Rift Hound - Maroni's Restaurant

Joshua was seeing stars, the blow stunning him to the point where he could barely focus. His sunglasses were gone, either knocked off his face or broken. He could make out shapes and forms around him but couldn't tell who was doing what around him, he didn't even know if his plan had worked of if the woman had been rescued! The only thing he could barely make out was a dark, towering figure stalking towards him, not knowing him to be the man he had just attacked.
Staggering to his feet, Joshua struggled to clear his head. Fear was starting to grip him now as he started to realise that he may not survive this encounter.

"Fuckin'... FUCK YOU!!!" he screamed, not his finest moment but he was still struggling to think. Throwing up his hands to protect himself as best he could he focused on where he assumed the approaching figure's feet were and opened his Pocket. Unfortunately his restraint was as clouded as his thoughts and he opened his Pocket as large as he could manage.

Hot Rod was glad to see that his punches were having some effect against the pyromaniac villain, but then to his surprise he saw his fist begin to go through the woman's flaming body. She must have made herself pure flames now, which made his job more difficult but he would think of something. The villain didn't give him much time to, because she started to surround him in a fiery blaze which would suck out the oxygen in the air. But thankfully the intense heat caused the sprinklers on the ceiling of the infirmary to come on and douse her with water. The sprinklers also made his flaming aura disappear but it didn't matter to Hot Rod, he was still fast and a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

"Pretty clever to turn into actual fire to try and make things harder for me, but I got some moves of my own" he said to her with a smile and then started to spin extremely fast. His high speed created a vortex which in turn would cause a vacuum that would suck away the oxygen giving the pyromaniac her power. As he kept spinning, the vortex got bigger until it took up a good portion of the room space on the area.

---

Ocean Warrior was taken by surprise with the sudden appearance of the nasty beast known as Locust, and he barely had enough time to react to the angry beast. The creature was able to knock Ocean Warrior over, but Finnix quickly recovered and got his pay back by putting nearly all of his power into punching Locust with a stone crushing punch. The force of the impact threw the monster off of him and into a wall. While the monster was a little bit away from Ocean Warrior, Fiinniz charged up a blast of super hot energy in his trident, that he was ready to fire at the creature if it did not surrender.

"Not again..." Light said as her recently patched up stomach now had another hole in it, but this time ti was at least smaller. "Seriously, first a hole in my stomach from the wind guy, burned by the fire lady, and now Ms. shadow decides to blast ANOTHER hole into me. Now I just need earth guy to knock my head off and my day will be complete." Light said as the sorcerer blasted a hole through Light's sternum. Rubbing the area with her hand until it stopped bleeding.

"Seriously..." Light said as the sprinkler system finally came on, pinning the Sorcerer with her left hand. Sonja then turned some water she had caught into some sort of powder, and blew it into the sorcerer's face. Light noticed a bit of it got on her hand as well, and then the burning sensation started. Slamming her right hand into the back of the sorcerer, Light waved her left hand in pain, trying to get rid of the burning sensation on her hand. "Seriously I'm getting tired of the burning. Ow Ow ow." She said, waving her hand much like a cartoon. And then Hot Rod decided to make a cyclone in the room, sucking at everything, and unintentionally pulling off Light's already damaged hand. While the burning sensation was gone, Now Light had no hand at all! "Come on!" She said in annoyance, grimacing at the missing hand.

The backup was finally rushing in, and Shifter choked out a short, happy laugh as her body shifted, jumping away from the ice blasts as she went. Many hands made light work, or at least gave the baddies more targets to shoot at. Something vaguely human took the place of the cheetah crawling under the tables as the shapeshifter neared the kid. Sharp, wide-set eyes assessed the situation. Villa and the gunmen were distracted, as was Locust. From Killshade's movements she guessed the icicle bitch wouldn't be blasting at her for long either. The civilian was safe thanks to the portal-guys efforts. She'd call him a genius if he hadn't gotten himself in trouble at the same time. Still, good job, moron!

Time to take down the kid - Belladonna, was it? People had a bad habit of underestimating anything that looked like a child. Shifter should know, as she'd tested that more than once. She wouldn't make the same mistake most would. There was no reason to hold back.

A hand reached for the girls legs, moving forward as fast as a snake striking it's prey, forming to something akin to a fanged tentacle as it neared it's target. If she was lucky, she'd be able to dig the sharp claws into the Belladonna's leg before dragging her under. Then there was only the need to choke her out. Or she could throw her at a wall, or just bash her head until she didn't move anymore. Honestly, she wasn't feeling all that picky at the moment.

The Lab

Sixgun's bullets pierced through the men's brains and they died on the spot, but not before their mutated bodies exploded in showers of acrid liquid that hit several men caused them to scream as they burned. Sixgun was lightly splattered by the liquid and on contact with his skin, it sizzled and turned it an angry red, a part of his cheek looking like it suffered a minor burn. Sixgun's last four bullets struck against Santana and now the thin and reedy dark wizard was breathing heavily, straining with the effort of firing his bursts while deflecting all of the incoming fire.

