Phoenix did not take her eyes from Uprising Prime's, as he commanded his clones through some sort of internal mechanism to commit more organized atrocities. She did not turn to see what he had done, as she could not risk him possibly slithering away, or losing sight of him, should he create ore clones. Instead, she merely paid attention to her other senses, and what they could tell her. Counting the individual voices of the screams of those being tortured, to determine the number of people whose lives were at risk, she knew the cost. Tasting copper in the air, her eyes narrowed, realizing that blood had been spilled.

"You leave me no choice."

Spreading her wings out to their full span, a full ten meters, she advanced upon Uprising. Rather than using her wings as a weapon, she used them as walls, trapping Uprising in them, and backing him up against a wall. Unsheathing her sword, she threw it up in the air. The steel blade sparkled, reflecting the fluorescent lights beautifully, hopefully signaling her position to any law enforcement. It fell, back into her hands- but with her right hand, she grabbed the blade, rather than the hilt. Swinging the sword upwards by the blade, she rammed the hilt into his crotch, and subsequently punched him in the stomach, right at his kidney, with her left hand. The steel arm plunged into his kidney with extraordinary force; the blow would be enough to make him piss blood for the next week or so. The pain alone, from the steel blows to both his crotch and kidney, would be enough to make any ordinary man pass out.

Outside Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Lee was really starting to wonder if people new of the "Hero Code". Despite that fact that he had made it up in the spot, it was still common sense to let people handle something such as this. She was already "negotiating" with the enemy, and suddenly, the revolver motorcycle guy rode up to the armored girl and confronted her. She then had to focus on 2 different enemies. Lee sighed, maybe he was not a hero, he could have been and villain.

Lee barely noticed the giant hulking monster until he yelled something about penguins. "Who knew that hero's could be so...ugly." Lee mumbled to himself despondently. He really hoped that the guys superpower was not super hearing or something, that could have ended badly for him, especially since he was wannabe hulk. Maybe he just lifted weights for a living, that would have explain everything, except for his blue skin. The only thing he could say to that was maybe he was some kind of undead warrior.

Another person appeared that completely ruined everything. He through a....rock at her throat. Shit hit the fan at the point, the animals grew angry and attacked everyone that they could see. Tigers on the guy that through the rock, birds on the revolver guy, Elephant going after the blue guy, and the grey wolves after the armor girl. Lee glanced at the animal woman, she was the brains of all the animals her, they had to get rid of her.

With a plan in mind, all he had to do was execute it. Lee took a deep breath and let Ifrit take over. His body began to transform, he grew fangs, he grew a foot taller, wings shot our of his back, his skin became scales and red. Lee felt like a whole new person, reinvigorated. Unfortunately, Lee had no time to admire himself, he only had a few minutes to use this power. Lee jumped of the building, shooting down towards the ground in a ball of fire. Right before he hit the ground, he pulled up and use fire to propel himself straight towards the animal woman. Fire surrounded his body like a protective barrier, all he had to do was get close to her.

The outskirts of Cleveland

Drake stood atop a pine tree as his bright golden eyes looked at across the landscape and to the city in the distance. Looking at the city made the memories of his previous life as a human come back to him and he felt his heart begin to ache. The stories about dragons said that they were monsters without hearts, but he guessed that they must have been wrong. Unlike so many other superhumans with powers, James couldn't change back into a human and he was stuck as this beast. The thought of being trapped in this horrible body made his mind fill with a frightening anger and smoke began to fume out of his mouth and nostrils. His scaly body began to heat up and off gas.

He was close to igniting on fire and burning the tree down. A pine tree with so many of its needles would surely burn very quickly. This is what that witch had done to him, made him a monster. He was able to get his anger back in check and his body stopped simmering. James took in deep breaths to keep calm, but he still felt the great well of anger inside him boiling.

"What if that witch had simply changed me into what I really was deep inside? My anger was always a problem for all of my life." he thought to himself and didn't feel like having his mind stay on such things. No it was the witch's fault for him being the way he was and he would find her and make her change him back. James then thought about Anna and he felt sorrow wash over him. He couldn't bare the thought of how he had heart her by hiding out of fear of her gazing upon what he had become. He had to find a way to end this curse, he needed to be human again and pick up the broken pieces of his life and find peace with his love.

James decided that he needed to clear his head and stretched his leathery wings before taking off into the air. He flew over the landscape at very fast speeds. Flying always made his mind more relaxed and even though he hated being trapped in this form James had to admit that being able to fly was very cool. His flight took him close by the city zoo and his keen eyes spotted what looked like some kind of commotion going on below and animals running about. He dove down and landed in near the entrance to the zoo and as if on cue people gave out screams of terror at the sight of him and began to run in the opposite direction out of fear.

"Just a normal part of my work as a hero" James said to himself and he watched as other heroes and the woman who had let the animals run loose begin to combat. He gave a booming roar to let his presence be known and James went on the attack, igniting his body in flames and charged Mama Bear looking to smash into her with a great amount of force and burn her with his bodily flames.

