---

… He couldn’t see her. This made the questions of how they had learned what they had about her even more pressing. Though, there was a certain relief to it. If they didn’t have someone who could see her, then that made her feel a lot safer. Especially since she was now just behind him and he could easily reach her if he simply grabbed in her direction. Just in case, she kept her wits about looking for any sudden movements as she made the computer press enter twice (visually) so she could write with light right below. Still on the computer with computer-text.

first things first
i really dislike you
i have no desire to be associated with you
i wouldn’t trust anyone protected by you to be safe
also, being registered as a villain would be a pain
i am really mad that you came to my door
i had to move since thugs found it
i liked that place

So she wrote, frowning. It wasn’t actually on the computer, just a vision Shatterpoint saw, but she made it look like she was inside the computer anyway. After she was sure he had read it she continued.

that said
among villains in town, i suppose you aren’t the worst
and i am in sore need of money
i suppose we could make secret deals if you have use of a stranger
as long as it is on my terms

She paused for a few moments, silently considering if she knew what she was getting into. But, well. She wanted a few things. So.

term 1, no written data associated with me throughout the rockers
no single mention of our cooperation in your mails or paperwork
as few members knowing about me as possible
missions not requiring me to give myself away
to me, your eventual demise is inevitable
feel free to prove that wrong, but if it happens, i don’t want anything linking me to you
if anyone on the outside learns i’m helping you due to any of you
or if i find my name written anywhere
any deal is off
immediately
so in this mail
write about how you were unsuccessful in recruiting me
and won’t ever try again
ceramix will know the truth in person

After having written so and ensured that Shatterpoint had seen it, she’d start to remove her writing in the vision as if she was holding down the backspace key. While doing so, she’d lightly lean over and attempt to silently press the real backspace key in order to remove what Shatterpoint had already written in the mail about her. Of course, she ensured that in Shatterpoint's illusion the button wasn't pressed. If she wasn’t interrupted, she’d be done with the real erasing before the vision was, hopefully having disguised that she hadn’t actually manipulated the computer itself as she let go of the key.



She instead now wrote inside his eyes in tiny white letters so he could read them directly on his vision.



That’s about that. It should be noted that Shatterpoint very likely could interrupt what Wisp was doing at any point. She was wary that he might be tricking her and was ready to jump aside if he reached for her or so. If she did, that’d likely mean that the illusion was broken and the computer screen showed only what Shatterpoint really had written… assuming Wisp had successfully dodged, which wasn’t a guarantee. But, if he did, Wisp had an ace up her sleeve…

She hoped to all forms of lords he couldn’t hear her heart, because this was making inexperienced her way tense and scared of this going wrong and due to that it was beating heavily in her chest. She was trying to be intimidating, independant and strong, but… so much could go wrong. In so many ways, she could be making a mistake. But even so, this close to him, she had to stay as silent as possible, keeping her steps light and breathing controlled…

_@Eklispe

The request box blinked dully for several minutes before letting out a chime that sounded hopeful. The box read back to him. Request passed. Please allow up to three business days for arrival. Well that wasn't too bad after all, they probably couldn't send people out willy-nilly to pick up things. Plus they'd want to send someone who knew something about computers to make sure they got everything and what not. If he was lucky it could arrive as soon as today! Of course he wouldn't be bored for too long as Jackson returned with a box that clattered somewhat mysteriously, and a sketchpad. "So kiddo, you ready to start?" Jackson actually seemed somewhat excited about the whole thing, at the very least energetic and determined.

Rocker Warehouse

Shatterpoint's eyes scanned the text as it appeared, nodding incrementally each time he finished reading. He made no moves throughout the entire thing up to words being written on his eyeballs. He made a small noise of discomfort as he could tell the words were no longer just on the computer screen, before stopping and reading them. "Fine. You will talk to me. You hate us but need money. No one ever knows you exist. Is that all? It seemed he had no problems with her conditions. Had he been expecting something like this or was simply adapting to things very smoothly? It was impossible to tell either way, but looked at from the Rocker's view, even a deal like this was definitely in their favor. A win-win? Well except for ethics, but no one was counting those right?

A few days is okay, as the Overlook was able to work with only his laptop for the time being. It'd be a pain in the ass, but it'd work out fine. Ruben smiled when Jackson entered the room again, seemingly this time with some weird tech and a typical sketchpad. This looked interesting, to say the least. Ruben walked back over to his bed (sloppily, but he made it there), and he sat down and waited for Jackson. "I forgot to say that my leg was magnetic before... so my leg is magnetic. Is that really weird? I know it is but when you compare it to the likes of... something like an endbringer, I'd say it's still kind of odd."

The young Asian Ward smiled thankfully at Alessa, nodding in response to the assertion. "Ya, I'm definitely fine with-" Before she could finish Protean interrupted her with a warning about those who ran too slowly. Ira looked behind her out of reflex, before her head snapped forward. Alessa pulled her forward, reacting faster than Ira to the creature. The image of part wolf part human was burned behind her eyes, and definitely encouraged her to match Alessa's pace. Her breath was coming out in painful gasps, but all she felt was the blood pumping in her head. Adrenaline dulled her senses, just encouraging her to run and avoid thinking. Soft cursed were mumbled, her eyes locked on the hand that was being held by Alessa. She closed her eyes for a second, remembering the simulated life and death situation they were in. Now was not the time to worry about relationship shit.

