Grace couldn't help but blush faintly as Tom wrapped her in a surprisingly tight hug, but quickly reciprocated nonetheless, wrapping her own arms around him for a brief moment as they were reunited. "I'm fine, I'm fine," Grace quickly insisted as the two embraced, before nuzzling her head against his chest. This would spell the end for their moment together, though, as Grace sniffed in the aroma emanating from Tom's clothes and pulled away from the hug. "Is that soot? Ugh..." Grace complained as she stepped away, nose wrinkled, but her good nature quickly returned as she looked up and smiled at Tom. "It was nothing much. It was you guys taking out the ogres that gave me the opportunity...but yes, it was pretty cool. Not easy, either. It's difficult to calculate the malleability of an ancient Roman helmet and the properties of a portal while you're kidnapped and tied to some sort of disturbing lightning rack..." As she trailed off, she found herself grinding the bottom of her shoe against the ground. She had something on her mind. "Sorry...about everything I said last night. You're not an idiot. Normally, at least," she finished somewhat lamely. She looked down again before her eyes drifted back up. "Anyway, I...well, I was an ass, so...sorry about that. She put a hand on his arm. "Heol, Tom, how did you get so much ass on you...ash, shit, sorry," she quickly corrected herself, silently cursing her accent as the blush flooded back to her face, and she quickly pulled her hand back (causing some soot to sprinkle through the air) before turning away and heading over to Nero's computer, which Rumi was currently manning.

Grace's eyes scanned the screen as Rumi scoured the computer for evidence. Grace had thought of that possibility, but she was not nearly gifted enough with computers to break the level of encryption on Nero's well-fortified (and very not-Roman) device. Rumi seemed to make mincemeat out of it and began to sift through the heaps of data, looking for anything that could incriminate the Wings. It wasn't exactly hidden very well. Phone call transcripts between the Wings and Nero, purchase receipts, blue bomb instructions, e-mails, and all-in-all a massive mountain of evidence against the Wings. It was clear that the Wings had overestimated Nero and vastly underestimated them, as they had been caught with their hand showing. Grace reached over Rumi's fingers, hitting a couple keyboard buttons to download the information and then clicked a few more to send it to Powers.

"That ought to do it," she said confidently, her eyes scanning over the gang, and she felt some emotion tug at her chest as she looked at them. They had somehow done it again, come out mostly unscathed. Grace smiled weakly as she looked at them, feeling proud to be a part of this little crew of nutballs, before she heard what sounded like a fairy laughing. Her text message notification sound. "Bastard has my phone..." she grumbled as she rummaged through the office, searching for her phone, as everybody else's phones sounded off like a chorus. She eventually managed to find her phone stuffed between two sofa pillows, and yanked it out, turning it on to reveal a text message from powers, which Grace inferred that had been sent to everybody (unknowingly, it was also sent to some of the newer heroes that Grace had yet to meet). The message read, very simply:

𝙼𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝙲𝚕𝚞𝚋 𝟸𝟽 𝚒𝚗 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝙰𝚂𝙰𝙿.

Grace recognized the name of the club. Club 27. Kingsdale. The Wings of Law headquarters.

What the hell was Powers doing?

Grace was about to make a portal out when she noticed another individual having arrived. Tall, black, muscular, and thoroughly unfamiliar. Grace did not think he was one of Nero's lackeys, considering that none of the files on his computer mentioned anything about any sort of henchman, but it was worth checking out. Grace motioned out the window before opening a portal and hopping through, leaving it open on the other end for the rest of the crew to follow out.

The other portal opened just a few feet in front of Chad, and out from the portal stepped Grace, looking a bit beat-up (and dusty) but otherwise mostly alright. She looked the taller figure up and down before asking him, "Who the hell are you?"

---

---

Powers' car, a custom-made Bugatti Chiron, rocketed down the side streets of Castleburg heading towards Kingsdale. Powers' ability to get from point A to point B was remarkably fast, in part because A) he knew Castleburg like the back of his hand, B) he had one of the fastest
cars available, and C) he was breaking every traffic violation in the books. Powers' fingers were gripped tightly around the steering wheel, and his vehicle took off down the highways of Castleburg like a bat out of hell. It wasn't long before the car pulled up in front of Club 27. It was a quiet day at the HQ today, only a few expensive vehicles parked outside.

