The supervillain caught the revolver with ease, wasting no time to brandish it and instead immediately pointed the business end at the back of Celia's head. To be extra sure, in case it was single-action, she cocked the hammer back with her thumb. But despite the speed at which she seemingly prepared to execute her hostage there was no gunshot. She could already feel Furnace truly complying to the situation and toning back his power. Aside from the air directly around him, which was still under a slight deviation as he reduced his temperature, Sonika had complete control over her environment again. She felt a strangely shaped presence approaching, something she couldn't recognize. As such she had to turn her head to see two young men arriving at the rooftop on the back of a large wooden housefly. These kids seemed familiar to Sonika, as she had likely read about them before or seen them on TV, but she couldn't immediately identify who they were by appearance alone.

However one of them levied a threat at her.

She narrowed her eyes at Artificer. A piercing, angry stare that felt like it could kill at a glance. "I think there has been a misunderstanding," Sonika finally spoke, now returning her gaze to Furnace. "I am only outnumbered by how many hostages I now have." The blonde woman was about to slam Artificer, G4MER, and the Ebony Fly onto the floor of the rooftop but stopped herself as an idea occurred to her. Underneath her bandana she grinned and gently un-cocked the hammer on the revolver. At this point she felt yet another presence nearby, further down the side of the building. Someone who intended to retain their stealth, likely allied with the two young men who arrived. This skyscraper was getting popular, all because Sonika was on it. But she wouldn't be for much longer.

"I have more important things to do than play with children. I'll leave them to you, Furnace."

With nothing interrupting her powers now, a concussive blast of wind burst from underneath Sonika with enough force to affect everyone on the rooftop. Sonika herself was launched almost perfectly vertically into the air, away from the rooftop, while others would be thrown backwards away from where Sonika was standing. Celia, most notably, would be just as easily taken off her feet and tossed off the building like a ragdoll. Furnace would likely be knocked off the roof as well, though Sonika knew he had a glider and would bear no ill effects from the battering air or any potential fall. The Ebony Fly, with G4MER and Artificer still atop, was close enough to bear the force of Sonika's attack and would be pushed back and shaken quite hard. Hopefully enough to knock the kids off so that they too can be on a course to the cold, hard ground. With potentially three people on an express trip to hell, Sonika was confident that Furnace would be unwilling to chase her further. There was the issue with the mysterious intruder on the side of the building, but Sonika had launched herself high enough to no longer have that one in range so there wasn't much point to thinking about what to do to them. Instead it was time to actually leave.

With multiple people not only closer to Furnace than Sonika but also falling to their deaths, there was no benefit for the supervillain to remain a second longer. As her momentum began to decrease from her jump and gravity began to win the physics equation, she straightened her body out to be as narrow as possible and created another burst of air from her feet. This time it remained continuous, allowing Sonika the gift of flight as she rocketed even further into the sky. Her speed began increasing substantially and it would only be a few seconds before she would be too high up to even attempt to shoot at, should any have weapons on them. Of course Sonika had to also keep in mind her speed for several reasons. Primarily that if she started going too fast she would have to create a pocket around herself and hold her breath, so as not to harm herself with the friction and g-forces of air resistance. But if she also went too fast, especially at extreme heights, she knew that she would show up on the radar at the Denver International Airport. If that happened she wouldn't have really escaped, just delayed her capture. With that in mind she kept her speed under 100 miles-per-hour. More than fast enough to leave the foolish heroes but plenty slow enough to avoid unwanted attention from air traffic control. These independent capes were a problem in their own right, but Sonika wasn't about to get the PRT involved.



While she had been the one to ask Macavity so many questions, the actual answers to them hardly registered to her. He could be lying or making a joke for how outlandish it all seemed. But then again the proof was right before Cassidy's eyes. They were in a secret underground bunker. They hadn't been found out yet. It was loaded with goods. And clearly millions of dollars and thousands of man hours went into it. But his answers to the more important questions, about why he did what he did, were far more interesting to the young girl.

His story was very relatable to her. Perhaps he had the intuition to sense that and that would explain why he's been so nice to her so far. His mention of drive-by shootings brought back terrible memories and reminded her that her family (and supposedly herself) had all died. But she kept her emotions in check as Macavity continued his story. He wanted to be a thief to feel powerful or successful, Cassidy figured. But it wasn't quite that simple. He certainly didn't do it maliciously, even though stealing is a crime that certainly has victims. Yet it wasn't quite just a hobby, as judged by the luxurious hideout they were presently in underneath Denver. "No, I don't think I have any more questions," Cassidy responded after a moment, setting the bar of gold back atop the pile. She made extra sure to stack it properly so that it looked like nobody had touched it at all. The thought that she could just take it and Macavity probably wouldn't care briefly crossed her mind but she ignored the idea. She didn't want to steal, even if it wasn't really stealing. She was better than that. Besides, committing crimes would only hinder her in the long run. Having a rap sheet makes it impossible to get into college.

Her eyes suddenly widened as she remembered her education. She was still a student who had to attend school. Her grades weren't looking good and if they dropped any lower she wouldn't be allowed onto the track team this year. Yet none of that mattered anymore because she died. The young girl let out a grumble of frustration as she fell backwards onto the bed. "Ugh!" Now that she was laying on the bed it was pretty comfortable. As tired as she was it felt like she could fall right asleep within seconds. Just as she closed her eyes, caving into her exhaustion and willing to postpone all her terrible thoughts she would surely be having, a familiar and awkward sensation came over her again. Cassidy sat upright and jumped onto her feet, at speed that probably surprised Macavity. "I'll be right back." Without waiting for any directions to the restroom she took off to the nearest door on a pure guess.

Her instincts were correct and she returned a few moments later, now fully relieved. "Sorry about that. Been in a box for a few days, had business to take care of..." The attempt at light humor was genuine but just mentioning it was a reminder of the terrible week she's been having so far. Once again she flung herself on the bed, this time collapsing face-down against the comforter. "Do you have any food here?" she spoke up, her words somewhat muffled from the bed. Apparently she was unfamiliar with what the MREs were that Macavity mentioned. "I feel like I'm dying..." With a drawn out sigh, Cassidy finally lifted her face up from the comforter. "But... Nevermind, it wasn't important. Actually... Okay, I do have another question. Do you think I should call the cops? Like... would it be okay if I did? I don't want to get you in trouble. I also don't want people to know that I'm parahuman either. I don't have any secret identity or costume or anything. I don't even have a home anymore, let alone a secret hideout... I'm on the track team too and I don't want to be disqualified from running because I have superpowers." It was only fair that she could explain a little bit about herself, after her savior had done the same earlier, yet it still made her feel nervous for even mentioning such a slight detail about her personal life. She was starting to wonder if she was getting too comfortable with Macavity, whom she's only known for less than an hour and knows only a little about. Then again she's already cried in front of him so it wasn't that exposing to talk about athletics. "Like, if I called the cops what would I even say? If they tried to look me up it'd say that I died. But would they think I'm trying to steal my own identity or would they take my side? I dunno. I'm just not used to working with police, I guess..."

