Dragon turned, hands in his pockets. Spectrum had to stop from following his arms down, and met his eyes when he spoke. His gloriously clear blue eyes. "I was wondering where you went. I wanted to ask you something."

Be cool, be cool. "Oh?" Spectrum wondered for a moment what Alex would have done to show her interest. Would she have held his arm? Leaned closer to him? Rested her head on his shoulder? Spectrum took a deep breath, a half-confident smile that would have rendered him speechless doing little good behind the mask.

"Would you-"

A loud voice with unnatural reverberation sounded through the party. The few telepaths in the room doubled over, slapping their hands against their ears. <Evacuate Lower Central. Swarm rats spotted at the corner of Seventh and Ninth. Beware the Rat King.>

There was a single, infinite moment of silence.

Then it broke, and everyone began moving at once. "Boots on the ground at Clairvoyant-locale," the Chief shouted into a handset. Dragon tore off the tie he was wearing, leaned down and whispered into Spectrum's ear, "Find me later." Along with a few other Epics, he smashed through the windows, the shards melting into the ground and the shattered pane reforming under the High Island's influence. Spectrum ran to the window after him, watching him hit the ground, then come up running at a blurring pace.

"He's so cool," squeaked from under the helmet, before the gravity of the situation hit. Armour flaring blue, Spectrum sped to the foyer, then launched into the air. It was no easy task to keep up, but the problem was easily found; this wasn't a simple raid one or two Epics could quash.

The Swarm "rats" were nothing like the little mousy things in Spectrum's mother's encyclopedia. The grey fur and naked, pinkish tails were the same, but they more resembled gargoyles or goblins, their hunched heads split almost to the neck so their jaws could accommodate more needle-like teeth. Their short bodies were packed tightly with wiry muscle, their bent bodies equally capable of moving on two or four of their grasping, interchangeable limbs. Three of the horde boiling up from the sewers focused their pitiless shark-like eyes on Spectrum immediately.

Blasting the first three down with Pular Red shots, Spectrum flared a Protector White forcefield to stop their advance and clear room for other Epics. The Swarm rats thrust shards of stone at the barrier, as if using crude knives to try and slice it, but Spectrum's focus was stronger than their muscles, and the chips that flew from their attempts inflicted more bleeding injuries than any blast or punch Spectrum could throw.

Previously...

The problem with being an invisible ghostman is that most people don't give a shit about you, because they can't see you. David was almost offended, but there was too much excitement afoot to worry about that now. Rats or some shit. That was exciting, right? Everyone else seemed to think so: they were all jumping out of magic windows and ripping off clothes and boy howdy, people were in a rush.

Well, it wasn't like he had much else to do. Phantom became visible again and soared upward past the roof. He waved smartly at his unconscious body up there, and took off toward...wherever everyone else was going. He saw Dragon Heart clearest, running at a literally neck-breaking speed across the city. Phantom followed as fast as he dared: too fast, and he wouldn't know when to stop. He could end up over the Atlantic before he realized how far he'd gone.

Too slow, and he'd be left behind. It was a class-A balancing act. One he wasn't very good at. Luckily the rats were huge and irritating, and Phantom could see their trail of chaos from his birds-eye view. This would be a good chance to test a few theories he had about the Phantom. He dove abruptly toward the ground, increasing in size as he came down. He hit the ground as large as he could make the Phantom, roughly the size of a small building. Three stories of phantasmal 'flesh' clipping through walls to settle on the street corner.

The Phantom exhaled, and the sound was magnified to represent his current size: a low rumble which shook the ground. He looked quite threatening, he was sure, but embarrassingly enough, that was all he could do.

David's Phantom Telekinesis was limited to exerting as much force as his physical body could, no matter what size his illusions were. He could throw punches at his current size, but the dispersion of the force along his huge arms would reduce the strength of his blows to gentle shoves. To really do damage, he would have to shrink down to smaller sizes.

But he could terrify these rat things: they were animals, weren't they? Animals like the rest of them: animals could feel fear. He swung his arms through the ground, right at the place where they would be popping out. The little bastards squealed and chittered. They didn't stop coming, unfortunately, but the ones that came out of the hole seemed nervous, woozy even. They swayed as they came forward, staring up at the monster above them with beady-eyed caution.

"Only a matter of time before they learn that I'm harmless," he mumbled. Wow, his voice was loud as hell.

Alex was the first to move upon hearing the warning. When I've never hears anything, and suddenly hears another voice in their head, and said voice is will known as the High Clairvoyant....

Well, you just act, Alex had learned years ago.

Before the Chief had said anything into the handset, before Dragon and Spectrum had left through the window, Alex had already stepped through her own doorway into her apartment.

No time to change... was her first thought. She reached up and took Resolution , her custom sword, from it's holding.

"It is time..." She muttered, stepping through another doorway and coming up behind Spectrum.

"Heads up!" Alex yelled, her eyes taking in the scene. "There's a lot of these bastards this time!"

A rat launched itself at her, and Alex swapped it with another facing away from her. Quickly she beheaded the beast, readying for more and to assist other Heroes where she could.