*IGNORE ME*

The woman wearing the suit stood there for a bit before yelling at the kid with a gun. Though thankfully they didn't have to hear the animal woman's whole spiel as the piece of gravel did it's job and stopped her cold. She even dropped the elephant gun which would have been a problem. Unfortunately for the plan, it fell apart as the animals started swarming over to attack them. Quake garnered the most attention, and it was from the two tigers that had been by Mama Bear's side.

Grace rolled her eyes hefted a chunk of earth up and over the enclosure nearest her, then tilted the tigers inside. She put another earth barrier between the tigers and their possible escape routes. When she was finished, Quake dusted off her hands. "Seriously, Mama Bear, you've lost your edge. Not that you had one but it was better than this. Also, look up becoming a zookeeper instead. You'd be good at it."

A fiery form blew past her and aimed for the woman in question. Grace would leave him to deal with her while she re coordinated the rest of the group. The elephant and the giant blue guy looked to have it well in hand. The birds and the guy -for some reason he looked like a Roger to her- were another story. With a pulling motion, Grace grabbed a lot of gravel and hurled it at the larger eagle, but her aim wasn't perfect and if anything the screaming of the animals wasn't helping her concentration.

"Sorry if I hit you," Grace apologized, grateful that she'd used gravel instead of a giant chunk of earth like she had before. Hopefully, the guy she'd seen earlier was making sure that the elephant rifle that Mama Bear had wasn't being aimed at her. If Grace got shot here, then she might not be able to get back up.

Everything was going terrific. The two teens were putting on a show of heroics and they helped some civilians escape. "I'm the Teen Tornado!" she shouted proudly as the last of only a small batch of hostages exited through the window. There was little time to celebrate, though, as they were soon engulfed by an army of duplicates. Tess's heart sunk as the Uprising clones surrounded her and the other heroes. "Shit!" Her eyes flicked from Gwen to the other heroes next to her. She was familiar with Phoenix but wasn't sure who the other one was. With the innocent bystanders being used as hostages, they had little choice.

The one who Tess didn't know, an older male, was in the act of surrendering. Tess sighed. "I don't think we have a choice," she admitted, taking off her backpack and raising it in the air so they could see it before dropping it on the floor, kicking it towards the clones. She put her hands behind her head, feeling the opposite of heroic. As she raised her hands, though, she noticed that the glass roof had broken. There was finally an outlet to the air outside, she could use it to amplify her powers and try to possibly stun all of the duplicates. She tilted her head towards Gwen, leaning closer so she could whisper to her the plan she had formulated. "I might be able to—" Tess stopped in the middle of her statement when Phoenix charged the alpha Uprising and unleashed a flurry of attracks on him. Tess's jaw hung open in awe, her arms drooped at her sides in mesmerized astonishment. She fought back an urge to geek out at the hero in action. "Or..." she struggled to make a sentence, "... that could happen."

She shook herself out of the trance. Phoenix's attack stunned the clones, providing a good chance to fight. Carefully Tess started fighting some Uprising clones, making sure to free and avoid harming their hostages.

Wyoming Street

As the two heroes pointed their weaponry at Striker he grinned. "What do we have here? Two Romans way past their time. Well this shouldn't take to long." Just then he nodded his head and the two goons with him started opening fire their Uzi machine guns at the duo. Striker then threw some of his acid which would surely melt the shield at them.

---

Booker pulled at the hem of his scarf, making sure it sat comfortable above his nose and didn't push his shades up to reveal his eyes. The quintet of men in front of him were beginning to show signs of suspicion, of nervousness. To be clear, Booker had ordered several pounds of their finest product earlier and was counting on the delivery to be here when he arrived. He had removed the plates from his car, taken his father's low-jack offline, rather forcefully, and dressed up in his most uncharacteristic clothing, all black and white to differentiate himself to his usual garish colors and name-brand fashion. A pair within the group whispered between themselves and looked his way, hands moving to their backs slowly. It was difficult to see in this alley with his sunglasses on. He immediately came to regret wearing them as he saw the pair's hands had returned to their pockets.

"Y'all know the deal. I say I've got the green, and you bring me the goods up front. If you can't supply for my demand then I'm thinking either you've got a shortage..."

He looked to them, lowering his shades just slightly, so they could see the whites of his eyes as he gazed at them all. They were twitchy, Dad had taught him a bit about what he would deal with out on the streets, back when he was just a little fish in a big ocean. They wanted to make a move. Body language and mannerisms, it was obvious. He continued talking.

"Or y'all came here to short-change me a few pounds in exchange for some lead. Am I right, or am I right?"

