Jackson While Ruby was talking, the door would open to let in a tired, ragged looking boy, looking to be around 16 , his clothes were in pieces and were more like rags than anything else. And yet, nobody seemed to notice his existence, not even when he began to strip a kid around his size of his own clothing, all except for his underwear. He then shed his rags, but on the other boys clothes, which were a black shirt, some jeans with torn up knees, a pair of sneakers,and a studded leather belt. It wasn't until he walked right over to where Ruby and Theo were sitting that the boy, and everyone around him, noticed his lack of clothing. While that bit of chaos ensued, Kuro was busy checking out the hot blonde chick next to him, eyes travelling all over her, while Jackson protested uselessly in Kuro's mind. 'What the hell, Kuro?!?! This isn't the time to be eyeballing some chick!' "Actually, it's the perfect time, and stop badgering me or I will stop my cloaking, do something that you'll regret, than leave ypu to face her righteous femine wrath." Kuro spoke freely, as he didn't have to worry about anyone or anything over hearing him. "You know, I have to figure out a way to do this to other people, especially chicks, imagine all the things we could do!" 'I don't have to, I can see it from here at it's never going to happen you perverted moron, and stop using that threat against me.' "Stop giving me a reason and let me be, and I will." 'You know my answer to that.' "And you know mine." Kuro chuckled, going back to his shameless staring before he decided to play a little prank on Jackson. He turned off his power, instantly becoming noticeable again. "Hey there beautiful, my names Jackson and I think I'm in love with you." Kuro said before his eye glazed over for a split second, the dark azure orbs went from being filled with a cool confidence to a frenzied panic as he just sat there with his mouth open before he seemed to collapse on himself, hiding his face in his arms as they laid on the table, cursing Kuro with every word in the book in his head.

((Collab Post between Lord Santa and Letter Bee)) Flashback Before returning to the International Heroes headquarters, Cedric Wessex, the (nominal) Big Good of the Reformist Movement, went down to the StuCorp Labs to meet up with Trickster, and perhaps Alto if he remembered the meeting. Nevertheless, the young man, his 20-year old visage curious as ever, went to a secluded alcove near the Drone Development Wing and waited... A man in a dark blue suit walked through the front door of Stu corp labs, with neatly combed brown hair and a clean-shaven face. His black shoes echoed on the marble floor as he strode towards the reception desk. He approached the desk and tried to grab the receptionist's attention. "Excuse me." The man called. "I'm here for an appointment with... someone who's expecting the Trickster." "Ah, that would be Mr. Wessex," said the receptionist, "he's currently in the labs," the woman's voice sounded tired, as though she had seen this sort of thing before; seen it all, even. Should the Trickster go to said labs, he would find a distinctive and distinguished-looking person, whose brown hair and blue eyes, combined with a deceptively soft-looking face, gave off a look of both maturity and innocence, accentuated by his longcoat, which covered his T-Shirt and Jeans. The receptionist had given the man more information than she knew. The man knew that Wessex was the name of the leader of the reformation council. Quite the lofty position to be relying on someone with as shifty a personality as the Trickster, and one might wonder exactly why a leader of the reformation council would do so. The only answer would be because the Trickster could get a job done, and the job likely included things which weren't exactly legal. The advantage of hiring a mercenary company was that they could do things normally outside the bounds of law, and it appeared like it was the case now. The brown haired man smiled. It would be an interesting job. ----------------- The man paced into the labs of Stucorp, looking around at the technology inside. It wasn't an amount to laugh at, and Stucorp were one of the most technologically advanced companies on the planet. The man walked slowly, and finally found his employer. A 20 year old man with brown hair and blue eyes. "Hello, Mr. Wessex. You seem to have hired the Trickster for a job." The man called out, walking in slow measured paces before coming to a stop a few meters away from Cedric. "I'm here to sort out the details of said job." Cedric smiled, seemingly unsurprised by the arrival of either the Trickster or a representative - it was hard to know with illusionists. Nevertheless, if he can get the Trickster to do a job for him, either way would be good. "Okay," Cedric continued, "the problem is that I need an unusually subtle person for said job, and the three people I currently have on-hand in LA - sorry Light! - cannot be depended on for subtlety. Basically, I need to know more about the Underground Movement, which, as you would already know, is a group of Metas who want to destroy the current peace, a peace that I have been tasked to maintain. I have already been contacted by one of their members, and I have recieved a...prediction that they're doing something big. Actually..." he said, "...you may be the solution to a problem that's besetting me." "Basically, a new Metahuman is about to be born in two weeks; his conception accelerated by the nature of his DNA. This Metahuman, when born, can transform into a tree whose fruits grant perfect healing to a Metahuman, and can give Metahuman powers to a Non-Metahuman. I want the surrogate mother bearing him taken from the Underground Movement and brought to a place where she can be saved from her accelerated pregnancy. And, I won't lie; I want the child myself," for Elena, for peace, for the physical salvation of All Humanity, Meta or Non-Meta. "So from that, I'm assuming you want the mother alive." The man said. "Well, that's probably manageable. But do you have any other information about the underground movement? I'm sure you do, and it's necessary." "I just discovered today - from a source that I don't want to use again - that they have a base under New Sun Corporation's tower. I'm not allowed to invade it just yet due to me needing evidence, but I can probably find some in about...two weeks. Perhaps sooner." "Well, that's fine." The man sad, light traces of disappointment in his voice. "I didn't expect you to have anything... Well, nevermind." He walked up to Cedric and stuck out his hand. "Consider this job taken." He smiled. "The Trickster is in your employ. We can discuss the payment details later." Cedric grasped Loki's - not that he knew his name - hand. And that was that. The man smiled and began walking away. At the door, he turned back and said his goodbyes. "We look forward to working with you, Mr. Wessex." The man said, his tone that of a proffessional. With that, he walked out of the door.

