My Superhero City: Brand New Day

Squad 3 - Pinewatch

Mikael's attack obliterated the Unborn, though it persisted through it surprisingly long and delivered several nasty looking scratched and gashes before the creature became inert. It was obvious that whoever was in charge of creating the monstrosities of Pinewatch made them with the intent of the creatures thriving and engaging in battle.

With Mari-Mira on the other hand, being that she just tried to kick the Unborn several times, it instead latched on after taking several of her kicks. She would be treated to the sight of the creature's eyes dislodged from its face and getting pulled back into place...followed by the creature gnashing, ripping and tearing with tooth and nail at her legs.

Any sight of blood, pain or fear only made the creature move faster, bite deeper, rip further.

Meanwhile with Iuvem, one of the scientists stepped forward and said in a rather oddly calm voice, "Indeed you have us." The scientist removed her helmet, revealing a short dark haired woman with odd, maroon eyes that seemed to glimmer with some sort of implants.

"I'm not the sort of fool who fights on when it is obvious we're outmatched. My name is Veronica Wesker. You could say I'm head scientist around here." She looked over at the dispatched Unborn who'd fought Mikael and Jumping Bean, and the one still going on Mari-Mira.

"Those creatures are called The Unborn. Aren't they lovely? Foetal cells can be - at certain stages - repurposed and multiplied into any number of configurations and cellular constructs. With the right amplifications and complex cellular adjustment slash genetic modification, we were able to create induced animal trait expression and overhaul of the basic bodily structure...took me weeks to get it just right."

She chatted and happily discussed the horrors around her, casually so. Like this was all just something she was used to. Nothing big for her, just some customizations.

Squad 4 - Iona

The sight of Ignis running away after her outburst only enraged the sorceress even more.

"Coward! You won't escape from my wrath!"

The dust and litter kicked up into a cloud as Iona took off after him, a whirlwind at her back funneling everything not nailed down in her wake. The rumbling of dust and debris whipped about in the wind reverbated through the walls, drowning out the crackle of flames and lightning forming within Iona's palms.

Squad 4 - Bellpepper

"WH-HEY!"

Bellpepper'tiny body hit the ground with a soft if slightly comedic plap, struggling to press against the gravity.

"Sh-Shoulda seen that one comin'."

Another flashfire, and Bellpepper vanished back into the Planes, reappearing further away, looking pretty peeved.

"What is this, a supervillain bargain sale? Are the spikes and death rays on special around here? Comin' outta the woodwork, I tell ya..."

Tiny sparks and wisps of flames began to lick at the tips of his wings and feathers, though he did nothing...for now.

Edited by UndyingPhoenix on Oct 3rd 2019 at 8:25:06 PM

Squad 4 - Cole and Iona (58)

There was a resounding crash as Cole landed within eyeshot of the other members of Squad 4, breathing heavily. He must have crashed through who knows how many stores and windows, protected by his psionic force shield. He looked back where he came from in just enough time to see the nigh on volcanic form of Iona riproaring through after him.

At this, Metallic Raider seemed to look deviously to the side and his axe returned to him in a flash. That was when he seemed to shimmer and vanish. High up above, Ignis - the actual Ignis - commentated, "I need you on Earth-13, Metallic Raider, for that other plan. Now, I think I'll leave this friendly reunion. Wouldn't want to get between friends now, would I?"

With that, Ignis and his seat shimmered as well and vanished, but not before instituting one final illusion of the mind;

When Iona came after Cole, she would not see her friends standing there. She would see Cole as Ignis, and her friends in Squad 4 as a variety of sinister and dangerous figures, obviously associated with him. Some were more monstrous, others more like resurrected figures from Iona's trauma.

But all stood there like a wall of drastic opposition to her.

Squad 3 + 4 – Pinewatch

The stomps aren't working! 'THE STOMPS AREN'T WORKING AT ALL!''

The creature, newly classified as an "Unborn", was gnawing at her legs, biting and tearing off all of the flesh it could see.

"No! NO! Stop this, you utterly repugnant...GET OFF ME!", Mari screamed, both from the fear of the Unborn and the atrocious pain she never thought she would have the chance to feel.

