Capes: Fallen [M][IC]

Another car rushed past outside, sirens blaring. Sebastian was desperate to get out there himself, but Anita had him kept cooped up in their apartment surviving off of the funds they’d made robbing Tempestuous. He was interested, he was curious and most of all he was bored. He missed the adrenaline and at the rate they were going it looked Anita wanted them to be hermits forever. Not that the money would really last that much longer really.

Annoyingly, the television was set to the news channel. It was a boon in as much that it kept him informed, but Sebastian was getting increasingly frustrated that he couldn’t be out there himself. Despite his growing irritation, he listened in.

“We have not been able to contact Fallciff Protectorate leader Shockwave, or indeed any of the Protectorate or Wards. We have however been able to elicit a brief statement from PRT Director Melissa Cameron.” The scene cut to some sort of press conference where a stern-looking brown haired woman with her hair in a tight bun.

“Several Hell’s Remnants groups are currently active and we have also seen activity from other dangerous groups such as criminal members of Darwin’s Chosen and Justice vigilantes. This is not a crisis situation currently, but we do advise that people travel by car and keep their doors locked. Avoid going anywhere unless you absolutely have to.” Sebastian switched off the tv and climbed to his feet, making for his bedroom with a look of purpose. Enough was enough and opportunity was currently rife.

“Nope.” he said “Fuck this. I’m going.” Anita, who had been in the kitchen rushed after him.

“What are you thinking?!” she asked incredulously “Hell’s Remnants are everywhere. That means Vacuum could be out there. They all want us dead but he especially is coming after us.”

“Technically, he’s coming after you.”

“Which means he’ll hit you to get to me.” she rolled her eyes “You know that, don’t be an idiot. Just keep laying low, we can afford to still.” Sebastian sighed, ignoring Anita’s presence as he started changing into his costume.

“That money won’t last forever. We can’t hide forever.” he began “Let me put it this way. I’m feeling claustrophobic. I’m bored. You’re trying a little hard to live up to your cape name. Now, with Hell’s Remnants making a mess of shit, is the best time for us to pull a job. The Protectorate are going to be busy with those assholes, so they won’t have time to bother with us. Hell’s Remnants will also be busy with heroes. They aren’t looking for us and it’s a big city. If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to trap in one of your barriers. Personally, I’d rather you do something useful with your power instead and come along.” Sebastian finished donning his costume, his helmet held under his arm. He gave Anita an expectant, impatient look. His friend sighed and rolled her eyes. He knew she wouldn’t trap him.

“Alright fine.” she begrudgingly relented “I can’t fault your logic and if you don’t do this now you’re just going to do something even more reckless later. Better you have me with you while you do it. Hold on.”

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“A tiny mall” Hostage said “Quiet area. See, nothing to worry about.” They were standing in the middle of a small, single story mall with an open roof. A tiny fountain with some old wooden seating around it sat in the centre. It wasn’t the most glorious of places to raid, but it’d do for a fix.

“It’ll do.” Jailer said with a sigh and a shrug “Watch out for broken glass, I’m going to smash the windows, then we should have largely free choice. Grab what we want and get out quick, got it?”

“How exactly are you going to do that with me here?” Hostage pointed out, causing Jailer to groan. Hostage felt rather similarly. Jailer had been planning to blast the windows simultaneously with her barriers he knew and in her rush had forgotten that his lame-ass power would cause every one of her barrier-projectiles to collide with him instead and leave him as a broken mess on the floor.

“Plan B then.” she said “I’ll hit the jewelry store, you hit the electronics?” Hostage nodded his assent and went jogging towards the small electronics shop. In seconds he was standing before the window, drawing one of his black katana. Swinging it like a bat he shattered the glass on the storefront after a couple of swings and climbed inside. Once he was safely deep inside the store, he heard Anita’s own target window shatter.

For an electronics shop, the selection available to him was pretty minor. It was mostly accessories like crappy headphones and phone cases than it was actual electronic devices. Still, the store was almost as tiny as its selection so it wasn’t long before Hostage found a case full of phones of varying quality. He began loading them into his bag along with a some headphone packs and a few accessories. He was just zipping up the backpack when he heard the voices.

“Looks like someone’s already been here.”

“Doesn’t matter, hit every store and grab what’s left.” Moments later there was footsteps and a chorus of smashing glass. This was a fairly large group by the sounds of it. It didn’t sound like capes, with Jailer there they wouldn’t have any troubles.

Hostage positioned himself out of sight as a pair of the other thieves climbed in through the convenient entrance he’d created. They didn’t get far into the store before he made his move. The first one went down immediately as he hit him in the back of his head with the handle of his katana. The other whirled around and took a backhand shot to the gut, winding them and stopping them from calling out. Bringing his hands together he spiked the doubled-over thug’s head like a volleyball. They dropped to their knees and he finished the job with a kick the face. With those two out of the picture, he turned and climbed out the broken window.

Suddenly, as he stepped out, he was encased in one of Jailer’s barriers.

“Hey Jailer what-” before he finished speaking, three more of the other thieves flew towards him, also encased in barriers. Just before they all hit him, the barriers around them dropped and they crumpled against his own. “Fair enough then.” he sighed. Which was when someone else spoke.

“You know, I thought I was having a bad day being chased by Seraph and that Ward kid.” he said “Then Seraph turned around and jetted off towards the prison and the kid had to run. Now we duck in here and look who I find.

