Milo Ventoro - New York City

Just another day in the post Dark Phoenix mutant world for Milo Ventoro. As an agent of the Underground & a journalist for the Daily Bugle he had to split his time & priorities between the two lives.

“Damn it shit just never gets better.” Milo said aloud to himself as he was reading a news article on his cell phone. The title was about a faction of mutants in the Underground who’d been captured in Texas.

As he was engaged in reading the article he got a text notification. The Bloods had agreed to pay the price for the shipment of AK’s and plasma cannons that he had. They’d also agreed to the time & place he’d requested to make the transaction. He’d deliberately picked those locations on the outskirts of Brooklyn wanting to avoid being spotted or detained by NYPD or MRD.

Getting up he walked across the room and over to a closet where the guns & plasma rifles were boxed up & ready for sale. He’d received a shipment of weapons to sell & use as had other members of the Underground in NYC. Not only were they making money selling these guns to criminals on the black market, they were planning to take over the Big Apple & start working their way across the country fighting the United Empire.

The Underground had recently struck a shaky alliance with the bloods, Dominicans & Omello Cartel to take NYC. The gangs & cartels would benefit by being able to set up an open air illicit drug market, not to mention running extortion protection rackets & running the resistance’s guns, but replace the NYPD as the enforcers of law in the city plus have a mutant stronghold in the United States. Outside of their hidden headquarters in Wakanda they only had a few bases of operations spread across the US & scattered across a few other places around the globe. But Wakanda was the only place where The Underground was in complete control & the rest of the world had thought Wakanda was a nuclear wasteland due to efforts by the United Empire to nuke them when Tchalla the Black Panther had sided with mutant-kind. Many In the international community had foreseen that coming since he was married to the former X Men member Storm.

Not to mention the two other key reasons the Underground wanted to start their state take over with New York. The island supervillain prison known as the Raft had been converted into a mutant concentration camp. As they’d already been equipped to contain supervillains since the days of the original web slinger Spiderman patrolling the streets of the big apple, it was an ideal place to contain rebel mutants. Plus the old Avengers Tower which had been converted to the “Ultimates Tower” also resided in the city, meaning they had a chance to liberate a large amount of imprisoned mutants & take down the Ultimates, the United Empires only government sanctioned team of non mutant superhumans.

“If my mom’s alive then she’s got to be in the Raft, Rykers or worst the super prison they built in the negative zone I’ve heard rumors about. Damn Richards & Stark helping the empire giving them access to all kinds of next level scientific advantages.” Milo grumbled complaining about the former superheroes who’d long since taken an anti mutant stand since many of their comrades were slayed in battle against the Dark Phoenix forty years prior.

But alas he didn’t have time to center his vindictive thoughts on Mr. Fantastic & Ironman. Using his telekinetic powers he lifted up the boxes with is mind. He then went outside to where his black SUV was parked. Whipping out the Keyes he unlocked the car and used his power to levitate the boxes full of weapons into the trunk arranging them neatly. The whole process took less then ten minutes. After finishing he checked his phone then texted his contact that he was on the way to meet with the weapons wrapped up & ready for distribution.

Upon getting a response from “Killa Red” he hopped in the car, fastened his seat-belt & drove off to the outskirts of Brooklyn. Pulling up he spotted Killa Red smoking a cannabis cigar with some other blood members. He was also welcomed to the sound of some classic Jay Z playing from one of their speakers. “Hmm so much for being conspicuous, damn it. I need to get this sale done & get the fuck outta here. All this noise they making it’s bound to attract the NYPD, the feds & god damn MRD all at once.”

“Ayo Ventorro the fuck you doing sight seeing?! Ain’t shit to see around here but us, and this damn dock that smell like piss, bring them blickies over here we tryna get active.” Killa Red yelled pout as he took a few more puffs of his cigar before passing it to another blood.

“Calm the fuck down Killa, I got what you need, but I need my money.” Milo replied as he got out he car using his telekinetic powers to open the trunk up and pull the boxes of weapons out to the ground, while Killa approached him with another gang member who had a brief case. The second gangster promptly opened the briefcase showing it was stuffed with cash.

“Nice doing business with you Ventorro, you mutant freaks sure know how to get your hands on some fucking grade A weapons” Killa said as he opened one of the Boxes examining and handling a plasma rifle with glee in his eyes at all the brutality he could carry out with this weapon

“Yeah Yeah watch who you calling a freak tho “Homie.” Milo retorted with emphasis on the last words as he took the brief case from the other criminal and used his powers to toss it onto the passenger seat of his SUV. Walking back to his vehicle he let out a sigh of relief that the whole gun deal had seemingly went down without any issues.

Taking out his phone he sent an encrypted message to his supplier in Wakanda that his deal with the bloods had gone through without any issues with payment, disloyalty from the bloods, or interference from any government agency. “HANDS UP FREAKS! THIS IS THE MUTANT RESPONSE DIVISION AND YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARRESt” A loud voice boomed over a megaphone, and Milo groaned.

Milo cursed silently as he turned to see three hover cars approaching filled with MRD agents, as well as more agents pulling in in earth bound armored vehicles sirens blaring as they were enclosing & surrounding the dock. “Fuck this I ain’t going” Killa yelled out as he cracked open the box yelling out to the other bloods to quickly arm themselves, as he himself charged up his plasma rifle and fired at one of the armored MRD trucks.

Milo used his telekinesis to form a powerful grip on one of the hover vehicles and sent it plummeting downwards causing it to crash into the roof of a warehouse on the dock. “TIMBER BITCH!!!!! You picked the wrong mutant to fuck with stupid ass agents, bring it.”

“Stupid would be trying to take on a relative of the Dark Phoenix without one of us.” A sinister voice replied and Milo whisked around to see none other then Venom swinging in and landing on top of Milo’s SUV caving in the roof. “Your battle’s with me punk, and I will be bringing you in whether you have the ability to walk anymore depends on how much you want to fight back mutie.”

Ah shit one of the ultimates here oh great, at least it’s not Eclipse or Ares, still the friggin OG symbiote ain’t no pushover. Milo shook his head infuriated that both Venom & MRD had showed up to the dock mere moments after he’d handed off the weapons. He was caught red handed in the midst of the deal, even if they hadn’t caught him using abilities he was cornered in the middle of an illegal weapons deal with numerous gang members. “I’m finna whoop yo old parasitic alien ass Brock.” Milo replied as Venom laughed, cracking his knuckles and lunging towards the mutant fugitive.

Ganymede Madrigal - Hyperdrive

Smoke slowly wafted out of Ganni's gas mask, giving out the impression that he was constantly smoking a joint. In some ways, that was true; he used a mix of mind enhancing substances in order to be able to better focus when making portals that bridged different points in the fabric of space. Creating tunnels through reality itself was easier said than done. The calculations and the visualization required in order to accurately make these doorways instead of teleporting into the middle of a wall or the inside of an engine with a dangerous power source were quite taxing to the normal mind. One need not get to the amount of energy needed to portal over more than a hundred kilometers from point A to point B to know that it's dangerous without proper preparation.

So, Hyperdrive, as the MRD had come to call the mutant that quite literally temporarily shatters the fabric of spacetime in order to make his portals, sat on top of a nearby building, watching the arms deal go on without so much as an argument over the amount of money that had been agreed for the exchange. Even so, he remained at edge, waiting for something to go wrong.

And of course, something did.

“HANDS UP FREAKS! THIS IS THE MUTANT RESPONSE DIVISION AND YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST!” A loud voice boomed over a megaphone, and Milo groaned.

"Punyeta..." Ganni cursed as he inched a bit closer to the building's edge to see that the hovercars, along with some other vehicles were quickly surrounding the group that had just finished the arms deal. He was just out of sight, thankfully, as he well hidden behind a section of wall that lined the edge of the flat rooftop. By the looks of it, things weren't great for the mutants. Venom himself had come to deal with the problem, and if the nature of the Ultimates was of any indication, more of them may come here to prove that they're better than their peers. After all, they were a bunch of pretentious pricks, glorified celebrities that spent more time in press conferences and photo ops than in fighting actual crime.

It's not their fault that Jean Grey went crazy. Welp, anyway...

For a moment, it seemed like reality itself buckled, then a crack opened up beside one of the remaining hovercars. Bolts of energy whizzed in from the other side as Ganni opened fire, poking holes into the vehicle's sides and then destroying its crucial hover systems, sending it careening to the ground like its counterpart from earlier. The remaining hovercar turned its attention to this new mutant interloper, only for the portal to immediately close like a zipper in thin air.

The real problem, though, was Venom, whom the other mutants on the ground were undoubtedly engaged with as of now. Ganni would try to pick off the surrounding MRD agents and vehicles and open up a weak spot through which they may be able to escape. Hopefully, at least.

Eclipse

---

Jericho breathed in as he stretched out his arms, slowly going through the steps of the movement. In front of Jericho was several dozen people, all mimicking his movements. They were all enraptured by Jericho’s actions, all of their attention focused on the man. For he was their teacher and they were eager to learn from him. He was the fist of Khonshu, ancient god of the moon, and they were his acolytes, adding their strength to the Egyptian god.

Jericho then put his arms down and assumed a relaxed position, saying, “And relax. Focus on your place in the universe.”

“It is by the power of the moon,” came the response from everyone gathered in the room.

“And the moon shall keep you,” replied Jericho, “And that’s it for today. Thank you all for coming, and please keep Khonshu in your hearts.”

Everyone then bowed, before beginning to leave the room. Jericho couldn’t help but smile as he saw how many had showed up for this teaching, how many were following after him. It gave him a rush to possess that power.

“But that power is mine,” spoke the voice of Khonshu in his mind, “You are the disciple, not the god.”

“I know,” Jericho replied telepathically, “All this is for your glory and dominion.”

“You would do best to remember that. For I am divine and eternal, and I shall be until the end of days.”

Jericho didn’t say anything else as he felt the presence of Khonshu leave his mind. Every time the god spoke to him, Jericho felt degraded. But he was painfully aware that all his power came from Khonshu, and without him he would just be another soldier. And Jericho knew that he was destined for more than that.

It was with that self-assuredness that Jericho exited the room and into the lobby outside. This building was one of the more recent additions to the Church of Khonshu, one of several in New York now. In the brief time it had been open it had already attracted a sizable congregation, a gathering of people that were now leaving the building.

While Jericho himself had run this service, that was not the norm as he had priests of Khonshu to run the regular services. But Jericho knew that he had to keep up appearances, as he was a celebrity and needed to be seen. Thus he had to show up the various Church of Khonshu buildings, reminding his followers that he existed and cared for them.

However Jericho did not care for them enough to exit alongside them. Instead he went through an employee only door which led to a closed off landing pad. Sitting in the middle of the pad was Jericho’s signature moon-white hover bike. Jericho placed his hand on top of it, triggering its biometric recognition software. Once the bike confirmed it was indeed Jericho, it turned on.

