Furious

Until now the hero known as Furious had contented himself with taking down robots and henchmen, leaving the bigger threats for his erstwhile compatriots. Not that he feared the stereotypically attired 'Super-Villains' of course, he feared no one. No, this was all part of Furious's plan to allow the wheat to be separated from the chaff. He had waited until the less skilled or powerful heroes had been taken down so that when he finally did strike then the League assessors would witness his greatness and have to take heed. Then, once he had received membership he would finally have the recognition he deserved he would be able to make a real difference for all the suffering Meta's out there. A touch diabolical perhaps, but if there was one thing that Miguel Dominguez had taught him it was that playing fair rarely won you any accolades.

Still, he didn't want to lay his performance on too thick and to be turned away for failing to show 'team-spirit'. The one dressed as an owl who had been barking out inane orders had fallen, while the strange one in armour with a bow was being attacked by the metal man named Chrome. Furious had taken a near instant dislike to the owl vigilante, and would be damned if he would help that fool up, so it looked like it was Legolas's turn to be rescued. It made sense tactically too, as Chrome was no more than a shiny strongman who probably wouldn't even realise that his every blow would do no more than feed Furious power.

The teen hero charged at Chrome, roaring a battle cry, barging a henchmen to the ground in the process. As he neared the steel-'villain' he dropped his shoulders, meaning to ram straight into the metallic fool. Either Furious would be strong enough to bowl his target over, or his full on charge would cause such an impact that the pain would raise him to even greater strengths that would allow him to bludgeon Chrome into scrap metal. Either way this confrontation could only end one way.

And it wouldn't be pretty.

Pariah's victims

"I won't need to do it twice if I keep you here."

The invisible Phantasm sounded amused, "You look pretty pleased with yourself, but you shouldn't underestimate the lengths to which Pariah will go. Nor should you underestimate us. Don't count your chickens before they hatch as they say." As he was speaking, the henchmen were steadily working on extricating the trainers from their imprisonment, with the trainers themselves helping along. Aquamarine had been eating away at the gunk and glue with her water powers before her body changed and she started to leak out of her prison as an animated stream of water. Frost chilled his bonds until they were frozen and henchmen started hacking away at it, the frozen gunk breaking apart as Frost started to remove himself.

Shocker had woken up and his electricity blackened the goo holding him down allowing him easier escape as he morphed into living lightning to break free. Sentinel had recovered and instead of re-engaging Apogee, he used his fine control in telekinesis to help his teammates break free, including Adamant who had morphed back to human form and changed back and started to cut through the gunk and Bulwark who flexed his superstrong muscles to break free. All in all the bulk of the training team would be back on their feet within under a minute.

As they were, Bastion's shield flickered more and more. The ambient heat generated didn't contribute all that much to breaking the shield as distance mitigated it's effects but every bit collected into a heat that was breaking down her shield, as Bastion did not construct her shield to block heat. Suddenly the shield fell altogether and the heroes rushed in. Bastion created a sphere around Colossus and fell back to the encircled bus, and lifted both back further down the street with dozens of remaining henchmen between the bus and the heroes.

Extrusion abandoned his net form and started combating Apogee, stretching out and swatting her with elongated limbs while the rest of the heroes began battling the henchmen who kept them pinned down with disciplined automatic weapons fire. Apogee grabbed one of Extrusion's limbs and swung around in a circle building up speed, Extrusion could barely do anything as he was lifted and disoriented and Apogee let him go and sent him sailing down the street and away from her. Zenith's cousin then dropped down to Earth and helped her teammates, cutting a swath through the henchmen. But the men held their ground and more force was needed to break the stalemate.

Trained combatant that he was, Phantasm should have heard the footsteps rapidly closing on him. Unfortunately for him it hadn't yet occurred to him what problems villain monologues incur. As such he had little warning before Phantom crashed into him. He was sent crashing to the ground and on the way he instantly pressed a button on his belt, which signaled two nearby henchmen to his position who then pointed rifles at Strix. On the ground Phantasm raised his knee several times in the general vicinity of where his opponent's torso would have been and attempted to flip over and reverse their positions.

Chrome raised a fist and swung at Changeling, hoping to throw him back before going in for another strike. He heard Furious coming and contrary to the teenager's opinion Chrome was much more than dumb muscle and he had been extensively briefed on all of the trainees. Including Furious. Pariah knew Furious's secret origins and had managed to access his medical files which detailed his powers. As such Chrome neither struck at Furious nor stood his ground. He sidestepped the charging hero with more speed than one would think possible for him and stuck out his foot seeking to cause Furious to fall to the ground. Afterwards Chrome would lift a heavy steel foot and press down on the prone hero with his weight, the weight not causing too much pain but acting as an inexorable force that would leave Furious with little if any chance to move or lift against.