Hostage dropped the bag of loot. Sitting by the fountain was Vacuum. The suited villain wore his dad’s mask as had been reported and was looking roughed up from his encounter with Seraph by the look of it, his fancy suit damaged in places and revealing the body armour below. Roughed up as he was, he was still Vacuum.

Well crap. If this asshole doesn’t kill me, Jailer is going to.

Magnet

One thing about his power that set him apart from other telekinetics was the way in which he was also classified as a Mover. Sure, many other telekinetics made objects hover with their powers to carry them around, and some could even make themselves fly. Magnet could only "fly" in a determined direction, and only if he had a heavy object to aim for. Truly heavy. With the suit and gear on, and his own naked body underneath not exactly being petite either, he had had to learn to be very careful when attempting any superpowered grab.

If he didn't get distracted, and if he planned his route in advance, he could actually swing between buildings. Quite often, it earned him shouts of awe from people on the street.

It seemed fairly simple. He focused on the wall of a building, made sure there was no lamp post or tree in the way, and let his power take him off the ground. The sensation had been very strange in the beginning. Not quite like he imagined "real" flying was like, but also not like being pulled forward, hooked at some distinct point on his body. It was more like sitting snugly in a soft seat of an accelerating car. Only the short moment between him letting go of one anchor point and shifting his focus to another, was slightly jarring and still not entirely enjoyable. At least it let him get around crowded streets and jammed traffic easily, or skip over shady groups he didn't have time to deal with at the moment.

And also, according to Jordan, it made him look cool.

He had called his wife up the second he and Jolt parted ways. No answer. That made him certain of his fears - she had already left home. With 99% certainty, it would have been as Nix. It would do him no good to worry about a comrade in the field though. In their Superhero capes, they were partners, and had to trust that the other didn't get worried or distracted when they had duties to perform. He could only hope that she wouldn't be alone in whatever she went out to face.

As he approached the Fallcliff prison area, he saw flashes of light and heard crashes and screams from ahead. He pulled himself up towards a rooftop, by focusing on the upper part of the wall itself and clinging to the wall as he made impact. Keeping his power up let him stick to any large object or surface. Like an insect. From here, he hoped to survey the situation below.

It was worse than he had expected. Wipeout had not just torn a hole in the outer prison wall, but also basically melted a whole wall away from a building, and ruined quite a bit of other property and ground around it as well. There was an antsy battle still going on, Heroes of various colors trying to keep prisoners from escaping. A handful of escapees Magnet recognized as villains were still here, fighting in rage or glee or whichever motivations they might have for not running away immediately. But most must already have escaped. A terrible day for the city.

Null was there, in the midst of it all. Safe from many powers, but not untouchable. Unfortunately, there was the dangerous teenage girl sticking close to him. Nightmare. Magnet could see several of what must be her apparitions, spreading fear among Heroes who tried to get close to the leader of the Remnants. It surprised him, what different things people could be afraid of. Against each individual, Nightmare's power was as effective as they come though.

Definitely staying away from her, unless he could get an angle on Null and hit him hard with something from behind, using his one-way-kinesis.

Magnet could spot Icebreaker near the prison building, at work with firing off some contraption to make an ice wall cover the melted side. Shockwave himself was also here, seemingly struggling in a standoff with Flashback. It could also be suspected that Rain Dance from Justice was nearby, as there was a strangely local downpour over the prison block.

Enough surveying. He decided to try to incapacitate some of the remaining prisoners or villains before they ultimately ran off.

He skidded downwards along the wall by alternating turning his power on or off. When he reached the ground, he ran towards the battle on foot. Debris from broken property and uprooted ground littered the street, no doubt the fallout of Wipeout's power.

A prisoner with a manic laughter tossed some kind of energy ball in Magnet's direction as he approached. As it bounced on the ground towards him, Magnet simply hopped aside before pulling a chunk of broken brick wall into the prisoner's neck from behind. The man fell on his face and seemed to lose consciousness, and Magnet was swiftly there to cuff his hands up behind his back. He would have liked to stick around and make sure the prisoner wasn't faking it, but he didn't really have time to spare.

A sonic boom slit the ground up further, just ahead of him. Shockwave hadn't let Flashback get near him, and seemed to manage to keep her away from his allies well enough for now as well.

Magnet jogged towards the prison building, wiping raindrops from his visor. The yard outside of it was deserted by now, save for two capes battling it out. Icebreaker's frozen wall had been torn down and he was now firing what seemed like icicle bombs that exploded in the air close to Wipeout. The villain took a bit of damage, but stomped the ground to suddenly raise a liquid wave up from the ground, stopping the worst of it. Icebreaker paused for a moment, realizing that the dark wave was towering above him. Moments before it crashed down, Magnet had grabbed the hero with his power and pulled him out of harms way.

Icebreaker gave him a relieved thumbs up, but Wipeout wasted no time. Another attack rose up right in front of Magnet, and he barely had time to focus on the top part of the prison building and pull himself up through the air before the strange liquid wave rushed towards the spot he had just occupied. He let go and landed hard in the grass some meters away.

"Come on out already, you brat! I don't feel like waiting for you much longer!" he heard Wipeout's voice, and saw that the villain wasn't turned towards him or his ally.

Magnet glanced through the rain into the ruined prison, only quickly enough to spot a scared young person still standing inside. A prisoner who refused to escape? He pulled some fist size rocks towards Wipeout from behind, hitting the bends of the knees hard enough to knock him to the ground. Icebreaker took the opportunity to use a spray gun to blanket him in a thick layer of ice to keep him down. Unfortunately, with Wipeout's power, there was no way that would last for long, Tinker ice or not.

