Private/Closed The Paragons - Act I

[comic]

Dr. Laura Jackson, Zephyr
His pale, dead eyes continued to bore holes into Kinzoku's. "Immature... weak..." His gaze returned to Dr. Jackson. "The list goes... on, doctor." he drew in a rather shaky breath, before the doctor let out a sigh. "Sorry, Subject 5, but I'm working on Warren's orders. Are you attempting to undermine his authority?"
Zephyr was now silent, and Dr. Jackson gave him a satisfied smirk. "Thought not. I believe you have something important to be doing right now, as do I, so let's not waste each other's time any longer than we have." With that, she began to walk again, Kinzoku following along behind her, Zephyr watching them for a few moments, before his body disappeared in the blink of an eye, his form having shifted into a draft of wind.
"He's the testiest of the bunch." Jackson explained to Kinzoku. "The others are a lot more... open-minded but also a lot less chatty." She led him to an elevator, which spiraled slowly down, deeper and deeper into the facility. "You'll learn more about them all in time."

@Shadow_Pup

Damian Foster
It wasn't often that Foster's face of transfixed adoration was shattered, but this was one of those moments as he blinked a couple times, before he frowned, his brow scrunching in confusion. "I... don't understand. The Illusion is named Luna? She has a daughter? And I... tricked them?" His face then lit up, realization dawning on him. "Oooh, you mean something I'm going to do." He appeared conflicted once again. "Which doesn't make sense either, I'm not sure Mr. Warren would allow me to pull any tricks on you guys, even if I wanted to."

@The Dark Fairy @BurbleBurble @OmnipotentOnion

CL-9
It was conflicting, being given this choice. On one hand, she was sure Lilian could use some alone time to sort herself out, and she wouldn't know half the things they'd need to pack for such an abrasive journey, but on the other hand, being left alone to her thoughts, which most people suffering from any sort of mental anxiety or depression would use to worsen their state- usually. She wasn't sure if Lilian would do that or not, but on both hands there were pros and cons.
"Well, uh... I think you should do what you want to do." The android offered. "We're not so different, you know. We're both fleeing from enslavement. Yours is just... far more prolonged." No need to sugar coat it. They were used like slaves, simple as that. She doubted Lilian had been asked for what she genuinely wanted in a long time. Maybe by Warren in an attempt to drop her guard and give her a false sense of fairness, which was never true with the man. Even with Mr. Carter, they'd always done things he wanted to do. Not that Lilian had many good ideas of what to do, but as her chaperone, CL-9 had seen how rather one-sided their relationship appeared on surface value. Perhaps it was awkward, considering they were picking up after such a long hiatus of believing one another dead.

@The Dark Fairy

Cretecon
"Real pretty." The rock-man's eyes grazed over the illusion cast around them, giving the impression of a forest. "Reminds me of Abernathy, but much more... fake." His smirk was unwavering as he grabbed the door he'd knocked down, lifting it up with one of his hands, gaze flitting from each of them. Immediately, Edmund burst through the window, breaking the illusion for a moment, affirming to Cretecon that their intel was solid. Now just to see if the other bits were...
He tossed the door at the nearest Fae while they were distracted with Handyman's appearance, the wooden frame flying like a frisbee. Even if the Fae being attacked managed to dodge or block this blow, Cretecon was already leading a follow-up attack, his other hand forming around an iron bar on the bed frame, and ripping it off before tightening his grip, and swiping with a lethal swing through the air that would burst any normal person apart like a melon.
"Can't bring your friends though, no hard feelings." Cretecon added to Edmund's remark after his entrance.

@OmnipotentOnion @The Dark Fairy @ThePlayfulFox @BurbleBurble

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“A cape! One that does the woooosh and looks all sparkly!”

Percy then ran from one side of the room to the other to demonstrate the ‘woooosh’, coming back around to Kerco, putting a hand on his chest.

“All kings and princes have capes, I am the bestest of all of them, so I deserve one! It’s almost embarrassing not to have a cape this soon before my big surface debut!”

 

[BurbleBurble]

Ansel

The walk was...Eerie. There was a whole air of...impending doom.

No one was talking. They were definitely the strongest people in the world, led by the strongest man in the world, but...There was something bad about this.

Maybe it was just the underhandedness of it all. On both sides. Sparkblade was probably slinking through the tunnels beneath Warren Industries at the time. Warren himself was probably sitting in his office, legs kicked up on the table and doing...uh...CEO things. Like, when you're that rich, you can't be doing much, right?

...Kind of a weird duality Ansel just picked up on- In a way, both Patriot and Charles Warren were the strongest men in the world. Just one led with actual power that made him untouchable, and the other had soft power in a nigh infinite supply of money and people willing to die at your feet. And, uh, they had both shook hands with Ansel on an occasion. It was very brief, but they had!

He looked to Infinity, who seemed to be struggling with a pair of heavy metal gauntlets. The lead weakness?

"Hey, um, Infinity? Not to be a drag, but...Wouldn't a gun with lead bullets be more practical?" It was a little late to point out by now. "I'm sure you have the money to get lead bullets made at the least. If all those guys on TV shows and crap say 'eat lead' but then use, like, nickel bullets or something...What are bullets made of anyways..."

They had to be getting close to the bar. How did Patriot know? It wasn't in the database- Ansel had just been looking through it the night before, not on Larua specifically, but the ninjas had minimal information in the first place. Larua had literally only shown his face the day before, so he couldn't be in the system, unless Infinity thought it was a good idea to preemptively put it in. Maybe Patriot had information brokers working for him around the clock...Would explain the photos of Warren and the ninjas.

Not that Ansel was about to ask about it. He preferred his innards where they were.

-----
Celice

A distorted voice came over. Yep, she had found her hacker.

Celice got down to business.

"Call me the Scavenger. I'm not one to go for intel usually, but this is a special case. And I feel like your are one of the few to give me a half decent answer." She tried to get her voice low, so Lady wouldn't overhear and blab about it aloud. "Specifically, I need information pertaining to Warren Industries experiments...'Subjects'."

Celice paused, glancing at Lady. She didn't seem to have picked up on what Celice was talking about. "I know for a fact Warren Industries is pretty tight lipped about...well, everything. But I have no other realistic leads. I'm looking for come to some sort of arrangement with this as a result." While she did this, Celice decided to check her wallet. Surely she had some amount of cash left to help cover some of this...

Huh. If Big Brain wanted six dollars and seventy five cents, she was in the right market.

"...And I'm not exactly liquid, so maybe there's something I can do for you in exchange for the intel that isn't cash. Dirty work or stuff like that."

-----
Doctor Chase

Well, he didn't have many options huh?

Stuck with a computer that wasn't turning on, possibly having just told his employer that he knew quite a lot and did, in fact, want to betray him for his constant reaching for goalposts and being utterly overshadowed. But he had his instructions now. And the prospect of learning something Warren didn't, well...Tempting, very very tempting.

Given more time, Chase may of decided to brick most of the hard drives in the room. Already had a magnet in the room to do exactly that. But he was told to give haste, and with Warren having visited so soon ago, he likely wasn't keeping a close eye on him. Hell, Warren never let himself keep a personal eye on Chase. Why would he? He clearly trusted this Obsidian, mistake that might be.

So shoving a pack of cigarettes and his lighter in his pocket, once again stomping out the one that had fallen to the floor. And left his office, for the first time since the incident the day before. Casually entered the elevator, clicked the button for Sublevel 77. No smoking for now. No chewing nails either. Didn't want to leave behind DNA, and he had chewed most of them off. He simply...tapped his foot. All he could do.

He'd be at Riker base soon enough.

-----
Necrodytis

The walk was uneventful. Even in crowds, Necrodytis did not receive a specific berth, nor attention. Good. She was managing to blend in. The walk to the location eventually caused the crowds to dwindle in size, before Necrodytis had arrived on a particularly deserted street. And one figure stood out to her distinctly.

A woman had looked directly at Necrodytis. Usually this would be a sign of alarm, but given then she turned on a dime and walked into a shady alleyway, there was a high chance this was in fact the Lady in Black. Enough of a chance for the disguised Necrodytis to try and make contact.

Strolling down the hallway, with a slight clink with every step, staring down her assumed mercenary companion from behind her sunglasses.

"Lad-" She had begun speaking in her normal tone of voice. Right, no mask. She'd have to mask her voice in other ways. Necrodytis cleared her throat. And immediately pitched down her voice. "Lady in Black."

Which was probably highly amusing to the Lady in Black.

-----
Dog-Man

Riddick stayed silent. Listening intently. Didn't need a break. No need to talk.

John nearby. Familiar scent. No need for visuals- He still made sound, still had a scent. Sound obscured by the shattering of wood- Dust kicking up as Cretecon made his way inside. Riddick remained at his post. Obedient. Concierge behind the desk within, watching in fear as his career fell apart in front of him as a gigantic man of stone smashed his way up the building.

Riddick heard it all. Another door shattering on the floor above. Sniper shots, Handyman's handiwork. Shattering of glass. Still the Handyman at work. Conflict broiling above. Distant sounds of accelerated plant growth- a distinct noise, unmistakably the work of Rose.

Dog-Man tightened his grip on the baton. The fae would be pouring out her soon enough.

"Keep focused."

His advice to John, whom he lost track of with the noise pollution. Scent returning, but still hard to pick up.

-----
Skade

Oh? Kronos had seen something. To do with Luna.

And Skade laughed. Daughter! Luna had gone on and got herself a daughter, one who was now presumably in some form of danger. Luna was always a soft hearted one. Daughter with who, Skade did not know or care- But the fact she had gone on and had one. And Skade knew whoever was doing this was, in fact, doing.

"Haha, you know Luna. So high and mighty. Doubt her daughter is too far from the tree- and probably worships the earth Luna stands on. So put the daughter in a situation, forces her out of hiding." Though Skade shrugged. "Or maybe Luna despises her child, and we'll just have to hope that the daughter can point us in the direction of her. Or not, doesn't really matter. She shows up, she doesn't- Patriot falls all the same."

Skade looked to Kronos. "So enough beating around the bush. You going to keep sitting on this beach until it's time, or are you going to come and live a little?"

Though what Skade briefly brought up with 'it's time' probably aroused some questions.

 

[The Dark Fairy]

Kerco folded his paper, sliding it in his pocket. "Big debut? I haven't heard anything about this, whats are you doing?" Kerco asked, a little worried about what the self proclaimed monarch could be planning, though he was useful, he was still very naïve.

Kronos looked at Damian, shacking his head "I dont mean you in a person, you as in the company." Kronos glanced at Skade "I was waiting for you two to see me, though, for a long while I was expecting you sooner, I see you were delayed."

Lilian looked up, looking like she had something to say edgewise, but looked back out in the street, they had to get moving "I'll get in, less chance for them to see us, we dont want that now, if you need me, make sure its in a place I can come out unseen."

Scath raised her hand, her eyes narrowing as she used her powers on this cocky rock man. Cretecons shadow detached from his feet, rising behind him as it took on a more three domanial shape, eyes glowing red as it animated. Scath gaive a slight smirk as it brought its fists down on Cretecon.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Crosshair looked to his watch. It was far past 11:30. That was the time Sparkblade had texted him to meet up at the Paragon tower for the meeting, the one Crosshair had no intention on going to. Crosshair checked his phone. A strike on Warren Industries. How long would it take for the attack to start? A half an hour? An hour? Had the attack started already? Sparkblade had said that he wasn't going to miss it.

A crackle of electricity caught Crosshair's attention, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of red. Sparkblade? Moving as silently as he could, the vigilante made his way down the alleyway he had been lurking in. Looking carefully around the corner, he watched as a manhole cover was moved closed again. A sewer assault. Lovely. If only he had just minded his own business yesterday in the sewer. If he went down there, he risked blowing Sparkblade's assault. But why was he going in alone, and stealthily? Crosshair had assumed the Paragons were going in on a full frontal assault. Perhaps he should have attended that meeting.

Crosshair sat in the alleyway. He needed a moment to think. He needed to assume that Warren had eyes and ears everywhere. In the Paragon tower, in Crosshair's own hideouts, the phones, street cameras... How does one do a stealth approach on an all-seeing eye?

By focusing its attention elsewhere. Was that the plan of the Paragons? An assault at a separate location could divert his attention. But what could Crosshair do? Trying to infiltrate Warren Industries at the same time could throw Sparkblade's plan at risk.

The vigilante made his move. Crosshair began to run through the abandoned allyways, making his way towards the Warren Industry loading dock. He'd hide and wait to make a move from there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once in the alleyway, Lady turned and watched as the disguised Necrodytis followed her into the alleyway. She spoke in what sounded like her normal voice for a moment, and the Lady in Black made no effort to hide an amused smile. How adorable.
"Necro, darling." The Lady in Black said. The mercenary walked around Necrodytis, looking her superpowered friend's outfit up and down. "I must say, this is quite a look for you! Very 'woman of mystery'. I like it."

