Aster created a shield of Hard Light that caused the pull of Dean/Jenni's telekensis to weaken to the point where it did little damage, as well as burnt Light as she tried to grab him, before counterattacking by creating six glowing swords and launching them at the Heroes, following that up with a hammer made of glowing energy, which would strike at the direction that Dean/Jenni would evade. Not merely that, but he also converted the dead bodies around him into hard light and absorbed them, increasing his power and energy all the more...

> Aster created a shield of Hard Light that caused the pull of Dean/Jenni's telekensis to weaken to the point where it did little damage, as well as burnt Light as she tried to grab him, before counterattacking by creating six glowing swords and launching them at the Heroes, following that up with a hammer made of glowing energy, which would strike at the direction that Dean/Jenni would evade. Not merely that, but he also converted the dead bodies around him into hard light and absorbed them, increasing his power and energy all the more... > Dean evaded the glowing swords coming his way,He used his powers to bring Light beside her to a safe distance away form him the faker."Do you have a plan to...kill this fucker..." He said in a distorted deep voice to Light thinking of a plan thinking of a way to dispose of the Fake Aster.While all of this was going on Dean's head was throbbing and his sister was so close to coming out but he was suppressing this but her sister was wanting this moment to escape.

He was starting to get almost bored standing on the top of a building to make sure there was no sign of criminal activity from metahumans, then the alarm on his gauntlet went off which meant that there was trouble. He pressed on the screen icon to answer the alert. "I have gotten your alert, report?" Adam asked. "Agent Weapon Master, we are receiving information about a conflict going on at the ruins of a brothel, underneath that brothel is an FBI safe-house which has come under attack from battle drones. Your orders are to engage any hostile target that is attacking the safe-house and eliminate them if necessary. Stop them at all costs, command out" the voice coming out of his device said and then the communication ended. On the screen of his gauntlet were GPS directions to the brothel and he was glad to see that it wasn't far from where he was. "Surrender now or I will be forced to use deadly force scum" he said to Fake Angel in a commanding voice. He took deep breath and was ready for action. He began to use his excellent parkour skills to leap from the roof of one building to another showing incredible athleticism and acrobatics. It felt good to try out his agility in a non-artificial environment and he liked the feel of the night air blowing by him as he ran. Not long after he started running the brothel came into view, it was a ruin and even from where he was on top of a building he could almost see and hear a conflict going on from within. He jumped from the building and used his rocket boots to slow his descent and landed smoothly. He created a glowing blue energy saber which was in the shape of pirate sword, and he quickly entered the building. Adam heard the sound of a conflict and he ran towards the sounds. He soon came upon several metahumans fighting as well as the battle drones. Adam recognized a couple and he decided to attack Fake Angel. He created an energy pistol and began firing energy bullets at the metahuman. Unlike real bullets, Adam made these energy bullets non-lethal to see if he could stop this villain without killing him, but they would still pack a powerful punch and send him stumbling back for several feet if they hit.

