What the hell was going on? The formerly peaceful Lattetude had suddenly become the centre of the universe. There was so much going on. First Samuel Capricorn made an appearance, followed quickly by Eli Craig. Then there was the incident involving the nearly naked kid in the middle of the coffee shop. Both Nate and his duplicate had stifled a laugh as Raven threw the clearly embarrassed boy out but couldn't help but feel bad for him. And then there was the kid who seemed to briefly be talking to himself. Nate knew a thing or two about that. An unfortunate side effect of his powers were the psychological issues that came with spawning duplicates. He often found himself arguing with the voice in his head, even though that voice was his own. It was why he was often accompanied by at least one duplicate. At least that way, when he talked to himself, people didn't think he was crazy. He probably was crazy but he didn't want people to think that. He watched as the kid talking to himself was approached by a man who seemed like he was straight out of an action movie. What the hell did he need all those weapons for? More than a few eyes shifted to this man as he spoke to the boy but most tried not to look, either out of fear or simply a hope that if they pretended he wasn't there, he'd go away. "Morons" thought Nate to himself. At the same time, his duplicate started humming the tune to "Just Don't Look" from The Simpsons. As if trying to outdo each other in a game of weird-off, the kid seemed to vanish for a second and reappear behind the action star, now holding the the guys rifle and pointing it straight at it's owners head. He vanished as quickly as he had appeared, now back in his seat. A meta. That explained so much. Meta's were all crazy to some extent. "Who needs a movie with all this going on?" thought Nate to himself. He had been trained to observe. And there was certainly a lot to observe. But his fun was quickly over as the kid and his new frienemy left together. Nate's attention was quickly drawn to the woman the kid had been talking to before the other guy had arrived. Holy crap! Was that Ruby Greenfoot? He mentally chastised himself for not noticing her sooner. And then again when he realized how cute she was. How had she slipped past his his hottie radar? He cast a glance at the older man sitting with her and weighed his options. He was tempted to approach but quickly realized that wasn't his job anymore. Unless he was getting paid for it there was no reason to put himself in danger. There came a quick ping from his phone and Nate picked it up from the table in front of him to realize that it was a news alert with an accompanying video. As Nate watched, his expression slowly changed from one of slight amusement to one of complete horror. The news cameras had caught the moment the bladed ripped though Max Velocity. Nate felt a lump build in his throat. He had briefly met Max once before on a job but it had been all of five minutes. It had been enough for him to gain an admiration for the man though. And now he was dead. One of the most powerful metas on the planet, struck down with seemingly no effort at all. Who was this woman the cameras now filmed? Nate watched as she planted a kiss on Max, draining the last of his life from him. When the hero slumped to the ground dead, Nate visibly jumped. The video ended and Nate stared at his own reflection in the phones screen for a moment until he realized he was sitting there like a slack jawed idiot. Regaining his composure, he glanced briefly at Ruby again before quickly rising from his seat and heading for the door, his his duplicate dutifully quick behind him. As interesting as Ruby was, a new player had entered the game and this one definitely warranted further investigation, whether it was his job or not.

Insomnium

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.

Overdrive quickly registered each one of the shadow balls, seeing as they were directed towards himself he decided to move, and move he did. The android tapped into his power set and moved himself at blinding speeds away from the explosives, and to the far end of the 'arena'. Watching as the man summoned multiple spears, presumably explosive as well. In order to make sure he had plenty of time to shoot them all down he leaped towards a nearby building and jumped off of it, pushing himself high into the air. Using his new altitude he watched as the spears went straight up, towards him, and brought his arm cannon down onto the spears; as the spears were not alive, nor did they resemble anything living, Overdrive had no qualms shooting every explosive tipped spear out of the air. Several beams of red sizzling energy pulsed from his arm as he commanded, colliding with the spears. Upon landing, loudly, Overdrive was greeted by the man once again, only this time he was dual-wielding swords. Using his speed once again he swiftly dodged every swipe, without his speed the android would have surely been hit. Deciding to go on the offensive Overdrive quickly ran himself over to the other end of the arena once more and began to aim his cannon, taking a millisecond to aim at the man's slow moving body, but he quickly shifted his aim towards the ground, and began to fire off a couple shots of his plasma around the man's feet.

