Strix had been spending his time since the slight reprieve taking out the aerial drones with his feather-shaped throwing knives, seeing as he was currently unmarked by the infra-red paint they were using for their targeting systems as well as spreading smokebombs around in the most effective patterns he could to screen out potential snipers and other foam pellet gunners from shooting, in between ducking from cover to cover and generally trying to disrupt the henchmen and drones from hitting anyone while taking as many out as he could. They still weren't getting any closer to the bus with the hostages though, and that was a problem.

So when the archer from before suggested providing more long range covering fire while someone made a hole to move forward, he was all for it.

"That sounds like a plan I can get behind! In fact, everyone who's got some long range capability should target the grenadiers, snipers and guys with assault rifles! We'll put down our own field of suppression and give some of the heavier movers a chance to make a hole toward the bus that the rest of us can push through after them! Prime candidates are probably Apogee, Neutro, the girl who's already charging and I guess anyone else who thinks they can make it through without getting slugged! Move as one unit and act as a shield for each other and the people who come in from behind and we might survive this! Move!"

When did I become a leader here? I hate this kind of thing...although I guess it is just another kind of management even if a battlefield isn't quite a lab or a boardroom...

While thinking this Strix quickly grabbed onto changeling and fired his grapple up to the top of one of the taller buildings, the owl-themed vigilante yanking him up with him.

"Nice to meet you, kid. But I have work to do. Fire at will, I guess."

With that Strix launched himself off of the rooftop, pulled out another loaded grapple gun and started going between that and simple free-running to traverse the rooftops. He moved much more carefully and subtlely than he suspected thoseon the ground would, counting on his stealth training, his suit 's silencing effects and the distraction below to aid him in ambushing troops on the rooftops in close range.

Strix figured a second prong from above during the charge would increase success and maybe allow himself or the other group to slip through.

The Spirit of St. Louis shrank back, confronted with the specter of Sarin. The woman had turned into a cloud of yellowish gas, advancing menacingly upon her. Here and there in the shifting billows Sonja could make out a face, perhaps an arm or a leg. Sonja dimly remembered high school history lessons about the First World War, a brief WMD seminar the St. Louis police had forced her to attend. Just holding her breath wouldn't be enough, some gas could maim or kill simply by skin contact. She knew that much, as she stumbled backwards away from Sarin.

What could she do? How could she defend herself? A swung bat or thrown fireball would be inconsequential against this foe. A trick to restore Sarin to a solid state would take too long to put together. And Sonja certainly couldn't just try to outpace her and get to the hostages, the end result would be a pile of dead bodies. She looked around, desperate for something useful, then lit on what she hoped was salvation.

A janitor's closet, tucked inconspicuously behind the counter.

Sonja ran, glad she had chosen to wear sensible shoes, slid across the marble countertop, made for the door of the janitor's closet. He dared not look back, but the hissing sound behind her didn't particularly bode well. She couldn't afford to deal with the locked door, and thus with a flick of the wrist burned away the deadbolt in a flash of blue flame. Sorry, bank. By all means, bill Barclay-Hoffmeyer for the damage, but I'm sure your customers will understand. She threw open the door, feverishly tossed aside mops and boxes as the hissing sound stole upon her, as she felt a cool and deadly breeze touch the back of her neck. Sonja had to keep in a shriek of relief of she found the thing she was after, grabbed it, shoving the plug into a handy wall socket and feeling the device roar to life.

Sonja spun around, holding her breath, the powerful suction hose of the running vacuum cleaner shoved into the middle of the cloud of poison gas. If this didn't work, she'd look pretty stupid. Or, for that matter, be pretty dead.

Neutro hugged the edge of a building's corner after allowing his comrades to disperse themselves, most taking towards the interior of the buildings or behind cars. Gazing around the edge, he caught sight of multiple hovering drones taking positions to make up for the terrorists severe lack of turret fire. The personnel, too, seemed to be moving in themselves though clearly in a more defensive manner than their robotic servitors.

Neutro swung around the other side of the building, looking to find another path that could lead him to the terrorists sides. If he just charged forward in the middle of the street, they'd easily see him coming and retreat to a safer zone. In these sorts of situations, he needed sheer defensive stances rather than speed if he was to survive, and that meant everything and their mothers were faster than him. If he could get around, he might have a chance at laying down some carnage at the forefront to disrupt their lines of sight and draw attention to himself. With his toughness, living was not a problem, but ensuring his comrades were similarly destined to keep drawing breath wasn't. Neutro caught wind of a plan hatched by Strix, though was already too far into his own scheme to follow the other's perfectly. At the very least, he'd eventually mesh with the same end goal.

