KaijuBaragon

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Charlie moved in his seat suddenly when he felt something poke his ribs, and he looked down to see that it was Summer's elbow. He had been only somewhat tuned in to the conversation that was going on next to him, being mainly focused on his food and making furtive glances at some of the other witchlings who were arriving and taking their seats at the table. He swallowed the okra that was in his mouth quickly and racked his brains to remember what he had heard Summer say to the new guy - who Charlie was planning to welcome to later after he had finished his food and on his own terms. But - he had been drawn into the conversation, and after 10 seconds of awkward silence, Charlie remembered what Summer had said and put on a decidedly more warm and genuine smile than the one Summer was wearing.

"Hm? Oh, yes... I'm from England... Herefordshire, to be exact, it's in the South. Gorgeously rural, very green. A lot like the landscapes here, but decidedly less mountainous, less remote." He smiled again, regarding Jeremy with a nod. "Anyway, welcome! I certainly understand it can be a bit daunting moving to the coven here, but I've found everyone sufficiently welcoming so far, you'll be fine." Satisfied with his input to the conversation, he went back to his food, finishing off the plate (which had been piled quite high with delicacies) just in time, as he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over to see Sister Deborah strolling up onto the temporary podium.

Charlie watched her intently as she began her speech, tapping his leg up and down out of nervous anticipation and excitement. He glanced at some of his fellow initiates, who just by looking at them, Charlie could tell that they were feeling the exact same set of emotions that he was feeling. When Sister Deborah got onto the list of people that had fallen in the line of duty to the coven, the pace of his leg tapping became even faster. Work for the coven was life-threatening. That was a fact that Charlie unfortunately knew all too well. He glanced at the crowd, where he briefly spotted his mother, who was sitting and listening to Deborah amongst the other middle aged female witches. He then put his own attention back on Deborah.

He took in a sharp breath when his name was called out, then the speech was suddenly over with the instruction that they should all be at the house in 10 minutes. Charlie looked back across the table. A couple of people were already making their way over. He turned to Summer. "You want to start heading over?" He glanced at the others on the table, feeling the need to invite someone else along in the short walk to the house. Calypso was having an incident involving her seat, and Charlie had the good sense to be aware of the fact that she didn't really like Summer. His leaned forward and looked down at the end of the row, his eyes falling at the quiet blonde girl right at the very end, who was clutching a book. "Maggie! Would you like to come and walk to the house with me and Summer?"

@Danvers @Rabidporcupine @Melissa

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom could certainly be considered a person who could hold his alcohol well. All the times that he had gone out drinking with Blake, the gang, or anyone else, he had pretty much never found himself getting drunk to the point where he couldn't control himself. However, this party was different - he had ingested copious amounts of alcohol, and while he wasn't, like, wasted, it was obvious that he was somewhat tipsy. There's no way that he wouldn't have accepted the invitation to Blake's Fourth of July party - there are very few party's of Blakes that he hadn't gone to. And while Tom wasn't the most patriotic of people, he was certainly using the day as an excuse to enjoy himself and talk to people in HERO that he never usually got to talk to.

Currently, he was in conversation with a B-tier hero with some kind of rock-based power, who was totally wasted. The two were laughing and having a grand old time, even though Tom had absolutely no idea what this person's name was. After a couple of minutes of not-so-intelligent conversation, the rock-power guy took another deep swig of beer - which was evidently too much, as he fell over onto the floor and passed out. Tom winced but chuckled, moving onto the next person to talk to without so much as looking back down to see if the guy was alright - but he did trip over him, cursing airily as he did so, before getting up and dusting himself off, strolling into the living room where he saw Blake stumbling around the living room

Tom waved. "Heeey, dude! This party is awesome, there's so many cool people here! Oh, by the way, I think Quartz Girl and Freezo are totally getting it on in your Dad's room, you miiight wanna do something about that!" Tom said, waving to his friend gain before going over. "Where's Angie, I thought you totally would be hanging out together! Do you think she like, can't go to parties because of the gunshot wound, or something? Maybe? I don't know, you should ask, like, the medical team, or something, yeah..." Tom laughed for no apparent reason before clapping Blake on the back, sipping his drink again, and continuing his wandering through the Von Brandt house.

He stopped at a small TV in the kitchen, where some people were congregated around it watching the Wings of Law party being broadcast on TV. He scowled slightly. He even thought he spotted Starbright in the background of one of the shots, and voiced his confusion loudly to nobody in particular. "Huh, Starbright isn't Wings of Law, right? Fucking Wings of Law... Look at that shitty party!" Some of the more drunken heroes around him laughed and murmured loudly in agreement. Murmur... Eliza... He hadn't spotted her or Patty all night, and he knew that they were probably here somewhere. Maybe they had gone home... Maybe Angie had taken them home, and that's where they were! Tom was about to go and give his new revelation to Blake, when he spotted someone through the kitchen window near the pool. Grace!

Tom smiled happily as he began to work his way through the crowds out to see Grace. However, when he finally worked his way outside, he saw that he wasn't the first one to get to her. Rumi was already there talking to her. Tom frowned just a little, before psyching himself up to try and make himself seem not-drunk as possible. He knew that Grace wouldn't want to talk to him if he seemed wasted... which he wasn't, Tom thought to himself indignantly. After thinking he was good, he strolled confidently over to his totally just friend. "Hiii, Grace! And Rumi... Grace, I like your..." He was about to say "dress", but realised at the last minute she was not wearing one. "Shirt... Yeah. Your shirt."

