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Blake would normally marvel at Jamie's power as she caused the Roman building to crumble on top of the ogres, crushing tons of them with ease and impunity. He would normally give a cheer, a hoot of victory, but instead he found himself cursing while hopping in a circle. "Oww, holy fuck, it hurts...” Blake stopped hopping and extended his ankle towards Rumi, who took a look at the wound. "Alright...good to know, good to know,” Blake said as the pain subsided a little bit. He rested his foot down on the ground, testing it, before taking a couple steps. "It's a little better now!” Blake said confidently, one hand resting against his head as he looked over to where Jamie had collapsed the building. The unfortunate ogres inside had been totally and completely flattened by the building. If they hadn't been trying to eat them alive earlier, Blake might've felt sorry for them, but what was done was done. Blake looked back over to the Vermile, who was inching around him curiously. "Awww, I bet the little critter was just scared! Well, it's OK! I'm not gonna hurt you, little guy, why don't you just c'mere-”

Blake was stopped mid-sentence as the Vermile promptly lunged for his other ankle and found its target, his teeth sinking into Blake's flesh and causing him to curse loudly once again. "FUCK, YOU LITTLE BASTARD, YOU FUCKING-...OWWW, HOLY SHIT, IT HURTS, JESUS, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER, YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!” Blake turned around in anger and pain as he faced the Vermile, who had scuttled away, over to Joseph, and cowered behind him. Blake glared at the creature. "I'm going to fucking cook this little piece of shit...” Blake said, glowering at the creature, but his thoughts of vengeance were cut off by a loud war cry near the basilica.

Jamie had done a number on the ogres with the building, but it seemed the sound and great deal of vibrations had drawn the rest of them nearby, and they stood there, forming a large semicircle in front of the basilica, all hooting and beating their chest as they stared down the gang, eyes filled with hunger and bloodlust. Blake decided to put aside his murder plan for the Vermile and instead shift his attention to the ogres. Blake knew next to nothing about them, but he knew that they didn't seem to like fire. Well, as it happened, Blake had a lot of that in store, and he was ready to use it. "Guys, guys, get back, I'm going to deal with this...” Blake said as he lifted his palms, and began to channel energy.

The temperature near Blake began to rise drastically as the entire forum began to tangibly heat up, and soon some crimson flickers began to sparkle in the air. The fiery glistening in the air began to intensify as flames began to materialize, serpents of fire wrapping around Blake's arms and palms, a fluid blaze encircling him. The ogres, though, seemed to have grown somewhat immune to Blake's fire, and were still closing in on the gang, hooting and hollering and looking menacing as ever. Blake closed his eyes as the fire began to glow brighter and burn hotter, before the ropes of flame began to all condense in the air in front of Blake, forming a large sphere of fire, like a sun, that was expanding, larger and larger, and once again re-shaping. The ogres now were full of trepidation, stepping back, and witnessing the new flaming shape before them. A phoenix.

Blake's fire had taken the form of an actual firebird, emanating blistering heat, its crimson wings flapping threatening, its head cocked and glaring at the ogres, who were now very afraid and very blind. The flaming bird was very bright, and looking at it too long was not a good idea. On top of that, it was very hot. It was already a hot day out, being almost mid-day in July, but this actual bird of fire raised the temperature to a stupidly hot degree. Even people across the movie set could feel a raise in the temperature, and any sort of temperature detectors or anomaly investigators would certainly pick up on this development.

The bird, whose mouth was literally emanating with smoke, cawed at the ogres (alright, it might've been Blake's sound effects, fine), before then charging directly at them. The remaining ogres gave a bunch of frantic grunting noises before turning on heel and trying to scatter. Some of them managed to get out of the way, but a good chunk of the ogres were plowed down by the massive bird and its equally impressive wingspan, the flaming construct blasting through a good group of ogres and leaving them scorched like ants under a magnifying glass. As the bird took to the sky again, the rest of the lucky surviving ogres did not attempt a rematch, instead fleeing from the area and cowering away. The phoenix dove back down to the ground again, flapping its wings once more, before vanishing into a large pile of ash in front of Blake that was releasing a thick, constant plume of black smoke, much like a chimney.

Blake grinned dumbly as he looked at his handiwork. "I've been working on that one,” he said as he stepped around the ash pile uncertainly, a bit wobbly on his feet, and he definitely sounded out of breath. He looked inside the basilica. "I think there's an elevator in there...it looks kinda locked, though,” Blake said, scratching his head as he wobbled on his feet, before starting to tip over. The combination of being hungover, poisoned by a Vermile twice, and then overexerting himself was too much for his body to handle, and he promptly fell over, planting himself face-first in the pavement.

"Angie~,” Blake muttered deliriously, his words muffled by the fact that he was practically kissing the stone walkway. "You look so pretty, muffin,” he added sweetly as the Vermile's toxins got to his brain, and then his eyes fluttered shut as he laid in the middle of the walkway, standing right before the massive basilica.

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Meanwhile, Grace was experiencing the worst torture of her life.

