KaijuBaragon

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom finished up his pretty efficient beatdown of Perfected Physique (still a completely stupid name - someone should have really stopped him and told him that the name was dumb as hell before he came out into the public eye with it. Really, Tom was more annoyed with the name than anything else about the man) before standing back and letting Christina deal with him. That was a pretty one-sided fight - all of the Wings had been comfortably defeated by the good guys. Tom watched as she promptly placed him in the anti-Jamie armour. That was probably deserved for someone as horrible as him, but still, it was still pretty fucked up. Tom quickly walked behind Christina and Starbright as they came to the very cool looking private elevator.

"I'm definitely gonna have to sign a non-disclosure agreement after this..." Tom muttered to himself as the elevator whizzed up the floors before settling on the 14th. Tom knew this floor well, he noted as he stepped out of the broom closet, as he had been hauled into Powers' office to get chewed out more times than he could remember, oftentimes with Blake or Brie accompanying him along. Meanwhile, he had only been in Christina's office a couple of times. It was a much cosier office than Powers one, which was quite cold and far too neat for Tom's liking. He listened to Christina's plan and nodded. "Ooh, the flair. Sounds good." He said before following Christina back out, glancing at Starbright as he went off to do his streaming thing.

Tom took the elevator ride up to the roof in silence, before getting out. He scowled for a moment, worried about how the slight rain was going to effect his hair, but immediately felt guilty and remembered there were far more important things to worry about than his hair. He put his hands in his pockets as he looked down at the cube, quickly getting them out and kneeling down to help Christina pull it out. Something was playing on his mind. If this was going to call all heroes, would Grace see? She obviously wouldn't come... But Tom was feeling the guilt wash over him again, and his face must have showed it, because before he knew it he was seemingly getting a pep talk on relationships from Christina.

He sighed. "I know, you're right... It's just that I must look like the worst person in the world right now, especially to her. It's not gonna be easy for her to just get over it, she was probably so upset, and like, it's my fault really. I just wish-" He stopped at Christina's instructions. "Shit, okay." He quickly covered his ears and watched, impressed, as the flair shot up into the air, clearly going to be visible to everyone. And then Christina suddenly ducked behind a vent, and Tom realised he probably should have thought up some excuse before, and also that he wished he brought a coat up here. It was kind of cold.

He looked over his shoulder as Beardman (another stupid name) and Brightside (hah, like the song, Tom thought) quickly ran out of the elevator and confronted him. It was time to lie on the spot. "If you had been up here a minute ago, it wouldn't have been a problem... I was walking down by the building and saw some like, purple light up here, and I quickly floated up, and it was Bypass! And she had Aria and Static with her. They portaled away before I could do anything, and I thought I need to get attention quickly, so..."

@Hitman @Jumbus

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Charlie crossed his arms and leaned against a tree, watching Summer's very obvious attempt to seem unbothered and aloof, even though she was sitting on a rock in the dark woods after a huge fight where she was punched and temporarily blinded the person who punched her with a particularly nasty curse. "You are sulking Summer. But there's nothing exactly wrong with that. Everyone needs to sulk sometimes I suppose, especially after something happens of the scale of what just happened with you.". For a moment he heard what sounded like a voice somewhere in the distance behind them, and Charlie looked over his shoulder, but he couldn't spot anything there. Must have been his imagination.

Charlie felt a little hurt by Summer's blunt words. It wasn't like he considered them to be friends, exactly, but he was one of the only people who wasn't immediately hostile to her or avoided her. So it hurt a little. "I am not trying to pity you, Summer, it's simply that..." He tried to find an explanation as her hazel eyes stared into his blue ones. But he couldn't, because in truth he was pitying her, at least a bit. She was only one night into this whole thing and she had seemingly already scorned a whole group of potential friends because a bracelet of hers had been stolen. It was undoubtedly a pitiable situation.

