[IC] The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

[MrDidact]

Maroni's

The guard never had a chance. One minute he was walking along with his assault rifle the next he slipped into the ground, too sudden for him to even exhale in surprise. He vanished without a trace and was trapped in Rift Hound's pocket dimension. His absence was not immediately missed, but no doubt it would be noticed soon. In the main area of the restaurant Flasher returned and then touched Maroni's youngest son and daughter, disappearing again. It had taken around five minutes for Flasher to retrieve his targets, stash them wherever he went, and return. His teleporting was nearly instantaneous so time in between was what kept him. At this rate he'd have all of Maroni's close family in Legion's clutches within the next hour or so.

Bishop surveyed the restaurant when Belladonna the child spoke, "Two are approaching." Bishop nodded and gestured to Permafrost and Villa, "Let them in. Make sure nobody tries anything stupid when you do." The two women stood in front of the door. Permafrost waved her hands and the ice door parted allowing Shifter and Killshade to enter, Villa having a pistol on them and one aimed at the police barricade. They were lead inside and Permafrost sealed the door again. Locust the large insect man and Belladonna were nearby. Villa moved to the corner with a clear line of sight.

Bishop walked up to them and smiled, sniffing the air for a moment and his eyes seemed to flash white for just a second. He spoke up, "My name is Bishop, your host for the day. Want a drink? Food? The kitchen is closed but they had some things ready before we had to cease operations." He introduced the villains nearby, grabbed Shifter's hand and kissed it, firmly shaking Killshade's a little too firmly putting stress on bones, and sat at a table with his henchmen and underlings close at hand. One of them pulled out two chairs, "Sit. Make yourselves comfortable. So you know who I am. Why I'm here. But who are you? What made you want this cushy job?"

Outside Pariah spoke to One again, "If you can get eyes in, I need them. They've got the two of them in a limited position."

Prison

Volt's lightning struck Twsiter's tentacles and traveled up his arm and into his otherwise normal body. He stood in place wracked with pain, his muscles locking, and skin flashing as he screamed in agony. Volt's hit shoved him to the ground and there was nothing he could do. Bullseye who had recovered fired off a concussive arrow and Twister was knocked out and down for the count. Bullseye pulled her hood back up to conceal her red hair and sighed, Georgian accent lightly tinting her words, "Thanks for the assist Volt. Doc Ock there had my number."

Poor Vacuum was having a really bad day. He snarled and batted the club-wielder out of the way with a torrent of air and then slammed his fist at Light, a giant opening pretty much just appearing where Light's stomach cavity would have been. Then he was clotheslined by Hot Rod, which hurt. A lot. Fortunately for him it spared him being shot in the chest for Killjoy. He would have fallen to the ground if he didn't create an air bubble to prop him up. However when he saw three League heroes in front of him, he promptly decided to give up. He sat down on the ground and raised his hands in surrender.

The tide of battle was turning as the heroes gained momentum and defeated more villains and inmates. The club wielder got up and decided to run back inside the prison, the majority of the leftover inmates following him. Business was mostly wrapped up in the courtyard. Olympia stood up and called to Apogee, "I'm not as much use in here until you get the dampener down. I'll join Zenith and the others!" She ran off to fight the enemies outside while Apogee nodded.

She floated in the air and said, "Come on! Let's get inside!" The sounds of the fighting inside still rang clearly as Apogee flew into the prison.

[Dingo]

Rift Hound - Maroni's Restaurant

Joshua closed his Pocket the moment the gunman vanished from sight, his heart hammering in his chest. It had worked! No one had reacted and now he had access to a gun! ...If the guy wasn't dead and if he could retrieve the gun without retrieving the man holding it...
Joshua shook his head clear. He needed to focus. It seemed like negotiators were coming in and the hostage takers were dropping the ice shield and letting in a man and a women. This may be his chance! He could see just enough outside to maybe open a portal and smuggle out the hostages!

Turning under a table, Joshua peeked out. The person nearest to him was the woman who'd been shrieking when the man with the knife had been shot. He couldn't tell her state of mind from looking at her, but he needed to try to do something to get these people out of here!

"Hey! Psst! Hey!" He whispered, grabbing her attention, "I'm with the League! They sent me in with those two! I'm here to get you all out!" It was a lie, but a necessary one. The last thing he needed was for the hostages to think he was with they oppressors. Joshua held his breath and waited for the woman's response.

