[hr][i][h1][color=skyblue]Wendy Lucker[/color], & [color=dodgerblue]Lihua Zhao[/color][/h1][/i]
[hr][U][I]Academy 61, Roseview.[/I][/u]


After that certainly exciting arena fight, Wendy found herself in the locker room. Trying her damn near hardest to get this damn suit off. She was facing the mirror, and then she took the kevlar vest off, before she grabbed the zipper, and then unzipped it. Wendy felt a tad embarrassed looking at her underdeveloped body in the mirror. Sometimes she just wished...

Eh, never mind. Wendy merely took off this suit, and walked over to her locker, and put on her normal clothes for the day. Today was something special! So she'd need to dress nicely. Which was why she had a frilly green summer dress hanging from the hanger. She smiled as she finally stepped out of this training suit, and then got into the dress - placing the suit on the hanger in return.

Completing her outfit, Wendy put a green hat to go along with it. She didn't look as stunning in a dress as her friends - but she kinda had that adventurer vibe going on. Something like an artist. Maybe that'd be enough to convince people.

Because today, Wendy is opening up her grand art vendor in the Havenfield Market!

It was going to be great.

She just wanted to get a quick match in... Well, it's less of her squeezing in a match before she has to go - and more of challenging someone a few days ago because she [i]swore[/i] she wouldn't have gotten the space. Surprising isn't it? Still, Wendy managed to win the battle [i]and[/i] came out unscathed. Which meant today was going to be a good day.

Since everything was coming into place, Wendy figured that she should get ready. She ran out the doors of the lockerroom, and took a hard right... and ran right into the tall figure of her teacher; Lihua Zhao. She managed to send the tall woman back a few steps, but neither she, nor Wendy, were particularly injured.

"Oh!" Wendy shouted as she looked up, and realized that it was Lihua. "Ms. Zhao! It's... uh, yeah, sorry for running into you like that!"

There a a pain in the woman's front as she reeled from her student crashing into her. She let out a gasp of paon, but was otherwise perfectly fine. This didn't improve her mood, however. She merely sighed, as she put on the best friendly smile she could.

"Ms. Lucker," Lihua started off. "Your performance out there was excellent. Utterly superb." She smiled at Wendy.

Which made the young girl get all gushy again as she began to blush. She had to resist the urge to smile at the compliment as she scratched the back of her neck. "Uh, yeah, it was... it was nothing special." She couldn't help herself, and just smiled like she really wanted to.

"I expect to see many more from you." Lihua asked.

"Yeah, I plan on doing a few more arena fights - this week in fact." Wendy nodded her head as she gushed. "I'm gonna win all of 'em!"

"Don't get cocky, miss Lucker." Lihua was quick to remind her as she adjusted her glasses, and put her hands on her hips. "Because... pride does come before the fall."

"...Yes, I have heard of that saying." Wendy sighed. "Anyways, Ms. Zhao, I have good news!" 

"Oh?" Lihua was hoping the next words out of her mouth wasn't book related...

"I managed to get myself a place at the Havenfield Market! I'm going to be drawing, and making art for people!" Wendy confidently said.

"I am so glad that you managed to get a spot... from what I've heard it's quite the challenge to get a spot in Havenfield - Especially for someone like yourself." Lihua answered.

"I put it in a few months ago, once I turned eighteen." Wendy said with a smile. "I didn't even think they'd let me have a spot!" She answered. "Anywho... I'm going to get a move on."

"Go on ahead, I have plenty of work to do Miss Lucker." Lihua answered as she stepped around Wendy, and the two went their separate ways.

After the encounter with Miss Zhao, Wendy kept running through the halls of the Academy up until she made it to her dorms. She already had her bag ready! It was full of arts, and crafts, and plenty of paper for her to use. Afterwards, she slung the bag over her shoulder, and went for the window. Okay, she was showing off a little bit here, but she didn't have much time.

She jumped out the window, before turning into paper on the way down. Wendy was partially turned into paper, the rest of her body was weightless. Which allowed her to control her movements enough to gracefully land, and then she started sprinting yet again. She went straight for the parking lot.

Hopping on her moped, Wendy turned the ignition on, and went straight ahead.