((Collab Post between NarcissisticPotato and Letter Bee)) Carrying herself with a gentle hum, Scarlett crossed the square facing the looming Stucorp building. Her violet hair had been carefully organised so it was pinned up and looking a lot more professional than before-hand and she had traversed deep into her wardrobe to find an outfit that would create a more business-woman look so getting through the reception would be easier. The appearance paired with the confidence made her fit into the part very well and we she strode into the reception with a hint of a smile, she approached the receptionist without a second-thought. "Hello. An appointment for Miss Evermore." She told the woman, giving her a quick nod to show it was official. The receptionist hurried about her job - she seemed to like it, strangely enough. "Ah yes, Miss Evermore. If you just go to the elevator and go to floor 38, you should be guided to where you need to go!" After thanking her, Scarlett kept her educated posture and approached the elevator, waiting for it to arrive and carry her up to where she needed to go. After she had joined the small crowd of people inside who parted and left a sizeable gap for her, she ascended up through the wolf's den. Finally getting off on the right floor, she was guided to a waiting room where she did just that for almost ten minutes. When she eventually was instructed to go on into Ghost's office she felt surprisingly relieved - she could finally get to work. "Who's there and why do you want to see me?" Ghost said coldly, the paranoia in his freezing tone evident. "A Miss Evermore, sir." His secretary answered on the phone, just out of ear-shot of Scarlett. "It doesn't say much on the system here but it seems she was contracted upon Mr Stuart's instructions." The small woman shrugged a little and when she looked back in on Scarlett, she smiled a little. "Real pretty, she is!" They had all tried in some sort of way to try and normalise Ghost but it was nigh-on impossible! "I see," spoke the Metahuman, still cold, but less so now. "So, Ms. Evermore, what are you here to talk about, if Gary is trying to set us up on a date?" At this point, Scarlett had already entered the room and took a seat in front of him after shaking his hand. After letting out a soft chuckle, she shook her head, her curls bouncing as as he called down her powers, lacing her next few words with subconscious power. "Unfortunately not but I would definitely clear my calender if I thought it was the case. No, sir, I'm here to talk about mind-security. Mr Stuart has informed me that he has made robots to do that but his employees need these skills as well. That's where I come in." "I see," spoke Ghost with a note of confidence. "That...is actually a good idea. Are you a Meta?" She could already see him loosening up with her, which was good! "Yes. I'm a private contractor but I mainly work with very rich businesspeople or the government. I go into your mind and help you identify when there's an alien consciousness in there. A very tricky task but I'm sure a man of your calibre should pick it up in no time!" Her words were encouraging, edging him closer to agreeing flat-out with her. She was occasionally throwing in a few compliments as well, he would warm up to her eventually. A flash of paranoia showed in Ghost's face, but the man suppressed it; the lure of a new weapon - or defense - in his arsenal was too good to refuse. And so, he said: "All right; do I have to lie down?" "No no! Just relax back into your chair." She murmured as she got to her feet and pulled her coat off before moving around to him. Slowly kneeling down so she was on eye-level with him, she made sure to not make any sudden movements like she was working with children. "Sleep." She whispered, her hand passing down past his cheek as she loaded her words with unconscious commands. As Ghost slept, he remembered the old days, of being the only Albino kid in a school filled with...non-albinos. Obviously, this made him unpopular, with people of every color bullying him with beatings, spitballs, acts of harassment, and even being flashed with gestures and amulets against the 'Evil Eye', a phenomenon that made him skeptical towards 'superstitions' in general. It was a sad time, but eventually, he managed to get into college, where people were marginally kinder, and then into StuCorp, then run by Gary's father, Martin Stuart. Then, Metahuman Powers just had to ruin, and enhance, his life. When his 'abilities' surfaced, he faced ostracism from everyone at work, ostracism that only stopped when Gary, now heading the company, promoted him to be part of his new 'Superhero' team. For that, he was greateful, eternally grateful... A short while later, Scarlett was splayed out over his desk with a small smirk plastered to her face - no job was too big, apparently. The blinds were closed and the door was locked so she had room to grab some information from Ghost. By this point, he was completely wrapped around her little finger and would more than likely answer most questions she put forward to him. With other, more difficult questions, she would have to be more convincing. "So. I'm sure Stucorp has some secrets that they wouldn't want anyone to know about; care to share?" She appeared almost innocent, nibbling down on the edge of her finger. "Well," spoke Ghost, "there's the Power Armor they're building. In Gary's