A flash of bright red and the sound of a sonic boom from overhead made them jump, each of them pulling a gat and ready to pop him. One of them screamed in fear, "Time to die, Janus! Nowhere to go!" They had his exit blocked off, so they had cornered him pretty well. Or so they thought. Booker dashed to the side and grabbed the lid of a nearby trashcan. With a lunge forward and a savage wrench of his torso, he flung the lid like a frisbee into the tightly packed group, throwing it with enough force to make it crumple against the leading gangster and have him fall back into his compatriots. It delayed their itchy trigger fingers for just long enough. Just long enough for him to walk over to a nearby dumpster and hoist it up in front of him.

He used the dumpster as cover as he made a charge for the exit, onto the street as he trampled the gangsters sprawling upon the floor, straight through a pair of parked cars and into the middle of a chase between a rocket-packed man and another on a motorcycle. He yelled as he threw the dumpster forward and made a run down the street, completely abandoning his car in favor of simply getting away on foot. The thugs would be fine, beaten black and blue by his tough boots and garbage antics, but fine all the same.

Upon hearing the loud roaring of the motorbike behind him, The Rocket sighed. Countless supervillains legitimately threatening lives, of course somebody was going to hunt down the petty thief. He glanced back at the encroaching hero, and started putting more oomph into his je-double take

"WHAT THE FUCK. WHEN THE HELL DID FUCKING BATMAN MOVE TO FUCKING CLEVELAND." Oh god, run. Run, you shitty wannabe villain, run. Fucking Two-Face and Joker running wild, and Batman goes and chases down Kite-Man.

With a sigh of regret and dread, he turned his head to meet Crisis' gaze. Rocket's helmet wasn't nearly as stylized, a rather simple little affair with a completely smooth faceplate save for the two holes where he had the goggles inserted for his eyes. Truth be told, he had scrapped that son of a bitch together from old scrap he had pulled out of a landfill and banged it into working headgear.

Out of politness's sake, Rocket gave him a curt wave with one hand, other still holding onto the strap of the bag he had slung over his shoulder.

Then the knives hit, promptly jamming straight into the left hip thruster and stoppering the whole thing up, which left Rocket hanging in midair as it sputtered and stopped. The explosion pellet, while it did manage to knock around the workings of the back turbine and force it to stop, also managed to throw Rocket even farther forward through the air and past Crisis. He slammed into the concrete, face first, and had maybe a split second to groan in pain and humiliation. Fortunately for him-or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it-that's when the rockets detected that the back turbine and one of the hip thrusters was down, and activated as an automatic compensation. His shoulder retrorockets and knee jets immediately kicked on, and he shot down the street even faster than he was with his bounding leaps.

On his face.

With a shriek of metal and concrete, Rocket's skidding body threw up waves of sparks as he slid down Pearl Road face down, arms flailing at his side as his systems forced him in the direction he was going in when his back turbine and hip thruster failed.

"FwubadubawafufufuckfuckfuuuUUUUUUUUUU-"

A crunching sound, and another loud crash beckoned Rocket to look back. Oh, hey, the first stroke of luck all fucking day, somebody threw a goddamn dumpster and some cars in between him and the psychopath chasing him down. The resulting pileup from the hulks of metal had pretty much clogged the entire road, and hopefully would keep that jackass off of his back. He sighed, then looked forward. Then look back down at the road, and sighed again, a good half-second before smashing into a van as he finally started getting proper lift. As he was flung to the side, he bounced off of a car, off of another car after that, before he was firmly embedded in the side of a truck's trailer. Rocket grabbed hold of the trailer, checked to make sure the bag was still in one piece, and then waited as the truck drove further north, across the bridge over the Medina Freeway and towards the heart of Cleveland.

The sound of his cell door sliding open was enough to break Dean out of his dazed trance. Surprised, he sat up from his bunk and just stared at his bars for a moment. He has expected one of the security officers to trounce in and blather on about something that he had done earlier in the day, but that never came. He could only smile as screams of both joy and terror echoed through the halls of the prison as its inmates and guards figured out just what had happened. Finally, they were free.

Dean could afford the luxury of leisurely strolling about the compound. He was no real threat as he was; the guards would be preoccupied with the caught and their particular brand of terror. He almost felt pity on them for being so underprepared for this type of situation. He’d eventually find his way to Inmate Property, searching down the rows and rows of bins for the one with his name on it. He gave a friendly nod to Death Incarnate who was a few bins down retrieving his scythe. Interestingly enough, there was a decapitated corpse in front of Dean’s bin clutching his sword. The skeletal man approached with a fiendish grin on his face. “Forgive me, I just couldn’t help myself! I sensed that this fool would have died by your hand once you found him with your possessions, so I went ahead and took his life. May god have mercy on his soul!”

Ignoring Death’s tirade, Dean could only squeal in glee at the sight of his family sword. He quickly pried it from the corpse’s cold dead hands, and held it close in a loving embrace. It had been almost a year since he’d felt the firm touch of the hilt in his grasp. He slowly removed the blade from its sheath, and marveled as the old steel reflected off the rooms lights. Leaving Death in an awkward position as he stared down at his sword for the next few minutes, Dean would eventually snap from his trance and return the sword to its home. “Domo arigato bone man.”