[An Outsider]

Twister went down like a sack of tatties, though what else he could have expected from that encounter was really beyond Volt. After all, he was a professional, no way he was going down to some touchy-feely numpty like that.

"Thanks for the assist Volt. Doc Ock there had my number." Said Bullseye.

"Anything for a pretty lassie!" Volt quipped, before realising what he'd just said and blushing furiously. These early successes were going to his head, it wasn't like him to be confident. Cool it Casanova, thon poor lass nearly just got strangled oot five seconds ago. Sure she is'nae gonna appreciate yer clichéd lines after that. To make matters worse he could hear Silvertongue snickering down the radio.

"Uh, ah should be getting after Apogee, could be anything in there, she'll be needing help nae doubt. Ye should stay here and catch yer bearings before doing nought else. Hold this dirt until the army catches up wi us," He pressed on before he said anything else stupid, making for the prison entrance Zenith's cousin had dissapered into seconds earlier. He wanted to wait and regroup with Sonja and Hot-Rod, hell Emmanuel even, but Emily had fired off ahead on her own, and even as tough as she was she couldn't do everything on her own. No, like it or not (He was edging out for not) he was the cavalry.

"Leaving so soon Blondie? No more smooth lines to unleash on your teamates," cackled Szymon, milking the situation for all it was worth. The Lightning-Slinger was really starting to regret ever bringing Silvertongue on board for this one. He plunged into the relative gloom of the prison, emergency lighting and the sounds of distant combat doing nothing to help his frazzled nerves. He delved deeper into the warren of empty corridors, unsure of were he was going. A high pitched scream sounded off to his left, Silvertongue gasping at the discordant note, and despite his better judgement he darted off in its direction. Might nt be as bad as it sounds. Maybe someone just broke a nail. God ah hope someone just broke a nail!

The fight out in the courtyard had been bad, but this was terrifying. It was like a horror movie, each shadow hiding a potential killer. If only there was some way to know what he was headed for. When the idea came to him he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before.

"Silvertongue, this is a prison right? Can ye no access tha feeds or something, gie me a heads up of whats out there?" He could almost hear Szymon sigh at his ignorance of computer sciences.

"I can try, but it isn't as easy as you make it sound. If I can, and not saying I could, I could relate relevant info to you though. It is one of the most secure locations on the planet though, so I make no promises."

"Oh aye, its feeling damn secure right now!" hissed Volt in reply, but he could hear Silvertongue's fingers dancing along his keyboard as he attempted to gain admittance to the system.

[Heat]

"I'm Killshade, we would like you to release the hostages. There's no need for them to be harmed. They're innocent people caught in all of this." Killshade replied, as he stood, arms crossed, eyes on Bishop, then shifted them in order to glance at the position of every enemy in the restaurant, his mind already mulling over a plan, particular attention paid to the one that had the barrier up which kept anyone from entering or exiting the building. He then looked back at Bishop and continued to speak.

"We can come to an agreement that will make both sides happy. No bloodshed needed." He stated, noting Shifter's position as well.

[Arty Fox]

Chris chuckled at Ocean warriors remark as a way of trying to break the air of depressing tension around them. At the very least he seemed to be handling the situation well and hopefully that would help the others feel a bit less stressed. While of course in these situations it was good to be paying attention and very serious about it, being stressed could very easily flip over to making a lot of mistakes through fear and worry.

“No doubt we’ll be fine. As long as we’re careful.” She replied, trying to ignore the gazes that were being drawn towards her. “I’m Chris by the way, but I go by Roll- Break Neck.” She quickly shook her head when she had almost said her original, and least liked, code name.

Whilst talking to Ocean Warrior Chris had mostly turned away from the little holographic set up the Pariah had, leaving the other recruits room to gaze at the diagram before them, but out of the corner of her eye Chris managed to spot that change in scenery.

“Ah! They’re in.” And with that Chris, much like a few other recruits, whirled around to look down at the little hologram.

“Now what do we do?” The question very soon arose from one of the new recruits.

[Yog Sothoth]

Hot Rod arm was hurting from the collision with Vacuum and he hoped that he hadn't dislocated it. When he saw Killjoy and her striking pose, he rolled his eyes. Here they were in the middle of a giant battle with all sorts crazies and monsters causing chaos and she was acting like this was a fun game. Hot Rod had an ego but when things got serious, he did too.

