"Well, the lion will be still when it's dead," Blake said with clear confidence as he fired two streams of fire at the beast, causing it to roar and fall back as Blake continued to blast it, the lion caught off-guard by his sudden attack. "Firebird has got this under control!" he shouted to basically nobody in particular as he continued to send the direct pulses of fire onto the lion, the creature pinned to the ground by the beams of flames. Blake grinned madly as the creature, badly injured from the fires, keeled back, collapsing onto the pavement.

"Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy," Blake said with a confident grin as he stretched, examining the dead lion. "Go take your snipping now, Professor Shadowman. No real fighting required." He seemed quite happy with himself as he pried a stray needle from his neck. How did that get there, anyway? Ah well, no matter. Blake had won, and that's what was important here.

@KaijuBaragon @Ryteb Pymeroce

"You got that right," Blake mumbled as he scratched his neck. "Killjoy. Still, I guess he's got all the science there under wraps. I can't do that for shit. I got a 46 average in chemistry, anyway," he rambled as he looked around the area. "Maybe we should put a pause on the regular Ambleweeds...I think I might've find the source of the problem," Blake said as he pointed at the plant-covered apartment building. On top of the building was what appeared to be a large mech of some sort, albeit one composed entirely of plant matter. Inside the biological armor was some type of old lady. Blake was not normally the type to espouse attacks on old ladies, but judging by the fact that this old lady seemed to be commanding the Ambleweeds from inside armor composed of Ambleweed-like materials, it seemed that this old lady was the cause of a lot of the city's problems. Which meant that this old lady was a villain, and she had to go.

"Cover me," Blake said simply as he sent two blasts of fire into the ground, launching himself upwards, over scores of Ambleweeds, and towards the old lady. Fire built up in his hands as he eyed the plant villainess. After a few moments of concentration, as Blake began to launch downwards towards the pavement, he unleashed a furious blast of fire. At the distance he was from the old lady, even a drunk could have hit the old lady with a baseball, but for some odd reason Blake's attack veered wildly off-course, sending a massive blast of fire careening into an apartment building, flames engulfing the entirety of the structure. Luckily there was nobody in there. Well, hopefully, at any rate.

Blake landed awkwardly in front of the old lady, who chuckled as she lifted a vine-covered arm back. "Such a daring little hero," she mused as she balled up a fist. "Anything you'd like to say before Greenhouse sends you to bed?"

Blake was swaying unevenly like he was loaded on alcohol, and his eyes seemed to be unfocused, but clearly this 'Greenhouse' was not much of a fighter. He lifted both his palms uncertainly, muttered "go to hell," and then unleashed a blast of fire directly at her with full-force, sending the old lady flying backwards at high speeds, her viny exoskeleton burnt to a crisp as she slammed into an apartment building, leaving a large crater in the wall. Again, hopefully nobody was in there.

The old lady realized that she was screwed, and though she hated to leave her work behind, had no choice. The vines wrapped around her body retreated as the old lady did the classic move of "running away at full speed." As she ran, all across the city, Ambleweeds began to wilt like they had just taken a load of pesticides and began to fall on their own accord, disintegrating rapidly. It seemed as though the fight was won on that regard.

Normally, Greenhouse would have been an easy target for Firebird to apprehend, especially with his solid range on his abilities and her slow running speed. Unfortunately, Firebird was starting to feel the effects of the needle that had managed to sneak its way into his neck. After swaying uncertainly a couple more times, Blake moaned before falling flat on his back, his eyes closed. He moaned as his world turned to black.

[ Transmission End. ]

---

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Chapter Two

On the Waterfront

Vinnie "the Vet" Gugliano was the king of Watervale, undisputed. The Gugliano crime family already existed before Vinnie took the reigns, having been started under Sicilian immigrant Luciano "Wiseman" Gugliano and expanded further under Gianluigi "Five Fingers" Gugliano. Vinnie, the grandson of Luciano and a veteran himself, took the reigns at the humble age of 23, having returned from combat in Afghanistan alongside others including the legendary Hugo Powers. "The Veteran" Gugliano wanted more than what was in front of him, and so he began bringing his military discipline and ruthless attitude into the family business of crime. It worked. Before Vinnie, the Guglianos were the third strongest family behind the warring Petruchio family and Colombo family. Vinnie organized an ambush on the Colombo family and then single-handedly took out all the Petruchios. In the span of one week, the Guglianos went from a relatively small group of criminals to the strongest criminal enterprise in all of Watervale.