“Yes! Yes! Now I must depart, for there are so many people who must face the reaper! Until we meet again, Dean Nakamora!” With a long winded cackle, Death incarnate raised his bony hands to the sky, causing flames to swirl around his feet. In an instant they rose up and enveloped him, transporting the skeleton away to his next victim. With that distraction gone, Dean would crack open the treasure trove of old memories. Utility belt? Check. Guns? Check. Riot gear? Still looking good. Car keys with the laser pointer key chain? Still shining bright. Finally all geared up, Sūn Rising made his exit just as so many other prisoners did.

Later that day…

“Give me a burger and fries or die.” The adolescent cashier could only whimper in terror at the sight of the machine gun leveled in her direction. So far, Dean’s trip to the mall food court had been fantastic. The terrible prison food was literal shit compared to the confectionaries of a free man. As it stood, he already downed a meat lovers pizza and a steaming box of pork fried rice. After this, it’d be time for fried chicken. Unfortunately, before his request could be filled, the boom of hundreds of voices filled the mall. The terrorizing clones was chaos much like what went down at the penitentiary, only they wanted to stay in, not out. Quickly making his way to the center of the action, Dean had to question what exactly their plan was. With a power like that, this guy could take over a gun store and have a small army at his disposal. Why blockade himself inside a mall? And now he was threating to kill hostages?

“The Caught heroes are winning. Kill your prisoners while you can!” Dean shouted this from the sidelines, leaning up against a wall so he could watch the show. He didn’t dare join in on the fray, it was clear that he’d be on the losing side.

If only things were less confusing. More people, probably heroes judging by what they were doing, jumped into the fray, even one that went flying straight for Mama Bear. However, Pearl though about something. Mama Bear was correct. The animals were being held against their own will, being left as entertainment to watch by humans. Even thought Mama Bear sent wolves to attack Pearl, the latter started to become convinced that what she was doing was right. "What do you think?" Pearl asks, sounding undirected to any one person however actually being directed toward ANAI. "I believe what she said is correct. Suggesting action; follow your own will." Pearl nods in agreement. "And she may be able to pay me. She's a criminal. She might be able to, I don't know, rob a-"

"Suggesting you focus on the wolves." ANAI says, which makes Pearl give a nod. "Right, gotcha." She turns her attention to the wolves, circling her. "Ready overflux, extreme-short burst. I don't want to drain too much power. Aim it for the right side." If she wanted to ally with Mama Bear, she'd have to deal with the wolves first. Pearl fired a trio of pulses from her cannon, which impacted on one of the wolves. "Now!" She shouts, before being propelled to her right not a second later. Her timing was spot on. As the wolves had circled her, one of the wolves had moved to her right. With the timing of the overflux, she had smashed right into it. The power levels of the suit jumped a bit, however immediately went back to normal as it wasn't an extremely large burst. Two down, four to go.

As Pearl aims at one of the wolves, a different one knocks her to the ground. With a grunt, Pulsecat slams her cannon into the side of the wolf, and a shot blows straight through it, point blank to the artifact inside. She snaps off a shot as she rolls to her feet, catching a wolf's head by pure accident. A foursome of shots later, and two more wolves dropped, one with a hole in it's head, another with a trio of deep holes in it's stomach. Pearl had expected the last one to retreat, having lost it's packmates, however it did the complete opposite and charged her. A foolish move, as it soon skidded to a halt. Pearl moved away, leaving the wolf's limp body behind.

With a glance to the heroes, she bowed her head slightly when looking away. I feel bad going to help Mama Bear, but what she says is true. Licking her lips, she asks for a call to be made to Johnson, which is quickly opened. "Johnson, send the team. Do not shoot the animals nor the lady with the giant gun. Everyone else is to be captured, or killed if that is needed." She bites her lip slightly. "The one I'm helping has good reasons for her actions." She hears shuffling, and then, "I hear you. The team will be there, ETA, five minutes. I'm sending a drone overhead, too, to keep eyes." She nods, and shuts off the COM.

"ANAI, set me a path through the animals to help her out with the fire person. Double time." Almost instantly, a pair of paths appear in her helmet's visor. One that would require another overflux, or one that would require her to run as fast as she could. Pearl immediately started to run, figuring she'd need to use as little power as possible to help fight off the heroes. However, running wasn't gaining her enough speed. The animals closed in on her. "Jetpack. Don't use overflux." She says, before doing what looked like a dolphin dive into the air. The jetpack kept her in the air, sending her through the pack of varying animals. "We're through." She says, orientating herself to face Mama Bear and the flame person. He went straight for her, but so did Pearl. "Overflux. Aim me at Mama Bear!" Pearl shouts, being propelled straight at the woman. An alarm went off in her ears, signalling a near-power-overload. "Slow speed!" She commands, feeling a jolt as she slows down enough so she doesn't impact like a missile onto Mama Bear. She wraps her left arm around the woman, and twists her own body, firing at the fire-hero as she flies out of his path. "Listen, I'm going to help you, but you've gotta pay me back." Pearl says, twisting again to land on her feet, placing Mama Bear down on her own feet. The roars of the animals combined with the shrieks of alarms in her helmet was quite irritating, however she was forced to bear it. She was very, very close to a power-overload, and she began to turn off systems in order to lower it. Turning off her jetpack lowered it enough for her to fight again, and she directed her shots to the fire hero.

