Duodecimarch Revolution (Warhammer x Metroid x Worm x Transformers Multicross Quest)

[X]: Let Piggot in (Further briefing about Brockton Bay from the PRT. Start relation with PRT and Earth Bet American heroes.)

Samus

You decided to quickly message Bumblebee back before he could take you for a flake of some sort.

hatchingSentinel: sorrryyyyyy Bumblebee but it'd be rude to just put off a briefing!
Bumblebee: Aww I understand Samus. When you've got the time though, come on and hang out!
Bumblebee: I've got some great stories to tell and something really cool to show.
Bumblebee: They still call things cool in your universe right?
novaKnight: In some Vernaculars, yes.
Bumblebee: Ah right, thanks for that Arne!
hatchingSentinel:
novaKnight:
hatchingSentinel: >
novaKnight:
hatchingSentinel: >
novaKnight: Oh no, Samus your eyebrows are escaping again!
hatchingSentinel: > they are out of control!
Bumblebee; Hahahahahah
Bumblebee: Catch you two as soon as possible!

Okay now that was out of the way...

"Come in!" You said, letting Piggot slide into the door as she turned the handlebar type doorhandle downwards and muttered something rather impolitic about Europeans and the shape of their doorknobs. She stepped in, trying her best to look unimpressed by what she saw, but the tension radiating from her told a rather different story of a woman who just had her world turned upside down. A little shake to her step, the serpent of disquiet coiling around her mind, a slightly sour note to her mental aura. All things your keen eyes quickly picked up on as she looked around briefly.

"Where are...oh...you look, markedly less inhuman than I expected." She said, getting a shrug out of you while Arne idly chewed on a nail until you gently moved his hand away. You remember being told rather frequently that it was not seen as a hygenic habit while you were at the Prodigonia facility's programs for helping you adjust to non-progenitor species company. Besides with the accelerated healing the two of you have, his nails would grow back before he knew it anyway.

"Use the nanofile." You told him, giving him a small smile as he nodded and produced one from his pocket, quickly rubbing it across his nails to let the nanites each into the keratin he produced.

"So I presume that you trust me enough to speak to me in civilian guise at least?" She said, her eyes trailing to Eudaimonica and Joseph as they had produced some manner of console to play on, roughly rectangle-shaped with a blue and red controller on each side as they played some kind of...fighting game you guessed. She was playing some kind of power armour clad space commando*, he was playing some sort of mustachio'd man and Sammi was about to say something before Piggot harrumphed.

"Children, if you could please pay attention?" She asked with a sigh as they sheepishly put their consoles away.

"Sorry...so are you with like...this world's FBSA?" Alice asked, putting her hands forward and clasping them together, having a small thumb war with herself.

"...Pardon?" She asked.

"Federal Bureau of Superpowered Affairs." She said as she once again produced her FBSA license card, getting a nod out of the woman as she pulled up a chair and rested in it, stroking her index finger along her chin as she propped it up with her thumb before finally formulating her response.

"Yes. The Parahuman Response Team, though I am lead to believe you prefer the term...Metahuman yes?" She said, a thumbs up coming from Joseph's shadow that made her tighten her lips before looking at you and Arne, tilting her head somewhat upwards in response to the rather substantial height difference between the two of you and her.

"You two though, are a bit of an enigma. What would be the preferred term for your...kind?" The way she said that made you rankle inside. It felt grotesque, and you soon flashed a less than pleased face to let her know that you weren't interested in being called that again. Arne though, just made a small frown and stopped the tapping of his fingers in a way that made Piggot tense. The intense red colouration of his eyes seemed to unsettle her, and you started to get the impression that she thought his countenance was...strange.

"Extra or Supranormals...or Ultrasophonts. It depends on where you are in the universe really but, Ultrasophonts is the term that well; our caretakers would prefer. So, if you have to use a term, I guess go with that? I don't know. Call us what you like?" Arne said, the slight tendency to ramble indicative to you that he was feeling somewhat uneasy. The less quiet he was, the more uncomfortable he was served as a pretty good rule of thumb for gauging his mood when he wasn't keen on being open with his psychic signature.

"If it's all the same to you, for now I'd like to stick with what I know." She said, pulling out her briefcase and laying out some of the files she had stored there. Paper, which made you and everyone else raise an eyebrow. You thought for a moment about the tree that died to make for the pulp that made these sheets and frowned. It seemed like a waste. These papers would only degrade with each reuse, this was the only time they could be used at this level of quality with the technology here. You frowned and sighed before Piggot gave you a look you had trouble reading until your empathic senses told you she was confused.

"She's just, not really happy about the paper usage." Arne spoke up, getting a grateful nod out of you while you played a bit with your ponytail and sighed.

"Still not quite a paperless society I'm afraid." She said. You took a moment to realise it was a joke and bit your tongue to stop yourself from letting out a comment in response while she also pulled out a laptop that gave you about the same impression that looking upon Dinosaur fossils did.

"How much data can you fit in that thing? Two terabytes? Could you really fit the...important details in that?" You said in disbelief. This planet's internet barely managed zetabyte levels of data usage. An infinitesimal amount. So small you could design and assemble a drive to fit literally all of it pretty trivially even with basic tools. She wouldn't be able to provide all the important data such as spectroscopic analysis, biological statistics, weather patterns, gravimetric anomalies, subatomic fluctuations...

"Brevity is the soul of report writing." She said as she looked to Sammi.

"Your husband has told me everything, so no need to fill me in on the details, suffice to say it's very troubling information."

"Uhh yeah, the Fifth Column on a timeline not ready for it? Yikes you guys are not in for a fun time." Joseph said, taking a look at some of the papers, focusing on a picture of a Red and black Ubermensch Obert shaking hands with Kaiser; who seemed almost comically short next to the Raserei Oberst.

"The Empire Eighty-Eight has grown exponentially bolder and more vicious over the years. Their numbers constantly swelling, their equipment more plentiful, exotic, and of higher quality. We've barely been able to keep up as they start to push out rival gangs and attack with greater violence and enthusiasm than ever before. We weren't able to determine where they got this surge in strength from, but it seems you all put the pieces together." She said, your eyes scanning over a pile of papers. She was right in that the sudden explosion in activity would be difficult to explain with traditional recruitment methods, at least, not with the degree of organisation they were showing before a sudden and massive rise in power a few years ago.

"And it's hardly the only problem we've been facing. While it's not supposed to be my business, I've been looking into the reports of the disappearances of many homeless people and the reports of monsters in underground and out of the way places." She said, her breath briefly pausing when she mentioned underground monsters. From your read of her available information, she had a rather bad experience with that sort of thing. You could commiserate, there were...certain things you didn't like talking about yourself.

"Eudaimonica your...demon spoke to me about the Rikti and how they make more. How they drug and mutate people into their own kind." She said, looking to the Tiara on the redhead's forehead where the Demon Lord was currently residing, staring into the gem as it glowed in affirmation.

"Wait...those things weren't...alien alien?" Battery said, doing a doubletake.

"No, no. Their genes are modified from a human baseline but spliced with something very extraterrestrial. But it's...what's the word in English...stagnant." You said, fishing around for the right term in the dictionary for what you meant before continuing while you scratched at your neck in thought. "In a way that suggests that the alien genes have simply been templated into humans for a very long time. I don't think there has been any...True Rikti for a long time." You said, not quite liking the idea of calling them "true" Rikti as if the ones you fought were somehow lesser for being hybridized, you didn't think of yourself as any less human or chozo for being both after all.

"Yeah that was supposed to be like, a Vanguard secret but capes are capes so they just kinda...blabbed when they started finding out you know?" Joseph said, understandable; why would anyone want to keep news like that a secret?

"That seems very important to let people know, so...I'm glad they let others know. Shame on the ones who wanted to keep that a secret!" You said, folding your arms and nodding.

"Right, but as I was getting to. They're not the only source of unusual sightings or disappearances. Odd religious groups have come up, we thought it was the usual sex cult activity; something not in my department. But a lot of the new recruits who come to them either have a strange bitemark, or had intercourse with someone with the bitemark; and despite the seemingly high incidence of pregnancy, these people never report to the hospitals nor are the expected number of children enrolled in school. Furthermore, every neighbourhood they crop in gets a higher incidence of monster sightings." She said, passing on the relevant files on her laptop for you and Arne to pore over. While it seemed like a sign of manner of lifecycle hijacking, you had never seen anything that exactly fit the description and shook your head.

"Some sort of infectious organism is my best guess? Something that relies on altering host sexual behaviour to spread. Definitely extraterrestrial, but I have no idea what it'd be." He said, taking a look at notes of other, differing cults also cropping up in the Bay and the notes on various observed doctrines or symbols. "But...most of these don't look like anything I've seen. I'd need to get a closer look to tell you more." He said, running his hands through his hair and sighing.

"Hrm, unfortunate, the autobots told me much the same." She said with a somewhat disappointed sigh.

"We've also been experiencing a major upswing in trigger events, but many of these people then disappear shortly afterwards. Many seemingly designed to specifically encourage tinkers; parahumans with abilities to produce advanced technology. It's given my department something of a problem. The parahuman population is growing very rapidly, while mental health institutions are being swarmed with the traumatised and frightened." She said before Alice raised her hand.

"Trigger events?" She asked.

"Powers in this world only come from people who've experienced some manner of intense trauma. Which seems to activate something inside of them." She said before you couldn't help but blurt out.

"The extradimensional symbionts that bond with intelligent beings on this planet look for hosts who've had significant emotional disturbance!" You said, beaming brightly as if you had done something to be proud of only to slink back when you realised Piggot was staring at you with a thoroughly unimpressed expression. Did you make some sort of mistake? Arne a least, didn't think so as he patted you on the back while Sammi just gave a nod.

"So, what do you want us to do about it?" Arne asked, getting a nuzzle out of you before you gave each other some space.