This was not going nearly as well as he'd hoped. This Chrome guy would certainly be an excellent fighter to work with, but at the moment, Changeling couldn't help but wish he was a little more vulnerable. Maybe he should've taken the Fae's offer to teach him magic a little more seriously... But that was the past, and now, he needed to figure out how to-

"Your mind trick don't work on me Fae."

Changeling's jaw dropped, although such things were hardly noticeable behind his mask. This guy knew he was Fae. How many others knew he was Fae?! More importantly, what else could this organization- which he had assumed would have some respect for a hero's elusive preferences- know about him?

But enough of that for now. Chrome knew he had the advantage here, and Changeling was all too aware that the steel man's attacks had left his armor quite battered. There was only one logical course of action. Changeling would have to disengage his opponent.

The vigilante prepared to jump away from the "villain," dodging a punch, before hearing the sound of a younger potential teammate announcing his attack. Changeling moved out of the way, as Furious was brought to the floor by Chrome's annoyingly strategic maneuvers. Soon, Furious was floored, and Chrome placed a foot on top of him. Expecting the brutality that had been dealt when the steel man floored the Fae, Changeling was confused by the strangely merciful- and perhaps humiliating- way Chrome merely pinned the trainee.

Confusion was replaced by action, however, as Changeling sprung at Chrome, slamming himself into the metahuman in an attempt to knock him off Furious, before attempting to leap a safe distance from the steely grip of Chrome.

"Get up quickly, friend!" Changeling called to Furious, "This guy's full of surprises!"

Hot Rod

Ryker had his hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel of his race car as he made the vehicle make a turn to pull ahead of the third place car. Even though he was intent on winning, his mind was more focused on finishing the race as quickly as possible since today was when the League of Heroes were gathering together for the first time and he was late. He cursed at the bad luck of having a race on the same day as the meeting, but that was life and now he was determined to finish the race before he became amazingly late. He maneuvered his car around the second place racer, and then accelerated to try and catch up with the yellow race car that was in first place. His car was only a few feet away from becoming neck and neck with his opponent when the yellow car made a quick shift to the side which caused Ryker to slow down his car

"Son of a Bit**!" he shouted and put his foot on the gas petal all the way when he found an opening to pass his opponent. His car shot by the yellow race car and took the lead. He focused on being as fast as possible to finish the race. Soon the final lap came and Ryker was glad that the race would be done with. As usual, he won the race but this time he didn't stick around to talk to any of the reporters and he ran for the changing rooms to put on his costume. Once he changed, Ryker took off at supersonic speeds, flying towards the hall of heroes. Luckily, his race had been in the county of Illinois and so it wasn't too far of a flight from the track, especially when he was flying as fast as an FA-18 fighter jet. His body was emitted the roaring of the jet aircraft and his lower torso released a jet stream behind him as his body produced the thrust that made him fly at such fast speeds.

He soon came to the city and slowed down his flight speed to below the speed of sound, not wanting to waste energy. In less than a minute, he saw the Hall of Heroes come into view. He landed on the steps near the front entrance and went inside, expecting to see the place filled with costumed heroes. To his surprise, he didn't see anyone and he wondered if the meeting was over. He was late but he didn't think he was that late, it would really suck to miss out on the first meeting of the League when he was invited and it wouldn't look good if the press had come and his face wasn't in the news. He quickly dashed around at high speeds, trying to see if they were in another part of the building and called out, "Hello? are there any heroes in the house? Because the Glorious Hot Rod is here and he is ready to save the day!"

He hoped that someone answered him so that they could tell him what was going on and where the everybody was.

Furious

It was a strange sensation, flying through the air. The groan inducing pain of hitting the floor was a tad more familiar, though no more welcome. Even if it fuelled him, getting hurt wasn't something Furious was incredibly fond of. Even that couldn't match the indignity of a big metal foot plopping itself on his chest, just enough force and weight behind it to keep Furious on the ground and no more. It was most galling, looking to a casual observer that the masked hero was a prized trophy kill bagged by Chrome. He waited for the crushing weight to come, a crush that would give him the strength to bodily throw the shiny nuisance from on top of him, but the weight never came. For some reason Chrome was willing to pin him there and nothing more. A sickening thought came to Furious then.

He knows.

Somehow the League had found out the true source of his power, that was the only logical explanation here. Otherwise why would a man composed entirely of steel dodge his barge, or why would he refuse to try and finish his foe once he was on the ground? How could they know, Dr Mellori had promised Miguel Dominguez that he wouldn't breath a word about Furious's Meta-gene. It was a secondary problem to the fact that the young vigilante was now floored, but it was the far more troublesome one.

The knife wielder that Furious had 'saved' leapt into the fray, his momentum managing to knock Chrome off. The red masked hero took the opportunity to scramble quickly to his feet.

“This guy's full of surprises!” called 'Legolas', proving quite adept at stating the obvious. Of course he was full of surprises, otherwise how would furious have ended up flat on his back. The young vigilante had his foes measure now, realising that he was facing off against more than a mere brute.

