Pandora compressed her lips as she watched Powers work. Hand on her waist she followed behind, looking around the complex with disinterest. She loomed over one of the guards and poked them in the side with her foot before leaving them unconscious on the ground. The orange-eyed redhead wandered into the server room, squinting at the machines.

"No...no, they didn't." She responded absent mindedly to Powers assertion about computers. He asked her to take care of some incoming soldiers. With a nod she sank into the Earth. Armed guards were easy to deal with on their own. The same strategy worked every time.

The first of the three arm guards was sucked under up to his shoulders. The ground turned to a quicksand like sludge that thoroughly incapacitated him. He could move, slightly, and indeed in a few hours would probably be able to escape. Pandora listened to the vibrations and poked her head out to locate the other two. One of them fired at the ground and hit nothing but hard concrete, before they also met the same fate. The last one Pandora emerged from behind, kicked out the back of their leg and then pulled them onto their back. They sank horizontally into the concrete, the back half of their body trapped. It was an easy affair. S-tier, she was. She looked over the three still conscious guards who would have the freedom to chat with each other if they liked.

Pandora was distracted, though. She returned to Powers and looked over his shoulder. "You wouldn't happen to be someone else in disguise, would you? There was a half an hour there where I didn't actually see where you were. Perhaps you've been swapped out with someone else. Or placed under mind control." She observed him suspicously, trying to figure him out.

"Hmm." She crossed her arms. "Well, I suppose if you were trying to decieve me, it'd probably be easier to drag one of the little runts along. And this is a secret base, with no heroic insignia, from what I can tell. Worst case scenario, this is an official government facility. The goons haven't spoken up about it being federal property." She mused.

"Could be...nuclear codes, or something." She chuckled lightly.

"Well, I suppose if you were trying to betray me I could just fuck off." She turned away and took a few steps into the center of the room, waiting for Powers to be finished.



Brooke tilted her head to the side, still blind folded. "Too easy? I like easy, thanks." She laughed. "I'm not in this job for the, uh, challenge. Winning if the only thing that matters." She said. She felt the phone go off in her hands.

"Okay, well, I guess we'll just hope nobody comes in here." She said after Sir E. Brum told her to get it. She took off her blindfold and unhandcuffed herself. She went up to the door of the room and created a hard light barrier up against it, wedging it shut. Then she glanced down at the phone Aria handed to her and glanced down at it.

"Uh, okay. So, not good? I guess we're b-back up? What's the plan, here? If we here gunshots we'll just run upstairs, I guess? And if some guy opens the door, I guess we just" she paused. Reaching into her hoodie she pulled out a protective case, removed it, and then slipped on her glasses. Her misaligned eye drifted into place. "...improvise?" She smiled nervously.

Alpha was among those playing "Irish Thug" while on the boat. In a way, he was dressed similar to Blake with his orange hair combed back down as much as possible with the same suit and red tie with the Fedora hat to match.

Though he mostly kept to himself even with black sunglasses. His "vibe" was to look like a "right hand" man of sorts if anyone got too nosy. If someone did, Cerise would cover for him. The simple "strong silent type".

He had waited at the bar area when the first problem came up.

Malady.

Of course, he knew about her...it was actually on his birthday two days after the whole EAGLES incident. Since losing his special police badge, he needed another source of information. During their stay, his parents came clean on some things. One of the topics was a certain organization that even they weren't supposed to mention but old friends from his days with the US government felt that he had clearance to know about the group.

But not even they knew the whole story...

ZERO. A group of supposed super villains that consisted of the best criminals the world over. Only the strongest and most loyal get accepted to them. And they said that Malady, the daughter to ZERO's leader, was in Castleburg and may have been involved in some of the incidents that had happened in the city.

Regardless, they both said to not go poking fights with any of it's members. It was suspected all were "Tier S" threats.

So when Black Baron himself finally came onto the scene and announced his replacement, he didn't bother taking out his vibrating iPhone to know what text was sent.

This was going to get ugly.

None the less, he played along and clapped with the rest of the group...

But unknown to perhaps Alpha and the others there, a certain vigilante was watching from the shadows...

@canaryrose@Duoya@Jumbus

---

Somehow, through great effort, Joseph resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Starbrights arrival. Oh sure, he'd already known what to expect attitude-wise, but for some ungodly reason, he hadn't been expecting the sunrise behind him, despite knowing he really should have. Still, he was more surprised that he actually asked the rest of them about teams, rather than just declaring Chad his teammate like he'd expected him too.

Of course, Chad immediately called dibs on Starbright anyway, so it's not like it actually changed anything, but Joseph was fine with it. Poor Jamie though, he could almost see her thought process playing out on her face, as she tried to think about something positive to say about being stuck on a team with him, before presumably giving up and settling on 'Yes, he is Joseph' as the best she was going to get. Thankfully though, being on a team with a loser like him wasn't enough to get her down, and she was quickly distracted when she got picked to serve.

From there, Joseph did... decently. He was never really much of a sportsman, actually preferring to avoid it when he could. Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he'd suggested volleyball in the first place, but he was here now, so he just had to try and get through it. He had to admit though, it was a little hard to push through it when it felt like somewhere around sixty percent of the hits to him involved the ball bouncing off his face. With every hit, he could feel his cool reputation fading away, replaced by some kind of goofy slapstick target, and he began to wonder if maybe he should've just tried his luck at convincing them to have a sandcastle competition or something instead. Still, at least they usually managed to bounce off his skull in a way that set them up for whatever Jamie had planned. Or she'd just adapted to his sports specific clumsiness, one or the other.

However, it was when one particularly bad hit somehow managed to spin off the side of his head and fall where neither of them could reach when they were saved by a man he didn't recognize, who caught the ball just before it could hit the ground.

The second he looked at him properly, Joseph felt his blood run cold. Heiroglyphs covered the mans body. He couldn't read them, but any magus would recognise the structure of the designs that covered the mans body. Runic Arrays. Each and every one of them. It took everything he had to keep his agitation from showing, fighting it down to retain his usual laidback appearance. Beneath the surface though, he was just waiting for this man to make a move.