Charlie was uncertain what to do once the dark skinned woman pointed her finger at him. They were about 50 feet away. Maybe he should run for it. But he was frozen like a deer in headlights. He tried to control his heartbeats and began exhaling and inhaling at a much more stable pace. When the two men looked at him, their posture became very aggressive and their eyes slanted and furrowed. It was like they were ready to pounce. Charlie, sensing the situation was beginning to unravel negatively, slowly eased his way from behind the wall and gave them an awkward and coy smile. He put his hands up in front of his chest and let out a deep breath. "Ummmm...its not what you think. I'm just simple college student...on my way home. I didn't even hear anything. I swear.", he tried to say as boldly as he could. The woman took one more puff and yawned as she flicked the cigar on the ground behind her. Charlie's eyes followed her cigar as it flew in the air, but he quickly diverted his attention back to her and her goons. "Well dear...", she began softly. "I don't know that for sure, but I most certainly find out. And if your telling the truth, your free to go. But as it stands darling, you have to come with me". She looked to the tall Indian man and gave him a peculiar look, followed by him slowly beginning to step forward. And as he did so, Charlie slowly began stepping back. "Please...just let me go home. I....I don't wanna hurt you and I don't wanna get involved into your mess", Charlie said as calmly as he could. She giggled briefly as she held the back of her hand up to her face as she did so. "It's already too late for that hun", she said quickly. And with that, the Indian reached behind his pants and pulled out a pistol. "Try to run and...well...certain unfortunate things may occur.", she added. Charlie didn't move except to slowly sit his brown messenger bag on the ground. He was deathly nervous, but did his best to comply. As he stood frozen, the two men, followed by the woman, walked up to him. The Indian man placed his hand firmly on Charlie's shoulder and motioned for him to move forward. "Move it. We've got a ride waiting for us. And your invited", he grunted meanly. Charlie nodded awkwardly and slowly began to walk, the 2 men and woman pacing behind him. Halfway through the alley, the Indian man yelped in agony and fell to the floor, flailing his body around like an injured child. The woman watched intently, intrigued, as Felix knelt down to the Indian man. "What the hell is wrong with you man?", he asked in a confused tone. "I was bit! I was fucking bit!", he yelped once more as he felt another sting sink into his lower back. As he continued to thrash around, it seemed as though he was starting to convulse, as if he had been poisoned. Charlie crept back slowly, keeping his eyes intent on the Indian man and the other two who were watching intensely. From out under his shirt popped a black scorpion. Felix yelped and fell back on his bosom as the scorpion crawled slowly toward him and hissed, before crawling over in front of Charlie. Charlie smiled brightly, and nodded to the scorpion as it began to morph and grow, and in moments, the once lethal scorpion had transformed into a silverback gorilla. Charlie took a moment to rubbed his fingers through the gorilla's fur before looking back to the woman and Felix, who was still freaking out on the floor. The Indian at this point had passed out from the poisonous stings. "Thank you Chunsa...my guardian angel as always", Charlie said to the gorilla affectionately. "Always Charlie...no thanks needed. Now how would you like me to handle these two goons?", the Gorilla spoke back to him in clear and remarkably pronounced English. The woman's blank face, seemingly obtuse through the entire occasion, soon became an interested and mischievous smile. Felix, still on the ground, looked on with his jaw dropped. Charlie's furrowed eyes followed back from Chunsa to the woman, and his facial expression was aggravated, but nervous. He spoke softly, but firmly, like a mother disciplining her child. "Like I said mam...I didn't wanna hurt you".

"That's a neat trick" said Nate as he observed the shenanigans unfold in the alley before glancing back down at his phone. He had wandered into the alleyway to retrieve his bike, parked out of sight behind the assorted goons. Seemingly without his duplicate now, he leaned a shoulder against a wall and typed something into his phone, more nonchalant about the crazy goings on than a sane person would be. But then Nate had seen some really crazy shit in the past. A kid with a pet scorpion-gorilla wasn't even close to being the craziest. "What else can it become?" he asked, not even bothering to look away from his phone. "A snake?...A hippo?...A magical unicorn?" He finally looked up from his phone at that thought. "I've never seen a unicorn before" he said before tilting his head to the side and adding "Well I've seen a rhino and they're basically just fat unicorns, right?". There was an awkward silence as everyone pondered what the hell this weirdo was talking about. Nate simply shook his head and returned his attention to his phone. "Never mind. Carry on with...whatever the hell this is" he informed them. He was in the process of checking in with various contacts and informants to see if any of them had any info to share on Max Velocity's killer. That woman had killed Max while barely lifting a finger. He didn't like the idea of someone that powerful being on the other side. That didn't mean he couldn't watch some chumps get smacked in the face by a gorilla though. He really wanted to see someone get smacked in the face by a gorilla.

"Well then, I'm at Caffe Lattetude! I'd be happy to wait if that's too your liking. I hear they make a mean sandwich and the drinks are as good as fried chicken after Sunday Service!" Eli did his best soune cheerful. Right now was the time to play the Polite southerner. When the car came to a stop Eli gesture for his drivers cell phone. He quickly type out a message that told her to wait in an back alley and if there was any trouble to leave and not look back.

Cer had been wandering for what felt like hours. She was learning bits and pieces of culture, it seemed that rudeness was quite appropriate here. Though manners in the Eurasia zone were known to be very different from America's. Another thing she noticed were mugs of what was usually coffee according to her research, which primarily consisted of her asking a passerby what was in their cup. It was very popular here, that and the use of brown paper bags as booze coolers. The effectiveness was questionable but the people she had asked seemed rather irritated, if not down right drunk. Maybe she would get a coffee herself, mentors over the years had warned her that coffee only gave people the feeling of energy not the real energy that people of her craft needed but one wouldn't hurt. Noticing a Starbucks she decided that was an alright place to start after all, local coffee shops couldn't always be trusted, she learned that the hard way in Amsterdam. She was almost at the Starbucks when she noticed just down an alley way there was a gorilla. Sure there were people too but there was also a gorilla, that looked real as far as Cer could tell. Oh and two of the not quite as interesting people were Metas. Well she hit the jackpot, if gorillas in alleyways weren't an indicator of cultural quirks, she didn't know what was. However the man standing closest to the gorilla was a meta and using his powers, which meant that the gorilla might not be real and she didn't know what indicated a cultural quirk. Luckily there was a bystander she could ask, also a meta. She briefly wondered what his power might be before launching into her question. "I'm sorry to bother you sir but I'm pretty new here and I was wondering if this is like an everyday, large animal petting zoo." She had seen some pretty wacky things during her stays in Japan, who embraced metas and was often times kind of creepy about it, so this wasn't too shocking. Cer was probably too curious for her own good but that was one thing she was never taught to restrain.

