[IC] 《 H. E. R. O. 》

[Not Fungus]

Abel

"Wow~" William whistled as he took in the amount of plant matter strewn all over the streets. Where he was before, there weren't that many plants. Now he's seeing why all these heroes are moving about. There's a lot more Ambleweeds than he expected.

Since it's a waste of time to even bother dealing with them, he ducked into another alleyway to reach his destination. "Hahaha," he chuckled to himself. "I shouldn't have come out today." He walked through the streets devoid of people. The earthy smell reminding him of his excursions to mountains and forests.

"There is a chance that I can reach a nice conclusion if I follow the fortune through though." William could either head to the hotel and wait for this to blow over, or he can take a proactive stance and force an ending that benefits him entirely. He contemplated his next choice of action and then smiled to himself.

He decided to use his power and manipulate fate to sway in his favor. He used it to lead him to the source of this mess by guessing which way he should go.

The amount of times he nearly ran into the line of sight of Ambleweeds or heroes happened a bit too often for him to be completely comfortable with. Thankfully, his luck carried him here. A nudge so that they'd focus on each other because they ran into each other gave him leeway to travel unseen.

"This is pretty dangerous." He almost gave off a sigh of relief, but he stopped himself. Right around the corner he could hear the swaying of leaves and thorns. He doesn't know if they're watching the direction from where he can pop out, but he'll take the chance.

He craned his head around the corner and saw a congregation of Ambleweeds surrounding a tall building wrapped in an absurd amount of vines. William's eyes widened at what was most likely the source of this sudden plant invasion. He had a curious frown on his face as he analyzed the building and the patrolling plants. "Mmmmm, that's no good. No good at all. Don't have what I need to clean this place out." Honestly, he just wants this incident dealt with asap. With the city in a messy state like this, how can he go around investigating people's abilities?

He placed his right hand on the right side of his neck and cracked it. A very satisfying pop rang through the air as he decided on the best course of action.

William stepped right in front of the building where all the plants were. They sensed his presence and turned their sight towards him. Every single last one. "Aha...!" The beginning of a laugh seeped out of his throat. "You guys are really nothing but freaks aren'tcha?"

He grabbed their attention and ran away from the building. Naturally, they chased after him. Using his power would work against him here. He gathered them all in a stampede against him. He ran down the street as they all vigorously tried to devour him. All William did was grin with wide, green eyes as he led them in a chase. "Come and catch me if you can!" He was acting far too cheerful and positive for a guy who was being chased by carnivorous plants.

"The building should be freed up for heroes to fix that problem..." he muttered to himself as he looked back at the plants scrambling after him. There would probably be more in the building, but he at least did his civic duty to lure out a chunk of them.

Maybe he can reward himself by relieving cash from others. People wouldn't mind that, right?

[Jumbus]

-Removed-

[Rabidporcupine]

Joseph

@Jumbus@KiwiTime@datadogie

“Oh shit.” Joseph said, his eyes widening in worry for a second as he spun away from the retreating villain to Starbright, Ava and the others. “Is something wrong, Abba? Are you hur-”

However, his face went blank when all he saw was an Ava that, while definitely somewhat bruised and battered, just seemed more grumpy than anything bad.

“Ah, what the hell Jojo, I thought she was actually hurt.” He said, before walking over to Ava. “Hey Avdol, are you ok? I know you're probably upset she got away, but don't worry. You did a good job. And if you need someone to chomp on, you could always go for Jojo. Not me Jojo though, that one.”

He gave the mutant girl what he hoped was an encouraging pat on the head, before wandering off to try and find some plants to shoot.

[KiwiTime]

Avangaline - Exchange

@Scarifar@Jumbus@datadogie

Ava rubbed the bruise on her forehead as she stood, shoving everybody away from her as she began to pace back and fourth. "GRRAHHHG!" While not quite as close as she imagined she was, Ava was quite sure they should have been able to catch them. It certainly didn't help that her opponent still humiliated her, Ava had the surprise after all! "Can't bite them, they might lose something." she grumbled to herself as her eyes lit up slightly at the sight of a rather familiar food truck just around the corner. "Leaving to eat, you can explain it to boss." and with that she left to nurse her pride through the proven method of shady food truck tacos.

[Hitman]

"Well, the lion will be still when it's dead," Blake said with clear confidence as he fired two streams of fire at the beast, causing it to roar and fall back as Blake continued to blast it, the lion caught off-guard by his sudden attack. "Firebird has got this under control!" he shouted to basically nobody in particular as he continued to send the direct pulses of fire onto the lion, the creature pinned to the ground by the beams of flames. Blake grinned madly as the creature, badly injured from the fires, keeled back, collapsing onto the pavement.

"Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy," Blake said with a confident grin as he stretched, examining the dead lion. "Go take your snipping now, Professor Shadowman. No real fighting required." He seemed quite happy with himself as he pried a stray needle from his neck. How did that get there, anyway? Ah well, no matter. Blake had won, and that's what was important here.

@KaijuBaragon @Ryteb Pymeroce

[Ryteb Pymeroce]

Shadow Spectre

Like a flash, Zane swept in the moment the creature was downed, slicing a piece out of it and locking it into an evidence bag. Forming his wings and reverting his hand, Zane gave the two a polite nod before flying off towards the Hestia.