And make a move he did, although not in the sense he'd been expecting. After briefly introducing himself, notably confirming that he was in fact egyptian, he proceeded to start hitting on Jamie. For a moment, he couldn't help but stare in some odd combination of shock and panic, his brain trying desperately to process what it was seeing. When that moment ended, he had made his decision. Even if this magus wasn't a villain, he was an enemy.

However, he doubted that would be the case. The world of Magi was a cutthroat one, that naturally bred dangerous, unscrupulous people. Magi with moral compasses were rare, and one of the first lessons an apprentice magus would generally be taught was 'Never trust a magus.' For non-magi, it was even worse. Magi might be competitors, rivals, or anything else on that level, but for normal citizens or non-magus powered people, it was unfortunately common to end up as little more than a guinea pig for their twisted research.

And then there was what the man they'd fought on Seraphs island had said. Seeing his use of runes, the ice-wielder had been surprised, specifically saying he didn't look Egyptian. For an Egyptian magus to suddenly show up here... Yeah, it was probably just a coincidence, but he was still going to keep his guard up. He couldn't risk it.

He couldn't lose anyone else.

"Jamie." He said quietly once the man had left. "Be careful around that guy. He's a magus. On it’s own, that would already be dangerous enough, but I also think he might be connected to the ice-user who was working with Seraph."

Planning in his head, he realised he only really had one real advantage, which was that Yousef hadn't seemed to realise he was a magus yet. Of course, it was possible that he had just been pretending not to know, but if he really didn't, it could end up being what tips the balance in their favour.

"Also, if anyone asks, my name is Alex, and I'm new to HERO." He said, this time to all three of his teammates. "None of you have seen my powers yet. No matter what, I'm not a magus, ok?"

---

The game started quickly enough, and Chad was having a pretty fun time! The tall guy on the other team didn't seem to be very dexterous, but he probably just needed some practice - Chad used to be pretty bad at sewing, but he eventually got pretty good at it as he did it more. As the game went on and the ball bounced off of his face a few times, Chad purposefully tried to avoid aiming towards his side of the field whenever he was serving or spiking. He's been hit in the face with balls before, and it usually sucked the fun out of things pretty fast.

At least Quake was doing pretty good! Maybe she played before, or just had better hand-eye coordination. As the game went on and Chad realized he might be trying too hard for just a fun little game, so he shifted towards a purely supportive role, passing the ball to Starbright and defending. He was probably way better at playing anyways.

Suddenly, as the ball was about to land on Quake and J-somethings side of the net, the ball was grabbed by a new arrival. Chad didn't even notice the new figure on the court until he had already caught the ball, and was a little shocked. Usually people jumping in mid-game was pretty bad etiquette - Chad learned that when he was freshman during a basketball game...

Then again, he looked friendly enough, and he might have just wanted to play too! Chad could always just take a break and let him have a turn.

"I believe you aren't supposed to let this hit the ground, I'll give you a pass, though. Sorry for interrupting your game. My name is Yousef."

Chad smiled and waved at the new arrival, finally getting a good look at him. He was very tall (Were most heroes here tall? At least he wasn't like The Shocker) and seemed to have a darker complexion than most. Chad immediately noticed the tattoos all across his body, and was even more impressed - they looked super cool! Chad had a face tattoo, but that was nowhere near as big and Chad cried the whole time because it really hurt. This guy had to be pretty tough to have so many tattoos...

"I'm a hero from Egypt...ah, but no need to introduce yourselves. I'm, of course, very familiar with your work. Well, most of you, at any rate. I look forward to getting to know some of you, but I'm also happy to be in the presence of such hero legends. Starbright! We've heard of you around the globe now...oh, and you must be Ms. Jamie Stewart. Quake."

"I've read about you in the papers, but you seem even lovelier in person. I'd love to get to know you better. After this game, perhaps? It's always good to spend some...quality time on vacations. Well, I best not interrupt your game any longer."

Chad was normally incredibly oblivious to most things, but Yousef's words suddenly struck Chad with full force - this guy was hitting on Quake! Woah! He did it just like the movies and was suave like James Bond. By this time, Chad had decided that even if this Yousef guy had a funny name, he was, like, super cool. Not Starbright cool (obviously) but it takes some guts to just walk up and introduce yourself to a bunch of Heroes, right? Chad didn't do that, and he works in the same organization as the others - this guy is from halfway across the world. Maybe he'd hang out with him later and ask who the coolest Heroes in NAEA were.

"Enjoy your game."

"Y-yeah, you too..."

Chad immediately closed his eyes and bit his cheek in embarrassment. Maybe he wouldn't ask to hang out after all. By the time he opened them again, the Egyptian Hero was already walking away.

"Man, that guy seemed pretty cool, huh?"

J-something seemed to whisper something to Quake as Yousef left, but Chad didn't really want to listen in on their conversation (that was rude, right?). Luckily, he turned to address all of them soon enough.

"Also, if anyone asks, my name is Alex, and I'm new to HERO. None of you have seen my powers yet. No matter what, I'm not a magus, ok?"

Chad had no clue what a Magus was (A class in Dungeons and Dragons maybe?), but he felt like kind of an idiot. He was calling this guy J-something the whole time when his name was Alex! That starts with an A! And if he's new to HERO too, maybe that explained why Chad couldn't remember him.

"Ok! I'm not a magus either then."

Was this that LARPing thing? Maybe Chad should be a Fighter, those sound cool!

"Should we keep playing? I-I wasn't really keeping score, sorry..."

Alex seemed pretty upset by something - maybe he didn't want to play volleyball anymore cause he kept getting hit by the ball? That would make sense. Chad once got tackled by Kevin 'Chainsaw' Charles, a 325 pound monster from another school, and he felt like he might have quit football right there. Chad had to go to the hospital after that because he fractured a rib...

"Starbright, you've probably been to places like this before, right? What's the best stuff to do while on vacation?"

Blake’s texts earned one of Patricia’s signature eye rolls but didn’t quite merit a response. As Patricia had found out the hard way, there wasn’t any point in getting into it with Blake. Especially not over official channels in the middle of a volatile undercover mission. Besides, she would win no matter the situation. She did, however, send a :p after his taunting text. She was about to text a second response (it was hard to resist, okay) when Blake sent his next text, which led to her snapping her head up and gazing at the action at the center of the room.