“You go left, I'll go right,” Ordered Furious, showing the sort of commanding presence that could only be possessed by an arrogant youth. He circled Chrome slowly, sure that a two pronged attack would be the undoing of the metal 'villain'. Then, with a surprising burst of energy he shot forwards, sending two straight lefts towards Chrome's face, following that up with a right hook. If Changeling attacked at the same time they would make scrap of the metallic nuisance in no time.

Phantom

Phantasm's knees struck empty air, not because he was particularly bad at this but because his opponent had chosen to go for the easiest way to try and keep him still: sit down on his torso. With a heavy weight pressing down on your chest and arms, it was going to be rather hard to reverse positions--especially when invisible hands found your shoulders and migrated inwards, to the neck. Invisibility lost its advantage once you had a hold of the person.

"I would rather not risk killing you in training because I can't see what's happening, so how about you play unconscious for the rest of this?" Rachel asked, speaking quickly before he found a way out of this odd situation. She didn't want to try and go further than this; it would probably end up in serious injury. Potentially killing one of the trainers, who happened to be a hero, was not the best move.

"We don't really know very much about Manifestation. It can be a lot of things. Extreme emotional turbulence or life-threatening physical danger can cause someone to be Awakened. It can happen in some freak accident or be activated by drug use. But it can also come during activities as mundane as reading or taking a shower. There's no reliable way so far to predict manifestation. And once someone is awakened the specific effects it has on the subject can vary wildly. Someone can manifest electrokinetic powers to survive electrocution, or they can receive pyrokinetic powers because of their temperament and psychological profile, those with more cerebral qualities can receive super-intelligence, or they can develop super-strength and flight because of a deep regard for Superman, the potential causes and effects of manifestation are almost limitless. And once you add Supernatural factors such as mystical bloodlines or wizardly talent, manifestation becomes even more unpredictable and diverse. It has not been conclusively proven that Manifestation is genetic but studies have shown that those with at least one Awakened parent have a greater chance of receiving powers, and having two Awakened parents seems to almost guarantee having powers. The field of Superhuman studies is young and there's lot's of things we have to learn but unlocking the secrets of Manifestation could catapult our society into a Golden Age of advances in agriculture, medicine, engineering, everything. And of course there are the military applications" - Professor James Morrow, co-chair of the Superhuman Studies Initiative

Entry Hall

Hot Rod soon came upon Reaver, one of the more infamous heroes in America. With his dark red skin, reptilian yellow eyes, bone-white claws, barbed tail, golden pitch-fork, leathery wings, and horns the hero was somewhat a lot to take in on first sight. The half-demonic hero gave Hot Rod a genuine smile and spoke with a strong baritone, "Ah, I know you. I love your races, man. Good to have you here. We need another speedster besides Nitrous. You're pretty late, which is kinda weird if you ask me. Being a flying speedster and all." Reaver let out a hearty chuckle.

"Everyone's out, right now. Either on a field mission or in the training rooms. Most of the training teams are done, but Pariah's group is still slogging through it. Pariah doesn't go easy, even on the first day." Reaver pointed towards one of the hallways which lead to the briefing room which in turn would take Hot Rod to the training mission, "Just go down there into the briefing room and tell them that Reaver sent you. They'll let you in the help finish the mission. Better hurry or Pariah will get even more pissed off than usual."

Pariah's Victims

Chrome managed to score a glancing hit on Changeling as he retreated. Then he squared off against Furious and Changeling with them on either side of him. He didn't anticipate Furious being quite so fast and the first two hits struck him in his metallic jaw, Chrome shrugged off the hits and saw the right hook. He dodged to the side of the right hook and grabbed Furious's right arm with his steel grip. He stepped behind Furious and locked Furious's arm behind his back and slipped his left arm around Furious's neck. The steel limb would press down on him and hopefully keep the teenage hero locked there. Chrome could also start choking him out with little effort if Furious started to resist. Then the metal trainer maneuvered Furious and himself to face Changeling, trusting the hero not to know how Furious's power worked.

Meanwhile, Phantasm found hands around his neck and a feminine voice speaking to him. With his free hand he felt around and found what seemed to be a leg near his torso, and his hearing told him the general direction of the voice. He figured out that his attacker was sitting atop him. The trainer said in an amused tone, "Well, it's refreshing to have another shadow-type on the team. But this seems to be a bit much for the first date doesn't it?" While he said this his hand found his taser gun and he lifted at where her torso would be since she was sitting atop him and pulled the trigger, shocking Phantom for the second time in a few minutes. He would then take advantage of the painful distraction to holster his taser, grab one of the arms holding his neck and shove her agonized form off of him with all his strength.

Blast Girl

"Gah!"

