Kaden Merlovich sat behind his desk and looked over a whole field of different holoscreens. The news showed mercury city as a small, illegal casino was being quickly surrounded by the police. The news anchor outside was going about how this was a bold move, as the casino was owned by a notorious crime family. Mr Merlovich made a face. The families in Mercury City were angry criminal eccentrics. Nothing more, they may have to deal with alien invasions in that town, but they were spared the true terror of really bloodthirsty and capable mobsters. And he sat ontop of it all, a Billionaire and philanthropist. He leaned back in his chair and pondered. He had a vision, a grand plan. To make this town better. By the book. His own team of heroes. They would clean these streets up. His legacy would be assured.

The office in which he sat took up most part of the 20'th floor. Everything around him was incredibly polished, chrome, gold and white as far as the eye could seem. His chair likely cost more then the everage man made in half a year.

”ARCHIE” he said as a hologram popped up next to him.

”I believe we said not to call me that Mr Merlovich?” A disemobied voice spoke and the hologram made a face of dissaproval.

”Arc sounds so.... Try hardy.” The man complained as he began scrolling trough a list of names.

”You could call me by my full designation. Artificial Realtime Computer” It, the hologram, said with a deper frown on its transparent blue face. Kaden waved that idea away. ”No way. That is to much of a mouthfull.”

”IF you say so. The algorythm you asked me for is done.” The hologram answered.

”I saw. Are you sure this is correct”

”Indeed sir. They fit the total equation parimiters by 98 percent.”

”...A failed fey invader, a alocholic alien and a mentally challenged... thing...” He started to mumble
”A repentant fey invader, a formidable brawler and a” The hologram trailed of. ”A unfortunate victim of science”

”Atleast the female portion of the team seem capable. A math genius, a illusionist and... wait a minute She's a villain!”

”No. She is not. Her family she is. She is the white lamb of the lot”

”Oh geez. That must be rough...” He looked at the last name. ”There is a rat... I hate rats... I really, really hat rats.”

”98 Percent....”

”Fine.”

-----------HQ---------

The lobby of the Slight Heroics HQ was about the size of five regular one room appartments. The decor was sparse but fancy, the lights where bright and white with reliefs in gold. Leading past it was a corridor, equally white and gold, leading to the briefing room, where a large oval table awaited. The would be heroes sat around it, having been led here one at a time by a hologram. At the head of the table, stood Kaden. His hologram helper next to him.He cut a handsome profile, around 50, gray hair and a body that looked like he lived on the gym. His hand clasped firmly behind his back

”Hello friends, welcome to my project. All of you have been chosen for your talents. I believe in time, you will become this cities finest paragons of justice and truth.” He eyed them, sizing them up. ”...But First things first. I am Kaden Merlovich, owner of Miracle Machinery. I am also your funder.” He leaned forward.

”Before I tell you your first tasks, any questions?"

Eyes glanced. Then glanced again. Slender fingers fidgeted constantly, never quite finding a comfortable position. Everything tense, nothing at home.

The girl sat with her legs crossed tightly and her arms straight at her sides, close to her body. She was thin enough to begin with, and her tight posture made her look like some sort of pale stick insect, barely taking up half the width of her seat. From time to time, she would shift slightly, moving a couple of millimeters one way or the other, which seemed to make no difference whatsoever to her state of mind.

She blinked once as Kaden began to talk, her head suddenly twisting to face him, as if she hadn't even noticed him before. For the duration of his first sentence, she fixed him with her dark brown eyes, a stare as precise as a pin spearing a butterfly, before her gaze went drifting off again, flicking over to the hologram beside him, then down to the table.

It was as if she were hoping that by not looking at anyone, she could avoid having others look at her. The reasons were clear enough: she looked like she'd been dragged out of bed to be brought here. Her wide glasses were slightly off-kilter on her face, her hair a tangled mess, and she was still in civilian clothes, a long-sleeved white shirt that was clearly too big for her. In an ordinary room, she would have stood out like the disheveled wreck she was, though thankfully some of the mutants and abominations sat around her were far more disturbingly weird.

Cassandra's gaze continued to bore into the table in front of her until Kaden finished talking, and stayed there for a couple of seconds after that. Then, slowly, she looked up, quickly scanning over the assembled 'heroes' before focusing once more on their employer, as she began to speak.

"Um... if..." Her voice was high-pitched, and barely above a whisper in volume. So quiet, in fact, that anyone without enhanced hearing might have trouble making it out. "W-what if... we- uh..." She paused, biting one lip, before starting again, even quieter than before. "What if we... fail?"

As soon as the words were out, she seemed to shrink back in on herself, shoulders turning inwards as her limbs drew even closer to her body and her lips sealed themselves tightly shut. Her eyes, however, did not leave Kaden. They stuck on him like a sniper's sights, open wide and staring, breaking down every twitch of his facial muscles for some sign of a response.

Out of all the strange and varied people in the room, there was one who stood out more then any other. Despite the varied origins and different appearances, almost all the people in the room looked somewhat human... with a single expectation.

Gutter wasn't so much seated in a chair as he was huddled in it, his twitching eyes, ears and nose going overboard in order to try and take in as much information as possible in look out for the first sign of trouble. A grotesque, monstrous rat like creature that never seemed to stop moving in his discomfit about being in a lit room with a group of 'ordinary' humans, experience screaming at him that being here was a bad idea and it was only a matter of time before someone tried to attack him.

The fact that he looked (and smelt) like his name sake also caused him to stand out in the nice, clean room that their millionaire backer had set up for them even more. Rags covered enough of his body to avoid scarring the minds of both himself and those in the room, but those with a keen eye would notice what appeared to be a pair of tonfa's resting within easy arm reach that seemed to be in good condition, if somewhat worn from use. There was a tail currently resting behind him, the end of it twitching almost as much as its master every now and then.

As the time for questions came about, Gutter seemed conflicted for a moment before nervously he raised a hand as if a snake would bite it if he moved to quickly. His voice sounded like a whisper that was close loud enough to be heard by those in the room "Are showers and lodgings provided?"

