Episode 1: Trials of Champions

The story of the Paradigm IX begins in a large industrial warehouse in the center of the metropolis. It has been set ablaze, with explosions and fires piercing from it throughout the night. Cameras from all manner of media outlets have set their optics upon the scene, letting the entire world watch in horror as the three beloved heroes of the Paradigm VIII are literally destroyed, with Caucus the only one yet to die. The state police have sanctioned off the warehouse after losing many of it's brave uniforms in battle and it would seem that tonight, all hope is lost.

[[As Caucus]]

Blood erupted from his mouth as the mighty fists of Bombshell slammed into his back again and again. He was prone on the ground, trying desperately to reach out for the dead bodies of his two longtime friends and partners, Glory and The Vote. Their bodies had been riddled with gunfire after they had been ruthlessly slain by the host of Villains that awaited them.

Ever since the great Flux of energy from the Lacuna, there had been plenty of super-powered individuals for the Paradigm IX to take out and have sent to the new Kalhoun Prison that had been made specifically for those that were captured. However they had been primarily used to defusing situations that included normal human beings. They were not ready for this situation. The Paradigm VIII had been tipped of a shipment of foreign children to be smuggled into New Congress for slavery. They had immediately descended upon the warehouse where they found waiting for them a host of thugs & super powered individuals:

[Cosmos, a man who has the capabilities of absorbing and re-channeling cosmic energy to shoot at his foes. Possesses the ability to fly as well as enhanced strength.]

[Pride is a Jynall Human-Lion hybrid. He has all the strengths of a lion wrapped in the package of a human being.]

[King is a man of enormous size and strength. His baton is capable of sending out dangerous bolts of concussive energy. Surrounding him are 20 "Pawns" ((shown in the pic)) that carry small arms, and are extremely adept in hand-to-hand combat.

[Tallok is a man whose flesh has given way to a damage-resistant metal that can produce sharpened *barbs*. These barbs are able to be shot forward at his opponents and can be regenerated at will.

[Bombshell is Tallok's sister. She is of great strength and her wild fighting style makes her pummel her foes into submission. Like Tallok her skin is of a steel material]

[Valkyrie wears a suit of armor that gives her enhanced strength and protection. She carries a shield and a lance made of pure energy]

[Funnybone is a brute who has lost all sense of pain. He carries into battle 2 titanium baseball bats and can quickly regenerate physical injuries inflicted upon him.]

[Marron is a berserker who carries into battle a medieval-style set of Aramid armor that is able to resist small-arms fire. He carries a devilish looking axe]

[Duality is able to make clones of himself. He masters in agility and is well-versed in dangerous martial arts]

[Shear is a dangerous acrobat who uses giant blades that protrude from his wrists to impale and shred his foes. He also carries a pair of modified pistols making him twice the threat.]

[Murphy is an expert gunman that wields an assortment of firearms. He currently holds 2 desert eagles, a modified M-16 and grenades. Most of the explosions are due because of him and his 13 men that are at his side. He wears a complete casing of body armor that is able to deflect even armor piercing rounds and is resistant to fire.]

The Paradigm VIII did not stand a chance against this threat, and while they fought bravely they were savagely taken down. Caucus could hear the cries of the children as the fists of bombshell went into his back once more. A loud cry of pain erupted from his mouth as he felt the bones in his back begin to shake. He still tried to crawl however towards the bodies of his two fallen comrades, and when he was ruthlessly kicked in the gut by a boot from Bombshell's brother Tallok, he tried to crawl towards the children that were trapped inside a large container. However those that were assembled laughed at his plight, their leader finally making his way towards Caucus. He stopped infront of the bloodied and crawling hero, shaking his head at Caucus's defiance as even still in his condition tried to fight by grabbing the ankle of Testament, the ringleader of those gathered.

Testament kicked Caucus's hand from his boot and spat down at the warrior, looking up as he knew that the many automated cameras of the news channels were watching. His face could not be seen beneath his mask but his voice was all too clear as he spoke, pointing towards the cameras as he reached down to yank Caucus up, holding the man by his head and forcing the cameras to train on him.

"Witness now as your heroes fall beneath the will of Truth! The time of change has been brought upon you and the secular ways of the world which has led to naught but to chaos, turmoil, entropy, apathy and destruction shall be smitten under the beauty of the Lacuna! All who do not separate themselves from their hedonistic way of life shall be given judgement at the hands of my disciples and myself. And if you fight" -he pushed the head of Caucus forward, the stubborn superhero still trying to cling to whatever life he could- "You shall be judged underneath our heels"

Testament then tossed Caucus down, turning to those gathered and saying "Finish this now" before opening up a Lacuna gate and walking through it, disappearing as soon as he stepped through.

With the entire world watching, Bombshell walked towards Caucus's body and placed her foot on the back of his head. She looked up at the camera's smiling about to stomp down and finish off the superhero once and for all.

((SCENARIO))

The warehouse is currently ablaze, about 70 children are trapped within various canisters within the complex. Caucus, the last remaining member of the Paradigm VIII is about to be killed. The Villains assembled are all dangerous in their own rights, and are staying behind as insurance that Caucus is finally dead. Firefighters are rushing outside to put out the flames, but their lives are also in danger as soon as they enter the complex. Thugs from both King & Murphy bolster the ranks of the villain's numbers.

The villains gathered have been ordered after Caucus is executed to immediately lay waste to the civilian forces gathered outside. That includes the police, media, bystanders ect. They must be stopped!

Any attempt at a rescue will be perilous. Surely anyone who tries to defuse the situation alone is facing suicide...

Is this the end of Caucus?
Will the kidnapped children truly be shipped away to a life of slavery?
Will there be an answer to the despair now felt by the people of the world watching as the last of their heroes is about to fall?

Find out as Episode 1 of the Paradigm IX continues!!!!!

The Baptist's eyes had been fixed upon a TV that was inside a store protected by the glass display. He was in the middle of a large group of people, all watching with an array of different emotions as the Paradigm VIII had been decimated. He had felt sorry for them, they were good people trying to do the best that they could in this crumbling state. He shook his head, pulled his hat down and pulled his trench coat closer together, and turned to walk away. Not wanting to have watched what he figured to be the execution of the three heroes against their overwhelming foes.

Then that's when he heard it in the distance from the TV....

The cries of children. Children!!!! What the hell were children doing in that place?!?!?

He immediately felt the blood in his body begin to boil. The Baptist took off at a sprint, throwing off his hat and trench coat. As he ran, the tanned skin of his body turned into an intense blue color. The clothes on his body gave way to an armor comprised of solidified water held together by constant flowing electricity. His eyeballs were not visible as a brilliant white light radiated from his eyes. He could feel the power in his body surge as he held out his hands, a powerful stream of water laced with electric currents propelled him high above the streets and towards the exploding building that lay in the heart of New Congress.

Fortunately, he had not been that far away.

When he reached the warehouse he took into account the sturdy walls of the building. They were high and thick, entering from the front door was probably suicide and he had no time to try and figure out a subtle means of entering. He extended his left palm towards the walls, and concentrated.

A powerful burst of water shot from his palm and collided with the building. The Baptist held his concentration firm for there was no way that concrete would withstand the might of 50,000 Psi constantly pressing up against it. He drew a man-sized circle in the building and continued the stream of water against the building. He then broke into a run at the building, jumping high and placing his right hand against the wet concrete. In a surge of power an explosion of electric energy made the weakened wall explode allowing the shouting Baptist access to the warehouse in a display of power.

Impressive, but not subtle....

All eyes turned to the Baptist, especially the eyes of the woman who was about to kill off the Caucus. He pointed his hand towards her and let loose a powerful stream of water which sent her flying away from him. Immediately a rain of gunfire peppered towards the Baptist. He took off on a run, extending his hand down in-front of him to race away from the bullets on a fast current of water. He took aim with his right hand and shot out surges of electrical energy at some of the gunmen. They shook violently and fell to the ground when the bolts struck them, but they would not die.

The Baptist stood infront of the prone form of Caucus and readied himself for an onslaught. Tallok swung one of his arms at him, which Baptist caught, using the momentum from his swing to throw him a couple of feet away. Three of King's pawns then came at him, flipping acrobatically and lashing out with kicks and punches. Baptist held out his arms in front of him and blocked their blows, extending both of his arms to shoot one thug with a powerful burst of water, and the other with a surge of electricity. He then jumped, kneeing the last thug in the chin, knocking her out.

However there were way too many foes for Baptist to take alone. He felt a powerful force press into his back and was sent sprawling to the ground. Propping himself up with his right elbow, he extended his left hand to shoot a stream of water at his assailant, who nimbly dodged the stream. It was Pride, the lion-man....

Pride was upon Baptist in no time, swiping at him with his sharpened claws. As he could feel the pressure from the claws rake against his armor, he let out a scream in pain. Pride opened up his mouth and attempted to bite down into the neck of The Baptist, who desperately held his jaws back by placing his hands upon Pride's forehead. The Baptist smiled beneath his mask as he realized the unfavorable situation that Pride had found himself in. He gave out a loud scream and concentrated, baking Pride with a combination of water and electricity that fried the creature bad.

Unconscious, Pride rolled from off of Baptist who stood up and ran back towards Caucus. He could hear the rest of the villains shuffling in the background behind him.

He fired a couple more streams of water and bolts of electricity at the foes, slowly making his way towards Caucus. The Baptist then found himself staring in the face of Funnybone, who despite being shot at with electrical bolts, still ran towards Baptist. He swung one of his bats at Baptist, which connected with his chest. The Baptist was sent reeling back, and landed right in the arms of Bombshell.

Being pissed from before she began a very powerful bearhug which lifted Baptist from his feet. He tried desperately to fry her with electricity but she was immune because of her skin. The Baptist continued to struggle but could feel consciousness begin to slip away.

In the background he could finally hear the screams of the children.....