Bo's fingers rapped on the door as she went on, vaguely threatening him once more as she was so accustomed, before presenting some sort of vague question to him about a way to cure his hunger pains. Sure, it would be nice to have his pain cure, but it wasn't something that would make up for the hunt and the feast. What kind of fucking thrill was that? Whatever, at least he could stave off the pain and maybe go hero. When baddies refuse to give up, he could always take em down and eat em up. Who'd give him shit for doing his job? Shit, even if they did; he was the former leader of one of the fastest uprising merc groups on the eastern half of the US and that was when he only fought with his fists and the dampening power. He could fend them off and get the hell outta dodge before they could make a grab on him. There was no way he was going to deny the very core of his power, the core of his being. No fucking way. It was when he was about to speak that he caught a movement on her vaguely human face, the dampening having done a solid job at making her look less toonish. She was much more pleasing to the eyes now, but the person she was and her cartoonish bullshit was still beneath that facade. The movement he noticed was one of annoyance, something that came through her earpiece seemed to say this was taking too long. That she had some place to be. It'd have to do. "Listen," Bo sighed, leaving the door open as he walked into the kitchen, rummaging through a door for a pen before ripping a napkin and going to write something down. "I'm going to give you my number and you're going to call me [i][b]later[/i][/b] when you're done with whatever it is your ear piece is telling you to do and you've gotten the shit sorted out for me. I'll be here and I won't be leaving until you take care of your end of the bargain." Bo stepped toward her again, shoving the napkin in her hand before returning to the door. "So go, get everything sorted out and I'll discuss terms with you or your boss over dinner. We'll call it a date." Bo paused, drumming his fingers once more on the wooden door, "Don't make this any more difficult than it already has to be." "Ruby, you bitch" H snarled as another spike of pain seared through his head like a hot poker. He ran along the city streets, following the scent of raspberries that was leading straight to the neighboring park, practically in arms reach of the club. She was there, with another guy who he swore he recognized. He was there the day he kidnapped Ruby, wasn't he? So was the pyro from earlier now that H thought about it. "Huh," he frowned, his pace slowing down to a crawl before he eventually stopped and watched the two at a distance, feeling the fog slowly lift from his mind. The two piled into a cab after a minute or two of talking and Harper took a deep breath, focusing on the rooftop across the street. "C'mon..." he whispered in a shallow breath, attempting a jaunt. He arrived on shaky feet, retching at the sudden sensation of tearing through time and space. It was always awful the first few times he jumped after being injured or, in this case, mind fucked by a sonic screech. His sea legs, or jaunting legs, were under him in no time as he began to jaunt rooftop by rooftop keeping a close eye on the car. Thankfully due to his power he had to do no more than walk at an even pace and allow his power to do the rest of the work when he reached the end of a rooftop. The car stopped and the pair exited, one going one way with his robot friends while Ruby went another with a new robot friend of her own. Harper made to effort to teleport after her until he saw he enter the cafe, which he appeared at the door of shortly after she entered. He had given her a few minutes to do whatever she needed with the machine before making his appearance and slid into the shop without making much noise. There was already plenty a distraction in the form of a bewildered, nude boy. For what was something that had happened in the single digits since he and Ruby had known one another, Harper laughed and sat down at a table by the door. "I was going to drag you out of here," he finally worked out as his laughter subsided, "but I think that can wait a minute. I wanna see how this plays out." Harper had a bit of a smirk on his face as he watched the events unfold before him, leaning on his knee as he took in the events. He wasn't entirely cruel, at the very least, leaving her the option to bug out in the form of his open hand laying on the table. Much like the first time they met, all she had to do was take his hand and he was a get out of jail free card.

Despite her strangeness and the effect she'd seemed to have on Casper The Owlman was legitimately sad to see the woman go. He would have been fine talking with her, and really hoped that she contacted him again, but sometimes you had to prioritize and Casper was the important thing right now. As if the begrudge him the thought he felt a vibration in his pants pocket. This was a slightly trickier prospect than grabbing things from his jacket pockets. He carefully reached in with his index and thumb talons and slowly pulled out what looked like a compact mirror as thought it were a prize in a claw game. He let the thing slide into the palm of his hand, and it should come as no surprise at this point that the whole thing was stylized to look like an owl face. He pressed down on the eyes of the top of the device with his index and middle talon, allowing the compact to pop open and revel both a screen and a pair of speakers. A few words were flashing on the screen. Velocity Max the famous hero? Now? He was getting called in now? He looked back at Casper and wanted to screech in frustration like he used to, back before he'd gotten all the rules worked out. He knew he was probably breaking some rule showing her this, but he didn't want to run off and leave her like she was. He held out the device to her, spinning it around to let her see the screen. Then he reached into the side of his jacket that he'd pulled the card from earlier, but felt around until his talons fell into a different pocket. From this one he withdrew one of the Reformist Council business cards, which he handed to her before tapping himself twice on the chest. This was the trickier part. He held up his hand, palm facing her, before slowly reaching out to a large rip she had in one sleeve. He didn't touche her, just brushed the inside of the rip to indicate it, then tapped the card in her hand before making the same "shall we go" gesture as before. He really hoped she'd gotten everything he was trying to convey.

"Alright Tribuo Spero, it looks like our 'investor' wants to unveil you today. He's already set up some kind of deal with multiple news stations. If you look out a window you should see some of their helicopters." A voice spoke over Overdrive's internal radio. Doing as the voice said Overdrive peered out of one of the many side windows, and so it was that many colorful helicopters circled around what appeared to be a bank. The voice suddenly sparked to life again, this time with more information. "Overdrive, keep in mind this is a real threat. I have absolute confidence you can take care of this, and as soon as you return to base I've already got some upgrades in mind." "Sounds fine, but why am I here?" "There's been a meta-human bank robbery; the leader looks like he can actually suck the life out of people. As for his two other accomplices, one can seemingly coat himself in metal and the other can manipulate light into a weapon somehow. Mission clock starts at 0800, move in when you're ready." "Just make sure you're watching this time." Overdrive said as he slid back the helicopters doors, as soon as he did wind bombarded the inner compartment, without even hesitating Overdrive leaped out. Now descending several meters a second Overdrive's auditory sensors could 'hear' the wind rushing against him as he fell. Overdrive landed in a pose with his left hand touching the ground, his right in a bent position, his right knee against the floor and his other facing forwards; his landing created a slight crater but other than that he was fine. Standing up Tribuo quickly made his way over to the police line. The cops raised a few eyebrows at his presence, but the quickly identified him and allowed him passage. "Attention Meta terrorists, come out with your hands up." Overdrive spoke, his synthetic vocal cords adjusted themselves as needed. A beam of light suddenly rushed out of the building, taking advantage of his light speed reactions Overdrive simply side stepped the blast and allowed it to hit a building, bringing down blocks of mortar down in the process. They made their choice. Overdrive's visor suddenly began to glow red instead of his passive blue. Damn, I should have taken that shot. Deciding to correct his mistake he quickly rushed through the buildings glass doors, as he rushed through his metal body caused the glass to explode forwards, and the metal frames danced around his body until the landed in a broken position on the floor. "Oh shit! Get'em!" One of the masked burglars shouted, It appeared he was the leader as one of the other metas lifted their hands up and barraged Overdrive with multiple beams, the blasts seemed to sizzle through the air until they harmlessly collided with Overdrive's advanced chassis. "You're going to need something hotter than that!" Deciding to return his fire he aimed his arm mounted cannon up at the robber, in that moment Hayden could see the man's fear and hesitated, however the robber had no reservations and continued his barrage. I have to get my head in the game, this guy was willing to hurt people. So I hurt him, but not too much. I still have to look friendly.. His weapon began to glow a bright red before multiple beams of red plasma crashed against the robber, burning through his clothes and leaving darkened marks on his skin. The robber screamed violently before he fainted on the ground. "You fucker!" The only other meta shouted in anger, he then began to stretch slightly and his very skin seemed to become metal; with his transformation complete he rushed at Overdrive. The two massive metal beings collided against each other, their hands pushed against each other, the meta's face scrunched as he was clearly at his limit, unfortunately for him Overdrive was not. Lifting him high up into the air Overdrive quickly slammed him into the floor; the resulting collision made a loud thud, and shattered the marble floor tiles. Switching his own vision he began to cycle between multiple settings of vision, finally settling on his 'Meta-Hunter' mode he noticed quite a few were present around the bank, most likely eager to see some action. But only one figure was in the back of the bank, next to a door holding some kind of rifle. Although the door was closed the armed Meta most likely heard him coming as he began fidgeting with his rifle. "You won't need that." Overdrive said as he shoved his hand through the wall, grabbing the Meta by his neck, and placing him in a headlock. Tribuo only held him long enough to knock him out, feeling the Meta's resistance slowly stop, he gladly let go; allowing the meta a peaceful sleep inside the bank wall. Overdrive's visor slowly returned to a passive light blue, and his stance changed back to normal, as if nothing had happened. "Mission complete, the Metas are down." "I knew you could do it, stay there and wait for the company vehicle to come back. I want to do some maintenance on the way home." "Of course Doctor." Overdrive replied, seemingly talking to nobody in particular.

