper hand." Christina scoffed. "A bunch of cowards. Anyway, he took a nasty fall...he's alive, thankfully, but he's not going to be fighting the Wings for the moment. We're moving him around the city, not letting him stay in one place." Christina paused, considering whether or not to speak more on the subject, before relenting with a small sigh. "Seraph is working with Zero. It works well...if Zero can get rid of HERO and bring in a new agency that's loyal to them, then that's a big win for them, gives them more leeway to execute whatever plans they have. ICOSA doesn't know, obviously, and they're slow as usual. It'll take at least a week for them to organize and make a decision on EAGLES, and odds are after that they'll just give Seraph a slap on the wrist before giving him the keys." She paused. "And if that happens, we're screwed. So we'll have to change that."

Christina moved the helicopter forwards again, slowly hovering through the wealthy districts of Kingsdale. "Anyway, here's the plan. First, we pick up Starbright. If we don't, the Wings will send two people a lot more sympathetic to them, and I for one plan on milking this disguise for as long as possible. Second, we make a trip to HERO One. This is classified intel, but we have a big vault underground with a bunch of technology, including some tech we have prepared as a countermeasure in case any of you guys decide to go rogue. We'll pick that stuff up; it'll give us a nice edge. Then we take the fight to them." Christina landed the helicopter deftly on the roof of Starbright's mansion. She reached into her shirt and pulled out two devices- a large black gun about the size of a sawed-off shotgun with a black hook protruding from the barrel, and what appeared to be a long black wand with a glowing red tip. She looked over to Tom. "Tom, your face," she said with an eyeroll, putting down the laser pen and picking up a tissue, rubbing at his face intensely. "Holy shit, it's like Priestess has some permanent marker goo in her lipstick, it's not coming off...well, worse comes to worse, I'm sure you two would make a fine pair. Kidding, of course. Stay here." Christina knelt down, putting the laser pen against the ceiling, and she carved out a person-sized circle on the roof. Once she completed the circle, the section of the roof promptly fell in, leaving a clean hole. Christina then hopped in herself, landing inside Starbright's lounge directly next to the couch.

"Nice view," she quipped, looking around, before quickly and very professionally moving towards Starbright. In a split second she had grabbed him by the shirt collar, hauling him over towards her, and simultaneously aiming her weapon upwards, sending the length of wire spiraling upwards and hooking onto one of the rotor blades of the helicopter. Christina (and Starbright) were then sent launched upwards rapidly, pulled out through the hole Christina made and briskly pulled up to the roof once again. Christina then promptly and quite effortlessly chucked Starbright into the bay of the helicopter. "This is for your own safety!" she called before turning back to Tom. "Let's go," she said, hopping into the helicopter and, before Starbright could try to escape, took off, hovering into the air.

"Shit, it's starting to drizzle...Tom, could you be a dear and explain to Starbright what's going on while I focus on flying this piece of crap? Jesus, you would think a millionaire would be able to afford a better helicopter than this..." Christina muttered as she flew the helicopter through the rain. "By the way, Tom, lipstick mark is still there."

@KaijuBaragon@Jumbus

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Meanwhile at Target, Nero was down and out in less than a second. The transformation was almost uncanny. One second he was winding up with a merciless blow, and then as soon as Jamie had barely touched him with his powers he had been thrown across a few checkout counters, screaming like a baby. "ARRRRRRRGH!" Nero yelled, sobbing hysterically into his helmet as he tried to crawl away from Jamie, though with little success. He looked around for some type of back-up but found that his ally, trusty old Dungeon Troll, was lying in a quivering ball on the other side of Target. Not exactly much help there. Nero tried to continue his escape but found there wasn't anywhere else to crawl, so instead he continued his mental breakdown. "Pleaseeee don't kill meeeeee!" he moaned as he sobbed into the floor.

Meanwhile, out on the streets not too far away, Wire-Man suffered a much less painless fate as Joseph overloaded his wiry body, the electrical shock causing Wire-Man to shut down. The good news for Joseph was that his stunt was not enough to be fatal, and only caused Wire-Man to faint backwards into the road. The bad news was that the roads in Castleburg are very busy, and one particularly rowdy ice cream truck driver gassed right past, steaming right over Wire-Man and dragging him underneath his tires down the boulevard. A few screams echoed out as Wire-Man was violently hauled off by the ice cream truck, but he was made of wires, after all. He would be fine, right? Right.

@canaryrose@Rabidporcupine

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Meanwhile at Polamor Inc, Snake Pit was really screwed this time. His powers didn't exactly work when he was sealed inside of some type of weird tar goop, and now Sir E. Brum was pointing a gun at him. A laser gun. Well, Snake Pit considered his contract with EAGLES totally void at this point. He was still technically a villain, after all, and villains betrayed people all the time, especially when their lives are at stake. And so Snake Pit decided to sing like a bird.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Ah, alright, man, listen, I don't know much about EAGLES, OK? They just pay me per job I do. I'll tell you everything I know, though, just please don't kill me! Listen, man, it's nothing personal, I own stock in your company and everything, you know, really love what you do, just don't kill me...alright, listen, Seraph told me that he needed you to break an encryption for him. He said that Hugo Powers locked all of HERO One down before he died, put the entire building under lock and key, and that Seraph can't access any of the files...Seraph thought you might have the access codes or something, that's why he wants you! Listen, man, that's all I know, I swear, he just wants to use HERO One but he can't, he's stuck working out of that stupid prison island that looks like a fucking castle, Elspore Island or something...that's everything, though, I swear! Please don't kill me, I have a wife and children and everything! Actually, that's a lie, I don't have either of those, but I have two dogs! You wouldn't kill a dog lover, right?" Snake Pit gave Rumi his best puppy-dog eyes as he pleaded for his life.