own words, the 'Adult' model is only minimally computerized, having basic filters and sensors, as well as communications. However, aside from that, its ability to interface with other devices is, well...basic." She quirked an eyebrow at that - she had already called up Ruby and the technopath was currently recording every piece of information Ghost supplied them with. "That is pretty good information. I'm sure you must have something else though... right?" She smiled softly and sat up, sitting on the edge of the table as she settled her feet in his lap. "It would be *very* helpful for me." "A 'Child' model, with somewhat more computerization, allowing it to operate a cloaking device, as well as more advanced scanners, filters, and sensors, as well as communications. But its most powerful capability is that it can amplify one type of Metahuman power, the ability to wield any tool in existence." "I see..." She murmured, frowning in thought despite not actually thinking about it at all - why should she when Ruby was already elaborating on the phone. "Cedric. He's this young meta that can use any tools like an expert. A bit stuck-up; thinks he could get past a technopath with some computers. Keep it up, Scarlett." Scarlett smiled softly and got to her feet, slowly circling Ghost like a lioness closing in on a wounded animal. "So, is there any limitations to this suit? For the young master Cedric, correct?" "Yes -" responded Ghost, before three people came in, their left hands covered in blood. Before Scarlet can react, two were firing what seemed to be Paintball guns at Ghost; when they hit, it was evident that what they were shooting was blood, too. The female Meta would then remember that one of Gary's crew was called Bloodrune, whose powers were that anything splashed with his blood is immune to Superpowers. And with that, Ghost snapped out of it, roaring in rage. "You fucking little bitch!" he shouted, his hands glowing with green energy. Meanwhile, one of the three figures, a redhead, responded: "Ruby was a special case. After her, I do background checks on anyone trying to enter [i]my[/i] company without permission, and even those that do. Besides, Ruby was a fine conversationalist, you're not. Plantmaster," he spoke to someone clad in tweed clothes, "do your thing." The tweed-clothed man then tossed out several seeds, which then grew into vines that tried to engulf Scarlett. Scarlett was confused at first, then a tad embarrassed as she realised she wasn't wearing much but the fear that overtook her when Ghost was set free was something new. He was terrifying, like a wild animal with that look in his eyes - of course, Scarlett was no damsel that was about to roll over and be captured. Lifting the small phone, she threw it at the far window and Ruby must have got the message as it self-destructed. Turning, Scarlett lost focus for a millisecond as she faded into dreamspace, constructing something snappy to even the playing fields. She didn't know Bloodrune's powers so for all she knew, the Dreamstate would work like normal. Quickly coming back to focus, she nimbly hopped back two vines and turned, sending her hungry mind screaming forward and trying to drag at their consciousness. She was powerful and definitely lived up to the rumours about her as she swayed her enemies for a moment but it wasn't enough. "This is hardly fair. So, I'll take you on first Ghost." She reasoned that maybe their sense of fair-play would help her out. Probably not but she still bended down into a fighting stance as she dodged another vine. Ghost launched two beams of green energy at Scarlet, beams set to 'stun', trying to herd her into one of the room's corners. He was also floating, in order to derail any attempts by Scarlett to take him off his footing. Not merely that, but should she try and counterattack, he had some judo moves ready... The two beams of energy did precisely what Ghost intended for them to do - she was forced to slide into the corner in order to avoid them but that didn't mean she was completely defeated. He might have known Judo but she had mastered Judo long ago, along with a whole host of other martial arts. Advancing hard, her blows were light, intending for him to dodge a particular direction before she landed a heavy kick and slid back again, preparing for a counterattack. Her opponent rolled to his feet, before he fired a series of short, quick bursts of light at her feet to distrupt her footwork, before shifting to an attack on her legs themselves. Then, he would turn intangible and sink into the floor, before reappearing at the cieling and literally dropping on her. Scarlett was quick but he was pretty damn fast as well. Forced to dodge the shots aimed at her feet, she was backed into a corner where her footwork was limited. Focusing down on him, she tried to decide what he was doing but ultimately, she wasn't very prepared for when he fell on top of her. "This will be the only time you'll hear this from a girl but you were a lot nicer when you were staring at my chest." She growled, attempting to raise her knee and hit him where it hurt as he pinned her down. Ghost was wearing a codpiece, thankfully for him. He then spoke one word: "Surrender." "Fuck you." She spluttered, her breathing limited by his heavy presence atop her. Eventually though, due to a lack of air, she pinched hard on his leg and settled back a little, her head