Alias: A New Era

TheQueensGuard

Edgepeasant
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per week
  2. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
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Interest Check | Out of Character | Character Roster | Affiliations
New Angeles
Thursday, October 4th
A year after the Furor attack....

The night air was crisp and cool, and seemed like any other night. Most people were either out living it up in the city or at home asleep. Tomorrow would be a somber day, as the citizens of the city would remember the carnage that happened a year ago. The news would play clips of the attack, a rally was to be held downtown to show remembrance for the lives lost protecting the city. Nearly six hundred deaths had happened just on that day of the sudden attack on the city, with even more sub coming to wounds or illnesses in the following days.

The Arcadia Division and Peacekeepers were out on patrol for the night, many either on direct missions to track down certain criminals that would be deemed a threat or just patrolling for trouble makers. Both groups had informants all over the city feeding them information on leads and the whereabouts of criminals- be it vigilante, gangster or terrorist, though they weren't necessarily working together. While the two had worked together during the Furor attack, and some months after, that peace was starting to break away. To many people were stepping on to many toes, and it was starting to interfere with both groups motives.

In the criminal world, rumor had it the Hounds of Wrath were looking for any skilled meta-human they could find; be it by volunteer or kidnapping they were looking to increase their ranks for whatever reason. Shade was making moves in the city too, though their motives were still unclear.
The Hashimoto Clan, while the most mundane of the three major crime groups, was making the most profit. They knew the most about the city and the people in it, so they could turn it for a heavy profit.​

New Angeles
Arcadia HQ, Top Floor
12:00 AM

Supervisor Gray
@ChrisClark13
The pen clicked in a rhyme as the older man paced back and forth in front of the window. He was about to brief an agent via-transmitter on an important mission. "Alright Drake, it's paramount we get this right. Our informant said the Hashimoto Clan will be meeting with the Hounds in roughly twenty minutes to do a trade. What we are looking for is a piece of paper, on it the location of an extra-normal." The clicked paused for a moment as the supervisor went to his desk, a file on the girl in question. He set his transmitter on the table and leaned onto the desk. "Maxine Saunders. She's young girl, with incredible strong powers. She nearly leveled a portion of the city when Furor made a move on her a year ago and the last thing this city needs is another explosion." The clicking began again as Gray took a seat. "Once you have the file, check back in. We have to be careful when approaching Max, and sending a giant lizard to her might not be the wisest move." The clicking paused again. "Sorry. Sending a dragon to her might scare her."

New Angeles
Construction Site, the Slums
12:23 AM
Aster Neon Honor


The night had started relatively quiet. A few crimes were being reported downtown, though the Peacekeepers seemed to have them handled. Aster was nearly ready to call it a night and head back to her apartment when she had spotted a pair of unmarked vans driving into a construction site. A group of soldiers got out from the vans, and they clearly weren't Arcadia. After following them from the safety of the rooftops, she decided to get a closer look. Now she was ducked behind some crates as the men began setting up for a meeting. Construction spot-lights illuminated the area in what looked like what was going to be a parking garage.

"Oh sure Neon, just get a closer look. You're totally sneaky enough."

She whispered to herself through gritted teeth. The ventilation mask around her face further muffled her voice, though the volume of her voice wouldn't matter if she was found.
The soldiers were spreading out to cover the area as two luxury cars and a truck drove up to meet them. The guard closest to her was standing beside the stacked crates she was behind and kept inching closer to them. To her luck, someone called out "Red, get over here and help unload the goods." Aster relaxed some as the guard near her answered in response, heading away from her to go unload what seemed to be weapon crates from the van. Slipping her phone from her pocket, she snapped a quick picture of the back of the vans before moving to the other side to see who was getting out of the luxury cars.

Sharp dressed, but clearly criminal in nature, Neon assumed they were members of the Hashimoto Clan. "Do you have the guns?" The leader of the gangsters called out, an envelope in hand. "If you've got the money and the girl." Neon raised an eyebrow, looking over the Clan members. Girl? She thought quietly to herself as the man with the envelope raised it into the air. "We have the location of the girl." He motioned with the envelope to a goon, who brought up two briefcases of cash. "To scared to get her yourself?" The mercenary remarked, before nodding towards two other soldiers who started bringing the guns to the truck. "You do know if she's not there, we know where to find you. Right?"

Aster ducked back below the crates and took a deep breath. Could it be kidnapping? A target for an assassination? She needed that envelope if she was going to help whatever 'girl' they were talking about.

New Angeles
Downtown, the Hub
12:30

Vector Arachnid Anderson
@Quake

Vector hadn't been in the city in several months, but it felt good to be back home. He spent the first few days sight-seeing. He visited some friends in the Hashimoto Clan, stopped by the Peacekeeper Precinct to reminisce and grabbed some noodles at his favorite ramen shop. It had been a good couple of days, but now it was time to get down to business. "What number was it?" Vector mumbled to himself, looking down at his wrist as the monitor flashed the number for him."Crow just had to send me to grab this guy." Vector whistled slightly as he looked at the various room numbers, only stopping to complain. "Couldn't have been Riley, nope it just had to be me!" Down the hallway one of his drones beeped in front of a door. Vector smiled clicking a button to call the small metallic orb back to him. "There he is!" He grabbed the orb and stuffed it into the pocket of his jacket, patting it some as he strode down to the door.

"Hey 'Tex, open up!" He called, knocking on the door in the cliche 'knocking code' he had seen in several movies.

 
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New Angeles
Downtown, the Hub
12:35
Jason Vertex Wilde

Vertex’s apartment door creaked open. Leaned up in the doorway, an exhausted man in a wife-beater and dark blue jeans eyed his latest guest, cigarette in one hand and pistol in another. The room was dimly lit in comparison to the apartment hallway, but the occupant’s tattoos, nose ring, and large gauges were a dead giveaway. He was without a doubt the Gold Shadow known as Vertex. Upon recognizing his fellow Shade member, Vertex tucked his weapon back into his pants and motioned for his guest to enter.

“Spidey boy. Haven’t seen you in awhile...” Vertex’s voice was a mixture of rough sandpaper and gravel. He motioned to a raggedy armchair that once upon a time was a clean cream color, offering his guest a seat. “Drink?” The man asked, taking out a pair of glasses and a bottle of Jameson.

“You’ll have to ignore the mess. I’ve been stuck on a job in Israel for the past two months. Rich oil tycoons and all that. Just got back a couple hours ago. Haven’t exactly had the time to ...redecorate.” Vertex set Arachnid’s drink on the coffee table.. “‘Fridge don’t work neither..so no ice.”

Falling back onto the old couch, the tattooed man took a sip of his drink, eyeing his fellow Shadow.

“So, my good man...what the hell do you want?”

@TheQueensGuard

New Angeles
Downtown
12:35
AIRES MK II

Seated high atop one of the many large office buildings in New Angeles, AIRES scanned the city below, watching the people below. It had not moved for the past three days, intently studying the city below. There were so many of these humans, all going about their daily lives. What was their purpose? the AI wondered. What kept them from tearing each other apart? Was it law? Some sense of purpose? In its two years, it had learned one important thing. Humans were fragile. Weak. The general population couldn’t defend themselves from an extranormal threat without help from Arcadia, Peacekeepers or other extranormal “heroes.” What a sad species, AIRES thought. Fighting against natural selection with such ferocity. Rising up to a standing position, the AIRES bot stepped off the roof, falling and landing on a rooftop parking garage 30 stories down. Slipping off the edge of the establishment and down to the city street, AIRES walked calmly through the crowds, studying the environment and its inhabitants in silence.
 
Arcadia HQ, Drake's Rooms
11:50 PM
Drake

Drake was busying himself with looking over the results of the gaggle of neural networks he had set to creating a melee combat AI. The results were promising, at least compared to yesterday's. The main problem was making sure that it didn't decide to attempt to corkscrew his spine or his limbs, the other main problem was trying to bring the AI up to being able to process sensor data in real-time. All of which was exasperated by a lack of good training data- he simply couldn't keep feeding it dummies in various threatening poses. He cringed as he paged through the most egregious "raw" results of the AI that hadn't passed the physics simulation checks. Ugh, the adversarial networks still needed more training, that or a complete do-over. Honestly, right now it was leaning towards complete do-over of most of it- this time building the limitations of the joints directly into the first layer.