Could this be where they found the Black Baron? Patricia sat up a bit straighter and tried to blend in as best possible. If he revealed himself now, all it would take would be avoiding Malady, cornering him in the room with the hostages, and using her power as fast as possible. It wasn’t exactly a strategy she hadn’t used before. It would be easy. Patricia joined in on the clapping as the old man entered the scene and listened intently to his little speech.

Oh. Oh, SHIT. This was bad. Bad bad bad. Her mind swirled with the implications. If Malady was the Black Baron now (or the Black Baroness)... Patricia had to actively work at keeping her expression neutral and clapping along. This made their plan doubly harder. But still not impossible. Now they just had to juggle taking down a superpowered serial killer senior citizen with taking down his not so senior psychotic teenage girl replacement. Who may or may not be secretly good and a mind-controlled slave to a one-eyed bat.

Yeah, this was gonna be bad. Patricia chanced a glance out of a window nearby, only to see that they had already taken off from the harbor. Her heart plummeted. They were stranded. If worst came to worst and they lost and were captured… well, there were no sneaky escapes in the cards. And no portals, since Grace was on vacation. Patricia was trying to look anywhere but in Malady’s direction, so she chose her phone.

FUCK

i think we should keep our first plan, but this fucks some things up. i’m not sure we could take both in a fight, but given what happened in april i’m not sure malady WILL fight us. i’d say top priority is not being recognized (applies mostly to blake and i) and ESPECIALLY not being captured or like murdered. i’m bad at plans. if they make a move for the boiler room, we should follow and try to take them out. also like maybe tell chrissy ASAP???

That was really everything rational Patti could think of. She set down her phone and chanced a glance at the supervillains receiving the attention at the center of the room.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t fuck this up.

---

Jamie was good at sports. As a teenager, she had been a cheerleader- had been one of the best on the team, actually. So it was no surprise that she was good at volleyball, too! Jamie was grinning as they hit the ball back and forth between their two teams, feeling good. People tended to underestimate how nice it was to move around when you had recently recovered from a terrible injury. It had been more than a month since Jamie had recovered, but that didn’t necessarily mean it didn’t feel nice. Plus, she had to admit, it felt just as good to be winning. Which she thought they were, even if Joseph was terrible at volleyball. How could someone that muscley be so terrible at this game?

Leaping up and hitting the ball, Jamie played the game. One shot made it over the net and far to her left, making her lunge for it. Just as the ball was about to hit the sand on her side, though, a man intervened. Without even realizing she was doing it, she looked him up and down. Cute! He was tall, attractive. Tattoos were always nice too. Yousef sounded just like Joseph to her ears, but she let it slide.

A deep blush came over her as Yousef mentioned her name, and she giggled. “Oh, well, thank you…” Jamie ran a hand through her braided hair and leaned in. Maybe this vacation could be a bit more fun than she had thought. She took the piece of paper, read it (it was a phone number!), and stuffed it away in her pocket. “You know, I just might take you up on that. Thanks!” She waved as he walked off, smiling.

What Joseph had to say quickly got rid of her good mood. She didn’t know what a “magus” was, or why they were dangerous, but the mention of the ice user that had impaled her turned her expression dark. That was really the last thing she had wanted to be reminded of right now.

“Oh, Joseph, stop it,” she teased, although with far less lightness than before. Although, it was Jamie, so her tone was still light. “That guy was cute! I’m sure he’s not a majus or whatever. But if you really think so… fine. You’re so paranoid.” Jamie flicked his forehead and stuck her tongue out at him.

“If we don't wanna play anymore we could… go to the bar! Ooh, piña coladas are so good. We can get the drinks with the little umbrellas and everything!”

Tom shrugged back. "Yeah, I guess so. I dunno, it still just feels a little bit weird to me, they could have at least gone to Florida or something." Tom paused. "Actually, no, nobody would ever want to go to Florida, so I suppose you're right." He let the concerns about the mysterious Greek couple leave his mind as Grace displayed an in-depth knowledge of the resort's security protocols. He rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "Of course you read over all the security protocols before coming here, you're such a nerd." He teased, before watching as she did her thing and opened up a portal back to their hotel room, going into it herself. Tom hurried in herself, knowing Grace well enough at this point to pick up on her signals.

And he was right - pretty much as soon as he stepped into the hotel room Grace wrapped her arms around him and pounced on him. Tom immediaely reciprocated, wrapping his arms around Grace too and grinning into the kiss, looking into her lovely purple eyes when she pulled back, as he ran his fingers lovingly through her equally as lovely and equally as purple hair. He enjoyed Grace's Korean terms of endearment, and he looked at her as she started talking, waiting happily for the declaration of affection that was about to come, and then...

The scene was very rudely interrupted by a loud, shrieking drill noise coming from below which made the entire hut shake. Tom jumped as Grace pulled back. "What the fuck was that?" He exclaimed, looking around then down at the floor, then looking at Grace as she expressed her annoyance. Tom was more confused than anything - what the hell caused that noise, and why the hell was it coming from underground. He scratched his chin in thought. "What maintenance could they be doing under here, isn't this whole hut just built on top of like, sand? That doesn't add up, why are they building stuff in the sand? Maybe it was some kind of earthquake..."

And then the sound happened again, and quickly made it clear that this sound was manmade in origin and not an earthquake. It definitely sounded like a drill. He looked at Grace as she started ranting, clearly very annoyed at the fact that their fun was interrupted. It annoyed Tom too, and Grace's ranting ended up getting him more worked up over it, even though he thought that Grace was pretty adorable when she was mad at something. He raised an eyebrow. "Go underground? How are we gonna get underground? I know you have portal powers, but don't you have to know the place before you can portal there?" He question, before his concern was answered with Grace's cool display of her ability. "Oooh... That was cool." He said.

Tom shook his head. "Of course not. How can we be expected to have fun with that stupid noise?" He watched Grace hop in before walking over himself, dipping his feet in a little before jumping in and landing next to her, looking around, brow furrowed in confusion. "Why the hell does a tropical resort have this underground?" He walked over to the window with Grace, looking down. I have no idea what this is Grace... Is this some kind of secret lair?" He said with a gasp. "Sure looks like one, look at those guards. We should probably get out of here and go get the others...

