9:02 PM, July 7th

Kasimir Castle Hangar, Gotham City

A soft humming filled the air, the sound just barely surviving against the whip of wind coming from the open mouth of the hangar and accompanied by the clink of metal. Zoey's gloved fingers almost danced over the metal object as she looked it over for anything amiss, not for the first time that day or even that hour. Of course that was rather prudent to do, considering she was about to trust the wings contained in this little jetpack-like contraption with her life.

Well, not entirely.

"Thanks for coming, by the way. I'll make sure to finish up quickly so you can get home at a decent hour," Zoey's voice was unmodulated despite being in her Grim suit, the gas mask and voice modulator resting around her neck, the balaclava in her pocket and goggles pulled up to sweep her crimson bangs back at the moment. It seemed silly to do a stress test when not in the gear that would be worn with it, after all. "My previous tests all say it should be fine, but considering I'm about to jump off a cliff I do appreciate your presence." The redhead glanced up, her steel blue gaze pausing on the other woman in the hangar to give her a small, playful smirk. Further back the Grim Jet sat quietly, along with a mostly built satellite - just a bit more work on that. Of course those two items where further back the runway, while just to Zoey's right was the steep drop off of the hangar mouth, leading into the coastal waters of Gotham.

"So! Ready to help an old dog fly?"

Lady Arcana smiled up at her...friend, lightly nodding. "All ready here! Don't worry, the Speed of Hermes won't let you down!"

Grim had asked her to come over to help her test a device that she had designed, it's intended purpose to give her greater mobility in the changing world they lived in. Not so long ago there was no magic, at least not like there is now. But in this time of mysterious drug-mages and flying Supermen and plant monsters, her closest ally felt like she needed a little something extra of her own to stay competitive...and honestly, Karen couldn't argue the point. As awesome, beautiful, and incredible of a woman as Zoey was, she was still a normal human. It wasn't easy finding a way to compensate for that fact, though Lady Arcana would always be there to help her if possible.

"You'll like it, I guarantee it," she continued to encourage the other heroine. "Flying is just plain rad AF."

"Rad AF?" A perfectly shaped eyebrow quirked up as Zoey glanced to Karen, a chuckle escaping her lips. "It was interesting. I'm wounded you haven't offered again." The redhead finally stood up straight, hefting the dark metal pack up with her. Positioning it against her back snugly she quickly began to strap it in properly, double and triple checking that all the metallic straps were connected and there was absolutely no wear on the reinforced materials connecting them. Finally satisfied Zoey gave a slight nod, briefly removing her goggles to pull the black cloth mask over her head before replacing them and lifting the voice modulator. Tapping against the forearm computer located in her suit when Grim spoke it was back to the deep, slightly artificial male tone that rumbled against the gas mask.

"Live test one of the Grim Glider, July seventh. Drop of at least three hundred feet." Another couple of taps to start recording the specs of the glider in action Grim finally turned and stepped to the open hangar bay, feet resting against the edge as she peered down it. It was a steep drop off. Taking a deep, calming breath to center herself the vigilante glanced back to Lady Arcana, raised a hand to give a small two-fingered salute, and then dived off the edge.

Lady Arcana moved quickly when Grim leaped from the edge of the hangar, quickly outpacing the speed of her fall as she remained closely by her side. In case something went wrong, she would be right there to catch her. Not that she was predicting a failure, mind you: Zoey was an unparalleled inventor from what she had seen, and it was difficult to imagine anything she made just failing. Still, this was the reason she called her, and Karen was going to make sure and do a good job!

"Let's hope the smog doesn't congest the engines," Arcana joked, noting the perpetually brown clouds above.

Gotham and Hub City had that in common.

Falling was ... something, alright. Those survival instincts Grim often lamented that other vigilantes lacked were currently screaming in her ears in a universal voice of 'what the fuck did you just do?!' At the same time it was exhilirating, not having her feet on the ground and knowing that her own fate was in her hands at the moment. Well, she was also in Lady Arcana's hands if something went wrong, which was reassuring in itself. She'd have spent at least another couple of weeks testing this to be sure if she didn't have that fail safe. Really convenient, having her number.

Briefly, Grim noted she might need a wind-reduced speaker and mouthpiece - it was hard to hear while in a free fall.

"Please, as if I hadn't accounted for the smog!" It was hard to convey the teasing tone in Grim's usual voice, but it didn't matter much anyway. As the waters approached rapidly the engines hummed against Grim's back, and finally in a swift motion accompanied by what almost sounded like a blade unsheathing the wings extended from their folded position inside the glider. Each one reached just over seven feet, made up of multiple thin, dark metallic 'feathers' with cutting edges of various sizes - smaller near the base, longer the further out they went. Creating an actual human-sized set of wings for flight was a tall task, considering how much fuel would have to be blown through for any sustained use. As such the wings themselves were based of an actual avian's rather than a plane's, intended to be able to move and glide in smooth, sharp motions. Honestly, the engines on the back were mostly for emergencies - safety first, kids!

A shift in weight was the first sign of the wings responding, the bladed feathers moving with an unseen command. The air against them smoothly changed the near suicidal drop to less of a pitfall and more like the glide it was intended, path shifting from the water to go almost parallel with the water - though still dropping slowly due to having no actual 'flap' power.

"That works well enough, now let's see..." A movement of her arm had the left wing abruptly move up, catching the wind once more to begin pivoting, only for a bend of the metal to make it a rather sharp turn. The sudden change in direction caused another dip of turbulance but a shift in weight made it even out as Grim circled back around back to the rocks. All seemed to be going well so far.

As she neared the cliff the wings once more changed to put the vigilante almost standing in the air, and promptly lost their momentum in a few feet due to having no wind. Of course that was to be expected without the engine on, they weren't made to fly without them - but that was the next part of the test. Extending her left wrist the hookshot slammed out into the rocky cliffside high above her, the powerful mechanism immediately yanking her upward. When the hookshot withdrew it managed to give her another thirty feet with the wings, but not much before it wanted to once more dip. Deciding that was enough Grim quickly hit a button on the wings - she'd make sure to put another on her gloves if this went well - which started the engine humming with far more power, then a red light building as the engines activated fully. It was easy to steer with the wings even going up, and before long Grim shot over the edge of the cliff. An alert in her visor from the computer telling her of the quickly extinguishing fuel had her discarding the idea of going back to the hangar, and the burn of the engines cut off to let her drop the few feet to the grassy cliff side, the wings quickly withdrawing back into the pack.

Grim took a moment, hands on her hips and leaning forward to catch her breath before throwing her head back and laughing. The sound rumbled in her mask oddly but she didn't mind.

"That was pretty fun!"

Lady Arcana watched Grim plummet towards the water below with a light smile. Even through the mask she was now wearing, she could somehow tell that she was having fun. It reminded her of when she had first started flying regularly. How she would soar high into the stratosphere, and then let herself fall for miles. It was like having the greatest rollercoaster ride at your beck-and-call, and even now she would sometimes indulge in that little game when there wasn't anything better to do.

Watching Grim struggle slightly to get the hang of controlling her new wings only served to remind Karen of how challenging it had initially been for her to learn how to fly. While she'd never used any kind of device like Zoey had now, she imagined it was somewhat different. In her own case, precise control over her strength was essential when it came to steering herself in midair. Her first few attempts had ended with her smashing head first into either an alleyway or simply the ground due to her inability to turn in time. It made her appreciate Sam's restrictions, how she'd forced her to wear that red coat for a whole month in order to master her magic muscle-control.

In the eight months since she had shed that coat, she'd gone a long ways towards refining her aerial control. She was now confident in her ability to make precise, split-second turns and even elaborate maneuvers when she needed to. She could perform sudden stops, and land softly without any worry for causing property damage. It was for that reason she was honestly glad that Zoey had waited until now to try and test this, so that her own failings wouldn't endanger her friend.

After observing how her new flight pack worked, it was clear that it was mainly a glider, rather than something that would enable true flight. It relied on wind currents and lift to keep it going, with the rockets only kicking in when neither of those things were present. Zoey seemed to need to trigger them manually, however. Karen hoped she would in time figure out how to make some sort of automatic system that would keep track of aerial conditions for her and activate the jets when required.

When she landed on a grassy cliff side, the Wizardess quickly descended to meet her, offering her a slight round of appaluse. "Great first flight! Looks like it went off without a hitch, right?"

"Mostly," Grim's laughing calmed at Lady Arcana's question, though she didn't look to the heroine. Instead her gaze drifted skyward, to the smog-infected night air. "My hookshot didn't provide me as much lift as I hoped, I might need to look at getting a stronger mechanism for that. Plus the fuel was absolutely eaten through when the jets were on, I'm going to have to either try and find a way to make them more efficient or pack more fuel away. Of course since I'm still based in Gotham I don't think that second part is too high priority - I can leave the real flying to you." Grim reached up, pulling the voice modulator down once more to rest against her collarbone from where it hung off her neck, finally turning to face Karen. In the corner of her eye she could spot Kasimir Castle, a distant speck of light from the cliff to make sure the jet not only had a decent run way but that there wasn't a jet just shooting off from her backyard.

"Overall not bad work for a couple months of effort. I do appreciate you being here, even if you weren't needed." A slight grin moved across her lips, hidden beneath the cloth that still covered her head though her voice was once again natural. "After all, catching falling women must be rather mundane for you by now."

Lady Arcana snickered at her comment about catching falling women. She wasn't wrong, though. Catching all sorts of things - not necessarily just people - had become pretty common place as of late. She'd even caught a few falling planes here and there, which was challenging only in that if she didn't grab them in just the right way, they would want to rip apart on her.

Stepping towards Grim, Karen extended her hand towards Zoey, a warm smile now overtaking her face. "Want a lift back to the castle, then? Or maybe even a little trip through the countryside?"

Honestly, she just enjoyed spending time around her. There weren't many people she could really talk to who understood what it felt like to constantly hold people's lives in your hand. To come close to failure and feel your heart clench tight in terror at the thought that you might screw up, and cause someone to die. It was that feeling that had made her start taking this whole thing a lot more seriously. The last thing she wanted was blood on her hands, much less the blood of someone who was counting on her to save them.

"I'd like a trip through the countryside more if I could actually see the stars," Grim waved her hand skyward, huffing lightly. "The only time I get to see a clear sky is when I travel. I miss that about Blackrock." Still Zoey reached out to take Karen's hand in her own gloved one, giving a short nod of thanks. In truth her suit still felt a little odd lately, and she didn't mean the Grim Glider on her back. It had been a busy few months, churning out or tweaking more and more devices to keep her on the cutting edge in the vigilante business. Grim didn't think she was overconfident when she said she was a powerhouse of a fighter hand to hand, but the sudden surge of magic from eight months ago didn't seem to be waning at all. New threats, new bullshit magic, new vigilantes who had no concept of danger.

And most annoying of all was that she wasn't just an Urban Legend anymore. Grim was confirmed. It was in those riots, unable to keep her usual low profile, and her picture had ended up plastered all over those old Grim-spotting websites that were traditionally based in Gotham. As bothersome as it was, it at least gave her an excuse to be more flashy with her gear. Though she still wasn't going to start branding everything with the wolf head icon.

"Still, I wouldn't mind a lift. You can eat the entire stock of Henry's pastries again - I think he's finally stopped trying to figure out how you put it all down."

Karen couldn't help but blush at her mentioning her appetite for pastries. It was true, she could really pack them away when given half the chance. The fact that her Arcana form didn't really have a limit to what her stomach could hold and never became sick also helped tremendously with that. Still, she had never really got to enjoy sweet stuff in any great amount before she started visiting Zoey every week, so she felt like a little indulgence on her part wouldn't hurt anything.

Gently closing her hand around Grim's when it was offered, Lady Arcana lifted off the ground. Immediately, she knew that Zoey would feel a sense of weightlessness. That was what happened when people were in contact with her while she was flying, they would become a part of her little bubble of gravity defiance. Offering a momentary glance to the smog-layered sky, she quickly quickly began her ascent. "You might want to hold your breath, we're going to have to go right through it if we want to see what's on the other side!"

And so they did. Plowing right through the lower of pollution, it took less than a second for her to pop out the other side into the clearness of the undirtied night sky. In truth, it all happened so quickly that it was unlikely that Zoey even could have smelled anything in that short a time...but better safe than sorry, right?

Tilting her head back, Lady Arcana exhaled gently, watching the stars twinkle in the heavens above. She could understand why Zoey missed them now...they really were beautiful.

"Wait, Kar-" Zoey's hand shot up to grab her gas mask, only getting it halfway to her face before they ended up on the other side of the thick layer of smog and pollution. The redhead blinked, glancing down and under the balaclava her face twisting into disgust. It almost looked like you could walk on it from above. At least they were through so quick that nothing clung to her goggles.

"This doesn't look like home," The vigilante finally noted in a gentle ribbing as she turned her gaze away from the smog, only to give pause as her breath caught in her throat. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Karen was acting on Zoey's previous comment, but the sight still caught her off guard. Seeing the expanse of stars before them was mesmerizing, and after a moment Zoey dropped the gas mask to instead grab her goggles and remove them, lifting the balaclava off as well. With her face free and not fearing anyone being able to see up here - she doubted even supervision could get around all that filth - Zoey breathed in deeply of the cleaner air, a grin tugging at her lips before she turned her steel-blue gaze to Lady Arcana.

"You know, if you weren't impressed with my glider you could've just told me instead of showing off," The redhead commented, without the voice modulator the more playful tone obvious.

The night sky truly was beautiful when shielded from humanity. In fact, it was better here than it would ever be in most places. If the smog had one use, it was in drowning out the light pollution from below with...well, actual pollution. Now, they were free to see the stars as people centuries ago once did before massive skyscrapers and billboards, before cities of several million parted the night.

When Zoey smiled to her, Lady Arcana was quick to return it, gently bringing them closer together until their arms touched, a gentle show of affection. Looking away slightly, she tried to suppress her reddening cheeks, but it wasn't terribly effective. "Nothing you've ever done has failed to impress me, your glider included."

"It's honestly been a while since I saw a night this clear myself. Maybe if you make a space suit for yourself, we'll go to moon next," she joked, scratching at the side of her face, before gesturing to the great white sphere in the sky. "Fun fact: Selene is the patron Goddess of the Moon."

The usual soft hum she often did escaped Zoey at the fact, her gaze roaming along the open expanse of sky, drinking it in like a dying man. Finally those eyes flicked to glance to Lady Arcana, and the redhead quickly hid the little smile that threatened to bloom seeing how red she was. Karen really was a sweet girl, even with the pure destructive power she could wield as Lady Arcana. It was a little reassuring actually, that someone such as ... say, The Question didn't have her powers. He'd probably tear every Government building apart looking for clues to his conspiracies.

Zoey also didn't need to have years of experience in investigating to realize that this woman, a virtual God, had grown a crush on her. It was both rather cute, and a little humbling. Aside from the fact that Lady Arcana could more than likely level cities, she was also at least fifteen years younger than her. No doubt Karen would grow out of it soon enough, but for now it was quite flattering.

"Thank you, Karen. That sounds like it'd be a fun adventure one night, but I'd hate to see how confused any prospective stargazers would be." A slight smirk formed. "Though I suppose it wouldn't be too bad - no one would even notice me there when they can gaze upon you after all."

It was still a little fun to make her red, though.

And Karen was red, having to keep herself from pulling her hood up reflexively. No matter how many times it happened, she just couldn't help embarrassing herself by glowing like a traffic light. Pursing her lips, she returned to looking up at the stars for a moment, briefly lost in her own thoughts.

While she didn't live there, Gotham was a city that she really felt like she knew. A city she understood. The crime, the corruption, the cruelty and neglect. It was all so terribly familiar to her that it actually sent a brief chill up her spine when she thought about it. Like with Hub City, something about it made the back of her neck tingle when she was in her Lady Arcana form. There was something evil here, an unnatural malice that seeped into everything and tried to snuff the light out from within.

And it was in this place that Grim, that Zoey had been fighting all alone for so very long. She didn't have the power of six Gods at her disposal like she did with Hub City. No, she only had her wits, her intelligence and her human body to overcome whatever horrors were thrown at her. How she had managed it was beyond Karen's understanding. She knew she couldn't have. She wasn't nearly that brilliant.

"Thank you," she finally responded, glancing over to the other woman. "But I'm not that impressive. I had all this power handed to me on a silver platter, while others spend their whole lives trying to achieve far less. But you..."

Karen once again faced her. "I can tell you worked so hard for everything you've managed to achieve, and you did it without the Strength of Alcaeus or the Might of Atlas, or anything really but the Power of Zoey Kasimir. You've saved so many people even though you put your life at risk every night you go out there. That's why, if someone ever asks me to show them what it means to be a hero, I'll just tell them about you."

This time it was Zoey's turn to become red, feeling the flush of heat in her face and across her nose. Her lips had parted, wanting to say something but unable to find the words, eyes just focused on Karen with a surprised intensity. A warmth, a surge of affection flared in her chest at this little ray of sunshine in the night, finally her lips closing with a smile playing at the edges of them.

"Karen," The redhead trailed off, finally shaking her head before bringing her eyes to Lady Arcana's. "I... thank you. It's," Hah, was she, Zoey Kasimir actually tongue tied? An odd feeling to be sure. She's heard plenty of thanks through the years, usually from the trembling or awed voices of those that the urban legend had saved, even websites and the occasional news special dedicated to Grim. She didn't do any of this for fame, but it was disconcerting being completely overshadowed by all these new beings of magic that had been showing up. Stressing over if she'd be able to do anything if one of them turned their gaze on Gotham, planning and building and planning some more. To hear the words from Lady Arcana, someone Zoey had mentally classified as being near a God despite her inexperience, was humbling. Still, she ended up looking away, laughing softly as she raised the hand not in Karen's to run through her hair and brush her crimson bangs back.

"It's nice to be appreciated," She finally ended up saying, finding the words dull on her tongue and not expressing everything she wanted to say. "But you know, you're a hero in your own right. You'll only grow into your own legend the more time passes, not just for your strength but your compassion. People will look up to you." Zoey's gut twisted lightly, knowing what that admiration would bring. Those who would want to copy her, be heroes by themselves and make the world a better place. She hoped Karen never learned of anyone doing it in her name.

Karen slowly glanced down at the smog beneath them when Zoey reassured her that she was also a hero, that people would one day admire her. In some ways she knew that would be flattering, but in others it was absolutely terrifying. "I just hope that if that ever happens, I don't disappoint them. My..."

Lady Arcana closed her eyes, drawing a heavy breath. The warmth of the pure summer's air eased her lungs and allowed her to continue. "My biggest fear is that one day, I'll let someone down when they need me the most. That I'll fail, and someone will die because of me. Because I wasn't good enough...that despite all these powers, the girl behind them just wasn't worthy of them in the end and somebody paid the ultimate price for my inadequacy."

She still had nightmares about it at times. About holding the body of a small child in her arms, broken and bloody. She'd never seen anything that horrible in all her life, so she didn't understand why she would see something like that in her dreams. Sometimes, she was worried that - like Clarissa - she was seeing a vision. She desperately hoped that wasn't the case.

"Sorry," she finally apologized, quickly shaking her head. "I really do appreciate what you said, Zoey. I didn't mean to go all emo on you like that."

"It's alright," Zoey studied Karen closely, taking in the small signs of stress, the worry, the fear. She sighed softly before reaching forward, placing her hand on Karen's arm. "Karen... I won't lie to you, there may be a day that you can't save everyone. I've... had my own incidents in the past, where I was too late, or made a mistake, or just wasn't good enough. I remember every single one." The redhead went quiet for a moment, her eyes closing.

"There's so much wrong with the world, you won't be able to stem it all. All we can do is get up, to move forward, because the world won't stop because we've failed. People will look up to you even when you feel your lowest, and all we can do is hope we've inspired good in those who need it."

Karen knew she was right, of course. Common sense dictated that even she couldn't be everywhere at once, no matter how fast she was able to fly. In a way, she felt like that kind of made it crueler. A normal person at least knows precisely what their limits are, they know they couldn't possibly stop a disaster a country away. But when she hears about a flood in China that kills thousands, or an earthquake that destroys the livelihoods of countless people, she has to live with the knowledge that she could have been there, that she could have done something...if only she had been more alert.

But Zoey knew what she was talking about, and she knew she should listen. Offering her a warm smile of gratitude, Lady Arcana nodded. "I guess having to live with your failures is just a part of being human, right? That never changes, no matter what fancy powers you gain."

"It doesn't, but it's still hard. If you ever feel like the pressure of being Lady Arcana is suffocating you, Karen, my home will always be open to you." Zoey squeezed the hand in her own lightly, just a small comforting motion. Finally she offered her a small smile, gesturing to the ground. She didn't want Lady Arcana to end up flying off with these thoughts swirling in her head. "As it is now. Why don't we head inside for a bit before you fly home? I wasn't kidding about those pastries."

Lady Arcana nodded, returning the squeeze with one of her own as they descended back to the Earth. Kasimir castle wasn't a difficult thing to find, no matter where you were in Gotham, much less above it. When she first came here, she thought it was pretentious. Now she saw it as practically a home away from home, a sign of comfort. A reminder that she wasn't alone in this.

Floating down to the hanger, her feet touched the metallic floor as she came to a stop, allowing Zoey to gently descend as well. "There we are!"

"Thank you again, Karen," With her feet back on the ground and the weightless feeling gone when her hand left Lady Arcana's Zoey took a moment to roll her shoulders and shift her weight, letting everything settle. She began unbuckling the Grim Glider even as her feet started carrying her forward, once it was off letting the machine hang off her left arm. "Come on, I'll get changed out of my gear and we can drop by the kitchen." Just as she was passing the Grim Jet there was a buzz on her arm, buried under the glider. A frown tugged at Zoey's lips as she glanced over, only seeing a peek of red light from the computer screen on her gauntlet around the bulky machine. Her pace picked up to the door that led back to the labs at the back of the hangar, offering her handprint and code to it quickly.

As the door slid open it was obvious something was wrong, red light spilling across the ground from the large computer screen, lit up with one of the many alerts she had set up. The Tracker that had been powered by Lady Arcana practically hummed from its position, and splashed across the large computer screen against the wall was a map of the world displaying those results. Nestled in the middle east a certain section was lit up, practically illuminating the whole area. Zoey quickly moved to the computer, zooming in. All across the Arab Federation were pin pricks of light, each one a surge of the specific magic they had been tracking. Hundreds, maybe thousands that nearly made up the entire area.

"Arcana, I don't think you'll have time to fly home tonight."

---------------------------

July 8th, 8:45 AM
Kasimir Castle, Gotham

"Reports from Channel 52 observers on the front line report hundreds of armored columns surging across the border of the Republic of Arabia, with air strikes by the Arab Federation having already crippled the Republic's air force. Resistence against the invaders has quickly crumbled in just a matter of hours before the strange new weaponry employed by Basil Al-Asad's forces," Marisha Coleman explained, a somber expression blanketing the news anchor's normally attractive features.

Images of flashes against the late afternoon sky dominate the screen of the Grim Grotto's computer in that moment, as the Channel 52 live team observes the battle taking place in the distant horizon.

"Marisha, it can barely even be called a fight. The Arab Federation's EE-T1s are vastly superior to the old T-55's and Patton tanks employed by the Republic, and within mere hours of the first opening shots, Asad's forces had already achieved near total air supremacy," Ted Huckman explained, the man clearly uneasy at being so close to the battle. "But in addition to their more 'traditional' forces, they seem to employing never before seen weaponry in their unprovoked invasion."

Marisha nodded in acknowledge, allowing the video feed to draw on for a few more moments before speaking. "Ted, can you describe these weapons? We've heard the reports, but have you been able to obtain any sort of visual confirmation?"

"They're tanks, Marisha, and I believe aircraft as well, but they're so darn fast it's hard to catch them, even with the camera. They may have others we haven't seen, of course, but what's certain is that the speed of their advance is unprecedented. It's as if the other army isn't even there," Ted explained, flinching slightly as a particularly thunderous explosion detonated behind him.

Facing the camera properly again, Marisha folded her hands. "And there you have it, from Ted Huckman, live on the scene. It seems the fall of the Republic of Arabia is inevitable if they are left to stand on their own. As of right now, President Gloria Vanderhall is in talks with with the other NATO leaders on what the appropriate response to this act of naked aggression should be."

"Back," Lady Arcana called out, her feet touching down on the ground a short distance behind Zoey. With the hangar open, it made coming to and from the castle so much easier. "It's...pretty awful out there. I tried not to look too hard at the aftermath, and just focus on their weapons during my fly over."

She knew there were people dying right now out there. Her heart was ready to pound from her chest, and her tongue was sticking to the top of her dry mouth. She hated having to just observe, to wait knowing that it was costing lives. "I don't know a lot about weapons and stuff, but there was definitely some really weird looking tech over there. I could sense magic from it, too...and they have a lot of it!"

"That at least confirms the new tech they have," Came the low reply from Grim, rumbling from the voice modulator that was back over her face. Her eyes didn't stray from the screen of the Grim Grotto's computer for a few moments, taking in the last bits of the news report before finally tearing away to bring her gaze to settle on Lady Arcana. "I recognized some of the Arab Federation's equipment, it was nothing that would've set the tracker off but still deadly. The ones you saw are what's making this a bloodbath most likely." The vigilante huffed, her jaw clenching beneath the mask as Grim tapped her finger against her arms in agitation.

"In anycase it's a definite step up from New York. That... man is gradually increasing in intensity with his tests. Supplying a full fledged army with magitech? What is he even interested in from the Arab Federation - unless he was already part of it?" Grim began pacing in front of her computer, fingers continually tapping away on the thick fabric of her coat. "And of course we have to respond. Ignoring the actual complications of stepping in on a literal war there's no way a traditional government could stop a combination of magic and tech like that on such short notice without assistance - so many lives would be lost if we waited on NATO to actually do something." Finally Zoey stopped, turning once more to Lady Arcana.

"Besides, I don't think I could keep you away if I tried. Think you can carry the Grim Jet? You're faster."

Lady Arcana eagerly nodded in confirmation, "Of course!"

Turning without another word, she began walking towwards the hangar, assuming Grim would be right behind her. "No matter what weird weapons they might have, I'm still The Wizard. I'll end this whole stupid war on my own if I have to."

After all, since this involved magitech, it was her duty to make certain it wasn't being misused...and she was pretty certain that launching a massive invassion of your neighbors was a pretty flagrant abuse of magic. Especially by whoever it was that had given it to the Arab Federation to begin with. Maybe this time they would be able to figure out who was behind all of this pointless chaos.