"Well then, let's get going shall we?" The Lady in Black said. "We do still have a bit of a way to walk."
The Lady in Black began to make her way down the alleyway. This particular alleyway put out onto Baron Street, one of the streets that the police was using to create their perimeter. Lady crouched in the darkness of the alleyway, watching as the police monitored the area around their barricade. The Lady in Black checked her watch. Perfect timing.

Almost out of nowhere, a truck barreled down the street and smashed into a part of the police barricade. Officers and civilians alike let out cries in surprise, rushing over to the crashed vehicle and leaving a perfect opening for the Lady in Black and Necrodytis. The mercenary calmly walked across the street, easily making her way over the police barricade and into the evacuated zone without anyone so much as batting an eye. Making her way out of eyesight of the barricade, Lady glanced back to Necrodytis.

"You don't have to hide your voice, by the way. It's not like I can do much with that information, and we might have some bigger things to focus on soon." The Lady in Black commented.

 

[ThePlayfulFox]

Destiny sat down at her desk and leaned back in her chair, listening to her new client. "I find your job interesting. However, I find little use in people running around doing errands. I prefer to do stuff myself, as there is more garentee that my objective will be done." She paused, smiling to herself. "And since you don't have much in the way of money, I might have to turn this down." She gave another pause, trying to make the woman more desperate for her help. "Although, there is another option for pay. Knowledge is a very, very, powerful tool. Give me a piece of hidden information that's considered important, and I'll consider it paid." Destiny smiled at her deal as she started to get to work on Kecro's assignment for her.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“Oh you know...not much.” The self proclaimed king fiddled with his scepter. “Just going to the overworld for the first time ever, announcing my country! It’s gonna be so so so big! Like, killing all criminals and people they hate will give me so much respect! Like, I’d like to see patriot live up to my numbers! Muhahaha!”

It was a genius plan with no faults, no doubt about that. If anyone had an issue with such a plan, he wouldn’t know what was wrong with them.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Infinity
He heard Ansel and looked up at him "oh the gauntlets are actually more useful as his immortality isn't dampened by the lead meaning he can still heal, therefore he would just expel the bullet from his body, with the gauntlets I can grab hold of him and keep him restrained long enough to be dealt with" he said with a slight shrug as he dusted off the cobwebs and dust from the gauntlets, they had been made in the late 16th century and he had kept them locked away all this time.

Kinzoku
After watching the strange dude disappear he followed the doctor listening intently "There are more like him, are they human or robots like the woman I failed to catch" he said, silently wondering why Warren had someone like him when he could make his own powered beings, He scratched his chin as his halo casually floated alongside him. Warren had a lot of people working for him but they all seamed to be very different people from the Doctor Chase who he had seen with the two women, Doctor Jackson who seemed surprisingly nice and gentle and Zephyr who seemed very violent and creepy. He shrugged considering how diverse the world was it was pretty much to be expected, he turned his focus back to where he was being led.

 

[comic]

Patriot
Despite all of his power, all of his strength, his image, his fame, despite seeming virtually untouchable in every sense to anybody outside of his own mind, there was indeed something that had haunted him throughout all the long years of his life. Regret. That stung, and it lingered like a mental scar that would flare up at any time something reminded him of that which he regretted. Not only that, but it was something he couldn't punch out of his life. Hell, he'd even tried a few times, nearly giving himself a concussion with his own fists, one of the few times he'd actually experienced physical pain, no less at his own hand.
What could the most powerful man alive possibly regret? The answer was simple. Everything. The implications that went along with that answer were far more complicated. Here he was, capable of effortlessly destroying buildings with his bare hands, capable of ripping the human body apart with just a blow of breath, capable of melting through the toughest materials known to man with his own eyes. Here he was, loved by the public, feared by his enemies, looked up to by almost every person who knew his name. He was a global icon, a beacon, a ray of hope. So what did he have to regret?

Perhaps it was the life he'd once had. The life he'd lost. His time with Eve had been some of the best years of his life, and despite how much it hurt to think about it, he still could remember her fondly. Her smile, her dimples, that twinkle in her eyes every time he caught her staring at him... That had been years ago, and when he'd learned her truth, he'd made the worst mistake of his life. He'd snuffed out that twinkle. Stained her fair skin with crimson. Wiped the smile off her face permanently. Blind rage was his last resort, he understood that now. Destroy something causing distress to make it leave. It had worked in his escape at Warren's original facility. It had failed at his heart's betrayal. Failed so horribly that it had destroyed him irreparably. After that, he'd wandered aimlessly for a long time before he met Cretecon and his crew. Joined them, performed heists, assassinations... Cretecon showed him another side of the world for lost souls like him, and Patriot had eagerly latched onto it. Despite his attempts at being 'the good guy', he simply wasn't. This he knew all too well. His heart and soul were tainted at their very core, and despite the pure demeanor he placed upfront, he was nothing like the public viewed him as. As unbreakable as he was, he only hid just how broken he'd become. A shell of the man he used to be. Wasted potential.
That was merely one of his regrets. He had a slew of others that chewed away at him almost daily. Oftentimes he could ignore them, put on a show, but there were days where he couldn't face the cameras, the people, the questions... there were days he desired to be alone. He wanted something to destroy, but until now, he'd never found something to do this to. Now there was Larua. Forsythe's lost brother, who could apparently take a hit from Patriot and live by stealing his power. Question was- how long could Larua hold against him? Patriot doubted the man would reach near the amount of power Patriot was truly capable of, let alone beat him in a one-on-one. And if it got a little too messy? Toss him in the sun. That usually solved problems, and while it wasn't public knowledge, Patriot had thrown dozens of people, super or not, into the star the planet orbited. Incinerated into nothing. Erased. That's how he liked it.
He just hoped Forsythe wouldn't be too upset if his brother was turned into a fine paste for rodents to snack on. The plan to get Larua recruited by Warren had worked, allowing for the evidence to effectively militarize his Paragons against Warren in a strike to preemptively eliminate Warren forever. Before he could enact his own plans against Patriot, something he knew Warren was working on.

That all ended today.
"This is it." Patriot commented as they neared the inconspicuous bar, cornering a ghostly empty street. His usually stern gaze intensified for a moment, a physical quirk to using his x-ray vision. "He's inside. I don't see anything else yet, but be on your guard. Warren may not care for Larua, but he'll want to scavenge the remains to extract his DNA. My goal is to make sure that there's nothing left to find. Your goals are to keep anything distracting off my back." Needlessly rehashing the plan, with a few additional notices, he cracked his neck, pushing away all of the inner thoughts for now. His worries. His regrets. He had a person to kill, and if the battle was going to be as entertaining as he hoped... well, it would nicely allow him to vent some of his frustrations out on Larua. He could presumably take more hits than Warren, so this would be far more satisfying than knocking the old man into oblivion.
Without signifying that their act was underway, a sudden explosion of rock, stone, and brick filled everyone's vision, Patriot having shattered through the bar, now standing directly in front of the patiently waiting Larua, all taking place in the blink of an eye. Almost immediately, the sound of a siren began to ring through the streets, something Patriot ignored as his gaze locked onto Larua's eyes, who was a lot shorter and thinner than the Paragon Leader. "You don't mind if I rip out your spine, do you?"

This siren however, signified something else. As almost immediately, the ground began to rumble around them, pebbles, debris, all shaking heavily on the earth, forcing the Paragons to wobble on their feet to stay balanced. It felt almost like a serious earthquake- which wasn't far off as the siren continued to grow louder, like some kind of World War II air raid siren, and a shadow fell across the land, a chunk of the city itself rising out of the ground, tearing itself away from the streets and buildings, the concrete jungle quite literally ripped in two as the floating city rose higher, Warren Industries dominating the center of it. Dozens of waterfalls poured out from the broken pipes within the chunk of earth the city sat upon, hundreds of various thrusters all around its underside with one massive rocket taking up the middle.
A spectacle to behold, for sure, but the Paragons were left without much time to react, as almost immediately a series of two dozen vessels dotted the sky, growing nearer at an alarming. And once near enough, their sides opened, revealing these vessels to be some kind of troop carrier of sorts, quickly followed by individuals leaping from high out of the air to crash onto the street around them, each individual aircraft seeming to hold eight of these figures each. The figures in question gleamed brightly, with shiny metal bodies, their faces less human than their human figures, their faces completely blank save for several red lenses in a line along where their eyes would be. It was obvious that they weren't here to make friends.

(That's right. Disposable CGI army fight.)

@BurbleBurble @Shadow_Pup @Funny Sans Rat

Damian Foster
He didn't seem to catch onto what Skade had said- either that or chose not to address it. Instead, he rose to his full height, which was easily outclassed by the present Heralds that dwarfed him, and he straightened his lab coat. "Then would you kindly join us in our return to Warren Industries?" He asked. "With you already on board, we may be able to attempt recruitment methods of Luna sooner opposed to later. That is, unless Mr. Warren really is doing something to Luna's daughter. Then I suppose we- or more accurate I wait."

@BurbleBurble @OmnipotentOnion @The Dark Fairy

Cretecon
Scath might have been surprised at the lack of a physical reaction from the 'cocky rock man' as his conjured shadow attempted to pummel him, the herald child trying to manipulate and possibly even frighten someone who was simply immune to most anything a normal human would succumb to.
His shadow pounded away at his back, which Cretecon either didn't notice, or just didn't pay attention to as the nearest fairy failed to dodge his incoming attack, getting thwacked cleanly over the head with the iron bar, knocking it to the ground, immediately followed by him ramming the bar through its middle, breaking through the floor beneath it, the bar piercing through the ceiling below them, its spine severed in the blink of an eye.

Finally, he registered the shadow, raising a quizzical brow at it. So it seemed he just hadn't noticed it. With one fairy already dead, and the large man of rock apparently incapable of feeling pain (or quite possibly anything physical), his gaze fell on Scath. "I was told you'd be more intimidating." He scoffed roughly, waving his arm at the shadow, which momentarily dissipated at his lack of interest. "All I see is some conjurer of cheap tricks."
Obviously Cretecon valued physical strength over any illusions Scath could attempt to create, and he was effectively asserting himself as far from her league just by himself, let alone his accomplices being capable of asserting the same things in their own right. If she didn't realize she was outclassed and outmatched now, she would soon.

@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @The Dark Fairy @ThePlayfulFox

Warren Industries
Out of nowhere, the ground began to shake for all within or near Warren Industries. This all became much clearer for some as the rest of New York fell away, the chunk of earth rising high into the air as a series of ships departed from the roof of Warren Industries. Crosshair could see the clouds grow closer, Sparkblade had nearly been unfortunate enough to be left behind as the tunnel he was in literally tore away from the rest, leaving him on the edge to delve deeper inside. Looking back he could see the city falling away to be replaced with the sky. Within the complex, Kinzoku and Dr. Laura Jackson wobbled on the spot for a moment, before the world restabilized beneath them.
"Oh... shit..." Laura muttered under her breath, fumbling under her lab coat for a moment before producing a small handheld radio that she brought up to her mouth. "I haven't delivered the package." She said immediately into it, quickly followed by a quiet voice replying with; "Proceed as planned."

Pursing her lips, Laura put away the radio, gaze falling on Kinzoku for a moment. "Change of plans, Warren's taken the facility airborne. He's initiated Code Emerald, we're taking a shortcut.
With that, their pace quickened. She led Kinzoku toward a wall, which was quickly revealed to not be as such when she placed her hand against it, and the wall slid away to reveal a tunnel bathed in scarlet light. It was a series of twists and turns that led through the facility in a much more complex yet quicker way than just the general halls and elevators. Eventually, they came to what seemed to be a dead-end, before her hand once again made the wall slide away to reveal another room, one that was mostly empty save for a yet unintroduced figure within, standing patiently against a pillar. The room itself was also bathed in the same red light, presumably as well as the rest of the facility now with 'Code Emerald' being active. The only details about this figure that could be seen were the western style hat that covered their head, and the duster they wore beneath a heavy poncho. Looked almost like some kind of cowboy cosplayer, complete with a heavy cigar that briefly lit up his rough, bearded face in a ruby light. He had a stink-eye focused on the pair as they entered, almost as though he were trying to imitate Clint Eastwood.
"That's Subject 6. He goes by Quickdraw." Laura informed Kinzoku. "Be respectful and he'll like you. The others are... busy, I guess. I'll leave you to it."
Before he could speak, Dr. Jackson had left him in the room alone with Quickdraw, the wall sealing behind her. The cowboy wannabe made no move to introduce himself, or even speak, merely puffing on his cigar and staring at Kinzoku through squinted eyes.

@Shadow_Pup

Meanwhile, as Crosshair adjusted to both this new development of a floating city, as well as the changing altitude, a lone figure caught his eye. In fact, it was really hard to miss this thing as it stood near the entrance to the loading dock, several armed men surrounding him, carrying crates and whatnot, though instead of the semi trucks that usually occupied the loading dock, instead there was one single aircraft that took up most of the available space. The men were loading crates onto this aircraft, that appeared almost like an over-sized stealth jet, but much bulkier and clearly militarized, with turrets and missile chambers lining its massive wings.
The man that caught Crosshair's attention was far different than those he commanded. The most obvious differences was the fact that his entire body was noticeably engulfed in emerald flames that lazily flickered about. He didn't seem to be wearing anything but that was hardly important. Bits of charred skin and bone could be seen beneath the sage-like fire as it flared about, but his face was a full-fledged skull, any skin or organs burnt away (which begged the question as to why he was functioning without a brain but oh well, superhuman logic).
He didn't speak, probably due to the lack of vocal cords, and instead simply watched the men, or pointed at a place for them to deliver their cargo.

