B006 Big Game Hunt (Part 3.2)

Posted on October 1, 2013 by tieshaunn

They snuck up to the manager’s office, evading detection mostly due to the fact that there weren’t that many people around in the first place, and Brennus knew where anyone was at anytime, provided they did not enter one of the rooms without surveillance (but there were still cameras watching over the entrances of those rooms). Also, luckily, no staff member had the time to leave the business area, and the manager was tied up as well with helping out in the kitchen.

The office itself had not been locked, but Brennus still made sure to check the door over for any security that was not wired into the general security system the building used. But he found nothing, and thus they entered the room.

It was really plain, especially compared to the building it was in, white paint, red carpet, a simple desk with two computers underneath and two monitors on top, as well as two bookshelves along the left and right side of the room.

After scanning for surveillance equipment beyond what he had already disabled, Brennus walked over to the desk and turned one computer on, one of his ravens (he currently had three on his shoulders) hopping down onto the desk. <This is the one. Give me a minute.>

The girls took position to the left and right of the door, just in case someone barged in, while he went to work. Though he did not make the mistake of sitting down in his power armor again. He had ruined three chairs already with that move, and they were supposed to get in and out without leaving any traces.

A minute later, he was done.

<Damn. They are trying to buy something big. As in, they have been saving up their profits and gathering all resources they could. Two hundred million dollars already, and it seems that is still not enough!>

The girls just looked at him with their mouths open. Hecate was the first to respond: <What could they want to buy that costs that much!?>

Brennus shook his head. <Not important now. I have copied the contents of the computer. We can analyze – INCOMING!>

He jumped over the desk and towards the girls the moment the blur appeared in his ravens’ field of vision, smashing through the door – the two ravens from his shoulders cawed like real animals and flew down to the desk – and allowing the two of them to exit the room, just as the window into the office exploded inwards and a black shade landed on the floor, then leapt towards them with an animalistic shout.

Enhanced strength to make those kinds of leaps possible, most probably enhanced durability to deal with the impacts.

Having landed in a crouch outside the room, Brennus braced himself against the floor and kicked backwards with both feet, his armor enhancing the strength of his kick, speeding it up – but the charging blur evaded, hitting the door frame to redirect its movement, angling itself so it flew towards Tyche – who was in the middle of falling face-first to the floor, having stumbled on the door sill just in time to fall so it only clipped her right arm instead of possibly breaking her back or her neck.

Enhanced senses, enhanced speed.

Hecate reacted faster than he would have expected – or maybe it was just a reflex – and blasted the attacker out of the air with one of her red-and-blue spherical blasts.

Being still tapped into the surveillance system, as well as having his ravens still in the room, Brennus got a snapshot of his enemy – a strange panther-man with flowing fur. Literally flowing fur, as if there were a river of black hair-water flowing down his body.

Panthera Rex. Well, so much for our luck.

Panthera Rex rolled with the blast, using his hands to push himself up so hard he turned into a blur again, his feet slamming into the ceiling from which he catapulted himself towards Tyche, his claw-tipped hands thrown forward towards the prone Tyche.

Enhanced striking effect on the hands, capable of ripping or punching through steel, as well as circumventing most Exemplar and Paragon Tier defensive powers.

He had read about the Black Panthers, and done an in-depth analysis after last week’s crime spree. This guy had stood out.

<Don’t let him hit you.>

His hands still on the ground, he arrested his kick’s momentum, which would have carried him back into the manager’s office, by pushing his fingers into the floor, then pivoted around, kicking Panthera Rex’s arms aside.

The villain missed wide, spinning away from the three of them – and since Hecate had barely moved in the split-seconds this had all happened, right back into her crosshairs. Capitalizing on it, she blasted him down the hallway even as he was thrown around like a rag doll… only to land on his feet in a comfortable crouch, as if he were just playing around, looking at them with yellow cat-eyes.

The three of them stood up, watching him warily. He was seven meters away, which was not much considering the speed he had moved at before.

<That’s him, right? Panther T-Rex?> asked Tyche, her speech over the subvocal system distorted due to her labored breathing.

Hecate answered, this time without sounding annoyed. <Panthera Rex, current leader of the Black Panther’s Eastcoast Division. B-to-A-Class supervillain, way above our pay grade.>

“Tststs, you’re just children,” the villain said. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to break into other peoples’ homes?”