Powers swung the car door open and stormed to the back, popping the trunk to a reveal an impressive collection of weapons. Powers removed a pump shotgun from the back, slinging it over his back, before storming up to the glass doors. He didn't even bother to knock, instead walking directly through the door, the glass shattering helplessly as the monster of a man walked directly into the club. The patrons inside (the three main Wings of Law, plus Rubber Man), quickly jumped to their feet as the alarms set up, eyes falling on Powers. Seraph was the first to speak up. "Ah, Director. I didn't realize you were coming. The occasion?" Seraph asked, his voice cordial and polite but eyes frosty.

Powers swung the shotgun from his back and pumped up. "I'm here to announce your termination."

Before any of the Wings of Law could even bother to question this expression, Powers aimed the shotgun upwards with one hand and fired a round, blasting out the massive, expensive glass chandelier that hung from the ceiling. The lights quickly went out, shards of glass and wiring falling everywhere, as the room was submerged in darkness. The only light that was coming in was from the door down the hallway, and it was too faint to be useful in combat, and unfortunately, combat was the only thing on Powers' mind. He wasn't there for any more bargaining and games.

After a minute of darkness, the emergency lights, a series of dim red bulbs that lined the walls of the facility, turned on, illuminating the room enough to see. Mr. Impressive was currently hung from the wall in a wedgie, hanging from his underpants, which were in turn hanging from his own sword, which was pinned in the center of an oil painting. Sea Serpent was planted face-first in the bar in a pool of liquors and glass. Rubber Man was across the room, headfirst in a fireplace. The only Wing of Law left standing was Seraph, who had a couple nasty bruises to his face. His pretty (plastic) features curved into a scowl, he flapped his wings and sent a rain of feathers at Powers, who simply walked through it like it was a light drizzle. "Listen up here, Zhenka. I'll make this quick," Powers said gruffly as he approached the injured (former) hero. He discarded the shotgun and lifted Zhenka by the collar."If I ever see your ass around HERO One again, I will make it clear who's the boss. Very, very clear. Even more clear than today. Understood?" Powers said, glaring at Seraph, nothing but pure blackness in his eyes.

Seraph muttered something about 'being the boss' and a few curse words, but was shut up by Powers' violent shaking. "I SAID, DID YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" Powers roared. It was a scary sight to watch, really.

Seraph nodded reluctantly.

"Good." Powers tossed Seraph in the air like he was pitching himself a baseball, before executing a devastating roundhouse kick to his side, sending Seraph hurtling across the room into a bust of himself, shattering both the bust and likely something of Seraph's.

As Powers strolled out, Seraph yelled after him, "You'll regret this, Hugo! You'll regret this badly!"

Powers turned back, stopping his stroll for a moment. "That's Mr. Powers to you."

---

---

Hugo Powers was currently standing outside Club 27, waiting patiently, foot tapping on the ground in rhythm, when he noticed Pandora emerging from the ground like some sort of cement mermaid. The massive, hulking human being walked over to Pandora's location, looking somewhat more pleased than usual, though "somewhat more pleased than usual" in Powers' case was still "much less pleased than usual" for your average person. The stoic director squatted down next to Pandora (or more accurately, the half of Pandora that was there) and spoke, his gruff voice matching his towering, threatening figure.

"First, a pleasure to meet you, Pandora," Powers said, extending a hand over to the ground-submerged woman. "It's a pleasure to see you in person. Second, as for my employees, from the reports I've received, they've managed to save themselves. They're quite the bunch. You'll like them." Powers said, contemplating for a moment, before shaking his head. "Actually, you won't. You'll hate their guts. But they'll grow on you. They did for me, anyway," the Director said, before standing. "They should be here any second...ah." Powers turned over to a portal that had formed across the lawn. "Here they come."