---

Nova Force

The Hestia had landed at the edge of New Haven, with a beacon to all nearby heroes to send critically injured civilians to them. Patch and Sam had cleared the landing site, and Patch was now working to evacuate the civilians. Patch was a sight to see in the Dreadnaut armour, crashing through rubble to rescue people, holding up broken apartment complexes so the last people can get out, and using his foam guns to extinguish the flames caused in the panic.

Raphael frowned at his computer. What Zane had said earlier had Sam doing analysis on the various villains in the database, while Raphael had a more pressing concern. The higher than normal pollen count would be a minor thing in the scheme of things, but if there was a plant manipulating villain on the loose... things may become much more dangerous. Gathering a sample of the 'pollen' was easy enough, and fortunately the medical compound had a microscope.

"Well... that isn't good." Raphael said, as he saw what was actually being spread across the city.

[Jumbus]

Starbright

As Noah was shoved away he fell back on to his back, deep breath in deep breath out. "I should've known that would happen" more muttering to himself than anyone else. He was glad Ava wasn't too hurt but the danger he was shown today bothered him, he couldn't shake it and likely it would stick with him for a while. Though a thought crept back into his head, cameras are on, its time to get back up. "Aaand with that my job is done. I'll be around for interviews for another half hour, who wants the first piece of me ah ha ha." The composed Starbright was playing it up for the cameras again.

[KaijuBaragon]

Thomas couldn't help letting out a small gulp as the plant beast drew nearer and nearer. As it did so, its complex form came more and more into view - if there was any doubt that this thing was completely unusual, then this doubt was completely diminished as the plant-lion bounded towards the trio of heroes. The beast made a sudden move, and before Tom could even react, Blake was in front of him and Zane, firing a burst of flame into the air which Tom was initially confused at - but then he noticed bits of charred plant falling to the ground, and he realised that the creature had launched something at them, and it was only Blake's quick reaction that had saved them. He couldn't help but smirk at Blake, and he quipped him "Good of you to save my life for once, and not the other way around.".

But the issue of the lion itself, and gaining the sample from it, was obviously still pressing. The beast appeared to simply be angered by Blake's stopping of its attack, as it skulked about and looked at the trio. This thing was smart - it was thinking, planning its next move. That was what unnerved Tom the most. But the prospect of fighting something like this was exciting, and it was certainly more thrilling than what he had expected to face when he saw the notification from Powers about fighting a group of big dumb ambleweeds. And if there truly was a villain at the helm of all of this, then that would be something else to fight in due time as well. If Zane could get a sample sequenced as quick as he boasts, then that showdown could happen very soon.

And now Zane was barking orders, telling Tom and Blake to keep the creature down or at least incapacitate it. Blake immediately sent bursts of flame over the creature, and seeing what his friend was trying to do, Tom stepped forward a little and increased the strength of gravity on the creature, keeping it firmly rooted to the spot as Blake's flames did there thing. Before long, the injuries to the beast were evidently too severe, and it stopped making noise. Tom released his grip to watch the creature rise, before keeling back onto the pavement, dead. Zane was on it in an instant, taking a sample and leaving.

Tom shook his head. "Man, that guy is no fun at all, is he? He said, watching Zane fly further and further into the air. "Back to the regular ambleweeds, then?

[Hitman]

"You got that right," Blake mumbled as he scratched his neck. "Killjoy. Still, I guess he's got all the science there under wraps. I can't do that for shit. I got a 46 average in chemistry, anyway," he rambled as he looked around the area. "Maybe we should put a pause on the regular Ambleweeds...I think I might've find the source of the problem," Blake said as he pointed at the plant-covered apartment building. On top of the building was what appeared to be a large mech of some sort, albeit one composed entirely of plant matter. Inside the biological armor was some type of old lady. Blake was not normally the type to espouse attacks on old ladies, but judging by the fact that this old lady seemed to be commanding the Ambleweeds from inside armor composed of Ambleweed-like materials, it seemed that this old lady was the cause of a lot of the city's problems. Which meant that this old lady was a villain, and she had to go.

"Cover me," Blake said simply as he sent two blasts of fire into the ground, launching himself upwards, over scores of Ambleweeds, and towards the old lady. Fire built up in his hands as he eyed the plant villainess. After a few moments of concentration, as Blake began to launch downwards towards the pavement, he unleashed a furious blast of fire. At the distance he was from the old lady, even a drunk could have hit the old lady with a baseball, but for some odd reason Blake's attack veered wildly off-course, sending a massive blast of fire careening into an apartment building, flames engulfing the entirety of the structure. Luckily there was nobody in there. Well, hopefully, at any rate.

Blake landed awkwardly in front of the old lady, who chuckled as she lifted a vine-covered arm back. "Such a daring little hero," she mused as she balled up a fist. "Anything you'd like to say before Greenhouse sends you to bed?"

Blake was swaying unevenly like he was loaded on alcohol, and his eyes seemed to be unfocused, but clearly this 'Greenhouse' was not much of a fighter. He lifted both his palms uncertainly, muttered "go to hell," and then unleashed a blast of fire directly at her with full-force, sending the old lady flying backwards at high speeds, her viny exoskeleton burnt to a crisp as she slammed into an apartment building, leaving a large crater in the wall. Again, hopefully nobody was in there.