@Scarifar

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Grace's first impression of Pandora wasn't too positive too far, but if she had been in Pandora's shoes, her reception would have probably been similar. Trying to keep her emotions in check, she simply stood there as Pandora wordlessly listened to their plight. She was about to speak again, to propose some sort of plan, but the words ducked back into her throat as she heard a knock at the door, followed by the voice of...a police officer? That was bad. Very bad. Grace nodded at Pandora as the woman commanded her to go upstairs, before going to attend to the officer at the door. Grace didn't need to be told twice, scuttling quietly to the stairs and rushing up into Pandora's little apartment above the flower shop.

Once they were safely removed from the flower shop, Grace closed the door, took a couple deep breaths, and then turned to Patricia, her voice snappish but quiet. "Give me your laptop," Grace commanded, gesturing towards Patricia's backpack with her hand. She took Patricia's laptop, sitting down on Pandora's carpet while opening the laptop. "Purple galaxy? Seriously, Patricia, it's like your begging to look like an angsty teenager," Grace scoffed as she connected to a nearby Starbucks. She was not planning on asking Pandora for her Wi-Fi password. She then navigated to the HERO website. "They haven't touched HERO's website yet...and I haven't seen anything about EAGLES yet. Any official page, at least," Grace noted as she continued to type rapidly. "Nope, not a damn search. Either Seraph has doesn't have editing privilege to HERO's website, which is weird considering Powers is probably dead, or his IT is just awful," she commented quietly, as she continued to search.

Grace dug around the Internet for a hot minute before stumbling across Seraph's personal website. "Ugh, this hurts to look at," Grace muttered with clenched teeth as she scrolled down the page, looking for anything, but again, she found no results. She backed out of the page and was about to call it quits when she was a news article in her recommended bar. She clicked on it, pulling up a large picture of a castle. Grace read the article at a blistering speed, her features growing into a smile as she walked over to Patricia, practically shoving the laptop into her hands.

"Here!" she declared triumphantly, pointing at the news article from CCN. "Look here, this article says that Seraph used to own a private prison called Hawthorn on Elmore Island, just north of Kingsdale...it got contracted out to Coldwater and was used for a few years, but Seraph abruptly ceased operations just after he got his ass fired...but he never sold the land. Which means that Seraph basically owns an empty island. Or maybe not-so-empty." Grace smiled triumphantly. "Of course, we shouldn't rule out HERO One from consideration. It has much better security than some dinky castle that Seraph owns. We should probably split up, maybe scout them both out, and report back, but it might be dangerous to do that...especially now that Seraph probably knows more about my powers, thanks to..."

Grace trailed off, standing abruptly. "Sorry, bathroom," she said a little too quickly, her words coming out choked as she hurried towards Pandora's bathroom, swinging the door shut. Those that paid attention could hear quiet but despondent sobs from behind the bathroom door, which showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.

@Duoya @Zoey Boey @canaryrose @Amethyst

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The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Dakota smiled warmly as Calypso, always a sweetheart, ran off to make her some s'mores. Ah, well. Dakota did not particularly like being mothered, especially after essentially losing a fight, but Dakota, like any reasonable person, would not say no to s'mores. She crossed her legs and sat down on top of her sleeping bag, running her finger underneath her eyes to catch the remaining tear water and toss it. Her smile widened as Calypso returned with a pair of s'mores, eagerly taking one and taking a big bite. "For future reference, I like them a little burnt," Dakota said with a wink, though she still voraciously devoured the entire s'more in moments. Somehow, slicing her own wrist and doing a magic mumbo-jumbo ritual had not hurt her appetite in the slightest. She listened as Calypso rattled off a long list of ways that she wanted to help Dakota with, but Dakota only shook her head. "You're sweet, Cal....I'm feeling fine, I have water, my eyes are fine, and I'll get her back tomorrow." Dakota smiled at Dakota. "And I think you deserve a hug!" she added, shifting over and giving Calypso a friendly hug.

She shifted back, watching as Rowan came over with a cup of tea. "Guys, I don't need to be catered or anything," Dakota said with a half-chuckle, but she took the tea nonetheless, opting to just gulp it down instead of sipping it. She listened to Rowan, giving a cocky smile as she spoke. "Yeah, I got her pretty hard, it'll leave a nice bruise," Dakota said with a sneer, miming herself punching an imaginary Summer in the air. "No regrets." She smiled for a little longer before her face turned a bit more stern.

"Rowie, you're very optimistic and all, but you know as well as I do that Summer Abernathy is never, ever going to forget this," Dakota said with a serious face. "She started this war, and she's going to see it through to the end. And anybody who has ever gone to war with Dakota Lawson knows that it does not end well..." She trailed off there, her eyes looking around the area as she dreamed up potential ways to infuriate Summer. She had plenty already in mind. She looked over to Calypso fleetingly. "I think I'm gonna get some sleep, though. Thanks, you guys."

Dakota slid into the sleeping bag, looking over to Calypso. "Sleep with me?" she asked, before her face turned beet red. "Not like that! I just figured...in case Summer comes back and decides for Round 2, you'll be here...argh, forget it!" Dakota said, laughing off the embarrassment as she curled up in her bag. "Night, y'all," she said, before closing her eyes.