@Hitman @Scarifar

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Grace was currently standing in front of the AMC Fairbrook Meadows 10 in Kingsdale. The movie theater, a large one with a beautiful emerald glass exterior, looked almost like some sort of store, but was in fact a very nice movie theater not far from Grace’s apartment. Grace was standing outside the theater, her back against the building, her foot tapping against the group impatiently as she looked down at her phone. A perk of teleporting was that she always was there on time, and Grace was exactly 2 minutes early to the late movie. It was around 6:00 PM, and the sun, while not down yet, was beginning to set over Castleburg skies and usher in the night.

Grace was donning light colors on this occasion, an airy white tank top and a pair of khaki shorts, and her thin frame was a couple inches taller thanks to a pair of peach-colored wedges on her feet. Draped over her shoulders was a white pea coat with golden trims and shimmering golden buttons, and on the breast of the coat was an embroidered pair of golden wings, underneath it the words “The Wings of Law” in elaborate golden cursive, and underneath that the words “Heroism with Class” in thick golden letters. A nice but strong spring breeze had picked up, causing the coat which was loosely resting on Grace’s shoulders to flutter in the wind. Grace looked down at her phone again. ”He should be here by now…” she muttered quietly as she checked the time.

Tom had a reasonably good reason for being a couple of minutes late - after the revelation that their last meeting had been spied upon by their friends, Tom had spent a little bit of time checking his wallet for any kind of bugging device. Afterwards, he had flown an unpredictable and crazy route over to the cinema just to make sure that nobody who potentially could be driving below in a car to follow him was able to follow him. He was dressed, like their last outing, in a flannel shirt, but this one was blue and black in colouring, matching the denim jeans he was sporting at the same time. He spotted Grace as soon as he turned the street corner - the glaring white coat easy to spot. He floated down before walking across the street to her, hoping she wasn’t annoyed that he was late. But as he got closer, he frowned as he saw her coat more clearly.

”Grace… Why are you wearing that?”

Grace looked over at Tom as he floated down towards her, a thin but pleased smile appearing on her face. ”Hey, Tom,” she said, before looking down at her wool coat. ”Oh, this?” she said, raising an eyebrow as he asked his question, before grinning mischievously, something she didn’t do often. ”Well, I obviously didn’t join! I just really liked their stuff...so I might have portaled into their clubhouse to get them. I got their windbreaker, coat, robe, blanket, towel, everything. It’s really soft, actually. The stuff they make it out of is great...even if they are a bunch of pricks.” Grace looked up at Tom. ”I mean, if it bothers you or anything, I can take it off or put it away or something.”

Tom rubbed his chin as he looked down at Grace. ”I mean… I guess it doesn’t bother me, per se… But what if a journalist walked by and now thinks that you’re part of the Wings?” He shook his head. ”I don’t think they’d take too kindly to a hero wearing their merch… and you don’t want them to try and smear you before you’ve even, like, established yourself here.” He looked up at the cinema. ”It’s not like anyone will see it anyway in the cinema, I guess. Anyway... The Conjuring 6! I didn’t know you were a horror fan, Grace!”

Grace shrugged. ”They invited me, and if they weren’t a bunch of loser dickheads, I would probably join. I think I deserve the merchandise.” She smiled. ”Anyway, I don’t think I care too much of their opinion of me. They can screw off. Quote me.” Her eyes danced over to the interior of the cinema when he mentioned the movie. ”Right! Well, I mean, I’m not really into the horror genre specifically, but I love movies, you know. Besides, it’s the Conjuring. It can’t be that scary, right? I mean, they made 3 spin-offs about a demon nun. This franchise has gone on for way too long…” She shrugged. ”But it’s opening night, so we’ll get to see for ourselves before somebody spoils it. And I’ve heard this theater is one of the best in Castleburg, so it’ll be a great experience, hopefully!”

Tom snickered when Grace insulted the Wings of Law. ”That’s what I like to hear. He began to lead her into the theater, heading over to the ticket counter as he talked. ”I don’t know… The last one was a real resurgence to the franchise, it was pretty scary. I saw it with Blake and he was terrified by it. This one’s by the same director, so hopefully it’ll be just as good!” Tom quickly grabbed the tickets before turning back to Grace, nodding. ”Oh yeah, this cinema is awesome. I saw Blade Runner 2059 here a few months ago and it was awesome, apparently they have the most advanced speakers in the city so the sound is like, perfect… Okay, we’re in Screen 10.” Tom began to head in that direction.

Grace nodded sagely as Tom spoke about the last one. ”Frank Brewer is a cinematic genius,” she praised as he spoke about the film. ”I haven’t bothered with this franchise since The Conjuring 3, but I hope you’re right,” she said with a smile as she followed him. ”The Blade Runner movie was great. Such a good cast, and the effects were gorgeous." She made her way to Screen 10, quickly examining the comfy-looking red interior of the viewing area. Talk about fancy. Grace looked to Tom. "Where were we supposed to sit again?" she asked him.

”Oh man, this cinema is so awesome.” Tom mused as he looked around the extremely plush theater. ”Right at the back, best view in the cinema.” Tom smiled as he took Grace up there, taking his comfy cinema seat next to her. After settling in he dug around in his bag for a moment before pulling out a pack of store-bought popcorn he had purchased on the way. He cracked it open and offered some to Grace. ”Cinema prices are an absolute rip-off, and these are just as good.” He grinned.

Grace grinned as she took a seat next to Tom, lounging into the cushiony chair seat, relaxing as some advertisements flickered past on the big screen. She looked over to Tom and his bag of popcorn. ”You know, technically you aren’t supposed to bring that in here,” she whispered to him, but still grabbed a handful of popcorn without hesitation, tossing them into her mouth one by one. She shrugged. ”It’s good, though.”

