To the Republic

American Red Cross Blood Donation Center--Warehouse 2 am

"Yo! Aaron!" The foreman called out, trying to get the attention of one of his employees. He hired Aaron about two days ago off a temp agency; after the battle of New York, the need for more human resources forced most of the blood centers to increase positions to meet the demands of the dilapidated city. Aaron proved himself as a reliable worker but had a knack for listening to music while on the job.

"Aaron!"

He called out again, this time visibly frustrated. Storming over to the 'diddy-bopping' worker, he spun Aaron around only for a silenced Baretta M9A3 sent a bullet through his head, splattering 'pink-mist' across nearby machinery.

The moment the foreman was down, Aaron moved toward the back of the Blood Center to open trailer doors where several armored vans had been strategically parked.

"Go, Go-Go!" He screamed as he opened the back of the armored truck, more of his associates hopped out and began moving large crates of blood from the warehouse into the vehicles. "Be careful with this shit if it gets on you, you're as good as done for."

In another portion of the center, several security guards were gagged and tied to each other with a lone sentry watching over them. The gunmen removed their communication devices so they couldn't preemptively alert the police. When all of the trucks were loaded, Aaron radioed into the overseer to inform him the job was complete.

"Yo, Despot's coming. Making sure you don't have any of that shit on you," The gunmen searched themselves and each other to make sure they were free of the blood; if it made contact with their skin at all, they were good as done for. Then entered Despot.

You, there, what's your real name?

Despot asked, seemingly appearing from nowhere. At first, Aaron questioned whether or not he was being spoken to, but when he confirmed, he replied. "Aaron, sir."

Despot nodded his head before sending a round through Aaron's head, much to the chagrin of the others.

Never use your real name.

Aaron made himself a liability; once the public got wind of this, they'd trace Aaron back to the temp agency. Now it appeared as if he were murdered with the others. Moving through the center, he entered the room with the two security guards bound together, protected by his gloves in the event of a leakage, and he placed a bag of blood right next to them. "Gentlemen." He said, moving back a bit, he didn't need to do this, but he wanted to. Taking his pistol, he shot the bag of blood, causing it to eject on them, before swiftly exiting the room back to the henchmen.

Gentlemen, I want this shit distributed to over scumbag across America. This is how we level out the playing field. This is how we topple Olympus. You all have your orders execute them.

The Drivers were to drive the tainted blood to various locations across the country; there were V.I.P's and Order affiliates waiting on it. One of the drivers had different orders, though he didn't know it--he was the mouse being presented to the Cat.

Later in the Day, 7 am--Cat's Hotel

She hadn't slept well in days; it all started with having to mercy kill Ashley, which was made worse when she had to kill Maya. Then there was Mari, they hadn't spoken in days, but she hadn't even reached out to see if her daughter was ok. She needed to, her love for Mari, the reason for everything she'd done.

Another thing that hounded her was the dream she had, call it paranoia, but she dreamt the Order shot up her hotel room. Though given the thought that they would wasn't too far'fetched considering they knew she was in the city. Tossing aside her comforter, she strolled toward her phone after hearing it ping. It was an apple news update. Cat's eyebrow curved at the headline "Robbery/Homicide at American Red Cross" Initially, she thought nothing of it, that us until she remembered her dream started this exact way.

That's when she felt it, the subtle rumble of footsteps in the hallway. Paranoia ran rampant. Pressing her back against the wall quickly snapped on her Selebrity bracelet, after the Daytonville Fiasco her team created a way for her to transform instantly.

With a quick press of a button, her Legacy Armor hugged her frame, and she waited. There was a knock at the door, her head swung in the direction of the knock. 'Room service' she thought. "Room Service," they said. Catalina teleported from her room to the hallway taking the gunmen by surprise.

Unclasping her Conquistador Bullwhip, she began to spin the whip to protect the innocents on her side of the hallway.

Made of dead Asgardian Muscle Tissue, Cat's bullwhip deflected the bullets ricocheting them back towards her attackers. They ducked for cover providing the Selebrity Liafador with the cover she needed to take the fight to them directly.

'Absolute Justice' The words of her late mother fresh on her brain, Cat lunge whip first snagging one of the gunmen by his neck, as she maneuvered to kick another while thrusting her hands toward a window which sent the whip and the man reeling outside. The whip slip thru her hands momentarily before halting--she'd hung him.

Now in retreat, the gunmen barreled down the hallway trying to get away from the Murderous Prize Fighter Herald.

She picked them off one by one via teleportation, not killing them; but leaving them wishing she did. She stalked one of the gunmen who were still coherent.

"Where's Ada!" She screamed, but he didn't respond instead he gave a smile as if he were daring Cat to kill him. She wouldn't she needed to find Ada. Cat's eyes cackled an electric purple before she searched his thoughts. It was tough, these were Ada's men no doubt they had cosmic level mental protection that made it hard for Cat, even though her powers had the same origin.

She saw a blood truck, on I-95 North, and also saw the robbery at the American Red Cross. "She's spreading it..." She couldn't do it alone, but with a 5-hour headstart; she had to make sure that truck didn't reach NYC.

"You!" She called out as she exited the hotel. Before she could give a command, she glanced up and saw that the man she'd hung was stuck on an air condition unit. His body had yet to plummet to the ground. "Come on guys this is D.C, this can't be the worse thing you've ever seen. Anyways call the Police, tell them to be on the lookout for American Red Cross vehicles!"

