San Francisco - near 3rd street

While walking, Alexis put on her headphones, listening to the new announcement from the President or the racist idiot as she used to call him.

“Altered humans will be required to declare their status on their driver license or whatever form of ID they have, Altered humans will NOT be allowed to be sold or consume alcoholic beverages due to the danger of superhumans being intoxicated, Altered humans will not be allowed to consume marijuana or any illicit drugs for the same reasons as their ban on alcohol consumption, Altered humans will have a curfew and will not be permitted to be roaming the streets from the hours of 10PM to 8AM under no exceptions, Altered humans will not be allowed to be present at any educational facility including all schools & college’s neither as student or faculty regardless of age. Altered humans will not be allowed to use their abilities in public for any reason or face federal prosecution. Altered humans will not be allowed to utilize their powers during the the commission of any business or financial activities. Altered Humans will be temporarily barred from certain profession’s where their inclusion right now is detrimental including law enforcement, practicing law, all forms of medical practice, the educational system. Altered humans are not considered a protected class like race, religion & gender and can be banned or removed from any private or public business for safety measures without warning at will. Altered Humans are banned from using all forms of public transportation including privately owned such as Uber & Lyft. Altered humans are not allowed to engage in ownership or possession of guns or other weaponry.”

As soon as it ended, Alexis started swearing to herself.
" What the hell is that guy thinking? That bullshit will make people fall in-line to the Reaper. Another idiot. Can't they just leave us alone? I don't give a flying f**k who has powers and who hasn't. Who cares? "

Idiots .

An idea was starting to form in Alexis's mind. Leave. No other country seemed to have problems with Altered Humans, why wouldn't she leave? Nothing kept her here. No point in staying and if she'd managed to take Nafisa with her this time around, ok, if not, then it's her life. Her choices. Why would Alexis even care? Nafisa, nor her parents tried to get in contact or called the police when Alexis left. No one cared about her, why would she?

As she'd continue with her contemplation moment, she bummed into someone. Quickly saying her apologies or in other words a rude "What where you're going" she realized something. She was already on the 3rd street. Lucky.
Looking around nothing popped as "not normal" for her, until she saw the posters with her face on them or better said, with Nafisa's face on them and below it, some writing :

"Wanted for multiple criminal practices including drug distribution and grand theft - Real name unknown, known as Angel on the streets - Call 234-631 with any information about the whereabouts of this dangerous criminal."

Without realizing she did it, she put her hoodie on. Trying to hide her face. If posters like this were hanged randomly thoughout the city, that means the internet was buzzing with it and that means, people might think she's the dangerous criminal. How didn't she see anything?

After hiding as much as possible on an alleyway, she took her phone and spent about an hour looking all over the internet about the supposed Angel. Still, her sister wanted by law? That was shocking. Finally, she caught a lucky break. An old comment on a supposed-sighting video, from a worker at a local FEMA camp.
Doing her best to stay hidden, she navigated the streets walking towards the FEMA camp.

Time: Morning
Location: San Francisco, California
Interaction:

---

After listening to about half of the President's address to the American public on his phone, Marcus hit pause and placed his phone back into his pocket. He didn't need to hear the rest before making another call to HQ.

"The last few altered on that hit list you gave me… I'm adding Forrester to it. And, yes I quit. Thanks for the suit though." Marcus hung up before there was any retort, he threw the phone against a container. With that, he began running, his clothing igniting as moved at super speed across San Francisco. His first target was known to be extremely elusive, but that's how they all were until he caught up with them. Next he tossed the issued gun he received from Liberty. With his Target in mind, he went on the hunt.

They call her, Angel.

@Timemaster

San Francisco, California - Jason Korvil - Cafe

Those things are monsters, they can’t be around the rest of us. I have kids how can people feel safe with them walking around and the worst type of people have gotten powers now.

Thoughts from an older white lady walking inside a nearby grocery store. Jason sat down at a table at a cafe watching videos on his laptop. This had become one of his favorite past-times since the manifestation of his abilities. Sitting outside at random cafe’s, enjoying a nice strong caffeinated brew & surfing the thoughts of random passerby’s.

People were filled with all sorts of thoughts he’d found out. This the psych major’s ultimate dream, being able to truly analyze people. It had served him well with his private practice allowing him to flourish the past two months. He’d even done some cold calls, catching some disturbing or risky thoughts from people that he talked into coming to the clinic. Between his practice & the evening support groups he’d started for Altered Humans he was feeling as though he put his powers to good use.

At least for regular old Jason, but not Justice. Justice had different ideas about how to use their powers. Justice was like a brother to Jason, the older brother he never had. Being the eldest sibling he was expected to be the example. Sometimes the pressure of that was too much, and finally the facade of strength cracked when his father was sentenced. From that moment in the darkest nether regions of his mind, the crevice of his subconscious his desire to be coddled and have someone to look up to expanded. His innate yearning to have someone else be the role model and him simply following their lead. Thus Justice was born, a fragment of his personality who’d grew up to lessen that burden on poor Jason.

“Jason you need to rest, let me take over for now. We’re sitting out here watching people like birds, I don’t want to hear them chirp anymore. There so predictable it’s almost funny. The ones you expect to be the judgmental pricks are, the ones who are suffering have this victim mentality about the whole thing that won’t go away because of this trauma or that trauma,” Justice spoke from within the confines of Jason’s mind, the alternate personality having a conversation with the primary one that was Jason.

“I do understand, perhaps I do need to rest. I mean you heard the President’s announcement, the blood tests are starting soon they will do horrible horrible things to us. Jason replied to his other self. As he said that he looked up to notice a convoy of armored vehicles pulling up to a wax-mart.

It didn’t take but a few minutes for the military to began setting up shop in-front of the grocery store. Soon he was able to see why, the exact reason the soldiers were planting themselves in-front of the super-center. Some medical professionals had accompanied them, they were setting up a blood testing center. Jason whipped out his phone going clicking into the twitter app. Searching about the blood tests and altering his settings to only show things from nearby his eyes widened. At other nearby places with large amounts of foot traffic including popularly frequented fast food restaurants & gas stations the same things were happening.

“The National Guard’s been deployed! This is nuts, there gonna find those freaks and drag them out of the corner there hiding in.” One man in his early 20’s spoke, he appeared to be speaking with a friend of similar age. The two youths were emerging from a game-stop that was next to the cafe Jason was sitting at.

“Yeah I hope they get em formal, the las thing we need is super powered black people. They commit enough crimes as it is.” The second man said the two friends laughing with each other. Jason’s teeth grinned and he rubbed his scalp to ease the anger that was rising in him. He despised people like them so callous in their hatred. As the two men hopped in their vehicle getting ready home to play the new games they’d obtained from the store.

“Justice…will be served.” Jason watched as the youths pulled out of their parking space into the main road. Jason turned his head in every which way seeing an SUV was speeding down the street and using his powers he used an invisible force that caused the SUV to spin out of control zooming until it crashed into the youths. A loud BOOM being heard as the two video’s collided, glass shattering, and the screaming of the youths as well as the SUV driver a middle aged white mom who’d been blasting country music while driving blowing her horn at everyone else who was trying to take their time on the road. Two sets of people who were both just a drain on society in Jason’s opinion from the brief observation of them out among everyone else. Using his ability to cause a violent collision between them was something that brought a smile to his face. Or rather Justice, the representation of everything Jason wanted to have protect him was in control. People around the area where whipping out their phones some to call 911, others to take pictures & record video of what just transpired. Jason stood up from the cafe and walked over to the trash to discard the near empty coffee cup. The age of loud mouthed oppressive bullies was over, thanks to the energy storm the world dynamic was changing. The oppressed shall rise up and become the oppressors, and finally thanks to these powers the meek shall inherit the earth.

San Francisco California - Floyd Banker - Drinks on Us

Floyd had parted ways with Rita after some bomb sex, delicious Mexican food & a couple backwoods. He enjoyed being around her for sure, she was fiery. He liked that personality in a woman, although some weren’t fans of the combative chicks he liked to go to war with his girl.

It made sense that the energy plague had turned her into a literal human flame-thrower then. Perhaps powers were a reflection of people’s personality traits, then again how could genetics care about your feelings? In the end what did Floyd know, more peculiar thoughts floating through his skull from over-consumption of marijuana. He decided to take his mind off things and accept Darius’ invitation to go out for some drinks. After all his pockets were more flush then usual thanks to getting his drugs through Rita.

It was a bit of a comfortability stretch to initiate doing business with the cartels. But he felt with superhuman powers at his disposal it couldn’t go wrong. Or at least not as wrong as it could without them. He strolled through the streets whistling just like any other guy, the only difference was he was currently invisible. As he strolled down the side-walk he noticed a girl he had an intense dislike of. Brianna, while he was out here he decided to make the most of his time and get enrolled in classes. Sure he already had a semi succesful business, a media & marketing firm Paradise Productions but he wanted something more. He wanted the validation that came with a piece of paper saying he really was intelligent. Why limit his options to any one thing, he wasn’t that type of guy. Who knew what the future held, and with a lengthy arrest record from his past he wanted to develop as many skills as possible that he could convert it into equitable skills.

“Girl you won’t believe it. But he put..it down! I’m telling you! And he drives a hellcat, this negro getting some bread fat-real he not one of them broke boys like you be talking too.” Brianna was being loud & obnoxious as usual whilst on the phone talking to one of her friends. Trading stories about the men they lured into their bed-rooms to pump dry of any & all financial assets. That behavior made Floyd’s blood boil, he grew tired of hearing women spouting this nonsense more and more since City Girl’s rise in popularity.

Suddenly a thought popped into Floyd’s mind an immature one at that but he couldn’t resist. He approached the female he had such disdain for making sure not to bump into anyone else on the side-walk considering he was unseen. As he neared closer to her he stuck his foot out causing her to trip.

“Guh AHH!! Brianna yelped from loosing her balance and fell face forward into the sidewalk. She cried out as she planted her face into the sidewalk screaming out. Some dude nearby who’d seen her fall rushed over to her while Floyd inched away from the scene holding back intense laughter. As he walked away he saw blood oozing from Brianna’s forehead showing that she’d really hurt herself with that fall.

“Stupid bitch.” Floyd muttered to himself as he turned a corner & finally was able to laugh aloud about the situation. Not wanting to be outed as the invisible bitch tripper he slipped into a dark ally where he reversed the effects of his power becoming part of the visible spectrum again. “Shit I thought I was feeling like Ghost when I got my first duffel bag full of cocaine, but this takes the cake.”

Floyd amused himself with his own inside jokes about Power, even though he was only speaking to himself. He took out his phone to look at how far he was walking distance from “Liquid Paradise” the bar he was meeting Darius at. He’d much rather have went to china town himself as he found a pretty nice bar run by a Vietnamese guy down there. Not to mention the had specials on drinks tonight and he’d seen some gorgeous asian women over there last time he went. The fact that he was extra sauced up on Hennessy could have played a role on how many pretty women he saw there as beer goggles often did but he was willing to trust that his intoxicated brain didn’t bump the women up too many points on the attractive scale.

It wasn’t long before he’d made it to the outside of the establishment. “Took ya long enough negro, the hell was you doing taking the scenic route? And where the hell is yo car, don’t tell me that shit got repossessed I new you ain’t owned that BMW. Yo ass was capping bout being up huh.”

Floyd turned to see the very friend he’d come over here to meet up with. Darius, who was a little older than him. Well maybe more then a little Darius was in his early, very early 30’s as he liked to say. He was very light skinned, had an impressive muscular build, and was sporting a white wife beater and some sweats. Not exactly the preferred garb at bars but at a whopping 240 pounds all muscle not many people wanted to address or correct Darius in public unless he was really making an ass of himself. Floyd was glad he was on the big guy’s side walking up and dapping up his friend. “Nah bruh my car just fine, I was fucking with Rita, and pussy so good I just started walking and shit like I got extra energy now. I forgot I even had a car.”

“Oh I see what happened yo ass took a uber to her spot, got too fucking high, and just walked from there.” Darius asked as they began approaching the entrance to Liquid Paradise.

“No bruh I got that shit on me, and I’m finna make a play. No need driving with this shit if I don’t got to, there aye bruh come over here.” Floyd waved down a hispanic man who was smoking a marblo red like it was his last. The man hurried over to Floyd and Darius, the trio walking into the parking lot ducking behind a parked SUV. Floyd reached in his nike duffel bag taking out a large bag of powder cocaine handing it to the man in exchange for a stack of blue bills.