In truth, despite her bravado, disabling an army of hundreds of thousands - maybe over a million - without killing anyone was no mean feat. She would have to break their weapons, but maintain a speed that wouldn't broil them alive with boiling hypersonic booms. She was starting to get the hang of suppressing the effects of friction at higher speeds, but she wasn't confident enough to put so many lives at risk just yet.

"Alright, ready when you are," Lady Arcana called up to Grim, placing her hands against the bottom of the Grim Jet.

"Countdown to ten and ready," Grim paused from closing the hatch on the jet, just a moment of pause. "And Karen, you'll never have to do it on your own."

July 8th 5:00 AM
Mojave Desert

---

"This fucking shit, who the fuck thought this was a good idea?" The Russian pulled at his suit collar. "We've been waiting for hours now, my fucking balls feel like they're about to start learning how to swim with the amount of sweat in my under-"

Another sharply dressed man made a soft motion. All went quiet except for the hum of a car engine. The pick-up truck drifted into place, "Take Me Home Country Road" making its way out of the closed windows in a muffled symphony.

The Russians approached slowly, necks cracking and cufflinks pulled. The door swung open, and a pair of brown boots crashed onto the desert road. The Russians let out a few sounds of confusion as they examined the truck. They'd expected more than one man.

"You the buyer?"

"Darn-tootin' I'm the buyer, who else gon' walk through this fartin' desert on an empty stomach?"

The man wore a simple suit, white undershirt, no tie, and a massive yellow helmet that hid a pair of shining yellow eyes.

A silence fell as the Russians stared at him, bewildered.

"...Do you have the money?"

"American dollar," the man said, pulling a wad of bills from his pocket. "I don't got no Rubles, hope that's no problem for you gentlemen."

The weaselly one looked at the southerner through beady eyes.

"Not at all, comrade-"

"Cut the comrade shit, Russkie, I'm here to buy Uranium not rob people of their freedom, respect that, Gopnik."

The Russian was abashed.

"G-gopnik?" One of the other Russians drew a pistol "Watch your tongue, hillbilly." The man was undeterred.

"You know what I find weird? How y'all never once thought I was wearing a wire, and I thought I were stupid."

"Y-you didn't seem the type-"

"Y'all are borin' me now, I'll be havin' that 'splodey shit or y'all will be losin' somthin' more precious than any precious metal."

The Russians barely reacted to the threat, except for a snicker from the one with the gun.

"Right, clearly this deal isn't going to work-"

The gun-wielding Russian's flesh flew off his bones in horrifically burned strips.

"Oh, whoops, bang-bang over there startled me," the helmeted man said, rubbing his chin. He kinda liked the sound of "Bang-bang"... he'd have to work on it. Meanwhile the Russians stared at what remained of their comrade. "That's a good smell ain't it? Microwave dumbass."

The helmeted man's hands glowed yellow, the air around them warping and distorting due to the heat they let off. He held his right hand up, palm directed at the weaselly Russian, who looked about ready to shit himself.

"I wanted to make a deal, boys, a simple goddamn deal, but y'all decided ta fuck me over, the fuck was I expecting from a bunch of Russkie commie sons-a-bitches?" He paused for a moment. "Well, I wasn't expecting much at all, but y'all still let me down. Kinda impressive actually. Now y'all can think me a peckerwood good ol' boy all ya want, but I got a quick trigger-finger and a need for Uranium, so fucking with me was the worst, and last decision you ever made."

The weaselly Russian erupted into a puff of sand and splattered body-parts. The last two were attempting to enter their car and escape, only for it to also explode. The man sighed

"Didn't have to be like this, I know I'm a dick but I ain't gon' just back out on a deal like that," he said solemnly, a briefcase flying from the destroyed car and landing at his feet. "Ain't that mighty convenient?"

The case opened after a few seconds bashing on it, and within was exactly what the man craved. He grabbed the Uranium with a gloved hand, lifted off his helmet with the other, and tossed it into the surging maelstrom that was his physical form.

"Fuck me that's that good shit!"

The resulting flash could be seen from miles away.

July 11th, 8:43 PM
Hell's Corner, Hub City; Illinois

"Come on babydoll, I know you want it." The man whispered into the woman's ear, presumably in a tone he thought was appealing but really made him sound constipated. In response, the woman pushed him firmly, beginning to walk away. He grabbed her, before pulling out a pistol and pressing it under her chin. "Scream and you get it, bitch." The rapist growled.

"Let me ask you a question."

The man turned, woman still pressed against the wall and pointing the gun in the direction of the voice. "Who the hell said that?!" He yelled, before firing off a few rounds. Nothing was hit, and the light of the muzzle flash didn't reveal any silhouettes. "Now. What does it mean to live a good life?" This time, the voice was behind him. He turned, but nothing was there.

"S-shut the fuck up! I'll fucking kill you!" To prove his point, he fired off another round. Nothing.

"See, in your world, a good life means drugs, booze, women. But that's not how everyone answers the question." The voice was... Right on top of him. He looked up, certain he'd catch the guy now, and found himself looking up at a trenchcoated man... With no face! "What the fuck!?"

Before he could aim his gun up to cap the fucker, he found himself pinned to the ground, gun several feet away and head being repeatedly slammed into the concrete. The pain made him fall into blissful unconsciousness.

The faceless man rose from the would-be rapist, and the woman stared at him in shock, mouth agape and eyes wide. "In my world, a good life means seeing scum like you locked up for a long time." The trenchcoated man said, before pulling out a ziptie and tying the man up. He dropped a card onto his unconscious form, a plain white one with a black question mark on it. He then turned to leave.

"Who are you?" The woman said, her voice a faint whisper. The man stopped, and turned.

"That... Is the question."

&

July 8th, 9:36 PM
Warehouse District; Hub City, Illinois

&


"Breathe in slowly, feel the breath fill your lungs and the energy fill your body. Feel it move from your nose to the center of your chest, then spread slowly out until it suffuses even your fingertips and your toes. Then, breathe out slowly feeling the rhythm of your breathing, the slowing beat of your heart and the release of energy back out into the world. Feel the connection, beyond your body, ebbing and flowing with each breath. In, out. Let distractions fade away until there's nothing but your breath, your heartbeat, and the slow pulse of the world."

Bruce liked to end training sessions with a cooldown meditation of sorts. It was one of the first steps of cultivating good awareness and flow of chi and done properly it de-escalated a lot of the intensity that came with sparring and physical training. He could tell his current student was less than focused, but he just waited for the source of the inevitable interruption to make itself known.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

'I am one with the world. The birds chirping, the water flowing, the warm summer breeze, the people walking in the street, the pushers hiding in the alley, the junkies shooting up, the murderous scum slitting throats...' Oscar's face scrunched up as his thoughts continued to drift, though he kept his eyes closed, attempting to calm himself.

Inhale.

Ex-

BANG!

His eyes shot open.

"A gunshot! I've got to get my mask on, get to the scene ASAP, I-'" He was already standing and looking around when his thoughts came to a sudden halt, finally seeing the pipe that had fallen onto the concrete ground.

"... Shit." He muttered, turning towards his sensei. "Sorry. I shouldn't have worried about it."

Bruce couldn't help chuckling at the Question's overzealous reaction. "No problem, in fact it was enlightening. We've been training every night for around three months. I think it's time you got out into the field again and put what I've been teaching you to the test. The point of learning all this is to use it, after all."

Bruce's mouth quirked as he nudged the fallen pipe with his foot. "Besides, another few days of this and you'll be fighting the plumbing instead."

Oscar chuckled, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, it's kinda hard not going out every night and punching the crap out of criminals." He joked.

"Well in that case, we better find the right criminals to punch."

"Heh. That we should."

&



&

_{Judas :)}

-_-_-_-

---------------------------------

July 8th, 3:48 PM
Sakakah, Republic of Arabia

Lady Arcana had made good time, if nothing else. Even with the Grim Jet as a passenger, she had arrived in less than three minutes just ahead of the advancing army of Basil Al-Asad. The city of Sakakah, with a population of nearly 250,000 people now stood in the path of the Arab Federation's invasion, the battered and demoralized remnants of the Republic's army doing their best to dig in and fortify their position with what precious little time they had.

"We're here," Karen spoke into her earpiece, the device shielded from the harshness of friction by her mystical aura thanks to its close proximity. "The Dictator guy's army should be here soon, so...um, start your engines?"

Waiting until she heard the Grim Jet hum to life, Lady Arcana released it so it could fly independently again.

Although she was still hundreds of feet above the city, she could already see that many there had noticed her. A lot of them seemed uneasy, some even a little upset. Why would they be - oh, wait. Shit, she didn't even think about that, culturally insensitive prick that she was. "Alright, then, how about this?"

With the same magic through which she had transformed her uniform into a cute outfit during her visits with Zoey, she created a pair of light purple stockings that ran from her boots to beyond her skirt. Then, she created a likewise orchid facial covering that - when combined with the hood of her cloak - made for a rather convincing burka-like mask. "There we go! Lady Arcana, Middle East mode!"

Feeling as if she'll piss off slightly less people now, she descended closer to the city. The defenders were digging in as best they could, preparing for door-to-door fighting of the most brutal and savage kind. In truth, she knew this entire city would be burning within the hour if she didn't do something fast. She could see that parts were already aflame from bombs that had been dropped by a Federation Air Force that had complete control of the skies.

Had being the operative word.

Glancing up at the sky above, she quickly shot into the clouds with a thunderous crack that resonated through the area. Finding their aircraft wasn't an instant thing, nor an easy one, given the vastness of a three dimensional sky and her lack of a radar, but her speed nevertheless made it possible with a bit of searching.

It was an entire squadron of bombers, no doubt heading for the city on another run. She hadn't a clue what type they were, since the entirety of her military knowledge could be stuffed into an ashtray. Still, they had wings and engines. She could work with that! She was currently trailing them at...well, she'd guess quite a few thousand feet off the ground. Figuring out how to best pick them off without killing their pilots was the hard part. She didn't want to make them explode or anything.

Maybe ask the expert on jet design?

"Erm, Grim? How do you figure I can disable a bomber without killing its pilots?" Lady Arcana spoke into her earpiece, hoping it was made to handle all the wind blasting past her right now..

Of course Lady Arcana didn't want to kill the pilots, Grim wasn't even surprised. The Grim Jet was currently hovering above the city, the black body emblazoned with the grey wolf head stark against the sky, its pilot taking in the landscape from the moment they arrived. No doubt Lady Arcana could handle the jets, and once the skies were clear it'd leave the tanks as hopefully easy pickings - of course that would likely destroy them. Somehow she didn't think Arcana would appreciate that. Ah, there we go. A quick check of her computer's mapping revealed what she needed however - a nearby body of water. As the Grim Jet banked to take off towards it as the vigilante responded.

"If they're far enough away from the city go for the engines - just make sure you don't destroy the wings. They should be able to glide well enough. If they're too close you'll probably have to make them eject - don't worry, they'll no doubt have parachutes - and then you can deal with the bomber itself."

Lady Arcana smiled in response to her friend's advice, "Okay! Thanks. This hopefully won't take too long."

Setting her sights on the bombers bringing up the rear of the squadron, she quickly closed with the one nearest to her. This did not go unnoticed by the pilots inside, as they immediately began taking evasive maneuvers. They wouldn't escape her, though, not without leaving their engines behind first!

Keeping parallel with the aircraft despite it's best efforts to lose her, she was forced to blink a few times in surprise when the afterburners swept over her body. This didn't deter her, however, her left hand quickly lancing out to impale the engine pod with a knife-hand jab, before ripping herself free. Watching it glide down through the clouds, she couldn't help but smile when the pilots ejected. Success!

Shooting through the sky in a green blur was the Emerald Knight, a fire burning in his chest to quell some violence. He was thankful that the ring sets up a small field around him, allowing him to move at such high speeds without even his hair jostling in the wind.

Even he was surprised at the speeds he could reach while flying around. Intersteller travel was one thing, but when he could actually see trees and cars pass by in the blink of an eye, he knew for certain he was going pretty damn fast.

Unfortunately, ultrasonic flight didn't mean that he could process things at an ultrasonic pace. He had ripped through something whille flying to his destination. Moving as fast as he was, he couldn't see it, but stopping as fast as he could to turn around and see, only now did he see that he had just shot through the parachute attached to an ejector seat.

The person was still in the seat, now screaming for their lives as they entered a free fall. This wasn't how he wanted to present himself to these people, not at all.

He bent over and flew as fast as he could to the falling pilot, and conjured a large platform to catch him and the seat with. He needed to be careful though. He had to bring down the platform at a pace that would agree with the speed of descent of the pilot, and from there slow down until they reached the ground.

And that's exactly what he did. It took him a little time to get everything figured out just right, but he was able to catch and save the pilot whom he had endangered in the first place.

Emerald Knight didn't know if the pilot spoke english or not, but that mattered very little with the help of his power ring.

"You're safe now." Emerald Knight spoke in english. He needed for the man to speak, so he knew what language to set his ring to. Time was short. As much as he wanted to stay and chat, he needed to move elsewhere.

He ascended slowly, speeding back up gradually the higher he got. Well, at least he knew that he was in the right place.

Another engine pod impaled, and another bomber falling. After the first plane had been disabled, the rest of the squadron had broken off their formation and attempted to evade her. Being bombers, she guessed they didn't really have any dogfighting abilities, since they never tried to engage her. While it made her feel a little bad to systematically hunt down a fleeing enemy like this, she figured they would just regroup and eventually continue their attack if she didn't.

Besides, it meant that the Dictator guy didn't have these planes to use against them anymore, and that could only be a good thing.

One after another she outpaced them and disabled their engines, watching them glide down into the clouds below. As she was finishing off the last one, Arcana couldn't help but notice a sudden flash of light beneath the her, one that was - oddly enough - tinted green. Her first instinct was to suspect it was one of the new weapons the Arab Federation had, a weapon they very well could be using against Zoey right now!

If that was the case, then she needed to get back there and stop it. Maybe the Grim Jet could handle itself, but Karen wasn't about to leave anything to chance.

Descending through the cloud layer, her eyes - sharp as any bird of prey - scanned the area for the source of the flash. She was expecting an aircraft, something sleek and futuristic-looking. Instead, she found a man. He was glad in what looked to be a green uniform, and he was flying...in much the same way she did! Who the hell was this-

"Wait," Karen paused. "That's right, I remember the interview in the Hub City Daily! That's Emerald Knight, isn't it?"

He must have come to help stop the Federation too! Awesome! It would be nice not to be the only superpowered hero flying around, even if he did only have the strength of ten men. Raising her hand, she offered him an energetic wave as she flew closer. "Heeey! You're Emerald Knight, aren'tcha?"

"Huh?" Preston could have sworn that he heard someone calling out to him. But he was up in the air, flying around, and definitely in an area where other flying people weren't common.

When he spun around to the direction of the voice, there she was, waving to him as she neared him. She had powered flight too, it seemed. No wings, jets, or anything keeping her up. He offered her a passive wave in response. He was surprised that she spoke english too. Maybe she were here for the same reason he was?

"Yeah, that's me!" He smiled at her and delivered a sharp nod to reaffirm her suspicions about him. "I'm glad my name's finally going around."

Now that he was able to get a good look at her, she seemed pretty iconic too. The purple, the lightning bolt, everything fit into the image of Hub City's very own Lady Arcana. "And you're Lady Arcana. It's an honor to meet the most popular hero here on Earth."

Looking around, he floated casually around. "So, what's the status here? I kind of ran through a parachute and have no idea what's going down on the ground."

"Most popular hero," she echoed him, a slight chuckle underlying her words, "or most infamous vigilante, depending on who you ask...but thanks all the same!"

When he mentioned running through a parachute, she blinked and instinctively glanced at the desert far beneath them. "Oh, I've been disabling bombers. They were heading for a nearby city, presumably to soften up its defenses for when the army gets here."

Not that she intended to let it arrive if she could help it. It would be much easier to fight them in the open desert than in the middle of a populated city where any stray bullet or grenade could kill a civilian. She'd yet to encounter anything she would consider magical in nature, which told her that they were probably keeping the big guns back for now, after initially using them to shatter the Republic's army.

"But, um, the situation is basically that there's a huuuge army on the way and we're the only ones that can stop it," Arcana explained. "The people defending that city really don't have a chance without us."

He scratched his chin. They could push up. Between the two of them being able to fly faster than nearly any jet on the planet, it wouldn't be hard to just keep moving up until they got to the big army. On the other hand, if the bombers were to fly to other nearby areas, them being too close would make it difficult to close in on them. He supposed that them being as far back as they were was fine for now. They'd just have to wear down the planes until they ran our or decided to stop.

"It can't be just you and me, can it? I mean, we could get it done, but it'd be a close call if the army is as big as you say it is." He wasn't quite sure what their next move would be. He really did hope that some more heroes decided to join in, but it was probably a far cry from reality. "If it is, then we'll have to stay on top of things. We can't give them an inch, otherwise they'll keep going."

Lady Arcana nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. While I don't think they can hurt me, they might decide to just keep moving past me if I can't disable them quickly enough. I've been doing my best not to kill any of them too, of course."

And that was something she had no intention of letting up on. She was no killer, and besides... "Most of these guys are conscripts, right? They didn't really have a choice but to fight for that Dictator dude."

That was how conscription worked, she was pretty sure. They just grabbed you, put a gun in your hand and told you to shoot whoever they pointed you towards. It was really messed up. If it were even the slightest bit possible, she'd like to stop this war without losing any more than necessary on either side.

Gesturing for Emerald Knight to follow her, she quickly flew back down towards the city, hoping to find the Grim Jet still hanging somewhere around there. Hopefully the Republic's soldiers didn't mistake her for the enemy. "...For the record, we're not alone. There's one more hero: Grim."

To be honest, an aircraft the size of the Grim Jet wasn't really the type of plane for fire fighting.

Luckily the Grim Jet wasn't a normal aircraft. It didn't take long to reach the body of water to the north west of Sakakah, an initial fly by checking for threats both visually and scanned. Finding nothing to impede it a sharp twist had the jet turning around and dipping, just barely skimming the surface of the water as a panel near the back opened and extended. The craft tipped back up and was soon making a beeline back to the city, the mechanism in the back already preparing the potent mix.

There was of course no way that the Grim Jet could ever battle an entire forest fire or anything near that size, but for a city already ablaze even the emergency supply of foam concentrate in the back - specifically made to smother fires when mixed with water and air - would suffice. Only being fitted with weapons would've been a bit of a waste, after all. The first pass over of Sakakah Grim stayed higher up in the air than necessary, having no doubt the citizens were on edge and afraid from the bombers. The nozzles in the back of the Grim Jet still sufficed to mix the water and foam at that altitude to drop on one of the areas being ravaged by flames, cutting off with the flick of a switch and resuming over another. On the second fly by the vigilante risked lowering the jet slightly more, hoping the initial pass gave the flag to not shoot - if arriving with Lady Arcana didn't already.

Not that normal bullets would do much against the hull of the Grim Jet anyway, but it was such a waste of bullets.

It took three trips zig zagging across the city to empty the supply of foam concentrate and water. There were still fires blazing inside the city, but the bigger ones had been contained for the most part. With the foam concentrate reserves on near empty the panel in the back finally closed once more as Grim checked the scanner. Finding an approaching object the jet banked to return to the initial drop off point. While she doubted Lady Arcana would allow anything past herself if she could help it Grim was still prepared, weapons systems ready.

As expected it was merely the heroine returning to the city, no doubt a few bombers less on the Arab Federation's side. What wasn't expected was who she was with, or the fact that she had apparently changed outfits - not hard considering her powers and would probably make interacting with the locals easier. Smart. Slowing the thrust of the Grim Jet and activating the hover the vigilante banked beside the two floating figures, lingering in the air only a few feet beside them.

"In the ten minutes I've been gone you not only got pants and a mask but also picked up a stray." She commented over to the other woman's earpiece, adding on in a mutter, "Then again I've been running around in a gas mask for over a decade so I guess I can't say much." Under said mask Grim's brows furrowed as she took in the new addition. She recognized him from some news reports, another super powered one.

"... Cabbage Patch, right?"

"Emerald Knight," Lady Arcana corrected her friend with a slight blush of her cheeks as she settled into a float beside the Grim Jet. She always had trouble with people's names. Though really, now that she was able to size him up properly this dude was really short! Like wow, he was about the same size as her in her human form!

Gesturing towards the "man" in the cockpit, she offered an apologetic smile to the other hero. "This is Grim, a hero from Gotham."

"I took care of the bombers by the way," she returned her focus to Grim. "There will probably be more, though."

As if to emphasize her comment, the sound of jet engines quickly approached. These ones were different, and not just in the clean tone of their jets, but that they came from the south and west. Without even pausing they gave chase to the bombers that were retreating, passing by the group of heroes. As they did the union jack on the tailfins of the F-35Cs displayed prominently that support had arrived.

"Squadron Charlie to Task Force Command, we have eyes on Federation bombers pulling away from the combat zone. Pursuing to the edge of friendly air support to execute superiority patrols." The lead fighter pushed ahead slightly, his squadron following behind. Three more joined them just as quickly, deploying from the carriers in the Red Sea and pushing their engines white hot in order to get to the front as fast as possible.

Below more NATO support was moving in as well, groups of IFVs on the road into Sakakah lead by a black and red painted command vehicle with a man standing in the open command hatch. Having been so far removed from the front lines for so long, Raymond had felt it necessary to lead the LIS detachment personally, going so far as to organize a fast assault platoon ahead of the main line infantry. It was only a dozen Stryker IFVs, but with the two big guns in the unit and a fair number of FGM-148 javelins as cargo for the troops, he was confident they could hold the line until more arrived.

Clear as it was he had a good view of the upcoming city, and the heroes hovering overhead, taking out a set of binoculars to identify them for himself. "Ah, there you are." A hand steadied himself as he leaned out of the hatch, a grin on his lips as he observed. "The battle has just begun for Sakakah, and reinforcing elements have arrived. I wonder if you will remain to help liberate Arabia, or if now that the military is here you will leave us to it?"

Preston, now floating with a jet of some sort hovering next to him, wasn't able to hear much of anything. Luckily, his eyes were still working, and that was enough to see the dots making their way over to the three flying heroes.

"Hey." The Green Lantern tapped the shoulder of the mystical mistress beside him. "There's some more on the way. We need to get moving before they get too close."

He couldn't tell if they were friendly reinforcements on their way to the town, lending their aerial aide against the forces bent on destroying everything, or if they were the destroyers themselves. He couldn't take the chance to sit around and wait. He needed to see the jets at a closer distance.

He flew off to intercept the jets. Of course he couldn't talk to them, but he did hope that flying circles around them would allow him to identify the planes and which side of this battle they were on. If they were the good guys, then good, but if they were the enemy, then he was just that close enough to be able to force them out of the air.

He closed in on the jets in quick time, pushing his ring to carry him just a little faster, and them some to keep up with them at a steady pace. It was rather lucky that he could vaguely identify the jets as the good guys. They didn't seem to be doing much to harm him as he flew around them to see who they were, which was also a good sign.

He decided to ride with the jets instead of returning to Lady Arcana and Grim.

Lady Arcana turned when Emerald Knight tapped her on the shoulder, before staring up at the incoming jets. Apparently, there were more incoming already. She supposed it was too much to ask for the Dictator to cut them even a little slack. Although..they seemed to be coming from the wrong direction, considering the other bombers were clearly flying in from the north.

Staring down at the city again, she also noted about a dozen armored vehicles approaching from the south as well. It didn't seem like a very big force, and the locals weren't react with much in the way of fear or panic either.

"Grim, are those guys part of the Federation or what? Do you like, have some kind of computer that can tell?" She asked her friend through her headset. The vehicles all seemed to be marked with the letters "LIS" across their sides, but who knew what the fuck that meant.

"They're NATO," Came the immediate reply, though Grim didn't look up from her computer to the jets. Instead her gaze had focused on the control panel the instant a small, seemingly innocent beep alerted her to something new. The vigilante's gloved fingers moved over the screen carefully before her eyes flicked upward. "A small force, considering, more than likely an advance squad. So friendly, but be on your guard - we're fighting a common enemy but we're still technically criminals."

Grim tracked the signal on her radar as the Green Giant joined the jets, silently making sure he hadn't taken off on a mistaken crusade; people acted so hastily sometimes. Luckily both he and the NATO jets didn't attack each other, confirming her suspicions that the three of them were friendlies for now.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, but for how long?

July 8th, 4:32 PM
Sakakah, Republic of Arabia

When the NATO forces had arrived, Lady Arcana had initially been tempted to fly down and have a word with them, to try and reassure them that she was here to help. Something in her gut, though, cautioned her against that. She was probably a terrifying freak to them, a woman who flew out of nowhere wielding a power they could barely force themselves to believe in let alone comprehend. No matter how much she might wish to calm people's fears about her, she just had to accept that maybe time was the best solution.

It had been around half an hour since then, and the heroes and their ostensible "allies" stood at an uneasy impasse while they awaited the arrival of the enemy. Although the situation on the ground wasn't quite so hopeless anymore thanks to the reinforcements the city had received, Arcana still didn't like their chances against the force that was coming.

No, she was certain that if she and Emerald Knight left now, Sakakah would still be overran. Only with their help could they -

"There!" Lady Arcana broke her thoughts, staring down from roughly a thousand feet in the sky. She could see the clouds of sand rising in the distance. They were here, and here in force.

Flying higher still, she used her keen eyesight - sharp as the finest bird of prey - to try and determine just how many they were dealing with. While she was no mathematician, she could hazard a guess that the approaching army numbered in at at least a hundred...no, a hundred fifty thousand!

Yeah, if she didn't act now, the city was finished.

"Grim, I'm going in. They'll overrun their position if I don't act immediately!"

The Grim Jet's engines roared to life at the call, having been hovering in a quiet standby mode to consume less fuel. Inside the vigilante Grim glanced up from the control panel she had been studying intently during their downtime, looking to the other heroine. Her gloved hands took the controls, feeling the powerful machine hum beneath her palms.

"Go ahead, I've got your back." With that said the sleek black jet took off to the sky, racing toward the approaching forces.

From within his command vehicle on the front, Raymond also had an idea as to what was approaching the city. Satellite feeds displayed a large concentration on route, and though he could not determine their numbers or exact composition, it was large enough to stir up the desert sands and announce their approach. His strike group had set up position on the northern side of the city, anticipating a ground incursion not being far behind the bombing run. Black armored soldiers with LIS patches on their shoulders and chest moved between buildings, setting them up for urban combat and ensuring the last of the civilians had been evacuated.

In the span of half an hour he had seen at least most of them to the southern end of Sakakah where minor evacuation efforts were underway. A good number of people remained behind though, grimly clutching at whatever weapons they had within reach to defend their city from the tyrant's approach.

