[IC] 《 H.E.R.O. 2064 》

[canaryrose]

Mission: On Cloud Nine Location: Castleburg Bullet N-Train Interacting: Pandora (@Zoey Boey), Dead Man (@Duoya)

Marcie took her seat across from Pandora and slouched into it. At least they were going to play a game and not sit here and small-talk for the next hour. She raised her hand in a small wave to Travis and sat forward, ready to receive cards. As a result of being raised among superheroes, Marcie had seen tons of weird shit. She didn’t really flinch when Pandora pulled the table out of thin air. Her power could’ve been a number of things- pocket dimensions, matter alteration… It didn’t matter much. Hopefully, she just wouldn’t use it to cheat.

Luckily for Marcie, she already knew how to play Blackjack. Her uncle had taught her years ago and it had stuck. Mostly because he had promptly beaten her and taken all her cake. One of the biggest injustices since the U.S.A.’s ban on Kinder Surprise eggs, honestly.

Marcie sat mutely as Pandora shuffled the cards and half-listened to Travis’s chatting. God how she loved being near chatty people. It meant she didn’t have to do nearly as much talking. His energy was suffocating, but fun. She liked him already. She liked him even more when he mentioned going to the aquarium. She sat up straighter. She had to wait a moment to jump in- such a dumb thing to have to do- but when she did, her words come out fast and rushed.

“Ooh ooh, did you see the whale shark exhibit I love that one did you know that whale sharks aren’t actually whales, they’re just sharks, it’s really confusing and I think that they should be called something else I mean they’re not whales, whales are really cool though, did you know that the blue whale is the largest animal ever on Earth, way bigger than even dinosaurs, that’s SO COOL right-”

Before Marcie could finish her incredibly long sentence, a sudden bang and an upheaval of the train below her threw her from her seat and right into the one in front of her. She moaned for a brief moment, having hit her head, but raised it within an instant. They were here.

It was time to fight, then. Travis was already running out the door and Pandora was sitting, complacent in her seat. Marcie stared curiously at her for a moment and then took off running after Travis. That woman was weird. And that came from her. The other guy seemed to be running at top speeds towards the back of the train. Smart. Marcie could see other heroes running towards the passengers to assist them. Also smart- but someone needed to defend the nuke. That would be them, she guessed.

She entered the room after him. Nine pirates had already propelled themselves through the small hole, and more were coming. Marcie could fix that. With a motion of her hands, water molecules crystallized, covering the hole in a thick, hard layer of ice. It also trapped the entire lower body and left hand of a pirate who had been climbing in in its grasps. His screams could be heard from inside. She reinforced the ice around his body and froze over some of his legs for good measure. That would make it harder to break if anything.

Just as she froze over the hole, several of the pirates not swarming Travis (was that Travis? It looked like a horrifying roach monster) turned and fired their sonic guns. She threw herself to the ground, but one managed to take out her leg and one her hand. Ow ow ow ow… Despite herself, she yelped. Motherfucker, that had hurt. But she couldn’t go down. Marcie fought through the pain on the ground and reached her good hand out to freeze the feet of four men in her line of sight to the ground.

"Travis! Take them down!" It was the loudest she had spoken since they had met

Hopefully, that would do something. A thought occurred to her. Would their sonic weapons freeze? She might as well try. From her place struggling off of the ground with goons still coming at her, she tried to freeze the guts of one.

[Danvers]

@RabidPorcupine

Mission: Teacher’s Pet

Location: Lighthouse Island

---

---

“Well this is boring.” Riley groaned, stretching her arms above her head with a small sigh of relief. She’d stood behind the rest, somewhat disappointed to find that the young delinquents were trapped in a plastic cage. Plastic was no fun. It was all dumb and non-malleable - at least by herself. Not that she would’ve tried to break them out or anything. It was just always boring when there was less metal around. Besides, what were they meant to do if they were just stuck in there? Seemed kind of pointless to her.

Leaning against the back wall of the small room they were crowded into, Riley peered absentmindedly at the nails of her left hand which had been painted silver. It was kind of a slapdash job but Riley figured they looked okay. She didn't do well with moments of silence. Or more specifically, she didn't do well without something to occupy her, so she found herself listening to the words of the others, gaze still focused on the tips of her fingers. The conversation was nothing special at first but as she opened her mouth to let out a yawn, she found it morphing into a small snicker as glasses and the old man broke into conversation. Her eyes darted over to the notebook, unable to miss the large words he had scribbled there, which prompted an eye roll from herself. She didn't have long to ponder on this though as the hobo-like man began rapid firing questions at the teenagers, which earned another small laugh.

“Woah, teach has a sadistic side...” She grinned, totally getting the wrong end of the stick. “Does that mean you’ve killed people before?” The teenager questioned, folding her arms across her chest as her attention focused on the older hero, apparently having decided that he was far more interesting. “Go on. What’s your top five...no three, ways that you’ve killed someone?” The question came out breezily as if it were a completely normal thing to ask and her blue eyes looked over at him patiently, waiting for an answer. Or three answers to be more specific. The logical side of her brain muttered that she probably shouldn’t ask such things to a teacher figure but the louder voice thought it was interesting, and slightly amusing.

---

---

[Hitman]

_{September 21st, 2064
Aboard N-Train
Brookside, South Castle Island}

Sonic blasts, at the right amplitude and aimed at the right place, could easily be lethal. If not resulting in casualties, sonic blasts were more than strong enough to snap bones as if they were balsa wood. Miles wasn't sure exactly how much damage had been done by the pirate, but it was pretty bad. Miles felt a wave of intense pain shoot through his body as he fell to the ground, body slumped against the wall, a few droplets of blood trickling from his lip. His right hand felt around his jacket as the man aimed the sonic blaster at him again. Though Miles was in pain, he was not in fear, as he had noticed the door to the traincar had opened, something the pirate clearly did not. Miles instead just closed his eyes as he heard a very loud crack, and when he re-opened them, he saw the armored man lying in a heap on top of his buddy.

The young hero gave a weak smile. "Th-that was pretty sick," Miles expressed fondly as he continued to pat his coat, eventually finding what he was looking for and removing it- a clear cylinder, about as long and somewhat thinner than a soda can, full of some sort of red liquid. Miles avoided Sophia's eye contact sheepishly. "Y-you might f-find this weird. Err, you c-can look away," Miles said with a tinge of red flooding his cheeks for the who knows time that afternoon, before pressing the cylinder to his lips and drinking the substance. If the sight wasn't disturbing, the clacking sound of bones welding themselves back together, would most certainly be enough to bother those that were not blessed with a particularly strong stomach. Miles' veins and eyes emitted a faint crimson glow. The vampiric teenager stood, stretching his arms. "Thanks for the hand, Soph," Miles quipped with more confidence now as he scooped up the downed pirate's sonic blaster, aiming it at the door. "Oh, and cover your ears," he added before firing a powerful blast at the door to the train's cab, knocking the door right off its hinges. Two pirates immediately rushed to see what the commotion was about, but they were promptly dispatched with another sonic blast that caused them to howl, clutch their ears, and topple over at Miles' feet.

"Looks like the conductor's down. Maybe you could amplify him or something?" Miles noted, his voice sounding more like Harrison Ford and less like Porky Pig as he stepped over the downed guards and entered the cab. Indeed, the conductor was also sprawled on the ground, his body occasionally twitching to show that he was not gone, just likely electrocuted very, very badly. Miles made his way over to the dashboard, running his fingers over the holographic keys. "Good news, still getting a read on the bomb, which means that whoever's defending it is doing a pretty good job. Sent out an alert to Assistant Director Blum, the police, and the ATF, so I think that means we're in the clear. Nice defense work." Miles propped himself up onto the table, running a hand through his coal-black hair and facing towards Sophia, presenting himself with a swagger that was simply not there before. Whatever was in that cylinder (hint: it was blood) had clearly caused some sort of change. Most likely temporary, but a change nonetheless.

"So, about those tapes," the pale youth said with a confident smirk. "I'd love to stop by and watch them. Maybe we could get a bite to eat, too? There's a new Fogo de Chão opened in New Athens, heard they have drones that zoom around with the meat skewers. Sounds sick," Miles proposed. "How does that sound?"

The extra dose of blood in Miles' system almost functioned as alcohol, inhibiting what would have been a wall of shame that would have prevented the offer from even coming from his mouth. However, blood did not grant Miles 360-degree vision, and with Miles facing inwards towards Sophia instead of outwards towards the window, he could not see that there was a woman standing on the tracks. The woman was massive (Miles would guess a few inches taller than himself), with coal-black skin, a muscular frame, cropped dark hair, and a huge silver prosthetic in place of her right arm. This woman was Commander Angela Woods, also known as Lightning Rod, a mercenary with the power to fire powerful bolts of lightning through her robot arm and a second-in-command to the Captain, Sam Everett. Miles also could not see that this woman was pointing her robot arm, which was equipped with a powerful cannon function, directly at the back of Miles' head, a thin blue laser reflecting through the traincar window's glass and lining up with the teenage hero's skull.