But Tom's plan was ruined by the sound of the chatting guards on the other side of the door, then completely ruined by the door opening and the guards spotting them and raising their weapons. Tom glanced at Grace, before looking back to the guards with his hands raised slightly. "Uh, yes we can... We, uh, work here!"



Caustic had been a busy man over the last few months. While the killing of Rainbow Dancer had been a satisfying statement of intent to Castleburg, another thing that it meant was Division X was on his tail even more than usual. He was usually always a few steps ahead of them, but he had experienced a few close calls that were far too close for comfort. And then there was the general masses. At one point, he had taken a cab, but the cab driver had recognised his voice, and Caustic had just managed to kill him and get out before the man could contact the authorities. The collapse of the Wings of Law had left Caustic with much less ideas on how to put his plans into action. The Wings were stupid, incompetent heroes, but they were public figureheads and could be taken out without much stress on his part for maximum public impact. The rest of HERO, while still a group of fools who needed elimination, was definitely much less smug and incompetent.

So, considering his commitment to secrecy and covert movement over the last few months, Caustic found himself extremely surprised when, while skulking around in the backalleys of Castleburg one night, he ran into a man who recognised him. Caustic was about to quickly kill him, but the man identified himself as a member of the Brookside Bruisers. Caustic elected to listen to what the man had to say, and if he got bored, just kill the man as he was originally going to and move on. It was quickly obvious that the man had the intention of getting Caustic to join as some kind of enforcer for the gang. When Caustic just crossed his arms and remained silent, the man quickly mentioned about a meeting of criminal gangs on a boat in a few days time, telling him to think it over, before quickly handing him a ticket before running off down the alley.

Caustic thought about it over the next few days. On one hand, he hated the criminal gangs almost as much as he hated the heroes. They could direct their criminal influence into taking down hero institutions, but all they did was spend their time grinding out profits and selling off weaponry and technology to non-powered people. Such a waste. But on the other hand, he couldn't deny that the infrastructure of criminal networks could prove useful. Or, at the very least, he could use this boat meeting nonsense as a chance to sow some discord among the criminal groups. Chaos was good, it sapped the resources of HERO and left them a lot more vulnerable.

So that was how Caustic now found himself walking up the ramp to the luxurious river liner, handing his ticket to the barely intelligible man who was running admissions to the boat. He was donned in a sleek looking black face-mask which covered the bottom half of his face, planning to take it off once he got onto the ship. And he did just that when he got to the bar, standing there although he didn't actually drink. He looked around at the people who were here, not recognising any of them. Evidently there weren't any other high-profile villains here, it was mostly just criminal gangs. Pretty disappointing.

Caustic wasn't one for mingling, so he simply walked among the crowds on the boat, seeing if he could spot anyone he recognised from the news or from ICOSA files he had looked at in the past. And then, suddenly, there was the sound of a glass being tapped on. Caustic, like everyone else on the boat, glanced over to see what was about to happen. The Black Baron... Now this was a name that Caustic recognised. Even before his stint at Coldwater, the Black Baron was a pretty well known figure among the less than savoury characters of Castleburg for his hero-slaying prowess. But this man who walked out was nothing like that legendary figure. He was old, frail, like a gust of wind could blow him over. Caustic did not join in on the clapping, simply listening to what the old villain had to say. Uniting the criminal enterprises of Castleburg? An ambitious idea, but probably one that would never work. Too focused on profits, they would eventually betray each other as usual. But the next part made Caustic raise an eyebrow. A successor?

Caustic vaguely recognised the girl who stepped forward. From his perusing through ICOSA files, he was pretty sure this girl was somehow related to Zero, although he didn't know what her name or powers were. The Zero organisation was a constant source of intrigue for the underworld of Castleburg, but Caustic didn't think much of them. Why wouldn't the leader reveal himself, if he was allegedly so powerful? It was cowardice if anything. As all the criminals crowded towards the girl, Caustic stepped back, glancing outside the window as the boat began to pull off into the harbour. As he looked back to the room, he took note of a guy also standing away from the ground, franctically texting on his phone and downing his alcohol. He was fairly sure he recognised this guy, with his red hair, from ICOSA files too, but he couldn't remember where. Probably a high ranking individual individual in one of the gangs.

Caustic left his position by the window, brushing past the unknown redhead, before walking over to join the crowd of criminals to try and get a better look at this Black Baroness.

@Hitman

@canaryrose@Duoya@Jumbus

He'd upset her. She was trying to hide it, but even an idiot like him could pick up on how her voice was less bubbly and happy than before. Why the hell did he feel the need to bring Winterfall up? Surely there must've been something else he could say to convey how serious it was, right? Whether or not it was warranted, he could feel the regret building up inside him, knowing that he was the reason Jamie was feeling like this. Maybe he should just be happy that she was even trying to pretend it hadn't effected her afterwards. Even with the mounting guilt, he couldn't help but feel that same weird flippy feeling in his chest he'd never quite gotten used to, purely from the expression she made as she flicked him on the forehead.

On the other hand though, her words only made him more anxious. Not that she was completely wrong in her assessment of the man. Probably. He couldn't really judge how cute he was accurately, but he guessed he could see why someone might find the guy attractive. You know, if you were into that kind of stuff...

But he wasn't wrong. Jamie was right, he was paranoid, but he wasn't wrong. Not with this. Whether or not ZERO was involved, Yousef was a magus. Even without the runic arrays he'd been covered in making it blatantly obvious, he showed the same attitude as all the rest. The self-importance to assume that they could just stick their head into something they weren't involved with, and then make themselves the center of it, dictating how it should go as if they'd not only been involved, but in charge, right from the very beginning. Occasionally one would wise up and grow out of it, but he'd never met one who had. Not that it was really surprising, considering most of these people could literally change the world around them as they saw fit.

Though

"Sorry..." Joseph said to her, trying to drag his mind away from that topic, at least for now. "I-, I shouldn'tve brought that guy up, that was stupid. Still, he might not be involved with ZERO, and I guess maybe there's a chance he's even a decent person, but he is a magus. And there are some good ones out there, there must be, but... of all the magi I've ever known, there's only ever been one I wouldn't call a monster. They aren't good people, and I don't think there'll ever be one who hasn't hurt more people than they've helped. Hell, I'm pretty sure most don't even bother..."

