FAMA just had to show up at this moment. Right after the actual problem had long since disappeared and just in time to clean up the people who hadn't done anything wrong. Apart from blow up half the street that is. That one was on Frankie.

Turning to speak to Yoko, she shrieks in surprise at the awful sound, clutching at her chest while she gets herself back under control. "That…" she says, extending a finger towards the dragon like creature, "…is unnecessary."

Regaining enough of her senses to realise no one had yet responded to the agents, she sticks her head over the edge of the roof. With a wave, she calls out, "Yup, on my way down agent."

It takes a couple of minutes for her to reach the ground floor, the elevators had stopped working weeks ago, so she has to take the stairs. Somehow she manages to avoid the mess that was Nakala's room, probably fortunate, as the realisation of the destruction she has caused would probably slow her down at least a little bit on her way to the ground.

She reaches the ground floor uneventfully, cracking the door of the building and checking the exterior before emerging. Her brief time in the darkness of the unlit building leaves her squinting against the sun. Her headache flares up again.

The Boyz are long gone, leaving only a few charred corpses as evidence of their attempted attack. She eyes those corpses uncomfortably. She was OK with killing people who were trying to kill her, but she hadn't intended to do this much damage. She rotates slowly, observing all of the damage she has inflicted upon the surrounding area. It looks like someone has fired an RPG, here and there flames still flicker, while a huge scorch mark spreads out from the centre of the road.

Eventually she turns around to take in the monstrous form of the FAMA agent that that has called her down to the ground. She blinks, slightly surprised. Had she taken something other than Cocaine? He was huge, scaly, and certainly not a normal human.

By comparison, Frankie is skinny and unintimidating. She's located a hoodie at some point, throwing it on to conceal the needle marks on her arms rather than because it's cold. Her skin has a relatively healthy colour, though it's obvious that the only thing keeping her from pallor is California's uncompromising sun. Her hair is greasy, thanks primarily to the lack of functioning showers in their building. She's also wondering why FAMA have bothered showing up here. Screwing up her face, she gestures vaguely in Olin's direction. There's something about him that's scratching at the back of her brain, like she recognises him or something.

"Could you step two feet to your right?" That sun was really bright…

---

While Elise would have normally been surveying the area and tapping into the senses of those around her, she found herself distracted by the sight of her partner digging his arm into the door of a van. Despite her usual reserved manners, a smirk pulled at the right side of her lips. She'd have never expected in her life to see something like that. It was a completely weird yet totally awesome sight.

The joke was a selling point. Henry, in all of his glory, made the same exact pose as Captain America in the movies. Elise couldn't help but chuckle. Just as she was wondering why a bullet-proof delta would need a shield, he explained his reason before turning towards their destination. It was a noble thought, but Elise wasn't sure if they'd need it.

They- well, Henry, hadn't heard many bullets fly since he'd made his makeshift shield. Thinking it was unnecessary to waste energy, Eli released her hold on his senses. She was back to her regular human hearing since it seemed like the battle was over. Now they just needed to figure out who was in the fight, and if there was any other present danger in this neighborhood. As she followed behind Henry, she recalled hearing about a small group taking shelter here. There was no real information about any of them, not even descriptions. Just a few words mentioned here and there from refugees that fled to the 105. Whoever was here to provoke them either won the fight, or was currently retreating back into the shadows.

Henry took up a position against the wall after roughly removing the mirror off of a nearby car. She stood back with her gun at the ready. While he peeked around the side of the building, she looked at the building across the street and noted a fire escape on the side that led to the roof. It was the same building that faced whatever carnage had been left in the aftermath. She glanced between it and Henry, and wondered if he was the type to let her do her own thing during missions. Just as she was about to make her case, the flaring of motorcycle engines suddenly caught their attention.

Henry called out, and Elise instinctively knelt to the ground and held her gun up. The bikes were growing louder. They were headed this way. Henry and Elise were in a risky position, so it was best to have the first shot at whoever was about to blow past them. She steeled herself and braced for any potential return fire, but suddenly the door of the car planted itself in front of her. Looks like the door was useful after all.