An alleyway presented Neutro with a side-path he needed, and he dove into it. With a brisk jog, he traversed the narrow way towards the original main road they had entered. Gunfire and yelling, as well as the occasional bolt of some unidentified energy beamed back and forth across his view down the alleyway. To his immediate left, he knew, there would be a host of terrorists and drones waiting. Thus, he needed the element of surprise. Neutro lowered his mass, making himself a tad bit more vulnerable to the binding effects of their guns, boosting his running speed slightly.

Driving more energy into his limbs, he surged out of the alleyway like a pickup truck without brakes. Digging in his heels, he turned to and stampeded towards a group of terrorists hiding behind a windowless vehicle parked in the middle of the street. Bullets struck him, though he kept on trucking. With a yell, he slammed into the car his enemies hid behind, knocking it on its side and over the heads of the terrorists. It careened through the air and towards another vehicle, which promptly caved in under the weight.

If he wrestled for their weapons, he'd have a high chance of inadvertently hurting them seriously, and simply knocking them out wasn't something he'd take a stab at either. At the very least, he could disrupt their actions further and give his allies a chance to disable them completely. Neutro struck the ground in between the two terrorists before they could roll away, breaking the street and flipping their bodies upwards and unto the pavement. One lost control of his gun, and the other rolled semi-harmlessly along the street, though was evidently stunned by the event. His presence had forced other enemies in the area to retreat a short distance.

Jumping from the hoarding on Rainmaker's command Arachnid winced, grabbing her side before chasing after Blast Girl both admiring her courage and cursing her impetuousness "Probably should have waited for help, kid" she thought to herself. Feeling her injury with every step she hoped it hadn't worsened on that landing. "As for me I should watch out for shell casings" she whispered to herself as she turned a corner and caught site of the henchmen with raised rifles.

"Look out" she shouted diving out of the way of a barrage of gunfire, one bullet barely missing her calf as she dove into a storefront. Crying out in pain as she landed, she knew that her injury from the fight with the surgeon had reopened. She braced herself against the store entrance and shouted "I need help, I reopened the injury from earlier dodging the fire." She looked down and saw that Evergreen's wrap was quickly changing colour as she tried to tighten it.

Not dead yet, not dead yet! The line repeated itself in Tommy's head, over and over again like a feverish mantra. His battle plans, tactics and strategies, his enemies movements and where to shoot, the cries of the wounded and Silvertongues incessant nagging. All this thoughts and distractions flew through his head, but behind it all, like a niggling worm buried in his skull was 'Not dead yet, not dead yet'. His allies had appeared quickly after the action had kicked off, like magic really. Maybe one of the other new guys was a caster of some sort.

Volt's vision was back to normal now, so he could see that the two hostages had already been extracted. That was a good, he'd been unable to use any of his more 'unfriendly' powers, like a blanket shock, in fear of hurting them. Now he couldn't use them in case he fried any of his teammates, but at least they could take care of themselves.

Somehow the Lightning-Slinger had managed to take down Boomer and Burnout before the fight had even started in earnest, good luck in all honesty, but now the other meta villains had scattered. Sarin had turned to gas, chasing Sonja across the hall, and Bouncer was in the process of trying to break Wenchang's skull open with her feet. That only left Shank. . .

The tell-tale sound of a teleporter's power being used sounded as if on cue, coming from right behind Volt. That can't be a good sign. God, I hate teleporters! The Lightning-Slinger spun to his left, his enhanced speed and amazing reflex's meaning that Shank's knife hardly brushed against him, the rest of the damage being negated by his toughened flesh. Still, he managed to rip my jumpsuit, mores the pity. These things don't grow on tree's after all. Shank barely had time to blink before Volt had grabbed a hold of his knife-wielding wrist in a vice like grasp, squeezing a little to hard for the villain to be comfortable. The teleporter struggled to pull his hand free, but it was fruitless against Volt's super-strength. Might as well have been wrestling a python. Shank began to panic, his common sense flying out the window. He didn't even have the wherewithal to try and teleport away, not that it woulda done him much good seeing as Volt was stuck to him like a limpet now, instead trying to beat at the Lighting-Slinger with his free hand.

"YOU AIN'T NO PIZZA-BOY!" Cried the helpless teleporter, spittle flying from his mouth. Volt grinned in return.

"Shocking, isn't it?" he replied, as his arm light up with a dozen dancing arks of electricity, getting ready to let Shank feel what its like to be tasered.

Startled by Strix's rapid response, Changeling let out a surprised yelp as he was pulled onto the building. As he regained his footing, he grinned beneath his mask.

"Thanks for the-" he began, and then the vigilante was gone. Changeling stared for a moment as Strix maneuvered across rooftops.

"..." Changeling crouched down at the edge of the roof and drew his bow, scanning the roofs for snipers and keeping an eye on the ground. "...'Kid'?"

