Gabriel nodded understanding Olympia's orders , and he listened to Arachnid's questions. They all were good ones and Gabriel was curious to know about whether the Chicago Police Force would be working with them to combat the villains. His concerns were also on the safety of the civilians who were probably trapped in the shopping in the shopping center with the criminals, and Gabriel wanted to make sure they were going to saved before the fighting got really destructive. Villains had the advantage of not caring how much destruction and death they caused, while the heroes needed to stop them and save as many lives as possible.

"I also have a question, who will be engaging the villains directly and which of us will focus on the civilians?" Gabriel asked Olympia and he was curious to hear the demigod's answer. The founders answering these questions would tell Gabriel if they had the concerns of the people before taking down the villains. He gave a prayer to God that this mission would see no spilling of innocent, but like with many things, not everything is certain in the job of a hero.

Rainmaker answered Arachnid, "CPD has already set up a perimeter around the shopping center with snipers and a whole bunch of patrol cars, the villains won't be getting out no matter what happens. The SWAT Teams have already cleared a few sections of the mall but they've been pinned down and are securing a cordon around the inner sections, where the villains are. We'll be going in alone. We don't know how many people are in the mall but we can assume many of them have been taken hostage. If you encounter any wounded, do what you can and let Evergreen do her best to patch them up. We'll call in medevac as needed. We can expect at least two dozen thugs with assault weapons, possibly more. The building has suffered no major damage as the villains simply came in through the doors. St. Michael, myself and the official Leaguers will take on the villains directly. The rest of you will give us support as needed but if you see any civilians your main job is to secure them." When Arachnid mentioned her theory Rainmaker's face remained passive, "We can't speculate at this time but rest assured, we will capture and interrogate the villains."

The VTOL came closer to the shopping center and the doors opened, allowing the heroes to view a massive police blockade around the shopping mall with several teams of SWAT officers inside the building itself trading fire with armed thugs. Rainmaker spoke up again, "Nimbus will throw in a big gust to get them off balance then I'll give us some cover inside. St. Michael goes in first and then we storm the building and neutralize the threats. Equip yourselves with these infrared goggles to help you see through the mist." The heroine flew out the gunship's doors with her team in tow. They entered the barricaded zone and entered the mall. Bullets were being traded back and forth, and Shade a diminutive Caucasian man and Surgeon, a lanky african-american man were firing away with pistols next to half a dozen of their henchmen who had assault rifles, taking cover and firing at the SWAT teams. Permafrost was in the lead and firing ice blasts at the police, shielded behind a block of ice.

Rainmaker nodded at Nimbus who raised his arms and fired a massive gust of wind, knocking over the villains onto their backs and shattering Permafrost's cover. Shade suddenly disappeared and Surgeon extended his twelve-inch razor claws before getting back to his feet. Permafrost was dazed and cut by several ice shards, and was slowly getting a hold of himself. Rainmaker created a mist inside the building and fired a few lightning bolts which shocked a couple of henchmen who got back to their feet. Rainmaker shouted, "Go!"

Back at the Hall of Heroes, once the recruits made their way inside the hall they were ushered into several different rooms. Along the way they passed a grand sign declaring the building to be the Hall of Heroes and headquarters of the League of Heroes. Several staff and established members cast appraising glances at the recruits as they made their way through the clean and impressively sized hall. Our heroes and a few other recruits found themselves in a small briefing room where Pariah stood at the head of the room next to a large door. There was just enough room for Neutro to stand. Pariah stared at the recruits for several seconds before he said, "Zenith may have a lot of confidence in you, but that confidence is not shared by me. Perhaps a couple of you are people I can actually trust to get the job done," Pariah inclined his head to Strix, Warp, and a few other heroes he knew, "But the rest of you are much more suspect."

"If you want to join this League, then you'll have to pass a course of my own design. It is an urban obstacle course and the objective is to secure a bus full of civilians from a group of metahuman terrorists. Along the way you'll encounter several armed henchmen and terrorists who will be played by existing staff and members we have at the League. Along with a few surprises of my own. You will neutralize all threats non-lethally. You will not harm any bystanders, who will be Aurora's projections. You will inflict minimum collateral damage. And you will do so as quickly as possible."