Insomnium smiled as he saw the robot destroy the bank robbers. 'Now that is some quality engineering. Let's see how badly I can wreck it.' Insomnium was currently hidden in a neaby alley, and thus went unseen as shadow's crawled over his body, soon forming a strange looking armor, like that of a knight, with pulsating lines of red energy pulsing thorough it. He collected a large amount of shadows around himself in the form of a cloak, only adding to his rather intimidating appearance. 'Good thing Damien's sleeping, or else I'd have to litsen to him bitch about how badly this is going to end up. Which is stupid, I'm just going to walk in, beat the crap out of that robot, and walk out. Unless it doesn't want to fight, in which case I just walk away. Probably.' With this in mind, Insomnium pushed his way thorough the crowd stopping just at the police line, and stood there, think of a way he could get the bot to actually fight him. Considering this was the first time he'd seen or heard of the thing, it must be a test drive or something. Well then, let's give it a real test. "Marvelous work," Insomnium began, his voice distorted by his shadows to be much deeper and animalistic, "Put taking out weak-meta trash like that is a poor excuse for a test if you ask me. If you really want this thing, or guy if there's a person inside it, to be tested, how about a friendly rumble with me. The only way to find out what's wrong is to push something to it's limits. So let's push this wind-up robot till it breaks and see if it can keep going after that, If not, then I'll leave, but I'm bored and your way of testing a fighting machine is just too mild. Tough that is my own opinion as an extremist in all things combat related." Insomnium then sat down on a police car, somehow snatched a donut box from inside one of them, and began to eat them, the donuts sinking into his helmet where his mouth would be. He wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, last time he checked any way. Besides, if he was needed for anything, he'd get a call on his special pager. He'd gotten no call, thus he wasn't busy. He had time for this and, hopefully, so did Robo-cop over there.

Washington DC The Oval Office was full with leaders of the Executive and Congress. Behind the the twelve hundred pound Resolute Desk was the President. She was in her ruby pantsuit, she was looking at the couch to her left. On that couch was the handsome Speaker of the House of Representatives, Roland Martin. From the other side of the aisle and a man that ran against her Martin criticized meta policy. Sitting the couch to her right was the Vice President, Davis Lawton. Lawton was previously governor of Oregon and White House Chief of Staff. He was tapped for the ticket as he was more conservative on the meta issue. Also there was the old Secretary of State, the young Defense Secretary, the heads of intelligence, and members of the Joint Chiefs. Siting along the wall of the Oval Office was the grey haired, well dressed Director David Abernathy. He sat and listened in on the meeting he remained quiet. The President discussed the domestic policy regarding Max Velicity's death. FBI stated they expected some protest, as did NSA. The Press Secretary stated that the death could be spun negatively for the White House. Especially now that they were in a full reelection mode. The Vice President stated he was worried. On the international side of things the state secretary said the Iraqi Foreign Minister asked him why Velocity Max was over his country. Iran mourned his death, the Islamic State were jubilant, Israel said nothing as did Russia, and Asia was still asleep. Though the British PM said flowery words about the man. Abernathy knew the PM in power since 2015 was worried he'd lose the upcoming General Election and had to play up his meta-sympathies. France was indifferent, Germany cold, Poland warm, and the Nordic nations odd. Abernathy smirked when the State Secretary tried to dodge the Italians but the President had to ask. Oh Italy, no stable government since Prime Minister "Bunga Bunga Corruption" left office. Oh well that was Italy. David knew the fools in Defense were trying to recruit metas to form a special unit of DoD operatives, last one was wipe out, again. IT was how the current Defense Secretary got his job. Last one was publicly and loudly fired by the President. Then came to the President herself, Abernathy knew she was tired. She had to deal with Russia's expansion into Eastern Ukraine, it's movements into Uzbekistan, and open invitation in Kazakhstan. Russia was in a current economic malaise that they brought onto themselves. China was buying from Russia only to avert the economy in China from popping. She did not want economic problems or war with Russia, though most Americans were for war with Russia, if it was not nuclear. She was worried about her opponent in the election, likely candidate and Governor of Texas, Hugh Reese. A Man the President called, "An asshole of the gargantuan proportions". Eh, at least he'd be stronger on defense though Abernathy. He knew the honest truth about humans and metas was war was ingrained into human consciousness from the beginning. Peace was a lull between wars. He kept these opinions to himself. For some reason the director of an intelligence group cannot have such opinions nowadays. He thought that was strange and silly, but that was humanity. They wanted war they just could not say they wanted war. Abernathy was pleased at this meeting he was not called upon by "Her Highness". As he left he smiled, he was happy the government was still wary of metas. IT did not hurt to have the POTUS see Elena Reyes, assistant Director of the FBI turn into a beast. IT scared the President and that was how he liked his presidents. Scared. Now he had to figure a way into the group of heroes so he could have an ear on what they were doing. But what was his solution that could be maintained. Abernathy left the oval office and headed out of the West Wing to a waiting car. Today was going to be a sadly normal day.

"Right... Well. I've got new orders so... Don't eat anymore people, else they might change my orders on ya." Light said, grabbing the note and leaving as a few more orders were given in her earpiece. As she moved away from Bo, she got back whatever powers she was missing due to his dampening field, yanked out a hole, and made her way back to LA. "Find a new meta to put on the team he says. Does he not realize how difficult that is? If they're not flashy or over the top about it, or robbing a bank or something, they can stay pretty well hidden." Light said to herself as she reached the rooftops of the city after a long travel jumping through hole after hole. Finding a needle in a haystack wasn't her idea of fun, especially since she was told to leave that cannibal man to find someone new to replace the meta that had just perished.

<Snipped quote by Alternax> Insomnium smiled as he saw the robot destroy the bank robbers. 'Now that is some quality engineering. Let's see how badly I can wreck it.' Insomnium was currently hidden in a neaby alley, and thus went unseen as shadow's crawled over his body, soon forming a strange looking armor, like that of a knight, with pulsating lines of red energy pulsing thorough it. He collected a large amount of shadows around himself in the form of a cloak, only adding to his rather intimidating appearance. 'Good thing Damien's sleeping, or else I'd have to litsen to him bitch about how badly this is going to end up. Which is stupid, I'm just going to walk in, beat the crap out of that robot, and walk out. Unless it doesn't want to fight, in which case I just walk away. Probably.' With this in mind, Insomnium pushed his way thorough the crowd stopping just at the police line, and stood there, think of a way he could get the bot to actually fight him. Considering this was the first time he'd seen or heard of the thing, it must be a test drive or something. Well then, let's give it a real test. "Marvelous work," Insomnium began, his voice distorted by his shadows to be much deeper and animalistic, "Put taking out weak-meta trash like that is a poor excuse for a test if you ask me. If you really want this thing, or guy if there's a person inside it, to be tested, how about a friendly rumble with me. The only way to find out what's wrong is to push something to it's limits. So let's push this wind-up robot till it breaks and see if it can keep going after that, If not, then I'll leave, but I'm bored and your way of testing a fighting machine is just too mild. Tough that is my own opinion as an extremist in all things combat related." Insomnium then sat down on a police car, somehow snatched a donut box from inside one of them, and began to eat them, the donuts sinking into his helmet where his mouth would be. He wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, last time he checked any way. Besides, if he was needed for anything, he'd get a call on his special pager. He'd gotten no call, thus he wasn't busy. He had time for this and, hopefully, so did Robo-cop over there.