"NATO Air, this is LIS Ground. What's the status on incoming reinforcements?"

Static replied at first, and then the signal cleared up. Damned government channels, rarely ever funded as well as private security.

"LIS Ground, we've got your transport planes under escort to Riyadh and Al-Jouf air field on course and arriving in three hours. Hold position as best you can, we'll keep the skies clear for you."

Three hours. The enemy would be on them far sooner than that, and even then Al-Jouf was outside the city and would take some time to unload and mobilize. A glance upwards confirmed the heroes were still lingering, and he was hoping they would continue to remain and assist in the efforts to keep the city free.

Emerald Knight had been flying around the city of Shakaka for a few minutes now, watching the city at all sides to make sure the enemy didn't sneak up on them from a different direction.

From below he could hear the soldiers marching around, getting ready. He looked out into the distance, and saw just what they were up against. He didn't have the finest vision, but the line of troops and their weapons of war was something to fear. He had to get out there and stop them before they hit the city.

Grim and Lady Arcana were already on the move. Emerald Knight needed to fly in and join them. It was rather fortunate that he had some time between his arrival and now to pick up an earpiece to communicate to the others with. Without it, the battle would surely be even harder to coordinate.

It took him a little longer than he'd have wanted, but he finally caught up to the flying duo, and offered a silent thumb's up as he flew in next to them.

Seeing that Emerald Knight was with them was a big relief for Lady Arcana, as the more they had on their side in this fight, the better. She had honestly never seen so many people in all her life, not even in stadiums, and they were all armed to kill. While their weapons couldn't hurt her, Grim wasn't so invulnerable and she didn't really know all that much about Emerald Knight's abilities.

She supposed that this was where she would find out just what her teammates could do, though.

The challenge here would be disabling their fighting capability. It would be so simple to just blast through this entire mass of people and armor, wipe it all out in an instant...but that was the sort of way only a psychopath would think. She hoped Emerald Knight had similar convictions...but given that he apparently saved an enemy pilot, she wasn't too worried.

Upon seeing the trio's approach, the reaction was almost instantaneous - they had probably been warned by the bombers over radio. The first to open fire on them were the Armored Fighting Vehicles, unloading their heavy 25mm automatic cannons on the three incoming heroes.

Instinctively - though pointlessly - raising her arms to shield her face from the withering fire of the AFVs, she landed on top of the nearest one and seized the cannon. Ripping it free as the two pilots began screaming in terror, she quickly seized both of them - on in each hand - and knocked their helmeted heads together to incapacitate them.

She was just barely able to react in time to move them to safety as the other vehicles opened fire on the disabled armor, tearing it to pieces. "Geez, they don't care very much about friendly fire here, do they?"

Dropping the men on the desert floor, she quickly rushed another vehicle and slammed her fist through the engine, ripping it clean out despite the armored shell. Taking several dozen 25mm rounds to her face from the panicked gunner, she actually found herself knocked back by several meters, tumbling along the desert as her cloak flipped up over her head.

Grunting in irritation as she threw it back, Lady Arcana quickly floated off the ground. It was a bad idea to stand here, as these weapons were powerful enough to toss her around without the Speed of Hermes to keep her rooted in place.

Charging the vehicle again, she repeated her motion from before, disabling its turret and two operators. She then brought them to where she'd dropped the other two, deciding that she would destroy the army's fighting capabilities in a large circle with this growing pile of defeated men as its epicenter.

Lifting off the ground, she made a b-line for the nearest tank, smiling as she seized the entire turret section at the base, her nails biting into the armor as if it were butter. She was going to rip it clean off!

"Arcana! No!"

Lady Arcana paused at the sound of Grim's voice, looking up in confusion. "Huh?"

Grim's cursing came through loud and clear on the ear piece as she jerked the Grim Jet up further from the fighting to avoid any undercarriage damage, stopping her own assault. While she had no problem killing, Arcana being met with a spray of blood or the screaming of a man almost broken in half would probably not be well received by Miss Sunshine.

"You'll kill them doing that. Just break the cannon - and only the cannon part of the turret! Treads too to disable their movements - if you're in a hurry just flip the whole damn thing over but don't rip it in half!"

Feeling her blood run cold at the fact that she was just about to inadvertently murder the crew of the tank, it took her moment to regain her composure, the 25mm cannons bouncing off both her and the tank doing little to phase her in that period, thanks to her grip on the heavy armor.

Releasing it, she pursed her lips and followed Grim's instructions to the letter. Ripping the main gun free of the greater turret section, she quickly tossed it aside and rammed her fist into the treads of the tank, tearing enough free that it tilted down onto its side.

Exhaling after this, she shook her head. She needed to take this more seriously. She didn't know how these vehicles worked, so she'd need to use caution when disabling them.

To her side another of the tanks slowly began rotating its 120mm gun to bear on her, when an impact against the side of the turret detonated the ammo store, igniting the tank and the crew inside. In the city, the Stryker tank-destroyer that fired the shot slowly backed out of the shadows of the carport it had sat in and began moving to the next spot. Another two were already set up in similar areas, putting shots down range into the advancing army and sharing none of the reservations Lady Arcana had about putting them down permanently.

Emerald Knight was a little more hesitant to join in the fight. It wasn't because he was afraid of the fight, absolutely not. It was because he had to think of a way to deal the most damage to the enemy without killing them. He wasn't made of titanium, he couldn't just charge in fist first. However, he could protect himself with shields, redirect missiles, and even blow some stup up mid-air. Lantern's had to be creative, as well as willful. That was their power that the universe gave to them.

So on he went, flying in and hearing the noise of war and the commotion between Grim and Lady Arcana. His enemy was anything airborn. It was rather unfortunate that his plan fell flat almost as soon as it sprang into his mind. Oh well.

His second target was to help out Lady Arcana with the tanks. He planned on following her example by targeting the cannon barrels and the tank treads, leaving them gunless and immobile.

With his ring forward, his right hand holding his left as if to steady himself, he conjured a large, polygonal face. He puppeted the face to laugh, and then proceeded to send panels of light flying down at the tanks. Maybe someone would get his dumb reference. Maybe not. At least he knew that he would inspire the sons of the soldiers here to one day take vengeance against him for safely rendering their fathers useless. He wasn't a killer!

The Grim Jet hovered above the battlefield, quietly taking in the actions of the two superheroes below - and the more destructive ones of the NATO reinforcements. It was no surprise, of course. Vigilantes, superheroes as they were often referred to in whispers, wanted to help people. It was natural that they'd want to spare as many lives as possible, even when being faced down like they were. It helped that they could afford to be picky about it - Grim saw Lady Arcana be hit by more ammo than she could count just hovering there listening to her, things that would tear a normal man or even military vehicle to shreds.

The normal men and women of NATO had no such luxury. Their shots were deadly, designed to put an enemy down and keep them down. Understandable, considering if Lady Arcana and Green Giant weren't distracting them the enemy would be doing the exact same - and likely succeeding to a far larger scale.

Grim was as human as any man or woman currently marching under the banner of their respective country, yet she was also a vigilante dedicated to protecting life. The tech she had even put her ahead of a majority of the non-powered players on the field. Grim exhaled quietly, and tapped at her on-board computer.

From the bottom of the Grim Jet two compartments slid open at the front, to the left and right. A pair of auto cannons emerged. Inside the jet the targeting system light up, Grim's fingers working over them at a rapid pace. On the very glass of the cock pit targets lit up, mostly red. A thrust of the controls had the jet manoeuvering overhead and hovering.

The targets changed to blue, and the thunderous roar of the auto cannons joined in to the cacophony of noise below. The 20mm armor piercing bullets punched their way through the thin armor above the tanks, piercing through to the engines. As soon as one was disabled the advanced targeting system of the Grim Jet already had the auto cannons repositioning to the next one, taking out a line of the machines in a quick efficiency. Re-engaging the motion controls Grim began moving to a set of IFV's, the auto cannons ammo changing at the flick of a button. These things were expensive to shoot, but not more expensive than a human life.

A war as big as this is a good way to increase publicity, but dressed in this!? I really need to ask my costume designer to make a suit fit for the desert, next time...

A streak of yellow light zipped through the central group's infantry forces, pushing the soldiers into eachother and causing their guns to fly out of their grasps, either a couple of feet away from where they could grab it, or into another soldier's face. In just less than five minutes, about a quarter of their deployed infantry forces are left disarmed and disoriented, some even before they realized it.

The flash of yellow slowed down to a halt, just a few paces in front of a squad recovering from the onslaught of eye-pokes and nut shots. In front of them stood a man, wearing some sort of vintage, superhero getup, complete with a face mask, likely to protect against sand, a pair of orange goggles, and a prop M1 helmet. Embroidered on his shoulder is a hastily sewn silver lightning bolt.

"Sup, the costumed man said, holding a rifle that belonged to one of the soldiers and ejecting its rounds with double the speed. "I'm fast, but you could call me Celerity."

Tossing the now empty rifle over his shoulder, he got into the most Hollywood-looking crane stance imaginable, waving a hand towards the group, tauntingly.

"Ten bucks says you won't be able to land a hit on me."

Once she had a working pattern down, disabling the tanks and other vehicles had proven much simpler. Breaking the main guns and treads for the tanks, and the crews, autocannon and engine for the smaller ones. She'd removed several hundred from action over the course of about five minutes, working her way outwards in a cricle. A large pile of unconscious soldiers was growing at the epicenter, although she had made certain not to stack too many on top of one another. Wouldn't want them to suffocate, after all.

But it wasn't just her, and it wasn't just Emerald Knight and Grim, either. There was someone else taking on the infantry. Somebody really fast, who streaked across the battlefield in a blur. He had disabled many tens of thousands of soldiers in that time, massively demoralizing the army as surely as her and her companions were by taking out their armor. Overall, in just that short span of time the quartet of heroes had thrown the entire force into disarray.

Lady Arcana could tell already that they were losing their will to fight. The confusion, the helplessness in the face of these strange powers...she actually felt kind of bad for them, given that most of them surely didn't even wish to be here in the first place.

She had done her best to incapacitate as many as possible, to save them as well...but the "allied" forces weren't so generous. They had destroyed some of the tanks while she was looking elsewhere. There was nothing much she could do about it...she wasn't about to attack NATO, that would potentially just cause more to be hurt or killed in the long run.

No, the best thing she could do was to end this battle quickly.

While she had been disabling armor primarily, she had noticed that artillery had started trying to shell the city from the back of the advancing force. Some had even taken shots at her, but only managed to killed their own men in the process. They were getting desperate.

Lifting high into the air, she flew towards the rear of the now fractured force. It had lost much of its cohesion, with thousands of troops wandering in confusion and some vehicles even trying to retreat. They just needed one last push, and she had set her eyes upon the source of the artillery strikes with that goal in mind.

Although they did seem to be the armor behind the shelling, they honestly didn't look all that different from the tanks she had been breaking up till this point. Their main guns were a lot bigger, but that was really about it. Still, that did make things quite a bit simpler than she anticipated.

Landing on top of the first one, she quickly seized the base of the main gun and placed her foot on the top portion of the vehicle. Wrenching it free - a piercing screech of metal heralding the action - and tossing it aside, she proceeded on to the next one, opting to simply flip some of them at the base to save time.

Hopefully, taking out their long range support would be the final straw that broke the camel's -

"Eh...?"

Lady Arcana's eyes were suddenly drawn to the sky, a sharp whistle catching her ear. By the time she understood what she was hearing, it was too late to try and stop it.

Emerald Knight had been too busy with his large face and flying polygonal shapes to worry about the speeding blur, but that whistle was something that he couldn't avoid hearing.

He slammed the face down in front of him, using it was a shield to protect himself from whatever was headed their way.

---

Girard drove along in his truck heading back home from a good several miles outside of the city though he hadn't driven the whole way to the place. In the past couple months he had decided if he was going to use his powers in earnest he might as well try to actually learn his limits, so an old abandoned quarry seemed as good a place as any to practice. Turns out if he let off the reins for a little while he was stronger than he thought originally and he could get obscenely heavy if he allowed it which made him glad he caught himself early on before he really did some damage back home. Honestly it made him more worried than he had ever been because with all this power he had to walk on eggshells or he could do a lot of bad to anyone around him, it was bad enough before when his limit seemed much lower. He did find a use for his strength that solved a major problem he was having in mobility however which was now mitigated by jumping like a damn rocket over long distances saving him a lot on gas.

The big man figured he was going to end up revealing himself eventually so better to be prepared to make himself and his powers presentable for when it did happen. To be fair if Abigail hadn't talked him into it he might've never done it in the first place because of her and his daughters taking serious precedence over his little crimefighting sprees which he occasionally did to keep crime down in Amnesty Bay. She had been a big source of encouragement lately regarding his activities pushing him further so he felt less restricted in going out to do what he thought was right. It left him less time with her at home but it was almost impossible to tell her no so he kept it up with his amazing wife cheering him on. The girls didn't know yet nor did he care to let them in on it yet since they were still little things, no need to have them worrying about anything more than what they should like school or making friends

The big guy was prepared to take a turn sending him back towards the suburbs when his phone started ringing. He pulled over to find the thing and saw it was Abby calling, he figured she was just checking in with him to see where he was.

"Hi honey. I just hit the intersection-" He began to explain himself before his wife cut in.

"The Arab Federation just started a war...those poor people over in Republic." She said sounding rather upset, "Sweetie I know you don't want to show off or get us in trouble but you could save a lot of good people over there on both sides, I mean you could do that jumping to get over there now and everything."

Girard was silent for a moment considering his options for dealing with this issue. He only really saw two possibilities open, use his powers and try to get himself over to the fighting or just go home to endure a scolding he likely wouldn't forget. Neither was a winning bid though as much as he was worried about showing up in the Middle East his wife was in the right for calling him about it.

"I...what if I over or under shoot and end up somewhere else completely?" He asked giving confirmation to her that he was going to do it.

"You can make yourself heavier hun, over shoot and you can use it to help you land close to if not right on them." She said throwing in her two cents on the problem but seeming a bit happier that he was thinking it through beforehand.

"Suppose I could call up Gary to pick up the truck near the coast too, should be out and about right now." He said getting his helmet out from the dufflebag. "Suppose there isn't much better of a test than trying to jump continents huh?"

The two of them laughed for a bit over how stupid it all sounded before she made him promise to come back soon or she'd kill him and the Tank was on his way to the coastline of Maine. It took him some time to find a vacant area where he could make the jump from, harder than it first appeared but he managed it. He looked out at the water trying to think how much force he would need to send himself that far and it was a lot by any measure so it was just a crapshoot at best. The big guy stepped himself back a couple hundred feet to get a running start before breaking into a sprint trying to build up as much forward momentum as he could feeling the ground under him getting messed up in the process. Then before he had a chance to take it back he hopped once setting himself up for a much bigger push off as he poured his strength into one massive burst.

It was hard for him to imagine ever being in this position flying through the sky at the speed he was looking down over the water and the land he could see. This was really insane by his standards but here he was rocketing through the sky, higher than he expected initially which was making him really uncomfortable especially over the ocean below. Well that's what he thought before his jacket and pants set on fire as he went and that was just the first to go in an unpleasant line of events ending with his helmet melting onto his head. Had he really thought this through? Apparently not well enough since he hadn't been anticipating this to be such a shitty ride forcing him to pull away some of his headgear from his eyes just to keep track of himself.

Turns out Tank didn't have long to wait afterwards as the dry earth came up to meet him very very fast. "I never did come up with a landing plan did I? Well shit."

July 8th, 4:37 PM
Sakakah, Republic of Arabia

Lady Arcana shielded her eyes from the geyser of sand that erupted from the meteoric impact, as the object - an asteroid? No, too small - impacted between the city and the approaching army. Hell, calling it a geyser didn't even seem fair: it was almost like a volcanic eruption of sand that blanketed both the city and the opposing force. She couldn't see anything from her distance, and from the obscuring aftereffects, but whatever had happened...she needed to be there.

Lifting above the battlefield, she flew to the scene at windbreaking speeds, pushing through the still swirling pillar of desert. Feeling her boots touch the ground, she attempted to find the point of impact through the choke of sand.

Tank slowly worked his way back up to a standing position having landed in a sort of awkward crouch which wedged him into the ground a bit, he was pretty sure he would be finding sand for weeks. He couldn't see jack shit at the moment because of the giant storm of sand and dust surrounding him from the impact or at least not very far so he stumbled around a bit trying to get some sort of bearings on where he landed. Not to mention he felt like he was in a boiling pot from all the friction probably looking like a well cooked lobster while he would probably have to peel what was left of his signature helmet off his head, he was due for a haircut anyway he supposed. Hopefully he wasn't too late for the fighting since he had definitely just caused a lot of bother with his sudden arrival but who knows maybe it might've helped in some way.

She had wandered through the artificial sandstorm for roughly a minute now, searching for some sign of whatever - or whoever, even - had caused that Earth-trembling impact. Since she had flown in, she knew where the epicenter of the impact was thanks to her eidetic memory. This at the very least gave her a destination to work towards. Hopefully she would move quickly enough to keep whatever was there from straying too far...if it was capable of doing such.

"Hello?" She called out, hoping her voice would carry through the vortex of sand.

That was when she saw it: a large silhouette against the backdrop. Very large, in fact, although still clearly humanoid. She couldn't make out any features, however-

"Wait," she shook her head, suddenly recalling that she could simply clear this shit out of her way with a quick clap of her hands.

Drawing back her hands, she quickly slammed them together with just enough force to clear the the area around them of the obscuring cloud. Indeed, with a thunderous crack the sand parted and the air was purified, allowing her to see...

"Oh..." Lady Arcana muttered, her voice quite small.

It was a man. A very tall man. A very tall, very naked man.

A buzz of static sounded from her earpiece.

"I didn't realize we were having another one of those adventures, Arcana. Wasn't the brothel enough?"

Girard could of swore he had heard someone in the cloud speaking causing him to turn around attempting to find them by sound starting to move in the very general direction. He really hoped he hadn't landed on anyone or too close to the action because he could only imagine what it would do to a person or people if it did this to the ground.

"Hello? There someone in here?" The big man asked figuring he might as well try to help whoever was asking to find him. It would at least be less awkward if they didn't end up bumping into him, he was not exactly decent at the moment.

He got his answer in the form of a loud crack clearing the area of debris so it was visible revealing who it was, none other than Lady Arcana who was also feeling a might embarassed if her response was anything to go by. He couldn't blame the woman and honestly he had nothing available to make this any less strange of an encounter.

"Got to say. This is not how I expected to introduce myself to another hero or heroine. But better to get it out of the way quick. Hi I'm Tank, heard about the war and tried to get over here quick to help out...the battle isn't over yet right?" The big guy said trying to give something else to think about besides him standing in his birthday suit.

Lady Arcana could only stare blankly at Tank and his main gun, unable to muster a response. She had heard Grim's quip, but honestly she couldn't really focus enough to give her a response. Not right now, not while so...distracted. How did she keep ending up in these situations? She was a good person, right?

"I..." she slowly shook her head, trying to regain some composure.

Get a grip, Karen. You're the Wizard. You can't get so flustered every time some dude flashes h-his...his main gun at you!

Raising her hands, she slapped her cheeks hard enough to cause a series of miniature sonic booms. She then settled her eyes squarely on Tank. On his face. Just his face. "Hello, I'm Lady Arcana. Are you here to naked? ...Help. Are you here to help?"

Girard felt like he was going to get some serious flak for this in one way or another, already kinda was as it is. Abby was probably going to both dislike it and laugh at the same time once she found out about the result of his jump while he had no mind to let go that this was her idea in the first place. Oh well it could be worse, not like he didn't have self control by this point in his life but he really needed to get something to at least cover up with eventually for Lady Arcana's sake if anything.

"No, I hoped to arrive in costume but that plan kinda went up in flames so to speak. As for helping thats why I'm here, can't have people getting hurt if its possible otherwise." Tank said attempting to make light of the situation while getting his intentions across. "Hope I'm not late to the show, this whole having powers thing is still new to me but lending a hand seemed like a good thing to do with a war on."

If this wasn't a warzone, Grim would be having the time of her life. Something about seeing the literal Goddess of Magic, who minutes before was ripping apart vehicles of war while simultaneously being fired upon by them, stumbling over her words at the sight of a naked man was highly amusing. It was probably even funnier than the time they chased harpies, considering they knew each other better now.

Still, better go check up on them. The enemy forces were demoralized to a point that they had started retreating, the meteor man having been the final nail in the coffin of their defeat. There was no need to go chasing after them viciously disabling the rest of their vehicles, at least for now. So finally Grim brought the jet back, hovering above and slightly behind Lady Arcana to examine this new addition to the field. She whistled lightly. He was a big man for sure, though his ... fashion, or lack thereof, could be worked on. The only thing he was wearing was what looked like the crumbling remains of a helmet. Heh, between his height, build, and what she could see of his face he kind of looked... like...

...

Grim's eyebrow began to twitch.

The Grim Jet suddenly moved forward, nearly brushing against the bottom of the crater as it hovered close to the nude man, nose almost touching the new addition. Yep, that was definitely Girard. Grim groaned, a hand going to her face. Was everyone she knew going to get some sort of supernatural powers?! This wasn't funny anymore. For fuck's sake at this rate David and Jaina will start shooting eye beams or something ridiculous! God fucking damnit.

... And she really hoped he didn't intentionally come to the battlefield like that. Abby couldn't have approved that. Well, the least she could do for her old friend - Grim still couldn't fucking believe this bullshit - was cover him up. Unbuckling from the pilot's seat the vigilante moved to the back of the jet, where a small cot was attached to the wall. The Grim Jet could fly home on its own reliably after all, there have been times Zoey had just crashed in the back. Yanking the orchid sheet off of it she moved back to the front, running her hand over the control panel. The glass cockpit opened up and without a word she threw the sheet at him.

Tank next surprise came in the form of a jet hovering down at first behind Lady Arcana and then practically going nose to nose with him as it descended further right above the low ground. It sure as hell didn't look like any normal military jet he had ever seen, he liked the occasional history show, so he took a wild guess some hero had to be the pilot of it and whoever it was apparently was not afraid of getting so close to a man who just made a massive crater in the ground. Good to know. He really had no idea what to do in the face, quite literally, of this so he quietly waited to see if someone was going to get out or whatever was going to happen.

Girard had wanted to greet the person inside when the hatch opened but instead got a face full of a bed sheet which he gathered up quickly. That certainly solved one problem of his as now he had something to use as more or less a small robe. Sure it was purple but he had long since passed the idea of looking a gift horse in the mouth, plus he sure it wouldn't look too bad all things considered, he couldn't exactly be picky. It wasn't hard to tell the purpose of said sheet either because seriously this couldn't have been more awkward if he tried and it seemed the pilot was ok with parting with it for the moment at least. He quickly got himself wrapped up from the waist down making normal conversation at least an option now though he doubted this was something he would live down so easily around the rest of the heroes present if these two weren't the only ones.

"Appreciate it...friend!" The big man said realizing he didn't actually know who was in there. He could sort of see some sort of symbol on the side but from his angle it was not very clear, not to mention the sand kicking up from it hovering made it harder to figure out. Then again there weren't many regular people who owned a jet so whoever it was was either ex/military or had some money to them to get one. Probably wouldn't have to wait all that long to find out though so he could wait until they decided to show themselves.

It was at this point that Emerald Knight had actually dispelled his constructs and joined the others. He had followed the grim jet back to Lady arcana and the formerly naked man. Preston was just glad that he didn't have to see a man in his birthday suit all the way out here. At least, not for any amount of time that would have lasted on his memory. He was wordless. It seemed like Lady Arcana was on top of things here, and with the army retreating, there wasn't a whole lot for him to do on earth right now other than gain some more publicity and assure everyone that it was over.

Lady Arcana felt greatly relieved when Grim mercifully threw him something to cover himself with. Hopefully it was sturdy enough to not come undone in combat. Or get shot off. Though, considering that the Federation's army appeared to be retreating, that hopefully wouldn't be much of a concern.

Still, she had a few questions for this very large man standing before her, such as; "Where did you come from, if I might ask?"

Casting her eyes skywards for a brief moment to emphasize her confusion at his sudden and very cinematic appearance, she smiled. "Not that I'm complaining; you seem to have frightened the enemy off."

So he was the one who collided with the ground at terminal veloctiy, or maybe even faster. "I guess he was the last thing the army needed to retreat, huh." He muttered to himself, amused at how the situation was playing out before him. "Emerald Knight. Nice to meet you, Mr..."

"... What? Of course I left money on the counter! They accept dollars, right?"

A couple of yards away from the others was a man with white hair wearing some vintage costume. He had his helmet cradled in his arms, full of... falafels? His orange goggles were also propped up to his forehead, revealing his face, completely, munching on falafel while talking on a Bluetooth...

... Wait a minute, is that Jimmy Chong?!

"Yeah, I'm on the way to where that crash happened. Just going to finish my snack, first... What? Of course most of my gear's off! It's hot and that mask gets stuffy! Not like I'm near anyone in this ass-end of the des-"

Jimmy Chong looked up, his mouth agape as the falafel that was about to enter his mouth fell out his hands. His arm holding the helmet jerked instantly to catch the food from falling to the ground, although he worked rather hastily to put his mask back on and slide his goggles back over his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll call you back..." Celerity said, pushing a button on his bluetooth and hanging up. He had just noticed the group assembled before him, too close for comfort. He wasn't worried about any sort of fight, though... no, he was worried that his return to the public eye would have been too soon! Taking a big gulp, Celerity slicked his hair back and cleared his throat, before waving at the others.

"H-hey... am I late for the afterparty?"

"Is that...?" Grim's voice in the ear piece trailed off as the jet repositioned just slightly to look at the second green addition to their little impromptu vigilante party. He had already put the mask on, but she swore she had recognized him too. Not as closely as Girard, but rather...

'Even the fucking movie stars get powers now?!'

Lady Arcana glanced to the new voice, her face brightening when she recognized it as the little man that had been rushing about the battlefield beating up thousands upon thousands of soldiers. It was thanks in part to his efforts that they had been able to demoralize the army so quickly by displaying how outmatched they really were.

"Hi there!" She greeted him warmly, a gentle wave of her hand. "And no, we were just greeting Mr. Tank here."

"Tank..." Emerald Knight mused to himself in the cloth-bearing man's silence.

Gesturing to the very large man in front of her wearing a very purple sheet around his waist, she briefly blushed at the naked image still locked in her mind. Damn you, eidetic memory! She then moved her hand towards the other heroes as she introduced them. "This is Grim, and Emerald Knight. I'm Lady Arcana!"

