Avery had heard that the radiation within the zone could cause extreme sickness yet the young man felt nothing, he hypothesized that this must be cause by the extradimensional energies that flow through him preventing the gamma rays from effecting him. Delving into one of the run down houses Eldritch made a beeline for the kitchen rifling through the cupboards. Pulling out a slightly charred loaf of bread Avery smiled from cheek to cheek. "Score..." Jumping back out into the street Avery came to the realization that the entire street was empty, for now. Walking down the barren alleys Avery felt a sense of dread, where had the strange mutated creatures gotten to.

Reaching a dead end Avery sighed loudly slumping against a dumpster. The dumpster began to shake violently as one of the abominations burst out wrapping a clawed hand around Avery's neck. The young man screamed in fear rousing many of the other horrors lurking in the surrounding area. A single vast purple wormhole opened a large squid-like creature bursting forth with a haunting shriek. The beast tore through all of the beasts with extreme brutality ripping them limb from limb with no care for the human life they once held.

As the dust began to settle the huge monstrosity pulled Avery onto it's head and he rode the creature back out onto the streets. Coming across what appeared to be a stray dog the beast raised a single tentacle before Avery forced it to stop itself. Jumping off the squid he ripped off a small piece of the bread extending a hand to the animal. "Uh...Nice doggy, don't tell the men I'm here. Don't make Avery go back to the scientists."

Damien Kane

It wasn't long after the police had finished rescuing the four unconscious cops that Damien heard another fight break out nearby. He braced himself, and took off at a sprint towards a nearby rooftop, flying across the gap between the two buildings, his hands grasped the edge, and he pulled himself up. Damien shuffled quickly across the rooftop, hoping to catch a glimpse of who was doing the fighting before it was all over. He arrived just in time to watch from above. He observed the scene quickly, noting the already unconscious thugs, a pizza delivery girl, what looked to be a hero, though in poor shape, and another hero currently in combat with more thugs. The hero was taking out the thugs one by one, using various fighting moves and techniques. Though that was the least intriguing thing about the whole situation, because despite the fighting and obvious yelling from the thugs, Damien could not hear a thing. Everything was completely silent. Interesting. It appears that this hero is able to control sou-. Just before he finished his thought, Damien was hit with a wave of sound, causing him to become slightly unbalanced, before returning to normal. Then it returned, the sounds, Damien could hear the moaning and groaning of the thugs even from such a distance. He must've really given those poor saps what was coming to them.

Damien debated whether he should approach the other hero that had watched the scene, and finally decided that he would. He climbed down the building, and reluctantly approached the hero, unsure of what he would say. He stood by for a moment, and examined the hero. He was slightly overweight, but that could be easily fixed with a little exercise. His suit looked a bit old, as the colors were faded slightly, but nothing that a little money couldn't take care of. Damien then turned his attention to the pizza delivery girl. She looked unphased by the events that had just transpired, which surprised Damien somewhat, but he quickly dismissed it. Walking forward, he put his hand out, expecting a handshake from the hero. "The name's D- uh, Phoenix." He said, "Do you know who that was?"

Her trek had helped clear the pain that the officers had brought about. She wandered about the area, though her route had seemed random from a topographical look it was clear she knew exactly where she was heading.

"To be low impact, what does that mean precisely?"

She questioned a nearby abomination, more or less to entice it to attack her.Despite it once being human, a being having the remnants of humanity or even sentience mattered not, Zero showed not a trace of hesitation as she drew her blade. However despite herself, she had to think about her objective before engaging with her enemy. 'Low impact means to pass through without anyone knowing it? Perhaps its with a low mortality rate....Perhaps it is similar to the tact.' The creature clearly was not skilled in combat, nor was it a natural predator. Zero did not even look at the creature as she cut it down, she was far more interested in solving the mystery of the stipulations of the contract. More of them had approached, but the whistling of her blade and the crystallizing cold made short work of the disgusting trash. Once more from an outside view it would have seemed a rehearsed dance rather than impromptu reaction. After it was all said in done she grabbed the bridge of her nose, and audibly grunting.
Her thoughts had settled making her once more aware of her surroundings. Looking about at her work she shakes her head, what ever low impact was....A frozen street corner complete with morose sculptures at varying stages of death...."I believe this is going to be too impact." She sheathed her chilled blade but clutched the sheath. It making for a makeshift distraction from the pain. The pain seems to be a bit more than she is used to as she sits upon the ground, perhaps waiting for it to pass?