He was laying there, completely drenched in sweat, in his favorite patch of grass on the outskirts of New Congress. Desmond was completely oblivious what was going on within the city, silently complaining in his head about how nobody takes time to enjoy nature anymore (as he often does). Desmond had just finished finished his 4th or 5th circuit of training, so he was taking a break, drawing energy from nature when his phone rang. "Why do I have one of these again?" he muttered while checking the caller id, "Oh, Ileana? She never calls me." Desmond flipped open his phone and put it to his ear, "Oh isn't it a joy to hear your lovely voice!" Desmond joked, however his mood changed as the call continued, "No, I don't know what's going on..... Why would I know what's going on IN the city? When am I ever there, Ileana?......." He glanced to his left at his brown, hemp bookbag, "Yes, I have my bookbag, why?..... I told you I don't do that superhero stuff........ CHILDREN?! FOR WHAT?! Ohhhh, do you even know how far away I am...... Oh yes, thats right, I forgot you could do that....... Ileana this is really going to deplete my energy if you want me to make it there in enough time to actually help.... I'm just saying, I doubt I'll be able to take anybody head on...... Well if somebody is already there then I might be able to get a hit or two in.......... Oh?..... HAHA! Riding a stream of water?! Well, I'll go just to see that!... Yes, yes, of course and try to rescue the children....... Where is it again? Ok, ok, I'm on my way, soon as I change..." With that, Desmond hung up the phone and grabbed his bookbag. Nobody was as far as he was so Desmond changed into his all blue uniform with it's gray dot on the chest, slung his bookbag over his shoulder and took off towards his destination, full speed, using the energy he had drawn from nature while out there training.

Decoh ran up in enough time to see that a giant hole was in the building where the children were located. Oh.. somebody's stealing my schtick, haha, He joked to himself. Decoh ran up to the building and noticed splashes of water on the ground where the hole had been made, Oh yes, the water dude! He looked through the hole and saw The Baptist going at it; he appeared to be holding his own, so Decoh, drained of his nature energy due to the run, decided to sneak inside and head straight for the kids. Thank goodness The Baptist had drawn the attention of the villains. Decoh stayed on the wall as he climbed through the hole and proceeded to move very cautiously towards where the children were held, checking in The Baptist's direction every so often to make sure he was okay. Things weren't looking pretty, Pride had leapt on him, and Decoh hesitated, just in case he would have to interfere. The Baptist had successfully fried Pride and Decoh thought it was safe for him to move on. As he resumed his cautious walk towards the kids. Not more than 5 steps later, Decoh heard what sounded like electricity and immediately looked over to where he heard the sound. It was Baptist, in the arms of Bombshell. Damn.... this sucks, Decoh thought to himself as he looked for the most suiteable spot to blast Bombshell and free The Baptist.

Crap... the leg it is... maybe i'll just vaporize her ankle, that ought to knock her off balance or something. With that, Decoh layed on the ground, rose his index finger in the air, and as soon as he had what he thought was perfect aim to make the circle, he felt a sharp pain on his right side and flew a few yards to his left. Decoh, gripping his side with one eye squeezed shut and his teeth tightly clenched to help bear the pain, looked over to see where that came from and there stood, where he was not too long ago, King, with a huge grin on his face. Damn... this really sucks... Decoh raised his hand, about to where King's knee should be, and twirled his finger as the shape of a knee sized circle appeared in mid-air.... *click*

Ileana flopped onto her bed with a huff, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She was already wishing that her sleek new hands-free interface was back in the package and she had passed on the opportunity to try it out by giving a call to her mom. "Yes, mom. What do you think, I've gone all mother-earth on you and chosen to forego life instead of the iron supplements? Come on now..." She rolled her eyes and suffered through another few minutes of nagging when suddenly...

Ileana shuddered, her eyes going wide and her dark mahagony skin swam with silvery lacework tattoos. Her mouth hung open as her glazed over eyes flitted over the invisible facts and figures streaming silently from the computer on the other side of the room, which was humming, displaying a flowing field of binary. "Um, mom?" she whispered breathlessly. "I gotta call you back." She hung up on her mom's stream of babble and stretched a hand toward her television, blinking her eyes purposefully. The screen lit up, flipping for a few seconds to the appropriate channel. Ileana jumped up and scrambled to the edge of her bed. Her fingers flew in mid air and within seconds the handsfree in her ear was ringing.

After calling twice with no answer, finally a voice came over the line.

"Oh, isn't it a joy to hear your lovely voice,"

Ileana rolled her eyes, climbing out of bed to be closer to the television. "Cut it. Do you have any idea what is going on out here?" She put her hand against the plasma screen, her heart thumping wildly at what she saw. "Do you have your pack with you? It's the Paradigm XIII, Desmond... fuck that, I don't care what you think you do and don't do there are kids in there!" She quickly ran through the place and the situation, she summed it up quickly and efficiently. She could see That kind of thing was in her blood. "And Decoh," she added as she was about to hang up, "Keep your cell on you."

Binary gathered her hair in her hand as she rushed out of the room. In the living room she passed her hand over a hidden pannel in a wall and stepped into the familiar cool, dark space and the comforting hum of technology. She could feel the gentle tug of metal shifting under her skin as she slid into her well-worn leather chair before her massive computer console. A few seconds clicking away on the keyboard and she was in. She whispered under her breath, processing the images coming in from the video-cameras, the reports from the police, the questions from other heros that were streaming in to her, all at once and within seconds. "Firepower," she mumbled and again she went tapping away on her keyboard. Within seconds, a single message was sent to the contacts of every hero she had ever communicated with.

The old warehouse in the center of New Congress. Follow the sirens. The Paradigm VIII is fallen... Coucus has a chance. Binary".

((Double post due to site maintainence, please ignore))

Vasilisa was blinded by the sheer white light that filled the blank white room she sat in. It hurt her eyes to look around. There was only one door, and a glass barrier beside that door that lead to a room where one could sit behind, and watch. But she didn't care what the room looked like. She had been in the exact same room for the past four months, tied up like a rabid dog.... She was focused now on the two men that were in the room with her. They came at her with a cart of tools...her head turned to try and view these malicious instruments. As her gaze fluttered down, she couldn't help but notice her own body; a bruised, beaten, cut, burnt, whipped canvas of her palid unclothed form, for their cruel metaphorical paintbrushes to splatter... but upon the cart were scalpels, bone saws, chissles, and picks. She had seen this routine before...they were going to threaten her, and deal to her minor injuries that would not seriously harm her.... But no...it seemed different this time. They checked the girl's restraits....and then added more. What on earth were they doing? Her eyes grew wide as she saw them pick up the bonesaw, and level it at just the right angle on her shoulder; before the man began to drag it with force applied, across her bare pale flesh.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fwLWheM ... re=related 0:40 - 2:12 playing here)
The bonesaw bit into the woman's shoulder, causing her to grit her teeth, trying her best not to show that she was affected. But the men showed no intention of stopping. The medical tool worked away against her flesh, sinking deeper and deeper. They were only a few centimeters in when they hit bone. Then the bone began to edge away that matter too. Vasilisa opened her mouth, and let out a loud shriek as the saw continued to press hard into her shoulder. She began to wiggle, and the other man held her still. They talked to each other in their language, not even sure what it was.
"باه! اغلاق لها حتى! أنا لا أطيق لها صرخات! أسكت لها!"
"سأقدم لك شيئا لأسكت لها. ولكن قالت إنها ربما يعض عليه!"

Vasilisa continued to cry in pain, tears flooding down her cheeks. Suddenly, a ball of cloth was shoved into her gaping maw, effectively muffling her screams. They continued their work, the bonesaw dragging hard against the woman's bones sounding like the saw was working against a solid wood, before cutting through the white bone, and starting against the deep inners. The saw mad quick work of the muscle that inhibited the arm, dragging the blade back and forth in a gruesome sawing motion, the sound of meat being ground was in the air. Blood drained from the opening extremely fast, creating a pool of crimson beneath the chair she was tied to, and even down her own sides. Vasilisa writhed in agony as the shredding pain in her shoulder only continued to grow, it was like someone was taking a cheese grater's edge to a chalkboard, only on your insides. The tool's teeth only continued to evicerate her further pulling away the tough inner tissue...

Finally, Vasilisa felt a great imbalance within her, and the first man pulled her arm away from her body...she looked to see it her eyes gazing upon the part they had tore off instead of cutting. Veins, muscle and tissue hung losely from it, the blood oozing from the very limb. She could see where her bone had been cut straight through. It made her want to vomit, but she hadn't been fed in about three days, other than water, which she got once a day. her vision clouded, and blackened from her eyes, as her head sunk forward, their voices came forth again as she started to black out.

She never even saw the video camera in the background.

She came to again, her eyes looking around, and racking, sharp pains shot through her upper body. She looked over her form again... her shoulders where her arms had been cut had been crudely bandaged, to stop the bleeding.... Her eyes moved up as she brought her head weakly to a level position...her arms had been put on the cart, in plain view. They were deep, ghost-like white, as all the fluid had drained from them. She felt like she was going to be sick again. She looked ahead, to stare at the glass she was sat across from, seeing her reflection in it. She was not armless, still covered in welts, bruises, all kinds of abuse marks, as well as fluids that definitely weren't hers. She hated it. She wanted to break the glass; never see herself like that again. But she was still imobilized by the ropes. And as the men came in, she blacked out again.

This time she came to, the men were already around her... she didn't know what they were doing...but she didn't want to know... But suddenly a loud bang came to ear, causing her head to jerk up. A man with a red beret, holding a gun came through the door, and fired. The gun's muzzle flash sparked brightly in the white room, but there was no sound...just a high pitched whine... she felt blood spatter her, and coat her body.... The russian man would approach her, a brighter light to his back, causing his form to be a shade. "Там она! Василиса обеспечен!" As he came closer her vision finally faded...
----

Vasilisa's upper body jolted forward, and she gasped loudly enough to wake the dead. Her body was drenched in a pool of sweat, and her heart was racing. She brought her hand around, and pressed it to her head....jumping as it came in contact with her flesh. The cold of the alloy it was made of felt good against her hot head. She frowned, and looked at the clock next to her bed. It just past mid-day... She pushed herself to let her feet rest on the floor, her still soaking body trembling. It was the fourth time this month that she had dreamed of that foul memory. She wanted to get her memory wiped of that terrible incident if she could....