"Focus on the battle, and the next to point a gun at inmate to kill him, I'll relieve you of your weapon, try not to kill unless you absolutely have to" He said to her firmly. He was one hero who hated killing criminals and didn't think anyone who killed should be called a hero. Heroes were more than just people with powers, they are symbols to which humanity can aspire to and lead them out of the darkness.

---

Ocean Warrior listened to Chris tell him her real name, when he heard her do that, Finn was almost sure that she must be a trusting person to give him information like that. In his experience, heroes that are trusting are usually easier to work with. Normally he wouldn't give away his secret identity but he decided to with Chris.

"My name Finnix but you can call me Ocean Warrior while we're in the field.Break Neck sounds fitting for a speedster, but if you don't mind me saying this, the name also sounds like it could be used to make a lot of jokes" he told. He was being honest when said this, and he out of most heroes he knew understood what it was like to be the but of many jokes.

[Archmage MC]

Light wasn't expecting the powerful counter attack, too busy mocking the poor guy, and soon found herself with most of her stomach and other various parts around that area replaced with a gaping hole, her spine the only thing left. "GAh! I know I was fighting on an empty stomach, but this is ridiculous." Light said as she stuck her hand through the gap in her stomach, playing around with it a bit as it slowly healed back up, much to the horror of those around her. "Hey Hot Rod, no concern for the girl who just got a hole in her stomach?" Light said as she looked at how Hot Rod was berating Killjoy about something, waving a slightly bloody hand at the two in playful anger.

"At least it didn't do too much damage to my skeleton, I should be up and ready in a few minutes. I'm just going to follow behind you two in the meantime, tis hard to get a good punching center when you have no center." Light said to the pair, hobbling at them for a few steps with a grimace, then walking a bit off from normally when the visible regeneration of flesh and muscle could be seen.

[Polyphemus]

SONJA

Sonja grinned as Daredevil got Brick in a chokehold. Nothing would keep that guy down, except maybe an upcoming cease-and-desist order from a certain company. The acrobat hollered for her to hit a home run, and Sonja happily obliged. She was Ozzie Smith winning at the bottom of the ninth, Enos Slaughter batting on the Mad Dash. Over the fences. Except she was aiming directly for Brick's gut. Didn't matter how big and strong the dope was, he was gonna feel this one.

---

SIXGUN

Ben Brady remembered Sundays at the isolated trading post he had grown up at it. His father would read a passage from the old worn Bible before supper. Ben had forgotten a number of the verses, but one story in particular stuck in his head. Uriah.

This might be a good opportunity to get rid of Chunk.

"Let Fletcher Ross think for a second," he whispered. "I'm thinkin' L-shaped ambush. You head round to the north side," he said, waving to the far side of the building that couldn't be seen by their grouped forces up the hill. "I stay here on the east. Soon as you hear me kick in this door, let off a few rounds, you do the same. Just try to tag one or two of them, then light out. If'n we run off in two different directions, hopefully they'll split their forces to run us down and making easy pickings for the rest of the guys. Or, they'll all run out the south door to get out of Dodge and our boy Wtichfinder can drop them as they leave. How's that for a slice of fried gold?"

[Krein]

C'mon really? Even after Abaddon had just saved their sorry asses from getting butchered these guys still had the nerve to point their guns at him?!

"Aw what's the matter, am I too scawy for you?" Abaddon asked jokingly as he lifted up his claws non-threateningly... at least as non-threatening as you could get with claws like his. The guardsmen looked at one another before shrugging and lowering their guns. They nodded at their helper and prepared to run off elsewhere before the ground began to shake. An earthquake? Well shit, that would be pretty bad for everyone since something like that could easily give the inmates and villains a whole slew of new escape routes! But it wasn't an earthquake now that Abaddon really felt it. The trembling was concentrated on his area... and of the guardsmen. Before he could shout out a warning, the ground beneath them crumbled downwards, swallowing many of the men Abaddon had just saved and burying them within the earth. The ground began to give way beneath him too, and he could actually feel something else try to pull him under.

"If Zenith and the others are fighting off most of the supervillains deeper inside... this has got to be the work of some demon, right?" Abaddon thought to himself as he hissed and flew himself into the air. If it was a demon, that poor thing should be more scared of him!

[Lookie]

This Bishop guy sure was a charmer. Shifter nodded at the man, keeping an eye on the his's eyes. She was certain that she'd seen them flash white. Was Bishop their magic user, then? She glanced towards Killshade, both neatly plucked brows lifting for a moment. Hell, she didn't know anything about magical things or how magic worked, so figuring out who it was seemed... difficult. The shapeshifter let her partner talk, casually checking her environments and folding her arms, copying her partners position.