The movie had quite suddenly started, eerie post-modern music filling the theater as a young girl ran through some haunted woods, some weird serial killer phantom guy chasing after her with a magic hacksaw. Grace put on her brave face, pretending to be unphased by the events unfolding, but that didn’t stop her from subconsciously slipping a hand over to Tom’s thigh, resting it there as her body quietly trembled from the unfolding drama onscreen.

Tom meanwhile, having watched a lot of horror movies, was truly quite unphased by the events unfolding on screen, as he munched on his popcorn happily. He did get caught by a jumpscare though, and as he jumped in his seat he realised that he felt something on his thigh. He thought it was his phone until he glanced down and saw that it was Grace’s slightly shaking hand. He toyed with the idea of holding her hand, but instead he tapped the back of her hand gently and whispered: ”Are you good?” before resting his hand right next to hers.

”Good? Yeah, of course.” Grace kept her poker face on as some very large-looking monstrous bats were attacking a man onscreen. She saw Tom’s hand next to hers and considered briefly moving her hand on top of his, but shooed that thought away. Dumb idea, she thought to herself as she instead retreated her hand to the popcorn, taking another handful and popping them one at a time into her mouth again.

The next scene of the movie very much shocked her- out of nowhere, the bats came out of the screen and flapped over towards the seats. They were large, human-sized bats with velvety wings, fur-matted figures and hideous fangs and were extremely realistic. ”Woah!” Grace yipped instinctively as the two bats landed on top of one of the seats, scaring the couple sitting a few rows in front of Tom and Grace. Grace was about to be truly impressed by both the theater and the film, but was tipped off when the couple did not stop screaming, and the bats started to lean in towards the two moviegoers, mouths open, their fangs moving slowly towards the unfortunate couple.

Purple light began to gather around Grace’s hands. ”Tom! This is not part of the film!” Grace called out loudly as she looked over at the Bloodsuckers, having suddenly lost all interest in the movie. For good reason, too.

Tom was starting to get genuinely quite unnerved by what was going on, which surprised him. It was all just so realistic! For a few moments Tom was just about to hold Grace's hand, having decided he should, before he was suddenly ripped from this by the screaming. ”Huh… Wait, what? Oh, fuck!” Tom yelled out, standing up sharply and spilling popcorn everywhere. He glanced down at Grace for a moment. ”Just don't exert yourself too much… I don't want your hand rotting off.”

And with that, he leapt at the nearer of the bats, grabbing a tight hold of its fur and using his powers to make the bat fall through the cinema screen. Before climbing through after it, he called out to Grace again. ”If it's about to kill you, please call for me!” Tom stepped through the hole, the angry looking bat squaring him down as Tom looked for something he could use as a weapon.

”Oh, wow, I was going to slowly disintegrate my hand, but if you insist,” Grace muttered with a very healthy dose of sarcasm, the purple energy accumulating in her hand into the size of a frisbee. Grace launched the portal frisbee across the room, the disc slamming into the bat and sending it away from the now very scared couple and launching it down a few rows. Grace caught the flying bat in another portal and, after a moment of thought, launched the bat from a new portal into the light fixture. There was a loud screech from the bat as the electricity from the fixture shocked the creature, before it dropped to the ground.

”Hohoho,” a voice rang out from the back of the theater.

Grace turned to the source of the voice- a man wearing a three-piece navy suit, an elaborate cape draped over his shoulders, a white half-mask on his face, revealing a half of his pale face and combed brown hair. ”Greetings, hero. I am the Phantom of the Cinema. I haunt theaters all across Castleburg.”

Grace internally groaned. ”Such a lame title. Seriously, you’re just going to rip off-” Before she could finish her insult, the Phantom of the Cinema moved at unperceivable speeds, grabbing Grace and pulling her tightly against his chest, a golden stiletto hovering dangerously near her neck. ”I will kill you just like the Forest Murderer kills Bethany in the film!”

”I didn’t finish the film, stupid, your bat minions interrupted it not even halfway through.”

”Shut up!” the very campy villain declared, his blade bearing down on her throat. Grace shrieked loudly, her voice echoing out through the now-abandoned screen. ”TOM! HELP!”

Tom had found a conveniently placed metal pole of some sort lying on the dusty floor, which he quickly picked up to face off the bat creature with. Luckily it was a creature without any sort of strategic ability, and so Tom was able to pretty easily weave and avoid the snarling creature’s attempts to attack him. Eventually, he managed to get the beast on its back, and plunged the metal pole through it. However, before Tom could even chuckle at the humour in staking an evil bat through the heart, he heard a piercing screech.

He rushed out with almost instinctual speed, seeing Grace at the mercy of some bizarre, campy looking villain. He cautiously stepped forward a couple of steps, not wanting Grace to be stabbed in the throat. ”What the fuck? Who are you? Get off her!”

The Phantom of the Cinema laughed evilly. ”I am one of the greatest villains in Castleburg! The Phantom of the Cinema, at our service.” He waved his blade around Grace’s neck area. ”I have longed to harken back to the good classic days of film...before these pathetic hackneyed films began to spoil the golden artform that is the cinema!”

”Alright, alright, enough of this!” Grace swung her palm into the man’s side, a sharp hidden blade shooting out of her white wool jacket and piercing the Phantom’s side. As he howled in pain, Grace pulled away from his grip before opening a portal beneath his feet. ”Tom, catch!” she called, before ejecting him out of a second portal and sending him hurling quickly towards Tom.