<Brennus, Tyche, I need to charge my staff up, so keep him talking,> ordered Hecate.

“How did you know we were here? I cut off all lines of communication,” Brennus said as he slowly, carefully drew his stun batons.

Panthera chuckles. “One of the books in there is actually a contrivance. Enchanted, so it doesn’t show up on sweeps for technological surveillance.

<Hecate, please tell me you can make some doo-hickey that scans for those?> asked Tyche.

<I’ll get right to it, provided we survive tonight.>

“Well, regardless of that, I should probably take you down already,” continued Panthera Rex, moving into a more aggressive crouching position.

<What were his powers again, Mr Exposition?>

<Power spread. Damage 6, Manipulation 3, Movement 4, Perception 2, Physique 6 and Protection 4.>

Tyche chuckled under her breath. <Wow, that was short… wait, I remember most of those from the briefing, but what’s the Manipulation 3 stand for?>

Their opponent didn’t give Brennus or Hecate time to answer as he charged forward, low to the ground like a flowing, bodyless shadow.

“Evade!” shouted Brennus as he jumped up, his right hand sticking to the ceiling, his right foot to the wall, holding him up. Tyche made a cartwheel back into the office, and Hecate…

Hecate just stood there, as if rooted to the spot.

No.

Panthera Rex was less than a meter away from her, his hands stretched forward, his claws ready to tear into her chest as he angled his charge upward.

No!

Brennus threw his baton. He did not have the time to make a proper throw, but his power armor compensated, and the baton flew as if thrown by an Olympic thrower.

It struck Panthera in the neck, the electricity discharging itself immediately as it made contact. That, coupled with the force of the throw, and the fact that it hit at just the right angle, slammed the supervillain into the ground, arresting his charge, and also dislodging a black throwing knife that had impaled Hecate’s shadow.

Manipulation 3, capable of binding living beings to a spot by impaling their shadows.

Hecate cartwheeled backwards, despite having a clear shot, to bring some distance between them at the same time as Panthera pushed himself back with his hands, then threw himself forward and after her, his clawed feet digging into the carpet for traction – but he was stopped once more when Brennus dropped down in front of him, swinging his second baton in as wide an arc as he could in the hallway, forcing the villain to abort his attack to avoid electrocution, throwing his upper body back and to the side.

Panthera Rex used his backspin to kick Brennus in the gut, with enough force to throw him back and force Hecate to retreat further backwards instead of aiming her attack; then, as he pulled his leg back in, he kicked himself off the wall and into the office, going after Tyche.

She can not take him alone, thought Brennus, catching his fall with a roll and charging forward as he pulled his stun gun out and readied his new grappling hook system. It might make all the difference.

This guy is just playing with us, and he is still kicking us around.

B006 Big Game Hunt (Part 3.1)

Posted on September 29, 2013 by tieshaunn

He would have to think about a teamname another time, because now they had to act. And carefully so.

The restaurant, which was innocuously called ‘Hong Kong Kitchen’, looked like it had jumped right out of the catalogue for clichéd Chinese restaurants. Lots of paper lanterns and cheap red dragons.

Tyche snorted at the sight. “Seriously? That’s where they meet? They’re the Black Panthers, not the Black Dragons.”

Brennus nodded, even if she could not see it from her position. “True. No respect for tradition,” he compained.

“Children, focus,” Hecate reprimanded with a long-suffering sigh. “Brennus, you said your ravens can’t get in?”

He had to take a few seconds until he finally remembered. “That restaurant only looks simple. Reinforced front to back, so no blasting through the walls. The windows are reinforced, too. Soundproofing as well. And they have protected their electronics, it is all locked down. No outside access without tipping them off. And they can probably call reinforcements the moment they realize that something is wrong.”

She nodded, thinking it over. “We should still try to sneak in. Can you pick the lock for the back door, Brennus? Without them noticing?”

He would have rolled his eyes if she could have seen it. “Of course. I should even be able to take down any surveillance they have, once we get inside. We just need to be silent. By the way, we should switch over to the communication system I worked up for us.” You always forget that.

<Alright, how do we proceed?>, asked Tyche. She was vibrating, anxious to finally get into some action again.

Like we haven’t had too much action lately, thought Hecate, but instead went over the plan again – as far as they had a plan. Sneak in, have Brennus hack any computers, try to spy on the meeting that was supposed to take place.