Jericho mounted the hover bike before rising into the sky. As he lifted off higher than the building, several of his followers spotted him and began to cheer. To keep up appearances, Jericho waved at them before speeding away from the church. The hover bike quickly cut across the skyline of New York, a city that had been rebuilt several times in the last few decades due to alien invasions. But New York remained, a shining jewel amidst the ravaged world.

Jericho spotted his destination, the massive Ultimates Tower. Tapping a few buttons on his bike submitted his clearance code to the tower, as to avoid its many defense systems. Sure enough Jericho was able to land his bike on the docking pad without getting shot out of the sky. Jericho dismounted his bike and took an elevator into the tower proper.

Getting off on the floor with living quarters, Jericho decided to take a shower. Being around a lot of people always made Jericho feel gross, especially when it was those sweaty guys who could barely keep up with the yoga part of his sermons. After showering, Jericho walked back into the living quarters, just wearing a towel. As he did so he was approached by a human sized robot. It was Jarvis-7, the butler android to the Ultimates.

“Master Eclipse, welcome back to Ultimates Tower,” the robot stated, “May I find you some clothes?”

“I can find my own,” Jericho replied, before wondering, “Any alerts I should know of?”

“Currently there is one Ultimates level threat in the city, but Master Venom is handling it.”

Jericho frowned at the mention of the symbiote host, as he had a low opinion of aliens, “Well what is it?”

“Arms trafficking, with both criminal elements and mutant terrorists,” explained Jarvis-7.

Jericho then smiled as he would never miss the chance to beat down some mutants, “Sends the location to my suit. Eclipse is going on this.”

“Yes sir,” answered Jarvis-7 as Jericho made his way to the armory.

Inside was one of several Eclipse armors he had made. He always kept one at Ultimates Tower, his home, and a few other select places. As Jericho looked at the armor, he knew it greatly looked like that of Moon Knight, the previous Fist of Khonshu. But he had failed his mission, dying during the Dark Phoenix Crisis before Khonshu could take over the world.

Jericho believed he would be different as he put on the armor. And killing mutants would help with that. So he armed himself with some knives, two handguns, and a katana. He said nothing to Jarvis-7 as he went back to the landing pad.

While he did use his hover bike in a civilian capacity, it was also decked out for combat. Jericho confirmed this as he checked the status of the cannons on the front of the bike. Satisfied that it was working, Jericho lifted off into the sky.

As Jericho cut across the skyline again, Jarvis-7 sent him the coordinates to his armor’s HUD. Jericho saw that it was a few minutes away by hover bike, so he pumped the thrusters. Jericho wanted to get there before Venom had all the fun and there were no more mutants left.

Andrew Hernandez/ Showstopper - TWIN CITIES ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT NEW BRIGHTON MINNESOTA

---

Tony Philips whispered, “Dude, we are going to get caught.” He was dressed in an Hazmat suit with an EPA symbol over the heart and back.
“Shhhhsh,” Andrew Hernandez said back looking at the crates and holding a Geiger Counter. And scanning the boxes. They kept away from the hot zone boxes till they came to the material that had been processed.

This is the stuff he said clamping a vice grip with a welded chain to in and heading back to the portal.
“They will kill us if they catch us,” Tony whispered as they walked back to the portal.
Andrew whispered, “I would be more worried about my Dad.” He would have also mentioned Wong and he worried about microphones.

All hell was going to break loose when the winches started pulling the bar through the portal. One rod weighed about eight hundred pounds and were almost fourteen feet in length. Tony had rigged three winches that would pull the whole thing through in about ten seconds, if their timing was right.

Tony stepped through the portal and pushed the green control button. Slowly at first then as the chain started to rattle then come under load, the bar started sliding. Andrew moved his right hand pointer finger to his forehead and held his left hand out like a fighting strike willing the portal to stay open.

The clank of the bar was loud setting off an alarm, ten seconds later the doors opened as a guard came to check the noise. There was about two feet of the rod left to go through as he pulled his side arm and sent a round down range. Tony dived for the portal as the bullet sized past where he was. He did not want to haze the suit punctured with that much radiation around. The bullet pinged off a steal beam back in the lab. As he beam clanked into he lab and he rolled across the floor, the portal closed.

Tony let out a yelp.
“They were shooting live bullets at us,” he said in a loud voice.
“You were not complaining when we spent the weekend in Vegas or went to beach in Mexico when we had a snow day,” Andrew said.
Andrew moved towards the rod, bringing up a magic circle. This one was fueled by the radiation consuming it. Channeling it into a cylindrical object that was glowing from the power. In an hour the rob would be ready to be milled into the last parts of his exoskeleton.
“Depleted Uranium, it is what they use to make tank buster and bunker busters,” Andrew said. It would make the arms, legs, and joints just about unbreakable. The guy in the suit was still flesh and blood.

There would be no trace of radiation when the feds finally got around to checking this place. He figured the two of them would be safe as long as his identity held.

On the lab computer the news of agents and mutations battling in the streets of New York caught their attention. Tony ran to grab his cellular phone. After pressing some keys.
“Shit,” he exclaimed.
“They are fighting at my old man’s furniture warehouse,” he continued dealing powerless.

The two of them looked at each other.
Andrew smiled and looked at him, “Remember the Dresden Files.”
“The part about running away is sometimes heroic? Your not Harry you know.” Tony said.
Andrew laughed.
“That would be my Dad. No, always be prepared and we are going to turn the Chaos up to eleven like Molly,” Andrew said.

Andrew knew that he would not be able to throw power like his father. He did not have his artifacts or cloak. That is why he needed the suit. It would allow him to keep up with some of the rough and tough people that were terrorizing everyone.

Andrew was not powerful enough to take them out. But he could foil some of their plans. he would get stronger but he still had a lot to learn.

Day time. Sometimes Max hated it. Sometimes he felt it kept him grounded. Day time was where Max Robbins, Private Security Entrepreneur lived. Night time was the world of The Hood, mystically enhanced protector of the city.

On an average night, The Hood would be literally running across the night sky, taking down baddies, shrugging off bullets, appearing and disappearing out of nowhere... He was light a living myth. A whisper. The boogeyman to malevolent. During the day, he was as he is now; a well-built bearded man in a black business suit with two concealed guns hidden in holsters under his jacket, driving one of his many clients from one meeting to the next in a black bulletproof sedan at a red light.

Comparatively, it was painstakingly boring.

"Mr. Robbins," came a voice from the back of the car with a distinct, elegant Asian accent. "The shareholder's meeting is starting in 12 minutes."

"I understand that, Mr. Li," Max assured his client. "I will get you there as quickly, and as safely, as possible." There were times when he would have to remind his clients of his own personal priorities. Max Robbins and his crew were angels of protection. When they were 'on the clock', their clients could rest assured that they were practically invincible under the team's umbrella. However, there were often times when clients would mistake them as drivers, butlers and secretaries and such poor assumptions needed correction. Cerberus Security makes it's money off of peoples' breaths. If you're client is breathing, you're getting paid. Max Robbins didn't really give a shit if Mr. Li was late to his meeting or not.

Finally the green light. Max eased the pedal down and took off toward Roxxon Two Tower, the satellite location for one of New York's most notorious oil and energy industries. As he pulled up to the lobby, he could see two men with black business suits matching his own with a small patch on their breast pocket - an image of a 3-headed dog. Max exited the vehicle and gave the two men a nod as he made his way to the back seat to open his client's door. Max's two subordinates then took custody of Mr. Li and escorted him into the building, leaving Max alone with his car.

As he boarded his vehicle once more, he pulled out into the street and just sighed.

God, I am so bored, he thought to himself as he hit the steering wheel with his palm in a hard thud. He glanced over at the clock just above his radio before rolling his eyes. Night time was still out of reach. As he slowly glided through traffic, he looked over at the briefcase that was settled in the front passengers seat. Within it was his mystically enhanced cloak and boots. It was as if they were calling out to him, begging him to take them out, to wear them, to become him. To become The Hood.

Anonymous vigilantism was hard enough in the shroud of darkness. Being a caped crusader during daylight hours was asking for trouble. If he were ever found out, it could lead the criminal underworld right to his very home, to his friends and associates, to his business... It could potentially ruin him. He had to remain steadfast. Max by day, Hood by night. That was his rule.

And then he heard it. Gunshots, explosions, shouting. It wasn't far. Max's grip tightened on the wheel. It's not my business, he told himself. Whatever is happening over there has nothing to do with me, has nothing to do with my clients. I need to just keep going. I've got to get back to the office, I've got to check in with Sigma Team, I've got to map routes to the airport for next week, I've got to stay on task. He rolled down the window of his armored sedan just to let some fresh air in and stay focused.

"Oh my god" shouted a woman from the sidewalk. "Venom's down there! I'm getting a selfie!!"

Fuuuuuck, Max thought to himself before slamming his hand on the steering wheel again. One of the Ultimates. Which means there could be all manners of something crazy happening over there. All Max would have to do to find out is to take the next left... But a smart Max would just keep going straight. A smart Max would just get back to the office. A smart Max... just clocked out.

With the screech of his tires, Max hit the gas and spun the wheel, taking a hard left turn down the alley between two buildings. The sound of fighting was getting louder. He knew the skirmish was just ahead. As he pulled to a stop be a large green dumpster, he looked over at the briefcase beside him and stared at it intently. This was a bad idea. He knew this was a bad idea. And, yet...

"Fuck it."

He popped the locks on the briefcase and wrapped his cloak around his neck. Instantly, his body reacted. He could feel the magics that fueled the cloak's power wash over him, making him stronger, faster, tougher. He quickly took off his black, shiny shoes and replaced them with the boots of levitation. The guns in their holsters also took on a transformation of their own, becoming slightly golden while emitting a sort of pulse that only Max could feel. Its like they were now living extensions of himself.

All suited up, Max got out of the car and pulled over his eponymous hood, concealing his face in darkness, before venturing out of the alley and into the fray. What he saw was not necessarily what he was prepared for. Portals opening and closing, plasma rifles going off, exploding hovercars, and one big pissed off alien symbiote.

Hood flexed his hands and, instantly, his guns flew from their holsters and into his grip. He then took in a very deep breath and held it. Just as he did, his entire body left the visible spectrum, rendering himself completely invisible to the naked eye. He could hold that breath for about two minutes, which means his invisibility would only last for that same amount of time.

If there were any onlookers, they might see his footstep as he splashed through a large puddle, the unseen entity making his way to the center of the maelstrom. So much for Max's squeaky clean daytime living. Shit was about to get messy.

Tori smiled as she put down her Uncle’s Credit Card for the rental of a small jet. She loved it when her Uncle let her fly. She was going to be flying the Deputy Director for the New York field office and a handful of the MRD agents. Two sedated mutants were also being flown down to Quantico for experimentation, but she did not know this.

