"Sigh..." spoke Gary. "This puts my idea of openly attacking with Drones singing Believe in my Existence* to the grave, then. Guess Epicness doesn't have its place anymore." "You can always leave the fighting to your brother," spoke Ghost who had just snuck in. "After all, someone needs to defend the building." "Or," spoke Gary, we can just send out Elijah, Alto, and, if she hasn't ran off, Cypress!" he then turned towards Elijah. "Hey, can you sneak my kid friend, yourself, and Cy into the Aperture building?" *https://soundcloud.com/lancelot-alucard/cardfight-vanguard-opening-2

"Well if you go in and fight do it now. The White House will be prepared for damage control." Elena said as she headed to the massive command center set up in a gym. But you gotta go in five minutes." Elena saw sitting in an elevated area was the map board planning the assault next to the board was General Claremont. He was on the phone most likely with the President or SECDEF. She saw a picture of Taylor and other high ranking Aperture people. The government was going to sweep them all up. "Do you here me?" she asked Stu as she was blunt as possible.

"Yes, I do!" spoke Gary; "let's just say that my people are coming as soon as possible; which is when they respond." He then turned towards Alto: "Kid, I'm going to give you the key to my private helicopter; I can buy several more once I acquire the remnants of Aperture Corp." And with that, he gave the 17-year old a small bronze key. "Said helicopter is, of course, at the helipad, and I ask you and the others to take it right now." He then looked sadly at Alto. "Goodbye for now, kid." Elena's Apartment Constantine, now back from his sojourn, got the news on his smartphone just before he entered the apartment. "Hey, Elena," he spoke, "I'm going to meet up with Healing Spore and William - they're alive, just in another safehouse - in order to prepare for the assault. Before I go, I wanna ask..." he was sheepish now, "...can I name the operation?" He already had something in mind: Operation Brennus.

"Yes, I do!" spoke Gary; "let's just say that my people are coming as soon as possible; which is when they respond." He then turned towards Alto: "Kid, I'm going to give you the key to my private helicopter; I can buy several more once I acquire the remnants of Aperture Corp." And with that, he gave the 17-year old a small bronze key. "Said helicopter is, of course, at the helipad, and I ask you and the others to take it right now." He then looked sadly at Alto. "Goodbye for now, kid." Elena's Apartment Constantine, now back from his sojourn, got the news on his smartphone just before he entered the apartment. "Hey, Elena," he spoke, "I'm going to meet up with Healing Spore and William - they're alive, just in another safehouse - in order to prepare for the assault. Before I go, I wanna ask..." he was sheepish now, "...can I name the operation?" He already had something in mind: Operation Brennus.

"Why that?" asked Elena the government was going with the name RECIPROCITY as it was on the head of the problem. "What does that name have to do with revenge?" Elena was not responsible for naming the operation.

"It's a name of a Gallic Chieftain who was one of the first people to sack Rome during the days of the Roman Republic. And the name of a Web Serial I like. More to the point, it's a good name, a warrior's name, and the name of someone who almost arrested the growth of one of the world's iconic powers."

Dean wasn't looking so good Light noticed. He was spasming and crying for his mom and she didn't know what was going on with him. Perhaps something with his telekenetic powers she thought, probably some parental issues or something, but Light wasn't sure. Adam was busy talking with some government people who had shown up on the site to talk to him about the meta that he was just fighting, something about project genesis or something, Light didn't care. "If he goes crazy I'll knock him out, but maybe this might at least stop the crying. Its getting pretty annoying." Light thought to herself, giving Dean a warm hug, putting his head to her chest and patted him. Sure she wasn't a mom or anything, but maybe this'll calm Dean down at least.

Dean was taken into her huge feeling some sense of warmth form her body,"Strange...thank you mommy..." He said outloud to her rubbing his head agasint her chest,He had now his eyes closed the crying to a minimal now only in low sniffles and the reminder of his tears running down his face."This feels so good..." He thought to himself feeling a little bit more secure.

"It's a name of a Gallic Chieftain who was one of the first people to sack Rome during the days of the Roman Republic. And the name of a Web Serial I like. More to the point, it's a good name, a warrior's name, and the name of someone who almost arrested the growth of one of the world's iconic powers."

"Eh you can call it that, the military already has a name." Elea replied. The military was keen on the name RECIPROCITY.

"I'll be going, then," spoke Constantine. Hopefully, I can also divert people from my brother's efforts. And with that, he went off to a waiting FBI Car, where he then zoomed off to the second safehouse, which was a small shop ran by an FBI Member who was a Meta. Said FBI Member, Hasheem, smiled when he saw Constantine, and spoke: "Glad to see ya! Healing Spore and William are just coming up." And, sure enough, the two were emerging from a hidden stairway, the latter fully armed. William asked: "So, is this it? The final fight against those Aperture fellows?" Constantine nodded in response, and the two got into the car. A few minutes later, the trio were now at the base of Aperture Tower, where FBI and Military forces...were fighting Isabella, or rather, her face upon a screen, which in turn was protected by an army of False Angels, Aster Clones. These False Angels were launching weaker versions of Aster's hardlight lances, while the FBI were deploying their heavy weaponry. It was a bloodbath all around. William and Healing Spore went into action, while as for Constantine, he prepared to draw the Asters' attention towards him...only to find a suit of power armor sailing towards him from StuCorp - Gary Stuart had finally sent his Chekhov's Gun. Said Power Armor was also strapped full of Anti-Mind Control Headbands. "Finally!" spoke Constantine as he was suited up in said power armor - although he placed a headband onto himself first. "William, Spore! Distribute the other headbands to as many people as you could! I'm going to fight these False Asters." And with that, the Metahuman zoomed up, drawing his glowing spear and splitting one of these False Angels in twain. This drew the attention of the others, who, howling their hate for the Meta who spoke about peace and coexistence while carrying a weapon, rushed towards him full-on...only to be met with only air - Constantine had used his powers again.

