---

---

In a city burned to ash, one could hear the whispers of the fallen.

One man, donned in black armor, a trench coat over that, had a holster at his hip with a massive revolver, and had a black mask that covered his face, walked among the ruins of this once proud city. With every step he took, it was illuminated by the fires around him.... and every step he took, he was disturbing the grave of someone unlucky enough to fall. He took one step, and he crushed the remains of a woman who was burnt to a crisp. He didn't flinch. There was a dark cloud over this city, as this genocide took place. The buildings were burning, the streets were flowing with lava, and the battle that would decide what would happen to Prague raged in the background.

The man kept walking, heading straight for the battle. He was alone on the streets - as everyone who survived the Beast's initial attack had long fled... everyone who didn't, littered the streets. The man heard a distinct sobbing sound coming from his side, and then he came to a stop. He turned his head, and saw that a mere child was in the middle of the street, half his body burnt off - he was missing an arm. He was reaching out to the man, as if it was a desperate plead for help. Of all people.

Staring at him blankly, the man only stood there. Not showing a hint of emotion. He took a few steps towards the young Czech boy, who got much more frightened as he approached. Almost like he saw a grim reaper before him. Tears started running down his face as he put his hand up. The strange man in armor reached for a pouch within his armor. He undid the pouch, before he reached in and pulled out a vial with a purple liquid. He knelt down, grabbed the child by the head, and turned his head up, before he poured the strange liquid down his throat. The child tried to fight it, but he barely had the strength.

What the liquid did do to him was that it restored him. The black charred burns across his flesh were being rejuvenated with fresh cells. The burns were quickly being mended, and the sensation within his body quickly began to return. It wasn't long until the boy was good as new.

The stranger got up, turned around and walked off. This was an admission of guilt.

The man kept walking through the burnt streets of Prague, and the sounds of the battle before him was starting to get louder and louder. He could feel the shockwaves of the Beast's terrakinesis vibrate the ground before him. The man walked up a hill... and he could see a giant orange figure standing before a group of people. He was at least twelve feet tall, glowing like he was made of lava, and had no face. Only a mouth that was grinning wide. Both hands were leaking lava, and he was laughing. He took a mighty bolt of yellow lightning, which made him stumble back. He recovered from the move, and raised his hands up into the air, and stone fissures came rising out the ground and made the resistance scatter.

He is The Beast.

Everything is going according as plan. The man in the armor watched the battle from a distance. A finger lazily wandered towards his helmet.

"... It worked."

---

---

Hailey Boulevard, Silver Hills.

Inside a dark room within the ISD's main lab, Tabitha Crest, a woman known for her head of short, dark curly, hair, sat in a chair. In front of her was a metal table with a technological orb in the center of it, and around it, sat various members of her organization. Top-Scientists, shareholders, and other people who maintain a major presence within the ISD. She held a glass of red wine in one hand as she took a sip of it.

"... You know, Ms. Crest, you shouldn't drink on the job." A scientist said to her - a Caucasian man in his fifties, wearing a lab coat, having squared glasses, and having a bald head - from his part of the table.

This only earned a roll of Tabitha's eyes, as she set the glass of wine down on the table. "... It's my company, I can drink if I God damn please." She hissed at him, before she put her elbows on the table, and looked between her business. She pressed the tips of her fingers together to form a tent. "Now, are we going to stare at each other, or do you want me to make magic."

They all looked between each other for a moment.

"... Very well, Ms. Crest."

"Good, now enough pussyfooting." Tabitha pressed a button on a remote, and the projector on the center of the table began glowing as it displayed a massive green globe that shined a bright green light all over the room. Tabitha didn't even flinch as she leaned forward. "Recently, I've been devoting a great deal of the ISD efforts towards figuring out just why more Metahumans have been appearing since the Verthaven Disaster."

She grabbed her wine, and took another sip of it.

"The ISD has, under the watchful eye of DOVE, extensively examined Metahumans that manifested before the Verthaven disaster, and after it. There are no functional difference between them, other than the time they manifested. So, I had to dig a little deeper, and look at things from a global scale."

Right now, Tabitha's breath reeked of wine. Yet, she was fully able to maintain a conversation.

"I've been in contact with governments around the world... some have been less than receptive, but I've managed to gain enough information to come up with a theory."

"A theory?" One of the scientists said. "Come now, can't we expect more from the great Tabitha Crest than a simple theory?"

Idiot. That made Tabitha roll her eyes up into her head. "We have never been able to pinpoint anything about Metahumans. The Black Fall Effect, Ashing. Forget what those mouth-breathers outside think, it's all just a bunch of theories and ideas. There are currently no explanations on how any of this works, and it's unlikely we'll ever get one. It's just that my theories make the most sense given what we know. Now hush now."

That made everyone be quiet. Tabitha pressed another button, and a massive of tiny dots appeared on the screen. Starting from one dot, a line formed in which connected one dot to another. It branched out in several directions as the dots all over the world were being connected.

"My theory is that Metahumans are much more connected than we once thought." Tabitha started off with her explanation. "That, and disasters and events all over the world have some kind of an impact on their manifestation rate. As if they are connected to the world itself."

She raised a finger in the air. More of the dots - now an analogy for Metahumans - were connected than ever before.

"Which brings me to two conclusions," Tabitha started off. "One; more people than we thought have the potential to become a Metahuman. And two; perhaps a similar event has taken place in the past that caused the growth of Metahumans? We know that there was only a small amount of Metahumans when they first started. Wouldn't it make sense that perhaps something triggered further growth?"

"I..." One of the scientists said.

"Good." Tabitha said as she got up out of the chair. "I'm going to spend a few months studying this... I'll have something conclusive in a few months. Hm... perhaps I'll come up with a name for this new effect. Perhaps the "Verthaven Effect" would be a good name, ja?"

"Understood, ma'am." One of the scientists said, before they all scattered.

Once they were gone, Tabitha pulled a phone out of her suit and punched in a number....

---

---

It was a great morning in Baybridge, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the many inhabitants of Baybridge were getting up. It was a great day indeed - because tonight is the night where the Liu Pharmaceutical Company finally opens the new Strong Gold Community in Silver Hills. There's going to be a big celebration in this new community hosted by the Company. There's going to be vendors, fun, games, and everything. This is easily one of the most anticipated event of the year.

---

Lihua Zhao, & Meifeng Zhao

---

---

Outside Baybridge, approaching fast.

It's been so long.

Meifeng's black motorcycle raged as it flew through the roads leading up into Baybridge. Instead of taking the bridge itself, Meifeng took one of the roads around the river. She just went this route because she thought it was a great view of Lake Fair Cove. The perfect view that made the roads less traveled so much easier. She went fast as she wanted to because there wasn't anyone on these roads (Not even cops, they already know it's a waste of time to patrol these roads).

Meifeng just hated the fact that she spent so long away from Baybridge... even though she called the city home. She was out protecting it - or at least trying to. No matter who she fought, or who she killed, another just replaced them. She made no difference...

She finally passed the sign that said "WELCOME TO BAYBRIDGE - WHITE COAST"

Which meant she's officially in Baybridge. It almost brought a tear to her eye. She pressed the pedal even harder, and picked up speed. She started seeing buildings, and traffic started to pick up a bit, which is what Meifeng slow down. If she was correct, she should be in Green Crest. However, if memory serves her right... she swerved over to the right lane, and took a right. After twenty or so minutes, she left the streets, and ended up on a boardwalk. She slowly rode along the boardwalk until she had finally come to a stop.

She looked to the side, and there was a line of stores, she sighed as she walked up into a souvenir shop. A simple souvenir shop that sold beach-like, and beach-themed merchandise. Meifeng took a step inside, and picked up a large snow globe with a sea shell inside of it.

Meifeng reached into her pocket, and then dug out her cellphone. Afterwards, she went through her contacts, and found "Mom."

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

It's been another hard, lonely night, for the middle-aged Lihua Zhao. It's a Saturday, which meant that she has the entire day to herself. Though, the same went for the last night. She was in the bounds of her "office" room, doing what she usually did on a Friday night; decode Luis's diary. Except, this time, she spent a little too into it and ended up staying awake until three in the morning. The restless hard-worker she was made it difficult to simply "stop and go to sleep" when she's on the verge of a breakthrough!

Luis was a smart man... He might have been a comedian in all but name, but definitely not stupid.

This... tattered books has so many secrets in here. Answers that people have been searching for. And Lihua is no where near done. She's been working tirelessly on this book ever since she got it seven years ago. Juggling several other responsibilities (Primarily her job and the young Lijuan), and the fact that Luis wrote this diary in several other languages (Cryptically, at that), made it difficult to make real progress on it. She would have made some real progress on it by now if she had enlisted some help.

However, the self-reliant Lihua Zhao never trusted anyone else with this information.

Patience was key here, Lihua was willing to juggle all of her other responsibilities with her hobby of decoding Luis' diary. There was no rush... at the moment. Still, Lihua knew that developing an obsession over the diary would be counter-intuitive. She had much better things to do.

Though, all that hard work meant that she passed out.

The woman was spent her entire night sleeping on a keyboard rather than a bed. Her head was peacefully rested on the side of the computer table, and she was loudly snoring. She would have most likely been sleeping there for a few more hours at least. Would have. There was a loud knocking at her door, which awoken the sleep Lihua. She raised her head up, and started rubbing her eyes as she stared at the door. She usually locks the door because she doesn't want Lijuan poking around in her office (Where she keeps the backup key for her power suppressant collar, and she doesn't want her messing with her work anyhow). Which meant that it had to be Lijuan at the door.

A yawn escaped her lips as she pushed herself away from her desk, and started taking slow and deliberate steps towards the door. Before she opened it, she looked down at her white bath robe just to check if she was appropriate. She realized that her strap was open somewhat, and a little bit of her skin was exposed. Lihua quickly tucked it in-

"Mommy, are you okay?" The highpitched voice that belonged to Lijuan.

This time, a sigh escaped Lihua's lips. "... It's okay, Lijuan." She answered as she finally strapped her bathrobe tightly.

After she was done with her adjustments, she unlocked the door, and turned the door open to see a child that was roughly half her own height. With a black bowl cut that looked almost exactly like her own hair, this child was Lijuan Zhao. Second daughter of Lihua, and held quite closely. Lihua always told herself that Lijuan was going to do great things. The child, wearing pink pajamas with Princesses on them or something simple, looked up at Lihua.

The mother responded by ruffing her hands through Lijuan's hair.

"I was just asleep." Lihua answered with a disarming smile on her face. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm hungry." Lijuan answered, clenching her fists, getting on her tip toes. Which exposed the power suppressant collar around her neck.

She put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, and began guiding the child towards the kitchen. "Alright, let me make you some oatmeal."

---

After getting her Lijuan some breakfast, Lihua went out to her living room floor with a mat. Wearing a T-shirt, and some yoga pants, Lihua grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, and the first thing she saw when the TV was on was a news report.

A CNN reporter was standing in front of a camera holding a microphone.

"... It has been five months since the Metahuman known as the Beast showed up in Prague and went on a rampage. He served to be too much of a problem for the Czech military, so they sent out a desperate plea for the world to come help. And many answered. Including the American RAVEN." The screen changed to an image of the Beast - a tall man that was made out of a bright glowing lava, he was faceless other than his wide mouth - firing a blast of fire at a building and knocked it over. "He was battled fiercely by the combined efforts of European and American Metahuman Regulation forces."

A video was displayed of the Beast getting struck with a missile - which harmlessly exploded inside of him - and he reformed after the explosion. He roared as he pointed both hands forward and created a sweeping inferno that raged through the group. A Metahuman from France slammed his hands into the ground, and created a massive ice barrier which converted into steam on contact. Another Metahuman jumped from behind the shield and fired a laser beam which hit the Beast in the chest, and a flying Metahuman flew in and punched the flaming Beast like it was nothing. Sending the brute flying.

"Many RAVENs have been commended for their outstanding heroism defending Prague, among them are agents Jacqueline Mason, Braden Sneed, Ronald Fox, Cora Haas, Alejandro Fairchild, and Meifeng Zhao."

"Oh?" Lihua raised an eyebrow as she paid attention.

"Meifeng Zhao in particular has been making rounds all over Prague for risking her life to save a group of civilians - including children, elderly, and pregnant women - from the Beast when he got away from Meta-Regulation." The screen showed a news feed from out of the way of the fighting of Meifeng and the Beast on a street, and behind Meifeng was a building full of civilians that were quickly running out. Meifeng was surfing on an orb of water to quickly dip and dive out of the way of the Beast's fireballs. He slammed his foot onto the ground and covered the ground in spikes, which Meifeng hopped up into the air to dodge. She fired a barrage of ice blades at the Beast which immediately evaporated. He pointed both hands at Meifeng, and managed to catch her with a fireball which knocked her down. The Beast was about to fire another barrage of fire at her, when he was caught with a missile, and a barrage of bullets.

Lihua shook her head. She heard about this months ago, and all she could say was that child was foolish. Headstrong. Overly heroic. I hope she's okay.

"Meifeng Zhao has earned the title of "Hero of Prague" for her actions, and was promptly healed after the incident by a metahuman that was helping in Prague."

The male reporter nodded his head.

"This has greatly bolstered relations between America and Europe. Currently, regulation agencies, military offices, and intelligence agencies all over Europe have been attempting to track where the Beast came from. Which is unfortunately hard since there are no discernible leads. Extra-Sensory type Metahumans are being called in to gather information."

He nodded his head.

"Recently, Maximilian Cornell, Chairmen of RAVEN, has released this statement,"

Standing in front of the RAVEN/DOVE Joint Headquarters in Black Fall was a tall man with European features, wearing a black suit. He was muscular, and sported a black beard from his time in Verthaven. He crossed his arms. At his side was a wheelchair bound woman with a head of black curly hair that almost looked like an afro. She wore a similar suit and sophisticated squared glasses.

"First, my heart goes out to the people of Prague who have suffered - I heard what was going on in Prague, and immediately sent some RAVENs over there to assist the moment I could. After the Verthaven Disaster... in which I was personally apart of, I just couldn't stand by and let other people suffer. I wish I could have been there personally. Now, me, RAVEN, and the brave DOVE will be doing all in their power to stop a disaster like this from happening again-"

---

That was when Lihua changed the channel, and instead changed to her yoga instructor. She, honestly, had little interest in that at the moment. What she wanted to do was get this yoga out the way so she can start her day. Lihua grabbed the table, and gently slid it to the side as she put her mat down. She laid down on the back of the mat, as her "instructor" told her what to do.

First thing that Lihua did was lie down on her back, and then brought her feet up close to her body up until her knees were up in the air, her feet firmly placed on the floor. She gently rocked her hips towards her face, and felt her back touch the floor. After a few brief seconds, Lihua inhaled and let her hips return to their normal position. Doing this was so good for her back - better than those pills. After a break, she did the same thing. Up until she had done this motion like ten times. She let out a sigh when she flipped over and reverted to another yoga position.

Getting on all fours, Lihua stood with her back in a neutral position, hands aligned with her shoulders. She took in a breath, before she arced her stomach in, and curled her back. Raising her head up slightly as she looked up at the ceiling. She then reverted her back to a neutral position after a few minutes-

Lihua's phone started ringing with a generic ringtone. She rolled her eyes as she was being utterly interrupted. She would have been content with ignoring it, but Lijuan walked into the room and grabbed her phone off the nightstand.

"Just leave it alone, sweetie-"

"It's big sis."

"Give it here." Lihua was quick to answer, putting her hand out as she desperately tried to maintain her balance. Lijuan walked over, and handed Lihua the phone, who quickly pressed answer, and tucked the phone under her neck.

"Hey, Mom." Meifeng lowly said in Chinese. "Hey, yeah, how are you?"

"Perfectly fine." Lihua answered as she arced her back upwards. "I haven't heard from you ever since the Battle of Prague. How have you been?"

Meifeng was silent on the other end of the line, which concerned Lihua for a few moments.

"I've been taking a few months off just to... see the world. I felt like I was getting a little out of touch lately." Meifeng said. "Just to remind myself."

"If you ever feel that way, a break might be necessary." Lihua nodded her head as she arced her back downward again. "Perhaps we can talk more? You haven't been calling as of late. Though, I have to commend you for what you did in Prague." She let the words hang in the air for a moment. "I'm even more proud of you than ever before."

Meifeng nodded her head. "It was the right thing to do." She took a step around, and grabbed that snowglobe. "Quick question; doesn't Lijuan like snow globes?"

"Right." Lihua answered.

"Alright, I'll be sure to give this to her when I get there." Meifeng said.

"Wait, you're-" Lihua quickly answered.

"Yeah, I just arrived in town... surprise." Meifeng said in a deadpan way. "I was assigned back to Baybridge, I wanted to keep it a secret... up until I'm here."

"Good, we have much to talk about." Lihua said. "Lijuan hasn't seen you in years... she's grown a bit, yeah."

Lihua was quiet for a second.

"... She looks up to you, you know?" Lihua said.

"Up until you teach her to look down on people." Meifeng said with a cheeky grin. "Yeah, I'm going to swing by and we'll chat, yeah?"
Lihua nodded her head. "Yes."

"Good." Meifeng said. "I'll be off."

"I have to finish my stretches anyway." Lihua said, in Chinese. "Goodbye."

Meifeng paused for a moment.

"Goodbye." She answered in her native tongue.

They both hung up the phone.

Well, Lihua can always skip yoga today. She got up off the ground and stretched her neck to the side (Depressing her shoulder in the process). She took a few steps into her kitchen, and saw Lijuan finishing up her oatmeal. The child looked up at her, and briefly scratched at the skin underneath this black collar of hers.

"Lijuan," Lihua said as she walked up the table. "Get dressed..."

The child raised an eyebrow.

"... We're going to have a guest."

---

Wendy Emily Lucker

---

---

Welcome to the Metahuman Scene: A free online discussion board concerning discussion on Metahumans, 
or Metahuman related events.

➤ Login?

	Username: PaperSister_07
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Boards ➤ Metahuman Discussion ➤ Metahuman Experiences ➤ Questions 

➤ Topic: Paper Manipulation AMA by PaperSister_07 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Hi, I'm PaperSister_07, I'm, as the topic suggests, a paper manipulating Metahuman that currently lives in Stadium City. 
I had the ability to manipulate paper since I was like eleven years old, and I've gotten pretty good at it. I can control 
paper, transform into it, store it inside of me, and can manipulate ink to a limited extent. 
Does anyone have any questions? I'd be glad to answer.

➤ proudfire 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Paper manipulation, that is a neat power to have. It must make carrying books a breeze?

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Yeah, I'm a big book nerd - it's funny isn't it? I don't use it all the time, but sometimes 
I use my ability to move a book around, arrange my collection, etc.

➤ Beachchikk 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Can you show me an example of your ability? Like can you take a picture of some constructs?

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@Beachchikk: Sure. I'll make an art piece and take some pics, okay?

➤ JusticeWunder

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Sounds like a lame power.

➤ SexualChurchgoer (Moderator)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@JusticeWunder: Such comments aren't welcome here, please ask a constructive question or receive a warning.

➤ JusticeWunder

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Okay, okay... Have you ever gotten into a fight with your paper power?