Then Neutro charged, and Changeling watched as he shrugged off the immobilizing bullets and flung the "terrorists" and a car into the air like nothing. The archer had super stength, but he had never seen anything quite like that.

Changeling paused his contemplation to shoot at the knee of a "terrorist" holding a grenade launcher. He wasn't sure if Neutro would be affected by those rounds, but it was probably best to be safe.

Rainmaker's Team

Twister felt the massive strain that Blast Girl put on his tentacle and he stopped cold as she dropped to the floor. When she yanked her arms back he stumbled towards her but just barely kept out of punching range. But he still couldn't move while carrying her. With his other tentacle he threw Shade far down the hall, where the other villain crashed with a yell, and he grasped Blast Girl with both tentacles.

He gritted his teeth, "You are far too much trouble, girlie. I would snap your neck now if it wouldn't make all your friends run us down into the ground. You got lucky." With that he put all the strength that he could into his tentacles and swung Blast Girl through a nearby store front that was within his henchmen's killzone. With the force of the throw and Blast Girl's high gravity, she broke clean through the window, and crashed into a rack of clothing knocking it over. Then he used his tentacles to run away, hoping that that would delay his pursuers.

Rainmaker cursed when they hit the ambush. She saw the wrecked store and could barely make out Blast Girl in a pile of clothes, "Someone check Blast Girl!" She fired several tendrils of lightning that forced the henchmen into cover and she created a obscuring mist for cover. Nimbus saw that Arachnid was hit and he created a strong wind that carried Arachnid to his position, Rainmaker's thick mist covering her from fire. He gently set her down and Evergreen began tending to the wound. This time she created an anomalous green gel in her hands and gently spread it in the cut, "To prevent infection and help the pain," she explained. Then she wrapped another bandage around the wound even tighter than before. She looked into Arachnid's eyes, "We should get you out of here."

Olympia's Team

If Bouncer hadn't been as fast and agile as she was, Wenchang's plan would have worked. As it was she saw the aerosol can and when her kick rebounded on Wenchang's arm, she nimbly dodged her head and upper body to the right side and narrowly avoided taking the cloud to her face. However she still took a knuckle duster to the face, and grunted in pain. Then she was ready and dodged Wenchang's strikes in rapid succession. When he aimed his aerosol can again she flipped over the hero and landed behind him. She wrapped one strong arm around his neck and began trying to choke him. With her other arm she grabbed Wenchang's hand and savagely twisted and squeezed it, attempting to force him to drop the can. She blankly said, "Stop resisting and I'll snap your neck. You'll die quickly and without any more pain."

Sarin had been pursuing her quarry with a sadistic glee, savoring the sight of the hero fleeing from her slow and deadly advance. She anticipated the kill with a growing animal thirst to see the life drain out of another person's eyes. She had killed before, when she first manifested her power and killed a group of gangbangers that had attempted to rape her in the chaos of the Awakening.

The act got the attention of an overzealous band of newly created heroes and they had run her down, and in the midst of a fight where they assaulted her house, in her attempts to resist she had unintentionally killed her children. Her mind had broken and now she sought to find pleasure in using a power that had brought her grief. Now she had the chance to take revenge on the costumed heroes that she thought had ruined her life, by killing one of their own. She would be a legend among villains like her for taking out a costumed hero. She would have her vengeance. And then Sonja took out the industrial vacuum cleaner.

If the sorcerer had been looking closely she might have caught what looked like surprise or confusion on the ghost of Sarin's face before she was sucked into the vacuum and bulged the device's bag to the brim. Olympia, Sonata, and Graviton had been fighting another wave of henchmen and even they took a brief moment to look flabbergasted before continuing. Olympia grinned madly and shouted out, "It's official Sonja. You have now topped that time when I took down that vampire with a UV lamp."

Shank was panicked. Volt would have won if Shank hadn't then gotten desperate. Shank in a wild frenzy kicked at Volt's leg with manic strength. As he did a hidden knife slid out of his boot and buried itself in Volt's thigh. It was enough for the hero to lessen his grip and Shank seized the opportunity to flash away. He appeared at Volt's side and slashed at the hero and did the same thing from the other side. He kept appearing in all different directions, each time only manifesting long enough to lash out wildly with a knife. He made no attempt to aim carefully or put a lot of strength into the blows. He was trying to give Volt a death of a thousand cuts as it were. And if Volt didn't do something soon, he might just succeed.

Pariah's Victims

One by one heroes slowly gotten taken down by the immobilizing bullets. A couple of heroes had already been ensnared and the team had barely made any headway into the exercise. At this rate they would all get taken down before they even got anywhere close to the bus. Pariah even said, "You're all going to have to do much better than that if you wish to succeed."

