Infinite Cosmos

《 H. E. R. O. 》

William, while waiting in the holding room, began pondering as to the reason why he was brought to this state. He shouldn’t have many enemies on the outside. Aside from the usual criminals that have taken a dislike to heroes in general already. But to be directly brought to the compound of a mobster? There is definitely something bigger at play.

Hopefully H.E.R.O. has noticed his absence and have dispatched a team to investigate.

At the same time as that thought, he mind flashed over to one Brianna Hart. While a very capable, and powerful, heroine, he did not wish for her to be present for the investigation. He feared for her safety. He cared about her deeply, on an intimate level. He did not wish for her to have to see him this way, for fear of tarnishing his image.

In any case William waited. The girl from before mentioned guests. William’s mind went over to the idea of him being made an example of. Sure, he did sign the contract. This sort of thing was exactly what he put pen to paper for. Putting his life on the life in order to save others. He wondered how it would be done.

Torture? Some sort of science experiment where they extract his powers from him? Flaying? Pulling out his nails one by one?

It would be a lie if William was to say he had no fear in that moment. He definitely feared. For his life, for his parent’s and the bad news they would be receiving, for his...feelings for Brie.

Soon, more mob goons came into the room. They hauled him to his feet and dragged him out. While powerless, William isn’t defenseless. He struggled, thrashed, and raged, against the coming of the night. Finally, they were able to drag him into the room where the meeting was taking place.

“Fuck...” William muttered almost silently. He immediately recognized two colleagues from H.E.R.O. Patricia and Angelica... The way they were dressed, it would be one of two reasons for them to be there. One, they’ve actually turned. They’ve betrayed the oath they swore. Or, they are the investigation team that was sent. William hoped that it was the latter. William drew in a deep breath and bit the inside of his lower lip to keep from screaming out at Angie and Patti. While he was glad to see some familiar faces, he still wanted to tell them to leave, that these are not good people...

Vinnie, the mob leader, made a grandiose speech about how him and his family are going to take over Castleburg and the world. How they’re going to get rid of heroes. William chuckled inwardly. As cliche as it sounds, you take out one hero, two more springs forth to take his place. Such it the nature of the people that dedicate themselves to be for the benefit of the many.

Smash

William hadn’t said a word and his face was smashed into a bowl of grapes. Such a cliche move. Yeah, a real tough guy he is, William thought. Every breath he took splattered more grape juice from inside the bowl. To be quite honest, this wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened...

Moments later, he heard someone barge through the doors. His heart dropped immediately. There were very few people at H.E.R.O. That would be this brash. Given his feelings and personal connections, his mind went directly to Brie. He lifted his head after Vinnie let go of it and saw his nightmare come true.

“BRIE! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!” He called out. However, before he could do anything about it, the girl from before went and attacked Brie. William struggled mightily against those who would restrain him, gritting his teeth in anger and fury. Muttering under his breath, he swore to have vengeance, to exact his wrath upon those who would harm his beloved.

William grimaced and groaned when the goons stabbed Brie with the needle full of Isolene. These goons would die last, so that they can watch the others suffer first, William thought. He huffed, and glared at anyone that would look at him. When the mobster told his lackeys to check everyone for IDs, he hoped that Patricia and Angie have a good exit strategy...

Tales of Anvellor

Me as well. Hopefully my muse return soon. I would hate to drop at this stage... :/

Sol City Modern Slice of life - Chapter 3 - (all welcome new and old)

>>Siobahn, and her cooking @Almalthia Joel, over a Guiness. Paige, don't think they've met before @Pilatus Elise, fancy seeing her again @KatKook Milo, meeting him for the first time @RoccanIronclad

---

Ryan chuckled, then pursed his lips in joking protest. "None. If someone was to offer me food, but it being made poorly, I'd still judge it. I don't know. Call it an occupational hazard I suppose." He said, jovially, before taking a long pull from his beer.

"Ah. That. Well. I don't know. I tripped over something I think. It was during the night of the food festival..." Ryan said, shrugging slightly and peering over towards where Joel and Elise are currently.

As he was about to take another bit of the food on his plate, two more joined the party. Neither of which he has bet before. The male and the female most likely are an item, given the physical contact. The male also seems to be acquaintances with at least Siobahn, given the greeting. Ryan offered the polite nod, as the two approached the party.

