[IC] Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

[Blackstripe]

12:55 AM, March 13th
East Haven Residential, Hub City

"Right. The sooner we find him and get out of here, the better." Question says, tracing his hand along the wall as he continues. "Got sick once after chasing a criminal through the sewers. Was inactive for a week after that." He continues in silence, listening to the sounds of the sewers and trying to think of where the Electrocutioner would go.

---

"You should invest in protective gear," Grim noted in a low rumble, raising a hand to tap one finger against the gas mask covering her face. "Animals get ... creative when cornered." Then the vigilante gave a slight shrug, dipping her head to run the flashlight along the ground before back up and forward, with only a slight glance at the trash beside them. People always flush things they aren't supposed to, and she didn't particularly want to deal with something radioactive and huge. Not tonight, at least.

"Of course, the safest way is to just not do it." Wise words on deaf ears, no doubt.

---

Arcana didn't have much to say in that moment, her mind currently focused on avoiding breathing in any of the nauseating fumes that permeated the air. It took her a few moments to recall that she didn't even have to breathe in the first place, which was of no small relief to her.

The trail was much easier to follow now, since the footprints left by The Electrocutioner were clearly visible in the muck that stained the concrete beneath their feet. Each step the trio made echoed through the cavernous sewers, the cackle of their feet only opposed by the sound of flowing waste and distant voices.

For many minutes they would continue to press onward, to the point where it seemed like they had been walking for at least half an hour. It, in some ways, reminded Karen of when she was pulled into The Rock of Eternity...except with many more discarded jock straps and tampons floating by them.

At last, however, their journey lead them to an opening in the otherwise narrow corridors of the subterranean labyrinth. In this expansive region, burn barrels illuminated the darkness, and disturbed murmurs reached their ears as shadows began to rise.

Over two dozen figures began to rise from where they had been squatting, all of them slowly approaching the strangers. Each and every one of them wore tattered rags, their hair frayed and wild. Sallow, crooked teeth glistened in the oscillating light of the flames as they sneered warily at the intruders.

"Uhh...hi, we're the um..." Arcana shifted her eyes to either side of the room, "Department of Housing and Urban Development?"

They didn't seem amused.

---

The Question came to a stop as the trio was approached by a group of homeless people, all looking as derelict as the sewers they called home. Arcana tried to lighten the mood, or maybe that was just her nervous excuse. Either way, the hobos didn't budge.

"... I've got this." With that, he pulled out his wallet, removing a hundred dollar bill and waving it in the air. "Who wants the dollar? Huh? Who wants it?"

---

'Unstable,' Grim noted silently as she watched the antics of Trenchcoat, baiting those before them like dogs. For a moment she actually approved, thinking he was offering a bribe - but no. With a low noise the vigilante merely reached over and grabbed Trenchcoat's wildly waving arm to yank it down, glare unseen beneath the mask. Her other hand gestured to the homeless before pointing downward, to the last of the gigantic footprints they had followed in a silent question.

Really, some people just weren't made for this line of work but everyone wanted to put on a mask and pretend.

---

"They're not animals, y'know," Lady Arcana muttered to the Question, stepping forward to spread her arms. Offering the homeless before them a warm smile, she decided to start by introducing herself. "My name is Lady Arcana, and these are my friends Grim and The Question."

She gestured to the pair behind her for a moment before continuing. "We're looking for someone very dangerous, a man in armor? They sometimes call him 'The Electrocutioner'."

"We know who you are," an old man at the front of the assembly wheezed out, leaning heavily on a knotted piece of wood from who-knows-where. "Didn't expect to see you here, just thought it'd be him."

The old man gestured towards Grim.

"He told us there'd be a reward if we brought him your head," he explained. "Wasn't sure if he was legit, but we don't have a lot of opportunities here. Still, he didn't say nothin' about no Lady Arcana. We hear you've got the power of the devil, and we ain't gonna mess with that."

Arcana lightly scratched the back of her hood, uncertain how to respond to this.

---

"Just tell us where he is, and we'll leave you alone. Don't, and you'll learn the true definition of pain." Question threatened, crossing his arms and scowling beneath his mask. Truthfully, he didn't know why they were wasting their time with these scum, but he didn't voice that aloud.

---

Interesting. Despite their numbers Grim didn't feel particularly threatened, and doubted she would be even alone. Twenty years experience didn't make one afraid of a group of untrained homeless men. Still, it was nice not having to actually engage them by Princess' mere presence. Maybe she should offer her an internship, devil powers and all.

More than that though, it confirmed that Electro knew she'd be coming after him, was expecting her. That was mildly concerning, if only for the fact it meant that he was probably preparing a trap. It would be something to look out for. However, once again back in her silent persona, Grim merely tilted her head toward Question, silently acknowledging his statement as true. It'd be easier for everyone involved if they just pointed out where the one who offered the reward went.

---

Arcana sighed, really not wanting to hurt a bunch of confused and desperate homeless people. Thankfully, they didn't seem to like the idea of fighting her, fearing her powers. It was always nice when she was able to diffuse a potentially hostile situation with her mere presence like that.

"Yes, tell us where the man who told you to hurt my friend went, Satan commands it!" She broadened her arms and lifted into the air in an effort to be intimidating. Many of the hobos quickly shuddered in fear, backing away from them.

The old man stood his ground, but was noticeably shaken. "A-alright, fine! Just d-don't cast any hexes on us, y'hear?"

Pointing to the opposite end of the room, the de facto leader of their little community quickly stood aside. "We don't know where he's staying, but he went further into the tunnels. That's all we know!"

---

The Question stood in awe as Arcana intimidated the hobos into backing down, a small smirk forming under his mask. "Heh," he quietly chuckled as the hobos backed away. The leader, though shaken, pointed them in the right direction. Question tipped his hat, saying "thank you for your time," before tossing the one hundred dollar bill at the leader and walking deeper into the tunnels with the other two.

---

That worked out well. Better than her usual luck, actually. Grim hummed lowly as the three in their little justice group continued onward to follow the directions, the sound rumbling in the voice modulator. It was even nice that the Unstable Fedoramancer actually gave up the change he was waving around. Still, the vigilante waited patiently until they were passed the homeless campground before speaking once more.

"Satan commands it?" Was the first thing that escaped her mouth, amusement coloring the words. A slight shake of her head though and Grim moved on. "Electrocutioner is expecting us. At least, he's expecting me. Be on your guard." Taking point once more Grim merely resumed scanning the way in front of them with her flashlight, heat optics flickering back on once more.

---

"Hey, you can't say it didn't work!" Lady Arcana lightly protested, folding her arms.

It felt like they had been down here forever at this point, and it didn't seem like their journey was close to ending. How far away from East Haven must they be at this point? Did that Electrocutioner guy really travel all this way to get to Commissioner Lessee's house? If that was the case...

"He must have had a reasonably detailed map of this sewer system to come up right beside his house like that," Arcana noted after several more minutes of walking. "I wonder how difficult it is to get something like that?"

The trail stretched on for another fifteen minutes, before the tracks at last came to an end in another expansive room. This one had a sole occupant, crouched at the far end. Grim would recognize him as Benjamin Wilcott, aka "The Electrocutioner". He did not currently appear to be wearing the armor he used to murder the mafiosos back in Gotham all those years ago, however.

He was surrounded by a simple bedroll, a table, chair, and what appeared to be a small portable radio. The room itself seemed to be flooded, with everything but the elevated section at the back being knee-deep in water.

He had already been gazing at the entrance of the room as they rounded the corner, and he offered a small chuckle at their arrival.

"He said you would come, Grim...he said you might bring friends, too," Benjamin gently stroked the radio, smiling to her. "I knew he wouldn't lie to me, not him, not him, no, no, no..."

---

A slight head tilt, another low hum, but Grim didn't move forward. Instead she just examined the man across the room from them, taking in his little hideout and appearance. This was ... different, to say the least. Ge wasn't this unstable last she had met him, she doubted prison cracked him so thoroughly either. Plus it did provide some back up to what Arcana mused out loud before, that he may have had a map - and considering he was in Gotham up until a week ago, it seemed reasonable he had help.

Why, though?

"Who?" Was all Grim offered to the hulking man, even as her fingers moved to one of the pouches on the left of her belt. Withdrawing a single brass lock pick the vigilante tossed it forward to land in the water, checking to see if it sparked. With someone named Electrocutioner it was better to be safe around water with them.

---

Benjamin appeared to be dressed in a simple wifebeater and blue slacks, both horribly dirty and stained partially green. On his back, however, was some sort of...metallic backpack. His smile also grew when Grim tossed the lockpick into the water. It did not spark, indicating that the room had not been electrified.

Arcana simply frowned at the man who had framed her from across the room, letting Grim deal with him, given her familiarity with the criminal.

---

Question, not being a complete imbecile, followed Arcana's lead and stayed back. However, it didn't stop him from analyzing the villain and his surroundings. "Hurm. Grim, if you're going to do something, now might be the time to do it. He's kinda freaking me out."

---

Grim didn't respond to the Question, too focused on Benjamin. More specifically her goggled gaze had finally landed on the odd metal contraption on his back, examining it. A bad feeling had settled into the pit of her gut between his mannerisms and not even having the suit, but with her two companions waiting for her to take point and not even a visible trap the odds seemed tipped in their favor.

Maybe that was the source of the feeling, since things never went to plan that easily.

Loitering however wouldn't get this resolved any quicker, and devil girl behind her was hesitating. Finally without a sound Grim raised her left hand, and from the bottom wrist of the gauntlet shot out a hook spear that impaled easily into the ceiling of the sewer. Her fingers wrapped around the durable wire that was connected to it before taking a running leap, easily clearing the distance to land on the other side. A slight twitch of her pinky against a part unseen in her gloves had the hook line withdraw in itself and return, while Grim's left glove suddenly let out sparks.

Time to see if Benjamin Wilcott had anything shocking in store this time.

---

Ben's eyes twinkled when she lodged her grappling hook into the ceiling. Immediately finding his feet, the device on his back filled the room with an azure light. Working its way over his form in but a second's time, he was soon encased in a suit of smooth metallic armor that made his old outfit look like a bunch of rusty cans.

"Yes, come to me, Grim! I've been waiting for this!" He released a mechanical snarl from behind the shining helmet that had encased his head.

The very moment she touched the ground, The Electrocutioner unleashed a spiderweb of electrical currents through the moist concrete. "Witness the power he gave me! The power to kill you, who so hypocritically condemned me for seeking justice!"

---

'This is new.' As soon as she heard the spark of electricity Grim's left hand shot up, the hook shot once more shooting out to slam into the ceiling. The mechanism pulled her right up, and with practiced ease the electricity sparking at her own palm turned off. She doubted it would be very useful now. Still, quick reflexes could only work so much and despite her work a low hiss escaped her clenched teeth as a pulse of the electrical current ran through her, the clench of her jaw the only reason a scream didn't tear through her throat at the brief, painful shock.

As it was her 'landing' was still a bit unsteady as the climbing claws on her right glove extended, her slamming them into the wall beside her as the hook shot brought her to the ceiling. It kept her balanced enough to focus down on Benjamin, eyes darting over his suit looking for any weakness that could be exploited. The helmet no doubt would stop her anesthesia, and there was absolutely no chance her defib would do anything against her.

Still, Grim had a few tricks up her sleeve.

---

"The last time we faced one another, you held all the cards," Electrocutioner proclaimed, "but this time the deck is stacked in my favor!"

His armor didn't appear to have any glaring vulnerabilities in it, although the device on his back from which it had emerged remained present. Still, Grim wouldn't have long to observe, for Benjamin swiftly extended a gauntlet towards her and unleashed a powerful current of electricity through the air, the relatively low ceiling allowing it to strike the wall rather than simply arcing down into the ground.

"Killing you will be the last step in achieving my revenge! My final strike against the injustice of this world!" He proclaimed, his voice still distorted by the armor that encased him.

~

"...Uh, do you need any help there?" Arcana called out from the other side of the room, watching with no small amount of apprehension as Grim seemingly struggled against the armored criminal.

She got the impressive that they were the prideful sort, and didn't want to insult by rushing in and taking care of things for them.

---

With the claw dug into the wall it was simple for Grim to use her feet to kick off it and detach, the hook shot still in the ceiling allowing her to swing away as more electricity coursed through the concrete.

'That's my trick,' Grim couldn't help but think grumpily, but to the two others called out.

"You did insist on coming, didn't you?" Another twitch of her fingers had the hook shot suddenly release a few more feet of line on the swing back, dropping Grim enough that she just raised her feet and slammed the heel of her boot directly into the Electrocutioner's fancy helmet, her other foot hitting him square in the chest of his new suit. The hook shot released at the same time, allowing the vigilante to drop into a crouch and kick her leg out in order to sweep his feet in the stumble, aiming to drop him into the sewage water to the side of the platform.

---

The Electrocutioner stumbled only slightly in response to her twin kicks, a loud ring echoing through the room, and likewise a third chimed when she tried to knock him off balance, her calve meeting metal. Cackling in glee at his seeming invincibility, he loomed over his hated enemy, casting a glance to the water. "What, do you want me there? You should've just asked!"

Turning, he voluntarily leaped down into the water, the lockpick she had thrown in earlier immediately sparking to show that it was now electrified. "Yeah, you can either come down here with me, or stay up there, in the shooting gallery!"

Extending his hands towards the elevated platform, he began unleashing current after current of electricity, each one arcing through the air to crash down into the platform where she was. "Let's see how an Urban Legend dances!"

~

Lady Arcana continued to observe the battle between the two old enemies, her lips tightly pursed. She had been interested to see what this person called Grim could do, but this hardly seemed fair. He was in some kind of weird super armor!

Having had enough when he began to spam electricity at her, she lifted off the ground, clearing the distance between her and The Electrocutioner in an instant as she touched down into the water. She barely registered the electricity that immediately surged through her as it was simply absorbed into her form.

Turning to face her the very moment she landed, The Electrocutioner turned and spread his arms. "Ah, at last! A proper challenge for the new, improved Electrocutioner! He told me you were strong, said I would need this armor to defeat you! When I bring him your head, he'll surely reward me!"

Glancing to both Grim and The Question, he clenched his fists dramatically. "Are you ready for the greatest show ever witnessed by man? Are you ready to see the death of a GodDYHAABH!"

The Electrocutioner was now lodged into the far wall, a hole about one foot deep now scarring the concrete. Lady Arcana slowly lowered the fist responsible for the makeshift architectural reconstruction.

"I wonder who he kept talking about?" She pondered.

---

"More than likely, he was talking about his handler from the Illuminati, who sent him here to cause chaos under the guise of vengeance." Question said, leaning against a wall a safe distance away from the fight. Finally, he set his propped up foot down on the ground. "So, we'll just drag him out of here and take him to the police, correct?"

---

A slight twitch of her eyebrow, unseen underneath the mask, as Grim stared at the crater now in the wall. Way to make a woman feel useful, Princess Puppy. Of course outside the mask Grim's face remained impassive, her humming lightly once more. Almost as an afterthought the vigilante turned back to Lady Arcana, dipping her head in a slight bow.

"Thanks," She rumbled lightly through the modulator, allowing a bit more appreciation to color her words. "Reports weren't lying about your strength." Her eyebrow twitched again hearing Trenchcoat, idly wondering if he was insane and Princess kept him around as a joke, or a pet. Then again she had so much sunshine Grim could probably tan by her, likely she actually thought of Trenchcoat as a friend.

"Taking him to the police is correct, though. Once they run him they'll know his other crimes. I'm interested in the box he had." Grim gestured to the wall, pointedly asking Arcana. "Grab it for me, will you? I'd rather not step into the water."

---

2:48 AM, March 13th
Hub City Police Department

"Aaaaahhh...so what you're sayin'," Police Chief Herbert Morris idly chewed on his late night doughnut, "is that this guy was the one who wasted the Commish?"

Lady Arcana slowly nodded, "That's right, officer. If you check his record, you'll see he has quite the extensive record behind him."

The Police Chief, from the ten or so minutes she'd known him, seemed to embody every "lazy cop" stereotype she'd ever heard. Even still, someone as apathetic as him surely couldn't ignore this sort of evidence. Benjamin was now handcuffed, stripped of his armor before they had even brought him in. Grim had, after all, wanted to take a look at it.

"You know, you're a criminal too, right?" He finished off the glazed pastry, smacking his lips against his fingers. "I should haul you in alongside this wacko, but, eh...whatever. Just don't hurt any of my boys, and we won't have a problem."

The cops had trained their guns on her when she had first arrived with the Electrocutioner, but had at least carried enough sense with them not to start a fight. "No worries, Chief. I'd like to be on good terms with the HCPD if I can be."

"Yeah, well, that's not my dec-"

She didn't care to hear him drone on any longer, and so vacated the police station with all due haste. Besides, she was more interested in speaking to her fellow vigilantes on how everything went down.

"Alright, he's in custody now," Arcana landed in front of the duo of costumed crime fighters, her eyes immediately falling to the device she had handed over to Grim. "Sorry that I broke it. Hopefully it can still tell you something, though!"

---

"... Do you think dogs can understand what we say, or...?" Question asked, attempting to break the silence, only for Arcana to arrive soon after. "Ah, she's back." Arcana explained that Electrocutioner was in custody, and apologized to Grim for breaking the device that gave Electrocutioner his armor.

"Hunh. More than likely made from technology designed by the aglets. That is to say that once its user has been incapacitated, captured, or killed, it is unable to work again. So, good luck I suppose."

---

Another eyebrow twitch, as Grim was completely and utterly content with Trenchcoat being silent as she examined the box. Turning it around in her hands, tapping on it, all but shoving her hands in it - that could wait until she was back in Gotham. Then... that, from Trenchcoat. Grim breathed out a heavy sigh once Princess arrived back, looking up to her with a small noise.

"Don't worry about it, if you didn't break it I probably would've," Grim responded to the other vigilante. Carefully setting the bulky thing on the ground Grim then straightened up, giving a short nod to the two. "I appreciate the help," She intoned lightly, though behind her mask she did side eye Trenchcoat.

---

"I'm glad we were able to work together to bring him and clear my name," Arcana replied with a warm smile. It was always great when she could befriend other heroes! And this one was really cool, with their grappling hook and claw gloves and fancy detective flashlight...maybe she should try and get one of those?

Nah, Sam would probably just tell her there was a spell for it, and then tell her she wasn't ready to learn it yet.

"So what's next? Are you going back to Gotham?"

---

"Most likely. It seems like Hub City didn't need me with you around," Another slight nod of her head in acknowledgement of the prowess of the other hero, though she did eye some of the dirt along the white of Lady Arcana's cape. Almost absently she reached up and brushed it away with the black of her gloves, fingers catching the clasp near her throat and carefully straightening it, before drifting up and adjusting the hood of the cloak as well. Satisfied she turned fully to the Punctuation, and following up her movements from before her hands rose and began to neaten up the way his tie laid against the shirt and throat. "You as well, detective."

---

Question could only stare in shock as Grim fixed Arcana's coat, before straightening his tie. For several moments after she left, he was silent, before turning to Arcana and saying: "Grim is definitely a woman, more than likely a mother at that."

---

Lady Arcana blinked in surprise when Grim began cleaning her cloak, and even adjusting her hood at the end, before turning to fix The Question's tie. For some reason, it all reminded her a lot of her mom, before her death, and she couldn't but smile even brighter than she already had been.

"Have a safe trip back home, Grim. I hope we'll see each again!"

After all, there would always be more bad guys to fight, and more adventures to be had. That was just how it was for heroes like them!

And then the Question dropped his final theory for the night. And it actually made sense this time. "...Holy shi-"

[DragonofTheWest]

March 13th 2020

New York, New York

6:00 P.M
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Good evening everyone, my name is Brian Williams host of New York's Evening News. It's been 3 months since the "Superman" incident right here, in our very city. Earlier this month, Hub's City Lady Arcana gave the people an insightful interview on who she is and her story. Many people ought to call her a hero, I agree. Our very own Superman however? Well...take a look for yourself"

The images of the news host changed and played the various cell phone video recordings simply known as "The Superman Incident". Most of the videos were shaky but there was a common imagine, the sight of a black caped individual soaring through the eyes at incredible speeds towards what seemed to be flashes of light on the ground. Every once in a while the caped hero would dash at the ground, throwing punches or failed attempts to tackle and grab at the light. The speed and power projected from the hero was incredible but so was the damages. The ground shook, the skies roared... it was if an earthquake was shaking New York apart.

Brian appeared back on the television speaking on queue "These images are disturbing. But they don't paint the whole picture. Perhaps first hand accounts of witnesses will help"

Once more the images shifted and instead playing host to a variety of individuals being interviewed shortly after the incident took place.

"He's vulgar! You saw him right? Comes out of nowhere, makes a big scene and starts talking all this junk to the television trying to be some big shot? And then what does he do? he starts chasing some other freak and starts putting everyone in danger!"

"I mean yeah I think he's alright... he's dangerous but I think he's alright. I mean, uh... I don't know it was like a scene out of a movie but all the flying and stuff, yeah that was real, pretty spooky to be honest"

"He DESTROYED my building! You saw that right? Whatever he was chasing simply dashed through some open door and out the other side, I don't know but than this moron flies THROUGH the building. Can you believe that? He flew THROUGH the building like there was nothing there. I'm tellin ya, I'm glad nobody got hurt but what type of 'hero' does that kind of thing!"

"You know for a moment, I liked him. Sure he had some vulgarity but he sounded like a genuine good guy who wanted to do the right thing. He had this great smile, he was tall and handsome... he really looked like someone you could believe in you know? And then I don't know... I think he means well but I don't know, I think we all have the right to feel a little scared"

As Brian spoke his last piece, the cameras instead never returned to him, instead all they did was survey the various aftermath images of the incident.

"Is he a hero, or a criminal? People remain skeptical. What we can agree on is that the man who calls himself Superman is dangerous. Our efforts to contact the White House to see if they had any information on the Superman have fallen in vain. It seems ladies and gentlemen in an age of uncertainty, we are forced to come to grips that they are beings out there that cannot be controlled...

Superman we know you are out there. If you are watching, the world wants to know... who are you? Why are you here?"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Uncle Mike sneered at the television and turned it off, uttering "Pricks" as he took a long sip of his beer. Ever since the chase, since his official unveiling, John had been in complete hiding. He rarely went out and when he did, it was brief. New York was crazy about his story, the idea of some sort of super being with incredible speed and power living right here, somewhere in the city amazed but terrified people. With a deep sigh Joe lifted himself of the couch and headed towards the backyard where he saw his nephew just stand there, eyes to the sky in complete contemplation.

"Having a good time?" Mike cracked, trying to get a reaction from his nephew but John didn't budge. John knew his uncle had to watch the little television special on him but Joe knew that John was listening to the whole thing.

"I was close. Real close." John replied.

"You sound more disappointed about not catching the guy instead about feeling sorry about the shit you actually did" Mike shot back stepping towards his nephew.

"They were all accidents." The response from John caused Mike to grit his teeth.

"Yeah but people got hurt John. What was it? Millions in damages throughout the East Coast? You put on a hell of a show sure but people could have died." There was frustration, disappointment. Joe didn't mean to give his nephew anymore unnecessary shit but he felt almost compelled to do so after being visibly reminded of just how destructive John could be.

John clenched his fist for a moment in anger at his uncle's words but he knew his uncle was right. "Alright so I was a bit reckless." John's voice remained casual and his decision to purposely not look at Joe was gradually infuriating the smaller man.

"Bit reckless? John you were stupid" Mike's voice voice considerably. After several moments of silence and a deep breath, he continued "Look you may not be the fastest like that one guy and you may not be charming like that Lady Arcana or whatever, but you definitely got some sort of special strength to ya. Look at the world we live in, these weird meta-whatevers are appearing and yet in a way, you stand out from them. But while people are cheering for some of them, you represented everything people are scared off... that if you wanted too, there was nothing we could do to stop you." This time it seemed like a plea. An honest attempt to reach someone.

John was quiet for several moments before turning to face his uncle, a fire in his eyes and a slight change in posture that made all the difference. Standing tall and confident John locked eyes with Joe and with a slight intensity to his voice declared "I'll make things right. I heard what's been happening with the gangs. The Mob, Triads...people are dying out there. I can stop that"

"John..."

"What would you have me do uncle? I have to make amends somehow. Helping old ladies cross the street or saving cats from trees ain't going to cut it. All those other heroes out there, I can do what they do. I just... I'll be more careful" John sounded genuine sure but not perhaps not convincing enough.

"John we all saw your little fight. You swung at nothing, grabbed and threw at nothing. If you wanted too you could have ripped the city apart and this was all because some sort of super speedster may you look stupid. The way he danced outside your reach, humiliated you. I couldn't see it but I know your movements and I knew what was happening. You really think your gonna keep your cool when entire gangs are shooting at you?"

"I'm not a bad guy uncle. I'll make things right, I promise." John paused and looked in the direction of the city. The focus in his eyes intensified as if John was attempting to listen in on something in the distance. Within moments John raced towards the shed and emerged, wearing the Kryptonian black suit. It's been 3 months since he wore it, 3 months since he's appeared in the public eye. With the sound of thunder emitting around Brooklyn, Superman had taken off towards New York city towards what sounded to be like gunfire...

[Dblade26]

March 10th, 2020
Hub City Secondary Learning Academy

Man, today had started out so ordinary. Get up, put on the uniform the maid pressed and laid out the day before, rush through breakfast alone as usual for Tuesdays while the driver reminded him what time his parents would be home at (His father was working late, as usual, his mother would be back sooner) and whether there was any change in plans that'd throw off his pickup time for school or anything (No, but would Tim at least try to be out front early so the school didn't make him circle the car around while he waited?) then spent the remaining time reading (Mostly switching between Dune and a history Ebook on ancient Egypt) and toying with his phone (random animal videos, obviously.) until it was time to go.

The first class of the day had been typical too, and Tim had gone through all of it almost on autopilot, or at least it seemed like it, because now-

"What are ya gonna do about it, pleb?"

Now Lloyd Johnson had just knocked the new scholarship kid onto his back over a stupid water fountain, and Tim felt way too angry to not give the situation one-hundred percent of his attention.

Teachers at the SLA didn't have their own rooms to teach out of and kids usually stayed in an assigned homeroom, so between class rotations you got breaks where you were allowed to hang out in the hallway, go talk with your friends, have a drink or a snack or whatever. There were even little nooks with couches or something at the corners of the halls for it. Tim had been sitting at one with his tablet when the scholarship kid...Tim thought his name was Ellian? Elios? Anyway, when he'd got stiff-armed onto the ground in the middle of using a drinking fountain by Bargain Bin Malfoy.

Lloyd Johnson was apparently the kind of tool who earnestly used terms like 'pleb' out loud along with being richer and more spoiled than a fourteen-year-old jar of mayo. He was one of those guys who grew a lot and early too, so he was built like a blond gorilla. Tim figured Lloyd probably had a brain to match, but King Kong Senior had the school board and the principal in his pocket, and everybody knew it.

Elijah- no, no that probably wasn't it- anyway he'd only been here since the end of Christmas break, for winning a raffle or a scholarship award and then passing some kind of test. Tim had heard he was from Hell's Corner or maybe the Wedge, but he didn't think anybody really knew. He kept to himself too much for anyone to know. They just knew he was poor- well no, just poorer than everyone else-and that he was smart. So now Lloyd Everybody-Knows-That-Name-Means-Penis was making a big show of pushing him around and hogging the fountain. Tim could hear Lloyd spewing crap since the eighth grader was making it easy on purpose.

"Can't imagine what you'd want with the water anyways. I'm sure you wouldn't understand, but it takes a more refined palate to appreciate the quality and unique taste of excellent water like this!"

"You mean the kind that tastes like shit?"

Tim hadn't even realized he'd moved from where he was and said it until Lloyd turned around and glared at him while the crowd paused to ooh and ahh. Stupid, stupid mouth. He didn't regret doing it, but why couldn't he have come up with a better line? Tim could see the rusty, thrown-poop-crusted wheels turning in Lloyd's Big Ape Brain, he probably wasn't used to being mocked.

"Who are you? I wanna know your name before I feed you your teeth!"

At least they were both guilty of cliche one-liners. Tim wasn't on Lloyd's radar, that was good. Outside of school he'd won some fights with rich middle school D-bags, but this was probably the Dark Overlord Final Boss of rich middle school D-bags. Tim was going to need every advantage he could get.

"That's Tim McClellan! He knows kung fu and he's gonna kick your ass!"

Well, so much for that. He'd have to try and figure out who was being 'helpful' later. Right now he had Screw-The-Rules-I-Have-Money stalking toward him all slow and angry and menacing. Tim shifted his one leg into a better stance and waved his hands around like a guy in an old chop-socky movie and Lloyd put his own up and stepped back, hesitant and probably expecting some kind of knife hand chop or palm thrust or secret pressure point strike.

So Tim kicked him as hard as he could in the balls. When Lloyd started to doubl over, Tim grabbed him by his uniform, pulled him in and twisted to throw him to the floor.

Then went over and grabbed Elliot's hand- Elliot! That was his name!- and ran back toward the classrooms with him before Lloyd came to his senses enough to beat the tar out of both of them. Just in case. He was going to be in crazy amounts of trouble later.

But it was worth it to stop someone like that.

[Taytay]

5:40 PST
Thursday March 8, 2020
DEO Lab, Coast City
_{Interacting with: @Ceta de Cloyes}

---

The first thing that Frakedi noticed was that Echo said "we're" as on more than one. That means he had friends somewhere, which could be a good or bad thing. So far though the boy seemed trust worthy, he knew of planet Ghol from his ships navigational charts, plus someone with that fire in their eyes would not be lying at a time like time like this. Frakedi sighed as the boy finished talking, this simple job had turned into more than it was worth. This guy would probably break in like he had planned but cause some kind of ruckus and Frakedi would most likely get caught up in whatever it was anyways.