Changeling and Strix's efforts to disable the drones and terrorists contributed massively to the team's overall efforts, several terrorists and drones were taken out by various means whether by energy attacks, super-strength, gadgets, or any number of things. Slowly the heroes advanced but Eclipse's shield continued to wane, any longer and it would fail entirely. Nuetro's charge forced the terrorists to give up some ground and allowed heavier hitters like Apogee to leap into the fray. The young heroine flew around and used super-strength to fling terrorists about and heat vision to melt their rifles. Changeling's arrow was true and disabled the grenadier who was trying to shoot at Nuetro. At this point most of the drones had been disabled but several still flew around firing away.

Near Changeling was a major sniper's nest with a half-a-dozen sharpshooters firing at the heroes on the street. A few others carried grenade launchers and aimed at Neutro and Apogee. And as they watched, several other terrorists emerged on these roofs and began setting up mortars with concussive rounds and loading rocket launchers. The situation was the same on a rooftop near Strix. If the heroes managed to neutralize these nests, the enemy's overwatch capability would be reduced massively. If they did not then the main force would be overwhelmed by the men on the rooftops and the men firing away on the ground.

And for the heroes on the ground they needed to break through a barricade of cars that had been strung across the street and provided cover for numerous terrorists. If they could break through then they would get much closer to reaching the bus. But their opposition became even more intense. More and more men fired away with assault rifles and grenade launchers, with the grenadiers focusing on Neutro. Occasionally a man would throw a grenade that exploded in the same manner as the initial barrage that had nearly immobilized the team earlier.

The barricade stopped Rolling Girl from advancing, and up until this point she had dodged all of the assault fire. She could breeze through the barricade but that would leave her cut off from her team. But perhaps the speedster could assist the heavy-hitters in breaking the fortifications. And If the heroes waited any longer then the opposition would get even more intense and their chances of success would shrink. They needed to keep pushing fast and hard, and they still had a long way to go.

Gabriel flew alongside his teammates and went after the villains and Blast Girl. He hoped that the girl wasn't taken hostage, but that wasn't the worst of it. When they had gotten closer to the villains, their henchmen had once again tried to cover them and began firing a huge amount of bullets. Luckily Gabriel had his armor which protected his upper torso and he had plates on his shoulders, but his forearms were exposed and open to attack. one of the bullets hit him in his right forearm and gave a grunt of pain. thankfully, his body's durability was much more powerful than a regular human and the bullet didn't go too deep but it still hurt a lot and it started bleeding.

He was about to retaliate with with a blast of divine energy when Rainmaker shot bolts of electricity at the henchmen and forced them to take cover. then mist began to set in to obscure them from the gunmen, and Gabriel decided go on the offensive. He used his Damnation ability to shoot bolts of white lightning at the thugs, and this wasn't regular lightning, it was made up of divine energy and would hurt only those who were evil or committed sin. Luckily for the gunmen, Gabriel kept the power of the attack low so it didn't kill them but they were electrocuted all the way down to their souls which would leave them stunned for hours as their souls slowly recovered from the assault.

“Gaaargh!” said Hi-Voltage. Admittedly it isn’t the most intellectual of things he’s ever said, but it was the best he could come up with considering he’d just had a knife sink itself into his thigh. The pain was excruciating, blood streaming from the laceration almost immediately. It was all Volt could do just to stay standing. He could hear Silvertongue desperately demanding to know what had happened, but all he could think was ‘This is what you get for making terrible puns when ya shoulda been sealing the deal, Tommy-Boy’

Shank reappeared to his left, slashing away wildly with his knife which scored a neat little knick right under Volt’s ribs. The Lightning-Slinger swung a right hook at the villain, hitting only empty air. The criminal materialise at his right now, the tell-tale pop and another biting cut, this time across Volt’s cheek, announcing his presence. The hero through a straight right this time, but again went unrewarded for his efforts. The exchange went back and forth like this for a while, the evasive Shank happy to lead a merry game of cat and mouse that left Volt looking like bloody mincemeat.

Come on Tommy, you’re better than this. If you don’t do something soon he’s gonna leave you looking like a used butchers chopping board. Volt was tiring now, but was far from beat. He’d be damned if he was gonna die in America at the hands of some no-name punk after all he’d gone through back home. One more pop, one more little cut to his collection, Shank’s grinning mug looking like he’d already bagged and tagged his superhero prize.

“Last one, wank,” snarled Tommy, fumbling for a decent threat. The villain blinked outta existence, just what Tommy was hoping for. The Lightning-Slinger spread his arms wide and released several prolonged bursts of electrical energy, him at the centre of a localised lightning storm, about five meters big in radius. If I can’t hit him with precision then I’ll just blanket the whole damn area. You’re in for a shock as soon as you port back in Shank.

