[IC] 《 H. E. R. O. 》

[canaryrose]

Jamie could only watch, horrified, as the life faded from Ranucci's eyes. Her blue eyes widened in shock. Why was he... what? Had her hit done this? The thought must've disturbed her significantly because she went mute, just staring down at the body. She had never killed somebody before- not even a villain like this guy had been. It was a terrible feeling- like a big rock in her gut, weighing her down and rooting her in place. Of course, if Jamie had taken even a moment to think about it (which she rarely did), she would've found that she couldn't possibly have been the direct cause of his death. After all, she had deliberately hit the parts of him that wouldn't kill him if smashed. A broken wrist and hip, while painful, wouldn't've caused a death like that. But Jamie was too busy thinking about how she had just committed her first murder to think about that.

Jamie half-heartedly stood, putting her hands by her side again, and cast her gaze to the sky when Blake pointed up at something. An airplane? Airplanes were fun, she guessed! Even if she was permanently banned from three major commercial airlines. But... why was the plane falling? This realization quickly replaced her concern about murder. "Holy crap, you guys, the plane's CRASHING-"

She was interrupted by a silver-black, vaguely person-looking thing crashing headfirst into the house. Debris and smog went everywhere. Jamie popped her goggles on and put her face in her elbow like she was about to cough. She did, in fact, cough, but tried her best not to breathe in the smog. Once it cleared, she would move towards the house to check on the person who crashed. I hope they're okay! That was a weird-looking plane, though... But her concern abated as she found that this crashed guy was not a guy at all- he was some kind of robot? She stepped back, cocking her head. She had to wipe the dust from her goggles to see fully, but... he looked odd. An unsettled feeling joined the guilty one at the bottom of her stomach.

Jamie's eyes narrowed at the man (Paradox's?) demand for surrender. Who the hell did this guy think he was?! "Surrender my ASS!" she screamed, just before Blake shot a huge pillar of fire directly at him. She had had her hands raised and a blast prepared but instead shot Blake a big thumbs up. She grinned. That had been easier than she had thought-

Or maybe not. Things happened almost too quickly for her to comprehend. Paradox literally rose from the ashes with a weird green forcefield around him. She simply blinked at this. Maybe he'd take a bit more firepower to take down than she had originally thought? But then both Blake and Rumi were shot down. She turned to Blake, panicked, before realizing that he had simply been netted. Not properly shot, thank God. She turned her gaze to Paradox, eyes now deadly-looking.

Nobody fucked with her friends.

Ignoring his choice of words, Jamie started to use her power at full-throttle. The ground began to tremble violently, sending white-picket fences around them falling. "GO TO HELL!" She raised up her hands and simultaneously aimed two intense blasts of vibrational force at Paradox. Her face was twisted up into a snarl. Playtime was over, it seemed.

@Hitman@Scarifar

---

"We can be, like, cross-organization friends? I dunno. Or, even better, you can join us! I'd love to have you. You can be, like, my top lieutenant. Some of the older villains have, like, mini-squads that work for them! I mean, I don't have to be your boss, y'know. We can be partners! Your power is really cool, by the way. I haven't heard firsthand, but I've heard you have a really pretty voice."

Patricia's face twisted up into a scowl at this. She had always despised being called a villain- especially by actual villains. But, of course, she immediately smoothed her face back into something that only slightly resembled angry. She had to keep this girl happy. For the mission. "I-I'm not a villain. I'm a hero. I like my job. B-but thanks. For the compliment, I guess."

When Katharina started her ramble about what Patricia actually cared about- the information- she listened, nodding along. "Ooh! I can tell you, but no telling your other hero friends, OK? So, basically, after Vinnie does his terrible stuff, the heroes get sent to ZERO HQ. I'm not a fan of the torture, personally. It's really cruel. I mean, they are heroes, so they do absolutely deserve it, but I try to keep a moral high ground. You're not bad though, Patricia! You're basically one of us. You should be, anyway," Katharine rambled on, oblivious to the disgust building on Patricia's face. She almost interrupted Katharine to say that she was, in fact, not one of them, and would never be, but closed her mouth when Katharine started talking again. This girl was either really lonely or a blabbermouth. Probably the former.

"Afterwards, we bring the heroes to the Ultra Death Machine. Well, it's not called that, of course, but that's what it looks like. Using the machine, we give the heroes a 'quick, merciful death.' At least, that's what Daddy told me."Katharine paused for a moment at this. Meanwhile, Patricia looked absolutely horrified. Her hands flew to her mouth and her hazel eyes went wide as saucers yet again. Ultra Death Machine? She had to be messing with her. But this girl didn't seem like the type to be messing with her. She sounded so nice, but she talked of killing casually as if it was artful. A mercy. Patricia was immediately reminded of her father. But she swept away the thought. This girl's father was the monster.

"Though I always found it strange that they scream when going into the machine, if it's so painless and merciful. But anyway, it's a really cool machine. It's, like, really big, and it looks like one of those CAT scan machines! So anyway, what the machine does is-" Katharine's disturbing speech was interrupted by a Whitney Houston song blasting from her phone (good taste). Patricia felt vaguely frustrated at this interruption. The girl-villain had just been about to get to the important part. The part that she needed to bring back to Director Powers, to get Division X on them and stop this entire insane thing.

Patricia mostly zoned out during the whole phone conversation, staring at the wall in horror. It didn't sound like 'Zero', whoever they were, was going to use this 'Ultra Death Machine'' on her- Katharine had reiterated several times that she wasn't going to kill her. But Brie, and Will, and Angie... Patricia couldn't just let them die. She had to get out of here somehow. Maybe the door-

Her inner planning was interrupted by Katharine's sobbing. "I hate him...I hate him I hate him I hate him I hate him..." she repeated over and over again, sinking into a little ball, head between her knees, beginning to sob. "Why does h-he always choose me?" she asked. "J-just because of who my father is he does this. Nobody else! He only ridicules m-me! We're s-supposed to be on the same side b-but he just...h-hates me! I don't know wh-why!" She continued to sob heavily.

A thread of empathy pulled at Patricia's heart. She found that she could relate, in whatever insane capacity. Maybe this 'Paradox' guy was like her Seraph? She could definitely understand being targeted because of lineage and for no other reason. Patricia found herself drifting to the bed. She hesitantly sat and put a hand on Katharine's shoulder. The door was locked anyway, and the goons would definitely shoot her if she made a break for it. Maybe she could convince Katharine to let her go. "There, there..." Patricia was not the best at comforting. She patted Katharine's shoulder awkwardly. "I-I get it. Some of my older coworkers do that to me all the time. Insult me, that is. You wouldn't believe some of the things they've said," Patricia chuckled humorlessly. "You just... you have to remember... you're your own person. N-not defined by someone else. He just hates you because he's bitter. Or, well, I don't know. Th-that's just how it is for me."

@Hitman

[Hitman]

Roughly One Year Ago

"Christina. We need to talk."

The two were sitting in Powers' office. It looked like usual- the same display of various military-grade weapons, the same clutter of paperwork on the disc, the same teddy bear pin cushion for combat knives. Powers was behind his desk, wearing his usual olive-green camo military jacket, his hands folded on his desk, his facial expressions tense. On the other end of the desk was Christina Lavender, who looked much more relaxed. She was dressed much more casually for the day, in a bomber jacket and khaki shorts, her short red hair tossled, large hoops dangling from her ears, a single pistol strapped to her leg. She sat in the chair opposite Powers, eyeing him.

"So I figured, or else you wouldn't have called me here." Her eyes examined his tightened facial features, his taut body language, as the Director of H.E.R.O. lifted a manila folder from the clutter of paperwork sitting at his desk. The folder was labelled "Recruit Applications," and it was full of a variety of forms. Powers sifted through the forms, most of them marked with a red stamp labelled "REJECTED" along with a hand-drawn frowny face in red pen by Christina. After moving past a good number of rejected forms, Powers stopped at one form labelled "ACCEPTED" in a green stamp along with a written note by Christina in her trademark slanted, muddled, inky cursive- "Welcome to HERO! Can't wait for you to join us!" Stapled to the form was an abundance of waivers and other forms to submit, along with a memo on first day information and routines.

Powers put the accepted application down on the table, the document facing Christina. Written next to the NAME section were the words 'Patricia Donnelly.' Powers' eyes moved up to Christina, who couldn't tell if they were sad, disappointed, angry, or some mixture. "Explain this."

"Not much to explain. She clearly demonstrated aptitude with her powers, her physicals are fine, and her psych evaluation is...well, we've accepted others with less positive evaluations."

"Do you know that last name?"

