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Peterson Estates
Passenger Island, Castleburg
Status: Infiltrating
Speaks to: Dahlia [@baraquiel], Stray [@rabidporcupine]
On a mission with: Wireframe [@Silver Carrot], Bastion [@Infinite Cosmos], Dahlia [@baraquiel], Gematria [@Scarifar], Alchemist [@Duoya], and apparently Stray [@rabidporcupine]
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[indent][indent][color=lightgreen]"Listen, my people-deducing skills are fine,"[/color] Jake fired back as he looked through the wine cellar, examining its contents. Jake knew that wine could get expensive, but this was a whole new level of expensive- he swore he saw a price tag for over 5 digits. [color=lightgreen]"I bet if I had, like, brown hair, and blue eyes, and all that, then you wouldn't know who I was."[/color] Jake pushed down on a button that just turned on an overhead light. So far, nothing.

Luckily, Eva [i]was[/i] able to find something by pulling down a wine bottle, and revealed a secret passageway out of the wine room. Unfortunately, that secret passageway was guarded with CCTV, but Eva quickly melted the camera. Hopefully, the guy that was watching the monitors was on break or something.

[color=lightgreen]"Yea, we should get going-"[/color] Jake started, before hearing a thumping sound. He crouched his knees, his voice lowering to a whisper.  [color=lightgreen]"Someone’s coming."[/color]

Fortunately for Jake, the person that barged through the wine cellar door was not a platoon of armed guards, but instead a single person, seemingly blind, that was speaking to them in an Irish accent. The person then switched into a more normal voice and began speaking to the duo as if he knew them, something that Jake could not say he did. Maybe Eva was right about him having bad people-deducing skills after all. By the time the man finished speaking, though, it all clicked to him.

[color=lightgreen]"Johnathan, right? "[/color] Jake asked with a knowing grin, despite the fact that he had gotten the man’s name wrong.  [color=lightgreen]"Hey, didn’t know you were coming. Could’ve given us more of a heads-up."[/color] Jake shrugged at his fellow hero’s last comment. [color=lightgreen]"Things seem pretty good to me. We got caught on camera, but you’re the only person that’s come to greet us so far. Though, like Eva said, we should probably get a move on, ASAP."[/color] Jake peered down the hallway.  [color=lightgreen]"I’ll go down first and check for traps. Eves, Jeff, you guys back me up."[/color] And with that, Jake disappeared in the blink of an eye, vanishing with a blur down the opened secret entrance.

The secret path was not a very long one, meaning that Jake didn’t gain too much ground on his companions, and fortunately, there were no traps (at least, that had yet reared their heads). Instead, Jake was confronted by another door, this one that looked like it was made of heavy metal. However, the door opened with just a gentle push. Jake shrugged. It seemed a bit too easy, but he wasn’t going to question it. Peterson’s security had yet to prove themselves to be top-notch yet.

Jake walked into the room that was so well-hidden in the mansion. It was quite the expansive underground space, the size of a warehouse lot, with stone-gray walls and absolutely zero natural lighting. In fact, there was hardly any artificial lighting either, a sort of dim fluorescence from a few ceiling lights giving the room an eerie shadiness to it. The room looked like it was a workshop, albeit a haphazardly-designated one, with most of the room being lined with what appeared to be metal scraps and other junk. Jake walked cautiously through the warehouse space, looking at some of the tables that were there. Mostly just welded pieces of metal, though there were a few of what looked like full metal arms and possibly rudimentary weapons laying about. Directly across the room from the metal door that they entered from was what appeared to be a garage door, though it was currently closed. The concrete floor had a few reddish stains that could have been blood, but might also have been red paint. 

[color=lightgreen]"This is [i]weird,[/i]"[/color] he whispered out loud as he stood again, now folding his arms as he began to pace the room. [color=lightgreen]"Something about all of this is really…off. Peterson leaves, they send us to the wine cellar and leave us here alone, which is the one place that is conveniently connected to the creepy workshop underneath his estate. And then they leave the door unlocked.”[/color] Jake looked over at his two fellow heroes. [color=lightgreen]"You guys should check on the others. I’ll stay here and make sure nothing sketchy happens. I have a bad-"[/color]

The metal door suddenly slammed shut. 

[color=lightgreen]"-...fuck, why do I even try."[/color]

As the one door closed, the other door, the one that looked like a garage on the opposite side of the room, began to open. And from that door emerged a number of what appeared to be humanoid robots. The robots resembled humans in body structure, being bipedal, with two arms, a metal ahead, and being roughly the size of Jake, maybe a little taller. They did seem be some sort of prototype design, though, as they had very little armoring on their frames, mostly consisting of exposed pipes and wires, and their heads were just a metal sphere with a red camera-lens eye on the middle, also with exposed wires linking it to their bodies. The robots did have arms that had weapons attached to them, like they had gun hands or something of that sort.