Meanwhile, inside the train car that the heroes were supposed to protect, an entire siege was underway. Shrieking blasts of sound resonated through the car as the soldiers fired, but a few of the pirates were incapacitated. One of them was smacked upside the head with a baseball bat and crashed into another, one was hit in the guts with a blast of ice and toppled to the ground, another was stuck inside the ceiling, and another pirate, very embarrassingly, had collapsed after having an allergic reaction to one of the chemicals in the vape smoke still lingering in the car. Despite their experience, the men were losing. Not only losing, but losing badly.

The sound of a chainsaw revving would quickly restore the morale to the remaining pirates.

A blue blade of energy slashed through the wall of the traincar, cutting a huge circle into the side of the car. When the new opening fell, standing there was a burly man wearing a shoddy leather mask and holding an energy chainsaw. One of the other Commanders of the Rocketeers, Sawyer Briggs, a.k.a. "Chainsawyer." Chainsawyer had gone on a killing spree back in the 40s before being caught, but the Rocketeers destroyed his prison transport vehicle, and inducted him into their cause. Chainsawyer is well-known in the criminal underworld for being absolute and totally insane.

Chainsawyer swung his laser-edge chainsaw behind him, cutting the coupling behind him and causing the caboose of the train holding the weapon to lurch away from the rest of the car. The deranged man revved up his chainsaw, looking at the four heroes onboard as he revved the blade. "It's time for some fun."

With that, Chainsawyer lurched forwards, swinging his dangerous lumber-cutting weapon around the room wildly. The tip of the blade caught Viper and sent a smattering of blood and guts across the inside of the car. The maniac turned before rushing directly at Marcie, chainsaw at the ready, with no qualms as to who his next victim was and in how many pieces they ended up in.

---

---

_{September 21st, 2064
Academy of Young Heroes
Lighthouse Island, Castleburg}

The ringleader of the group, Ricky, the redhead (or alternatively, the one that was smoking profusely) made a face. "Too many questions. Seriously. I mean, did we kill people? Hell no. We don't do that shit. Did we get away with stuff? I mean, if I told you, I'd have to kill you," Ricky added with a smarmy smirk. "We've already discussed this, though, and we're not gonna be, like, goody two-shoes or anything. Superheroes are lame. You guys are getting schooled by robot cops. I mean, that's kinda embarassing right?" Ricky laughed as the rest of the kids murmured in ascent.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Principal Lee stepped in for a moment. "I see you guys are already getting along! Isn't that just lovely? Anyway, why don't you guys head out to the yard? You can use all the equipment to show them how to use their powers for good! Plus, there's a bouncy castle out there! It was for another student whose power is jumping, but if there's one thing I love, it's multi-use items! That, and English literature, but I gave up those dreams a while ago." As Mrs. Lee spoke, she quite stealthily passed a piece of paper to the person nearest to her, which happened to be Lucas. The scrap of paper read:

planning 'fake' villain attack. show them how exciting superheroes can be. try not to do too much damage. pass it on.

Principal B. Lee

Principal Lee smiled warmly and handed Rory (like all teachers, she quickly picked favorites) the cell key, before turning to Jeremy. "Mr. Lindall, can I borrow you for a moment?" Principal Lee then walked off, leaving the rest of the kids to go play with their superpowers in the yard before guiding Jeremy off in a separate direction.

---

The yard was an excellent place to test powers out. A large open area in the courtyard of the building, with all sorts of small things set up. Obstacle courses, target practice, all sorts of things were spread out on the grassy area. On the rooftop of the building, a few individuals in fake SWAT armor examined the yard. They were masquerading as abductors as part of the plot to turn the kids over to the side of good, though in reality, they were part of a much more sadistic and evil occupation- orchestra teachers. Unfortunately, the Academy's funding for the arts leaves much to be desired, so the orchestra teachers were helping out for an extra check bonus tacked onto their salary for being human punching bags for these superhuman teenagers. It was like proctoring the SATs, except less painful.

Luckily there were no actual threats on the island, though, right?

---

Meanwhile, Principal Lee guided the older teacher in the opposite direction, back where they came from, towards the front of the school. As she walked briskly, she spoke a bit more casually, though it was clear that she was still quite stressed. "I hope you found your...I guess we can call it a sabbatical? Your sabbatical enjoyable. Or at least, you accomplished what you set out to do. We're glad to have you back, either way." Barbara gave a shaky, stressed smile as she opened the front doors of the building. "Anyway, somebody heard you were back and wanted to meet you."

Barbara stepped out onto the front lawn. There, in the late summer sky, an object was speeding towards the Academy; in fact, it was heading directly towards Jeremy. It was seeming more and more like the worst assassination attempt ever until the object swirled around midair and landed on the ground elegantly, revealing itself to be not an object, but a person, albeit one that was heavily armored with what appeared to be large black crystals welded together by some sort of purple energy. These strange crystals covered the entirety of the mystery person's body, including their head, with the crystals forming a strange, dragon-like mask. The mystery person glared directly at Jeremy for a few moments before snapping their fingers, and as if by magic, the crystals split apart and crumbled off the person's body. As the crystals fell, they shifted into each other and compacted into a small cube of black crystals, revealing the person beneath the armor as a slender young woman in her early 20s, wearing a dark bodysuit. She had bushy mahogany-brown hair, pointed Asiatic features, green eyes, and a healthy smattering of freckles.

Anybody in Castleburg that didn't know who this girl was had either been living under a rock for the past year or was on some sort of crazy adventure, as the biracial young lady was none other than Cloudrunner, the famed S-tier superhero, world-class telekinetic, and one-half of the famous Hero Twins alongside her partner Dimension. To those that knew her, though, she was just Jenna Rees, the daughter of two well-known superheroes, a prodigal pianist, polyglot, and all-around nerd.

She was also a hugger, which was evidenced by the fact that as soon as the armor had escaped her person, she engulfed the older man in a hug. "Mr. Lindall! It's been forever! How are you? Oh, Mom and Dad said hi, by the wall. Charlie also told me to say hi, but he's...well, you know what he's like. I heard you were back from your trip and I had to come to say hello! How have you been? What was it like? Where did you go? I have a lot of questions. But I'm so glad you're back safe and sound!"

[Jumbus]

Mission: On Cloud Nine Location: Castleburg Bullet N-Train

---

---

"I'm done, theres no helping this dude. I'm so dead. He's gonna kill me. He is going to kill me."

Dawnbreaker stood in the bathroom of the train, continuously splashing water on one part of his cape then rubbing it. Rinse and repeat. This had been his life for the past 10 minutes. Just earlier he had been on the train, travelling with everyone else. In his folly he had cracked open a cola for a train trip beverage. One thing lead to another and Lucas ended up slipping, spilling cola on his cool cape. This caused him to rush to the bathroom immediately to try and get it out. His first debut and he was going to have a cola stain on his cape, over his dead body. Starbright would kill him. It wasn't a huge stain or even a large one, but it was there and that is unacceptable.

It was now ten minutes into this cleaning endeavor with no success. It didn't really matter that a train bathroom was minimal on cleaning supplies. Because Lucas had never learnt how to treat it in the first place. They never taught him this at the academy. I mean cleaning a cape isn't supposed to be a heroes job, right? That's for like... other people. Luckily the pirates hadn't arrived yet, he still had time.

BOOM. Time was up.

"Ok don't panic, just go out there with a stained cape. 'Hey guys, its me the new top hero. Look upon my cape, a symbol of the new golden age. Oh yeah don't look at the stain.' This is going to be so embarrassing." Lucas face palmed letting his hand slowly drag downward. He turned the tap on, cupped the running water, and splashed it on his face. It was go time. Lucas shook his head side to side, shaking off the water while using his power to dry off.

"Showtime."

---

The sound of Chainsawyer's namesake weapon suddenly had another noise contesting with it. The sound of rushing air, the entire train car had become a wind tunnel. From the side the gust was originating, a figure was quickly closing the gap. Dawnbreaker looked more like a whirling storm of red on approach than any coherent form. This ended only a few metres from Chainsawyer in a final twirl that landed into a pose. Dawnbreaker stood with knees bent into almost a kneel, one hand keeping his glasses in place with a few fingers pressed on the center of them, and his other arm outstretched to his side with his cape flowing alongside behind it. This was a hero pose to the core and one would remark on the extreme coincidence of his cape flowing in the right place if they didn't know what sort of power he possessed.

As for the tornado Dawnbreaker rode in on. It had hit the floor of the train where he landed and bounced off like a rock skimming over water. That bounce landed square on Chainsawyer with full momentum. A normal man would have been launched by that force, but Dawnbreaker didn't assume this super villain was a normal man. Still there were more important things than a villain being staggered. It was a matter so important Dawnbreaker had no time to processes the carnage around him either. It was the hero monologue.

"Villans better watch out because a new day is rising! With that rising dawn comes justice and truth! I am the one who brings in that new day, Dawnbreaker has arrived!" As he spoke, the wind around him began to spin up again. It kept increasing in speed to the point that his final words were barely audible. Not that he would have noticed.