"Of course I do. I worked that case-"

Powers cut her off. "What were you thinking?! She is the daughter of-"

"I know, I know, prolific superpower-based serial killer. So what?"

"What do you mean, so what?"

"Her father did some terrible things, that I won't deny. But she's not her father."

"She's her father's daughter, Christina. Have you even bothered to look at her report? She's had incidents with her powers in the past."

"So has anybody that developed powers, they try to use it and get in trouble, that's why they come to us in first place!"

"Her powers are dangerous, especially so, and she's demonstrated ill intent in using them. She's the daughter of Patrick Donnelly, the Maestro, a man who has remorselessly slaughtered hundreds of-."

"What, and you're going to come and tell me the Powers name is all clean? That all of your family comes from pure blood? That you and your children are all flawless humans? Come on, Hugo! Cut the crap! Don't bullshit me!" Christina nearly yelled, exasperated.

This seemed to shut Powers up, and he stared at Christina, tons of emotions festering behind his eyes as his eyes locked with hers, a determined fire behind her eyes. She spoke again. "You can override me if you want, veto my decision. These mail out tomorrow. You have every right to do so. But...your family doesn't determine who you are. Is this girl perfect? No! She's very, very imperfect. As is every person who walks into these doors. But I could tell that when she came here, she was dead-set on changing her family name, her family legacy. That's what matters the most to me." She continued to watch him defiantly.

Powers spoke again about a full minute later. "They're going to be on our asses. The press, ICOSA, everybody. You know how they're going to feel about all this."

"And?" Christina asked, allowing a sly smile to slip onto her face.

After another moment of silence, Powers pushed the manila folder over to Christina across the table, eyes locking with hers once again. "Mail them out as soon as possible."

Christina smiled. "Thanks, Director."

Powers responded with a firm shake of his head. "No, no. Thank you, Christina."

[Scarifar]

@Hitman@canaryrose

"Never hurts to be careful, you know," Rumi responded to Blake. "An idiot this guy may be, but I say leave no room for a mistake you could've avoided." Once they got their information, Rumi was about to turn Ranucci over so he could restrain his arms behind his back, but then Ranucci began to shudder. Rumi tried to hold him down at first, thinking he was making an attempt to escape, but soon realized that his shaking was not an intentional effort. Rumi then backed away from Ranucci as he continued to shake, as if he were having a seizure, before expiring soon after. Rumi knelt down and felt his wrist, further confirming the loss of life.

Rumi shook his head as he got back up. "This wasn't me. I'm guessing someone wanted to silence him before he said too much. Question is... who?" That was also quickly answered by the immediate threat of an armored figure crashing down from the sky, which introduced itself as Paradox. Alarm bells were ringing in Rumi's mind, recognizing the name from the interrupted hack. "Guys, this 'Paradox' is bad news," Rumi warned, but Blake was already springing into action, engulfing the armored figure in a pillar of flame. Rumi hoped it would be enough, but didn't expect it to. The fact that Paradox called out their names first meant that he knew what he was dealing with and had most likely already taken measures to deal with them. Lo and behold, Paradox was unscathed, protected by a green-tinted force field.

When the missiles were fired, Rumi was quick to dodge, leaping to the side in an attempt to avoid the missile, using his nanobots to boost him along. He wasn't sure his own barrier could withstand a missile completely, and he wasn't keen to find out. Fortunately, it seemed he didn't have to, as the missile turned out to contain a weighted net instead of an explosive. The net landed nearby, Rumi having successfully dodged it. Looking over at Blake and Jamie, he was exasperated to see Blake having been caught by the net. As Jamie moved to engage, Rumi got to work attempting to free Blake. He pulled out a small vibroblade knife from his toolbelt and began to cut away at the net holding Blake down.

"Why didn't you dodge, you imbecile?" Rumi said as he worked at the net. "He could've killed you!"

[Danvers]

Brie tried in vain to struggle against the goons as they were led deeper into the Gugliano compound, however, there were far too many of them and without her powers, she really stood little chance. Normally she would have attempted to at least bite or headbutt one of them but the angle they were holding her at made it virtually impossible. "Assholes..." She muttered out of annoyance as they eventually were led into what looked like a wine cellar. She purposefully watched the goon despite his instructions, as he pressed his palm onto one of the barrels and opened up a door into what looked to be a large, and rather sketchy looking, warehouse.

"Laugh it up. Go ahead. As soon as this is over, I'll make sure something else is pressed to your face."

Brie bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing at Wills outburst. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by it but it was pretty amusing anyway. Yet, though it was funny to see him treating the mobsters in such a way, she had also never seen him behave like this before and she couldn't help but worry that he was going to be really mad at her as well. Pondering on this, she remained uncharacteristically quiet as they were led into yet another room and promptly locked in what looked to be some sort of weird plasma cell.

"For fuck sakes. Brianna, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just feel a bit tired." Brie nodded at him as she sat on the floor, ignoring both the traces of blood and the ID card. The combination of not having her powers, the isolene and whatever that strange girl had done to her, had made her body feel rather weak. Pulling her knees towards her chest, she wrapped her arms around them before looking over at Will. "Shit, I'm sorry Will! I totally screwed up didn't I?" Brie moaned as she rested her forehead against her legs. "I just, well I just kinda lost it when I saw you..." It was rare for Brie to admit, or even realise that she was wrong, but being locked up in the heart of the Guglianos compound with no apparent way out had made it pretty clear to her that she'd messed up.

"And it wasn't that bad of a lie...well it was but, I thought it'd be sort of believable! Also, I had no choice really. Powers told me that the mission had to be off the books, cause ICOSA were being assholes or something..." She mumbled this quietly as she tightened her grip around her legs. "Besides, it probably would have been more convincing if I could actually lie to you. Which I can't by the way. I always end up just blurting out the truth for some reason." Brie idly brushed at a bit of dirt that was on her black trousers as she spoke, her mind clearly elsewhere.

At the mention of the Isolene possibly wearing off, Brie looked up, hoping this was true. She had no idea why they had locked them in here but it clearly wasn't just for some rest and recuperation. Her green eyes looked towards the door the goon had left out of, absentmindedly staring at it. "I totally wouldn't blame you for being mad at me though." She eventually spoke up again after a few moments of silence. For some reason, it made her nervous to think that he might be annoyed at her. It was a strange thing to feel as usually, she didn't care when people (usually Powers) shouted at her, her overall attitude to getting in trouble being pretty blasé at best.

@Infinite Cosmos

[Amethyst]

_{Interacting: Starbright! @Jumbus}

For a long moment, it was all Eliza could do to stare at Starbright, her eyes wide and panicked. Had he not heard a word she’d said, about performing and all of that? At his smirk, her eyes narrowed briefly, as she wondered if it was a trick – was he setting her up for failure? To – well, surely, no, surely a famous musician wouldn’t do that to a well-meaning younger fan.

Maybe he was right, maybe a collaboration at this level would be just what she needed… she plastered a nervous, trembling smile on her face, listening to everything else he had to say. He spoke quickly about having her ready in a month, and she had to stifle a bitter laugh. Directors had been trying for three years, now, to get her back out of her shell, and had spectacularly failed at it.

Still. She wasn’t sure what part of her it was that spoke, but some childish eagerness bubbled up in her throat and quickly blurted, “Sure!” before the could think it through. “But I – I have a fundraiser stream I have to do, this Saturday. But I’m around after school every other day. Except Thursday nights, because I lead middle school sectionals. And then have my own sectional. And on Sundays, except I have quartet from 10am to noon. But Sunday afternoons!” She tripped over her words as she realized that she had no business telling Starbright what their rehearsal schedule had to be – surely he was even more busy than she was, and all of that.

---

---

_{Interacting: @canaryrose@Hitman@KaijuBaragon@Danvers@Infinite Cosmos}

Angelica smiled softly up at Tommy, nodding at his comment. She was about to suggest adjourning somewhere less discernible, but her comment died on her tongue as Patricia was abruptly slammed against the table.

It was incredibly difficult to resist crying out in terror as all eyes drifted to the scene, but she just covered her mouth docilely, glancing wide-eyed between Vinnie, the guard, Tommy, and Kat, who spoke quietly, and venomously, standing up to Vinnie in a way that none of the goons would have even dreamed of. Wow. She slammed down the tiny bit of fear that wondered if Patricia was really in with whatever Katharine and her father were up to – Patricia was too sweet, and a bit too blunt, of a girl to be an undercover agent, surely. Besides, she and Eliza were close enough, and spent so much time together, that the younger girl would’ve surely found out about a secret identity by now… she should just be grateful that Patricia seemed to have been given an out.