[hr][i][h1][color=skyblue]Wendy Lucker[/color], [color=salmon]Haruka Takashiro[/color], Akemi Shinoda, [color=darkslateblue]Reed Taylor[/color], [color=B0E0E6]Kei Phan[/color], and...[/h1][sub]Written in collaboration with [@Zombiedude101], [@Tsukune], & [@FernStone].[/sub][/i]
[hr][U][I]Havenfield Market, Roseview.[/I][/u]

This was simply exciting! Easily the first time that Wendy has ever got her own vendor at the Havenfield Market.

The teen rolled towards the Havenfield Market on board her moped. She should really get gas for this afterwards... though, this whole endeavor was hopefully going to give her more than enough money for gas, and everything! Best of all, Wendy gets to show off her art skills!

Though, it would be cheating a [i]little[/i]. Since she's going to be using her ink powers to draw pictures of people.

Hopefully, Wendy can do it subtly enough so that nobody notices that she's a Metahuman. Either way, she was going to make the most of this event. She sped up a little bit on her moped, and then make a right. She briefly peered at her cellphone (Which had the GPS app on), and realized that she had made a wrong turn.

Hanging her head in irritation, Wendy briefly swung her moped around at the nearest turn, and then proceeded forward fast as she could to make up for lost time. She wished that she was still in the Faircrest Woods - no one really drives around there. Around Havenfield Market... in the afternoon, [i]and[/i] on a Sunday, cops are waiting for everyone to go speeding.

Wendy herself avoided tickets by going the recommended speed - which wasn't very fast for a moped. She shook her head as she finally arrived at the market in Havenfield. The only one she managed to reserve. Lot Twelve. It was a big space, and it was absolutely covered in several different stands, each with a vendor of some sort. Most of the people here were selling fruit, but some of the others had some dinner foods of some sort.

There was no time to eat! Wendy knew if she didn't get set up soon, she was going to miss out! Wendy parked her moped in the parking space, and then quickly got off the moped, quickly locking her helmet onto the side. Not wasting a second, Wendy reached to the basket, and pulled out all of her items - an assortment of papers, a drawing board, a chair, and a sign that she had made herself.

Hoisting it all underneath her arm, she quickly started running through the crowds and crowds of people. Letting out many polite, but frantic, "Excuse me!"'s, and "Sorry!" as she made her way through the market. Up until she made it to her spot. Which was conveniently vacant, and Wendy sighed in relief.

Her relief didn't last long - because she realized that she [i]didn't have a stand[/i]. Okay, this should have been thought out better, but Wendy was going to make the most of it! She quickly placed the stool down, and then set up the drawing board, before she found a nice spot to put her stack of paper (Placing a book on top of it to stop it from leaving), along with placing various other pieces of art that she made on stands for everyone to see.

The last thing that Wendy did was place the sign, which said,

[pre]The Wendy Lucker Art Display & Sketching.
[/pre]

...This was the saddest excuse for an art display ever, but boy did she make up for it with some really good art pieces.

On the other end from where Wendy's lot was, Haruka was setting down a pot of red marigolds at Akemi's stall next to another pot, which was filled with soft pink peonies. His aunt was busy tending to the huge sunflower; they had to place that pot on the ground instead of the table like the rest (those were much smaller - suitable as table decorations), where it was almost at the same height as the short Akemi.

He stepped back to admire the sight of colorful flowers around the small stall, all in full bloom, while wiping the sweat off his forehead. Today was probably the hottest summer yet for this year (and the sight of the bright and tall sunflower made him feel even warmer).

"Haruka?" An older, yet somehow familiar voice addressed him from behind. Reed hadn't expected to find a familiar face today and it'd been years since they'd last met.

Haruka turned around, his eyebrows raised at the sight of an old friend - it was the cop who had helped him through the Verthaven disaster years ago, and like himself, had become an actual Metahuman since then.

"It has been a long time, Mr. Reed," he greeted the taller man, smiling. "How are you?"

"I'm good, great - DOVE is just like my old job with the VPD." Reed warmly answered, taking a seat beside him. "How about yourself? You look great."

"Thank you," was all Haruka could offer before Akemi stepped forward to get to her nephew, but was a little surprised to see Reed. "Hello, Mr. Taylor."

"Ms. Shinoda, it's good to see you again." Reed was equally surprised to see her too, but it occurred to him that she was never far behind either one of the twins.