---

Raising an eyebrow at the new information, Chatter's smile vanished as he glanced in the direction of the convoy. It was approaching, they didn't have long.

His eyes being drawn to Arsenal as he spoke, he couldn't help but smirk slightly. He enjoyed the little reactions people gave him, and irritation really only fed the fire. It was in the cape's stance, in the slight change in tone, in the words he used. He responded, "They probably won't use bullets. They're more likely to rely on the capes and containment foam. Anything they do use will, of course, be quite non-lethal. I imagine our shapeshifter," he shot a smile at Love Craft, "...can handle." He paused a moment, listening further. Once Arsenal was done he nodded, got back into his car and repositioned it slightly on the side of the road. Once he was done he glanced at Sofia even as he again activated his bluetooth so that Headhunter could hear his question as well.

"Can you stop the convoy roughly in line with our car? We can use it for cover," he explained, hoping Headhunter would understand not to shoot the Convoy's engines out too far from the point he was indicating with his other hand...and his words.

His eyes remained locked on Sofia as he awaited her answer.

---

---

While typically she would have been much more vocal, Evelyn was quiet as she sat in her chair in the meeting room with her team. She was reflecting on the events of her day—her temper having calmed somewhat, though there was a heavy air about her. She was mourning and...brooding, in her way, as thoughts of how not enough was being done to apprehend the two villains responsible or to help Sonar.

So it was that she kept her mouth shut when their new team leader spoke, though she did dutifully pay attention, even glancing at Dean momentarily when he was mentioned, before she glanced at the others, and then back down to the floor when Messiah stopped talking.

She hated this...not being in the team, but having to face these ugly truths on her first damned day with the Wards. It really...really sucked.

Kyoshi watched the skies above her as several people flew off from the top of the building and a woman from the looks of things shot up into the stratosphere with incredible speed. Kyoshi did feel a gust of wind come down towards her, and it was strong, but not strong enough to cause the earthbender to fall by any stretch of the imagination. That, however, was the least of her worries, as she saw a woman plummeting to her demise a fair distance away to her left, however she was in just the right position to be able to be launched to by Kyoshi and caught. With a bit of a quick turn, the emerald-clad warrior on the building shot out at the falling woman and managed to catch her before the situation quickly devolved into red mist, and to the surprise of Kyoshi, the woman weighed slightly more than she anticipated. It was also a bit painful to the arms of Kyoshi, but she would have to deal with that in a second, right now she had to stop the two from dying.

With a quick "Hold on!" from the emerald-clad warrior, she flew over a nearby roof with Celia in tow (they didn't know each other yet, just using the name for simplicity) and began to lower her feet onto the ground with a bit of a slope being formed from under her feet in order to land safely. Surprisingly, it worked out as intended as the two women were now on top of the building safe, and after putting Celia down, Kyoshi got onto the ground and sat there, clutching her arms closely to her as she began to speak to the recently caught girl. "... sorry about the rough landing... are you okay miss?" Underneath the costume, it could easily be seen that Kyoshi took a bit of a beating from catching Celia, as her arms were red as hell and burned from the pain just as badly.

@Nattook

For a decent amount of time, G4M3R had been staring downwards at the Denver streets. Pete was probably fairly focused on flying the... well, fly, so Kirb picked up his friend's slack. That was good considering his new recruit, the asian girl, Kyoshi was her cape name, was flinging herself around on concrete. Probably took a lot of concentration to do so. So G4M3R rode on with Pete in his bizarre fly invention.

That was, until he was snapped out of his methodological searching by a shout. His robotic receivers flared to life, simultaneously hearing both Pete's physical shout and the walkie-talkie's signal at the same time. "Ah, shit, not so loud! I have a robot's ears, dumbass." G4M3R mumbled, his head now rising upwards to meet the back of Pete's head, than what he was shouting about. There was a seeming fight on a roof, a PRT cape, he had flames or something, and two women, both also presumably superpowered. The older was holding the younger at gunpoint.

"Yes, okay, this is a good opportunity for us! Helping this guy will cement us as big damn heroes. Little big damn heroes at least..." Kirb mumbled again as Pete guided his mount over to the behind of the older woman. She now couldn't focus on both Furnace and them, and Kyoshi was seemingly in hiding too, waiting to strike. This was going to be simple, as long as no one was too hasty the Minutemen could at the least run distraction for Furnace and take some credit. Preparing to go on the offensive, G4M3R unsheathed his weapon and slid halfway off the fly, hanging on with his free hand.

Unfortunately right after this, the villain took her leave, doing so in a fairly explosive fashion. A huge shockwave of air erupted from her feet, easily throwing the girl and, more importantly Kirb right off the side of the building. He let a curse fly fairly openly, allowing the wrench to fall out of his hands without a care about it. The only thing he could think of to save himself was using Fox's Reflector a second before he hit the ground, which he knew probably wouldn't work. Kirb stared straight down at the ground as he fell, finger over the on button, hoping either his plan would work or someone would come and save his ass.

As the glass doors slammed shut in front of Zach, a breath escaped his lips. He glanced down to his feet, and slowly the busy sounds around him came into focus. A few seconds passed before Zach walked out, his head not quite as high. It was dark outside, and the cold air whipped against the 'not enough' layers he was wearing. Uncle Sam wasn't in the best of moods, but he'd gotten Zach out of the bind. That came at the cost of everything Zach knew, except the small detail about Arsenals name. He also kinda flubbed the weapons he was using, partially for not knowing, and partially not to give away too much about his associate.

Zach slowly pulled his wallet out, not bothering to count the crisp cash within. It was enough to get him through a month, Sam had assured him of that, but still. . . His power couldn't make him money, so the hell what was he gonna do? Work in a cauldron of boiling lava? Zach could take punches, but he just couldn't give them out. The PRT was too much paper work, the bureaucracy, not to mention. . . The last thing Zach wanted was to be another cog in a big government machine. However if things did get worse, which they probably would, he would have to at least try and join the Protectorate.

Die on the streets, or watch others die because you weren't given the right orders. Neither option sounded appealing.

A long sigh filled the air with a hazy tinge. He noticed the bulge at the bottom of his right pant leg, and knew others would too. An ankle bracelet, so he couldn't leave the city if any more evidence was released. At least he got off easy, and, better yet, alive. No jail time, just parole. Zach shook his head, as if to physically shake away the pessimistic thoughts that had been consuming him ever since he'd been picked up. He took a hesitant step forward, headed home.

Furnace took notice of some new arrivals, in particular the two tinkers flying aboard a... Giant fly? What the hell? Well damn, things just got far more complicated. The hero was independent because that's how he worked best, his power providing far too much in the way of collateral damage to hold himself to a team. If these guys and that girl in the domino mask had just stayed away he could have handled Sonika. His power was practically tailored to counter hers! Alas, they felt the need to get involved, and so now a tremendously powerful villain with no compunction about killing had an increasing amount of leverage. Worse, she knew it. She practically flaunted the fact.