Safe from any imminent harm, Elise turned to the side so she could see the fleeing troop through the small window left between the door and the other side of the alley. They sped past, and fortunately neither Henry nor the door were fired at. They all had guns. Some even sported burn marks. Most of all, they all wore masks with the same crude drawing of a grinning face. X's marked where the eyes should have been. The Boyz.

Of course. They had a district of their own just blocks away from this location. Whoever owned this part of town must have brushed shoulders with them before. Their territories were close. Too close for The Boyz, apparently. Elise had done a few numbers against the gang. Mostly just busting drug deals, gathering intel on large supply transports, and turning a few of their members over to the National Guard. They were a force to be reckoned with. Their presence in LA after the incident only grew. Enough to overcome REAPER on the list of current highest active organizations. Whoever had just run them off must have been pretty strong.

Her attention was returned to Henry as he threw the door to the side. She looked at him, and saw the fear in his eyes. Her head tilted to the side and she gave him a quizzical look.

"Oh, thank god."

He slumpt against the wall, and Elise slowly rose back to her feet. She was just about to ask him if he was alright before he apologized. He stood up and acted like he was fine, but Elise could tell that something was off. Henry had gone through a lot in his past. Situations like this must be triggering for him. He'd likely lost a partner before in similar situations. So she took the liberty to remain silent so that he could regather his courage, and returned his uneasy smile with a reassuring one. Hopefully she could her pass own strength into him.

"I'll head in first. If anyone's trigger happy, they'll go for me first. You should be able to maneuver around freely with them focused on me. Use my senses if you need them."

Her nod wasn't seen. Maneuver around freely, hm? I'll take that as the liberty to get a better viewing point. This time she took his place against the edge of the wall. Peeking around it, she just saw her partner heading towards the front of the building. He was already drawing attention to him just by announcing himself. "FAMA agent, open up!"

With Henry flaunting his Captain America shield, Elise stealthily made her way across the street and into the shadows of the building's side. As she holstered her gun she took in the charred bodies of the lost Boyz. The people inside this building either had an arsenal of grenades, or a pyromanical deltahuman on hand. She made her way towards the fire escape with it's conveniently dropped ladder to reach the first landing. Elise grinned at the blessing. Someone had been careless when they snuck back into the building.

She made her way up to the middle landing of the building and could hear voices from inside it too. It was time to do some recon. She'd need to know just who was, and how many of them were, in the building. Her eyes closed, and she took deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. A little spying wouldn't hurt anybody.

The first mind she grasped onto was someone crawling into bed. Must have tired themselves out in the battle. The next, looking at a girl with pink hair wrapped in a blanket. She looked scared. Was she just a regular human bunking with deltas? She looked into the girl's mind next, and saw a man with faded blonde highlights sitting across from her. Nothing here.

After a bit of searching, she found three of them in one room together. She tried to see through their eyes, but there was nothing to see. Why? Why couldn't any of them see? She didn't have time to sneak into they were in to find out. She wanted sensory information. Well, what are they feeling? She changed the tune of her ability, and grasped onto the physical sensations of one of the minds to figure it out.

She instantly regretted it. The connection only lasted a few seconds before she couldn't stand it anymore, but what she felt was excruciating. It burns. She groaned and collapsed against the wall of the building. Fuck, it felt like her entire body had been roasted over a fire. Breathe, Elise. The pain will pass. She panted as she waited, and her ability grasped onto another individual's senses out of instinct. Her body wanted to feel normal again. Like her skin wasn't blistering from the exposure to heat. The next person felt fine except for a slight amount of pain around the throat. "What the fuck happened to these people?" She hissed.

She had to move on. A screech up above was enough of a reason to. Her body was still aching. Residual aftereffects of feeling the pain of another. It would be gone by the time she reached the roof. She climbed, and climbed. When she reached the top, she slowly rose her head above the parapet to get a look at whatever had made the noise.