You were a big help out there against the infantry, Mr....?"

"Run. I mean, I gotta run. I think something's going on... over there! I gotta check it out because... I'm fast, and shit!"

Celerity performed a complete 180, and started walking away very slowly and awkwardly, pushing the button on his Bluetooth, once again. He feels very weirded out at meeting four other heroes this early in his career, and most especially away from the press. What's more concerning to him, however, is being seen with them. They did a lot more than he did, he's pretty sure, and he'll look like a... a... a side character around them!

"I think they saw my face. Yeah, of course I put my mask right on when I saw them! I don't know, though, they didn't recognize me. Weird, right?" Celerity shrugged, before lowering his mask and popping another falafel into his mouth. He seems to have enough to share for everyone, although he didn't go on and offer any. Weird, especially with how slim he looked. Damn, short guys and their fast metabolism, right?

Girard had to say he was a little disappointed that his entrance had been the ending point for the battle, the cloud had settled enough for him to see that the Federation army had collectively shit bricks and was on the way out from the heroes intervention. Not exactly what he had been anticipating as his role but it certainly made an impact either way with the crater he made in the battlefield. At least it was over and with far less casualties than there would have been otherwise if any of them had kept to themselves so he was glad for that at least.

Tank lightly smiled as he was introduced to the three others present by Lady Arcana, he knew of Grim and Emerald Knight via news bits so that was neat but he couldn't quite place the other guy even if he looked familiar.

"Good to meet you all, circumstances being what they are. As for your question before I jumped from Maine to here, seemed a good a place as any to start since crime picked up quite a bit in places like Amnesty Bay." The big man said wanting to give an answer if not entirely specific about some information but chuckling thinking about it. "Never figured I could pull a stunt like this but go figure eh?"

The guy in green seemed to get anxious about something before running off in a hurry with food in hand. He seemed alright if a bit skittish and since he helped he was an pleasant acquaintance if anything.

Back in the city, things were not quite as well even with the army in full retreat. The forward elements had been faced with either progressing into the guns of the defenders, or attempting to route through the powered individuals making a mockery of their forces. Gunfire was sporadic across the northern end of the city, the few tanks proving themselves excellent targets for RPGs and infantry stranded away from their IFVs as they tried to march into the city. Raymond himself observed from the cupola of his Stryker, directing fire across the command network and steadily making a counter-push.

"Stryker-three, full advance on sector four. Anti-tank, move to support." His commands were acknowledged with affirmatives from the vehicle commanders, the sound of engines revving and moving into the desert. They were routed, but they were still fighting fiercely enough to give his meager troops difficulty. At least he was no longer on a time limit and working against insane odds.

A tank round struck the side of one of his unit's vehicles, sending shrapnel into the sand and forcing the crew to exit. Those tanks would have to be removed first, but he couldn't afford to move the thinner-armored destroyers up without adequate cover. Cover that didn't exist outside the urban environment of the city, and against an enemy that was well within range to quickly acquire them. He had a choice here, and looking out across the sands with his binoculars, he made it quickly.

"Ordnance out, all units halt advance."

His troops knew the command well enough, as LIS training covered just such a scenario as unlikely as it ever was to happen. Focusing on the first tank in front of him, Raymond lifted his hand and drew in arcane energy from the leylines beneath the city. They weren't quite as strong as those elsewhere, but it was more than he had been used to because of Lady Arcana's presence. Even before he said the command words, he could feel the lance forming in his hand and straining to strike out at his target. The arcane command loosed it, a concentrated lance streaking out across the short distance to impale the tank directly in the frontal armor. Designed as it was to defend against more mundane means, the metal parted easily against the attack, the interior lighting from within as magical fires ignited everything within and detonated the entire vehicle. Streaks of electricity sparked outwards in a circle, chaining between infantry and vehicles one by one until a section of the advance had been vaporized.

Almost immediately his troops moved forward to take advantage of the gap created, firing upon the disorientated soldiers and seizing the initiative. He didn't like expending his energy in such open displays, but with the distance between himself and the heroes beyond, the only one he thought might notice would be Lady Arcana herself, and she seemed quite occupied at the moment. Nevertheless, he ordered his unit to strike forward, his command vehicle rumbling out of the city and on a course towards the gathering.

Frowning when the Speedster ran off, Lady Arcana briefly entertained the notion of following after him...but that would be rude. He had no obligation to stand there and talk with them, even if his behavior was kind of dismissive. Turning back to her other new friends, she could only shrug.

"I guess he isn't one for conversat-" Her voice stopped instantly as a prick shot into her neck, a sensation she had felt before...though this was the strongest she'd ever experienced by far. While at first it had been confusing, Samantha had explained to her that what she was feeling was the presence of magic. And this magic was strong...incredibly strong, to the point of causing her to worry that perhaps the Federation had sent in those weapons she had seen earlier.

"One moment, I'll be right back," she excused herself from the group with an apologetic bow of her head, flying up into the sky. That was when she saw it, the row of burning armor and charred remains. Frowning, she flew over to the area and landed on a building on the outskirts of the city to look for a possible source to the attack.

It didn't take her long.

She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she was focused on the task it was quite easy to feel the presence of magic in one of the individuals within their NATO "allies". Shifting her gaze in the direction of this presence, she finally settled on one of about a dozen of the vehicles that had showed up to defend the city. Without hesitation, she floated from the rooftop down towards it....though remained about twenty-five feet off the ground, just in case they opened fire on her.

"Someone in there used magic," she called out, her expression an unusually sombre one for her. "Who was it?

Despite the rather sudden appearance of Lady Arcana above the advancing vehicles, the gunners only spared her a glance, not moving to direct fire. Their individual commanders lingered in their observations a little longer, though still simply directed Raymond to her presence. Out in front, he saw her first and ordered a full stop of the unit.

"You seem rather sure of that." He called back, simply smiling up at her and gesturing for his troops to stand down needlessly. "Perhaps it was a bit of residual effects from the Federation's vehicles. We did pop a few rather well."

To the side the gun crews of the tank-destroyers nodded in affirmation, sharing fist-bumps with each other and giving thumbs-ups to the other vehicles in formation. War was their business after all, and while Lady Arcana might shy away from death, it was their primary directive.

"How about you come down to the ground so we don't have to shout at each other? You've got my word that no one here is going to shoot at you, not that it would do anything."

Lady Arcana offered a slight smirk. He said that, but in truth heavy caliber weapons would bounce her around if she was merely standing on the ground. It didn't hurt, but it was really fucking annoying. She, after all, didn't weigh any more than her build would suggest. Still, if it would help them to have a more amicable meeting, then she would do it.

"Alright," She agreed, drifting down to the base of the vehicle so that she could stare up at him instead. "And yes, I am certain...certain it was you specifically now that I take a closer look.

It was pretty easy to tell, especially when she was this close. From farther away, it could've been any of the cew in that vehicle, but just standing right here? No, it was absolutely this guy.

It wasn't entirely how he had imagined his first meeting with Lady Arcana would turn out, though nevertheless he pulled himself from the cupola and put both feet on the ground in front of her. He was still looking down at her to a degree, but quite a bit less so being on a more even level.

"Is that so? Well, I've been known to put on a magic show or two for the kids back home and company functions." Raymond offered a disarming smile, and a couple others within earshot laughed at the comment. They knew full well what he was capable of, so found the banter amusing.

"Raymond von Lüneburg, CEO of Lundgrau Intelligence Services." He offered his hand amicably, still holding a smile despite figuring that she wouldn't buy his act for long. "We all know who you are, of course. Is why no one thought to shoot you when you came down to talk. Company policy and all that."

Lady Arcana accepted his offer of a handshake, despite not having a particularly good feeling about this guy. His attitude - joking as if he had no powers - rubbed her a little bit wrong too, given what he had just done with them. He was powerful, incredibly powerful...almost certainly enough that he could have disarmed those soldiers without killing them. While she could tolerate lethal force from soldiers who could easily die if they tried to spare their enemies, it just came across as uncaring from someone with this intense of a magical footprint.

"Lady Arcana," she introduced herself, even though he already apparently knew. It was only polite, after all. "It's good to meet you, Mr.. Luneburg. I appreciate the lack of shoot-yness on the part of your soldiers."

Pursing her lips slightly, she looked him over, wondering if this was some setup to let a spell loose on her. Was she getting paranoid? "Thank you for helping to defend the town, but we should allow the opposing forces to retreat now. Most are just conscripts who were forced into this war, just like the Republic here."

"Forced or not, they made a choice." He said evenly, fixing his eyes on her and standing firm. They did choose to try and force a way out through the city, which was the smarter choice even if it may have proven deadly. There was no way they could have fought their way through the heroes.

"Choices define people, and perhaps the ones made here today will affect how the Federation will react. We've proven that NATO will not allow anymore of Asad's tyranny, and for that I do have to thank you for your intervention."

She seemed just a bit on edge he thought, maybe because she had assumed he was a caster and a double agent. That one was something he had also thought of as a concern, if Asad had magitech, perhaps he also had trained his people in the use of magic. At least those who had the gift. Here and now though, he was facing down with the inheritor of the rock, and making a good impression would do well.

"Unlike the US government, my people operate under the impression that those few vigilantes who have proven themselves are not the enemy. You in particular saved New York City not too long ago, a place that I personally call home along with many in my employ. Would be a bit asinine to attack somone who saved your city."

" 'Fight for me or you and your family dies' isn't a choice, it's an ultimatum," Lady Arcana countered. But getting into an argument here wouldn't do either of them any good. Whoever this man was, though, he apparently wasn't actually affiliated with any government. The Intellect of Mnemosyne allowed her to recall where she had heard his name once: He was one of those Private Military Contractors.

Were they doing Magi for hire services now? Still, it was nice to hear that he didn't consider her a danger to be eliminated. If she didn't have to worry about a knife - or autocannon - in her back, then she would at least be able to focus on the task at hand.

"I-" Lady Arcana paused, noting the flash of jade in her eye.

It was about at this point in the conversation that the Emerald Knight decided to descend from the sky like an all important being, literally dropping in on the two speaking parties.

"I'd hate to interrupt," He didn't hate to interrupt, not one bit. If anything, he liked cutting in. It made him feel a little more authoritative. "but I don't think that strongarming people into fighting for you is the way to go."

He had only been able to hear Lady Arcana's comment about fighting or dying, so he assumed that this guy was the standard private military nut who only protected those he felt were valuable to him in some way. Emerald Knight almost wanted to launch a giant green fist into the man's balls, but he felt like that would be a little much for first introductions, especially since Emerald Knight was here to be a peace keeper. Him starting fights was a very bad idea.

"You what." Though his troops had seen Lady Arcana as a friendly to some regard, with this new intrusion they did not share the same sentiments. Guns were in hands and pointing at green-suited shortman, and even the tank-destroyers shifted their turrets to point in his direction. Seemed the troops didn't take too kindly to someone dropping down and getting up in their leader's face.

"If you're going to butt into a conversation, it generally helps to do so with all of the information. My troops all fight quite willingly, and don't much take kindly to such assumptions."

Lady Arcana held her hands up towards the two of them, allowing her usual smile to filter back onto her face in the hopes of diffusing this misunderstanding. "Ah, Emerald Knight, he wasn't trying to strongarm me...we were talking about something else."

His facial features tightened up, realizing that he had probably made a very bad first impression to this possibly good person. He said nothing. Thank god his mask his his embarrassment.

She then looks to Mr. Luneburg, offering him that same placating expression. "Emerald Knight was a huge help against the Federation out there, your men don't have to be afraid of him. He's one of the good ones."

Emerald Knight Nodded swiftly. "Yeah. Good. I helped. Sorry."

Raymond eyed the green-clad hero with suspicion, though at those words he gave a gesture back to the troops and as one they put away their weapons. They were still on edge, but it was bleeding away slowly.

"Very well. As I was saying to Lady Arcana, we all appreciate the intervention. We wouldn't have been able to hold the city on our own without it, even with reinforcements on their way."

Arcana bowed her head lightly in appreciation for his gratitude. "Naturally. We couldn't just let these innocent people but conquered. Especially not with magic."

She didn't know if he was aware of the presence of magic-based weaponry on the other side, but if he wasn't then it was probably a good idea to pull him into the loop to prevent any unneeded loss of life among his men.

"I'm not sure if you're aware, but the Arab Federation has been given some very, very powerful weaponry by the same individual behind the New York riots."

Emerald Knight wasn't aware that Lady Arcana was able to comprehend the full power of the weapons being used against them. It wasn't anything against her, absolutely not. But the fact that she knew that these weapons were being distributed to other people, the one behind the New York Riots being one of them, was surprising to him. For right now, he just stood by and nodded. All his off planet work kept him from always being in the loop.

A serious expression crossed his face as he regarded the sorceress, having assumed that both events were connected but until now nothing too concrete. Of course, as the source of magic on this world, she would be able to more firmly ascertain such things, but considering her previous interventions he thought that might have been a bit beyond her.

"Yes, my personnel are aware of the military capabilities of the Federation, we lost a dozen men over the last few years trying to acquire those secrets only for them to be unleashed on the field of battle. Such is why we do not operate on the same principles as the two of you. If we do not react with lethal force, then not only will my own people die, but so will the innocents of Arabia under Asad's boot."

She really didn't want to argue with him right now, which she had a feeling any attempt at counterpoint would devolved into. Still, she felt like she should at least clarify her objections in this instance.

"I understand the need to stop Asad, and I plan on staying here to help do so. Or at least take all the toys he shouldn't have away," she explained, glancing off into the distance in consideration.. "I would never ask normal human soldiers to die trying to follow my principles. But you're the strongest Magi I've ever felt...and these conscripts aren't the ones we should really be worrying about. It's whoever has those-"

Before she could continue, a burst of static from the command vehicle interrupted her and a decidedly British voice came over the intercom. "Squadron Charlie to NATO command, we are under fire from unknown source, three planes down behind enemy lines." Silence followed as the radio operator picked up the headset and hurriedly issued GPS coordinates to try and move towards.

"Negative NATO ground, cannot comply. Enemy has air superiority. Unknown weapons in play-" The feed went silent again, the screen displaying the message 'Lost Signal' in bold red letters. As much as Raymond was enjoying the chat they were having, it seemed very clear that they had other problems at hand.

Emerald Knight had been watching the events go down. From the disclosing of dangerous weapons up until the sudden radio feed that dropped off as quickly as it came.

His left arm bent up at the elbow, his ring already glowing as he prepared for a quick flight. "If it's an dogfight, we have a good team to take care of it, right Lady Arcana?" He gave her a small smile, but his focus was quickly shifted back to the GI Joe in front of him. "Just point me in the right direction. I'll see what I can do to help out your men with whatever unknown forces are ahead."

Raymond looked to the radio operator, who quickly read off a set of coordinates. Of course it was firmly within Federation air space, likely the RAF squadron had been drawn in and shot down with some kind of magitech weapon.

"North-north east. In Federation airspace. See if you can find the downed jets first, we need those pilots back in friendly air space. Especially if they've got intel on a new enemy weapon."

Lady Arcana nodded quickly to his instructions. While she didn't consider herself subordinate to Mr. Luneberg, she did acknowledge that he knew way more about all things war-related. Deferring to him for the sake of those pilots, she lifted off the ground.

"Alright, let's go find them," She glanced to Emerald Knight, returning his smile. Taking the lead with his directions in mind, Lady Arcana lifted high into the air - high enough so that her sonic boom wouldn't hurt the people below - before shooting off in that direction.

---

It said something about the state of affairs that even 'Tank's' spectacular entrance couldn't hold the attention of the collective vigilantes for long. Jimmy Chong had wandered off quickly, judging from his reaction Grim could only presume that he had been caught flat footed at having his mask off. Then Lady Arcana, words cut off mid sentence as something caught her attention. Beneath the mask Zoey's eyes followed her as she left, but considering she still had the ear piece wasn't too worried. When the Minty Archduke took off as well it left only her and the partially covered Girard. Tank. Whatever he was calling himself.

Grim disconnected her mouth piece from broadcasting to any channels, double and triple checking that it had done so before the hatch on the jet once more popped open. Immediately she unbuckled from the pilot's seat once more and put a hand on the hatch to lean out, modulated voice coming out with a mechanical hiss.

"What are you doing out here?! You have a family!"

Girard's head cocked to the side as now the only him and Grim remained after the rest seemed to have moved on to other matters rather quickly, he could hardly blame them, and the latter leaned out of the jet's cockpit looking at him. It sort of sent his mind spinning when he got called out for being here though it really was the part about his family that struck heavily. He had figured none of them had any real idea who he was, the whole keeping low profile thing was important up until now, so how in blazes did Grim know he was a family man?

"So first public appearance and I'm already found out. Wow this day went sideways really quickly with just about everything." The big guy said with a might of exasperation at the situation then something kind of hit him from the back of his mind, there was only one person he particularly kept in contact with in Gotham and that was Zoey who was very rich. "Wait just a second...this is just dumb now. You too huh? Never figured with how you went on against this sort of stuff."

"I was against this sort of thing because of who I am!" Grim reached up, running a hand along the mask covering her face in irritation. Girard was smarter than people gave him credit for, so it was only a little surprising he figured it out so quickly, especially with the big clue she had given him. "People ... people get hurt doing these things. You know that as well as I do after..." The vigilante trailed off briefly. Her gloved grip on the hatch rim tightened, and her jaw clenched.

"You have a family, Girard. You should be watching your little girls grow up, not out here risking your life. Leave that to people like me."

"As painful as that was then and still is now I might have stayed home, kept my nose out of things. But you know as well as I do that its not in me to just sit back and let others do the fighting for me." Girard's expression had a bit of sadness but a strong conviction showing through that was very familiar to him. "I did try to keep it small and local, you might've heard the reports of some unknown guy beating up thugs in Maine. But Abby has been telling me how much of a waste these powers are unused and I'm inclined to agree more as time goes on."

"Plus all the models were getting in the way in the old workshop so I needed a new hobby to pass the time. Some things never change and if I lose a couple hours or more here or there its on me to make up for it." Tank said with a note of humour despite the topic. "As for getting hurt on the job..."

He stretched his arms out in a gesture to the crater he made as proof in the pudding of how durable and strong he was.

"I can't believe this shit," Grim groaned weakly, finally just leaning her head against her hands. "Even Abby knows? She encourages this? No, wait, don't answer that - of course she does. You two were made for each other. Plus she's about as stubborn as you too!" Those long gloved fingers of the vigilante tapped against her head, a growling rumble echoing from the voice modulator as she hummed thoughtfully. Turning the problem over in her head she knew immediately that anything she said would be like going up against a brick wall - literally, it seemed. She had known Girard too long to think she could convince him to just go home. Especially with his wife backing him up.

"Hold on," The urban legend finally growled and pushed off from the rim of the cockpit hatch, retrieving one of the numerous ear pieces she had stored away. If the others didn't return theirs she'd have to program more later. Grim flicked it to Girard. "Put this on, I'll connect you to the others. This fight isn't over yet, if what Arcana reported before we got here is accurate. This isn't over yet either though, Girard - Tank. We're having words when this is done! ... At the very least about getting you some fireproof clothes if you're going to be jumping oceans ..."

Girard felt mildly amused when his friend tried shortly to rationalize a way to get through to him after the frustration of finding out Abigail had been a major player in this decision, not to mention the lack of surprise overall about it. It would not have been the first time Zoey had to deal with this particular problem nor would it likely be the last though she had been successful in the past several times back when powers were some idle fancy and he was just a big but normal dude. This admittedly was not the discussion he planned to have with his long time friend or how he wanted to contact her since it had been a bit since they called one another but it came out now either way.

When Grim ducked back into the aircraft for a second he was curious as to what her plan was on the matter. She could just keep him out of the loop but that would be rather cruel and ineffectual as he would continue on anyways or she could let the others attempt to deal with getting him into the game but they might not do it to her legendary standards. In the end he caught the earpiece she tossed to him with a bright smile as he listened to the woman temporarily end her little rant for the moment.

"Oh good, I do get to see some action after the trip over here. Be a waste of a performance otherwise." Tank moved away some of the helmet remains around his ear to get the receiver in place. "I'm already feeling the blisters forming on my ears as we speak, but a new snazzy costume I can get behind Grim." He ended with a wink at her vigilante name. It was business time now though so he got himself prepared to dish out some damage as needed to whoever else required it.

"That's my name," Grim muttered in response, heaving a low sigh. She sat back in the pilot's seat, tapping the control panel in agitation. "Please tell me I'm at least right that you're partially invulnerable, ri-" The vigilante got cut off as a red light burst into color on the display, a voice patching through to both her and Girard's ear pieces purely on the fact it was an emergency signal.

"Squadron Charlie to NATO command, we are under fire from unknown source, three planes down behind enemy lines." A pause as the operator rattled off a response, and then, "Negative NATO ground, cannot comply. Enemy has air superiority. Unknown weapons in play-"

Grim grimaced underneath her mask as the voice was abruptly cut off, her goggled gaze moving to Tank. She gave a short nod to him and shut the hatch, settling back into her position handling the controls of her advanced jet. Her voice, still modulated, came into the other man's ear.

"Looks like it's time. Be safe, Tank. We'll talk more afterward."

"I'll see you on the other side. I'm buying afterwards."

---

4:42 PM, Baghdad
Arab Federation

Basil Al-Asad paced within the war room of his Presidential Palace, observing the digital map of the battlefield. He wasn't happy, not anymore. The campaign had began with his forces overrunning the poorly equipped and trained defenders of the West's Arabian puppet state. So swift was their victory that it seemed all but inevitable that the entire rotten state would crumble before the day was out.

But now Army Group Center had broken. Now they were routing, like cowards, despite their orders to advance. More than a hundred fifty-thousand men, and they were defeated by just five people and a single brigade.

Clearly, he had underestimated the power of these supernatural beings, of "The Wizard" that he had been warned of. But now...now he would show them the true power of the rightful ruler of the Arab peoples!

"General, has the NATO squadron that entered our airspace been neutralized?"

Sharizor the Persian looked up from the digital map displaying their sound defeat in Sakakah, focusing his singular steel-grey eye on the president.

"It has been done. My men in the region have confirmed all six jets shot down with no survivors. The Imperialist dogs lay burning on the sands just as promised."

"Excellent," Basil smiled. Sharizor had been...an acquisition from his father's war with Iran in the 80s. A former member of the Shah's regime who had fled the Revolution, he had remained in his service after the war. Now, he served him as well.

Glancing to the map again, he cupped his chin. "That is a NATO carrier encroaching from the Gulf, yes?"

The map displayed the more forward elements of the NATO task force entering the Persian Gulf, at least one carrier they could identify and numerous smaller vessels. "Appears so, trying to acquire identification on the vessel. Looks possibly British, which would match with the designations of the F-35 jets we shot down."

He paused, receiving messages from forward observation posts near the coast that were feeding information into the grid. A moment later a name appeared over the carrier and several other vessels. "HMS Prince of Wales, one of their modern carriers. Probably getting ready to sortie more jets into our airspace."

Chuckling at this, Basil closed his eyes. Yes, his plans had been partially derailed - he had hoped to be in Riyadh if and when these supernatural entities appeared - but their situation was far from hopeless. Indeed, from where he was standing, they still held a winning hand.

"Sharizor, I am going to leave the destruction of the NATO forces and the remaining four superbeings to you," the President explained to him, stepping towards the entrance to the war room. "Have the Annihilator prepped and ready for my arrival. I will deal with this Wizardess myself, using the ultimate gift our new Lord has given us!"

Their Lord had stated that with it he would be able to defeat her. With their orchid harlot slain at his feet, the morale of the Imperialist West would crumble, along with all the pathetic puppet rulers of the south that dangled from their strings.

-----------------------------

July 8th, 4:50 PM
Sakakah, Republic of Arabia

"There...there wasn't much left," Lady Arcana stared down at the desert sands before Mr. Luneburg, her fist clenched with enough force to turn coal into diamond. Their bodies had been pretty much reduced to burned out skeletons when she got there. "It looks like they barely had time to react."

She was doing her best right now to keep from shaking. Growing up in The Wedge, she was no stranger to death. Before she became Lady Arcana she would hear it every night in the gunshots that served as ambience for their community, an unrelenting reminder of where they lived and who they were to society. Sometimes she would stumble upon a body callously stuffed into a ditch on her way to school, flies darting about a human being forgotten.

Even so, she hated it. She hated the loss of life more than anything. It was impossible for her not to dwell on if she could have possibly done something to save them. Something to keep their families from having to hear that their sons, brothers, husbands or fathers had just been killed.

It was the same for all of the people she had disabled within the Federation Army, too. After all they had undoubtedly suffered up to this point, did they really deserve to lose a member of their family too?

Emerald Knight didn't know what to say. He could practically feel the emotion radiating off of Lady Arcana, but he felt so helpless when it came to saying anything that could help.

Preston had not seen a lot of death growing up. Funny, considering that his idea of fun was picking fights in bars on the weekends, but it was true. His goal was to make sure as many people lived to see the next day, but even during his travels through space, he knew that not everyone would leave the battlefield on their own two feet. 

"We still have a job to do." Emerald Knight had to look just slightly up at Lady Arcana. "If this is any sign, there are more weapons just like that out there. We need to find them and disable them. Or throw them into deep space." His tone was strained and grim. He wasn't used to talking about things like this. If he were being honest, him being on his home planet and seeing such serious business was a tough pill to swallow. 

It was to be expected, but he had hoped at least one of the pilots had survived. Seemed that whatever had shot them down was ruthlessly efficient at its job. The heroes seemed unnecessarily stuck on that small detail, but having known war for longer than some countries had existed, Raymond had moved past it almost immediately.

"Unfortunate, but expected. We cannot save everyone. I'll radio back to NATO Command and alert them to the threat within the Federation's borders. For now it may be best to draw battlelines within the Arab Republic and defend what we can until we have more information. It's clear that Asad has powerful weapons at his disposal, and while the two of you have done much to turn the tide, I doubt you can hold the entire war-front on your own."

Emerald Knight's head tilted. Raymond was right. Even with all their power, not even the two of them could hold the war by themselves.

Lady Arcana cupped her chin in thought at this. Raymond had something of a point here. Neither she nor Emerald Knight were willing to kill, which limited the speed at which they could disable the enemy. Even if they could be a decisive presence in one area, they couldn't fight a war across several hundred miles of desert continuously without there being a breach.

And at this point, a breach was all Asad's forces needed. The military of the Republic of Arabia appeared to be almost completely broken at this point. She didn't want to think about how many had died in the hours before she had arrived here with Grim.