Back over at the Roman coliseum, Grace was very busy oogling a certain somebody that had just entered the Coliseum. She was about to laugh at Chad, poke fun at him a bit for his flair for the dramatic (not to mention exaggeration), but the arrival of Starbright had saved him from any sort of brutal rubbing. Grace instead found herself staring at Starbright, the beautiful sculpted man that was Starbright...hot damn, it must've been illegal to be so incredibly attractive, what type of phenomenal genetics caused this beautiful man to exist...Grace stared at Starbright for what felt like a few days before Patricia's harsh words cut into her stupor. “Stop undressing this man-child with your eyes and focus. We have somewhere we need to be, remember? He's not even worth it, anyways,” Patricia had said, and Grace blinked, having been freed from Starbright's unholy trance. Grace made sure to avoid eye contact with Starbright as she got to work crafting a second portal. She sincerely hoped Starbright never betrayed HERO, because his looks would make it impossible for the Korean girl to take him in. "Right, right. Club 27, portal, got it. I have a good idea from where it is, it's not far from my place...alright. You think Starbright is single? He can't be, right, not with shoulders like that..." Grace mused, before pulling herself out of this trance again and swiping her hand, opening a second set of portals. "Alright, this is pretty far for a portal, I've stretched my limits pretty thin, so the wormhole experience might be a little more unpleasant than usual...make sure you're not eating or drinking anything before hopping in. Also, don't hold your breath. Your lungs might collapse." With that, she shoo'd the gang through the portal, making sure to look away if Starbright decided to use her vastly more convenient form of transportation. She then used her remaining strength to haul the nearby unconscious Alpha through the portal (luckily for him, Grace had caught a glimpse of him as she was scouting the area), before practically flopping through herself.

The group was deposited on the lawn of Club 27, a gorgeous club belonging to the Wings of Law. Grace was the last to be thrown through, and she found her arms wrapped tightly around Tom for balance as she made it through. She looked a bit green- this portaling had taken quite a bit out of her, for sure. Powers folded his arms as he waited for the entire group to finish materializing, before speaking. "Pleasure to see you all in one piece. Glad you could all make it," the Director said, before gesturing towards Club 27. "Thanks to Mr. Polamor and Ms. Mok's timely cooperation, I was able to see that the Wings of Law were not abiding by HERO's code. So I decided that enough was enough, and to take matters into my own hands. The Wings of Law are no longer going to be employed at HERO."

Powers paused. "It's a shame that it had to come to this, watching the Wings devolve from legitimacy to their current state, but it shows what happens when you let power and fame get to your head. Never let that happen to any of you. You're all young, impressionable people that can have much brighter futures than Seraph, Mr. Impressive, and Sea Serpent will be having," Powers said sagely, before clasping his oversized hands together. "With that said, I'd also like to be introducing two new heroes to our organization. Pandora here is...a veteran hero, to say the least, and the organization as a whole is very pleased that she'll be lending her talents to us," Powers said, a rare honeyed kindness in his voice. Either he was sucking up, or there was a deep respect that existed from the Director to the Brit, something that was rare in HERO. "Also joining us is a much younger hero, Chad...he's a character, for sure, and I'm sure there's plenty of work to be done in regards to his abilities, but I'm confident he'll be a very capable hero soon." Powers nodded, having cleared up what he wanted to say. "That's all there is to it. Hopefully your days of hero-ing will be much more pleasant without the looming presence of the Wings of Law," Powers noted, before putting a hand to his earpiece and turning away, walking towards his expensive car. "I'm going to need a Restoration Unit at the old Marcus Aurelius set in Brookside...there's been an incident there..." he said as he entered the vehicle, before driving off.

He left behind an awkward silence as his car slid quickly down the streets of Castleburg, unknowing that his decision might not have been his wisest to date.

---

---

One Week Later

_{3:05 PM
July 12th
Acre Plaza
New Athens, Castleburg}

Blake wasn't the type of person to have much alone time. He was a social creature, always looking for somebody to hang out with. Whether that somebody be a romantic interest, a co-worker, or just Tom (a common choice), Blake tended to be part of a duo or more when it came to his social outings. However, today, Blake was walking through Acre Plaza, moving through the intense bustle as he pushed through the crowd. Acre Plaza was often referred to as "the center of the galaxy." It was located in the heart of New Athens in the middle of Castleburg, and was a massive commercial intersection and a very busy pedestrian area. People ran back-and-forth up an down the plaza, underneath the flickering lights of the thousands of brilliant billboards, all shining down in an impressive display. Acre Plaza was the home of so many businesses, places of interests, tourist spots, and theaters (it was also smack dab in the center of Grand Avenue, the massive boulevard that cut through Castleburg and was synonymous with show business and theatrical entertainment). Blake was currently wandering almost aimlessly, looking for something to do. The summer air heated his skin as he looked at the storefront location of Disney Acre Plaza, staring at the giant Mickey Mouse head protruding from the glass, wondering if Jamie would prefer some sort of Disney memorabilia or a ton of chocolate from the Hershey's across the way.

