Ask to Join Squad 17 (Superhero RP)

[NotaViolinist]

If you're interested, read the "Squad 17 (Superhero RP) Discussion" thread under General Role Play Discussion, thanks!

~

Leon had done the research. He had read file after file, filled out spreadsheets, even polled his coworkers to see their opinions. These were the best candidates for the job, guaranteed.

Then why did he feel so nervous? He sighed and shuffled through the stack of papers on his desk for the umpteenth time, glancing up to check the clock on the wall. The candidates would be there any second. He was just about to start rereading his notes when a warm hand brushed his neck.

"Jesus!" He shot up out of his chair, nearly knocking over the laughing man behind him. "You scared the living shit outta me!" Frustrated, he swatted the other's shoulder with his hand. "You looking for a fight? Because the next time you sneak up on me like that I'm giving you a sock in the jaw for it."

Marcus shook his head, still snickering a little. "That's workplace harassment, you know. And besides, I know you'd never hit little ol' me." He smiled, and even after all these months working with him Leon still can't tell if the butterflies he gets from seeing that smile are due to personal feelings or a byproduct of Marcus's powers. Probably both. Charming bastard.

Leon rolled his eyes and turned away, fixing up his stack of files so he can bring them out to the auditorium where the candidates are supposed to be waiting. "Don't test your luck," he warned. Marcus stole the chair from next to him and plopped into it, swiveling around.

"If you keep worrying so much, you're going to throw up in front of the rookies," he said. Carefully he reached over and took the files from Leon, setting them back down on the desk. "Seriously, relax. Don't want to scare them off with your sour face," he teased.

"If you think saying that's going to help then you're really underestimating the power of my anxiety," Leon told him. He picked up the files again and grabbed his scarf from the corner of the desk, wrapping it around his neck. "Let's go, we're supposed to be down there by now." The two of them made their way to the auditorium, where a group of people were seated staring up at the stage.

"Ahem." Leon faux-cleared his throat, then cleared it for real because he was starting to panic a little inside and couldn't breathe. "Welcome to the Hero Organization of Midnight City, or just the Organization for short. You were chosen among the crowd to be recruited into our ranks as registered superheroes. Congratulations." Marcus started clapping awkwardly, and Leon glared at him. "As newcomers, you'll be put into a group of your own: Squad 17. My name is Leon, I'll be one of your squad leaders."

"And I'm Marcus, the other squad leader. It's swell to meet you all." He bowed with a flourish. So dramatic. "Even though our boy Leon here has extensive files on you all, and I mean extensive, let's have you introduce yourselves! Starting here," he pointed to the person closest to the stage. "What's your name?"

 

[Captain Pokémon]

As soon as Marcus pointed at him, Gar grinned and disappeared.
Leon’s shadow began to dance and laugh, then straight up ran away.
After that, a dark shadow rose behind Leon, and BOO, out came Gar!
“Boo!”
Gar said, most likely scaring the crap out of Leon.
Gar cracked up.
“That was perfect!”
He made a big show of dramatically teleporting around the room while laughing.
He then stopped.
“Hi! I’m Gar, and I can do that!”

 

[NotaViolinist]

"Gar, eh?" Leon shuffled through his stack of files and pulled one out, setting it on the podium. The intense cold radiating off the young man was causing him to shiver a little, but he put on a poker face and tried to ignore it. "A good candidate for possible espionage or guerilla attacks on the villain hideouts." He nodded at Gar who had teleported back to his place near the front of the room. "Welcome aboard. Next?"

 

[Gold The Dragonite]

As Leon asked who was next, she gave a small smile and got up out of her seat. "I'm Star, and I can fly!" She introduced herself. and two rather large wings appeared out of thin air onto her back. She leaped into the air, before fluttering her wings, staying airborne while making white, claw-like aura around her. Star then flew in a circle around the quite big auditorium, while the white aura swiveled around her. Finally, she landed softly to where she was sat, as her wings retracted back to nothingness.

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar teleported to stand on top of Star’s head.
“Hm, you can fly huh?”
His feet were cold on her head, even though he was wearing shoes.
He disappeared into her shadow on the floor.
“Can you do anything else?”
Many more versions of his voice appeared, as if many people were talking at once.
“Can you do anything else?”
Gar returned back to reality, and laughed.
“Just messing with ya.”
He teleported back to his seat, and relaxed.