Elsewhere

"Mr.President, Mr.President" His aides from seemingly every wing tried to catch his attention. The FLOTUS saw his distress and temporarily excused everyone from the room. At the moment his concern wasn't on the blood bank, nor was it on the shooting at the hotel, despite the fact that it was now all over the news. The reporters wanted to know if it was a coincidence that this happened on the day of his State of the Union, but this was DC; crazy things happened all the time. As he sat haunched over on his chair, he could feel her sinister presence slither into his oval office. The Herald of the Flower Incarnate, Ada Guillaume.

"Dhalia, has the order sent you to kill me?" He asked not caring to call his secret service. It was no use, Ada more than likely walked right through the front door. Her ability to control people with her voice was an often underestimated ability.

"Now, Now, Now; Mr. President" The Jewish born French native reassured gesturing her hands to show that wasn't the case. "I've come to inform you that the Order has taken interest in Washington D.C, you will delay committing your resources to stop the spread of CR-833".

The command took him by surprise, but it shouldn't have. In his quest to ascend the Highest Elected Position in the nation, President Adrian Glover pledged himself to the Order of Malta. They gave him the United States on a silver platter, in return, he had to submit to the will of the Order. Over the course of his term, the Order had left him alone, but he always knew they'd come knocking. Now, he was in the Lame Duck period, The Party decided to move in a different direction. So he'd given up hope that he'd get reelected. Now, policies he'd try to enact would be democratically ruled out until the next president was seated.

"B-but even the experts are calling this the most dangerous virus in history. Millions of people will die." He protests. Ada said nothing, rather she took a seat on the arm of the chair releasing a sigh at his non-compliance.

"Adrian...who am I? Who do I serve, and Why am I here?"

It was at this moment the FLOTUS offered them both something to drink, Ada declined. "You're Dhalia, Horsemen of Population Control...You serve The Order of Malta--Y-Intercept. And you're here to collect a debt..." He recited unenthusiastically. The choice of joining the Order was now becoming a reality.

"In attendance, tonight are the Republican, Democrat and Libertarian Presidential Candidates; It is in the best interest of the Order that none of them get elected. You will lie to the American public, just long enough for the Order to secure one of the candidates. Or We will kill them?"

And then what? Delay the elections?

"Sure, if that becomes the case. Need I remind you that not doing what the Order asks is a breach of contract." Ada paused before glancing in the direction of the FLOTUS. "You breach your contract Monsuier Glover, we breach ours."

Now startled the FLOTUS handed her husband a glass of water and began to speak on his behalf. "W-we we'll do it..."

Good. Good. It'd be a shame for the sins of the father to fall to the children. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have other business to tend to. Au revoir.

Gothic City // 7' - 7:30 AM

Like a dogs reaction to Opera, Isei sat still as stone - eyes never leaving the screen that displayed before him, more-so what it captured. In the empty living room of an apartment that should've been furnished weeks ago, he sat on the floor. Gaze never wavering. Several feet before him a flatscreen sat propped up against the wall, its cables messily placed.

"Two reported dead in the American Red Cross Blood Donation Center, both, witnesses and survivors..."

Words, yet, none of them met his direct conscious as the reporter herself did. She was pretty. Her eyes caught his attention more than the tragic news did. Isei scoffed.

"Following this event, many official sources solidify the thesis of a wide-spread seeding of the latest blood vessels of the notorious CR-833..."

Maybe it was her voice that came in a close second to the most charming aspect, or her hair. Isei sat arms crossed and eyes narrowed, deep in thought to the dilemma.

'Why don't I just tie both for second? No... that's unprofessional.'

"Authorities across the United States have posted an official notice and look-out for, said, American Red Cross Vehicles..."

He leaned backward, falling onto his pillow that he set up behind him. Still thinking like a mathematician to an unsolvable equation. He became frustrated. '...Shit.' He scoffed once more, sitting up and rubbing his head. 'Goes to show the depth of this world. I can't figure out which part of a woman is most attractive but I can figure out why these mystery men capped these lowlives without a second thought. Maybe, it's the norm to understand why this shit happens. It just does.'

Rising, he stretched out lazily. His large and built frame flexing at each movement he made. His apartment itself was as dull as his thoughts on the situation. He wasn't emotionless. He was uninterested. For now at least, he needed to solve one problem before he invested himself into another. And that problem now was the reporter. Was it her hair or her voice? His mind clicked. It was her voice, then, it was her hair. And that was that.

Now, he could focus on the...

"Aforementioned 'official sources' claim that these trucks vary in destination, interpreting the situation. One can foresee Gothic City and New York City as probable targets to the unfolding crisis. Citizens, be wary..."

The broadcast was cut and Isei was left with his thoughts, though not just his thoughts, the darkness as well - his apartment lost power. Sighing, he checked his phone. Thankfully he had been on his 56 Network Plan for these past days. He got an Apple News notification, 'the same shit.' Sliding the phone into his right pocket, Isei strode over to an empty wall. Left palm outwards and pressed up against the smooth - reflective - white wall, an outline of his hand lit with a blue light. It scanned his palm. Retracting, two large panels 'clicked' from the wall, the same two panels wading opposite ways as they revealed his pride.

A scarred and scratched suit bore before him, supported by a simple stick-'mannequin'. To its sides, multiple columns and compartments sported various gadgets of intrigue. Pellets, oddly shaped kunai - of various usages, and heavily modified Dual Berettas. Isei smiled as the vibrant light of the showcase met his own figure.