Miss Alice Revya Rose
Huh. Seemed someone was friendly down in these parts. She wasn't expecting that. That's why she volunteered for the job. The male seemed to think she was rather strong. "Well..." She was interrupted by the sound of more street rats. Though rather than the actual perpetrator, they seemed to think another passer-by was guilty. "It's more like you're weak. You're admitting that when you call someone else strong." She didn't seem to rag on him for it, nor did the woman known as Alice seem to care about his shape, outfit, or the odd situation for salutations. Maybe she was too busy watching the odd beat down that occurred in front of their eyes. She already had a piece of the pizza out, and was munching on it as if the scene was nothing more than a sound disoriented movie. "They'd probably call him strong. I wouldn't." The fight finished, Revya doing nothing more than watching. It certainly didn't look like it would be a prolonged battle. Once this friendly guy left, she could pillage what the thugs had in their pockets.

But he didn't leave. Not before the more imposing guy had already left, thugs dealt with. Miss Rose was about to approach the subject of what the hell the remaining guy wanted, when another character showed up on scene. Well, at least she got to finish her pizza slice. The approaching man seemed to be rather purposeful, and straightforward at least. Staring blankly at his arrival, she watched him ask her recent acquaintance on who the other more recent acquaintance was. After introducing himself, sort of. Was a fake name even an introduction? But seeing him extend his hand, Revya saw her chance to get rid of one trouble, at least. She casually swung the messed up box of pizza around, placing it in Phoenix's outstretched hand before Dirk could react. "That'll be $8.99 plus any tips." A simple and clear expectation without any hint of malic, slyness, or even humor.

The girl responded rather matter-of-factly, pointing out the obvious logic of Dirk's words.

"Uh, yeah," he mumbled, his brow furrowing. "I guess that's why I wanted to ask if-"

The sudden sensation of multiple people approaching the area brought Dirk's attention to another bystander, who hadn't quite popped up on his radar. Dirk was used to filtering all of the meaningless electrical stimulation that surrounded him everyday, as it was far too much to think about on a daily basis. It tended to sit as white noise at the back of his mind. Years of not using the power to pinpoint specific people had left Dirk with very weakened senses, he was realizing.

The bystander was approached by what was likely more thugs. After being unfortunately blamed for the previous fight, another fight broke out, leaving Dirk unsure what he should do. The sudden lack of sound made him freeze, and he found himself mesmerized by the bystander's effortless take down of the second group of thugs.

Christ, there were a lot of superhumans about today.

When it was all over, Dirk was hit by a sudden blast, which probably had something to do with the sound returning. The bystander didn't stick around for much longer after that, and was walking away before Dirk or the pizza delivery girl could say anything.

Dirk considered chasing down the guy, maybe even asking him instead about getting into the quarantine. He even took one step away from the girl before stopping himself. There was something about the guy that told him not to bother. Perhaps it was his strength, or perhaps it was how the guy didn't give Dirk or the girl any attention. It was all sort of intimidating, to say the least.

Following this, Dirk could feel something from above. He quickly turned to find someone descending the building. He frowned inwardly at himself. Awesome, even more heroes got to see him in his stupid Conduit suit. Fuck, did it even matter anymore? Everyone probably thought he was useless looking like he did.

When the new guy approached them, Dirk could see he was was a bit shorter than himself, though probably around the same age. A teenager, maybe. The bandana reminded Dirk of a bandit, though he was sure his mask wasn't much more flattering. As he went to accept the handshake, the girl suddenly placed her pizza box in the guy's outstretched hand. Dirk gave her a sidelong look. "Phoenix, huh?" Dirk said, taking the pizza box from him. "I'm Conduit." He then resumed the handshake, giving Phoenix the firmest one he could muster.