Clearly, dragging his mind from the topic had failed. He couldn't quite hold back the dry chuckle that accompanied the realisation. Bad memories and old regrets were quickly taking over his better judgement, and it was only with tremendous effort that he managed to force the quickly forming grimace from his face, replacing it with a more easygoing smile. Not a very convincing one, he was sure, but hopefully enough that he could at least pretend to convince himself he was fine until he managed to get there for real.

"Jus-... I mean-... Alright, look." He said with a sigh, trying to make his voice sound at least a little less dark than it had gotten, though that was a secondary concern compared to hiding the gloominess from what he was about to say next. "I'm not saying don't hang out with the guy, ok? If that's what you wanna do, then... I guess that's what you wanna do... Anyway, you're your own person, so do what makes you happy. I'm just asking you to please, please, be careful when you do. Most magi don't see normal people the way they see themselves. We'r-"

Monsters.

He froze.

"A-anyway, the point is magi suck." He said, before blinking as it finally in his head registered that Chad had also said he wasn't a magus somewhere in the middle of that whole mess, presumably to keep Joseph from feeling left out or something.

Good kid, even if he did seem to have missed the point about as hard as he could've without using his super speed to actively dodge it.

"Ah... Yeah, cool. I mean, I'd already figured you weren't, but I guess it's good to know for sure." He said, giving him a thumbs up. He hadn't initially been planning to lie to the guy, but he also just watched him accidentally pull the dreaded 'you too' move back there with Yousef. Probably not the best idea to risk him blurting out the main thing he's trying to keep hidden in the first place.

Finally, he turned to address Starbright, who had seemed to be the only one who hadn't fully trusted Yousef other than him. It was a weird feeling, to be looking to Starbright as his only ally, but thankfully he didn't have to dwell on it because he immediately ruined it.

"Hey Noah? Starbite me." He said. "It's been a while since I've gotten the chance to play, but D&D is great. Besides, I'm not talkin' crap about your hobby of being a self-righteous douche, am I? Disregarding the frankly disgraceful example you're setting right in front of your dear protégé, do you really want to act even less mature than me?"

Despite how he'd been feeling before, he couldn't help but start smirking half way through the conversation. Apparently some mutual shit-stirring was exactly what he needed to distract him from the anxiety and anger roiling around in his gut, at least for a little while. He'd need something else to force it back down later, he knew that, but at least for now, he felt some of the weight on his shoulders lift away, leaving him free to try and enjoy himself for a couple of hours.

Thankfully, it only took a second or two before the perfect plan was suggested, his eyes lighting up as Jamie mentioned the bar.

"Now we're talking!" He said. "I've been sober since just after we got on the plane, which was a big mistake. Turns out they're still scary even when you aren't drunk."

---

"Ah... Yeah, cool. I mean, I'd already figured you weren't, but I guess it's good to know for sure."

Apparently Magus must have been a bad class, or at least one that Alex didn't seem to like. Hopefully he had the wrong idea about Yousef though - the guy seemed nice. Really, the only thing he did that was a little annoying was stopping their game, and Chad had gotten used to way worse stuff, like people saying his Hero name wrong.

"Yes of course I know where to go Chad. Well its, uh, pretty simple... Its just a matter of picking whats first. Lets think uh..."

“If we don't wanna play anymore we could… go to the bar! Ooh, piña coladas are so good. We can get the drinks with the little umbrellas and everything!”

While Chad was up for most stuff, and going to the bar might be interesting... Chad would need to be a little older. As it stood, going to a bar was illegal for him! Illegal things are bad! And even if it wasn't, Chad wasn't exactly a fan of alcohol - it made people act funny, and not in a comedian way...

"Yes, what she said. Lets go to... the bar?"

Then again, all the cool people at Chad's old highschool drank alcohol - even Chad's ex-girlfriend drank Bourbon that she stole from her brother all the time, and she was one of the coolest people he knew.

"Now we're talking! I've been sober since just after we got on the plane, which was a big mistake. Turns out they're still scary even when you aren't drunk."

Oh, Alex drank pretty often - maybe Chad could ask him what didn't taste icky when they got to the bar...

"A-alright, if that's where we want to go... I think it's this way."

Chad started walking towards the beach bar, a sizable pavilion near the edge of the beach. The roof was decorated to look like it was made of straw and dried leaves, and the entire thing clearly was going for a tropical look. Or at least an appealing tropical look. A place as swanky as this resort obviously had more impressive places, but Chad could always go to an indoor bar back at Castleburg - the point of a vacation was experiences, and this was one that he couldn't have back home.

That, and it's much closer to walk to.

As it turns out, bars have bartenders, and the woman behind the counter wore the fake smile everyone in the service industry adopts as she saw Chad walked up. This was Chad's chance out of here!

"Hey there man! What would you like?"

Dammit! Chad was really hoping that she'd card him and he could avoid this situation. Chad briefly wondered - why the heck didn't she card him? Unbeknownst to him, the combination of his dyed hair, face tattoo, and numerous scars made Chad appear several years older than he really was.

"D-don't you need to card me?"

"Oh, uh... Alright."

Chad smirked slightly as he sat on one of the stools - he was only 18, so there was no way he was allowed to drink. Hopefully it didn't ruin it for the others, Chad could always wait for them to-

"Alright dude, what are you having?"

Chad took his card back from the Bartender's outstretched hand and quickly pulled up his new phone. As if he was checking a text, Chad made a quick google search, and grimaced - the drinking age in the Virgin Islands was 18. Thank god he wasn't breaking the law - the sentence for underage drinking was 25-to-life. Chad's mother told him-

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

...Still, even if it wasn't illegal, Chad really didn't want to drink anything if he could avoid it. It just didn't feel right - ever since he got to this place, something felt a little off. Chad thought keeping his wits about him might help later...

...Nah. That was just an excuse to avoid drinking.

Suddenly, Chad was hit with genius inspiration!

"...You guys order first, I'm still thinking."

The perfect maneuver - now Chad could just copy someone else!

For some reason, the idea to simply say 'I don't want to drink' didn't occur to Chad. Maybe he's just not very smart.

