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Lilian Anderbilt

"Turn off your cell phone and take out the battery; I have a secret to tell you"

0 · 833 views · located in Barden, VA

a character in “the wicked game”, as played by Sepokku

Description



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F U L LXN A M E
Lilian Anderbilt

N I C K N A M E (S)
Lily (Business)
Omnitech (Villain)
Lil (Friends only)

B I R T H D A Y
10/23

A G E
25

R O L E
The Eccentric

S E X U A L I T Y
Pansexual

E T H N I C I T Y
Nova Scotian

H O M E T O W N
Orange County, California

H E X

#darkslateblue


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Image S T Y L E
Usually, business casual clothing that varies slightly with her mood and weather. Ever since her first encounter with the police, Lilian prefers to dress in unassuming clothing, something any casual businesswoman might be wearing. Functionality is Lilian's focus, aiming to blend in while still looking nice and remaining comfortable. Her hair is usually well-maintained, with obvious effort put into it, one of her few vain comforts that doesn't stand out in her field. Omnitech is mostly a namesake, and rarely seen in person, but when forced to make an appearance, Omnitech usually wears dark clothing that varies with her needs. Most often it consists of grey or black pants, shirt, and gloves; all made of kevlar. Matched with a grey long peacoat with sewn-in trauma plates, giving her a bulky appearance. Finally, she wears a specially made helmet, which looks like some sort of unorthodox motorcycle helmet made almost entirely of blackish opaque glass.

H E I G H T & W E I G H T
5'6/54KG

A P P E A R A N C E

Blonde-hair, with eyes like sea-glass. Lilian's otherwise unassuming build belies a cunning intellect that only shows through deep in her eyes, a fierce and intuitive spark that is impossible to be missed by others like her. Though, at times her eyes go completely blank as she loses herself in thought. Careful to act the part of the eccentric engineer, her demeanor often includes exaggerated gesticulations and quiet musings. Strong cheeks round down to a not quite heart-shaped face, which almost always has an ambivalent smile quietly turning up the sides of her mouth.



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L I K E S
Chocolate, sweets, and whimsical dreams. Lilian's head is perpetually in the clouds, propelled far off world with her inventions and wild ideas, as such she likes things that are honey-sweet and soft likes cashmere. Lilian also loves looking into many different scientific theories, anything from Quantum theory to Gastronomy is more than enough to start a seemingly endless conversation about the practical applications, much to the dismay of people trying to strike up a casual conversation.

D I S L I K E S
Bullies, dumb, and rude people irk Lilian to no end. The idea of people squabbling amongst themselves while the rich and powerful profit off of their quarrel makes her feel ill. Even worse are heroes who mindlessly do their work, it is a waste of a gift for someone to blindly follow the corrupt laws of man. Owls both worry and unnerve her, reminding her of a nightmare she frequently has.


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ImageP E R S O N A L I T Y
Lilian is usually quiet, preferring to be spoken to rather than to speak, she only expresses herself when she feels strongly about something, or is otherwise trying to get her point across. Don't suffer fools, is the motto of her life, and one can see that readily in the way she conducts herself. People of substance are hard to find in this world, and Lilian doesn't have time to be wasting on people who are anything less. However if Lilian does think highly of someone, she is more than willing to ask for their advice.

On the surface, Lilian is every bit the busybody engineer, busy with her work and making sure "the Company" is doing well. Though anyone that spends more than a little time with her will quickly learn that she's a darkly intellectual young lady with a clear plan for the future. When it comes to "substance" Lilian prefers eccentric hobbies, such as her long-form math equations, plotting celestial bodies, and virology.


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ImageF A M I L Y
Lilian's father is in prison for a crime she committed, and her mother is nowhere to be found. She has no other siblings, but her mother was a "powerful and mysterious" woman, or at least that's what Lilian's dad always used to say. Lilian couldn't care less for either of them, she is her own woman, and nothing is going to change that.

Her father always used to tell her, "There are two absolutes in life, family and Vodka." Lilian agreed with him on one thing, and to this day she has remained an individual in her life. The closest thing she has to family is a gray cat named Lyle that she adopted after having found it as a stray.


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H I S T O R Y
Born to an abusive and alcoholic father, Lilian's early life was destitute and miserable. Her mother's face faded with time, she simply stopped showing up one day, and Lilian never bothered to find out why. For some time, hunger and fear were the lots she knew, until her powers manifested. Then it was easy to steal a little money from an ATM or to siphon some money onto a trashed Visa gift card. Life was good for a little bit; until the police started to wonder why her IP address was constantly logging in and out of bank accounts.

After a half-assed investigation, Lilian's father was deemed the culprit and Lilian found herself in and out of various Foster care families. After the third family, Lilian had herself legally emancipated and entered the world as a Legal Adult. Using her power to forge references, she started as an apprentice engineer at an aerospace company and has used that career as a proving ground for her ideas. A bit of insider-trading and "breakthrough" inventions later, and Lilian found herself targeted by a villain looking to recruit her for his cause. Confused, and not at all considering herself the bad guy, she set him up and had his sanctuary raided by the police.

Since then Lilian has done her best to keep a low profile, many of her inventions never see the light of day for fear of attracting undue attention again. Her earlier work created a self-sustaining flow of income and without a need to siphon money, she has become increasingly shut-in to focus on her work. It wasn't long before her experiments became a series of increasingly illegal projects intended to bring about a technological singularity. The world needed to grow up, and her hand would be the one to do it, eventually...

Often she spends long quiet weeks in the wilderness of Virginia, the only place she can truly "unplug," and relax. Only the recent happenings between Hero and Villain alike have brought Lilian out of her exclusion; some scumbag exposing superhumans and their work. It was a wrong she would have to right at any cost. If the world knew the truth, her Father would be free and she would have to postpone the Singularity, something that could doom all of mankind.



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R E L A T I O N S H I PXS T A T U S
Single

A B I L I T I E S
Ever since her powers manifested, Lilian has been able to hear machines, the frequency they give off and the waves they transmit are as readable as an open book to her. After some short practice, Lilian learned to manipulate this data to make machines behave in ways she wanted, along with it came an increased understanding and awareness of the technology. Whether one calls it technomancy, technopathy, or being Bluetooth compatible, Lilian can make most modern technologies do her bidding without a second thought.

T A L E N T S
The safest vault on the most obscure parts of the internet are but lost libraries to Lilian. She excels at data-cracking and breaking into things she shouldn't be able, but that doesn't mean Lilian is a stranger to street-fighting. Over the years, she's developed a few tools to help even the playing field between her and others with more combat-oriented powers, and relentless practice has honed these tools to deadly efficacy.

S T R E N G T H S
Surprising adaptability has kept Lilian alive on more than one occasion. Rarely does one expect someone to pull out a laser pointer capable of burning through metal, even less so do they expect you to use their phone as the coordinates for a drone strike. Lilian's power may not have the brute force of others, but its easily adaptable in modern society and has a wide range of uses. Her power also never turns off, even working while she is asleep.

W E A K N E S S E S
Keeping a cool head is hard for Lilian, but only when faced with issues that she takes personally. While most things simply go unacknowledged, there are a few key insults that send her into a rage. The fiery spirit within her makes her more than willing to angrily go toe-to-toe with someone who undoubtedly would leave her dead, even if only to avenge her pride and vanity. Also, her power never turns off, and being in machine dense areas for long periods takes its toll on her.



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So begins...

Lilian Anderbilt's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles Character Portrait: Luciana Morrison
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1.25 INK

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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
It was a cold, crisp, and clear night. The type of night that people could enjoy. Couples were walking the street, using the cold air as an excuse to steal each other’s body heat and warm clothes. Kids played tag, their air forming small clouds in the air as they laughed. Noise spilled on to the streets from balconies above as friends sat and drank a wine or a beer and put the world to right, staring at the stars. It was an entirely unremarkable evening for most, it seemed.

But not for all. Cerys could feel it in the air. Maybe it was just her own anxiety, her own apprehension about the evening. But it felt like something was going to happen- something big, something that would disrupt the peace everyone else seemed to be feeling. But they needed to do something. They couldn’t just sit idly by. They couldn’t just fade into the shadows and disappear like that.

She made her way across town to the location she’d received. She’d been suspicious at first, but when she’d heard that a number of other heroes had gotten a similar message, with the same location, it began to seem more legit. She was still apprehensive, but at least she knew she wasn’t going alone.

The location was a large, apparently abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. It did at least appear to be structurally sound, but was unlikely to have any ideal vantage points for her to shoot from. She could still shoot from ground level, but she always had an advantage with a little bit of height.

