Sasha Belov's Story

Maeve was still for a moment as Cannonade rose off of her into the air, declaring the fight over. The arena was completely silent, aside from a few tentative cheers for the hero’s victory following the brawl which had been quickly growing out of control a second before. The air seemed to take a breath as everything calmed.

Then Maeve got up. Her body rose limply off the ground, thick, black ichor dripping down her chin. Then massive tendons exploded around her, encasing her limbs and thrashing outward as a massive rib cage grew like a horrific white tree out of the air, bone impaling the nearby seats and ripping them apart as the VIPs scattered in terror. Cannonade swerved away to evade before they could get caught in it, and then again as first one shoulder and then another sprouted into existence and a single giant clawed arm slammed down into the center of the arena, sending a cloud of dust and rubble exploding outward to fill the entire building.

The vast, incomplete skeleton tried to lift itself up off the ground as more of it started to form, the back of its spine sending cracks spiderwebbing across the already damaged ceiling as it strained to break through. Tendons and sinew began snaking their way over the skeleton’s frame, muscle crawling down and threatening to encase Maeve’s form inside. It tilted left, unable to support itself fully with only one limb, crushing a few unfortunate patrons under its torso.

Then it fell still. Maeve’s body began to slip, ever so slightly, then snapped free from the meat which had bound her limbs and fell back to the demolished floor of the arena. She stayed crouched there on her hands and knees for a moment, dazed, and the monstrous form above her began to dissolve, dripping down in drops of oily tar which caused whatever they landed on to smoke and hiss from the intense heat. It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared, manifesting and then vanishing in only a handful of seconds.

Maeve got slowly back to her feet, then stumbled and fell to one knee. She blinked away the fog that clouded her mind, returning to her senses, and tried to stand again. She looked around in a daze at the destruction of the arena, dust and rubble drifting gently down to the abused ceiling of the club. She slapped her cheeks, trying to focus, as she attempted to recall what had just happened.

She had been fighting Cannonade, and then… had she lost control? No, she might’ve gotten a little carried away with the fight, but… Then how…

Oh. The bowling ball, she must have lost consciousness. Her eyes scanned around for her former opponent, then abandoned that when they landed on one of the VIP booths instead. That one in the mask, looking like an anthropomorphic shadow. Was that her contact?

Shit.

J-3 kept bounding away, humming thoughtfully for a second before leaping from one roof to the next, peering forth into the night sky as they kept moving. They figured that the chances of either of the supers from before following were high, but the urge to 'Complete the mission' was stronger than the call. A twinge of regret flashed through their core before fading as quickly as it came. They felt the eagerness for combat rising once again, before the disappointed voice of Alex filtered into their thoughts... They couldn't do again what they had done this morning. It would be too much.
The safety that Alex offered would be forfeit if Jericho lost control again. So instead they attempted to hold a cold, nearly clinical, focus until they could arrive at their destination.

Which only took a few moments longer, what with Jericho once again shrinking their form just a bit more. They took the shape of some odd stream-lined thing, appearing as if a shark's skull was forced onto the feathered shape of some cat-like body. A fan of tail-feathers sprouted mid-stride, and Jericho leapt once more from one roof to the next before taking to the sky as a legless felid-lamidae with a quartet of wings flaring into the night air.
They flew onward, their body streamlined for as much aerodynamics as they could get with the particular form. As they rose up, with Alex following ever onward with an otherwise unseen rhythm, at least for Jericho.
The super was leaping from telekinetic spires, each spire forming mid-air to catch and then catapult Aegis forward, lending the distance and speed required for Aegis to keep up with J-3.

A small distance away, after a few moments more of leaping and flying for the two of them, Jericho spotted the building- and breathed the strength of the now closer scents- that they needed to enter. A duo of security guards were positioned atop the roof, one on north west corner, and one on the south east corner.

---

For Jackson and Dumas, the night was the same as any other. The 'man of the house' was once again making an appearance, and they were supposed to be keeping an eye out for disturbances. But with the relative silence of the world around them, they were in no real mood to be on high alert. There was the sound of... Probably an explosion, earlier, but Dumas had told Jackson that it was too far off to really be that big of a deal.
How Jackson would come to regret fucking listening to his boyfriends bullshit excuse for continuing their lazy lookout, in the morning, was paramount to a mother's scorn.
Before then, they were shooting the shit, simply chatting for a while, when Dumas mentioned something about seeing some kind of blue light in the distance. Jackson had turned to look over, prepared to give Dumas grief.

"Oh what the fuck ever babe." Were the only words to leave Jackson's mouth. He was abruptly cut off by the sudden appearance of some large, not bird-bird thing. It wrapped around his throat with its' body, of which was as lengthy as a serpent, but nearly as thick around as a goddamn trout! It was strong as hell too, to boot. The security officer scrambled to get the creature off, hand moving towards the holstered pistol behind his suit-jacket. The beast moved quicker than he could react though, and his mind was overwhelmed by the sensation of searing pain... And then unconscious oblivion rose up to meet him along with the ground. The glory of Tarantula Hawk venom applied directly to the jaw and neck worked wonders.

Dumas had turned to ponder his partner's abrupt silence, opening his mouth to shout out in surprise before it slammed shut. All his vocal cords could muster was the sound of an overheld groan of pain. The world had lit up in his vision, sparkling and flashing brightly as a burst of electric agony raced up from his ribs to his mind. The only true option was to sleep! Sleep and escape the burst of electricity.

---

Jericho and Alex untangled from and gently laid their targets down to rest as they finished their respective business, with Jericho swirling with ink before taking on the appearance of the (unbeknownst to them) security guard by the name of Jackson. They turned then, and with a voice that was most certainly not theirs, spoke quickly to Alex. "Okay, they're probably going to do a check in soon. Let me speak when they do-" They, 'he', was cut off by the sound of an earpiece crackling to life. A voice echoed up from the earpiece for both Jericho and Alex to hear, coming from Jackson's prone form.
"This is Able, how's roof duty treating you two lovebirds? ... Dumas! Jackson! Quit sucking face and call in. Both of you. Boss doesn't appreciate sloppiness y'know."
To which the conscious 'Jackson' replied, leaning down and pressing a finger to reply into the microphone of the ear-set. "This is Jackson, we're doing alright." Jericho and Alex then waited for a moment with baited breath... Before sighing in relief as the voice from the speaker once again. "Good! Tell Dumas to get off your prick, and reply in about fifteen. The fight down here is getting rowdy."
They blinked and gave yet another quick reply. "Hey, Able, is the boss watching 'the fight'? How's the ring holding up?"
An affirmative came through, along with a vague warning about being careful when 'coming downstairs' and for a moment Jericho stayed quiet as they considered their options in silence...

Jericho then turned to Alex and grinned, dropping the disguise as they whispered across to Alex. "Okay. We go down and in through the kitchen exit- I can smell the food, don't ask- and I'll take on the form of... I guess your work hound. You put on... The Dumas guy's suit, or if you brought one with you, use that one. I'll sniff around for the red-head and the silver-head. We find them, I give the red head her new phone parts, and the silver hair gets the same thing, then we leave, okay? Okay."

Alex seemed to grumble before he plopped a bag down on the roof, quickly going about and removing his armor and switching his clothing into a suit from a previous... Heist. Jericho cringed inwardly as they looked off and away from Alex. "Hm. Avoid the kitchen, stay focused. We keep our heads low and try to make this quick. Try and keep the EMP to a minimum unless shit gets bad." The man replied, standing upright as he examined his new clothing briefly. He was well dressed, sporting nearly the same dress-clothing 'uniform' that the two sleeping security guards were wearing.
Jericho nodded in reply and shifted once again into a large wolf-hound. The tips of their ears just barely reached the four foot mark, and around their neck grew a spiked collar, similar to one used to ward off attacks on cattle dogs. From the collar grew a lead made of leather, one that stretched out and quickly found it's way into Alex's hand, startling the giant of a man.
Jericho spoke one last time, before going quiet for the rest of the night. "If anyone stops us, especially security, tell them that we're here to pick up a client from the viewing of the... Sport."

And from there, the two continued down and into the club, both climbing down from the roof to enter from a side entrance that Jericho guided them towards, following the old scent-trail from the original two security.

As the final moments of the battle between Cannonade and Maeve played out, Sasha had to forcibly remove the excited grin from his face. His hands trembling slightly, Sasha rose from his seat as Cannonade floated to the arena floor, heading for the back room the two supers would be returning to.

It had been a long time since he'd seen supers as powerful as the ones today, and just as long since Sasha had felt that comfortable itch under his skin - the itch for battle. It was a weakness, Sasha knew, but a part of him nonetheless. Sasha loved to fight, and the stronger the opponent, the better.

I need to remain calm for this, Sasha thought, taking a deep breath as he quickly moved through the crowd and slipped into the fighter's waiting room. His target was already waiting inside, a small Russian man smoking a cigarette and carrying a briefcase, nervously glancing at the doors to the arena and shuffling his feet.