"We are overloaded as is...and with these statues of the cultures that raised you waking up we can hardly take any additional strain as these things become prizes for otherworldly invaders on top of all of our own native issues. But you're...new to things here, so I'd like you to have some time to integrate and observe. Learn how the system works. I would very much like to...avoid the sort of damage Munich University suffered." She said, getting an extended sigh out of you. Regulations and restrictions, much of which weren't even all that useful for keeping people safe from authority. The Galactic Federation's regulatory system for Freelancers and Supramilitias was already enough of a chore to go through.

"I guess I understand. But are you trying to recruit us again?" Arne asked, getting straight to the point. "The answer's still going to be no. I...we can't...shouldn't tie ourselves to any one government. Not right now anyway. Especially when you do a lot I'd find really hard to feel okay with being part of." He said quite bluntly.

"I'll let you have time to think about it given the circumstances of your arrival. Please do consider though, being stateless for the duration of your stay will make much of your life complicated." She said.

"We can manage." You said for him, glowering a bit at her for trying to insist on a topic he clearly wasn't interested in pushing any farther.

"What is your plan for finances? We don't live in a post-scarcity or post-labor society and none of you here have any presence in the administration. No schooling records, no listed job experiences, not even so much as a social security or a passport number. You can't exactly depend entirely on Samantha and Ethan for all your daily needs in America." Piggot said, steepling her fingers as if she had made an ironclad point.

"And before you get ideas about using your technopathy to simply write yourselves into the system; that's not something that I'd be allowed to simply let happen. Perhaps you can fight off every cape that could be dispatched to deal with you, but you'd be making enemies without reason and cutting yourself off from assistance." She said, briefly making you wonder if she too was precognitive before realising that was silly, your visor would have caught that before hand. She was simply good at guessing how someone might use their powers to skirt around her bureaucracy.

Spirits you hated these suited tools of invisible systems of levers and gears.

"Now, we don't have to tie you to the American government per se. There is something we could do with the U.N; arrangements to be made with the security council. Especially given the circumstances we are facing. I'll be...blunt. With the state of the world we are not ready for an alien invasion. Let alone multiple ones. Especially not against those who have likely already infiltrated our society. Much of our defence is oriented to either skirmishing with each other, taking on rogue parahumans, or repelling the Endbringers. A massive assault by technologically superior foes would be..."

"A massacre. Your P.R.T officers are highly equipped by your standards and the Rikti slaughtered them. And you've been talking to the Autobots, haven't you?" Arne said, a bit bluntly, lacking in tact; still trying to find the balance between coming in with the subtlety of a sledgehammer or shying away with the stiffness of a wilting flower depending on his mood and demeanour towards the person. On the other hand, you weren't exactly too much better with the people who created the Iron Cage of rules and regulations yourself, it rankled against your free spirit and fondness of liberating chaos.

"Yes..." She said, Battery looking towards her.

"Ma'am, I've seen how just a few of the Autobots fight. If the Decepticon Army is like that; most capes would get pasted fighting their basic troops. And, we don't really know how to find which ones of them are in disguise." Battery said flatly, getting a nod out of Emily.

"Yeah, uh. Back home, most people below security level forty would be dead weight." Nightcaster said sheepishly.

"What is the highest security level?" Piggot asked.

"Seventy five. Used to be fifty. But with more incarnates and incarnate level threats they kinda just, expanded the range." Alice said.

"And speaking of the two of you, what are your plans for managing your way around our incarnation of Earth?" Piggot said.

"Uhhh...we were just gonna wait for our team to pick us up once Portal Corps zeroes in on our location." Joseph responded.

"They're just going to...drop in without warning?" You said, already seeing an obvious flaw in that plan as Joseph tugged a bit of his collar.

"It's kinda Portal Corps standard protocol?" He said as Piggot placed a palm over her face and muttered something about the anarchy of other dimensions.

"And how long will that take?" She asked.

"I have absolutely no idea!" Alice said, offering two thumbs up and a cheery grin as if this was all a joke to her.

"And who is going to pick you up?" Piggot asked.

"Uh...probably other Starsetters. Steel Paladin, Lybraa, Rundrasta, Mistral Slash, Boltdancer, Blastjack, Mechamaven, and Dawnmaker." Joseph said, trying to recall the names of the people who said they'd be on their way to pick him up before he got out his phone and typed in something, before nodding and giving a thumbs up. So at least he could remember something like that correctly.

"And these are all humans from your reality?" Sammi asked.

"Oh what? No way. Steel Paladin's some kind of Fairy from another multiverse and well, overall really spiffy looking twink. Rundrasta's some kind of...frost angel or something, really pretty though. Lybraa's a psychic elf from another reality and Dawnmaker's a Peacebringer so he's Kheldian...Elfy...mixy...thingy. The other part of him came from like, another reality too. Slash and Bolt are human though." Joseph said.

"And how long would you expect it to take for them to find you?"

"I dunno, they're usually pretty competent. I'm surprised they haven't found us already." Alice said before Piggot got a phone call, prompting her attentions to shift towards her pocket as she fished out her primitive rectangular pocket computer and pressed in the security pin to allow her to access the call, which you briefly saw was coming from someone by the name of...Vista you think? Probably a codename.

"Yes, Vista, I'm in the middle of important business with our extraterrestrial guests." You decided to listen in on Vista's end of the conversation, focusing in on her words, however muffled they were by Piggot's cheek in the way.

"+Uh, ma'am we've got a situation. And I know you said not to call you unless it was an emergency but...+"

"I'm going to assume this is an emergency then."

"+Okay so eight parahumans I have never seen in my entire life just popped out of a portal asking for where two of their friends were and most of the adults are out somewhere else so we handled talking to them. But uh, this guy on the street pulled out some kind of rocket launcher, shot the Knight and then got blasted into bits so Aegis thought they just murdered him even when I told him that person felt like a robot and now there's a fight in the street and...+" A crashing sound was heard followed by the wail of a car alarm.

"+Yeah we kind of gave the...superhero standard hello?+" She said in a tiny, embarrassed voice.

"...Is there some sort of secret handshake among your subculture that involves thrown cars?" You asked, utterly baffled by this strange slang.

"Oh it means a fight broke out. It's kind of how superheroes who've never met each other say hi." Joseph said as if this was no biggy.

"+...I'm okay.+" A fainter voice in the background said before wheezing.

"+...Kid Win could you not try to tank the big robot's fist with your face?+" She said.

"+YOU ARE ATTACKING DULY SWORN METAHUMAN VOLUNTEER HEROES OF PRIMAL EARTH, THIS VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW CODE SECTION ALPHA 34 DASH SIX B HAS BEEN REGISTERED, SUPPRESSIVE FORCE AUTHORISED! SUBMIT TO ARREST TO AVOID FURTHER NONLETHAL CONFLICT.+" Another, louder, metallic voice boomed.

"+...Hooooh shit it's got missiles, oh my god it's got so many missiles. Should I just pull it apart? The girl who made it seems really...proud of it. Also kind of a jerk because I'm 99% sure she just gave the new guy a wedgie.+"

"+PREPARE FOR A PARAGON CITY WELCOME NEEEEEEEEEEERDS!+" A loud, feminine voice shouted before breaking into maniacal laughter right up until she started coughing loudly. "+...Ugh, throat dry, need water.+"

"Hey that sounds like Mechamaven! Oh man she's teleporting in her heavy assault bots?" Joseph said, again putting you slightly off with how he seemed to take this...completely unseriously.

"Is anyone seriously hurt?" Piggot said after some stunned silence before electricity crackled on the other side of the phone.

"+Uh no we're mostly just...fighting to try and restrain each other. They're just trying to cuff us. And we're just trying to foam them. Newbie's wedgie is uh...atomic though. Ouch. Knight guy's fine though, the rocket launcher didn't even dent that armour and the robot doppelganger thing was halfway through ranting about some guy named Megamawhatsit before it got zapped.+" Vista said.

"+VISTA GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE! WE'VE ALMOST GOT ONE OF THEM!+" That voice sounded male. And rather desperate.

Actions (Specify whether Samus or Arne do it, though both can do the same action to support each other.)

[]: Try to get a more in depth sitrep and then teleport in via autobot ground bridge, this will take more time though.
[]: Use the autobot ground bridge to teleport everyone into the Arkhangelsk base to break up the fight
[]: Just teleport in and get everyone to knock it off
[]: Use the ground bridge and restrain everyone.
[]: Try contacting the two teams and talk things out
[]: Have a third party sort them out
[]: Write in


* To get all the "hey you're a fictional character!" stuff out of the way, any setting that will be used in this crossover has never appeared as a fictional franchise in any of the Earths that will show up. So any setting mentioned as a fictional franchise by Bet or Primal Earthers (or others) can be assumed to not be showing up in the crossover. Thus Metroid was never a game series in either Primal Earth or Earth Bet, thus Nintendo's first female scifi protagonist is Aelita Efimna Sokolova of the series Cosmodon; made by a joint Pajitnov & Pokhilko Electronic Bureau-Nintendo project.

The Starsetters are one of the newer Metahuman teams of Paragon City, founded in the summer of 2019 by the Peacebringer Helian Justice and the Warshade Gloomy Retribution as well as a brother and sister pair of emigres from the Psykor Dimension known by their titles of the Xaeon and the Iybraa; or War-Seeker and Knowledge Quester in their native languages. The Psychic Elf-Like Aliens, only fourteen at the time, confided with the merged heroes that a team where they could go on patrol together with their fellow youth heroes and where non-humans would be especially accomodated would be the ideal placement for them, and with the official permission of the Mayor of Paragon, got permission to set up a portal to their team headquarters in Khalisti Wharf.

