Bluetommy

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

2 AM, February 4th, 2026.
Coast City Institute of the Arts. Coast City, California.

"How's the kids?"

"Doing just fine, Paul, sending my eldest off to live with my cousins in Europe."

"No shit! That's fantastic!"

"I know! He's really excited."

"Hey, new guy, you got kids?"

"No, they all die in war with Titans."

"Aw jeez man that's awful."

"Is okay, I rip Greek monsters to pieces with bare hands. As well as with bear hands."

"Woah you have like... shapeshift powers?"

"Yes. I also have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some days it's hard to get out of bed. Some days I decapitate pigeons with bare hands. As well as with bear hands."

Anna found it hard not to burst into laughter as she dangled her feet from the light she was seated upon. Laughing at the misfortune of the poor, ill, and Russian wasn't something that a lady did, but Anna couldn't help it, goddammit!

Right, right, serious, no giggling. She was looking for a specific painting. "Arrival of the Lord of Callibra in New York." Her employer said that the person who had donated it had planted a bug. Her employer often used the museum for clandestine meetings, and said bug was rather unfortunate for him. So she just had to find it now.

Oh, there it is.

Huh.

Well that was easy.

Anna got to her feet and hopped just a bit, the light struggled, but she didn't fall, which was great! Just perfect.

She unfolded the kite on her pack and pushed her hands into the holds, pulling on the tightening cord until her wrist was firmly secured to the elastic rope that hung from the kite's corner.

Quickly doing the same for her other arm, she reached clumsily around the surface of the kite, looking for the button to activate the air cannon. Her fingers slid over the solid part of the kite's underside, and with a soft push, a blast of pressurized air fired off from behind her.

Good, she was ready.

With a small step forwards, she dropped from the light. This was where the exhilaration begun. She threaded her way around the many exhibits, dancing above and below as she shot towards her target. The blinding flash of a flashlight wasn't enough to keep her from diving downwards. Kicking her feet in front of her, she smiled widely as she slammed one of the guards' heads into the ground below.

"We've got a robbery!" one of the still conscious guards yelled with a mixture of fear and complete hysteria.

The Russian approached with one hand on his gun and one hand turning into an octopus tentacle.

Swiftly, Anna split the kite in two horizontally, using the thick half as a shield as he fired off two shots and extended his arm to grab at her. Anna held the thinner half above her head and squeezed on the hand-hold, activating the air cannon, and sending the kite slashing through the tentacle-arm, and slamming into the man's head. Before he was able to hit the ground, the last guard in the immediate area rounded the corner with gun at the ready. Anna shot forward, grabbing the discarded kite half and joining it with the other in an instant. She pressed a purple button on the kite's underside, and again the air cannon shot off, slamming into the man's stomach and flying off. It slammed into one of the connective ropes holding the ceiling lights, cutting it in two and sending it careening into the unconscious Russian below.

Anna pressed a button on her chest, and the kite spun, dropping the guard to his probable death considering how he landed on his neck, oops, and returned to her waiting back.

Before anyone else could arrive, she sprinted over to the painting. It wasn't exactly famous, so there wasn't a glass box protecting it or anything. She grabbed it and taped it to her chest as quickly as she was able.

The rest of the guards had arrived now, so Anna quickly activated the air cannon and shot herself through the closest window with a massive grin on her face.

"That was awesome! Hahaha! Kick, fucking, ass!"

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

February 6th, 12 PM
Northern California.

The roar of a magitech engine filled the air. The pounding of explosions going off and shattering the powerful redwoods drowned out the screaming commands of police officers and the fearful weeping of his hostage.

Harris ran as fast as he could.

Yes, ran.

Dammitdammitdammitdammit.

Harris gasped as he sprinted as quickly as he could to get to the hostage-taker's location, blue explosions erupting on both sides of him as the bastard indiscriminately fired into the woods. Harris had to get there, now. He didn't want to think about what was going to happen to the hostage if he didn't get there soon enough. He pushed his body as hard as it could go, growing his leg muscles as much as he possibly could while moving each of his limbs with speed enough to burst a normal man's.