Iuvem's serious face contorted into a scowling one. He needed to do something instead of just standing there, listening to the crazy lady.

"Mari! Teleport!", he warned as he shot a large Storm Bullet at the Unborn that was attacking Marisa.

Marisa, acknowledging the golem's warning, looked into the freak of nature's eyes, to see her reflection in them. She would then make a quick, dive-like movement towards one of them, before gradually disappearing into it.

The model would then pop out from Iuvem's left eye with a stylishly sloppy landing. Her legs were bleeding profusely (some bright little white specks were pretty visible in her blood). Her panting was getting heavier. Her visage screamed hatred and spite.

"WE DON'T GIVE A FRICK ABOUT...ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR EXPERIMENTING!", she bellowed at Ms. Wesker.

Edited by Theyja on Oct 5th 2019 at 3:53:35 PM

Squad 3 - Pinewatch

Veronica shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, that's just the thing. I'm Head Scientist, and unless the boss is personally around, I'm in charge. And right now the boss is out dealing with his dear brother."

She seemed to take a keen interest, seeing the Storm Bullet eviscerate the Unborn and leave it as basically a pile of flesh, bones and metal, occasionally quivering. Veronica commented when she saw Marisa's wounds, "Mm, I thought so. The Unborn were some of our most dangerous creations, their teeth were designed by us to dig deep, produce jagged and difficult to heal wounds and potentially hit arteries and more important veins. Probably a small miracle on your part that the femoral artery was not breached in its entirety. Then you'd be bleeding to death on the floor here...and that would be a major breach in cleanliness protocol."

She didn't even seem to be taking the heroes stopping her and her experiments all that personally. She continued to chatter, "Mm...hm...fascinating. It appears your inept female friend here is being metabiologically altered on the microbiological scale currently by some greater force, with some light phenotype alterations already showing themselves. I would love to study further, see if the evolutionary identity of your chromosomes and greater genome were likewise entering a greater mutagenic phase. Ohhh...what I wouldn't do for a vivisection..."

Edited by NickTheSwing on Oct 3rd 2019 at 1:48:43 AM

Squad 3 - Pinewatch
Mikael's eyes darkened and he began to walk towards the Head Scientist slowly. As Mira teleported away, he fired off another volley of shots (non explosive, this time, to avoid harming his teammates) at any remaining Unborn.

He stopped before Wesker with a scowl on his face, and summoned another rifle to his right hand.

"We're burning this place to the ground, when we're done. You'll never experiment on anyone, ever again. I'll make sure of that." He raised his gun, pointing it at her face. "But first, I'm going to give you ten seconds to come up with one good reason that I shouldn't kill you."

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. Maybe paralyze you from the neck down, but you're obviously not evil; just a stupid kid in over his head." She said back, calmly.

Then Iona started going nuts, and Nariko frowned. "And now this is happening. Wonderful." Her tail quickly tightened around Todd's throat in a choke-out. Syncope from strangulation usually only took seconds, but she didn't know if Todd's modifications would affect that. "I'm going to need you to sleep now, so I can deal with this. No hard feelings."

Mason

With all the loud anger and shouting behind him, Mason almost missed the opportunity he was waiting for, namely, jumping to the side and attempting to grab the handle...and missed.

He watched it slip from his grip and saw the freak out Iona had, and he froze. He had a feeling that was something more akin to his stature, he thought, and looked around for a moment.

Thankfully, he had the best possible person for the option here, and he turned back to Ty.

"Tyulla!" He shouted, as he ripped the earth chip away from his Driver and reverted back to his regular Mason form. "Tag in! I need to go deal with that!" With the utmost faith in his best friend, he rushed off towards Iona, slipping the Wind chip into it's slot.

"Henshin!" And in a burst of green and wind, he burst into his Garuda-based mode and in a blur of movement and wind, dashed in front of Iona, arms extended out on either side.

"Miss Iona!" he shouted, voice amplified. "I don't know what's going on but you need to calm down, please! You're doing more harm than good!"