The sight was... interesting. It would have been more shocking if Elise didn't have a partner that was just as odd. Yet this was something completely different. Whatever delta was on the roof just looked like a dragon instead of a dinosaur. Headquarters is gonna love this. She tore her eyes away from the dragon-thing to see a woman was just making her way into the stairwell. Soon after the pink haired girl and the man came out.

At this point, Elise was just curious to find out who these people were. Henry probably wouldn't approve it. It was against better judgement. Elise just had to know. If anything went south, she could easily fake her way out of the situation. It only took her a second to climb her way onto the roof. In an effort to come across as nonthreatening, Elise raised both of her hands up. She set her eyes on the man, who was probably the only one that could speak at the moment.

"Afternoon, dragons, ladies, and gents."

Esmé lay on the floor motionless for a few seconds before he let out a barrage of coughs, allowing the fresh oxygen to enter his lungs. It was a welcome sensation to say the least. Oh, how he missed the ability to voluntarily breathe. Of course, his masterstroke worked like a charm and the hideous hussy released him from her death grip. It was just natural that his innate majesty would overpower her simple peasant brain. That wicked women probably went of somewhere to wilt after witnessing such a spectacular display of power knowing full well that she could never top it. Even if she dedicated the rest of her pathetic existence to improving her quite limited skill set all her future efforts would still fall short of his glory as he was the Sun King and she was nothing. It would probably kill her to know that this was just the tip of the iceberg regarding his powers; unlike her who clearly peaked his potential was unlimited. Vile degenerate. How dare she lay one of her dirty fingers upon him as who knows where it has been. Probably somewhere filthy. At this moment he absolutely loathed her. Because of her unprovoked assault on his personage his outfit was undoubtedly ruined, and he had to temporarily blind himself. Bon, très bon. He wasn’t particularly planning on exerting himself today. Last time he would attempt to offer any of his treasured advice to these plebeians as it was clear it was going over their empty heads. He made a mental note to use smaller words when he was forced to interact with these simpletons lest they become enraged at what they could not understand.

He was aware that some other imbecile entered this den of horrors sprouting off profanities in an immature cadence while looking to do God knows what to his prone body. Ah, it seemed this loose coalition had another genius amongst its ranks. Marvelous. Simply Marvelous.

On the subject of rather irritating morons that populated this merry band of rejects Esmé could not help briefly thinking of the embodiment of annoyance that was Monsieur Jacques. If he was recalling correctly the braggart's power was to do machines or something to that effect. The oblivious twit only mentioned it at like every possible opportunity, so Esmé begin to just tune out the fool's hotdogging and grandstanding. Similar to a child seeking attention it was sad and rather pathetic. If his recollection was indeed true, he regretted not demanding that the pompous tryhard make him a pair of glasses that could reduce the side effects of his light manipulation. Regular sunglasses could only do so much and temporarily blinding himself was an inconvenience to say the least, though maybe it was preferable to engaging with the walking toolbox and hear him prattle on endlessly. Esmé considered telling the self-aggrandizer to tone his cool guy personality down about roughly ten to twenty percent, but he tired of expending his good advice on those that did not deserve it.

His train of thought was interrupted by some booming voice echoing from outside claiming to be from that alphabet soup agency from the conspiracy theories that dealt with all the mutants and chuds. As if anyone would fall for that apparent trick. Esmé audibly sighed. What this sad bitch needed right now was a big box full of blow. Cocaine always made things more tolerable around here and this lucky bitch new where to find some.

After a few unsuccessful tries Esmé still relatively blind rose to his feet. It was time to leave this mess in the not so capable hands of whomever this third person was. Stumbling and teetering he made his way to the doorway arms outstretched. He arms eventually made contact with whomever was blocking the doorway.

“Excusez-moi. As you can clearly see, we have quite the emergency as your beloved teammate and overall ungrateful…”, Esmé does not even finish his insult or wait for a reply as he pushes his way past the figure in the doorway.