"Ah, excellent choice. I go there myself from time to time to do a bit of light snacking, as they always have a premium selection of treats to choose from. I'll be there soon, and believe me when I say that it'll be impossible to miss me, ciao." Jaden ended the call and walked into a nearby ally that would lead him to a street just south of the cafe. The man that exited the alley was quite. . . conspicuous, to say the least. He had on a bright dark jacket that reached past his knees, black and grey military styled camo pants, combat boots, spiked hair that seemed to be dyed a variety of dark reds, blues, purples, as well as a few silver highlights. His eyes were hetero-chromic, with one being an intense green that seemed to glow(it actually was glowing, as there were bioluminescent cells in the back of the eye), and one that was a brown so dark it was almost black. His skin was a caramel shade of tan, and his face bore a look of extreme confidence that bordered on arrogance. This was Jay, and it was the form Jaden used in situations that would surely lead to combat, and was the one that most people saw him as. This led anyone who didn't know him personally to assume this was how he looked, a helpful misconception that allowed him to keep on fooling people even after he had become some-what well known. Well, his name and alias were well-known, but not many people had more than that, and those that did either worked in the Underground Movement or dead, a courtesy he made sure to deliver himself. Jaden, nice as he was, wasn't near thee top of the Movement for nothing, he was a vicious figure for anyone to face, and could use his powers in a variety of ways many would never think possible. Jay soon found himself at the Lattetude, walking in and ignoring the stares of all the cattle present. He ordered himself, some coffee, and chose a booth to sit in. Once he was properly seated and accustomed, he turned around to flash a smile at Ruby and Harper, giving them a small wave. What they were doing here, outside of the compound, Jay had no idea, but he was busy at the moment and would report to Isabella afterwards, if she didn't know about this already. After this acknowledgement, he'd go back to drinking his drink and relaxing, an eye out for the man who would've sent the message. 'I don't think he's here, not yet any way, but he'll come. I could here the anticipation in his voice, he was rather eager to meet me, and it'd be a shame to disappoint a fan.' Insomnium stopped as the plasma bolts came near, an explosion and a plume of black smoke soon following. But something as odd, as the robots earlier shots hadn't created explosions like that by themselves. Nor did they create such large and dense clouds of smoke, which seemed to move outwards against the flow of the wind. Suddenly, Overdrive would find himself being assaulted by a barrage of shadow tendrils from behind, grasping at his limbs in order to hold him in place. Insomnium would quickly rise out of the shadowed ground, moving to stab both of his charged blades deep into Overdrive's shoulder pieces, hoping that the Light would be able to paralyze the bot's systems. Next, Insomnium would kick the bot forward, hard, sending him flying before the tendrils that were still wrapped around him would tighten to bring him hurtling back for another hit. This would again send Overdrive flying, and Insomnium would keep doing this until the bot admitted defeat, broke, or did something in order to free itself from the tendrils. "If this is the best they've got for stopping Meta crime, I suggest they go back to square one and send your ass back to the scrap heap," Insomnium taunted through out his attack, "cause any meta worth a damn would be able to take you on easily. Face it, you're just no match for the genuine article, huh you little robo-bitch!"

"When's Sefia coming over?" Sal asked, rapidly mashing buttons on her controller. "I texted her to come as soon as possible," Alto replied, "I do need to reattach this arm." He looked down from the screen at the robot arm in his lap. He'd made it for Sefia about a year ago, when he'd accidentally cut off her arm. "She's probably still mad at me." When she'd first woken up after getting her arm cut off all that time ago, she'd tried to kill him a few times. It was sort of understandable, her having been an assassin and all, but she was still always trying to kill him a year later as well. "Hey Theo can you make some coffee? I know she's a sucker for coffee." Theo nodded and went off to prepare some coffee. Con sat in front of Alto, also rapidly mashing buttons on her controller, but somewhat slower and more controlled than Sal was. Regardless, she was losing against Sal. Sal's button mashing was giving her the advantage, and soon enough, the Con lost. "K! O!" The announcer voice said. "..." Con put her controller down quietly, and passed it along to Alto. "Yeah!" Sal said excitedly, "I finally get to beat you!" "You can try." He leaned forward into a ready position and selected his character, when suddenly... "Master," Con said, "Mistress Sefia has arrived." Alto barely had time to register that before he saw a blade rushing towards his face. "FIGHT!" The announcer voice called as he caught the blade with his left hand, one of the fingers on his right hand jammed on the block button. "Sefia!" Alto said. The blade struggled to plunge forward in the air, though there was no hand to propel it. "I'm in the middle of something here!" On the tv screen in front of him, he could see his guard was running out. He let go of the blade and ducked as it sliced off a bit of his sofa. He quickly mashed out a combo which made his character grab Sal's character out of the air and slam them into the ground before having to put his finger back onto the block button and parrying another blade as it threatened to skewer him. He quickly tapped out another combo to trip Sal's character and shoot a fireball as they fell, dealing a decent chunk of damage, but he was cut off as three blades converged and threatened to decapitate him. He quickly ducked as they clanged off each other. He ducked backwards into a roll as Sefia herself teleported to one of the flying swords, and brought it down towards Alto's exposed neck. He raised his left arm with uncanny speed and caught the blade easily. With his right hand, he tapped out a final combo which sent his character uppercutting into the air, and finishing off Sal's health. "K! O!" The announcer voice said. He put down the controller and reached out with his right arm and slowly pushed the blade up, getting up as he did so. "Sefia, what is it now?" "You know what." She growled.