Blast Girl stumbled back. She'd hit the bastard pretty hard, but he'd managed to get a good slash in... it wasn't deep or serious or anything, but it was a pretty painful cut right above her breasts. At least it had been low enough to miss her throat... And now the bug man was trying to get out of here! Doing her best to shake off the pain, Blast Girl squared herself up, gazing upwards at the fleeing criminal. Oh no, no way was she going to let him get away! She steeped back. She didn't have much time but she wanted to make sure she attacked from behind, instead of from the front. Without her chestplate(she'd have to get Kate to make her a new one), she didn't want to get into range of his claws... but from behind...

The blonde took a deep breath, and felt herself become lighter as she adjusted her gravity... she wanted to make it, that was for sure. Then she swung both hands down and fired off all but two of her remaining cartridges! Blast Girl rocketed into the air, feeling it rush past her as she shot up towards Locust. The moment she began to rise up behind him, she raised both hands up and clasped with in each other... Before bringing them down like a club, heading right for Locust's head!

---

Charlotte

Oh, how bothersome. Ember had already lit the brambles on fire... that meant that Charlotte didn't have as much time to act as she thought she would.

"Sorry, it'll have to wait," she said, flashing a smile at the silly girl who had tried to run away with her. She turned to face her bramble wall... and watched as plumes of smoke rose from the plants. That was the bad thing about trying to burn plants that were very much alive and very moist inside. They made a lot of smoke. And it tended to smell pretty bad(seriously, it stunk like hell). Of course certain rituals involved burning plants but this wasn't exactly that kind of situation. The smoke had made a mass of cover, obscuring both Charlotte and the taller girl entirely from view. Ember, it seemed, was trying to burn them out of hiding by throwing fire at them. In Charlotte's opinion, this made her position very easy to track. Every fireball let her know exactly where the pyrokinetic was.

The small black-haired girl raised her knife. This would sting a little, but it's nothing she wasn't used to. The faint, purple outlines of a magic circle grew from where she stood... and expanded, a rotating ring of purple around the spot where she stood.

Her voice was quiet, but with all the commotion she was certain she would go unheard.

"My blood, willingly given, to destroy my foe..." 'Destroy' was a bit of an exaggeration. Oh, Midnight Ripper could certainly be lethal when given enough power, but she wasn't going for that at the moment. Charlotte raised the knife, and brought it to the palm of her other hand. She felt the tip bite through her skin, and she swiftly dragged the blade through her flesh. Almost immediately her blood began to flow from the wound. She winced, but it would be only a moment before the pain ceased. Her blood dripped from the wound, but instead of falling to the ground, it curled and twisted, blackening and forming a ring before her palm.

"And my flesh, a conduit!"

There was a flash of what could only be described as black light from the circle before Charlotte's hand! A bolt of blackness lept forward, tearing through the air and ripping right towards Ember, through the smoke. If it hit, it would floor her and quite possibly knock her out depending where it struck. At the very least it would give Charlotte a chance to change her position and keep firing.

Changeling breathed a sigh of relief, as his attack had been as successful as he could've hoped. He'd retreated from Chrome's reach without any more significant damage to his armor, and Furious was up and ready to fight again.

Then, the younger hero barked an order, "go left, I'll go right." Cynical though he was that they could do much of anything to Chrome, Changeling nevertheless went along with Furious' plan, circling to the left, carefully watching the steel man and the teen as he did so. Furious struck, Changeling following moments after, knives at the ready.

Alas, just as quickly as Changeling moved in to assist, Chrome had once again got a grip on Furious, and Changeling was forced to hold back, worried that his daggers might accidentally strike Furious.

Exasperated, he stared at Chrome and the rash trainee. As far as he could tell, the only way a physical fighter was going to hurt the steel man was if Chrome were to revert to human form...

Of course, Changeling had no idea how to cause such a thing, and so he tensely awaited some sort of attack, as the stench of burning plant life filled his nose from another battle.

Furious

The first two hits connected with satisfying force, jarring his arm with each strike and filling him with goodness. The third wasn't as succseful, Chrome managing to grab his arm and twist it behind his back. With his free arm Chrome attempted to wrap Furious in a choke hold, but years of wrestling and combat classes had taught the younger hero that the first thing to do in the situation was to force your chin down, denying your assailant access to your vulnerable throat. Succsefully negating the metal teachers hold, Furious allowed himself to be manhandled in Changeling's general direction.

The teen vigilante allowed himself a small grin, one that the others would never make out through his mask.

"You know my powers tin-man, but do you know my skills?" he asked, a nasty edge to his voice. Before Chrome had a chance to respond Furious swung his left leg behind Chrome, gaining better leverage, then drove his left elbow into Chrome's stomache. Then again. Then again. Then again.

He'd force the fool to let him go, one way or another.