James stirred in the corner, having only just gotten the shoes off his feet, unsteadily swaying as he rose. One too many drinks. He reflected sourly, regretting the rum and coke mixers he had ordered at the bar, a queasy feeling had settled over his stomach by the time he got the shirt over his head to be dumped unceremoniously on the floor. How many times had your uncles told you? "Never mix drinks." Bare chested he stood, choosing to keep his trousers on for now as he looked around, a telepathic message, or so he assumed, alerted everyone of a situation taking place away from the party, most, if not all the epics leaped at the opportunity to help, racing off to lend a hand.

James had done it almost instinctively himself, but taking the moment to stop and assess allowed him to clear his head a little, there had been a lot of epics in attendance here and surely not all would be needed, hell, he could probably get away with just playing a supportive roll in this scenario, no need to go full throttle and rush head first into the fray, he'd probably just tag along with one of the emergency crew and catch a lift out there. Nah, bugger that, I'll run. Now, one more drink before I go, for luck!. He thought, downing the contents of the nearest glass before calmly walking to the stairwell, letting those who rushed forward pass him by til he reached the foyer, slowly picking up into a light jog toward his destination.

His cheeks burned red from the drink and the night air, the hairs pricked on his arms at the cool caress she had to offer him, making a mental effort to drown out the sounds of sirens that blared past him on the road. Instead James focused in on the rhythm of his bare feet slapping against the pavement, the beat drumming in his ears as he steadily picked up speed, outpacing the non epics who had also gone on foot, and any epics too that weren't gifted with advanced athleticism. Breaking into a full blown sprint, the strength in his legs allowing him to move faster than your average fellow, James raced off toward trouble.

Teagan was by the Chief's side in a flash, stripping her tailcoat and tossing it in a vacant chair. "Chief, put me to work!" The man fixed her with a steely stare. Teagan didn't budge.

"We'll be setting a perimeter." He finally relented. "We need to help move the civilians out of the fighting zone." They moved swiftly through the huge hall. Other rescue workers and leo's were doing the same. "Got a car?" The Chief asked.

"Took a cab." Teagan shook, her head.

"You'll ride with me." He jogged towards his personal vehicle and Teagan followed wordlessly.

When they arrived at the scene Teagan was expecting to witness total chaos. And there were swats of people running full throttle in the opposite direction of the swarm rats' incursion. But there was already a rudimentary perimeter set up by the first Epics on the scene. The Chief floored the brakes and the two of them flew out of the car. The trunk popped open. "Take whatever you need from the trunk. You'll be helping the stragglers reach this line!" The Chief said.

A dozen or so other cars were just pulling in. Men and women started flowing out of cars, trucks, cruisers. Police cars also started arriving on the scene. The Chief started barking his orders. Heavily armored police officers with shields started forming lines, while more light armored squads entered the outskirts of the fighting zone to help any civilians who hadn't managed to escape in time.

The Chief's trunk was armed with a shotgun, a backup sidearm, a police baton and a taser, which Teagan took. His Kevlar vest wouldn't fit her, so Teagan left it behind. She found a flare gun, which she also pocketed. A female officer approached her and handed her a female Kevlar vest.

"Chief's orders." She stated simply. "Put it on, we gotta move!"

Teagan nodded, quickly strapping the vest.

"Let's move out!" Someone shouted. "There's still civilians out there and they need help. Pair up and start sweeping. Don't take any unnecessary risks. Don't engage the rats if they're too many. Call for help."

"Come on." The woman who'd handed her the vest said. "You're with me."

Teagan nodded and an errant thought passed through her mind before she sprinted after her partner. Be safe, Traveler!

Fixer was just staring down at the food table when the telepathic message was sent to all of them. His eyebrows raised as there was a moment of silence among all of them. He expected everything to just explode into action. And then it did. The heroes that could afford to run or fly to said location were the first to go. He placed his hands in his pockets as he watched the building went back to its original state. Wow, he really admired that power High Island had. That was quicker than what he was capable of doing right now. He really needed to work on his own power. Maybe someday he'll get to that level. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but if he can do that, then that would just be amazing.

As everyone was exiting the building, Fixer simply looked at the table. This was his chance, while no one was watching. He could finally eat a lot of these before he went out. Besides, the heroes were already littered all over that. They had it covered didn't they? Yeah, they didn't need his help per se. He practically ripped away his mask and then started to gulp down the brownies and the other non-shellfish food they had there. Then he heard it, the accursed call of his teammates. They were sober? Damn it. There goes all of eating this. He quickly placed his mask on his face again and jogged over to the entrance where his teammates were waiting. "Come on man, hurry up!"

Fixer rolled his eyes and then hopped on to the back of the First Responder pickup truck. While in there, they quickly changed into their uniforms. They were nowhere near as fast as the other heroes but they arrived soon enough to see the heroes fending off these... "rats". He didn't think he should even refer to them as rats. At least those were lovable at some point, bu these looked like they were ready to tear them limb from limb. Actually, that should be what they were aiming for. "The Chief and the others are already setting up the perimeter! Let's get in there and get those civilians out!" Fixer was snapped out of his thoughts when their leader gave out their orders. He grabbed a handgun and some ammo, just in case. At times like these, he wishes for a more offensive or a lesser taxing power so he could use it as an attack. Ah but whatever. They hopped off the truck and then ducked towards the buildings.