And then, to Charlie's genuine surprise, Summer actually answered his question, at least somewhat. "Ah. I see." He responded. He didn't know what had happened to Summer's father, but from her tone and the importance she placed on this bracelet Charlie could at least infer that her father wasn't around anymore, at least. Well, that made two of them, he thought, deciding not to question Summer any further - that was a conversation to happen at a time when tempers were less flared up.

"Good idea." He replied, before the next thing she said made his blood run cold. He clenched his teeth and peered back into the darkness, quickly darting off in the direction of Summer's voice. While going after her back to the camp, he nearly crashed into Arken who was coming the other way. "What are you doing? Why are you going that way, that's foolish... Come on, we're going back to camp, we've spent more than enough time in these woods..." He (presumably) led Arken back to the camp, before settling down in his sleeping bag, and intending to have a bit of a read before he went to bed.

@Danvers @Infinite Cosmos

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom scoffed. "Come on Starbright dude, you know we're not with EAGLES, and you're definitely not gonna get us put in jail because we're not gonna kill you!" He looked at Christina, who was now giving a much more compelling reason why Starbright couldn't have that kidnapping tape published, and then nodded. "Yeah... That too! Fucking lawyers, it's such bullshit how Seraph's been able to get around justice for so long just because he can employ a bunch of snooty lawyers. That's not how the justice system should work..." Tom mused angrily as the helicopter thundered through the sky towards its destination, which was, as was becoming more and more evident by the familiar route, something in the general direction of HERO One.

Tom hopped out of the helicopter, happy to be putting his feet on some nice soft grass again in the looming shadow of HERO One. He raised an eyebrow as Christina stepped over to an innocuous looking trashcan after not-so-subtly threatening him and Starbright (mainly Starbright, Tom thought) and then started... talking to it? "Christina, what the hell are you- oooh..." He trailed off as the bin started talking back to her in a robotic voice. Then Christina proceeded to get in the trashcan, and within a few seconds she had suddenly disappeared, the bottom of the trashcan seemingly dropping her down, and off she went. "Woah!" Tom exclaimed.

Starbright went up and hopped into the trashcan, but he was taking his time, looking around with an unsure look on his face. Tom tapped his foot impatiently, before sighing and walking up, giving Starbright a firm nudge on the shoulder, which seemed to dislodge the singer who went shooting down the tube. After a few moments, Tom hopped in himself, excitedly forcing his foot down which sent him on the ride, whooping with excitement as he went zipping underground - it really was like some kind of theme park ride. Soon enough, he landed on the soft cushion at the bottom and stood up.

Tom caught up to the other two as they began their walk deeper into the secret underground bowels of HERO One. He couldn't deny, seeing all the stuff that was meant to stop them if they went rogue was definitely a little creepy. Tom shivered a little as his own device was pointed out to him - some anti-gravity grenades. It was a damn miracle that the Wings of Law didn't know about this, or they would be totally and utterly fucked and probably in Coldwater already. At least they were leaving his area and heading into the S-tier vault... Ooh, that was pretty cool. The doors slid open, and of course, there were some less than desired people already standing there.

He knew vaguely of Perfected Physique (terrible, terrible hero name, Tom thought) but thankfully he had never met him until now... And now he was being ordered by Christina to fight off the corrupt hero. Damn... What were his powers again? Tom had no idea. He could hear in his ear the noise of Starbright trying to... reason with The Illuminator? What a dumbass. Anyway, back to his fight. Tom stared down Physique for a moment before suddenly hovering over to him, and doing a trademark move - when he was about 6 feet away, he suddenly flipped gravity for the pair, sending them up onto the ceiling, Tom landing on his feet with ease. And then he flipped it back to normal, sending Physique sprawling onto the floor. Hopefully he could just repeat these moves until Physique was out for the count.