Outside Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Everything slowed down in Lee's head as he flew through the air. He watched in awe as a dragon flew over him and right to the blue guy to help him out. It was pretty amazing to see such a sight, a dragon was here in Cleveland. He was not the only transforming human here in the city. Maybe he could make friends with a person who under stood what it was like to become something, that was not human. Despite that fact that every Meta human was basically not human, he was meta human, that was never really a human to begin with.

Lee shook head and focused on the task at hand. His target was the animal lady, if he could at least knock her unconscious, the animal would be free. But that posed as a problem also, if the animals were freed from her grip, they would run wild. Another approach would have to be taken to protect the citizens of the city. "Think, think!" Lee mumbled to himself in fusturation, what should he do, how could he do it?

He was thrown from his thoughts when he a ball of blue energy whipped past his head. "What the hell." He mumbled as he dodged more and more blue balls of energy. He quickly realized that it was the armor girl, she was protecting the lady, why? She was probably convinced by the lady to help free the animals. How could she have been so naive? She could not just send animal roaming the streets of Cleveland because she wanted to free them. It was a process that took time, by giving animal food, they could have lost there instincts and kills to hunt, or live in the wild, they needed to do this calmly and carefully if they wanted to save these animals.

"Stop!" he yelled as he came to a halt above them. He slowly descended with his hands in the air, he needed to talk to her. Once he landed he become human again, all traces of his fire gone. "We need to discuss this in a calm manor, think about what she is doing, sending animals rampaging down the streets of Cleveland is unreasonable. There is such better way to go about this, but anything but her way, have her send the animals back to the zoo. You could buy the zoo or something, and go from there." He explained calmly, hopefully she would see reason.

June 18, 2018
The warehouse was pitch black, par the lighting provided by the thunderstorm outside that struck lightning every now and then. A soft whimpering could be heard and eventually the slow creak of an old, rusted door opening could be heard before the sound of heavy metal clunking against the ground interrupted the whimpering. Eradicator struck the match against the rough texture of his combat trousers. The light illuminated his body as he drew it up to the cigar in his mouth and lit it before snuffing the match in his metallic hand and dropping the snapped match to the ground. He moved from his position to the criminal tied to the chair, bloodied and beaten from Eradicators interrogation a few hours ago. It seems the silence and darkness got to him more than the beating did.

Eradicator tore the blindfold from the thugs face, dropping it on the filthy concrete ground and taking the cigar from his mouth, smoke escaping as he did so.
"I'm going to ask you this once more, and you can choose whether or not you think not speaking is still a good option." He spoke, his gravelly voice echoing throughout the warehouse.
"Where is Victor Manning hiding the girl" His gaze shot through the thug like a bullet. The thug swallowed hard and coughed up his next few words.
"The Docks" He managed to stifle out.
"South of here" Eradicator kept his gaze on the thug. He raised his pistol to the thugs temple and felt the slide click forward. He had more than enough reason to kill him, he had helped in the selling of people for god's sake. But he was also young and could be saved. Eradicator at least hoped this experience would stop him from continuing with his life of crime. He swung the gun into the kid's head, knocking him out before leaving the warehouse in the search for the young girl, not 13 that was to be sold to some low life abroad.

June 22, 2018
8:00Am
Joseph 'Eradicator' Boyes woke up to the loud and annoying sound of his alarm beeping away next to his ear. He slid himself out of his bed and picked up his phone. For a man so infused and based around technology, Joseph wasn't very good at using his phone. Highlighted by the fact that he went out and bought an alarm because he had trouble with the alarm 'app' on his phone. He had very few 'apps' on his phone. He didn't really see the point, but eventually gave in to a few snooker apps that he played while at the dentist and other appointments that required waiting. He had a text, from the mayors secretary of all people. He usually only got messages from them when a citywide emergency was going on. This, was much less important. It turns out the mayor was giving a speech in an hour and wanted a few well-known heroes to stand behind him and make him look good. Joseph's face turned to a scowl, he simply sent a text back with the message of 'Not in a million years' before starting his day. He showered, had breakfast and checked the news for any disasters currently impending. It turns out some villain called 'Mama Bear' had released every animal in the zoo for some reason and heroes were arriving on scene to stop her. Joseph sighed, rubbing his one human eye. He could never just have a quiet day could he?