" Why shouldn't we be in charge? Why shouldn't Superhumans live on top of the regular humans? Evolution is a natural part of life, and survival of the fittest is a natural part of evolution. Homo Sapiens became the dominant species after they crowded out their lesser brethren the Caveman. Now that time has come again, as Novus Sapiens are now the evolved race and Humanity are the cavemen. Our dominion is natural. But it need not be cruel. All Superhumans must join our cause to create a Utopia for all. We shall rule, but the humans will be under our protection and care, it is better for all that way. We can build a world with our powers and abilities, free of the hatred, poverty, sickness, corruption, freed, and disaster that Humanity has wrought on our planet. Humanity had it's chance, it has had its time. Now it's our turn, our time." - Apex, Identity Unknown, leader of the Novus Sapiens movement in an internet broadcast

Rainmaker's Team

Locust heard the boom and twisted in the air, his insect eyes bulging in disbelief as Blast Girl moved to strike him. He snarled and moved backward the hit cracking his head plate but he remained in the air. He grabbed her in an insectoid appendage and said, "You have a lot of spirit, young one. But this is not the day where you capture me. You'll have your chance soon enough, I only hope you see the error of your ways before we are forced to kill you. Bright souls like you are wasted in the grave. That is why I will not strike you down today, by the mercy of Legion." Locust's mandibles twisted in an approximation of a smile and he let Blast Girl fall to the ground, the acid opening a hole in the ceiling which he crashed through, buzzing away into the sky.

On the ground there were people to tend to, villains to secure, and such other matters. Perhaps one of the captured villains would have some information to offer about this mysterious Legion.

Pariah's victims

"Oh crap", was all Ember could say as the black light hit her and sent her soaring through the air. Ember landed in a fiery pile next to Adamant who along with the rest of the team had slipped their bonds. Chrome, grunted in annoyance as Furious hit him, the hits not doing real damage but slightly denting his metal hide. Chrome recognized the fact that his continued hits might gain him more power. Chrome released his hold on Furious suddenly but then brought his hands up to smack Furious on both sides of the head with his steel palms. The blows were meant to discombobulate Furious and confuse him but leave him too numb to feel pain for the next several moments. Then he slipped his leg out of Furious's and shoved him forward, then kicking him in the back to send him flying at Changeling. Chrome took the momentary distraction to slowly back away from the two, bracing himself for another attack.

Meanwhile, Apogee managed to break the back of the resisting henchmen and their positions crumbled as Magnetar, Bullseye, Redeye, and Plasmus overran the enemy positions. The team of heroes made a bee-line for the bus where Extrusion, Colossus, and Bastion made a last stand around it. Colossus had grown to twenty feet tall, while Extrusion had formed stretched out to the same height, and Bastion was surrounded in a barrier, with the bus also held within a sphere. It might have been prudent for the trainees to disengage from the trainers and assist their allies.

Furious

The whole world became an explosion of white, thunder echoing across the bright empty planes. It took Furious what seemed like an age to realise it wasn't the world that was white, just his perception of it. Thankfully his increased durability and regeneration negated the worst of Chrome's blow in seconds, the young vigilante managing to regain his balance before he barrelled into Changeling.

Chrome was proving to be far more troublesome than he had first appeared, but on the plus side Furious had managed to escape his grasp and the steel-man now seemed to be on the back foot. Even he couldn't last long under the combined might of the two heroes.

Instead of leaping back at the attack Furious used the momentary lull to survey the rest of the field. He was surprised to see that the heroes had managed to get the villains on their back foot, especially after the dismal performance his would be comrades had put in at the start of the confrontation. Then again the worst of the bunch had probably been taken down already, so they were left with the hardiest and most powerful. Fitting then, as Furious was the most powerful of all. They would no doubt need his help to rescue the hostages, but he'd be damned if he was going to abandon his confrontation with Chrome before going to help them.

“We've wasted too much time with him,” he stated to Changeling while gesturing at Chrome. “We need to get to the bus and save those hostages. You go, I'll be with you presently.” the words were spoken with a grim certainty.

Most people would have realised that taking Chrome on head on is futile by now, the 'villain' being to strong. Added to that was the fact that the steel-man was no doubt expecting another attack, steadying himself for another bout. Furious was stronger now, and faster too. He stalked towards his adversary, rolling his shoulders to work them loose. The thing was that no matter how powerful an enemy was, how tough or how many surprises they had up their sleeve's, Furious was just to well adapted to beat physically. The longer the fight went on the stronger he became.

Suddenly he roared and charged forward once again, a move Chrome was probably becoming quite familiar with. As he closed he send a wide, powerful right hand swinging for Chrome's head. It was a cunningly crafted feint for Furious's real attack though. If Chrome took the bait and either blocked or evaded the blow then the red-masked hero would follow up with a thundering knee strike with all his force, aimed directly at the dents he had caused on Chrome earlier with his knee.

Chris was just about to raise the point to the child about vines being flammable, and to stop touching the large patch of burnt flesh on her shoulder because it hurt like hell, when the vines were set alight.

Chris sat there for about a minute debating on what to do. Stay with the girl or sprint towards the bus now no longer protected from the shield but surrounded by villains. As the little girl’s onslaught began Chris decided that she could take care of herself. With her eyebrows raised Chris watched Embers limp form soar out and over the cloud of foul smoke before disappearing from smoke again.