Approximately Five Minutes Later

Gazing over the city he perceived to be targeted, Isei crouched atop a ledge of the highrise apartment he lived in. Tapped into the various traffic-cameras - along with his own personal set surveillance - Isei eyes 'swiped' away at the holograms that appeared before him underneath the helmet. Many streets yet not many American Red Cross Trucks.

'What a pain.'

Gothic City, Knightfall Emergency Care Center

It had been several days since the mutant patient came to her hospital and since then, things have gotten worse. Several patients are now coming in with the Sapain Flu to the point that S-Land was now full and protocols to have patients in the main section of the ED with Sapian were in the works. Thankfully the staff is still ok and they’re still working just as hard. But again… it’s only been a few days. The last pandemic that hit the Earth that was even remotely closed to this was in 1918 and it lasted for two years. Could they keep this up for two years? Could she? Yes, Ashley was the doctor for the rebellion group against the Liafador’s in Reality M that lasted for decades. While this pandemic was a war in it’s own way, it’s more exhausting and some, more traumatic.

The president has yet to do anything to close international borders or order a stay at home. Not even bothering to speak about a vaccine in the works. Most governors are doing it themselves and closing unnecessary businesses. Essential workers are still out there but many have quit their job in fear of getting the virus. It’s not bad everywhere, yet. But if the President doesn’t support his governors soon… things will only continue to spiral downward. Spain, Russia, France, China, and so many more countries have already shut down entirely. Why hasn't our president done the same? This... this was very concerning. But a concern she couldn't do anything about. All she could do was continue to do press conferences and inform the public as much as she could about the importance of staying home, social distancing and everything in between.

Ashley has been working on a vaccine, but so far nothing is holding up. Thanks to the Jon Doe who had the sapian flu she had been able to work day and night to get a vaccine. But everything was still in the beginning, and she was just one person. This virus was very complex and difficult to break down. Between this and working in the KECC it was going to be difficult for her to come up with something on her own. She would need an army of scientists to be able to really get it off the ground.

Just then the door to her office opened. It was one of the security guards, Evans. Young man, very respectful and always coming to Ashley to report any unusual activity. “Excuse me Dr. Knightfall, we have the Red Cross here to… give us blood?”

Her head jerked back a bit at the news. The Red Cross? Her head tilted up to look at the security man who was bringing her the news. “Give us blood? I didn’t order for any blood.” She stood up and picked up her phone, dialing in for the charge nurse and long time friend. “Lynette, do you know anything about The Red Cross coming to drop off blood to us? No? No, I didn’t. Apparently they’re here. No I’ll handle it. Thank you.” Turning off the phone she stood up. “Take me to them.” They began walking down the hall as she pulled out her tablet, scrolling through today’s numbers. Increase in Sapain flu is at an 30% increase from yesterday. They’ve already had patient’s die from this. They need more PPE (which is being taken care of) but medications? Blood? Platelets? They didn’t need any of this. Why were they here?

Walking out she saw the drivers as she was still wearing a mask and a face shield with her iconic white coat on with Evans to her right. “Hello.” She spoke louder than normal as the masks and face shield tend to obscure her voice. “How can I help you?”

A man also wearing protective equipment of their own was seen bringing a pushcart dolly to the Red Cross van. “We were told to bring this donation of blood to your facility. Apparently many hospitals are in need of it right now.” They had already begun unloading it.

Ashley held up her hand “No, no thank you, we don’t need it here. We actually have enough blood in our blood bank to sustain us. I suggest you take this to Gothic City Memorial hospital. I’m sure they could use it more than we can.”

“Look ma’am-” He sighed out, he wasn't very happy with her response.

“Doctor. Doctor Knightfall.”

“Erm, right, Doctor, look, I’m just trying to do my job. The Red Cross figured since your hospital see’s a higher amount of patient’s than Gothic City Memorial that you would need this more. They’re just trying to jump ahead before things really get bad.”

She stood there for a moment. It was obvious she wasn't happy with this situation. It was a waste of resources. With a deep sigh she nod her head. “Very well, you can take to the blood bank, it’s inside.”

“Doctor Knightfall, do you mind showing us the way?” One of Ada’s men called out, ready for the first batch to be brought in.

“Sure, let’s go.”

Grinning under his mask he began to follow the Good Doctor into the hospital to deliver death into her building of healing.

Sketches of half finished or almost finished designs littered the table. Currently he had a pen in hand and lazily scribbled away, paper after paper crunched and tossed into a corner bin, occasionally landing on the floor at which point a robotic assistant came around, picked it up and put it in its proper place.

"I'm getting old. I'm not nearly as good as I was," Wooka sighed to himself.

The AI who was designed to banter with its creator responded with a jest, "Do you need socket grease, doctor?"

Wooka looked up at the holographic image of the AI being displayed hovering in the middle of his office, a life-size version of himself, except blue and translucent. "Hey W, update on the situation in Gotham."

"Don't you mean- New York City?" W the AI corrected.

"Yes, W."

"Still in lockdown, sir."

"Anything else of importance?"

"Break in at American Red Cross Blood Donation Center. An alert to be on the lookout for trucks."

Wooka's brows creased and he rubbed his forehead. His gut instincts tell him that something particularly bad was about to transpire. "Pull up every remote asset you have available in the area,"

W's hologram disappeared, replaced by a list of Androids that were in and around D.C.

"Activate Beta. Her objective is to get close without being detected, and retrieve an unsaturated sample of the Sapean Flu. Now if she can help it, avoid combat, if not; I don't care if she engages."