The russian girl stood up, and brushed the droplets of persperation from her forehead, removing the hair that was plastered to it from her view. Looking out of the window, she took in the scenery of the city. It was fine from her small appartment.... She shrugged, and began to walk to her bathroom. After that nightmare...she'd need a shower. But her plans of bathing were put off, as her cellphone rang out, a loud echoing chime that drenched the room in it's sound. She grasped the phone, flipped it open, and pressed talk. "Hello?" She said, calmly, gathering her wits, as her russian accent reached out and touched the person at the other end of the line.
"Vasilisa?" The man asked.
"Chief. Vhat can I do for you?"
"We've got an issue! Haven't you been watching the news?!?"
"No." She stated, plainly.
"Just get down here! AND FAST!" He yelled over the device, before it clicked off. He sounded desperate.

Vasilisa nodded to herself, stuck the device in her pocket, and began to walk out of her door, locking it behind her. Her jumpsuit was a tad damp still, but it wouldn't matter. Noone at the station cared about how she looked from the stomach up, only the ass down. She stormed down the stairs, and looked around. She was only ten paces from her abode, before she saw the problem. Heavy smoke was bellowing from a building, not too far away. Vasilisa ran, her impressive speed carrying her towards the scene....

As she came to a halt at the building, she looked around, and sure enough, there was a few officers, and as well as firetrucks parked outside, trying their best to deal with the problem. She jogged up to them. "Chief, vhat is going on?! Vhy is building on fire?!" She asked, looking between him and the building.
"We don't know! But what we do know is there are some children in there, as well as a bunch of super-powered morons fighting in there!"

Without another word, Vasilisa ran towards the building, through the hole that had been....cut?... into the side. She looked around: There was little smoke and fire on this floor, she could move around without being endangered by the enviorment. But beyond that was that of these "Freaks" that were fighting. She didn't have any part in this.... She only wanted to help the children. She ran around that of the men fighting, to see where the screams of the children were coming from.

But as she went around, a few men, approached her, some weilding guns, other weilding various weapons of crowbars, bats, and other blunt objects. "Where do you think you're goin', cutie?" One said with a chuckle.
"To save the children. I vould ask you the same question, but I already am knowing the answer if you do not get out of my way; To Hell." She would reply, taking a fighting stance. The men laughed at her.
"Awww! The little girl thinks she's cute! What are you about 14? You look like a child." He spat back.
"At least I am more mature than you!" She said. She was done wasting time on these idiots. There were five of them, two with guns, the others with melee weapons. She smirked. This was going to be too easy.

"Why you little...!" The first man said. The "Pawn" reeled back, and brought his tire iron behind his head, and brought it forth, trying to smash Vasilisa's head. She brought her arm up lazily, allowing the tool to smash against her arm, a loud metalic clang filling the air. "Is that all you are having? I am very disapointed." She would say in a mocking tone. She brought her other arm forward, the metal fist slamming into the man's gut, causing him to groan in pain, and the air was filled with the sound if someone had let a cinderblock drop onto your back from few feet up; a heavy thud. She watched him stumble back, before the next man was to take action. He roared, and brought his baseball bat forward, swinging horizontally. Vasilisa spun on her heels hard, catching the bat mid-swing, her fingers wraping hard around it, before the wood began to crack with stress. She spun again, this time in the oppisite direction, bringing her elbow against the midsection of the bat, and cracking it in two like a twig. Continuing the spin further, she jarred the now broken, spintered end into the man's gut. She was sure the shard-ends had punctured him to some extent.

She turned her head, and ducked her lower body just in time to dodge the swing of a crowbar. She brought her iron fist up in an uppercut on her previous foe, knocking him back a few feet. Now having her full attention on this fellow, she sidestepped a vertical crowbar swing, and turned it into a spinning backhanded knuckle. The man groaned loudly, and spun around. But Vasilisa wasn't done yet. She grabbed the man's shoulder, keeping him facing away from her, before placing a full blown punch to his lower backside, smashing his kidneys assumedly. His body jolted with shock, before she gripped his trousers by the waist, and held him up. She knew what was coming next.

Sure enought the sound of a machine pistol filled the air, and she felt the man in front of her taking bullets as the ruptured his flesh. Vasilisa pushed her human shield forward extremely forcefully, launching him into one of the gunners. Using her extreme speed, she dashed up to the other one, and placed her hand over the muzzle of his gun. He pulled the trigger, and the machine pistol only got a few shots off, before it almost literally exploded in the man's hand. The pistol bullets couldn't penetrate her hand causing the handgun's bullets to go nowhere, and the gas to build in the barrel. She then twisted the man's arm wickedly, placing her other hand on the man's head. Keeping the now useless gun pointed away from her, she brought the man forward, smashing her knee into his groin. He predictably leant forward; and Vasilisa backed up, and brought a visicous uppercut to the man's chin, launching him a good distance. Her fingers dragged against his arm as he sailed off, untill they hit his hand, which was still coiled around the machine pistol. Using her insane reflexes, she jerked the gun from his hand. She then wheeled about yet again, tossing the useless gun like a frisbie towards the man whom had just pushed his dead comrade off of him. The metal gun smashed against his face, breaking his nose, and causing him to reach up to his face, and hold it in pain. She followed up, by dashing up to him, and smashing his chest with her arm, before grabbing his arm, and twisting it in a full circle. His body bent naturally to follow the twisting motion. But Vasilisa knew this move well. She turned too, the adversaries being back to back now. Placing a hand on his buttocks, and the other pulling him, Vasilisa launched the man over her shoulder, her arm holding on to him, to slam him on the ground, with a heavy thud. His face now looked up at her from the floor, just at her feet. She rapidly dropped to a crouch, her knee smashing into his nose, before getting up again, and looking around. There was noone else attacking her...yet.... But she stayed on guard, just in case, as she began to move through the complex again, looking and listening for the cries of the children.

“Junoichi.”

A tall Japanese man squinted his eyes briefly before fumbling around in the pitch of his bedroom for the ear piece he’d received upon being told he was moving to New Congress. His pale fingertips brushed the little device and within a moment it was nestled in his ear where it belonged. His bedroom was situated in the lowest level of the Manzo office building directed very nearly dead center of New Congress. It was a handsome, modern building of Japanese design, meaning it was built tall and thin and with all sorts of interesting angles. It remained a lovely building even as the neighborhood around began to turn into an eyesore. But Manzo company had a guardian that no business could even think of employing.

“Hai, Manzo-dono?”

Kajuu was a legend in Japan. He was a super-hero worthy of anime and manga adaptation, a frequent topic on news and talk shows and a favorite of cosplayers in the last decade. Kajuu could keep pace with an out of control vehicle, Kajuu could leap from skyscraper to skyscraper, Kajuu could get any virginal school girl he wanted. Kajuu was legend. His fame was starting to spread to America, and his dark silhouette was being sold commercially on t-shirts, mugs and there were even plush dolls available for those die-hard fans. He was a real life Japanese idol, a handsome hero come to life.

“English, Junoichi. We’re practicing remember?”

The voice in his ear was childish and amused, his accent far more subdued than his servants. Manzo was just past twenty-one, but Junoichi had been loyal to his idea far before his born. He was raised to belong to him, and he was a damn good butler if you asked him. Hence his name, Kajuu in Japan and The Butler here in New Congress. Manzo had come up with himself, still being very much the spoiled boy he’d always been. To him, Junoichi was an action figure he could exploit and send in to any fray he was too weak to. He was a real life video character that never lost and that he never had to use the restart button on. Junoichi was perfection.

“What is it, sir?”

Junoichi’s English was clear but slow, his accent only showing through when he struggled with words with lots of ‘L’ sounds.

“There’s a big fire about three blocks from the company building. It could very well spread and I don’t want our building getting damaged. Oh and the super hero trio got destroyed by the bad guys. Oh and I want everyone in New Congress to know not to mess with you. So, go and help them, kay?”

Junoichi shut his eyes and flicked on the small desk lamp on his bedside table. He slipped into his suit silently, tightening his tie and straightening his suit jacket. He looked sharp, and a little bit intimidating. He was a thinly muscled man with sharp shoulders simply destined for a suit jacket. He slipped an arsenal of silverware into the pockets on the inside of his jacket along with a few kunai and a long length of metal cord. He slipped into his shoes, tying them tightly. He looked ready for a ball, not a battle. He left his bedroom and climbed the stairs of the office building, not stopping until he reached the highest floor. He slid open a window, staring at the column of flames lighting the night sky up like a bloody dawn.

“Oh and Junoichi. Don’t forget the Tengu mask. The black one.”

“Yes, master.”

Junoichi was far ahead of his younger employer. He placed the black, feathered mask over his pale face and smirked wickedly. His order was to help the heroes, which meant laying waste to the ‘bad guys’. There was nothing The Butler would enjoy more.

- - - - - - - -

“Several new heroes have appeared on the scene, including the so called ‘Baptist’ and an unidentified young man in a suit with an amazing ability. Caucus is out the fryer for now and---what the hell is that?!”

The reporter and her cameraman stared in awe at the eerie black figure leaping from the top of the skyscraper. His coat tails flew out behind him like dark wings, and his odd eyes caught the fire light like the devil’s. Junoichi landed solidly on the ground, smirking at the reporter. He rushed into the fray, racing like a demon might into the bowels of hell.

Shear reared his ugly head as something hard jabbed into his back. He could only glimpse what appeared to be a silvery, ornate handle of some object imbedded into the flesh of his back. Before he could think to take hold of it there was a foot in his face that sent him flat on his back, eyes wide behind his mask. The Butler smirked to himself, the butter knives between his fingers shining in the fire, much like his dark eyes did behind the feathered mask. “Good evening.” He brought up his heel down into his nose, nimbly dodging out of range of the villian’s blades. Shear attempted to raise one of his guns, only to have his wrist smashed in cruelly by The Butler’s nimble foot.

Valkyrie came charging up behind the Butler, lance aimed for the thin man’s back. He jumped skyward, coming down on the helmet with both feet poised. The knightess fell forward, face smashing into the concrete. “Oops.” He leapt back out of Shear’s gunfire, his good hand pulling his trigger over and over. The Butler did a handless cartwheel through the air and threw large serving fork with stuck into the villian’s hand like a dart.

Things were beginning to have a turn around.

Aleksander silently muttered equations and facts to himself as he sat on the roof of his appartment building, looking out over the city. He liked to come here because it felt like it offered some perspective. Oftentimes he would just sit there for hours, meditating like a monk but with his head filled with algebra, models and schedules. If he ever got around to building his own space station (he only really needed to get his hands on a suitable fuel) that would be the perfect place but until then this would just have to do.