"I thought you might be here... Mishka," Sasha said, allowing his disguise to melt away, revealing his actual face. Mishka turned, paled, and immediately broke into a run, trying to rush past Sasha back to the safety of the club. Sasha's hand slammed into Mishka's chest, throwing him down to the ground with a heavy thud.

Mishka wheezed as Sasha lifted the man by his coat, his hands weakly trying to pry Sasha's iron grip away.

"P-please, comrade, I-I did not know you were here," Mishka panted, his eyes desperate. "I just came to..."

"I am no comrade of yours," Sasha growled. "I know why you're here. You came to peddle your wares to the supers of the arena, yes? You think the Roma or the giantess will want your drugs, Mishka? I wonder how the Shape would feel about you selling drugs in his place, hmm?"

"W-wha-what do you w-want?" Mishka stammered, sweating profusely now, his fingers clawing uselessly at Sasha's wrist.

"I want your supplier," Sasha snarled. "Who do you get your supply from, Mishka?"

"Supplier?" Mishka said, looking shocked. "I don't know, h-honest Sasha. I-I get a notice, a d-dead drop. I kn-know I'm not the only dealer, s-see, bu-but no one knows where they, the drugs c-came from."

"That's not much to go on, Mishka," Sasha said softly, his eyes narrowing. "You're making me sorry I ever spared your miserable life. Sorry enough to maybe fix that mistake.

"P-PLEASE," Mishka sobbed. "It's not based in the c-city, that's all I know! It must be something big, I just don't know!"

Sasha considered Mishka for a moment before releasing the man, who collapsed boneless to the ground, crying and sniveling. Suppressing the desire to roll his eyes, Sasha picked up Mishka's briefcase and opened it. He stared at the vials for a moment, noting that the brownish liquid looked extremely similar to what had been spurting from Balthazar earlier that day.

Removing one of the vials, Sasha pocketed the drug and closed the briefcase, throwing it at Mishka.

"Get out of my sight, Mishka," Sasha said, his voice calm and cold. "If I ever find you in Atlas City again, I will snap your neck myself."

Mishka scurried from the room, not daring to look back. Sasha snorted to himself, finding some comfort in Mishka's fear. That rat deserves some nightmares after what he did, Sasha thought, breathing a long breath out through his nose.

Settling down on one of the benches facing the arena entrance, Sasha folded his arms. There was one last conversation he needed to have tonight, and he hoped it would go well.

Cannonade took an awkward step forward, wincing in pain as they approached Maeve. They were somber in victory. "You learn to control whatever that was, you could be a great hero one day, eh?"

Cannon gave the Irish giant a half smile as Maxwell's medical aids ran into the arena, toward the two combatants. Cannonade rose their arms and let the medical aids grab them. With a grunt they began to escort the champ out of the arena, toward the fitting rooms to treat their wounds.

***

In the fitting room one attendant wiped down Cannonade's body with washclothes while another treated their wounds. "Jesus, careful," Cannonade hissed at the attendant wrapping their thigh. As their body was treated they swept through their glass phone. Suddenly, a notification. A payment from Maxwell's dummy account: a number with a lot of zeros. Of course taxes would eat it alive, even if it was legally considered a charitable gift. Cannonade sighed, laying their head back. It was still ringing. Irish had knocked them hard.

Cannonade glanced up as Sasha's sat up from the bench he'd been sat on. Cannonade's eyes traced the man for a moment before looking at their phone again, assuming he was one of the event staff.

"You don't really have an eye for faces, do you Cannonade?" Sasha asked, remaining relaxed on the bench but smiling slightly at Cannonade's dismissal of him. "That woman certainly did a number on you, didn't she? It was quite the fight. Even better a performance than your show this morning."

Cannonade glanced up at the man through their damaged shapeless mask. "Yeah, it was a fight," They asserted. "Sorry, how did you get in here?"

"I walked in," Sasha said honestly. He rose to his feet and walked closer to the resting Roma hero. "But that's not very important. After this morning's battle, I wanted to see you again. To ask you if you've considered... making a new team."

Cannon grunted as the attendants continued to wipe down the bare arms of their body, they still in the worn two-piece uniform they'd fought in. Their gaze settled on Sasha sinisterly. "You know, I did you all a huge favour this morning," They said. They weren't sure who Sasha was but they certainly could guess. "If you want to become a superhero there are people you can talk to. And those people aren't me." Cannonade's green eyes lowered, their stare breaking.

"Yes, you did do us a solid, and I appreciate that," Sasha agreed, smiling agreeably. "I'm not approaching you for your connections, or because of your past heroics, impressive as they were. No, Cannonade, my intentions are a bit more... transparent."

Sasha cleared his throat and leaned against one of the lockers. "The drugs the, uh, Witchfinders used earlier. They're dangerous. And I think that supers are being targeted. I think that you might be someone who can help find the people responsible, and stop them, before more people end up hurt, or killed."

Cannonade let out a long, annoyed sigh and pinched the bridge of their nose. "...Thanks," An off-hand comment to the aids who'd cleaned them up as they retreated. Cannon turned, watching the two staffers exit, before turning back to Sasha. "On monday I fly back to Berlin. i have a day left here. In that time I don't know what I can do for you, kid."

Cannonade rose slowly and slid their mask off. "Fuckin'- close your eyes, or something. Secret identities!" They let out an amused grunt before dunking their head in one of the massive sinks of the fitting room and letting the water pour out over their head. Their arms stretched out, letting out long cracks, before they brought their fingers to their scalp and began to massage. After a moment they emerged and shook their head dry like a wet dog. They turned back and stared Sasha down, silence for a moment, before folding their arms. "What is it you know exactly? About these drugs?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Sasha admitted, keeping his gaze lowered as Cannonade had asked. "Hopefully I'll have more information by the morning, but for right now all I know is that the drugs seem to have originated in Russia. The method of distribution seems to vary, but low dose variations are being distributed as a street drug here in Atlas City. From what my source told me, it seems it's not the only town that's happening in."

Sasha sighed. "I'm pretty sure there's a leak inside NAHLA. One of their teams was attacked not long ago; the diner this morning was a follow-up to that initial assassination attempt." Sasha spread his hands. "Clearly, these people don't care about collateral damage."

Cannonade rose an eyebrow. "And what are you? SINS?"

Sasha chuckled. "I'm just someone who wants to do some good. Call it repentance. I'll be honest, I'd give you the speech about fate or destiny, and how I think we're supposed to work together, but I don't think you'd give a damn."

Sasha straightened and pulled out a card from his pocket, setting it down on the bench near Cannonade's things. "I won't spend more of your time trying to convince you to help me, Roma. You're strong, and I respect you for that. Give me a call if you'd rather do something other than participating in brawls for money." Sasha grinned. "As spectacular as those fights may be." Waving a hand, Sasha turned and began to walk out of the room.

Cannonade held the shitty business card in their hand, rotating it between their fingers. "Fate."

They frowned.

They placed their phone down on the end of the bench and a song began to play.

They stripped their fighting gear, casually throwing it across the room in a trash-can, before entering the large bamboo-floored showers. The ceiling began to blast out jets of water. And after a few moment cleaning up beneath the falls they began to dance. "We - we met inside the gelateria... you worked the motherfuckin' register, reminded me... it was a pizz-er-ia-a."

***

The club had settled, the crowds gathering in the dance floor and dining areas of the VIP section after the excitement of the fight. The doors to the backroom swung open and out emerged a figure in a slick black-suit, white shirt and a tucked skinny-tie. Cannonade's helmet was on their head, an all black and silver variant. They looked straight out of Daft Punk.

A group immediately turned to the the hero, some asking questions and others just giving them props on a fight well done. Cannonade answered what they could as they moved through the crowd toward the dance floor...

Inside Club Shapeless....

Peter grinned a little wider when the big guy finally noticed him, and he could practically feel the anxiety starting to come off the guy. "Nina, keep your eyes peeled for anyone trying to move a little too quickly. I need a second set of eyes for any people of interest to us. Also... Keep the peace. I need to stir some things up." He chuckled to himself as he walked away, and towards...

The DJ. He flipped his ID at the woman running it, and drew a his index finger across his neck. She quickly fumbled around with the sound system until it went silent. The crowd stopped and looked around.

"Evening folks." He said with an all too pleased tone, somewhere close to being smug, but in that way where someone knew something everyone else didn't. "No need to panic or anything, just a little bit of SINS business here tonight. Making sure nothing illegal is going down." He let out a hearty laugh, raising a hand as if to tell people to settle down. "Not that I think any of you would do something like that. Just keep yourselves calm and we'll be done here soon."

Peter stepped away from the crowd, making his way towards the big guy and the dog that had reappeared with him. Seemed like he was ready to bolt, but before he could, Peter had produced something in his hand.