"Yes sir." W's voice resounded within the office.

Codenamed "Beta", is designed for infiltration, assassination and recon. Her systems and arsenal are highly specific to the purpose of her design.

As an Android, 88% of all of her system is machine, and approximately 12% of it is biomass, present in the form of muscle fiber and tissue growth across various parts of herself.

Beta is an older model, and as such does not possess W-Nanite capabilities.

Light and fast: Beta is capable of going at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour at top speed.
Energy System: Wooka Cells power Beta just as they do most of Wooka Androids, battery packs storing over 200k volts of power each, in sets of four implanted along her thighs- give her the capacity to function at full power for over 10 hours without depletion.
Titanium Exoskeleton: Beta's body isn't designed around durability. A standard 9mm is well capable of denting her physical body.
Enhanced Reflexes: Programmed with multiple fighting styles and processing power capable of moving well beyond the capability of normal humans grant Beta the ability to react to bullets and machine gun fire.
Analyze and Adapt: As a recon-based android, she is retrofitted with analytics software that studies and stores information in real time, and in conjunction with execution orders, can adapt to any given situation and even fighting style, as she is capable of sentient, free decisions when time comes for it. The more you interact with Beta, the more realistic she becomes.

Stealth Mode: Upon activation, Beta becomes harder to detect. She is able to evade heat and infrared perceptions, and the sound she emits from movements is rendered non-existed with absorption technology, though if she moves fast enough, she can still be heard. Light refracting corrections off of her exoskeleton means she is even harder to spot using Stealth Mode with using ones sight.

Drone Sight: Beta releases 4 mini drones the size of houseflies that give her extra sets of eyes, and multi processors allow her to process visual and audio feed from the drones in real time to react and move in accordance.

Data Download: One of the most important function Beta has is her ability to siphon data. Wireless connection to a mainframe allows Dr. Wooka sitting in his office to hack into a network that can than be salvaged by Beta.

Energy Blades: A blade fashioned like a katana is located in her back that she can take out. This blade is sizzling with superhot plasma when activated, becoming a potent cutting tool.

Somewhere on a Freeway in D.C

Recently awoken from a nap, Beta stood crouched, on an electric pole overlooking the free way. Her drones were already hundreds of feet in the air above and on the look out for American Red Cross vehicles. Inwardly, she was thinking about the last time she was active. Wooka had ordered her to get on board a spaceship...and she had almost died back then. She just hoped it was not going to be as bad this time around.

Moving as fast her powers permitted, the Goddess Herald maintained steady pursuit up I-95 North to prevent the Armored Blood Truck from making it to its destination. As she parted the clouds with her divine might, she could faintly make out a low rumble of thunder from far off. 'The Goddess?' she thought to herself, a bit confused. The Prize Fighter hadn't made her presence known in quite some time what her reasoning for returning now was?

She was afforded the time to think about it, it was like someone hit the emergency parking brake on her flight, and Cat immediately plummets towards the Earth. 'Shit shit shit shit!' She screamed internally, pushing her hands outward, she was able to cast a TK shield that manifests at the last minute.

Cat's body plows into the busy highway, violently forcing vehicles off the road and causing a massive crater in the street. "Uhhh..." she moaned, trying to flip herself right side up. The entire ordeal left her winded; with each small movement, she could feel her body aching. "Don't...tell...me...I...caught...that...shit," She said, rising to her feet struggling to catch her breath.

Various civilians ran towards her, but she put her hands up (As far as she could get them) in protest. "No...stay back...get the fork back..." she fought the urge to sneeze; she had an objective, and she had to see it through.

The armored blood truck veered around them and continued its mission toward New York, the City landscape appearing in the backdrop. She couldn't pursuit, since most of her powers were mental; her brain was one of the first areas affected. Falling to the ground, struggling to breathe, eyes at maximum capacity inside their sockets--she only had one play.

"Goddess...give...me...strength..." She murmured, and then the skies over the busy highway turned black. Thunder rumbled in, followed by the discharge of a massive lightning bolt that slammed into Catalina's body. Through the dense smoke and charred pavement, Cat's body rose again; but it was the Prize Fighter in control.

"Move, Move Move!" She screamed, her voice a mixture between both Faore and Catalina.

Bolting with lightning erupting from each step, The Prize Fighter continued her pursuit of the Armored Blood Vehicle, which was exiting the freeway.

Dispatching her conquistador bullwhip, she latched it to a sign before swinging down toward the loop with the Spanish Lance manifesting in the other. The Lance Penetrated the Driver's side, impaling the driver; her tactic neutralized him; but in doing so, sent the vehicle accelerating to an on-ramp.

The vehicle entered the freeway, T-boning a passing car before flipping over, releasing the contents of the blood everywhere.

Blood littered the Highway, but the Prize Fighter didn't care; she simply moved toward the vehicle to retrieve her spear. But it was all draining, the physical strain on Cat's body to host a virus, and a Goddess broke the link between Cat and the Prize Fighter. The last thing she recalled was the New York State Troopers condoning the way off.

8:05 am University Hospital--New Jersey

The pain from her body woke her from her involuntary slumber; she was supposed to be immune from diseases/viruses' but this one seemingly bypassed all of it. The had a mask around her face" Her body has rejected all medicines so far"

She heard them call out, that's when she snapped back. "No, No, the highway!" She called out but her Nurse reassured her. "No, it's good! The blood has been tested. It's not tainted. Everything is fine." A plot from the Order to draw Cat away from the city, and like a simpleton shit bit.