The old lady realized that she was screwed, and though she hated to leave her work behind, had no choice. The vines wrapped around her body retreated as the old lady did the classic move of "running away at full speed." As she ran, all across the city, Ambleweeds began to wilt like they had just taken a load of pesticides and began to fall on their own accord, disintegrating rapidly. It seemed as though the fight was won on that regard.

Normally, Greenhouse would have been an easy target for Firebird to apprehend, especially with his solid range on his abilities and her slow running speed. Unfortunately, Firebird was starting to feel the effects of the needle that had managed to sneak its way into his neck. After swaying uncertainly a couple more times, Blake moaned before falling flat on his back, his eyes closed. He moaned as his world turned to black.

[ Transmission End. ]

---

---

[Hitman]

Chapter Two

On the Waterfront

Vinnie "the Vet" Gugliano was the king of Watervale, undisputed. The Gugliano crime family already existed before Vinnie took the reigns, having been started under Sicilian immigrant Luciano "Wiseman" Gugliano and expanded further under Gianluigi "Five Fingers" Gugliano. Vinnie, the grandson of Luciano and a veteran himself, took the reigns at the humble age of 23, having returned from combat in Afghanistan alongside others including the legendary Hugo Powers. "The Veteran" Gugliano wanted more than what was in front of him, and so he began bringing his military discipline and ruthless attitude into the family business of crime. It worked. Before Vinnie, the Guglianos were the third strongest family behind the warring Petruchio family and Colombo family. Vinnie organized an ambush on the Colombo family and then single-handedly took out all the Petruchios. In the span of one week, the Guglianos went from a relatively small group of criminals to the strongest criminal enterprise in all of Watervale.

Vinnie continued to expand his family's influence, though. With the help of his consigliere and trusted advisor Emilio "The Gent" Ranucci, Vinnie controlled a massive extortion racket that ran throughout all of Watervale. Any business that wanted to stay open had to pay up to the Guglianos, or they would strangely find their entire residence torched. Vinnie then moved to other lucrative enterprises, beginning a massive illegal market for weapons and drugs that runs across the entire city. If you're taking a part in any sort of illegal activity, odds are, Vinnie is getting a fraction of the proceeds.

Of course, H.E.R.O. has tried to stop Vinnie, but Vinnie is smart enough to know how to deal with heroes, and has quite a large amount of blood on his ledger. He knows that for his business to keep afloat, he has to spend a pretty penny on protection. This strategy has thus far worked very effectively, with Vinnie employing some of the top mercenaries and bodyguards in the business and even other villains to help keep the Guglianos at the top spot. Worse comes to worse, Vinnie deals with things himself.

Nobody ever wants Vinnie to deal with things himself, though. For their own sake.

---

---

_{12:01 PM
Floor 4 Auditorium
HERO One
Savior's Island, Castleburg}

"I'm sure all of you are wondering why I've called you here today."

Hugo was standing in the front of the large auditorium that was kept on Floor 4 for large-scale meetings. There were many things off about this meeting. Firstly, the meeting itself. Very rarely were all of HERO's heroes called into one meeting room for a large-scale meeting. Normally there was a greater sense of autonomy there. Today, though, the entire room was jam-packed full of heroes. Nearly every hero the organization employed, with a couple missing individuals (Division X most prominently), were present in the one room, which, even though it was a large room, was still full shoulder-to-shoulder. This was one sign that something strange was up.

Secondly, stationed around the room were a couple of mysterious individuals all wearing suits and sunglasses. They looked like the Secret Service and stood, unmoving, at the corners of the room. HERO did not employ the Men in Black to guard their HQ, yet these individuals clearly had enough clearance to ascend past the first floor. This was another sign that something strange was up.

The third and last sign that something was wrong was Hugo's attire. Hugo typically was dressed in some sort of military garb, and when not in uniform, he would normally wear something casual, such as a polo shirt and jeans or a sweater or something that was not overly formal but not overly casual. Today, though, he was wearing a sleek black dinner suit, with a black jacket, slacks, and tie, almost matching the attire of the mysterious Men in Black scattered across the room. Hugo did not normally wear suits, so this was something strange indeed.

Hugo coughed loudly into a microphone headset he had on, his voice resonating across the auditorium's speaker system. "Hello to all of you. Hopefully your Monday has so far been tolerable," he said, looking around. "I've called all of you here today to discuss something that occurred a week ago that I need to bring to your attention."

Hugo tapped a very small remote that he was holding in his hand, and suddenly the large screen behind him turned alight, depicting a destroyed building that was tattered in vines. "One week ago Castleburg saw a large invasion of Ambleweeds across the city. We were able to assess that they were being generated by the plant-based villainess Greenhouse." He tapped his remote again to show an old lady, the type you'd expect to see at a Bingo game and not destroying the city, onscreen. "HERO responded to this by dispatching as many heroes as possible to fight the Ambleweeds. While the Ambleweed invasion was successfully dispersed, there was a great deal of damage done to the city, and Greenhouse was able to evade capture."

Hugo tapped his little remote a few times, flicking through several slides that depicted streets that were crushed, buildings that were damaged and/or burnt to cinders and/or totally collapsed. "We were able to assess that HERO's employees did approximately 7.6 billion dollars in infrastructural damages. Furthermore, while all civilian casualties were averted, we did have to pay significant amounts to develop cures to several toxins that were ingested by 6 of our heroes throughout the course of the skirmish."