He closed the program and booted up the AI he had created to automatically create after-action reports based on his recordings, well to get help him get started rather. It probably wouldn't be good enough to write the entire thing for him for another year or so, but this project was a slow-burning one.

Of course, now that he had gotten settled in- he had a call from his boss. Joy.

New Angeles
Arcadia HQ, Top Floor
12:00 AM

Supervisor Gray
[IMG alt="ChrisClark13"]https://data.iwakuroleplay.com/avatars/s/29/29273.jpg?1562210760[/IMG]
The pen clicked in a rhyme as the older man paced back and forth in front of the window. He was about to brief an agent via-transmitter on an important mission. "Alright Drake, it's paramount we get this right. Our informant said the Hashimoto Clan will be meeting with the Hounds in roughly twenty minutes to do a trade. What we are looking for is a piece of paper, on it the location of an extra-normal." The clicked paused for a moment as the supervisor went to his desk, a file on the girl in question. He set his transmitter on the table and leaned onto the desk. "Maxine Saunders. She's young girl, with incredible strong powers. She nearly leveled a portion of the city when Furor made a move on her a year ago and the last thing this city needs is another explosion." The clicking began again as Gray took a seat. "Once you have the file, check back in. We have to be careful when approaching Max, and sending a giant lizard to her might not be the wisest move." The clicking paused again. "Sorry. Sending a dragon to her might scare her."

Drake grumbled as he rose to his feet and stretched, "That dead horse of a joke is rotating in its grave you know, just call me what you will." Seriously, it seemed half the people here would never let him live it down that when he first got here some dumbass part of his brain had insisted on correcting people that he was a dragon, not a lizard. By now he'd just gotten used to it, sort of. He had changed tactics to telling people to actually use his name if they were going to talk to him or about instead of trying to make them use the word "dragon", it seemed to have a better effect.

Anyhow, as the files showed up on his eye implant he frowned, "Would've been nice if I had gotten this intel earlier, I'm going to have to cut it pretty close but I should- I'll make it out there in twenty." Ten to get ready, and another ten to get there he mentally tallied. "Any preference on how I approach the situation?", he commented as he padded off towards his workshop. An important question, knowing how his boss wanted him to go about things was important- particularly if the PR department was itching for some good news to put out. Though he had a feeling that a more discreet approach would be preferable- meaning that the news shouldn't get wind of what was happening.

He was already mentally sending the commands necessary to boot up his exosuit and pull up the necessary equipment. Hounds would mean military-grade equipment- meaning that he needed something to deal with that so he skipped straight past this preferred weapon for dealing with criminals, the electro-gun, and went straight to a heavy machine gun. He would look like a fool if he came in under-equipped... but two such weapons would probably be overkill. For the rest of the loadout, hmm... grenade launcher loaded with flashbangs and EMP grenades on the other 'wing', communications jammer on his right flank, and then a bag with extra ammo and grenades on the other. For his limb ports, three stealth surveillance drones and a riot drone should do it. No, swap one of those surveillance drones with an exploding one- he would probably need to disable a vehicle at some point. For his tail, the electro baton should do- perhaps the chance for a less-than-lethal takedown might arise.

Plans going his mind, he quickly attached his loadout to the exosuit. Thankfully it had been designed for 'plug-and-play', just a simple matter sliding and plugging things together before screwing in the bolts. He climbed into his exosuit as it was finishing up its boot sequence and with a series of clicks the armor closed around him. Then he was off into the high-speed elevator, "I'll be on the scene in approximately ten minutes. Drake out." As he rode down into the garage level, he sent off a request for a driver and an unmarked van to be made ready for him.

Construction Site
12:21 AM

A few blocks away from his destination, Drake strolled out of the van to make the rest of his way on foot. Mentally he grumbled that a more stealth-oriented armor would be preferable for this or even one with extra 'arms' for really bringing down the pain. Mentally he kicked himself as he realized that he could've at least loaded extra drones into the van though. Whatever, if his boss was only going to give him a scant few minutes to get ready than whatever happened tonight would be the result of that. He toyed with the thought that with some luck and more planning he could make it look like the deal had "gone bad", some more tension between the criminal elements could be helpful.

With a mental command, he sent the stealth drones forward to surveil the site. He had one of them set down on a spot that overlooked the yard and had the other fly way up to get a more overall view of things while remaining hard to spot itself in the night sky. A basic AI quickly picked out the unmarked vans and heavily armored troops... as well as Neon. Well, shit. This night was already looking like it was going to go sideways, though admittedly 'recruiting' the vigilante was a much lesser priority than reclaiming an already... pliable, yet dangerous, asset. With a command, the drone turned on its long-range microphone.

Drake meanwhile had been continuing his approach, sticking to the shadows best he could to minimize the light bouncing off his armor from the streetlamps. He approached the site from behind a mound of dirt and some parked construction vehicles as he watched things play out through his HUD. It looked like this was also an arms deal, with the Hashimotos being the ones trading away the intel he needed. Letting it get destroyed or having Neon get her hands on it would unduly complicate things. He commanded the explosive drone to fly up high over the Hound's likely escape route in preparation for what was coming next as he waited for Neon to make the first move. He would simply intercept the intel on the way out instead of getting the attention of two gangs at once. Besides, seeing Neon in action would help the next time he (or another Arcadia agent) had to cross paths with her.
 
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New Angeles
Granny’s House
1:00AM

Maxine Saunders

///
The sound of the car was drowned out by the ‘oldies’ playing on the radio and the karaoke of Maxine’s parents. Bellies were full from a birthday dinner followed by mandatory dessert and there was an unspoken agreement that everyone was looking forward to getting home and into bed. The car trudged on. The radio played. The family sang.

The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with a watercolour collage of reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows, but in the distance, dark clouds were beginning to roll in and cover the sky. Small water droplets appeared on the front windshield as the sky began to spit. There was no sound. No warning. There was only the sound of glass shattering. The car swerved into oncoming traffic. Horns blazed. The family screamed. And then, then there was blackness.

The rear passenger door was thrown open. Maxine fell out of the seat, her forehead running with blood; she had hit it on the window. Maxine’s mother was yelling at her to move and then she rushed to the driver’s side where her father was stumbling out of the car while clutching his shoulder. His hand was soaked in blood. The car was upside down on the busy road, it had flipped a couple times after swerving into the other lanes and there was a distinct small round shaped hole in the windshield with spider like cracks sprawling away from it.

Maxine managed to pull herself out of the car and stood staring at the car and her parents hunched over behind it. The two of them were speaking rapidly. Kenna. Safety. Compromised. Maxine rubbed her head, completely disoriented and paralyzed by the event that she didn’t notice the beast of a man approaching them. Maxine’s mother was crouched over her father, applying pressure to his shoulder when a gunshot sounded. Maxine’s mother collapsed in her father’s lap, spraying brain matter and blood all over him.

Fear. Panic. Terror.
And then the city was swallowed by fire.
///
Maxine sprung up into a sitting position from her bed rolled on the floor in a cold sweat, breathing heavily and frantically scanning the room. An older woman rushed to her side and placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. She shushed Maxine as if she was a crying baby and told her that everything was OK. Maxine looked at the older woman, whose lips were moving but she couldn’t hear what the woman was saying. All she could hear was the gunshot in her head; over, and over, and over. The older woman stepped away and crossed the small, musty room, to a kitchen designed for one person. She opened a cupboard that creaked from rusty hinges and pulled out a glass, filling it with room temperature water and returning to Maxine’s side. “Drink, child. It’s OK, you had a nightmare.”

”Yeah… something like that.” Maxine took the glass and sipped on it. The old woman gave her a questioning look. It wasn’t the first nightmare the old woman had witnessed but she never asked Maxine what it was she was having nightmares about. The old woman only gave her questioning, or sometimes worrying, looks. Maxine never indulged her, it was safer for her that way. ”Ahh.. I’m sorry that I woke you, I didn’t mean to.”

Maxine had been running and hiding since the incident, never staying too long in one place and taking many ‘temporary’ homes. There had been a few people she trusted enough to take shelter with, those people usually aligned themselves with the oppression against Arcadia. Vigilantes was another word that had been used for them. But she learned the hard way, in the beginning, not to share with her respite caregivers. It always went one of two ways; she put them in danger and they were killed, or they attempted to ‘bring her in’ and they were killed. It was easier to keep quiet.