@Hitman @Jumbus

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Waves of relief washed over Tom as Christina talked to him about how she fooled the wings so easily in part due to her drama degree. He briefly considered asking her what exactly that "other stuff" was, but concluded that it probably wasn't the time or the place for that kind of question, and Christina probably wouldn't answer the question anyway and instead scold him for asking it to her in the first place. "Fuck..." He shook his head. "Powers is never gonna drink coffee again after this..." He gasped at the mention of the name of Zero. "Damn, why the fuck are Zero getting involved in everything that goes down now?" He groaned, looking out of the helicopter window as they approached Starbright's mansion.

Tom looked over impressed as Christina retrieved the two complex looking devices, before touching the part of his face where Priestess had smooched him and realising the lipstick mark was still there. He panicked a little bit when Christina's efforts couldn't rid him of the offending lipstick, and he rubbed at it frantically himself while Christina went about her high-tech business and carved a nice sized hole in the top of Starbright's roof. After about a minute he assumed that it must have been gone by now, so looked at Christina more closely, before she simply hopped into the hole, leaving Tom on the roof to peer down into it.

The scene below didn't last very long - he heard a few muffled words before he watched Christina grab Starbright and pull him up, throwing him into the helicopter with ease. Tom quickly scrambled and got into the helicopter afterwards, before the vehicle swiftly took off. Considering all the fiascos that had happened recently, it was nice to finally have a mission that had gone successfully. He looked at Starbright, prepared to explain to him what was going on, then Christina told him the lipstick was still there. "Damn!" He shook his head, rubbing his face for another 20 seconds or so.

"So basically... Seraph has taken over HERO in a coup. Powers is alive, apparently, so don't worry about that... Me and Christina are going undercover in EAGLES to help take it down... And we were told to go and kill you by Seraph... And now we're gonna... Tom paused. "Christina, what are we doing now?"

@Hitman @Jumbus

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Charlie hoped that his arrival would soothe the situation over and perhaps even break up the fight totally - but it didn't exactly go like that at all. Despite a silent "thank you" from Maggie (who he quickly smiled back to) and a thumbs up from Calypso, he seemed to be mostly ignored just like Jeremy was. The screaming and the yelling continued, more people were coming over and joining the fray or trying to stop it just like he was, it was a total mess of a situation. And then the yelling did soothe, but that didn't make the situation better. Charlie watched on as Summer strolled up to Dakota and blinded her. Even for Summer, that seemed like a massively extreme action, and Charlie regretted that this situation didn't solve itself with politeness and good manners.

Charlie crossed his arms and continued internally rueing about the situation when he heard a fairly unfamiliar voice call his surname from a short distance away. He looked over to see Jeremy, the new boy from earlier, suggesting that he go after him to try and find Summer and calm her down. "I don't know if that's the best solution. Summer is fickle, she might just require some alone... time..." He trailed off as Jeremy had already gone into the woods. Charlie elected that it was not responsible to have the new boy go after Summer on his own - he might come out of the woods in 5 minutes being hit with a horrible curse from the angry girl - and so took a quick glance over the rest of the campsite before hastily following Jeremy inside.

The pair took around 10 minutes to eventually find the moping Summer, Charlie following closely behind Jeremy for the entire dark journey. When they reached her, Charlie crossed his arms and leaned against a tree as Jeremy began an attempt to talk Summer down from her sulking state. Charlie didn't exactly expect it to work that well... And then suddenly Cassandra appeared out of what seemed like thin air right next to Summer. He frowned as, in Charlie's eyes, Cassandra just said something that would make it worse. "Cassandra! You shouldn't be encouraging things like that, that was an awful fight!" He scolded, before Summer reacted negatively to their presence and stormed off in the other direction.

Charlie sighed. "You two remain here." Charlie then went walking in the general direction of where Summer had gone. For the first few minutes he could hear her footsteps, but then they faded out, and Charlie was left unsure of where to go. He picked the direction he thought was right, before casting a spell to spawn a ball of light that would float around his head and illuminate his surroundings. Unfortunately, he did it too late, as he immediately walked straight into a massive spider web. "Bloody... Damn!" He exclaimed as he felt the large inhabitant of the web moving on the back of his neck, slapping the back of his neck and walking quickly before he went sprawling into the leaf litter, the light continuing to float above his head.