Hugo seemed to have a pained expression on his face as he flicked to the next slide. "In response to this and several other incidents in our recent past involving abuse of powers, ICOSA has decided to take action to help improve HERO's crime-fighting with what has been termed a 'Restorative Initiative.' ICOSA has dispatched heroes from across the globe to help guide HERO as supervisors. The first two will be arriving today. "

Hugo grunted like he was annoyed with this whole situation (which he was). "Hopefully this teaches you lot to cooperate a little better. In any case, I'm leaving for Paris today to attend an ICOSA council. I trust that you all won't give Christina a hard time while I'm gone," he said, glaring at the crowd, before giving his suit a tug to straighten it out, huffing as he did so. "Alright, that's all I have for now. You are all dismissed." Then, after a moment's hesitation, he added, "Except for Brianna Hart. I need to speak with you up here. Pronto." At this, there were a chorus of "oohs" as if the entire HERO roster had returned to elementary school, but they were quickly silenced by Hugo's glare. "I said you were dismissed! Now OUT!"

---

---

[Danvers]

“Shit...” Brie muttered to herself as she approached the auditorium, seeing no one else around. She’d somehow slept through her alarm and was now ten minutes late, despite living in the damn building. Having hastily thrown on some joggers and a hoody, she definitely had that rolled out of bed look down, though not in a good way. She quietly attempted to open the door, looking round the back few rows for a free seat. Unfortunately, the place was packed and she had to squeeze past half a row of people to sit down.

“Whoops, excuse me...” She whispered, “Sorry about that - didn’t mean to step on your foot!” Brie eventually managed to get herself seated, just in time for the start of Powers’ presentation. She fidgeted for a few moments (the chairs were super uncomfortable), before someone in the row infront turned to glare at her. “Geez, just getting comfy...” She muttered under her breath, childishly sticking out her tongue at them.

Running her fingers through her hair, she listened as he begun to speak. It wasn’t the most thrilling of presentations (at least in Brie’s opinion) and she had begun to doze off, managing to hear something about ICOSA and infrastructural damages, when suddenly she heard her name. Everyone in the rows nearby turned to look at her as she was mentioned, a chorus of ‘oohs’ passing through the room. Brie sunk in her seat a little, idly chewing on a nail as she tried to wrack her brain for what she had done wrong. She’d been pretty well behaved recently, at least for the past week, and she couldn’t think what he could be calling her up for. Maybe it was that stray cat she’d tried to sneak in the other week. Or maybe he’d just decided to fire her, figured she was too much of a pain in the ass to deal with.

”Looks like Brooksides in trouble!” The hero who had been sat next to her sneered as they stood up, Powers now being done with his speech. Brie shot him a glare, trying to recall who he was. His power was boring anyway...something about being able to grow gills underwater.

“No way! He’s clearly just wanting to thank me for being such an exemplar hero.” Brie replied as she pushed him out of the way, slowly trudging up to the front of the auditorium. As she walked, having adopted an excruciatingly slow pace to delay the inevitable, she shot wary glances at the Men in Black, wondering why a gathering of heros would need what she presumed to be security. Strange...

”Nice suit, sir.” She said as she approached him, smiling gingerly. “And can I just say that...it wasn’t my fault! And it was all just a big misunderstanding!” Brie began to reel off every excuse in the book, figuring that one of them might help her. “You’ve got the wrong person!” She continued, barely giving him a moment in which to respond.

[Jumbus]

Doppel

Supervisors were not a good sign, though Doppel remembered he would have been responsible for it in some part. He didn't have to say that HERO would have his head on a pike if they found out what he was doing, but if it were to go public and Wyatt's gang would put the pieces together, Markus's family would get it worse. It wasn't that his power was ill suited to get some eyes of him but if he were to use them to escape the eye of ICOSA undoubtedly two more would be on him. Doppel knew he needed to watch his back even more now, he begun to exit the meeting heading toward the exit. He had work to do in Watervale today.

Starbright

Starbright didn't mind the prospect of supervisors. Of course he wouldn't be the one needing them as far as damages are concerned Starbright keeps it close to zero. The problem he had with it is the addition of these measures means its not too far from going public. Perhaps it would be time to go to a more reputable agency if that were to be the case. Public outrage like the can bury a company and Starbright is not someone to go down with the ship. For now he didn't need to worry its still the biggest hero agency and even if it did break out it could just be a case of denouncing the heroes involved. He kept pondering with thoughts like that as he exited the meeting and went toward the common room. Entering a, so far, empty room he didn't feel the need to pose on entry but he did anyway. "Jailbirds screwing it up for everyone who would have thought." He quipped sarcastically as he went toward the fridge for his bottle of expensive water.

[Hitman]

Blake honestly couldn't say he paid any attention during Hugo's speech. There was a reason he dropped out of high school- Blake was notoriously poor at maintaining attention for long periods of time, with "long periods" being defined for him as anything longer than about 5 minutes on a good day. This 5 minutes was shortened when the speaker was talking about something that didn't interest Blake in the slightest. Furthermore, the effect of him being poisoned by a plant monster didn't really help his mental state (he had only been discharged from HERO One's hospital bay a few days ago). With that said, Blake only managed to catch Hugo's first sentence before his brain decided to abort Operation Awake, and before long Blake's head was hung in front of him, his eyes closed, asleep.

