Binding Oaths | Arc-6 Sisyphus | [Super Powereds] (Finished)

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Chapter 67

The next two days passed in relative peace after Shane's date; the team checked their armory and garage, looked out for any signs of the White Boars preparing to attack, with some light training on the side. Emphasis on the "light"; It wouldn't do to have teammates exhausted and out of costume in the gym in case of a sudden attack.

Then, on the third day, it was time. Time for the team to take a tour of Riptide LLC's local location, a trip which none seemed especially excited for and that Pulp seemed actively suspicious of. Shane hadn't been able to dig anything really reprehensible about the politician/business woman that had invited them, at least nothing worse than the average politician's history.

As Shane got up at his usually early hour and made his way toward the showers, after undressing, he was momentarily distracted by the paper-thin scar stretching across half his torso. It was always slightly disconcerting to see, especially since the memory of how he'd gotten the injury was still so vivid. He wouldn't go so far as to say that the experience had traumatized him, but it was definitely the most grievous injury he'd ever sustained in his life and if it hadn't been for the timely response of a healer than he doubted he would've lived through the experience.

~ ~ ~

"Good mornin'." Greg greeted Shane as he walked into the kitchen, the shorter man coming close to slurred speech as he scarfed down some colorful looking cereal. Amy was also at the table and scrolling through some forum he didn't recognize.

"Morning." Shane said as he stepped further into the room and caught sight of what was on the television. Relief flooded through him as he saw that Styx was no longer the center of attention, now some other team called Vermillion Wave, specifically their only intern who was a woman in a brown costume with yellow-grey eye covers, were currently swamped in controversy over slagging a forest at the Canadian border. Ultra-Mountie, Canada's equivalent of the DVA, had gotten involved and it had yet again stirred up the topic of their being some kind of international coalition of Heroes.

"Ah, looks like Auora's in some trouble." Vanessa commented as she walked in with water bottle in hand before turning to Amy with a frown. "No electronics at the table." She said sternly.

Amy huffed but complied and moved both herself and her laptop to the couch situated on the opposite side of the room.

"You know who that is?" Shane asked, inclining his head toward the woman being discussed on the news before going to the fridge in search of some fruit.

"She is one of our fellow graduates from Vista." Greg said before Vanessa could respond. "And in case you couldn't guess by the fact that she melted an entire forest, she is by far the strongest of the ten that graduated."

Shane hummed in interest before grabbing two pears and shouldering the fridge door closed. "Control major?"

"You got it; just like you. Anyone sane with her kind of destructive potential would go for that major."

Shane hummed his understanding before relaxing back into a chair. "Well I hope for her sake that negotiations with Ultra-Mountie goes well. One slight international issue is bad enough for the DVA, and that's just with criminals. Pissing off another country's Super combat-force is on a whole other level of complicated."

"Amen." Greg agreed.

"Oh yeah; Where are our mentors? They usually wake up earlier than we do." Vanessa asked before briefly using her power to float over to the couch with an orange in hand.

"I've been wondering the same." Shane said.

"They're down in the meeting room, along with Joel, arguing about whether or not we should go to Riptide LLC ourselves or to let their Corpies team escort us." Amy helpfully informed them, a smile tugging at her lips before she said. "And Rikki is currently using some very colorful langue right now."

"How do you…" Vanessa started to ask before trailing off as Amy tapped the small, grey device fit snugly into her ear, nigh unnoticeable unless someone was looking for it.

"They're that conflicted about it?" Shane asked.

"More like they decided to bring in your agent, Lenny, and he's the one that decided to go against the grain and advocate for the escort." Amy replied.

"That's Lenny; always going for the angle that either gets his client more publicity or money." Shane sighed, though he knew that exact quality, on-top of his skill at telling what a client needs day-to-day to stay mentally stable, was why Lenny was such a top-tier agent. The young man got up and made his way out of the kitchen. "I guess I'll go down there and see if I can help with Lenny. Need to get dressed and get my ear-piece first though…" His voice trailed off to a mumble as he walked down the hall.

"Might as well join him, I've got nothing better to do." Greg said before following.

"Same." Vanessa agreed and floated in tow.

Amy remained in the room, however. She didn't really care about this trip or how they got to the building, as long as it didn't require any long-term commitments. Most would have been worried about making sure they were completely ready before such a big event so as not to make their friends late or wait, but having superspeed tended to change someone's perspective of how much time was needed to get dressed. No, right now she was more interested in her weekly ritual of checking on her fellow graduates from Vista University; taking tabs on who was still alive or dead.

…Of course, they were all still alive, the class she'd been apart of was hardly what anyone would call weak, and the only reason she restricted herself to weeks was because it usually took days for relevant news on any of them to bubble up. The young Hero planned on making some of them teammates, but that was years down the line, for now though she just wanted to keep tabs on them for after her internship and when networking became more important.

It would probably just be her, Styx, Gadreel, and Samshiel for a good few years after their internship was over. And though she still couldn't think of a good team name, she still wanted to at least have a vague plan of who would eventually fill out the rooster.

~ ~ ~

'At least the escort is fast.' Shane thought as he stood, the energy field around him whisking through the air, weaving between and above buildings.

The whole team was standing in a solid, marron cube of energy that was being sustained by a tall woman with red hair called Carol. The, Shane supposed the correct term would be "texture", of the field of energy was kind of runny, almost like a wax sculpture melting but without dripping.

Carol had arrived and introduced herself, with ID card and all, as their escort soon after the team had come to an agreement with Lenny. The woman with long, red hair and freckles had claimed that the shield protected them from both physical attacks and some mental abilities. Though essentially being sitting ducks in one easy-to-blast space still worried most of the team, this assuaged their fears at least marginally.

"You're looking contemplative." Samshiel commented as he walked over to Gadreel, his orange and black costume contrasting badly with the energy around them.

"It's nothing much." Gadreel said as she looked through the semi-translucent shield at all the people below taking the opportunity to snap pictures with their phones. "I just promised myself during senior year I wouldn't trade safety for the chance at PR, only to wind up agreeing to do just that less than a year into my internship."

"I assure you we are more than safe; I used to be a PEERS operative myself and have blocked some pretty impressive attacks. And we should arrive at Riptide LLC in only a minute or two." Carol tried to reassure them.

Obsidian Wraith snorted, but nobody else decided to comment further or question what she defined as "strong attacks". But true to her word, not even two minutes later, Carol had landed them on the expansive front lawn of Riptide LLC.

And the expansive building more than complimented the truly gargantuan building itself.

The high-rise was wider than most, more like a modern castle made of glass, steel, and marble than anything else. The front gates openly displayed some obviously super-tech additions and enhancements on top of the standard electronically locked gate, and the entire thing easily outshined any of the Hero bases in the city in terms of sheer grandeur. And Styx could almost see where Tanya had mentioned the building was unofficially split into sections.

There was the, unofficially dubbed, "Rescue section", that they were currently in front of that sported a robust garage alongside its entrance. This was where the PEERS team members basically lived and looked visibly sturdier than the rest of the building. The middle looked more like your typical office building where most of the paper-pushers and management did their work; from the lowliest interns to the financial advisers and PR specialists. And last was the quasi-museum and half-lounge where the general public and potential applicants could tour to get a media-friendly idea of what the Riptide LLC was all about.

The Pristine Strikers were going to get a far more intensive and honest view of how things worked here, or at least that was what Senator Laurel Decker had promised.

Styx's tensioned eased just a bit as Tanya, or Levi now that she was back in costume, and her entire team had come out to greet them as they made their way towards the entrance, the two groups merging into one in a buzz of conversation.

"She looks positively giddy." Simikiel commented as she watched the taller woman excitedly talk with Obsidian Wraith, obviously a fan of the legacy Heroine.

"Ta- Levi's just happy the team I'm on has a chance to network with hers's." Styx explained.

"Does that mean she'll be angry when Spectrum and Pulp shoot down whatever deal Decker has planned for us?" Simikiel asked at a volume barely low enough to be called conspiratorial.

Styx grumbled but didn't disagree, she was right of course, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

* * * *

Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 68

Laurel Decker lounged back In her chair as she watched the Heroes walk through the entrance designated for them, quirking an eyebrow as, one of the few that had their eyes visible despite their masks, plainly scanned over every area of the lounge they were in.

Honestly, she'd known her reputation would make any knowledgeable Hero suspicious, but this just seemed excessive; they we're approaching this as if they were entering a villain's base, eyes peeled for any potential traps.

She eventually just shrugged, sighed, then got back to work while keeping track of the Hero team displayed on her third monitor out of the corner of her eye. Well, "work", might have been a strong word for it but any confirmed information gained and confirmed would still come in handy in future business decisions. Laurel looked back at the chat window and its secure connection

* * *

Establishing Connection…

Connection Established

Begin Dialogue​

Msg – 4986 – R: You got back fast.

Msg – 4987 – L: Just had to make sure some guests made it in fine.

Msg – 4988 – R: Okay, no problem. I'm sending over all of the current video footage of the situation up in Montana.

Msg – 4989 – L: Thank you. Anything new to be worried about down in Texas?

Msg – 4990 – R: The cartels are having an extremely hard time, basically already retreating. They're use to bribing and threatening anyone that gets in their way. A tactic decidedly less effective on the average Hero.

Msg – 4991 – L: As expected. There's no official statement, but I know Gloria Ardiente must have gotten a bit involved since one of their native gangs started trying to reach out even more than usual.

Msg – 4992 – R: Yes, but it's muted. No media attention considering its just covert exchanges of information to help the DVA and Heroes crack down on the problem before it gets out of control.

Msg – 4993 – L: That's certainly fortunate for them; the current scandal with Charles Adair has already got the DVA pressed.

Msg – 4994 – R: Need anything else? If not then I'll need to get back to my own business.

Msg – 4995 – L: I could go for a good date.

Msg – 4996 – R: Goodbye, Laurel.

End Dialogue

Connection Terminated

* * *​

Laurel snorted at that, a rare display of genuine humor from her that any of her aides may have flinched at had they been in the brightly lit office; she was currently sitting in one of her local offices up in Manhattan, deciding that being present during the tour itself would have been a bit much. If she didn't know better, and had an advanced mind check a few years back, she might have guessed that Robert was being a tease. But no; the dear was just unsure of how to handle anything related to romance and was hyper focused on achieving his, admittedly lofty, goals.

'Not unlike a few Heroes I've seen to be honest.' Laurel thought as she watched the Pristine Strikers and her PEERS team make their way through the luxury and living areas. Well, technically not "her's" but at a certain level of wealth and influence it wasn't hard to effectively be in charge of a company without it being official. And the best part of it all was that the PEERS team didn't know and Brian, at best, merely suspected that taking certain actions would be bad for business.

The sight of Levi starting to walk arm-in-arm with Styx while they moved down another hallway did give Laurel pause though.

That had been an unexpected development to be sure, but not wholly unwelcome. Being the quasi- employer of the person a Hero is smitten with could be very useful. Of course, as has been demonstrated in the past with certain Heroes that decided to work without secret identities, this often also lead to Heroes taking a closer look at where their loved ones worked.

'Oh well, all that means is that I just need to be more careful than usual.' Laurel reassured herself. Besides, compared to the three other PEERS teams employed by Riptide LLC that worked in the country, the one in Brooklyn was easily the most popular and well renowned.

Light-Bright, a woman who was a one-woman flare, emergency lights, flash-light, and flash-bang rolled all into one. Fade, able to make any material completely translucent for thousands of feet, even himself and other people. Jerry-Rig, with his grappling system letting him climb almost any surface no matter how vertical and even a few unstable structures, along with his portable construction unit he can use to near seamlessly smooth out any damaged street or side-walk. And Levi, the teams only strong-woman who filled the relatively mundane, yet necessary, job of carrying incredibly large objects and traversing the inside of structurally compromised buildings. She was a bit of a rare oddity in terms of experience though; a year three dropout from the HCP at Korman University. Usually people like her went for the Super Athletics Association, not for a career being a PEERS.

They've been around for a little over five years and have already saved well over three-hundred people throughout their careers combined, and have worked with over ten Hero teams during various major emergencies. Which was exceptional compared to only the dozen or so rescues most other teams make per year.

After checking over the news one last time, making sure that the heads up given by Robert were accurate, mostly ignoring the part tour where Levi, Gadreel, and Obsidian Wraith got into a little competition once they hit the training, she turned her full attention back to the screen once they got to the really important part of the event.

Both teams had finished up with the training room and were now waiting to talk with Brian, his personal office was too small to accommodate more than a few people so he had the gathering staged in one of the meeting rooms. He sat at the head of the table, naturally, while the rest sat at the sides, the leaders of each team respectively sitting closest to the head. And Styx had even done the courtesy of taking off his helmet, though his eyes were still that unsettling color of pitch black, which was either a natural side-effect of his Super nature that he couldn't turn off or just a sign that he was using his power; either way it unnerved most that talked to him face-to-face.

"Welcome, everyone." Brian started off, his face open and friendly as usual and his beige shirt complementing his skin nicely along with a brown tie. "I hope you enjoyed the relaxing, tour of our little facility."

"Thank you for having us." Spectrum replied, all patience and confidence. "It was certainly a nice change of pace." And even though Laurel wasn't in the room, she could tell he wasn't lying. They'd all come in to the building tense, nearly twitchy, but now even Obsidian Wraith had relaxed and shifted back to human form.

"Don't you have an offer to make us?" This sudden question came from Pulp, who affected an almost offended look when Spectrum shot her a mild glare. "What? We all know he is."

Laurel sighed, of all the times for Spectrum to decide to get over his issues and take on a subtlety Hero, it just had to be now didn't it? A lot of her plans had hinged on the fact that the Pristine Strikers weren't the best team investigation wise and didn't often work with other teams when it came to fights. Now she had to adjust resources and goals on the fly, lest Pulp find out the source of the gang plaguing them.

"It's quite alright, I'm sure that it was obvious when Laurel asked you to come. I would have given the invitation myself, but things were rather hectic when I got back and things needed to be taken care of." Brian assured everyone. "To put things simply; I would like for your interns to work with my PEERS team for a period of two months. They would be paid handsomely, of course, starting with around triple of their usual salary from Hero work."

Everyone of them, aside from Brian and Light-Bright, looked surprised at that, even past the masks they wore.

Spectrum and Pulp were the first to recover and asked the same question at nearly the same time. "Why?"

"It's nothing permanent." Brian reassured them before anything else, a smart move on his part. "We all know that Heroes are mostly known for taking down targets and rarely get the opportunity for plain rescue work. And while you're near universally considered a very competent fighting force, except for cases where mistakes are made, there's still a lot of criticism about you escalating things more often than not. You can think of this as a very involved PR effort."

"I question the wisdom of sending off nearly half of our current members during the middle of their internship." Terram questioned.

"Especially when things have been getting pretty crazy with the gangs recently." Crusader agreed, folding her arms in front of her chest-plate.

"There were times in the past when it was much worse, when there were less Heroes, and back then you didn't even have an extra Hero of the Subtlety persuasion to help out." Brian said, as if expecting this line of question and motioning towards Pulp near the end, and then he looked to the interns. "I'm sure, and I assume your interns are as well, that you can handle the upstarts in this city."

'This is it.' Laurel thought. All the ambushes, traps, and fights from the White Boars directed to wear them down, the negative media attention from the inevitable endangerment of bystanders, and the overall chaos caused by a new gang charging in with surprising amounts of fire power. All of it meant to put pressure on the Pristine Strikers, especially their interns, just so they would be tempted, on top of the potential for profit, to take this deal. And unknown to Brian, she'd give the word to the gang to move onto something else once they took the deal; giving some vague excuse about how they weren't worth the trouble now that they were doing "lowly rescue work". The people she'd convinced to try their luck in this country weren't the smartest but that just made them easier to use.

The interns should have looked interested, and she expected at least visible excitement from a glory hound like Samshiel. But…

Laurel was confused as to why they looked so resolute. Why? All of their fights with the White Boars had ended with no casualties for them, they didn't directly fail to save any civilians, and the same went for property damage. So, what was with the determination despite how exhausting the near constant fighting should have been.

"I can appreciate the logic but unfortunately things aren't just as simple as a new gang acting up." Pulp was the first to speak up, and after quick glance at her leader who only nodded in acquiescence, she continued. "This hasn't been made public news yet, but White Boars are confirmed to be led by foreign criminal agents. The DVA considers such situations an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation, no exceptions."

"What?" Both Brian and Laurel uttered simultaneously, an eerie and unintentional imitation of what had happened earlier, genuine surprise hitting the business man and a bolt of panic streaking through the politician.

After that the room became an absolute flurry of questions and private whispering among the interns and PEERS team while Brian and the other Heroes tried to calmly discuss things further. Laurel kept watching and listening for anything else until things quieted down and she realized neither Spectrum or Pulp were going to just handout any further secrets the DVA hadn't made public.

With a sigh, and some concerted effort, Laurel regained her composure, did her usual, relaxing ritual of smoothing out any wrinkles in her suit and combing back her hair. And then she cut the feed, rechecked that all of the anti-spy programs for her network was still running properly, before she picked up her phone and started to make a call.

Whether those fucking morons she'd let in had stupidly leaked the information themselves, or they'd, in spite of all logic and sanity, had shared the information with one of their underlings who'd been captured. Either way it didn't really matter.

Now they just needed to die before the DVA managed to capture any of them alive.

 

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Chapter 69 - Arc 4 Dionysus

Styx sighed as he leaned back in his chair, the unexpectedly comfortable plastic it was made of bending slightly to accommodate.

It had been about five minutes after the frenzy of questions in the meeting room. Brian had suggested that they should have something to eat on his behalf before they leave and that his PEERS team was welcome to join. So, with muttering still well about, they'd all settled down into the lunch area with an almost garish green and blue design. After a little arguing, mostly between Samshiel and Fade, a big helping of old-fashioned breakfast was selected since it was still relatively early in the day; Stacks of pancakes, scrambled eggs, strips of bacon, sausages, and waffles a plenty.

"Where did Spectrum and Pulp go?", Light-Bright asked after daintily eating a plate of waffles.

The two Heroes had excused themselves midway into the feast and after ten minutes they still hadn't returned.

"They're outside, getting a talking to from Dispatch.", Styx explained, making sure that he was done chewing some sausage before speaking. The most important, non-Hero related thing his parents had ever taught him was not to eat with his mouth full, and he'd be damned if he didn't latch on to one of the few casual pieces of advice he got from his family.

"You say that like it's a name and not just a job-title." Jerry-Rig while fiddling with what looked like the love child of a Rbuki's Cube and a clocks internal workings that was covered in camera lenses. He'd finished his own meal early and was now tinkering with some gadget at the table, something that got him more than a few pointed looks from his leader.

"Because there is only one Dispatch that Heroes take orders from, so it's a little of both. Having more than one individual with such intimate knowledge of Hero business would be unwise to say the least." Crusader replied.

"Yeah, a foreign gang moving in sounds pretty serious." Levi agreed, sprinkling some salt and pepper onto her eggs. "They won't get fired, will they?"

"Not a chance." Simikiel assured her. "Even if Brian or you guys leak this for some reason, it wouldn't reveal how we plan to deal with them here."

"Oh?" Levi intoned, eye's alight as her attention was piqued. "Is there some secret Hero resource the public doesn't know about?"

"Nothing so dramatic." Styx assured her. "It's actually rather simple, most local criminals just tend not to think that broadly."

"Yes, we've got a distinct advantage over most criminal Super gangs, during expected conflict anyways, that most seem to forget about." Crusader elaborated. "But I'd rather not say anything more than that Styx brought up the idea first. Trust me; it'll make for a great surprise when you see it on the news."

"I hope you don't plan on calling us in as a last-ditch effort kind of thing." Fade commented in his particularly thick, Brooklyn accent. The small bits of egg on his mouth standing out even more against his dark skin. "My power won't do anything to a person besides either making them blind and invisible, or really creepy looking."

After an inquisitive look from all the Heroes, and a nod from his team leader, Fade touched a single finger to his temple and suddenly it looked as if his clothes and skin had simply disappeared, revealing the blood, muscles, and occasional sections of bone working within.

Gadreel and Styx let out little breaths of surprise as everyone else just stared more, interested by the morbid display.

"Yeah, since my power let's all light within the visible spectrum pass through a target, any deeper than this would encompass the eyes and effectively blind someone since the light would just pass through their retinas." Fade explained.

"Man, put that away! I'm trying to eat here!" Greg said in mock anger just before he inhaled another pancake.

Fade chuckled, but deactivated his power, his skin and clothes suddenly becoming visible again.

The lunch lasted for only a few more minutes after that, the two groups having to part ways since they'd only put aside so much time for this event. Such was the nature of their jobs, frivolous activities were few and far between and usually lasted no more than a hand full of hours, lest they be caught off guard when they got a sudden call to action.

"By the way; I'm sorry about what happened at the meeting." Styx said to Levi as everyone else had their little goodbye-chats on the front lawn around them. Paparazzi had shown up, because of course they would after their rather ostentatious method of travel and it was exactly what Lenny had wanted. Thankfully Maria was now here to give them a far more discreet exit.

"It's fine; Brian's a good boss and he looked more surprised than angry besides." Tanya said with a smile, stepping forward to give his arm a light pat, as if consoling a puppy. "Though if you insist on feeling guilty, there's one thing you can do that would make my day better."

She stepped forward then, and before Shane could ask what, Tanya had snaked her arms around his shoulders, settling behind his neck, and brought him past those last few inches between them. A second later, soft, warm lips settled against his. A soft hum of satisfaction and mirth vibrating through him from the contact. The young man was surprised by the suddenness, but quickly wrapped his arms around her in reciprocation, bringing them closer together as the kiss lasted for long seconds.

The embrace wasn't exactly smooth or elegant looking as their respective costumes would make a too tight embrace fairly awkward, but the emotions felt during the gesture mattered more.

"Booo!" This show of disapproval came from Samshiel and then was quickly taken up by everyone else as the couple separated.

Tanya sniffed at the boo-ing as they held each other, putting on a haughty tone, she said. "The vapid protest from those yet to find love." Styx just grinned and kissed her nose, her own smiling returned then and she whispered at a volume only he could hear. "Maybe on our next date I can do something that'd really make them 'boo'." The older woman waggled her eyebrows at him, a gesture with her features that looked more silly than alluring, before being dragged back to her group by Light-Bright as they walked back to building.

"A Hero should not be distracted by such things." Amy said, using an uptight tone that was obviously fake as the rest of the team gathered around Maria nodded sagely in agreement.

"You know, years from know when we're all too old to keep being Heroes you all are going to be very jealous that I'm the only one with a stable, romantic relationship." Styx shot back as they all started to join hands in a circle that their DVA representative was at the top of.

There were various reactions to that; Gadreel, Samshiel, and Terram looked mildly concerned. Pulp and Crusader looked slightly chagrin of all things. While Spectrum, Obsidian Wraith, and Simikiel just chuckled, either having made peace with the sad fact that being Hero was not career that often fostered stable relationships or having never cared in the first place.