Pickpocketing was an art she had mastered, and putting something into another's pocket wasn't all that different from taking things. They didn't search them, which either meant that they were extremely stupid, they were planning on something. It also made getting close to them difficult.

There were sharp eyes all around her. Killshade could stay where he was, but she would find it much easier to do things if she got closer to her mark. Letting her hands relax back to her side, she moved towards one of the chairs and sat down, both feet set steadily on the floor, as if she was ready to pop up and away whenever necessary. Then she leaned forward, both hands resting on the table.

”Shifter,” she spoke the codename with a breathy, sweet voice. ”I believe why we ended up here doesn't matter. Instead, let's find a way out of it. What exactly can we do to solve this... situation?” With a casual change of position, Shifter gestured around them. Unseen, one of her explosives slipped from between her knees and under one of her feet.

[MrDidact]

Lab

Chunk smiled and lifted his Beretta, "You're smarter than you look Ross." Chunk slinked off to the far side of the building, completely unsuspecting of his suppose ally's true intentions. Chunk raised his gun at the door and readied to follow through with Sixgun's plans, anxious to unload some rounds. The sound of bubbling and shuffling of feet continued.

Maroni's

Pariah silenced them with a hard look, "We wait." His gaze went back to the monitor, his eyes taking in Bishop for a few moments longer. Taking in the handsome black man's features and manner, listening to his voice. Suddenly he stiffened for the briefest of moments before it was gone. Pariah whispered through the implants, "You need to tread carefully. You're in more danger than we thought." Pariah turned to his team, "Slight change of plans. When we go I want Zaphkiel to go through the upper story and Ocean Warrior through the ground floor. You're both strong enough to go right through. Once Break Neck is through the portal she speeds around and knocks down everyone she can in the chaos. We need to take them down fast and hard if we want this to be clean."

Bishop nodded, "Charmed. Well if you're not having anything..." Bishop snapped his fingers, the sound more like a firecracker than a snap, and one of the thugs retreated. He returned several moments later with a bottle of wine and a plate of steak, pasta, and mashed potatoes. Bishop laid a napkin on his lap, straightened his tie and started to tuck in knife and fork cleanly and precisely assaulting the medium-rare steak. The thug poured a glass of wine for him. Bishop swallowed his first bite of beef and pasta, smiling, "Good stuff. You're missing out. I would pay my compliments to the Chef.... but unfortunately he's dead. Oh well. Suppose I'll have to leave a larger tip then."

He drank the wine, "You're sure you don't want any? This isn't prepackaged crap, this is genuine." Bishop grinned at the two of them, Villa snorting in the corner behind them while Permafrost leaned on a wall, Locust standing in place several yards behind Bishop and Belladonna cheerfully drawing on a table near them. Upstairs they could hear the sounds of others moving around and down here they could see around ten thugs all armed and watching the customers. Bishop dabbed at his mouth, "Straight to business, I see. What's the rush? I think we have time to have a nice meal no? Why not try and get to know each other?"

Bishop kept eating, chewing and swallowing before he talked, "I have to say Killshade, you could have picked another name. It just sounds so.... gauche. If you know what I mean. Shifter isn't bad though, though I have to wonder if you normally look as lovely as you today. I suppose I already knew the answer. You're the big heroes, looking to save the day." Bishop grinned at Killshade, "I just want to have a nice chat, get to know the people I'll be working with talk about our future together." This time his eyes turned red for the briefest of moments, "But if you don't sit down and be polite, I will have someone killed this instant. Right in front of you two and messily. And if you try anything you'll be dead before you can blink. Now please sit."

His manner didn't change at all, it didn't turn harder or colder. It had stayed in the exact same genially polite and somewhat charming attitude. He went back to eating, "Now, why don't you tell me a little about yourselves? No secret identities or anything like that. But how did you come to join your little League? What made you go into this work? Last chance for food too. Feel free to ask questions yourselves, no good conversation is one sided."

The woman had been whimpering and holding herself, tears streaking down her face and mixing with the blood of her date. She sniffled and blinked when Rift Hound called to her. She dried her tears and whispered as quietly as she could, "What should we do? They're everywhere."

Prison

Outside the Prison the battle raged on and the League had the upper hand, the enemy's losses approaching over a third of their numbers. The ground had almost swallowed Abaddon to the hip until he flew out and a strange brown furry creature was latched onto his legs. The creature, who may have been a mutant, hissed and with surprising strength started pulling Abaddon down back to the ground, flipping Abaddon's weight and body so that he would land face first when they hit the ground.