Eventually, Blake decided on the latter, and he turned towards the massive chocolate-y store nearby. He didn't make it all the way there, though, as he noticed something very peculiar. All of the glowing billboards on Acre Plaza, including the massive jumbotrons on some of the skyscrapers, blanked out for a second, before changing instead to an image of what appeared to be a large black wing, with sleek edges and a dangerous-looking design. It looked like a logo, like something a gang would use as their representation, but Blake was unfamiliar with the design. The symbol flickered onscreen for a few moments, drawing attention, before changing to an image of a person that Blake had never expected to see again.

"Seraph...” Blake muttered under his breath, clenching his fists. He was not happy.

Seraph had all but vanished in the week following his mysterious removal from HERO. According to news organizations, Seraph had amicably parted ways with the organization and quietly retired. Blake knew that was not true, but it was better this way, truth be told. There would be no fighting on-air or media dispute about HERO, just a casual retirement and dissolution of a longtime group. It was surprising, true, but as far as the media was concerned, it was just a hero retirement. Nothing particularly spectacular, considering heroes retired all the time. It was a dangerous line of work, after all, and the pension definitely made it worth it. Blake had never expected to see Seraph again. He had hoped that Seraph would just take his piles of cash and move to Florida or something, go bother people down there instead of hanging around. Obviously, the former HERO had not heeded by his wishes.

Seraph began his speech, gesturing out with his arms and wings. "Citizens of Castleburg, this is Seraph. Now that I have your undivided attention, I would like to speak to you about something near and dear to my heart, and that is this city. Castleburg has been a city of wasted potential. The failure of our institutions to protect and serve is apparent in our society. Thankfully, with the recent retirement of Hugo Powers, I will be taking actions to help remedy this problem as your new superhuman leader."

Blake's head spun. What the hell? Powers wasn't retiring; he would've definitely known if he was, and Powers would never, ever appoint Seraph to be his replacement. Something was up here. Blake watched in horror as Seraph continued. "I've worked with HERO for many years, and they've given a great deal to this city, but to truly elevate Castleburg as a city, new measures will be necessary. That's why I'm announcing Castleburg's newest hero organization- EAGLES, the Elite American Group for Law Enforcement and Security, headed by me, Seraph. I've decided that I can't retire while I watch this city burn from scum and villainy. I had to take action again, take to the skies, and EAGLES will be the way to do it.” That same black wing logo appeared on the screen behind him, and Blake heard some pedestrians cheer. Cheer. Jesus, some people were really stupid.

"Unfortunately, with this good news, I have some more tragic news to announce. Very tragic news, in fact. Just today, not long ago, at my private club in Kingsdale, there was an unfortunate incident of mass murder. The entire club was found mysteriously dead. The autopsy revealed that there was no signs of any force or trauma, just a sudden death. Investigators are convinced that this is the work of the Maestro, or much more likely, the Maestro's daughter, Patricia Donnelly. I've spoken out against her countless times before, but it seems my warnings were too late and not heeded in time.”

Blake heard gasps in the crowd as the screen flicked to what Blake vaguely recognized as the interior of Club 27, the Wings' former hideout and an operating high-end nightclub, full of what appeared to be sleeping people- people slumped over the bar, laying on the floor, sprawled everywhere. Blake breathed heavily. It certainly didn't seem violent in nature- Blake would've assumed that his dad's house would've looked the same way after they were all gassed. Blake knew roughly of Patricia's capabilities, and that if she tried to death-sing a whole room of people, it would probably look something like that, but he also knew Patricia, and knew the teen would never, ever, EVER do anything like that. Also, he knew Seraph was a cold-hearted lying bastard, so there was that.