Pariah stared each and every one of them down in the eye or what passed for eyes, "Failure to do so will mean failure to join the League. This course will be followed by evaluations from League Members. Any questions?"

Darn. Hostages. If there was anything Neutro was ever most unsure about when it came to his career as a hero, it was securing the lives of individuals under the eyes of a weapon. He wasn't the fastest hero, he wasn't particularly nimble, and he possessed no projectiles of his own that didn't obliterate whatever they came into contact with. And so the prospect of trying to find his way into an enclosed space like a bus already under the vigilant eyes of terrorists sent nervous shocks through his body. He was trustworthy, he knew for sure, but would he succeed?

He stopped to recite the incidents in which he had rescued hostages before, trying his best to find ways of avoiding prior mistakes; civilians he nearly injured, structures he crushed, terrorists he missed. He'd need a good plan, ASAP. One that could cater to Pariah's wishes. Neutro was visibly contemplating, thinking of what the scene might look like before he even got the chance to participate. At the very least, he could run through several scenes in which the bus was surrounded or occupied by terrorists in several ways, and how he would deal with them personally.

Neutro crossed his arms and surveyed the crowd, awaiting anyone to come up with questions. He certainly wouldn't, as he was too busy answering his own.

Natsumi Aida, the Eldritch Knight - Hall of Heroes

Not many had noticed it due to all the spectacle, but a corner at the back of the room had began emitting smoke. Soon afterwards, a woman's face appeared amidst the smoke, followed by the rest of her head, then like some kind of humanoid Cheshire Cat her body quickly faded into existence. Unlike most of those in the hall, the woman was not wearing a costume; the closest thing to one she was wearing was her long black coat, which billowed like a cape as she walked towards the crowd of heroes.

"I apologize for my lateness," she said to any who noticed her arrival, with a look of grim seriousness on her face. "But the dread lord D'kala wished to awaken early." Wiping a smear of black ichor off her face, she followed the group of heroes as Pariah explained what was to come.

Well, it didn't sound that difficult, really. Compared to some of the things she'd already faced today, a simple hostage situation shouldn't be too much to handle. Rather than questioning Pariah, she simply nodded solemnly, ready for whatever was to come.

*ignore this post

Hi-Voltage arched an eyebrow at Olympia's comment, as he thought people had stopped using the word 'spunk' in serious conversations back in the 1940's, but climbed into the VTOL and took a seat, getting his pick seeing as he was the first one on. Lets get this show on the road. He was quickly joined by the other heroes on this mission, but didn't recognise any of them apart from the qualified leaguers. That was a bit disappointing as he was sure Strix woulda volunteered for this mission. Three villain attacks in Chicago on the same day that the League was having their first major meeting in the city certainly sounded like the sorta Conspiracy theory the owl themed vigilante would get his teeth stuck into so it was surprising he wasn't here. Then again maybe he knew something Volt didn't.

Volt took the time to flick his earpiece into the 'on' setting. It gave off nothing but static for a few seconds before the line stabilised. A few seconds more of silence before finally he heard a voice on the other end.

"Hey blondie. Finally letting me listen in huh? So what's the party like, and more importantly is Olympia as stunning in person as she looks on tv?" The slightly huffy voice on the other end was Szymon Glowski, otherwise known as the hacker supreme; Silvertongue. Szymon was quite possibly Volt's greatest ally, providing the Lightning-Slinger with much needed technical know how, cyber back up and mission control. The man was a genius, if more than a little eccentric, and Volt couldn't even begin to comprehend how difficult the path so far might have been if not for Szymon.

"Button it Silvertongue, she's way outta your league anyway. Things have got hot and it looks like I'm gonna be involved in some action. You know the drill, keep your ears open and give me relevant info as you receive it." Volt was painfully aware how much like a drill sergeant he sounded when speaking to Silvertongue, but that was the role he was suited to. The straight man to Szymon's comic.