"Nice look pal! I should see your tailor! Wouldn't mind a pup like this boy here too, looks like he'd make a fantastic junior agent!" His voice was light, attempting pleasantry, and distracting enough to have caught Alex off guard, long enough for a flash to go off.

The SINS agent held up his own phone and wagged it slightly in his hand. "Hope you don't mind, but it's just so iconic, can't help myself!" He chuckled again as he walked past Alex and Jericho, heading towards the VIP areas.

Once he'd arrived, all the wealthy, well to do VIP's froze practically solid. The barmen didn't move, the waitresses paused mid service, and the guards looked on in almost abject horror, clueless on how to handle the situation. Two figures caught Peter's gaze, long enough to notice that at least one of them had noticed him, even if only briefly.

"Hey, you look like Cannonade. You seem like you've been through some kinda championship fight! But seems you might have come out the winner, eh? Nice job." His eyes gave a slow up and down of the hero, and the person they were dragging along with them. "Better look after your friend there too. VV doesn't look like she's doing too hot."

Each step he took seemed to carry the weight of the universe with it in that moment. His weird, 'knowing' smile gave the whole ordeal an existential atmosphere, and the anxious feeling in the air only intensified as his quiet, yet somehow heavy and energetic steps, took him up to a window near the bar. Curtains were drawn shut, but he soon opened them to reveal a wide, tall, black marble sided room.

The arena.

His gaze traveled down, where it landed upon a figure in black, the blackest black he'd ever seen.



"SHAPE!" A voice called out in a shout from the other side of the arena. It was Ulysses, eyes wide and panicked, Willoughby close behind, hand hovering by a pistol inside his jacket.

The Shape turned back to see his two associates standing at an entrance to the fighting room, looking as if they'd seen a ghost. And then a movement from one of the VIP rooms caught. Maxwell looked up and his eyes met the gaze of a man dressed in a grey suit. A SINS agent. His heart skipped a beat as his body began to flood with a sense of dread, and his mind raced to find a solution.

Ulysses and Willoughby both looked up to see the agent as well, staring down into the arena. They looked over to The Shape, to take some kind of direction from him.

With a slight, but noticeable movement, The Shape raised his hand to the two guards to ask them to stand down and just wait for now... See how this played out.



Peter smiled, tilted his head slightly, then let out a warm breath against the glass. It fogged slightly, and in that circle of condensation he drew a smiley face. He raised his hand, tapped the knuckle of his index finger against it, then with a satisfied smile turned around to return to the other guests of the establishment.

"Bit of a weird place, huh? Got all these curtains up to cover up random bits of concrete wall. Could at least put some more rooms in or something. Maybe something for a bit of show?" He smirked to himself as nervous eyes looked between him, then each other.

Concrete wall? Was he... Going to cover for them? Ignore the arena and the fight?

Why?

After returning home from the club, Sasha had gotten a long drink of water, taken a shower, and gone to bed. It had been a long day, and Sasha anticipated that the next would be even longer. It would be good to rest while he had the opportunity.

However, rest did not await Sasha. Instead, a dream began to unfold: not the type of dream that leaves you waking up in a cold sweat, nor the type of dream that dissipates as soon as you wake. No, this dream was different – this was like an endless sea of clouds, billowing up and around him, forming themselves into images.

Looking around, Sasha vaguely began to recognize some of the scenery. That building there – red brick, vines crawling up the side, the small crack in one corner – yes, that was where he had met Sergey when he was nine years old. Sasha could still remember the smell of cigarettes and alcohol on the man’s breath when he had knocked on his door, in the hopes of apologizing for a stray baseball striking the man’s window.

Sergey had looked at Sasha with his wrinkled gray eyes, his unshaved lips twisted into a wry smile as he had patted Sasha’s shoulders with what had seemed a large hand, a hand calloused and worn from the years of working at the docks. Behind Sergey, Sasha had seen the large merlin hung on the wall, the pictures of Sergey, looking proud, and another man with him; perhaps a father, perhaps a brother. Sergey had followed Sasha’s gaze, smiling at the boy’s wide-eyed interest.

“You like to fish, kid?” Sergey had asked, gesturing at the large trophy and the various fishing gear still sprawled around Sergey’s home. “Not much of a life, but I’ve enjoyed it.”

“What is that?” Sasha had asked, pointing at the merlin. “I’ve never seen something that big before.”

“Merlin!” Sergey had exclaimed, chuckling to himself at the boy’s naivety. “You’ve really never seen one before? I guess they’re not as common these days, but back in my day, men, and sometimes women, would pay people like me to hunt those things. See the fin on its back? The bigger the fin, the stronger the fish. Or so I like to believe.”

“You hunted that?” Sasha had asked, staring in awe at Sergey, who had then laughed heartily before slowly nodding his head, his eyes turned distant as the memories had visibly floated back through Sergey’s mind.

“Long ago,” Sergey had said quietly. “I could tell you the story another time, but for now, you’ll most likely be wanting to get back to your ball game, no?”

“Oh,” Sasha had said, having completely forgotten about the reason he had knocked on Sergey’s door in the first place. “Yeah, I guess. Thanks for not being angry.”

“Kids will be kids,” Sergey had said, shrugging. “I’ve broken a few windows in my day as well. Just be careful, y’hear? Not everyone is as forgiving as I am.”

Sasha had nodded, and with a final wave to Sergey, he had run back down the street, his legs carrying him back to his game. His mind, however, had remained fixated on the merlin resting on Sergey’s wall, the prominent fin, nearly as tall as he was, standing out in his mind like a symbol.

“Yes,” Sasha said to himself, the house fading from sight as he walked through the misty pathway of his dream. “That was the first time I met Sergey. The first time I began to dream of that ocean life.”

Another piece of scenery rose from the swirling depths. A flag pole, rusty and empty of any banner, the wires swinging in the strong breeze. The courthouse beyond it, imposing and dark, seemed to loom over Sasha as his mind once again began to replay the events of his past.

Sasha knew that his memory was faulty – he had visited the courthouse at midday, with weather bright and sunny. But now, standing before the doors, he could feel the tension in the air, like before a storm broke. The wind was cold and stung on his cheeks, and the clouds were dark and brooding.

The metal on the handles felt cold to Sasha’s touch as he pressed his palm against the doors, pushing them open and stepping inside the building. Whatever dream this was, it was no mere replay – this had to be the work of something else. This was the only reason that Sasha was moving forward; he knew what was going to happen, and had little wish to recall. But his curiosity was getting the better of him.

Walking down the hallway, Sasha was surprised at how well he could remember the details, even the seemingly trivial ones – “1/2 price drinks at Edward’s, Thursday nights only. Bring a friend!”, with the image of two beer-filled mugs clanking together, on green paper. “Missing dog – no reward, but you’ll be my hero” with a picture of a mean-looking pit, which made Sasha wonder if anyone had ever called the number written on the bottom.

Several people were in the hallway, and as Sasha passed, he noted that the girl’s blonde wig had gotten something stuck in it. It appeared to be her lunch perhaps, a few stray drops of whatever condiment she’d sprayed onto her meal, gluing a small portion of the wig’s hairs together. She smelled horrible, like she’d taken a bath in it.

Sasha’s nose wrinkled involuntarily, and he rubbed his nose awkwardly with one hand as he approached the door he knew he’d have to enter. Even so, he hesitated, his hazel eyes passing over the words printed on the opaque glass – CHIEF INSPECTOR’S OFFICE. This was where he had gotten the final news of his father, where he had learned of his father’s demise at the hands of a drunk driver.

Sasha felt a twinge of annoyance, and perhaps some slight embarrassment, as he raised his hand, the tremor in it noticeable. Whoever was doing this, whatever was doing this, they had a lot of nerve to bring up these memories. He’d long buried his father, and the feelings of regret, guilt, and anger that had gone along with the funeral. Forcing him to relive these moments was an insult.

Sasha opened the door, and blinked in surprise. Instead of the office he had been expecting, a new room met his gaze. This one was not a room he remembered; at least, not one that was burned into his memory as much as the courthouse or Sergey’s home was. Perhaps he had been here before, but his gut instinct told him that this was not so.

Stepping inside, Sasha took a quick look around. An old brown leather couch sat against one wall, a plant rising from its pot next to the seat. A painting of a stormy sea, with a lighthouse and a ship being tossed about, hung above the couch, with the initials “M.C.” in one corner.

The desk on the other side of the room was old and well-used, but at the moment appeared empty. The chair behind it was black, but the cushion appeared to have been chewed on by a dog of some kind. Some of the stuffing was hanging out precariously.

Sasha turned as the door closed behind him. He reached out a hand to check the door, but a smooth voice behind him caused him to stop.

“Sasha Belov, correct?” the woman’s voice asked, her tone professional and somewhat curt. Sasha completed his turn, his eyes meeting the bored gaze of the woman seating herself behind the desk. She appeared to be middle-aged, her eyes a blue-gray color but hidden behind large black-framed glasses. Her hair, obviously dyed to match the frames, was pulled back in a loose bun, strands of her hair spilling outward in every possible direction.