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

I've gotten into a few practice fights with my older sister... but nothing real. Tbh, I don't want to piss off DOVE or 
RAVEN and have them bang down my door. lol

➤ Beachchikk 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Understandable, there was a RAVEN who broke my brother's nose when he got into a fight with a member of the Allegiance. 
Bastard even had the nerve to say that my bro was "threatening" him. Half these RAVENs need to get their badge taken 
from them, and a shift kick in the ass.

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Yeeeeeeah, the RAVENs are a bit... overzealous. I don't really want to tangle with them. I just keep my head down and 
worry about myself. I thought about joining DOVE, but as much as I love "Meta-Politics" I'm not really interested in 
being tied down to them. Though, the DOVE that I know is really nice.

➤ 52Pickup 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

The DOVEs are the sane ones, as much as good old Maximilian Cornell likes to talk big, he's just turning a blind 
eye to all the REAL problems going on in RAVEN

➤ JudoChick 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@52Pickup: C'mon, you can't say that about ALL the RAVENs. Some are really nice.

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Gotta agree with @Judochick here.

There's going to be good, and then there's going to be bad. That's just a simple fact of life.

➤ 52Pickup 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@JudoChick: You're just saying that because your mom's a RAVEN. Sucking up to mommy, eh?

@Papersister_07: And in this situation, there's a LOT more bad than good.

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

I can't believe I'm the one that's defending this group; but can you REALLY say that? You're not a RAVEN, you don't 
know what's going on in there, and who's good or not. Stop accentuating the negatives.

➤ JudoChick 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@52Pickup: This isn't JUST about her, Maximilian Cornell saved me and my brother during the Verthaven Disaster. He 
has my respect forever.

➤ 52Pickup 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Or so you say. I see a LOT of people saying they were a "survivor" of the Verthaven disaster on this forum, and lots 
of those people are full of shit.

➤ SexualChurchgoer (Moderator)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Remember to STAY on topic. This isn't a discussion on RAVEN, Maximilian Cornell, or any of their actions, this is 
merely a Q&A and it better go back to that.

@52Pickup: This is your second warning for derailing threads/flaming, one more and you'll be banned from the site.

➤ JudoChick 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Um, yeah, Papersister, you said that you can turn into paper? How's that like?

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@JudoChick: It's certainly odd to say the least. Very hard to describe unless you're a Meta like me. Like, I'm a 
hundred fluttering pieces of paper and I can control each of them at once. It's... an experience. Flying like a flock 
of birds. It can feel quite liberating. Long as I hold my breath... I am limitless.

@Beachchikk: Also, I got you the pictures you wanted. [VIEW LINK]

➤ JudoChick 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@Papersister_07: So it's connected to your breath? 

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@Judochick: Yup, long as I hold my breath, I can be one with the paper. Heh.

➤ Countless_Fool

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Oh! How far apart can you spread yourself?

➤ Beachchikk 

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

Thanks, that looks really good. You should put that up in a Museum! :D

➤ Papersister_07 (Original Poster)

Posted on June 11th, 2022:

@Countless_Fool: lol I never really tried it since I USUALLY just reform a few seconds later. I never really tried to 
see how far I can spread myself, but I know it's like a cluster - one piece can't go that far away from the cluster... 
If that makes sense.

Page 1 - 2.

Boards ➤ Metahuman Events ➤ Prague

NOTICE: DUE TO A MASSIVE FLAMEWAR, THE PRAGUE BOARD HAS BEEN LOCKED. 1/24/22

➤ Topic: What's Going on in Prague by Dead_Editor [LOCKED]

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Okay, this so called "Battle of Prague" has been making the rounds lately. Like, everyone is talking about it now. 
To sum it up, there's a big ass lava meta going on a rampage in Prague and the Czech Republic had to call in the 
big guns just to save the day.

What we know:

1). The Meta in question is called "The Beast."

2). He has high-tiered Pyrokinesis, Terrakinesis, and most likely Geo-Thermokinesis. Far stronger than anything 
else we've seen thus far. Is also apparently invincible because he tanked a 50. cal like it's nothing.

3). He has killed thousands already.

4). He was killed by a joint attack by everyone hitting him with everything they got.

Just use this thread to discuss the battle of Prague. Who the Beast is. And whatever. Just keep the hysteria to 
a minimum.

➤ Iron_Hound

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

First the Devil of Verthaven, and now this? It feels like these Metas won't stop popping up until one gets lucky 
and finally kills everyone. Or blows up the universe.

➤ Judochick

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Do we know who this Beast guy is? People don't just get up, get superpowers, then go on rampages.

➤ Red_Knight

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

No, but I got a feeling the Hands of Science have SOMETHING to do with it. Their magical potions already created 
one pain in the ass.

➤ Dead_Editor

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

I probably should have said to keep the whole ordeal STRICTLY fact based. I don't think ANYONE has time for finger 
pointing, and these stupid "portents of doom" that everyone insists on posting are seriously getting annoying.

Like seriously, some of you are starting to sound like The Order.

➤ Girlidot

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

@Dead_Editor: At this point I'M ready to accept Metahumans as my God.

➤ White_Glint

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

We can't HELP but entertain the idea that SOMEONE OUT THERE created the Beast.

Can @Green_Bird care to comment?


➤ Green_Bird (Verified DOVE)

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

DOVE, RAVEN, The KMD, the DGMHS, or the MISW have no evidence that confirms the Beast was "created." As far as 
the collective agencies are aware, The Beast is simply a "Prime" Metahuman that appeared. We also have no 
evidence that leads to his identity, his affiliations, etc.

➤ Iron_Hound

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

That's even worse if he was just a random dude who got that kind of power.

➤ 52Pickup 

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Great. The mighty "Metahuman Regulation Agencies" of the world - who are supposed to keep on top of this - have 
their heads shoved so far up their own ass that they can watch their food digest. I'm starting to get the idea 
that you guys aren't even TRYING - or better yet, benefiting from it. You need your job security, after all. 

Also @Green_Bird, is it you talking, or is it your boss talking? Tell her to stop being a pussy and come out and 
say something to the press instead of getting her patsies to speak for her.

➤ Green_Bird (Verified DOVE)

[DELETED] Posted on January 10th, 2022:

I was POLITELY asked, along with many other trusted DOVEs, to pass this information around. The combined 
Agencies are STILL investigating this matter, but there's no DNA on the Beast or any other way to identify him. 
There's no signs that he was affiliated with anyone. So that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to determine who he is, or 
where he came from. You know what that word means? Here let me google it for you:

Impossible
	im·pos·si·ble
	adjective
	able to occur, exist, or be done

If you want to insult us, fine. If you want to think less of us for not being able to pull a lead out our ass, 
that's fine too. But don't EVER say we're not doing the best we can. RAVEN helped eliminate the Beast, DOVE is 
trying to do damage control for the inevitable backlash when it reaches American, and if that still isn't enough 
for you people, then I speak for every DOVE when I say we don't give a shit about your backassward opinion.

➤ Judochick

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Whoa, a little testy there @Green_Bird?

➤ Green_Bird (Verified DOVE)

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Sorry, but I have a friend that got injured in Prague... I should definitely delete that before I give them more 
fuel. lol

➤ Papersister_07 

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

I wouldn't say that you were THAT out of line.

What I'm curious about @Green_Bird is this "Damage control" you spoke of a few posts up. Is DOVE going to do 
damage control in Prague?

➤ Green_Bird (Verified DOVE)

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

No... The usual stupid bullshit; hysteria is just going to ramp right back up here in the states when we managed 
to get it to calm down just a LITTLE. Even though it happened all the way in Europe... well, just look at the 
news. 

But I should probably take the time to say that my heart goes out to the people of Prague, and everyone in it. I 
hope peace returns to the Czech republic soon.

➤ Papersister_07 

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Yeah, it sounds rough. Do you know how long the RAVENs there are going to stay in Prague?

➤ SexualChurchgoer (Moderator)

Posted on January 10th, 2022:

Locking this thread. This is the EIGHTH thread about what's going on in the Czech Republic. Take any discussion 
about the Prague incident here: [LINK]

Page - 1

---

Academy 61, Roseview.

Sitting down in skyblue pajamas, Wendy browsed her Academy provided computer... she should be using this for school purposes, but she couldn't be bothered with that right now. It's a Saturday, and a very special day at that: the Strong Gold Community is going to open! While Wendy wasn't excited for the community itself, there was going to be a big celebration that could have plenty of opportunities for pictures to be taken (Without looking weird). She didn't know what kind of party it'd be, but it should be family friendly.

If the Allegiance doesn't come in and destroy everything, that is.

Wendy scratched the side of her leg as she got up out of the chair. It's already ten and she hasn't showered. She better fix that or else she'd receive even more teasing from her friends. She stepped over towards her dresser, and then looked at the stack of paper that she kept next to it. It's usually something that she keeps laying around for practice (and to take pictures of power demonstrations for Metahuman Scene). She swiped her hand across, and the paper went flying up into the air in an elegant display. Once it was in the air, it floated for a few seconds, before it quickly flew down and formed a identical copy of the Academy. Perfectly constructed out of paper. She smiled at the progress she made for a moment.

Afterwards, she dug through her dresser for a moment before she chose her clothing for the day: a white blouse with a brown skirt, and a brown trench coat. She held her clothes in one hand as she stepped into the bathroom. She placed her clothes down on the sink as she stood still for a moment. That was when her skin took a paper white color and texture as her body quickly began turning into paper. She transformed into a cloud of paper that floated with her pajamas on top of it. The storm of paper wrestled it's way out of her clothes, and it hit the ground just as it gathered back together and reformed.

Impractical? Yes. Flashy? Yes. But it sure was cool.

With that out the way, Wendy took a few steps into the shower and then turned it on. She stepped inside and felt the hot water splash against her skin... Though, she didn't shower for that long. She is a pretty cleanly person, after all. Wendy made sure to clean her hair above all else. After she was done, Wendy turned the knob, and turned the water right off. She took a step out, dried herself off with her towel, and placed her clothes on. Now, she was...

Aw, damn it, she forgot her satchel.

Feeling annoyed, Wendy stepped outside of the bathroom, back into her room, and then looked around. Wendy quickly walked over to her precious satchel, and opened it up. She checked and she found her camera, some books... and much more. Feeling delighted she found it, Wendy put the satchel over her shoulder, and started pacing her way out of the room. She didn't know what she was going to do up until this big old party.

Maybe she'll find Jade.

---

Auri Auclair

---

---

Strongriver Plaza, Hedgemount.

Groaning as Auri suddenly came awake. She felt something disturbing her bed as she turned her head. She saw a girl getting dressed the moment she blinked - the girl sliding on her underwear. Auri tried to lift her head up, but she had a pounding headache. She grabbed the side of her head, and clenched it a little bit as she looked around. Every light felt like it was a literal sun, and every small sound was pounding on her ears. Despite her years of drinking alcohol heavily, and partying like she just didn't care...

... Hangovers were still a bitch.

After gathering her bearings, Auri reached over towards her apartment window and closed the blinds which made the light a little bit more bearable. Thank God. With what little light was seeping in, Auri turned her head and tried to get a good look at the woman - It was Lupe Bellasquez, one of the strippers at her aunt's clubs. An average heighted Spanish woman (She was like five different countries), which curves in all the right places. The perfect well-built stripper body. Though, she was an on and off thing for Auri. No real relationship. When Auri groaned, Lupe looked back at her and winked. Auri then remembered what happened last night.

"That was fun, right?" Lupe said with a cocky smile on her face as she put her jean shorts on - sticking her butt out for Auri. "But I gotta go... perhaps we can do this again tonight?" She winked at Auri.

"... Yeah." Auri groaned into the pillow, painfully hung over.

"Alright, then," Lupe said, as she started walking out towards the door, "I'll see ya' at work."

Lupe stepped out the door, and Auri couldn't even be bothered with getting up and locking the door to her own apartment. She wanted to just put her head down and try to get back to sleep....

Her phone started loudly ringing. Auri almost cried as she flipped over and grabbed it... the light it was giving off made her squint because of how sensitive her vision is right now.

Viollette Croquetaigne.

Oh no... Please. It was her boss slash aunt. She was now remembering everything she was supposed to do last night - instead going to play around with Lupe. As much as Auri wanted to hang up the phone, that would just cause her some more problems. She pressed the answer button, and pressed it against her ear,

"Hello, miss Auclair." Auri heard the thick, French, voice of her aunt as they spoke in their native language. "You know what you forgot to do last night...?"

"Yes..." Auri awkwardly answered in French.

"Oh?" Viollette said in a mock tone. "Then why didn't you close up the club after I left like I asked?"

"It was just that... miss Bellasquez..." Auri trailed off. "Me and Lupe had a chat... and then we started kissing, and then it ended up back in my apartment...."

"I understand that you are in touch with your sexuality - but don't forget that you are still a member of the Society." Viollette sternly said in French. "You have responsibilities if you still wish to enjoy our benefits. Do you understand?"

Auri sighed.

"... I understand."

"Good, because you'll have to bring this party-girl nonsense to a close. There is a time and place for everything, Miss Auclair." Viollette said. "Goodbye."

Auri found herself sighing yet again.

"Goodbye."

Viollette hung up the phone, and Auri feels annoyed... She's always being treated as a child. Nothing but a patsy. When she was the one who was the diplomat for the Society, more or less. However, as annoyed as she is at the moment, she chose to just lay her head down, and go back to sleep.

She needed to be ready today.

---

Cindy Gabrielle Keagan, & The Agents of DOVE/RAVEN.

---

---

West Woodlake, Hedgemount.

Dressed up in a nice suit with the DOVE badge on her chest, the dashing Cindy Keagan stepped out of a DOVE cruiser that had the logo on the side. She was wearing round glasses, and she adjusted them as she looked up at the house - a simple two story house with green siding that you'd expect a middle class family to have - and reached back inside the vehicle and pulled out a black suit case. She walked up the stairs to the household, and then knocked on the door. She held the suit case in front of her as she heard footsteps quickly come towards the door.

The door swung open, and Cindy was immediately greeted to a sight that was best saved for a circus. A woman with curly red hair was absolutely covered in a thick, glowing green, goo, and had a infant that was covered in the same goo in one hand. Behind her the furniture was coated with the same goo. She looked exasperated for a moment (A little confused, too), then she smiled.

"Hello, ma'am, I am Cindy Keagan with DOVE." Cindy greeted the woman.

"Thank goodness, did Ralph's collar application get approved?" The woman asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Cindy said with a cordial smile on her face.

"Thank goodness." The woman said in pure relief. She basically dragged Cindy through the house the moment she latched onto it. "Come on, I quarantined him in the bathroom."

"Hey, wait, ma'am, you don't have to drag me." Cindy said as she tried to squirm out of the woman's grasp, but she was so bent on dragging Cindy to her son. You see, Ralph was a Metahuman that manifested an ability so harmless that he would likely stay off the DOVE radar for months. While it was harmless... it made up for it by being incredibly annoying. Which prompted this desperate woman to apply for a power suppressant collar, which was gladly approved.

The woman finally lead Cindy into the bathroom. Which was barricaded with a chair, the woman quickly kicked it aside with enough force that it looked like she was going to break her own foot. She stood at one side of the door, and said, "He's in there." With a thick Irish accent. She started knocking on the door. "Alright, Ralphy, a nice lady's here to stop your little problem, okay?" She said, obviously strained. "Please don't vomit anymore goo. Please."

"Mhm." A young voice said on the other side.

Cindy was tempted to use her glass powers to create a shield, but she knew that long as this little boy kept his mouth close, he couldn't use his power. He was a nice little boy, and Cindy trusted that. She nodded her head towards the woman as she opened the door and got a full view of a tiny bathroom with blue tiles - which was hard to really see due to being coated with a glowing slime. Sitting on the toilet (the one place that wasn't slimed) was a young boy that had to be eleven with a poorly maintained head of red hair that needed to be cut. He was wearing a simple t-shirt and some athletic shorts.

"Please keep your mouth closed, Ralph." The mother said. "Or you're grounded"

"Hey, Ralph." Cindy said with a disarming smile as she set the briefcase down outside the bathroom. She unhinged the locks, and opened it, and inside was a power suppressant collar that was strapped down. She undid the straps, and grabbed the collar. Carefully holding it in her hands. "This is going to make everything better, baby. Just keep calm...."

While she was talking, she was taking careful and deliberate steps towards Ralph, keeping that disarming smile on her face. It was the worst thing ever stepping on each pile of the goo, but she can clean her shoes off later. She was more worried about slipping and landing face first into the stuff - that, fortunately, was not a problem. Cindy was taking closer and closer steps towards the boy, and then she was mere inches from grabbing him, when she tried to put the collar around his neck-

Then the boy opened his mouth wide and Cindy felt like she was staring into the abyss. An absolute storm of the green goo came flying out of his gullet and engulfed Cindy's upper body in it. Literally the worst thing that could happen in this situation. When the boy closed his mouth, Cindy just stood there. Shocked because that just happened. She couldn't see anything but green, and she could feel it all over her. In her hair, on her clothes, even seeping through her clothes and touching her skin. It was wet, slippery, and it was very foamy. It felt awful.

While she was trying to wipe this stuff out her eyes, Little "Ralphy" started laughing, and Cindy was this close to strangling a little boy to death. It would be worth every second of it. She gave the boy the worst death glare of his life - and his mother was concerned that Cindy would do it.

However, she grabbed onto his shoulders, and snapped the power suppressant collar right around his neck surprisingly roughly. The boy opened his mouth, and nothing happened.

His mother sighed in relief... before she exploded into pure rage because of the actions of her son. "RALPHY! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT! YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR A MONTH!" She screamed at the very top of her lungs, and took in a deep breath.

All while Cindy was trying to wipe herself off.

"Oh, miss, I am so sorry. Here, let me get you some towels." The woman said as she went through her cabinets.

"Yeah, yeah, it's cool." Cindy said. "Just... let me go." She said, completely humiliated. She took a few steps back, and then knelt down and grabbed the suitcase. There was supposed to be some paperwork she's supposed to fill out.

But the only thing on her mind was getting the hell out of here.

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast.

Cindy ran through the doors of the headquarters with an id card in hand. When she made it through the metal (And Metahuman) detectors, she slid a card into the slot and kept running. Certainly catching odd looks from everyone else as she took every step. She passed a tall African-American man that she barely recognized in her sprint. She merely pushed him aside and kept running. Up until she made it to the locker rooms, she charged her way inside and quickly started disrobing. Unzipping this uncomfortable suit, leaving it on the ground, as she quickly made it over to the stalls. She bent forward a bit as she took off her underwear and quickly went through the various stalls. Cindy thought that one stall was free, threw it open, and was immediately greeted to a naked redhaired Agent.

"Oh! Sorry!" Cindy apologized as she quickly went to the next open stall.

Cindy quickly turned the shower tall on and immediately felt relief as the hot water washed this glowing green goo crap right off her. She let out a long "Ahhhhh" as the water simply hit her skin. She grabbed a sponge, and soaked it with some water and then went to work. Scrubbing herself up until the green goo was cleansed from her skin. Cindy nodded her head as she put her hair directly into the water. That was what she was most concerned about - Oh! She forgot she had special shampoo for when things like this happened... it's only in her locker. She poked her head out her shower stall. It's only a brief run - though, she's just now realizing that she basically ran all through the locker room with her ass out trying to find a stall. Cindy also realized that, out of all the things she grabbed, she didn't grab a towel.