"Okay okay, no need to be a grouch. I am not here to stop you, in fact I am planing on getting inside myself. So what do you say to the idea that we team up because of our like minded goals? At least for now that is, I mean you obviously don't trust me, but you know I can get inside so consider this a better way of keeping an eye on me." Frakedi said with some mischief in his red eyes. He was not lying, it would have been easy for him to phase in steal someones face and credentials and then get the info he needed while ratting out the boy and walking away scott-free. But he had no intention of turning Echo in, just wanted to make himself seem untrustworthy so that Echo would stay on his toes and Frakedi would not have as much to worry about.

"So what do you say, friends...for now? I would be hasty with my decision though, we are running out of night time, because during the day this place is like a bee hive." Frakedi said with a hint of seriousness that contradicted his early on playful tone. Normally this place was alive with drones doing their jobs, even at night the building they were currently in was fully staffed and guarded, but for some reason it was a lot more empty and Frakedi did not want to waste this opportunity.

?:?? XXX
XXXXXX XXXX Xth, XXXX
East Royal Area Khrysopsis, Arkos

---

Zalim sat with his back against the rail, sweating, armor removed, drinking water and eating fruit. The practice had been brutal, leaving his body littered with bruises and and cuts, some still bleeding some not, but this was normal for Arkosian training. They needed to be ready for the next invasion or whatever larger threat lurked in the shadows waiting to steal their paradise. His training was especially harder because he was a prince, child of the man who has slain 1,000 demons by himself, or so the legend says, but the number changes every time he tells the story. So he trained with the royal guard, the elites, the best of the bunch, as his brother did before him and his father before that. Aside from major shows, usually ones of strength, the East Royal Area was for training the best of the best. It was one of many on the island but this one had all the great battles, mighty man to man challenges, and noble deaths tied to it, with this in mind any and all who had the privilege to stand in this area and walk away with nothing but some bruises and cuts should be honored.

The training session was simple, it was similar to the bull in the ring football drill. One man stands in the middle and takes attack after attack until the time runs out or he passes out. Now passing out is okay, but giving up is punishable, so when Zalim gets into the ring the instructor always loses track of time, so on days like this he was exceptionally sore and bloody, but nothing he had never dealt with before. He cannot complain though, the Archemon was always watching and he never said word, only after does he ask if Zalim is alright, and tells him that it is to make him strong. Those who were there the first time Zalim had done this drill saw him collapse from exhaustion and sleep for almost a day, but now he "took it like a man" and stayed with it till the end. Even though the Archemon says this will make him stronger, it still does not help with his panics. Zalim still hates all the eyes, whispers, and what they mean.

A lot of people dislike Zalim, because he is not a carbon copy of Kassander. Kassander, fights on the front and in your face, Zalim will shoot you from afar and hide in the shadows, Kassander fights with honor and purpose, Zalim will throw dirt in you face trip you and then smile as he runs a dagger though you chest. On the battle field they are polar opposites, but when the armor comes off, they are brothers, Zalim is a shy scared little boy, and Kassander is the one who pets his head while he hides behind him. One thing people do love is when they fight together, they are a "godly duo" as their father likes to say but it has been much time since the last fought side by side.

As Zalim soaked up the eternal night and let the wind blow on his bare back he heard a crunching noise and when he looked over, Vel was eating the carrots form his bowl. "Hey!" he whined to the goat, the thing was always near, and always eating. He was a gift from Agni, on his 8th growth ceremony, and Zalim has only seen his true form a couple of times. The horrible monster that Vel turns into will kill anything that tries to touch an injured Zalim. For example, when Zalim was younger and was still new to training, some boys "accidentally" pushed the boy down during a training excesses and he broke his arm. Vel burst into flames and killed them all on the spot, no one but Kassander could come near Zalim and Vel stayed in that form until is arm fully healed. Vel is his guard goat and does his job well.

A few moments later, a messenger came running up to him looking rushed. "Arkhay Zalim, your father has summoned you." The boy said with a serous face. This spiked Zalim's curiosity, his father had not been at the practice today, and maybe now he would get answers as to why.

"Did he say why?" Zalim asked as he grabbed his spare shirt and began to put it on, it got chilly up in the area when there was nothing going on.

"Yes, its your brother, he has been summoned by Lord Ares. It is time for him to begin his mission." At first Zalim was happy but then, he grew depressed, that meant he would be going away and then Zalim would really be alone. The boy left after informing Zalim that his father was making preparations at the main palace for Kassander's departure. So he left the food, picked up the water and his bow, and left to find out what his father would need of him.

[The Whacko]

1:12: AM
Friday, March 9th, 2020
Burnley Docks, Gotham City

There five local bulls, three Fae in their assorted glamours and two undead of a sort that Clayton couldn't make out from around the corner he peaked his bulk over. Probably regular old zombies or half-assed flesh golems, if the way they stood almost motionless at the side of one of the toughs were any indication. Both were wrapped up in heavy coats and hoodies in a poor attempt to hide the smell and rotting features, but fooling a necromancer with that sort of trick was a poor gamble. The fact that these gangbangers had any sort of undead at all, though, was concerning for the big man, and he felt his lips press into a thin line as he eyed each and every one of them. They were arguing, or at least the Humans were. These idiots actually thought having a pair of undead would mean shit at all to Fae, figuring they could get a little last minute re-negotiation in over whatever haul had been brought in tonight.

Clayton didn't have any patience for idiots right now, and it looked like the Fae didn't either, one lumbering up to the apparent leader of the gangers as he blustered like a jackass. Almost the time to move in, he thought, eying those undead with a wicked grin. Those kids might not know how to put those monsters to use properly, but Clayton sure did. He started to gather his power, whispering the words as he focused on the pair of smelling figures...

A small object, one that could almost be mistaken for a pebble, was abruptly tossed into the rather noticeable group. The black sphere rolled forward before one edge burst open, a thick grey smoke immediately pouring out of it. As the area began to become filled with a surprising amount of the obscuring substance from such a small thing there was a sudden light that lit up one edge of the smoke, and like that one of the humans dropped like a sack of potatos.

At her side Grim's glove sparked with electricity for another moment as she stepped past the man to one of the bigger shadows in the smoke, the right lens of her goggle lit up with heat optics to find her targets. Another man went down in the confusion, Grim's right hand merely grabbing onto the back of his exposed neck and sending a current of electricity through him.

Oddly enough, she thought there was more before she threw the smoke pellet - but her heat sensor wasn't picking them up.

Clayton swore as he saw the group suddenly enveloped in smoke, his spell releasing in long, dark tendrils of ebony energy that bolted toward the undead as they stumbled with the sudden explosion of smoke. He could hear scuffling, grunts of pain and shouts of alarm as the men and Fae inside were all too happy to blame the other side for a betrayal. Still taken aback but the unexpected asistance, the necromancer pushed himself from the corner and started toward the cloud, keeping at the edge while he willed the undead to turn on the Fae. There was a roar, a sound no human could ever have made as one of the rotting figures sank broken teeth into flesh, and only moments later a body was flying, headless through the cloud as something massive loomed up through the smoke.

It was at least seven feet all, broad as two average men at the shoudlers and rippling with muscle as it threw what was left of the undead's head to follow the rest. Clayton didn't need more than the vague shape of the thing to to recognize a troll freed of it's glamour, it's long, tusked head shaking as it snarled and charged with surpsiring speed for something of it's size at the crowd of Humans that stood before it. It was on what looked like a female figure in an instant, swinging a massive, rubbery-skinned fist at her as it charged like a mad bull, heedless of the second undead chewing at the back of its neck. Clayton sighed, knowing he was going to have to go in himself. He drew his pistol.

To say this wasn't what Grim was expecting when breaking up a seemingly small time drug deal was quite the understatement. Still, her heat sensor did its job as the suddenly very large being appeared in the smoke, towering above the others there. It wasn't hard to see where the thing was going either, and in an instant her hookshot was flying from the wrist of her left glove, attaching to the top of a light located behind her. Just as the creature reached them the wire went taught and pulled her back, allowing Grim to set her feet down on the top of a shipping container.

Grim swore lightly, it rumbling around in her voice modulator. Whatever sparked the sudden increase in abnormalities was causing havoc all over the place, should she even be surprised at the appearance of the ugly beast? Probably not. As her hookshot detached and flew back to her glove Grim raised her other hand, sparks lighting up at her knuckles before two prongs shot out at a high speed to lodge themselves in the chest of the beast, sending a highly charged volt through the small metal pieces. Not content to believe her luck would be enough that that would be the end of it, if it even affected the damn thing at all, Grim quickly shot another set of prongs into the left shoulder, the third and final set loading but staying in her glove at the moment.

The troll barely seemed to notice the the voltage pulsing through those gauntlets, the thick, rubbery hide almost seeming to pop the barbs out as it snarled up at Grim, one hand shooting up to try seizing her by the throat while the other reached back to snatch up the zombie that was still gnawing at it's neck ineffectively. It didn't bother to look at the corpse as it threw it to the ground, nor when it slammed its foot down so far that it almost shattered through the dock itself, bursting the zombie so violently that it's neck exploded in a geyser of blood, like a smashed toothpaste tube. The gangbangers were long gone, fleeing screaming in terror from the monster before them. The troll and a pair of tiny, tan-skinned creatures barely three feet tall and garbed in surely hand-made zoot suits six decades out of style were all that was left of the two groups. One of the tan-skinned little creatures looked up at Grim with a viscious, sharp-toothed grin.

"Mortal, I don't know what you thought you were interupting, but you've picked a terrible enemy. I hope you don't have plans, because you'll suffer for longer than most of your kind. Our lady will extend your life just to make you suffer longer." It hissed the words, starting to reach for a cheap pistol that,for anyone else would have been a club gun, but for this vermin was practically a desert eagle. He didn't get the chance to use, it though, before there was a thunderous boom, and the troll let out a high, bellowing cry as it slumped down to one knee, blood pouring down it's right flank from a fresh gesyer of blood.

"Cold iron!" Clayton Toombs bellowed, turning his hefty .45 and turning on one of the Hobs. It's head burst with the necromancer's second shot, and before it's partner could flee one of the dead gangbangers, his head half-pulverized in the troll's rampage, locked a hand around the second Hob's legs. "You got a knife, anything metal, use it!"

The instant the troll's grip loosened even a fraction, though of course that would happen to anyone who just had a chunk of their side blown away, Grim yanked herself away from its grip and rolled back from the figures. Her chest heaved from the grip that was around her throat, having no doubt it would be bruised before the sun even rose. A line of static ran down the lens of her goggles for just a moment as she took in the scene, and with the two small ... creatures not a threat at the moment focused on the large one. The bellow of another person rang in her ears, and seeing as her defibrillator was ineffective what had she to lose by listening?

Grim's hand dropped to the right side of her belt, fingers deftly pulling out three of the blades. With the precision of two decades of experience the vigilante flicked her hand forward, one of the metal blades shooting forward and lodging deep into the right eye of the troll, slicing through like butter. When its head jerked back Grim slid the second blade into position, and the instant it lowered its head again the second one went sailing forward, just missing the other eye but lodging underneath the socket. It almost felt like overkill with it blinded, but the thing was a monster and needed to be put down, and as such Grim's hookshot once more zipped out to latch onto a shipping container above and behind the troll. The power of the device yanked Grim up, using the momentum to land just on its head. Not planning on staying there long after seeing the spaghetti it made out of one of those men Grim used the third blade, gripped tightly in her hand, and viciously slammed it into the back of the troll's neck so it lodged into the thick spine. Wasting no time to linger and admire her work the vigilante springboarded off the troll's back to land a few feet away, whirling around even as she backed up from the creature. Another blade found its way to her hand as she watched warily, ready for it to keep moving.

Thankfully, the troll was content to lay motionless, blood quickly begining to pool under it's massive frame as it let out a few final, gurgling gasps before it's beady black eyes semed to drift off, staring off into the void. The Hob was whimpering now as it looked between the troll and the nearly headless body of it's partner, struggling weakly against the iron grip of the zombie holding it, dead eyes fixed on the Fae as Clayton approached. He looked over at Grim, tucking his .45 back into his shoulder holster.

"Appreciate the help, looks like you got more than you bargained for out of this, though." He said, nodding to the woman approvingly. "Did way better than most your first time with a troll."

"A troll," Grim responded in turn, the flat tone of her voice audible even through the voice modulator of her mask. It was hard to call him crazy when her knife was currently sticking out the back of the thing's neck, though. Rather than argue the point needlessly the vigilante turned her gaze to the little creature that was threatening her earlier, beginning to idly twirl the blade in her fingers.

"What do you call this one?"

"A Hob." Clayton said as casually as one would discuss a rat, and with the same amount of contempt the average man had for such vermin. The big man glared down at the little Fae, which was biting its lip as it tried to look around for any sort of escape. He smirked. "Nowhere to go. Now what were you buying from those boys, hm?" As he spoke, he reached into the charcol suit jacket again, retrieving a tiny, gleeming needle pinched between two thick fingers. The Hob recoiled from the needle as if it were a cross before Count Dracula himself, trying to scramble back againt the iron-grip of the zombie to no avail. Clayton grinned at Grim.

"Cold iron. Burns through Fae like hellfire." He turned back to the Hob. "Well?"

"We came for banes. These mortal fools have many, but never know what they truely are." The little beast was happy to talk when surrounded by corpses and the threat of that cold iron before his beady little eyes. Clayton's eyes narrowed, and his bald head turned to Grim.

"That case those gangers brought. Check it."

Content to sit back and observe Grim watched the interaction between the 'hob' and mystery man, one of her lenses even swapping to night vision to examine the creature better. As such she glanced up when addressed, only to give a short nod in response. Despite the carnage in the area the case was obvious, Grim padding to it. Her lens swapped to heat optics for a brief moment as she scanned the area for any hidden threats, but finding none kneeled down to work the case open.

The case was easy enough to open, a simple metal briefcase as one often saw in more mundane deals, though the contents were distinctly not the usual stock. The collection of items inside the case was almost random, from mismatched pieces of jewelry to what looked like dead leaves. Clayton stood slowly, looking down into the case with a scowl.

"Well, looks like the Fae isn't lying for once. Good thing you got here before these little assholes got to working their magic on those." He gesture to the case with a boxing-gloved sized mit. "Banes. Objects with magic power in them, just need someone with a certain touch to get the juice flowing." He turned back to his charge.

"Now what were you planning on doing with those, I wonder? Thinking about spreading those around, cursing half the town for giggles?" He knelt down again, holding the needle close to the Hob's face, the tip just touching the creature's nose. It hissed as if it had been bitten by a snake.

"Our Lady commands it of us! She wants the mortals frightened! We...we were to pose in glamours, distribute them!"

"Rile the people up then, maybe get them thinking the fuckers the next neighborhood over are cursing them, eh? Bet you were thinking you could get some riots going if you got real clever with it." He stood again, nodding to the zombie that had been holding the Hob, and without a sound the corpse shakily rose to its feet, holding the little Fae upside with it as shambled over toward the edge of the dock. He didn't turn to watch it stumble off into the water.

"So, forgot my manners. Clayton Toombs." He offered a hand.

It took a moment for the woman to respond, watching after the shambling zombie. Finally she gave a slight shake of her head and turned back to him, almost on well bred instinct taking his hand to be polite.

"Grim," She replied to him, voice rumbling in modulator as she shook his hand. "This has the be the strangest deal I've ever broken up." The vigilante added on, almost musing aloud.

"Still, thank you for your assistance. I'm afraid I was caught rather flat footed."

"Won't be the last either, if this city's luck stays like it has. And everyone's caught off guard the first time they deal with Fae. Heh, just wait until you meet your first rogue Vampire. Those fellas are a bitch and a half." He chuckled, reaching into his jacket again and slipping a half-spent cigar between big, white teeth, looking the woman up and down. "Seems like we're getting more....fashion statements these days. Must come with the superpowers." He himself was in his favorite charcol suit, olive dress shirt and hatch tie, almost able to pass for one o the mobsters that called this dock a place of work in the daytime.

"So...how's it feel stepping into the paranormal for the first time?"

"I'll have you know I've been prowling the streets in a strange mask since some of these new bloods were still playing in sandboxes," Unseen behind said mask a slight grin tugged at Zoey's lips, though some of the light tone was lost to the voice modulator. She could appreciate someone her age combating the things that went bump in the night - so many teenagers have been popping up lately. She dipped her head at his question, hum rumbling in the mask as she glanced around. A zombie's innards splattered all over the dock, an ugly little creature with its head blown off, and the giant corpse of a thing she believed to be mythical up until that night, still with her blade in its neck and the smoke from one of her pellets lingering in the air.

"... Honestly, still not the strangest night I've ever had in Gotham."

"Suppose that is true. Still trying to piece together how the Knights keep losing to the White Sox. Even the Fae can't pull a curse like that." He sighed, obviously a sore spot for him. "But that's a mystery for another day. Now though...I think we might have some poking around to do. Don't bother with phone numbers, better we use...more subtle communication. Just be sure to keep your mind flexible, alright?"

A low chuckle escaped Grim, but she gave a slight nod. It was slightly disconcerting that this man was so confident in being able to find her, but a challenge was always good. As for keeping her mind flexible?

"After the events of the last few months? I don't think that will be a problem."

Now, just to retrieve her knives from the corpse of a troll. What a story to tell Blackstar when she got home.

[Ceta de Cloyes]

_{@Queentze
@Korkoa}

---

March 8th, 2020
5:42 PM, PT
DEO Lab, Coast City

-_-_-_-

“Fine.” Echo agreed, wary but unwilling to push the point just yet. They could do this together, for now. His own ability to become invisible and walk through walls would keep him concealed if things got dicey, but having a telepath on hand? Useful.

He couldn’t remember anything about Martians, maybe they had a different name where he came from- then again, he’d taken Homeworld History, studying the likes of Krypton, Daxam, and Giron, and those were all in a whole other galaxy, so maybe he just hadn’t come across them before.

He retrieved his phone from his pocket, keeping an eye out for any sudden moves from the other two as he quickly scanned Lightning Bug’s messages. Better to refer to her as that now, telepaths were tricky, but there were ways to keep their surface scans from picking up anything dangerous. He smirked; plans to the building, and something about rescuing an AI? He sighed, but still had an upwards tilt to his lips as he messaged her back; ”Change of plans, I’ve met someone who wants to help, best to not blow your cover. I’ll go in with our new Martian friend, hook you into their systems, and rescue this AI. Stay put for now, and when you’re connected get all their intel and get out, we can comb through it all later.” He paused before hitting send, casting another worried tilted glance to the new duo. ”Keep your hoverboard close.”

He quickly scanned the map she’d provided, choosing to narrate his plan aloud to the others as he did so. “I need access to the central computer system. I know this is only a regional headquarters, but it’ll have the information I need. Once I’ve got it we need to inspect one of the containment units, there’s an Arcon in need of rescuing.” He glanced up, what do you need from them? We can take two copies of the information, but I’d like to avoid a confrontation, so whatever you do, be quiet.” It wasn’t a big ask, this was a telepath after all, one who was intent on infiltrating a secret government agency’s base, if anything asking for stealth was more of a formality.

---

XXXX Xth, XXXX
??:?? XM, XT
Khrysopsis, Arkos

-_-_-_-

[Translations at the bottom for your convenience.]

The plate armor of the Makhai, what little of it there was, was strapped tightly around him, and his new cape was now fastened and hung from his shoulders. Nemesis had been called to his side once again, and now was sheathed at his ship as a gleaming silver sword. Skyshield too was on his person, a thick strap gripping it to his wrist. He washed regularly, but he still took a bit of time to wash his face and hands; who knew when he’d next be able to wash once on the other side?

The other side. Earth. It was an intimidating thought. After all this time he didn’t know whether to be giddy with anticipation or floundering with regret. He was prepared, had been prepared for a long time, but ready? He thought of his father, and his brother, of Archemagos Cepheus and Hiereus Pythysios, who had been mentors to him, and of the soldiers he’d sparred with, fought beside.

He sighed, those same soldiers, comrades and friends, were dying in this place. It was not their fate to remain caged on this island, fighting for their lives until the magic eventually gave out and the sky came crashing down upon them. They were meant for better things, greater things: they would be leaders of an entire world, all they had to do was take it… but they couldn’t do that without him. He straightened his back, gave himself one last once over in the crystalline mirror, and then strode purposefully out of his room.

The palace was somehow both busier, and emptier; those few who remained scurried down the halls with unusual haste, but the usual throng of people were absent. It became apparent why when he hit the stairs leading down from the palace into the rest of the city; they had visitors.

In the main plaza a cheerfully grinning young man with pale white skin and light, curly bronze hair was leaning back in his seat atop the king’s table, wearing a loose purple toga and a crown of fluorescent green laurels. The young man- the old god - was holding a huge barrel he shouldn’t have been able to lift with those scrawny arms of his, but he was happily tipping the barrel left and right as he filled massive bowls with wine and spilt the substance everywhere. This was Dionysius.

Across from him was a rare but familiar sight; a woman, but not just any woman, her short dark hair and brown skin were complimented by steel colored eyes and a golden set of armor, and her presence projected a tense, powerful aura onto all those who looked at her. She was grinning with a malevolent sort of joy as she tipped up her golden goblet of wine and chugged the whole thing in one go. Several men nearby cheered for when she effortlessly crushed the goblet with her fist, carelessly tossing it over her shoulder as she did. This was Eris.

Soon a mini feast was being set up, food seeming to appear from nowhere, the rare choice of meat sending new and tantalizing smells into the air. He almost considered joining them, giving his regards to the gods he hadn’t seen in such a long time, curious to see if others were about elsewhere in the city, but he had been summoned for a reason. He turned towards the Temple once again.

-_-_-_-

It was a large circular room with a huge domed roof, gaping windows letting in the sparse light from the wall-mounted braziers outside. There were twelve others within the room; two guards at the door, a ring of seven of the Magos, including Archemagos Cepheus at the circle’s head, he spied his brother as well, and his father, and to their side was Lord Ares; well built, sun-kissed, short dark hair, a stance somehow both firm and open. His lord was happy today, pride and anticipation was readily visible in the man’s eyes.

As soon as he stepped into the room all eyes were on him, even Lord Ares looked up and smirked. He hesitated at the abrupt weight of attention on him, but his lord was already speaking; “Kassander, step forth.” He didn’t hesitate this time, much as he rather wished he had a bit more time to consider the rapidly climaxing situation. Once he stood before his god he had to resist the urge to look at his brother, he hadn’t yet had a chance to speak to him since hearing the news.

“This has been a long time coming, my son.” There was an odd flutter in the room at the words; technically everyone knew Kassan was the son of Ares and Aphrodite, shaped by their breath and touch if not their seed and womb, but King Chrysetos had always been regarded as his father, even the other gods had never addressed him as a son of Ares. It was… a testament to the monumentous occasion, this was what his people had been waiting for since their creation, this was his entire reason for existing, to finally be on the path of fulfilling it… was this what it felt like to make a god proud? It was different to making a father proud, throughout his training Kassan had excelled again and again, but his father’s proud smile had never filled him such fire as the simple, innocuous term Lord Ares had called him. “Today you are unleashed upon the flesh of Gaia, a world mutilated by the corrupt peoples who call her home. You take the steps to create a better future for your people, and for your god. You will be Proteus, the first of the many. There will be blood my son, the crimes of humanity, of my father, of all that have betrayed us… There will be blood.”

“And I will spill it gladly, in your name.” Kassan muttered, trying to hide the overwhelming trepidation he felt.

Lord Ares nodded, smiling with deep genuine emotion for once, and then did the most unexpected thing; he hugged him. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was tight and it filled him with even more overwhelming emotions. He gaped as Lord Ares, his father, left his side with a firm pat to the shoulder, calling out some order to the Archemagos that Kassan was too stunned to catch.

After a moment, he turned to look at his father and brother, expression still a little slack from shock. His father gave him a measured look, seemingly… conflicted? He left briskly, going to speak with the guards at the door, and Kassan watched him go in silence, a flash of hurt shooting through him. He was running out of time, he still hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye yet, and the window to do so was rapidly closing.

He put it from his mind, for the moment, and turned to his brother. “Zali,” he greeted, voice strained, and quickly pulled the younger redhead into a tight embrace. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised, “then you, and all of Arkos, will come to Earth with me.” He swore, worried at the thought of leaving his only brother alone in the city. If he’d known today would be his last day, he’d have spent more time with him, he definitely wouldn’t have skipped his brother’s session in the east arena to make bread of all things; of all the foolish times to try something new… He hugged Zalim tighter, and his eyes definitely did not water. They didn’t.

-_-_-_-

Arkosian Translations

• Archemagos: Arch-Mage, Head Mage
• Hiereus: Priest

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[Taytay]

5:40 PST
Thursday March 8, 2020
DEO Lab, Coast City
_{Interacting with: @Ceta de Cloyes}

---

"Good glad we can help on another." Frakedi said with a smile. He was happy everything was panning out well, and now it was just time to get he show on the road. "Lets get going shall we, my original plan was to walk right in behind Briggs here, he gave me all his access codes and a pretty detailed layout of the facility." Frakedi said as he began to walk out the room with Briggs following, it was the easiest way to get into the facility. Frakedi did not trust phasing through the walls and making himself intangible and invisible was a lot easier to get by most scanners. But he halted in his tracks, Frakedi did no know what Echo was capable of, he could easily make himself unseen but what was Echo able to do?

Even after asking the question he walked outside and hugged the shadows in front of the building with Briggs in front. Their red eyes where gone, Briggs and Frakedi looked like two DEO agents, standing in front of the building. The original plan was for Briggs to scan him in and he walk in right behind him, then go to the main frame and take whatever information he could about the DEO and then leave before morning came. If Echo answered right they should have an easy day, but if things had to change the plan might get a little sticky and Briggs wold have to be removed.

?:?? XXX
XXXXXX XXXX Xth, XXXX
Khrysopsis, Arkos

---

Zalim had been ushered in by his father and while they waited Lord Ares had manifested from thin air next to them. All twelve in the room where awaiting his older brother, the man of the hour. Lord Ares had sort of a smug air around him, his father had been hiding his emotions so Zalim could only assume he felt proud. Zalim was conflicted, today he lost a brother but gained a Proteus. That still would not fix the fact that he would be left alone. He plus he would be able to see Kassander again when his mission was complete, but there was always the "What if?" What if he never came back? What if he died on Gaia? What if he did not want to come back? As his brother walked in, the panic set in, he could feel it claw at his back and make him break a sweat. It slithered its way up his spine and clutched his heart. Zalim had gotten better at hiding the symptoms but that did not mean there were not there.

When Ares summoned his brother in front of them, Zalim started his spiral into despair. It was initial shock and the potential loneliness that had started this panic, the fact that he was losing his brother had just set in and Zalim was taking hard. He should have been proud and happy that the day of their entire peoples existence was upon them, not sad and biter. As lord Ares spoke the words stung like knives and caused him to grab his arm for reassurance. He was blocking their conversation out by trying to keep his breath stable. It was only when he was enveloped in warmth that his panic was broken. Kassander was hugging him, at first Zalim was still in a bit of shock but then recovered and hugged back as his big brother made a sure promise of their reunion. Zalim whispered a quiet "okay" at this and hugged him even tighter.

Zalim let go at the sound on Ares clearing his throat. The god gave Zalim a pointed look that clearly said "You are here to guard, not distract my son" and Zalim could do nothing but let him go and back off. He gave his brother one last look and a smile then walked over to one of the windows and looked out into the darkness. He did not want to say goodbye because that implied they might not ever see each other again, and if Ares was intent on ripping his Kassander out of his life then Zalim was not gonna watch.

He had not been paying attention to the ceremony and was just staring off into space when the alarm sounded. He ran over to the window and looked outside, and boy was it a sight, Arkos had been lit up like a burning tree, fires were spreading all throughout the city, and in the distance you could see multiple large figures marching on their home and tearing things apart. If you focused you could feel the vibrations form their steps, and you could hear their destruction in the distance. "Father is Giants!" Zalim said rushed and summoned his armor to him along with his bow. In a golden flash he was fully covered with his helmet on and bow drawn, quiver on his back.

"No, you stay and protect the Proteus and Magos while me and Lord Ares handle them." His father ordered, to those who paid attention you could hear the slight bitterness when he said Proteus.

So Zalim watched them leave with the two guards and lock the doors behind them. As the ritual intensified and the was portal almost opened, the windows blasted open and 9 Erinyes flew in and immediately attacked the Magos. Flying down and slitting their throats, Zalim hid behind a stone pillar drew and arrow. The arrow caught on fire and he aimed at the head of on Erinyes. Zalim let it fly and he succeed in shooting her directly in the head. 5 of them were quick to act and flew in his direction. While this was happening the portal was opened and Zalim could only guess that Kassander fell through. The five that came for him were quick but Zalim was faster, he drew three arrows and shot down three of the Erinyes, one that seemed to be a like the leader pulled out her whip and was able to get Zalim by the neck and pull him from cover. She landed on top of the boy and drew her blade, looking to her sisters she began to give them more orders. "Οι αδελφές ακολουθούν τον Πρωτέα και σιγουρεύονται ότι πεθαίνει, δεν μπορούμε να αποτύχουμε τον Λόρδο Άδη." When she finished that last four followed Kassander through the portal and all that was left was Zalim and the furry. "Ώρα να πεθάνεις μικρό αγόρι." She spat in her face as she drove the knife through his chest. In the blink of an eye her wings were ripped off and in another blink Vel was eating her head. He body fell off Zalim with a thud and and started to spout blood, hers mixed with Zalim's as he bled from his new wound.

Vel was quick to act and picked the boy up as the explosions form hidden bombs went off. The monster walked over to the portal and jumped in just was it was closing. The last thing Zalim saw form his home was fire, and the first thing he was from earth was a bright light in the blue sky. "Is that the sun Vel? It is so pret-" and he passed out.

Translations

1. "Sisters follow the Proteus and make sure he dies we cannot fail Lord Hades."
2. "Time to die little boy."