The rest of the presentation zoomed by Blake's inattentive brain as he snoozed through the entirety of the presentation. He only awoke upon hearing what sounded like a chorus of "oohs", and he opened to his eyes to see that all the eyes on the room were on Brie for some reason. Putting the pieces together quickly, he figured that Powers had said something involving Brianna, probably criticizing her for some sort of destruction or something. Hmmph, maybe he should've stayed awake after all.

Blake hated to leave his friend in the Wrath of Powers, but he feared that he had nothing to help her with, and that getting involved would only invoke the Wrath of Powers on him as well, so when the Director howled at the assembled heroes to scatter, Blake did so. As he waited in line for the elevators (one of the downsides of forcing 200+ people into one place), he took out his phone and shot out a text message to Angelica, his date.

hey Angie :) :) :)
meet me in the common room?
thinking of going somewhere l8er, maybe with other guys? lmk what u want
missed u xoxo

He tapped the 'Send' message as he stepped into the elevator, riding it down to the second floor, where he stepped out into the common room, waiting. He scratched gingerly at the bandages that were still wrapped around his neck. He had no hero duties for the day, and hoped that Angie was just as free as he was. If not her, at least somebody was free as he was. Having spent the past few days alone and doing nothing of substance in the hospital, Blake had no intentions of spending today doing the same, especially after being forced to waste the brunt of his morning coming down to HERO One for this stupid presentation anyway.

@datadogie

---

---

Hugo shook his head as Brie began to spout excuses at him like a machine. "Shut the hell up and come with me," he said with a hiss as he guided her away from the men in black into a back room. The back room was not very spacious and seemed to be some sort of electrical room, with several large boxes that were glowing slightly and hooked up with wires sitting propped up against the wall. Hugo closed the door once Brie entered, looking down at her.

"Before you ask, no, you're not getting fired," he said with his trademark scowl as he grabbed a manila file from the top of one of the electrical boxes. "As you can see, ICOSA is all up my ass after the Ambleweeds thing. Those dopey agents are watching me to make sure I don't inspire violent rebellion against them or some shit. It's all ridiculous. They don't even want me sending heroes out on 'dangerous' missions in case there's more damage. Unbelievable," he said with clear irritation in his tone.

Hugo waved the manila file in front of Brie. "Unfortunately, I can't send one of my more high-profile heroes out to deal with this, so I've opted to send one of the heroes with the least amount of unwanted attention on this. This isn't kiddie shit anymore, but I think you can handle it." He extended the file towards B. "Vinnie 'The Veteran' Gugliano. He's always been a pain in my ass, sometimes literally, and after the Ambleweeds incident he's gotten ballsy as fuck. Two heroes that were moving on patrol near Lower Brookside have vanished in the last week and I know this motherfucker is behind it. If ICOSA won't let me sanction an official operation, we'll do it behind-the-books then."

His irked features stared down at Brie. "Against my better judgement, I'm putting you in charge of this secret operation. Find out where those heroes are and what the fuck Gugliano is up to. All the materials you need should, or at least, all the materials we have, are in that file, so don't lose it." He looked down at her, his stern gaze softening a bit.

"I know that you know criminals, you know Brookside, and you have street smarts for days. Even though I have to bail you and your little crew's asses out of prison every god damn week, you guys have good hearts." He paused for a moment, his stone-cold face looking tender for a moment, before the old Hugo came back. "You can assemble whatever sort of 'infiltration team' you want here, I don't give a shit, just don't tell anybody you don't trust or plan on dragging into this mess about it. Especially..." He then mouthed the words 'the Wings of Law.' "Right now, only you, me, and Christina know about this. I don't want this greedy bastards in on this shit, because you know fuckers like them will go crying to ICOSA once they hear about it." Powers gave her a nod, before turning towards the door.

"Last thing, don't get your ass killed," he said in the least emotional way possible, before walking out of the electrical room and away, probably to book a flight to France or something.

@Danvers

[Jumbus]

Dweller

Dweller slithered out from the surprisingly clean manhole cover. 'God they even clean their manhole covers, guess thats Kingdale for ya' he thought to himself. The street was quite populated before he arrived but his mere appearance sent them all running to the hills. Dweller hadn't even begun yet, but the state of the street didn't concern him he looked more bewildered as he saw the panic his presence created. In Brookside and the lot they just keep a bit of distance, he strokes the scaly appendages that hung from his lips as if it were a mustache of a wise sensei while in thought about this. He then carried on to the task at hand.

'Kingsdale Genetic Research Facility' he had come to the right place. Perhaps they would have some answers as to his transformation where the lab in New Athens sorely lacked. But first he needed to do stretches, the environment of a sewer does little in the way of keeping the body limber and limber is what he will need to be with the hero response times Kingsdale is so willing to brag about. With his game face on he picked up a nearby bike locked to a light post, almost taking the light post with it before the bike lock snapped apart like a piece of gum. Not long after, the bike was flung at the window with such high velocity that the window and bike itself were smashed into tiny pieces. Even Dweller had to take a step back and cover his eyes.

