Nope.

Briefing Room

The hero that Emmerson was ranting too was one of Pariah's proteges and an observer of the exercise, watching the mission intently on a tablet computer. He blinked and stared at the man and his eyes widened in bewilderment. The young man, who was dressed in a black skin-tight bodysuit coughed and said, "Uh sir, all of the training group went through those doors there and they're doing a mission right now. Simulated hostage situation with armed terrorists and supervillians. Objective is rescue of the hostages in a metro bus, while dealing with all threats non-lethally, inflicting minimal property damage, and minimal casualties on the team. They're almost there but the boss has been putting them through their paces, and it could go either way at this point. They could probably use you."

He exchanged a look with another similarly clothed hero who shrugged, he looked back at Emerson, "Look sir, you really should have already been gone. You probably won't be able to get in the League if you can't even join the exercise. It's through those doors there, but we can't really help you more than we already have without the boss getting pretty pissed. If you can't find your own way in then well..." The solid metal doors led to the training exercise which Emerson would need to perform spectacularly in if he wished to join the League at this point. Doubtless the living jet engine could find a way in.

Nope.

What in the name of sweet baby Jesus just happened here! Trust the yanks to find a way to make a simple bank robbery into some macabre, semi-mystical, murder-thon! Volt followed Olympia out, his mind racing with all that he had just seen and heard. Bouncer's oddly sounding rant had chilled him to his core, the words full of grim portent, and the laser beams they had fired had been completely unexpected. If it hadn't been for Olympia there was a very real possibility that Volt would just now be nothing but a charred skeleton, much like the money man they had found upstairs. And what the hell was Legion?!?

It was all a little much for the Lightning-Slinger to process at the moment, all he wanted was a nice cool beer then to lie down until the world stopped hurting. Which, judging by his throbbing nose and the dull ache in his leg wouldn’t be for a while, accelerated healing or no.

“Silvertongue, see what you can dig up about 'Legion,'” Szymon grumbled some complaints, but Tommy knew he would get right on it. The hacker liked nothing more than solving grand mysteries, the more difficult the better. It was the only real challenge he could find any more, and Volt suspected that the abundance of crimes and problems to solve was why Szymon had stuck with him for so long, rather than any real desire to do good.

A hand came down on his shoulder, an admittedly light touch but after the kicking that Shank had given him he nearly crumpled to the floor. It was Sonja, congratulating him on the fight. He managed a tired smile, in return, before she continued on.

"How about you and I grab dinner and a drink tonight?" Tommy was taken aback, his mouth opening as he struggled for a reply. Was she asking him on a date? He'd been in America for less than a week and he was already being asked out! Maybe the tales about American girls going weak at the knee's for Scots accents was true. His thoughts momentarily turned to Clara, and what she might think of this situation, that was until he realised he still hadn't answered Sonja and was just standing there like some bam.

Get it together Tommy-boy, it's just dinner, not like she's proposed. Probably doesn't mean anything by it either, just a way of getting to know the guy that she's survived the day's craziness with.

“Uhaye, ah mean yeah, that sounds tickety-boo,” he responded with a lopsided grin. “As long as the League doesn't have any more plans for us tonight. Ah mean, theres still time for them to try and kill me some more.”

Briefing Room

The black-garbed hero blinked and said, "Well of course sir. If they didn't know a hostage situation in a simulated urban environment that's in our very building wasn't a simulation, besides the fact that we told them, then they really don't belong anywhere near organized superheroism not even in Detroit." The young man arched his eyebrow at Emphatic and was rapidly beginning to mark him off as senile, "We wouldn't accept anyone who can't control their abilities either. Now the boss is going to notice you sooner or later, so you should really get in there before that happens." More out of a desire to be separated from Emerson then be friendly he pressed a button on his tablet which opened to the training ground inside which was in quite a mess after the explosions and was quite noisy with the sound of bullets and energy attacks being exchanged back and forth, "I'm helping you this one time but please hurry before the boss checks up on us."