Stop resisting and I get a quick death. Well it was a lovely offer, but death didn't seem so appealing to him at this point, quite the opposite. Luckily, although Bouncer was agile, she wasn't the strongest person Wenchang had fought. Still, despite himself he was in a slight mess, Bouncer's martial arts enthusiasm was becoming increasingly apparent to Wenchang as he felt his vision darkening at the sides. Being knocked out was really the last thing he wanted in this situation.

Wenchang's free hand desperately searched his satchel for the only thing that would work in this situation. He managed to quickly extract a syringe. The syringe was filled with a clear liquid, a powerful ketamine based sedative. Dropping the aerosol to his feet he stabbed Bouncer's leg. It didn't kick in instantly, but Wenchang attempted to take advantage of Bouncer's surprise, by slamming the back of his head into her face, following it up by escaping her hold with a series of harsh elbow blows.

Should Bouncer let go, Lev would nimbly turn crouch, and withdraw a small pistol. He would then kick the aerosol at her, and try to permanently put her out of action by firing a shot into it, igniting the propellant, causing it to explode. Should she manage to hang onto Wenchang, he would sacrifice his right wrist to kepp her close to him so he could keep raining elbopw blows on her side until she passed out.

Blast Girl was kind of stunned as she was lifted into the air. But only barely... he could barely even lift her off the ground! ... but he could throw her. Oh, shit. The blonde superheroine barely had time to lower the effect of gravity on her before she slammed into the glass, crashing through it. That wasn't the end of it, though, an unfortunately clothes rack found itself in the crossfire, and she smacked into that, too, sending it to the ground and getting herself covered in clothing. For a moment, she lay there. Wow, that hurt. A lot of things hurt. However... She quickly tried to figure out what hurt and how bad it hurt, and to her relief nothing seemed broken. Painful, bruised(and a couple cuts on her arm from the glass, but not broken.

Like hell this would get her down! The pile of clothing stirred, then rose, dresses falling down around her as Blast Girl rose to her feet.

"I only wear those for special occasions, you bastard!" she cried. Even if he couldn't hear her now... it felt right to say. Blast Girl tried to take a quick check of the area. Since she'd made sure she wasn't out of commission she had to make sure no-one else was, too. Or in the case of the bad guys, put them out of commission. And there they were, the mooks in the fog. They were too far for her to close the distance quickly, even with the foggy cover... but that wouldn't stop her!

The simulation did not begin well for Shin. Despite the barrier, the flashbang from the grenades still overwhelmed his supernaturally sharp senses. He was sent reeling for several seconds, clutching at his helmet, all the while only vaguely aware of the rest of the action going on. When he came to, he was still blinded, but this time due to a red paint covering his visor. With a growl of frustration, Shin tore the helmet off, as well as his gloves and leather jacket as he found them to also be soiled with paint. Discarding the clothing, he shook out his hair and ran his tongue over his fangs, his burning eyes sweeping over the scene before him.

With the situational awareness that could only be possessed by a superhuman, Shin observed the scenario and decided on what tactics to take. He rushed out from behind the cover of the barrier and dashed directly up the side of a nearby building, digging out his own purchases in the sheer surface with his booted feet. A "terrorist" awaited Shin at the rooftop, who Shin then greeted with what he deemed to be a "glancing blow." He struck the man directly in the face with his fist, crushing his nose and knocking him out cold. Shin picked up the man by his harness and carried him along as he leaped along the rooftops toward the bus.

The next terrorist Shin encountered was much more cleanly dealt with. Using the first terrorist as a human shield to block the spray of rubber bullets, he seized the still conscious man by the throat, and choked him out in a matter of seconds. It was then that he spotted the mortar nest forming on a rooftop further along. Armed now with a meat shield on each arm to fend off the nuisance of the rubber rounds, he carried on to deal with that threat before it solidified.

The unconscious men were flung forward like living missiles into the mortar nest, followed shortly by Shin himself barreling in. He dove directly into the nest, taking away their advantage of range, and let loose on the opposition within. Superhuman speed and strength, combined with decades of martial training and centuries of practice turned Shin into a whirlwind in combat, even when outnumbered. Those that tried to attack from behind were thrown over Shin's shoulder into the others, and any foolish enough to try a frontal attack were sent away with a broken limb. A discarded rifle was swung like a club into some, before eventually being bent totally out of shape.

When the men in the nest were all either knocked out or close to it, Shin picked up a few of their mortars and started to prime them. Chucking them like footballs, one mortar was tossed into a sniper nest across the street. Another was aimed at the rocket launchers perched further away, and the last at the barricade of cars closing off the street itself.