Vinnie continued to expand his family's influence, though. With the help of his consigliere and trusted advisor Emilio "The Gent" Ranucci, Vinnie controlled a massive extortion racket that ran throughout all of Watervale. Any business that wanted to stay open had to pay up to the Guglianos, or they would strangely find their entire residence torched. Vinnie then moved to other lucrative enterprises, beginning a massive illegal market for weapons and drugs that runs across the entire city. If you're taking a part in any sort of illegal activity, odds are, Vinnie is getting a fraction of the proceeds.

Of course, H.E.R.O. has tried to stop Vinnie, but Vinnie is smart enough to know how to deal with heroes, and has quite a large amount of blood on his ledger. He knows that for his business to keep afloat, he has to spend a pretty penny on protection. This strategy has thus far worked very effectively, with Vinnie employing some of the top mercenaries and bodyguards in the business and even other villains to help keep the Guglianos at the top spot. Worse comes to worse, Vinnie deals with things himself.

Nobody ever wants Vinnie to deal with things himself, though. For their own sake.

---

---

_{12:01 PM
Floor 4 Auditorium
HERO One
Savior's Island, Castleburg}

"I'm sure all of you are wondering why I've called you here today."

Hugo was standing in the front of the large auditorium that was kept on Floor 4 for large-scale meetings. There were many things off about this meeting. Firstly, the meeting itself. Very rarely were all of HERO's heroes called into one meeting room for a large-scale meeting. Normally there was a greater sense of autonomy there. Today, though, the entire room was jam-packed full of heroes. Nearly every hero the organization employed, with a couple missing individuals (Division X most prominently), were present in the one room, which, even though it was a large room, was still full shoulder-to-shoulder. This was one sign that something strange was up.

Secondly, stationed around the room were a couple of mysterious individuals all wearing suits and sunglasses. They looked like the Secret Service and stood, unmoving, at the corners of the room. HERO did not employ the Men in Black to guard their HQ, yet these individuals clearly had enough clearance to ascend past the first floor. This was another sign that something strange was up.

The third and last sign that something was wrong was Hugo's attire. Hugo typically was dressed in some sort of military garb, and when not in uniform, he would normally wear something casual, such as a polo shirt and jeans or a sweater or something that was not overly formal but not overly casual. Today, though, he was wearing a sleek black dinner suit, with a black jacket, slacks, and tie, almost matching the attire of the mysterious Men in Black scattered across the room. Hugo did not normally wear suits, so this was something strange indeed.

Hugo coughed loudly into a microphone headset he had on, his voice resonating across the auditorium's speaker system. "Hello to all of you. Hopefully your Monday has so far been tolerable," he said, looking around. "I've called all of you here today to discuss something that occurred a week ago that I need to bring to your attention."

Hugo tapped a very small remote that he was holding in his hand, and suddenly the large screen behind him turned alight, depicting a destroyed building that was tattered in vines. "One week ago Castleburg saw a large invasion of Ambleweeds across the city. We were able to assess that they were being generated by the plant-based villainess Greenhouse." He tapped his remote again to show an old lady, the type you'd expect to see at a Bingo game and not destroying the city, onscreen. "HERO responded to this by dispatching as many heroes as possible to fight the Ambleweeds. While the Ambleweed invasion was successfully dispersed, there was a great deal of damage done to the city, and Greenhouse was able to evade capture."

Hugo tapped his little remote a few times, flicking through several slides that depicted streets that were crushed, buildings that were damaged and/or burnt to cinders and/or totally collapsed. "We were able to assess that HERO's employees did approximately 7.6 billion dollars in infrastructural damages. Furthermore, while all civilian casualties were averted, we did have to pay significant amounts to develop cures to several toxins that were ingested by 6 of our heroes throughout the course of the skirmish."

Hugo seemed to have a pained expression on his face as he flicked to the next slide. "In response to this and several other incidents in our recent past involving abuse of powers, ICOSA has decided to take action to help improve HERO's crime-fighting with what has been termed a 'Restorative Initiative.' ICOSA has dispatched heroes from across the globe to help guide HERO as supervisors. The first two will be arriving today. "

Hugo grunted like he was annoyed with this whole situation (which he was). "Hopefully this teaches you lot to cooperate a little better. In any case, I'm leaving for Paris today to attend an ICOSA council. I trust that you all won't give Christina a hard time while I'm gone," he said, glaring at the crowd, before giving his suit a tug to straighten it out, huffing as he did so. "Alright, that's all I have for now. You are all dismissed." Then, after a moment's hesitation, he added, "Except for Brianna Hart. I need to speak with you up here. Pronto." At this, there were a chorus of "oohs" as if the entire HERO roster had returned to elementary school, but they were quickly silenced by Hugo's glare. "I said you were dismissed! Now OUT!"