"Come on officers! Continue to resist for your old order! The new order comes to replace it! And that new order, is anarchy!" the jetpack-clad man roared hammily, firing off a series of wild blasts.

A massive redwood was felled by one of said blasts right in front of Harris' eyes. He barely had time to mourn it before it began falling right on top of him. He crouched before one could blink, and launched himself into the air with an uppercut, shattering the tree in two. Without a moment to stop, he sprouted a pair of wings and fired into the air like a torpedo.

Not fast enough! Dammit dammit dammit!

Harris' wings grew three times as his arm drew back into a fist. With one massive flap, he fired right at the man. His mouth opened for a second, only to be slammed shut be a green fist to the jaw.

That was too hard! Harris watched in horror as the man and his hostage were flung through the air. He immediately slashed through the air with his wings, again firing himself at the two of them. Fortunately both were alive, unfortunately, the man had recovered, and had turned his jetpack to flee. He was far faster than Harris, and Harris wasn't willing to risk getting any bigger.

Not after last time.

He quickly grew a tree beneath them, trying to send it skyward to stop the man in his tracks.

A subtle bubble appeared in the tree trunk as it grew.

Harris' breath went icy cold in his throat.

No.

He tried to dissolve the tree, he flapped towards it, he shot his fist after it, he did everything he could think of.

Nothing stopped it from erupting into a massive fireball.

Two shards of the trunk went skyward.

One took the man's jetpack off his back.

The other sawed his leg off.

"No!" Harris cried out, horrified.

The hostage was dropped in the aftermath, but she fell slower. He quickly grabbed her and dove after the kidnapper.

Harris gritted his teeth as he flattened his wings against his back. Something died inside him as he realized he wouldn't make it.

He had to resort to the worst option, it was the only one he had.

He held out his arm and generated a length of vine from it, trying to make it grow as fast as it would.

He wouldn't let the man die, he couldn't. He had to catch him, maybe if he made it elastic enough it would break his fall a little, he hoped he wouldn't break his neck. Oh god he hoped he wouldn't break his neck. The vine grew closer and Harris's mouth dropped open to let in as much air as possible; his stomach wouldn't calm down otherwise.

Then he noticed.

Just a tiny little bump in the vine's length as it left his arm.

A tiny bump that quickly grew to a large tumorous mass that consumed his hand.

Harris screamed.

"I've got you, just a little longer! Hold on!"

The vine grew, but so did the tumors.

He just needed time.

Just a few more seconds.

He could almost feel the man's leg.

A little closer...

Just-

Harris' arm popped.

In the instant before the blast consumed him, he let out one last desperate, screaming "No!"

The sky was filled with flame.

The hostage was consumed by the explosion.

The kidnapper struck the ground at over a hundred miles per hour, shattering his skull and pulping his brain.

Harris was reduced to a foot.

A scream filled the air. A horrible, crying, pleading scream.

Harris was certain it was coming from him.

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

February 7th; 1:32 PM
Lycus Dorm, University of Poseidonis, Atlantis

Bjorn chuckled a minute, picking his key up off the floor and shoving it into his pocket.

"No problem Virgil," he said with a smile on his face. "I get the sense Malcolm is not my biggest fan anyway. I have no clue why," he admitted, putting his hands in his pockets and slowly wandering in a small circle.

"You have any more classes? I don't, so if you want to go see a movie or wander around campus a bit, I am able to do so," he said. "I should get a workout in today anyway, so maybe a walk is just what I need."

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

February 7th; 1:25 PM
Lycus Dorm, University of Poseidonis, Atlantis

Of course Karen found it immediately. Bjorn slid his way over.

"That's a big bag, how did I not notice that before?" he wondered, placing a finger on his chin as he pulled it out from under the bed with just his finger tips.

"Why do you need that anyway? Is it for a class?" he asked, lifting it easily and holding it out to her.

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

February 7th; 1:24 PM
Lycus Dorm, University of Poseidonis, Atlantis

Bjorn fell into silence as Karen opened the door for him. His mouth dangling open with something resembling admiration in his eyes, though his mouth corners seemed to be attempting to drive themselves downwards, with his brows attempting to follow. He nodded in appreciation as she entered the room and began speaking with Virgil.