"Our main concern now is you. You're showing signs of being CR-833+ Can you tell me everywhere you've been in the last week?"

She had to think about it she was in LA with Mari, and at the time LA had no confirmed cases. She went to Daytonville to check up on Ashley, but she hadn't come into contact with...'The Mazoi Mayor' she remembered. Realizing the Mayor probably contracted it and gave it to her. Which meant Mari was in danger. "I've been in D.C...and Daytonville..."

What she was feeling wasn't normal symptoms of CR-833, the coughing and shortness of breath sure, but every now and then her body would completely shut down and start up again. Her divine genes seemingly married the cancerous cells.

"We're putting in an immediate transfer request for KECC. We don't have the ability to deal with this here. Alert Dr.Knightfall"

Somewhere along I-95

Beta's drones didn't just detect the flying metahuman, but also the truck, the primary objective of the mission she was assigned.

A light thud as she dropped over on to the free way, and she positioned herself like an Olympic runner. With the drones scouting ahead for her, it was time for Beta to run.

"Don't fail me legs- and time to test these new cells!" She said, breaking into a sprint, taking no more than 2 seconds to reach maximum speed. Took Beta a little less than a minute to reach the place. Darkening skyline and a thunderbolt was her welcome note.

"Stealth Mode: On" Beta whispered to herself, promptly disappearing from sight as well as sound, In the aftermath of the overturned truck and spilled blood, she could only hope to find an intact canister or vial inside the armored truck.

And so with this intent, the Android moved closer to the back of the truck, careful not to touch anything unnecessary that would alert the armored woman to Beta's presence. Good thing the woman was failing. As expected, it was a mess in there with a few dead passengers a lot of popped canisters.

Fortunately, Beta found one intact can. And as soon as she picked it up, Stealth Mode covered it as an extension of Beta, and the Android looked to exit the scene before the arrival of authorities. Her drones mapped an easy route off the free way into the shadows of a car park, and an alley nearby.

A while later

Beta dropped the sample at the nearest Wooka-Pod (small mobile platforms located at various locations all over America) for analysis and data transfer, at which point, to his dismay and Beta's fright, they discovered an empty canister, with nothing inside it.

"It appears to be a decoy.." Beta shrugged.

"KEEP LOOKING BETA. THERE SHOULD ME MORE TRUCKS WITH ACTUAL GOODS ON THEM!"

"Yes sir," Beta nodded, walking out of the pod. She released her drones, sending them off in different directions in search of more trucks, hoping to find something actual in order to combat this disappointment.

@william_lebeau@alexander_west@mister_surreal@ultra-woman

Mount Sinai Hospital

Ozzy would remain still, his eyes shut, unable to open them. His chest would barely rise, a simple cough feeling as if someone had ripped out his heart. His lungs seemed to have given up on their purpose, the ventilator sustaining the young man a couple of hours upon his admission. The hospital staff would not know him, but he would hang on, fighting whatever this thing was that had infected many.

It presented as fatigue, which Ozzy took as too much partying. But, a simple cough became a weight on his chest, the simple effort of breathing he could not keep up with. His eyes burned at the light, and continued so even when he shut them, his tears from the pain unable to quench the fire which blazed in his eyes. The moment his hand shook, he knew something was wrong. His legs failed him, unable to sustain his body as he fell, convulsing sporadically from the disease.

You were always my best student, Doctor Lopez said with hurt evident in his voice. The best and the brightest. I knew that from the first day of school and which is why I knew you would succeed when you left to school at the Academy.

Doctor Lopez's hand would feel Ozzy's, much like a father would to an ailing son. He would speak, not knowing if Ozzy could hear him, but would continue to do so incase he did. I bet you made some friends, huh? His eye would perk with interest, Would there be any particular woman that caught your interest? He would laugh aloud trying not to cry, Or were there many? I too was young, you know. I wasnt always an old man like you always called me.

The door would open, the nurse walking in to check in on her patient. She would look down on Ozzy wondering how much pain he was suffering. Her heart would break for such a young man suffering so with this random disease. She would not say anything under her protective gear. She would not say anything as she did not want to worsen her patient. She would not say anything because there was no other people in the room outside of Ozzy and her. She would leave the room, the monitors the only sound made in the room.

Dont think this releases you from being my slave, a voice boomed loudly once the nurse left. Ozzy knew it all too well, knowing the smell of honey in the air. His eyes would shuffle and then slowly open to see the blonde Amazonian next to his bed. Her piercing stare looked upon him like a soldier being granted his final wish.

He would breathe deeply, gaining enough energy to say her name, even though it would be weak. Ven...

How are you doing Ozzy? The phantom image of Ven the Amazonian would ask. Much like Doctor Lopez before her, even though she was not actually in the room it felt as if she was. Her touch. Her voice. Her smell. She was as real as could be before him and he did not even know it, a side-effect of CR-833 with his powers running wild without his intention.

Ozzy would take another breath. I feel like sh!t.

Ven would grin softly at the comment. You look like sh!t. Her hand would touch his, or at least he thought she did. Reed sends his regards. Knowing Reed, that means alot.

Ozzy would smile through the pain, Oh sh!t, Im dying if Reed came out of his lab to tell you that.

Ven would return that smile knowing Ozzy would always mock the closest thing he had to a best friend to his dying days. Juno is on some mission. Making deals and what not. She would have came if asked.