---

---

Action Summary

-Dawnbreaker enters the train cart with Marcie, Deadman, Blitz, and Pandora
-He blasts Chain Sawyer with wind staggering him back
-He gives a big heroic speech while big heroic pose
-He spins wind around him again

[Rabidporcupine]

and

---

@Hitman@SilverPaw@Amethyst@Crusader Lord@Danvers@Scarifar

---

"Good, I'm glad to hear that." Jeremy said, sighing at Sullivans words. "Now look, I'm not saying you have to be a hero, it's not for everyone, I get that. What I am saying though is that if you don't want to kill anyone, you don't want to become villains. In the end, no matter what your intentions are, something will go wrong, and someone will end up dying. Might be one of you, might be your opponents, or it might just be some random bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. Better to just find a normal civillian job where you can put your powers to use than take that risk, don't you think?"

He chuckled when Ricky compared them to the robot cops, calling heroes lame for being outshone by them.

"It's true, those robot cops are impressive. Hell, some of my best friends have been robots! But in the end, which of us looks better to the public isn't what being a hero is really about. Hopefully you'll come to realise that some day."

It was at that point that he heard Riley's question, and promptly laughed it off.

"What, me? No way! I'm just an old school teacher, it's not exactly the kind of profession where I'd ever need to kill anyone. Considered it, naturally, but never gone through with it!"

He looked back again when Principal Lee returned, explained the plan, and asked him to go with her. He nodded, but quickly glanced back to Graham, a look of concern breifly flashing across his face. Noticing the expression, Graham grinned back widely, giving the old man a thumbs up.

"Don't worry Mr Stray, I'll be fine on my own! I won't get too distracted by the bouncy castle, promise!"

Jeremy hesitated for a moment, before sighing again, although a tired smile was plainly obvious on his face.

"If you say so..." He said. "Get out there and show 'em what you've got."

---

Once they made it to the courtyard, Graham turned to Lucas, having noticed the principals attempt at stealth before they left.

"Ok boss, what's the plan?" He asked, practically bouncing on the spot at the idea of messing around with all this new equipment. To the others, it might almost have seemed like a puppy who had just noticed his owner had brought a new toy home.

---

Meanwhile, Jeremy followed Lee back to the front of the school.

"Well, it went alright. The lead on the fragment turned out to be a bust, but I managed to find a few new kids, like you saw. The one I had with me today, Graham, is the oldest, but there are four younger ones too. The oldest three are seventeen, fifteen and twelve, so I'm hoping we can enroll them here so they can get used to using their powers more responsibly. They've got plenty of experience with them already, so it shouldn't be too difficult, but I just wanna make sure. The youngest is only six though, so while I still want to have her enroll eventually, I doubt she'll be starting classes for a while. I want to keep her here anyway though, if only so she won't need to be seperated from her siblings too long. Doing that would only make things harder on her. And of course, I'll be glad to get back to teaching again. Looks like you need all the help you can get."

He cocked his head to the side at the mention of someone wanting to see him, before looking up to see the approaching figure. Of course, he'd been keeping tabs on Castleburg and the old crew as much as possible, so he already recognised the armour before the figure had even landed. He still had the strong urge to pretend he had no idea who she was for a moment, just for old times sake, but figured she was both clever enough and had heard too many stories from Tom and Grace to fall for it. Besides, she'd been one of his best students back when she still attended the academy, so he figured she'd earned a pass from that particular joke.

"Jen!" He said, returning the hug. "Good to see you too, it's been a while! Glad to hear the rest are doing alright as well. Kinda wish they'd come too of course, but it's fine, I'll just hunt them all down next time I leave, especially your brother. And yeah, the trip was good! Wandered around the country, hiking and camping all over the place. Getting in tune with nature like that really helps clear up the stress, you know? Shook some of the rust off these old joints of mine too."

[Ascendant]

BLITZ

Mission Assignment: On Cloud Nine
Location: N-Train
Interactions: Dawnbreaker (@Jumbus)
Mentions: Amplify (@ShepherdOfHope), Dead Man (@Duoya), Europa (@canaryrose)

Whilst the pirates continued to pour into the train car, the little tween girl ran out after vampire boy, an action which Blitz barely took notice of. Instead, he stood perfectly still, smiling at the enemy as they entered. It was almost as if he was relishing the coming brawl.

Not along after the princess ran out, another dude ran in, one from earlier that had noped out of the situation. Seemingly not even noticing Quinton standing there, he quickly garnered the attention of a few of the pirates who had just entered. Almost simultaneously, a few of the pirates began firing at both Travis and Quinton. A sonic blast hurtled towards the man and collided with his shoulder, whilst a laser shot out from another pirate's weapon at Blitz.

The beam hit Quinton's palm and began to singe it, but the hulk's mass began to accelerate rapidly to the side as his leg muscles twisted his body left. The sinew of his left leg then pushed hard enough off the floor to dent it as Blitz drew his left fist against his ribs. The short distance between the pirate group and Quinton snapped closer as Blitz delivered a pile-driver-like left upper cut to the jaw of the pirate stupid enough to target him.

Had you had a camera fast enough to catch it, you would've witnessed Blitz's enormous fist hitting the pirate's helmet with such force that the metal, and the pirate's bones, collapsed and crumbled like a crumple zone. The residual force carried the pirate's shattered skull and neck into the ceiling, where his lifeless body hung as blood began to pour down from the hole.

By this time, the injured hero had turned into some kind of gross mutant, but Quinton could barely notice as he witnessed something more impressive: a pirate getting frozen damn near solid in the train car's hole. The number eight flashed through Quinton's mind as he mentally counted the number of men left to kill or incapacitate, but then one of the pirates hilariously began choking, seemingly from the smoke? Seven it was. But wait, Roach Man knocked the shit out of one, so perhaps six? In any case, two were knocked down with five left on their feet, four of which were soon iced to the floor.

Quinton rapidly targeted the next two pirates closest to him, one who had his feet glued to the floor, and one who did not. They both began to raise their weapons at Blitz, but he was already damn near within arm's reach when he dropped a few feet towards the floor, letting his hands become like knives flying upwards from the floor towards the pirates.

At the same time Blitz began to let out a resounding roar, he stomped another dent on the floor with his right foot, redirecting all his energy upwards into his hands. The tips of his fingers made contact with the armored bellies of the pirates, but they didn't stop.

They continued moving forward as if the pirates' bodies weren't even there, tearing through the armor as Blitz forced his hands, and then forearms, and then finally his arms, deeper into the pirates. Blitz's fist erupted with a gush of blood from the unfortunate pirate's throat who was iced to the floor, whilst the other pirate's body was held aloft on Quinton's arm as if it had been staked.

While Chainsawyer cut his way into the train car, Blitz withdrew his arms, letting the pirate corpses bounce off the floor. Quinton snorted and thought to himself, Hmm? Who's this prick? as Chainfreak revved the chainsaw and made his declaration before suddenly moving swiftly and adding Snakey's internals to the spray of gore that had begun to accumulate in the train car.

This actually surprised Blitz, who was taken aback before he noticed the madman rushing towards Ice Lady whilst Roach Man was still getting swarmed. A few of the other pirates began raising their weapons at Blitz's, but he had a more important mission: do anything possible to delay that bastard and prevent him killing another of them.

So Blitz's wound his leg back and then kicked the head of one of the pirate corpses as if were a football with enough force that pain actually emanated throughout Blitz's right shin. Yet it was force enough to shatter the vertebrae and decapitate the corpse as the armor of the helmet managed to keep the head from being utterly pulverized. The head shot damn near in a straight line at Chainsawyer's predicted path, aimed squarely at the man's chest.

By some strange twist of fate, this action correlated with the absurd Wind Man that entered stage left, such that as Wind Man's tornado made contact with Chainsawyer, Blitz's weaponized pirate head was sucked even faster towards the man's chest, the powers synergizing with one another.

Blitz exhaled deeply as he grimaced a bit from the pain in his shin, but then his attention was drawn towards Wind Man launching into a mad monologue about villains and justice and truth and burritos and who knows what else. Quinton stared deeply at Dawnbreaker with a raised eyebrow, at this absurd 'golden age' hero which was juxtaposed with Blitz's already blood-soaked body, and bellowed at Dawnbreaker, "The fuck are you even talking about?!

His attention was drawn too long though, as some of the pirates began firing the weapons they had been raising, sonic bursts and lasers flying around and into Blitz's. In response, he kneeled down and brought his fists up into a guard position, trying to simply weather the storm for a moment as he assessed the situation. Whether or not Chainfreak was still going was the most important issue in his mind, as well as protecting the material in case the pirates decided to try to get sneaky.

[Duoya]

@Ascendant@Jumbus@canaryrose@Hitman

---

As Travis slammed his wooden sword against the side of the pirate's head, he could almost feel the helmet give way from the force of the blow. The pirate probably felt it too, considering he got knocked into one of his allies and didn't get up. When the second pirate was pinned under his friend's unconscious body, Travis quickly dispatched him as well - one hit to the head, followed quickly by a kick where Travis thought the ear was.