God damn it.

Well, might as well give the lesbians in the agency another show. Blushing, Cindy quickly ran to her locker, and then grabbed everything she needed (A few towels, a few shower caps, and of course, her shampoo) after she opened it. Mostly her shampoo. Despite her overreactions, no one really paid any mind to her. She went back to her stall and quickly wet her hair again before she applied the conditioner. She lightly rubbed the shampoo into her scalp as slowly moved downwards and applied the shampoo onto her braids. After she was done cleaning her hair, she turned off the nozzle, before she grabbed her shower caps. She wrapped her braids into neat buns as she put the shower caps over them. Content, she wrapped the towel around her head and stepped out of the stall. She found herself a bench, and sat down on it. Patiently waiting twenty minutes. She gently patted her head with her towel, trying her best to get the water out her hair. Cindy repeated this for a little while as she drained her hair.

Then she just sat there. Waiting for her hair to dry. Cindy simply got up, and grabbed her spare clothes out of her locker. A simple blouse, and some pants. She let out a sigh... and wondered if she could bug Deborah to get DOVE to buy her some new glasses. Since they were gooed on the job, after all. After she had put her top on, she shook her head, and stepped out the locker room (After picking up her clothes) a well dressed woman.

---

After that debacle, Cindy figured that it was time to get some R&R. She filled out all the necessary paper-work and she got a pat on the back. Cindy stepped into the break room, and immediately saw the well furnished room with carpet on the ground, nice furniture, and a few TVs that were currently in use. Though, she saw familiar faces all over the break room. Most notably, Drake and Samson were playing pool. Cindy didn't bother with them, she merely found herself wandering over to the sofas, and sat down. Though, she turned her head and saw an African-American woman with odd looking limbs underneath her clothes. Lynette, of course. A RAVEN that didn't exactly have the best social skills (Or past). She merely nodded heads at each other as they silently watched TV. Some gameshow.

"Yo, Cindy!" A voice called her, and Cindy turned around and saw the tall frame of the RAVEN Samson Jeross. He looked at her, holding the pool cue in hand. While Drake had a cheeky grin. "What was that green shit all over ya'?"

Cindy rolled her eyes up into her head. "You saw that?" She said like she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Well, yeah," Samson started off. "Err'body did when you were running around." He finished his statement with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry, but some little asshole sprayed me with goo." Cindy said in irritation. "I just had to to get to a shower."

"... That sentence doesn't sound right, now does it, Samson?" The other person Samson was playing pool with spoke. He was Drake Blackmore, young, arrogant, and had a head of black hair. Wearing a casual uniform. He had a cocky look on his face.

"Hm, an asshole sprayed her...." Samson whimsically said as he put his hand on his chin. He grinned. "Nope, not one bit." He started laughing.

"You want to get smacked?" Cindy answered, putting her hand on the back of the sofa. "Because this is how you get smacked."

They both started laughing. Samson threw his hands up. "Oh no, I'm already getting slapped around enough by the monsters." He started laughing. "Don't sweat it, Cindy. We all get nasty shit on us." He shrugged. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Scarlet sitting at the table far away from them all by herself.

"Hey... you friends with Scarlet, yeah?" Samson asked, nodding his head towards her.

"Yeah, a childhood friend of mine." Cindy answered.

"She's been acting a little strange lately... mind havin' a word with her to see if she's okay?" Samson said, concerned. "We'll stop makin' fun of you if you do." He said with a wide smile on his face.

Nodding her head, Cindy wordlessly walked her way over to the table. The first thing she caught eye of would be the redhair tied into a bun that she always associated with Scarlet. She was sitting at the table far away from everyone else, eating some sushi (Well, a lot of sushi). Cindy gave her a disarming smile, as she sat across from her.

"Yo, Scarlet," Cindy said as she sat down. "Thought you looked a little down, so I wanted to ask what was up."

Cindy put both hands on the table.

For a moment, Scarlet was saddened. "I'm still... just... a...."

"Yeah... Girl, you know you can pour that heart of yours out to me." Cindy said with a smile on her face. "After everything that happened... you're a friend of mine. Remember that." She put her hand forward and touched Scarlet's hand.

"It's..." Scarlet shook her head. "I still... I... I know it may sound like I'm holding onto things...." She started nervously scratching the side of her neck. She shrugged. "But, sometimes, I still think about.. you know."

"Trevor." Cindy blankly said.

"I know... it's been years now... I should just stop thinking so hard about it and just move on." Scarlet somberly said.

But Cindy leaned forward, and said, "It's okay."

"Huh?" Scarlet said.

"It's okay." Cindy answered. "You'll feel bad sometimes - I know all about that being strong bullshit... but sometimes you just... well, grieve some more. I don't think you'll ever really get over it."

She shrugged.

"I know. I just feel like I'm being immature when I get reminded of him, and then start thinking about what life could be like if he was still here."

"That's okay, too... sometimes I feel the same." Cindy answered, shrugging. "I wish he was still around, too. I feel like I should have given him more credit."

"Yeah..." Scarlet answered. "There's more I want to talk about... but thanks for coming over and at least trying to hear me out." She nodded her head.

Cindy smiled.

"That's what friends do."

Scarlet smiled back.

"Now, let's continue...." Cindy said.

---

---

---

Five disgruntled eccentrics heading to Baybridge.

A Ford explorer hit a bump in the road so hard that it knocked all five occupants.

In particular, a redhaired teen in the back nearly dropped his laptop, he only managed to catch it after desperately trying to grab after it. "Hey!" He hissed as he caught it. "Drager. Must you hit every bump? At high speeds? Irritating."

The young man at the wheel, who was really short, but muscular, and had a head of spiky black hair. He wore a red t-shirt with some black jean pants, and most of all, he wore black oil rig sunglasses. He shrugged "Well, Megan wants us to take the "back route" so badly, so take it up with her." He said, before raising an eyebrow and turning his head over to the side, "Actually, why are we taking this road instead of one of the bridge, Megan? We would have been in there by now."

"C'mon, Ray, you're smarter than this!" Megan said from the passenger seat, waving around her burgundy red hair, and gave Ray a look that just said "are you stupid?" Ray didn't appreciate that. "We can't take the bridge, it's too conspicuous, we'd get noticed in a second."

"... By who?" Ray asked, raising an eyebrow. "You haven't told us anything about what we're supposed to be doing here."

"Well..." Megan shrugged. "Remember that little thing I had to do seven years ago while in Verthaven?"

"Destroy the Hands." Ray said.

"NEST - Er, RAVEN - did a great job of that. I applaud them." Megan said in a very cheery, enthusiastic tone. "Just that they forgot the few big wigs."

"Let me guess," Ray said, sighing, "You, for some odd reason, have tracked them to Baybridge, or something." He said it in a tone that implied that he didn't believe her.

"Yes!" Megan said with a wide smile on her face. "An old contact of mine has tracked them here."

"Alright, two things; first, who are we tracking? And two; how reliable is this information?" Ray asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Trust me my contact is one hell of a man." Megan winked at Ray. "You know... all the Hands Executives that RAVEN let go into hiding, y'know. Dr. Cross, Suan-Ni, Nathaniel Thorne, Eliza... And don't get me started on Ignatius. I was hoping that they'd get killed during the Verthaven Disaster, but that's just how the cookie crumbles."

"How aren't you sure that they're dead or something? Or even here." Ray shrugged. "Maybe they were killed - that's why we didn't hear about it."

"Don't be silly, Ray-Ray... I'd know." Megan said with a goofy smile on her face that almost made Ray want to wipe it off with his fist.

"Drager." The redhaired occupant from the back stated. "If killed. Detained. Et cetera. Do you believe. DOVE. RAVEN. Would stay quiet?"

"Rush..." Ray groaned.

"Travis Irons. Hands Executive. Ran the east Canadian Branch. When killed. His death made national news. Front page." Rush stated in his usual, fast, and oddly robotic voice-tone.

"Dexter has the right line of thought!" Megan added.

"Yeah, but-" Ray tried to inject.

"... How about you shut up, Drager." The fourth occupant, a bony girl who was wearing a big hoodie that covered most of her features. She was rather curvy, and had blue eyes.... and a surgical mask. "We have a job - we gotta do it. Stop complaining all the time." The woman adjusted her surgical mask.

"Missy," Ray sharply replied. "You don't know Megan like I do. You'll learn to question everything she says and does- actually, where did you come from?"

Missy didn't reply, she merely turned her head, and slid her surgical mask up closer.

"Besides..." Megan tried to inject. "They're going to be more concerned about RAVEN kicking down their door - a small group of five Metahumans? We'll be able to slip through the cracks and hit them where it hurts like it's nothing!"

She started off.

"With Dexter's technological prowess, my shapeshifting and limitless espionage, Missy's biological abilities, your lightning fast and strong telekinesis and...."

Megan turned her head back, and saw the fifth member of their group. A massive man that was adorned in a massive long-coat, he had a helmet on, and a hat on top of that. He sat in between Rush and Missy. Slouched forward and his arms on his knees.

"... Nemy's strength, we should have more than enough to take on whatever the Hands have if we hit them hard and fast."

"... You have a point there." Ray said. "Maybe, we'll just see about this source... but don't go doing anything stupid, okay?"

"Punch a RAVEN in the face? Okay." Megan said with a toothy grin.

Ray rolled his eyes. The truck was finally crossing into the borders of the city... The sign announced it:

WELCOME TO BAYBRIDGE:

WHITE COAST

Brave Water Bridge

It was a good view of the city, from the bus Archie was seated in. The bridge they were riding along passed parallel to the horizon, letting everyone take in the sights before they threw themselves into it. Some of them were more curious about what, or who, was inside the bus rather than across the lake from it. Even the people that had been riding for longer than Archie were still passing glances at him - a man wearing a yellow bag with an orange X over his head was definitely a less than normal sight to see. For most, it was a very clear giveaway that he was a meta-human, and that put them off. The animosities of yesteryear still rang deep, evidently. But no one acted on their hostile suspicions, if there were any, and Archie was thankful for that.

He shifted his gaze of unclear origin from the window to the rather large, gray backpack lying on the seat next to him. It looked like something that someone ready to climb Mt. Everest would be hauling. Archie was checking it every few minutes out of habit, making sure its condition and placement weren't changing. What was in that backpack was more important than... well, a lot of things put together. At least, in Archie's non-existent eyes.

He turned back to the view of Baybridge. He'd be there in a matter minutes.

...

White Coast

The bus came to a stop, and everyone got up to get off. Archie picked up the backpack with his left hand and slung it over his shoulder. He walked and passed the driver along with the rest of the passengers, and stepped down onto the station sidewalk. And he stood there, looking ahead, above, and around him. He took in all the immediate sights that the city was showing to him. Some people passed by and wondered how he even was looking through the bag on his head, but it didn't matter much to them as they left the immediate area. Archie turned his attention towards a publicly available map on the side of a seating booth adjacent to the bus stop. Handy.

Archie ran his finger over the western area, landing on the name of his current location, affixed with a noticeable red dot saying you are here. White Coast, that's where he was. A taste of town, before the gates opened up to the real deal. Prince Ed-Field, as it was, lied right over yonder. He'd head there after he was done here. He had a bit of business to tend to at the moment.

Archie unloaded the backpack from upon his shoulder and unzipped it, and out he pulled something quite interesting. A bag, a very large bag, reinforced with various fabrics and padding, and absolutely covered in what appeared to be... signatures. Signatures, written in a myriad of differently colored inks, simple and elegant all, little hearts and peace signs, doodles of random things - more than one person had definitely drawn on this thing. It was folded down several times to fit in the backpack, and Archie went to work laying it out on the ground. The bag ended in an opening wrapped with several loops of elastic, jutting out into two interwoven handles. Like a hoodie meant for a giant of a man. Archie set the bag on the ground and reached into the backpack again, pulling out an assortment of collapsible metal rods - the sort you'd use to prop up a tent. He took a moment to extend the rods and run them through a series of loops along the bag's opening, connecting the rods as well. Within a minute, the bag was upright, positioned in such a way that the opening looked like a doorway.

And it was, in fact, a doorway.

Archie looked inside, seeing the fabric fade into a dark void. Just ahead of him was a rope with a weighted handle on it. He stepped forward and grabbed it, and gave it one good tug with all his strength. In the distance, bells could be heard ringing one after the other, like a signal. By now, people near the bus stop were watching with genuine curiosity. And mere moments later, they came. In a haphazard line, a few dozen or so people exited from within the unknown, out into the bright of day. Many of them had smiles on their faces, most were fairly young - in their twenties or so. As they walked out, each of them acknowledged Archie in some way - giving him a thumbs up, patting his shoulder, or even hugging him. Some extended heartfelt goodbyes and words of sincere gratitude.

One by one, some in pairs, they departed, walking towards the nearby information booth or further into the city, knowing where they were going. Archie stood and watched them leave. Some had been riding along for months, even years. He was a little sad to see them go. But the sadness was quickly superseded by satisfaction, that they'd all gotten what they wanted. Somewhere else to call home.

As some other folks stood by and watched the odd event unfold, Archie began packing up the doorway to wherever. Collapsing the rods, folding up the bag, and so forth. Once everything was back in order, Archie slung the backpack over his shoulder once again, and took out his phone with his right hand. He positioned himself in front of the station map and took a picture of it, seeing as the pamphlet container on the side was empty of copies and the information booth was much too crowded. He took a few more pictures of each district of the city, so he could make out names and whatnot. Afterwards, he put his phone away, turned in the direction of the sidewalk, and began marching forth.

He was gonna take some time and get a feel for this place before he retired for the afternoon.

Greencrest Heights, White Coast

"Kei! Are you awake yet?" Lihn let out a slight sigh as she shouted up the stairs, before returning to the dining hall table when she got a muffled groan in response. Notes were spread out across it, a lot more disorganised than she would have liked. While she was off most Saturdays she did have a bit of paperwork to catch up with. She did live a somewhat busy life and had to fit in doing this kind of thing whenever she had time.

"Mama, mama," the insistent tugging on her could only be one little munchkin. Thanh looked up at her with wide, dark green eyes.

"Hmm?" Lihn bent down to pick up the slightly six year old, easily holding her in her arms.

"It's sunny. Let's go outside."

"You want to play outside? Maybe you and Kei could play out in the garden for a bit?"

Thanh shook her head stubbornly, bottom lip quivering slightly. "No! Proper outside."

"Mommy is very busy, Thanh." Lihn loved her daughter, she really did, but sometimes it got a bit tiring juggling all the various aspects of her life. And Kei hadn't even appeared downstairs yet. Sometimes she had no idea what to do with her brother. Though, her daughter was the issue here. "Maybe Kei will go out with you. Why don't you got wake him up?"

"Okay!" Thanh wriggled a bit until Lihn put her down, running up the stairs with loud shouts of "Kay Kay! Wake up!"

Well, that was two problems sorted. Although she doubted Kei would accept going out. His aversion to the sun and heat would mean he would prefer to stay inside on such a nice day. Lihn understood. After all being in the sun was difficult for her brother. He had described how it felt in quite detail. Not to mention that Lihn had felt his emotions when it first happen. That had been a mistake.

Sighing for the second time that morning Lihn began to clear up what was laid out on the table. She would undoubtedly have to go out with her daughter for some kind of walk and Kei still needed breakfast anyway. Who knew how much space he'd take up with some extravagant breakfast dish that he'd cook up.

"I can't believe you used Thanh, that's an unfair tactic," Kei's voice was grumpy as he entered the kitchen crossed with a dining room, his niece practically clinging to his leg.

"Kay, outside with me!" She was getting louder as he shuffled over towards the fridge, looking through what they had. Lihn noted that she would have to go out shopping for food again. Maybe she could do that this evening. Then again there was the celebration happening tonight. She was planning on taking Kei out to that. It would have cooled down by then.

"I'm sorry, Tani, but I've got to have breakfast. And it's too warm for me." Kei spoke at half the volume that Thanh did.

"Mommy he won't go out with me!" Thanh detached herself from Kei's leg and ran over to Lihn, not getting any less loud. "I want to go into the sun."

Linh held back another sigh. "Then how about the two of us go out on a walk, and let Kei make his breakfast in peace?" Thanh's face lit up. "Go get your shoes on and wait at the door." The little girl ran off quite happily. Linh turned back to face Kei. The two looked at each other in silence for a few moments.

"I won't do anything stupid. I'm just making breakfast, then I'll do some coursework." That was a lie. He'd probably go back to bed, or game. He didn't feel up to doing more of his college stuff.
Lihn shrugged slightly. "Just remember we're going out tonight." With a smile she went over to the front hall of their house, getting on her own shoes before leading Thanh out of the door. Hopefully after this walk she would have time to get her work done.

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast

Max had been late in. It was a, well, regular occurrence. She wasn't particularly competent at managing her own time especially when it came to waking up in the morning. She didn't mean to be late. It didn't help that Rori had kept her up pretty late the night before watching movies. Max hadn't want to but she couldn't argue with her cousin.

She just about managed to get away with missing an unimportant, and short, meeting first thing in the morning. Mostly. The extra paperwork wasn't appreciated but she could deal with it. Maybe. Max didn't like paperwork. She hadn't signed up to RAVEN for fucking paperwork. But unfortunately it seemed that it was all there was to do around here. Not that she wanted there to be a lot of action or anything.

After a bit of gruelling paperwork (at least it seemed that way to her) Max decided she deserved some kind of break. The break room was pretty close, and a lot busier than she had expected. Max was yet to become that friendly with any of the other agents but there weren't any that she didn't get on with. Well, with a few exceptions.

She found herself a spot on a sofa and just let herself absentmindedly watch what was on the TV. It wasn't something interesting but it was more relaxing than paper work. She turned her head as someone else entered the break room.

Oh great. Cindy Keagan was one of the other agents that Max hadn't gotten off to the best start with. Still, she wasn't going to let it ruin her break (that would probably end up longer than it should be, what with a large stack of paperwork looming in front of her).

Even as she tried to relax her dark gaze kept on moving between the different people. She didn't mean for it to do so. She didn't exactly want to make it look like she was staring and antagonise anyone. That always led to bad things... for her. Still, she couldn't help but glance over at where Cindy was talking to someone. She was slightly curious about that. She felt that she never really knew what was going on between most of the people.

Ah well, she'd be able to talk to people more with time.

---

West Woodlake, Hedgemount

Rori had been awake for far too long. They had woken up early morning, even earlier than Max had to to get to work. They had put it down to part of their bird brain waking up to the sounds of birds outside. Or maybe it was old habits coming back. They had always slept with the sun cycle, waking when it rose, up until two years ago.

Still there was no tiredness that caffeine couldn't fix. They had stayed in bed until they had heard Max leave (late again) and then gotten out of the cocoon of blankets they were wrapped in. Soon coffee was being boiled. Max had left a note pinned to the fridge as she always did.

'Going out tonight, so be home for dinner. Try not to get into too many fights with other birds.'

Rori rolled their eyes. Max thought she was funny. She really wasn't. Still, Rori was glad for Max.