Bullseye blinked, her eyes fluttering for a few seconds as she just processed what he said, she arched a brow at him and she grinned a little and nodded not saying anything. She put a new arrow in her bow and set about securing the area, Morph and Magnetar joining her. Other heroes joined them and on the comm channel multiple teams reported they had subdued their own areas. There were a few casualties however and it was reported that three members besides Bluegrass had been killed, several more injured. Redeye closed Bluegrass's eyes and carried his body in her arms, seeking to place him respectfully away from the fighting until they could get him out of there.

Meanwhile Sonja's baseball bat hit Brick right in the gut, knocking what wind he had left out of his already choking lungs and driving him to his knees. He saw stars and Daredevil used his weight to push Brick forward onto the hard pavement. Brick's face cracked the ground and he blacked out. Daredevil jumped off his back and grinned at Sonja, "And he's outta there! Looks like you're more than just a spellslinger Sonja. Drinks at the Fortress on me." He laughed for a second before sobering, the thoughts of his passed teammates hitting him, and flipped through the air to join his teammates.

Silvertongue's efforts paid off. The direction where Volt was heading revealed where the Surgeon, Shank, and Rot were terrorizing the guards the scream coming from a female guard as the Surgeon pierced her leg with a razor sharp nail. Suddenly Apogee appeared and hit the Surgeon hard sending him flying. She dodged Rot's acid attack and clapped her hands sending a shockwave that rocked the acid spitter onto her back. Her eyes flashed white and she smacked the air sending an unseen shape into a wall. Suddenly a stream of ice appeared and caught her in the leg sending her down to the ground, her leg's frozen. She cracked the ice and looked up to see Frost another villain Volt took down raise his hands and suddenly Emily started turning blue, Frost's attacks lowering her inner body temperature to dangerous levels.

Another camera feed showed the guard barracks which also featured an armory, the last one that hadn't been raided by the inmates. A squadron of guards were locked inside and pointed guns at the door while a mob of inmates tried to bash their way in. Another feed showed burning hallways and a walking fire in human shape, slowly advancing to what seemed to be the medical area. Another feed showed a man walking past before suddenly changing into an armored guard. The rest showed scenes of chaos as inmates fought each other, the guards, and the League throughout the indoors and outdoor areas of the prison. A few monitors were almost completely static though on one bright flashes of light could be made out.

What was clear was that the team needed to act and fast.

[Heat]

"Fine. I'll sit." Killshade stated, eyes looking at Bishop then at Shifter before he sat down in the empty chair next to her, and spoke again to the villain. Pariah's warning sounding in his ears. His mind laying out where the others were in the room in case the mission went south. He wasn't scared of Bishop's threat himself, he just didn't want more innocents to lose their lives.

"Curiosity," Killshade replied, trying not to give away to much information as he looked over the meal Bishop was enjoying. "I wanted to be with people like me and I wanted to see where I fit in all of it."

"Let me ask you this, why are you doing this? What are you aiming to achieve by taking a restraunt full of civilians hostage? Is it the thrill of it or money or some kind of a twisted statment?"

[Dingo]

Rift Hound - Maroni's Restaurant

Joshua breathed a sigh of relief. The woman was willing to listen, at least. The man who appeared to be leading things was busy eating and talking, threatening more hostages of all things, whilst the other gunman watched their captives. He didn't have much time and would need to act fast. He may not be able to warn everyone in time, but it was better than letting more people die.

"I'm a teleporter. In a few seconds I'm going to create a distraction and then open a portal out of here underneath you all. You're going to fall maybe a foot, but after that I need you to guide the other hostages I teleport out to safety, can you do that for me?" he asked the frightened woman, glancing upwards at the sounds of footsteps. He could see the stairs leading up just enough to see the passageway, but nothing else. It would have to do.

[Krein]

"What the CRAP are you supposed to be?!"

The fuzzy creature clinging to Abaddon's let out a really strange noise as it dug its claws into his body and yanked his body in different directions. The thing didn't look like much compared to Abaddon, which was why he was quite surprised when it successfully managed to really screw up his flight pattern... and aim his head towards the ground for one hell of a landing...

"OH FUCK YOU NO! YOU AREN'T USING ME AS A LANDING STRIP!!"