She glanced from Reed to Haruka; she gave him a quick nod and turned back to her own work, while Haruka chose to continue the conversation with the DOVE agent. "Anyway, what brings you here?" He wondered if Reed was here just for a stroll... or for something related to his work.

That made him thought of his still-busy twin; though subtle, his face fell with a mixture of disappointment and worry.

"Just out, thought I'd keep an eye on things I guess." Reed shrugged. "Makes a change from one of the cases I'm working." Thoughts drifted to the killer out there and he wondered, could he be here, with them?

As Haruka chatted with Reed, he felt a sudden chill. He frowned - he could vaguely feel that the air current around him was a little... off, but he shrugged it off without a second thought. He was probably hallucinating - he hadn't been sleeping well the past few days, anyway.

"Oh dear," Akemi exclaimed, and that distracted Haruka from their conversation. He turned to see his aunt looking confused at the sunflower, whose leaves were drooping downwards and no longer as green as a moment ago. It seemed like the plant was withering all of a sudden.

Then Haruka could feel it. The air was indeed getting colder than just now. He looked up at the sky - there were only wisps of white clouds, and no sign of the darker storm clouds around.

[i]Maybe it's going to be a sun shower...[/i]

He had absolutely no idea how [i]wrong[/i] he was.

[hr]

Kei was located around the vendors that were selling various types of food - from fruit to freshly grown vegetables. It was, in a way, his kind of heaven. As someone who loved cooking fresh ingredients were always the best thing. His sister had even given him some money towards buying this food (with the requirement that he actually use them for their meals, rather than his irregular random eating).

He had even pushed through his general dislike for the outdoors to come here. Food was one thing that motivated him. He just hoped that he wasn't making everything a little colder... He was trying his hardest to keep it under control. He'd ended up coming out alone because his sister had a bit of work to catch up with and wasn't particularly into the idea of being in another crowded place (she was just getting over her headaches from the night before). She had said she'd come meet him later, if he was still out.

Kei wasn't sure how long he would stay here. He was already carrying about one bag full of fresh produce. Maybe he'd force himself to stay in the sun (ugh) for just a little longer if his sister really wanted to come out to meet him. But it was so hot, he felt like he was going to [i]die[/i]...

...What changed Kei's rather mundane day was a dart hitting him in the neck. It wasn't any regular dart, it was a syringe of some sort that was full of a glowing blue liquid, and it immediately emptied it's contents into his neck. As it's entered his body, the liquid illuminated the Metahuman energy inside of his nervous system. It's effects would first feel like a sudden surge of strength, giving Kei the feeling that he could do [i]anything[/i]. Before that strength would grow stronger, and stronger... until he completely los control. Ice had already began to come off his body.

It didn't take long for the surrounding area to grow colder and colder. It was almost as if there was a sudden season change to the middle of winter. This radiated out from Kei - the coldest areas being around him.

As everything got colder objects also began to freeze, ice forming around exposed surfaces - a thick ice that seemed to come out of nowhere. Kei himself was coated with ice, though he felt colder than he ever had before, it didn't seem to be harming him (yet). It began breaking off in small crystals at a somewhat explosive speed and flying out away from him. The ice moved erratically as it broke off surfaces and joined what was flying off his body.

Kei had lost control before, but never like this. He had absolutely no control and no way to stop his power as he practically created an ice storm around him.

Screaming immediately filled the area as everyone desperately attempted to get some distance away from Kei. Few could even get away in time before they were frozen solid, or were hit with a stray piece of ice.

[hr]

The air started getting cold, all the sudden. Wendy went from being somewhat warm, to absolutely [i]frigid[/i]. After one mere exhale, she could even see her own breath, "Huh?" Wendy said to herself when she noticed it. This was inconvenient for her, because she was still dressed for winter. That wasn't the problem, however. What [i]was[/i] the problem was that something was responsible for this sudden weather change. This [i]must[/i] be the work of a Metahuman.

Just as Wendy was getting ready to investigate, a scream erupted from the crowd in front of her, and Wendy herself nearly jumped up. Her eyes widened as she saw the utter [i]chaos[/i] unfold in front of her. A blizzard was unfolding in front of her - the ice started flying out in all directions. Wendy couldn't quite grasp what the hell was even going on.