The Bank

Syzmon's initial search for Legion would turn up a multitude of references to biblical mythology or popular culture but there were very few results so far for anything resembling what the heroes just stumbled upon. More digging was needed but the only thing Syzmon found was one similar incident a few months ago when a restaurant in Chicago under the control of the Outfit was attacked, many of the mobsters were killed, and the word Legion had burn burned into a wall inside the main dining room. The perpetrators have not been found and it prefaced a whole string of violent assaults on singular mafia footsoldiers or small groups of them in dark alleys and vacant lots, none as dramatic as the initial attack or this more recent incident.

Olympia came back in the building and heard Sonja talking to Volt about dinner. Olympia stood behind Volt, caught Sonja's eye and slightly winked, before she spoke up, "There probably isn't much more to do tonight so you guys should be fine. We just need to give our reports back at the Hall and when Zenith comes back he and the rest of the Founding Council will officially induct you and all the other heroes who made the cut. Then a brief tour of the facilities, some other small stuff, and you'll be left to your own devices for the rest of the day. There's a bunch of nice places around here. Zenith's taken me to some." Olympia said the last with a slight smirk to her voice and sauntered off to the direction of the VTOL.

Rainmaker's Team

Locust shuddered as the gauntlet's hit him in the back and he shrieked enough to cause some ear damage. His exo-skeleton held but there were some cracks in the chitin. He rolled off of Gabriel and his multiple eyes locked on Blast Girl. He slashed several of his claws at her, attempting to take the young heroine's head off of her shoulders or disembowel her.

Pariah's Victims

Ember saw the crows coming and she sent a bout of flame at them with her other hand, causing them to detonate prematurely. She saw that her flame wasn't piercing the shield but she simply raised both hands at the shield. She increased the size and intensity of the sphere of flame around Charlotte's shield. It was getting hotter and hotter by the second. The fire might not break through, but the heat might not be blocked by Charlotte's shield and she might would to sweat in the sphere. A lot, perhaps enough to pass out. At the very least she could no longer see Ember as the flames engulfed her shield.

Phantom

Rachel--she hadn't quite gotten the hang of thinking in codenames; largely because their purpose was to protect your identity, and hers was both incredibly obfuscated and trivial to find at the same time--had spent the simulation thus far staying out of the way, and watching carefully for an opportunity. This was mostly fighting, and her advantage there was surprise, which would only work once. The villains would definitely get a lot more cautious once they knew someone with her abilities was creeping around the battlefield, so she didn't want to waste the single chance at taking them unaware.

An opportunity presented itself in the stalemate between Shocker and Magnetar: neither could get anything past the other, and all it would take is a little outside interference to tip things in their favour. The invisible woman carefully manoeuvred herself into position and then struck, hitting out at the back of Shocker's head (well, more like the neck). There was the obvious benefit of disorienting and stunning him for long enough that Magnetar could win their little fight, but there was also the possibility of knocking him out entirely. Hopefully, in either case, it would be written off by the villains as Magnetar overcoming him than the logical leap to 'an invisible person hit the guy'.

Strix knew somebody needed to act fast if the team was going to push forward and maintain cohesion. The first step in that was making sure Changeling didn't get stomped into paste although if his theories on the hero were correct...but that didn't matter at the moment. He tossed a stun pellet at Chrome's face as he stomped down at Changeling so that the burst of light and short range bang of sound would give the knife-wielding hero a chance to escape or counterattack or something while Chrome's senses were addled.

Even as he threw that first pellet he began a sort of run down the lines, tossing two explosive pellets at the feet of Adamant and Bulwark with one hand to try and tip the balance of the fighting with Redeye and Bullseye while firing a grapple to lift him up and away from them at the same time. As he rose and went forward he tossed an ice pellet down and far at Ember, hoping the incredibly cold temperatures suddenly released all at once would freeze the attacks on Charlotte and let her further help other heroes. Continuing the arc of his swing Strix fell feet first towards Aquamarine and Frost, tossing out glue pellets to re-stick them where Morph's gunk was failing. The insulating adhesive should hold them as his suit absorbed the fall and he shouted out as he landed.