What Abaddon did next was quite contrary to what would have been expected after such words. That was to say, he did nothing at all except for stop struggling, laugh, and angle himself to to actually speed the descent. It looked rather suicidal and stupid, but really Abaddon had a plan behind it....

When the ground was only a few meters away, he sprung his plan. Abaddon's shadowy body quite literally split apart into two unidentifiable halves to slither behind the creature, leaving a blackish ooze behind as they did so. The monster yelped in surprise when it realized what had just happened. Abaddon no longer in its grip and in front of it, it was being used as a landing strip instead! Abaddon hissed in its ear, laughing while doing it.

"Sayanora you Planet of the Apes reject!"

Abaddon forcefully grabbed its head, digging his sharp claws into its scalp before he pushed it away from himself towards the ground as impact occurred. The concrete cracked under the force.

"Ahhhh.... I do hope that was your skull, much less work for me to do to get to the tasty brains! Or... do you not even have one of those?"

Abaddon's wings sharpened and elongated as they picked up the monster from the ground to toss it aside.

"Hahaha! Who's next?! Another pathetic conjuring? BRING ME YOUR SUMMONER! I'LL SHOW THEM WHAT A REAL MONSTER IS LIKE!!!"

[TheBiddz]

Emmanuel throws his hands in the air as he watches a slew of inmates approach him, all of the carrying knives and guns, not one of the carrying a name tag. “You all have got to be kidding me! You haven't even got a name tag! Don't you know how stuff like this goes down? You've got the main character, played by me, and then a bunch of random bastards, played by you. Its not even a contest at this point!” He grins nonetheless, and takes point before thinking of something. “Ah, you know. I should probably try to conserve as much juice as I can. This dampening field doesn't affect my total reserves, it feels like, but it does make it harder to use as much as Im used to. Which,” Emmanuel dodges a knife that was headed for his kidney and does a two fingered jab at the prisoner's heart, shocking him and dropping him. “WHICH, considering I have trouble being efficient as it is, is a little bit of a problem.”

Emmanuel slips his hands into his back pockets, and brings out his trusty weapon, the Electric Halo, a set of eight tiny chakrams, all perfectly designed for hands free usage in conjunction with his electric field. He's good enough at hand to hand to use them with no extra power usage though. As such, he's only brought out two of them. Any more at a time in his hands and he's liable to cut off his own damn fingers. “Okay boys, I warn you. These things are sharp, and I'm fast.” An inmate lunges at him, again with a knife. Emmanuel sweep to the left and slices across the inmates knees at the back of his legs. The inmate goes down screaming. “So if you get reckless, that'll happen to you. He may or may not walk again. I couldn't care less.” Emmanuel's face gets hard as stone.

Emmanuel fights with a very particular philosophy. He knows, one hundred percent, that he is the good guy in any given situation. He never acts without thinking things through, and always follows the path of true justice, no matter what the law says. That said, when he fights against bad guys, he does everything he can to crush them, because he knows if he loses, they'll get out and hurt people, and it will be all his fault. To this day, as hurt as he's ever gotten in a fight, he's never been as hurt as the other guy.

The large group of inmates surrounding him falter, the ones with the knives backing up slightly, the ones with the guns beginning to fire at him wildly. Dumbasses. There are inmates behind him too, and a couple of sharp yells and thumps confirm that friendly fire is indeed active. “I told you.” Emmanuel begins to move quickly. Not as quickly as he can, but quick enough to have a hard time keeping track of him. “I'm too fast for you guys.” With his heightened reflexes, he can move when he sees fingers move, getting out of the way of bullets before they even leave the barrel. He dodges about 99 percent of the bullets this way, though the sheer magnitude means a couple of them scrape his arms and legs, searing pain running through them. Emmanuel grimaces and launches himself at the group, too fast for normal humans to react, slashing wildly through the crowd, specifically targeting the insides of elbows and knees. That way, they go down, but he minimizes loss of life. He crushes his foes, but he tries to avoid deaths when possible. He's never purposely killed someone.

So, slashing away, with a flurry of kicks here and there to the head, Emmanuel takes care of the group in what he assumes is record time. “Alright, lets check the damage.” His face covered in sweat, not using his electric powers was a lot more work, though he is less tired than he would be for it, especially with that dampening field. Emmnanuel grimaces as he does damage assessment. A couple of bullets grazing his arms and legs, leaving minor gashes. Good aim on them though. With normal speed, he could have dodged them just fine, but with the dampening plus holding back, they managed to at least hit him. If he had been a normal human, he'd be swiss cheese right about now. He also finds a couple of knife slashes along his forearms, probably from wild swinging as some inmates were going down and he wasn't paying attention. “Man, this shitty power dampener is really cramping my style!” He says as he wipes up the blood coming from the wounds. “And this is where my EMT training comes in handy.” Slipping the Halo back into his pocket, he pulls a roll of gauze bandage out from yet another pocket. This man loves all his pocket room. Wrapping and dressing his wounds, Emmanuel is good to go once more.