Squad 3 - Pinewatch

Veronica turned to look at Mikael, she didn't even seem all that concerned about his death threat, more that she was being interrupted from indulging her curiosity about Mari-Mira's condition. She put a hand at her hip and stated, "Because the cameras in this place are fully functional and exporting footage elsewhere. You want to be the hero who executes people who've already surrendered, Memento?"

If she had any doubts about her course, she was not showing them.

Squad 4 - Iona and Bellpepper

"Ohhhh no...Io! Snap outta it! It's us! Your friends!"

Bellpepper just barely managed to dart out of the way of blast of air sent expanding towards him. Iona hovered there, caught in a miniature cyclone of fire and dust, sparks firing off at random.

"More of your lackeys? I'll burn them to a crisp, like back at Adana, and then your fate will be worse! IGNIS!"

As Mason made the very interesting choice to stand right in front of her, Iona looked down at what she saw was another of the figures much like at the ruination of her hometown.

"You think you can stop me?! That your attempts to say we're on the same side will tide me over? I will never forgive you and your lackeys, Ignis!"

The howling tempest lifted the sorceress up even higher, lightning coursing all over her body, the hum and electric hiss reaching fever pitch. Elemental Energy rampages out of control, seeping out of the ether and coalescing inside Iona, like moths to a flame.

"This is why the whispers of Fate brought me here! My vengeance is at hand! I will finally be able to close this chapter, and move on with my life! All I need to do is destroy you and all your little friends! I will be FREE!"

A bolt of lightning crashed through the roof as Iona raised her hands to the sky, small pebbles of scorched debris and dust raining down, dark spots against the sheer brightness of the harnessed lightning shining from the elementalist's hands. With a blinding flash and a harsh crack, the storm bolt was let loose at the fool who thought it wise to stand in her warpath.

Emily – Pinewatch (Squad 3)

The psychokinetic awoke to the sound of Mari's screaming, an unimaginable pain on her arm, and a splitting headache. Needless to say, she wasn't impressed. Or she wouldn't have been, if she hadn't screamed right back at the thing that had nipped her through her skintight barrier of force and sent it flying into the nearby wall at God-knows what speed.

It took her a moment to calm her overloaded brain down. Or rather, let it vent itself out. So to speak. Her teeth grit and a growl escaped her throat as her eyes squeezed shut and the ground erupted from beneath her feet. She was standing on a pillar of floor shortly thereafter, a surrounding ring of crater having shattered into rubble before solidifying itself into a sphere around her. Perhaps a brief glimmer of light would have been visible before it burst off of the ground and hovered above her; eyes glimmering with a sheen of simmering rage and palm outstretched towards the nearest thing living she could take it out on. Which happened to be the Head Scientist.

Well, it was actually Mikael. But her eyes glazed and refocused midway through her mental preparations to attack, and so the boulder of rock shot forward with an eerie silence towards the one he was threatening rather than the demon himself.

It was also eerily level in terms of three-dimensional plane. As in, it glided forward as if guided by rails. Not, strangely, as if it had been chucked by her usual fare of giant invisible hand. In fact, the edges of the boulder did not appear to be dented in by any phantasmic claws or other appendages.

She was operating with the same amount of precision as she would her stress ball.

Tyulla – Strip Mall (Squad 4)

“What? Oh.”

There was a blur of speed as Tyulla moved her form, her deerstalker and tweed jacket vaporizing from the friction as her battle armour grew out in its place. By the time she had reappeared she was standing in Mason's place, daring to yawn cockily with a glowing finger pointed menacingly at...

Absolutely nothing.

She looked around.

Oh. The villains they were supposed to be fighting had vanished, leaving one which was being interrogated by the rodent, and now it was...

“Dirtgirl.” She sighed, letting the glow on her finger dissipate as she lazily span around to look at the storm beginning to rampage around her. She almost reminded her of herself whenever she was having one of her temper tantrums–

MASON

The idiot was standing right in the attack's path. An attack she hadn't even measured properly yet, but she knew would be lethal to him. At least, that's what her instincts told her. She hadn't considered his armour. Nor her own strength. Her brain in that instant just told her to move.