Chad tried to think of possible things to talk about - Yousef came to mind since he was so recent, but Alex really didn't seem to like the guy, so that was probably a no-go talking point. Chad's main go-to talking point, Starbright, also seemed to be something Alex wasn't fond of, so he was struggling to find something to fill the void. Chad's blog? Down right now. Superpowers? He already knew everyone's except Alex's, and he said that he didn't want to share. Forums? Way too much creepy stuff.

Maybe TV? No - One of Chad's favorite shows, Keeping up with the Wings, was cancelled ever since the Eagles incident a few months prior. Mentioning he was bummed about that might have been bad since, y'know, the main actor tried to kill them all.

"Are vacations like this a usual thing? Mr. Powers never really struck me as a 'vacation' type of boss, but I've only worked at HERO for a little bit."

Chad decided to just say the first question that came to mind and it ended up working out. Hopefully these vacations were pretty common - Chad still felt a little guilty that he was on a vacation when someone like Firebird, a much more experienced hero, wasn't.

More swarms of nanobots emerged from Rumi's clothes and crawled down to the ground, where they rearranged themselves to form several tiny metal beads that began to roll underneath the door and into the hallway. They began to seek dark corners of the highway to conceal themselves and mold themselves into place, transforming into tiny cameras and giving Rumi multiple points of view to alert him should anyone threaten to reveal his and Brooke's position. A couple cameras continued to roll away in an attempt to find the rest of the crew and give him some extra information about their situations. While that was going on, Rumi walked over to the door and pulled out a couple capsules from one of his pockets, mounting them near the door. The two devices activated motion sensing lasers, which would cause the capsules to open and fire a burst of electricity to stun whoever was unlucky to trigger the trap.

Returning his attention to the miniature cameras, Rumi had found they had arrived within the crowd of gangsters, where the Black Baron had announced his successor. Rumi remotely controlled one camera to climb up the wall and roll its way around the room, maintaining a good angle for observation. The group messages were also coming in, prompting Rumi to control the other camera to follow Malady, who was being led out of the room by Jim Rockferry, as discreetly as possible. Unfortunately, Rumi couldn't get the camera into the room before the door was shut, not wanting to risk it being discovered. As a result, all he had to work with was subpar audio as the camera tried to pick up anything it could through the door, but it was enough. The resulting interaction between the two did not go well, as Jim sounded like he was killed off by Malady, and the next piece of information about her coming to the boiler room was even more alarming.

Deciding that he had heard enough, Rumi ordered most of the cameras to return to him, except a couple to watch the gang members and the hallway outside the boiler room. He also typed out a message, Alert. Malady knows heroes are on the ship and is heading to the boiler room. Once they returned, Rumi activated his nanotech suit, covering him in its chrome armor. "We're getting company soon. The Black Baroness is coming. Be ready," Rumi warned Brooke, having the nanobots form a blaster barrel around his right hand.

"Surely," Pandora responded absent-mindedly. When Powers disabled the computer, she snapped back into focus, her mind returning entirely to the present day. "Right. More poor sods." She whispered, eyeing the guards as they marched past. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, wondering what they could be protecting.

Regardless, she chuckled, having a funny idea. She jogged alongside the guards, but on the other side of the wall. She got ahead of them with a bit of matter manipulation, removing the latent air resistance infront of her. Listening to their location, she cut them off. She phased through the wall, but brought it with her. Grabbing the wall she pushed it ahead and then dragged it out. Suddenly the soldiers would the steel wall to their right surge ahead and reconnect with the wall to their left, blocking their way. It looked so smooth one might be convinced it was some kind of automatic function of the laboratory. They came to a stop, obviously no longer able to continue.

When suddenly, the wall behind them did the same thing. This caused alarmed shouts, but it was too late. They were sealed in a cube of steel. Like plaque clogging up an artery.

As a consequence, the server room had two extra openings where there hadn't been one before.

"You ever play a game of snooker?" She said, turning to Powers. "And at the beginning you have all the balls in that little triangle? And when you move the triangle around all the balls go with it and rattle around and bump into each other?" She chuckled. "It's kind of like that, but with people." She pointed to her makeshift imprisonment chamber.

She waved her hand around. "Oh, I can come back and let them out, later. It's no good if they all starve to death in there." She added dismissively. "Unless this whole laboratory explodes. Which tends to happen a lot in my experience. In which case they're fucked. But it's not like the concussions and broken bones you give people are just gonna go away, either. Non-lethal combat is a tricky business. Everyone's so fragile." Pandora said.



Brooke crinkled her nose as what looked like thousands of bugs emerged from Rumi's clothes. "Eugh." She said, chuckling a little. "Still. That's uh, that's certainly something." She placed a hand on her hip, scratching her head. She watched as the serious Rumi prepared their boiler room with defenses and then shielded himself with chrome armor.

"Dang!" She bounced up and down, even more impressed. "That is so cool! I should have known you had cooler powers than 'ants-in-your-pants'." She smiled brightly. But her mouth soon turned into a thin grim line as Sir E. Brum scouted out some intel.

"Okay. The Black Baroness, huh? I'm ready." She said, voice steady. The closer they got to combat, the more sure of herself Brooke became. Compared to the nervous woman in the briefing room, this Brooke was prepared and projected confidence and authority.

"We can do this. Just keep your distance." She reached out and summoned forth a four feet high semi-circle around the door, topped with spikes. It was mostly clear, like dirty glass, for it's power source was the dingy lighting of the boiler room. "The armor is a good idea. Hope you don't mind if I copy it?"

Brooke pushed her glasses up on her nose and then rolled her shoulder. She took a single step on an invisible stair. Suddenly, there was a boot she slipped her shoe into. She ascended the single step and as she did, what looked like metallic armor encompassed her body. It started out as dirty glass but she willed it into looking like shiny steel. It was a suit of proper knight armor, heavy, durable, and in this case, air-tight. The helmet had a liftable visor. It was entirely cosmetic, however. The glass on the inside of her helm was like a one-way mirrior. She could see out of it, but no one could see in. Thus her helm was an imposing, faceless structure.

"I suppose one could say the situation has reached..." Her voice resonated deeply, echoing. "A boiling point? Hah!" She barked a hearty laugh.