“Ah ease I see you later, I go now, pleasure do business Floyd I.” A hand shot out from Darius grabbing the hispanic man’s shoulder causing him to freeze & tense up. “Aye what’s the big idea.”

“Calm down “Ese” let me count the money first shit you act ike everybody got 13 racks, predicate you looking out Darius,.” Floyd said thanking his friend from grabbing speedy Gonzalez to prevent him from speeding off before he counted all the proceeds from his drug sale. After a few seconds he confirmed he had all 13 K and Darius released the customer who left off a few choice words that let him know he wasn’t happy about the supposed “lack of trust between established professionals.”

It wasn’t until a few moments later they were both situated in the bar, Floyd producing a pre rolled Dank-Woods. Sparking up the flower, wax and kief infused cigar he took only three puffs before he started coughing profusely. “Shit gah damn this that strong ass shit forreal.” Floyd said between strained breaths passing the premium cannabis cigar to his buddy.

“I’d hope so, I’ve seen these motherfuckers around in the store, these joints going for $50 to $60 a pop and that’s out here in Cali. Can you imagine back in Atlanta shits prolly be $100 for a blunt, I mean I’m good I’ve got iron lungs and I ain’t smoked all day some of us have real jobs so we can’t just blow down kush all day.” Darius teased Floyd although there was a hint of jealousy in his voice. He had a good job as an engineer but he did find it unfair that Floyd made his monthly income in a day just selling cocaine alone. Not to mention the other drugs he sold on top of his legitimate business.

“Hey look man if you wanna work with me, ball out you always welcome. You know I’m getting money 10 different ways fa-shitsho.” Floyd announced with pride as a busty waitress in some thick fitting clothing came out producing their drinks and a plate of wings Floyd had ordered. Floyd slid her a $20 dollar bill propping it in-between her breasts as Darius grabbed a drumstick off the plate biting down into it passing the weed back to Floyd.

“Damn hold on there big fella, how you know this 20 piece wasn’t for me? I said drinks on me, I ain’t say wings.” Floyd protested as Darius continued to eat un-perturbed by his friends insane greediness.

“Bruh shut the fuck up I will knock yo ass out in the middle of the bar, and walk away with the duffel bag, damn don’t be a fucking crab. Like you got cartel bitches, a whole real business & fucking super powers, and you don’t wanna share wings? And I’m always looking out?” Darius said now sounding a little upset forreal causing Floyd to feel some guilt.

“Right right ighh you gotta point, shit It ain’t really going do nun to my funds. Ayo waitress, uhh Wass ya name Letucia yea lemme get another ten piece, make that teriyaki and throw in another order of fries, shit matter fact might as well get us another round of coronas two while you at it, multi-tasking is the shit right now.” Floyd said spitting off orders to the waitress whilst digging into the food himself in between hits. As it seemed he was having the perfect time out with his friends after spending some time with his girl he noticed something on the TV.

Nothing more about Project KIVA or operation KIVA whichever it was called, but something that affected him all the same none the less. Potentially more so as this was about the President’s announcement. He looked up at the television which was turned to Fox News reporting about President Forrester’s emergency enhanced act. “Awh man you gotta be kidding me you see this bullshit.” Floyd said in protest causing Darius to look up at & glance at the television screen.

The jolly brown giant’s eyes scrunched seeing what his friend was looking at. The bar had the subtitles turned on for anyone interested in keeping up with the news since loud hip hop music was blaring in the back-ground. Knowing that his own friend greedy and all was endangered by these new laws being announced was concerting to him. “You ain’t lied this guy some bullshit, it’s like he’s the republicans revenge for us finally having a black president. And Obama barely even helped us.” Darius stated taking another wing off the plate and biting down.

“Yeah well I wish we could go back to barely helped then this guy and his bullshit make America safe again. You know every time he be saying that I just be wondering what the fuck is he talking about? Jim Crow laws really ain’t even end until the middle of the 60’s, so when he’s talking about safe again he can’t be talking about for us and defiantly not Altered humans, so who exactly is he making the country safe again for? Hmm Yeah exactly racist ass motherfucker. Type of shit he saying makes someone with powers really think about going along with that fuck shit Reaper be saying.” Floyd stared at the screen with the same attention & intensity he had when he noticed the announcement from CyberCorp about KIVA earlier today. At this rate he was going to take an extended break from viewing the news, every time he managed to catch a report recently it was negative & causing him to feel more and more uneasy about what was coming next.

"Steak pie? Huh, I doubt we do. But maybe I can help you make one! But steak pies sound like meat pies and that is what Sweeney Todd was making, now wasn't it? I am not stepping into a trap here," Amalia laughed while talking to Jennifer, she thought about how she could draw up the ingredients to a steak pie, once she figured out what it needed, rather easily. If she did it that way she wouldn't have to explain how she was making food. "Well, Jennifer the teacher from England, it is nice to meet you. I don't know how you got stuck here though, or how you will get back. It seems like everything is going into lockdown. And the water supplies," Amalia sighed, "that's rough. I don't know how to help there. But I might be able to help with the phone situation at least! A teacher should have a phone, you know? In case of emergencies and what not. I can come back after the school time and see what I can do help."

Amalia could either buy a simple phone or possibly draw one up. She hadn't actually thought to draw up a phone, it was small enough that it seemed simple. Manifesting a working phone though might be a little difficult, but she was more than willing to try. Or take the easy route and buy it, she had been saving money the last few months.

Just as she was thinking about the phone, her own phone started to chime. It was an alert about the live press conference from the president. She pulled out her phone to start the video and stood close to Jennifer so she could see what was happening too.

After he announced the new rules Amalia stared in shock, "What can any altered human even do now? That's almost every right," Amalia shook her head, she almost said every right she had, "they have. How long will this last?" What would this mean for her own business? When would she need to get tested? Would her job fire her when they found out? Could she be kicked out of her building? There is so many rights a protected class has, that is why they are protected. You could be evicted, jobless, denied food stamps, and a plethora of other things and you would have no right to fight it all. You would only be able to lay down and take it. By saying the altered humans were not a protected class it basically put a target on everyone's back to say, "Hey! You can beat me and I can't do anything about it!" Police wouldn't have to take action, hospitals could deny you. Amalia wasn't sure how she would live this kind of life, all she wanted was to be happy. She wouldn't use her powers in a malicious way, or at least she couldn't see herself doing so. Although this thought intrigued her. "Would I use my powers to hurt someone? She thought about her scam artist best friend, Simon. If he was in trouble, which god knows with the shit he pulled, she might hurt someone to protect him. But did that inherently make her evil?

It was too early for her to be thinking these kinds of thoughts or she would start to spiral for who knows how long. No, she couldn't let herself right now. Right now she was not tested, right now she could keep living normal. 'Start with today...' she thought. Her mother used to say it all the time to her as a kid. She was so eager when she was just a child to grow up and begin her life as an adult that sometimes she would get overwhelmed with the thought and have panic attacks. Her mom used to soothe her and simply say, "Start with today."

@Bai Suzhen

San Francisco, California - Jace Williams - Hideout
It was time for another video, the vigilante thought to himself while counting some blood drenched money. This was unsanitary but it wasn’t as if he was going to dunk the bills in water to clean the spilled blood off of them. He couldn’t risk ruining these crisp bills he earned from the dusty hands of narcotics dealers. There was a time in his life when he supposed that roaming the streets with pockets and bags full of drugs to earn cash for his family was a honest living. It seemed so easy to justify when you were born on the wrong side of the street.

He decided to clean up an area In the corner and set up his camera. He made sure there was nothing incriminating in the back-drop before he positioned himself to start recoding. His consulting business was his bread & butter, that hadn’t changed, But becoming a YouTuber and building up his channel was starting to bring in the type of revenue he desired. Within a few moments he was up on the screen addressing his audience.

“Hello your tuning in for another episode of Major Mula with Jace.” He stared straight into the camera with a smile etched on his face as he completed an introduction his audience was familiar with. “Last episode were talking about some pretty neat stuff. As always I instruct people to take notes and figure out of the things we talk about what will be the easiest to apply to your own life. Business Credit is something you want & need to develop. Unlike personal credit, when utilizing the business version, you can attain far more funding with less limits. One of the reasons of course is it’s for an operation rather than a personal venture. An operation that consists in you deriving income form your customers, as a business you will experience heavier cash flow than a personal individual. Thus banks & financial institutions feel far more secure about loaning the money to you in the first place. After-all them giving you money to use as additional capital for your company is far likelier to end up back in their hands with interest.” Jace continued with this episode now in full swing.

It wasn’t long before he completed the actual episode. He’d dished out some heathy advice about further building your business credit, net 30/net terms, and business credit cards. After finishing the visual recording of the base material, he uploaded the rough draft of the footage to his laptop. From there he started, or rather continued by beginning to work on the editing aspect. He didn’t plan on lingering around at this safe house much longer, but he had something pertinent coming up. He wanted to conduct this next risky business at the safe house. He felt there wasn’t a place safer he could go or include so this was it. As the clock ticked he noticed the speedier flutter of his heart indicating he was starting to get a little nervous as thehe time was coming for his next meeting. Guess I’m gonna find out the truth any minute now, whether she plans on crossing me or not.

San Francisco, - Liquid Paradise - Floyd Banker

After a few beers Floyd had a taste for something else aside from Mexican alcohol. Seeing the new laws was concerting for him, enough so that he’d logged into twitter to poke around the app. He’d read tweets about the military setting up post around the country at places with heavy foot traffic. He read tweets about people complaining that the military was starting to stop them, ask to see their ID’s, and forcing them to submit to blood tests if they refused.

He’d already told Darius he wasn’t too concerned, and that the level of nervousness he had was the same amount as when he had an upcoming drug test whilst he was still on probation. While that comparison was somewhat accurate, the feeling of pending danger of being exposed was much greater. On one hand failing a probation drug test almost certainly meant jail time which was somewhat he dreaded with every fiber of his being. On the other hand being labeled an Altered human right the current political climate was worst then being inducted into the hall of Felons.

“Earth to Floyd my boy, It’s okay to be scared. Damn you ain’t gotta lie to me ha ha.” Darius finished as he took another swig from his beer. He was on his fifth one, unlike Floyd who’d stopped at his third. “So having powers ain’t the best thing in the world for once huh, sucks to suck.” Darius teased earning him a death glare from Floyd. Darius instantly felt some regret for joking about the situation knowing the consequences of the testing where dire. “Right that was too far man I admit it, I ain’t mean to come at you like that. It’s not funny, I know you hate being at cells. You remember that time you got locked up and you had my number, musta called me bout 13 times after you was done getting processed talk bout c’mon and hurry up with the gudda gudda before they transport my ass to gen pop.” Darius once again couldn’t help but poke fun at Floyd’s situation. Humor was the tool he relied on to dissolve tension in almost any situation, and he had the same dark humor towards impending danger for his own circumstances.

“Look man I get it this you, this what you do. But that Ain’t me okay, yeah I lied bruh I’m fucking scared. This ain’t no state shit or even fed charges, this is super federal. And don’t make no super trapper jokes either, like this shit real deal the out here going around setting up post testing folks. Imma have to really stay in the crib if I wanna avoid them, and that’s if they don’t have soldiers out knocking door to door looking for motherfuckers to see if they took this test.” Floyd finally confessed to his friend at the bar counter. In all reality he was shook by the circumstances developing around the nation, even with his innate ability to fade from sight. Sure he could move un-disturbed around all manner of goons and get away from the boys in blue with more ease than usual. But the United States Military, they pursued terrorists & war-lords across international borders. They defused & destroyed continent spanning drug cartels. He was confident in the edge his powers gave him with the cops, but not the full force of the military.

“I get it, I ain’t going this some shit, it’s like they dropping Jim Crow Laws on y’all.” Darius responsed as he downed the contents of another beer.

“Man yeah shit you shouldn’t even say y’all, you don’t think it’s convenient that only black people, well all minorities only getting power. You really think ain’t no white people getting powers, hell nah they just not reporting it. “ Floyd decided going into a bit of conspiracy mode refusing to believe the media that so far no white people had been reported with powers.

“Shit so you thinking they just using this to be able to come after all of us?”