"Neither of us can be everywhere at once, that's a fact," Lady Arcana admitted. "But anywhere that we are is pretty much a guaranteed victory, I feel confident in saying that. So it just comes down to where you think we would be most useful right now."

Raymond thought on the statement for a moment, taking a glance over at his radio operator and gesturing for a tactical map to be set up. The soldier rolled out a thin digital screen over a hastily setup table, plugging it into a laptop linked with NATO satellites. It didn't show quite everything going on in the region, but enough for some tactical awareness.

"Here in the center and eastern fronts are areas of primary concern, though the defeat of the central army will set Asad back for a time." He gestured to confirmed enemy troop movements to either side of Sakakah. "NATO marine and air elements have been harassing the western army which has slowed their advance, but the group moving along the Persian Gulf is virtually unopposed. If one of you stalled the eastern army, and the other took on the western army, we would have a more even front. Once reinforcing elements arrive though, we can take care of the western front."

Lady Arcana quickly nodded. "I'll take on the Eastern Army. Let everyone else hit the Western, and together you should all be able to drive it back pretty easily."

"Guess I'll handle the west with the rest of the forces." It made sense to Emerald Knight. A powerhouse like Lady Arcana didn't really need assistance. Emerald Knight being with the rest of the army meant that he could easily bail people out in a pinch, as well as help drive back the attackers. 

He wanted to get a head start on attacking. It seemed like Raymond and lady Arcana had things handed here. With that, he took off to where he needed to be.

She felt confident that she could handle the army group on her own, as she tended to be pretty attention grabbing when she wanted to be. "Maybe carving a big groove in the sand in front of their advance will keep them from simply trying to slip past me?"

Trench warfare was a bit dated, but he had to admit it had its merits, and would slow the advance even if they chose to cross it directly. "You would have to cover a fairly large area. At least four or five miles in either direction if you want to funnel the army into one area. If you make a trench about seven feet across and equally deep, that would force vehicles to go around to avoid beaching themselves-"

Raymond paused in his explanation, looking up from the digital map of the region and staring directly at the wizardess. "Wait. How are you going to make a trench?"

Arcana blinked at his question, though she had already pretty much figured that part out. "Well, I'm going to like...fly fast and then plow my way through a long stretch of desert using my body."

To illustrate this she held her hand up in a knife-shape swooped it down through the sand at her feet to make a groove. "Like that."

"Are you like, twelve?" Was exactly the first thing that came to mind as he stared blankly at the supposed most powerful wizard on the planet. Yes, there might be a slight difference in tactical know how that was to be expected, but he was hoping for at least some kind of... Anything.

"I don't think that's going to be very effective." Raymond began, taking a moment to gather himself and not go at her full tilt. "Surely you know a spell or two that could make mass-terraforming like that significantly faster?"

Staring at him blankly, Lady Arcana slowly shook her head. "Um...no. I have, like, this spell that lets me change clothes, but that's about it. I haven't learned any others, eheheh...so I just mostly punch stuff?"

Raymond returned the blank stare, resisting the urge to place his palm firmly against his face. "Ishtar, grant me patience to deal with this insufferable pain." Gathering what willpower he could as he was reminded of why he sent his daughter to the League, he gave a passing glance at Cabbage Patch before returning focus to the sorceress.

"Very well, in the name of expedience and saving lives, I'll try to keep this as short as possible." Right, she already probably knew he was a mage of some kind, so no harm in giving her a hand in casting some actual spells. "The most basic utility spell at hand for such an occasion is the earth-mover. You have no need of command words I'm sure, so just focus your mind at what you want the earth to shape itself into, and channel your magic. You do know how to channel, right?" Raymond sincerely hoped she knew how to channel, otherwise this would be a very long day.

"...You mean like a youtube channel? Cause I don't have one of those." Lady Arcana stared at him blankly again. He seemed to be trying to teach her how to do magic, which she greatly appreciated, but she really had no idea what he was talking about.

Wait, she did play D&D one time with Clare...wasn't channeling the thing the Wizards did when started chanting? She preferred Harry Potter, though, where they could just say a word to do it.

Shaking her head for a moment, she did her best to focus. "Okay, channeling magic. How do I do that? Is it like when the lightning surges through me when I first change?"

"Did.... Did anyone teach you how to use these powers?" The wizard must have truly been at the end of his rope and with no other options. Raymond felt like he was teaching kindergarten for a moment, taking a deep breath and waving the comment away even as it left his mouth. "You know what, nevermind. That's a conversation for another time."

"Channeling, yes it's sort of like when you first change. You draw the magic inside of you, gathering it and preparing it. Normally, once you felt you had enough to cast, you would release it as the spell." He didn't even bother to ask if she knew how to do that, since no one had seen Lady Arcana flinging spells at enemies. "With channeling, you maintain that connection to the rock, while directing the magical energies at your target. Try making a line in the sand between us with only arcane energy."

Lady Arcana frowned slightly, but nodded. She did at least feel the power inside of her, that much was true. She had almost certainly used it before, but she had never known it was properly known as channeling. She used a little bit of it to open that window back at Commissioner Lessee's house, now that she thought about it. She just needed to draw on it a bit more here.

Pursing her lips, she pointed her finger down at the sand as instructed. Focusing hard on expelling her energy out the extended digit, a bright flash emerged an instant as Arcane energy poured forth into the ground.

...and through the ground, as the sand turned to glass and a small pool of magma began bubbling up at her feet as she panicked and tried to move her finger, cleaving clean through a building at her side along a diagonal trajectory as she aimed her finger skyward until it thankfully stopped expelling arcane power.

Her jaw agape as the thankfully evacuated building slid in half and promptly collapsed, she slowly turned back to Mr. Luneburg. "Uh...too much?"

"Arcana, there you are. There was..." The low, near silent hum of the Grim Jet signalled the Gotham vigilante's arrival, the black aircraft slowly climbing down to hover beside Lady Arcana mere feet off the ground. She hadn't originally planned on getting this close to the brigade of soldiers to check on their plans, but...

"... Don't worry, I'm sure that building had a nefarious purpose." Grim finally stated, her flat tone coming out even through the voice modulator and ear pieces. What was it with this girl and property damage?

Following the lance of arcane energy as it lasered across the ground and through a nearby building, Raymond held the same stoic expression that bordered on disappointment and exasperation. This was going to take a lot of work. "Well. That's one way to do it, I guess." He said at last, the thump of the building masking a curse under his breath.

"Just... Try not to hit anything you prefer to leave the battlefield alive. Might do with dialing down a bit on the power and maybe just imagining what you want the sand and rock to do for you? Like... Just envision the sands parting to form a steep trench."

Looking up when she heard the familiar engines of the Grim Jet as it descended, Lady Arcana released a small sigh of relief. Having her friend here with her made her feel a lot more at ease. "Grim, I'm learning magic! It's pretty cool, i-if I can learn to not use so much, eheh."

Glancing to Raymond, she listened closely to his instructions. Yeah, definitely needed to crank down the power, she agreed. This time she was to envision the sands parting to form a steep trench...and if her last attempt was any indication, she shouldn't do it within the city. "Excuse me for just a second..."

Lifting off the ground, she ascended several hundred feet into the air. Glancing towards a barren patch of desert, Lady Arcana pursed her lips and extended her hand, mumbling softly. "Trench...trench...trench...

Bursting from her hand in a less concentrated beam - more akin to lightly now - it impacted the desert, which began to shift in accordance with the image in her mind. In just a short time, she'd managed to create a steep trench several hundred feet across.

"...Oh!" She gasped, glancing down at the people below her. "Did you see that?! I did it! Holy sauceballs..."

She'd long since lost her facade of maturity, too caught up in her success as she drifted back to the ground with a beaming smile that even her mask couldn't entirely suppress.

Grim remained silent through Lady Arcana's explanation, watching the other woman as she listened to this... stranger? No, she recognized him. It was hard not to, after all, considering who he was. Underneath her mask her eyebrow perked but she didn't comment, just making a thoughtful hum that vibrated throughout her mask. When Arcana lifted up the Jet rose up a few dozen feet to watch, Grim making sure her goggles recorded the spectacle. For insurance purposes, if needed.

... Huh, less destructive than she anticipated.

Once again the jet lowered as Lady Arcana descended, and in a show of support and aerial manoeuvrability the nose of the black aircraft nudged against Lady Arcana's arm. It's not like it could hurt her.

"Good job."

Observing as he was, it was hard not to notice the presence of the jet and the familiarity of the iconography it bore. His mind looked towards the recent vigilantism across the nation and matched notable records before one in particular stood out. Yes, this one must be Gotham's hero... What was his name? Dogman? Yes, that was it. How peculiar the two heroes seemed to be travelling together, or at least appearing so.

"Yes, that's a fair bit closer. Still expending a fair bit more magic than you probably should be, but that's something incredibly minor that can be worked on when innocents are not in danger." Ideally he figured that the source of magic would not only have no need of command words, sign weaving, arcane rituals or any of the hassle that he had to go through, but would be able to manage such a simple spell without visible lines. Still, he assumed this was more magical teaching than she had received since acquiring the rock.

"Creating a trench in such a way as I specified should keep the eastern front tied up for a bit, at least until they get bridge-laying vehicles out."

Feeling more confident now that she had managed to perform at least one spell correctly, she offered Mr. Luneburg a confident nod. "Don't worry! I'll route them way before they can build anything!"

Now that she kinda-sorta got how this magic thing worked, she had a few ideas on how she could make things a bit easier. "These trenches can totally be used to trap soldiers if I open them up at their feet!"

"Ah, that's what this is about? Clever. Be careful the vehicles don't fall on any soldiers, and don't open so many that the trenches just fail and bury them alive ... and just to be careful don't aim directly at them." Grim's eyes cut over to the building, still smouldering along the edge it had been dissected.

Lady Arcana offers a cheerful salute to Grim's instructions, her eyes shining brightly for all to see. "Sir yes sir!"

---

July 8th, 5:02 PM
Twenty miles North-East of Hofuf

The cities of Jubail and Damman had fallen quickly to the advancing Eastern Army, according to Mr. Luneburg. The next in their path would be Hofuf, a city of over 1,500,000 people. If the army seized it, then they would only be a short distance away from Riyadh, the capital of the Republic of Arabia. If it fell, the government would absolutely follow immediately after.

The army approaching it was possibly even larger than Center had been, numbering somewhere close to two hundred thousand. Trying to fight them in such a massive city would be a huge mistake that almost certainly would lead to a lot of destroyed property and loss of life. It was therefore important to stop them well before it managed to reach that point. She had some space to work with still, though they were already took close for comfort.

Hovering a couple thousand feet above the desert, Lady Arcana stared at her open palms. She had to create a trench that would force the army to halt its advance, and then engage and break their morale.

Remembering Grim's advice, she extended her hands and allowed her eyes to focus a fair distance in front of the advancing army. Feeling the magic coursing through her as it always had ever since she gained these powers, she focused on trying to channel just enough to accomplish what she intended to do.

From her hands emerged a flash of what would appear to most as lightning, striking the desert beneath her in an instant. Initially combining into one current as they impacted their target, Arcana began to draw her hands apart as the desert opened. Her eyes darting to the coast, she drew a literal line in the sand until it met with the sea, the great trench being far too steep and wide for even the likes of a tank to cross.

The opposite hand continued to likewise part the desert for several more miles, until she felt confident that going around it would be virtually impossible without massively delaying their advance. Now, even if they did still try, it would just offer her a nice choke point to attack them at!

Army Group East, for their part, had halted their advance when a continuous bolt of lightning caused an entire section of the desert to seemingly collapsed in front of them. Now - while they were undoubtedly confused - would be the best time to attack! 

Spreading her arms apart, she grinned beneath her mask and dived down at the halted mass of armor and soldiers. Most of the infantry were still inside their APCs, making them an easy first target as she tackled one, sending it rolling across the desert, eventually landing on its back. The people inside would be shaken up, but shouldn't be hurt too badly. Before anyone could even react, she had done the same to a second and third.

This was going to be pretty fun!

After working over a few dozen APCs, she'd quickly switched to the IFVs and tanks. She'd already gained some experience in how to take these out, so disabling them was much more simple, even though every bit of fire was now focused on herself. The thunderous cacophony of bullets and screaming as infantry managed to stumble out of their upturned vehicles made it difficult to hear anything from her headpiece, unfortunately.

Still, she had her mission, and the others had theirs. She had to trust them. Besides, Grim was with them, she wouldn't let anybody do anything stupid.

Aiming her hand at the ground again, a bolt of lightning heralded the opening of the desert beneath a company of tanks, and to her great delight they went tumbling down into the pit she had just created. They wouldn't be a threat down there.

"This spell I learned is gonna be pretty useful in routing these guys!" Lady Arcana chirped, several hundred rounds of autocannon fire bouncing off her flashing visage.

---

July 8th, 4:58 PM
Western Front of Tabuk

Emerald Knight had given himself his own little role for this battle. Because of his size and manoeuvrability, he was going to make sure that nobody could sneak through and breach the front. 

Of course he would fight. He would fight and take out as much as he could. 

But by the time he had arrived at Tabuk, the fight had already been brought to the city he was supposed to be protected. He cursed to himself. He needed to be faster next time, maybe better. 

He flew into the city as fast as his ring would take him while he was planetside. He needed to protect the people, incapacitate the enemy, and make sure that collateral was down to a minimum. It looked like the fight would generally be on foot. A shame, he liked flying around.

He descended down unto the city and immediately began using his ring to clear the streets of rubble. He didn't need rocks and fallen walls for cover, he could just make it himself. On the other hand, that would provide much less natural cover for the civilians around. 

Even with human weaponry, he needed to be careful to not let the small barrier around him to break. If that was gone, then all that was needed was one well placed shot to put an end to the Emerald Knight. 

He couldn't spend his whole day clearing away rubble. He needed to prioritize things. Civilians first, enemies nearly as important, then the buildings. Yeah, that's how he was gonna do it.

Tabuk - being the first major city on the western border between the Arab Federation and the Republic of Arabia - had fallen quickly to the advance of Army Group West. By the time Emerald Knight had arrived, it was completely overran with Federation soldiers, with nothing but corpses remaining of any Republic soldiers who hadn't surrendered or fled.

Sporadic resistance continued from civilians who had taken up arms against the invaders, but nothing substantial. Until his slower allies were able to catch up to him, he would need to fight this battle more or less alone.

While it was unlikely that these conventional forces possessed anything that could pierce his autoshields, the 500,000 civilians that remained here were far less invulnerable and as the light that burned around him caught the eye of the enemy, gunfire soon erupted in his direction.

From the streets soldiers turned their AK-74s on him, as several IFVs arrived behind them to likewise turn their 25mm autocannons against the galactic peacekeeper. Bouncing off his autoshields, the bullets began to ricochet into the surrounding homes and other structures where countless men, women and children attempted to desperately hide from the carnage outside.

And more enemy forces were surely converging on his location with each passing second.

Oh these gun toting warriors, Emerald Knight sighed into a smile. Didn't they know that guns were the most boring way to injure someone? As soon as they came into view, Emerald Knight got to work, and quickly rushed the soldiers. 

"When Emerald Knight wields his mighty shield!" He sang to himself, summoning what he was singing about and throwing his whole body into a plethora of soldiers. He wasn't a large or burly man, but he used not only his shield, but his power of flight to fling himself much faster and harder than would be expected of a man who was shorter than most. 

As soon as he rammed into them, he flew up and away from them, threw the shield that he had created and forced it to fly around and at multiple targets. What a fun and amusing way to take out soldiers against freedom. With a shield.

He set himself on the ground again  and set up cover for himself. He created a brick wall just a tad larger than his body to absorb some of the gun shots, but the wall quickly faded away and melted into a set of armor, surrounding Emrald Knight as he blasted off again and punched the guns of several of the soldiers. He was having a little too much fun being a superhero in a war zone.

The guns easily shattered beneath his ring-augmented punches, the soldiers stumbling back in shock at this strange man. Despite his small stature, he seemed impossibly strong, smashing their metal guns as if they were made of crackers. Their faces clearly showed their fear as they turned to flee, the IFVs backing away from him as they continued to futilely blast at his armor of light.

The easily identifiable thump of helicopter blades heralded the approach of several military choppers, their systems quickly achieving a lock-on due to the stupendous amount of energy being emitted by his ring.

From four choppers came four K-13 missiles which, while they lacked the power to injure him, would create quite a substantial fireball that would undoubtedly light the surrounding structures ablaze when they struck.

Against this backdrop came dozens of additional soldiers and several IFVs, with the rumble of a pair of distant tanks now just audible.

Emerald Knight couldn't stop the missile headed his way. He could barely process two thoughts, much less a full plan to get him out of this. A single idea sprang to mind, and he acted upon it. He didn't have to register it as good or bad, or how it would even effect him, but he really hoped that his barrier would protect him. 

As soon as the missiles were close enough, Emerald Knight created a large dome around himself, locking the missiles and himself in a thick bubble. The explosion would be contained to the bubble, and if he somehow weren't strong enough to keep it all in, there should barely be any collateral if his bubble were to break. 

The missiles hit directly. He made no effort to move. Once they exploded, the green bubble surrounding him grew orange. Flames were all that could be seen when looking from the outside, and once the explosion itself was over with, the bubble shook slightly, and was quickly lowered.

In the center of the new crater was Emerald Knight, his barrier gone for the time being. He rested on one knee, and breathed hard. His perfect coiffed hair was just barely singed, his skin was dark and dusty, and a small stream of blood trickled from above his hairline.

He looked around the the soldiers watching him. He said nothing, but floated just above the air for a brief moment before falling down on a newly created pair of oversized ice skates. They looked more like skis that anything considering their length, but it wasn't hard to miss the large blades resting under his feet. 

He flew himself quickly out of the crater, aimed at the IFVs surrounding him. He wanted to take out the big vehicles first before he got back to the little guns.

The IFVs, for their part, as they grew in number stopped retreating. Trying to focus fire on him, the streets had quickly become congested. Unable to manoeuver even if they wanted to - a mark of poor training to end up in such a situation - all they could do was continue to empty everything they had into the quick and nimble target, despite the ineffectiveness of their weaponry.

Soon they were were being easily sliced to pieces by the "skates" on Emerald Knight's feet, the soldiers inside screaming and filing out of their ruined vehicles before they could potentially explode. Smoke rose from the wasted IFVs, offering a clear signal for all where the battle was taking place.

The tanks had started to arrive behind them, but due to the blockage created by the now ruined IFVs could not actively engage the target. In between the chaotic traffic jam of military vehicles, the soldiers continued to do what little they could while staying far away from the smoking wreckage.

Above Emerald Knight, however, the quartet of helicopters continued to try and bring an end to him by firing another round of K-13s. Given his close proximity to IFVs and G.I.'s, they would surely be caught in any blast...but friendly fire didn't seem to be much of a concern for the pilots inside those choppers.

At this point, every Federation soldier within the city was converging on Emerald Knight, but it had quickly become apparent that only so many could fit in one street at a time.

With him having just a little more time to deal with the K-13s this time around, Emerald Knight was able to bubble up the missiles in the air before the got to him, but holding the constructs together as they all exploded was rather tough.  With a majority of the IFVs sliced up and unusable, the helicopters became his new target.

His method for handling them was to take their K-13s first, chucked them into the air, and compressed them so they exploded. After he was done with that, he threw his fancy cutting shoes at the helicopter blades and forced them to land in a large cradle that he had crafted. 

The bad thing about his plan was that he needed much more focus to individually handle each helicopter. He needed to take apart the missiles, rip up the blades keeping it in the air, safely lower it so nobody was hurt, rinse and repeat four times. it was much more time consuming than he had anticipated, but he was glad that he could spare some lives. 

"I'm asking you only once to surrender yourself. I'm offering your mercy. NATO probably won't be as kind." He used his ring to translate his words aloud to the soldiers around him, hoping to persuade some of them to back down while he was the only one there at the moment. 

His hand reached up to touch his earpiece. "I could really use some help. Anyone out there that just wants to fly in to jail these guys?"

At his offer of amnesty, many of the soldiers indeed began to discard their weapons. It became quickly apparent that the vast majority were not enthusiastic about their job and were more than happy to abandon their "duties" when given sufficient motivation. Unfortunately, some appeared to not yet be completely demoralized yet.

Aiming their main guns at the congregation of vehicles, they sent the heavy shells into a pair of IFVs, the resulting explosions serving only to trigger more on the tightly packed street as infantry - most of whom had thrown down their arms by this point - fled in terror at the oncoming fireball.

Even with some of them choosing to continue the onslaught, Emerald Knight continued to fight to save as many as he could, including those who had opened fire once more. He created a long wall, and forcibly pushed all of the remaining soldiers down to the ground with the large construct. He hoped they wouldn't take advantage of his mercy. Those that left would be free to choose their fate, but those that stayed would be forced to carry out whatever punishment NATO had in store for them. That was all Emerald Knight could do without outright forcing his intergalactic authority over a planet. That wasn't what the green lanterns stood for. 

He could feel the heat of the explosion wash over him. It was fortunate that it was just a vehicle exploding, erupting into a fireball, and not anything larger or more concussive. 

He needed to find any remaining civilians. He handled all the soldiers that were focused on him. Surely there were more out there, and some people still left in the city.

Girard came down from a few smaller leaps on the outskirts on the city noticing the smoke clouds further in prompting him to start jumping rooftops to close the distance using low energy jumps to keep the structures intact. He arrived shortly after looking over the edge of a taller building noting the work Emerald Knight had already put in disabling the area's troops. he did fairly well all things considered but this was just a small section, they had a whole city to worry about in the end. He could see some vehicles exploding which was being handled for the moment but it looked managed for now. The big man continued to use his height advantage to try to find any other desperate looking areas where he could intervene.

Emerald Knight could hear the bounding Girard making his way over. At least someone was on his side right now while they took care of an entire city. 

Rather than flying off to the next location, Emerald Knight instead chose to take a moment to breathe. He wasn't hurt all that much, but being exploded and taking out what could be considered a small militia without killing anyone was tough work. He needed a breather. 

After a minute or two, Emerald Knight rose back to his feet and flew back up into the air. He wanted to take care of dense areas, the ones more heavily populated with enemy forces. Once those parts were taken care of, sweeping through to take care of the rest would be easy.

Tank noticed among the cluttered and cramped street there were several still active tanks, he could see the rotating turrets trying to get a shot at either Emerald Knight or maybe some deserters to make a point. He dropped down from his building to the ground right next to the first bit of armor which he climbed up onto so he could slam a fist down onto the main gun of it to snap it like a twig retrieving the barrel afterwards. The big man made sure to put a nice dent where the tracks used to be so the vehicle would be utterly useless and intended to do the same down the line. The few gun barrels that were somewhat intact were used to plug up remaining ones after being crushed down to size so they could fully block any and all attempted shots from ever going off.

The crews he dealt with by waving them off to get them out of there or shouting loudly to scare them off from the area. One of the soldiers actually took a shot at him with his pistol where the bullet fell flat as a coin to the ground with no effect. "Really?" He said looking about as exasperated as he sounded for what parts of his face showed. "Get out of here now, You'll get tired of this shit long before I do." The message probably got across even if they didn't know a word of what he said as the soldier joined the rest running off in the face of a really bad time.

Girard called in using his earpiece having done some more thorough clearing of the area in short order when the rest of the forces realized guns were not working and he seemed to be in no rush to chase them down. "Should be good around here Knight, believe that was the last of them for the moment. No more tanks in working order either besides me to boot." He said with a bit of light hearted joking trying to keep the old morale up on their side too.

---

The plan was set and the forces moving. The forward attack was obvious, while Lady Arcana took care of the Eastern Army the other three remaining heroes dealt with the West - possibly four depending on if Jimmy Chong decided to join them. Seemed a bit overkill honestly, though Grim changed her opinion upon reaching Tabuk.

Even though Emerald Knight had arrived first, having taken off as soon as given a direction, it was obvious they were too late to stop the city from being invaded. Enemy forces crawled over the area like parasites, turning it into an urban battlefield. Blood stained the streets from civilians and soldiers alike, cut down defending their home against invaders. In the moment it was hard to remember that the enemy soldiers were likely conscripted against their will, given an impossible choice of their own. It would've been so much easier to just see them as monsters.

Right, first thing's first though. Conscripted or not, the soldiers had to be pushed back from the civilians. Hovering above the city the lenses in Grim's goggles swapped to zooming in, picking out the forward march of the aggressors. Emerald Knight had one section to himself, so finding a pocket of fighting down a city street the Grim Jet descended.

Some of the citizens of Tabuk had taken up arms against the invaders, no doubt knowing they were no match for them but providing distraction for others to continue evacuating. One of these groups was pinned down in the streets, using debris and abandoned wooden stalls as cover. The enemy's AK-74's were making quick work of that cover, ripping through the weak wood and chunks of buildings. Of course, what those bullets couldn't get through was the reinforced plating of the Grim Jet.

Hovering in the streets the bullets ricocheted off the low-flying jet, providing barrier to the civilians behind it. The autocannons underneath the Grim Jet had been pulled up during the flight to Tabuk, but now they once more opened up. As soon as they started spinning at least one soldier turned and fled, but those that didn't, or were too slow, were soon lit up.

Rubber bullets impacted against flesh, the high speeds adding some extra force to them. Even non-lethal those soldiers were put down, some of their weapons scattering. With the Grim Jet's advanced mobility it wasn't hard to chase down those who fled either.

It was a game of keep up to dart across the forward front, ducking down into streets to forcefully push back the invaders with a hail of rubber bullets and intimidation. Grim stayed away from where she could see Emerald Knight, pausing only when his words came over the comm. Of course, before she could even turn to him Tank was on scene to help so she resumed her corralling of the forward line. 

---

July 8th, 5:12 PM
Twenty miles North-East of Hofuf

"Yeah!" Lady Arcana cheered, watching several IFVs tumble down a newly made trench. Their soldiers scrambling out of their vehicles to futilely try to scale the steep and sandy walls was pretty damn funny. She was making some good progress dismantling the army this way, and it had only been about ten minutes!

Wasn't "trench warfare" awesome?

Flying down into a pile of soldiers and intentionally crashing with enough force to throw up a small plume of sand, she deliberately caused her eyes to glow with raw arcane power as she glared at them. "WHO DARETH DEFY THE WIZARD...ETH? WIZARDETH!"

Another crackle of the earpiece, still connected to the others who had just heard the... outburst, as Grim responded in typical Grim fashion. "Wizardeth?"

"...What? I failed classical literature for a reason!" Lady Arcana replied, her cheeks puffing slightly.

"As long as you're having fun."