After the slip ran through and her endorsements checked, she walked out to inspect the plain doing what every pilot does. She inspected every part of the plain. When the hatch was open for cargo, she went into check the maintenance logs while “paperwork” was loaded.

Kiva had selected her to get her pilots license and the endorsement. As a government agent, things could be moved around by her with little trouble. She barely noticed as to caskets were slid into the cargo hold. Then boxes of research for the scientists at Quantico.

The two of them waited at the steps as black suvs pulled up to let the officials out. They were using it as a training drill on protecting important people so they scanned and watched. This part made her feel like they were gangsters.

That ended quickly when a couple of her passengers started talking about how cut the flight attendant. The Director gave her a look to stand down as he boarded the ramp.

When they all boarded Tori and her partner pulled the steps in and latched the door.
“You go attend to them,” she said in a tone dragging her New York Spanish accent letting him know she was pissed.
Then she headed into the cockpit and prepared for takeoff. She called the FAA office to get priority clearance down to Washington National, knowing they would get redirected to Quantico.

Before they went wheels up, Tori made a point of telling the Carew they were about ready to takeoff. The flight time plus five minutes and that there were a few thunderstorms between New York and DC.
She ended her message with, “Thank you for flying on Chicka Air.”

They rolled down the taxiway and stopped at the landing line. She did not need to, this was a jet and she wanted to, well, be a jerk. She upped the throttles and when they got to speed she released the brakes letting the plane leap forward and throw itself down the runway leaping into the air. When they were off the ground and safe, she retracted the landing gear and announced wheels up, the international command to raid the aircraft bar.

The autopilot clicked in and steered them out and on the course down the coast.

_{New York City, The Bronx, Little Italy.
Arthur Avenue Retail Market. Mike's Deli seating area.}

The disc of light opened and closed in seconds, quickly enough no one seemed to notice the light. The same, she knew, would not be able to be said for herself as soon as she walked through the open double-doored west side entrance. Black crowned, black leather top stopping well short of her midriff, the chill Bronx air hit the skin of her chest exposed by her top--the loudest reminder so far that she was no longer in Limbo. Black leather pauldrons covered her shoulders, black leather all the way down both arms.

It was the spikes coming out of one arm that attracted immediate attention as she stepped inside, and began her deliberate pace to the deli. Thigh high black leggings covered her bottom half, save for the shorts that clung to the rest of her from the waist down, belted with a large 'X' belt buckle that she had hung her hands from by the thumbs as she walked over the concrete ground, ignoring the gaping stare of a man that stopped mid-bite of his sandwich to stare. The blue eyed blonde stared back as she made her way to the deli counter, snapping her eyes away long enough to take the measure of the man behind the counter.

Italian blooded, short cropped hair salt-and-pepper in color, wearing the white shirt, trousers, and apron of a deli worker. She smiled, gently, at the hard stare the deli worker with the 'Dan' nametag in cheap plastic bronze clipped to the chest of his apron was giving her. "Greetings...Dan. I would have you serve me your meatball sandwich. Extra mozzarella."

"Full size, half?"

That gentle smile spread across her undecorated pale pink lips until it pulled the corners of her mouth into a tiny grin. "Full, Dan. Please." She looked past Dan after finishing her order, to the younger man with no nametag wearing the same white get-up Dan did. "You, call the authorities. Tell them an X-Man has arrived in your establishment. Tell them this mutant is dangerous, and means to do...harm." She waited a beat of her heart, then a second. At the third beat of her heart the young male still stared, unmoving. Her voice snapped at him, with the intensity and suddenness of a whip's crack, "NOW CHILD.....remember the extra mozzarella, Dan, please."

Her head gave a slow, gentle nod to the older deli worker before turning away from the counter and back to the seating area. The old man who she had frozen half-bite...still hadn't moved. The middle aged man that looked similar enough to suggest familial relations kept his eyes down on his food, picking at his sandwich. She moved to the end of the table they sat at, a foot from either man, and finally removing her thumbs from behind her belt buckle, setting her hands palms down on the end of their table. Leaning in, leaning down, lowering her voice to a near whisper with the undertones of a Demon Queen, "You would both be wise to leave, before these...mutant killers appear."

The middle aged man never looked up, though he did speak up, false confidence strong in his tone, "The M.R.D. won't be scared of you."

"...then they are fools."

The older man put down his sandwich and left, the middle aged man followed, silently. The young man behind the counter was gone. The stalls around the deli were empty. The humans had cleared out, save for Dan. He slid the tray with her sandwich in front of her, waiting. It took her a moment of confusion before she recalled where she was, and the practices of such a society. She retrieved crumpled, old, bills from inside her belt, her fingers shaking them and dropping them upon the table with the clumsiness of someone who never handled such bills, hundred dollar bills each.

Without any hesitation she grabbed her meatball sub and took a large, hearty, hungry bite. The moan hit her lips beats after the sandwich did, "Mmmm yes!!!!" With the sub in her hands, she peeked up at Dan through a side-eye of her blue eyes, "Go away now, Dan, and be well."

"...the X-Men saved the life of my grandfather. You be careful, Magik."

Decades had been longer for Illyana Rasputin in Limbo. It had been a while in Limbo training and waiting for the right moment, the sheer impact of being remembered, and remembered fondly...her head nodded, mouth full as she spoke, "thanks, go away and be safe." It was a haze of memories and nostalgia she felt as she waited. She ate the sub in half a minute, greedily grabbing at the large soda the old man who had vacated the seat in which she sat had left. "Ew," she flinched at the taste of Coca-Cola, before closing her eyes and downing everything that remained of the beverage.

By the time they arrived, she was up and standing, leaned against the deli counter, arms crossed over her partially exposed chest. They entered the front with weapons pressed next to their cheeks, aiming down sights and ready to start firing at any second. They began shouting commands at her. They never saw the disk of light open beneath them, or the dozen or so blood red arms and hands tipped with demonic black claws reach out of the disc of light, and yank them down into the teleportation disc with enough speed and force to cause slight whiplash. There was a distant sound of weapons going off, but mostly, there was the distant sound of the four man M.R.D. squad screaming, faint and getting fainter.

The sound brought a large, bright, smile to the pale pink lips of the mutant as she stood from her lean against the counter, walked over, and hopped down through the teleportation disc herself a moment before it snapped shut and disappeared from the view of Earth.

Today was just like any other day for Rosalie, it started just like it always did. She got up when her alarm clock went off, made her bed, showered, dressed, and had her breakfast before heading out for work. The bike ride there was even the same, waving to and greeting the people she passed daily with a warm smile. Part of her wished that something different would happen, it didn’t have to be anything big, something small would work just fine. When she reached the Herbal Shop, she did as she always did, she rode to the back entrance so she could bring her bike in so it wouldn’t be stolen and it would also be out of the way. Once at the back door, she got off her bike and pulled a set of keys out of her jacket pocket and unlocked the door, opened it, and made her way inside with her bike. After she was inside, Rose leaned her bike against a wall then locked the door, just to be on the safe side and not risk anyone sneaking in, then made her way to the front of the shop. “Good morning, Mrs. Evelyn.” she greeted the older woman at the counter warmly. The woman looked up from what she was doing and smiled warmly at Rosalie, though concern was shown in the woman's hazel eyes. Rose’s smile grew a little more and she gave Evelyn a look that said she was okay.

“Good morning, Rose. How are you doing today sweetie?” Evelyn asked Rose, concern showing in her tone. “I know today is a rough day for you. I wasn’t expecting you to come in today after telling you you could have a couple of days off. Since today marks the anniversary of…….” Rose looked at Evelyn and smiled at her even warmer than before when she trailed off. The woman had practically become a mother to her and had taken her under wing after her parents had been taken. “Yes, I’m alright Mrs. Evelyn. I thank you for the offer but I need something to keep my mind busy so that I don’t dwell on the past and start blaming myself again.” she told her. “I don’t think you or Mr. Robert wants to have to pull me out of that place again.” she added with a light laugh to try and lighten the mood. At Rose’s words, a slight smile came to Evelyn’s lips and she nodded. “I understand and no, that’s not something either of us wants to see you go through again, it was quite difficult pulling you out of that state of mind.” The two soon fell silent and got the shop in order as they waited for the other girl that worked there to show up. Once the shop was in order and ready to be opened up, the bell rang, signaling someone had walked in, Evelyn’s husband had shown up. “Good morning, Mr. Robert.” Rose greeted him as she poked her head from around a shelf she was finishing stocking.

Robert looked over at Rose, surprise could easily be seen on his face but quickly faded into a gentle smile. “Good morning, Rosie.” he spoke in a soft tone. As much as she disliked being called Rosie, Robert and Evelyn were the only ones that could get away with calling her that. “It’s good to see you in a relatively good mood this morning.” Robert told her. “How could I not be in this shop with some of the friendliest people I know.” Rose said happily. The three of them shared a warm laugh just before the bell on the door chimed again and a girl entered the shop. “I’m so sorry I’m late.” she apologized. “I ran into a bit of trouble on the way here but I’m alright.” she added quickly. Rose stepped out from behind the shelf to get a better look at the girl that just entered the shop. Yes, she was physically fine but it was clear that she wasn’t alright mentally and she was shaking. “No, Sarah, you’re not alright.” Rose said as she made her way over to her. She took Sarah by the shoulders and led her over to a chair near the counter and made her sit down in it before kneeling in front of her. “Now, take a breath and calm yourself then tell us what happened.” Rose spoke softly to Sarah. She watched Sarah intently as she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then opened her eyes and looked at Rose.

“Really Rose, I’m alright. It just shook me up a bit.” Sarah told her. She then sighed heavily at the look she was getting from Rose, saying “I don’t buy it.” that caused Sarah to sigh heavily. “It was just some creep trying to corner me in an alley, as soon as he grabbed me I maced his ass and ran for it. He didn’t have a chance to try anything.” she explained. As Sarah spoke, Rose’s hands balled into fists and she clenched her teeth. She hated men that tried to take advantage of women. Taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, she calmed herself a bit before focusing back on Sarah. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that asshat, Sarah. Though I’m glad you carry mace on you.” she told her with a slight smile. “If you’d like, I can walk home with you after work.” she suggested. Sarah gave a small smile and a small nod to Rose’s suggestion with a soft “Okay” as she looked down at her. “Alright.” Rose said warmly before standing. “You sit here until you’ve collected yourself.” She received a nod from Sarah and a nod from Evelyn and Robert before Robert flipped the sign on the door to open. While Sarah collected herself, the other three did what they normally did around the shop as they waited for customers to come in.