The Starsetters are primarily but not exclusively focused on young heroes as well as heroes who have moved in from other dimensions, universes, planets, or are in some way distant from humanity such as mutants, Coralax, Peacebringers, robots, cyborgs, and a number of other such species. The Starsetters have also always sought to maintain a welcoming, inclusive environment that any member regardless of origin can feel welcome in, and has focused itself on not simply crime-fighting; but crime prevention through social and community service. The Starsetters also allow for adults or humans to continue to join their ranks, but these members are expected to keep in mind that the team is meant to be a welcoming place for our nonhuman heroes and for younger heroes to find their place.

The Starsetters have to their name a large number of high security level heroes from around the world as well as a significant number of incarnates, not the least of which are its founding members. This gives the Starsetters a tremendous deal of firepower for a relatively new organisation, and its support from a number of prominent non-humans in the hero community has also allowed it to expand at a significantly greater than normal rate. Already, the Starsetters are considered one of the best places for newcomers to the Primal Earth dimension or to the planet of Primal Earth itself to go through at least for a period of time to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings.

...

Starsetter Team Omicron is primarily lead by Tyrius Veldegard, the famed Steel (or Solar) Paladin and a recent emigre to the Primal Universe from a distant "Worlds Aflame" Metaverse as well as his primary paramour, the Frost Angel Raelamiel Thelimir, better known as Rundrasta. The two incarnates form a potent power couple with him focusing on taking the hits while she dishes out the damage. Included in their typical roster is Dawnmaker, a Yurye-Kheldian merged Peacebringer whose combination of Yurye psionics and Vondun living metal symbiote armour and Kheldian energy prowess and physical might has made him a nationwide teen senstation; Mechamaven, a young up and coming mastermind with a tremendous skill with robotics from the African-American mutant community; Blastjack, a Soviet foreign exchange student loaned out to the Starsetters following his contact and bonding with an extraterrestrial power source as part of Soviet-American goodwill measures channelled through a Craftertech Rifle and power suit designed by Vector Shift and modified by maven for his use; Iybraa herself with her Vondun living metal power armour symbiont and her tremendous psionic powers; Boltdancer, an Electric Controller who's recently risen from the African-American mutant community of King's Row to join the Starsetters to get his foot in the door; and finally the sensational Mistral Slash who's come all the way from Japan with her mutant superspeed, camouflage, physiology, and her ability to channel energy through objects such as her sword.


Tyrius Veldegard, aka Steel Paladin
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Red
Eye Colour: Green
Species: Fairy-Nymph hybrid
Place of Birth: Lelndilmyr, Eldrakar, Xarazanth, Nightfire Universe
Powers: Massively enhanced physiology, fae magics and physiology, Paladin magics, omega level pyrokine, Goddess Granted Sword, Spear, Armour, and Shield, Solar Incarnate, Nymphic Beauty.
Skills: Skilled and charismatic leader, masterful melee combatant, experienced with multiple forms of magic, excellent model builder, very charming and personable, best diplomat on the team, only person on team to have the patience to finish a game of monopoly.
Origin: Supernatural
Archetype: Tanker
Security Level: 75



Raelamiel Thelimir aka Rundrasta
Age: 15
Hair Colour: White
Eye Colour: Blue
Species: Kfohrim (Frost Angel)
Place of Birth: Vhoxon, Heavenly Choir, Throne, Choraleum Dimension
Powers: Angelic Physiology and Magics, masterful melee combatant, omega level cryokine, flight, Frost Incarnate, "Lucky Shots", Heavenforged Power Armour and twin Frost-swords, Angelic beauty.
Skills: Expert socialite and party organizer, masterful knowledge of heavenly politics and event organisation, Innate knowledge of warfare and combat, Paragon City youth beatboxing champion, Supreme Dream Teen Meme Queen (Self Proclaimed).
Origin: Supernatural
Archetype: Scrapper
Security Level: 75



Arkoril Ypshalon, Bringer of Glorious Redemption, aka Dawnmaker
Age: 17 (Yurye Host), 151,389,670 (Kheldian Symbiont), 1 (Combined identity)
Hair Colour: Gold
Eye Colour: Orange
Species: Yurye, Kheldian
Place of Birth: Itaxon, Federation of Hashara, Higras, Psykor Dimension
Powers: Yurye Physiology, Kheldian Peacebringer abilities, Vondun Living Metal Symbiont Power Armour, Incarnate
Skills: Through the Bringer of Glorious Redemption, Dawnmaker has the accumulated experience of a hundred and fifty million years of existence and a million lifetimes. Speaks fluent Pirate.
Origin: Extraterrestrial
Archetype: Peacebringer
Security Level: 75



Darla Brown aka Mechamaven
Age: 14
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth: Paragon City, United States, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Innate understanding of non-magical technology allowing her to quickly decipher and then understand what she needs to reproduce something like it with the materials available, Built her own power suit and energy weapons, and an army of robots and the facilities to rapidly manufacture more to be teleported in to her location no matter where she is, time manipulation devices, Incarnate.
Skills: Mastery of robotics, engineering, particle physics, and a number of other STEM fields, impeccable real-time strategy gamer, mediocre Super Smash brothers player.
Origin: Technology
Archetype: Mastermind
Security Level: 75



Ivan Valeryvich Kalashnikov
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Blue
Species: Human
Place of Birth: Mikhailgrad, Soviet Union, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Bonding with Extraterrestrial power source has turned him into a living dynamo of constant energy production that can be used to charge all manner of exotic technology or simply used in a more raw form, primarily uses it to power an advanced power suit and beam weapon designed for him by Vector Shift and Mechamaven, practices esoteric martial arts that grant supernatural prowess as well, super-reflexes and regeneration, overall augmented physiology, Incarnate.
Skills: Best chess player in the entire starsetters team, excellent marksman and melee combatant, extremely multilingual, exceedingly good at coding, second strongest meme game after Rundrasta, extraterrestrial power source has granted him with some extraterrestrial knowledge.
Origin: Science
Archetype: Blaster
Security Level: 75



Elerya Ophilix aka Iybraa
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Blonde
Eye Colour: Orchid
Species: Yurye
Place of Birth: Irkana, Federation of Hashara, Higras, Psykor Dimension
Powers: Yurye Physiology and Psionics, Vondun Living Metal Symbiotic Power Armour, Psychic Incarnate, Herald of the Yurye Prime, virtually impossible to knock down or lock down
Skills: Skilled manipulator, master of Telepathy, Psychodynamics, and Telekinesis, Capable markswoman and melee combatant, Paragon City dance dance revolution champion to beat for two years in a row, Psychology expert, can download memories and skills as she desires
Origin: Extraterrestrial
Archetype: Dominator
Security Level: 75



Marcus Wilson aka Boltdancer
Age: 14
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth, Paragon City, United States, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Electricity Control, Electric Speed, Electric generation and augmentation, can draw out electric power from the ambient area or call it from an extradimensional source, able to protect body with electricity, magnetic control
Skills: Innate understanding of electromagnetism, expert at using electronic telecommunications, high skilled healer and motivator
Origin: Mutant
Archetype: Controller
Security Level: 75


Mitsuki Aiko aka Mistral Slash
Age: 16
Hair Colour: Auburn
Eye Colour: Hazel
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth: Nagakonai, Japan, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Can channel energy through body and objects, enhanced physiology, can turn imperceptible across a wide spectrum of detection methods, Incarnate
Skills: Excellent at twister, undefeated Starsetter Champion at hide and seek, Master of multiple martial arts, Excellent at fighting games, great at drawing, skilled markswoman and trapsetter
Origin: Mutant
Archetype: Stalker
Security Level: 75





The eight of them had managed to subdue some large...green man who spoke like a stereotypical idiot, using "me" instead of I, and never using words with more than a handful of syllables. Like many other of these self-identified "trolls", they were freakishly strong, regenerated blindingly fast, took hits like champions, but didn't seem to be overly fond of fire. This one, in particular, didn't bother with guns or melee weapons, simply grabbing a lamp post and trying to use it like a baseball bat. Clobbered several PRT officers senseless and didn't seem to be affected by any of the known parahuman power neutralisers. Which lead Vista to conclude it must have been those "Metahumans" that she'd been briefed about.

She also got a brief memo on some magic threads and shards and doohickeys, like the stuff she went to bed with last night, but when she woke up they were gone and the main thing she remembered was this strange dream of something feminine talking to her.

Emphasis on brief, something about another set of realities...at least three others...giant robots, nazis, and two teens who fell from space in alien power suits and got up just fine. Why does all the weird shit have to happen in the bay, she wondered? Couldn't this be New York's problem for once.

"Did you get the Hot Chocolate Vista? This weather is going to be the death of me." Clockblocker said, interrupting Vista's thoughts, rubbing at his arms and shivering in the subzero temperatures before Vista offered him a piping hot mug full of cocoa with the exact brand of marshmallows he preferred, getting a nod of thanks out of the redhead while he ducked out to remove enough of his mask to have a sip. Vista herself sipped from the other mug, glad for the winterised version of her costume allowing her to preserve at least some heat while she rubbed at her gloves.

"See, this girl always brings the best chocolate. Come on, what's your secret?" One of the newer wards; brought on in the sudden explosion of trigger events; said to her. Vista took a look at her; her costume mostly meant for warmth as her regeneration and toughened tissue made her not overly concerned about the hits she took to get close enough to make use of the metal covered claws she could project from her skeleton or the detachable metallic bone shards she could push out of her shoulders in a rather unnerving display. Feralborn's powers were often kind of messy but her stubborn refusal to stay down made her a natural compliment to Aegis; especially after his second trigger; even if she wasn't quite as strong and lacked his flight. In any case, it was best to let Starla Smith take the hits in her stead when possible.

"She just gets them from Diego's Chocolates." Clockblocker said with a laugh. "Best place in town, really sweet Spanish couple owns it and man the Churros are to die for." He said, rubbing his belly wistfully.

"...Don't literally die for Churros, please." Vista added. "But yeah, it's just a place I can get to easily. The owners are sweet too." Vista added.