With a shout he fired off a wave of green energy, rolling over the surviving men. He didn't have the energy to directly affect all of them but he could take away their weapons. In their hands, their guns turned to pure plastic and were completely useless now. The Witchfinder stopped firing and he dropped his rifle in disgust, before retreating to retrieve a backup weapon. The only one left with a gun for the moment was Sixgun and a handful of men around him.

Suddenly a shadow appeared behind Santana. A knive flashed over Santana's neck and a voice whispered, "Die brujo." Santana snarled and touched the knife, rusting it into dust before snapping his head back and breaking La Sombra's noise. La Sombra staggered back and drew his pistol before discharging it at Santana. The bullets all fizzled into uselessness and Santana threw a misty blast at La Sombra who dodged to the side before shooting at him again. Santana's attention was completely occupied and La Sombra needed assistance.

Maroni's

Locust reeled back from the hit and snarled at Ocean Warrior. He spit a stream of goo at the Trident gumming it up before knocking it aside with a claw and slashing Ocean Warrior in the stomach, shrieking as his mandibles opened to take a bite out of his shoulder. Permafrost saw Shifter and was about to shoot again before the bullets thudded against her. She gasped and fell to the floor, out of the fight. Like any self-respecting villain she had worn body armor and it was the only thing that saved her life as consciousness left her.

Shifter's hands connected with Belladonna and the girl didn't react what happened was that Shifter suddenly felt a wave of fatigue as the energy drained from her body leaving her short of breath. Belladonna stood up and peeked under the table to see Shifter. She smiled and said, "I wish we could play but no time." She picked Shifter up by the hands and twirled her around before letting her go and sending Shifter flying over a faraway table. She hummed and sat back down to draw on the table.

Rift Hound's pocket opened wide and sent a table dropping into it along with Bishop. Bishop fell down briefly, outstretching his hand as Belladonna lifted a hand and a tendril of energy shot out grabbing him by the hand and pulling him out. Bishop side-stepped the portal and didn't move any closer. He elected to pick up a table-cloth and throw it at Rift Hound while sending the table itself at him as well.

Prison

In the infirmary, Hot Rod's vortex sucked away at the already waning flames and the woman's light dimmed before she stood in completely mortal form. She grimaced and pulled out a gun shooting indiscriminately, and grazing Hot Rod in the shoulder. The necromancer screamed as her face burned, and she began shooting dark energy bursts everywhere in panic. She hastily opened a portal and her accomplice took her chance, diving into the open portal and not looking back, the nercomancer herself stumbling and falling to the ground still screaming as the portal suddenly closed. The fires were now extinguished and the threat was over.

Rift Hound - Maroni's Restaurant

Joshua tried and failed to fully duck under the table, acting on instinct rather than intention. As he dropped to the floor the table struck his left shoulder and he heard sickening pop followed by a wave of nausea and what started to feel like a dull ache. His brain wasn't able to fully register it at that moment, but his shoulder had been dislocated. His vision was still hazy and the nausea that was washing over him wasn't helping either. To him, the stranger had seemed to just float out of his Pocket and he'd had no time to react.

Closing the Pocket he'd tried to use as a trap, Joshua fumbled around on the floor with his still functioning right arm looking for a weapon, his hand wrapping around what felt like a stick or discarded walking cane dropped by one of the hostages. Focusing on the object in his hand, Joshua dropped his physical form into his Pocket, becoming intangible whilst trying to extend the intangibility to his weapon. Luck, it seemed, was starting to turn in his favor as the object in his hand became intangible along with the young teleporter. Skirting backwards and lifting himself into a sitting position, Joshua prepared to swing his weapon at the approaching figure once he got close enough.

"Just. Shut. UP!!!"

Abaddon was nearing a frenzied state now. On top of being choked and sliced at by the Summoner's own tendrils, Abaddon was being seared by the heat from the freshly risen fiery copy of the gryphon. He HATED being burned, it probably hurt him a lot more than most other things that could be conjured up by magic or technology. Having fed only recently, he was more resilient to it than usual, but it still hurt like hell. Abaddon formed a blade from his arm and sliced off the tendril that was grasping his neck before sending a powerful wave of deterioative magic that pushed the skeletal and fiery gryphon away from him. Both became visibly affected by the counter attack with the skeleton beginning to crack and crumble (but still remaining mostly intact) and the fires of the fiery copy flickering and decreasing in their brightness. They both screeched and took on a more defensive role, circling both their master and Abaddon to wait for another attack.