Jessica was attentive, engaged, and perhaps a bit too excited.

She was one of the tallest people in the room, and she wasn't sitting in her chair so much as she was crouched atop it. The fact was she couldn't sit still: today was the day she'd been preparing for ever since she'd reached Dodgeville. Today was the day she got to be a superhero.

And if anyone doesn't like it, Jessica thought with a cocky smile, I'll bite 'em right in their meaty buns.

And certainly there were questions running through her head. When do we start? for instance. Who's the bad guy? How many mooks do they have? Can we get going? She didn't say them. She wanted to say them, but she had a modicum of patience, and Mr. Merlovich deserved her patience. He was the only reason she wasn't stuck behind bulletproof glass surrounded by men in white coats. He was the reason she was getting this chance to fight for justice. Plus, jumping up and down demanding everyone hurry up wouldn't actually make things go any faster.

And, honestly, it seemed like others in the room needed some encouragement. The ratty morsel - no, guy, the rat guy - looked fidgety as could be, and the girl in plainclothes looked ready to faint from fright. And the pasty guy in the black clothes looked like he really needed a cigarette and some alone time... Or a huge DINOHUG, but the last person Jessica surprised with one wouldn't speak to her for weeks.

"Before I tell you your first tasks..." Mr. Merlovich leaned forward like the conversation just got more serious. Wasn't it already serious? "Any questions?"

The ratty fellow brought up a question about showers, at which point Jessica was just about ready to give a loud "Hear hear," but she never got to say that. Her attention got caught by the nervous, shaky question of the girl with the glasses: "What if we... fail?"

"We're not going to fail," Jessica declared confidently, shooting a huge, toothy grin over at Jessica. "We've got me!" And in that instant, with no warning whatsoever, she started transforming, her back bending and neck lengthening and grin looking way too sharp. Her clothes sort of melted into her, feathers broke out from her stretching skin, and voila! She sat there in all her prehistoric glory, looking very proud of herself.

"We're going to knock the bad guys back into the Cretaceous!" she squawked, making the closest thing to a thumbs up she could with her right claw. She paused, then turned her head over toward Mr. Merlovich. "Uh, who are the bad guys? And do we get a team name, like the League of Justice or the Revengers?"

Tiffany sat in the room, hosted by the man himself that brought her here. She didn't recognize any of the other faces that occupied the chairs around her. That didn't matter though. She wasn't nervous. A great performer can have some nerves, but they lose them when on stage.

As the group waited, Tiffany busied herself by summoning different things for those in the group that were interested. She pulled scarves out of her wrist, a bunny out of a hat, and best of all, a car tire out from under one of the chairs in the room. She gave a light-hearted bow before Mr. Merlovich spoke.

Did anyone have questions? She imagined so, and she had her fair share. What would they be doing? How would this operate? Who would they face? So on and so forth. Luckily for her, her companions voiced their opinions. Most notably a...rat asked about lodgings. Yes, she thought, would they be put up somewhere? It would be better than the tacky apartment she could barely afford.

She noted the female that spoke, the computer, nerdy girl. Would they fail.

Tiffany had to admit, she didn't figure that. Would they fail? It was possible, of course. She knew her magic, but she didn't know how anyone else factored in. She hoped some could shoot lasers out of their eyes, or lift heavy objects (she imagined the large, hulking things in the room would accomplish that). She could fight, to an extent, but she never had to test her abilities in combat. She doubted she could do much damage to anyone without the proper training. That was her biggest question. Would they be trained. Here she was, freshly picked off the street to be part of a superhero team.

She noted the other woman who spoke, "We're not going to fail, We've got me! she said before she transformed, quite suddenly, into a dinosaur. Anyone else might have been startled to see such a thing unfold, but Tiffany merely looked, gave a polite smile, and turned her attention back to Kaden, "I am wondering if we are going to be able to train. As in, work on our individual..." she looked at the dinosaur woman, "talents and grow them. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that apart from working on stage and at some children's parties, I haven't had much use in my powers in terms of superheroics."

A group of misfits huddled in a fancy room under the supervision of an almost-old-man with a dream and resources, what a recipe for a happy disaster.

Each and every individual seemed to be the polar opposite of the other weirdo sitting next to them, but this wild diversity gave this clump of people charm. From a mumbling genius to a hulking brick-head, from a wand-wielding magician to a large rat. Another peculiar individual was a young adult hunched over the edge of the oval table, mechanical arms revealed by a dark grey t-shirt with short sleeves were resting their metallic elbow joints against the wooden surface; the lower half of his face was covered by entwined fingers, the only visible features were the root of his slender nose and a pair of black eyes staring at the reflections on the wooden surface. A light frown indicated the absence of his mind and lack of attention towards the palette of aspiring heroes surrounding him, his thoughts have long trailed off into a distant corner of his skull. Voices around him barely drew his attention, the only obtainable reaction to the louder individuals or towards any motion was a slow blink. He didn't communicate with any of them beforehand, but he didn't avoid them either since he didn't outright isolate himself from the rest of the group; the way he acquitted himself drew very little attention as his smaller frame barely gave away any sign that he was in fact a breathing, living thing. The one fact that betrayed this apparent nonchalance would be his presence at the meeting.

Is this really what I'm looking for? Akira asked himself numerous times as he paid attention to the figures moving in his peripheral vision. I need strength, I need to gather my wits and improve myself, he continued, his body as still as a statue, but I needed resources too. My arms and feet alone are not enough. Not yet.

Moving in the apartment his family bought with the money he made abroad was definitely no easy task; he had confirmed his darkest fear, evidenced by their absence and the cleanliness of the place. He had been haunted by the thought that his parents and his grandfather once dwelt there, which forced him to refrain from touching anything unnecessary, just to keep their purity intact; he even refused to sleep in either of the two beds and instead took the couch. He did not want to tarnish the resting place of his parents; he especially kept away from the bed of his grandfather, out of respect. And also because the mattress emanated a combined smell of musky old man and mothballs. There was a wall filled with framed photos, a family shrine in other words, he could yet bring himself to look at; of course he spotted his younger self in some of them with the corner of his eyes, but he never mustered the strength to walk up to the wall and look at them. Of course he wanted to leave immediately and get himself a new place to live in, not only due to the harrowing ambiance the entire apartment gave him, but also because he feared that ASA would come looking for him to recover their "stolen goods", then only weapons he had which he could use to shut down the entire company. After a week or so, no one came searching for him, something he found highly peculiar.