@canaryrose@Jumbus

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

_{Hawthorn Residential Center
Elmore Island
Kingsdale (Off-Shore), Castleburg}

Blake drifted in between consciousness and sleep as he sat, hunched over, on the mattress, his eyes staring plainly at a particularly large hole on its side. He snapped out of it, however, as he heard the door open. Blake wasn't the type to be easily scared (alright, he could get a little scared sometimes, but not my opening doors, usually), and under normal circumstances Blake would be unphased, but he nearly jumped through the ceiling as he heard the door open, his head whipping around in a split second as he looked over to see who had walked in, hoping like all hell that whoever it was didn't have on any sort of cloak and hood. He quickly settled down as he saw Tom- oh, he had never been happier to see his face!- walk in, before the realization hit him. If Tom was here, they had surely gotten him too, right? That couldn't be good. Still, Blake was, in a selfish way, glad that Tom was there. At least they were stuck together.

"Hi Blake..." Tom said awkwardly, seemingly at a loss of words for a moment, before continuing. "I'm sorry... This is probably, like, really shocking for you, but I'm here now. I'm here with Seraph. He was right, so... I've joined EAGLES. But they're gonna let you go, okay? Don't do anything stupid, just stop doing hero stuff..."

The words hit Blake like a punch to the gut. Never in a million years had he ever thought that Tom would take Seraph's side, the side of his captors. Tom had ripped up plenty of Wings of Law invitations in the past, hadn't he? Why would he now decide to switch sides? It didn't make any sense in Blake's mind, not a bit, as he leafed through years worth of friendship. Lost in thought, he distractedly listened to Tom continue. "It'll all be alright, Blake. Remember the mafia mission, it's just like that. EAGLES has the right idea about stuff, dude. It's a good thing they replaced HERO. I'll see you later."

Blake wasn't sure if it was the way that he had worded the sentence, or just his own faith pulling through, but he understood. Tom wasn't joining the Wings because of them, he was joining because of him! Seraph must've cut him a deal or something, and Tom figured that he could help Blake out by going along with it. The moment of joy at Blake's understanding was cut short, however, by a sudden realization. He had fucked up again. Blake's own stupidity, his own failure, his own worthlessness had screwed up not only himself, but his friend as well. Blake put his head in his hands, groaning, as Tom left. The headache had been gone for a hot second, but it was back now at full force, tearing into his brain like a sharp dagger. "FUCK!" he declared loudly as Tom had gotten to the door, tugging at his scarlet hair as the migraine only continued to press into his head.

As Tom exited, Seraph walked down the hallway, looking as smug as ever. He adjusted his tie as he looked at Tom. "Talk as we walk?” he proposed, striding down the corridor, wings folded neatly behind him. "He's not exactly in good shape, is he? Didn't seem to handle everything very well...don't worry, you have my word that he will be safe if you comply. He'll be back to normal so long as you don't try anything,” Seraph said as they entered the elevator, riding it down into the facility. It dinged a few floors later, and Seraph walked out into the elaborate room. The room was almost like a medieval version of the HERO Common Room, with gray stone walls, golden chandeliers, velvety coaches, and oak tables. A fireplace crackled in the corner, and a large TV screen was mounted on the wall, a bunch of green dots with the gang's names- Joseph, Grace, Patricia, Eliza, Jamie, Rumi, and Tom himself. "This tracks cell phones. We're using it to hunt down these degenerates," Seraph explained, gesturing to the screen. "It seems that Static is in Utica, attending some sort of electrician's convention. We don't have the time or resources yet to deal with her; we'll just take her down once she gets back to the city. That leaves 5 remaining. Sea Serpent, status?”

Sea Serpent floated over on a platform of water, sitting lazily on top. ”The two new agents are en route to apprehend Quake. Odds are, they're going to get demolished, but hopefully we can wear her down enough to the point where we can swoop in and take her out without much difficulty.” Her finger moved from Jamie's dot lazily over to Rumi. ”Across the city and IQ scale, Snake Pit is currently in conflict with Sir E. Brum. I'll check in on him in a second. I don't anticipate any problems from the nerd, but best to keep an eye on him. Phil is heading after the drunk one, should be an easy wrap there. Why did we include him on the list again?”

Seraph clenched his teeth. "Personal reasons. What about the last three?”

”Right, the Three Musketeers of 'bleargh.' Squinty seemed to have the brains to dump her phone, which Blister learned the hard way after digging through pounds of frozen fish. He's heading up to Kingsdale to her apartment now, thought I doubt the ugly beaver is heading there. She's probably out of town by now, but can't hurt to check.”

Seraph smiled at this. "Our new ally may be able to help hunt her down. But she isn't top-priority at the moment. The other two?”

”Wimpy and Grouchy are actually both at Grouchy's apartment. Billy is heading there now, along with two other new EAGLES recruits.”

Seraph nodded. "Excellent. I have big plans for the girl...anyway, Tom, as you can see, our plans are all coming together nicely. You picked the right side, that much I'll tell you.” Seraph put an arm around Tom's shoulders, like he was suddenly Tom's long-lost father and not nemesis up until this point. Seraph smiled at this. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a quick job for you to do. This Starbright fellow, he's been a real pain in our ass, recently. Not like you and your crew have been, mind, but he's been peddling conspiracy theories about the mysterious retirement of Hugo Powers...he's a nuisance, and I want him taken care of. Take him out. Lethally, non-lethally, doesn't matter. It would go a long way to helping your friend get a better home, if you catch my drift.” He paused. "Take Cynthia with you. Cosmetica, get over here!"