Then they jumped down from the building they stood on, landing two storeys lower – Tyche caught her fall with a fancy roll, while Brennus simply let Hecate levitate the two of them down, then cast her veil around them – it was fragile, useless if you moved too quickly or attacked others, but very useful for sneaking up to a back door undiscovered and letting Brennus pick the lock.

Once the lock had been dealt with, Brennus cracked the door open just enough for one of his ravens to look inside. Through it, he saw a simple, red-carpeted hallway with a cheap, ornate occasional table beneath an even more ornate mirror, and three doors. Also, three security cameras. Luckily none of them were currently looking directly at them. Brennus sent his raven out to the closest camera, the bird extending a prehensile cable from its beak to allow him to hack into the surveillance system – it was mostly proof against outside interference – mostly by just making sure that there was no outside point one could access it through – but once one got inside…

As a rule of thumb, no mundane system could hold up to a Gadgeteer. Even an Exemplar-tier Gadgeteering power could easily work through even the most advanced security systems, provided they were not designed by any Contriver (though they could certainly destroy them simply enough) or a more capable (not necessarily higher-ranked) Gadgeteer.

The Black Panthers had neither, and thus their system fell within mere moments, giving Brennus full control of every appliance linked to it. Which wasn’t much, as it turned out. Cameras, telephones and the building’s internet connection, all his now. He put the cameras into loops – with Eudocia to monitor and adjust the loops if needed – and also put Eudocia to monitor any and all incoming and outgoing calls, as well as internet accesses.

They slipped into the building, closing the door and huddling together under Hecate’s invisibility charm, while Brennus took stock of the situation inside. Frustratingly, the blueprints showed three rooms which were not covered by the cameras he could access. Not good, those were the rooms most likely to hold sensitive meetings or items.

<I can not see the interesting bits. Kitchen, dining area, staff room… nothing interesting. At least the staff is bogged down by the customers – Friday night business and all,> he explained, half smug and half frustrated.

<How many rooms are hidden, and what could they contain?>, asked Hecate.

Tyche snorted. <So what? Let’s just go take a look, it’s not like they can stop us! No metahumans here, that’s the whole point why we chose this for the OP!>

Hecate sighed, having gone through this time and time again. <I told you, we only think that it’s unlikely that there are metahumans stationed here. And we’re not here for their merchandise, anyway. All we want is information, which we should get from their computer system. Speaking of which, did you find anything, Brennus?>

<Nothing on their wired systems. But the room in the subbasement is eating a lot of their electricity. And there is a separate computer in the manager’s office up on the second storey.>

Hecate and Tyche spoke at the same time:

<The manager’s office.>

<The subbasement!>

Brennus shook his head. How predictable. <I vote for the manager’s office as well. That is two against one, Tyche.>

<Alright, alright, jeez…>

B006 Big Game Hunt (Part 2)

Posted on September 27, 2013 by tieshaunn

Okinawa was sinking.

It began slowly, barely perceptible at first, but soon one could see the island rumble, throwing up waves around its coast.

And then you could see it slowly sinking, even as the newslady grew frantic, and heroes and villains together did their best to slow the collapse down and evacuate those inhabitants who had yet to be evacuated.

“Why the fuck is the island sinking!? She didn’t use any uber-power before she vanished, right?” asked Dalia with some exasperation.

Basil squatted down, folding his fingers in front of is face to think. Then he looked up at the video feeds again. “The power she used to twist the buildings – it must have reached downwards just as quickly. Judging from her position… I’d say it reached about one-thousand-and-nine-hundred-and-fifty metres into the ground… more than enough to compromise the foundations of the island. It just took some time for the damage to spread further and have it break down.”

They both fell silent, just in time for them to see Fleur use her power to try and delay the collapse, her ‘garden’ spreading out much like DiL’s ‘Desolation Field’ did, a sphere formed by a green-and-pink haze.

And once again, we see the difference between an S-Class metahuman and us mere mortals, thought Basil with some sour grapes in his thoughts. Sometimes, he thought he’d have preferred to just get a straightforward superpower like that of Fleur or Lung Moo or Sky High or the Boogeyman or even Defender, boring though the latter’s power might be.

Tears in reality opened above and below water from which giant, no, titanic trees emerged, shoring up the crumbling foundation of the island.

“Doesn’t look like she can stop it,” said Dalia.

“No way. Holding up an entire island like that? Weisswald may have been able to do that, create enough trees to stabilise it. But Fleur is far, far more limited than he was – for one, her trees are not permanent, they cannot exist outside of her ‘garden’.”