"Oh sure, ignore me all day until you need me! You know Volt, friendship is a two way street, eventually you'll need to give me something in return for all the hours I sacrifice for you!" even through the complaints the tapping of keys could be heard as Silvertongue brought up data screens, ready to deliver anything that could help Volt.

The VTOL took off shortly after that, the others strapping themselves in for the short ride. Olympia, looking every inch a determined demi-god, strode up and down the aisle explaining the situation. Both Volt and Silvertongue listened intently, both believing that 'forewarned is forearmed'. Volt hadn't heard of any the villains, probably because they were American natives and had never crossed the pond. Still, he definitely didn't like the sound of them, especially the one that could turn into a poisonous cloud. I hate to sound like Eclipse, but shooting lightning is starting to sound pretty trivial. I'll have to up my game.

Olympia had finished now, and was waiting for questions.

"'Scuse me miss, but I've gotta few" Volt started " Being from outta town I'm unfamiliar with the nasties we're gonna be dealing with, so do any of them have any weaknesses that you could share with a tourist? And have they made any demands? In my experience the bad guys are usually full of demands in this kinda situation." He kept one question to himself for now, that being how could any villain group be dumb enough to attack in Chicago today. Instead he waited for an answer to the questions he had asked.

Chris was really out of her depth here. What was she even thinking coming here anyway? This was a place for professionals not people who volunteered at their local police station! She decided to stay while a few others went off to deal with whatever villain emergency had arisen in the city. Besides she probably wasn’t needed with so many others going off to prove their worth. Chris decided to zip herself away from the man with the wolf. Chris had read that book as a child and didn’t want to find out if a wolf could actually eat someone.

With the roars of the gunship engines moved away from the building, Chris still in awe that they had been able to get them prepped and ready in such a short amount of time, the air of anticipation in the room began to slowly creep upwards as the crucial moment drew near. The initiation test. Chris let a few of the other heroes push past her whilst she took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart. Following the line of brightly coloured people, what the heck were they thinking when choosing their costumes, Chris was pulled into the large hall of the building.

She barely got a chance to gawp at the huge spiralling arches that help the ceiling aloft before she and a few others were ushered into a small room.
“Well. This is cozy.” Chris commented quietly trying to lighten the mood. People liked jokes right? “Good grief, where did you come from.” Chris jumped, knocking into someone, when she noticed the appearance of a new woman who she was certain hadn’t been there a second before.

With their task explained to them Chris had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t going to be as simple as Pariah made it seem, and he did not make it seem simple. Well this was going great. Chris smiled awkwardly trying not to betray how worried she was about the situation they were soon to be put in. Thank god it was just a simulation and there was no chance of them really being hurt. Dammit.

“Um, hello, yes, um question.” Chris felt all eyes in the room descend upon her. “Will we be likely to get hurt? Like seriously injured and such?” Another thought popped into her head. “And um, will there terrorists inside the bus or just outside guarding it?”

If there weren’t any in the bus then she could ask the others to take care of the terrorists while she jumped into the bus and drove all the hostages away.

Arachnid slipped the goggles on and through the mist managed to catch sight of Surgeon readying his claws. The guy looked extremely dangerous but Arachnid felt that her powers should give her the edge to take him and she jumped down from the VTOL and stood face to face with him. The villain grinned at her as he charged swinging his claws wildly as Arachnid performed gymnastic moves to stop herself from being sliced to pieces.

During her melee with Surgeon her foot slipped on the mall floor and losing her balance she fell, Surgeon catching her in the abdomen as she regained her footing. Immediately she knew that he had cut deep and she cursed herself for making the mistake and her attacker for injuring her like this. Quickly putting her abdomen to one side she focused on her aggressor and jumped onto the roof of a nearby cart as he attacked her again.

As he slashed at the roof's support she managed to jump behind him wincing as she landed and delivered a punch to the back of his head before checking her wound realising she was losing a fair amount of blood.

Blast Girl sprang out of the gunship almost immediately. Right! Mentally she ran through the villains she had seen as she entered the mist, and finally she decided on the obvious: She would take whichever one she ran into first. She'd had to do a quick goggle swap before jumping out, and the mist certainly would've made it impossible for her to tell where she was going otherwise. It wasn't too long until she spotted the first of the villains. Permafrost? He was still getting up off the ground. The choice was obvious, then. Knock him flat before he could even tell what was going on!