Tom rolled his eyes as the villain. ”Oh, there are plenty of good movies that come out today, stop being a - Oh!” He was cut short by Grace's sudden and unexpected fightback, and he couldn't help but get in a quick grin at her quick thinking and resourcefulness as the villain vanished into the portal. Tom had a few seconds to think of his plan. When the villain came hurtling out of the portal towards him, Tom suddenly stopped everything and kept the villain floating in mid air for a moment.

Then, he sent the Phantom crashing to the floor of the cinema appropriately hard, where the villain slid down a couple of steps, groaning and clearly out of it. Tom laughed and looked down at him, before quickly heading over to Grace. ”Is your neck okay?”

”My neck is fine,” Grace said dismissively, rubbing her neck, a grin on her face. ”I bet you’re glad I brought that Wings of Law jacket now, huh? I told you they were good.” Her eyes drifted over to the villain. ”What do we do about-...SHIT!” Grace exclaimed, looking at the ground where the Phantom once was, though now he had vanished with a puff of smoke.

”Crap, I didn’t realize he could do that...sorry,” she muttered, scratching the back of her head, before looking up at Tom. ”I guess that was ruined,” she grumbled annoyedly, looking around the wrecked screen room. ”I guess I owe you another movie?” she asked as she surveyed the damage.

”I suppose I am glad… Dye it a different colour and take off the shitty Wings logo and you can wear it all the time!” He grinned back, glancing down at the spot where the villain once was, not really caring that much about his sudden escape. ”Damn right you owe me another movie… Definitely another scary one. The next Insidious is coming out next week, we should go and see that! Tom seemed oblivious to the fact he'd just essentially asked Grace out on another date.

”Sounds like a plan. Next week, then...” Grace made a mental note. ”I guess I’ll text you the details. Hopefully without any sort of...stupid cinematic-themed villain.” She nodded, lips tight. ”Well, thanks for the assist, Tom.”

No problem. Our powers go really well together, we make a great team! In hero work, I mean, yeah. I feel sorry for the poor cinema worker who has to clean this up though.” Tom winced and laughed as he began to walk out of the theater with Grace.

”Right, right, just as heroes. Not as anything else,” Grace said quickly. ”But, yeah...we work well together.” As they walked out into the now-dark city, Grace waved as she turned towards her car. ”See you, Tom,.” she said pleasantly as she opened the door to her fancy car, her violet eyes gazing into his before she stepped in and drove off into the Castleburg night.

Tom kept the smile on his face as he watched Grace drive off down the street. He had definitely enjoyed himself, despite the obvious villain interruption. He played over the previous events in his head as he lifted himself up off the ground and began the scenic float back to his apartment.

《 H. E. R. O. 》

For a moment, as Vinnie began to cough up blood with the coat rack speared into his hefty stomach, Tom thought somehow that he had done it. Maybe Vinnie's weakness was coat racks, or maybe he hit some kind of unhealable artery. Tom was about to say something cool and smug, like a hero one-liner, but this was cut short as Vinnie nonchalantly pulled the coat rack out of his stomach, the wound healing immediately. Tom felt himself gulp, and his mind raced as the mobster suddenly lunged forward. Tom was thinking about what he could do now, but the thought was snuffed out when his legs were suddenly swiped and he crashed to the floor, landing on his already injured shoulder. He cried out, pain throbbing down his arm, as he looked up at Vinnie, feeling too weak to even use his powers now.

Tom winced a few times as Vinnie prodded him in the chest with the spear-like rack, feeling the blood dripping out from these new wounds. And then Vinnie raised the wooden spear above him, and Tom felt a strange feeling wash over him. Vinnie was about to kill him - he was about to die in front of his friends, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Had he lived a good life? Hero work was definitely rewarding, he wasn't going to die a scumbag. But he felt a twinge of sadness that he wasn't going to have a girlfriend or a fiance or whatever to mourn for him after he was done. That twinge of sadness washed over him, and suddenly made him feel really hot. Wait, that wasn't normal... why was the room feeling so hot all of a sudden? Tom glanced up in time to see Vinnie blasted with an immense burst of fire. That could only mean one thing - Blake had arrived!

Tom watched from the floor as Vinnie was physically blasted out of the mansion by the fire, before Blake walked back over to him, and Tom simply nodded as Blake mentioned how fucked up he was. "Yeah... shit... It's not great." That was of course before Vinnie got up and Blake quickly left to get back to fighting Vinnie, telling Tom to get everyone out, which he was now in no position to do. "Yeah, I'll try..." But this was quickly cut out by Blake immediately getting grabbed by Vinnie. Tom managed to sit up, trying to quickly muster the strength to use his powers again and save Blake from getting his throat crushed. And then Patty walked past, and Tom weakly tried to grab at her so she couldn't be stupid and get herself killed, but she just kept on walking.

He heard Patty's song filling his eardrums and leaned back against the floor, feeling absolutely useless right now. But maybe Patty's song would work on Vinnie - Tom's hope for this was dashed when he heard a loud smacking sound, and he sat up again, seeing Patty reeling from the punch. This time, he tried to stand up, which he managed to do, and he began to walk over to the scene. He only got a few steps before he saw Vinnie suddenly surrounded by the fog, and the hulking mobster fall to the ground, coughing and spluttering... Holy shit, he was dying... but how? As Vinnie fell to the ground, still, Tom felt all his adrenaline leave his body, and he sat down on the corridor floor, before leaning back and passing out.

Tom woke up to the feeling of something being patted on his shoulder. "Huh... What..." He turned his head only to be face-to-face with Joseph, patting a rune onto his shoulder. "Oh shit... Thanks. That doesn't hurt much anymore..." Tom flexed his arm a little bit, still wincing as the movement around the socket felt weird. "I definitely think I need to go to the hospital still, though." He glanced down at his chest. His shirt had been opened slightly, and there was dressing on the wounds where Vinnie had poked the rack on his chest. There were Division X members and medics running around everywhere, and Tom sat up, looking around.