"Wasn't planning on it...but uh...you got any for me? Kind of hungry here." She said, crouching a bit as her camouflage patterned costume ruffled with her movements, steam curling out of the scarf she wore over her mouth and morning light bouncing off of her goggles, the hood she wore darkening her covered face a bit further as she idly flicked one of her claws against the snow, driving some of it out of the way.

"Are you ever not hungry?" Shielder said, folding his arms with a coy smirk on his face even with the cherry red tint to his probably thoroughly cold nose. While not officially a ward, the New Wave had offered their help in the operation, and while arrogant and kind of flirty at the wrong times, Eric's shield powers had come in handy countless times.

"You know she needs to eat more to keep that power of hers going." Laserdream cut in, his older sister hovering overhead as she kept an eye out for any further trouble, blonde hair trailing behind her in the sky before she shrugged and set herself down to keep out of the frostbitten winds, pink and white outfit feeling just a bit too skimpy for this sort of weather.

"You're just jealous because I never have to watch what I eat." Starla said with a smug grin beneath her camo mask that got an eyeroll out of shielder.
"Tease all you want, I know you dig me." He said with a finger pistol that got a bit of a stammer from Starla before she turned away and harrumphed.

"Keep flirting on the job and you might get laid sometime this century." Cerebro was another new recruit, another Brockton Native and one of the last Jewish people in Brockton Bay after the Empire-88 started carrying out pogroms. It made him rather bitter and cynical and Vista always figured him for someone who'd likely ditch the Protectorate and the Wards if they ever got in the way of his hoped for vengeance. His helm had, entirely cosmetic, wires and tubes emerging from it and going into his neck, his gas mask making a prolonged hiss as he sucked in filtrated air.

"Got something up your sleeve point dexter?" Clockblocker said, offering him a snack bar only to be rebuffed.

"Nah I'm not hungry...but I've just been trying to piece together the patterns of these trolls. They don't move around like they know the city so they can't be local. Get me some mementoes and I'll have it deduced I'm sure." Cerebro was amazing at deduction through long distance observation, but where he really shined was when he had some physical evidence to look at. A living forensic lab and a master of taking data he observed and compiling answers, strategies, or well crafted theories. It also made him amazingly good at beating people down once he had them figured out, especially with his enhanced physiology and the gear he tended to carry with him.

The downside is that he couldn't predict the future, just give an educated guess at it, and what he made were deductions, not scans. If he couldn't physically sense something or if he wasn't aware of it his power just didn't work on it. Not like Tattletale who always seemed to know things she couldn't possibly have ever been around to find out. Still, Jerry Einstein was fun to have around as long as it wasn't time to watch mystery shows together. On the other hand, she'd never seen someone go through so much

"This week is officially the worst." Kid Win said with a sigh as he deployed his suit's rebreather to avoid having to expose his lips to spit freezing cold.

"I get told that there's aliens in the Sewers but here I am dealing with a bunch of...dumb jock druggies. Come on, I just want to look at one plasma blaster." Kid Win sighed before receiving a pat on the shoulder from Lady Silver. Lady Silver was hardly the first cape with a knight theme, but Mary Goldberg certainly put some of the most effort into trying to rock it. If summoning energy-charged full plate with a mighty energy enhanced two-handed sword or lance wasn't enough, her ability to seemingly project an armoured Alicorn into being made her supremely versatile. In her armoured form she was one of the tallest members of the ward, her gleaming silver, platinum, and gold coloured full plate with a feathered crest almost making her look ostentatious.

Of course, almost ceased to apply when she found a cape lying around that she insisted she had to wear that since became part of her costume, having demonstrated significantly increased abilities; including an odd tendency for attacks to redirect away from her; ever since putting it on. When the PRT briefed her on what...Nightcaster and Eudaimonica told them was magic Vista thought of Goldberg, how she seemed to break a number of rules. She claimed to have never triggered, these were abilities she just had after finding a suit of armour. For the longest time Vista just thought it was...a lie but now...hrm.

"Cheer up Kid Win. There will be more foes to best in the coming days! Surely in the near future we shall be blessed with a chance to take the battle to these Rikti?" She said, getting a nod from Kid Win.

"You know you don't have to do the LARP dialogue when we're not in public right?" Kid Win said.

"...It's fun though." She responded, folding her arms.

"At least these guys are dumber than rocks." Vista said, humming as the PRT arrived to collect them, one of the officers saluting the group as they passed by.

"Same chemicals in this guy's system as far as we can tell from a quick look. So this seems to be the result of some kind of drug." The detective said as he took a look, going for the most stereotypical trench coat, fedorah, and pipe look he could have possibly managed; seeming to have tumbled out of some noir crime drama film from the prohibition era with an accent to match.

"...What kind of drugs gives you superpowers, makes you green and turns you into a moron?" Aegis asked as his team started trickling in, rubbing his neck after having taken a pretty hard knock to the head earlier that made him glad that he was pretty hard to keep dead.

"I have no idea. Can't be any of the local gangs because these guys have been turf warring with all of them besides some of the weird newbies and the Mafiosos. My guess, shake the local Italian crime family. Probably got their fingers on it." He said as he lit his pipe up and took a drag from it.

"What makes you say that?"

"Vial the drug comes in says "Luccini pharmaceuticals", that's an Italian name." He said as he fished out evidence and put it into a bag. He took a moment to regard the brow horns the drug addict had been developing as well as the sharp, boar like tusks that had been emerging from their lower jaw.

"Christ, who'd get people hooked on this shit?" He said with a sigh.

A few more were dropped onto the pile, freshly knocked out by the white and gold clothed Glory Girl as she descended from the air, holding herself in a "Ta-dah!" pose and offering that same old cheer leader smile that let Vista believe things were going to be alright. She dusted off her hands while Gallant footslogged behind her, huffing a bit and then extending out a hand to ask for everyone to wait.

"Hh-Kid...can you...make me a jetpack? Please...ahhh.." He said as he pushed himself up, getting a pat on the head from Victoria.

"Uh sure, when I've got time." Kid Win said with a shrug as the Detective took another drag from his pipe and puffed a ring of smoke from it, making Glory Girl scrunch up her face in response and mutter something about pipe huffing cancersticks like it made them look cool.

"I think that should be all of them. This one called himself Grog the Tog...could you believe that? Good thing he was about as smart as he sounds because this guy packed a punch. God, you should have seen him make boxing gloves out of cars and knocking himself out by headbutting into a cooling tower wall." She said as she gestured to the largest of the trolls, a near ten foot behemoth of a man with muscles thicker than Vista's entire body.

"...A drug did this?" Aegis said, clearly baffled.

"All evidence points that way." The detective answered.

"That kind of superpowered dope on the streets..." Fleur said*, rubbing her chin.

"Is already raising merry hell." The detective finished.

"With steroids like that the guy's balls are probably the size of M&Ms." Clockblocker joked, getting an "eyyyyy" out of Kid Win as they briefly exchanged a high five while Vista sniggered and Aegis and Shadow Stalker just let out long groans.

"Classy." Was all Glory Girl said in response, clearly unimpressed given the strength of her eye-roll.

"So uh...is that everyone? Been runnin' all over hell's half acre tryin' ta catch all these green fellas in this here weather like the heart of a banker on foreclosure day and I swear by baby-jesus if I ain't glad ta be through with 'em." One of the new wards, Greased Lightning said, the kid's voice giving him away as the child of two migrants, one from Texas, one from Arkansas. Vista found it charming even if she could hear people snickering behind Hank's back whenever they thought he wasn't in earshot. That is, when people weren't suggesting she get to know him better since they were about the same age.

Hank Henryson wore a red white and blue outfit that occupied the in between space of a race car driver and a mechanic with some added ballistic protection that didn't really seem to fit with his Greased Lightning name, but she figured all the patriotic speedster themed names were currently taken. On the one hand, he wasn't quite as fast as velocity, on the other hand he didn't have velocity's limitation on impacts that made Velocity more annoying than threatening in melee and he was actually really quite durable. Still, Aegis wasn't keen on the thirteen-year-old southern fried white boy taking hits to the face he didn't have to, and mostly had him on support.

"Greased, this isn't Texas. Remember your speech coach training. We're not here for the Foghorn Leghorn rehearsal" Aegis said.

"Boy I say if ya'll keep bringin' up that gosh darn chicken I swear on Mary mother of Jesus I'll have myself a dying duck fit." He stamped his foot and seethed mostly to himself, folding his arms. Vista was...still uncertain on some of his...Southernisms but she was pretty sure he just said he'd be really mad if they kept teasing him about his accent.

"Come on, be nice to him." Clockblocker said with a bit of sympathy as one of the other newbies, Quetzal, moved in on one of her serpents; dismounting and dusting her shoulders off from the snow that had accumulated onto it as the feathered Serpent coiled around her to provide warmth. Despite the name though, she wasn't Mexican, instead hailing from Bali in Indonesia. Ni Wayan Suardika Dewi; though to her eternal annoyance many just called her "Niway"; namely the same people who pushed her into taking a name from an entirely mythology than her own Hindu faith. She had wanted to go with Naga, but PR told her such was too obvious.

Her costume melded serpentine and avian influences, scalework armour, showy and probably well insulated water proofed feathers, a cloak that could help to keep out the sun on hot days, and more rigid bits here and there where flexibility wasn't necessary but protection was. She wore ski goggles at the moment to keep the glare of the snow out of her eyes, and wore a flight mask to help provide her with oxygen whenever riding on one of her projected serpents high enough to need extra oxygen to breathe.

With the frequency of her retreat to high altitudes, she nearly always dressed for cold weather regardless of the temperature on the surface, and Vista had become quite accustomed to the word "Dingin"; or "Cold". Vista couldn't really blame her, she was a native of a warm, tropical beach resort island whose value only increased when the Endbringers struck at a number of other popular tourist destinations. East coast winters must be like the ninth circle of hell for her.