"I don't have the slightest idea who that guy was, but maybe you do, Miss...?" Dirk turned to the girl, his eyebrows raised.

Damien Kane

Damien was caught by surprise when a pizza box was slapped into his hand, and the pizza girl asked for her payment expectantly. He studied her face for a moment, before returning a sly smile, which was not visible thanks to his bandana. "I'm sorry, but unfortunately this spandex suit didn't allow for pockets." He said, just before the pizza box was snatched from his hand by Conduit, and then met with a firm handshake. Damien felt a small amount of his power drain out of him as any of Conduit's physical pain was eased, before quickly letting go of his hand.
"Nice meeting you." Damien murmured. Conduit then explained that he didn't know who it was, and turned towards the girl hoping for an answer.

Damien took the few moments between answers to examine the thugs strewn about the street, diagnosing each one with various illnesses by noting the symptoms he could see from a distance. He then decided on the best remedy for each individual, though he had no interest in actually helping them. He was known as a peacekeeper among the homeless, as anyone who was reported to have gotten in a brawl, were denied his services from that point on. It seemed cruel to some, but Damien considered it the best way to keep the peace, since he wasn't exactly a martial artist. He would never turn people away based on if they could pay him or not, this earned him the title of "The poor man's doctor" and he was very proud of it too.

Miss Alice Revya Rose
It seems 'Conduit' had approached her for a particular reason. But that would have to wait. Maybe. It seems introductions were due all around. "Well if we're going by fake names, mine is Alice Rose." It hardly seemed like a superhero name. But it was fake, even if she had gone by that name for the longest time. Revya had turned into Rose. Slinging around her father's name was not a good idea, even if Earth was in the galactic boonies. "Though Phoenix, I have to say I don't know the man. You would probably be best asking him." Alice was annoyed that one of them had denied the pizza, and showed as much with her body and words, if not her face. A cross of the arms, shifting her balance back to one foot, a cold and slightly scornful response. But here she redirected her attention to Conduit, and more importantly the pizza box in his hands. "It's good to ask people questions directly, even if you have to give up a little something." A clear enough signal that he could ask his question now, or hold it off until Phoenix left. But in return he'd most certainly have to pay for that pizza. Hopefully she had made it clear enough, sometimes people never really got the hints.

Tom was prepared to help the authorities fight off the ghoulish creatures, and he began to fly around, hitting the ghouls as very fast speeds. the landed in front of one and with a combination of his spiritual energy, he gave the ghoul a powerful punch to the chest and sent the beast flying. it was soon becoming chaos and Tom needed to do his best to keep the menace at bay. he wondered where all of the other superhuman heroes were, there was crisis going and one would think that those with great power to stop this madness would aid in the protecting the people of Engine city. no matter, he would still keep fighting and protecting the innocent.

Watching the roaming creatures start to move in packs, she couldn't help but feel a bit of apprehension. This was starting to look more and more dangerous. If no one did something soon, these creatures might start trying to get of the zone and maybe even attacking people. Hearing screams further into the quarantined area, Lucina's thoughts of what might happen if they got loose sounded more realistic by the moment.
She knew that if they got loose and starting attacking people she couldn't just stand there and watch, but right now she was not going to start fighting these creatures for the hell of it.

Stuck in the middle of her thought, she suddenly snapped out of it when she saw this giant monster of a squid approaching her. Stuck in confusion, awe and a bit of fear, Lucina just stared. She could see there was a man on it's back and she wondered how the hell he managed to get there. That was until a tentacle started to look like it was going to hit her and she growled showing off her sharp teeth, while her fur stuck at end. If she had to, she would fight but honestly she didn't want to find out what this creature tasted like.