Screams came from inside the reception area that had just gained a new ventilation plan. Dweller spent no time at all leaping in and bringing it back to silence, mostly by knocking them out. He isn't a savage. By the time any heroes arrive the reception would be smashed up, mostly vacant and with the lights smashed. Dweller lies deeper in the lab and its now darkened corridors.

[Not Fungus]

Abel

"It's been a week, yet I'm still no closer to my goal." His tone had a hint of melodrama to it. "Oh well. Still got a ways to go I guess."

At the moment, he's sitting on a bench eating a burger he picked up from McDonald's. It's a greasy thing that he finds very delicious. His medical background is screaming about how unhealthy this burger is to him, but he could care less. While chewing on a heart killer, he contemplated on what he should do now. He has a surplus of money from robbing empty cars and wallets forgotten on the streets.

His unreasonable and illogical goal is to find a way to bring people back from the dead. His only source for something crazy like that are people with powers like him. Besides, he has a lot of faith that he'll stumble across his desire. Luck is always on his side. "Still though, it's been a while since I had fast food. This is really good." He finished gorging himself on the burger and tossed the wrapping in the public trash can.

"I need information." What he needs is to find an area where unsavory individuals hang out at. The Moonlight Brewhouse is a waste of time. He'd become known as a villain, which is foolish. Anonymity is the safety blanket he requires. "Then... How about I just randomly stumble across a group of guys?" He smiled to himself as he thought of that interesting plan. He left the park and once again used his power to create a fortunate meeting for himself. Of course it's not like it manipulated people to come towards his direction.

He had to walk to unsavory locations like alleyways and abandoned buildings so his power would naturally cause him and his targets to gravitate towards each other. It was then that he saw some normal looking people casually taking a stroll through a street known for it's rough background.

"Glad I brought my hoodie for this. I might need to invest in something better to hide my face soon though," he mused to himself. He walked towards the group of three with only his smile being revealed. Everything else was hidden by the hood.

"Hey you three? Let me in on all the know-how, you feel me?" Before they could question if he was okay in the head, he flashed a couple bills. They grinned because they found someone who spoke their language. Money.

"General information or something deeper?" one of them asked. William coughed and raised the pitch of his voice. Even if they can't recognize his face, they might recognize his voice later on. He has to take as many precautions as he can. There even may still be things he's slipping up on, but it's fine for now. His luck can make up for his screw-ups.

"Give me the general info. What's going on at the bottom?" Deeper information is a waste of extra money they would definitely charge him. He can just extrapolate that from the general info they're going to feed to him.

And so with his wallet slightly lighter and more info in his head, he went back to his hotel room. Lying on his head and staring at the ceiling gave him time to think.

"Gugliano Family is moving erratically? That's not good... Stirring up this city more after that Ambleweed problem. This place does have quite a bit of Mutants. It's getting dangerous." If he hesitates, he will die.

That crime family should have information on people with unique powers.

If he worries, he will die.

"They do say with great danger comes great opportunities. Heroes, Villains, whatever's here... They're nothing more than tools for me to achieve my goal. Let's do this right." He left his hotel room with his hoodie and gloves.

"I'll need to get some special stuff first."

[Hitman]

_{Meanwhile, in Brookside...}

Bateman Turnpike was probably the most impressive road in all of Brookside. The turnpike was built by Morgan Bateman, an old motel chain CEO from years prior, and the high-speed run ran on a curve across the lower edge of Brookside. Though it wasn't anything fantastic by any means, the road remained fairly clean as the dividing point between Brookside and Watervale. Along Bateman Turnpike was a variety of small businesses in Brookside and the road itself was overall the center of much livelihood. It was among the safer areas of Brookside as well, though that wasn't really saying much at all.

It was at this time that B- tier hero Thundering Whisper walked down the road, on patrol. Thundering Whisper was one of those more old-timey heroes that opted to wear a full costume, with blue spandex accompanying gold highlights and a shimmering face-mask, but he was one of the more respected older heroes in the Organization. He was respected enough, at least, to be able to skip out on Powers' meeting to instead go on patrol down the Bateman Turnpike. When there was crime to fight, after all, it was up to heroes to stop it.

Today, though, it seemed like there wasn't much crime at all, and it had started to drizzle, so Thundering Whisper decided to stop walking the beat and ducked into a small coffee shop on the turnpike. All-Day Espresso. Sounded good enough. The hero walked up to the counter, ordered a coffee, and then took a seat at one of the tables inside. The coffee shop was not exactly brimming with business, but there were a few patrons inside, with an old lady sitting in a corner booth, a middle-aged gentleman reading a newspaper, and a young girl, obviously in full teenage rebellion with a half-shaven head and bright green hair that was furiously texting away.

As Thundering Whisper drank his espresso while looking out at the drizzling weather, another man entered the coffee shop, wearing a black raincoat, a matching fedora, and with wizened features and grey hair that put him in his 60s or so. After the man got his coffee, he then walked over to Thundering Whisper's table and took a seat opposite him. "Nice meeting you, Mr. Whisper."

Thundering Whisper raised an eye. "Do I know you?"

"Not yet. My name's Emilio Ranucci. I work for a local construction firm around these parts. I'm a big fan, by the way. I know you aren't as big as you once were, but I remember seeing you fight The Capricorn on TV and telling myself, 'this man is a legend.'"

Thundering Whispered smiled. "Good days, good days."