So she did.

Extremely quickly.

And with the force only slightly lesser to that of a speeding freight train.

Perhaps she realised it at the last moment. Maybe she put on the brakes milliseconds before tackling him. She could have even forgotten that the rules of physics applied to him even if it didn't always apply to her. In any case, she was rocketing towards him at speeds unprecedented. Which would undoubtedly fly them both through several buildings before she could stop them.

Unless, of course, he moved.

Unless, of course, he didn't see it.

Edited by Enirboreh on Oct 3rd 2019 at 11:13:13 AM

Mason - Squad 4

Ignis? Lackys? What the hell is she-

The light show continued and in that dawning moment of clarity, he realized his words had done quite the opposite of their intended. All that energy, all that anger, all that pure, elemental fury was aimed...at him.

Oh boy. This isn't gonna feel nice.

And had it not been for Tyulla, he'd be on the wrong side of a casket lid, he thought to himself. He began to fly back, allowing Tyulla to miss him by the width of hair, and he watched with horror as Tyulla got hit with the intended blast.

Mason's brain went blank and he conveniently forgot that Tyulla was eons old. Stronger than anyone he'd known. Made of *slime*, and likely couldn't die that easily. She was still his best friend, and the fact she got hurt when it was intended to him filled him with...anger?

"You hurt Tyulla..." He whispered, blatantly and his attention turned up to Iona, his fists gripping. "You...hurt my Tyulla!" His voice grew to a shout and his form was shrouded in green energy, and he blurred directly towards her.

"Genesis Driver!" he shouted, as he held his hands out. "Initiate Siphon Mode!"

"Siphon mode initiated."

The palms of his hands glowed, and he grabbed her by the shoulders, intent on draining some of that pesky run-over Elemental Energy...and pray he didn't get blast in the face for his troubles.

Squad 3 - Pinewatch
"Oh please." Mikael spat. "You really think people will be concerned about me killing the second coming of Mengele? As though any would pity a monster like- ah shit."

He jumped back as Emily's rock flew through the air towards the head scientist.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, Emily, but make sure to avoid any friendly fire, alright?" He said, bemused.

Cole - Squad 4 / Iona Brawl (80)

Iona was well and truly out of control. If they didn't stop her now, she was going to keep going well and truly until she had completely disassembled all of them possibly down to a molecular level. Her vengeance was being wrought not on the intended target, but on everything she could perceive...

He had to act.

He didn't like it, he hated having to hurt his friends at all, but he had to act.

Gathering the wreckage and detritus of the by now truly devastated stripmall to him with a mental command, Cole sealed it together and forged a psionically amplified suit of armor around himself thrumming with his continuous power. "Iona I really hate having to step it up against you, but now, I'm gonna have to stop you!!"

Taking off at a sprint toward Iona, he dodged bolts of lightning, rappelling off of falling pieces of debris and fallen chunks of metal and concrete. Approaching Iona, seeing Mason doing his work on her, Cole went in to try and get closer. He guessed this was some sort of mental illusion—-so maybe he could try and dispel it!

He didn't know how wise an idea this was with his powers the way they were, but he had to try!

Squad 3 - Pinewatch

Seeing Mikael throw himself aside, Veronica did likewise and grunted in pain as she landed, looking around herself. Even with that thunderous display of power and Mikael's statement to that effect, she still remained quite calm. "In this kind of climate, you want to play the vigilante, executing everyone you can get your hands on instead of taking them in for trial?"

Edited by NickTheSwing on Oct 3rd 2019 at 5:30:10 AM

Squad 4 - Iona and Bellpepper

"What?!"

Iona, in all her rage, seemed surprised that someone thought to jump straight at her, through the blaze that surrounded her. With this moment of weakness, Mason had managed to latch on, steadily draining a fair chunk of the Elemental Energy surrounding Iona while she struggled against his grasp on her shoulders to move her arms and hands.

"Get off of me!"

With a rapid whipping of fingers back and forth, a flame ignited at Iona's fingertips, followed by an explosive blast at point blank to dislodge Mason. The cacophony of elements around her abated a fair bit, and summoning some more left the elementalist panting.