He kept himself at the ready to counter the villain's gun if she tried to shoot him. If she tried shooting anyone else, well, that would really suck. Nothing he could do about that. At that moment Sonika created a massive gust of wind, strong enough to hurl everyone off the building and knock the fly-riders around a bit too. Just like that she was off, getting away to create more destruction and misery in the world. The unaffiliated hero grit his teeth and attempted to get his bearings as he tumbled through the air. His first instinct was to dive for the young woman, but she already seemed to be in the midst of a rescue by some cosplayer. Furnace unfurled the glider function of his armored back just in time to notice that one of the riders had fallen off of the giant fly. The more experienced hero went into a nosedive, heading straight for G4M3R. Once close enough he reached out and snagged the younger hero by the wrist, then pulled up in his glider. G4M3R would feel a tremendous heat emanating from his savior, but as it was all directed upward it was not dangerous, only uncomfortable.

Leveling out, Furnace landed with a tumble on a shorter rooftop. He released G4M3R, rolling into the impact and hoping the tinker's instincts would encourage him to do the same. The landing was rough, but they could walk away from it. After a few seconds Furnace got back on his feet and brushed off his costume, looking up to see Sonika was already far too gone to give chase. Not that he ever thought he could have caught up to her anyway. "Damn!" he muttered to himself. "It was sheer luck I got close enough to disrupt her flight the first time!"

He punched a nearby wall, scuffing the paint job of his knuckle guards and leaving a small crack in the impact. Then he shook his head and turned to look at G4M3R, his angry features slowly fading. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the attempt at assistance, but I can't let others get involved in my own skirmishes. It's not safe and it severely cuts down the options I have in a fight." He did not sound as though he were talking down to the younger hero, but simply stating a matter of fact. "Well, I guess one of us will just have to get her next time. The name is Furnace, but you probably knew that. And you..." As he held his hand out to shake, Furnace seemed to have some sort of realization. "You're G4M3R, right? I caught a couple of your streams. Fun stuff. Your people are the, uh... The Minutemen, right? Better gather them. I need to check on the hostage your cosplay chick saved."

---

He'd been minding his own business, and logging some overtime at work in the office when something caught his eye outside. Glancing out the window almost lazily, he found his eyes widening. Two capes, both which he recognized, were presumably fighting outside. Sonika and Furnace, specifically....

His mind whirred into motion and he couldn't help feel his other body almost respond. He wanted to switch...he wanted to do something. He could almost feel the rush of emotion and sensation that he got from using power. It was just out of reach. He tried to turn back to his work, but it didn't work. He was distracted now and there was no way he was getting any work done.

So much for overtime.

Doing his best to look casual he bid his fellow employees a good day and headed out of the building. No one asked why he was walking so fast and if they had he'd just have said that he had to pick up his sister or something. That happened sometimes, it wouldn't have been too strange.

Finding himself outside he glanced around, backpack over his shoulders, until he found an alley. He cut into it, made sure there was no one in there, and then he changed into his costume and hid his backpack in a pile of mostly paper and cloth refuse. Looked like no one had gotten to it yet. He made a note of where he was and then he entered the street. As he did he saw that the confrontation had altered significantly in that short time. Sonika was making her escape.

He narrowed his eyes, noticed a red light, and walked out into the middle of the street...and then swapped. The feeling was always a bit strange, but not for the reason one might think. It wasn't like entering an unfamiliar body, it was like being thrown in a direction that wasn't anything you'd ever experienced before. It wasn't left, right, up, down, forwards or backwards...but it was a direction nonetheless. That's how it felt at least, but the disorienting feeling only lasted for a split second.

---

---

The feeling passed and as it did he felt himself inhabit his Second Vessel, which took the form of one massive, 24 foot long, 6 foot at the shoulder being that most would call monstrous in appearance. Four arms and a host of tail-like tendrils that trailed along his body from various locations, most around his actual tail. There were more than a few screams and even more honks not to mention some brakes being slammed on. He smiled, not that anyone would be able to see the expression, his face was incomprehensible to everyone except him and his sister—she'd learned the nuances while they'd practiced...it had taken six months and she wasn't a slow study.

Partially to get out of the way and partially to get a better look at the retreating villain, Jake...no Outsider, moved, his sinuous body looking as if it were swimming at an angle upwards into the air. Swiftly it had spiraled above the top of the building that his quarry had used to take off, but he didn't stop there, rising about twice the building's height into the air. While he couldn't see like his human body could, he could hear and distinguish/isolate sounds much better...and he always had his electromagnetic sense. If only he'd locked onto Sonika's bio-signature before she'd taken off this would have been much easier, but alas...it was not. Nonetheless, he managed to locate a human-shaped form in flight.

He smiled, briefly analyzed the bio-signatures of the nearby capes—Furnace, G4M3R, Artificer, and...the chick whose name he wished he knew—before focusing. While it all took place in the space of two or so seconds, he could feel the distinct sensation of biochemical and bio-electric energy building up in his body before it was suddenly transmuted into kinetic force. In an instant he accelerated from a 0 mph hover, to roughly the same speed as Sonika, releasing controlled/directed bursts of the energy behind him before he started relying on his kinetic field to control his trajectory and any further acceleration.

He wouldn't be gaining on her quickly—mostly by choice and for safety's sake—but he would be gaining on her. If he made his debut by catching, or at least taking on a known villain he figured people would more easily accept that the monstrous 'Outsider' as he'd named himself, was in fact a hero...not a villain or some alien monstrosity like the Endbringers.

He shuddered at the thought of being compared to one of those strange beasts. He didn't like thinking about them...because he'd seen one up close and the memory was...well, it wasn't pleasant.

That was in the past though, for now it was time for him to focus on his future. It was time to catch Sonika.

The revelation that not one, but two Protectorate Capes were guarding their target was somewhat annoying. Raymond generally preferred to do his own research on his targets before taking them out, which he'd clearly lacked the time to do in this situation, and he generally preferred it to be accurate. Still, he wasn't exactly perfect in that regard either: he'd gotten some research avoidably wrong before, and nearly been outed as a parahuman as a result. And this was a much less severe error, or so it seemed, so one could forgive the Broker for his failure in this case.

Regardless, it seemed a point had to be made about whether the team went through with the mission, or whether they didn't, and apparently both Arsenal and Chatterbox were willing to take the gamble (har de har har) that their original plan would still work out. Non-lethal methods of defense were most likely, and they reckoned Love Craft could handle the issue until Chatterbox managed to calm the targets down and keep them from pursuing the group. Which left Headhunter to disable the vehicles.

The first step of the plan was leaving his M16A4 in a location other than his initial sniping point. In his case, he'd placed it about halfway down the hill he would initially start at the top of, such that he could slide down to it once the initial job was done, and so avoid notice if somebody happened to be smart enough to figure out where he had initially set up and started shooting from, and in turn allowing him to kneecap or otherwise disable his targets in ways that did not involve enough force to mulch their upper bodies. That said, the Steyr IWS 200 would be the weapon he used to do the vehicle disabling: by shooting out the engines of each truck in the convoy, they could be forced to roll to a stop in a way that would be relatively non-harmful for the occupants of the vehicles, as was desired by Broker.