Then with no more fanfare, save for Maria rolling her eyes after getting off the phone with Steve, they were whisked away in an instant. All the cameras caught nothing more than an after image of a pencil-thin streak of light going straight up.

~~~

Fifteen minutes later the whole team was back inside their base, specifically the armory. A place the interns had only very recently gotten access to. As soon as the double doors had closed and locked behind them all the lights came on and illuminated the shelves filled with armor and weapons, most of which just being replacements and editions for Rikki's equipment, even a few firearms that she occasionally rolled with if the situation required it. Though there were two racks in the center that held something different, and bigger, from the rest.

"Alright, I'm sure you've all seen the weather reports that the cloudy weather is on it's way out soon and that we're in for a sunny few weeks." Spectrum started. "So, it's safe to assume the White Boars are going to launch their attack soon, and so, we'll need to set up the really special armor for Terram and Crusader." Jake turned and walked forward, the interns following quickly behind.

"Ablative armor." Hugh said as they approached the rack with silvery armor that had an odd, almost flowing texture to it, as it were solidified water-in-motion. Each piece at least as large as a sewer gate, some larger and curved in places to fit on an actual body, but significantly thicker. "Prohibitively heavy, but I'm strong enough to move around in it and vulnerable enough that the defense will definitely help."

"Why don't you wear this stuff all the time?" Greg asked as he took a closer look.

"Because every time I actually need it during big fights it nearly always gets significantly damaged, and despite how good it is, ablative armor gets damaged in such a way that either you need to have it custom-mended back to together or you need to buy a wholesale replacement. Both of which being horrendously expensive even for a team as well funded as ours.

"Same goes for my armor." Rikki piped up, slapping her own special suit.

If they didn't know any better, the group would've said that this was some kind of tactical, mascot. The material it was composed of looked to be a silvery metal similar to Hugh's, but with a wavier pattern that shimmered under the low light.

"Let me guess, only someone with a power like yours could practically use this?" Amy asked Rikki.

"Yup. Wouldn't even be able to get inside without damaging it either." Rikki said before, with a flick of her wrist, she made a seamless opening in the back. "It's all a very tight mesh from some mix of alloys that I can never quite rember all the names of."

"Titanium, reinforced steel, concrete interiorn, carbon fiber mesh near the joins, and shifter material covering encasing the whle thing." Jack said promptly, as if he'd had to remind her more than a few times.

"Yeah, those." Rikki acknowledged. All that makes the whole thing heavy as shit and not nearly stretchy enough to be useful to someone of Hugh's size, but compact like this? I'm damn near a strongwoman in my own right and my power kind of flips the bird to things like structural integrity."

"And I can enhance them both… to a point." Pulp said as she stepped between the two pieces of armor. "Condensing and strengthening the carbon inside of materials by tightening bonds is pretty much my power's specialty. Though there is a point where it starts to make things a little too ridged, even for Rikki."

"How come we don't get any fancy suits?" Vanessa said, partly joking as she looked over the myriad of weapons made of ultra-dense material that Rikki would be using her power wield.

"For one, Styx and Amy already got most of you some new toys." Jake said, gesturing towards the knife strapped to the waist of Shane's hip and the improved spear-baton that Amy had slung across her back, the weapon visibly more compact and with a more ergonomic grip.

"And secondly, Heroes like us don't really need gadgets." Elizabeth said, cutting in. "Just be prepared to hit harder than usual."

Shane gripped the hilt of his blade and adjusted the position of its holster, a nervous movement that he hoped didn't turn into an actual tick, and Greg took out and adjusted the monocle-like piece of tech that let him see much farther than humanly possible while also being more convenient than a telescope. "With what we've got planned for them, will all this really be necessary?" Greg asked. "We've beaten these guys before in every other fight."

"There's always the possibility of defeat of when facing new Supers, even if we have a vague idea of what powers they have." Hugh said. "And so far, we've always had the advantage of ambushing them during a fight, and the one time they set a trap for us Gadreel got severely injured and one of the criminals wound up dead. Now they've got the opportunity to gather all of their friends together and attack us all at once."

"Yes, keep this in mind when you need to do something like this during your own careers." Jack said firmly. "Calling in Heroes from out of town to surprise a gang won't necessarily make the fight easy, it'll just cutdown on the amount of dead bodies needed in the end."

 

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Chapter 70 - Arc 5 Erebus

The attack in fact came two days later, at what Pulp described as, "Typical Wannabe-Villain time.".

Most of the team had expected something strategic such as charging when some of the other members were out on patrol, or ambushing Styx during his own. But they took the most predictable, but admittedly dramatic and effective, time; high noon. When it would be brightest and when Styx would have the least number of shadows to work with.

The descent of six magenta spheres of flame harlded their arrival, surrounding the sizable base and banishing nearly every shadow in the vicinity, the light even reaching the sidewalk well past the farthest reaches of the sizable lot in front of the entrance. Styx could still feel a few shadows in the area that they had inadvertently created (excluding the one he was currently standing in, of course), some more useful than others, but he'd wait until the right opportunity to use those.

The group appeared only seconds later; a red circle flashing into existence and suddenly five figures stood just in front of the base, mere meters away from the front steps. They looked to be wearing… costumes, almost Hero-like in how interact they were; Beige pants and thick coats, a red and white emblem of a boar's head on the chest. One of them, going by general frame was a guy, even had a realistic boar head-helmet. Another was a woman with shoulder length, jet-black hair, there was a man that was completely bald with milky-white eyes similar to Hugh's human form, another woman with an almost absurd number of freckles and blonde hair, and last was a teenager with brown hair that briefly glowed red.

"The kid is the teleporter." Spectrum barely whispered the words, mouth moving so minutely the gang members didn't even see his lips move. But the earpiece he wore was more than capable of picking up the sound and relaying the message to his team.

They all stepped forward and saw that the only Heroes waiting for them there were Spectrum, Obsidian Wraith, Terram, and Pulp. Under the harsh glow of the flame, Terram's armor shimmer as he stood directly behind his leader.

Spectrum stepped forward, "He-"

"Where's Styx?" The man with boar head interrupted him, stepping to the front of the gaggle of thugs. "And the rest of the kids." He added after looking them over again.

Instead of being flustered, Spectrum just shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno, I'm their mentor, not their babysitter. They're probably just napping in the base." He said nonchalantly. "You know how kids are these days."

"So, what, you think you four are enough?" The freckled woman in the back shouted, magenta flames flickering to life between her fingers.

Pulp spoke up then. "I don't see why not." She made show of casually looking the group over, making eye contact with each one. "You guys honestly don't seem like much."

Powers flared, the flames around them seemed to roil as alive, the texture of the ground warped, and the bald man's skin shifted to a bleach, bone white and start segmenting as he grew larger. But the masked leader didn't give the signal to attack, even as his visage became blurry and his limbs seemed to leave twitching after images as he moved. "You sure you want it to be this way?"

"You guys are a lot more hesitant than I thought you'd be." Spectrum remarked. "But no, we can do this by the book if you want." The last part the old Hero said with surprisingly conviction as he too stepped forward and adopting an announcer's voice. "You are all suspected of various crimes and the intention of committing more. To those of you who are innocent, please lay down on the ground right now, and put your hands over your head. I promise to do all I can to ensure you aren't falsely charged. As for anyone that choses to stay standing; I will take that as a sign of aggression and respond with force." He raised a hand and a sphere of orange, kinetic energy popped into existence. "You have ten seconds to comply."

'Did he seriously just crib Vince's speech?' Styx thought. He'd only told the man about Vince puzzling out the secret to that test once, he was surprised that the older Hero had bothered to memorize the words.

This time the gang didn't bother with power posturing, the woman with flames dancing around her fingers whipped an arm up and one of the fireballs streaked towards Spectrum, straight down the center of the group. Spectrum's ball of energy met it half way, he'd obviously been expecting something like this, and the subsequent collision created an explosion that made everyone without enhanced durability stagger back.

Both groups jumped into action then; Terram jumped directly up and climbed to the roof of the base, his eyes taking on an orange glare as he used his stamina-sapping ability. Pulp, Spectrum, and Obsidian Wraith jumped or flew off the steps respectively. The White Boar's enforcers seemed committed to a full-on charge though, despite their targets not being in the way anymore.

But just as the ring leader got a few feet closer, the steps exploded upward in a shower of concrete and dust as Simikiel, Crusader, and Gadreel leapt up to meet them. Lashing out with blades and punches as Styx and Samshiel stayed in the hole hidden beneath the stairs, shadows whipping up and energy barriers forming at the sides of the hole.

All of the attacks hit home… and then harmlessly whiffed through the targets as the image of the gang faded away. The Heroes staggered forward, momentarily stunned by the lack of resistance, but a moment was all that was needed for them to be blinded sided by the gang hitting them mid-charge as they faded into view. Dozens of copies of the man with the boar-head overran them as, what had previously been a bald man, a hulking brute in spike, bone armor launched himself with incredible speed and tackled Terram off the roof, bringing the smaller shifter to the ground behind the base as their fight continued out of sight.

As the oppressive light beat down from above things descended into a proper brawl. There was no time for delicacy as Pulp and Obsidian Wraith jumped into the brawl and Spectrum took pot shots while having to dodge and retaliate the spheres of unnatural flame from the fire woman. The first few duplicates went down in sprays of gore since none of the brawlers held back against the front lines, making Gadreel hesitate briefly, before the bodies evaporated into swirling, mud colored mist less than a second later.

All the while, Styx felt his power quickly become useless. Despite all his experience and training, he was surprised by how quickly things had devolved into a mad scramble. The lances of flame and exploding orbs of energy immediately dispersed any shadows that reached more than a few meters out and he couldn't make safe strikes into the brawl with how frantically his teammates positions changed.

"Don't bother." Samshiel said before making three more barriers to further block off the angled, rectangle shaped hole from the duplicator crated horde of enemies. "I'll try to get in some my own licks." His four remaining orbs streaked towards the remaining members of the gang that seemed content to hang back; the woman with black hair that had her mouth open in a silent scream, the boy, and the flame thrower. …And missed by an almost meter wide margin.

"What?" Samshiel said with a frown, before narrowing his eyes and bringing them around for another pass. This time Styx saw Samshiel's become glassy just before he missed by the same margin.

"Right back at you." Styx grunted as, instead of lashing out, he just materialized shadows and had them coiled at the ready. The motion was unconscious and unnecessary as the shadows would move at the same speed regardless.

Suddenly the copies seemed to double in number, the misty multi-limb affect briefly engulfing all of them before another copy flowed out from each. Eight suddenly began piling up against the shield, letting six others clamber over them even as the strongwomen of their team tried to mow through the horde as fast as possible. Four duplicates managed to clamber over the perfectly smooth barriers even as Samshiel expanded the barrier and Simikiel cut through the ones acting as a human bridge, staggering uncharacteristically near the end of her flurry of strikes.

'Samshiel missed by a far wider margin. Is the power making them miss proximity based?" Styx contemplated before refocusing his attention.

The shadow wielder didn't hesitate, shadows whipping up and slicing apart the duplicates before they even hit the ground. The brief scenes of bisection, decapitation, and evisceration disturbing him before the bodies evaporated mid-fall in a swirl of colored mist. The brief breach of their defenses managed to shock Styx's brain back into a more offensive direction. 'Playing it safe from a distance isn't working, we need to get out of this hole and try a new approach and take out some of their members. Need to shake their confidence and coordination.' Styx thought.

But before the Hero could voice his idea the flame thrower made the choice of whether to evacuate for them as a fireball streaked down into the pit and scorched a quarter of the concrete hiding place. Samshiel covered his face and stepped back, but Styx's suit let him handle the residual flash of heat and force better.

"You need to get us up and above." Styx said as he grabbed his teammate by the forearm, acting on a spark of inspiration.

Samshiel nodded and simply said, "Jump when I do.", before immediately jumping as high as he could. Styx followed as quick as he could, not getting as much height due to the weight of his costume, but got enough to land on the barrier Samshiel crated bellow them as he simultaneously dismissed the ones surrounding the pit, letting the duplicates that had been pounding against it fall in as they rose into the air. They couldn't stay in the air long, however, as the fire throwing woman had found a way to keep Spectrum busy while being able to fire with impunity.

Walls of fire kept appearing in front of the Hero leader's line of sight of her, reappearing as soon as his energy blasts destroyed them, regardless of the type he used the impact always resulted in an explosion. Blowing through them by ramping up with raw power might have been an option if the battle was more spread out, but as things stood, he'd put both himself and his team in the blast radius if the bursts of destructive energy got any larger.

The fact that Spectrum's shots were as accurate as ever only confirmed Styx's suspicions as he was the farthest away from main fight.

The woman herself had a confident look on her freckled face, a grin making her long nose even more pronounced as she held out one hand in the direction of Spectrum, presumably to keep up the reappearing-wall act. While in her other she held what looked like a staff of fire as tall as she was, which she had no hesitation in flicking towards the two young men's direction as soon as they were directly above the brawl.

Instead of the fireball they'd been expecting, the length of fire extended towards them like a whip and the flame seemed to flare as it moved. Samshiel needed no prompting to immediately tilt the platform down while forming another shield where they'd previously been. The resulting boom from the shield blocking the fire-whip was jarring, but not nearly as much as Samshiel suddenly swerving at an angle just as they were about to land.

Styx managed to tuck and roll with the landing-turned-crash, but Samshiel practically ate the asphalt as he fell. He quickly rolled to his feet, but was still visibly unsteadied by the landing, a gash on his jaw bleeding steadily and stanning his costume. They stood just outside of the fire-woman's line of sight, the brawl between the duplicator and the others seeming to tip in their favor as Obsidian Wraith reconfigured her arm to act as a whip, killing multiples at once, although the aiming disruption that still made her miss or only injure most.

"I've got a plan." Styx told his fellow ranged Hero over the roar of more explosions as three duplicates managed to break off and charge them.

"What is it?" Samshiel asked, flicking a risk and obliterating the skulls of two of the three that charged them with a series of orbs, an electrical blast from Spectrum briefly making his hair stand on end.

"Um," Styx said as he dodged the clumsy punch of boar-head, whipped out his knife, and buried it hilt deep into the neck area, nearly decapitating the double with the unmistakably sound of flesh being cauterized sounding out. The talking while being attacked and the, albeit brief, gore was getting to him, he needed to focus. "Try hitting the fire lady twice, make it flashy, then go for the kid beside the screaming woman."

Smashiel nodded and ran out to get a line of sight on the target, Styx immediately following his lead as they both attacked with only a second's delay between their barrages. A hail of mini-eclipses streaked down toward the fire woman while short shadows of the duplicates themselves lashed out towards her, both attacks missing by several feet. Styx felt the feeling of the aim disruption this time, the feeling was barely noticeable, like vertigo mixed with the weightlessness of floating in water. The sensation came just as mental switch in his brain directed his ability.

Pushing past the sensation, they didn't pause to react to the sneer on her face and, instead Samshiel manifested his orbs again but this time had them streak in horizontally from all directions while Styx tried another shadow strike. The woman with magenta fire dispersed the shadow with a flick of her staff with contemptuous ease while all the orbs missed her by inches. The woman beside her, mouth still open in a silent scream, turned her profile slightly more towards the fire manipulator. The rapid succession of attacks was still a little too intense as teen who had been staring wide-eyed at the bloody brawl took several quick steps away from what he thought was the Heroes' target.

That was the moment when Styx and Samshiel launched their real attacks.

All twenty orbs came in at almost every angle; vertical, horizontal, and everything in between. And the shadows from all three figures lanced out, and one from a sewer tunnel beneath them burst up through the ground and swiped as well. 'Might as well use the trick now to ensure a win.' Styx resolved to himself.

Every attack was aimed towards the boy's legs, neither man quite ready to use lethal force yet, and almost all of them missed. Almost. As Styx had guessed the aiming-disruption was limited by range or where the Super was focusing. But it still had an effect, so instead of having completely ruined legs, the brown hair kid only got lacerated calves from Styx's shadows and a perforated knee from one of the orbs.

Styx grinned behind his helmet as they darted back behind the dying brawl, the duplicates had tried to split again, but it looked like the improved speed at which Obsidian Wraith was going through them disrupted the action. There was a roar from behind the base as Terram came bounding back into view, gouges in his armor and shallows wounds on his hands and feet that bled a dull brown. The bone man was hot on his heels, but at least looked a little banged up, cracks in the bone armor apparent as it stomped after Terram. A sense of renewed confidence sparked in the interns as their team came back together; an old, ingrained, human instinct of trusting strength in numbers settling in.

That is until the silent woman opened her mouth wider, to what looked like a painful degree, and then suddenly the flitting feeling of vertigo and weightlessness increased sharply for every Hero. Just for a second, maybe two, but it lasted just long enough that all the Heroes were taken off guard when the ground turned into festering, brown flesh. Bulbous, leathery tendrils grew out from the writhing mass and mouths as big as manhole covers with yellowed fangs grinded their teeth with a fervor.

'Ah, I forgot about the Super that made the initial illusion.' Styx thought just as the teeth stopped gnashing.

Then those horrific mouths opened to a size that would dislocate jaws and the earth screamed.

 

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Chapter 71 - Arc 5 Erebus

The surroundings of Landscape Unit's base was oddly serene during this particular fall afternoon; oddly absent of the usual pigeons that hung around the buildings' top or in the lot. And the only major sound came from the occasional gust of wind as the rising sun cast the base's shadow farther than usual, making it far more imposing.

This serenity made the sixteen strikes of amber lighting all the more outstanding, especially as one of the strikes, instead of landing in a cluster like the rest in the parking lot, hit the corner of the building. What appeared from the smoking impact was a young man with a shock of dark hair and creamy skin that had a nervous smile stretching his face as he held onto the edge with a white knuckled grip. After a moment the side of the building that he was gripping became unbearably hot, as sweltering as the hottest summer day on any place on earth, then immediately became brittlely cold a second later. Then the man let out a short, sharp whistle and then was engulfed by a bolt of amber electricity from the sky before an identical bolt of energy struck by the smoking crater of similar strikes.

"Madison, boys, you know what to do." He said as ten men and one truly gargantuan woman with flowing, blonde hair rushed forward.

The men stopped short and took aim with sleek, see-through blasters that whined and pulsed with light as it delivered its destructive pay load before going silent. The woman however ran right to the wall, muscles in her right arm visibly bulging and undulating even beneath her thick clothing, before drawing her arm back and slamming her fist into the wall. The ten rays of energy and super strength hit proved too much for the quickly super-heated then rapidly cooled wall. It shattered in a cloud of smoldering dust and cracked metal, a result of the material being made brittle. The mini explosion also nearly blew the top off of a small sewer grate that had been flush with the now-destroyed wall.

The woman immediately jumped backwards, clearing well over twelve meters in a single bound to land behind her fellows, a nearly identical sewer grate, this one circular, was situated just a few feet behind them. The gunmen stayed to the side, most on one knee and aim trained on the door as they waited for their weapons to recharge while the other group had a willowy woman with brown locks and spread a rippling affect through the air around them. If the, admittedly well paid, gun men were more of introspective sort, then maybe they would have wondered why it was ordered that they take up formation separate from the Supers of their group, but if they were such introspective men then most wouldn't have been here in the first place.

They didn't have to wait long, but what greeted them was something none had expected.

Instead of the members of Landscape Unit coming charging out with powers flaring, reshaping their surroundings and as they saw fit. What emerged from the smoke were all four of them walking out steadily with yellow, stone riot shields in one hand and honest-to-god assault rifles in the other.

The men with laser rifles only had enough time for their eyes to widen, and cruelly for their weapons to charge back up just then, before the Heroes opened fire on all of them.

Some of the men had time to dodge before being mowed down, but none managed more than a few steps; the attack was just too sudden, efficient, and none had bothered to wear any significant body armor. The Heroes didn't even pause after eliminating the regular gunmen, swinging their towards the now pale woman maintaining the distortion field, emptying the rest of their clips at them.

A couple dozen bullets hit the distortion, but stopped upon contact without moving, as if frozen in time. The act seemed to shake the Supers out of their stupor as the Heroes quickly reloaded, then the one in the front of the group stepped forward, dropping the shield and revealing the Defensive Dugout, the leader of Landscape Unit.

"Y- you're not- ", The woman with flowing hair tried to say.

"Deactivate your powers and surrender." Defensive Dugout said, interrupting her and keeping her gun pointed at their feet, ready to have it level in a second. "You haven't directly attacked us yet, so we can argue to the DVA that we should take you in and have all injuries healed. If not then…" She trailed and casually gestured towards the sprawled bodies mere meters away, ground already slick with blood. "You can see how things might play out." The senior Hero took note of the groups slightly younger members, one wearing a cloak who she wasn't was a boy or girl, a boy with matted, blonde hair, and another boy who seemed to have little sparks of electricity buzzing around him, all at most in their late teens. She decided to slightly adjust her approach. "This isn't a game; Heroes fight to win, and despite what the media might have you believe, we rarely fight fair if we don't have to. This is your one and only warning; stand down."

They were momentarily struck by the power and authority in her voice.

Landscape Unit was kind of the middle child of the Hero teams in the city; not as overtly powerful as the Pristine Strikers, not as loved as Remedy Squadron, and less of a media presence than Atomic Conjurers. Their leader was known for being professional, but that was about it, and like all Hero teams they won most of their fights. Honestly, the only reason they had decided to assault their base was because, according to Immadesco, they'd helped take out one of the gang's major assets and that something like that couldn't go unpunished.

Now the group of enforcers were less sure of how accurate the team's mediocre reputation was.

Well… most of them anyway.

"Fuck you!" The clearly strong-man type woman shouted as she sauntered forward. "Who cares if you downed the fodder? We're the ones with real power here, we got assigned to this task because our abilities counter you in every way. You think some guns are gonna change that?" She'd gotten progressively angrier during her tirade and had began stalking towards Defensive Dugout near the end.

Instead of responding, the Heroine simply leveled her gun and shot the woman in the face in one smooth motion that took barely more than a second.

The large woman stopped short in surprise that quickly turned to anger, the bullet had pinged off harmlessly, but the sudden action had made her flinch. And that anger turned into an even deeper rage as she saw the smirk on Defensive Dugout's face, the only section of her mask that showed skin. She charged and the heroine, with a flick of her wrist, made several truck sized barriers flow up and momentarily stymie her advance.

"Wow, you were right." Trap-Master said as Defensive Dugout ran back to their ranks, making new barriers behind her all the while. "They really are going to try the same shit everyone else has, huh? It's too bad I had to go without my usual gadgets for this one." The young intern gestured toward her rather generic grey, padded costume with a grey mask, almost casually ignoring the display of powers going on mere meters away. She still sported a utility belt with a choice items reserved for this brawl. Her expression became one of mild frustration when looked back and saw that her mentor was nowhere to be found. "Hate it when he does that." She muttered, more jealous that her power didn't let her replicate the trick than anything else.

* * *

Yes. Finally, something they'd been prepared for.

A grin split the face of the woman with the willowy figure and long hair, hood casting a shadow on most of her face. She'd dismissed the restrictive circle she'd surrounded her allies in, allowing them to fan out and flank the enemy while she directed her power forward, like wave. The bullets had dropped to the ground harmlessly, losing all heat and momentum. Gradually the battle-field became frozen, inert in the face of her immutable power. It wasn't time manipulation, people caught in it could starve if she left them in it, she knew that from past experience. But she personally found the distinction to be largely academic; the in-animate, organic, or any Super-variation, her power could stop anything.

But while she was more than a match for any one of the members here her main focus was to be on Rancid. Their little spy had told them that while he could "produce" more of his shift-able smoke, most of it was a direct allegory for his physical body. So, if she could freeze even half of him when he was either smoke or stone, she could effectively take him out of the entire fight.

Confidence swelled inside her as she saw Defensive Dugout make a gesture to no avail as the environment didn't shift around, a tactic she was famous for. They'd been shaken by their initial display, especially the kid brought on to deal with Trap-Master, but now that it was power-versus-power things were different. She would deal with Defensive Dugout, Madison would handle Glacial, and they'd corner Trap-Master soon afterwards. Kale saw a few wisps of yellow smoke among the back of Landscape Unit's ranks and she swore she could taste victory.

The crunching of gravel behind her was her only warning.

Half a second later pain wracked her body as a stone foot shatter her right shin and a fist slammed into the back of her head, ruining her concentration and sending her quickly into the land of dreams. Just before she hit the ground the woman caught sight of an innocuous, small sewer grate that was a meter or so behind her.

'Son of a bitch.' Were her last thoughts before everything went dark.

* * *

Glacial was starting to get antsy as he saw the huge woman casually punch away the obstacles he had grown in front of him, practically making the pillar he'd grown in front of her to explode from the force of her punch. He glanced over to see Defensive Dugout was able to shift around her barriers again and that the ground was no longer frozen in places. Good, that meant Rancid had done his job.

'Now I just need to do mine.' He thought, the silvery-blue of his costume's mask shifting as his face creased with worry and his cape billowed in the wind as the strongwomen bore down on him. She would have been in arms reach already if not for how slick his power made the ground; every surface, except for directly under his feet, for several dozen meters around was covered in a layer of ice-like substance. With a mental gesture he made two pillars jut out, striking her from both sides pincer-style. She grunted from the impact, but casually bashed away the blue structures as if they made of Styrofoam.

'Maybe a little banter was necessary so that he could bait her into a more advantageous position?'

"Do you idiots really think you're the first to try this ploy? Beating us at our own area manipulation game and to show up with some damage dealers?" He shouted at her, even as he made a spike rise, then curve into the back of her knee, doing no damage but tripping her up. "We've beaten a dozen gangs that have tired the same tactic before and they never realize; All of our powers either ignore or negate each other already. You're trying to beat us with what we consider a mild training exercise." While this was only partially true, a lot of their preparedness for this day was more due to information the Subtlety Heroes had been able to gather, but his snide and condescending tone had the desired effect.

The woman's, supposedly named Madison, neck bulged in anger and a snarl flared onto her face as, instead trying to stand back up, she dug her fingers into ice and braced her legs. With a mighty heave she launched herself forward, shattering the ice beneath herself and hurtling towards her target with nigh-blurring speed.

This rather impressive display of strength was cut short, however, as Glacial had what resembled a clamp snagged her left leg, arresting her momentum. As soon as she landed face-first, he had over six clamps rise up and grab onto the rest of her body; one on each limb, another wrapped her torso, and the last clamped around her neck. All of the them began spread the substance across her body, attempting to encase her.

It wasn't enough.

His material was as tough as it looked, and while several inches of ice could easily hold any normal person, it was barely a stop gap for someone like her. It would hold her for four seconds, five at most. So, it was testament to how well Trap-Master had been trained to capitalize on an opportunity when she rushed in, able to run at a full sprint as Glacial cleared the path for her, and shoved a small, black cylinder into the woman's mouth.

"Ayreh Feek!" She shouted an Arabic curse as she ran away and the cylinder began spewing gas directly down the other woman's throat, the smoke was grey, tinged with white and smelled odd.

The strongwoman involuntarily bit down on the canister before spitting it out and finally breaking free of her icy restraints. Her eyes seemed to be red and puffy she suffered a short coughing fit, steeled her expression and managed to steps, before she was wracked with body-spasming wheezes before collapsing face-first to the ground.

Glacial set to work with giving her body a more thorough coating while Trap-Master kept her momentum and chased after the last of the gang.

* * *

Mark was running for his life. Shit, he couldn't believe things had gone so wrong. He pumped his legs as hard and fast as he could, wind whipping through his hair as he navigated the field of partial shields Defensive Dugout had created.

He looked over, wild eyed, to see that the leader of the team had even captured Jared, their transport guy. He was stuck in a dome, lightning uselessly slamming into it from above. It did damage, but the Heroine was mending the damage faster than strikes dished out. It wasn't see-through and looked to be air-tight, he'd collapse from oxygen deprivation eventually.

In a desperate move, Mark flung his arm towards her, mentally commanding three shards of glass to fly out of that sleeve and zoom towards her. Defensive Dugout raised a barrier and deflected the attack with almost contemptuous ease.

This. This was why he'd been so worried once Trap-Master had come out without her suit on. He was practically useless against the rest of them, and Glacial was too far away to make accurate shots on. The best he could hope for was to either run or to get to the hole they'd made and use the shattered glass there.

'I just need to get clear. None of them have super-speed and I know this city.' Mark thought before a piercing yell made a pit form in his stomach, the shards of glass under his clothes shifting around.

"Where do you think you're going, sharmouta?!" Trap-Master shouted as she jumped on top of a barrier near to him and shot at his feet, forcing Mark to take several steps back, and dropped down behind a barrier before he could retaliate.

He hated that, she was obviously using those insults just to dig at them and what they stood for. And the worst part of it all was how it still managed to get under his skin despite knowing that, especially when she sounded so god-damned giddy about it.