falling to the side to hide the darkness of defeat in them. Scarlett didn't take defeat very well. "Sorry," spoke Gary as he pulled out two manacles from a portal, and bound the woman's wrists with them, before having Ghost get off her and, getting a proper gun from his holster, pointed it at Scarlet's head, before saying: "Look, I'm an honest, trusting man who gives second chances away like candy. I understand too that I'm somewhat naive, and that I mostly skate by on innately superior products. However, threaten one of my employees and I have no compunction of making the alternative to a second chance a bullet to the brainpan. Do you get me?" Her eyes fell away - she hadn't lost this hard in quite a while and although she could see a deep sense of anger and shame burning in Ghost's eyes, she was now in enemy hands. Of course, that didn't mean she just ignored Gary Stuart the entire time. Eventually, she looked up to meet him with small tears shining in her eyes. Her odd giddiness from earlier was gone, replaced by a deep loathing of these men. "You're not going to shoot me, Gary Stuart, in fact you're going to treat me like a princess and hope that when we do go visit daddy, he doesn't rip your beating heart from your body. I have seen your dreams, do not insult me with pitiful lies." Turning, she eyed Ghost for a second before smirking a little, she wasn't defeated just yet. "Pity. Your guilt will gnaw at you until you're nothing but a shallow husk. You don't know what you told me and I'm never going to tell them." "Doesn't matter," spoke Ghost, "we've got you, and that's all that matters."

**Outside LA** At an old airbase stood a man in the current Unite States Army camo uniform. He wore three stars and stood before a group of the press. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen I am General Brian Claremont, I am running the operation in the city of Los Angeles to restore the order of law. At 21:00 hours last night elements of the United States Armed Forces entered Los Anglese. In accordance with the declaration of martial law on the city I have the following statement." The general cleared his throat. "First all persons caught outside after curfew will be detained. Second anyone committing criminal action will be shot. Any violent metahuman will be shot. Any attempt to commit an act of terror will be responded to appropriately. If those that commit said actions commit any actions against the US Armed Forces we will come down hard on said attackers. This is to be temporary and we wish to apologize to the people of Los Anglese for the inconvenience this brings upon them. Also all public schools will be closed for three days to prevent attacks against our children. Two of the general's aides prop up a picture the FBI bomber. "I am authorized to reveal that the government will offer 25 million dollars to any citizen that brings in this person, dead or alive. We will confirms if said person is the FBI bomber. That is all no questions. General Claremont walked off the stage and ignored the press asking every question under the sun. Of course what the press didn't know and even few in government knew was of the last line of defense. the kinetic attack weapon codenamed Thor. Only a few companies knew of it (Taylor nor Stu were involved in it's development) It's deployment was quiet and the system relied on the fact that since it was not a weapon of mass destruction (Nuclear, biological, chemical) it was allowed under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. But many people would object to such a system. The DoD had a total of twenty Thor units now in orbit. Each unit contained twenty rods of tungsten and concrete shielded to enter the atmosphere and cause mass destruction. The brains at DoD figured that if there was a massive meta attack five rods would wipe out most the metas in an area. Claremont knew there would be lots of civilian casualties if it were used but this was a war and innocents died in war. The power of each Thor unit meant only one was needed over Los Anglese, compared to four of North Korea at all times. At least Claremont knew that if the enemy attacked the government would be the winning side. Of course the government announcement led to the headlines like: **US GOV OFFERS 25 MIL FOR BOMBER CORPSE** **MILITARY TO FIGHT VIOLENT METAS** **MARTIAL IN LA BEGINS!**

"We're supposed to kill him? I thought we were supposed to capture him!" Light said, dodging the swords that were thrown at her direction. "If you want him dead, pretty sure a hi explosive will do the job." Light said with a short manical laugh as she pulled out the bundle of explosives she had hidden up her dress. Pushing a comically large red button, a timer started to count down on the large bundle starting at 5 seconds. Not wasting time, Light leaped at the fallen angel while he was beginning to absorb the energy from the nearby dead bodies as the short fuse counted down to 4, then 3, then 2, and finally 1 as she got incredibly close to the meta. As she got right next to him, the explosive went off, possibly catching the fallen angel inside the explosion and turning Light to a black figure of herself, which slowly fell into an ash pile with her eyes landing on top. She held this pose for a good moment before she popped back to normal, looking a bit tired. "Tada?" Light said as the smoke cleared, revealing the fate of the hostile meta.