And right on cue, Chatterbox asked Headhunter to shoot the vehicles so that they would roll to a stop in line with their car, to allow it to be used for cover. If Sofia ignored the wheels of the vehicles into the ground, as discussed, that would be right in front of the car; if not, it'd be a fair distance in front of the car instead. 'Copy that, Chatterbox,' he responded, his own bluetooth still on just to hear what the others were proposing. 'Sofia, you need to make your mind up quickly, because what you do decides when I shoot out the engines.' In truth, he had already decided that short of any response, he'd shoot the engines out a bit closer to the car than they might expect - knowing human psychology, the drivers of each truck would likely brake comparatively quickly, bringing the convoy to a halt faster than perhaps the others would plan for. Assuming, of course, he could take out all three vehicles quickly, because if he was slow on the first, the other two might accelerate away further than was sensible to allow. But he had time to prepare for either eventuality, at least.

@ProPro@Eklispe@The Wild West@yoshua171@Kafka Komedy

Artificer was simply trying to give out a helping hand to another hero, I mean this random lady was dealing with the famous Furnace, so just adding a couple more heroes for some extra intimidation factor would most likely make them let go of the hostage. That was Artificer's thought process anyway, however, as the costumed lady gave him a death glare with an ominous counter-threat, he felt that he might of messed up quite a bit. "Hey! Lady, what do you think you're saying? You're surrounded! So giv-" Before Artificer could finish his sentence though, the costumed villian had suddenly flew up straight up into the air with the resulting shock wave of air causing some massive turbulence on the Ebony Fly. “Oh shit!” Artificer shouted, the Ebony Fly shaking violently as it tried to re-orientate itself from the powerful gust of air. Artificer tightened his grip on the rope tied onto Ebony Fly, he almost felt his body slide completely off the side but he tightened his position on the fly as he pressed his thighs tightly together on the ebony wood. These actions allowed Artificer to survive from falling off the Ebony Fly, but from the backside he could feel his friend slipping off as he did not have time to properly anchor himself to the wooden fly. The young hero cursed to himself as it would suck pretty bad if his friend and leader died in such a gruesome way, so as he was about to order Ebony Fly to save G4M3R the hero Furnace seemed to swoop in and save the day! With a sigh of relief behind his mask, Artificer watched Furnace and G4M3R crash land on the roof allowing the fly-rider to focus on the newer member of the team with the apparent saved hostage.

It only took a few seconds for Artificer to arrive at the lower building, he saw the hostage a bit more clearly as it seemed they were some young woman who had found herself in a strange situation with little to no damage on her. However, the same couldn't be said for their teammate Kyoshi with their arms looking like they were damaged to a moderate degree from the high speed catch. "Yikes, that looks like a gnarly burn Kyoshi, but at least you managed to save the hostage," Artificer said, unsuccessfully trying to make his teammate feel a bit better, "However, I'm pretty sure Furnace and G4M3R would like us to come over to make sure the hostage is safe." Artificer landed the fly near the two, the rider offering his hand to pull up the other two onto the fly and once the two were on board would fly themselves over towards G4M3R and Furnace on the taller building to unify the separated parties. During this process, Artificer didn't see the fact that a 24 foot long flying beast passed by the group nearby, unaware of the monster sighting as his attention was to bring the two girls to the other side in safety.


Macavity shrugged to himself at the apparent defeat of the question monster, it seemed that his story had managed to quell the beast's hunger about his past. Anyway, with this pause in the conversation, Macavity yawned to himself loudly as he started to stretch his back against the soft luxurious chair. During this action, Macavity noted that the girl had placed back one of the golden bars back into its neatly stacked pyramid formation. It seemed at least that the little girl still had some sort of code of honor to herself as most people he knew would have at least tried to take one for the road. Macavity shrugged to himself mentally at that observation, it seemed that the girl didn't have the mentality yet for using her powers for her own gain and seemed to be taking a higher road when presented with the same situation that Macavity had found himself at his young age. It was a bit interesting, but it didn't matter too much to him as Macavity would soon have to be rid of her in some way as the longer he left her here, the more dangerous she becomes to the thief. Sure, he knew the risk of stealing valuable objects from the Bratva, but stealing parahuman cargo that could snitch on the organization's operation? That was something Macavity knew that was going to blast in his face if he tries to keep the girl in his care. Either way, she needed to be ousted from his company, preferably in a position where she won't be instantly captured and sent somewhere off into the world for her powers.

As Macavity was discussing various plans within his mind, it took him by quite a surprise once the girl had suddenly lurched up from his bed. The thief thought just for a second that the girl might have become violent at the little amount of options she had left, that was a long shot, but Macavity didn't want himself being frozen for her to just walk up to him and murder him in his own hideout. He was just about to turn himself invisible before she went into a completely different direction he had been expecting, it was actually straight into the bathroom? Oh... At the realization of what the girl wanted to do combined with the reaction that Macavity had put up, the thief lightly chuckled to himself at his stray thought of being betrayed and killed by some little girl. Relaxing back into his seat, he put his legs crossed on a nearby leg rest, continuing to think of plans and locations that Macavity could stash her safely without being reliant on his powers and secret hideouts.

When she arrived back into his field of vision with a small joke, Macavity slightly smirked, not at the joke, but at the fact that this little girl was recovering quite quickly from such terrible time that would put most children in a state of panic and start to bawl their eyes out. This girl was a bit different from the rest, but it was common knowledge that most parahumans were quite different from the average joe. "Well, like the famous actor once said in a certain dinosaur movie, you gotta go when you gotta go," Macavity said, joking back at the girl before she threw herself face first back into his bed. It then didn't take long before the girl started to complain about her fatigue and hunger, it seemed that she wanted food from her meager cries, and Macavity was happy to oblige as he started to move himself over towards the MREs. The thief didn't eat much of them, he stole a crate of these on a whim, but he definitely isn't one to waste food or throw away any stolen objects. So, as he was grabbing a few of these nutritious packs for her, it seemed that she had another question on her mind with a tough answer that Macavity had to say to the young girl. "Ok... Look, first of all, I would highly recommend that you actually avoid talking or looking at any stranger especially the police. The Bratva are ruthless and efficient, especially with their new leader, and I'm almost 99.99% sure that sure that the police have been corrupted through the Bratva's influence from either one little cop to the entire department. I've been in the criminal trade probably longer than you since you have been born, so you can trust me that I know what I'm talking about right now. Secondly, I'm sorry to say this, but your previous life has been over since the moment the Bratva got their dirty mitts on you. Do you know why? Because you are the first leak that the criminal organization can't plug up with their brutal efficiency. I'm actually surprised they haven't put up a bounty on your head yet, maybe they are trying to do damage control or something after your break out, but with their bounty on your head it is going to cause every single villain in the entire city and beyond to hunt for you and bring you back to the Bratva which I'm definitely not going to let happen to you. So, lastly to my main point, can you guess which organization fights against these costumed villains on a regular basis and helps out the common citizen? Yes, I know they can be extreme douche bags and you don't want to let people know that you are parahuman, but it will be much better than whatever the Bratva are going to do to you... Girl? Damn, I don't even know your name." Macavity soon stopped his ranting and soon he walked back to his chair with two handfuls of MREs. The frustrated thief plopped himself back into the comfortable chair to make himself feel less uncomfortable after his words leaving a stale awkwardness in the room.

