[quote][sub] H.E.R.O. One Dune Savior Island, Castleburg. Interactions: Dahlia [@baraquiel], Gematria [@Scarifar], Crane [@Zoey Boey], Stray [@rabidporcupine], Alchemist [@Duoya], Mire [@Blizz], Fallout [@Aku the Samurai], Freakshow [@Crusader Lord] [/sub][/quote] [indent][indent]Unfortunately, the duo had made much more of a scene than they would have liked, and now they were being approached by a larger group of heroes. [i]Freakish[/i] heroes, it might be noted. Well, some of them were freakish. The one trying to negotiate with them looked a little bit older than the rest of the group (though not that much), though he was giving a very impassioned speech. His backup singers, on the other hand, were quite different. One of them was so horrifying-looking that description wouldn't do it justice. Then there was the emo guy, the floor fungus, and now some other girl, who decided to just run at him. Well, that was new. She was right in thinking that this whole "surrender" business was meaningless, but she was wrong in that Albino was planning on letting the girl go if things went smoothly. Oh well. The job might not get done, but adding a kill to the books is never too bad of an option. The girl threw a punch with what looked like a metal fist (maybe some type of metal glove? who knew) right at his knife-arm. Albino assumed that she was trying to take his arm out and free the hostage in some way. However, this wasn't the first time Albino had tried to fight somebody off while holding a hostage, so instead of fleeing, Albino simply quickly turned, contorting Eva as well, and causing Rupa to simply glance past them. The knife did dig into the girl he was grabbing onto a little bit, but Albino wasn't exactly all too concerned with prisoner welfare. [color=BF9C9C]"Well, that was stupid of you! Now, time for this girl to die. I was [i]definitely[/i] going to surrender, by the way. There was no way out for me. But now that you tried to kill me, well, I've changed my mind. Now I think I'll just- hey, get your hand off me, you dumb-"[/color] Albino wouldn't get a chance to finish his sentence as lines of green begin to appear across his pale skin. His grip on Eva slackened and then released entirely, dropping both her and the slightly-bloodied knife in his hand. He took one feeble step back, but his body totally froze up due to the toxin, and before he could issue some parting words, he keeled over and collapsed. Jellyfish was not faring much better, given that before he could try and help his comrade, some weird robot thingy had jumped onto his head, and then began to suck the electricty out of him. The jellyfish man gave an uncharacteristic screech as his powers were drained, his already palish purple skin becoming less purple and substantially more pale as the tendrils that controlled his electricity stopped sparking and simply flailed. After a few moments, the drained villain bucked Gematria unceremoniously off his head, before falling to the ground, only a couple of feet away from his comrade. Coincidentally, only moments after Jellyfish and Albino were nullified, the groups' watches (well, if they had them on, which they should at all times when possible, per HERO Protocol 4.1.6) adjusted to the proper time as ALISA finally came back online, and with it, the stream of messages and information from the concurrent battle in New Athens did as well. It seemed as though major disaster had been avoided. The Fiendish Five would not be riding once againn. [/indent][/indent][hr] [quote][sub] TAURUS Advanced Developments Laboratory Watervale, Castleburg [/sub][/quote] [indent][indent][color=F18830]"Yo, yo, bro, check this video out!"[/color] The TAURUS Advanced Developments Laboratory was rather quiet due to the holiday. Usually, the laboratory that was managed by TAURUS, one of the most prominent and advanced defense contractors and advanced weapons manufacturers in the world, was bustling with developments. However, because of the festivities in New Athens, almost all of the scientists were absent, leaving only a handful of security guards, as well as two male heroes that had also been hired by TAURUS to guard the facility. One of them was a gruff-looking, muscular, bearded man with wild hair and a leather jacket, named Honey Badger. The other was younger with bright scarlet, spiky hair, named Flamewave. They were both, for different reasons, taking this private job with the defense company on this holiday celebration, though while Honey Badger seemed to be alert and on guard, the younger of the two heroes was currently trying to show his senior a video on his phone. Honey Badger turned away, his arms crossed. [color=A50000]"We're supposed to be on watch right now, you know."[/color] [color=F18830]"Relax. It's a holiday, there's a whole perimeter of guards that would alert us if something was happening, and besides, nobody's actually going to try and do anything here. This isn't a weapons plant or anything, all this stuff is mostly vehicle stuff."[/color] Honey Badger huffed and relented, looking down at the other hero's phone. The video, likely filmed by some hiding civilian, showed Ardent flipping the parade float on Doc Holliday. Despite it being a very recent occurrence, it had already gone viral. Flamewave grinned. [color=F18830]"Isn't that sick? Too bad we're getting paid to be here instead of fighting off some really cool villains."[/color] [color=A50000]"Fighting villains isn't cool, it's a necessity,"[/color] Honey Badger responded, stiffly looking back up. [color=A50000]"And that Ardent guy is a real piece of work. I have friends that operate out of Boston for HERO. From what I hear, dude's an animal. I wouldn't ask to team up with him in a million years. Probably wants to destroy the organization from the inside or something."[/color] [color=F18830]"Better than some of the freaks they let join anyway,"[/color] Flamewave said with a grimace as he put his phone away. [color=F18830]"You know they let that girl they kept in lockup join HERO? Freaky skinbag? And they also have this hacker guy who is literally a walking Chernobyl. You ask me, Powers is going crazy."