He chuckled as a new feature for a combat drone he had been designing formed in his mind. ""Needs more firepower." He muttered and made the necessary adjustment to the design in his head. Yes, that would work out much better. Now he would have to get his hands on some more titanium...

Getting the supplies he needed for his work had always been a problem for the poor immigrant from eastern Europe. Poverty had also been the reason he didn't have a real PhD. Capitalism was such an ineffective system. It made this society's refusal to acknowledge his genius hurt even more. He had once considered a life of crime to gain the funds he needed but had quickly realized it wasn't really in him. Being a supervillain was just beneath him. It would take so much time that he would be better off just working with what he had right now. Printing your own money to fool the lady behind the register at the supermarket wasn't that hard anyway so he wouldn't go hungry anytime soon.

He turned back to one of the other problems he had been working on and it didn't take him very long to figure out another possible cure for cancer. If the alterations he had made to his own genome would ever turn on him he would probably need as many possible treatments as possible. It was worth it though. He no longer cut himself while shaving no matter how hard he tried. Perhaps he should use this new power to get himself some test subject to try some of these possible cures. Of course they would already need to have cancer or he would be forced to give it to them...no that wasn't really possible right now. It would have to wait.

If only the people of this world could see beyond their own little reference frames. He could've helped them in so many ways. Instead they feared him or attempted to stifle his massive intellect. They didn't succeed but still...it was annoying. And only because he sometimes caused an explosion or occasionally tried to dissect animals and people who weren't quite dead yet. Such feeble little minds would never be able to really fulfill the potential that science offered.

He grunted as his concentration was broken. When he opened his eyes and became aware of the surroundings again he noticed the commotion. There were sirens and screams.

"Odd." He commented before seeing the smoke. His expression turned from surprised into thoughtful again and he quickly picked up several stimuli which allowed him to construct a list of possible causes. People in the street were talking excitedly about a big fight going on. In the appartment on the other side of the street the TV was showing images of a ruined warehouse.

"I see." He said to himself again. He had often wondered if the fact that he talked to himself so much meant he was just lonely or going insane. Eventually, he had dismissed the idea because there were so many thoughts going through his head at the same time some were bound to be vocalized.

He considered going down to his appartment to watch the news but decided against it because the limited scope and idiotic comments would only annoy him. No, this was something he had to see himself now that he still had the chance. He adjusted his tie, put on a surgical mask he had stolen from the hospital and grabbed the gun-shaped grappling hook. The young genius anchored it to the roof before scaling down the side of the building.

----

He hurried towards the commotion but when he finally got close the police had already blocked the streets. As the Doctor approached, on foot like a commoner but in full costume and with a posture suitable for a man with his IQ, an officer moved in to stop him. Dr. Damnation spoke before the man had even opened his mouth.

"I am Doctor Damnation." He announced in a low voice. "Out of my way, insect. I wish to see the meta-humans do battle."

A mocking smile appeared on the man's face but it quickly disappeared when Aleksander pulled a device out of his labcoat and pointed it at him. It looked like a small digital camera but the word 'Neuralizer' had been scratched onto the top with a sharp object. It flashed as if it was taking a picture and the policemen promptly slumped to the ground. He hadn't even succeeded in slowling down the Doctor.

Nobody challenged him after that and he calmly made his way to the source of all the smoke.

"Awesome." He whispered to himself as he confidently paced towards it. He could hear there was still a fight going on inside and noticed some of the camera's were pointing at him. A sliver of nervousness formed in his stomach. He slowed down somewhat and carefully approached a large hole in the side of the building. When he peeked inside he saw only chaos.

"I guess I'd better wait untill things die down a little in there." He whispered and looked at the small neuralizer in his hand. He reached into his labcoat with the other hand and pulled out an even smaller scanner. The small device gave him a good idea of what kind of power was being throws around in there. "Oh, yeah, I'm definately waiting a few minutes."

Binary cursed under her breath, watching the backup slowly trickle in. It was too little, too slow, although she noted with approval that Decoh had gotten over himself. Her eyes scanned through the footage from the cameras that were stationed over the warehouse. There were well into thirty adversaries, an incapacitated hero and a pack of children in there. Two objectives: Caucus and the children. Possibly three, that fire was out of control. Binary skimmed through the opperational status logs of the warehouse. The fire had yet to affect the power to the building and the numerous bots and converyor belts were still functional...

A wicked smile crept across her face and she chuckled as she cracked her knuckles. Those that were there needed a distraction to get to the kids and it seemed that The Baptist and Decoh could use a bit of backup. "Let's make this interesting," she said and lost herself in the click-clack of her keystrokes.

---

Somewhere in the back of the warehouse, a red caution light flickered to life and a long, piercing buzz echoed throughout the cavernous building. All at once all of the conveyor belts began to move, dumping one thug off of his perch and onto the point of his own knife. The other thugs cursed and drew their weapons, looking around suspiciously for any sign of movement. Suddenly, gunfire echoed toward the end of the aisle before it was cut off sharply. The group of gunmen turned as one towards the sound, squinting though the flickering, shadowy gloom that the smoke and fire caused.

And then, a compact little droid wheeled its way out of the smoke. One of the gunmen jumped and fired off a round before he gathered his wits once more. His comrades laughed and razzed him for it and he grumbled back. Sour-faced, he bent over to retrieve the little droid when suddenly it whirred backward and zipped forward it ram itself hard into the gunman's ankle. The man instantly began to howl as the space in front of them was suddenly bursting with droids of all shapes and sizes, some wielding some deadly looking attatchments, all rushing past, or through in some unfortunate cases, the group.

One group of the droids rolled purposefully through the warehouse and finally came out across from the struggling Baptist and Funnybone. Decoh had just formed his circle and there was a small click followed by the sound of a gunshot. A large droid, fitted with short, thick, flat blades for lifting shot forward at the same time, ramming as hard as it could into Funnybone's back, hoping to throw the villain off balance.

Giovanni laid in his bed trying to sleep, he had just gotten back from work and didn’t want to be bothered by anything. He then awoke to loud banging against his front door. Giovanni slowly got up, he walked toward the door to his room and opened it. He walked through the living room to the front door. He opened it to see the landlady who was a short woman, about 5’3, with short grey hair and a large mole on her right cheek, she had tanned skin, like she had been on vacation to some place with a lot of sun, or she got a tan from a tanning salon. Giovanni started to shake his head and then he heard the woman as she said to him “you know the rent is do today right, do you have it?” Giovanni walked away and went to his room. He grabbed some money off the dresser and started counting it. He handed the woman the money. She started to walk away, but she stopped and said “hey, did you hear about that fire on the news?” Giovanni blinked a few times and said “no, why is it really bad?” The woman laughed and said “ha, is it bad, there are some kids trapped inside and two of the three Paradigm VII are already dead.” Giovanni got a serious look on his face and said “ thanks for telling me, I’ll watch the news to check on it.” She nodded and walked down the stairs. Giovanni closed the door, he breathed deeply and walked to his room. He opened his bed room window and stuck his feet out. He felt the ledge and then pressed down to get more balance. He moved the rest of his body out of the room and then he looked down at the ground below. He was on the seventh floor, which wasn’t to far of a fall, but he hadn’t planed on falling today. Animal turned himself into a hawk and flew off the ledge. He flew of his apartment building and headed toward the area where the smoke was coming from.

Animal got to the warehouse and saw a large crowd around it. Animal saw the hole that was made in the wall of the building, he flew down low and went through the large hole. Animal flew to the top of the warehouse and perched himself on a large metal platform. He looked at the fires and the people fighting and he decided it would be a good idea to help. He flew of the platform and then half shifted himself into a rhino, his entire body started to turn grey his muscles then started to get larger, his skin started to get thicker, and then his nose grew into a rhino horn. Animal slammed down onto the ground with enough force to leave a few cracks. He looked under his feet and mentally said “ I’ll pay for that later.” Animal looked around and then saw Bombshell, he charged into her with enough speed to send her flying. Animal then saw something flying toward him, he placed his arms in a blocking position, he looked at his arms to see sharp barbs barely stuck in them. Animal pulled them out and looked to see who threw them. He saw more flying at him and he moved out of the way. Animal then saw that it was Tallok, Animal charged him and pressed his sharp horn to Tallok’s metal skin, when Animal’s horn hit he kept running. Animal couldn’t tell if his attack was doing anything, but he felt Tallok hit the wall. Animal pulled himself off of the man. He then ran over to Baptist and held out his hand and said “you ok? Just looked like you needed a little help, so I thought I would give you a hand.”

*bang* King fell to the ground as he was no longer able to balance due to the absence of his knee. Hell yea, Decoh smirked. And looked over to see Funnybone getting the smackdown from a droid. Go Binary...... Alright, gotta get to these children Decoh attempted to move, wincing in pain as he did so I shoulda borrowed some more energy.... I'd at least be able to function right.... I'm making Ileana put a garden in the house or something if I survive this... With great effort, Decoh finally made it on his feet, using the wall as support. Decoh skimmed the room to notice the presence of..... a butler? With a mask??? Tossing silverware around and taking good care of the bad guys, Note to self... don't fuck with the butler dude... especially not during dinner... Decoh continued to look around and noticed the whole building practically came alive, brushing that off, knowing that was his sister's doing, Decoh began to head towards the children, and heard a loud crash, Decoh quickly turned his head, wincing in pain, and saw a.... Humanoid Rhino.... Haha! I wonder who else is coming... With that, Decoh continued his trek towards the children, that is, until he felt a blast in his back and once again went flying quite a distance. He rolled over to his side to search for where the blast came from, and sure enough, it was King, his baton pointed straight at Decoh... "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FREAK OUT A LITTLE LONGER!!! JEEZ, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU VILLAIN PEOPLE?!?!" Decoh yelled, cringing in pain. He didn't have too much time to take aim anymore, Decoh had to hurry up and get those children. All he had to do was get rid of the baton and he would be home free, Decoh raised his hand.. *click*.. *bang*.. No baton, King was able to get out of the way. Oh great... not only do I punch holes, but apparently they don't hurt.... Decoh had to do something about King and that baton, and he had to do it fast..... For now, he would have to keep King busy enough not to use the baton. Decoh propped himself against the wall, raised his right hand, and started twirling away, while reaching for his cell phone in his bookbag at the same time.