Eli left his meeting with Scarlet. The first in many years with out so much of a word. He knew she used her powers on him. He didn't blame her as much as he should have. She was right though, that crazy old man needed to stay where he was, but the need to keep him safe was odd to Eli. He could be dead as far as anyone knows. Eli always felt a debt was due to the old man. That sick man gave Eli a reason and purpose to wake up everyday. Thanks to him his mother got to live for a little while longer. That, to Eli was worth everything he had done to this point. He had sat unblinkingly watching Scarlet. He knew she was gonna break, ot was only a matter of time. What bothered him though was something was missing from the puzzle. Everything fit together a little too nicely, that meant there was someone pulling strings. There too many things Happening at once for there to be only one person. He knew something was going on in Avalon, that was a given. The next question was who else was at play? Who was the second player of all this? LAPD, Disney, and the FBI. None of the people where the same as far as he he knew. He was LAPD, the fuckin but job with Lights was Disney. So it only left two questions. Who did the FBI? On one level or another Eli knew he had been involved with what's been going on in LA. Hell he started it, him and... Ruby... Ruby was never found, not a body or anything... "Ruby goes missing... After the LAPD... Before that was Apature... She gets taken by... Apature? The River Rat goes missing.... She's found but not Ruby... Then Scarlet shows up out of nowhere..." Eli spoke to a reflection of himself in a hushed tone as to not scare the ideas away from him. He then saw what he had been waiting on, Scarlet broke. He listened to her rant and rave when it all clicked. "Ruby was at the center of all this." UE started laughing, he kept laughing until the tears came. At one point he even thought he was gonna piss himself. Things got even funnier when good ole Stewie asked if he could lead a team into Apature. As soon as he could speak again he was pretty direct about his next step."Home boy I won't get within a thousand meters of that place without losing anything of value." He chuckled a little before finishing. "I'll head over there after the fighting starts send everyone ahead. I got soemthing to clear go with Scarlet then I need to get my gear on." Just about everything he needed was still in that stolen cop car in of Stewies parking decks. He was gonna need a lot before heading into battle like this. Plus its not four eyes was gonna condone anything he was about to do. He made his way to a parking deck with his gear and got suited for battle. A few moments later he was again with Scarlet. This time however he made sure no one was gonna listen to this short conversation. Without a word he walked in and unplugged the cameras. "I know Ruby is at Apature, and she's at center or damn near it, of all of this. Now I can go there kill a shit load of people, till I get to her... Or you can tell me where her secondary is because, I got money that spends that says you know where its at. I doubt that you are here or with her or whatever the fuck role you play is by accident. So please do tell." Eli looked like he was heading for a warzone. He even had his old helmet, one that she had seen him wear when he was working with her father. He planned on using it but if it threw her off all the better.