She wasn’t enough of a fool to just waltz in, though. So instead, she waited just out of sight, waiting for somebody she at least vaguely recognised to arrive, and pulling on her mask.




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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
Atticus didn’t particularly want to go to this meeting or whatever it was. He’d planned on spending the evening watching some movies or maybe getting some work done on his showreel. Or hell, going out for a few drinks. But Lucy was dragging him along, and he apparently wasn’t getting much of a say so in the matter.

Even if he didn’t particularly want to be there, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going prepared. He’d retrieved his gun from the hidden panel in his wardrobe. It’s weight felt strange, alien, but he wasn’t optimistic that things would end peacefully, and he didn’t want to be dependent on his knife. And if he was leaving the house, he would be damned if he wasn’t leaving well dressed. So he wore his usual suit, the holster for his gun concealed beneath the jacket, his mask tucked into one pocket and a knife in the other.

He’d been getting the messages too, of course. Somebody knew that he could have chosen to save his uncle, but instead chose his chance of freedom. Somebody who lorded that over him and threatened him to stick to the shadows, the shadows he only occasionally stepped out from. He would have been perfectly happy to just lay low, to disappear and shed Icarus. But not everyone could do that. The few people he could call “friends” in the villain community couldn’t do that, and they shouldn’t have had to. So that was why he hadn’t put up too much of a fight when Lucy told him he had to come.

“Abandoned warehouse. Seriously, could they get any more cliche?” He remarked quietly as they approached, pulling on his mask. “They should have just put up a sign, ‘this is definitely a trap’!” He added, frowning beneath the mask and instinctively putting his hands into his pockets to wrap around the knife.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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P i p e r Young
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hex: #3e7a4e
xxxfor us the bourgeoisie, so carefree
xxxremember when we?
xxxi don't know what you need to get by
xxxsomething for your mind
Piper had to go to the meeting. Anyone who could figure her out was a threat, and she couldn’t let threats go unchecked. She wasn’t the most skilled in combat, and kept her identity pretty tightly sealed. Revealing oneself was dangerous, and it was a danger she wasn’t willing to face, so she was more than willing to take this seriously from the moment she’d received the message. She wasn’t sure who would be there, and that made her nervous. Sure, she could use mind control to throw any attackers off the moment they came at her, but that was only so useful in a group setting.

The day of the meeting, she tried to go about her routine as close to normally as possible, but it was looming over her the entire day, shaping her every move. She felt paranoid, more than ever. Nothing good could come of this. She thought about sending a message to Luciana, she wasn’t going to be there, after all. It was definitely a trap. But she didn’t. Normally, she backed out of things with too much of a risk of physical harm: she was a one-on-one type, and didn’t like the thought of not knowing the odds, or not being fully prepared. She planned every job she did down to the tiniest detail, and this meeting was giving her major anxiety.

Still, she got dressed (simply: black pants, black top) and made her way to the address. The fact that it was an abandoned warehouse wasn’t amusing, it just solidified the fact that something about this wasn’t right. Piper hated wearing masks, they typically got in the way of her powers, as even the simplest masks tended to draw the gaze away from her eyes. Still, she pulled her mask up and over her mouth and nose long before she approached the warehouse, not wanting to take any risks. She hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to go ahead and enter the building. After all, if this were a trap, they already had her.




D h a n i Batra
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hex: #b85c9e
xxxi see you up again wandering so diligent
xxxcrossing your t's as though it weren't irrelevant
xxxthey say formality, this is what they really meant:
xxxthey can be the walk and we can be the pavement
The overall climate and opinions towards heroes had made life difficult for Dhani. Some of his fellow heroes had dropped the gig and moved on to other things, and he couldn’t say he blamed them, but he just couldn’t do the same. He didn’t have anything else to fall back on, and he didn’t think he could turn his back on being a hero if he tried.

So when he’d started receiving messages, and they knew a little too much about him, well, he was concerned. And when he’d heard about the meeting, he knew he had to go. He didn’t have much of a choice, really. Some might be able to ignore it and carry on with their lives, but Dhani couldn’t. He needed to investigate. It wasn’t safe to be a hero or a villain in this town, and he worried that, over time, just having powers would be enough to get someone put under scrutiny, or worse.

The actual day of the meeting was normal enough: he called Kieran until she answered. Reminded her that she had something important to attend that night, and not to be late. If she was late, he would be very upset with her (as if she cared), because she needed to be there. He was fairly sure that she just didn’t care, but he thought it was important, and if things went wrong, if it was a trap, she would be helpful. He knew that he could count on her if things went south, even if he couldn’t count on her ability to show up on time. He had to work that day, too. Waiting tables really had nothing on hero work, but it paid the bills. Mostly. You couldn’t make a living saving the world anymore, and it was fine. It was. Dhani didn’t mind it, he loved being a hero, he loved helping people. It was his entire life.

He already had his mask in place as he approached the building, and he took a brief moment to survey it from the outside. He wasn’t sure if it was a trap, it just screamed that it was, but it also seemed too obvious,but he decided that waiting around wasn’t going to help anyone, so he went ahead and made his way inside. Honestly, if a trap was going to be sprung, he’d rather it be on him. He could take a bit of a beating, though he would prefer not to. He also hadn’t fully thought it through before he’d done it, as per usual. Still, he settled himself near a wall where he could see what was happening.

Then came a bit of waiting, which was something Dhani had become excellent at over the years. He stood, arms crossed, obviously somewhat apprehensive about the whole thing. None of it sat well with him, and he wouldn’t feel better until it was done.

Then Kieran snuck up on him; his shoulders tensed up as she spoke, and had he not had his arms crossed over his chest, he might have punched her. He shot her a stern look, “I told you not to be late.” He didn’t change his voice too much as a hero, he mostly just spoke a little lower. Even then, he occasionally forgot to do that much. He shook his head when she asked if she missed anything, “Nothing’s happened yet. We were waiting on you.” Of course, he had no way of knowing what they were waiting on, but that didn’t stop him from blaming it on Kieran.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
The chuckle acted as a warning to draw her out of her own thoughts before Aaron approached her. Even after all this time, she still found his mask vaguely unsettling, but just smirked back at him, rolling his eyes at the nickname. "I... don't think it's a set up. Every time a hero or villain's been found dead over the past year, it's been just one at a time. One body, one murder. To ramp up from that to multiple heroes all at once doesn't seem likely. I could be wrong. But... something definitely seems... odd," She said. "Keep our guards up and hope for the best, I guess," She said with a shrug. She watched as Dhani arrived on the scene, but he didn't spot her hiding place. Not that he took too long to look. Unlike everyone else, who seemed to hang back with apprehension, he walked right in.

Cerys had had the sensation that they were being watched for a while before Gemini arrived, but a slight whirring sound passing overhead draw her attention upwards, behind Aaron. As Adrian joined them on the fire escape, she slowly drew her bow, holding up a finger as if to warn the others to be quiet for a moment. Watching the moment of the drone, she drew an arrow, then quick as she could, fired the arrow at the drone. She hit it with enough force to destroy the camera, and another custom arrow with a small charge built into it destroyed it's propellers. She reached out and caught it as it fell.

"Well. Doesn't look like this is going to be a friendly meeting after all," she remarked. "It's only a matter of time before they retaliate after that, so how about we go in and see what's facing us?" She said, shouldering her bow again and climbing down, throwing the door to the warehouse open. One of the first faces- or rather, masks, that greeted her was that of Red Witch. Spying certainly wasn't the Witch's style, but it meant she wasn't working alone. She strode right past Dhani and Kieran and dropped the drone in front of the villains, crossing her arms. "Typical villains. Afraid to come out and play in the light? Too afraid to fight fair?" She called. If they wanted a fight, they were going to get a fight.




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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
Atticus just rolled his eyes at Lucy's theatrics and decided to stick to the shadows, but watched her the whole time. He loved Lucy, but she could sometimes be prone to being... dramatic. And sometimes, she needed to someone to stop her before she did something dangerous. He spotted a familiar face in the form of Lilian, and glanced in Lucy's direction before heading over to Lilian. "Something's going to happen tonight," he said by way of a greeting. "Don't ask me what but... I don't think it's good," he muttered to her. That was the worst thing, the feeling of vague foreboding. It wasn't as clear cut as his visions, but it was definite enough that he knew it wasn't just anxiety or apprehension. "Be careful, okay?" He warned her, raising an eyebrow.