"I'm sorry for saying that all to you, I get mood swings often and was kind of getting frustrated over the fact that leaving you with the Protectorate was really the only option I could think of to save you from the hell you would experience if you were ever captured. There was also the elephant in the room and... Hey, you still hungry?" Macavity awkwardly said, raising up the several MRE packages in his hands, "You can stay here for a day or two to recuperate and regain your strength, however, sooner or later once that bounty hits the entire community of villains will be looking for you and keeping you would leave me too vulnerable as my power doesn't put up much of a fight. I hope you understand my reasoning here."

A moody expression darkened Elliot's face as he entered the conference room. He thought he'd departed early enough to arrive on time, but all of the Wards save their new leader had beaten him here. In an unsurprising turn of events, the status and future of the teenage taskforce weighed heavily on everyone's minds. Having selected an empty chair, he deposited himself in it without much composure and stilled himself to wait for Alessa. It wasn't long before the girl arrived, seated herself, and began the meeting.

With remarkable speed, Elliot found himself annoyed with Alessa's manner. She seemed stiff, impersonal, and ultimately disingenuous in both the way she held herself and the way she spoke. In the time in which Elliot worked with Sonar, the kid hadn't gotten all formal like that at all, even when important matters were at hand. She's already starting acting like she thinks a leader should act...like a businessman reading off a quarterly report. This whole stinking mess affects us all as humans. You'd think she'd try and empathize. But what did he know, after all? The dark and mysterious antihero never stood as leader of the pack of goody-goodies, for he played by his own rules.

So, the new second-in-command could be Dean. Elliot suppressed a groan. If he'd known that the person with which he shared a mutual hate would eventually be promoted to a position of a semi-power over him, he might have held off on the taunting. Now, he supposed, he would have to hope that second-in-command didn't mean much of anything in terms of authority—or that Alessa never fell on the battlefield. Of course, he knew Alessa didn't like him much more, but she wasn't as openly spiteful to him as Dean. To protest the decision would be to invite more scorn upon him while changing nothing, however. The realization of how little his word stood for in the group, all based off his behavior, was a sobering one. He'd have to rein in his brooding tendencies, even if he couldn't change who he was. Ugh. It makes me want to quit.

Of course, he felt zero inclination to share any ideas with the team about 'integration'. The problem with young heroes was that they all felt they knew best, and that was an issue that only time and pain could solve, not group therapy sessions. Elliot leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

Dean: PRT HQ

Dean was, surprisingly, the first to be in the conference room. He hadn't actually gone to relax during his downtime, still fairly pent up from the events that had transpired. As such he was sure to be early to the meeting room. Once everyone else was there, Alessa began her speech. She used a fairly similar tone to their private conversation, polite and formal, even though they had just lost one of their own. Once prompted, Dean began explaining his idea. "Basically all the stuff that Ira makes, if it doesn't need to be held on a specific person, power stuff, or if it's situational or anything, Elliot here could carry it." He said. But looking over at Elliot, he didn't seem to care at all. He was absent mindedly staring up at the wall, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Asshole." Dean muttered, turning from Elliot to his new leader.

Love Craft: Highway Robbery

Hmm. So Broker was wrong, there were two capes coming out to stop them. No matter, of course, the group could surely handle it. Still, it was odd their boss was off the mark on their first job. Even if this wasn't a set up it didn't speak well to what Broker was like. Hopefully these errors were few and far between. For now, Frankie would keep their eyes and ears peeled for signs of betrayal. It obviously wasn't out of the realm of possibility with what had happened to the man that had joined them in the Icehouse.

Still, no one backed down. They did bring up good points; obviously the transport wasn't expecting an attack and likely packed nonlethal weaponry, something they could reasonably handle. Lovely prepped their skin, hardening it in anticipation of the rubber bullets about to hit as the truck passed over into view. They began getting closer to the road, ready to soak up all the damage her little friends couldn't while they worked their magic.

It was not actually Kyoshi or Pete that saved Kirb, but the man that they were attempting to assist, Furnace. He was really big around these parts (though Kirb had forgotten to search up his actually power, a huge mistake apparently) and Kirb wasn't sure to be honored or ashamed at being saved by him. After rolling onto a local rooftop, the Kirb dusted himself off and came face to face with Furnace, who seemed a tad mad but toned it down as he took a look at G4M3R. Apparently his power, whatever it was, wasn't good to use around people. Well then why the hell did Pete close in? Ugh, he'd have to talk with him about that...

But that didn't matter now. As Kirb and Furnace shook hands, the hero mentioned he watched G4M3R's streams. He couldn't help but smile. He knew those were a good idea. Still, this was no time to dally. Kirb turned to call Pete and Kyoshi over and... In the sky. There was a massive writhing thing following that villain up in the air. Astounded, all Kirb could do was stand their and stare, mouth agape.

As soon as Sonika caught the gun, she cocked the hammer back and pointed it directly at Celia's forehead. There was no flourish, no performance, just cold calculated dominance. Before the supervillain could speak again, her gaze shifted past Furnace and Celia. In a slow motion, Celia turned around and saw a giant black fly approaching with two people riding it. As Celia watched, she suddenly noticed an unencrypted frequency emanating from the two passengers. "-I see something on top of some office building around 200 feet tall. Try to get there as fast as you can, me and G4M3R are heading towards there now." Celia caught the signal a bit late, but it was enough to identify at least one of the people riding the fly. The hint that there was a third member one of the mountees was communicating with was not lost.

The web returned plenty of results as far as G4M3R's persona; a streamer and parahuman of the Tinker classification. His ears allowed him to magnify sounds, or something like that-he hadn't put too much information out. As Celia downloaded and reviewed G4M3R's streams from front to back as fast as possible, she found out who the fly belonged to: A tinker named Artificer, who was G4M3R's friend. A response came from a walkie-talkie on the ground, a confirmation of movement. The occupants of the fly arrived at the roof, apparently ready to assist, though Furnace seemed none too pleased about this. Artificer, identifiable as not G4M3R, declared that Sonika was outnumbered. Sonika controlled the air with immense power, and he thought that the current lineup could subdue her? Doubtful. unless he had some secret weapon up his sleeve.