He suited up, got his equipment and made his way to the zoo in his Gran Torino. If there was one perk that came with the job it was the car. He had wanted a Gran Torino since watching 'Starsky and Hutch' as a child with his father. He arrived on scene, lighting a cigar as he got out of his car. He watched the situation unfold for a bit before opting for a more stealthy method after he saw the animals return and go straight for the neck of many of the heroes. That would just be tedious to deal with. He slid back the top of his gun before circling around the zoo and climbing over the fence. He stalked through the underbrush, readying his knife in case this 'Mama Bear' had any goons waiting in the shadows. He was relieved to see she hadn't, blood in a zoo isn't the greatest combination in the world. He was much less relieved when a lion pounced out from a bush near him and pinned Eradicator to the ground. Eradicator dodged the bites towards his head before rolling backwards and kicking the lion off towards a tree. Eradicator quickly rolled to his feet and slid his thumb against a small switch on his gun, changing it to the second non-lethal mode. He took a quick shot at the lions skull, and a dart flew out before quickly subduing the lion under the effects of sleep. He eventually reached the other side of the underbrush to see some sort of demon thing fly down before changing into what looked to be a normal bloke, along with some high tech 'hero' deciding to turncoat and protect the villain. Eradicator stepped forward with a scowl.
"If you really think this zoo is keeping those animals in any condition other than good you're delusional" He said, removing the cigar from his mouth, snuffing it on his metal hand and dropping it to the ground.
"A lot of the animals here are near extinction and being kept here under good conditions in order to prolong the lifespan of their race. What you're doing right now" He said waving his arm out in front of him as if to signal towards Mama Bears actions.
"Is just putting them in more danger. Even if you did succeed with this - which you won't - How do you think those penguins will survive in this heat? They belong in that enclosure over there, you know, the one with all the ice in it? Not out in this heat" His eyes turned to 'Pulsecat' he had seen here on the news and during incidents here and there.
"And you, do you really think someone who would happily put people's lives in danger just to take animals out of a habitat that they are perfectly fine in is any sort of 'good guy'?

Once the birds had dissipated from the kid she found him absent from the fight. "Typical," Grace rolled her eyes and moved on to the next person, which was going to be the Iron Suit from earlier but found that she had the wolf problem well in hand. Maybe too much, as the wolves were now dead. Grace made a silent prayer that she didn't have to pay for damages later, because she'd be in both trouble and debt. Focusing back on the fight, she noticed the Suit -Grace decided that since she didn't know the person's codename it would be best to call them Suit- start helping Mama Bear.

Grace started making small cages for some of the loose animals and shifting the ones she could into the pens. It was a little extinguishing but if she could limit Mama Bear's influence by even a little bit... that was when she noticed the fire hero guy getting shot at. Grace dropped the wall she had been working on and put up another one between the guy and Suit.

Of course another hero had to show up -Eradicator, if the news images were right- and start a moral debate with Mama Bear. "I agree, most zoos try for a decent enclosure for their animals. However," Grace grunted in effort as she threw the Earth Wall in front of the fire hero toward Suit and Mama Bear, "can we save this until later? And agree that the Suit over there is a dumbass? Like seriously, Mama Bear is poor as a train traveling hobo. I'm somehow richer than her, which let me tell you, is a miracle these days."

"Also, just gonna say that she smells," Grace said, taking a moment to leave a quip, "like a zoo."

I'm not half bad at this superhero banter, Grace thought as she caught her breath.

BEACHWOOD PLACE MALL

Uprising's eyes rolled up into his head as he collapsed to the floor, unconscious. In the main area of the mall, the clones (included those dead and wounded on the floor) abruptly disappeared, their weapons clattering loudly to the floor.

Unfortunately, the clones had been the sole means of support for thirty hostages being dangled over balconies. With shouts of surprise, they abruptly began to fall twenty-five feet towards the hard marble floors below. Some of the younger and fitter hostages managed to grab railings and save themselves, but the majority were too shocked to do anything besides fall.

The heroes would have to move quickly.

CLEVELAND METROPARKS ZOO

Most people would be suspicious or at least surprised when their adversary suddenly joins their side, but Mama Bear had long since accepted her own righteousness and simply nodded. She pointed to Drake and Ifrit. “My babies don't like fire,” she said calmly. Seeing that Pulsecat was taking on Ifrit, Mama Bear raised her massive rifle and let off two armor-piercing rounds at Drake. The solidly-built woman barely felt the recoil from the huge gun.

Underneath Frankenstein, the thrashing, foaming elephant finally stopped struggling and trying to buck him off. Slowly, the massive animal slid to the ground, unconscious. Mama Bear's army wasn't quite done with him yet, though. Ridiculously, the zoo's numerous penguins and puffins swarmed out of the smashed doors of the penguin house, swarming over Frankenstein with their wet bodies.

Other, flying birds turned their attention to Quake. Along with hundreds of mosquitoes, hornets, and other stinging insects, they attacked any part of her that wasn't protected by clothing.

Eradicator, for his part, was soon confronted by two growling brown bears, alongside a five-foot tall kangaroo. Despite the overwhelming logic of his arguments, Mama Bear was determined to fight to the end.