After analyzing the CCTV footage and recording a few elaborate-sounding introductions, Nero had taken to discussing his personal life with his prisoners, considering that there wasn't really much else to do. For the last however long, Nero had rested his feet up on the desk and was currently talking about his strained relationship with his girlfriend, who was also a villain, and who was very disappointed with his lack of success in the villainy field. ”So she tells me, 'Nero, I thought you were a strong, feared villain. Why are you working for these dinky villain companies?' And I always tell her, 'baby, this is my path to the big leagues of villainy!' She just doesn't understand me!” Nero said frustrated, folding his armor-clad arms over his chest. "But this thing is going to be my big break! Once I collect the money from this and send Seraph his check, I'll definitely crack into that top tier of Castleburg villains! I can already hear my name on the TV reports..."

Grace tested her restraints for what felt like the millionth time. "Right, right, so, listen, can we maybe talk about what Seraph wants here? I mean, considering that I'm definitely going to die, tied up on this rack, it can't hurt, right?"

"I told you already, he wants you to die, slowly and painfully, and in distress, and I'm arranging that. Now, where was I? Oh, right, so..."

As Nero began to ramble on, now about politics, Grace snuck a glance over at Eliza. Poor girl. Grace couldn't imagine what she was going through right now, being held hostage by this psycho right now. Grace would've portaled at least her out if she could, but the device electrocuted her every time she tried to concentrate and create a portal, and so she was stuck here, listening to Nero rant to his very bored, very unamused audience. It was actual hell. Grace was genuinely starting to believe that the electroshock torture was better than listening to Nero's speech.

"...I'm just saying, right, Amazon pays zero dollars in federal taxes. I mean, imagine how much revenue the United States government could make if they could actually get money out of them! If we could get them to pay a tax at a 35% rate, or hell, even at 21%, we could actually implement real social change and expand the welfare net! I mean, this is basic economics!"

"Listen, listen, I totally agree with you, probably too much considering you're evil, but can we, uhh, have this discussion while I'm unrestrained, maybe? Then we can talk about big business and all that in an open, free, environment. "

Nero seemed to be considering this prospect when his computer began to flash red, and he quickly rushed over. "Noooo, they killed my Swampjaws!" Nero exclaimed, devastated, as he gestured to the screen, which showed a low-res image of Brie and William standing in what seemed to be a Roman bathhouse, standing in front of a pool full of floating Swampjaws. Dangling from the center of the room, on a string, was what appeared to be a keycard with a word covered in whiteout on it, though anybody with half a brain could tell that, through the terrible whiteout job, it read 'basilica.' Grace smiled confidently. They seemed to be doing pretty well. Obviously, Nero had not thought this through enough.

"Damnit!" Nero cursed, storming around the office with his head hung. As he walked around, Grace took a glance out the window to look at their surroundings. She saw a large stone wall that was wrapped around the entire set. To the outside world, it looked like just a massive walled-off area. Grace looked above the wall to see a barber shop and a beat-up Italian restaurant. It looked to her like Brookside. Great. Brookside.

As Nero began to talk about Swampjaws enthusiastically, Grace tugged at the zipties for the 1,000,001st time. Her friends had better come and save her soon. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.

Location: "The Coliseum" area

”God DAMN it, my ogres! I had those imported from Italy...oh, Seraph's gonna kill me..."

"Correction, I'm gonna kill you," Grace said snidely, which earned her a painful shock and a "shut up" from Nero, who quickly manned the large computer in the office. "Oh, great, now they're manning the elevator. I shouldn't have been so generous, leaving the key out, I thought it would be fun to have something like that open for sport... Nero's armored fingers flew across the keyboard, punching in some code. "Well, Seraph's not going to have that enjoyable tape, but I can still take them out before they ruin everything! I just have to activate the blue bomb and wipe them out..." As Nero's fingers flew across the keyboard at an ever-increasing rate, pulling up and promptly disabling all sorts of safety mechanisms, Grace began to sweat, teeth clenched. To most people, a blue bomb just sounded like some colorful explosive variant, but Grace was not most people. Grace's 20th birthday present was a high-tech state-of-the-art calculator, her 21st birthday present was a collection of science textbooks, and her 22nd birthday present was a fancy microscope. Grace knew science, and what Nero had just said worried her.

A "blue bomb" was a relatively recent innovation that was invented only a skip over the bay at UCNA. Blue bombs were a very small-scale biological weapon with a core of actinium and a rapid dispersal method that, in essence, evaporates biological life within its blast radius while leaving most inorganic matter relatively intact. A lightweight plastic shell surrounding the weapon meant that the bomb disposed of itself, leaving it practically undetectable. Of course, a blue bomb was a very futuristic, difficult piece of weaponry to assemble. It was not something that Nero could assemble in his backyard. It needed a lab and smart people, or alternatively, a rich person to pay the lab and smart people. Seraph, Grace thought again angrily. Just another check written off to some science lab, all to create a contingency for his rivals. Grace couldn't help but still feel shocked at these revelations. It was just months ago when she had thought Seraph was a charming hero. Now, he was paying villains to kidnap, torture, and now irradiate and evaporate them. It was incredible at how well he could hide his true personality in front of the cameras and reporters. It was almost like a second superpower.