And she admittedly was. The soldiers - despite her admittedly screwing up her "intimidation roll" - seemed to be pretty shaken by her reverberating voice and the lightning that streamed from her eyes. Most simply threw down their rifles at this point and surrendered, having learned that their weapons were useless against her.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning arced over Lady Arcana's head, streaking across the trench and impacting a tank several hundred feet away which had its canon pointed at the superhero and the surrendering infantry. Aquaman lowered his trident and stepped closer, noting that the tank seemed to be inoperable, for now. "That one had taken notice... Wizardeth." He said with a slight smile. "I am King Orin, ruler of Atlantis and holder of several other titles that we don't have time for right now. Where do you need me?"

Lady Arcana blinked when a thunderbolt flashed through the air, impacting a tank that was about ready to try and blast her despite the presence of more than a hundred surrendering soldiers around her. Upon impact, the electricity surged through the armored vehicle as the main gun drooped slightly. Apparently, it had been disabled!

Staring down at her hands for a brief moment, she wondered if she'd somehow done that subconsciously since lightning had always basically been her thing, but a powerful and masculine voice quickly drew her attention.

"Eh? Wha?" Lady Arcana blinked in utter confusion at the impressively built man before her, cheeks going a bit red from his refined and handsome features. "Um, I'm....Lady Arcana and...um...hi. I...need you..."

"What?! Lady Arcana!"

Immediately blushing harder when she realized how her trailing off made her sound, she quickly shook her head. Grim had quite clearly heard her, and there were still soldiers shooting at her, for God's - Gods'? - sake! "N-need you to uh, keep on disabling those tanks like that! Yeah, that was really cool!"

Phew. Okay, nice save. Don't be a total dork in front of the hunkahunka Fishman.

Wait, did he say Atlantis?

Orin nodded and twirled the trident over his head for a moment before swinging it behind his back and crouching down. Leaping off with his powerful legs he cleared the trench with ease and landed among the enemy combatants. The all-too familiar thrill of battle returned to him as adrenaline surged through his body. 'Lady Arcana' eh? She didn't seem like the best conversationalist, but to be fair he had essentially ambushed her and called down lightning, as well as dropping the lost-continent bomb. He would help here, taking out these war machines, and then hopefully they could clear the air.

Aquaman raised his trident in the air and channeled magical energy through it, calling down several bolts of lightning to distract the army and deafen any nearby solders. He then turned and began redirecting the bolts, shorting out three nearby tanks with a few well-aimed strikes. There were many more to go though, and the battlefield was large. He didn't have the mobility he was used to underwater, so this particular battle would be an interesting challenge for him. "Lady Arcana!" He called out, his powerful voice booming through the battlefield. "I hope you have a plan to deal with the rest of this army, there's kind of a lot of them!"

"Oh! Um...I was just making them fall down into those trenches I keep making!" She explained, scratching the side of her face. It had been working pretty well so far, at least. It just required a bit of caution so that she didn't send infantry and vehicles down together, lest the former be crushed by the latter. "And, y'know, beating up the mixed groups the slower way."

Honestly, even though she was confident she could've routed them on her own in time, it was really nice to have a helping hand. It didn't hurt that he was some kind of Adonis-like turbohunk, either. Shaking her head of those goofy thoughts, she narrowed her eye on the next group, deciding to demonstrate her one and only offensive spell for him by firing a bolt of what appeared to be lightning down at the feet of the infantry. Near-instantaneously the sands once more parted, sending them all rolling down below.

The truth was, of course, that some had likely died in this battle. With all the bullets ricocheting off her in every direction, it seemed impossible that nobody had been hit. Hell, even when she created trenches beneath the infantry their guns would sometimes go off when they accidentally squeezed the triggers as they fell. She...felt a sharp, thick knot of guilt in her chest whenever she saw a corpse among the many unconscious or surrendering soldiers, but...she couldn't let that stop her now.

Despite sometimes letting the excitement of trying out her magic go to her head, she was still doing her level best to take this seriously. There wasn't really any better way she could think of to do it. There were so many of them and only one of her, after all.

"Trenches are an interesting idea, though if I recall, the last time you surface dwellers used them was near a hundred years ago." Aquaman said, twirling his trident around and smacking a trio of advancing solders onto their asses. "However, I have a feeling they'll only work so long as the army stays together as opposed to splitting up, or the officers decide their footsoldiers lives are so unimportant that they'd be put to better use filling the trenches so the tanks can go through them!" He called out, leaping high into the air and raining a few more lightning bolts down on the tanks closest to the front lines.

It would be slow going to stem the tide of battle here, but it was doable. Even if the trench idea was their only battle plan, Orin felt confident that he and Arcana could deal with this army given enough time. But the more time it took, the more people would die. Already he was seeing the same corpses Lady Arcana saw, and it didn't take an eagle eye to see that she was holding back from killing as many as she could save, a tactic Orin felt obligated to follow as well, at least for now.

"Lady Arcana." He called again, his voice a bit more somber. "I gather you're trying to save as many lives here as you can, which is a goal I admire and have the deepest respect for. But the longer this battle goes on, the more people will die on both sides. I'm sure you know the fighting is not just here, there are other places we can help as well. We'll need to end this soon, we need a plan."

Lady Arcana scratched the side of her face at his mention of humanity's previous use of Trench Warfare. Truthfully, she didn't know much about history, but she was aware that it was a big thing in one of the World Wars. The first, if it was a hundred or so years ago, she'd assume. Still, she doubted it was anything like what she was doing now, given that even she knew there were no wizards in either of the global conflicts.

If there had been, she might've bothered reading about them! 

"Wait, what?" She stared at the armored blond with a blank expression adorning her features. "I...I don't think they would follow an order to do that..."

Orin raised an eyebrow at the response he got from Lady Arcana, he didn't then he'd been that cryptic... "Very few solders would." He confirmed, scanning the battlefield for well defended points which might suggest high-priority targets. "However, piles of corpses are not known for their ability to argue orders. As I said, we need something to end this before it reaches a point such as that."

Arcana nodded in response to this. Hopefully her efforts thus far had demoralized them to the point where orders to execute their fellow soldiers would be disobeyed, but that really wasn't something she wanted to leave to chance. But how could she possibly end this battle more quickly without killing? Was there someone in particular she could-

"Ah!" Lady Arcana lightly smacked her head, feeling like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. "Right, soldiers follow orders! But there has to be someone giving those orders, right? So why don't we go after them instead?"

Yeah, if they took the guys in charge of this force down then the whole rest of the army would collapse, given how demoralized they probably already were!

Aquaman nodded, allowing himself a small smile as the thought came to his new magical friend. This was her world after all, and she only needed a more complete look at the battlefield to let tactics take hold. Orin leaped into the air again and pointed out a few heavily fortified spots among the horde of solders. "Good plan, Arcana! I suspect our targets are hiding among those spots, surrounding themselves with tanks and heavier arms. If not the commanders themselves, then those they are communicating orders through, which serves our purposes just as well! There's only a handful of them, if we can cut them off then perhaps the entire regiment will fall!"

Touching back down to earth, Aquaman sprinted forward, hurling waves and jets of water from his magically empowered staff to knock solders out of the way. Tearing through this foul army, King Orin soon found himself at his first target, a trio of tanks with one carrying a large antenna. Likely being used for communication and coordination. The tanks all trained their cannons on him and opened fire at once, having seen the damage someone like him could cause left unattended. Fortunately, they hadn't seen the extend of his abilities. Twisting around and using a jet of water from his staff to propel himself faster, Aquaman arced around the first shot before swinging his trident around at superhuman speeds, deflecting the second shot off of the arcane staff. The third shot cut wide, its operator apparently relying too heavily on his companions to shoot for him. There was something to be said for dumb luck. Sprinting forwards again, Aquaman let out a battle cry as he ducked between the pair of tanks flanking the target and drove his trident into the armored hull of the communications tank. A moment later a lightning bolt was called from the brewing storm overheads, sending thousands of volts into the sensitive equipment of the tank and frying the operations inside. As well as... Possibly the operators, now that he considered it.

Lady Arcana quickly nodded in agreement, focusing her eagle-like gaze down at the various fortified positions. There was really no good reason to fortify these unless it was to protect something - or someone - important, so King Orin was likely correct. Pursing her lips, the sound barrier soon released a sharp crack as she shot off towards the nearest cluster of vehicles.

Upon drawing closer, she almost immediately recognized one as being rather similar to the IFV that was being driven by Mr. Luneburg. Namely the little antenna sticking out. It didn't appear to have much in the way of weaponry compared to the others, but she knew that this was just an illusion: they held the deadliest weapons in this battle in the form of the army's "mind", it's ability to coordinate and strategize. This was what allowed them to continue fighting.

Landing on top of the vehicle, she couldn't help but smile beneath her mask when the vehicles surrounding it proved hesitant to shoot carelessly at her for once. Knifing her hand, she stabbed it through the armor and wrenched it open before slipping inside. Unlike the other tanks and IFVs she'd disabled, she wanted to keep this one intact, if she could...she had an idea.

"S-she's inside! Shoot her! Distract her!" A man whose chest was adorned with several glimmering medals screamed in Arabic, turning in an attempt to flee while the other men inside turned their weapons on her.

There were five men, aside from the commanding officer himself. Since she wanted the vehicle to remain as intact as possible, it seemed prudent to not let them start shooting up the place. Swiftly moving to nail one in the chin with a swift palm strike, Lady Arcana next issued the man beside him a measured jab to the sternum. Similarly disabling the remaining three in a mere blink of an eye, she seized the officer by the collar as he was about to reach the hatch.

"Tell me how to talk to everyone, or I'll start breaking bones!" She threatened him in Arabic, her eyes sparking with electricity and her voice reverberating through the command vehicle.

Of course, she was bluffing. As if she'd be able to torture someone! Still, it appeared to work as the man quickly nodded, sweat wetting his brow.

Soon, units across the field of battle would start receiving a transmission from one of their commanding officers, Lt. General Masoud Al-Almasi. But instead of his voice, it was that of the seemingly invincible foe they had been fighting.

"Um, hello all of you soldiers! This is Lady Arcana, the super amazing and invincible flying Wizardess! I have just beaten up your leader, or...like one of them? So...y'know, you'd better surrender too or I'll come there and kick all your butts!"

Yeah, that sounded professional.

Orin would be proud, if a little amused, if he had heard the message come through. Unfortunately, he had just fried the tank relaying commands to this particular unit. As he wrenched free his trident he turned and stared down the other two tanks which were slowly turning their turrets to face him. A quick chanelling of magic  and a fair amount of magical energy sent a pair of high powered jets of water erupting from the sand underneath the tanks, flipping them over and dousing the area. The solders had mostly frozen at this point, obviously demoralized, though some still pointed their weapons at him. Aquaman stared them down with a hard look on his face and turned, pulling himself on top of the electrically-fried hunk of metal behind him. He called out in a booming voice, aiming to catch the attention of any combatants who might still be fighting. 

"My name is King Orin." He bellowed, switching to the Arabic he'd prepared before leaving. "Ruler of Atlantis, rightful regent of Poseidonis, and emperor of the oceans of the earth. I fight along The Wizard, Lady Arcana, the fount of all magic on this planet. Together we have routed your army and will continue to do so. Stand down. Toss aside your weapons and you will be unharmed. Continue to fight... And I will defend myself." He finished, raising his trident threateningly. The few solders still holding weapons looked to each other, fear obvious in their body language. His words had taken effect. One by one, weapons dropped to the ground, and King Orin looked to the skies for Lady Arcana's return.

For her part, Lady Arcana had lifted herself out of the command vehicle, the commanding officer now being held under on arm. Ascending high into the sky, she began to scan the battlefield for King Orin. All around the battle scarred desert she could see men surrendering. Casting their rifles aside, abandoned their vehicles with hands raised, grounding their helicopters...

It seemed like the battle was more or less over.

As for Orin himself, the trident made it pretty easy to locate him. She could feel magic absolutely pouring off that thing. Quickly descending beside the apparent "King of Atlantis", she offered him a congratulatory smile...though her mask rendered it invisible.

Seriously, though...Atlantis?

"Nice job out there," she praised him, eyes briefly flicking over to the soldiers in the area. She could still hear gunshots ringing out in the distance, but they didn't seem to be shooting at either of them. Weird. What else could they be firing at in the open desert?

Eying the towering and powerfully built man again, she took a rather deep breath to steady herself so she wouldn't sound like an idiot when she spoke this time. "...So, Atlantis, huh? I...thought it sank or something?"

Orin smiled a bit as Lady Arcana descended towards him. It looked as though the fighting was dying down, and he could see solders in the distance already simply walking away from the battlefield. Her questions didn't surprise him in the slightest, this was part of the reason he was here. "Yes, my Lady, Atlantis. And you're correct, it did sink, many thousands of years ago. Well technically, it was hit by a meteor and its foundations were sundered and it fell into the sea. Some suggest that it was because of the dome we had built over our capital, Poseidonis; that it angered the gods. I don't subscribe to that personally. Regardless, we have evolved through our circumstances and with some magical help to survive in both the air and in water. There are many of us, and Atlantis is still mostly intact."

"I came here because of you, actually. When the Wizard chose you, the leylines were filled with energy, as I'm sure you know. Atlantis happens to be one of the most concentrated points on the planet in terns of leyline crossings. So the seas were flooded with magical energies in a way they hadn't been for centuries. I've been meaning to come introduce myself and reveal Atlantis to you, but the explosion of magic... Well let me just say giant mutant jellyfish are not as easy to deal with as you might think. But when we received word of this... I knew I had to come help. It is an honor to meet you, by the way."

Lady Arcana, at first attentive, began slowly zoning as he continued to talk for a very, very long time. In her ear she could hear Grim bitching about something, and so that drew some of her attention as well. It was only when he reached the part about "giant mutant jellyfish" that her head snapped back to reality, her jaw going slack as she briefly wondered if she hadn't misheard him.

Oh right, Intellect of Mnemosyne.

"What."

So, to summarize the events of the past hour or so...she arrived in the Middle East with a dog-themed jet on her back, helped a Little Green Man defeat the largest army in the Middle East, learned how to make trenches with lightning and then teamed up with an Atlantean King who took a break from fishing jellyfish to meet her.

This was her life now.

"...It's an honor to meet you too, err, Your Majesty," she bowed her head lightly.

Orin chuckled and returned her small bow before slinging his trident over his shoulders. "Orin is fine,though I appreciate the formality. You're no subject of mine, and I hope to be considered an equal to you. However, I believe we may still have work to do today." He said, straightening his posture and looking around.

" My reports said there were others like us, with incredible abilities. I assume they're fighting elsewhere? This appears mainly taken care of, the fight has gone out of these solders and I doubt they'll be willing to pick up arms again. Shall we regroup?"

Nodding eagerly at this, she offers the King her hand, thankful that her mask was hiding the blush that once again worked its way across her cheeks. "Definitely! I'll take you to them."

July 8th, 20:08
North of Tabuk, within the Republic of Arabia

Sand and rock were crushed under the advancing treads of rumbling diesel-powered tanks and the numerous black IFVs powering towards the border. NATO reinforcements had arrived on schedule, and with the armor they needed to make the counter-push against the Federation. Among the Challenger 2 tanks painted to match their infantry support were self-propelled artillery vehicles and the soft thump of helicopter rotors over-head. With Emerald Knight's retaking of Tabuk hours earlier, Raymond and his forces had been able to more easily group up and set a plan in motion for the next stage. He personally oversaw the mobilization of the armored column in one of the redesigned M60a2 "Starship" tanks, the stub-nosed turret primed with an anti-tank missile ready to fire.

Asad had shown them that he was willing to start a war, but he wondered if he was ready to finish it. The next few hours would prove that, as the border to the Arab Federation was nearly on the horizon. Lady Arcana and the other heroes had done exactly as he thought they would, stopping the advances with minimal loss of life, but now it was largely on himself and actual military elements to finish this conflict. Would they continue to the battle with him, or simply be content with their gains? That weighed on his mind more than the oncoming battle, as it would likely decide just how their kind were seen in the world.

Lady Arcana had arrived with King Orin in hand to find Emerald Knight, Grim,Tank and Celerity engaged with Federation forces within Tabuk. Setting the Atlantean royal down, they had joined the fight and together they managed to quickly bring an end to the conflict and force the remaining Federation troops to either surrender or flee the city. Ending it so quickly meant that the fighting had been largely resolved by the time NATO reinforcements had arrived, a fact she was most thankful for. At the very least the next people they fought should be Asad's actual supporters, instead of just some unfortunate people forced into fighting for him.

At least, that was what she’d overheard the NATO people chatting about. Apparently they were called the Arabian Guard, and were the elite troops who had displayed both loyalty and skill to Asad and his regime. This meant they wouldn’t break and run so easily, as they at least believed in the cause they were fighting for. They didn’t seem nearly so large in number, though, so hopefully a bit of overwhelming force would similarly persuade them to lay down their arms.

Though, that would in truth only matter if he attacked again. Lady Arcana had no intention of helping NATO invade and dethrone this guy. That felt like it would be going a little too far. All she really wanted to do now was destroy all of his magitech.

“Anything on your scanner yet?” She asked Grim, sitting on the edge of her jet.

”Nothing’s changed so far, Wizardeth,” Was Grim’s simple response. Her gloved fingers drummed against the console as she leaned back in her pilot’s seat. The jet was currently grounded, once the Federation had been pushed back the Gotham hero had gone searching for fuel. The locals had been… well, happy to help was a strong phrase, but they had been cooperative at least. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered, the fuel reserves on the Grim Jet were fairly vast for its size, but considering Grim and Lady Arcana knew magitech lurked just on the horizon of the battlefield it was better to be prepared.

So here Grim was, high tech jet idling on the ground with the pilot hatch open to better chat with the Lady of Magic sitting on the edge, eyes rarely straying from the screen on her console - hooked up to the main computer terminal back home, and therefore the scanner. They had seen on the news report earlier what these things could do. Zoey had no intention of leaving before grounding them - much more permanently than her own current position. Besides, what kind of inventor would she be without trying to take one home? At least all the heroes now had an earpiece provided to them so she could inform them when trouble started once more. Now if only someone would provide Tank with clothes.

Lady Arcana’s lips pursed into a slight pout at Grim’s continued mockery, though her mask hid it from view. Folding her arms, she glanced at the other heroine from the side. ”Hey, it’s not easy to think up cool speeches on the spot, okay?”

”That’s why I don’t talk to people. Besides, I like the name.”

Arcana shook her head, reaching out to gently nudge Grim with her hand. ”Yeah, I could tell by the giggling. That sounds really weird with your voice thing, you know.”

”I do not giggle-” An alert sounded on the console, the soft white glow of the screen turning to a vivid red to catch its operator’s attention. Immediately Grim’s gaze went to the screen and she sat up straight. Her earpiece swapped to broadcast to the other heroes as well by an unseen command from her mask.

”They’re on the move. Headed to the Persian Gulf, high speed, high altitude. Jets, then.” Grim’s own jet once more roared to life before settling into that quiet purr, ready to lift off in an instant. ”Not the entire force. Others still on standby it seems.”

Lady Arcana’s eyes narrowed at this, the heroine sliding from the edge of the Grim Jet into a gentle float. She suspected that their little breather wouldn’t last long, and it seemed like she was correct. There was no way that a bad dude like this Asad guy was going to give up without throwing his best stuff at them first. ”So he’s...wait, they’re not heading towards us?

Girard sat leaned up against one of the still largely intact houses resting a bit after the fighting. He was in the process of trying to get all the dust and debris bits off of him that had gotten stuck. It tended to happen when a building collapsed on him but it was worth the annoyance to save the few civilians who he prevented from getting crushed or trapped in the rubble. Couldn’t just let them get hurt after all, wouldn’t be a proper hero if he didn’t try his hardest, though the sheet he was wearing was getting a little tattered with him being on the front lines. The big guy did try to take weapons fire to his upper body if possible but only so much to be done with fire coming in from multiple directions and explosives being involved. Go figure the only clothing store that he found standing wasn’t so steady as to stay that way so he couldn’t trade out for something more modest.

Tank perked up at the buzz from his earpiece listening to whatever information came his way and it sounded like they were in for another round quite soon. “Jets huh? Not sure how much help I’ll be but you got me if you need the support.” He said standing back up for round two.

High in the sky was a lazily floating Emerald Knight. He had been wandering for quite a bit to find the other heroes after his personal mission to get as many civilians to safety as he possibly could. Of course, that meant that he had to get in a lot of fights, and the concussive impact of the missiles hitting him all the time were starting to get to him. Guns and rockets were nothing compared to the weaponry he had seen out beyond the sun, but that didn’t mean he was immune to them.

“Alright, alright.” He muttered to himself. “Where are those guys. I couldn’t have wandered that far off…” He was still in Tabuk. The thoughts of what had actually happened were beginning to return to him now that he had a moment to think. Everyone else was jumping off elsewhere, while Emerald Knight had Volunteered to free Tabuk. This was his own fault.

King Orin was startled by the sudden activation of the earpiece, unused to having another voice practically in his head. He had worked hard to keep other voices out of his head after all. However, the news that these magitech jets were on the move was good news to him, especially when he heard where they were heading… Orin stood up swiftly from where he had taken a knee in the desert sand after having made short introductions to the rest of the gathered heroes. He slung his trident over his shoulder and glanced around to those still present. “The Persian Gulf you say?” He said with a sly smile. “Well, I suppose it’s time for the King of the Seas to prove his worth…” He said before taking off running at high speeds towards the nearby coast.

---

In the gulf the Second NATO Maritime Group was on patrol when the alert came in by proxy, likely wired in through Raymond and the LIS network. The Admiral of the fleet stared grimly at the AEGIS displays, seeing nothing incoming yet, wondering on the veracity of the statement, and if Asad really had such weapons that could strike his fleet. Notices of active radar and open missile tubes came up, each of the frigates and destroyers marking themselves as weapons hot and ready to strike down whatever showed. Yet there was nothing. Barely even a shimmer across the AEGIS screens to note movement in the skies. A few target markers appeared over land, but as soon as they came up they had been marked as friendly. Where were they?

The young night sky seemed to answer his question as it was instantly parted by twin pillars of white appearing over a pair of AEGIS Cruisers, like the eyes of God staring down upon them in disapproval. Slicing through their solid steel hulls as if they were made of tissue, they briefly vanished amidst the rain of fire and metal only to reappear over two more. Again and again this process was repeated, until finally both lights steadied over their final and last target: the Aircraft Carrier itself. Due to its size, the beams had appeared on opposite ends, as they mercilessly - sadistically even - began to slice it apart.

Being in the command center of the carrier, all the admiral saw was a sudden flash on radar and sonar, then two of his ships gone. They didn't even have time to radio a distress or hint at anything. Repeated attempts to raise them came up with nothing, and soon they were joined by increasing numbers of the fleet. It was unlike anything that had happened before, not even the captains of the Great Wars had experienced such total destruction and been so completely unable to respond. Then the weapon was upon his own ship, and without the means to strike back, he did the only thing he could. Remaining jets launched as they could, taking the catapults to avoid the cutting beam.

Alarms rang out across the mighty carrier, not quite so anymore as it was steadily sliced in two, and the crew abandoned ship with every available means. Only the admiral and his closest staff remained, defiantly holding out and sending distress to all available NATO channels.

"Attention all NATO forces, this is Rear Admiral Cockburn of the British fleet, in command of the Second NATO Maritime group. We have lost all ships in the fleet, and are under attack by advanced weapons from the Federation. Immediate rescue efforts are required, men are in the sea. I repeat, we have lost all ships of the fleet and require immediate naval rescue ships to our position-"

---

Lady Arcana listened to the transmission coming from the Grim Jet - a NATO Signal, apparently - frowning beneath her mask. She was about to sprint off to help rescue the drowning sailors, but had noted that King Orin was already on his way there. Given his apparent affinity for the sea, he would undoubtedly be better at it than she was.

She wanted to go after those jets, but she wasn’t skilled enough at detecting magic yet that she would feel confident in finding them without the Grim Jet’s detector. They were also constantly on the move, so even memorizing their current location wouldn’t do much good.

“Do you think you can guide me towards them if I carried the Grim Jet?” Lady Arcana questioned Grim.

The Gotham hero just made a small noise, a hum that reverberated in the mask’s voice modulator as she continued to stare down at the scanner. The Grim Jet hummed beneath her, ready to go with or without Arcana. However beneath the gloves Grim’s knuckles went white as she gripped the controls, not moving quite yet.

”Yes,” She finally replied simply, her deep exhale that followed distorted under the modulator. ”But they’re not our only problem. The others are moving. Just under a dozen of the jets to Tabuk, and… a small army of ground units. All with the magical signature.”

Lady Arcana leaned over to stare at the incoming signals, her eyes widening. They were seriously coming at them fast, especially the ones in the air. Even the ground units, however, were moving pretty quickly. It wouldn’t take them long to reach the city, and while it was pretty clear that this force was a good deal smaller than the last ones they had faced off against, she had little doubt that this one would prove to be by far the greater threat.

”I should go to them before they reach the city,” she suggested, knowing that things would get messy if they had to fight them here. There were still some civilians that hadn’t been evacuated, after all, and protecting them was of course their number one priority.

Lifting off the ground, she offered one last glance at the Grim Computer as she prepared to head off the jets. Her eye managed to catch something on the screen, however. Something that emitted a stronger signal than anything else approaching them. Furthermore, it was outpacing even the jets! ”What’s that?”

---

King Orin arrived at the coast of the Persian Gulf to a grisly sight. Debris and wreckage floated in the water, and he could see fires starting in the distance, likely from fuel spills. His grip tightened on the trident until his knuckles went white, And Orin stepped forward into the surf. Keying on his earpiece, he spoke to the group, his earlier jovial tone gone. ”They were at the Gulf and gone.I don’t know where. If you have a way of finding them Grim, keep on them. There’s destruction and chaos here now, and they cannot be allowed to continue it. I will meet with all of you later, I have to fix this first.”

Wading further into the water, Aquaman dove in, feeling the cool water wash over him and refresh his senses. He could not allow himself time to appreciate it though, as already he could feel the disturbances and the unease in the water around him. Many sailors had died already. Some still lived, treading water for now. As Orin scanned the sinking wreckage he began to pick out bodies, people who were stuck and may need help.

Reaching out with his mind as he began to swim towards the nearest hunk of wreckage, Aquaman made contact with the otherworldly force that bound the ocean life. The Clear, it seemed to be called. The Clear touched the minds of all ocean-dwelling animals, and with that connection, Aquaman could ask for help. A call went out, seating itself in the minds of the dugongs, dolphins, orcas, and other larger sea life that frequented these waters. A request to come and help those in need. With the call underway, Orin surged forward to the first piece of wreckage, intent on rescuing as many drowning sailors as he could, and then trying to clean up the flaming fuel afterwards...