 

[NotaViolinist]

Marcus held up a hand. "Let's not get too crazy with the powers just yet," he pacified. Leon pulled out Star's file, but Marcus snagged it out of his hands before he could read it. "I like your wings, by the way. Let's see here... with your powers, you'd probably be good for scouting missions or patrols around the city, according to Mister Control Freak at least." Leon scoffed at that and rolled his eyes.

"Please, like your chaotic energy is any better." He scanned over the remaining people and pointed at the next one. "How about you?"

 

[Tudor21G]

Julia was sitting in the front row, impatiently waiting for the organizers.
"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so excited..." her mind kept repeating over again. If she had to wait any longer she probably would've exploded from excitement, but luckily, some two dudes entered. Julia's eyes went wide, it was really happening. They were saying blah, blah, blah, she wasn't actually listening. They started pointing at people, telling them to introduce themselves. First there was a weird guy, who kept teleporting all over the place and making people shiver. "Weird..." was her only thought on the man. Next, there was a girl who could create and claws from aura, but Julia's only thought was, "Hey, I can fly too!" And before she could realize, it was her turn. She pointed at herself, making sure it was her turn, then she tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Oh, my name is Julia Penly! I can fly too, and I also can do..." She stood up and her fingertips started releasing spores, which then she squished into a small yellow sphere. She showed the two men her little sphere, and the she threw it at the ground. When the sphere and the ground made contact, the spores made a small explosion, similar to the one of a firecracker. She looked up at the guys. "...that. I am so excited to be here." She smiled sweetly at the men and sat back down.

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Some of the spore residue went in Gar’s nose, so he sneezed.
His voice had a sort of otherworldly ghost tint to it, and so did the sneeze, making it sound more like a small laser cannon firing than a sneeze.
“Oh god, I can tell I’m gonna really enjoy having these spores everywhere.”
Gar was very well aware people thought he was weird.
Did he ask to be a freaking ectoplasmic ghost dude?
No.
Did he go with it?
Absolutely.
Did he care what people think?
Not in the slightest.
Gar relaxed in his chair, and kinda sunk into the shadow he made on the chair.

 

[NotaViolinist]

Marcus nodded and smiled back. "Welcome aboard, Julia." Leon grabbed one of the last files and flipped through it.

"Julia, a solid choice for solving conflicts with villains as well as a potential scout. You should probably introduce yourself to Star, you'll most likely be teaming up with her a lot for missions." Finally, he ushered the last person forward from the back of the room. "And the last recruit. You must be..."

 

[HeyItsPip]

“June and Daniel, right at your service!” The remaining person exclaimed.
Another person, right next to her, shyly waved.
“I’m June, that’s my brother, Daniel!” June continued joyfully.
Daniel stayed silent. Clearly, he wasn’t as upbeat as his sister.
“And… I can do this!”
Suddenly, she picked up Daniel with ease, before she flung him to the nearest wall. Daniel got up without any trouble whatsoever.
“Oh, and whatever this is.”
A helmet appeared before her hands, a horn attached to it. It poofed into thin air.
Daniel finally spoke up. “Er, hello! All I can do is really nothing… except maybe me having a bit more resilience than the average person… ok. Maybe a lot more.” June socked him in the arm.

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar raised an eyebrow at their behavior.

I’m the weird one?
He didn’t really comment on their behavior, he just stayed sitting down, still kind of sunken into his shadow.
Gar’s eyes were red, and not because he was crying, he didn’t cry, his eye whites were actually a bright red.
He then observed the rest of the group.

 

[Riverrunner]

Sylvie burst through the doors into the auditorium, desperately combing through his disheveled hair with his hands in order to begin to resemble some sort of decency. Damn it, he knew he should’ve had a backup alarm set—his first one didn’t go off (he would never sleep through an alarm, surely… probably… alright, fine, he slept through it) and the rest was history. He ended up desperately gathering his things and bounding out the door in record speed, neglecting his appearance in the process.
All of a sudden, he felt as if he was in grade school again. He was making a ruckus as he arrived in the middle of a lecture, the eyes of his classmates boring into his chest as he tiptoed over to his seat. Not fun.