There were a handful of figures he didn't recognise. But he was used to seeing them without their masks on, so it was entirely possible he had crossed paths with some of them at some point before. Two in particular caught his attention, one waltzing in a few minutes after everyone else had and going straight to the other. The taller of the two seemed more on edge, more to attention than the latecomer. Wait, were they... Were they heroes? After examining them for a moment or two, his suspicion was confirmed, and he grimaced.

"I need to go," he warned Lilian and made his way back across the room to Lucy. Lucy's hatred for heroes was significant, and he could only imagine how she was going to react once she realised. But before he could get there, the door burst open and in walked another group. One of them held a damaged drone and had a bow and quiver of arrows across her back. Artemis. They were heroes. Was this a set up? Why would the heroes corner them like this? It didn't match up with most of the things they did. And then Artemis tossed the drone to the ground and made some comment about being watched, taunting them. Atticus hadn't known of any active attempts to monitor the heroes. Lucy certainly hadn't mentioned anything. The realisation then, that they could be being watched by an outsider, hit him. He reached out a hand to stop Lucy from saying or doing anything drastic- but it was too late. As heroes and villains did, things didn't take long to turn into a full blown brawl. He'd never liked fighting like this. It was too close, too messy, too... personal. This wasn't how he'd been taught to fight, and the nagging suspicion that this was being set up by somebody else was still getting to him.

He had fully intended on just trying to get out of the middle of the fighting. But people had seen him with the villains, and apparently thought that meant he needed to die as well. He found himself drawing his knife as self defense, slashing to try and get people away from him. Then out of nowhere, something - no, someone- hit him from above. As they fell, the knife went flying from Atticus' hand and the person knocked his mask off and out of reach. Almost instinctively, he threw a punch towards their mask. Something crunched, but he wasn't sure if it was his fist or their nose. Their reaction gave him a chance to scramble to his feet and retrieve his knife. His mask, however, was gone, kicked away by the fighting.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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LUCIANA MORRISON
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Red Witch | Mask | Outfit | #571616
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xxx Yeah someone pour it in
xxx Make it a dirt dance floor again
xxx Say your prayers and stomp it out
xxx When they bring that in
xxx Bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away

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Luciana was pacing around the open warehouse, tossing a glass bottle she found on the ground in the air and catching it, starting to get a little bored of what was going on. Right when she was gonna yell at Atticus, wherever he was, about possibly leaving due to no one showing up and nothing going on a familiar figure walked in. “Aboleth! Honestly surprised you made it, little Icarus is around here, hiding in the shadows, you know how he is.” Luciana said tossing the glass bottle over her shoulder and it shattering on the ground.

The two talked a little before the sound of footsteps caught Luciana’s attention, turning to see two people. Heroes. Malfyre and Bludwynd. Lucy scowled under her mask at the sight of two good two shoes. A few scenarios went through her head about what she would run into in this warehouse, but these heroes were not what she was expecting at all. Before she could say anything or even ready her powers, a door flew open and another group of heroes walked in. “Hmm, so this was a set up by the heroes. Surprising, but at least fun.” She whispered to Aboleth. This time there were three heroes, two of which she probably despised the most. Paladin - a good two shoes, Artemis - a powerless human, and Gemini - an annoying mystery.

Artemis through a hunk of metal down and rambled on, something about fighting fair. In a matter of seconds Red Witch made cuts on her hands and blood started flowing down her finger tips. These heroes just asked for a fight, it would be Luciana’s pleasure to give what they asked for. There were five of them and she only knew of two of her allies being here, though Paladin wasn’t much a fighter and Artemis was just a prick in her side. Red Witch made three daggers like projectiles and quickly threw them in the direction of the group of three, not aiming for anyone in particular but using it more of a distraction. “Let’s fight then.” Lucy said as she went on the move, dodging an arrow from Artemis as she went behind an old generator and kept moving behind structures.

Red Witch probably should’ve focused on the more powerful heroes, but she had a little grudge to settle with a hero in particular, Artemis. “Hey little miss powerless. How about you leave this to the adults and you can watch with some popcorn as your friends bleed?” She called out with a laugh. Luciana peaked around the corner just as Atticus got attacked and his mask knocked off, but retaliated with a pretty hard hit on Malfyre. “Fucking idiot lost his mask…” She mumbled to herself before hearing an arrow skipping off the hood of the car she was behind, the arrow actually grazing and scratching her mask.

Lucy finally sprung up from behind a burnt out car creating a bleed staff in one hand spinning it around in the palm her blood was coming out of. The powerless girl shot a couple more arrows at her, but she created a shield with her other hand, causing the arrows slowing down as if going through water and falling to the ground. Luciana rushed forward, sliding under a kick from Artemis and slamming her staff into the gut of Gemini, knocking him back a little bit and giving more space to just Artemis and Red Witch. “You try to set a trap for me, but don’t bring anything more than a bow and a few of your friends? I’m insulted.” Lucy said to the female hero as her blood retracted from the weapon she made and into her hands, and using one of her hands to signal for Artemis to attack her

The two combated for a few seconds, Red Witch being mostly on the defense from Artemis, using her powers to block her attacks, but getting caught by one and getting knocked back and rolling backwards. When she stood up she noticed the ground around her getting darker and she knew, Bludwynd. She turned around to see him attempting to slash at her with two daggers. She sidestepped to try to dodge him, but got slashed by one of her daggers, wincing a little in pain. “Oh, thanks for this.” She said as the blood dripped onto the ground, and then using it to form a sword taking a stance ready for Bludwynd. He charged and she was able to block most of his swings, the cut from his dagger helped keep her sword’s shape since the wound wasn’t so small.

During their little fight with blades, Red Witch noticed some of the infamous Legion Primes about. She hadn’t noticed them before since she was caught up with Artemis. “Oh, and you try to bring him to stop us?” Luciana said as she broke away from the fight with Bludwynd and giving some more space. She quickly pulled a replicant and threw him into the hero and ran behind a corner and up some stairs.

As Red Witch went onto the catwalk she spotted Artemis taking shots at whoever below. “Hey! Bitch!” She called out as she started to walk towards Artemis, forming a bow of her own and taking aim with a blood arrow at the hero. But before either of them could fire the sprinkler system of the warehouse went off and a wall of water formed between Artemis and Red Witch. Luciana scanned the room quickly and noticed others were separated by water as well. “What the hell?!”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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Kieran Vallanetti
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Malfyre | Uniform & Mask x|xhex: #575772
xxx Bring me out
xxxCome and find me in the dark now
xxxEveryday by myself I'm breaking down
xxxI don't wanna fight alone anymore
Kieran couldn't help but chuckle slightly as Dhani reprimanded her for being late, her voice crackling to life under the mask. "Well I'm sorry, Mr. 'Be on time for everything'. Haven't you ever heard of being fashionably late?" she questioned all too enthusiastically, throwing her hands up in the air as she did so. She wasn't one for stealth in general, but she was keeping her voice down enough as the two stood in the doorway of the warehouse. Turning her face back to look at him she spoke again, "And see! You weren't missing much without me, whoever called us here probably whoosed out and now we're here for nothing. Knew I should have tracked where it came from, but nooo, someone told me I was being paranoid!!" she exclaimed and put emphasis on the last word, as she knew Dhani would understand exactly what she meant. He had told her to not put too much stress or worry into this and just relax. Rubbing her index fingers along her temples over her jacket's hood, she sighed. "Just, watch this whole thing be a dud, and I get to say I told you s-" she was cut off as the sound of others entering the warehouse had caught her off guard. Peering over the side of Dhani she could see a few familiar figures slowly emerging from the darkness. "Oh fuck me." she muttered, the eyes of her mask flickering from their normal state of simple X's, to a somewhat displeased look before flickering back to the normal state of emotion the mask displayed. She recognized those forms all too easily, as a bit of dread but not utter surprise hit her. Icarus, Red Witch, and Aboleth. Three villains she had a few encounters with, and all were unpleasant, for different reasons.