He looked, seeing a large rock in front of him, thanking his luck he didn't hit his head on it, then sitting up and noticing there was a certain readhead sitting on that rock. "Summer!" He quickly stood up and brushed himself off. "I know things got rather out of hand back at the campsite, but you can't sit out here and sulk, it's not safe! Please, follow me back." He paused. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. "That bracelet is nice... Why is it so important to you?"

@Melissa @Rabidporcupine @blackdragon @Danvers

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom shuddered as he left poor Blake alone in that room again. He really hoped Blake had understood. It's not like he could go back and say something else to let him know - that would look far too suspicious. And besides, it was too late, as Tom turned his head to see a smug looking Seraph making his way confidently down the hallway towards him. Had Seraph understood what Tom had meant in his secret message to Blake, and was now coming to take Tom down. Probably not - after all, Seraph didn't look mad or anything, just smug, which Seraph always looked to be fair. He didn't really acknowledge what Seraph said to him as Tom was lead away from the room Blake was being kept in, down the hall to a set of doors.

And then they were suddenly there - the EAGLES control room! Seraph obviously did trust Tom then, he wouldn't have brought him to this medical looking hub of pseudo-heroics. Tom's brief period of relief was eradicated when he realised that he was staring at a screen that was tracking the location of all his best friends. "Oh, that's clever...." Tom muttered in general approval of the whole thing, but in reality he was stunned. How the hell did the Wings of Law pull this off... Unless... Something had been put into their phones when they were kidnapped by that Roman bastard. Sea Serpent arrived within a couple of seconds on an objectively quite impressive water platform. At least Brie was out of the picture for the time being.

But the rest weren't, and the Wings knew where they were. If only Tom had a way to send a message to Jamie, Rumi, Patty and Eliza. At least Grace had been her usual smart self and dumped her phone. He had an instinctual reaction to snap at Sea Serpent when she called Grace an "ugly beaver", but he simply clenched his fist inside his pocket and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He now knew exactly how the Wings were operating. Going undercover, so far, seemed to be a good idea. But without being able to get a message out to anyone he was more or less stuck here in this creepy medieval dungeon with these psychopaths.

Wait, no, he wasn't stuck here, because Seraph was sending him out on a mission - a mission to go and take down Starbright. And he wasn't going alone. He was going with someone he had never heard of before, Cynthia. As the heavily heavily heavily made up girl walked over, Tom had the unshakeable feeling that he knew this girl from somewhere. And, as he shook her hand and nodded at her greeting, that feeling only got stronger. He had definitely shaken this hand before at some point. Or maybe the stress was just getting to him and he was feeling deja vu for no reason. That was also a possibility.

So he followed Cynthia out to the helicopter. "Sure, you can fly it, I don't even know how." He said, trying to make himself seem enthusiastic about the mission they were about to do incase Cynthia decided to snitch on him to the Wings for being suspicious. He watched the TV absentmindedly as they took off, thinking about what he was going to do. He didn't like Starbright, but he also didn't want to kill him or anything, that was way too far. He was lost in his thoughts until he saw his face pop up on the TV. He almost yelled, but kept it contained, instead bouncing his knee up and down at a violent pace. Well, there was no going back now. Everyone would think he had betrayed them. Grace would think he had betrayed them. He felt sick.

And then, as if his thoughts had come to life, he heard Cynthia speak from the drivers seat. About Grace. Tom felt himself snap "How the fuck do you-" And then he nearly jumped out of his seat as Cynthia took off her wig, wiped her face and suddenly Christina was sitting there. "WHAT? How did you... What the fuck?" He couldn't help but smile a little and laugh before answering her question. "Priestess came to me and more or less said that they'd kill Blake if I didn't join... And I thought that going undercover was a good thing to do anyway, to get information and stuff. How the hell did you fool them with that disguise?"

@Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom grimaced as Priestess wrapped him in a tight hug, looking down at the back of her head. He was already feeling the guilt washing over him extremely strongly. That became even more so when he was walked to the edge of the roof and kissed him firmly on the cheek. He really hoped that they weren't being recorded right now, or he was about to look like the world's guiltiest man until he could find a way to send out a signal that he was just going undercover and not really betraying all his friends just because Priestess appeared and briefly flirted with him on a rooftop. He had a quick glance around - well, he couldn't see any cameras visibly, but in Castleburg you never knew who could be watching.

And then the pair were off, flying up nice and high into the air above the bustling city below. He kept a (he hoped) charming smile on his face as Priestess gripped his hand and lead him into a few fairly impressive aerial stunts, before they changed course and started to head towards a place he had never flown to in his life - Elmore Island. From a distance away, Tom could see that there was someone standing on the roof's helipad. As they got closer, Tom saw a pair of wings first and realised who it was. He could already feel the rage building up inside him as Seraph's smug form got closer and closer. At this point, Tom was seriously considering just letting go of Priestess and flying away as fast as he could. But he had already gone this far - and his undercover mission could be vital, and plus, he needed to get Blake released first.

Tom nodded curtly back at Seraph as they landed, trying to give off a calm demeanour. He looked back at Priestess as Seraph took him down inside the building, not smiling at her this time. There was definitely an awkwardness hanging in the air as Tom took the lift down a couple of floors with Seraph. When they reached their destination and the winged "hero" began talking about how he didn't fully trust Tom yet, Tom simply looked back, not entirely sure what he should say. He didn't want to openly profess his loyalty or anything. He went slightly pale, and then his eyes widened, as the wall next to them turned transparent to reveal Tom's best friend, a helpless prisoner. He went even more pale as Seraph mentioned personalised therapy, Tom having a fairly strong inkling that what he was talking about wasn't anything resembling conventional therapy.

All he could say to Seraph was "Alright." Before he was gifted a moment alone to talk to Blake. Tom immediately slipped into the room, as his mind raced on what he could say to Blake that would make him realise that Tom was undercover, but would not tip Seraph off. He reached Blake's quivering form and looked over it, still deathly pale. "Hi Blake..." Tom said awkwardly, at a loss for words for a few seconds. "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." He felt a deep weight in his stomach as he said that. "But they're gonna let you go, okay? Don't do anything stupid, just stop doing hero stuff..."

Tom paused. "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." Tom quickly turned and walked out, not having the stomach to look at his best friend anymore. He just hoped that Blake had understood his hint regarding the mafia mission - where Tom had gone undercover.

Blake was smart enough to understand, right?

@Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

As the phone started to crack up and the call to Blake fizzled out, Tom angrily shook his phone in his hand - not that he thought it would actually help, but he was just expressing how annoyed he was. Maybe somebody had got to Blake... Wire Man could probably do something like that. Or maybe his phone was being interfered with. Did the Wings of Law have a technology guy like Rumi who could build tech to do something like that? Tom didn't know. At least Blake gave him a location to meet at before the phone cut out. Club 27 - if he was right and Seraph was there then they could totally end this shit before it had any chance to begin. Tom sat up and was going to go and fly to Club 27 when he saw something moving quickly towards him from above. He saw the wings first - and his first thought was that it was Seraph coming to find him - that meant a fight was coming. And then the figure got closer.

"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Tom muttered.

It was Priestess. Tom hadn't talked to her in a good two years, let alone had any long term interaction with her. What the hell was she doing here now? Did the Wings of Law send her to fight him? Wait, where the hell did she know where he was? These questions bounced around in Tom's mind as the gorgeous hero gently touched down in front of him. He was expecting a fight, but as Priestess began to speak in her alluring voice, Tom came to the quick realisation that she wasn't here for conflict. He began to counter "Patty isn't a-" but decided the best course of action probably was just to stand and listen to her.