"What happened to that bulky suit you wore after Alexander kicked your ass?!" Mark shouted right back as he hid behind a shield, waiting for her to try flanking him, three shards already floating around him.

"Ah, you how it is." Came the young woman's reply, her voice far too close for comfort. "Some information got leaked about a glass manipulator being recruited. And I figured it'd be smart to shelf the power-suit for this one."

Mark spun towards the source, but still didn't have a sight on her.

"And judging by the frustrated look on your face, I'm guessing you've realized that these older ear-piece models don't use glass in any substantial amount." He could hear the smirk in her voice now, and with a jolt Mark noted the yellow smoke creeping further towards him. He was taking nervous breaths now, somehow coming too quickly and not fast enough. Trap-Master wasn't popping out and Rancid, someone he had no way in Hell of hurting, was mere feet away, and he doubted he could out run either of them. Sweat started form on his brow and drip down as he realized he had only one real course of action left to take.

So, Mark did what was arguably his smartest decision in months.

"I surrender." Mark said as he got on his knees, put his hands behind his head, and mentally maneuvered all the glass shards he'd been carrying onto the ground.

With a shuddering sigh he finally relaxed as he felt stone restraints form around his wrists and ankles instead of the agony of a gunshot.

~ ~ ~

"How do you think the Pristine Strikers are doing?" Trap-Master asked, adaptive combat rife laying at her feet with the safety on, stretching her legs with obvious relief as the DVA containment crew were carting away the gang members. She pointedly didn't let her eyes linger on the bodies for too long, the smell was bad enough.

"Well," Rancid started off. "They're not as flexible, power-wise, as we are. So whatever curveball they've been thrown might be throwing them more off kilter than it did us. Honestly the thing I'd most expect a team like them to do in this situation would be-"

His explanation was interrupted by a display of electricity on the horizon, like an inverse lightning strike as a singular, blue-white bolt flashed upwards to one of the few clouds in the sunny sky.

"To call in outside help?" Trap-Master finished for her mentor.

 

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Chapter 72 - Arc 5 Erebus

"Wuoauh-!" Was the mutilated, 'woah', sound Styx made as one of the fleshy tendrils whipped at his shoulder, and instead of a heavy impact, he saw and felt the heat of the upper level of his armor burn away on his shoulder. He hissed as the skin on his shoulder was seared and blistered, but still kept enough presence of mind to dodge another tendril that whipped at his torso. There was a dizzying discontent not totally related to the woman with disruption abilities as the ground writhed and undulated with flesh and scream while he felt a perfectly regular surface underneath his feet. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.

This was an illusion, same as the one in the beginning of the fight that had let the gang flank the team was now creating this floor and interposing images of tendrils over the fire whips being used.

'But why now? Why not start off with this?' Styx thought as he dodged two more strikes and stabbed a duplicate trying to flank him, hitting the heart. He swallowed and suppressed his queasiness and got back to thinking as blood briefly covered his gauntleted fist before dissipating. He and everyone who had been in a lot of fights with Supers knew that powers didn't come with arbitrary limits like in comics, barring stamina and focus, powers were incredibly flexible in their application most of the time. So, the most likely reason was that the Super was simply too weak to do flashy illusions back to back.

Styx took a quick look around and saw that Spectrum was mostly still keeping the flame woman's attention, trading blasts of energy with her while keeping mobile enough that she couldn't just make a sphere of flame around him. The duplicator had renewed his attack and swelled his ranks yet again while the team had been distracted, dogpiling all the female members of the team with varying levels of success, Obsidian Wraith shredding her way out in seconds and Gadreel not far behind her. Terram was leading the bone monster around the edges of the battle, the bone thing might have been stronger but Terram was clearly the faster and more agile of the two. The lumbering forms gave Styx an idea that he decided was worth a try considering how close the fight had been so far.

"Terram, jump on the woman that has her mouth open." Styx said in a conversational tone. The benefits of having incredibly advanced ear-pieces, they could relay orders and without needing to shout and alert their opponents.

Terram didn't hesitate, only slowing down marginally to verify the woman's position, before launching himself bodily across the lot faster than most would think his size would allow. The disruption was also affecting him of course, throwing his leap tackle off course slightly. But when dealing with a form that was easily over four meters in height and rivaled the width of a van "slightly off course" wasn't enough to save the singing woman even as her eyes bulged and she tried to scramble out of the way. He landed on her with crash and she let out an audible scream that made Styx wince. She at least had broken bones from someone like Terram landing partially on her, but hopefully it hadn't been fatal. He didn't have time to see Terrams reaction as the Hero had to immediately scramble out of the way from several lances of flame.

'At least we've got our accuracy back.' He thought then confirmed by experimentally manipulating his own shadow. There was precious few to use with that woman's fire constructs still outing out all that light. And another explosion of force and fire from only a few feet away that agitated his shoulder served to remind the intern that Spectrum was currently the only person keeping her from just roasting the squishier members of the team.

Unfortunately, Terram had disengaged when the bone monster was near his position and it showed no hesitation in trying to take out the closest Hero it could find. It ran with thundering steps of it's clawed feet before Obsidian Wraith broke off to try and distract him, shaking off a duplicate that tried to jump on her back. And to both her and Styx's utter shock the thing dug it's crown like feet into the ground and tanked the hit, only shuddering as the ground under it spider-webbed. This thing was way stronger than they'd thought, no wonder Terram had opted for a retreat.

Obsidian Wraith panicked and tried to wrap her "arms" around the thing's neck and haul it back at the last second but she'd always been able to leverage her strength better as hits and cuts instead of lifting. The beast it within melee range of Shane and took a mighty swing, obviously aiming to crush the physically vulnerable Hero.

Now that Styx was, unfortunately, closer he could see far more detail in the shitter's frame. The form was only humanoid in shape instead of entirely human; the legs looked right but the arms were too long and dragged along the ground while the neck started off wide before slightly tapering off to a head with a human-like skull. Only human-like considering the slits for eyes and segmented jaw that looked like it had four moving parts and resembled a snapping turtles' maw.

It opened its mouth and growled as Styx drew his knife, pulsating and veiny flesh exposed as a forked tongue flicked out.

The monster rushed forward and Styx sprinted towards it head-on without hesitation.

He needed to remember his training, his upbringing.

Shane had sparred against dozens of Supers, most of them Heroes, while under the personal tutelage of his grandfather, Captain Starlight, the world's first Super Hero.

This was a problem he'd faced dozens of times. A super was too tough for him to cut with his shadows? That'd be a problem in a more confined environment, but with a little room to maneuver it could be overcome. And he had plenty of room to work with, though with admittedly very little shadows.

The crown tipped appendage swung towards his face, easily large enough to take off his head and torso, and Styx ran towards and under the swing while directing his shadow, small as it may be, to shove on where a wrist would be on the arm. The swing went wide as Styx rolled under it, dodged another tendril that radiated heat and directed shadow blade again to stick between the creature's legs as it quickly tried to turn and face him, causing it to face-plant. Obsidian Wraith didn't need any prompting, years of reflexes and instincts triggered upon seeing an unbalanced opponent in a vulnerable position. She reared back and slammed a punch into the side of the super's boney hide, and as he wasn't properly braced anymore, it sent the shifter sailing all the way across the lot, well past the woman with fire and the dodging Terram. And, past all the roaring flame and sound Styx thought he heard a small shriek as the illusory floor and sound flickered for just a moment. He couldn't pin-point the source and couldn't stretch his shadows all the way across with all the flame and flashes being thrown around.

But that didn't stop Samshiel, having kept his head down and positioning himself in the right place to jump in just in case an opportunity to strike came. He sent a scatter shot of twenty eclipse orbs streaking towards where the shifter had landed, three singing the bone armor, fifteen hitting nothing but ground, while the last smashed into something invisible with a spray of blood. A scrawny blonde woman flickered into view with holes in her stomach and shoulder before falling over with a painful thud, blood pooling around her.

Styx carefully didn't react, just gave Samshiel a nod as the ground turned back to normal scorched earth and the screaming faded.

The dog pile maneuver hadn't lasted long. Pulp wasn't anywhere near the strongest on this team, but even she could tear through and toss human bodies like they were papier-mâché mannequins. And she wasted no time in helping Simikiel and Crusader escape, even as the duplicator made more, displaying impressive reserves of power. But once Simikiel was free to move, the numbers advantage quickly became mote; without the disruption going on her speed and strikes could now be fully utilized. The young Heroine cut down five of the copies with sickening grace in less than a second, weaving around any attempts to strike and grab her. Crusader all the while floated above the crowd, occasionally making clothes jerk and twist any copies that tried to run off and interfere in other fights while occasionally flicking out with an unnaturally long blade, so much so that it should have wobbled and instead of jutting forward like a spike or whip, and downing a few.

The fire woman had a thin sheet of sweat visible on her now, likely more from exertion than from the heat she created, her attention now fully occupied by Spectrum. No more swinging that weird, flaring fire whip at the others, now she was trying to hem in the Hero with tower-shields of magenta fire while trying to arc orbs over and around to catch him. But Spectrum had done this dance far too many times with dozens of supers over the years to be overcome by this. After a bit of experimentation, he'd found that his indigo, corrosive blasts worked best as they annihilated the flames without creating an explosion with each clash, and he let out little bursts of his kinetic variant through his feet to keep his movements deceptively fast and mobile enough she'd never be able to surround him.

'Okay, things are starting to swing in our favor. Maybe we won't need to call them in.' Styx thought. Which was of course exactly when things started to go wrong.

There was a whistling sound that eventually caught everyone's attention as they glanced into the sky for the source even as they continued fighting.

There was a terrible crash and explosion of debris as something glowing landed from on high, creating a crater and small dust cloud. A man, wearing the same costume as the others but with a cloak, sauntered out with a confident smirk on his face. He was visibly muscular and was easily just as tall as Obsidian Wraith was in human form and had head of brown hair styled with a Clark Kent-like swirl. The corona of light emanating from him seemed to intensify as he drew closer.

"Well then, isn't thi-"

Obsidan Wraith and Gadreel didn't give him the chance to shoot off whatever cliché remark he had in store as they both rushed forward and barreld into him, knocking several feet into the ground with a shudder. But, with disturbing quickness, the man was back on his feet and started swinging at both of them with almost blurring speed.

Big guy, glowing with light, and top tier strongman physical abilities. That'd be Alexander then.

The rush had also plunged the rest of them back into their own fights, the Heroine's rush making it clear that this fight wasn't anywhere close to over yet, even with the addition of this new guy.

Styx animated his own shadow out of hand and made it lash out, but as expected it dissipated before it could even touch his skin. Samshiel snuck around again and tried to trip him up with two shields, only for Alexander to shatter both with a casual swing of his arms, the shields of energy turning to shards before dissipating.

"Wow, that's uh…" Smashiel said before looking toward Styx. "Breaking those that causally is a lot more impactful than just reading about how strong he is. I hope your friends make it soon." He looked over at the bone-shifter with increasing worry as it started to get back on its feet.

"Don't worry, they will. That's just the kind of people they are." Styx replied, as he shifted his attention to the now severely dwindling group of duplicates. That is until he heard a familiar voice crackle to life in his right ear.

<Teleportation of assets inbound.> Dispatch's voice was crisp and calm, a stark contrast to the chaos of their surroundings.

Styx let out a sigh of relief as he heard those words, even as he cut down a few more clones. Seconds later a familiar shard of light seemed to appear at the edge of the fighting, before three figures blurred into view where it had been.

One was the familiar figure of Maria, clad in her usual suit, if breathing a bit heavier than usual before she quickly used her power to leave the area. What was left were two young men in real costumes, one was wearing a deep, blue and silver one with a full-head mask that hid all but his eyes and mouth; silver covering his fingerless gloves and boots before outlining the rest of it. The other was in a light purple ensemble with white lines along his arms and legs, meeting thickening on his torso before going over his cowl mask.

Intra and Jack of All had arrived on the scene, or Vince Reynolds and Chad Taylor as Shane knew them better.

This time only Gadreel took the initialized as she was the closest to the biggest threat amongst them. She flew in low as Alexander was preoccupied with being shocked by the appearance of two more Heroes on the scene. He only noticed her when it was too late, she brought her left leg up in a perfect straight kick to his torso, launching the glowing man straight up like a fascist rocket.

"Lightning strike!" Gadreel shouted to them, and Jack of All lashed out with more power than Styx suspected her ever would have if he hadn't been briefed beforehand on how tough his opponents would be.

His hand flared with enough blue-white electricity to make people's eyes hurt, drawing enough attention to make most miss when Intra circled around and flanked the crowd of duplicates, before he let loose. A bolt of lightning as thick as a lamp post lancing upward before forking as it slammed into, and then through Alexander, and hitting some of the sparse clouds above.

* * * *

Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 73 - Arc 5 Erebus

Today was the kind of day Lily imagined anyone would enjoy. It was the rare spot of warmth in the early winter season. There was almost no wind, the temperature had that perfect fall feeling to it, and it was nice a bright out. And if she wasn't essentially being held hostage by a gang of violent racists, she'd probably be out bike riding instead of planning her escape.

'Isn't good for Styx, though.' Lily thought as watched the current fight on at the Pristine Strikers' base. Smiling a little as she saw Styx trip up that bone asshole. "Germaine", or something, she thought his name was. 'Not that it seems to be slowing him down much.' And she felt a little thrill run through her as two new Heroes arrived on the scene, causing her guards to panic, one even going out to talk on his phone.

The two bodyguards were fairly big, blonde men, both at least a foot taller than her and wearing those gods awful "uniforms" the White Boars had started making. A garish mix of the overall beige and almost pink-red of the boar emblem outline in white making the members look both more unified and infinitely more pathetic. The fact that things were obviously of poor quality, uneven seams and stray strands of thread clearly visible, certainly didn't help things. Honestly, if not for the pistols clearly visible at their waist, then Lily might have laughed in their faces the moment she saw them.

Now though she focused her attention back on to the computer screen in front of her, video feed from a camera the gang had set on an abandoned building a bit away from the Hero base as well. Zoomed in to the max to give a clear view of the fight despite the distance, Lily saw what she had expected. The White Boars had time to gather supers to counter the Heroes, even had the sense to call in one of their heavy hitters if things looked, they weren't going their way, but the Heroes weren't playing fair either. And the heavy hitters they'd brought on were an order of magnitude more powerful.

Jack Of All, who was practically the new Globe, costume gleaming under the glare of fire all around the area as he helped put Alexander, the bone shifter, and the fire woman all at once with controlled bursts of force and lighting. While Intra, such a spitting image of the man that had precede him that there were rumors of him being a clone in the more conspiracy-nut-oriented circles, had just finished up hunting down and disabling the duplicator with one swipe of a bone blade extending from his arm.

The Heroes were going to win this fight, that was plain as day now, had been plain as day to anyone that wasn't swallowing the Kool-Aid the White Boars had been feeding its members. Which, judging by the panicked look on the panicked look on the man's face, her guard obviously had. And who could blame him for such fear? This current fight involved more than half of all the gang's supers, and if they couldn't even take down one Hero with their strongest assault yet, then defeat was basically inevitable.

Lily shook her head as she directed her summon to land on the shoulder of the summoner on the ground, mostly forgotten as he groaned and writhed. As cathartic as the current fight was, she couldn't just let this be a simple win for the good guys and let them slowly grind down the rest of the gang over a period of months.

"Hello, Daniel." Her summon rasped and clicked into the boy's ear as it landed on his shoulder, making him flinch and futilely twist his torso.

"It's me, Lily." Lily made it say. "Well, technically this is just my summon but you get it." An explosion of heat nearly knocked her summon off then, but then the fight moved slightly away.

"O- oh. Thank god. Is anyone coming to help?" Daniel asked, hope and panic tinging his voice.

"Daniel, I need you to teleport everyone to the last place I directed you to. To Alexander's hideout, that's where help will be." Grip increasing slightly as Lily looked through it's eyes and saw the fight would probably be coming to a close soon.

"But, m- my legs!" The kid gasped, gesturing weakly towards his ruined knee and cut up calves.

Lily cursed under her breath as she saw the bone-monster get knock out by series of punches from Jack of All and Gadreel. 'Don't have time to be gentle.'

"If you don't, I'll stab through the eye into your brain." Lily made her summon say.

"Wha-", Was all Daniel managed to say before her summon went from his shoulder to his head, half-talon-half-pincer griping just below his right eye.

"Our boss gave me very specific orders." This was utterance even more raspy than before, yet still legible enough to be intimidating as razor sharp teeth grazed the boy's ear and a stinger lined up with his left eye. "If you don't prove your self by pushing past the pain, following orders, and getting them to base. Then I'm to eliminate you right here and now so when the other teleporter arrives to bail out these dipshits, they don't have to burden their weight capacity with you."

He started shuddering and his eyes watered, but he wasn't arguing and as soon as she saw a red circle start to flicker and fade into existence around the entire lot, she let go and had her summon fly away. Lily hadn't liked doing that, but it was necessary and that was all she needed to know to reassure herself.

The guard still in the room with her saw the flickering red ring appear on the screen and turned to the door while also bringing out his phone, presumably planning to report in the unplanned behavior.

As soon as the guard had his back turned Lily went into action. She de-summoned her creature, materialized it in the room and sick-ed it on the guard.

It slammed into the man's face with surprising force, snapping his head back before latching its mandibles around his ear and began clawing at his nose and eyes. He screamed as Lily got out her collapsible baton, ten inches of hard, dark metal, and stood by the doorway. Just as she'd planned the other guy came running and rushed through the doorway, head first into the swing Lily had prepared for him, shattering his nose beyond natural repair and sending him to the ground. Before the larger man could get his bearings, she aimed lower and took another swing, and by the sounds of it she had at the very least shattered his knee-caps.

The feeling of triumph fueled by adrenaline roared in her ears before it was replaced by a sharp stab of pain an instance later, coinciding from a surprisingly loud gun shot from inside the room. Lily looked over and both felt and saw that her summon was gone, the man it had been attacking moaning with ruined facial features and a cut up throughout as he held a gun in one hand, the muzzle rising towards her. She moved on instinct and tackled like a line-backer into a desk, shoulder twinging with pain from the sudden impact, and knocking the wind out of him. He dropped his gun and Lily started in on his head with her baton, five savage hits that sent chocks of force through her arm with every impact.

She sagged almost comically as soon as the man went limp, but checked behind herself to make sure the other man was down and out before letting herself relax completely. This had… not been as clean a fight as she had envisioned. The Heroes made fighting look like an effortless dance of skill and technique, this had been more like a mad scramble that quickly turned into a beating.

'I guess the fights look cleaner if you outclass your opponent enough.' Lily thought as, with a headache more intense than she imagined possible and a sore shoulder, she half sprinted half stumbled out of the moderately dilapidated and entirely abandoned building, leather bag holding her laptop hanging by her shoulder. As soon as the unusually warm wind washed over her, she ran all out until she was back onto the street and squirreled away in a dark alley. Dangerous as going into strange alleys in this city was she needed a place to hide, sometimes the gang would send people to check up on her and seeing the two unconscious men in her room would probably tell them all they needed to know about her loyalty.

She leaned against a wall, hearing out each breath as liberation coursed through her, Lily focused past the wall of pain in her skull and summoned her creature again. Then she sent it directly up until she found the man she was looking for, lurking nearby, jogging towards the fight that still raged on only a few blocks away.

Unbeknownst to her, as she rushed towards the man in a white and silver costume, every member of the fight at the Pristine Strikers base flinched in surprise as they were surrounded by a ring of red energy, flashing once and whisking them away. Even if Lily saw the shock on the Hero's faces, she wouldn't have regretted her decision. The White Boars needed to die today, and now with the element of surprise and some new, powerful Heroes at their side, she believed the Pristine Strikers could do it.

"Hey!" Was all Lily could think to yell as she approached the Hero from behind. He spun around to face her, eyes-narrowed behind his mask. "I got information for you." She managed to gasp out she finally got within talking distance with him, hands on her knees and summon flying above them.

Man… she needed to work out more.

"I've got information for you; about the White Boars, where they've taken the Pristine Strikers, and their real leaders' hideout. I was an informant of theirs." She blurted out, words nearly running together as she spoke what she'd been holding in for weeks.

Intuition relaxed his stance, but only a bit as he still kept his power's awareness up and active. "Tell me what you know."

* * * *

Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 74 - Arc 5 Erebus

24 Hours Ago

The warehouse creaked and shuddered as the group of five tromped in, dragging in a sixth member by his arms, his bare feet dragging against the concrete floor. Tony held one arm and Gary held the other as Kurtis walked in front, back straight, practically marching only a few steps ahead.

Moments like this only served to further confirm Tony's, and most of the gang's, suspicions that Kurtis had a military background.

Kurtis walked with his back ram-rod straight and hands behind his back before turning towards one of many doors and flinging it open. Revealing a room with peeling paint and concrete floor and walls, a small fluorescent bulb hanging from the ceiling the only source of light.

They prisoner woke up only a minute after they'd thrown him roughly to the ground in the sparse room with floor stained with a suspicious liquid. The kid, hair a mussed-up blonde that clashed with his leather jacket and designer jeans, sputtered a bit as he looked around the room.

"Whu?" The boy slurred, jaw bruised and swollen from the sucker punch Tony himself had delivered.

"Are you quite alright?" Kurtis asked, tone neutral as the young man sat up.

"What the fuck? Where am I?!" The youth asked then shouted as his unfamiliarity with his environment turned to anger as he started toward the man currently talking to him… before stopping as he saw the pistol Tony had casually aimed at him.

"I would've personally chosen to ask 'why' instead of 'where' in your situation, but I'll answer your question regardless." Kurtis replied, cool as ice. "We're in…"

Tony blocked out Kurtis's speech about how they were "deep underground" and "far away from any Hero base". It was mostly unimportant drivel to him and he needed to focus on keeping his aim steady yet appear relaxed.

The kid nervously looked over at him and as soon as their eyes met he became enraptured. Not as if in awe of beauty, more like something so horrifying had manifested and demanded his attention, like an Eldritch cadaver.

Darkness encroached on the edges of his vision, the sensation of ice-picks sliding between the contours of his brain as the kid's body shifted. His clothes became a tattered clock, skin shifted into a motely, wrinkled hue and his limbs became gangly, finally his hair became long, dark, and unkept as his face twisted into that of a malicious, old croon.

The world seemed to freeze as the mind numblingly terrifying and caricatured visage of something familiar stalked toward him, pulling a rusty kitchen from a fold in it's clothing. It suddently dashed and slid behind him with a disgusting, liquid grace that Tony swear made bile rise in the back of his throat. Tony heard the groaning rasp of his mother's voice in his ear as the knife began pressing into his back, right wear the scar on his back was from the original injury.

That sensation, which precluded a flash of nostalgic rage, was what finally aloud him to think with enough clarity to counter act the illusion.

In one swift motion he drew the taser from inside his coat, aimed at where the boy had originally been, and pulled the triggered. A half-a-second later the encouraging darkness and illusruy image vanished as there was a high-pitched cry of pain and Tony was again able to see the boy writhing on the ground with two prongs of the taser in his side. "He's a fuckin' Super." Tony snarled in response to Kurtis's and the other guard's shocked expression. "Was putting illusions into my head."

"Dully noted." Kurtis said, his tone subtly off kilter in terms of confidence, but he quickly corrected that as their victim regained consciousness and he began addressing the boy again. "Now in the movies this would be the part where we torture you for information as the screen fades to black." The boy flinched, from both the aftershocks of the taser and Kurtis's cold tone, as he was clearly in too much pain to use his ability anymore. "Luckily for you, Supers allows us to skimp on that whole bloody process." Kurtis said, briefly assuaging the fear of his captive before he stepped forward with an arm stretched out, a goat eye opening where his palm should be.

10 Hours Ago

At the end of the day, and after leaving the kid in a dumpster with a crippled leg, the kid had barely given them more than cursory information they had already confirmed about the upcoming attack.

Tony breathed a sigh as practically collapsed into leather coach. Things had been remarkably easier over the past few days for them, the White Boars had finally eased up on other gangs and were currently busy trying to not get hunted down by every Hero in the city.

Which it made it all the more irritating when his phone started ringing seconds before he'd started to nod off. Shit, he'd really hoped the lessening pressure on the other gangs would have afforded him a rare day free of "work".

"What?" He grunted roughly as soon as accepted the call, then listened quietly as the situation was explained to him. "Got it. I'll handle this right away." Then he got up, rubbed the sleep out his eyes, grabbed his weapons, and headed downstairs to the front entrance of the apartment complex.

The street was mostly deserted and the cracks in concrete and asphalt only illuminated by street lamps, litter blowing about in the ridged wind. Tony wasn't focused on that though. No, all of his attention was on the shabbily dressed man peddling drugs to, what looked like, teenagers. He walked casually, making as little noise as possible while trying to remain inconspicuous; if he timed this just right then this should be over in minute, maybe even less.

"Yeah, you just need to-" Tony heard the disheveled man say, catching a glimpse of what could best be described as segmented-skin and charcoal black hair. Without pausing his stride Tony stepped in front of the man, positioning himself between the dealer and the kids, and shoving him hard on the shoulder.

The reaction from all was instantaneous.

The man swore and began to swell in size, pink muscle expanding beneath and between his segmented, rock-like skin. While the teenagers immediately took off, running down the block and quickly turing the corner, displaying a level of wisdom that made Tony slightly more hopeful of the future generation. There was no time to be hopeful, however, as a veritable willow-tree of twisted muscle and skin towered over him.

Tony looked up and crossed his arms, feeling like an ant trying to stare down a giant centipede made of flesh. "You're not supposed to be dealing here." It wasn't an accusation, just a statement of fact.

Spines grow and extend out of his skin as he approached, making Tony backpedaled onto the side-walk.

The thing laughed and swaggered forward, forcing Tony to take several rapid steps back. It sounded like a whoopie cushion being shredded and the thing moved with unnatural grace.

"I don't think you understand your situation here." It chuckled. "Everyone knows all the other gang's enforcers are either dead or busy defending their bosses. You've got know one around here strong enough to stop me. So why don't you just-"

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there." A voice, younger than either of them, spoke. Tony sighed in relief. It'd taken them long enough.

A young man in a green and black costume and glowing mouth was flanked by a woman in a skin-tight, cobalt-blue number with a texture that made it seem leathery, had walked out from an alley directly across from Tony and the shifter.

Before the shifter could react the Heroes Goblyn and Nommo extend an arm each and snapped a finger, and in dual flashes of light, one blue and one a multicolored and muted with green, two far more bulky creatures flanked the spindly shifter. On the left was a humanoid creature with a bit of a pudge like belly, arms and legs thick as tree trunks and the former scraped the ground they were so long, and had a gaping maw with a jawline that dipped halfway to its chest cavity. The summon that had manifested on the right was drastically different in appearance, almost diametrically opposed; instead of standing it clung to the alleyway wall, glossy skin reflecting and diffracting the light from street lamps that hit it, and it was obviously a frog writ-large, though with goat eyes and a mouth that seemed to be filled with static.

"You seem to have forgotten about the most prominent Super gang in this city. And we're more than strong enough to handle you." Goblyn finished as they got closer.

"I might suggest not insinuating that Heroes are no different than a well-funded gang, but decent enough banter nonetheless." Nommo said to her intern, a smirk visible on the open-bottom portion of her mask that revealed her dusky skin. Then she turned to the now very nervous looking shifter. "Unshift and stand down; we saw, heard, and-" She tapped her right ear. "-have a recording of you threaning this man and we saw you dealing. Trying to fight your way out of this will just make your sentence worse."

Tony breathed a sigh of relief as the shifter's features blurred and her assumed his human form again, face a mask of defeat. The convince store owner this idiot hustled had also been more than happy to tell Tony that a pair of Heroes just so happened to be making the rounds around here as well. Which made taking care of him all the easier; Heroes were always on the look out for the slightest hint of Super activity to investigate.

'Rule number one for any gang that doesn't want to get immediately steamrolled by Heroes; don't shit where you live and you can basically turn your neighbors into quasi-members.' Tony thought smugly before a command from Nommo sank his brief feeling of superiority.

"Don't go anywhere citizen. We ensure this criminal is properly sentenced if we take your statement." Nommo said, heavy sarcasm put on the word 'citizen'.

Tony sighed. And the drawback of doing things this way was that the Heroes, whatever he thought about them, weren't stupid, and made sure to tie him up in interviews long enough to make this strategy very impractical if used more than once every couple of months.

2 Hours Ago

Tony rolled his shoulders as he got used to the thin hoody that hugged his bulky frame, different from the fluffy coats he'd gotten use to wearing these past few months but since today seemed unusually warm he decided to go with something a bit more his style. The bustling crowd inside the club didn't help with his anxiety either; despite the late hour Gravel House was still a favorite hangout for the city's… Well, no need to shuffle about it, the city's villains hanged out here.