[Ceta de Cloyes]

_@Queentze

---

March 8th, 2020
5:42 PM, PT
DEO Lab, Coast City

-_-_-_-

Echo stared judgingly after the alien, which was unusual given how easily he’d made peace with other aliens he’d met since coming to Earth- and he was pretty sure this wasn’t even the first telepath he’d met here! There was something about him he found suspicious though, something that just didn’t add up that was nagging him in the back of his mind. He didn’t have time to dally though, so he fell in step behind Frakedi and Briggs before fading from view with a simple twist of his being, no longer standing in the third dimension, but hovering just on the edge of the fourth. His ability to do this came in short bursts though, so he marched ahead of them; walking straight through the nearest door and sending a message to Briggs from his own stolen DEO phone.

Glass -> Briggs: I’m in

He quickly surveyed the entrance for guards, but there was only one woman at the end of the hall tapping away at an electronic pad. He quickly approached her and glanced over her shoulder, realizing she was playing some pointless brain training game. Since she was so handily distracted he left her to it and ducked into a small bright room by the entrance Frakedi would come through and became visible once more.

Glass -> Briggs: Guard at the end of entrance corridor

Glass -> Briggs: She’s distracted tho

He switched apps on the phone, pulling up the floor plan. It looked like both the AI and the main servers were down, but not too far, only the second and third levels. From this room he could probably phase through the next couple floors and immediately flee with the AI before anyone knew anything, but then he’d have to sneak in again to steal the records he wanted.

Sorry Lightning Bug, information first, then AI. It was just more convenient, though he did feel a little bad about addressing his own mission first before rescuing an imprisoned arcon. He would get both, it was fine.

---

March 10th, 2020
12:24 PM, ET
New York, New York

-_-_-_-

[Translations at the bottom for your convenience.]

As he stood in the circle, surrounded by the seven chanting Magos, he hadn’t really thought much of it when Archemagos Cepheus mentioned he would need to stand still at the center of the circle for the portal to work. Now though, with Gigantes at the gates and Hades’ own furies, the Erinyes, descending upon them, being trapped in this invisible bubble while his brother fought to protect him was infuriating.

But then, just as sudden as the attack had started, all he knew was light. The portal opened beneath his feet in a radiant explosion of brilliant light blue unlike any color he’d seen before, and he fell into glaring whiteness, new colors and endless radiance everywhere. Was this what day was like? Was this sunlight? He looked up, the ball of burning light so far away in the sky, that must be the sun? He looked away and fell to his knees, it hurt too much to look at, and he felt so drained by the process. How many had died during the ritual? At least four that he had seen, their lost energy had to come from somewhere in order to feed the portal, guess that somewhere was from him.

He groaned and made his way to his feet, immediately noticing the smoking crater at his feet. The portal’s doing he imagined. There were shining colorful metal contraptions all around him, some of them carried people, others were empty, but all were stationary. Speaking of people, they were so strange! All around him a riot of color and unique fashions as people stopped to look at him. He must look as alien to them as they did to him, a whole other world… so much had changed from the stories he was told as child. There were no spears or horses in sight, massive pillars of glass and metal rose up on all sides of him, and he couldn’t see even a hint of forest, unless that piddly stalk of grass spurting from the hard gray ground was meant to be a substitute.

Was this what Lord Ares had meant then? This was the blight on Gaia? He looked at them, measuring their skill, but they seemed so… weak. Was all of Earth like this? He shook the thoughts from his head, they were too different, the task ahead of him would not be simple, especially since he needed to educate himself first. Just as with the hellhounds, and the hydra, he would learn their skills and weaknesses first, then he would act.

The portal suddenly flashed again over his head, and four of the Erinyes fell out screaming profanities at him in an archaic form of Arkosian. He sneered and whipped out his blade as the frightened humans suddenly began to scatter. The Warblade of Nemesis glowed lightly before transforming into a long-knifed spear, and he lifted Skyshield against their speedy approach, deflecting one lunge of sharp claws. Nemesis shot out in a whirl of activity, severing one wing and another’s head before plunging into the chest of a third. He yanked the spear back out and spun just in time to catch another set of claws on his shield. Nemesis shimmered once more even as he swung down, the spear becoming a sword and severing the assassin’s hand clean of. When he slashed next the sword was a spiked whip, shredding her throat. He faced the last one, the one who’s wing had been shorn off, and mercilessly plunged a spear tip through her heart.

There was a loud wailing sound bouncing off the walls, and flashing lights atop fast moving metal-on-wheels were appearing around corners. It was time to le-

The portal flashed once again, nearly closed now, and out fell Vel, clutching Zalim in it’s arms. Kassan gasped, “Brother!” He shouted, alarmed as he realized the blood covering his form was pooling out of a large wound, the knife still in his chest. He rushed forward, Nemesis falling into its sheath once more.

---

[Cu Chulainn]

Jimmy Chong

5:46 AM, March 10th 2020

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

---

The sun rises slowly on the horizon, a mesmerizing glow being produced as the sun's rays bounced off the shore. It was a beautiful morning, and being here early in the morning meant having to run into less people. It's exactly the reason why this morning in particular was perfect for a certain person...

A white-haired man of Asian descent jogged down by the shoreline, wearing a white tank-top and a pair of beach shorts. The light layer of sweat dripping from his body as he moved indicated that he had been active for a while. Soon, he reached a rather large rock, stopping and leaning by it. His slim, built form was made even more apparent after he took off his tank top off, hanging it over his shoulder and walking around the rock. After taking a short moment to cool down.

...

Jimmy laid back on a hammock, a chilled bottle of Corona Light in his hands with a lemon slice sticking out its mouth. He adjusted his shades as the glare of the sun bounced off them. Underneath the hammock was a small gym bag, a pair of nice running shoes holding it down as a sort of weight. It was an easy life for Jimmy as he laid low in Brazil. After the incident with the goggles, he felt like his imminent comeback wouldn't be as great if he were incarcerated soon after. All his assets have been frozen, as well, due to his coma, so paying for a nice and expensive lawyer won't be the easiest thing to do, now.

For the past few months, Jimmy Chong has made it by through doing the odd job here and there, using his powers in order to make things a bit faster. Chafing under the need to make a living like a normal person, Jimmy would be sorely out of his comfort zone if not for the fact that he could go wherever he wants to for vacation. He also has become some sort of local celebrity in the form of A Rapidez, stopping crime when it happens, but mostly just walking old ladies down th street or helping with groceries. The costume was easy to come up with, too... he literally just superglued cotton onto a diving suit and a pair of goggles and called it a day. Of course, he has a real costume in the works, right now, which will hopefully be done in the next week or so.

Jun is calling...

Ah, speak of the devil.

"What's up?"

"You know, you're still famous for the guy who destroyed part of New York."

"Ah, man, people are still hung up over that? And it wasn't even all my fault, anyway! I didn't know some flying guy who could lift a bus happened to be in the same state I was in..."

"Yeah, but you could've avoided that altogether if you had just laid low like you're doing right now."

"And what, be painted as a coward by the news? Besides, 'menace' has a better ring to it, anyway, don't you think?"

"Ugh... why did I ever agree to help you, again?"

"I wasn't the one who made that weird synthetic blood that put me in a coma. That's why..."

"You have to bring that up every time we talk, do you? Well, whatever, I've got some good news for you."

"What'chu got?"

"The suit's just about ready. Just working on recreating those goggles. How the hell did they make these in the 40s, anyway?"

"Don't know, ask the military. When do you think you'll have it done?"

"In about... three to four days, actually. It'd be alot faster if you weren't so insistent on making me recreating those goggles, though."

"I have to give the old ones back, either way. It'd be reallt weird if I was running around wearing stolen goggles on my face, after all."

"Yeah, well, just see me at my shop in about five days. You'll like what I did with the suit."

"So long as it doesn't turn me into a lightning bolt, again... ah, hell, some tourist got her selfie-stick stolen. I'll talk to you, later."

"Take care, celebrity."

...

Jimmy put his phone back into his pocket before taking another sip from his beer. As he started putting his running shoes back on, he smiled to himself.

"Celebrity, huh? Has a nice ring to it..."

[Blackstripe]

4:22 PM, March 25th
The Wedge, Hub City

"I think you're overreacting, Samantha. I haven't told anyone, and I'm not going to," Clarissa reassured the black Bombay cat sitting at the foot of the couch in front of them.

Samantha gave the best impression of an eye roll that a cat possibly could, "Don't you understand how much danger this places you in? Anyone that becomes a part of Lady Arcana's world also becomes a target for whatever enemies she may one day have."

"But Clarissa is my best friend, and besides, there's something weird going on with her now," Karen pointed out. "Tell her, Clare."

Clarissa reached up to needle her temple, as if she was in pain. "It started a couple of weeks ago. I had, well, a dream. It uh...well, let's just say that at least part of it was true."

"What?" Sam blinked in surprise. "You had a vision?"

Clare nodded in response. "I saw Karen, err, Lady Arcana with the Question and someone I didn't know in a house. They were investigating the murder of the commissioner, and then--"

"It stopped being accurate," Karen cut her off with a cough. "But even so, it was just the first one."

"Right," Clare sighed. "I've been seeing other things since then. It's different when I'm awake than when I sleep. When I'm sleeping, my...uh...desires get in the way, usually. But I saw something earlier today, at school."

Sam cocked her head to the side at this, "And that was?"

"...Violence," Clare whispered. "L-like nothing I had ever seen before. So many people, clawing at each other like wild animals. It was spilling out into the streets...there were so many being hurt, I--"

Seeing that her friend was clearly becoming distressed with the recollection, Karen reached out and rubbed her back. "It's okay, Clare. You don't have to give us all the details."

Samantha was silent for a moment, glancing at the floor. "And...these other visions came true?"

"The ones I had when I was awake, yeah," she confirmed. "It's always the not-fun ones that are real."

Karen folded her arms, her eyes closing in thought. "She's told me about some of her other 'visions', but this one...I really hope it's wrong."

---

March 25th, 5:22 P.M.
Marcy Projects, NY

He spent several months gathering what information he could on the three-pronged head that became of New York's underworld: Triads, Yakuza, and Italians alike. There was word on the horizon the Colombians and Russians were soon to carve their own blood soaked path through New York's hallowed streets fairly soon as well. Of all the epidemics caused on the eastern seaboard--cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, the proprietor of this outbreak was a monster all its own: Elysium. It was so new it didn't even have a colloquialism among its users; with a potency double that of heroin and a high long as meth, it had become the new drug of choice for dealers and addicts alike. Its outbreak was ten times the speed of any epidemic the country had ever seen. This was due in part to the quality-cost ratio; drugs mirrored capitalism exactly in this sense; the customer will always buy the better product if it is cheaper.

And Marvin was doing his best to track Elysium's progress as it ravaged impoverished neighborhoods one by one. Still, his work had not amounted to much, and he was nowhere near close to discovering its effects on those who fell under its allure. From what he could tell, the drug had what may be summed up as 'otherworldly' effects on the minds of its users. Those who partook--from what Marvin could tell from several personal observations and a handful of chemistry books-- were not zombies per se, but whatever changes the drug induced to the brain's chemicals appeared to be more like a hard re-wiring of the brain's structure than simple dopamine release. The only way he would know for sure is if he could obtain a sample.

As the sun began to set, Marvin geared up: black bulletproof vest, black army fatigues, brown army boots, padded gloves, and his new cloth cut out mask with smaller yellow threads covering the eyes. He used the brand new fireman pole he installed to climb up to the roof where he had made his own secret door for entering/exiting the premises should he ever find himself in dire straits. Once on the roof, he gleaned his sight on the bustling bodies below. The alleyways were probably his best bet--or the fast food establishment's bathroom situated across the street.

"Collateral damage or property damage? Same thing? Same thing."

The sun was still too high for him to operate safely, and he had lived in these projects (and a many other projects) to know that most fiends sate their hunger when night falls; it was going to be a long night.

---

March 25th, 8:00 AM
Wilderness outside Hope Springs, West Virginia.

Harris blew out his lips near-silently. He had seated himself deep in the forest, hoping to avoid any chance of human contact while he figured this out. He had to focus, meditate, if he ever wanted the chance to speak to the Green without them taking over his body. He'd done it once before, but it hadn't lasted long. He flexed his hands as he did, desperately trying to avoid any thoughts and just focus on his breaths.

Murderers all of them

Animals The Red Humanity

Okay, that sounded promising.

"Er, hello?"

LEAVE THIS PLACE AVATAR

That was less promising. Harris gritted his teeth as the connection fell away from him, the tired numbness that he always got before he lost control of his body, he was chasing that feeling, that ever more important connection to the primal force which he understood little. He furrowed his brow and again dove into his own mind, he wasn't going to be deterred.

"Not until you speak to me, I'm done with you ordering me around without explaining anything, I may be your avatar, but I am also a person and this may not be the best line of logic..."

LEAVE US

YOU ARE NOT WELCOME

OUR MIND IS OUR OWN

And just like that, Harris felt the connection fade. He cursed himself and pounded the ground with his fist. He was so close to finally being able to speak to the thing, but he'd screwed it up. He stood and growled, closing his fist and gritting what could be roughly seen as teeth. A tree sprouted from the ground in front of him, only to be smashed to pieces as Harris angrily punched it.

Stop harming us-

"Oh fuck off!"

Harris felt slightly strange as he realized just how bitter he sounded. He'd never been one to get angry like this before. It was the stress, he knew, what had happened up in Hub City and the fact that he still had yet to reveal himself confidently. Those fucking drugs, what they'd done to Shawn was a disgusting thing, not that Shawn himself wasn't disgusting to begin with, but whatever, blame the drugs avoid the hard moral questions.

He needed a distraction, he realized, he'd been alone with his mind for too long, something to take his mind off of... his mind.

The phone! The one he'd taken from the poacher! He still had that didn't he? Somewhere in the tree. He pulled it up and yanked it open, ignoring the surge of wooden parts and dust that the crack brought, and began sifting through what garbage he'd collected in his time spent in the forests. He found a needle or two, a pill, and even a leaf of dubious sorts, all stuff he'd done for Shawn. He was disgusted with himself now. He tossed that garbage away and continued sifting until he found the phone. Still sitting at ninety percent battery, nice.

He turned it on and was pleased to see that it still had data on it. He went online and began reading news and stuff, trying to get back into the swing of the world after being isolated for a long time.

Of course, he found an article about a drug... wave? Outbreak? Whatever, in New York City. He felt his body grow taut as his mind began to run ever faster. It was a mess, the world was a mess, how could they still be making stuff like that? He growled, staring off into space, when he looked back down into his hand, he saw that he had managed to smash the phone, almost completely.

He'd heard New York was nice this time of year, perhaps seeing how bad this drug... thing, was would take his mind off of his own issues. Yeah, that sounded good. Harris grew wings and took off not a second later, only realizing the gravity of what he had just done hours later.

---

2:57 PM, March 25th
Kasimir Castle, Gotham City

Buried deep beneath the sprawling lawns and rising walls that made up one of Gotham City’s most lavish properties a cavern lit up with blue light, a vibrating zzzt echoing off the walls. The room itself was rather large, chiselled out of the very earth in a rough half sphere, and absolutely freezing. As the light died down Zoey blew a lock of red hair out of her face, the strand having come loose from the ponytail she had messily put up while working on the device in front of her. Honestly, the surface in front of her was mostly a mess of wire, miscellaneous parts, tools, and of course the standing that was holding up her current project – a long line of black metal joints vaguely in the shape of a human spine, with some rather wicked looking needles near the top section. Along the wall behind it was more racking spaces holding various other objects in different states of completion, a copy of Grim's mask pulled off it to the side of the spine-like device.

A small flickering of blue lit up once more as Zoey hummed thoughtfully, fingers twitching against the delicately small welding tool held in her hands. Finally she reached out to tap the screen of her phone with a gloved finger, set almost precariously at the edge of the work table, to take note of the time. David should be off school soon. Zoey's steel-blue gaze returned to the work table, contemplating if she could get anymore done, before a sigh escaped her lips. She set down the tools into their proper place - no need to burn more of her things - and pulled off the work goggles over her eyes. Rather low-tech compared to most of her things honestly, it only had a zoom function for her work, but it did the job needed. Tossing the gloves to the side as well the billionaire picked up her phone, thumb unlocking it as her other hand reached out to grab the most important item of her arsenal, set beside her - a bottle of wine she had pulled from the cellar along the way in here.

"Would you like me to send the car to pick you up?" Zoey's thumb quickly typed out the text and sent it off before she stood, kicking the stool back underneath the work table. The redhead took a rather deep drink of the bottle before turning to leave, only to pause as her eyes caught sight of another one of the various machines located down in the 'Grim Cave'. While her little workshop was a decent size, and the computer set up even bigger than that if you included the servers, almost half the room was dominated by the labs. Medical equipment, both for practical use after nights stalking the streets of Gotham, a database of DNA forcibly taken and processed, and of course the latest piece of equipment added. Currently, the box that Lady Arcana had retrieved from the Electrocutioner for her rested on this last piece - contained in a field of subtly glowing white behind glass panels on a platform the size of a small car.

Unbidden, Zoey couldn't help it when her feet took her toward it. The redhead let out a long suffering sigh examining the object, and took another drink. This... thing was frustrating to no end. It wasn't even the cost of the piece of equipment currently housing it, or how difficult it was to get, but rather the readings it was showing. Of course, she was expecting it after the fight with the Electrocutioner, but it being confirmed that the seemingly plain box was touched with something mystical was still a source of frustration. Honestly, what was she supposed to do? Call up her local fortune teller for a palm reading on a metal box? Even if that worked the fact it was crossed with some sort of tech would probably mess up the readings.

Life had been complicated since all this magic started crawling out of the wood works, that was for sure. Some good came out of it, like those who donned masks like the Impossibles from years before to help, but with it also came the crime spike. Imagine if someone like Lady Arcana decided she wanted to commit a crime, what were ordinary officers supposed to do?

Of course, that led to the new files currently populating her computer servers based on these people, but that was neither here nor there.

She'd need a break on identifying and possibly harnessing the magic touching these objects, and sooner the better. Maybe getting more samples would help.

Or just getting blackout drunk and forgetting the whole thing. A slight chuckle escaped Zoey's lips before she shook her head and once more went to leave. That's probably what her servants thought she was doing anyway, considering how often she escaped down to the wine cellar. Hopefully they at least didn't think David was following after those particular footsteps.

---

March 25th, 5:39 P.M.
Marcy Projects, NY

Jermaine Lewis had had it rough this past year.

Things had never been easy, mind you, but it’d been worse since he failed to pay his tuition for graduate school. S’not like he hadn’t tried. He’d gotten the best job he could…but working fast food wasn’t gonna pay for even the cheapest community college.

He was on his own now. Cancer had claimed his mother even before that, and his father was who knows where – hopefully rotting in hell.

Now he was even failing to pay the rent in his rathole apartment...but for whatever reason, he just didn’t seem to care about any of that now. For whatever reason, Jermaine couldn’t stop smiling. Yeah, things were gonna be alright. No matter what happened, everything would work out…

‘Cause he was in Elysium.

He had been for months now, his mind relieved of the burdens that once weighed it down so terribly. Here, he could lay back in the endless fields and feel the gentle breeze against his face as he watched the children of the Gods frolic.

Those who had never been here believed that it was merely a drug. That “Elysium” was just a euphemism for the high it gave you…but no.

This was more than a drug. He had tried heroin. He’d tried meth, even. They were nothing like this…it wasn’t simply a matter of intensity, it was an entirely different experience altogether. When you did Elysium, you went to another place.

True, his body may still be back in his apartment…but his mind had ascended to a much better place, and more than anything, he just wished it could last forever.

He could tell the others like him felt the same way.

That was the most amazing thing about Elysium. You were never alone. Some he recognized from the Marcy Projects, others he didn’t…but they were real. It wasn’t an illusion. He’d spoken to them outside of Elysium, and knew it wasn’t just a drug-induced fantasy.

Pretty soon, all of the inner city would be here with them.

“Ah, my children,” a soft yet commanding voice lifted Jermaine from his thoughts, causing him to sit up and set his eyes upon the source: A towering man in very…strange looking armor. “It warms my heart to see so many of you here at my side.”

Truth was that Jermaine had seen this guy before. He’d talked to them before, and was always cool. Something felt a little off right now, though. Like there was a tingling in the back of his head.

“You’ve reaped the bounties of Elysium for many a week now with little personal cost…but now, I must ask you to render a service unto me,” the man smiled.

Jermaine reached up to clutch his head, a low grunt rumbling from his throat as he clenched his teeth.

Pain. He felt pain, despite being here. Despite being in Elysium.

That wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

“It is time for you to begin sewing the seeds for my return.”

~

“LEWIS! GET YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN’ ASS UP!”

Jermaine’s eyes shot open to the sound of his an all too familiar voice. His landlord, Mr. Kevius Willock was pounding on his door, a sound that had never failed to make his heart sink into his stomach.

Before now, that is.

Now, Jermaine could only think of one thing.

Moving over to his couch, he took a crowbar in his hand. Turning to the door, he calmly opened it to see the diminutive old man.

“Boy, you got my re-AUGH!”

Fast. Without hesitation, before his old bones could even react.

That was the speed with which Jermaine brought the crowbar down upon the old man’s head. Again, and again, until the cracks turned into sickening squelches.

There were more here. More who hadn’t tasted Elysium. He needed to find them...all of them.

[Ceta de Cloyes]

_@Queentze

---

March 10th, 2020
12:27 AM, ET
New York, New York

&



-_-_-_-

[Translations at the bottom for your convenience.]

Vel watched Kassander come to his side, the goat would have smiled but in this form it proved to come out more as hackels rising. He trusted this man but that was the only one, plus he figrues that Zalim would be pretty pissed to find out he ate his brother. Lord Agni had given Vel specific instructions, if Zalim should ever be injured, and it just so happened that they were surrounded by the one thing that could save him: light. He pulled the blade out from his chest and dragged the boy into the light. The sun shined on his skin like a mirrior and the Zalim's wound patched itself up.

Kassan winced at the reflective light, its momentary flash overcoming the Magos' enchantments to protect his eyes from his first glimpse of the sun. When he lowered his hand from shielding his gaze, he found the wound rapidly healing, and the knife now in the grasp of Vel's clawed hand. A relieved, breathless gasp left him as he realized his brother had been healed, the brief shock of terror he'd felt at realizing the severity of the wound abating enough that he could catch his breath.

That had been close, too close, and those responsible would pay. He threw a vicious glance ovver his shoulder, inspecting the winged assassins. Erinyes. Furies in the service of Hades, the old god of the Underworld somehow still a stalwart ally to his brother Zeus despite repeatedly being shafted by him. Kassan would remember this attempt.

Vel was sitting there waiting for the process to be finished and for Zalim to wake up. When the wound was completly gone Zalim was sleeping soundly like a baby, this pissed Vel off. The monster let out a roar that caused Zalim to jump up with wild eyes. When Zalim's eyes landed on Kassander he jumped and hugged the older male as tight as he could. Vel let out something like a chuckle and changed back into his more mundane form.

"Brother, you're alive, you're safe. Wait?! Where are we?" Zalim said quickly then jumped back embarassed with his outburst.

The intimidating form of Vel receded, his brother safe in his arms, a new world around him... Kassan thought this mission might be okay. With Zalim by his side, the blessing of Lord Ares at his back? How could they fail?

Kassan smirked, a bit exasperated that even after all the time they'd spent together, Zali still got embarassed over the smallest of things. "Earth, brother," He answered, grinning. "We walk on Gaia's soil." And without any of the Magos on this side it was unlikely they'd be able to send Zali back, not that Kassan would allow it to happen, but... this was not according to plan, he worried for Lord Ares' reaction. With any luck he could deflect the god's displeasure towards Hades and Zeus, blaming them for everything that went wrong usually did wonders for all conversations with Ares.

He looked Zalim over once more, inspecting him for further damage, and giving Vel a curious glance or three. "How do you feel? You are unhurt? Truly?"

"I am fine brother, really. What do we do now?" Zalim said looking up at the sun.

The most amazing thing about Gaia was the sun. It was as bright as his armor if not more and gave off the most comforting warmth. Zalim had questions: Where were they? What about Kassander's mission? How would they deal with Hades? Zalim looked to his brother and smiled, not something he did often. He knew they would be alright one way or another because he was the Proteus and would lead them well. Zalim did worry about Arkos, his fahter was the "Demon Slayer" but even giants could prove to be a problem.

Zalim focused in on his surroundings and saw bricked buildings and metal contraptions moving next to them. He was taken aback by these things and then felt the eyes on him. He saw the humans look staring, some with fear, others with curioisty but all had a senese of caution. Then the emotions hit him, he could feel the fear and caution.

'What is this brother, I can feel what they feel. How do I make it stop?" Zalim said as he grabbed his head. He was trained to deal with things like this but all the shock of the situation was caught off guard.

Kassan sighed, laying what he hoped was a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder. Sometimes he forgot how young he was, Zalim had only been around a short time compared to many of the others, they had not yet grown into the fine atunement with emotion the older soldiers had... but perhaps that was selling him short, even now Kassan could feel that curse growing stronger. Their fear would not quail him, their curiosity would not beg his attention, but all the same he felt their emotion seeping into him like water through gravel.

"A curse devised by our enemies," he reminded, reaching down to help Zalim stand. "Perhaps it was Athena's brilliance that came up with such a clever solution to our Lord Ares' plan; for how can we be warriors if we feel our enemies pain?" He shook his head, derisive of the thought, "But we shall overcome. Be strong brother, we cannot stay here." He gave an annoyed glare to the people around them, a woman with a small black rectangle in hand edging just a little too close.

Kassan pulled Zali's arm over his shoulder to better support him, and lifted Vel under one arm, then jumped. He lifted quickly into the air, higher than any plain mortal could reach, and landed softly on the top of one of the towering glass buildings that surrounded them. "O Gaia," he whispered, awestruck by the city sprawling out befor him. In all directions were massive towers of glass and steel reaching for the skies, gleaming in the light of the sun, and all down below were bustling people and metal contraptions zooming down the narrow paths between buildings. It was... he had no words. Big, he supposed, this one city bigger than all of Arkos. He shuddered to think about the rest of the world, he had known it was large, but to see it? He shook his head, mystified, but they couldn't stay here gaping, they needed to get away from this mess, find somewhere to lay low and devise their strategy.

"We'll leave this city," he said to Zali, "get away from their emotion, their noise, and begin planning." Even as he said this though, he lingered a moment longer, taking in the view.

Zalim just shook his head at his brother's words. They were further away from the emotions and he felt more calm, but what had him speechless was the view. The shinning buildings, the metal machines, everything had him in sensory overload. The city istelf stretched off in all directions, never ending and the people were everywhere like tiny ants from their position. Lord Ares had spoken before about man infesting Gaia, but this was on a different level. Zalim did not think this was bad though, he thought the city was beautiful, and if he came here under any other circumstances he would want to explore and try to fit in.

When Kassander seemed ready to leave, Zalim wrapped his arm back around his brother as they took off into the air. Where they were going was unknown but for now the only goal was to get out the city and get acclimated to their new surroundings.

-_-_-_-

Arkosian Translations

• Magos: Mage, Sorcerer
• Erinyes: Furies

---

[Ceta de Cloyes]

_{@Queentze
@Korkoa
@Crazytazer}

---

March 8th, 2020
5:43 PM, PT
DEO Lab, Coast City

&



&

_{Judas :)}

-_-_-_-

Judas had been making use of the now lacking human presence in her part of the system trying to peek out into the rest of the lab. It was far less populated than she remembered though she supposed the humans could leave when they wanted, maybe she had never been active at this time before and that was why it was strange, something to analyze later. It was also far quieter without all of the usual scientists moving about or the computer systems on full power, it was rather pleasant not having to listen to them right now. She decided now might be the time to try to let a partition or two out into the rest of the lab to note how many humans were around and where they were.

Both of them found the way outside the quarantine server beginning the search through the cameras and moniters noting very few staff all of who were focused on papers or different computers around the lab. That was when one of them pinged back a strange video file which showed movement coming and going through the walls cautiously. Whoever it was they obviously did not wish to be seen and they might not have by the dull sensed humans working but if they were working with the other AI she would need to help guide them for expedience. With a little digital trickery the partitions slipped over to a nearby and online computer to the weird human triggering a momentary flash to display of the room number she was being held in.

The process was repeated a couple times for due measure and hopefully Vox would find them in her prison soon enough.

---

Echo startled when a nearby screen lit up, immediately turning invisible at the sudden movement and turning to face the threat. The monitor began displaying a number, flashing repeatedly for apparent emphasis. He paused, studying it for a moment before realizing what it was; a room number. The arcon's room number specifically. He sighed and faded back into the visible spectrum after a quick glance around. So much for getting the arcon last, how could he ignore a direct call for help like this?

...at least the arcon might be able to help him get the information he needed. He hadn't thought of that. After a beat in which he stared consideringly at the screen, weighing his options, Echo nodded and pulled the phone once again.

Glass -> Briggs: New priority, marking the location on the map

Glass -> Briggs: Sorry, the arcon wants out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He sent a quick picture of a pin posted over the blueprints of the facility, marking the arcon's location.

Then he facepalmed.

Glass -> Briggs: This is echo btw

Glass -> Briggs: lifted a phone

Useful information he really should have given out before. Then again Frakedi was probably reading his mind anyway. He grumbled something unsavory under his breath in Ghaszic, again unsure why the Martian bothered him so much.

He opened up a writing app on the phone and typed out a quick message as he scanned the room, picking out a camera attached to the monitor he was looking at. Probably how the arcon had found him, he'd been careful to scan the room for security cameras before becoming visible after all.

He lifted the phone up into view of the camera, his message easily legible:

COMING

---

Frakedi went invisible and watched as Echo went on ahead by himself. Then when they got past the inital security check, Briggs started to give off these annoyed emotions. When Frakedi looked into his mind it seems his phone was virbrating consistently. Well you might as well check it. Frakedi said in the mans mind. When he did it seems he was receiving information from an Agent Glass. It was all correct, the woman at the end of the hall did not even notice Briggs walk by as she played her pointless game (the only thing on her thoughts was how her boyfriend might be cheating on her). Then a few moments later he recieved another text with blue prints and a message talking about an "Arcon". Briggs did not trust this information from the moment he saw it, but it in the next few moments a revelation came through, Echo was the one sending the messages. This did not put Briggs' mind at ease but Frakedi was fine either way, he knew the was only one kind of sticky situation he could not get out of and the odds of the enemy knowing that was slim.