Now normally, Abaddon would have taunted the Summoner a bit more. He did that to pretty much anyone he was in a heated confrontation with. Would he make some kind of witty remark about the guy's downgrading words? Maybe take a stab at him?
Actually no. Unfortunately he'd do none of thise things. Abaddon was pissed and so was the entity residing within him. Two "people" pissed at the same time and about the same things- being mocked and burned? Yeah, this wasn't going to be pretty.

"Fool. Perhaps you have been around longer than me, but I am one with a being that has lived for millennia longer than you have practiced your pathetic displays of magic."

The Summoner had regenerated his tendrils and now attacked Abaddon with him, only to have them painfully sliced off by Abaddon's wings and be charged at himself. Abaddon grabbed him by the throat and attempted to rip his windpipe out, but was stopped when the dark mage channeled a burst of magic through his left hand right in front of Abaddon's face. The monstrous visage faded temporarily, revealing his human one, but it slowly regenerated itself anyway. Abaddon hissed angrily.

"How weak."

Abaddon prepared to lunge for the man, only to have his path blocked by the fiery gryphon which now prepared to jump on him and incinerate him with its flames. Abaddon merely bared his fangs even more instead of backing down.

"Hiding behind your pathetic pet still? Begone!"

A literal wave of his claws, and a vortex of swirling devouring energy manifested itself abive the gryphon. It immediately began to "tear off" bits and pieces of the fiery body, causing it to screech in pain and attempt to flee. When it tried to though, the vortex pulled with enough magical force to hold it in place and continue its work of destroying the flaming monster.

Next up was the skeletal gryphon which flew at Abaddon from behind. Sensing this, Abaddon performed a backflip and latched on to its head before standing up and making a pulling motion with his arms. Once again, the glyphs appeared all over its body. Abaddon leapt down, still keeping tendrils attached, and used his downward force and strength to topple it and send it skidding towards the Summoner. Though he narrowly escaped, the skeleton wouldn't be so lucky. The arcane glyphs flashed as its spirit was pulled away from its bones along with the magical energy keeping it there, ensuring that the summoner had no way of reviving the skeleton into a proper and strong ally. Abaddon's second mouth opened wide as the spiritual energies flowed into him at the sme time the now lifeless bones were pulled towards the red vortex and destroyed. Abaddon looked towards the summoner angrily.

"I might not have been around as long as you have, but I certainly have destroyed many beings who have had more power over 'the Art' for more hundreds of years than you have! Now, YOU surrender, and I'll oblige to give you a quick death!"

Zaphkiel

The men were not so easily disposed of, it seemed, and the bullets continued to punch him endlessly... that is until they ran out of ammunition. A few tiny dents made themselves apparent on his golden armor, but ultimately it was nothing to be afraid of. He solidified his stance, preventing the hellfire from knocking him about slightly. The real problem here, of course, was the intangible entity that had so easily walked through his fist. Material attacks wouldn't work, it seemed.

Zaphkiel felt the pain, and while intense, knew very well that it was but a feeling notifying him of damage; the mechanical angel did not feel 'pain' in the common sense, detecting only indications that damage or danger is present upon his body. The fact that it was hurting him, however, was testament to the nature of Ghost's abilities. He was attacking Zaphkiel's very soul, slowly. The angel's weaponized arm glowed with a white aura that traveled along its length until it reached his arm. The rod that had been formed from his hands surged with energy suddenly, and Zaphkiel stepped aside before swinging the soul-imbued weapon into Ghost, hoping such an immaterial attack would be enough to harm the villain. There was the risk that the soul aspect of his weapon would simple fizzle in the presence of Ghost's form, but it was his best option, he felt. He would not call upon Heavenly aid just yet. Such attacks would surely bring great damage to the building he stood within.

As Zaphkiel's weapon swung through, either harming or harmlessly passing through Ghost, he swung his shield to bear against the oncoming, modified strike from Stalker. Much tougher than his armor, the shield took on the anti-supernatural weapons effortlessly, becoming scratched where they struck, but deflecting them with a sharp clang. Regardless of Ghost's fate upon being 'stricken', Zaphkiel resolved to deal with what he knew was vulnerable, lunging towards Stalker upon mighty wings. He stopped on one foot with his other raised, and kicked outward with it, his foot alone as big as her torso.

Fatigue hit her, and before she could react, Shifter was flying across the room, hitting the table at a bad angle hard. She couldn't do much more than curl up, a pained yelp, gasping as she tried to reorient herself. Her side felt badly bruised and her entire arm lit up with pain as she moved clenched her fist. Broken? She sure hoped not.

So she might have misjudged the kids powers. How could she expect the kid to have energy draining skin, though? Stupid metahuman abilities, you could never tell who did what.

Shifter sat up with a pained whine and checked her surroundings, only to see Bishop and Belladonna working together with ease. That was probably a good idea. Working together, instead of... whatever they were doing now. Sadly, the shapeshifter didn't care enough to tell the others that, even if she could. All she would do now was make sure that she'd survive this encounter. She refused to fight with a sprained arm when others could do it for her. Dragging herself to a safer place was a much better plan than dying.