“I mean shit hell yeah, why else they doing it like this. It’s just like drugs, as a whole we be doing less yet we be getting nabbed em with more. It’s probably the same thing with powers, they going after people they don’t trust that they scared of with powers. Like Forrester really pulling the martial law shit, because what a school got sank, yeah that’s bad but think about all the bad shit that’s been going down there since them first two crazy boys.” Floyd retorted once again feeling he was being singled out because of the color of his skin and no better reason.

“I mean I feel where the fuck you coming from, and Forrester is giving me real I’m superior vibes, but ain’t know way he planned this Energy Storm, all this shit you sound crazy, hella motherfuckers died, he’s going away forever if he did some like that.”

“Psshhhh I do’t think he can or it woulda only hit our neighborhoods. I think he’s just taking real damn good advantage of the situation though.” Floyd responded finally lighting back his weed as he stared at the television screen.

After enjoying there time a little bit more, they’d decided to get some dances. But there celebration and ignoring of the dark events in the world came to a sharp halt. A well dressed black man in suit had entered with two bigger gentlemen who looked like they were human tanks. Some people in the club quickly recognized the man with the slimmer built as Lionel Smith. A notorious dealer who’d been trying to claim territory all the way from Oakland to San Francisco. He already had a fierce reputation in the past, but word on the street was he gained a power that made him even more of a fierce menace than before.

His order was clear he wanted a piece of everyone’s piece that was getting a good pie. Refusal to comply was met with an up close & personal introduction to his newfound powers. At first Floyd hadn’t noticed Lionel’s entrance in the club but quickly groaned when he did. This the last thing I need right now, on top of Forrester’s bullshit “Aye what t do Mistah Smith.”

“Don’t misty smith me Banker, you know why the fuck I’m here. You boys come up here from Atlanta and think you can just run shit without checking in & paying dues.” Lionel retorted with venom in his mouth, Floyd could see the other two men behind him had semi automatic weapons at their hip. Their entrance into the club was made with an increase in tension, and although the music was still blaring the girls that were getting him & Darius lap dances had skedaddled not wanting to be in the middle of any confrontation with Lionel Smith.

Darius himself seemed a bit nervous, as if he had some indication of what gift the energy storm had imbued him. “Ah man look my mans here Floyd is high and a lil crazy all the time, you just gotta review the terms with him and I’m sure he ain’t looking for no trouble ain’t that right Floyd.” Darius asked nervously indicating that he thought Floyd should play ball and not start anything with Lionel especially in one of their favorite establishments.

“Man look I already told you, I ain’t paying shit nada nothing comprende commmmmprende.” Floyd said his poor attempt at espanol slower the second time as if Lionel was mentally slow. This caused one of his grunts to reach for his gun electing two yelps from two girls in the corner of the club, but Lionel stretched out his hand to stop him.

“Naw naw this guy’s a wise talker, guys like him need to meet the Metal Man, it’s the only way to get them to really understand that paying is NOT an option. You wanna meet the metal man Floyd since your firm on your position not to pay right?” Lionel asked getting up closer in Floyd’s personal space. Darius slowly stood up out his seat backing away. As one of the grunts reached for his shoulder Lionel waved him down. “Let him go unlike this punk he’s got respect, my beef is with him, no need to hurt pretty boy, he seems like he’s already pissing in his pants when he seen us walk over.”

“I mea I ain’t pissing in my pants, I’m just saying I don’t think anyone here wants to meet Metal Man.” Darius interjected weekly to no avail seeing that a confrontation was inevitably brewing at the counter.

“Oh tell Metal Man I said FUCK YOU” Floyd had lept out his seat landing a sneak punch on Lionel sending him stumbling backwards into a bar stool. The thug yelp as he slid into the bar stool colliding against the metallic chair and slamming his back into the counter wall.

“Oh you cheap ass bitch ass motherfucker, I was just finna teach you a lesson, maybe break a few fingers but now I’m finna crack yo back in half if not damn near kill you.” Lionel groaned getting up this time his grunts hadn’t reached for their weapons which shocked Floyd who was almost about to whip out his own firearm. Lionel cracked his knuckles together and laughed as his entire skin became coated in thick metallic metal.

“Oh…shit….that’s Metal Man.” Floyd said loosing a bit of is swagger & bravado at seeing his enemy’s power. [I] Ah shit I just talked shit & picked a fight with Colossus [/I\

Darius noticed Floyds facial expression at seeing Lionel’s elemental transition to a far more damaging form and face-palmed at his friend’s stupidity. He looked around to see if there was anything he could do but he had left his gun in the car and it didn’t look like a 9mm would do anything to Lionel in this state. “Damn it Floyd.”

“Oh so you ain’t got shit to say huh, well since we fighting let me return the fucking favor.” Lionel lunged forward grabbing Floyd and throwing him effortlessly. Floyd was flung backwards clutching his nike bag as he slammed into a drink machine groaning in pain as he collided with the metallic drink dispenser. Just as he was getting up Lionel continued his relentless assault picking up a bar stool and flinging it at Floyd. Upon connectiong with him it drew blood and smacked Floyd down onto the bar counter causing him to scream out curse words.

“OH come on bruh keep talking, why don’t you throw another one of those punches. Come on right here I won’t even dodge.” Lionel stopped to taunt Floyd pointing his metallic face at his cheek motioning for Floyd to hit him. Floyd finally got up slinging his bag around his neck as he looked up at Lionel furious. “Bruh you tore my fucking bag, man fuck this shit metal man or not I’m finna whoop yo ass.”

The two grunts that accompanied Lionel burst out into laughter, while others in the club figured that Floyd had suffered brain damage from the brutal beatdown Lionel had already started to deliver. As Lionel himself chuckled he rushed towards Floyd grabbing him and open palming him causing him to cough up blood as it sent him sprawling through th air and crashing into the glass counter. Floyd screamed out in pain struggling to get up as Lionel was marching towards him. “Right I’m finna show you why you going PAY if you still alive today.””

“F…Fuck…this.” Floyd muttered spitting some blood out his mouth as Lionel neared him. Right as Lionel went to throw a blow, this time a punch which if connected would surely shatter bones. Floyd’s own skin became encased in metallic coating allowing him to block Lionel’s punch and he delivered a powerful knee to his chest then lunged forward elbowing Lionel in the nose. As they were both metallic armored warriors the were even footing the elbow causing an audible crack to be heard from Lionel’s nose as he stumbled backwards.

“What the fuck!? You do what I do, the fuck. Ion even give a fuck that don’t hardly make us even I’m finna whoop yo ass.” Lionel looked up and noticed Floyd was nowhere to seen. He turned right and left looking around the club unable to spot him. “Where the fuck?”

“ARGH UGH” The sounds of his two grunts yelling in pain was heard as Floyd elbowed one in the back and kicked the other sending him sprawling into the counter. Both grunts were taken down with single blows, Floyd grabbed the gun from the first grunt whom he’d elbowed tossing it to Darius. “Go on get the fuck outta here I’ll meet you outside get the car going.”

“Y’all boys ain’t going no DAMN Where”! Lionel stomped down and began marching over to Darius only to get hit by a flung bar-stool. Lionel raised his hands to defend himself as Floyd threw four more bar-stools in a row allowing Darius to jet past him and out the front door. Enraged with the delay tactic Lionel charged Floyd who parlayed out the way and responded with a round house kick to Lionel’s back sending him crumbling into a door to the private dancer room. The sound of shattering glass was heard as he was captaluted through the door.

Yo this is fucking crazy I’m made of metal fuck that’s not what I meant to do, but I ain’t complaining That brief train of thought being surprised about his situation had allowed Lionel to finally retaliate running put o him punching him in the chest, then delivering a few more blows to his chest.

“Enough” Floyd kicked Lionel in the metal nuts, which seemed to have the same effect as without metal coating since they both had it. Lionel groaned in pain practically yelling as he stumbled back, Floyd caused his right hand to be enveloped in a blue flame and he unleashed a spray of flame at Lionel blasting him into the wall and spreading fire through the bar. The combination of the two metal men dusking it out and now the stream of fire being launched had caused a mini-stampede as passengers rushed out. “ GO TO HELL.” Floyd yelled out as the color of the flames changed to blue indicating a hotter flame as Floyd unleashed a second more potent column of flame on Cornell blasting him into the wall and setting the walls around him ablaze as well as the roof above him.

The sound of a horn honking was heard loudly outside, and Floyd noticed the last blast of blue fire had caused his metal coating to evaporate. “Shit” Taking this as his moment to escape he rushed out the front door pushing a stripper to the ground behind him. Ignoring her cries of pain from being pushed to the hard floor he burst out the front doors seeing Darius had pulled pu in hi sca. “LETS GO!!!!”

“You ain’t metal skin no more?”! Darius asked highly concerned that if Lionel made it outside he’d got torn in half.

“BRUH NO!!!! DRIVE!!!!” Floyd still gripping his nike bag hopped into the passenger seat as Darius slammed his foot on the gas swerving out the parking lot and taking off from Liquid Paradise. In the rear view mirror he could see billows of smoke rising from part of the roof thanks to the flames Floyd had shot out. He looked into the passenger seat mirror to check on his skin which was back to it’s regular dark brown hue as he leaned back in the seat. He had just noticed he was now covered in sweat & breathing extremely heavily as if he’d just been running on a treadmill for 45 minutes right after football & basketball practice back to back.

---

^{A collaborative post between @Chulance & @Xandrya}

Jace had made his way back to the safehouse with the bag of money now put up in his trunk. In the past few weeks he'd managed to seize a little over 500 thousand dollars from drug houses. It was more cash then he'd ever had at once & the most he'd ever accumulated in such a short span of time. At first it felt hypocritical to enrich himself with the funds from the illicit activities he was on a one man war to stop. However he wasn't getting any sort of compensation for his work which the streets of California so desperately needed. Leaving it behind would mean that the police would get their hands on it or worst criminal accomplices of the newly deceased who might stumble across it prior to cops getting to the crime scene. In the end he justified it primarily because he was also generously spreading the seized criminal wealth to other minorities struggling and living honest lives. "Shit I'm getting paid with everything I do, might as well hit ole girl up and see what she talm bout." Jace spoke aloud to himself as he was cleaning off some of his own guns at the safe house.

Anya had reached out to him seeking to form a partnership. Apparently she was a plant in some organization called Liberty, a secret operation put together by the U.S Government to monitor & police Altered humans. Part of him felt like any encounter with her could lead to him being nabbed in a trap sprung by the feds. But on the other hand he felt confident enough in his powers to escape standard federal custody. Only time would tell if he'd live to regret this meeting, but if this shadow group of hunters was real he needed to be one step ahead of them especially with the murderous mission he was carrying out with his own abilities. He responded to her saying that he was both ready & willing to go ahead & meet her. Now he was just playing the waiting game watching youtube videos and drinking a glass of wine in his safe house.

Having just had confirmation that Jace wanted to in fact meet with her, Anya hurried up the pace, taking a detour to one of the garages a couple of blocks away. It was there she’d take an FSS vehicle and drive to meet the infamous Shade. Anya wasn’t all that concerned about the meeting. Sure, he had his ability, but aside from that he wasn’t intimidating, not to her. She had advised her handler that he had agreed to the meeting and they were sending multiple operatives as back-up. Not that it’d be obvious. Quite the opposite, in fact. These operatives could blend into any environment and fool the sharpest of minds.

Anya got in the driver seat and started the vehicle. Back in the office, a couple of others would be monitoring the screen showing her and the vehicle’s location in real time. That was the new protocol they were following ever since this phenomenon started. Whenever an operative was meeting with one of those altered individuals, extra precaution was to be taken, and this morning was no different. Anya put the vehicle in drive and headed towards the location that Jace had provided for her.

The drive wasn’t all that long, but that was simply due to the fact that she was going against traffic. Eventually, when Anya arrived at the given location, she let Jace know. The young woman turned off the vehicle and stepped out of the car, waiting for him to greet her. The navy blue blazer she wore was partially covering her service pistol.

Jace felt a buzzing sensation in his pocket indicating that the elusive operative had arrived. Well let's see what this game of jeopardy gets me Jace thought to himself figuring there was no turning back on the meeting at this point. Whatever happened was about to happen good or bad. He'd settled on the fact that he was making the right choice, if it was true this Liberty existed he needed to be one step ahead of him. There was only one force on earth he was still truly afraid of with his newfound powers and that was the United states Military. The thing about that was well it sounded like Liberty was allied with them.