Connor got you a card, she said holding up the Get Well gesture. He said get better.

Who? Ozzy asked seriously.

Connor! Connor Hawke. Kid Superion.

Oh...he said aloud, playing the situation up. He was dork. Ozzy would inhale a sigh of relief, showing he was kidding. Where is Alex?

Alex? She asked curiously. You mean Will?

His eyes would lock on hers seriously. I mean Alex. Will doesnt owe me money. Plus, I never got to meet Linda. I need to know if she is a hottie or if Alex is blowing smoke.

If you werent sick I would have hit your harder. He would feel Ven give him a blow to the arm.

And I would have hit your harder. He said gasping for air. That is how we always rolled was it not.

Ven stared at him silent, her next words chosen carefully. I would totally kick your ass! Ven would smile, the look in her eyes telling Ozzy this was the end. She didnt have to say it. She didnt need to. She didnt even have to be in the room because she wasn't, but it was how Ozzy remembered her.

Memories flooded Ozzy as his powers began to grow wild and then it would stop, his powers running their course through the disease process. He would close his eyes for the final time, not seeing black or his life flash before his eyes, but to those Outcast from the Academy that he never got to say what he actually thought of them - as friends.

Despite President Glover's unwillingness to do what needed to be done, she knew he'd come around. The Order was obvious on its terms and conditions. 'We give you the Presidency, and you do what we ask.' A breach of contract on his part wasn't likely considering he offered his family as collateral. One thing he did that was useful was forfeit authentic badges of the White House.

For the time being everything was in order, Despot successfully pushed out the tainted blood trucks to various areas on the east coast in order to mass spread the virus. What she considered a total win was learning that Catalina Liafador had been admitted to University Hospital. That was a development Ada would watch closely, CR 833 was engineered to attack the human/Meta-mutant population; it'd have no effect on Androids, but the fact that it did however manage to topple of a divine being presented certain unforeseen variable--A true testament to just how powerful the virus truly was.

The Virus would attack indiscriminately that was certain, however, in the event she found herself on the rough end of the Virus, The Order kept tabs on Eco-Terrorist Aspen Denver. A woman who's control over plant life would prove invaluable for producing a vaccine prototype, able to produce at will bacteria that weren't native to the wild. Currently couped up in Gothic, her world would soon come crashing down.

But that wasn't the reason for her trip to LA. wasn't for talks of vaccines, it was business. She was poised to meet with California Governor and Selebrity C.E.O Samson Starr, though he didn't know it. Having set in motion the entire Sapien Flu pandemic, as well as being responsible for landing one of his talents in the emergency room; she'd have to take the guise of a D.C lawmaker within President Glover's administration.

As it stood, Samson was poised to usurp an already small market on "Capes" the Sapien Flu would thin out the competition, but also his defense of it, coupled with his defense of New York could land him in the White House. Unlike the State Leadership on the East Coast, Samson was among the first Governors to enact a ban on flights coming from the East Coast. Because of this Ada had to fly into Arizona via personal chopper before hopping on a flight from Phoenix to L.A

Stepping from her Black Suburban with bodyguards from the Order disguised as Secret Serviceman Ada slipped her mask on before entering the Selebrity building. She wasn't entirely sure if Samson was here, or in Sacramento, but she knew he'd slip from C.E.O. to an elected official.

Welcome to Selebrity, how may I be of service?

"Good Morning, my name is Niseema Pollard. I'm with the White House" She lied, dropping her French Accent in favor of a more Americanized accent while flashing her badge.

Sure ma'am let me see if he's in.

◈◈ Safehouse ◈◈

Above ground, the Sun's gaze was an inescapable glare of light and heat, but in the grey depths of an underground safehouse, the Blacksteel Spartan sat under the cool glow of artificial light. Leaning into his chair as a row of holographic screens flashed before him, Sig caught the silken notes of a familiar voice riding the lonely air.

"So, the Sapien Flu, any thoughts?".

Steering his gaze away from the soft glow of holograms, Sig found the amber eyes of Safemind boring into his own. An android he'd tasked with spying on the Children of the Omega on his behalf, she was a wonder of hyper-intelligence and a moral glimmer in the dark world of a ruthless killer.

"Other than the people behind it needing to be found? No", he answered, his chest a magma chamber rumbling with the molten bass of his voice.

"What about treating the infected? Finding a cure?", she prodded, folding her arms of corded steel, her face wrinkling with concern as she inched closer, "With your technology you could-".

"I'm not a doctor", Sig countered, his brow heavy with the resolve of a Spartan determined to thunder into battle, "Although given what I do best, the irony of your request is not lost on me", he taunted, dragging his eyes back to the holograms floating before him.

"Ugh", a groan escaped Safemind's lips, her eyes rolling in a mounting wave of frustration, "Leave it to you to make the real thing seem more soulless than an android".

Although little more than a harmless quip, it stung the part of Sig's heart that clung desperately to any vestige of warmth and compassion. Calming the storm brewing on his brow, the Blacksteel Spartan sighed and the holograms faded from sight.

"I'm going to uncover the people responsible, starting with an investigation of that hotel shooting. In the meantime, study what you can on the Sapien Flu. We'll talk about helping treat the infected once I know who to kill".

Rising from his chair, Sig met Safemind's eyes, and the android found an endless depth of determination, will, and pain in his gaze. Nodding, her ears soon heard the fabric of spacetime croak, and her eyes watched the Blacksteel Spartan vanish from sight with nary a word.