People were getting hurt - she wasn't sure if she should evacuate or do something. But, what [i]can[/i] she do? She's only one girl, and even with her powers, a Metahuman going out of control and devastating the area was still out of her league.

Screw it. Just get out of here. However, her sharp eyes noticed that a barrage of ice was flying towards her - enough to shred her to pieces. "[i]Shit![/i]" Wendy hissed underneath her breath as she thought fast. She quickly turned into her paper form, and the barrage of ice shredded the paper to pieces - however, with no damage to Wendy.

She reformed on top of the nearby stall, with not a simple mark on her due to the attack. What the [i]hell[/i] is going on?

[hr]

"Wait, hold on a second.." Reed shivered for a second as the golden summer air seemed to drop down to icy cool temperatures, hairs bristling on the back of his neck as he glanced towards the direction of the screams, then a look of horror spread across his face as he saw the blizzard forming right in front of them.

Shards of ice were forming in the damp Roseview air, the humidity of the region working against them. "Both of you, get down!" Reed's cop instincts kicked in as he sprung from the seat, fingers clamoring for the CZ75D tucked into his concealed holster.

Haruka dashed to his aunt and forced the shocked Akemi down onto the ground; a barrage of ice shards slammed right into the disk of the sunflower head, shredding its petals into pieces, then later encasing the whole stalk in ice - which would have been his aunt's fate if they weren't quick enough.

"Wh...What's going on?" Akemi stammered as she got up slowly, still not quite recovered from the shock.

Reed threw a hand up to shield his face from the immense blizzard, the wind blasting against them at freezing temperatures. Visibility had dropped in mere seconds, but all he could see were Haruka and Akemi just behind him.

Rasping, he shouted at the top of his voice over the frost, "Haru, can you push the wind against the storm?! Give people some cover!" And like that, he pushed forward, fighting to get closer to the storm, before finding himself forced to take cover behind an overturned stall as more shards of ice jolted past him.

"I can try!" Haruka yelled back in response to Reed and scrambled to his feet, raising up a hand before him. Taking in a deep breath to calm himself down, he gathered as much of the air around to push against the incoming storm of ice, forcing back the blizzard to allow them to be able to move forward. Behind him, Akemi flicked her hands to stop any stray ice bits that managed to get through Haruka's air block with her psionic shield.

There were plenty of other people here, their screams barely drowned out by the raging blizzard - that only made Reed want to push through to the center of this thing and stop it before more were hurt, yet he realized that ignoring backup was [i]not[/i] an option.

He slipped a hand down to his pocket and frantically grabbed for his phone, barely able to dial the emergency contact intended specifically for RAVEN/DOVE. The voice that answered him could be barely made out, but all the same he shouted back as loud as he could, despite his own voice being distorted by the wind.

"This is Agent Reed Taylor! Need assistance at Havenfield Market lot twelve, there's some kind of blizzard raging here... visibility low, it's got to be another metahuman-" and before anything else could be heard, the line went dead.

[I]Dammit![/i] He thought, realizing that the storm must've somehow interfered with the signal. Not that it mattered - all he could hope for was that the message had gotten out.

Squinting, he peeked out from behind the overturned stall to face the raging blizzard, finding only the frozen silhouettes of some other poor bastards who'd been caught in the worst of it. "Is anyone out there?!" He rasped, hoping to find someone still alive.

It was... hard to see out here. Wendy was shivering at this point, and then as she tried to get away from all of this, she blinked, and fell forward off the stand. No amount of paper manipulation could save her from this. She hit the ground with a loud thud as a sharp pain filled her side. She let out a loud gasp of pain - which she could see her own breath. She tried to crawl away, but she felt the ice building on her body. "N-no..." She voiced as she shivered. She couldn't let herself fall like this - but her paper powers can't save her from this.

She heard someone yell if somebody was there.

"Y-yes..." Wendy called out. "H-help... help..." She desperately whined.

"Anyone?!" Reed could've sworn he heard a voice. It was possible that his mind was just playing tricks, but... no, he couldn't risk it.

"Anyone, I say again!" This time, he vaulted over the stall and pushed back against the storm, a hand raised overhead as he fought against the freezing cold. Frost accumulated on his skin, almost burning him, but he didn't care... he could take it.

Finally, he saw a figure slumped on the ground... a girl. "Can you hear me?!" He called to her.