The rest of the morning went along without a hitch and many customers came and went. By noon, they had many call in for deliveries, and after what happened to Sarah, Rose offered to make all the deliveries that were called in. “Are you sure you can manage all those on your own?” Sarah asked as Rose was getting ready to go. “Oh yeah.” she said with a laugh. “Before you came to work here, there was a day I had way more than this, and I managed to get them all delivered before nightfall.” she laughed. “I promise, I got this. You help with things around here and I’ll be back before you know it, and if I run into that asshat that attacked you, I’ll give him something he won’t soon forget.” she told Sarah, smirking at the last bit. Sarah laughed as she helped Rose and Robert grab the items to be delivered and carry them back to Rose’s bike and place them in the basket on the front of it. Then with their help pushed her bike out the back door. Once through the door she threw her leg over and pushed off, throwing a wave over her shoulder. “Be careful.” they said in unison. “I will.” Rose replied before rounding the corner and disappearing from their view. As she rode along, she adjusted the collar of her jacket and couldn't help but be grateful that there wasn’t any rain scheduled for the day in the forecast and the sky seemed pretty clear. It was already cold enough without adding rain to it.

Most of her deliveries went pretty smooth, there were a few people that were in bad moods or had a protective dog or two, it could have been worse. Though as she went along, Rose couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed. Of course, she had looked around without it being noticeable but she couldn’t make out anyone being shady, and that put her a little on edge. “I have four more to drop off and then I can get back to the shop. Then I won’t have to deal with it.” she whispered to herself. Rose made quick work of getting the last items delivered so she could get back to the shop. Checking her watch for the time, she gave a small as she stood on the steps in front of her last delivery. “Wow, just shy of two hours. That’s a new record.” she whispered to herself. Pulling a pouch from her inside jacket pocket, she unzipped it and placed the cash she just received into it, zipped it back up, and placed it back into the inside pocket of her jacket. Then reached to the opposite pocket and pulled out another that was for the tips she had received, after putting her tip inside it, she zipped it and put it back into the pocket she pulled it from. Zipping up her jacket, she made her way back to her bike and hopped on it. Though she didn’t immediately leave, Rose looked around, that feeling of being watched being much stronger than it had before.

“Who in the hell could be watching me.” she asked herself softly. She had been extra careful to make sure she hadn’t used her powers out in the open, in fact, she had hardly used them at all. Running a hand through her hair in frustration, she looked around once more before taking off back to the shop. It wasn’t until she rounded a corner, she caught a glimpse of someone following her but couldn’t make out who they were because a hood covered their face. “This could be interesting.” she thought. “Alright, let’s see how well you can keep up.” Rose sped up and cut corners sharply to try and lose her follower but they kept right up with her and at a safe distance. That was until they disappeared and somehow popped up in front of her, blocking her path. Skidding to a halt, Rose stared down the person with a glare, still seated on her bike. “Who the hell are you and what do you want?” she snapped. They responded with a laugh as they slowly lifted their head to reveal a mischievous smirk while the rest of their face was hidden in shadow. This caused Rose to grip the handlebars of her bike tightly. It was just another asshat looking to cause trouble for a woman they thought couldn’t fight back.

It was pretty quiet around the warehouse. Guards patrolling the outskirts of the storage area were rather relaxed, expecting nothing out of the ordinary, a this moment at least. There was news of an engagement between the Mutant Response Division and some mutants in the docks down in New York City, but other than that, there wasn't much to be alerted by. The latest sweeps had revealed nothing of note, and work continued as normal. It was just like any other day; another day of cataloguing and classifying the artifacts taken from the ruins of battlefields wrought into being by warring empowered forces. Perhaps superheroes of the Ultimates, if they were truly heroes, had handily crushed some upstart villain with petty ambitions to take over. Or some wielders of magic had been seized, their trinkets and books taken in.

At a certain section of the warehouse, though, were numerous stasis pods, cryogenic weapons, and all sorts of advanced technology that would initially seem to be the progeny of Stark or Pym Industries. These were, however, not built by those titanic enterprises; instead, these were products of Angstrom Defense. This company, operating out of Sweden, had been completely destroyed forty years earlier by Jean Grey's global rampage as the Dark Phoenix. All of their factories, save for a single one, had been known to have been obliterated. The sole surviving facility, bereft of what would be a presumably slaughtered leadership, was turned over the Department of Damage Control, all of its product given over to that venture between Stark and the government.

Or so they thought.

---

"Sir, this is a restricted area. A civilian shouldn't be out here. How did you even get here?"

Baldur Angstrom stood there, unamused. It has been forty years since he first went into that stasis pod, and a few months since he woke up. During those several months of wakefulness, he had learned that one of his company's production facilities survived, only to be nationalized by the government. That was to be expected when he disappeared in the middle of what could easily have been the apocalypse. But now... he wants his property back.

"It stands to reason that some of my property has been interred there for the last forty years," the scrawny man with a rather suspicious suitcase said. "Now, if you could simply escort me inside and let me get what's mine..."

Right, that's not going to work. Not when Baldur wanted to keep his identity secret, as he was known to have been married to a mutant woman all those years ago. His mutant son and wife, both of whom are long dead because of another mutant's rampage, would be murdered all the same in this day and age.

"Sir. You should leave."

Baldur sighed. "Oh well..." he quietly muttered. "I tried, at least..."

A pair of golden beams of energy streamed out from wristworn devices under his sleeves, licking the weapons of the two guards and turning them into tiny toy guns. Shocked and surprised, they fell back, only to be snatched away by a pair of drones that seemingly came out of their guns.

Baldur then took a stasis orb out of his pocket, hurling it upward. The ball of plastic split in half, and out came at least a dozen attack drones, their design suspiciously close to that of Stark Industries. Were these just copied from existing machines?

Quietly, he then placed the suitcase on to the ground, which quickly began to turn into a suit of armor, covering his otherwise completely human body. It came with a robe, too. Baldur really liked those.

"It's time," Baldur muttered, his cohort of drones following him into the warehouse doors, which he would immediately shrink down and plop down to the ground with those same wrist drawn beams. He wants his property back, and has no time to be nice about it.

Tori controlled the yoke of the aircraft as instructions came in. They were being diverted by Kiva to Quantico, Virginia. Two fighter jets came along side them to give them an escort in. The first squawked her, “What’s a pretty lady like you doing up her all alone?”
The boys had the advantage, they could out turn her, fly faster than her, and they had weapons on their rails.
She replied back, “So do I get a helmet and a call sign?”
“Yep, Your string Bikini,” The military pilot said with a straight face.
“Maybe layer you’ll want to take a ride in the second seat in a real jet?,” he teased.
“Got to get Pappa home first,” she said in a flirty voice.

The second fighter broke in, “Bikini clime to Angels 6 and join blue squad. Wolf we got incoming from our 4 o’clock. Looks like a mutant.” Both fighters broke hard and Tori did a fast climb, spilling some drinks. A blast of energy came across the sky missing the plane. To more fighters came from above and joined the pursuit of the mutant. Tori ran for safety as the dogfight started.

Milo Ventorro - NEW York City - Battle at the docks
Venom lunged towards Milo colliding with the mutant mimic sending him reeling and crashing into a wall of the dock. Milo immediately coughed up blood from the force of the alien landing a blow on him. "Ugh" Milo retorted groaning as he took his left hand to cusp his forehead as he stood up from the pile of rubble that his landing had formed. This isn't going to be easy, but I ain't giving up no matter what Milo thouht to himself seeing the odds were stacked up against him. At least Ganni was here as well providing backup he noted when his fellow underground mutant ally used his portals to bring down an MRD hover-craft. Killa had distributed the plasma rifles & high caliber hand held machine guns to the rest of the bloods at the meeting. The briefcase full of money was located in his black SUV that now had a caved in roof, he made a mental note to retrieve that. This weapons sale had netted him & his allies in the Underground 70 thousand dollars. Considering the fact that mutants couldn't even legally work jobs they needed that money, of course he had his position at the daily bugle. In part thanks to his craftiness and of course his usage of casper, an illegal substance that allowed mutants to pass X Gene screening tests making it seem like they were genetically regular humans. Nowadays THOUGHT scientiss working for the MRD & United Empire had come up with a way of testing for the X Gene as well as the detection of casper within people's system. It was assumed that anyone with traces of casper in their system whether it be blood or urine was a mutant hiding their x gene trying to blend in with society. Still he had no time for these thoughts right now about the daily bugle, drugs or even weapons trafficking not while he was locked in battle with this hulking alien symbiote.

Brock had taken pleasure in causing Milo pain and saw that his blow had dealt quite a bit of damage. "Ah the little mutie is hurt, hope your not too banged up. Honestly we are feeling quite hungry, and wouldn't mind eating a criminal like yourself. Thing is we're also in a mood for a fight so I guess in this instance we're going to play rough with our food before we eat it. Hopefully you can survive going a few rounds with us before we dig in." Venom replied with eagerness enjoying the position of power he had as an ultimate. Not only was he perceived by the public as a famous superhero he was respected by all manner of law enforcement & feared by all manner of mutant-kind. He'd brutally slaughtered more then his fair share of mutants in the past few decades with the Ultimates, and the more he killed the more he was paid, the more of a hero the citizens of the United Empire perceived him to be.

Milo got a message from the Underground directed to his bluetooht ear piece. "Paging Ventoro, Milo what the fuck is going on? You reported the weapons deal went down smoothly, we're getting reports from Shuri that shit's going down at the dock with you all against the NYPD, MRD, & the Ultimates" The voice was that of Logan, aka the infamous Wolverine a member of the Underground's council alongside Valeria Richards, Tchalla/Black Panther, Storm & Scott Summers the latter of whom was a heavy user of Lazarus, an anti aging serum. Milo rolled his eyes at the concern in Logan's voice the long lived killer mutant was a softy at heart when it came to his mutant comrades. More so after loosing so many of his genetically enhanced brothers & sisters during the Dark Phoenix Crisis & various other conflicts that followed in the past four decades.

"It did util we got busted by MRD, me & Ganni are out here with the bloods we just sold weapons too trying to hold our own, so far Venom's showed up, but I think I overheard from some MRD agents that Eclipse might be on the way as well, no idea if any other Ultimates or MRD allied superhumans are coming but I've got an alien to fight, no time to argue and there's no way to run talk to you later super claws." Milo quickly ended the conversation cutting off Logan before any sort of argument could commence. The Council would recommend they flee but Milo wouldn't hear it they were trying to take back New York & amr up their allies with artillery from Wakanda to finance their freedom fighting operation. Sooner or later they'd have to come to blows with the leading forces of NYC so why not start now.

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but you haven't the time to talk to any of your mutie friends, it's time to die." Venom spawned black webs that wrapped around Milo's wrist and jerked backwards pulling the mutant towards him. Milo yelled out as Venom snapped him towards him only to be elbowed and once again be sent spiraling through the air, this time crashing through a window of the warehouse he'd been slammed into. Venom meant what he said spinning webs launching himself through the smashed window and landing on top of Milo's chest with an audible crack being heard as more blood spewed from his mouth while Venom leapt in hte air and came down again colliding with Milo genertating another bone shattering crack and causing more blood to splatter from his mouth. "GAHHHHHH" Milo yelled out as Venom laughed spewing webs around Milo's face blocking his eyes and tossing him across the room causing him to be slammed into a staircase. "Come on mutant that's all you got, I know it hurts, but what dosen't kill you gets you more ready to be my dinner. I like it when my prey struggles, although I'm the clear superior of us two at least TRY o put up a fight mutie." Venom continud to taunt & torment Milo while beating him viciously clearly his years of fighting as a superhero caised a chasm, a divide between the two with the alien's margin of experience being far greater then Rachel Summers son.