A young woman that looked roughly Tom's age sauntered over. Her face was covered with comical amounts of makeup, that made her look almost like a clown, and she had long, extremely shiny blonde hair that was tied up in a titanic up ponytail. She was wearing a jean jacket and jeans, a pink t-shirt with a rainbow peace sign underneath, and she had on extremely tall heels. That being said, she had a good build and, if she hadn't chosen to dress like a buffoon, could've been quite good-looking. Cynthia grabbed Tom's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Nice to meetcha, nice to meetcha."

"The two of you, head to Starbright's penthouse and take him off the map," Seraph commanded. "I have a nice helicopter on top; you can use that to reach him. Good luck," Seraph said, before walking off to talk to the other heroes, leaving Tom and Cynthia alone. Cynthia shrugged and walked down to the elevator, beckoning Tom to come along. She texted all the way on her glittery pink phone as the elevator chugged up to the helipad at a stupidly slow rate, dinging as it reached the top floor. Cynthia stepped out towards the white-and-gold luxury helicopter parked on the pad. "I call flying this bad boy!" Cynthia said eagerly, running around to the other side and hopping into the pilot's seat. "Get in!"

Once Tom was in and strapped up, the helicopter took off, fluttering off of Elmore Island slowly. The helicopter was extremely luxurious, with comfortable leather chairs and seat warmers, gorgeous interior design and a magnificent loading bay, and a television mounted above the passenger seat, right where Tom was sitting. The TV was currently featured Jack Roberts on CCN Headline, and several pictures of Tom on the rooftop earlier, including one with Priestess' lips planted on Tom's cheek, was currently on-screen. Though there was no sound at the moment, the headline read "SPACEWALKER X PRIESTESS- GRAVITY HERO NEWEST ANNOUNCED MEMBER OF FRESHLY-FORMED EAGLES SQUAD."

Cosmetica, one hand on the steering yoke and the other hand pulling at her blonde hair, shook her head. "Poor Grace. She's going to be crushed," she mused as she pulled the messy wig of blonde hair right off, revealing a head of shorter, hibiscus-red hair. She grabbed a wipe from her pocket, patting at the makeup on her face, before tossing it aside, looking over at Tom with a wide smile. "So, how did you end up in this mess?" Christina Lavender asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement and daring as she grinned at Tom.

@KaijuBaragon@Jumbus

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_{Polamor Inc. Headquarters
Castleburg}

Meanwhile, Snake Pit was on the ground, looking rather sorry for himself as Rumi planted his knee into his chest. He struggled to wiggle himself free, but found himself totally pinned to the ground. This Rumi fellow looked like a simple breeze would send him to the ground, but his wiry frame actually packed quite a punch. Furthermore, the bastard had used some sort of mini-EMP stick or something to turn off all his armor and his acid gun. This was turning out to be much more of a pain in the ass than Sea Serpent had told him it would be. Still, Snake Pit was not a villain just because of fancy gadgets. He had his own powers too, and this Sir E. Brum loser was about to get a taste of that.

"EAGLES? Up to?" Snake Pit said innocently, before activating his powers. A plume of green gas rose from Snake Pit's body and, as if acting on its own, flew towards Rumi's face like a moth moving after a light. The green gas, toxic if inhaled, continued to attack Rumi, though the hero would find that the gas was light enough to simply be blown away by a simple exhalation. However, Snake Pit was using this opportunity to jump to his feet and find a weapon. His power armor had been disabled, as had his acid blaster and acid pistol, but he had still had one more trick up his sleeve. Literally, up his sleeve.

Snake Pit removed a stiletto knife from a hidden cache in his sleeve, twirling it in his fingers, before yelling a war cry and charging at Rumi, knife in stabbing position, as he tried to lethally take out Rumi. Of course, this was a horrible idea, but Snake Pit wasn't paid to make good ideas, he was paid to kill people, and right now, so long as Rumi stood still and didn't attempt to dodge or fight back, Snake Pit would be collecting his check. Of course, it never worked like that in real life, but it couldn't hurt to give it a try, right? Right?

@Scarifar

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_{Target™
Castleburg}

Meanwhile, Target was having a regular business day when a thing burst through the wall. "Thing" was the only word to describe the...thing that had blasted through the wall of the Target so suddenly. He (or perhaps more accurately, it) was tall, very tall, at a similar size to a bull ogre, and had dark, forest green skin. He (or it) had dreadlocks of knotty black hair falling in front of his brown, bloodshot eyes, and he was wearing a tank-top for giants and tattered pants. He looked like if Bob Marley had said goodbye to THC and hello to "troll," which was what it (or he) looked like- an actual troll.

Dungeon Troll, a former villain and newly-hired EAGLE, pushed past some screaming women and stalking towards the checkout aisles. As cashiers fled, passed out, or both in his wake, Dungeon Troll stalked his way over towards Jamie, staring at her and raising his massive muscular arms above his dreadlocked head. He then released a guttural roar, so loud and obnoxious that it echoed throughout the entire department store, before slamming the ground, sending a shockwave towards Jamie that was more than enough to knock her off her feet, if she hadn't gotten out of the way already.

Meanwhile, from the other side of the department store, a man in Roman garb walked over. Nero strutted over with confidence clear in his steps, holding a large frying pan in his hand. With a snap of his fingers, the pan part began to morph and distort itself, stretching into a long metal club, which Nero spun in his hand. "It's time for a clobbering, wouldn't you say?" he jested, raising his makeshift club over his head. "For the glory of Rome!"