The screen flashed back to Seraph again. "EAGLES' first act as your new protectors will be bringing Patricia Donnelly to justice. My assistant director, Mr. Impressive, is already en route to bring Donnelly to justice. We're also seeking to bring any potential accomplices of Donnelly, some former HERO employees, in for questioning as well.” The screen flashed to a bunch of photos, with Patricia (Seraph had not gotten a flattering picture of her, that was for sure) in the front-and-center of it. Underneath Patricia's photo was a row of pictures including all people that Blake knew well, including Tom, Grace, Brie, Jamie, Rumi, Joseph, Eliza, and...shit, that was his picture too!

Blake noticed some people were turned to face him, and that he heard some dialing of phones, and he quickly realized that this was not a good place to be right now. "EXCUSE ME!” Blake loudly declared, pushing through the crowd quickly as he shoved his way through the crowd of people, before going into a sprint. This was probably highly suspicious behavior, but Blake didn't care. As he shoved through the crowd of pedestrians, he grabbed his phone and quickly dialed Tom as he ducked into an alleyway, sprinting down before making a few sharp turns to get himself away from prying eyes. Once he found himself in a dark, secluded alleway, he put the phone to his ear.

"Dude,” he panted into the phone. "What. The. Fuck. Is. Happening?!”

---

---

_{3:05 PM
July 12th
Koreatown
Waterside, Castleburg}

Castleburg's Koreatown neighorhood was small but fascinating to Grace. As much as she loved her new life in America, working for HERO with a new group of people she was very happy to call friends, she missed her old life in Seoul sometimes. She missed Korean food almost every day, speaking Korean, really every facet of life back in Korea. She made it a habit to spend some time in Castleburg's Koreatown as much as she could. It wasn't a massive community, and it wasn't the most pristine she had ever seen, but it was authentic and Korean, which was what Grace cared about more than anything else.

Grace strolled down the sidewalk of the small neighborhood, waving and greeting and occasionally picking up a small thing from a street vendor. She was dressed lightly for once, wearing a t-shirt and jean shorts, a blue plaid jacket tied around her waist, her stand-outish violet hair running messily in knots down her back. She ducked her way off the sidewalk into a Korean supermarket that was abuzz with energy. The market was full of people and foods that most of Castleburg would consider strange (for starters, there were eel hanging from a rack only a few yards from the entrance), but to Grace, it was home sweet home. As she walked through the aisles, looking for something good to take home, she noticed something on a corner-mounted TV. "Motherfucker..." she cursed as she saw Seraph's face fade in from what appeared to be a black wing logo (she cursed in English, as a good portion of the patrons in a Korean supermarket would definitely understand her Korean swearing). Her expression went from annoyed to mortified as Seraph spoke. This was bad. Really bad.

Grace comprehended the information as quickly as she could. Seraph had somehow staged what could she could only describe as a coup d'état. He had somehow gotten rid of Powers (how he had done so made Grace shiver), and had now framed Patricia for a crime that she could not have done...and on top of that, now she was on their wanted list?! This day had turned into a waking nightmare very quickly.

Grace knew that she didn't have much time to act, and so she quickly thought of a plan. The first step to this mystery seemed to be HERO One. Grace knew that Powers could not, and would not, stand for this. That was clear as day. But Grace knew that if Seraph was even remotely cunning, there would be some sort of trap waiting for them. The same could be said of Club 27- Grace knew that if she was in Seraph's shoes, she would throw them the location as bait to investigate, and then promptly reel them in. Grace then realized something. Patricia. Seraph definitely wanted her, probably for revenge, definitely for nothing good, and it seemed as though she was the top priority here. Patricia also lacked the ability to portal around the city with ease. She would probably need help. Of course, teleporting directly to Patricia's apartment would also be putting Grace into risk, but Grace decided that if there was a problem, she would be able to hopefully just grab Patricia, get out, and work out a plan from there. Thankfully, Patricia's failure in pre-calculus ("it's really not that hard, Patti, it's actually really fun!") had necessitated Grace's tutoring skills. It turned out that as good as Grace was as math, she was a very frustrating tutor, but their private time had given Grace knowledge of Patricia's apartment.

With that plan in mind, Grace grabbed her phone and chucked it down the supermarket aisle, landing it in a nice pile of cod, before she then traced her finger over a few cans of kimchi, opening a portal smack dab in the middle of the supermarket shelf. The second portal opened in the middle of Patricia's living room with a gentle "pop" and a bright swirling of magenta light. Grace tried to teleport outside doors and knock, but time was of the essence here, and the situation definitely necessitated a little breaking and entering.