Break Neck tackled the closest henchman sending the two of them crashing to the floor in a tangle of limbs, Break Neck resisted the urge to freeze with the sound of gun fire assaulting her ears, and dragged the stunned henchman into a quick roll to fire them off toward a wall. They didn’t get up.

But by that time Break Neck had already sped away leaving the double doors to the kitchens swinging merrily away behind her. The doors suddenly gained a few more holes in them. Taking rapid breaths Break Neck knew she probably had only a few seconds at the most before they came storming in here, guns blazing away ready to make her more aerodynamic. Back door? No covered in ice. The gun fire had ceased but she could hear them cheering towards the doors, they’d be in here any second now, Break necked wracked her mind for an idea. Anything, any silly idea just something to get her out of this alive.

A light bulb almost appeared above her head and Break Neck dashed back around the counter giving her a clear straight path to the kitchen doors. Malicious grins opened the doors, guns already poised and fingers primed to squeeze the triggers. With startled yelps the henchmen suddenly found themselves either on the floor or on the way to it by means of gravity as Break Neck shot out of the kitchen doors with force of a cannon ball.

There was an unhealthy crunch when Break Neck collided with the opposing wall. With legs sprawled in the air Break Neck dully wondered why the wall was trying to eat her? In such a position Break Neck was unable to move her head around so while her eyes did in a disorientated way she noticed a strange brown giant cat like thing beside her, while she didn’t remember them sending in a cat thing she did remember a Shifter and so Assumed (and hoped) that this was that person. As Break Neck became more aware of her surrounds so did she of the piercing ring in her eyes, the pounding of blood through her skull and a stabbing sensation in her chest. Breathing, she wasn’t breathing!

Opening her mouth Break Neck attempted to gulp down the much needed oxygen, but her lungs weren’t responding. Was it because of the position she was stuck in or simply the blunt force trauma her body had just endured? Either way Break Neck couldn’t breathe and she needed to get out of the wall now! She heaved and pushed against the wall trying to prise herself from its grip but to no avail. Face reddening Break Neck screamed in mute panic trying to catch the shifter attention praying that they would help her.

A quick smile escaped Killshade's lips as the bullets hit and knocked Permafrost out of the battle. One less villain to worry about, he turned his attention to look at the others, deciding where he would be able to help. Just as he moved his head, he watched Shifter get thrown across the room and impact hard. He dashed over to her, and crouched down, trying not to draw attention to the two of them.

"Lie down, look like you're out of the battle. If they don't think you're a threat, then they won't go after you, not when others are attacking them." He stated, then holstered his pistol as he drew his sword, turning himself back towards the battle, choosing who to go after. His eyes set on the large insect humanoid, Locust, who was currently giving Ocean Warrior a fit. Killshade paused, then dashed over, sword drawn. As he closed in, he swung it into the creature's stomach.

Hot Rod was glad to see his vortex strategy work, but he was very surprised when he saw Light's burned hand taken off by the power of his attack. He then felt a sharp pain in his shoulder when the pyromaniac pulled out a gun and tried to shoot wildly at him. Luckly he instantly reacted and came out of his spinning by running from side to side to dodge any of the stray bullets that the woman shot at him. Hot Rod then charged forward at supersonic speed and gave the pyromaniac a powerful punch to the gut. He then ran over to where Light's severed hand was and picked it up with a look of disgust on his face.

"Here, I hope your powers allow you to reattach it, and please remind me to wash my hands thoroughly when we get back to the base, that was rather gross" he said as he handed her the hand.

---

Ocean Warrior gave a grunt of pain as Locust knocked away his trident and then slashed him across the stomach. The creature then tried to take a chunk out of his shoulder with its mandibles and Ocean Warrior felt a very stinging pain as the monster bit into it. He quicklky though fast and transformed his head into the head of a great white shark. Ocean Warrior then paid Locust back and bit the beast on its arm, his extremely sharp teeth digging into the creature's flesh.

"You ever the seen the movie Jaws? well then you're about to get a first hand experiance of what a shark bite feels like!" he said as he continued to bite down on Locust's arm.

Apogee didn't hesitate to jump into action, smashing into the bad guys like a bad tempered hurricane with a bone to pick. Volt couldn't help but wince at the carnage she wrought amongst them, bones smashed, arms broke, faces rearranged, it was the sort of mess a bull in a china shop would be proud of. The men were picking themselves up now though, and starting to regroup. Wouldn't be long before they retired their assault rifles and broke out with the heavy gear, and even Apogee couldn't stand up to a sustained grenade assault, at least not without earning her self a bit of a kicking in the process. No, now was time to send in the second wave while the squaddies were still off-foot, but for some reason Emmanuel was hanging back, maybe he'd never faced men as well trained and armed as these, and was taking a moment to gear himself up to the task. Reckon yer gonna have tae do this ane yersell, Tommy-Boy. Like yer old Da always says, best to strike while the irons hot.