From the nearly collapsed Greens to a few high-profile mercenaries that occasionally stopped by in between jobs. They had over twice as many Supers than the Heroes in this city combined even with some of the gangs like the Greens having some of their number either driven out or killed by the White Boars(who were excluded from attending or being privy to this little gathering for obvious reasons.)

Half of the occupants took maybe half of a moment to look him over before going back to their own conversations, dismissing him as unimportant. Which… fair; all he usually did hear was maybe make an announcement if Olivia thought it was necessary and maybe bum a free drink or two. Today though he'd just been called in to meet with her in her office, nothing else.

He made his way upstairs, to the second door on the right with the blue-tinted peephole. Tony knocked three times, waited for the "Come in, Tony.", before turning the metal knob and letting himself in. What he saw upon opening the door surprised him. Usually Olivia would be busy looking over paperwork or contracts, which made sense considering what her power was, or typing away on her laptop. But today she was just sitting, almost lounging, in her leather chair and watching what sounded like a fight. As soon as he walked forward a few more paces and saw the familiar powers and all to realistic looking bodies being shown on screen, it clicked.

"So, how are they doing?" Tony asked as he walked up to his boss's desk.

"It's closer than I thought it would be." Was Olivia's reply as she reclined in her leather chair. She was in her usual attire, utilitarian white blouse and business slacks that gave the air being professional without seeming over-dressed. You'd think a crime boss wouldn't care much for the opinions of others, and in truth Olivia rarely did, but optics did matter when she was in the same building with a group that were the closest thing she considered to be peers. "They're still holding back."

A younger, more impulsive, and generally less intelligent Olivia in the same position of power might have disregarded such words, maybe even going so far as to try rallying all the other criminals into attacking the Heroes in their moment of weakness. That version of Olivia would have managed to gather all of the stupidest gangs in the city, charged the base, and then gotten summarily annihilated by Spectrum.

She'd seen it happen to other criminal organizations in the past; getting over confident because they spied a moment of weakness. Only to get wiped out because when one or two members of the Hero team revealed they were hiding the fact they could let loose with building destroying attacks. Yeah, you might kill a few Heroes in the process, but that wasn't anywhere near worth the dozens of members you lost or the ensuing increased attention.

"If they're still holding back-" Tony started to say before stopping at Olivia's snort as new Heroes were teleported onto the scene. "And apparently have additional help, then I don't see this fight lasting long."

Olivia nodded with a neutral hum. "It's about what I expected. Did you get anything from that boy Kurtis interrogated?"

"Not much; Kurtis managed to dig up the location of a stash or two and the abilities of some buddies he knows. But nothing that would help with the aftermath of something like this." Tony replied, waving vaguely at the mounted screen.

"Well, as disappointing as that is, I guess we'll jus have to be content with saving this footage and helping root out the White Boars with the rest of our colleagues." Her mouth twisted up into a half-smile that made his heart flutter a bit before a flash of right light on the screen caught both their eyes.

There was no more fighting on the screen now, only craters, smoldering earth, small pools of blood, and a few flickering remains of magenta fire were left. Every single combatant had disappeared from the field in an instant.

* * * *

Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 75 - Arc 5 Erebus

Styx only received the briefest of warnings, as the ring of red energy subtly shifted the few shadows available. One moment he was fighting with his team and friends by his side, winning, and pitching in with the few shadows still around. The next there was a crimson flash, and suddenly they were all tumbling through the air above a busy intersection.

Fear and unfamiliar vertigo gripped his heart as the ground rushed forward, only a handful of seconds before he'd crash painfully into the asphalt below. (And possibly get run over upon landing) Armor or not, that wouldn't be anything but an ugly impact. He reached out to the shadows around him as he fell, found a street lamp' and made three tendrils leap out towards him. The first two missed, but the third managed to grip his waist and pull him up short only a few feet away from the curb of a sidewalk. Hanging like that made him a sitting duck though, so he quickly made it twist him around and drop him so that he landed on his feet. The intersection was currently a cacophony of honking horns and squealing tires as both bystanders and drivers desperately avoided the figures that had just fallen from the sky. A truly massive hotel was on his right, the lights, combined with the white marble and clean metal gave the entire thing a golden hue. Just the appearance made it clear that the place was incredibly high-class, though Styx couldn't place a name to it.

Taking his eyes off the building, he looked up and found that, naturally, Obsidian Wraith, Gadreel, Simikiel, and Crusader hadn't landed at all and were just reorienting themselves. Terram, Pulp, Jack of All, and Intra had landed roughly, but naturally suffered no damage, most from simply being too tough and Jack because he absorbed the kinetic energy of the fall.

Spectrum and Samshiel had faired significantly less well though. Samshiel was hanging onto one of his tower-shield barriers, using it to carry himself around, his right leg visibly broken at the shin. While Jack was leaning against a lamppost, his left shoulder clearly either dislocated or severely twisted. They both had the training and determination to fight past the pain and still use their powers, but it would slow them down regardless.

'So, Greg landed badly and Jack probably fumbled when trying to tuck and roll. Probably didn't have the time to use their powers by the time they were oriented correctly.' Styx might not have considered this so worrying if all the criminals they'd been fighting didn't to be entirely fine. Either the thugs were incredibly lucky or that teleporter had more fine control than they'd expected.

Traffic was going crazy as they all readied for a fight again; people were mostly swerving around them while others brought their vehicles to dead-stop and then got out to run on foot, jamming up traffic even further. Which was a big reason why neither side had decided to starting things off again; Styx didn't know why the villains weren't advancing, but he knew fully well that things hadn't escalated to the point where firing attacks into a crowd of bystanders was anywhere near justified.

Samshiel waved a hand and made around ten orbs swirl in front of them as the bone-monster began to pick itself up off the ground and Alexander faced Obsidian Wraith, Gadreel, and Crusader as they touched down in front of him. They looked ready to square off again just as the last few civilians cleared out… before Alexander turned and leapt through the golden doors of the hotel.

The trio of Heroes were momentarily startled by the move, but Gadreel recovered first, flying through the hole he'd made with nearly blurring speed. This split-second of movement is what saved her from the same fate as most of her team.

Just as the rest of them thought of making a move, a red ring appeared on the ground underneath those closest to the villains, flashed once, and they were gone in a flash of light. Intra, Terram, Obsidian Wraith, Pulp, and Crusader we're swept off the field in an instant.

Anger flared in Styx's chest as he saw the teleporter lying off to the side, almost concealed by a parked car with a tired grin on his face. Styx directed a shadow beneath the vehicle to lash out, forcing himself to use non-lethal force and only shallowly cut the kid's back. The teleporter let out a small squeak of pain as the cut sliced through his upper spinal column, leaving him unable to do anything more than blink and breath. Technically the kid could still use his power, but his leg injuries on top of it should be enough pain to keep him from using his ability again. And…

Styx steeled himself with a deep breath as he faced the more immediate threats. 'And if he did manage to focus past the pain, then I'll finish the job. A rouge teleporter is simply too dangerous to leave on a battle field.'

"You three still have a chance to give up." Spectrum declared, taking advantage of everyone's momentary surprise. "You've assaulted Heroes with intent to do lethal harm, but you haven't caused much property damage yet; going farther in a place like this will just make things worse for you."

Samshiel leaned in and whispered, "What do you think the chances of this working are; implausible or improbable?"

"I'm holding out hope." Styx replied, watching carefully as the bone-monster, who seemed to be healing, turned to the fire woman, they being the last left standing of their strike-force.

Good. Styx'd figured she was the leader, the rest seemed too weak and Alexander jumped in only near the end. If things started up again then taking her out would probably break the shifter's resolve or at least shake his confidence.

"We should be able to still win this easily, we've still got a numbers advantage." Jack of All chimed in, standing behind Spectrum and beside Styx.

Simikiel obviously didn't share his optimistic outlook as suddenly her head snapped towards the top of the building as the flame woman started to move. "Wha-"

Just as the woman with magenta fire at her hands stepped forward among the stopped cars, stepping gracefully around the one they're bone-monster had landed on, a tremendous crash sounded from several stories up. They all looked up just in time to see the golden-blue blur of Gadreel flying out of the top level of the building at tremendous speeds. But obviously not under her own power, she streaked at a steep angle, landing with an audible crash over two blocks away. Not even half a second later Alexander, who was now glowing like a miniature star that shined so bright it was a struggle to look at, jumped after her with enough force that it shook the building itself, shattering glass over an entire quarter of it.

By the time the two opposing groups looked at each other again, both already knew what the inevitable next outcome would be. The Hero's heaviest hitters had been teleported away and their only remaining one had been punched into the horizon. Now was the time to press the offensive.

Samshiel and Spectrum didn't wait to bandy with words, and neither did Styx or the fire woman. In an instant a barrage of mini-eclipses, a pulsating indigo sphere, and shadow blades were about to clash with a fire ball the size of a van. But just before contact could be made, the Hero's attacks froze in mid-air, while the fire ball continued to roar towards them. All five managed to dodge out of the way of the attack, the subsequent explosion of flame barely licking their backs as someone walked out from the smashed in doorway of the hotel between them and the criminals.

A man with dark hair cut short and styled in simple spikes causally walked out from the entryway with a swagger in his step. Brown leather jacket and black slacks topped off with grey, combat boots completing the look. But the most noticeable, and regrettably familiar, part of his appearance were those disconcerting silver eyes.

"Long time no see, Spectrum." He said, an ugly grin twisting his face as eighteen more figures followed him out and stopped behind him, at least ten displaying obvious signs of having powers of their own.

'Annnnd there goes our number advantage.' Styx thought grimly.

* * * *

Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 76 - Arc 5 Erebus

There was a man so bulky he was practically bursting out of his clothing, someone standing on a floating piece of rubble, a woman with white hot needles as long as she was tall growing out of her hands, another woman with beams of light wound around her fingers. A shifter that looked like he was made of rubber tensed and coiled its limbs, a man with a glowing shotgun aimed, another shifter that had the appearance of a skeletal mannequin was crawling on a wall, and a man was floating in a ball of silvery energy.

'Strongman, telekinetic, hot-needle thrower, possible blaster, rubber-band shifter, energy empowerment, mannequin shifter, and energy manipulator.', Styx mentally pegged all of them in the second and a half it took him to take it all in. He took note of the ten other men and women wearing the White Boars ridiculous costume mobilizing behind them as well. Some Heroes might have dismissed the humans as non-threats but as Super with no enhanced durability, raised in a family of Heroes that didn't have any strongmen or women in it, and from personal he had gotten a healthy appreciation for how dangerous gun fire could be.

Jack of All didn't hesitate, extending a hand and letting lose a cone of flame fit to engulf the entire width and height of the area in front of their enemies. The display of power, and how quickly he could manage it, would have been all the more impressive if the flames weren't frozen a second later. Styx almost paused to appreciate the stunning sight of flames frozen in motion, before shaking his head. Nerves must be getting to him, they'd been fighting for… how long now?

"Distance! Now!", Spectrum shouted and none were hesitant in following by his example of running down the street. Though Jack of All did spin to let loose a lance of energy, neither fire or electricity, that arced over the suspended and unmoving wall of fire.

How bright it was gave away its nature.

"Plasma?" Styx huffed as they ran.

"Yeah, Birdsman from Elemental Fury was generous enough to donate." Jack of All affirmed, coinciding with shouts of pain from the other side of the fire wall. It only sounded like two or three people, so Stopper had probably frozen most of it.

"Less power talk and more strategy!" Simikiel shouted as she covered them from above. She could have easily outpaced any of them, but they needed ready support more than a scout.

"Stopper can be stopped by trapping him with the things he freezes." Spectrum started, not bothering to acknowledge his accidental pun. "Me and Samshiel will handle that; focus more on a lot of weak attacks instead of strong ones." They turned a corner just as they heard what sounded like something clawing up the side of a building. "Styx and Jack, handle anyone trying to charge us. Simikiel, engage anyone that manages to get into melee with us or that tries snipping."

Before anyone could agree, Stopper and the man with dirty blonde hair came around the corner, floating on a section of tiled flooring. Spectrum immediately let loose a series of orange orbs that, while the blonde might not be able to stop due to how little actual mass they had, but Stopper easily froze them in mid-air and his companion weaved the platform around the frozen energy.

Samshiel let loose a series of orbs that spread out, before converging on the duo from a three-sixty-degree radius. Stopper froze it all, displaying enough precision to not affect his partner, but they had to stop for a few seconds to move around again.

Before Spectrum could capitalize though, the shifter that was tightly woven, studded, rubber tendrils came charging out of an adjacent alley while the mannequin-skeleton came looping from the opposite one. At the same time the strongman and guy inside an energy-orb came crashing down from the buildings they were running beside.

There had been civilians on both sidewalks when they'd first arrived as well, staring in wonder and apprehension at the scene. But Spectrum's shout and the flame attack had been enough to set them running though and a repeat of the intersection panic played out. Instead there were restaurants on either side of them, so people were either running to their cars instead of out of them or taking up shelter in the shops, behind counters and under tables. The foot traffic added to the chaos and took area attacks off the table.

<Ugh, guys! We're a bit tied up here-> A sound like a canon going off interrupted Pulp's voice that crackled to life in their ears as Styx, Jack of All, and Simikiel moved to engage. <Give us five minutes to finish up here and get back to you!>

'Which means the fight will be over by the time they get finished.' Styx mused grimly as he struck out with two shadows. One wrapped around the strongman's neck, lifted him up, and chucked him toward Stopper and the advanced mind. Without waiting to confirm what Stopper would do, he sent three lances from an alley toward the mannequin, who dodged them with sickening grace. How did this thing even fucking see, without any eyes?

The thing leapt toward him, only to be intercepted mid-air by Simikel. They were going to win the individual fights, but they couldn't stay still for long or they'd lose the war. He glanced up at Stopper, saw the strong-man unmoving in mid-air as he circled them on his platform, needing to stop and reorient every time Spectrum and Samshiel attacked, the advanced mind smart enough to start using debris to throw at them, forcing the two to constantly dodge mid-shot. Their progress was going to slow to crawl and they were going to get surrounded unless they made progress fast.

Suddenly Jack of All charged the rubber shifter and energy ball guy. Rubber whips slam into him, but have no effect, and he just barely dodges the energy manipulator trying to crash into him, every revolution tearing smoldering path in the street. Another whip attack absorbed and this time Jack needed to use a little kinetic energy to dodge the next pass of the see-through sphere. Styx was wondering what he was doing cutting those dodges so close until what happened on the third pass. Jack of All extended a hand and suddenly the swirling white energy was sucked into his palm, leaving the Super to tumble onto the ground. Then he rushed toward the briefly stunned rubber shifter and knocked him halfway down the street with a kinetically empowered punch that sent it three stories up.

'Need three close contacts with crafted energy to absorb?' Styx thought, bemused. At least it was better than needing to sacrifice an entire arm to do it.

The subtle shifting of shadows he was passively connected to didn't give quite enough warning this time; too many people moving at once, both inside and on the street. So, he barely got up his swirling shadow barrier up in time just as the man with the glowing shotgun fired a shot at him from the roof of a building. Not that it did much as the round was also glowing, and seemed to almost arc in mid air and slam into Styx's back with enough force to lay him out.

Styx didn't know if it was the force itself or how his head bounced off the road, but the impact made his mind go fuzzy for a few moments despite the armor. The feeling of static behind his eyes temporarily overwhelmed him, he lost his grip on the shadows around him and he struggled just to push himself back to one knee. By the time Styx could tell up from down again, he was faced with dozens of white, hot needles as long as a person raining down from above.

He immediately rolled to the side, almost stumbling with the movement, as three of the hot lengths of metal slammed down on where he was, sinking deep into the concrete with a sizzling hiss. A hoarse cry from what sounded like Samshiel finally brought the world back into focus. He could feel the wound in his back now, it felt- he hoped it was just shallow and painful. The cacophony of noise he could now here made it clear that in the time he'd been laid out more combatants had joined this little pocket of chaos. Cracks of lightning, thundering stomps, weird squelching sounds, and what sounded like glass shattering all overlapping as the brawl continued.

Styx tried to use his shadow sense and look around to get his bearing again, but a white beam of energy racing towards him immediately took up his attention. It was as thick around as a grown man, as long as a telephone pole, and heading straight for him as it scorched the ground underneath it. Styx immediately set off at a sprint, using a group of shadow blades to push a car between himself and the attack. But to his utter shock, instead of just destroying the car, the beam split into two thinner ones and arced around the vehicle, seeming to speed up actually as it went from the speed of a fast to a speeding car.

He was four seconds away from a whole being burned through his chest until a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind and him lift into the air with bone-jarring speed.

"Don't worry, I've got you!" Simikiel said as she fly's them both up and away. But the beam just arced up into the air, it seemed magnetized to Styx's center of mass. Styx tried to move the same car in the way again, and even cut down a lamppost to use as another obstacle, but quickly stopped when the beam simply forked twice more and increased tremendously in speed.

Simikiel really poured on the speed then, eight thin beams of destructive energy locked on her teammate serving as more than enough motivation. But everyone had their limits, and while she could easily outpace such an attack, she could already feel Styx's body start to strain a bit as she dipped a little over one-hundred miles per hour, and there was no way she could do her usual sharp turns without doing serious damage to him. She had an idea, but the result would be… unpleasant to say the least.

But it was either this or letting Styx die.

As gently as she could, she slowed down, and let the beam get into within spitting range of them. Then spun hard, dangerously so while holding someone without enhanced durability, and took all eight attacks full on her back while she held Styx around his shoulders with one arm. The beam felt like a thousand sledgehammers blows and even as it blasted them the rest of the way across the street the beams burned through her costume and energy form like it was made of plasma. It dissipated as soon as it exited her chest, letting them crash unaided through the second story window of the restaurant at the end of the block.

* * *

It was ten long seconds later before Styx scrambled back to his feet, his limbs felt so heavy. Stars dotted his vision and it felt like a giant had his brain in a vice-grip. His head less looked and more lolled down and spotted Simikiel's prone form.

There was a perfectly smooth hole through her chest, her entire chest cavity and most her abdomen simply torn through, leaving a gaping hole from collarbone to hip. If she'd been made of flesh and blood it would have made for quite the gory sight. Regardless, the image was more than enough to knock Styx back to clearer lucidity, or as best he could be when it still felt like someone was playing the bongos with his grey-matter.

He stumbled and peered closer at his teammate, fearing the worst. She hadn't shifted back to human form yet, which was good, but that hole wasn't closing and she was perfectly still, not even talking or letting out those micro-arcs of energy she was known for.

With a considerable amount of determination that made feel less somehow, Styx turned away from his downed teammate and turned toward the shattered window and took in his surroundings. Pain flared in his side, and combined with the pain in his back and the headache, it nearly made him hurl. He kept down the bile though and looked around; they were in the top floor of some kind of Italian restaurant with a garish orange and blue color scheme, and a group of scared civilians were huddled in the far corner. They were staring at Styx with wide eyes, and for a moment he wished that his helmet didn't conceal facial expressions or might have taken the time to give them a smile, reassure them that things would be okay. As soon as he thought it, Shane felt like he'd been doused in ice-water with how truly badly he wanted to console them.

Instead he looked out the window and saw that he was right and that even more Supers had joined the fight, people they hadn't been briefed on. A quarter of a building was had been turned to rubble, and the building was leaning dangerously to one side, long gashes on the street seemed to be made of ice, a car had been set on fire, and he could see a few bodies were lying in pools of blood, most criminal but a few were definitely civilian.

And that was just collateral damage.

Jack of All and Samshiel were pinned down by suppressing fire from the needle thrower, white-beam blaster, and shotgun all at once. Jack of All had brought up an orange dome of energy to help with shielding while Samshiel made use of his own barriers. Though his concentration was obviously shaky, most likely due to the needle through his thigh. Even then he and Spectrum were sending out attacks to fend off the new Supers on the scene. A man with ice-spears for arms was trying to get in close, another man that looked like an amalgamation of internal organs sculpted into the shape of a person was trying to catch Spectrum with sprays of acid, while a woman with a pistol and knife was dashing in betwixt all the chaos and getting dangerously close with her shots. She reminded Styx of Dodge from Intramurals with how she spun and flipped just out of the way of each attack. Samshiel was pitching in too, but he was mostly busy keeping the bone-shifter and fire woman at bay with orb strikes and shields blocking their advance, they'd finally caught up as well. And to top it all off the regular guys with guns were approaching as well.

Styx took this all in, made note of the opportunity before him, and calmly placed a hand to the side of his helmet and spoke in a quiet, clear voice. The civilians in the room didn't need to hear this, even if they were about to see it.

"Dispatch, priority please." Shane knew that in such a situation he didn't really need to ask permission, but he felt he'd deeply regret not doing so afterward.

<Due to the proximity of civilians, the threat towards Heroes, and increasing number of combatants->

An explosion that made the street shudder interrupted the report.

<Do what is needed to eliminate all combatants without excessive property damage or civilian casualties.>

Alright, that was as clear as it was going to get and this window wouldn't be open forever. Styx took a breath, connected to every shadow along the block, and took the opportunity.

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Author's Note: Discussion and criticism of my work is encouraged and appreciated.

 

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Chapter 77 - Arc 5 Erebus

Vanessa wanted to kill him.

And it wasn't because it felt like someone had smashed her in the face with a bat while her power was off. Or because she was pretty sure he'd shattered her cheek bone. Not even because of all the property damage or because his gang was hurting her fucking friends. That'd all been a reality she'd had to come to terms with over the past few months; Hero work involved violence, she and her friends would get hurt, and things would get broken. Those were immutable facts of her life now.

No, it was because of the animal like, yet unmistakably human, screaming that still reverberated in her mind and the feeling of gore agonizingly slowly falling from her back. When she'd first crashed into the crowd on the sidewalk, after seeing Alexander being shouted at by a room full of people and then getting punched, they had been panicked and afraid at first. Then the crowd became truly horrified after those remaining took in the full horror of the scene, finally they became angry, hurling insults and screaming at her in rage. This all happened in a matter of seconds, and Gadreel may very well have just continued to lie there in the trough of viscera and shredded clothing she'd made on the side walk, her mind processing her surroundings while feverishly trying to deny what she was sitting on, what she could feel soaking the back of her costume.

That was until there was another boom heard in the distance and she saw that damn light again.

She and everyone else had looked up, there was another nigh explosive sound of force and the light of a glowing figure came into view again, the sound of something crumbling heralding his landings. The civilians, understandably more concerned with not becoming another casualty in a brawl over continuing to yell at her, had ran. As for her, the man's approaching jumps only filled Gadreel with something that was enough to push past the shock and horror; rage.

Now; the Heroine flew up, not bothering to scramble to her feet among the now slick and ruined sidewalk, instead only taking the time to brush off a few… "bits" from her costume.

A part of her mind, separate from the whirlwind of emotions in her mind and that had been honed from years of combat training, took note of the man's unsteady landings as he jumped from building to building. Leaping was the most practical way for most strong-men to get around, but his technique suggested he was obviously inexperienced with doing so. Either this guy didn't have much experience chasing people over large distances or he simply had poor balance. Either way, she was going to take advantage of that.

After a second, she forced her self to stop clenching her fists so hard her palms hurt, wiped the snarl off her face, and instead flew backwards into an alleyway. She needed to time this right, not that it would give her a huge advantage, but just because she really wanted to get clean hit to start things off with.

As soon as the glowing asshole landed on the building across the street, she flew straight toward him like an arrow. His chiseled face briefly contorted in surprise before he shifted and looked ready for a fight, only to be shocked again when she few back just before reaching punching range. And he did the obvious thing; he jumped after her. But Gadreel had flown back in such a way that she was lined up with the edge of a roof, so he landed with one foot hitting nothing but open air. As soon as he tipped over to the side, arms pinwheeling like a kid, she darted in with real intent this time.

The man tried to take hilariously aimed swings at the young Hero but she easily ducked to the side before she landed a hammer blow, both hands interlocked, to the side of his head. The blow packing enough power to send him sailing into the middle of the street, the subsequent, ground shaking impact crater fit to make treacherous driving terrain.

Gadreel saw him pull himself from inside the crater, his head partially embedded in the ground. She watched him cough a bit as he spit out bits of asphalt and she grinned despite the expression sending a spike pain through her cheek. Usually this would be the part where she or Obsidian Wraith would float over, back straight and arms folded, to give the criminal a fair chance to surrender. But this time…

By the time Alexander looked up he was too late to move out of the way of Gadreel's kick that sent him flying into a lamp post, though this time he landed with his feet on the ground.

"Hah!" He barked out a laugh, despite of it all. "Barely even felt that."

Gadreel decided to crib a phrase she'd heard Greg use recently for her response. "Don't get use to it Über-bitch." She sneered back.

He gave her a wicked grin that twitched at the edges before charging with his hair all disheveled. He was angry and badly trying to hide it behind a veneer of cockiness. It was the same bad charade she'd seen from other overly-macho assholes that either didn't get their way or were challenged by someone they saw as "lesser". Vanessa guessed getting knocked around by two girls after jumping into a fight was this guys' hot button. Though she also noticed his glow seemed to, "warble", for lack of a better word; almost weakening. Which was odd. Did his ability really require that much concentration to maintain?

Those thoughts still racing through her mind, Gadreel flew in as he took two viscous swings at her, whatever enhancement that weird light gave him amping up his speed as well. He was trained, but obviously not extensively as the attacks were just a touch too telegraphed, so she was able to slip away to the side. Gadreel landed another pair of rapid punches on the side of his torso, making the ground underneath him crack but not pushing him back, before she danced away as he chased her.

He made a grab at her neck but instead of trying to block it Gadreel pushed it aside before hitting him with a backhand that finally broke his composure; he screamed at her, a roar, red in the face as he mindlessly swung in anger. His anger probably wasn't helped by the bloody grin plastered on her face as she slipped just out of the way of each strike; not giving away the fact that each time she punched him sent a mild wave of pain through her knuckles. It felt like she was punching concrete without her power activated, she needed to plan her strikes of she risked hurting herself more than him and she was reaching the end of how well she could maneuver on her feet.

So, she fell back on the aspect of her power that'd cinched her internship with Obsidian Wraith.

Floating to nullify needing leverage or proper footing, Gadreel slammed a fist into his eye as soon as he overextended with a poorly aimed kick. Then ducked his clumsy back-fist and jabbed his groin, and he bent over more out of reflex than pain, which opened him up for another shot. This time she hit him in the ribs again, striking in such a way that it launched him up and away, covering a good few dozen meters. With this brief reprieve in the flow of combat she made a move before he got back into hearing distance, flying up and back for good measure.

"I'm at the intersection of Jay and Concord Street." She half speed talked, half whispered, trusting that Dispatch would know to relay this information to anyone able to help. "Anyone that's free should really hurry. Facing off against glowy and I can barely hurt him."

And with that the time for talking was over as Alexander leapt again, his aim true this time as he was on a direct course for the Hero. Gadreel slipped to the side and kicked him in the chest again with staggering force, but this time he caught her leg before the force of the blow could send him flying, dragging her to the ground with him. They landed in a confusing tumble, but a punch to the face that made the ground shudder and almost certainly broke Gadreel's nose helped her gain her mental footing. Even with tears in her eyes from the broken cartilage, she managed to dig her fingers into the ground and scoop up some asphalt just as Alexander reared back another fist. She slipped the punch and shoved the crumbled stone and dusted into his mouth, open palmed; slamming a fist under his jaw to make him swallow before scrambling away. This time, as she saw the panic in his face in the same instant his glow weakened, she knew what was happening and it all clicked. It was the same reason why, when she'd caught him in that building, he was surrounded by a bunch of cronies shouting something at him right before he punched her.

He had some kind of confidence or ego empowerment. And she was willing to bet that whatever they'd been shouting had been praise to amp him up. Which was kind of sad in a hilarious sort of way.

Gadreel circled her target, heart pounding in her ears as she devised a plan of attack based on her recent revelation, only to nearly sigh in relief as she got a reply from her earpiece. Even if the voice wasn't very familiar.

In the mean time she settled for a flying, straight punch to Alexander's ribs while he was choking, launching him back first into the corner of a building. The force enough to completely break the spine of a normal person, only managing to stun the strongman temporarily. But Gadreel also took note of the fact that his glow wasn't quite as bright any more, and it felt more like she'd punched wood instead of concrete.

"You know you're finished, right!?" Gadreel shouted, deliberately trying to draw his attention. "Even if you kill me here, all of your other little friends didn't seem to get a boost like you did. I don't see them lasting long, or not squealing on you during interrogation."