Setting his utensils down, he leaned back in his chair and took another sip from his beer. He did not feel right to continue eating while new guests were joining them...

《 H. E. R. O. 》

William was left in what essentially was an holding cell for quite a while. He tried to conjure up his powers, but couldn't. They must have injected him with some sort of power-blocking concoction. Hopefully it is not the isolene mixture that H.E.R.O. is so fond of using. William sat there, seething with rage and filled with confusion.

Why him? For all he knows, he wasn't even important to H.E.R.O. Just another hero in their employment. Another question he was pondering in his momentary isolation was if a well-known mob family is willing, and capable, of kidnapping a hero in board daylight, just what exactly are they planning for?

Just as William was thinking very hard, trying to remember his science classes and how to make himself expel whatever drug they had administered, the door creaked open. William had moved himself to the back corner of the room, his back against the wall. He was able to get a full view of the girl coming in. A younger girl with dark hair and disturbingly red eyes. On her shoulder was some sort of creature William could not readily identify.

The girl went spouting on about other heroes and torture. Bad move, young one. William has a very good memory, ironically. So, the Gugliano family is in the business of torturing heroes for some sort of information. In their employ is a pseudo-S tier villain. Interesting fact. Some William will not quickly forget.

"No questions. On second thought. If you really want to make this fun, uncuff me and give me the antidote to whatever drugs you gave me so I can have my powers back. That way we can both have fun..." William said to the girl.

@Hitman

Sol City Modern Slice of life - Chapter 3 - (all welcome new and old)

>>Siobahn, and her cooking @Almalthia Joel, over a Guiness @Pilatus Elise, fancy seeing her again @KatKook

---

"Your cooking is great, Siobahn. I'm not going to critique a free meal." Ryan said, offering a small chuckle. He cringed inwardly when Elise brought up the terrible first impression he made at the food festival. "Yeah, that. Terrible first impression. You've yet to come by my restaurant to allow me to make that up to you." Ryan said. "Though we're closed now, I believer I left you my number, so please call whenever you fancy some simple sushi." Ryan continued.

"And as to the tripping over girls... Um. Not really? At least not in the physical sense. Metaphorically, maybe. But thats the reason why I'm here tonight, to get some much needed counseling and to just generally be away from that chaos.." Ryan moved slightly when Joel offered Elise a seat to allow her to comfortably sit down. When Joel popped opened the chest cooler, Ryan took that as an invitation and grabbed himself another beer. A Blue Moon (tm) this time. Glancing at Elise, Ryan took a wild guess and reached back into the cooler, coming back out with another Blue Moon (tm) and offered it to Elise.

Meanwhile, when Joel mentioned Elise's car, Ryan's attention shifted with the conversation. He didn't know cars like Joel, obviously, but he was enjoying the easy flow of the conversations and the pleasant company.

《 H. E. R. O. 》

William was still too busy reeling from the shock and pain of being essentially tossed off his bike. He was checking himself for superficial injuries since he did not feel any broken bones and luckily he did not hit his head on the pavement.

Whoever threw that fucking stick is going to get it. William had decided.

Then everything went dark. The last thing William heard was "Night". The voice was unique, but not immediately recognizable. Besides, with William being incapacitated, its not as if he can act upon the voice in any case.

When William came to, he was in the back of a car, being driven god knows where. His head was pounding, his vision blurred. He can hear the man speaking, the same voice from before. As the man finished his sentence, William's senses returned, for the most part. He struggled, roughly, against his restraints. Remaining silent, William struggled some more. However, he was internally calm, doing his best to remember the man's outer appearance and voice inflections.

Vinnie Gugliano. Why was be kidnapped and brought to a mob boss...? Wait, he just answered his own question. A mob boss kidnapping a hero. That seems normal enough. However, to have the guts to do it in broad daylight. There must be something bigger in the works....

Of course, running now was an option. But, he did not have any ideas as to where he was. He was in front of a mansion. Thats all he knows. However, if he was being brought to Vinnie Gugliano, sure;y H.E.R.O. would have some sort of data on where this notorious mob boss lived... Now, if he would just break out from his restraints and take out this man in front of him, he can reach for his phone to make a move....