@Captain Cardboard

Last but not least, as Sparkblade adjusted to the developing situation, he wasn't given a whole lot of time to react as the moment he could see the sky, a sudden gust of wind blew in through the broken entrance, nearly knocking him over. This wouldn't have been all that interesting, as strong breezes at higher altitudes would make sense, especially since the tunnel led somewhere, but it was the strange, cruel familiarity of the wind that forced Shuzo on his guard, and for good reason. Any suspicions he may have had was immediately confirmed as when he turned to continue back along the tunnel, a figure blocked his way. A familiar one. Subject 3, Zephyr, in his grey armor with his pale, dead skin beneath, his cold white eyes unblinkingly staring back through the red lenses into the Shuzo's.
"Sur... prise..." His airy voice echoed.

@OmnipotentOnion

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Crosshair managed to barely keep his footing as the ground shook under his feet. What was happening? An earthquake? Now?! No way was this a coincidence. The ground began to pitch and move up, and the vigilante fell to his knees. Was the entire city breaking apart? Heck, was this the signal Crosshair was supposed to be looking for?

After a few moments, the shaking stopped. But the feeling of rising, like being in an elevator, didn't. Crosshair looked back to find that the rest of the city was... sinking?! No, the city wasn't sinking... They were floating. Was Warren really behind this? What was that man thinking?!

Crosshair looked around the corner of the building he was hiding behind, towards the loading dock. No trucks. Not much cover. And quite a few armed men, with what appeared to be a powered human supervising them. This wasn't a villain like Crosshair had ever encountered before. He was almost a mix of the villain 'The Skeletal Gentleman' and the hero 'Fire Girl'. Some sort of pyrokinetic abilities, perhaps? If Crosshair was going to engage these guys, it would be best to do it on his own terms.

Crosshair dug through his bag, pulling out an assault rifle and making a few attachments to it. Silencer. Scope. New clip. Flicking off the safety, Crosshair carefully aimed down the sights towards the loading dock. With a nearly silent 'pew!', Crosshair fired five times. He was aiming for the security cameras. After taking out the ones he could see, Crosshair quickly through his gun and duffle bag over his shoulder and ran back into the cover of the alleyway. The viglante made his way through one of the abandoned houses, attempting to circle around and ready an attack on the loading dock from a different angle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Our target is in a shipping container. It's a small suitcase, the contents of which I haven't been told. What I have been able to observe is that it's highly guarded, inside an abandoned warehouse with quite a few men guarding it. They look rather official and well trained, with some higher quality weapons. Guard rotations, alarms, security cameras, all the works." The Lady in Black explained. "But with the two of us, it shouldn't be a-"

Then everything happened.

The Lady in Black looked over at Necrodytis as the chunk of city they were standing in front of them began to raise into the sky. The Lady in Black watched it for a moment before simply shrugging.
"Welp, so much for that job. I hope the place you were staying wasn't in that area of the city." The Lady in Black said, turning to walk away from the chaos.

 

[OmnipotentOnion]

Shuzo

As he continued through the maintenance facilities, Shuzo's senses were alerted to an echoing rumble as the ground began to shake. Regaining his footing after a brief moment of surprise, he then noticed fissures erupting along the walls of the tunnels as the shaking grew louder, and he instinctively drew his blades in preparation for whatever happened next.

....Unfortunately, nothing he could do would ever prepare him even a little bit for what happened next.

Piercing through the din of quaking earth and falling chunks of rock was a resounding crack, as the rest of the tunnel before him was torn off the ground. The smaller resultant fissures snaked toward Shuzo, forcing him to back away, but as he watched the other side of the tear begin to lift off, it became clearer to the Paragon exactly what was going on.

The chunk of earth had already gained several feet of altitude, steadily climbing higher and higher, as Shuzo felt the ground beneath him following suit. The ninja sheathed his swords and took a deep breath to compose himself before heading deeper into the flying facility. However, just as he surged forward into a sprint, a sudden gust of wind slammed into his back, knocking him back onto the ground. With a curse muttered under his breath as he stood to his feet after a rather nasty fall and several rolls, Shuzo narrowed his eyes as a familiar figure stood before him.

"You again? I thought Li shoved a pipe through you last time we spoke. How's your neck?"

Only brandishing his daisho, Shuzo unsheathed the sword and pointed it at the wind user, electricity crackling around both body and blade.

"Better hope it's healed by now, 'cause it's about to get a lot worse."

Edmund

As the next few scenes unfolded, Edmund whistled in fascination, a smirk pulling at his corners. However, despite his visible captivation with Scath's ability, it only took but a cursory glance at his arms to notice what was happening.

"C'mon, boss; I think they're a little interesting~ Sucks that ours are just better."

Rather than sharp, curved blades, the Handyman now sported a long chain sprouting from both arms, equipped with a lasso end and tough as steel. With a sudden dash forward, Edmund lashed out and whipped the chains around the necks of two other fairies, bringing his arms together to slam the fae into each other. The chains then retracted back into Edmund's flesh, and the mercenary immediately swapped weapons, now brandishing large spiked maces as he smiled with mock warmth at his targets.

"This could be so much easier and cleaner if y'all just kindly cooperated; shame it has to get a little messy now."

 

[DevVoid]

For Ryan, it seemed just like an average day. The disguised alien had taken just a casual stroll down a street a couple blocks down from the buildings from the large companies, such as Warren Industries. Originally, Ryan had just planned to getting himself a few- ..no, that's not quite right, for someone with a big hunger like him. Ryan had just come from one restaurant and was already looking for another to fill his stomach at some more, when he felt a quake in the ground. An earthquake, at this time? Well, the cause of it was soon revealed, as a big patch of the city ahead was suddenly raised from the ground and shot into the air, thrusters fueling its velocity at the very bottom of the chunk of rock. Atop the chunk? Seemed like the buildings of that Warren Industries Company were taken up by the multitude of rockets.

Well, while he was planning on getting some more grub, considering his stomach would be fine for atleast a quick investigation and maybe some fighting, if it came down to it, Ryg decided to investigate. After all, how often is it that one gets to see a literal chunk of the city you live in just completely blast off like it's planning to settle on a different planet?

So, while the people around him were just looking at the floating chunk of rock, concrete and rocket thrusters take off, Ryg navigated into a dark alley, hiding behind a trash dumpster to shift himself into 'Silent Night'. Lucky for him, he never had to change clothes since he could just morph them onto himself.

With that, the Vigilante was soon up in the air, flying with large black bat wings on his back that made large flaps only every few seconds thanks to Silent Night weighing so little that one flap would already be enough to get him a considerable boost into the air. Silent Night flew in upwards dashes into the sky, quickly catching up with the rising chunk of land, and positioned himself above it, but not directly over it, just to overlook it for now without entering it and being on the lookout for anyone that could need help or for someone currently in danger.

 

[The Dark Fairy]

Kerco knew he was walking on eggshells now, this could end disastrously, he looked up a moment before looking down at him again “Percy, I don’t think that’s advisable.” He placed a hand in his chest “You like me, right? I’m a criminal, not to mention other fine people that either were falsely accused or are sorry.” He paused a second “Do you know that I’ve cream place I get stuff from? The owner is Dan, and he works hard every week making sure everything works to make his ice cream, but back a while, he was a theif, broke in, was caught, went to jail.” He shook his head “You would never be able to get his ice cream if he was dead.” As he finished his thought, the ground shook, intensely at first, but then calming down (as the city grew further from the ground).

Scath frowned slightly, most humans, even supers usually were not much against her, so this surprised her. She grabbed one of the beds between herself and her opponent, picking it up and throwing it at the ground, breaking a hole in the floor, her shadowy shell, motioning to the fairies to leave, the two jumping in the hole. Scath took a stride forward, her real body slipping out the bodies leg, the shell stepping around the bed, the motion seamless and the glowing red eyes never left Creteton, motioning him on, her real body flying to the head of the bed, readying herself to fly out the window.

Kronos stood, the fire would be fine where it was, left to smolder to nothing on the beach. “Yes, let us go...” he looked at the sea for a moment “...it really is a shame.” He murmured, though not all that audible to Damion. He turned to the chopper “Let’s be off! We will be late as it is.”

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

The prince thought. The more he though, the more he began to see the holes in his plan. He began to look more and more irritated. His trash throne flew over to him, the pompous prince plopping down on it.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuugh!!” He dramatically groaned. “I hate that your right! After all that planning...just UGH! Well then what do YOU suggest? What could I, the most important person in this entire city, do to get all that positive attention??”

As he explained his woes to his guest, the ground began to rumble. His mounds of goodies began to topple with the magnitudes around, that is, until they stopped.

“Woah Woah HEY! What was THAT? Don’t tell me those Upworlders are at it again up there...”

 

[Void_Nugget]

Kinzoku
"What's going on, come on dont leave me with the cowboy.." he started to say as she left. Kinzoku sighed and turned to face Quickdraw, he held out his hand "hey uh nice to meet you, my name is Kinzoku or should I say Archangel, I don't know" he stated as his halo flew around his head in confusion as he wondered what the hell was happening, Laura had stated so many things that he found intriguing bit guessed he would find out when he needed to.

Larua & Infinity
Watching as the dust settled Larua smirked at Patriot's question, "My spine, sure take it, then I'll use it to kill you and then I'll kill those stupid drones outside and finally I'll kill that damn old man" he said before launching himself slightly up and then punching into the ground to dig through and then attempted to collide with Patriot as he resurfaced. Forsythe lurked nearby keeping an eye on his deranged brother waiting to strike with the gauntlets, as he waited he snapped the neck of the drone who had tried to sneak up on him and let the body hit the floor.
@comic

 

[BurbleBurble]

Ansel

"Oh, that makes sense. I wasn't sure how the whole lead thing worked- Figured like, the bullets would get lodged in him and keep the healing down- Yeah okay." Ansel wasn't certain how he figured that he was onto something Infinity wasn't, but hey the dude had a few hundred years to think about it. What did Ansel have? Twenty whole years? He was like a infant in comparison!

...Though that dreadful feeling remained. The bar itself was unassuming- Maybe even a place Ansel had knocked down a shot or two at. Err, a bottle or two. A reiteration of the plan, and off went Patriot, the bar practically exploding from the force.

But the dreadful feeling did have a payoff, sirens sounding off all around, a terrible earthquake shaking the streets- No, the city. The water beneath them shifted- Ansel could feel it. Something was going terribly wrong.

Oh they were lifting off. The asphalt burst, concrete breaking and cracking as it began to extract itself from the earth. Hovercrafts approached rapidly- Which sadly did not contain any allies, but rather dozens of people clad in black. Or drones, more likely- Considering that they didn't move like humans and certainly didn't bother with parachutes.

"Oh come on."

Using what little water pressure was left, a nearby fire hydrant burst off the street- Smashing squarely through the chest of one of the drones. It's set of red lens turning off as it fell down Water spurting from the line, as Deluge quickly began accumulating water around his hands. "One down..." The Paragon looked around at the encroaching droids, who easily were filling the street with their numbers. And then their group, with Elasticity stretching to form, Agony getting ready to do his thing, Silver Sword charging at one of the soldiers, and Gecko...doing his thing. And Infinity seemed to be missing, though he was probably holding his own- As one of the droid heads flew out from a corner.

"A couple dozen to go!"

Hopefully Sparkblade was having better luck than they were, because really Ansel wasn't 100% sure they were all getting out of this in one piece.

-----
Celice

Of course it wasn't gonna be easy. Information...They wanted information. And while the desire to ask about the six dollars was rising, Celice needed to keep Big Brain on the hook.

"Depends on what sort of information you want. Gossip? Gang activity? Or maybe something deeper?" Celice was trying to get her on the ropes at the same time. "I'm on the precipice of something big- And I mean big. My own curiosity is all I'm doing it for, but you? With that sort of information, who knows what you can pull off. Maybe making Charles Warren pay you a good sum to stop you from leaking out some big stuff. Maybe even higher- Who knows what Patriot would do to keep his public image."

Then came the rumbling, distant sirens. Celice first thought it was something Lady was doing at first, though a glance at her showed just as much confusion...And whatever she was trying to do with that sweater. A few loose items fell off a shelf, CDs and old junk she had to slip in the city. Briefly distracted from the call, she looked out the window- seeing a few confused pedestrians. Then shouting and pointing. Something about "the city is rising".

"...And hey, apparently the city's starting to fly. Did you know that?"