The components of her Blast Knuckles appeared in a flash, assembling on her hands rapidly as she charged right for the bad guy. It'd be one supervillain down, she was sure of it! Cartridges loaded into her gauntlets automatically, each with a click and a whir as they took their places around her wrist. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

The moment she was close to Permafrost, Blast Girl swung one fist foreward as hard as she could! If it connected, two of the cartridges in that Blast Knuckle would discharge with a loud crack, sending a shotgun blast of energy to bowl the villain over, or even send him tumbling end over end.

Pariah gave Rolling Girl his patented stare, his yellow visor locking with her eyes before replying, "This exercise will mimic a real-world operation as closely as possibly. The staff will be using non-lethal weaponry but it will be as close as we can get to real armaments. The instructors have been ordered to use their powers near their full strength. In effect, you will likely experience excruciating pain that you have seldom felt before if it all. I anticipate multiple injuries ranging from cuts and bruises to cracked bones." Several recruits shifted at that, "That said. We will not break you before you join the League. No permanent damage should be inflicted. But I would anticipate some of you earning the chance to hone your first aid skills."

For her second question, Pariah said, "I will not relate any information regarding the positioning of your foes. In a real combat situation, heroes must often deploy into danger with no idea of what they face. If you wish to join the League you must learn to adapt to situations quickly in order to succeed in your mission." Pariah glared at her, impressive considering his eyes were covered, and scanned the rest of the room, "Any other questions?"

Elsewhere, Olympia answered her questions more graciously, "Shank can only teleport two people at the most. Anymore than that and he can't go anywhere, he also can't teleport anything bigger than a fridge with him. Bouncer is as vulnerable as any other human besides her agility and she is not as dangerous at mid to long ranges. Burnout is susceptible to water and ice attacks more than most, and he's pretty dumb to boot. Sarin is susceptible to anything that disrupts her gaseous form, like a wind or ice attack. She can only stretch her gas form as her solid mass allows. And Boomer has to recharge for twenty seconds after self-detonating, and he is also somewhat dumb. None of them have special defenses besides against attacks similar to their own. The biggest concern is what they'll do with the hostages. Sarin, Burnout, and Boomer are particularly dangerous to the hostages and they know that much. They have demanded and I quote, 'a fueled jet, ten supreme pizzas, safe transport, ten million dollars, and for you to fuck yourself' we can only assume an ulterior motive for the robbery. Anything else?"

Olympia answered any questions that were raised and It was at that point that the gunship landed and Olympia strode out with her team. They saw that the Bank was completely surrounded, but Shank was in front of the Bank with a knife to the neck of what looked to be the bank manager. Bouncer was next to him and had her arms around another bank worker. Three of their henchmen flanked them and pointed guns at the police. The police commander walked up to them and Olympia nodded at him, "What's the situation here?"

The commander said, "We got them completely surrounded but Burnout, Sarin, and Boomer have locked themselves in three different rooms with the hostages. Boomer in the lobby, Sarin in the Vault, and Burnout in the upstairs offices. Shank is getting crazier. We need to settle this now." Olympia turned to Hi-Voltage, "Can you knock out the villains without harming the hostages?" And to Sonja she asked, "Any ideas old friend?"

Silverwolf had nodded his acceptance of his orders and climbed into the VTOL gunship occupied by Rainmaker, Wahaya following closely behind as always. Once inside, he listened to the instructions given, and took them to heart. He was used to being a free agent, but since he had decided to commit to this team he had to play by the same rules as everyone else. After the description of the scenario was given, he felt foolish for not bringing his bow with him; it would have certainly made things easier. With only his spear and a few knives, however, perhaps there was less chance of enemy casualty. When Rainmaker offered him infrared goggles he politely declined offering simply: "they will be unnecessary ma'am." and a casual smile. The elements would not hinder his senses in any way, even an unnaturally dense fog would do little to slow him down. With the remaining few moments until touchdown, SilverWolf controlled his breathing and concentrated on his ability to help those in need.