Arsenal had to admit, still didn't mean he was quite angry, but he had to admit that he has been pranked pretty hard right in the middle of combat. It took way too long than the boy would have liked to admit, the bullets seemingly phasing through the airborne threat which reminded him of Sophia's power while Morales for some strange reason wasn't reacting at all while being set on fire! "Fucking holograms," Arsenal muttered to himself, cursing at the fact that he had wasted precious time and resources firing at basically dummies while the real versions could simply be closing in on the... Before he could finish he thoughts however, a loud ping crashed into Arsenal's ear as he flinched on reflex dodging the resulting sparks and fluids spraying from the wound. It took him under a second to produce return fire, but Arsenal wasn't the happiest camper as his one of his arms was failing in its duty to fire out a tonne of bullets in the general direction of his enemy. "God damnit! Who told these idiots that they could use live ammo! Look at me following our fucking orders to not murder these chucklefucks while they are trying to murder me!" Arsenal angrily complained, hating the fact that he was using rubber bullets while the 'good guys' were using live ammo on their enemies. And if this battle wasn't getting any better, in the corner of his eye, the boy could spot that the tear gas that he told to get rid of was only half-assed as the gas canister's content started to escape within his direction. Arsenal could only grit his teeth at the moment, pissed beyond belief, but at least he wasn't dead or whatever happened to Lovely.

Arsenal definitely needed a plan, something to get him out between the constant fire from the grunts, the unknown locations of the heroes, and the freaking tear gas approaching the car. He was just about to decide to use lethal force on these grunts as they were doing the same, rockets to their cover would probably stop them from ruining his handy work, but before he could finalize this plan something in his brain somehow told him to stop? Huh... It seems that Morales was taken down as Arsenal soon felt the effects of his power drift away from his mind freeing it up, letting him think rationally once again in the middle of a god damn fire fight. "Thank god someone is doing something around here," With the cowboy's mind free, and thankfully the soldiers being less bold in their attacks which gave Arsenal back the advantage of people being afraid of getting hit by a bullet. Arsenal soon broke from his soon to be useless cover, running and gunning with his five arms towards a cover that would let him get closer to their cargo, Gamble, and hopefully let him get some lucky shots to hit one of those god damn idiot guards using live ammunition. However, Arsenal did have to stop his cover to cover constant fire as Noble had let their presence known, and by luck her position being in range of Chatterbox's vocal range! Hopefully the hero would allow the villain to sweet talk his way out of this predicament, preferably with Noble unconscious with her stupid guards with the rest of the group running for the hills with their target Gamble.


Well... That was strange, besides the fact that the creature could talk to without a mouth while calling itself 'Outsider' and also saying that it wasn't a threat to everyone in the city. Artificer was still quite cautious, staying on his fly, ready to bolt and probably fly and save at least three people if Furnace could keep it distracted for a few seconds. The beads could come in handy, but it would cause too much collateral damage if used irresponsibly against these other heroes and mercenary or could miss and explode down below on the street! Artificer rubbed the back of his head, unsure of what to do until the monstrous Endbringer looking thing managed to revert into a human! Instantly he saw G4M3R walk up to the humanized version of Outsider, trying to get him to join the Minutemen, Artificer's heart skipped a beat as it was mentioned with his face filled with unsure thoughts. "I mean... Are you sure you want? I mean, ok, since you're the boss."

---

The tear gas was far enough away, Arsenal would have to take care of himself, he thought selfishly, glad that he was—in the moment—immune to bullet fire and the tear gas. As he'd thought, Sofia's power was incredibly useful, plus, he doubted she was aware that he'd used his power on her. That in mind, he made her immune to it again, before shifting his mind into gear. How to get to Gamble?

Unfortunately, before he could start tackling the issue and come up with a plan, a certain Protectorate hero decided to rudely interrupt his train of thought. 'Noble' he thought, noting that Arsenal had found a new bit of cover and the sound of gunfire had died down somewhat. He'd also noted Headhunter's message a few moments ago, and he was keeping it in mind as he opened his mouth, “Now, let's not get hasty,” he said, raising his hands into the air, one of them still clasped with Sofia's so that her arm raised as well. It was meant as a gesture of good will, of apparent surrender, but in reality it would only reinforce the effect of his power-laden words. Perhaps make her lower her guard some, or at least make her think she had them right where she wanted them.

Reinforcing this further, he continued speaking, moving the fingers of his gun-laden hand slowly, “I'm going to drop my weapon, so don't shoot, alright?” He said, slowly letting his arm lower—as it was faced away from him—before releasing his fingers and letting the P90 clatter against the asphalt of the road. “There,” he began, raising his hand back to its former position slowly, so she wouldn't get startled. He wasn't sure if she was jumpy or not, so he preferred to be careful—especially if that weapon was some kind of tinkertech, who knew what it might do.

“Maybe we can just work this out, yeah? You've incapacitated one of us, you're holding two of us hostage, and our sniper appears to be...severely inconvenienced. If you'll allow it, I'll tell everyone to just stand down for a moment,” he said, pointing a thumb to his bluetooth headset. The reality was that it was already on and the whole team had already heard his words. However, he was up to something, “Should we get on our knees then? I'd rather you not shoot me.” With each time he spoke and referenced a lack of violence, subtle suggestions would weasel their way into her mind, far far more difficult to detect than an ability like the one Captain Morales possessed.