"Apogee, try to punch through from underneath, burrow down and see if the shield has a bottom! If it does then heat the shield with your heat vision as you punch and keep your eyes out for counterattacks from Sentinel and Colossus should they recover! Plasmus, if Apogee fails to punch through I want you and her to focus on heating those shields in a single spot up front! If they're made of condensed air the agitation should weaken them. More heat after all of the icing should weaken the elasticity of the human net as well! Morph, Sweep through and gunk up anyone I've downed, break some stalemates if you can but make sure they stay down!"

Blast Girl

Gah! That horrible screech... Damn it, her ears were ringing now. Blast Girl stumbled back, shaking her head. The sheer volume of the shriek left her hearing dulled and muted for a few moments... but she could still rely on her sight. The monster turning and glaring right at her... it wasn't difficult to tell what it was going to try next. Blast Girl lept back, out of reach, narrowly avoiding the monster's next strike! The claws grazed her chest armor, sparks flying as they met the metal. Blast Girl's boots scraped along the ground as she slid backwards, steadying herself with one hand to the floor.

As her full hearing began to return, Blast Girl raised her fists.

"I think it's time someone shut that big mouth of yours!"

With that, one of her fists snapped forward... and stopped short. She didn't want to get her hand too close to that thing's mouth... but she did want to send the energy ejected from three cartridges right into its face!

---

Charlotte

Wow, it was really getting hot behind that shield... time to abandon ship! Charlotte caught sight of a pellet, something she recognized from the vigilante hero Strix, hurtling towards the flame attacks. If it's what she thought it was that would make this a whole lot easier, but she had to move now. Leaving her shield intact to block the flames, Charlotte... simply ran out from behind it. It would stay there for a moment, and she wasn't very fast, but she could get away from the fire, certainly. Charlotte turned, wiping her forehead. She really would need a good bath after that...

"Now where was she..."

Charlotte hoped that Strix's freezing pellet hit its mark. She really did. It'd make taking down the fiery one so much easier... still, her crows arrayed themselves, ready to be launched right at Ember as soon as she caught sight of the pyrokinetic and had an opening.

Various part of Rolling Girls body ached and screamed for her to stop as a number of chunks of rubble jabbed into her back, arms and hands despite the protection she wore only adding the dull aches from multiple impacts with others. While her speed had dropped dramatically after colliding into other people Rolling Girl felt as if she was still travelling at a stupid speed unable to tell which way was up. The icy chill of water seeping into her clothes helped drive out some of the dull fuzz that had fallen over Rolling Girls in just in time for her back to slam into a wall forcing her to unravel with a grunt.

Chris stayed there for a while, legs spread-eagled into the air, wondering why the sky kept moving and trying to keep her food in her stomach. Finally trusting the ground to stop spinning Chris got back up, trying to rub out the dull aches rolling over her joints, just in time for a car to come flying towards in a blaze of fiery terror. Chris swore very loudly as she ran from its landing spot from where it sent out jets of more fire and heat after her. At this point Chris was working hard to stay out of both harms and her team mates way as shrapnel and attacks flew through the air alongside some crows.

Behind her goggles Chris’ eyes flew wide at the sight of a very young girl fighting, well more hiding behind a magical shield from, against Ember whose fire had now engulfed the girls shield whole. While Chris had dealt with a Pyro-person before they had only been able to create small flames in their hands for a very short amount of time, ember on the other hand was on another level that Chris wouldn’t be able to deal with. Luckily she didn’t have to as an explosion of frigid air ripped a hole in the fiery sphere letting the girl leap out of it. Sliding under an enemy’s punch, making sure to throw out her own arm to take out their legs, Chris sprinted towards the girl and snatching her off of the ground as Ember threw another orb of fire that turned the concrete to liquid.

“The heck are you doing dressed like that?” Chris yelled at the little witch in her arms, her arms protesting loudly against holding anything at the moment. “You’re going to get killed!” Chris felt her grip on the child weaken as she ran around trying to find somewhere safe to pause for a moment where they wouldn’t get burnt to a crisp or smashed into paste.

Charlotte

There! Now she just had to-

Wait wait who was this person grabbing her why were they grabbing her what the hell?!