---

---

Blake honestly couldn't say he paid any attention during Hugo's speech. There was a reason he dropped out of high school- Blake was notoriously poor at maintaining attention for long periods of time, with "long periods" being defined for him as anything longer than about 5 minutes on a good day. This 5 minutes was shortened when the speaker was talking about something that didn't interest Blake in the slightest. Furthermore, the effect of him being poisoned by a plant monster didn't really help his mental state (he had only been discharged from HERO One's hospital bay a few days ago). With that said, Blake only managed to catch Hugo's first sentence before his brain decided to abort Operation Awake, and before long Blake's head was hung in front of him, his eyes closed, asleep.

The rest of the presentation zoomed by Blake's inattentive brain as he snoozed through the entirety of the presentation. He only awoke upon hearing what sounded like a chorus of "oohs", and he opened to his eyes to see that all the eyes on the room were on Brie for some reason. Putting the pieces together quickly, he figured that Powers had said something involving Brianna, probably criticizing her for some sort of destruction or something. Hmmph, maybe he should've stayed awake after all.

Blake hated to leave his friend in the Wrath of Powers, but he feared that he had nothing to help her with, and that getting involved would only invoke the Wrath of Powers on him as well, so when the Director howled at the assembled heroes to scatter, Blake did so. As he waited in line for the elevators (one of the downsides of forcing 200+ people into one place), he took out his phone and shot out a text message to Angelica, his date.

He tapped the 'Send' message as he stepped into the elevator, riding it down to the second floor, where he stepped out into the common room, waiting. He scratched gingerly at the bandages that were still wrapped around his neck. He had no hero duties for the day, and hoped that Angie was just as free as he was. If not her, at least somebody was free as he was. Having spent the past few days alone and doing nothing of substance in the hospital, Blake had no intentions of spending today doing the same, especially after being forced to waste the brunt of his morning coming down to HERO One for this stupid presentation anyway.

@datadogie

Hugo shook his head as Brie began to spout excuses at him like a machine. "Shut the hell up and come with me," he said with a hiss as he guided her away from the men in black into a back room. The back room was not very spacious and seemed to be some sort of electrical room, with several large boxes that were glowing slightly and hooked up with wires sitting propped up against the wall. Hugo closed the door once Brie entered, looking down at her.

"Before you ask, no, you're not getting fired," he said with his trademark scowl as he grabbed a manila file from the top of one of the electrical boxes. "As you can see, ICOSA is all up my ass after the Ambleweeds thing. Those dopey agents are watching me to make sure I don't inspire violent rebellion against them or some shit. It's all ridiculous. They don't even want me sending heroes out on 'dangerous' missions in case there's more damage. Unbelievable," he said with clear irritation in his tone.

Hugo waved the manila file in front of Brie. "Unfortunately, I can't send one of my more high-profile heroes out to deal with this, so I've opted to send one of the heroes with the least amount of unwanted attention on this. This isn't kiddie shit anymore, but I think you can handle it." He extended the file towards B. "Vinnie 'The Veteran' Gugliano. He's always been a pain in my ass, sometimes literally, and after the Ambleweeds incident he's gotten ballsy as fuck. Two heroes that were moving on patrol near Lower Brookside have vanished in the last week and I know this motherfucker is behind it. If ICOSA won't let me sanction an official operation, we'll do it behind-the-books then."

His irked features stared down at Brie. "Against my better judgement, I'm putting you in charge of this secret operation. Find out where those heroes are and what the fuck Gugliano is up to. All the materials you need should, or at least, all the materials we have, are in that file, so don't lose it." He looked down at her, his stern gaze softening a bit.

"I know that you know criminals, you know Brookside, and you have street smarts for days. Even though I have to bail you and your little crew's asses out of prison every god damn week, you guys have good hearts." He paused for a moment, his stone-cold face looking tender for a moment, before the old Hugo came back. "You can assemble whatever sort of 'infiltration team' you want here, I don't give a shit, just don't tell anybody you don't trust or plan on dragging into this mess about it. Especially..." He then mouthed the words 'the Wings of Law.' "Right now, only you, me, and Christina know about this. I don't want this greedy bastards in on this shit, because you know fuckers like them will go crying to ICOSA once they hear about it." Powers gave her a nod, before turning towards the door.