Three large knocks, border lining bangs, came at the door. The intensity of the knock sounded as though it came from an official of some kind. It was strange that you can often tell who was on the other side of the door by how they knocked; this person knocked with authority. The old woman turned to look toward the door, confused as to who could be at her house at such an ungodly hour. She looked back to the now wide-eyed Maxine who was clutching the blankets. It was only seconds before the child started to frantically collect her things. Maxine learned to keep her belongings in her pack, only taking out what was necessary, in the event she had to grab it and go. There had been occasions where she had just missed Arcadian search and seizures, but she had never been this close to one. ”What’s going on, child? Are you in trouble?”

”Do not, whatever you do, DO NOT tell them that I was here. You don’t know me, you never saw me.. Do you understand?” Maxine looked at the old woman with a pale and frightened face. The child only waited a second for the woman to answer before grabbing her by the arms and squeezing them. ”Do you understand, Granny? I was never here!"

Maxine jumped up from her bed, pulling her black and green flannel on and slinging her ragged maroon pack over her shoulders. She secured her pack by tightening the shoulder straps, knowing that she would likely have to sprint, and quickly went toward the back door. Three more knocks, louder this time, came at the front door with a deep voice booming on the other side announcing that they were Arcadian Soldiers and wanted to ask her a few questions. The older woman followed Maxine to the back door and gave her another worried and questioning look. Maxine solemnly smiled at her, ”Thank you. Remember, I was never here..”

”Your secret is safe here, child.. Now, go. Go quickly.” It was if the old woman, in one simple announcement that the men behind her door were Arcadia, suddenly knew the situation without ever having to ask. ”Be strong.”

Maxine opened the back door slowly, peering from side to side down the dark alleyway before stepping out into the lane way. She shut the door behind her quietly and pulled her black hood over her head. Maxine quietly, but quickly, began to walk down the lane way and made it approximately 10 feet before a light shone in her direction, revealing her. She turned to look at the soldier on the other side of the flashlight who was yelling at her to ‘stop right there’. Like hell. Maxine took off running. Luckily for her, she was en-route to go to the international track and field meet before the incident and with her numbers, she was going to take first. The Arcadian Soldiers in their heavy gear couldn’t keep up with her and she always managed to shake them, sometimes others came to her help, sometimes… something bad happened. But all Maxine could focus on was her breathing, her stride, and losing the Arcadian Soldiers.

Be safe, Granny…
 
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New Angeles
Kemi's Apartment
11:00 PM

Kemi Marks

"I can make it on time! Shit, shit, shit!"


Kemi rolled to her feet, leaving the comfy recliner she'd been curled up in for the past two hours, and blazed down the hall to her bedroom. She was easily regretting taking the time to relax and watch a movie before she was due to be back at HQ. She had plenty of time for the movie, but had made the mistake of getting too cozy in her recliner, under her soft blanket, and had fallen asleep halfway through the movie. Now that she'd woken up - an hour after she'd planned to have finished the movie - she was running a little short on time. The cold wood flooring made her previously warm skin feel chilled instantly, but she had to deal with it until she could get dressed. In her room, the woman pulled on a pair of black cargo pants and a black long-sleeved shirt before dropping to sit on her bed and fit her feet with socks and a pair of black boots. Her gear would be on location when she got there - or at least, one set would be. The other was safely stored away just in case. One never knew when they might need a bulletproof vest now-a-days.

No time to waste. The Peacekeeper grabbed her keys and jacket, locking the door behind her and flying down the hall, putting on said jacket on the way. It was three flights of stairs down, her feet moving faster than her brain at this point, until she could make it out the front door. Tonight's mission involved hopefully capturing a potential survivor of the Furor group. As far as leads went, he had likely been pretty low level last year during the attack, but with most the group gone now, even low level believers were trying their hardest to continue on the legacy. Even so, this one was clearly too dumb to make it anywhere up the previous chain of command. The Peacekeepers had found his information so easily and there were signs pointing to him planning another attack tomorrow. Some sort of revenge for the conjoined take-down of the once powerful criminal syndicate? Likely. Maybe. Either way, he was planning to make a statement tomorrow and that had to be stopped.

As she arrived on location, several blocks away from the actual target's location, someone from her strike team spotted her and tossed a vest her way. She caught it and started prepping. "Alright, team one, make sure you knock politely." A gaggle of 'sure' and 'of course' murmured through team one which was comprised of the the soldiers who would be breaking down the door and barging in. "Team two to follow. Marks, I want you there. The rest of you, you know where you are." The captain pointed up, simply reminding the woman that she would be on sniper duty across from the building they were charging into. She already knew and wasn't too happy about it. As far as Kemi was concerned, the up close and personal stuff was the best, but her skills in that area were already superb. She was still a good sniper, but her skills were most lacking in that area, this was how her commanding officer felt it best to help her improve. It was a move made in order to better her skill set, which she appreciated. But she was still going to complain about it internally.

She did so the whole way up to the rooftop after reaching the target location, and when she got there she signaled as ready and waited for the show to begin.

_____

New Angeles
Some street
1:11 AM


On the way back home, Kemi couldn't help but keep her gaze down on the ground. The toe of her boot nudged a little forcefully with each couple of steps. It was frustrating. Yeah, the whole mission had gone off well, but she hadn't really done much the whole time and it had turned out way more boring than she had hoped. The guy had given up, seemingly too easily. But what else could you do when faced with that many high--tech assault rifles? It stills seemed too easy and it made her uneasy because of it. Neither of the snipers had even had to fire their weapons and now she was on her way home early. It was kind of disappointing. Hands in her jacket pockets, she kept up her pouting trudge. This night sucked.

Kemi hooked a sharp left to continue her walk back, slowing to a stop at the sight of young girl in a black hoodie booking it down the side street at full speed. Ah. She was so damn fast. And already too close. Kemi was off her game tonight, they were going to collide. She put her hands out, as if trying to ward off the nearing figure from hitting her, sliding to the side a little to see if they'd miss each other. But someone running that hard wasn't really a good sign. Was it a criminal?

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down!"
 


≋ Sarah Pendleton ≋


21:30
A downtown bar
New Angeles

Sweat soaking into the fabric of her tank top, Sarah collapsed onto the concrete pavement. Every single one of her muscles burned with pain and thick beads of snot and saliva hung in thick strings from her chapped lips and nose. A crowd had gathered to watch but all Sarah could hear was the sound of her heart thundering in her ears. With a grunt, the red head twisted her head so she could see her foe, a little spark of hope running through her as she laid eyes on them.

Her adversary was sprawled on her back from where they hand fallen to the ground and somehow looked worse than Sarah felt. She could see the shimmer of the sun on their sun drenched skin and the wildly erratic movement of their chest as they struggled to breathe. She knew that all she had to do to end this, to win this duel, was to pick herself off the floor. If she could just do that, she’d come out of this victorious.

After taking a moment to steel herself, Sarah pushed against the pavement. Her arms shook from the exertion and for a moment Sarah thought she was going to collapse back to the floor; but with a long, flat groan whistling through her clenched teeth, she managed to steady herself. Looking up her eyes met those of the one man in the crowd who seem calm and composed. Not breaking her gaze, the redhead slowly lowered herself back to the pavement before pushing herself up one, two, three, four, five more times until the man finally nodded and the crowd around Sarah erupted with noise. She’d won.

Dropping onto her knees, Sarah leaned backwards until her face was pointed to the sky, lifted her hands above her head and drunk in her victory, savouring the adoration of the crowd. A drink was thrust into her outstretched and Sarah shakily gulped it down, draining the glass in one go. More than a little of the water spilled down her front but she didn’t care, it was refreshing if nothing else.

Once the empty glass was taken away, Sarah crawled on her hands and knees to where her opponent was still sprawled on the ground, desperately gulping down air. Tapping the beach bro on the shoulder before sitting down next to him, Sarah began forming a small pocket or oxygen rich air around his face. She felt a little bad for having used her powers in their impromptu contest but she was terrible at backing down from a challenge and even worse at losing. Helping this muscle bound idiot to recover was her way of balancing the scales and slowly but surely, over the next minute her opponents breathing began to reach something comparatively normal.

“I told you I could do more pushups than you dumbass.” Standing up, Sarah offered a conciliatory hand to her vanquished foe. “I’m pretty sure you owe me A LOT of drinks now.”