Dusting himself off, Shin took a short breather (despite his lack of need for breath). He reached into his pocket and produced his packet of cigarettes, only to remember that his lighter had been confiscated when he arrived. Why that had been an issue while the owl fellow across the way practically had an arsenal with him, Shin had no idea.

"Yare, yare daze." he grumbled in annoyance.

Natsumi Aida, the Eldritch Knight - DANGER ROOM

Ah, hubris. How it makes fools of us all. The moment the simulation started, Natsumi took a moment to reevaluate her previous overconfidence for this excercise. It quickly dawned upon her that whoever designed this scenario either firmly believed in the Spartan way, or was a complete psychopath. And here she thought this was going to be easier than what she was doing earlier...

Well, she'd heard rumours about Pariah, even if she'd never met him in person. She couldn't remember if George had, but that didn't really matter right now. What matters is that she was starting to think that the rumours were true if a training exercise he'd created was making her wish she was trying to stop a lesser deity encroach on our world instead. Thankfully, her comrades had been able to block the initial onslaught, although she didn't escape unscathed; still, it didn't take much effort to wipe the paint splatters from her face. As all hell broke loose, she tried her best to keep out of harm's way, although the multiple paint stains on her coat showed just how futile an attempt this really was.

She needed to come up with a plan, and fast. If she just sat around doing nothing, she'd be kicked off the team, which in turn would bring shame to her lineage. The last thing she wanted to do was something that would ashame George, after all. Having seen Strix and Changeling head to the roofs, she quickly realised they'd need help... There were far too many snipers up there, after all. Muttering something in some dead language, she backed off into a corner and faded from sight... Only to appear moments later inside the sniper's nest, emerging behind the sharpshooters. Hopefully, they would be too focused on their targets to notice her until it was too late.

"Domdyrho Pcygo Cthulhu," she intoned, whipping a hand out dramatically as her spell was cast. Five inky black tentacles burst out from the floor, and immediately lashed out towards the snipers, trying to restrain them or at the very least pose a distraction. Seeing how there were one too many targets, she balled up a fist and threw a powerful punch at the back of the sixth sniper's head, hoping to knock him out before he could do anything in retaliation.

When Changeling saw the sniper nest, he put his bow away. These guys were close enough that using up arrows would be a waste, and the Fay hadn't had a chance to fry any melee in the simulation yet. Silently, Changeling slid his daggers from their sheaths, and began to sneak towards the nest.

Further ahead, Changeling saw that another nest was being dealt with by some man holding the bodies of unconscious "terrorists." A little disgusted, he continued moving towards his own target. He would be using surprise to take on his nest, not bodies that would probably be suing the League in a few days.

As Changeling stalked forward, Natsumi saw fit to beat him to the nest. Dissapointed, Changeling sheathed his daggers and pulled out his bow once more. As the Eldritch Knight took care of the snipers, the archer took the liberty of shooting a few arrows at the few grenadiers that also inhabited the nest.

If the nest was successfully dealt with, Changeling would leap inside and grab a rocket launcher. "Hey there," he greeted Natsumi, "Pretty... Interesting power you've got there."

Rainmaker's Team

Gabriel's assault stunned most of the gunmen and took them out of the fight. Those that weren't were immediately set upon by the rest of the team including the revived Blast Girl, and they did not last very long. But their ambush had allowed Twister and Shade to vanish deeper into the mall and there was hardly any sign of the two villains. There was nothing but smears of blood on the floor and it was eerily quiet. Then the sound was broken by a faint buzzing, that grew louder and louder until it culminated in an eight-foot tall monstrosity rounding the corner.

It had multiple eyes around two large black ones and was covered in dark green chitin. It's wings carried it above ground and it's multiple claws scraped the ground. It caught sight of the heroes and screeched an impossible sound that shattered windows and assaulted the mind with it's intensity. Locust had arrived on the scene, and next to him a dozen henchmen and Twister stood. And half of them had civilians with them, innocent men and women on the ground with rifles to their heads. Twister held a little boy of nine in one of his tentacles, the boy was sobbing for his mother.

Twister snarled, "Let us get out of here and we'll let the hostages go. If not, you get to watch these people die before Locust eats you alive. You have a choice heroes, do you want to save these people? Or do you want your egos to get in the way and have their blood on your hands?"

Olympia's Team

Shank reappeared and raised his knife to strike. And then he got shocked and screamed at a high-pitch intensity that was unseemly for a grown man. He shook and trembled to the floor and was out for at least the next several minutes. Wenchang's sedative slowly worked at Bouncer and she was wracked with blow after blow as she struggled to maintain a hold on Wenchang. She never let go but she eventually succumbed to the blows and the sedative and dropped to the floor. Just then a loud boom wracked the air and Boomer flew up in the air and back down.