"Oh, uh yes, I can help," he said, entering the room swiftly and placing the bagels on the table. He pointed at them just to assure that Virgil knew about them, then walked over to help look.

"Not a lot of places you can hide things here, I'll check under the bed, check the closet," he said, then crouched down and began reaching around under Malcolm's bed.

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

February 7th; 1:05 PM
Poseidonis Student Center.

Bjorn Bjornsson brutally devoured a fish sandwich. His last class finished at 12:50, so he had made his way to the student center, where the student cafeteria was. He'd ordered a strange Atlantean word, which apparently meant deep-fried fish burger. It was pretty good, not the best he'd ever had, but if this was Atlantean fast food than he supposed that Atlantis had already beaten the surface world in that department. He finished his meal and meandered over to the garbage can, lazily tossing the paper plate in with a flick of the wrist.

The amount of eyes that followed him as he wandered was disconcerting, but he supposed that was what you got when you were a surface dweller at the bottom of the ocean. He decided to get something for supper early so he didn't have to leave the dorm when he got hungry. Laziness was okay, he was a college student now, that came with the territory. He fake-aimlessly wandered over to the coffee shop, hands in pockets and eyes pointed upwards. Maybe he should get something for the roomies. Yeah, that's a good idea.

"What would you like sir?" the woman behind the counter said, strangely formally for someone working at a coffee shop.

"Three bagels please."

---

Bjorn precariously balanced the bagels in his arm as he fumbled with the key. He tugged at it, trying to free it from his pocket over and over. The key didn't like this. It showed this displeasure by falling out of his pocket and onto the floor. Now Bjorn was in a predicament, if he bent down to get the key the bagels would fall.

He sighed and rapped his knuckles on the door, hopefully someone was home, if not he was gonna have to put the bagels on the floor. Even with the paper surrounding them, he'd rather not do that.

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

12 pm, January 9th 2026
Hub City, Illinois.

The top ten things Alias had wanted when she had passed out included a plane falling ontop of Fisher Brown's smug head, and waking up somehow having tied him up in a concussion-driven blind fury.

Unfortunately she woke up to neither of these things. She instead woke up to immense pain, again, and the roof of her warehouse. Familiar sight true, but not exactly a comforting one, more an annoying one because it meant that she really had just passed out instead of still going despite being intoxicated with a huge amount of every hormone that existed. She tried moving... well, she didn't know what she expected. The pain was incredible as seemed to be the usual at this point, so she didn't try moving anymore.

At this point Alias wondered how she had gotten here, had she dragged herself? No, she vaguely remembered making a phone call to Oscar and during that she was too tired to hold up the phone, so dragging herself was out of the question.

Oh, the phone call. That explained it.

Huh, this concussion was really making her brain work in mysterious ways.

The fact that the lower half of her right ear seemed to have been torn off was probably helping.

The pain was severe enough to make her groan repeatedly, like she was ill and dying. She closed her mouth and turned it into hissing through her teeth as a solution. She refused to look weak while in the same building as him. He was there right?

At the sound of a groan coming from where he had laid Shams down, Oscar opened his eyes behind his mask, jumping up to his feet from his meditative pose. As he made his way back to where he left her, he pondered what he should say, and regretted not thinking about that while she was out for hours. What could he say? It wasn't like he could pretend everything was back to normal, pretend she would welcome him back with open arms.

But as he saw her there on the ground, his inner turmoil seemed to disappear. He made his presence clear by making more noise than usual and allowing his shoes to clack against the concrete. Damn, what could he say?

"... You're awake."

Well, better than nothing.

Speak of the devil.

Alias turned her head, grunting as the torn remnants of what was once an ear sent a powerful shock through her head.