"So what have your snakes found?" Shadowstalker said, clearly hoping that somehow the weather would improve from abominable to tolerable simply through sheer willpower as she stubbornly glared at the snow, trying to wish it away beneath her breath.

"That seems to be the whole bunch. But the funny thing is that a lot of these people sound like they're from Rhode Island." She said as the winged snake let out a gout of steam from its mouth while she patted at the projection, letting it flick its tongue into the air and taste it.

"Yeah, street people I talked to didn't recognise any of them." Vista said, taking another sip from her hot chocolate and chewing slightly on a marshmallow. Sweet, fluffy, just chewy enough the way she liked it. Paradise.

"Man like they could recognise their own mothers." Stormchild, who had just descended from the sky herself, had genuinely moved in from Mexico unlike Quetzal. Vista remembered when she was a he, before she came out and asked Panacea to help her out in exchange for a favour she wasn't privy to. Still, having some actual ranged firepower was massively helpful. Lola Rodriguez's costume was based more on the wear of fighter pilots, an armoured g-suit, bomber jacket, flight helmet and mask. Handy when one is up in the clouds.

Truth be told, Vista was one of the few people who wasn't in awe of her power, if only because she could easily neutralise it. Everything she did was just down to aerokinetics, even the lightning that often put the fear of god into people in her way was just being really good at rubbing together enough dust and ice in a certain path to create the static discharge. A clever trick to be sure though.

She was glad for the extra support though. She supposed it was one benefit to the rapid increase in the number of triggers going on these days. Lots more people to help out. They now had enough for multiple squads for the Bay these days. It of course made her miss when the unit was a bit tighter knit but on the other hand, patrolling in fire teams of five to eight split from squads of ten to sixteen was much safer than doing so in pairs. Even when they needed to split down into smaller units, it was nice to know she had more company.

"These guys are so dumb I don't think they recognised what street they were on. Kept on babbling about Skyway City or something. Absolutely out of their minds."

"Doesn't sound like any place I've ever heard of...either it's some suburb I don't know about or some kind of store...or maybe it's from that other universe." Vista said, parsing through the plausible sounding theories in short order before getting a shrug out of Stormchild.

"Yeah, I guess. What matters though, is that these clowns are face first in the ground."

"As a professional clown I take offense to this." Clockblocker said with a wide grin beneath his mask.

"Yeah, where's your license gingerboy?" She scoffed. The teasing kept on going for a bit while the comms filled up with the usual childish joking around, but Vista tuned it all out in short order. She felt something in the air. Her eyes widened and the fabric of space that she was so attuned to had an unpleasant tingle to it. Something pushing itself through across an impossible distance. Her breath drew short and her eyes grew wide as she pushed Clockblocker out of the way of a swirling maelstrom of white tearing itself into the air.

The air split apart in a rapidly widening electric circle with a lightning orb at its centre, humming and electric crackling mingling to produce an unearthly howling noise before eight shapes began to push through well...not quite eight, but eight she recognised as at least likely to be living breathing...humans? A knight with butterfly wings and black, red and gold armour, a boy in a blue and yellow trench coat, someone in blue and yellow power armour, a girl in pink and white with wings of crackling energy, an angelic figure in gleaming and cold blue-white armour, someone in gaudy yellow-green armour riding upon the shoulders of a large robot at the helm of a formation of large robots, a cloaked figure in white and red with a sword in hand, and someone in red, orange, and gold living metal armour glowing like sun, a roman style helm concealing their head save for glowing eyes and a billowing cape flowing behind them.

"Heads up team, Portal Corps says that this is the city closest to where Eudaimonica and Nightcaster dropped off to." Steel Paladin said, rising higher into the air with his wings seemingly hextupling in size as he stretched them out to their proper length; a glowing and sacred halo surrounding him while his wings grew to the proportions of a proper butterfly relative to his rather tall frame, drawing attention away from his gleaming kite shield or the rune encrusted red sword that lay in his other hand.

"...Oh my god he sparkles." Vista said as her eyes widened at the sight of the Butterfly knight's fully spread wings, each twice as long as he was tall at their full span, sugary dust billowing out with every wing flap until they wreathed themselves in crimson and golden metal with blackened eye spots; glowing with a solar light that made all the gathered PRT officers and Wards flinch away, raising anything that might shield them from the brilliant light like the unwelcome but comforting glare of the morning sun. It was...beautiful. Not awe inspiring, not terrifying, not intimidating...just...beautiful.

She felt the urge to just, say hello...to get to know him, transfixed by the beauty of the Butterfly Knight's wings. But she realised that this was some sort of compulsion, some sort of trick on her brain. A command to be at peace and to welcome the presence of the emissary of the Morning...was this magic? Or just some sort of really weird power? She heard that magic was a real thing apparently...but seeing it before her was another thing. Not even Glory Girl's presence felt so overbearing on her psyche...but she put two and two together. The wings, the sparkles, the presence of demons earlier, that strange presence and unplaceably celtic accent.

"He's a fairy..." She said with a dumb smile on her face. She had so many games of pretend as a child that played out like this. Swept off her feet by a prince among fairies, handsome and charming. She recalled collecting books about fairies, trying to get them to come to toadstools or mushroom circles and staying late at night in the hopes of seeing magic. And here it was, resplendant as the sun after the long night.

"Don't be afraid. I am the Steel Paladin, Emissary of Our Lady of the Unconquered Sun, Leader of Team Omicron of the Starsetters. We mean you no harm." He said gently, his voice supernaturally compelling. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to trust hi...this was more magic. His voice was supernaturally compelling. You couldn't help but feel like everything would be alright if you just listened to it; and every flap of his wings seemed to intensify the effect as the blizzard stilled around him, glittering sugary dust billowing from his wings and filling her mouth with an indescribably sweet taste.

Then he pulled off his helmet and her jaw just kind of...dropped. A lean, youthful face, like the most beautiful boy she had ever seen, with boyband styled windswept hair as red as a fire truck, eyes like emeralds that shone like stars with an inner light, and pointed ears that went to his temples. She felt like she'd go blind if she looked at it without his permission...no she would have her eyes burnt out if she gazed upon him against his desires, at least unless she was lucky or tough...but he wanted her to look upon him to know that everything was going to be fine, and it was at that point that she was certain.

"This is magic..." She said.

"What...come on, it's probably just the PRT freaking out about some weird pow...what the fuck he's hot?" Clockblocker said, at first having not looked directly at the Steel Paladin before turning and stopping all of his thought processes at once. He was straight as an arrow, but the compulsion to admire his beauty seemed to ignore that bit about Dennis.

"We are just looking for two of our friends who have been here recently. If you are kind enough to let us find them in your dimension, we will be on our way. Or if you'd prefer it; we could establish an embassy." He said with a voice that sounded like her favourite singer...it probably sounded like whatever the listener thought would be the most pleasant to hear out of those lips.

"I don't like this, this guy's putting out some mad mind control." Aegis said, hostility quickly forming in his voice.

"...Aegis no." Vista said, starting to have a sinking feeling about where this was going.

"Aww dangnabbit I didn't sign on for this pretty boy fourth of july show." Greased Lightning said as the Angel drew a little further forwards, her own armoured and feathered wings beating at a regular pace that didn't quite seem like they should be allowing her to achieve flight. Her own presence was also calming, a messenger of peace, a harbinger of justice, and also...fun? She got the feeling that she was a lot of fun, like a party could be just barely perceived around her as she made a V for victory sign with her fingers.

"Yoooo, waddup other dimensional peeps? Rundrasta here comin' at you live all the way from the Choir invisible with an Angelgram for ya'll. Now, ya'll can point us in the right way and I promise you it'll be worth your while my dudes. Or like, I dunno, we could do the standard superhero hello. But like, we got two junior partners lost here probably knee deep in your meme culture doing magic shows or some shit, so we need to find them. Before their parents start missing them, you dig?" She said, her tone absolutely...unexpected from an angel in a way that made Vista briefly step back.

"Hey, they seem like they just wanna hang out. So maybe we should just, I dunno. Give 'em what they want? Phone up Piggot? I think they're with her in...Russia or something." Clockblocker said, tugging his collar just a bit as the stand off continued, PRT officers all training their weapons on their Paragonite counterparts, the symbol of a setting star all proudly displayed on their shoulders and chests.

"Who's to say that they are who they say they are...this could be a trick." Shadowstalker said, already knocking an arrow into her crossbow.

"Bleh more fucking Americans..." The blue and yellow one with a rather menacing looking energy weapon said as his gun began to whine with charged energy and Vista felt a sudden sense of alarm starting to rise up inside of her. Too much of the team was just spoiling for a fight to back down at this point. All it would take is the wrong move and they'd have a massive brawl right here on the street.

"Hey, Vodka Drunkinski, where'd you buy that accent?" Feralborn cackled as she extended the claws from her gloves and got into a low stance, growling like a predator while Steel Paladin sighed and placed his helmet back on.

"Guys, please can we not have a fight for our first contact scenario?" Vista said. She could feel that low pressure looking for an excuse in her head, but she was ignoring it for the most part. This wasn't a situation that needed to be escalated, everyone could walk home without bruises.

"We can still talk this out, I'm sure." Glory Girl said, getting in front of the group and urging calm before turning towards Steel Paladin, though the Red one moved in front of her, seemingly matching her movement for movement.

"Uh...hi, Glory Girl. Welcome to Brockton Bay I guess. We're the Wards and New Wave. Well, me, the blue haired guy, the other blonde, and the girl in the Fleur De Lyls are with the New Wave anyway. The rest are wards. We keep the peace here...we're all heroes right?" She said, offering her hand as the glowing one offered one in return.