"Enough rambling, now I'm going to kick your ass, thanks for the warm up I like to get my opponents over confident before I utterly fuck them up." MIlo replied in between pained gasps of breath as he emerged from the rubble bleeding with bones cracked and open wounds with blood guhing from them. He managed to get to his feet wiping blood from his face with his non sprained arm staring down the agile symbiote, with Brock walking towards him menacinly sizing him up once again and chuckling madly showing he was taking deep pleasure in beating the shit out of Milo relentlessly.

"Oh that's tough talk for an abomaination who hasn't even landed one blow, honestly you made light work of that hover car or so it seems. Perhaps that little stunt of yours using the force to pull down that hovercar used up all your power or all you had left. Which would be quite unfortunate for you, but considerably great for me. Not that any of your Jedi tricks would make you any more threatening, but as I've said numerous times now I do love when a hopeless victim tries to put up a fight, it gets my taste buds going, either way I'm going to enjoy this, I fucking love my job, and my job loves me." Venom continud going on nearing Milo his danger sense was triggered and he did a back flip moving out to way avoiding multiple blasts from two plasma rifles Milo had used TK to drag into the warehouse and fire from above. He fired condensed balls of webbing at the floating rifles demolishing them and then shooting web at hte roof above Milo then pulling downwards causing it to cave in on the mutant who yelled as the ceiling above him rained down on him.

A blood member opened fire on Venom right after the cave in only lfor Venom to be unaffected by the bullets. Distracted he was shot twice by MRD agents while Venom spawned webbing around the man's neck jerking back easily breaking it and snap back pulling him over to him and biting his head off devouring it with eaase before tossing his headless body into the cold water of the nearby dock laughing before turning his attention to Milo seeing movement from beneath the piles of rubble that collapsed on him from him literally bringing down the house or in this case warehouse on him. "Still alive, more resillent then your gang banging friends, although the little shit did provide a good snack, I like dinner to be resilent." Venom spoke with a sinister tone only to raise his hands in defense as a teleknetic burst sent the rubble flying in all directions as Milo emerged looking less injured. To his shock & surprise he watched Milo's cracked bones heal, his wounds closing up his body regenerating from the damage. It seemed the mutant hadn't been lying about toying around in a sense, he had the power to move objects with his mind & regenerate from physical damage. "Oh shit I might really have to eat you to get rid of you, a healer so what you let yourself take a beating, what are you some kind of masochist? Or are you just cursed with being my ultimate punching bag."

"Shut the hell up I'll show what you what I can do." Milo clapped back as Venom charged Milo's eyes surged with energy and he unleashed optic beams courtesy of Scott Summers power. The beams plowed into Venom's chest causing him to yell as he was sent sprawling back crashing into rubble.

"The fuck what are you?" Venom shot back with concern that was the third power this enemy had shown in this fight, and this one had actually packed a punch or well blast. Getting up the symbiote superhero was irate only to be blasted again this tim in hte neck causing him to scream as he was sent crashing into a wall this blast more powerful then the last. As Venom leapt back to his feet he saw his enemy had vanished into thin air. "Where are you" Venom growled looking around forming his right arm into a scyth and spinning around stabbing his arm through Milo's chest as he appeared behind him. Digging his bladed arm into Milo's abomdmen caused more blood to spill before blasting black oozing webbing into his face pulling him closer and kicking him into the ground. "Invisibility, that's the fourth one, so your some kind of mimic, got more then a few tricks up your sleeve, you are tough but I've killed tougher." Venom replied confidence now restored no longer having to grasp at straws about the nature of this mutant's powers and his own spider sense rendering any sneak attack by turning invisible mute.

Milo formed bone claws plunging into Venom's eye socket drawing blood causing the monster to scream as Milo used his optic beams to blast Venom upwards sending him through the roof. Milo then took to the skies flying upwards and body slamming into Venom using superhuman strength to send Venom flying into a nearby street crash landing into a parked SUV. Civilians nearby had whipped out their mobile devices. "Enough of this." Milo used his TK to lift Venom in the air and toss him into a nearby building. Two more approaching MRD hover-cars started firing lasers down at Milo only for him to use TK to grap both hover-cars in an invisible grip as Venom spawned webbing and swung towards him he used TK to sandwich him inbetween the two vehicles causing an explosion with the ultimate in the middle screaming in agony.

"Oh No Venom! That mutant hurt him, fuck! Come on Venom kick that freak's ass" A bystander yelled while holding up their cellular device. Milo fired a bolt of electricity frying the civilian's phone and causing him to curse. Venom took that time to tackle Milo from behind slamming him into a moving SUV wiht occupants inside. The family within screaming as Milo used TK to rip off a door using it to slam into Venom pushing the alien off. As Venom ripped the door in half flinging both halves towards Milo who formed a TK shield that guarded him. Venom lunged forward slamming into the shield and began pounding against it rapidly breaking it and punching Milo hard enough to break his jaw then flipping intothe air double kicking him into a truck. "I won't be humilted by the likes of a mutant, I don't care how many freak's powers you have, this ends NOW!!!!"

"Yeah well from what I've read this one outta do the trick." Milo retorted as his face healed Venom rushed towards him only to scream in aboslute pain as Milo's hands engulfed in fire and blasted Venom causing sheer pain to the symbiote.

"ARGH NOOOO! FIRE!! WE DON't LIKE FIRE!!! WE WON'T BURN" Venom screamed as Milo unleashed a torrent of flames burning the ultimate who screamed in pain, as fire was a natural weakness of hte symbiote. Milo then took to hte skies and flew to hte roof of a building as Venom used some webbing on two different buildings to launch himself up like a cannon ball towards Milo. Before Milo could resort in using more flames Venom collided him and they went spiraling across the city slamming into an office. Venom screamed forming his handes into elongated blades lunging foreward wiht Milo using a TK blast to shoot himself backwards, causing Venom's blades to slice through civilian office workers. Milo resorted in using fire breaht engulfing the whole room in fire causing panic & panidomnium as Venom cried out in pain. Milo turned to the left using a blast of TK to tear through the building forming a clean hole through. Milo then grinned as he made a position with his hand and spun black webbing out that went flying towards a nearby church latching onto a bell.

"WE WILL KILL YOU" Venom cried out as he began rushing Milo jerked forward emulating Venom's powers dragging the church bell from across three buildings and smacking Venom wiht it right as he approached. The Sonic boom caused him to scream in pain knocking him back into the burning room. Milo hten used TK to grab a office worker and slammed him into the bell causing it to ring out hte inense sonic soundwaves combined with fire weakining Venom. Milo continud using TK grabbing office workers and tossing them against the church bell causing a continous ringing while breaking hte bones of office workers attempting to flee the burning floor. Venom collapsed onto the ground the combination of fire & sonic waves providing a deadly combination towards the alien who was ovrewhelmed by his two weakness's. Milo then fired a continous stream of electricity causing Venom to scream as his body was being fried while the black goo around him began parting form his body the flames getting to him. "NOOO WE MUSNT LOOSE NOOOO WE CANNOT FALL TO YOU"

"Yes the fuck you can" Milo screamed sprwing fire from his mouth burning Venom who screamed in pain as he spun a series of webs grabbing the symbiote and dragging it off of Brock's body, and tossing it into hte flames while Brock screamed. Milo used TK to lift Brock into the air then slam into the ground over and over before using a blast of electricity to blast Brock through the open window and send him flying down several stories until crashing into a vehicle parked below. Milo then flew out of the office looking down at Brock's battered body while leaving hte symbiote trapped in the building as the fire spread Milo then used a massive blast of telekinetic force to cause the building to cave in sevreal floors with no concern for anyone within only wanting to crush hte venom symbiote in flames and looked down saw Brock's body battered and broken. Milo then flew down towards Brock who lay on top of the smashed car, turning to see scared onlookers at the mutant who'd managed to defeat a member of the ultimates. "What?!" Milo screamed causing onlookers to flee in fear, Milo laughed in response. He then tapped into Ganni's power forming a portal a literal crack in space.

He flew through it appearing behind Ganni and firing blasts of electricity & fire to down a nearby MRD hover-craft approaching. "AAAAH CALL IN THE SENTINELS NOW!!!!! VENOM IS DOWN, REPEAT WE NEED BACK-UP" MRD Agents yelled into a radio as the hove-car went down from the fire electricity combo attack. "Come on Ganni we need to leave, I took care of Venom and-" Milo formed a portal inside the SUV spinning webs through the portal to grab the brief case full of cash and pulling it through the portal bringing it over to him. He clutched the brief case under his arm and stumbled backwards messing with Ganni's powers right after using so many others taking a toll on his body one that he wouldn't be able to sustain had he not currently had Logan's regeneration. "Come on I'm way past my limits I've secured the money, there's going to be more ultimates on the way, and their bringing Sentinels do the honors and get us to the getaway vehicle we have to go before the killer bots arrive, and I don't have the strength to use your powers anymore or even fly, come on! " Milo yelled at his team-mate more so out of fear then anger. He was exhilerated thta he'd maanaged to damn near kill Brock but that was mostly due to the fire and being able to copy Venom;s powers to snag that church bell he spotted while also trapping him in a burning building. We've got to get to the getaway hovercar now Summers isn't going to wait forever especially with Sentinels being called in, I used up damn near all my power fighting Venom & regenerating multiple times fuck it's damn near all up to Ganni now to get us out of here, God help us Milo pleaded with the Lord, and the entirety of the universe that this mission would keep going in their favor. His enhanced senses allowed him to pick up on both the whirring of helicopter blades as well as the activation of both human sized & giant sized sentinels in every direction meaning the MRD's back-up was coming. He also picked up on Killa who was bleeding & injured but managed to escape with two gang members in a stolen police cruiser whereas all the other bloods that came with them had been killed in the ensueing gun fight they'd had against NYPD & the MRD.

"What did I tell you about pacing yourself with all the powers that you have gathered?" Ganni hissed as Milo told them that he was tapped out, though less out of anger and more of because of concern. They had a cohort of pissed off MRD agents, the police, Venom, and maybe another Ultimate coming in, and there were just the two of them for mutants in here. The Bloods could not be relied on to cover their escape, as those gangs were utterly self absorbed, just like any other group of organized crime in this cesspool of a city. Right now, Milo and Ganni were alone, outgunned, outnumbered, and for the most part, outmatched.