"Hello Oscar," she said, her words sounding less like they came from her chest and more like they came from her throat; breathy and weak. She managed to twitch her mouth into a frown when she felt the corners of her mouth trying to force themselves into a smile. "I know that at this point I'm supposed to thank you or share some pleasantries, but frankly I'm not in the mood. I just need to say one thing, and I want you to tell me honestly, as honestly as you can, got it?!"

She left a long pause for effect.

"Am I still gonna be pretty when this heals?" she said with a frown and with a stomach-deep voice.

Well, that managed to catch him off guard, enough to make him give a quick chuckle. "Trust me, nothing could sully your looks. But you do have to know something... You'll always be second fiddle to me in the looks department." He ended that with another laugh, and allowed himself to move closer and crouch down next to her. It felt strange, cracking a joke around her again, like nothing changed. And he'd be lying to himself if he said he didn't enjoy it.

But still, there was one thing he needed to know that he couldn't get out of her while she was passed out. "I patched you up as best as I could, but you might want to go see a doctor still. I could take you there myself. But I do have to know something... How did this happen? What happened in the night club?" She seemed well enough to at least give a quick summary of what happened, and he could go deal with whatever happened while she was recovering.

Alias let out a half-groan-half-understanding sigh, though she didn't chuckle at Oscar's joke. She always was the funny one, he tried, but she was funnier. Well, maybe that was the residual anger she had at him talking, but it had been years, maybe it was time for her to calm down a little; he had just saved her life and all.

"No doctors, Brown's probably got every doctor in the city under his thumb and he was there to see me get these wounds." She looked over with a scowl that betrayed none of the pain she was going through. "If I go to one of his doctors I'll be strung along in his stupid game."

She waited a moment, hissing as her side flared up at the mention of Brown, goddamn crime wizard.

"Ever heard of Fisher Brown?" she asked. "I'm sure you have. He killed one of his own hitmen to get me to come to his nightclub. Apparently he..."

She barred her teeth. This was the stupidest bullshit she'd ever experienced.

"Apparently he met a wizard, and now he's a wizard. He has a drug, like the one from New York five years ago. It turned the whole club violent, they went after each-other at first... then they went for me."

She coughed, a small dribble of blood running down her lip and bouncing off of her cheek as it dropped from her face.

"They're planning to improve the... the magic drug, and turn it into a mind control pill that not even Lady Arcana could shrug off. I don't think that's possible but it's what he told me. That's the whole story," she concluded matter-of-factly. Oscar knew what she was about, he wouldn't mind her skipping all the fluff and getting right to the point.

Fisher Brown... He'd heard the name floating around but had never been able to pin down exactly where he was to deal with him. And she was right. It did sound crazy, but if there was one thing he knew it was that crazy shit was a normal occurence in this day and age. Plus, he got supernatural powers from getting high, so who was he to decide what was and wasn't crazy?

"... Then we'll need to handle this. And I know you're not going to like it, but I'm going to help you." He already knew she wasn't going to like it, but he continued on anyway before she could reject his help. "I know that things have... Changed... But I'm not going to just let you go up against this by yourself, especially if it's something that threatens more than just Hub City."

He paused, taking in a deep breath, then continued. "And you're already half dead. I'm not going to just watch you go up against this and get killed."

"'Kay," she said simply. "I honestly don't care if you help me, as you say I'm half dead and could use the help, but I'm sure I can handle myself. So if you get pissy and leave halfway don't bother trying to blame me."

She sighed and turned her head back so that she was looking at the ceiling. Great, now she had to try standing up. She wasn't going to ask for help, that wasn't her thing, especially from Oscar, she could aknowledge that she needed his help fighting a wizard, but she didn't need his help to stand.

Alias tensed her body and with all her might... slightly twitched before the pain became too much.

Okay, maybe she did need his help to stand.

"Sit me up please," she said, an authoritative tinge to her voice.

'Well... That was easier than I thought it would be.' It really was too, he was expecting at least some fight from her. As she asked (or rather ordered) him to help her to get up, Oscar stood up from his crouching position and grabbed her shoulders, lifting her up and putting her into a sitting position. "Don't go falling over again."

Alias let out a pained cry as she was pushed up, but she was able to sit up without falling at the very least. She pushed herself slowly, and managed to get onto her feet. She held out her hand, motioning for a cane or crutch or something and began to speak.