Celia slowly turned back to Sonika, who seemed to be trying to murder the cocky hero with her eyes as opposed to using her power. No harm in trying. She responded with a measured tone, pointing out that every person on scene was a hostage excluding Furnace. A beat passed, before Sonika suddenly shifted the hammer of Celia's revolver to the safer position, and spoke again. She spoke some parting words, and a concussive blast of air exploded underneath her. The force sent Celia tumbling once again, her shock only matched by the speed of her quick descent. Celia once again did trajectory calculations, and was surprised to find that the first one exactly matched her current fall. Of course. Sonika isn't around to move the air, so I'm just falling normally Celia thought, and shifted into a position that would help her fall slower. A figure rocketed off the side of the building Celia had just been on top of, heading straight towards her. With impressive form, Celia found herself in the arms of some green clad avenger, who brought her down on a slope that had risen to meet the young woman's feet.

The 'savior' carefully set Celia down on the roof, and asked her if she was doing okay. How selfless. Celia nodded in response, an almost imperceptible motion that would leave the less observant confused if it was purposeful or not. The android turned around, looking in the direction Sonika had fled, and was shocked to see a creature straight out of Love Craftian horror rising into the sky to chase her. A careful scan of the web revealed absolutely nothing. This creature didn't seem to be an endbringer, but was apparently making one of its first appearances here and now.

Again her attention shifted as Artificer approached Celia and her savior. He remarked on Kyoshi-That was her name. Anyways, Artificer remarked on Kyoshi's condition, which Celia confirmed visually was quite poor. Celia had been falling pretty fast, though it was useless now to remark that she would have survived regardless. The so called sacrifice was just a way to expedite the expected outcome. At the offer of Artificer's hand Celia nodded and used his assistance to board his strange mount. At first she seemed uncomfortable, though she shifted a bit and pressed herself against the young Tinker's back for stability. Personal space didn't seem to be a concern at the moment, though it was yet to be seen if it ever would be.

Kyoshi smiled when she saw the silent nod of the domino woman, feeling a slight sense of worth underlying her actions. She was the newest member of the Minutemen and hadn't had a real chance to show off her power to the public yet (She went with the tinkers to the junkyard in efforts to obtain scrap metal to fuel their desires and she usually carried all of the metal), so this was a good show for the Minutemen and it would result in good PR, not to mention that this was all a side effect of just helping this woman out. Alas, the time was interrupted when Artificer arrived on his fly. He made a comment about her red arms, and Kyoshi gave a response to what he had said "It stings but it'll be ok." Artificer offered his hand to the two women asking if they wanted to fly over to the building Furnace and G4M3R were on, and while the domino woman took the offer, Kyoshi had begun backing up to take a running start and again she responded to Artificer. "No thanks P. I just need a bit of a running start."

Once all was said and done, Kyoshi began running towards the end of the building, and launched off the ground towards Furnace and G4M3R, flying through the air like she was truly alive and well, like nothing could stop her now. While she was at the peak of her flight, she caught a glimpse of... some kind of alien? She had no idea what the heck it could even be to be quite honest with you. She was astonished by it, and when she landed on the roof she exclaimed out to G4M3R and Furnace "Did you guys just see that thing?"

Sofia thought about Chatterhead- er box's, suggestion. To do that she'd have to be touching the tires though wouldn't she? That'd be pretty hard to do if they were moving. "Well I don't-" Sofia began quietly before getting overridden by Arsenal saying that Chatterhead's plan was good. Before she could think of how to respond Chatterhead was talking again asking her to stop them in line with the car. Well that she could try to do. Sofia nodded, "I'll try to get them stop in line with us." she said and hurriedly went out towards the road.She probably could've just brought Chatterhead with her and made him ignore stuff and then he could talk to them however long he wanted to, but the plan of action was clearly already set and there wasn't much time to discuss a chance of plans so Sofia dutifully stepped next to the road, having been careful to count the amount of steps from the car to here that way she could retrace her steps to safety.

Umm... could she do anything other than just stand in the way and hope they stopped? Not that she could think of, she couldn't affect them unless she could touch them, and that would kind of require them to be stopped already. Well they probably wouldn't run her over. So Sofia wandered into the road, looking for all the world like a homeless teenager girl roughly a few seconds before the front of the convoy would pass, so would pretend to be oblivious until the last second before jerking her gaze to the driver and closing her eyes in 'fear'. Of course she's be using her power to ignore any danger just on the offhand case they did something crazy like shoot her or run her over. Though the fear wasn't entirely faked, Sofia had never really liked cars since her trigger and the sight of a vehicle screaming towards her wasn't exactly comforting.

The workshop Ira spent the good part of an hour in had warmed considerably. An oppressive heat had filled the room, and many of her various machines were buzzing away; the music and mechanical hum fought for control of the air waves. She was sat at her work table, a welding mask over her face. The loud hissing of Oxy-acetylene welding sounded up for a second before Ira took off the mask, and turned the two valves 'til they were closed. A silver box about the size of a briefcase lay on the table, with a small LED display on the face. A quick look around the room would reveal just how much of Ira's tech had been cannibalized for the simple briefcase. Ira blew on the edge she had just welded, before slowly picking it up by the handle she had carefully created.

Ira stood up slowly, 'briefcase' in hand, and headed towards the assigned meeting room. She arrived a minute before their leader, and sat down silently. Her expression hadn't changed much from earlier, and she simply set the briefcase on the table with LEDs facing upward. Ira wasn't wearing her mask anymore, and had removed the bulletproof vest. Her initial reaction to Alessa's general chatter was similar to Elliot's, but she softened a bit at the mention of their new second in command. Dean wasn't a bad choice truthfully, and she certainly didn't want the position. Ira started listening closer at the mention of volunteering ideas for team integration, with the preface that Dean had already come up with one.

Dean explained the basic premise, that Elliot could shrink her creations, and make them more effective combat tools. That was actually a really intelligent idea, and she was kind of disappointed the thought had never crossed her mind. She nodded in confirmation, and spoke up at the first opportunity. "Yeah, that could definitely work." Her voice was loud enough to be heard, though she sounded unsure. "We could try it with this, but I haven't tested it yet so I don't know if it works" She said motioning towards the briefcase, before speaking again. "I know Ales-Er Messiah has a power that can be visually perceived. It'll work best if we can see the change." Ira finished, looking about the room, her eyes staying on Tulpa a bit longer than the others.

The confirmation that Gamble's convoy had not one, but two Protectorate heroes guarding it was not enough to sway the Jacks from their assigned job. In response they merely gave the plan some minor adjustments and hurried along the preparations and so now... It is go time. The convey approached with the transport vehicle in the middle, the two escorts in front and back. The line snaked over the horizon, around the multiple hills that lined the interstate, until it was the perfect opportunity. Headhunter fired three shots from his massive gun. BANG. BANG. BANG. In quick succession the vehicles began to slow down and swerve, the drivers attempting to regain control. The transport in the back collided with the highway median, resulting in another two cars crashing into it from behind. That had effectively cut the scene off from any civilian traffic approaching from the South. Meanwhile the lead escort and the transport truck were having a difficult time of things. The front escort was approaching Sofia at an alarming rate, something she could easily tell by sound with her eyes clenched shut. It swerved in an attempt to miss the young teenage girl and succeeded in crashing through the guard rail and sliding down the hill. Anybody that had been in that truck would undoubtedly be in for a long hospital stay.