Icarus due to his reputation and use of knives, close combat if he felt like fighting. Need to keep an eye on him. Red Witch, not much needed to be said there. They had plenty of scuffles in the past, knowing each other's abilities and fighting patterns. She was a deadly foe, and an even deadly ability user. She'd have to keep on edge with that one. And lastly, Aboleth, Kieran didn't know much about her, other than that she was capable of using mind control, and wasn't a fan of what Malfyre was doing in the city. While she wasn't an outright threat, seeing her left Kieran feeling a bit odd as they'd have to watch for potential brainwashing and manipulation. Kieran unsheathed her knives from her pockets as she got into a defensive stand beside Paladin, getting ready for three that stood opposed to them. "Well, I can eat my words. This was a setup all along. So...don't even say it." she said in reference to Dhani, giving him an unnoticeable side-eye due to her mask covering her entire face. Bringing her eyes back to the three villains, her eyes squinted hard, this would be a tough fight, but she had a hunch that there had to be more heroes here. Somewhere. But she just wasn't sure. She was about to speak when another door was flung open, and three more figures stepped into the warehouse. "Oh come on! Who the fuck is this now?!" she exclaimed, finally looking over to see who stepped in. At first it took her a moment to realize the three new figures were in fact, friendly. For them anyway. Watching as Artemis tossed what looked to be a drone into the middle of the warehouse, saying how the villains had to remain in the darkness and not able to fight fair. "Oh hi, Arty, Wyndy, and Gemi." she said with an awkward and overly exaggerated wave of her hand.

Turning her head back to the villains in front of them, it seemed to happen all too fast. In simply a blink of an eye, they all engaged in combat. Kieran was caught off guard for a moment as she stumbled back, "So, we're actually doing this, huh? Alright then. Let's get shwifty." she said with a grin. As expected, the Red Witch and Artemis took into immediate combat with the other, understandably so Kieran left Artemis to fight on her own until she'd need some help. Turning her head to the other villain, she fired off a quick concussive blast with her hand which would blow Aboleth back a few feet. But not doing much damage. disorientating her opponents is what she strived for most than absolute brute force. That was for the heavy hitters like Paladin. Turning her attention further into the warehouse, she saw Icarus making a run for it where Artemis and Red Witch were currently firing off shots of arrows and blood projectiles. As she made her rush after Icarus, just barely missing a few stray arrows and blood projectiles, she jumped along one of the walls after giving herself a small burst of telekinetic energy. Pulling herself up into the catwalk above, she continued to chase after Icarus, making sure to never let him out of her eyesight, she watched as he simply used his knives as a means of slashing away any sort of close proximity of a fight. Seeing a small opening under the guardrail of the catwalk, Kieran quickly shot herself under it, and dropped down. As she came down from above, she felt her foot slam into something hard, as well as her armored hand came crashing down onto something, hearing a metal sound clatter along the concrete floor below.

Looking up, Kieran was greeted by a freshly unmasked Icarus. A small smile creased her lips as she finally got a glimpse of the man behind the mask, "Oh hi, you're kinda cut-" she was cut off midsentence as she felt a sharp and sudden blunt force smash into her face. A sickening crunch sounded as Icarus landed a good and heavy punch into her face, just barely managed to avoid the major spikes along her mask. Grabbing her nose she quickly turned away as she could feel it was clearly broken as blood began trickling down her lip. "You broke my fucking nose, you douche bag!" she exclaimed, still clenching her nose from over the mask. She didn't know if Icarus had ended up hurting himself from the initial impact with the spikes on her mask or not, but she knew that there was just a little bit too much blood on her mask to be just her own. Kieran looked back up as the familiar, metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, he had gotten more than just her nose as well. "Get your ass back here, you can't just run off after punching someone, dickbag!" she exclaimed as she gave chase to Icarus who nervously searched for his mask and knife. Slowly Kieran made her way up behind Atticus, grabbing him by the back of the shirt and tossed him to the side as he tried to reach for his knife, "Not so fast, pretty boy. But, I will give you a chance." she said as she kicked his own knife back to him, the metal sound scraping against the concrete floor.

Kieran looked at him as she took her own twin knives out from the pockets of her jacket. Twirling them around her for a moment, "Your move, play boy." she said with a grin. After a moment Icarus had finally gone in for a few quick jabs and slashes of his own, Kieran simply sidestepped and dodged the initial few. Bringing her elbow into his stomach as they grew closer in proximity, "You know, we could have gone about this differently. But you villains always have to ruin the party, huh?" she questioned with a rather annoyed tone, her voice crackling from the mask. But now it sounded as if the audio output had been damaged, flickering between her normal and modified voice. She'd have to make some adjustments to the mask later when she could fix the damaged circuits. Looking back up at Atticus as she felt a sharp and sudden pain slash against her left arm, and then her right thigh. He had managed to get a few good slashes in while she had been distracted. The two continued to exchange blows and dodges as the others around them continued to fight on. Dodging a stray arrow and projectile from the other two from above, "Hey! Be careful up there! Someone could have lost an eye!" she called out, knowing full well no one would pay attention to her ramblings. Kieran gave her attention back to Icarus, and as she went for a quick few jabs aimed towards his abdomen, the overhead sprinkler system was triggered, casting water in all directions. She went to continue on with her flurry of blows, but a wall of water separated the two of them, "What the hell?" she exclaimed, looking around as the others had too been walled off by more walls of water that had been formed from the water system. After a moment she understood all too well. Gemini was here, so of course, the one who could control water would use this as an advantage. "What the hell, Gemini? They were the ones who started this shit. So you better have a good explanation for this, or so fucking help me." she called out, her voice modifier was slowly beginning to die, flickering between the modification and her normal voice at a faster rate than before. She'd need to think of something soon. But all she could do was sit in silence, behind the fountain of water as they were all surrounded by it, being kept from fighting or being able to move much.





Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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#, as written by Sepokku
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lilian anderbilt
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xxxxxxyou heat me like a filament
xxxxxxeverytime you're in the room
xxxxxxbut you burned me
xxxxxxand now I’m smoking

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It was easy enough to dodge the drones flying overhead, or at the very least to scrub the part of the feed that included her. Lilian shook her head dismissively, Why would you draw extra attention to us like that… With a perfunctory sigh, Lilian made her way into the building.

She noticed a few people had beat her here, in particular, her view gravitated towards the face of Atticus... that is, the mask of Icarus. He approached with a warning, something to never be taken lightly when coming from him. She gave him a warm smile, before realizing he wouldn’t be able to see her smile; she was unused to wearing this stupid helmet. As Icarus started to walk away, presumably to rejoin the rest of the villains, she gave him a curt nod. Her hand went to the electrolaser in her pocket, setting it to deliver a nonlethal shock, but still able to create a sonic boom through the rapid heating of the laser.

Before he was able to rejoin the others on the side of the room, the doors burst in and a new group strolled into the room. One of them threw a hunk of metal to the ground as she strode in, one of the drones that had been surveying outside. Lilian recognized Artemis; she was angry at being spied on, which was part of the reason Lilian hadn’t bothered fielding drones of her own.

It wasn’t long before the groups did what came naturally to heroes and villains in close quarters. Lilian let out a tired sigh and got ready for the ensuing fight. However, no one seemed terribly concerned with attacking her, or perhaps they were afraid to do so, which was all Lilian strived for in life. With a triumphant exhale, she dove towards the ruined scrap metal that used to be a drone, scooping it up in her arms and darting behind a box. With her laser, she cut out the camera from the drone and crafted a stick from the rest of the drone to attach it to; a moment of thought connected the camera to the optics inside her helmet, instead of its original owner.

Lilian had already developed countermeasures for most of the superhumans here, but this was a unique opportunity to gather data on the others and test her existing theories on the rest. Carefully she poked her camera up just high enough to survey the chaos. Dark cloying shadows began to propagate throughout the room, but they dissipated easily enough when the amplified light from Lilian’s laser hit them.

A curtain of water suddenly imposed itself between the combatants, interrupting her research. For a few seconds she considered sending the shock from her electrolaser through the water, but once again the concern of hitting her friends stopped her from acting. Instead, Lilian contented herself with putting a gloved hand into the stream of water and watching it ripple and writhe against her hand. Hydrokinesis... Cute.

Taking advantage of the momentary ceasefire, Lilian tapped into the feed of the remaining drones overhead. It wouldn’t take her long to backtrace their signal to its owner. Someone was watching their feed, and it would only take her a few moments to find out who, assuming they hadn’t disconnected already.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
As was always Cerys' first instinct, she tried to find somewhere elevated to take aim, somewhere that would give her a better vantage point. But before she could do so, a voice called out, taunting her about letting the adults fight. She'd heard a similar taunt before, and notched an arrow, waiting for her to show her face again. She saw Red Witch glancing towards one of the other villains and released. She didn't hit her target, but the arrow still scratched the villain's mask, and Cerys smiled. But when Red Witch started fighting back, Cerys realised she was overpowered in these close quarters. She stashed her bow back behind her back and instead went in with her fists. Drawing blood was only going to give Red Witch more of an advantage anyway. She didn't think for a minute she'd be able to take the villain down by herself, not unless she got a really lucky punch in, but she just needed to buy time.