*ignore*

Aster Javian's Apartment He had entered the city under the cover of darkness, bypassing military patrols who had declared martial law in L.A. after recent events. The most notable of those being the Disney Massacre. Of course, it's not as if he required for it to be dark already, but it was already late when he had eventually arrived from New York and Karma had seen no reason to wait until dawn to pass through the military check points. That was nearly a full day ago. Now he stood in the doorway to his brother's penthouse. His eyes cold and searching, taking in the scene that was where his brother had lived for roughly four years. The place was a mess. It looked as if it hadn't been lived in for months, or if it had, the person living here had been living like a squatter. Karma stepped over the threshold, only to be greeted by a repulsive stench. The source of which seemed to be coming from behind a closed door. A door which undoubtedly lead to the bedroom, seeing that the rest of the apartment was open planned, except for the bathroom which he could see was vacant by the door being left slightly ajar. He strode forward, worried thoughts slowly creeping into his mind. Thoughts about Aster. He stopped then and pulled out a hastily folded piece of paper from his coat pocket. He unfolded it, gazing again at the screenshot he'd printed weeks prior of a grey-haired man standing on top of the Disney Concert Hall, a large spear of light in his hand, preparing to launch it down into a large crowd of people. But even despite today's technology, the best resolution he could get still hadn't given him a clear view of the man's face. Whoever had taken this photo and uploaded it to the web had clearly used something resembling a potato. But even then the videos were the same. No matter how hard he looked, there wasn't a single clear shot of the man's face. Still, he had to know. Placing the picture back into his pocket, he walked over to the closed door and reached for the handle. Twisting it, without success, informed him that the door had been locked but there was no key to be found. A small sigh escaped him before Karma dropped his right shoulder and barreled his weight into the weak point of the door, busting it open and splintering the frame. A wave of revulsion swept over him as the smell grew instantly more pungent and the source was revealed to him. To a normal person, the current scene would have been something you'd only ever seen in movies. Unfortunately for Karma, this was nothing new. On the bed lay two bodies. One of them, a girl. Blonde hair, pale skin and fake breasts. She was completely naked except for her crystal-studded heels that she still wore. She was dead, easily confirmed by her wide open eyes and vacant expression. Deep purple bruises covered her neck and had flared around her wrists. He quickly noticed the hypodermic needle still injected into her arm. Not murder then. The other body was that of a man, much older than the girl. He lay in his briefs, bruises covered his body too and a curtain rope tie was still wrapped around his neck. But there was no needle. He could also see the very small rise fall of the man's chest. Karma walked over to him, seeing his face for the first time. Relief washed over him as he found that he didn't recognize the man. So what was he doing in his brother's apartment with a dead whore and enough drugs to send an elephant into space. Mild anger flourished inside him now, and where the hell was Aster? Karma couldn't tell if it was the coldness of the water or the multiple cubes of ice slamming into his face that woke the unknown man. Who was now yelling in protest and gazing around wildly at his current predicament. Waking up after a drug binge, tied to a chair in nothing but your boxers seemed to be a rather tame way of coming to these days, but Karma hadn't had the time, or the patience, to be too creative. "What the fuck man, are you serious?!" The man shouted, still groggy from the substances that resided in his system. Karma stayed silent, however, and just stared at the man. If looks could kill, then whoever this pathetic excuse for a human being was would have been skinned alive by the glare that Karma gave him. It took the man a little longer to comprehend the situation. "Okay, fun's over. What the hell is going-" His next words caught in his throat and his eyes widened. He heart rate increased, made noticeable by the rapid breathing he was now subjected to. The look on his face was that of recognition, followed quickly by fear. "I'm going to ask you this once and once only." Karma stated. His ice cold demeanour silencing the man's exasperated breaths. "Look, I'm sorry! I-I-I know I fucked up and I was s-s-supposed to bring him to meet you but h-he just wouldn-" Karma slapped him then, instantly silencing him except for an audible wince of pain. He had put on his black leather gloves before moving the man into the open planned area of the apartment, refusing to touch his skin directly lest he catch something. "I'm talking. If you interrupt me again, I'll cut your eye out." His threat was backed up solely by the tone of his voice but it was enough, the man nodded silently and Karma moved back towards to wall, leaning upon it casually. "Now, where is Aster?" "I-I don't know, I haven't seen him in weeks! The last time I saw him, he'd just finished a job for us and I told him that the new Capo want's to meet him. H-Had I known it was you-" "Stop." Karma stated, he stopped talking. "You said 'Us'. You're in the outfit?" The man considered his reply for a few seconds before speaking again. "I am, w-well I mean I was, or I s-still might be-" "And Aster worked for you?" Karma gave an unimpressed look. "N-No, not for me directly. But for the outfit here in L.A. It was off the books, I was his liaison. But he went under a different name, Javian. I mean I knew he was running from your father, but he threatened to kill me if-" "What did you say?" Karma pushed himself away from the wall, suddenly interested. "He went by the nam Ja-" "No not that, the bit about my father? How do you know that?" "H-H-He told me, I swear! He came to me for work. Told me that he wanted to keep an eye on things, on his brother." "And just who the hell are you, for him to tell you such things?" "I'm Bobby. Bobby Beans. I'm his friend." Karma raised an eyebrow at that and looked around the apartment. "Some friend, huh." "I just needed a place to crash. After he didn't show up for the meet, my ass was in the firing line-" "I don't give a damn about your sob story. I'm trying to find my brother." "Right, right. I can help you but I don't know where he is, I swear. Otherwise I would have told you by now." Karma stood in silence for a moment, considering his next move. He couldn't be too hasty with this. If Aster was involved with the events at Disney, there'd be other people looking for him. He needed to remain unknown, unseen. At that point he'd made up his mind. "If you can't tell me where he is, then you're of no use to me." "But I can help, I wanna help!" "You'll serve me better dead." He replied coldly before stepping towards Bobby once more. "N-no, no, wait! Just think about this for a second, we can talk about this." The room began to darken as Karma spread his hands to each side, generating darkness from his being. "I'm done talking." Bobby had begun to protest loudly by now, shouting at Karma to stop whilst struggling against the restraints that bound him to the chair. But to no avail. The darkness thickened until barely any light was left in the room and a singular tendril grew from Karma's back and wormed through the air towards him. Bobby's eyes went wide once more in shock. "You're just like him, a fucking Met-" It was at that point that Karma forced the tendril to shoot forward and enter his mouth, choking his brother's former friend immediately. Smaller tendrils quickly began to branch off and worm their way into his eyes, nose and ears. Bobby could be heard attempting to scream and vomit at the same time but eventually the muffled cries and his violent thrashing stopped and Karma retracted the tendrils, then dissapated the darkness. Bobby Beans was dead. Karma reached into his pocket for the piece of paper and looked at it again. "A fucking Meta." He whispered quietly.

Adam watched as Light assisted Dean with his troubles and Adam was wondering what to do next now that Ruby had gotten away and apparently was getting help from someone. He thought about his options, he could try and hunt her down alone or with his new allies, but that would mean rushing on ahead without a plan or knowledge what they might face, he didn't going ahead without a plan. Another option was that Adam could go to his father and talk to him about what to do next and if there was anything he could show him, but now that he had made a threat against his superiors he now was not in good favors with his benefactors. Then there was John, he would need to go and find him and Adam decided that it would be best if he did. He looked to his teammates and spoke to them calmly. "I need to go get an old friend who could help us, I will try to get back as soon as possible" Adam said to them and with those words he left for John's home. ---- John Morrison was sitting on a chair in his home while drank a beer in sadness. Today marked the day of Clare's death and his heart was still broken even after so long. He didn't know what to really do anymore, all he had done since she had died was fight, kill and wallow in his misery. His mutation had completed messed up his life and he couldn't walk around outside without someone giving him strange looks. He was an outcast in society and he had a few occasions contemplated ending his own life, but for some reason he refused to take that option. Maybe he felt it would too easy of way out and that he needed to pay for his failure in not being able to save his beloved wife. He was no longer John Morrison, he was only Mountain Lion.