Are they waiting for me to come back to them, he would ask himself repeatedly, or are they monitoring me to see how these implants work on a different test field? If that's true, I need to find the hypothetical tracking chip, I do feel watched. Well, worry not, I will show you exactly what I'm made of.

"What if we... fail?" Cassandra sheepishly asked.

"We're not going to fail-" began the raptor-like female before a thunderous thud filled the room, the entire table vibrated from the impact.

Polished metal and polished wood can't really produce proper friction, you know. A groaning Akira lifted the face with which he kissed the surface of the table in a rather painful fashion. He held the base of his nose with the tips of his metallic fingers, his expression a heavy wince of displeasure.

"Apologies." He uttered with a nasal tone. He lifted his free hand to wave dismissively, as to not draw attention to his sudden misfortune. "I'm fine, really, carry on."

Grade A first impression, kid. He scolded himself as he tried to focus his mind away from the stinging pain stemming from the base of his nose and spreading right into the depths of his cortex. Can't say that I don't fit with these people.

Phai remained on the edge of her seat as Merlovich spoke. Her chair was pushed slightly away from the table so that she wouldn’t lose time getting it out of the way if she had to bolt. As soon as she had entered the room she’d scanned it for exits and placed herself in the location with the second best potential for a fast escape; That way the person with the easiest access to an exit would clear the way. Honestly though, the guy seemed pretty legit and Phai didn’t think she’d need to bolt. But, you know, old habits and what not. So even as she smirked, which was as close as she usually ever got to a full-blown smile, at the man who was giving her the chance of a life time she remained alert and ready to make a break for it.

Merlovich finished speaking and invited the group to ask questions, prompting a round of asinine responses and actions that had Phai rolling her eyes hard as her smirk was replaced with a more familiar scowl. If these goofs were to be her teammates then they were even more likely to fail than she’d originally thought.

Phai covered her eyes for a moment as she grit her teeth and tried desperately to resist the urge to snap at her newfound teammates.

Had that chick seriously not used her powers for anything but party tricks?

Gah, allright, no. As Phai listened to the tin man apologize in an irritatingly congested voice for thunking face first onto the table she decided to give up on staying in their good graces. It wouldn’t have lasted long anyways.

Firstly she turned to Mr.Klutz-and-Bolts, shooting him an icy stare as she replied with as much derision and sarcasm as she could muster, “Apology accepted. So glad you’re okay. “

Her next remark was aimed more at the group as a whole, “We will absolutely fail. Someday. Everybody gets knocked on their ass eventually. When that happens we’ll either be dead or alive, and we’ll either deal with it or give up. If you’re afraid of failure, or if you think it’ll never happen to you, you’re an idiot. It’s part of life.”

Steve was just happy to be in the building at all, sitting loosely in his chair with his arms hanging limply on either side of it. Steve had always liked being around people, and was grinning quite happily for the most part, even if his surgical disfigurements were somewhat restrictive toward this simple goal. Plus, he was in his favourite leather jacket, on top of a smart brown suit that had been picked out for him by Sophie that day, who was his social worker, and he had the chance to help the city, even though he hadn't had any opprtunities to do so since the... thing, which had happened to him, and which Sophie always reminded him wasn't his fault.

Really, the only things that were distressing him at the moment were the appearances of a few of the people, though he'd been assured several times that they were all good people deep down, even if they looked scary. One of them looked sort of like a human, but had a weird skin colour and head appearance, which had unsettled Steve for a bit until he remembered that his own face didn't look very good, after the... the thing that happened... and after he remembered that, he stopped being as unsettled. The second person scaring him was like a big clothed rat on two feet. Steve didn't really like rats. He wasn't that fond of most types of small mouse-like mammal, really, given that he had had bad experiences with them during the... he didn't want to keep thinking about the thing that had happened, because it was making him upset. It didn't help that the rat person was twitching violently, and drawing most of Steve's attention when he wasn't grinning at everyone else. Still, he wanted to be friendly, and Sophie always said that he should be "polite to others", which he thought meant to be friendly in a not silly way, so he continued to smile whenever he looked at the rat person even though it looked strange to him.

The third scary person, and the one who would shortly produce most of Steve's disturbance at the situation, was a lady who looked like they had scales on their face, which was less scary than the weird head man or the rat person, at first. However, just as she started talking, the robot arm person managed to bang their head on the table, drawing Steve's attention from the rat person and causing him to giggle a bit, and it was just his bad luck that his eyes had gone over to the scale lady the moment she transformed into a velociraptor. It took him several seconds to process that somebody had suddenly been replaced with a giant dinosaur, but shortly after that, accompanied by a moment of arm flailing and a couple of loud screeches of surprise, Steve kicked himself away from the table, tipping his chair over on to its back and awkwardly scrambling away from the table for several seconds before, remembering that he was trying to be polite, he stopped, wriggled himself back up to a standing position, then slowly shuffled over to his chair, set it back upright, and sat down, eyes locked on to the raptor the whole time to make sure it didn't attack him suddenly, mumbling something about scary monsters.

'Sorry,' he said loudly by way of apology. 'There was a... the dinosaur happened, and it was scary. Sorry.' After a couple of moments of thinking, because he was trying to think of a question to ask the person who was going to be their boss, he then followed up by forcing his eyes off of the raptor to Kaden and asking 'Hooooww many bad guys are going to be... how- how many will there be, mister Merol- Melrovah- um, mister Kadun?'

A cursory glance around the room would have made it painfully clear that they were exactly a clown and an elephant short of a three ring circus. Well, scratch that. The pleasantly grinning oaf could probably wear a red nose handsomely, and who could ask for those peanut-loving grandstanders when there's a living, breathing raptor in the room? He took a short, calming breath. They were officially Barnum and Bailey's.