“A shame,” she replied, without her usual snark at his exposition. “It’s funny, though, don’t you think? How they all use spheres?”

His gaze turned from the news feed to look at her. “What do you mean?” he asked, momentarily confused… then he started making the connections.

She continued. “DiL, the Savage Six, Fleur, Defender, they all…”

“They all work with territories.” He stood up from his squatting position and went to the closest keyboard, moving the news feeds aside to the left end of the screen to call up several older recordings.

DiL’s Desolation Field at Okinawa, of course. Followed by Fleur’s Garden, Defender’s… Defender Field (he had no imagination), the Boogeyman’s Metaphobia, Sky High’s Heroic Wind (he had too much imagination), Heretic’s Pocket Dimensions (the latest one had stolen Osaka two days ago – Japan had no luck lately, with the Six in Osaka, DiL in Okinawa and the Kaiju attack on Tokyo)…

“Not spheres, that is just the form, the shape… they all have territories, fields within which their powers work… and not just them. Lady Light’s Aura, Cataclysm’s Domino Field. Most god tier metahumans with outwardly aimed powers have effects that evoke the sense of a territory, an area around them which they can affect with their powers.”

“You think there’s a reason for that?”

He nodded, writing these thoughts down. “There has to be. There are so many themes that are repeated among metahumans, and this one seems to be another one.”

He looked directly at her, throwing her a wry look. “You really sell yourself short, usually. You are far more perceptive than one would think from your usual behaviour.”

She snorted, then smiled. “Don’t tell Liki, she’d have a heart attack.”

“Ha, tru- You call her Liki?”

“Drives her nuts. She’s so easy,” she explained with her trademark leering grin.

He just shook his head. Mostly because he realized that she’d just managed to distract him from the tragedy onscreen, if only shortly. And she might not have noticed it. Full of surprises, she is.

They both turned back to the newsfeeds, just in time to see a close-up of Fleur.

“That chick is so hot,” commented Dalia.

Basil had to admit that Fleur was very pleasing to look at. She was tall, even for a metahuman, somewhere between one-eight and one-ninety, with fair but slightly tanned skin, bright green hair, light pink eyes and an elf-like, slender body (and pointed ears). She didn’t so much wear clothes as she had flowers and leaves grow around her body, winding and twisting to form a dress that ended at her mid-thigh in front, but hung down to her ankles on the back, and exposed a good deal of her back. She had more flowers grow in and out of her hair, but wore no mask (only some subtle make-up) and was barefoot as well.

Currently, she was atop a piece of rock floating above Okinawa, together with the metahuman responsible for levitating said rock – her younger brother, Terre (a legacy hero, the fifth of that name).

“She is good-looking, yes. Also, did you notice that her trees a-“

“Oh God, you see an essentially naked super-hottie and you think about her trees? You really are hopeless – poor little Prisca…”

He snorted at her.

* * *

About half an hour later, Okinawa was gone, sunk beneath the waters of the sea.

According to what little information was available at the time – the situation was quite chaotic – more than sixty percent of the civilians on Okinawa had been evacuated in time. The rest…

Also, as was usual for a DiL-Attack, the secondary consequences were often far worse than the initial ones (barring Caracas and a few other notable disasters). Fleur, later boosted by Lady Light and supported by the Dark, as well as aided by several hydro- and terrakinetics, had slowed the collapse of the island, allowing it to sink beneath the waters without causing a tidal wave… only for the support of the island crumbling almost instantly the moment their endurance was exhausted, the moment their powers failed.

The resulting tidal wave had already devastated the Ryoko and Okinawa Islands, and would shortly hit the Japanese, Korean and Chinese mainlands. Worse yet, though, was the chain reaction started by this – three more islands had sustained critical damage to their foundations and threatened to collapse, too.

“This… this is one of the really bad ones, isn’t it?” asked Dalia, her tone subdued as she watched the images on the screen.

Basil, once again squatting, his forehead on his folded hands, replied without looking up: “Yes. And she did not even have to build her power up – she just used what she had intelligently.”

“How? She’s not smart, that’s supposed to be her only real weakness!”