"Shut-" Another ragged cough. "Up!" He stomped forward creating a spider web of cracks along the sidewalk, eyes burning with hatred and tears from his severe fit of coughing.

If he hadn't been so focused on the woman in front of him, Alexander might have spotted the man approaching from the alleyway beside him. Admittedly though, the younger man's dark black and red costume made him hard to spot, even with his metallic bat.

As it was by the time Alexander saw the blur of motion in his peripheral vision, Ettin had already smashed his bat up and into his chest, launching the glowing man over five stories up; digging a trench through the side of the building he was next to.

Gadreel didn't waste the opportunity the out-of-town Hero had just given her. She flew up at maximum velocity, soaring above her target and positioning her self before dropping with assistance from her flight.

She landed from over ten stories up and, elbow first directly onto the same spot she'd been hammering throughout the entire fight. It was a technique Shane had told her about for dealing with people with higher durability; just hit the same spot over and over again until you overcame the durability in that specific spot. Preferably the ribs, breaking that made every breath, turn, and punch more painful and was guaranteed to be a distraction. Apparently a friend of his back in Lander had used it before.

And as she looked down at her opponent, his expression contorting into fear from the pain and nearly suffocating dust from smashed brick around them, she knew she'd won. His light was dim now, and just to test the theory, she grabbed him by the throat and chucked him across the street, his impact cracking the pavement and eliciting groan of pain.

'Yep, definitely weaker.'

He struggled to his feet again but she just flew low, caught him behind the knees with a kick, and sent him straight back down. Then Vanessa mounted his chest and rained blows on his head and shoulders, no flare or fancy tactics this point. This was just her using pure brute strength and leverage to beat him down before he could fight past the pain, twisting her hips and shoulders with every punch.

Two blows to the temples made his eyes cross and the impacts decimated the ground beneath his head. Then Gadreel turned her attention to his shoulders, taking advantage of his lessened durability to turn the bone to powder there, she reversed her position soon after and did the same to his knees. Only then did she finally relent as his glow faded completely. Her hands were still balded up though, and a cocked back fist trembled with tension as she slowly tried to reel herself in. And oddly enough, this desire to kill wasn't cold like Elizabeth had told her it would feel like when in lethal situations. No, it burned like a fire, her jaw was incredibly tense and it felt like her entire neck and back were flushed in anger, as if she had sunburn.

But slowly, ever so slowly, her fist lowered and she loosened her fist. The Heroine breathed heavily as she got off of her victim and rested with one knee, the still throbbing pain in the side of her face keeping the exhaustion at bay. And after a few seconds of letting the adrenaline run its course, she realized could feel some blood pooling in her mask and decided to pull at the bottom of it to let it trickle out.

The shuffling of feet immediately brought her back on high alert. She spun around, only to find Ettin standing there with an odd expression on his face. "Maybe we should-"

Was all he got out before the voice of Spectrum crackled to life in both of their ears. "Styx just cleaned up the gang we were ambushed by, but were having trouble with a flyer!" His voice was stern and demanded attention, background noise of several people screaming only serving as a starker contrast. "Samshiel and Simikiel are down and neither Styx or Jack can tag them. Anyone with flight get over here, now!"

Ettin and Gadreel looked at each other.

"I'll handle things here, you go help the others." He said and she nodded her agreement.

Anxiety and relief danced in her stomach as she was both worried about her teammates being down, relieved they weren't dead, and still concerned about why Obsidian Wraith hadn't talked to her through comms yet. She didn't have time for questions though, her team needed her and every second mattered. But before she left, as the Hero began flying up, for an instance Gadreel caught a clear glimpse of the… civilian casualties she'd caused. In that moment her mind ingrained the shredded clothing, torn extremities, and bits of bone all into her memory. Retaining more detail than Vanessa had thought was possible from only seeing something for barely a second; but she didn't regret it.

On a psychological level Vanessa knew she'd needed to acknowledge every part of that scene, to remember it for the rest of her life. Even if she knew that doing so would engrave those images into her nightmares as well.

 

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Chapter 78 - Arc 5 Erebus

The most unsettling part of it all was how utterly soundless it all was. Or at least that's what Shane had been told by people on the receiving end of his power in the past.

There was no roar of power, gathering of energy, or cry of effort. One moment the street was filled with combatants fighting desperately. The next second every long-range Super on the roof were ripped apart by blades erupting from their own shadows, impaled and sliced apart in the span of a blink.

Some of the thugs on the ground caught sight of the spray of crimson out of the corner of their vision, but they didn't have the time or powers necessary to stop what came next as the entire block exploded into a storm of whirling blades. Most didn't realize it, but the way Styx usually used his power wasn't what he'd been naturally talented at. Only animating three-to-four shadows at time to make very quick and precise strikes before restraining an opponent was all well and good for most fights, but he'd needed to train his ass off for years to achieve that kind of careful precision and tactical thinking in terms of how he used his shadows.

But connecting to, then animating, every shadow on the block and just cutting lose, only paying attention to accuracy insofar as not hitting allies? That was how it felt like his power was meant to be used. The public had already known that he was capable of this kind of wind range assault from the Minotaur incident, which was probably why he'd been targeted twice by those with ranged abilities, but knowing an opponent's capabilities and being able to counter them were two very different things. And as a sort of macabre bonus, he could use his years of learning exactly where to slice to disable instead of kill to make sure that when his blades cut the enemy stayed, taking advantage of the fact that his shadows moved at the speed of thought to strikes dozens of times at the same spot in a handful of seconds.

Then, as sudden as the attack had started, every single shadow retreated and view of the street was clear once more. He might have continued the attack longer, but his teammates needed time to maneuver and fight as well, some enemies he hadn't been able to land many hits on for fear of injuring his friends. But he'd done enough.

Now only the hulking bone shifter, the fire woman and a flyer who had managed to fly high enough in time had survived the assault. The woman wielding magenta fire had actually put up a sphere of flame in time to disperse the shadows around herself and near the bone shifter. The rest of the street was filled with hunks of flesh and body parts, blood and other liquids quickly beginning to pool from the field of corpses he'd created.

After seeing his teammates reengage the fights with renewed vigor, only momentarily stunned by the sudden annihilation, Styx took stock of his surroundings again; the hole in Simikiel had filled in slightly with faint threads of electricity and her extremities were twitching slightly, her head almost rocking from side to side. And the civilians… they all visibly twitched as soon as he turned in their direction.

Right, they'd just seen all of that.

Shane fell back on his training and advice from his family way back in childhood then, his own social skills nowhere near good enough to handle this. There were certain situations where no amount of words would sooth a group of terrified civilians, especially not with a Hero like him. So instead he would let his actions speak for themselves; Styx reached down, helped Simikiel up to her feet, put one of her arms around his shoulders, and used a shadow tendril to lift them both gently out of the shattered window and onto the sidewalk below. Best to put up a front of competence and an almost indifferent attitude in the face of danger; it at least lowered the chance of a panic even if it hurt the Hero's reputation. Well, not like this display was really out of character for his persona; a more PR-friendly guy like Greg would probably need some help after this though.

'Speaking of…' Styx thought before speaking into his communicator. "Samshiel, how are you holding up?"

"Not fucking well." His peer replied, his voice sounded weak, almost thready. A stark contrast to his usual deep baritone. "Thanks for wiping these guys out though, I could barely maintain my power. Annnd… yep, Jack of All just took care of the last two on the ground."

Styx could see that much on his own, the bone shifter finally collapsed into human form and the fire woman had been taken out so fast he hadn't even seen it. But what had really caught his attention was Samshiel's thanks; he didn't even sound surprised by the slaughter, let alone disturbed by it. Shane expected that kind of calm from Spectrum, and maybe other Heroes who'd been forced to take similar actions throughout their careers, not a wet-behind-the-ears intern. Shane briefly wondered what kind of home Greg grew up in to be so unaffected by all of this, or an even disturbing scenario, if Greg was like his sister and simply didn't care about killing. But eventually he pushed his wondering to the side.

"Thanks for the update. I've got some supplies on for lacerations and stab wounds, should help tide you over until we can get a healer." He could stick his nose into Greg's past all he wanted and after the team made it through this crisis. Now wasn't the time to get on anybody's case on morality, especially not someone like him.

* * *

Laura Gisela was on the verge of a panic attack.

Shit, and things had just been on the cusp of going perfectly. They'd had the Heroes pinned down, it would have only taken them a few more seconds to bowl over their defense, kill them, then make a bit of a speedy retreat. Then, in the span of a second when she'd been just about to put a bullet between Spectrum's eyes, almost every path she saw lead to a grizzly death. And now here she lay, barely holding down her lunch as she hid under a bisected corpse as Styx got closer, one of his teammates leaning on him for support. Laura had thought their blaster had taken care of him and Simikel, which was why she'd stopped factoring them in to the short-term paths of combat.

'Fucking stupid of me to let my guard down so easily.'

And his teammates had been disturbingly quick to capitalize on the opportunity, barely pausing for a second. Jack of All had rushed forward, free from being pinned down by suppressing fire, and had placed a single finger to the hulking shifter that had been able to whether the blur of shadow blades. The shifter that Larua didn't recognize didn't even have time to realize the danger he was in before being blown off his feet by what sounded like a mortar going off. The thin vector for all of that force caving in the head of the thing. He shifted back immediately afterwards, his bald head not looking to have fared much better.

The flame woman, "Merissa" was the name Laura remembered, had lashed out then, a fire ball roaring towards the Hero while she simultaneously swiped a flame-whip along the ground that sent out a spray of molten debris. It was an impressive tactic; absorbers could rarely absorb multiple forms of energy at once, especially not the kinetic and heat from white-hot shrapnel and her clearly unnatural fire. And it might have even worked if Jack of All hadn't simply jumped forward with a burst of kinetic energy, wreathed himself in a silvery sphere he'd stolen from one of her subordinates, and tanked both attacks before downing the flame woman with a burst of electricity.

But all wasn't lost quite yet, the Heroes were distracted now. She couldn't beat them; every path Laura saw made it clear fighting was not an option. Sneaking by was an entirely different matter though. She'd pulled two of her thugs on top of her just before the attack started and she was on a sidewalk; so, there wouldn't be a noticeable missing lump in the pile of bodies and an alleyway was only a few feet away. And most valuable of all, Francis, the gang's recruiter, had survived and was currently occupying all of the Hero's attention.

He was flying around at high speed, a long gash along his back evident as blood soaked through the back of his uniform. The man was busy zipping around at high speeds while clearly impaired by blood loss, though he at least kept the Heroes on their toes by super heating areas of the street, which made them scramble anytime their shots became a little to accurate. Laural faintly remembered that his flight had something to do with adjusting thermal temperatures in a pocket around himself but all she cared about now though was that him sizzling sections of the street was now creating a rancid smell of smoldering flesh.

On top of the raw stench of exposed organs, voided bowels, and blood that was already assaulting her senses it was hard to focus on her power, but she bared it and envisioned the path.

Going out now? She'd make it five steps into the alley only to be hit by a blast from Spectrum. The middle-aged woman waited a few seconds.

Now that Spectrum's attention was fully on Francis, head turned completely away from her? She would make it forty-five steps, on the verge of getting into a crow of civilians before a shadow blade split the flesh of her calves and-

Something wet and leaking fell on her neck from the torso on top of her and she nearly gagged. Laura wasn't some delicate flower; she had killed before, but there was sea of distance between shooting someone and being face first in spilled guts. 'Just keep yourself centered, Laura.' She thought feverishly to herself. 'The smell can't hurt you, don't acknowledge it.' And so, with another burst of willpower Laura kept brute forcing the situation with her power, trying to constantly see the results of what would happen if she tried to sneak away. Mercifully, fifteen seconds later her patience was rewarded.

Gadreel came streaking in from on high and tackled Francis to the side-walk, purposefully landing with a subdued amount of force. Though "subdued" still meant that Laura could hear the crunching sound, and subsequent scream, as Gadreel forced the man to slam knees first into the ground. And that was when Laural made her move. As all the Heroes ran towards their teammate, save for Simikiel and Samshiel, and had their eyes riveted on the scene before them and had attacks prepped in case Francis managed to somehow knock Gadreel off. Laural slipped from under the corpse on top of her and leapt into the alleyway only a few feet away, clearing the small puddle of water and blood that would have alerted Samshiel. Then she began sprinting as hard as she could, using her power to nimbly avoid any litter or puddles that would even make the slightest noise aside from her own foot falls.

Two more turns and she finally burst from the alleys and into a crowd of panicked, almost stampeding, civilians. A good instinct the people of this city, every major city really, had developed to avoid getting caught up in any Super brawls and one she was going to use to get away. A few people gave her weird looks, but she was hardly the only person with blood and dust on them who was running, her stains just happened to be other people's blood instead of her own.

'Styx killed Stefan and Thomas back there. And judging by the fact that Gadreel had arrived to take down Francis, Alexander had at least been captured.' Laura smiled then, despite it all. 'That means I'm the only one left. Good, that just means I don't have to share when I raid their hideouts and get out of this country. "Easy to kill Heroes", my ass.'

* * *

Styx gave a mighty sigh as he slumped onto the ground, back resting against one of few stable buildings on the block, helping Simikiel do the same as a courtesy. One she thanked by way of giving him a thumbs up when he looked at her half-way filled in chest cavity again. Gadreel, Samshiel, and Jack of All followed suite a second later, their own unique little vocal complaints or signs of unleashed tension issuing out. Jack of All sat to his right while the rest were at Styx's left, Spectrum still stood alert with his head on a swivel and seemingly unbothered by his dislocated shoulder.

"I got word from Dispatch that you guys have already cleaned up your guys." Pulp's voice came from all their earpieces, a weird mix of tired and relief in her tone. Everyone replied in the affirmative. "Bet you're all glad I advised that we keep Ettin in reserve just in case, huh?"

Spectrum snorted at that, a smirk worming its way onto his face despite the situation.

A raised fist from Greg drew Shane's attention and it took his battle-drunk brain a moment to recognize the gesture and complete the fist bump, the sensation a bit muted due to his gauntlet.

"Seriously thanks for pulling through there. That was some clutch shit." Greg said, his tone almost sleepy. And little wonder considering the bloody gauze wound around his right thigh and his broken shin.

"Yeah." Styx sighed, a bit of unintentional saddens seeping into his voice. He was feeling a bit more moody than usual, less in control of his emotions than he would have wanted.

"Ah, com' on." Greg said, patting his shoulder. "It was completely justified."

"It's not about the justification." Vince cut in. "Still feels wrong to snuff out people's lives like that."

"Auugh, we're aren't even six months into our internships yet and we already need to deal with this shit?" Gadreel said suddenly, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes. "It feels like things just got crazy today all of a sudden."

Shane purposefully looked at Jack of All. Thankfully his friend took the hint and provided a little perspective of their own.

"Nothing on this scale but… yeah." At some of their confused looks he elaborated. "I've had to hit hard enough to kill a few times now too. You guys didn't do anything wrong, this was just a bad situation overall." Styx nodded knowingly. This situation… while far, far from the worst things could get. These guys had been a bit above your average Super gang.

Before the conversation could go any further, and Greg definitely looked like he wanted to say more, there was an interruption. <Styx and Spectrum, after your debriefing you both have been assigned to a Manhattan Class threat in Billings, Montana. The rest of your team accompanying you is optional given the threat.>

The message mentioned Shane and his mentor specifically, but had sounded out in the ear piece of every member of the Pristine Strikers. And all of them gave the same response, or at least the ones that were able to did.

"We're going too."

 

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Chapter 80 - Arc 5 Erebus

The earthy smell and the sight of hundreds of bending trees that greeted them upon arrival nearly Styx stumble, as it was, he merely stumbled a bit. They hadn't been transported into the heart of the city, which he honestly should have expected, they were near the edge that was within a few blocks of a rich looking forest. He'd spent too long fighting in cities if being nearer the wilderness was enough to throw him off even a little.

Styx looked over and saw that, aside from Samshiel, Jack of All and Spectrum almost seemed more relaxed out here than they had in New York.

"I know Jack of All, so I get why he's relaxed here." Styx said, waving towards the abundance of wilderness around them as Samshiel started to make his constructs. "But I thought you were a city Hero, Spectrum?" A gust of wind that brought with it the smell of pine and the sound of birds and insects only seemed to punctuate his question.

"Make no mistake, I grew to love Brooklyn, but I was raised as a farm boy down in Ohio with mah pappy." Spectrum replied, affecting an almost comically bad southern accent.

"Ugh, please. You're hurting my sensibilities." Samshiel dryly intoned just as he finished. "Now get on, getting into to two major fights in the same day isn't exactly my idea of fun so I'd like to get this over with."

Ignoring the crabbier than usual remark, they all obediently stepped onto the platform with three sides he'd made, making sure to grab onto the front just in case. With only a slight amount of mental effort Samshiel had them speeding through the air, faithfully following the orders Dispatch was relaying.

The streets were completely bereft of any signs of civilian activity as Samshiel flew them towards there destination at relatively fast speeds. Which made the contrast of multiple Heroes dashing, leaping flying, or teleporting a few blocks away all the more striking. The idea struck Styx that it almost felt like they were fantastical invaders of an otherwise mundane environment; or at least that's how certain people would view this scene.

Suddenly Samshiel turned his head and waved at something perched on top of a high-rise a little ways in the distance. When Styx looked he saw that it was a news crew, no doubt with a Super employed that could get them out of trouble if the fight got out of control.

After another minute or so of flight, they reached their destination, touching down on the roof of an apartment complex where a Heroine in a flowing costume was waiting for them. A woman that Styx recognized.

"Misdirection, pleasure to see you again." Styx said, as the Heroine turned to face them, black sack of a mask and costume moving slightly in the wind.

Samshiel walked up to introduce himself, but Misdirection just waved him off. "No time for introductions. We need to make this look clean, a lot of scared eyes are on this scene." Misdirection said as she stepped up beside Spectrum, always keeping at least one eye on the loose tree line that would likely be their battle ground. "Gale and Legacy will be providing aerial support, I'll try to apply distractions, and you three will be our actual damage dealers. And my intern, Technomancer, is squirreled away and using his drones to scout for us. He'll be the one to give us advanced warning of the charge.

"Legacy?" Styx asked as he looked around, an uncommon anticipatory tone to his voice. Lo and behold he caught sight of Gale in her forest green tranche coat and masked floating alongside another figure. Alice Adair's costume was an overall deep red with a shimmering trim, as if golden-bars had been and woven along her arms, legs, back, and mask. She had a face mask hat let her blonde hair flow out the back, and the whole ensemble was completed by a flowing cape that reached her calves.

Legacy spotted them and waved enthusiastically with both arms, the gesture seemed overly bubbly compared to how Shane remembered Alice. Though Jack of All didn't seem the least bit surprised, giving his own enthusiastic wave right back while Misdirection just rolled her eyes. "As much as I may appreciate it, that attitude of hers can be grating?"

Act? Styx didn't quite know what she was talking about but to be fair, and to his own chagrin, of all his friends that had graduated he'd kept abs on Alice the least. He'd be sure to look up any public appearances Alice had made so far to learn more about this "act", but now was time to get into position. And as he and Samshiel walked towards one corner of the roof, Samshiel his monocle-like gadget that helped with landing better shots, he figured now was as good a time as any to try talking to his fellow intern.

"Still sore about the talk back at base?" Styx asked bluntly.

"I just don't see what the problem is. You were justified back there, the DVA reps that grilled even agreed on that. They were dangerous criminals and more lives would have been lost if you didn't make that call."

Styx nodded his understanding, it wasn't that anything Greg was saying was even wrong. The whole thing was about his attitude in the face of the slaughter. Shane had been told stories of Heroes with such attitudes that became too jaded tended to go over the line. But telling Greg that he was rouge Hero waiting to happen probably wouldn't go over too well, so he opted for a more diplomatic approach. "They're overly worried about your future. Tries this; if you aren't to concerned about the moral arguments, think of the practical benefits. A captured Super is much more valuable to the DVA than a dead one."

Samshiel definitely seemed to digest and think about his words, but didn't respond further, only crossing his arms and creating a translucent shield between himself and the forest. In leu of any further conversation, Styx began mulling over the threat they faced.

The situation in Billings was the kind of thing that validated people's fears about Supers with biology powers. A man, who was only sighted briefly wearing some kind of modified hazmat suite, had the ability to fuse multiple organisms together and seamless combine their functions. And he managed to secretly hole himself up in the woods in secret long enough to ramp up significantly beyond the means of a single Hero team, with all the creatures that implies. Bipedal deer-bear-wolf hybrids, flying creatures that shot spines tipped with venom, trees with lashing branches and mouths, grass that exuded a bank of spores? All of that and more were apparently at his disposal the first time a Hero team encountered his force. Which was bad enough on its own as there well over a hundred of such creatures, his uncanny ability to coordinate and direct them made it all the worse. Worse was the fact the Super had been smart enough to not kidnap civilians for his experiments, honestly making the first time his creations were found more due to dumb luck than anything else.

Vermilion Wave and two other Hero teams hadn't been able to hem him in enough to stop him from infecting most of a forest. In the face of a disturbing biological threat, during a time when the public was most distrustful of institutions and Supers as whole, the DVA had designated the Super as Manhattan Class and authorized a scorched earth operation.

But even with Auora's forest-wiping blast hadn't been enough to get the actual Super, they'd only wiped out most of his army and base of operations. A few Heroes with enhanced sensory capabilities, and a tracking Super, had eventually pinned down the criminal's position again. But that had taken almost an entire week, which was more than enough time for him to build up again.

Another gust of wind interrupted Styx's thoughts and gave him cause to look back up towards Gale. It was hard to tell from this distance, but her generally posture seemed decidedly disquieted.

Spectrum had apparently noticed first since he posited the question to Misdirection before Styx could. "What stick does Gale have up her ass this time?" Though probably not in so many words.

"She got into a bit of a bickering match with the leader of Vermilion Wave about the strategy here. She had a few misgivings, but just got brushed aside as just being attention seeking." Misdirection clarified. "But don't worry about it, Gale's a professional, she'll still get the job done."

They'd been debriefed on the plan back at base, and it was the kind of planning that Styx could always get behind; Not overly complicated and easily adaptable to changing factors. Vermilion Wave and other teams with Manhattan-level Heroes were spaced around the sides of the forest, effectively cutting off all avenues of escape just with how wide an area they could cover. This would, hopefully, force the Super into two decisions; either give up or force him to try and charge their position. They had powers more suited to possibly capturing him while still keeping whatever he's got in store.

Then for a long few minutes nothing happened, everyone just stood by tense and ready, the occasional sound of the Heroes behind them moving and the general sounds of wilderness breaking up the atmosphere. This was what got to a lot of young Heroes, the anticipation. The unavoidably reactive part of the job, when rushing in powers blazing absolutely wasn't the right move despite the potential for failure.

Then, almost mercifully, the familiar voice of Will crackled to life in Styx's ear. "Get ready, the horde is coming."

 

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Chapter 81 - Arc 5 Erebus

"Styx, you know what to do." Spectrum said calmly and his intern didn't pause in carrying out the unspoken order.

They'd discussed this earlier and had agreed that Styx should crib a move from his first intramurals fight. Styx connected to the shadows of every tree along the tree-line, and several rows of trees farther back for good measure, and cut them all down in cacophony of suddenly splintering wood. Most of the forest had already been written off anyways by the DVA, something that would no doubt infuriate certain groups after they'd authorized the destruction of one forest already, and information from Heroes that had fought these creatures before indicated these things were Hell to fight when they had access to standing trees to climb.

So, while Styx couldn't cut down all of them, creating a small sea of toppled lumber would most definitely make things easier.

It was still a bit of a surprise when the first few figures looped into view. When thinking of biological amalgams and mutations Styx's had always wandered back to old horror movies like, "The Thing" and similarly disturbing monsters. These creatures however looked shockingly natural, if a bit alien.

They looked to be about twice as big as a human being, with eight spindly legs that bent so far up the knees were actually above the main body, which was a lightly furred, amorphous blob. The extremities were by far the weirdest part about them though; more than three sets of slitted eyes, digitrade feet, and snouts that smoothly extended from the body with dagger-like teeth and a green substance leaking from within.

'Bear-Spiders?' Styx speculated. 'With what looks like some toxic or acidic spit coming from their mouths.'

There was well over three dozen of them, they started off leaping from the far back trees before scuttling along the sea of lumber like… well, spiders.

And that was only one variant.

There were three in total, the first were the spider-like things that had first scuttled into view. Second was another ground variant but with only four legs with quadruple the thickness with concave, shute-like mouths; they were going around the main hoard before squatting and angling their mouths towards the Heroes. And last were the flying creatures, identical to the more numerous grounded ones but with a thin webbing of flesh connecting four legs each, creating two massive wings reminiscent of bat wings that allowed it to glide through the air in swift arcs.

It was all surprisingly… uniform. Just a standard set of ground-bound fighters, ranged units, and aerial support; no more than three hundred even counting them all together.

Further musings would have to wait as, regardless of questionable numbers and composition, this force had clear been created for speed. They'd made it nearly halfway across the sea of logs in the time it took for the Heroes to take them all in, which meant a swift response was needed.

Spectrum and Jack of All acted first, and though they utilized the same kind of energy attack their methods were measurably different. Spectrum went for wide scale deterrent, letting lose dozens of yellow orbs that crackled with electricity. Strong enough to stun multiples of them while weak enough that it wouldn't start a blaze. Dealing with a forest fire on top of this would definitely be unwise.

Jack of All focused on stronger, precision strikes of lightning against the bulkier targets that tried to spit at them. His rate of attack was much slower, but any creatures he targeted went down hard and nigh-immediately. Truthfully, if the environment itself weren't so prone to being flammable, and they weren't intentionally trying to capture the Super, Jack of All and Spectrum would have been able to put on much better showings.

As things stood, they only looked about on par with their peers to anyone looking from outside-in.

Styx capitalized on the groups Spectrum stunned, getting the opportunity to use his power in its easier capacity twice in the same day. The display created an odd affect as Spectrum's bright blast seemed to briefly banish the shadows in an area before they literally leapt back in towards the targets hit. Which wasn't to say the act itself was easy the first few seconds of the fight revealing that these creatures clearly felt pain and the all too familiar blood nearly made him hesitate.

Technomancer and his mentor were lending a more in-direct hand than their fellows; Misdirection cast out illusions of flying costumed figures to draw enemy attention, and even make them attack each other on occasion. While Will deployed drones, of a model that Styx recognized as similar to the ones Will had used during their Armageddon trial, except much sleeker and less cobbled together. They swept down from on high and let loose with a wider variety of ammunition; regular bullets that had minimal effect, capsules that exploded into clouds of irritating gas, and even darts that made any creature struck become incredibly sluggish.

But of the eight of them, Gale and Legacy had the opportunity to be the showiest with their tactics. Massive gusts of wind, that were more finely controlled than someone without Gale's power would think, broke apart enemy formations and launched many a creature into the air. Legacy acted with a bit more subtlety, making select areas of incredibly increased gravity that brought any of the still flying creatures down to the ground where Spectrum and Styx could more easily deal with them.

Finally, Samshiel played the least showy yet one of the most vital roles in their operation. He'd made as many shields as he could and was intercepting all of the acidic-gooey projectiles that managed to slip through and threatened to hit anyone. This let everyone else focus almost completely on offense, allowing for tremendous headway in a short amount of time.

It was a truly impressive display and one they'd ideally wanted to show the public; Heroes working together in near perfect unity to beat back a threat while minimizing collateral damage. Hell, none of them even needed to start dipping into their stamina reserves to keep up the assault with how well they compensated foreach others' vulnerabilities.

But that was just it; the fight was going too easily.

The reports had indicated his original force had been exponentially large, which was part of the reason the DVA had been okay with signing off on the first forests' destruction; he'd already infected most of it. And not just numbers, but the variety of creatures and abilities had been more difficult to handle as well. This force, while maybe enough to occupy a single Hero team and be Hell to contain, wasn't even a substantive threat to them working together.

On a whim Styx decided to take advantage of a slight lull in the action to feel out with his shadow sense, the decision borne of intuition rather than any danger he could see.

And what he saw made him splutter in surprise.

"What's wrong?", Spectrum asked as he saw his intern stagger back from the lip of the roof.

Styx didn't bother answering him and just pressed two fingers to the right side of his helmet, indicating he was talking to Dispatch. "Dispatch, link me into the comms of every Hero on this case!", his urgency was making him raise his voice, but now wasn't the time to be concerned about decorum. Styx continued on with the trust that Dispatch would grant the request, or would at least relay his message afterwards. "He's using the sewer system to move something massive under the city and it's headed towards the news crew!"