There wasn't much destruction, yet, so he had to deal with evacuating the civilians who didn't make it out quick enough. He found a young child in one of the alleys. She had her knees folded up to her chest and she was shaking - probably crying. Oh great. "Come on kid, let's get you out of here and to your mommy. Sounds like a good idea yeah?" He said, crouching down to the height of the child. The young girl looked up, tears streaming down her eyes. She nodded and then took his hand before shrinking. He looked back and saw a rat attempting to corner them. He looked at the child and then gestured for her to cover her ears. He began shooting at the rat, effectively killing it with a few shots. He then swept up the child and carried her on his back. She felt him shaking violently, probably because of that little display. "Hold on kid."

He rushed back to the pickup and then placed her on the back. The truck was full and he knocked on the pickup. It then moved back to the perimeter set up by the police. Fixer jogged into a building to check if there were other civilians there. This might be a bad idea but they needed to sweep thoroughly or else there might be a casualty. He peeked out of the window to see that the heroes were doing well with pushing back the rats.

Jumping out of a window was one of the primary ways of getting into action as an Epic these days. The High Island would repair them after you, and if you were able to then it was good fun. Alto fell into that category, and there were a lot of ways he could do it. He could land on his Vice Claw, and no matter what size it was it'd be able to take the fall. He could also hold on to the side of the building and scrape his way down the wall, which would also end up being fixed by the High Island. Right now though, he wasn't doing any of that, he was just taking the stairs.

Reason being that he needed to get his suit-jacket off, and he couldn't do while he was running all that well. As for why he was taking it off, it was because it'd probably look cooler. Jerry had told him to start watching his appearance and while initially he hadn't cared so much, he sort of understood why. There was a certain image Epics gave off, and the public was certainly attached to that image. It was sort of like old-world celebrities which Alto hadn't been alive for, but he'd seen comparisons.

Luckily for Alto, the main part of Vice was the Vice Claw so having relatively plain clothes was alright. But now that he was wearing a suit, he had to look good in it. Him fighting would probably look the best without the suit jacket on and he didn't need to hurry so much. He pledged to help the people all that time ago, but in events like this even he had to consider what would be the most efficient route of action. There had been big events like this before, and he'd seen that it was entirely possible to go without casualties.

But still, a Swarm Rat event was the kind of event that had a higher risk for the Normals in the city. Swarm Rats were fast, resourceful, and sneaky. There was a always a chance one could slip past you, but Alto wouldn't let that happen.

"Fire's good for extermination after all..." He muttered.

He took the necklace off of his left arm and the Vice Claw roared to life.

Bleeding from dozens of small cuts and scrapes, James stood panting, the sweat on his brow and blood from his foes plastering his hair to his forehead as he enjoyed the brief reprieve he had fought for among the swarm. Their broken bodies twitched in odd spasms, a few were missing limbs, all were dead. James gulped down the cool air, continuing to breathe raggedly as he studied the new wave of foes that approached him, they were more cautious, as opposed to the mad rush of the group before, moving around his sides to flank him, their little stone knives moving about in their hands. Although the blades had had a hard time of it, they were still been capable of scraping into the outer layer of his skin before breaking and James didn't look forward to adding anymore scratches to his already impressive repertoire.

"Come on then you nasty little fuckers!" He dared them, moving his hands to undo his belt, pulling it free as he eyed them with a look of vehemence. The creatures briefly looked about their own ranks, seemingly waiting for who among themselves would lead the attack, chattering all the while. James had undone the button on his pants and let them fall to his feet, kicking them off in the direction of a particularly grotesque looking swarm rat, the thing jumped back from the item of clothing and hissed in James direction. This seemed to rile up the rest of them as the some joined in on the hissing, the chattering became more intense until a few broke into a squeal, charging toward James who now stood in only his boxers.

Their knives were useless now, harmlessly scraping along his skin, making a sound like stone on stone. One attempted to bite down on his neck instead, clambering up his back to clamp down on him from behind, there was only a minor discomfort for James as he reached over his shoulder and wrenched it from its mantle, sending it hurtling into a nearby wall with a sickening crunch. He took no pleasure in this slaughter, his teeth clenched in a grimace as he made his way through their number, inflicting massive hurt if not outright killing them with his fists. It's them or us.

"You know how to use that?" Teagan's partner eyed the police baton. "I'm Regan. Buy the way. Regan Murphy."

"Teagan Heyes. And aye, I do know how to use it. I'm E1 in krav maga." Teagan assured, gripping the baton.

The younger woman assessed her silently without stopping. "Good. You'll need it. The rats have exceptional hearing and we cannot afford to broadcast our location by using this..." And she motioned to her sidearm. "So Tasers and hand to hand if we encounter resistance." She continued in a clip tone. "We find the civilians, call in our location and wait for the heavy team to extract them. Then we move on."