12:00 - 01:00 ish
Downtown
New Angeles

Some hours later, she wasn't quite sure what the time was, Sarah was wandering through the streets of New Angles on the way back to her flat. She had had enough of that particular bar. At first the people wanting to take selfies with her had been fun but after a while it had become really tiresome. Besides, she had work tomorrow and while Sarah was a master nursing a raging hangover, she really didn’t fancy the prospect of it much. This was her first night off from her extracurricular activities this week and what she really wanted now was a fridge cold bottle of sparkling water and her bed. Also a kebab.

This last thought lingered in Sarah’s mind, accompanied by the occasional grumble from her stomach until she mentally readjusted her plan of the immediate future. Food then bed. Spinning on her heels, the red head set back the way she had just come, her eye’s scanning for somewhere to eat.
 
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New Angeles
Construction Site, the Slums
Aster Neon Honor

Taking on this many people at once wasn't a good move, and she knew it. They had the firepower and manpower, though she still had the element of surprise. She flipped her hood up over her hair and hat and glanced around the site.
"Show time."
She said as she took a deep breath and adjusted the mask on her face. She spotted the generator running the lights that lit up the meeting, and charged up a small ball of neon yellow light in her palm. Extending her hand, it fired forward and burned a hole into the generator. It sputtered for a second, then the lights shut off. Now the only lights illuminating the area was from the cars and two pink, grenade-like orbs that landed on either side of the trade deal.

"What the hell?"
The head-mercenary said before the orbs exploded in a bright flash of neon-shrapnel. The shrapnel itself wasn't deadly, but would leave nasty burns wherever it touched. It was mostly a distraction for Neon as she tumbled over the crate and charged the man with the envelope.
The man said something in Japanese, causing his men to raise up various sub machine guns and shotguns to fire at her. Raising a hand, a neon pink wall appeared in between her and the gunmen. Their bullets hit the wall and ricocheted off.
For good measure, she raised one between her and the mercenaries as well. Their guns were just as useful as the bullets couldn't penetrate the wall.

Firing a blast of energy at the man with the envelope, it struck him in the chest making him yell in pain. Snatching the envelope, Aster caught a glimpse of his burnt skin. It looked particularly nasty, but she was sure he deserved it. Running towards the edge of the parking garage, she leaped off the half-wall towards the street. Another flick of the wrist, and a ramp appeared below her. Sliding down, she rolled back to her feet and kept running towards the fence of the construction site. A beam of energy fired from her hand, letting her cut a semi-circle out of the fence to run through it.
She slid to a stop though, as behind the fence was a pile of rubble. A bullet whizzed past her, causing her to start running again. "Shit, shit shit." She said, this time conjuring a step of stairs to get her over the fence. Running up the stairs and diving over the fence, she landed on her side. Getting the breath knocked out of her, she coughed as she tried to regain her breath. Footsteps were just on the other side of the fence, and as they started to climb the neon stairs, they disappeared beneath the criminals feet.
Getting up, she headed across the street as she heard the sound of their cars coming from the construction site. Making her way across the street to some more buildings, she ran down an alley. A small neon platform appeared in front of her and started to rise up like an elevator once she was on it. Reaching the roof of the building, Aster collapsed on the rooftop as she caught her breath. "They shouldn't find me up here." Looking at the file in her hand, she sat up with her back against the border of the roof. "Maxine Saunders? Pretty name." She said, looking at a picture of the girl. She was young, and according to the file was an extranormal. Why did the Hounds want her? She started to read more into it, but made a note to memorize the address that was written down on the paper.

New Angeles
Downtown,Vertex's Apartment
Vector Anderson

@Quake
“Spidey boy. Haven’t seen you in awhile...”
Hearing the nickname, Vector smiled. "See that's what I like about you 'Tex, you have such a way with words! Spidey boy, see no one else but you my gold-loving friend would've thought of that" He paused as he plopped down in the worn down armchair. "Except maybe an eight year old." He finished with a laugh. Thanking him for the drink, he took a drink with a satisfied sigh.
“So, my good man...what the hell do you want?”

"Couldn't I just stop by and say hi to a friend?" Vector said, a cheeky smile on his face as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, before laughing. "Crow has called a meeting." He slipped a business card from his coat and put it on the table, sliding it across to Vertex. On it was a location to an old office located in the Slums. "I would've told you myself, could've saved us both some time. But you know how she likes to do things." He took another drink, shrugging. "Plus she wouldn't tell me. She knows I wouldn't have shown up. Do me a favor and burn that when you're done with it."
 
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New Angeles
Construction Site
Drake
@TheQueensGuard

When he saw Neon he knew the situation was going to get messy, but not quite to this extent. Allowing himself a moment to be awed by how easily she was dealing with the multiple armed criminals and mercenaries, he checked up on the stealth-surveillance drones and sent one to follow the envelope with the intel and the other to follow the vigilante directly. He had the other drones recall to his position as he pulled back.

Having the drones follow Neon quickly turned out to be a wise idea as within minutes she had already extracted herself from the gunfight and seemingly lost the gunmen. Seemingly, because he couldn't be certain as he had taken his digital eyes-in-the-sky off of them.

He groaned in annoyance as she just elevatored herself up the side of a building. Such bullshit, probably breaking all of the laws of motion in one way or another so casually like that. There was no way he'd be able to sneak up to her or catch up in time before she left. Looks like he'd have to just manage this with the drones. The drones that were now watching her open up and read the intel. A quick couple of commands had one of the drones sit still and read it over her shoulder, sending the images back to him as they were automatically double-checked and added to Arcadia's database.

Thinking quickly, he sent out the riot drone and had it drop a flashbang primed to go off right next to the letter in her hands- hopefully caused her to drop it and/or making it catch on fire in a ploy to destroy the evidence. In any case, she would have to stop reading it for now. Then he turned on its flashing lights and sirens to full blast. This model of the drone was basically the same used by the police forces and law-enforcement groups around the country, this one just having a few changes and, most importantly, being in Arcadia colors- something that Neon should quickly recognize (and hopefully not too quickly deal with).

He set it to pursue her at a fairly safe distance as it shouted at her with its loudspeaker in a default male robotic voice, "VILIGANTE NEON!! PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD AND GET ON THE GROUND!!" He also set it to blare out her position on the common police channels, with a "be advised" call out that also stated that Arcadia was handling the situation. Hopefully, this should put the crooks right back on her trail. In fact, to make sure he sent one of the stealth-surveillance drones to follow her and report on her position as well until an hour was up. He didn't wish for the death of someone who could unironically and seriously be called a "real hero", he just needed her preoccupied and too exhausted to cause him any more trouble tonight. Besides, the drone's battery life would only last about that long anyway before it needed to make the relatively long flight back to base.

His mission technically complete, he sent out a signal for pickup before calling Supervisor Gray. "Drake here. I'm sending you what I was able to retrieve from the intel now. You may have already seen it show up in the system." Even so, he sent along the compiled and analyzed files directly. Making his way away from the interrupted arms deal and the annoying vigilante, he continued speaking, "Neon showed up and made getting the intel both a lot easier and a lot more complicated. She was the one to get her hands on it, though luckily she opened it up where a drone could read it over her shoulder. I tried to drop a flashbang on her to destroy the intel before she could read too deeply into it, but I say 'tried' here for a reason. I recommend acting on the intel immediately before she can stick her nose back into our business. In the meantime, I've sent a riot drone to harras her and a stealth drone to leave a trail for the Hounds and the Hashimotos to follow back to her. That should keep her occupied for an hour or so. If I may, I would like a chance to come back to base and change my equipment before tagging along on the raid."
 
New Angeles
Downtown,Vertex's Apartment
Jason Vertex Wilde

Vertex glanced at the address, visibly annoyed. He had been in town for all of five hours and now there was another meeting.

“Wonderful,” he muttered, putting out his cigarette on the card and tossing them both into the nearby ashtray. “Wait here.” Vertex rolled off the couch and headed towards his room to get changed. “Oh, and don’t touch anything,” the Shadow peeked his head out of his bedroom, giving Vector a shrewd look. “Or I’ll fuckin kill ya.” Vertex grinned slyly for the first time since their meeting. While meant as a good natured joke between assassins, the Gold Shadow was very protective of his things. Perhaps there was a hint of truth to that statement.