He'd left, teleporting to the heart of a war he would never see the end of, while she remained behind to aim her focus on a virus engineered to be the bane of civilization.

It's a rainy day at a trainstation near Gothic City. In-between the mixed crowd are a few hooded figures with the residue of water dripping of their coats inside the dimly lit wagon.

???: "As we've discussed earlier, this will be a proto-operation, our voice and movements will be recorded."the comms interlinking the mysterious bunch transmitted this to each member across the train"If successful, we will be able to use this test-run and replicate this world wide with the use of our enhanced soldiers"

The creaking train came to a halt, arrriving at it's destination. Not to gain too much attention, the few selected members of the "Children of Omega" were spread out and left the train station sperately to later rejoin at the designated target.

As the last to leave the now abandoned wagon, one of the men removed their cowl to bathe in the luke-warm rain, revealing his almost albino like hair. Something inside of him had desired for such a feeling for a very long time.

Yin Wei: "Twenty minutes break, then we strike. Grab some snacks, read some newspapers, whatever. The nightshift is about to arrive at the hospital. Our ideal moment to act is when they are doing the handover. I've been visitng the patient we planted inside for almost a week now so they won't be suspicous of me once I've entered under the disguise."

He pulled out what seemed to be a translucent skin-like fiber from out of his pocket. It shimmered in the steamy athmosphere, revealing various different chromatic colors.Gently attatching it to his face and kneading the rest of the maleable texture across his head, his appearance began to adjust into a brown haired middle-aged man.

"Blood reservoirs across the world are able to sustain otherwise fatally injured people, or in this case, give them a means to hold out until a vaccine is found. If we can cut, divert and redirect those supplies to our own, we will be in control of a hemo-oligarchy!"

A security breach was reported the moment he finished his sentence, stopping him in his tracks as he wanted to cross the road for a moment. The property itself seemed to be instact, but there was surely an anomaly of some kind to be found.

"So people have finally started to make moves against us huh... Well whatever. We are THIS close to procuring our first batch. We have charity organisations that are open for blood donations as well. The popularity of donating to hospitals will fall. Distrust will be established once the public realises how vulnerable the locations are that are supposed to PROTECT their donations. We will pay them more, and appear as the better cause at the same time. The clockwork has already been set into motion, the only thing that's left is for this operation to succeed so we can begin the attacks world wide."

The cars held up by the ranting man were out of patience, started honking and slowly progressed towards him. Yin Wei cooled down to turn his attention towards the driver and for a glimpse his yellow eyes shimmered through the facade, frightening the owner of the vehicle. This was possibly due to the fixation of the headlights. Mere minutes remained before the handover. The seperated team started to center in on the location. The thought of someone going against the Church didn't leave the back of Yin's mind, already planning for the next steps after the heist.

2 Days Ago

The upper echeleon of the organisation have gathered to discuss the urgent matter at hand. With the spread of CR-833, otherwise dubbed "The Sapian-Flu", the supply of blood ran short for the gluttonous demonic chapter.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!"The Daemonium Dominus shouted enraged after hammering down his fist on the conference table

"Now now, this will actually work in our favour." Yin Wei smirked, not taken aback by the outrage as some of the others were "The pandemic is currently not that wide spread, but the estimated chart I've shown you before does bring up justified concerns. Your current human-/demon blood income is slowly stagnating, and will eventually plummet... If we do not intervene."

Yin Wei picked up the control he had laying before him to turn on a Screen the whole room could observe.

"As you can see, this projection estimates that 60-70% of the entire globe could be afflicted by it in maybe a year or two. Vaccination trials, and much less the vaccine itself probably won't be ready until then. At least not under the proper legal procedures. Together with a few other members we have come up with a contengiency plan for each branch to contribute to in their own way. The day after tomorrow i will accompany a strike-troop with handpicked units. The goal is to infiltrate a hospital and rob them of the precious red colored gold. Our affiliate and the military branch will help replicate and execute this scheme if we we're successful. I could have abused my position as a doctor to get in easier, but not every location has the luxury of entering that way. We needed a homogenous infiltration plan. I've devised the one-patient, one visitor rule. A dummy patient will be plantet with symptoms of a normal flu while one internal member regularly visits until the designated strike time. This will also give the member a glimpse of the internal structures and personal."

The presentation continued for a while, detailing each chapters possible involvement.

• Cosmic Chapter: Possible humanoid extinction level event. Observation.
• Demonic Chapter: Supply of human and lesser demonoid test subjects for experimentation.
• Business Chapter: Selling placebos, marketing / branding, commercials for "Charities" and extortion.
• Political Chapter: Propaganda, downplaying, spreading of false statistics, public appearances and interviewing biased groups spreading disbelief, CoO owned news channel.
• Science Chapter: Working on organisation internal vaccine, the weaponization of CR-833, manufacturing of a placebo, experimentation on the test subjects and the analysis thereof.
• Martial Chapter: Usage and test of the biological weapons, possible hits on isolated target groups (i.e. doctors conference to stop the spread), execution of the afforementioned strikes.

These were just overall guiding points for the chapters to loosely follow, but would assuredly be of great importance. Due to the fact that the epidemic hasn't gone completely global yet, taking pre-emptive action is of utmost importance. The lack of donated blood will only become more apparent once the demand rises. The focus of the operation is not the current hotspot itself (The Republic), but the rest of the world. The endgame is promising people salvation from a plague, while only prolonging their suffering and securing a cure for ourselves and those who are willing to join us.