Fast thinking was required. Why would Wipeout be so adamant about this prisoner escaping? Were they going to blow up the prison next? But the villain probably wouldn't care about a few casualties if so. Could it be a family member? Somebody important to Null?

Seeing the ice around the villain break as the ground underneath it liquified, Magnet decided to act. He reached out with his large red gauntlet and pulled the small person out from the prison, catching them safely in both gauntlets. It was a girl, and she appeared majorly shocked.

"Let her go!" Wipeout screamed, charging forward instead of producing a wave now. That strengthened Magnet's theory about the villain not wanting to hurt the girl.

Another ice wall sprung up in between them, Wipeout all but crashing head first into it, slipping on the wet ground.

"Get her out of here!" Icebreaker advised Magnet, who nodded and took off.

Nix vs Roll

Nix had reported in to command and been notified of the on-going robbery taking place nearby. When she arrived at the scene, police forces in the street were just preparing to make a move.

She situated herself in front of them, ready to bring up her freeze zone. It would shield the police in case of enemy gunfire. At least for a while.

It wasn't gunfire that came though, but a person. Jumping out through a tall, broken window, was a cape dressed in darkness. He didn't give Nix and the policemen as much as a glance before he took off towards a bike and sped off. Nix had to think for a while before she remembered where she had seen a cape with his outfit before. She couldn't recall his name, but she thought he was with Justice. That might mean that Frost had already been dealt with.

The police signaled that they were going to move in, and Nix nodded and led the way.

The scene they were met with was horrifying. Nix could hardly believe it was necessary to murder this many people just for a robbery. The policemen fell utterly silent as well, as they crossed the main lobby on highest alert.

At the far end of the lobby were one single human, sitting in a huddled up position against the wall with a look on their face as if they had just seen hell. Their hands clasped what seemed to be part of a broken weapon, and the bodies surrounding them were dressed similarly to the survivor. The robbers?

"That's one of the bad guys," Nix said with a voice she had meant to be low and quiet, but sounded unnaturally loud in the lobby of death. "Does that mean they didn't get away with any money?"

"Let's check upstairs. You guys are with me," one of the police said, gesturing to his team.

Nix looked around, spotting a few survivors among the civilians and directing remaining policemen to help them. Among the supposed robbers, there was only the one unharmed survivor, and they didn't resist arrest. Justice must have dealt with the situation in their usual way.

"Why would they enter a bank and harm so many civilians... Surely they must have known that would attract the police on a grand scale," Nix thought out loud. "And is Frost dealt with? Damn it, I wish that Justice Hero had stuck around. He probably took off before police could arrest him too."

Soon came the peculiar sound of clattering, and a strange echo of something squeeking. The sound was strange, as the officers looked around to see where it was coming from. Before they knew it, it was coming from what it seemed to be... a lone cat. The cat moved slyly, as it gazed upon the humans it found. It crept closer, as it then sat down, meowing a sutle way.

"It's just a cat," one of the police inquired. "Maybe it's a stray; I'll get rid rid of it." He went by the lone cat to try to pick it up. Once he did, however... he thought it felt slightly odd. The cat was fairly heaving, and had a metallic body, painted orange and black. He didn't realize it until then, but... the cat was a robot. Perplexed, he then noticed another one came inside. The another, then another. They started multiplying.

"What is this?" he wondered. The cat he picked up then struggled, clawing him on his arm. The scratch was deep; he was bleeding, until another officer signalled for a medic. The robotic cats were starting to pop up everywhere; from the lobby door, and through the lobby window. The officers outside, expericing this strange event, did everything they could to shoo away the robotic cats. Proving futile, they decided to group up together, trying to gain leverage.

That's when 'it' came by. A fairly large, robotic snow tiger.It approached the officers, as they all had their guns trained on it. "How cute," said a voice from nearby. Popping in quickly was a larger, robot; one that looked like... a dragon. On top, Roll the robotics expert was riding on top, with her right-hand robot, PENGY, by her side. The robotic dragon lowered its head, allowing Roll safe exit to the lobby ground. "Have ants decided to invade my picnic today?"

"Roll," Nix groaned. Had this been a trap? Set for her, for the police, or maybe for the Justice member?

She stepped up, signaling for the officers to get behind her. Roll's creations were blocking their way out.

"Did you have a hand in this?" Nix asked the villain darkly, gesturing towards the macabre scene of bodies around them.

"Hmm?" Roll pondered, as she gazed around the area. Indeed, there seemed to be some on-goings of a massacre. Looks like someone was busy. "Oh. Guess I was too late, huh? Too bad. Leave it to that scrub to leave work this sloppy...but it's not a total loss coming here. Guess I'll have fun squishing the ants here!"

Nix clenched her fists inside the white gloves. She couldn't believe they were supposed to use non-lethal force against monsters like these. Human criminals who gunned down civilians, villains who talked about 'fun' at a mass murder scene...

"I won't even give you the chance to," she said and started running towards the dragon robot, the pink small cape fluttering behind her.

"Miss Roll, I will examine and analyze the enemy," PENGY stated. "Analysis will be completed soon. However I can meanwhile state, probability of victory, 95%."