Scarlett: It didn't take her long to return to her seat, light-headed and feeling guilt pile up on her. The military would take no prisoners - they were going to make an example of Aperture and that included Ruby as well. They would leave her for dead if they had to and it was all because Scarlett was scared for Gia. There was barely any proof to even suggest that Gia could survive out of life-support while Ruby had protected Scarlett in ways that no other Aperture employee was willing to do. Taylor viewed Scarlett as a puppet and would regularly exercise such control but Ruby put a stop to that. Even though Taylor could take her powers, he could never take Ruby's intelligence. She barely even noticed Elijah entering, already preoccupied by dark thoughts. In all honesty, she had only ever felt moments like this once or twice before - she wanted her mother, desperately. It was just like when her father went to jail. Her emotions were gnawing away at her very senses and there was not a lot she could do about it. Finally, she peeked up at Elijah softly. "Ruby intends to die, Elijah. She just doesn't know that yet but she does know that she can run until the end of the Earth and they'll hunt her down. She doesn't want to live a life of fear so she won't live a life at all." She seemed far-off, as if she wasn't paying much attention to him. Finally, however, she pulled herself back to reality and stared at him with tear-filled eyes. "I wish I never had these powers. I wish you never had these powers. We... we could have lived a normal life. Are we cursed, Eli? Did we do something wrong?" Suddenly, she burst out into a storm of tears as she buried her face down into her hands. She had lost so much already and now she was going to lose more. "Go... go kill a shit load of people..." She murmured under her breath. --- Ruby: If there was a speed-limit, Ruby had broke it and was probably riding far above it. As it turns out, she was apparently a pretty damn good driver. Her reactions were superb and because she could feel the shift of technology in the bike, the drive was that bit more exhilarating. Within no time, they reached Aperture. Everything seemed normal so far but Ruby was willing to bet that everything was going to go to hell in the next few hours. As they rode the elevator up to her lab, she filled Loki in. "I need you to do something for me. I'm going to give you a hard drive and whatever you do, you get it out of here and to somewhere safe. Connect it to a computer and it'll do everything it has to do." She murmured as they entered the almost-futuristic lab. Moving over to her desk, she bent down and clicked a few numbers in on a pin-locked drawer before it slid open. "Here." She stated, lifting the small device up to him. "Also, Loki, I need you to go get Scarlett. Stucorp has her and they'll have no choice but to hand her over for a trial. Once you get her, get out of here. Find somewhere safe for her and just make sure she doesn't do something rash." Sighing, she turned towards a wall that didn't appear abnormal in any sort of way. "Thank you Loki. Good luck - things aren't going to be easy for people like us in the next few years." It was scary how she spoke like it was almost from experience. When Loki disappeared, she turned her attention back to the wall. "Architect. Is the Mk 3 Phoenix Suit operational?" She called out. Suddenly, a voice that sounded almost human answered. "The suit is fully operational." The AI answered immediately. "Good, prepare it for immediate usage." Without much warning, the wall seemed to split into different bits and slide to either the left or the right. When the entire process was done, a large rack pushed out from the wall with the perfected Phoenix Suit on-board. It appeared like some sort of combat armour wore by normal soldiers - there was a chestpiece, gauntlets that stretched to her elbows, a brace for her neck and some shin-guards. Once she had rid herself of the older suit, she slid these pieces of armour on before inhaling deeply. "Morph to Guardian command." She informed the suit and without any hesitation, it began to shift and warp. Light yet incredibly-strong plates of armour slid down her arms and legs, creating a perfect fit. Any open skin was immediately covered, except for her head. When the process finished, the suit suddenly lit up with thin lines of red lights. "Architect. Activate full suit calibration." She told it again as the brace on her next morphed up along the back of her head, forming a helmet. It kept changing until her face was completely covered. All in all, the helmet looked terrifying from the outside but inside, it lit up with a HUD. She was ready to go just as the first wave of attacks hit.

The sound of fighting woke him up. Sitting up in the pilot's seat, he sat up and yawned. Being asleep while piloting a helicopter was normally an act tantamount to suicide, but Alto was special. He had his left hand on the console, Theo piloting the helicopter for him while he got some much needed sleep. He'd been up all night coding his new right arm and some extra programs for Theo. Speaking of his right arm... "Hey Con, on a scale of 1 to 10, how functional are you right now?" "What do you mean, master?" Con replied in his mind. Being called 'master' sort of left a bad taste in his mouth. Bad enough that Con sounded by a little girl, what did that say about his tastes? He hadn't known he was that weird. He looked back at his other passangers, Bloodrune and Cypress. Bloodrune had a super-soaker type thing full of his blood which was handy, and Cypress was looking out onto the scene blow, but both looked slightly scared. Alto had fallen asleep on them, after all, and he was their pilot. Also, they probably thought he was slightly insane, mainly because they couldn't really hear Con or Theo. Weird tastes aside, they were at Aperture HQ now, and they were here to help. "Theo, plot a course to land the chopper a little bit out from the walls, and leave it on auto pilot." Alto said before turning to adress the other two, "I'm dropping you two off pretty soon. Watch out for it." With that, Alto got up from his pilot seat and opened one of the side doors. "I'm supposed to be making a distraction in another part of Aperture HQ." He said over the headsets. "Bloodrune, you need to go and paint as many friendlies as possible, and Cypress, you can just do whatever." He stretched a little as he relished the feeling of the wind, and then he took off his headset before letting himself fall forward and out of the chopper. As he fell the helicopter continued to drive itself over the friendly lines. "Theo!" Alto called as he fell, "Activate Magic Carpet!" "Yes, Emperor!" Suddenly, his left arm glowed, and a glowing blue rectangle of energy appeared beneath him. As he hit it, the energy bent beneath him and dampened his fall. "Ah, it works!" Alto said. He looked up at the carnage that lay ahead of him, mentally rehearsing his roles. "Welp," He said finally. "Time to do some damage."