Luckily for her though the man seemed to stop the squid, which just made her more curious. Was he controlling it? Then there was the man in front of her offering her some pathetic excuse for bread. She had no idea why he would even offer her any let alone be riding a giant squid beast. It lit her curiosity though and as soon as she heard about the so called 'scientists' he didn't want to go back to, she felt it strike a chord within her.
Lucina put out a paw and pushed back the hand that was holding the bread. She wasn't going to let him know she was human yet, but she also knew he probably needed the food more then she did.

( I can't delete this ><)

Dirk arched an eyebrow in Alice's direction. "I don't have any money on me," he said, using his free hand to gesture to his stupid costume. "Never thought to put pockets on this thing." An oversight, to be sure. Strangely, an issue with his lack of pockets had never popped up before. Dirk cleared his throat. "So, look, I have a favor to ask, an' it might sound really crazy, but... It's about the quarantine."

Dirk looked toward Phoenix, unsure if he should wait until the other hero was gone. Dirk didn't want to include more people in this than he had to. Not that Phoenix would be interested in what Dirk had in mind, but he never knew with the hero types. He looked back toward Alice. "It don't matter why, but I need to get inside the quarantine. I can't do it by m'self, so I need some help. I know I'm a total stranger an' all, but... It's very important." He looked down at the pizza box. "And, uh, I can pay for this pizza later. I'll even buy a ton more, I promise." It was an odd offer, certainly not worth risking one's life for, but Dirk couldn't think of anything better at the moment.

Dirk nodded toward Phoenix. "If you wanna help, you're welcomed to, but I can't ensure your safety. I mean, I don't exactly know what you can do, Phoenix. Please don't feel an obligation to help, if that's how you roll."

As Adrian walked away he stopped at the sounds of someone climbing down the side of the building and then asking about him after introducing him self as Da Phoenix, since he couldn't see them he assumed he was some kind of inner city kid. Standing out of sight around the corner he leaned against the wall crossing his arms across his chest and "listened", Though he couldn't truly hear anything he more felt the sound then heard it. It was mostly introductions for now, but more then just what they where saying he "listened" to how. The slightly out of shape male introduced himself as conduit, the slight fluxiation of his voice and the slightly elevated heart beat told that he was a little nervous or uneasy. The girl, this Alice, was the most interesting to be honest. Her voice was stable as she was rather straight forward, but it was her heart that was most interesting, considering it wasn't human. He could easily "hear" that it wasn't the same as a humans. Next came Da phonix, also relatively straight forward with a steady heart beat.

Sitting there he glanced about that fence around the quarantine zone as conduit talked about it. "Heroes" always rushing in to their deaths, he found it nonsensical. Things like the quarantine were not his problem. From what he saw on the news the mutated were little more then brainless husk who just shambled around barely aware of anything around them. They weren't a threat, the military could easily gun them down if they tried to leave the quarantine zone, and though he didn't know much about radiation, he knew enough to know that any "survivors" were only living on borrowed time as that amount of radiation was sure to kill them. Even if they left the area now the damage had already been done.

He had "heard" enough of this so he pushed off the wall and resumed walking to finish up his errands for the day. Shoving his hands back into his pocket he should of grabbed his coat while he was at his apartment, mostly because the hood would of hidden his face from the "heroes", but he hoped he was far enough away that thy didn't get a good look at him, and also hoped that they ignored the girls advice to simply catch up to him and ask him who he is.

Damien Kane

Damien nodded in response to Rose's introduction. "Asking him directly would probably have been the best course of action, but I didn't want the risk of taking a beating like those guys." He said, gesturing towards the thugs, "I thought it best to ask any nearby bystanders first."
Damien listened intently as Conduit then explained why he was here in the first place. "Well, I may be interested in helping, but I would like a little more details on exactly why you're wanting to go in there. It's not a quarantined zone for nothing, there are very high levels of radiation inside, and I don't want to risk my life for trinkets of little value."

He glanced over at Rose before returning his gaze to Conduit. "I'm not really a fighter, but I am a healer. I'll help you, if you can give me a good reason. If not, I'll see about catching up with whoever it was that beat these thugs to near-death."