Aster's shield broke under the blasts of Weapon Master's energy pistol, allowing further bursts of energy to impact him. In response to this, the Fake Angel, bouncing back quickly from the non-lethal bursts, created an entire field of energy swords, and fired them all at the Military Meta. This, however, left him blind to what Dean and Light, the latter who launched herself at him, with several high explosives held in her hands. The explosion was deafening, but, at the end of it all...Aster Javian was still standing. However, two of his six wings had been torn off, and several large wounds had opened in his chest and stomach, all of which were bleeding rivers of blood, and one eye had been taken out, and was bleeding as well. It was clear that some damage had been done. Now, however, was his latest attack: two large pincers of hard light, coming towards Light and Dean...

"Fuck we do need him alive for questioning....damn it to hell then use a shield or something and distract him..." said to her using his telekinetic powers to move the sewer pipes below sending them flying behind the fake Aster,The pipes moving closer to him wrapped around his arms,legs to try to hold him down while he would be distracted by Light. "I hope this works brother...your in between the Mindscape....your so close to being part of us brother...let yourself go brother.." Jenni said in a soft whisper in his head but Dean slowly realizing what was going on shook his head,"No i will not become one of you...SHUT UP" He practically yelled shaking his head but would not worry about the pipes since it could be enough to take the faker down.

Adam knew that the super villain would not surrender, most of them never did and like always he would have to show even more force take this kind of criminal. He was surprised to see that Fake Angel could create hard-light constructs in a manner similar to how made his weapons with energy. He didn't have time to really look at the exact detail of the constructs because Fallen Angel launched several of them in his direction. The moment he saw the hard-light constructs, he made his gun disappear and create two energy sabers for one in each hand. Adam then activated his jetboots and they propelled him out of the way of the constructs and he defended a few more thanks to his duel wielding. But suddenly there was an explosion as one of the metahumans fighting against Fake Angel created a powerful explosion which was close enough to knock him to the ground. He was very annoyed and wondered what the hero was thing to use such a dangerous attack. Adam turned his attention back on Fake Angel and he went on the attack, coming at the villain with his wielding energy weapons.

###Alto's New Weapon - Part 1 of 3 _Darn._ Alto thought happily as he brought another handful of popcorn to his mouth. He opened wide as the mass of popcorn disappeared, his teeth grinding them into digestible pieces and his tongue savouring the rich buttery taste. His ears relished the soft crunch of the popcorn was crushed by his teeth, his right hand savouring the heat of yet another handful of popcorn. _I love popcorn._ He thought. He was currently in the StuCorp cafeteria, gleefully shovelling popcorn into his mouth from a commercial grade ice cream tub/bin thing. He was sure that the ice cream tub/bin wasn’t really meant for popcorn, but there weren’t really any kitchen staff around to tell him off as he abused the popcorn machine so it was probably fine. He was in StuCorp for the conference, seeing as he was also hired for the raid on Avalon, but he’d missed lunch because he was going to go have lunch after the conference. He hadn’t known it would take so long, and he hadn’t thought the sort-of FBI side of the conference would get cut off early leaving them sort of stranded a little. He’d stayed around a bit to listen to Gary’s talk about the hole in Avalon’s armour, which he thought wasn’t a bad idea, but Alto was reminded