“Sorry, sorry!” He shouted to no one in particular, tugging at the collar of his shirt as he scurried towards his place in line. Judging by the fact that multiple others were already here, he was, almost certainly, very late. So much for first impressions. The pink-haired man plastered a grin on his face, desperately trying to hide his embarrassment.

Sylvie glanced at the figures that stood beside him, tapping his foot in an uncomfortable combination of shot nerves and impatience. Maybe the briefing hadn’t started yet?

The pressing silence that followed crushed his hopes. He was definitely late. Right… what should he do? Introductions? Sure, that seemed like a good place to start.

He coughed, breaking the silence. “I’m Sylvester Fairfolk, but, please, just call me Sylvie. I would demonstrate my powers, but… I don’t really think that’s a good idea.” He glanced at the heroes beside him, then at the pair standing on stage. “That is, unless anyone here wants to forget this meeting ever happened,” he joked, nudging the person next to him for emphasis.

More silence. Yikes.

“Fine, I’ll just… do this instead…”
Sylvie closed his eyes, holding out his palms to face away from his chest. Despite the heaping tons of awkward tension he had dragged into the auditorium as soon as he burst through the doors, the area surrounding him felt… quiet. Soothing, almost. Peaceful, yet, reinvigorating. He opened his eyes, and the area of calm vanished, but the vitality it had brought to those nearby was retained. “I can repurpose my abilities to restore a bit of strength to those around me—without the nasty side effects… I hope.”

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar awkwardly laughed at Sylvie’s joke.
“Uh...haha?..”
Gar blinked.
Gar then felt the calmness for a few seconds.
It was the calmest he had ever felt.
When it was over, he blinked again.
“What was that?”

 

[NotaViolinist]

Marcus smiled warmly at Sylvie at the demonstration of his powers. "Wonderful, you'll probably work with us behind-the-scenes as support staff, as well as filling in other jobs as needed. As for you two," he turned to June and Daniel. "It's a pleasure to meet both of you. Love the helmet, by the way. You'll probably be working together on patrols as well, perhaps with Gar?" Leon cleared his throat, returning everyone's attention to him.

"As you probably know, Midnight City has had a massive influx of villains from all over. We're not really sure what's causing the change, but we suspect it's Whiteout's doing." At the confused looks he elaborated. "Whiteout is the head boss of the native villains here. Possibly he's recruiting new members, or organizing the villains for some kind of attack. Which is why we need your help." He looked pointedly around the room, making eye contact with everyone. "We need to find out what exactly is going on. And more importantly, we need to keep the civilians of the city safe."

"We have an inside agent that you all will meet later," Marcus added. "As of now, we'll split you up in order to asses your skill levels. Sylvie, June and Gar, you'll be with me. Star, Julia and Daniel will go with Leon. 'S okay if I take the left training room, right?" He asked Leon. The brunette shrugged. "Okay, my group follow me! See ya later," he patted his coworker's shoulder and winked.

Leon gave a short wave, then nodded at his group of recruits. "Come this way, we'll take the right training room."

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar frowned slightly at the mention of Midnight City's rise of villains.
Gar then turned to his possible patrol partners.

He didn't have any huge thoughts on them, besides that the boy needed to get more exercise.
He did question how on earth the girl was able to summon a freaking helmet from thin air.

Then again, he could create weapons and balls of super energy from shadows, so, eh.

Gar raised an eyebrow as they were put into groups.
He then followed Marcus with the rest of his group.

Gar was also relieved to get away from that one girl, what was her name? Eh, he wasn’t paying attention. The point was, she wasn’t in his group.
He knew she thought he was weird.
So, being able to teleport makes me weird?
He knew what she thought about him, she wasn’t the greatest at hiding her opinions. She seemed biased against him for some reason, and he didn’t find that fair.
Also, one question he had: Does being a living hang glider give you a free pass to be a superhero? It didn’t make sense, they should at least have some fighting prowess.
Who knows? Maybe she had some crazy superpower, but for now, Gar only considered her a living hang glider.