“And you are?” Sasha asked, watching with an amused glance as the woman yanked the loose stuffing from the chair with a sharp, angry jerk.

“I’m MC,” the woman said, pointing to the painting and rolling her eyes. “I suppose you could say I’m the reason you’re having this dream in the first place, although why I was asked to do this, I’m still not sure. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to why you’re so important.”

“I didn’t think I was,” Sasha replied slowly, his eyes narrowing as his mind raced. “I guess that depends on who you work for.”

“I work for someone who is interested in you, Sasha,” MC said, steepling her fingers and leaning forward on the desk. “We know a lot about you. I, personally, know much more about you than I ever wanted to, but that’s my job.”

“Sorry?” Sasha asked, feeling the need to apologize despite the invasion of his privacy. “But I don’t really know what you want from me.”

“At the moment, not much,” MC replied, sighing heavily and shifting her weight on the chair, which creaked loudly. She grimaced, then continued. “We know you’re trying to get a team together. We’d like to… support you, if we can.”

“Thanks but I still don’t know who you are,” Sasha said in a dry tone, folding his arms. “You could be Soviet for all I know, and I really don’t want to deal with that right now.”

“We’re not Russian,” MC snapped, her fingers going white for a second as they pressed against each other before relaxing. “We’re not anything. We’re independent, just like you are trying to be. Cutting ties isn’t easy, is it Sasha?”

“I’ll ask one more time,” Sasha said, letting a hint of his annoyance enter his voice. “What do you want?”

“To keep an open mind,” MC said, smiling for the first time in a way that made Sasha’s skin crawl. “We’ll be in touch, Koschei.”

And with that unsavory declaration, the dream dissolved. Sasha awoke moments later, his skin still covered in goosebumps from MC’s final expression. He pressed a hand to his forehead, but he could tell he did not have a temperature. No, this was no fever dream – Sasha had found that sicknesses had no hold on him after his powers had manifested.

It took him a second to realize that in his other hand a card was being held – a business card. Holding the card up to his eyes, Sasha’s eyes automatically adjusted, cat-like, to the dim light of his bedroom. The card had a date and time, printed above a location in Atlas City. On the other side, the painting that had hung in the MC’s office.

Sasha slowly lowered his hand, then slipped the card onto the dresser next to his bed, rolled over and shut his eyes once more. He would deal with this later. For right now, he had more pressing concerns – the drug that Mishka had been attempting to offer Cannonade, the drug the Witchfinders had used the previous morning.

He had a mission again, this time of his own choosing. Sasha could only hope that when he awoke again, he would not be alone in this mission.

Fingers tugged the polaroid of a smiling couple on a caribbean vacation out of the wallet and threw it to the ground. A New York state I.D., a Manhattan gym membership, a Yoghurt Hut Punch Card. The balaclava covered face of Kevin Garland frowned as he mulled over the wallet. This was all fucking useless. There wasn't shit in here. With only the credit card and the twenty-seven loose dollars in change pocketed from the steal Kevin pulled his mask off and made his way out of the alley, casually tossing the wallet into a metal trash can.

He looked both ways before he emerged. No cops in sight. Hands tucked into the pockets of his tracksuit and he exited onto the street. It was humid as all hell. The highway ran beside him, and beyond that the boardwalk where the morning sun was rising. Kevin walked along the stretch of tall buildings overlooking the highway. Expensive-ass hotels all built in the last twenty years. Full of rich tourists. The area had become gentrified as hell, which had only one benefit as far as he was concerned: it made it full of easy marks from out of town.

***

"Kevin Garland!" The deep baritone of Tater Tot echoed down the alleyway. Kevin had walked a good thirty minutes now, away from the built up parts of Atlas City into the over-grown alleyways and unfinished one-story houses of Bedford Park. His neighbourhood. His home. Kevin approached the massive, pink-skinned, Hawaiian shirt wearing, sun-glassed man and gave a quick dap. Tater Tot smiled at his friend but his focus was over his shoulder. "Whose that?"

Kevin turned. Amongst the cracked concrete, garage doors and plastic trash bins of the alley a figure stood. They were lanky, wore a fringed pencil skirt of grey and black jean. Their shirt was a red tank-top, and a black leather jacket hung loosely from their shoulders. They were wearing combat boots. And over-sized red-sunglasses. From their pocket a speaker softly sang.

"Woke up I had the same clothes on I had on last night
I must have passed out
And cash is just like the clothes I worn yesterday
We are broke
I gotta get my ass out"

"Hey, you alright?" Tater Tot called out to the strange figure.

The figure let out a tired smile. "Yeah." Pharrell's voice continued to sing from the speaker as they stepped forward. "Only... I saw you- up by the Plaza Hotel." The figure turned to Kevin "You were wearing a mask." They slid down their sunglasses revealing green eyes. "Good people don't wear masks."

It was Cannonade, and in their hand a switch-blade flipped out. Tater Tot was first to react, sending a punch Cannonade's way. Cannonade dodged with ease before smashing the man's arm into the earth. He lost balance instantly and fell. Cannonade cracked their neck and backed away, letting Tater come at them again. Tot grunted before giving a running punch. Cannonade ducked before retaliating with a jab to the man’s stomach. Before he could fly back they smashed a boot down on his leg, smashing it instantly. Tater Tot cried out in pain as he lay on the ground of the alley. Cannon turned back to Kevin, who already had his hands raised.

"Fight me," Cannon hissed.

"Nah," Kevin replied, shaking his heads. "Call the cops, take my shit, whatever. You win, man."

“I’m not calling the fucking cops.” Cannonade marched over to Tater Tot and delivered a mighty kick to his ribs before raising a boot onto the fat-man's bald head. And then they began to crush it. Tot screamed out, his sun-glasses breaking as Cannon crushed. "Fucking fight me," They said again.

Kevin looked on in despair before lowering his hands into a guarding position. Cannonade released their stomp from the man's head and rose their fists as well. Kevin shook his head desperately. "You're gonna win.”

Cannon nodded. "I know."

Kevin let out a punch but Cannon was already beside him. Their leg collided with his side. A few more dodges, a few kicks and punches, before finally a fist landed centre on Kevin's head. He stumbled backward, into a metal garage door, and collapsed. He was out cold.

"Don't tell me you don't know what you see
When you're looking at a motherfucker just like me
I'm a provider, girl."

Cannonade stood between the two defeated men, breathing rapidly through their mouth. They smashed their fist on their chest a few times, just below their boob. Their heart was racing. They felt good. In a real shitty sort of way. And then, they let out a long exhale.

Cannon knelt beside the downed men. In each of their breast pockets they left a bundle of hundreds. Then they rose, pulled out a cigarette, and began to walk off...

"Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am?
If you don't see my face no more
I'm a provider, girl,
gotta face the streets tonight."

***

After a couple years in hiding, Cannonade's ass makes its triumphant return to the limelight in Atlas City fight! The gender-fluid superhero was seen in Atlas City, unfortunately not in their skin tight body-suit, but in a pair of booty shorts instead!

Cannonade frowned as their thumbed through the celebrity gossip website on their phone, past 17 more paragraphs describing their backside and a picture of them standing atop a car during the witchfinder's terrorist attack. At the bottom of the page was a link to a gallery, Cannonade in nothing but a helmet and a bikini on the header. Heh, Ibiza.

We want to now take you on a ride through Cannonade bikini photo gallery. This curated image gallery will showcase some of the sexiest Cannonade bikini pictures that will make you fall in love. These Cannonade hot images will leave you drooling. So sit back and enjoy a thrill-ride of Cannonade big booty pictures. These Cannonade big butt pictures are sure to leave you mesmerized and awestruck. In this section, enjoy our galleria of Cannonade near-nude pictures as well.

Cannonade bit their lip before clicking the gallery. The glass screen loaded the page and they scrolled through the first few images before grunted and exiting. There were better big booty pictures of them. They knew. 'cannonade butt' was a web alert on their phone.

Seagulls flew overhead before dipping down into the water. Cannon glanced to watch the birds. They'd made their way to the beaches of Atlas City, surprisingly packed, and had found a quiet corner to sit- by a life-guard tower, by the rocks. It was polluted by glass and trash but they didn't mind. No families nearby, at least.

Cannon's hand went to their pocket and pulled out a card. They played with the paper for a moment before taking their phone out again.

***

Somewhere, Sasha's phone would ring, a new message from an unknown number appearing.

You said something about drugs?
- Cannonade

---

Yue was up early. She was an early riser normally, and today was no exception... after the warehouse she'd been wound up, having more questions than answers. Then there was the fact that she had trouble sleeping in an unfamiliar location. Already showered and dressed, coffee brewed, breakfast made... she'd left plates out for Sasha and Ichiro, covered with food warmers. It was simple fare: some eggs, scrambled. A pastry from a nearby bakery. Some muffins from said bakery, and half a pot of coffee on the warmer. She'd also gone to the store and bought some groceries for Sasha since she felt bad eating all his food. On the counter was a note.