The Owlman remained... unchanging as the odd woman progressed. He hardly ever blinked and while something deep in her subconscious told her this wasn't human or natural and it is bad, she went with it. She followed Owlman's ushered hand and proceeded to walk in that direction, taking a glance over her shoulder to see the fleeing woman, distressed that she did not get to show her trick. Ann felt some relief but she was still a bit on edge as she had seen just enough creeps to be always paranoid. She could have sworn a couple was watching them from a far but a glance in that direction had reveled they had moved on. The Owlman and Ann remained quiet for a bit as communication wasn't either of their strong suits. Ann looked over at her company and saw him fishing for some device in his pocket. An owl's face had adorned the surface of the device and activating it by pressing in on those yellow and black eyes revealed a screen and speakers. Now Ann suddenly felt like this was something out of a comic book that she occasionally read whenever she found herself at a public library. The Owlman put the device screen on display for Ann to read and she did so. Meeting Important... Velocity Max? Dead? Why show this to Ann, who had no idea what anything meant? But it was probably more for his knowledge than hers as Ann deduced that he had to be somewhere. She couldn't help but swallow nervously as she thought about the reason why he would have to meet with someone about a dead Max, whoever that was. A card was then given to Ann, which she delicately removed from his outstretched talon and quickly read through it. Reformist Council? While the card appeared as though it was legitimate, anyone could have produced a card like this, at least as far as Ann was concerned. Then the Owl's talon, in turn, took a very gentle approach to draw attention to Ann's ripped sleeve. Ann flinched slightly as she felt the touch, ever so slightly. It was true, her present outfit was a stolen school uniform off of some LA private school girl and had been slowly deteriorating but it didn't bother her much. It bothered other people, though, and that would cause them to get close and ask questions. It was best that they didn't ask questions though. Obviously the Owlman was trying to make a case to go with him, that much Ann could make out, but she felt just entirely unsure about this. Trust was a fickle thing for her these days, but... something reassured her. Was it Ariadne? Ann cocked her head to the right, looking past Owlman to meet the eyes of her twin. Strangely, Ariadne looked to be in a relaxed form of anger, a new low in that raging form that was her sister. It was enough to convince her. "Okay fine." She said weakly and with clear hesitation. "I'll go with you, wherever, but..." Her voice croaked and she coughed to the side before continuing. "..But, if I don't like it. You won't like it, understand?" Something was different in Ann this time around. Her voice carried weight and confidence as it was very clearly a threat. She would follow the Owlman but one bad vibe and she knew she could rely on Ariadne.

The Owlman gave a sweeping bow, at her assent. She was still wary, but that was perfectly understandable. He was, after all, a big strange owl person in a big strange city asking to take her to a strange place. He wished he had had the time to make er a little more comfortable, but the boss was calling so he really didn't.

He slipped the Squawk Box into his pants pocket, grabbed what remained of the bread, and threw it with a splash into the pond where it was swarmed by ducks. With a sashaying walk he lead Casper on to the building in which he worked and lived: International Heroes L.A. Headquarters.

---

It was lucky that this small park was withing walking distance of the big, impressive building. He remembered the first time he had ever seen it, when he had been coaxed back into the world. The first time he had seen his room his jaw had nearly broken from how fast it had hit the floor. It compared significantly better to his old room before he'd become...what he was. It had a private garden, for gods sake! It's luxury compared to the crudely built hovels he had spent years living in and out of did not even bare mention, and yet...

He'd come to think of it as the X-Men problem. Sure, mutants were feared and persecuted and you were supposed to sympathize with the X-Men but at the same time they were all supermodels that lived in a luxurious mansion. Even guys like Beast, who were supposed to be monstrous, were still ruggedly handsome in there own way. All the ugly mutants, the really ugly ones, were either with the Brotherhood or lived in the sewers as Morlocks. Villains or side-characters. When he had first shown up he had taken a good look around and had gotten that same feeling as when he'd really started thinking about the X-Men. Even here, in the heart of an organization that should accept him implicitly, he still didn't feel as one with the human race.

It wasn't the only reason he'd started reaching out to others like him, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a big part of it.

Speaking of supermodels, as he pushed open the doors there was one now working the reception desk. He was seeply tanned, with a mob of blond hair that just seemed to naturally fall in such a way that was incredibly stylish. He had three earring running up one ear, all shiny metal in the shape of diamond, and he quirked a single golden eyebrow above one of his deep blue eyes upon seeing The Owlmans companion.

The Owlman wasn't jealous. He didn't wonder in a silent rage why half the metas you met had to be so hot. He definably didn't want to creep into the guys room and carefully shave off all his hair while he slept. These were thoughts that did not go through his giant freakish feathery head.

He shook his head and set down the magazine he'd been reading. "Owlman, baby. Pick up another stray? You know, this is the second one we've had this morning. She meta?"

The Owlman shrugged as he approached, and the guy signed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course you didn't ask. Heeey." He said, adopting a calmer demeanor as he runs his eyes over the state of Caspers face and clothing. "Welcome to superhero HQ. We help people. You doing okay honey? Is there anyone you want us to call?"

@Pirouette

Insomnium

Insomnium stopped as the plasma bolts came near, an explosion and a plume of black smoke soon following. But something as odd, as the robots earlier shots hadn't created explosions like that by themselves. Nor did they create such large and dense clouds of smoke, which seemed to move outwards against the flow of the wind. Suddenly, Overdrive would find himself being assaulted by a barrage of shadow tendrils from behind, grasping at his limbs in order to hold him in place. Insomnium would quickly rise out of the shadowed ground, moving to stab both of his charged blades deep into Overdrive's shoulder pieces, hoping that the Light would be able to paralyze the bot's systems. Next, Insomnium would kick the bot forward, hard, sending him flying before the tendrils that were still wrapped around him would tighten to bring him hurtling back for another hit. This would again send Overdrive flying, and Insomnium would keep doing this until the bot admitted defeat, broke, or did something in order to free itself from the tendrils. "If this is the best they've got for stopping Meta crime, I suggest they go back to square one and send your ass back to the scrap heap," Insomnium taunted through out his attack, "cause any meta worth a damn would be able to take you on easily. Face it, you're just no match for the genuine article, huh you little robo-bitch!"