 

[Tudor21G]

Julia looked around at her new teammates. There was: the creepy guy, the aura girl, the siblings and the guy who was late. This was a pretty weird bunch that these to guys have gathered. But she was very excited to try this out, and not even the weird guy could ruin this for her. Then, they were off to the training rooms. She needed to follow the bun guy, along with the aura girl and the boy sibling. This was getting excited. She got up and walked along her teammates.
(I also changed Julia's age to 17, because now I think that she was a little too old)

 

[HeyItsPip]

June happily bounded just behind Marcus. How hard can some training be? She shifted her eyes at Gar, hopefully secretly, and continued along. Meanwhile, Daniel had a similar experience. A living fungus and a bird. Not the bad group, he thought. Hopefully his sister would do ok without him constantly looking over her so she won’t run off and explode a few buildings. He took his mind off of her. What’s the worst that can happen?

 

[Riverrunner]

The villains of Midnight City were rising up once more.
That was certainly bad news.

However, the numerous faces surrounding him in the room ignited a spark of hope in his heart, however small it may have been.
They might have a chance.
Granted, that was more than likely just wishful thinking. He’d only seen a couple of their abilities demonstrated—assuming they had any at all, that was, and therefore had no real gauge of their abilities. Not to mention the fact that they may not work well together—they’d just met, after all, those could hardly be considered amicable terms.
The villains, however, he knew very well. While some were ultimately harmless, acting only out of a flair for the dramatic, others were ruthless in their methods. They would burn the city to the ground if it meant a single threat to their goals was out of their way.

Being on good terms with those around him would be essential to even have a chance of usurping… whatever the villains were planning. He’d started out on the wrong foot, admittedly, and friendliness without a hidden joke or hint of well-masked vitriol wasn’t really his strong suit.
Then again, it didn’t hurt to try (usually, at least.)

Sylvie turned to the other group and presented a pair of finger guns, clicking his tongue twice in a faux motion of firing before swinging back around to face the pair he had been grouped with. What were their names, again? Helmet girl was June, that he was sure of, the organizer had mentioned her abilities right after recounting the effects of his; as for the boy’s name, he hadn’t a ghost of a clue. Something starting with a J, was it? Maybe a G? Regardless, he gave Sylvie the chills. Something about his presence was, well, haunting, for lack of a better term.
…Ghost boy it was.

“So…” Sylvie smiled at the boy, trailing behind Marcus as he did so. “Ghost boy—can I call you that, hopefully I can call you that—I kind of missed the whole power demonstration thing. I saw June’s helmet— really neat, by the way,” Sylvie popped yet another pair of finger guns in her direction. “But I have no idea what your shtick is. Unless just, making the area around you really chilly is your thing; seriously, is that just me or are you the one causing that? It’s kind of cool… literally… but also the chill is going straight through my sweater. Not fun.” He shook his head, forcing his train of thought back onto the metaphorical tracks.
“Anyway, if we’re working together, it’d be nice to have a vague idea of what I have to build off of… which I’m now realizing is probably what the original demonstration was for. I… kind of missed that, so any kind of refresher would be great.” He have a thumbs-up to the black and purple-haired boy, desperately hoping his point had come through despite the amount of rambling it took to get there.

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar raised an eyebrow at Sylvie , then shrugged.
"I don't mind nicknames."

Gar made a big show of thinking.
"Well, I can do a lot of things, including dropping the temperature around me by about 10 degrees."
Gar shrugged.
"Sorry about that."
He went back on track.
"Anyway, I'd say my 'shticks' are: I can teleport around,"
He was walking on Sylvie's right side, then, in the blink of an eye, he was on the left.
"I can sink into shadows, and come out of other ones,"
To demonstrate, Gar stepped into Sylvie's shadow, literally, and disappeared into it, as if he had just stepped into a hole.
He then popped out of a different shadow, June's.
He then continued to walk next to Sylvie.
"I guess that's pretty much the same thing as teleporting, it can also be used as a stealth tactic , to prevent the enemy from seeing me, which is my main use for it. Also, I can mess around with other people's shadows and whatnot, to keep 'em paranoid, or just for a prank, or something,"
"I can make weapons and energy from shadows."
He used held out his hand in front of him, palm facing upward, and a ball of shadow-like energy appeared.
Gar tossed it out an open window.
"I'm not sure what you would call this, but I can do it."
A "portal" of shadow energy appeared in front of him, and he put his hand through it, and another portal appeared behind Sylvie, and a larger, about 1 foot tall and 4 feet long, shadowy hand came out of it, and tapped Sylvie on the back.
It then disappeared.
"I can do a bunch of other, small things, but they're really either just small combos of everything I just showed you, or they aren't really important."
"So, yeah, I guess my main 'shtick' is shadows."
Gar hoped that was a good explanation, he also hoped he hadn't rambled on for too long.