Ranucci chuckled. "Those good days are passed, eh?" he said before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, they have. No more respect for old geezers anymore," Thundering Whisper said, a bit resentful in his tone. "All the media cares about is the flashy stuff. Wings of Law. Captain Fireworks. Starbright. All that stuff. Not much in it for real crime fighters."

Emilio Ranucci grinned. "I feel you, Mr. Whisper. But what if I told you that there was a way to get back a lot of that respect?"

Thundering Whisper raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

Ranucci slid a few papers across the coffee shop table. "My boss, he runs a very good private defense company. They do really good, really tight work, even better than HERO if I may so myself. If you were to sign up with us, you could be top of the top. Respected across the board. And there's a big reward in it for you. Loads of cash."

Thundering Whisper seemed quite content with this at first, but then slowly realized a discrepancy, then raising an eyebrow. "I thought you said you work for a construction firm."

Emilio Ranucci smiled, and as he did so, Thundering Whisper saw something very peculiar about the man. His tongue was covered in some sort of gray metal. Silver.

"Mr. Whisper, you don't have to worry about the details. Just sign your name on the paper here, and we can be on our merry way."

Thundering Whisper stood up, shaking his head. "I can't. Sorry. HERO pays me too well. Take care." But as the hero moved to leave the cafe, Ranucci stood up in front of him, blocking his path.

"Should've known it'd come to this. Clean him up," Ranucci said to the other patrons in the cafe.

Suddenly, Thundering Whisper saw four handguns trained on him- the barista, the goth girl, the old lady, and the newspaper man all holding pistols that were aimed right at him. Before he could use his powers or start a fight, rounds of arcing electricity shot out from the barrels of the gun, hitting Thundering Whisper and sending him to the ground, jiterring, as Emilio watched, shaking his head.

"Bring him back to Watervale. We'll have fun with this one," Ranucci said with a nod to the individuals in the cafe, before turning and walking out of the coffee shop into the rain.

[KaijuBaragon]

It wasn't very often that Tom and Blake as a pair let had a villain escape from their grasp. He supposed it wasn't exactly their fault - when Blake had been very evidently taken out by the poison dart to his neck, it wasn't as if Tom could exactly leave him lying there and go after Greenhouse. So he grabbed Blake and floated them away to get some medical attention, watching the old lady escape in her vines as the ambleweeds in his sight died steadily as she crept away further and further. At least, if Thomas gained anything from this entire situation, he would make sure not to be too trusting of any old ladies in the future. But that was the nature of Castleburg - absolutely anyone could turn out to be a villain with totally unexpected powers.

But now Tom was sitting in the auditorium, waiting for Powers speech to begin. He could tell something was up, obviously, but that didn't stop him from being bored out of his mind waiting for the damn thing to just start and get over with. He was involved in an absentminded conversation with some random hero girl he had only seen a couple of times before, but the conversation was only partly holding his attention, and he was floating a coin up and down in his hands as another outlet to pass the time. He could only make partial guesses about what this whole thing was going to be about. It had to be something major, as every damn hero in the organisation was sitting here, creating a buzz of noise. He spotted a couple of his friends in the crowd, who looked equally as bored as him. He also caught sight of Powers himself, standing off to the side, wearing not his usual drill sergeant LARP costume, but a well fitting and expensive looking suit. Yeah, something strange was indeed going on.

Final the speech began, and Thomas pocketed the coin and leaned back in his seat, just hoping that whatever this was would be over quick and that it wouldn't change anything, really. Unfortunately, it seemed as if the second condition for Tom not being annoyed by the whole thing would not be met, and face screwed up more and more in annoyance as it went on. So what if there had been lots of damages? If they had just let the ambleweeds go on unattacked, then that total would have been in the tens of billions. He grimaced slightly as Greenhouse's escape was mentioned. But Tom had it in good faith that it would have been considered worse if he had just left Blake there to die or get far more seriously injured. Or maybe ICOSA felt different. Who knows what ICOSA felt about human life.

Tom muttered under his breath as the final portion of the speech was reached. "Fucking supervisors." Well, what a nightmare this was. A bunch of bootlicking, cherrypicked heroes chosen carefully by ICOSA themselves? It was going to be a dozen Zanes. They would probably be even worse than Zane. So much for having fun whilst on the job. It was pretty much going to be inevitable that Tom would be referred to these agents at some point, for "recklessness" or "lack of professionalism" or some other stupid buzzword that these types liked to throw around at people.

But the ending of the speech caught him off guard more than anything. Why was Brie being called up alone by Powers. Did she do something that Tom wasn't aware of? Had there been another incident like that at the Bloopers a little while ago. He was gonna find out. He glanced towards the door, all the heroes now filing out. He floated himself up over the crowd, which occasionally emmitted annoyed shouts that Tom was using his abilities to cut the line. After getting to the door he slipped out and flipped up onto the ceiling, deciding he was going to wait for Brie to come back out and then just ask her what that was all about. He expected a couple of people to do the same.

[Infinite Cosmos]

Yeesh... seven billion plus in damages... I didn't do a whole lot, but at least I didn't cost the organization any sort of money like that... William thought to himself as Powers continued on with the meeting.

it was indeed quite rare for all of those under the H.E.R.O. banner to be called into for a general meeting. There has to be something bigger at hand. A few ambleweeds, an old villain, and the resulting damage report was surely something Powers could have just sent out and conducted the meeting virtually....