Overdrive finally encountered the emotion of surprise as multiple shadowy tendrils shot towards him, latching themselves around his limbs, and in his surprise Insomnium managed to get in his two strikes. The energy surrounding the blades sent a jolt through his systems, unknowingly jump starting something, but the blades themselves were stopped short by his complex chassis. Overcoming his surprise Overdrive quickly broke out of his bonds using his massive strength and bounced up into the air on his own power, looking back down at the ground the android began to power up his cannon and sent his expertly aimed blasts around Insomnium. Landing once again on the shadowy arena, Overdrive took into account the fact that the very arena was Insomnium's weapon and leaped high into the air again, continuing his suppressing fire.

Light was enjoying the fight between the two metas. While she didn't understand why the cyborg and shadow manipulating guy in the armor were fighting, they seemed to be having quite the fight. She got wrapped up enough into the fight to pull out a bucket of popcorn, and began to playfully eat from it, occasionally tossing some at the fight when the combatants didn't do something she liked. Though what she took for a piece of the city was actually apparently a shadow construct made by the shadow meta, which became apparent when Light's reality shift started to take effect and make the shadow energy around her disappear into cartoony wisps. This brought her slowly down towards the fight as the high perch she was sitting on was slowly disappearing. "Hope I don't destabilize this whole thing after awhile. Be a shame for this fight to end so abruptly." Light said to herself, finding a new high up place to sit, her previous place having evaporated into nothingness. When she sat back down, she had noticed the robot person was making a counterattack. She didn't think it would work very well, but it was interesting to watch as is.

"Caio, who in the Fuck says that?" Eli had to remind himself that he wasn't back home, he was in LA. People said shit like that here, though he never understood it. The vehicle was a block away. To him it was perfect, while he did enjoy showing off, pretentiousness was not an endearing trait. As be turned the corner. He saw Harper and Ruby. He smiled, another chance to be smart ass and piss someone off to no end. Another chance to let Ruby know he wasn't a happy camper. "Ruby! Look at you all out and about! Why, I swear every time we see each over the past while our livrs gets turned upside down. It's enough to make a man think the good lord has a plot against us both." Eli sounded happy, like he was talking to a long lost friend from back home. Both knew that wasn't the situation, Still Eli wasn't going to give her a chance to figure out what his inclination was. " Speaking of plots, I'm about to have a drink with my new friend, Jaden McFadden, you're welcome to join me... I'm sure you'll learn of our to be had conversation in due time." Eli tapped the burner phone I'm his pocket with the bottle of Bourbon in his hand. The Bourbon itst was a Pappy Van Winkle 23, the white whale for those who loved Bourbon. Looking her friend or keeper or whatever he was Eli had only comment for him. "Bless your heart, ain't you pretty?" He turned back to Ruby. "Well if you don't join I'm sure I'll be seeing you again." With a wave Eli walked in the cafe. There was no one there that matched anything he had seen in the dossier. Either Eli had walked into trap, or someone else was sent. He had t a clue either but one guy did catch his eye. A guy from a really bad punk band no less. Eli couldn't help but at least talk to the guy, anyone that dresses like that during the day had to have something worth hear. "Excuse me, might you know a man Jaden McFadden?"