Okay, she was going on about their night together... Admittedly it was a pretty great night... When she stopped, Tom would just gently make her fly off and then make a run for it. At least, that was his plan until Priestess delivered some very upsetting news. "Blake?!" Tom said, his mouth immediately running dry... Who else had been caught? What if Jamie, Brie, Joseph, Grace (the thought made Tom feel extremely upset) had been caught. It seemed like she was offering to let Blake go if Tom went with her. And then Tom had another realisation... If he pretended to join EAGLES, he could act as a mole for the Gang on the inside! It was like the mafia mission all over again.

Tom looked up and smiled. "Well, I can't say no to you, Emily... But Blake is being released because of this, right?" He tried to say the last part as casually as possible. He was feeling a deep weight in the pit of his stomach. His friends would think he had betrayed them... He would have to find a way to relay a message to them that this was all an act, if they found out. Secretly of course. He took Priestess's hand.

@Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom felt a sharp pang of annoyance as Grace looked like she was going to back off just because of the soot, but luckily that was all quickly dashed by her quickly stepping forward again. And it was dashed even further by Grace actually apologising for acting like she acted at Blake's party. Tom had completely forgotten about that, as most people would have considering the circumstances - being kidnapped by a Roman villain is a lot more important than a small argument, after all, but Tom was still happy about the apology and smiled at her, before looking down at his ash-covered body and responding to her question. "Oh, Blake made some giant fire bird and when it died it more or less exploded all over me..." He chuckled good naturedly at her verbal misstep before watching her walking over to the computer to do her smart stuff on the computer.

Tom then heard a familiar sound at the same time everyone else did - it was his ringtone. It took him a while to find the source of the sound, scurrying about the room looking for it (especially hard when everyone else's phones were going insane at the same) and eventually finding it and peeping the message that everyone else had gotten - to meet at Club 27. Tom was feeling pretty damn relieved that this whole thing was finally over, for real this time. His relief was short lived, however, as damn Starbright arrived. Starbright annoyed Tom enough on his own, but his annoyance was multiplied tenfold when Tom spotted Grace staring at the singer. Tom crossed his arms angrily, thanking Patricia in his head as the teenager elected upon herself to stop Grace staring at Starbright. Nevertheless, Tom let Grace use him as a support just to take them both through her portal before she shut it.

When they reached Club 27, it was time for another Powers meeting. Tom was reminded of the meeting after their mafia incident - only this time, there were two new faces. A big muscular guy who looked pretty cheerful and pleased with life, and a grouchy (even more grouchy than Patty, which was saying something) woman who looked about his age. Powers soon revealed them as Chad and Pandora respectively. However, that news was overshadowed by the big one - the Wings of Law had been fired! Tom audibly said "Holy shit!" When he heard that bit of news. It was a bit of news he never thought would have ever come, but at the same time was totally overdue. Seraph and Mister Impressive in the unemployment line was an amusing mental image. Tom looked forward to the things that would happen now - surely they would be only positive.

---

Tom was definitely not having a positive day.

First off, he had woken up later than he wanted to. He was planning to go out for a nice morning fly, but he slept in, so that was annoying. Second, he had tried to make himself a bagel when he eventually did wake up, but he had burnt it by accident and had to eat a slightly stale croissant he had found in his apartment. As far as Tom was concerned, the morning was already written off, so he may as well sit around and watch TV until the afternoon, when he had an interview booked with some hero magazine at a cafe in Kingsdale. When that time looked like it was rolling around he got up, put on a shirt and jeans, made his hair look perfect before opened his apartment window and heading out - it was still a nice day, so he thought he would fly there.