Backup came in the form of Aaron, who actually managed to draw blood. The villain was temporarily distracted, and turned her back to Cerys. Cerys took the opportunity to run, scouting for a better vantage point. She spotted a walkway and scaled her way up to it, sticking to the shadows to give herself some cover. But one thing that Red Witch had said stuck with her. Something about them planting the ambush. She seemed as angry about it as Cerys was. But she didn't have time to dwell on it, because Red Witch had spotted her and had joined her on the walkway.

Cerys laughed as Luciana made a bow from blood. "You really think it's that easy?" She taunted. "I bet you don't even know one end of that thing from another. Come on, the least you could do is be origi- what the fuck?" Cerys swore as the sprinklers suddenly came on, the water shifting almost immediately to form a barrier between her and Red Witch. "Gemini, what the hell?" She called, leaning down over the balcony to spot him. But he'd come to the same conclusion she'd been working towards. Neither of them had set this up as an ambush. Somebody else had called them here.

"The blackmail..." she breathed. "How many other people here have received these... messages, the ones that tell us to stay quiet, that know who we are and know the secrets we're trying to keep?" She called.



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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
Atticus' first instinct was to get the hell out of there, before he got dragged into something he really didn't want to be involved in, especially not without the protection of anonymity. He'd already broken a hero's nose, and he really didn't want to get any deeper into it. They, however, did not feel the same. As he ducked to retrieve his knife, they grabbed the back of his shirt and tossed him away from the weapon. He rolled and leaped back to his feet. This wasn't a fight he was going to be able to run away from. They did, at least, give him the courtesy of giving back his knife, but just drew two knives of their own and spun them, clearly waiting for him to make the first move. He was so far out of his comfort zone. He just needed a break- a chance to run.

When he finally reached out towards the hero, they easily dodged, bringing an elbow into his stomach when they got close enough, and taunting him. But their mask was damaged, and the audio was crackling, distorted. The hero noticed that as well, and was momentarily distracted by it. Atticus took his chance then, landing a few blows on to her arm and thigh, before darting away from a projectile from above. The hero recovered quickly and went for his stomach, Atticus darting away from it. But before he could make an assault of his own, the sprinklers came on, forming walls of water to separate them almost instantly. And, of course, blocking off his route to the nearest door that didn't involve running past even more heroes that would probably also try to kill him.

And then one of the heroes spoke. Something about the heroes not organising this, and that the villains hadn't earlier. He exhaled heavily, still a little winded from Malfyre's elbow landing in his stomach, and looked around as somebody- Artemis, he was presuming by the bow in her hand- asked if anyone else had gotten the messages. The ones threatening to expose them and their secrets. And slowly, one by one, people started to confirm that was the case. He ran a hand through his hair. This was... this was worse than they'd imagined. Atticus hadn't asked to get involved in any of this. He wasn't prepared to deal with any of this. Here he was, in a room full of superhumans, with nothing more than a knife and a gun and an ability that made him more of a liability than anything else. He scanned the room- and his eyes landed on one face, the only other unmasked face in the room.

Well. As if things couldn't have gotten any worse, they suddenly had just gotten a little more awkward and uncomfortable. Because, still dressed like a hero but just missing his mask, was Dhani. Of all the people in the entire goddamn city...

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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#, as written by Sepokku
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lilian anderbilt
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xxxxxxyou heat me like a filament
xxxxxxeverytime you're in the room
xxxxxxbut you burned me
xxxxxxand now I’m smoking

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Slowly but certainly everyone came to the conclusion that Lilian had already held for sometime; that this was no ambush and whoever had been sending them the threatening letters was not "Hero" or "Villain." No, the one that had sent them out was someone looking to destroy superhumans, regardless of their declared morality. The obvious suspect would have been Legion, but here was here too... Or was he..? It certainly would not have been past his fanaticism to send in a suicide squad to make sure this went his way....

Hacking into the remaining drones proved uneventful. They had been launched nearby but other than the fact they all had the same serial number, there was nothing of value to glean from them. She kept them patrolling lazily in their patterns before sighing Nothing for it but to hope everyone here is willing to momentarily put their differences aside, I suppose

Perhaps if I had the device everyone received their message from, I could use the delivery times to triangulate a position they're going out from... Or maybe a lie detector test, if one of us really is feigning innocence that would weed them out... “And can you fuck off with this water?” The stray comment snapped Lilian out of her thoughts and she turned to look in the direction of the voice, but several sheets of interposing water blocked her view.

Lilian suppressed a wry smile and calmed herself so that it didn't creep into her tone, "I must say, I agree with the foul-mouthed Villain. So why don't we do what the fire hose says and talk this over like civilized adults?" Turning back to Gemini she chided, "The sooner you drop the hydroworks, the sooner we can get to the bottom of this. Even if none of us here are the culprit, someone gathered us all here for a reason. Squabbling amongst ourselves is hardly befitting the next step in evolution that we are, and frankly is just not conducive to our time." It was Gemini's move from there, if the water didn't come down in a reasonable time, she'd simply have to send a million or so volts of electricity through the curtains and hope for the best.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
One by one, people began to answer her question about blackmail. It seemed that every single person in the room had all been receiving the texts. She raised her eyebrow as she glanced over at Dhani, who had somehow lost his mask. He, however, seemed to be focused on something across the room. Before Cerys could figure out what it was, however, she was surprised to hear Red Witch speaking up, in her typical eloquent way. Cerys didn't miss the glare at her when Red Witch spoke about the humans either, and Cerys returned the glare. She knew now wasn't the right time, but she'd be aiming an arrow straight for Red Witch and the next suitable opportunity.

Omnitech spoke up next, commenting on the villain's choice of language and making Cerys smirk. She didn't exactly agree with dropping the water separating them all, because she didn't trust the villains not to start immediately attacking them again. But Red Witch had at least gotten down from the catwalk, so Cerys decided to stay where she was, the advantage point giving her an immediate advantage. She kept an arrow notched, the bow firmly in her hands. Her spot also gave her the advantage of being able to watch everyone else to see their reactions. She studied them all carefully, trying to see if anyone was out of place or acting a little bit uncomfortable. But they all seemed to be equally on edge, equally unsure of their scenarios. One or two of them even looked almost afraid. She caught Aaron's eye and shook her head slightly. No obvious targets on my end. They'd worked together enough times that she was pretty sure he'd know what she meant.



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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
Dhani was staring right back at him, a mix of emotions on his face. Almost reflexively, Atticus smirked at him, a defence mechanism more than anything. But Luciana jumping down from the catwalk and walking back over to him distracted him, especially as she shoved the mask back onto his face. He pulled away from her with a scowl as she said they'd need to have a talk later about his "boy toy." She seemed to be under the impression that he had somehow known that Dhani was a hero. As if his opening line in the bar had been "Hi, I'm Atticus, you're not a hero by any chance are you?" And hell, even if it had been, did she really think he still would have brought them back to his apartment? He glanced at Dhani again and tried to ignore that tiny part of his brain that went "well, probably"

Luciana spoke up then, Atticus folding his arms as she did so. But Lucy had a point. Everyone had admitted to having a secret that this mysterious person seemed to know about, and nobody seemed to know why they were here or who had called them here. And he also felt that the water was unnecessary at this point. Lilian also seemed to agree with the sentiment.

"We need to work together," Atticus said suddenly, surprising even himself. "They're targeting all of us. I don't think any of us could defeat them by ourselves. But if we work together, we stand a much better chance. If," he said, briefly glancing at Lucy before turning back to the hero beside him as to not make it obvious, "you're all willing to get over your egos. I'm also equally happy to just disappear if you guys want to keep squabbling among yourselves."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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00J E N A 0 W A I N W R I G H T 000000000000000000|000000000000000 A D R I A N 0 R O B L E S
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xxx 'Cause I'm a fighter, a tiger, see me walk through fire
xxx Try chain me up but I'll burst through, I'll defy ya
xxx Set me on fire
xxx Watch them conspire
xxx I will defy ya
xxx I'll set them on fire

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBRN - AViVA

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xxx Are we just drowning?
xxx Can you please save us
xxx Black walls surrounding
xxx Can you please save my soul?
xxx Causing our own demise
xxx Causing our own

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDROWN - AViVA

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G E M I N I

H E X
#D6130B 0 | 0 #0018BE

O U T F I T
Jena 0 | 0 Adrian

M A S K
Jena 0 | 0 Adrian







Gemini was relieved when his gut feeling was correct and the villains didn’t set up this ambush, that both sides were sent messages. They listened as people confirmed receiving messages about possible blackmail, revealing identities, meeting at this location and much more. Hun, there’s an unmasked villain, and you sort of made Dhani take off his Jena spoke to Adrian, him quickly looking to the side as saw Dhani catching his breath. I mean… I had to break him out of the mind control somehow. Then Adrian caught the villain's face before the Red Witch covered it and whispered something to him.