Teagan nodded silently, impressed by the younger woman's tactical decisions. Belatedly she noticed the words emblazoned on the back of her vest - PART. I see.

The two women worked well together. Finding hiding civilians, calling in their location and waiting for the heavy armored teams to extract them. Teagan took her cues from the PART operative. Although she was younger, she was clearly more experienced than her in such situations. Teagan couldn't help but feel impressed.

They were passing by an electronics shop when Teagan more felt, then actually heard a soft sobbing. During her years as a wilderness firefighter she'd learned to distinguish human and animal sounds amidst the roar of the fire. She quickly tapped her partner on the shoulder. Pointed at her ear and then towards the store. The other woman nodded and the two of them carefully made their way in the direction of the sobs. They entered the store and inside found a terrified looking woman, clutching a tiny bundle to her chest.

Regan approached the woman quietly and squatted down. "It's okay." She whispered. "We're here to help. Are you okay?" She looked at the bundle. "The baby?"

Hearing Regan's husky voice full with warm assurance and sympathy, something tugged at Teagan's heart.

"I'm sorry." The woman whispered back in answer. "I know we need to be quiet." She looked around alarmed.

"It's all right." Regan reassured her. She got up and pulled Teagan to the side. "We can't risk waiting here for extraction. The rats probably heard them." She whispered urgently. "We'll radio in for assistance but we need to pull them out ourselves." She handed Teagan her radio. "Call it in. I'll get them ready before the rats sniff us out."

Teagan nodded, taking the radio. Seconds after she radioed in their situation a sense of dread blanketed her. She knew the feeling all too well. She would get it when the fire would start circling her. Shait!

"Regan!" She whispered.

The younger woman didn't need to turn and look at Teagan. She'd heard the warning in her tone. Fuck, shit, balls! She swore in her mind. They were about to get swarmed.

Teagan gripped the baton harder, her knuckles going white with the strain. Regan also readied. There was a shift in the air and Teagan threw herself at Regan pushing them both a few feet to the side as a nasty looking swarm rat dropped into the store from a vent shaft in the ceiling.

Both women were on their feet in a flash, but Teagan was already charging the rat. She slammed him heavily into the wall and rendered him unconscious with a swift strike to the head with the baton.

Regan was grabbing for the woman and the kid. "We gotta run!" She had no time to be impressed with Teagan's quick reflexes and the short work she'd made of the rat. "Other's will be close by." Just as she was saying this a gun shot rang out in the distance. Regan winced. I hope you have sufficient back up, buddy. She thought of the person who'd fired the gun. You'll need it. "This is our chance!" She shot to Teagan. "Take her. I'll lead." She urged, pulling her sidearm out.

Teagan nodded. She gripped the young mother reassuringly. "We'll get ye out of here."

"I can run." The young woman assured fiercely, a new fire burning in her eyes.

Teagan couldn't help but smirk. Mothers. She thought.

"Let's go!" Regan hissed and they all sprinted for the perimeter line.

A sewer rat launched itself at the young woman from an alleyway and was quickly shot down by Regan. Teagan spotted another one closing in on them from behind. She turned, fired her Taser and continued sprinting after Regan and their charges. She could hear the panting breaths of several swarm rats in pursuit now.

"There they are." Someone shouted. "Quickly, get behind us." A dozen heavily armored police officers with shields were advancing towards them. Teagan and Regan scooped the woman from either side and half carried her behind the line of police shields. Once behind, the officers opened fire.

Panting heavily Regan locked eyes with Teagan above the young mother's head. "You're not half bad Miss Heyes." She said with a grin.

Teagan laughed.

"What do you say we get you ladies out of here?" One of the shielded officers asked.

They were escorted behind the perimeter where the Chief was still barking orders. He stopped, noticing Teagan and Regan’s return. He looked at Regan first, she nodded. Then his eyes fell on Teagan. There was a slight nod and he continued about his business.

An amused smile stretched Regan’s lips. She slapped Teagan on the shoulder. "A nod from the Chief in these circumstances is equal to 'Job well done!'" Her smile quickly dissolved when the older woman hissed in pain and withdrew from her hand. "Shit, you're hurt!" She half accused, concern burning in her stormy grey eyes.

Beautiful! Teagan thought shaking her head and gritting her teeth. "No. I got this during the Fitch building incident." Her shoulder was numb with pain.

Regan assessed her with troubled eyes. "Old or new, we need to check it out. You're done for tonight." She stated with authority.

Teagan didn't object as the younger woman led her to one of the ambulances parked close by.

The fighting had finally died down. Monica walked out from her hiding space to view the aftermath. The swarm rats were dead, taken out from various Epics and police officers. Many people looked semi-injured, and were being led to nearby ambulances which had just arrived. Well, looks like she'd finally be of some use. First were a few civilians. Most has a few cuts and bruises. Nothing life-threatening. Looking around the various injured people, everybody seemed to have some sort of care.