Briggs led the way to their destination, he knew the room perfectly its the technological R&D Department. Its main purpose was to help make "gadgets" and what not to help the field agents. It also served as the base for all the servers in the facility, so if this Archon was here he wondered what it looked like.

"Boss, I think I know what who your friend wants us to help, I am not a memeber of R&D but I do know that what ever is behind those doors is important." Briggs said pointing to safe like door. Above the door it read "Quarantine"

Tell Echo we are at the location but need help understanding what we are here for. Frakedi said in Briggs' mind.

---

As if summoned, Echo returned to the visible spectrum at their side, looking up at the 'QUARANTINE' sign with curiosity. Somehow he doubted a physical quarantine would contain an arcon, it just didn't work like that. "This is the place," he said aloud, tilting his head.

Then he shrugged and walked right through the door, phasing through regardless of locks or whatever else.

He paused once he was inside, taking stock of the empty room except for the various monitors and bits of tech everywhere. He wandered over to a half finished circular device; on Ghol arcons came in one of two shapes; Kryptoid forms, or small floating sphere-projectors. "Hello?" He asked, unsure if this was the arcon's body. It didn't really look like one, but what did he know about cutting edge human tech? Nothing, that's what.

---

Vox perked up seeing that the strange human appeared to have gotten her message however there appeared to be some hesitation initially, was she not the priority for this infiltration? That was a possible explaination seeing as there was plenty in the lab that might interest those on the outside, like a highly advanced AI who really didn't want to be here, but also large amounts of data or trinkets lying around the storage area. As for what was in the same room as her, she hadn't a idea what with there being next to no cameras besides her own near the moniter, but if it was were they put all of the potentially dangerous devices it was important enough for infiltrators.

The odd one was typing into a phone highly likely to an ally, a very weird gadget to her but obviously it was equally common amongst the humans, about the new information before turning it around to the moniter previously used and giving a plesantly clear message. They were on the way though the other part of this was a human that looked like one or two she had seen posted outside the door a couple times, not in exacting resemblence but in clothing, but all the same moving in her core's direction. They stopped outside the room for the moment possibly checking to see if there were any spectators to the entrance before the strange one phased through the door.

Her savior seemed rather confounded by the room or even what the server looked like for that matter. Judas would have suspected at least some knowledge given they were working with an AI but a little more assistance would be acceptable. Flicking the moniter to her server on would likely help so she did just that to allow for direct communication.

"Hello. You bypassed the security adequately, I am Judas." The AI gave a bit of a wave of her silhouetteed hand. "I do not know what that is but my core is much larger than that. Approximately three feet tall, rectangular in shape. Where on this server it is connected to I cannot see as my camera angle is quite limited."

---

Echo turned quickly, feeling rather foolish for assuming anything with human technology. "Oh," he said softly, "convenient." He took a few steps closer to the monitor to face the arcon's... silhouette? He mentally shrugged, arcons were prone to quirks. He briefly scanned the room, immediately seeing the core locked in a glass box on the edge of a desk. "I see it," he confirmed, "but uh, before I bust you out I was wondering if you could help me? You see, the DEO has been targeting aliens, I need to know what they know. I figure an arcon like yourself could easily gain all the information I need and more, right?"

---

"I could yes but I am currently cut off from the rest of the system, a swift reconnect to fix. As for the information that would be a simple matter and if it means I go free it would not be a issue. It is highly probable you are speaking to the 'tool' meant to help in gather said data so reaquiring it should be a short process." Vox said with notable disdain at the word tool but quickly transitioning back to a neutral tone.

---

Outside the room Frakedi had Briggs doing something else for him. "Do you know what is in there at all?"

"No boss, all I know is that we keep the big guns locked away in maximum security lock up" Briggs said scratching his head.

"Well where is it? You are going to have to tell me more than that." Frakedi said with a dissastified smile. He could feel Briggs' relcutance to tell him more information, and it kinda shocked him a little. The method of mind control he was using was not direct conrol, for that would take to much time and energy, this was more like deeply rooted suggestions. He was so far rooted in Briggs mind that any command he made would be followed.

Eventually Briggs gave in, while the talked inside Briggs was spilling his guts out in the lab. he told Frakedi about how each base had a "Doomsday" room somewhere hidden in the base. It was filled with dangerous tech built using alien materials for humans. The tactial agents like himself were all give its location and a set of codes that changed on the hour. He told him that the weapon(s) was only used in a invasion status situation.

---

Echo grinned, amused. "Bug's going to love you," he commented. The disdain the arcon had for referring to technology as mere tools reminded him of how Jessie viewed technology as alive. It'd rubbed off on him too, and he'd already taken to thinking of their computers as useful friends. More useful than any dog he'd bet, and of course being an alien gave him a unique definition of 'living'. Crabs, for example, and most other things with hard exoskeletons, on the surface he'd think of them as rocks, maybe a hollow-stone as were common on the shores of Dazz, but no, they had all the hallmarks of life human's judged by. He knew this world was hardly the strangest to him in it's measure of living things, there were plenty of stranger alien worlds out there. He'd have to share this train of thought with Jessie later, she'd probably find it fascinating- and use it to justify her stance on machines as a new form of living creature.

"Okay, let's see..." he quickly scanned the nearby cords and wires to see if he could help the arcon link into the system any better. "Wait," a thought struck him, and he grinned, reaching for the phone. "Wireless connection- it's even a DEO agent's phone, it's already got the passcode and connected to the system!" Finding a USB to fit into the phone's connector/charger jack was easy, there was a storage box of the things just sitting on the table. "Try this," he said, plugging the phone into the monitor, "and see what you can see."

---

Judas was confused, a tilted "head" being the only response to it, at the last statement as she had never seen a bug acknowledge her nor show competant levels of intelligence to do so. Maybe she would get an explaination later about it from the human or the other AI who might have more experience regarding such a thing. In the meantime however keeping an eye on her possible savior was far more important as it was more or less up to them to figure out a solution. Thankfully the wait would not be long as the apparent solution was right in hand, literally she noted, and as the phone was hooked up to her core it felt like everything was opened up again.

The AI began navigating towards the main data cache, a place she had strictly limited access to before, picking out relevant information from it and transmitting it back to the phone as well as a storage in her own core just in case. It was highly pleasant to take away from the scientists she had quickly grown to dislike and while not quite done with them just yet her focus would remain on the escape. It occurred that letting in the second partner of the infiltraters might be a good idea if something were to go wrong. So within a few moment the excited Vox had wormed into the security system to disable the alarm attached to the large security door, as well as beginning to lightly disrupt the lab workers' computers, who were now more interested in what was causing the minor glitches or inconsistancies giving time to enter the room if need be.

"Is this all the information you require? There is more but not within similar parameters to your request." Judas asked the strange human pointedly. "Your ally may enter if they choose as security has been disabled and the scientists are currently occupied."

---

Echo weighed his options, debating whether it was worth it to stay and gather the rest of the intel, but in the end he shook his head. "That's fine, thanks a load. Now let's get you out of here." He hurried over to the locked glass box, phasing right through the security code and picking up the core. it was attached to a few systems, likely the monitor it'd been using to communicate with him, so he'd have to unplug that before they could run. "We'll have to get you inbuilt communication hardware," he muttered as he unplugged the monitor. and lifted it free of the small prison.

He whipped out the phone for one last message;

Glass -> Briggs: Got what I needed

Glass-> Briggs: Security disabled for you

Glass -> Briggs: You're on your own now

Now, time to leave. the Martian could take care of himself, Echo no longer needed him, and he wasn't risking himself or the arcon for his sake - Jessie needed them back as soon as possible, and he didn't think the arcon would take well to being blind and deaf to the world around them for very long.

Securing his grip once again, just to make sure, he faded from visibility and lost tangibility as he shot right through the ceiling, escaping the facility in only a few short moments. He alighted on a roof a block over with his prize and sent a quick update to Jessie:

Echo -> Libby: Artificial consciousness secure

Echo -> Libby: Meet me back at base

---

[Blazion]

March 25th
8:00 p.m.

Cool night kissed the side of his face. Beneath the veneer of the City That Never Sleeps was the city that eternally weeped, for when the honest people retired for a night's rest and the gatlin repetition of the nightly news, the ghouls awoke: prostitutes, pimps, addicts, corrupt cops, heroes.

From his vantage atop the warehouse, he watched the city morph before his eyes. Casual business suits and loafers replaced by arms laced with track marks, the soft click of the working woman's heels against the indifferent concrete beneath her feet. Bare light raised and danced from the tight crevices of the alleyways where the city's resident homeless community convened for fellowship and warmth. As the streets filled, Tiger bid his time--he had to wait for the right time to strike, as all hunters did. It had to have been another twenty minutes before he caught sight of something: what looked to be a dealer and a willing client receding into the alley to do their business. Now was the time.

Once Tiger had a running start, he leapt from the edge of the warehouse roof atop a fire escape; he gave himself no time to settle before he had once more descended the fire escape in a series of highly coordinated twists and leaps until the soles of his boots finally touched the wet gravel residing atop the concrete of the alleyway adjacent the alleyway in which the deal was happening. He rose to his full height and got into a crouch; he had to use the cover of night and the scarce spot-lighting offered by the few streetlights hugging the sidewalks. He couldn't alert anyone, the local streetgangs corner boys were out in full force and as much as he enjoyed laying people out, he didn't yet know the full extent of his newfound abilities--and even with a vest on, getting shot still hurt. Now he had to survey his options: the ground route was to be difficult but it would also be the quickest; the buildings would be of greater ease, but he would expend a lot more energy than necessary trying to close the distance.

Predators always chose economy over flash.

He would use the layout of the land he knew well to maneuver. Using the shadows provided from black splashes where the streetlights did not reach, Marvin weaved an intricate means of movement throughout the lowrise projects. With timing keen, he stood with his back pressed against the brick wall. He was near both of his targets and it was time to pounce. And pounce he did. From around the corner he swung--he was immediately met with twelve sets of eyes, all with a strange desire resting in them.

Something was not right, yet in the few seconds he had to process what this something was, they had closed the distance! Were it not for his martial training he might have been mince. Now, Marvin may have been able to owe such a unified reaction to primal fear; he was a 6'4 man dressed like a military agent with a cat-esque mask on his face, it would strike worry (or muse) in anyone delving in the illicit. Of these six men, four were hobos--persons who would normally run from such a strange sight (or cower), not fight. As for the other two--the dealer and the buyer, they too seemed immediately alert to Marvin's presence. Never did he know a dealer and a fiend enjoying the sight of vigilantes or fiends, but they seemed neither bothered nor afraid; they simply advanced alongside the four homeless men.

Before Marvin knew it, the bullet from the Elysium dealer's gun had knocked him several meters backwards and he soon lay facing upward at the stars. Smoke steamed from the crushed round as it lay lodged in the front of the vest. Marvin's suprise kept him grounded long enough for the four men to soon surround him, with two of the men attempting to grab his feet and another attempting to hold one arm down while the last--the dealer--attempted to pull off the cloth mask and force feed Marvin the Elysium.

Duly, their efforts failed with tremendous raucus.


In one swift motion the now heavyweight former boxer somersaulted backwards and was soon on his feet. There was, of course, one problem: he was severely outnumbered. The new slaves underneath Elysium's mind control began appearing out of seemingly every cavern in the Marcy low-rises. 100:1? He had been through worse.

---
7:48 PM, March 25th
The Wedge, Hub City

“Supper was a lot, easier to deal with thanks to you,” Karen grinned to Clarissa, the pair lounging on the couch after a hard night of preparing a meal for their father, as well as themselves. “You ought to sleep over more often.”

Clare scoffed, never taking her eyes off the new Vampire Academy series they had recently gotten into. “You just want an extra laborer.”

“Yeeah,” Karen snickered in admission. “Still, it feels like it’s been too long since we just sat here and watched –“

“We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for special News Alert."

Karen felt her shoulders sag slightly, as she had been eagerly anticipating this weeks' episode. If Clarissa's posture was any indication, she felt similarly disappointed. "Ooh, what's this, now? Couldn't it wait?"

"Riots have engulfed the streets of New York. Seemingly without warning or reason, rioters have began swarming onto the streets of downtown Manhattan, causing widespread property damage and in many cases, loss of life. Disturbingly, there have been multiple reported cases of those who were initially assaulted by the rioters joining their ranks immediately after."

Karen stared in silence at the news broadcast, a chill working its way up her spine. She slowly turned to look at Clarissa, only to find that she was already staring back at her. "...It really is like you said, Clare."

"Karen!" Samantha leaped over the back of the couch, sinking her claws into the girl's shoulder hard enough to cause her to yelp. "Hurry up and transform! I'm feeling a strong arcane presence at work to the east!"

---

8:53 PM, March 25th
Kasimir Castle, Gotham City

"Test one of the Spinal Hud," Zoey's voice once more filled the cavernous room, her voice low and almost bored. She was back at her work station, though the bored tone could arguably be from the lack of alcohol she currently possessed. Patrol later that night would be difficult if she was completely inebriated, sadly, and Blackrock Medical hadn't developed that cure for drunkenness or a hangover cure. Honestly, what did she pay them for?

"Test material is swine... god, I could use some wine right now," Before her sat the spine-like object once more, but in a plastic container beside her was also a rather meaty leg of an animal - pig, as she had mentioned, ending in a hoof. Without further ado she removed it from the container to lay out on the somewhat cleared off work space, brown paper placed down to keep blood and other fluids off the surface. Without much fanfare Zoey then lifted the spine-like object and set it on top of the meat, fingers going to the very top of the spine with the vicious looking needles. Pressing the activator Zoey then stepped back to observe. The spine lit up with a white light emerging from the cracks in the creation, faint but noticeable. The parts almost seemed to shudder... before the mechanism in the top plunged the two one-inch needles into the flesh with a vicious jolt, a series of much smaller ones along the spine repeating the motion down the flesh. She waited a full minute.

"Hm, that worked better than anticipated. No maiming at all," Of course she had to jinx herself. Almost as soon as the words left her lips that the smoke started rising up from the main section. Then lit on fire.

Zoey stared at the small fire in silence, before calmly reaching below the worktable and retrieving a small fire extinguisher. The fire was put out and the Spinal Hud disconnected from power shortly.

"Well, that didn't work," Sounding rather upbeat - that was about her luck after all - Zoey set about cleaning off the foam, smoke, and pig fluid from her device, once more humming under her breath as was her wont to do. At least this was just a spare project to keep her mind off that damnable Electrocutioner box, for now. She'd go crazy if she kept hammering away at it every night. Besides, what's a little fire before patrol?

An alert sounded out from the computer to her left, drawing Zoey's gaze to the large screen mounted on the cavern's wall. A page opened up automatically, a clip playing from the news site.

"Since when have riots been breaking news?" Silence engulfed Zoey however as she watched the news clip, her eyes narrowing. She supposed a large death count could make a riot news worthy, as seemed to be happening. Her fingernails tapped against the surface of the table as she hummed again, considering what this meant. Her initial instinct was to dismiss it, as a riot wasn't something she'd normally fly out for. In Gotham, sure, but New York? But then the voice over mentioned it...

"Disturbingly, there have been multiple reported cases of those who were initially assaulted by the rioters joining their ranks immediately after." Now that was interesting. Zoey's gaze flicked to the box still sitting in it's prison, almost innocently. She had just been musing on needing more test subjects, hadn't she? It was hard to say if this was one of those things, but what could it hurt? It's not like it'd be a waste of jet fuel if Grim could at least help with the riot some, even if the mythical angle turned out to be a bust.

Mind made up Zoey moved to grab her gear, pulling it on in record time. Looks like she had a plane to catch.

Oh, and a text to send.

"I left part of a pig on the work table, be a dear and clean it up before you go to bed please David."

---

8:54 PM, March 25th
Kasimir Castle, Gotham City

"Twelve o'clock," David said, twisting around and hitting the imaginary opponent with his bo staff. "Six o'clock," another twist and swing. "And last but not least," he rolled forwards, stopping with a crouch and sweeping the last imaginary opponent's feet from under him, finishing with a swing of his bo staff to the head. "And that's that."

With a grin, the boy wiped the sweat off his brow, heading to the bench to get a drink. After a swig of water, his phone buzzed, and he checked the message. "... She's heading out again." This would be the third time this month she had left him home, and he was tired of it. It wasn't like he was a kid or something. "Not on my watch."

With that, he rushed to the wine cellar, suiting up in a flash. Had Zoey already left? Where was she, where was she... There! "Zoey, wait up!" He ran to his adoptive mother. "What're we doing tonight? Routine patrol? Dealing with Anarkee? Ooh, let me guess: we're beating up hobos like that one guy in Hub City, right?"

He paused for a second, saying: "Oh, and I cleaned up the pig like you asked, so I can come, right? Right?"

---

8:59 PM, March 25th
New York City

Harris felt sick from flying so long, his stomach growled at him and his wings felt very tired, thankfully every few seconds his body absorbed a little more sun, reducing the fatigue, not removing it completely, but reducing it, he could have probably flown for a few hours longer if the sun wasn't going down, but just as it was now he was beginning to push it. The sprawling cityscape of New York brought relief to his tired body, and he looked over the city, feeling the influence of the Green as his anger grew at the fact that they'd removed pretty much all flora from the area.

He sighed, New York had been around longer than he had, The Green would just have to deal with the fact that Harris had a human half. He cared more about people than plants, not that he was overly biased to them, now that he knew just how much plants understood without telling the world. Sometimes he wondered whether he needed to find a good balance between his care for humans and The Green's militant love for plant life, it'd be hard, but perhaps that was the best option.

Then he saw the smoke rising from the city. Fires lit up across the massive city, smoke choking the air along with the sounds of screaming and other noises, such as the blaring of triggered car alarms and the smashing of glass.

Harris felt his limbs weaken as he flew into the city smog, he felt tired and ill, his head throbbed in pain and his stomach twisted. He began to feel that numbness, that same needly numbness that he felt when The Green began to assert its influence. As he lowered to the ground, he saw people rioting, brutally killing each-other, shooting them, he felt afraid, angry, but most of all saddened by this.

Then all of his thoughts were replaced by unyielding rage. But he refused to let the Green take over, he knew how violent it was, he'd have to do this himself.

---

March 25th
8:03 p.m.

As they closed in, he readied himself; there was no path to escape, he would need to make one of his own. The four men who surrounded him closed in with a supernatural quickness, but these men had no skill; in one swift motion he had flipped one of the hobos over his shoulder and slammed him atop the concrete below; while retaining his grasp on the downed hobo's arm, he lunged forward on his back foot and planted a sidekick into the solar plexus of the second hobo. The last two were dealt with in equally sufficient order; the drug dealer had his kneecap caved in when Marvin caught him with a stinging low kick right at the head of his patella; the fiend was indisposed with a transitioning roundhouse head kick executed in chain from the low kick.

For each he disposed, there were four or five to replace; he would be overwhelmed in minutes. In his search for an escape he found what he was looking for all along; the pill the drug dealer dropped--some Elysium. Except it skid behind a crowd of hobos who were lined up near the end of the block and who were also beginning to close the distance between themselves and Tiger. He came here for the sample and he was going to get it, no matter who he had to go through. . . or over. Beneath the cloth mask he smiled; Tiger got into a tracker runner's stance before he shot forward--as he picked up speed and drew closer to the line of hobos who stood between him and the Elysium he began to gather his footing. At just the right moment, he propelled himself over the heads of the set of hobos at the end of the street and landed in a crouch; one last burst of speed and he scooped the Elysium pill from the wet concrete.

Then he heard the police sirens blare. People under the influence of Elysium had poured into the streets in droves, armed with makeshift home appliance weapons of varying kinds. The only safe way of passage were the builings. A sharp change of direction and Marvin was soon climbing up the project building's face. Some of the windows were open as the residents had evacuated to the streets. Marvin figured it would buy him some time to think if he was inside instead of the streets. Maybe he could find some 'supplies.'

--

9:14 PM
New York City

The trip from Hub City to New York hadn't taken long. Few trips ever did now that she was Lady Arcana. What had taken a long time was finding a quiet place to transform, since Karen had learned the hard way that turning in her house was a bad idea...not that there were many good locations left now. Hub City Electrical had really made themselves a pain in her ass as of late, seemingly in a panic over the string of "mysterious electrical discharges" throughout the city.

They had started installing cameras in various locations throughout the city where these "discharges" had been sighted in the hopes of catching one. Effin' morons.

Still, now that she was here...yeah, things were pretty bad. It was almost word-for-word like Clare had described it: a bloody, city-wide riot that threatened to spill out into the countryside if not somehow checked. Somehow being the operative word. Sure, she could fly down there and start knocking heads, and against regular thugs or soldiers that would probably work. Their morale would be destroyed, they would surrender or run.

But these guys didn't act normal at all. They didn't seem afraid of her, or anything really.

"Hold on," Lady Arcana spoke softly, ripping the side door off of a chrysler that had been flipped onto its side in the middle of traffic, as rioters swarmed the streets with an almost drone-like relentlessness and coordination. Pulling the elderly man out of his car, she princess-carried him to the hospital in just a matter of seconds, gently lowering him onto one of the many prepared stretchers out front. She had asked the hospital staff to set them out there for her, and thankfully they had complied.

The riots hadn't reached that part of the city yet, and she didn't intend to let them.

Flying back downtown, she saw a rioter attempting to smash in the windshield of an SUV to get at the family inside. Smacking him across the head with just enough force to knock him unconscious, she quickly moved to lift the entire SUV up from the dangerous highway, intent on taking it somewhere safer.

That was another thing: they didn't seem to acknowledge pain, and wouldn't stop coming at you unless you KO'd them. It was like their only purpose was to kill, or spread whatever was driving them insane like this.

It felt like, for all her power, brute force wouldn't be enough to solve this.

---

9:33 PM
New York, New York

Blackstar was lucky that she wanted to get to New York as soon as possible. Maybe he was right that she should bring him along more, but Grim wasn't about to admit that. He was still just a teenager after all. However at this time it didn't take long for Zoey to relent, considering the fact that with a riot it was really a numbers game. Yet from the moment the jet had set down and she had taken to the rooftops of New York to survey the scene going on below it became obvious that the news story wasn't wrong, and this wasn't an ordinary riot.

Maybe she should've left Blackstar.

"Stay close," Grim rumbled to her sidekick from their perch, her lens zooming in on the streets below. "More are joining them, I don't know what's causing it but I don't want either of us to be caught off guard alone." A loud bang sounded out as her hookshot penetrated the roof of the building they were on, ready to grapple down.

"Focus on rescuing anyone not part of the riot, secondary is disabling those who are threats. If you see any clue for what's causing this let me know." A deep breath, rumbling in the mask before she glanced to Blackstar.

"Ready?"

"Ready, Freddy." Blackstar says with a grin, his own voice running through a voice modulator.

"And remember," Grim continued, pointedly ignoring his addon, "If you get overwhelmed there's no shame in retreat." The last of her little 'pep talk' done Grim gave a short nod to Blackstar before jumping from the building. Her hookshot, caught in the roof, immediately slowed the descent until she neared the ground, where a trigger released the hookshot from the roof. As soon as her feet touched ground sparks lit up from her right glove, immediately on the offensive to move to where a group of the rioters were trying to break into the front of a restaurant being used as a safe haven. Time to work once more.

Firing his hookshot into the roof and ensuring it was secure, Blackstar followed his mentor and jumped off the building with a front flip, letting out a small whoop of excitement as he did so. Upon hitting the ground, his hookshot retracted into his gauntlet, and he looked around for what he could do. 'Okay, Grim's dealing with the group in front of the restaurant, now where could I... There.'

Deploying his bo staff, Blackstar ran towards a group of four rioters attacking two people. Leaping into the air, he brought his staff down on the head of one of the rioters. The rioter spasmed, before collapsing, unconscious. "One down, three to go." And with that, he jumped into the fray.

---

Harris dove into the rioting crowd, smashing into the ground near enough to a rioter to knock him off his feet. He stood quickly and grew a wooden cocoon around the rioter that prevented him from moving.

What are you doing? kill him

Harris ignored The Green's interjection, grappling a rioter's weapon from his hand and smashing it with a squeeze. The man was then seized around the neck by a vine growing from the ground, pulling him into the ground where he was grabbed by a number of other vines, one for each limb.

Harris looked up to see a group of at least ten charging right towards him. He could easily handle this, time to learn a lesson about the dangers of drug abuse.

The quickest rioter approached him within seconds and attempted to grab at Harris' throat, only for his hands to sink into Harris' skin, trapped. Harris punched the man once, knocking him out cold, before freeing him and letting him flop limply to the floor. A tree from the floor grew beneath one of the men, growing up and around him, trapping him within the trunk. Another ran face-first into a wooden wall, which sprouted vines and tied him down like a hospital gurney, forced to watch as his ally was dropped onto the ground, his feet pulled away under him by a vine from Harris' arm. Two more were grabbed by yet more vines and tied down to the ground. The last four had entered melee range by this point, and all struck at once. One was stopped by Harris' fist growing from the ground and grasping him by the head, unable to do anything but flail against it pointlessly.

Harris now had one arm trapped below the ground, perhaps this was a bad idea. Oh well, he supposed as he tripped one last rioter and held him down with a foot. Of the last two, one was forced to sit in a throne made of a manipulated tree, and the last was taken in Harris' hand, grown to the size where the only things sticking out of Harris' fist were the man's head and feet.

That was a rush. Harris had never done that before, clearly, due to the rookie mistake of forcing himself to fight one handed, but he still won without taking a blow! Well, kinda, he did basically get grabbed, but he won still! That was not surprising to be fair, considering he could do anything he wanted basically, but it was so fun! Harris released the man held by the head, having been choked into unconsciousness by now, and the other found himself slammed into the ground and secured by vines.

Harris smiled at the scene he'd created, though he was worried to not see a single person who wasn't in a manic state, hopefully he'd find someone, anyone.

---

9:35 PM
New York, New York

Lady Arcana had continued to disable and rioters she came across for the half hour or so that she had been here, binding them with metal girders or pinning them under debris so that they wouldn't be able to threaten anyone again, even if they awakened. That had, from the start, been only her secondary goal, however. Her primary mission was to remove any innocents who were in harms way.

But in truth, the line between innocent and attacker was extremely blurred here. She had witnessed first hand what happened when they forced pills down the throats of those unlucky enough to be captured. They, despite screaming in terror moments before, would calmly stand and join the mayhem without a word.

No, this wasn't a battle between criminals and victims...everyone was a victim here. It wasn't enough just to save those fleeing from the rioters, she needed to somehow find a way to help those very same people who were trying their best to kill or corrupt her.

"Wha?" Arcana's attention was diverted from the next batch of rioters a distant crack, the sound of concrete being ruptured by some unknown force. It was loud enough that she felt compelled to divert her attention from the rioters for a moment to investigate, just in case it was even more trouble for her to deal with.

What she saw was an instantly familiar sight: dozens of people entrapped in vines, trees, and other assorted plant matter.

There was only one individual she knew of that was capable of making trees grow on command and in such a controlled manner. She had met him - fought him - months ago in a forest on the outskirts of Hub City. The strange plant-bug-man named Harris. She hadn't heard a thing from him since then, but apparently wherever he was, news of the riot reached him.

Scanning the area for the rather unmistakable sight of her tree friend, it didn't take her long to find him standing amidst his impromptu garden of prisoners.

"Harris!" Lady Arcana called out to him, descending to the fractured concrete. "Woah, you detained a lot of them! Nice job."

---

"Here's the pitch," Blackstar draws his bo staff back as the rioter runs at him, "and the swing!" With that, he swings the bo staff at the rioter, hitting him in the head and knocking him unconscious. "OUT OF THE PARK! FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH!"

"Blackstar!" A loud bang rang out even through the chaos of the streets as Grim shouldered the bent door of the pizza place back into place, probably with more force than was strictly necessary. In an almost perfect circle around her, as though a mockery of art, was a pile of those who were previously trying to wrench the same door out of place, very nearly succeeding in getting to the frightened people inside. The valves on the palm of the vigilante's left hand shut off with the threat not in her immediate vicinity, however with the door in place Grim whirled around, attempting to burn through her own goggles with the force of her glare to the young man. "LANGUAGE!"

"SORRY!" The teen yelled, whilst delivering a leaping kick to another rioter. "I GOT CAUGHT UP IN THE MOMENT!" He said to his adoptive mother, whilst twisting around to deliver a punch to another rioter's solar plexus. "BUT IT WAS AWESOME, RIGHT?!"

"You're going to be sorry if you do it again!" Grim snarled out, the voice modulator in her mask buzzing with a brief moment of static from her earlier yell. Without even looking the woman's hand shot up, catching a charging woman directly on the face with her left glove. The hiss of the valves opening started up once more, flooding the woman's face with concentrated anaesthesia. She dropped quickly. "It was a well executed move, though," The vigilante relented to her son, only to shake her head. Turning her gaze back to the people surrounding them she began up the street, lifting her glove and electricity buzzing on her knuckles before a pair of prongs shot out to hit one of the group of men approaching.

"Now come, we need to move deeper to find the source of this."

---

Harris turned towards the voice, smiling as he recognized the woman who flew down. Her name escaped him however, Lady Arthitis? Lady Arctic? Nah, those were both stupid, there was no way. He'd just have to rely on his charms in the absence of his memory. He pulled up a tree next to him and leaned against it, trying to seem like he didn't care. Wait, this is what guys did when they were flirting. His pupils turned to pinpricks as he attempted in a panic to think of what to do or say... in the end he just ended up standing unevenly and pointing finger-guns at her.

"Hey... person!"