“Wow.” Chris said in awe, stumbling back up onto her aching feet despite the protests of her body.

She hissed and gripped her upper arm from the twinges of pain her shoulder was screaming into her mind. She couldn’t fight like this.

“Right, um.” She murmured in thought towards the fighting near the bus. “I can’t fight like this, will you be able to hit the bad guys from here?” Chris wasn’t about some little kid go into a battle, no matter how strong she appeared to be one accidental punch and that could be it.

Blast Girl

Blast Girl hit the ground fairly lightly, landing on her feet. Her gravity was still lessened, after all. As it returned to normal, she found herself glaring up at the hole. Damn it! He got away! She'd nearly got him but he managed to escape! On one hand she kinda had to respect that he acknowledged her spirit and all. It wasn't too often that a bad guy did that kinda thing. Sure Maestro teamed up with her once but getting her to acknowledge anything was pretty tough. On the other hand... that BASTARD! Oh, she was gonna find out everything she could about this legion. There was no way she'd let them get away, that was for sure! "You won't get away twice you bastard!"

... For now, though, there was bad guys who were still here who needed tying up. Also her cut stung, she really needed to work on getting that healed... there was a healer around here, right? Whatever, the bad guys needed the attention first. Striding over the the nearest of them, Blast Girl looked around.

"Anybody got anything I can tie this guy's hands with?"

---

Charlotte

Even with all the commotion, Charlotte could tell she'd hit her mark. Mostly because fire stopped raining down on them and she thought she saw the glow of Ember's body rapidly fall from the sky. Good, good, the pyrokinetic was out. While the smoke was still rising from the burning Bramble Wall, it was staring to dissipate, so she didn't have nearly as much time as she had before. Still, a chance was a chance. The tiny girl turned to face her 'rescuer'.

"Now that we have a moment, yes, I am quite capable at range. As demonstrated," she began. The throbbing in her palm began to dull as the cut sealed. She'd have to make another in order to use Midnight Ripper again... but she wasn't going to for the moment. "I know these facts may be shocking given you immediately judged me by my appearance, of course. And let's be fair to you, completely disregarding this entire situation... somehow, it's rather easy to mistake me for a little girl. After all, well..."

Charlotte gestured to herself. It was self-explanatory, given she was physically no older then ten. "But looks can be quite deceiving. Especially such stunningly adorable looks."

She smiled in a rather smug fashion.

"Unless you are somehow an exceptionally powerful magic user, I am much, much older then you. As in I'm a two-hundred-year-old witch," for a moment, Charlotte paused, allowing the fact that she was two-hundred years old to sink in. "Now putting your brief moment of somewhat cute foolishness aside... let me see your shoulder. A girl shouldn't have to deal with a nasty burn like that by herself and we're running out of smoke."

"The Awakening changed everything, in ways that people never expected. And nobody expected the Awakening to make manipulation of the Force, a reality. There are thousands, millions of people who were enchanted with the Star Wars franchise and many who adored it to the point that they emulated the Jedi Knights by trying to follow the teachings of the Order. When the Awakening occurred, scores of devotees found that they had developed abilities akin to Jedi Knights in the films. Then we get organized and assembled, and honed our physical abilities as well as delving deeper in our pursuit of balance with the Force. We even found we could construct blades similar to the archetypal Lightsaber. The Awakening turned our passion for the Force and everything the Jedi represented into concrete abilities just like how Zenith and other Superman-esque heroes like him received their abilities. Now, our Order stands with other heroes and governments to bring peace to our troubled world and bring it back to balance, and we continue to seek those who are attuned to the Force. Of course, not all those who are strong in the force will follow the path of the light and we must remain vigilant for the uprising of the Dark side." - Grand Master Kenneth Jackson, Master of the Jedi Council and leader of the Jedi Order

Rainmaker's Team

Evergreen grinned faintly at Blast Girl, "It's fine Blast Girl, I"ve got it covered." All of the villains and henchmen had been wrapped in sturdy vines, rendering any movement near impossible. She walked over to Blast Girl and wrapped the wound in a tight leaf bandage, "It'll hold until we get you proper medical attention back at the Hall."

Rainmaker nodded grimly, "We'll get them back to the Hall too. Olympia tells me two other villains slipped the net, we'll start working with CPD to track them down and start our interrogations. Let's let the boys in blue clean up here, we're needed back at the Hall." She turned and her team went to follow her.

Pariah's victims

Strix decided he couldn't very well stay here if he wanted to help the team win. He made a choice, muttering under his breath, "Sorry about this one guys." He overcharged his ECHO system in a sonic blast. The two henchmen screamed as their ears were assaulted with the cacophony and Strix sprung to his feet, kicking one man's knee and following it up with a series of rapid punches to his face and torso. The other one received a roundhouse kick to the face and dropped quickly. Phantasm was still stunned from the attack and Strix used his ECHO system to locate Phantom, his invisible savior, "Thanks for the assist let's go save the hostages."