Shutting the door and stripping off his undershirt, Vertex threw on a black tee and matching leather jacket, scrounging through his nightstand for his sunglasses. “Ah, here we go,” he said to himself, tucking the glasses into his shirt pocket. He didn’t particular need sunglasses for the night, but he liked having them around. They were his lucky pair, after all. After pulling on a pair of leather shoes, the man grabbed a tweed cap off a coat rack and put it on, heading back out into the living room where his fellow Shadow waited.

“Alright bug boy,” Vertex smirked, lighting another cigarette for the road as the pair headed out into the hallway. “Let’s get this over with so I can get some damn sleep before the sun comes up.”

@TheQueensGuard
 
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New Angeles
Some Street
1:11AM
Maxine Saunders
Interacting with @SoleStride as Kemi Marks


Footsteps fell rapidly against the pavement, filling the lane way with a monotonous rhythm. Maxine maintained a perfect pace, even when taking a corner around a building. Her arms swung at her sides in a 90 degree form, hands pointed and not curled into a fist. Her stride was long and was what made her fast. Her coach always commented, ‘other runners don’t have what you have.’ Maxine’s feet spent very little time on the ground once she was in her full stride and she was the perfect height to have the explosive start and drive necessary to accelerate. The girl had worked hard on her form and to aid that, she could run for what seemed like forever. Maxine’s coach was right when he said other runners didn’t have what she had; other runners weren’t extra-normals whose superhuman power made their bodies unable to overheat.

Maxine had been running for several minutes now, in the beginning she remained on a linear path until she was up to speed, and once she was in her full stride velocity she began to take corners. There was no way the Arcadian soldiers could have kept up with her, as always, they were too heavy with all of their gear. It was surprising to her that they continued to send soldiers wearing at least 75lbs in addition to their own body weight to track her down, however; she hadn’t encountered them head on often. More times than not, she was able to slip away before they showed up, and every time it was the same. She ran, she ran until she no longer could think and her head was completely clear, and when she thought it was OK, she stopped and found a place to hide out for the night. Not today though, today she would be stopped by something other than herself.

“Whoa, whoa! Slow down!” Maxine heard the woman’s voice before she saw her. After taking a corner a body was there, taller than her, that’s all she could process in the few seconds she had to react before smashing into this bystander at full speed. Maxine attempted to step around the woman, as the woman also attempted to step to the side, but it was too late, Maxine’s right shoulder clipped the woman’s.

The girl’s feet stumbled as the right side of her body was thrown backward and into a spin. Her feet lost the ground, body flying through the air in the same direction she was running. Maxine instinctively pushed her face into the crook of her right elbow, her arm wrapping around her head to protect it and put her other arm out, bent so that her forearm would hit the ground to brace her fall without it breaking. Maxine hit the pavement, her bent arm first, and then her torso, followed by her legs. Her body rolled a few times across the ground until it settled, face down against the cold pavement and moaning slightly.

Maxine attempted to push her body away from the ground, but it felt heavy. She was hurt. Her sleeve on the arm that hit the ground first was completely torn and there were other places of her flannel that had ripped. There was a hole in the knee of her jeans, revealing a pretty nasty cut that was crusted with dirt and debris. She was sure that her arms looked the same in places her flannel was exposing her skin. Her only prayer was that she didn’t twist an ankle; she could live with scrapes, cuts, and bruises, but if she lost her ability to run, it could be dangerous for her and she would have to find somewhere secure enough to rest until her ankle had healed. Maxine had managed to push herself into a position where her arms were supporting her body up but she hadn’t made it to sitting yet. The girl turned to look at just what she had collided with. A woman, gorgeous ebony skin, dark eyes, and dark curly hair to match; Maxine had never seen perfect curls like hers. The woman looked older than her and was dressed completely in black.. Cargo pants, long sleeve, black boots. That was a uniform. But for what? Who was she? Was she dangerous?

Panic began to creep in.
 
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New Angeles
Some street
1:11 AM
Interactions: Maxine Saunders (@Pupperr)

Kemi Marks


Just as she had figured. That girl was running way too fast to be able to correct herself before something bad could happen. But to be fair, Kemi wasn't able to get out of the way either. On a normal day would she have been able to dodge her? Whether it was her mood affecting her, or just that she had run into someone who she couldn't out maneuver even in an accidental situation like this, it appeared that they both had been bested by the moment. Contact. Both women had clearly tried their best to side-step the other but fate, or most likely just physics, had other plans tonight. Shouting had at least alerted the other girl, but it wasn't enough to stop the two from colliding.

Like many humans, Kemi let the "ow" sounds escape her lips before any pain actually registered in her brain. But she knew her right shoulder had been impacted hard enough to throw her off. She actually twisted, spinning with the momentum to lessen the force of the hit until she could really only lose her balance and drop to the ground as well. Her own tumble wasn't so complicated as the girl's who was actually thinking about how she fell. Kemi simply went with the flow and fell to her right side, landing with a solid 'thump' on her right shoulder. She felt the right side of her face bounce off the ground a moment after her shoulder hit, letting a hushed curse out in time with it.

For a moment, she laid there in the tense position of someone who knew they were about to meet pain. And when she was sure she was done falling and had come to a stop, Kemi let out a sigh, simultaneously slumping into the ground to portray her sheer loss of willpower to go on. This just wasn't her day... and she was willing only to drown in that need to just give up. Emotionally. Physically, she hadn't really sustained that much damage - at least not for a trained soldier. So when the time came that she knew she had to drag herself up off the ground, because most successful adults don't wallow on the street in the dark, the woman simply pushed herself up into a sitting position with her left arm since it didn't hurt like her right one was hurting at the moment. Sitting there, legs sprawled carelessly in front of her, she turned her gaze to the girl she had collided with.

Despite the sharp, throbbing sensation in her right shoulder and the bleeding scrape on her face that stretched over her right eyebrow and down to about half way on her right cheek, it appeared that the other girl was looking a little worse off. She was scraped up all over as well, but more than that, the look on her face screamed 'g-g-ghoooost!'. Or maybe she was just pale and terrified looking by nature? Now that she could get a good look at her, she was pretty young, wasn't she? Probably still a teen. What was some kid doing running around at one o'clock in the morning? That had sketchy written all over it. Kids these days lacked good role models. That had to be the problem.

Groaning like an old man, dad style, Kemi hefted herself off the ground and to her feet, brushing her pants off for a few seconds. Luckily, due to the thick material of the pants, her legs appeared unharmed. She nodded in satisfaction, lifting her right arm a little to see how the shoulder rolled. It hurt. More than she thought it would actually. But at the moment there was something else she worried about more. Kemi took a step closer to the downed girl, feeling another throb in her right hip from where she landed. Yet another ache to ignore. After that brief pause of surprise, she followed up with a few more steps until she was close enough to reach out a hand, putting a smile on her face in a show of peace.

"You okay? That was a nasty spill."
 
Black Grace/Anya w/ Guest Appearance from Gray @TheQueensGuard
New Angeles Lane End
1:30 AM

Black Grace perched on top of an old rundown building, her fingers flexing as she gazed at the Peacekeeper and Maxine from afar. The warm light near them flickered occasionally and gave Black Grace just enough light to have a general view of Maxine. A small, temporary piece of technology stuck to her left temple that communicated to Arcadia what she saw and heard, not that she could hear much from hiding away for the time being. The square lit a soft, light blue color for a brief moment when she began to speak to Gray on the other end.

“She’s seriously frightened, panicked even. Her body is shrinking and the lady is trying to make friends with her— how typical. The lady is sitting there; She appears pretty casual about the whole encounter, but I bet she’s got other ideas on her mind,” Black Grace scratched her chin and mused, “They’re both injured. If I go in as my alter ego, maybe I could get her away from the lady and help her recover, if Maxine was that desperate to find safe shelter. I’m sure she feels she can’t trust anyone.”

On the other end of the line, Gray was quiet for a moment. Only the occasional clicking of his pen let Black Grace know that he was still there. “Do you think this lady actually knows who Max is?” He finally broke his silence, before continuing.

“Nevermind, just get her away from doing whatever you think is best. However you approach it, make sure she stays calm. Get those absorber cuffs on her as quickly as possible. I have Agent Drake on standby, but I don’t think a dragon is going to help Max’s nerves.” He leaned back in his chair, which let out a low sounding creak. “The last thing I need to explain to the Director is why a bomb exploded in the city a year after the Furor attack.”