-----
Chase

Chase was tapping his foot as he waited on the tram- The machine going along the lines like everything else. He was alone, which was unsurprising. Unmanned and automatic, reminding him of a video game he played back when he was in his teens. He had much more important things to do now than video games, but those days probably did get him hooked on staying up all night drinking energy drinks. Or was it the crunching of homework assignments?

He didn't have the time to recall the exacts, as a distant rumble resounded through the tram, and assumedly the entirety of the city above and sewers below. The lights flickered in the tram, an automated PA system piping up. "Attention all riders. This is an official Code Emerald alert." The lights in the tram and the tunnel ahead tinted red as it spoke. "As a result of these circumstances, the loop will not connect. Once tram reaches the station, service will be suspended until further notice. Thank you for your understanding."

Like the machine was going to respond to Chase's complaints anyways. Shit, if Code Emerald was underway, he was really hoping Warren wasn't taking head counts. Then again, if this was all just a trap, it would have to be real damn elaborate at this point- calling on a Code Emerald probably meant there was some problem going on in the main building.

Without much to lose, he lit up a cigarette, ignoring the very clear 'no-smoking' sign posted alongside various other warnings. To hell with the sign- He needed a damn smoke more than ever.

-----
Necrodytis

Necrodytis did not respond to the Lady in Black's compliments, only acknowledging them with a nod. Though she was a bit confused when the Lady mentioned it was almost time...Before a truck came barreling through, promptly distracting the police force they'd need to slip by. Though the assassin's second mention about the voice did elicit a response, after Necrodytis took a darting glimpse around.

"Not really you I'm worried about." She said in her normal voice.

And continuing onwards, Necrodytis listened intently to the job- Seemed like a hassle, but it would probably be easy enough with the two of them.

And then the sirens began droning. Necrodytis took a few looks around, but found no source of it- And then came the cracking and shaking. At first she thought it was an earthquake, but then the land in front of them began to pull up, and up. It was rising!

The Lady in Black had a very mundane reaction to it- Starting to turn and walk away. "So that's it? You give up?" Necrodytis said, surprised at the eagerness she had abandoned the job with. "If you didn't know about this, I doubt the security there did either. It's gonna go off the power grid, putting them at a natural disadvantage. They'll be confused, and eager to find out who did this. If it goes up, it has to come back down, and then the chaos will let us slip away. It's the best chance we'll get!"

Another look at the rising city before them, it was pretty clear they wouldn't be able to jump on it- Though a nearby building did have a rather convenient fire escape. Necrodytis gestured to it. "If we're quick, we can still hop on before we lose the chance."

Necrodytis wasn't sure why she was so adamant on this- Maybe she wanted to impress the Lady or something. Or maybe just didn't want to squander the opportunity to do a job well.

-----
Skade

Oh good, they were moving again.

Though it seemed the fight with the Patriot was delayed again if they were doing something to Luna's daughter. It wouldn't be surprising if this was an elaborate attempt to drag the soft-hearted Luna out of hiding. After all, those cowardly illusions did keep her hidden. Though Skade wondered why Luna would need to remain hidden if she had received the same message that all the Heralds had. She should've been preparing to attack the areas around where she was stationed- Unless, like Kronos, she had deviated from her temple.

This did give Skade one idea though, one that would force Patriot to meet them- Simply unleashing all their attacks in a single concentrated burst of destruction. That would be a great show, and attract every great hero or wannabe hero on the planet to them. Anyone who valued the human race would come running at them- Ready to get whacked upside the head by their sheer might. Haha, now that would be a treat!

Skade was now walking with a content smile as she approached the airship. Yes...Perhaps Kronos and Luna weren't as useless in this as she thought.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

The Lady in Black looked at Necrodytis skeptically at her suggestion to continue the mission.
"Darling, I don't go anywhere without an escape route. And for me, 'what comes up must come down' is not a good enough escape plan. This likely has to do with that terrorist threat that the police have barricade part of the city from. But on a scale this size, I'm guessing it's the plan of some wanna-be supervillian. Either way that chunk of land is going to be crawling with so-called superheroes if it isn't already. Not to mention, we don't know how fast that thing is going to come down. It could just plummet out of the sky upon climbing to 5,000 feet, and then we'd be dead. Sorry darling, I left my BASE jumping gear at my flat. It's too risky." The Lady in Black explained.

The assassin pressed an invisible button on the side of her sunglasses, and with a nearly silent hum she was able to zoom in on what exactly was going on. Some sort of thrusters, pushing the chunk of earth upward. It was honestly rather impressive if it wasn't bat-shit insane.
"But if you still think it's worth the risk, feel free to give it a shot." The Lady in Black said.

 

[comic]

Subject 8 "Inferno"
The crates were almost fully loaded into the aircraft, overseen by the flaming emerald individual, who watched on for several moments, before a metal 'ping' sounded above him, followed by a few sparks of electricity. Slowly, he raised his gaze upward to see one of the security cameras hanging on its wires, lens cracked, a bullet hole in its side. With the same sluggish speed, he turned his gaze to look at the other cameras in his immediate line of sight to find they had all suffered the same fate.
"Ｅｎｏｕｇｈ． Ｌｅａｖｅ."
So he could talk after all. His voice was raspy, with a guttural growl behind it, and despite the fact he spoke softly, it almost sounded like a scream, and burrowed into the ears of any who heard his words. The men obeyed without question, clearly terrified of provoking any sort of response from the Subject as they put one final crate aboard the craft. Several of the men climbed inside to the cockpit, closing the doors behind them. In seconds, the engine was roaring to life as Inferno ordered the remaining men inside.

Moving slowly around the aircraft as it powered up, its hum turning into a roar as its propulsion-based wings began to heat up, Inferno stared calmly about, gazing through the darkened sockets of his skull. What went through his head, nobody new. Some said he wasn't human, never was. Some even considered him to be the devil after having lost a bet to Warren. That was more ridiculous than the truth, but even still, the truth was very hard to believe, even in a world of superhumans.
Saying nothing, and merely looking about, the Inferno waited silently and patiently for anything to peak his interest.

@Captain Cardboard

Subject 3 "Zephyr"
"Bold words... coming from... you..." His dry, raspy chuckle followed his strained sentence as Zephyr took a stance, spreading his legs, a powerful gust of wind beginning to blow through the tunnel from behind Sparkblade. "This time..." He drew in a shuddering breath. "Yin Li won't be here to save you."
It seemed their intro dialogue had concluded, as Sparkblade quickly blasted a burst of electricity toward the subject, who burst into nothingness, a move that got old the day prior, and was already ticking off the annoyed Paragon inductee. Anticipating Zephyr's movement, recollecting yesterday's encounter, he riskily flipped his daito in his hand, and plunged it behind him, quickly looking back to see that his anticipation had paid off. Subject 3 had materialized right behind him, and the blade had sunk right through a fortunately exposed part of his stomach, and nearly out of his back, only stopping when it had hit the barrier of armor that covered his spine.

Taking no time to celebrate his hit, Sparkblade yanked the weapon out, repositioning it to immediately attempt a beheading, crimson sparks flashing from his blade as he moved, increasing his speed-
Quick and clean. The air ceased blowing as the world grew still- save for the rumbling of engines below that propelled the city block higher and higher into the air. The body of the villain fell to its knees in front of him, before collapsing in a heap, Zephyr's head rolling to a stop against the left wall.
After a few moments of nothing happening, it became quite clear that Zephyr hadn't somehow faked this. In one swift motion, he'd been killed. Simple as that.

@OmnipotentOnion

Subject 6 "Quickdraw"
Still giving Kinzoku the stinkeye, the cowboy dipped his head ever-so-slightly in acknowledgement of the boy. "You already know who I am." He stated, his voice thick and heavy, dripping with country. "Old Zeph left me in charge o' you. See you met my woman, Laura. You didn't hear that or this from me, but that lass ain't available, partner."
Seeing Kinzoku's look of confusion, the cowboy shrugged, stepping away from the wall he'd been leaning on. "Sorry, force of habit. Man's gotta set boundaries. Now look, we both know you ain't a fan o' Warren. No one is, not at first. But you'll soon find out how... fulfillin' life can be when working for a man like that, ya get me?" He took a puff from his cigar, now stepping toward Kin, still with that same squint. "Honestly it's a good thing you've been selected to join us. Word is that Warren's set to... 'clean house'. You don't need tuh worry 'bout that right now, just know that you're safe, so long as yer with us."

He pulled out a revolver from his belt, taking another puff without even pulling the cigar from his mouth, twirling the revolver around his finger as he stared at the boy, eyeing him scrutinizingly. "You are with us, right? Otherwise I'd just hafta put ya down here an' now. I don't really wanna do that though, so here's hopin' ya give the right response."

@Shadow_Pup

Cretecon
"John. Riddick. Ro- Plant." Cretecon placed a boulder of a finger up to his ear, smirking at the broken floor. "They're making a break for it. You're up." He stated, calm as ever as he slowly approached Handyman, offering a massive arm. "Let's go fubar, just like we practiced. That one with the dreadlocks." He offered, nodding out the window behind Edmund toward one of the fairies as they tried to slip away, leaving the other one and Scath herself to be dealt, going completely disregarded but the unorthodox mercenary. 'Fubar', as he referred to it, could be seen as a simple adjective to most, but to the team, it was one of the many codewords for a certain type of attack they would perform through teamwork, fubar in particular being a move used between Cretecon and Handyman, the former of which would swing the latter through the air before launching him at a target. It was relatively new, and required some fancy twirling to pull off, but with chain arms, and superhuman durability on both ends, they'd managed to practice it a few times, and needless to say, Cretecon was eager to get Handyman spinning fast enough that his chains could rip through cement- easily capable of turning flesh and bone into a red mist.

@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @ThePlayfulFox @The Dark Fairy

Damian Foster, Sgt. Mash
Kronos' words seemed to stick to Damian, who became far more quiet than usual, something that even Ignizio and Skade could notice- though they presumably cared very little. His eyes seemed to shift between the heralds every so often, his gaze inquisitive, yet at the same time, judgmental for some reason. It was almost as though he were putting pieces of a puzzle together and slowly seeing the bigger picture.

Mash, meanwhile, remained just as hard-assed as ever, yelling for a few minutes at the pilot, shouting out a few profanities before pulling out a cigarette to smoke. He'd tried to on the way to Greece, but Damian had stopped him before. This time, just as Mash was bringing up the lighter to the cigarette, his gaze focused on Damian, who wasn't paying him any attention. So with a shrug, Mash lit the cigarette, tucked the lighter away, and took a deep breath.
The air felt tense within as they departed the mainland, now flying over the Atlantic ocean on their way back to New York. As the silence grew to deafening proportions, a sudden beeping interrupted it all. Mash was the first to move to the cockpit, demanding to know what was happening.

The pilot didn't look back at the sergeant as he flipped a few switches on his dashboard, appearing somewhat frantic. "Uh... I got a hail from the Maelstrom." He stated. Mash frowned at this. "The Maelstrom? Thought Patriot killed him."
"I-I don't know, sir, but... he's telling us to land or he'll shoot us down." The pilot stated, now turning to look back at Mash, waiting for an order. "Radar picking up anything?"
"Nothing."
"It's a bluff. Some pirates thinking they've got a score. Ignore it." Mash shook his head, moving back to join the others, taking a puff of his cigarette. He looked down at Kronos, who seemed to be sitting comfortably, some considerable space between him and the other heralds, whereas Ignizio and Skade were much closer, signifying their respect of each other in comparison to their respect of Kronos. "What's Warren want with an old fart like you?" Mash asked, taking another puff from his cigarette, but Damian instead interrupted to speak to the sergeant. "Did the pilot say something about a maelstrom? Why would those affect us up here?"

Mash rolled his eyes, shifting his weight on his feet to look at the scientist. "Maelstrom the person. Not the thing. It was before your time, he was a big rival of Warren's."
"I... haven't heard of him." Damian stated with a frown, clearly not used to lacking information, especially related to things like this. Mash shrugged, glancing about at the others for a moment. "He was a big deal behind the scenes. Took over most of Europe and Asia, almost started a nuclear war just to wipe Warren off the map. Warren set Patriot on his trail, and the golden boy eventually killed him."
"So... why bring him up?"
Mash seemed to be growing annoyed, clearly more interested in returning to insulting Kronos. "Because the pilot was tricked by some-"

The interaction was severed as the entire shuttle suddenly rocked to the side, slamming most everyone against the far wall. "Direct hit! We're going down!" The pilot screamed back at them. Another explosion shook the shuttle, rattling everyone within, before everyone but the heralds were suddenly grounded, falling to the floor in heaps as the shuttle crashed into a body of water. "Mayday, mayday, this is-" The pilot was silenced as his head seemingly exploded, red spraying the cockpit.
"Goddamnit, do something!" Mash turned his gaze on the heralds, angry eyes staring into Ignizio's ironically cold, calm ones.
Somebody outside began to scream in a language most didn't recognize (Indonesian), before he was suddenly cut off. Another voice replaced his, a lower, gruffer voice laced with an English accent. "It'd make my day if I didn't have to blow up anybody else's heads. Just come out of that shuttle, surrender, and we'll try to be as gentle as possible."
As he spoke, the floor began to fill with water, the shuttle sinking, which didn't go unnoticed by the voice outside, who added; "Tick tock, loves."

