As Grace snored, up against the wall, Blake was on a mindless warpath. Heat poured from his body as he formed two more fireballs, one in each hand, that continued to grow in size. Blake seemed content to make them become larger and deadlier, but Tom had turned to the offensive, flinging a massive glob of safety gel directly at Blake. Though his mind was not his own, Blake's reflexes were still plenty fine, and he avoided the glob of safety gel with ease, which instead smacked the random Wing of Law that was just managing to escape his safety gel prison, keeping him pinned against the wall. "Screw this," the man grumbled. As soon as he was out of this, he was going directly to Seraph and demanding his paycheck.
"Kill," Blake droned as he lifted his hands again, ropes of fire wrapping around his forearms and palms. "Kill Tom. Burn. Melt. Dance on ashes. Haha. Very funny," Blake said with a menacing smile as the fire continued to heat up. "Kill everybody. One by one. Burn." He paused, lowering his palms for a second, biting his lip. "No...can't burn...friends..." he muttered, struggling internally. After a moment of conflict, though, the mind control won over. "BURN!" he finally managed, releasing from his hands a massive burst of fire that spread across the entire room. The flames, which spread like a shotgun shell of heat, caught onto some of the wooden objects of the room, setting them ablaze, the smell of smoke rapidly filling the room as the fire began to eat away at the furniture, carpet, everything in the room.
Nemesis, meanwhile, had miraculously disappeared, leaving only Tom, crazy Blake, and sleeping Grace together in the burning room as Blake wound up and fired another fireball directly at Tom.
@KaijuBaragon
Cora followed Rumi quietly, her arms folded over her chest as she allowed him to take the lead, quietly walking behind him as the OMNI detected booby traps. She admired the robot silently. It was certainly a cool piece of tech, with a lot of functions packed into one suit f armor. "Looks like we're all clear," she said quietly as she thought about the situation. "I don't think this hallway is booby-trapped...the mine that I stumbled into was low-power, like something that would be rapidly deployed," Cora said, stopping her forward motion and running back. She kneeled down to where the mine had exploded, her electric blue eyes examining the ground. She found what she was looking for, scooping up a small shard of dark gray, almost black metal with half a word etched into it- "VALENT." Cora shook her head. "'Valent,' huh? Short for Valentine, I bet. Valentine Industries. An organization that has been non-functional for nearly 10 years now."
She held the fragment up to the light. ”Another link to Zero. One would think that Seraph couldn't possibly stoop this low, to be working with them...but then again, this has been a day full of surprises, hasn't it?" She tossed the shard of metal to the OMNI. "Well, if Zero is here, that only makes this whole situation a lot more precarious. Let's go." She set off briskly for the elevator, stepping into the antique lift and plugging the bottom floor once Rumi's droid had made it inside as well. The elevator gave a belated ding and began to slowly descend downwards. "This is taking forever," Cora bemoaned as the rickety elevator slowly moved downwards.
As they waited, Cora looked over to the OMNI. "Also...you really think my face is pretty?" She gently placed two fingers on the cracked facial chips on her cheek. "That's...very sweet. The doctors did a good job on it, I guess."
@Scarifar
Winterfall raised his pointed nose at Alien Angel as she gave her speech. He practically yawned. "Dear, every second you waste is one more second of bleeding that your friend has to suffer through. Now, come here and make this quick," the man said as he looked towards Terra, holding up his rapier. As she launched towards him, Winterfall only pointed his rapier towards her, and Terra suddenly began to slow down, drastically, as though somebody had put her into slo-mo. Winterfall then slowly and casually sidestepped out of the way before snapping his fingers, causing Terra to resume moving and max speed and sending her careening into the wall.
Winterfall then turned his attention towards Joseph, who seemed to be removing a bunch of paper scraps from his coat. He narrowed his eyes, holding up the sword loftily as Joseph spoke. He gave a small grin as he lifted his hand up, before speaking again, "Rime." Shards of ice materialized from his palm and scattered outwards, each piece of ice skewering a rune and slicing the paper effortlessly. The ones that managed to escape being impaled by the ice needles were promptly cut to shreds by Winterfall's sword. The man moved incredibly fast, or perhaps, and more likely, everything else around him just moved comparatively much slower. Winterfall chuckled.