"Uh- yeah..." Wendy tried to groan out the words. She was shivering at this point, and she couldn't feel her legs. This man was the only hope that she had. Now came the problem of getting out of this predicament.

He quickly made his way towards her, before realizing that the ice had already built up on her le. "Jesus, hold on - I'm with DOVE. What's your name?"

"W-W-Wendy... [i]L-Lucker.[/i]" Wendy answered the best she could.

"Wendy, I'm Reed - and I'm gonna do everything I can to get you out of here." His eyes darted to the frost, then back to the girl. "Can you move anything?"

In response, Wendy tried to move her left arm, but it was stuck in the frozen ice. Her other hand, she could move perfectly fine. Her legs were stuck.

Reed had to think fast. The longer it took to get her free, the more likely she'd become hypodermic - if she wasn't already. Without any other option, Reed chose to improvise and planted his palm against her neck, before concentrating as hard as he could in an attempt to adjust her blood flow and keep her warm that way. "Don't panic."

Wendy let out a sigh of relief upon Reed helping her. Maybe she'll get out of this... but she needs a plan. Like he said; [i]don't panic.[/i] Wait... she had become so reliant on her paper powers, that she had completely forgotten about her fire powers. This could be what helps her - but she needs a flame.

"...D-Do... can you start a fire?" Wendy asked, shaking. "I just need a small one..."

"A fire?" Reed echoed, before a hand clamored for his pocket, recalling the lighter he'd kept on him. Not that he smoked; it was just handy to have around. Clicking it, a spark flickered for the first few times before a dim flame finally erupted from it.

This was risky... it went against her vow to never reveal that she was a Metahuman - not to DOVE, or anyone. But, it was stupid to put a secret over her own life. Which is why her hand stretched out towards Reed's fire, and then she touched it with one finger. At first, it looked like she wasn't even effected by it - then the rest of her hand exploded with fire as the green Metahuman energy illuminated her nervous system, much to the agent's surprise. It all disappeared a few moments later.

However, now she was using fire manipulation. Wendy didn't copy a lot of the ability - which meant it was painfully weak - but a little fire was still enough. She snapped her fingers and then they exploded with a fire which spread to the rest of her hand. Her hand was like a torch, and then she put the flame up to her body. Which was enough to quickly make it melt.

The flame flickered as she started to lose concentration due to how cold it was. What if... She tried to channel the heat through the rest of her body. The heat made it melt, and she felt the water trickle off her body (If it wasn't turned into steam). Wendy managed to break herself free, but she was still shivering.

It wasn't long before she managed to pick herself up... she was hunched over, and shivered. She kept her hand flaming.

Helping her to her feet, Reed was desperate to get her out before things worsened - he could feel the cold biting against his face. "Wendy, can you walk? We need to get you out of here."

The flames were beginning to die out - which was a sign that Wendy needed to go absorb some more... A brief glance around told her that wasn't going to happen. She quickly realized that this brief moment of relief wasn't going to last long. So, she was going to go with the Agent. She could just feel the frost bite on her legs, but she can manage. Wendy managed to get herself to her feet, and get out an answer;

"Yeah..." She said.

Haruka rushed towards the DOVE agent, while Akemi concentrated on covering his back with her force-field. "Mr. Reed! Are you alright?" He raised an eyebrow at the sight of a teenage girl, the look of surprise quickly turned into concern. "Is she okay?"

"I'm fine," Reed grunted, supporting Wendy's weight as they shakily moved back towards them, "Just make sure she's out and safe. Backup should be coming, just get some distance - I've got to go back."

"We really need to get out of here [i]fast[/i]," Akemi said grimly - she was now back to back with her nephew. She spun around and glanced from Haruka to the girl. "We should all probably go to somewhere safe, and leave the rest to Mr. Taylor to handle."

"Y-yeah." Wendy said as she tried to stand straight up as possible, but that was hard. She managed to save herself from freezing to death by revealing her power... [i]Yelp.[/i] She just revealed that she was a power replicator to the world. This was going to bite her in the ass later. If she can get out of here alive. "L-lead, the way."

[hr]

It wasn't long until the RAVEN APC arrived on Lot Twelve (After driving like a maniac on the way there). The vehicle came to a stop - it's wheels were modified and adjusted for this kind of weather - not before the lot, and all they saw was the blizzard.