"I will...not rest! Not until I get revenge!"

She held out her hand, and the air began to glow red as a bubbling, broiling sphere of vermilion inferno formed out of thin air, heat and light radiating from it like a miniature star. A vicious spark ignited in her eyes as she raised her hand to the sky once more, and the ball engorged, looking ready to burst in a blossoming flower of destruction.

"RAAAAAAAH!"

There was a hiss as she brought her hand down in a wild swipe, a screech of flames and a streak of fire rocketing towards the destabilizing sphere. The explosion never came, the sphere vanished and Bellpepper lying on the floor in its place, facing the sky and looking ill in the stomach.

"I...I did it just in time...not gonna let you make the same mistake twice, Io..."

He gave off a tiny burp, before vanishing into the Planes. The words reached through the megalomania haze currently overtaking the sorceress, and she hesitated, hand shaking in confusion at her spell being stopped, and clarity in her befuddlement.

"What...? RRRRRGH! STOP WITH YOUR TRICKS!"

The mage started slinging out a swarm of fiery bolts and spears of lightning, accuracy taking a second place to saturation as wanton, rampant destruction rained on the area.

Squad 3 - Rebecca

Damn it. Rebecca really should have listened to her common sense. How the metal skeleton-robot thing had ever passed for Ash, she didn't know, but it was surprisingly tenacious. Even after she had managed to disable self-destruct mechanism with a lucky blow, it just kept coming.

Rebecca had finally been able to entomb it in such a thick layer of sludge, it stood no chance of getting back up. Just in time to hear the doctor's last taunt.

"Unfortunately, Mikael, she's right. We're heroes, not executioners; it isn't our place to decide people's fates."

Squad 4 - Cole (62)

His new instant armor thankfully took the majority of the heat Iona was shooting everywhere, though he was left a few more feet away as a result. Rushing back in, Cole finally got through and reached out to grab the back of Iona's head, not even waiting for contact before readying his fearsome psychic powers.

Cole was familiar with the work his brother did, and the look the psychic illusion had in his perspective.

He could see it as a red tinted visor placed over Iona's eyes, and it did not take long for Cole to wipe it away with his own psychic force - and he was then sent careening away from the raging Iona by another burst of elemental force.

But now, now with the mental illusion removed, Iona would be able to see clearly - that those around her were not in fact Ignis and his minions, but Squad 4. The wrecked strip mall provided a certain appropriate look to the this.

Cole breathed but kept his guard up in case anything else happened.

Squad 3 - Pinewatch

Mikael leveled his gun at Wesker again, internally debating the merits of just blowing her head off. Rebecca's words rung in his head. She was just like Martin, an idealist, always urging people not to kill. Even though this woman clearly deserved it. There was no moral grey area here. Why were they so adamant about looking good?

That's humans for you, he thought irritably, and then froze. When did I... stop thinking of myself as human? He paused a moment, rifle still trained on the scientist, as his hand tensed. Then it relaxed.

"...goddammit." Mikael sighed and let his rifle vanish with a crackle of black fire. "As much as I want to crush your head into paste... Rebecca's right."

Reaching into his coat pocket for his communicator, he sent out a request for police transport. "Congratulations. You won't die today. Instead, you'll likely be locked up with a bunch of other criminals for the rest of your days. Your work here will be destroyed, and you'll have to live with the knowledge that everything you've worked towards was ultimately meaningless." He smiled, his eyes suddenly tired. "Not what I would have picked, but you do you."

That said, he once more walked towards Wesker, bent over, and wrapped an arm around her midsection, casually slinging her over his shoulder. He carried her effortlessly, and his grip was iron. "Hey, rest of you scientists. You're all under arrest for... all of this shit." He gestured vaguely to the entire lab. "Any of you try to run before the transport gets here, I'll shoot you in the back. Got it? Good."

He exhaled deeply, turning to Rebecca and smiling sincerely. "Thanks, 'Becca. Almost lost it for a second there."