rather abruptly by his stomach that he needed food. He’d made his excuses and ran off to find some. It was as he was wandering about one of the cafeteria, that he stumbled upon the popcorn machine, and no kitchen staff in sight. Looking through the cupboards, he grabbed the biggest ice cream tub he could; looking through the pantry he grabbed a sizeable half full sack of corn kernels; and finally, from the fridge he grabbed a sizeable slab of butter for flavouring and set to work. Some amount of time had passed between his first use of the popcorn machine and now, and a few trial batches and a full tub of popcorn later he was sure he’d perfected the ratio of butter to kernels. He emptied the rest of the repurposed ice cream tub/bin into his eager mouth and then he went to pour more kernels into the machine. It was then that he heard the sound that would completely change his life. He heard sparks fly from the popcorn machine, and he heard a large bang as the popcorn machine’s lights flickered and turned off as if breathing its last. **”NO.”** Alto said aloud, as his ice cream tub fell from his hand. He peered closely at the machine, unflinching even as it gave off dangerous sparks. Tears threatened to well up in his eyes, as he tried to pry open the back of the machine to see what was wrong. **”I’m an engineer, I can fix this!”** He shouted in vain. But alas, it was not to be. As he saw the blackened mess that the internal machinery had become, he knew there was no hope. He could practically hear a piano playing in the background, a mournful requiem heralding the loss of an invaluable friend, an ally, a treasure. Why did it have to happen to him? Why had the world decided he of all people had to be alone? His only friend was gone. As the realization sunk in, he threw back his head to cry out in anguish and despair, for all the injustice the world had wrought upon him. Until he saw the other popcorn machine, that is. **”Oh, cool.”** Alto said as he tore the popcorn machine’s power plug from the wall and threw it into an empty corner of the kitchen with his left arm. He jumped up and skipped over to the new popcorn machine as the old one crashed noisily into the corner of the kitchen. He plugged the new machine in, poured some more corn kernels and soon the merry sounds of popping popcorn could be heard as Alto happily started to pour butter into the machine. Then he heard the other sound that would change his life forever. _**”Boot sequence initialized.”**_ The voice was sounded like it was speaking directly into his mind, as if there was another mind inside of his head that only just started thinking. _**”Unknown species detected, adapting defensive protocols, adapting personality sequence, adapting…”**_ _Is a computer booting up in my head?_ He thought. _Wait! My popcorn!_ Looking back at his popcorn quickly, he saw that it was still in the midst of popping. _**”Establishing organism uplink, ERROR, no other organisms detected…”**_ _Hold up,_ Alto thought, _What is starting up here and why aren’t there any others?_ Then he looked down at his left arm, currently clutching his ice cream tub, and saw that the glowing blue circle thing on the back of his hand was glowing brighter for some reason. Then he remembered, the message he had received a year and a half ago, when he’d gotten the Bio-Weapon. It had been the same voice, telling him he’d gone into hibernation. Now it seems, he’d waken up. _**”Boot sequence complete. Greetings, Emperor.”**_ The voice finished. Many questions quickly shot into Alto’s mind, such as, _I’m an Emperor? The Bio-Weapon woke up? The Bio-Weapon thinks like a robot? Is my popcorn done?_ But ultimately, Alto’s ‘business mode’ took over and all of the questions where overwritten by one realization. _Finally, some answers._ ((TL;DR, Alto misses lunch, then finds a popcorn machine, breaks the popcorn machine, gets emotional over the popcorn machine, and then the Bio-Weapon wakes up.))