The others didn't seem very pleased that their friends were getting the crap kicked out of them. A loud screech rang out as one of them fired off their sound rifle, colliding against Travis's side with only minor pain. Another shot to the chest confirmed what he was thinking - he was almost entirely immune to their sound blasts by now, the blast only leaving him slightly unnerved. Noticing how it was ineffective, one of the pirates simply chose to thrust the butt of their rifle into Travis's face.

Pain exploded from his mouth as Travis fell to the ground. He wasn't expecting such a ballsy hit and lost his balance - that was kind of embarrassing. Almost immediately, he began to cough and spit, eventually hacking two teeth onto the floor of the car. They'd grow back, nothing to worry about. He did it on reflex - he knew what was about to happen next, and had learned that getting the shit in his mouth out of there was a priority.

As soon as he shut his mouth again, he could feel the teeth in his mouth fusing, becoming bulky and unwieldy. Almost like they were transforming into incisors or even just blocks of bone. He had experienced it dozens or even hundreds of times, but it was still uncomfortable as fuck. If he hadn't gotten those loose teeth out before the adaptation, Travis wasn't sure if he'd be able to get them out before he healed.

Travis opened his eyes. Three seconds. His forearms already were beginning to grow that brown, almost plate-like armor.

Thank god for adrenaline. Was starting to feel pretty good.

The sounds banging around the car were beginning to dull somewhat - the hairs that had grown all over Travis's body seemed to be working a bit too well at breaking the sound waves. Still, he could tell that the pirates were firing their rifles - it didn't seem like they were willing to waste any more effort on Travis while he was down though. Turning, he saw that they were aiming at Marcie. Smart move - she was probably a much softer target, and judging by the sudden chill in the room and the fact that the hole into the car had been frozen over, she was a more pressing target as well. As she got knocked to the ground from one of the blasts, Travis could feel a sudden chill near him.

"Tr... Take...!"

Even if he couldn't hear clearly, it didn't really take a brain scientist or rocket surgeon to figure out what Marcie wanted him to do. It was hard to get leverage on the ground, but even the best armors didn't fix human anatomy. Rolling over to the nearest pirate, Travis simply grabbed his leg and turned, pulling the leg backward. With his feet frozen to the floor, a sickening crunch ran through Travis's body as the Pirate's knee was forcefully bent in the opposite direction.

It took a spray of blood and a deep scream for Travis to realize that there was another person present - which is pretty surprising, considering he was by far the largest in the room. Easily towering over both the pirates as well as the heroes, Blitz was rushing through the rocketeers with incredible ease, simply running them through with his arms. While most heroes would probably be disgusted with the brutality and lack of care for human life that was being displayed, Travis simply thought 'Man, that's badass'.

"Mahn, tha's badash!"

God, it sucked trying to talk with weird fused teeth-blocks...

But it seemed like Travis didn't really need to worry about the rest of the pirates - some of them were fused, and those that weren't would probably get frozen or simply rammed through by the giant running around. Travis quickly got to his feet, prepared to jump in the way of any last desperate sound rifle blasts.

Before the sound of metal being cleaved through rang out through the entire car. Even with his hearing compromised, Travis could tell that probably wasn't a good sign.

Another giant man was walking into the car, and although this one wasn't as tall as Blitz, the giant glowing chainsaw he carried made him look even more intimidating than the guy covered in blood and organs. Travis had no idea who this masked villain was, but was extremely wary of his blade. He'd seen energy weapons before, but only in the form of knives and small blades. Even with his durability, Travis wasn't sure if he'd be able to take a hit from that and survive-

As the Chainsawyer began to move forwards, the tip of his weapon managed to lightly brush against another figure in the room - Viper. While Travis didn't notice him initially, the man's darker outfit almost immediately made Travis think he was a villain and the Chainswayer just didn't care about friendly fire.

Viper's guts and blood spilled onto the ground, joining the sizable pool that was already forming from Blitz's rampage.

'Yeah, let's not even try to tank that...'

Travis honestly had no clue how to deal with this. He might get away with minor injuries if he was lucky, but honestly, it was not worth the risk to try and use his power here. It cleaved through someone with only a glancing hit.

Plus, he wasn't sure if he regrew his limbs. And Cybernetics would really mess up his style...

The Chainsawyer began to race towards Marcie - either he followed the same line of thinking as the other pirates and saw her as the most dangerous, or he was just picking them off randomly. Either way, Travis didn't really have the opportunity to help her out - the pirate whose leg Travis just broke seemed to be made of tougher stuff than the others, and he along with the other surviving pirates was keeping him pinned, kicking him in the head and sides while forcing him down with their weight. One of the pirates laying on Travis was already aiming his rifle at someone (Blitz? Travis wasn't really looking), trying to take advantage of the sudden shift in battle the Chainswayer's arrival caused. Seemed like they had found Travis's second-biggest weakness - he wasn't super strong, so they could just pin him to take him out.

Blitz wasn't in Travis's line of sight, but he was the only one that Travis could think responsible for what happened next. Something flew directly into the Chainsawyer's chest, fast enough that Travis could barely even register what happened. The move seemed to distract the other Rocketeers somewhat, as almost everything seemed to stop for a brief instant.

However, the arrival of another hero was what really sealed the deal. Someone in a flamboyant costume ('with a very cool looking cape', Travis thought) entered the car, seeming to cause the very air in the room to fluctuate. Dawnbreaker entered a little before the Chainsawyer, but Travis and the pirates pinning him only noticed the man after the initial hit on the giant chainsaw-wielding freak. It was the perfect distraction, as Travis had just enough time to begin choking out one of the mobile pirates pinning him. He struggled briefly, but with his legs locked around him and the solid hairs digging into his flesh, it only took seconds for the tired pirate to fall unconscious. And with only two pirates pinning him, one of whom was partially frozen and had a broken leg, Travis finally managed to free himself from the veritable swarm around him.

Thank god Travis's hearing was messed up enough to miss what Dawnbreaker was actually saying, or he'd also be distracted by thinking of how cool it was.

The two pirates had finally moved on to another target, firing their rifles at Blitz. Travis yanked the rifle from the partially frozen pirate but didn't stop to deal with the other unloading on the huge hero. He had bigger priorities - getting Marcie away from the Chainsaw guy as quickly as possible. She was the only one who could really close the holes these weirdos made in the train car walls, and could painlessly incapacitate the Rocketeers... Well, painlessly compared to Blitz's method.

Thankfully, the gun that Travis stole wasn't one of the ones frozen by Marcie. He trained it on the Chainsawyer, ready to fire it the second the man moved. He yelled at Marcie over the conflict still going on in the train car, his voice coming out strangely from his mutated mouth and weakened hearing.

"Freecee te whol!"

God, it really sucked trying to talk with weird fused teeth-blocks. Hopefully, Marcie would freeze the hole in the train before more pirates came in - then they could have a breather and buy time for the other heroes to secure the civilians and arrive.

[SilverPaw]

BLAZE

Mission: Teacher's pet
Location: Lighthouse Island

---

---

Blaze rolled her eyes at the smartass teenager. “Yeah, yeah, you got away, ‘s why you’re here, huh.” Well, the conversation was going pretty much as she’d expected so far. The kids just saw them as a bunch of adults, not ones they particularly expected either, so of course they were trying to keep their cool.

“Who cares ‘bout those damn tinheads? I could beat ‘em, easy. So could lotsa villains, that’s why we’re ‘round. ‘Sides, we get paid to kick ass, what more do you want?” she shook her head dismissively. It was clear that for Blaze, the action and the money were the only perks one might need to know about.

When Stray took the time to finish his very long speech, she took the chance to sit down on top of one of the classroom’s tables. She tapped her fingers on a knee, half-listening to the diatribe about slippery slopes and what-not. When he was done, and the principal returned, she hopped down eagerly.

“Aaalright, let’s get out,” she cheered. “C’mon, you’ve gotta be bored outta your mind, yeah?” she questioned the adolescents. “Could do a game, you against us. With a handicap for us, duh. Or maybe you just wanna see who from you is best at what,” she shrugged.

When they arrived into the yard, she whistled, impressed at the equipment. It was really nice, and she was almost, almost jealous at all the kids who’d been trained by these folks and got to play on all of this. But she knew that the ‘controlled environment’ shtick woulda gotten in her way, too.

Not to mention she could try it out now – though she wouldn’t do it if no one else on her team would. It’d embarrass even her if she were the only one getting hyped. Though…if, and only if someone needed to make a show to convince the delinquent group to get into action, would she consider making that sacrifice. Given that super enthused Graham kid, though, she probably didn’t need to worry all that much.

Blaze stretched properly, then considered which of the many things she should try out. The bouncy castle was large, but that was kinda for kids, right? Well, since this was a school, technically none of this was intended for adults, except as a teaching implement. Yeah, she could use that as an excuse, teaching by example.

“Which one first, eeenie, meeny, miny, moe,” she sing-sung quietly, going through the options. At the end of the song, her finger pointed on an artificial climbing area. “Alright, who feels like a race to the top?” she asked, eyeing the quartet.