"Screw it, here comes nothing." Ganni focused, moving his right hand in a circular motion in order to open a crack in the fabric of space. The portal yawned open like a glimmering purple mouth, a low humming noise coming out of it. One might have thought it was leading right into another dimension, perhaps a neighboring universe in the multiverse, but any esoteric motions would soon be banished by what came next. A vast deluge of seawater came in from the other side of the portal that was visibly glowing under the waters near the docks. The ensuing flood crashed against the police cruisers and MRD vehicles from above, drenching their section of the docks with salty water and some fish. That water wasn't exactly clean, either, and anyone with open wounds might get a nasty infection from all the filth that floated in a waterway so close to the big city.

"Hold on," Ganni said, clutching Milo's shoulder with his left hand while he began opening another portal. He could be heard deeply inhaling, a sure sign that he was going to open a long distance bridge, and he needed the smoke mixture to be able to clearly focus on his destination.

The portal began to open, and the other open portal with the flood coming out of it should serve as an ample distraction, if only for a few more moments...

Milo Ventorro - New York City - Desperate Escape
The fight with Venom had been nothing less then the most brutal experience they’d had today. But at least the bag was secured for now, he was clutching the brief case with all the strength he had left as he listened to Ganni lecture him about being tapped out from using all the powers he’d latched onto. During the fight he’d been forced to discard Kano’s ice powers in exchange for Venom’s as his max limit for holding abilities was ten.

“Yeah it’s hard to worry about pacing when some dickhead alien cannibal is crushing your bones and expressing their desire to make you dinner.” Milo replied sarcastically before managing a laugh but quickly stopping because of pain he felt in his chest.

Logan made it look easy taking beatings from hell & staying in the fight thanks to his healing powers. But one thing he’d expressed that he’d found to be true about those powers is that the didn’t halt the feeling of pain, which was almost incapacitating even if the physical wounds sustained healed up rapidly. He watched as a portal was opened up sending raging waters out plunging into the cohort of MRD & NYPD vehicles enclosing upon their location. Shit that was a smart move on Ganni’s part, hopefully it’s enough of a distraction to keep us alive, maybe I should have listened to Summers & got the hell outta dodge instead of trading blows with the alien Milo pondered upon his choice to fight the ultimate, although the showcase had probably did a whole lot of good for the Underground’s morale.

Suddenly he felt the hair on his arms & Legs stand up, his heart beat raced, and it seemed like time slowed down to a crawl. An uneasy feeling settled in that he could feel from the bottom of his feet all the way to the tip of his skull, almost like static electricity. His whip whipped both right & left as he was trying to find the source of this discomforting feeling. What the hell is this, something’s coming, we’re about to die, we’re gonna die, what’s coming?! Milo was internally screaming as his newly acquired spider sense was blaring in his skull. Then he noticed it a bullet from a sniper on a nearby roof hurtling towards them a few feet away from the back of Ganni’s neck.

Webs burst from his hand latching onto the bullet and he thrust his arm snapping the bullet back towards the sniper. The long range MRD shooter yelled in pain as his own bullet tore through his left arm causing him to fall off the roof. For Milo the near death experience had played in slow motion in a matrix like experience, but for everyone else who didn’t have superhuman reaction time the whole incident occurred in a mere matter of seconds. “Holy shit, we almost died, like died let’s go!” Milo yelled to Ganni as he looked up in the sky seeing two giant sentinels and five human sized ones flying through the air approaching them.

Both of the giant sentinels chests began glowing as they were charging lasers, only for lasers to come from the other side of their portal courtesy of Scott Summers blasting back the two giant robots into what remained of the warehouse completly causing the structure to cave in. Milo used the remains of his reserve energy to fly him & Ganni through the second portal closing right as a legion of human sized sentinels made a crater landing where they’d just been standing moments ago. Luckily the portal closed right as one of the sentinels was firing a missile at them and Milo collapsed o the side of the hover-car.

“You two are cutting it two damn closed.” Logan sneered as he opened up the door to help Milo get in the vehicle, while Scott just shook his head angrily his visor covering up his eyes. “We’ve got reports of 30 sentinels total in the area. 10 Giant sized ones, 20 our sized, the big ones have larger laser beams, the smaller ones are way fucking faster, we need to get out of here. Not one but two ultimates have been alerted Eclipse & Iron Goblin are both out on the scene now.” Scott was communicating with Shuri back at Wakanda through his ear piece as he hopped in the driver seat of the hover-car, parked in an dark ally a few blocks away from where the fight at the dock happened.

“Mutant detected, leader of the underground Scott Summers” An android sized sentinel said as it landed near the hover-craft, Scott kicked it into the gear taking flight. Logan picked up a plasma rifle and pulled the trigger blasting the android sentinel through a brick wall as they began zooming through the streets taking the allies, as the sentinel recovered and activated it’s propulsory jets taking flight after the four mutants.

“Ah shit…he’s gaining on us!!! And he’s calling for back up!!” Milo cried out thanks to his spider sense & Logan’s enhanced senses the combination causing his stomach to curl as he could pick up on all the danger they were in from their sentinel pursuer. His fears were realized as two more android sentinels came out of the corner firing lasers at the hover-craft. Logan continued shooting back while Scott made a sharp left turn and took them down an open road trying to navigate them away from the three sentinels on their tail.

“Shit Shit shit someone take the wheel I need to start firing back at them, Milo’s tapped out and that plasma rifle Logan has isn’t going to be enough! Ganni can you portal them away?! IF they call more back-up it’s a wrap.” Scott bellowed as he was doing his best to focus on the road clutching the wheel and pressing down on the gas to allow the hover-craft to move faster & fast to escape the killer robot mutant trio that was gaining on them rapidly.

Oscorp Facility - Downtown NYC - Cure Testing
Tobias Osborn was the grandson of Norman Osborn & son of Harry Osborn. He was also a reserve member for the Ultimates going by the name of the Iron-Goblin. Oscorp was performing a live test of the X Gene cure on a couple of mutant convicts.

At least that’s what was going on when they got word of the chaos going down at the docks. Apparently some mutant had gotten into a physical altercation with his fellow ultimate team-mate Venom, and the fight had been dragged across a few city blocks with destructive results. He felt a vibration in his ear that was his bluetooth.

“Kingsley chiming in, Osborne get your ass out here leave the test for your scientists, Brock just got taken down, Jarvis-7 informed me that Eclipse is on his way to the scene, but the might need back up. Mutant detection systems registered a mutant of the summers bloodline on the scene with the ability to duplicate other people’s superhuman powers, he unleashed a whole volley of powers, Brock’s on life support & the MRD is working with the NYPD & Fire Department to salvage the symbiote from a burning building, repeat this is a critical situation, deploy Iron-Goblin now, we’ve got 30 sentinels in the air to aid you.” Eric Kinglsey bellowed through the communication system to Tobias

“Excuse me ladies & gentlemen, Director Hanes will handle the rest of the demonstration of the latest variant of the X Gene Cure, I have other matters to attend to downtown. Urgent matters I’ll be back as soon as possible, for now the demonstration as well as Q & A will be handled by Hanes, I trust you can handle this responsibility director.” Tobias spoke encouragingly placing a hand on Director Hanes before pressing down on his ear piece to speak back with Agent Kingsley.

“Copy I’ve got your message, I’m leaving the demonstration in the hands of my lead scientist, I’m sure now more then ever Oscorp & MRD’s investors will see the immediate need for more funding to be directed towards this variant of the cure, as you’ll see very soon this batch is quite effective.”

“Sir Sir Mr. Osborn wait I-“ Some intrepid reporters on the scene tried to ask more questions, but Tobias ignored them leaving the room. He practically sprinted to the armory where he found the Iron-Goblin armor encased in protective glass. He quickly typed in a security code opening up the glass and stepped forward to slip on the armor. Moments later he was seen jetting out the building & heading towards the dock where the fight had started between Milo & Venom.

Within the testing center one of the mutant convicts was struggling to escape his bondage. “You’ll pay for this! You fucking bastards, you won’t get away with this! You ALL are o the WRONG side of history!!!” The mutant wailed as the guards held him one down, one of them tasered him and laughed as the mutant cried out in pain.

“Shut up freak, history is written by the victors, and today the victory goes to Oscorp.” Director Hanes said as he took out a syringe that was filled with the variant.

“The Phoenix Order will never fall! We shall stand tall & remain powerful. Your shots will not take our power.” The Mutant screamed out indicating he was a member of the phoenix order, while a mutant prisoner next to him shook his head.

“Fucking idiot it’s over for us, no more powers where’s your Phoenix pals now huh there not going to save you so just shut the hell up.” The prisoner complained him & his brother were getting irritated by the third prisoner who swore up & down that the Phoenix Order was going to lead the mutant race into a new golden era of domination over the earth.

Below them on the ground level was none other then the leader of the order Selina herself. She was outside Oscorp as were several other reporters, media persons, Oscorp security & numerous scientists who’d showed up for the testing of the new cure variant. “Please people stay out here, there’s no more room inside the testing area, but you all can watch from the monitors! And no more questions, those are for the people inside with Director Hanes & the rest of Oscorp’s team that actually worked on this cure.”

“Oh you fools really think this strain will be any different than the last.” Selina responded getting the attention of the whole crowd outside of the Oscorp facility.

“What makes you think it won’t lady? What are you some kind of mutant supporter?” One of the people in the crowd said.

“Look at her, and what she’s wearing. She’s dressed like a whore, she’s probably a mutie groupie, she’s def not. cutie.” A well dressed lady said with a sneer looking up Selina up and down with disrespect.

“Hahahaha your not lying, look what she’s wearing or rather not wearing. This slut doesn’t know ANYTHING about cure variants, probably not much else except what to do when she’s on her knees. Hey you reporter you should check out this brainiac.” The friend’s lady replied joining her in tearing down Selina’s scantily clad image.

“Listen up you nappy headed hoes.” Selina shot back causing both ladies to gasp mouths wide open as Selina glared at them and the other reporter from the crowd who’d talked down on her. “Enough of this slander, the Phoenix Order won’t stand for it!” She yelled and took her jacket off exposing a phoenix tattoo on her neck that had been covered by her jacket eliciting some gasps & screams from the crowd.

“Oh my gosh look at her neck!”
“It’s a Phoenix tattoo she’s with the order!”
“OH Lord help us!!!”
“She’s a terrorist and a whore!!!”
“Somone call the poooooolice!!!!
“Security take that bitch down!!!!”

“Enough!!!!” Selina yelled out. “Jamal fuck em up!!!” A musclar light skinned man with dreads near her looked up and yelled emitting a sonic scream. The sonic scream through straight through the crowd tearing apart some oscorp security guards and blasting a hole through the entrance of the Oscorp facility.

“PHOENIX ORDER FOR LIFE!!!!” Jamal cried out right after he launched the sonic attack into the crowd. The powered attack had spurred the chaos, while a second mutant in the phoenix order gathered acid in his hands and fired a stream of acid into the crowd burning the flesh of people fleeing.