"Huh, guess they made you fast and durable. Nice, it's no fun when new toys are easily broken." Insomnium chuckled as the droid busted through his tendrils, then proceeded to rain down fire around him. Around being the operative word, as not one was being aimed at him. "Now that's just insulting, I think he's not taking this seriously." He shook his head, not moving an inch as the shits exploded around him, the blasts doing very little in actually damage. He looked up a bit when he felt some of his arena disperse, quickly identifying the cause to be a small toon-like figure. 'Oh, it's that toon meta that's on all the posters. She'd make for an interesting fight, to be sure, but for now I'm going to focus on terminator up there.' Insomnium looked back up at Overdrive, the cloak around him beginning to flail around him wildly, and the glow in his armor becoming excessively bright. "If you're not going to come down to me, then I'll just have to come up there." Soundly, the entire arena seemed to bulge out word, before a barrage of tendrils burst out of it, flying at high speeds before attaching themselves to buildings, only for them to bulge out and burst, another tendril shooting out through the air. This would continue for some time, and any shots by Overdrive during this time to disrupt is concentration would be blocked by a set of thick, armored tendrils he had around him. Soon, the area above the arena would look like a giant spider web of tendrils, each one writhing and roiling as f it were alive. This would accomplish two things, one being that it would limit Overdrive's ability to fly effectively, and the other being that it gave Insomnium a veritable highway on the air, as he could slip into and out of each tendril as easily as he could on the arena. "Everything up to now has just been a warm up, Scrapheap, or should it be Tin-Man, ah I'll come up with your nick name after I beat you, bottom line is that things just got real." No sooner did he finish his sentence did Insomnium sink into the arena floor, zipping through the tendrils, though which one is impossible to know for certain. Suddenly, Insomnium would pop out of a Tendril above Overdrive to send another spear at him, again set to explode went it got near, and quickly slipped into another of the tendrils, only to come out of another one to do the same thing. He'd do this for a while before he jumped out of one with a strange attachment to his right arm. It was a rather large, barrel-like construct with a lot of rotating parts and a glowing orb of energy in the middle of it. Soon, the orb grew from the size of a tennis ball to that of a beach ball, the barrel of the construct expanding to let it form, before it shot out at an insanely high speeds, spiraling as it soared until it got near the bot, where it would suddenly contract before exploding into a huge cloud of black smoke. If Overdrive was caught in said cloud, the shadow articles that made it up would move to creep into his inner workings, before some turned into spikes and began to jab things at random, focusing attention on the joints and thrusters, while others would coalese into tendrils that would spread out underneath the Chasis to create opening and weakpoints, as well as bursting out if possible and wrapping themselves around the androids limbs. "I am Jaden McFadden, though I'd prefer it if you'd call me Jay. And you, I know you, Mr. Craigh, it would you prefer to go by Baba Yaga. I must admit, I wasn't expecting to meet a celebrity when I came to meet my mysterious caller. And it seems your already acquianted with Ruby and Harper over there. I'd ask how, but I'm not here to do that right now." Jay leaned forward, looking Eli close in his eyes. "I'm more interested in the circumstance in which you found out about, how'd you put it, 'fucking tree baby'. I'm not a stranger to vulgarity, but hen your talking about my son, I find that it makes me quite. . . vexed if you will." Jay relaxed into back into his seat, taking another sip of his drink as he regarded the man in front of him. "How, I wonder, do you find the patience to be around cattle all day, or as you like to call, humans. They're are weak, and there time is coming ever closer to its inevitable end. But the Reformist Council wants to try and make peace between Lions and mice. A truly foolish notion, and one I quite despise to be honest." Jay's face tok an angered scowl as he looked around the cafe, his mismatched eyes locking on to every human in the area with a look of disgust. "One does not seek to make peace between a cheetah and a gazelle, for they see it is the natural order for one to consume the other, so why is it any different between Metas and humans. We are the next link in the chain, and my son is to be the link after that. And even if he wasn't or isn't, I'll sooner die than let you lot have him. This I swear to you, so please stay out of our way, as I don't wish to harm a fellow Meta."

Insomnium

"Huh, guess they made you fast and durable. Nice, it's no fun when new toys are easily broken." Insomnium chuckled as the droid busted through his tendrils, then proceeded to rain down fire around him. Around being the operative word, as not one was being aimed at him. "Now that's just insulting, I think he's not taking this seriously." He shook his head, not moving an inch as the shits exploded around him, the blasts doing very little in actually damage. He looked up a bit when he felt some of his arena disperse, quickly identifying the cause to be a small toon-like figure. 'Oh, it's that toon meta that's on all the posters. She'd make for an interesting fight, to be sure, but for now I'm going to focus on terminator up there.' Insomnium looked back up at Overdrive, the cloak around him beginning to flail around him wildly, and the glow in his armor becoming excessively bright. "If you're not going to come down to me, then I'll just have to come up there." Soundly, the entire arena seemed to bulge out word, before a barrage of tendrils burst out of it, flying at high speeds before attaching themselves to buildings, only for them to bulge out and burst, another tendril shooting out through the air. This would continue for some time, and any shots by Overdrive during this time to disrupt is concentration would be blocked by a set of thick, armored tendrils he had around him. Soon, the area above the arena would look like a giant spider web of tendrils, each one writhing and roiling as f it were alive. This would accomplish two things, one being that it would limit Overdrive's ability to fly effectively, and the other being that it gave Insomnium a veritable highway on the air, as he could slip into and out of each tendril as easily as he could on the arena. "Everything up to now has just been a warm up, Scrapheap, or should it be Tin-Man, ah I'll come up with your nick name after I beat you, bottom line is that things just got real." No sooner did he finish his sentence did Insomnium sink into the arena floor, zipping through the tendrils, though which one is impossible to know for certain. Suddenly, Insomnium would pop out of a Tendril above Overdrive to send another spear at him, again set to explode went it got near, and quickly slipped into another of the tendrils, only to come out of another one to do the same thing. He'd do this for a while before he jumped out of one with a strange attachment to his right arm. It was a rather large, barrel-like construct with a lot of rotating parts and a glowing orb of energy in the middle of it. Soon, the orb grew from the size of a tennis ball to that of a beach ball, the barrel of the construct expanding to let it form, before it shot out at an insanely high speeds, spiraling as it soared until it got near the bot, where it would suddenly contract before exploding into a huge cloud of black smoke. If Overdrive was caught in said cloud, the shadow articles that made it up would move to creep into his inner workings, before some turned into spikes and began to jab things at random, focusing attention on the joints and thrusters, while others would coalese into tendrils that would spread out underneath the Chasis to create opening and weakpoints, as well as bursting out if possible and wrapping themselves around the androids limbs.

As Insomnium began to construct his his shadowy sky web Overdrive dropped back to the ground and began to run around the arena, accelerating to impossible speeds, creating a powerful upwards wind funnel; as he ran a blur of red and blue formed behind him, obscuring his image. Then as he approached near the sound barrier he began to extend his weapon arm out and began to burn it, it was almost like he was trying to shoot but the shots wouldn't go out, as this continued the plasma from the weapon began to form a ring of energy. With the wind-funnel pushing everything upwards his energy began to form a bright red tornado of plasma. As Insomnium insulted him he felt the strange notion to respond in kind, he hadn't been programmed like that, but he didn't care. "Tin-man huh? How about Meat-sack? You humans are all so squishy on the inside, Meta or no Meta." As the spear approached him time seemed to slow, more specifically his super processor was giving him information on how to grab and reflect the explosive spear, and if worst came to worst that energy funnel would absorb the explosion or he would already be out of the way. Taking the information from his processor he began to act and grabbed each one of the spears, throwing them back up at no specific target, but making sure they hit no buildings. Thanks to the wind-funnel the effects of the shadow cloud were pushed upwards, like most things, and either burned up in his energy or floated harmlessly into the air. "If this is things getting real you must be pretty fake?"