The moment the gunship hit ground, he and Wahaya leapt though the door and charged forward with great speed. His sharp eyes scanned carefully, recording the layout of the grounds and current position of everyone in sight. The gust of wind hit, and legitimately shocked SIlverWolf; as it was far more destructive than he had expected; it was followed closely by a thick mist distributed through the mall. It seemed to have the ideal effect as the various criminals were clearly thrown off; however some were foolish enough to be firing blindly with reckless abandon. SilverWolf continued his charge, headed for the first group that had been with Surgeon and Shade; but, in an effort to follow his orders to the letter focused on the three henchmen off to the right, rather than the super villains at the center.

As he closed the distance quickly, SilverWolf quickly considered the best course of action; ultimately he decided that he and Wahaya should try to take down all three simultaneously. He gave his companion a look that conveyed the entirety of his plan, then took a great bound. In mid air, SilverWolf sent a single steel knife flying towards the wrist of the middle henchman. Following through on that momentum he spun, spear in hand, and swung hard with the shaft headed towards the M16 in the hands of the right henchman. As he and his blade closed in, Wahaya pounced forward towards the man on the left, without giving the slightest warning.

*

The entrance of the prime members of the League filled Shin with mixed emotions. The mix was about even between boredom and contempt. On one hand, he reviled this farcical ceremony, the shameless clowns that put it on, and the mockery it made of the genuine efforts of many of those present to bring justice to the world. On the other hand, he couldn't give less of a shit about the aforementioned clowns or their over-inflated self-importance, and just wantedto get this all over with. Regardless, he stood silent, idly rolling his shoulders and cracking his knuckles as the ceremony progressed.

At the conclusion, an offer was extended for those present to go out and bring some real justice to the city. As restless as Shin was, he decided against it. He didn't want to show his hand this early, nor risk his own life by holding back. Not to mention that it was still broad daylight out; the slightest cut or hole in his clothes and he would be filled with flaming agony. No thank you, sir.

Rather, he followed the crowd into the Hall to partake in the trials. He removed none of his protective clothing once indoors, as he found the disguise comforting among this many dangerous strangers. Pariah gave his briefing, and Shin was again somewhat conflicted. The challenge sounded doable. He would be able to complete it without giving away too much, from the sound of it. The non-lethal condition on the exercise was worrisome. Not that Shin really desired to kill any of the staff; he just was unsure that he still knew how to pull his punches. Still, they were all heroes here, or at least they claimed to be. If they were willing to break his bones, surely they were prepared to receive the same treatment. Or maybe a maiming or two. Again, lethality was the only restriction.

Shin paced the briefing room like a caged tiger, eager to finally cut loose and spill a little blood.

Sonja thought for a moment, while taking the time to adjust the bulletproof vest she wore beneath her silk blouse. At times like this she was happy for her slight figure, having more curves would make wearing armor a wee bit uncomfortable. "Give me a second, Ariadne. I don't want this to turn into a room-to-room fight, not with hostages. I can whip up a few teleportation tricks, no problem, to get those hostages out. Ideally we could get a few of them to step away for a moment, Sarin especially might be tempted to just leave the vault and lock the door behind her so they don't make a run for it. But how. . ." Sonja thought for a moment. "They demanded pizza, right? We bring those in, they might step away to eat. It might even get them all in one place, folks tend to cluster around a pizza. Hell, we might even take the chance of one of us posing as a deliveryman." Sonja turned towards Wenchang and Hi-Voltage. "How's your American accents, guys?"

She shrugged. "That's just one thought, though. Might be better than just up and storming the place, but it'd take more time to set up."

When Gabriel was offered the goggles, he shook his head and said, "I have no need for this item, God's glorious power will keep my eyes unclouded by the mist."