She wondered if the one with the gravity would float straight away to the top, or something – actually, she was counting on it. If Drew did that, she was sure the others would want to compete too. Though, if they ignored her entirely and did their own thing, she guessed it’d be fine too. As long as they didn’t just stand around silently doing nothing.

[canaryrose]

Mission: On Cloud Nine Location: Castleburg Bullet N-Train Interacting: Blitz (@Ascendant), Dawnbreaker(@Jumbus), Dead Man (@Duoya)

Marcie stood, still disoriented and unsteady on her feet after the sonic blast. The world still felt like it was spinning and it was all she could do not to drop right back to the ground. Luckily, freezing their weapons had worked- the pirates trying to fire at her shouted, confused at finding their weapons suddenly unusable and themselves unable to move. Travis and Blitz (the latter of whom she embarrassingly hadn’t noticed) then did what she couldn’t do and took down the glued-down pirates with… various methods. She had to look away as Blitz impaled the pirates on his own arms. Disgusting. Behavior like that couldn’t be ethical, but at least it got the job done. The majority of their assailants were incapacitated, dead, or mutilated.

A deafening whirring sound penetrated the room only some seconds after she stood up. The blades of a chainsaw peeked through the wall, making that horrible sound as they quickly formed another hole in the wall. Shit. More? She ducked behind a box with her hands held out, gathering molecules to freeze. The villain- clearly not a lackey- stepped through the hole and immediately tore open the guts of Viper with his energy chainsaw.

Marcie shrieked as the guts of a man she hardly knew sprayed across the train car and shrieked louder when Chainsawyer started running at her. Unable to get away because of the box she had hid behind, she threw her hands up in an attempt to freeze something before he ripped her in half, too.

Ice had just begun to spread over his feet when an unknown hero entered the train car and set him off balance. Less than a second after that, a decapitated head collided against the crazed villain’s chest and knocked him over. Unfortunately, Marcie was close enough that blood from the head splattered onto her. She spat, heart pounding with terror. She had been seconds away from being cut in half. It showed on her face- she was slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

She raised her hands and let ice cover the chainsaw man’s extremities and weapons, (hopefully) cementing him down, all the while listening to Dawnbreaker’s crazy speech.What? This guy was clearly out of it, but it wasn’t her place to judge after he had just saved her life. She did give him a strange look, though.

But there was a more urgent job. Travis was standing over the chainsaw man and he shouted at her to “freecee te whol”, whatever that meant. It took Marcie a second or two of staring to figure it out. It probably didn’t help that she was most likely concussed, and her brain was moving slower than usual. However, she raised her hands and ice creeped over the new hole before it let anyone else in, and, within a moment, it was sealed shut.

Marcie hid behind the boxes again, still using her powers to cover Chainsawyer and his signature chainsaw with ice. Hopefully he wouldn’t get up again. For now, there was still the problem of the other few pirates. She peered out from her hiding place, watching pirates fire on Blitz. He could handle them. What was important to her was ensuring that Chainsawyer didn’t get up again. She gave Travis a pointed look, trying to communicate that she wanted him to stop aiming the damn gun at the frozen man and shoot the pirates. Hopefully he got that.

[Mintz]

---

---

Location: "Innocuous" Warehouse

Interactions: Spark Gal @sassy1085, Shadow Scythe Vengeance @Zoey Boey

---

---

Oh Gods alive! Leon had to avert his eyes as Sparkles here lit up like a Christmas tree. He supposed in the end it was helpful, given the pitch darkness and encroaching smoke, but seriously. Next time he ended up alongside this girl, he'd certainly need to nab a pair of sunglasses. Before she made her move however, much to Leon's shock, the vigilante did the unthinkable.

With a light shining bright upon them, they took this chance...To do a fuckin' monologue. In fact, it reminded Leon of the kind of thing someone would practice in front of a mirror, but saying it out loud....Cheesy couldn't begin to describe it. His face physically cringed in pain, distracting him from what he should've been doing; telling his disco ball of a fellow hero to fire already.

Before he got the chance to grip about it, though, it happened; a rain of sparks and fire hit the ceiling near the shadowy individual, just as a cloud of smoke enveloped them. Looks like they slipped out of that attempt. "Alright sparkles, not a bad first attempt. Now let's see whe- Watch it!"

Intermittent between him flicking his flashlight about and checking for signs of the vigilante in the slowly fading flashes of fireworks near the rafters, his eye caught onto a strange projectile in mid-air. Thinking quickly, but certainly not smartly, Leon darted forward, barely managing to catch the pellet before it impacted Beth. After he caught it, instinctively he flinched away from his hand, expecting it to blow up. 'What kind of idiot just catches something like this with his bare hands?!' He thought to himself, mentally preparing for the worst....And quickly figuring out that nothing was happening. Cautiously, he opened his hand, to discover the small bomb undetonated. Seemed like a dud. Sheesh, sometimes he needs to remember just who he is...

Brushing off the incident with a casual laugh, he took his side by Beth again, confidence returning to his posture and features. "Alright, like I was saying....Let's go for round two, eh?" Casually pocketing the would-be Gas Bomb, a quick flicker of his phone's light in the dark found the figure of Shadow Scythe Vengeance once more. "If you can, try and make a cluster of explosives so she doesn't have anywhere to run....But, uh, don't go too far, alright?" That errant thought crossed him by once he saw a few faint sparks leaving the air above and touching down nearby, with brief hints of fires trying to start. If they weren't careful, they'd probably blow themselves sky-high. Or more accurately, everyone but him. Heh. Being lucky definitely has its perks...

In fact, before his only seemingly active teammate in this mess of a combat continued, Leon decided that perhaps a dialogue could be had. Or at the very least, he might end up distracting the target for a moment...Taking a deep breath, and clearing his throat, Leon shouted to the rafters; "Shadow Scythe Vengeance!" He couldn't make a straight face saying that mess of a title...But he caught himself quickly. "Personally, I'd recommend you just give up the ghost and surrender quietly. The alternative, well....You've seen my associate's power here, and given the kind of place we're in, this could turn out rather poorly, don'tcha think?"

[Zoey Boey]

On the N-Train

---

Two heroes left the nuke room to travel elsewhere. Following them were various, colorful sounds. Gunfire. Ice crystalizing. Chainsaw. The distinct sound of someone being utterly pulverized by a hero with super strength. Breaking bones, impact, mid-fight commands. Rending flesh and spattered gore. Truly, it sounded like a blood bath in there. Pandora was almost sad she was missing it. Almost. Trying on actual modern (ish) clothes was a new thing for her, instead of just wearing what amounted to street pajamas. Getting clothes spattered with viscera...there was something uniquely uncomfortable about it. As opposed to before, where the got mostly on her bare skin. Or aforementioned street pajamas.

Young people getting exposed to horrible violence wasn't new. Pearl clutchers may pretend to be shocked and appalled. Children, eighteen years old, they decry. Killing and seeing people die. It's awful! The minimum age to sign up for the army is seventeen. Kids start learning to kill early. Then they're shipped off to war and start mowing other people down.

Hell. Back in her day, they'd have 12 year olds strutting about the battlefield with drums! Mind the flying limbs, now, dearie.

Pandora gathered all her items in her purse carefully. Kicking off her shoes, then her socks, she gently pushed her shoes into the floor, where they might be safer. Rolling her shoulders, she made the 'table' was pushed neatly back into the wall from whence it came. Rising to her feet she strolled leisurely down the train car. Before her was the space between train cars. On the caboose before her, in which the battle was taking place, she could see Chainsawyer currently attempting to terrorize her young teammates.

This situation was why it was good to keep forces in reserve. He had severed the train cars, and the nuke car was slowly drifting away from the train. No doubt isolating it from the rest of the train would be ideal for them. Perhaps they even had a plan to lift the whole thing up and away, or something ridiculous like that. Though she doubted the super villains of today had that much pizazz left in them.

Needless to say, it would do the children no good to be cut off from the rest of HERO. Pandora angled her open hands towards the chain. Her willpower extended outward like little feelers. Connecting herself to the coupling, she willed it to extend forward. Pulling from the metal of the train car, the end of the coupling snaked out towards its other half. Once there, it molded together, good as new. Then she demanded that it shrink back to it's previous length. It obeyed, pulling the speeding caboose forward from where it had drifted slightly.

Once that was done, Pandora reached out for the door of the caboose and opened it.

"Excuse me, Chainsawyer? You there, the vermin." She called teasingly out to him. "You missed. The train car is still connected." Using her left foot, she kept a 'lead' on the coupling. If he went to chop it again, his chainsaw would melt right into the coupling and become attached by the blade.

If he went after her instead, that was his mistake. If he turned around and kept going after her teammates, well, that's another mistake for him, too. Big dumb brutes like him were easy to handle. Pandora kept an ear out for the train car behind her, making sure not to get snuck up on.