“Now, Ms. Noble. I'm still armed, I'm going to pull the gun from the holster at my hip, and toss it across the ground. You've won, I'm not gonna pull something and get myself and my friend shot, whether it's non-lethal or otherwise, alright? Just let me do this.” The effect was compounding, she'd feel less and less of an urge to use her weapon to do them damage, and unless it was some kind of power nullifier it wasn't likely to do anything to them anyways.

Slowly, giving Sofia a look, he started lowering himself to his knees—if she allowed it-- and then with slow, deliberate movements reached towards the gun at his hip—something that was in plain sight. He made sure not to even come into physical contact with the weapon. Instead, he met Noble's gaze and asked, “May I remove my firearm ma'am,” without even the slightest shred of condescension. In fact, to her—should he have gotten to this point—he'd sound convincingly subservient. He'd seem defeated, and his words would seem trustworthy. He was selling the impression that neither he nor Sofia had the capability of disarming her.

“If not, um, comrade,” he said as he squeezed Sofia's hand, “...If you would be so kind to ignore all our nearby weapons,” as he did so his eyes glanced up at Noble, looking fearfully at her weapon, “Just...make them all hit the ground please.” His intention, which he may or may not have slightly have used his power to reinforce in Sofia, was to have his teammate ignore Noble's weapon as well as his own, effectively disarming her. Since he was already on his knees, one hand near his weapon, but not concealing it, he'd be in position to grab it, whip it up, and nail her with several rubber bullets before she could retaliate. However, he'd only act if the ploy worked.

If Sofia did not do this well...it'd be troubling, but he figured he might still be able to handle things so long as he was not knocked out or silenced.

The stakes were high.

---

---

Already running, near the head of the pack, so to speak, she only turned when Protean began speaking, and she did not regret doing so. Her eyes widening, she turned back to her running and rather than continue the casual pace she sped up some. She wasn't going full tilt, she'd save her energy unless he got close, but she did instinctively localize the 'shadow' of her projection around her body, allowing her a sensory field of sorts.

If he came near, she'd be ready to avoid him...hopefully.

---

---

Relieved that the majority of them believed he wasn't out to get them, he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in. Smiling slightly he raised an eyebrow as one of the capes rather enthusiastically asked him a question. “Um, well. I think I may have seen one or two. I guess a group is better than flying solo,” he said, chuckling a bit and rubbing the back of his neck. It felt good to have all his emotions on the surface, but he knew it wouldn't last long.

“Do you, uh, have a way to contact you? I can get back to you on that offer. This is, after all, just my debut I guess. Of course, I guess I didn't really do much, arriving as late as I did.” He frowned slightly, a wave of disappointment and a small touch of shame washing through him. He frowned slightly and then shrugged a bit and smiled again.

After a moment he shuffled a bit, clearly feeling a bit awkward. He hadn't really knowingly spent any time with capes other than his sister, and with her it was different—they were family before they were capes. So this was new...and a bit weird, really.

He wasn't sure exactly what to do.

Celia's attenton shifted back to the obscene creature s it began speaking, claiming it wasn't a threat. It was oddly distant, not quite originating directly from the creature. It resonated from around him, which was more than a little unsettling. In slight contrast to its unsettling voice, it said that it was not a threat. It continued, making sure to note that it was not in fact an endbringer, though Celia had already assumed that. No endbringers had spoke so far, excluding the occasional singing.

In an instant the creature had disappeared, and in its place a young man. She eyed him up and down quickly, searching the various forums for anyone matching his description. It was a no go, though Celia did begin compiling a 3D image of him as she watched. In the mean time, she decided to make it known what had been going on with Jaunt. She brought one two of her major processors, and one minor online, and sent a message to the main connection the protectorate had to the internet. The server meant to process the request wouldn't understand the message (unless Decoy deemed it fit to) though it would take a small amount of processing power to read the request. The message read in plain english "Open up a line of communication to this IP."

After verifying the message had gone through, she started a full blown DoS attack, sending millions of requests a second. Every time she was blocked she changed IP addresses and kept going. If it persisted for long enough everyone in the PRT's various facilities would lose access to the internet, which could have major repercussions. She doubted Decoy would left it go on for anywhere near that long. She didn't even consider the fact that DoS's were highly illegal.

Furnace's clap refocused her attention, and she smiled a bit after she processed it. G4M3R instantly invited Outsider to join the team, and for good reason. Suddenly another signal buzzed through the air, and Kyoshi picked up her phone. Celia considered the idea of privacy for a second, before eavesdropping anyways; she left one of her secondary systems to record the encrypted conversation. Artificer tried to argue the point of Outsider joining for less than a sentence before conceding the authority.

Celia's attention suddenly snapped onto G4M3R as she realized that he might be able to pick up the white noise she was transmitting at the PRT right now. After Outsider finished talking, Celia spoke up. "Sorry to interrupt the introductions, but I think Jaunt here has been holding out on us. He just recently received an offer for two-hundred-million US dollars, payable by a certain Russian mafia, for the capture of one female minor." Her tone started out as an accusation before turning to one of disgust. She had a feeling most present would object.