With his mission completed Overdrive had walked to the front of the bank, while waiting for his ride home to arrive, Overdrive spent several minutes answering the questions he could. Questions like "How were you made?" or "What do you run on?", being told before hand to reveal nothing, Overdrive simply gave vague answers like "In a lab." or "A special power source." To their respective questions. But a certain voice drew the attention of his auditory sensors, the voice itself seemed to be warped, which drew his curiosity. Looking over at the being he seemed to be armored much like himself, but switching to his 'Meta vision, it was obvious he was just another human, or rather Meta. It was all the same to him, squishy things with powers and without, that was the only way he could truly tell them apart. Overdrive spent most of his life in the lab, his only human contact were various scientists and the officials of the company, but out of all of them he favored the Dr. Smith, though that was unimportant right now. "A friendly rumble in the middle of the city?" Overdrive asked, attempting to use what he could of sarcasm, he had only seen it being used so many times back at the labs. "Careful Overdrive, I don't want you ruining the company's reputation so soon." The Doctor Smith spoke through Overdrive's internal communicator, a voice that could only be heard by the android himself.

Insomnium nodded at the robot, than walked a short ways away from the crowd, out into the empty street. He lifted up his foot, than brought it down hard, a pillar of shadows rising and growing underneath him. It soon became a medium sized arena, elevated ofv the ground by several extrusions digging themselves into the sidewalk to support the structure. 'Ah, Damien will have to pay for that. Oh well, not my problem.' "There, a friendly rumble in the center of the city in an arena. That way, no collateral damage, most likely." Insomnium calked from on top of the structure. He was feeling a little tired from making the arena, but he stil felt good enough to fight. "So come on up, Robo-cop, I'm getting bored up here.

It seemed that trouble had a habit of hunting her down and letting its presence be known. Groaning softly, Ruby buried her head in her hands before parting her fingers slightly to give Theo a desperate look. "It's ok, Theo, I'll find out later. You may return to Alto now." She commanded with a quick nod as she made a list of priorities. First of all, she had to let Harper know how much of a bastard he was, even if she might have inflicted a serious case of shell-shock on him. "You know, you're a bit of a shit guardian, Harps. First of all, you barely even noticed when I got out of the compound which is extremely dangerous, considering I haven't been out in a number of years. Secondly, you allowed me to go and gallivant with a number of strange men that I imagine you had no prior knowledge on and then you allowed a strange man with robotic pre-pubescent girls take me in a taxi. And now, you're letting this pervert breath all over me! To put it bluntly, you're shit at your job." Yawning, she turned to deal with the naked teenage boy in front of her. Quirking an eyebrow at him, she sighed before shaking her head. "Listen here, kid; girls don't take it very kindly if you use your powers to perv on them. I advise you stop it or you'll run into a meta who will rip you into small shreds. Now, shoo before I have to set my dog on you." Settling back into her chair, she rolled her eyes before placing her palm in Harper's. "Go on, get me out of here." Fixing her glasses, the young blond woman paced through into her Boss, Isabella Lancaster's office. In one arm, an iPad was carefully balanced, detailing any news that she saw fit to inform her patron. In the other, she had the carefully manufactured cup of coffee that Isabella demanded daily. "Miss Lancaster." She spoke in greeting, placing the cup down before passing the iPad into her other hand so she could read down through the notices. "It seems that a particularly famous hero went and got himself killed. The footage might interest you. I've sent it to your account, Miss." "We've also retrieved a valuable candidate for the Rabbit Run. I imagine you might have a personal dislike of her yourself, ma'am; I've sent her file through to your account as well." Humming softly, she finally reached her last message which she frowned at. "Also Miss, I don't know exactly how this happened but Ruby Greenfoot was sighted conversing with the leader of the Reformists, Cedric Wessex. I've sent an inquiry team down to her room to check her state, or if she is even present."

Isabella Lancaster Isabella watched the footage of Max Velocity being killed by a mysterious woman, perhaps a Meta herself. This would certainly distract the Reformist Council from her plans for Eden, the boy that would propel her to Queenship of Metahumanity, and perhaps the world. Or not, considering the next news. Apparently, Ruby had been committing a bit of treason to the Underground Movement; that ungrateful little bitch. How dare she betray the very person who had helped save her life? Granted, that life-saving was the last time Isabella had cared for another person, but still... As for the Rabbit Run, the woman spoke: "About the Rabbit Run, I think that to wear down my consort Jaden's pesky little 'morals', we should include low-level Metas in the Rabbit Run as well, starting with those who serve Normal people, then moving on to those with weak or uncontrollable powers, and finally, any Meta who sort of displeases me. The only 'good' that Jaden should recognize should be what is good for me." A thought came to Isabella; she could probably avert Cindy Wade's death using her biomancy powers, but to be honest, Jaden's morals needed to be worn down more anyway, and making him responsible for Cindy's death would be, well... But enough of this. To return to the subject of Ruby, Isabella thought of a punishment. Finally, an idea came to her. "Tell Ruby and Harper that the former would be confined inside a room with no high technology except a panel with a current running through it. This will cause Harper, out of chivalry, to protest, and offer to take the punishment himself. Once he makes the offer, have him whipped in front of Ruby - that's the real punishment."

"Don't be a wuss Felix. We gotta do this. There aint no option cause its either them or us, and damnit...I ain't finna lose my life cause you wanna puss out. We do what the Squall says. Period." This is what Charlie was hearing as he discreetly peered from around the corner in the alleyway. The Squall?, Charlie thought to himself. This was too weird. Charlie had never been in a situation such as this. It felt like a suspense drama, or maybe a thriller? He had once read a book where a similar incident like this had occurred. Luckily, the character was able to withdraw without being noticed. Maybe he should do the same. He knew better that reality didn't always pan out like a book. Charlie sat his back against the wall quietly and slowly lifted himself up like a serpent until he was standing upright. As he began to slowly etch his way back to the street, he paused. A new voice had entered into the fray. It was female for sure. Curiosity always kills the cat, but he couldn't quench the sudden compulsion to stay. He slinked back over to the edge of the wall and peered around the corner once more. The one who was doing most of the talking was the taller man, dark-haired, mustache and beard, looked Indian, but from the angle that Charlie was at, he couldn't completely tell. His accent definitely indicated as such though. The one he was being aggressive to was the much shorter and pudgier white man, maybe 5'2, bald, with a tattoo of what looked like a thunderhead on the side of his head, just above his left ear. The Indian man had one as well, on his neck. Charlie glared intently as the woman whose voice he had heard approached. She was an African-American woman, very beautiful no doubt, with curly hair pulled into a bun and she was wearing a black pencil skirt. Same as the two men, she also had a thunderhead tattoo, but on the front of her leg. She walked up to them like a model on a runway, and stood in between the both of them and in a quick flash she karate chopped the Indian in the throat and punched the Caucasian man in the stomach. Felix, the white man, crouched down in pain as he gripped his arms around his stomach. The Indian began coughing harshly, wailing his arms about briefly as he tried to catch in some air. He looked at her grimly. "What the fuck was that for? Got dammit!", he belted at her angrily. She rolled her neck and looked at them both with furrowed eyes, waiting momentarily until they recovered from her assault. "You both are idiots...", she began softly, nonchalantly taking out a cigar from her purse and lighting it with a Betty Boop lighter. She took an uncaring puff, blowing some of the smoke into the Indian man's eyes and chuckling lightly as he winced and weezed. "Clearly, you pair of porch monkeys are too incompetent to realize when your being watched.", she said blankly, her eyes jolting to meet with Charlie's. As she pointed her finger directly at him, her other hand slowly moved toward her mouth, allowing her to take another puff. Charlie's heart began to palpitate and his mind began to race.How could she have seen me?, he briefly thought. As clear as day and the with the expression on his face, he was suddenly afraid for his life.