"Where's everybody else? There better be explanations for everything that happened here... Like why they kidnapped Will, and what the hell that fog was that killed Vinnie!"

@Hitman @canaryrose @Rabidporcupine

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Charlie glanced around a little as he noticed more people arrive. First he spotted a fleeting blonde figure heading up the porch into the house - maybe an initiate, but surely they'd come and sit with the rest if they were one... they wouldn't want to miss whatever was going to happen next, surely? And then Hana arrived shortly after, walking over to the food table and piling up her place nice and high, just like Charlie did. He absentmindedly munched on a bit of chicken before he was suddenly greeted by Calypso and pulled into a crushing hug by, being pulled against Summer at the same time. He chuckled as he was released from the hug after a few seconds. "Well, I'm glad to see you too, Calypso."

At her response to his earlier remark about lateness, he shrugged. "Well, the food is certainly delicious... I suppose I'm fortunate to be situated fairly close." He watched as a quick conversation between Dakota and Calypso had them hurrying off to the food table to get some. If Charlie hadn't already gotten his food, he would have probably gone and joined them, but he had gotten his food, so he sat back down. Kate had also arrived, and Cassandra and Uathine were still continuing their animated conversation away from the rest of the group. Charlie wanted to start a conversation with somebody... should he start one with Summer, or perhaps Alayna who he saw arriving at the table with her food. However, his options were forced by the arrival of Arken.

Charlie wasn't absolutely sure if Arken was calling him Charles to be intentionally obtuse, or if it was just a case of not knowing every time that they saw each other, but Charlie thought that a gentle reminder here wouldn't hurt, just in case it was the latter. "I'm doing rather well - just in case you forgot, I do prefer to go by Charlie, instead of Charles. Not a big deal, just making sure you know." Charlie smiled, before looking over to where Arken was gesturing too. "That's Hana, isn't it? She's not new... At least, I don't believe she's new, I've definitely seen her around here a fair amount if I remember correctly."

He glanced back at Dakota and Calypso at the food table again, before looking back at the rest of the table. "I do consider myself rather good at remembering names, though, so I suppose you not knowing her name compared to me wouldn't be an abnormality"

@canaryrose @Hitman @Infinite Cosmos @Danvers @Akayaofthemoon

《 H. E. R. O. 》

At Patty's words, Tom glanced down at Grace's hand, and his eyes widened. What the fuck was that? Just something to add to the pile of injuries that this absolute disaster of a mission had produced. And they weren't getting very far now - he had forgotten how hard it actually was to carry someone along who couldn't walk themselves. Tom looked back, realising they had barely got any way down the corridor at all, the doors still seemed scarily close, as did the hole in the ceiling that Vinnie had been blasted through. Tom had almost forgotten about Vinnie, just trying to focus on dragging Angie away and escaping. He should have realised the glaringly obvious fact that being dropped once would not take out Vinnie, but he didn't actually realise until he heard -

"TOM, HE'S IN THE CEILING!"

"Wait, wha-" He was blasted with some harmless wood splinters, before he felt Angie be quickly dragged back, and then a crushing vice-like grip on his neck, which made him suddenly cough and choke. It took him a couple of seconds before he fully realised that he was being handled by Vinnie. Just when Tom thought he might choke from the grip, he was roughly thrown to the ground, which made his shoulder throb again in almost unbearable pain. He looked up at Patty, Grace and Angie, feeling blood beginning to drip from his nose again, and yelled as loudly as he could "RUN, DAMMIT, GET OUT OF HERE!" before he heard the knuckles cracking above him, and the ominous threat from Vinnie. He glanced up to see the fist raised, presumably about to pummel him into the floor.

Tom reacted fast, flipping gravity sideways and sliding across the floor away from the fist quickly, which had the unintended consequence of knocking Vinnie off his feet. Tom stood up shakily as he watched Vinnie do the same. "Yeah, but Powers beat you in a fistfight, and your ugly fat fists aren't gonna go anywhere near me!" Tom looked around frantically, determined to try and hold off Vinnie so the rest of them could escape. He glanced up and down, even as he heard Vinnie's heavy and loud foosteps getting closer. There was a coat stand nearby that had a nice sharp point on the end, probably ornamental. Tom quickly ran and grabbed it, holding it like a spear. When Vinnie got close enough Tom slid past, making Vinnie turn around. Now there was no chance of this going wrong and spearing one of his friends.

Tom let the coat stand go and sent it flying into Vinnie spearing his stomach. He was aiming for the chest, but Tom wasn't exactly able to aim stuff accurately right now. He knew this wouldn't kill him, but he hoped it would incapacitate him enough so Tom could catch up with the others - if they had run off like he shouted at them to, of course.

@Hitman @canaryrose @Amethyst

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

"Charlie, you're going to be late, stop messing with your hair, it'll be fine!"

"Mum, I can't very well show up to initiation looking dreadful, can I? Are there even any other initiates there?"

"Well, no, but... They'll start arriving soon, just hurry up!"

"I will, I will! I'll see you there, bye!"

Charlie hung up the phone quickly and ran his fingers lightly through his fiery orange hair, prodding it a little before sighing and giving himself one last look-over in the mirror. Well, he wasn't going to get it any better than that, Charlie reasoned, and he quickly threw on a muted grey hoodie over his Watford F.C football shirt, zipping it up - he thought that the bright yellow kit would probably not be the first thing that he should show off. He was also wearing his favourite pair of black jeans. After giving himself one final final look over in the mirror, he grabbed his car keys off the counter and hurried down from his bedroom, opening the door and hopping into his Ford Fiesta - not the most exciting of cars to own, but it was his first, and it wasn't like he could buy a Mercedes, or something - and quickly began driving in the direction of the coven.