Dirk eyed Phoenix, trying to get a read on the guy. He had no idea why Phoenix would want to inquire after that tough dude, but he must have had his reasons. Sighing, Dirk shook his head. "I'm jus' tryin' to help a friend of mine," he said, more to Alice than Phoenix. "I ain't askin' you to come with me inside the quarantine, just to... help me inside." To Phoenix more specifically, he said, "But if you can't fight, then you shouldn't take the risk. If things work out, then..." He smiled behind his mask. "Then I'll try an' meet up with you. I'll probably need some healin'"

It was a lie. Dirk was pretty sure he wouldn't be walking out of the quarantine anytime soon, alive or dead. Hopefully Phoenix was placated by the offer and would go away. It was too dangerous to include him, Dirk had no doubt.

A sensation of movement caused Dirk to look in the direction of where the tough bystander had gone. He had stopped for a moment, for some reason. Dirk was going to bring this to Phoenix's attention when his eyes fell on the thugs that were still littered around them. "But, uh, maybe we could take this conversation somewhere else? I don't think we need more thugs showin' up."

Miss Alice Revya Rose
Alice simply shrugged, not exactly caring what was in the quarantine zone. "Guess I'll do it. Throwing your corpse in would be easy enough, but I assume you want to be alive. So it's the guards that are going down." Another implication, but just to be sure she stated it clearly. "They'll probably need some healing, Phoenix, so you should come along and decide what to do when we're there." She didn't like guns, and she especially didn't like when people fired at her. Often Alice resorted to snapping their arms to make up for it. She did like doing that, after all. The woman looked between the two men before looking up, determining east with simplicity, and walking that way.

She put back her shades on, previously having put them in her pockets for the conversations. Miss Rose flipped her pizza hat backwards, and in the same movement unceremoniously picked up a ripped blue-jean jacket from an unconscious thug. It took some shaking and a bit of kicking to get the thug free, but she did it easy enough and put on the jacket. She proceeded to kick off her shoes, then take off her socks. As a finishing touch, Alice then ripped off one of her black pants legs. At this point she looked completely ridiculous, but that was the point. A ridiculous outfit meant a superhero or a supervillain. Which meant they would tend to continue to wear that outfit. It was an easy enough way to trick people into focusing on the wrong thing, instead of things that were hard to change, such as body type and height.

Chaotic Blue finally reached the outer border of Carter Hills before the quarantine barrier the police were maintaining. She landed right next to several officers, still invisible and her boots not making sound upon impact, as she wanted to overhear any crucial information she could use in rescuing Jennifer Tilley.

"Several superpowered persons entered the area and fought against Tox's mutant creatures. We're still not sure if they're under his control or if they're a result of the radioactive explosion he caused," a junior officer reported to his captain.

"Che. As if things aren't complicated enough without those costumed freaks waltzing in and doing whatever they want," the captain scoffed. "What's the status on the search for survivors?"

"The SWAT team hasn't been able to investigate underground due to the toxic mutants infesting the area. There might be a chance to find survivors, but we can't proceed until we thin out the mutants' numbers."

Chaotic Blue took note of the junior's words and leaped onto a streetlight before venturing into the quarantine zone proper. It made sense to her that if anyone survived Tox's attack, they would have to retreat underground - ironic, considering that toxins were mostly found in sewers and poorly-maintained warehouses. Now the reverse was true. The ninja didn't let this get to her and continued into the zone.

That was when Chaotic Blue spotted several super-beings on the streets below where she perched. She remained invisible, not wanting to attract any attention from various odd folks like a girl in a pizza delivery outfit, some gentleman with a crude mask over his mouth, another man summoning horrors from some dimensional pocket to fight the melting-zombie horrors, and several others. If Chaotic Blue had a weakness, it was that she couldn't tolerate crowds. This impromptu ensemble wasn't to her taste, so she opted to stay low, finish her job and get the hell out of there.

The original Lucas Troy was now back in civilian attire thanks to his duplicate showing up with a backpack full of clothes. Plex's friendly neighborhood duplicate was followed though, as was the original Plex. If not for the duplicates feeling something when Lucas was taken prisoner none of them would've known. Try as they may, in about a week they'll stop looking and do what Lucas would've probably had them do anyway... become informants for all of the heroes popping up in the city as of late. There's at least three dozen or so out there in the city.