Over at NAHLA HQ, Yue shuffled apprehensively out of the elevator on to the training floor where Sairyn was waiting for her. He looked like hell. His hair was disheveled, dark circles and bags under his eyes like he’d been up all night, and his signature NAHLA uniform duster was hung messily over a chair in the observation area. He hunched slightly over a cup of coffee in his wrinkled, black undershirt and grunted a ‘hello’ at her from his seat while occasionally reaching out to tap something into one of the 20 slates suspended in front of him. Yue dropped her bag at the entrance and leaned on the door frame, her eyes drawn towards a suit stood up in the observation room’s diagnostic stand.

It was a sleek, form-fitting thing that couldn’t have been more than a few millimetres thick in most areas. The plating was an off-white, coupled with bronze and accented by a dark cobalt in some material she couldn’t identify. She noted it was probably something flexible, maybe some kind of polymer as there were no discernible joints, though she could tell there was a lot of technology packed in.

"This is...," she began.

"Luna Lightning's suit," croaked Sairyn, without turning towards her. Luna Lightning was an unregistered vigilante from Arizona that was semi-famous for having a zero body-count and a decent relationship with the local authorities. She didn’t cause trouble, and routinely participated in volunteer work. Yue suspected she wasn’t actually a vigilante, and was most likely a police officer, although she couldn’t prove it.

"She... died last month helping us with the Witchfinders."

Sairyn sighed patiently, rolling his chair back and letting his head loll towards her. He considered her with his tired emerald gaze for a long moment without moving. Yue thought he may have fallen asleep for a moment.

"The only ones who know that are us," he explained. "That part of the news story from last month’s incident was quashed, along with the identities of the involved supers, yours included. Her parents are not super pleased about the arrangement, by the way, so try not to ‘Silver Fang’ her reputation," he snarked.

"That's-," Sairyn interrupted her with a flippant hand wave, clearly not interested in whatever her remark was.

"Not up for discussion. She’s a super similar in height and weight, possessing an ability set that you can mimic with your ‘Raiton.’ You can’t use your strength enhancer or it will break your cover," ,” he remarked, sipping from his coffee mug like it was keeping him alive.

"She's a speed type," she commented, rubbing her temples against the headache that was forming. "Raiton is a mobility enhancer, it's not the same."

“Narrow. Minded. Thinking,” he quipped, piercing her with his emerald eyes. “I’ve been through your file, and thoroughly reviewed most of your training footage. Raiton isn’t just mobility, it accelerates your entire nervous system, right?” Asked Sairyn. Yue opened her mouth to reply but he didn’t wait for an answer. “Everything from brain synapse to nerve signals. You have so much untapped potential-,” he took a breath and stood up impatiently.

“Talking about it is a waste of time, you’ll understand once I show you,” he said, practically shoving her onto the training floor against her protests. “I set up some ballistic gel targets for you. They have realistic-ish musculature and skeletons. Hit them however you please, the only rule is you can’t deactivate Raiton,” he instructed, and then leaned against the observation room glass.

Yue huffed, turning towards the training dummy. To her, Raiton was for getting around, quickly changing position to throw off her opponent, and dodging things that might kill her. It had never really occurred to her to fight in an accelerated state. Whatever. She inhaled sharply, filling her body with energy. Crimson crackled out of her, radiating off her skin like electrically charged fire, and she let it vibrate through her whole body.

A simple three punch combo to start. She jabbed the abdomen, following up with a solid heart-punch and a right cross to the dummy’s temple.

“Dead,” Sairyn remarked, sipping his coffee. Yue blinked. Time caught up and red dye had filled the abdominal cavity, the ribcage of the dummy was completely shattered, and its head was crushed, barely attached. He clicked a button on a remote, lowering the demolished target into the floor, and raising a new one a few seconds later. Yue squared up, cocking her knee to her chest and driving a side-kicked heel into the target’s sternum.

“So dead,” he informed. The upper half of the target had been blown apart and splattered all over the training floor in a shower of simulated gore. A new target was brought up. “One more time. Your perception of time is accelerated too isn’t it? Pay closer attention,” he ordered.

Yue clenched her fist, feeling a wave of frustration spike through her as she threw a single punch. She felt the air collide with her knuckles, and it was almost like she was dragging her arm through mud for a moment before her fist finally impacted the dummy straight in the sternum. Yue watched in horrifying slow motion as the wave of force rippled through the ballistic gel, liquefying the dye sacs and powdering the target’s ceramic bones before escaping out the target’s back, carving up a chunk of artificial turf, and crushing into a section of the climbing wall a few meters behind the target. Time started flowing again to the rain of dirt, dust, and debris. She was stunned, and could only stare at the tendrils of fine smoke wisping from her fingers. All the fine hair, and the first layer of skin had been burnt off of her fist. She opened her mouth to speak.

“The formula for calculating kinetic energy. Mass times Velocity-Squared,” he said, writing it on the glass for her. “The man who trained you was a strength type super, right?” She nodded.

“Listen: Titan is a great operator, but he’s a moron and he trained you poorly,” he said with an ounce of spite, and swatted Yue’s finger with the marker when she started to retort, pointing with a spike of ire. “I’m not done. What did he do to teach you how to control your strength?” He asked. Yue thought about it for a moment while she sucked on the end of her finger and scowled.

“He used to tell me ‘everything you touch is an egg,’” she imitated in a gruff voice. “And then he made me cook things while powered up until I could do it without destroying the kitchen,” she said, folding her arms.

“Good analogy. Well, everything that was an egg is now a soap bubble.”

“Excuse me?!” She exclaimed incredulously.

“Soap. Bubble. Don’t make me repeat myself. Here’s why, and for the sake of math I’ll use simple numbers,” said Sairyn, as he tapped the equation written on the glass. “You’re at the human peak of physicality before you activate your powers right? For the sake of argument, let’s call that ‘mass’ and give it a value of ‘1,’” he explained, then pointed to the next variable. “At the peak of human physicality, you can generate… 10 velocity units with your fist, let’s say. So a normal, un-augmented punch from you delivers a kinetic value of 100. Let’s say you puff up with your powers and… double your strength. Now you have a mass value of 2 and can deliver a kinetic value of 200… 300 if you triple your strength and so on, so you have a kinetic energy curve that looks something like this,” he said, drawing a straight diagonal line.

“Don’t interrupt,” he chided when she opened her mouth to speak. “Now we double your speed. Velocity has a much higher impact on kinetic energy because it has an exponential value and now, at your normal un-augmented strength a single punch delivers a kinetic value of 400. 900 if you triple your speed, and so on, so now your kinetic energy curve looks something like this,” he explained, drawing an exponential curve on the window. “At the speeds you can move, you only need to gently touch someone to deliver enough kinetic force to knock a normal human unconscious. If you’d focused on your speed ability all these years, you’d be… untouchable now. Soap. Bubble. Don’t forget it or you’ll liquefy someone’s organs,” he finished, dropping the marker as it dissolved into a flash of light, and flopped back into his seat inside the observation room.

The slates that had piled themselves up neatly on the desk, and began floating back into place. There was footage of Luna Lightning playing on many of the slates, alongside footage of Yue training and moving about the city with Raiton. She noticed that they did actually move quite similarly.

“Listen, in this case it’s not about how much you can lift, and yes, punching things with Ginryo’s strength is an effective method of applying force. A grain of sand weighs practically nothing, but if you accelerate it to the speed of light, all of a sudden it impacts with the force of a nuclear warhead. Ginryo is like a heavy sledgehammer, one that you’ve been swinging around your whole life. You’re perfectly aware of its mass and how to apply it with precision to get it to do the job you want, even though it’s a blunt instrument,” Sairyn explained. Yue nodded, considering his words. “Right now Raiton is like a wrecking ball you must swing very, very gently. It could eventually become a laser, but we have no idea how it really works yet. Titan trained you the way he did because he only understands half the equation.”

Yue studied the footage while she considered his words and pointed at one of the slates showing Luna Lightning swooping a person out of the way of a speeding bus. “Here she had to have been moving six, or seven hundred miles per hour: see the shockwave? How does she grab that guy without turning him into paste?” she asked. Sairyn seemed to think about it for a minute.

“Luna appears to have an inertial manipulation component to her powers that allows her to interact with things while accelerated without transferring kinetic energy to them. While you’re accelerated it seems you’re like a massive bundle of kinetic energy that’s just looking for an outlet. This might be something you can learn, but Raiton is underdeveloped so it’s gonna be like discovering your powers all over again from the start: We just don’t know yet." They both sat in silence for a few minutes while the implications of what Sairyn had to say sunk in. She caught his head drooping for a moment and nudged him gently.

"Right. Put it on, get used to moving in it, and let me know if anything feels... uh... wobbly."