Black Grace felt the absorber cuffs in her pocket.

“I don’t think the lady knows who she is… She probably thinks she’s just some teenager running around but Maxine probably thinks she’s a stranger out to get her for her abilities. Take a deep breath Gray—We can’t have you dying on us from lack of oxygen. I’ve got this.”

She turned off the communication technology for the time being and watched Kemi and Maxine talk. Nothing big, it looked like. Maxine still appeared quite fearful, poor thing. Black Grace dropped down from the seven story building like a feather. She rounded the corner and placed herself in position, pressing a button on her wrist that opened up her wardrobe for Anya, her alter ego. Anya decided to sport a simple plum colored tank top, jeans, and an open plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves. Her form fitting overcoat hid a gun underneath within a secret chest holster and the absorber cuffs.

She had a purse with a few feminine essentials, cbd oil, some first aid, and a wallet, nothing too big to show she was another average citizen who was on the way home. She went down the backroad because she didn’t like being out in the open where she was vulnerable. Anya took a few drops of cbd and headed off to where Maxine and the woman was, straight hair streaming in the wind as she rounded the corner on her phone and pretended to not notice where she was going. She glanced up the moment she collided into Kemi, a seriousness in her eyes as she noticed immediately who the woman was. Maxine couldn’t be caught by her; How did they come across each other in the first place? She stepped back and ran her hand through her hair.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice…”

She saw Maxine then, and glanced back at Kemi.

“You ladies don’t look okay. You're both all scratched up. I have first aid experience. Let me help you.”

Anya pulled out her mini first aid kit.

@Pupperr @SoleStride
 
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New Angeles
Some Street
1:30AM
Maxine Saunders
Interacting with Kemi Marks @SoleStride and Anya Romanova @Kat

Wide eyed and afraid, Maxine’s heart beat heavily against her chest with each step the ebony woman took toward her. Pearls of sweat began to take shape on her forehead and bead down her face. Her hands began to grow clammy but it was becoming apparent that the woman was also hurt. There was a run of blood down her face and her expression tangled into a knot of pain as she tested her shoulder for injury. Was she just a simple bystander who happened to be in the way after all?

Maxine shifted on the ground until she was able to sit upright without the support of her hands and swallowed away the panic that had initially settled in. The adrenalin from the near miss of Arcadian soldiers at Granny’s house was causing her nerves to stand on end, but it was important to remain somewhat cautious. Trust no one. Especially people dressed in all black attire in the wee hours of the morning. The woman had outstretched her hand to help Maxine up, complemented with an offering of peace in the form of a smile. This woman didn’t know who she was, or the woman did and was pretending she didn’t, but for the moment the woman seemed OK. ”You okay? That was a nasty spill.".

Maxine drew a few deep breaths to calm her nerves, the last thing she needed was to accidentally burn this woman with her bare hand when all she was doing was offering her help off the ground. ”I’m OK. I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you the--...”

The words didn’t leave Maxine’s mouth and her outstretching hand to accept Kemi’s help halted as she noticed the woman talking on a cell phone approaching them from behind Kemi. Maxine retracted her hand quickly as the newcomer walked into Kemi and shuffled backward as the two exchanged looks. She was already pulling herself to her feet as the newcomer looked at her and announced that she was going to ‘help her’. Maxine could feel the nerves beginning to stir in her gut again. Something wasn’t right here; running into one woman this early in the morning was already coincidence enough, but now there were two of them. Was it a ruse?

Run. It will hurt. You won’t be able to run quickly. But you have to run. Move, Max… move.

Maxine turned on her heel as the newcomer was pulling something out of her purse and began to run down the laneway once more, her pace considerably slower and accompanied by a slight limp, which she attempted to compensate for by adding an odd skip to her once perfect stride. With each hobbled step, a pain shot through her leg, but she wasn’t going to take the chance that the two women were just that; two women trying to help her. Maxine peered over her shoulder to see if they were attempting to pursue her as she continued to limp down the laneway.
 
New Angeles
Vacant Office, The Slums
Vector Anderson

@The Wanderer @Quake

The ride to the old office building was rather uneventful, and not too long of a drive since it was so early in the morning. The pair of Shadows entered the building through the unlocked double doors and trekked up three flights of stairs before reaching an open corridor. In the center of the room was a conference table with several chairs around it. While the moonlight lit up a good amount of the room, two lamps with dimmed yellow bulbs illuminated it further.


On the far side of the table sat a robotic figure, slightly hunched over as its inner working hummed lowly. Beside it was a feminine figure garbed in a dark, shadowy outfit.
"Hello Vector, its been a while."
The robot said, it's blank gaze looking up at the two men. It's voice was slightly distorted, as if the tech was out of date and needed repairs. Vector frowned, recognizing the voice despite the low quality. "Hardwire." He let out a groan and took a seat on the side of the table. "This is why Crow didn't tell me." He said to himself as he rubbed his eyes.
"And you must be Jason Wilde. I've heard you are a capable killer."
The robot creaked out, not acknowledging Vectors distaste of him being here. "Your name is Jason?" Vector chimed in, before waving a hand in the air. "Doesn't matter. Look where is Crow, Tin Can. I'm not about to do a job for you." The robot turned its gaze to where Vector was seated. "I had no part in the deconstruction of your fragile, human arms. Besides, your new arms are much more superior. You'd likely not be where you are now without them." Vector gripped the side of the chair and glared at the robot before the amused voice of Crow spoke from the door. "Glad to see everyone is playing nice together."

She made her way to the center of the table, where she placed her hands on the back of the chair. Along with her came three men.
One Vector recognized as Pari, the fifth Shadow. The two had never gotten along, mostly due to Pari's interest in Riley.
The other two Vector didn't recognize, though they certainly looked the mercenary type.
"Everyone, this is Barghest. He is in charge of the Hounds in New Angeles." Crow said motioning to the taller of the two mercenaries. He carried a big gun, which he sat on the table. "His comrade, Jaeger." Crow motioned to the second man, his robotic jaw being his most prominent feature.
"You've already met Hardwire and he certainly knows about you all. Beside him is Lupa, though she doesn't talk much."

With the introductions made, Crow pulled the seat out from the table and took a seat. "Since we all know each other, lets get down to business." Vector raised a hand, saying. "Uh Crow, Riley isn't here yet. Shouldn't we wait for her?" Crow shook her head. "She won't be coming tonight. I have her attending different matters."
Vector sighed and slumped back in his chair. Riley got to go do actual work while he had to sit in a meeting with the worlds douchiest frenchman and a bucket of bolts.


Crow let everyone get settled before beginning.
"The past year has been a bit more difficult to operate here in the states. Furor's attempt at destroying this city made things harder than they needed, and it's time we get business flowing well again. To do that, we all need to be on the same page." She motioned towards Hardwire, who took over.
"Arcadia has been a problem for too long. They've suppressed and slowed the next stage in human evolution; extranormals. Purifier and the others of Furor had the right idea, but they were sloppy. He was a brute leading brutes. If we are to be successful, we need to do this together so we can all prosper in a new world."
The robot turned to Barghest and motioned with a slow hand. "The Hounds have already begun the first step. Gathering what extranormals they can for our army, where my associates can help train and get them to better understand and use their powers. Those that don't wish to fight will be persuaded otherwise."

Vector interrupted, chuckling some before saying sarcastically. "What? Do you want us to hand out fliers to recruit extranormals for you and your little gang? We are assassins Crow, not freedom fighters for a better tomorrow" Crow smiled and shook her head as she stood "No Vector, you'll have a different job. You, Vertex and Jaeger will be going to Supervisor Grays penthouse here in the city and kill him." She motioned too each man, walking around the table as she spoke. "Jaeger will provide over-watch from an adjacent building, while Vertex and you will be going in directly. Once inside you will confirm his death, then download a list from his computer." She finally paused beside Hardwire. "You want us to kill Arcadia's boss?" He nodded, smirking some. "Yeah I can do that. What's the list for?"
"On it will be the name of any known extranormals in America. Including those being trained by Arcadia. This will allow us to garner more numbers, but also find the strongest of the metas."
The robot paused and looked towards Barghest.
"Have your men retrieved the girl?"
The mercenary shook his head. "There were some complications. A vigilante interrupted the meeting with the Hashimoto's so we had to get the information another way. By the time my men showed up for the girl, Arcadia had already shown up." The man had a heavy Slavic accent, though it was easily understandable. "I have a keen interest in Maxine. Purifier missed his chance of obtaining her, and I hope your men don't do the same." Barghest nodded. "We will get her."