Insomnium nodded at the robot, than walked a short ways away from the crowd, out into the empty street. He lifted up his foot, than brought it down hard, a pillar of shadows rising and growing underneath him. It soon became a medium sized arena, elevated ofv the ground by several extrusions digging themselves into the sidewalk to support the structure. 'Ah, Damien will have to pay for that. Oh well, not my problem.' "There, a friendly rumble in the center of the city in an arena. That way, no collateral damage, most likely." Insomnium calked from on top of the structure. He was feeling a little tired from making the arena, but he stil felt good enough to fight. "So come on up, Robo-cop, I'm getting bored up here.

"Well it's crude, but it should work. If you want you're more than welcome to join him, I'm confident you'll win." The Doctor's voice sounded once again inside the androids' head. Overdrive shrugged, the offer for a 'friendly rumble' seemed somewhat suspicious, but training against someone confident would be a good experience. "Alright then." Overdrive said as he launched himself into the air with a mighty leap, and landed himself on the far end of the arena. "I'm ready when you are." Overdrive spoke as he placed himself into a comfortable fighting position, his eyes slowly began to glow a bright red instead of it's previously passive blue.

"If that is your wish, Empress, then I will take my leave." Theo stood up from his chair, and started to walk away from the table. He took one last backward glance before he willed his physical form to collapse and return to the Emperor. He started to dissolve into glowing blue energy starting from the head going down and when the dissolution reached his feet, his consciousness suddenly shifted and he was back in his original body. "Emperor," He said, "I have returned." "Oh, hey Theo." Alto said, looking down at his left arm. "How did it go?" "We were cut short," He replied, "It is likely the Empress would have questioned further, but her guardian arrived." "Bummer. Would've been interesting, I suppose." Alto was currently working in one of the maintenance labs, on a robot arm that had been sent in by one of his part-timers. Currently the arm he was working on was probably the only legal rocket punch robot arm in existence. Con could do a rocket punch, but Con wasn't really a robot. Still, this isn't exactly the best for her. The owner of the robot arm he was working on worked sometimes for Alto's secret mercenary company, Illegal Stuff Pty. Ltd. Although she was only ever interested in contract assassination. Actually, one of his other part timers also seemed to prefer contract assassination, or just any kind of job he could fight people. Being part of Illegal Stuff Pty. Ltd. was kind of bad for contract assassination because Alto mainly took jobs like robbing a bank or infiltration and stuff. Don't know why she'd ever use this. He sighed. He had a lot of work to do tonight, firstly he had to fill a few hacking orders he'd gotten for the company and then he'd have to check over the details of the compound that Ruby had sent over to Theo. "Con, can you run some simulations on this arm please?" "Yes, master." As Con ran some tests, he reflected a little on his workload. Maybe it was a bad idea to simultaneously run a mercenary corporation and a technology corporation at the same time. "It should work as intended, master." "Cool. Got it done in..." He looked uo at the clock, "About 10 minutes? That was fast." He picked up another robot limb in need of repair, this one was pretty standard. "It's almost time to go home." He said, "The future promises to be interesting."

The red glow of Insomnium's armor intensified and began to pulsate as he charged forward, moving fast but not overwhelmingly so. His constructs were, however, as 5 balls of shadows shot up from the Arena floor around Robo-Cop and proceeded to bcome out lined in red energy before exploding violently. Insomnium wasn't focused on that, he had seen the guy move earlier, it was most likely to fast for something like that. Instead he kept his eyes and senses open for where ever he moved to, forming several spears made of shadows to go flying after him. They'd also become outlined in red before exploding as soon as they got near the robot man. Insomnium would also be running towards his position, creating a pair of blades to be dual-wielded, extruding his limited control over the 'Light', as Damien liked to call it, to coat said blades, giving them a jagged, white outline. It wasn't the strong, but it would be enough to slightly paralyze a regular human being, and robot's were usually more susceptible to such things, so it was worth a shot. He would lash out with a furious barrage of slashes and strikes, aiming for the joints so as to see if he could disable the bot. Jackson could only sink deeper into his arms as he heard the lady chastise him. What was he supposed to say, 'I'm sorry, it wasn't me but some alternate persona in my head that made me say it.' Yeah, he may have been isolated from people for all of his life, but even he knew that wouldn't work. As he was sinking into despair, he heard something from the T.V running in the upper corner of the cafe that instantly drew his attention. Janus Corp. On the T.V screen was a newswoman, he didn't know her name, who face was pale as she stood in front of the Headquarters of the Tech company, Janus Corp. While it wasn't the at the top of the market, and had a reputation for illegal activity, it had still been a rather powerful company. And now everyone inside the building had been slaughtered, if the woman was to be believed. She didn't explain how beyond the horridness of it, but Jackson didn't need her to say anything. As he sank back into his seat, deeper than before, he covered his ears to ward of the screams of terror and pain that began to assault him, but hone can't hide from their own mind. The cafe faded away as he remembered the events that had happened only a few hours ago. It had been a regular day in hell, painful experiments in the morning followed by tiring training. He had been about to do something, he had forgotten, when he felt a familiar pressure take hold. A dark insanity that chilled him to the bone. Mu had awoken. He fell over, trying to hold him back, waiting for the scientist to bring the usual lab rat for Mu to sate his bloodlust on,but instead they placed him in a cage and clamped him in special restraints designed to dampen his Reality shifting abilities, and waited. They ignored his pleading and begging, intent to watch as he struggled against the demon inside of him. Soon, Mu over powered him, making his way to the fore and silencing his cries. He only stared at each and everyone of the scientists, his eyes filled with a broken glee and a twisted smile that oozed malicious intent. And the thoughts that rang forth were the same as always. 'Kill them, break them, bend them, rip the flesh, crush the bones, drain the veins, smash their heads into the wall.' Over and over, these thoughts filled the mind, each one conjuring up image after image of the gruesome act they defined. And even with them knowing the danger, they did nothing but watch. But Mu was patient, always patient, waiting for his chance. An hour passed, then two, then three. It had only just reached the fourth hour when he escaped. One second he was in his restraints, the next he had a man by the throat with tendrils made from the metal on the floor, choking the life out of him. The guards opened fire, but their bullets seemed to bounce off of a invisible shield and ricochet back at twice the speed, hitting them all in the brain, as well as others. Mu finished off the man he held by crushing his throat before turning around to face the other occupants in the room, a single word on his lips. "Die." What followed next was a horror show of blood, guts, and mayhem. Mu worked his way up from the basement levels to the very top of the building where the CEO was hiding scared with his vice president. And Mu wasn't without a sense of humor, sadly for the both of them, as he dragged them down to the lobby, which had been closed to the public at this time and every elcetronic device in the building short-circuiting due to the distortions of reality, and opened the Vice-president up, using his blood to right a message to all who would witness this scene. Right above Janus Corp Insignia, he wrote, "They made their choice, they opened the door, and now the beast has been unleashed upon the earth. Chaos will reign and they will be to blame. So spite this man for taking the name of a god, for wanting the powers of a god. His avarice will be this worlds downfall." And right in the middle of the insignia, one would find the CEO of Janus Corp, dead with his vice president's face sewed onto the back of his head. Jackson shook from the memories, feeling like he was going to vomit from what he could remember. He knew it wasn't him that had done those things, not really, but it felt like it was him. Every time his persona's take over, it feel like their wants and desires became his wants and desires. It was so hard not to feel guilty for what Mu had done, when he himself felt the absolute bliss that over took him when a life was stolen. Sad as he was to say it, Jackson had yet to experience something that felt as good to him as murder and bloodshed was to Mu. And that scared him, it truly did scare him. And so Jackson kept his heads down, silently crying as he cursed himself, Kuro keeping quiet as he knew exactly what Jackson needed right now, some peace and quiet. Kuro had been the one to wake up afterwards, in n alley not far from the building. He'd gone unnoticeable and left, trying not to gag at the sight of 5 alley cats and 4 rats that had been ripped apart. He'd made his way to this cafe, stolen some clothes and bam, here they were. Not a penny to their name, homeless, and not an idea where to go. Well, things could be worse right?