"Right...," she answered slowly, and approached the suit with some hesitation. With Sairyn's direction she was able to get the suit off its diagnostic stand and don it. A slim, nearly invisible button on top of one of the gloves collapsed the whole suit into a disc about the size of a silver dollar. Pressing it against her skin unfurled the suit swiftly against her body. It was... tight, in a word, and she grimaced a little as it pressed uncomfortably against the burn on her side. She shuffled uncomfortably, reaching to pick at a wedgie, though there was nothing to adjust, just the suit conforming to every curve of her body.

"I... I feel naked," she stammered, glad for the opaque face mask which covered her furiously blushing cheeks.

"You basically are," he replied. It didn't help at all. "It's very little more than a thermal barrier between you and friction with some magnetic-ion shielding to reduce air resistance and... shift the color of your aura, so... don't get hit," he explained. Yue blinked, taking a deep breath and flooding her body with energy. It was crimson at first, but the suit seemed to react to her, and after a moment the color shifted to...

"It's pink," she said, with a note of disappointment.

"This isn't a custom body shop," he snipped, rolling his eyes. "The photons can only be blue-shifted so far before the required field strength becomes a hindrance, besides: the color coincides with reports of sighting 'streaks of pink lightning' during incidents where Luna Lightning was present. Just... run around or... be productive over there," he rumbled, shooing her out of the observation room.

Ugh...

She sighed and squirmed uncomfortably. This... would take some getting used to.

Sasha woke up at 6:00 AM sharp, as usual, and slipped into his morning routine with no hesitation. Stretches, then a few push-ups and sit-ups, followed by slipping into some comfortable clothes and a three-mile run through the backstreets of the city. He only felt slightly dismayed that there were very few others out and about this morning, but the few people he did run into were offered a smile and nod.

Taking a breather in a plaza near the center of town, Sasha took a deep breath, allowing his nose to filter the smells that permeated the city. He closed his eyes, listening intently for a few seconds. There was a tension in the air, like the calm before a storm. It filled him with excitement, a sort of nervous energy that Sasha had a practiced hand at focusing.

Sasha felt his phone buzz, the chime for a text message playing. Pulling the device out of his pocket, Sasha read Cannonade's text and smiled to himself.

Nearly there, Sasha thought, returning the phone to his pocket and heading back to his apartment. Seems like today will be the day.

***

High above Sasha, a propeller-driven triplane floated above the city. The thrum of its engine reached downwards, providing a gentle background to the general noise of the waking city. In the cockpit, Albrecht, or Albert as he preferred, reclined, allowing his feet to do the flying - an action that would certainly have unnerved any copilot had he had one, but Albert spent so much time in the air, he sometimes wondered if he could fly simply by thinking at the controls.

Yawning wide enough to crack his jaws, Albert turned his gaze from the city below and flicked his headset back on.

"Hey, is the boss in yet?" Albert said, turning the plane in a lazy arc as he drifted towards the eastern side of town. "I wanted to talk to her."

"Yeah, she just got here," came the operator's response. "Want me to patch you through?"

"Naw, I'll come down," Albert said, flicking his headset off again and leaping from his plane unceremoniously.

Sasha turned at the horrendous cry of the beast and stared for a moment. Raising his phone, he selected a slew of contacts and sent a single text message:

Beach. Now. It's time.

***

Albert had already reached the outskirts of town when the Giant Creature from the Black Lagoon rose from the ocean. His cab driver had swore profusely, screamed and ran off the road into a telephone pole. Albert had watched in confusion as the driver had ditched the car and run, sobbing loudly, then kicked open his own door and stared back towards the beach with wide eyes.

"That's gonna be a doozy to blow up," Albert said, shielding his eyes from the sun and whistling softly. Turning, he began sprinting down the street. He needed to get back to his plane.

Freedom. The wind. Blue-shifted tendrils of pink lightning crackling off her arms. Energy pulsing through her with each breath, shooting from her chest, down each of her limbs, and out her fingers and toes. It was the first time she'd really had a chance to use her powers in the past five weeks and it was... liberating. She couldn't suppress the wide, goofy smile spreading across her face as the landscape whipped past in a blur, her perceptions accelerated just enough for her to experience the euphoric sensation of speed and still be able to react.

The new suit was amazing... well to her at least. That was due in part to the Silver Fang suit not having any real updates since it had been made. Yue was pretty stubborn when it came to her equipment. Luna Lightning's suit had a comprehensive heads up display, with a readout on the suit's status, her vitals, relative speed... not only did small control surfaces on the suit raise and lower to stabilize her at speed, but the HUD was even able to detect when she was accelerated and adjusted the feedback to compensate... which she only realized when her phone rang? A call from Sairyn appeared in her HUD.

She suddenly had a bad feeling sweep over her, and slid to a halt on the coast dozens of miles outside the city, exhaling and releasing her energy.

"Hello?" she answered.

"No- NO!, I have to leave, you need to burn that with napalm!-" Sairyn snapped at someone.

"You want me to handle explosives? Oh honey, we both know that's a bad idea," Archer replied from the background, followed by the sound of a slamming door and hurried running.

"No time to explain. Gather your team of misfits and evacuate everyone from the beach and the surrounding areas, details coming in a text." Yue opened her mouth to reply, but Sairyn had already abruptly hung up. Seconds later she received a text containing a map of the evacuation area, followed by the group text from Sasha. That sinking feeling in her gut was only worsening.

"Reply. I'm on the way. Need help evacuating people. Send."

The HUD whisked the text away to the group, and she inhaled deeply, flooding her whole body with energy until her bones creaked under the strain. She braced herself, feeling the power build up in her legs and then launched explosively. She felt her body *clap* through the sound barrier and the suit flick out control surfaces to stabilize her when the shock threatened to knock her off balance.

Miles melted away in seconds, and as she approached the city borders she dialed up the acceleration of her neural synapses and nervous system so she could get a better handle on what was going on. Yue drifted through the air between steps, feeling her body hum with an emotion... It speared her gut like a knife when she laid eyes on the creature and vibrated through her fingers. She couldn't tell what it was, her brain was already filtering it out as just... noise, which happened to every feeling she didn't understand. She angled herself more towards the water with her next step: people were starting to appear on the beach and she needed to get by them without her shock-waves hurting anyone.

A few steps later, she was nearing the evacuation area and the people were starting to become much more frequent. She straightened up, crossing her arms in front of her. The suit flipped out a pair of air brakes from her back and she slowed down rapidly, feeling the wall of the sound barrier crash back into her and nearly knock the wind out of her lungs. Yue took a new breath to compensate and looked for anyone that was injured or knocked down. A body underneath the remains of a life-guard tower caught her eye first, and she weaved through the crowd being extremely careful not to graze or knock anyone down.

Yue exhaled as she landed, skidding unsteadily for a dozen feet before regaining her balance and jogging to the scene. That would take some practice. She knelt down, quickly checking them for breathing, and was pleasantly surprised with the suit's HUD when it presented a vitals scan. They didn't look seriously injured, but Yue checked to make sure they hadn't hit their head, or have any potential broken bones before she dug into the sand a bit to free them. She inhaled, flooding her body with energy and cheated... just a little bit, by bracing the weight of the tower with one hand and making it look like she was using it for leverage to pull the person out from underneath it. Yue cradled them carefully in her arms, bracing their neck against the acceleration and streaking towards the edge of the evacuation zone.

A thunderous roar shook the house like an earthquake, as if an entire tank division had just raced right past the front door of the house, quickly followed by news feeds blowing up with images of something that could only be described as some kind of terror of the deep. It was hard to get a sense of scale of this creature, even with the beach umbrellas and chairs to act as a reference of scale, it was just that surrealistically huge. After moments watching the creature in awe Devon's mind kicked into gear, there was no more time to waste. He got into his gear as fast he could grabbed his rifle and mace with the pistols comfortable stored in his trenchcoats pockets. In the meantime a message from Sasha had come in, short and concise clearly asking for assistance at the beachfront. Devon replied: Heading over now.

He had just jumped into his car when Yue's message came in. She was planning on evacuating the civilians, however what he had seen didn't make her seem like a good choice for that kind of task nor would using a vehicle be effective unless it was airborne with everyone probably already trying to flee the scene. And as he more or less had expected his drive to the beach had been cut short by a gridlock of people using both sides of the road to form a wave of cars moving away from the beach, it would be impossible to drive the opposite direction through that type of traffic leaving him no other option than to abandon his car in a side street as to not impede the exodus of the people in cars.

While walking towards the beach Devon took the time to shoot a message back at Yue in the group chat. Any clue what area to evacuate? It was more for any others who might have powers that'd let them be helpful in the evacuation, best he could do is drag unconscious people out of the place, not to mention he was still quite a distance away from the beach. As he looked up from his phone though he felt a rather strange tug in his pocket. He pulled the item out of his pocket, it was the quarter, of course it was. Great, when is this going to end? I don't have time for this. It clearly wanted him to go a certain direction, and after a moment of silent contemplation... Well as silent as the blaring car horns, screaming and general panic in the streets could be considered... Devon decided it would probably be worthwhile to at least see to where the damn thing was pulling him.