"The hell...?" Cindy muttered the words as she looked forward. There was a god damn blizzard. [i]A god damn blizzard[/i]. She couldn't believe her eyes. She wished that she could be better prepared for this... but her eyes veered towards her RAVEN friends.

Meifeng, who was leaning back in her chair, looked at the blizzard, and shrugged.

"...Okay, let's pull some straws to decide who goes out there." Meifeng leaned forward, and then she reached into her pocket and pulled out - you guessed - some straws. She always carries some around for situations like this.

"I'll go, Reed's out there and I'm not leaving-" Quentin was cut off by another; Shizuka had raised a hand to signal Quentin to stop. He could understand the taller agent's anxiety - his own family was out there too - but running out blindly without a plan was going to make the already dire situation even worse.

"Meifeng you better put those god damn straws back." Cindy sighed, shaking her head. "We're [i]all[/i] going out there, and we're all going to figure out what the hell going on - so we can fix it."

"Right," Meifeng shrugged. She knew better than to argue with Cindy - since that was a waste of everyone's time. "You gotta plan, then?"

Cindy pressed her earpiece.

"Agent Reed Taylor, come in. This is agent Green Bird, arriving on scene with backup - where is your position?"

But all she heard was static.

"Damn it." Cindy hissed.

Damn blizzard must be screwing with the radio. Which [i]means[/i] she's going have to do this the hard way...

She walked over to one of the chairs in the front, and then knelt down and pulled out a box. Opening the box revealed a bright red flare gun, with at least ten reloads. She grabbed the flare gun tightly, as she walked over to the back of the APC, and opened the door. [i]Immediately[/i] the group was barraged with cold.

"Jesus Christ!" Meifeng said.

Shizuka, who had changed into standard RAVEN armor this time, shuddered at the icy wind that blasted into him. He was glad that he took everyone's advice and didn't stubbornly go with his usual stealth suit.

Quentin threw a hand up to shield his face, grasping for his helmet and slipping the visor piece on over his head.

Cindy ignored the cold, before she raised the flaregun high up into the air, and shot it. Creating a bright red light for [i]everyone[/i] to see. Hopefully, they can get some backup.

[hr]

Elsewhere, Reed was still fighting through the storm, his jacket barely affording him any warmth as he made a search for others amidst this mess. The cold had left his fingers feeling numb, but he still pushed on - hoping to find someone else still alive in this mess or put an end to it. Hopefully soon, though; he could feel the frost forming around him, hardening, slowing his movements.. but just behind him, he could make out the flare glaring in the cold, which meant one thing: backup was here.

[hr]

After getting clear confirmation on their target, there was only three choices; foam, gas, or taze him. If they non-lethally disable him, they can possibly get him under control, and then figure out what the hell happened. Killing him would only paint RAVEN as the monsters everyone viewed them as, really.

"Gimme the grenade launcher." Meifeng said, pointing to the grenade launcher that was mounted on the interior of the APC.

Cindy faced Meifeng, and then shook her head. "It's loaded with gas rounds-"

"That's what I'm counting on." Meifeng answered. "Anyone who could be affected by it are long gone - It'll be the best way to take him out."

Sighing, Cindy grabbed the grenade launcher, and then handed it to Meifeng, looking her straight in the eye. "Don't mess this up." She said.

"C'mon, give us some credit." Quentin interjected with a groan.

"I won't..." Meifeng said with a cocky grin. "Just that I'll be a little [i]cold[/i] once I'm through - anyone wanna cuddle when I get back?"

She laughed, and made Cindy roll her eyes, even solicited an amused snort from Quentin. "Alright, come on - you've got this."

That was before Meifeng put the mask on her helmet down, and stepped outside. This RAVEN armor has been made to be resistant to most forms of superpowers - the cold being one of them. Long as she's wearing this, and she got a clear line of sight with the target; it should be easy as one, two, three.

Meifeng opened the door to the back of the APC, before she stepped around the APC all the way to the side. She was getting hit with pieces of ice, but she sure as hell didn't let any of that bother her. Thankfully, there were no raging winds to accompany, which meant she had a nice, clean shot...

Though, it was hard as hell to see through all this - she managed to see a black figure in the distance. Which had to be their lucky Metahuman. She lined up the grenade launcher, and then squinted a bit. Holding her breath, Meifeng pulled the trigger, and a grenade went flying out of the barrel.