@canaryrose

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_{The Streets of Castleburg}

Joseph, not too long after sending his call, found his phone practically erupting with static, so much so that anything Brie could possibly say was overrun by crackling. One moment later, a wiry figure jumped out from an alleyway directly in front of Joseph's scooter. "Wiry" was a word that is much more literal in this instance than in normal use. The figure was not thin and lithe, he was actually composed of wires. His body was made of knotted-together black wires, running up and down like skin and roping into hands and feet, copper tips forming a sort of fingernail. His head was also just a knot of wires as well, albeit a knot that was shaped eerily similarly to a human head. What appeared to be two pieces of reddish glass made up his eyes, and some slack around the mandible area gave him a mouth. This was Wire-Man, one of the Wings of Laws' most loyal enforcers.

Wire-Man, standing a few feet fearlessly in front of Joseph's scooter, raised his arm, and his arm began to lengthen like a yo-yo, unraveling and shooting towards Joseph's scooter. His coppery fingers wrapped around the handlebars, and then Joseph's scooter, right there in the middle of the road, died. Sparks flew from the tips of Wire-Man's copper fingers as he drained the scooter dry of every spark of electricity it had. Wire-Man stared at Joseph, dead in the eyes, quiet as ever.

He then lifted his wiry arms and began to slap Joseph, over and over. The slaps weren't devastating, sure, but considering this was a man made out of actual wires, it definitely hurt more than it should. There, in the middle of the road, Wire-Man attempted to slap Joseph to death. Fun. It was a slow and ineffective way to kill somebody, but Wire-Man didn't seem to care. Perhaps he thought that Joseph was a pushover, one that he could toy with a little on this assignment. After all, that was what his file said.

@Rabidporcupine

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Grace felt like a knife had been twisted through her heart as Patti walked over to her with an irritated scowl on her face, covered in whipped cream and flour, trying to shush her to prevent her from waking up Eliza, who was asleep on the couch. Grace had a pained expression on her face as she shook her head. "This isn't a mission, Patricia, agi," Grace said softly, trying to deliver the news in a way that would traumatize the girl the least. Considering the gravity of the situation, Grace decided that trying to sugarcoat it was a plan that was doomed to fail, so she took a deep breath and delivered the news. "The Wings of Law staged a coup. They did something to Powers- killed him, maybe, the thought is so awful...- and they've made a new hero company to replace HERO called EAGLES, a bunch of handpicked goons and other traitors. And they've framed you for murdering a bunch of people and they've plastered your face- and all of ours- everywhere on the city. Mr. Impressive and his gang of cronies are going to be here in any second, and if we don't hurry, the rest of your cake date is going to be in a Coldwater cell, so you'd better hurry." Grace said, before she paused and quickly added, "I didn't mean that last part! You're going to be fine, I'm going to get you out of here, OK? Go pack a bag, get some stuff that you need if you're going to stay away for a while, and we'll go and we'll fix this whole mess. Now seoduleuda. Go. I'm going to set something up for those jabjong shits..." she said ominously, giving Patricia a quick hug before walking out of the kitchen. As she moved briskly through the apartment, she grabbed the TV remote, flicking it onto the news channel, causing Patricia's face (an unflattering picture for sure) to suddenly blink onto the TV screen, as a newscaster's voice projected through the apartment, "-if anybody has seen this elusive murderer, please inform EAGLES at the number 212..." As the newslady continued on, Grace walked to the apartment's doorway. She had work to do.

Grace flipped over the area rug by the doorway and, after a moment of concentration, opened a large rectangular portal underneath the carpet, just smaller than the carpet itself in area, before laying it back down. She moved out into the hallway, doing the same for every place that had an available carpet. She then carefully retreated into the apartment, admiring her handiwork. With luck, her traps would be able to slow Mr. Impressive down a good bit, help buy the girls some time to plan a course of action. Nodding, she carefully crept over to the living room, opening an ovular portal in the middle of the room. "Patti, let's go, wake up Eliza if she's not already-" Grace began, before she saw a disturbing image on the screen. Tom's picture was square in the middle of the screen, and Jack Roberts was speaking words that Grace did not want to hear. "Spacewalker, a well-known and popular hero in his own right, is going to be joining Castleburg's newest hero company, EAGLES. Seen here, it seems as though the hero is picking up with old flame Emily Morgan, better known as Priestess..." Jack Roberts continued to talk about EAGLES, but Grace didn't register it at all, her eyes instead staring blankly at the picture on the screen, Tom at the edge of the rooftop, Priestess leaning in, her ruby-red lips planted squarely in the middle of Tom's cheek...Grace's hand gravitated up to her chest, her fingers clutching at the flesh right above her heart, as she just stared, feeling some water come to her eyes.

"No," she muttered, shaking her head fervently, as if denying the photo's existence would somehow cause it to magically vanish. "No, no, it can't be..." she said, her voice whispery and alarmed, her heart still trying to convince her brain an obvious lie. Unfortunately, her heart didn't stand a chance, and Grace's voice quickly rose, louder than she had ever known it to go as she yelled, "Baesinja! Traitor!" Her stare hardening into a glare, she clenched her fists tightly. "He...they...I...no...I am going to KILL them BOTH," she finally managed to
splutter out, her violet eyes flushed with anger and hurt. If Patricia's appearance, naive and carefree, had put the knife in, this scene on the news had sent it all the way through.