Ceasing to entertain that plausibility, she focused her attention on Tommy, doing her best to seem relaxed into his embrace, letting him guide the two of them gently from the room. It’s fine. It’s fine. He’ll think you’re just nervous about all this. Organizing her thoughts, she nodded. “If you think it would be best, I can sneak out once the worst of this blows over. I would hate for you to get in trouble on account of me… I’ve heard stories of your father’s anger.” She also would hate to have this nice man tangled up in the rescue mission – it would NOT be a good thing for him and Blake to have an altercation, that was certain. “I was hoping to get a jump on the game by being here, but I’ll just come to the next recruiting day at the bar, I suppose.” She laughed lightly, hoping the joke would take some of the edge off of her comment. “Why is he on edge? Not that it’s my business, of course, but if there’s anything a concerned community member could do, well – I have my resources.” She did her best to flash him a knowing and capable look, easing up on the seductivish vibes that she’d been channeling so hard just a moment ago.

[KaijuBaragon]

Tom looked intently at Grace as she began to speak. He wasn't really sure if he actually had expected her to follow what he said and portal Angie up into the attic - he supposed he had got caught up in the adrenaline and panic of the situation and assumed Grace would feel the exact same way and immediately portal Angie up, where the three of them would somehow proceed to kick everybody's ass. So, as Tom watched Grace apologise and say she couldn't do it, he couldn't help but feel his face fall as the adrenaline and hope that he was feeling quickly leaked out of his body, as if someone had pulled a plug on it. He looked down at Grace and rubbed his hands over his face for a brief moment, before realising he was just going to make Grace feel horrible about herself, and stopped, trying to put on a confident front again.

At Grace's words, he quickly took out his burner phone and turned it on, the light shining in his face in addition to the light that was coming off the portal above him. "I can't call Powers... Powers is in Paris, it'd take him too long to get back, and by that time everyone might have been carted off to wherever they're being taken... And Angie will be found out soon, she won't be able to pretend to be flirty for much longer, she'll break..." Tom suddenly cursed as the portal exploded, and he also fell from the force of Grace falling on top of him, watching with sudden horror behind her purple hair as the phone slipped from his grasp, threatening to crash into the hard wooden floor. "Oh fuck, no!"

Tom activated his powers at the last second, sliding away from Grace and standing up quickly, and the phone stopped falling about an inch off the ground. He breathed a sigh of pure relief before standing up and looking down at Grace, who was getting a little upset. "It's okay... Don't worry, it's not your fault, it's nobody's fault..." He pondered what to do for a moment, before getting down on one knee and giving Grace a quick, gentle hug before letting go and standing up again, beginning to pace around the attic space, tapping the phone in his hand. After about a minute he looked up suddenly.

"Okay. I'm gonna send a text... A text to Christina! And some other people who's numbers I can remember. I can't call anyone, it'll take too long." He looked down at Grace for a moment, seeking approval, before opening up the burner phone again and typing in Christina's number, where he sent the following text:

"CHRISTINA, HELP! ITS TOM, POWERS SENT US ON AN UNDERCOVER MISSION 2 THE MAFIA AND WE GOT BUSTED, BRIE PATTY AND WILL ARE CAPTUTED, ANGIE WILL BE CAPTURED SOON, IM HIDING OUT WITH GRACE, COME BRING DIVISION X OR SOMEONE IM BEGGING U".

Tom quickly hit send. "Alright, shit, who else's number can I remember. I think I can remember Blake and Jamie... And Zee, I haven't added him as a proper contact yet so I still have to type it in all the time!" He quickly got to work sending out three more text messages. They were basically the same as the last one, but obviously addressing different people. He also told Blake to try and find Joseph instead of Division X, and added on a message to Zee to see if he could get in contact with Samson. Tom sighed as he sent the final text to Zee, sitting down next to Grace. Obviously he had no idea that Blake and Jamie were currently unable to answer his text.

"I guess we wait now."

@Hitman @canaryrose @Shard

[Hitman]

"There, there..." Patricia was patting Katharines's shoulder. "I-I get it. Some of my older coworkers do that to me all the time. Insult me, that is. You wouldn't believe some of the things they've said," Patricia laughed, though Kat could tell it was empty. "You just... you have to remember... you're your own person. N-not defined by someone else. He just hates you because he's bitter. Or, well, I don't know. Th-that's just how it is for me."

Kat nodded a few times, still sobbing, before grabbing onto Patricia's shoulder and sobbing directly into it. "I want to be a hero! I r-really do!" she basically yelled as she cried into Patricia shoulder. "I don't want to kill people anymore, or have to stay hidden from HERO or hurt people or do bad things or help the mafia! I j-just want things to be...more normal," the girl moaned, her face planted directly into Patricia's arm, two waterfalls flowing from her eyes as she ranted. "You have to understand, I don't w-want to be a monster! I r-really don't! But my dad...he's always watching, he'll f-find-"

Kat stopped talking all of a sudden, looking up from Patricia's shoulder as an eerie, almost unnatural coldness filled the room out of nowhere. Kat looked over, eyes red and leaking tears like mad, as she saw that across the room, on the little perch, Bellatrix had awoken. The blue creature with the single golden eye stared at the two, and Patricia could immediately feel that this creature had unholy powers, that it could change people. While Patricia only felt a slight sensation from the creature, not enough to cause drastic changes in her personality, the creature was staring directly at Kat, and the girl seemed to be changing. She pulled away from Paricia, sitting on the bed, staring at the creature.

"Katharine~" the Spectator said in an unfitting, feminine tone, the bat-like creature still watching Katharine. "That was a very naughty thing to say."

Kat wiped her eyes, her face returned to that steely, cold, villainous glare, the one on her face when she took out Martino and Brie. "Right. That was foolish. Of course I want to be a villain." She giggled, but this giggle wasn't a teenage 'oh, that was funny' giggle- it was a giggle of an insane person. Kat stood. "I should go. Shouldn't keep the prisoners waiting long. Where did I keep those pliers?"

"That's right," the Spectator crooned. "Now, let's get our guest here acquainted to Zero." As Bellatrix the Spectator's gaze focused onto Patricia, Patricia felt a splitting headache come on and disturbing thoughts fill her head. Murder, bloodlust, murder, brutality, murder, betrayal, murder...all of these dangerous, evil sentiments swarmed her brain, accompanied by a pounding migraine. Fortunately for her, this only lasted a few seconds as Katharine literally swiped at the Spectator. "Leave her alone!" Kat shouted at the creature, who fluttered up back to her perch quickly, the effects on Patricia wearing off as quickly as they came. Bellatrix shook her one-eyed head. "So protective, almost heroic. Well, at your request, Madam Malady. Let's go get that torture out of the way. Leave her here. We can deal with her later."

Kat nodded obediently. "Right, later," she said, grabbing a pair of pliers from her drawer as the creature fluttered onto Kat's shoulder like a pirate's parrot. Kat walked out, unlocking and opening the door, She turned her head back to face Patricia, looking into the room, her scary crimson eyes tinged with sadness. She opened her mouth, and she appeared to mouth the word "escape" at the girl before closing the door. As Kat's footsteps faded down the hallway, there was no familiar turn of the deadbolt. The room was unlocked.

@canaryrose

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---

Blake moaned as he struggled against the net. It was very uncomfortable and very tight, and had him been very roughly to the ground. He looked over at Rumi, who had managed to dodge the net and was currently questioning him on why he didn't do the same. "I'm not used to people coming out unscathed from that much fire, Rumi. That was enough fire to toast even Will with his water shield. This guy is intense," Blake muttered as Rumi continued to go to work on the net. Though his knife cut quick, the net was very thick ad and composed of many different fiber ropes. "Listen, give me a moment and I can burn my way out once my fire comes back. G-go help Jamie," Blake said, nudging his head over in Jamie's direction. He was watching the fight from his position on the ground, and for once, he wasn't confident that Jamie had this one in the bag.

Meanwhile, over by the fight, a loud gong-like noise echoed out as the vibrational blasts hit Paradox, but the robot-man, or whatever he was, was hardly affected. Paradox, instead of being blown to kingdom come, only stepped back three steps, his mask (or helmet, or headpiece, or head, whatever it was) still analyzing Jamie like she was a guinea pig (which she possibly was). "Damage capacitance calculated. Result: wholly inadequate output. Damage to outer shell: 7.4%." There was a whirring of metal as what appeared to be two gatling guns, one on each of Paradox's forearms, formed, and Paradox aimed both weapons at Jamie. "Lethal force: unnecessary. Plasma incapacitators readied. Firing now."