"DRAGGY! MEOWY! Children! Battle routine.... set!" Roll called out, pressing a few buttons upon her headwear communicator. "Execute!" The eyes of her robots glew red, poised upon a battle formation. DRAGGY, preparing it's heat cannon from it's robotic mouth, released vicious flames to its opponent. The other cat robots prepared to attack the officers on scene, setting out it's terrorizing claws.

Seeing the flames blow towards her, Nix put her zone up. It didn't quite reach the big robot itself, but it did stop the fire. To be safe though, she hopped aside instead of lingering in the blastcone of the fire.

She ran up to the officers, who were firing their guns at the cat robots without much success.

"Sorry," she murmured as some kind of apology to them before putting up her zone there, effectively freezing the cats assaulting the policemen. Unfortunately, most of the policemen were of course frozen as well. And the zone stopping the dragon fire had dissipated the instant she put up the second one. Sometimes she hated that her power couldn't actually... do anything. No harm. Not even to those who deserved it.

Keeping the frozen zone around her, she turned to face the villain again. She had to get close enough to freeze her somehow, and she wouldn't be able to control the robots for a while.

"Wait, what the hell?" Roll said, examining her opponent's strange power. "What in the world did she just do?"

"Miss Roll, analysis complete," PENGY stated. "It appears that is Nix, a cape who has the power to initiate Freeze Zones".

"Freeze... Zones?" Roll repeated. "Explain."

"In basic terms, she has the power to stop time in the zones she creates," PENGY explained. "Until the zone is overloaded by attempted movement or energy, or she creates a new one."

"Oh? Oooh... I see," Roll chuckled. "DRAGGY? Raise temperature. Continuous trigger! Expand energy to maximum intervals! There's nothing more annoying than the stingy sounds of roasting insects, but I suppose I'd have to deal. Execute!" DRAGGY raised it's head once more, preparing a spray of flames, towards it's opponent Nix.

The fire hit her zone, flames freezing in time like eerie glowing tendrils shortly after entering. The zone was already strained by the number of people and robots it had frozen though, so Nix knew it wouldn't withstand the fire for very long.

So, almost immediately, she ran off in the other direction, and up the staircase. Looking down, she realized in anger that when her zone would break, the fire would grill the bodies on the floor. Roll... More reckless than Nix had anticipated. A true sociopath, wasn't she?

If only Nix could get close enough to her. But if she did, she wasn't sure she could guarantee that the villain would live to see another day. And with the firebreathing, it didn't seem like she could get in range in the first place.

The fire broke the zone, and the cat robots and policemen started moving again. The officers had the presence of mind to throw themselves on the floor to avoid getting instant roasted.

"Hm! I must say, I'm quite impressed," Roll complimented cheekily. "...Said the spider, to the fly."

"Cover me!" Nix called out to the officers. A few of them scrambled up when the fire stopped, and opened fire on the dragon and the villain. Perhaps they didn't care as much about using non-lethal force at this point either.

Next, the hero grabbed a painting from the wall next to her in the staircase, about a meter in diameter, and jumped off the stair railing as powerfully as she could manage. With her athletic body, it was quite the impressive jump. Mid-air, she pulled her legs up and slid the painting in under her, before she created a zone.

The painting froze in time, and thus stopped suspended a few meters above the floor, Nix carefully crouching on top of it. She was lucky it was a sturdy canvas and that she was a relative lightweight. One possibility she had hoped to avoid was that she'd crash straight through the canvas. Or that she would accidentally negate the timefreeze on the object and make it fall down with her; she could consciously do that if she wanted to move a specific item or person out from her zone.

The zone still didn't extend all the way up to the dragon robot. But if she hurried, she could get closer from here. The whole manuever didn't take more than a couple of seconds, from her jumping off, freezing time, and jumping off again, heading straight for the villain. She was close now, she would be close enough for the power's radius to reach Roll before the dragon could turn its mechanical head and blow fire once more...

At least, that was the plan. Roll feigned concern at first, until she gave a cocky smirk. "Did you really think it'd be that simple?" Roll questioned. "You pompous, overblown ignoramus! I knew you'd try and go for DRAGGY's reaction speed!"

Quickly and ferociously MEOWY joined the fray, lunging itself towards Nix. The Hero's own reaction speed wasn't enough now, as she hadn't seen the other robot before it made impact. She was tackled to the ground, the mecha tiger clamping her against the marble floor with its big heavy paw. Instinctively, Nix froze time.

MEOWY froze, but it didn't do her much good. Its paw was still pressing down on her, its weight too much for her to push away, and the zone still was just out of reach from the villain. The officers ceased fire and backed away. Nix groaned.

"Teehee, you were a fiesty little moth, but I got you now," Roll boasted, kneeling nearby Nix. Roll examined her closely, until she had a realization. "You know what? You're not just a simple insect, aren't you..."

"Correct Miss Roll," PENGY cut in. "Further data verifies that she has similar characteristics to another being. One with Miss..."

"I know. It took me a while, but I recall the old data of this power of hers. My, my, have the mighty and superior have fallen, Nix," Roll replied, turning back to the helpless Nix. "Or should I say... Nozone?"

Nix stopped struggling for a moment, her pink mask turning to the villain. If Roll could have seen her glare underneath the visor now, she would have nearly been poisoned by its toxicity.

"That's not me," she spat. "Not anymore. And even when that was me? I was still a better villain than whatever you're trying to be. You're just a madwoman."