Grace was not one to dwell in the past, though, and she quickly returned to business as soon as her brain said she could. She turned to Patricia and Eliza, who certainly could not have slept through her outburst unless she was really tired. "Let's go. We're going to head to the new hero, Pandora's, place. A flower shop. She's new, so they won't list her as a potential conspirator, they won't be checking...hopefully she'll be willing to help us. I'll go through first, make sure the portal is safe, considering I only know the address and haven't been to the store yet. Once I'm through, follow me quickly. Make sure you leave your phones here. HERO could track them, so I can only assume EAGLES have inherited that capability. We'll...we'll figure this out together. OK?" With that (attempted) motivational speech, one that was probably not very strong considering it was coming from a crying girl, Grace carefully stepped through the portal.

The Korean girl materialized inside of Pandora's Potts, almost knocking down a nearby pot of plants in the process. After landing safely on the ground, Grace reached a hand through the portal, waved for the two to come through, before turning to look at Pandora. Grace, despite being an awarded hero, felt a strange sense of inferiority before this woman, who hardly looked much older than herself. Grace took a deep breath. "Ms...Pandora?" Grace said, not remembering whether or not she had a last name. She should've had one, but Grace seemed to be drawing a blank, unusual for someone of her caliber memory. "I'm sorry for the intrusion, I hope I'm not bothering you...I'm Grace Mok, or Bypass...Patti and Eliza, I mean, Murmur and Aria, are coming through in a moment. I'm not sure if you've seen the news, but we're in some trouble and if we could just hold out here for a bit, it would be greatly appreciated." Grace spoke with as much politeness as she could muster. To be frank, she didn't know where else to turn at this point, so this flower shop may be their best bet at escaping the Wings of Law. "Again, sorry for barging in, but teleporting onto the street would've been suspicious, and the Wings might've picked it up," she explained, looking at Pandora meekly. The fact that her eyes were teary probably weren't helping her case.

@Duoya @Zoey Boey @canaryrose @Amethyst

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《 H. E. R. O. 》

_{Hawthorn Residential Center
Elmore Island
Kingsdale (Off-Shore), Castleburg}

Elmore Island is an island located northeast off the coast of Kingsdale, far enough from the coast to be hard to see on a foggy day but close enough to be definitively located within city bounds. The island is one of many teeny islands like Savior Island that dot the two main islands that make up Castleburg. The island was discovered by wealthy explorer and New World conqueror John J. Elmore, who very heroically enslaved and conquered the small indigenous tribe that was living there before building his massive estate on the island. Karma would end up striking John J. Elmore, who was killed in an Inkanyamba attack only days after the manor was finished. The island remained mostly untouched for years until Seraph purchased the entirety of the island and built up the manor into a large "residential center." The Hawthorn Residential Center is a private prison owned by Seraph's WINGS Corporation™. The detention facility is small and suited for moderate-level superpowered inmates that do not meet the level of atrocity that denotes a Coldwater sentence, or is used as a temporary holding facility until a cell can be prepared at Coldwater. Hawthorn abruptly closed for business the day after Seraph's retirement from HERO, and the inmates were transferred elsewhere. This was not an activity viewed with great suspicion- after all, if Seraph was really retiring, he would probably want to distance himself from hero work to enjoy his retirement! This assumption, along with the facility's relatively small size, led to the event not being covered at all on the news, and as of yet no potential buyers have approached Seraph for the real estate. This left Seraph with an abandoned, unwanted, unscrutinized, empty fortified prison to use at his discretion. Perfect.

The building looks similar to a medieval castle or fort. John Elmore's original building was just a large stone manor in a Romanesque style, both comforting but also threatening from a distance. Seraph decided to capitalize on the latter feature, expanding outwards to cover the entire island in three floors of hard stone and metal. The facility resembles an island fort, with walls lined with barbed wire enclosing the entire facility. Elmore Island was rather small, so Seraph had decided that the best plan was to build upwards, adding in two thick, tall towers of stone rising from the bulk of the building, with a metal helipad attached to one of the large towers. The towers were reserved for more dangerous inmates, while the ground floors were reserved for longer-term, lower-threat prisoners. Despite its almost archaic appearance, Hawthorn Residential Center is anything but archaic in its security. The one entrance to the facility that isn't electrified and surrounded by turrets is the main gate, a hulking steel door that had not opened in the last week. The only other way into the facility was to fly in and land on the helipad.

Blake would unknowingly awaken inside one of the towers in this facility, inside a cold, sterile room. He moaned as he clutched his head, feeling a sensation that Blake did not often feel- coldness. Blake's power normally kept him heated up, well above that of an average human, a very useful side perk that allowed Blake to withstand the cold much longer than your average Joe. Now, however, Blake felt the chill of the room grasping his body, which meant that either Blake had gotten sick (for whatever reason, even the least threatening of diseases shut his powers down pretty hard) or that something else was blocking his powers. Blake found the answer moments later in the form of a thick steel bangle clamped around his wrists. The bracelets were sturdy and tough, and had a ring of blue light pulsing from its core- isolene. Blake groaned as he scratched at his wrists. Whatever these cuffs were, they were clamped on tight, which meant no luck on just man-handling them off. Blake would need some sort of gadget to remove them, and he did not have access to any sort of gadget in this room. He didn't have any access to much of anything. Three thick stone walls surrounded him, a tattered mattress and equally tattered pillow sitting in the corner of the room. A fluorescent bulb that was attracting a couple moths hung above. The remaining wall was covered in what appeared to be black glass, a heavy-duty metal door next to it. Blake ran over and pounded on the glass, but his thuds did not so much as scratch the glass. Clearly, the Wings had prepared for this.