A barrage of green pellets of energy rained down on Jamie from the two gatling guns. The weapons were not lethal, and did not even pierce the skin, but they hurt like a bitch, and they stunned, like there was was some type of charge. After bombarding Jamie with the stun pellets for a solid 10 to 15 seconds, Paradox raised his arms, the gatling guns disassembling and re-entering his forearms. Paradox waited for the dust to clear patiently. "We will see if my plasma incapacitators are sufficient to deal with HERO rated S-tier threats."

Meanwhile, as Blake watched in near horror, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and he heard Tom's voice say, "Hey, Blake!" That meant that Tom was texting him. Blake kind of wanted to check his texts, but he knew it was a very bad time to do so, so he instead waited. It probably was just a funny meme or something anyway, not an emergency, after all.

@canaryrose (again), @Scarifar

---

---

Grace sat there helplessly. She did not like the feeling of being helpless. She hated this feeling. Portals had given her the ability to be anything but helpless, to be useful, and feeling this emptiness, this lack of power, it hurt. She did a smile a bit as Tom gave her a hug, though. She did like hugs, and the re-assurance from Tom gave her enough energy to pick herself up and crawl over to the hole where Tom was looking before. She peaked through again to observe the scene below, where thankfully they hadn't noticed any of the light or the kerfuffle above. She saw a superbly attractive young mafioso talking to Angelica.

---

"Well," Tommy was saying, looking over at Angelica. "He's been...he's been doing work with this organization. Zero, they call themselves. They're a real shady organization. I don't like them one bit. But apparently, they have a lot of money and influence, and my old man is all about money and influence, so they've been in cahoots. Trading heroes for money. It's some sick stuff to be messing with human lives, though. I can live with coke and guns. Heroes, though?" Tommy shook his head, and continued to shake his head as Angelica offered any sort of help.

"Listen, I don't want a nice lady like you getting caught up in this. This isn't just some normal mafia stuff you see in Goodfellas. I've met two of Zero's guys, and they're scary powerful. I mean, Dad is a good fighter, one of the best, if not the best, but I think even he would have a tough time going toe-to-toe with one of Zero's goons." Tommy shook his head. "Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't like putting ladies in harm's way. Especially ones that are so sweet as you are." His hand had found Angelica's hand, and he lifted it up, looking into her eyes. "A quick kiss, m'lady?"

---

Grace stopped looking then, pulling her head up as Tom finished sending the last text. It seemed Angelica was doing well for herself for the time being, getting all lovey-dovey with the Greek god mafioso boy, though the facade couldn't last forever. She turned to face Tom as he sent his last text. "I think I said this already, but I'm sorry for being useless." She sighed, looking down and scooting closer to Tom, as she waited. Her violet eyes moved over to his own, and she started to speak, but then shook her head and sighed again, looking away. Her whole body was shaking. She knew that any wrong move, and they would likely be very forcefully dragged out of the cellar to their demise.

Well, she did sign up for this, she supposed.

Meanwhile, not long after Tom had sent his text, Christina responded.

"Hi Tom, this is Christina. Powers briefed me about your mission ahead of time, so I know. Thank God you're OK. I need you to listen to everything I say closely.

I sent an alert to Division X and some other heroes, they'll be on their way shortly. I also sent an alert to Powers, hopefully he'll be back soon. Everybody is on their way, we will help ASAP

Try and find everybody before they get killed, and pls don't get killed yourself. Stay safe. See u soon.

-Christina

PS- if u run into Vinnie, try and lure him outside. trust me. otherwise, kick some ass

@KaijuBaragon@sleepy

---

---

[Scarifar]

@Hitman@canaryrose

"You fool..." Rumi chastised him further, but said no more, knowing there were bigger fish to fry at the moment. Even with the vibroblade, it was taking longer than he had expected to cut apart the net. As to be expected of such a high tech suit, everything was high quality. "Che..." Rumi clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he agreed that assisting Jamie would be a better course of action at this point. Furthermore, Rumi didn't feel comfortable letting one hero, even an S-tier, handle that thing alone. "Fine, but you better hurry," Rumi said, putting away the blade and running over to Jamie. Paradox had already moved on to aiming rotary cannon barrels at Jamie, and was about to fire when Rumi moved in front of Jamie, using his nanobots to form a tower shield in front of them. "Stay behind me," Rumi ordered Jamie, his barrier flashing blue as it helped to block Phantom's shots. While his shield and barrier began taking the plasma fire, Rumi reached into his tool belt and pulled out a pair of palm-sized needle-like devices.

The barrier was quick to wear down, but as the blasts were not that harmful, it and the nanobot shield were able to defend him and Jamie from serious harm. Rumi's shield lost a bit of volume from the plasma fire, but not nearly enough to hinder his operations. Rumi then disassembled his nanobot tower shield. The majority of them returned to form around Rumi's body as general-purpose armor while the rest transferred over to his left and right arms, forming small cylindrical blasters around his hands and forearms, with the needle devices at the center. These were EMP blasters, capable of auto-fire shots and charged single shots for a small explosive ball of EMP energy with a short radius. They were prepared in the event he came across Phantom, but they would also work against any mechanical or tech-based opponents. They would do little against organic targets, but Rumi did not consider this to be a problem in the current situation.

Raising his left arm, he began to fire away at Phantom, prioritizing volume over aim. At the same time, Rumi's right arm began to charge up a shot for a more powerful blast, while also readying nanobots near his feet for enhanced movement. In the event that Phantom didn't move, Rumi would simply to fire the charged ball at him, but if he actually began to move around, he would have to depend on his quick wit as well as Blake and Jamie to hold him off until he could get a clear shot.

[canaryrose]

Snap. Snap. Snap, went Jamie's fingers. One after the other, her pinky, ring, and middle fingers on her left hand broke. An unwilling, pained gasp escaped from her mouth. She gritted her teeth against the sharp pain and scrunched her eyes shut. Overusing her powers always had an effect like this. By now, her fingers had broken at least ten times in the line of duty. But broken fingers weren't too bad, at the end of the day. With super-powered healers lining the staff of H.E.R.O, they could always be fixed. That didn't mean it didn't hurt like a bitch, though. Working past the pain, Jamie kept blasting Paradox. She assumed, by the gonging noises, that she was doing quite a bit of damage. Good. This guy seemed like someone they'd want down as soon as possible. And then they could take him to jail and continue... whatever they'd been doing.

Jamie opened her eyes and stopped blasting him 15 seconds later. She would've stopped after only two, but he had told her to hit him with her best shot! That hadn't quite been her best (internal bleeding was definitely not her favorite thing ever), but it should've been good enough to knock him out. Yet when she opened her eyes, shock rocked her to her core. He was still standing! Jamie's mouth dropped. That much of her power would crush a normal person. But he had moved back... what, a couple steps? She stamped her foot, sending a small shockwave through the Earth. She had broken her fingers for that! And it was inadequate, apparently. She didn't really know any of the other words he had said, but she knew inadequate- and it pissed her off.

Jamie chose to ignore his next words and the guns coming up from his shoulders, instead raising her hands to blast him again. Broken fingers didn't matter in the face of a villain that could withstand that much power. But before she could, he started to fire these green pellets at her. They looked weird and dangerous, and he had said the word lethal, so she had dropped the ground (stop drop and roll, people!) when Rumi dove in front of her to block the pellets with his cool technology stuff. She frowned and stood, brushing dirt off of her costume. Hitting the ground definitely would've worked!

"Thanks," she told Rumi, staying behind him as he had said and observing what was going on with pursed lips and narrowed eyes. If Jamie hadn't been able to take him out, then this would be a hard fight.

@Hitman@Scarifar

---

Patricia once again held Katharine as she cried- but this time, she didn't have much of an ulterior motive. This girl had done a complete 180 in a matter of minutes. She had gone from saying that heroes deserved to be killed to sobbing into Patricia's shoulder, tearfully declaring that she wanted to be one. She almost thought that the other girl had to be manipulating her, but... this wasn't manipulation. Patricia considered herself to be rather good at reading people, and she could instinctively tell that this girl wasn't the type to trick people. Oh my God. What the hell? She would've hugged Katharine closer, but she was still a little afraid of her, so she simply returned the hug. That would have to be enough. She had been about to offer some hopefully profound and life-changing words when she was interrupted (again?) by... it waking up. That was all that Patricia could describe it as. It. She would normally never describe something as evil- it was a generalizing word, not accounting for how people really acted- but she would describe this one-eyed thing as pure evil. Chills went down her spine. It wasn't looking at her, thank God, but she felt a change in the room come on as soon as it woke up. A change in the girl next to her, too- she stopped sobbing and raised her head, pulling away.