"Glad you made it." Jace said coming outside in full gear, he wasn't one for any elaborate supehero costume. After all he could never see himself rocking spandex just because he was bullet proof. He was sporting the same gear he'd been running around in while he tore Devon's crew apart, everything was the same including the black dried blood stained mask. "Apologies about the stains I just got done with some work myself a little while ago." Jace spoke in reference to the remains of dried blood on his "uniform" coming from a battle against armed coke dealers within the past hour. "So what are we doing here? You know I'm Shade, you know what I can do and I have a funny feeling you agent types don't come alone. Yet you haven't sprung a trap on me yet, so start talking." Jace decided to take the initiative in asking questions after all she'd proposed this meeting.

“I’ll get straight to it then,” she added, crossing her arms and leaning against the vehicle. “As I told you before, I work at Liberty but I don’t work for them. The agency I work for, my actual employers, have tasked me with recruiting you to help with various operations. These involving going after certain individuals and assassinating them, or maybe doing something as simple as breaking into a highly-secured facility to steal whatever they may need. In return, you get Liberty intel. Agents’ movements, missions targeting certain individuals or areas of interest, etc. If you’re interested, you’d have to come to one of our offices to go through a special screening.”

Anya stopped for a moment, looking around. “By now, I’m sure you have figured out that I don’t hold any allegiance to the U.S. government."

Jace nodded his head listening intently as Anya spoke. He was paying attention not only to her but the surroundings as well. "Well well the cat's out the bag then, so you just waltzed in here thinking I'd be cool rocking with a traitor to Uncle Sam." Jace spoke calmly apparently showcasing disapproval of a potential alliance with the woman who claimed not to have any real alliance with the United States.

"Lucky for you Uncle Sam hasn't exactly treated me all to well over the years, and I'm talm bout before I got these powers," Jace spoke in reference to the struggles he faced as just a black man prior to getting abilities. "Assassinations & high securlity facility break in's, you've got that much faith in my powers? Or you just really good at picking your fall guys? Your asking me to do some pretty heavy lifting. My interest is piqued with this liberty intel, but your people wouldn't happen to be offering a financial cash bonus for my service would they? Jace asked in a curious tone wondering if he was being asked to work for pay that didn't fit the task, or no pay all.

For a brief moment, Anya thought that Jace would back out. However, she was proven wrong when he continued talking, bringing up the possibility of monetary compensation. The young woman smirked in response. “Money is not an issue for us. Your cut will be dependent on the severity of the mission as deemed appropriate by the powers at be. This will be discussed beforehand during your briefing with me prior to every mission. With that said, you help us, we help you. It’s been my experience in the past that my superiors will, at times, offer either the cash or the intel for that one mission, but not both. I unfortunately do not have any say in that matter as it’s above my paygrade, but usually you don’t need to worry about that. If there’s any disagreement, then I will contact them and they will advise how to proceed...”

“How does it sound so far?”

"Well I'm still here and listening aren't I?" Jace said with a bit of sass in his tone towards her last comment. He was just trying to pus her buttons somewhat to get a better read on the undercover agent. "Hopefully the amounts the deem appropiate will resonate with me, lucky for you my hobby has been keeping my pockets pretty flush lately. So that means I can accept a mission or so for intel providing the intel is actually useful & beneficial for me." Whilst he had his own methods of making money, he wanted to avoid getting used for free super labor for compensation that was worthless to him. "Well suffice to say against my better judgement I'm buying what your selling agent. So what's next?" Jace poised the question to see what she'd suggest first.

Anya ignored his tone as there was no use responding accordingly. “Next up, we conduct a screening; standard for all individuals working for us. You will undergo a lie detector test. Our stress analyzer will simultaneously be measuring three factors. These include various changes in your voice which are undetectable to the human ear. It will also measure pupil diameter, eye movements, reading behavior, blinks, fixations, etc. Lastly, it will measure general physiological changes in your body which has been the standard test in the past. After that, you will meet 1-on-1 with some of my superiors. They will chat with you for a while, maybe offer you a drink or two, and then you’ll be on your way. I will let you know what time to come in tomorrow…today I’m a little busy with work. Speaking of which, I need an identifying item of yours. I advised my superior at Liberty I had tracked one of your locations and in order to legitimize my claim, I must bring him back something. In exchange for your troubles…” Anya paused momentarily before pulling out a stack of cash from her purse, “I can make a payment in advance.”

Jace fingers pulled at the hairs of his chain as she spoke. It seemed this was well thought out, very thorough. Whoever she worked for wasn't some rag tag operation or group, they were proficient and very official. "Okay so yall are organized, I guess that makes since if you infiltrated the feds." Being around anyone with ties to the feds made him weary, sure he wasn't pushing drugs or guns but he was black, with super powers.

"I think I'm up for the test or well all of those really, With the way your speaking, I've got a feeling this intel will indeed serve purpose in my life. ." Her final request brought back some of the initial discomfort he had about meeting her. But her producing a stack of cash pushed those worries back aside just as quick. "Ya know I was fina say hell naw but you put your money where your mouth is lady you've got a deal." Jace pulled off his mask and held it out in his hand ready to make the trade.

Smiling in response, Anya tucked the cash underneath her arm as she put on a glove, then she took Jace’s mask as she handed him his compensation.

“Pleasure doing business, Mr. Williams. I will be in touch.”

With that, Anya headed to the trunk to grab a clear plastic bag she could use for the blood-stained mask. “Try to stay out of trouble, yeah?"

Feeling the air on his face brushing against his hair was strange whilst still rocking the rest of his Shade "gear". Usually when undressing from this particular garb he was in private, this wasn't something he wanted to become public knowledge. Sure he was scrubbing the streets clean of itss worst occupants, but in reality he'd murdered several people in the past few weeks they all happened to be violent criminals. "I hope so, ." Jace replied to her while thumbing through the stack of cash. "I'll do my best, but I should be able to punch my way out of almost anything." Jace finished oozing with confidence not just in his own innate powers but of his new connection with Anya. She was deadly he could see a fierceness in her eyes, what she lacked in superhuman powers she made up for in her viciousness & intellectual capabilities. Liberty was one thing but what he saw in Anya was something else entirely. He didn't want to get on her bad-side and he was bullet proof.

Some time later...

---

After parking the FSS vehicle back in its designated garage, Anya took the short walk to Liberty, the bloodied mask isolated in the plastic bag which was concealed by a brown paper bag. To any random passerby, she could have just picked up some food and was now on the way to the office with it.

Once Anya got past the various layers of security in the building, she headed straight to her superior’s office. The door was closed, so she announced herself with a light knock. “It’s Donovan, may I come in?"

Jonah was sitting inside at the desk typing rapidly on his macbook and looking up at the television watching the President. He'd just issued the Emergency Altered Acts, the blood tests already had his blood pumping but these new so called temporary laws were even more exciting. This would grant Liberty far more power and resources to work. He had a brief phone call with some of the California National Guard before hearing a knock on the door. "Okay yes perfect, I'd say mobilize soldiers by places with heavy foot traffic. Grocery Stores, popular fast food chains, educational facilities, medical facilities, court-houses, gas stations, police stations." Jonah was lifting off some locations before getting off the phone. "Yes go ahead you may enter." Jonah spoke in response to the undercover operative

“I’ll be quick, promise. As it turns out, my contact didn’t pan out. I did, however, manage to get my hands on this...” Anya placed the bag on Jonah’s desk, right by his laptop. “It’s that vigilante you’re not too fond of... Shade. He started bright and early this morning, the blood’s fresh.” The woman reached in the bag so that Jonah may see the bloodied mask.

Jonah raised an eyebrow when Anya started off with bad news,. I don't know why I expected Agent Donovan to pull through with something that big Jonah thought to himself as she continued. He was a bit taken aback when she produced Shade's blood stained mask. "Impressive, not Reaper but still he's another menace." Jonah noted examining the mask to see if it was the real deal thing he'd seen on Shade's own head. "Liberty picked up a report from San Francisco PD, bodies ripped apart, a drug house torn to shreds, mushed bullets, sounds like Shade's MO. " Jonah spoke referring to the murders of Devon's crew that Jace carried out earlier. "Take that down to the lab see if we can get a match, maybe this guy's been in the system before. But there's always that odd chance that he's never been caught for any crimes, after all he is a criminal serial killer. I'm not too fond of these altered freaks there not natural, there dangerous, but also don't care for gang bangers & thugs, you know a part of me thinks we should let Shade kill as many of them as possible, maybe even send him some lists of some rotten guys, then when he's done we take care of the last bastard him, is that wrong?" Jonah asked Anya wanting to see her answer but also to get her opinion. He didn't really see himself doing business with someone like Shade, especially considering that under the mask he was probably the same type of person if you could even call them that, ones he was raised to hate.

“I’m gonna be frank with you,” Anya went on, grabbing the bag from his desk, “if we go that route, that betrayal may come back to bite us in the rear. Yes, he’s working alone, but you never know how ahead of the game he is, or whom he knows. If for some reason he finds out what you’re planning, then we may find ourselves in quite a bit of trouble, or you know, dead. We can let this run its course, let him do all the dirty work for now and see where we are down the line. There’s no reason we can’t turn him, you know?”

Anya was obviously against the idea. She was hoping Shade would turn into an asset for the FSS, maybe something long-term, and killing him off before that was simply not an option.

Jonah paused to listen to Anya, staring at her as he took in every word she was saying about the Shade situation. "You do present quite an important point with everything you just said." Jonah started happy to see the agent was putting some thought into her response to the question he'd just asked. "As for us loosing our lives, we're up against plenty of people with powers right now, he's just another one even if he's bullet proof. So what if we can't shoot him, there's other ways to take someone down. Restrict his airflow, poison, target the other criminals he cares about." Jonah's built up bias & discriminatory personality oozed through his words as he indicated that anyone that Jace/Shade cared about was probably a criminal and almost certainly one in his mind. "Also as much as I despise the Altered humans, we do have some "trusted" ones among our ranks as we speak." Jonah continued

As he was speaking the office phone began ringing. He got a text from one of the employees that it was a direct line for him. He picked up the phone noting that it was Marcus on the other hand. "Hello Agent Brown nice work with Lopez, listen." Before he could continue his face contorted to one of anger before slamming the phone on the hook. "Agent Brown just went rogue, apparently he didn't take too kindly to the Presidents new laws to keep some damn order in this country." Jonah was clearly flustered for two reasons loosing an agent, and having an ex liberty agent running around who had powers. He connected his laptop to the projector causing Agent Marcus Brown's file to appear on the wall as he turned the projector on for Anya to see. "See this man here, ex special forces, ability molecular acceleration fancy name for super speed he's the guy who just went rogue. Like you said fuck Shade forget him for now, aside from Reaper & any other Altered attacking innocent people in the open in the area he's now our main priority."

Holding back the urge to smile in regards to her recently-acquired source being on the clear for the moment being, Anya nodded attentively as Brown’s profile came up. “I’ll get working on that right away.” The young woman shifted her weight, switching the brown paper bag to her other hand. “My approach will be friendly, merely one co-worker concerned about the other. It may take a little time, but I want to build some form of rapport with him. I won’t take any drastic action without prior approval from you first, unless it’s obviously an emergency... I imagine this operation will be on a need to know basis?"

Jonah squeezed at his chin as if pondering on what to say in response to Anya. A rogue liberty agent was a threat they needed to focus on, but perhaps alerting everyone of his splinering from the organization would be a bad idea especially since they still had some liberty field operatives remaining that were altered humans. "Alright it's settled we handle this matter with Marcus discreetly, thanks to his ability a direct approach might be useless unless it's superhuman anyway thanks to his speed." Can't believe we gave that bastard a heat resistant suit Jonah mentally rolled his eyes at the fact that they'd provided direct assistance/aid to someone who was know an enemy. "I want you to keep me posted on everything tied to the Brown communication & I mean everything. I can't afford another agent going rogue, not saying your a traitor. I'm almost 100% Marcus is, it's just what his people do and I don't mean Altered, but on the slight off hand chance that he's being manipulated or had his own control seized by someone with powers be very careful in dealing with him." Jonah concluded showing that he despised and discriminated against Marcus for other reasons then his newfound powers but also that he was still privy to other scenario's that could explain Marcus's abandoning his position even if he didn't deem them too likely

She could only listen as Jonah went on with his speech. She couldn’t help but pity the man for letting something like skin color get the better of him. Sure, the fact that seemingly all the Altered were of a different ethnicity was quite strange, but that deeply-seeded hate Jonah felt did not suddenly spring up 3 months ago. “I have his personal number, I’ll call him. Maybe invite him for a drink and see what he has to say…” Anya then leaned over Jonah’s desk, coming within inches of his face. At such close distance, it was safe to assume Jonah could smell her perfume. That, and possibly peak down her shirt if he chose to. “Sorry, this has been bothering me since I got in here,” she mentioned, pulling away and holding a piece of lint in front of him before discarding it. “I’ll keep you in the loop, you know you don’t have to worry about me.”