Eber had reverted to human form after she hit the ground and she groaned. Bulwark held out his hand and Ember grasped it, the strongman lifting her back to her feet in short order. Bulwark chuckled, "You shouldn't under estimate the trainees Ember." Ember grinned, "It was a lucky shot. Now let's finish our lesson." Apogee and her companions were locked in a battle with the three trainers. Colossus, Extrusion, and Bastion were all formidable foes and they held off the heroes easily. Apogee was wrapped in an elongated limb and Colossus had swept Bullseye and Magnetar aside with a massive arm. Bastion's new shield was heat-resistant as well as force-blocking and she stopped Plasmus and Redeye's attacks cold, firing back with smaller spheres that knocked them to the ground. They obviously needed more support to break through.

Chrome sighed as Furious charged again. Kids these days . He held his ground and didn't evade Furious's attack or block it. He caught the blow with within his own steel hand, and squeezed cracking Furious's bones. Then he shifted his torso to protect his slightly dented stomach and took it on his hip, the hit not injuring him unduly besides another small indentation. Chrome then grabbed Furious's caught arm with both hands and flipped him to the ground, sending him prone for the second time in minutes. Chrome kept a firm grip on his arm and again placed his foot on his neck pressing down and trying to choke him out.

Furious

He screamed when Chrome crushed his hand, the pain indescribable. If anything the sound of his bones being splintered was just as bad, his stomach lurching with each crack. He'd never felt anything like this in his short hero career, not even during his battle when that Meta-prisoner transfer bus had been hijacked and he had fought all those villains at once. He wouldn't have been able to stop Chrome throwing him to the ground again even if he had the wherewithal to realise the trainer was doing it, his entire focus was on the pain of his hand.

A big heavy boot came down on his throat, and this time he couldn't do anything to stop it. He felt the pressure, slight yet inexorable. Chrome was going to choke him out and then it would be all over. No membership in the League, no chance of showing the PMDF what he was capable of, no helping oppressed Meta's everywhere. Just a few minutes of gasping for air then it would be all over, just a miserable trip back to the Dominguez mansion where he would live the rest of his life like a ghost, trying not to get in his father's way. He could almost feel Miguel's indifference already.

But then he felt something else. It was small at first, but growing within him steadily. It was like a fire, but it burnt without heat. It grew and grew, a light to illuminate the darkness that had threatened to swamp him. It was power in its rawest form, pulsating and pure. He could feel his skin tingle with it. Even his hand didn't hurt like it did before. Perhaps he had never experienced anything like having the bones in his fist shattered, but it had made him stronger than he had ever been in the past.

But its not just that he realised. It was more than just his Metapower, it was something greater and more intangible. It was the first Daryl Redman struggling against circumstance to make life better for men like himself. It was Sofira Redman fighting to help the needy and unfortunate. It was even Miguel Dominguez, determined to make a world were the tragedy that had befallen him would never happen to anyone else. Furious came from a long line of fighters, and he would be damned if he shamed that lineage today by giving up here. He may lose this fight, but he would go down swinging.

He grabbed the closest thing to him, Chrome's ankle, and squeezed. He squeezed as hard as he could, poring every last bit off power he had into it. He was more powerful than he had ever been, but he wasn't sure if that was enough. Dr Mellori had said his strength was potentially limitless, so Furious prayed he had enough now to make a difference.

He focused on his broken hand, fixating on the pain, all just to leech a bit more strength for the squeeze. He wasn't sure if Chrome was really made of steel, or if he was some organic metal, all he knew was that he had to hurt the trainer somehow, had to get him off before Furious passed out.

A few more screams and dull thuds of heavy things hitting not as heavy things came from where the bus was sitting in the distance making Chris wonder if her team mates were doing okay. Not that she could really do much other than speed around the place, but at the very least she might’ve been able to get some of the hostages out of the danger zone if her shoulder hadn’t been burned away. What was it that Pariah said about the trainers not trying to injure them!?

“Right, uh, um yeah.” Chris replied, trying to fight back the tears.

She couldn’t quite think clearly with not only the pain from her shoulder drowning out any coherent thoughts trying to form but also from the lovely amounts foul smelling smoke weaving it’s way around her and burning down her throat. Thankfully though the smoke was dissipating quite quickly so hopefully Chris wouldn’t have to struggle to breathe.

Chris frowned at the child as she continued to talk about her being a few hundred years old because of magic. Wasn’t magic a recent thing that came from the awakening? Chris did not like the snide comments the little girl was throwing at her and was very tempted to try and threw some back, but then again that would be a stupid thing to do in this situation.

Instead Chris simply nodded and lowered herself down onto her knees so that the apparently not so young child could attend to her shoulder, after seeing her send Ember sailing away Chris had almost no doubts that the child had the power to heal her but it was just the skill that Chris had her worries about.