Her crows lost in the shuffled, Charlotte found herself suddenly snatched up by a taller girl. For a few moments she was completely bewildered, too much so to speak. Why was she dressed like that? Gee, was her witch outfit really more outlandish then half the other costumes around here? And it was when the girl said she was going to get killed that Charlotte fully realized what this was about. Her expression, in spite of her surroundings, sank into one of a deep sense of being completely and totally unimpressed. Oh, certainly, she had no intention of giving up her ten-year-old physical from. It was very useful. At the same time, well... not being taken serious wasn't always a disadvantage. In this case it completely was.

When Charlotte spoke, her tone was rather flat. It was a perfect expression of her feelings.

"Are you an idiot?" she asked. It was a rather blunt question. "Because firstly, I hardly think a training exercise will kill anyone. Secondly, you made me lose track of my crows. I had six left. Six! I could've taken one of them down with those! Am I so cute you couldn't resist running off with me? I know I'm adorable but this is a combat training mission. I'm sure we'll have plenty of 'adorable children' missions."

She supposed it must feel somewhat surreal to the girl, in the midst of such a frankly action-packed training exercise, to have a tiny girl chastising her and making deeply sarcastic comments for trying to keep her out of harm's way. But it had to be said. "I wouldn't be here if I was as young as I looked. Let's leave it at that. Now put me down."

Changeling let out a surprised grunt as Chrome ripped him off and into the air. Of course the steel man had super strength. Changeling would just have to pack more of a punch, then-

"OWW!" Changeling screamed, as he felt his body slam into the ground with enough force to crack concrete. Sure, it wasn't enough to actually hurt the Fay, but it definitely hurt like hell.

Before he had a chance to react, Chrome was stomping on his chest. For a nonlethal exercise, this guy certainly was willing to use lethal force. The vigilante silently thanked whatever magical ancestor he had that gave fairies endurance. Still, this was painful...

Assuming Strix's pellet had hit its target successfully, Changeling was quick to take full advantage of Chrome's addled state. Focusing his mind on the task at hand, Changeling went rigid, magic coursing through his body in an attempt to induce an auditory and ocular hallucination in the steel man.

If Changeling was successful, Chrome would hear the sound of many people wailing, and soon after would see the dim silhouette of hands, reaching through the pellet's light, grasping for the metahuman's face.

Of course, this was all merely an illusion, but Changeling's daggers were not. When the Fae completed his spell, he struck at the hallucinating Chrome, using every ounce of enhanced strength he could muster as he stabbed first into the steel man's left hip joint, and then into his right. Changeling then attempted to push Chrome off, and finished his attack with a kick to the ribs backed by enhanced strength.

Changeling then sheathed his daggers, grabbing his thankfully intact bow and preparing to strike again if Chrome was somehow not out of commission.

Here's where I'll leave my message to MrDidact.

Next time you host an RP, I'll join in. I'm leaving this one, turns out Emphatic isn't a big enough word for Loud. Because it was totally misunderstood that he's loud.

Peace.

((Sorry to see you go LeeRoy, you're always welcome back here if you change your mind))

Rainmaker's Team

Locust reeled back from the hit and one of his mandibles hung loosely from his insectoid face, greenish blood sliding down the chitin. He shook his head and seemed to approximate laughter in a series of high-pitched crackles. Locust spoke then and his voice was raspy and low, "Good hit. But you'll have to do better than that." Suddenly Locust spit a blob of green mucus at Blast Girl, right at her chest plate. It wasn't an extremely potent burst. The acid would eat through her armor and compromise it, possibly inflicting corrosive burns on her skin. Locust followed it up with a series of slashes at her center mass.

Pariah's victims

Magnetar held up a car in front of him just in time to have Shocker's burst of lightning blow it into a fiery husk. Shocker leveled his hand for another blow when he felt someone strike him in the neck. He pitched forward but held his ground and remained standing. Phantom suddenly experienced a mild electric shock that would stun her for several moments as her unprotected skin met the electrokinetic's neck. Shocker whirled around with his hands raised but didn't see anybody. He turned around in time to see several metal marbles fly into his face. They hit him square in the forehead and the electrokinetic fell forward into the ground and out of consciousness.