[/color] Honey Badger didn't respond verbally, but his slight, stoic nod of the head indicated some type of agreement. Not all of Powers' decisions were popular. A lot of heroes in the organization didn't like working with former criminals, or outsiders, or people with powers that were extremely uncontrollable and/or dangerous. It felt sometimes that some of these new people were more dangerous than the people they were supposed to fight. After a moment of silence, Flamewave spoke up again. [color=F18830]"Listen, let's just run a check on everything to make sure it's all secure, which it is, and maybe get some lunch. Or at least, I'm getting lunch. You can stay here and 'do your job right' or replace your catheter or whatever you old people do."[/color] [color=A50000]"I'm 33. But I'll come check with you."[/color] The pair of heroes walked through the laboratory, an eerie building with stone walls and a number of machines that neither men could name off the top of their heads. As the two were making their rounds, Honey Badger stopped, lifting his nose in the air and squinting his eyes. [color=A50000]"Someone's here,"[/color] he whispered, before running off, with a confused Flamewave close behind. The two ran, Honey Badger leading the way with his sense of smell, up to a pair of sealed metal doors that was labelled "ENVIRO. DEVELOPMENTS." Honey Badger removed his TAURUS-issued keycard from his pocket, swiped it against the keycard reader, and into the room, which resembled a mad scientist's garage more than the other parts of the lab, with a number of machines and gadgets laying out in the open. Lining one of the walls was a number of circular steel vault doors, one of which was wickedly deformed and bent open. More concerningly, a number of TAURUS security guards were sprawled across the room. Honey Badger approached one of the downed guards, first taking his pulse and sadly finding nothing, before then examining his body. [color=A50000]"No signs of them being attacked physically. Based on their paleness and dilated pupils, I'd guess some type of toxin. Not sure if it's an attacker or some type of lab leak. We need to contact the head of security here. And HERO as well. It's gotta be some type of- Flamewave?"[/color] Honey Badger turned around to see his companion woozily hobbling around. He gave an exhausted [color=F18830]"ugh"[/color] before collapsing, falling straight on his face. [color=Chartreuse]"Looks like somebody slipped through the cracks. Poison immunity, I'm guessing?"[/color] Honey Badger turned towards the source of the voice, to see a pair of people that had almost magically appeared, like they had walked through the wall. One of them was a woman who was likely the source of the voice. She had striking bright, green eyes and tresses of similarly-colored emerald hair, and was wearing some type of black body-suit with what looked like a spider emblem on the shoulder. Next to her was a much taller, muscular, dark-skinned man, with a number of bright blue tattoos and black hair with similarly-colored highlights. They looked and sounded like villains, and Honey Badger, an experienced hero, wasted no time firing back. He lifted his knuckles, unsheathing a set of retractable claws from the knuckles of each hand, before rushing at the two rapidly. Before he could even close half the distance, he felt a sharp twisting pain, like his bones were being manhandled. He howled loudly as he fell to his knees, watching his metal claws curl like they were being superheated. He looked up to see that the dark-skinned man had raised one of his hands and was now speaking, a big menacing grin on his face. [color=DarkTurquoise]"Well, I guess you're lucky in that you have poison resistance, hmm? But unlucky with the metal endoskeleton and claws and whatnot. Kind of tacky. Like a worse version of Wolverine. With the way you're dressed, you're more like Hugh Jackman in Logan, actually, but whatever."[/color] The man reached into his pocket, pulling out what appeared to be a handful of gray dust. [color=DarkTurquoise]"Gotta kill you now. Sorry. Ah, who am I kidding? Not at all sorry."[/color] He blew the dust out of the palm of his hand, and like magic, the dust swirled and formed into a number of tiny metal balls. The balls hovered in midair for a moment, before shooting forth at an almost impossible speed. Two balls pierced clean through his torso, before one went straight through his forehead, leaving a bloody hole right. Honey Badger's body fell limp afterwards. [color=DarkTurquoise]"Shame. Doesn't even have a healing factor."[/color] The man signed, looking over at his comrade. [color=DarkTurquoise]"Foxglove, did we get everything we came for? Jeez, this whole mission felt like some type of lame scavenger hunt."[/color] The green-haired woman nodded. [color=Chartreuse]"Everything's been loaded onto the helicopter."[/color] [color=DarkTurquoise]"Neat."[/color] The man lifted his hand, causing the metal portion of the wall that they had entered through to once again part, as though the thick layers of metal had turned into curtains. [color=DarkTurquoise]"What was the point of this again? Whatever we're stealing doesn't look cool."[/color] [color=Chartreuse]"As you would know if you didn't sleep through the briefing, Solidus, the technology here is necessary to execute the next part of the Commander's plan,"[/color] the woman said disapprovingly. [color=DarkTurquoise]"I didn't join to listen to briefings, I joined to look for..."[/color] The man trailed off. [color=DarkTurquoise]"Whatever. I should've listened, OK, sheesh. Speaking of which, how'd those villains the Commander paid to raid HERO One do? They got the files?"[/color] The woman sighed once again. [color=Chartreuse]"Once again, your lack of attention to detail is evident. Obviously, they failed. They were never meant to succeed. Just to advance the plan."[/color] [color=DarkTurquoise]"So a distraction for a distraction for a distraction? Or something?"[/color] The woman sighed with a small shake of the head. [color=Chartreuse]"[i]Or something.[/i] Now, please help me clean up these bodies?"[/color] [color=DarkTurquoise]"You're no fun."[/color] [/indent][/indent]