Light was moving through the streets of LA, casually looking for metas while enjoying the sights. She wasn't very confident that she would find any metas until she saw a giant chunk of rock just floating above the city. "Well... don't see that everyday..." Light said to herself as she made her way there. Popping out of a hole on top of the giant chunk of rock, Light got to a high point and watched the fight between two metas. She didn't know why they were fighting, but they at least had the decency to fight where civilians couldn't get hurt. Unless she was noticed, she'd probably report the winner to the agency or something. Though Cedric will probably want them both.

"Well either the wise old owl is gonna rape that poor girl or he's gonna help her. Either way there isn't much I can do without making a mess of it. Let's go." Eli spoke so plain that his new personal assistant was almost in a state of utter shock. As they walked away from the park. Eli and his driver, one Eva Adams who had no real use for. "So, are you driving me home and that's the end of it or did one of the Hardy boys assign you to me?" Eli asked with a furrowed eye brow. "I have been assigned to be your personal assistant until other wise noticed." She stated her voice somewhere between pride and frustration.  Pride in her job and how well she knee she did it, frustration with the like Elijah Craigh. "Well... Jolly good then... Drive the fucking car then Personal Assistant Eva  Adams." Eli said waving towards the driver seat of the opulent vehicle. As they both took their respective seats, Eli noticed just how nice this thing was. As someone who just spent the past six months chilling with monks in China, even just the basic American amenities would have been amazing. This car however was  an ultra-luxury car on par with nothing he'd ever seen. Soft leather everywhere, small touch screen that played the role of an on board tablet,  feature after feature, luxury after luxury. Eli whished he'd never notice what was in the car.  A few miles down the road, Eli was plotting his next step. He needed information on this underground meta movement. He needed someone with fingers with in all the honey pots as it were. "Heard any urban legends lately? Pay a guy here and your wife or problems go away kinda thing?" Eli asked looking for a place to start his search for intell. Urban legends were always a great place to start, there was always s grain of truth to it. He was living proof of it. Not long ago he lived and breathed the name Baba Yaga, a name given to him by the leaders of the Russian Mob. Baba Yaga was an old Slavic folktale, one where the an old which by the name of Baba Yaga was seen as both evil and benevolent. Baba would either help you, or kill you, there was seldom any in between. Eva looked into the rear view mirror and responded to his question. "Word has it there's a guy seen with a gas mask across town. Rumor say he's really-. " She was cut off by Elijah's inpatients. "Get there and I'll do the rest. A guy like that always stands outs. People always talk." Within an hour or two Eli was standing in office that seemed like it was around seventy years old. No real sign of any technology, an old typewriter, a nice desk and some old beaten up filing cabinets were only things that stood out to him. That and a pretty decent bottle of scotch that he gladly drank from. The more he looked around the more he couldn't help but notice just organized everything. Manila folders where neatly pressed but heavy and filled. Eli and his curiosity or just his own reckless abandonment almost demanded that he open a file. He smiled when saw what was in it. A dossier on a C level nobody he had never heard of.  Plans and tactics to take out this meta. A small history, and just about every detail one could ask for was present. This was just some creeper stalking, this was a pure work of art. Setting down on the desk, Eli walked over to the cabinets and starting opening them. Eli felt like he had a hit s gold mine of information. This was exactly what he needed. This however did feel s little to easy but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He pulled out three files, Isabella Lancaster, Jaden McFadden and his own. Eli's vanity was too great not read his own file first. It was more detailed then even Eli had thought possible. Who ever did this was a little too good at their job for their own good. Eli had one benefit, he had been gone for so long that this file, while detailed to the brim was still a little out of date. He was happy to see that he was list as extremely dangerous. The next file he went to was that of Jaden McFadden. This file was uncomfortably light. Almost like there was a reason on not fill this out like his was. There was something off about that Eli couldn't figure out. With as much details that was his own file, he'd expect the same would true would for most if not all. Eli wasn't a fool experience had been too good of a teacher. This wasn't a place to dabble, his gut told him there was much more to Jaden McFadden's file than meets the eye. Could who ever owned this office be in Jaden's employ? It would make sense as the file the basic details but what made him think there was more was a marking that noted Jaden as extremely dangerous. The only useful bit of information was a number scrawled at the top. Eli entered it into his phone and saved it. "Well at least I got that much. Still so little... Employer would make sense but shit why a file on an employer? Well I've killed most of mine but still something isn't right here... Fuck it." Eli said in a hush tone. This was no place to hang around. He had wasted enough time here. He replaced all the files ignoring the Lancaster file completely. He put his file in front of the typewriter and left his name and number on it, Eli also stole the bottle of Scotch. One day he might learn to stop poking the bear so much, but it wasn't gonna be today. He snuck back out and got back into the car. "Personal Assistant Eva Adams, I'll never forget when I got back from the war and I bought my momma a new car. A brand new Cadillac, she said "Son! Ive always said if your gonna be a Bear be a grizzly but this is a Kodiak! There I learned if you go, go big. I guess what I'm trying to say is... Drive the damn car. We're gonna make a stop and then its on to café Lattitude." When she was done rolling her eyes. After the aforementioned stop was made Eli was ready to poke the bear. He chuckled at the Hardy boys, Cedric and Stewie would say. They would both more then likely have a heart attack if they knew what he was doing. Just the same he made the call. Now armed with a handgun, three magazines and an extremely rare bottle of bourbon. He paused for a second and thought about what the consequences might be. The Dali Lama again in his head, yet he chose to ignore every bit of it. He waited for an answer on the end of the line. When he heard the line open up, Eli struck while the iron was hot. "Uh, hi. My name is Elijah Craigh, and I'd like to talk to you about the fucking tree baby thing your planning. Fancy a drink?" It was then Eli realized, he maybe ought not to have antagonized this guy so early on.