Blake's attack on the window did seem to stir some attention, and the glass suddenly turned translucent like normal glass, revealing three figures. One of them, Blake recognized all too well. Seraph, standing there in his stupid cream-colored suit, an eagle pin on his lapel, a smug grin on his face. Next to Seraph was a taller man, with tanned almond skin and an Indian look. Blake recognized this fellow as Mystiko, a longtime Wing of Law and a master telekinetic. He was one of the few Wings of Law that Blake had not come to hate, though the fact that he was allying with Seraph now, working with these EAGLES bastards, that instantly put him on his shit list. The last figure was the tallest of the three (which was saying something). The man's large body was covered in a thick black cloak that was tattered at the edges, and his head and face was covered by a black hood and a glittering platinum mask, respectively. The only thing visible on this man was his eyes, which were glowing with a sickly red color. Blake was not familiar with this fellow, and was glad that this was the case- he gave him bad vibes.

Seraph clasped his hand together with a triumphant grin. "Ah, Firebird, I see you've finally come to. Welcome to your new home! Isn't it lovely?”

Blake elected not to answer that question, instead electing to press both his hands against the glass angrily, baring his teeth. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Seraph? I knew you were a prick, sure, but this...this is ridiculous!" Blake shouted, which sprouted a good-natured laugh from Seraph, while the other two stood by, almost emotionless. "Ridiculous is a word you could use, though I will take it as a compliment, an expression of admiration for the new empire I'm building.” Before Blake could speak again, Seraph quickly continued. "Now, as much as I would love a chat with you, Mr. von Brandt, we have business to get to. I'm sure you're thinking that I'm going to ask about Ms. Donnelly, but you would be incorrect. I have no need for any of that information. You'll be happy to learn that Aria will soon be joining you here. No, I have a different question.” He paused, before staring at Blake through the mirror, his whimsical nature of speech being suddenly replaced by a cold and calculating manner. "I know that during your escapades at the mafia manor, Hugo Powers told you about the organization known as Zero. Hugo Powers, however, is now dead. I killed him myself. I watched him fall from the top of HERO One. He is gone." Ignoring Blake's mortified look, Seraph continued emotionlessly. "However, his secrets have died with him, and Division X has mysteriously vanished. You, however, may have the answers I need. Tell me everything you know about Zero, or everything that HERO knows about him. Be forewarned that if you do not cooperate and give me the answer I want, I will extract it from you, and it will not be pleasant.”

Blake stared up at Seraph defiantly, trying to ignore the blossoming sadness in his chest. "Never," he said firmly. "I'll never tell you, you evil bastard...and you'll never get it out of me! There's nothing you can do to me that'll make me give in! Nothing!" he spat.

"My dear Firebird, I'm sorry you chose that option, and I must disagree." Seraph turned to the hulking Grim Reaper man. "Nemesis, you may go ahead."

"If is necessary," the reaper man said, raising a gloved hand, as what appeared to be actual darkness danced around his hand. He then snapped his fingers crisply. "Rabbit hole."

For a few seconds, nothing happened, Blake just stared forwards at Nemesis, wondering what was going on. A few seconds later, still nothing. Blake, realizing nothing was going to happen, began to chuckle. All this build-up, for nothing. Blake laughed a few seconds more before he heard somebody call his name. Blake wheeled around to see a teenage girl, with pale skin and white-blonde hair, talking to high-school age Blake, wearing a Letterman jacket, backpack swung over his shoulder, a cocky but measured grin on his face. The smile fell as the girl spoke. "Blake, you're a really nice guy, and I'm going to miss you, but...I'm leaving," she said bluntly, looking up at the younger Blake, who quickly became crestfallen. "I'm going back home."

Blake remembered this scene of his younger years. His first break-up. Not his last. It wasn't exactly a memory he remembered fondly. As Blake watched the memory play out in his little cell, though, he was caught off-guard as the girl suddenly shouted, "It's because you're worthless! You're a terrible person and a terrible boyfriend! I'm going back to Norway and I hope I never see you again!" the girl hissed. Blake jumped back in shock. This was definitely not the memory that he had once had.

Suddenly, he was flying forwards in time, as he saw visions of girls he had once dated and broke up with fly past, flickering through his memories like a dated movie. He saw Rosa walk off, Jade board her flight, and then he saw Angie walk away, giving him the cold shoulder as she brushed past him. Blake tried to run after her, tried to talk, but it was clear he wasn't in control here. He looked around, confused and dazed, as he heard another voice chime in behind him. The honeyed, slightly Southern tone of his mother, Karen. "Why haven't you been able to hold onto a girlfriend, Blakey?" Blake could hear her voice echo throughout the cell, before her voice, just like all the others, turned cold. "I think I know why. It's because you're worthless. Worthless as a son, worthless as a boyfriend, worthless as a hero. You've never saved anybody. You've only hurt people. You might as well quit while you're ahead," his mother scolded. Blake wheeled around, feeling the pain sink into his chest like a knife, as he looked around. Standing in a circle around him now was all the people he had known. Tom, Will, Joseph, Brie, Jamie, Patricia, Eliza, her parents, Angie, his exes, even his own parents, all standing around him, repeating the same word like some sort of chant- "worthless." The word burrowed into his skull, each letter searing into his brain, as the sound only increased in his head. "Worthless." "Worthless." "Worthless."

Blake was a fairly resilient person, but he keeled over quickly, falling to his knees as he felt his mind betray him. He was worthless, wasn't he? Useless. That was why he never could hang onto a relationship, because he was just worthless. As these negative thoughts began to fester in his brain, the pounding and voices only increased, causing Blake to grab onto his head as he tried to fight it off. "I...no..." Blake managed as the voices increased. He looked around to see swarms of what appeared to be bats fly around him, though these "bats" were blue and red in color and were strange, one-eyed monsters, Leftovers of some kind. They fluttered around him in a swarm, circling him as the noise in his brain only got louder, and louder, and then they dove in, mouths wide open, rows of razor-sharp teeth ready to bite as they flew towards Blake, and the noise was only getting louder...