[Crusader Lord]

Strain

Mission: Teacher's Pet

Location: Lighthouse Island

---

"Did we get away with stuff? I mean, if I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Oh Look I'm So Edgy, Everyone's So Terrified, So Cool, Oh Noooooooooo

Lucian let out a laugh at the kid's smarminess. He was getting flashbacks of his younger self...crap, he was only 19. But even so it still felt like ages ago he was the snot-nosed twerp his stepfather drilled into the guy he was today. A kid out to face the world, stubborn and angry and stupid as all hell. This kid was so reminiscent of some of that it could only make him laugh. Sure he had a point about the robot cops, but so what if the city was safer because of them? Heroes did their job, and the robo-cops did theirs. It was all helping people, and to the hero known as "Strain" that was all that mattered...people being safer and able to live their lives. He would fight until the day he died for that.

But that was perhaps going a bit far beyond the point.

"Look, kid. Even if you don't go goody-two-shoes, there's a lotta' people who'd still want to kick...much more kill your ass. Hell, even kidnap ya' and exploit the hell outta' ya' till ya drop dead or worse just cause' you have powers.

But that kinda' stuff don't sink in, least' until it happens outta' the blue. Ya' never think it's gonna happen, then BAM. Kid next to ya' is dead. Someone's tryin' to run. Guy in front of ya' is looking at ya' like the next thing ta' check off on his little list, or is hidin' behind some mask and lookin' at ya' like yer' a tool e' needs at the store."

Lucian thumped his chest with one fist for a second, coughing and trying to reel himself back in. Too much of 'Brookside Luce' there for this situation. Too much. Was easy to fall into that and get a bit stuck. No. 'Brookside Luce' had some point at least, as crude as he'd delivered it to the kids. Lucian, no, Strain needed to try to talk some sense into the kids. If that failed, try to at least not knock the kid senseless. Tough love only went so far.

But then came the note, which was eventually passed along to him.

'Oh no.'

A fake villain atta-...was Principal Lee out of her mind?! He'd go along with this for her sake and the mission beyond, but heck that was one way to cheapen the experience for the kids. That and an underpaid teacher looking for revenge was a risk. Or not. Standard humans trying to tackle superpowered kids down was one idea, and not totally farfetched at all to be frank, but at the same time it left a bad taste in Strain's mouth to do it. That or it risked some actual shenanigans happening, depending on whatever was going on with this stunt.

Either way, Lucian kept oddly silent as the group moved into the yard. Beyond that, however, he cracked a smirk inside his mask as Blaze tried to get them to race her.

"If one of you beat her to the top I'll shovel out $10 to the winner. You all beat her without blowing the thing up and you get $10 each. I've got the cash for it before we leave later, if you've got the two seconds of patience for it now."

Bribery. He'd brought fifty bucks here just in case he had to stoop to it. Small cash for him in the long run, even if someone potentially nabbed it. No idea what approach they'd be trying to use, at least on his end, so he'd tried to come in with an idea. Anything from tough love to the simple stuff. He preferred the later, truth be told, but he'd seen a lot of the former before...

[DClassified]

---

Location | Innocuous Warehouse |
Missions | A Dish Best Served Cold |
Mentions | @Akayaofthemoon, @Hitman, @Mintz, @Sassy1085, @Zoey Boey |

---

Solomon watched the sudden chaos ensue and felt the need to subvert a cringe. “We’re going to jail”? These interns clearly were just randomly picked off of the street and given no actual training. If they were meant to be criminals working in a drug operation this big, given that they were in a warehouse, they should have more composure. If they were trying to fool her, the behavior of the majority of the ‘criminals’ should be a red flag.

Then there was another issue, there were no guns or at least none visible. Solomon understood that this was merely a ploy, but no actual trained agents with weaponry mixed among the interns was, again, a bad look. Even if the ‘super-villains’ with powers were cocky, they always had several armed lackeys, even if they were just simple handguns. Often there was a superiority complex aligned with some cowardice, keeping around weaker but actually dangerous units. Not just to protect from heroes, but also for potential firefights with other criminals, especially on this side of town. If SSV was studying them from the shadows, the lack of actual protection for the drugs would likely be another red flag.

Young Powers was able to put these red flags together in just moments of looking around. He was hoping that the girl would put together that this was a trap and disengage but knew better when the flashlight hit her. It was like a spotlight, and it fit right into her character’s gimmick. Once the monologue started, it was clear that Solomon’s original plan wasn’t going to work. When it came to this new guy with blue hair, Sol didn’t know his powers or even really recognize him. He must’ve been new as Sol made it an ongoing side-mission to go through HERO files for worst case scenarios.

In which case, he was going to have to lean more on his disguise than he thought and directly get SSV to extract. She was clearly going for the more stealth-based tactic, sticking to smoke and darkness, but this new guy kept finding her near instantly with his phone flashlight. It was more than obvious that it wasn’t just a coincidence, but a result of whatever power he had. He knew Spark Girl, whose powers were a wildcard in this particular situation, likely the most dangerous.

Sol didn’t want to have to use his abilities too much here, but if the situation called for it…Sol needed to just blind the guy for just a second, Sparky wouldn’t know where to aim and she likely wouldn’t just blow them all up. He doubted HERO wanted SSV that badly to sacrifice any innocents. So, while the blue guy tried to talk down SSV with a threat, Sol took advantage of the shadows.

Grabbing hold of one of the running interns, he snatched the lab-coat off of them and pushed them towards an exit. As he held the garment, he shook his head. A fucking lab-coat…seriously, who set up this trap? Did they think criminals were complete idiots? Annoyance aside, he inhaled briefly before briskly bolting for one of the warehouse’s walls. Running straight up the vertical surface towards the rafters, he aimed his eyes around for the layout in the meantime. Plotting his course of motion compared to SSV’s position and the guy’s flashlight, Sol jumped from the wall.

Swiftly swinging from bar to bar, his motion created a disturbance in the smoke above the heads of the two heroes. From the rafters opposite of SSV, a small gust of wind echoed loud in the emptying warehouse. After traversing from one end to the other, a second of silence briefly passed until Sol dropped from the rafters.

Exhaling, Sol’s eyes focused as he zoomed towards little boy blue and Sparky. The sound of displaced air was followed by the lab coat that suddenly flew towards the duo like a ghost. The empty garment landed over the guy and phone to cover the light as if blown by wind. Sol had to move double the time of the first to get past in a shadowy blur without touching and hurting either of them.

Up the wall once again, he aimed towards SSV herself. This time, slower and quieter, he snatched her arm and pulled her down. Using gravity as the main source this time, Sol sped up their descent to duck behind a desk, making sure he landed first to take the brunt of the impact. Now with several seconds to breathe, Sol looked down at the vigilante in his grip.

“You have to go. It’s a trap.” Solomon whispered quickly.

[Scarifar]

Mission Assignment: Teacher's Pet
Location: Lighthouse Island

Gematria looked between the students and Stray, then sighed in relief. It seemed it was just a small test for the students. Now everyone was moving along to the yard, where there was training equipment and space aplenty to develop their skills. Gematria walked over to one set of equipment and began to scrutinize it carefully, wondering just how effective it was at its job. After swiveling her wrist around, she eventually set it back down and returned to the group, where Blaze was inviting the others to a race. Gematria's face screen displayed a raised eyebrow, then she shrugged and added, "I'm willing to participate in this race as well. I've been meaning to do some field testing on my new upgrades." With that said, Gematria raised her arms, which had holes open on its palms. If one looked carefully, one could see some metal that made up the hook heads for her grappling hooks.

[Zoey Boey]

---

Brookside

---

SSV watched from the shadows. In a strange bout of foolish courage, that villain with the spotlight reached out and grabbed her pellet right out of the air. His mistake. It would explode and incapacitate them both with toxic fumes.

...

It would explode and incapacitate them both with toxic fumes!

A surge of frustration shot up her spine as the bomb didn't go off.

(Why not?!)

Adding to her anger, the man immediately zeroed in on her again with his phone. How did he know?! She was being so sneaky! There's no way he should be able to find her in all the smoke and darkness of the ceiling. Even if his flashlight did brush over her, it would do just that- brush over her. Shadow Scythe Vengeance was a dark spot among darkness.

"Shut up, dumbass!" SSV shouted down at him in response to his question. Completely disregarding his efforts to speak to him in a similar way that she had. "If you don't want to get blown up, tell that girl to stop letting off fireworks in here!"

Shadow Scythe Vegeance ran left on the rafters, and then ran to the right, but the spotlight beam followed her fast movements perfectly. Now worry crept in, anticipating the moment gunfire would rip her to shreds. Or she would get blown up and break a leg from the impact. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. It never went like this before! These people weren't normal criminals! Was this some kind of trap? Penny began to make for her entrance point. Clearly she would have to re-evaluate her plan and attack again. If the police showed up, someone might get killed. How had this happened? Was her website flawed?

Suddenly, darkness fell. Scythe considered this a lucky break! With that flashlight no longer on her, she could regroup and try again. Excitedly, she pulled on the chain connected her to the roof above and wrapped it around her arm. So she had her grapple back, and freedom of movement. Quickly moving along the rafters, she went to make her escape.