"Last thing, don't get your ass killed," he said in the least emotional way possible, before walking out of the electrical room and away, probably to book a flight to France or something.

@Danvers

_{Meanwhile, in Brookside...}

Bateman Turnpike was probably the most impressive road in all of Brookside. The turnpike was built by Morgan Bateman, an old motel chain CEO from years prior, and the high-speed run ran on a curve across the lower edge of Brookside. Though it wasn't anything fantastic by any means, the road remained fairly clean as the dividing point between Brookside and Watervale. Along Bateman Turnpike was a variety of small businesses in Brookside and the road itself was overall the center of much livelihood. It was among the safer areas of Brookside as well, though that wasn't really saying much at all.

It was at this time that B- tier hero Thundering Whisper walked down the road, on patrol. Thundering Whisper was one of those more old-timey heroes that opted to wear a full costume, with blue spandex accompanying gold highlights and a shimmering face-mask, but he was one of the more respected older heroes in the Organization. He was respected enough, at least, to be able to skip out on Powers' meeting to instead go on patrol down the Bateman Turnpike. When there was crime to fight, after all, it was up to heroes to stop it.

Today, though, it seemed like there wasn't much crime at all, and it had started to drizzle, so Thundering Whisper decided to stop walking the beat and ducked into a small coffee shop on the turnpike. All-Day Espresso. Sounded good enough. The hero walked up to the counter, ordered a coffee, and then took a seat at one of the tables inside. The coffee shop was not exactly brimming with business, but there were a few patrons inside, with an old lady sitting in a corner booth, a middle-aged gentleman reading a newspaper, and a young girl, obviously in full teenage rebellion with a half-shaven head and bright green hair that was furiously texting away.

As Thundering Whisper drank his espresso while looking out at the drizzling weather, another man entered the coffee shop, wearing a black raincoat, a matching fedora, and with wizened features and grey hair that put him in his 60s or so. After the man got his coffee, he then walked over to Thundering Whisper's table and took a seat opposite him. "Nice meeting you, Mr. Whisper."

Thundering Whisper raised an eye. "Do I know you?"

"Not yet. My name's Emilio Ranucci. I work for a local construction firm around these parts. I'm a big fan, by the way. I know you aren't as big as you once were, but I remember seeing you fight The Capricorn on TV and telling myself, 'this man is a legend.'"

Thundering Whispered smiled. "Good days, good days."

Ranucci chuckled. "Those good days are passed, eh?" he said before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, they have. No more respect for old geezers anymore," Thundering Whisper said, a bit resentful in his tone. "All the media cares about is the flashy stuff. Wings of Law. Captain Fireworks. Starbright. All that stuff. Not much in it for real crime fighters."

Emilio Ranucci grinned. "I feel you, Mr. Whisper. But what if I told you that there was a way to get back a lot of that respect?"

Thundering Whisper raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

Ranucci slid a few papers across the coffee shop table. "My boss, he runs a very good private defense company. They do really good, really tight work, even better than HERO if I may so myself. If you were to sign up with us, you could be top of the top. Respected across the board. And there's a big reward in it for you. Loads of cash."

Thundering Whisper seemed quite content with this at first, but then slowly realized a discrepancy, then raising an eyebrow. "I thought you said you work for a construction firm."

Emilio Ranucci smiled, and as he did so, Thundering Whisper saw something very peculiar about the man. His tongue was covered in some sort of gray metal. Silver.

"Mr. Whisper, you don't have to worry about the details. Just sign your name on the paper here, and we can be on our merry way."

Thundering Whisper stood up, shaking his head. "I can't. Sorry. HERO pays me too well. Take care." But as the hero moved to leave the cafe, Ranucci stood up in front of him, blocking his path.

"Should've known it'd come to this. Clean him up," Ranucci said to the other patrons in the cafe.

Suddenly, Thundering Whisper saw four handguns trained on him- the barista, the goth girl, the old lady, and the newspaper man all holding pistols that were aimed right at him. Before he could use his powers or start a fight, rounds of arcing electricity shot out from the barrels of the gun, hitting Thundering Whisper and sending him to the ground, jiterring, as Emilio watched, shaking his head.

"Bring him back to Watervale. We'll have fun with this one," Ranucci said with a nod to the individuals in the cafe, before turning and walking out of the coffee shop into the rain.