"Wait," Meifeng started off. "... We didn't pull straws - [i]god damn it.[/i]"

Instead.of an explosive cutting through the air, and blowing Kei to pieces, it was actually a canister of Meta suppressant gas that exploded into a cloud of red gas, and blanketed the area. The gas would immediately knock out anyone unfortunate enough to inhale it.

Even through the raging cold storm that he had created, and the ice that thickly coated his body, Kei saw the red gas before inhaling it. As he breathed it in he passed out and fell down to the side. The temperature began to rise again, moving away from the polar coldness to what it had been before Kei had lost control. With it the ice that had formed on surfaces began to melt - including the ice that had coated him. With this came a lot of water - but it was better than what had been before it. Still, it didn't fix any of the damage the ice had caused.

The ice that had been previously flying around in the sky fell, now mostly harmless as it was left to melt. It was a quick change and soon visibility went back to normal. Kei lay, now unconscious, in a puddle of water - upon a closer look it was obvious he hadn't quite come out of the affair unharmed. While whatever had hit him had boosted his powers greatly his resistance to the cold hadn't quite caught up and as a result had suffered from a few cold burns due to the ice that had coated his body.

After a few moments, the blizzard began to disappear, and Meifeng smiled knowing that she took out the man who was behind all of this. She pressed her earpiece, "He's been neutralized, waiting for the gas to fade before detaining him."

"Good, alright." Cindy answered. "We're heading out now..."

Before she and the rest of the RAVENS stepped outside the APC. They quickly saw that the gas was beginning to fade, and the coast should be clear. However, they know better than to take chances. Each of them pulled out their weapons, and got ready.

All while Meifeng gleefully skipped over to Kei, and placed a collar around his neck.

Heroically putting her hands on her hips, Meifeng said, "Problem solved." With a smile on her face.

Cindy facepalmed, as Meifeng lifted Kei up, and Cindy pulled out her DNA scanner, and ran it over Kei's skin. It beeped red, before Cindy looked at the results. 

[pre]Kei Phan - Ice Manipulation. Currently lives in Greencrest Heights. History of a lack of control.[/pre]

"Huh?" Cindy said. This didn't seem right to her... He suddenly loses control here, and goes on a rampage? Thank God that RAVEN arrived, the Pure or any vigilante would have killed him without allowing DOVE to get any information out of him. She'll have to look into this.

"Okay," Cindy spoke into the comms (Which thankfully began to work again). "Get him out of here - everyone else, start on the damage control."

She began hauling Kei over to the APC with the help of [Insert RAVEN here].

"I'll get on it-"

Quentin was cut off by a familiar voice. "Jesus, little help?!"

It soon prompted Quentin to run off in its direction. When he finally found where the voice had been coming from, he was greeted by the sight of his brother shivering as the last of the ice that had formed around his clothes cracked or melted away, leaving him feeling like he'd been gone for a dip in the lake during winter.

"Shit," Meifeng started off - seeing Reed like this wasn't good. Fortunately, she had the ability to help him. She quickly scrambled over to Reed, and then put her hands over him. The ice quickly turned into water, and then fell off of Reed. Which helped Reed get free.

"God-damn, you picked a time to turn up," Reed dryly remarked, flexing his fingers - still numb from the cold. Quentin could only cackle at that, gently punching him in the shoulder before brushing off some of the melting frost that had 

"Well, it's good to see you're alright-"

"Hey, guys," Cindy stated into the comms, getting everyone's attention. She noticed something on Kei's neck as she was pulling him off. She noticed a dart in his neck. Before she even [i]thought[/i] of touching it, she put on some latex gloves, and pulled it out of Kei's neck. "There's a dart in his neck." She spoke into comms. She noticed that there was a [i]little[/i] bit of the glowing blue liquid left in his body.

"...[i]Someone[/i] caused this." Cindy stated. "We'll have to get this to forensics soon as possible - then to the investigative teams..."

"Just another case for me," Reed acknowledged with a grunt.

[hr]

Meanwhile, Shizuka had broken off from the rest and was rounding up the few civilians who were stunned and covered with frost by the unexpected blizzard. So far he had rescued four, and he was left with the last one to go.