With a smile, Anya turned around and left his office, closing his door as she did so.

Time: Late Morning
Location: FEMA Camp, San Francisco
Interaction:

---

The tent city that was the FEMA camp was graced with the arrival of Marcus, who had low yellow flames dancing along his clothing. He certainly made an entrance as many eyes drew to the man on fire that appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

His appearance definitely screamed altered human as he was unphased by the flames that extinguished with a few pats of the hands. He adjusted his collar to further exemplify his swagger while maintaining a stoic expression.

Looking around at the camp's occupants, he silently judged them. Helpless… but desperate.

"LISTEN UP! I hope y'all can hear me because I gotta good ass offer! Real good! It'll keep you fed with some good food, or be enough to get you something you need!" Marcus started to pace. He needed to make this fast. "10 grand! 10 racks! Whatever you call ten thousand dollars is what I'm paying for anyone who can lead me to the notorious Angel!"

@AliceFalling@Timemaster@Bai Suzhen

---

Last night had been terrible. Michele had had a bad nightmare and she was instantly relieved when she woke up and realized she was safely tucked in on her bed. The young woman lay there for a moment as she reflected on the nightmare she’d just woken up from. It was zombies again, and this time they were gaining on her as her friends had left her behind. Who would do that? Not friends she’d keep around, that was for sure. Michele then pushed the covers aside and sat up, taking a moment to stretch before heading to the bathroom.

Standing in front of the mirror, Michele looked at herself with an unamused expression on her face. Her hair was wild, more so than the average person’s when they woke up. She had tried numerous hair products in the past, and she had also talked to various stylists too, but nothing helped tame it. Michele remembered being a young teen and having her hair morph into a frizzy mess, and ever since, it’s been the same old battle trying to find a permanent solution versus spending money buying product after product to help it look nice.

Eventually, when she was done with her morning routine and trying to look decent enough to step outside, Michele went out the door. She didn’t eat anything as she wasn’t hungry, but instead, she headed to the gym. One of her closest friends was a trainer there and she loved getting tips from him on how to make the best out of every work-out. Michele wasn’t looking to lose weight per se, but she had recently started working on toning up and maybe getting just a tad stronger... It certainly couldn’t hurt these days.

Michele rounded the corner on her block when she accidentally ran into someone, nearly making herself drop her water bottle.

“Whoops, sorry!"

San Francisco - Jason Koravil - FEMA Camp
The situation was growing worst for altered humans. President Forrester’s new emergency laws made sure of that. After causing the accident at the cafe he’d decided to split. The Blood tests required an injection to determine if one was superhuman or not. Still he didn’t want to stick around at the scene of the crime per say. He was glad to have received these powers, to be able to enter the minds of others and determine their true intentions & character.

As a therapist he lived to delve into the mind of others & find out what made them tick. On the job of course the reason was to be able to help them sort out their demons. But now he was doing more then trying to sort out people’s inner beasts, now he wanted to slay them. In this case the biggest mammoth he was up against was that of the United States Government. They’d relegated an entire species as monsters in essence. A problematic issue that needed to be cut at the root.

These thoughts filled Jason’s mind as he began his walk back to his high rise condo. Justice appeared to be sympathetic to his cause. Of course his split personality was formed by his tremendous desire to spread justice to the world by force. Something he’d inherited as the son of a righteous police officer, who’d been screwed by the very system he strove to uphold order in & protect.

On his way back he thought about the altered support group he’d started a few weeks ago. To that end he’d stopped by a mom & pop store to pick up a bulk catering order he’d placed yesterday. In hindsight he was glad he’d picked a local food spot as it wasn’t occupied by soldiers or police trying to administer blood tests. After getting the food, he hailed a ride to the FEMA Camp with the chicken wings, cajun pasta, bread rolls, & three gallons of sweet tea. Upon arrival he came to the same area Amalia had been in speaking with the people in charge of running the camp and set about distributing the food, making small talk with three undercover altered humans who’d lost their homes during the energy storm.

It wasn’t long before the food had been distributed evenly among those who were at the camp. It is a good feeling to help others, there are so many things people like me could be doing for the world. But they rather ostracize us and paint us as monsters Jason thought to himself as his anger started to bubble & rise again. However he was among friends here so he wasn’t going to risk a violent outburst of his abilities. Just as he was getting ready to call another uber back to his place something startled him.

That was the arrival of another superhuman who seemed to take the attention of the FEMA Camp by a storm. Very interesting now who might this be Jason raised an eyebrow as Marcus made his flaming entrance into the FEMA Camp. He used his own power to peer into the mind of the person who made the flashy flaming entrance. Instantly hearing his thoughts he elicited a slight chuckle and made his way over to Marcus with a steady yet confident stride that oozed power.

“10 grand you say” Jason finally said as he was within ear shot of Marcus and stopped his approach. “Is that what you deem to be the appropriate payoff for us helpless & desperate at the camp?” Jason smirked as he finished the last statement if the man was smart he’d realize his mind had just been read. “Hello stranger, my name is Jason, and while I don’t know this Angel, I believe it may be of both of our interests to work together.” The mind reader was done speaking now waiting for the fiery speedster’s reaction.

@FunnyGuy

Time: Late Morning
Location: FEMA Camp, San Francisco
Interaction:

---

Marcus had been looking around at those he grabbed attention from, awaiting someone to take up his offer. There were many fearful expressions mixed in with a few pensive ones.

Only one man rose to the occasion, walking up smugly in his approach. Marcus' nostrils flared briefly as he crossed his arms at his chest. He hoped he wouldn't have to use violence right now, but he wouldn't hesitate either.

When the smug man repeated words he had thought, Marcus failed to catch their familiarity. Those words rang true after all. The rest of his dialogue only irritated him and it showed as he sucked his teeth. This is one special son of a bitch.

"Are you fuckin' stupid?! Yeah, you! How the fuck are you gonna walk up and the first thing your stupid ass says is 'Ion know dis' Angel,' when that's the only thing I fuckin' asked for?!" Marcus shouted aggressively at Jason in the most demeaning way possible. "Now get the fuck out my face." He turned away from Jason to address everyone else. "I don't want to hear about shit unless it's about Angel! Understood!"

@Chulance

---

We need to talk, when are you free?

That was the message Anya had sent Marcus. Instead of turning him in to Liberty as ordered, she would propose he work for her. Her superiors would be pleased at the fact that she acquired another Altered to help their cause, pending Marcus’ approval of her proposal, of course. As for Jonah, well, he would have to live with the fact that Marcus was unable to be captured. But that mess could be handled down the line.

An hour or so later, Anya quietly entered her target’s home, watching him through his own camera in the kitchen. The middle-aged scientist could not anticipate the gloved hand that suddenly covered his mouth while Anya simultaneously injected a clear liquid into the side of his neck. Dr. Scott’s initial reaction was one typically expected of an individual in such position: a lot of thrashing around in panic while struggling to free himself from her grasp. He was older than Anya, but his strength remained. Dr. Scott pushed back against his attacker, making Anya crash into the wall. She never let go of him, despite nearly having the wind knocked out of her. However, a sudden surprise elbow to her stomach made her finally release him.

“What have you done to me?” Dr. Scott clasped his neck, creating some distance between himself and the agent before turning to face her. Anya stood up straight, angered by the blow she’d received. She ignored his question and kept her eyes on him, waiting. At that point, Dr. Scott took it upon himself to rush at her, but he failed miserably as his legs suddenly gave out. Anya sidestepped to avoid having the man fall on her. She then knelt down to check to make sure he was unconscious, and she phoned her contact after the fact.

“It’s done.”

@FunnyGuy

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The sudden screams made Michele look up. They were coming from around the corner, and the young woman ran up to the end of the block to try to see what was going on. When she turned the corner, she was met with a gruesomely horrific sight. One of those checkpoints that had been the topic of hot debate immediately following the announcement had been attacked. From a distance, Michele saw the bodies on the ground. She also made out an individual who appeared calm despite the chaos surrounding them. Had they been the one responsible? Michele assumed such was the case.

The young woman hurriedly walked the perimeter to attempt to get a closer look. It appeared members of the National Guard had been burned alive, an act that would inarguably make the lives of the Altered like herself worse than it already was. Michele attempted to get a closer look while pulling out her phone with the intent to call for help.

@The Man Emperor

Thomas and the ice generating criminal had barely any time to stand up before the masked man leaped across the street, landing in front of them. Blood was still dribbling from the mouth of the criminal as his attacker raised his fist. Not thinking clearly, Thomas acted on autopilot, placing himself between the criminal and the masked man.

“This is ridiculous! Stop!” Thomas shouted.

The man hesitated, “Get out the way! This fool needs punishing.”

“And who are you to dole out punishment?” Thomas asked, fear present at the back of his voice.

“Because I have the power to!” he responded, pulling back his fist as he did so, “No get out of the way.”

Thomas’ legs didn’t move. He wasn’t sure if that was because of fear or courage. As he stared up at the raised fist, Thomas had various memories of the past come to my mind. He wondered if that was the whole your life flashing before your eyes thing that preceded death. He thought of his family, of how his first day away from them would be his last. Thomas closed his eyes.

“Freeze!” came a scream from behind Thomas.

Thomas’ eyes immediately opened, his head turning quickly to see that the police had finally arrived. Two squad cars were now only fifteen feet from Thomas, with four cops covering behind their doors, guns drawn.

The man in the mask lowered his fist, “I have no battle with you.”

“Put your hands up!” an officer replied.

The ice user behind Thomas immediately raised his hands, “I surrender! Just don’t let this crazy motherfucker kill me!”

Thomas had seen enough cop shows and videos to know that if he didn’t comply with the officers then he could very well get shot. So his hands shot up into the air as well, before he lied down on the pavement, trying to look as least intimidating as possible.

“What are you doing?” the masked man shouted at the police, “He’s a worthless criminal. He should be shot like a rabid dog.”

“Shut up and put your hands up!” was their reply.

Instead, the man in the mask walked past the prone Thomas and grabbed the criminal by his collar, “You’d really fight me over this piece of trash?”

“Surrender now!” came the answer.

Sighing, the masked man threw the criminal to the ground, causing him to cough up blood. The second he hit the pavement, a single shot rang out, tearing through the masked man’s left shoulder. He hissed in pain.

“Damn it Jackson!” an older officer yelled, “You wait till I give the order to shoot goddammit!”

Blood started to flow from the masked man’s shoulder as he glared at the police. He then looked down at the criminal lying on the ground, his fists clenching. But upon looking back at the police, he eased his muscles.

“I’m not the enemy here. One day you’ll see that,” he hissed, “One day you’ll be with me cleaning up all this fucking trash.”

Before the officers could respond, the man jumped into the air, landing on a nearby roof. He then continued to leap, moving from roof to roof. The older cop swore before calling in for backup to follow him. After that things got a little hazy. An ambulance arrived soon after to take the criminal to the hospital before the cops could talk to him, as he seemed to have broken ribs and internal bleeding.

The cops did question Thomas alongside the other motorists that were on the street. Thomas was completely honest with them about what happened, save the fact that he had used his power to push the criminal out of the way. Thomas attributed the big grab due to an adrenaline rush. It seemed like the other witnesses agreed as no one had seen the golden energy around Thomas when he propelled himself, the brief sight being lost in the chaos of the encounter.

Thomas was still shook up as the cops let him go. They had taken his contact details and said that they would be in touch as their investigation progressed. The stress of his first day in San Fransisco had left Thomas drained. As he walked over to his truck he was reminded that the front had been damaged by the wall of ice. While he could still drive with it, it was unsightly. Thomas wondered if he could get an employee discount if he took it to Luke’s auto garage.

Thomas looked up another route to his new home, as between the ice and the police, most of the street had been cordoned off. Thomas drove in silence, no music playing, just him and his thoughts. He wondered if the criminal would out him as an altered, as he had definitely seen him use his powers. Thomas hoped that the whole saving his life thing would allow for some secret keeping. But then again, when faced with a police interrogation, who knows what secrets he would give up.