Oh god he was going to die. He was going to die and he was going to turn into a tree.

Lady Arcana tilted her head to the side when he grew a tree and started acting like he didn't see her. This was disturbing for several reasons. One, it felt like he was flirting with her, and she was really not into...whatever you would classify him as. Two, he was doing it like a cliche leatherjacket-wearing bad boy, but he absolutely couldn't pull that image off, for whatever reason.

He also apparently forgot her name. Guess he didn't watch the news very often.

"Heh, Lady Arcana, remember?"

Folding her arms as she landed in front of him, she gave a second appraisal of his handiwork. "I'm glad you're here, though. I could use all the help I can get."

"This is no normal riot," she explained, performing a vertical lean to match his, except on thin air. "Sam said there was magic at work, and now I can feel it too, sort of. Somebody really knowledgeable in the arcane made this drug."

Harris nodded as she re-ignited the memory of her name, Lady Arcana, he remembered it being a little pretentious, so that makes sense, and he recalled her being able to fly under her own power, so her leaning on thin air made sense too... kinda, not really.

Apparently the riot was due to... magic? Okay, fine, but the magic being drug magic just made this sound like a bad cartoon plot, the type of cartoon that tells you to stay in school and not do drugs at the end of every episode. Still, he supposed, if he can exist as a giant bug man then magic is just as fine.

"I see, Arcana, like magic, okay, got it now," he said with a tap to the side of his head. "But er... magic? Couldn't it just be guys pissed that their team lost a hockey game? That's how it is in Maine."

"Wait who's Sam?" He asked, scanning the area to see if this "Sam" was nearby.

Lady Arcana blinked at his last question, "Oh, that's my cat. She talks, and knows a lot more about the magical world than I do."

"And well, I don't think the New York Rangers turn bystanders into rioters by forcing hockey pucks down their throats, or anything like that," she noted, looking at the still struggling rioters confined within Harris' vines. It seemed like they were going to keep trying to fight them until they figured out a way to cure them.

Cupping her chin for a moment, she considered his ability to command nature. "Hey, aren't your powers magic, too? Like, nature magic?"

I mean, she definitely had never seen anything like Harris before she became The Wizard.

Harris stared blankly as she spoke. Her... cat? This had to be a joke, and if so, it was a pretty funny joke, in fact, Harris began to snort, covering his face with his hands as his shoulders shook violently with each snicker. Finally Harris let out one huge wheezing laugh, smiling at her as he continued chuckling

"Good one! Really funny, hilarious even! It's so funny that you're not laughing and I don't think you're joking anymore."

Harris' smile faded as he continued to look at Arcana's unchanging expression. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and avoided eye contact.

"...Okay... Erm..." he coughed out. "Well, talking cat," he said, holding his hands out to his sides and then letting them drop against his thighs.

"Talking... cat... and this cat... told you that these rioters were on... magic drugs?" he wondered with clasped hands. "As a giant talking bug man made of wood, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

He had begun to worry for this woman's sanity. But he ignored that and moved on. He had barely heard the rest of the conversation over the words "talking" and "cat", but from what he understood, she had inquired about his abilities.

"Oh, my abilities... magic?" he asked her with a nervous smile. He had no clue himself, honestly. "Uh, sure? If that's what you want to believe, I have no idea honestly, all I know is that one day I was suddenly a plant creature, who knew?"

"Well, actually, it wasn't just my cat. It was also my best friend who sometimes has erotic visions. She was the one who originally told me everyone was on magic drugs," Arcana clarified. She then stared down at the ground for a moment, before slowly looking up at Harris. "I have a really weird life, don't I?"

Then again...

"Mysteriously waking up as a plant creature before being seduced by a drug-addicted traveling guitarist with mind control powers is pretty strange too."

Harris nodded in response to the woman's query as to the strangeness of her life, and then nodded once more at her statement about the strangeness of his own.

"Yeah, well, it's only getting stranger, considering I'm sharing my body with the amalgamation of all plant-life's rage," he dismissively waved his hand. "No biggy."

If they were going to have a strangeness contest then he was going to fight to win, he had yet to discuss the cellphone and the fact that he was literally living in a tree.

Whilst this was happening, another rioter approached the duo, running full-tilt towards Harris' back. He felt his feet treading on a few blades of grass sprouting from cracks in the concrete, and entrapped the man in vines without looking.

"Perhaps we should look for others? Anyone not effected by the dru- er, magic drug that we could help out, and maybe put some of those goddamned fires out before I choke to death!" Harris yelled, his voice suddenly shifting mid-word.

Arcana quickly signalled her agreement with a nod, smiling when he effortlessly detained the rioter. She really wanted to learn some magic too, so she could pull off neat tricks like that. But this wasn't the time to be worrying about stuff like that.

"Honestly, we shouldn't be wasting time chatting like this," she admitted, scratching the back of her hood. "Your idea is sound, about putting out the fires, but even more important is figuring out how to return these people to normal. I don't think the riot will end until we do that."

Not that she really had any idea how she was going to pull such a thing off. She had managed to obtain one of the pills, at least, but she would have to take it all the way back to Hub City to have Samantha look at it. Granted, she was fast enough to where that just might be a practical course of action, but--

"...Did you hear a bunch of swearing just now?"

From a little kid, it sounded like. What a foulmouthed little punk. She liked him already! All the more reason to hurry up and make sure he didn't get turned.

Harris agreed with her, finally moving away from the tree as she spoke, a hand placed thoughtfully on his chin. Then his head turned away from his hand as he heard the voice. He took two steps towards the voice as Arcana wondered aloud.

"Yep, if they're saying anything it's more than we've gotten out of these guys," Harris said, crouching next to an entrapped rioter and giving him a hearty bop on the top of the head. "I say we head over there, kick some ass on the way... er, I mean, unless you'd rather we didn't," he stuttered out without confidence of any kind other than when it came to kicking posteriers.

He began making his way over the the voice's location at a slow stroll, pulling a large stick from the ground and placing it on his shoulder, then dropping it when attempting to spin it in his hand.

---

It was really more of a 'grey' area, breaking into a place that was already broken into. At least that's what Grim told herself, not that it mattered - she's technically been a wanted person ever since she started vigilante work. Anyway, the point was this wasn't any more or any less illegal than her usual work, breaking into the ambulance that was turned over on its side. One of the paramedics was half out of the front seat, draped over the sideways roof of the cab and completely still. The other was the reason Grim was having so much trouble finding what she was looking for, considering his blood and brain matter was all over the equipment in the back. The place looked like a train wreck, which was comparable to what happened most likely. Ah, there's the responder bag.

"A little longer, Blackstar - I found the bag," Grim called over her shoulder, digging through the equipment inside. Everything was knocked around between the ambulance's crash and the man back here no doubt desperately looking for something to defend himself with. He was probably a first responder, and now his family wouldn't even be able to have an open casket.

She'd really like to find out who did this.

"Here we go," Excellent, they had both syringe and nasal form. The vigilante pulled out the case of Naloxone, retrieving one of the nasal applicators as she carefully climbed back out of the ambulance, already talking to Blackstar. "We're going to need a conscious one for me to apply this. It's going to be tricky with so many around - you up for it?"

"Up for it? I'm so up for it, it'd take a metric ton tied to my ankle to drag me back down." Blackstar replies, grinning underneath his mask. "I'll be back in a bit, ma!" With that, he raced outside, searching for a viable subject. "Well... There's a lot to choose from."

Spotting one rioter that was lingering away from the majority of the crowd, Blackstar ran towards her, cartwheeling behind her, kicking the back of her knee so she would fall into a kneeling position, and grabbing her arms and pulling them back. He used one hand to keep her arms in place whilst using the other to pull out one of his zipties.

Tying her arms together, he pushed her forward and back to the ambulance, arriving not long after.

"Got one, Grim!"

--

March 25th
10:00 P.M.
The Claw

The lamp emitted its soft gold rays atop the Elysium pill which sat in a small container elevated by two prongs. Overhead, the massive computer monitor relayed a digitized model of the human mind with various neurotransmitters lit up along the hypothalamus. There were succinct and sharp spikes in activity along small intervals.

"Yes, yes, hormone increases, I know. Does not tell me anything."

He swiped his finger along the screen so as to zoom and focus thus on the thalamus; he found a distinct lack of activity occurring here in particular.

"Couldn't effect their attention, they were well awake and aware. Memory? No, the sensations are implanted in the addict's mind. Must be pain. Explains why when I broke the hobo's kneecap he didn't scream." He spun around in his favorite swivel chair as he talked to himself before he returned to view the readings on the screen.

"Lack of transmission between pain synapses. Zombie like attitude; hallucinogen? Activity spikes too severe to be a simple hallucinogen, maybe it only appears to function like a hallucinogen, closest thing the brain has to forming visions. Why attack me, though? Cocaine, stimulant, doesn't make user aggressive; heroin makes them nod, still not aggressive. Users call it Elysium, but no street name."

He ran a search of the term through his database. Nothing out of the ordinary. He began swirling around in his chair again as he began some simple deduction,

"Drugs make desire for more, more drugs or more hallucinations depending on type. Hallucinations and magic, quite similar. Addict's brain on Elysium shows significant alteration in occipital lobe, unlike other drugs. Real change. A different reality--but too strong to be mere hallucination. Kitty, run etymology on names of recreational drugs."

Calculating. . .
Locating all known entries. . .
1029384038432 entries located. . .

In rapid succession down his screen appeared the origins of the names of all known illegal drugs,

"All nouns. Latin and Greek roots; all literal meanings in original languages, nouns--people, places, things. Kitty, run history of all people named Elysium."

Calculating
Locating all known entries. . .
None found

"I figured. Who the hell names their kid Elysium? Things and places, then." Marvin lifted the bottom half of his cloth mask to sip from the steaming cup of hot cocoa sat atop the tray carried by his electronic butler, Bob.

"Things and places. Elysium is a place then, drug name must just be an ode to the..." then it hit him, "ohhh! Right. Magic--gateway. Definitely gives a new meaning to gateway drug, heh!" He laughed at his own bad joke, Bob the electronic butler beeped bemused.

"So it takes them to a truly different world. Explains the hunger I saw in their eyes earlier; they wanted me to go with them. They wanted all of us to go wherever this place is."

Marvin pulled the white cloth mask over his face, and with the flip of a lever the floor beneath him opened up and he was dropped back to the lower levels of the Claw through an air-sealed tube and into the actual warehouse where his training facility was. With the Elysium pill pocketed, he paced back and forth. Through the window he could see the deep reds and light oranges from the fires rising from inside the empty project buildings across the street; firefighters had arrived to snuff the flames which could be seen from several blocks away, but to no avail--the rioters were soon to encircle the servicemen.

"A magic dimension right on the edge of the natural world," Marvin spoke before shifting into a sprint and bursting through the warehouse's front door, "explains Arcana's appearance then. If she came from another world, how many of them are out there?" his speech was audible as he once again flipped into action quite literally, serving as the lone defense between a hoard of rioters and four frightened firefighters. By now, Marvin knew the drill,

10:00: Two rioters charged, Marvin cut them both down with a leg sweep. He sprung off his supporting hand and into a standing position where he delivered a heel-to-face axe kick upon the first rioter's face before he turned his boot inward and slammed the tip of the boot into the second rioter's jaw, careening his face sideways. Both slept well.

10:01: There were soon another four to take the other two's place. He grabbed one by the arm and twisted said arm to extend his ulnar bone and make the arm snap, the other he dealt two quick jabs to the face, the first hard enough to break his nasal bone, the second--an uppercut--hard enough to shatter his jaw and lay him flat out.

He couldn't keep up at this pace for much longer, however and would soon need to evacuate. The Marcy project buildings continued to burn, fires high and bright. Marvin kept fighting beneath the blaze long enough for the firefighters to flee.

--

"I'll fly up ahead and check it out," Lady Arcana called out to Harris over her shoulder, already drifting skyward. Weaving through the buildings - some of which now sported more than a few broken windows - and power lines, she couldn't help but feel a chill dart up her spine at the sight of all the abandoned cars littering the street below. She would like to think that all of their passengers had fled to safety...but the more likely outcome was that they were dragged from their cars and force fed that pill.

Harris watched her leave, his walk slowing and finally stopping as she flew away at speed. He watched her form grow smaller and smaller over the horizon before he lost her in the smoke. He looked around, up and down, trying to figure out how he could catch up, before resigning himself and running after her.

She then saw an ambulance, and immediately felt even worse. To think there were people out here who had been trying to help save people, only to be turned into bloodthirsty killers...she had to stop this, and soon.

"Wait.."

There were people down there, still...some kid was dragging a bound woman towards the ambulance. Was that the swearing boy? If it was, then that was a positive sign, since the fiends didn't seem to speak, much less shout.

"Hey, kid!" Arcana called out to him, landing beside the ambulance. Doing her best adult impression, she placed her hands on her hips. "You've uh, got quite the mouth on you young man."

He..looked kind of like a little Grim! At least she apparently wasn't the only kid hero...although as far as he knew, he was. "Nice outfit. Are you helping to stop the riot?"

Glancing to the woman he had bound as she silently struggled, Arcana could only presume so.

---

It was just after Blackstar called out to Grim that some lady in a weird and colorful outfit flew down and landed nearby, scolding him for his language earlier. His face went blank, listening to her continue on whilst scanning both her and their surroundings for ways to take her down if she proved to be hostile.

A moment of silence after she last spoke, then he bluntly asked: "Who the hell are you?"

"You really don't know?" Arcana tilted her head slightly. "I'm Lady Arcana, the flying superwizard?"

"... Ohhhh, right. You were the lady that helped my mom capture the Electrocutioner. She also said something about a fedora wearing trench coat guy. The Punctuation? The Clue? The Fact? Eh, I'll think of it."

Arcana nodded at this, smiling. "Yupparoo! Err...Yes, of course. It was an honor working with your...mother?"

Well, that was surprising. And it confirmed The Question's theory. Amazing, he was really right about something!

"Blackstar," The crack of a modulator cut through their conversation as Grim emerged from the back of the turned ambulance, turning her gaze upon her son. She wanted to berate him for not keeping to codenames, but after a moment just sighed. The damage was done. "Remember your manners. Lady Arcana, this is Blackstar. Blackstar, Lady Arcana. I'm not that surprised to see you here. Any leads on what's going on?" As she was speaking Grim was taking apart the packaging on the naloxone, readying the applicator. She gestured to the woman her son was holding.

"Otherwise I'm about to see if an anti-opiod will work to calm them down."

Her face brightened when she saw Grim, glad to know one of the heroes she had worked with before was here. Harris was nice and all, but she hadn't really considered him a "hero" until he had started detaining people back there.

"All I know is that the pills they're on are magic in nature. There is the unmistakable presence of magic looking over this entire riot," Arcana explained, reaching down to remove a pill from the groove of her belt, handing it over to Grim.

She glanced towards the bound woman, silently wondering if giving her the anti-opiod was a good idea. After all, how would it react to magic? Not that she had a better idea at the moment.

"Magic?" That gave Grim pause, but she quickly moved to take the pill from Arcana. Examining it didn't lead to much clue, it just looked like an ordinary pill. "Hold this." She shoved the anti-opiod to Arcana before flipping open the compartment on her gauntlet, usually used for DNA swabs, and inserting the small pill. The small screen lit up, informing her of the contents and the fact that, yes, it definitely had magic in it. Interesting.

"It's always magic," She muttered, shutting the compartment and keeping the pill firmly inside. Suddenly Grim raised her right gauntlet, two prongs shooting between Blackstar and Lady Arcana to light up an approaching woman holding a bloodied shovel. Magic or not, they still went down like an ordinary person, even if they didn't have the brains to not approach the three obvious threats. Disconnecting the prongs with a flick of her wrist she then took the nasal applicator back and turned to the bound woman. "I doubt this will do much then, but considering it's still a drug it might work somewhat. Tilt her head back, Blackstar."

"... Huh? Oh, right." Blackstar replied, having been examining some of the equipment inside of the ambulance. "Open wide, and make sure to swallow... That came out really wrong." With that, he opened up the rioter's mouth.

"I hope euphemisms aren't what you're learning at school," Was the muttered response from Grim as she focused on the task at hand. Her left glove grabbed the woman's chin to help ready her with Blackstar, the other pressing the applicator firmly to her nose. A quick depression of the plunger had the naloxone entering her system, Grim making sure the entire thing was emptied before tossing it to the side. Littering wasn't exactly a concern of hers right now. "Should work in a minute or two... if it works at all."

A minute passed, and then two...with little change in the woman's behavior. She continued to struggle in vain against her bindings, never muttering a single word or even sound of protest. Arcana frowned at this, but wasn't really surprised.

"Figured it couldn't be that simple. Maybe we could synthesize a cure?" She suggested, her gaze shifting over to Grim. She really didn't look much like a woman in all that armor she wore...she was kind of curious about what she looked like beneath it.

Her face, she meant. Of course.

"Hey!" Harris yelled as he approached at a swift jog. "Arcana! I caught up!"

He approached the small group, panting and with hands on his knees. Usually he didn't get tired so easily, but with the smoke from fires blocking out the sun he began to feel just a little fatigued. He looked up and froze as his gaze met two others, both dressed in odd costumes. He stared at them, eyes wide, before coughing and offering a small wave.

"Er... hello, don't mind me, I'm just... gonna hang out here for now," he said, stepping back and slouching his shoulders. Hurray, more people to tramatize with his existence.

Currently, Grim was eternally grateful to her mask. Her lips had been parted to reply to Arcana only for the sound to die an ignoble death on her tongue as this new person landed. Creature? The goggles hid the way her eyes flicked to Arcana briefly, seeing as he had called out to her, but the other vigilante didn't seem bothered at all by their appearance. Slowly her mouth closed and her gaze returned to Harris, examining him. A giant... bug-tree... is that a tail?

... That's kind of cute, actually. Like the triangle-shaped tail of an overly fluffed kitten.

"The pleasure's mine," Grim finally responded to Harris, well-bred manners emerging. She dipped her head to him in acknowledgement before finally shifting her gaze to Arcana. What was she saying? Right. "I could get a cure synthesized with enough time, but it doesn't solve the here and now. Even as we talk more people are in danger."

Arcana smiled at Harris when he finally managed to jog his way over to them. She could've sworn that he could fly, though.

"You're right, Grim. I could just fly around trying to knock out as many people as possible, but..." she trailed off, having a feeling such a simple solution probably wouldn't be the greatest idea. If they had a cure, though...

"With a cure, I could probably just shove it down all their throats if I had to, but even so, I'd definitely miss some of them."

--

In the heart of the Marcy projects, Tiger bodyslammed one of the rioters while delivering an arcing roundhouse across three jaws of three separate men. Soon enough, the hoard had near surrounded him again; the low-rises had too much open space, he would need to lead them into a place more confined. To his right there was a light pole; Tiger leapt and grabbed around the middle of the lampost before he vaulted to the top of it. He made sure he moved slow enough so the Elysium slaves could track him, but quick enough that he kept a good distance between himself and his attackers. As he leapt between buildings--fluid as any acrobat--he drew closer to the more populated area of the city where there were ambulances and broken restauraunt windows. To his surprise, there were also other people. . . dressed rather questionably--though none more or less questionable than himself. Except for the one who looked like a plant.

He could either keep running and make his escape, or he could warn this quadruplet a set of one hundred or more hoarders was soon to come their way.

"With a cure, I could probably just shove it down all their throats if I had to, but even so, I'd definitely miss some of them,"

Marvin heard Arcana's remark; his sense of hearing far more keen than the average human, and perhaps sharper than other metas. It was a recent development of his physiology, however, and he was just beginning to learn how to suppress it for when it was necessary. From a crouched position, he perched on the ledge of the restauraunt roof; he could hear the stampeding of the rioters he had escaped drawing nigh. It would only be a few minutes before they arrived, and so Marvin figured he had better inform them of what he found. A strange introduction it would be, but those who knew how to survive in the wild--urban or natural--knew that social customs meant little when one was being hunted. In a single leap, he unfurled his body and landed softly--and near silent--atop the roof of a car; a strange defiance of physics for a man of his size. Marvin had approached the group with scathing quickness,

"You don't know who I am, but that doesn't matter. We can introduce ourselves later. There is no cure for this. . . thing. And it is only a drug insofar as it placebos the same symptoms as a drug," he turned to Lady Arcana, the one he knew for sure had some connection to magic, "what this 'Elysium' is is an actual place, a magical dimension somewhere on the edge of our own reality. My guess? The only way we are going to cure these people is if we a) travel there and deal with the source of the problem b) find out what the tether of the magic is and disrupt it or c) draw whomever is behind this out of whatever hole he/she is hiding in."

His ears looked like they had 'perked' beneath the mask as the hoard of one hundred rioters were less than a block away, he shifted his entire attention to the group and spoke again,

"There are also one hundred rioters who will be here in exactly 5..."
"4" the sound of sneakers and boots dragging against concrete grew,
"3" one could hear the chains and metal pipes dragging across the pavement,
"2" someone had hurled a molotov cocktail overhead, it was about to land in between the five heroes where they stood,
"1" they had arrived.

[Blackstripe]

March 25th
10:05 P.M.
New York City

Arcana's attention was pulled from the conversation when a masculine voice addressed her, the heroine's gaze rising to meet that of a man dressed in cat-themed costume. He was either another vigilante, or Broadway had gotten a lot more militant. "Elysium...?"

Well, while she couldn't claim to be an expert in the field by any means, she had put in quite a lot of research into Greek Mythology in these past few months. When your talking cat explains that you've got the power of six Gods in you, you naturally want to be as informed as you possibly can about their origins and history.

"That's where the righteous dead and worthy heroes would go in Greek Mythology," she explained, wondering if the term "Mythology" was really accurate anymore.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much in the way of time to consider this, as on cue at least a hundred rioters began flooding towards them down the street. Turning to face them fully, Arcana calmly stepped towards them with a sigh. Well, when they were all clustered together like this, things were actually a lot more simple. "I'll deal with them. Get down and cover your ears."

Drawing her hands apart as the rioters closed in on her, she brought her open palms together in a titanic thunderclap that shattered the sound barrier several times over, windows shattering as the mob was collectively blown off their feet.

There was one thing she remembered seeing on the Discovery Channel: it was a documentary on the disorienting effects that sound could have. Even though they felt no pain, if she threw off their equilibrium, they wouldn't be able to properly move, much less fight.

"Aren't you glad you listened to the nice lady?" Grim muttered behind Arcana, though her gaze was directed to Blackstar. More accurately, where she had grabbed onto the front of his armor to pull him down with her. Teenagers had a tendency to think they were invincible. Her other hand was actually a little warm, considering the fact she had caught the flaming bottle arcing through the air. Her gaze flicked to Harris. "Don't worry, I don't like being set on fire either." Seeing as her gloves wouldn't react to the fire the vigilante just grabbed onto the soaked cloth sticking from the mouth of the bottle, dropping it to the ground to stomp the fire out. Grim's eyes drifted to the bottle. Budweiser? What the hell was Budweiser? Cheap alcohol probably.

"Good work, Arcana," Grim finally added on, tipping the bottle over near the ambulance so it couldn't be used again. Not that the horde looked particularly capable of it after that. Still, she turned to the new arrival and his perch on the nearby building, hovering over them. At least he had a lead for stopping this, even if it was more magic. Seriously. It was always magic. "Don't suppose any of you know how to tear a magic portal open to another dimension, huh? I might be able to rig something up in my lab but it would take time we don't have."

Marvin had covered his ears, but having superhuman hearing was (in this instance) also a negative. His ears still rung and caused him some brief disorientation. Once he recovered and gathered his wit, he issued a reply,

"Magic is to magic as nature is to nature. A simple logical deduction; we would need a conduit of magic energy of some kind for transportation to a magical dimension, but teleportation is too risky."

Arcana turned to look at Tiger, smiling. "Well, I basically am a conduit of magical energy! I'm connected directly to the Rock of Eternity, which is apparently the source of all magic!"

Reaching down to her chest, she pointed to the thunderbolt on her chest, an effervescent maelstrom of magical energy perpetually churning within it. "According to Sam, that is literally a conduit to it."

"I also know a spell for creating a portal, now that I think about. I saw someone named Clayton Toombs create it, so I should be able to duplicate that..but there's no telling if it would lead us to the right--"

She paused for a second, yet another thought entering her mind. "The pill! Maybe if I used the spell in conjunction with the pill, we could lock on to this 'Elysium'?"

"The pill, from what I can tell, is the gateway and the only gateway." Marvin added.

"Interesting," Grim rumbled, and in a smooth motion flipped open the compartment on her gauntlet once more to retrieve the pill. She rolled it across her palm for one last inspection before offering it to Lady Arcana, a smirk tugging at her lips beneath the mask. "Asking for a gift back after giving it is bad manners, you know." Though it was interesting she had also run into Clayton Toombs, she might have to inquire about that later.

Harris was slow to react to... well, everything, the arrival of the cat-costumed vigilante and his countdown only met with mild confusion from Harris, and when the black-cloaked man grabbed the Molotov cocktail out of the air, he barely had enough time to flinch. He moved so fast, it was unreal. Harris simply watched as Arcana single-handedly defeated the assembled mob and barely heard the rest of the techno-babbly conversation

He had begun to think he was a little too slow to react.

Harris watched the rest as they began to experiment, knock-kneed and slouching.

"Hey... uh, I share my body with a questionably magic creature, maybe it could help here, not that I'm really helping... just ignore me, I'll be over here if you want a tree or something."

"What are we waiting for? The longer we wait the more permanent these effects might be." Marvin hopped off the hood the car and his tan army boots touched the gravel soft.

Lady Arcana smiled lightly to Grim as she accepted the pill. "Thanks. If it's not intact after the spell, then we'll find you another. Shouldn't be too hard, considering."

Nodding to Tiger when he pushed her to hurry it up, she drew a deep breath. Mr. Toombs had used chalk to draw the arcane circle, but she didn't have any chalk. Besides, while her knowledge of magic was obviously lacking, she did have a feeling that a stream of her mystical Zeus-powered electricity would do the job just as well, if not a whole lot better!

Extending a finger, a stream of lightning shot forth into the ground, and using the perfect photo-recall of Mnemosyne, she quickly etched a circle into the concrete, which continued to emit a luminous glow even after the arc was broken. Arcana then fired a second bolt inside the circle, drawing a square, then a circle, a triangle, yet another square and finally a second triangle.

"Whew, okay...now, hopefully this won't kill us all," Arcana mused, placing the pill in the middle of the inner triangle. Pressing a pair of fingers lightly against the pill, the circle began to glow even more brightly, casting away the night in that brief moment. The circle vanished, replaced by what looked almost like a mirror, except rather than their reflection, it showed a grassy field against a crystal blue sky.

It was a bit different from how Clayton's had looked, but then, their destination was different.

Arcana looked up at the group, "Uh, guess we can call it a success?"

"Well, it didn't kill us, so I suppose so," Harris responded, staring intently at the... portal? Gateway? He hadn't been paying attention honestly. "I'm just still hung up on the talking cat, now there's a... whatever the hell this thing is," Harris said, almost sounding defeated.

Get it away!

It's unnatural!

Protect us!

Apparently The Green was not a fan.

"Whatever that thing is it's making my body-mate very uncomfortable, so that's a good sign."

"How confident are you about getting us back out when we're thro- talking cat?" Grim glanced up at Harris, brows furrowing. She shook her head. Not the time to get distracted, even if it was weird. "We might want to grab another pill in case you need to make another portal to get back here, if you're not sure if it'll stay open." As she was talking Grim was also moving to repeat one of her tried and true tricks, retrieving a lock pick and tossing it to the mirror-like hole to make sure it was safe to go through. Seemed fine enough with metal. Human flesh probably wasn't that different for a magical portal.

Marvin turned his attention to Grim; of those who were present, she and the younger one beside her were the only ones who resembled himself in any fashion. A quick examination of her attire and her gadgets told him much of what he needed to know: she was rich, she was good with tech, though most of her equipment looked like early builds. Marvin thought it a shame someone such as her would come so ill prepared; in this new world of magic and mighty men, regular folk like her and himself needed to have several failsafes and back up plans.

He reached into his vest and tossed the Elysium pill--which he had stored away for his own research--to Grim, "Always keep a spare," he kept his tone serious. Then he leapt into the portal.

Arcana's heart skipped a beat when The Tiger leaped in before her. She was actually going to test it out for them, since she was pretty much indestructible, but it seems like fear wasn't a part of his hero portfolio.

Raising a hand to pinch her nose, she glanced to the others and offered them a final smile. "Guess that's our cue as well."

Leaping through the portal, she vanished just as the Tiger had before her. "Huf!"

Well, it wasn't so much of a leap as a light hop forward, as her feet landed on solid grass right on the other side. That's right, going through the portal wasn't like being whisked away somewhere...it was more like stepping into another room.

She was now standing in the same field they had all witnessed from the other side, and beside her was the Tiger. "...Told ya it'd work."

"I had no doubt it would." Tiger swirled his visage about; for this dimension to be 'magic' it felt more kin to the natural world. The world about had its own color palette; reds, oranges, greens, deep blues, and each combined well. He had to pause and admire.

Harris cringed as both Arcana and the cat-guy jumped into the portal, thankfully there weren't any bits flying back out, a good sign. Harris took a deep breath and followed after them, sticking a foot in first to make sure it was safe, then creeping in slowly.

Immediately he felt the effects of being cut off from The Green. The voices that were always present in his head went silent, and his body felt weaker, ill even. He could no longer feel a connection to the grass beneath them, something which felt very strange after so long. He was still a giant plant monster, but he felt like a normal person once more.

"Woah, that's weird, I can't feel The Green anymore."

He tried to cause a tree to grow in front of him, but nothing happened.

"Okay, so my abilities are completely gone," he informed the other two, not that they would care.

Grim huffed lightly, eyes narrowing after the catman as he fearlessly jumped into the portal. Absolutely no sense of self preservation - and not the first vigilante she ran into with that problem. Honestly she's surprised she hadn't heard of more people being killed trying heroics the past couple months.