"Is that the Maelstrom?" Damian asked, eyes wide. Mash didn't reply however, grinding his teeth as he continued to glare at Ignizio. "You know you can full well melt them all. Just blow 'em up and this'll be over and we can get back to it."

@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @The Dark Fairy

Patriot
"You're brave- or stupid. Either way, I'm the remedy." Patriot winked just as Larua shattered through the ground, resurfacing to collide with Patriot, who met him head-on, their arms locking as they grasped each other, sharing a frighteningly similar sinister grin on their faces. "Know what I'm most excited about for this?" Patriot asked, beginning to hover in the air, pulling Larua up with him. "I don't have to worry about holding back. Why don't you say we go somewhere a little more... private." After his reference to their initial meeting, Patriot slammed his knee into Larua's gut, momentarily knocking the wind out of him, before grabbing his arm and his leg, lifting him up over his back, and using him like a battering ram. They propelled through the length of the building, but continued to climb, Patriot's grip and positioning disallowing Larua to break free at the moment, forcing him to struggle as the world cracked around them, the sound barrier shattering as Patriot picked up speed, rising higher and higher, the both of them suddenly becoming engulfed in flames as the oxygen couldn't move out of their way fast enough. That was quickly extinguished, however, as simple seconds later, they'd left Earth's atmosphere, and Patriot let go of Larua, flinging him further out into space, pushing after him with an ever-present smile, pulling back his arm for a sucker punch.

@Shadow_Pup

Dr. Chase
The tram descended deeper, lengthening the distance between the main facility and Riker. He knew it was a long transfer but this was getting ridiculous. However, coincidentally, the tram came to a stop, and the automated voice said; "You have arrived at your destination. Until further notice, this tram will become inactive. Thank you, and have a nice day."
With that, the doors opened, and revealed something Chase hadn't been expecting. He recognized it immediately as the CL-8 model that had been decommissioned, and assumedly destroyed after the CL-9 was finished. She was looking worse for wear, her hair completely gone, her skin dirty and torn, revealing the metal parts beneath, and one of her eyes seemed to have trouble adjusting, the iris continuously shifting colors.
"Hello, Dr. Chase." She gave him a friendly smile- though it looked mostly creepy. The CL-9 had been a huge step up from the CL-8 in all honesty. Her voice, too, seemed strained, robotic, and weary. It was clear she was in desperate need of a repair. "Obsidian awaits you, sir. I will deliver him to you, and answer any questions you might have. Right this way, please." She began to immediately walk away, a jerk in her movements as she went down the concrete grey hallway, passing a ramp down to the main facility, instead leading him toward a maintenance hatch.

@BurbleBurble

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Crosshair maneuvered himself east of the loading dock, and watched as the plane was finished loading and the men began to board. The flaming skull man wasn't going with them, likely alerted to Crosshair's presence from the destroyed camera. However, it became clear that flaming skull didn't know where Crosshair was when the man walked to the opposite side of the aircraft. With the aircraft between Crosshair and Inferno, blocking the flaming skull's line of sight with Crosshair, the vigilante made his move. He didn't know what was in that plane, but he sure didn't want it taking off.

Crosshair burst from cover, sprinting towards the plane. Crosshair opened fire on the cockpit of the plane with his silenced assault rifle, attempting to riddle the cockpit with bullets. Then aiming at the landing gear of the aircraft, Crosshair used the grenade launcher attachment on the assault rifle to fire a grenade at the landing gear. If the landing gear was destroyed, hopefully they would not be able to lift off. Crosshair then dove for cover behind a car parked near the loading dock. Keep moving. He had to keep moving.

 

[comic]

Subject 8 "Inferno"
An explosion rocked the loading bay, the shuttle lifting slightly from the force, before falling back to the ground with a metallic crunch, its front landing gear obliterated. Inferno slowly approached it, his skull cocking slightly to the side, before he placed a hand against the aircrafts front, which was engulfed in a molten fire.
Noticeably, the fire began to quickly diminish, absorbed into Subject 8 until the fire was completely gone within a few seconds. Crosshair's attempts at wiping the cockpit had nearly been successful, two soldiers inside slumped lifeless against their seats, before a third man pushed them out and took one, firing the plane's engines now that they'd fully charged up.

With a roar that shook the surroundings buildings, the shuttle rose quickly into the air, wobbling somewhat after recovering from its imbalance of missing its front landing gear. While the aircraft continued to quickly rise into the air, slowed only be the ascent of the chunk of earth itself, Inferno calmly lowered himself onto a knee, placing one of his lime-colored hands against the asphalt beneath him, a rumbling growl coming from him as he did so, waiting for Crosshair to show himself once again.

@Captain Cardboard

 

[Void_Nugget]

Kinzoku
Suddenly tense from the threatening aura Kinzoku took up a defensive stance with his halo hovering menacingly around him before he cleared his throat. "Uh..y..yes..yes I'm with you, and of course by you I mean the plural as in...oh god I'm rambling" he muttered before looking around "soooooo what now cowboy dude, we just sit around here" he said with a curious look.
@comic

Larua
He was stunned momentarily as he was sent into space by Patriot, but he quickly recovered and upon noticing Patriot coming for him again, he swiftly maneuvered around his and latched onto his arm before attempting to swing him round and launch him back to the planet's surface. As much as a space battle sounded fun to the psycho he would much prefer to get himself and Patriot back to earth's surface as quick as possible.
@comic

Infinity
The last drone's body crumpled lifelessly to the ground as Forsythe crushed its chest against the wall of the destroyed bar. He let out a sigh as he looked at the few bodies around him, they had been trying to swarm him and he hadn't been able to use the gauntlets on Alexander before him and Patriot took to the stars. He glanced around him, his hands and feet were covered in a thin layer of what was probably oil that would be a pain to deal with. He sighed and stepped out into the open only to be shot in the leg "ow" he said annoyed, he had left the gauntlets in the bar so he could fight. He turned to face a small group that were aiming there guns at him and charged them smashing the first into the ground before kicking the second away, as he turned to face the third he heard a shot and a warm sensation in the back of his skull "oh for crying out loud" he said in an annoyed tone as he fell forward. He had been shot in the back of the head.

 

[OmnipotentOnion]

Shuzo

.....Was he dead?

Shuzo warily approached the lifeless head of the wind ninja, his daito still in hand. There hadn't been any visible wind indicative of Zephyr's ability being used, and the tunnel was eerily silent, save for the distant rumbling of engines within the facility. Wrinkling his nose in distaste, Shuzo sighed with resignation before sheathing his oddly clean blade and getting ready to continue on his way deeper into Warren Industries.

However...

Abruptly coming to a halt after taking a few steps forward, Shuzo turned back around and ran at the still unmoving head, winding his leg back. For good measure...

The Paragon's foot slammed into Zephyr's head, landing a solid strike and launching it out of the moving facility, and Shuzo stood for a few seconds, silently watching the body part hurtle downward into the city. Once the head disappeared from sight, he let out a satisfied sniff before returning to the task at hand, venturing into the depths of the maintenance tunnels and working his way into the main halls and corridors. As he ran, Shuzo kept a hand on his daito, ready to cut down anyone who stood in his path.

Ignizio

Ignizio had been dormant, exhibiting a very docile disposition in direct contrast to his destructive ability. And this was currently being shown as the Warren Industries shuttle spun wildly and hurtled toward the ground only minutes after taking flight. As he met Sergeant Mash's angry gaze with a cool stare, the Herald waited until the human's rants were over and simply held a finger to his lips in response. The faintest smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth as Ignizio finally spoke, monotonously as always but with a subtle hint of playfulness.

"Say 'pretty please'."

Edmund

As he danced around, parried, and crossed swords, axes, maces, spears, and all sorts of weapons with the remaining fae who were conscious, Edmund had a bright, almost childish smile plastered on his face as he fought. However, the sudden intrusion of Cretecon's voice addressing him caught his attention, and upon hearing the boss's instructions, his enthusiasm seemed to falter.

"'Fubar', you said? Works for me, boss, but we all know what I had when we ate dinner before getting here; don't blame me if you see a little more than bloody mist in the air."

His grin returning in full force, Edmund once again morphed his arms into metal chains--which, this time, were covered with sharp thorns for extra pain--and leapt at Cretecon, jumping feet-first.

"Let's go for a ride!!"

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Crosshair reached into his jacket. Flaming skull head... ten-to-one, that guy had some sort of fire powers. The shotgun wasn't going to work on this guy. Crosshair formulated a quick plan in his head, having no clue if it was going to work or not. Crosshair pulled a flashbang grenade from his pocket, pulling the pin and holding it in his hand for a second. A sane person would through the grenade as soon as they pulled the pin, but Crosshair wanted it to explode as soon as it hit the ground. A very risky move, since there was no indication on how long it took a grenade to detonate.

Crosshair tossed the grenade over the cover towards Inferno's location. It detonated with a loud crack and a bright flash, and Crosshair pushed himself from the cover. The vigilante began to sprint towards the door to the loading dock, firing at Inferno as he sprinted. He was blindly firing, but luckily his shots were heading straight towards the powered individual. His plan was to get into that building...

 

[comic]

Subject 6 "Quickdraw"
His stare seemed to glare right into Kinzoku's soul, before he shrugged. "Well, we're 'sposed to wait on a signal from Zeph, but nobody listens to him anyway." Quickdraw stated, grabbing his belt and staring down the kid in front of him. "This whole place is flyin' through the clear blue sky right now, which means we've got intruders. That means we gotta deal with 'em if no one else can. Personally, conflict just ain't in my nature, but I got an obligation to fulfill. So you and I, we're headed back the way you came. Gotta guard the entrance. I guess."
Ultimately, despite his steely gaze and thick accent displaying little emotion aside from 'chill', the cowboy didn't seem all that interested in fulfilling his obligations. In fact, he probably didn't want to do anything at all aside from stand around smoking cigars and trying to look cool.

@Shadow_Pup

Subject 8 "Inferno"
The flash bang landed a few feet to Inferno's right, immediately going off with a flash... and a bang... duh.
He could feel bullets riddling his body, temporarily blinded despite a lack of physical eyes. The bullets merely melted into his body, and he let out a growl that echoed through the back of his throat, eyeing Crosshair who'd nearly made it to the front of Warren Industries in his mad dash- but was forced to stop by a stream of fire that nearly collided with him, instead blasting in front of him and searing the ground, stretching for several meters on either side into a thick line of hot emerald fire.
"Ｓｔａｙ．"
His ghostly voice rumbled along as Inferno began to slowly march toward Crosshair, who no longer had the element of stealth nor surprise on his side. At the moment.

@Captain Cardboard

Patriot
He would have laughed if not for the surrounding lack of oxygen as Larua attempted to girl him back toward Earth, only to nudge him an inch or two. Patriot placed his hands on his hips, instead grinning widely at the apparently possessed man. Despite having copied some of Patriot's many abilities, he simply wasn't skilled with them. Flight was hard to control, especially in zero gravity. On top of that, Larua clearly has little experience fighting in such an environment, whereas Patriot was very comfortable with it. Undoubtedly, his opponent wanted to get them back down to Earth, probably to get to a more familiar element had regain any advantage he had- not that Patriot would allow it. He wanted a punching bag, so he'd hold all the cards until there was nothing left to punch.

Each time Larua got close, the larger hero utilized his superior speed and experience to simply turn the psycho around, disorienting him for a moment. It was hilarious, watching somebody Infinity talked up to get turned into a toy.
Larua moved forward again, attempting to grab Patriot and hurl him, maybe punch him, just an attempt to land a hit in, but Patriot simply slid to the side, Larua missing completely as his leg was grabbed by Patriot's crushing grip, Larua's shin threatening to shatter if Patriot decided to grip any tighter, before the Paragon simply tossed Larua into deeper space, grinning widely. The only thing not as enjoyable about this was being unable to taunt Larua, without any oxygen to carry his voice. Though it would have been hilarious if Larua tried to taunt him instead, only to get flattened.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into Patriot's mind. If Larua wanted to get back to solid ground so badly... the surface of Venus would be just fine.

@Shadow_Pup

 

[The Dark Fairy]

Scath looked at them, not knowing what they were doing exactly, but knowing it was something. As they were focused on each other, she darted out the window, flying into the shadow of the opposite building, blending into the shadows. She looked back into the window, the illusion taking a defensive stance.

John spoke into his earphone “I’ll take one live to set free, you guys kill the other, help me if you finish up.” John waited outside the door, grabbing the first fairy, yanking her over and holding a knife to her, fear in her eyes as she stared through the space over his coat and under his hat “You guys aren’t as tough as we were told.”

Kronos looked up and out the door “I’ll let you two handle him, just tell me if you need help, I’m happy to give it.”