Emmanuel begins to walk farther into the prison, really slowing down and taking it carefully. He honestly has no idea where anything in here is. He does know one thing is. There's power in here, and a lot of it. He knows what that's from too. During the battle with the prisoner's, Emmanuel saw Hi Voltage tangling with a man with extra metal arms. Not much of a tangle though. Volt blasted the dude, go figure, having giant lightning rods on your arms makes you a bad target for an electricity user, and the dude went down easy enough. As he begins to creep through the prison to Volt's position, Emmanuel makes a mental note to ask him how to do the lightning thing. The chains are super cool and he loves them, he gets plenty of use out of them, but there's nothing quite like the intimidation factor of shooting giant lightning bolts out of your hands.

Emmanuel makes his way deeper and deeper into the prison, Hi Voltage's energy signature getting more and more powerful. “Alright, now to make sure the two of us get out of here in one piece. He told me to stick by a vet, and I know how to reliably find him. Any other time, this would be creepy as hell.”

[Yog Sothoth]

Hot Rod cursed at himself for not noticing that Light was injured and he quickly moved over to her away from Killjoy, and looked at her wound. His sunglasses digital technology allowed him to get a closer look at her wound and examine it. To his relief he heard her say that she would be fine and his sunglasses showed that her wounds did appear to be healing.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you like that, I get rather heated when a hero attempts to kill a criminal" he said to Light and looked around at the fighting still going on.

"Jesus, I I've been in my fair share of chaotic battles, but this is getting ridiculous, if this keeps up than the entire American people may doubt of our ability to get problems like these under control quickly" Hot Rod said her with a bit of unsureness in his voice.

---

Ocean Warrior heard Pariah's plan and nodded when the hero told him forcefully enter the ground floor of the business. He held his trident firmly in his hands and was ready to use it great power in case things got really dangerous while breaching the restaurant. Ocean Warrior had several marine animals in mind that he could partially transform into should the situation need it such as having large pincers to gave the bad guys a very painful pinch or needing to bit through metal chains by having the head of a shark.

[An Outsider]

“My God. . .” Silvertongue’s voice down the link was breathy and hoarse, the voice of someone who had seen something horrible. Volt was certain he wasn’t going to want to hear what was going on in the prison.

“Tell me,” he commanded softly, still making his way swiftly down the corridor, towards were he had heard the scream.

“It’s really not good Blondie,” Szymon said after a short pause. He sounded shaken. “Apogee is just ahead of you, she was fighting some inmates but now some cryokinetic has her on the ropes, I dunno how long she can last. But the rest of the place is a charnel house! There’s a group of guards in the armoury, besieged by inmates, but they can only hold out so long, and some walking fireball headed for the medical bay, and that isn’t even starting on the running battles through the halls. Jesus, and that’s just what I can see from here, Lord knows what else is happening.” Well, none of that sounded particularly good. If Volt got outta here the first thing he was gonna do was kick the architect of this ‘inescapable prison’ squarely in the nuts.

“Righto then,” he replied, picking up the pace as he tore through the halls. “First things first, save the damsel. Ah’m good at that. See if ye cannae get in contact with any of tha other League worthies while Ah‘m busy, keep em’ appraised of what’s going on. Divide labour, save lives.” Silvertongue didn’t even question Volt this time, or abuse him for his lack of computer sense, he just got down to trying to contact the other League members on the scene. If any other member was wearing a headpiece or headset Szymon would contact them and direct them to wherever their strength was needed most.

Volt had cleared the corner now, Apogee turning blue in front of his very eyes, Frost too busy with his latest conquest to even notice the Lighting-Slinger’s appearance. Big mistake Frosty, ma boy! Never turn yer back on Highlander! The Scotsman didn’t break his stride, instead sprinting towards the Cryo villain.