There was a flurry of responses, but oddly, Samshiel, the most talkative guy Styx had known in a long time, didn't bother with a response. He immediately reformed his pseudo-chariot of barriers, dragged Styx onto it, and had them soaring in the direction of the news crew in almost a single motion. As they flew Styx caught a surprise exclamation from Spectrum and Gale shouting, "I fucking knew it!", over comms.

As they got closer, along with the other Heroes that had been stationed as backup in the surrounding neighborhood and could move rapidly, Styx saw that the news people were now busily talking among each other as they began to crowd around a select few people. Whether Dispatch had some contacted them or having enough common sense to figure out why a crowd of Heroes was racing towards; they were getting ready to bail.

Too bad they would be just a few seconds too late.

The thing Styx had sensed underground had made it to the building before the Heroes did; it burst upwards, "upwards" being the operative word as it easily cleared over five eight stories and slammed into the office building length-wise. It looked like a literal tower of leathery flesh, dozens of claw like appendages that let it cling to the taller building and reach the top with terrifying speed. The overall shape and mouth gave Styx the impression horror-movie-ified centipede writ large.

All along its body, which was as thick around as a city bus, there were little holes that spit out little globs of the same acidic substance they'd been dealing with near the forest, and curiously, eight little carapace-like growths. The barrage drove all of the Heroes back, injuring a few, but Samshiel just temporarily used one of the side shields to block the four coming their way. With how much the damn things splashed it was a risk maneuver, but it got them closer than anyone else. And besides, Styx's full attention was on the most important part of the creature; a translucent flesh-pod at the top of the head where a man in a modified hazmat suit with an air tank on his back. The suit left his forearms exposed, a mess of tendrils extending from them and into the beast.

They'd found their Super.

The Flesh-Centipede had knocked nearly all of the news crew to their feet, people that'd had unnaturally bright and perfect smiles before were now screaming with expressions of frantic horror. The creature had griped with it's mandibles and was angling the roof towards its mouth. One of their number disappeared in a flash of light, abandoning his colleagues as they all scrambled to not fall.

Styx didn't know if this guy was just aiming to spitefully slaughter people now or trying to take hostages, but he was going to make damn sure that neither scenario would come to pass. He connected to every shadow inside the building and on the street to leap forward and wrap around the creature, arresting it's forward motion. But it wasn't quite strong enough to pull it back and he'd failed to wrap a shadow tendril around the actual Super, only popping his little pod base.

Styx cursed to himself, this was the drawback with using his power on larger scales. Even though it looked more impressive, it came at the cost the precious precision he'd been honing for years. The people were sliding further down the slope of the roof towards the gaping maw now, they'd be inside the mouth in seconds, there was no time to go for the non-lethal option.

'The fall will probably kill this guy, and the DVA had wanted him alive, but I'm not gonna risk civilian casualties. Not again.' Styx thought as his resolve hardened and he prepared to make his move.

Before Styx gave the mental command for his tendrils to thin into blades and tare this thing apart the Super on top of it dug his bare hands into the creature, tendrils from his forearms writhing deeper. The creature itself pulled away, letting the civilians fall through the roof and to the floor below, while the eight pods along the thing's body snapped open like shutters, and what was revealed truly disturbed Shane for the first time in a long while. Naked, fused into the flesh of the beast up to their waist and screaming, there were people inside the pod. Clearly in pain and covered in a viscous liquid but people nonetheless.

The threat was clear. This guy obviously thought that if they killed him then these people would be stuck like this for the rest of their lives.

Styx's attack stopped short, but Samshiel didn't hesitate as the creature tried to lurch forward again, eight orbs whipping around towards the Super in the gas mask at a decidedly lethal clip. Before anyone could get and order through comms or Styx could think of an alternative, the move was made.

And then… there was a heavy sound of impact followed by a scream of pain. But that didn't make any sense. When Samshiel perforated someone with his energy spheres there was a most there was the sound of smoldering flesh. Styx looked and saw that, instead being riddled with smoldering holes, the man in the hazmat suit was writhing, pinned painfully between two energy barriers.

"Call your fucking pets off!" Samshiel shouted, increasing the pressure in further, making the tank on his back dig painfully into his spine.

"OwwfuckOKAYOKAY!" The man's words ran together in pain string as his mount back off immediately, not that it was entirely necessary. As the other Heroes that'd just caught up to them immediately beset the creature, binding it with energy and telekinesis.

Samshiel lowered the pressure then, and turned to Styx. "You mind helping out here? I'd rather have as many platforms as possible while we're so high up."

Styx was still a little stunned before coming to his senses and giving his friend a nod. Samshiel brought one of the barriers back as Styx let go of the many shadows still wrapped around the giant. Then he just focused on one tendril to wrap around the criminal Super, making sure that his arms were bound and that he couldn't reach for anything.

"I'm… surprised you went for the take down on that." Styx said, he wasn't sure how to commend him for the save.

"I took what you said to heart." Samshiel responded with smile and shrug. The expression turned more chagrin as both of them got a message through comms.

"As 'impressive' as that was, you two still need to get back here. A lot of these things are still freaking out and we could use the help." Was Spectrum's, slightly annoyed, order.

Styx gave his friend a pat on the shoulder as another Hero floated over to take the burden of guarding their captive. "Ah, well, I'm sure Terram will be proud at least."

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry about the late chapter, job and medical issues delayed it's completion.

 

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Chapter 83 - Arc 5 Erebus

Laurel Decker was clenching her fists, her teeth were on edge, and there was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead as she tried to stare down a smug asshole that was about to ruin everything.

"You don't know what you're doing." She nearly snarled the words at him.

"Come on, Decker. Just give it up; Me, Joseph, Larry, and Darlene are going to be the deciding votes on this issue and they'll follow my example on this." The words filled with self-assured victory came from one Theodore Tremure, a member of the House Of Representatives and a near stereotype of how most viewed corrupt politicians. A business man, fat, phenomenally bad combover, and very wealthy from various cooperate donation- bribes. He got bribes.

Not that Laurel could really point fingers in the wealth and business owner departments, and this particularly infuriating disagreement wasn't even one of morality or corruption to begin with.

"It won't stick, and if you had any fucking sense, you'd know that." She said as a last rebuke before turning away, not giving him the dignity of another exchange, she'd wasted enough time trying to talk him down as it was. Stalking down the hall, for that was only what her gait could be described as when she was this angry, toward her own personal office on the third floor of the House office building.

It was a good three minutes of travel to get up the floors to her personal office, a good few minutes to let the indignant rage simmer down. She forced her mind to take a more calculating turn, and after quickly realizing how she must have looked now from all the stress and fruitless arguing, pulled a hand-mirror from her suit pocket and checked herself out.

The slightly flustered and red cheeked face of a mid-twenties house representative was what greeted her, young age still filling her with vigor and energy. Splotches of sweat had lightly stained her collar and made the make up she wore feel a tad off. Oh well. She'd always been a bit impassioned about what she saw as only rational, just needed to curb that aspect of herself, no matter how fucking short-sighted her peers could be.

A bit of freshening up and calm counting later, and she was sat back down at her desk and again looking over the bill that had gotten her all worked up. On fresh and laminated paper, at the top of the page the words, "Technological Economic Stability Act". If the mouth full of a title wasn't enough than the actual contents of the bill were even worse. It was essentially, past all the bluster and grandstanding about "preserving the economic equilibrium our nation", was a bill made to restrict what Supers with powers based around enhanced intelligence or making advanced technology could sell in the public market. Laurel had to admit the purpose of the bill was something she could get behind; protecting the status quo and slowly easing in super-technology so as not to cause too much chaos.

No, her problem with it was that it wouldn't work.

Not only would the senate block this, it would stir up a shit-ton of controversy on its way to getting killed. A lot of Supers would be pissed at the idea of them being forbid from the same opportunities humans got just because they could do more with their abilities. And to top it all off it would put ideas in the head of all the wrong groups; radical pro-Super groups would feel galvanized and validated in their extreme measures while anti-Super groups would lord around the news of this bill being killed as a martyr, energizing their own side.

Oh, and it wouldn't do a thing to help them against nations that instead embraced everything their Supers could produce. So, it would more put their nation on the back foot than maintain any kind of equilibrium.

This bill's mere existence was just going to make things worse for everyone on every side of the various issues surrounding Supers. And probably get a lot of people hurt as things escalated.

'And with the unusually high variant human population in New York, tensions will affect my constitutes the most.' Laurel thought somberly. Having to let people suffer in service for a greater good was something Laurel had always understood, even as a child. But that didn't mean hurting the very people that had voted her into office didn't make her stomach turn. Them being hurt for stupid reasons that she couldn't stop? Damn near made her sick and want to rage all at the same time.

Laurel took another calming breath before she risked ripping the paper and needing to make another copy. Instead she focused her efforts on preparation; if she could get ahead of this mess then she could at least mitigate the ensuing damage.

Before Laurel Decker could work her admittedly middling PR skills, someone burst into her office in a pleasantly familiar suit.

"Oh, hey Robert. Come by to cheer me up?" Laurel said this in jest and with a wry smile. Today had been pretty harrowing, but being able to spend time with a close friend would make it… marginally better at least.

Robert Burton stood in the door way for a moment, uncharacteristic skittishness painting his masculine features, dressed in a, blue form-fitting tux. The unsure expression did something Laurel thought of as cute to how serious he usually seemed with his dark eyes and near-shoulder length black hair. It showed a bit who he really was.

After his initial hesitation though, Robert quickly shut the door behind him, made sure it was locked, and walked forward to stand beside the desk Laurel was sitting at. "Pass me a burner phone, would you?" He asked tentatively, his tone tinged a bit with panic.

The brown-haired woman blinked at him in surprise before fishing around in a desk draw to retrieve one of the three, she always liked to keep on hand. Most called it paranoia, but she'd always seen the benefit in having spare phones that don't track activity and could be disposed of quickly. "Sure, Rob, but what do you need it for?"

"I need it and you to stave off our current crisis." Was his only response as he gratefully took the phone from her hands and punched in a number. After only enough time for two rings the phone was answered and the first powered senator in America wasted no time. "Don't bother asking how I got this number, Theodore. And yes, this is Robert."

A handful of seconds lapsed before Laurel's long-time friend spoke again.

"This call is about how you won your election down in Pennsylvanian. Specifically, how you threatened you're running mates with Super mercenaries to scare them out of the race. Many a Hero team across the country would love to get the opportunity to bust a politician on something like this. For the PR if nothing else."

Laurel went completely slack jawed at that, her eyes almost bugging out. Those were not accusations to be bandied about carelessly. It was as Robert had said, Heroes would bring down the hammer hard on that kind of thing.

Theodore was evidently more outraged than surprised like Laurel was as she almost immediately heard a litany of shouting come from the phone, even without leaning closer. Robert seemed to take it in stride, however. Replying in a tone that was cold as ice.

"October eighteenth, Mary Nieves. November first, Bakers Robinson." The words were crisp and definitive, cutting off the shouts almost immediately. "I can go into more detail if you'd like. Maybe talk about how each dropped out of the race a day after each of those dates, or maybe about the abilities of the Supers used?"

The response from the other end was barely a whisper compared to the booming from mere seconds ago.

"Don't bother with threats you dumb asshole." Robert snarled in response. "I'm more than willing to die if it means letting the Heroes put you behind bars. And make no mistake that they will be gunning for you seconds after I end this call if you don't do what I say. I'm thinking of notifying the most notable Hero team native to your state in fact; Elemental Fury. Their second leader now, Everest, is someone I'm on very good terms with and has no qualms with following up on substantial evidence, regardless of how it was gotten."

No response this time.

"Quit pushing for this idiotic bill and this never gets out. Test me and you can expect to see the inside of a jail cell in a matter of months." And with that, he hung up without another word.

Laurel tentatively took her phone back, took a calming breath, and breathed out a bewildered, "What the fuck, Robby?"

Then she noticed him shaking and sweating, features blurring into a subtly different set. She immediately got up to comfort him- no, her, now- as the shift completed. Her power usually activated randomly, but stress was also another catalyst for it that Laurel had been made privy to over the years.

"Sorry." Robert said, straightening back up after the change, features noticeably more feminine and with more curves. "But I had to. You and I both know how bad that bill could have made things."

Laurel decided to not reply immediately, looking past the display and surprise she was feeling, and tried to zero in on what was actually important. The motivation was clear to her now, she didn't have a problem with the methods as they were, in fact the only thing she found really confusing was…

"Why here?" Laurel asked. "You could have called him up in your own office, why did you need to borrow a burner phone?"

Robert's cheeks turned red then, her expression becoming sheepish as her gaze shifted to anywhere that didn't meet Laurel's eyes. "As… prepared as I was, I needed a bit of extra confidence to get that whole spiel out without stuttering. A friend that I can always trust to have my back seemed like just the thing."

She could have laughed, this person revealing they still had confidence issues after coldly threatening a member of the house was almost to much. But as typically cute as that was of Robert, seriously Laurel could just pinch those blushing cheeks, it also revealed a side of Robert she'd never really seen before despite being close for years since their college days, always covering each other's defenses. Robert was the emotional, caring person that was more in tune with how the public would react to certain moves and topics, almost always. Not to say that Laurel was a sociopath or anything, it's just that she was better at the categorizing assets and resources, picking at key opponents and issues at just the right opportunity.

Or at least she usually did. Theodore had been surprisingly sneaky in introducing this bill to the point that even when she scrambled to counter it hadn't been enough.

But most importantly she typically thought of herself as the one who, for lack of better words, would be willing to make the hard decisions and calls when push came to shove. It had never come to that point before, but Robert obviously thought it had with this bill and had pulled through with surprising efficiency and ruthlessness.

"Well then, I'm happy to have helped." Laurel finally said and sat back down at her desk. "And I'm assuming that wasn't all a bluff?"

"None of it was. I've been building up evidence for a good while now, in preparation for taking him down by the book. Didn't exactly plan to use it this way until today." Robert said bluntly as he wiped his forehead. "But what really chaps my ass now is that I need to hold onto my end of that bargain to keep him from ever introducing that bill."

"You prevented what would have likely been months, if not years, of civil unrest and maybe a few Super riots at the cost of letting a few criminals get away with nothing worse than murder. I'd say the greater good was held up there, be proud of yourself."

Robert gave her a chagrin, uncertain smile in response. "For the greater good."

* * * *

"For the greater good." Laurel mumbled to herself as she leaned back in her fancy office chair.

She smiled at the memories, decades of being a politician had proven her to be right in the end. They'd eventually been able to get Theodore, and even some of his friends, in the end. Not on the thing's Robert had found out, but later crimes, because people like Theodore were never the type to stop at just one incident of something so egregious. It had been stretched out over years though, they'd needed to make the trap of arrests gradual and inescapable. (With Elemental Fury helping guard them when Super mercenaries got sent after them out of desperation.)

Her eyes drifted back down from staring at the ceiling to survey the three monitors set up on her desk; One showed live news footage of multiple Hero teams throughout the city curbing ensuing brawls from the last dregs of the White Boars. The fights were going relatively smoothly, but some of the stronger Super thugs were causing significant property damage. She noted the collateral damage, storing it away in her mind as just another thing to keep track of in case of future steps. The second screen was a disguised conversation between her and a… contact confirming that the hit out on the last remaining foreign agents she'd hired in New York was underway. Alexander was in custody, there was nothing that could be done about that, but Styx had conveniently killed Stefan and Thomas during the brawl earlier in the day.

And on the last screen she was making a call.

She'd mostly accomplished what she'd set out to do now, all her contacts that she'd snuck in to the country didn't know her identity, and were either dead or being incarcerated with little to no knowledge of how they'd been played. And America, along with all of its border nations, were much more interested in Heroes as more than a national resource so they could cut off this "sudden and unexpected crime wave" in the future. Now she just needed to deal with the aftermath, something she'd never quite been good at. Seeing people as more than just resources that would react to certain information in certain ways was always more Robert's wheel. So, knowing that, not having much of anyone else to turn to, and with Subtlety Heroes closing in with surprising speed.

The conference call went through and the masculine face of Robert appeared on screen.

"Hello, Laurel." His smile was always so alluring, such a shame that today would mark when it didn't fill her with joy and relief that everything would be okay. "I'm glad you called actually, a lot of the crazy things in the border states finally look like they're starting to calm down. Although the possibility of this all coming from a foreign enemy still worries me."

"Yes, about that, Robert." Laurel steeled her nerves; when it came to matters of morality, it was best to consult Robert, after all. "I have somethings I want to confess and get your advice on."

 

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Chapter 84 - Arc 5 Erebus

"Confound these debriefings, they drive me to drink." Greg said as he leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms up above his head.

"No such luck, unfortunately." Hugh replied, either not caring about or getting the dated joke. "With how hectic things have been, the few Hero bars in our part of the city are likely to be empty. It's been an all hands-on deck situation with anyone who isn't already fighting, dealing with media, or patrolling, is ready to jump in incase another Hero falls."

It had only been a handful of hours since the entire situation with the flesh-crafter up in Montana. Now they were squirreled away in one of the debriefing rooms inside their base. It was late now, but the day was hardly over for them yet. Heroes often worked long, unpredictable hours, it was just a part of the job.

"I hope you guys are feeling up for some exciting media schmoozing after this whole thing finally blows over. Joel and Lenny are practically chomping at the bit for you guys to get back in front of the cameras again with how much they've been preparing." Maria said at the head of the table, double checking all the paper work and notes of the debriefing before securing them and preparing them for report to the DVA.

"Aren't I already going to be in front of the cameras since I'm going to help with clean up?" Styx asked as he slipped back on his helmet, the weight a strange comfort.

"That's just minor, surface level appearances any Hero can do by accident." Maria said with a wave. "Your agents are talking about the whole nine-yards; interviews, increasing product production, and maybe even a few suggestions about changing costume designs."

"Great, can't wait." Spectrum said sarcastically, Hugh's nodding in agreement even as Greg looked genuinely excited.

They all filed out of the room at that, the Heroes securing everything on their costumes while the DVA rep quickly walked toward Steve who had been waiting in the hall for them. The taller woman gave the bookish man a quick peck on the lips before leading him off deeper into the base.

Greg, Samshiel now that he'd finally pulled on his mask, tilted his head. "When the hell did that happen?"

"You didn't notice? Maria isn't the type to announce stuff like that, but they haven't exactly been hiding it for the past few days." Terram remarked, voice warbling as his form grew and skin greyed. Making the point of the base' expansive halls readily apparent.

"Well shit, I've been kinda busy with helping stomp out Nazis for the past few days. The budding romance between our tech guy and DVA rep." Most might have seen the response as glib, but the men in the room knew that Greg only dropped his family-friendly persona enough to swear and bicker with people he really trusted.

Styx couldn't get with the joking atmosphere though, he just nodded his head to keep up appearances, no need to bother his teammates with trivial things. Though he did wonder how he was supposed to get back to this easy banter after the people, criminal and otherwise, killed in their last fight. At least fourteen civilian casualties in total.

"At least tell me you've noticed what's going between Pulp and Crusader." Terram snarked at his intern as they continued walking.

~ ~ ~ ~

A layer of dust and innumerable small bits of concrete and glass crunched under Styx's boots as he stepped back onto the scene of the brawl his team had been in. Of all the Hero teams that had been the target of the White Boars coordinated assault that day, only their fight had been the one to result in this many civilian casualties and such a large level of property damage. And the media would probably, rightfully, wouldn't let up on that fact Styx thought.

It was a surprisingly clear night, almost no clouds in the sky and the flash of emergency lights from vehicles still on the scene made this particular city block seem oddly serene. Styx didn't know if he was reading the mood right though, or if the security of his power being stronger in this environment just made him feel more secure.

"Come on, this isn't like the other clean up jobs. We need to be careful about where we step because of ongoing investigation of certain areas." Spectrum said as he led his intern further down the street, past the taped off sections around them, and toward an area with several costumed figures already on the scene.

But before Styx could get close enough to start recognizing the five figures, something very distracting took up all of his attention. There was, for lack of better description that Styx could compare, a deep, warbling squeal before stomping feet rapidly approached him from behind. Both Styx and Spectrum spun around, ready to throw down, before both relaxed at the sight that greeted them. Spectrum stepped aside and Styx opened his arms, accepting an embrace from the monstrous form of Levi.

"Nice to see you too." Styx said loud enough to be heard over more sounds of his girlfriend's jubilation.

She spun him around, shift undoing it's self in the motion until they came to a stop with her back in human form and needing to look up at him slightly. "I was a little worried about you when my team first got the call, and then even more when the rest of your friends told me you were busy fighting another monster over ten states away. Is this… normal for Heroes?" The worry that clearly creased her face was at odds with her usually confident demeanor.

"This occasion was a bit peculiar, but it's not nearly as rare an event as I'd like to admit." Styx told her bluntly. "Being a Hero is dangerous, chaotic work. To the point where writing down events in pencil is practically mandatory. But we can discuss this more in private." Styx explained before gesturing at the scene they were supposed to helping with.

"Oh. Right." Levi said sheepishly as she turned her head and saw her boss, Light-Bright, waiting for her. Hands on her hips and three orbs of light floating around her head.

Styx gave his partner a light pat on the back before nudging her back towards her group. "You can relax, I'm scheduled for cleanup duty and media stuff for the next few hours."

"Until another fight breaks out." Levi grumbled, but shifted and got back to her job regardless.

And for the next few minutes things went as usual for them when their teams occasionally worked together for cleanup. Styx gathered rubble to get out of the way and clear roads while Spectrum disintegrated it. The Peers team handled searching buildings for any trapped civilians. Everyone seemed to slide into a sort of calm monotony as they went through tasks they'd completed dozens of times before.

All except for Styx. And, how could he really?

His mind was still utterly fixated on the civilian casua- on the people that had been killed in their fights, he couldn't understand how the others could just… move past that. Even Levi, who must have heard the news, didn't confront him about it and neither did the rest of the PEERS. It was the same as the funerals he'd attended as a child. So many Heroes in his family and a lot of them had died, and he'd never been able to push down the emotions. He wasn't crying anymore, but the rawness of the feeling still made his actions seem dream like in comparison to crisp focus he could usually muster when working. The shadows seemed to flicker briefly every time he wasn't paying one-hundred-percent attention, twitching along with his agitation.

And things didn't get better when a crowd began to gather to watch.

There had already been a few individuals watching at the outskirts of the scene, but this was a proper gathering now.

There had probably been a few crowds even before they arrived earlier in the day. But the arrival of Heroes and PEERS on the scene, even late at night, most likely reignited interest. Which wasn't a bad thing at all usually; putting on a good show for a crowd was something any Hero or Corpie with even the most basic sense of image management wanted. And Styx helping with clean up would help his image after all the casualties and property damage caused.

This only applied when the public was suitably receptive though. And while the media could show this work in a more positive light, most citizens had been put on edge by the constant fighting. And the type still wandering around during such a violent night, or trapped outside due to their cars or homes getting wrecked, weren't the most receptive audience.

It only took a few minutes before the first disgruntled mumblings reach Styx's ears and he chanced a glance over to see some of the crowd in more detail. With only a glance he'd spotted symbols that hinted at the political persuasion of some the civilians present; Humanity-Purists supporters.

'Great. I had to deal with one hate group today and now another is going to give me guff.' Styx thought to himself. On a whim he connected to more shadows than before, had them form into tendrils that wrapped around half of the remain pieces of debris and slammed them into a pile with perhaps more force than was necessary. The sudden use of power and heavy impact had a visible affect on the crowd, a few people at the very edge walking away quickly.

"Easy." Spectrum said warningly. "Don't want to spoke people, remember what this is for."

Styx nodded but internally thought, 'Well then maybe they should gather around to stir up shit where people didn't fucking die.'

For a while things almost seemed calm as the work began to wind down, each team finishing up with their respective jobs. At least before the news crews came by.

The number of brawls that had popped up all over the city after the leaders of the White Boars had been mostly neutralized meant that every news crew had been scrambling to cover the flashiest fights that they could show to the public live. A fight that had resulted in over a dozen, incredibly hard to overlook, and bloody civilian casualties followed by a Hero slaughtering a bunch of criminals had probably been a low priority in terms of coverage. But it had been too public and controversial for the fight to be ignored completely. Especially not when the Heroes themselves had returned to the scene.

Spectrum had to step away and put up a hand to forestall the charge of people with unnaturally large smiles and immaculate suits. One guy though, a weaselly looking fucker with way too much gel in his bronze hair and beady eyes, ran forward heedless of Spectrum's raised hand.

His mentor looked about ready to shout for the smaller man to get back or stop as Styx glared from behind his helmet. 'Fucking why can't they get it.' And for one moment, in a very very long time for Shane, his emotions made his power flair out. Ever shadow in the area they were helping clear jerked to the side so suddenly that there could be no mistaking who'd done it. Many shadows flew along ground in front of the reporter, causing the man to scramble to a stop and then quickly flee back to his fellow reporters.

The action was like a bucket of ice water down Styx's back and he immediately relinquished control of the shadows in shame as Spectrum shot him a warning look.

'I think Lenny's plan of this helping my image after the fight just went down the toilet.'

 

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Chapter 85

"You know you fucked up, right?"

"I know." Styx sighed, exasperation tinting his tone as he looked up at the glowing form of his… secondary rival at this point. Though, not quite defeated, Shane jabbed back. "But I also know what I did technically didn't break any laws."

Even in her quasi-energy form, lacking in any facial features, Styx could tell by the way her head moved subtly that she would roll her eyes if she still had any. "Yeah, I'm sure that's how people will see it. This Hero didn't actually assault or threaten us, he just came very close to doing so'." Her sarcastic tone took no imagination to hear though.

"Are you going to ride my ass about this all night?" Styx said with no real heat to his tone; at least someone was giving a little heat over what he did to civilians.

"I'm, 'riding your ass', because that's not the qualities a co-leader should have." Simikiel said.

Styx blinked behind his helmet, momentarily stunned. "You're still planning for that?"

"I'm surprised that you've gotten so caught up in things that you haven't still been planning." Simikiel replied. "I'm already eyeing a potential location in Long Island for prime a fledgling team. All this stuff with the White Boars is barely going to be a quarter of our internship, we need to keep looking forward."

Styx tried to think up a retort, but ultimately came up blank. Mostly because she was right, Styx had known from the outset that in some fights, the ones with really powerful Supers, people would be put in danger and he wouldn't be able to save all of them.

If he couldn't move past the second battle with significant civilian casualties, then his chances of making through even his internship was shamefully small.

Still, he crossed his arms and said. "Why Long Island? I've personally been eyeing Port Valins due to the high crime rate."

"Is that the real reason, or is it just because of your rivalry with Charon?" Simikiel sniped back.

There verbal sparring might have continued further, but other individuals weren't quite as invested as they were in the conversation.

"Hey, no bickering while on the job." Crusader and Spectrum's duel order, while very purposefully not shouts, were delivered with enough force that both interns immediately stopped.

They were all situated in an alley between a dirty apartment building and a dilapidated convenience store. Not exactly what most people pictured when thinking of Heroes holding a clandestine meeting, but it would be serviceable for their needs.

"What's keeping Pulp so long then? I'd prefer it if this got settled quickly. We've been fighting these guys for months now." Simikiel said, following the letter of the order rather than the spirit. Styx kept silent; he was on thin ice as it was with his mentor.

"We need to stack this fight as heavily in our favor as possible. Rushing in with the team like usual would probably work. But we need to crush the last of them so thoroughly that things end today with no hope for them." Crusader said with purpose. "That's how Heroes settle things quickly."

On reflex Styx tried to feel out with his shadows again, even knowing that he was well out of range from their target. They'd been able to find the last remnants of the White Boars in an old warehouse near the docks. Having learned from the destruction of their strongest members and the futility of rioting, they were trying to go into hiding instead. Or, at least that's what all the information they'd gathered so far indicated.