---

Mal was running out of time. And patience. It was hard knowing that several heroes were probably on the scene already, sanctioned or otherwise. "Probably forming a team or something.." he thought, "..and I'm stuck doing dishes at O'Mally's Bar & Grill." He looked up at the clock every twenty minutes or so, presently it read 7:20 pm and the sun was starting to go down. He didn't get off until sometime after eight.

46 minutes later...

"FINALLY!" he thought exiting the restaurant with his backpack containing some things and his Fastlane suit.

Several unsanctioned superhumans were spotted in the area. It was strange that the powers that be were more worried about keeping others out than taking care of the ones trapped inside. Surely something had to be up. After a couple minutes Fastlane was on the other side of Engine City looking at the quarantined zone. He simply used his suit's tech to create hard light construct roads that went over the barricades and fences. If not for his speed the officers guarding the area would've been trying harder to take him off his feet. But nothing they did in a matter of seconds could prevent him from going inside the zone to find his friends and possible future allies.

~KL~

Gazing down at the dog Avery raised an eyebrow quizzically. Animals would rarely turn down a free meal... "Uh, fine then. All the more for me." Avery clicked his fingers and the squid creature collapsed into itself seemingly disappearing from reality itself. Eldritch then zealously bit into the bread humming slightly with glee. People rarely gave Avery the time of day so he found it oddly heartwarming to have contact with a creature that was both not trying to kill him and from this dimension. Patting the dog on the head he smiled, back when he was with his family his parents owned a dog that he'd play with in his garden. That was several years of trauma ago and seemed like fairytale in comparison to the life Avery found himself in.

One of the shambling creatures approached from behind. The twisted grotesque visage of the being churning Avery's very stomach. Raising a hand a purple orb formed growing from the center of his palm the orb then extended to engulf the creature before shrinking again leaving no evidence of the beast. "I don't like murdering but you gotta do what you gotta do, what am I doing talking to a dog anyway?"

Lucina watched as the squid monster dissappeared and she felt herself sighing out of relief. Well that was one less worry, after all she had been through she couldn't help but feel it would be humiliating to end up some giant creature's snack. Talking about snacks, that guy seemed really hungry... when was the last time he ate? If this bread was the best he was getting lately he really needed some new survival techniques.

It was then she was surprised by him patting her on the head, shaking her head as to get the affection off her she started to seriously think it was time to say good bye to her dog form.

Watching him dispatch another melted creature made her have a moment to transform behind him without noticing. She didn't always like transforming in front of people since the appearance wasn't always that pleasent. "Well at least I'm not hanging out with a physcopath," Lucina said standing there naked as the day she was born and not seeming to have a problem with it at all.

As Zero headed to through the zone, she had been eliminating any and all evidence she had come across that may have tied back to her employers. Leaving a frozen radioactive art show behind her. She had long since given up trying to understand low impact, particularly as the secondary objective was to prevent others from searching the zone. She processed that it was impossible to do anything in secret if she was to be such a preventative measure. Particularly when she was instructed that any "supers" she would me where not to be killed....The looping flaws in her objectives becoming all to clear. "Such a headache...."

She had just froze a computer at the atomic level, making it break apart as if dust, when she noticed a distinct yellow..no orange...no yellow...its orange..hue over a building meaning someone was here that shouldn't be. Assuming the layout of the city, and the current speed, the Ice wielding swords swinger Jumped out the third story window! As she began to free fall she rotated, drawing her blade with a speed that would make it impossible for the human eye to see! Those augments at work! A wave of condensation seemed to harden into a ramp of pure ice.Landing on it, she was like a speed skater tearing down the lane before launching off the opposite side like a ramp!

She had been able to jump above the speedster! Rather than announce herself she gripped her sheathed blade and began her rotation. Bringing a rather large layer of mist with it, her power more than made up for the stealthy approach she had been attempting.