Once Rainmaker shouted for them to enter the shopping complex, Gabriel drew his sword and he dove down towards the mall. Once he entered through the area, he spotted several armed criminals and flew towards him. Gabriel pointed his flaming sword at the criminals and shot a jet of fire at them. Fortunately for the thugs, the flames shot from Gabriel's sword were not going to severely burn them but they would hurt a lot. The criminals screamed in fright at the flames and tried to shoot wildly into the mist. Gabriel had to quickly move to subdue them before a stray bullet killed a civilian.

He shoved at his right hand at the thugs and sent out a wave of divine energy which knocked the criminals away. Gabriel had made sure not to use too much power so that they weren't mortally injured and he hoped that no one had been harmed by their bullets. He looked around for the super powered criminals and soon saw Surgeon being hit by Arachnid, but he also saw that the heroine was bleeding. He rushed over to her quickly and fired a blast of fire using his Damnation ability at the super villain. He then looked at Arachnid and said, "I can try and heal the wound, it may take a moment"

His Purification ability was more meant for healing those who have been tainted by evil and not real wounds, but with a enough power he could try and heal the injury that his comrade had sustained.

Rainmaker's team

Arachnid's super-strong blow knocked the Surgeon right in the back of the head, combined with the roof of the cart falling on top of him the villain was out for the count. Blood continued to flow from the wound Arachnid sustained. Meanwhile, Blast Girl's attack on Permafrost was similarly successful. The Cryokinetic was sent end over end into a nearby wall and met the wall with his face. He slumped to the ground as SilverWolf and Wahaya attacked the remaining henchmen.

The Wolf took down his quarry easily enough and the man screamed as the giant wolf assaulted him, but as he tried to ward off the wolf with one hand his other hand struggled to draw his pistol and aim it at the wolf. The henchman in the middle found a blade sticking out of his wrist and he screamed dropping his rifle as his compatriot's rifle was destroyed by a spear. The middle henchman unsteadily drew his pistol and his more composed companion did the same. They aimed at SilverWolf and he had only an instant to react. Until Gabriel's fire broke their nerve and his subsequent attack knocked the trio of henchmen down for the count.

Shade had disappeared but Rainmaker had created a small rainstorm within the mall. Silvery drops poured on the combatants but several dripped off of a blank space in the air. Said weather anomaly had been trying to sneaking behind the unsuspecting Arachnid. Until he saw St. Michael and said weather anomaly attempted to run away deeper into the mall. Gabriel's attempts to heal Arachnid were partially successful and stopped the worst of the bleeding. Evergreen showed up an instant later and sealed the wound with a tightly-woung vine wrap. She looked her in the eye, "Can you continue on the mission?"

Olympia's team

Olympia grinned at Sonja, "I believe that request was just bs... but it should throw them off-balance. As luck would have it the CPD had called in a delivery just in case we decided to go with it. They know my face and I'll need you to run a teleportation spell so it's Hi-Voltage, Wenchang, or one of the rookies and I'm not to sure about the last one. I'd prefer you Hi-Voltage. You can get in draw in as many as you can and take them out with your electricity. Then Sonja can teleport the rest of us in. Sonata and Graviton will use their powers to incapacitate the rest and we extract the hostages. Sound good?" It was unconventional but it just might work.

Pariah's victims

The heroes, one to two dozen in all, gathered in front of the shut door next to where Pariah stood. Pariah pressed a button and they found themselves facing a completely empty long hallway with another door at the end, they filed in and the door closed behind them. The lights shut off and were replaced by a few red bulbs. Pariah's voice came in over the intercom, "Myself and a few of the other Founders will be monitoring your progress. Remember what I said earlier. Impress us. Begin in 5...4...3...2....1 Execute."

The doors opened and the recruits charged out to meet their challenge. For a few moments they caught sight of an impressively large room filled with realistic models of urban buildings, cars, and other city features. The streets were populated by panicking multi-colored civillians and at the far end of the room, perhaps a mile or so down, they could barely make out a bus in the middle of the street. It was too far for most of them to make out any details besides that. And the streets happened to be filled with scores of heavily armed henchmen and superhumans. They might also caught sight of automated turrets and flying drones.