((Collab between NarcissisticPotato and QuietThinker)) The morning after the fiasco with Isabella was just as uneventful as the day before. The battle-droids needed fixed up and ready for combat within a week at the maximum so Ruby was spent trying to fix them up after idiotic engineers messed up. Again. Like the day before, she was under the constant supervision of her new 'bodyguard' who was alright in her books. She heard him sticking up for her when she left Isabella and him together so clearly, he wasn't too interested in falling under the bitch's powers of seduction. Of course, in a workshop where nearly everything was robotic, he was a bit useless. "Mark! See that thing that is shining blue and is totally not capable of blowing this place off the face of the Earth, give it to me!" Ruby demanded, turning and craning her neck to peer at him from above a robot that seemed to have a problem with its power core. Most would be a little resistant, handling such a fragile piece of equipment but Ruby could withstand the energy reeling from it. Mark blinked, unsure what their relationship had developed into. Was he her bodyguard or her assistant? He looked at the part in question and picked it up. As she said, it felt delicate. He wondered how she would react if he were to 'drop' it, before deciding against it. He wanted her to underestimate him, not believe he was useless. With a steady hand, he strode over and passed it up to Ruby as she straddled the metal monster. "Need anything else while you're up there?" He asked with a dash of tiredness. "Nope." She breathed quickly, stretching her hand out and grasping the power core. It only took a second for her to reveal herself but a second could be an awfully long time for someone who can spend an entire year in the space of a few seconds. Just as she reached down, her blond hair fell, exposing the nape of her neck and subsequently, exposing one of her carefully guarded secrets - a scar. Mark gave it a glance: it was small, a straight line lengthways across, but the positioning was curious. Time snapped back and her shirt didn't fare much better as it slid down, exposing a small amount of lower-back before she righted herself, a light blush coming to her cheeks. She could work on fusion power cores but she forgot the mystical presence of gravity, and Mark had already seen it. A cross at the base of her spine, and upon inspection, it was made by whatever made the mark on her neck. Or rather, whoever made the mark on her neck. He'd bet his boots that they were surgical scars and fact that they were incredibly small could mean a professional was involved. They were both around the spine, and the lower scar was particularly disturbing. Usually a single straight cut was all that was needed, but here there was an 'X'. He could only guess at what that meant, and he didn't like his guesses. Moreover, she was flushed upon exposing them, but he couldn't be sure that that wasn't from almost flashing her bra. Regardless, it was something he wasn't supposed to see. It would be best if he pretended he hadn't. In an attempt to try and drag the attention away from the scars she assumed he got a quick glance of, she tried to push it to a different subject. "So, why exactly do you work for Aperture?" It had been a while since anyone had asked him that. Mark gave her the short answer, as she gave him hers. "..We're both Metas: we know what the world thinks of us. We're change. No one likes change. Especially when they have no control over it. They either try to control it or they try to fight it, but ultimately its pointless to try. Aperture sees that. They.. embrace it." It was then that he noticed she had stopped listening. --- Later on in the day, Ruby had sent Mark out to go to the canteen and get some food for her. He was to answer to her every beck and call so why not make him her personal butler? While he was gone, she was monitoring the call with Scarlett. She gained quite a bit of information but from the sounds of it, Scarlett had been compromised. She knew the risks and she knew what to do so Ruby quickly instructed the device to self-destruct to cover any tracks. "Fuck!" She shouted loudly, not to anyone in particular - Scarlett was a valuable asset and Ruby should have known security would have been tight. Still, it was good to hear that bastard Ghost willing to give away any secret. Only a few seconds after destroying all communications with Scarlett, a message suddenly popped up on-screen: it was the intelligence reports that she had filtered through to her from the agencies that monitored these sorts of movements. Frowning, she opened it and read the contents. Some idiot called Battle Master apparently had arrived on-scene at LA on the side of the government. He sounded powerful, which was a little worrying but he didn't have any knowledge on what was happening so his risk wasn't too high. Ruby was just about to file it away before one more scroll brought her face-to-face with the meta in question. Her mind burned with the mark of recognition as her lungs contracted, making her feel like she was struggling to pull any air in. Her eyes widened, the rest of her body paralysed by the man displayed on the screen. Ruby's ears filled with buzzing, letting everything fade out completely and make her almost forger that she was apparently struggling to breathe. Her breaths were quick, coming out in short gasps as the technology around her blanked in startling confusion. In fact, the building fell into a temporary blackout as Ruby lost most of the control over her powers. *"Adam..."