The transport truck, however, was less controlled and barreled right through Sofia regardless as to what the driver had wanted. That is exactly what the young parahuman wanted, though. With the vehicle now in contact with her body (well, through her body, anyway) she could ignore it. The wheels sank down into the ground as planned and once the transport truck had passed completely through her it was no longer effected by her powers. Thus Newton's law of motion came into play in a most violent manner, as the wheels were no longer tangible to the ground they fused with concrete and asphalt. The transport truck tore itself clean off of its axles, though not without destroying a fair amount of the highway street alongside it. Within a few moments the truck skidded to a stop, twisting a bit. The landing zone was not as ideal as planned, but since it was only off by approximately 25 feet all in all they did a good job.

Sight around the scene became difficult to make out as all the smoke from blown out engines, burning rubber, and torn to shit highway debris floating in the air. There was no response from any of the vehicles for a good few seconds, but then the doors kicked open and four PRT soldiers came running out, armed with guns and definitely roughed up but ready and willing to fight. One immediately began opening fire on Sofia, for all the good that did. Eyes still closed, still "ignoring" danger, the projectiles phased right through her and harmlessly into the side of the back escort vehicle. A second soldier took cover behind the median and opened fire upon the slowly approaching Love Craft. The bullets were rubber, as anticipated, but he was using a semi-auto rifle and it hurt like a bitch. The other two soldiers took a moment to get their bearings and found cover, then once they had themselves reoriented began shooting uselessly at what had to seem like a ghost girl and a walking juggernaut. Chatterbox and Arsenal were hidden for the moment, safely behind the car and unnoticed by the PT soldiers. Headhunter's position hadn't been found yet, but it would be impossible for them not to realize that a sniper was nested somewhere.

Four soldiers, but no capes. Had the vehicular abuse already knocked the Protectorate capes out? Were they too injured to participate? Such a thing was possible, but seemed unlikely.

---

Furnace gave G4M3R a moment to contact his team, these "Minutemen," and they quickly began to arrive on the same rooftop that the duo had found themselves forcibly atop. The woman clad in green with white facepaint took a running leap, helped by the use of her powers that apparently allowed manipulation of the concrete and cement. Artificer came flying over on his, well, fly. With him his mount carried the other young woman wearing a domino mask, the original hostage that Sonika had taken. Was she part of the group too? Furnace only knew of the team founder and the second tinker, Artificer, but their website had a recruitment drive going. The kid mentioned it in the game streams Furnace had seen. Maybe she was completely new, like this cosplay woman? Regardless the experienced hero's attention found itself completely dominated by... Something.

Some sort of creature apparently of alien design appeared seemingly from nowhere, flying up from the streets and straight after the Russian super villain. G4M3R said nothing but his shock could not have been more apparent. The painted woman commented in a rather subdued manner, not exactly the reaction of someone amazed but it was definitely unfamiliar to her as well. Artificer though, he didn't react to the creature the least bit. From what Furnace could gather, and further evidenced by the giant wooden fly, Artificer was a tinker that could make things thought impossible even by the standards of other tinkers. Could this sky-serpent be his own creation? Furnace had to consider, then dismissed the thought. The others wouldn't have been so shocked to see it otherwise.

"I have... Absolutely no idea what the hell that thing is." Ideas began pouring forth through his mind. A new parahuman? Possibly, but what side is it on? A new Endbringer? It didn't appear to be wreaking untold havoc and destruction, but then again neither did the Simurgh in her first appearance. Troubling. Very troubling. The sight of Artificer landing with the young woman snapped his attention back to his original focus.

"Well whatever it is, there's nothing I can do right now. Are you ok, ma'am? If you need any emotional support, I am here for you." The hero did not seem to be treating Celia like a hero, considering he did see her mask. Rather he seemed to be treating her like any normal person that had been put through a harrowing, potential traumatic experience. Was this some kind of superiority condescension? Or would he have reacted this way for anybody?

Wind whipped against Jaunt's body, threatening to push him off the edge of the building. Sonika and Furnace had been up here not too long ago, along with Gamer, and Artificer. There had been more, but he didn't recognize them. He had watched the scene unfold as best he could from afar, but upon Sonika's departure he had gotten closer. He watched the vigilantes and Furnace group together on a distant roof. He was glad no one had gotten seriously injured, but that didn't mean the day was won.

He glanced to his right, and was put into a stupor at the sight of a giant red and white worm-like creature chasing after Sonika. It was as big as an Endbringer, with blue hands. It traversed the distance in impossible ways, as if it were swimming through the air. Jaunt shivered a bit, abandoning the idea of bring Sonika back over to the building for a chat. He glanced back to the odd ensemble of 'heroes.' They seemed like a good candidate for giving him more information about Sonika. He shifted his eyes down as best he could to his cape attire. The rigid body armor used to have a design insinuating police affiliation, but he had modified it to just read "Jaunt," his decided cape name. The lettering was neat, carefully stitched in a font to match the original blocky lettering. All of his skin was carefully covered, a balaclava covering the small amount of his skin his gas mask and face shield didn't.

Jaunt idly confirmed his gloves fit tightly over his hands, adjusting them a bit before returning his gaze to the strange group. He stared at a spot, a small gap in the group of heroes where no one was standing. His power didn't give him any sense of danger or damage, and so he pressed further. His power pushed back, the mental pressure subsiding before Jaunt felt himself disappear. For almost no time at all, there was nothing at all. No pain, no skin, no sensation, only a floating vestige of thought. It wasn't warm, it wasn't cold, it just wasn't at all. The moment quickly passed, and Jaunt found himself standing amidst the group, his head pointed towards Furnace. It took a moment before his eyes were actually focused, but that was impossible to see. He didn't speak, just waited for someone to speak up.

Overlook put down the recently delivered robot parts and such on the bed and stared at them for a minute. He wasn't a tinker... at least he didn't think he was, but that being said he did make the Eye, so he had some kind of knack for inventing. It was one of those things. Either way, the teenager had grabbed a dry-erase marker and the white board he requested and began to plan out the eventual mechanical marvel he dreamed of.

It took a while and a lot of revisions, but eventually the design for a robot was finished. It used a lot of the technology from the Eye in terms of sight and audio, but everything else looked relatively new to Overlook. It had the body style of a human, but it would be made of metal and technology. Let's just hope it would be somewhat easier to build than Overlook anticipated...

...and with that, Overlook began construction on "The Body".

---

Farce's Apartment

After tracing the evidence they had obtained at the time, they had a lead on how to continue this quest to end the trafficking. Although it was a hard bet, there was a bit of a lead with the information the thug had from before. A girl by the name of "Cassidy", from the looks of things. Gaia was packing up a bag of things while communicating to her brother, preparing to continue their mission by trying to track down Cassidy.