The villain had regained consciousness and tried to escape Graviton's hold by using his concussive blasts. He landed on the floor with a grunt but he fired a concussive burst at Graviton, sending the hero across the room. And another wave of henchmen arrived and began firing at Olympia and Sonata, forcing them to fight back. Burnout rose from the floor as well. The two had grimaces full of hate as they caught sight of the heroes, especially Volt. They both raised their hands at the group of heroes and began firing away, Boomer with his explosive bursts and Burnout with fire balls.

Pariah's victims

Natsumi's and Changeling's targets was wiped out, the terrorists had almost no time to react. In the space of a few seconds, a few of them had knives sticking out of them, one was knocked out, and the rest were unable to move restrained by Natsumi. A few other heroes came up on the roof, including a laser beam projector known as Redeye. She and the others knocked out all of the still conscious henchmen and began using their powers to help the heroes on the ground. Redeye's heat vision wrecked havoc on the barricade.

Shin's target was taken out quickly as well with almost no resistance. The rocket perch was almost completely taken out as the men were knocked out by the explosion. Strix's target was down to half-strength because of the mortar explosion. The rest of the overwatch positions were all overrun by other teams on heroes and the barricade was failing, until finally it broke and a massive hole was created in the barricade. The terrorists retreated firing bursts as they fell back further down the street. For several moments the fighting had died down. It was almost too good to be true for the team of heroes.

Pariah spoke again, "You've learned the second lesson. Don't falter, keep your momentum. Eliminate the enemy's advantage. Now let's see if you can learn the third."

Shank’s high pitched scream was like music to Tommy’s ears, sweet pay back for all the niggling little cuts that the teleporter had handed out to the hero during their wee scrap. Am I a cruel man to enjoy this? Probably, but everyone knows highlanders are a little bloodthirsty, and the lad has been pissing me off something chronic. A quick scan of the bank room revealed that Wenchang had dealt with Bouncer and that Sonja had . . . Sonja had VACCUMED Sarin! That had to be villain takedown of the month, if the bank security cameras had managed to tape that then Sonja was going to be a internet celebrity by the end of the day. The other heroes seemed to be mopping up the rest of the goons, so it looked like this wee misadventure was all but over.

BOOOOMMMM!!! The room seemed to shake with explosive force, only one meta in attendance capable of making an explosion like that.

“Me and my big mouth,” groaned Volt as Boomer blasted Graviton across the room, the hero hitting the opposite wall with an unhealthy sounding crack. That wasn’t even the worst of it, as more goons flooded the room while Burnout climbed back to his feet, murder in his eyes. Him and Boomer looked especially irate when they caught a glimpse of Volt. Suppose that’s fair, I did hit them pretty hard. Burnout raised his hand and sent a searing blast of fire shooting towards the Lighting-Slinger, who only just managed to dodge it by throwing himself forwards and rolling behind a desk, yelping in pain when he put his weight on his injured leg.

“What's happening?” Silvertongue was yelling in his ear, complexly oblivious to the fact that Volt might be a little preoccupied to answer.

“Burnout and Boomer are back up, seems their a mite miffed about what I did to them earlier. I think Burnout just singed my eyebrows!” grunted Hi-Voltage, draining the charge from a nearby light fixture, replenishing his dwindling supplies of electricity. It had the added benefit of sealing a lot of his smaller cuts, and reducing the size of the wound in his leg. Not ideal, but it would have to do for now.

“Damn, that sounds awesome. I need to get camera’s in your goggles!” replied Silvertongue. His lack of concern for Tommy’s wellbeing had long ceased to be a surprise.

Volt took a quick peek over the desktop. Olympia and Sonata had their hands full with the new set of goons, but on the plus side the gunmen hadn’t had the forethought to grab anymore hostages from the vault. Graviton was still down, but Volt couldn’t tell if he was still breathing or not from his position. One problem at a time Tommy-boy. Graviton knew the risks going in. Deal with the headers throwing fire balls then sort out the injured. It seemed callous, but this was the type of tough call that heroing was all about, Volt had learnt at some expense. On the plus side Sonja and Wenchang were still standing, but seemed to be easy targets for the two super-villains.

“Hey sparky, who said we were done?” shouted Volt, firing a blast of blue lightning at Burnout, who dived out of the way, Boomer turning to see what the commotion was.

“Don’t worry, I brought enough for all your friends!” continued the Lightning-Slinger, shooting another chain at Boomer, catching the big man high on the shoulder, spinning him from his feet. The exploder wasn’t down yet though, clambering to his knees and firing at Volt’s position. He was quickly joined by Burnout, and the two piled on the heat. It was all Volt could do to stay out of their grasp, he didn’t even get the chance to return fire.

I just hope Wenchang and Sonja can come up with a cunning plan to save my ass now! He thought to himself while dodging high powered blasts.