Patricia blinked rapidly when Katharine spoke again. It had done something to her, she was sure. There was something more going on."No, if you don't want to, you shouldn't, it's wrong-" Patricia started. But pain stole her breath. A horrible, ear-splitting headache came on. For a few brief seconds, it felt like there was a hammer inside of her skull. And... she wanted to kill. Grisly thoughts and images filled her brain. Kill them all kill them all you know you want to you could do it bodies on the floor just think- But as quickly as it started, it was over. She breathed a sigh of relief, holding her head in her hands and drawing in a sharp breath. She simply stared at Katharine in terror as she left with the thing.

Wait. Had she just mouthed what Patricia thought she had mouthed? Escape? It took a moment of processing for her to realize this. Katharine wanted her to escape. Or did she? Could be a trap, she mused. But... the door was unlocked. This was her only shot at getting out of here, at getting away from that thing. She could only guess, but she thought that it turned you evil in some way- an idea that Patricia hated. She never wanted that experience again.

Patricia listened for footsteps for a few moments after Katharine left, but there were only her receding ones. So, she stood and made a beeline to the drawer where Katharine had taken the pliers from. She rifled around in there for a few short moments, finding and pulling out a long, bloody machete. The blood was dried, but, still... her stomach turned a little, thinking of the poor person who had had this used on them. She tucked its hilt into the waistband of her skirt, letting the rest of it be concealed in her leather fur ruff jacket. She went through the rest of the drawers haphazardly, even dumping out and going through the contents of the suitcase and turning over the mattress, but there was nothing else to find. Besides some more Fiji water, of course.

Patricia had half a mind to wait until her powers came back until she tried an escape. But her powers probably weren't going to come back anytime soon- that had been a shitton of isolene. So... she'd have to escape without them. Or just hide in a closet until someone came for them. Patricia turned the doorknob and peeked into the hallway, only coming out once she knew that were no goons standing around.

She ended up stalking through the hall, heart pumping and eyes flicking from side to side. She stuck close to the wall, hoping to hide behind one of the various plants and decorations in case she saw someone. Her current plan was to find an unused closet far away from Katharine's room and curl up in there until her powers either came back or H.E.R.O raided the place.

But apparently, the world had other plans for Patricia, because she immediately tripped over herself, sprawling across the ground. "Motherfucker!" she exclaimed, quite loudly, before realizing where she was and that what she just did could easily doom her. Stupid fucking heels! She would definitely be caught now.

@KaijuBaragon@Hitman

[Infinite Cosmos]

"Well. In any case, we'll have a conversation about this after we get out of here." William said to Brie, sighing slightly. "God damn I sound like a dad. Too damn soon for that. I..." His voice trailed off. Sure, he has fallen for the girl in front of him. But, how could he impose his ideal life on her like so? For all he knows, she sees him as a fling or something like that. Something not long term or permanent. Regardless, it would be way too soon to talk about permanence anyways.

"I appreciate your care for me but...Wait. Why are you guys all here? You, Patti, Angie...? You guys all on the same mission? Not that you guys are not reliable but... Powers sending just you three to raid a mobster compound? That sounds like a lack for foresight unlike Powers..." William continued. "Are there others with you? Gods I hope Patti and Angie are alright. I hope they have decent covers since they're checking IDs or whatever now... You and I are definitely busted but hopefully them two can get to a place and call for back up..."

At the thought of calling for backup, a small thought flashed through his mind. "I wonder..." He focused his mind, combating whatever lingering effects the large dose of Isolene he had received still had on his body. Slow, an unsteady orb of water formed around his palms. "Ok. So its wearing off for me..." William took to scanning the room for any sort of surveillance equipment. "I don't want them to know that my powers are back... It is sort of our ace up the sleeve at this point. It seems like the cage around us is made of some sort of laser or high density plasma contained by a electromagnetic field. Shit. If we had your powers, breaking out of here would be a breeze... But as it stands, I don't know if I can get a stream of water to build enough pressure to cut through it... I know I certainly can't heat it hot enough... Shit."

Brie mentioned not minding William being mad at her. William worked up a slight grin. "I could never be mad at you, Brianna Hart. Despite how I may look on the outside." He leaned down, even as they were both still restrained, and gave her a kiss. Was this their first kiss? If it was, wouldn't it poetic? Soon they would surely be subject to some sort of torture and potentially death.

If that is the case, let the last thing he tastes be the kiss between himself and Brie.

@Danvers

[KaijuBaragon]

Tom scooted over closer to Grace as she scooted closer over to him in turn. He shook his head earnestly as Grace spoke. "Come on, you're not useless at all, and you know it. Without you we wouldn't have even got in the complex at all, you portalled us in. And it's sort of my fault too, I shouldn't have encouraged you to send that fourth mobster dude along all the way to Chick-Fil-A, I should have known that might have drained your energy." Tom sighed and leaned his head back, looking up at the dark and dusty attic ceiling above the pair, anxiously waiting for any kind of response on the desperate texts he had sent out a few minutes earlier. Tom then felt the phone buzz in his pocket, and he quickly whipped it out, frantically reading.

Tom's face lit up as he saw who it was from and the contents of the text. "Shit, yes! Grace, it's Christina!" Tom grinned before reading the text some more. "She did it, she notified everyone! Division X is on their way, apparently, and so is Powers, and a bunch of other heroes! Tom fist pumped, showing the phone to Grace for a moment so she could see. "But she also said we should go and look for people... Well, we know where Angie is, let's just hope they get here before she has to back out. But we're gonna have to go and find everyone else... So it's time for some proper hero work again." Tom lent Grace his hand so she could get up, before leading her out of the big attic and into the smaller one where the pair came in from.

Tom immediately crossed the room to the other side, kicking away a box to reveal another hatch into another attic. Tom had pretty much deduced at this point that the whole complex ran underneath and above the floors, so he quickly lead Grace through into this new place, standing up and explaining what he was thinking as they walked. "So, I guess we'll use this attic space to get far away from the meeting hall, then drop down and try and work out where Brie, Patty and Will were taken, take them out. Then we can probably bust Angie out of her situation, then hide back up here until the rest come to bust us out." It wasn't the most adrenaline filled plan, but Tom was in a reasonable state of mind right now, and that was the best plan that he could hope for. And it wasn't like Tom and Grace were going to find anyone while walking around up here. They turned a corner down a new attic hallway.

Thump. "Motherfucker!"

Tom looked up at the ceiling immediately. It took him all of a few seconds to realise who the voice he had just heard belonged to. It was Patty! Patty was above them. Tom looked at Grace, mouthing Patty's name to her in case she didn't already realise. Tom waited, expecting to hear the horrible noise of some mafioso gruning and dragging Patty along the floor. But the sound never came. Tom's brain was working as fast as it could, and it suddenly put together what just happened. She must have escaped, and was now making a run for it... but she had experienced a clumsy moment and fallen over. In better circumstances Tom would have snickered at her clumsiness. He wished that he had his special goggles he got at the Christmas party from Powers that year to look through the ceiling... he was an idiot and left them at home.

Tom supposed there was only one way to find out, otherwise Patty would just run off somewhere and probably get caught. Tom raised a fist and started rapping his knuckles on the floor below where Patty was presumably lying. "Patty! PATTY! It's TOM! And Grace, we escaped into a crawlspace between the floors... What the hell happened, how did you get away?! Nevermind, tell us in a second, Grace will portal you down here.. Grace?" Tom looked hopefully at Grace standing next to him.

@Hitman @canaryrose

[Danvers]

"Well. In any case, we'll have a conversation about this after we get out of here."

Bries face blanched at Wills words, her expression akin to a child being told off. It was ironic that he then said he sounded like a dad. "Oh right. Sure we can talk later..." She trailed off awkwardly; Brie had no experience of this but she did hate that he sounded disappointed in her. Being shouted at by Powers was fine but this felt far worse. "Well I don't know what dads sound like anyway, so it's okay!" Brie laughed lightly, trying and most likely failing to lift the mood. To most, it probably would seem a very depressing thing to point out but Brie had never really thought about it that way. It was more just a fact of life. After all, how could she miss something that she barely remembered?

"Wait. Why are you guys all here? You, Patti, Angie...? You guys all on the same mission? Not that you guys are not reliable but... Powers sending just you three to raid a mobster compound? That sounds like a lack for foresight unlike Powers..."