Grace closed her eyes as she thought of a plan. Nero was busy preparing his death bomb, and for once he wasn't paying attention to his captives- a crucial mistake on his part. Grace couldn't really get herself off the fence with a portal- doing so would either leave her stranded somewhere else tied to a lightning fence (in which case Nero would likely execute her and Eliza- unideal) or potentially cutting off one or more of her limbs (just about as unideal). Grace's only move was to take Nero out of the picture quickly, before he could activate the bomb and turn all the occupants of the Coliseum into ash and dust. Grace took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened a portal.

The portal emerged right beneath Nero's feet. Like Wil E. Coyote standing above a ravine, he blinked a few times in shock before plunging directly into the fluid purple portal, giving a loud "AIEEEEE!" before plunging into the depths of the portal. A paired portal opened on the ceiling, which roughly deposited Nero from the ceiling back into the original portal. After a few rotations, which were quite humorous, Grace closed the floor portal right before Nero flew into it, causing a resonating crack as Nero slammed, helmet-first, into the ground. If it wasn't for the armor, Nero would've likely been turned to a pancake then and there, but even still, he was likely not going to be in good shape. Strangely enough, Grace didn't feel bad for him at all.

The elevator door dinged a moment later, as the large metal doors swung open to reveal the office. Grace and Eliza were still tied to the rack (Grace had somehow managed to get a stick of gum into her mouth and was currently blowing an exceptionally large bubble), and Nero was laying a few feet in front of his captives, moaning and rolling around from the collision, a large and very noticeable dent in the center of his helmet where he had slammed roughly into the carpet.

"Nice timing," Grace said after popping the bubble. "Really helpful right here." Her sarcastic comment made, Grace's eyes quickly sought out and found Rumi. "Apparently, Nero got his hands on a blue bomb. Or more likely, Seraph gave him one." She spat the name out with pure malice, before tilting her head in the direction of the computer. "It's linked to the computer. You should probably disable it. If it wasn't for me, you guys would all be blue dust right now, so I think I deserve a little props for saving you." She pulled against her restraints. "If you could help me with these zip-ties, that would be nice too. Check on Eliza as well. She doesn't look too hot right now."

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The movie set in Brookside, a massive space on the west side of the borough with massive, towering stone walls on all four sides, looked almost like some sort of prison, though the advertisements for Marcus Aurelius on all four sides clearly indicated otherwise. (As Grace would be quick to point out if she hadn't been kidnapped, the movie was exceedingly good, one of the best biopics delivered in the 2030s for sure so far). Surrounding the massive stone-walled movie set were a few construction vehicles and some girders and other building supplies, but outside of that, it didn't seem too out-of-place in the run-down areas of Brookside. Of course, the IDD told a different tale. Anybody that was really anywhere in Brookside or even Watervale's western sides could pick up massive heat readings, electromagnetic fields, seismic waves, gravitational flux, really just about everything that the IDD read was present at the site. Anybody with half a brain could figure out that the something was happening there- even some local residents had called ambulances for heat strokes around the massive set.

The IDD wasn't the only device that could pick up anomalies- HERO2 was equipped with much stronger tracking devices, and it wasn't before long that Hugo Powers had a good idea of where the captured heroes were. Even better, they were definitely fighting back, and all indications pointed to them having a great deal of success in that regard. Powers was confident that the heroes would be safe, especially with the two new individuals en route to assist. What annoyed him, however, was a phone call that he had received from Starbright's secretary, of all people.

"Listen, ma'am, I understand Starbright's willingness to help his fellow heroes..." (this was a lie), "...but I'm not sure if he's up to the job. These are some high-tier heroes that have been abducted, surely there's some type of higher-level threat currently engaged in combat with them, it's simply unsafe for him to be in close proximity to such a powerful threat..." Powers said as politely as possible to Francine, before pausing to think. There were several heroes of great power helping out another group of already powerful heroes, likely fighting off a limited number of villains. On top of that, Starbright was a walking magnet for good publicity. A successful rescue attempt would restore some credibility to HERO's damaged image, and while Powers was normally the type not to give a hoot about either HERO's image OR Starbright, both of them would have to be in good shape for the public to trust the organization to hunt down Caustic and other villains. And so, against his better judgement, Powers coughed before speaking into the phone again.

"Scratch that, tell Starbright that he's in charge. I'm sending the coordinates of the heroes' likely locations to his phone now, I've also pinged a few other heroes that are in the vicinity..." Powers did so with the tap of a button on his laptop. "Tell him I give him the best of luck. Bring them home," Powers said, drumming up some much-needed charisma before hanging up. Hopefully, he had not made a monumental mistake there.

@Zoey Boey @Duoya @Jumbus @DClassified