A force pulled down on her, and Scythe gasped in surprise. An odd, distorted sound considering her voice changer. For a moment she was free falling, and then someone took the impact for her. Baffled, she was rolled onto her back and stared up at the man infront of her. From his perspective, the death mask stared up emotionlessly at him. Her eyes were hidden by the two retractable goggles. As soon as she got over her shock she went to fight her way free, looking to cut his hand with the scythe wrapped around her arm. But his words and inaction calmed her down.

"A trap? That's impossible. This target was sent to me by the people!" She whispered harshly. "From my website, Vengeance(dot)net, the crime fighting website anyone can contribute too. It's the democratization of justice, man! The future! Who are you, anyway? Let go of me, or face my wrath!" Now Shadow did began to struggle in his grip. She kicked out at his leg, and then went to push herself out from under him with a kick and a roll. All she had to do was break free and throw out another smoke bomb to make her escape.

[Hitman]

_{September 21st, 2064
Castleburg Bullet N-Train}

The traincar was an absolute bloodbath. Limbs flying about like discarded objects. Corpses hitting the ground one by one. Blood pooling across the entirety of the traincar. It was the definition of a massacre. In HERO slang, this was a textbook Section 15: the type of hero behavior that would certainly result in an investigation, maybe even questioning, though given the circumstances it was unlikely to result in any sort of actual punishment. That was simply the way crime and punishment worked, after all.

At this point, Chainsawyer was one of the few pirates left; or at least, he was one of the few pirates that was left living. His warpath had very briefly been halted, however, by the arrival of yet another hero, who had propelled a weaponized head directly at him. Chainsawyer, unlike many of those in HERO, was not the type to be bothered by the revelation that his comrades had been killed, mutilated, and then weaponized. He was there for one thing and one thing only- unrelenting violence. However, he was quickly to be taken out of commission. His attention was first distracted by the arrival of yet another hero, and he was disappointed to find that the coupling that he had very specifically cut apart was now welded together. Who did these people think they were?! He was looking forward to dicing them to pieces, that's for sure. However, the arrival of the redhead had distracted him from the much more important issue- he was being frozen in place. Everything below Chainsawyer's waist was now coated in a thick layer of ice. The man swung his chainsaw around angrily, but his attempts of actually incapacitating anybody were futile, thanks to Europa's efforts.

It would seem as though the pirate invasion had been quelled. The only pirates left in commission were Chainsawyer, who was frozen to the ground like a sculpture, and a couple of stragglers that were pretending to be dead in order to avoid being impaled on Blitz's arms (prison was better than the alternative, surely). To think that this was the end of the pirate raid, however, was simply foolish.

---

"Not looking good."

Sam was sitting in the cockpit of the Vulture I. The Vulture I was one of Sam's prized possessions. A hovercraft just larger than a fighter jet, the Vulture I was originally purposed by the US military to retrieve cadavers from the battlefield, though Sam's modifications gave the device a lot more utility. The Vulture I was currently hovering just above the stopped train, observing the battle from afar. Sam tightened her fingers around the throttle as she looked at the holoscreen currently projecting a worrying slew of numbers. "Richardson's dead...Reeves is dead...Chen is a goner...Stuyvesant is unconscious...God damn, these guys are fucked." Sam gently tapped a console on the wheel of the device. "Angela, what's the situation in the front of the train?"

A brusk, deep, but feminine voice responded. "Neutralized," she responded simply over the comms.

Sam stretched her arms. "This is why I need more women in the fucking crew. We know how to get shit done," Sam said as the Vulture I dove down, now level with the rest of the train. Sam tapped a button on one side of the control panel. "Incisor," she said airily, and a single pulse of red light fired from the front of the ship, boring a medium-sized hole in the wall of the traincar, which now resembled a chunk of metal swiss cheese. Sam then tapped a button on the opposite side of the panel. "Reel it in," she said as she stretched her arms, and from the nose of the ship two cables rocketed out, grasping onto the side of the nuclear device. The Vulture I then pulled backwards, hauling the weapon out of the ground and through the hole. Hopefully, none of the heroes were pulled out with the weapon. The half-frozen Chainsawyer was not so lucky- the bomb smashed into him on its way out and sent him hurtling into the ravine.

Sam lifted both hands off the controls of the Vulture I, flipping the heroes off, before quickly soaring off into the sun, the nuclear weapon trailing behind her, and leaving the heroes with the daunting realization that somebody would have to call their boss to explain that they might just have failed.

[Jumbus]

and

@Zoey Boey

---

(Idiocy)

---

While Dawnbreaker knew that the tornado move was a cool addition to his intro. It often got in the way of visibility. Could he see what was happening to Chainsawyer? Uh, maybe? It was certainly hard to tell. Could he hear what was happening? Not really. The wind flowing around him was going pretty fast so only the sounds of the chainsaw flinging around and the occasional punch could be heard. Still, maintaining a hero pose for a reasonable length of time was crucial to success and it must be held.

Was that enough? Give it another half second. Ok there we go.

The swirl of air flowing around him began slowing until it was a reasonable pace. It was still present and ready to protect him. However, he was now able to perceive a lot more. This was the first time he was looking to assess the situation in the train car. What is all the red stuff flying around? It couldn’t be… No, it looks as though the heroes were winning. Heroes don’t do that.

"Excuse me, Chainsawyer? You there, the vermin." Dawnbreaker heard from across the train car. "You missed. The train car is still connected."

It was just a normal woman, standing there in normal clothes. Had there been a stowaway civilian in the train car, who is now endangered by the evil sky pirates? It must be, she wasn’t rushing in to stop the villains so she didn’t seem like a hero. She must be terrified of the proceedings here, even if she was hiding it well.

Dawnbreaker rushed over with a gust of wind and stood between her and the fight. “Do not worry, innocent lady. I, Dawnbreaker, am here to save you from the fowl villainy of these pirates. You are safe.” His cape continued to flow to the side and he stood in confidence that his assessment of the situation was correct.

The woman had been squinting against the wind storm, not quite able to make out what was going on anymore either. For a few moments she totally ignored Dawnbreaker, before casting him a half-lidded, cold-eyed stare.

”Oh, my hero.” She said, flatly.

The rush of a fight and struggling to pick up on sarcasm can be a terrible mix. Because Dawnbreaker had confused her words for a genuine call to be rescued. “There's no need to thank me. The honor of being able to save the fine people of this city is more than enough for me.” He turned to face Pandora and picked her up off the ground. “Just to let you know, I have my pilots license.” Dawnbreaker gave the cheesiest hero smile that looked all too practiced before the two began taking to the skies.

Blinking slowly, her eyes glazed over and she stared off into the middle distance. The princess carry wasn’t on her agenda today. Sighing, she resigned and mentally shrugged, smirking. ”Well, that’s great. Dawnbreaker, right? With heroes like you around, no doubt-” The young man in question looked at her in pleasant surprise. “Dawnbreaker is correct. I’m kind of surprised you know my name.” He begun trailing off into some talk about his popularity. Which few would have the ability to pay full attention to.

Pandora sat up straight, looping her arm around Dawnbreaker’s neck and pulling his head down to look more clearly over his shoulder. “I haven’t really made a debut yet, but I guess the fan club reach is better than I thou… hey what are you doing?”

”For fuck’s-” Pandora complained quietly. Leaning back, she stuck the tips of her fingers into the side of Dawnbreaker’s face, and using that as leverage, turned his head. “Ow ow ow ow ow” Dawnbreaker repeated as the previously kind civilian was now forcing his face around with some pretty hefty piercing force. Now he could see the enemy’s hovercraft and the noticeable nuclear bomb shaped box trailing after them from a wire.

”Quit complaining- they’re getting away with the bait. Go on, flyboy, get after them, now! We can still catch up.” Pandora pointed with her order. She retracted her fingers from his head, pivoting him in the right direction.

To say Dawnbreaker was startled by this sudden tonal shift was an understatement. Why had she suddenly become so mean, he was just trying to save her. Also, why did she say ‘we’? “Uh, um, hang on.” Dawnbreaker sputtered out. Realising he broke character, he shook his head to get himself back into it. The bravado and confidence of Dawnbreaker was back, he couldn’t be unheroic in front of a civilian after all.

“To put an innocent civilian in harm's way would go against my hero code. Do not fear, I can take you to safety and save the day in no time. It's what heroes do.” While Dawnbreaker wasn’t entirely sure if he could actually do that, he certainly said it in a tone like he could. It sounded heroic in his mind, but to an outside spectator it was nothing but a bold display that he had not caught on to his mistake yet.

”No, you can’t!” Pandora rebutted, clearly frustrated. ”I work with HERO too, you fool! Why doesn’t anyone read the fucking roster?!” Pandora ran a hand down her face and then pointed again to the escaping plane.

Dawnbreaker was dumbfounded by this. He only just realised how comically wrong he had been about the situation. His ‘put on’ demeanor dropped and went back to how one would expect him to talk like. “W-well, I do read the roster… skimmed it… had a glance.” His words trailed off. “Wait! How come you didn’t say anything earlier!? I feel so dumb.”