He landed in Kingsdale a couple of blocks from where the cafe was, planning to walk the rest of the way. On the way there, he happened to pass by a bar that had the door swung wide open. He glanced inside, seeing Seraph on the TV and continuing his... Wait, SERAPH? Tom pulled himself back and looked at the TV, before slipping inside so he could hear what the hell was going on. Luckily the bartender also seemed pretty interested in the broadcast, and turned the volume up. He just caught the words "retirement of Hugo Powers" and tensed up, his eyes wide like a deer in the headlights. The rest of the information washed over him in waves.

A new hero organisation. Mass murder... Eagles... PATTY! Oh god, what if she'd been taken already! Wait, no, Seraph said she was still being brought to justice, so she was still alright. If Tom was panicked already, that was nothing compared to when he saw his own picture suddenly flash up on the screen, along with all his friends. Tom immediately felt the weight of dozens of pairs of eyes weighing down on him. He ducked out of the bar, hearing someone yell something he couldn't hear properly and running back the other way down the street. When he felt he had gone far enough, he quickly floated up onto a nearby building and lay down flat, trying to process everything. Was Powers dead? How had this happened?

Just then, Tom heard his phone ring, grabbing it frantically and answering it to hear his best friend's voice blasting from the other side. "I don't know, I don't know! How the hell did this happen, do you think Powers is dead? We have to go and get Patty... And Jamie, she'll be caught in seconds... And Grace, because... I need... We need to make sure she's safe. Where are you, can you get to Kingsdale?"

@Hitman

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Charlie had already rooted through his bag and pulled out some lines and hooks, which he was busily beginning to rig up for his night fishing expedition. Emboldened by Alayna asking to join him, Charlie was sure that a fun night was ahead... Perhaps some other people would join in too. He was just tying the took to the end of a line with a fairly complex knot, the redhead biting his lip in concentration, when he was suddenly thrown off by Maggie's voice. He glanced up at her as she began to advise him that perhaps he was being brash and going fishing in the woods in the dead perhaps wasn't the smartest idea... And Charlie found himself quickly agreeing with her assessment of the idea - it was pretty irresponsible.

"Well, I suppose you're right... I was probably being rather erratic, it wasn't the smartest suggestion. Sorry Alayna, she is right. Luckily fishing and drugs aren't the only options available..." He quieted his voice as the scary stories began to start, using the opportunity to root through his bag for his own book which he had brought along, soon finding it and pulling it out. It was of course a book about Watford F.C - a biography of a past manager who had lead the club to glory (well, they hadn't actually won anything, but it was relative glory anyway). He had already read the book about three times in the past, but it was an enjoyable read and took his mind off the club's current misfortune anyway, so why not give it another read. He put it to one side just as he caught the end of Isolde's gripping story.

"That was a fine story Isolde... Very atmospheric! In fact, it reminds me of..." Charlie was quickly cut off as he heard heated discussion going on from across the campsite. He whipped his head around to observe the scene. From about 10 seconds of observation, he could see that Dakota and Summer were involved in some kind of conflict... Jeremy had attempted to intervene already, had done absolutely nothing. Iris, Maggie and Calypso were watching on, clearly not involved in the scrap themselves. The situation looked tense already, especially when Summer grabbed Dakota's ferret by the scruff and started threatening it. And it boiled over when Dakota had done a bit of fancy magic and socked Summer straight in the jaw.

Charlie's jaw dropped, and he immediately stood up, instinctively going over to intervene. He attempted to look as serious as he could while heading over - which probably contrasted to his blindingly yellow pyjamas. "Woah, woah, steady! What on earth is going on here? Something about a bracelet?" Probably not the best start, but Charlie soldiered on regardless. "We shouldn't be fighting like this, we're all members of the same coven here... Let's just cool our emotions somewhat, this seems like something that could be talked out." He looked down at his fellow redhead who was most likely reeling from the punch. "Summer, are you alright? And is... Um... Him! Is the ferret alright, Dakota?"

He thought he had done a pretty good job at defusing the situation.

@Qia @Melissa @Blizz @Hitman @Danvers @canaryrose