With a grin on her face, Jamie followed Chad to the bar. Drinking with friends was something she was familiar with, at least. Hopefully, no one would get too wild, but even if they did, it’d be fun! Woo! The bar looked tropical, appropriately themed for an island resort. She took a seat on one of the wicker bar stools next to Chad and leaned against the bar. Chad looked a bit nervous. Weird! He did look young though, so maybe that was why?

Jamie signaled for the bartender, and the woman walked over. She was about to order when Chad spoke up… asking to be carded? Her eyebrows shot up and she giggled, almost in disbelief. He knew that you didn’t ask to get carded, right? Weird kid.

“I’ll have a piña colada, please!” Jamie piped up and handed over her credit card. “And… I’ll get one from my friend here, too. “ She gestured to Chad. She would’ve gotten one for Joseph, but she knew that he preferred the harder stuff. A piña colada would be a little too light for him. Plus, poor Chad didn’t seem to know what he was doing here.

The bartender came back with two fruity-looking yellow drinks in coconut cups with umbrella straws poling out of them. She set one in front of Jamie and the other in front of Chad and then walked off. Jamie enthusiastically took a sip of her drink. “Mmmm, this is good. You can really taste the pineapple! And the rum. It’s not very alcoholic, though, so we’ll have to have a couple if we wanna get drunk. And I could drink more than a few of these.”

Jamie cocked her head at Chad’s question and thought a bit. Actually, if she thought a bit, this was the first time Powers had ever done this in her six years of working for him. “No, he really isn’t,” she told him. “I don’t know why he’d suddenly set up a vacation like this, but all the power to him! A vacation on the company dime is awesome. He’s usually super yell-y and strict, but this is cool. Hopefully he’ll be nice this week. Not like he can get mad at me for wrecking any buildings here.”

---

that’s an alright plan, max. not into getting kidnapped (though i’d bet money some of you are) but we don’t have a lot of options.

blake i HAVE a girlfriend tyvm, and she is not a fucking villain. i’ll see what i can do about distracting her though

Patricia sat back and watched the action happen for a moment. Blake ran after the Black Baron, which she could only hope went well, and Malady disappeared into the hallway with some gangster-looking man. Just as that happened, she got another ding from her phone. Apparently, Blake wanted one of them to eavesdrop. Patricia scoffed quietly. Since when had he become leader? Notmenotmenotme… But nobody else was getting up to go do it. So, with reluctance, Patricia stood from her chair, death-glared at Cerise, Max, and Alpha, and headed over to the side room.

Were those… marbles moving on the wall? Patricia squinted for a moment and tried to reconcile what she was seeing with the laws of physics before she realized what they were. Oh! A little smile appeared on her face. Those would be Rumi’s, and if Rumi was spying, she didn’t need to! Satisfied, Patti turned back around and headed back to the bar.

She was maybe halfway to her seat when she got yet another ding from her phone. She dug it out and read it, brows furrowed… ah. Shit. She stuffed her phone back into her purse. If Malady knew there were heroes on the ship… did she know about the rest of them, or just Brooke and Rumi? And if she was heading to the boiler room…

Patricia could guess that Malady was maybe closer to the boiler room than they were and was probably making a beeline for there at that moment. If they got there after she did, it would be too late for Brooke and Rumi. And if she was closer, she’d definitely get there before them. Although she didn’t know the two very well, she still didn’t want her colleagues to die. That sort of took precedence over the whole not wanting to get recognized thing.

well, that’s bad! I think she’s closer to you two than we are. I’m gonna go delay her. everyone else, get to the boiler room asap

Heart pumping in her chest, Patricia did a full 180 on her heel and headed right back into the hallway. Malady had just left the room after murdering Jim Rockferry and was heading straight down the hall to the boiler room. What should I do? She had options, but little time. Should she sing? No, she’d hear her and send that mist at her. Making someone vomit was a good way to shut them up. Judging from their only reaction, she didn’t seem likely to kill Patricia. Maybe she should mention that ominous note? Bump into her?

Yes, that was the right way to go. She clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and sped-walk towards Malady’s back. Then, just as she was turning the corner, Patricia barreled into her with the grace of an ox, sending both of them falling to the ground.

“Oh! Oh no, I am so sorry, I am such a klutz. It seems I don’t look where I’m walking. I was just looking for the bathroom…” Patricia trailed off. In case Malady didn’t recognize her, she didn’t want to reveal herself too prematurely. But if she did, she’d go on with the second phase of her impromptu plan. Breath held, she waited for a response.

Tom once again stood impressed as Grace displayed her cool powers once again to dispatch with the guards after Tom's lame excuse. Yeah, it was super lame, but it was a spur of the moment thing. Tom realised, as Grace kicked the guard with her foot, that he hadn't actually used his powers properly in like, a couple of days. So, in his head, he called dibs on taking out the next set of guards that they came across, if they came across any at all. He was itching to use them again, he'd kept his feet on the ground far too long for his liking. He chuckled at Grace's question, shrugging as the pair stepped over. "Hey, I managed without you... Somehow." Then, the couple began to move deeper into the facility to see what lay ahead.

What lay ahead was seemingly a very long, very sleek and very modern looking hallway which extended a long way away into the lair. Whoever built this place was evidently rich as hell, none of this looked even remotely cheap. But who knows, Tom wasn't exactly an expert in the logistics of building an evil lair. It wasn't too long before the couple reached the end of the corridor, which turned out to be a room locked away behind a heavy looking metal door. He didn't even have to say anything, Grace immediately springing into action again and creating a simple portal into the room. However, what they found on the inside was anything but simple for Tom to process. It was some kind of creepy looking prison, one cell being occupied by a hero that Tom recognised as Thundering Whisper. But he was totally out of it, not responding to Grace's tap on the glass at all.

Tom shook his head, frowning. "I have no idea... But this is some serious shit Grace, this definitely isn't good." He said, looking around as they reached the computer. He nodded at Grace before she kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea... Just don't be too long, okay?" He watched her step through the portal and sighed. Now he was in this creepy secret lair alone for the time being, waiting for the cells to open up. But before Tom could even think about what he could do to pass the time, the room was suddenly filled with guards in an instant. Tom cursed loudly, before he saw who stepped into the room after the guards.