Vector nodded towards Pari. "What's Frenchy going to be doing?" Pari smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I'll give Riley a hand while you're off playing hacker." Vector narrowed his eyes, but Crow interrupted before he had a chance to respond. "Pari will be aiding in the capture of extranormals and dealing with some troublesome vigilantes in the city. I would focus on your job though Vector, it's an important one." Vector sighed and nodded, getting the hint to not cause a scene. "You three will be going tomorrow at 6 PM. He goes home to eat dinner before going back to Arcadia HQ, that will be the best time to get the job done. Any questions?"
New Angeles
Rooftop, the Slums
Aster Neon Honor

She didn't get to read far into the information in the folder before something fell practically in her hands. A loud bang caught her off guard as the flash bang went off right in front of her. Trying to shield her eyes, it did little to help the effects as she dropped the papers as they caught flame. The drone that had dropped it began blaring loudly. "VIGILANTE NEON!! PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD AND GET ON THE GROUND!"
Trying to blast is out of the sky, she sent several beams of light towards it. Still disoriented from the flash, she missed every blast. Getting fed up, she conjured up a ball around the drone and shrunk it down until it successfully crushed the drone. Catching her breath from the amount of energy it took, she ran to the edge of the building and leaped off. The pink platform from before caught her and helped guide her safely to the ground, where she ran in the street towards the sewer grate.

If there was one drone, that was likely more. Plus Arcadia could already be on the way to her location. Lifting the grate with her abilities, she grimaced at the smell as she climbed down into the sewers. To prevent being followed, she conjured a neon pink wall to block the hole.
In the sewer itself she walked on a platform she conjured above the dirty water. She had used the sewers a few times before in similar situations. She still wasn't used to the smell.
~~
Twenty minutes later, she finally got into some fresh air. Another ten minutes and she made her way to the address that the Hounds were trying to acquire. On a building across the street, it seemed like she was already too late. Arcadia had stormed the area, and still had some troops holding a permeter. "Damn it, I was too slow."
New Angeles
Arcadia HQ, Top Floor

Supervisor Gray
@ChrisClark13

"Drake here. I'm sending you what I was able to retrieve from the intel now. You may have already seen it show up in the system." Gray heard from the radio as he was reading over the information sent in by him. "Great work agent, I'm looking at it now." As Drake briefed him on the situation with Neon, he nodded approving despite Drake not being able to see him. "Smart thinking Drake, I've already have a team gearing up and getting ready. We have your ride on the way to get you, but you'll going to be on standby for this one. I'm having Black Grace take the lead on this one. We need a delicate touch with this kid and she has a less intimidating appearance. If things get heated we'll have you come in."
 
New Angeles
Some street
1:30 AM
Interactions: Maxine Saunders (Pupperr) and Anya Romanova (Kat)

Kemi Marks

Holy crap. This girl looked so freaking terrified for some reason. Had running into someone at that speed really scared her that bad? Wouldn’t it be weird for something like that to cause that strong of a fear reaction? Yeah… something was weird here. The fact that she was flying down the street that way in the middle of the night, barely even looking where she was going. Her reaction to coming into contact with another person. In reaction to the girl’s pale expression of worry, Kemi’s own face did a kind of downturn into concerned. Concern for the kid in front of her.

For a brief moment it seemed as if the girl was going to take her offered hand and Kemi’s own expression relaxed a little, glad that she wasn’t freaking out anymore. She simply waited for the girl to reach her hand out, not going forward anymore or reaching out farther so as not to scare her more. She was pretty fidgety so scaring her could be easy. But she was so focused on the kid that she didn’t notice the other woman walking right at her, and then running into her. Like with the previous collision, Kemi just let her body follow the flow instead of pushing back against the force. So her hand was pulled back as well and she took a tiny step back to adjust her stance. What was the likelihood of running into, quite literally, two people within minutes of each other? It was low, right? She caught sight of the new woman’s face, that gaze strangely focused and stern for someone who had just collided with someone. Rather, there was something odd about the way she looked at Kemi in the moment. And for some reason, the stranger didn’t really seem too surprised with this sight.

As the new woman turned to look in the kid’s direction, Kemi was sure a look of concern crossed her face again. Something about this whole situation made her really antsy. And it appeared that she wasn’t the only one. The kid had already gotten to her feet and the moment she was offered help, she took off at a run again. Though she wasn’t nearly as fast anymore and she was showing an obvious limp. On any normal day, it would be easy to let this go, but this was really worrisome. How could she let some clearly injured kid go running around in the middle of the night? At the pace she was going at now, Kemi could catch her.

“Whoa, wait kid! You shouldn’t be running on that leg!” She called out to her before muttering something under her breath. “She’s gonna hurt herself more…” Kemi turned to the newest addition to the morning madness, lifting a hand in an awkward ‘sorry, but goodbye’ pose. “Sorry, don’t worry about it. I’m gonna make sure she gets home safe. You, too! Get home safe; it’s dangerous out at this time of night.”

With that simple, but genuine, warning, Kemi took off at a jog after the blonde girl. Her right hip ached with each stride, but the more she moved and stretched it… well, the more it hurt, but it would be fine. And she was easily gaining on the girl in front of her.

“Kid! You shouldn’t be moving on that leg like that, you’ll damage it more!” When she got close enough to know that she would be heard, she called out again. Her jog slowed as she neared, a hand going to her hip as if the touch could make it feel better. The concern on her face was showing again as she looked to the girl's leg. She waved to the limb, as if trying to point out the obvious. “I won’t be able to sleep knowing you’re out here injured like this. I’m gonna have nightmares, you know. I'll be thinking about it for weeks: "what happened to that girl? Did she make it home? Did she bleed out?". And it wouldn’t be right for someone in my line of work to just walk away without helping so just chill a second and at least let me dress it or take you to an all night urgent care or something.” Kemi blew out a breath, sighing. "Don't make me run like that, I'm hurting, too, you know."
 
Anya couldn't believe how dumb both of the women were. She was trying to help; she was the only person who had a first aid kit on her. The moment Maxine ran off limping and Kemi followed after, she let her first aid kit fall back down in her purse and sprinted towards them both. There was no way in hell they were getting away, especially not Maxine. If they wanted to play the hard way, so be it.

"Wait! Both of you need to stop running! You're both injured and you'll only hurt yourselves further!"

Anya arrived at the pair, almost out of breath and pulled out her kit, "I have a shop near here that I can bring you to and tend to your injuries. What are your names? I'm Anya, I own Healer's Nest, a holistic health and cbd store."

She took out a cloth and poured some leftover hot water on it from her thermos, then passed it to Kemi who was standing a distance away from Maxine.

"Press that to your cut. What are you both doing running around here so late? Did you come from the bar downtown?"

She made a warm cloth for Maxine as well and held it out to the girl.

"It's okay," she took a few steps forward and glanced up at Maxine, her eyes and smile sincere, "I'll tend to your injuries and get you to the hospital, okay? You'll feel better after you get your leg treated."
 
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New Angeles
Vacant Office, The Slums
Jason Vertex Wilde

“Yes, my names Jason, you fuck.”
Vertex spat back at Vector in annoyance as the pair entered the facility. “Although I killed the last man who called me that,” he glared ahead at the bucket of bolts that had dared to utter his real name to the members of the meeting. As the meeting commenced and the different attendees spoke, Vertex listened intently, eyeing those he'd never met before cautiously.

“An assassination.” Vertex muttered. “Three of us. Arcadia. Either you underestimate us or they’ve got some serious firepower to back them up. I sincerely hope it’s the latter.” As if it wasn’t clear, Vertex was not one for working with others. They presented too many uncontrollable variables. Efficiency was mastered through preparation. Killing was an art, and mistakes only soiled such a masterpiece. Having loose cannons and unpredictable allies never seemed to go the way it should.

“I’ll get you your list,”
Vertex replied to Crow, turning to leave. The Gold Shadow had to begin his preparations sooner than later. And here he had hoped to get a good night’s sleep. “But you can count me out of training any of these extranormal refugees we pick up,” he continued. “My teaching days are long gone… Oh, and, what was your name again? Hardwire?” Vertex glanced at the machine seated at the table.