The Red Witch spoke about having a common enemy, but questioning what they were supposed to do about it. Gemini didn’t really think about what was next because he didn’t expect any of this to happen. The ‘asking’ in a not so polite way to drop the water. He shrugged off her request as he had to make sure everyone was calmed down, but after a few more people also commented on his safe-guards he put in place he decided it was best to do so. “Fine.” Adrian said as he moved his arms and rotated the hands to make the water dissipate.

Gemini turned and picked up Dhani’s mask, quickly pulling the water off of it with his powers and making it dry before handing it to him, giving a light nod and mouthing the words sorry. Icarus, the villain who had his mask knocked off, spoke up, saying they needed to work together. A villain, suggesting working together? Never thought I would see the day either Ade. Gemini spoke to themselves. But then some shadow-like shackles formed around the villain’s ankles, quickly glancing at BludWynd. But before he could say anything Red Witch spoke up, saying something about holding people hostage and held her arm out towards Malfyre and twirling her fingers.

She’s bleeding… Red Witch can- Yeah I know… Adrian interrupted Jena, also hearing her huff as she didn’t like being interrupted. “BludWynd, get rid of the restraints. We are being peaceful here.” Gemini said with a serious tone. He was relieved as his fellow hero obliged and the villain laid her arm down. Then Aboleth spoke up, asking how the villains are supposed to trust the heroes. She has a point babe, we need to show them to trust us. We need to show them they can… Okay? They already know Dhani’s face, isn’t that enough? Possibly, but I know something that would hopefully earn their trust. A secret, about me, you. Us. Gemini's thoughts went back and forth, then finally came to an agreement.

“I don’t know if you can trust us, just as we can’t trust you. But we can show some acts of faith instead of violence. For example…” Gemini spoke as they stepped forward with their arms out, their body glow’d a white color, but not bright enough to blind anyone. It only lasted a few seconds before it faded and Adrian no longer stood before the heroes and villains, but Jena did, masked and all in her attire. “I, we are revealing to be the same person, as a way to show we are willing to work together and hopefully offer some trust.” Jena spoke, small flames dancing around her fingers to show who she was.

Jena let a moment pass before speaking again. “Gemini is one person, just two souls. One of us control water, and one of us control fire. You’ve faced both of us on our own, and probably wondered why never together. Well, now you know.” Some of the villains with one or even maybe both of them, but none of them knew they were the same person. Until now.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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LUCIANA MORRISON
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Red Witch | Mask | Outfit | #571616
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xxx Yeah someone pour it in
xxx Make it a dirt dance floor again
xxx Say your prayers and stomp it out
xxx When they bring that in
xxx Bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away

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Luciana smirked as the water finally fell. Some of the other people in the warehouse spoke up, mostly all saying the same thing. ‘Yeah I got a message, blah blah this. Oh we should work together, blah blah that.’ She mostly kept her attention on the heroes. Gemini giving Paladin, someone she now hated almost as much as Artemis, their mask back. Artemis was still up on the catwalk with a weapon in hand, and a few others moving about and interacting a bit. Lucy glanced to the side and rolled her eyes under her mask as she heard Arritucus pause in what he was saying, knowing it was mostly directed at her.

Though the next thing that caught the Red Witch’s attention was as her fellow villain went to move, his feet were held in place, by shadows. Her head snapped to one the only one in the room who could do that. BludWynd. Lucy didn’t like the heroes trying to be sneaky when they were also talking about peace, being very hypocritical in her eyes. She was about to speak up when she noticed something particularly interesting about a hero to the side. Malfyre. The hero had some blood coming from their mask and down their neck, and a thought came to Luciana’s mind.

“Really? You think you’re the only one able to hold a hostage? I’ve been in many hostage scenarios…” Red Witch lifted her arm and pointed her hand towards Malfyre, twirling her fingers. It took a second before she had control, and the blood that was running down the hero's neck now stopped for a second before flowing lightly through the air. Luciana wanted the others to know that she now was able to manipulate her blood. What to do with it? She wasn’t sure. Slow down her blood flow to the rest of her body, use it to attack the others. There were many other ideas in her head. “Let Icarus go. Now.” Red Witch said. No snarky remark, no sarcasm, straight to the point.

Lucy would be lying if she wasn’t relieved when the shadow hero listened to Gemini and the shadow shackles disappeared, controlling someone else’s blood flow was tiring. If she had done something to Malfyre, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to fight off all the other heroes. She looked back at Atticus to make sure he was okay before hearing one of her fellow villains speak up about trust. “Exactly. Just then, we were actually being peaceful, and this shitbag does that!” Luciana shouted pointing at BludWynd.

Gemini spoke up again. Seeming to be one of the few taking charge. He spoke truth about the truth between the heroes and the villains. Red Witch was curious about where he was going with this and what point he was going to make, but what happened next she never would’ve guessed. One second Gemini was the male hero that controlled water and put out fires around the city and stopped riots, the next, Gemini was the fire wielding fire hero, one who had a bit more spark and burn than a few of the other heroes. She spoke about who, what, Gemini was. Lucy had to admit, it was a pretty good show of trust, revealing that is pretty close to revealing an identity. Like Atticus and Paladin.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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D h a n i Batra
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Paladinxx|x#b85c9e
xxxi see you up again wandering so diligent
xxxcrossing your t's as though it weren't irrelevant
xxxthey say formality, this is what they really meant:
xxxthey can be the walk and we can be the pavement

xxx
Dhani caught sight of that smirk, and quickly looked away from Atticus. He had more important things to be worrying about. Besides, they had no real relationship to speak of; it had been a fling, a one time thing. Never anything more, and now it would certainly never be anything more. Several people spoke up about the water being unnecessary at this point. Dhani wasn’t sure he agreed; he didn’t exactly trust everyone in the room not to start something all over again. Sure, most of them wouldn’t, but Dhani could think of a few heads that could use some cooling. Then Atticus-Icarus-started speaking about working together, but Dhani didn’t look his way. Instead, Dhani was glancing around the room, trying to look as casual as he could.

Dhani turned to look at Gemini as the water went down, and offered a genuine smile of thanks when Adrian dried off his mask. He nodded, his way of assuring the fellow hero that there were no hard feelings on his part. He had to admit that he was feeling pretty awkward, standing there in his suit but no mask. He didn’t know whether to be Dhani or Paladin, and he was sure it showed. He missed whatever had happened, but before long he heard Red Witch talk about hostages and he whipped his head around, eyes darting over the scene, trying to piece together just what was happening. Luckily Gemini had a better handle on what was going on, and was able to get that situation under control. There were talks of trust, and how any of the villains could be expected to give it. Dhani wanted to ask the same thing. How were they supposed to trust the very group of people who had attacked and mind controlled them just moments ago. But he didn’t say a thing. Instead, he watched as Gemini revealed themselves to be two people, and turned to look around the room again.

A part of him wanted to go check on Kieran, but he knew she would be fine, so he stayed put. “I, uh,” Dhani wasn’t feeling the same confidence that being in costume usually gave him. You’re just Dhani without the mask. He tried to push the thoughts out of his head, cleared his throat, and continued, “I understand the hesitation, and I understand if anyone here isn’t willing to work together, but,” He glanced around, trying to find a familiar face to anchor himself, but as he didn’t find masks particularly comforting, he ultimately found himself glancing off at a support beam in lieu of a friendly face, “Heroes and villains alike are going missing. Turning up dead, or not at all. I’ve been a hero since I was sixteen years old, I don’t know how to do anything else.” He shook his head, turning to look at Blood Witch, “I’m not asking you to be my friend,” He gestured towards Atticus, “But you’re right,” He knew he would catch shit for not agreeing with Kieran, but he pushed on, “We don’t stand much of a chance unless we work together.” He shrugged, as if an indication that he was done speaking, and crossed his arms in front of him.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
Cerys was surprised when one of the villains spoke up, suggesting that they all work together. It was a surprise, coming from a villain, but he had a point. Malfyre and Aaron, spoke up agreeing with her. She smirked a little as Aaron yelled at Gemini to shut off the water. But she grimaced a little as shadows locked around Icarus' feet, knowing that wasn't going to end well. And... it didn't. Red Witch noticed Icarus, and reacted about as well as expected. She drew blood from Malfyre's bleeding wound, holding it in the air. Cerys had an arrow notched and pointed at the villain almost before she even realised it. Something made her hesitate, and she was glad she did. Gemini ordered Aaron to drop the restraints, and he obliged. A brief distraction came in the form of Gemini, who shifted and revealed they were one and the same person. Or, well, two people in one body. Cerys honestly had never really suspected that, but the longer she thought about it, the more she realised that it made sense.