As he shambles down the hallway only falling and bumping into walls a respectful number of times his vison eventually recovers. He swiftly makes his way to that junkie-from-earlier’s room and enters through the unlocked door. Being sure to close it behind him he begins to sift through her meager belongings. Ugh, she did not own one cute top that he could confiscate. For real. What a train wreck, who owns just t-shirts and jeans. Poor thing certainly needed a fashion intervention as half of this wardrobe seriously needed to be discarded. After what seemed like eons searching through what he presumed was trash Esmé came across a seemingly discarded small baggie of something white and powdery. Was it Christmas already?

“Oh, Esmé. You naughty bitch”, he says to himself before placing some ‘snowflakes’ on his tongue to determine the purity.

"FAMA Special Agent Olin."

In-Ah just about fell asleep when a booming voice rang out in the emptiness around the building. FAMA? Why the fuck are FAMA here? Who called them? If they were anyone else she'd rack up another point on Nakala's pissed off-o'meter, but even she wasn't bold enough to fuck with the feds. She heard a door open and close down the hall. Probably junkie's door. One of the junkies. Frannie, Frankie, Frank? Something like that...Oh shit, the junkie's gonna talk to the feds? She couldn't miss this. Of all the times for her room to be at the back of the building. She could kick herself in the ass for that one. She didn't want the sun in her face when she woke up in the morning that's why she chose this room, but seems she's missing all the action now. Whatever.

In-Ah climbed out of bed and went down the hall to Frannie's room. The door was open and standing in the middle was french bitch tasting coke out of a plastic baggy. She rolled her eyes, walked across the room to the window, stepping on everything, but the needles, glad that she never goes outside her room without her shoes on. She didn't do drugs, but she's not ruining someone's tools when it was sparse around these parts to begin with. No one wants to deal with a crackhead in withdrawal. That's a hell and a half. She lifted the window higher and sat on the sill, watching as Frank approached a tall lizard man. Lizard man? She's seen some shit with deltahumans. They had their own dragon, whose shriek was killer on the ears. Like right now. But never a lizard man that's cognizant. Looks like it's just an appearance thing and probably a strength enhancement. Frankie's skinny ass won't survive this one.

She looked at Esme. "야! Don't OD." All the dead bodies were outside. If FAMA raided them and found a corpse on top of drugs she'd be fucked with the rest of them. She's comfortable here as shitty as this building is. There aren't others out there that are in the same semi-functional condition that haven't been commandeered by another group. She doesn't think about how she'd be truly alone if she were left to her own devices. Of all the homes this is the only one she wants to come back to. She leaned back and hopes something interesting happens. It got her up after all.

---

Mason blinked twice. The stranger stood at the entrance in wait of a response, but her words were left to hang in the air. And in that moment, his thoughts raced.

Just seconds ago, when the door had barely opened a sliver, on instinct, his mind had begun to fill itself with as many different scenarios as the small window of time could allow - realistic or not - in order to prepare himself for the worst. This was far from the worst. In fact, the peculiar sight had actually eased a bit of the tension he felt, once he was able to process it. What a strangely mundane image to see in a place like this: a slightly dazed young woman with her hair disheveled and eyes that longed for more sleep, wrapped snugly in a blanket to fend off the morning chill. Had she just gotten out of bed? If he hadn’t been so stressed just a minute ago, he would’ve let out a small chuckle, though his expression had softened a bit. She looked frightened.

“Oh! I...uhh...no-” Yeah. He hadn’t spoken to anyone for 3 weeks; he took a deep breath and straightened his posture.

“No. Actually, I’m not a part of any group. I was hiding from the Boyz; you know em’? Those trigger-happy thugs out there.” His diction was notably fast, with a serious but relaxed tone. “And I uhh...only realized I wandered into somebody else’s turf after it was too late. Are you a part of em’? The Gal- something or other? If so uh- sorry about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled meekly as he spoke, allowing his voice to sound a bit friendlier by the end.

Upon hearing the man speak in a flurry of somewhat anxious verbiage, Hana’s tensed shoulders dropped slightly. She figured she didn’t look very threatening wrapped like a burrito with her blanket in tow, seeing that the man didn’t seem too alarmed by her sudden entrance.