Selina yelled out using her powers to alter her mass and people took off running as she grew to gigantic size. “Run!!!!! Katie we gotta get out of here!!!!” The First Lady who’d insulted Selina screamed out to her friend as both took to stepping. Selina growled and raised her foot then slammed it down on the two insulting women killing them instantly leaving them as smeared blood stains on the smashed street beneath her.

Within the facility Director Hanes had grabbed the Phoenix Order mutant and was about to jam the needle into his neck. However a massive fist burst into the room tearing trough it and a giant finger nail tore the director’s body in half causing blood to splash the other two mutants and the crowd of scientists screaming. Oscorp security opened fire only for some giant fingers to flick them through the window sending them falling 30 stories. She used her TK to remove the collar around the neck of the Phoenix order mutant and opened her hand up and the mutant jumped on as she pulled him out the oscorp facility.

“AYEE WAIT WHAT ABOUT US! Don’t leave us! WE love the Phoenix Order!!!” One of the mutant brothers yelled out. Unfortunately the were ignored as Selina began kicking the Oscorp building taring holes through it kicking it until the whole structure toppled over. Rubble & clouds of dust filled the street below the giant murderous mutant woman from kicking the oscorp building to smithereens. The city already on high alert from the Venom incident was now going crazy as the leader of the Phoenix Order was on the scene having enlarged herself and wiped out the oscorp building where the new variant of the cure was suppose to be testing & also freeing a high ranking member of the Phoenix Order who’d been arrested two weeks ago during a fight with MRD forces at an anti mutant protest.

Time: Ehhhh
Location: IVO Quantico, VA
Interactions: Selina @Chulance
Mentions: Jericho Richter @Martian, Tori Nicholas @Meleck

---

With Venom and Eclipse had deployed to deal with disturbance between MRD agents and mutants involved in an illegal arms deal, Vanquisher made the calculated decision to focus elsewhere. He had the choice between a break-in at a Damage Control warehouse and a commercial flight being targeted by a mutant. Damage Control had some form of security and even if the culprit(s) got in, they'd still have to find what they were looking for amongst the wreckage.

The plane was being assisted by fighter jets but presented a higher risk of mass fatalities. His choice was clearly simple, but the Ultimates comms network blared with the report of the leader of the Phoenix Order, Selina Nadarista was attacking Oscorp as a towering giant. For the first time since joining the Ultimates, Vanquisher heard Hyperion's voice over the net.

“Any Ultimates available, move in on Oscorp. We're killing this cultist bitch!” Luckily Vanquisher was already airborne, but he had been heading south. Circling around, he flew back towards the city.

Hyperion, Agatha Harkness, and Ares were deployed with the former arriving on the scene before anyone. Not wasting time or having a care for any collateral damage, the solar-powered hero aimed to fly in from above to strike the giant woman. In the right temple and planned to continue dealing headshots to Selina's head. Ares was next to arrive but remained on the ground level to Selina's rear. He's aimed to make the woman's knee buckle by striking at the back of her knee. Agatha would arrive shortly, and Vanquisher was on his way with four alpha sentinels to assist. Oscorp security drones were already combating Phoenix Order members on the scene.

derp

_{New York City, Long Island, Airport Industrial Zone.
Damage Control's Long Island Secure Storage Facility.}

"Hey, did you make more coffee?" Desmond's eyes lazily trailed from the one small screen set up on the desk top to the array of screens lined up on the wall above the desk, four by two, for a total of eight screens constantly updating with the closed circuit video feed from around the Damage Control Long Island Storage Facility. There was no sound in the small security office but the sound of the basketball game on the small screen set-up on the desk top, and the hum of the servers behind the security glass at the back of the room.

Even after the sluggish Desmond realized Edgar hadn't answered, it took him until the next time out to sigh and turn his body in the swivel chair to see if Edgar had fallen asleep. He found Edger.

Unconcious, slumped on the floor. A blonde woman in black and bare skin and spikes standing over him. Desmond's sleepy eyse stretched wide at the sight, shock freezing him in place. The woman had no such hesitation. She simply took the back of his head and smashed it against the wall of screens above the desk with the ease of a grown man tossing around a toddler. Desmond began to bleed on the desk as he crumpled, unconcious, in the chair. Illyana paid no mind to the security guard with the 'Desmond Blake' nametag on his grey trouser, dark blue shirt, black belt uniform. She'd already snatched the security pass from the first guard who was making coffee when she appeared behind him via one of her teleportation discs, taking his neck from behind in a choke hold, silently forcing him to unconcious before the other guard lazily asked about coffee and didn't turn around for another minute.

It was enough she was already looking through the camera feeds for what she wanted. That was the moment she found another guard, and another individual, on one of the cameras. Her head tilted to the side, just barely, as intrigue compelled her attention to stay on the feed. Beams, weapons shrinking, a suit of armor. Illyana felt her teeth grit. I hate armored suits. It reminded her of cowards; it reminded her of Tony Stark. Whoever it was didn't seem to account for a modern security system--a fortunate thing she had used Unconcious Security Guard #1's security pass to disable to the surveillance systems, motion detectors, heat sensors, magnetic trip-wires, and every other little toy Damage Control had put in place to sure the toys of others stayed out of their rightful hands.

Or, at least, in the hands of someone who wasn't considered the 'bad guy.' The disc of angry gold light expanded from a speck of light until it was a roughly circular shape with an image that grew fuzzy and rough at the edges, and was just big enough for her to walkt through. Getting what she came for was a short trip, and was a matter of shoving another guard who never saw her coming face-first into a brick wall and letting him fall unconcious on the ground like the others from the security office. "Squishy hew-mans," Magik commented, with a smirk, as she began ripping through all the double-sided cardboard Uline stamped boxes that was supposed to hold some of what she was after.

It was an after-thought when she reached down to the knocked out guard's shoulder pinned radio transmitter, and depressed the button on the side of it to open a channel, "Intruder in power armor, size-morphing, heading towards Section 2-B in Warehouse 4. They've already knocked out..." well, Illyana saw him take out two guards on the camera feed, but she was absolutely going to blame him for the three she knocked out, too. "Uh, five of us. Armed and dangerous."

There was some radio chatter in response that she ignored; thirty seconds later the alarm klaxtons began to sound as red emergency lights began to pulse along with the audible alarm that was loud enough to make her wince, and ring her ears. A quick teleportation disc opened next to her, much smaller than the ones she used; this one she simply tossed a paticular cardboard box in, and let the disc disappear. Some of what she had come after was secure in Limbo, so now...she could turn her attention to the poor bastard she had just set the entire Damage Control facility on.

A larger disc appeared a heartbeat later, Illyana stepping immediately through it to began her observation of the shitstorm that was about to head Power Armor's way.

“Shit Shit shit someone take the wheel I need to start firing back at them, Milo’s tapped out and that plasma rifle Logan has isn’t going to be enough! Ganni can you portal them away?! IF they call more back-up it’s a wrap.” Scott bellowed as he was doing his best to focus on the road clutching the wheel and pressing down on the gas to allow the hover-craft to move faster & fast to escape the killer robot mutant trio that was gaining on them rapidly.

"I believe I can, but I could also portal us out," Ganni answered with one of those little shrugs of his. He was pretty obedient, though, and it was clear that they needed to take down the Sentinels chasing them before they could effectively leave. "Best it could do is redirect them for a short while."

Ganni then turned around, facing the rear of their hovercar to see the three death robots in hot pursuit. "Milo, take the wheel, you're the one that is out of powers to shoot out. Now…"

Hyperdrive began to focus, taking in another whiff of the smoke within his gas mask to soothe his mind. Creating these bridges through space was no easy feat, and if he messed up, it could lead right inside a wall. This time, though, that won't be a mess up, but an intentional deviation.

Another portal roared open in front of the Sentinels, too close for them to divert their path away from the waiting concrete street on the other side. They would most certainly slam right into it, their current speed and trajectory offering little room to make any turns sharp or quick enough to avoid impact.

"I doubt that's going to be the last of them," Ganni said, turning his attention away from the portal he lured the Sentinels into. "They know you're here, and the MRD will spend every last resource in trying to kill you, Scott."

---

A larger disc appeared a heartbeat later, Illyana stepping immediately through it to began her observation of the shitstorm that was about to head Power Armor's way.

When the response force from Damage Control arrived at the Curator's position, he was already shrinking some of the relics that were the reason he was here to begin with. All the technology and devices built by Angstrom Defense; a plethora of stasis pods, shrunken attack drones inside small, pocket sized containers, cryogenic weapons, and several arc reactors that were believed to be made using stolen blueprints. Either way, Baldur wasn't exactly on his own either; once the Damage Control troops got within the same room as he was, they were immediately assailed by floating drones armed with sonic and energy blasters, whose shooting patterns were more geared towards deterrence than causing casualties.

"These belong to me," Baldur Angstrom told them as they hid behind cover. "I sleep for forty years, and when I awake, this is what the world has become? Shame on you all."

Baldur turned around, finally facing the doorway, clutching another stasis orb in his hand. Other drones were scanning the boxes, looking for his company's tech. Most were turning up with empty results, but that was to be expected when a long time had already passed.

The orb flew, detonating to reveal a pair of tiny old junkyard cars, which were immediately enlarged to their normal size to serve as massive projectiles to block the entrance.

Either way, it was pretty clear that he cares not what they send, just that he gets what he wants from this section of the warehouse.

Max, or rather The Hood, exhaled. Immediately light began to reflect off of his skin and clothing as his visibility returned. The vigilante found himself standing at the backside of an MRD operative, the sound of blasts, shouts and commotion ringing out in the background. It was the Ultimates and the MRD versus a rag tag group of mutants, some of whom were firing out in self defense. Unfair odds, for sure. When in doubt, he thought, protect the underdog. While Hood was a capable combatant, he could hardly categorize himself as a heavy hitter when compared to the likes of his super powered counterparts. That in mind, he decided being loud and eye-catching would be bad for his health.

Stealthily holstering his guns, he then sprung out at the operative, employing a choke hold and letting the weight of his own body drag the man down to the ground as the suffocation soon begat unconsciousness. Hurriedly, he pulled the limp body further out of sight behind the cover of the vehicle. As he poked his head out, he took in the scene of the hulking ebon alien sending the young mutant flying through the window of a warehouse.

He's going to need help, Hood concluded silently, though whether or not he was the right guy to provide it was tougher to determine. Venom's brutality and eagerness to kill was more than offputting. As famous and adored as these Ultimates were, Hood was witnessing very little that justified such admiration. There was no doubt in Hood's mind that Venom was a murderous bully. Perhaps all the Ultimates were when the cameras were off...