Kerco looked up “I don’t know, tell you what, I’m going to go up, don’t do anything before you see me again, can you promise me that?” He looked at Percy, conveying a seriousness he rarely used with the child.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Crosshair skidded to a stop as a wall of flame burst in front of him. The vigilante turned and faced Inferno as the flaming man slowly made their way towards him. Unfortunate. The flames were intense, and there was no way Crosshair would be able to run or jump through them. While he hadn't made it to the door he was aiming for... the loading dock garage would do.
"S t a y ." The subject growled. Crosshair leveled the assault rifle at Inferno.
"No." Crosshair said. Taking another grenade from his jacket, Crosshair pulled the pin and tossed it at Subject 8. But instead of exploding, it burst into a massive smoke cloud.

The vigilante turned 180 degrees and began to sprint once again, running into the loading dock's garage. Crosshair hurdled some crates, hiding behind them. Quickly, the vigilante did a scope of the garage. This would have to do.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“Really? Do I have to?”

Percy looked back at Kerco and the look in his eyes. He was serious. The prince of filth gave a king dramatic groan, flopping back in his chair.

“Ugggggggh! Fine! Just go do your thing quickly.”

Percy saw glimpses through the opening of the sewers that were now left open to the elements. His Trash-O-vision had him see Some...island in the air? Building? He didn’t really know or care. But his only concern was if it effected him and his ever changing future plans

 

[Void_Nugget]

Larua
Larua flew himself at Patriot only to get stopped by the hero who grabbed Larua's neck. As Larua struggled against the god like man's grip an idea popped into his head he closed his eyes and thought about the day he became immortal once he had perfectly pictured that day he twisted his head violently in Patriot grip causing his neck to snap and him to die. As the life left Larua's eyes his body began to heat up and seemed to bulk up in muscle mass as two spectral horns appeared on his forehead, he slowly looked up at Patriot with burning red eyes "Ah yes now its been a long time since he thought about me, you must really be something super hero" said a gravely deep voice from Larua's mouth. He then grabbed Patriot's arm and twisted it away before igniting his fist and punching the hero square in the chest sending him in the direction of Earth before flying after him "I've not got long in this body so I'll make it count" the voice muttered.
@comic

 

[BurbleBurble]

Deluge

All things considered, things could be worse. They were doing...alright. Deluge was utilizing his water to swing around and smack drones with the busted one- which did become a rather useful blunt weapon. Of course, his water was quickly becoming harder to come across. The drones were armed with some sort of laser blaster, which were stopped by water, but also had the side effect of turning it into steam. And with the water supply cut from the city, it was rather difficult.

The others were doing alright? Elasticity had managed to tear off the arms of one drone. Just one, but hey he was trying. Agony had discovered his pain sharing abilities were pretty useless against the drones, as was his soundwaves unless he wanted to blow out everyone else's eardrums. So he was mostly using his guitar as a blunt weapon. The Gecko was...Uh...Actually, Ansel had lost track of him, but he was probably still alive. Though Silver Sword was proving most efficient- Instead of using his expensive sword, he had resorted to using his abilities to phase into the chests of some drones, and tearing out their goddamn cores. Just going wild.

Infinity was putting up his own fight, the walls near the bar sprayed with coolants and oils, staining red. Or was it blood? It was a possibility, maybe there were a few live soldiers mixed in with the drones. As for Patriot, well...the bar had mostly collapsed in on itself, after he had shot up through the bar, past the sky, and uh...the Deluge had also lost track of his leader after that. Probably wasn't a big problem, but he hoped that maybe Patriot would just punt the dude already and come back and help?

Because really, while they had done a decent job, they were still massively outnumbered. And only he, Infinity, Silver Sword, and Folder seemed to be doing real numbers on the forces. The other three were a bit...dead weight.

And as soon as Ansel ran out of water, he would be there too.

That being said...there was something he remembered from his school years. Just normal school stuff, a random factoid that was often irrelevant, but it was important here, as they ascended further into the atmosphere.

That fact was- Clouds were primarily composed of water.

-----
Doctor Chase

The presence of the CL-8 was surprising to Chase. If nothing else, it only confirmed that this was almost certainly not Warren's doing- After all, he had ordered each CL Series to be scrapped with the creation of the next one. And while the 8 was clearly damaged, it was still functioning in most of it's necessitated ways. Enough to relay the message and guide him. He put out the cigarette against the side of the tram, quickly disposing it in a trashcan ashtray.

He simply nodded at the CL-8's original message, though as he approached the maintenance tunnel, he did ask a question.

"You need any repairs?"

"Unnecessary," The android spoke. "Functions are consistently remaining stable. Any further repairs would be purely cosmetic."

This trick would've been getting more elaborate by the moment, as the Doctor followed his creation into the tunnels. They were obviously dimly lit, cramped, and in general an unpleasant place to be. Considering their size and depth, they were also a prime place to dump a body. Hmm, maybe he should've thought this through more.

Oh well, he'd gamble. Wasn't much point in pulling out now.

-----
Necrodytis

The Lady's arguments were rather sound, and the idea of the assassin not accompanying her was rather while she went into an area with no expertise was a little daunting. As was any encounter with a Paragon, as even the less intimidating ones still had a massive reputation, not to mention the idea of running into Patriot. And they had lost their chance as well, as the thrusters pulled the city up further, far past the building they'd have to hop off of. She let out a frustrated sigh. All the buildup for something completely unrelated to ruin it.

"No, I suppose you're right." She admitted, following the Lady as they walked away.

Now Necrodytis wasn't certain what to do. Dejectedly glancing towards the ground, as the shadow of the now floating chunk of city covered the two. Though it was then there was some sort of noise- a hefty 'thunk', in a nearby trash can. Curiosity got the best of Necrodytis, despite assuming it would be nothing more than a piece of rubble or dirt from the flying city.

Which made it all the more curious when it clearly wasn't. Instead, she discovered some sort of rotund, metal object. Still fueled by curiosity, she picked it up, moved it around, and...

"Holy shit!"

With another thunk, the object dropped back into the trash. It wasn't rubble or any sort of bomb- It was a helmet, with a head still in it. Blank white eyes staring out into the world.

"Where the hell did it come from...?!" Necrodytis said. It wasn't really the fact it was a head, she had done worse before, just the fact she had been so casually holding it, and the fact it fell from the damn sky. She took another look at the flying chunk of city- Distant now. Whatever happened to that sap made her much more glad she had listened to the assassin's advice.

-----
Dog-Man

A sound, steps on a rooftop, off to the right of the Inn. Unseen force in the shadows, unnoticed by John or the others. A distant scent too, until the overwhelming smell of broken drywall, wood, and stone above drowned it out, shattering glass and concrete also briefly drowning her shallow breaths and steps.

They were up, as Cretecon said. He had a target to chase.

Without missing a beat, he charged towards a narratively convenient fire escape, leading up towards the rooftop of the building she was hiding in. Steel baton extended and held tightly, as he pulled himself . "Plant, target is on the neighboring rooftop. Let's rendezvous and stop her escape." He spoke into their comms. He knew this was the one they needed alive- And no doubt she could also take a bit of roughing up. They probably would need to rough her up to take her in.

Quickly, he ascended the fire escape, disregarding the ladders. Simply climbing up the metal braces of the outside, closing in on Scath. Hopefully, Rose would meet him atop the building, or at the least atop the inn.

-----
Subject 4649, Skade

The young girl had been quiet the entire trip. Somewhat unemotive as well. Outside of the amazement of the world beyond the sanitized underground labs, she wasn't permitted to inquire or roam the ship. Only could watch as the departed three returned with a new one in two. Older than the other two, though the Subject was unaware of any of their true age. Oddly, the man seemed to be casually eating nuts, though once again 4649 did not question it.

However, when an incessant beeping began, Mash had been first to the cockpit to go shout at the pilot about it. The child glanced over to Skade, who was tapping her foot, as if slightly bothered by the beeping. Their gazes met. Without any Mash to stop her, 4649 did a little wave towards the Herald. Skade let out a little snort, and half heartedly raised her hand back. The child grinned a bit at her acknowledgement- Though with Mash's return, quickly returned to unemotive.

Skade was more than content to wait on the ship, but the thought of being slowed once again was obnoxious. She was more than happy to hear that the issue was more or less a bluff- Though a sudden rumble, and the airship clearly falling, proved that the Colonel had gotten cocky. Her face turned bitter, simply grimacing silently as the ship landed with a splash.

Now Skade would've been more than happy to start going out there and murdering the hell out of whoever was threatening them. Then again, there was the mention of this person apparently being "killed" by the Patriot. Hmm.

And then came the voice! So cocksure, so happy to announce what they'd do if they got the chance. And Skade once again snorted. Maybe one more delay was fine.

Mash had almost demanded that Ignizio 'melt' them all. And Ignizio only quipped back, to ask nicely. Kronos wanted to take a backseat here, letting them take the leave. And then Skade spoke. "Truly terrifying. We should surrender before our heads get 'blown off'. After all, I like my head where it is."

And 4649 looked at the three with some alarm. This was most certainly exciting, but it was also quite terrifying. Either unable to read the sarcasm from Skade, or perhaps just the fact that none of them were doing anything, she looked to Colonel Mash, who was practically seething from the Heralds inaction.

"Sir...What should we do?"

 

[comic]

Subject 8 "Inferno"
Smoke began to quickly billow around the emerald-green skull-faced superhuman, but just as the smoke began to consume him, his foot came down on the grenade, which melted into him just as the bullets had, stopping it from clouding the front entrance of Warren Industries any further, leaving sight relatively the same as the smoke began to lightly disperse.
Inferno raised an arm, sending another torrent of green flames toward Crosshair, who barely managed to dodge it in time as it ripped through the crates. While Inferno moved slowly, his attacks were much, much faster.
Another beam of sage was cast that Crosshair was forced to dodge, being forced further from the entrance as the insidious figure continued to near, walking closer and closer at a steady pace, raising another arm to begin blasting fire to seal off any escapes, effectively beginning to box the vigilante in.

@Captain Cardboard

Patriot
Somewhat impressive. He'd managed to hit the Paragon hard enough that he almost reentered the upper atmosphere- though caught himself in time, smirking as a glint entered his eyes, staring at the approaching Larua. He'd snapped his neck, so whatever was controlling him now was what Forsythe had warned of. The Devil or something like that. Kind of funny, in all honesty, considering he was about to kick his ass, no matter if he'd received a boost in power.
This time, he braced himself by puffing out his chest and tightening his muscles. Larua's fist slammed into Patriot again, launching him back- a few feet. He struck again, but this time, Patriot moved himself forward a few inches against the punch, and watched with sick satisfaction as the fist splintered against his chest.

He locked eyes with Larua, raising a brow, before his own fist struck the possessed man's gut, moving far too fast to see with the naked eye. A warm feeling met his hand as he looked at it, noticing that it was covered in red as it stuck out of Larua's back. Grin widening with sadism. Yanking his fist out, he slammed his forehead into Larua's caving in his skull- even knocking out one of his eyeballs. Even as he watched, the man's body slowly began to repair itself. The hole was sealing, his hand cracking back into place, his forehead seemingly inflating as it was pushed back to where it should be, though he was still moving.
Exactly like Patriot wanted.
He swung a fist again, about to knock Larua's head clean off, before it was caught in the palm of his opponent. Patriot gave him a look of mild confusion before Larua's knee found his gut, and Patriot reeled, genuinely surprised at this point, his confusion growing as quickly as Larua's strength seemed to be.

Regardless, even if his strength was beginning to be matched, he still had the speed advantage.

@Shadow_Pup

CL-8
Dr. Chase was led even deeper underground, indicated by the sloping walkways and the subtle increase of temperature. The android said nothing to him as they went on, apparently waiting for more questions to be asked- no questions came, however. So their trek was in utter silence outside of their steps. The walls transition from stone and metal to just metal. Rusted metal, in fact. The hall transitioned into a walkway that extended to another hall, the room the walkway led through completely dark within, and seemingly bottomless. One of Warren's past pet projects of 'drilling to the center of the earth'. It had been long before Chase's time under his employment, and he was pretty sure that the project in question had been long abandoned.
The next hall stretched further down, the slope increasing, before a warm glow began to fill the tunnel, and they entered another walkway that stretched over a massive expanse of hot magma. A river of lava that extended for miles in a straight line, though smoke and steam blocked him for seeing through it very much at all. This was Warren's smelter, or at least one of them, used to create much of his larger machinery.

And the walkway entered yet another hallway, though this one branched at an intersection, which CL-8 took the right, so he followed until they reached a set of descending stairs that took them even further down. The stairs went on for a lot longer than he might have expected, several minutes passing before they reached their bottom, and CL-8 came to a stop at a large metal door that was rusted all to hell. This whole section of the facility seemed mostly abandoned aside from the smelter.
The android knocked twice on the door, before pausing, and adding three rapid taps. Immediately, a loud 'clunk' sounded as a latch was lifted, and the door slowly swung open with an annoyingly loud and obnoxious creak. CL-8 gestured for him to enter, and when he had, she grabbed its handle. "Obsidian will meet you soon. Just follow the hallway." She told him, before closing the door, which latched again with the same 'clunk'.