"So we're trying to find this girl named Cassidy?" "Yeah. She's tied with the Bratva, and that's our only lead right now." "It may be our only lead, but it'd be incredibly difficult to scour Denver and find this girl, especially when she went missing." "What do you suppose then, Dunn?" "Call up that thug from earlier, see if he can give us any names before we try and find this woman." With that, Gaia quickly pulled out her phone and called up the guy from before. His number was provided with the information that the twins had grabbed from the warehouse earlier, coincidentally. After a few rings, there was a voice on the other side of the line.

"It's ya boy Chilly Willy here! What can I do for you my friend?" "Ah! Chilly! Just the kind of guy I wanted to talk to." "... who the hell is this?" "Oh, right! I'm the sister of the guy you met in the warehouse earlier. Glad you made it out by the way, I have to ask you something." "OhhHHHh! My main mayn! Whatchu need sista?" "In the documents in the desk there was mention of an organization known as the 'Bratva', can you give me any names?" Chilly took a pause, then began to speak. "Now, I don't know if I can honestly give out that info to just anybody-" Gaia interrupted him and began to shush him. "Shhhh shhhh... if you give us these names, I won't have to come find you and separate your skull from your spine." "Well when you put it like that mayn... there is someone here in Denver from the Bratva. She's named Sonika, mayn, and she has windy powers." "Cool! Thank you!" Gaia hung up after that and left her apartment, with Dunn looming in her thoughts as she walked out. "Did you really have to threaten him with death?!" "Well it worked, didn't it?"

Now the twins were looking for a windy woman or a lost girl... either would be good.

---

Kyoshi stood there with the group with her arms crossed, attempting to lessen the pain from the burns she had. She was slightly ticked off by nobody knowing her name, but she didn't blame them as she had been so new to the team that it was to be expected. She did try and speak up to say her name out to the group though. "I-it's Kyoshi..." It was incredibly shy-toned, but it did come out clearly to the group. The earthbender turned to G4M3R and spoke to him audibly for the group to hear. "So... I earned us some really good PR right? It's the side effect but it helps us get a name, also..." Kyoshi turned to face the man who just joined the group's conversation. "... nice entrance." She was ready to strike the man down if he tried anything funny.

Arsenal had found himself hidden behind Chatterbox's reprimanded car, generally his defenses against most means of attack were low since most of his body was still flesh, so he had to find cover before unleashing his superior firepower at the soldiers and capes. Chatterbox was beside him, the man was going to be useless at first but if the group manages to protect him long enough it should end the fight there making the capes and soldiers follow his directions. Lovely was still making their way over to the highway, unprotected by the car's cover, but their parahuman ability gave them a superior defense against the Protectorate's methods of non-lethal attacks. Headhunter was positioned somewhere faraway in the hills, he would be giving them fire support with their obnoxiously powerful weapon and finally Sofia had found herself in the middle of the highway to disrupt the convoy. It was good that almost everyone was at their positions as the convoy could be seen by the entire group by now, the group all hopefully waiting for their plan to work as intended and break out Gamble with minor injuries from the ensuing fight with two professional capes. And boy, did their plan work wonders on the Protectorate.

Three consecutive shots rung throughout the air, loud as balls, but all three managed to perfectly hit their targets. The ensuing clusterfuck happened between the convoy with one spiraling out of bounds of the highway, the other crashing into the median causing a pile up from the south, and the final unlucky truck that dealt with Sofia quite literally flipped in the air violently crashing onto the highway with sparks and scrap flying everywhere. As the scene settled for those few seconds, it almost looked like it was from some blockbuster action movie, the scene laid before Arsenal was quite awesome to the mind of the young boy. However, this is where the movie fantasy ends and where the real life fight was going to begin for the Jacks.

Exactly four men busted out of the vehicles, Arsenal quickly recorded the location of all four enemies with one completely out of cover firing rubber bullets at Sofia. One with a semi-auto rifle had hidden themselves behind the median of the highway taking shots at the approaching Lovely, and the other two hiding in the wreckage of concrete and ruined metal. However, there were no sight of the capes from what Arsenal could see with his fleshy eyes. All he could see were the lowly grunts, but the main trouble was hidden among the carnage of the highway. He didn't trust that the crash had knocked them out, but he would have to act now to get the upper hand against these grunts and Headhunter would most likely cover the group if the unknown capes were sneaking up on the bunch. Still, it was nice to not show out your entire hand at the beginning of the battle, so Arsenal only let out two of his mechanical arms from his large poncho. The two metallic limbs gleamed against the sunlight in their glorious aura which provided a more powerful weapon than those dinky weapons the grunts are using against the Jacks. "Time to do some work," Arsenal said, all ten fingers suddenly transforming each into their own little barrels with the living weapon soon bursting from the car's cover. He let out soon a volley of firepower that those soldiers would never forget, all ten barrels individually streamed out their own rubber bullets, each finger controlling a different angle of fire, and each arm would be aiming at a different direction making this barrage of bullets fly in almost every direction in front of him. The first target would be the uncovered asshole shooting at Sofia, the two hiding in the poor cover would be next priority, and finally the last target would be the man hiding behind the median shooting at Lovely. Also you have to remember, Arsenal has even has more fire power under his poncho with even more weapons crammed into those arms meaning that he ain't going to be running out of ammo during this fight.


Still unaware of the Endbringer sized beast flying through the air, Artificer firmly grasped the hostage's hand and pulled her up onto the Ebony Fly which only left Kyoshi to climb on board. He watched that his partner didn't really want to take the safer route, but simply wanted a more stylish entrance to Furnace as with her powers soared straight into the air to reach the taller building. Artificer rolled his eyes at their new recruit's antics, soon ordering his fly to reach the group of heroes on the office building, transporting the hostage that seemed to be pressing their body tightly against his back which may or may not have caused some awkward blushing under his mask.

The two arrived shortly after Kyoshi, the giant Ebony Fly landing onto the roof allowing the domino masked hostage to safely place themselves in the midst of the group of heroes. Artificer was still glad that G4M3R was safe with the help of Furnace, he would have to thank him after they get the most likely bewildered woman to safety, and this will also be a great story to say that the Minutemen had helped save a hostage with Furnace. They would definitely have to stop at the part where the mean blonde lady screwed over everyone on the roof, but still today was pretty good considering they actually managed to do something heroic in today's events. "Yo G4M3R, glad your safe, pretty crazy day am I rig-" Artificer managed to say, getting off his fly before a certain someone had suddenly materialized out of thin air. The sudden sight had shocked the young parahuman, losing his footing on his way down causing him to slip and slam onto the ground. "Fuck!" Artificer yelped out, quickly scurrying back onto his feet and ready to order the Ebony Fly to ram into the sudden completely covered mystery man. "Who- fuck that hurts, Who are you?" Artificer said defensively, the Mintuemen's pride probably couldn't handle being humiliated twice in one day by some random parahuman strangers.

-Posted Twice-