He had thought about that, and was pretty sure he had figured it out. “Invulnerability, flight and the devouring light that sticks to her hair and nails are her standard powers. There is also a theory that she has another permanent power, some manner of enhanced perception maybe, but her immunity to perception effects has prevented any deeper analysis. Apart from those, she usually has three powers, one offensive, one defensive and one for utility. Only, during the final phase, she only had that one offensive power, the matter animation effect. Or so it seemed.”

“You think she had another perception power, stacked onto the one she’s supposed to always have? And what was the defensive one?”

He shook his head, again without looking up. “She does mix it up sometimes. And we know from Gloom Glimmer, who seems to have an almost identical base power, that perception effects take a tremendous amount of potential to manifest. And that animation effect was far more intense from the very beginning than her usual offensive effects. She probably split the potential that usually goes into added defense between offense and utility.”

They both fell silent, watching the tragedy unfold.

* * *

An hour later…

Dalia had gone to sleep before school (she needed far less sleep than a normal human, though she was not sleepless), chosing to stay at the lair and sleep in what was supposed to be the emergency bedroom, but was quickly becoming her bedroom.

Basil himself went back to work – no reason to stop work on his new grappling hook system. Until he found a way to fly reliably (and without half a ton of extra equipment), swinging around the city was the most efficient (well, most fun) mode of transportation.

It took him another two hours of work. It was not that he had to invent anything anymore, it just was a lot of very fine, very delicate work he could not outsource. The bane of every gadgeteer, they had phenomenal technology at their disposal, but most of them could neither explain their work to others, nor find a way for easy mass production – even building a manufacturing machine from scratch rarely worked out (you’d need a speciality just for that to make that alone work).

Maybe that could explain why no one had built a space elevator yet. Basil at least had already figured out how, he just could not work out an execution of the plan that would not require him to work on it for years by himself.

Of course, the fact that he saw his designs in pictographs made it difficult to translate it into something normal people could work with. And as far as he knew, it was worse for others – Hotrod was supposed to see his designs all as stylized gears and other machine parts and Polymnia had once commented that she heard her designs as melodies and symphonies.

It would be really interesting to learn how Sovereign or this Macian perceived their designs.

By the time he was done, he had to fight to stay awake, but the new system was complete – well, half of it – and he still had to go to school. So he jumped under the shower, dressed, grabbed his backpack and ran off to take the bus.

* * *

We need laws to protect children from school.

He was walking into the hospital as he thought that, on his way to visit Prisca. Thankfully, with his power, he didn’t have to put any effort into the science classes, and everything else was quite trivial for him. But still, he had not slept for more than fifty hours now, and he did not think he would sleep anytime soon, either – too many ideas, too much to do.

If the ‘Blazing Sun’ was actually the manifestation or personification of his power, than he could finally understand why it had that name. More and more, he felt like there was a light behind his eyes, pushing, burning, illuminating. The only way to alleviate it was to use it. To make something.

So, after he met with Prisca, he’d finish the second half of his new grappling hook system, then catch up on sleep. No patrol tonight for him. He needed to recover.

I wish I did not need to sleep anymore.

He reached Prisca’s room – and heard giggling from inside. Two girls, giggling. He couldn’t remember hearing Prisca giggle before.

Not quite thinking about it, he just pushed the door open without knocking. “Hi, Prisca, who is your… friend…”

Prisca was looking at him, surprised, in her usual position on her bed, and with the tablet he had constructed for her in her lap.

The second set of giggles cut off abruptly. It had come from the tablet.

“Eudocia…” he growled, closing the door behind him. This had not been a part of his plan.

<Uh, hi dad. How are you doing? You don’t look too good, maybe you should go home and sleep… forget about everything…>

Despite only having a rather monotone, electronically generated voice, she still managed to sound like a little child caught trying to snitch cookies from the cookie jar.

Prisca gave him her best attempt at a cute smile, but he had practice dealing with those looks. “Don’t be angry at her, I tricked her into revealing herself,” she said when she saw him scowl.

“Quiet, please.” He pulled out a few gadgets and checked the room for eavesdropping equipment. Then he set up a white noise generator, that should confuse most mundane recording equipment. “All right, now I know that Eudocia is smart enough to not be tricked easily, especially in regards to revealing her true nature. I am not angry, not really, just tired. So please, just explain.”

<Well, we were playing a game, and I was also watching two movies she’d given me…>

“And I asked her a few questions about them…”

<And I answered as thoroughly as I could…>

“Which I found strange, because she answered like a human, not a machine…”

<So she started asking questions about that, and well, I didn’t want to outright lie at her, so…>

“I kept needling her until she couldn’t evade my questions anymore, and she told me the truth.”