The hall was extraordinarily dark, lit at specific intervals by dim lights, though most were long dead, and those that still faintly glowed were flickering as they struggled to survive. A faint clanging could be heard echoing down the tunnel, which led into a darkness his eyes couldn't pierce through, but he was left with only that way to go, what with the door locked behind him.

@BurbleBurble

Cretecon
When Edmund leaped toward him, Cretecon grabbed ahold of him as they'd practiced, and swung him in fast, wide circles, before launching Handyman out of the broken window, accuracy impeccable as Handyman spun through the air towards one of the last remaining fae that was making their escape.
When the transmission came in from Riddick about Scath, Cretecon remained silent, stomping over to the first fae he'd killed, and yanked the bar from her body before tossing it aside. His part of the play was over. It was on the others now. "Good luck." Was all he gave them before he stomped outside, barely fitting in the hall as he made his way back down the stairs and outside.

When he was back outside, he found John holding the last living fae (outside of Scath) at knifepoint, and smirked, his stone face grinding against itself audibly as he did so. "Nice work." He gave John a nod, before crouching down to the fae, hulking over it. "No need to look so scared." He told, searching its eyes. "We're not gonna kill you. See, we need you. You're very important." He paused, and when the fae didn't speak, he continued. "You're our herald. You will deliver a message to your queen that we have her precious little kid, and if she wants her back, she needs to find somebody named 'Warren'. Think you can do that?" He asked, still smirking as he rose back to his full height. This was the message he'd been told to deliver, and now it had been passed. All that was left was to wait for Riddick and Rose to collect Scath and they'd be on their way. Now that Riddick had her scent... there really wasn't any escape.

@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @The Dark Fairy @ThePlayfulFox

Damian Foster, Sgt. Mash
"Damn the lot of you." Mash growled, before rubbing a hand over his face and down his chin. "Fine then. Fine. You wanna see this play out, I get it. Toy with your food, or whatever." He placed his hands on his hips, before the girl spoke to him. His gaze fell on her, and his expression slackened ever-so-slightly, before he looked away, eyes darting to each other individual. "Since they won't help, we don't have the firepower to escape or take over their vessel." He stated. "Don't do anything to get yourself killed." He added to the young subject, before opening the side hatch of their shuttle.
Damian watched silently, his eyes now fixed intently on Skade s though he were visually trying to pick her apart and study her. When the hatch opened, the megaphone projecting their assailant's voice sounded again with a few lighthearted chuckles.
As light streaming into their shuttle, they could see a large ship in front of them, moving gently with the waves that lightly accosted its great metal hull. From about twenty feet up, a man casually leaned against the rail of the ship, though the sun behind him obscured his features at the moment. He watched as Mash slowly raised his hands in surrender, and laughed again. "That's the ticket." He called, before tossing the megaphone into the water, turning, and walking away as a few dozen men moved about on the ship, lowering a wooden rowboat down, shouting in Indonesian to them.

"They're taking us captive." Damian stated, now staring at the boat as it descended, listening to their words. "Talking about a... weapon? They think we have a..." He listened. "A nuclear weapon."
"Great." Mash rolled his eyes. "You, me, and my girl dies while these lazy fucks sit on their hands for some sadistic pleasure." His glare was again set on Ignizio, before he turned away.
It was evident they were expected to board the boat.

@OmnipotentOnion @BurbleBurble @The Dark Fairy

 

[DevVoid]

There sure had been a lot for Silent Night to take in from where he was positioned up above this flying mass of land. However, his attention was quickly nabbed by some kind of fight breaking out. He saw a brief flash go off, then smoke rising into the air from some kind of green fire, then more smoke, and more fire again. Ryg flew a bit closer to the site, not enough to show himself but to get a better look. That's where he caught brief glimpses of a familiar figure he had talked to the previous night, fighting some dude with a flaming skull matching the fires they were firing.

Well, considering Ryg knew the person being attacked there, recognizing him as that Crosshair fellow, of course he had to help out a fellow vigilante. He still had to be careful however. While he did hear from his parents that one of his species' strongest immunities is heat due to the overworld of their planet, Ryg didn't know how hot those fires would get, and certainly didn't want to test it out. Ryg went into a dive, quickly gliding down to the area where the two were fighting, aiming to land in a spot not just between the two but also a spot yet untouched by the flames.

On his way down from the starting point in the air, Ryg had formed a bunch of tubes in his body, gathering up the air below and around him quickly and keeping it inside him. As Ryg landed on a knee, his body was near-doubled in size from all the gathered air. Now, with all this gathered up air, Ryg got up and spun himself around, arms pointed at Inferno with his hands formed into a sort of claw grip. And finishing this, a hole opened up on each of Ryg's palms, not all too big. Ryg forced the air out by pushing his skin back in, blasting the air out of his palms at Inferno, the small holes on his palms compressing the air into sharp, yet strong blasts of wind that expanded in size and thus became less compressed as they travelled outward. @Captain Cardboard @comic

 

[Captain Cardboard]

As Crosshair was forced away from the entrance of Warren Industries, he didn't panic. In fact, this was all going according to plan. Crosshair dodged another flame blast, looking back to Inferno.
Come on you big, flaming idiot. Just a bit closer...
The subject finally made their way to the middle of the garage, and Crosshair's trap was set. But before Crosshair could do anything, a sudden purple blur landed between the two fighters.

Crosshair shielded himself from the impact, and looked over to see... Silent Night? The shapeshifter was doing something with their own body, growing larger. The vigilante shot a blast of air at the subject, using their body like a balloon. It was a strange sight for sure, but Crosshair wasn't going to let Silent Night act alone.

The vigilante reached back to the wall he had been cornered against, pulling the lever to lower the garage doors and trap the three in the garage. At the same time, Crosshair turned and fired at the fire alarm. Through pure luck, the alarm wasn't activated. The sprinklers in the garage however, were.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Lady in Black took one last glance up at the floating chunk of city before turning away. Reaching into her pocket, the Lady in Black lit a cigarette. That had been a pretty close call... but once again, it appeared that luck had been on her side.
"You know, darling, if you're still looking for money-" The Lady in Black was interrupted by Necrodytis' exclamation, and the assassin walked over to what Necro was looking at. A decapitated head in a mask. The Lady in Black took another drag from her cigarette, looking up to the floating chunk of city at the same time as Necrodytis.

"See, what did I tell you darling? Has bad supervillain written all over it, I bet Patriot or the other Paragons are up there right now." The Lady in Black said. Reaching into the trash can, the Lady in Black picked up the helmet to get a better look at it. It was a rather interesting design... The Lady in Black shook the helmet to get the head out, and it plopped back into the trash can. The assassin looked over to Necrodytis.
"You want it?" The Lady in Black offered.

The assassin turned and began to make her way away from the massive crater that was now spanning a small chunk of the city.
"As I was saying, if you're in need of money I could always lend you some darling." The Lady in Black said.

 

[comic]

Subject 8 "Inferno"
A new figure had entered the fray, landing between the infernal figure and its target. The magenta figure was already blasting forceful winds at Inferno, who was forced to a stop against the force of it, emerald flames licking violently at the air behind him, before he was lifted into the air, sliding backward by the time Ryg had finished his attack. Like a stone, Inferno dropped to the ground, concrete shattering beneath his weight as he slid back a foot or two before he could be flung from the garage, yet remained upright, now letting out a guttural rumble in the back of his throat, audible to the pair.
A truck sat dormant close to him within, one of the few things in the garage, and slowly he approached it, placing a flaming hand upon its side. This particular truck seemed to be the same one that had captured Massi, who was still mysteriously absent.
The truck immediately began to melt against his touch, and almost seemed to be sucked toward him as it melded into his body, crumpling in on itself until it was completely gone, absorbed into Inferno within a matter of seconds.
While he absorbed the truck, Crosshair pulled a convenient lever that proceeded to close the doors leading outside, locking the three of them within save for a short tunnel that led to a set of double doors, which in turn led to the first sub-level of Warren industries, alongside a set of stairs that led directly to the grand entrance.

Next came the sprinklers as they were turned on, spraying copious amounts of water around the garage. Crosshair's plan had been sound, but he hadn't accounted for a hiccup in the fact that Inferno didn't seem affected by the water, which spontaneously burst into steam the moment it made contact with his body. He was simply far too hot as the steam began to fill the room quickly.
Chains suddenly slid out of his palms, landing heavily on the ground, the concrete cracking as well, implying these chains presumably had the same density as the truck he'd just absorbed. Lime-colored flames danced across the surface of the chains as Inferno began to walk forward again, before swinging one of the chains wildly as it extended from his palm to an even greater length. It left a burning olive glow in its wake as it hissed through the air, crashing through a support column holding the garage up with ease, rock and debris spraying from the hit, which served as a warning to the destructive nature of the chains as he began to swing the second, which grew in length just like the other, pummeling through another support column.
No more words came from the emerald creature as several armed men appeared through the double doors, armed with military-grade weapons- the very same Yin Li had confiscated from Crosshair and Sparkblade's run-in with the Double Drakons Gang. Immediately, they began firing rapidly into the room as more steam accumulated, clearly not concerned with hitting Inferno, considering his apparent ability to absorb any metals into his body for later use.

@Captain Cardboard @DevVoid

 

[Captain Cardboard]

While the subject was now stuck in the garage with them, it appeared that Crosshair's attempts to extinguish him had no effect on the creature. However, it did cause the room to be rapidly fill with steam. Another plan having failed, Crosshair continued to move down the list. A door slammed open, revealing a heavily armed security team which began shooting wildly into the room. Crosshair made his way over to the back wall. With the confusion from the sprinklers and the steam, the bullets whizzed through the air past Crosshair but miraculously failed to hit him. They either missed or struck some cover shielding Crosshair. Crosshair wrenched a fire extinguisher from the wall. Water didn't work. It was time to try a chemical extinguisher.

Crosshair threw the fire extinguisher. It hit the ground, rolling towards Inferno. Crosshair fired blindly into the steam with his pistol, and luckily one of the bullets struck the extinguisher as it rolled to the feet of Inferno. A jet of highly pressurized chemicals blasted up towards Inferno.

 

[OmnipotentOnion]

Edmund

With a gleeful whoop, Edmund was grabbed out of the air and swung around by his feet, the chain whips sprouting from his arms cutting through anything and everything in its path. Within a matter of seconds, Cretecon had seen his wish received, blood splattering onto the walls, ceiling, and floor, and with one final spin, Edmund was flung across the room and through a window, set on a perfect course toward a fae that had gotten away and was frantically attempting to make her escape.

As the whips retracted back into his arms, the Handyman fought back a laugh of delight that would have given away his position, and his right hand quickly morphed into a long, slim blade akin to that of a katana. Once the fae was within reach, Edmund tackled her to the ground and quickly covered her mouth with his regular hand, aiming to keep the situation from becoming even noisier than it already was. With his blade drawn against her neck, Edmund attempted to soothe the struggling fae, shushing her softly in a mockingly comforting voice.

"Now, now, please don't scream; terribly sorry about this, but you know we can't have too many eyes, don't you?"

And in a swift movement of his arm blade, the fae went limp, her throat slit within the blink of an eye. Turning back to glance at Cretecon, who was now outside and looming over the last fae to survive other than the main target, Edmund strutted back toward the boss and flashed a thumbs up at him and John, signaling to them that the job was done. With his hands no longer morphed into a weapon, he dusted off his coat and adjusted his hat as he listened to Cretecon give instructions to the fae so that the plan could continue.

Ignizio

A nuclear weapon? What a strange notion; Ignizio did quite wonder what these humans could possibly be referring to.

Regardless, the herald ignored Mash's ramblings and silently complied, being the first to board the boat and take a seat. He made eye contact with neither Warren's people nor the pirates who had "captured them", and those who attempted to find any trace of soul within the black voids of his eyes would be disappointed to come up empty-handed. Ignizio bore no emotion toward anyone as he sat in silence, not even the slightest palpable feeling of heat emanating from his body. It seemed, rather, that Ignizio was literally dormant, simply waiting for the right time to make his move.

Shuzo

As Shuzo walked, the hallways fell silent. No rumbling of drones nor the footsteps of soldiers. Yet behind him, one would fully see the wake of his abilities. Attack drones lay broken in pieces, and soldiers were crumpled against the wall, breathing but sustaining crippling injuries. Fighting his way through sub-level 1, Shuzo had finished off yet another wave of drones before he was alerted to the sound of gunfire, explosions, and roaring flame. Deciding to investigate and possibly eliminate a third party that might have hindered his mission, the ninja kept both swords unsheathed, slowly approaching the double doors that led to the garage.