Bickering quickly broke out. Malfyre was understandably upset, but suddenly didn't seem so keen on working together. Red Witch also seemed to be against them working together. Cerys rolled her eyes, and sat down, swinging her legs over the edge of the catwalk to minimise the drop. She dropped down and shouldered her bow.

"Okay listen. Paladin's right. If we want to stand a chance of beating this, of being able to keep being heroes and villains, we need to stop fighting for one goddamn second. We don't need to be friends. We just need to be able to be in the same room without killing each other. But this isn't just about them knowing our secrets. If you think they're going to stop there, then you're a fool. This is going to come down to life or death. We don't have to hold hands and sing songs and braid each other's hair. We just need to occasionally work together without killing each other, or putting people in cuffs, or making them nearly bleed out. Do you think you assholes can manage that to save your own damn life?" She asked.



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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
With the dropping of the water, Atticus had been tempted to make a run for it, to just leave this behind. But then he felt something locking around his ankles and presenting his feet from moving. "The hell?" He swore, looking up and straight at BluWynd. He was about to stay something, but Lucy bet him to it, drawing blood out of Malfyre and using it to hold them in place. This was why he hadn't wanted to come. With the heroes (and even the villains), things got too dramatic too fast, and it also became overwhelming. He wasn't meant for this. If things turned nasty again, he wasn't so sure he'd escape unscathed again.

A distraction thankfully came in the form of Gemini revealing themselves to be two people in one body, and then a number of heroes making dramatic speeches. He just folded his arms and waited for them to finish speaking. They did have a point. They didn't have a hope of trying to beat this themselves, and this wasn't just going to go away. He knew Lucy wouldn't agree, especially not when the point was coming from Artemis of all people. But he couldn't see another way out of this. He found himself glimpsing at Dhani again, almost unconsciously. Maybe working with the heroes wouldn't even be that bad. But tempers were raised, and he wasn't sure they'd be able to settle this peacefully.

"Can I suggest something? Can we... maybe leave the big important discussion for when we're all a little calmer? Because I'm pretty sure everyone's just too pissed at each other and we're just going to keep arguing and attacking each other until nobody's left standing. And this feels like something we shouldn't rush into or mess up."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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P i p e r Young
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Abolethx|x#3e7a4e
xxxfor us the bourgeoisie, so carefree
xxxremember when we?
xxxi don't know what you need to get by
xxxsomething for your mind

xxx
Piper listened as people started throwing out questions, demanding for the water to be shut off, and suggesting they all work together. She slowly came out from behind her hiding place to get a better look around: the group seemed to be done fighting, anyway, and if anyone dared try anything she would be in their head before they had the time to think twice.

She quickly noticed two things: Paladin’s missing mask (he was more handsome than expected), and Icarus suddenly being detained by one of the heroes. Suddenly, a bit of chaos broke out. Red Witch had Malfyre as a hostage, some of the heroes were scrambling for a plan, and Piper sighed. Things could never be simple. “Clearly, you don’t trust us. What makes you think that we can trust you?” With one word from Gemini, Icarus was set free (Piper made a mental note of who was calling the shots), and Red Witch quickly set her captive free, as well.

Piper watched Gemini’s display with her usual indifference, and then listened to a few truly inspirational little speeches from the heroes. Their views ranged from “I can't put aside my prejudices for even a moment to consider that working with someone with different life experiences might be a good idea!” to “boo hoo, woe is me, I’m a sad excuse of an adult and being a superhero is the only thing that gives my life meaning,” rounded out with, “We’re right and you should listen to us or you’re going to die.” Piper wasn’t particularly impressed, but she knew that working together was her best chance of coming out of this situation alive.

When Icarus suggested they break up their little meeting and try to conviene again another time, Piper nodded in agreement, “Icarus has a point. We’ve already been fighting, had a hostage situation, and accused one another of setting a trap. The next point of escalation is that someone is going to die, and at that point all of your speeches and displays of trust and goodwill will be pointless.” She shrugged, “Frankly, some of you could use a nap and a juice box.” She shot a pointed look towards BludWynd and Malfyre, hoping they got the point: their antics were childish.

Piper found herself looking back at Paladin. Most people with powers weren’t that easy to overcome. There had been hardly any resistance, which could mean a few things. She did catch him off guard, which had helped, but she had to wonder if he had been that preoccupied, or if he was stupid. If they were to work together, she would have the chance to figure it out.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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xxxwhen i burst into flames
xxxi'll leave you the dust, my love
xxxhope a bit of it will be enough
xxxto help remember the days

xxx
As much as they tried to object, the villains eventually seemed to agree that they needed to work together. Albeit rather begrudgingly, and with more than a few insults slung at various members of the group. But she was just glad that they'd stopped fighting and bickering. She didn't grace Red Witch's comment with a reaction, but her jaw clenched just a little. Red Witch stormed out in a suitably dramatic style, and Cerys just rolled her eyes. If she didn't come back, Cerys wouldn't be sorry. Gemini suggested they begin to wrap things up, and Cerys nodded.

"We need to meet somewhere on neutral ground. I don't want to be accused of favouring one way or another, but I'm sure as hell not walking in somewhere the villains can ambush us. And perhaps somewhere a little less..." She gestured around vaguely. "Grungey?" She said vaguely. "Somewhere a little bit nicer than this anyway. Can we at least agree on that much?" She asked, desperate to just try and get things over and done with.

They eventually agreed on a time and a place, somewhere it could work for both of them and that would put them on a level footing. The meeting time was arranged to be a similar time to allow for them all to do their day jobs as normal then come to the meeting. Cerys sighed, running a hand down her face as she made her way over to Aaron. "Jesus Christ, that was a lot. Can we go grab some drinks or something? I desperately need to relax," she said, running a hand through her hair.



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atticus hawkins
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xxxstaring in the blackness
xxxat some distant star
xxxthe thrill of knowing how alone we are,
xxxunknown we are.

xxx
Atticus smiled a little with satisfaction as Aboleth backed him up, agreeing that they needed to move on. People were tired and apparently just tired of the fighting, although Att got the impression that Lucy would have gone for another round, especially with Artemis if she'd been given the chance, before making a suitably dramatic exit. Atticus didn't miss her almost shoving Dhani out of her way, and he rolled his eyes. He was tempted to follow suit, but one of them probably needed to know what was going on, and besides, he wasn't leaving Aboleth alone with a bunch of heroes. He didn't know her all that well, but it was a matter of principle more than anything.

Eventually, the meeting wrapped up, and he sighed with relief. Now that Lucy was gone, he was feeling painfully exposed. He was ready to leave and just walk away from it all. And then he caught Dhani's eye again and... goddammit, Atticus. He knew that he should walk away, knew the thing that made him want to stay was the whole reason he should have left. And he almost managed it, managing to turn and walk out of the building and leave him behind.

But instead he found himself waiting outside, pulling his mask off and sticking to the shadows. And when Dhani came out, Att quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him to one side. "Hey. Sorry, I just..." he trailed off, suddenly regretting his decision. What was he going to say? Sorry I'm a villain? Sorry I didn't mention it?. "That was weird. And I guess... I'm sorry, I don't know what I wanted to say. Just. Didn't want to walk away from this without... I don't know, acknowledging it?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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P i p e r Young
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Abolethx|xoutfitx|x#3e7a4e
xxxfor us the bourgeoisie, so carefree
xxxremember when we?
xxxi don't know what you need to get by
xxxsomething for your mind

xxx
Piper smirked at Red Witch’s comment about the heroes, though her mask hid it well enough that no one could see. She had to fight the urge to roll her eyes as Lucy went on about not wanting to work with the heroes, and how much she detested them all. Piper wasn’t the biggest fan of the heroes, herself, but she apparently held her own self-preservation in higher regard. Whoever was hunting down the heroes and villains in this town was good at it, and already knew more about her than she was comfortable with.