Decoh hit the send button twice, straight to Ileana's phone. "Heyyyyy, can you have one of those droids kee--" *click*.. *bang*.. *click*.. *bang* "p King busy or something... and have another one come" *click*.. *bang* "pick me up" *click*.. *bang* "and take me to the kids?" *click*.. *bang* "I'm not going to" *click*.. *bang* "be any help if this pattern" *click*.. *bang* "keeps up." Decoh felt his bubble being popped and moved his head just in time to dodge a punch from Duality. "SHIT! Gotta go, HELP ME!" Decoh closed his phone and threw his right hand right in front of him, where duality was standing, but before he could even BEGIN to draw his circle, ANOTHER duality kicked him pretty damn hard and Decoh was no longer where he began. Okay seriously.... this pattern has got to stop.. I'm so useless right now..... I'm serious about this garden thing..... Duality came rushing towards him, just enough time for Decoh to draw a circle *click*.. *bang* there went one of the Dualities' feet before it could make contact with Decoh. Somebody, please help me so I can get to those kids!

The Butler let out a long laugh, much cooler and far more sinister than any Kung Fu movie villain could pull off. He dodged out of the way of Valkyrie’s lance, not even noticing the shallow slice it made on his navel. He tilted his head to the side, smirking at her darkly as he backed away. She snarled and stepped over the disabled Shear, who was moaning in agony on the ground. Junoichi had managed to break both of his ankles while playing defence with Valkyrie, completely by accident, of course. The villainess thrust her lance forward again, scowling as another set of butter knives bounced off of her helmet. Junoichi could tell she was getting pissed off, and that only worked to his advantage. She charged forward, he gracefully dropped on his back. He caught her torso with his feet and flipped over, her back smashing on the ground. He completed the roll so he was standing on her chest and smirked, taking hold of her lance. Her head was likely swimming from the impact of armour on concrete. The Butler raised the lance and brought it down through her shoulder, smirking as a muffled scream rose from her helmet.

Junoichi peered over his shoulder, aware that the King fellow was taking advantage of one of the other heroes. He walked over rather calmly among all the mess and laid a swift kick to the old man’s under chin, sending him reeling over. He was a huge man, probably capable of snapping the Jap over his knee, but Junoichi really had no intention of getting that close to him. He offered the downed hero a hand and smirked, pulling him up. He blocked one of the dualities, scowling at him as he tossed a steak knife into his eye. “You had best get to those children, young sir.” He whipped around in time to block Marron’s axe with silver tray, which unfortunately bent under the pressure. “Better run along.” He managed, cart wheeling away from the brute. He was not meant for close up combat, this medieval blunder could prove to be a challenge. The Butler leapt back, frowning lightly as Marron came charging, swinging the axe like a madman. He didn't seem to have any clue as to what he was doing other than attempting to make a Butler kabob. He aimed a butter knife at the villian's eye, scowling as his armour deflected it. He would be a challenge indeed.

Marron charged forward once more, managing to knock The Butler onto his back. This was not a good place for him to be, seeing as he was not strong enough to bring the berserker to the ground. He scowled, hand flying to his jacket. The axe came down, missing Junoichi only because he rolled. He hurried to his feet, glaring at the brute. “Such nasty manners.” He pulled a length of steel cord from his jacket, lassoing the axe with it. He jerked it out of the massive creature’s grip, smiling with satisfaction as it imbedded itself in the concrete. “Now what will you-” The Butler winced as an armored fist made contact with his throat. He had forgotten that people fought with their fists. He hit the ground hard, strangling as he brought a gloved hand to his throat. Marron advanced, appearing much like a walking furnace in the firelight.

He wasn’t helping them much in this situation, and Junoichi could not stand to disobey an order. He crouched, spitting a small amount of blood onto the asphalt. He really hated fighting dirty, it was so beneath him, but he couldn’t come up with a better solution at the moment. Marron brought his foot up, preparing to bring it down on his prey. In reply, Junoichi brought his own foot up, nailing the brute in his only vulnerable spot…a spot that made The Butler himself wince. The giant collapsed on his knees, groaning in pain as he fell over on his side. The Butler stood up, coughing as he held his throat. “Serves you right.”


{{ EDIT: Forgot to add the last two paragraphs. }}

Binary scoffed, even as she went to do what her brother asked. "What am I, a soccer mom?" she grumbled. She had no idea what kind of crap this warehouse had been storing, but they sure had some crazy mechanical muscle. The computer screen whizzed through inventory lists and Ileana quickly zeroed in on a few nice looking models. "All right, starting transport duty... go."

In the warehouse, a pair of long iron bar hanging from the air lurched forward and then glided on its track near the ceiling. The bars stopped near Decoh and a large platform lowered quickly, the red lights on its edges flashing briefly, waiting patiently for Decoh to step onto it. In her apartment, Binary was searching frantically on the feeds for where the children were. It looked like there was some movement in one of the containers on the northwest corner, but the camera was not mobile and it wasn't at a good angle for her to see the contents clearly. Still, that was their best bet.

It seemed that there was more than the usuals who were helping out today. She took a moment to admire the fluid way that he moved... and the creep factor of his costume... She remembered The Baptist and Animal from around town, they were good at what they did. This could possibly end up in a good way.

*click*.. *bang*.. *click*.. *bang*.. Okay, this is really getting old now.... Why couldn't I be like any other NORMAL hero, haha... *click*.. *bang*.. Decoh was having a hard time fending himself off from those god-forsaken dualities AND King. He was able to keep them from hitting him too seriously by constantly blasting at them but things were going to be really difficult if he couldn't get any help soon. Suddenly King was no longer in the action and there was the masked Butler offering him help up. Decoh took his hand, "lo--" before he could finish his sentence, there was a steak knife in one of the Dualities' eye. Decoh couldn't help but laugh at this while simultaneously being freaked the hell out. He had never heard of a deadly Butler before, and he's so thin! “You had best get to those children, young sir,” came out of The Butler's mouth before he turned to block Marron's axe... WITH A SILVER TRAY?!?! Strange man.... But he had helped Decoh so he was cool. "You sure you don't want any--" Decoh said, only to be cut off by The Butler who seemed to be enjoying himself despite his current state of affairs, "Better run along." And with that, Decoh, using the wall for support once again, headed towards a large platform that lowered from the ceiling. Awww, she's got me riding in style. I knew she loved me! Decoh joked to himself. Decoh, after great effort, got himself onto the platform and it began to move... He was not going to be able to do much for those children after he vaporized the containers, at least not in his current condition... What if someone were there waiting for somebody to come try and free the children... Oh, maybe not, all the villains were over by the hole.. right? Decoh flipped open his phone again, hitting send twice, he needed some energy, just in case.

"Heyyyyyy... I know, i know, i've called you way too many times but you're the one who told me to keep my cell on me...... Oh right, first of all, let me say thank you for this luxurious ride you gave me. I feel like royalty," Decoh laughed silently to himself, he knew Ileana was probably rolling her eyes at this point, "Secondly, I need some type of natural energy. I don't know where from, but I need something if you expect me to be able to actually defend these kids in case a threat rears it's ugly head..... I just said I don't know! There's a fire SOMEWHERE around here, and a dude that shoots electricity and water, not to mention the loads of machinery, i'm sure you could run them into each other to create a spark, or set them on fire, SOMETHING. Look, if you want me to save these kids, bosslady, you're gonna find me some energy... and probably some help, too... Thank youuuuuuuuu," he said like a 4 year old who just got his favorite action figure from his parents, "and make sure it's natural!!" he said as he hung up the phone. Decoh rolled his eyes, "Damn machines..." he let out as big of a frustrated sigh as he could and layed completely still. Nothing left to do but wait...

New Congress was certainly in a clamor tonight. People were scrambling around the office, frantically trying to search for a television to tune into. In the distance, Diane could hear various expletives, gasps of disbelief, and comments of severe concern.

All the commotion began to irritate Diane, becoming too much of a distraction from her work to continue. With a sigh, she saved and closed out of her work deciding that tonight would not be the best night to attempt to put in overtime. She got up from her desk and moved towards the break room where a group of her co-workers were huddled, their eyes glued towards the television. One of her favorite co-workers, Dave turned around and motioned for her to hurry up.

"Holy shit Diane you gotta check this out! Look! It's happening in the downtown metropolitan area..."

She brushed him aside and saw for herself what had been going on. She couldn't believe it as the bodies of the Vote and Glory, originals of the 8th Paradigm lay there dead. Her jaw dropped in horror. Above anything else she had admired the Paradigm for what they stood for, what they did. Both hands clasped over her mouth when the camera panned the image of Caucus about to get executed, as well as the entrance of the other heroes. The office cheered and gasped when the Baptist fought and got held up, and cheered again once the shape shifting animal rescued him. They cheered when the droids came to the rescue, gasping again when the sly and agile Butler found himself being finally damaged. When the woman with Cybernetic arms began to brutally kick-ass. When Decoh was in his battles against King and Duality, and when any form of the tide began to shift.

Diane couldn't realize why she was glued to her spot in-front of the television. These brave men and woman (as far as she knows she only sees the Cybernetic) were risking their lives against a much larger force. Bleeding for the city, for other heroes that they didn't even know. To save strangers that they didn't even know....

Resolve finally set in her eyes. She eyed the other co-workers in the office real quick before turning towards Dave, feigning a disgusted look on her face. "I...I think I'm gonna be sick!" She said before running off in the direction of the restroom.

When she arrived in the restroom she quickly turned off the lights and locked the door behind her. Her hands when to unbutton the collar of her shirt and her overcoat, then her pants...

In seconds, out of the complete darkness of the restroom a single ray of light emitted from her finger. The image in the mirror did not reveal Diane-Morgan, but the Grey-Wraith! Adorned fully in the attire of her outfit which she made herself. She smiled as she pulled her mask down over her face, watching as her natural brunette hair morphed into a brilliant white. Her eyes lit up a bright red before she leaned in closer to the mirror, feeling a pit of nervousness in her stomach before looking back up at herself and saying...

"Time to show New Congress my true colors"

At that instant the shadows enveloped Diane, leaving no trace of her at all...