Basil sighed, sitting down on a stool.

“Well, so much for the experiment,” he complained, rubbing his temples. He was really too tired for this. “No matter. Just do not tell anyone about her, alright?”

Prisca nodded, probably understanding the situation.

<Sorry Father.>

“Do not call me father.”

<Alright, father.>

Prisca giggled while Basil groaned. Then she pouted, even though her thin, cracked lips did not lend themselves to it.

“So, why does my boyfriend come in here, when he forgot our last two dates, and just talks about a computer?”

<Hey!>

He flinched. “Sorry, sorry.” Standing up and bending forward, he pressed his lips onto hers, a short, but passionate kiss.

When he pulled back, he smirked at her. “But I am pretty sure I forgot only yesterday’s date.”

She frowned at him. “No, we were supposed to meet on Wednesday as well, for movie night.”

Now it was his turn to frown. “Really? I honestly can not remember.” He tried to remember, but he really couldn’t tell what he had been doing at the time. “Actually, I can not remember what I did at that time, at all.”

Now she looked concerned. “Why could that be? You never forget anything!”

He shook his head, confused. “No. I just have a better memory than most. And I have been…” Again, he shook his head. “No matter. I will deal with whatever is going on myself. Let us enjoy ourselves for now, alright?”

“Are you sure? This sounds pretty serious.”

He nodded. “I will handle it, promise.”

She nodded, too, conceding the point. Then, he pulled the stool over next to her and sat down.

* * *

1:12 AM

He looked down at the restaurant, then shook his head. What? Where am I?

Assessing the situation, he got bits and pieces of his memory. Full armor. He looked at the two boxes at his hips. Full new grappling hook system. Stun gun, batons.

He looked around. Tyche and Hecate where to his left and right, each with full equipment, and currently using binoculars to scout the place out.

Right. The Black Panthers. They’ve been moving a lot of merchandise and capital lately. Hit a minor hideout to get info on them.

What did he know of them again? Black Panthers. Started as a violent pro-civil rights group. Lost traction when King survived his assassination by manifesting metahuman powers. Devolved over the years to a simple, if powerful crime gang – not even exclusive to people of African-American descent anymore. Current leader supposed to be a major morpher, but no other details known.

And they were going to declare war on them tonight.

We really need a teamname.

B004 Introduction to Metahuman Studies (Part 5)

Posted on June 16, 2013 by tieshaunn

The young man looked utterly unremarkable – he was the kind of person Basil would never have noticed walking down the street (then again, Basil was not the most observant of people). Neither tall nor short, average weight but soft, untrained. Short, brown hair, muddy brown eyes and a too large nose for his otherwise thin face. His clothing was equally unremarkable, a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and blue loafers. Basil pegged him as a mid-twenty, at most.

And he was standing at the edge of the building, alternating between staring off towards the setting sun and down at the street.

As Basil watched, he took a deep breath and raised one foot to step off the roof.

“Stop please!” Basil shouted while simultaneously activating the speaker function of the raven.

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B003 Forbidden Garden (Part 10)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by tieshaunn

Gloom Glimmer had teleported the two of them back to HQ after gathering her ruined equipment. She’d left Polymnia in her workshop to try and salvage as much of it as possible, but the most important parts, her sonic system, were also the most vulnerable.

Two suits trashed in less than two days. This doesn’t really say anything good about my future as a superhero.

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B003 Forbidden Garden (Part 9)

Posted on April 8, 2013 by tieshaunn

NSFW

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B003 Forbidden Garden (Part 7)

Posted on March 25, 2013 by tieshaunn

“Are you sure you want to do this? You are hurt“, Amy said.

Basil just nodded and stared at his mobile phone – tracking the movements of the so-called Switchbitch.

Amy’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “The Hemogoblins…”

“…are a C-to-B-Class gang, mainly due to their leadership consisting entirely of metahumans, with their actual leader being a B-Class Contriver”, continued Basil. “Their metapowered members are…”

“Alright, alright, so you’ve done some research on them”, Amy cut him off before he could launch into an exposition-rant (not that she didn’t like to do that once in a while. Just not as much as he did). “Still, do you think you can do this? You. Are. Hurt. And your teammates are certainly not up to this – leave it to the heroes! That’s what they’re for!”

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