[b] Rainmaker's Team [/b] 

Evergreen nodded grimly and said, "Very well. But if that changes you're going back out." She raised her head and looked at the continuing battle, "Seems like you may get your chance to prove it." SilverWolf's tomahawk hit Shade's leg and the villain cried out, but the knives managed to only graze the villain. The axe was stuck in the villain and he tried to hobble away, at the same time a half-dozen henchmen came around the corner with Twister at the lead. Twister took the wounded Shade in one of his tentacles and backpedaled away, pointing at SilverWolf, "Kill him." The henchmen raised their assault rifles and began firing, trying to cover the escape of their bosses. 

[b] Olympia's Team [/b] 

Olympia shook her head at Wenchang, "We can't use military-grade chemical weapons like that on civilians, that gas is also known to cause mass hysteria. It's much too risky. And it probably wouldn't do anything to Sarin anyway. But I do agree Hi-Voltage needs an edge. Talk to the Commander. They should have all kinds if non-lethal grenades like a flashbang. Pop one of those when the villains gather, shield your eyes and ears, then take them out while they're indisposed. Sonja teleports the rest of us in to deal with the rest, and gets the hostages out. Shock and awe. Literally." 

She smiled at Volt's imitation of a Chicago accent, "It'll have to do. Get suited up with whatever you need. We need to move fast." A few minutes later Volt changed into a pizza delivery uniform with a jacket to conceal his little surprise and a large stack of pizza boxes. Shank and Bouncer were still at the front with their henchmen and the situation was deteriorating quickly, with Shank raving wildly and Bouncer tensing to twist the neck of her hostage. It all rested on Volt's performance now. Once he made his way in he had to draw out the villains and convince them of the ruse for at least a few moments.

[b] Pariah's victims [/b] 

Eclipse's barricade did indeed shield the majority of her group from the worst of the effects, but several people were still temporarily blinded, deafened, shocked, or sprayed in the eye. They simply did not all become immediately immobilized. Changeling found himself coated in infrared paint and the turrets tried to knock him out of commission before he fell back behind cover. His arrow fired with enhanced strength did not destroy his metal target but the turret did spark some and moved somewhat slower and fired at a lower rate. Strix's gambit allowed a slight reprieve as his paint splattered cape covered one turret. 

This confused the automated systems for a few seconds as they were also programmed to not fire on each other. His pellets jammed up several turrets and his distraction allowed Nuetro and several others, including Zenith's superpowered cousin Apogee, to destroy several turrets. The overall effect was that almost all of the turrets were now out of commission, either destroyed or jammed save for around a half-dozen. The heroes had several moments to break for better cover and establish defensive positions. Pariah's voice flowed over the intercom, "Good. You have learned the first lesson, that you never know what will happen and to think on the fly. Now for the next lesson." 

By now the Henchmen had ample time to prepare. From their positions on the ground and on high-rise buildings they began pouring fire at the heroes, their ammunition consisted of assault weapon versions of the foam rounds that the turrets used. The men were professional and trained and fired well-aimed bursts to suppress the heroes and immobilize anyone unlucky enough to be out on open ground. At the same time the simulated civilians were panicking and running around everywhere and the heroes had to take extra effort to not harm any in the cross-fire. Several other henchmen brandished grenade launchers loaded with concussive rounds and fired them at the heroes as well. Several others were armed with Sniper rifles and tried to take out the heroes with long-ranged precision shots. 

The heroes had escaped the first kill-zone but now they found themselves in another one. And to make matters even worse the automated drones began swarming on their positions and fired small millimeter foam rounds as well as bursts of electric energy. There were dozens of the drones and they had the same Infrared targeting systems as the turrets. The heroes had lasted a few minutes but they now needed to survive the next few more.