The thought still bothered Thomas as he found the house. It was of a decent size, with a driveway that could fit two vehicles. Thomas pulled his truck onto the left side of the driveway, as Luke had specified. Then he walked to the side of the house, pulling out the key Luke gave him. Opening the side door, Thomas walked down a flight of steps into the basement.

For the first time Thomas saw where he would be living. It was a small basement with four rooms: a bedroom, washroom, laundry room, and kitchen/lounge. There wasn’t much furniture, but Thomas hadn’t brought much with him. To Thomas it was a perfectly acceptable living situation.

Still exhausted, Thomas sat down on the small bed that came with the place. He pulled out his phone only to seen that he missed two texts while that whole incident downtown was taking place. They were from his brother. The first was an image of some kind of medical tent next to a coffee shop not far from where he used to live. The second text was a link to an article from today.

Confused, Thomas opened the link. It was an article recapping all the presidential announcements today regarding altered individuals. First was a long list of restrictions on what altered people could do. While that was bad enough as it was, the Forrester government had started randomly checking the blood of citizens to see if they were altered. Thomas now realized that the photo Daniel sent was of a blood checking station in their neighbourhood back in Phoenix.

Thomas was immediately fearful for his brother, as he still thought he could be an altered. The photo he had sent meant he was near the blood checking station, so Thomas wondered if that meant he had been tested. Thomas was also fearful for himself as he was definitely an altered. A quick Google search revealed that the same kind of stations had already started popping up in San Fransisco, with some kind of violence already happening at one.

Thomas let out a long yell of fuck. Images flooded his mind again, but rather than memories of the past, they were anxieties of the future. He had thought that he could get by as an altered by keeping his head down and only using his powers in emergencies. But if they were mandating blood tests, Thomas saw no way to coast by.

With his head still full of anxieties, Thomas lied down and closed his eyes, hoping his tiredness would win out. It eventually did, as darkness invaded his mind’s eye, encompassing all of his psyche before beginning a deep sleep.

San Francisco - Jason Korvail - FEMA Camp
Jason took notice of the surrounding combined fear of those in the camp. The sudden appearance of a superhuman was something that was startling to them. Surely it would have been to him as well had he not been one of them.

The mere appearance of another foreign being whose power outclassed his own was worrisome. So the fact that he felt confident in his own abilities to face this aggressive man was calming.

“Who you calling a special son of a bitch huh?” Jason started hearing the thoughts from Marcus, and briefly mixing up the thoughts with his actual speech. Something he’d tended to do when he first manifested his telepathy, but had since been getting better at not doing as he spent more time with his powers. He let out an exhale as the man continued his rant, these words aloud for the whole crowd at the FEMA Camp to hear them.

“I understand one thing and that’s you will NOT disrespect me and you will NOT use the tone against me motherfucker.” Jason found his voice oozing with more venom then usual, which meant Jason wasn’t behind the driver seat. Justice had took the reigns, his alternate personality. Jason had retreated within the confines of his mind taking solace in the fact that his other half was taking over to handle the volatile man in-front of them. Don’t worry Jason you just rest buddy, you’ve done enough talking. I think it’s time we take control for the time being teach this little bitch a listen, sometimes might is required to make others see the light Justice retorted to Justin in a private conversation within the deepest chambers of his own being that only the two split personalities occupied.

Justice took a deep breath then a slow exhale as if him to calm himself down before responding to Marcus. While a stark shift in control of his physical being had shifted, this wasn’t anything noticeable to outsiders. It likely wouldn’t have mattered considering Marcus’s demeanor and his anger towards any commentary that wasn’t directed to this mysterious Angel’s whereabouts. Using his telepathic prowess he scanned the surface thoughts of others in the area to see if he could solve the mystery of the bad tempered man. Bingo

“As I said earlier motherfucker I SAID It would be within our interests to potentially form some sort of alliance before you came at me the wrong way the VERY wrong way. In a matter of minutes I found the bitch you were looking for.” But you wanted to go off on your stupid ass rant before allowing me to explain my value you stupid man. Justice used his powers of thought projection to deliver that last sentiment directly to Marcus’s mind. This allowed him to hear the sound of Justice’s voice within his mind as loud as if he was speaking. “Unfortunately before I can help you I need to teach you some respect.” Justice then used his telekinetic power to form a choking force around Marcus’s neck. He briefly tightened his grip before releasing it followed by an invisible shockwave of force being emitted towards the ex liberty soldier. Some audible gasps escaped from the mouths of others in the camp at this display of power, the released shockwave having the unintended consequence of flipping some vehicles in the air parked a few feet from behind where Marcus was standing.

San Francisco - Dean Rivers - SFPD Station
“Oh look at this, the nutcase uploaded another video.” In the police office precinct of San Francisco PD two officers sat around at a counter discussing recent events that were transpiring in their state & around the world. One was a man of mixed nationality Mexican and caucasian, Kenny Johnson who’d been on the force his whole life.

The other was a beat &withered African American detective named Dean Rivers. He looked to be in his mid 40’s but was not a day older then 38. His life had been filled with much anguish & trauma over the years that it was if he was aging in dog years like some mean youtube commenters suspected about Chicago artist Chief Keef. Dean had taken out his phone to keep up with the Presidential address of the “temporary” Emergency Altered Laws.

He found these laws oppressive & was more concerned about these measures being used to reinforce a more segregated & oppressive era from before the civil rights movement on minorities who didn’t even have Altered Human status. He wasn’t a conspiracy theorist he’d seen the kind of damage some of those paranoid monsters could do both working homicide cases in Chicago & doing narcotics work up here. Still he found it convenient or at the very least very odd that only people of minorities had reported manifesting superhuman abilities from the plague. Perhaps white people had been manifesting powers too but were wise enough to keep shut about it. He’d seen plenty of people updating the world about their newfound superhuman status through public forums including facebook, twitter & even instagram.

As a man who’d been dedicated to fighting drug crime since moving out to California, it never ceased to amaze him the type of incriminating evidence suspects would freely distribute to the Internet. “Hello earth to Dean, you see this shit, I’m not talking about President Forrester, he’s making the tough calls that gotta be made in spite of people labeling him a racist & a tyrant. I’m talking about Reaper, the President’s new measures must really have him ticked off that’s two uploads in a day, said this new one was posted 13 minutes after the President’s announcement.” Kenny said with some sarcasm in his voice taunting the Report’s urgency to upload a new message.

Dean was curious on what the Reaper had to say, and asked Kenny to sent him the link. Upon getting it he opened it up to see the Reaper’s message. He was wearing the same garb as usual, but was in a different location than the other video’s shot. It was noisy the sound of people with raised voices, perhaps a protest of some sort. Dean turned to google and began typing in protests in the search bar. Sure enough live news updates showed that there were already protests in Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Flint, Gary, Cleveland, and of course not too far from them Los Angeles. He switched his focus back to the video at hand of Reaper who was speaking.

“I have warned you people enough, but now you see President Forrester’s true colors. This nation’s true color. Should the new laws surprise you, absolutely not. This country was BUILT on the backs of enslaved africans and slaughtered native Americans. That spirt of inequality and racism has lived on throughout the years as evident by our current president. It is time for utter & absolute war, destruction of this administration & it’s government! I declare war on the Forrester Administration & all of America! I advise all Altered to side with me against Forrester and participate in the eradication of the United States Empire. It is time for their mighty empire to fall, all great empires have been slaughtered In the past including the Roman Empire, America is no different! An empire built on greed & inequality of others shall not stand not thanks to these powers we have been granted! DESTROY THEM ALL!!!!” Reaper screamed out and the video ended, with the screen fading too black.

Dean exited the video and briefly glanced at some of the disturbing comments scrolling down before completely exiting. “You see how nuts them people are, we need to be having the NSA get the IP address of all of them supporters and bring them in too. Anyone who supports this maniac needs to be treated as an enemy combatant of the country.” Kenny announced as Dean was finally back in the conversation with the fellow officer having finished watching the latest extremist propagada uploaded by Reaper.

“Yeah I’m in agreement with you there, fully.” Dean finally settled, Reaper’s latest message was too much. All of the videos he’d uploaded to the net had been problematic so far, but this one there was no doubt about it he was declaring war on the country. Dean decided to get back to what he was doing, he was an investigating an uptick in missing girls from the San Francisco & Oakland area. The gradual rise in reported kidnappings had started taking place about seven weeks ago, although looking through the notes he could tell the SFPD had deliberately ignored most of the reports about the missing minority girls from Oakland in comparison to the gals who went missing in the San Francisco area where there were notes of actual police manhunts that had been together to scower the area & search for these women to no avail. To Dean this meant that the same person was behind the kidnappings in both areas, and was taking advantage of the police’s non-chalant attitude about girls missing from Oakland. Hmm this is interesting not in a good day for sure, but I gotta look into this. I don’t know who’s responsible, but it’s gotta be connected Dean thought to himself as he continued looking through the notes collected by other officers in their department trying to figure out the missing link between all the missing women in hopes of helping to crack the case & hopefully find these missing girls.

San Francisco - Jace Williams - Hair Salon
Jace Williams had made it to his next destination after leaving the safe-house. He’d put up all his Shade gear in a backpack, and along with the duffel bag had left both in the trunk of his vehicle. He was stopping by a hair salon that was rising with popularity in the downtown San Francisco area. Of course he wasn’t here to get any work done with his hair, walking inside the store-front he spotted a younger black woman. She had on a tan sweater vest and a red skirt, Lucious light skin, and long flowing black hair with bright green eyes. Spotting Jace enter the woman smiled, as Jace approached her embracing and kissing her.

“How ya doing Nikita.” Jace started off happy to see this girl, the feeling between the two was apparently mutual.

“I’m right baby, mama’s not doing that good tho. Apparently this scumbag’s been extorting lots of people in town, she’s tried to avoid him but he caught up with her today. Shook her down for all the money in the cash register and a little extra.” Nikita coughed up the information to Jace begrudgingly, whilst she had no idea of his alternate identity as Shade. She knew he was willing to do anything to stand up for his family & her. The last thing she wanted to risk was him getting hurt by engaging Lionel, who was a known Altered Human using his powers to scare & blackmail people into paying him for “protection” from himself essentially.

“What?! Are you serious” Jace was appalled at the information she was telling him, that Nikita’s mom had been extorted by this mysterious Lionel figure. He’d heard a little about him, but so far nothing too concrete. So far he’d only encountered one or two other altered humans during his anti gang/crime crusade and they proved to be fairly easily to kill, there powers posing little threat to his own. He brought down the pressure on his girl asking relentless questions about the extortion that took place to try to gather clues that would either expose Lionel’s identity to him or grant him his whereabouts.

After about fifteen minutes of going back & forth, as well going to the back to watch the store’s security camera Jace had enough information. Or rather he had as much as Nikita was willing to divulge, she wasn’t trying to give him too much. Watching the security tape he was able to see Lionel’s vicious use of his power, encasing his arms in metal & punching holes in the store walls to intimidate Nikita’s mother. He decided to step outside to clear his head which was full of rage & violent thoughts about wringing Lionel’s neck. As he stood outside on the sidewalk in-front of the store front trying to calm himself down he was alerted to a peculiar sound. Some sort of inhuman moaning, followed by the ghastly screams of two teenage girls. “What the fuck??”

Jace didn’t hesitate and sprinted towards the sound. Taking a page out of white people in a horror movie he decided against minding his business & went to investigate. That shit ain’t sound right at all, sounds like someone’s hurting them girls Jace thought as he came around the corner entering an ally way where he saw a girl got flung in the air. Jace used his own powers boosting his strength and jumped in the air catching the girl and landing on the ground. The girl in his hands was passed out looking forward he saw another girl running out a back door only for some sort of giant 9 foot gray scale inhumane mutant creature to be chasing her. The mutant lunged forward, claws emerging from it’s hands piercing through the women’s chest causing blood to splatter.

Jace instantly ran to the sidewalk setting the woman down. “SOMEONE GET HER SOME HELP!! SOMEONE CALL AN AMUBLANCE!!!” Jace yelled out to get the attention of others only for the mutant creature to lung forward tackling Jace into a parked car. This caused bystanders who weren’t paying much attention when Jace was pleading with anyone nearby to call for help to be alarmed. The mutant grabbed Jace from the wreckage of the vehicle he smashed him into and threw Jace into the street. Jace’s body flew crashing into an SUV that was coming around the corner. The occupants a woman at the wheel and her boyfriend in the passenger seat were startled by the man crashing into their windshield, sending glass flying into the seats. Both emerged as the mutant roared running towards them, causing the couple to split quickly running down the street hollering.