The burly man looked up from his phone to see the strange girl, that almost died, staring at him. He met her gaze for a second, before shifting it over to the creature which had been swimming through the air. The creature spoke a bit, and Jaunt remained interested right up until the point that it turned into a human. It was not an Endbringer, and was probably not worth his time. He doubted he would ever be put into a situation where he'd have to fight it, at least for the moment. He would might have to do reconnaissance on these 'Minutemen' after all, if they had such a big (heh) player on their team,

As the situation wound down, Jaunt suddenly heard the the girl in the domino mask start speaking for the second time. She sounded less monotone, (maybe she was less nervous?) but that wasn't the only thing. She claimed that he had been holding out on them. Before he could ask her to elaborate, she did. She explained the bounty he had just received in great detail, even citing who had given it to him. His eyes locked onto each person on the roof in turn, before deciding the best option was to leave.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on two points consecutively. One spot directly in front of the girl in the domino mask, and the next spot the center of the building that Furnace and Sonika had been fighting on before. His power pushed back a bit, before conceding and placing him in front of Celia for a quarter of a second and then placing him on the roof. A very slight sting of disapproval was ushered from his legs, but he ignored it. His feet took him farther forward, to the opposite side of the roof from where the 'heroes' had been gathered. He stared at a dark alley that was barely visible, yet still distinguishable as empty. A moment later he was there, and he continued walking. Now would be the time to lay low for a little bit, before actually hunting for the girl. It wasn't really worth the risk to have a whole gang of superheroes chasing him while he tried to make payday come early.

"I hope you mean your replacement leg is magnetic, not the flesh one." Jackson said with a chuckle as he get his stuff in order. "So figuring out the specifics of your power is a bit tricky, especially if you're a thinker but there's a few things we can try to see what you can't do. The first thing I think we'll try is showing you some magic tricks and see if you can figure them out." Jackson turned away and took out a coin, showing it to Ruben. "One dime right? Well with just a twist... I have two quarters! You got any ideas kid?" Jackson asked with a mischievous grin on his face. It was a simple thing, just the double coin trick and not a bad test. Any thinker that could read body language, thoughts, or something like that would be able to determine what had happened rather easily, or at least the end result. Of course there was also the possibility that Ruben recognized the trick and knew what had happened based off that.



Sofia gulped, listening carefully to Chatterbox, who was her only real clue to what was going on right now. Them seemed to be losing right now, were they surrendering? Sofia slowly lowered herself in response to feeling Chatterbox do so. Her only real sense being hearing at the moment allowed her to rather easily interpret Chatterbox's suggestion due to his inflection and timed squeeze despite her lack of confidence and she expanded her power to ignore any weapons, causing not only Chatterbox's gun but also her knife to drop to the ground. She nodded slightly to indicate she'd done as he asked, unsure how safe talking was. She furrowed her brow trying to figure out what his plan was. Figuring he might want to use the gun after it dropped Sofia would allow him to touch his gun again after it fell, he didn't seem like he was just going to give up that easily. Sofia'd never really be in a situation like this before, she wasn't terribly worried because she at least was safe but having other people counting on her was rather worry-some. It felt like her brain was working a thousand times faster than normal or time was going in slow motion or something.

---

Wisp straightened her back a little hearing his summarisation, looking at him. As he had made a noise of discomfort, she adjusted the words of light so that he saw them hovering above his desk rather than inside his eyes. It would still not be visible to anyone else as she was only displaying this to Shatterpoint, but she took this measure regardless to make it more pleasant for him.



She felt a need to correct him on that particular point. But, otherwise, onto business.



So she wrote, before she moved on.



Hopefully, this wouldn’t make her completely useless to the Rockers.



She did not want to be bound by a contract, and so, this term. And that was it.



Wisp looked at Shatterpoint for his reaction before continuing.



… That had just slipped out, but it made Wisp have to consider. What did she want to be called.



There was a pause, with Wisp considering what she’d want her villain-self to be called. Then her gaze lingered on that last word she had written.



_@Eklispe

Ruben stared blankly at the hand that held the "magical coin", and finally responded after about 5 seconds. "You had the other coins hidden behind the dime." It wasn't hard to see for Ruben, despite him never having seen the trick before (or at least to his memory). Ruben removed the leg that he had attached to his stump and simply laid it in his lap as he continued watching the various sets of magical tricks that Jackson performed to identify what Ruben could do with his Thinkery powers. He hoped that these tricks would escalate in aptitude as time continued, because small tricks like this are rather rudimentary and easy to see through.

^{OOC Note - No more bolding for me it's too much work.}

With the added motivation, the Wards caught new wind. Of course, even the most well trained of runners would have difficulties keeping ahead of a large wolf. The first ones to get caught up in Protean's added exercise was, naturally, Alessa and Ira. Even pulling the tinker along with her, Alessa couldn't match pace with the other Wards running unobstructed. Belting out a great howl, the senior Protectorate hero launched a jump clear over the girls' heads and charged them from the front. If they turned around to head the other way he'd call out, "Wrong way, ladies! That direction doesn't count!"

After harassing the team's leader and tech wizard, Protean turned his attention on the next two at the front of the pack. His body bubbled and morphed, fur becoming feather and snout becoming beak. Now some odd wolf-falcon hybrid, he took to the air and made a beeline directly to the side of the young heroes. From there he would antagonize them from above, catching some of Evelyn's hair with his claws and whipping a tail in Elliot's face. With that bit of fun done, Protean laughed himself silly, rolling over to the middle of the room. Once again his body morphed, flesh bubbling like some sort of primordial soup. He regained a human face, but kept the falcon wings while his lupine body changed to a leonine frame. He now resembled the legendary sphinx for all onlookers.