But then her attention came to a young man, covered in blood. He... didn't look so good. As Monica made her way over to him, she realized that he was also nearly naked, just in a pair of boxers. Well, she'd seen lots of naked people in her line of work, so she simply put the thought aside. That only brought her attention to several dead swarm rats around him. She guessed he was quite the fighter.

After making to him, she introduced herself. "Hey there. I'm Monica. You might know me as Yeagnasae. Mind if I fix you up?" Before he could answer, Monica had a hand raised towards the sky, trying to use and sort of sunlight to power her...power. She placed her other hand on him and watched as his wounds closed and were healed in no time at all. "Well, I think that should do it."

Alex took a shaky breath, dropping to her knees. She'd taken a brief breather inside Spectrum's shield.

"Spec, you have no idea how nice this is," she panted. "I've never seen a swarm like this. So many. And they just keep coming. Can't even guess how many times I've saved people. Pushed it. My brain hurts."

Alex felt like she was rambling, but she didn't have time to worry about it.

Unsteadily she rose to her feet, taking a moment to stretch her body. Nearly falling over, she laid a hand gently on Spectrum's shoulder.

"Keep up the great work, girl..." She muttered, her eyes scanning the area again. [I[There [/I].

She swapped with a stop sign, perhaps someone entering the safe zone would want it as a weapon, and engaged a pack of rats.

Anyone watching might have a hard time following her, as she swapped herself constantly with rats and objects while cutting down rats as she went.

She came near Stark, waving as she passed in front of him for a second, before she hit the ground hard.

As the rats descended on her, Alex opened a door right beneath herself, falling through into the second floor of a nearby building.

"Fuck," she muttered, wincing. "Can't believe one of them managed to trip me up..."

@Athoriel@Regitnui

"Chief, we have Entiv." One of the techs leaned out of the van. Chief Thomas hauled himself into the van, fixing his eyes on the biggest screen occupying the far wall. "Two minutes delay on their feed, Chief," the same tech pulled his headphones back on, checking his workstation holding the same video. It was an overhead shot of the intersection, taken from a helicopter. The logo of the station; Epic News TV; briefly flashed up on the screen before cutting to a young woman clutching a microphone and wearing too little skirt to be hanging out a helicopter that high up.

Her voiceover began: "This is Idonia Willis, reporting live from the scene of another Sewer Rat raid. As you can see, our local Epics have already gotten stuck in, with Stark Crusader," the feed cut to the man in question taking off his pants, "up to his usual tricks. He's taken out a horde on his own already, which cements his place on the ENTV ratings as one to watch. He's consistently been in the top-5 of ENTV's ongoing poll Most Attractive Male Epics, trailing consistently behind-" She paused for a moment as the camera caught a wheel of lightning arcing through another part of the horde, frying ten or twenty Swarm rats with a lethally beautiful series of jagged electrical discharges, "Dragon Heart, currently number 2 on the same poll and number one on the most requested guest list for ENTV's Spotlight interviews.

"That shadowy figure you're seeing at the edges of the screen is indeed Phantom, his ghostly form currently just under three stories tall and providing a magnificent distraction to the bulk of the Swarm while our brave PART and ECPD officers evacuate the area." The chief grunted his displeasure. If he had to listen to this asinine commentary during any more ops, he'd take the Mayor's fancy podium and ram it up the man's arse. Budget cuts, his pale hairy ass. "The largest safe zone in the area is being maintained by the mysterious hero Spectrum, shining bright white as they maintain a field large enough to block off the main road. Current poll numbers are still split almost equally between Spectrum's actual gender, though most are leaning towards male.

"And the reason for that, ladies and gentlemen is currently causing utter chaos throughout the Swarm. Traveler, the Teleporting Trickster, has been seen more often in the presence of Spectrum, perhaps signs of a blooming romance? Of course, many of our fans seem to be just as eager for Spectrum to be female for the same reason. Join the debate on ENTV.com." A flare of bright fire coursed up from the ground below, and Idonia announced, with clear pleasure, "Vice has entered the fray! This young Epic has gained a number of fans and ENTV accolades since appearing late last year alongside similar ECPD operations. Though still small potatoes on the Official ENTV rankings, Vice is surely an up-and-coming hero to watch!"

She clears her throat and continues the commentary, but the Chief spots something in the feed. "Move the camera to the far edge of the Swarm," he orders, and the tech relays them to the helicopter.

"-this reporter certainly hopes... By all the High!" A larger rat, standing head, shoulders and chest above its brethren, emerges from the shadows. It wields a club in one hand and seems to be screeching orders at the others. Its tail, however, is tangled with three other equally large Swarm rats, each with their own club, all four acting in a coordinated manner. The worst part was yet to be seen, as the Swarm cleared away from the mutant long enough to see that the creature was floating. "Beware the Rat King," Idonia repeated the warning that the High Clairvoyant had given not an hour ago.