Humming slightly they filled up their mug (covered in birds, as loads of things they owned were) with coffee and drank it quickly. It was hot but they didn't mind. They wanted to leave the house soon. They had loads of plans for drawing today and not much time if they had to be back for whatever was happening tonight. Oh wait, yeah, that was it. The celebration!

There would be loads of people there. How exciting! Rori grinned to themselves as they went to grab their sketchbook and pencils. They made sure to grab their phone and a bit of money before leaving, and locking the house.

Now, where to go first?

---

Shizuka & Haruka Takashiro.

_{(@Mr Allen J and @FernStone)}

---

---

Outside Baybridge, 09:07 AM_

If there was one thing that Shizuka Takashiro hated about going on official trips, it would definitely be the long ass traveling time to get back to the US from the other end of the globe. Sure, the business class seats were a tad more spacious than those in the economy class, but who the hell wouldn't feel sore being stuck in the chair for twenty-over hours of boredom? Also, he really wanted to get out of this uncomfortable suit as soon as possible - he had pulled off the black blazer and threw it over to the empty seat beside him, and his navy-colored necktie was now hanging loosely around the unbuttoned collar of his white dress shirt. All the while completely oblivious to the flustered look from a young air stewardess when she walked past him - at how his tight-fitting shirt was literally plastered to his chest. He was a little amused whenever his requests were instantaneously answered by her, making him wonder if she was really that enthusiastic about her job.

Whatever. At least he would finally be back home.

The road journey from the airport to Baybridge was as uneventuful as the flight. The taxicab driver didn't seem to be in the mood to chit-chat with him (in fact, he would narrow his eyes at his brilliant white hair through the rear-view mirror from time to time), and the radio was too loud to hold a conversation... unless a shouting match was in order.

The mention of a very familiar name from the news caught his ears:


The reporter went on about the rogue incident that happened all over Prague and praised how the Metahuman agencies of American and Europe worked together to take down the Beast... and also earning herself a title.

The "Hero" of Prague.

Shizuka couldn't help but let out a small sigh. It had been seven long years since the Verthaven disaster and relocation of the survivors to Baybridge, a city on the northeastern end of America. Together with Meifeng and Cindy Keagan, the three of them had been recruited into RAVEN, but went on their separate ways to further pursue their area of expertise after the two years of basic training. Meifeng went on to make successful raids on various supervillain hideouts, Cindy realized her dream and became a DOVE pilot, and he was getting closer to become a pro recon sniper...

On top of being the liasion officer to get the Metahuman law enforcement groups in Asia to cooperate with DOVE and RAVEN. He did love to travel around, but all these troublesome trips weren't what he would call actual traveling. For one, he was mostly in either China or Japan; sometimes going as far down as Malaysia and Indonesia, but still Asia.

However, this wasn't the main reason for his sigh.

Occasionally he was sent to assist Meifeng in some of her raid operations, and what he saw in her was... disturbing.

He had seen her tattoos, he had heard rumors among the gossiping RAVENs - even from the equally concerned Cindy when they were catching up with each other at times. He could tell that the Devil incident had scarred the Chinese girl very deeply: the lost of her close friends, watching the friend's family being killed before her eyes, going through so much just to continue living on in this dark, twisted world.

Worse, she didn't appreciate his advice not to sink too deep into hatred. Since then he never spoke another word about her increasing brutality when dealing with criminal Metahumans - if she didn't even want to listen to her best friend Cindy, then obviously she had no reason to give a shit about whatever he, an outsider, would tell her. If he had to be honest, Meifeng was becoming more and more like her own mother - maybe even worse if she still didn't want to stop and hold back her bloodthirstiness.

And eventually lost sight of the most important things before her in her life right now.

The news went on to the opening of some community event in Silver Hills. Another familiar-sounding name: Meifeng's relatives company - the Lius - who also helped in the relocation of Verthaven survivors to Baybridge.

Jeez, how much have I missed when I'm only away for just a week?

The taxi pulled up before a small white cottage. He paid the sour-faced driver with exact fare (giving him a disarming smile to dare him to ask for tips) and got out of the car, which drove off in a cloud of black dust that nearly choked him. The house seemed quiet; he hadn't call his family about him being back today, hoping to give them a surp---

Hang on. A smirk crept up onto his face. He ignored the bell, and walked straight through the door. He placed his belongings quietly onto the sofa; there were some faint noises coming from the kitchen area, and soon the aroma of food was tickling his nose. He moved silently towards the kitchen.

Someone was standing at the stove, with his back facing Shizuka. The back figure of a person he knew by heart. Shizuka stepped forward and covered the eyes of the familiar person. "...Boo!"

The person turned around slowly; he shared the same facial feature as himself - except for the hair color and glasses. Haruka Takashiro froze at the sight of his younger twin standing before him. "S-Shizu? When did you come back?" He gave his brother a warm hug.

"Just today morning," Shizuka replied in their native tongue, returning the embrace. "I know that Holly's at the HQ, but where's Akemi?"

"She is already at the market," Haruka said, releasing the white-haired counterpart. "Welcome back."

"Yeah," Shizuka breathed, giving his elder twin a playful punch on the shoulder. "I'm back, dear brother."

Then, the smell of burnt food made the two boys turned their attention to the bacons in the pan.

"...Ah."

... ...

The twins sat down in the living room, the breakfast filled up the small coffee table in the middle (still edible, just black around the edges).

"So," Haruka began, eyeing Shizuka's fitting suit with a raised eyebrow. "The China trip must have been... tough."

"It's a nightmare." Shizuka let out an irritated tch, tugging on his collar with a finger. "As you can see, that old geezer even went as far as getting a specially tailored suit for me so that I could bring his spoiled little princess out on a 'date'." He then rolled his eyes, and stuffed the rest of his bacon into his mouth before he pulled out his mobile and switched it on.

That made both of Haruka's eyebrows go up. "And how did it go?"

Before Shizuka could reply, the phone in his hand suddenly buzzed, almost falling out of his fingers. He picked up the call. "Hel--- Oh, Holly. Yeah, I just arrived and I'm with Haru at the mo'... Huh, okay."

"...What's wrong?" Haruka finally asked when Shizuka ended the phone call.

Shizuka put down his mobile before he responded to his twin's curious look. "Holly says her green friends told her that... Mei's already back in town."

"I have heard about her on the news. Something about saving Prague from some Metahuman called the Beast with the European authorities..."

Shizuka downed the rest of his eggs and stood up, muttering, "That's not the only thing..." He then spoke louder, rubbing the back of his neck. "God damn it. Sorry bro, but I need to drop by the HQ."

"Ah, all right." Haruka watched his silver-haired twin putting the black blazer back on. "Your bike is in the garage---"

"Got it." Shizuka cut his brother off and gave him a lazy wave. "I'll try to be back in time for lunch - I hope." Couldn't they at least give him a day off after he just came back from a tiring business trip?

---

DOVE/RAVEN Joint Headquarters, White Coast_

This was the first time Shizuka drove to the Headquarters on his motorbike (which was normally reserved for trips unrelated to work). After he had parked his vehicle, he walked up to the front door of the building, passed the security check, and was soon on his way up.

Holly said she would meet him in the break room, but he wasn't expecting to see so many other people around. Most of them unfamiliar to him (well, he was often away to entertain those stuck-up big boys in Asia). Except for two.

He walked over and was about to call out to Cindy and Scarlet when he accidentally knocked into someone's legs. Looking down, his dark eyes fell onto a brown-haired Caucasian female. "Sorry." He frowned at her, unable to recall who she was - he had the feeling that he might have seen her somewhere before, but shrugged in the end and gave her an apologetic smile. "Do you know what's going on here?"

...He had also forgotten to change out of his stupid, expensive-looking biz suit.

Ellen was not in a good mood. It may have something to do with sleeping for eighteen hours the previous night or the anticlimactic ending to the book she’d just finished. Or it might have something to do with the fact that her eyes were now the size of grapefruits and she kept experiencing a powerful urge to leap at every bird that she spotted flying past. She was wearing a large sun hat, and felt all the more stupid for it, but when she’d opened the blinds this morning she’d physically recoiled from the sudden sunlight. A quick google had revealed the fact that she’d apparently developed animal physiology this time around, Tarsier to be specific. They couldn’t even be called cute, the thing looked like a Koala Bear with a serious meth habit. At least she’d managed to avoid fur this time around, a year ago she’d developed abilities clearly derived from a naked mole rat, white, hairless skin and all.

None of this was helped by the fact that she hadn’t eaten yet, and was late, the Academy mostly dealt with the fact that she had no control over her sleeping patterns, but she still somehow received glares when she wandered into lessons late after the weekend. With these eyes she’d probably receive a few sniggers as well. She stopped by the cafeteria, they’d stopped serving breakfast, but the staff would usually have something saved for her when she’d had a long hibernation. They’d spotted her coming in, and already Miss Judy was bustling over with a tray. Ellen’s mouth began to water as the scent of bacon reached her nostrils.

“You’re in luck deary, we did extra bacon this morning so there’s plenty left.”

She slapped the tray onto one of the tables near the kitchen hatch. The plate was stacked high with crispy strips, with a slice of toast and a banana on the side as if as an after-thought. Sitting, Ellen sipped orange juice from the plastic glass on the side of the tray, before tucking into the pile of bacon, pausing only to mumble a muffled thank you.

“Mmmfff Fank you…”

The plump older lady smiled kindly, as one could imagine a granny might, and truly Miss Judy was about as granny as granny’s come, she had six grand-children, ranging from twenty-two to eight, and Ellen had seen pictures of all of them. Her youngest had moved away with their parents a few years ago though, and with the eldest too old now to be visiting all the time she seemed to have adopted Ellen as her newest project for feeding up. Not that Ellen was complaining as she devoured the bacon with the fever of a man dying of starvation.

“Just let us know if you need anything else deary, you need feeding up…”

Ellen scarfed down the rest of the bacon and shoved the banana into the pocket of her hoodie. She clamped her teeth down on the toast as she took the tray to the window, then, removing it explained, “sorry Miss Judy, I’m already late, should have been in class twenty minutes ago. Thanks though!”

This gratitude was hurled over her shoulder as she jogged out of the cafeteria, munching on the toast as she hurried to her lesson, it was calculus, she wouldn’t have her scheduled power assessment till this afternoon, so there would be no training regarding that until after that session anyway. As she’d expected, her teacher scowled as she entered the class late, but then he scowled if she was early so there probably wasn’t a lot she could do, maybe moody Mather’s, as he was known, was just stuck like that. She supposed that was where the name had come from in the first place. She didn’t speak, or react to the sniggers, simply sitting down and opening her bag, craning her neck to hunt within for her calculus book.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Alice had her head in her locker when she heard the patter of wet feet behind her, she turned slightly, only to catch sight of the naked, flashing form of Cindy Keagan rushing to her locker and back. She smirked, but turned her head away to grab her own stuff out of the locker. It felt good to be clean, she’d had a physical assessment this morning, and it had left her soaked in sweat. Washing that thin layer of sweat off her skin had been a glorious experience. She dressed a little awkwardly, doing her best to do so without flashing the whole locker room, not that anyone had seemed to care that much about Cindy, but Alice didn’t particularly want to follow suit.

She’d been in Baybridge for three weeks, and that it had been filled with inductions, assessments, and paperwork, hardly a riveting first few weeks, but she had requested an immediate transfer. Apparently some of her records had disappeared in the process, or at least been misplaced, and rather than wait for them to come through she’d just agreed to be reassessed. She’d rather be working now than sitting on her ass at home, dwelling on her own thoughts.

She pulled the rosary from the locker and rubbed it between her fingers thoughtfully, before dropping it into a pocket. Religion was not dead in the world, but she didn’t know a lot of people with faith. She could understand that, it was difficult sometimes for her to hold onto hers, and not just for personal reasons, when metahumans like the Devil could surface it could be easy to think that there was no God. Alice could only believe that for every Meta who abused their abilities there would be one created to oppose them, to fight for those who couldn’t. Some would call her naïve, but her faith brought her some comfort.

There was an urgent buzz, and she scooped up her phone from the bottom of the locker and glanced at the caller idea. She glared at it for a moment, before declining the call and slipping the phone into the sheath on her belt, followed by the Glock 18c she carried on duty.

Alice was hungry, well, she was always hungry, but right now she needed more than the break room vending machines could provide, so she detoured to the cafeteria on the way, grabbing a couple of sandwiches. She’d already finished one by the time she got into the break room. She spotted Cindy across the room, and was about to head over when she realised she was deep in conversation with another DOVE. She recognised her vaguely, Scarlet something, she’d lost a brother in the Verthaven disaster. Alice imagined that things were hard for her right now, what with the reports about Prague all over the news, it must be dredging up old memories. Not wanting to interrupt, she just caught Cindy’s eye and waved, before vanishing from the spot she was in and appearing a few inches above the sofa, collapsing onto it with a relieved groan.

“Wow… someone run over your puppy or something, you look about ready to kill…”

Alice didn’t know Max that well, she’d only got an impression that Cindy had misgivings about her, but Alice wasn’t the kind to take on other’s preconceptions. Not that Max was presenting herself that well right now, giving dark looks to the agents around the room, most of whom Alice was on good terms with. She inhaled half of her second sandwich.

“Late night?”

Oakdell Harbor, White Coast

Archie was seated on a bench somewhere along the boardwalk. He had his backpack open and the impossibly spaced bag opened up inside. He was reaching his arm down, seemingly attempting to grab something, and then out came a small black device with a thick plastic antenna on it. Looked like some kind of wifi router. He gave it a look before setting it aside and taking out his phone. He opened up an application that he'd probably gotten more use out of then literally every other person who's ever bought it - text to speech. He set the voice to TTS Mike, speed modifier at zero, and with the unnaturally dextrous fingers of his right hand, he began typing.

"Got it. Hey, how about you join me for a walk up here?"

And the bag - or whoever was in it - replied, "O-okay."

Archie got up from his seat and pulled the bag out a bit, held it up opening-outward, as wide as it was allowed. And out stepped the strangest young man you ever did see - skinny frame, colorless complexion, and an assortment of metal bits scattered about his noggin. Archie's premium buddy of seven years, Harmon Rottlage. Just climbed right on out of his backpack like any normal friend would. A few passing boardwalk-goers looked on in confusion, but Archie simply waved to them as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

Harmon looked around with the camera of his own cellular telephone, mouth slightly more agape than usual. He turned and put his hands on the wooden railing, looking out at the waters and beaches, all very much being occupied by the public. Harmon took in a breath of fresh air. "It's... it's nice." He commented softly.

"I know. Probably the best-looking hotspot in the US of A at this point. Sunny skies and friendly faces." Archie replied, with his phone. He walked up to Harmon and held up the device from earlier, still connected by a blue wire running i to the bag. "This thing working?"

"Yeah, i-it is." Harmon replied, "I can see everyone using their phones and laptops now."

"Excellent."

Here's the thing - non-Euclidean folds in the fabric of reality tend to suffer from cuts in satellite ranges, which means no internet. For a lot of people, that basically means all hope is lost. So sometime ago, Harmon remedied the situation by cooking up a little signal-receiving device. Running from the outside into a system of routers on the inside, wifi signals could squeeze through and get properly jumped on by the folks inside Archie's bag of wonders. Back then, that definitely put Harmon on some peoples' friend lists - shame he failed to see the merit in social media and never used any of its available outlets. Chances are he'd be somewhat popular

Archie pinned the device to a clip on his backpack, poised and free to pick up any available signals. Harmon was always on standby to fix any problems that arose. "Y-you sure no one's going to... steal it?" Harmon asked, walking beside Archie as the two headed further along the boardwalk.

"If they do, you and I will go on the wildest adventure to get it back. We'll end up finding out the whole thing runs deeper than we thought, and we'll have to infiltrate the underground crime ring of Baybridge, beat the crap out of some Russians, jump through the air with two guns each, disable the bomb, secure the antidote for the virus, and save Christmas. In theaters next month in 3D IMAX sweet Dolby surround sound supreme."

Harmon just shook his head, wheezing a bit in amusement. Archie slung his arm over his buddy's shoulder, and they kept on marching forth.

Starrybank

These days, it was either working or sleeping.

Garrett was no workaholic. He knew how to have fun. However, he kept finding himself working on Sunday mornings to cover the shifts of those who were still sleeping their hangovers off. Not that he needed the money either. The Society paid well, even when he worked fully-clothed. It was probably the paranoia. He was still adjusting to Baybridge, still learning its streets and its shadows, making friends with its monsters. Moreover, he was no stranger to the party scene. He grew up in Highroller Height for God’s sake; there was nothing to do there but party. Missing just a few wouldn’t kill him.

After slipping into fresh uniform and donning a hoodie over them, he left the tiny top-floor apartment in Springview and caught a bus toward Starrybank. He could afford a better place, but all things considered, he actually preferred this one. The sheer number of angry, meth-addled gun-totting maniacs in the lower floors would make even the most hardened robbers or curious individuals turn tail, and they kept out of his place thanks to a small monthly fee to the landlord. There might not be any kind old lady with a cookie tray, but it wasn’t such a horrible place to live. He might even consider a long term lease. But those were thoughts for the future. Garrett preferred to focus on the here and now. He could deal with things better that way.

Before he knew it, the bus dropped him off at the usual stop and he walked to last few feet to his workplace. Normally, he didn’t work the morning shifts. Beside catering to folks with a taste for luxury, hotel where he worked also accommodating functions and providing certain services, though those were not for everyone. You had to know what to ask for. He worked at the front desk most of the time, though there were also times when he had to cover for the bartender. The strippers went missing from time to time as well, especially when Auri was around, but he probably wouldn’t cover for them. Auri did mention once that his mug wasn’t pretty enough to be twirling on those poles. That suited him just fine. Though speaking of his boss, she should be around at this time. He glanced at the clock on his desk, then took out his phone. Tactfully as ever, he didn’t call her, but instead left a text. He figured the party last night must have done a number on her.

With practiced ease, he typed out the text one-handedly- “Miss Auclair, the liquor shipment has arrived this morning. We need your signature to finalize the deal. It would be great if you can make it before noon. Ps: The club called. They wanted miss Bellasquez back.”

Once done, he stuffed the phone back into his back pocket and spent the first twenty minutes of his shift fooling around. It was a rather slow morning. So he switched on the work computer and began surfing the Internet. He liked to be informed about world events lately, especially since relations between powered folks and normal ones had really gone south.

---

Lihua Zhao, & Meifeng Zhao

---

---

Greencrest Heights, White Coast.

The motorcycle came to a stop in front of a nice two story house with blue painted sliding.

Meifeng came off the motorcycle, with a dufflebag slung over her shoulder. It's been so long since she's been here. She's been away for like five years, making sure that the people responsible for the Verthaven disaster are brought to justice. All while keeping bastards like the Allegiance and the Pure at bay. She's walked many cities, and it looks like it ends here. At least until she's transferred to a different city, of course. For now, she was going to enjoy Baybridge for all it's worth. All of her friends are here anyway... and more than just them.