"We need to get a policeman, most of them are on Fisher's payroll, if we get to talking to one of them we can figure out where he is and what he's up to. Other than magic I mean."

Oscar, not understanding that Shams wanted something to prop herself up with, interpreted her holding out her hand as a sign to help her up. He acted fast, taking her hand in his and pulling her up carefully, keeping a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Alright, a police officer. We can do that. Just, uh... No torture. I know how you are. No offense."

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

2:39 AM - January 9th 2026
The Angel Nightclub, Hub City

Shams smiled as she heard a voice on the other end. Well, less a smile and more a twitch. She tried to put the phone to her ear, but it fell from her hand as her fingers gave up trying to hold it. It landed on her chin and bounced to the ground near her face, thankfully. She was too sore everywhere else to notice what was probably going to be a bruise on her chin, so silver linings. Even having holes in your abdomen can have a silver lining.

She turned her head to look at the phone, from here she didn't think the microphone would pick her up. Dammit. Well, this was going to be fun.

She tensed her muscles in preparation. Immediately she felt pain like nothing else she'd ever felt. Her side burned, god it burned, her head throbbed, her arm though, that was the worst of all. Something inside pulsed, like something was out of place. She put a hand over it, feeling the muscle push against her palm then retreat. Then it attacked once more. Just a twitch, she wasn't broken just yet. She squeezed the flesh tightly, just preparing for what she had to do next.

She swallowed one last breath, then pushed up. Her teeth felt like they were about to smash with how hard she barred them. She worried that someone might come to finish the job with how loud she was growling. She stuck to the ground, she hadn't bled that much had she? She felt the inside of her skin touch pavement, you know something's gone horribly wrong when you feel that; definitely a unique experience that few get to go through, that one.

One last push, she thought as she felt concrete slide across her wound, tearing a bit of skin with it probably. She took a deep breath, planted her hand, and pushed with a roar. Finally she rested on her side, after what had been the most difficult adjustment she'd ever made. Well, second worst after her favorite toilet paper rose in price.

Why was she thinking about toilet paper? Well, she was in a pool of her own blood deep enough to drown a poodle, so it was forgivable to want one or two napkins.

"Oscar... Angel..." was all she could get out through the pain. He would figure it out, it wasn't like the name of the nightclub was too cryptic for him to figure out.

Shit, she hoped.

Heroes Reborn: Year Six (OPEN)

2 AM - January 9th 2026
The Angel Nightclub, Hub City

She was so close now. She'd gotten the cop to talk, just a few needles under the nails did that well enough. He'd given her the phone no problem after that.

The contacts list was barren, it was clearly a work phone. There was one message from an unlabelled number. It read "Target address 34 Jury Street, be Discreet. Delete this message."

Clearly he hadn't.

That suggested a failure to comply.

Sure enough, the tenant of said building was in heavy debt to a certain Fisher Brown, a well known loan shark and magitech dealer. It was all coming together. Brown was also the owner of the Angel Nightclub, a less than reputable joint that the cops stayed away from unless they were coming in for their monthly "child support payments".

Or at least that's what they called it when they showed up late the next day. "Had to pay child support" they all said, and it worked because every man in that place was as nice to a woman as a dog is to a man whose flesh had been replaced with bacon.

That was a strange simile. Maybe she needed to get more sleep.

Nah, she had to finish what she started first.

She pushed open the doors, having already given the bouncers a firm talking to.

The music was rather... dark. Parties weren't supposed to sound so... dangerous.

The place was filled to the brim and about to burst. People were knocking each-other around in their alcohol fueled stupor and that was funny.

Alias would have laughed, promise, but she was more focused on the task at hand.

Where was the manager's office now? That would be grand to find.

Real fucking grand right about now.

"Hey."

A voice from the crowd.

"Here."

An object shoved into her hand.

"I know what you're here for, I'll keep in touch."

Very interesting.

She walked around a bit longer, failing to find the office in the huge crowd, dropping her crowbar and almost losing it as feet kicked and stomped around.