Eli wasn't moved at all by her tears. "You know, I was told once.... There types of are three types of people in this world. You have sheep, the masses who need someone to protect them. You have the wolves, who your father, pray on the sheep. Then you have a very rare type of person, one who is willing to do a lot of shit to protect the sheep, the sheepdog... I don't know where I fit in, but I think I've done right more than wrong." Eli put his helmet down for a minute and took a seat at the table. "I'm a horrible person who's going to hell for things he's done. So is your old man, so is Ruby... We are not cursed, we are extraordinary people put in Extraordinary situations. The question isn't are we cursed, its how do we react." Eli cleared his throat and pulled out a piece of beef jerk. As he but into it he went on. "I don't know who my real parents are. The only two people in this world that cared enough to see I made it through was Night and Momma who found me on the side of the road in a basket. So..." Eli paused for a moment swallowing his jerk and getting ready to say something he saved for only the most dire of situations. "The devil takes his horns outs, so stare into his eyes. Can the matador survive? He was born to bleed." Eli tossed a cell phone on to the table, then got to his feet. "See momma gets that. I doubt I'll live through this." His voice never shook or wavered, if nothing else he told the truth as he knew it. With that said a Eli turned and walked away. He didn't give her a chance to respond. Nothing she could say would matter, if he made out he did, if not then... That's the way things played out. He didn't say another till he was in his stolen cop car. He pulled out a burner phone from his belongings and dailed a number he was unsure to call. He didn't know if they would be too scared to help, but having someone like him indebt could always prove favorable. "This is Elijah Craig. Yeah, I'm Baba Yaga. I need back up in L.A. Give this number and have them call me. Money or favor take your pick." The voice on the other end stumbled before acknowledging his words. With that Eli hung up and finished preparing for the upcoming battle. He didn't know what was gonna happen, he just knew he wasn't coming back here. There a real smile on his face. He even felt a song coming in for the first time in a while.