--Revoked Apparently--

Arachnid nodded before replying "I think I can walk, you guys go on, we've secured the area behind us and I should be able to find EMS on my own" Struggling to her feet she made her way back along the area that the team had secured and began to think back to her earlier theory about possible coordination. The more she thought about it the more it made sense, this had to of been timed to coincide with the league's unveiling either that of the league had the mother of all coincides to deal with. As she rounded a corner two SWAT officers caught sight of her and moved to support her as they took her to two waiting EMT's.

The EMT's helped her onto a nearby stretcher and attached an IV to her as she was wheeled out to a waiting ambulance. As she was bought out she noticed some of the crowd catch there breath at the sight of a costumed hero on a gurney and in response she gave a thumbs up and waved. Some of the crowd cheered as she was lifted into an ambulance but Samantha knew that the job inside was far from over a the sirens came on and the ambulance took off for the nearest hospital and she cursed herself that she couldn't have been more of a help.

Sonja, still more than a little surprised that her scheme for Sarin had paid off, saw Shank and Bouncer go down and grinned in satisfaction. "That's the ball game!" she had said excitedly, before the sound of the explosion had reverberated in the enclosed space. She reflexively threw herself down behind the teller's counter, for what scant protection it would provide, before taking a cautious peep over to take in the situation.

She grimaced at what she saw. She had foolishly assumed that Boomer and Burnout were both down for the count, yet here they were, hurling blasts and fireballs at the other heroes. The henchmen, armed with various automatic weapons, seemed to have rallied around their superpowered backup and were continuing to pour it on. Volt was drawing most of their ire, and it was clear to her the young man had deliberately drawn their attention. The lanky Scot was brave, he was smart, and now that she saw him out of costume he was also kinda cute. No way in hell was she going to leave him high and dry.

The Spirit of St. Louis assessed the two foes, hastily threw together a plan. It would be a strain on her magical ability, but if it worked it would buy them enough time to regroup. She took a deep breath, ducked back behind the counter, hopefully unnoticed.

A flick of the wrist, and a fireball of her own rested in her palm. Hopefully it wouldn't singe her cuff, but she could worry about that later. She lifted herself out of cover just long enough to ascertain that Boomer's back was turned, then heaved the fist-sized fireball directly at the small of his back. If it hurt him, great, but it was more important just that it was noticed. Sonja immediately ducked back behind the counter, her heart racing, then concentrated as hard as she could. Mentalism, when done on stage in her old profession, relied on intuition, memory, and body language in order to influence the way an audience thought. Sonja, however, with her abilities, could do the next best thing: place thoughts directly into the head.

Boomer wasn't very bright, she remembered Olympia saying. And now that he had received a fireball to the back when he wasn't looking, there was a nagging voice in his head that was certain Burnout had done that on purpose.

Strix took the opportunity while the mortar shell hit and thinned things out and dropped a smoke pellet in the nest, thickening the already heavy confusion the 'henchmen' must have felt. With concealing smoke now heavy in the air and then men already reeling from the concussive mortar, Strix would arm himself with blunted feather throwing knives and use his cowl's sonar mapping to guide his attack and leap into the nest. As he leaped he would unleash a shrieking burst from the Echo System to further demoralize, pain and confuse the remaining snipers. He tried aimed the initial jump so that he'd hopefully land on the shoulders of the nearest henchman, wrapping his legs to lock around the opponent and twisting his body to throw him to the ground while bringing himself low and prone in the same motion. But at the same time as he made his jump he threw his 'feathers' at the others, aiming for heads and guns.

The end effect theatrically speaking, he hoped, would make it seem like some sort of shrieking creature had swooped in on the hencmen as their guns were knocked from their hands and some of them were knocked over and out while the first unfortunate soul got pounced on taken down hard in front of them to put more fear in the ones who were just disarmed before they could realize what happened then use the hesitation that created to jump up and take down the unarmed remains in close. That at least was part of how he tended to do business usually. Since they were just workers, he'd make sure to personally apologize to each one as he knocked them out.

If all of that worked and the nest was neutralized he would start moving closer to the but slightly ahead of the others and all while scanning the surrounding area and the bus for traps with both his sonar in long-range penetrative mode, and his own sight in a mix of close range and telescopic vision. He would be slightly in front of the the main group as he did, and above on the rooftops, in case of ambush or booby traps. He wasn't sure if there would be any but hopefully by doing thorough scans and moving in front of the main party he would be able to detect them and get a warning out. If not he could scout the bus and report on the situation. Either way, they had no idea what was out there, and Pariah was capable of anything so...

hopefully I can spring for decent, highly encrypted communicators after this mess, multiple modes of communication included with various signals maybe so we can actually communicate plans as a whole.. for now...