“What the motherfucking hell, ah fuck this ain’t good.” Jace realized he’d been thrown across the street from his backpack where his mask was, but the mutant wasn’t giving him any time to get changed. The mutant grabbed Jace and began punching him violently. Jace responded with kicking the beast in the chest then jumping up punching the mutant with a slew of blows before boosting his strength again and and punching the creature in the chest sending it flying and crashing into a street pole. The creature quickly recovered growling, the sounds of police sirens were approaching as the creature wiped some blood from it’s lips, and charged Jace again.

San Francisco - San Francisco County Jail
At the jail Lori Martinez was not having the best time, locked up after the attempted murder of her ex boyfriend for cheating. A week ago she was a regular college student in a relationship studying to become a nurse. All that had changed when she’d walked in on her boyfriend cheating on in their shared apartment. She had been filled with absolute rage, and took over by emotions. Her eyes had surged with energy much to the shock of everyone in the room, all of which had no idea of her powers except for Lori herself.

She’d kept them secrete, not wanting to alarm her boyfriend or any other people she knew about her new status as an Altered Human. It was her biggest secrete and one she’d hoped to bury with the rising Anti-Altered climate that was brewing in the United States. Beams of energy surged from her eyes blasting through her boyfriend’s chest, while the floozy he was cheating with leapt off the bed screaming in panic. Lori was shocked at the display of power she’d used on him, but didn’t stop there figuring she was already in trouble. Knowing the authorities would get involved she directed her eye beams on the girl he’d been sleeping with in THEIR bed. The girl pleaded for mercy but all that fell on deaf ears as Lori turned to the girl blasting her with the eye beams. She screamed in agony as the beams sizzled through her flesh and her charred body hit the ground in a pool of blood.

After some internal debate Lori had decided to call the authorities, hoping to quell her energy beams and skate by on the two murders. Paramedics were called and thanks to rushing the two victims to the hospital they were able to saved. Lori had confessed to the crime, but stressed the accidental nature of such. The SFPD took no mercy on her superhuman plight & placed her in cuffs. Fearing being caged like an animal for potentially the rest of her life Lori had did the unthinkable using her power on the cop blasting him out of a window and firing on the other cops. The short story she had been beaten profusely by the officers and was now blind-folded in her own secure cell. Her story had made the news like many other violent Altered incidents and she was separated from the other prisoners at the jail. A female was seen approaching the county jail in a fancy vehicle and parking in the visitor/guest section. The auburn haired woman wearing dark shades emerged from her car, she was wearing a tight black skirt that tugged against her curvy figure & wide thighs.

Entering the county jail’s front office she approached two cops sitting at the front desk typing away staring at computer screens in-front of them. The woman held a badge that said FBI and held it up making a noise to alert the officers. “FBI agent Mayas, I’m here to see the prisoner Lori Martinez. I have some questions for her, can you take me to her.”

The officer looked up at Agent Mayas badge then looked at her face, after two more precautionary glances he got caught up nodding his head. “Alright come with me ma’am. We’ve got her eyes wrapped up ya know the freaky bitch shoots lasers out of them. I’m sure you know better then us but don’t let her talk you into removing them or she’ll be using everyone at the station for target practice trying to get out of here.” The officer led the FBI agent to an elevator. After going to the bottom floor, they walked through a series of hallways & corridors. There was a stench that filled the hallways, the smell of prisoners many of whom weren’t concerned about their hygienics seeing as how they were in jail.

Finally she was led to the outside of the cell, inside the infamous cheater slayer was positioned in a metal chair. She had restraints on both her arms & legs binding her to the metallic seating, whilst they had put together a set up encasing her eyes and upper cranium area In restrictive protective metal. The idea was simple to defend the facility & surrounding guards from her deadly ability. Agent Mayas gave them credit for their ingenuity which had in a sense rendered the threat of her powers within those confines null and void. She allowed a smirk to grace her mouth as she thought about what was to occur next. These men shall witness real power, this place this city reeks of liberalism. Tolerance of that which should not be tolerated by a unified people. I will educate the masses, but this is a wonderful city to deliver the lesson too. Oh thank you Austin even though you failed to reveal the location of the Tartarus Compound your donations to my success have been numerous

The guard handled her a folder and a set of keys as well as a sedative. “I’m assuming your here for transport lady, them cuffs on your hip aren’t gonna be enough. I suggest you dose her nice and good before you ask her whatever questions ya need to, by the time that’s done she’ll be counting sheep. This is enough to tranquilize an elephant, could kill her, but the world wouldn’t be a worst place if she didn’t make it if you ask me.” The cop sneered at the last comment causing Agent Mayas to elicit a laugh that let him ease up on thinking she might have been one of those agents who was an altered sympathizer and would potentially take offense to his crude dark humor.

With that the officer left the fate of Lori in Agent Mayas hands. Agent Mayas went and knocked on the wall to alert the bonded girl to her entry. “Hello Lori Martinez, my name is Agent Mayas and I am here to liberate you.”

“Liberate me, that’s what you putas call this! That bastard and that stupid bitch deserved it, we weren’t just dating, we were engaged!!! We been together for four years, when I met that bastard he was getting evicted he had nowhere to go! If I wasn’t for me he’d be in the streets! I gave him his life I can take it away.” Lori barked she was un repetenant on the condition she’d left her ex and the skank she caught him with. Understandably so in Agent Mayas eyes by the way she described the history of their relationship.

“Listen to me very carefully Lori, I understand what you did and why you did it. To be honest I offed my own husband, fucking bastard had the nerve to do me wrong after all we’d been through.” Agent Mayas spoke, the jingling of the keys was heard as she began undoing the bindings on Lori’s feet then her hands freeing them both. Lori let out a gasp shocked that she was gently released and not rough handled like she’d been by all the other officers since her incarceration stint had started.

“What the….you…what the fuck, who are you, what kinda cop are you.” Lori responded still on the defensive after being freed from all but her visual restraints, which in her case was the most lethal & offensive. “Your not going to free my eyes though, you know I can blow you away.”

“Can and will are two different things Miss Lori. Your not stupid, of course the Altered are dangerous & powerful so they are feared. Just today I’m sure your aware of President Forrester’s new laws, but what do you think is the end goal?”

“Simple, get rid of us, America always hates what’s different, racism but this is different. We don’t just look different, we can do all sorts of things. I can shoot lasers, some of us can fly, others can bring down lightning from the sky maybe even trigger tornadoes and earthquakes by twiddling their thumbs. That type of power ain’t going be tolerated, sooner or later there gonna push the kill button, and for the ones like me were gonna be the first to get the lethal injection with no protest from anyone. I blasted two people, they not gonna understand the backstory of why I did it, what he did to me, they gonna see a super monster who hurt innocent regular people.” Lori spat out venomously with a realization of her situation and being an altered human, and what using her powers to assault others meant for her.

“But your still an American Citizen, and your bond has been posted. I was sent by the FBI to transport you to your next destination. Your being released into your parents captivity, under 24/7 house arrest. As neither your ex fiancé or the woman he was with are dead, you were granted a bond of $500,000 which your parents put their house up for, as a result of your abilities, the conditions are harsh, you are to remain at your parents house 24/7 until your court date, under police surveillance and wearing an ankle monitor. They’ve elected to have the FBI handle the transportation of you to your parents abode as your deemed a high security risk as well as a potential lflight risk but more so emphasis has been placed on security. Partially because with the plague the country’s already on national lockdown so there’s little chance of you escaping the country not without significant financial wealth to acquire means of private flight which you clearly don’t have as a college student & a part time waitress. Now do you want freedom or do you want to blast a federal agent and get killed on the spot.” Agent Mayas finished as she undid Lori’s visual restraints.

“I..I…I want freedom.” Lori relented hearing that her parents had put up their house for her high bond quelled her fury. She didn’t want to make her parents loose everything, it was one thing to risk her own freedom but not theirs as well. “Take me to my parents please.” Lori spoke softer then before a single tear rolling down her face with the realization that her future career as a nurse was over indefinently and that her parents were probably furious with her at what she did powers or no powers.

“Oh see that’s the thing, that’s what I’m suppose to do Lori. I didn’t say that’s what I’m going to do, let me explain. My name is Adora.” The woman smiled at Lori who seemed confused and now somewhat more defensive again,

“What do you mean that’s what your suppose to do, I don’t give a fuck what your name is lady, what’s that gotta do with me.” Lori spat back now wanting some answers, and clearly wanting to be taken to her parents and away from the cops.

“Enough talking let me show you.” Adora grabbed Lori, a surge of energy went off between the two women. Lori began screaming in agony as Adora laughed manically the energy surging between the two growing more viral and powerful. It looked as if Lori’s very life was being drained from her body and into Adora’s. Moments later the cruel display was over and Lori’s body slumped bacon the chair lifeless. Adora grinned as her eyes briefly flickered surging with energy that filled them. Her little stunt had attracted attention as two guards were banging on the outside of the interrogation/containment room alarmed by what she assumed they must have saw on the security cameras in the backroom.

“Oh boys it’s far too late for any of that, now it’s time to teach this stupid fucking city a lesson.” Adora’s eyes surged with red energy and blasted the door down the force of the metallic door crumbling the two guards behind it as all three were sprawled up against a wall they’d been flung into. Adora stepped confidently out the room unleashing her laser vision drilling a hole through the one of the guards hearts then using her eye beams to puncture two deep holes all the way through the second guard’s neck killing both with ease. Then looking up she unleashed her laser beams taking out the security cameras.

“Oh now that was fun, I like this one.” Adora turned around and headed back into the interrogation room. She took one final glance at Lori’s lifeless corpse before using her laser beams to slice her In half, then set her slashed in half body and the rest of the room on fire with her destructive beams. Stepping out into the hallway she began using her beams widely tearing apart the hallway corridor before her appearance shifted into the appearance of Lori Martinez. She looked over at her new body and giggled at her transformation. “Oops oh Lori your parents are going to loose their house for sure after today, the radicals might even kill them.”

Adora blasted her way through the ceiling above her and drilled an exit through every floor to the top. Looking up she burst forward levitating then accelerating through the series of holes she made. Seconds later she was outside floating above the jail looking around at the surrounding area still in Lori’s form. She could hear the sounds of the siren blaring in the jail from her laser eyed rampage and the three murders she’d just committed with her powers, She hovered higher in the sky and looked away from the city before smirking. “No if I wanna get what I want, I have to do this there.

She jetted forward and landed in the street. Some people pointed upwards at the woman who flew down from the sky. In the tense anti Altered climate the country was in that was not a good idea. One man was pointing at Adora as she landed, while others could be seen getting there cell phones probably to alert the police of an altered woman using her powers in public which was a violation off the new mandates issued by the Forrester Administration. “Oh what the hell are you pathetic fools looking at.” Adora barked at one of the people who had their phone out.

“Oh uh nothing…” The man spoke raising his volume lowering it as he spoke on the phone.” Please send help, I’m serious she just flew down from the sky, no she didn’t hurt anyone by flying, but who knows with those freaks.” As the man spoke in a hushed tone to authorities on the other line he noticed Adora approaching him. A woman next to him tugged at his shoulder to avoid letting her overhear his frantic conversation with the authorities. Taking note of her steady approach he quickly hung up and pocketed his cellular device in his jean. The blaring sound of approaching police sirens was growing louder. Only about ten to fifteen minutes away from the very jail she’d just murdered Lori & the guards at was the national guard checkpoint Karagoz had murdered all the soldiers at.

“Hmm I feel like your lying but that’s alright, listen up everyone that can here me, your time is up. A new era is upon us, the age of Altered Humans being in charge.” Adora yelled out loudly trying to stir up commotion among anyone that heard her words.

“Look lady I don’t know if you skipped your meds this morning, but your not exactly threatening oh wow you can fly, don’t mean you can kick my ass.” Another guy spoke up, a man in his mid 20’s wearing a security uniform who stepped in to intervene with the situation and was also carrying a baton & pepper spray.

“Oh really? Alright then how’s this for a threat.” Adora smirked and suddenly began growing in size. People around her gasped in fear as the woman grew to a height of 100 feet tall, then 200 feet tall. The hispanic woman finally stopped growing reaching a height that matched some buildings, raising her foot she brought it down stepping on both the security guard and the man who’d called authorities as well as the woman he was with.