WYOMING STREET

“We're Greek, moron!” Ajax yelled as he deftly caught the ball of acid on his shield. The acid smoked and fumed, but eating through the chemically treated shield was a slow process- it would take a few minutes at least.

The two brothers leaped into action as the thugs sprayed gunfire their way. While Ajax caught the bullets on his shield, Teucer took cover behind a parked car before letting off a carefully aimed arrow.

The arrow landed in the midst of Acid Striker and his men, then suddenly began to let off a piercing, disorienting high-pitched noise. Ajax, his helmet providing protection against this noise, waded into the stunned men. One was smashed aside with a sweep of the mighty shield, another was kicked in the gut and thrown to the ground. Down the road, Teucer began to notch another arrow, this one fitted with an anesthetic, carefully aiming for Acid Striker.

Danny released the chain as soon as he was sure the elephant was out, sliding off and patting it on the side. "There there, Dumbo. Everything okay." He said, twirling the chain back around him arm. That's when he heard the quacking. By the time he had turned around it was too late, he had already been engulf by the braying swarm. Eager for blood and the fresh fine taste of Alaskan tuna. They did their best.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Danny yelled as they pecked and bit remorselessly at his exposed legs. Seeing no other recourse that didn't involve stepping on a penguin he jumped back up, out of them, to the top of the penguin house. The resulting empty space caused the more eager to topple over, leading to a dominoes like chain reaction that ended with the uncoordinated animals in a squawking pile, struggling to right themselves. He watched from the rooftop as the first of them righted themselves and breathed a sigh of relief. "That was a close one. I never considered you might turn evil."

A gunshot split the air and drew his attention to Mama Bear. She was the cause of all this. She was going to get all these guys hurt if she kept this up. He lifted up one arm, patted his elbow, and took an running leap off the penguin house toward her. "ELBOOOOOOW DROOOOOOOP!!!"

Drake was about to smash into Mama Bear, but the villain managed to fire off two shots at him and the weapon was strong enough to do some damage as the bullets tore into his scaly hide. He gave a cry of pain and veered off to the side to avoid being possibly hit with more bullets. The pain made his rage become more extreme and his bodily flames blazed more intensely. Without thinking too much of the damage it would cause, Drake released a jet of fire from his mouth that shot straight towards Mama Bear and paid no head that Danny was going in for an against the villain, Drake was focused on taking down this pathetic metahuman who had dared attack him.

"I will burn you!" he shouted furiously and he flew at her. If Mama Bear tried to dodge his fiery breath then he would smash into her and tear into the villain with his claws. Normally he would think through his actions more, but the injury had made him give into his rage and now he was acting more upon instinct, he was focused on taking down his enemy.

Not even a full minute between feeling good about her pun and managing to seal of more of the bigger animals, a bee stung Grace. Which would not have been half as bad were it a single bee. Instead there was a swarm of flying animals and insects that were swarming for her. They aimed for her arms, and a small part of her knees that weren't covered by her boots. The birds were the worst, however, as they went for her face and eyes. Any time she caught one they managed to slip away and circle back.

"I feel bad that ever fed those pigeons in the park now!" Grace yelled, still swatting at the bugs and birds wildly. Bits of gravel and smaller chunks of earth started flying around, out of Grace's control. "I think I'll spend the rest of my life poisoning the little jerks!" she added for good measure. Grace didn't mean it, however, as she always carried some food to give to the poor little starving birds. However, it would be coincidence if she actually had any food on today of all days, and the universe loved laughing at her. "Also, don't bees die when they sting you, ow, so it's your fault that the animals here are dying Mama Bear!"

Grace figured she might as well follow the insane woman's logic with the zoo animals. If she cared about them then maybe she'd at least try to help them instead of throwing them into harm's way. However, from the roar of the dragon, Mama Bear might soon be figuring out that ticking off a dragon was not a way to save the animals.

As Uprising fell, before the Prime even hit the ground, Phoenix was already running out of the store. As soon as she breached the door, she took off into the air. Having seen that one of the other superheroes had the ability to manipulate and control the air like a puppet, she operated on the hope that the girl would have the sense to somehow save the majority of the falling hostages. Taking in the situation as soon as her eyes fell onto the area, Phoenix flew towards those furthest from the girl with the powers of the wind, and caught six of the hostages falling.

Each of the victims she saved fell on her wings as she flew by, weighing her down, and causing her to have to land after only being able to soften the landing of six. Landing on all fours, with her back parallel to the ground, she suspended her wings flat as a platform, a few feet off the ground. She spoke to them gently, though her voice sounded a bit pained, as it took great effort to keep her wings upright with the weight of three people on each.

"One of you, call an ambulance. Those that didn't get saved by me or the other heroes will need medical attention. You, though, come with me."