Emily – Pinewatch (Squad 3)

“...I really thought you'd blow her up,” Emily blinked, seeming to break out of her uncontrolled state as she brushed the blood away from her face. There was a lot of it, unfortunately. She felt bile rush up into her throat as she looked down at her hand to study it, but she managed to suppress it and look up at the others again with a neutral expression.

“Shouldn't have shot that at you. I needed to... I needed to get that out.”

She didn't bother elaborating on what ‘that’ was, instead turning her attention to Mikael and deepening her frown with scrutiny at his smile. After a pause she tried to press her hand against his forehead to ascertain his temperature—only to realise that A: he was too tall for even her lanky arms to extend up that far to and B: he had searing demon blood in his veins.

“Do you feel sick?” she eventually sighed as she gave up, eyes drifting over to a fragment of her boulder and mentally kicking it into the wall out of childish frustration. “You're not acting... yourself. I thought you liked to kill stuff.”

The remaining blood was trickling down to the collar of her jacket now, and she grit her teeth in agitation. She didn't know what to clean blood with if it got stained. Was there a special washing liquid for that?

Tyulla – Strip Mall and like forty other buildings (Squad 4)

The Primordial's fate wasn't immediately knowable due to the fact that she (for the most part) had still kept her forward momentum even after being hit. She didn't even realise she hadn't tackled Mason until the fifth time she'd smashed through a wall, and only began wincing in agony at the twelfth. She felt oddly... empty. Like some part of her was missing.

She couldn't check until she stopped herself from getting further mashed into concrete block after concrete block, but once she finally managed to regain control over her physical form and halt it in an instant she felt a rare, primal feeling well up in her chest.

Or rather, the lack thereof.

Tyulla had almost never felt fear before. Even in those preciously rare fights with her fellow cosmic beings any anxiety over her mortality was replaced with a feeling of absolute euphoria and adrenaline. But now, she had a reference point for this type of damage. As purple liquid slowly trickled down her form like lumpen treacle from the massive hole in her abdomen, she ignored the pain and stood up to look back through the tunnel of buildings she'd bored through.

If Mason had gotten hit, he'd have been dead.

Fear turned to further dread, then rage. Her face contorted into a snarl, and in her anger she forgot her form. Any semblance of a female shape was lost as she reverted back to the one of her gestation—a still nougat-coloured but androgynous, tall figure with no face to speak of; tiny black holes scattered around its featureless body in elaborate patterns serving as eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouths. It wavered and swayed in a manner impossible for a creature with a skeleton to do so (which was appropriate, as it had none), before it suddenly shot off again back towards the strip mall, its blank head splitting apart into a screaming maw of blackness and tendrils as bizarrely appetizing as they were unearthly.

Even when it had returned to the accidental arena the mall had become, it didn't immediately stop. It weaved itself around Iona's sporadic lightning bolts before taking to the skies without stopping; pulling vertical before finally stalling into a halt as it raised its limp, marionette hand above its head.

“diSapPeaR,” it burbled with infantile glee, clapping like a seal or an overexcited toddler with an extra hand it had grown out of its abdomen. An undoubtedly familiar, pink sphere of crackling black lightning and nebulous energy was forming rapidly in its palm, except this time there was no sense of self-control from the creature.

It was caught up in childish rage and sadistic joy, and it'd have to take something more drastic than that to stop it.

Edited by Enirboreh on Oct 4th 2019 at 9:48:09 AM

Squad 3 + 4 – Pinewatch

Mikael was going to kill Ms. Wesker (with Emily even haphazardly throwing a boulder at her, making Mikael dodge it)

However, Rebecca had stopped him, and the half-demon had calmed down...

"Phew...", Iuvem sighed, "That was pretty uncharacteristic of you, Mr. Freisch; But it's good to see this didn't end with the spilling of more blood..."

Marisa, meanwhile, was trembling and twitching.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-What?!", she loudly stuttered at Mikael, "You...y-you've...y-y-y-you've got to be sh-shitting me, Mikael damned Freisch!", she frailly bellowed, her voice oozing contempt.