Doing what he knew best, he kept his hands busy, summoning up a marble-sized sphere and passing it between his fingers in a seamless wavelike motion. He really thought the past year couldn't get much worse. Little did he know, he'd be spending time in a room with a giant rat and a bunch of super-powered kids. Some of them looked like kids to him, especially the stammering little waif who'd spoken first. That made his brow furrow, because nobody in the goddamn universe fussed about kids unless they were old and bitter. He definitely could check off the bitter box, but old? Cody shrugged and paid attention to what vitriol one of his new teammates was spewing.

He knew she was right, but the blonde still felt like he had to smooth it over. It just didn't sit with him that someone could make that their first impression when so much was on the line.

"Look, sweetheart," Cody allowed himself one pointed barb before continuing, "None of us came in here today with the expectation of saving the world single handed." The raptor might've, but that would be single-clawed. He omitted the joke and moved on, "I don't think I'm too far off when I say a fair few of us have already been knocked on our asses. We're here now, though, and we want to make something of ourselves, even if it means we get beat up sometimes." He offered a kind smile to the girl whose concern sparked all of this.

Cody wasn't much of a motivational speaker, and that was really too much front-and-center time for his delicate constitution, so he leaned back against the wall he'd stuck close to, captured the marble of energy in his hand, and crossed his arms over his chest. With a wry smirk, he considered the fact that they at least had the numbers to overwhelm a group of crooks. Plus, he was sure each and every one of these folks had their own set of abilities, and a good deal of them were probably more impressive than the power to shoot tiny spheres around like in some arcade game.

He busied himself trying to guess his cohorts' talents. Raptor girl and rabbit-in-a-hat were both confirmed. He assumed the rat's powers were just... being a rat. Which was cool. The scowling one probably had some sort of toxins in her skin or something, like one of those rainforest frogs. The one he'd smiled at, with her question about success, either came from a background of insurance agents or she had a non-combat power. Mr. Rock'em Sock'em arms had the ability to give himself a bloody nose, plus he got to have metal arms. He snickered.

He pretended not to notice Mr. Happystein falling out of his chair, as not to embarrass him. However, that reminded him of the metaphorical second shoe that had yet to drop. Everyone was asking about the mission: how many mooks would they beat up, where were they going, what would happen in case things went wrong. All he wanted to know was one thing, but he'd seen movies, and he knew Merlovich would never fess up directly.

"You're a really big name around here. You're filthy rich, and don't think this means I don't appreciate you giving us a chance, but couldn't you afford better?" He gave an apologetic shrug to his comrades, "I'm sure we'll be a great team someday, but most of us haven't used our powers for anything even remotely dangerous before. Guys like you take risks on the stockmarket, not on crusades like this one."

The transformation of the human woman into a RAPTOR of all things seemed to have been a bit to much for Gutter. Squeaking loudly as he pushed away from the table, the ratman throwing himself back into the chair and flipping it over, causing Gutter to vanish from sight as the chair hit the floor; Strangely enough, those that bothered to look to see if he was alright would find that the rat was gone!

After his 'accident', Gutter had used the broken line of sight with the humans to dart underneath the table and into the shade. Granted it wasn't exactly the darkness that he was used to or wanted to be hiding in, but just being out of sight of the humans above seemed to make him more at ease. While he liked and wanted to help humans, he found being in sight of them... difficult. They were always quick to judge him a monster just at the sight of him and thus he just found it easier for all concerned to simply not be seen at all.

His ears twitched as he listened to what was going on above quietly, not really feeling in the mood for asking another question again. Not yet anyway.

@FantasyChic@Foxxie@BCTheEntity@Turnaround Amy@MachineSoul@Shorticus@Drifting Pollen@Hellis

It was a few hours past sunrise, breakfast was ready and Joe was running late. Or at least that’s what he had thought; Joe didn’t really own a watch or clock. Not wanting to waste anymore time, he grabbed some sausages and toast from some random shmuck’s plate and dashed out, from the diner he had just entered, in style. [b][i]"Ya snooze, ya lose, sucka!”[/b][/i]

I forgot to mention, Joe was broke.

Ten minutes, two blocks, and a bush was what it took Joe to shake off his pursuers. Honestly, this was his personal best.

“Hey Jimbo, the coast is clear?” whispered Joe as he cautiously stuck his head out from the bush he was hiding in. Technically, he stuck out his afro. And from it, came out his necktie wearing chimp. With a cup of coffee grasped between his hands and a shrill shriek, Jimbo responded.

”Sweet. Let’s head over to the spot.”

A maniacal grin appeared on Joe’s face as he and Jimbo strutted to the Slight Heroics Headquarters.

As much as Joe enjoyed the idea of conversing with his newfound colleagues and exchanging ideas and queries, he found himself ignoring everything and anything that was going on around him. He was definitely stupefied at the current predicament he was in.

Abruptly getting up from his chair, Joe slammed both his hands on the oval table that they were surrounding.

"Yo, you lot got great questions, but I gots to know one thing."

Joe remained silent for a few second and sternly gazed at the hologram in front of them before continuing to speak.

"Can Jimbo get paid in oranges and not bananas?"

Tony went into the meeting dressed as sharply as he could be, with his nice wool suit and his lucky red tie and a dab of cologne. First impressions did go a long way towards establishing some measure of credibility, he figured, and it wasn't like it'd hurt him to look good.
Or well, as good as a 57-year-old man could look. There wasn't any respectable way for him to hide his age, so he didn't bother. Really, it was his way of saying that this whole endeavour was important to him, even before he actually walked into the briefing room.

Granted, his teammates didn't seem to share the same idea. At least, the ones that could be bothered to try. There was a rat that was literally in rags, but given the smell, it was probably living on the streets right now. No chance for it to clean up there. A few others who didn't seem that far off from the streets, either. Well, if nothing else, starting from the bottom means there's nowhere to go but up.