Regardless, he needed to act now and he really didn't need to get shot in the process. Hood took in a big breath and said farewell to the visible spectrum as he sprinted toward the rumbling warehouse. As he ran, two plasma rifles flew overhead, greatly outpacing his own speed as they floated into the warehouse and began to open fire.

Well, maybe he doesn't need the help, he thought, slightly elated that the mutant was starting to hold his own a little better. The notion came too soon, however, as the warehouse quickly caved in on the two adversaries. Hood stopped in his tracks and caught his breath. One of the resistance fighters showed up to his left and began firing at the alien as he emerged from the rubble.

"Are you fucking stup-" but before Hood could finish chastising the shooter, he looked on in horror as the young man was pulled in and devoured. Hood's jaw dropped, his entire body paralyzed. The two in front of him continued to focus on eachother, letting loose hell while Hood continued to be frozen in utter shock. How in the fuck could anyone look at this thing and think its a hero?

Hood's mind finally snapped back to the issue at hand once the fight had gone aerial. He looked on from below as the mutant sent venom down like a comet into the street in close proximity to pedestrians.

"Shit! HEY... uh... 'NOT-VENOM'" he shouted at them as he sprinted towards the site of the collision, trying to get the mutant's attention. "There's people! You're going to hurt som-" Just then, the mutant had used two hover vehicles as weapons in a pincered slam that immediately resulted in an explosion. "FUCK!"

Hood dove for the nearest group of onlookers, grabbed the edges of his cloak and extended his hands skyward like a bird stretching their wings. The mystical Norn stone embedded within immediately reacted, imbuing his cloak with rigid durability as rogue metal debris bounced off of it, missing the gathered few that was around him.

"Shit. Are you alright?" Hood's forehead was covered in beads of sweat, panic painted upon his face. The young men and women slowly got out of their protective positions to give Hood somber looks and affirmations that none were seriously injured.

Hood let his cloak fall at ease as he looked around. He saved a group of five onlookers from injury and mutilation. For that, he felt accomplished, but it was a fleeting feeling as he looked around the rest of the street. Scattered along the sidewalks were people on the ground bleeding, cries of shock and woe, desperate calls for help... He saved five, but he failed so many more...

Quickly his opinion was changing. Venom was quick to earn his ire, but Hood was realizing that the mutant was just as reckless, just as violent and haphazardous about the sanctity of innocent life. They both needed to be stopped.

Hood's fists tightened into balls as he watched the mayhem ensue further down the street. The two idiots barreled into a moving SUV before taking it apart with a family inside. I've got to get there, he concluded intensely. Weaving through moving traffic was an obstacle that would only cost him time. Time that the family was running out of. He looked down at his boots for just a moment and then put them to work.

As if climbing an invisible staircase, the boots of levitation allowed Hood to ascend thin air just high enough to be over the head of any vehicular roofs. Once elevated enough, he took off in a straight sprint toward the SUV that was now wobbling in recoil from the impact of its collision with the super powered morons. As soon as Hood got within arms reach, he grabbed the arms of two of the occupants, forcefully pulling them out of the untamed vehicle and slinging them over each of his shoulders as he continued to sprint to keep pace. Reaching in once more, he grabbed the remaining occupants and held them up, stopping in his tracks as he stood on open air. The vehicle finally succumbed to gravity and flipped, screeching down the street on its side. Solemnly, Hood carried the four people over to the nearest sidewalk and set them down one-by-one.

His hearing began to muffle as his anger intensified. He couldn't hear the words the man was saying, but surely it was something about dismay for his car. He couldn't really hear the screams of horror and excitement for the people around him, but he knew they were happening. It was like his head was underwater. His eyes moved like lasers as his gaze craned over. Those metaphorical lasers quickly fixated on Venom and the mutant once more.

They were skyward now and then they chaotically collided into an office building. Hood felt something inside him itching to crawl out. Something caged within clawing at the walls. His veins started feeling hot and his eyes began to illuminate...

He dashed out through the sky, his cloak flapping behind him as he ran on an endless supply of invisible platforms until he reached the gaping hole in the office building. More screams... more mayhem... Hood bore witness to the mutant expelling fire wildly, the flames engulfing Venom and the innocent workers alike. One of the workers suddenly, violently, took flight and crashed mercilessly and brutally into a metal bell, serving as its organic gong. That wasn't a power that Venom possessed. That was the mutant using someone's life like a toy.

Just as Hood was about to pull out his guns and intervene, he felt a hand on his shoulder followed by a blood curdling screech. As he turned, he found himself face to face with a woman flailing in the flames that were consuming her. The smell of melted skin filled Hood's nostrils. Her eye sockets were drooping and her scalp was completely charred. Boils rapidly grew and popped in clusters on her cheeks. It was enough to knock Hood's psyche completely off balance. With a swoop of his arm, he brought the woman in under his cloak to extinguish the flame and slowly brought her down to the ground to let her lay. Even though the fire was out, the sickening sizzle remained. She was breathing, thank goodness, but he wasn't sure sure she'd ultimately be happy that he saved her life. She was destined for a lifetime of deformity and pain, physical and psychological.

As he looked up, Hood quickly realized he lost sight of the two homicidal maniacs. It wasn't long after that he could feel the building begin to rumble as if an earthquake had begun. Panic swept the office floor as people began screaming about the building coming down. There were too many of them... he couldn't save them all...

Tears began to well up in his eyes as he ran toward the destructive opening of the office windows, quickly grabbing two people by the waist and slinging them over his shoulders. He then did a low sweep, grabbing the burn victim off the ground and securing her in his grasp. And finally, just as someone was running across him in a disorganized frenzy, he grabbed them by the belt with his last free hand and took them in tow, too. With each step toward the opening, he could feel that the ground was no longer solid. He couldn't afford to look back, but he had to imagine that he was only just ahead of the ever-expanding crumble that would eventually take the entire structure down.

With one last leap, he and his four passengers went airborne. After a small drop, the boots found their footing in the air and Hood's descent was halted. Slowly, begrudgingly, he turned to watch as the rest of the building fell in a cacophony of screams. All those souls lost for the sake of two gods' egos. Hood was disgusted. As he slowly made his way down from the sky, he couldn't help but feel like it was a descent into hell.

Tori watched with horror as fighter jets pealed out of formation to attack a flying mutant started to decimate the jets with its powers. As a hell fire missile broke from the rail of the plane ahead of her, she pulled up hard. Nosing the jet into a position that hurt to think about. The wings shuttered and a vibration went through the aircraft as the missile’s rocket fired igniting the jet’s engine exhaust and causing the engines to flame out.

Tori squeaked 7700 giving Air traffic control the heads up that the plane was in trouble. Tory pushed the nose forward trying to get a controlled fall as she would restart the engines. She was too busy to panic as she watched the mutant coming after the plane.

Yanking the stick to the right she started the plane to turn so the nose would be towards the ground gaining airspeed and a boost to the engine restarts. To Tori’s dismay the mutant came and positioned itself on the nose of the jet laughing as she tried to regain control of the aircraft.

Rosalie continued to stare down the hooded figure before her, still trying to figure out who they were and just what they wanted with her. The way they kept their eyes hidden by shadow and the way they smirked at her, sent a slight shiver down her spine. Not many could get such a reaction from her, but there was something extremely ominous about this guy. Her eyes narrowed and she gripped the handlebars of her bike even more. “I ask again. Who the hell are you and what do you want?” she almost growled, but annoyance was clear in her tone. The guy's smirk turned into a toothy grin at her words and annoyance, clearly enjoying that he was getting a rise out of her from not answering, then gently shook his head with a chuckle. “Has it really been long enough for you to have forgotten me, Rosie?” he said with a chuckle in his tone, his tone changing to a sneer as he said her name. Rose’s teeth clenched as he used her hated nickname in a sneer, he was just asking for a punch in the face, but she was taken off guard by the fact he knew her. This caused her to focus even more on the man before her, her eyes turning into saucers as she realized just who was in front of her. His grin grew even more as he saw that she knew who he was. “So….. You’ve finally recognized me.” he stated gleefully.

“Colby?” Rose breathed as she got off her bike and leaned it against a wall. “But how’s that possible? You’re supposed to be dead. I saw you……” she spoke softly before she trailed off as images from that day flashed through her mind. They were close friends and she still blamed herself for his death that day. She could still see it clearly as if it had just happened yesterday. The two of them were spending the day together, walking around, and minding their own business when they were approached by a gang. What they didn’t realize until it was too late, was that this group weren’t normal humans but wayward mutants. “Yeah, for all intensive purposes, I should be dead!” he snapped at her as he got off his own bike and leaned it against a wall. He then removed his hoodie and draped it across the handlebars of his bike. Rose’s eyes went straight to the burn scars on his neck and arms, she could only imagine what the scars looked like under his white t-shirt. Once Colby noticed her looking at his scars, his expression changed to one of anger. “This!” he yelled, gesturing to his whole body. “Is your fault! You stood there and did nothing while they wailed and used their powers on me! You just stood there and watched!”

“That’s not true and you know it!” Rose snapped back. “I fought against the members of that gang to get to you and help you! There were so many, I had trouble getting to you! When I finally did, they had thrown you through the window of that old wearhouse, brought it down on you, and then set it ablaze!” she told him. “I did everything I could to get through them, to you, and through the rubble of that building! After the flames were under control, I searched for you for hours and could only find half of the other people alive that were in that building! So, do you tell me I did nothing to help you!” she rambled. A fire burned behind Colby’s eyes as Rose spoke, his hands balling into fists, then shook his head hard when she had finished. “Lies! It’s all lies!” he snapped at her. “You did nothing because you were weak and now that I’ve found you, you’re going to pay for letting them do this to me!” He then rushed her, lifting a fist as he neared her, before his fist could connect with a part of her, she sidestepped with her hands up. “Colby, I’m sorry for what happened. I truly am.” she said, trying to use a calmer tone as she dodged another of his attacks. “If I could go back and change what happened I would. You were my best friend and it hit me harder than you know to see what happened and thinking you were dead.”

Colby spun around and swung at Rosalie, but she caught his fist, spun him around, and pushed him away from her. “I don’t want to fight you, Colby.” she told him as she watched him slightly trip from the push. Colby spun around with a growl-like sound in his throat. “Every word from your mouth is a lie!” he spat. He rushed her, throwing a punch that connected with her cheek, sending her back a couple of steps with a muffled groan. She didn’t want to hurt Colby but if he kept this up, she would have no choice but to fight him to defend herself. “Colby, please.” she managed to get out before he threw another punch that she barely dodged. He came at her harder, not saying a word, which gave her no choice but to fight back. The two began to exchange blows, knocking each other to the ground and against the sides of the buildings they were in between. Rose dared not use her powers in a place so close to a place where she could easily be seen by other people but if she were to use them, it would end this fight quickly and get back to the shop. Though she still didn’t want to hurt Colby too badly even though she couldn’t get through to him. If this continued the way it was going, she might just have to use them to get out of this situation and hopefully not be seen.