((Collab Post between Letter Bee and Raijinslayer)) William Plantagenet, once one of Cedric Wessex's mentors, and normal person who managed to make it out of several skirmishes involving Metas alive and intact, had not had a good retirement. Basically, he felt unable to fit into normal society, just as unable as any Metahuman, due to all the things he'd seen, all the things he had done. It was good that his pupil had taken to the life of a Hero well, but, sadly, he wasn't there to see it. He had retired at a very early age; only 28 (this was allowed because of his being part of the final assault on Aperture Tech; special benefits were granted to all soldiers who partook in that operation), and this had helped in his out-of-placedness. He had tried getting a new job, but would up fired fromom most of them...except the security ones. Now those he took up with a passion, working for various corporations...and collecting information on them, just in case they wanted to become another Aperture. And true to form, some of them wanted to be. For Aperture's example was not a deterrent to most MegaCorps; rather, for some of them, it opened their eyes to the possibilities. For a moment, one of them had stood up to the boogeyman of Big Government and tried to create a society where 'a man is entitled to the sweat of his brow' - sorry, Bioshock! - and had almost won. And, in retaliation, Big Government had imposed new laws and controls while Class Traitors like Gary Stuart profited from their discomfiture. So there was a lot of discontent, and William had been working to make sure that such discontent never turned into another threat. Like Constantine Ramiel King - Insert - before him, he had infiltrated his way into a few of the most dangerous corps, including JanusCorp. And that was where he made his most horrible discovery; the company was torturing a Metahuman of exceptional power. Of course, he had been found out and fired, and preparations had been made for his death in a few days. However, it seemed as though there weren't a few days, as just after he had been fired, the heirarchy of JanusCorp had been killed by the very person they were tormenting. A few moments after hearing of what had happened from a sympatethic former security officer (as well as a few bugs he had placed), William began looking for Jackson in the general area, using a Meta-Scanner given to him by his former employers... A Few Minutes Later William managed to arrive at Lattetude, the semi-famous cafe, just as a sixteen-year old clad only in underwear was thrown out. It wasn't Jackson, but Will knew that the former had something to do with this. Walking inside the establishment, his green eyes caught Ruby and her bodyguard, but he pointedly refused to notice them; his former protege, Cedric, will take care of them. Instead, he looked towards the crying Jackson, and, making sure not to touch him, spoke kindly: "Hey, there, kid." Jackson froze, looking up to see the man who had addressed him, his eyes distrusting of any man in a suit. He'd spent his life watching men in suits go byy as he lay suffering under their twisted experiments, and seen them stare with nary a hint of concern on their face. This one was different though, he did seemed to be concerned about him, which meant he knew what had happened. Or he was helping a kid who was crying in the middle of a cafe. Still, maybe he could use some help, but Jackson didn't trust himself to act calmly in a sitaution like this, didn't trust this man that had approached him out of the blue. His eys glazed over, and timid fear and mistrust changed into cool anger and a calculating stare. "One, Don't call me kid, Two, who the hell are you, and Three, What the hell do you want with me? Answer in a way I like, and you might be able to leave her with more dignity than the last guy to leave the place. Got it?" Kuro wasn't going to trust this guy, not until he had proof that he wasn't going to lock him up in another cell, just like the last man to come and comfort him in his time of sorrow. Kuro may not have been the best person, but he did consider himself to be Jackson's protector, his street smart big brother. The fact that he was neither older than Jackson, nor knew anything more about the streets than Jackson. did was irrelevant. "All right, Kuro, he said. My name is William Plantagenet, former soldier for the Reformist faction in the Establishment back when they were but a faction. n. I retired after the battle in Aperture, and, after some years of retirement, began infiltrating corporaorations like the one that tortured you. I'm here to rescue you and see to your healing." William held out his hands to show that he had no current weapons, although he had an assault rifle strapped to his back, and pistols, knives, and grenades on his belt. Kuro's face scrunched into a scowl when the man called him by who he was, not liking him already. Only people from Janus knew who he was, and according to the rest of this guy's story, he technically was from them. As for the rest o what he said, Kuro had no idea who or what the hell any of that was. "Who the hell are these 'Reformists', and why the hell should I trust you or anyone else in a big corporation or what ever the hellit is, huh? If you know who I am, then you know what was done to me, and you know what Nothing can do to you." Kuro said, speaking the meaning of Mu's name instead of actually saying it. He didn't want to risk having that maniac wake up, even if it was unlikely. It's best not to rock the boat and all that. "And I must say, that's a lot of gear to have on you for a "Rescue" mission," Kuro added the air quotes with his fingers, his tone speaking of how much he believed the man, which was not at all. "So don't bother with the whole empty hands bit, okay?" "All right, all right," said William, who then continued: "I know what was done to you, and what Mu can do. And the fact that I'm still here shows that I'm not scared - okay, maybe a little. Because, believe me, I'm not gonna come here, facing certain death, if I meant any harm to you. Because, believe me," the ex-soldier said, "despite the heavy gear I carry, I know that it's not going to be of much help if you really wanted to harm me." He sighed, he was not making headway. "Look, Kuro, I will say this again: I don't want to hurt you or Jackson or even Nothingness. I don't like seeing kids hurt, and believe me, I've seen plenty of that," Poor Cedric. "What I want is to take you away from the pain and suffering, to give you what a boy your age deserves, decent food, clothing, shelter, and we offer plenty of that. Right now, you're in a bad place, without money, with only stolen clothing, and with powers that others would surely find out and exploit. You might be afraid of us, because you don't know us, but there's an entire universe of people and places that you don't know, and this is your chance to find out about said universe." Kuro reclined in his chair, pondering what his next move would be. While he still didn't trust this guy, he could tell that he was being sincere, and he was in a nad way right now. The best thing he could do at the moment is simple, go and check out what the man had to offer. If he liked it, he'd stay, iff he didn;t, he vanish, take one of the guy's guns, and pop a cap in between his eyes. Jackson may have a problem with death, but Kuro was made of sterner stuff. He'd do whatever it took to keep Jackson safe. "You forgot one thing in your little checklist of what I deserve, Bill," he stayed silent for a moment, waiting ti see if the man could guess. When he couldn't, Jackson rolled his eyes. "Scantily clad french maids, of course, one that have huge-" Before he could continue, his right hand suddenly came up and smacked him in the side of the head. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, but it did freeze Kuro in his tracks. "JAckson, how the hel did you do that?" 'I just though about how badly I wanted to hit you for what yuou were about to say.' "And it worked, that is freaky, very freaky, try not to do that again, okay." 'Only if you stop making me look like a pervert.' Jackson's tone was a cold as ice, and Kuro cold feel his eyes burning into his head, which was weird considering Jackson was in his head, and only a consciousness at the moment. "Well then, I guess I'm going to have to just deal with it, because that's not happening, Jacky-boy." Kuro chuckled before turning back to William. "Okay, you've convinced me to give you a chance, and I like you enough to give you a warning. We go to these Reformist people, you show us what's up, and we all go on our merry way into the future, but I'm telling you, if this is a set up of any kind," Kuro seemed to vanish for a split second before he reappeared right next to Willaim, his assault rifle in hand and aimed at the man's head, before disappearing just as fast. Next time he was noticable, he was in his seat, and one of William's pistol's was in his hand. "Then you will be the first to go, as is anyone else who tries to pull anything after that. I can't kill you unnnoticed, but I'm fucking serious when I say that I can pull the trigger faster than you could ever hope to react." Kuro spun the pistol a bit, before putting it in his pocket, safety on, and getting up from the table. He was making his way to the exit, when he stopped, taking a second to think. He vanished again, only to reappear ith Ruby's hand in his, giving it a quick kiss before flashing her a smile. "Please don't blame Jackson for anything I do, he's just a kid, while I am all man, ncase you ever need to get away from you guardian for some fun, call my name, and I'll be there." With a bow, he vanished again, going to the exit, only for his hand to smack him again, this time a lot harder than before. "Oww, shit, Jackson, what the fuck!!!" 'Give them back' Jackson's tone had gone from cold as ice, to sub-zero, and the amount of anger and malice contained in his words was staggering. Kuro took a sudden intrest in his shoes, responding with a simple "I don't know what you're talking about," Only to be met with a punch to his face. His hand raised itself again, shaking with fury, but Kuro raised up his hands. "Okay, okay, sheesh. Can't have any fun with you around, can I?" 'You and I have very different definitions of the word fun, now put them back.' Kuro dissappeared again, reappearing in the same exact spot, except this time he looked a lot less joyful, and was doing a lot of angry muttering under his breath about how Jackson was "such a fucking buzzkill" and how "I can never do anything with him aorund, and he's always around!" He skulked over to the entrance, turning around as he got there. "Oi, G.I. Joe Mama, you going to take me to this place or what." "Yeah, sorry," William said, "just watching the exchange. Anyway, my car's outside, let's go," and with that, the former soldier guided Jackson to an unassuming, but not poorly-made or even cheap car, where he politely asked the other boy to take the passanger seat, where there was a set of new clothes for him, as well as a paper bag with a sandwhich and some milk. Oh, and a portable game console with a user's manual, assuming Jackson could read. After a short drive, William arrived at the International Heroes building, an edifice that served as a combination fortress, airfield, refugee centre, and rehabilitation clinic. It was huge and strangely beautiful. Once they set down in front of it, William and Jackson would arrive outside and walk up to one of the entrances, where the receptionist would say: "Well, look who's here, it's William Plantagenet! Sorry, but Mr. Wessex cannot see you now; he has a meeting." "That's disappointing," said Will, "because I have a kid who needs help, basically, Level 4 help, and I need to rush a few things, like red tape." And with that, the man showed the receptionist his special International Heroes pass. The receptionist bowed and spoke: "Just remember; the pass postpones the paperwork, not abolishes it entirely. You can requesition Private Shelter 4," the Private Shelters were for Metahumans who had been especially abused, but stayed sane, where they can recover from their torments in an atmosphere of relative peace and serenity, recieving regular visitors ready to begin the process of integrating them into normal human society. Timeskip Private Shelter 4 was actually closer to a luxury suite rather than a shelter, said luxury being made possible thanks to the hard work of metahumans who had fled persecution, mostly elementalists and craftsmen and gadgeteers. It contained a fully stocked fridge, a tv and computer and various game consoles, a jacuzzi, a bathroom, and a warm bed, as well as a small garden outside; the International Heroes HQ had many gardens created by Plantmaster of StuCorp himself. Said small garden was filled with fragrant and colorful flowers, some of them from species that gave off perfume by night. Kuro and Jackson did know how to read, and after a few miutes, were engrossed in the hand held game, never having experienced anything like this. They were so engrossed that they barely paid attention to the ride, the clothes, or the receptionist, and only looked up when they got tp the shelter. Kuro gave a low whistle, taking it all in. "I'll admit it, if this place was a evil corporation bent on world domination, it does a damn good job of hiding it. This place is awesome, well and truly, and this bede. " kuro jumped on it, rolling in it with a joy-filled laugh, one that seemed to have a strange dichotomy to it, like it was two poeple laughing at once, before he remebered where he was and quickly sat up. "I mean, psssh, what ever. Just a bed, with, ya know, fancy pillows, some blankets, is actually soft. . . . . . . How am i not supposed to like this place if you make so likeable, dammit Bill. I was supposed to be hard to work with for another day at the least." Kuro complained, though he had a smile on his face as he said that. "Whelp, this place seems legit, so Jackson, it's all you buddy. I'm going to hit the cerebral hay." Jackson's eyes took on a familiar glaze efore retruning, and the boy's entire body langauge changed from outgoing and confident, to small and cautious. He looked up at William, only to quickly look down as their eyes met. "H-hi, um, I'm Jackson and it's nice to meet you, Mr. Plantagenet, and I really appreciate what you're doing for me. So, uh, what happens now?" Jackson asked, looking up at William again with trusting eyes. "Well," spoke the ex-soldier, "a psychologist - a shrink - will come and see you tomorrow, and after that, every two weeks, perhaps more frequently if you want. This point is non-negotiatable, I'm afraid, you need to recover. You will also need to recieve a check-up for physical injuries, but that would also be tomorrow. Until then, have fun and take care of yourself." Jackson nodded, not exactly sure what a shrink is, but deciding it was something he deal with tomorrow. The man had his trust, if not Kuro's, and he seemed to be a decent sort. So he turned around towards the T.V, taking a second to figure out how it worked and begun flipping to channels, eyes wide with wonder and excitement as he saw all the different stu ff that was being shown. "So cool, so very very very cool." He said, again with that strange double layering of his voice. And like that he'd probably stay for the rest of the day, watching T.V. or playing video games, or just doing some genral relaxing to ease the days worries. Today was a lucky day for him, it seemed, as he'd finally escaped hell and seemed to have ascended to heaven. But in the back of his mind, a voice that he didn't recgnize couldn't help but doubt if this was all too good to be true, and wondered if tragedy was just around the corner, waiting to pounce on him like a cat on a mouse.