"Did I touch a nerve, Nozone?" Roll mocked. "Or are you too ashamed to admit the sad truth to what you really are. A treacherous freak!" Roll stood up once more. "I know about you, and all the evil you did. You then betrayed all the pathetic friends you made, in an effort to become a heroine and call yourself 'the good girl'? You're no heroine, Nozone, no matter how much you pretend to hide it, beneth that pathetic mask. You're evil! Always have been, always will be."

Nix bit down to prevent herself from throwing out an angry retort immediately. Roll knew nothing. She didn't know what situation Nix had gotten into with the old gang, how it happened that she left and became a hero instead. Right? She was just trying to rile the hero up, for sure. But a nagging worry bit at the edges of her thoughts. Was this how all of Fundation's members were thinking about her these days? All of Hell's Remnants? She shouldn't care. They were on opposite sides of the law, and the others had made the choice to remain on the wrong side.

"I'm not a cold blooded murderer, like you," she muttered.

"That's right! I'm what everyone call a murderer. And hey, you know what? Don't be shy! So are you! Come on, everyone it with me! Mur-der-er!"

Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er... the robots all joined in sequence, chanting. The remaining officers in the lobby backed off even more. Roll chuckled in amusment, as PENGY waddled her way, greeting her with a bow.

"I'll gladly embrace the title of murderer, and not be a passive agressive worm like yourself. Humans are like insects. No, I should say, people are imperfect. They lie, they're influenced by silly emotions... You can't expect such imperfect creatures to uphold a reasonable system of law," Roll explained. "I like robots so, so much better. They're always by your side, you listen, they obey, and if you don't like them, you can easily fix and reprogram them to your liking. Don't you agree, fellow mur-der-er?"

Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er...

"I'm not a murderer!" Nix roared from the floor. "But I'd love to take on the title, if it meant I'd get to kill you!"

She knew it wasn't a good idea to shout that with the police nearby. Many non-parahumans were wary of parahumans as it were. Although, weren't the Justice members practically revered by the public nowadays? Because they dared to do what the Protectorate wouldn't. Kill.

But there was still a difference between murdering and killing. The bloody bodies spread around her on the floor belonged to people who had been murdered. If Nix made sure Roll could never say a word again, it wouldn't be murder. It would be justice.

With another roar, just after having uttered the sentence, Nix grabbed a smoke grenade from her belt and clouded the area around her at the same time as she let her zone dissipate. The mecha tiger stirred and shifted its footing when its vision was suddenly obscured, and Nix could finally roll away. She coughed in the rubble and smoke, and was rewarded with a searing pain from her chest. Broken ribs, probably several.

"Don't worry, you're not a murderer anymore," Roll reassured. "Now, you will be dead! Goodbye, Nozone, have fun in heaven! Children! Execu--"

A high pitched yell interrupted her. "Oi! What on Earth is going on here?"

Nix felt a jolt of hope as she recognized the voice, even if she couldn't see through the smoke to the entrance of the bank.

Jolt had entered without bothering to get an update from the police officers who had managed to get out. He had been instantly faced with a horde of angry small cats, one of which he zapped when it jumped at him. When it crackled and fizzled rather than scream and run away, he had realized they were robots. Looking further inside to the lobby, he had spotted the two huge robots and the girl standing next to them. The trademark design of the creations easily told him who she was.

He couldn't help but smiling at the luck of the draw. As far as pure cape powers go, he was a hard counter to Roll. A much better match-up than Frost. But the bodies he glimpsed in the periphery suggested he deal with her as quickly as possible.

Jolt stormed forwards, disturbing or disabling any cat that attempted to stop him. He had to reach the main targets, the big robots.

"What the...?" Roll said in bewilderment. "PENGY! Analyze!"

"Miss Roll, data indicates that is Jolt," PENGY explained. "Master Jolt has the power to send a stream of electricity to his opponents, as long as he's touching them. Data now indicates that the probablity of success in this battle has been estimated to 56%."

"What?!" Roll shrieked in shock. "You know what, screw data! DRAGGY! Exterminate him!" DRAGGY once again prepared it's flame attack, charging energy.

But the flames never came. Jordan had ignored her pain and taken advantage of the momentary distraction Jolt provided. She was now crouched a couple of meters behind DRAGGY, who had been caught in her new zone.

Jolt reached out for MEOWY, and managed to touch its swinging paw. He was flung away by the robot's force, but the paw had received a well charged pulse of his power and seemed to get stuck at an angle.

"Miss Roll, MEOWY's energy has been reduced to 45%," PENGY explained. "DRAGGY has been caught in Miss Nix's zone. The Robot Master combat unit's in a critical state... if this keep's up, MEOWY will no longer function."

"I can see that, you blathering baffon!" Roll barked, turning towards Jolt, giving him a scornful glare. "That bastard! PENGY! Initiate escape protocol; we're leaving!" PENGY bowed, latching on to Roll's back. It then folded its arms around Roll's chest, and folded its feet around Roll's waist. It's back popped out, revealling two rocket barrels, which activated, sending Roll upwards. PENGY had the function to turn into a rocket jet pack, for Roll to escape.

"Initiating transport sequence," Roll stated, pressing another button on her head-gear. She then turned down towards Nix and Jolt. "Congrats, you two are now on my list. And those in my list, don't last long. This isn't over!" With that, she flew herself away through the nearby open window, out of the building. MEOWY and DRAGGY started to glow. Pretty soon, they de-materialized, transforming into light particles that floated to the sky, following Roll as she flew away. The other cat robots slumped, their eye light turning off, all eventually ceasing to function.