---

Spectrum smiled at Traveler's encouragement, and redoubled the effort put into the shield. The Swarm was powerless to get to Spectrum, or anyone safely within their dome, and that caused no small amount of pride. This pride, of course, flickered a moment later when Dragon Heart appeared nearby. Probably Traveler insisting again, so Spectrum squared the armour's shoulders and lowered arms a little, making it look less necessary.

"Um... Hi." Dragon Heart came over to her immediately, and the blush had nothing to do with the shield getting slightly stronger. Nothing at all, so stop asking. "I was interrupted before, and if you have a moment..."

Did he seem as nervous as Spectrum felt? "Yeah, sure," was the reply. Why did he still look so good, even bloodied and battle-scarred? That had to be against some kind of international law; No looking good enough to make girls' knees buckle in the middle of a fight. Signed, the United Nations Epic Hero Treaty.

He stepped into Spectrum's line of sight, unintentionally giving an even better look at how his shirt had been cut open and hug loosely around his chiseled abs... "-dinner with me?"

"What?"

He smiled an underwear-wetting smile. "Would you like to go to dinner with me?" He repeated, then added, "Sometime soon, I mean. Like Friday?"

Spectrum's brain locked up. "B- uh- um- er-" She stuttered. The sounds eventually resolved into a, "Yes. Yes."

Dragon relaxed a little, only so much that you'd notice if you were already watching the eye candy like a cat watching sparrows. "Well, that's great." He turned back to the battle, just in time to notice the Rat King ram three clubs into the shield, sending out a blinding flare of light that cast the surrounding area into bright daylight for a millisecond. "That was close. Good thing..." Dragon turned around to see Spectrum lying flat on the floor, knocked out from the feedback. He picked up the fallen Epic, expecting the armour to be heavier than it was, then shouting, "Retreat! Medics! Wounded here!" As the Swarm surged forward, he braced Spectrum in his arms, calling up a bolt of lightning directly for the Rat King itself.

Medic? She was a medic! Somebody needed help. She turned to the source of the call. Two figures could be seen. One standing, and the other was collapsed in the other's arms. Unfortunately, about this time is when the swarm started advancing, leaving the newly healed man behind she raced towards the two. Grabbing a steak knife from a nearby table, she tried to run around the outskirts of the swarm, wildly slashing at anything that would come close.

She had At last made it to the two Epics. The one holding the collapsed epic she remembered seeing before. Dragon, was it? Something like that. The other was... unrecognizable. She looked like some Power Ranger wannabe or something, but decided that probably wasn't the best thing to say out loud. "Hey, I can help. I'm Monica." Monica raised her hand to gather solar energy. It was either that or her phone's battery. Or she could always take it from someone else if she really needed to.

She pressed her free hand onto the fallen Epic. She was wearing some sort of suit, so she didn't know if this was even working."Does this thing come off? I need to see if she's severely injured somewhere."

Alex looked out the window of the building she'd ended up in just in time to watch the field go down.

"Fuck!" She yelled at the same time as Dragon was calling for retreat.

She immediately swapped with a rat from the front of the swarm, moving in a work of slices from her sword.

"Dragon, get Spectrum out of here, now!" Alex yelled, opening a doorway behind him. "I've got you covered."

Her eyes burned with a fierce light as the swarm drew nearer, and she free upon her power to open doorways to every Hero fighting, drawing them all towards the front line.

The Rat King drew closer, and the swarm threatened to draw closer than Alex felt comfortable with.

She flicked through their ranks, slicing down rat after rat, before she swayed. A club caught her, sending her flying into a wall, where she slumped down.

Everything felt disjointed, almost like she was drunk and dizzy. Her eyes moved up as the swarm moved closer, closer, and closer.

"Sorry, rats, not today..." She muttered.

Doorways flared to life all around the swarm, all connecting to each other, and effectively trapping all but the Rat King inside them. Alex wasn't entirely sure if that would stop that King or not.

Unsteadily, she rose to her feet, stumbling away from the fight and towards the PART forces where Dragon should have taken Spectrum.

Alex saw a medic near Spectrum, guessing at what she was probably asking.

"I'm assuming you're asking about the armor. I wouldn't take it off in the open. Severe psychological trauma if you do. She needs it," Alex explained. "I'm not explaining this well. Just get her in an ambulance before you do anything. I'll come. Probably head trauma for me, given how I feel."

She turned to Dragon. "They need you back in the fight. I can't concentrate. My doors are going to fall," Alex said quietly.

@Regitnui

Previously...

A nice little irony to David's powers: he never tired. Technically, he was always a little sleep deprived, but never exhausted. Phantom was as relentless now as he had been when he first awoke. The limitations to his power were really just his control over it. He was trying really damn hard to swing his massive arms with enough telekinetic speed to deal damage, but all he had managed to accomplish thus far was to brush the rats lightly aside.

Damn. He thought, without passion, as his attacks did nothing to stop the flow of rats. Most of them were paying attention to him, their beady eyes being too stupid to realize that they were just running face first into buildings he was clipping through. They probably thought he was actually hitting them back. Good. Let them be distracted.

The good fortune didn't last long, naturally. If there was one thing he knew about living in a world with superhumans, it was that shit always hit the fan after a bit. Repeatedly.