Tony eased into his chair, and relaxed a bit. No real reason to worry about escaping or anything like that. If Kaden really wanted him dead, surely a billionaire wouldn't have to go through with such an elaborate ruse. It was also pretty doubtful any of his teammates came with ill-intentions.

Tony was content to listen for a bit before talking. Now, he himself didn't have any real questions for Merlovich, since his comrades had taken all of the really good ones. Really, it was nice enough to just be there, and enjoy the show.
Hell, he couldn't help but smile when one of them turned into a bona-fide Velociraptor. He hadn't seen that kind of enthusiasm in a while, and it was kinda refreshing.

That said, not everyone seemed to be as upbeat about the whole thing. One of them asked if this was the best the Billionaire could afford. Seemed like a really pessimistic thing to say, but then, it didn't seem all that unreasonable.

Tony turned to guy who asked.
"Excuse me," he started, before realizing he didn't actually know this persons name. Or the name of anyone here, really. "I don't mean to speak for Mr. Merlovich, of course, but strength-of-character is as important as actual strength, if not moreso," He said. "And that's one thing money alone can't buy. Yet, here we have it in spades."

There were a few things running trough Mr Merlovskis head at that moment. The chief and most pervasive though, was that he deserved this. He deserved this group of misfits who appeared to posses the overall intelligence of a single chimpanzee. He deserved the inevitable backlash his actions would cause. He had written the initial perimeters. His computer had done nothing wrong. No. This was on him and his compulsion to spend money on ”meaningful” pursuits. He sighed.

”If you fail” He began. Only for the head of the Cyborg to slam and dent his incredibly expensive table. His knuckles whitened as they clasped around the edges of his table. He deserved this. He had to keep calm. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath. And then he began speaking once more.

”AS I WAS SAY-” The raptor girl turned into a goddamn raptor before their eyes and proceeded to scare the ever living shit out of their resident Frankenstein abomination. Something small and delicate snapped inside his head. He balled his hands into a fist and slammed them down into the table with such a rattling force it made the sour looking fey, Angstbomb, fall backwards as he was busy brooding and leaning in his chair. He slammed his head against the wall and grunted in pain.

”Hey. What the fuck is your pr-” The pretty boy fey was shut up by a stare that would give a charging rhino pause.

”As. I. Was. Saying.” The billionaire spoke, leaning back to standing position and folding his arms. He looked at the stunned onlookers. ”IF you fail, that would be bad. The problem with heroism, is that the bad guys only have to succeed once” He said and slumped back in his chair. He waved off Steves apology as the lumbering mary shelley creation began to apologize.

”Don't worry big guy. Dinos can be real scary. I get it.” He eyes the Raptor. ”Archie. Take over for a second.” As he spoke, a green nad blue hologram showed up next to him.

”Certeinly Sir.” The hologram spoke in a far more neutral tone. ”Lodgings, food, training and of course, hygiene. Is all paid for.” The hologram began. ”In fact. While we have a task waiting for you. Two, in fact. We wish for you to make your way to your room to clean up and get accustomed before moving out.” A holographic 3D map projected above them. ”You will find suits fitted for you in mind in your individual rooms. You do not NEED to put them on. IF you wish to keep your current clothes, that is fine. Just put on the Communicator and the Slight Heroics Badge on your shoulder or belt buckle.”

-----------

Angstbomb had been laying on his back ever since being stared down. He had been off in his own word when Mr Bilionare gone all kinds of angermanagement on them. He crawled up from his spot on the floor finally and spoke. ”Tasks? What Tasks?” He asked, a look of mild bewilderment on his usually sullen face. The Fey was taking in everyone around him for the first time, and he found them all lacking. Where was the brooding, the flair of the dramatic tragedy that defined a true hero?!

”There is a ongoing and radidly changing situation in this city.” The hologram started. ”With the loss of this cities most proflic and powerfull protector, the cities streets are being taken by force by the varius gangs and mobsters who make this city their home. There is the Citizens Watch and a few independant capes fighting back the worse. We will start there, helping the varius CW groups establish some semblence of control.”

Next to the angsty one, Brick snoozed happily in a puddle of his own drool. The alien was sleeping of the buzz of downing nearly a gallon of vodka. However, all the talking, yelling and falling had slowly, slowly awoken him from his alcohol induced coma and he blinked. ”Wuzzat?” The asked in a slur. ”Do we get to punch baddies?”

If arch could sigh in expiration, he would have.

”Yes. You will get to... punch baddies.”

As a young woman suddenly morphed into a hideous, scaly beast, and the room broke out into a momentary panic, Cassandra remained very, very still. Her eyes were wide, and her face pale, but she did not so much as tremble.

Primitive predator, thus vision is likely movement-focused. It will chase fleeing prey first. There are eleven others in this room, therefore even with movement bias discounted, the probability of it going for me first is 8.33%, or 9.09% if the machine is unpalatable. Decent odds. Best to stay still for now, probability of escape will be more than doubled if the creature is already feeding on one of them...

Fortunately, the raptor started squawking instead of eating people. Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief that quickly became a stream of quiet, surprised laughter. For a moment, her whole body seemed to loosen up a bit, looking for once like something alive rather than a broken pupped. This did not last long, however. She quickly remembered where she was and clamped one hand over her mouth, glancing around with cheeks burning bright red, afraid that someone might have caught her momentary lapse. She had to hold it together.

From then on she remained in the same gawky position she'd stayed in for most of the meeting, not uttering a word as the strangers at the table voiced their questions and concerns. Perhaps the corners of her mouth quirked up slightly in response to Cody's smile, though it was hard to say. Otherwise, there was little sign of movement from her, as she did her best to simply fade into the background unnoticed.

Finally, their employer started getting to the point, talking about equipment and lodgings and actual work. Cass took about two seconds to memorize the holographic map, then took two more to plot out optimal escape routes, just in case someone else turned into a massive toothy monster. Their first jobs hadn't been specified yet, but she did need a uniform... plus, being around all these people was starting to stress her out.