Volt threw himself down the corridor, snarling some inanity like a madman. Better snarling than greeting, ah reckon. He would have preferred to stay as far from those military sorts as possible, sniping them from afar. Enhanced strength, speed and durability was all well and good, but it stand up much under sustained fire from high powered rifles. The problem was that Apogee was good and tangled with the goons now, and any shot he fired off would run the risk of hitting her, and taking out their tank with an inadvertent stray shot was not part of his grand plan. So mixing it up old school was the only way forward.

The Lightning-Slinger had fought these types before, St George's Men-At-Arms had mostly been comprised of ex-army types who seemed to have no problems laying their hands on serious military hardware, and he'd discovered only one sure fire way of taking them down. Strike em' hard and strike em' fast, like an act of God. Like a lightning bolt. So it was for this reason that he smashed shoulder first into the back of one of the men taking aim at Apogee, the gun man knocked careening from his feet.

Volt didn't even spend the time it would take to watch the goon hit the floor before spinning on his heel, throwing a fist into the throat of a second foe, the blow hitting the man's unprotected neck like a meat hammer tenderising some steak, more luck than skill really. This gun man also hit the ground, but the rest of the goons were starting to realise that Apogee wasn't the most immediate threat now, three swinging to aim their rifles at the Lightning-Slinger. Volt never gave them a chance to fire before diving at them, arms outstretched to catch all three in his grasp. The four were borne to the ground in a confusion of tangled limbs, the Scotsman dimly aware that maybe he could say something funny and witty now to put the rest of the men off their guard. What his battle muddled mind settled for though, screaming it at the top of his lungs as he wrestled with his three foes, was neither funny nor witty, perhaps a touch stereotypical considering were he was from and definitely used in the wrong context seeing as he was trying to stop a prison riot.

“FREEEEEDOOOOOM!” He roared.

Yer a fecking eejit, Tommy-Boy. he thought to himself.

She slumped back on the floor. Killshade had such a great idea. Resting sounded wonderful. It wasn't like she'd be able to run off anyway, with the doors frozen shut. Shifter looked around to make sure that she was relatively safe... only to make eye-contact with a woman who was stuck inside the wall. One of the heroes, she recognized, though she didn't feel the need to remember her name. Damn. Shifter really wished that she hadn't noticed her. Now she was obligated to help her.

With a groan Shifter moved to get up. Her ribs stung and she had difficulty breathing, but at least she could move. She stayed low as she ran towards the woman, assessing the situation as she went. Seeing someone stuck inside a wall would have normally gotten a laugh out of the shapeshifter, but the woman wasn't breathing and was looking terribly panicked.

”Try to stay calm, beautiful,” she purred as she got closer, body forming into the woman from before. Her flinch of pain was quickly covered by a flirty, confident smirk. Damn, shapeshifting hurt like hell now.
”You'll be fine. I'll help you out,” Shifter let her good arm flatten before it stretched around the woman's chest and arms, speaking calmly as she did. Then she set her leg on the wall and pulled as hard as she could, grip firm, but not crushing.

She still felt the effects of Belladonna's powers, and her bruised side and inability to use her other arm lessened her strength even more. Everything would depend on how much force was needed to get the woman out. Shifter hoped she'd be successful soon, for both of their sakes.

With Apogee and Hi Voltage launching themselves into battle, it may seem a bit weird that Emmanuel, the pure blooded melee fighter, is hanging back out of the fray. Normally, you would be perfectly right. It is absolutely his style to leap into battle, dodging and weaving, taking people out willy nilly. However, he's not able to do quite that right of the bat this time. See, the dampening field is still up. Which means to get up to full speed and striking power, it takes him a second. So when Apogee and Volt leap past him, it's not him hanging back, oh no. Its him charging up.

Emmanuel crouches on the ground, classic Olympic runner style, and draws in a deep breath. As he does so, his scars begin to crackle with power. He decides to keep as much of his inner power stored as he can, and instead draws upon the power located in the prison, of which there is plenty. Behind him, power begins flickering heavily as tendrils of electricity, visible to even a normal human, flow into his back, filling his body with power. The lights in the corridor behind him go out completely, leaving it in darkness. Not like there's anyone back there to need it anyway. Crackling with golden lightning, Emmanuel shoots off into the room, yelling to hype himself up even more.

"Here comes the boom motherfuckers!" Breaking through the open doorway, Emmanuel slides to the left, his ridiculously high speed allowing him to make near instant maneuvers. As Apogee and Volt take out their fair share of baddies, Emmanuel takes his own. And this isn't like down in the prison yard. Full of power, Emmanuel holds nothing back. Well, almost nothing. He could go faster, but it'd hurt him. Bad.