---

In the night, the Grey-Wraith can feel the essence of shadows. She becomes one with them, feeding off the absence of light and becoming one with the hours nocturne. Where travel by either foot or car would have taken hours where she had been previously traveling through the shadows took only minuets. She arrived within the warehouse silently as the shadows opened up to allow her to step through. Because of the fires and the still working lights of the complex, she hadn't that many options to arrive.

But where she did arrive, she could put herself to some use.

In front of her were Murphy's gunmen, still doing their best to shoot at the heroes that were gathered. Immediately her eyes went to their feet, the fires had been serving their shadows well...

Too well...

She growled as she lifted both arms in the air, watching as the shadows beneath the men grabbed at their ankles, locking them in place. They panicked frantically, not being able to defend themselves as she hovered in front of them, holding up her hand to block the barrage of bullets with a shield of shadows. When their shells were empty, she dismissed the shield, saying aloud to them "My Turn" before arcing her hands before her, shooting the men with blasts of light. They all fell to the ground, the shadows at their feet returning to normal.

Grey-Wraith then took to the air, overlooking the scene. The Butler fellow had taken down the mad axeman and had bought Decoh enough time to make an escape. As far as she could tell Baptist and the Animal would be able to protect Caucus, and the Cybernetic woman was still capable of holding her own. The numbers had crept within the good guys favor and Grey-Wraith couldn't help but smile as now even the number of thugs were at a low. But what about...

"OOMPH"

A burst of energy had slammed into the back of Grey-Wraith sending her crashing through a couple of storage containers. The only thing that kept her alive was sub-consciously her shadow protected her front from the force of the fall.

Still, she got up slowly, her head spinning from the trauma of the flow. She turned around to see the form of Cosmos hovering over her. He held his palm out towards her, speaking coldly. "You've picked the wrong side" before firing at her.

Grey-Wraith rolled to the side, answering with a couple of light blasts of her own. Cosmos had no choice but to dodge, giving Grey-Wraith enough time to rise up in the air to meet him. With fists wrapped in Shadow Gauntlets the two engaged in a brutal exchange of melee combat. For every punch that landed in her gut she would score two to the face and vice versa.

After a short while Cosmos took hold of both of her wrists, slamming his head down into hers. She could feel the blood escape from her nose as he did so. Cosmos prepared himself to do it again but she took the initiative. With all of her strength she was able to free one of her hands, raising the fist in front of her face and watching as Cosmos impaled himself on a light dagger....

The man fell from the sky, crashing into the ground. Grey-Wraith had been victorious.

But not for long.

No one had accounted for Murphy, who tossed out a flash grenade and shot it with his pin-point accuracy. The blinding artificial light was the bane of the Grey-Wraith, and with a scream she fell from the sky, landing and rolling down a flight of stairs.

She struggled to get up, but couldn't. She was hurt.

Baptist tried his best to catch his best after the Animal had freed him. The arms of Bombshell had been squeezing the life out of him, and if it weren't for the Animal it certainly would have been a quick ending for the Baptist.

He nodded in thanks to the Animal, patting him on the shoulder before watching as Tallok resumed his charge.

"NOT THIS TIME!" Baptist yelled as he extended his arm towards the charging man. The sheer force of the stream halted Talloks charge making him struggle to advance. The Baptist turned to Animal and yelled "Cover me!" as his focus once again turned on Tallok. The Baptist was in extreme concentration, screaming loudly as his stream of water narrowed to pinpoint on Tallok's chest. The pressure of the stream quickly rose to over 60,000 psi, enough to cut through steel. Tallok panicked as not only did the stream of water begin to cause him extremes amount of pain, it began to tear through his skin.

Tallok tried his best to swat away the stream but it was to no avail, with a final surge of water Baptist's stream went completely through Tallok, tearing a hole in the man's heart dropping him to the floor.

Baptist reared his head back and let out a load roar in victory. He looked back around him to watch as four of King's remaining pawns came at him. He dodged the oncoming kick from a pawn, ducking and weaving back up to give the woman a harsh hook to the temple. Two more approached Baptist, who blocked their attacks with his left arm. and sent a surge of electricity through them when his right hand connected. The fourth tried to flee, but Baptist ended his flight by sending a spray of water underneath the man, causing him to fall. While he was still in the pool of water Baptist touched the ground with his right hand, causing a current of electricity to travel upon the path of water until it reached the target, causing him to shake violently as the water conducted the electricity to horrifying results.

Baptist's rage was at a peak, however his mind raced back to the remembrance of the children. He began to panic, looking back behind him to make sure that Animal was alright. He then raced off within the warehouse, rushing past many of the heroes who were doing battle against the villains, proud in his mind to be among them.

But still...he had come because of the plight of the children.

He couldn't bear to fail them!

Dr. Damnation blinked stupidly as a hawk soared past him and entered the warehouse. It took him a second to realize who it was. Animal had arrived. He checked his scanner and they confirmed his suspicions. Things were really starting to heat up in there now. He looked at his watch and quietly went over his schedule, making some alterations here and there to compensate for the time he would lose with this little venture.

"Grey-Wraith should be here any...ah there she is." The scanner bleeped as it recorded another power signature. He typed in a few notes that would help him later on when he tried to analyze this data. He didn't know what had sparked such a large brawl in the middle of the city but it offered an unique opportunity to study the workings of all these powers and the effect they had on each other. He leaned back against the wall when the ground trembled for a moment. "Yes, a unique opportunity indeed."

He felt the gaze of the cameras pointed at the building he was standing next to. From a quick glance up he knew that only very few had even noticed him, let alone recorded him. Nevertheless it was an annoyance to be watched by so many inferior minds as he worked. The Doctor grabbed his neuralizer and quickly reconfigured it. When he held it up again it flashed far more brightly than before. The unique properties of the signal it sent out messed with the electronics of the of the closest cameras. It would have to do for now. The small device didn't have the batteries to cause any actual havoc but it was the message that counted right. He didn't want to interfere with any of the more vital electronics inside either. It would really spoil the opportunity.

There was a flash inside, clearly visible through the large hole in the wall. "Too them long enough to notice her." He muttered as he made some more notes. The sudden drop in power levels from the individual he had identified as Grey-Wraith confirmed the hypothesis that she was vulnerable to bright lights.

He noticed some very weak power levels as well. Due to the noise and interferance he couldn't really make any sollid assumptions but it appeared there were a few human-basic indivuals in there. The thought entered the Doctors mind that they might be innocent bystanders but he paid no attention it.

The energy levels of the one he suspected was the Baptist spiked. "Interesting."

Animal smiled as Baptist left, Animal knew he could take Bombshell alone. He looked as she got up and charged at him. She tried to slam her shoulder into him but he stopped her and sent her spiraling into the wall. Animal saw the wall begin to crack, he knew if he sent Bombshell or anything into that spot it would give way and it wouldn’t be good for this place to fall with the kids still inside. Animal grabbed Bombshell and threw her onto the ground. Animal began to change his form again, he lost his rhino horn and grey skin. He then grew black fur all over his body. His muscles started to grow and enlarge, He had now half shifted into a gorilla. It made Animal’s arms strong and that’s just what he wanted. Animal picked up Bombshell by her head and then slammed her hard into the ground. He then interlocked his fingers, he brought his arms back and slammed Bombshell deeper and deeper into the floor until there was a large hole and her lying unconscious in it. Animal heard something say to him “ finish her.” He looked around and heard it again but this time louder “ finish her.” Animal didn’t know what to think at first, but he could feel his right arm reach back, he was aiming for her head. But before he could throw the punch he stopped himself. He couldn’t kill someone even if they were a villain. The voice came back “ just end her already, if you do that is one more enemy you wont have to face later.” Animal shook his head and walked away from Bombshell, she was out of it, there was no way she could get up after that beating. Animal walked away from Bombshell and then he stopped and looked around to see who he should help. The heroes or the kids. Animal ran over to the butler and looked at Marron who was rolling around holding himself, Animal picked up Marron by the waist and then slammed him into the ground, he looked at the Butler and said “ you go ahead and help the others I’ll take this guy.” Animal started to punch Marron’s armor,Animal was trying to break it. Animal saw it wasn’t doing him any good, so he changed his form, he half shifted into anaconda, Animal’s legs became leathery and then they started to form together making the lower part of his body snake like. Animal wrapped himself around Marron squeezing tightly making sure he couldn’t breath. Animal decided he would wait for Marron to pass out from lack of oxygen.

Binary answered the phone with a snarl already on her face. "Heyyyyyyyy..."

"Damn it, Decoh, will you lay off the speed dial? This is not as easy as I make it look!" she snapped as she lifted the platform and got it moving along its guiding track and then had to send two more lifting droids to guard the bottom rungs. After a few moments she figured out how to raise those high enough that the stupid gunmen would stop trying to climb it. There were thirty-four mobile droids of different shape, size, and function and seventeen other stationary units, and Binary was coordinating each one, her gaze flicking through the camera feeds stationed over each one in rapid succession. Any other person simply would not be able to keep up with the stream of data, let alone analyze and implement it, but this was her element. Her mind had had its time to warm up, and now she answered Desmond before he had even really finished his sentence. He finished it anyway, of course, used to the way she worked.

"Excuse me? Where the hell am I going to get some natural-ass energy in the middle of New Congress?!" she shouted, swinging one of the droids around to smack Pride in the face and then quickly retreating it back. "I know this is a difficult concept for you to grasp, but I'm actually a genius, not freaking Jesus!" She bit back several scathing remarks. Her brother really was a butt sometimes. The platform he was suspended on continued steadily along its track and then clattered to a stop above the container that she thought the children was in.

"All right, let's see if I can grudge up some sissy natural energy for Decoh..." From opposite sides of the warehouse, two tiny droids, squat and solid that only came about to one's knee started up, gaining speed and mowing down villans as they went until they swerved at the last moment, smashing their back ends where the motors were located together. A huge explosion rocked the warehouse. Binary had timed it exactly so that the explosion had a big shockwave, one that Desmond could absorb, but not so much fire. "Great, I run transport and go out to the store to pick up some gas..."