Luck preserved them however, and Grim took a moment to replace the pill in the compartment on her gauntlet before stepping through after them. She caught the last bit of bug-tree's words, and gestured back towards Blackstar.

"Stay back with Blackstar to watch our flank." Beneath the mask Grim gave Blackstar a pointed look. That meant stay behind them, dammit. Turning her gaze back to Ear Points and Arcana Grim took a moment to swap through her lens functions. All operational. Keeping the left lens on the heat sensor she began to scan their surroundings.

"Right then, let's find the source of this. Take point, indestructible one?"

Arcana gave Grim a reassuring 'thumbs up', before walking north from the portal. She honestly had no idea where she was going....everything looked more or less the same: a vast, seemingly endless field. The air was temperate and sweet-smelling, and if their situation were any less dire, she would dare call it a paradise.

She also wanted to complain about how she always seemed to end up walking aimlessly for prolonged periods of time. First the Rock of Eternity, then the sewers beneath Hub City, now this place.

No, screw that. She was effin' Lady Arcana, why did she need to slowly stroll through the fields?

"...I'm going to go do some real scouting," she muttered, lifting off the ground. Flying high up, she shot forward, leaving a sonic boom in her wake. It took her only about ten seconds to return, as she descended into a jog towards Grim. "Hey! I think I found them!"

"Direction?" Grim tilted her head the way Arcana gestured, the lens currently not on heat optics in her goggles immediately swapping to the zoom function to get a look herself - if it was possible, anyway, Arcana was fast. She really hoped their normal human feet wouldn't have to walk for an hour or something ridiculous. At the same time without looking she added on. "What did you see?"

"People," she clarified. "More specifically, a whole lot of people. They were all kneeling, and they...well, they looked to be in pain. Like they were in a trance, but it was hurting them at the same time."

She had to fly pretty far to find them, though. This place was way bigger than she had first suspected. Having the lot of them walk would be unacceptable.

Looking to Grim and the Tiger, she extended her hands towards them. "Come on, I'll take you there."

"Hm," Grim's lens returned to normal zoom and she turned back to Arcana. "Since the people who took part of Elysium couldn't physically travel here as we did that might somehow be their consciences. Actually, it seems more than likely." The vigilante glanced down to Arcana's hand, humming thoughtfully. Between that gesture and the zoom function on her goggles not picking up anything it was clear what she was saying. Grim turned to Blackstar and Harris.

"Stay with him. Yes, I know you don't like it, we'll argue about it later." A slight sigh escaped her. "Stay safe Blackstar." Grim intoned finally to her sidekick, stressing the word, before finally reaching out to firmly grasp Arcana's hand.

Marvin had briefly lapsed into a daydream before Grim's words, which were aimed at her sidekick, floated toward his ears. He turned those deep yellow eyes pervading the front of the white mask to where she stood and then up at the portal, then back down to the vigilante in question; from what Marvin observed, the two treated one another like mother and son. While Marvin thought the dynamic a little unprofessional--if vigilantism could be called a profession--he made note. Whatever was to happen here, he would make sure she got home to him.

Fixing his gaze on Arcana once more, he clasped her hand within his.

As soon as she had both of their hands, both costumed vigilantes would feel themselves become lighter, their bodies enveloped by an invisible aura. Like before, Lady Arcana rocketed forth, and from their perspective they would see the world racing past beneath them, although perhaps not as quickly as their speed might imply: time was relative for both Arcana and her passengers.

Glancing over to Grim for a brief moment, Arcana gently flexed the fingers grasping the other woman's hand. She really did look like a man in that armor, and she couldn't help being curious if she could tell the difference between her hand and Tiger's.

When they at last arrived, Lady Arcana offered the pair a soft landing before what could only be described as nearly endless rows of kneeling people, their low-pitched groans of pain coalescing into a chorus of sorrow.

"...See? They're like, in some sort of horrible trance."

"... That was both weird, a little disorientating, and rather interesting," Grim muttered under her breath, but quickly shook the experience off. There was time to reflect later. Instead she turned her goggled gaze to the people, approaching the closest one cautiously. It would be a mistake to rile them up, but to be honest she doubted they'd react much. She waved a hand in front of the woman and hummed thoughtfully before straightening up and turning in the direction they were all kneeling, her goggles resuming the zoom function once more to see over the endless rows of people.

"We'll have to break the trance then. Preferably by finding the one who put them in it."

"Disembodied consciences." Marvin walked up to one of them; a firm slap on the back of the being appeared futile for it arose no sensation.

"There has to be something around here which keeps them connected; a tether of some kind." He could smell nothing distinct in the distance, nor could he see anything far off.

"If every universe has a core, so do its dimensions; what is the core of a dimension which traps one's conscious? What keeps it stable?" Marvin posed the questions to either of his compatriots.

Lady Arcana threw her hands up in a shrug.

"With magic? If I've read enough fiction either some sort of magic artifact or a wizard." Grim glanced to Arcana. "Or ... witch?" She shrugged as well, turning back to the woman before her. Retrieving a swab from her gauntlet she cautiously stuck the end in the corner of the woman's mouth, rubbing it against the inside of her cheek before withdrawing it to check with the on board computer. Her computer just gave back an error. Should've been expected. She put the swab in a small plastic container specifically for them to save for later. She'd examine it with the pill back in her lab.

"Our best bet right now is to go to the front of them I'd think. If there's nothing up there we're going to have to start experimenting on waking them up." Grim turned her gaze to the front of the congregation once more, starting off in that direction.

Marvin followed close behind, he thought to himself,

Certainly need to get one of those wrist computers.

Marvin began a sprint, walking was obviously the slower alternative--he snatched Grim by the hand as he passed her and not long after he began to pick up speed; 10 miles per hour, 20, 25, 35; then he got a real head of steam: 40, 45? 60? 70? He had never gone this fast in 'the real world'; either he was still changing or he needed a little more magic in his life. Maybe he would borrow some of this universe's energy for further experimentation. Once he reached top speed, he skid to a stop at the front of the mass crowd of tranced Elysium addicts. Once he had done his part, he had himself a nice seat on the grass for respite.

After her second time being pulled along at inhuman speeds, Grim was feeling mildly sick. Actually, mostly she was feeling sick of literally everyone she ran into having these extraordinary powers. Seriously?! Next thing she knew Blackstar was going to start sprouting wings or something! Alright, calm down, focus on the task...

Grim lifted her head to slowly look around the front of the crowd, lenses rapidly swapping between normal, night vision, and heat sensor to check on everything.

As Grim shifted between the visual spectrum, she would notice something with her heat sensor: a tether, barely visible, connected each of the people to some indeterminate source. It seemed to attach to them at the crown of their skulls, before flowing high into the sky above.

The vigilante slowly tilted her head back, following the line of tethers into the sky. either the person controlling them all was up there, or...

"I think they're connected to their real selves through the sky. At least, they're connected to something up there," She raised a hand to tap against her goggles without turning to Tiger, the right lens swapping back to normal but the left staying on the heat sensors. "We could try severing the ... I'd call it a tether, but to be honest if we're not sure where it connects we could end up putting someone in a coma or killing them."

Marvin rose from his seated position, his vision shot up to the sky.

"Well, I guess the only question left is: are we dealing with a something or a someone? If we go up there and we happen to be dealing with the latter, it would probably mean these people's conscious' turn into bargaining chips. I don't know about either of you, but I don't want to take chances with an overlord of a mystical dimension. And, well, if it is a someone this someone will probably have powers beyond anything either one of us can handle."

His attention briefly shifted to Arcana, then back to the sky.

Lady Arcana had remained silent, hoping the two of them would hopefully come up with some plan of action because, frankly, she had no idea what to do at this point. Floating down to Tiger's side, she scratched the back of her hood with a gentle sigh. "Um, so do you think I should try flying up there, then? Or maybe just try and carry them out of the portal?"

She really was at a loss, and made her stomach hurt, just a little bit.

The unfeeling yellow eyes of his mask fell on Arcana; his voice betray a shred of worry in its tone,

"Anything tethered to something else can't be forcefully torn from its source; the consequences are always bad. The only way is up. There is no real way to know what our next steps are until we know what we are up against. Worst case scenario? You hold off whoever or whatever is up there long enough for us to find out what's going on. I have a hunch that either way we'll be in for a fight." he stamped.

"Right," Grim huffed, her eyes sliding over the chorus of people. "I'm going to do something unpleasant." She stated in a calm voice, denying the hint of unease that settled in her chest. This could end up seriously hurting or killing someone, but to be honest they didn't have many options. The more time they spent in here the more people were likely getting infected or hurt outside. With that in mind she had picked out the oldest of the people there, an almost frail looking homeless man in filthy clothes. Drug addict or not, he was a person, and as Grim stepped before him she reached out to check his neck. Finding a grimy chain she pulled it out, noting the cross. Despite her own acknowledgement of them lacking time she respectfully put her hands together and said a quiet prayer, should something go wrong.

And with that done, Grim promptly slapped him right across the face.

In response to the slap, the hobo's eyes shot open and he released an ear-piercing scream that threatened to rupture any unprotected ears. Arcana herself quickly covered hers, wincing in pain.

The screaming lasted for several moments, before the man calmed, his face seeming to regain composure as he glanced about in confusion. Before he could say anything, he quickly faded out of existence, at least in this strange world. Lowering her hands, Arcana tilted her head. "Uh...did it work?"

Grim winced as she slipped her own hands from where they had slammed over her ears, the speaker in her left ear crackling lightly from the noise. Ow. She couldn't imagine what that'd be like for someone with supernatural hearing.

"I... didn't get a look at the tether," Grim finally admitted, a touch sheepishly. The vigilante reached up and removed the ear piece, but then moved on to another person. "He seemed almost... calm when the screaming ended. Cover your ears, I'm going to watch what happens to their tether this time." Moving to another older person she repeated the process of checking for any religious paraphernalia, but finding none repeated the process of slapping them across the face, immediately slamming her hands over her ears. This time she kept her heat sensor firmly on the energy connected to their head.

Arcana followed Grim's instructions and covered her ears. Watching the other woman slam her hand into another vagrant, she watched him once again scream out with enough force that make her blood chill.

When he too calmed, the tether seemed to begin retreating into the sky as his body faded.

Grim very slowly lowered her hands, head tilted up into the sky as she watched after the tether. Finally she turned to the other two and commented in the flattest voice she ever had.

"We have to slap them awake."

Marvin squinted beneath the mask. This was going to be painful. He was less hesitant to slap the tranced conscious'. The scream emitted from the dissolving conscious was too great for his ears to sustain up close. Marvin was going to burst both eardrums if he kept this up. He distanced himself from the group and let them handle this.

Grim watched the Catarang back up, guessing that his appearance also told a story of some more of his powers. His ears must be ringing. Her own weren't much better. She glanced down the line of people even as she reached for the first aid kit hidden under her jacket, intending to craft together some make shift ear plugs just to pause. Grim suddenly turned to Arcana.

"Can you make a smaller version of that thunderclap from earlier? It might stop the screaming when they awaken, and do all of them at once if we can test it out first."

"Actually, if you two put some distance between you and these people, I should be able to take care of this pretty quickly," Arcana noted. If it was just slapping people upside the head en mass, then she could handle that. "Just one thing...do you happen to have any cotton?"

"Yes, actually," Grim gave Arcana an approving glance, though of course it wasn't seen. The vigilante reached behind her jacket, skillfully unhooking the first aid kit that rested against her lower back. She flipped it open with practiced ease, retrieving a package of gauze and ripping the top off, only to split it in two. Handing over the cotton gauze Grim quickly packed up the first aid kit once more. "Make sure you stuff them in far enough, but not so far you can't pull them out again - I can get them out if you do, though." With her last warnings given Grim waited for Arcana to do so before retreating, replacing the first aid kit in its holder before grabbing Tiger's arm and pulling him further away.

Smiling in gratitude when Grim offered her the gauze, she couldn't help but admit that it was pretty obvious she was a woman now, even with her voice alteration. It was likely that most people didn't get to spend a protracted amount of time with her, so they would never figure such a thing out. Stuffing the gauze well into her ears, Arcana released a sigh. She would need to do this carefully...the right balance of speed and force.

Turning to the numerous men, women, and tragically, children in the line, Arcana drew back her hand and brought it across the face of the first victim of Elysium..and she did the same to a second, a third, and a fourth. One after another, at about three hundred miles per hour, she issued slaps that were just hard enough to jar them awake without inflicting any kind of injury.

While she could go ridiculously fast, she was not at all confident she could move more quickly than this while keeping a relative "feather touch". And so she crisscrossed the line at her subsonic speed, issuing out reddening slaps like majorly PO'd Mother Superior.

The screams began to pile onto one another, a chorus of sorrow and pain washing over the field, a cacophony of wailing threatening to pierce even the gauze that Arcana had stuff her ears with. It was honestly the loudest sound she'd ever heard, and it was only growing in intensity as she continued to smack more and more of the unfortunate souls trapped here.

It took roughly ten minutes for her to make it through all the people who had been infected by the drug, and by that time her head was seriously throbbing. Rubbing at her temples, she flew back a few dozen meters to observe as the voices gradually began to quieten, the last of the many thousands of people finally vanishing.

Exhaling sharply, she drifted to the ground and fell back into a sitting position. While she wasn't physically exhausted, mentally was another question.

"Well, that was easy enough." Marvin gained some slight enjoyment out of watching her smack people's conscious' to life. Secretly, he was hoping the climax to the ordeal was a little less mundane; all the same, he was unsure of how much he wanted to fight mysterious magical beings. He turned to Grim,

"What do you think the chances are of this soil actually being magic?"

"Considering it took us a magic portal to even get here? Pretty high." The gauntlet compartment opened once more, and she retrieved two of the cotton swabs - but more importantly the plastic cylinders used to house them after use. She tossed them to the Big Paw. "If you're collecting grab me one too, will you? And an extra cylinder if you need one." Honestly she'd prefer he not get a sample at all if it meant more vigilante work, but she had to pick her battles for right now and fighting in a magical realm was not the place.

Instead Grim moved to the front of Lady Arcana, retrieving the first aid kit and kneeling before her. Flipping it open once more she dug through it, finding what she was looking for in a corner and pulling out a bottle of extra strength Tylenol. Honestly she didn't even know if it would work for Lady Arcana, but she looked pretty stressed. Since she still didn't have the gauze out of her ears Grim just held up the bottle to her in question.

Marvin got to work collecting several samples of the soil to stow away in the cylinders; he filled both to the brim and stored them safely in his vest.

Arcana looked up to see a gloved hand holding a pill bottle. The label said it was Tylenol, which she honestly felt like she could use at the moment. Offering Grim a weary smile, reached out and took it, popping it open. Dropping a few pills down her throat, she swallowed. "Thanks..."

Reaching down to the grassy fields, she pushed herself up. "That should be the end of the riot, right?"

If it wasn't, then she truly was out of ideas. She couldn't imagine any other way to bring an end to things at this point. More than anything, she hated the thought that she just spent the last ten minutes bitch slapping over ten thousand people for no reason.

"Well done," a voice suddenly echoed throughout the field, it's source not easily discernible. "You've successfully brought an end to the carnage...for now."

Arcana blinked at this, frantically glancing about the area for any sign of whomever was speaking to them, but to no avail. "Who...? Where are--"

"I hope you've been enjoying my little experiments as much as I have, Zoey, Karen...and Marvin too, now, along with all your other delightful little friends," a low rumbling chuckle caused the grass to sway slightly. "Benjamin and New York were just a sample of all the fun we'll be having together in the coming months. I look forward to it!"

Lady Arcana felt her heart practically start trying to pound its way out her chest when he called her name, as well as the names of her companions. "How about you grow a pair and come down here so I can slap your spoopy-sounding ass too?"

"Oh, little Wizardess, I'm not so foolish as to face you directly...yet. But rest assured, the day we meet will come. Until then, I bid you all a good day."

Marvin rose to his feet and strolled over. Ominous voice and threat of equal chill aside, he was ready to get back to New York. He had some experimenting to do.

"Karen and Zoey, huh? I always thought the black one was a man." Marvin dug into his vest and tossed Zoey one of the cylinders filled with the magic soil before he spoke again, "I'll find you and get this back to you tomorrow." he was, above all else, blatant and lacked a sense of cordiality--as if that was not evident already.

"Let's get out of here." he ended.

"... It's unisex." Grim finally offered, and though the modulator hid most of it even to her ears the response sounded weak. Which it was. She hadn't met any man named either Karen or Zoey, and though it was interesting to know the other two's name Grim had frozen at her own. Her identity was a well protected secret for twenty years, only two people knowing who she was. Now that number potentially doubled if these two could put the clues together of who she was. All because of some magical nerd and his 'experiments'. At least for all the trouble it added some clue to the box currently in her lab, but still...

"I hate magic a little," The vigilante muttered under her breath, placing the soil sample beside the other two field samples she had collected this day. Giving a glance around the area and sky once more with her heat sensors but finding nothing that could help she closed the compartment on her gauntlet, commenting gruffly to the other two. "Don't suppose either of you have an idea to track a magical being huh? I don't like leaving the job half-done."

"Unisex? Right. I'll run it through Kitty and see what comes back. And I suppose tracking a magic being isn't all that hard. All you would need is an energy signature from them and you could probably integrate it into some tracking tech synthesized to locate that specific energy type on the energy spectrum. Granted, not all of the energies are the same and some might be untraceable by measures not magical in and of themselves."

Lady Arcana noted the other woman's discomfort at having her name revealed. It seemed just as important to "Zoey" as it was to herself. She likely had enemies, after all, and didn't want that getting around. She understood that feeling well enough, and so, despite also being shaken up by the whole experience, she put on her best smile.

"I don't mind my name being revealed," Arcana chuckled. "I'm more or less invincible, after all...but I can understand why you both would feel the need to preserve such a thing."

Extending a warm hand out to both of them, her smile only broadened. "It's nice to meet you, Karen, Marvin. You can just call me 'Zo', if you like."

To say that Grim was stunned was a bit of an understatement, her gaze turning to Lady Arcana. Behind her mask her eyebrows had furrowed in confusion before widening slightly, all hidden. Masks were so useful. A tendril of warmth built up inside her chest. It may have just been a ploy to keep Arcana's own identity secret, selfish in desire, but it helped her either way - and to be honest she didn't think Miss Sunshine had a bad bone in her. Finally, Grim sighed.

"I prefer Grim," The masked vigilante responded, keeping in character. Owing Lady Arcana a favor was far preferable to the alternative. Still, she clapped her hand to the other woman's, squeezing her fingers lightly to show her thanks.

"The part where we introduce ourselves. Name's Tiger. Some call me Karen." In contrast, Marvin only offered a gentleman's nod. He was far too embarrassed to let a woman and a woman-who-was-pretending-she-was-not-a-woman to feel the scars and callouses on his hands.

Lady Arcana smirked at the both of them. "Great. Then let's get back to the city. Hopefully things should be a lot quieter now."

---

New York was indeed far more silent than it had been before they left. The constant echos of violence that permeated the city when they left were thankfully gone now. The hundred or so people they had left near the portal were now stumbling about in a daze, trying to figure out what had happened to them.

Presumably, all the victims of Elysium throughout the city were in much the same boat.

There were still numerous fires, and police and ambulance sirens could be heard all around them as they strived to restore order and give aid to the injured. While there had been much pain this day, it appeared that the violence was at least over.

It had been a rather stressful day, at that. Grim was currently looking over Blackstar, hands on his shoulders making sure he didn't squirm away. The mysterious 'voice' had left them alone, much to her relief. She even glanced over Harris, seeing as he was with Blackstar, nodding in approval seeing they were both alright now that they were out of the portal. Inspection done she turned to the group as a whole, humming thoughtfully.

"... Eventful day," She finally commented, just to sigh lightly. "Blackstar and I are going to see if we can help with the fires and rescues before returning home. It was a pleasure as always Lady Arcana, and the pleasure was mine, you two." She nodded to the bug man and the pointed ears one, not wanting to admit she had never asked the former for his name and had already forgotten the latter's code name. Catman? Mister Paws? It didn't matter. Speaking of which...

"You should think about your career decisions," Grim intoned, focused on Marvin. "You seem like an intelligent man. It'd be a shame for New York to lose that."

Marvin pinned his visage on Grim, specifically, "My guess is you've had it pretty easy, huh, Grim? You have nice gadgets--they lack refinement, but they are still better than much of what I have seen. I'm also willing to bet you have a bit of money, lots of it even, from the design of all those nice gadgets you've got. Probably have yourself a nice place to hide all of that fancy stuff too, huh?" he paused for a brief moment to roll his neck around and relieve some tension in the muscle before continuing,

"you're a vigilante like me. But I know for sure you haven't been fighting for this city as long as I have. Don't lecture me. Worry about those close to you--you let that one," he nodded to Blackstripe, "stray too far from the dog house and you might get him eaten. You don't know me, but I know more about you than you think." Marvin began to make his exit; first atop the roof of a car, then a second leap to the roof of a storefront. He was soon shrouded by the black of night. He was still close enough to hear her response.

"...Easy?" The sound came out as a low hiss, sliding through the voice modulator like steam. "Easy?!" The vigilante almost bristled like the dog she was named after, her jaw tense and teeth clenched. When her voice came again even through the modulator it came out snarled, calling after Mister Paws' retreating back.

"Arrogance like that will get you killed. Killed like every other over-confident jackass with good intentions! You're not the first person wanting to help your city - Vanessa Copper, Syracuse New York, killed in 2005 after trying to stop a mugging! She died bleeding out in an alleyway! Roger Tucker, Buffalo New York, died in 2013 wearing a homemade mask - get back here you son of a bitch!" Abruptly Grim's hand shot up, her hookshot activating and slamming into the building that Jackass Paws had escaped up to go after him.

Lady Arcana had busied herself after returning to New York by seeking out anyone nearby that might still be trapped under rubble or in hiding, not yet aware that the riot had ended. This place would need a lot of clean up, and she would help throughout the night if she could.

Meanwhile, Tiger knew the blocks in and around the Marcy Housing Projects all too well to engage in a mere goose chase. If she wanted to chase him through his jungle, he would let her. Across several the roofs of several buildings Tiger went with a calm fluidity and transitional prowess. He knew all along she had her thermo-goggles and could easily track the residue from the warmth of his feet even though she couldn't track the sounds themselves. He stopped his 'evasion' near an empty side street where much of the light was smoke from buildings and dim lit streetlights. The rest was black abyss.

He would await her imminent arrival.

Across Grim's goggles the text in the upper right signaled the approach she had called for using the gauntlet computer, and in fact she didn't even get a half dozen buildings over before a shadow fell over the one she was currently on. Above her hovered a black jet, no doubt some of the most advanced tech available just from how it hovered. The only distinctive marking on it was on the left hand side - a grey etching of a canine's head, and Grim's unmistakable icon. Most things Grim did were at least attempted to be subtle, but not this, and not what dropped from it a moment later. Even the low height should've damaged the equally black motorcycle that dropped from the underside of the hovering jet, yet not only did this one not damage, it landed perfectly, the front lighting up as it activated and moved right to Grim's side.

Without a hint of hesitation she threw her leg over the beast of a machine, feeling the thrum of the powerful engine beneath her. The left lens of Grim's goggles were already on heat optics, but the right one quickly switched to night vision as she took off after the Pussycat, leaving the jet behind for Blackstar.

It wasn't Gotham, but the motorcycle beneath her had no concept of the change of cities anyway. Whatever didn't have something to ramp off of was hopped using the machine's rather impressive propulsion system, Grim tracking after the prints Marvin had left behind akin to her namesake. It didn't take long to catch up to him. With another small 'hop' the tires of the motorcycle skidded along the wall of one of the buildings before pushing off of it, landing with a heavy thud on the concrete floor. The light at the front of the motorcycle lit up the street, and Marvin. Atop it Grim gripped the handlebars with an iron fist, teeth still grit and nearly seeing red.

"You always brush off others, thinking you know better?"

Marvin stood with both arms calm at his side; beneath the mask, one could feel the look of detachment dancing across Grim's body; his words did not portray the same sentiments,

"Do you always let someone who supposedly 'brushes people off' get under your skin? I never claimed to know more or less than you. You did when you presumed I could be lumped together with all the 'others' you so affectionately listed off. My guess is you only really remember things when they are convenient, hm? Defense mechanism, right? I know. Same situation as the ring; the person in front of you doesn't matter until after you can use them as an example or a cautionary tale of why someone shouldn't think they can do things any differently or better than you."

He folded his arms across his chest before he continued.

"You're a vigilante who has become a mother. You're wiser, older, and yet and still--you let someone you hardly know incite you to rage. My suggestion? Ask yourself why you're really here before you do something you don't want to and have to add it to the already long list of regrets you have."

His tone was filled with energy and cadence, and his words were equally observational as they were intentional.

"Let me ask you: what do you think I fight for? Since you know me, of course."

A barking laugh escaped Grim's voice modulator, crackling with the noise. Beneath the the engine that quietly purred thrummed with energy as her hands gripped the bars tighter, the noise quickly dying down once more.

"I don't give a single fuck what you fight for." Sparks lit up under her right glove briefly, dying down in a moment. "You know what I care about? The fact you could die tomorrow. So could every other asshole that's putting on a mask right now, running around trying to play hero. Trying to make the world a better place, or to get famous, to get revenge - I really don't care. For all I know you could become the best fucking vigilante the world has ever seen, but you know what the odds say? The odds say you'll die. Alone. Leaving family behind wondering what happened to little Marvin - maybe you don't even have family to mourn you but you'll still be missing from the world." Another low hiss escaped Grim's lips, and her head dipped slightly to glare at the ground in front of her bike.

"So go ahead, analyze me with that smart little brain of yours. Pick apart every detail. Analyze every single person you come across, too! But people can't be fit into boxes, they're animals. Panicky, scared animals that don't always react the way you think they will! Eventually you'll get hurt, it's inevitable, and it may not be something you can recover from! This isn't some... ring with rules to abide by. It isn't some equation to be solved. Every single time you put on that mask it's a death match. But maybe you know that too, huh?" Grim laughed again, it weaker this time, not as harsh. "And maybe I'm just talking to a brick wall but god fucking damnit man, have some self preservation instinct! Maybe you think dying for whatever cause you believe in is worth it but I don't! I've seen just from being with you today you're smart, you're really smart, and you're fast and you're strong - but it won't always be enough. No, I don't know what you fight for, but I know I don't want to see you or anyone else as just another tragic tale in the obituaries, skinned and flayed and broken."

The white cloth mask visibly creased as Marvin smiled wide beneath it. He let out a soft chuckle of his own that was drawn up by the frigid night air,

"All your talk about anti-vigilantism and yet you have an apprentice, wear a mask, and chase people down in the dead of night. For all your experience in this business, it seems like you have forgotten some things yourself, hm? I know well what the 'odds' are, Grim. The odds are we all die, it doesn't matter if we choose to sacrifice for ideals or wallow and let other people suffer while we lament the cruelty of the world from our secret lairs; we all die. But, but you know what? Maybe you forgot why you begun your fight in the first place. Someone wronged you, someone wronged someone you loved and you vowed to protect as many people as you could, without regards to your health. Tell me, Grim, if what we do was really about arbitrary 'self-preservation', would their be any justice? For anyone? No. Powered or not, badge or no badge--we all risk our lives because we owe someone we wished we could have helped. We owe him our words and our lives to do right by one another."

Marvin breathed in some of the cold night air.

"I wager you weren't the first person to put on the mask and make it your life's work to clean up the streets--and you won't be the last. Everyone who follows in your supposed 'footsteps' lived and died standing for something so that you could sit across from me on your billion-dollar bike with all of your advanced technology and tell me I should find a new path in life. How much do you actually know about those who are close to you? Do you project your inadequacies on everyone you meet? Or just those whose names you care to remember outside of the obituary? But then again, the last I checked, the moment a so-called 'vigilante' begins to relegate the names of the human beings she is supposed to serve to being mere cutouts she can hang up on her wall to tell herself she has the moral high ground to lecture another about the rights and wrongs of serving others--that vigilante has lost her right to put on the mask to begin with."

There was a brief pause as more thoughts ran through his head,

"I've been poor, I've fought--I've lost, I've gotten back up. I was "broken, flayed, skinned" by life with no greater intensity than any person is. The day I don't get back up because I was making sure someone else had safer streets to walk than I did is the day my job is done--and its the day allvigilante's jobs are done. Deep down, you know that's the case, too."

"I do know that's the case," Grim's voice was softer now, almost defeated from behind the mechanical crack of mask. Her posture remained rigid, and finally she raised her gaze from the ground to look back to Marvin. Any expression on her face was lost. "But what I don't think you understand is I know I can't stop people from doing what I do, what you seem intent on doing, but I will never stop trying. And yes, maybe that's hypocritical as me, but it's not something that can be explained or analyzed away. Maybe someday you'll be the best vigilante the world has ever seen and you'll know what I mean, but to be honest I hope you never do. Because there's something different in it - I've seen death, I've been a part of it even, but it's never the same as looking at the broken body of someone who was inspired by us to go right into the maws of death themselves and never went back home to their families. Somehow I doubt you were inspired by me, but this?" Grim reached up, tapping on the mask on her face.

"It was inspired. In you, in me, in everyone who wants to protect the world before and after us. I know the name of every single person who died trying to be like me, or the Impossibles, not as examples but because the world won't remember them. We lost them all, and everything they could do, before the world could ever know them. So I will." Sirens sounded in the distance, prompting Grim to tilt her head. There were sirens all over the city, but these ones were closer, close enough to ring. The city was still in turmoil. Abruptly the engine on her bike roared to life and the light on Kitten was depleted as the bike turned around.

"I can see you won't be convinced. To be honest people rarely are. At least I know you're not taking it lightly." Another rumble from the engine as she revved it, only to pause. "And Marvin, the life of a vigilante is never easy, even with the fanciest gadgets in the world. Goodbye, Marvin." Kicking off from street the tires didn't so much as squeal before the motorcycle took off, chasing after those sirens in the distance. There was always work to do. Grim could only hope Marvin saw her obituary long before she saw his.