The first thing Emmanuel goes for is whoever's aimed at Volt and Apogee. The most important thing in a place like this is teamwork, and with Volt on the ground wrestling, he's open to be shot full a lead. More than a few men have their rifles pointed at the Lightning Slinger, and Emmanuel takes care of them in his own fashion. Jolting behind them, Emmanuel takes his pointer and middle fingers, and shoves them into each man's shoulder, piercing the armor and skin as easily as the sharpest knife. Filling them with a hundred thousand volts or so, they go down, shaking from aftershock. No time to care about if he just gave a couple of men seizures though, he's got more business to take care of.

Jumping to the ceiling after those two, Emmanuel pulls off what he wanted to do earlier. Rebounding off, he flips and slams his foot into the head of another soldier, pounding him into the ground, cracking the floor beneath, electricity surging through the cracks and taking out another one of his friends. "You've been DUN DUN.....THUNDASTRUCK!" Emmanuel yells as he keeps dashing around the room, sweat evaporating off of him from the heat he puts off. If you were a better person, you'd be ashamed for that. It wasn't even particularly clever. The goons better start backing off now, because there is no largest threat here. Every one of the three heroes in here will put them down faster than they can blink. They've got no chance. In Emmanuel's opinion at least.

"Cool, they're down." Light said as she took her hand from Hot Rod, giving him a one armed hug in thanks with the arm where the missing hand was, reattaching the hand at the same time. Light spun a little as the sprinklers kept pouring down water, happy that all the fires were out and that it was, well, raining. She then noticed the necromancer laying on the ground, trying to scramble away from the group. Light walked over to her and picked her up by the collar, bringing her eyes to her sternum where the wound she had inflicted on Light earlier was almost fully healed.

Pulling her up so that her feet dangled, Light said. "So, which one of you orchestrated this breakout, and where can we find them? You can talk to me, or her." Light said, pointing at Sonja, who still had her bat in her hand. "Or you can talk to him. And I don't know if either of them are as nice as me." Light continued, pointing ovre to Hot Rod, who had a strange look on his face.

---

"Seriously, what is going ON in there? Someone come out on the street so I can do something. Gah, I've already thrown a few pies at passing birds, and that gets old quick!" MC said, annoyed at how long it was taking everyone in the restaurant to take down the ward. "I mean, at this point, I'd probably be better off charging a chaos spell and blasting that barrier wide open or something!" He said, mulling it over to himself.

SONJA

Sonja quickly threw the vinegar in the woman's face, the acid cancelling out the base of the lye and stopping the burning chemical reaction. Doubtless the necromancer still hurt like hell, though. She was going to have some serious scars afterwards. Crap, did I just create a recurring villain for myself? Sonja wondered.

She twisted the woman's arms behind her back and snapped handcuffs over her wrists. True, against an experienced sorcerer that would only buy a few seconds at most. But that might make all the difference. "Now, look, I'm going to ask nicely this first time," Sonja said to the necromancer. "Polite and civil. So, if you don't mind, I'd really like to know who orchestrated this outbreak, and additionally, it'd be great if you could also tell me how to take down this dampening field. There, I asked nicely. You guys are my witnesses," Sonja said, looking over Killjoy, Light, and Hot Rod.

---

SIXGUN

"Tarnation!" he cursed as the acidic goop splashed his cheek. He tried to wipe it off with the sleeve of his blazer, cringed as the cream-colored seersucker began to dissolve as well. Tearing off the jacket, he threw it to the ground, cringing from the pain in his face. Move past it. Keep going. Father Ochoa would say that pain was only a test. It was temporary. He took stock. La Sombra had come up behind Santana, tried to cut his throat. Would've worked if he had been a touch faster.

La Sombra had shown some guts coming after Santana like that. More than anything, Ben respected guts. A man like that would've been useful in his gang, years and years ago. Ben decided right then that if La Sombra was to die in the course of this operation, it would be by his hand. A test of skill against skill, between gentlemen. Not like this.

He stepped forwards. The Mexican assassin had proven that it was possible to get close to Santana if he didn't see you coming, but he had thrown away his surprise with a witty remark and reaching into the man's field of vision. Sixgun didn't make that mistake. He simply got as close as he could behind the occupied alchemist, raised his pistol to the back of the man's head, and fired.

The Lab

The final bullet cracked in the air and it rusted away almost to nothing, a tiny fleck of the bullet still accelerating at high speeds into Santana's head. There was a spurt of blood and Santana fell to the ground, La Sombra looking Sixgun in the eye and nodding. Santana faced the ceiling and amazingly he was still alive if barely. With the last of his reserves he reached into the innate magic within himself and prepared his death curse. He gurgled, his voice for a moment booming, "SUFFER" then his life drained away as a wave of noxious yellow energy washed over La Sombra and Sixgun, passing over all the men that remained and continuing beyond before it dissipated.