---

Even with Tabuk mostly in the clear, Emerald Knight’s work wasn’t done yet. His earpiece sounded off. Grim alerted him of the incoming aerial forces. He was quick to craft himself a telescope to find out what was going on and where, and as quick as he began his search, he found his next targets.

He couldn’t help but feel a little weak. Did human tech really advance so much and so subtly while he was gone for training? Whatever was going on, it would have to be explored later. Right now, he had some new enemies to deal with.

His once leisurely pace quickly shifted to one that could rival a standard jet. Still, the speed of whatever was on its way was more than the standard Jet. Emerald Knight would need to put a little more push into his ring in order to keep up. Even with them. Funny, he traveled here in a matter of moments to help, but now he was huffing and puffing to keep up with some in-atmosphere jets.

He zipped in right close, trying to get a lot at whatever had spooked Grim over whatever fancy tool they were using now. Obviously they weren’t good, or Grim wouldn’t have been worried, so Emerald Knight skipped the pleasantries and went straight for construct making. He wanted to smash up his targets and end the day already.

The jets that Emerald Knight could see were flying at a considerably high altitude. While his Ring had managed to pick them up, it was clear they were using a stealth technology that could easily befuddle any Earth Radar. Furthermore, they were already taking evasive maneuvers, as if they’d likewise noticed him!

Said maneuvers were beyond the abilities of any Earth aircraft, sharp 360 degree turns that instantly brought them face-to-face as they shot towards him at many, many times the speed of sound. A spark of light from their smooth silver hulls heralded the storm of laser fire that soon cast away the night sky as they attempted to kill the aerially-inclined hero whom they had now engaged.

Emerald Knight couldn’t deny that these planes were unlike anything he had seen on earth before. The outclassed the fighters he had taken out earlier by leagues, so it was clear to him that they weren’t a part of some new standard.

The way they twisted around and aimed right for him caught him a little off guard, but the surprises didn’t stop there. He was hit rather directly by their lasers. That was something he knew the people of earth weren’t normally capable of. On the other hand, he knew he’d at least get a good challenge out of something a little closer to what he was used to fighting-

The lasers hit with a surprising impact. Emerald Knight knew it had been a while since he had battled guns with bullets, but he knew he could take a laser shot or two! Something about these fighters wasn’t right, and he needed to put a stop to them as soon as possible.

Emerald Knight took off as the jets were about to collide with him. He circled around them and began tailing them once more, creating his own laser gun to shoot out their turbines with. Or, at least, whatever propelled these marvellous machinations. He decided to pick them off one by one. He could stand to get hit a few more times. A lot more times. He had all the time in the world to wear out these futuristic fliers.

There seemed to be ten in all, and at the moment they were all focused on a single target: Emerald Knight.

Streams of laser fire poured from the craft in an attempt to shoot the man-sized bogey down from the larger aircraft, and soon enough a slew of missiles followed in their wake. While slower than the laser fire, these were able to track and follow him. Moving at speeds far greater than their standard Earth equivalents, these missiles glowed with a strange purple hue as they streaked through the sky, making rigid turns in their efforts to strike him.

In all of these efforts they were well coordinated, ten individuals aircraft working in concert against one target. When the Emerald Knight attempted to target their turbines, the fighters he targeted would veer sharply to avoid his attack before it was even fired. Some would evade it entirely, others would instead take the hit at a less critical area of their hull.

Emerald Knight was beginning to notice a pattern between all of these fighters. They were all individually piloted, but they all moved in a similar faction.

The rate of his own lasers being fired increased exponentially. Instead of continuing to aim straight for the turbines, Emerald Knight instead tried focusing on pushing the jets together. He still wanted to take them out, but their quick moves to evade him could only work so well when they were as grouped as tightly together as he could get them. He upscaled the size of his floating laser turret to try and give them more of a threat to work with. It was at this point that he had realized that he could totally focus a little more and just shoot them dead, or make some homing bombs or something and explode the jets, but he still wanted to save them if possible.

---

”I don’t know. Not a tank or a jet, that’s for sure,” Grim grimaced beneath her mask, eyeing the rapidly approaching dot flashing across the screen of her scanner. After a moment the vigilante gripped the controls of the Grim Jet tighter, the engine rumbling. ”We’re going up,” Grim warned, keeping the hatch open as the Jet rose directly upward, once a few hundred meters in the air hovering. The Gotham hero leaned out the front of the jet, the lenses of her goggles swapping to zoom and magnifying to max.

”Fuck me, still can’t see anything. Come on, we have to head it off - you ready?”

Lady Arcana hadn’t resisted the rise of the Grim Jet, planning on following her skyward. Until those fighters were dealt with, it was best just letting Tank and Celerity deal with the ground forces. King Orin could easily back them up when he returned.

Lifting away from the jet as it steadied into a hover, she offered the Gotham heroine a quick nod. ”Read-”

That was when she felt it. Her ability to sense magic was burning stronger than it ever had before, and as she turned in the direction that feeling stabbed at her from her eyes were filled with a dark visage rapidly approaching the both of them at speeds nothing made by man could ever hope to achieve. Knowing it would hit - and very likely destroy - the Grim Jet if she allowed it to reach them, Lady Arcana immediately dashed forward to slam into it first.

The impact sent a truly monstrous sonic boom rushing through the city that shattered windows and knocked mortal men off their feet. Never before had she impacted something with such astonishing force, a power she wasn’t prepared for. Feeling the massive obsidian hand enclose around her head, she could barely react as she was driven through local deli, and then a textile factory...and then a mosque. Through several rows of structures, a path of destruction being etched across Tabuk.

Releasing her willingly, Lady Arcana shook her head - mostly in disbelief - at the towering figure. Not a man, but a machine.

“So you are the allegedly invincible Wizardess that our Lord warned me of?” A voice emanated from the humanoid-shaped armor. It spoke in Arabic, it’s gleaming blue eyes glaring down at her. “Perhaps his estimations of your power were exaggerated.”

The Grim Jet had shook from the force of the sonic boom, alerts ripping through the inside of the cockpit. With a loud curse Grim grabbed onto the thick glass of the hatch and yanked it close, once more strapping into the pilot’s seat. Lady Arcana and … whatever that was were already gone from the air, but their path was obvious. In a burst of speed the Grim Jet tore after them, the middle compartment at the bottom of the aircraft already opening.

At the end of the line of destruction ripped through Tabuk was Grim’s target, looming over Lady Arcana. Grim’s eyes narrowed beneath her mask, the left lens of her mask swapping to heat signatures. Finding no civilians nearby and her targetting system locked on the back of the hulking humanoid machine, Grim let loose. From the rectangular metal object that had opened at the bottom of the jet a series of missiles exploded forth at an intense speed, slamming into the back of the machine beneath her. The explosion engulfed it, the lens of Grim’s goggles quickly swapping off heat signatures lest the fire of the missiles burn white-hot against the sensor.

Grim had no doubt this wasn’t over, the auto cannons already spinning and more missiles being auto-loaded as she prepared to continue the assault. In truth… she knew this was probably going to be painful.

While the flame and smoke obscured the image of the great mechanical titan, one thing quickly became clear for Grim to see: those glowing azure eyes were now centered firmly on her, shining through the aftermath of her attack. “Yankee insect.”

Lady Arcana - still lying prone behind the war suit - could clearly see the twin pair of mechanical eyes burning brighter, her heart growing tight with the knowledge that if she didn’t act, Grim would very likely die. In a single swift motion she bolted to her feet and slammed her fist into the side of her much larger opponent’s head. This succeeded in forcing his aim away from the Grim Jet, as a pair of azure beams scorched the air, burning clean through any rooftops that were unfortunate enough to be in its path.

She could smell the ozone burning as it once more turned to face her, it’s great hand balling into a fist to quickly return the favor by slamming into her much smaller head. And she felt it! Really, truly felt the impact as it sent her careening back through yet another series of buildings, her body eventually plowing a trench into the sandy streets below. She had never been hit this hard since she’d gained her powers. Not by Iron Eagle, not by Harris, not by the Harpies.

”Guh…” Lady Arcana huffed out, placing her hands on the sand and pushing herself up. She wasn’t hurt, at least she didn’t think so...but it had stung, like a quick slap across the face. One that could’ve sent her flying many, many miles away if she hadn’t been trying to stop herself.

She didn’t have much time to think, unfortunately, as her assailant was soon upon her again. This time, at least, she managed to lift into the air. Flying up and away from the city, she knew that it would be a terrible idea to try and fight him here, where civilians potentially remained. ”W-who are you, dude? Are you one of that Asad guy’s Generals or something?”

“A General? No,” the suit responded, ascending into the air to give chase, apparently able to fly as well. Just perfect. “You have the honor of facing Arabia’s greatest son himself, woman. I am Basil Al-Asad!”

”Fuck.” The single word seemed rather appropriate, considering. Grim’s missiles hadn’t even scratched the metal of the suit, barely scuffed it - and that was all dirt and ash from the explosion! Fuck. Fuck.

A quick change of lenses in the goggles had Grim swapping the left side to the magic sensor, flinching and immediately returning to normal as the brightness radiating from the machine confirmed what she suspected. Absolutely brimming with arcane powers. Grim cautiously followed the two floating figures, keeping her distance - she was under no illusions that a full on assault would work from the Grim Jet, not if her missiles hadn’t done anything. Not to mention the way Asad had flung Lady Arcana around.

Still, she wasn’t willing to leave her alone.

”Do your best, I’ll see if I can determine a weakness in the suit.” Grim finally muttered into her mask’s communicator, already bringing up pictures from her goggles’ recordings to try and examine the machine from all sides. Maybe they could get lucky and the suit was made by the same people who built the Death Star.

Lady Arcana appreciated Grim’s determination to help her and find a weakness in the suit, but she hadn’t forgotten that there were other problems they still had to deal with right now. In truth, if this was Asad, she was willing to bet he was here specifically to keep her from interfering in the battle! Why else would he come out here personally like that?

”Okay ugly, you want some of this? Come get it!” She taunted the Dictator as they both floated roughly a hundred meters above Tabuk. When he took the bait and charged at her, Arcana dodged his fist and slammed her own into the “chin” of the warsuit to send it rocketing clean over the city and into the desert miles away. After receiving that last punch from it, she now had an idea of its strength...which was - again - greater than anything she’d been hit with before.

Judging by how it took her latest blow, it was no less durable.

”Grim, those other signals are still approaching, right? You need to help the others deal with them! I’ve got this guy! Lady Arcana reassured her friend as she shot off after the man behind all of this. If they were going to duke it out like this, they’d do it away from Tabuk!

”Arcana,” Grim growled lowly in response. Her grip on the controls was tight, knowing that underneath the black gloves her pale knuckles were absolutely white. Her teeth grit and her jaw was tense, looking after her friend chasing after the dictator. Her steel-blue gaze flicked down to the screen, seeing how the blips representing the magitech jets had stopped - someone had engaged them but none of them had been put down yet. Actually, with Lady Arcana busy it was only herself and Shortcakes that could battle them - Girard and Chong would have to deal with the land forces.

”I’ll be back with the others,” She finally responded into the earpiece, almost a snarl. There was no need to be protective over the literal Goddess of Magic, but… ”I’m only a message away, Grim added on, before finally turning the black jet. With one last glance after Lady Arcana’s form, long gone after Asad, the vigilante’s aircraft took off, streaking through the sky towards the magitech jets.

Aquaman looked around the murky waters he had claimed as his own, fighting against a rising feeling of anger and despair. There was much here to deal with, and the battle on the surface still waged on. He needed to be faster. Stronger. Better. Pulling a comm shell from his belt, Aquaman flipped it open and began to speak, confident that the transmission would connect him to his palace. ”This is King Orin. I am in the Persian Gulf. Send our fastest envoy with Neptune. I have need of its power.” He said, scarcely waiting for confirmation before shutting off the communication device. Though his envoys were still not as fast as himself, Aquaman was confident they would arrive soon enough, and he would be able to help more...

Orin cut through the undersea current like a hot knife through butter. Using the his innate control of the seas, amplified by the trident he carried, it was a simple matter to manipulate the chunks of wreckage as they sank to the bottom of the gulf, minimizing their impact and twisting their orientation so they would not crush the precious sailors they imprisoned. Looking around the briny depths, Aquaman could see the shapes of incoming sea creatures, animals who had elected to answer his call. The undersea king breathed a sigh of relief as he sent out a mental push to rescue any drowning sailors and begin bringing them to shore.

Aquaman closed in on the nearest of the broken pieces of what were once ships, swinging a powerful fist at the thick metal hull. Like punching through a piece of wet tissue paper, Orin breached the hull and dove inside, pulling a shell-like device from his belt. Atlantis was the oldest civilization on earth, and even though their fall into the sea had set them back a bit, they had recovered and even found ways to thrive in their new environment. Orin activated the handheld tracking device and watched as a holographic screen lit up, sending out a pulse of energy before settling into a barebones map of the ship. As the map settled into place, a few red dots lit up; warm bodies. People that needed saving. Holding the map in front of him, Orin took off, speeding through the water faster than any living thing had a right to. This wasn’t the only wreck in the gulf. These weren’t the only trapped sailors. He had to be fast...

---

The normally sandswept streets of Tabuk had been blasted clean by the rapidly advancing armored vehicles of the Arab Federation. Cleared not by treads, but by whatever unseen force suspended them above the ground and gifted them with their incredible mobility. Able to strafe and change direction on a dime, they had quickly proven their dominance over the comparatively slow and unmaneuverable NATO tanks and IFVs.

Strafing in a steady zig-zagging pattern as it weaved around the oncoming armor-piercing sabots fired from the nearby Challenger 2s of NATO, the Federation tank trained its own main gun upon the western armor. Burning with an almost blinding light, a beam erupted from the barrel and instantly reduced the target into a ball of flame. Immediately focusing on another target, this action was swiftly repeated.

Federation IFVs had likewise swarmed into the city, unleashing their devastating, plasma-based weaponry against the forces of NATO. Their APCs had deployed infantry likewise armed with “rifles” that far exceeded what was available to their opponents.

It was, in truth, difficult to even call it a fight as they carved a swathe of destruction through the city, brushing aside the opposing army as if they weren’t even there.

”You know what’s unfair?” Celerity said, his Bluetooth device hooked up to his ear, as usual. He zipped through the battlefield, in a circle, observing the Federation’s new toys for a brief moment. While he’s mostly dealt with their infantry earlier, he’s never gotten around to dealing with their armored vehicles, mainly because phasing through things makes him a bit sick. Seeing their futuristic toys in play, however, changes the game completely.

”We’ve got people who can shoot lasers out of their hands and jump out of planes. And what can I do? Run really fast.” Celerity complained, before springing to action. Instead of dealing with their new tech, Celerity decided to start playing damage control. He ran through the city, pushing soldiers out of the way from enemy fire as he made his rounds while at the same time observing just how the enemy’s weaponry worked. How fast they fired, what made them work the way they did, just how much of an edge these weapons had over the others. Normally, Celerity would just be fighting them head-on, whether they were armed with assault rifles or loaded with explosives, but to fight an enemy with alien-looking tech? Celerity needed to know exactly what he was dealing with, and if it was even fast enough to catch him.

The tanks and other vehicles were much more nimble than their NATO counterparts indeed, but still nothing compared to the speeds at which Celerity could move. In fact, as he darted about removing soldiers from the danger zone, they hadn’t even noticed him due to his speed yet. They seemed mainly focused on destroying the military forces that desperately continued to oppose them, as well as attacking the hero known as “Tank”, a far more obvious and glaring target than the nimble speedster who had yet to engage them.

The soldiers on the ground, however, had taken notice of Celerity and had taken their fair share of potshots at him with their beam rifles. Although the beams themselves were plenty fast - far quicker than any bullet - the men behind them were not, and didn’t seem truly capable of lining up a clear shot on the Brown Blur or the people he was evacuating.

For the most part, Celerity was being ignored for the moment. The Federation forces had neither the time nor luxury to focus on targets that were not actively engaging them.

Girard gritted his teeth as another beam from one of the hovering vehicles parted around his arm as he advanced attempting to close the gap between himself and the armor ahead. He was finding the weapons were hurting some and that they were moving fast enough to keep him on his toes, not something he was used to so far which was worrisome. With a quick leap he managed to land close enough to get a hold on one of his quick moving adversaries delivering a solid punch to where he guessed a thruster might be attempting to disable its movement. The big guy also managed to get a hold of the gun as the turret tried to face towards him snapping it like a twig in his grip. He picked up the solid remaining piece like a club dashing forward at the next closest enemy placing a downward strike onto the gun mantle of it crushing the metal down enough to where he hoped firing would be impossible, would probably backfire if they tried with any other gun he knew of so it was guesswork.

Tank threw away the now severely bent barrel looking for another target among the absolute mess of soldiers and armor moving about. He was doing his damndest to make a big target of himself wanting to draw in as many enemies as possible so the others could capitalize on the rest of the more lightly armored forces. Taking hits was what he did best so putting that skill to use seemed appropriate with all of the firepower being slung around which was a big problem. The big man caught a volley of laser fire from a nearby group of infantry to which he retaliated by jumping closer and slamming the ground to disrupt them making them easier targets for a few low power hits as they were getting back up. His attempts to cause less collateral damage were probably limiting his overall effectiveness but if he made too big a mess of the surrounding area there wouldn’t be anything left for civilians to return to, it was already bad enough without his input. He knew the speedster was zipping around evacuating anyone who could be so it was another reason to hold back for the moment because the last thing he needed to do was get in the way of anyone but the Federation forces which he had done well at so far.

”How are the rest of you holding up? Got the main tank column here somewhat tied up at the moment but think I saw some light troops get by.” Girard said through the earpiece curious as to how the others were faring and giving them an update from his position on the front. “Not of fan of the guns on these guys, they are kind of unpleasant.”

---

“Yeah yeah! Just some, uh, minor technical difficulties! The job will get done, just a little slower.” The more Emerald Knight chased down those fighters, the more he began to realize that he was indeed needing to put more effort into flying just to be able to keep up with them. Future tech or not, he was able to cross the universe at unbelievable speeds. This shouldn’t be happening.

He could still fly and shoot. He could still use the ring as intended, but he was moving a little slower, and his constructs weren’t as strong as they normally were. This made it rather difficult to corral the jets together and force them down.

“But, I would appreciate help from just about anyone right now.” He didn’t want to make it sound like he wasn’t capable of taking them out on his own, only that it would be easier to do it with more people. Surely he wasn’t the only one dealing with these advanced vehicles and weapons. He’d need to talk to someone about them once this was all over.

A screeching whistle screamed through the air, seemingly echoed by counterparts. It took only a second after the sound started for explosions to rock against the hulls of the jets, eight taking direct hits, one jerking enough to only graze, and the tenth unscathed.

”That should slow them down,” Grim muttered, her mask deepening the words as they broadcast to the others. The missile launcher was already reloading, sadly only able to hold nine at a time. Rather than do a concentrated volley and remove one threat, the Gotham hero had opted to lock on to nine of the ten aircraft, currently focused on Cabbage Patch Kid. A single missile to each jet wouldn’t be enough to remove them from the fight, but damage them? Definitely.

The autocannons spun beneath the Grim Jet as the speeding black aircraft joined Emerald Knight, blazing to life with a flurry of armor-piercing bullets. They tore through the closest jet’s left wing, nearly cleaving it in two. When the magitech jet dipped the Grim Jet shot down, keeping speed with the spinning wreck. It was only when the pilot ejected did the black jet once more jerk up, just in time to twist out of the way of a barrage of lasers. Looks like her presence was adequately announced to the skies.

An alarm blared to life in the cabin of the jet, Grim’s eyes flicking down to it. She cursed.

”Ground them, Moss Patch. Two more will be on us soon.”

With an affirmative nod that Grim couldn’t see, Emerald Knight closed in on many of the damaged jets and forced them down by creating large clamp structures that dug into the hull so they couldn’t escape. They should have known by now that trying to get out of his grasp was impossible, but that didn’t stop them from fighting him on the way down. He had to make it fast, though. Apparently two more were en route.

He added a little more damage to each of the crafts as he brought them down to the surface, making sure they wouldn’t be able to fly again before he joined Grim up in the air to bring the rest down.

Like Grim had predicted, two more entered the fray. It was rather fortunate that their appearances were predicted, because it made things leagues easier for Emerald Knight to get started on wearing them down with laser fire.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind that would put an end to this little dogfight much sooner. He beat himself over the head for not thinking of it sooner.

Emerald Knight matched the speeds of the jets with a little more push, and used his ring to create constructs to break a hole in the windshield of the cockpit. A tiny hole, but one just large enough for him to worm a construct through so he could break the console they were piloting with, and activate their parachutes. He didn’t even need to break the planes down if he could just force the pilots to leave!

Slowly but surely the magitech jets were dwindling in number between the two flying heroes, the ones already damaged being picked off. Their speed and lasers were dangerous, but what was quickly becoming obvious was that these weren’t trained pilots. At the very least, not trained for the power of magitech.

Really, that fact was currently saving Grim’s ass. For all the advanced tech packed into the Grim Jet, the magitech seemed to have the edge in terms of specifications. Grim, however, had a far finer control over her machine than the Arab Federation pilots had over theirs. As two more untouched magitech jets joined the fray it’s what was currently keeping her ahead of the lasers on her tail.

A quick aileron roll avoided another barrage of the deadly lasers, the black jet turning sharply to double back to the injured craft. Of course even the precise turning capabilities of Grim’s jet wasn’t enough to shake her pursuer, as it too turned on a dime. A barrel roll this time, jerking the nose of the Grim Jet up - and on the descent another swath of those armor piercing bullets taking out one of the already injured craft, immediately after another volley of missiles bringing down another.

With that the damaged aircraft were out of the way, leaving only the three ones still in perfect condition. One was still doggedly pursuing Grim, another focused on Emerald Knight. Seeing an opportunity Grim shot off towards the one focused on Emerald Knight. Coming up behind it Grim’s gaze flicked between directly in front of her and the monitor showing a rear view. As soon as the magitech weapons on the aircraft behind her lit up Grim once more performed a sharp aileron roll, the lasers passing by and slamming into the jet in front of her as she passed by, cleaving it in two.

”Idiot,” The Gotham hero muttered in contempt, dipping to watch and make sure the pilot ejected safely. Yep, there he went. It was a really good thing these were inexperienced pilots, a single strike of those lasers would do some serious damage to her hull.

Where was the jet that was after her?

Grim spun around, quickly spotting the jet that had previously been on her like a dog on a bone. It was currently focused on the pilot descending to the sands below. Zoey’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, only for those steel-blue eyes to widen in alarm as the lasers on it lit up once more.

”Fucker!” Jerking her controls forward the Grim Jet took off at full speed just as the lasers of the enemy jet ripped through the parachute on the back of the pilot with a precise strike, sending him plummeting to the ground. Grim had no idea if it was anger or desperation that fueled the move; anger at his fellow pilot for getting in the way, or desperation with only two of them left. Either way, with the magitech jet still focused on the pilot Grim knew his gambit was going to work.

Now knowing where the Grim Jet was doing to be the lasers once more lit up, blasting at high speeds towards the pilot. The black jet was over him with less than a second to spare, the laser tearing into the reinforced metal of the hull. Inside the cockpit Grim was bathed in red as alarms started going off, the nose of the aircraft turning to the ground as she, too, plummeted. Smoke billowed from the pierced icon of the grim along the side of her plane, but she wasn’t going down that easily. Twisting the craft her left wing caught the falling pilot, him not needing a second gesture as he quickly clung to the black metal. It was going to be painful for the both of them, but better than slamming unprotected into the sands.

Pulling back on the controls and activating the hover mode the Grim Jet’s descent slowed, preventing it from crashing into the ground beneath them. Becoming parallel to the ground the right wing bumped against the sand beneath it, causing the craft to shudder as the right side bounced up once more. A normal jet would’ve been torn apart.

With the Grim Jet now hovering a foot off the ground, tilted slightly so the right wing rested in the sand Grim cursed into her voice modulator once more, rushing to grab a large toolbox stored in the back. Flipping the cockpit hatch open she climbed out. The pilot on her left wing was shaking and disorientated, when he glanced up to her Grim just looked down at him with that emotionless mask. Her glove sparked. He didn’t need telling twice and slid off the wing, quickly scrambling back. With him gone Grim turned to try and repair what she could of the burning metal and wire.

”I’m banged up but alive. Hope you can get the last two, Magenta Mage.”

“Alright… you.” He didn’t have any quippy nicknames for Grim at the current moment, so his response was already nowhere as cool as it could be.

Two left. Emerald Knight didn’t need any cool one liners to beat up some untrained pilots. If Grim was anything to go by, the vigilante was superior when it came to flying and even dogfighting, even if these planes did have the better tech. No matter.

Emerald Knight was barely scratched by the jets. He was rather angry with himself for not having been able to finish off these planes faster, but that was more because of his own skill rather than them. He wasn’t afraid. He had blown himself up for christ’s sake!

He flew around in a green blur, now creating a construct around him to cut through the final two planes with his own body. It was rather fun darting around and cutting them up, but like the others, his focus on forcing them down safely took priority.

He forced himself through the wings of one of the planes, but before it could start spiraling out of control, Emerald Knight locked the plane in a construct and led it down to the ground. As soon as he knew the plane wouldn’t explode, or the pilot wouldn’t die, he set off to do the same thing to the other plane.

The second plane led him through a small chase, but it was only a matter of time before he sped up to the plane and took it out in the same way. He was almost worried that his construct wouldn’t hold all the way down, but he was lucky to see that he was able to keep the plane from becoming a big fiery ball.

With the planes gone, Emerald Knight smiled to himself in satisfaction. They had done a good job today. Maybe the next time something like this happens, they’ll all be better, and they can keep even more lives from passing away.

---

Despite their advanced technology, the various armored vehicles of the Arab Federation were finding that they simply stood no chance in a direct confrontation with the giant - practically naked - man who had chosen to make his stand against them. Thus, their commander had ordered for them to try and keep their distance as he quickly formulated a strategy.

Thus far, this towering individual had proven to be their only real opposition on the ground. The NATO forces had fallen like a house of cards before their new weapons. If they took him out, then surely the city would follow!

“Liquify the ground beneath his feet!” Lt. General Yasin barked into his command console, displaying the battlefield in a complex 3D hologram that looked straight out of a science fiction film. “It would appear he cannot fly, so let us make him an easier target!”