After a bit of walking a small park nestled between a couple apartment buildings came into view, and the quarter seems to be pulling him directly to that park. It was a rather nice park with a set of swings, a slide and some tube frame for the kids to climb on, and it was entirely empty save for a single entity leaning against a tree. you could tell he was there, but not entirely he was somehow translucent and somehow seemed like the lighting in the park didn't quite hit him. Devon sighed audibly as he started to get an inkling of what was about to happen. He walked towards the entity and when he had closed the distance to about 10 feet he spoke up. "Enjoying the view?" The entity pretended to be surprised as he turned around. "Not exactly. So... I really hadn't expected a visit from you this soon, the name's 'Shade'. I used to be the bearer of those dog tags, now this is my resting place ashes illegally dumped in this park. Anyways you got a something for me right?" He said not even waiting for Devon to react and just jumping in and yoinking the quarter out of his hands.

"haven't seen that thing in a while. Guess I'm the first, so here's the deal when you find the final resting place of one of us, have a chat and you get to claim our power as your own. Would be nice if you left the guys with actual graves a little something something, but there's no ritual or anything, just a meet and greet with the past so we can pass on the torch properly, I guess." Shade said walking about the park and tossing the quarter between hands and into the air. Devon just nodded along knowing that he could try to argue all he tried, but it would be unlikely to make a single difference or get him any answers. Shade then turned to him and tossed the quarter back at Devon. "Here ya go." Devon focused his attention on catching the badly aimed toss and when he looked back at Shade he noticed he was running straight at him, but it was already too late to avoid. The moment the bodies collided however nothing happened and when he turned around expecting Shade to have just passed straight through him... There was nobody, nothing, not a trace of where he had gone.

As he walked away from the park ever more confused about everything going on he felt something strange happening to his body, an almost indescribable feeling as if he was melting and not in the sense of heat, but rather just dissipating. He looked at his hands and a wispy black smoke seemed to flow away from them and before he noticed his entire body had turned into the black smoke... Ergh, I guess this is that new power... The hell is this? His thoughts ran through his mind as the odd sensations of this new form of being overwhelmed his mind, things went black for a moment and by the time he regained awareness he was back to normal, but significantly further away from the park than he had been when it started. So... this power can be used for movement... Hopefully that blacking out thing isn't the standard... How the hell am I supposed to control it though, can it even be controlled or am I just gonna suddenly turn into a smokestack randomly? Damnit, I didn't sign up for this crap.

He walked towards the beach trying to figure out in the meantime how to trigger and maybe even get an idea of how to control the power, with very mixed successes. Sometimes he could get it to trigger, a few times he even landed where he expected, most of the time though nothing happened and even repeating previous triggers didn't seem to work. At the very least the sensory overwhelming was lessening and he could stay a bit more conscious as he was pulled into the state.

Sasha covered the approximately three miles to the beach in under three minutes, but the first sight of the creature brought his shifted body to a skidding halt. Adjusting his body back to a more normal state, Sasha noted the mist poisoning the beach. Enhancing his eyes to penetrate the mist, he could see the dissolved state of the victims within its confines.

His eyes narrowed. He would need a sample of the mist in order to form a counter to it. Extending a hand, Sasha's pointer finger shot forwards impossibly far, reaching the mist and snapping back into position almost too quick to see. Sasha's hand quivered as the poison ate its way into his system, but within a few moments his body had broken down the structure of the corrosive gas, and created an anti-toxin.

Now, to meet up with his "team"... If they showed up.

***

"Okaaaay," Albert said, wondering whether he should completely ignore Ivetta or not. Reaching the airstrip, Albert shook his head and began shouting at the hangar.

"Hey, my plane, get me in the air!" Albert shouted, running up to the hangar door only to take a wrench to the face.

"Dickface, what did I tell you about leaping out of your airplane mid-air!" came the voice following the wrench. Albert picked up the tool uncomfortably as the main technician of ACHI marched up to Albert, her cheeks flushed and her fists clenched.

"Listen, now's not the time..." Albert tried to interrupt, but Penny's fist smashed into his chin, cutting him off.

"I'd kill you, but Ivetta called and wants you back in the air, God help us all," Penny snarled, snatching the wrench back from Albert and jutting a thumb at Albert's plane which was being rolled out. "Autopilot tech or not, though, jump out of your plane again and I'll shove this wrench up your ass."

"Fine, I'll keep it to emergencies, or if I need to make a really cool entrance," Albert said, laughing at Penny as he ran to his plane. "Which is probably gonna be real soon, actually... What with that creature out there..."

The last bit Albert muttered to himself as he leaped back into the cockpit, roared the engine to life, and jammed the stick forward. Within a few more seconds, Albert was in the air and headed for the beachfront.

"This is Backlash," Albert said over official comms to Ivetta. "I'm in the air. Let's get these people out of this thing's path. Keep in mind, though, boss... I'm going to play this by ear. If I need to hit the ground, I'm going to."

Plus this will give me time to build up power, Albert thought to himself, already feeling the kinetic energy from his motion building. Looking at the creature rising out of the ocean, Albert's eyes narrowed into a glare. If the artillery doesn't take this thing out, I'm going to have to. Heaven knows there's no one else who can.

It took Sasha a few seconds to realize his mistake - he had assumed the mist was an extreme acid of some kind, something that rapidly ate away skin and bone. And, it was... in part.

However, as he noted the transformation on the beach, he felt an itch on his own skin. Staring incredulously at his hand where it had touched the mist, he noted that his skin was being to decay rapidly. That shouldn't be possible, Sasha thought, then angrily drove the thought from his mind as he brought the full extent of his power to bear on the alien elements he had passed into his own body.

Sasha was not overconfident in himself. He had practiced hundreds of thousands of hours, stretched and experimented with his powers to a limit that very few other supers had. Perhaps to an extent that no super ever had. He could control every cell in his body at one time, billions upon billions of cells that could be twisted, mutated, subjugated, all at his whim and command. Whatever came into his body, became his cells.

Yet these cells still fought him. It was like trying to flatten a slippery bar of soap, and each time the cell slipped from his grasp, it collided with another, transforming that cell into a rebellious, angry soap bar. Sasha fought for several moments, the skin on his hand and forearm flashing back and forth, until finally he'd had enough, and expelled the cells from his body... forcefully.

The skin from his hand exploded into dust as he irritably murdered the cells there. He stared at his skinless hand for a moment, then regenerated the skin there, noting that the infectious cells had not seemed to infect anything beneath the outer skin layer. Staring at the thick mist ahead, Sasha's eyes narrowed as his gaze rose up to the beast beyond it.

"Don't think just because you took me by surprise that it means you've won this battle," Sasha said calmly towards the creature, although he doubted it could hear him, let alone understand him. "I will not make the same mistake twice."

His attention was diverted down to the beasts rising from the sea. Sneering, Sasha's form shifted once again, his demonic visage covering him. This time, however, his form seemed to ripple the air around him, and his fists glowed like they had been superheated. Sasha carefully drew a line along the sand with his foot in front of the wide street he had run down to reach the sandy waterfront, and stepped just in front of it.

"You will not pass me," Sasha said, his voice a guttural snarl that did not intimidate the approaching thralls. Sasha planted himself, waiting patiently for the monster to get close. As the first one's jaws opened wide, Sasha finally moved.

His fist was a blur as it connected squarely with the creature. The hapless horror's body flew backwards, its chest instantly igniting. The next several foul offspring met a similar fate, even one nearly ten feet to Sasha's right as his fist darted out to crack into what served as the monster's face. The rest of the monsters continued to shuffle forward regardless, and Sasha shook his head, smoke rising from his fists as he continued to strike.

***

Albert noted the powerful beam slicing into the giant sludge alien down below, and grunted to himself. It seemed he'd made the right call not attacking instantly. Other heroes were on the ground, helping the panicked citizens get away from the beach. It now appeared that smaller entities were trying to invade the city, but so far they weren't making it that far.

"HQ, when's that artillery strike hitting?" Albert said over the comms. "Also what exactly are they hitting it with? We've got heroes on the beach fighting off what looks like footsoldiers, but we also still have civilians down there. They're not planning on blasting the entire city, are they?"

Because, if so, Albert would have a real problem with that.

March 12th, 2045, 9:40am: Atlas City, North Carolina, USA

Day 2

Albert's comms crackled to life as a reply came through. "HQ here Albert. Not certain on that ETA yet, government is supposed to be filling us in on that soon. Sounds like the weapon is some sort of canon, or artillery, not sure. They're going to level the residential area close to the beach, they want civvies moved to the West as much as possible to avoid any collateral."