Strix's pellets caused Chrome to stagger backward and blink in confusion for a few moments. When Changeling hit him with his illusions Chrome shook his head and grimaced, "Your mind tricks don't work on me Fae. But I seem to recall your kind aren't particularly fond of iron. And seeing as how Steel is almost 100% Iron. Well..." Changeling's knives dented Chrome's steel body and his kick staggered him backwards but it became increasingly obvious that direct physical confrontation with the steel man would be fruitless. Changeling's visions were mostly ignored by the disciplined Chrome and he advanced on Changeling with his fists raised.

Adamant was rocked off her feet by the explosive pellet and Redeye began immediately melting the concrete around her with her heat vision, fusing the diamond woman's outline into the street. Bulwark was also blown away for a few feet and Bullseye knocked him out with a gas arrow, causing him to go limp and unconscious. Morph came by and used his gunk to further entrap Adamant and Bulwark, after having finished with Shocker. He moved on to Frost and Aquamarine who struggled uselessly.

Ember saw the pellets flying at her and she raised a corona of flame around her, guessing that it might try to freeze her attacks. The cryo blast and it's freezing temperatures knocked out all of her flames coating everything around her in a frosty sheen. But she was was still up. Ember blew up Charlotte's crows with a fire ball. Then she saw Charlotte and Rolling Girl standing and started firing burst after burst of flame at the pair.

Apogee burrowed underground and found the shield had a bottom. She went back up and started firing away with her heat vision. She was joined by Plasmus and Redeye with Bullseye firing incendiary arrows at the sphere. The shield flickered a few times and Bastion had to visibly strain to keep the shield held up. Extrusion's elasticity was suffering as well and his human net decreased in size and complexity as he tried to assume a simpler form. Colossus was still on the ground but would likely recover soon. It seemed Sentinel was still out for the time being.

Suddenly Strix was shot in the back by a taser. It was followed up with a series of baton strikes to the back of his head and torso. An unseen leg then swept his unsteady feet. The assault should have forced Strix to the ground. A gun clicked and an unseen voice said, "These are live rounds. Pariah told me not to take any chances with you and you know how serious he is. Stay down or get two nice new holes in your head."

Blast Girl

She had to admit, she wasn't completely sure that Locust could still speak. It didn't change that no matter how hard she planned to hit him she wasn't planning on killing him, but still. The moment she saw him start to spit, Blast Girl jumped back, but it was just a moment too late. The gunk splattered all over the front of her chestplate and immediately began corroding the metal. Damn it! That chest plate was pretty important, and it made her outfit look better on top of that! It wasn't thin, but still, she had to do something before it ate through!

The blonde reached up and seized both sides of her chest plate, wrenching it forward and completely off of her leotard, backpedaling as she did to avoid the flurry of slashes aimed at her body. One claw nicked her arm, and she winced, but that was no big deal! Acid still hissing through her chest plate, Blast Girl swung her chestplate upwards, bursting forward.

"RIGHT BACK AT YOU!"

With that, she swung the hunk of metal down as hard as she could, right at Locust! She was pretty sure the acid on it wouldn't do a thing to him since it came out of his body, but big hunks of metal tended to hurt for anyone.

Gabriel was hurt pretty badly from Locust's slash to his stomach, and in his stunned state he was knocked over by the monstrous being. Locust was about to bring his jaws down on Gabriel's head when Blast Girl intervened and forced the creature off of him. He was grateful for the assistance and he tried to get to his feet as quick as he could with the injuries he had sustained from the battle. He looked at the battle going on between Blast Girl and Locust and saw his chance to help when the heroine used a piece of her armor as a projectile weapon.

Gabriel decided to use both his Purification and Damnation abilities at once. He charged up his Purification beam in his right hand and then his Damnation attack in his left hand. "Foul beast, taste the wrath of God!"

He fired both of his blasts and they shot towards Locust at blinding speeds. When they hit he would be hit by both his Purification and Damnation power which would be incredible powerful.