Once they were off, she collapsed her wings onto the ground. Folding them into her back, she made her way back over to the store where Uprising Prime had passed out. The civilian followed, a little girl with braces, mesmerized by the angelic wings. Phoenix knelt down, and began to feel his body for injuries, cataloguing them in her head. She turned to the little girl, whose face was full of fright and fear. Not knowing whether it was the trauma which had led to this, or the fact that she looked absolutely terrifying in her armor to someone so young, Phoenix raised the mask of her helmet. The girl was standing across from the body of Uprising, against the wall, so only she could see Rose's face- proving that Rose was human, just like the girl. She offered the girl a gentle smile, hoping that would make the girl a bit less scared.

"It's alright, little one. I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to get everyone to safety, including the bad man. Can you do me a favor, and call 911, and get them to send a police escorted ambulance to pick up this man?"

Handing the girl a burner cell from her pocket, she turned the man's body over, and pulled the belt off of his pants. Using it to temporarily bind his hands together, she slung his body over her shoulder fireman style, and stood. The little girl happily called 911, and turned to the wall. After telling them what Phoenix had asked her, albeit with a lisp, she turned back around to hand the phone back to Phoenix- she was already out of the store, mask lowered once more. Having grabbed a few of the extra strength climbing ropes from the display of the sports store the Prime had been thrown into, Phoenix tied him up more carefully, gingerly making sure not to exacerbate any of his injuries any further.

She stood straight, standing guard by the body, until a security guard hustled over to her, and offered to take the body for her. Thanking the guard, Phoenix obliged, and began walking towards the other superheroes, who had just made their debut. She aimed to talk to Tess- it was always a good idea to encourage young Caught to develop their abilities, and to offer them protection, but it was more important to her to make sure the girl knew that her own safety should be her first priority. Protecting the people should not be a person that young's job.

Eradicator was caught off guard by the onslaught of animals that had appeared to cause problems for him. The kangaroo quickly sent a fearsome kick to Eradicator's gun hand, sending the gun spinning off behind him. This only made things harder. He readied his fists, opting to try and subdue the animals before he attempted to kill them using the knife strapped to his belt. One of the bears quickly came at Eradicator, but Eradicator was ready for that. He moved to the side as the bear lunged at him, spearing it at its waist as it fell. He dove it to the ground before sending one hell of a punch to the bears skull with his metal arm, knocking the bear unconscious. He turned just in time to be swiped to the ground by a mighty bear claw. Eradicator reacted just in time to stop his 'pretty mug' from being scarred more from the bears second attack by rolling backwards out of the way. He sent a kick upwards towards the bears chest before realizing his situation. He was literally fighting two bears and a kangaroo. This was either a personal high point or a personal low point, Eradicator couldn't decide which was worse.

The kick connected, winding the bear and allowing for Eradicator to follow up with a dropkick to the bears skull, slamming it against the wall behind it. Now came the hard part, the kangaroo. Eradicator had always heard the stories of kangaroos being expert boxers. Eradicator put up his fists as the kangaroo came bouncing towards him. He felt the full force of the kangaroos kick to the chest, he was expecting a punch. Eradicator stumbled backwards, but regained his posture just in time to catch the kangaroos fist. He attempted to twist the arm over and flip the kangaroo to the ground, but was met with yet another kick to his side. Eradicator would have to play this offensively rather than defensively. He looked to his surroundings and hatched a plan. He backed up a few steps before running forward towards the kangaroo, kicking off the wall to his left and sending a mighty punch to its snout. In its dazed state Eradicator was free to follow up with an uppercut and a few short jabs, sending the kangaroo to the ground. He had literally beaten up a kangaroo. A few days ago he busted a slave trading ring and today he was beating up wildlife. What a life.

Eradicator fetched his gun and watched as possibly the strangest thing he'd ever seen in his life, counting the kangaroo he'd just beating up, happened. What seemed to be frankenstein just tried to elbow drop Mama Bear while what seemed to be a dragon flew at Mama Bear breathing fire as he did. It was clear that the dragon wasn't thinking if it even had a brain. Fire this close to trees and wood could only result in a fire that could potentially spread onwards to the city. He at least hoped the dragon was sensible enough to stop before he lit old Frankenstein on fire as he elbowed Mama Bear in the skull. Eradicator sighed, as much as he'd like to see Mama Bear get burned alive for making him fight a fucking kangaroo, something which he'd expect to never get over, he wouldn't allow it to happen if he could at least try to stop it. His thumb glided over the switch on his gun, setting it to lethal bullets. His robotic eye glowed a crimson red, tracking the back of her kneecap. He aimed, squeezed and the bullet flew out, hopefully piercing through her kneecap and sending her to the ground in time for the dragon to fly over her head and completely miss with the flames.

---

Doyle's expression turned to confusion and from that to determination within about three seconds. He looked to the hostages on the opposite side of the side Phoenix had saved hostages on. He sprinted over, leaping over the balcony as one fell and creating a shield beneath him as they fell. They landed fine and Doyle helped soften the landing of two other hostages using what little telekinesis he knew in tandem with his shields. He made his way back into the mall to check for any still clinging on to the balconies that he had missed.