"Alright Wards, listen up!" he called out as they continued their running, now unaccosted. "Here's a series of riddles for you. First one to answer correctly gets to take a break. The last one of you that doesn't get to answer one has to fight me one on one. Sound fun? Here we go! What five letter word is pronounced the same even when you take away four of the letters? What travels anywhere in the world, but never leaves the corner? And last, you have two coins that make thirty cents, and one is not a nickel. What are they?" He maintains a smug grin, observing the teens as they rush around the room.

---

---

Noble stands still, and listens to Chatterbox speak. It's clear she'd rather pull the trigger on her specialized weapon, but since the villains disarmed themselves it'd be highly immoral to do so. Well, the gaudy man and the little girl disarmed, at any rate. The cyborg merely changed positions. Still, she couldn't hold these two hostage over Arsenal. That was a move that villains used. Damn, sometimes the more effective tactics weren't applicable. She grit her teeth as Chatterbox stated his case, and her trigger finger relaxed ever so slightly. "Get your cyborg to stand down. I know he's still around, hiding behind cover."

By now, the smoke that had erupted from the initial grenades signalling this fight was beginning to fade, and the Jacks could see a few holographic emitters placed strategically around the battlefield. One right where the fake Morales was, one beneath the fake Noble, and a couple others that looked like they hadn't been utilized. The small devices could easily be fit into the palm of your hand and resembled gray disks, about an inch thick.

"Marsolis! I heard live ammunition! Tell me the meaning of your actions!" Her attention remained focused on Sofia and Chatterbox, but she was clearly addressing one of the soldiers.

"Sir!" he responded, "We were attacked with lethal force by that robot arm guy! I was responding appropriately!"

"Moron!" she called back. "He's using rubber ammunition. You escalated first. When we get back, you'll have to answer to Directed Kens."

The soldier remained silent. Noble continued to stare down her targets, though her breathing had relaxed significantly. "Your move, villains. How is this going to go down?"

---

---

At the declaration that Jaunt had received a message concerning the bounty of a young girl, one could only imagine how big Furnace's eyes grew beneath his helmet visor. Once again he swung a baton at the mercenary, only this time with actual purpose. For his efforts he hit only air, as Jaunt vanished, only to reappear mere feet away, then vanish again. "Dammit!" he grunted, kicking the rooftop beneath him. "Listen guys, I'm glad your Minutemen are doing well, and I'm unbe-lieeeevably happy we don't have a new Endbringer crisis on our hands, but I've got to chase down any leads I can to rescue that girl. Until we meet again."

Furnace took a running jump over the rooftop, his glider unfurling from the personalized armored pack, and he was off on the air, gliding by the wind currents he made from his own heat.

G4M3R waved enthusiastically as Furnace left, then turned to address Outsider's question. "Of course! I'd be happy to give you my card. You you go!" He plucks out a professional business card and holds it out for the helmet-wearing man to grab. "As you can see from Kyoshi," he gestures to the costume-clad woman currently on the phone, "Business is already starting to boom. Even if you didn't catch Sonika, you're more than impressive enough."

Meanwhile, Celia was having an adventure of her own through cyberspace, attempting to interfere with communications of the PRT. Hacking into the initial signal proved significantly more difficult than first believed. In fact, it proved itself to be an incredibly arduous process. Once she was in, however, things went fairly smoothly. Code changed to her whim, and connections began to falter. At least at first. Looking back at the alterations she had made, the coding was repairing itself at inhuman speeds. The alterations were catching up to her own programming, until her influence was completely cut off from all PRT and Protectorate systems, save for a single open line of communication. Attempting to access anything else proved to be completely impossible, no matter how many of her processors she brought online to focus on the task. So what was this single line of communication open? It was some sort of chat system, and she was being pinged directly to her IP.

TheRe@lD3c0y: Fascinating. Nobody has cracked my coding so easily. Thank you for pinpointing the weaknesses.

---

As she heard and then felt Protean approach, she sped up and side stepped, running diagonally as well as forwards as she upped her pace. Still some of her hair found itself snagged by the hero and she grimaced as he tugged and tore at it a bit, causing her to wince and—rather embarrassingly—squeal a little. Blushing very lightly despite herself, Evelyn had a look of Chagrin on her face, before it was replaced with relief when their trainer shifted forms again after disengaging. Then he began to speak in riddles, and immediately she caught onto one of them, her eyes lighting up, a smile crossing her features.

“Queue!” She said, “Queue is the answer to the first riddle,” she clarified immediately, the words coming out more clearly as she slowed her pace back to what it had been before—mostly to conserve energy. Feeling a bit proud of herself Evelyn, nonetheless, continued running. If one of her other teammates couldn't figure out one of the riddles she'd offer to give them a break instead. After all it seemed like she might be in the best shape out of all of them, so she was fully prepared to continue the run.

While fighting Protean—especially given his three transformations so far—was daunting, she'd rather she be the one to do it than put one of her teammates through that. Of course...that also depended on if she could use her power or not, regardless she was relatively well prepared for that. She hoped it wouldn't come to her using her staff against whatever wild beast Protean decided to take the form of. Besides, at least offering a helping hand to a member of her teammates—even if the shifter didn't allow it—would build rapport, which was good, right?