The only proof they had of anyone actually being housed in the building were a few scattered sightings that happened to fit the vague descriptions of a few gang members that managed to escape from the various brawls. Along with reports of a particularly powerful advanced mind that managed to sneak away, they understandably didn't want to accidentally tip their hands either. Which was why they were currently squatting in this dingy place over four blocks away from the suspected warehouse at the direction of Pulp who had a supposed, "special resource" she could employ.

"Sorry about the wait, guys." Pulp voice suddenly crackled in their ears just before she and two other figures walked into the alley from the other end. The rather nondescript visage of Intuition was familiar to them, the young girl walking nervously between them was new though.

She had her hands handcuffed together, and gave them a short wave and nervous smile. "Hey."

"Going to forestall your questions just so we don't waste time." Pulp quickly started. "Our Arian friend here is Lily and she is the one that turned on the White Boars and helped us find a lot of their locations today. And her power can help us again by scouting out that warehouse."

"What's her power?" Simikiel asked without pretense, appearing to care in the least of the girl's background.

<She is a summoner.> Dispatch cut in before anyone else could respond. <Her creature is completely invisible, isn't vulnerable to telepathic detection, and she can look and hear through it. Her range of control is more than enough to scout the suspected location as well.>

"I could have told them that." Pulp said, a pout on her usually grinning face as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, but you would've taken precious time to be all dramatic and smug about it." Intuition snarked at her before putting a hand on Lily's shoulder and leading her forward. "The warehouse we're looking to assault is a little over four blocks north-west and likely has people guarding its outside. Try to get us descriptions of anyone you can see without being spotted; we'll take things from there."

Lily nodded, and after a brief look of concentration, she closed her eyes and presumably started maneuvering her summon.

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Spectrum asked as soon as Pulp got close enough.

"She's been vetted by the DVA already. She's not resistant to telepathy, only her creature is." Pulp assured him and gave his shoulder a little punch. "Besides, it's not like subtlety Heroes are the only ones that like to enlist suspected criminals from time to time."

"Suspected?" Styx asked as he kept careful watch over the teenager.

"After she gave us what intel she could, and we verified that she was telling the truth, the things she did that are actually criminal were… vague at best. She's definitely still in trouble, but from what she's told us she was never fully committed to the gang."

"That's a… relief, I guess." Spectrum admitted and Crusader nodded in understanding.

"So, how long-" Styx started to ask before getting cut off.

"Found them." Lily said abruptly as she opened her eyes again. "Two guards trying to covertly watch the outside and four on the inside as far as I can see."

"Good, give us descriptions and we can probably get a profile on at least some of them." Pulp said and as Lily relayed what she saw Styx tried to quickly compartmentalize the information. It was an important skill as a Hero to pick up and hone, especially useful in the middle of a chaotic fight.

'Only three confirmed as supers. One shifter with a metallic form, another that had a quasi-worm form, and an advanced mind on the inside of the base itself.' Styx mentally repeated to himself. 'Doesn't sound too bad, that was assuming none of the others present also had powers or weapons that could complicate things.'

"Another batch of notable criminals." Intuition commented. "As chaotic as this day has been, we've been picking off a lot of notorious villains the White Boars managed to con into joining them."

"Yeah, bad as things got, I think you rounding up all these guys is a pretty good bonus." Lily even pipped up.

"It wasn't worth it." Styx said definitively, mind momentarily going back to that dark place in his mind before continuing. "We could have picked guys like these off in a more controlled way, without having to put our city through over a month of psyched out super thugs assaulting people and brawls that get people hurt or worse."

Lily flinched back a little from the imposing Hero's sudden vocalization, and even Intuition seemed a little taken aback along with her, but Spectrum stepped in to clear the air.

"Morality debates can wait for later. For now, we have some criminals to round up. And I have a few ideas as to how we can do so efficiently while also sending a message."

~ ~ ~ ~

The guard picked up a figure approaching from the road on the other side of the courtyard, but didn't immediately whip his head around to stare. That was rookie shit. But the figure's confident stride and utter lack of any attempts to be stealthy eventually made not looking more suspicious than not.

Seeing who the "stranger" was as they walked closer shattered that calm and immediately made him lash out with his power.

His features blurred, clothes strained as his form grew then solidified into thick metal coils in a humanoid shape, burning sockets where there use to be eyes. The coils that made up his "arms" became bright red in a half second before whipping forward and across the courtyard in a blur. Overall it was an impressive display; an incredibly fast shift followed by a long-range attack with almost no build-up, incredible speed, and definitely enough power to render body armor practically useless.

It just wasn't quite enough.

A violet orb of energy flew from out of sight and impacted the coils before they hit their target, disintegrating several feet of tendrils, making the attack come up several feet short. Allowing Styx to walk forward unopposed.

This would be delicate work, and Styx needed get a little bit closer than usual to do his work. Raising his right hand up, fingers clawed, to help focus as he fed life into the shadows around the warehouse. First, he grabbed the shifter by the waist and chucked him several dozen yards away, and then, in a wave of shadow blades and tendrils, he drilled through the relatively weak exterior of the building to grip the roof and support pillars.

With a tremendous groan he ripped away most of the long-abandoned warehouse and set the crumbling structure down and away, revealing the occupants running around in a panic. All unprepared for the rapid shoots of ball-lightning Spectrum let loose, stunning and downing almost all of them. Almost. One man, swelled with muscles well beyond human limits, withstood the assault and turned to face his aggressors.

Only to nearly stagger back from the sight of what he was facing.

Styx, who was already intimidating from the rumors abound about him and the footage the media bothered to show, was on a whole other level in person. What looked like a wave of shadows undulated around him, twisting together thickest directly behind him like some ethereal, ever flowing cloak. This wave of deadly blades and tendrils obscured the movements of several other figures moving about behind him, covered further in the natural gloom of night. Styx himself was both central and hard to see, but unmissable once noticed. He stood silent with his arms folded, not even bothering to look away as his shadows slashed at and disabled the guard he had flung.

The strongman might have been desperate and angry, but he wasn't stupid. In one motion all of his muscles deflated as he laid flat on the ground and placed his hands on his head. The nigh-universal gesture of compliance as the last movement made among his fellow gang members that lay groaning in pain and twitching on the ground.

"Well shit, that was easy." Samshiel said with a laugh as Styx stopped flexing his power and Gadreel and Obsidian Wraith descended from above, landing lightly among the downed opponents. The second guard unconscious and broken in Obsidian Wraith's crystalline arms.

"Don't let your guard down, remember that anything can happen while in the field." Terram cautioned as he lumbered forward. Styx walked forward as well, getting a closer look at the thugs they'd just taken down, and he was almost surprised by what he saw.

They looked pathetic. The uniforms the gang had recently taken to wearing were tattered and stained on every single on of them. The few blaster guns among them practically skeletal in appearance, looking just as likely to explode as fire a beam of concentrated energy. But the biggest give away of all were the looks on their faces; past the cringes of pain and slack features due to unconsciousness, they all looked absolutely exhausted. Suffice to say, they weren't the dangerously tenacious, coordinated, and large gang he'd become accustomed to fighting over the past few months.

"C'mon~" Samshiel drawled with a roll of his head. "These guys have had over thirty supers in their gang so far. That's bigger than, what, ninety percent of any gang in this country? I really doubt they could have any… more…" Samshiel's voice trailed off as everyone turned their heads towards a sound rapidly approaching. A pickup truck rapidly speeding towards them, the person driving it firing shots up into the air while driving with perfect precision, and a trio flying directly above the vehicle, raining down bolts of green energy that car swerved away from.

"You just had to fucking say it." Gadreel grumbled just before they all sprang into action.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 86

Spectrum didn't waste time with stupid questions as the fight approached, his orders were clear and concise.

"Styx, cover the downed ones; Samshiel and Terram provide shielding and support! The rest of you fight with me!"

Styx didn't miss a beat either, trusting in his team to handle things, he took command of all the shadows around the remnants of the warehouse that the last members of the White Boars were lying on and replicated what he'd done with Vigor a while back when he'd been sniped at. He made well over a dozen inky blades and tendrils whip around the area in such away as to effectively create a dome over the captives. He could've stretched his shadows and overlapped them to make a more static deterrent, but the offense-used-as-defense one could deflect away blows more effectively and was intimidating enough to dissuade the downed gangsters from trying anything stupid.

'The unfortunate downside is that I definitely can't keep this up for more than a couple of minutes, tops.' Styx thought as he crouched down and focused. 'This was supposed to be a clean capture, barely any fight to speak of. If this turns into a shit-show, or worse some of the gangsters escape, then I'm almost certain the White Boars will re-form.'

Multiple translucent, golden shields with bright lines appeared around his shadow barrier, three in total forming length wise. Samshiel kept one shield for himself, tilted slight back, while Terram loomed just behind them; ready act at a moment's notice while keeping himself from blocking their line of sight.

The rest of the team began engagement in the three seconds it took for Styx, Terram, and Samshiel to get ready.

Gadreel and Obsidian Wraith went high to intercept the flyers, only for a blast of what looked like translucent, silver-outlined smoke to come from the middle figure and slam almost the entire team to the ground. Crusdaer managed to stay upright somehow, and Intuition just barely dodged the affect by inches. This mystic looking smoke was also surrounding the three figures floating in the air, though far more contained.

Then Intuition, with a twirl that looked like he was readying his pole, Styx barely saw the man throw an incredibly small projectile that hit the airborne mist thrower. And without warning all three dropped over four yards out of the sky as the mist disappears, the mist Super landing completely limp while the other two rolled with the landing.

'Eleven seconds.' Styx noted as the two still conscious aggressors acted as the car continued speeding forward. The men were dressed in such a way as to be inconspicuous and hard to pick out in a crowd at night; all simple clothes either grey or shades of dark blue.

One manifested a suit of armor around himself that looked like it was made of obsidian while the other man displayed a much more alarming ability. Black orbs burst from his sweater-covered forearms with the force of a canon shot as he faced them, all eight increasing rapidly in size until they were as big as boulders.

One clipped the pick-up and flipped it onto it's side with a shriek of twisting metal and surprising impact as the ball embedded itself into the ground. Spectrum blasted back three of them with one, large blast of raw force intercepting them mid-flight. And Obsidian Wraith with the help of her intern managed to knock back three others in with brute force.

'Fourteen seconds.'

The last one heading directly towards them managed to slip past though; rocketing by with enough speed that Samshiel couldn't move his shield in the way in time and the giant ball of metal skittered off of Styx's blade barrier with a shower of sparks. Styx grunted, the heavy impact testing his concentration, the metal ball landed with a bang behind them as it hit concrete.

'Seventeen seconds.'

The armored man, after looking over his opponents, rushed in to engage Gadreel. And to be fair, the maneuver made sense. Obsidian Wraith's reputation was well known, as was Spectrum for his raw fire power, and Crusader was often believed to have telekinesis. And of the four near by options left, Gadreel looked and sounded the youngest, making her the least experienced and threatening Hero here.

This assumption was, unfortunately for the merc, was still a bad call.

He reared a fist back, the knuckles of his armor extending into spikes, and punched forward on a course for Gadreel's head. In response she caught him by the wrist before he could connect, floated up, and then punched down into his chest with enough force to make the man bounce off the courtyard. Not giving him any time to recover, Obsidian Wraith caught the man in a full nelson just as his feet hit the ground. Then Pulp dashed over, gripped the helmet, and ripped it off like it was made of tin-foil. Then with one quick blow to the temple and throat, the Super went down dazed and gasping for breath.

'Twenty-two seconds.'

The ball-thrower, for lack of a better title, seemed ready to bolt after seeing what was likely the heaviest hitter of their little unit get taken down so easily. And indeed, two balls appeared below his feet, Styx would bet money that he was about to use the explosive force of his power to launch himself. That is until a white and crackling blur dashed him and he fell over like a puppet that'd just gotten its wires cut, Simikiel standing over him with her spear tip slick with blood.

Styx did a quick sweep of the battle field, receiving nods, thumbs-ups, and various other affirmations that all combatants were truly down and out.

"You can ease up on your power now, Styx. Dispatch has confirmed that containment crews will be along in three minutes." Spectrum said through comms and Styx finally let up.

'We mopped this up in thirty-two seconds, all without any injuries or significate collateral damage.' Shane thought as he looked down at the few thugs that remained conscious. 'For all they know we didn't even break sweat after taking them out literally less than a minute before. I'd say this is as good as things will get as far as crushing their spirt goes.'

His almost good mood was interrupted as commotion at the edge of his vision caught his eye, and he turned to see Crusader and Intuition dragging an all too familiar woman out of the pick-up truck the mercenaries had been attacking.

"Fucking of course." Styx sighed but didn't walk over quite yet, it'd be foolish to get distract with an impromptu interrogation while among multiple Supers that weren't more secured with anything more than injuries and the threat of violence.

~ ~ ~ ~

One minute later and he, Spectrum, Pulp and Intuition were standing in front of their bound captive while the rest of the less important opponents were bound by temporary restraints Crusader kept on hand and being watched carefully by the rest of the team.

"Did you have to lead them directly to us? We've been a bit busy all day." Pulp said without prompting.

The woman with long, blonde hair and piercing silver eyes gave a sardonic shrug in response before replying verbally. "I couldn't out run or fight them, so I decided to lead them to some people that could before they caught me. Besides, isn't it your job to get into stupid fights?"

"It was mild in both difficulty and enjoyment." Styx said flippantly. "And since you made no effort to flee while we were distracted, I'm guessing you're at least able to see the futility in being coy. Just tell us why this happened." He said, and then after a pause. "And your name would also be nice."

A smirk came over her sharp features, making the corner of her eyes crinkle oddly. "More like I just realized that the safest place for me to be right now is in your custody and that trying to rally this gang of fuck-ups is pointless. And it's 'Laura' for your information."

Intuition shook his head. "Let me guess, whoever your boss was tried to tie up a loose end?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you yanks have an absolutely ruthless bitch of a senator with dirty fingers in Britain." Laura Gisela replied.

They all paused at that before Spectrum spoke up. "Yeah, we'd already figured that much out. Scouring your mind for any further details you might have can be handled by the DVA later."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 87

"So, exactly how much money do you make again?" Shane asked quizzically.

"Judging by the expression on your face? Definitely more than you." Tanya responded casually.

They were both riding an immaculate, silver elevator up a high-rise that a lot of people could only dream of living in. The building was a truly impressive construction of gleaming metal and glass, within which Tanya lived near the top floor. Shane couldn't help but notice how the small, silver rosary around her neck reflected the lights in the elevator, the accessory matching up nicely with her dark blue turtle neck sweater and black skinny jeans that clung tight enough that the shape of her slender legs and rear were not left to the imagination. Shane had been asked to "dress up" just as much as she did; wearing a white dress shirt and immaculate black slacks, complete with a pair of dress shoes. He would never want to fight in such attire. But it made sense that it would look rather strange if someone in a plain shirt and blue-jeans was walking with someone like Tanya.

He smirked a bit just as they hit the ninety-fourth floor, elevator doors opening to reveal a lightly carpeted hallway that smelled of air freshener, on top of being heated; a nice reprieve from the chill outside. They strolled down the hall, past a few ornate but identical doors, until Tanya stopped at a door in the middle and produced a card. She slices it through a small card-reader on the side of the door, and opens it with the practiced ease of someone who'd been through this a hundred times over.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Tanya said dryly as she held the door open for him then closed and locked it as soon as he was through. "You don't have to take off your shoes, but I would appreciate it."

Shane nodded his understanding as bent down and took off his shoes, leaving them beside the doormat and revealing a pair of black socks as Tanya did the same with her boots.

"When I said we could discuss things later, I didn't expect to be called out literally the next day."

Tanya huffed. "Nah, I like taking care of things quickly. I don't like having drama in my relationships. It's best we deal with this as soon as I can." With that she strolled deeper into the space.

Shane took a proper look around and was generally impressed by the amenities. Light blue and green swirling patterns covered the walls, accented nicely by black and grey furniture. And while Shane wasn't much of an expert in anything fashion décor related, he could tell they were of high quality.

Tanya lead him into the kitchen area then hopped up onto a marble counter top, sitting with one leg draped over the other. "So, total disclosure on my part. Upon further reflection on my own time, I've come to the realization that perhaps I didn't fully consider the implications of dating a Hero. So, would you mind answering a few questions right off the bat? I wouldn't want to spoil our evening half way through."

"Sure, shoot." Shane said hesitantly after a moment, pulling up a stool-chair by the counter and facing her. His teammates often liked to tease about how "lucky" he was to have no-nonsense girlfriend, but the bluntness did occasionally make him nervous about what was coming next.

"So, let's start with my most pressing concern. How likely are you to die?" Tanya asked.

Shane relaxed at that; now this was territory he was familiar with. "Not terribly likely. I am almost certainly going to be severely injured numerous times throughout my career. But Heroes dying, while more common than in other professions, is an uncommon occurrence."

"Why is it more common?" Tanya's brow creased with worry, a little put off with how easily Shane was discussing the possibility of his own death.

"Because, well…" Shane started. "Let's use cops as an example; there are pretty much a set amount of variables that need to be considered in their line of work. But with Supers and Powereds, there are effectively an infinite number of scenarios that no one can truly account for all of them. There will always be a certain level of danger, regardless of precautions."

"Okay, I think I get it." Tanya said, her worry assuaged a bit. "But now for my second question. Will you be moving around a lot?"

"Really?"

"It's something that stuck out to me after you were just halfway across the country for most of the day." Tanya said, folding her arms under her chest.

"Well, to be honest, no. Heroes are a national resource, but we typically fight in our own cities. Only assisting in outside fights for a few hours, at best."

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Anything else?" Shane prompted.

"Nah. That's all the questions I've been able to think of for now at least." Tanya said with a sigh. "You've satisfied my curiosity. Come on, you go sit down in the living room while I get out some sancks. Let's just relax for a bit."

"Oh, just hanging out?"

Tanya rolled her eyes at that. "I saw the way you were looking at me in the elevator. And as much as I'd rather to take you to my bedroom instead of my living room, I'm still way too mentally exhausted from yesterday. Maybe next time if you're a good boy." The last part came with a smile meant to show her words weren't meant to be too scathing.

Shane nodded, and after a surprising kiss on the cheek, he meandered his way down a corridor and found a predictably fancy looking living room.

A half-circle couch faced a very wide, expensive looking TV screen on the adjacent wall, easily covering most of it. The low, but wide, wooden table with a fair bit of polish fit the niche nicely, Shane noted as he took a seat. He decided to pick up the remote left on the table beside a bowl of peppermint candy, and after experiencing more confusion than he would ever admit with the odd design, flipped to a news station.

Tanya then joined him in around two minutes, tray of what smelled like hot coco and warmed blueberry muffins, only pausing briefly at what was on the television.

"Here." She said, bending down and handing a steaming cup to Shane before sitting, while not quite on his lap, close enough that their thighs were touching.

"I thought you lived in that fancy business building and stuck to a strict diet." Shane asked with no judgement in his tone as he took a bite.

"Usually, yeah. But I've got this place as a backup for when I need to be alone when I've got time off. And as for the food; shit, I won't tell if you don't. And I keep it light enough that they don't notice."

Shane shook his head again as he couldn't hear any hint of falsehood in her words and looked around at the expensive apartment again. "Jeez, I really underestimated how much you make. I would only be able to afford a setup like this if I became seriously popular."

Tanya smirked and flicked his ear playfully. "Typical Hero. Pay attention to the news circulating in PEERS circles, you'll be surprised by how far up the popularity polls I am. And what do you mean 'if'? Out of all the interns in this city you're getting the most coverage."

"I don't know, the coverage seems more like morbid curiosity than anything else. I'm thinking I'll end up more like Topsy. A Hero that doesn't rise too high in terms of popularity because of how destructive their power is."

"Hmmm…" Tanya intoned as she mulled this over while watching the news coverage of what was predictably the most topical Hero team in the city; the Pristine Strikers. A lot of the footage featuring Shane in full gear and fighting. And he was a sight to behold indeed. She could certainly see the morbid curiosity angle; his brief attacks heralding disturbingly quick violence. But Tanya had been mired in PR management and playing to the media for years, longer than Shane had attended Lander's HCP even. She could see the potential for a certain kind of following here. Styx was just missing a certain something…

"Aha!" Tanya said with a snap of her fingers, quickly snatching back Shane's attention as an idea came to her. "You need a cloak." She said pointedly, then continued on without waiting for a response. "It might not seem like much, but it'll help humanize you instead of you just looking like an automaton that slinks in the shadows.

"Not you too." Shane sighed.

"If you've gotten the same advice from multiple people then that means you should definitely do it." Tanya said instantly, giving his shoulder a little shake.

"I think that's called peer pressured."

"No, no. Not peer pressure; friendly advice."

Shane rolled his eye, but put his arm around her shoulders regardless. "Fine. Considering you, my agent, have suggested it and even some of my teammates have a little flair to their costumes. I'll try one; but it won't be too heavy or too firmly tethered to me. Don't need to get myself killed by handing criminals something they can use to drag me around in a brawl."

Tanya nodded happily before what was on the news suddenly changed, and she became almost instantly interested by what was displayed. "Well, isn't that something."

Shane blinked and turned his attention back to the screen, reading the bold words scrolling across as a news anchor gave commentary.

'Department of Variant Human Affairs submits itself to increased government oversight and will make a concerted effort to increase transparency.'

"It's a bit wordy, but that's about what I expected to happen." Shane said simply, smiling despite himself.

"Really?"

"You've heard the story of exactly what Charles Adair did, didn't you? A lot of the slimy shit he pulled might not have worked if we'd had just one extra layer of security and authentication to slow him down."

"Ok, I think I get that. But what they mean by increased 'transparency'? You're related to Captain Starlight, so I'm betting you've got a lot of inside knowledge on what the DVA likes to keep secret."

"If I had to guess?" Shane thought for a second before nodding to myself. "Then I'd say the public is about to have a lot of otherwise classified assessments be made public."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 88

"I say we snatch up Trap-Master while she's still here."

"And I say we go for Goblyn; I've already got a tech-genius Hero that'll need a team to jump on when he finishes his internship as well. We need someone that can help with non-lethal crowd control with the composition we currently have."

The arguments between Shane and Amy weren't the kind that involved shouting, both young adults prided themselves too much on their own self-control to let emotions take over that much. So, the sound of them politely disagreeing over breakfast wasn't exactly uncommon. But the rest of the interns joining in was certainly a new sight for the various mentors at the table.

"Why can't we just ask them both? The more the merrier I say." Greg pitched in before munching on another spoonful of cereal.

"The budget of a novice Hero team wouldn't allow that. We're pushing it already by trying to get five members, most teams start off with four at most."

"Well then I'd say we should get a more directly support oriented Hero." Vanessa said. "I'm not exactly the best strategist here, but it's clear to me that a team made of just us would basically be a more lethal version of the Gentle Hammers. And I'd personally feel a lot more secure if he we had, like, an advanced mind or that Citrine guy that's been making waves in Chicago."

"Maybe we could settle this if our worldly and experienced mentors decided to give us some pearls of wisdom." Greg said archly towards the silently eating forms of Elizabeth, Hugh, and Rikki. All with varying amounts of amusement coloring their features.

"Well, we wouldn't want to rob you of this valuable experience." Rikki said as Hugh nodded in sagely agreement.

"Squabbling and figuring out the best tactics among your team is something you'll be doing quite a bit of in your early years." Hugh agreed as Elizabeth badly tried to surpass a grin.

"Don't bother asking my mentor." Vanessa said jokingly. "She values being stoic over being a proper teacher."

Elizabeth adopted an expression of mock offense just as the voices of Jack and Pulp arguing swiftly cut in as two of the most senior Heroes in the base wandered towards the kitchen. Both of them already in costume, unlike their peers; they'd need to get up extra early to discuss new information that had came up from investigations surrounding the White Boars. Apparently they'd transitioned to talk of what Pulp would be doing generally now as the team's Subtly Hero.

"I just don't see why you need us to put in that much time to help you get inroads to almost every wannabe linchpin and AL Capone rip-off in the city." Spectrum said.

"Because, as kind of pathetic and usually ineffective as those guys, and the grunts they tend to lead, are they're still important. Mostly because the bigger fish can prey on and use them." Pulp said before casually snatching a slice of buttered and toasted bread from Rikki's plate, ignoring the other woman's squawk of protest. "And if I can get any kind of advanced warning on those moves, we can get a head of them and prepare." Her speech was concluded with a rather unceremonious bite and crunch into the buttered morsel, chewing it as she stared her team leader in the eye.

The intensity of her gaze only slightly diminished by her slightly puffed out cheeks and the crumbs on her lips.

Spectrum sighed at that, giving up on an argument they'd apparently been having for a while now. "Fine, but we'll need to take away some substantial time from patrols to even get started-" He seemed to stop suddenly then press two fingers to his right ear, just as he'd been about to reach for a box of cereal. Then his face went through surprisingly fast transitions between expressions of shock, confusion, to grim determination.

"We need to move. Now." Jack- No, Spectrum now, said with some urgency as he stopped pressing his fingers to his earpiece. "The person behind all this did just about the most troublesome thing possible."

~ ~ ~ ~

The first thing Styx noticed about all the Heroes surrounding the office building was the subtle difference in all their costumes in response to the winter weather. It wasn't a surprise to be sure; despite strongmen being in high demand most didn't make it through the HCP due to the strict standers for them to make it as Heroes. And of those that did make it, well, it was still fashionable for a Hero to have a "winter version" of their costume that they could flaunt for the public.

It might have seemed like an odd thing to take note of but Styx, and most of the Heroes here, were scouring over every possible detail as they got ready for the Feds- Well, the other Feds to drag out Laurel Decker.

The front lawn of building was a lush green with finely cut and trimmed bushes that extended several dozen meters out in all directions. And even with that much space it still seemed crowded as over four Hero teams prepared for any threats that could from outside or inside the location. Landscape unit was the furthest out, setting up structures blocking possible exit points with their various powers while Trap-Master made use of quadrupedal drones the size of dogs. Which were quickly joined by the various summons from the Atomic Conjurers as half patrolled the edge of the structures set up while the other half perched on various parts of the building itself.

Styx was then only able to view the rest of the preparations other teams were making from the vantage point of windows several stories in the air as he was selected among the Heroes present to help with extraction. Spectrum was by his side as always, along with Gadreel, Obsidian Wraith, Crusader, Simikiel, and four FBI agents in tactical gear. All were on high alert as they gradually moved closer towards where Laurel Decker's office was.

"Usually when someone 'gives up' they willingly walk out of the building." Gadreel muttered not so softly.

"Technically she only admitted to the crime, she didn't turn herself in. But with how overtly violent the thing she's taking credit for is, precautions are needed." Obsidian Wraith responded as she led the group with her intern in front with her. Both by far the most physically durable of the group.

The FBI agents were in the middle with their own weapons at the ready, Spectrum and Simikiel handling the flanks, while Crusader and Styx brought up the rear. Both Super's having ways of scanning the environment ahead without tripping any traps or putting others at risk. It was a good formation to take, Laurel would have needed some truly exceptional supers to slow them down, let alone stop them. But that didn't make the several minutes trek towards her office any less stressful.

In the end they didn't encounter anything more than a very aggressive cooperate interior design, gentle heating, and efficient air fresheners before they made it to the ornate door of her office.

Without wasting any time, after getting confirmation from Crusader and Styx of course, Obsidian Wraith forced the door open, not even bothering to twist the handle.

"Ah, you made it." Laurel Decker said as she sat back in her ergonomic chair.

"FBI, hands up!" Two of the four agents shouted as they all moved forward. The Heroes moved to the side letting human authorities capture Laurel, who raised her hands with far less urgency than anyone in the room would have liked.

The agents worked with expected efficiency as they quickly had Laurel restrained and in handcuffs within seconds. Styx noticed that Gadreel was giving the still ever calm looking and composed senator an intense glare. That was right, she'd mentioned being propositioned by her a while back. If Shane was to guess Vanessa was probably turning her head inside out trying to see if there was any hint of Laurel's true nature that she could have acted on back then.

"Why didn't you willing come out of the building?" Spectrum immediately began questioning their captive as soon as they were out of the office, to all of the intern's surprise. All had assumed that questioning would have been at the least inappropriate to do, if not completely against some kind of protocol. But none of the FBI agents present moved to tell him to shut up or stop Laurel from responding.

"I was told that turning myself in as soon as possible and admitting my guilt and reasons was my best course of action at this point." Laurel said without hesitation. "But of course, I still had business to take care of even when I put in the call for my own arrest. Had to clear out the building of my employees to avoid any unnecessary casualties, made sure certain people I tricked couldn't get away- Good job on grabbing that British woman by the way. Was very surprised when my mercenaries failed to catch her." There wasn't even a hint of shame in her voice.