Pandora didn’t have a good answer for his question, so she ignored it, letting him think he was dumb rather than she was just petty.

”If you can get me close enough, launch me, and I’ll cut the wire.” The redhead ordered. After what had happened, Dawnbreaker was ready to follow those orders entirely. Out of lack of confidence in his decision making abilities if anything.

“Alright here we go.” In a blast, the two rocketed toward the hovercraft. This was at a much higher speed than before. When he had mistaken her for a civilian he had to take it slowly, but there was no holding back now. Pandora blinked against the wind, raising a hand to shield her eyes.

Dawnbreaker dropped her off at the wire. Nodding to him, she held on tight and focused on her work. As for him, he didn’t stick around there. Villainy had to be confronted. He flew upward and dropped on the hovercraft in front of the cockpit, where he stood with arms crossed and cape flowing in the wind.

“So, the villainous mastermind shows her hand. A thief who expects to just steal a bomb and fly away on the winds of freedom. But freedom is a place of heroes, and only one hero holds domain over the skies. I, Dawnbreaker, will bring you to justice.”

The details of the speech would have been lost to the rushing air. But it was more for himself than anyone else.

Meanwhile, the woman formed her free hand into a chop, focused on turning anything her hand touched into liquid. When she saw a space for the bomb to land in a clearing, she eyeballed it and sliced through. Nuclear bombs aren’t activated by impact, but going in there and rooting around with her Alteration powers might do it. So this would have to work.

---

[sassy1085]

@Mintz@DClassified@Zoey Boey

Mission: A Dish Best Served Cold
Location: ”Innocuous” Warehouse

---

"......You do that we are in a middle of a fight right? Do less of talking and more fighting, sweetheart" Beth say to the vigilante with a smirk. Beth is starting to feel like she in one of those Saturday morning cartoon, where she watch her favorite superheroes fight crime and save day, she always wish that she is one of those heroes. But here she is now, she is actually fighting crime! It may be a slow start now, but sooner or later, she is going to be a big shot and someday inspired kids to be just like her....For now, she has to take out this shadow loser.

Her train of thoughts were at a stop however, when hunk catch the pellet before it hit Beth in the face! Ok, Beth takes it back, this vigilante is not a sweetheart! Thank god it didn't explode and it turns out it was a dud, Beth sigh in relief, she only met him for a day and already she thinks he is the luckiest guy in the world! Beth nod when he ask her get ready for round two, she did feel confident for their team up, she didn't mess up once! "All right, I'll try not to make this into a firework show" Beth say to him with a wink.....And then blush when he looks away. You wink at him?! Seriously Beth?!

Beth ready her hands if Shadow Scythe Vengeance try to escape and hopes that she doesn't blow this place up. "Then stop being a edgy dumbass, surrender and I won't!" Beth yell back at the edgy dumbass. Despite yelling at what Beth thinks is a teen, this mission is going kinda smoothly.....Then suddenly-

COAT ATTACK!

"AAAH! What the hell?!" Beth shout out as she struggle to get the lab goat out of her head, she just got her hair done and now is going to be ruin by a fucking coat?! Beth can hear something, is that SSV? Is she trying to escape?! Shit! Beth could shoot some sparks but that would cause warehouse to explode, killing everyone! All that Beth can do now is to try to get this coat out of the way.

[Akayaofthemoon]

---

RENDER

_{Location: ”Innocuous” Warehouse}

_{Interactions/Mentions:@sassy1085@Zoey Boey@Mintz@DClassified}

---

---

What was this, amatuar hour? Apparently so for the actors that were hired because they were either being way too dramatic in the wrong kind of way or they seriously had no clue how to react as normal lackeys would in this situation. Some were at least smart enough to use flashlights which gave a bit of vision to the darkness they were now surrounded in, one of them being mister charmer over there who happened to be the luckiest man alive. He just instantly put a practical spotlight on their target with a phone light which would have been great, had she not wanted the exact opposite of capture at this point. A feeling deep in her gut told her that she should work on getting these normal citizens out of her and started encouraging them to slowly move outside and away from the possible danger. Nilin couldn’t move any that had flashlights but some of the others were fair game. It took a bit of convincing, some worried about their paycheck, others wanting to see the action close up, but she had managed to get lucky enough to not have to resort to dragging them to the exits or knocking them out.

In all honesty, she should have been paying more attention to the actual conversation between the other two heroes because her heart practically stopped at the burst of spark and color which sent her into a panic. ’Is she trying to blow this whole place up!?!’, she thought, now feeling a thousand more times concerned that they had decided real drugs were the way to go. She wanted to voice her objection but it was better to lay low for a moment so she bit her lip and carried on with filtering some of the powerless out, much more aggressive in the insistence that they leave. Nilin tried to ignore the speech from SSV and focus on the task at hand, still couldn’t help the small eye roll and really tried not to laugh at the comic book-like absurdity that was transpiring before her eyes. Don’t get her wrong, she had expected it from her research on the other woman but it still was something else and even more so with a convenient spotlight provided. She moved closer to the other two heroes, a larger amount safe from harm and with the speech hopefully wrapping up, SSV would make their move and while capture wasn’t the goal, she still needed to support her team if she could.

The bomb/grenade was a bit of a surprise because it was so sudden and she moved to sprint forward the rest of the way help deflect, even if it was just using her weapon as a makeshift bat so it would land or go off somewhere else only to slid into a stop, her jaw dropping a bit. She didn’t know if she should be impressed or horrified that their blue haired companion just caught the bomb or not. She was thankful the thing was a dud but what in god's name was he freaking thinking!?! Nilin couldn’t stop staring at him, completely flabbergasted but that was short lived before she found herself face palming. Was he….did he seriously think that reasoning with her was the best idea? I mean, it was sweet and commendable but it was frankly….unrealistic to think that SSV would ever comply. No one really had a chance to react though as a lab coat was expertly thrown into the faces of the two other heroes, SSV nowhere to be seen but probably still around. She knew who was involved in the interaction and just prayed Sol could convince her to just leave. While he worked with her, she would try to keep the other two distracted and hopefully away from whereever to two were currently hidden. ”Are you two alright?”

[Ascendant]

BLITZ

Mission Assignment: On Cloud Nine
Location: N-Train
Interactions: Europa (@canaryrose), Dead Man (@Duoya)
Mentions: Pandora (@Zoey Boey), Dawnbreaker (@Jumbus)

The lasers and sonic rounds buffeted Blitz, either sizzling his skin or otherwise being deflected by the sheer pump he had going in his muscles from adrenaline. Well, that last bit was a joke, but he was taking his punches as expected.

But it wasn't long until the pirates were utterly neutralized by the heroes, with a strange women sealing the train cars back together and Chainloser getting frozen in place. Feeling like he could finally relax again a bit, Quinton returned to his full height from his kneeling position, seemingly bringing his head almost to the ceiling as blood dripped off his arms. Indeed, it was already beginning to dry and become a bit itchy as the muscle-bound freak started brushing himself off, growling absent-mindedly, "Hmm, that's all huh? I was hoping for more."

Blitz then began one of his great laughs, finding Chainsawyer's frantic swinging to be absolutely hilarious, "Ha, stupid bastard, what do you think you're going to do, now, huh!?"

And then the wall of the car was half-evaporated, half-detonated as Blitz was forced to shield his eyes. He couldn't quite make out what had happened when suddenly the bomb was snatched by something, but Quinton did notice how the mad lumberjack was hit squarely by the bomb and sent to his apparent doom. This brought even more chuckles from Blitz, who mentally thought it would've been even funnier had the man's torso been ripped off the ice, leaving his frozen legs behind.

As the aircraft peeled away at increasingly high speed, the half-giant casually stepped towards the ledge, rubbing his chin idly, forgetting his hands had a solidifying layer of blood, "Well... shit... I think we're fucked, roach-boy and ice-chick. Hmm, ah, so wind-snob is going after it, I guess that makes sense." Indeed, the stereotypical flying hero was off after it, slowly getting smaller and smaller to those on the train car.

Quinton looked back at the two heroes still with him, considering them for a moment. His gaze seemed piercing as he analyzed them for a moment before declaring, "You guys probably can't keep up, so watch the place. I'll see if I can't go help." With that, Blitz fell into a stance as if he was about to start a race, and then leapt off the train car hard enough to make it rock like a boat.

He landed on a nearby warehouse rooftop just as he kicked off again, beginning to accelerate himself from roof to roof in the same direction as the aircraft. However, Quinton couldn't entirely keep up as they gained distance, and only barely managed to make out the shadow of a woman cutting the wire and dropping the bomb in the distance.

"Fuck. Got to move faster," he muttered as he landed on another rooftop and leapt even harder, shattering a steel girder that had supporting the structure. With the wind rushing past, he looked over his shoulder a bit, "Yeeaaah... that's probably coming out of my paycheck... At least I didn't see any people. I think."

And so, Blitz did his best to rush after where he guessed the bomb would land, seeking to secure it.