"Are you still mad at me for breaking your arm?" Alto said. "I am, but that's not why I'm angry." Sefia replied. He noticed she was only holding her blade with her right arm. He looked down at her left arm, and saw that it was dangling freely in it's place. "Oh, it's broken." "Yes! It's broken!" She said with an exasperated sigh, "It's far too weak! Give me a stronger arm!" "Emperor," Theo said suddenly, "The coffee is ready." "Oh, cool." Alto said, "Pour a cup for Sefia please." Theo was already holding a mug and the pot of coffee, and he proceeded to carefully pour the steaming liquid into the mug almost to the brim. "Here you are, mistress Sephia." Sefia looked towards the coffee, then back towards Alto. She looked to the coffee again, and then back towards Alto, as if she was having a hard time deciding what to do. "Alright, fine..." she said, sheathing her sword. She took the coffee from Theo's outstretched hand and went to the couch and sat down near the spot where her blade had sliced off a bit of the sofa. Sal was busy fighting Con again, button mashing as always. She started sipping the coffee with a sour expression. Alto went over and picked up her repaired robot arm. "Alright, stay still for a sec." He said, as he prepared to take out her other arm. He rolled up one of her jumper's left sleeve and tapped a button on the inside of the elbow 3 times. The arm came away with a worrying crack! and he saw that the part of the arm that connected with the shoulder was almost in pieces. "Take of your jumper for a sec." Sefia grudgingly put her coffee down and obliged with his instruction. Alto peered more closely at the 'arm receptacle' as he liked to call it, the place where the robot arm met the shoulder. Looks like the rotary thing is broken... He thought. Broken due to stress... and overuse. Now, overuse and then stress. Oh. "You've been practicing your Iai, haven't you?" He said to Sefia. She suddenly developed a very keen interest in her coffee. Alto sighed. "I did tell you that the replacement arm wouldn't be able to take that, didn't I?" Sefia still insisted on keeping her silence. "Well, it doesn't really matter anyway." He reached out and took the pieces of the broken rotary thing in the arm receptacle. He then picked up her repaired robot arm, and carefully aligned the prongs before gently pushing it into her shoulder. Sefia experienced a slight electric shock as the nerves connected, but she managed to hold onto her coffee. "Is that all?" Sefia asked, "Because if it is, I'm leaving after I finish my coffee." "Actually, I have a job for you." Alto said. He could see Sefia perk up a little at the mention of a job. "A friend of mine needs to be bailed out apparently, and from the looks of things, I might need more than one person." "How strong is the resistance?" She said, moving her left arm up and down, as if testing it. "It's the underground movement so there are a lot of strong metas." Alto said. "So I'm also bringing in Damien." "Don't tell me that!" She said, "You know I don't like Damien!" "Too late, I'm already texting him." The text read:

Hey Damien, I have a job for you. Get over here ASAP -Alto

He pressed the send button. "Damn it," Sefia groaned, "He annoys me so much!" "I know that," Alto said, "But we need him. We've got our DPS, and our busrt damage, now all we need is a tank."

The last two moves were a bit too... extreme for a fight Light thought. At least, a fight inside a city. Especially the shadow guy who's move looked... painful to say the least. With the moves getting bigger and bigger, it was inevitable that someone other than these two would be hurt by these shenanigans. "Might as well bring this to a close before they start tossing around bombs or something." Light said as she pulled out a whistle and blew on it, an absnormally loud TWEEET sound coming from it trying to catch the two fighter's attention. "Now I was fine with simple blows, but after that... hyper speed sphere thing or whatever, this has gotten out of hand. Eventually one of you will have a move miss or redirect it at the people below, and I'll have to being you guys in one of four ways. So stop the fight here before people get hurt." Light said, asserting whatever authority she could.