Then came the news of the joint partnership of H.E.R.O. and ICOSA. Of course. As the international governing council on all things superhuman, it would make sense for them to be involved, as a sort of damage-control tactic. William himself did not care for the outside interference, but who is he to speak up on such affairs? He was a younger hero, not immensely popular nor powerful, and his sphere of influence is so small ICOSA probably only barely knew who he was.

In any case, William remained seated during Power's debrief. As soon as he was dismissed, he got up and got ready to leave. Power's then asked Brie to stay after. Usually, these things ended with Brie being docked pay and or suspended. Which of course sours the mood. As such, William left the auditorium, but waited near the entrance to catch her as she was leaving to make sure she was doing alright....

@Danvers

[Danvers]

Brie apprehensively followed Powers as he led her into a room at the back of the auditorium. "Sir, I really can ex-..." She immediately continued when the door shut behind them, before he spoke up and told her that she was infact not fired. "Oh..." She paused, her brows knitted in sudden confusion. As he began to explain, Brie nodded along, looking like one of those stupid animal figurines that you put in the back of a car, with their heads jostling around over every pot hole.

"Gugliano...I've heard of him. Isn't he the one that took down the rhino in Brookside Zoo that one time?" She pondered to herself as he brought up the Mafia boss, before realising that she should probably still be listening. Her face dropped at the mention of missing heroes. That could not be good news, especially around Brookside. From her experience, people who disappeared either came back in a worse state or not at all. He didn't pause to explain further though, so Brie was obliged to simply continue listening, despite the multitude of questions that were popping into her head.

"Against my better judgement, I'm putting you in charge of this secret operation."

"You're what now?" Brie did a double-take when he suddenly announced that she was in charge of the mission. She must have heard him wrong. There were many heroes in the organisation who would have relished in such an opportunity but Brie just looked plain baffled. The young hero supposed it did make sense why he wouldn't want one of the more high profile heroes leading this. After all, levelling a building or causing millions of dollars of damage didn't exactly scream covert. Whilst her powers didn't cause major damage and whilst she tried to avoid the limelight at all costs, she still would never have expected him to choose herself.

Powers carried on, explaining what she needed to do and more importantly, not to go blabbing to everyone. She frowned a little when he mentioned about her knowing criminals, opening her mouth to protest before she realised there was probably little use in denying it. HERO One knew everything after all.

"Of course, sir. You can trust me, I promise I won't mess this up!" She replied earnestly, clutching the file protectively between her arms. She was sure that it was strange to see her being serious but she knew this world well, and the thought of what might have happened to those two heroes truly scared her. Plus, besides being given a job at HERO One, no-one had ever given a chance like this. The idea that someone actually trusted her made her nervous...but also kind of happy. Watching as Powers left the room, she idly mused to herself about how he would look in a beret. Maybe he'd bring one back from France...

When he'd gone Brie leaned against one of the large boxes that were dotted around the room, basking in the buzz of electricity that filled the air. She figured that she should wait a few minutes before heading out of the auditorium, not really wanting to risk running into other heroes and their likely questions. Speaking of...she should probably think of a reasonable excuse for why Powers had wanted to talk to her, something that they wouldn't push her to discuss.

After a few minutes of thought Brie looked at her wrist, and realising that she never wore a watch, figured that enough time had probably passed. Peering out of the door, she looked around the auditorium to see that most of the audience had left, except for a couple of the creepy ICOSA agents. She really did not like them after that time in Powers' office. Hopefully, they wouldn't be hanging around Hero One for too long. Trying to casually stroll down the length of the auditorium (it being slightly unnerving when they wore sunglasses...you couldn't see where they were looking), she opened the doors in relief, to then nearly walk straight into William.

Damn it.

"Jesus Will, you scared me..." Brie grumbled, holding the manila folder behind her back in what was probably a far too obvious attempt to hide it. She would've brought a bag if she'd realised that Powers was going to send her on some crazy spy mission. "What are you doing here?" It probably came out more abruptly than she'd intended but she really hadn't wanted to have to speak to anyone. Or lie to anyone, as the case may be. Impatiently chewing on her lip as she waited for him to answer, she noticed a slight movement from the ceiling. "You too Rees." She called up to her floating friend.

@Infinite Cosmos @KaijuBaragon

[Infinite Cosmos]

William was standing near the door, idly looking into the distance lost in a daydream. He does that quite often. He tends to only focus when it was really needed. Or when it involved Brie. There is just something about that girl that attracted his attention. And no. It wasn't the electricity.

Just as William turned around as he heard footsteps approaching, he was met with a certain Brianna Hart. Their height difference meant that she ran more or less face first into his upper chest.

Oof

William exclaimed softly as the collision happened. "Um. I was waiting for you." He said. Her mention of Thomas made him look up towards the ceiling. "Being nosy, are we Thomas?" He said with a soft smile. Turning back towards Brie, he continued "Powers asked you to stay behind. Now, I was not eavesdropping but usually those don't end well. I was just..." He paused slightly.

"How do I phrase this so I don't sound like a soft pussy..." He thought to himself.

"I was just...curious as to what that was all about..." He finished, with a look on his face that betrays everything he just said. He is curious. But, realistically, he was more worried about Brie than anything...

@Danvers@KaijuBaragon