Joining the group of maybe 6 or 7 robots was a balding man with a scruffy beard wearing a labcoat, holding what appeared to be a large remote control of some kind in his hand. Jake vaguely recognized the image from Wiseman’s briefing nearly a month ago, and from the “WANTED” images that HERO had posted on a number of billboards throughout the city. This funny-looking science man was Jon Gholem. 

[color=B7B7B7]"Finally. Some new prey,"[/color] the mad scientist said as he adjusted a few buttons on his remote. The robots that accompanied him in his entourage fidgeted slightly. [color=B7B7B7]"And superhumans too. This will be an excellent demonstration for my new Killbot prototypes. With luck- AARGH!"[/color]

That was all that he said, as Jake, with a burst of superhuman speed, blasted across the room and slammed his fist directly into Gholem’s face. The smaller man was smashed into the concrete ground, hit the floor face-first, and stopped moving. Jake dusted off his hands. 

[color=lightgreen]"Well, there we go. Dude needs to turn on the robots [i]before[/i] monologuing,"[/color] Jake said with a smirk. [color=lightgreen]”Now hopefully he didn’t turn the things on before I-"[/color]

Once again, though, Jake’s sentiments were interrupted as one of the Killbots lifted their weapon-arms and attempted to blast him. If Jake hadn’t been a speedster, he probably would’ve been splattered across the wall, but fortunately his quick reaction time allowed him to spin out of the way, sliding in front of his companions. Two jinxes in one room, back to back. Unlucky day for Blast. 

[color=lightgreen]"Well, this shouldn’t be that hard,"[/color] Jake said to himself as he reached into his suit pocket, pulling out his pair of HERO’s specially-designed brass knuckles and sliding them on. [color=lightgreen]"Easy as you can expect. Couple of dumb robots. Eva, just melt them, and Jordan, do whatever you do. Throw paper at them or something. Then I’ll have personally kicked the ass of two out of five of the Fiendish Five. Which I say is pretty good."[/color]

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Rupa’s pleas did not seem to affect Peterson, whose finger itched closer and closer to the trigger. Fortunately for her, the voltage that Gematria had packed into her new taser weapon did. Peterson flailed his arms about wildly as he was tased, firing off two rounds from his pistol, though both of them weren’t close to even grazing Rupa, the bullets instead burying themselves into the floor and through an autographed and framed picture of Peterson standing with Mr. T on the set of Rocky 3 that was mounted on Peterson’s wall. After being shocked, the man went limp, falling back into his office chair and snoozing. 

From behind Rupa, the sound of quiet applause could be heard. [color=lightgray]"Oh, poor, dumb, stupid Sam. Really put on a show there."[/color]

Ada Peterson had pushed the doors to the study open, sauntering across the room as if the sight of her tazed and unconscious husband didn’t bother her in the slightest. [color=lightgray]"Even with all that work, he still ends up being a nuisance. Oh, well. Boys, you can come in, now."[/color] 

As soon as Peterson finished her sentence, four men suddenly shimmered into view, standing rigidly along the walls of the study, as if they had been there all along (perhaps they had). Each of them looked like they were SWAT, each of them wearing jet black body armor, but they were also adorned with a red beret, a balaclava, and an armband with the image of a spider on it. They were also each holding what appeared to be some type of assault rifle. Peterson walked to the center of the room. [color=lightgray]"Nice to meet you by the way, Ms. Paksha. One of my benefactors will be very interested in meeting you. But let’s cut to the chase before one of you gets too trigger-happy, yes?"[/color] Peterson smiled with a dark grin. [color=lightgray]"Ignoring the fact that you’re outgunned here, I think you recognize that poor Sam is nothing more than a puppet. One that, as of tonight, seems to have run its course. Except as leverage."[/color] Ada Peterson lifted her hand to reveal a spider-shaped ring wrapped around her finger.  [color=lightgray]"I press this, and you can kiss innocent, stupid Mr. Peterson goodbye. Do exactly as I say, and you won’t have to worry about reliving your…woes with hostage situations. Is that understood?"[/color]

Peterson turned away from Rupa, not disclosing any of the answers to the questions of who her employer was, what happened to Mr. Peterson, and how she knew about the HERO One situation with the Fiendish Five. She instead directed her attention towards the little robot on the desk. [color=lightgray]"And that goes for you too. You stick that thing anywhere near me, and you’ll have the blood of an innocent man on your ledger forever. So I suggest you let the poor man sleep and come with me. He’s had a long day."[/color]

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Outside Fixeon Municipal Recycling Plant
Brookside, Castleburg
Being observed: Crane [@Zoey Boey], Lab Rat [@Silver Carrot], Blur Rabbit [@DClassified], Ardent [@manythings], Terraformer [@shylarah], Freakshow [@Crusader Lord], Mire [@Blizz]
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[indent][indent]The creature known as Menace grappled intensely with Crane. Crane may have been thinking about the city or her teammates and allowing those thoughts to shift her plans, but Menace seemed pretty intent on only violence to the other massive creature in the vicinity, and he seemed to be pretty successful. Despite being a good few feet shorter than Ting, Menace was shockingly strong, much stronger than he seemed, and that was saying something, given that he [i]seemed[/i] like a giant magic gorilla kaiju. 