“After you’ve finished I can zip us both straight over there and you can help try and take down the shield.” Chris suggested. “There aren’t many of us left and if this exercise goes on any longer we’re going to lose.”

Strix had gotten fairly fed up with Pariah's training exercise and decided that since his fellow non-powered hero was willing to go to lengths as serious as sending an invisible operative with live rounds after him, he might as well go all out as well and make this a last push now that he was free. Using a mix of running and quick pull-forward motions from his grapple-gun he charged into the fray. He opened with throwing a handful of explosive pellets directly at Bastion's barrier, but mixed a stun-pellet in with the bunch. Even if the force of the explosion combined with Plasmus and Redeye's stymied attacks didn't break through, unless the trainer had made the barrier opaque and soundproof the pellet would hopefully break her focus.

Next he lifted and swung off of the ground using a grapple-line while throwing twice as many freeze pellets at Extrusion as he had at Ember. He wanted to make the Elastic hero practically useless with cold contracting his molecules and figured that even if Ember could get to him and fire flames to counter the effect the sudden incredibly cold burst would still accomplish the goal long enough for Apogee to break free and finish the fight.

Finally as he completed the arc of his swing he launched himself through the air at Colossus. As he did so he pulled out a pair of stun guns and though he'd been hesitating to use such a level of force throughout the exercise, the vigilante turned them up to the second highest setting. While the giant trainer's size would certainly provide protection from any normal stun gun, Strix had customized this pair to be individually used on super-powerful foes. With both of them he was confident he could bring the giant down even if he grew further in size. Considering he was still quite upset at the recent threat of assassination and the defeat of the trainers was paramount, Strix did something similar to what Pariah did and fought dirty. Specifically he'd aimed his attack and its' accompanying electrically induced pain at the giant's groin..

Hot Rod

"Thanks for you help and thanks for the compliment, I wasn't expecting to have fans among the heroes" Hot Rod said half lying since he did kind of expect to be known. He gave a wave to the person and then took off at high speed towards the training room. He quickly entered the area and looked around getting a good look at the training session going on. His eyes spotted Rolling Girl and he recognized her, she was another speedster like him so it looked that this team at least had some proper taste in getting heroes with awesome powers. He quickly ran over to her while his body gave off the roaring sound of an extremely fast race car and he came to a halt next to her.

"Hay Rolling Girl, how's this training session going?" he asked with a smile as his cool sunglasses made him look laid back and cocky.

Gabriel

Gabriel was still injured and in pain when Locust decided to retreat from the battle and he wanted to chase after him but the monster's attacks had given him wounds that were made from evil entities and had injured him worse than regular wounds. When the monster got away Gabriel sheathed his sword and went about making sure that all of the hostages were safe and that the criminals were properly detained.

"Are you sure we should leave the police to handle finding the other villains that escaped? They could still be dangerous" he asked Rainmaker curious to hear her answer.

Blast Girl

The leafy bandage felt cool on Blast Girl's cut. It wasn't too deep or anything, so she was sure it'f be pretty quickly healed up when they got to the hall... she raised one hand and flashed the thumbs up to Rainmaker, grinning widely.

"Thanks!"

She began to follow after the heroine, glancing back at the tied villains and henchmen. Even if Locust got away, she felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing the various bad guys down for the count. They'd never be able to hurt or threaten anyone ever again, that was for sure! And the bad guys who got away, well, they'd get taken down for sure, that was inevitable! Justice would win out, every time!

---

Charlotte

Charlotte placed her palm above the wound, and nodded.

"That sounds good to me. If I can bypass those big lugs and bomb the shield we have a straight shot to get the hostages," she replied, before her focus returned to the injury. Healing magic, well, that wasn't too much of a struggle for her. Sure it required some medical knowledge and knowledge of the wound that you were trying to heal, but Charlotte got what she needed just from looking at it. It was a pretty nasty burn, but she could handle it. Besides, she'd weaved healing magic into her own body at this point, healing someone else wasn't that big of a challenge as long as she had a moment.

"May this flesh, so ruined, be restored," she said. It was a quick incantation designed for wounds that weren't severe enough to be fatal. The more severe an injury the longer an incantation, and the more focus, would be required. For this, well... as long as the spell worked properly, the flesh would begin to repair, knitting itself together. A cooling sensation would spread from the site of the repairing burn, soothing the fiery pain caused by the wound. "Unless our noble trainers stat moving the goalposts. Given their conduct so far, anything's possible."

Oh, hey. Someone obnoxiously loud had just appeared nearby and run right up to them. And asked one of the most completely stupid moron questions anyone could ever ask. Did he have eyes? Was his vision so obscured by those dumb sunglasses that he didn't see the burn Charlotte was healing?

"How do you think it's going, genius?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Or can you not tell a burn victim when you see one? I mean, given the volume of your entrance I can't say my hopes for your intelligence are very high."