It was only a short drive, but Charlie's uncontained excitement made it feel like a very long one - he kept tapping his fingers impatiently as he studied every individual sign carefully to make sure he was definitely going in the right direction, even though he had driven this route many times, and had even passed his test by driving it. He knew by this point he wouldn't be the first one at the coven, but he was going to make damn well sure he wasn't the last - to be the last one there would definitely be rather embarassing. Soon he reached the winding forest road that lead into the house. He always loved coming up here - the forest was so pretty! As Charlie looked forward on the road, he suddenly yelled and floored the breaks as something canine ran out in the road. It was just a fox. Charlie wiped his brow as the fox stood unperturbed in the middle of the road. Charlie honked the horn, which seemed to convince the creature who scurried off. The rest of the drive up to the house was, thankfully, uninterrupted.

After parking up, Charlie speed walked around the house to reach the party. He was quickly located by his equally as fiery haired mum, who hurried over to him and gave him a big hug, thankfully obscured from view from the the initiate picnic table. "Oh, I'm so proud of you, Charlie! I remember my initiation here... It's so interesting, you'll love it!" Charlie managed to wrestle himself out of his mother's vice like grip. "Okay, okay, I'm sure I will! I need to go and sit with the others..." His mother nodded and let him escape, and he filtered through the crowd to try and find where they all were. He couldn't stop his mind from falling on his father... Would he be proud of Charlie today, or would he be upset that he wasn't being initiated into the coven back in the UK. Charlie really did hope that his father would be okay with it. He had never really breached that specific discussion with this mother.

However, his thoughts were distracted as he nearly walked into the food table. His eyes scanned hungrily over the food available, grabbing a plate and placing some on it. Sausages, some chicken pieces, pulled pork... and a couple of grilled vegetables, he didn't want to come off looking too unhealthy of course. When he had finished and looked up, he saw himself opposite the table to a girl who had seemingly very serious look on her face... Aylana, he remembered her name as being. The food table was no place for a proper conversation though, so he simply smiled and said hello before taking his plate and heading over to the initiate picnic table. When he got there, he could indeed see that he was definitely not the first. 6 other people were already there, which he knew to varying degrees.

He took his empty seat, looking at his name plate, which said "Charles" instead of "Charlie" which was undoubtedly a little annoying. If he had a pen he would have changed it. He happened to be sitting next to Summer, and he pondered for a moment that it was quite funny that the two gingers had been seated next to each other. Across the table were Calypso and Dakota, and he glanced over back at the tables, spotting Cassandra and Uaithne conversing. He turned back to the table. "Oh, it's great to see you all..." He absentmindedly played with his name card. "Let's hope everyone else turns up soon... Could you imagine being late? It'd be horrible, frankly..."

@Qia @Danvers @canaryrose @Hitman @Jumbus

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom glanced down at his nose to find that Tommy's punch had indeed caused it to bleed a fair bit. He had been so hyped up by the fight that he'd hardly even noticed, and when he wiped some of the blood away with his sleeve he winced as his nose was now painful to the touch. Maybe it was broken... but that was the least of Tom's concerns right now. Now they just needed to get out of there and this whole nightmare of an operation could finally be over. They just had to escape the complex, hide outside and then watch as Division X busted the whole place up. Tom turned on his heels, about to run. They just had to vamoose before Vin-

"You get what? Caught?" Ah. Shit.

Tom whipped around in time to see the hulking and chunky form of Vinnie Gugliano pointing a gun at Patty, Angie and Grace, demanding that Tom get on the ground. He looked at the girls for a moment, considering attempting to fight. But if Vinnie felt any change he could easily fire off a bullet, and then someone could be killed, and it would all be Tom's fault. So Tom gave Vinnie a look of pure malice and knelt down, feeling his nose drip blood again and cautiously wiping it as he looked up at the mobster, before looking around at Patty, Grace and... Angie! Angie was walking over to Vinnie, and by the looks of his reaction she was attempting to flex her powers on him. Tom was hopeful, but he knew deep down that it wasn't going to work. And those suspicions were confirmed when Vinnie fired a shot straight into Angie's thigh.

"Fucking shit!" Tom audibly cursed, as he stumbled forward closer to Vinnie. The next couple of moments for Tom were a bit of a blur. He heard Vinnie saying something, and Tom very clearly heard Vinnie talking about blowing something to bits. Then Tom heard the gunshot and stumbled forward again, expecting to be covered in the blood of his best friend's girlfriend. But instead, there was nothing except a red wound on Vinnie's chest. Tom pushed himself forward again, Vinnie seemingly distracted by whatever had just happened. Tom really didn't know what just happened, all he knew was that Angie was somehow miraculously alive. He suddenly heard Grace speak to him, and he realised he was now standing right next to her. "T-Tom, kick his ass!"

Tom walked a couple of steps forward again, now becoming aware of the fact that he was standing right next to Vinnie, who was threatening and beginning to raise his gun, seemingly unaware of Tom standing right next to him. He saw the gun being raised and knew he had to suddenly act. So he did the first thing he thought of, and flipped gravity upside down. Vinnie, the much heavier man, picked up a lot more velocity and went crashing through the ceiling into the attic above. Tom, meanwhile, was not concentrating properly and hit the ceiling hard on his shoulder, floating back down and hitting the floor lightly, grabbing his shoulder and looking up at the massive hole where Vinnie would surely soon come back through.