“This sure is becoming one hell of’a reunion, first Boomer now ye Frosty!” He cried as he sped forwards, long legs seeing him speed forwards. Now I think it’s been mentioned before that Volt is tall lad, 6’4” in total. Stands to reason that a fella his size would also have big feet, size thirteen’s to be exact. His plan was to introduce Frost to his size thirteen boots, forcefully. His momentum, plus his meta human hardiness and a touch of electrical goodness would all equal one very bad day for the villain.

Volt leapt feet first at Frost, blue lightning arcing from his lower body as he flew. If he dodges this ah’m gonna look mighty stupid.

[Lookie]

Shifter patted at Killshade's arm, seemingly a calming gesture, even if she was just glad that Killshade was here. Pariah's message worried her even if she didn't show it, and having the other nearby helped. At least now she had someone she could quickly hide behind whenever necessary.

”Since you're so insistent,” the shapeshifter started, turning to the thug that had brought Bishop his meal. ”Tea, perhaps? Black, please,” she glanced at Killshade before turning towards the man on the other side of the table again. ”I'm not one for drinking on the job, I'm afraid,” she said smoothly, a slight smile on her lips. Lies! Blatant lies, but the man didn't need to know that. ”As for why I'm here, it really ties to where I've been. One sees a lot of people in need while traveling. Eventually it got tiring, so I thought I'd do something about it.”

With a sigh, Shifter leaned back on her chair. ”You must understand, we have kept quite a few people waiting for some time now. I'm certain they have much to do until the day is done. It just seems so rude to stretch things along,” she blinked, expression mildly curious.
”My friend here may not be good with words, but he brings up a good point. Why the hostages? I'm certain you could have gotten our attention in other ways. Do they serve a purpose beyond getting the League here?”

[Polyphemus]

SONJA

The last battles in the courtyard began to wind down, as the superheroes, CPD, and National Guardsmen routed their foes. The battle was far from over, though- the prison buildings were for the most part still occupied. They would be tough nuts to crack, for sure, with plenty of blind corners and dark shadows. Plenty of inmates still ran loose. Not to mention the necromancer. While many of the other heroes shrugged at the mention of a necromancer, Sonja knew how truly dangerous that particular kind of magic could be. They needed to stay on guard.

Sonja spied a familiar uniform amidst the crowd and practically ran up to Hot Rod, still conversing with one of the creatures she had met in Destiny's lab. "Ryker! Thank God you're alright!" Having only met Light an hour or two previously, Sonja could barely pant out a "Good to see you" before rushing headlong into planning. "Listen, this ain't over. We've got to get into the buildings, I think Hi-Voltage and Apogee got one of them. Are you listening to this new voice, whoever it is? Situation doesn't sound great." She concentrated on the mysterious British-accented voice coming over her headset. "We've got some kind of pyrokinetic headed for the infirmary. I think we should get on that, guys. Let's move!" she said, already taking off for the infirmary. Hopefully Hot Rod and Light would follow- she knew how to work with Ryker and Light seemed pretty damn useful to have around.

---

SIXGUN

Ben knew that up the hill he could still be seen by the Outfit's men. Especially the Witchfinder, with the scope on his high-powered rifle. He was the one to worry about. So he had to make this look good.

Looking into some far-off shadow, Ben forced what he hoped would be interpreted as a look of complete and utter surprise and shock onto his face, as though something horrible lurked just out of sight. Maybe he even went pale, he didn't know. Instead he raised his revolver and fired twice into that far-off shadow.

If he had played his cards right, Chunk would take those shots as the signal to burst into the lab. But instead of a two-pronged assault, there'd just be Chunk coming in through the back- an easy target for the gunmen waiting inside, just the Irishman perfectly outlined against the open door.

[Archmage MC]

"Oh don't worry about it." Light said, patting Hot Rod on the back. "It takes a lot more than this to kill me." Light said, laughing a bit. Sonja then came over to the trio, said a few hellos, then began to speak of a plan. "Shame that I don't have a headset. They'd have to give me a new one every week." Light said, mumbling to herself as Sonja mentioned a new voice over her headset, then dashed off to the infirmary. With her wound now healed up, due to the few minutes of planning with Sonja, Light gestured to to Hot Rod as she followed Sonja. It was finally time to enter the prison, which should be fun, or so Light thought.

---

"Bloody hell. How long does it take to bring down a barrier. I'm getting really bored out here." MC said as he floated over Ocean Master's head, blowing bubbles of vanilla out of the top of his staff like a bubble wand, occasionally sweeping it in the air to make large bubbles of various shapes. "So.... Anyone here have any interesting stories to tell while we wait?"