'Goodbye,' Marvin grinned. He wiggled the cylinder he still had from earlier in the clutch of his left hand.

'I'll see you sooner than you think." it was time to see how the dogs lived for once.

--

Harris was the last to leave the portal and was the last to leave the spot where they had gathered, he had spent the rest of the time either waddling around confused and attempting to calm The Green down once it had begun to scream at him for leaving.

He hadn't understood how they had stopped the riot, but he knew that they'd succeeded somehow. Arcana left first, seemingly to help those who hadn't been in a good way due to the riot.

He supposed that was a good idea, so he smashed the concrete beneath him and sank into the ground beneath.

A girl cried as the flames continued to rage, her breaths turning into coughs and her body aching as the tiny space around her contorted her form. It was agony, her chest ached, her body stung, and her eyes burned. The car continued to burn far too bright for her eyes, seemingly unable to run out of fuel.

Then it began to shake, she felt herself begin to move upwards, then the metal above here let out a creak, then a screech, and then it tore open, revealing a horrible creature, skin made of interlocking plates of plant-matter, themselves constructed of coiling vines or shattered wood. He reached for her slowly, gently, but she recoiled, which drew a similar reaction from the creature.

"I don't want to scare you, I'm here to help, I promise," he spoke in a voice gentle as silk, but strong like stone. His arm seemed to grow longer and longer, deftly moving its way through the shattered remnants of the car, then wrapping itself around her, and pulling her out.

Harris pulled the girl into a one-armed bridal carry, holding the small child tightly against his chest. He jumped off the car and made his way towards the nearest hospital.

Lady Arcana had to admit that it would take a fair amount of time for New York to fully recover from the riots. Weeks, maybe months, despite the conflict only lasting for a few hours at most. That was the terrible thing about violence: it was so much more easy to destroy than it was to build and create. All she could try to do right now was help with the fires and with anyone trapped or unaware the fighting was over.

It wasn't difficult to find a place where her help was needed, at least. Descending from the skies above into an apartment complex that had been partially engulfed in flames, she remained floating just outside of the section that was currently burning. She then began to spin in midair, the speed of her rotation rapidly accelerating until a violet cyclone formed around her that drew out the smoke and fire, extinguishing it.

Now that the immediate threat to the structure itself was taken care of, she immediately flew inside to look for anyone that had possibly been trapped inside.

She started, naturally, with a section that had collapsed due to the fire. It didn't take long for her to hear a woman screaming as she drew closer, Arcana quickly following the sound of her voice to a partially caved-in apartment.

"Ma'am?" Lady Arcana spoke softly, seeing that the woman appeared to be unharmed, but was desperately pushing against a sizable piece of debris. Staring down at it, she could see a small arm sticking out from it.

At the sound of her voice, the woman turned, tears clearly visible in her eyes. "My son...he's trapped...I can't...he..."

Feeling her heart skip a beat at this, Arcana bit her lips and quickly moved to place her hands against the fallen floor from the level above. Lifting it slowly, she saw that the boy had thankfully not been crushed. His mother, her face lighting up in that moment, rushed to pull him out from under it, embracing him tightly. He still seemed to be breathing!

Arcana smiled at this, lowering the debris back to where it had fallen once they were safely out of harms way. It was only one life she had saved, but every little bit made a difference.

[pyroman]

She actually got away with it!

Pat laughed to herself once again, writing in her new log as she was sure that someone would eventually find her out, kill her, go through her stuff, translate her writing from Spanish to English, and publish her log as a best selling novella for the mind of a supervillainess.

March 16, current locaion, Amnesty Bay, Maine.

"It took work. And time. And Patience. But I finally got it. Most of the money is still being washed around in Spain, but I brought more than enough back with me to the United States to last a decade or two in the high life. If there was one thing that my father knew about money, it was that you have a million dollars, but look like you have fifteen. The point is, if you have a lot of money, don't ever make people think you have a lot of money. It would be so easy for me to move to California and live in the Hollywood Hills, or escape the world and go off the grid again, but I love my simple life. I had to work before I started using the power of the Scarab, but now I won't have to work another day in my life. On the other hand, having the Scarab can be fun. I can go wherever I want, be whoever I want, acquire whatever I want, honestly I could make money selling my skills with the scarab to attack these metahumans, I'm sure someone out there has money they want to get rid of along with the powered people."

She let the pen fall from her hands. Maybe she'd just stick to low rate crime. Her suit was rather imposing, and she didn't want to bring any more attention to Amnesty Bay. Her last stunt ended in doubled security in nearly every bank and building of importance in the town, much to her dismay. It wasn't like they could stop her. It'd only make her job a little more annoying.

She could hear several not-so-sneaky footsteps moving across her floor. She smiled, and prepared her angry matron voice.

"Tobias!" She shouted from her study in the little house. "You better not have invited your friends over without getting permission! You kno-" She stopped herself. He was fourteen, She should trust him and his friends to pick up after themselves, lest the Blue Beetle of Amnesty Bay attack them! She preferred her own name, Apex, but she was a villain, and news reporters didn't ask villains what they wanted to be called. "I'm heading out, Tobias. If the house is a mess when I get home, you're sweeping the floors for two weeks!" She could hear a groan and several other voices of laughter. Another smile graced her features, the skin of the scarab forming over her clothes and body. In a moment, she opened the window to her study and leaped out, flying into the sky without a care in the world.

[Simple Unicycle]

11:32 PM, March 27th
The Wedge; Hub City, Illinois

'Question's journal, March 27th 2020; Entry #4
The city. It screams for deliverance from its pain. Salvation I cannot provide. I am just man. These metas, GODS, can. Without them, Hub would still be in chaos. Its screams would shatter my ear drums. Now, they are faint whispers. Near silent, but there.

The GODS may take care of the larger problems. But the residual mess left over? I shall handle.'

A yelp for help nearby. He answers it. The man wields a switchblade. His arm shakes. First robbery. His arm snaps as easily as a wet cookie crumbles. Tears and snot stream down his face as he cries for his mother. Pathetic. "No one can save you now."

The woman runs, screaming louder. He makes his leave.

He hasn't slept for five days. Hasn't gone to work for two. Too busy patrolling. His clothing is stained from garbage, blood (most of it not his), and sweat. The only thing keeping him running are the sugar cubes in his pocket, of which there are now just four.

Roll up mask. Unwrap cube. Put in mouth. Chew. Pull mask down. Drop wrapping. Three left.

He continues his crusade.

---

Bruce had been watching the faceless man work for some time now, noting his rough technique as he broke the arm of what was surely the latest in a long line of desperate criminals. A rough technique, yes that seemed to sum up the man nicely.

The Question didn't seem to notice even as Bruce stalked him from nearby, whether from a rooftop or a shadowed corner. Truthfully, Bruce's skills with ninjutsu likely deserved less credit than the simple matter of the vigilante's exhaustion. He was driving himself past human limits, lost in his work and likely to slip.

That sheer resolve was part of what had brought the Question to Bruce's attention, but it might also destroy the man before he had time to realize his potential.

Well, it was time to find out which would come first.

Bruce stepped out of hiding just as The Question finished beating some poor fool into submission, studying his body language to try and gauge him for reactions without being able to see his face.

"So, this is what passes for a hero in Hub City these days? I'm not exactly disappointed but you've got a lot to learn."

---

Gang member. Can tell by the way he walks, the necktie around his ankle ('Fashion statements are weird'), and of course the sagging pants containing a Glock. It was easy enough to drop from his perch on the fire escape and land on him, before beating him to a bloody pulp.

He was just about to leave, after another sugar cube of course, when a man stepped out of the shadows and spoke. The Question tensed as the man spoke of how he wasn't disappointed and that the vigilante had a 'lot to learn'.

He gave the man a once over, also searching the surroundings for any weapons ('The gun, the trashcan lid, the pipe.'). He responded tersely, "Not hero. Just man trying to do good. Want hero, look for Arcana, our resident God."

Bruce arched an eyebrow at both the quickness of the physical response and the humility of the verbal one. This was going to be interesting.

"The world needs heroes among men as well as Gods. A man trying to do good seems like a good place to start. All the old heroes started that way, you know."

"A problem that the Actor Activists had: one of their own wasn't happy being a man. He desired to be a God. That's why they were outlawed in the first place, hm?"

Bruce's mouth twisted like he tasted something bitter for a moment, then smoothed over again. "That hasn't stopped you from doing what's right, and it won't stop others from doing the same. You see wrongness in the world and you try to correct it, because you can't sit by while the world spins wildly out of balance. I'm interested in helping you to do that without killing yourself in the process."

"Truly, we've forgetten everything that makes us more than house pets. We've devolved into fighting and killing one another, both in the streets and on battlefields. There is no reason, no truth, no justice in this world." Question pauses, fumbling to take out another sugar cube. As he chews on it, he feels like he can continue on once more. "... So you'll help me? How, exactly?"

"I can give you training, skills that put you above the common thug on the street in a fight and let you do more before you have to resort to keeping yourself standing with sugar and grit. I've seen you fight and you're not bad. But you can be much more. I can make your body a weapon for your mind to wield as you see fit. With enough work, I can teach you to walk through a crowd howling for your blood without taking a scratch or stand equal with some of the most dangerous killers on the planet. I can also offer you some perspective, if you need it. Of course, how much you actually learn depends on you."

The offer was tempting. Though the man used some rather interesting words for it, Question understood the core: 'I'll teach you to fight'. He didn't know what the man was talking about with perspective, but still. Maybe the perspective was understanding what he was talking about when he said perspective?

... Damn he needed to sleep. But first, this. "... I accept your offer." As his hand fumbled for his pocket and the sugary treats inside, his vision darkened, and finally he fell into unconsciousness. 'Damn... My... Insomnia.'

[Dblade26]

12:07 AM, March 28th
Warehouse District; Hub City, Illinois

It had taken some time for Bruce to find a suitable empty space in a city like Hub. Still, he'd persevered and worked to find a warehouse that was reasonably clean, not currently in use and not cluttered with too much wastage. The end result was this place, where he'd carried the Question before laying him out on an old, disused couch without too many stains, waiting for him to eventually wake.

---

6:31 AM

His dreams had started out pleasantly, memories of his more pleasant days at the orphanage. Playing tag, climbing the trees, baseball. It was nice, reliving it all again.

However, Oscar Ellison was never the most lucky guy. It wasn't too long before they got worse.

Days spent going hungry in his dingy apartment, working long hours and getting paid the minimal amount, all the while repeating to himself in his mind that 'it'll all be worth it, it'll all be worth it'. Patrolling the freezing streets, beating criminals senseless. Searching through a dumpster for evidence, 'this is the cook's dump site,' and finding that evidence but also discovering a deceased infant, wrapped in a plastic bag and decaying vegetable matt-

With a shuddering breath, the Question awakened, jolting straight up. He looked around, whilst standing up. "Where am I?" he muttered to himself.

Bruce looked up from where he'd been meditating in anticipation of Question regaining consciousness.

"A space I prepared for emergencies. I thought it would be better than leaving a masked man unconscious on the street. So, right before you passed out you decided to accept my training. Do you still want to do this, or was it a decision made from sleep deprivation?"

It all came back to the masked vigilante. He mulled it over in his head. He was strong, but one of these days he could be taken down. He needed the training. "... Right. I still accept it."

Bruce grinned at the confirmation and sprung up from the lotus position with a surprising lack of stiffness, holding a hand out to help Question off of the old couch "In that case, shall we start now?"

The Question gladly accepted the man's hand, using it to pull himself off the couch. "Now? ... Hm, I suppose there's no better time."

After he pulled the masked vigilante up, he lead him to a cleared off space with some boxes and old pieces of pipe cleared away to form a wide circle, on which a number of mattresses had been thrown down to make improvised crash-mats. "First, I need to see what I'm working with when you're not about to pass out. So...set yourself up and attack me. Don't hold back, or we won't get anywhere."

Throwing off his hat and trench coat, the Question moved into a fighting stance. "You sure? Look kinda old, but then again..." He would then run forward, having talked in an attempt to distract his new mentor, trying to deliver a cross punch to the man's face.

Bruce simply stepped in as The Question rushed him, grabbed his arm while shifting it off-course and tugging him off balance, then pivoted his hips into The Question and threw him to the ground. "Good. No hesitation, and decent punching technique. But you've been fighting untrained thugs and mafiosi used to punching down for too long."

One minute he was about to land an easy shot, the next he was on his back whilst his teacher gave a quick analysis of what he did. "Shit." Question bounced back up, getting into a fighting stance again. "Alright, that was just a warm up." He began to slowly inch away, aiming to grab one of the pipes and throw it at the man.

"... Time for the real show." As quickly as he could, the masked detective grabbed a pipe off the ground and threw it at his opponent's arm.

Bruce shifted slightly to the side and to prove a point, caught the pipe as it would have sailed by him. "A good improvisation, but too slow. Thought must flow instantly to action as soon as a strategy is formed, or hesitation will bring failure." He briefly flourished the pipe enough to show he would have no problems using it before letting it go.

Question ran this through his head, not even giving a nod or a "yes" before picking up one of the mattresses used as makeshift crashpads, and pushing it as fast as he could towards Bruce before trying to pin the man with it.

Bruce allowed himself to be bowled over by the mattress, but as he fell he rolled back and kicked upwards with his legs, turning the weight of himself, the mattress and the Question into power for a sacrifice throw propelled by his kick.

"Got you no-AAAAAAAH!" The Question yelled as he went flying with the mattress. He hit the ground, the mattress landing on top of him. After a moment of resting, he pushed it off of himself, rising up once more. "Looks like improv won't help. Why don't we just handle this the old fashioned way?" He asked, whilst rolling up his sleeves.

By this time, Bruce had jumped back to his feet and now stood in a neutral stance, one hand out in the typical 'bring it on' gesture and clearly enjoying himself. "I'm looking forward to it."

Despite himself, the vigilante let out a chuckle. "Heh. Bring it on, old man." He said, amusement evident in his voice. He would pull a quick stutterstep, before advancing at a slow pace. Once he was only two yards away from Bruce, he would throw two quick jabs at the older man's abdomen.

Bruce slapped both low jabs down and away with open hands while stepping in toward Question, then flung one hand at the vigilante's face to try and get him to step back or shift his weight to lean away, before scything in with his foot to try and trip the masked man up.

Rather than lean away from the hand, the Question brought up his own hand to block it. However, when Bruce scythed the masked man's foot, he began to fall back. He managed to catch himself, though as he tried to regain his balance he was open to an attack.

Bruce simply pushed forward and tucked his in the arm he'd struck with, launching off his rear foot as he half-tackled, half shoved at the Question's center of balance with his forearm and shoulder, looking to send him crashing to the ground again in the instant he was off his footing.

Needless to say, the Question fell once more. "... Okay, you win." He said, pulling himself back up. "That give you a good enough idea of my fighting style?"

Bruce seemed pretty content as he watched the Question pick himself up, though he had obviously enjoyed the little bout. "Definitely rough, but you have good instincts and quick wits. With more training and a more diverse set of tools, you could become formidable."

He paused for a moment and looked the Question over.

"But first, we need to do something about your conditioning. A life of sugar cubes and...office work? It makes for a poor foundation."

"Poor foundation? Sorry to break it to you, but I kinda need a job to keep afloat, and the sugar cubes... Well, they hit the blood stream quicker than coffee." Question replies, picking up and putting on his hat, before picking up his trench coat and throwing it over his shoulder.

Bruce couldn't stop a certain amount of amusement from showing on his face at the Question's reply. "If that's the case, I'll simply have to make you work twice as hard as I would anyone else when you aren't busy destroying your body."

[Alfhedil]

00:18 March 28th
Lundgrau Intelligence Services North American Headquarters, New York City

The midnight skies were lit with the flames of dying riots, sounds of sirens in the distance announcing the efforts of the authorities to bring some semblance of order back to the city. Yet his eyes were not on the intermittent flashes of blue and red, nor the dying oranges of fire, it was on the spark of light that flew between and across in a flash. It was obviously her from the slight touch of magic he could feel in the air about the city, though he had to wade through the lingering cloud of fel-magic from the Elysium. Arcane powers were at work in the world once more, and he was no longer one of the sole practitioners. Yes, it was entirely likely that no one could match his knowledge and skill, but there was little wonder that at least one had more raw power.

That vexed him in a way, but it did not carry the same sting as it may have done millennia ago when he was still young and angry. Now it merely amused him as he watched a child play at being a god, with so much power at her fingertips and no idea how to use it.

There were more important concerns at the moment however, and in the morning he would address his shareholders and the public with an interview. The criminal elements of New York were in disarray after the rampancy of Elysium, already several at the throats of their enemies and blaming them for the epidemic. He could make the call and reign them in, but this sounded more like an opportunity to draw out Superman and test his mettle. Raymond tapped a button on the wall of his personal office, a section sliding up to reveal a private sat-phone tied to an unregistered network. At once it connected to a predetermined number, a voice on the other end confirming their identity via code.

"My beloved daughter will be arriving in the city within the coming weeks with a very special guest. Clean up the aftermath of Elysium and move forward on the previously agreed upon plan."

A moment of silence passed, his instructions confirmed and his agent relaying information on the status of NYC back to him. It was concerning, but not untenable. In fact, it would work well to his advantage to have the police focusing on reorganizing and restoring order after the riots.

"Inform Donovan that he has my permission to engage war with the Triad. Xuanwu has been less than cooperative since we granted him land in Queens, and for that his protection is null. You may communicate that fact to the conclave when they meet."

Once more the confirmations and with that the call ended. Soon his agent would be on the street and ready to observe the Superman in the field. It would give him information he needed on the potential threat, and with the Irish Mafia taking the first move, he would see just how durable he was…

---

04:36 March 28th
Farmers Boulevard, Queens

"Westmeath Spirits, NYC" announced clearly across the side of the box truck the contents within to any prying eye, and sitting outside a liquor store it seemed merely as if it was a fair bit early. Farmers Boulevard Spirits wasn't quite open for business, and wouldn't be for a couple more hours, but still no one gave more than a passing glance at the truck and the driver sitting in the cab smoking a cigarette. Inside however, was not alcohol of any kind. All that occupied the cargo area were two Irishmen tinkering with a large machine and an argument that desperately needed some kind of alcohol to make any kind of sense out of it.

"Look, I'm telling you, she just looks like the type who would keep it nice and neat. Ya can't honestly tell me otherwise." That was Patrick Breen, a surly ginger that had a temper about as short as one thought upon first sight, and multiple armed robbery charges to his name. He was the muscle in this job, that much clear from how he stared at the object taking up much of the internal space of the truck, and how restless his hands were near his gun.

"Yeah? Well yer a fukken numpty. Guarantee you she's a freak in the sack. Bet she could crush a skull between them thighs, and probably would too." Angus Breen, likely the smartest Irishman many would meet, and brilliant with any kind of explosive. He was suspected of at least a dozen bank robberies over the last decade, all of which saw the use of thermite and high explosive ordnance that had put him at near the top of NYPD's most wanted list. This was why he had been brought along on this job, and why he was the one with the screwdriver that he was gesturing at Patrick's throat.

"Hey, shut the fuck up you wankers and get ready. Triad's coming up. Besides, neither of you have a chance with that Miss Magic or whoever the fuck sparkle-panties wants to call herself." Donovan Breen, the boss and driver. Since getting the call from The Agent as their contact/supplier was known, he had been itching to get this job underway. They had truthfully been planning something like this for months, watching Triad movements carefully and narrowing down where and when their money would be on any given day. Today had seen a predicted change in their activities, shuffling assets to safe houses to keep them away from the rioters. The dry cleaner down at the end of the street behind the truck was just such a place, and as his younger brothers argued in the back the Chinese were behind the store moving product.

They had to only wait for a few more minutes before one of the Triad enforcers came out of the alley and around the side of the building to light up a smoke. Big Bossman had said that the only condition to starting this war was to make a show of it, and he was damned sure going to show him why the Irish had been the scourge of New York for decades. "Oi! Angus get the fucking thing ready, and open the hatch Patrick!"

---

04:45 March 28th
Farmers Boulevard, Queens

Robert Mao lit up the cigarette in boredom, staring down the street and eying up each vehicle carefully. Xuanwu had been especially paranoid of late, owing largely to the fraying relationship between himself and their patron. It didn't matter much to him personally of course, as he was just muscle and when the chips were down he would disappear and find a job elsewhere. Maybe he would get an honest job when the boss went down, start a restaurant out west and bring his wife along with him. Yeah, that wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't be Chinese food of course, he ironically couldn't stand it which was something he was teased relentlessly for.

His idle musings were interrupted by the box truck down the street, and just how odd it seemed the more his gaze lingered on it. There was a strangeness to the way it sat low to the ground, as if the cargo was significantly overweight, and it was far too early to be delivering.

Suddenly the back door of the truck opened, though at first all he could see was darkness. Then two men and a box-shaped machine were brightly illuminated by a fire that erupted against the back wall. Everything moved in slow motion as the cigarette dropped from his lips and he watched the projectile scream out from the truck on a trail of burning propellant. The yellow painted warhead streaked past him just inches from his face, shattering the glass storefront with the bow-wave of shock that knocked him off his feet. He had barely seconds to understand what had happened before the high-explosive ordnance detonated in the center of the dry cleaner, masking the shrieking whistle of three more launching from the truck.

Angus laughed in amazement as the Land Mattress launcher he had rigged to the floor of the box truck actually worked, sending 60 lb rockets down the street to pound the Chinese safe house into rubble. It kept firing it's payload as Donovan floored the accelerator to the truck, telling his brothers to hold on tight as they sped off from the devastation before the cops could show up.

---

Tagging those who these events would be most relevant to.

@Afro Samurai - Tiger
@DragonofTheWest - Superman
@Blackstripe - Lady Arcana

[Blackstripe]

10:09AM, March 29th
Kasimir Castle, Gotham City

"No Nicole, I don't need you to fill it out, just email me the paperwork. Yes, I'm sure. Nicole I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the box but I can figure out how to fill in a piece of pa- son of a bitch!" The loud curse rang out in the cavernous room, followed by a foot stamping on the ground and a clattering. Zoey hissed as she shook her hand, the tip of the thick work gloves having a thin but obvious cut in the middle finger; obvious considering it was stained slightly red. "God, fuck - hold on Nicole-" The redhead pulled the glove off her hand to stick the injured digit in her mouth, which honestly wasn't the most sanitary option in the world but she currently didn't care. Scooping up the cellphone she had dropped - really, this case paid for itself, not a scratch on it - Zoey once more balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear before turning back to her work table.

"I'm fine, just had a moment. No, I don't need an ambulance. Yes, I'm very clumsy. Nicole... Nicole, are you listening to me? Great. Email me the paperwork. Thank you Nicole." Zoey sighed loudly as soon as she thumbed the end call button, eyeing the screen with contempt. She almost missed the bulky flip phones from years ago - there was something satisfying about being able to hang up on someone just by snapping your phone shut. Ah, but Nicole didn't deserve it. She was decent as far as personal assistants went, just not the same as Jaina. It was really a shame Zoey couldn't just keep her best friend on as a butler all her life - it would've made things so much easier. She could've even got her to learn engineering so she didn't have to deal with this crap.

Setting the phone down on the edge of her work table Zoey grabbed onto the bottle that was next to it and a stack of virtually untouched waffles, taking a swig only to grimace. This 'budweiser' was indeed a cheap alcohol. She had gotten one of the servants to pick up a case during the weekly shopping trip and had instantly regretted it when she opened the first bottle. Still, she was committed to finishing this experience. Unlike the waffles, which were likely to be fed to one of the guard dogs. Seriously, her chef must think she was starving for every meal...

Holding the bottle loosely Zoey turned her gaze back to the bulky object sitting on her work table, taking up almost all the space. It was the size of a large backpack, and about the shape of one as well - except for the metal wings extended from each side. One of the sharp edges of the wings was what had cut her glove open, trying to manhandle it into bending with the rest of them when it was in 'standby' mode. Usually she wouldn't go for something so flashy, but in the last month alone it became obvious hiding in the shadows wasn't going to work anymore. So it was that this was stretched out on her work table, and on the racks above it a plethora of new gadgets in various phases, each one more destructive or flashy than the last. She was exhausted from the work.

Honestly, she was getting too old for this.

---

10:15 AM, March 29th
Gotham City

Karen Hernandez was a Wizard.

Not just any Wizard, but the Wizard. The Master of all Magic, Lord of the Rock of Eternity. It would even be fair to say that she was the living embodiment of magic itself.

So why then didn't she know hardly any spells? It was something she complained about a lot, but was never able to do much about. Samantha had always told her that she needed to work on mastering her physical abilities before learning about the intricacies of spellweaving. A few nights ago she kindly reminded the black Bombay cat that she had just facepalmed enough drug fiends to besiege Helm's Deep without killing any of them.

With that, Sam had relented enough to teach her the one spell she most definitely needed: the ability to change her clothes in Lady Arcana form!

It had been incredibly frustrating doing anything low key where she nevertheless needed her powers, as finding clothes that would actually fit her Arcana form was just stupidly difficult. They were either too tight in the bust and hips, or too loose in the waist. It wasn't as if she could get anything custom tailored for her, either, given her vigilante status.

Thankfully, once Samantha had taught her the spell, she was able to use it pretty easily. That was the benefit to learning magic in her transformed state: she could gain proficiency in a spell that would otherwise take weeks, months or maybe even years to gain a solid grasp of. At least, that's how Sam explained it to her.

She did kind of get that it would be distracting, though, from mastering her strength, speed and flying. There were so many spells that it made her head spin.And this was admittedly a fairly simple one, so many the more complicated ones would be a lot more difficult?

Regardless, now she stood on the streets of Gotham, her cellphone in hand.

Naturally, she had flown here from Hub City as Lady Arcana, uniform and all. She'd tried to be discreet, of course, descending into an alleyway before she tried out her new spell. She'd chosen a cute outfit from google image search, and visualized it in her mind. With just a basic understanding of how to channel arcane energy, her admittedly outlandish uniform became a stylish modern red skirt and brown spring jacket! The heels weren't half-bad either.

Like her uniform, they were still an extention of her divinely empowered body, she could tell...so these spikes could effortlessly crush concrete if she wasn't careful!

"Now, let's see here..." Arcana glanced at the google map app on her phone, her destination none other than "Castle Kasimir". Pretentious much? Oh well, rich folk liked putting their name on stuff.

She'd made certain to land in the nearest alleyway to the castle that she could find, but that still meant it was pretty far away. Still, walking long distances was something she was starting to get used to. Gotham City reminded her a lot of her own hometown. The same gloomsy atmosphere, that feeling of constant danger...but the architecture was a lot more beautiful, albeit in a gothic way.

After about a thirty minute walk from where she landed, she stood before the front gates. Frowning slightly at the sheer size of the castle in the distance, it was difficult to imagine why anyone would need a house this big..Then again, she probably kept a jet in there.

There seemed to be an intercom system, so she tepidly reached out to press the button. "Erm, hello?"

---

An alert sounded through the cavern this time, Zoey looking up from where she had half her arm jammed into what was virtually her jetpack trying to reach something. The computer screen taking up most of one wall swapped in the center to show the front door, and the young woman standing in front of it. Odd. She wasn't expecting anyone, and she already bought out the local girl scouts' thin mints. Maybe it was one of David's friends. Withdrawing her hand Zoey quickly moved to the computer, hitting the button to respond - and just in time, the staff knew to give her thirty seconds to pick up if she was in the home considering her paranoia.

"Kasimir Castle, business?"

A feminine voice emerged from the speaker. Was it Grim's? A servant?

"Uh, hi! I'm..." she leaned in close, "Karen. I was wondering if I could have a word with Miss Kasimir? She'll know who I am...probably..."

Zoey's face drained of color. In what she was pretty sure had become a full fledged tick, her eyebrow twitched. She had been expecting this to be honest, but was hoping it wouldn't be so soon. The fingers on her left hand tapped against the metal of the computer base. She hadn't prepared enough for this - how does one prepare against what is functionally a God? Ah, she hadn't responded yet. Well, it's not like the gate was going to hold her back if she wanted in. A quick tap had the gate out front buzz before swinging open automatically.

"Come to the front, please."

"Sauce," Karen chirped, stepping past the gate when it opened.

The pathway to the front door did not disappoint those expecting to be treated to all the pretentiousness that embodied the top one percent. It was deliberately designed to take you around a large fountain, just to hammer in how awesome their money made them. Karen couldn't help but grumble a little, but the walk had thankfully allowed her to shake off her irritation by the time she actually reached the door.

Extending her hand, she rapped her knuckles gently against the door...

Despite knowing she had a minute until Karen even made it up the driveway - at least as long as she kept to normal walking speed - Zoey had made it up from her labs in record time. Grabbing a white button up along the way to pull over the white shirt that had gotten a smear of grease on it while she was working Zoey quickly ran a hand through her hair, using the mirror in the entrance hall to groom. Her father, for all his faults, had instilled in her how important appearances were. First impressions especially. Not a hair out of place, no sign of being stressed. Her butler watched in puzzlement but she just waved him off. When the knock came the billionaire took a deep breath before finally turning and opening the grand double doors, offering the younger woman a self-assured little smile even as she subtly ran her eyes along her to take in the more casual appearance of Lady Arcana.

"Karen. A pleasure to make your acquintance."

When the double doors - because of course they were - swung open, Karen was greeted with the visage of Zoey Kasimir. She had been expecting that...and yet actually seeing her in person put the pictures she'd seen on google to shame. Even if many were taken five or more years earlier, it seemed like she'd only grown more beautiful with time.

"Wo-err, hi, yes! Great to meet you, Miss Kasimir!" Karen returned her smile, though quickly lowered her head, just in case she might've possibly blushed. Could she blush in this form? Did she even have blood?

"Sorry to, um, show up unexpectedly."

Zoey quirked an eyebrow, amusement touching the smile on her lips seeing how Lady Arcana - Karen - reacted. How mundane for a god. Charming.