This impression only lasted a few moments as almost immediately after they left the doors, several round objects thunked to the ground in front of them. They did not know it yet, and would soon find out that these grenades were of Savant's design and were a hybrid of multiple non-lethal technologies. They would initially explode in a large concussive blast of light and sound that would blind and deafen almost everyone in the vicinity and knock those in the immediate blast zone back with impressive force. Four smaller 'child' grenades would be released from the initial explosion. One would send tiny electric charges in all directions, another would release an obscuring gas that would also cause incredible discomfort should it the gas be inhaled, another would fire a mist of particularly potent pepper spray, and the last would send large blobs of bright red paint at the hapless victims.

This paint was a special compound that tagged targets for any friendly units with infrared technology to see their enemies. As such while several heroes were suffering from the effects of being deafened, blown back by concussive force, being mildly electrocuted, being temporarily blinded, suffering mild suffocation, having been sprayed in the eyes by mace, or a combination thereof they would also be draped in a thick cloud of gas that shielded the terrorists from their view. But the infrared paint that splattered many of them would allow several automatic machine gun turrets to hone in on their position. These turrets would fire excessive amounts of paint rounds at incredibly fast rates. These paint rounds upon striking the target would simulate being shot by a real bullet by encasing the target in an immobilizing foam. They also hit with just enough force to be non-lethal but would probably cause bruising. Said grenades would detonate in a few seconds. Said turrets were spinning their barrels and would fire a few seconds after that. If rapid action wasn't taken they were about to lose before they even began.

* (Gosh darn it)

Elise had been ushered into a strange room along with the rest of the crowd who hadn't chosen the mission and was grateful to not be around all those phonies as before, instead she would be able to show off her skills and her assets to prove she belonged. Pariah had made it extremely clear how serious this event had become, the party and fun was over, some of the recruits who clearly weren't as serious now stood in a line along Eclipse who simply smiled feeling their fear get the best of them. Along the line of people about to enter through the doors, she was one of the few without wobbly knees.

This soon changed when these doors opened and placed them in a long hallway which they enthusiastically rushed in, the doors behind them closed and soon every single person in the room was nervous which was only made worse when the lights popped off suddenly and were replaced by harsh red lights which barely illuminated anything and gave everyone the impression the room was much smaller than it actually was. A voice clicked on over the intercom which Elise recognized as Pariah and she began counting down before Elise could get into her Eclipse frame of mind. Before she could say anything the countdown ended and the doors popped open revealing an overwhelming street scene. Rushing out as one of the first bodies in the charge she saw canisters being tossed towards them, grenades, oh shit Elise thought. She called out firmly "Stand near me, take cover in my barrier! Everybody come on!"

When she was sure at least most of them were close she brought her arms to her chest, channeling what little light energy she could from her body and expelled her outwards through her arms, before the barrier could go up however the first set of explosives went off and the deafening crack almost blew out her eardrums. When her senses cleared Elise found herself holding the barrier now which blocked two of the secondary grenades. She looked and saw the gas expanding outside of her barrier and the electricity of another grenade sparking off it, she noticed however a small canister had been rolled between her feet which then exploded sending a paint splattering all over everyone kept safe inside the barrier. Elise coughed as some got in her mouth and mostly her legs. A faint hissing could be heard as the pepper spray had also made its way in and began filling the interior of the shield causing her eyes to sting, she attempted to look around coughing as the pepper spray offended her senses "What was that all about? I can hardly breathe, is everyo-" she was cut off by the loud crack of the automated turrets now firing at her, the barrier blocked these powerful shots but with each one that thudded against it, she felt the light barrier cracking. She managed to choke out between short inhales of the pepper spray infected air "We need a plan! Anyone?" They were now trapped inside a bubble with gas quickly surrounding them and a line of turrets raining shots on their position. Once this shield went down they were going to be assaulted by all kinds of hell.

Strix actually grinned as the scenario manifested in front of them, having been waiting patiently and quietly while Pariah explained the situation. Once all hell broke loose Strix moved quickly, expecting no less than immediate destruction from an obstacle course designed by The Dark Avenger and built by a hero whose technical expertise equaled his own.