@Jumbus

《 H. E. R. O. 》

William was idly biking without holding onto the handlebar. He was engrossed in the music coming from his headphones. Between that, occasionally looking down the road to make sure he doesn't crash, and the buzzing of his phone when Brie replied to his message, his attention span was completely occupied.

He took out his phone, keeping his legs churning as to not slow down too much and fall off his bike. He took a look at the message and chuckled. As he moved his thumb to reply to the message, he faintly heard someone call out to him, calling him water boy no less. Before he could hit the breaks, slow down and look to the direction of the voice, a stick flew out at him.

The Stick struck cleaning between two of his spokes, causing the bike to come to a sudden stop. With the sudden halt in forward motion, William was tossed from his bike. His hands and left arm took the fall. His palms were grotesquely scraped. His left arm was scraped from wrist to elbow. It was quite the miracle that he did not suffer any harsher injuries...

"Ah....." William groaned. "What. The. Fuck. Was. That?" William said, sitting up on the side of the road as he dragged his bike off the road so it didn't get run over by oncoming traffic. "Who the fuck threw that stick...?"

@Jumbus
Mentioned @Danvers

《 H. E. R. O. 》

William followed along to Brie's explanation, nodding along. Before he was able to add anything to the conversation, Brie bid them farewell. William looked at Thomas and responded "Yeah, quite odd... I wonder if she was lying to us. Oh well." He said, offering a small shrug at the end before bidding Thomas farewell as well.

After walking a small distance away, William reached for his phone to send a message to Brie

-"Well. That seemed like a shitty lie. But its ok. Just... Be safe, whatever it is you're going to be doing <3"-

Hitting send, William decided to leave the compound. There wasn't a patrol assigned to him that day, so he took his bicycle to just go for a casual ride around town. Get away from the monotony for H.E.R.O. One for a while at least.

Tales of Anvellor

>>The beginnings of their adventure.@ShiningSector @Ypnosi<<

North.

Thats where home is.

Avala thought to himself, remaining rather silent during Grimar's explanation of the artifacts. The word 'North' rung a bell within his heart. He hadn't been back home for some time now. Though there isn't much to speak of anymore. The Winter's Claw is so far into the wastelands, it would be surprising if their expedition took them that far. So there is no worries regarding that, he thought.

"We should be fine, regarding extra clothes for warmth, right?" Avala said, offering a small smile to the small half beast in their trio. Of course, he can sense the cold she was giving off. He has some theories regarding who or what she is, but this is neither the time nor place to be discussing that.

"A few small tents and bedrolls would be nice. The north is a hard place. Not much comfort to be had up there." Avala said to no one in particular. "As for food, we can pack some I suppose, though if the adventure lasts longer than expected, I suppose we can fish, hunt and forage...." He continued on.

One Piece: Foreword Unto Dawn

Kaien is alone again. He left his subordinates alone to do as they wished in Loguetown. Whether that is to drink, to shop or to simply interact with the residents. He didn't care. They're marines, for crying out loud. If they can't behave with a sense of right and wrong when they're at port, then they shouldn't be a marine anyways.

On this day, Kaien was in the forests, sitting in a meditative position on top of a rock. His swords on his lap. He would often do this. "To get in touch with my swords spiritually." he would say to those who would ask as to what he was trying to achieve. He firmly believes that all things in the world have 'spirits' within that. Ones that can freely communicate with you, as long as you know how to listen to what they have to say. As it was a customary saying in his family, one must make their swords as a part of their own bodies as their beating hearts.

Beside the rock on which he sat was a gourd. The stopper of which was left hanging on the side. The contents within which remains a mystery. Kaien would often hang the gourd/bottle from his obi. Foregoing the preferred attire of a western suit, Kain chose to wear a traditional kosode tied at the waist with his obi and worn with a pair of hakama. His standard issue 'Justice' coat would be worn to meetings and other official events, otherwise it is usually replaced with a haori.

In any case, before leaving his crew, he left his lieutenant a baby transponder snail, to call him should he be needed back in town. Seeing as Vice Admiral Haramitsu just called a general meeting, Kaien sighed and gathered his things. Taking a long draw from his gourd, he tied the 'bottle' back on with his obi. With a swift kick to the ground and a wavering of his after image, Kaien was no longer where he sat.