She paid Red Witch no mind as she left the building, not even acknowledging when she asked for Piper and Icarus to keep her filled in with the details of whatever they had left to discuss. She knew that The Red Witch could take care of herself, and was sure she would get all the information she needed soon enough. Piper shot a look to Icarus; she wouldn’t call him a friend, but he was also her only real ally here now. She stayed where she was, there was no need to show weakness by moving in closer, but she knew he was better in a fight than she was. Though she would ditch him in a heartbeat if it came to it, for now they needed to be a united front… Or, at least, as united as they could be.

Their little meeting wrapped up soon enough, and Piper was out of there as soon as they decided they were done. She spared a passing glance to Icarus, if only to make sure he couldn’t accuse her of abandoning him, and started on her way home. After double and triple checking that she wasn’t being followed, she removed her mask. It was easier to get around the town that way, and the only thing she wanted was to go home.



D h a n i Batra
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Paladinx|xoutfitx|x#b85c9e
xxxi see you up again wandering so diligent
xxxcrossing your t's as though it weren't irrelevant
xxxthey say formality, this is what they really meant:
xxxthey can be the walk and we can be the pavement

xxx
Dhani rolled his eyes at Kieran, and while he was glad Aaron was able to get her to shut up, Dhani also knew that Aaron had caused this whole thing to escalate for the second time. He was sure Aaron would be fine, but he wasn’t entirely sure he trusted Kieran to work with the villains without doing something stupid and impulsive and ruining it for everyone. He wasn’t about to voice that concern, but it was very real. It wasn’t very long before one of the villains was calling them childish, and Red Witch was continuing mocking them all. He tuned it out, mostly, not really interested in being insulted. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of a response. He didn’t know what he’d ever done to her, but her hatred of him seemed so personal, at this point.

After their little meeting, Dhani put his mask back on. It would be easier to get back through the city in full superhero garb than only in most of it. He glanced over to the others, and after making sure they were going to be fine, he headed for the door, but not before giving Gemini a gentle pat on the shoulder, “Great job.” Gemini had really helped gain some trust from the villains, even if it was minimal, and their efforts really helped everyone become more civil.

Soon after Dhani left the warehouse, he was pulled off to the side, and quickly felt a bit of panic set in. What now? He thought, but quickly enough he realized it was just Atticus. He felt like they were standing too close to one another, even though he was sure they were a total normal distance from one another. Atticus was apologising for… Something. Dhani wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure Atticus knew what he was apologising for, either. He shook his head, “It’s,” It wasn’t fine, though. Not really. “I mean… Don’t apologize, it wasn’t,” He sighed, this was awkward and terrible, and how the hell did Atticus have good hair even after the fight? “Thank you. And I’m sorry that one of my friends held you hostage.” He didn’t know what else to say, he didn’t want to make things weird, or worse. A part of him wanted to ask Atticus to pretend like nothing had ever happened between them, and yet another part of him didn’t think that was fair to either of them. It wasn’t as if they had some long history together, anyway. “You’re not hurt or anything, are you?” He started to take off a glove, “Because if you are, I mean, I have healing powers,” He quickly looked Atticus over, and grabbed for his hand without waiting for a reply. He let a warm energy flow from his own hand and into Atticus’, and healed up his hand at least a little. “There,” He- almost reluctantly- let go of Atticus’ hand. God, why had this gotten under his skin so badly. It was just the shock of knowing someone he’d slept with was a villain. That’s what he told himself, anyway.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kieran Valanetti Character Portrait: Piper Young Character Portrait: Dhani Batra Character Portrait: Cerys Day Character Portrait: Atticus Hawkins Character Portrait: Jena Wainwright//Adrian Robles
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cerys day
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hex: #c7bbb4xxxxxoutfit: here
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xxxthis could be the last of all the rides we take
xxxso hold on tight and don't look back
xxxwe don't care about the message
xxxor the rules they make
xxxI'll find you when the sun goes black

xxx
Cerys had almost forgotten about Malfyre until she loudly reminded her and Aaron of her presence. They were still clearly feeling the after-effects of Red Witch’s attack, but Cerys took the fact they were complaining so much about it as a good sign. They tried to take a step or two under their own power and nearly hit the floor, and Cerys felt bad for almost laughing. Aaron wanted to bring her along, but Malfyre also seemed to not want to intrude. Cerys shrugged and pulled Malfyre’s other arm around her shoulder to help relieve some of the weight on Aaron. “Nah, we don’t mind. Beside, a chance to get to know about and drink with the infamous Malfyre? Who would want to pass up that opportunity?” She joked as they made their way out of the warehouse and towards the nearest bar.

The next meeting went considerably better than the first. Fewer injuries, less bickering, and they actually managed to hatch something close to a plan. And the meeting after that was almost amicable, with next to no arguments and them actually forming a concrete plan. They needed to do some recon on a number of sites throughout the city, and it seemed to make sense to divide and conquer. Only eight of them showed up to any subsequent missions, so they divided themselves into pairs. Well, not as much divided as made logical decisions. A hero and a villain as far as possible so they could make sure that neither side was up to anything suspicious. Those who were less suited to fighting had to be put with somebody that could protect them, which Cerys had taken as “unless you have obvious superpowers, you need to be babysat.”

Cerys hadn’t been terribly happy about that decision, but she got the impression she’d been put with Aaron just to stop her complaining. And she was okay with that. It was better than being stuck with any of the villains. She could actually work with Aaron.

They were assigned the task of tailing a potential target to see if there was anything suspicious about them, or if they could potentially give them any more clues about what they were doing. It was about 5 in the evening, giving them plenty of time to follow him for the rest of the evening. It did, however, mean that it was significantly harder to find a good hiding spot.

Cerys was hiding just outside one of the office buildings, hiding in the shadows of a fire escape to give her a slightly elevated angle of view if she needed it. She knew Aaron was somewhere nearby, watching from ground level. “Our guy’s on the move,” she said quietly, before dropping down from the fire escape and shouldering her bow.



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atticus hawkins
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hex: #88c878xxxxxoutfit: here
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xxxi'm blinded by the lights
xxxno, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
xxxI'm drowning in the night,
xxxwhen I'm like this, you're the one I trust.

xxx
Atticus didn’t know whether to feel better or worse when Dhani seemed to feel just as awkward and uncomfortable about the whole thing. But goddammit, he was still gracious, apologising for one of his friends attacking him. They were on opposite sites, that was what they were supposed to do, why the hell was he even apologising? They were supposed to hate each other based on who they were and yet… Atticus couldn’t do that. Was it because Dhani didn’t seem to just see him as another villain? Everyone else had seen him walk in with Lucy and had made up their minds about him, but Dhani was still here, still being civil.

And then Dhani started asking about whether or not he was hurt. Atticus began to say no, he wasn’t hurt, not really. But Dhani took his hand and Atticus had to resist the temptation to pull away. But it wasn’t for the reason he should have pulled away, it wasn’t just because here was a hero, making sure he was okay, even though he knew. It was because he was afraid he’d see something that, for some ungodly reason, he didn’t want to see. And it was stupid, if he hadn’t seen it before, why would he see it now?

But a rush of warmth ran up Atticus’ hand, stitching the skin back together on his knuckles and mending the damage he’d done by punching Malfyre. And then Dhani let go of his hand, and Atticus almost felt sorry about that. “Thank you,” he said. There was a moment when he thought about doing something crazy, but instead, he just smiled awkwardly. “We… I should go. Before someone comes out and… yells at me for fraternising with a hero. Or at you for fixing up a villain,” he said. “Thanks again for… well everything.” He had no idea why turning around and walking away was so damn hard. Dhani was supposed to be just another guy he’d slept with who’d turned out to be a hero.

And then, of course, someone had decided to pair the two of them up for the mission. He had no idea who decided on that, other than apparently he needed to be paired up with a hero who could “protect him” given that he apparently couldn’t protect himself. As if he didn’t have more experience with knives and guns than any of them. But he’d bitten his tongue to stop anyone questioning why he was so upset over Dhani specifically. They had been told to try and get into the basement of a particular building, because they’d gotten intel that there could be information on them in there. If they found anything, they were to destroy it. Because they needed to look low key, Atticus was dressed a little more “normally” according to Lucy, and he felt deeply out of his comfort zone. The weight of the gun concealed at his hip wasn’t doing much to ease that. He was waiting for Dhani at their prearranged meeting spot and was wondering what exactly would happen if he just left and didn’t come back. But something made him stay.