She had been trying to figure out if she could get her hands out of the restraints (she couldn't) but looked up when he began to speak about the mission, a small pout appearing on her face. Sure she wasn't the most reliable of heroes but Powers had obviously picked her for a reason. "Well it wasn't exactly a raid. It was an undercover mission. Apparently heroes have been going missing for a while now." She shrugged her shoulders gently before continuing, "Patti and Angie got in with some creepy perv mobster. I was with Tom and Grace - y'know the portal girl? She well...portalled us in, so I guess they're probably hiding somewhere now. Or at least I hope so anyway..." Brie really hoped the others hadn't been caught. It would be totally sucky if she'd landed them in trouble too. She was pretty sure they'd be fine though. After all, Tom could make things fly in the air and Grace could just get them out through one of her cool magic portals. Yeah, she was super sure they'd be okay!

Watching as Will began to form an orb of water around his hands, she stood up enthusiastically, any thoughts of how she'd ruined the mission temporarily leaving her head. "Oh that's great! Your powers are coming back!" Wandering over to the shield, Brie curiously poked at it. Nothing happened. Obviously. Normally she would be able to tell if it was powered by electricity or even where the source of its power was, but now all she saw was a wall of plasma. A really stupid wall of plasma.

She was about to complain about not having her powers when Will leaned over to kiss her. Brie still had her heels on, so she only had to stretch a little bit to be able to kiss him back. Smiling against him as she did, Brie stepped closer to shorten the distance between them. It was probably an odd time to be kissing someone but that didn't make it any less enjoyable, and it was also comforting to know that he wasn't mad at her. "Really? I totally thought you would be..." She looked up at him as the kiss ended, taking to leaning her forehead against his chest instead. "I hope you can use your full powers soon. It would really suck to die here."

@infinite cosmos

[Hitman]

Blake nodded as Rumi left him to go help fight this weird Paradox robo-guy. "You get him, Rumi!"" Blake called out as Rumi shielded Jamie before turning his arms into what appeared to be some sort of blaster, and proceeded to blast Paradox. Unfortunately, Paradox was quick to move, and before Rumi could even try to land a hit Paradox was midair, green fuel thrusters activated on his legs, and he soared around like a bumblebee, not staying still for a second. "You should know by now, Sir E. Brum, that the likes of me cannot be matched by the likes of you." He continued to zip around as another weapon appeared on his shoulder, another bazooka-looking one. "I am Paradox, the pinnacle of humankind. I am unbeatable." Blake gulped as the large missile weapon seemed to be angling towards him. "You will be made examples of and terminated as such. Warhead ready. Preparing to-"

Blake was saved as an actual explosion hit Paradox in the side of the head, smoke billowing from the side of his helmet. It seemed as though it hadn't done much damage, but it stopped his onslaught of attacks. Another explosion hit him in the torso, again not dealing much visible damage but sending him careening sideways. "Reinforcements detected. Did not anticipate arrival of other heroes. Abort operation." His feet thrusters engaged once again as the robot/man soared upwards, zooming away from the area like a plane once more.

Blake looked over to the source of the explosions to see Christina walking towards them, a large, dangerous-looking sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. She grinned at them. "Fancy seeing you here," she quipped, pulling out a large, very futuristic looking knife from her sheath and beginning to go to work on Blake's net. With the progress Rumi had already made combined with the prowess of this fancy new knife, Christina was able to cut Blake free pretty quickly. Blake blushed a little, a bit embarrassed. So far, he was chalking up to be pretty useless overall in this entire operation, and he did not enjoy that one bit.

"First off, no blushing, we're both taken. Second, I expected a 'thank you.' And third, let's move, you guys. We don't have all day here." Christina began to walk over to the now-destroyed house.

"Uhh...what's going on? How do you know about the Leftovers?""

"Leftovers? No, we're going to go save your friends."

Blake followed Christina, who was currently standing inside the rubble, looking around. "I think I speak for everybody when I ask, 'what the fuck is going on here?'"

Christina looked over at the three like they were lost puppies. "Basically, your closest friends were on a secret undercover that they didn't invite you on, and now they're in very deep shit, and we have to bail them out."

"...oh. What friends are we talking about here?" Blake remembered the text message.

"Tom, Patricia, Angelica, Brie, Will, and Grace. New girl from PHANTOM."

"Ah, I see- hold on, MY Angie?!"

Christina rolled her eyes. "She's not yours to own, Blake. But yes, sure." Christina said as she pressed her foot against the ground.

"I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"I know, you're a bit too dumb to be a domineering partner. Rumi, could you do be a favor and do a scan of this vicinity? According to my personal research, there's some sort of secret link between this location and the Gugliano manor? Well, it's not very secret anymore, but still." She gestured towards the ground, which was currently covered in rubble and the like. "Also, nice work against that villain. He isn't exactly a pushover...I have a feeling we're going to be seeing more of him soon."

@canaryrose @Scarifar

---

---

Grace listened to Tom's comment. "Come on, you're not useless at all, and you know it. Without you we wouldn't have even got in the complex at all, you portalled us in. And it's sort of my fault too, I shouldn't have encouraged you to send that fourth mobster dude along all the way to Chick-Fil-A, I should have known that might have drained your energy." Grace shook her head at this, having since taken off her hat, allowing her violet hair to fall loosely down her back. Subtlety was dead, at this point; might as well let her head air out as she sat there in the weird attic/cellar. "It's definitely not your fault. If I wasn't this weak..." She sighed once more, preparing to say something else, but Tom was already on the move, and Grace shuffled after him quickly, following him through the attic system that was built in place.

As Grace was thinking on just how terrible this system probably was, she heard a loud thump followed by a young girl exclaiming "Motherfucker!" quite loudly. Grace could tell from the voice as well as the circumstances that this was none other than Patricia. She gave a relieved sigh. She was OK, at any rate. Tom began to speak to Patricia after a moment of silence."Patty! PATTY! It's TOM! And Grace, we escaped into a crawlspace between the floors... What the hell happened, how did you get away?! Nevermind, tell us in a second, Grace will portal you down here.. Grace?" Before Tom had even finished his sentence, Grace was already hard at work. Tracing her finger through the dust on the ground, she sketched out a few equations on the floor into the dust, looking at them before looking up at the ceiling. "How thick do you think this floor is? Not more half a meter for sure...almost certainly less..." Grace added another equation into the dirt, sketching out a cylinder on the ground next to it and writing the equation of the cylinder next to her diagram. She tapped her finger to her chin before tracing her finger along what for her was the ceiling, a portal opening up in front of Patricia. "Not too bad..." she panted, the portal clearly having taken a bit out of her, as she stuck her head out of the portal. Looking around seeing nothing, she quickly grabbed Patricia's arm. "Let's go," she whispered, yanking with all her might and hauling Patricia into the portal.

As the portal swirled shut, the two girls successfully moving through, Patricia fell into the room directly on top of Grace, who moaned as Patricia crushed her against the ground. "You weigh more than I thought..." Grace grunted, her thin frame struggling to wiggle out from underneath Patricia. "I mean, are you OK? That's more important. But also, when you get a chance, if you could get off me, that would be great." Grace smiled at the sight of her friend. Call her negative, but she was mentally preparing in case she never saw Patricia again, and the sight of the girl in mostly OK shape relieved her greatly. Even though said girl was currently crushing her into the wood floor.

@KaijuBaragon@canaryrose@Amethyst

---

---

[Infinite Cosmos]

"Ah. I'm sorry... I didn't know about..." William's voice trailed off as Brie mentioned not knowing her father. Such a subject is often very sensitive. For him to mention it so nonchalantly was awfully thoughtless of him. However, there was no way for him to know that she has had familial problems before. William chewed on insides of his lower lip softly, trying to think about how to broach the subject under more suitable circumstances.

Seeing Brie trying to work out of her restraints, William spoke up softly. "Here, let me see. I never actually saw what sort of restraints they used on us..." As he looked, he saw that they were simple plastic zip cords. "Cheap bastards. They really tied up heroes with zip cords. Hold your hand steady and I'll cut it open..." William said. With a snap, a thin jet of water passed through the restraints, freeing Brie of her hands. "Shhhh..." He whispered to Brie, knowing that she would exclaim in excitement from being released of her restraints.

With another snap of his fingers, his own restraints were cut free with the same thin jet of water. "Now, to disable this damned containment shield..." William looked about, noticing that there were two complex looking machinery near their containment cell. "I'd bet those are the things sustaining the shield... They look expensive. Would be a shame to get some water damage on them..." William said, slightly grinning. Scanning their immediate surroundings, William noticed an air vent on the floor. "Hm. I wonder..."

