Yin Li, Subject 7
The Police Chief rubbed the back of her head, still feeling rather light-headed from the hit she'd taken from that wind-blowing asshole earlier. Drawing her hand back, she could see her palm was coating in quickly drying blood. Great, that wasn't worrying at all. Once Deluge let his opinion of the wind guy be known, she could only inwardly agree. Sparkblade, or 'Shuzo' as he'd been called earlier, took the lead, despite his limp, the officer and Deluge bringing up the rear. "Where the hell are your Paragon pals when we need them most?" She asked Ansel, coming off a lot more aggressive than intending (though she was almost always far more aggressive in any given situation. She'd once cussed out her own boss because he was late to a meeting for getting a donut. In a surprising turn of events, he'd promoted her in response).
BAM!
Subject 7 stood still in the alley for a moment after having been pushed a couple steps back from the initial blast, before looking down at his armor-plated chest, the blast having barely pierced his armor. Wordlessly, he looked back up at Crosshair, and began to walk toward him, earning a second shotgun blast, this time to his shoulder, the armor literally being ripped off his shoulder in response, exposing more of his strange, burnt, decaying skin. Again, he paused in his advance, before continuing again, raising a hand and grasping the front of the barrel just as Crosshair shot a third time, the shell ripping into the 'ninja's hand, resulting in a spray of the black ooze spraying over Crosshair.
Subject 7 ripped the weapon of out Crosshair's grip, tossing the weapon aside, one of his serrated blades appearing in his other hand, still crackling with the stored energy of Sparkblade, before several bullets pinging off the back of his armored head forced him to avert his attention, looking back to see Sparkblade limping toward them, Chief Li and Deluge on either side of him, the officer with her weapon trained on him.
They were all struggling, all at the end of their rope. This was a final push on their part, and despite the fact that Quietus couldn't experience much pain, it gave him a sick satisfaction to know how close his victory was. They had no idea how to kill him, let alone stop him. It was all entirely in his favor, even if they'd managed to fight off his brother, Zephyr, he'd still delivered to them plenty of hurt. On their last leg, they faced death. Death, after all, was the sole purpose of Quietus.
However, everything changed within a split second. Just as he'd summoned his second serrated blade, the ground suddenly shook underneath them all, the source of this disturbance extremely close. Quietus once again averted his gaze, this time to look at a star-spangled costumed hero, standing in a crater on the street he'd created, his hands on his hips, his chest puffed out...
If Quietus had blood still, it would have run cold.
"What have we got here?" Patriot asked, flashing his perfect smile at every face he could see, lingering on Yin Li for a moment. "Nice work, Chief. Deluge. You've both managed to round up two vigilantes and a bonus freak. I'm actually impressed, especially with you, Ansel. I always thought you were pretty useless before." He let out a chuckle, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head, before slowly, he cracked his neck, now staring solely at Quietus. "What do they call you?"
Quietus didn't answer, instead he immediately crossed his arms over his chest, and fell backward, landing on the ground back-first, completely disappearing in a black ooze that immediately began to disappear into nothingness. This... initially surprised Patriot, who'd been expecting some cheesy dialogue in response, maybe. Not... whatever the hell that was. "Okay. Not the talking type." He shrugged, and looked at Sparkblade and Crosshair, now that he still had everyone's attention.
He'd arrived in the hopes of knocking some skulls in, but with the Chief around, he was gonna have to act at least a little more... professional. So, slowly, he began to walk up to Crosshair and Sparkblade, seeming to silently piece together the puzzle of this situation the more he looked at each of them as well as their surroundings.
Then an idea hit.
He stopped in front of the guy on the ground, Crosshair if he could recall correctly. Always been a candidate for the Paragons, but he'd never bothered to look for the guy. Then to the other. The elusive Sparkysword. Wait- no, Sparkblade. That other name was just dumb. Once again, a candidate he'd once considered but never taken the time to meet. A look at all of them easily told Patriot that they'd been working together to defeat sludge boi, a perfect segway into what Patriot would do next.
He offered a hand to Crosshair on the ground, who appeared very hesitant to take it. "Go ahead, pal. I'm not gonna bite." Patriot urged, grabbing Crosshair's arm himself, and tugging the vigilante up to his feet. "Normally I'd either take you two in for being unregistered supers, or let the Chief take you. But I've thought up something better. I wasn't here to see your efforts, but it's obvious. You were all working together toward the same goal. You two were working alongside the law, as well as a Paragon. I'd like to formally extend an invitation to join my Paragons in the goal of making the world a better place. You'll both have to register, obviously, but your identities can remain secret per your request. You'll have leeway as well as legality. The police won't chase you anymore, and you'll have all of the best resources money and science can provide at your disposal. I'm sure the Chief and Deluge would be more than willing to support your induction. Right?"