It was the girl from before on the beach! Tom just knew that there was something suspicious about her, and he had been proven right. If Grace was here with him, he probably would have gave her a little "I told you so", but that would have to wait until Grace returned with reinforcements. Tom glanced around at the guards again. He felt like if he put his hands up and submitted, he was either going to get immediately shot or shot then placed in a cell. So, his best bet was to hold them off until Grace returned with Powers and everyone. I mean, this girl was probably just some scout for whatever this was, right? She couldn't be that powerful.

Tom started to go put his hand up, then suddenly floated a little bit into the air, sending a nearby chair into his hands which he then sent flying out towards Andromeda, before he quickly floated in a different direction to avoid the expected gunfire.

@Hitman



It wasn't long before the Black Baroness was called away by one of the crime lords for a chat, and at that point, the crowd around her, without any kind of focal point, dispersed back to smaller groups engaged in idle chatter. At this point, Caustic wasn't entirely sure what to do. He had no interest in talking to any of these people, nor did he drink, so he couldn't just stand around at the bar guzzling alcohol until the ship docked back in port. So, he supposed there was only one thing left to do, and that was descend into the lower depths of the ship and see if he could find any interest. So far, this excursion had been a massive waste of time. The criminals had been their bumbling selves, the only new event was the replacement of an old respectable villain with some likely incompetent child.

So, Caustic moved past the crowd and out of the main area of the ship, down a hallway off to the side. As he passed by a door, he was pretty sure he heard what sounded like something hitting the floor, but he paused for a moment before moving on. This ship was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside, and Caustic found himself turning and entering a seemingly vast array of hallways each with multiple rooms branching off. Whenever he stopped to look inside a room, all he found was an empty space or some generic equipment. Perhaps it was a perfect analogy for these criminal enterprises - all this wealth and prestige but nothing of substance, nothing except shallow desires for profit.

It took him a little bit of time to get into the actual bowels of the ship. Sleek corridors were now replaced by shabbier ones with more metal. He saw a small sign that pointed to the boiler room, so he decided to head that way. However, as he passed the door to the boiler room, he stopped suddenly, as he could hear at least a few voices coming from within. He stopped, cocking his head as he looked at the door. Something was certainly happening within. Why else would so many people be in a maintenance room like this? But it was decidedly unwise to interrupt this right now.

So, Caustic took one last look at the door before walking back the way he came and round the corner, stopping when he got around, prepared to wait as long as it took for more people to enter or for the people inside to leave.

The last thing Patricia remembered was a sudden collision to the back of her head, and then darkness.

Patricia woke with her face nestled into someone’s warm, comfy shoulder. She noted several things as she slowly came back to consciousness. One: she was drooling, two: her head hurt so bad it felt like her brain was being crushed by Superman, three: someone was saying her name, and four: the voice that was calling her name was not one that was good to hear. At that realization, she snapped her head up from Kat’s shoulder and stared, bleary-eyed, at the other girl. Her headache got even worse with the sunlight, making her squint, but she knew the girl sitting next to her as Malady. And they were definitely not on the boat anymore. Something had gone very, very wrong. Patricia’s expression morphed into one of panic and bewilderment. “Oh my God! Get away from me!” She tried to shove Kat away, only to find that she couldn’t. She glanced down. Oh. That’s why. A pair of isolene handcuffs bound the two girls together by the wrists.

She glanced up again, her eyes filled this time not with panic but with confusion and suspicion. If they were handcuffed together, that could mean two things. The first was something that she didn’t quite want to think about. The second was that Malady was here against her will. She imagined that the second was more likely. Patricia’s heart still hammered in her chest, though- being handcuffed to a supervillain who could kill you with a touch was not her ideal scenario. She took a few additional seconds to look around their surroundings and was even further confused by what she saw. They were in a tiny metal cage of some sorts, on… an island? This place looked like it was torn straight from the Pirates of the Caribbean. She fixed Kat with a look of bewilderment and groaned. “Where am I? What are you doing here? Why are we... handcuffed together? We aren't on the boat!” Patti launched a furious volley of questions at Kat and tried to subtly scoot away from the other girl. Unfortunately, the length of their cuffs stopped her from doing so. While doing that, she used her only free hand to search her clothes for her stuff. Nada. Damnit.

Guess our plan worked. I did get kidnapped! Thanks, new guy... God, I am so dead.

Victory was closer than she knew. Just a few moments after her amazing pun, the ship and everyone on it came to a grinding halt. Fortunately, the two in the boiler room were well armored. Victory reacted quickly to the change of momenteum. She and Sir E. Braum were about to go slamming into the wall infront of them. Fortunately, the two were well armored. As she flew forward she turned and raised a hand, changing her Hard Light shield into a foamy cushion for Rumi to land on. She wasn't sure how strong his armor was, but she knew hers was strong enough to take the impact of a mere ship crash.

She slammed her back against the wall and waited out the rest of the crash, using her limbs to keep herself steady. Everything went somewhat quiet. Needless to say, the smile had left Brooke's face under her helm. It was time to get serious. They didn't have any time to waste.

"We have to find the others and regroup." Victory said to her heroic compatriot. She turned to the door of the boiler room. The whole ship was crashed. No longer did it rock gently back and forth in the waves of the water.

Her plan was as simple as that. Making sure all the heroes got out alive was more important than capturing the villains.

Victory tried the handle of the boiler room door, just in case. Of course, they were locked in.

"I'll get us out of here. Those cameras of yours will be useful in locating our allies. Scout ahead while I break this door down." The gleaming goliath hunched over to the boiler room door. Cocking her fist, she brought it down on the edge of door. It dented, slightly. Victory was much stronger than an average human in her armor form, but she didn't have specialized super strength. The pounding of her gauntlets against the door resounded loudly. It didn't matter. They had to get out. What good would being hidden, trapped, in the boiler room do? It was either a noisy escape, drowning, or being found by supervillains.

Once there was a small gap in the door, Victory transitioned her foamy cushion for Rumi into a prybar. She braced herself against the door with her shoulder and began to pull, hoping to break the things long. Or just tear it off its hinges entirely.