"I must admit, friend," Winterfall said, putting his rapier against the ground and resting both hands upon it, using it as a cane. "You don't look Egyptian. Though I suppose over time, families can disperse...ah, well. I'm afraid your parlor tricks fail to impress me much. Certainly, you can go beyond one or two folds!" Winterfall said, lifting one hand to push his glasses up his nose and lifting his sword with the other. It seems Joseph's plan had, to some extent, worked. Winterfall was now interested.
"Show me what you are made of," Winterfall said, before making a slashing motion with his sword. "Prove yourself!" he shouted, as another wave of ice needles materialized and launched directly at Joseph, pelting him in a barrage of frozen death. "Or perish!"
@rabidporcupine@canaryrose@DarkRecon
Sea Serpent snorted, disbelief in her eyes, before beginning to laugh, and one she began laughing, she did not stop. It flowed like a river of chuckles, Sea Serpent bending over, hysterical, before wiping her eyes and smiling evilly. "Starbright, your arrogance humors me. Thank you,” she said, before lifting a hand. ”Well, if you want to fight, let's fight then. I should get rid of this dead weight, though...” she said with an evil grin, before the water around Chad suddenly spread apart, like the bubble had been popped, and sent Chad careening downwards towards the Earth.
Sea Serpent laughed. ”Well, that's the end of him, now!” she said as the water that was once wrapped around Chad now rushed towards Starbright. The water, as if it was a creature of its own, pounced at him like a tiger, attempting to consume him whole. ”Now, you get to meet the same fate! Isn't that fantastic?” Sea Serpent laughed. ”Karma! You couldn't save him, and now you won't be able to save yourself!”
Little to Yama's knowledge, Chad did not have a path of free fall directly to the ocean. Luckily for him, Cora's broken Mini-Jet, which was sticking out of the wall, in a surprising stable position, blocked his fall. It would still hurt like hell, considering he was falling a few stories onto what was, in essence, a giant metal pan, but he was most certainly alive. From his position atop the plane, Chad could smell the aroma of smoke, and see some distant ember flickering of fire below him.
@Jumbus@Duoya
Meanwhile, in Kingsdale, beneath Club 27, the group would be immediately greeted by Vinnie Gugliano. At the very least, they would be greeted by...a large image of Vinnie Gugliano's face, which was plastered up on a large bulletin board. Also featured on the bulletin board were favorable newspaper clippings about the Wings of Law, a couple of photos of Seraph, and a hitlist with the photos of all the gang, including Patricia, pinned there. Also in the room were a few antique items, such as vases and the like, scattered about, as well as some crates full of Nova. Sitting along the wall was a massively large computer screen with a large keyboard. Sitting in front of the keyboard in a large swiveling armchair was a young-looking man, thin and pale, with dark hair, wearing a combat suit and holding a handgun in his hand, dark blue eyes examining the group.
“Took you long enough," Blade said, standing from the chair and giving a small salute. “There was an exposed air vent a way's away that led in here...still, nice work. Right into the bee's nest, huh?" Even when cracking a joke, the elusive Blade still spoke with a very dull, lifeless tone of voice, like a man that had nothing left to live for. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Blade." He held out a hand for the group to shake. “No need to introduce yourselves...I know plenty about you all," he said as he sat back down in the armchair, swiveling back over to the computer. “Seraph has been up to some naughty stuff, though...he had the audacity to leave his computer unlocked, and kept an abundance of very incriminating files on here. Listen..."
Blade tapped a button on his computer, and at once the large screen became animated, with Seraph and another man's face becoming visible. Seraph looked just as annoying as ever, but he somehow seemed to be missing some of that pompous energy in the presence of this man. The man was middle-aged, with a pale face and golden eyes, and a gaunt face matched with locks of raven black hair and a raven black beard. He was wearing a sort of garb that looked like it came from the 19th century, dressed like some sort of Transylvanian vampire. Standing next to him was a girl that Patricia would certainly be familiar with- Katharine, or Malady, looking for all the world like a schoolgirl on a field trip, wearing a checkered skirt and a fluffy red cardigan, her black hair tied up in pigtails, her crimson eyes having a slightly ragged look to them. Blade looked over at Patricia. “Looks familiar to you? Seraph's been up to some meddling..." Blade spoke, listening to the somewhat older man start speaking.