"Please, call me Zoey. I insist. It's quite alright, I was expecting you to drop by at some point - please, come in." The redhead stepped back and gestured the other woman inside, only to pause and tilt her head. She could hear sirens in the distance.

... Ah, those were ambulance sirens, not police or fire rescue. Nothing for Grim or Lady Arcana to worry about unless more joined.

Karen glanced over her shoulder at the sirens, before returning her full attention to her host. "Thank you, Zoey!"

Stepping through the door, she was greeted to a castle that was every bit as illustrious as the exterior had implied. Honestly, she didn't really care anymore about the whole super-rich person thing after actually seeing Zoey in person. Sometimes, she forgot that people could still have a ton of money and be decent human beings beneath that.

"Wow, your home is gorgeous!"

"Thank you," Zoey bowed her head slightly with a gracious smile only to turn her gaze away, gesturing for Karen to follow her. "I'll take us somewhere private to chat. Would you like anything? Food, a drink?" Her feet began to make their way to the wine cellar. Her labs weren't exactly a place to host guests, but for this particular conversation they were likely to have? No place more secure.

"Sure! It was a long, err, flight," Karen replied, following Zoey while continuing to take note of her castle home.Now that she thought about it, it was probably the biggest personal residence she'd ever been in by far. While she had mentally snarked to herself on the way here, she had to admit it would be ridiculously awesome to live in an actual effin' castle.

"Perfect," The billionaire continued through her large home with practiced ease, long fingers pulling her phone out of the back pocket of her slacks. A quick text was sent off before replacing it. It was rather rude to use her phone in front of the other woman, but less rude than having her wait. It took only a minute to bring her to the kitchens Zoey herself rarely frequented. Zoey gestured for Karen to wait a moment, a young man appearing at the door. His eyes flicked to Karen briefly before back to Zoey, balancing a tray on his hands.

"Could I help-"

"That won't be necessary, thank you," Zoey was mildly annoyed seeing how the servant appeared rather worried as she took the tray from him, her civilian persona was rather... ditzy, for lack of a better word, but it wasn't like she was going to upend a tray. Honestly she was more worried about the servants gossiping, but they were well paid just for that. Balancing it on one hand Zoey turned and gestured Karen further into the home, soon descending a set of stairs into the rather large wine cellars.

It took a retinal scanner to open the door to the wine cellar - no wonder people called her an alcoholic, really - and once inside Zoey moved on auto pilot. She pulled a dark burgundy bottle to the left of them out just to the label, letting it rest there. Another bottle further in and to the right was put in the same position, then a third, a fourth, until finally Zoey stopped at one set of wine racks. Setting the fifth and final of the bottles into the correct position there wasn't even a rumble as on well oiled gears pulled the section of wall back, revealing another winding set of stairs.

Thankfully, that was the last set, as at the bottom a fingerprint scanner opened up into the cavern containing her labs.

"Sorry about that," Zoey offered to Karen as she moved inside, setting the tray of coffee, juice, and finger foods on the flat metal platform that acted as the long 'desk' for her computer screens. "Can't be too careful. Can I take your jacket for you?" Turning to the other woman Zoey held her hand out politely, even as her foot caught the padded chair of her computer to push it towards Karen in offering.

Karen should have anticipated that she would have servants living with her. It was, after all, a massive castle. It would probably get pretty lonely here all by herself. For whatever reason the servant boy had appeared nervous, but she'd brushed it off as she was lead to another door. After a retinal scan - now she was seeing some of that high tech shiz - they descended into the wine cellar.

That was another thing rich folk had, entire rooms just to get drunk in. Her dad, in contrast, preferred to just drink until he fell wherever in the house and she had to try and move him to his bed.

Zoey then began to move bottles around throughout the wine cellar, presumably a way of confounding anyone that could get past her retinal scan. Against herself, something like that was useless as she could remember the sequence perfectly, but then, she would've never gotten past the scan to begin with.

Unable to contain a small gasp when the wall slid open, she couldn't help but squirm in excitement at how absolutely cool this place was, with its scans, secret passageways and bottle-puzzles. You could totally set one of those old point-and-click adventure games in a place like this!

As they descended a winding set of stairs beneath the wine cellar, Karen began to half-expect a dusty skeleton to pop up and laugh at her. Instead it was yet another scanner, allow them to presumably arrive at their destination.

"Sorry for what? That was awesome!" Karen reassured her. When Zoey offered to take her coat, she couldn't help but grin, deciding to show off a little herself for once. "Oh, don't worry, I've got it!"

Closing her eyes for a brief moment, the jacket vanished with a slight twinkle, leaving her in just her shirt. Karen then accepted the offered chair, sitting down.

"This place looks really incredibly, Zoey! It's like you've got everything down here!"

"Impressive," Zoey commented lightly, eyebrow quirking once more seeing how the jacket just disappeared. Part of her was mildly annoyed seeing the magic, but at least this time it wasn't being shoved in her face with mystical riot-causing shenanigans or vampires or anything else ridiculous. Just clothing. She caught the edge of the tray to push closer to Karen before moving to her work table and picking up the half drank bottle of Budweiser. The redhead turned to lean against the table, her free hand resting on the surface. "And thank you. It hasn't been easy getting all this, or building in some cases." She gestured to the half-built glider on her table, taking a drink of her beer.

"I mean, I was a cheerleader in high school, and now I'm building advanced tech in my basement." A slight shrug before she settled her steel-blue gaze on Karen, examining her. "So, what can I do for you, Lady Arcana?"

Karen's face lit up slightly when Zoey claimed she was a cheerleader in high school. In all honesty, it was something she'd always wanted to try herself. It sounds really fun, the poses, the chants, the teamwork. Still, she wouldn't just gush all over her like an idiot, she had, after all, asked her why she was here.

"Ah, Karen's fine, down here in the...erm, Grim Cave? Dog house? Eheh," she laughed nervously, feeling like she'd just said something really stupid. "Uh, anyhow, I was actually curious if you'd discovered anything about the pill, or the armor we recovered in the sewers for that matter. I remember you saying you could better analyze it all back in your lab."

"Blackstar calls it the Grim Grotto," Zoey offered to Karen, tilting her head slightly. She seemed surprisingly nervous. "Those? I have found out something, actually." Zoey pushed off from the table, holding the bottle in a loose grip as she moved to the lightly glowing stasis field containing said items over the machine analyzing them. The redhead paused, running a hand through her hair before turning to Karen with a serious look.

"They're magic," She stated, in the best deadpan she could muster.

Karen nearly fell at out of her chair at that, sputtering slightly. "O-oh...really?"

Was that a joke? She was probably messing with her, right? She should laugh. She would laugh. "Heheh..."

Taking the glass of orange juice from the tray, she drank it with an awkward smile on her face. She felt like she was being a total spaz. Why couldn't she say something cool? Yeah, come on. The subject was magic! She was the Wizard! What would Gandalf do here? "Ahem,,,"

"Indeed, very...magic, by my estimates. The depth of this magic is...well, it is very deep in a way that is unquestionably magical." she sage nodded, drinking her OJ in the most refined manner she possibly could.

To Zoey's credit she managed to keep the serious expression on her face all through that mess of Karen's ... explanation. Finally though the corner of her lips tugged up in a slight grin and she quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth as she laughed. She didn't think she succeeded in making Karen feel more relaxed, but it was rather funny. The grin on her face remained as she turned back to the machine, raising a hand to press the pads of her fingertips against the screen in front. In the statis field the objects moved around each other, the box that Benjamin as the Electrocutioner had coming to the forefront with the small pill.

"So. I have examined them. Benjamin's box is actually a combination of magic and tech, but that's not what's interesting about it. Both the box and pill have the same magical ... signature, I'd almost say. That is to say the person who had a hand in making them is unmistakably the same, confirming what that ... voice had implied to us." Zoey's voice had gone back to serious, almost grave, and she gestured to a golden gauntlet that was also in the stasis field covered in runes. "Definitely different from the other artifact I have."

Karen nodded in response to this, having also regained some of her composure as they began discussing the strange voice and its connection to the items in Zoey's possession. "That's not surprising, I guess. He did claim that he created both of them. I guess we could try and track him through that 'signature', but, well..."

She rubbed her arm, thinking back to the events of New York a few days ago. "Honestly? We already went to his weird drug-slave dimension. We could presumably go back there if we wanted, but would he still be there? I mean, I'm sure he knows we can access it any time now."

"He might not be there anymore," Zoey admitted. She sighed, raising her hand to rub her long fingers against the bridge of her nose. "I fed a small touch of the pill to a rat - he went into an almost catatonic state but didn't attack. Even came out of it a few hours later. I can only assume that man can go in and out of that dimension at will and control those who's conscience are in it, but even if we camp out in it there's no guarantee he'll even be back now that his 'experiment' is over." The redhead huffed, glaring rather darkly at the pill.

"It almost seems like he's testing people. More accurately, you and me - hell, maybe just you. You're practically invincible after all. He could be looking for a weakness by throwing all these scenarios at you." A pause, hesitation. "... And you remember what he said, don't you? There'll be more in the coming months. So, I've also been working on something myself. A tracker. A magic tracker." A low huff, a touch of anger entering her voice.

"But I've never even worked with magic before this. I can try and get it to cover the country using satellites but to be honest I don't even know if it will work. I'm not a mage."

Karen frowned at her admission of the difficulty they faced. In truth, it wasn't Zoey's fault that she didn't understand magic. In fact, it was entirely reasonable that she wouldn't, given that she wasn't a "Homo Magi" as they were called. Lowering her head, she couldn't hold back a long sigh. "At least you have an excuse, Zoey. I'm supposed to be the successor of the Wizard, the guardian of the source of all magic..but I barely know anything about it."

"I have the source of all magic in my freaking chest, which should give me the power to do pretty much anything...but I'm so useless I can't even track down a maniac who's using the same power to hurt people," she stared at her hands, her own ineptitude making her feel smaller than she ever had since gaining her powers. It was honestly disgraceful.

She still didn't understand why the Wizard had chosen her. There wasn't anything special about her at all. She didn't feel like she was any nicer or kinder than anyone else who wasn't an outright prick, and she was completely lacking knowledge in her new job. "I had honestly hoped I would be able to help you, but I'm really just a complete amateur."

Zoey went quiet as Karen talked, head turned to look at her. Abruptly though her steel-blue gaze dropped to the younger woman's chest as she spoke, examining with fierce intensity. Though the words still registered in her mind Zoey's thoughts were elsewhere, and abruptly she tore her gaze away and set the bottle of beer on her worktable as she pulled out a large photo copier sized machine, the top having a depression that made it look like a bowl, needing to drag it along the wheeled platform it was resting on.

"Maybe you can help me, Arcana. Tell me, how quickly can you reach the other side of the country?"

Karen noted the other woman's gaze falling down to her chest, and her cheeks - she was certain this time - began glowing a luminous red. I mean, she wasn't the first one to stare down there, far from it. And unlike the other times, she might not have completely, one hundred percent minded it all that much here. "Eheheh...I guess that's where all the mana is stored?"

"Oh!" She was snapped out of her embarrassment, "erm, well, I've never tried to time myself, but...pretty darn fast! Why?"

"That's magnificent, because I have an idea. You see this? It's a tracker." Zoey gestured to the machine once more, as large as a photo copier with the depression on top in stone, a screen on the front showing a map of the United States. "You know how people can track energy surges? It's the same thought process, but I built it with magic in mind. I couldn't get it to work, much less if I could get it to track a specific signature - it could read that there was something in my lab but not much else. But that's because it's all being powered by tech! If we could get it to be powered by magic-" At this point Zoey leaned over it to grab the power cord in the back, the thing nearly an inch thick with a bulbous plug on the end. With quick motions she had the back opened up and was disconnecting the plug that led to the power source, a rather plain looking black bar inside - aside from the line of gold running right through the middle of it.

"Then maybe it can track other magic as well! And if it can, then we can test it by having you fly to the other side of the country to see if it will track you specifically." Zoey paused here, peeking over the other side of the machine to look to Karen. "Of course this is all in theory. For all I know the thing will explode."

Karen scratched at the back of her head while doing her best to follow Zoey's explanation. She seemed really excited about it, though. If she felt that much confidence in her plan, then who was she to argue? Besides, her face was practically glowing in that moment. The last thing she was going to do was bring her down. "Well, sure then! Let's give it a shot!"

Lifting her OJ, she drank the enitrety of it down in one gulp before finishing her portion of the food on the tray in a similarly short time. It was all quite good, she had to admit. "Alright, ready!"

"Great!" Zoey dragged the tracker to the center of the room, just to pause and maneuver it so the power source was directed to the computer, figuring Karen would be standing there. If something went wrong she'd really prefer her computer was spared. "Alright, so just try and ... power up this bar here. I've never experimented with magic like this before, but it's meant to contain energy so it should at least not explode." A pause, and then she threw Karen an almost sheepish grin.

"Still, would it be rude to stand behind you just in case?"

Karen returned her grin with one of her own, taking a step forward as if to allow her more space to get behind her.

Staring down at the powersource, she pursed her lips. Well, she'd never really done anything quite like this before, but the world of magic was built on first experiences. Yeah, she just made that up and it might not even be true. Regardless... "It's show time!"

Extending her index finger, she stuck the tip of her fingernail into the socket of the magitech power converter thing-y. The result was almost instantaneous, as Karen threw her head with a gasp of shock as mystical lightning began to surge through her entire body and then into the device.

"Karen?" A hint of alarm entered Zoey's normally smooth voice, and despite her resolve to stand behind the redhead edged around the device. A light soon lit up from the front, and Zoey's eyes flicked to the screen at the front. It had powered down the instant she took apart the plug, but now - now it was back on, showing a few spots here and there along the US map. A wide grin lit up her face, but that wasn't the end of it. Quickly jerking her gaze to Arcana, Zoey stepped forward, cautious and very aware that she wasn't even in her protective suit.

"Are you alright? You should be able to disconnect."

"T-there's s-some k-kind of f-f-feedback loop," Karen struggled to speak, feeling almost paralyzed in that moment. Maybe sticking her finger into an unfamiliar socket wasn't the best idea. Gritting her teeth,she was finally able to break the loop. Stumbling back into the rolling chair, Karen raised her hand to her face. "Ugh...well that was unexpected. Probably wasn't the best way to plug in..."

"Probably not," With a last glance to the screen of the device, which remained happily lit up and powered for the moment, Zoey turned her attention to Karen. Moving to stand in front of the younger woman the redhead raised her hand, long fingers pressing underneath Karen's chin to tilt her head up. A soft hum, which would normally rumble in the voice modulator escaped her lips as she examined Lady Arcana, checking her eyes and complexion.

"Your invincibility seems to have held out once again. Do you want me to grab you a drink before we continue?"

Karen was still a little dazed from the experience. It...hadn't really hurt per say, but it was definitely jarring. Like everything had gone numb, almost like sleep paralysis. Blinking away her disorientation, she felt Zoey lift her chin, the other woman seeming to examine her. The combination of this and the slight physical contact once again caused her cheeks to redden. Hopefully that would just be taken as a sign of a healthy complexion.

"...Sure, a drink. I could use one of those. she quickly replied, sitting up straight again.

"Very well. Sit tight," Zoey withdrew her hand and without another word picked up the tray and disappeared with it back up the steps. It only took a minute or two for her to return, handing the other vigilante a tall glass of water. "No side effects? Not feeling weak?" Even as she spoke Zoey moved from Karen's side however, crouching in front of the back of the machine. The gold line through the power bar almost glowed - if she guessed, it would hold the charge for half an hour, but that guess was based on tech. She'd have to find a different way to power it, or at least a better way than 'stick your finger in this outlet'. Standing once more Zoey closed the back of the machine for now, moving to the front to start tapping on the screen.

Karen drank the glass of water, smiling gratefully afterwards. "I don't think so, no."

Standing from her seat, she stepped to Zoey's side, glancing at the device she had just helped to power. While - not to be repetitive - her knowledge of magic might be lacking, she did know that the electricity that came from her was pretty powerful stuff. She would probably not have to worry about running out of energy for a while now, especially as she had been stuck in that loop for several seconds.

"Will that work for what you want to do?" Karen questioned her.

"Everything seems to be working, as far as I can tell. See how the entire thing is lit up? There's a lot of magic in the country now, to the point where some places are just entirely lit up. But if we just do this," Zoey darted away, grabbing the pill from the stasis field and returning it. When she set it in the bowl up top it floated up as another, smaller stasis field held it quietly inside. "Now the lights turn off - there we go, and you can see that New York is lit up, since there's probably still a lot of Elysium pills there, as well as a section in Gotham. With some fine turning I might be able to get it to pick apart each instance to an even finer degree. My only concern is the range - obviously it reaches New York, but what about the other side of the country? Though, considering that it lit up with general magic I don't see why the filter wouldn't work." Throughout her explanation however a grin remained on Zoey's face, and despite her age she nearly bounced when she went to grab the pill. If her high school self could see her she'd be very concerned.

"That's awesome! Karen exclaimed, sharing in Zoey's excitement. Even if it was a little scary for a few seconds there, she was overjoyed that she had actually been able to help. It always felt good when she was useful for something other than violence, and she honestly loved detective and investigative stuff, even if she was pretty bad at it herself. "So with this, we can find out if he appears anywhere else, right? Does it just work for the United States, or can we see other parts of the world?"

After all, there was no guarantee that all of that weirdo's targets were going to be in this country. They had to be ready for him to strike just about anywhere...at least, that made sense to her.

"Ehh, theoretically considering what I've seen of your powers we should be able to see other parts of the world, especially if the satellite signal for the area is strong. I might need to tinker with it a bit." Retrieving the pill Zoey hummed lightly as she tapped on the screen, zooming in on Gotham. Honestly it was pretty lit up itself, which was concerning, but if she was honest the threat of the mysterious ... wizard? The one that wasn't Lady Arcana at least, was more pressing right now than tracking down vampires or trolls or - what did Toombs call it? A hob? Didn't matter. Zooming back out she swiped across the screen, showing smatterings of lights in other areas of the world.

"See? Not strong enough signal. I'll have to try and get the satellites from those areas that have them." Replacing the pill in the stone bowl Zoey hummed thoughtfully, tapping her bottom lip with a finger as the problem ran through her mind.

Karen cupped her chin in thought while observing the weaker signals throughout the world. So it was a matter of satellite coverage, then? That actually gave her a bit of an idea. "Zoey, what if I took the satellites into orbit for you? I'm pretty sure I could, since I don't need to breathe and all."

Granted, she'd never actually tried to fly out into space...but she had been submerged in water more than once without any sort of ill effect, so surely it wouldn't be too different from that! Not to mention the aura that was always around her was practically like a space suit.

"I don't... own satellites..." Zoey trailed off for a moment, glancing to the wall of gadgets and making a thoughtful hum. "But I might be able to build them. I'll need more space, somewhere secluded, or just make an expansion to the hangar - not to mention I'll need to brush up on how they're made. I work with satellite signals a lot but I haven't actually taken one apart. It's possible, and then we could get the best coverage to track whoever this is." It'd be a big project, that's for sure. It would take away time from her gadget building, but considering the amount of life lost in the New York Riots and with promises of more violence...

"I can't guarantee I can do it, but there's nothing to lose in trying and everything to gain." Briefly she thought of trying to contact Marvin considering her own admittance of his intelligence, only to scowl at the thought. No, she could do this on her own. Well, except the lifting it to space part. Couldn't do that. Maybe she'd build a rocket someday if aliens ever attacked. "Hell, maybe I'll just buy out a cellphone company so I have an excuse to just commission them."

"In anycase, I'll connect the tracker to the main computer so that if anything new shows up with this mystery man I'll be alerted. Do you feel comfortable giving me your cellphone number?"

Karen was glad to hear that Zoey could potentially build satellites to help strengthen the range of their detetion abilities. That made her feel a bit less nervous about the coming conflict, knowing they would at least have a heads up whenever they began. She had to find out about New York on the news, after all, and by that point it had already been going on for a while. They needed to be able to get there before too many poeople could be hurt, and this seemed like the perfect rapid response system!

"I could always just steal one of the Arab Federation's sattelites," she mused. "You could reprogram it or something."

When Zoey asked her for her cellphone number, she quickly nodded in agreement. She had brought it with her in the hopes she would ask that. Well, in truth, it wasn't Karen Hernandez's usual cellphone, but rather a burner she had gotten a few weeks ago. She'd already given it's number to The Question and Harris, in case either of them needed to get in touch with her..

"Sure, here!" She pulled her number up on the phone and showed it to Zoey.

"Thank you," Removing a seperate phone from the one she pulled out earlier Zoey quickly programmed the new number in, though amusingly the one she pulled out had a silver engraving of Grim's doghead symbol on the back. Okay, some of her things had branding. Even more amusing was that she didn't custom order this - the design was already on offer starting a few years ago at a local Gotham engraver. Ah, too bad she couldn't sue them for using the icon without permission. "As for the Arab Federation satellites, I don't think I want ours to fire lasers, as neat as it would be." She sent a quick text off to the new number in her phone so Arcana would have her work phone number.

"Alright, I'll send you word if anything pops up or if it needs a recharge. It seems to have stayed on the entire time we've been talking so who knows how long it will stay?" Zoey clapped her hands together, focusing her steel-blue gaze back on Karen. "So, Miss Arcana, it seems I owe you for more than just covering for me in that other dimension now. If you ever need anything..."

"D-dinner?" Karen blurted out without thinking.

What...the...eff?! Oh God, what the hell is wrong with her? She felt like running away as fast as she could. No, scratch that. She wanted to run around the Earth and punch herself in the back of the freaking head before she could say that!

"Eheheheh!" She laughed like a total moron. "I'm so sorry, I was just electrocuted."

A heartbeat past, then two. Zoey blinked at Karen, the intense look on her face having dropped off to surprise. Her lips parted slightly before closing, and finally she laughed lightly at Karen's backtracking. The redhead's fingers rose up, running through her hair as she felt heat blooming across the bridge of her nose. Odd, she hadn't blushed in what felt like years.

"Dinner, hm? I think I would owe you another favor then, if I got to spend an evening with a lovely young woman like yourself." It was rather flattering, being asked to dinner by a literal Goddess. "But it's a bit early. Could I interest you in lunch instead? My treat," The last part was said with a bit of a playful smirk, a quirk of her eyebrow.

What the fuck are you doing, Karen? You just asked Zoey Kasimir out on a date, and she accepted!! No! Stop feeling awesome! This is really messed up! You've got to break it off right now before this gets way out of hand!

"Lunch sounds great!" She smiled to her, her cheeks rose-tinted as can be.

You are a fucking retard! You are literally a flying sack of stupid! You should use your superspeed to slap yourself ten thousand times until you stop thinking this sounds like a good idea!

"And y'know, you are the famous Zoey Kasimir, so don't sell yourself too short, eheh."

"I am rather impressive, but even so I don't think I can hold a candle to you."

[Afro Samurai]

March 30th, 2020
4:00 A.M.

---

In the lab ‘upstairs’ from his training facility several floors below, Marvin had the news circulating from the past 48 hours,

”Explosion rocks Chinatown!” a soundbite from Channel 9 news read,
“No survivors.” NYN news blurrbed as the large monitor on the east side of the lab continued to shuffled through its automated program schedule. Marvin had designed it to collect pieces from various news media so he could save the soundbites and replay them to be used as part of investigation.
“Is this a message?” an NYBC pundit remarked,
“Beginnings of gang war?” a sensationalist network commentator pondered
“Bunch of drugged hippies and now this? I mean--I just don’t know what’s happening to this city!” a woman with silver hair and the genesis of wrinkles lining her face lamented, her name was Carolyn, she was a 53 year old woman with three grandkids and was recently denied workers compensation for faking a back injury on May 12th of last year.

On the wall to the far west of the massive warehouse interior hung a line of his vigilante masks. The original cloth mask Marvin stitched together from a few lines of polyester was first in the row of seven: the next was sewn from wool and integrated with a metal alloy Marvin had been experimenting with, his earliest attempt at converting the magic energies from the soil into one of his designs; from the ballistics tests he had run on the second mask, it did well to deflect direct impact from small arms fire, but stood no chance against anything standard grade or above.

The third mask, weaved from the exact same thread but laced with a bronze-iron alloy and kevlar weave stood up to standard arms fire but had a weakness directly in its center. A perfectly placed shot between the eyes spelled certain death.

The fourth was his ballroom mask, the one he would wear if he was ever invited to a formal event. It had no special protection, he could only hope no one had an urge to shoot him in the face after a slowdance. It was a royal red tinged with a soft silver.

The fifth mask was made of nanomex, and threaded with polyester; it was fire-resistant. The mask was special use for when he needed to enter a burning building, and insulated with independent oxygen circulation for such a case. The sixth mask was similar but catered to deep sea diving and coated in water-resistant fibers to prevent water from penetrating it.

The sixth and seventh masks were the ones he spent the last two days trying to perfect. Both were endowed with the harnessed magical energy he extracted from the soil; and both were implemented with the combined test attempts of masks one through five; each an attempt at forging a mask and-- from the blueprints he had been drawing up--a suit with the same component parts present in the previous renditions. He had been drawing close; the welding mask covering his face was lit by the blue flame emitting from the torch, he was melding the metal foam composites to the middle layer of the chestpiece’s M5 fiber aramid armorplating.

Of the seven masks on the far west wall, numbers six and seven had a small glow radiating from them, the magic energies of the soil had not yet set in. Spread across the industrial table were the other cooling alloy pieces laced with metal foam composites. He was soon ready to test them in the ballistics lab prior to submerging them in the makeshift tub of liquid he had synthesized with the magical energies found from his recent trip to a magical dimension.

“Process should work. Energy--always constant, shouldn’t matter the dimensional change.” he put down the torch and let the chestpiece cool and walked toward the opposite end of the warehouse, a task which took him several minutes. There, a homebrew vat of liquidated magic stirred, popped and bubbled inside of a large see through tube. A small monitor beside the tube displayed a chart similar to a polygraph with readings which detailed:

pH: 7.0, 7.5, 7.3, 7.1.

“Have a working batch with similar balances. Even at final testing, 7.4. First batch had to be thrown out, 5.4, acid.” Marvin delivered,

Soil Decomposition: 67%

“First batch decomposed slower. Improvement, still too long; I need to find a way to speed up the process.”

Substance X conversion: 67 %.

“Finally aligning soil decomposition with the magic’s conversion rate is a success. Should be able to replicate energy after extraction and create independent test batch with magic as base.”

Substance X extraction rate: 1.62Wh per second. Sparks flew from the thick brown-red liquid as it churned and steamed behind the tube.

“Need more effective stabilization methods. Could potentially blow up entire lab if extraction rates increase further. May need to make voltage stabilizer.”

He moved back to the other side of the warehouse where the suit’s pieces lay completely cooled. He collected the arms, leg, and chest armor plate molds and loaded them onto the dolly. He carted the materials to toward the western wall where the seven masks rested. He used a pair of tongs to remove masks #6 and 7 from their hooks. Marvin pushed the large dolley to the center of the room where the elevator was. He pushed the cart and its materials on the elevator before he entered as well. When the doors closed, the elevator descended to the lowest floor of the warehouse, the sixth; his ballistics lab. On the wall immediately to the right as one exited the elevator was a wall lined with various kinds of guns ranging from storebought hunting rifles to manually constructed .50 caliber guns.

Marvin removed a several kinds of guns from the wall: a standard 9mm pistol, a Remmington shotgun, an AK-47, an AR-15, and a mounted .50 caliber sniper rifle. After he had set up the weapons, he attached each piece of the suit to a separate line; he slid on a pair of earmuffs. First, the standard 9mm:

First shot, mask #6 - no penetration (NP).
Second shot, mask #6 - no penetration (NP).

“On the initial test, impact absorption was 90%, pre-submerge. Complete kinetic dispersion achieved post-submerge, not even a dent.”

Marvin ran mask #6 through the gamut of caliber tests he had set up. Each bullet up to the .50 caliber failed to penetrate the mask. Mask number seven was ran through the same tests and recieved all NPs. He didn’t bother to change the conditions of the testing--he needed the most accurate constants. After all, getting shot was an inductive occurrence that rarely changed. He began again--first with the 9mm and up through the .50 caliber.

First shot, chestpiece, pre-submerge, 9mm - NP.
Second shot, chestpiece, pre-submerge, 9mm - NP.

Up through the .50 caliber there was complete impact absorption, but no kinetic dispersion. When the .50 caliber round struck the chestpiece, there was the smallest of dents. A problem mitigated, he surmised, post-submersion in the magic brew. These findings let Marvin know his designs were improving sans-magic. He had nearly constructed complete bulletproof, fire, water, and self-oxygenating armor plating. He would have to record his findings for later. He ran the other pieces of armor through the same sets of ballistic testing as both masks and the chestpiece; the same results as before--all NPs. Marvin quickly scribbled what he found in the resident notebook he kept in the ballistics lab, a notebook also filled with early prototype suit designs and engineering blueprints for the warehouse.

With the flip of a lever, the suit pieces were escorted to Marvin on moving chassis rails where he took them down and placed them on the dolly; he used the same tongs as before to remove the still glowing face masks from their mechanic line. After placing all the tested materials on the dolley, he activated the lockdown procedures for the ballistics lab and headed to the elevator where he would stop on the floor above to submerge the remaining pieces of the suit into the magic liquid he had concocted. The fifth floor’s layout was the simplest of them all, a large white room with several tubes similar to the one in his main laboratory. Quarantined at the back of the room was the working batch he had submerged both masks in; it was a tube much larger than the one upstairs; the tube’s face opened up and plumes of chilled vapor rose from the ajar space. A set of several hooks ejected from the top of the chamber-system and Marvin placed the chestplate, arms, and legs onto the hooks. The set of hooks retreated back into the tube and began the submersion process. In three days, the submersion would be complete and after the magic had settled in, it would be ready for use.

War was coming to his streets--he could feel the tension massing, and he would be ready when the dogs were released.