He found the final victim at one of the food stalls; it was a slim, middle-aged lady, with one hand outstretched before her. Unlike the previous four, this one wasn't covered with mere frost, but completely frozen in ice. Her terrified face looked even more distorted from the refraction of the ice (he had half the mind to leave her like this as an ice sculpture).

He rubbed his gloved hands together; seemed like Meifeng and co. still hadn't subdue whoever who had caused this disaster yet. He flexed his fingers and sucked in a deep, icy breath, before he put a hand into the ice.

His gloved fingers touched the woman's shoulder, and he began to channel his power into her body. Although very slow and weak, he could feel that her heart was still beating. He quickly ghosted her out of the ice, his other hand (still solid) went to the earpiece. "Phantom here. All the frozen civilians have been thawed out." He lifted up the lady in his arms, frowning at her face - if it wasn't for his ability, any normal person would have assumed that she was already dead, as there were no signs of her breathing and her pulse was too weak to detect. "But one lady has a severe case of hypothermia and requires immediate medical attention."

By then the snowstorm had eased up - which meant that Meifeng had succeeded ([i]with whatever crazy plans she had[/i], he rolled his eyes at the thought). Without the control of the berserk cryokinetic, and adding on with the heat of the summer sun, the ice around him were melting away fairly quickly.

As he walked back to the APC with the woman in his arms, his mind drifted off to the various incidents that had happened ever since he had came back to Baybridge. From moronic thieves to the dumb protest and now this berserk case. While all of them were unrelated, it not only had made the human versus metahuman tension worse than before, even his trusty gut feeling was blaring in his head with red warning lights.

Too many shits were going down within a short span of just [i]four[/i] days. Not to mention, an Everest-high pile of paperwork waiting on his office's desk back at the RAVEN HQ.

...Screw paperwork. Maybe he could get Max to join him in shoving them up the asses of those lazy, useless newbies to get rid of those damned papers.

He glanced down at the lady, then he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Her head had rolled over to face outwards away from his armor, and he noticed a small blue tattoo on the neck slightly under the back of her ear:

[hider=][center][img]http://orig04.deviantart.net/22ee/f/2012/057/a/e/ae33ecf44e44314b451afacee669bb9d-d4r13om.png[/img]
[sub][url=http://kingkajuka.deviantart.com/art/Ying-Yang-Dragon-287265766]Source[/url][/sub][/center][/hider]
Shizuka narrowed his eyes at this woman. It seemed strange for an elegant tattoo like this to be hidden behind her ear; there could only be a few reasons why someone would try to hide a tattoo from plain sight.

.And one of those was that she probably belonged to some shady organization.

He continued to march towards the meeting point without another word, making a mental note to get Holly to run a quick check on this person in the database later...

[hr]

"It's... over."

Haruka, Akemi, Wendy and the rest of the people who had managed to run out of the market area were gathered outside behind the police tape. Everyone was waiting anxiously as they could almost feel the icy wind blasting out of the market towards them, which Haruka tried to keep it at bay with his air manipulation ability, though he could only use his willpower. It was too risky to make any obvious movements to attract the attention of the restless crowd, especially not after this incident.

He wouldn't be surprised that if he did all of them would probably turn on against him, to vent their anger on him just because he was a Metahuman.

The people cheered when the blizzard disappeared, but it was brief before everyone started to chatter. Haruka caught snippets of those closest to them blaming the Metahumans for bringing this disaster to Havenfield, some even swore openly with balled fists and cracked knuckles.

Wendy still couldn't feel her limbs that well. The frostbite was a bitch, and if it wasn't for Haruka, she would be falling over right now. She would need some medical attention... She didn't know who this man was, helping her like this, but she was eternally grateful. Wendy smiled up at Haruka.

But, there were people gripping about the Metahumans causing this.

The Metahuman stigma never ends. Wendy knew that. She let out a sigh as she noticed the pain in her body. She would need some medical treatment... wait, she remembered that her power allows her to regenerate long as she has some paper. She never tried it on frost bite (Due to never having the opportunity to), but she might as well try. Though, she was hoping for some solid medical treatment. She heard that DOVE has a few healers....

Wait. [i]Damn it.[/i] She thought to herself. That man that helped her was a DOVE, and most likely will be looking up her info. He'll [i]definitely[/i] notice that pyromancery isn't in her power set.

...

Today is going to suck.