In all honesty the response from the small girl hadn’t been one that Chris had expected, then again she hadn’t expected much of one other than ‘AAAAAAAAH!’ or ‘Thank you’.

“What you then? 12?” Chris exclaimed.

Feeling the last of her grip on the girl slip away Chris came to a halt to let the girl back down onto the ground beside a large piece of what may have part of a building. Kneeling down by the girl Chris gave her a quick check over for any injuries whilst trying to keep one eye on the battle around them. Arms? Yep, good no burns there. There goes the electric guy. Legs? Yep, still both there. Diamond lady in the ground.

“Can’t you make more crows?” Chris asked, quickly checking over the girls head for any injuries. “We need to get those hosta-” A bright ball of fire tearing towards them appeared in Chris’ line of sight.

“Look out!” She cried shoving the young girl backward onto the ground while Chris fell onto her own backside allowing the ball of roaring flame to fly gracefully past on its way to destroying something.

Chris turned back around to face Ember just in time for another ball of fire to crash into her shoulder. Chris screamed, more in shock than actual pain, as her lower face was singed by the explosion of heat and sent into a sideward roll. Chris recovered quickly and carried on rolling not just to get away from the oncoming balls of fire, she could not only hear but feel them exploding onto the ground behind her, but to also try and put out the fire that was trying to burn away her shoulder.

With the fire out, and the shoulder segment of her jacket and shirt underneath mostly gone leaving a raw burn on her shoulder Chris was now seeking an opportunity to get back up but with Ember continuing to fire the regular ball of fire at her Chris just simply couldn’t.

Charlotte

Oh, twelve. Oh certainly. She was clearly just twelve years old that obviously explained why she was involved in something like this. And her hat got knocked off when she was put down, how completely irritating. Charlotte huffed as the girl checked her body over for injuries. Even if she had been hurt, and she was certain she hadn't been, anything she could have sustained would likely have healed just from her passive healing magic cast all through her body...

"I could make more crows, but I need time and you just-" and before her explanation could be continued she found herself roughly shoved onto the ground. At least this time it was to avoid something fairly serious, such as a great screaming ball of fire flying over their heads. Well, Ember was definitely at it again, and it looked like Charlotte's 'savior' was in trouble. Midnight Shield was useful, but in this case she couldn't get into a good position to use it... With a sigh, Charlotte sat on her knees and reached into a pocket.

"You really should believe me," she began, rather casually in spite of the situation. The small girl drew a very, very sharp knife... and grabbed a lock of hair from her head. In one swift motion she severed it.

"Even the earth is twisted to my will," she said, holding the hair out in front of her. It was simply a part of spell-casting, she had to say these words for it to work. "The plant life answers my sacrifice!"

Charlotte dropped her hair to the ground in front of the girl who had grabbed her... and tiny vines reached through the surface to snatch up the hair and drag it down...

And then an immense wall rose, thorned vines interlacing themselves to create a barrier almost instantly, tearing their way through the ground. They were black, the insides a neon shade of green. They were also quite alive, moist and fleshy and rather difficult to set alight. It wouldn't be hard to get around, it was only a small bramble wall, but it would certainly block the pyrokinetic from trying to toast them.

Charlotte rose to her feet, smiling brightly.

"There. That should take care of that for a bit," she said. The lock of hair she'd cut away was already regrowing... regenerative healing cast on oneself was useful for other reasons, aside from making sure that you don't die. "Now you might rank very high on my list of completely foolish people, but..."

She turned to face the other girl. "Let me see that shoulder while we have the chance."

Rainmaker's Team

Locust screeched at Blast Girl slammed him in the face with her chest plate. His head smacked back and he blindly slashed with his claws, one scoring a shallow but long cut along Blast Girl's now exposed torso. He barely had time to recover before he was smacked into a wall by Gabriel's beams, his exoskeleton now cracked in multiple places and leaking green blood. Locust screeched mightily, in a bid to distract his assailants. Then he hocked another blob of acidic spit at the ceiling above him. This blob was much more potent and began eating away at the ceiling instantly.