William turned to Brie. "Wait. So, undercover mission. Powers sent you, Angie, Patti, Tom, and Grace... That is a lot of people to send on a stealth mission but I'm sure they all serve a purpose and the gravity of the mission called for it... Well. Yeah, hopefully Grace and Tom are keeping the kids in line, so they say." William breathed out a small sigh of relief. Tom, despite his lecherous rendezvous, is very reliable when required. Grace, is essentially a female Tom, without the sinful parts. As he thought about it more, William became slightly surprised that Blake didn't come charging in with Brie, seeing as his better half was sent to be undercover inside a mob compound. "I don't suppose Grace can portal us out of here this time, seeing as not even we know where we are exactly..."

William took a small step back. "Right. I haven't said this to you yet. You look great, Those heels give you legs for days. And again. I can never be angry with you." William offered a genuine smile. It was perplexing how she is able to simply pull off any sort of outfit. From gowns made for galas, to whatever she is wearing now, to waking up in bear pajamas. There was just a natural charm to her that William simply could not resist. It could be her optimistic disposition or her confidence in herself. William could not put a finger on it specifically. In any case, William turned to the small air vent on the ground. "There is something I want to try...Hopefully it works. And quick. We won't have much time after I start... Can you run? Fuck it. No matter. I'll carry you out of here if I have to."

William took a deep breath and mustered up whatever strength he had. A thin veil of mist swirled around them, and was promptly push out of the vent. William visibly straining to push the water vapor against the air flow coming into their containment cell. As soon as the water vapor made it out of their cell, William concentrated and formed it into two thin jets of water. Using the highly pressurized streams, William got to work on cutting open the shell of the machine that were near them...

"Hopefully this works..." He muttered.

@Danvers

[canaryrose]

"Tom?" Patricia whispered, stunned for a moment. A sudden, giddy smile appeared on her face. "Thank God it's you. I-it's a long story- yes, please! Th-that would be awesome." She laughed, somewhat happy. Patricia felt a sense of relief like no other wash over her. She had been so worried that one of the goons would find her and march her off to get her teeth pulled out or something similar. After all, she was without her powers and only had a questionably bloody machete for defense. But now that Tom and Grace were here (hopefully with their powers), escaping would be that much easier. They could find Brie and Will and get away from this fucked-up place and these Zero people's fucked-up plans. Plus, she couldn't say that she wasn't happy to hear her friends' voices. She had been half-expecting to be kidnapped and murdered, so this was a welcome change in pace.

Grace hauled Patricia into the portal rather roughly, but she didn't mind. She was just happy to see the familiar violet portal and the faces of her real friends- not that crazy villain girl. As soon as she made it into the crawlspace, she let out a relieved sigh, looking around for a moment while still on top of Grace. "Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, of course," Patricia told Grace hurriedly, pushing herself off of the other girl and onto the dusty floor of the attic. She looked at the two others, relief flooding into her eyes. This place was a little cramped and pretty dusty, but she felt safer here with her friends than she did in that girl's bedroom.

"I'm alright," she said shakily. "The-the villain that dragged me out of the room- she said that..." A deep blush appeared on Patricia's cheeks, and she looked away from them both. She despised talking about her father with her coworkers. It was so awkward. So she would leave it out. "She, um, she left the bedroom door unlocked. That's all." That was all they needed to know, after all. A-anyways, we need to free the others and get out of here. I found out some things from that villain. They're going to transfer the heroes that they capture to someplace- Zero, I think she said- after the Guglianos are done torturing them. And they're going to run them through some machine to kill them, which does something that I don't know about." Patricia took a breath after this lengthy, hushed speech, looking between Tom and Grace. "Let's start with the bad news. I got stabbed with an isolene needle, I don't have my powers. But the good news is," she dragged the bloody machete out of her skirt, laying it on the floor, "I grabbed this out of her bedroom." Patricia paused, glancing down at her weapon and then back up at Tom and Grace. "You guys do have a plan, right?"

@Hitman@KaijuBaragon

[Scarifar]

@Hitman@canaryrose

Rumi figured the EMP blasters would not be very effective. He would need some form of restraint before he could do any meaningful damage. Before he could formulate a concrete plan of attack, however, Paradox was suddenly attacked by a new force, and was forced to retreat. He turned to face the direction the explosive shots came from, and saw C- Class Hero Christina Lavender walking towards them. "You have our thanks, Ms. Lavender," Rumi said. Rumi deconstructed his EMP blaster cannons, returning the devices back into his belt. Rumi didn't really want to think about what would've happened had Paradox decided to stick around, even if he brain was already creating simulations of the various outcomes, few of which were good.

"On it, Ms. Lavender," Rumi said, lifting his right hand, palm upward. He then ordered his nanobots to form a pair of tiny drones with 4 propellers. He then attached a pair of miniature cameras on them and sent them off the scout the area. "We also interrogated that mobster over there," Rumi reported, pointing at the still-dead Ranucci. "We didn't kill him, if you're wondering. We suspect Paradox managed to silence him before he could spill too much. He said something about a trapdoor in what I assume to be that building over there, and how heroes are trapped in there."

"Finally, I don't think this Paradox fellow was taking us seriously at all this entire fight. He was only toying with us... testing us. He said something about 'field-testing and data collection authorized by Command-1'. I suspect we weren't even facing him directly, but merely one of his automatons, and one that could apparently stand against an S-class hero's power with ease. Whatever we're facing... we haven't even scraped the tip of the iceberg."

[Amethyst]

_{Interacting: @canaryrose @Hitman @KaijuBaragon @Danvers @Infinite Cosmos}

Angelica filed away the knowledge about Zero, watching Tommy through her long eyelashes, her face arranged in an attentive expression. So he did have a heart… She felt a flash of very real sympathy. “I can understand that,” she murmured, gaze finding his. “Whenever human lives are involved it gets…more difficult, to be certain. Do you have any idea what happens to these heroes? When Zero takes them, I mean.”

At his joke about being old-fashioned, she laughed. Blake says the same thing, she wanted to say, but forced the thought of him out of her mind. A pang of guilt stabbed her through the heart as Tommy brought her hand to his face, and her smile ever so briefly faltered. Eager to brush that aside and continue convincing him with her acting, however, she somewhat bashfully nodded, ducking her face demurely. “You really are a gentleman, you know. A real charmer.” Sorry, Blake. I love you, cupcake, I love you so much.

A prickle of unease settled in her stomach as she agreed, but before she could dwell on it too long his lips brushed against the back of her hand. Warm and smooth and perfectly respectful. A knot of sadness settled in the back of her throat and tears pricked at her eyes as she remembered Blake doing the same not long after they had first begun seeing each other…

And then she felt her heart fall out of her body as he pulled his lips away from her knuckles. That’s his power, you imbecile. You read his file! How could you be so stupid?! I swear… he knows. You blew it.

You blew it.

The realization was a quiet one that settled in a numbness in her limbs. She forgot how to breathe. Arranging her face into a wide-eyed, breathless expression (that awfully betrayed how terrified she suddenly was!) she took half a step away from Tommy, attempting to gently retrieve her hand from his grasp. She could play this one off. She absolutely could just – play this one off, right? Right? A nervous tremor settled into her ankles and hands as she demurely eyed the young man, trying to posture herself as vulnerably and innocently as possible.

[Hitman]

Tommy Gugliano

As Tommy lifted his head, his eyes fell onto Angelica, a different look in his face, like his features had frozen over. He blinked a few times at her, looking somewhere in between mad and hurt. "You neglected to mention you were already seeing somebody, you know." As Angelica tried to step away, Tommy kept his grip on her hand, still holding onto Angelica's fingers, tighter now than before, like a vice grip. His eyes fell onto her struggling, terrified face, his eyes cool and reserved. "A bit ironic how if you'd stayed faithful, you wouldn't be in this situation, hero." he said vacantly, pulling her arm back towards him. All eyes were on the two of them at this point as Tommy wrenched Angelica's arm behind her back (this seemed to be a move used by the entire mafia, apparently).

He held Angelica tightly in front of him, arm pinned in place. "Wish, huh? Credit where credit is due, you almost got out." He smiled coldly. "I hate to turn you into Zero...but my hands are tied, I suppose. As are yours, I suppose." He roughly pushed her along. "Let's go. La troppa bonezza finisce nella monnezza," he muttered as he pushed Angie slowly towards the door of the hall, some grunts walking over to help support their boss' son. Vinnie watched along as a proud parent. "Well done, Tommy. Proud of you, mio figlio."

Tommy stopped shoving Angelica, looking over at his dad. "Thanks..." he said with a nod.