Shane took a steadying breath and focused on the shadows as Spectrum asked a question he so desperately wanted to. "Why did you do all of this then? Your behavior has been illogical to say the least."

"It makes perfect sense if you just considered the results." Laurel said nonchalantly. "I assume you've heard the news of Mexico's super teams and Ultra-Mountie in Canada reaching out now that they've been made aware of how easily things could get out of control with their own criminals rapidly expanding and causing some substantial damage."

"You can't be serious." Obsidian Wraith spoke up this time.

"Oh, come on, it's hardly farfetched." Laurel replied before indicating Styx with a slight nod. "And I'm sure your shadow wielder over there can appreciate the effectiveness of using fear to get results."

Now that particular jab nearly broke his composure.

"Did you even consider that this... chaos that you've stirred up would have the opposite effect? That this blatant overstepping of lines and meddling with foreign elements would make other nations turtle up even more instead of opening up." Spectrum snapped at her.

Laurel shrugged her shoulders at that. "I saw a potentially global problem with the various organizations that kept Supers in check not working together and aggressive, Armageddon Class Supers occasionally popping up and causing mass death. It didn't take a genius to figure out that we'd eventually lose a crucial fight without outside help. So, I decided to take a gamble."

Spectrum just heaved a sigh at that and Styx walked on with trepidation and uncertainty in his heart.

 

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Chapter 89 - Arc 6 Sisyphus(Epilogue I)

"So, you wanted to have a confidential talk?" Shane asked as he leaned back in a comfortable meeting chair.

Jack heaved a sigh and sat beside his intern, his costume on sans the mask. "More like a private heart-to-heart with my intern than anything truly confidential. You're free to talk about this with your friends later, just needed to find some time to get away from all those DVA agents."

It'd been about a week after Laurel Decker's arrest, and while the DVA had been predictably dogged after finding their culprit, they'd been unexpectedly dogged in inspecting the Pristine Strikers as well. They were desperate to know exactly what, when, and how they'd been the ones closest to figuring out this plot, a lot of the attention focusing on Pulp. "The consequences of being a good Subtlety Hero.", she'd said with her characteristic grin.

"Okay then, shoot." Shane said.

"We might have to consider the possibility that the entire premise behind Miss Decker's actions were our fault."

"By 'our' do you mean?" Shane asked.

"Heroes as a whole and the DVA, yes. You probably already noticed that her explanations weren't the ramblings of a mad person or the poor excuses of someone greedy who'd been caught trying to illegally make a profit." Jack said. "Two things you'll hear an abundance of throughout your career. But more importantly, Laurel was wrong, but in a way that she never could have known."

"There's no way she could have known that, on occasion, the DVA and other Super containment organizations in other nations occasionally outsource operatives to help contain world endangering threats."

"But based on what she did know she was able, ignoring how immoral it was, to logic her way into thinking her insane ruse was the only way to get any kind of international coalition set up before just one Armageddon Class got out of control."

Jack just nodded, his face scrunched up in a mixture shame and worry. "I think this connects a bit to what the DVA is trying to do now. A little more transparency about what the DVA does could have prevented all of this, being more open isn't just a PR move. I've realized it can have tangible results that matter in the long run."

Shane took a second to answer, swallowed a bit, then spoke. "I- I certainly agree, and this is all very interesting, but I'm not seeing the part where you needed to talk to me about this specifically."

"Because for all the differences between your Class of Nightmares and the old Class of Legends, one thing I know you'll have in common is that you're heading the start of a new generation. And that means you'll be at the head of this wave of transparency in the coming years and it's my job-" He swiftly point his thumb at his own chest. "To try and teach you how to deal with that. I get the feeling the standard obfuscation and tip-toeing around issues that you've been taught, and that some of the others are starting to learn, isn't going to cut it soon."

Shane let out a little laugh at that, before his eyes went pitch black, a sure sign that he was connecting to shadows. "You really think a Hero like me will be all that important, PR wise?" The expression on his face was sardonic, at odds with the unnatural feature that afflicted his eyes.

"Trust me Styx, when the time comes, the Heroes with the really scary powers that do the really scary work are going to be absolutely vital."

~ ~ ~ ~

"So, just to recap. I'll be busy with patrols for the next few days, and then have another news interview on Saturday." Shane said.

"And I'll probably be busy all week between worrying whether or not Riptide LLC will collapse under the weight of the DVA combing through it, keeping an eye out for PEERS positions in other companies, and then doing my actual job."

"Is that in order of importance?" Shane asked, his tone playful.

"Ha. Ha." Tanya said sarcastically. "But seriously, that's all?"

"Yep, I'll have to arrange a little date or just some time for us to hang a week from now. We'll have to settle for phone calls or skype calls until then."

Tanya let out a genuine chuckle that pulled Shane up short then. "Sorry, sorry. It's just that you're so… reliable and low maintenance, I guess the words would be."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been hunting a gang of super Nazis for the past few months, got into a giant brawl just a week ago, and confronted some nightmarish thing up in Colorado right afterwards. And yet you're still just as stoic and relaxed as the first time I met you."

Shane felt a pit form in his stomach at that, running a hand through his black hair, a gesture unnoticeable over the phone. He liked the praise, but it would be better in the long run if she didn't have any delusions. "Tanya... I think you should know that-"

"Yes, yes I know. I know that a part of it is an act, something you put on to make the public feel safe. My leader, Light-Bright, told me as much when I asked her about advice on Heroes. But even if only half of it is genuine, then it's still remarkable and something I can't help admire. And when you come to me and just need a break, or a shoulder to cry on, I'll be there for you as well."

"Ah, well… T-hanks," Shane said after a few seconds of embarrassment and red coloring his cheeks, before adding on a quick, "babe."

*Snrk* "Real funny. Alright, see you later Styx." Tanya said before hanging up.

Shane sighed before putting his cell phone back onto his desk and took a look around his room. He'd personalized it over the past few months he'd been living here; a few horror movie posters here, binders and files there, and extra costumes he'd made sure to buy as a precaution. Sheets and covers on his bed of a utilitarian design that he personally liked, and a few board games he played with Amy on occasion… which she admittedly won half the time.

Then he looked over to the most recent addition to his wardrobe; a large, pitch black cloak that hung securely on a rack, the material obviously fine even from a distance.

He lifted the garment in his gauntleted hands, the big thing surprisingly light in his hands, and similarly not-cumbersome when he swished it around and clasped it to the back of his suit. The hood fell forward, only slightly obscuring his peripheral vision, and he looked towards a full-length mirror kept in the corner of the room.

Misgivings aside, the cloak definitely looked natural and intimidating. The way it slopped over his shoulders cast most of his body in a deep shadow, obscuring his body as much as the hood's dark cast obscured his head. This had just the affect that Tanya and Lenny predicted; it hid the greatly artificial look his armor usually gave off and the cloak even made him look slightly bigger, adding further to his already above average stature. Which admittedly wasn't much he stood next to utter amazons like Vanessa and Elizabeth.

'And the clasps are strong enough to stay on securely even when windy, but weak enough that a serious pull would just rip the thing off instead of dragging me around.' Shane thought, satisfied, before he pulled back the hood and pulled on his helmet.

"Styx, you ready to go yet!?" Spectrum shouted from outside of his room. Not quite impatient yet as they still had a few minutes until they were ready to go.

"Hurry up! In our job being on time is five minutes late!" Simikiel's call was far less forgiving.

"Yeah, I'm ready!" Styx shouted back before he flipped the hood of the cloak back up and took confident steps toward his door. 'Time to get to work.'

 

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Chapter 90 - Arc 6 Sisyphus(Epilogue II)

Lily nearly felt nauseous as she was carted around in the DVA containment vehicle. It wasn't just the movement either. It was the sterilized smelled she'd hated since going to the hospital with her parents as a kid, the nerves, and the jostling movement.

She'd complained to the DVA agents in charge of watching her but she was pretty sure they weren't going to vouch for changes. Lily sighed as she was finally given the signal by said agent currently in the van with her.

The containment unit inside the heavily armored, black van was made of thick glass on the side and was attached to the interior of the vehicle by the top and bottom that were made up of some complex machinery.

The man giving her the signal was in a form fitting, black suit and was sitting on a chair attached to the interior wall of the van, and he also was the one with the key to her unit.

Lily nodded her head, and with a small effort of will, manifested her summon. The DVA agent with the severely sharp features grunted in approval before opening the sliding door of the van and letting it fly out. Connecting to the senses of her creation allowed her to get a visual on the city she was in and see the Hero team guarding her truck. The most noticeable of them being a fourteen-foot tall, dark red lizard that immediately swiveled its giant head around upon seeing her downright puny in comparison creature. But by far the most famous one in attendance was the Adonis of a man in the red and blue costume; Titan. Lily didn't know why they'd assigned the Gentle Hammers to be her bodyguards, but she was glad to have such a powerful team guarding her regardless of the reason.

This was her second assignment as an officially on retainer Temporarily Authorized Hero Asset. The job itself was plenty scary and nerve racking, but it was either this or three years in jail.

At least her assignment this time was relatively simple and unlikely to get her summon destroyed; all she needed to do was identify how many hostages there were in a building, give a description of the perp, and a description of the machine he was using.

'Easy peasy, lemon squezzy.' Lily thought as she followed the directions being given to her. 'It's at least less terrifying than scooping out that forest in Colorado for rooming monsters.'

After only a few minutes she happened upon the scene; a library with what looked a terminal case of mechanical cancer. A grey and black metal-mesh was growing out of all the doors and slowly spreading across the entirety of the building, blue light spilling out where the metal wasn't so tightly bound. After only some slight trepidation and feeling of dread, Lily maneuvered her summon around to one of the windows looking inside, pausing slightly when she noticed cameras within the creeping metal, before relaxing as they apparently couldn't pierce the invisibility.

The interior of the of the building somehow managed to be even more disturbing than the outside. The first thing she noticed was almost certainly the perp. He was a broad-shouldered fellow in what looked like a modified exoskeleton with translucent blue fields covering the open space along the metal frame. The hostages were next, at least dozen people held down to the floor and with their heads completely incased in the weird technology or material that was growing on the building.

Lily gulped with her real body before relaying all that she could, not leaving a single detail out. The DVA agent didn't hesitate or ask her to slow down as he rapidly wrote down the description of the technology being employed, the criminal, and the conditions of the hostages before giving her the signal to pull back. Lily didn't like the man's indifferent attitude, but she could at least appreciate his competency.

The young blonde sighed in relief as the van she was in was finally teleported away to a safe location.

'Another day, another zero dollars earned, and another round of being mentally disturbed.' Lily thought ruefully.

~ ~ ~ ~

"How was, uh, work today honey?" Lily's father asked as she stepped through the front door.

"Was alright, just needed to lie down for a bit." Lily mumbled as she gave him a loose hug before trudging upstairs to her room. Her mother didn't bother talking to her, and Lily learned to not try initiating a conversation.

Her mother, Amelia Weber, hadn't taken the news of her arrest, what she'd actually been up to, and what happened in the aftermath, very well. This, mixed with her extreme worry as Super fights cropped up all over the city while Lily had been gone and not answering her phone, had likely only made things worse. As things stood now… well, suffice to say, they were no longer on speaking terms and Lily couldn't blame her.

So, instead of getting mad, Lily just flopped back onto her bed as soon as her room door was closed and locked. Then she fished out her phone, hooked up her bluetooth headphones, and started playing some tunes just for herself. The stuff being vibrated into her ears was purely instrumental and was something she could listen to for hours on end and just relax. Really take her mind off all the shit still going on in her life.

It'd been a week since her verdict had been handed down, and in all honesty, she got off way lighter than expected. It could have been three years in jail, but due to how cooperative and useful she'd been toward Pulp and Intuition, they'd put in a good word for her. So instead she got to be under a weird mix of house arrest and been put on retainer as a temporary hero asset for her three years instead. It wasn't the most glamorous job, didn't pay in this circumstance for criminals, but at least she didn't get called out often (Even two times per week was supposed to be very rare). And while he wasn't making the same kind of money, her dad had been able to land a job and hopefully that would be enough. It… kind of sucked, but she couldn't really complain, the only thing for it was to stick things out with her family and see if things could be mended.

A knock at the door interrupted her serenity however. She took out her headphones and opened the door to see her father, but even more nervous than usual.

"Uh, honey, B- Brian Dukes is at the door and wants to talk to you." Fred Weber said.

Lily blinked before nodding quickly and guiding her father back down the stairs as quickly as possible, compensating for his prosthetic leg as they rushed into the living room to see that the business owner was already seated and talking to her wheelchair-bound mother.

"Ah, hello Miss Weber. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." The dark-skinned man in the tailored, tanned suit said with a muted smile.

"Come over here, Lily. I think this man is worth listening to." Her mother instructed, and after a few seconds consideration, Lily complied.

This was the man the White Boars had kidnapped and tested their drugs on. Leaving him for dead in an alley after an overdoes, only sure luck had let him survive long enough to stumble into Styx. The reveal of his kidnapping had been one of the major things to propel the group into notoriety, and what had probably been the start of the increased heat that came down on them.

So why the hell was this man visiting the house of someone who use to be a part of that gang?

"My dad said you came to talk to me?" Lily asked.

"Yes, as I'm sure you all already know, I am the owner of Riptide LLC and that I was abducted some months ago." Brian started. "And I am here because, after the recent fiasco surrounding the gangs' extermination, I heard about you, Lily Weber. A recent high school graduate who, after her parents were injured during the rampage of a criminal Super, was then eventually recruited and used by the White Boars out desperation to help her family. I must say I feel a certain connection between us in light of that last part."

"Connection?" Fred asked.

"I was used by Laurel Decker. And while she may not have been a direct part of the gang, she was undoubtedly it's puppet master. She used me by leaking them the methods to bypass my security and then tried to use my company to hamper the Pristine Strikers with some kind of bogus deal. Except when I looked into your sentencing and current situation, it's clear that you're getting a pretty raw deal while my company will likely stay afloat despite numerous people in my organization being arrested for knowingly cooperating with that senator under my nose."

"What's the point you're trying to get to?" Lily said a bit tersely, this entire thing sounding too much like a recruitment pitch for her liking.

"My point is that I don't want to see any more people hurt by Laurel Decker's absurd plot than is and I have the power to help you. You made quite a lot of money while working with the White Boars, and it helped secure help for your parents for a time. But it's clear that the situation you're in has become tenuous again; your father's part-time job likely won't be enough. So, here's my offer; you can work for my company as the lookout on a PEERS team. It'd only be tertiary role just to help teams avoid criminal Supers, of course, but the pay would be more than generous."

Every one of the Weber's family' eyes widen at that, even Lily's mother who seemed to have a good impression of the business owner.

"I this might have come as a bit of a shock, but think about this practically. Your daughter has a criminal record, combined with being a Super, this'll make it harder for her to-"

"No, no, I've got no problem with the job offer, it's just that…" Lily trailed off as she shot a pointed look at her parents.

Her father gave a reassuring smile and placed hand on her shoulder as a show of support, while her mother was a bit different. In spite of how incredibly disappointed she'd been upon learning what Lily had been involved in, something in Brian's speech had clearly hit a cord with her. She looked conflicted for a bit, even this mild amount of stress and emotion making willowy frame shake slightly, but eventually her expression hardened and she gave her daughter a clear answer. "Go on ahead, it's got to be better than this."

Lily then gave Brian Dukes a nod, "Sure, I'll gladly accept the offer." It's was about time she really started turning her life around.

 

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Chapter 91

There was a rather morbid PR opportunity that always arose when battles of the scale Styx had participated in occurred in any populated area. A lot of property damage had been wreaked during the fight; from people's apartments, office buildings, to even a few restaurants.(Not to mention the civilian casualties.) This invariably left a hole in whatever community or neighborhood was hit and, while the battle hadn't wrecked a significant portion of the city, it did require a notable amount of resources to be allocated for the people affected. Certain cities mayors and other politicians tried to cut corners on this, none tried to avoid the duty altogether, though. Some moderately sized cities had tried in the past but they quickly became… less than popular and populated soon afterwards. It was a fact of life; Super fights caused property damage, not addressing it promptly would be like cutting off the water supply.

Which lead to the Pristine Strikers their current location: A mass food and clothing drive with well over a hundred people in attendance, them acting as a mix of promoters and security. The latter role tacked on when certain looters and Super gangs attempted to attack such events when they first began to get so big.

The entire event was held in a moderately large lot sequestered by the city and was nearest to the most affected areas. There were dozens of stalls from several different companies selling a variety of clothes, canned food, and simple tools to help take the load off of recently filled homeless shelters and hotels. Spectrum, Obsidian Wraith, Crusader, and Terram stood around the edges of the whole event, occasionally waving at fans or even saying a few words towards those who approached. The interns had been sequestered towards the back where the crowd was thinnest and almost every civilian was more invested in the stalls than anything else.

The reason for this was the same reason why a disgruntled looking Samshiel was flying back over towards the rest of the interns on one of his shield-chariots.

"I'm guessing things didn't go well?" Gadreel asked as he landed.

"I swear, I've had thugs call me less hurtful things than some of those guys did." Smashiel grumbled before going back to his post beside Styx.

"It's only natural, what little footage that got out and eye witness reports primarily feature us at the center of a lot of the property damage and carnage." Styx explained. "Especially me, I wouldn't want to be down there myself."

"Ditto." Gadreel said mournfully.

"But look on the bright side." Simikiel said, putting a hand on Samshiel's shoulder. "We don't usually get a chance to hang back and talk like this outside of when we're in the base. And with how busy we've been lately those opportunities have come few and far between. And while I'm reasonably sure about some of the conclusions we've come to, I don't like to act on incomplete information."

"Let's start with the basics first." Styx said. "We agreed on going to Long Island because of the indications of gangs trying to migrate there and it not being too competitive for a new Hero team."

"I wanted to go to Brewster." Gadreel commented.

"That place is crowed enough as it is, in terms of both effectiveness and popularity we'd barely make a splash. On LI, a place with so little competition, we would have a real chance of making a difference."

"Now, then as for the fifth member we decided on… ?" Simikiel trailed off with an obviously questioning tone at the end.

"Trap Master." All three of them confirmed. Styx had wanted Will/Technomancer and Vanessa was rooting for a Hero better suited towards shielding and evacuating civilians, but they'd been outvoted for sensible reasons. They had all seen the value in having a good subtly Hero over the past few months and Trap-Master was the only one near their level of experience and one that they all had personal experience with, even if only strictly for business.

This of course assumed Trap Master would accept the offer and be willing to wait a year with Landscape Unit for them to finish their internships.

"Now that we're all on the same page with our own shit; You hear about what happened recently with our little friend a while back?" Smashiel asked.

"Umm, you mean the summoner girl?" Gadreel asked.

"Yeah, apparently she got bailed out of a bad situation by Brian fucking Duke." Samshiel confirmed with a grin, the last three words said with clear emphasis.

"How do you know that, and didn't she already get sentenced to a weird house arrest and community service slash Hero Asset deal with the DVA?" Styx asked.

Samshiel made a "tsk tsk" sound with his mouth. "You guys really need to work on the PR side of this job beyond the surface level. Can't just throw an asset away after they've been useful, gotta keep in contact and up to date. I made sure to patrol around her neighborhood when I could with Terram and even gave her my patrol phone number. As for how Duke managed it, I mean come on guys. He's a wealthy millionaire with an incredibly far reaching business enterprise. If anyone could pull a few strings and put in a good word for someone as low-level as Lily, then he could."

Styx's mouth twisted into a frown behind his helmet at that. "I don't really appreciate some rich guy swooping and making sentences for the people we've caught more lenient. …But I can't really get that mad if it's for someone like Lily, she seemed genuinely reptant and helped a lot that day."

"Yeah, no kidding. Before you even got back from Colorado, she helped us find three different hidey holes the White Boars had set up around the city. If it wasn't for her those assholes probably would have been scattered all over instead of rounded up by us."

Amy merely gave non-committal hum, apparently not all that concerned. Though Styx was willing to bet that if Lily was a major villain, she would have had more than a few things to say.

"Alright, so, we're all good then. Our gravy train for success after our internships all set-up?" Samshiel asked.

"That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but regardless the excitement isn't all over yet." Simikiel said. "We've got one last potential loose end."

Styx nodded and then pointed at a very particular building in the distance. Not the tallest or most ostentatious by a long shot, but noteworthy nonetheless for its occupant, Robert Burton. "We've yet to see if Laurel was really working on her own or if she had a very influential accomplice."

* * * *

Author's Note: Yeah, next chapter is going to be the last. This is my first time writing a story anywhere near this long, so sorry if the pacing feels weird.

 

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Chapter 92 - Arc 6 Sisyphus(Epilogue IV)

Town hall didn't look anymore grand or important than usual, but that didn't stop the inevitable situation about to unfold from twisting up Shane's stomach any less. Regardless of nerves though, he kept up a confident stride up the stone steps beside his mentor. Even as various news crews, and even a fairly large crowd of people, stared on from the street below.

The DVA was a powerful organization with a lot of reach and influence, but like all government agencies, they had to work with a budget. And prodigious as their budget in particular may be, they still liked to cut corners wherever possible. As such, they'd elected to have Robert Burton interrogated in Brooklyn's townhall with local Heroes used as security. Rather than some super secure room up in DC.

And the whole situation surrounding Laurel Decker and what she had funded was still a hot enough story to attract quite the sizable crowd, even weeks after it was first announced.

Really, the only thing keeping Shane from being too irritated was the fact that this event was high up enough to have definitely gotten some input from the top brass of the DVA. And there was no way his grandfather would have okayed this if it actually put the operation at serious risk.

Mercifully after only a quick walk across the marble and polished lobby of Brooklyn City Hall, then a handful of turns down a few immaculate hallways after a security check, and they arrived at their destination. And it seemed that they weren't the only ones to have arrived around this time. Organicum was walking through the makeshift office door just as they got to the right hallway, only pausing to give them a narrowed eyed look before closing the door behind himself.

"He's still mad at us?" Styx asked as they got closer.

"Organicum's always had a bit of a stick up his ass concerning PR and casualties; expert at reducing said casualties as well. It's how he's managed to make a team of healers work for so long, and usually he's right on the money." Spectrum explained. "Just give it a few days, he'll probably get his panties untwisted by then."

Styx nodded in response before opening the sturdy, wooden door and stepping in one swift motion.

Defensive Dugout, Organicum, along with Nommo and her intern Goblyn were standing in all different corners of the room, leaving Spectrum and Styx only one other spot. Whether they'd intentionally been left one of the spots closets to the man of the hour was something Spectrum planned to ask about after all this was over.

"I didn't want to say anything," Robert Burton started off. "but all of this security seems a bit excessive." The man, at least that's what he appeared to be for the day, looked haggard; circles under his eyes and an almost sickly complexion marred his skin. Though he didn't look at all nervous, just… tired. Like someone driven near to the brink.

"The number of violent Supers employed and moved around during this whole incident has given us more than enough reason to deploy this level of security. Just in case you are actually involved and we have to fend off an assault aimed towards helping you escape." Was Maria's practiced response. She, along with another DVA agent who Shane was almost certain was a telepath, sat opposite Robert at the cheap looking table. "Which is also why select members of the teams some of the leaders here command are stationed outside as well."

Robert looked almost offended by the insinuation but didn't voice a complaint, only straightening up a bit in his chair as things got started.

What followed was a little more anticlimactic than what Styx had been expecting. Maria grilled him on what he was doing just before and after Laurel ousted herself and was arrested. How closely Robert worked with Laurel and in what avenues during the rising of the numerous gangs around the nation, any hints he might have been given to the bigger picture, any irregular behavior and so on. He was basically grilled on any connection he might have had to any and all of the illegal contacts and methods Laurel Decker had made liberal use of… and he answered all of those questions with impeccable promptness.

Whatever feelings he might have had about his peer, they apparently didn't at all affect how he planned to answer these questions. And the telepath hadn't made a peep either, not even speaking to address a half-truth.

Things only went sour as Robert was asked to go into more personal details about Laurel, nothing too explicit of course. Just her "usual" methods for getting things done, her attitude regarding what was acceptable for an official to do, and how she negotiated with people. It honestly wasn't anything too scandalous based on what everyone in the room already knew of the woman.

But it was apparently enough to prompt an outburst from Organicum.

"How could you trust someone who clearly had such a loose sense of morals? Especially with the position of authority she held." Organicum said suddenly, breaking the business-like and tense atmosphere.

Maria only barely glanced at the senior Hero but her expression still twisted into a scowl while all of his peers turned to give the man a wide variety of glares and stink-eyes. They'd been stationed here only as security, and as a courtesy because how much chaos had been stirred up in their city that was related to this whole thing. They had not been appointed to give unprompted color commentary.

But before anyone else could respond, Robert gave an unexpectedly fierce answer. "As if you Heroes or the DVA don't show the same level of trust to your comrades." And, apparently for Robert, that was his own tipping point; his body stiffened as his features blurred. Everyone in the room tensed up a at that, they all knew he was a powered but spontaneous power use was something any Hero would take notice of.

But the obvious sign of didn't stress didn't deter Organicum from responding to the obvious barb. "What are you insinuating?"

Despite the now feminine features, Robert didn't look any less intense as she now replied. "It's not public knowledge but I've been around enough and worked with enough Heroes to know that the Subtlety Heroes and the Company", The way she phrased the word "Company" gave the impression of capitalization. "that you work with aren't exactly squeaky clean either."

Thankfully Maria managed to step in before the exchange could go on any longer this time. Good thing to as Organicum was starting to look a little red in the face behind his mask.

"That is enough from the both of you!" Robert and Organicum's voices had been strong and confident, but the volume and inherent authority she wielded eclipsed them both. "Organicum, one more outburst from you and I'll have you dragged out of here then personally bury you in red tape and bullshit." Then she turned to Robert. "And you, if someone talks out of turn, don't respond to them. You're not here to talk to anyone but me and about nothing besides the questions I have for you."

"M- my apologies." Robert replied meekly, suddenly deflating, the anger seeming to almost burn the senator out. While Organicum didn't respond beyond folding his arms.

With that, the interrogation continued.

* * * *

A few hours later and both mentor and intern found themselves taking a brief break in their patrol. Standing idle in between a few abandoned buildings as they drank some water.

"So, what now?" Styx suddenly asked as he leaned back against a wall, cloak not catching in the slightest against the coarse brick wall.

"What do you mean?" Spectrum asked as he used a small ball of violet energy to annihilate his water bottle.

"Well... we just got done with so much. All the international tensions Laurel stirred up with her stunt, all the destruction and violence that happened, on top of the Adair scandal, and now we're just back to" Styx waved to indicated the entire area. "this. Doing patrols and PR appearances. It just feels off."

Spectrum gave a small chuckle, but waved his hand when Styx snapped back to look at him, annoyance clear in his body language. "Nothing, don't be offended. I'm just glad that I still have some lessons to impart for you. With all the training you got with your gramps I was afraid I wouldn't be much of a mentor for you." Spectrum started walking and beckoned for Styx to follow. "You have to start getting used to this sort of thing and think more practically about what Heroes can do. We stopped the bad guys when they reared their heads and tried to take us down, tracked down their leaders and the real person in charge, and there was a minimal number of civilian casualties and property damage. But that's about all us Heroes can do, now the situations in the hands of people with different skills. Now we just move on to the next thing that shows up."

Styx reluctantly nodded, especially at the mention of civilian casualties, but he nodded all the same.

"And hey, extra bright side; It's extremely unlikely that fifty or more Heroes are going to die this year. There's only been about twenty-three or so deaths so far." Spectrum said.

Styx found himself morbidly cringing and laughing at the same time in response to that. "Jesus, really? Even grandpa wasn't that flippant about just soldering on to the next thing."

"Eh, it's not as bad as it sounds; the assault on Charles Adair's base accounts for most of them. Now then, let's-"

The older Hero was cut off as a familiar voice sounded in both of their right ears.

<There is confirmed Super conflict near the far east edge of the docks. Two gangs are engaged in a minor brawl, though one side is acting in complete accordance with self-defense laws. They are considered to be low priority in the conflict and non-lethal measures are to be used against all parties due to their only being a few Standard Class in the area. You are close enough to reach the area on foot. The rest of your team will be using Maria for transport.>

"A potentially, completely innocent side? Nice change of pace at least." Spectrum said briskly before quickly orienting himself east and heading off down an alley towards the docks.

'And on to the next conflict.' Styx thought as he used a shadow to toss his bottle into a recycling bin and took off at a sprint after his mentor, cloak billowing out with the wind.

The End​

 

[Briefvoice]

(claps) Hell of a story.