Letting out a sigh, Meifeng put her helmet on her motorcycle and stood tall. She took careful steps towards her mother's house. She slowly came to a stop at the door. She kept telling herself that it's been years since she's been here - and everyone she called family and friends certainly have changed a lot. She let out another sigh, before she rang the doorbell, and mentally prepared herself.

Two sets of footsteps - one much slower and deliberate than the other - quickly approached the door, and it opened to reveal Lihua Zhao, standing tall and proud wearing a black blouse and a long and modest skirt. Her usual earrings, and bracelets. She held the door open wide as she gave Meifeng a smile.

"... Big sis!" Lijuan said with a child-like smile on her face, as she ran right on past Lihua and ran right for Lijuan. She had her arms out for a great big hug, and she embraced her sister.

"Lijuan, you've grown a lot." Meifeng said to her as she picked her up, holding her up in the air like it was nothing. She patted her sister on the back a little bit before she put Lijuan down. Lijuan smiled at her.

"It's great to see you again, Meifeng." Lihua cordially said.

"It's good to be back." Meifeng said as she.

"Are you going to stay this time?" Lijuan asked with an excitement in her eyes.

Meifeng looked at her and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm going to be here for awhile." Meifeng cordially said to her.

"Aaaaah!" Lijuan said as she briefly hugged Meifeng's's leg

"In fact..." Meifeng trailed off as she smiled as she knelt down a bit, and then put her hand on Lijuan's head, and started ruffing her hand through it. "I'm going to spend the entire day with the two of you."

"Oh?" Lihua said, pleasantly surprised. "You're not going to run by RAVEN headquarters and catch up with your friends?"

Meifeng was silent for a moment as she looked at Lihua. "Nah, I don't have to resume duty until tomorrow - and they can wait." She then clapped her hands together. "So, anything going on?"

"Your uncle Jiao-Long is going to be throwing this great big celebration to opening...." Lihua sarcastically (And bitterly) said, before she realized that she was at least going to attempt to repair their decades old relationship. "... We'll be going."

"Good, it'll be the three of us." Meifeng put her hands on her hips. "We'll be enjoying this as a family."

"That's good."

"Now, how about we get some food? On me."

"... Lijuan and I just ate." Lihua said.

"Well, we can always get it later, then." Meifeng shrugged, she looked down at her outfit. "Now, did you throw out all my clothes? All my clothes are at the apartment with Cindy."

"No, I kept them, just in case." Lihua said. "Now, come in, come in - let's get inside already... we have much catching up to do."

The three stepped inside the Zhao household.

---

Cindy Gabrielle Keagan, & The Agents of DOVE/RAVEN.

_@tsukune

---

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast.

"... It was really good having this conversation with you." Scarlet said, smiling at Cindy.

"Anytime, anytime." Cindy said.

"So, are you going to the Strong Gold Community opening?" Scarlet asked.

"Yeah, yeah... I have to." Cindy said with a smile on her face. "I'm going to be one of the DOVE representatives there along with Deborah and Shannon."

"Oh?" Scarlet said.

"Yeah, working my ass off is starting to pay off." Cindy said with a smile. "I'm also going to be there to keep an eye on some of the Meta-kids... you just know there's going to be some there."

"I'm not sure if I'll go..." Scarlet said. "Yeah, it's for the best if I spend some time alone."

"That's cool." Cindy said, she leaned back in the chair, and looked around. There was the usual, Samson and Drake playing pool, acting like a pair of bros. Maxine walked into the room, and Cindy almost sneered. She kept her rather poor opinion of the girl to herself as she continued looking throughout the room. Alice also stepped into the room, and walked over to Max. Well, that's cool. Alice and Cindy got along, but Cindy wasn't a little girl anymore - she didn't want to judge Alice just because she talked to someone she didn't think too highly of.

"Ooooh." Cindy said when she noticed another person walking into the room. The one person she hasn't seen in awhile, and has been making waves in Asia. Shizuka Takashiro. The boy - now a man - that she fought alongside during the Verthaven disaster. Having the same old head of weird ass grey hair, and wearing a suit that did not look good on him. Of course, they have some catching up to do.

"I'll talk to you later - gotta catch up with Shizuka."

"Okay." Scarlet said, as she simply went back to enjoying her food.

Nodding her head, Cindy got up off the chair, and started walking over towards Shizuka - while he was currently talking to Alice and Max, she didn't mind. "Shiz-uka," Cindy called out to him starting off. "No offense, but while you do look good in that RAVEN armor, I can't say the same about suits." Cindy said with a smile.

"How ya' been? Heard you were the star of our little "exchange program?""

---

Auri Auclair

_@RedDusk

---

Strongriver Plaza, Hedgemount.

Right when Auri was about to finally catch some Z's, her phone buzzed and Auri let out a sharp screech of irritation as she swiped it.

The only reason why she was answering it was because it was likely business - and the Croquetaigne sisters would be on her ass if she decided to ignore business after getting a lecture about it. She looked at the screen, and saw that it was a text from Garret. One of her lovely employees. Auri could only see part of the text. She quickly punched in her password, and read the entire text.

Miss Auclair, the liquor shipment has arrived this morning. We need your signature to finalize the deal. It 
would be great if you can make it before noon. Ps: The club called. They wanted miss Bellasquez back.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuugh!" Auri loudly hissed. She just wanted to go sleep this hangover off. The God damn Society is always demanding something from her. She totally forgot about the shipment... and would have loved to hold off on it, but she has duties. It was like Viollette said; if she wants to keep enjoying the privileges of the Society - the money, the women, the men, and the parties - she'll have to start pulling her weight. Only thing was that she didn't want to start pulling her weight while dealing with a hangover.

Actually, after signing this deal, she can just go right back to her apartment, and go the hell to sleep.

Instead of texting Garrett back, she flopped out of the bed - she was completely nude, she would have to fix that - and punched in his number as she dug through her closet.

Once Garrett answered, Auri quickly greeted him with a,

"Bonjour, Garret," Auri said in French (Though, it was half-French technically), and it was clear that she was groggy, and no where near her best. "Thank you for informing me of the shipment, I will be there very, very, soon." Auri said in heavily accented English, as she quickly grabbed a dress and stepped into it. She didn't bother taking a shower since she just wanted to show up there and head back.

"I will be there to sign the papers shortly - very shortly." Only problem was that Strongbridge Plaza was far away from Starrybank - like on the other side of the God damn city. It would going to be at least half an hour... half an hour inside a dirty cab. Ugh. She wondered if she could get one of the girls to drive her there in exchange for a raise. "Just hold on, s'il vous plait?"

Auri stepped out the door... her dress lazily put on. Her White Spider Society tattoo was fully exposed, and not that it didn't matter, but... she usually keeps it hidden unless she's with the Society. She felt like she was forgetting something.

"... And, yes. Mademoiselle Lupe is heading back to the club now. I've had my fun with her."

_{@Nosuchthing@tsukune@Mr Allen J}

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters, White Coast

Max had just about began to relax. Well, to a degree. Annoying thoughts kept on crossing her mind causing a grumpy look to cross her features. The tiredness that was beginning to set in didn't help at all. Damn Rori and her weird sleep cycles that included very little sleep.

Even with the annoying thoughts it was some kind of relaxation. And then someone when an interrupted it. She frowned, glaring up at whoever had managed to knock into her legs. She recognised him, the white hair being quite unique, but couldn't put a name to a face (and he was wearing some expensive suit, was he even an agent here?). She hadn't talk to him then.

Taking a slow breath she stopped glaring. Best not to piss off someone who she hardly knew. "It's fine." She paused, shrugging slightly. "No idea. Probably better to ask someone else, I'll be no help there." It took a lot to not make some kind of sarcastic comment. Like she would know what was going on. She was just here for a break. She hadn't quite gained the trust of anyone enough to be told things. She understood it, though. These things take time. And she had pissed off a few people...

Max jumped as suddenly there was someone else sitting next to her. Alice, if she remembered correctly. She hadn't been here for too long (in fact had been here less time than Max, quite a feat). She just about stopped herself from fixing Alice with the glare she'd been giving out to just about everyone else. This getting on with people thing was difficult. She should really ask Rori for advice... they always seemed to know how to make friends.

"Unfortunately I don't have a puppy," Max sighed, attempting a smile. "But yes, good guess. Kept up late by an energetic seventeen year old who wanted to watch movies but didn't want to do it alone. I thought teenagers were supposed to like sleeping!" She groaned. Not that she was much older than Rori. "Paperwork doesn't help with tiredness either." Nor did getting more of it due to tardiness. As she spoke her phone silently vibrated. Looking at who the message was from she made a face and put her phone back away. She only responded to texts when at work if it was Rori. That person? No way she was responding to him. To make matters work Cindy headed over in their direction. Thankfully it was to talk to the white haired man that had bumped into Max. Max did her best to ignore the DOVE agent.

She glanced back at Alice. "You look more awake than I am. You do something more fun than paperwork this morning?"

Though she’d only caught the tail end of Max’s conversation with the tall, white haired agent, Alice was beginning to understand why. She seemed to have a mostly abrasive personality, still, Alice had a lot of time for people, and she hardly knew her, so she would at least give Max the chance to destroy Alice’s opinion of her all by herself.

“Surely that’s fortunate? If it means the poor thing hasn’t been run over?”

Alice was smirking, clearly it was intended as a joke. She shrugged non-committally, “I’m pretty sure they only like sleeping cause they were up too late the night before, anyway, isn’t seventeen a bit young for you?”

She raised an amused eyebrow, then grimaced at the other agent’s return question, “I guess you could say it’s more fun, certainly got my blood pumping.”

At Max’s look of incomprehension she continued. “I had to re-run my physical assessment, half of my files seem to have been lost when I transferred, so I have some stuff to catch up on before I’m on active duty.”

She scowled, “I feel you about the paperwork, I’d rather be out and doing something, but the sooner I get it all out the way the sooner I get out there.”

Max at least seemed to be making an effort to be friendly with Alice, or at least not outwardly hostile. It was a relief, she’d always made friends easily but she had still worried a little about the new city. Cindy had been the most friendly, even though Alice had been distracted, and she resolved to make sure she paid a little more attention, made more of an effort. She felt guilty that she’d had her mind on other things instead of making an effort with the person who’d made the most effort with her.

Cindy had walked over by this point, and was talking to the tall white haired agent, and Alice did her best to catch her eye, giving her a smile of greeting, before standing to introduce herself to the guy. Though she paused to wait for a gap in the conversation, not wanting to interrupt...

---

There was no shortage of red traffic lights this morning – a motorcyclist was hitting every single one the moment they were halfway down the blocks. Coming from the south entrance of the city, cutting through country roads in between farm fields, their first stop was supposed to be in the northern end of the city in the Silver Hills district. It was either this or going far east and then around the big lake. Where this person wanted to go, they had to be patient, though that reservoir is running low as it is. They throttled the gas a couple times in waiting for the green light. It took half a minute before the light turned, and the motorcycle immediately growled and grumbled before taking off down the road. It was a Kraus brand – most of the working parts were visible beneath the seat, and exhaust was pouring out the tail end like a locomotive.

Rumor around town was that some big wig was hosting an opening ceremony for this residential district up north, some kind of party or something, and the plan was to do a bit of scouting before hand, to see what the place was like. There was just one problem...

The cyclist came to another stop at an intersection, the red glow of the traffic light reflected of the rider's helmet. In frustration, they quickly undid the straps and pulled off their helmet. A plume of short natural red hair flashed and the face of a frustrated young woman appeared from underneath. She took a deep sighed and combed her fingers through her curly faux hawk

“Every God damn stop light...” She grumbled. She savored the moment while she could, for a breeze to cool down her face. She looked behind her at the black exhaust fuming out and shook her head. If only Mia was here, she could get a thing like this running smooth in no time. This wasn't the first case of her bike's fuel-pressure regulator going bad. She put the helmet back on. In just a few more moments, the light came back on, and off she went again.

…

It was a matter of time until her bike rolled onto the property, and, well, woo-ooo – hoo, boy, wasn't it something she was not expecting. Silver Hills was a much fancier place than she was anticipating, and the new Strong Gold place, while supposed to be a fairly cheap place to be living, holding up to the north standard for the most part. Were these people going to be wearing suits or something? She thought this was going to be a community celebration.

Still, no reason she can't just crash the place. Surely not everyone in town owned a suit – and surely, there was no reason she can't do a bit of exploring around the place before it actually opened! The redhead parked her bike in the lot, and stuffed the key in her pocket. She craned her neck around, eyeballing the caterers working hard to organize the event for this evening. As she stood around, waiting, she stretched her body after a long day of driving, until nobody around had eyes on her. The redhead bailed, running into the newly developed neighborhood.

It was a little strange seeing an entire neighborhood with no cars, ornaments, or people. It was like one of those nuclear test sites where everything is the same and everything is fucking empty. The houses were supposed to be cheap, she heard, but they looked okay. She wondered what the insides were like. Creeping behind a line of bushes, and she stepped onto the porch of one of the houses and fiddled around with it. Doors locked, windows secured. Damn. She looked around the building some more and thought carefully. Maybe the second story had a way in. The girl held onto the post on the patio and placed her boot against the side of the house. With a jump, she kicked herself off of the house and pulled herself up from the post, then throwing her hand over the edge of patio roof, finally pulling herself up on top of it. The rest was as easy as carefully stepping on top of the actual house and carefully walking up its slanted roof.

Now to see if this was any better than... oh. The window pane fit very loosely in the frame of this one. So loosely, this could be popped off as easy as pie. She did just that, and soon found herself inside the house's bathroom, her boots hitting the vinyl flooring. Maybe this is one of the reasons the houses are cheap. With drafts like these, she wondered what kind of bills they'd be paying for heating.

Huh. It's been a long day.

She lifted up the toilet lid curiously, but to her dismay, no water. Of course, what was she thinking? Then again...

Who would know?

Arianna

---

---

Somewhere in Baybridge

Throughout your life, one will grow up and live under a certain set of moral rules. A code, per say. Something that you can allow yourself to operate under.

Elliot Turiel or Lawrence Kohlberg defined moral reasoning as being the process in which an individual tries to determine the difference between what is right and what is wrong in a personal situation by using logic.

At least, that's what the library books said.

Some philosophers claim that humans will naturally fall under one alignment. Thomas Hobbes claimed that humans were poor, nasty, and brutish. In contrast, Jacques Rousseau claimed that humans were born free, and noble.

Arianna related more of Rousseau, but saw a lot of value in Hobbes' ideology as well. From an experimental theology standpoint, she has concluded that humans were... noble savages.

When she was younger she remembered the feeling in her stomach that she got when she did something that she knew was wrong. She would get it when she went into an area that she knew she wasn't supposed to be in, or took something that wasn't hers to take.

The feeling made her uneasy and nervous at first, but she kept bringing it upon herself. And she kept bringing it upon herself because that feeling became thrilling.

The planning, the acting, the escape, it all made her heart race. She loved every moment of it. It was like a high, and boy did she chase it.

Especially when the high began to go away.

One of her largest crime sprees occurred when she felt her heart and it was no longer beating out of her chest. She was young, and inexperienced. She was caught and she escaped.

Mother dearest always seemed to enjoy herself. She always had fun getting caught up in the strings that were other people' lives. Some morbid part of her had always enjoyed playing with people. That's where they diverged in ideals. She had always had difficulty forming meaningful relationships and all things considered, she didn't have many friends. Her mother on the other hand was a social butterfly that could likely befriend a brick wall, even if the whole relationship would be founded on manipulation. She preferred to fake it, and to avoid getting attached to people. She couldn't find it in herself to manipulate one's emotions. There were better ways to get what she wanted.

She liked to accredit it to a greater adaptability. As she thought of it- Youth and treachery will always beat old age and exuberance. She was smarter than her mother before her, that much was undebatable. Because of it she considered herself stronger as well. Her power was limited most by her ability to think.

But she did love her mother, even if they hadn't seen one another in a while. Even if they had Her mother had helped her create a code to live by.

Don't hurt anyone, unless absolutely necessary.

Think your way into and out of situations.

And most importantly...

Don't get caught.

---

---

---

---

Compared to most people, Ari lived a fairly good life. Unorthodox, but she couldn't see herself settling down for any reason. So she was happy with her lifestyle. She held no regrets.

She spent most of her time in motels these days. It was easier, and less risky than changing cars every week and sleeping in parking lots. Police officers could and have arrested her for loitering before. Usually they end up taking her in to a station thinking she was under the influence. It was easy to escape though. Usually she just allowed herself to become gaseous and escape though the AC units of the cars or hide under the seat. But then it meant a long walk back to... Wherever. And it often wasn't worth the trouble of buying a new car when one had to walk to the dealership.

So she started renting motel rooms to act as her base of operations. It wasn't difficult. She often disguised herself as some businessman- and no one questioned it. She had learned that when she had to speak, short, terse sentences work best. They might seem rude, but are often perfectly acceptable. Plus, it turns out that, with a few notable exceptions, most people just didn't care what she had to say anyway. This aspect of human nature made it easier to remain anonymous. Especially if no one gave her a second glance.

Her best performances however, have been complex. Once, a few years ago, she spent several days teaching herself basic Spanish to acquire an entry level job at a jewelry store. She spent two weeks making friends at her newfound job- and waited until she was invited to a get together. She had learned the hard way that all of her appearances belonged to people- so she knew that she needed to be careful, as to not ruin a person's life.

She divided her mass, and stole half a million dollars in jewelry disguised as a large man in a ski mask, while having beers at a bar at the same time miles away. When interviewed, her disguise had the perfect alibi, and with all the drama it was understandable that her disguise quit her job. The authorities were left scratching their heads and none the wiser. The best part, though? No one was hurt.

Currently she was sitting at the coffee table in her room, with a large piece of drafting paper rolled out across it. She had done a good deal of research on the building that her target was hosting the party in. She wanted to know the Strong Gold's floor plan, inside and out. She was efficient, and she wanted to get the job done as smoothly as possible.

Jiao-Long Liu, one of the richer folk in the city, was going to be hosting a party that was open to the public. Normally she'd turn a blind eye to such a high class event- as the spotlight shined a bit too bright on them. There was often too much suspicion. While she had hit them before, oftentimes there wasn't a whole lot of bang for the buck when it came to preparation time versus profit. But, this party was open to the public, and there would be just enough confusion to make it worth it. Because Jiao-Long Liu was a higher class individual, planning the heist was key for success.

She took a look out the window next to her and checked the time on her watch, which was quite possibly the only article of clothing that wasn't part of her. The party would be soon. She reached into her pocket and ejected one of the seventeen flip phones she had on her at all times.

The most important rule she had was never get caught. And she intended to follow that commandment to the letter.

She had long since memorized the numbers that she used frequently. The first belonged to an eccentric and strange man that went by the name of Archie Davis. Back in the days when NEST was still a functioning organization, she had done some research on people that were in her area at the time while disguised and acting (very convincingly too) as a NEST agent. She was looking for people that she could use. Archie's specific power-set would be perfect get-away vehicle, and when she read that he had been getting into trouble for missing meetings and saw notes of potential kidnapping charges, she knew that he was her golden ticket.

It hadn't been easy finding him at first, but once she did it didn't take much convincing. Playing him, or the people that had disappeared (who were often in the Microcosm) to prove his innocence was simple enough. Eventually, a partnership was founded upon the basis of 'You scratch my back, I scratch yours.'