"Anyway, what can you do?"
Gar thought for a moment, then realized this guy probably didn't even know his name.
"Also, I'm Gar."
He held his hand out for a quick handshake.

 

[NotaViolinist]

The training rooms were in opposite wings of the building, but both were built remarkably similar. Large plastic structures (similar to what you'd see in a rock-climbing gym) were scattered throughout the room. The ceiling was very high, with ropes and nets dangling from it. Soft mats covered the floors to prevent serious injuries.

"We'll be doing two exercises today," Leon told his group. "The first is this." He whirled his cape around with a flourish, starting to levitate in the air with its help. "You must incapacitate me before I shoot all three of you." Pulling out two pistol-size guns, he held them up for the group to see. "These are paintball guns, modified by our head of tech. So you shouldn't be injured by these, for the most part." He gestured to a small door to their right. "Hope you're not wearing anything you like too much. If you want to change we have training uniforms in there you can use. We'll start whenever you're ready."

In the other room, Marcus grinned excitedly at his group. "All right, so the first thing we're doing is a fight simulation. Unfortunately, since my powers are not really meant for combat, I won't be fighting you. I understand if you're not interested in fighting, either," he addressed Sylvie. "But you can always try and see what happens! As for who you will be fighting, well..." A woman slightly younger than Marcus walked in, bearing a striking resemblance to him. "This is Carrie, my younger sister."

"Hey, how's it going?" Carrie waved at the group and yawned. "Let's not go too hard today, alright? I'm not a morning person." Marcus patted her on the back.

"Your goal is to incapacitate her before she hits you with one of these." He held up a balloon full of paint. "She's not allowed to throw them, but..." Carrie pulled up her sleeves, and spikes started to grow from her arms. "She can do that. If you want to change, there's uniforms in that closet you can borrow. Just let me know when you're ready to begin!"

 

[HeyItsPip]

June ignored the two. She quickly assumed they were giving her the cold shoulder for having a weirdo magic poofing helmet. They most likely weren’t, but the moment June thought it, it felt like they were.
Fine, she thought. I’ll ignore them as well.
As she looked up as soon as they got to the training thingamabob, she got a bit alarmed as soon as Marcus mentioned avoiding a paint filled balloon. Sure, June was strong, but she definitely wasn’t the nimblest. With the spikes on her arm, this probably wasn’t going to be a breeze after all. Perhaps she could use the helmet? Then again, people might think she’s weird for that. But on third thought, that Gar guy was even weirder.

Daniel didn’t make the slightest noise during their walk. Looking up at Leon, who was floating, he quickly thought of ways to somehow get him down. Too bad he only has a power affecting only his defense. While Daniel was at it, he didn’t realize that getting him down wasn’t the only thing he had to do…

 

[NotaViolinist]

Since no one spoke up, both instructors decided to start the training exercise. "All right, have fun! And be safe," Marcus said as he went over to the wall and flipped a switch. The lights in the room dimmed, still bright enough to see but not illuminated fully as there were shadows in the corners. Carrie moved to the back of the room, brandishing two balloons of paint.

"All right, you start first!" She shouted.

Meanwhile, Leon didn't give his trainees the courtesy of attacking first. He simply flew up and shot a few times at them, perching on top of a high beam protruding from the wall. With the lights dimmed, he blended in fairly well with his surroundings.

 

[Gold The Dragonite]

Star had high hopes for this ragtag of people. She thought it would be nice to work along this group. Star followed suit with Julia, Daniel and Leon into one of the trainer room. She mostly stood slightly awkwardly, while giving a small, nervous smile.

When Leon suddenly started, Star was startled and her instincts were to fly immediately up. Luckily, she didn't get hit by anything. She wasn't sure how her teammates were doing, but she made claw aura and threw it at Leon.

 

[Tudor21G]

Julia listened closely to Leon, and then realized that she would get her clothes all dirty. She excused herself and left the room, quickly changed into the training uniform, then came back into the room. Suddenly, the ligths dimmed and Leon started shooting at them. Julia took a step back and started waving her hands around her body, spores secreting from her palms. Now, a yellowish aura was floating around her. That protected her from bullets, since when it would make contact with the spores, they would explode, and since they don't hurt her, she has an extra chance at succeeding. She saw Star, her teammate, fire some aura at him, so she waited to attack, since her spores would destroy her attack.