He hurried over and looped Angie's arm around his unhurt shoulder. "C'mon Grace, help, we need to run!" After lifting Angie to her feet, he began to attempt to hurry down the corridor, calling after Patty too.

@Hitman @canaryrose @Amethyst

Meanwhile, across the city, equally disturbing scenes of criminality were taking place. Caustic - or Nicholas, whatever - swung open the door to the bathroom to survey his latest quarry. The quarry in question was an ICOSA agent, currently hanging upside down and unconscious in the shower. On the cabinet was an object Caustic had taken out from the agent's jacket pocket. It was a small tablet-like device, sleek and black. He strolled up to the agent and gave him a few firm taps on the head. The agent soon awoke, looking around, spotting the gask mask clad figure above him, and immediately started yelling. Caustic clasped a pale hand over his mouth. "Not a good idea. If you decide to scream, I can just kill you and find myself another agent." The agent quickly stopped yelling. To demonstrate who he was, Caustic grabbed the man's sunglasses, which he had also set down on the side, and dissolved them away into nothing before the agent's eyes.

Getting to this point had involved a couple of hours of solid work on Caustic's front. He had spent about half an hour staking out Bob's Tuna restaurant, a spot that Caustic had on good knowledge that ICOSA agents often frequented. That half an hour had been spent waiting for a suitable target. Soon enough, he spotted it - a young agent who made the stupid move to park his car up a secluded alleyway next to the restaurant. The villain then headed up the alleyway, melted a small hole through the car window, then stuck his hand through and opened the car, slipping inside. From then it was about 50 minutes until the agent returned, who quickly had a chloroform rag clasped around his mouth. Caustic then hopped into the front seat and driven the car to an apartment building. The spot he had killed stinger at earlier was only temporary, and Caustic had been tracking this building for a while, as it was in a prime location. When he noticed that a family had gone on vacation, it was time to move some stuff over here and set up a new temporary location for a week or so. From then it was a simple matter of taking the agent inside and tying him up.

Back in the bathroom, Caustic turned around and grabbed the small device, switching it on. "This website gives you access to the ICOSA databse, does it not?" He took the agent's silence as a confirmation of that, and continued. "And I also know that each agent has a personal password to allow them into the database. If you haven't realised already, I want that password.". The agent struggled for a moment before shaking his head. "No. And I know you can't kill me, because if you do you'll never get in!" Caustic chuckled. "I don't have to kill you to get you to give me it. Why don't we see how much it hurts to have your toes or fingers slowly dissolved. Or better yet, what about your eyes?" Caustic slowly moved his hand toward's the agent's face, who thrashed for a moment, fearful, before relenting. "Okay, okay! My password is Mesopatamia."

Caustic began typing the password into the device. "Your resolve is truly remarkable." He said sarcastically, as the screen of the device loaded in, and then flashed up with a second screen. "Hm. It seems a thumbprint is required." Caustic acted quickly, freeing one of the mans hands. "Hold your thumb out." When the agent refused, Caustic laughed. "If you don't, I'll just remove your thumb from your hand. You might as well just comply." The agent did indeed comply, as the device now loaded in properly, allowing access to the ICOSA database. Caustic set it aside. "You were right though, I couldn't kill you. If you go missing they'll just track that thing, and ICOSA sending forces into Brookside wouldn't be good for anybody, hm?" Another chloroform rag was plastered over the mouth of the agent.

A few hours later, the agent woke up behind a dumpster in the East Flank. The experience had been horrific - but Caustic had surely slipped up - he had revealed the location of where in the city he was! The agent quickly ran off to report the whole thing.

Meanwhile, in New Athens where the apartment building actually was, Caustic settled down in front of his laptop, plugging the ICOSA device into it. He quickly copied the files for the database of Castleburg powered individuals, then held the device in his hands and melted it down to nothing, just in case it could be tracked. Then he went to do some research. He was looking for a few specific files. He had accessed the file for Blade on many occasions, but that was always a good thing to peruse - an extremely minimal file, even ICOSA knew nothing. He also pulled up his own file, of course, delighted to watch as "last known location" became "Brookside" as he was looking at it. He was also carefully looking for some other files. He eventually found them all - Director Powers, Starbright, Rainbow Dancer, Sea Serpent, Mr. Impressive and Seraph. These specific files were extracted along with Blade's and Caustic's own into a separate folder.

The nucleus of an idea had been formed. Time would tell when this idea could become a plan, and when that plan could be acted on.

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom looked over at Grace, clearly very impressed, as she wrote down the equations and whatnot to get the portal working properly. He was even more impressed when a successful purple portal appeared above them. Then he became a little anxious as Grace peeked her head up through it - what if the worst occured and someone happened to be walking along at the time - then they would be truly fucked. Or what if someone had heard Patty's loud swear and now a whole legion of mafiosos was running in their direction. He waited nervously as Grace pushed herself up further into the portal, appearing to strain for a moment before a pair of girls clumsily fell through the portal, which vanished pretty much as soon as they had fallen in onto the dusty floor.

Tom grinned widely as he saw Patricia in front of him, looking a little shaken up but nonetheless safe. He resisted the urge to give her a hug as she crawled off of Grace - they definitely weren't out of the woods yet, celebratory hugs could wait for later. Now that there was three of them, they stood a much better chance. Tom's mind raced before he even spoke - first they could go and get Angie, then they could get Patty to use her powers on some mobster to tell them where Brie and Will were, then they would go and get Brie and Will and bring them back up to the attic, hiding out until Division X busted the whole scene up and this whole crazy shit was finally over. "Thank fuck you're okay, Patty." Tom said, still smiling.