Loki exited Aperture, a plan already in mind. Just for the hell of it, Loki erased his presence, jumped the fence, and began jogging towards his apartment. He had a plan. It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it would do well enough for his purposes. And if all went well, he would live in relative comfort for the next few years. At least enough to weather the storm of prejudice coming their way. But first, he needed to find certain people. Loki opened the door to his apartment and briskly walked in, entering his bedroom and grabbing some travelling bags. He called his landlord as he did, carefully folding his clothes and inserting them into his suitcase. The call connected and Loki got to the point. "Hey, landlord. I'm leaving today." He said. "Wha-" The landlord asked, confused. "Right now, actually." Loki said. "I'll drop the key off at reception." "But- This is so sudden!" The landlord objected. "Well, you know. Business matters and all." Loki said. He finished packing his clothes and went to systematically clear the house of anything that was his property, starting from the bathroom. "So yeah, I'll need you to do all the stuff you need to do pretty quick." Loki said, taking all of his toiletries and taking them back to the bedroom. "It's kind of urgent for me to disappear." "...Fine." The landlord said. He knew that Loki had something big would happen soon, so he didn't press further. "Thanks." Loki said. "I'll give this month's rent to the receptionist. Oh, and call up a taxi." He began to pack the stuff he couldn't take into boxes. His cooking utensils, dishes and cutlery went into one box. In another box, he put in his DVDs, DVD player and his other electronics. He boxed pretty much everything except for his phone, his throwing knives and the clothes on his back. On reflection, he didn't have that much. 2 boxes worth of stuff and a suit case. "It's been nice staying here." Loki said. He hung up. A few minutes later, Loki had his boxes stacked up at his chest, with the suitcase dangling on his arm. The elevator opened and deposited him on the ground floor. The receptionist raised an eyebrow at his appearance, but she didn't ask any questions. He walked sidewards towards the desk and used one hand to drop his key and an envelope full of money labelled this month's rent. He waved the receptionist goodbye and exited the door. A taxi was pulled up on the curb. Upon seeing Loki, the cabbie opened up the boot and Loki loaded his boxes and suitcase into it. He then got into the passenger seat as the cabbie closed the boot, got into the driver seat and started the engine. “Where to?” The gruff cabbie asked. “The flower shop on 7th street, please.” Loki said. The taxi drove out from the kerb and headed down the road. The taxi pulled up at another Kerb, 20 minutes away, this time in front of a flower shop. ‘The flower pot’ was its name. A fairly small floristry, it was charming in its own right and was owned by people Loki trusted. It actually had a few rooms above the store, where people could live. It sat in the middle of a shopping district. Not exactly peaceful, but he could hide here for a while. Loki offloaded his luggage and paid the cabbie, who drove away. Loki stepped awkwardly up to the door, wondering how he would ring the doorbell, when it opened and a man with a large build was revealed. “Loki!” The man said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” “Sup, Tom?” Loki said casually. “This might seem a bit weird, but I need to live here for a while.” A few minutes later, Loki was having tea with Thomas and His wife, Claire, in the back room, after they let him in and put his stuff in one of the spare rooms. He put his coat on the rack by the door because he’d talk for a little bit. “Ah.” Loki said, satisfied. “This tea is good.” “Thanks. It’s an earl grey blend.” Claire said. “Loki.” Thomas cut in. “What did you mean by you need to live here?” “Straight to the point, huh.” Loki said. He grabbed a cookie that was set out on the table and began biting it. “Well, I got a new job.” Loki said, munching the job. “A merc job, this time.” Thomas and Claire were quiet, waiting for him to continue. They were old army friends who retired to get married. He trusted them enough with this information. “Well, I can’t exactly hand out details, but after I do it, I need to lay low for a while.” He said, reaching for another cookie. It was evident that they were thinking, and Loki bit his cookies while they did. “We’re good friends, Loki, but we’ll need more reason than that.” Thomas said at last. “For closure, at least. Even if you can’t tell us anything…” “Well, you know the Disney massacre?” Loki said. “I don’t know if the people who hired me were involved in it, but it caused a lot of trouble for metas, involved or not.” Loki ate the rest of his cookie and leaned forward, serious. “There’s a co-worker who I have to bust out. A meta, like me.” He said. “My employer told me to find a safe place for her, and lay low for a while.” “I see.” Thomas said. “And who is she?” “Her name’s Scarlett.” Loki said, taking his cup and sipping some tea. “Alias: Sweet Dream. As far as I know, she can enter the dreams of unconscious people and learn their weaknesses.” “That sounds… dangerous.” Claire said, sipping her own tea. “Of course it is.” Loki said, putting his cup down. “But I can vouch for her, at least.” “You do this quite a bit, you know.” Thomas sighed. “Oh, come on.” Loki said. “I’d like to think that I’m pretty dependable.” “Alright, Loki.” Thomas chuckled. “You can stay here. We’ll accept Scarlett when you bring her here.” “Good we got that settled.” Loki said, getting up. “Thanks for having me.” “Any time, Loki. Any time.” Thomas said, getting up as well and shaking his hand. Loki walked out of the backroom, taking his coat as he went. Thomas and Claire followed to see him out. “Oh,” Loki said, remembering something. “One more thing.” He fished around in his coat pocket and took out the hard drive Ruby had given him. “Plug this into your computer.” Loki said, giving it to Claire. “I don’t know what it does, it’ll just do what it needs to, apparently.” “Where’s it from?” Claire asked, inspecting it. “Employer.” Loki said. “They have a robot suit. She’s a pretty cool person.” “You have to tell us the full story when you get back.” Thomas said, grinning. “I’ll tell you what I know.” Loki smiled, walking towards the entrance of the flower shop. “Later.” He turned and waved as he said it, and the couple followed suit. Soon, Loki walked down the peaceful road, mind back to business. Loki hailed a taxi again, and to his surprise, it was the same person that drove the taxi from before. “Where to?” The cabbie asked. “Stucorp.” Loki said, dropping into the passenger street. “Drop me off a few blocks from there.” The cabbie grunted and started down the road. Stucorp, huh. Loki thought as the taxi drove towards the high-rises. Stucorp was a company that developed weapons, as far as he remembered. That normally meant that their security was extremely tight, which would be troublesome. And Scarlett was being held there, which meant some kind of prison cell. Even more troublesome. “What kind of mega corporation has holding cells, anyway?” Loki muttered, staring out the window. Gary Stuart was the CEO, as far as he remembered. Loki didn’t know too much beside that, but it was safe to assume he had some highly ranked metas in his company. Nowadays, it was kind of odd not to have at least one. It would be tricky to crack, and it would likely have security systems Loki didn’t even know of. The cab arrived, near a building that was a few blocks from the towering sky scraper that was Stucorp. Loki got out and paid the cabbie, who drove off down the street again. He looked up at the huge structure, wondering how he would do this. He saw a helicopter take off and wondered who was in it. Nothing for it, then. Loki thought. Nothing to do but get right into the heart of the matter. Loki began to walk towards Stucorp, with the intent to infiltrate.