* Mark found her on the floor in the dark. She was hyperventillating and appeared delirious, a thick sweat dripping from her skin. With haste, he knelt and held her head. "What happened Ruby. Talk to me." Eventually, she took one last long gulp of air and her eyes, which had faded a little, returned to their usual stunning blue. After a few moments of soft breathing and looking around in confusion, she looked up at him with a frown. "What happened?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow. He replied immediately and without pause. "You sent me off to the canteen, the power went out and I came back to find you in semi-consciousness. Now I'll ask again, what happened?" This was a different Mark than she had met before hand. It was as if he had transformed into one of her droids. "I... Um... I..." She lifted a hand and pressed it to her forehead before shaking her head a little - she didn't know whether it was the migraine or just her being weird but she couldn't remember very well. All she remembered was the image but she wasn't going to tell Mark that. "I can't remember. Must have been a power surge or something. Ca- can you just help me to bed?" It didn't take him long to decide that she was lying, but it took him longer to decide whether or not he'd let Ruby know. He turned against the idea and so picked her up without any visible hesitation. Mark made note that there wasn't any blood on his hands and that it was unlikely that she had fallen, but it was still too dark to be entirely sure. He quickly yet carefully carried Ruby to her sleeping quarters and placed her down on the mattress. A hand on her forehead and revealed that she was hot but not feverish. "Thanks Mark." She mumbled sleepily as he laid her down on the bed - Ruby wasn't too big and she had barely any fat clinging to her, mainly due to a lack of desire to eat, so she wasn't too heavy in his arms. "You know, you're way too nice to..." With that, she fell into a deep sleep and the rest of her words faded. Little did Ruby know that she hadn't even switched any of the systems off so when they finally did reboot, Mark would be able to see precisely what she was looking at. She caught him off guard, and he involuntarily opened his mouth as if to say something. Mark wasn't sure what, but he regained his blank expression before the phantom words could form. He backed up to give her some rest and returned to where he found her, just as the lights above flickered back into life. The silence was replaced by a soft hum as the tech and machinery came back to life. He looked around to see if there was anything that could have caused her to have such a violent reaction; there wasn't anything there that could have fallen on her, there were no chemicals that could have come into contact with her.. All that was left in the room that he had not examined was a computer screen. Mark let himself bite his lip and relaxed his thoughts. The refresh rate was limiting to him, and he focused on keeping the display from flickering as he watched the infernal machine reboot. What met his gaze was a portrait of a man he did not recognise, but as nothing else was suspicious, he was going to investigate.

Light looked at the damage that had been dealt to the hostile meta. [i]"So... hi explosives only dent the guy, huh? Well... he does have weak points now." Light said, jumping onto the hard light construct pinsors coming for her and using the hard light beam coming from the meta to get close. Taking the retaliatory blasts, Light attempted to grab onto the meta's open sounds or eye socket and painfully bring him to the ground for a pummeling.

The pipes wrapped around Aster, managing to bind him well, the telekenisis adding to the binding force of the crude restraints. At the same time, Adam was attacking the False Angel, cutting off two more wings. And, of course, there was Light, who was trying to tear apart his open wounds. Finally, the Angel screamed, then, with his remaining strength, spoke, one last time: "All of you...fools. Metahumans...are the future." Then, he began glowing brightly, before falling apart into motes of light; glowing dust. And so ended the life and career of Aster Javian, born into the Gambino family, and now one of the worst mass-murderers in recent history.

"Damn it to hell we should have put a tighter grip on him so this would not have happened...but you have to just space out at a time like this...and to think I call you my brother..." Jenni said with a scold and anger in her voice at her brother,She thought he was a bit stronger then she thought but she sees she was wrong."Shut up...we needed him alive and now we have one less problem on out hands but a bigger one incoming since people saw us meaning Meta-humans which will cause lots of problems for us..." Dean responded to his sister with a more serious tone of voice. He turned to face Light and Adam turning to face them,"So what now?" He asked the rather simple question of what they do mostly to try to patch things up with the humans that saw the chaos and massacre.