"Stop! Stop! I'll tell you everything! Just stop!" Blake yelled, resting on his hands and knees, panting and shaking his head like he had just run a few marathons consecutively. He then did something he never thought he could've done- he blabbed. He told Seraph and Nemesis everything Powers had told them a few months earlier. About what they knew about Zero, about how Zero liked to use puppets, and their cutthroat ways...it wasn't much, but it was still information that Powers had trusted them, and information he had just spilled to Seraph. As soon as he finished talking. Blake looked away, ashamed. "I am worthless," he whispered, mortified at himself, as Seraph and Nemesis faced each other. "Less than I thought, but still useful," Nemesis surmised. "I'll be off now." The cloaked figure turned on heel and walked away, disappearing into the shadows, as Seraph turned to face Mystiko. "Man the cameras and keep an eye on him. I have something to take care of," Seraph said, before walking off to the elevator, leaving Blake alone with his own "worthless" thoughts.

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As soon as Tom gave affirmation, Priestess gave a wide smile and girlish shriek (of approval), before she quickly wrapped Tom in a hug. "I knew you would come around! Seraph said you wouldn't, but I knew you would!" she said, giving Tom a dazzling smile. The second part of the question seemed to lower the smile's brightness a few clicks, but she still kept a wide grin as she responded. "If you join us, I will make him," she said confidently, grabbing Tom's arm and pulling him to the edge of the rooftop. "We have to go, we're already late...let's fly together! Oh, we haven't done this in forever, I missed this..." she said, standing at the rooftop's edge and looking out across Kingsdale. She then, swift as a hawk finding its prey, leaned in, planting a full kiss on Tom's left cheek, and leaving a fresh lipstick mark like a bullseye in the center, before pulling Tom off the roof and beginning to fly.

Priestess may not have been the strongest superheroine, but she was an excellent flyer, and she guided Tom through the afternoon sky effortlessly, her wings flapping gracefully as she soared through the air, guiding Tom across Kingsdale to the bay. "This way!" she chirped, not unlike a bird, as she soared over the water, giving a couple midair twists as she flew towards Elmore Island, the fortress and tall towers becoming visible as the two zoomed towards it. Priestess guided Tom towards the helipad, soaring in and landing effortlessly on it with grace (not Grace). Standing on the pad, hands in his pockets, was Seraph, who had a very annoying sneer on his face. Priestess gestured towards Tom elaborately. "Tommy said he would love to join us, on the conditions you agreed to," she said, giving Seraph a puppy dog eyes look. Seraph gave a nod, looking at Tom with a cool, suspicious look. "If that's the case, follow me. And don't try anything. Emily, wait her," he commanded, guiding Tom towards the tower, to the elevator. Priestess waved good-bye and blew Tom a kiss as the elevator doors closed.

Seraph rode the lift down a few floors in silence, before the doors parted on a level that was labelled not with a number, but with a red triangle. Seraph stepped out, walking down the empty hallway. "I'm glad you've discovered your logic," Seraph said, stopping in front of the cell area. The glass was returned to black again, leaving the contents of the cell obscured. "I'll level with you now- I don't fully trust you. Yet. Your talents are admirable, no doubt, but your loyalty may lie elsewhere. So I'll offer you a deal," Seraph said, pressing a long finger against the black glass. The glass, as if by magic, glowed for a second before turning transparent again, revealing the cell's contents, including Blake, who was currently curled up on his mattress. "If you do exactly what I say, and don't attempt to undermine or double-cross me, I will release your friend. If you do so, I will force the poor fool to undergo some more...personalized therapy," Seraph said cruelly, looking over at Blake, who was almost quivering. It was a sorry sight. "Understood? Good. I'll give you two a moment, but be warned- I am watching, and any attempt to escape or do anything will be recorded and dealt with. Severely." With that, Seraph turned and walked over to the elevator, vanishing into the lift with a ding.

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Meanwhile, across the city, near Rumi's lab, a strange vehicle pulled up behind the crowd. "Strange" was the only word that could describe the vehicle, which literally looked like an alligator. The hood of the car was stylized like an alligator's jaw, a long tail hung from the trunk, posing a severe traffic hazard, and the car was painted with an elaborate scale pattern. Stepping out of the car was a man dressed in a thick green suit, with purple highlights, and some gadgetry strapped to the suit. He was Caucasian, probably in his mid-40s, and bald, with green reptile eyes (or more likely, fancy contacts) and light stubble. The man, who those who were well-versed with crime would recognize as Snake Pit, a reptile-themed villain that had been arrested just over a week ago for trying to rob a bank with an acid gun, rushed through the crowd, pushing his way through, before popping out the front like a Jack-in-the-box.

Not wasting a second, he pulled a device from his back and activated it, releasing a wave of blue energy through the area, and disabling any pesky nanobots that were within a 50-meter radius. He then pulled a large blaster from his back, aiming it at Rumi. "Agent Snake Pit from EAGLES. New recruit. You are hereby under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, or else..." He thought for a moment, having forgotten the line. "You have the right to remain silent, or else get melted by an acid blast. Now put your hands up now or you get vaporized, nerd!"

He pumped his gun. This hero thing was actually pretty fun.

《 H. E. R. O. 》

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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