((Collab Post between Letter Bee and Lord Santa)) In StuCorp, Gary Stuart had gone to the security room, taking care of watching the various screens with Plantmaster. Although the two of them could not see every area alone, they could, however, cover the most important ones. Before his leaving, BloodRune had sprayed several camera drones with his blood, allowing them coverage of the entrances, which in turn were manned by beefed-up security forces and more drones. Loki would find these /mostly/ passable, the 'mostly' coming from the fact that on the entrance he was using, a drone newly splashed with Bloodrune's, well, blood, was floating nearby. And, as people knew, Bloodrune's fresh blood made whatever was splashed with it immune to superpowers, up to a point... Loki walked straight in through the front door of Stucorp, looking for the reception desk. First, he saw a bunch of security, which was kind of strange. Next, he saw some drones watching the entrances, which was cool. But they had blood on them, so it was strange. He'd done some reading before a while ago about Stucorp, and he knew that they had 3 important metas in their employ. One had something to do with ghosts or something, another was called plantmaster for some reason and one was called bloodrune. Loki remembered that Bloodrune's power was to make things with his blood on it immune to meta powers, which was cool but strange. It also sounded kind of painful, and Loki was kind of glad to not have that kind of super power. That said, he had to keep in mind he couldn't use his powers too much. But he had other things up his sleeve. As Loki walked towards the reception desk, he wondered about the beefy security. Who the heck are they expecting to come in here? Loki thought. Obviously, Stucorp was expecting something to happen soon, but Loki had no idea what it could be. They wouldn't be expecting him, surely. But he thought back to the helicopter and came to some conclusions. They must be doing something that'll really piss someone off... Loki thought. He reached the reception desk and called out to the receptionist. "Excuse me? I'd like to ask some questions." He said. "Who is this?!" spoke the receptionist, surprised. "The building is closed to anyone except Government!" "Well, that's the thing." Loki said. "I'm with the government, but I'm prettynew to this whole thing, so I'm kind of... well, lost." Loki added a sheepish tone to add authenticity to it, but he had to add some icing on the cake, or else his cover would get blown. "I was supposed to be here with some other guys, but it's my first time in LA, and well, you know." Loki said. "So am I early, or am I late?" "Shouldn't you be...where the other agents are?" spoke the receptionist. "However, I'll notify Mr. Stuart of your coming. Hmm..." she spoke, "perhaps you have some special business with him, but I'm just a receptionist; what do I know?" And with that, she notified Gary, who had been listening to the conversation. Gary Stuart himself was suspicious, but he figured there was no harm in talking to the guy; if he was a genuine Gov't person, then best to build up ties with the Gov't. If he was a villain, well, he liked talking to villains, plus, he can defend himself. "Stop being silly," spoke Plantmaster in a tired voice. "If you want to meet with him, then please, take me with you." "All right!" said Gary, before telling the receptionist to send someone to guide the agent into his penthouse; he'll be coming there, too." Loki was guided to a nice penthouse somewhere near the top of the tower, and then he was told to wait for Gary. Loki looked around at the brightly lit penthouse and analysed it for strategic positions, as well as possible escape routes and other stuff. This is a pretty nice penthouse. Loki thought. He could appreciate the decor, at least. It was a beautiful penthouse, sleek and smooth, with aestethics that recalled The Axiom from Wall-E. Drones floated all around, some splashed with blood. On a sofa, Gary was sitting there, clad in his formal suit, his red hair metaphorically burning bright in the light, and waiting for Loki to arrive. The man then spoke: "Ah, you must be the Government Agent," he didn't betray his skepticsm. "I presume you're here for our new...guest? If so, I'm really, really sorry for the illegal detention, and we're going to be handing over Scarlett to you as soon as possible." "It's alright." Loki said, giving a fake smile that would be clear to an observant person. His eyes adopted an observant look with a slight twinkle in his eye. "I'm John Phoenix, from the Legal division. Nice to meet you." Loki said, stretching out his hand for a handshake. "I'm not here to handle the transfer, I'm just here to check her condition." "Funny, it would be much easier to break her out by just convinving me to hand over this key -" Gary then opened a portal, and a key fell down from his hand, before tossing the key into the portal again, " - just joking! Of course I know you're not here to break her out!" it was unknown if Gary was joking or not, but, well, if Scarlett was released in order to find redemption, that's fine. If Scarlett was taken to a government facility and - no, that wasn't fine, unless it was held by the Reformists. So, he'll play along with the Government Agent... "Were you expecting trouble, Mr. Stuart?" Loki asked, putting his hand behind his back again. "I can't think of any other reason why you'd hold such suspicions." Loki paced around the room, looking at the drones. "I notice that the security's been... increased somewhat." Loki said casually. "I'd like to think that it's just the welcoming party for us agents, unless you have other... visitors?" "The FBI and Army - the real FBI and Army - are attacking Aperture," Gary said bluntly. "The fact that you aren't with them says that you're not really Government." "Mr. Stuart, a weak deskworker like me has no business in the front lines." Loki said calmly. "Even though we are engaged with Aperture right now, there are loose ends that need to be tied. Loose ends which include the matter of Scarlett Evermore." "All right," Gary humored him, "what do you want?" "Well, in reality, I'm just here to bust her out." Loki said, dropping the facade suddenly. "I'm pretty much just here to take her to a safe place and keep her from doing anything stupid. Would that be acceptable?" "Oh, all right," spoke the man, opening the portal and letting the key fall out. "I don't want someone redeemable like her ending up in a Government Facility anyway; those places don't care enough about redeeming people. Honestly, we spend millions locking up a person but not enough on rehabilitation. So here," he said, throwing the key to Loki. Loki caught the key and put it in his pocket in one smooth move. "You sure this won't have any political repurcussions?" Loki asked. "Because I'm pretty sure the government wants her pretty badly. How're you going to get out of this one?" "How would I have known you're not a Government Agent? As far as I know, you showed me the proper paperwork and documentation. Plus, if you're who I think you are, then we can just say that you used a Metahuman power, and that I didn't have my Anti-Mind Control headband on." "It didn't matter if you knew or not, it would get boring sooner or later." Loki shrugged. "But for someone who is known to employ a Meta who can counter most other metas, as well as this company being known for having security features to counter more metas, that would be a pretty flimsy excuse." "There are 100 ways to break into a secure place for Normal Humans, 6 billion for a Meta," spoke Gary. "Besides, Bloodrune's sneaking off to join the attack right now. I'll be okay." "Touche." Loki said. He started walking out the door of the penthouse, his business pretty much over. Before he left, he turned around and spoke to Gary. "One more thing." Loki said. "If you turn the cameras one by one down the hall to Scarlett's cell, it'll make my job a lot easier and your excuse a lot more believable. If you do, I'll buy you a drink sometime, or something." With that, Loki exited the penthouse and made for the elevator. Gary smiled, and moved to do just that. --------------------------- Loki paced down the long corridor, skirting past the security guards, invisible. He'd have to rely on Gary to shut down the cameras on the drones, which were also somewhat blood stained. Loki wondered where Bloodrune got all that blood, and how he could put out so much of it. Maybe he ate a lot of protein or something. He sidestepped the last guard, sleeping on the chair and arrived at Scarlett's cell. Making it so that only Scarlett could hear him, he tried to call out to her. "Scaaaarlett." Loki called slowly. "I'm here to bust you out, Scarlett."