For a moment, the lobby fell silent, dust and smoke clearing up slightly. Then, Nix coughed again, followed by a hiss. A police officer darted to her side, but Jolt told them to tend to the wounded civilians and took their place steadying his teammate.

"Hey," he said cheerfully, "We're on a list!"

Nix wanted to slap him, but instead she just sighed. There was absolutely nothing cheerful about this scene, and fury was still boiling inside of her at the carefreeness of her enemy.

"Did Frost take off earlier?" Jolt asked.

She winced and spun around towards the stairs. "Frost! There were officers heading upstairs before the fight started, and they haven't returned!"

Jolt's grin, visible since the lower part of the face wasn't covered, faded in an instant. He took a couple of police officers with him who weren't too shaken to keep working, and hurried upstairs.

They found the troop shivering just in front of a cracked vault door, stuck to the ground with ice up to their knees. There was nothing taken from the vault. According to an officer, Frost had laughed and said that they didn't care about the money this time, before she simply left.

Of course. It had all just been a distraction, hadn't it?

Jolt truly hoped that Magnet was alright.

“Hostage!”

“Hostage!”

“Fuck! Sebastian!”

Hostage’s eyes slowly opened, the world beyond his helmet a blur slowly coming into focus, the expressionless red visor of Jailer’s helmet filling most of his vision, belying her extreme concern. His head thumped and a sharp pain radiated through it. He wasn’t entirely what had just happened, but it hadn’t been fun.

“I feel like I just got shot in the head.” he groaned, lowly pushing himself into a sitting position. He tried to look around, but quickly gave up on the idea as moving his head only intensified the pain. He could see enough anyway, he was still in the middle of the mall, not far from the fountain he assumed. He could see one of the Hell’s Remnants goons lying unconscious on the floor out the corner of his eyed. He wouldn’t have been out for more than a few minutes.

“You did.” Jailer said, her voice almost returned to its usual tone. Typical of Jailer that, to force herself back to her cool and collected state. He suspected she retreated to that headspace as much for her own benefit as is. Looking for solutions instead of dwelling on problems. It was practical but it was never something he’d managed to get the hang of. “Vacuum popped back up and took a pot shot at you before running for real.”

Hostage winced. That explained the headache. The bastard couldn’t have just taken his loss and left, he had to leave feeling like he’d won. Hostage got that. In Vacuum’s shoes he’d likely have done much the same. That didn’t make him any happier about the situation.

“Asshole.” he growled “Fucking hate letting him get one up on me like that.”

‘Yes, because a pissing contest lost is really the concern.” Jailer sighed, her tone now completely back to the usual.

“Our costumes are largely bulletproof thanks to your dear old dad.” Hostage shrugged, wishing for the throbbing in his head to cease. “I’m more annoyed than anything. We can’t go on like this.”

“You’re right.” Jailer said. “Every time we go out, we’re exposing ourselves to an imminent lethal attack from Vacuum or someone that works with or for him.”

“We can’t lay low forever either, before you suggest hiding longer.” Hostage aided, groaning as he pushed himself to his feet. “Come on, we need to leave before the cops arrive or the heroes get done with whatever Vacuum was talking about before.

---

Ten minutes later, Sebastian was sitting in the passenger seat as Anita drove them towards their apartment. It was eerily quiet and few people were around on the streets of Fallcliff. It was late at night, which added to it, but Sebastian would usually have expected to at least see a few more cars on the road than he did. The Hell’s Remnants crime spree had obviously been alarming to people, especially after the siege a month prior.

Sebastian had refused to go the hospital for what he was certain was just a concussion and since then the two had sat in silence, having not said more than ten words yet on the drive home. At first he’d figured Anita was angry at him for not looking after himself enough for her liking, but he’d quickly come to realise that she was lost in thought, considering some problem. Sebastian could guess what it was.

Anita parked the car, but neither of them moved. Sebastian’s head hadn’t let up at all along the drive and he had no desire to move under his own steam for another few minutes. As for Anita, to him she seemed practically glued to her seat by the weight of what had been left unspoken between them. Sebastian chose to break the silence, he knew Anita couldn’t.

“Vacuum tried to kill us today, he got pretty damn close to succeeding with me.” he said “It won’t end. As long as he’s breathing, he’s going to keep coming after us and I’m tired of it just once. I don’t want to hide forever, we can’t afford to hide forever. We could get through most of the year without pulling another job at best and that would bore me to the point I’d do him a favour and just off myself. We have to deal with this.”

“We could just leave.” Anita said, her voice quiet.

“We could.” Sebastian admitted, before adding “There’s no saying he won’t just follow us. I don’t think Vacuum is that invested in his new gang, he’s still dressing like a gangster from the 20s. I wouldn’t put it past him to track us to an entire new country really from what we know about him.”

“I agree.” Anita said “I don’t think running or hiding are options for the long term either. I just want to pretend for at least a few more hours that I won’t have to kill someone else.”

Sebastian thought about hugging her at that, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Then let’s go inside, watch a shitty movie and put off planning a murder until tomorrow.” Sebastian said cheerily, finally getting out of the car. He opened Anita’s door and made an exaggerated gentlemanly gesture towards the apartment building.

Null sat on the hood of a car in an empty parking complex. Nightmare was in the backseat of the car, mask abandoned as she curled up in the fetal position and muttered to herself. She’d experienced all the horrors of battle several times over being at the prison break, it’d take a while for her to regain her composure. Null didn’t much care, he was assessing the group in front of him. Assorted members of Hell’s Remnants gathered in front of him. All of his capes were present; a show of force. Several of them were worse for wear but that didn’t matter, so were the initiates also present. A handful of capes and two or three times as many unpowered thugs.