The platform began to move. We were in business. Decoh just laid there as the platform took him to where the children were located, waiting on some energy to at least give him enough strength to stand. As he lay there, he noticed the entrance of a flying woman, clad in all black... "Well isn't she quite dark.. hehe... i'm so lame..." Grey-Wraith had taken care of some thugs and suddenly became locked in battle with Cosmos. That sucked, he was stuck there, unable to do anything but draw circles, and they were moving way too fast for him to take proper aim, and the pain wouldn't allow him to swing his arm fast enough to make a larger blast and it actually hit something... Decoh was pretty much screwed. Fortunately, Cosmos' head ran into a blade on Grey-Wraith... Unfortunately, Decoh was suddenly blind and he heard Grey-Wraith scream.... That couldn't be good.... Decoh really needed some energy and he wanted to look around to see if he could do SOMETHING to make some but he was still regaining his vision thanks to that damn light.... LIGHT! Thats it! He could blast a hole in the ceiling and use the moonlight... Not as potent as sunlight but he kind of can't be picky right now. Decoh raised his arm above his body, facing toward the ceiling and began to draw a circle, but his concentration was thrown off when he heard the loud almost roar of the Baptist.. At least he was up and at em again. Decoh glanced down to see who had helped and sure enough, it was Animal, currently pummeling the hell out of Bombshell... She totally had that coming. Decoh fixed his gaze back up on the ceiling and raised his hand yet again, this time his concentration being thrown off by a big shockwave caused by an explosion. A shockwave big enough for Decoh to absorb, and absorb he did. Decoh was finally able to stand and NOT feel pain, go Ileana for thinking on her toes... or on her butt... Decoh knew he was going to have to make dinner or something... Maybe he'd hold off on asking to remodel the house.

Decoh stood up and bounced a few times to get the energy flowing as the platform came to a halt above a container that would hopefully have some children in it. Decoh leapt off of the platform right onto the container, it felt good to be able to move normally; what was Ileana's favorite meal again? Decoh waisted no time, he drew a circle right on the container, click, and leapt off of it before the container disappeared and he landed on those poor unfortunate children. bang. No more container, and there were kids in there, thank God that wasn't a trap, Decoh was quite fed up with surprises for that day, plus all that technology was throwing off his flow. Even worse, the kids were foreign.. How was he supposed to explain how that container just disappeared, or, better yet, get them to follow him to safety... Guess he was winging it. Decoh already had the kids attention, now it was getting them to follow him. He walked towards a wall, making sure the kids' gaze was fixed upon him the entire time. He turned quickly to draw a big circle facing toward the wall, CLICK..... BANG. There was the kids' exit, hopefully they would take it, but he had no time to try to get them to understand what the purpose of that hole was, 3 of Murphy's thugs came running up, however this time, Decoh could take em. He'd probably need backup soon though.

Decoh rushed toward the first thug, finger hovering about where the thug's shoulder should be click.. bang there goes his shoulder. With the first thug caught off guard, Decoh gave him a solid punch right in the nose, effectively knocking him out. click.. bang, that thug was now armless. Decoh raised his hand in the air and drew a medium sized circle at an angle Click.. Bang and immediately took off towards the thug to his left, the thug to his right falling into the hole Decoh had made in the ground with his blast. He rushed straight for the third thug and swung at him, but he missed and the thug gave Decoh a solid one in the gut. That crap stung but Decoh had no time to waste, he had to get back to the children. Decoh grabbed the thug's hand to hold him where he was and drew a circle on the thug's throat click.. bang No more thug. Decoh ran back to the kids while pulling his cell phone out, this time to send a text, for some reason he felt Binary would read the text before it made it to her phone physically. "Thugs r coming. Need help. Send cops to hole in NW corner. Thanks <3 :)" [[Send]] Before Decoh could get all the way back to the kids, he got a bad feeling. He turned in just enough time to get rid of a bomb that had been tossed, only to look down and see more thugs, and Murphy, on their way. Damn.... this sucks...

The Butler sighed lightly, bowing lightly to Animal as he finished off Marron. His throat was not feeling very well and he was in no mood to have another hand to hand fight. He’d decommissioned two of the villains, that was enough for the moment. He glanced to the side, noticing another large group of thugs appearing out of…somewhere. There were all sorts of strange noises coming from inside, some mechanical some explosive. He really had no desire to be anywhere near the building but there were children inside. He slipped into the newly made hole, cocking a brow at the mayhem inside. Little robots and thugs were doing battle and so many confused children were huddled in a mass. Junoichi sighed lightly and glanced at a woman all in black fighting an odd man with rather obnoxious eyeware. He frowned lightly at the scene that unfolded.

He jumped lightly down beside the fallen heroine and shook her shoulder. “You must get up, Madame. We haven’t the time to take naps.” He pulled her forcibly and away from the fight and into the shadow of the flames. “Get a hold of yourself, young miss.” He sighed and shook her shoulder, glancing over his own. Decoh appeared to be getting overwhelmed with the thugs, which he and the Grey-Wraith could certainly do some damage to. Her flying ability would also be excessively helpful for leading the children…they tended to run from him. “Young Miss! It is time to wake up!”

He whipped around, catching a pawn by the ankle. He wrapped his hand around the joint and threw her forcibly into one of the mechanized things, effectively making a pawn puree. He sighed lightly and left the Wraith’s side, she would have to fend for herself. He leapt into the fray beside Decoh, keeping an eye on his back and as far away from his ability as possible. He threw a fork into a thug’s eye and brought a spoon down on another’s neck, knocking him unconscious. Things were getting sticky, but he was helping and that was all that mattered. “Young miss, you must lead the children from this place!” He called, aware that the flames were beginning to creep up the walls of the warehouse.

He smirked to himself and landed a butterfly kick to the chin of the next thug. “Sir, perhaps you should focus on these fool’s leader, I can hold them off while you take care of him.” He cackled and brought a kunai across the throat of one the thugs. He did not hesitate to kill, why should he spare those that his Master despised? “Be swift, young sir.” The Butler kicked a thug skyward by the chin. He fought on, flinching only once as a bullet tore through the flesh of his shoulder. He brought a hand to it, scowling as blood began to stain his glove. The idiot who shot him was greeted by a carving knife to the forehead.

Episode 1: Trials of Champions
Part Two

The story so far....

Rescue finally came to Caucus as heroes from all over New Congress assembled upon the warehouse, instantly taking the mantle of justice to combat the overpowering force that defeated the original Paradigm. Thanks to the efforts of Baptist, Caucus would not be killed underneath the heels of Bombshell, and thanks to the entrance of all the heroes there after, Baptist and Caucus would also have a fighting chance of surviving this night.

The fight that broke out between the Heroes and Villains was epic in scale. Thunderous blows and flashes of skill devastated the warehouse. The Villain's ranks were divided as the heroes brought the fight to them. The Amazing skill and technique of the Butler devastated the Marron & Valkyrie and also assisted in the defeat of Duality. The powerful Grey-Wraith was able to bring down the might of Cosmos. Decoh had taken the fight to King, removing one of the legs of the great man and fought off the threat of Duality. The King would be carried away by his pawns, waiting for the signal to unleash the next phase of the command given to him. And he would be sorely angered at Decoh. The Animal had broken the assault of the siblings Tallok and Bombshell, the former being taken down by the rage of Baptist. Most of King's *Pawns* had felt the punishment of justice delivered to them via the strikes of Vasilisa, who had turned much of their attention onto her.

Thus the fight had completely turned, as the commands of the extremely tech-brilliant Binary bolstered the ranks of the heroes from afar, using her genius to assemble drones to combat the remaining thugs that had not been taken care of.

Hope was evident indeed....

But tonight would see the breaking of a people's spirit.

[[As Testament,a pretty bad guy]]

No sooner did he step through the other side of his gate in an unknown location did his eyes too venture upon a television. His eyes lit with rage with what he saw! Who the hell were these others heroes!?!?!? A fist slammed into a nearby wall as he cursed the heavens, the concrete folding effortlessly underneath the might of his blow.

He watched as his perfect plan to break the will of the city seemingly began to crumble as the forces of the heroes outmatched those he had gathered. "Pathetic!" he exclaimed at the failure of his force to defeat the heroes.

"Still however" he thought to himself "They weren't gathered to expect such a force of foolish imbeciles to come against them..."

And that is why he always had a backup plan.

Testament reached into his cloak to reveal a communicator that had spoken to him before. It had been a female voice on the other line saying "

"The old warehouse in the center of New Congress. Follow the sirens. The Paradigm VIII is fallen... Coucus has a chance. Binary".

Binary? He thought could prove to become quite a nuisance, thus did Testament turn behind him, and stare at a creature few could even begin to describe....

His Medusa



Medusa would become the natural framework for New Congress. Her tendrils and hair were connected seemingly to an endless array of computers, transmissions, frequencies, ect. She was a motherboard incarnate, feeding herself Data from all over.

She was also the leader of an extreme faction of tech-science abominations that had pledged their service to Testament. He smiled at her, taking a bow before looking up and saying.

"Please remove us of this Binary threat..."

Immediately her eyes lit up, sending millions upon millions of bugs through the systems. The droids that had manifested within the warehouse either became unstable, exploded, or turned on the heroes.

From where Binary would be working, an image of Medusa's face would appear screaming in a high pitch frequency that only perhaps even the Binary could hear. Medusa was trying to corrupt everything Binary had at her current disposal! Binary would have to act quickly!!!

Satisfied, Testament touched his ear to speak on a private channel to another member of his force who had come nearly unnoticed in the fry...

"Murphy" he spoke. "You may begin...let us see how their spirits hold up to this"

He then released his hold on his ear, turning back now towards the television to see how his plan would come into motion...a sly smile creeping upon his lips.

((As Caucus))

Caucus awoke at the sound of further explosions. His body was in total pain but he was yet still alive! He slowly looked up, watching as his saviors commenced brave battle against those that defeated him and the Paradigm. He looked over to see the dead bodies of his two comrades. Everything in him wanted to hold their bodies close, to weep and mourn for his old beloved friends. But alas there was no time for this. He tried to stand up, slowly feeling the earth beneath him rumble as he turned to see a very angry Bombshell charging towards a man who he saw changing into various animal forms.

She must of thought he was dead, as she simply ran passed him, not noticing him reach out with his hand and wrap it around her ankle. She fell to the ground hard, bouncing a little before coming to a stop. She would turn around and see a standing and ready Caucus, assuming the form of a boxer. In disbelief she slowly stood up, dusting herself off before screaming out "You just don't know how to fucking die!" With that she charged at him, swinging wildly with her right arm carrying enough force to punch a hole in the wall....