Then the object in her hand made a noise. Walkie talkie it seemed. That was a funny name... walkie... talkie... heh, hehe.

"Hello Miss Needles."

"Mister Brown."

"Please, Mister Brown was my uncle, call me Mister Fisher, has a better ring to it, doesn't it?"

"Funny, I don't recall coming here for rhymes."

"Oho, how droll, you think you know why you came here."

He laughed, a rodenty snicker.

"Tell me then, why did you torture my informant, steal my ex-employee's phone, and talk to one of my mistakes?"

"You're a murderer, a scumbag, and you deserve to die for what you've done."

"Oh god I felt that, you're one badass lady, aren't you? Well, I suppose I can't just leave you in the dark. You, through a murder investigation, have stumbled upon one hell of a conspiracy."

"What?"

"A conspiracy, get your ears checked. My best friend is trying to take over the world."

"Excuse me?"

"Goddamn lady, drop your cochlear?"

"You can-... you can't drop a-"

"Anyway, I'm telling you this because I'd rather not not take it over myself. I mean, not that I wanted to, but if someone's gonna do it, it'll be me. If you get a key to the whole planet put on your lap, you're not gonna... not do it are you?"

Alias didn't know how to respond to that.

"So turns out I'm a wizard of some kind, crazy shit. My friend is also a wizard, he taught me this thing called alchemy, fucking nutso my bro... sis. Anyway I made this pill, magic and chemicals equally, based on that thing that happened in New York I think it was. Nutso, nutso. So I roofied pretty much everyone in that room you're in right now. Should start happening any second now, nobody's immune, nobody, my man even says it'll work on Lady fuckin' Arcana. Something about chaos magic, whatever, not important, what is important, my lady, is that in a few seconds you're gonna start smelling blood. Have fun!"

She did indeed start smelling blood. A man was beating on another, then his friend started beating on him. Not even a blink later and there was an orgy of violence beginning.

"...Motherfuck."

A man screamed behind her, and she swiftly turned to spot him lunging forward, mouth wide open and eyes filmed over. She struck him with her crowbar twice in a matter of seconds, then tripped him with an easy leg sweep, finishing by driving his head into the floor below.

Alias watched in horror as at least a hundred eyes turned to look at her. Swiftly a number of the men and women began to lunge. Alias drew her pistol and planted a shot into a woman's leg, dropping her to the ground. Smacking a man across the nose with the crowbar, she held it around his throat and pulled back, holding him as she shot a further two down. She yanked the crowbar rightwards, driving the prying hook right into the man's neck.

She took her first hit from the side, colliding with her temple and being powerful enough that she had to check to see if her eye was still there. She answered with one of her own right to the man's throat, sending him to the ground choking. A chair shattered against her spine, then a heavy object hit her in the back of the head. A bullet ripped through her side, and she went down.

The blows rained down for what felt like forever. The pain was everywhere, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, all she could do was smell, smell her own blood and vomit.

Finally forever ended. The blows ended. Alias laid on the ground in a puddle of blood, unmoving, barely breathing.

She gasped and whimpered as she pushed herself to her feet. She tasted blood, so much blood, and also a bit of salt. Maybe it was tears, maybe it was sweat, who gave a damn.

She didn't know why she was alive, but she had to thank Allah for the good fortune. Well, thank him when she wasn't coughing out enough blood to fill a swimming pool.

She limped her way to the door, only falling once or twice. The anticipation in her body built as she closed with the sunlight, and when she met the door, it was too much for her. Her legs gave out, and she tumbled right through, down the stairs and onto the sidewalk.

She gasped for air as blood ran down her ruined jacket.

Well, that went well.

Now what the fuck was she supposed to do.

...

...

Goddammit she could only think of one thing.

She hated that one thing.

The pain in her everything convinced her though, and she tugged her now mostly smashed phone out of her pocket with a moan.

She opened contacts as she bled on the ground, and stared at that name.

She felt her thumb begging to touch it, but her mind refused. All because of that name.

Oscar.

What Are You Listening To?