“HOWS THAT FOR A THREAT!!!” Adora yelled her voice ringing out thanks to her huge size. Her sudden tremendous growth struck fear into the hearts of others nearby. Her eyes surged with energy before unleashing her eye beams on a nearby office building. The lasers drilled through the building cutting it in half causing the top half to crumble falling into the streets below.

Taking a step forward into traffic pressing down stepping on cars and innocent people inside of them. People began running as Adora marched forward crushing vehicles & people alike while spewing energy beams from her eyes tearing through the streets. A squad of police cruisers approached, police emerging from thrive vehicles guns drawn at the huge broad. “Oh how cute someone called the cops pathetic.”

As the cops opened fire to no avail as the bullets did nothing to her at her current size. She kicked two of the cruisers sending them flying across the street and crashing into a donut shop. The cops turned to run only for electric sparks to gathe in Adoras hand followed by a stream of lightning being unleashed. The lightning blast struck the cops below slaughtering them all, and continued rummaging through the street destroying people & vehicles caught in the blast.

Screaming & panic spread through the streets of San Francisco as the giant rampage continued through the city. Adora stepped towards a national guard checkpoint that was administering blood tests near a hospital. As the soldiers opened fire Adora brought her foot down crushing the soldiers beneath it and swatting a nearby approaching helicopter causing it to spin out of control crashing into the hospital.

The smell of coffee freshly brewed filled the air in the wide, pure white, open kitchen. The kitchen led right into the dining room, that way no matter who was in the kitchen cooking could always hear the action happening at the large white oak table. The only noise in the house was the sound of a spoon stirring and hitting the edges of a coffee cup. Cynthia shuffled quietly into the large living space which connected from the dining room by a step down, the floor turning from African blackwood into a light grey carpet. The entire first floor was incredibly open, Cynthia had designed it herself. She wanted to know where everyone was at all times while in her house. During meetings nobody was allowed to slip away to another room or take any private phone calls.

Cynthia sat down on her main couch that faced her 85 inch television. She sunk deep into the charcoal grey couch that appeared to be made out of almost all pillows and started to sip her coffee while turning on the TV to listen to the news.

She watched the president’s address to the city and despite the provisions and restrictions made to altered humans she felt no panic at all. In fact, with the president’s restrictions and not protecting the altered human’s rights they would be desperate for jobs and protection. And she had many plans on how to not only use altered humans and their fears but also the rich and their own fears.

Cynthia’s front door started to unlock and she reached down below the cushions for a gun. Even though anyone who could gain access to her house, which required getting past the guards at the gate and the guards on the grounds, could be trusted, one could never be too careful.

“Amor!” A voice rang out. It was Jessica, Cynthia’s secretary and acquaintance. “I got my blood test done and wanted to talk to you about some plans. I have a couple of different ideas on how you can use your powers.” Jessica was not an altered human and was one of the few people to know about Cynthia and the extent of her power.

“¿Mande?” Cynthia asked her to repeat herself and spoke very lightly to Jessica. She hadn’t finished her coffee yet and didn’t feel like dealing with Jessica’s next big idea. Jessica came in handy, she was a good secretary and could keep a secret. She kept plans in line for Cynthia and worshipped the ground she walked on but it was obvious she wanted more from Cynthia and it began to get on her nerves three months ago when she first developed her powers.

“Why don’t you have an ID that shows you are an altered human?” Jessica asked, “Wouldn’t it strike more fear into people’s hearts if you could show them, without revealing your powers, that you are altered?”

It was true, Cynthia had a normal ID card. Cynthia had managed to use her abilities to alter the memories of the person who would have taken her test into believing what they saw was a negative, this way even in the system she would show up as a regular person.

“Do you think I don’t strike fear in people’s hearts already?” Cynthia asked while still staring straight at the TV screen. Jessica now stood at the end of the couch looking at Cynthia.

“No, you do,” Jessica stuttered, “but I thought it would be a good idea. I actually need your help with your powers. I don’t want you to just use them but you might have to.” Jessica bit her lip as she confessed, “I kind of have told a guy about your latest operation, I thought he was one of us! But it turns out he wasn’t and I don’t think you would have to change his memory, he could be useful to us, but if you just flashed your card saying you were a bad ass woman who is altered then maybe…” So much for being a good secret keeper, Cynthia thought.

“Let me get this straight, puta, you told a random guy at a bar about my latest moves in this city? And you want me to spare him. Or wait, you want me to spare you?” Cynthia was still talking very lightly and staring at the TV. She cracked her neck to the right and tightened her grip on her coffee and the gun in the other hand.

“It actually wasn’t a random guy. I really thought he was one of us! He’s Tina’s guy, you know? So I thought he knew things and was part of it all.” Jessica was starting to panic, she knew she had fucked up but she didn’t realize how badly.

“Now you want me to go and clean up your mess? You didn’t just kill the guy yourself? And Tina is not in on most of our operations either. How could you really be that much of a gilipollas? Did the energy storm three months ago fuck you up? You aren’t the same anymore.” Cynthia’s voice rose with intensity as she asked each question to Jessica. Jessica was now visibly shaking at the end of the couch.

Something Cynthia learned from her father a long time ago was there few but important reasons to kill someone in your group. You didn’t want to just mow down and kill people who were loyal to you, that set a bad precedent. However, Jessica had crossed a line. Ever since three months ago when Cynthia revealed her powers to her she hadn’t acted the same. She was making stupid mistakes, running her mouth, trying to climb up the ladder that didn’t even exist for someone like Jessica. Now she had to decide to either use her powers to alter someone’s memory, he was sleeping with someone who ran drugs for her, or just kill him. Killing him would hurt Tina though, someone who was still part of her familia even if she was lower on the food chain. Jessica had put her in a tight spot and she could no longer deal with it.

Cynthia stood up from the couch with the hand holding the gun hanging down very loosely. She walked up the step and into the kitchen to put down her coffee, which had now grown cold. She then pulled out her phone and sent a text message to one of her guards which read,, Remove Jessica, permanently. Now.

Cynthia easily could have shot her with the gun. She wasn’t the best aim but she was close enough to Jessica that she could finish her right here and now. But she had a few rules as to when she killed people. Number one, don’t kill without an audience. Number two, don’t kill inside the nice house.

Within a minute a guard appeared at the door with a gun in hand. Jessica screamed for a moment, knowing that he came here to silence Jessica. The guard knocked Jessica out though and carried her away.

“Mi amor...” Cynthia sighed and decided to make another batch of fresh coffee to restart her morning.

Time: Late Morning
Location: FEMA Camp, San Francisco
Interaction: Jason @chulance

---

The stranger repeating Marcus' thoughts back to him, momentarily stunned him. Did he say that out loud? No… No, he did not. As the realization dawned on him, he cocked his head slowly to the side and narrowed his eyes.

Even with his retort back at him, he pondered his next move. A telepath could be of use, but being distracted wouldn't help him here… Because not only did this man claim to have located Angel but he also mentally and physically dominated him with his ability. After being momentarily choked, Marcus was thrown back, falling onto his back.

People shouted in both awe and fear. Phones were out and eyes were glued to the scene. With a sigh, Marcus stood up with a scowl painted on his face. I should tear the head off this… No. I can… You can hear me huh? This place is burned. Meet me a few blocks down in Buena Vista park if you really want to work together.

Marcus gave Jason a single nod before turning a around and zooming off in the distance. Good thing the park was close by, so he didn't risk heating up like he had before. The flames were a bit too much sometimes.

He hid his arrival by slowing down between a cluster of trees before he settled into a casual walk as pulled out his personal phone for anything useful or important. The case on the mobile device was thicker than usual, possibly meant as a guard in the instance he overused his ability.

"Donovan?" She was one of the few company types he let have his personal number. He felt she was cut from the same cloth as himself. Sure, she lacked powers, but she was still one of the most efficient professionals he had come into contact with.

You know I quit, right?

If you're still down. Botanical Garden in an hour. I'll find you.

Time: Late Morning
Location: FEMA Camp, San Francisco
Interaction: Marcus @FunnyGuy

---

Jason ignored the shouts and other reactions from bystanders in the FEMA Camp. Justice was in his charge and he had no fear of hiding his abilities. Unlike his primary personality he took extreme pride in his abilities and whilst he wasn't out to showcase them to the world to get the national guard or other intelligence agencies on his back neither was he cowering in fear.

Oh you wanna tear my head off? Those words or well thoughts of encouragement you have really make me wanna work with you even more. Jason once again projected his thoughts speaking to Marcus's mind directly in response to his train of thought, it seemed the other altered human wasn't use to people invading the privacy of his mind. Typically one's thoughts were only for themselves the one place that whatever one conjured up was safe-guarded from the prying ears of others, except in the case of a telepath who could infiltrate minds as easy as a skilled hacker could break into a computer with just basic password protection.

The man offered up another location to continue their "conversation" and just as quickly was gone in quite literally, a flash. Hmphh he's fast, extremely fast if he can think as fast as he can move I'll need an ounce of coke, adderall & coffee to try to keep up with his thoughts. That stunt I just pulled could have gotten me beat up quicker then a virgin going raw in Nicki Minaj or Megan Thee Stallion Jason decided to follow in Marcus's foot-steps to leave the FEMA camp & get out of dodge but not without using his power one more time on the camp grounds.

"Listen up, everyone here put your phones & any other recording devices you have out up. Delete any footage you have of what just happened, any communication you initiated with law enforcement about the scuffle you presumed was about to start tell them it was a lie, a misunderstanding, mistake." Jason spoke aloud using his telepathic power to bend the will of everyone present on the camp-grounds.

In the distance he heard the sounds of police sirens blaring, no doubt someone had called the cops as soon as his last teleknetic wave sent cars sprawling through the air. With the Jedi Mind tricks he just pulled mere;y by speaking he wondered how the mind-washed civilians would explain the flipped over cars. Jason used his own power to levititate himself further focusing to allow him to simulate full blown flight. He took off from the FEMA camp quickly departing as those within the camp where pre-occupied with the controlling verbal command he issued. He landed on the grass near Marcus's location, tracking Marcus's exact position down by his unique mental signature.

"Well here I am, away from the audience, now it's just me and you. So what's next, we gonna yell, and bicker and fight like children? Or put our powers together to use against our real enemy." Justice spoke calmly but firmly awaiting Marcus's response, the ball was now in the molecular accelerator's court. However as a safety precautionary measure with both of Jason's feet planted firmly on the grass beneath him tapped into his power to summon a skin tight invisible telekenetic field around him. There was no way he could keep up with Marcus's speed he'd seen that first hand, but he could form a shield around himself with his powers to protect himself from a potential attack that was far too fast for him to block.

Time: Late Morning
Location: , San Francisco
Interaction: Adora @chulance

---

"You gotta be kidding me…" Eric commented warily as he looked up at the towering bellowing 200 ft woman causing mayhem with the destructive force of something out of a Godzilla movie. Just moments ago, he had been enjoying a free slice of pizza he acquired while posted up against the wall of his favorite bookstore. All he was doing was scoping out one of those mobile blood testing stations since it was so close by. He didn't agree with them, and so he was look to see how to avoid them or find holes in their process.

Then BAM! Laser beam, and giant streams of electricity coming from some giant woman came into the scene. If she wasn't wrecking the city and putting him in possible danger, he might have seen the positives of a woman of her appearance assuming such a size.

Shaking his head, he paused everything. He stopped time just as the giant woman swatted a helicopter that came billowing his way. He'd been in dangerous situations before but this was by far the greatest, and he hadn't even caused it. Looking at the scene in still motion, he contemplated what he could do. The guy actually scoped out the surrounding stores for anything he could use to help out.

It was the least could do since he was unsure the woman would stop only here. With the time he had, Eric gathered and linked up handcuffs, weapon slings, rope, clothing, and anything he could link together. He looped his creation through one of the eyelets of her right shoe and wrapped the makeshift chain through an eyelet in her left shoe. He then proceeded to carry gallons of water to her right shoe and set the on her shoe while uncapped. He grabbed as many as he could, all opened and tilted over. Due to time being halted the water would stay put until things went back to normal. He nodded at his work.

"The water suddenly soaks her foot, she instinctively shift and trips herself… if the chain holds." He shrugged as he grabbed a nearby man off of a bike and proceeded to ride it away from the scene. Once far enough, he resumed time. And continued ride as far the fuck away as he could!