Jaden yawned as he walked through town, feeling rather bored, when his phone rang. Odd, but he was never one to keep a caller waiting so he picked up. "Hello?" "Uh, hi. My name is Elijah Craigh, and I'd like to talk to you about the fucking tree baby thing your planning. Fancy a drink?" Jaden scowled, a little put off by this man's attitude. "I'd fancy you not address my future son in such a matter, lest I tear you limb from pathetic, writhing limb, but yes a drink would be nice. I'm guessing since you have the stones to call me, you must be rather brave, extremely cocky, or a fool. I also assume your a meta, as any human with even a small notion of who I am would no to stay far away from me, I don't play well with such brainless cattle." Stopping for a moment to think, Jaden considered phoning Isabella and having this man ambushed at hat ever place he wanted to meet. The idea did bear merit and he almost did it too, but he couldn't. He was just to interested in who this person was and why they wished to speak with him. An impending ambush would only make him rush the conversation, and he could miss crucial details, and he was one for details. "So then, mystrieous stranger, where do you want to meet and when, I hope it isn't some place drooll, like a back alley or something of that nature?" @AcerRo

In the last five years many things had happened to Adam and John. Warpath had been trying to catch Ruby and take her out, but then the whole bomb dropped on Project Genesis and it had sparked a new civil rights movement. Adam was infuriated at the especially his personal life. About two year after the events with their fight with Doctor David Taylor, Adam had soon developed a relationship with a top agent named Sarah Kane. They were so enamored with each other that they were married within months and for a while Adam almost forgot about Ruby and his desire to make her pay for her crimes. Things seemed to become even bright when he learned that Sarah was pregnant with his child. He was glad to see that metahumans were starting to be more accepted and less feared, it meant that there could be more trust between the people of beloved country. Ever since the exposure of Project Genesis Adam had become more guarded and less trusting of some of the government. He had almost enough of the top secret divisions of the government, but he still remained loyal to nation's leaders. During the months of his wife's pregnancy, things went bad when the whole situation in the middle east became sour and the government called in Adam and John to aid in covertly terminating their leaders and smashing their operation. His wife didn't want him to go back into military work now that they had a child on the way, but Adam was too loyal to his country to not answer the call and he joined his old friend on their mission. Despite their best efforts, the mission was a failure and both he and John had been branded enemies of the terrible factions. Adam returned home feeling bad at failing his country, but he soon found out that there were more consequences than he could have realized. Members of the middle eastern factions had found out his information and where he lived and attacked his home. Adam and Sarah were able to fight the invaders off, but in the fight one of the terrorists hit Sarah violently in the stomach. The blow was bad enough to kill the baby and Adam in a fit of rage tore the assassins' pieces. In a state of grief Sarah blamed Adam for their unborn child's death and that it wouldn't have happened if he had listened to her. Her accusations turned into a fit of rage and she lashed out at him with a knife and slice him on the side of his face leaving a large scar. After this tragic turn of events, Sarah divorced Adam and he was alone. Adam was now more darker and less forgiving, he hated the middle eastern groups that had been responsible for destroying his attempt at a normal life. He wished to have revenge, but the government wouldn't allow such a thing and so he had to sit and watch as people began to make peace. Now John and Adam were back in the city of LA looking out for any villainous activity. Adam was keen to see some action and was now more powerful thanks to developing his powers. They would be walking downtown to make sure things were in order.