So, while the drunken alien slurred away, she quietly pushed her seat back, and slipped away from the table, moving around the edges of the room to leave it entirely. Quickly and silently, she strode through the hallways towards their living quarters, breathing a heavy sigh of relief once she thought she was out of sight of the others. They probably wouldn't notice her absence anyway. Time to check out those suits...

After his little 'panic attack' earlier, Gutter had simply remained under the table and listened to what had been happening overheard quietly in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. He was good at listening... good at seeing too when the lights were low and there were plenty of shadows to hide away in and move through.

As the meeting started to come to a close so that everyone could go to their own rooms and check them out, Gutter carefully poked his head out from under the table long enough to locate where his room was on the map from where they currently were before darting off rather quickly without a word to anyone else.

As vain as it might have sounded, Gutter really, really needed a shower. Bathing wasn't exactly something that he could do regularly and it was hard to sneak up on people when you smelt like an old, poorly maintained sewer... The promise of a new outfit was interesting as well.

Angstbomb, mysterious and brooding as always, sulked. He did it because that was what he was good at. In fact, it was the base of his powers. You could tell him it was dumb, that it was downright stupid, but he would not care. In fact, he'd glower at you and mutter curses in Fey as he did. The boy just wasn't right. If he had only possessed a sunnier disposition and dropped the anti-conformist image, he'd be a male model in no time. The fashion biz went gaga for Elves and pretty boys after all.

His head was still throbbing with pain from hitting it on the marble floor after their benefactors little outburst. As people began to move from the table to freshen up, he pushed his hands into his pockets and began to move towards his room, hood dragged over his head to give him the air of a "troubled" person.

It did not stay there long.

The weird reptilian beast from earlier jumped in front of him, its face only a few feet away from his. Worse, it was intent on looking right at his face. Not that it could be blamed: he was, of course, a multidimensional treasure. But it was bothersome nevertheless, and the scaly, feathery thing had an optimism that was absolutely stifling.

"Hey!" squawked the creature. She spoke loud enough that it knocked his hood back and made a mess of his hair. "Hey! Why so down? Need to talk?" The raptor tilted its head this way and that like some sort of crazy bird. "You look mopey, which really is a shame as there's quite a lot to be thankful for, like our FIRST JOB AS A SUPERHERO TEAM!"

The optimism was really stifling. Little bits of spit flew out from the overeager monster's wide open mouth as it roared those last few words in a sing-song tone. With each droplet of Dino-spittle, the waves of positivity washed over him like a tidal wave cooling down lava. The poor fey was the village trapped between the two forces of nature. His eyes flew open wide and he almost fell backwards. He stared at those teeth. They looked awfully sharp.

"Get away from me you... you lizard!" He cried out. "Ughhhhh!" He mumbled and regained his mopey mood as soon as he averted his eyes from the overgrown creature. "You are blocking the way. Can't you see I am busy?"

"No, I'm not!" the raptor insisted cheerily. As Angstbomb stepped on forward, she stepped on backward, keeping an even pace with him as the two went down the hall. "And no, you're not busy, either! I mean, your legs are busy, but the rest of you isn't."

"I am deep in thought! Obviusly. Uuuughhh." Angstbomb insisted, furrowing his brow. The creature hadn't even flinched at his insult. What was she, to stupid to care or too cheery to register the venom of his words? She was an ugly bit of sunshine in his gloriously dark existence. His eyes narrowed. "Scram!"

"I think you are just a little confused," answered the clearly feather-brained dinosaur, holding up a single talon. "I," she began, "am Raptora. I'm your teammate. We're going to be working together to beat some villainous behind!" She demonstrated just what she meant with a kick at the air and a violent squawk, then continued stepping on backward in the same direction as Angstbomb, much to his chagrin. "Plus, I've been genetically endowed with knowledge of various principles of warfare. Did you know, for instance, that most battles are won or lost before the fight even begins?"

"LEAVE ME ALOOOONE!" The fey burst out suddenly, shooing the Dinosaur away best he could. "Can't you see I am being deep?!"

The dinosaur paused in her tracks just for a moment. "Not really, no," she answered in an honest tone.

"But," she went on as she took a backwards leap, "you should really do something about that negativity. Battles are won with confidence and morale and stuff. You should work on that." She paused again, then suddenly transformed again right in front of him, body twisting about and popping as she became a tall, dark-skinned woman.

"That's your door, by the way," she added with a grin, pointing at the one right beside hers. "See? I wasn't in your way at all!"

"I... What... I..." His eyes blinked, he looked puzzled. Why was she smiling? Why did she insist on smiling like that? As a murder-lizard she was at least cool and scary. Now she was just, just happy. That wasn't right. Angstbomb rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He stormed past Raptora, not dignifying her with another word.

For her part, Jessica stood outside the door a moment, nodding to herself. Several seconds after Angstbomb had gone into his room, she finally went into hers. "One step at a time," she mused as the door started to shut behind her. "We'll have a well-adjusted team soon enough!"

All hell broke loose in under a minute: velociraptor hugs all around, a rat shrinking and flying under the table, the large one getting scared and jumping out of his seat, the goth chick picked on him, half-assed motivational speeches. It was beyond Akira how Merlovich coalesced such an unstable team even after he revised everyone's profile. Or so he believed.

Unless, he's desperate enough to just wing it, Akira thought as he quietly stood up and pushed his chair back in its former place, but his motivations are not my concern. I need his money to upgrade myself if I will ever have a chance to put Artemis down. Even if it means I have to work with the nut house.

Now that he was up on his feet, he could see the slight dent he had left on the rather expensive table, as light reflection bend around the depression his forehead left behind. He winced and hissed to show his regret for the damage he had inflicted and rubbed the tip of his metallic finger into the indentation to check the depth; the pack of information that reached his brain still felt highly awkward, since they could yet portray tactile sensations with one hundred percent fidelity. Sure, he felt the shape, but the texture of the table was absent, same with the temperature. He lifted his gaze to Merlovich, but hesitated a second once he could see the already disappointed philanthropist having to deal with a big mess.

"I will pay for its repair with my first wage." The man concluded before he bowed his head only so slightly.