Always good, yeah....

Her thoughts in order, she continued her run, waiting for the responses of the rest of her team. She hoped they'd do well.

Jackson laughed, "Alright alright, looks like a few measly tricks aren't gonna work on you. Maybe a little something else then?" He pulled out a red cloth and held it in one hand, making a curtain of sorts. Jackson had a mischievous grin on. "Now watch closely..." He said, holding the makeshift curtain about three inches from Ruben's face. Without warning the cloth made the slightest movement and Jackson's fist raced out of it at an alarming speed towards Ruben's head. Of course it would only barely make contact with the top of Ruben's ear assuming he didn't move, even a reflexive flinch to the right side would dodge it. Jackson mentally shouted that he was going to do this in case Ruben's ability had anything to do with that. Whether Jackson had do something like this before or was making it up as he went along was honestly a little questionable at this point.

Rocker Warehouse

Shatterpoint waited patiently for the full, extensive terms, to be written out. Shatterpoint's voice rumbled to himself, "Better bad terms than no deal." Then louder, "Ok. How we found you? Luck. Rumors had stuff vanishing mysteriously from stores, and a glowing light that went by 'Wisp' helping people, but not with the PRT. So we decided to focus our efforts in the general area. If they found either of them we recruit, if not; we still making money." A hint of a smirk appeared on his face. It seemed her that hero-ing or stealing, they would've looked for her either way. In fact they seemed not to know that Wisp was also the invisible-snatcher and were likely still looking for said person. Though they might give up now that they had their miner's mitts on Wisp. "So kid-, I mean Creep. How do we get you to show up and talk?" He still remained immobile, his face mostly bland as he spoke. Things seemed to be going his way but he hadn't relaxed a bit. Perhaps he was used to this sort of thing.

Ruben stared at the curtain with a rather curious face, confused whether or not it was an actual trick or just nonsense. He guessed it was nonsense and treated it as such until he instinctively flinched backwards as Jackson shot a fist out at his ear. That genuinely surprised him, as he was expecting something like a rabbit just appear under the curtains. Ruben recovered to a sitting position, clearly agitated, and he responded to Jackson with an appropriate line. "What the heck?!"

---

Was he telling the truth? That it had been just luck? That would… be extremely relieving, it just meant she had suffered the consequences of staying in a villain-district a bit too long. There was always the possibility that he was a good liar, but he had spoken about it so confidently, she felt it was the truth. Or maybe she was just easy to trick, but she didn’t want to consider that.

That said, if that was it, then her initial purpose with coming here was complete. They wouldn’t be able to find her again. Their new place was a lot harder to find for the Rockers. So, she could just vanish right now, and then that was it. No more trouble with villains. There was a numerous second silence and nothingness for Shatterpoint as Wisp considered this.

… … … No. Not yet. She had a unique opportunity here. She had to look into what she could find out on this road. Just in case she found an opportunity to cause real damage to the world of villains in Denver. Unearth some conspiracies or so. If it turned bad, she’d just vanish. Yeah. She could always vanish.

As for the difference between Wisp and the robber…



That said. Onto the matter about communicating.



It was possible for them to put a trap for her if they knew where they were going to meet up. Wisp was aware of this, but, this’d have to do. She wanted no links whatsoever with this team. She didn’t know what kind of orders they’d have for her, but their nature would determine her future with this cooperation. There was a very real chance they’d say her orders and then never hear from her again.

_@Eklispe

Running, was it? Elliot narrowed his eyes. This new instructor was underestimating him. What kind of provocateur, after all, wanted for light feet? What shadowed emissary of the night did not emulate the majestic wolf of the wilds in feats of endurance? How could such a mighty beast, mysterious and silently powerful, not forge onward at the head of the pack? Yet, when command issued its missions, the capable operator obeyed without question. Without a moment's errant hesitation, Elliot sprinted into action to lead the Wards in their circuit.

Scarcely had a few moments passed before a shout diluted his haze of antiheroic determination. Over the pounding of his own feet, Elliot heard the yell of Protean, albeit oddly strangled. Nobody who did the things that nobody else could do, however, could afford waver in their duty, so Elliot kept his eyes ahead. It came as a surprise, then, when something large, feathered, and wholly unexpected hurtled overhead. He flinched on instinct even before the creature's tail smacked him between the eyes, and instantly the toymaker broiled in anger. He reasoned that this bizarre and infuriating beast was Protean, set on bothering the Wards while they exercised, and the combination of surprise and pain twisted his face into a mask of range. The shapeshifter set to laughing, and Elliot could practically feel the steam bursting from his ears. What the hell!? His inner monologue revved up and cut loose. What kind of retarded two-year-old does something like that!? This insipid moron actually thinks it's fun to mess with people like this? I hadn't realized we'd be undertaking special training today—learning how to cope with monumental assholes. A wise Ward kept his true thoughts to himself, however, and Elliot held back his burgeoning rage to persevere in his task. Even if this guy is strong enough to warrant being a part of this organization, who sends the class clown to ruin the day of moping teenagers?