"You w-were known to be a v-vigilante who always brought the villains A.K.A. the LOSERS to j-justice!", she panted heavily, "...A-And now...all of a sudden, you just randomly decide to listen to this...this...!!", suddenly, Mari fell on the ground, limp.

She was losing way too much blood to be concious.

Iuvem quickly ran towards Mira, utterly concerned, and quickly put his hands on her legs. No more blood kept coming from her severe wounds.

"Guys...", he addressed the others, worried, "We need to take her to Nurse Hello. As you can see, I've stopped the severe hemorrage...but I can only do so much to help her. Can one of you assist me?"

Edited by Theyja on Oct 5th 2019 at 3:56:36 PM

Cole - Squad 4 (95)

Cole looked up at the orb of destruction coming down, knowing by now Iona would probably be done with her rage and hopefully calm down - meaning that such a level of force was not necessary...so it fell to him to deal with the energy ball, and the berserked and horrifying Tyulla that unleashed it.

Stepping in front of Iona, and shrugging his shoulders, Cole commenced flying right up to the sphere of destruction and gripped it with one hand...and simply willed the energy apart. His psychic power promptly acted on this input, rippling through the whole of the orb of destruction.

Every bit of it laced suddenly with bright blue energy, halting in its seemingly inexorable advance upon the position of Iona and the others...

...and so, when Cole tightened his grip, the orb simply shattered into harmless embers of energy.

Cole stared upward at Tyulla after that was done with, eyes blazing with blue energy, saying, "It's all done. Get your act together and stop rampaging all over the place. Or you'll crash against me."

Tyulla – Strip Mall (Squad 4)

The enraged, infantile creature sputtered and trembled with rage at Cole, clearly calculating in multiple ways exactly how it should kill him. Arcs of pink energy radiated off its form as its fists clenched tight enough to draw out some of its dark, somewhat sugary blood, and it dared to even spit some of the substance at him in disdain.

“do wHat i liKe. caN't conTroL me.”

It seemed to seethe for a moment longer, before subtly twitching its faceless head over to Mason's direction and huffing irritably. With a squelch it morphed its form back into the recognizable shape of Tyulla—angry glare and crossed arms clearly indicating that she was still fuming as she landed with a dull thud on the ground. There would have also been a heat of slight embarrassment if it weren't for the fact it was impossible for that to occur in her (the biology of gelatine didn't exactly include detailed emotional reactions) and she stomped off in a huff—glancing at Mason as she went by and solidly flicking his forehead in an idle fashion.

“Shouldn't have moved. Idiot,” she muttered, before turning her head back forward and shuffling away.

She ignored the incessant beeping of her energy suppressor. She'd have taken it off in her anger if she hadn't suddenly felt immensely grateful for its existence.

Edited by Enirboreh on Oct 4th 2019 at 1:20:36 PM

July 1st, 2021 — Foundation HQ

The last month had been rather uneventful, all things considered. Not that there hadn't been anything of note, far from it. Between Firebrand's surprise hostage situation and dust-ups with groups such as Pinewatch, there had been no shortage of strange events and going ons within the Superhero community. But compared to something as monumental as the resurrection of the Saint, it was small potatoes. For now, the community was watching him closely, waiting to see where he stood after having been gone for the last two years. For the moment, they reserved judgement. But it was only a matter of time before they cast their verdict. With the only question being what that verdict would be.

For now, there was something somewhat more pressing to deal with. Reinbach was sitting at his desk in the lab in the Foundation's basement. He was hunched over some sort of large scanner, with a wide rader in the center. Ever since the Frost Giants had been stranded in the square some months back, something had been nagging at the back of Reinbach's noggin. Apparently their reason for getting stuck on Earth was because they had been sent there by some unknown force, but or what could be powerful enough to send people to other dimensions on a whim? Assuming they weren't trying to crack through the other side and wound up causing dimensional incursions by accident.

Worse yet, it wasn't the last time that sort of thing had happened. After Raggum reared his ugly head, he had checked his readings, just to be sure. Sure enough, it was another incursion. Just like the first. But perhaps most damning of all was the existence of a third signal. Or rather a second. Against all odds, it had appeared just a couple months ago. Right before the Saint's resurrection. He supposed it could have been a coincidence. It wasn't as if it would be the first time that a monster or something to that effect began their lone war on crime. Still, it didn't hurt to be sure.