Grace hopped out of the portal, the dimensional oval closing behind her, as she looked around for Patricia. "Patricia?" she called out. "We need to go. Soon. And by soon, I mean right now."

@canaryrose@Duoya

---

Starbright was taken aback by the positive reception and taken even further back when the body to the voice came into focus. It is pretty clear that he expected his fans to be on the, well, smaller and less masculine side of things. "I read your file, but I didn't expect you to be such a big fan. Its good to meet you but we have people to save." Starbright could appreciate Bullet's style, it would be easy to sell the heroic look like that. The only thing he needed to work on was that voice quiver and he would be a fitting team mate. "D... Did you come to save the kidnapped heroes with your incredible posing and blasts of light!?" "Well I like to think I do that everyday through song but today I get the priveledge of doing it in person." He turned around and gestured to James, the paparazzi, to take a picture of the two. Tomorrows headline, 'Starbright leads team to save kidnapped heroes' the people would eat it up and could bring more attention to the matter.

And then the others arrived, and it didn't take long for Patricia to start insulting him. Usually Starbright liking toying with her and loved the back and forth, however with all the steps he had taken to save them he did not expect to receive a metaphorical slap in the face. But when she threw the James' camera down the street breaking it he lost his cool. "Optics Patty! Grab a book and learn about it!" He then turned to James, "I'm sorry about this, just know this doesn't represent everyone at HERO. I'll reimburse you for the camera and give you a little bit extra. Now I believe you should probably leave."

Starbright made sure James was out of earshot before continuing as he would bring up matters that should stay out of the papers for now. He realigned himself back to address Aria. "You ever think to yourself 'hey maybe if I spent a little more trying to look good in the public eye. Maybe Wings of Law wouldn't be able to so easily get away with kidnapping us all.' Because news flash thats the reality of it. If it weren't for people like me and Powers this whole thing might have gone completely under the radar. Even then, do you think we are going to be able to just hop over to Club 27 and burn the place down? No, that might work with those gangsters you roughed up. But we are dealing with stars here and they play by different rules. Blowing up Club 27 will dissolve HERO almost instantly. So yeah you could say Wings has basically gotten out of this scot-free. Screw me for trying to stop that." Starbright had to take a deep breath after that, it was clear this had made him quite emotional. But he quickly reverted back to normal Starbright, a skill only years of stardom can teach.

"I'm sorry for all that everyone, I don't know what came over me. Not very leader like hahaha maybe I'm not so cut out to lead this rescue squad huh." While he said that he adjusted his outfit back to normal, gaining back physical composure as well as emotional stability. "Now lets go see the situation at Club 27."

Starbright knew this would be far from the end of all this.

---

_{3:05 PM
July 12th
Starbright's Mansion
Kingsdale, Castleburg}

Starbright lay on his couch watching TV on one of his few off days. But that wasn't true for this past week, in fact, Starbright had been keeping a close eye on the news. He was scared, it was only a matter of time before Wings came to take their revenge and he had arrived at Club 27 with the rest of the gang on that day. Or could he be wrong, could his knowledge be off and he was just taking a very important week and spending it at home for nothing. A week on low star activity Starbright could handle but if he let this whole thing affect him any further, it would harm his relevancy. Luckily a certain news broadcast ended his current suffering, but brought a whole new one.

Seraph had most certainly made his move, claiming to lead HERO was a natural step. With Powers popularity dropping greatly over this past year, Seraph and the Wings of Law had only grown. It was clearly the most effective action to take and would collect little protest from the public at large. But it was the last part that shocked him. Seraph had accused Patty of mass murder, a feat the teen clearly was not capable of. She may be very mean and prone to abusing her powers, but she was clearly not capable of murder. Starbright almost snapped the remote at the thought that Seraph had killed innocent people just to frame a teenage girl. While the teen pop idol may be eccentric, fame hungry and egotistical, he still had a very strong sense of right and wrong.

The thing that made him turn the remote into little pieces on the ground, was how little he could stop any of this. "Patty, I hope you can make it through this." As it would turn out, the gang's rescue squad would need to be formed again. Starbright began by calling up a few media publications, then back to James the paparazzi. A non-HERO judge of character would be essential in all of this.