As Vicki and Maeve arrived on scene to help defeat the Beast of Decay, close to a dozen of its offspring rushed up onto the beach, with 3 targeting Maeve, 2 targeting Vicki, and the remaining others charged towards where Yue, Jericho, and Alex were operating. The sand behind these creatures darkened, as patches of dark mold grew.



And explosion of noise erupted from the entrance of one of the roads leading to the beach, as several of the Beast's offspring were torn to shreds, some bursting into bits of flame. The massive .50 caliber machine gun Richard had was making quick work of the offspring, but this was little more than a temporary measure. The man in tweed too had fired off shots, taking out two more of the dark beasts before needing to reload.

Down another adjacent street, explosions could be heard as offspring got blasted into gory, misty messes. Richard and the man in tweed looked over to see Man-Hawk working to keep his own street cleared of monsters, and allowing more innocents to escape.



Three more offspring landed around Man-Hawk, heavy, wet breathing audible all around him as they all lashed out with their veins, and malformed, claw equipped arms. So far he was managing to dodge the attacks, but another distraction had cropped up, now bursting from... His coms? His phone?

The sound was blaring from phones, radios, TVs, and everything else across the city.



Across the city, supers and humans alike, both heroes, villains, and average folk, got the startling, hopeless tone of a National Emergency Alert coming through on whatever speakers were close by. Even the heroes on the beach, the NAHLA heroes, ACHI, and SINS were getting the same message.

"This message is being transmitted at the request of the United States Government. This is not a test. An existential threat against the United States of America has appeared on the coast of Atlas City, North Carolina. The United States Government has commenced preparations for a counter offensive against the threat. A forward assault base will be established in the residential area of Atlas City closest to beach front. All homes and buildings in this area will be demolished in 20 minutes to create space for this counter offensive. Please evacuate the area immediately and retreat to safe zones set up by emergency and government services, as well as hero organizations. Safe Zones will be located in the following locations."

The message continued by listing various locations across the city to be retreated to. 20 minutes. The city had 20 minutes to ensure all living civilians were out of the front line before the military did whatever it was they had planned.

Maeve was quick to throw herself into the melee, striding deep into the oncoming swarm of ugly beasts. She fired her cannon at a bulbous, spider-legged thing as it lunged toward her, only for it to fall back as a packet of Kiran’s special alkaline formula encased in a field of plasma exploded against its face, causing it to shriek in the closest thing it could experience to agony as its flesh withered away.

She targeted the monsters seemingly at random, without discrimination for distance, wielding the chemical launcher in one hand as she rotated slowly in a circle, leaving the sand strewn with the screeching, smoking remains of her targets. The concoction loaded in her tank released incendiary fumes as it ate away at its victims, which burst violently alight as a small humanoid figure wreathed in flames shot across the beach like an asteroid, igniting several of the creatures along with the bubbling chemical steam. The entire beach around Maeve exploded into flame, reducing many more of the beasts to burning viscera and eating away at the black moss which grew in their wake.

Maeve stood within the flames and sonic booms and lightning, completely within her element. This rage of violence and destruction was like a song to her, and she gave herself to its music willingly. ”Your bleach works,” she said into her earpiece, disconnecting the feeding tube as the tank ran dry.

Maeve strode through the intermixing walls of red and green fire, toward the water’s edge. She flipped the cannon end-over-end and caught it by the barrel, then used it as a hammer to bat away another of the creatures as it crawled up from the sea, cleaving the top of it away from the rest of its body. She brought it down on another that had some sort of dead tree growing out of it, then planted one giant boot on the closest thing it had to a back and forced it into the sand, wrapping her fingers around the bleached white bark of its growth and ripping, drawing an unholy shriek from somewhere deep inside it as the tree came away with a chunk of the creature’s foul flesh. It shuddered violently, then fell still, and Maeve left it.

She dual-wielded the cannon and tree against the fiends, wading out into the surf, toward the very edge of the rotting green mist, sending flesh and polluted salt spray flying out in every direction as she had her fun with the creatures. The tree branch snapped in half at one point, and she plunged its jagged point through the top of one beast before chucking her cannon at another, ripping straight through its body as it leapt at her only to come to a rest floating limply in the waves.

Steam rose off her suit where the monsters’ blood and acid spit ate away at the kevlar, mixing with an unnatural, acrid black smoke as it made contact with her skin. She paid no heed to it, far too interested in continuing her train of carnage. Her hands were bare now, bone showing through her knuckles. A creature with a maw like a shark lunged at her, and she forced her arm down its throat, using it as leverage as her left hand clamped down on its lower jaw and tore the entire creature in half along its full length. Her right arm came away as raw bone dripping the thick, black bile of her blood.

She continued on with one arm, needing more. More. More! MORE!!

Maeve was surrounded, dozens of the great beast’s spawn abandoning their march up the beach and turning on her. She stood amidst the filthy waves, gazing around at them all, covered in viscera and nearly naked, the closest thing she could get to a smile on her face. They rushed her as one, and she disappeared beneath the swarm.

Sasha strode up the beach towards the other heroes, unconcerned by the strong winds as his feet left heavy dents in the sand. As he traversed the treacherous shore, his arms flashed, striking the encroaching offspring of the Decayer with a flurry of strikes that gave the heroes a brief moment of reprieve.

"Interesting morning, yes?" Sasha chuckled, his fists still glowing white hot. "Whatever you're planning, I suggest we do it quickly."

***

"SHIT," Albert snapped as the cloud burst above the sky. Shoving the plane outwards, Albert managed to avoid the oncoming burst. Forcing his plane higher, Albert looked down on the massive beast and clenched his fists. Things were getting more out of hand as things progressed. Albert's power was growing, but he still needed more time to gather enough to burn that much mass in a single shot.

As the beast rose from the ocean, Albert was struck with the sinking feeling he wasn't good enough to win this fight.

As the fighting progressed two of the US's greatest heroes joined the fray immediately rallying the heroes into a defensive line on the boardwalk and the monstrosity changed tactics to a more active one, it seemed like a good moment to press on. Devon was sure those heroes would have been properly briefed about what was going to be dropped upon the foe and what distance was appropriate for a defensive line, not to mention there seemed to be chaos nearing the boardwalk and he didn't have vision of it rendering him unable to help.

A plan surfaced trying to employ his newfound power to jump between the rooftops around him, it hadn't seemed like he was restricted to moving over the ground in his prior tests and triggering the power was becoming a bit more stable. Besides this was the perfect time to put the theory to the test, he was in his suit after all so even if he dropped from the roof to the ground it should matter that much. Taking a moment to ready himself mentally he took a deep breath before running to the edge and jumping, gravity took over and the sickening feeling of falling to ones death ran through his body as the smoke trails behind him grew and more of his body dissipated into the smoke. It had only been a second until his mind registered he was no longer falling, rather he felt more like he was floating. As his mind adjusted to this rather odd sensation the smoke began to move, consciously moving the smoke through the air was a rather odd sensation, it felt like whatever direction he focused his mind on his 'body' would move forward in that direction without his senses turning along into the direction as if his body had turned 90 degrees to the right without his head ever turning the slightest in that direction.

As much as he would have liked to explore these sensations and this power more, there simply wasn't any time, there was a giant sentient blob of acidic gelatin attacking the city after all. He turned his attention towards the boardwalk and moved in the direction staying near the rooftops while in his wispy new form afraid it might be undone at any moment. Though there were a few shaky moments where he could feel his form temporarily dissipating with no warning whatsoever, Devon managed to land himself on one of the rooftops adjacent to the boardwalk. From here he could easily see the monster and all he was spewing at the heroes on the boardwalk, the aggressive mist, the tendrils and it's minions. Also... Where did that dragon come from... Well at the very least it would be on their side for the moment seeing it was currently entangled in combat with the main body of the monster.

Devon slung the rifle onto his back and drew his pistols from the pockets within the trenchcoat, sheer firepower wouldn't solve this problem and that mist would be far safer to dispatch with cryogenics rather than turning it into a massive fireball with incendiary attacks, fuel air mixtures should never be underestimated after all. With the barriers and the wind managing to contain most of the mist Devon placed his attention on the clouds that managed to slip past these defenses and the tendrils that attempted to assail and entrap the heroes. Volleys of gunfire rung from the rooftop as clouds of mist turned into tiny crystals dropping to the ground among a mist of frozen compounds(mostly water and carbondioxide) sublimated out of the sky. As the foul green black crystals hit the ground and other few shots were fired at them until they were securely held under a thin layer of supercooled and partially liquefied air.

While he had been busy with the little bits that had escaped it seemed like a couple others had managed to create another temporary prison for the main quantity of the mist by trapping it in a massive spherical glass container consisting of some rather thick panes. If someone were to make a small hole and quickly patch it up after he reckoned the panes would be strong enough to survive the fireball that igniting all that mist would result in, but that would be a risky scenario if it went wrong lethal glass shards would be thrown everywhere so it would probably be best to not even suggest it to any of the others.