After that nothing else happened and the door of the lab stood open. Santana's body was empty of life and ripe for some opportunistic looting. And no doubt Legion's potion lab would hold valuable secrets for Sixgun's mission and perhaps other items of interest.

Maroni's

Upstairs Zaphkiel's immaterial attack was enough to affect Ghost. The man cried out in pain as he was suddenly launched across the room, his intangible form flying through the brick wall. Coincidentally, his ghostly form flew out the building right in MC's line of sight. Stalker crouched as Zaphkiel flew towards her. If he hit her it was bad news. But only if he hit her. With metahuman reflexes and agility she dodged the heavy blow and jumped to the side, she sprung off a nearby table and drew another pair of iron blades and cried out as she slashed Zaphkiel across his face and torso. She landed on his outstretched leg and flipped to land on his mighty shoulders, behind his head. Her iron blades flashed as she brought them down at Zaphkiel.

Locust snarled and keened, his bitten arm bleeding black. He cried out as he spit on Ocean Warrior with his green saliva. Immediately Ocean Warrior felt enormous pain as the corrosive spittle burned the skin of his torso and shoulders, his inhumanly dense skin the only thing keeping it from being melted entirely as it burned and sizzled. Locust slashed Ocean Warrior across the arm and was about to strike again when Killshade struck. His sword cut into the chitin and made Locust grunt in pain. Unfortunately it was now stuck in his chitinous plates. Locust stared at Killshade before slapping him over a nearby table. Locust groaned as blood continued to trickle down his arm and he turned towards Ocean Warrior to slash at his other arm.

Across the room Shifter managed to pull out Break Neck and the woman fell to the floor, finally able to take in air. Their victory was short-lived however when a half-dozen or so surviving henchmen stood in front of them with weapons drawn. Around the room hostages fell to the floor and tried to hide as the heroes fought, Villa and Pariah still engaged in a shoot-out. Bishop knocked over an empty table and stared down at Rift Hound, "You get one chance to surrender hero. That's it." His eyes flashed red as he snarled. Flasher reappeared again and grabbed another gaggle or Marconi's extended family in the chaos, now more than half of the mob bosses family were gone.

Prison

The summoner looked down his noise at Abaddon, tendrils wrapping around him, "Foolish boy. A simpleton playing with powers he does not understand." Suddenly Abaddon was wracked with pain, his stomach and guts seeming to enflame as something burned inside him. The man laughed darkly, "You took in my power. Except it was the power of a live construct. You gave me a connection right to you. It couldn't have been much worse unless you gave me your True Name." The burning sensation intensified as the power twisted inside him and then suddenly red wisps of smoke burst out of his nose, mouth, and ears, holes opening up in his abdomen as the smoke went to the Summoner.

The man smiled in contentment as the red smoke washed over him and flowed into his very skin. He breathed deeply, "Ah. How invigorating." Abaddon suddenly felt weak with fatigue, the numbing exhaustion battling with the fading agony. The battle raged on around them until suddenly all of the undead creatures stopped moving with purpose. They either stayed in place unmoving or began attacking anyone indiscriminately. The tide was turning as the assembled forces began to cut down the beasts even more.

The man's smile faded and he shook his head, "How unfortunate. It seems as if there was a kink in the plan. Oh well. I suppose I must take my leave. Remember this moment, boy. The moment where I had you beaten and broken. The moment where I spared your life. Next time you won't be so lucky." A red portal appeared in the air and he stepped halfway in before pausing. With a casual wave of his hand he sent a fireball at Abaddon and stepped inside. The next moment he was gone.

Inside the infirmary the necromancer groaned as her control over her minions was lost, the life energy she stole fading away in the air. She gasped and said, "If I say anything to you, I'm as good as dead. Legion will not tolerate it. You know who was behind this but no more. Unless I can have certain assurances, I will not talk. I want protection. I want accommodations. If they are given I will speak of all I can. Otherwise I refuse." Her voice was now very calm and measured, a suggestion of a New England accent. The woman had pale skin, so pale that her veins could be seen, as blue as her eyes and just as lifeless. Her head was completely shaved.

Apogee cried out, "Really you guys?" She punched a man across the room and into a brick wall, as the three men struggled under Volt. Volt's earlier targets were slumped on the floor but these men fought, some pushing and wrestling against him while they drew knives of pistols grunting as they tried to angle them to strike Volt. Flashbolt's assault was devastating and now no more than four men remained standing. One man drew a strange looking device at pointed it at Apogee, it resembled a wand except it was matte black and metal. A red light popped on the tip of the "wand" and suddenly Apogee screamed, grasping her ears as they started to bleed her exclamations of pain cracking the ceiling, floor, and walls. One of the remainders lifted a large-barreled and blocky gun and fired, a blob of sticky white goo hitting Flashbolt in the chest and sticking him to the wall, pinning his limbs down as the other two leveled assault rifles at his head.