Okay, so a Rat King...thing had shown up. And it had knocked out one of the safe zones right quick. And the entire city might be overrun by weird rat things. And a bunch of Epics were in a very compromising position. All of that paled in comparison to the sudden paranoia that rats might be climbing the building where David slept, skittering over his body and opening their mouths wide over his face...

He felt adrenaline pouring into his mind. David had never felt so buzzed while asleep: Phantom dulled the emotional spectrum to a steady thrum, but now he felt nothing but sheer energy. He willed himself to grow even larger: larger than he ever had before. The ground lurched away from him as he grew steadily larger, until the rats were blurred below him.

The single word boomed over the entire area, shaking windows in their frames and sending tremors through the pavement. A hiss of distortion rumbled below his words, adding a hellish, menacing horror to the world around him. It sounded nothing like David Lin, which suited Phantom just fine.

The rats at the head of the swarm froze almost instantly, tripping over themselves as they halted. He didn't blame them. That sound had surprised him as well. Jesus, it was loud. Was he hearing himself, all the way back where his body slept? He probably didn't have much time.

Phantom raised a titanic arm, pointing at the Rat King with a single, jet-black finger. The hand moved relatively quickly, but at this size he had no doubt he was entirely incorporeal. He couldn't hurt a fly at this point, but they didn't know that.

The second word was even more distorted than the first. To David, it pretty much sounded like distilled nightmares in a vocal form. The rats stared up at him, completely motionless. He hoped they were terrified, not bored out of their hive mind.

David felt a weird jolt in his stomach; he didn't have long. Phantom faded from view, becoming entirely invisible. "Flee, or be cut down where you stand," he growled, his voice becoming a low rumble, a hiss of static. That was a bit cheesy, wasn't it. Still, it worked better than saying 'run the fuck away, you inbred slimy rodentia'. The static seemed so loud now, like it was drilling into his ears.

What the hell, he decided, and roared as loud as he could for good measure. The windows of the buildings nearby shattered. He knew that the High Island would take care of that--that was his thing after all.

David lurched upright on the rooftop where he'd fallen asleep. "Fuck!" he shouted, slapping his thigh with one hand. He could still hear the echoing of his big shout in the distance. He hated how useless he really was. All those other epics could actually do things. He could...what, fly? Win a a cosplay contest? Spy on corporate secrets?

Yet when people actually needed help, and he was in a position to help them, he was functionally useless.

"Reinforce the lines!" The Chief barked out exiting the tech van. "This is far from over."

The line of police shields, which had become loose after most of the remaining civilians were evacuated beyond the perimeter by PART and SAR police officers, snapped back into place.

Teagan heard the commotion and tried to come out from under Regan's ministrations. She was held down by strong hands and a low menacing growl.

"Where do you think you're going, Hayes?!?" Regan held tight as the older woman struggled to get free.

Teagan twisted, winced as her battered shoulder zinged with pain, but still managed to square Regan with a steely gaze. "They need help at the line. They need bodies." The ex smokejumper knew the importance of building a good line to cordon of the fire.

Regan's eyes softened. "Stand down, firefighter Heyes. You're injured. You're shoulder's in bad shape. It probably stood a good chance at healing, if you had rested it out but right now you'll be lucky if..." She was about to say Teagan would be lucky if she didn't get a nasty scar for her troubles. But at that moment she'd taken a good look at the woman's back as she was stripped down to her bra. An ocean of thick, old scar tissue covered most of Teagan's back.

"Jesus!" Regan couldn't suppress a shocked mutter. Her fingers gently grazed the raised skin of their own accord.

Teagan didn't move, allowing the contact. "I don' care if it leaves a scar." The firefighter stated simply. "I do care about people gettin' hurt when I can help." She turned slightly to look at the still a bit shell-shocked PART officer. "I need to help, Regan!"

Regan read the sincerity in the older woman's voice and saw it burning bright in her green, green eyes. "I can see that. But you can't help right now, Teagan. You're hurt, you can barely move."

"Shait!" The firefighter muttered.

Regan almost didn't manage to contain her smile. Teagan's near pout and that accent were getting to her. She steeled her resolve. "Let me take care of you're shoulder. Than you can maybe join the Chief. With you're experience you should know about stopping fires from spreading. Perhaps you can help with unit placements."

Teagan stared her for what seemed an eternity, before she hung her head in defeat and relented with a quiet "Okay". Regan hated seeing her like this, but she hate seeing the otherwise strong woman so hurt and almost frail, she realized with a start. She cleaned Teagan's shoulder as best she could and re-bandaged it.

"You're good to go for now. But that shoulder's gonna need a serious looking later." She announced helping Teagan to put back her blood soaked dress shirt. "Put you're vest back on." She instructed, her voice a little bit strained.

"Regan...?" The firefighter peered into troubled grey eyes questioningly.

Jesus, stop saying my name with that lovely Irish lilt! Regan thought.

"Corporal!" A shout came from somewhere and Regan snapped to attention. She quickly withdrew something from a pocket and pressed it into Teagan's palm.