He said nothing for a long time, looking over those who were present. Flashback was dripping with sweat and had a shallow cut along her upper left arm. She was looking past Null at the car he sat on, worried for her sister but unable to get close without bringing her own fears to the forefront of the young girl’s mind. Wipeout and Vacuum were battered and bruised, leaning against pillars on the ground as they recovered. Frost and The Elemental were both largely unscathed. He himself was totally free of any injuries, nobody has gotten close to him.

“You have two choices right now.” Null said “Either you can join Hells Remnants and work for me as an ally, or you can walk away now and have no guarantee of safety next time I come across you.”

Null tried to read the expressions of the four men in front of him, the capes he was aiming to recruit. Of the four of them, only one had a particularly power offensive ability and that itself was far from versatile. However, they all had uses. One in particular, was the reason they’d staged the breakout to begin with.

“Well,” a handsome man with messy black hair that contrasted with his neatly cropped beard said “Personally, I am looking forward to providing you with my services so long as I’m able to make good money out of it.”

“Tangent, you’ll be given whatever you earn.” Null said, his tone firm but the promise of wealth there nonetheless. He suppressed a smirk as a sly grin spread across the Thinker’s face. Null had always been good at manipulating people, had always been far smarter than he was given credit for. He knew all out of the capes were in and that with them joining him, the unpowered would follow for their own safety and security.

---

It was later that Null found himself alone in Tangent’s company. He kept his mask on as his new recruit spoke to him. Some of the other new recruits didn’t seem to like that Tangent was already being given a higher placement in the group than them, this didn’t matter to him though. Tangent was worth all three of the other Capes combined plus some of his existing group - all o them bar Nightmare and Vacuum really.

“I knew someone was going to break me out, but I must admit that you weren’t who I was expecting.” he said to Null “Given that I am the most likely reason you staged that breakout from what I’ve seen, I have to ask what your game is. Are you still trying to take the city?”

“Did your power tell you that?” Null asked, giving nothing away.

“I’m afraid not.” Tangent said with that same sly smile “My power is precognitive. I can make accurate predictions about future events near or far from tiny scraps of information but I can’t interpret motivations or the like. I worked that out because it was obvious.”

Null bristled slightly at that remark, but kept his composure nonetheless. He couldn’t let this man get the better of him, but he did need him on board.

“I never wanted to take the city.” Null said, enjoying the brief look of surprise that flashed across Tangent’s face “I wanted someone to kill La Fenice’s leadership off so I could absorb what was left of the group. Going along with his takeover was a convenient way to make that happen while weakening the Protectorate side of things.”

“Impressive.” Tangent admitted, his tone didn’t indicate admiration but the man did seem to genuinely accept that this was a truthful answer. “So what are you after?”

“I want to control the city’s underground.” Null said “I want to do what La Fenice was doing but I want to do it better. I’m going to own this city and nobody is going to see anything but the mismatched group of thugs and drug peddlers. You can make that happen much faster.”

“I can.” Tangent said “I even will so long as you keep it profitable. For starters, this city will receive visitors in the future that will destabilise it greatly and put you in a position where you can seize control of the underworld with ease.”

Null was pleased to hear that, the surprisingly good news was good enough that he had to force himself not to display overt joy and maintain his character.

“Tomorrow I’m going to kill a lot of people.” Null said, his mind rushing “Knowing that, will they come sooner or later?” Tangent raised an eyebrow at that, surprised at how quickly Null had worked out the particulars of his ability.

“Some of those visitors will definitely be arriving earlier. One of them will be arriving about the same time no matter what you do.”

“Alright” Shockwave said, just loud enough for his gruff voice to cause the assorted capes and PRT operatives to fall silent and look at him. “We’re all tired, sore and pissed off but there’s work to be done so listen up.” Shockwave himself was aching all over from prolonged close combat. He was in very good shape but there was no denying that he was aging and that he’d have to retire from active duty in the next five to ten years. Years of fighting villains up close and personal took its toll.

The assembled personnel around the room all looked tired or worse for ware. They’d been actively combatting the massive crime spike during the Hell’s Remnants breakout all night, it was now nearing the time that the sun would rise. Seraph excepted, all the capes wore their masks on account of the PRT presence and he could see that most longed to lose their masks and costume so they could rest and relax. He made himself ignore their discomfort and started the briefing, an image of a handsome man with shaggy black hair appearing on the screen.

“Tangent.” Shockwave said “He’s a thinker nine with precognitive powers. He can predict the future to a high degree of accuracy so long as he has a small amount of information to get himself started.” The image then changed again to display a chubby hispanic man nearing thirty. “Superglue. He’s a blaster two with, as his name implies, the ability to throw clumps of an adhesive substance.”

“Secondary power makes him very creative with naming.” Jolt piped up, eliciting a chuckle many of those present.

“Joke when you’re not the kind of dumbass that’d get stuck.” Shift jibed, more of the room laughing at that. Shockwave looked at the heroine, her face was hidden but he could tell she was exhausted. The other wards had been forced to go home, but Shift had been granted permission to remain. She was moving into the Protectorate soon, there was no use babying her. Fallcliff couldn’t afford that leisure.