Regardless, what had caught Reinbach's attention now was yet another signal, but this one was somewhat indifferent. While at times it was loud and as clear as day, others it was remarkably quiet while being obtuse as possible. It was going back and fourth, coming just short of fully making it before fading away into the ether. Only to come back in another day or two. For now it wasn't worth worrying over, regardless of any unanswered questions. If only because there wasn't much they could do about it. For now, all they could do was continue meddling with the signal while keeping an eye out for any possible intrusions. And hope that the world didn't go to hell the next time he was out of the office.

The things he would do for a paycheck.

(Flashback)

The sirens blared in the dark of the night, and the police cruisers carried away the depraved scientists of Pinewatch. The place burned to the ground, as Mikael said, but federal investigators said there was evidence of further levels beneath the flames, but nothing conclusive. It was not long before the Federal Government staked a claim to the fiery remains, obviously hoping to scavenge something of worth from whatever was left.

As Veronica Wesker was loaded into a truck, a federal agent went over to her in particular out of all of the scientists and handed her a note. She got into the truck, but her sullen expression changed to a devious smirk. She whispered something to herself, but made no explicit motions one way or another.

She only looked down at the note in her hands as the truck drove away, a paperclip on the top of the note.

Pinewatch had been destroyed, but it left its scars on the burning Earth leftover, and in the hearts and minds of the heroes whom had partaken in its destruction.

Far later on at night, when the fires died down to mere embers, something stirred within the rubble. It shook off the detritus and downed pieces of wood, steel, dura-glass and other such things. The creature obscured by the night and dark let out a harrowing shriek and then dissolved into a heavy slime, sluicing off into the deep, dark oceans.

An endless ocean, carrying an endless curse.

Martin

After everything that had happened in the past few years some might assume there was very little left in the world that could frighten Martin. He had faced down demons, gods, super villains, and even a press conference or two. Still the weigh of the ring box in his pocket could have bored a hole straight into the planet itself. Thankfully he wasn't alone in his planned proposal, he had some of the best minds of the Saint Foundation (in his opinion) on his side. "So guys, does everyone remember their jobs?"

Edited by Kingxana0 on Oct 4th 2019 at 9:32:20 AM

Zach - Squad 1

Distract yourself. First and foremost, distracting yourself was the most important thing about this sort of stuff. If you fell into despair every single time you slipped, nothing would get done. And last time was bad. Last time was bad enough to shut him down and render him comatose for a bit. Fall into his anger, damn near take another person out right then and there. But, as bad as he may have felt about it, it was good to fall into a project. So he painted. He spent time with his family, much needed time with his family.

He was also chosen to help someone propose. And frankly, he couldn't be more honored. He wasn't entirely sure WHY he was chosen, but he liked to imagine that it was because, well, sans Ellie and Mikael, he'd had the most successful relationship of anyone he'd known, and in this crazy assbackwards world? That was SAYING something.

As I'll ever be I think. Zach wrote with a nod of his head. But a run through probably wouldn't be amiss, I think.

Mason - Squad 4

Well, the impossible had happened. Mason had no inspiration coursing through his mind. Since the incident back at the mall, since Tyulla wasn't going to be going on any missions for some time, he'd felt some of the passion and the fire die.

For all the grief and griping he made about the entire thing, some part of him was really looking forward to going around saving the world with his best friend. And now with that no longer a thing at the moment, his enthusiasm and need to invent...died with it. So, in that stereotypical way, he exited his room with a sigh. Hair a mess, his clothes disheveled, bags under his eyes...mainly because he'd been able to SLEEP.

And for Mason Bridges? Being able to sleep was a weird idea.

He grumbled and scratched the side of his head, deciding in this moment that a trip to the cafeteria wouldn't be a miss. Maybe a red bull or a desert or something would get the ideas rolling, perhaps.

Ignoring the flashing green light on the Genesis Driver.