However, it remained unbeknownst to him that a drone behind him, torn apart but still online, began weakly aiming its arm turret at Shuzo's back, charging an energy blast.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Kinzoku
Kinzoku hastily followed the older man as the two of them made their way to the entrance of the building his hands fidgeting worriedly, he hadn’t done so well in his most recent task and was anxious about the chance of failing once more, but he straightened himself up and continued on his way.
@comic

Larua
The possessed man cracked his neck as he healed and began to assault the hero “This is fun hero boy, I haven’t had a fight like this in millennia” came the gravelly voice as he laid into Patriot with as many high power attacks as he could feeling Larua’s consciousness returning as the time limit neared its end, he flew straight into Patriot and as he made contact with the hero he detonated himself in a explosion similar in strength to 10 nuclear bombs packed into a giant fist of energy that sent Patriot launching towards Earth. Larua’s body reformed as the fires faded and Larua’s own consciousness took control back, he then flew back towards the planet’s surface hoping this had worked.
@comic

Infinity
Rising from the ground Forsythe fumed, “I am so fed up with cheap shots” he muttered as he destroyed the culprits of his death and ended up by Deluge, “hey you faring ok” he asked his fellow hero as he stood in a ready stance blood dripping from multiple wounds that wouldn’t heal until he died and dirt caking his body from where he had fallen earlier, he looked around and grabbed a drone that charged at him tearing its head from its neck and launching it into the chest of a different drone before throwing the body of the first near the fallen form of the second “how many of these damn things are there” he said to no one in particular.
@BurbleBurble

 

[Funny Sans Rat]

Alex

"Fucking lovely, we're fighting robots or some shit. Welp, been meaning to get some training in." Alex shrugged, before observing his surroundings, noting a few things of interest, and one that the water boy, Deluge or whatever, might be able to help him with. Alex turned his gaze to one of the drones before a bench suddenly shredded through its electronics, causing it to spasm before dropping, not dead, it wasn't alive to begin with, but it dropped. "Yeah, that's what I thought..." he said, in an attempt to make a quip, needless to say it wasn't his best work. "Hey! Water boy! I've got an idea, can you get some water up here, I've got an idea." As he finished his sentence he was charged by one of the drones, it pulling back its fist, and just before it hit Alex he teleported behind it, before turning around looking at it "You know I appreciate the attempt, it feels good to surprise people... or robots, whatever you are." Suddenly, the drone was crushed under a pile of furniture, filing cabinets and other things, yet that wasn't enough to destroy it, but he did successfully crush its leg.

As it limped towards him he pointed finger guns at it, its head suddenly exploding like a blossoming flower, and in the middle was a chunk of rubble from the bar. Almost as soon as he finished dealing with that one another came from behind, managing to graze the back of Alex's head, causing him to yelp in surprise. "Oh you wanna go motherfucker? Come on then!" Alex swung a left hook directly into the drone's jaw... or where it would be if it had one. A pang of pain rung through his arm, yet that didn't stop him from teleporting behind the drone and slamming both of his fists into the back of its head, and putting him in a teleportation loop vertically, causing the drone to gain speed, and then he drop kicked it towards Ansel, "Heads up water boy!"

 

[DevVoid]

'So that plan to extinguish him with air didn't work.. let's try the op-' Silent Night thought up, before his thought process was cut off by not just the sight of this flame entity swinging chains of blazing emerald fire, but the approaching sound of multiple footsteps. The alien melted himself into a puddle equal of his mass, easily sliding out of the way and over to Crosshair, with the alien slithering on the ground as what looked like a puddle of tar. The alien then had an idea, and slithered up to a wall, pressing against it and camouflaging himself into its textures. Silent Night then used his telepathy to contact Crosshair for the plan.

"So, water doesn't work, blasts of air don't work, I assume that extinguisher foam won't work either. Means we have two options, but one is a better option for you since you still need to breathe. So, when I flew up here and scouted for so long, just keeping up with the rising chunk of land, the thrusters below weren't stopping. They sure made a lasting impression that their fuel wasn't gonna run out anytime soon. I figure that even now they're still sending this chunk of land further into the skies, and sometime soon close to the boundaries of the Earth, means any oxygen on here will probably deplete. We oughta use this moment of having blinded most of everyone for an escape, since the oxygen in here may or may not cut off soon, possibly extinguishing the green fires anyway and hopefully its caster as well. I can drill a hole into the wall here you can crawl through, but we'd need to find a way to seal it off again so we can save a bit of time to escape. No idea what is behind this wall, though it can't get any worse than what we're stuck in, can it? With how the flame guy is swinging his chains, this garage will probably crumble in no time, anyway. "

Throughout the psychic dialogue, Ryg formed into a flat circle on the wall, then stretched out into a half-circle and stuck to the wall like the head of a plunger. Within the small space now formed in between him and the wall, a drill was formed, quickly and quietly drilling through the wall; as quiet and quick as Ryg could make it. When he could feel no more resistance in front of the drill, Ryg de-formed the drill and formed himself into a rather large rat, which was the minimum size he could take; 3.75ft in height, now rather in length as the Shapeshifter scuttled through the created hole on all fours.

'Come along, I don't know for how much longer the steam and foam will hold them off for. Before you ask; I doubt anyone is gonna suspect a rat of being a shapeshifter here. That's why.' @Captain Cardboard @comic

 

[ThePlayfulFox]

Destiny chuckled at the attempt of information. "Good try, I'm afraid that's too widespread. After all, won't take long for the whole world to know of Warren Industry's little flight. Something those two would kill for. I know both are willing to do that. Also, don't try lying to me, I'll know. Just tell me if you know something that hardly anyone else does, preferably something I can use against someone, and I'll schedule an in person meeting." She picked up a mask, grinning at it. Finally, a job not given to her by herself or her roommate. "We'll talk details then. I find doing that to be much simpler for both parties to get what they want." Mainly me, she thought as she started on what Kerco asked her to do after putting her mask on the desk.

Plant wanted to help her companions more, but she was far more focused on her vine walls. Bark crept up her skin, slowly turning her more and more into a plant, like her new name-sake. She had to prevent one form of escape. A blockage. Something to make it a little bit harder for thier targets to leave. Dog-Man spoke on the comms, mainly to her. She dropped her vines slightly as she peered around for the dog-headed human. He was climbing up a fire escape and seemed to be almost at the top. She had to get there quickly too. She let go of her vines, them loosing shape and falling limply back onto the walls, before running towards the building and wrapping a vine around her waist after finding one long enough. She had the vine gently carry her to the top of the building, ready to assist the dog-like human.

 

[BurbleBurble]

Deluge

Water boy? While Deluge would've loved to come up with a counter to that, he didn't have the time or creativity to do such things. After all, what could he make fun of the Folder for? Being named after an office supply? Ansel couldn't think up a quip that quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a min-" No minutes were given, as a kicked drone spiraled towards him. "Oh, ok."

A jet of water redirected the drone corpse, soaring over the super- and shielding him from another, taking a hit, and crushing the other beneath it. Another two down. Ansel looked out towards the horizon, the city blocks below looking like specks, only a few skyscrapers standing out among them. And then Ansel looked up-

The air was thin, sure. They were all up pretty high, and were surrounded by drones with no need to breath. But the Deluge's trump card had arrived- Or rather, they had arrived at the trump card.

Deluge raised his arms in the air, and for a moment, everyone there could feel a light spiting of water. Then a drizzle. "You need some water, kid?" He shouted out to the Folder. "Well, I got plenty!"

From the clouds they were close to, a downpour emerged, originally unfocused. It drenched the fighting supers, before the water was surgically pulled once more. Soaring into the air, a massive tendril of liquid, surging towards a number of the drones. Swept up in the current, the machines likely having no way to swim. Even if they could, it was probably pointless against the storm surge.

The Deluge smirked as he did this, and swept about eight of the active robots off the edge, sending them careening into the city below. Hopefully, they'd land in the crater. Or someplace that was covered by insurance. Just...not on any civilians, that was the important part.

"Hey Folder, you said you needed some, right?" A swath of water broke off from the main blast, heading towards the teleporting super. "Go ahead, I got plenty!"

It was time to wrap things up.

-----
Celice

God, this Big Brain wasn't letting up was she? Though she had let it slip that this was actually Charles Warren's doing- How Big Brain had figured that out so quickly, Celice wasn't sure, but obviously that was why she needed to come to some kind of agreement with her.

Stepping away from the window, she looked to Lady. Obviously Lady was still quite sensitive about the whole thing she went through, so she needed to keep it a little on the down low. Raising a finger to Lady, as if telling her to wait for a moment, as Celice entered the bathroom.

"Alright, I'm going to level with you- This is gonna sound crazy, but I've stumbled onto something here." She spoke in a hushed tone. "As I said, it could bring down Patriot. Well, if anyone can even take him down. But he's a murderer. And I don't mean of villains, I mean of innocent women." Okay, maybe the Eve who had somehow died before Lady came around wouldn't turn out to be exactly innocent, as she clearly did something to piss Patriot off badly. Now what that was was questionable. "I met someone who claims to have been killed by Patriot. I don't know how she's survived, but I only have two leads- One's Patriot, the other's Charles Warren. According to a...Well, trash kid. The trash kid saw a vision of her past, and Warren was there. I don't know why, but I doubt they're buddies, since she got tossed into the ocean in the vision. Look, whatever this is, I just want to know about her. I want explanations. But you can use that information- Patriot being a murderer, Warren having something to do with her, I'm sure you can draw some lines there to incriminate someone, right?"

Though Celice also assumed that neither of those target proved fruitful. They were both very powerful men, in powerful positions, far higher than Celice or Big Brain. And if Big Brain wanted something smaller, then...

"If that's too much, I also know the Double Drakons are getting ready to move their last weapons. A number of them were seized by the police in a raid a week ago, but I overheard one blabbing about it the other day. There's probably no reward in tipping the police off to it. I guess there's some sort of moral reward, but we both know that's never got anyone anywhere in the world."

-----
Dr. Chase

The walk was longer than Chase expected. The air grew thick, harder to breath. Descending deep into the guts of Riker Base, of Warren Industries in general. Discontinued tunnels, seldom visited. Perhaps never visited, if Warren had enough friends higher up. Enough to dodge OSHA's watchful eye. The atmosphere soon went from muggy to quite hot, as the android and doctor soon passed by the forges. The air was thicker still, yet either without care or just completely nonchalant about the whole affair, he had lit yet another cigarette whilst on route to Obsidian's hideout.

And by the time they had reached the doors, that cigarettes was little more than a burnt down butt. With CL-8's rapping on the door, he absent mindedly tossed the cigarette butt into the scorching steel below. With any luck, the burnt ashes of tobacco would clog up the kill-bot Warren would be relying on to defend himself with some five or so years from now.

Wow, the doctor thought. I guess I'm just fantasizing about Warren's death now.

With a curt nod to the CL model of yesteryear, he entered the darkened hall. Took a breath of the relatively cooler air. And with no other options, proceeded forward. His steps were all that he could hear at first, though it was quickly joined by an incessant clicking at a keyboard. Air circulating through fans. The dull lights not giving much away within the hall, just the shapes of sheet draped machines and servers.

"Obsidian?" Chase asked aloud, as he approached the source of the noise.

-----
Necrodytis

Grim curiosity made her look at the head that fell out of the helmet. It looked awful. Skin pale and dead, pulled tightly against it's skull. Mouth agape, eyes wide, pure white. Aside from the briefest touch of color where the iris and pupil were once, too vague and faint to make out. Worst of all...it wasn't bleeding. There was no blood in it at all...just organs. Truly revolting. Worst of all, it distantly reminded her of herself.

Though the helmet was just fascinating as the corpse. "I...guess." She admitted, taking the helmet in her hands.

So now Necrodytis was holding a dead man's helmet. It was probably still warm inside. Well, it almost certainly wasn't once she thought about it for a moment. Either that guy was dead for a long time...or he lived like that. Once again, she drew a connection to herself. She didn't live in pain, but it certainly wasn't comfort.

She was distracted from such morbid thoughts by a new proposition by the Lady in Black- A loan. "Thank you for your generosity," She began. "But it's fine. I'm certain a job will come along soon. Certainly someone will want to exploit the current happenings somehow- And if they need a show to distract people with, I'll give them one."

Necrodytis was to back to dramatics, apparently having gotten over the head in the trash.

-----
Skade, Subject 4649

Both Skade and 4649 had orders, from admittedly different sources. Skade boarded the wooden ship, still in mock terror. "Truly dreadful." Shaking her head, glancing towards the ground. The humans above couldn't see her smug face. And Skade too did not think too much about whatever human fear a 'nuclear bomb' represented. Certainly not something she'd be afraid of.

And 4649's orders were quite simple. Don't get killed.

And currently, doing that required listening to the man's shouts outside. She stood beside Mash, but looked to Skade, Ignizio, and Kronos- All of them seemed quite nonplussed about the whole thing. Even she knew what a nuclear bomb was- It would make an explosion big enough to kill them all! But then again, why would these pirates use it then? Would they be crazy enough to kill them all?

Too many questions, so little answers. But the biggest question was those 'Heralds'. Why didn't they care? Were they strong enough to just not have to?

If what Colonel Mash said was true, and they were just messing around for some reason...That'd be rude. They might be strong enough to not die, and maybe not her. But Mash, the researcher, the Pilot...all very killable! Ugh, she was just gonna follow one of them before those Heralds for now...