“Quiet.” Shockwave barked, everyone present obeying as a figure in a purple morphsuit appeared on the screen. “Creeper. A stranger five. He can hide in your shadow for as long as you have one.” The screen changed yet again, this time to reveal a black youth in a hood. “Impact, a blaster five. Anything he throws will hit much, much harder than it should. If he throws a rock at you, react like he threw a car.”

One of the PRT agents whistled, one of his colleagues elbowing him in the side as Shockwaves eyes fell on him. Shockwave continued

“Those four seem to have joined up with Hell’s Remnants. With Nightmare and Tangent and tangent under Null’s leadership, they are to be treated as the biggest threat in the city at this time.” This time there were no outbursts. The screen changed once more as the briefing continued now displaying a skinny white man.

“Puff, a shaker two.” Shockwave continued “He produces irritating spores that become exceptionally painful in large numbers. He was seen escaping alongside this woman.” The display now showed a young woman with white hair “She is Dodgem. Blaster four and mover two. The spheres of light she makes keep bouncing until they fizzle out and hit like something very solid - unless they hit her. Then they merge with her and increase her movement speed.”

“They’re from Darwin’s Chosen.” Sharpshooter acknowledged.

“They are.” Shockwave said “We suspect they’ll return to being active members of the group. Which brings us to the last new problem that we are currently aware of “Torrent. She’s considered a shaker and blaster six but is to be considered a seven or eight for both categories if enough water is present.”

“I sure hope that’s an error.” Icebreaker said “Torrent’s a registered solo hero.”

“When she heard about our failure to stop the breakout, she announced that she would be joining Justice. That means we now have to consider her a potential enemy depending on how violent with her targets she becomes.”

“Fucking hell.” someone hissed. Shockwave was inclined to agree. Justice were getting much too popular.

“Now, that brings us to our plans going forward. We’re assuming Tangent is operating under the assumption that we’ll expect Hell’s Remnants to lay low today. That means he is likely predicting that we’ll take the time to recuperate. That means we can’t do that because they’ll probably hit somewhere. Furthermore, tomorrow is Tempestuous’ press conference which means there’ll be protesters and that means we’ll need an active presence there incase Darwin’s Chosen members attack picketers. Everyone will be on the max number of shifts for the next week while we ascertain exactly how much shit we’re in right now. Those of you who should be on duty, get to work.”

Tempestuous stood in her office, readying herself for the press conference she was about to give in front of the building. Those who didn’t know her would probably expect her to revel in the things she was about to say, but in truth she was drained. She picked up the photo of her deceased husband and child, the only personal item she kept in her office.

She had formed Darwin’s Chosen four years prior upon their deaths. Most people would have been surprised to learn that they had been normal human beings. She had already been a parahuman for nearly a decade at that point. If they’d had the kind of powers she had, they could have survived the accident. She’d always felt that parahumans were the next step in human evolution, but this proved it for her. She’d come to the conclusion that for the good of humanity, society needed to become parahuman centric and parahumans had to form a ruling class. What people didn’t understand was that this was because it would push humanity to develop more and more parahumans. What people didn’t realise was that the higher beings had to care for the lower. Darwin’s Chosen wasn’t a hate group, the human hunters were not a group she agreed with at all… but they were a necessity. They too would cause more trigger events and continue to demonstrate the superiority of parahumans.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts with a sigh, Tempestuous changed from her office attire to her cape gear - a white bodysuit and lab coat. She didn’t wear a mask. She left her office and made for the front of Future Science Labs where a mass of onlookers - sympathisers, reporters and protesters all - were gathered. She was about to reveal information that had been kept under wraps for far too long. She stood at her podium, all eyes on her.Shouts and jeers from the picketers picked up, she resisted the urge to silence them with a crackle of lightning or a thunder clap.

“Parahumans are the next step in human evolution.” Tempestuous began, speaking over the top of the angry protesters who were already picking up steam. “I am telling you this as confirmable fact. For the first time in thirty years there is now discernible proof of a difference between parahuman and human brains that I can reveal to the public. My research has lead me to believe that this is not a new discovery, that some in certain organisations already knew about it. This section of the brain is called the corona polentia and while I cannot say it is responsible for powers, it is in some way responsible for controlling them. This is undeniable proof that parahumanity is the next step. We are the future.”

Tempestuous never got to continue her speech. The speech that she had rehearsed for hours to ensure that she never faltered or needed to check notes. She couldn’t afford to seem fallible in any way if she wanted to convey her message. So she swore under her breath when the first scream tore through the crowd. It didn’t take long to isolate where it was coming from. Dodgem, Puff, Alpha and Blackout had seemingly just appeared in the middle of the protesters from out of thin air - some sort of cloaking device made by Blackout.

Alpha moved first, tearing into the protesters and the other human hunters were quick to follow. People were trying to flee as the capes moves through them, laying waste. Howls of pain and despair ran through the crowd as more and more of the assembled crowd were left with burning skin, broken bones or gaping wounds. Tempestuous was powerless to stop the violence. She couldn’t interject without hurting civilians and she couldn’t afford to show dissent in her ranks. She felt like throwing up. Once again she would have to endure the hate. She would undoubtedly be viewed as the instigator. It seeed things couldn’t get much worse… but then the rain started. It wasn’t her.

Even as the Protectorate security had finally been able to start to act, Justice had arrived and now her press conference seemed sure to devolve into a three way skirmish between the human hunters, Protectorate and Justice. She could already see the silvery spheres whirling through the rain.