Rift Hound - Maroni's Restaurant

"Why? So you can kill me on my knees?" Joshua replied as the figure loomed over him. His vision was beginning to clear enough that he guessed his attacker was close enough swing his intangible weapon at him. Swinging the item, Joshua knew the blow looked weak. Even if the weapon still had physical form it wouldn't have done more than bounce harmlessly off Bishop. Fortunately for Joshua though, it didn't have physical form.
The moment the weapon seemed to make make 'contact', Joshua retrieved his tangibility from his Pocket, hoping to lodge the item in his attacker while praying that his blurred vision hadn't skewed his aim. At the same time he opened a small portal beneath him whilst focusing on a point in the ceiling behind Bishop where several gunmen seemed to be gathered underneath.

"And I lied about being with the League." He said, as fell through the portal, landing with a thud as he fell on top of one of the gunmen that had surrounded Shifter and Break Neck. Immediately, he started grappling with his still-functioning right hand, hoping to wrestle the gun from the stunned henchman.

Hi-Voltage

Anyone watching Volt's fight with the three gunmen would be hard pressed to describe what was actually happening, the sheer chaos of the grudge match defying usual descriptive terms. The Lightning-Slinger was slamming his elbow repeatedly into what could have been a man's stomach when a stray fist smashed into his nose, cracking his goggle's in the process. The Scot hardly had time to spare on thinking about that though as one of the men he was grappling with pulled drew a knife from his belt, Volt's free hand shot out to grab at the mans wrist. Down at his legs one of the goons was reaching out, grasping at a dropped rifle. Lacking any other avenues of halting him, Volt wrapped his leg and ankle around the mans throat, in a move you'd never see in UFC. It was in this odd position, desperately trying to elbow one man in unconsciousness while grappling with a knife and trying to choke a third man with his foot when Volt heard Flashbolt yell his battle cry.

"Can ye believe thon guy?" he muttered through gritted teeth. It was more an exclamation to himself, but the goon with the knife looked at him and said huh? Strange sorta response in the middle of a fight, but Volt had come to find people do weird stuff when they're trying to kill each other. Might as well explain maself.

"Well, see, ah can handle another Lightning gudge on tha League, ah mean it wid be big headed of me tae think I'd be the only ane. But for him tae make bad jokes an quote AC/DC mid fight in all, thons just a Touch to Much!" Volt wasn't sure if anyone would get the joke, but wasn't like he was going to give his enemy-come-therapist a chance to puzzle it out. His eyes lit up like blue powder kegs as he generated a high voltage shock that travelled between him and his three antagonists, sending the gunmen into spasmodic shocks. Shoulda done that at tha start of the fight Tommy-Boy. The Lighting-Slinger picked himself back up quick, just in time to see Apogee throwing her fit and Flashbolt getting gunked up by some type of glue gun.

It was a grim situation, and no mistake. Emmanuel was lined up and cushty, ready for his own personal firing squad, while Apogee looked like her brains were being scrambled by whatever it was that black device was doing. Gotta move fast, ma conscience is heavy enough wi one friends death. Don't wanna be adding to thon. The Lightning-Slinger spun and fired, the kind of neat pirouette that would send a ballerina green with envy.

Three shots. Three targets. The black wand, and the two men aiming rifles at Emmanuel.

Morningstar

"Well, that escalated quickly." Morningstar tried to emulate Ron Burgandy from Anchor-man, before realising that Sixgun had probably never even seen that movie.

"Regardless, that was some smooth shooting cowboy. Don't think any of them are going to doubt you're credentials now, or oppose you joining the Outfit. Couple that with one less dangerous meta human in the world, and I think we can label this as a good days work. "

Joe Black

"Would you stop shouting. Fuck sake, I'm the only one here, and I'm standing right next to ya!" Came a deep, irritated voice at MC's side. The speaker was none other than Joe Black, infamous scumbag and general pain in the ass. Before heading for the prison Destiny had commanded Black to join Pariah, and help him in every way. A bit of a bastard for Joe, as he would have rathered to stay home and watch Jerry Springer, but it was actually a blessing in disguise. Joe couldn't even enter the building, due to the magical ward that was up, much less actually do anything to help. As long as that ward stood then all Joe had to do was stand on the street corner and wait, simultaneously fulfilling Destiny's orders and his own obligation to laziness. Now all he had to do was put up with the dumb shit, freakazoid looking thing that was also left out side Maroni's.

The zombie reached into his denim jackets pocket to pull out a marlboro red and his zippo lighter. He lit up, taking a deep draw before turning to face the ugly wizard thing.

"And if you break that ward, and I have to go in, then I am kick your teeth through the back of yer head. I shit you not." It was at that moment a Ghost flew out of Maroni's screaming, Joe giving the image no more than the briefest of contemptuous glances, as if he seen that sort of thing all the time.

"There you are, go play with Casper over there and quit annoying me."