“Oh, yeah. We’re called the Gal Pals, but not because I agreed with it.” Hana let out a small chuckle, maintaining her wariness of the man as she spoke. “I don’t know about the Boyz but I think they’re the ones that just attacked us...”

Hana paused for a second; it seemed like the roaring of gunfire had ceased for the moment. It was likely that several of the members of the Gal Pals decided to jump into action to ward them off. Most of the members, if not all, had some kind of cool offensive ability which were useful for scenarios like this anyway.

“I have a feeling the others are fighting them right now. They’re-” Hana abruptly silenced her phrase and noticed her mistake in the middle of it, before speaking again, at a softer volume. “I mean, we’re Deltahumans, so, I don’t think the Boyz are going to last long.” She laughed, nervously.

Mason hesitated; due to the nature of his Delta ability, he wasn’t too keen on disclosing his power to just anyone. This person seemed genuine, but it was too early to fully trust her, and he had yet to see any other members of her group. Then again, because there were too many unknowns, it would be difficult to justify acting in complete secrecy, if exchanging information between them could prove more helpful for their safety.

However, before he could produce another thought, a low, thunder-like pulse sounded in the distance and in a moment, grew uncomfortably closeby. An...explosion? He dashed forward towards the doorway the young woman had been standing in and pushed her into the hallway along with him as the window panes behind them were shattered by the blast, bursting into the room with deafening clangs.

He took a second to recover a bit before he slammed his back to the wall and slid down into a loose sitting position, hand placed over his pounding heart as he let out a deep exhale.

“Was...was that- one of your friends?” he asked with a shaky smile, betrayed by the panic in his voice. “Oh and uh- you okay? I don’t regularly like shovin’ people around but, my body just sorta moved on its own.” He averted his gaze in embarrassment.

Before Hana realized, she fell onto the floor with a thud, masked by the shattering of window panes where she once stood. It took a minute for Hana’s thought process to catch up with reality and take in what had just happened, only snapping out of her daze when the man had breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh my god.” Hana peeked through the door at the shattered glass fragments, now strewn across the hardwood flooring. “Y-yeah, I think that might have been someone in the Gal Pals, but I don’t know all their abilities yet. It might have been someone named Frances, maybe? I guess your initial impression of us isn’t the best.” She ended her phrase with another nervous chuckle.

“Um, thanks for that, by the way.” Hana gave the man a bashful glance. Her hair had become more disheveled from being pushed into the hallway, so she quickly smoothed out what she could and tucked stray strands behind her ear. “I’m Hana by the way.” She stretched a timid hand from her blue, fleece wrapping, inviting the man to shake it.

“Heh. No problem.” Amused by the look Hana gave him, he let out a small laugh to match hers before he gave her a quick but firm - almost business-like - handshake. “Mason.”

Having regained his composure, he slid the same hand back into his pocket and raised one of his eyebrows at her remark about the explosion. “Hmm. You...think? You don’t sound very sure. And nah- I don’t even know enough about the Gal Pals right now to form an opinion on ‘em.” He sighed as he stood back up.

“Hey.” He lowered his voice and spoke with more urgency, gazing at the end of the hall in deliberation. “It’s gotten quieter; the bullets’ve died down but, it’s a bit early to celebrate. In any case, Hana, you obviously know your group much better than I do. Should we head to where they are?”

“Yeah, why not?” Hana smiled as she got up, dusting herself off in the process. “Hopefully they’re done blowing things up.”

Hana led Mason down the corridor, blanket in tow, towards the stairs that would lead to the roof, where she knew Jack and Yoko usually were. She was surprised, however, that he seemed willing to head towards a group of people that objectively seemed violent and destructive, from what had just happened.

“Say, what makes you interested in meeting them? Are you looking for a group to stick with?” She paused, looking back at him with a raised eyebrow as she walked. “I mean, I hear opinion on the street about Deltahumans aren’t exactly kind - well, we were just caught up in an explosion made by one…”

Mason was a bit disturbed by the nonchalance in her tone when she referred to her group blowing things up, but he shrugged it off - mostly; perhaps something like that was normal now.