His focus shifted to Protean's ultimatum. With the utter ease of keeping his feet moving and his ears listening at once, Elliot was able to hear the shapeshifter's pronouncement, including the punishment. Beneath his breath, he snarked, ”Embattle a tyrant, deprived of backup, with nary a plaything? Not a chance in hell. If my mind falters, he can whale on me all he wishes for all I care. No paragon of twilight could bear to honor this farce.” Yet, his keen mind cut into the proffered riddles. The first one he could make neither heads nor tails of, but the second seemed more approachable. What travels around the world and has corners? A box? A postcard? No...no! He laughed out loud despite himself and placed a hand in front of his face as if to shield the onlookers from the splendor of his own radiant intellect. “Hah! Achieved all on my lonesome. Google, where is thy sting? The answer is a stamp!” He returned to his steady jog, miffed that Tulpa had beaten him to the punch. In fact, he was surprised that she'd lasted so long in this exercise. Could it be that one of these goody-two-shoes nearly rivaled him in physical ability? Impossible! Elliot kept up a steady clip, maintaining a position just ahead of her to show her what-for. Now, however, he found himself thinking of who would be forced to suffer a fight with Protean. How fitting was it, after all, that the dumbest wannabe hero would be the one to receive a smackdown from a person she was supposed to look up to? A rude awakening, but a necessary one! Revelation's light falls upon us all, sooner or later.

collab between Banana and PlatinumSkink, using characters Kyoshi and Viola Hopkins/Speedrunner

That was besides the point right now though, as a phone ringtone buzzed from Kyoshi's bag. Someone was giving a call to the Minutemen, and Kyoshi was the one who had to take it. She became the involuntary secretary of the group when she joined, and she had to take some of the calls that she had received. She walked over to the side of the building and answered the call, trying to sound proper as she did. "This is the Minutemen. Kyoshi speaking."

‘Ah.’ There was a note of realization in a young, female voice on the other side. ‘Hello. This is- a-actually, I’m unimportant. My sister isn’t. My sister is Wisp.’ She said, sounding nervous. She hesitated to continue, giving Kyoshi time to potentially respond.

"Wisp? I apologize for sounding dumb, but I'm a bit new to the cape scene. What's going on?" Kyoshi responded with a slightly surprised tone. She needed information to go off of if she was going to get the rest of the crew on board the mission.

‘Oh, alright.’ She took a deep breath to start explaining. ‘She's a Rogue, and a Stranger. She bends light around her and can hide herself from sight. She never allows herself to be seen in the streets. … But, despite this, the Rockers somehow tracked down our home.’ It became quiet for a bit as the girl on the other side was figuring what part to say next.

Kyoshi was slightly taken aback by this. Normally someone would go to the PRT for this sort of thing, but in any case it was a welcome thing to do. "That... that doesn't sound good at all. Do you need us to rescue her?" asked Kyoshi concernedly. If she needed help, then it was the Minutemen's duty to provide that help.

‘Um, yes. But it's a little bit more complicated than just that.’ The voice said. ‘My sister... has been using her ability to steal in order to keep us alive. She's been skirting the line of becoming a villain, herself.’ She breathed in and out a bit, a bit nervous. ‘The Rockers came to recruit her.’ The voice clarified that bit from earlier. ‘And in order to protect, well, me... she might let them. I don't want to see her become a real villain. So yes... I need her rescued.’ So she said.

"Well... Okay. We need a place to go to and we'll be on our way." Kyoshi replied. She wasn't too keen on helping someone who was going down the path of villainy, but who knows? Maybe the team could put her on the path of justice and good... or whatever. That sounded really cheesy in Kyoshi's head.

‘I don't know where they are. She didn't tell me where she was going, but I'd assume they're in the part of town controlled by the Rockers. And, um, you might want to bring something to be able to detect her, as she's normally invisible. Maybe G4M3R could fashion up some... some... some thermal goggles from Metal Gear Solid, perhaps...?’ She asked, a tiny bit of hopefulness in her voice as she asked.

"Hm... I'll ask the others about it and we'll go find her." Kyoshi came back with after the other line finished speaking. It'd be a bit tough to get the others on board with this random call, but maybe they'll have it as a sort of test for Outsider if he's joining.

‘Thank you...’ The other line went silent for a bit. Then... ‘I should probably mention. Before leaving to meet with them to discuss terms, she also mentioned something about potentially just killing them all to be done with it if they didn't agree. Since she's a "Stranger with a knife", as she put it, she reasoned she could. I don't want her to do that, either. If she fails, likely since she has no experience fighting, she'll be in real trouble. And even if she'd succeed, she wouldn't be the same sister that left. This is partly why I'm not calling the PTR, they might overreact if she's already started.’ There was a bit more silence, before the voice started again with a bit more sad and genuine plead to it. ‘I don't want her to become a murderer or a villain. ... Please, save my sister.’

"If G4M3R and Artificer won't save her, then I'll try my best to get her out. I am the real fighter of the crew after all." Kyoshi stated before turning back towards G4M3R, closing the cellphone in her hand after hanging up. "G4M3R, I got a call about the Rockers and a sister that needs saving. What do you want me to do?"