"So you are. I am Yvranil, I am Bringer of Glorious Redemption. Together, I am Dawnmaker. I am also pleased to see that we don't have to fight. I wouldn't like to have to hit your face." He said, shaking her hand and making Vista breathe a sigh of relief as everyone started to stand down.

"Aww you're sweet!" Glory Girl smiled.

"See...we can all get along!" Glory Girl said, looking to Dawnmaker and urging him to lift his hand up with hers in a sign of peace.

"Well, guess this won't be a hot entry after all." Mechamaven said, her robots quickly retracting their weapons and resuming a bodyguard position around her, beeping as the heavy looking automatons' bar code like optics scanned the area.

"Hey Vista, you think you could get me like...a night together with the girl with all the robots." Kid Win whispered, eyeing the machinery with true hunger.

"Sure I'll be your wingman." Shielder said before Kid Win realised what he said and stammered, almost falling over in embarrassment while Cerebro let out a snort.

"...You sure this is the east coast? It looks like ghetto San Francisco here. Place looks like the gentrifiers got everything the crooks didn't." Boltdancer said with a groan of discontentment as he looked at all the snow. "Swear it looks like the Hordes of Winter had their way with the place." He sighed.

"I know right?!" Quetzal shouted from the back before getting a thumbs up from Boltdancer.

"Hrm, they're not here." Iybraa said after a moment. "Scanned half the eastern seaboard. Seems like this dimension's still in twenty eleven though so they probably still think advice dog is funny." She said, looking towards Vista and her group and making them feel a brief sensation of being stared at before she looked back to the other team mates. "...Definitely still think Advice Dog is funny. Also the guy with the blue hair is a pervert." She said, looking to Steel Paladin who offered her a shrug.

"Okay, what did you just do?" Aegis said, pushing closer towards the Starsetters.

"Read your minds, duh. Haven't you ever met a psychic?" She said, not uncrossing her arms as her pink coloured energy wings continued to hold her aloft in the air, her living metal armour shifting around more like the exoskeleton of a crab than a conventional suit of plate and motors.

"Without our permission?" He said.

"I don't need it." She said back, leaning her head towards his.

"Move away from Iybraa, quickly." Mistral Slash said, her hand on the hilt of her sword as she approached, Aegis complying just enough to give the psychic her space. The sensation of tension returned. All it would take was a single sp-

"GLORY TO LORD MEGA-" One of the bystanders's arm shifted into some sort of cannon, skin peeling back into some kind of blue gun with a barrel the size of a fist while his mouth pulled apart into mandibles. He didn't seem human to Vista...he didn't even feel human...if she could just pull him out of the way with her power she could stop a crisis before it got out of hand.

"Hell no, Nemesis automatons!" Boltdancer flicked his wrist to sent out a burst of electricity that froze the transforming man mid-sentence into a paralysed statue crackling with lightning. "Okay any of you mind explaining why you've got disguised murderb-" Boltdancer started before before Blastjack's gun let loose and obliterated the suited man with a blue-yellow charged sphere of plasma that reduced what was likely a machine to bits of scrap.

"Tired of talking to avoid an inevitable outcome." He said.

"Oh no, you clowns are not murdering people on my precinct!" Aegis said before pointing at the Starsetters. "Take 'em in!" He shouted, Steel Paladin looking towards Vista with genuine sadness in his helmet's glowing eyes before he exhaled and nodded.

"Looks like we're going to have to bring some people into the Paragon Police department. Starsetters, arrest them!" He said, drawing his arming sword and pointing it at the group.

Eight charged into sixteen while PRT Officers scattered out of the way to give them space, opening fire on Mechamaven's robots who whipped out stun-weapons in return as bullets began to rain on their pitiless metallic hides; the Wards and New Wave figuring they had the benefit of numbers while the Starsetters went in with the confidence of individual prowess.

The first to meet were Glory Girl and Dawnmaker; her rushing in for the usual flying tackle, him cannonballing towards her so fast that Vista's eye couldn't follow and the ensuing shockwave from their collision rattling windows across town and sending snow flying outwards. Glory Girl remained standing, but her field had collapsed and she had to quickly move out of the way of Dawnmaker's next haymaker, only for the shockwave from the missed swing to hit her in the chest and throw her back with a grunt of discomfort.

"Okay...you're strong...good, means I don't have to hold back." Glory Girl said, grinning as she cracked her knuckles and met his next punch; surrounding in a comet like nimbus of alien energies and hurtling faster than most actual comets with a blow as hard as she felt she could get away with committing to; another shockwave erupting outwards and throwing Vista off of her feet as Glory Girl felt herself surprised by how much harder and faster she could throw that punch than she normally could. It was a surprise she didn't let herself cling to though, as Dawnmaker's eyes began to glow.

"I am truly sorry it had to come to this." He said apologetically before his eyes erupted into powerful beams of yellow light that smashed into her with a fury Vista couldn't look at directly; his frame making another thundercrack of supersonic movement as he dodged around a thrown dislodged lampost with tremendous speed.

Steel Paladin clanged his sword against his shield, which began to glow with a compulsion after he had cast the gauntlet at Aegis, Lady Silver, and Feralborn. "If you wish to do this, come on and get it over with." He said with resignation as his wings compacted into a smaller, more agile size, moving much faster than he should have to dodge Lady's Alicorn Driven Lance and deflecting Feralborn's claws with a parry sweep of his sword. Aegis threw a punch towards him, a double-fisted blow that would have brought a Rhinoceros down, but Steel Paladin was already behind him before his eye could track and he bashed him into the air with a shield uppercut.

"Please don't make me have to escalate." He said, bringing his shield to deflect Feralborn's claw strikes and his blade into the path of Lady's zweihander and his boot into Aegis' chest.

"Escalate?! After your gunner just iced a dude?!" Aegis shouted

"If you want to go ahead, the bruises to come are entirely on your head." Paladin said as he shoved both of the women on either side of him away like ragdolls.

"Bring i-" Aegis didn't finish before Steel Paladin headbutted him straight into the ocean, temporarily taking him out of the fight.

Shielder rushed ahead, Vista shortening the distance he had to travel as he singled out Blastjack while he was busy vaulting around Gallant's shots like he was in the Matrix.

"Come on, hold still!" Gallant shouted, his concussive shots failing to connect before Blastjack's energy rifle spat out paralyzer energy that locked Gallant in place before a sweeping roundhouse was thrown his way; Shielder's field preventing Gallant from getting knocked out of the park by the kick and forcing Blastjack to bounce back and sweep a stun beam in Eric's direction.

"Incompetent and horny. Terrible combination." Blastjack growled as he hit the ground again and allowed himself to take Shielder's fist on the chest, his hand impacting the power suit's plate and a sensation of pain rushing through his hand as he pulled back and shook it.

"What do you know of fighting, American?" He said.

"I am *Shielder*, not *American*." Eric said as he looked behind him while Blastjack casually stunlocked a PRT officer rushing behind him with a containment foam bomb in ham.

"You are easily distracted." Blastjack said, at first seeming to charge up a large beam in Eric's direction, firing it; but then stopping suddenly, pivoting into Eric's guard with a step and then uppercutting into his gut with enough force to make him fall over with the grace of a deflated balloon.

"Auugh right in the kidneys." He said as Blastjack raised his gun in front of his face.

"Stay down." He cautioned until Gallant bowled him over with a concussive shot rather stronger than what he could normally put out by quite a few...orders of magnitude given how he was normally pretty wimpy and direct sniper fire from the PRT couldn't even get him to flinch while he was distracted himself, Blastjack grunting and gritting his teeth as he felt suddenly shaken.

"Cry about it." Gallant shot back.

Cerebro's decision to try and fisticuff Rundastra was in hindsight, likely a mistake as he could tell she; and all the other starsetters; were fighting with most of their limbs tied behind their back, hands continually reaching for a proverbial set of cuffs meant to prepare them for arrests. He had deduced her primary fighting style, but that wouldn't do him any good if she could hit him faster than he could act on his predictions. An ice covered first whistled over his head as he tried to palm her in the helmet only for her wing to smack his hand aside.

Laserdream's beam sliced towards her back, only to be absorbed into her enervating, energy draining cold that only grew more intense as it absorbed the energy, Rundastra's next attack coming in the form of a fist into Laserdream's shield and then a shockwave of cold to conjure ice around her legs; leadening her flight while the Angel's wings behind her held Cerebro's shock batons at bay and took the electricity he fed into them without pause.

"So, gonna guess you guys ain't up for dinner tonight?" She said casually before she let out another wave of cold that Cerebro and Laserdream only just managed to avoid while a dozen PRT officers weren't quite so lucky, temporarily immobilised in ice in the process.

"S'cool, I was ready for a fight anyway." She said as she started to rapidly drain energy out of the Area Cerebro was in; she could have taken it all; but he sensed that she wasn't trying to outright kill him, for which he was glad. What he wasn't so glad about though, was how the drain became a sudden blizzard as air blew into the suddenly so cold the CO2 was starting to freeze spot that threw him off his feet and bowled over many other PRT officers.

"...Cool...c-come on..." Cerebro wheezed as he pulled himself out of the snow only to be punted across the street as soon as his head popped out.

"Home run." She gave a thumbs up, clearly having the time of her life.

"Impressive power, but you need to touch me to use it right?" Mistral Slash said, teleporting out of Clockblocker's way as he tried to reach for her and then casting knock out gas bombs into the direction of yet more PRT officers, sending them onto the road below with a motion before she bolted out of Dennis' way once more, dodging around his attempts to fence her in with time frozen objects.

"Man I hate fighting speedsters." Clockblocker groaned as her sword glowed with energy and then slashed towards him with a large crescent shockwave produced from it, getting a gasp of surprise from him as he threw himself out of its way; Stormchild's Lightning bolts erupting towards Mistral Slash while her tornadoes attempted to limit her avenues of movement. She teleported once more, making Stormchild swear while Clockblocker froze an approaching snowplow; stopping it from running into the fight while he started freezing some snowballs.