“Catch.”
Vertex flipped a gold coin out of his pocket onto the table that rolled across its surface, coming to rest directly in front of the machine. It was Vertex’s signature calling card, and a bad omen for it’s recipient. It meant that one day, be it a week, a month, or even years from now, the Gold Shadow would come for his head.

“Now if that's all, I'll be seein you. Crow, Pari. My regards.” Turning his attention to his newest partners, he shot a quick nod their way. “Vector, Jaeger. Try not to be late. You know where to find me if you get cold feet,” he chuckled. Without another word, Vertex slipped out of the building and disappeared into the night.

@TheQueensGuard @The Wanderer
 
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Johan "Jaeger" Krauss

Johan's morning was relatively uneventful, he woke up early. Did his morning stretches, cooked a spectacular breakfast. Scrambled eggs with some spice thrown in, bacon cooked just right, a nice cup of orange juice with some white toast with just a smidge of butter on it. Eating it was slightly cumbersome due to the artificial jaw, but enjoyable nonetheless.

After that, he did his proper exercises, watched the morning news and then a decent show he spent quite the penny on so to own the physical copy of. A few episodes later, and he received a call that he had quite the contract coming up, where to meet and at what time. He was happy, as he was getting rather bored just sitting around waiting for a proper job. Getting up from the couch and walking over to the closet that held his professional attire. He didn't put on the mask, but he did put it on the belt. Never know. Slipping on the long coat, zipping close the zipper over the light armored vest, putting the sidearm into its holster in said coat.

When he was finished getting dressed and prepped for a briefing, he made his way from his nice apartment to the meeting location. A decent drive, but he made good time just arriving five minutes early.

He met the robot that was their contractor. Started up a decent conversation. But once the others began to ebb into the conference room, said conversation died down as the boss made their job known. Though he only paid attention to the important bit, that being his role. A simple sniper role, his favorite.

Him and a high-powered rifle, picking off targets from a distance while they're near helpless to retaliate.

The others put in their piece, which he only responded with. "So long as you do your part, and don't fail. We'll get along nicely." His voice had a light accent, with something added to it. The accent sounded a bit German, but the jaw and possible other enhancements caused a different tone to be added onto his voice.

And once the meeting was concluded, he exited the room, got back in his car and went about his day, getting things ready for the job tomorrow. Purchasing a high powered rifle through a reliable fence, having it dropped it off somewhere he can pick the weapon up covertly for the job. After that, he went about his usual routine for the day.

Johan was excited for tomorrow.

@TheQueensGuard @Quake @
 
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New Angeles Old Town
Street
1:25 AM
Lucian Albrechtsen

A waning moon hung high in the sky, no stars could be seen with the light pollution that beamed from the downtown district and the airport towers. The sleepless metropolis was far from quiet even at this hour, as bustling crowds still paraded the arteries of the city through neon lights and the faint smell of cheap alcohol. Wanton murmurs spilled from the large streets into the slums, being dulled to a faint echo before being muted by the sound of the engine of a jet plane taking off from the North-Eastern side of the city.

"Yes, I've got it." Lucian leaned against a wall, his white jacket and pants highlighting his silhouette upon it. He crooked his head over to hold up his phone while fumbling with an envelope, spilling out the tiny data chip in contained. "I know, I know, but this is him we're dealing with. You can't be too safe with it." The airplane's engine drowned out the modified voice in the phone a bit, but Lucian simply closed his eyes and let it happen, he didn't care that much about what the other had to say. "Yes, I know Glenn, I won't be asking the likes of you if otherwise." The airplane's blinking light disappeared along the horizon, and the street's sounds returned to the soft murmurs from the city, the shouting of one woman can be heard more distinctly than the others.

"Of course, I always will."

The call hung up shortly after, Lucian held the phone in his hand for a moment before dropping it to the ground, pulling out a shiny metallic rod from his jacket, and piecing the device without hesitation. A few sparks came out of the broken device, much more than what a conventional phone battery should be holding. Lucian rubbed his temples a bit, he had been pursuing Hardwire ever since the incident a year ago, but searching for the likes of him in the fortress of silicon and transistors that is New Angles proved to be exceedingly challenging. He turns to most big named hacker groups already, but even they can only scratch the surface of whatever schemes that were going on.

A woman's cry can be heard from down the alleyway, it was the same one as before, something something a kid running away, maybe it's children's aid or something. God, just let the kid do what they want. Lucian thought to himself, he never liked it when someone else came along and claims they know what's best for a child. He was about to turn away before irregular footsteps can be heard, and he caught a glimpse of the source. "...You've got to be kidding." Unable to help but whisper under his breath when he saw the blonde teenager wobbling down the street, Lucian recognized her, though some parts of him wished he doesn't.

It was Maxine, the center of his biggest failure from a year ago. The girl that was cursed with an ability that made nothing but enemies exploiters of everyone who meets her. Lucian's eyes narrowed as he watched her stumble, with two other women behind her back. He doesn't know Maxine well, but the one thing he does know is that anyone who approaches that girl always approaches her with some ulterior motive, and these two are probably no exception.

Taking a back step further into the corner Lucian made an effort to conceal himself further. Who were the two pursuers? Arcadia naturally came to mind, but with how famous she is there was no doubt that other factions wanted a piece of her power. Keeping a keen eye on the pair, one of them seemed more amateurish, but the other didn't hesitate to approach Maxine further. Were they working together? Perhaps they didn't want to release their affiliations in the presence of each other. Lucian didn't make a move, but he knew that most factions won't hesitate to harness Maxine's power, and the last thing the city needed was another meltdown. Look who came back to haunt me.
 
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New Angeles
Some Street
1:35ish?AM
Maxine Saunders
Interacting with Kemi Marks @SoleStride and Anya Romanova @Kat

Over her shoulder she saw the woman she had run into start into a jog after her, yelling some bullshit worries about running on her obviously injured leg. The distance between them began to close, there was no way that Maxine could outrun anyone in the physical state that she was in. The child’s heart rate slowly increased as the ebony woman drew closer and closer but her jog drastically slowed when the distance between them reached a certain length. Kemi was close enough to talk to her without shouting, but not close enough to touch her, or even grab if her she lunged. Maxine readied her focus to what was in front of her once more, attempting to ignore the woman spouting ingenuine worry behind her.

”I’m not making you do anything! You don’t have to follow me, just leave me alone. I’m OK!” Maxine shouted back at Kemi without turning her head to look at her again. She could judge how close Kemi was based on how loud her voice was, she didn’t have to look. And besides, she didn’t want to show the potential danger that she was afraid. Maxine’s heart rate had increased, but it wasn’t rapid yet, sweat was beginning to form on her brow once more and her hands were becoming clammy from the anxious feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. Nothing else mattered to her in the moment, not the airplane above or the papers being blown about the laneway, not the cool stale air of the night, not whether her belongings in her pack had completely broken when landed on, only that two random women happened to be in the laneway she was using as an escape route from Arcadian soldiers and how she could keep herself from seriously hurting them.

It only progressively became worse. Now the other woman, the newcomer was following her too. She shouted that both of them needed to stop running in fear of injuring themselves further; ya, right lady.. Like hell. Maxine continued to limp away until she heard the newcomer’s footsteps rapidly approach. The newcomer’s steps, who she now had learned was named Anya and only wanted to help by luring Maxine to her weird ass hippy shop to tend to her wounds (did she think I was stupid?), were closer than Kemi’s. Her voice sounded closer, too..

Maxine shot a look over her shoulder to see what exactly was happening behind her, and there she was, Anya, not quite within arm’s reach, but close enough to grab onto her if she lunged. Anya was holding a cloth out to her. Maxine took two steps in quick succession away from Anya to reestablish a safe distance while she whipped her body around to face the two women, ”I said I’M FINE.

A spark ignited in the cloth Anya had offered to Maxine and was suddenly ablaze in her hand. The papers that were dancing in the odd breeze sweeping through the laneway also caught, creating strangely beautiful embers as they disintegrated with the wind carrying them. Maxine was facing the two women, her hands were clenched and smoking, and her face was twisted into frustration and fear. The girl took two small steps backward before heeding an unsteady warning; ”Leave me alone…"