@ProPro@The Wild West@Nattook@yoshua171@solokolos

A door had soon begun to creep open, deep respirate breaths perpetrated through the strangely fresh air of the office signaling to the only other person in the room that their requested man had arrived to discuss some ideas. The person entering the office in full view was a cape, they were dressed quite peculiar compared to most everyday attire as they were sporting clothes that looked like they came straight out of some type of lab. As they took their first steps into the pristine area, the masked man took a few glances to understand that everything in the office had its designated place, the entire room actually looking like something from a display case rather than an office that someone had been working in for months on end. A few more steps in, the masked man soon began to focus his gaze upon the person that had called him up to his office. They seemed to be calmly working on whatever was on their desk, those gloved hands nimbly moving around the sparkling desk while the rest of the unattended contents while unused were also strangely crisp and clean. The man himself was also of similar attributes like the room, the tanned office worker in their white suit seemed almost too normal to be one of the up-and-coming crime bosses in the city.

It hasn't been long since he had been accepted within this crime-influenced business. It had been at most a couple of weeks within this new occupation yet the people treated him like he had been with them since the beginning of business. The entire process had been strange while entering this field of work, human interaction wasn't his strong suit after hiding away for a few years from the government, pooling his anger against the world as he practiced his newly-found ability. It was only until he couldn't bear the frustration of living his life in such a poor standard that he had decided to use this power to destroy the people that ruined his life and surely would end it if they got their hands on it as well. So, the man decided to use this supernatural power against his enemies, but battling against one of the strongest countries in the world by himself with little to no funds wasn't the brightest of ideas. So, through a little networking in the criminal underground that he had come to known from his years of skulking in the shadows, both with his knowledge and abilities managed to gather a few sources that would appreciate his services. Out of them, a certain business proprietor of the criminal organization making a name for themselves caught his attention as they both seemed to have the man-power and skill to be able to take this city as their own. The man thought this to be his best bet, a small skillful tight-knit group of professionals would beat going with gangbangers any day of the week for his plans. And so, after a bit of weeks going by, the man managed to make his way into this family and fast-forwarding into the future is where this person is where he is right now.

The masked man was now in a few feet away from his desk, standing straight with his clothes as clean as they could be before entering the spotless room. He looked towards his boss, calm, and soon after a few bits of silence the masked man finally spoke through with a strong, yet muffled voice. "Boss, 'Exhale' is here, what do you need of me?"

---

His weapon dropped to the ground, but hers did not. Damn, it appeared that he'd overestimated his sway over Sofia. Very unfortunate, but at least it appeared that the hero wasn't about to shoot them, if only because she was bound by a moral code, which he was not bound by. This in mind, he suddenly realized something—mostly because of Noble's back and forth—the soldiers were in earshot of him and even if they weren't consciously listening to him...well, that didn't really matter for his power so long as their hearing wasn't blocked.

That meant they'd heard the same amount as Noble had, which was pitifully not enough, so he'd just have to offer up more. This in mind he waited for Noble to turn her attention back to him, and that she did, asking him to tell his cyborg friend to stand down. That'd be Arsenal and, the showman he was, he really ought to introduce any of his friends she mentioned, except perhaps Headhunter.

“Ah, that'd be Arsenal, Ma'am and I'm not so sure any of them will listen even if I tell them to stand down. Of course, I can try,” he slowly moved a hand—keeping up the act—to his bluetooth device, acting as if he had to activate it, and then spoke.

“If you wouldn't mind standing down and maybe improving our chances of not being shot that would be wonderful, Arsenal. Thanks.” He let his hand slip back behind his head, where he was holding them both now, in an effort to convince her that he was quite powerless when he was in fact, not.

“As to how things should proceed, Ms. Noble. Perhaps we could discuss this over dinner?” He smiled faintly, clearly trying to inject some levity into the situation. Given the nature of his power and the fact that none of their adversaries knew about it, even when he took control, they wouldn't be aware of anything being amiss, not until much later.

Of course they'd almost certainly be more prepared next time, but if they were able to hear him, well...they'd be shit out of luck, because the effect was cumulative and only long stretches of time would cause it to start wearing down. Enough of that though, he needed to focus on making the effect strong enough for him to wrest control of the situation from Noble and her soldiers' hands.

“Though, in all seriousness, I'm sure my comrades and I would rather not go to jail, which would surely be the result of this encounter. However, that's not really up to us, so what did you have in mind for how things go, moving forwards, mmm?” He attempted to engage her in conversation, because if she took the bait, then he could keep talking, and talking was very good for them all in this context.

Well, for all of his teammates at least. It was very bad for the opposition. This in mind he kept an eye out for any of the soldiers that were conscious and in range, because they might give small tells to reveal to him just how suggestive they'd become. Which, speaking of suggestive people, if they got out of this he really ought to bring along one of his thralls in the future, if not two or three. Probably hand pick them for usefulness, yes, that was a good idea.

He made a mental note...and then waited as that was all he could really do.

---

---

Nodding his head at Furnace as he departed, he found his attention pulled back to the member of the minutemen as he handed him a card, which he accepted gratefully, pocketing it—as he had wisely install pockets in his costume. Having them was just too useful for him to pass up. His response to the compliment was also pretty positive, as he brought a hand to his neck and rubbed it slightly, smiling, “Ah, thanks haha. What's that all about?” He asked as Kyoshi answered a call.

When she finished however, he became informed of what it had been about, which caused him to narrow his eyes slightly. “Well, if it's not in enclosed spaces I could tag along and help you guys, maybe, um, give the team thing a test run yeah?” After all, it wasn't like he really had anything better to do.