She typed in Archie's number from memory, and sent him a text. She waited another minute for him to respond. He was usually fairly good about replying within a few minutes.



Now that her getaway was secured, it was time to move into the next stage of planning. One of the most important things about pulling a heist was establishing a relationship, or a voucher per say. Ari has found in her years of thievery that if you have someone of equal or higher class than the target to vouch for you, oftentimes the victim's energy will be diverted into the next most likely canidate.

The White Spider Society was nothing she was afraid or, or a stranger to. In fact, due to her ability they had taken a distinct interest in her. It had taken them years and likely had cost a fortune for them to find her, fortunately for the Spider Society- they had both.

When the Spider Society came to her she had been surprised they found her, and has since upped the ante. But, she doesn't regret this particular instance. Auri Auclair was one of the most important people within the Society, and fortunately for Ari, a friend. With her status, she would likely be attending the party. She was an opportunist- and if this was a chance to make her life easier, she was going to take it.

Ari's rule of 'Dont get caught' had her do many things to remove any chance of suspicion. Having multiple phones often allowed her to circumvent any form of tracking. She personally had a rule to never contanct two people on the same phone. So, she stuffed her phone into her pocket, pulling it into her body for storage, and pulled out another phone.



So, now she had a voucher. She didn't know she was a voucher, but showing up in the same group as The Spider Society would definitely demand respect from the higher ups, and make them think twice before considering her as the thief should things go south. It would make her life so much easier.

She set her phone down, planning on maybe texting Auri again in a few minutes purely to be friendly, when she felt another phone vibrate. She squinted her eyes, and pulled a flip phone out of her back pocket. It was on it's last legs, but it was the only phone she kept.



Ari set down the older phone and stared at it for several minutes. She hadn't spoken with her mother in... she couldn't even remember it had been so long. She supposed that was normal given the powers they had the the jobs they did, but she had always kept the phone her mother had given her in case contact could be made. Oftentimes it wasn't, but Ari had refused to give up hope in her mother.

She sniffled, and rubbed her eye so it wasn't glassy anymore, and decided that tonight, she was going to be a ghost in the crowd.

She was going to do her momma proud, even if she didn't know it.

Oakdell Harbor, White Coast

"I could use, uh... a water, Archie." Harmon piped up, as they were walking. "Alright." Archie replied with his phone, scanning the lines of establishments near them. Archie pointed out a random junk food cart and made his way towards it with Harmon in tow. They approached the clerk, who was looking away. He turned his head to face the two and, understandably, jumped a bit. Mainly, he was focused on Harmon.

"Woah! Jesus Christ, are you okay?"

"I-I'm sorry?" Harmon replied.

"Your head! There's huge pieces of fuckin'- shrapnel in it!"

"Oh, oh, no, that's- that's part, o-of me. I'm okay, really."

The clerk sighed, half out of relief and half out of confusion. "Freakin' metas, man..." He said, "I mean, no offense but-"

"You mind if we just get a water?" Archie interjected, "For him."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, okay. Fifty cents."

...

Afterwards, the two were seated on a bench facing away from the beach, Harmon enjoying his water sip by sip. Archie was scanning the districts of Baybridge he could see in the distance. "It seems like the best we're gonna get, Harmon." He typed out and sounded, "Last place in the country at least."

"Do you really still want to make people leave?" Harmon asked, turning his camera towards Archie.

"Don't make it sound so harsh." Archie replied, "I just want everyone to have the best lives they can get. I like having people in the Microcosm, and if they don't want to leave, they don't have to. But some of them don't-"

At the moment, a text message notification popped up. From...

Oh, boy.


Archie paused for a moment. Harmon looked at him questioningly. Archie raised his free hand and pointed to Harmon, simultaneously telling him, "Barricade. Right now." Harmon didn't hesitate, and focused his abilities on keeping Archie's phone, for lack of a drawn out and detail-laden description, "secure".

And the conversation went on.


Archie subsequently deleted the entire conversation from his phone. He motioned his head upward in something of a defeated expression. Harmon asked him, "What's wrong?" He could've very easily read the conversation mentally, but he respected Archie's privacy too much to do so. All he did was keep things classified.

"It's Ari."

"Oh..." Harmon replied, looking a little disappointed somehow. "Her..."

"I know you're not her biggest fan. But I do owe her a favor. Or several. I don't know, the imaginary scoreboard we have confuses me sometimes." He grabbed his backpack and stood up from the bench and continued, "She wants my help with something. I'll at least humor her by showing up to this party she mentioned. If I say yes, okay. If I say no, then hey, you and I can still enjoy a party."

"You're not going to say no." Harmon replied, standing up. "You never say no to her."

"Yeah. Probably." Archie replied, "Let's just find out where this Jowel-Hong Louie's shindig is. It'll make for a nice tour." And he once again began marching into the unknown.

"I don't want to do this..." Harmon said under his breath, getting up and following suit.

---

Quentin Taylor

---

---

Somewhere in Brookacres, White Coast.

The Ferryman's Tavern was nothing special to behold, yet another watering hole in Brookacres, typically frequented its disgruntled and impoverished denizens. Dotted around the counter were a cluster of stools in various states of repair whilst a TV crudely mounted to the wall gave people a hazy picture of whatever sports rerun was going on at the time. Tables and chairs were planted across the walls, surrounding a pool table with the classic emerald lampshades overhead. Right now, it was occupied by a small group of patrons - regulars by the looks of it, spectated by a stranger in the corner of the room.

"Shit, so you didn't hear 'bout Jim Campbell?" One of the scrawnier patrons had remarked as they took their shot. "What? Haven't seen that guy since Christmas." His opponent, a squat man in a lumberjack shirt, gave him a quizical gaze. "Yeah... 'bout that, he's dead."

"What?!" The squat man exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "Shit, what the fuck happened?"

"Murdered by a freak." Scrawny leaned towards his companion, his voice taking on a low tone, but the stranger in the corner could still just about pick it up. "And you'll never believe who - that boy of his. Yeah, that's what I said - Jim Campbell's boy turned out to be a freak who murdered him. His own blood."

"Jesus, fuckin' freaks everywhere. Dunno who to trust these days."

"Gotta watch out wherever you go."

"Say, weren't he married?"

"Hell with that bitch, Jim said it best himself - she's always been a fuckin' skank."

"And what happened to that little shit?"

"Beats me, fuckin' whitey birds came in and walked him off. Probably let him off with a warnin'... god-damned animals. It's bad enough those freaks are out there, nevermind being left in charge."

"Whatever," another patron butted in, "I see that little fuck, I'm gonna cave his little head in. Jim weren't no saint but he was one of ours and I'll spit on my old man's grave before I let pricks like him walk free."

The stranger decided that he'd heard enough, driving a palm into his knee to stand up, leaving behind a half-emptied beer bottle on the table. He'd no doubt that the Pure wouldn't have taken kindly to having him drinking in their midst.

Stepping out, he quickly took a left turn and then a left turn again, where a chainlink fence covered the relatively compact space that had been set aside for parking. As he'd expected, the pickup was still there - and intact, windows, wheels and all. It was a funny thing, really - Max had only intended to loan it to him for a few months, but he'd had gained a certain fondness for the former service pickup and when NEST's assets were finally sold off or transferred to the new DOVE/RAVEN initiative, he'd managed to strong-arm the new director into letting him keep it as an unmarked service vehicle. Instead of the official markings it held before, the pickup had been given a new coat a couple of years before, leaving it with a naval blue tone.

So it happened, Quentin was back in town for the first time in a while. It'd been a long time since he'd had a full assignment here, probably not since the first few months after the shitshow in Verthaven. After losing Cass. But that wasn't exactly his concern right now - RAVEN could wait a couple of hours longer. No, that honour went to a certain someone whom he'd not seen in a good while.

Climbing into the pickup, Quentin whipped out his phone and brought up a familiar name on the contact list.

---

Reed Taylor

---

---

DOVE Central Office

"Walter Price, aged twenty-seven," Reed spoke aloud from the file once more, before sighing as he uttered the next two words. "Registered Metahuman." As far as he was concerned, it had effectively confirmed any suspicions that the initial report had raised.

It was no coincidence, Reed had mused. Two other deaths within the same number of months, each with a similar MO. Both the victims had been found in the Starrybank district, each having last been seen enjoying the nightlife before their respective disappearances and autopsies had confirmed that both of them had been spiked, incidentally with the same drug that displayed a level of toxicity towards a very specific group within Baybridge's population. Metahumans

"Can I see the autopsy report, please?" He shot a look at one of the other agents searching through the folder, before they retrieved a freshly photocopied sheet of paper. Setting it on the table before him, Reed's inquisitive gaze quickly scanned across the report, before his eyes locked on the toxicity note.

Traces of 551 toxin found in system in addition to moderate alcohol levels.

That confirmed that Walter Price had been spiked, which probably explained why he hadn't put up much of a fight. Being able to manipulate air could've worked in his favour, yet somehow his killer had managed to garrote him to death and hide the body in an unlocked drainage opening, to be discovered two days later by a maintenance crew. The MO was too much of a coincidence to be anything else.

Serial killer.

Reed's lip curled at the thought. Time had taught him not to jump straight to the finish on matters like this, but his gut told him that something was off. And whoever the killer was, they were still out there - CCTV footage had only captured the late Mr. Price stumbling out of the Northern Star whilst any witnesses who had been near the scene of the crime were equally useless.

Running a palm down his face, Reed sighed and decided to get down to typing up his own report - along with his consensus on the matter. Three people had died in as many months because of this twisted bastard and with Anti and Pro-Metahuman sentiments stirring up left and right in the wake of the Beast's emergence in Prague, the timing couldn't have been worse. Reed wondered just how easy it could've been for his brother over in RAVEN - no worrying about the social or legal aspects of things, just getting things done. But then, that's where they'd differed - that's why he'd joined DOVE.

He worried about his older brother sometimes. Ever since Verthaven, well... sometimes it felt like only one of them had buried their uncle. He missed Cass, even now, and wished he could see just how his nephews had turned out - one going on to join a successful agency whilst the other had practically turned his life around. But Cass was gone, and all the retribution in the world wouldn't bring him back. Cindy had spoken a few times how she felt on that matter, how Meifeng had embraced and even gone beyond Quentin's zero-tolerance approach towards what was left of people like the Hands, but there was only so much that Reed could do beyond speaking up about it occasionally.

Soon enough the report was finished and Reed was just about ready to finish his day at the office when he felt his phone buzz. Bringing it up to eye-level, a smile quickly formed across his face as he saw the Caller ID.

---

Wendy Lucker, & Ellen Nile

---

Ellen had a free period, so was taking advantage of it in order to catch up on the class she had missed this morning. It wasn't anything important, just biology, but she was given slack in the expectation that she would catch up on work she missed out on thanks to her strange schedule. Sure, she could have done it at night, but the night was mostly her time. She could do what she wanted then, read, game, even just wander about the halls if she wanted to. Right now she was just trying to enjoy the weather and maybe be somewhat productive during it.

There were benches and picnic tables a little way outside of the mansion's immediate vicinity, perhaps forty feet from the front door. They were sheltered out of the wind in the lee of an enormous rock, right now the sun was cast upon them, so she expected there would be some heat there, the sun hat would shield her from the worst of the light, and she could still appreciate the warmth. She'd just stepped out towards the benches, moving awkwardly thanks to her elongated tarsus, when her vision was suddenly interrupted, her hat was knocked off and she raised her arms to protect herself from...

What the hell was it? She batted uselessly against the strangely yielding material, then yelped in surprise as she felt a sharp pain, like a paper...

She fought her way clear of the enveloping tornado of what she now realised were sheets of paper.

"Jesus... Wendy?"

---

Well, Wendy just decided to find her way out, and explore Baybridge.

For one, Wendy herself couldn't find Jade anywhere.

And she didn't have any classes on Saturday.

Which meant that Wendy had the entire day to herself. She could go out of her way to find any number of people, and perhaps spar someone, but she was in that picturesque mood. She stepped outside, and reached into that brown satchel of hers. She grabbed her camera and looked through the camera's eye. All she saw were woods. There wasn't anything new around these parts. Not anything that she already took a picture of. She figured that she'd take a brief walk around the Fair Crest Woods....

Wendy walked all the way to the edge of the mansion grounds. There was a drop right in front of her, with a concrete wall. She waited for a moment, and tried to sense the wind. The last thing that Wendy wanted to do was get blown away. There wasn't even the slightest breeze. Which meant that it was perfect weather for her.

Beginning with light steps, Wendy ran until she reached the edge of the wall, and jumped high up into the air. She eliminated her weight using her power to take the fluttering properties of paper almost instantly, which allowed her to use her momentum to go even further in the air. Once she had reached her apex, her skin started turning white as paper as it began to unfurl into a storm of several sheets of paper. Everything about Wendy started turning into paper slips, to her clothes, to her items. She just looked like she exploded into a cloud of paper.

Just how she described it in the message board; liberating.

She flew up towards the sky, and... Oh Jesus Christ!

A sense of panic overcame Wendy when she felt a sudden gust of wind appearing out of no where that utterly blew her paper form away. She barely got any time to react. All she saw was herself flying backwards at high speeds. If she had a mouth, she'd be screaming right now. She was unaware of why she didn't transform back on reflex, but everything happened so fast that she forgot.

While she was going back towards the Academy, she hit something and came to a stop...

---

After hitting said object, all the pieces of paper funneled into one solid form in the shape of Wendy.

"... Uuuuuuugh!" Wendy grunted in an unladylike tone the very second she had reformed. She grabbed her head in irritation, before she looked around just to confirm that everything was properly reformed (A recurring problem)... she saw that a few pieces of paper were fluttering about. The kind of paper that had writing on it. In other words, the kind of paper from one of her books.

Wendy immediately panicked as she telekinetically willed the paper into the air, as she opened her satchel, she placed it inside. She was going to arrange what goes where later. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that her books were okay.

Though, there was that black-haired girl that she hit.

"Ooooh! Um. Are you okay?" Wendy said as she stepped over to her. She knelt down, and offered the girl her hand. She got a good look at her, and reeled back a bit. "... Ellen?" She asked. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!"

Ellen scowled, she hadn't been entirely surprised by Wendy's dramatic reaction, but she wished she hadn't recoiled quite so obviously. Ellen was aware that her appearance was a little disturbing right now, though she'd long since stopped reacting to her new appearance in the mirror. About one out of every three metamorphoses she went through resulted in significant physical changes, so seeing something else when she went to the mirror was simply part and parcel in her life now. She clambered awkwardly back to her excessively large feet.

"Yeah. It's me."

Wendy knew that Ellen was the school... "Special case." The one person who got the most unique out of all the powers. Changing powers every week... it's something that Wendy herself would love to experience, to be frank. Wendy herself was a power replicator and was perfectly content with her paper manipulation. Though, she could somewhat understand why Ellen disliked her ability.

Ellen realised that she'd snapped, but didn't apologise. It wouldn't be the first time today she'd received strange looks. Even in a school for metahumans, those with physical transformations were not the norm, not fixed ones like this anyway.

"It's okay, no harm done..."

Wendy nodded her head.

Right now this was probably the closest to an apology that Wendy would be receiving, and Ellen's look dared her to expect more. She liked Wendy, she was in the library almost as often as Ellen, and Ellen had the feeling that she only spent more time there because she only slept once a week. They weren't exactly friends, Ellen was two years younger, and they both had friendship groups their own age, but they got on well enough.

She glanced upwards, well, craned her entire head upwards, thanks to the fact that her eyeballs were fixed in their sockets now, it felt weird not being able to move them. With a wry smile, her annoyance at Wendy forgotten, she joked, "I guess you failed the pilots exam then?"

"Sorry," Wendy apologized again. "You know I turn into paper, right?" She said. "Well... sometimes the wind just... blows me away." She followed that up with awkward laughter as she scratched the back of her neck. "I thought I was in the clear, but I just got blown back into the school, heh...."

"Yeah I know."

The words I wish it was mine went unspoken, and Ellen was thankful that her new physiology made her expressions hard to read. She smirked at the joke, "oh yeah, there's no escape, you never get away from this place."

She retrieved her hat from the ground, ramming it awkwardly back onto her head, already she was squinting from the bright sunlight, tarsiers lived in the lush, shaded rainforests of the Phillipines, they weren't exposed to direct sunlight all that often. Therefore, Ellen was susceptible to it.

"You headed out for the weekend?"

"Yeah... well, no. I'm just going out for a quick walk through the woods." Wendy quickly answered. She reached into her satchel, and pulled out her rather fancy camera... for a middle-class family. A canon powershot, in fact. She held it in both hands, showing it to Ellen. "I wonder if there's any shots I can take..."

Other than looking expensive, the camera meant nothing to Ellen, although the very suggestion of expense lead to obvious conclusions...

"Wow, that is a serious camera... I guess you're pretty good then?"

"Not really...." Wendy dishearteningly said as she raised the camera up into the air some more. "It's like, one hundred dollars... I kinda want to buy a new one - Oh! But, thank you anyway." She said with a wide smile on her face.

Ellen craned her neck around towards her bag, and back, it was meant to be a glance, but she was already getting used to having to move her entire head to look at anything. She hadn't thought about what it might be like to watch her head rotate like the girl's in 'The Exorcist'. "Mind if I tag along? I've got homework but I can just do it tonight..."

The question really threw Wendy off guard a bit. Since... no one really goes along with Wendy's "nature walks." In fact, usually the students here just ignore her, and let her do her own thing. Which suits Wendy just fine. "Well, um, I'm going to be going through the woods, and...." She was trying to dissuade Ellen at first, but she merely took in a deep breath.

It's what Diana said - I need to get out more.

"... Sure you can come along." Wendy said with a cheerful smile on her face. "You just gotta keep up, I'm pretty fast while in my paper form."

"Uh..." Ellen looked at her feet, now far too long to fit any of the shoes she owned.

"I think I can keep up, I haven't had my assessment yet, but I'm pretty sure that right now I love the woods..."

"C'mon, let's go then!" Wendy cheerfully said as she started running towards the gates of the Academy. Right when she reached it, she briefly exploded into paper slips that kept her momentum going - reforming into her usual shape on the other side. She kept running with her camera in hand, expecting Ellen to keep up with her.

Ellen hadn't expected Wendy to simply start running right then and there, so she was already ten feet behind her when the other girl simply exploded into dozens, if not hundreds of slips of paper, sleeting through the bars of the gate. Ellen picked up the pace, and a few feet shy of the gate crouched, pouring everything into her lower limbs before allowing it to explode.

She'd expected to reach the top of the gate. She hadn't expected to clear it by ten feet. She landed awkwardly on the other side, but had been quick witted enough to roll with it, before scrambling back to her feet and sprinting after Wendy. It was a somewhat haphazard gait, hampered by the extreme length of her tarsus, but she certainly seemed able to pump speed out of this form when she needed it.

The morning light barely pierced the treeline above them, Wendy was taking slow and deliberate steps. Her sneakers cracked a twig underneath her foot, and she stopped when she heard it echo throughout the dense forest. She looked over her shoulder... this forest always bought her a sense of joy and excitement. One that she wishes that she could share with the world.