 

[NotaViolinist]

Leon nimbly dodged the claw auras, flying up higher and sending another round of shots at them. Paint speckled the ground as the fake bullets exploded from the gun chamber. Then he swooped down toward Daniel, pushing him into the wall with his hands. However, his cape got caught under his shoes, and he stumbled slightly...

 

[Riverrunner]

Sylvie was fully distracted by Gar’s display of his abilities that he hardly noticed as Marcus listed the rules of the training exercise they were about to partake in. Something about water balloons and a fight simulation (not really his forté, but he’d give it a shot)?

Click
With the flip of a switch, the lights surrounding the room dimmed, shadows dancing at the edges of his vision

Sylvie took an involuntary step back, startled. That was enough to catch his attention.

What was it that Marcus had said about the exercise?
Right—it was going to be messy.
He quickly excused himself, the monologue from earlier finally catching up in his head. Granted, he’d dressed himself in only about five minutes—this certainly wasn’t the nicest outfit he owned—but seeing as the sweater was a gift, he would’ve felt bad about staining it with… whatever was in those balloons.

His abilities, quite frankly, weren’t the most suited to getting the first move in combat (when he didn’t get the drop on them, that was). Admittedly, he felt a bit useless in a physical confrontation. Sure, he was fairly good with a switchblade, but that was about all he had going for him. Stealth was his most valuable asset, and the one that had helped him most in the past. Stealth didn’t seem to be an option here, however, and he wasn’t about to opt out. This was his new team now. He wasn’t going to back out… he hoped.

He emerged from the changing area in the provided uniform, giving a thumbs up to the pair of instructors as a means of confirmation.

From there, he turned to his training partners. “I’ll say it up front: my abilities aren’t the best in the heat of battle. One of you guys should take the first shot, I’ll hang back for support.”
He nodded at June and Gar, taking a few steps backwards and folding his hands behind his back.

That being said, he wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.
Instead, he cupped his hands, the pink glow of a prepared attack materializing within his hidden palms. If those two distracted her, he might be able to sneak around the back and daze her for a bit so they could snatch the balloons out of her hands. Getting up close would be risky, but that was really the only way he could provide any aid. Of course, there was the slight risk of post-test memory loss for the instructor but… no, that wouldn’t happen. He hoped.

A single thought crossed his mind—he should probably let his teammates know his plans before proceeding… right?
Nah.
Instead, he sat in silence, waiting for one of the heroes to make the first move.

 

[Captain Pokémon]

Gar cocked his head to the side in curiosity.
“Well, this should be fun.”

He didn’t need a uniform, instead, he just turned into a phantom-like being whose body resembled Gar, but was made of shadows and darkness, as well as having light yellow eyes, and a yellow shape formed in the shape his mouth would make of he was talking normally.
“Alright, let’s go.”
His voice was completely phantom-like now, having no resemblance to a normal voice.

He turned to June.
“Hey, I’m gonna borrow your shadow for a sec.”
With that, he dived into her shadow as if it were a pool of water, and disappeared.

He then reappeared in Carrie’s shadow, and floated up, then wound up a punch and threw the punch, but a portal opened right in front of his fist.
Then, a giant, demon-like shadow fist appeared behind Carrie, and directed the punch at her, doing decent damage and knocking her back decently far if it landed.

Gar snickered at the situation, if felt good to fight.

 

[Tudor21G]

Julia swiftly dodged the bullets, keeping her spore veil intact for later. She watched Leon push Daniel into the wall, slightly flinching at the sound of the impact. And when Leon stumbled, Julia realized she needed to attack. Spores started secreting from her hand and shaped them into six tiny yellow spheres, three in each hand. Then, she hurled them at Leon, hoping they would stun him.

 

[NotaViolinist]

Carrie puts her arms up in front of her at the last second before Gar's attack, blocking the brunt of the blow with her spines. Then, she whipped her arms back at him, the limbs elongating unnaturally with a balloon full of paint at the end.

Meanwhile, spores exploded around Leon, dusting him in the reactive powder. "Goddamn allergies," he swore, sneezing. Wrapping his cape around himself blocked the brunt of the explosions but they still knocked him back a few feet.