Yin Li blinked, appearing more confused than anything, before glancing at Deluge, then at Sparkblade and Crosshair, before shrugging. "Um... sure?"
Bam. Nailed it. Despite the property damage on the road, he'd probably just earned some brownie points with the police, as well as potentially gained some new valuable recruits. Then there was the Paragon meeting that needed to be held in regards to both this conflict (as Patriot was eager to know what had gone down), as well as the earlier conflict with... oh, what was his name again... oh, that Larua fellow. No doubts Warren had managed to recruit the guy to his side, so everything was still working as the caped wonder had planned. Oh, and those new faces he saw assisting against Larua. Possible recruitment there as well.
Today was a productive damn day.
@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @Captain Cardboard
Lady
"King."
Lady pondered on the word for a moment. It sounded like an important word. Maybe it was a name. She wanted to meet King. She'd almost forgotten Celice was still talking before the girl mentioned taking something to this King. Her hospital gown. "Yes. King. Meet him." Lady nodded, beginning to feel more and more confident with her vocabulary and line delivery.
And so, the ladies were off. They'd returned to the apartment to collect Lady's discarded gown before they made their way through the city, and came to a stop at a particular manhole down a dank alley. A few homeless people were nearby, living out of cardboard boxes or makeshift tents, all wearing old, heavy clothes. All staring at the girls as they made their way to the manhole. Lady couldn't help but feel a sense of intimidation, looking at each of the faces staring back at her.
Celice paid no mind to it, however, as she struggled with the manhole for a moment, lifting it and moving it aside. Immediately, Lady was hit with a pungent stench. She wrinkled her nose, looking at Celice. "Stinks." She stated. The girl nodded. "Yep." Then she gestured to the hole in the ground. Lady stared at it for a moment, suddenly not feeling really keen on meeting King. However, as Celice insisted. Lady reluctantly slipped her legs down the hole, finding the ladder, and descended into the darkness beneath, Celice following, stopping for a moment to put the manhole cover back in place above them.
"Still stinks."
@BurbleBurble
Damian Foster
The researcher held Skade's gaze, though not in a challenging sort of manner, nor in a stand-my-ground type of way, either. It was more in awe and respect, though lacking the fear and common sense to look away when death put her face in yours. Not much else was shared on the ride back to the states, and eventually, they did arrive. The sun was dipping below the horizon as the floor of the warehouse once again opened up to swallow their shuttle whole, descending down into the depths of Warren's labs.
Once the doors had opened, the other researchers were quick to file out, eager to be away from Skade and Ignizio, who Damian spoke to in a cheerful tone. "Follow me, I'll give you a brief tour before I show you to your quarters. There's a lot to cover, and Mr. Warren wants to make sure you won't get lost down here. It's kind of a maze. One of our researchers actually starved to death when he wandered into the old maintenance passages and couldn't find his way back out. His body wasn't recovered until several months later. Everyone just assumed he'd quit. This way." Damian began to lead the pair into the room Ignizio had already become somewhat familiar with. The room that breathed, almost as if a giant slumbered beneath them in the dark. "This is what Mr. Warren calls 'the cage'. Don't ask about what's beneath us in the pit. Nobody knows. We've sent teams to investigate, but... well, they all came back. They just weren't alive. In this room, we house mostly clones. This is where Mr. Warren creates his artificial supers in an attempt to make something that can defeat Patriot."
@BurbleBurble @OmnipotentOnion
Charles Warren
The billionaire stopped for a moment, seeming to inspect Dr. Chrome from a distance, before he closed the distance in stride, wearing a smile on his face. "Chrome!" He called, interrupting the conversation, "You haven't aged a day. Or, well, you've aged rather terribly. You look like a Tibetan monk who just broke his 50's." he joked with a chuckle, before coming to a stop. "But we're both busy men, so I'll keep pleasantries short. You mentioned you wanted to see me."
@The Dark Fairy
CL-9
"I suppose that is a logical conclusion. Regardless, I'd much rather be notified of an event like this. There's at least seventeen thousand different scenarios in which you could have been harmed in a security breach like this. I'm going to speak to War-" The android paused, blinking. With her attitude adjustment, and development... Warren would surely just give her a hard reset and she'd be back to square one. No, she'd need to go a little down the ladder. "Erm- I'll speak to security about this. Warren is... a busy man. I'm sure he needn't worry about something like this."
@The Dark Fairy