The Baiji Oil Refinery, North of Baghdad Arriving in an armored truck, two armor and helmet wearing government agents got out and walked up to the Iraqi soldier. They were both named Fowler and neither were related or married to each other. The first Fowler was male African American and in his forties. He'd been with the agency since the early 2000's. He served as the primary agent in the Middle East. Daniel Fowler had a shaved head and wore body armor on his body to protect from shrapnel. Behind him came Second Agent Fowler. This Agent Fowler was a blonde female. She also wore the Kevlar armor and she also wore a helmet. The soldier let them through. "So the director wants to investigate the death of a hero? It's not like him to be invested in this." replied female agent Fowler. "Well the boss is more concerned as it was a double S. They don't killed too often." the older Agent Fowler replied. They walked towards the wreckage of the destroyed Refinery. The OPEC nations were probably going to drive oil prices up due to the destruction of the this facility. In the US gas was now going to be close to five bucks a gallon. Texas Governor Reese was using this as a failure of the administration's policies. "So what it look to you?" the feale agent asked her superior. "A mess." he said reviewing the damage. The facility was destoyed fairly throughly. Mangled towers, broken pipes, busted tanks, and fire foam all over the facility. There were still fires going on, they weren't as big as the one from the day before. Senior Agent Fowler was not happy someone had wiped the security camera footage. The two agents walked towards the location of the body. It was burnt to a crisp. "I hate burnt bodies." replied the female Fowler."Smells like burnt popcorn and meat." "Yes thank you Rachel." the older agent told his junior. "I hate going off of media footage. It looked like something hit him." Rachel looked through wreckage. Fowler sighed, "Put on some gloves you needn't get tetnus." Rachel pulled out some thick gloves. As they went through the area where at least a dozen Iraqi Army soldiers They stepped in a puddle of liquid. They noticed it was a metallic in color. "The hell?", The African American agent bent down and touched the substance. It slid off his hand like mercury. "Why is this here?" "What?" Rachel moved towards Fowler. "What you find Des?" "Mercury, but what is it doing here?" he asked, "Well put on the chemical gloves!" Rachel told Desmond, "I will then we will get samples." Desmond pulled some purple gloves from his bag and began to use a scoop to get samples of the Mercury like substance with a measuring cup. "What is it?"Rachel asked. "Not sure why it is here but it is suspcious." The two NID agents proceeded to take pictures of the refinery damage and the area around the body, wounds and other matters. They had no idea how to kill a Double S but somebody did. That was information that governments would kill for. Governments like Russia and China. They'd want to kill the heroes meddling in the affairs of their state security. Unseen by the agents as they left some of the mercury rose a few centimeters slowly, it stayed higher for seveal minutes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In the states with the Presidential elections in full swing the ads for the candidates were going strong. David Abernathy hated dealing with political matters like this but it helped to prevent others from impeeding his operations. Right now he was reading information in the Reformists. He disliked the group mostly due to the fact that they were idealistic fools. The affairs of that groups annoyed him but in his opinion they were small potatoes, a minor threat. He was more worried about the Russians moving into Kiev. He was curious what killed Velocity Max that Double S meta. He assigned the two Fowlers from Qatar to it, hopefully there was something probably the Russians. He doubted it was another meta or...well the third party. Hopefully that third party will never come.

"Why I swear, you talk so pretty I'm sure you could sell Ice to an Eskimo. As for the cattle... Well even bad men love their mommas. The dark haired chick behind the counter is absolutely lovely. Besides how many of us are there? Couple million maybe? Say its a couple hundred million? It doesn't matter we all die the same, bullet to the brain kills us all in the end. At the end of the day I just really fucking hate bullys." He put his hands up in the one filled with the neck of Pappy Van Winkle. Eli placed a the bottle of Bourbon on the table as the dark haired girl came up still slightly terrified. "H-hello Mr. Craig. Can I get you something?" She asked in a tepid voice, hints of fear as she spoke. "Mr. Craig she says, I'm damn near insulted, and here I thought we were friends. I'd like whatever you personally recommend and a cup of your finest speciality drink but first, You'd be forever in my favor if you would bring us two mugs." Quick as a flash she was back with two empty and clean mugs. Just as quick she was gone again. It was almost like her rushing would less his wrath or whatever. "Care for drink?" Eli asked pouring himself one. "Pappy van Winkle aged twenty three years. Even for men like us shit is rare as a whore in church house."

((For @The Patriarch, @Eviledd1984, [@NarcisissticPotato] and @Gentlemanvaultboy)) International Heroes Headquarters When Adam, Dean, Olivia and Owlman arrived in the large edifice that was the International Heroes HQ, they would be called in to the meeting room where the 'Inner Circle' of the IH met, where Cedric was waiting for them, already having activated the holographic display at the centre of the table, a holographic display showing the tragic death of Velocity Max. Cedric would then say: "Glad to see you guys; I really mean it." He then called attention to the holographic display, and said: "Guys, we have two problems today. The first one, and the one that's being shown in the display, is the death of Velocity Max, our Middle-Eastern Asset. Velocity Max has been one of our most important assets against Islamic State and other enemies, being instrumental in driving their armies out of Mosul in the Spring of 2015. Therefore, his death is a big blow to the now-relatively peaceful situation in the Middle East." "Furthermore, and this is an extension of the first problem, there is news that members of the International Heroes, as well as the Government, have been doing secret missions in Syria without the Inner Circle's approval - our approval. This needs to be investigated; we cannot have another Government Conspiracy in our hands, not after Project: Genesis. And, well, I have the perfect pretext." "The Islamic State Capital of Raqqa, thanks to Metahumans and the raw fanaticsm of the terrorists, still stands against the combined power of the Coalition against Islamic State, in part due to the chaos following the death of Bashar-Al-Assad and his replacement by a Secular Metahuman-Human assembly. It is time to end this resistance, aand take out their false 'Caliph'." "Adam Savage, aka Warpath, I'm giving you this mission; go to the Caliphate Headquarters of ISIS/IS/Da'esh and kill off Abu Bakr Al-Baghadi; cut off the head of the snake. Keep collateral damage to a minimum; many of the people living there have suffered under Islamic State; they don't need more privations. Then, once that is done, find a pretext to stay in Syria, and investigate the potential traitors in the International Heroes, and a possible Government Conspiracy. Here's another relevant hologram," and with that, Cedric showed Adam the video of a small circular object flying through the air. "Yes, a UFO," Cedric said, "probably created by another nation or a private Metahuman force. I need you to find out who created said UFO. Now..." he said, almost as an afterthought, "the second problem, for everyone else." "Ever heard of the Underground Movement?" he said, "well, they're using a surrogate mother to give birth to an SS-Class Metahuman who's even worse than Gia the Forgotten. And so I plan to attack them in two weeks. But, due to the fact that the LA branch of the International Heroes is understaffed despite its importance, I will have to lead the attack myself. Wish me luck."