He turned around and headed for his own quarters, deciding to avoid any other social contact for the time being, especially since his apology was mocked by Phaidra. Only a glance was thrown in her direction, which bore no message, no warning, no nothing; he simply acknowledged her words and left. He did have to slalom through a part of the Slight Heroics team, but he made sure not to brush himself against anyone, fearing that the slightest of touches could provoke a possibly mentally unstable individual to do react in an less-than-favorable manner.

With this sort of crowd, I wouldn't be too surprised."

He slipped past Raptora and Angstbomb as they had a little moment together, but the fey's reaction just nearly made him crack into laughter there and then. He did his best to keep his composure as he strode down the corridor to reach his quarters, keeping himself far behind from the younger bespectacled girl wearing a messy hairstyle. Once he had discovered his own room, whose door bore a plaque reading his name, Akira took a moment to sit down on the floor and regain his patience after having to deal with the surreal moment from before. Here, it was dark and comforting, a sweet moment of escape from the crazy reality that had happened to him.

Still can't believe I said yes to this, rewards and all. Akira shook his head and lowered his forehead into his palms again. I need to work alone, lest I'll lose my mind in this insanity soon; and if it isn't enough, I think I'm the only one around that has actually put a man down in his grave. He bitterly thought, as he rewound the faces of those younger or older than him, who didn't wear the thousand yard stare in their yet traumatized eyes - save for Grunt's gaze, whose absent mind is easily perceivable in his blank stare.

Within the darkness of the room, he could see a weird material slightly reflect the only sliver of light creeping in from a set of blinders. He reached for the window to pull the blinders up, but instead, his fingers seemed to have encountered something that offered very little resistance against his arm. When he did manage to find the string to pull the blinders, he then saw that he had sunk his fingers through the plasterboard surrounding the window, leaving a nice hole viewing the inner side of the outer wall. Akira could only shake his head and sigh deeply, some stinging pain stemming from the root of his nose still jolting his skull. In contrast, the view from his window offered a formidable vista over the dumpster alley below, whereupon he observed a homeless man drink something from a shoe as they watched a pair of stray cats mating.

"Dodgeville." It was the only thing Akira that he could mutter.

He redirected his attention to the material, concluding that in fact it was a suit of sorts, which seemed to have been tailored to fit his size and proportions. From what he could tell, it was a combat suit composed mainly of carbon nanofiber; the torso piece felt heavy enough for him to suspect something akin to a ballistic plate being shoved inside somewhere, but as he moved the suit through his hands, he soon realized that they were interlinked plates acting much like a piece of medieval armor suit. The arms were also lined with carbon nanofiber, the joints seemed to be connected with a softer material to allow full mobility of the limb; judging by the way the sleeves were constructed, they would perfectly fit his mechanical arms and somewhat enhance their contractile abilities. Same with the lower limb portion of the suit, but the thighs had a little less carbon nanofiber and more of the soft material which, to his surprise, did not utter a single sound as the folds rubbed together to his touch. He whistled in admiration as he continued to inspect it, slowly realizing that it would only be normal for him to be given such a combat suit. After all, he did participate in real combat.

Does that mean he expects me to spearhead assaults? Oh no... am I really the most experienced one here? He nearly dropped the suit from his grip.

We're dead.

That first meeting went about as well as could be expected. Cody shook his head. It was a slight gesture, but he didn't want it to be misunderstood. He wasn't disappointed, in fact, it was quite the contrary. He was beginning to be impressed with what the group had to offer. What they lacked in experience, they seemingly made up in spunk.

He managed to commit the map more or less to memory, the relevant details at least, before he was ready to leave. A bit of unexpected movement from the other side of the room caught his attention and he was shocked to find that what he thought was an avant garde clay sculpture actually lived and breathed. Cody pursed his lips together. He hadn't actually expected to see an alien. Maybe he's not even an alien. I'm making assumptions. He could very well be a mutant or, what's that preferred term? Biologically askew? He watched, unimpressed, as he slurred his speech and belched. The smell of two hundred proof breath almost wafed all the way to his nostrils. Cody suppressed the urge to retch. That's probably a disgrace to extraterrestrials. Chances are, that's a guy with a terrible case of eczema and a record-breaking skull deformation. However, with some alarm, he noticed he almost felt the urge to go over and examine that bizarre cranial structure. For better or for worse, he'd always been a tactile kind of guy.

Breaking away from the room to make a soundless exit, he made sure to give the raptor and the pouty male model the space they'd need before heading out. His room was close by, luckily, so he wouldn't need to hear the two bickering. Or they could be doing much worse. He couldn't have reached the door any faster if he tried.

Once finally in the room, he noticed the uniform that was set atop a bedside table, but it failed to capture more than a fleeting glimmer of his attention. He felt oddly exhausted, and he sat on his bed, hands clasped and perched on his knees. It had finally become real. He was doing something to finally move on. As proud as he felt about these first steps, they also made him painfully aware that he'd been walking around on empty for so long. He blew a strand of hair from his face.

The blonde spared a few moments to scrutinize his newest wardrobe addition. There was no doubt that it was of a higher quality than anything he'd ever even laid eyes upon before. The texture of the weave suggested it would be easy to move in and incredibly breathable. A little more poking and prodding made him wonder if it was built to be especially resistant. He was half tempted to walk down the hall and ask someone to shoot him, just to test it out, but he didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea. Earnest as they all may be, there was still that little issue of an unshakeable fog of insanity that loomed over the group. One of them might be packing a weapon or skill that even Moneybags and his Incredible Blinking Secretary couldn't have prepared for. If he was gonna bleed out, he'd do it heroically, thank you very much, and not at the hands of someone who likely thought him suicidal.

He exhaled once more and lifted his legs, laying himself flat on the bed. It wasn't spectacularly comfortable, but he sort of liked it that way. It reinforced the fact that this wasn't some cozy retreat. It was a job. Treated properly, it could become a home away from home. Taken for granted, it'd be a prison. As he closed his eyes for a quick rest, he couldn't help but laugh.

"I will pay for its repair with my first wage."