"Please, don't do anything stupid, Heyes!" She squeezed Teagans hand briefly and then let go. "I have to go!" And she sprinted to where the shout had originated.

Teagan stood there for another minute staring bewildered the object Regan'd pressed into her palm. It was a business card, with her name printed on and her contact information bellow. An unexpected smile tugged at Teagan's lips. She took her borrowed vest. Strapped it on and strode towards Chief Thomas.

Comet had been sitting outside and had heard the announcement, but he thought someone else could handle it, and he was too busy thinking to notice anyone else leaving.

How am I going to do that and not have her kick my ass? Oh, I'll just run away! Genius!

Then a massive roar shook his body. With a confused grunt he stood and scratched his head, looking back into the room, he noticed that it was empty, completely.

Oh, I should probably head towards that sound then.

He took off after the sound, running up a building and then leaping from rooftop to rooftop, his speed enough to carry him through the air as if he had been flying. He had no idea what he would find, but he was hoping it wasn't something too bad.

He arrived at the scene five minutes later, standing on a tall building and looking down. Someone had obviously been wounded, as there was a pack of crouching people sitting close to the ground. There wasn't much he could do there, so he looked onward, ahead there was a large amount of... rat-things corralled in a circular area by a field of distorted air. That looked scary, not that it made him scared, he could always just run away.

Why do I keep thinking that? That's not very heroic, brain.

Looking towards the nearby buildings, he decided to check for anyone within, he could easily evacuate them-

No, they had been evacuated already. Comet really needed to pay better attention, now the news crew had tons of shots without him in them, that would definitely hurt his reputation, though arriving just in time would definitely bolster it exponentially.

Though it seemed as if he had been too early for that as well, as the group seemed like they had it contained for the moment.

With a sigh, he ran down the building and stopped at the perimeter, looking over the assembled heroes. Spectrum was down and being attended to, and everyone else was gathered around. Comet had no reason to be there, so he simply stood looking at the portals, waiting for them to collapse and the rats to pour out, they'd have to protect Spectrum while she got treatment, it shouldn't be hard for all of them, though if they didn't join him right about now it would be much harder.

"Hey dumbasses, I know you've got a wounded soldier over there, but if you're not a healer or otherwise unable to fight, you should be over here for when they break through, standing there isn't going to be much use to her when they get to her and begin bashing her with... whatever they've got, I just got here I have no idea."

Alex looked up from talking, irritated, at the latecomer.

"How about you do something, you fuck," she muttered, swapping him with a mailbox near her blockade. "Now do something..."

Alex doubled over, clutching her head, as blood started flowing from her nose.

"Ugh.." she groaned, closing her eyes and promptly vomiting on the road.

@bluetommy2

Vice left a trail of ash in his wake. There was no need to hold back against the Swarm Rats, and ashes were much easier to clear than bodies were after it was all over. And by the looks of things, it would be over pretty soon. All nearby civilians had been evacuated and the rat king had showed himself, one big move and this could all be over.

He was standing on a nearby rooftop looking down on the scene. Helicopters whirred on, high above, the swarm trying and failing to throw something that would hit them. They were completely trapped, but by the looks of things the other Epics couldn't attack them while their containment was still active. If they were high up like Alto was right now, an Epic with more range probably could but there was a lot of swarm down there. Any average ranged attack probably wouldn't have made much of a difference, it would be better to wait out the containment and prepare for what was coming. Numbers didn't matter to the Vice Claw, though.

The building he was on was already evacuated so there was no need to worry about collateral for now. He set down his suit jacket which he'd been carrying this whole time, because he was going to need to focus for this one.

A wave of fire washed over the Vice Claw starting from the base of his arm, triggering a reaction. Where the wave passed, more flames surged from within and the Vice Claw swelled in size. Alto could make it as large as he wanted, and this would be the largest he had ever made the Vice Claw. As soon as the containment lifted he would have to suppress it. For now though, he had the time.

"...Go down." He said as he brought the gigantic Vice Claw down, straight down onto the center of the Swarm.

Comet was surprised for a moment by his new location, but he quickly realized what had happened. The transporter had mumbled softly, something he could never hope to hear, and then proceeded to vomit. Not only was that disgusting, but it was also a really bad sign.

Just as the teleportation had moved him in an instant, he appeared in front of the teleporter, an angry look on his face.

"Good, yeah, thanks for that, but seriously, drop the damn barrier before you kill yourself, I'm completely fresh, and I promise that I won't let anything happe-"

The center of the horde of rats proceeded to explode in an admittedly impressive fashion.

Well, someone's getting the key to the city.

Comet looked back at the woman, obviously struggling. With a bite of his lip, he held out his hand.

"Hopefully that got them, for some reason I doubt it. Listen, I am a huge ass, I'll admit it, but you're hurting, even I can see that. You don't have any open wounds or bruising, so me moving you shouldn't do too much. I'll get you to a hospital, you've done enough," he offered, managing to avoid being a dick for a few sentences.

@Old Amsterdam