Following his instructions, several of the tanks and IFVs turned their beams onto the streets below. With concentrated fire at the man’s feet, the ground more or less instantly began to liquify. Like quicksand, it made getting a solid footing to jump difficult, so long as it wasn’t allowed to harden.

“Now, every other vehicle open fire on him before he can get loose! I repeat, all remaining weapons focus fire!” Yasin commanded, watching every vehicle that wasn’t focused on keeping the street melted turn their beams on the giant man directly.

Scorching the ozone before them, the beams began to hit the superhuman from every side as tanks, IFVs and infantry quickly moved to surround him, his entire form quickly becoming obscured in the mass glow of the concentrated plasma.

Tank had expected the forces to keep away from him but it was just to attempt an effective self-defense against him though it had proven less than useful as he could close a gap fairly quickly. This time it seemed almost like they were lining up for a big barrage which he expected would hurt a fair bit as well as slow him down a lot by sheer volume alone. What he hadn’t been expecting was the ground caving out from underneath him which left him hard pressed to find any good footing while him trying to trudge through the now liquid asphalt was difficult. That was before the main volley aimed directly at him hit home stopping him dead in his tracks as shots from all directions started connecting faster than he could now react. If the big guy could speak it would be hard to accurately describe the pain he was in as the beams poured on not to mention the fact he couldn’t see or hear anything from under the assault so it heavily disoriented him on the shifting ground.

Girard fell down to a knee whole body tensing up severely as the onslaught kept on coming almost forcing him further onto the ground. His whole mind and body were screaming at him to fight back harder against his attackers. It wasn’t as much a matter of disabling them as making it stop, he needed it to stop and was growing more determined to end it. The big man started struggling back up feeling an intense anger boiling up pushing him on enough to fight getting him just about to standing as he drew his arms back through the lightshow. There was no way he was giving up, that meant a lot more people than just him were going to pay for it and forbid he was seriously injured or worse people he knew would be hit by it. He had to end this right the hell now and prevent all of that suffering so he let the strength flow into his arms before bringing them together below him in a massive thunder clap intent to send them flying away from him. There was no proper gauge on how much he was actually putting into it that he could have thought of but one thing he knew is that they were not going to enjoy it anymore than he was being focus fired.

The immense thunderclap brought a sudden end to the concentration of plasma that had been brought against Tank, a powerful blast of heated wind hammering the battle-scared out structures on either side of the street, toppling many of them as tanks and IFVs alike struggled to remain stable, the crews still somewhat unfamiliar with the strange technology that kept them suspended off the ground.

Most of NATO had been routed within moments of meeting Asad's magitech, flaming wrecks littering the roadways just to the north of the city and on the path of retreat back into Tabuk. Few remained intact, their crews fighting from street to street against Federation soldiers. At least with the assistance of Celerity pulling most out of the way of kill-shots, and Tank keeping the attentions of the main force, the wounded could safely retreat. It was there in the base camps south of the city that the remaining commanders came together and assessed the situation at hand.

"Asad has almost undone all of our efforts, with just the introduction of these damned tanks and space weapons." The French commander cursed, though it was notable that he had lost most of his force on the first attack.

"Lasers and magic, what a time to be alive. At least we've got these 'heroes' out there keeping the body count down."

Their eastern fleet sat at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, much of their air superiority had evaporated with the loss of air bases to operate from, and the western fleet had retreated back to the Mediterranean. Reinforcements would be lacking, and very hesitant until this threat had been contained and countered, something which seemed quite unlikely from the standpoint of the very mortal elements of this intervention. Even Raymond was having a difficult time marshalling his forces and holding his ground against the magitech pit against them. Several black Challenger 2s sat propped against buildings where they had made a stand, smoking holes revealing the interiors and the cooked ammunition inside. Charred uniforms were stark reminders of the crews that once operated them, and precious few wounded managed their way back to the medical tents.

Raymond himself ripped his way from the crushed interior of his command tank, arcane energy rolling off his form in waves as he drank deep from the leylines. He let it fuel his rage, striking back with lances of searing magic fire against Federation troops, immolating them and their damned magitech. Cries of anguish mixed the air, and he was not too focused on his enemy's suffering to notice that some of those were his own. Shifting directly from a war-stance, he spoke the command words to a spell of shielding, barriers forming around his wounded and deflecting just barely the plasma that was meant to end their lives. Yet as soon as he had gone on the defensive, it was clear that was where he was going to remain. Some of the other Federation soldiers not pinning down Tank had directed their attention to the new threat, as displays of magic tend to do.

Thankfully, the thunderclap intended to end their barrage against Tank had also staggered the Federation soldiers engaged with Raymond, blasting infantry several meters through the air and sending tanks and IFVs sliding into nearby structures. It was a critical pause in the battle, but one that was ripe for exploitation by a savvy commander.

The savvy commander stood ready, arcane lightning rippling from his fingertips as he partially revelled in the first chance in millennia to truly utilize his powers, and felt immense anger at those who followed him into battle being so casually slaughtered by Federation troopers. All it took was that one pause, and well-drilled discipline took over in the black-clad men and women of LIS, guns up and firing as they moved forward to engage. It didn't matter that their guns were but toys compared to the lasers and plasma that spat back at them. Nor did it matter that they couldn't hurt the tanks and IFVs that seemed proof against such mundane arms. They had resolve and courage to endure despite everything, and that began to eat away at the confidence Asad's troops held in what was thought to be an easy victory. A concentrated volley of gunfire ripped through a squad of the Federation soldiers, putting them down with no less than six shots on center-mass to each of them, the mercenaries reloading behind cover even as the line behind them moved up.

Raymond advanced along the center, partly counting on the chaos of battle to conceal his true powers from all but the very distracted Lady Arcana, and the rest not caring one bit as long as he saw his people through to victory. He strode through plasma fire, deflecting some with well timed barriers, and others thrown off through the sheer determination of his advance. The look in his eyes was that of war-given-form, a terrible avatar of destruction brought to the mortal realms to do his work. It was enough to break the lesser-willed, those pitiful conscripts swept along in Asad's desire to conquer. Others took more convincing. Each step brought his team closer to the main armored column, and the greatest threat to their defence of the city. Each one reunited pinned down squadmates with their teams, their guns joining the steadily advancing line that stretched from street to street, taking full advantage of even the slightest lull in momentum from the Federation troopers.

Ahead he saw another group of his people pinned by a fusillade of plasma, searing beams piercing holes through their rapidly dwindling cover. They were in pretty rough shape, a few laying still on the pavement, and others clearly wounded but giving back the best they could. One in particular caught his eye in a flash of plasmic fire. Her helmet was glanced by the blow, ripping it off her head and vaporizing her arm below the shoulder, but still she raised her pistol and held it steady against the Federation trooper who advanced to deliver the finishing blow. He recognized her stern features at once, and a fury was stoked within like none his enemy had yet seen.

In the space between himself and the pair across the street everything went silent, the air deadly still as his lips parted to draw in a light breathe and speak the first syllable of a language he had reserved for only his most hated foes. Immediately those around him recognized the shift in air pressure, the way it felt like the breath was drawn from their lungs and their ears popped. The dozen men behind him turned and ducked, firmly placing their hands against their ears in every measure possible to block out the sound they knew was coming next. Across the way time seemed to slow, the woman glancing to the side and recognizing Raymond, but moreso what was about to befall the Federation soldiers. She placed her hand against an ear and braced the other firmly against the remains of her shoulder, and watched the glow building from within the plasma rifle, a searing inferno preparing to discharge directly into her.

It never happened. Raymond leaned slightly forward, a word leaving his mouth soundlessly in a language that defied all mortal tongues. At first nothing changed, there was just a whisper in the wind, a strangeness that shouldn't be possible in the middle of a warzone. Explosions detonated just meters away, but not even the heat could be felt within that space occupied only by Raymond and the object of his hate. Then the word was spoken. It ripped from his throat in a violent cacophony of a thousand melded voices all speaking at once, yet in different languages and not one at all. Blood flecked his lips as it left his mouth, screaming across the short distance to the man who didn't even realize his fate was written.

"Die."

At once the man's body shuddered, the sound of every bone in his body breaking at once clear over the grunt of confusion and agony. It was just the raw impact of the True Word that knocked him to the ground, the bow-wave hitting the other six Federation soldiers who were part way through opening fire on the LIS mercenaries. Though they were not the target, they heard the word spoken and immediately felt the effects. Two collapsed as they became violently ill, limbs paralyzed as their central-nervous system shut itself down. Another simply fell over, eyes wide in shock as he tried to breathe but his lungs refused to listen. One of the men caught fire, his clothing igniting in arcane fires that only fed on his attempts to put them out.

His target fared far worse, his own body becoming his enemy as he spasmed on the ground as best his struggling muscles could. It was only momentary, but the word was obeyed to the letter. One by one his organs shut down, the man confused as he couldn't understand what had happened until finally his struggle was over. All in the span of just a few seconds, the damage wrought was terrible and the few Federation soldiers who were out of earshot and witnessed what he had done broke and ran.

Raymond closed the couple meters, unconcerned with the retreating enemy for once, and offered his hand to the fallen woman. She accepted gratefully and glanced down at the man who had just a moment ago had her dead to rights. "Surprised you still know the words, father." The rank pin marked her out as one of the captains of the unit, and while the others were clearing the street the two could speak privately. Despite seeming to be of parity in age, she spoke with soft reverence towards the man, bowing her head slightly to him.

"I practice every now and then, just to make sure I still can." He was not left unharmed after the True Word, his lips split and bleeding from the force of the command, and his throat quite sore. Though the words could not kill him, and wouldn't hold the same effect, they still left their marks. "Reverie, I'll need you to pull together the wounded on the street just south of this position. Try and get yourself to the medics as well."

"Understood." That was all the reply she gave, a few other soldiers coming closer to lend fire-support to a group up the road. A moment later and she was gone, disappearing into the haze of battle.

---

8:20 PM
Riyadh

“Gekh!” Lady Arcana grunted as she was sent slamming into the lower floor of the Faisaliah Tower, hotel patrons who hadn’t been able to evacuate the capital screaming at the sight of the woman who had just smashed her way through the eastern wall and then face-dived into the marble flooring.

Pushing herself up again, she watched Asad hurl himself through the freshly made hole on a direct collision course with her. Reaching out to catch his oncoming fist, she dug her heels into the floor, which buckled beneath their mutual strength.
“You see, woman?” Asad’s voice hummed from within the warsuit. “My Lord has given me the power to personally dispose of you! Me, the Lion of Babylon!”

Intercepting his second fist, she held him firmly in place with their impromptu grapple. She had figured out exactly how strong his warsuit of his was by this point. Twisting his far larger arms down to the side as whatever metal this thing was made out of screeched in protest, she now felt confident she could overpower this thing!

And then his eyes began to glow.

“Oh right,” She muttered, the azure light engulfing her. Blasting her back away from him, she would’ve surely smashed through the opposite wall if he hadn’t quickly seized her by the ankle and instead hurled her up through several of the floors above them.

Grasping her by the throat as he followed, they continued to smash their way up through the great tower. Blows were exchanged, with a flash of sparks from the warsuit indicating that she was coming out the better between them. In one of the dining areas of the upper floor, an elderly couple continued to happily eat their dinner, apparently so hard of hearing that they didn’t see them smash through the floor, nor did they see Asad slam her head through the stove in the kitchen.

Forcefully grasping the hand around her throat, she threw him up through yet another series of floors until they were once again in the open air. Issuing a moderately forceful kick to his chest, she turned and seized the golden ball that sat near the top of the building. Her fingers biting into the sphere, she wrenched it free and hurled it after the dictator, smirking slightly as it slammed into him and carried him the rest of the way out of the city.

Chasing after him without another thought, she slammed into Asad just as he was ripping his way through the gleaming orb. Forcing him further out to the desert, she began to rain a storm of blows down upon the warsuit, her fists becoming a blur. Sparks began to fly, an uppercut diverting a blast of his eye beams away from her and into the night sky above.

Slamming her knuckles into the “face” of his armor with enough force to crack the lense its left eye, it was sent meteoring down to the sands below; a great pillar of desert erupting on impact. Showing no hesitation this time and bursting through the storm of sand, she landed firmly on the waist of the towering armor as it lay prone on its back.

Pounding away at the head of the warsuit until the eyes began to flicker out, she knifed her hand and jabbed it into the chest. It indented, but it took several more tries before she was finally through. Pursing her lips, she forcefully ripped the torso open to reveal Asad.

“Heeeeere’s Johnny!” She smiled down at him, though her mask obscured it.

Asad coughed as the systems of his warsuit sparked and began to catch fire, smoke belching forth. Alarms weakly blared, but they too were on the verge of death. “D-damn you, you filthy imperialist whore!”

“That’s like the seventh time you’ve called me that,” she noted. “You’re like a bad Family Guy caricature.”

Reaching down to lift him from the warsuit which he had strapped himself into, the dictator gritted his teeth. “This...this wasn’t supposed to be how it ended. He said it could beat you, that...that…”

Hesitating for a moment, Lady Arcana drew her hand back. “‘He?’ Wait, you mean the guy who gave you all this magic stuff, right?”

“He...he never cared which side won,” Asad muttered in apparent realization, eyes drifting to the side. “He used me...used all of us to simply create further conflict! He was our God and...he betrayed us...”

Frowning, Arcana wasn’t sure what she could say in that moment. Maybe saying nothing was the best solution, since he seemed to be providing her with an interesting bit of information. Hopefully, he would keep providing it when she brought him to...where the hell international criminals went. She’d need to google that.

When she once more grasped for the front of his uniform, Asad’s hand tried to desperately fight her grip as he practically snarled at her. “NO! Even...even if I was thrown away like trash by my Lord, I shall not allow you to parade me around like some trophy! I am Arabia’s greatest son, Basil Al-Asad!!”

A sharp whine filled her ears, her eyes immediately noting that his opposite hand had hit a switch inside the warsuit.

Asad narrowed his gaze upon the Wizardess, a manic grin slowly spreading across his face. ”Come with me to hell, Lady Arcana!”

---

King Orin scanned the bottom of the sea one final time before his grip tightened on his new trident and he felt a surge of power. There were still bodies down there. Broken and mangled. Some had died in the initial blast, others ripped apart or crushed by the wreckage of their own ships. But everyone who had survived was being rescued. His friends in the sea were making sure of that. Now, it was time to find those responsible…

Rocketing back to the surface, Aquaman channeled his power through the Trident of Neptune as he neared the surface of the waters. A huge column of ocean water extended out of the gulf and pointed itself in the direction of the city where all the fighting was taking place. Aquaman swam through his water-tunnel with near-incomprehensible speed, shooting out of the end and sailing through the air. The Trident allowed him to control the currents of the wind as well, speeding his forward momentum and slowing his descent. Though not flight in any sense, this ‘glide’ would allow him to cover a lot of ground before needing to sprint into the city itself.

A few scant moments later, Orin had arrived among the burning husks of military operations and shells of buildings. The destruction was immense, though it looked as though his new allies had been doing their jobs. Advanced magitech vehicles and weapons lay broken and unused, and the destruction of the city was nothing compared to what it could have been. The sounds of battle still roared in the distance though, and Orin set off through the streets looking for their source.

King Orin turned a corner, having heard sounds of fighting dull and come to a stop as he arrived. With luck, it was allies. If not… He would deal with it. What he saw when he turned the corner though, surprised him. Mercenaries, from the look of them; some kind of fighting force. A one-armed woman leading her troops away and a man with the bearing of a commander left behind. Bodies on the ground, some immolated, some bleeding from the eyes and ears, one who appeared to have been crushed completely from the inside out. A faint aura hung in the air, only perceptible to Orin because of his familiarity with the twin tridents he used to channel his magic. Orin turned his attention back to the man, noting that he did indeed have his own fighting force with him. Orin stepped forward, trident slung over one shoulder as he approached what he hoped was a new ally.

”Hail, commander!” Aquaman called out, holding his free hand up in greeting. The soldiers with him turned and trained their weapons on him, and so Aquaman halted, flashing the group a disarming smile. ”I come to offer aid. I am King Orin of Atlantis, and I fight with Lady Arcana and the other heroes. Much of the work seems to have been done, and in no small part thanks to yourselves. I wish to help. Where do we go from here?”

Turning even as his men trained their guns on the approaching Atlantean, he very nearly loosed a spell on him. What restrained him was both the presence of mind to recognize a friendly, and that it seemed he had arrived to continue liberating the city. Raymond discharged the building magic within his fingertips, the barely visible sparks dissipating as he nodded slowly to the man and motioned for his troops to continue sweep and clear efforts.

"Raymond von Lüneburg, NATO Ground Forces and head of Lundgrau Intelligence Services." The trident looked quite familiar, bearing hints of arcane force around it. It took little more than Orin's title for him to determine what it was, the precious few manuscripts that survived the fall of Atlantis depicting the artifact often prominently.

"I've got people pinned down across the northern end of the city, and I am fairly certain the main armored column up ahead is responsible for tying up another powered individual. Anything that can remove that armor would be appreciated, though assisting the wounded in getting out of the combat zone also helps." Raymond turns as a shift in the battle catches his attention, the slight silence preceding a devastating change.

---

The battle - already winding down - was finally put to rest as the night was cast aside by a blinding flash of light, soon to be followed by an almost deafening roar in the distance as a powerful blast of concussive force slammed into Tabuk, almost strong enough to topple the already battered structures on the outskirts of the city. The very ground rumbled beneath their feet as man’s greatest weapon displayed its terrifying power.

As the light slowly faded, the unmistakable appearance of a massive mushroom cloud rising over the far horizon could be seen, its might still being felt in spite of the great distance between them and the monstrous explosion.

When the ground at last settled and the winds calmed, soldiers and civilians alike ceased to focus on the battlefield and instead stared at the great pillar of destruction - an oddly misshapen one, compared to the recordings many had seen of nuclear detonations. From within the Grim Jet, one of the lights on the console had gone dim, signalling that communications had been lost with one of the earpieces it was connected with.

The alarm echoed on the computer against Grim’s arm, the hero tearing her gaze away from the plume of destruction in the distance to check the screen. Immediately a feeling of dread built in her chest, and she grabbed the box of tools to climb back into the cockpit of the Grim Jet. Dropping them carelessly by the pilot’s side, the red light of various alerts still washing over the interior, Grim immediately focused on the console. Earpiece one was down - the first she had given out today.

”Arcana? Arcana are you there?” It was futile, she knew, to try and get a response, but part of Grim couldn’t help but hope it was just her damaged jet making a mistake. Her voice broadcast to the others with their own earpieces, soon making it obvious that something was wrong. ”Arcana! Fuck, Arcana?!” The side of the Grim Jet was still scarred, the lasers of the magitech having torn through the black metal like paper. In the time she had Grim had repaired what she could, but knew the patch job wouldn’t last long.

Nonetheless she didn’t hesitate to put it through its paces. The engines roared and the aircraft wobbled as it rose up. The Grim Jet listed to the right even in hover mode. Grim merely grit her teeth and tried to correct it as best she could before the engines burned and the aircraft took off towards the fading mushroom cloud. The controls in her hand jerked and fought against going straight the faster the jet went, and Grim could hear the metal groaning in protest along the right side. Didn’t matter.

Girard had slowly crawled his way out of the still cooling ground back onto solid pavement again thankful for his disruption having worked enough to give him a breather. It occurred to him that the sheet had probably been disintegrated off of him during that last attack or whatever was left of it at least, Zoey was going to be upset with that for sure. He turned over onto his side noticing the shockwave he put out had sent quite a few vehicles and soldiers plenty far neither of which seemed to be intent on fighting nearly so hard as they had been before. He was relieved that the fighting had ended for the most part since if it got drawn out casualties could’ve skyrocketed and quite honestly he needed a rest after the beating the battery gave him. Maybe just a minute would do...or ten, ten sounded really nice right about now.

That was until the huge blast erupted from far outside the city where he remembered the dog fighting had been happening, might have been further still. Really huge didn’t do the explosion justice because he could easily feel it from where he laid while the odd mushroom cloud rose above the horizon in clear view giving a truly disturbing vision as to what happened to the area. The big man felt inclined to get up but it turned out he was hardly in a position to do so, the excruciating pain took a lot out of him and hadn’t entirely faded yet leaving him stuck for the moment as his body refused to respond to him. For the moment he would leave it up to the others to check it out having full faith in the rest of them that things would be alright. He hoped.

Ground zero of the explosion drew near. The middle of the desert, sand kicked up from the explosion and obscuring the glass of the cockpit. Even with that it soon became obvious that there was something in this stretch of barren land. A crater. No surprise, considering the force of the nuclear explosion that had rocked the area. There was something odd about it, however. Flying over the area as she was it was obvious there was a darkened area splashed across the scarred land, almost … humanoid in shape. A shadow scorched into the very earth itself. The Grim Jet immediately pitched to go to the center, a new alarm joining the fray battling for dominance from the spike of radiation.

There was something there, at least. The Grim Jet shuddered as it came to a stop mere feet from the black object in the center of the crater, and finally the engines used for hovering along the right side died and the wing once more fell back against the ground - along with half the aircraft. Grim’s curse rang along the communication lines but she merely threw the hatch open and climbed out, her wrist computer immediately going crazy as it tried to alert her to the danger.

Twisted metal was all that greeted Grim as she practically climbed into the husk of the war machine that she had left fighting Lady Arcana. Nothing but charred metal remains. Grim merely stared down at it for a moment before lifting her head and looking around, the lenses of her goggles swapping rapidly as she looked around. Nothing. Her heart plummeted.

”...Arcana?”

The area around the crater had been completely glassed over by the explosion, the former desert now glistening under the sun. It had been far enough into the open wastes that the destruction was mostly confined to the sands and any unfortunate creatures that left within them. Fallout could potentially be an issue for any settlements within both Arabia and the Federation, but that was neither here nor there.

The important fact was that nothing remained within a forty mile radius.

Grim’s wrist computer continued to warn the heroine against the danger, even as the Gotham hero ignored it. Her suit provided enough protection for these precious moments, searching across the shining landscape. Her boots slid against the glass before she scrambled up to the nose of her jet once more. She had to keep searching.

The controls groaned as she urged the machine to move, the Grim Jet vibrating as the damaged aircraft tried to rise up. The left side lifted, but the right side merely scraped against the glass as it slid against the ground. Finally the machine shuddered and banged against the hard surface beneath it as it collapsed.
Grim’s cursing was clear, angry as she climbed out once more. Her gloved hands ran against her hood, eyes darting around under her goggles.

Not again. Not another one. There had to be… Lady Arcana was practically invincible! Yet the twisted, fallout-scarred desert around her hit home just how much pure destructive power was dropped, probably directly on top of the woman. Why hadn’t Grim stayed?

”Hey, isn’t there like a ton of radiation here? Let’s go somewhere safe!” Lady Arcana gently reached her arm around Grim’s waist, lifting her up along with her Jet in the opposite hand. With her speed, it took only a brief moment to clear the point where any potential fallout could endanger Zoey.

It was only then that the superheroine sat her friend down alongside her battered plane. Her mask was gone, along with her leggings, both having been destroyed in the blast. That was fine, though...she’d frankly had enough of this place for the time being. ”Ugh, I was completely covered in a bunch of melted metal from the armor I think, so I had to spin around really hard to get it off.”

She was seriously glad that she hadn’t beaten Asad in a city, though. The very thought of just how many people would’ve died if that’d gone off just a little bit sooner sent chills up her spine.

Grim could only stare at the other heroine, vaguely noting that her elbow throbbed from where she had instinctively lashed out at an arm going around her. Lady Arcana was speaking, but to be honest Zoey wasn’t exactly listening. Instead she just drank in that her friend was there, alive, seemingly none the worse for wear…

A wave of relief washed over the Gotham hero. The tense pressure in her chest eased. Karen was safe. Grim suddenly lurched forward, arms almost of their own accord going around the shorter girl’s neck to hug her. She pressed her forehead to the blonde’s, her mask bumping against Lady Arcana’s mouth and nose. She was safe, she was safe - not another life lost to this horrible, fucked up world, she was safe.

And she had worried the fuck out of her. Grim abruptly pulled back and slapped her.

”If you ever - and I mean ever worry me like that again I swear I’ll kill you myself,” Grim practically snarled, her voice modulator rumbling. Her palm stung from what was essentially hitting a brick wall, but it was the point of the matter. Against her words however Grim began to look over the other heroine, brushing her hood back as she checked and double checked that she wasn’t hurt at all, finally turning off broadcasting to the other heroes.

Lady Arcana’s eyes widened when she felt the mask pressing in against her lips, her body going stalk still as a bridge of red worked its way across her face. When Grim pulled back again, her mouth tried to open in order to speak but any idea of the sort was quickly vanquished by her sudden and piercing slap. While she couldn’t see her face, there was no doubt to be had that she had been worried about her. Had she thought she was dead?

Well, that’s understandable. She’d never been hit with anything that powerful before, and honestly even she herself hadn’t know whether or not she would be able to survive it. She once read that the center of a nuclear explosion could reach temperatures comparable to the core of the Sun, and now she honestly believed it. She had felt the heat of the blast as it engulfed her at point blank range, instantly obliterating her earpiece along with the temporary additions she’d made to her uniform.

Worse, it had hurt, like being badly scalded...though it hadn’t lasted long. It was the first time she’d ever felt true pain in this form. She really didn’t care to repeat the experience, to say the least. At least thinking about it finally gave her something to say, though.

”Zoey, I really hate nukes.” She exhaled, lowering her head. ”And I’m sorry for worrying you. I was just a little overwhelmed by…y’know, impossibly hot atomic fire.”

”I’ll forgive you this time,” Grim muttered in return, finally releasing a harsh exhale. Her gloves fingers went up bringing the mask down to hang around her neck and the goggles up to rest against her forehead. She had been wearing the mask for hours now, and hadn’t slept for even longer. She was getting too old for this. ”I’m just glad you’re alright. I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to go home after this bullshit. Let’s clean up the magitech and get going - think you can carry my jet? It’s kind of fucked.”

Lady Arcana eagerly nodded, wanting to put the thoughts of this place and that painful heat behind her. Of course, rounding up all the magitech would have to come first, just like Zoey said. That was the original reason for coming here after all. Making sure the Arab Federation no longer had it was important, but she didn’t really want NATO to get it either. At the end of the day, after all, nations and alliances just tended to look after their own selfish interests before anything else.

Thankfully, she had already worked out how she was going to retrieve it all. Having learned how to access the Rock of Eternity from Samantha back during the harpy incident, she could just quickly store all of it in there once she’d found it all. That was, after all, something the old Wizard was apparently fond of doing, judging by all the magical junk that was in there.

”Okay, let’s hurry. I’ve...honestly had enough sand and heat for one lifetime.”