It was the cutest thing he'd heard in ages and it came from Rock'em Sock'em of all people. He was sure Merlovich didn't give a rat's ass... (that was now surely an indelicate phrase) about a table he procured for his troupe of fools. But still, Mr. Roboto cared. There was truly a spark there, a tender sprout of compassion, that would surely take them all a long way.

If looks could kill, well the human race probably would have died out by now. But if only Phaidra’s looks could kill… well she probably would have been locked up a long time ago. But if Phai’s looks could kill and she’d just developed the power a few minutes ago this team would be so dead. Especially that blond guy. Did he seriously call her sweetheart?! Gah. People.

Phai flexed her fingers and watched the rest of the proceedings icily as more ridiculous questions were asked. Their newfound sponsor was forced to turn the proceedings over to his A.I when he finally got fed up with the disaster of a team he’d created. Phai leaned forward to examine the map the A.I pulled up, carefully noting the location of her room. She continued scowling till another team mate, who had honest to god been sleeping asked a final question. Listening to the A.I’s put upon response made her smirk for a brief moment and she shook her head. Just… wow. They were quite a team.

Phai got up slowly from the table, the chick in the lab coat had glanced at the image and then practically bolted but Phai had to take a moment to look at the map one more time. There was no way she wouldn’t at some point lose her way trying to find her way to her room but she’d be damned if it happened on the first day.

Done with the map she stalked out of the room, trailing a little bit behind the majority of the group. She watched with raised eyebrows as the excitable dino-girl went after the other human, or rather humanoid, cloud of darkness. As the dino’s attempts at befriending and motivating the lord of scowls lord of scowls failed beautifully Phai moved past the two, further down the hall. From the looks of it every hero but the excitable saurus, including herself, was doing their best to get to their and get away from the team mates. That was probably not a good thing.

Phantasma would definitely have had a few choice words to say about the immediate group split. She probably would’ve dragged Phai through a few walls, privacy be damned, to go and say hi to her teammates. They needed to learn what each other could do, figure out whose abilities completed whose, determine which of them was going to be the best bet to give commands in crisis mode, and just, well, bond. But, the larger Ph wasn’t around, and Phai wasn’t in the mood to try and bond with these morons. So she ignored the echos of her mentors teachings and skulked into her new room.
The digs were decent, and when the suit Phai found laid out for her seemed more than decent. The fabric was pretty lightweight, still a little heavier than her usual getup, but that was probably for protection from bullets and shit. She changed out the clothes she’d come in and into the suit, pointedly ignoring the identity protecting headgear that came with it. The gravity powers were a dead giveaway as to who she was, and her family was more than equipped to deal with any idiot villain who decided they were going to go after the rest of the Collins.

Speaking of family, Phai pulled out her cell and shot her Aunt a text to let her know that she wouldn’t be coming home because she had found a place and a job. Giving them no information on where she’d gone was a tempting idea, but she didn’t want to deal with the shitshow that’d surely occur if they thought she been killed. A few minutes after her initial text Phai got a response.

I’m guessing job means hero shit. Have fun pointlessly getting the crap beat out of you. FYI, I’m letting the twins know. Phai huffed in frustration. The twins wouldn’t do anything about it, but she was not looking forward to the middle of the night wake up call she’d get from some sketchy af number when they found out and decided to try and scold her away from such nonsense. She was so glad the rooms were paid for; living at home with family members who just didn’t get it was such a complete drain, and by drain she meant that she’d spotted some schematics on her uncles laptop and was a little worried that he was going to try and drain her power. Ugh. Family.

Phai shrugged on her vegan-friendly pleather jacket and shoved her feet into some combat boots. She went over to check out the get up in the mirror. The suit actually looked pretty decent, simple, black and formfitting. After pulling on some fingerless fishnet gloves and a particularly pointy headband she was actually pretty satisfied. She gave her reflection a nod. This was all going to turn out just fine. Crap team or no, she could do the whole hero shtick. She could help people. Hopefully.

Steve found himself not doing much of anything for a few minutes after many of the other members of the new team had left the room. This was partially because he ended up distracted by how pretty the shiny small man and his shiny map were, and partially because, even though he tried, he simply could not commit the details of said map to memory - by the time he had one section of it locked down in his mind, the previous one had slipped out of his addled brain, and in trying to remember the section after that, he ended up losing the one he'd just put to memory. That was, to some extent, his least-favourite part about his disability - remembering certain things was nearly impossible for him. He could deal with the loss of critical thinking that happened after the thing that had happened, because Sophie helped him stay on track in any given situation. He could deal with the more extreme emotional states he sometimes went into, because he had lived with the potential to accidentally kill others for a great portion of his life, and had ingrained a policy of not attacking people unless he had to that usually came to the forefront even through whatever anger he experienced.

But the fact of the matter was that his short-term memory had become net-like (semi-literally, if one considered how much of his neocortex had been removed), catching and holding only the biggest and most concrete thoughts and experiences he had, and only allowing him to keep less important things if he struggled to hold them in his head for minutes, or even hours on end, moreso if he had no assistance in doing so. Beyond this, he passed through life as though it were mist, insubstantial and near-formless; even getting to the table at which this first meeting had been held had only happened because he'd followed one of the other members of the group to it.

To say the least, it was a frustrating state of affairs that he struggled with, now as much as ever because he really wanted to try on that new suit, and feel like part of the team and things, and his inability to hold a map in his head was stopping him from doing that. Eventually, he relented to his own mind's inadequacies, turning to the holographic figure and asking 'Ccc... um, can I have a hol- ...a m-map, to carry, mister Ar-chee? I can't get the... path. To the room.' He blushed with embarrassment as he said this, and the thought briefly occurred to him that maybe Sophie should have come with him after all, because she always helped him to remember things that were hard to remember, things like long strings of directions presented in an abstract format such as a map. But he'd wanted to show he could be a hero by himself, and he didn't want her to be in the way of the dangerous bad guys, and now he was asking for a map and making himself look even more silly than he already had. He hoped he wouldn't have to do difficult things like recalling complex instructions in a place and time where it mattered, like when they were fighting bad guys.