Caucus simply caught her hand.

He felt his powers begin to stir within him. He could match ANY foe in equal power, making himself the perfect equalizer. She strained as she tried to overpower him, but it would be like trying to overpower one's own duplicate. Caucus threw her arm to the side, striking with two swift jabs and following it through with a knee to the gut.

Bombshell fell to her knees, but Caucus did not let up. He struck her three times in the temple knocking her to the floor. Since Baptist and Animal had his back, it took no time for Caucus to get behind her, raising the woman up by the neck and twisting his hands in opposite directions upon her chin.

It took a great amount of strength, but Caucus felt and heard the SNAP that would signify her end.

He looked around, wiping the blood from his brow and lips to find a trail of water that Baptist left behind in his search for the children.

Caucus took off at a mad dash, signaling Decoh and catching them up to Baptist who had just got to the spot that Decoh had rounded the foreign children up to. However in Decho and the Butler's brave attempt to protect the children & throw over the bomb something had happened...

The Murphy that he seen below was a decoy. As was the bomb they had thrown and the distraction of the thugs sent after them.

Caucus, Decoh, and Baptist stood infront of Murphy now, heavily armed with an ak-47 in one hand and rocket launcher in the other. He took aim at them, dodging the desperate bolts that Baptist shot out and released a rocket towards the children!

In a mad dash Caucus leapt in the air and spread his limbs out wide, catching the rocket in it's flight.

However it did not explode.

The rocket propelled grenade continued to spiral into Caucus's sternum causing him to fly back into both the Baptist and Decoh and send them along in the flight. The Butler would be able to dodge them with uncanny ability, but would have to jump from the platform as Murphy had sent two frag grenades his direction in the air towards him.

Caucus wasn't worried about thier fate however, for in the final moments before the rocket exploded, he saw Murphy let loose upon the children with his AK-47, and press a detonator with the other. The screams of the kids being slain filled Caucus's ears as the rocket exploded violently. The three men would be blasted outside the warehouse and fall into the street below. Caucus would survive the blast however, and caught the force of it protecting Baptist and Decoh, but Murphy had been able to press the detonator and make the remaining containers that were full of children explode. Killing them all. The chain of explosions also caused the structure of the warehouse to fail, causing the building to begin to cave in.

Those within it had to escape!

To make matters worse, Murphy had reached the outside hole where the heroes had been blasted just in time to watch as more police squad cars and swat vans arrive on the scene. A smile crept over his features as he spoke into a walkie, entering into an armor car that would disappear into the night with uncanny speed.

"Let 'em have it"

Assembled outside the warehouse were countless civilians, a force of over 70 police officers and about 40 SWAT had arrived.

However after receiving a signal...half of those police officers and swat began firing upon each other, and at the civilians gathered. Pure chaos ensued as the slaughter began.

The Testament would smile at the scene, and the commentary of the news media outlets.

"Save them now, Paradigm" He said, turning off the television to begin his further planning.

((SCENARIO))

Because of the brave attempts of the heroes, Caucus was able to survive, and most of the villain forces gathered had been stopped.

However, because Murphy had been unchecked, he was able to murder the children within and bring down the complex. Making his successful escape amidst the chaos.

Grey-Wraith remains knocked out. She will need to be rescued before the debris kills her.

All of the villains save King, Murphy, and Funnybone have been neutralized. King has been carried away by his pawns, however Funnybone absently runs by a hidden Vasilisa, still energized by her battle with the thugs. She's the only one right now who could stop him.

Outside there is mass chaos as it is hard to tell which cops and swat are killing and which are trying to stop their partners. Protection of the Civilians is a must, the warehouse is lost!

Caucus, Decoh, and Baptist are all together in the middle of the street, for they landed near each other.

The rest of the Heroes gathered need to escape the building ASAP.

What will happen to the civilians outside?
Has Testament truly broken the will of the people?!?
Will Medusa be able to break Binary?!?!

Find out next time as Part two of our exciting Episode 1 of PARADIGM IX: Rise of Champions continues!

"SHIT!!!!! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!" yelled Decoh, wincing in pain once again.... "Fuck that dinner, I told her I dont do that superhero shit for precisely this reason.... I somehow always end up gettin my ass whooped!!" he felt a sharp pain everywhere caused from the little fiasco that just took place, "OUCH!!! DAMMIT!!" This was not going to work, but before Decoh could grumble about himself any longer... all hell broke loose. Police and SWAT started shooting each other, civilians were in danger, the warehouse was up in blazes, AND the kids weren't saved. I went through ALL that damn work to save those kids, and what happens?! I coulda just stayed on the platform for this! Though greatly aggravated, Murphy had blessed Decoh.. In due time there would be a fire large enough to give Decoh the energy to run around New Congress three times at full speed. But for now, he'd have to take some moonlight to regain his strength... Hopefully he'd get enough strength to at least defend himself until he was able to get back to peak performance and take a head on approach.... Or until Baptist wakes up to help him out... He better wake the fuck up soon or i'm gonna take his head off........ Okay, i'm lying... He'd take mine off before I could connect the dots.... Decoh reached his open hand out to try and draw energy from the moon... Only to realize that it was being blocked by a building... What. The. Hell. Decoh was screwed unless he could wake up the Baptist.

The chaos over by the civilians was too ridiculous for Decoh to even fire a warning shot. Things were not looking pretty.... "Baptist? Caucus? ONE OF YOU NEED TO WAKE THE FUCK UP!!" Decoh screamed in extreme frustration, wincing in pain..... There was no telling when the Cops/SWAT would start firing at him and the other two. He was tempted to assist the Warehouse in it's downfall, just for the fire, but there was no telling who was in there. There was plenty of good earth underneath the street and it's most likely been supercharged by the lacuna. He could make a hole in the ground and go sit in the dirt for a few seconds, that would give him all the energy he needed... Too bad he was in the middle of the street, Decoh didn't want to inconvenience everybody later on after this little problem had been solved. "DAMMIT!! THIS SUCKS!!!" the human holepuncher bellowed, cringing and doubling over in pain, "I've.... really got.... to do........ something...... about this..... pent up.... anger......" his breathing heavy. There was no telling how long Decoh would remain conscious.... he had to get ahold of some type of energy soon, or he really would be useless.

Binary flicked her eyes to the top corner of one of her computer screens. Incoming Text, it said before it was shuffled off the edge of the screen by more incoming figures. Binary opened it quickly and scanned its contents. She allowed herself a bit of a smile. The children were safe and Caucus was on his feet. Things were actually going their way. She summoned a box and quickly obtained the frequency of the radios the local police force used.

"This is dispatch," she said brightly into her headset with a grin. She did not cease in her typing even as she spoke "Be advised, one of the heros have freed a group of hostages at the northwest corner of the building. If you could pick them up for us, that would just be lovely-- what the hell??"

Binary shot forward in her seat, her nose practically pressing into the screens of the computers, and her keystrokes redoubled and got louder. The droids, all at once every single one of them was unresponsive. A second later, she was thrown out of the system all together and one nano-second after that her screens glitched. Her face paled and her fingers became a blur. "Come on, baby, come on, you are not doing this to me right now," she mumbled. Her eyes darkened as she worked. There was someone in her system and if they had smashed through her firewalls just like that, that meant they weren't just anyone.

Suddenly, her screens blanked and from all four of them a thin, grey-skinned woman with ropey tendrils of writhing hair appeared. And she was looking right at Binary, her eyes very aware. Binary's eyes went wide. "Who the f--"

The unholy sound seemed to slam into Binary's entire body as the ghostly Medusa-looking hag stretched her mouth wide, her eyes glowing white. Binary scrambled backward in her chair until her back hit the opposite wall, her body folding in on itself as she writhed in pain. The scream resonated in her head, but the problem really was the metal spread throughout her body. It picked up the high frequency all too well, jarring her bones. Binary choked off a scream of pain, clenching her hands over her ears as the patterns on her face, hands, and eyes writhed, the metal responding to her spiked adrenaline levels, but with no where to gather to protect her. "Cut the audio!" she gasped, even as she reached out with her mind to stop the power to her sound system. But by that point bugs had flooded the system. The sound system stuttered and then redoubled in volume. Binary screeched and slid out of her seat onto the floor, twitching. She opened her eyes and noticed the bundle of wires leading to her surge protector. Gritting her teeth, she reached out to the panel. She remembered the day she had installed the system, it was the last to be hooked up, the last outlet on the right side...

With a grunt, Binary yanked the chord out of the outlet. That terrible scream was silenced immediately. Binary's entire body sagged, but she wasn't clear yet. She hauled herself into a seated positon so that she could see the woman staring at her from the screens. The woman mouthed something with a sneer and though she could not hear her, the idea was as clear as a bell. "Right back at you, bitch," Binary mumbled breathlessly. She tiredly, but quickly dragged herself into her chair and reached for her keyboard, but the electronics in it shorted, sending sparks out toward her hands. Binary scowled. "Fine then." She held up hear hands and wiggled her fingers. "I can do the no-hands thing too." With narrow eyes, Binary sank her mind deep into her home network, wiping clean and re-programming with every milisecond. Binary knew everything in the city, every hero, every villan, and especially every technopath. No one was faster than her. Her eyes gazed over and her lips moved soundlessly. She was completely immersed in a world humans had created, but only a handful had ever truly walked in the way that Binary did. She was in about six places at once, shoving the Medusa out of her system, reparing damage, rebuilding firewalls with mutating algorithims to keep her out, and all the while sniffing for and eventually stretching through the minute, almost invisible trail that led back wherever the thing was based.

Binary shuddered as she touched the Medusa's home network. The thing was huge spanning thousands of networks all at once, but that didn't mean it was without a heart. It had a soft spot, a place to hit. It was guarded, but let's be honest. She was Binary. The locating program she had run had accomplished its objective in two-point-two seconds, long enough for her to shove the Medusa back outside of the firewalls and fortify them. Binary hefted a tiny grin and leaned forward in her seat to stare into the thing's eyes, ready to do a dual battle on two fronts, offensive and defensive, all without moving a muscle.

"Let's get nasty."