The man, who did look suspiciously like Kat, had a voice that was dark and brooding. He was sitting in what looked like a dining room in a massive palace, with walls covered in art and tapestries, and the three seemed to be sitting at some sort of dinner table. Blade seemed to have started the video in the middle of the recording, with the man's speech seeming to start mid-conversation. "Mr. Seraph, I assure you, if you work for us, no harm will befall you. None whatsoever. Our organization has your back."
Seraph tapped his fingers against the table. "And why should I work with you, Commander...what is it? Commander Zero? I didn't exactly arrange for this meeting, you know. Being picked up off my luxury yacht and taken to Russia is not my version of an appointment. And as much as I hate that meddlesome singer girl...what you're proposing seems a bit extreme. And rather...ambitious. I like ambition as much as the next guy, but this...”
The Commander chuckled as Kat sat by, looking uncomfortable but remaining silent. "Commander Zero, yes. Now, put your moral qualms aside, Seraph. You stand to gain a lot for working with me. I can make all your dreams come true. Everything you've ever wanted." He gestured with his hands. "I can do things you can only imagine, Mr. Seraph. If we combine your fame and my powers...we will be unstoppable." Commander Zero held up his hand. "You have seen what I can do. Now, shake on it."
Seraph reluctantly shook the man's hand. "Fine. Deal.”
Commander Zero stood from his seat. "Excellent. Now, we have plans to make. For one, killing Hugo Powers. Oh, don't look so surprised, it'll be easy once you're prepared. Let's go."
Blade tapped his finger against the pause button, freezing the Commander mid-step. “Zero's involvement is going to make this a lot more complex," Blade said as he stood from the seat. “Still, I have some good news to report. While you were busy committing a number of federal offenses, the rest of your friends drove EAGLES out of HERO One and have now taken the fight to Elmore Island, which is where Seraph and the rest of his friends are holding out. I think it would be wise to meet them there. If Zero is truly present, then we will need every ounce of strength we can gather to take them down." Blade walked over to the tunnel. “There is a dock just north of the Club at 5th Avenue and Cohen Street. Meet me there in 5. Don't worry, there aren't any cops around. You saw to that already." Blade then vanished into the tunnel.
About 10 seconds after Blade entered the tunnel, the bruised and battered forms of Mystiko and Angelhead rolled out of the tunnel, looking as though they had been thoroughly curbstomped by somebody. Angelhead groaned before closing his eyes and passing out.
A few blocks north, Blade was waiting at a rather fancy-looking pier, with polished, clean wooden decks and an abundance of fancy-looking boats. Several yachts were floating nearby, one of which had a bunch of drunk rich people in suits just getting off. It looked like the type of place Grace would want to go to. Blade was not standing by a swanky yacht, however, instead standing nearby an unimpressive cabin cruiser. The boat looked like it was in poor condition, with peeling paint and damage marks on the bow of the ship. Blade gestured towards the boat, stepping on himself. He opened the door to the cabin, which was covered wall-to-wall in weapons. “Hopefully you know how to drive a boat. I have to run and check on Hugo- he's alive, but in shit condition- but I'll be right back." Blade pointed across the water. “Just head straight that way, and you'll see it." Blade pointed at a distant castle-looking entity/ “Be careful.""
As the group eventually moved towards Elmore Island, they would note that there was a fire burning from one of the towers of the building, a flickering amber light glowing from the windows. They also noticed a few holes in the side of the castle, with a jet (and a very small Chad) sticking out the side of one of the towers. And lastly, they also noticed that the ground level of the castle was surrounded by fences, with several turrets pointed directly at the boat. One of the men manning the turrets yelled out, "CEASE! CEASE! STOP MOVING, DAMNIT!"
Obviously, everything was going just fine.
@canaryrose@Zoey Boey@DClassified@DarkRecon