Menace’s monkey-like paws grabbed onto Crane’s elbows as he continued to push against her, but he also began to squeeze on her joints with his hands. And with his unholy amount of strength, it would’ve began to hurt, even for such a massive human like Crane. 

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Back inside the plant, the fight was not going so well for the Azure Skulls.

Things One and Two ended up lasting for an even shorter time than they did in their namesake children’s book. Ardent’s street sign pancaked at least one half of the duo, causing a bunch of clones to, on contact, poof into dust, and one of the twins to be launched into the ground. The other twin perhaps could have began duplicating himself, but he seemed more concerned with his brother. The young, inexperienced villain cradled his twin in his arms. [color=lightgray]"No, Steve, don’t go into the light!"[/color] he shouted through tears. Whether or not Ardent came to finish the job, he seemed like he had much bigger fish to fry.

Clearly, they weren’t exactly cut out for the job. Fighting heroes was hard, and the two had only used their powers to rob convenience stores, steal cars, and beat up on some low-level heroes before. Somebody of Ardent’s caliber was, frankly, way out of their reach.

Clearly, Torch was not doing much better in his own fight. As Freakshow rushed him down, he continued to backpedal, launching fireball after fireball at the woman and probably melting some of that extraneous skin stuff off. But it was clear that he was nowhere near capable enough to deal with someone of Freakshow’s caliber. He could make fire, but he wasn’t able to bring nearly enough heat to deal with his opponent. The fleshy monstrosity smashed into Torch, causing him to careen across the room, flip over a conveyer belt, and smash into the wall.

For somebody that had just been bodied, though, Torch seemed awfully amused, giggling as he sat in his corner of the room. [color=chocolate]"Oh, Cadaver. You were always more impressive than me, I must admit. What a power."[/color] He laughed to himself maniacally some more behind his pyro mask. [color=chocolate]"But the time has come."[/color]

Torch reached behind him, pulling out his own needle, just like the ones Things One and Two had injected into Menace. Instead of injecting it into somebody else, though, Torch jammed the needle into his own abdomen. And just like his simian-esque ally, Torch gave his own blood-curling scream, though it came out as muffled and distorted from behind the mask. His gloved hands grasped at his head, scratching against the rubbery material that composed the mask as he slowly stood from his position against the wall.

And then, suddenly, it got hot. Really hot. [i]Intolerably[/i] hot. The entire plant shot up significantly in temperature as Torch staggered in a small circle, giving another eerie scream. Once he lowered his hands from his position and looked over at the heroes, he seemed to have regained some semblance of self-control as he raised both his hands. 

Tongues of fire erupted from his fingertips, the amount of fire now putting his puny fireballs from earlier to shame as they danced across the room, lighting machinery, plastics, and even the walls of the facility ablaze. The entire building began to smolder as Torch, laughing maniacally all the way, spun around, sending jets of fire across the entire building. Smoke began to fill the room as well, though thanks to the dilapidated state of the building as well as Menace’s grand exit, much of it was billowing out through the various openings.
Torch nearly screeched with insane excitement as he now directed his attention at the heroes. He didn’t even offer snippy dialogue, instead just sending blasts of fire, much larger, hotter, and more rapid than his earlier fireballs, at every form of life that was remotely in his line of sight inside the rapidly-burning building.

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Mari watched with shock as Crane and the gorilla-man grappled, and in even more shock as the entire recycling plant lit on fire. Plastics on fire was an ecological nightmare, the Leftover/Menace combination posed an enormous danger to the city, and while HERO had some capable people in their employ, this was staggering. It was insane.

Mari clenched her teeth. She was going to do something she would probably regret, but at this point, she didn’t see much of an alternative. Even if she stuck to orders, she would have to get involved with whatever was causing the fire and whatever was controlling the Leftovers came for her before spilling into the city. And so she tapped her ear. [color=F52A23]"Spencer, I’m going in. That’s final."[/color]

[color=SlateBlue]”Marisol, you can’t. I’ll be there soon. There’s-”[/color]

Mari removed her earpiece, tossing it off the water tower, before resting her rifle against the surface. Some things, you just had to do yourself. 
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