---

---

_{3:05 PM
July 12th
South Brookside Boxing Gym
Brookside, Castleburg}

Midas had been continuing his march into Watervale territory, the Brookside Bruisers were starting to become a feared name. It was strange because the gang almost had more territory in Watervale than Brookside now, despite the name. From his office, he had the TV on and a peculiar news broadcast was airing. Midas dawned one of the widest grins he has had in a while. Wings of Law was going to lead HERO and that meant good business for him. Midas had been in Wings' pocket in the past and it looked as though he would be getting very little hero resistance for the time being. It was time to expand further.

---

Blake listened as he heard Tom through the other end of the phone, nodding along absent-mindedly as he spoke, silently relieved. Tom was alright, which was good. They hadn't managed to get him yet. "I...I don't think so. No way," Blake responded as Tom asked about Powers. "Powers is crazy strong. Like, we're talking Jamie-level here. Dude is crazy strong. No way Seraph and co could take him out," Blake said with an assured tone of voice, though he wished that he was as confident as he sounded. Powers was strong, but he wasn't immortal, and the fact that this entire shitshow was going down meant that he was out of commission, one way or another. Blake prayed that it wasn't the type of "retirement" that involved black suits, a casket, and a lot of crying. He leaned against the alley wall as he listened to Tom talk. "They'll be fine, man, they all have powers that make them very slippery. Well, not Jamie, but Jamie can handle herself...we need to get to the bottom of this." Blake took a few deep breaths, much more panicked than he would care to admit. Being wanted and having one of your close friends accused of murder tended to raise the stress levels a bit.

"Listen, let's just meet up, then we can figure something out...should we meet at the club? Club 27? There might be some clues there or some shit...if we're lucky, Seraph will be there, too, and we can end this shit quickly. Is that cool?" Blake said, before frowning. He couldn't hardly hear Tom's voice anymore, his best friend's speech instead overpowered suddenly by a loud static noise. "Dude, you're breaking up, I'm not sure what's going on, did you fly through a tunnel or something...I'll meet you at the Club, if you can still hear me...don't do anything stupid, OK?" Blake said before hanging up, sliding his phone back into his jeans pocket. He wasn't exactly dressed to impress at the moment, wearing a light orange t-shirt and a pair of jeans that probably needed to be washed again, but that did help him be a little more incognito. Then again, considering his face had been plastered on every TV screen in the entire city, and considering that he had rather distinctive hair (not to mention absolutely irresistible good looks) and a decent bit of fame, his attire wouldn't do him enough favors to get him off the hook. He needed to be careful.

"Being careful" didn't last very long, though. Less than a minute after Blake started to get a move on again, he nearly ran into a figure that he almost didn't recognize. Rubber Man. Rubber Man was a very distinctive member of the Wings of Law, considering his pink, oddly geometric, bald, rubbery face, which was droopy and melted on one side because of Firebird's very timely intervention to help his friends. However, Rubber Man looked rather different from usual. Normally, he wore a golden pinstripe suit that made him like awfully like a pencil, and sometimes a matching hat to boot. However, today, he was wearing a heavy, padded black suit that seemed to be covered in all sorts of knobs and other doodads that would probably fascinate Rumi but meant next to nothing to Blake. More intriguingly, though, Rubber Man's right arm was covered in a thick gauntlet that Blake would note looked awfully like the "Infinity Gauntlet" from an old superhero movie he had seen, though this gauntlet was metallic gray instead of gold and had pulsing red orbs instead of gemstones. The idea was similar, though. Rubber Man's fists were both clenched menacingly as Blake nearly crashed into him, before hopping back like he had just seen a particularly large bug (in this case, that analogy is even more apt).

"Blake von Brandt, you are wanted in connection to the Club 27 murders. If you come quietly, we can avoid the violence."

"Come quietly, my ass. Don't you have a brain in that thick slab of crap you call a head? Wake up!" Blake said, his teeth clenched, anger rushing over him. His friends were in danger, and he had to deal with this crap first. "Fuck off before I make you fuck off."

Rubber Man lifted his gauntlet. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time."