“Mmm...Honestly? I don’t mind. Tryin’ to survive on your own gets pretty boring so, why not? And I mean, not that it matters but...I’m a Deltahuman too.” He smirked mischievously.

Hana gasped, “Oh?” She felt relief knowing that Mason was a Deltahuman too. They’re less likely to judge, since they’re in the same position. “If - if you don’t mind me asking, what are your abilities?”

Of course, it was that question. Given the circumstances, he’d rather provide an answer than avoid it, albeit a short one.

“Ah, it’s nothing special. It doesn’t actually do anything on its own. It’s a buff, basically. When I activate it, I can make a Deltahuman’s ability stronger.” She didn't need to know the details, but simply knowing about it could benefit them both, though it would depend on what ability she had. “So? What about you? What’s your ability?”

Hana expected the question to be reflected back to her, but she still felt a little uncomfortable answering. Despite being a Deltahuman, she felt like her ability was barely a pass to qualify as one, yet, she didn’t classify as a regular human either. It was funny though, that Mason’s power seemed to be the antithesis of her own.

Hana let out a laugh, this time without a nervous undertone. “Your abilities are the opposite of mine! I- well, my ability isn’t much. I can nullify someone’s abilities when I touch them. Kind of like, um, those collars FAMA agents use, sometimes.”

Mason followed up her laugh with one of his own, though a much more controlled one. It was nice to hear her loosen up, considering what had happened just a few minutes ago.

A nullification power, huh. She downplayed it, but the devil’s in the details; it could even be dangerous. He wasn’t sure if Hana had deliberately undermined her own ability or not, though the latter seemed more likely given her behaviour so far.

“Wait, so you’re telling me...people like the one who just conjured a god damn explosion, you can stop them-” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that? And here you are sayin’ it isn’t much?...How do you nullify somebody’s power anyway?”

Hana was surprised at Mason’s interest in her ability - in contrast with her own disinterest in it. “W-well, I don’t think I would be able to stop the explosion if it’s already happening, but I can prevent - or rather, delay - someone from making it in the first place, if I have some kind of physical contact with them anyway.”

Before Hana had the chance to go more in-depth with her explanation, they had arrived on the roof where Jack and Yoko were. To her surprise, there was a third party who Hana didn’t recognize standing in front of them, by the entrance to the roof. It was likely she arrived there a bit before them - she had her arms raised, looking at Jack.

Hana instinctively stopped in her tracks, backing into Mason unintentionally. She tilted her head towards him and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Oops. I think we just walked into something.”

Cesar feels hands make contact as he sits against the door frame, still blinking the stars from his eyes. Fortunately they don't attempt to go for his throat, and he realises who they belong to as the well-educated French voice gives away their owner. Esme doesn't even finish his sentence before he pushes past and away from Cesar. Not that Cesar is totally ungrateful for the sudden peace that he is granted.

He rubs at his eyes again, now seeing stars, but at least able to make out the shape of the room and the dim light coming from the window. Once his vision is more completely returned he crawls forward towards the prone form of Nakala. She's unconscious and Cesar can't blame her, her hair is no longer on fire, but he pats at the few smouldering sections of hair that seemed to have survived the blaze.

Her skin is raw and red from the fire, most of it looks like might just be first degree, but there are some sections where the heat was clearly fiercer. Looking around, he spots the bottles of water in the corner. Thankful for the stockpiling that has already gone on, he starts opening as many bottles as he can, once he has about a dozen he begins pouring them gently on the worst wounds. It's not as good as say, a shower would be, but he's doubtful of his ability to carry the Amazonian woman without help, she's several inches taller than he is, and a lot of those inches are definite muscle.

Swinging his bag around to his side, he starts hunting through it for something anti-bacterial and some sterile dressings. Finally finding what he needed at the bottom, he sets about properly cleaning the burns as carefully as possible. There was a good chance that the treatment will end up waking Nakala, so he sets some painkillers on the ground beside him. Though he hopes she doesn't wake up, he's not sure of the chances of her not attempting to kill him when she realises the pain he's inflicting on her. "Please don't kill me."