His back opened and great insectoid wings appeared to lift him above the ground. He said, "It's been fun, but I'm taking my leave heroes." He flew upward at high speed at the melting patch of the ceiling, wings beating desperately to carry him in escape. Strong and dangerous as he was, evidently he knew when he was in a losing situation.

Pariah's victims

Ember sighed as the bramble wall appeared in front of her blocking her fiery assaults. She cursed, "Magic. I hate magic." She sent a fireball at the wall and set it on fire, but it'd be a while for it to burn away. She looked around and saw that most of her team had been incapacitated along with many henchmen. On the upside most of the heroes had been knocked out as well save for the more sturdy trainees. She saw that Bastion was holding her ground for now and she decided to take out the witch and the speedster while she had the chance. She saw Morph flitting about and raised her hands, sending out a blast of flame that encircled him. The ring of fire trapped Morph and kept him from doing anything. His amorphous skin started misting from the heat. He suddenly changed back into a human but he was still trapped.

Ember smiled in satisfaction. She got the attention of a dozen henchmen, "Four of you set up lanes of fire around the wall and shoot at them if they try to break cover. I'll deal with them myself. And the rest of you get working on freeing the team and keeping that blob under guard," Suddenly Ember changed. Her body became wreathed in flame and her clothes and skin seemed to melt away to be replaced by bright fire. A feminine shape and two white eyes were all that suggested the flame was human. Ember rose in the air and advanced on Charlotte's and Rolling Girl's position. She started flinging fireballs around their position and said, "Don't make me come over there and fry you. Come on out and you'll be spared a trip to the doctor."

"You won't be able to do this twice, trust me."

Strix grinned as he found himself suddenly on the ground with a gun to his head. He really should have expected a sneak attack but planning for the others had made him lose focus on his tactics on a personal level. Still, it was typical of Pariah to have planned for his meddling, and an invisible assassin was just classy enough to work.He'd have to make adjustments to his HUD's sensors later. Not that any of that mattered now. In fact, surveying what he could of the situation from here, he found himself chuckling.

"It hardly matters if you take me out of play now, I've already shaped this stage of the game into a virtual checkmate and there's no real way for you to counter things in time Not while you're keeping me here."

The main thing that had him immensely pleased was that the strategy the team was winning with all hinged on generating a large amount of heat, and one of the only two trainers left was generating a massive amount of ambient heat to help them along. The fire surrounding Morph, the giant smoldering bonfire that was the bramble wall, the fact that Ember had turned into a woman made of fire and was throwing yet more around played right into his hands. What's more, the two people most capable of quickly reversing the situation were trapped both in Morph's slime and his heat-and-cold resistant adhesive. At this rate, the barrier would be broken even faster, along with the heat even more affecting the trainers inside such an enclosed space.

Now all he needed was for the invisible trainer to suffer just a moment's distraction to break free, or else hope his talking or inaction on the ground attracted someone's attention. For all his talk of not even being needed, he still wanted to participate.

Phantom

The good thing about sneaking around constantly invisible was that it made being stunned more of an inconvenience and less of a 'you have now been knocked unconscious and dragged off' affair. Thus, once Rachel had recovered her bearings, she set about trying to find someone that she could actually do something to. Ember was right out for obvious reasons, especially once she turned into a fireball. The metal guy was likewise unassailable with her ability set. She could take out a few henchmen--but that was basically a waste of time, since they were hardly a big threat.

Strix going down like a sack of potatoes, then what sounded like a quite heated debate? This was a grand signal that something was going on. Talking empty air made it even clearer that there was someone else invisible, here, and that left her one option: try and grapple them, and first get them off of the other hero. How to do that when you couldn't see them? Well, prepare for impact... and tackle where there had to be some sort of person to keep Strix in place.

Phantom certainly had the element of surprise here, but whether that could be capitalised on to both get on top of the other guy and find some body part that was either disabling when hit or could be put in some sort of lock to keep in place? Well, that was a bit harder. There was also the unknowing risk of getting herself, Strix, or the invisible man shot; hopefully he recalled basic firearm safety rules and had kept his finger off the trigger rather than risking accidentally blowing a hole in somebody that he didn't want to kill