Though, she realized that she was getting lost in the moment, and that she had a friend with her... a weird, friend, but still a friend.

"Oh! Um..." Wendy said, trying to look for a subject. "How are your classes going?" She asked, honestly at a loss of conversation.

This was probably the longest conversation the two had had, excepting those about the occasional book. It felt awkward now, it was the same question her mom always asked when she went home, and Ellen was always reminded of just how little they had in common now, much as she loved her.

It had turned out that she did like the woods after all, her modified limbs might be awkward for walking, but combined with her weirdly wiry fingers they made climbing and leaping from tree to tree childs play. She dropped down beside Wendy, having stayed close enough to maintain a conversation.

"They're ok I guess, just sucks I get classes on Saturdays, but I sleep at like 12:30 on Fridays so I have to make them up."

Ellen grimaced, an interesting expression on a face with eyes the size of grapefruits. "I just wish it didn't have to be calculus. I feel like I skipped right through school and straight to hell."

Wendy gently nodded her head. She was doing pretty good schoolwise - being a scholar makes that easy. Still, she didn't want to come off as rude or anything.

"Calculus is hell, yeah, but you'll get used to it." Wendy shrugged. "I guess I just have problems with power training over education... Ms. Zhao is pretty rough." She kept her steady pace, looking over her shoulder enough so that she could also see what's in front of her with a quick turn of her eye.

"Maybe you just need a break?" Wendy asked. "I'm heading to the big Strong Gold Community opening tonight... you know; to take some pictures, eat some food. Maybe you want to come with?"

"Oh shit you have Zhao?"

There was a teacher like Lihua Zhao in every school or school-like institute, the kind of Instructor who could walk into a room and quell it instantly. She was known in Academy 61 as one of the hardest Instructors, with a sharp temper. She got results though, everyone knew you got Zhao if you were the best or the worst. She wondered what that meant for Wendy.

"With you? Uh... sure... aren't you already going with people though?"

Wendy's demeanor changed a bit when Ellen mentioned that. She hunched over a bit, grabbing that camera tightly in her hands. She looked at it for solace, before she let out a sigh.

"Well..." Wendy scratchhed the back of her neck. "Not really - I can't find my roomie anywhere, and.. I'm more of... lone wolf, yeah."

Shrugging again, Wendy said, "Besides, I'll enjoy the company - you'll enjoy the company - and that'll work out for both of us, yeah?"

Ellen wasn't entirely oblivious to the feelings of other people, and Wendy's were writ plain on her face. With uncharacteristic tact she didn't mention it, after all, she had been out by herself before she ran into Wendy.

"I... I guess..."

She spoke half to herself, "Ah fuck it!"

Sure people would stare, but she'd look different next week, and otherwise she'd just lock herself in her room with her XBox. She still wasn't sure how she'd manage with her new fingers, but that could wait until tomorrow.

"I'd love to go!"

---

Cindy Keagan, Maxine Diaz, Alice Barrett, & Shizuka Takashiro.

_{(collaboration between @Mr Allen J, @FernStone, @tsukune and @Nosuchthing)}

---

---

DOVE/RAVEN Joint Headquarters, White Coast_

Shizuka raised an eyebrow. This girl - lady - here certainly reminded him a lot of his old self. "Right," was all he could say before he was distracted by the sudden appearance of a blond female, who popped out of thin air and landed at the empty space beside the scowling brownie.

Another unfamiliar face.

Shizuka ran a hand through his hair. So much catching up to do... almost like he didn't belong here in the first place.

While the grumpy lady was complaining about paperwork to the petite newcomer, he looked up in time to see Cindy coming towards them, calling his name in an odd way that made him rolled his eyes at her.

"Hey," he greeted her back warmly. "I'm never a suits guy, so that's a given." At Cindy's questions, that made him roll his eyes again. "I don't enjoy being treated like a potential 'future son-in-law' candidate - at all." He yanked the necktie off his collar and rolled it up, before he stuffed it into his blazer pocket.

"C'mon, Shizu," Cindy said with a smile on her face. "You'd make a great boyfriend... a little rough 'round the edges - but, hey, maybe you'd find a nice girl that's as loony as you are." She said in jest, as she followed it up with laughter. "I just wish we could have gotten some of your friends in Prague - but politics."

"Yeah... politics," Shizuka shrugged. "But enough about my woes - how about you?"

Cindy shrugged. "Well... I got vomited on by an eleven year old this morning." Cindy said. "It was not fun." And it was Shizuka's turn to laugh.

Then he lowered his voice. "Have you been in contact with Mei? Holly just told me that she's already back in Baybridge."

Shizuka mentioned Meifeng... and that hit a sore note somewhat. Meifeng had stopped talking to her, or anyone, after she got back to the States after Prague. Which annoyed Cindy somewhat... She knew that Meifeng was avoiding her on purpose.

"Sorry... haven't been talking to her after the whole shitstorm in Prague." Cindy shrugged. "Her choice, she just... stopped talking to people. I really don't know what's goin' on with her sometimes." She huffed and puffed.

Rolling her eyes, Cindy hated the fact that - no offense to him - Shizuka found out that Meifeng's back in town before her. She'd have to chew her out about that later.

Shizuka raised an eyebrow at Cindy's mixed expression about Meifeng; he wasn't expecting that from her. Weren't they supposed to be best friends? "...I see," he finally said, nodding his head absentmindedly. "I think---"

Which made him notice the short blonde standing beside him from the corner of his eye, distracting him for the second time in a row. He swallowed down the urge to make a snarky comment at her constant interruption. "How may I help you?" he asked, giving her a polite smile that was quickly dropped the next second.

Alice smiled as the tall, well, taller Japanese man. Not that he really returned it, she realised that it probably wasn't the best start but jumped in face first now that she had the opportunity.

"Sorry. Alice..."

She extended a hand for him to shake, then before he could speak again ploughed on, "Sorry for interrupting, but I just transferred, know hardly anyone yet, and you're talking to one of them. So... hey!"

It probably wasn't the best start to a friendship, but Alice ignored the urge to simply disappear as he glared at her, and returned it with a smiling gaze.

Shizuka's face relaxed when he heard that she was a newbie. Be nice. He shouldn't be so intimidating to a junior upon their first meeting (especially not in front of Cindy, of all people). He returned the handshake with a firm grip. "Shizuka," he said coolly. "Nice to meet you... I guess."

Alice couldn't have missed the change in his expression if she was a bat, cops learned to read people early. She may have had little time on the street but she'd learned policing at her mother's breast and on her father's knee. She wondered just how much of that change was because she was new, or because Cindy was standing right there.

She rolled her eyes, "Look, I'm not made of glass okay? I might be new, but I will gladly take any shit you hand me, and probably give you some right back, if it doesn't get me a disciplinary."

She grinned.

The "made of glass" comment made Cindy chuckle. Because, she technically could literally be made out of glass. However, she just crossed her arms, and kept quiet while Shizuka mingled with the "fresh meat." She sure as hell didn't want to sabotage things for Shizuka.

Especially now that he's a big, strong, RAVEN now.

That made Shizuka regard her with a little more interest. She wasn't just a fun-sized girl, but someone with a mouth to match. "Neither do I want to get into any disciplinary trouble - RAVEN still owes me a good, long vacation leave. I'm so done with all these retarded business trips." This time, the smile on his face was a genuine one.

Alice raised an unconvinced eyebrow, displaying some impressive facial dexterity. "I'm sure they'll find an excuse to take it away, can't have you relaxing too much, I swear they plan it to match up with emergencies."

This was followed by a brief appraisal of the clearly expensive suit, though her gaze was not unappreciative, "Either that or they'll claim you used them all up on your air miles. And that suit..."

Shizuka gave her a look of mock horror. "That's bullshit." At the mention of his clothes, his brows furrowed into a frown. "This?" He tugged on the collar of his dress shirt, annoyed. "Long story - but just to be clear that this isn't what I like to wear." He then gave Cindy a sideways glance. "As she says, suits aren't my thing."

Cocking her head, Alice looked to the brunette and, addressing her, with a mischievous glint in her eye, she said, "Pity, at least you didn't end up with a green one though. Are you going to burn it? Or are you keeping it as a souvenir?"

"Oh shut up," Cindy said with mock irritation.

"'Green one'?" Shizuka turned to Cindy with a raised eyebrow. "I won't go that far to burn off this suit, but I'm definitely not gonna wear this ever again." Maybe he could just pass this on to Haruka. After all, this suit was fucking expensive.

Max had remained silent, listening, and trying not to look too grumpy (and failing). Still she decided she may as well try to be friendly. "Are suits really anyone's thing? Excluding, of course, rich businessmen." She shrugged slightly, trying to offer a smile. "Oh, Max by the way." She assumed since she hadn't know who Shizuka was beforehand he wouldn't know who she was.

"You missed out 'classy snobs'," Shizuka added with disdain, before acknowledging Max's introduction. To shift their attention away from his suit (which was an embarrassingly stupid topic), he tried to change the subject. "Anyway, are both of you in DOVE or RAVEN?"

Max indicated her head slightly at the mention of classy snobs, before going to answer the question. "RAVEN. I, eh, don't have the people skills for DOVE." She would have been even worse in DOVE... and she wasn't doing particularly well in RAVEN as it is.

Alice nodded in response to the question, "I'm RAVEN too," this was followed by a wry smile, "For my sins."

"That makes you two my junior - well, sort of," Shizuka said, studying Max and Alice. "My position isn't suitable to be at the front lines like most of you guys, yeah."

"Technically, yes," Max responded, looking up at Shizuka from where she was sitting with a neutral expression. "I haven't had a chance to be anywhere near the front lines yet... Then again, I did just finish training a few months back." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "What exactly is it that you do within RAVEN, then?"

Shizuka pointed a gun-shaped hand at Max's forehead. "Sniper. Nah, I don't go around shooting heads off - recon first - but sometimes I do have to put that bullet through those hopeless cases."

"Oh, right," Max raised an eyebrow at Shizuka's hand. As long as he didn't actually touch her forehead it was cool. She had no idea what his power was and didn't want to risk getting it. "I would've thought shooting off the heads would be the fun part, anyway?" She joked, before shrugging. "Though I imagine recon is interesting. More interesting than paperwork, at least."

"There, you've said it - paperwork." Shizuka put his hand down and smirked. "Blowing heads off isn't fun with all the extra paperwork that comes after that. As if I don't have more than enough on my plate already." He still had to write a report on his most recent trip, and obviously he was going to leave out the bit where he was forced to go on a date with the General's (bitchy) niece.

"Extra paperwork? That's enough to put anyone off anything," Max made a face at the thought of the stack of paper waiting for her. She was just putting it off more. Maybe if she hadn't done it by tonight she wouldn't have to do it. "Is there a lot of paperwork for blowing off heads, then?"

"Of course," Shizuka replied in mock seriousness. "Not only you'll need to describe the whole situation in bloody detail, explain why you feel the dire need to crack the skull of a valuable witness... and vomit out a shitty essay to reflect upon your action swearing to God that it won't happen again, but it will in the end, as always." He laughed and put his hands into his pockets. "Okay, I'm exaggerating, but still."

"Well, I am beginning to regret my decision to join RAVEN," Max responded dryly, though she laughed slightly at the thought of having to write such a detailed description of whatever happened. "Was there small print about extra paperwork I didn't read when I signed up?"

"Yeah," Cindy said sarcastically. "It was in between the lines."

She chuckled for a moment. "What? Did you think RAVEN was all about fighting the bad guys?" She sarcastically asked.

Max rolled her eyes, frowning at Cindy. She had been having a perfectly nice conversation and now the DOVE agent had gone and ruined that. "Oh yeah, I expected to be fighting against evil metahumans all the fucking time," she snapped back. "There's just a bit too much paperwork for every little thing."

"You don't have to get an attitude, Max." Cindy rolled her eyes up into her head as well. "I was just making a joke. Want me to google that for you?" She hissed in return, putting her hand on her hip and staring down Max. "Paperwork's just something you're going have to get used to - I get all sorts of paperwork while in DOVE, and you don't see me..." She stopped herself there when she realized she was getting a bit too irritated.

"Well, it didn't particularly sound like a joke," Max responded, clenching her fists slightly while trying to take deep breaths. Here was not the place to get annoyed over such a small thing. She really just needed to calm down. She normally didn't mind people joking with her; it was just something about Cindy that rubbed her the wrong way. After a moment's pause she spoke again. "Oh I'm getting used to it, don't worry. And don't see you what? Complaining?" She returned Cindy's stare.

"...It's nothing." Cindy was quick to answer, as a quick way of telling Max to drop it. She probably shouldn't have said anything in the first place to this girl. Cindy swears that Max's "bad girl" act is the most annoying thing in the world - but if the likes of Maximilian would allow former gang members and thugs to join their ranks, then why should she complain? Cindy shook her head. "Carry on with your conversation - sorry for intruding." Cindy quickly put on a professional demeanor on par with Lihua seven years ago when she took a step back.

Alice had remained quiet for most of the previous conversation, like the others she didn't much care for paperwork, but she'd always just accepted it as part of the job. Besides, chiming in on it right now looked like it might set off Cindy, and she didn't really want to piss off her friend over something so trivial.

Shizuka looked from Cindy to Max, somewhat amused at their heated exchange. Was it him, or was this reminding him of his own relationship with Cindy years ago? He could really see a shadow of his old self in Max... even in Cindy too.

Whatever. He didn't feel like dealing with some petty catfights now. "Knock it off, girls. Do me a favor not to make a scene here - don't want to look like I'm the reason for your little argument." Deep down he knew that Cindy was right, but he wasn't stupid enough to add more fuel to the fire.

Alice was relieved that someone with actual seniority had stepped in to break the two apart. She would have done so herself, but it would have felt awkward to do so when technically she was the same rank as Max, and Cindy did have a lot more experience. People tended not to appreciate being told to 'cool it' by a comparative rookie.

"Yeah, yeah, I get you," Cindy said as she looked off to the side. Maybe she was being a bit of a bitch - but she'd keep her mouth shut.

"Now that the intros and whatnot are out of the way... Holly's sure slow today," Shizuka muttered, glancing at the digital clock on a wall in the room. "I'm told to be here for a briefing of sorts, but now it's already past noon. Guess I better tell Haru not to expect me for lunch."

He took out his phone and sent a quick text to his brother, scowling. There goes my precious family time.

Holly. Dana's protege, and she remembered seeing her a few times during the Verthaven Disaster. Right now Holly's the new mission control for the RAVENs (and sometimes DOVE). "Eh, don't worry about it." Cindy said. "Holly's probably doing some... weirdo plant stuff." She started laughing.

"Anyways, there was something I wanted to address with you..." Cindy said, before her eyes drifted over towards Max and Alice. "...And the rest of the RAVENs present."

She took in a brief inhale before she let it all out.

"You heard of that big old party that Jiao-Long Liu is throwing tonight?" Cindy asked.

Shizuka rubbed his chin. "Maybe. What's that about anyway? Are all of us supposed to go for it also?"

"To answer the first question," Cindy started off. "The Saviors - err, the Liu Pharmaceutical Company - turned this run down wasteland up there in Silver Hills... they feel it's necessary to throw a great big celebration there to make it "special."" Cindy answered the first question with surprising professionalism.

"And to answer the second question: yes. They want RAVEN there to provide security detail, and DOVE there to... you know, represent." Cindy nodding her head as she looked in between the three other people in their group. "Only thing is that Chairman Deborah doesn't want a whole lot of RAVENs there so we don't look like that "militant state" that NEST did before... so only a few will be going."

Cindy sighed. "Of course, I can get you there as a security guard... all you have to do is walk around, and make sure no member of the Allegiance shows up and tries to kill people... since, y'know, Jiao-Long is with the Saviors. Saviors are really anti-meta..."

She trailed off for a moment.

"...You know, politics." Cindy finished.

Shizuka had to roll his eyes at that word. "Anyway, the Zhaos are related to the Lius, right? We might see Mei and her mum at the event." He emphasized the part about Lihua with a sneer.

"Hmph, yeah." Cindy said. "Jiao-Long's Meifeng's uncle if I recall correctly... I can't wait to give Meifeng a piece of my mind for disappearing on us like that..." Cindy snarled out the words.

"Well, I got your back - so I guess you can count me in." Shizuka shrugged. "And I'm definitely gonna demand for an extended leave right after that event thingy."

"What? Don't like our "foreign exchange program?"" Cindy jokingly asked him with a wink.

"Not. One. Bit." Shizuka tugged at his shirt collar again. "Entertaining sour-faced grandpa's one thing, but trying to marry me off to their spoiled bitches? How about no."

"Heh, I thought you'd at least like to travel." Cindy answered with a toothy grin. "I'd love to be the one traveling... but I don't think I'm white enough for that. Ha." She followed that up with laughter.

Shizuka sighed. "...Shut up."

"Sorry, Shizu." Cindy said, briefly laughing.

Max just listened to the two for a moment, looking confused. It was a bit different from her normal grumpy look. She spoke when there was a break in the conversation. "Wait, you're asking us to help at this celebration?" And by us, she meant her. "Are you sure?" Her tone wasn't even confrontational, just confused.

"Yes." Cindy cordially said. "Would you rather sit around in here doing paperwork, or would you like to go out to that fair where you'll have plenty of food to eat, and different people to talk?" She asked, not a hint of hostility in her voice.

At that point Alice perked up, "Free food? Shit, why didn't you say that before? You had me at lasagna."

This wouldn't be a surprise to Cindy, or even Max, Alice was always eating. The fact that she wasn't chewing on something right now would be more of a surprise. Her ability allowed her to quite literally bend space, so it didn't matter quite how much she seemed to eat, it all got burned off when she teleported.

"I think my answer to that is quite obvious," Max replied with a shrug. "The festival." She was finding it easier to be courteous to Cindy with other people around.

"Good, good, good... I'll sign the three of ya'll up..." Cindy said. "Anything else we need to go over? Questions? I am one of the top DOVEs here in Baybridge."

Alice raised her hand, "Seriously though, will there be lasagna?"

Cindy shrugged.

"...Dunno," was the simplest answer that Cindy could produce. "But I know there'll be seafood!"

The petite blonde narrowed her eyes in mock suspicion, "Well... as long as there's shrimp..."

Her tone changed, making it clear that now she was being serious, "How much earlier can we be up there? I'd rather walk the site before it's packed with people, get a feel for it y'know?"

"We can actually show up now," Cindy quickly answered. "Since we're DOVE, RAVEN... we can show up a little bit ahead of time... but, they're going to expect us to help."

"Getting there earlier would be a good idea. What kind of helping out would they expect us to do?" Max frowned slightly, pulling out her phone to send her cousin a quick text (she had said she be home that evening, but obviously that wouldn't be the case).

"Helping getting the DOVE hosted event set up. We're going to have our own little stand with Deborah giving a speech, and answering questions." Cindy said.

With a shrug Alice said, "I don't mind helping, I haven't been given anything else to do today and I think I might pop if I sit here till things happen."

"I also have no problem with helping - sounds better than stuck here, yeah," Max said with a slight nod.

Shizuka shook his head while the girls were discussing. They are capable of having a normal conversation after all, he thought sarcastically when he looked from Max to Cindy.