"Waiting for what, me to even out the other half of your face?" Blake taunted, and his taunting clearly struck a nerve with Rubber Man, who pointed the gauntlet directly at him, palm aimed at his torso. Blake responded by flaring up his powers, a wave of heat surging through the alleyway as flames wrapped around his body. "Nice toy. What're you gonna do with it, turn yourself into a tire or something?"

"No, no, something much better," Rubber Man said, tapping the gauntlet. The orbs went from red to cyan, before a sudden blast of similarly-colored energy launched across the alleyway. Blake tried to manipulate the fire to block it, but it phased right through and hit Blake in the chest. The energy hardly hurt, only having enough force to knock Blake down to one knee, but it was the after-effect that annoyed him- Blake's powers were betraying him. He could hardly light a cigarette without the amount of energy he had left, let alone melt this rubbery bastard. He growled. "Isolene?"

"Good guess. The blast actually is lowering your body's ability to produce heat to a certain limit." Rubber Man sneered as he lifted his gauntlet, which Blake noted was smoking- it seemed that it had to be recharged between blasts. "I thought the big corporations were the top of the game, but there's actually so much bigger. Our new sponsors have given us a lot of new technology. This here glove is called an Ability Impersonation Gauntlet. Basically, using splices of superhuman DNA, it allows me to create a synthetic attack using somebody else's power. Of course, the amount of energy required means that I only get a few uses out of it before it needs to be recharged for a long time, but it's still- hey, what are you- ARGH!"

Blake, who had gotten bored of this science talk, had shoulder-rammed Rubber Man roughly and sent him directly into the ground, having caught him off guard. Blake then made sure to stomp him directly on the nose (he heard a very satisfying crunch sound to indicate success) before bolting down the alleyway. He felt his teeth chattering as he ran, which was very peculiar considering that it was a very warm day. All Blake knew was that the bastard had hit him with some sort of freeze blast, and that was messing with his powers. Blake had gotten fairly far, but not far enough, and suddenly he felt his momentum stop as a painfully cold sensation enveloped his foot. Blake groaned as he looked back, pulling on his right leg, but found it frozen to the ground.

"Well, fuck me," Blake grumbled before he felt something very cold and hard hit him roughly across the side of the head, and he was out like a light.

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Meanwhile, in Kingsdale, Tom would discover that his phone started to break up with static as soon as Blake said the word "tunnel," his voice replaced by overbearing static. Moments later, a figure began to approach the building that Tom was on, midair. The figure was soaring through the air, a pair of golden wings spread from her back. The figure landed, before standing and walking over to Tom. She was undeniably gorgeous, with flawless tanned skin, locks of gorgeous platinum blonde hair, and a body of a supermodel, wearing white halter top and matching white pants, with sleek black boots and a shimmering golden necklace finishing off her appearance. From her back, her two golden wings were glimmering in the sunlight. Priestess.

"Tommy~!" she cooed, walking over with a saunter to Tom, her emerald green eyes locking with his. She had a smile that could drive a man (and some girls too) absolutely mad, two sets of stark white teeth to match. "It's been ages since we've last...well, you know," she said, batting her eyelashes at him. Priestess was practically the female version of Starbright- she was a model, first and foremost, but also had a singing and acting career, all of which she juggled on top of hero work. "You've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble, you know, helping people like Aria...well, you see how that turned out. But I don't want to see you get hurt..." She was shimmering with golden light as she made her way over to Tom.

"You don't have to do all this, you know. Seraph still has hope that you'll join the Wings...or EAGLES now. Such a lovely acronym..." She walked around Tom slowly, wings outstretched. "You can be rich, have anything you want, anybody you want...we had such a grand night together, Tommy! Seraph is nice, but he can be so crass and, to be frank, he's too old for me..." She sighed. "You and me, we would be a real power couple...we would be perfect together!"

Priestess' speech was interrupted by a chirping noise, and she held one finger up to Tom as she took out her phone, looking down at it. "Looks like your little friend just got taken to the cleaners...the one with the red hair? Phoenix, or something?" Priestess shrugged. "Listen, Tommy, this is your chance to get out of this mess...just say the word, and I'll call it off." She held out a delicate hand, each of her fingers flawless manicured with glimmering golden nails. "What do you say?"

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