"Come on I can take this Mall Ninja loser!" Stormchild grunted, trying to blow Mistral's gas back into her face only for her to teleport out of the way, Clockblocker though, whistled at Slash.

"Hey you, Weeb. Come 'ere." Clockblocker said, running back out of the way and kicking up a number of objects he froze as soon as they were airborne while Mistral Slash rushed towards him, a satisfying smacking sound informing him that she crashed into one of them and spun around, rubbing at her head after having hit the flat of a piece of paper.

"Come on, not fast enough?" Clockblocker said before he saw a glint of metal and yelped as it slashed towards him, the sword not touching him, but it was never meant to.

"Ha, missed." Dennis said proudly until he got a sudden sensation of cold on his face...she had sliced his mask off. Its halves falling into the snow and his face getting a full exposure treatment from the January blizzard wind. His eyes no longer seeing through the materials of his mask but instead unaided. Yet he didn't even have the slightest graze on his nose, meaning she was not only fast but implausibly skilled with that blade.

"Cute." She said with a smile beneath her helm while Dennis flushed and rushed to grab a spare PRT helmet to cover his face.

"COME ON!" He shouted as she started to rush towards him, some sort of cuffs in her other hand after having drop kicked Stormchild into the snow. She was much faster than he was, even holding back as she was; he only had one chance. He counted, baited her into reaching towards his outstretched hand, then touched her with the other to lock her in time; if only temporarily. Some sort of power in her resented being contained like that, and unless he kept reapplying his effect, it'd end much sooner than it was supposed to.

Iybraa was soon found to be essentially unstoppable, none of the parahumans really had any resistance to telepathy and she simply turned those who tried to get in her way around with a single psychic command. The only time Fleur even tried she found her energy bubbles being stopped by Iybraa's telekinetic barrier while she scanned through the entire planet, further bubbles only getting Fleur grabbed by Iybraa's telekinesis and tossed aside without even getting the Yurye's attention.

Other New Wave and Ward members who arrived on the scene met similar fates, while many PRT officers simply turned around and used containment foam on either each other or the reinforcements sent to deal with Iybraa after identifying her as the most dangerous part of the team. But nothing worked. Not even the containment foam missiles managed to reach her before she simply ripped them apart with her mind or returned them to sender, dozens of other PRT and police squads being lifted into the air where they couldn't bother her while she worked. Even Steel Paladin and Rundastra; who were facing an ever larger number of foes being thrown at them, weren't able to so utterly dominate the battlefield as Iybraa did.
"If you people want to stop humiliating yourselves, you can start anytime you want." She said as she continued to hover in the air, pausing briefly when she sensed an energy beam heading her way and then forming a shield to stop Legend's artillery blast from inconveniencing her as he arrived on the scene; firing once again to meet the same result and getting her to turn her head towards him.

"Lemme guess, pew pew guy?" She said.

"Miss, you are in a world of trouble right now if you don't stand down."

"If you just get out of our way and let us find our team mate, we'll leave your dimension be. Deal?" She said as Legend charged up and fired once again.

"No can do, I'm bringing you in." He said, intensifying his blast until she started pushing back with a column of psionic energy.

"Human, you really want to do this? Fine." She said as she extended a hand and then sent forth a shriek heard more in the mind than the ears that brought Legend's hands around his ears as she assailed his psyche with a gout of psychic energy.

"You want to fight me? Here I am, take your best shot." She said as she pulled her hands together then created a staff of raw psychic power, twirling it around and extending it to positively sun wukong degrees before whipping a surprised legend out of the way as he discorporated into light and got closer to blast her with more of his lasers, straining against her psychic shielding while she casually picked up a bunch empty vehicles and threw them his way at enormous speeds; readjusting their paths according to her will to try and catch him as he darted around her in energy form.

Shadowstalker was to put it mildly, not very helpful against Boltdancer, already having been locked into electric paralysis by him as he tried to rejoin his team despite the Wards and New Waves' efforts to split them up. His electric gremlins and voltaic sentinel manifested in buzzing, crackling fields of living lightning, smashing into the serpent projections of Quetzal and bashing aside the PRT who tried to intervene, burning through any attempted containment foam in the process.

"Snakes huh?" He said, turning towards his teammates and throwing out a wave of augmenting electricity to charge their reflexes and speed, letting them move faster and harder than before; while his electrical minions giggled and cackled like a swarm of monkeys as they jumped from place to place, Lightning-Bats made of living electricity dueling in the sky with her winged serpents while on the ground, her Nagas tried to stab into the electric minions or press past his immobilising and stunning waves of lightning.

"Black kid with electric powers?" She shot back as he shrugged and clapped his hands together to create a shockwave of electricity to throw back the enemies surrounding him, pulling his hands apart to create a chain of electricity that he swung around and then lashed towards her, forcing her to bring a one of her shield serpents in the way; the projection extending its hood to block the jolt and then fading once disrupted by the lightning.

"Indonesian kid named Quetzal?" He retaliated, One of his Gremlins being engaged in a shoving match with her Naga while her winged serpents tried to sneak from behind.

"Shut up already both of you!" Shadowstalker said, letting loose a bolt from her crossbow only for it to ping off his electric field.

"Lady, calm your tits down, I didn't want this fight to begin with. I'm just trying to check on my friends." He said with a sigh as Quetzal nodded and raised her hand, her serpents standing down just as Boltdancer's minions did.

"...Are you serious?! Arrest him!" She shouted before he sighed and let out a stream of electricity from his finger into her chest, making her convulse on the ground.

"H-hate you...so much..." She managed through her convulsions.

"Kay." He said.

"How you wanna stop this?" Quetzal asked as Kid win flew around with an excited laugh.

"Man this is fun!" He said as he dodged around a massive robot's fist, his weapons lancing into the ten meter tall behemoth's frame as it bleated out alerts to him to halt and submit to peaceful arrest.

Vista though, was now on the phone, and Kid Win, busy shooting down one of Mechamaven's smaller robots, was soon laid out by the big one's fist and sent into the snow with a heavy collision. He groaned up and told Vista that he was fine, Even while Greased Lightning was trying to run around the robots only to run into a vortex of distorted time where even he was going slow enough for Mechamaven to catch up.

"And this is for the three robots you broke jerk!" She said before she fished out his underwear and...oh god why did he have to get underwear elastic enough to go all the way around his head.

"OH LORDY I'M GONNA HAVE SUPPER WITH JESUS!" He shouted in obvious pain while he stumbled around, his voice small and pained as one of the robots was foamed down by the PRT only for its companion's stun missiles to knock out the PRT Squad, others paralysed by a series of stun bolts from another's gatling energy weapon.

Feralborn shouted at Vista to get off the phone before Steel Paladin grabbed her by the legs and tossed her with a casual motion that sent her out of line of sight, an increasingly distant scream being heard from her as Vista did what she could to make sure she'd be back in the battlefield, trying to alter the space in front of her; not where she was, but the air where she would be until she found herself coming around in a circular route having slowed down to simply terminal velocity before crashing through the window of an abandoned building with a grunt and a groan. Aegis was still trying to take him on, but Paladin was now ignoring his fist impacts, hardly even flinching as he walked down the street like a juggernaut, simply grabbing at Silver's sword and pulling her off her horse before throwing her into Aegis.

He started walking, and Vista knew she couldn't panic, turning to the robots as they clanked around and casting her first forward and pulling at the soulless hunks of metal, twisting them in ways she knew no machine could endure and taking advantage of every bit of power she could use on them since they had no ability to resist it. Limbs flying apart, components pulled into directions that rendered them useless, fuses lit, a nigh unstoppable army of machines reduced to scrap in seconds. Some robots though, couldn't be affected this way, that strange power in some of them resisting these efforts to pull them apart.

She got creative, redirecting missiles back at their senders, moving in some of Iybraa's thrown projectiles. Her stomach did turns as she strained, but she figured that they were being guided by Mechamaven. Maybe if she could take out the tinker...or thinker...or master...she could stop the metal march as more machines were being teleported in. The girl must have had some sort of nanoloom somewhere just making more robots for her. Probably in a pocket dimension. The big one fired its massive volley of missiles, hundreds of stun projectiles that would have laid out a division.

It was overkill, it was excessive. But it was also what Vista needed as she shifted the missiles around in an arc back into Maven; exploding behind her as she was entrapping other capes responding to the robot storm in her distorted timefields and stunlocking her hard enough to knock her out; the robots suddenly coming to a stop and withdrawing to a defensive position. Vista let out a sigh of relief as the machines pulled back, Kid Win patting her on the back.

"...Clever girl aren't you?" He said as she nodded, surprised at herself for being able to pull that off, usually such fast projectiles were...

"Surprised you were able to do that with missiles." He added as he panted, nervously looking at the cavalcade of machines standing silent.

She remembered...the dream...it said she was worthy of something. Was this it?


*Fleur due to butterflies survives to this point at least.

I awoke in the hospital bed to the sounds of thunder outside and the rattling of the room. The hospital staff had vacated the room and left me to my fate. Typical. Why would anyone want to be around me? I chanced an opportunity to look out the window where I saw Glory Girl in a brawler lock with some glowing...Roman guy, though the longer it was going on the more clear it was that she just wasn't strong enough to hold back the other person, especially after his hands erupted with energy that threw her onto a building. That made me slightly nervous, she was one of THE capes around here and the guy outmuscled her straight up. Then I thought about it for a moment more.

...Right...so the hospital staff had left me to die. I sighed, at this point in my life, I felt so lowly about myself that she couldn't even find it in me to be upset anymore. Maybe dying would be ideal even. No more going to fucking school. No more dealing with all the taunts and teasing. I could just pass onto oblivion. Or whatever came after death. I wouldn't mind oblivion, nonexistence was at least free of pain. Maybe I might attain some sort of lucid dreaming state in a playground of her own imagination. Maybe I'd just burn in hell. None of it could be worse than what I just went through.