Once the grenades rolled in he prepared to take immediate evasive action only to hear someone mention a barrier. Nevertheless he reflexively wrapped his cape around his body and face as he stepped closer to the person who called out. Once the first set of grenades burst out, the sound filters in his helmet used to protect him from his own Echo System's effects left his hearing completely undamaged while Elise's barrier took care of the majority of the others. With his cape positioned to cover himself reflexively he was able to protect himself from the infrared tracking paint as well although the cape was now covered in it. As the pepper spray began leaking out in the interior of the shield he quickly pulled out the small re-breather and air filter he kept in his utility belt and sealed it onto his mask, avoiding the effects from the mix of pepper spray and obscuring gas between that and his suit's goggles. He switched to the Echo System's vision mode and waited a fraction of a second for the sounds of the battlefield to be disregarded so he could see through the smoke forming around them as well as try and get a fix on each turret's location.

Seeing as he was almost completely unaffected by the assault and that the turrets were already pummeling their first line of defense into submission, he figured he might as well submit a plan.

"Our first concern has to be keeping these turrets from pinning us down so we can focus on neutralizing the terrorists and whatever allies they have and save the hostages. I think I can draw some fire off of us since they seem to be automated, and maybe take a few of them out while I'm at it! Once I draw off their fire, take out as many turrets as you can, then we can re-group and figure out how to take the rest down. Either that or if you can move that shield and maybe re-strengthen it, start getting out of the kill-zone we're currently trapped in so we can see what's going on, make progress towards the bus and form a better plan!" He tried to indicate as much of this as he could with hand-signs and signals for those who might have been deafened.

With that, Strix unfastened his now brightly paint covered cape and took the unusual step of feeding it through one of his grapple guns in place of a rope. Taking a second, conventionally loaded grapple gun in his other hand he fired both simultaneously. The cape-loaded one was aimed at one of the turrets furthest away from their position, where the grappling hook would hopefully latch there after flying through the air with the paint-covered cape in tow. Strix fired the other grapple-gun in the opposite direction although still moving down the street and let the micro-motor in his belt yank him in that direction. As he practically flew out of cover down the street he grabbed several glue pellets and hurled them at different turrets, where they would hopefully burst and gum up the rotating barrels and inner mechanisms of the guns. He had a hunch that the paint was some kind of marker for the turrets and thus they would target his splattered cape as it attached to a far-off turret instead of him, but even if they just tracked motion he would still be drawing enemy fire, although in two directions and more dangerously.

The end effect, he hoped, would be a chance for his allies to break out and get their bearings or destroy the turrets. Meanwhile he would neutralize several himself, move into a different position and cause the one's he or his allies didn't break to aim for the gun his cape would be affixed to. After that he might be able to re-unite with the others and figure out a plan for the rest of this mess.

With all three attacks landing square, SilverWolf took note of their attempt to retaliate; his tactical planning was cut short as he foresaw the impending assistance however. Having still been in motion, SIlverWolf quickly sidestepped. At the same time Wahaya jumped from the chest of the thug and dashed into the thick mist to avoid being seen. With a slight grin, appreciating the help from one of the more super-powered teammates, SilverWolf appraised the situation again. Something was off. It took him a moment to realize that Shade was still unaccounted for. By the time he had picked up the scent, it began to rain dampening his sense of smell somewhat. Fortunately, he no longer needed it, as the rain also outlined the missing villain perfectly. Shade also noticed the turning tide, and took off.

SilverWolf wasted no time, sprinting after the now partially visible Shade. He was closing the distance, but not fast enough as he was headed into unknown territory and SilverWolf had the sense that he may be leading them into a trap. Seeing him approach a corner, which would briefly take him out of sight, SilverWolf took his last opportunity to let out a barrage of attacks. Drawing his tomahawk from his belt, he drew back and in a singular moment took aim at where he knew Shade would be. With great speed and rapidity, he sent the tomahawk flying followed closely by three knives, each whistling quietly as it sliced the air. He had aimed them all at the lower appendages, trying to avoid a casualty on his first league mission, knowing that it also meant a greater possibility of missing their targets. Once they were let loose he came sliding to a stop, spear in hand, and carefully observed both his target and his surroundings.