"'Kay, let's get a move on then..." Cindy turned her head towards Shizuka. "Are you gonna come? Well, I just expect you to, but I just wanted to ask."

"Obviously I have to, or else you'll glass me," Shizuka replied dryly. "Not that it works much against my ability, but my power won't save me from your wrath." And that was followed up by a short laugh.

"Heh." Cindy laughed. "Alright, let's get a move on then? I assume we all got our own vehicles... and know where the Strong Gold Community is, right?"

"Well, I have a bike..." Shizuka scratched the back of his head. "But I don't think it's appropriate for me to show up on that. And I really need to get changed out of... this."

"Eh, don't worry about it." Cindy said. "Just get in my ride with me, and I'll get you there in a DOVE vehicle... it'll be better than showing up in a big old RAVEN truck." She rolled her eyes. "...And I agree, you really do."

---

---

Haruka Takashiro, & Akemi Shinoda.

---

---

Little Seapond, Roseview_

Sending Shizuka off was never an easy thing for the Haruka. They had literally stayed together throughout their entire childhood (like a pair of inseparable twins). Now that the both of them had grown up, he knew he had to let his younger counterpart go - to pursue their own interests and goals in life.

Easier said than done.

He could tell that it was the same for Shizuka; the younger twin had been trying very hard to make time for the "family" out of his busy work schedule, so much so that he was sacrificing his future - the possibility of dating a girl and getting married (if he ever got that far, of course), his social circle...

He mulled over those thoughts as he washed the dirty plates in the sink. How long were they going to keep up with this "family" act? And that wasn't the only thing in Haruka's conflicted mind.

What about their real family? Their parents?

Shizuka would update him with bits and pieces of news about their father if he ever met Yuuichi Takashiro whenever he was sent to Japan to deepen RAVEN's ties with the Metahuman agencies in Asia (which was a lot of hard work, since most Asian countries didn't have great opinions about America). Haruka was worried about Yuu, that he was pushing himself too far even when his age was catching up with him on top of the prolong period of stress from his diplomatic job.

He was also worried about their mother, Asami. He didn't hate her as much as Shizuka did - even if she constantly appeared aloof to the twins, she was still someone closely related to them by blood. He always felt that she might have a reason that caused her to become like that, and that was not because of her workaholic nature.

Once he was done with the washing, he went to change out of his pajamas for a red checkered dress skirt, a pair of dark jeans - and soon he was out of the house in sneakers, with a bicycle from the garage.

On his way to Havenfield Market.

---

---

Havenfield Market, Roseview_

Havenfield Market truly lived up to its name: it was indeed a haven of food fresh from the farmers' fields. On the outside of the central square, rows of shops and restaurants lined up around the borders, offering different types of processed goods made from the farmers' hard work.

Haruka pushed his bike through the crowd, inching towards where Akemi was. He raised his eyebrows at a truck that was parked before the stall; Akemi was watching two men loading pots of tulips up the vehicle. "...Akemi?"

"Ah, Haruka?" Akemi turned around, pleasantly surprised to see him. "You can just wait for me at home - I'm almost done here anyway."

"About that..." Haruka began slowly. "...Shizu is back."

Akemi's face brightened up. "Oh? Where is he now?"

"At work. Holly had called him to drop by the Headquarters---" Haruka said, shrugging, and then his phone beeped. Pulling out the mobile and glancing at the screen, he frowned. "Seems like he has more work to do, so he won't be able to join us for lunch."

Akemi could feel the disappointment from Haruka. "It can't be helped." She shifted her attention to the two men, signing some papers before waving the loaded truck off.

Haruka stared at the leaving truck. "By the way..."

"Ah," Akemi said, noticing Haruka's questioning look. "It's for the opening of Strong Gold Community that's happening at Silver Hills later in the evening." She smiled before she continued on, "In the language of flower, tulip means 'charity', which is exactly what the event is about."

Haruka nodded - he knew about the Strong Gold Community through the news; Liu Jiao-Long had used his wealth to transform the deserted land into an affordable residential area for those who weren't able to acquire the more costly ones in most of the other Baybridge districts. While there were many, especially those Verthaven survivors like himself, who were grateful for everything he had done to help them to settle down in this city to rebuild their home, there were others who had rather mixed opinions about his "charity" acts.

"I think we should attend the event - after all, Mr. Liu is our benefactor," he said. "We don't necessarily need to thank him personally, but the very least we can do is to show our support for the good things he has done to help the society."

"You're right," Akemi agreed, placing a hand on Haruka's shoulder. "I wish that Shizuka can join us."

"I am sure he will show up at the party - because DOVE and RAVEN will definitely be there too."

---

---

Crowds and crowds of people were gathering in front of a stage, which was placed behind a wall (And the two sections of the wall had steel gates). The crowd was incredibly diverse, and were carefully monitored by the security in position to make sure that no assassins or terrorists show up. The stage was lined up with important members of the Liu Pharmaceutical Company, DOVEs, and the Savior Foundation. Sans the man of the hour.

Slowly walking up to the stage, was a tall Chinese man wearing an expensive suit. Immediately, the paparazzi went wild as each of them attempted to catch a good picture of Jiao-Long Liu - the man who made all of this possible. At each of his sides were two valuable women in his life. The average heighted European woman that was wearing a suit top and a modest skirt - Zoe Hardley, Jiao-Long's bodyguard. At his other side was a short Chinese woman that wore a fancy red dress.

Jiao-Long stepped up to the podium, and loudly cleared his throat.

"Ladies, gentlemen, good evening to you all, and thank you for coming to this public event celebrating the opening of a brand new community. Several years ago, the Liu Pharmaceutical Company moved it's business into Baybridge - specifically the Hailey Boulevard. I saw a decrepit patch of land not too far away from my buildings, and was disheartened that such a space wasn't being put to good use. Through the collaboration of several different corporations, I managed to acquire the land, and use my wealth to build a new community in Silver Hills. Cheap housing for those who need it the most - and a slew of fresh job opportunities."

Jiao-Long spoke, heavily accented, and looked among the group.

"Years later, and the brand new community is complete - the brand new Strong Gold Community - and I have invited you all - everyone in Baybridge and beyond - to celebrate this great event so that it's remembered for years to come. So, come now, beyond these gates are vendors offering food, games, and other entertainment. Enjoy yourselves. This is one of the most important events in my company's history."

He put his hand out, and the gates into the Strong Gold Community opened wide. People began pouring into them, as Jiao-Long stepped off the stage, and disappeared. Right as the cameras went into overdrive, and the area was being blanketed into flashing lights.

Almost immediately, the many people attending the celebration were greeted with vendors almost immediately placed on the sidewalks and streets of this city. Serving a variety of different foods and drinks from cultures from all over. The crowds stretched far and wide as the entertainment never seemed to end.

---

Cindy Gabrielle Keagan.

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills.

Wearing a rather form-fitting suit, and holding a clipboard in hand with a bunch of names, Cindy was the one standing on the stage - being the DOVE representative, the one acting in the place of Deborah (Who was too busy setting up the DOVE event inside the celebration). She'll just have to enjoy this extra boost in publicity. She had a gun at her hip... it wasn't the best message to get across, but the Allegiance was out there. She couldn't rely on her glass powers for everything. She adjusted her glasses as she listened to the speech. Though, she couldn't help but take notice of the stares she's been receiving from these Saviors. Cindy's a DOVE, and a known Metahuman, on stage with a bunch of racists (More or less).

It was a rather brief speech. Cindy couldn't help but feel like Jiao-Long wanted to get out of there so he has his own business to attend to. To be honest, not too many people wanted to hear an old scientist ramble for half an hour straight (Earlier, if his old heart gives out). They just want to get into this place. Which came pretty quickly when he opened the gates, and then the people of Baybridge entered the Strong Gold Community. While Jiao-Long stepped off the stage, Cindy couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief knowing that there were no assassination attempts. Everyone else began to quickly leave the stage, and Cindy was the last person off the stage.

Because she had official business to tend to. The very step last that Cindy took, she pressed her earpiece, and her voice transmitted all the way to the RAVEN/DOVE comms.

"Alright, is everyone in position?" Cindy asked over the comms as she started walking. She stopped as the crowds of people were walking in. "I know this is a fun event, but don't fool around too much, we still need to keep an eye out."

"Yeah, yeah..." Samson said while he was leaning up against a wall, wearing his RAVEN armor. "Just do you. We'll hold the fort."

"Alright," Cindy answered. "I'm going to head to the DOVE exhibit - but, before I do, I'm going to go through the place and see if any of the kids I'm supervising are in the celebration."

Now that the traffic entering the community was dying down, Cindy entered the place, holding a clipboard in hand.

---

Lihua Zhao, & Meifeng Zhao

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills.

"I don't know why you couldn't let me drive...." Meifeng groaned as she sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle (Having to convince Lihua to even let her on it, since ).

"No one drives my car but me." Lihua said, sharply turning her head over to Meifeng, and then looking at her outfit. "Are you sure you want to go there dressed like that?" Meifeng was wearing nothing but jean shorts, and a blouse that Lihua bought her a few years back.

"Well, I know uncle Jiao-Long invited us to his little VIP section...." Meifeng sighed as her eyes fell upon Lihua's black dress, and she shook her head, re-centering her gaze on the road up ahead. "... But the last thing I want to do is sit around with a bunch of uptight rich people - Especially on our special day."

"Fine, then I guess we'll give everything a look?" Lihua suggested. "I'm not looking forward to seeing Jiao-Long again myself, just that I have to make appearances and all... especially since I owe him so much." She tightened her grip around the steering wheel, gritting her teeth. Before she briefly looked back at Lijuan, who was contently sitting in her seat wearing a dress.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard..." Meifeng groaned. She wished that she was there for Lijuan when she manifested her power. That must have been scary for her... spending her whole life knowing how dangerous fire is, only to explode in it and cause all sorts of damage. Meifeng was going to encourage Lijuan to use her ability. Not fear it.

The truck came to a stop, and Lihua sighed as she unbuckled her belt and stepped out of it. She walked around the vehicle to go unbuckle Lijuan.

Meanwhile, Meifeng simply hopped out of the vehicle, and put her hands in her pockets. She took a few steps ahead, waiting for Lihua to get ready. She looked around, and something very suspicious caught her eye.

"Huh?" Meifeng said as she looked at it.

It was a sparrow. Made out of ice. It had glowing blue eyes. Meifeng stared right at it, and it returned the gaze. The frozen golem tried to fly away, but Meifeng quickly shot her hand out and channeled her ability to hold the bird in mid-air. She took a step forward, and then held it in her hands. Meifeng examined the bird, tilting her head off to the side. Okay, this was definitely the work of a Metahuman.

Before she could probe it further, the bird dissolved into water, and slipped in between her fingers.

"Okay... that's weird as hell." Meifeng shrugged.

"What is it?" Lihua asked as she held Lijuan's hand tightly.

Meifeng looked over her shoulder, holding her tongue.

"... It's nothing."

"Okay... we managed to avoid Jiao-Long's speech.... Let's go." Lihua said.

The three women walked into the new community, hoping to find all sorts of fun and entertainment.

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills

Well, they made it. Not that bad of a bus ride over, even if they did get some looks, but that stopped bothering the both of them a while ago. Archie and Harmon looked around the scores of people that'd come together to celebrate this Jiao-Long Liu figure's kindly venture. It did not seem like those of Archie and Harmon's caliber were all that welcome, however. The passing gazes persisted all the while.

After the speech, they wandered further into the massing, only for Archie to stop and whip out his phone minutes in. He had Harmon hang back for a second as he texted someone.


And he got a response not even a minute later.


Archie turned his attention towards Harmon, who was staring off with his camera in the direction of wherever. He tapped his shoulder and started typing on his phone again. It was too loud around them for text to speech, so he just motioned for Harmon to read his text mentally.

You wanna head back inside and stay with Zach and Vero while I handle things up here?

Harmon nodded. "I-I think that's for the best." He said, nodding. Archie then proceeded to set down his backpack, unzip it, open up the bag inside wide enough to jump down into, and Harmon did so. Archie closed everything back up, the whole thing lasting about a minute. The moment he slung his backpack over his shoulder, he looked around to see an understandable number of people watching him, wondering what the hell just happened. And he just waved them off happily, silently hoping no one would report the incident to a DOVE or RAVEN agent attending the celebration. He continued to explore the party, just waiting for Arianna to pull him out of the crowd. He wondered whose form she'd be taking tonight.

His money was on George Burns.

---

---

Alice had made herself as familiar with the site as possible in the few hours she’d had before the public entered. Knowing where she was going made her ability a hell of a lot safer and more accurate, but she had been restricted only to selecting a few areas that she felt would give her a good coverage of the community, and would be empty of people. It wouldn’t do to teleport into another person, and she couldn’t think of a worse place for that to happen than a Saviour sponsored event.

She was on a circuitous patrol route around the area, staying just on the outskirts, but ready to respond at a moment’s notice. It made sense, as she would be able to respond to any problem faster than anyone else here. She was dressed in RAVEN armour, it was far from feminine but the heavy Kevlar chest piece did at least disguise her complete lack of chest. A radio was clipped to her belt, and the wire snaked beneath the protective carapace of her body armour to the earpiece. The chunky communicator was similar to those she’d used in the NYPD, albeit with a far greater range and hardened against EMPs and most other Metahuman abilities.

Cindy’s voice came clearly through the earpiece, followed by Samson’s affirmative. Alice didn’t bother adding anything, there was no need. She wandered through the crowds that had poured in through the gate, she did her best to by unobtrusive, though that was difficult with the RAVEN symbol emblazoned across her back and chest. Her left hand was full, of course, with a plate of food, she’d already been past a few of the vendors setting up, and helped herself to the free food. It was piled high with fried shrimp, or it had been, she’d already made a substantial dent.

She smiled and nodded to Cindy as the DOVE agent came in through the gates, then returned to scanning the crowd, moving out of the main stream and out towards the outskirts of the community. If anyone was planning something it was likely that they had come in with the crowd, but with so many people the metahuman detectors were as good as useless. And they couldn’t simply ignore the perimeter on the assumption that any hostiles would enter through the front gates. She’d be back in a heartbeat if there was a problem.

“Shortcut checking in, heading out on my patrol route.”

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills

Max felt slightly worried about this event. There were a few reasons for this, of course. First of all she did not want to fuck up. She knew she hadn't proven herself reliable all the time so she'd really have to be careful here. Second, it was going to be full of fucking Saviours. That made being a RAVEN agent quite uncomfortable.

And third, her stupid cousin had decided they were still going to come to the celebration even if Max couldn't go with them. That was the last thing Max wanted. While friendly Rori wasn't the most socially aware. They were naive and almost definitely going to walk into someone while distracted by all the stalls. It was going to be a disaster.

She sighed softly, stretching as she heard voices through the comms. She'd already taken up position - her loops wasn't too long, concentrating more on the centre and around a lot of the stalls. She didn't know why she was in a heavily populated area. Still, in the RAVEN issue armour her accidentally copying someone's power was hardly a risk.

"Mimic checking in. In position and starting my route." She started walking, mostly zoning out the people around her. It wasn't going to be a particularly relaxing event representing RAVEN. Still, she could do it.

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills

Lihn was already exhausted. They had arrived at the tail end of the speech due to leaving the house a lot later than expected. She hadn't planned to bring Thanh, even going to the hassle of organising a babysitter. But then the babysitter had called off as ill (only half an hour before she was meant to arrive) leaving Lihn with a far too energetic child who should be going to bed in an hour.

Not to mention Kei's general lack of willingness to come out. He'd try to claim he couldn't control his power enough and would make everything colder. Lihn wasn't having any of it and had dragged him out anyway.

"Kay kay, what's that!" Thanh giggled slightly as she pointed at one of the stalls.

"That's fried shrimp, Tani," Kei shook his head with bemusement, looking at the little girl who had insisted on being in his arms (she could see everything better up there, she had proclaimed loudly).

"It looks funny," she continued to giggle, looking at the strange food. Shrimp had never particularly been on the menu in the Phan household.

"Do you want to try some," Kei smiled softly and Thanh nodded furiously.

When they headed back over to where Lihn was standing, glancing around the generally taller crowd, Thanh was happily munching on a plate piled with shrimp.

"You almost look like you're enjoying yourself, Kei," Lihn teased as her brother stole one of his niece's shrimp, both laughing at her hurt face.

"Not because of the festival," he responded with a slight roll of the eyes, taking more of Thanh's shrimp. They were good, he liked seafood and there was no way she'd eat them all. He didn't even feel guilty as she pouted at him. He did feel just a little guilty when he finished them a short while later as the small family wandered around.

"Mommy, mommy, carry me," Thanh waved her arms out towards Lihn, squirming in Kei's arms. He quickly handed her over before she started kicking his chest as she had the last time he'd try to keep carrying her when she didn't want him to. Thanh was a sweet child, but far too demanding sometimes.

Lihn took Thanh with a slight frown. "Do you not want to walk, and hold my hand? Mommy's getting a bit of a headache." And she was. The constant buzz in the back of her mind was a bit too much. This was why she avoided incredibly crowded places like this.

"Is it..." Kei began softly, stopping as Lihn nodded. His sister had quite a level of control over her empathy but it was hard to ignore the emotions of the masses of people that were here.

I'll be fine, don't worry," she responded with a faint smile, switching to Vietnamese. Just in case anyone nearby happened to be listening to their conversation. "As long as no one nearby get's extremely angry, or sad, or the like."

Kei nodded, Thanh looking up her mother with wide dark green eyes. "Just say if it gets too much, and we can head home. We'll go out another time... the three of us." Kei knew that was the real reason Lihn had dragged him out here. She wanted to spend time with him since he spent most of his time cooped up without socialising. It was just an excuse. He appreciated the effort, he really did.

Lihn didn't get a chance to say anything in response, as Thanh's happy shout came first. "Let's go over there! There are toys! I want to look at the toys!" And so they went where she dictated they go.

---

Strong Gold Community, Silver Hills

"Whoa," Rori couldn't help themselves from speaking as they looked with wide eyes at the celebration. There were so many people! It was so cool! This was going to be so fun. It was a shame they couldn't spend it with Max but they'd make the most of it. Maybe they'd see someone else they knew. Not that they knew many people.

What if Wendy was here! That would be so cool. Rori hoped that they bumped into Wendy (not literally, they had a bad habit of doing that). But even if they didn't maybe they'd make new friends. There would be some much to write about when they got back home.

Rori was practically bouncing with enthusiasm as they moved through the crowds of people, squeezing through small spaces to manage to get a look at the stalls. There was so much to see. And so many people. It was difficult for them too look around, feeling slightly self conscious as they had to constantly turn their head. At least they could see further away than most people could. And the scarf around their neck hid all of their feathers. It would be fine. Nobody was looking at them anyway.

After only a short while of walking about, somehow managing not to bump into anyone, they looked about for a less crowded area. Approaching the outer edges of the festival they stopped and pulled a sketchbook and pencil out of the small bag they had with them. They always got kind of inspired when at events like this so they tended to have something to draw with with them.

Deciding to just stay standing out of the way Rori began to draw what was around them, soon becoming engrossed in this and not noticing people around them.