I lurched my head back and looked to see a cockroach staring me in the face as if I had called its name, and my first reaction honestly; was to scramble back. Why is a cockroach this big in a hospital? What sort of negligent staff would let something like this just crawl inside of a space for patients? I know people love to talk about how awful the healthcare system is, but this? This is beyond ridiculous.

But I could...I knew it was staring back at me, because I could see that it saw me. I could see a lot now, in the low resolution way that bugs saw the world. Some of the mites on my hospital bed even made me clench my legs and adjust my gown when I realised what sort of look they were getting...but am I really seeing this, I wondered? Seeing the world out of the grimy compound eyes of all the creepy crawlies we unknowingly share every house with? Did I trigger...is this my power now?

Back then, the idea of my condolence for going through that hell was being the lord of the flies was enough to make me want to die all over again. Maybe if I lived in Australia or Brazil where there's something that can make you shit your spine out and die in a single bite near every house it'd be worth it. But here? There's not even mosquitos year-round.

I was prepared to throw my head into the pillow and wallow in self-questioning. Why? Why this? What did I do to go through all that and only get this? Is managing to survive all that just some cruel joke? Or am I just lucky in the worst way? Never when I need it. I was prepared to let myself spiral a bit, delving into my thoughts and racking my brain around where it went wrong. But the room got much darker, not simply from the lights going out, but from all the lights seeming to just leave the room.

A cloud of shadow passed through the walls, like smoke through the grate before coalescing into the rough impression of a sphere. Purple, black, small hints of blue. I was terrified to say the least, certain that this was the Reaper come to collect or some new parahuman serial killer or worse having found its newest victim.

"I'm not ready oh god no no no." I said, crawling into the back of the bed and realising that despite my earlier thoughts; I still wanted to live. Was it spite? Was it just being afraid of the uncertainty of what came after? Was it just realising that when staring my possible end that maybe dying wasn't as blissful as I thought?

I couldn't tell you, probably all of the above.

Taylor Hebert, that is your name yes?

I remember going stock still as if I were encased in ice. It floated near me, hovering over my body and shifting the way a cloud would. I couldn't make out any particular features, but I felt that I was at least making whatever passed for eye contact with it.

"Y-yes." I croaked, all the dignity of an actual frog.

I am Shadow of Retribution. I seek a host, one to become one with. My prior partner gave her life for mine, and I must wear the raiments of solidity if I am to survive. I sensed the anguish of your dreams, the loneliness of ostracization. I sense also, your longing to pay justice to those who wrong you and others.

I'd like to say I got some witty response to my first encounter with an alien, but truth be told my response was more akin to "Bwuh?" and a nod made more out of not being sure what were the right words to say to something so strange.

It took half a minute, but I did finally say something above the pre-school level of competency. "...Host...are you a parasite?"

A symbiont. I am of the Nictus. A species beyond your galaxy, beyond your universe. Like you, I am cast from my kind, for I cannot abide by the evil we do to maintain our empire. Mine is a long, lonely war with few friends. But I will bring about absolution, if not for my species; then for myself. We can assist each other, Taylor.

"Symbiont...are we going to share the same body? I'm not...enthusiastic about having a voice in my head."

We will become one. A composite of our two personalities. Perhaps it is best I show you. Fear not, there is no pain in this process.

I was about to express my doubts before a tendril lashed out from the cloud and into my head and I saw not the dingy, dirty, bug infested hospital room but an enormous black expanse with mists of shadow over countless doors and shelves, with a realm of light behind me with just a single pathway.

"What is...where am I?" I said before I realised that I was currently less than decent and covered up, blinking to note even my glasses weren't covering my eyes at the moment.

This is a realm of the mind Taylor. Yours is behind you, mine is behind myself. Dress yourself, if you wish. Each of these doors is a partner I had, until death did us part or I was made to leave.

There were thousands of doors, thousands of lives. I imagined myself in the sort of clothes I always wanted to wear, flattering, tasteful, something to make me feel important and wanted, and I followed the cloud to the newest looking door. I hesitated for a second before Shadow of Retribution pulsated.

Open it.

I hesitated even more, a reflex regarding being told what to do, but relented out of curiosity. What I saw dispelled the idea that this was some sort of trick because I could feel it in a way that felt like genuine memory. I saw a woman of ashen hair and moon paled skin in costume; teleporting from one site to another, chasing down some sort of vehicles that turned into machine people. Her name was...Rosalina Smith I felt, twenty nine years old; together with this being...this...Warshade, they were Black Rose. They were at once two but one. They were Rosalina just as they were Shadow and just as they were Black Rose. It was...odd...but she seemed happy with it.

She tried to follow some of the machine people through a portal, taking them to the outskirts from what was the largest city I've ever seen to what I recognised as a suburb of Brockton Bay, some yuppie hive full of snobs convinced that everyone with less than six figures in their bank account was subhuman. She kept going, they cut her off eventually; she put up an amazing fight, until this tank monster man drove up and unfurled into a pile of guns. Including one that caused agony that made me scream mentally as it rocked through me as well.

Again, and again. Blows that could break skyscrapers into dust rained down on her until her ticket was punched by a final shot of that horrible weapon. She died in agony, and left behind friends and family who'd never know where she was buried on a planet not her own. I felt bad, pity. A desire to find her remains as I saw Shadow pull themselves free and race away, before the machine men could ensnare them with their traps.

They looked around, for anyone who fit their criteria. Pain, a sense to avenge wrongs, a desire for justice to be done and those who were also outcast.

But I needed to know more about Rosalina, so I looked behind...I saw a full life. I saw her being pushed around for her bisexuality, I saw her being tormented by nazi pond scum because her mom was Jewish. I then saw her family shot. A man in a death themed helmet with a swastika on his chest taller than a truck having them lined up and letting rip with a rotary gun. All while she watched from a bush, heroes rushing in too late to save her family.

That's how Shadow Found her, after the host before her had also died. I pulled out, I'd seen enough. I looked to the Shadow, understanding.

"What are you?" I asked.

Once, my kind were Kheldians. Born of a Star, finding ways to merge with other beings to grant them powers and allow our lifespans to extend indefinitely. Then some decided to create a way to forcibly merge with unwilling beings and steal life force for ourselves. So we became Nictus, and to this very day continue the old war against our ancestors.

"Stealing bodies? And yet you want my permission?"

I am a Warshade. We came to want redemption, to repent for what we have done for the Empire we built. I no longer steal flesh without permission.

I was curious though, and looked through the doors, until I came across one I felt was right, and saw through the eyes of some...alien with many limbs, looking upon a child of another species with wings and a beak, like some sort of Pteranodon.

"This flesh is young, take it, Shadow. Yours will soon die of its injuries." One said, older, menacing, crueller.

"I...I can't. She has her life ahead of her. Even after everything we've taken." Shadow, a long time ago, millions of years even, said.

"I want...I want to go home...I want my clutch...where is everyone?" The winged child whimpered, hiding behind the membrane of her wings amidst the....corpses of the dead.

"She is scared and weak. You can take her over easily."

"March of Revenants, I cannot act so barbarously against someone so defenselessly. Have we not already won? Haven't we done enough killing? I can heal this body."

"You lose heart now after all the prisoners you have consumed? You are soft. If you do not take her, then we will kill her." The other said with a menace so cold I could imagine the icicles hanging off of his words.

"No! There's no point in it! It's barbarism for barbarism's sake! They will resist us to the end if we cross this line."

"We have crossed it already. If they deserved to not suffer it, they would have defeated us already." They said, simply as if that was a fact of life.

"No! Stop! We will not stoop to this!" A fight broke out and thusthey were forced to flee, to hide; going from world to world in an attempt to stop the very war machine they had fought for. Every door I checked showed this repeating. The friends lost, the alliances made, the battles waged. And the anguish of not knowing whether they were even accomplishing anything. More planets being consumed, more civilizations reduced to little more than breeding stock for a reliable supply of hosts.

It hurt, it hurt to watch. But I couldn't stop. I had to know. And only after I had satisfied myself with what I had seen did I reach to the cloud.

"Come." I showed it my own low points. The trio and all their taunts, the betrayal of a girl I thought was a friend only to twist the knife into my back to hang out with the more attractive and the more popular instead. Every insult, every ruined attempt at a date, every awful prank or just straight up beating. Shadow remained quiet, they had seen scenes like this before. Pain was a universal factor among all of their partners. But I could feel them, they still felt for me.

Finally, a chance encounter with a locker and the crawling insects and worms around. Left in there to die with no seeming way out, and no help forthcoming, breaking down for hours until at last I was overwhelmed by a sudden sensation of agony and euphoria. And then I went blank, overwhelmed and eventually fished out by paramedics. And of course, those three...they didn't get a slap on the wrist. Nobody would believe me if I told them anyway. Nobody except the Shadow.

Do you wish to be one then?

"...I...yes...I've seen the power you can give...I...please. We could do so much with it. We could...just do it!" I saw the sheer might that could be at my fingertips once I fully mastered becoming a Warshade. Tank rounds glancing off of me, ships lifted overhead, transforming into prior hosts, dark energy blasts to tear through large robots and monsters, teleportation, speed, gravity control...I...I admit I got greedy, I just wanted it all so bad.

Then it is done.

I snapped back into reality as I felt the Shadow of Retribution sink into me. I convulsed briefly, shaking as the darkness seeped into every pore, but it settled within and I was born anew. A strange moth with scythe like forelimbs had seemed to respond to my earlier call, finding its way through the ventilation and settling near me.

It was then I got the idea for what I'd like for people to call me from now on as I shot up, snapping the restraints meant to hold me to the hospital bed like rotten twigs and thinking of home.

"Black Moth." I said before I vanished a black void and reappeared in my bed.

...If it was that easy then...yes...this would work.