_{La troppa bonezza finisce nella monnezza: Italian proverb essentially meaning "Nice guys finish last"}

@Amethystnot sleepy

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[KaijuBaragon]

Tom looked over at Grace, clearly very impressed, as she wrote down the equations and whatnot to get the portal working properly. He was even more impressed when a successful purple portal appeared above them. Then he became a little anxious as Grace peeked her head up through it - what if the worst occured and someone happened to be walking along at the time - then they would be truly fucked. Or what if someone had heard Patty's loud swear and now a whole legion of mafiosos was running in their direction. He waited nervously as Grace pushed herself up further into the portal, appearing to strain for a moment before a pair of girls clumsily fell through the portal, which vanished pretty much as soon as they had fallen in onto the dusty floor.

Tom grinned widely as he saw Patricia in front of him, looking a little shaken up but nonetheless safe. He resisted the urge to give her a hug as she crawled off of Grace - they definitely weren't out of the woods yet, celebratory hugs could wait for later. Now that there was three of them, they stood a much better chance. Tom's mind raced before he even spoke - first they could go and get Angie, then they could get Patty to use her powers on some mobster to tell them where Brie and Will were, then they would go and get Brie and Will and bring them back up to the attic, hiding out until Division X busted the whole scene up and this whole crazy shit was finally over. "Thank fuck you're okay, Patty." Tom said, still smiling.

But his smile soon faltered as Patty began to speak. The first bit of awful shit was that Brie and Will were seemingly about to get tortured and then killed by some horrible villain organisation. Well, that just made their mission even more urgent, the busting out had to commence soon! But Patty's second bit of good news wiped any tiny bit of positive expression that may have been left on his face. He looked down at the bloody machete, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, I had a plan... but you not having powers anymore kind of ruins it... Not that it's your fault! Let's just head back in the direction where we came from, see if anything's changed with Angie's situation." Tom tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice as he led the girls back in the direction they had come from - he didn't want to make Patty more upset, she was probably already feeling like shit as is.

After a couple of minutes they reached the space where Tom and Grace had first entered the crawlspace. He was about to say something when he heard the sound of doors opening down below. He quickly got on his knees and peeked through the hole to see a struggling girl with striking black hair being dragged along by a man, flanked by two other guys. "Shit! Angie's been caught!" Tom hissed, standing straight up. "Patty, you stab one of the goons, Grace, crush someone with an incomplete portal or whatever, and I'll take the dude dragging her!" Tom didn't wait for a response before he stepped forward and kicked the hatch firmly. Far too firmly it turned out, as the flimsy hinges snapped straight off the and hatch went plunging down into the hallway below. That didn't stop him though, as he quickly grabbed Patty and Grace's hands and floated them down into the hall.

The first thing he noticed was that the falling hatch had squarely hit one of the goons on the head, taking him out of action - looks like there was just one goon for Patty and Grace to deal with. The attractive mafioso looked shocked, and Tom immediately noticed he had Angie held in a very dangerous position - he couldn't just blast forward or he might break Angie's arm. So he did something else. He turned off gravity so Angie and Tommy floated upwards. He watched as Tommy let go and starting flailing about, cursing. Then Tom leapt at him, grabbing his chest and pushing him into the wall. However, Tom was too full of adrenaline to concentrate properly, so Tommy managed to land a blow on his nose. Tom yelled and floated up then back, dropping Tommy down around 3 metres. Tom didn't hear if there was a break or a yell or not, as he was pulling a painting off the wall, floating down and slamming it over Tommy's head, before socking him hard in the jaw. That should do it. Tom quickly stepped back, satisified that Tommy was out for the time being. He looked up, the adrenaline wearing off slightly, and he realised that the attic route was now not an option, as anyone who came out of the main hall would surely see the hatch on the ground.

Tom turned to the others to see what they had done, nose bleeding a fair amount, already saying "Shit... Come on, we need to run, they'll have absolutely heard all that."

@Hitman @canaryrose @Amethyst

[Hitman]

"Ouch..." Blake grumbled as he kicked aside a few heavy-looking pieces of pavement. Even though Rumi had begun searching for the trap door, Blake was still looking, in part because he had nothing better to do. As he sifted through the piles of rubble, his mind drifted towards his friends that were trapped in some sort of death trap mafia mansion. Blake had watched enough classic mafia films to know that whatever was going on behind those walls could not be anything good. Angie, Brie, Tom, Patricia...they were all stuck in there, and that dire thought made his body rumble with fire. Unfortunately, not much could be done right now, except for helping to search by kicking over some rocks, and so Blake continued his rock-kicking crusade.

Meanwhile, Christina spoke to Rumi as his robots did their scanning thing. She nodded as they mentioned the dead body. "There'll be an investigation, of course, but I'm sure you guys are in the right. You always are. Well...you normally are. Sometimes," Christina corrected herself as she walked slowly after the robots, speaking to Rumi. "Mmm...Paradox is an interesting character. That is his real body, by the way, or at least I think. I can send you the specifics after this is over. His files are supposed to be sealed right now...but I think, considering this run-in, you've done enough to learn more." Christina stopped in the epicenter of the destroyed house, removing a small pyramid silver device from her belt and attaching it to the ground. The pyramid begin to spin as a green light shot upwards from the pyramid, into the sky. The device was a HERO Beacon- it would provide direct coordinates to the location for any HERO that was currently interested, which Christina hoped would be quite a few. She then looked over at the drones. "Looks like they found something," she noted as she walked over, shoveling a large slap of granite (likely once a kitchen counter) out of the way to reveal a heavy oak trapdoor. With a strong thrust of her leg, Christina smashed the door in, the trapdoor splintering and falling down, revealing a long ladder down into a secret tunnel.

"That's our way in. I'll be staying behind for a moment to gather some more heroes in this area. I would command you guys to stay back, but I have a feeling that you're going to want to charge in and save your friends. If you want to do that, my eyes are closed. Just please don't get yourselves killed in there, if you do?"

@canaryrose @Scarifar

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"It's fine, Patricia. Think you might want to consider losing some weight, though," Grace commented dryly. She listened quietly as Patricia explained her circumstances and the mysterious organization known as Zero. She shivered as Patricia said the word Zero. "Never heard of them," she whispered as Patricia described a horrifying process that this strange entity was using to somehow kill heroes. If it weren't these circumstances, Grace would not have believed Patricia, butt she could only assume that the girl was telling the truth. That, or she had somehow been addled with, but she was inclined to presume the former. She then listed to Tom's plan (or more accurately, lack of one) and followed him back. She felt worry in her veins- she was, in essence, relying on Tom's powers, the tiny bit left of hers, and a suspicious machete that Patti had found to fight an entire mafia. That was not a strategical advantage, but Grace supposed they would make it work.

She watched as Tom peeked through the whole, whitening as she heard the news that Angie had been caught. "She looked like she had it under control..." she murmured as Tom seemed to formulate a plan. After telling her to crush someone with an incomplete portal or whatever, which was not how her powers worked at all, Tom then very daringly decided to kick open a hatch and float himself, along with the two girls (without their permission, of course), down to the ground. There, Grace noticed one of the goons already downed by the falling door ("the idiot"), and that Tom was currently fighting Tommy, which left one goon for her to deal with, so she made haste in doing so. She looked over at the shell-shocked goon and quickly manifested a small portal in her hand, the size of a dinner plate, and sent it careening towards him. The portal rammed him in the gut, sending him spiraling backwards head-first into a gold light fixture. The light fixture did not break, but Grace was pretty confident something else did, so success.

She turned back to face Tom, seeing the younger Gugliano sprawled on the floor in front of him, and noticing his nosebleed as well. "Tom, your nose-" she started, quickly forgetting the circumstances that they were in, before snapping back to reality. "Right. We should go before we get-"

"You get what?"

At the end of the hallway was a tall, muscled mafioso with an instantly recognizable ugly face. Vinnie Gugliano. In his hands was a gold handgun that Vinnie was aiming towards the girls. "Caught? I'm afraid it's a little late for that. Now, be a good boy and come quietly, or I won't hesitate to pick off one of these ladies. I hate to lose out on a paycheck, but I'm sure I can afford to lose out on one or two." He twiddled his trigger finger. "Now everybody get your asses on the ground and wait for my men to take you away, or else good ol' Chompy the Swampjaw will be taking a break from his all-fish diet for some teenage girl."

"Teenage? I definitely don't look that-"

"Shut the hell up, bitch, and get on the ground!"

"Alright, alright, fine," she muttered as she sank to her knees, giving one desperate look up to Tom. She did not want to get shot right now.

@KaijuBaragon@Amethyst@canaryrose

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