But his smile soon faltered as Patty began to speak. The first bit of awful shit was that Brie and Will were seemingly about to get tortured and then killed by some horrible villain organisation. Well, that just made their mission even more urgent, the busting out had to commence soon! But Patty's second bit of good news wiped any tiny bit of positive expression that may have been left on his face. He looked down at the bloody machete, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, I had a plan... but you not having powers anymore kind of ruins it... Not that it's your fault! Let's just head back in the direction where we came from, see if anything's changed with Angie's situation." Tom tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice as he led the girls back in the direction they had come from - he didn't want to make Patty more upset, she was probably already feeling like shit as is.

After a couple of minutes they reached the space where Tom and Grace had first entered the crawlspace. He was about to say something when he heard the sound of doors opening down below. He quickly got on his knees and peeked through the hole to see a struggling girl with striking black hair being dragged along by a man, flanked by two other guys. "Shit! Angie's been caught!" Tom hissed, standing straight up. "Patty, you stab one of the goons, Grace, crush someone with an incomplete portal or whatever, and I'll take the dude dragging her!" Tom didn't wait for a response before he stepped forward and kicked the hatch firmly. Far too firmly it turned out, as the flimsy hinges snapped straight off the and hatch went plunging down into the hallway below. That didn't stop him though, as he quickly grabbed Patty and Grace's hands and floated them down into the hall.

The first thing he noticed was that the falling hatch had squarely hit one of the goons on the head, taking him out of action - looks like there was just one goon for Patty and Grace to deal with. The attractive mafioso looked shocked, and Tom immediately noticed he had Angie held in a very dangerous position - he couldn't just blast forward or he might break Angie's arm. So he did something else. He turned off gravity so Angie and Tommy floated upwards. He watched as Tommy let go and starting flailing about, cursing. Then Tom leapt at him, grabbing his chest and pushing him into the wall. However, Tom was too full of adrenaline to concentrate properly, so Tommy managed to land a blow on his nose. Tom yelled and floated up then back, dropping Tommy down around 3 metres. Tom didn't hear if there was a break or a yell or not, as he was pulling a painting off the wall, floating down and slamming it over Tommy's head, before socking him hard in the jaw. That should do it. Tom quickly stepped back, satisified that Tommy was out for the time being. He looked up, the adrenaline wearing off slightly, and he realised that the attic route was now not an option, as anyone who came out of the main hall would surely see the hatch on the ground.

Tom turned to the others to see what they had done, nose bleeding a fair amount, already saying "Shit... Come on, we need to run, they'll have absolutely heard all that."

@Hitman @canaryrose @Amethyst

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Tom scooted over closer to Grace as she scooted closer over to him in turn. He shook his head earnestly as Grace spoke. "Come on, you're not useless at all, and you know it. Without you we wouldn't have even got in the complex at all, you portalled us in. And it's sort of my fault too, I shouldn't have encouraged you to send that fourth mobster dude along all the way to Chick-Fil-A, I should have known that might have drained your energy." Tom sighed and leaned his head back, looking up at the dark and dusty attic ceiling above the pair, anxiously waiting for any kind of response on the desperate texts he had sent out a few minutes earlier. Tom then felt the phone buzz in his pocket, and he quickly whipped it out, frantically reading.

Tom's face lit up as he saw who it was from and the contents of the text. "Shit, yes! Grace, it's Christina!" Tom grinned before reading the text some more. "She did it, she notified everyone! Division X is on their way, apparently, and so is Powers, and a bunch of other heroes! Tom fist pumped, showing the phone to Grace for a moment so she could see. "But she also said we should go and look for people... Well, we know where Angie is, let's just hope they get here before she has to back out. But we're gonna have to go and find everyone else... So it's time for some proper hero work again." Tom lent Grace his hand so she could get up, before leading her out of the big attic and into the smaller one where the pair came in from.

Tom immediately crossed the room to the other side, kicking away a box to reveal another hatch into another attic. Tom had pretty much deduced at this point that the whole complex ran underneath and above the floors, so he quickly lead Grace through into this new place, standing up and explaining what he was thinking as they walked. "So, I guess we'll use this attic space to get far away from the meeting hall, then drop down and try and work out where Brie, Patty and Will were taken, take them out. Then we can probably bust Angie out of her situation, then hide back up here until the rest come to bust us out." It wasn't the most adrenaline filled plan, but Tom was in a reasonable state of mind right now, and that was the best plan that he could hope for. And it wasn't like Tom and Grace were going to find anyone while walking around up here. They turned a corner down a new attic hallway.

Thump. "Motherfucker!"

Tom looked up at the ceiling immediately. It took him all of a few seconds to realise who the voice he had just heard belonged to. It was Patty! Patty was above them. Tom looked at Grace, mouthing Patty's name to her in case she didn't already realise. Tom waited, expecting to hear the horrible noise of some mafioso gruning and dragging Patty along the floor. But the sound never came. Tom's brain was working as fast as it could, and it suddenly put together what just happened. She must have escaped, and was now making a run for it... but she had experienced a clumsy moment and fallen over. In better circumstances Tom would have snickered at her clumsiness. He wished that he had his special goggles he got at the Christmas party from Powers that year to look through the ceiling... he was an idiot and left them at home.

Tom supposed there was only one way to find out, otherwise Patty would just run off somewhere and probably get caught. Tom raised a fist and started rapping his knuckles on the floor below where Patty was presumably lying. "Patty! PATTY! It's TOM! And Grace, we escaped into a crawlspace between the floors... What the hell happened, how did you get away?! Nevermind, tell us in a second, Grace will portal you down here.. Grace?" Tom looked hopefully at Grace standing next to him.

@Hitman @canaryrose