It didn't take Adam long to spot John's home in the distance as he quickly headed towards the address that his gantlet had given him. He soon came to the small house that John was living and he walked up the front step to the door. He wasn't sure how his old partner would react to him trying to bring him back into Adam's world. There were reasons for him leaving it and Adam felt guilty having to disturb John's peace. He knocked on the door and after about a moment of waiting John answered the door and came face to face wih Adam. "Somehow I knew you would come by my doorstep someday, how's it been Adam" John asked. "It's been not very good, in case you stopped watching the news things have gotten out of control with the whole terrorism and anti human and anti meta-human sentiment. everything seems to be falling apart, which is why I need your help" Adam replied. "I haven't been working for the government for several years and I don't see very much of a motivation to start up again any time soon” John said to him. “I know that you don’t feel any love or loyalty to the government and the nation right now, but things are getting worse and more people are going to die unless we stop what is happening” Adam responded. “And tell me why I should care? I lost everyone that I cared about and now the country is sharing the troubles that I have had going in my mind for a long time. I don’t see why you need my help.” “Because you’re the best soldier that I know right now and I am begging you to help me as a partner and an old comrade” Adam replied sincerely. John thought for a moment and then gave his answer. “Alright Adam, I’ll help you just this once, but we will do things my way and I don’t want to hear any opposition to how I fight or killing, got that?” “Yes of course, thanks John” Adam said with a smile and they left John’s home to head back to the base. Once they got back to the base, Adam introduced John to the others. “Everyone, this is John Morrison, he is my old partner” Adam said to them. “Please just call me Mountain Lion” John said to them.

Karma stuck to the shadows as he walked down the street a few blocks from the high-rise apartment building where his brother's penthouse was. A large military APC rumbled past him in the opposite direction, no doubt headed towards the flames that had engulfed the top of apartment tower. Karma had been sure to search the entire penthouse for clues about his brother's whereabouts but had found nothing, meaning Aster had certainly cleared off. He decided to burn the place then, destroying any evidence of his being there. He also made sure to stage it as though Mr. Beans had left the stove on during a wild romp with his dead crackwhore, also completely removing the notion of murder. When Karma had worked as an Enforcer for his father, he had performed many jobs like this. He was well trained at covering his tracks. As the loud growl of the APC died off further down the street, a familiar vibration disturbed the inside pocket of his coat. He reached inside to grab his personal cell phone. Nobody usually contacted him via his own phone. "Speak." He said. The voice on the other end was timid and almost too quiet, but Karma couldn't be bothered to tell him to speak up. They spoke about a 'Baba Yaga', an old associate of his father with close links to the Russian underworld. But as far as anyone else knew, it was an old international shipping account that the Gambinos had used to import premium Russian Vodka under the same name. Karma's spine shivered a little at the thought of the man behind it. "Baba Yaga?" He asked, "That account was closed some time ago. Who's been asking about it?" The man stuttered as he replied, relaying the information that a package was being sent for the owner of the account, to his office in L.A. with a 10-digit parcel number that he could track it with. Instantly, Karma knew that there was no package and that the parcel number was actually a phone number for him to call. Which meant that this was a direct reach out towards him for help. The man on the other end of the line had likely been called by the associate to pass on the message through the usual channels but had realized the gravity of such a call and had informed him via the emergency procedure. Some might have deemed it as reckless but Karma respected his decision. "I'm on my way back to the office now, tell Barbara to hold all of my calls and appointments." He hung up the phone immediately and placed his personal mobile back into his inside pocket before reaching into his side pocket to grab his burner phone, an ancient flip-lid cell used to make off-the-record calls. The FBI had been clamping down on Mafia families for years now. Burner phones were the safest way to talk these days. He recited the 10-digit number in his head whilst simultaneously inputting it into the keypad then he pressed the green phone button and started the call. The dial tone rang for a few moments before the sound of the call being answered played through the speaker. Karma spoke then, "It's been a while Mr. Craig."

It didn't take Adam long to spot John's home in the distance as he quickly headed towards the address that his gantlet had given him. He soon came to the small house that John was living and he walked up the front step to the door. He wasn't sure how his old partner would react to him trying to bring him back into Adam's world. There were reasons for him leaving it and Adam felt guilty having to disturb John's peace. He knocked on the door and after about a moment of waiting John answered the door and came face to face wih Adam. "Somehow I knew you would come by my doorstep someday, how's it been Adam" John asked. "It's been not very good, in case you stopped watching the news things have gotten out of control with the whole terrorism and anti human and anti meta-human sentiment. everything seems to be falling apart, which is why I need your help" Adam replied. "I haven't been working for the government for several years and I don't see very much of a motivation to start up again any time soon” John said to him. “I know that you don’t feel any love or loyalty to the government and the nation right now, but things are getting worse and more people are going to die unless we stop what is happening” Adam responded. “And tell me why I should care? I lost everyone that I cared about and now the country is sharing the troubles that I have had going in my mind for a long time. I don’t see why you need my help.” “Because you’re the best soldier that I know right now and I am begging you to help me as a partner and an old comrade” Adam replied sincerely. John thought for a moment and then gave his answer. “Alright Adam, I’ll help you just this once, but we will do things my way and I don’t want to hear any opposition to how I fight or killing, got that?” “Yes of course, thanks John” Adam said with a smile and they left John’s home to head back to the base. Once they got back to the base, Adam introduced John to the others. “Everyone, this is John Morrison, he is my old partner” Adam said to them. “Please just call me Mountain Lion” John said to them.

Dean having calmed down a bit followed behind Adam to some guy named John,"Hello my name is Dean..." Dean said holding his hand out to he could shake it."Looks like a loser to me....i think he is weak..." Jenni said scolding John by the way Jenni was looking and studying John."Well ummm so what do you have planned...Mr.Adam?" He said turning his head to face Adam wondering what he had planned with John and defeating Ruby and the others.