@xxbelladonnaxx

Were they fortunate or were they not? It was a question that Isei continuously asked himself. The Sapien Flu has been the cause of all this turmoil, yet, Isei could still find some light to the darkness it wrought. As with plummeted crime rates in virtually every city, there was an apparent fortune to this pandemic. But of course, a single light could always be extinguished with a simple push. It was his - and many others - responsibility to cushion this push for he knew no one could effectively stop it singlehandedly. Though he initially intended to stray away from anything concerning the current pandemic and hole up in his apartment, Isei couldn’t ignore the problem if it came racing to his doorstep. Or at a grander scale, his city.

Two points of action he intended to capitalize on and those same two things were his main priority. To stop the van that barreled towards his city along with its deathly aura and find the one who could solve this issue with her bare hands, the Gothic City Eco-Terrorist Aspen Denver’s. Finding her was an issue though if she truly cared for green-kind she’d likely try avoiding a world-wide wasteland. Or not. Even in apocalyptic scenarios nature always finds a way to thrive. He avoided wasting more time. The van was spotted. Maximizing his holographic view on the single-camera he spotted the racing van in, Isei lept off the edge of the building. Reaching out his arm, a single cable of an unknown material shot from underneath his wrist and latched onto a nearby building from which he fell, causing a ‘swing’ motion that most probably would’ve broke the shoulder of a regular human. Fortunately, He wasn’t.

It didn’t take long to interpret the path of the van and it took even less to get to its future position. It’s intended target was one of few Gothic City Hospitals. Likewise, one of few targets. Finding himself atop a road above the one the van road steadily on, Isei glared at the single van on an empty highway. Bearing the American Red Cross sigil, the van drove in speeds quicker than normal. Did they spot Isei? No. Impossible? The fools could never spot Isei. He was lucky. An empty highway was something that didn’t transpire much in Gothic, thanks to the pandemic, the impossible happened. Isei rose a single-arm, at the end of it his hand holding one of the modified berettas he holstered. His aim steady and his demeanor confident, Isei shot once. Seemingly zipping through the air, the bullet landed on the edge of the driver’s skull, ricocheting off of it and landing into the head of the man that sat in the passenger seat.

Then, the van began spazzing. The man at the wheel’s unconscious body moving subtly, the gas pedal caught more weight than usual. And at a speed quicker than their previous, the van took a turn and began barreling down the highway. Scraping away at the black tar that made the road until it stopped directly under Isei. Shards of glass, medical equipment, and vials of blood painted the road. Isei dropped down from his position, landing atop the side of the van that it was left on. Eyes following carefully at the blood that stained the road. His helm analyzing it from the far distance he stood. He wasn’t lazy, he was resourceful. After a few moments, the results turned up. They were in-fact, vials of blood carrying the Sapien Flu. He scoffed.

Dialing the 52nd under false pretense, Isei disappeared. Then he was left to find Aspen Denver. Wherever she was.

He had a single guess, no, not a guess. Something less. A single hope of where the Eco-Terrorist Queen of Green was. He never met her, hell, he’s never even laid eyes on her, yet his meet with her was vital. Walking the scapes of where Aspen’s whereabouts had been last known, Isei kept a calm demeanor despite his annoyance at how difficult it was to find her. Maybe she didn’t want to be found as he theorized before, it was a pain. More-so the situation than the effort he put into solving it.

La Fortaleza // 8' - 8:15 AM

Ford sat in the wake of an empty home, eased into a couch large enough to fit the foes he's slain. His calculating eyes followed the screen that bore before him. Not a hologram nor a supercomputer. Just regular television of regular America. Deemed the 'new' White King of the Hellfire Club, Damon found a subtle sense of worry. The American Red Cross vans that were to be avoided were being taken out little-by-little. At least this world still had heroes to defend their livelihood. If their livelihood wasn't the means of action, it'd be to defend their lives.

The White King rose, his silk-white dress shirt enveloping each of his movements in its warmth. The dress-pants he wore proceeded the same. Turning off the flatscreen with a mere look, Damon strode towards the kitchen. The vast, empty kitchen. His thoughts still lingering on the state of the country, Ford grabbed an apple. Inspecting it, envisioning the world in his hands. If one side was rotten it'd affect it as a whole. If the entire outside was rotten the taste would inevitably be bad. If just the core was rotten taste would be realized too late and the entire experience would be ruined. In the scape of the world, Earth would be in ruins. Only remote areas would be safe of the virus. And it was only until then they'd be affected as well.

His mind worked like a supercomputer. The White King rendered each factor he learned and siphoned the important from irrelevant. Terrorist Attack at the American Red Cross, dozens upon dozens of blood vials carrying the Sapien Flu taken as collateral of America’s naïveity. There was no mistaking the urgency of the situation nor was their understating it. It was a world-scale crisis. Various vans intended to poison each major city of the United States. It was only the state of those vans that was in question. As his thoughts occurred, only two have been dealt with. Though will the others reach their target? Will the true blues be too late? Damon thought. Biting the apple, a thought flickered.

“Leiland, ready the jet.”

A young man’s voice became apparent through Damon’s earpiece, “Yes sir. But if I may ask, why?”

“We’re going to DC.”

Washington, D.C....

Private Residence of Dr. Thomas Cabello...

One Hour Ago...

The shuffling of house slippers on tile drowned out the bantering on the Local News from a television in the next room. A man, middle-aged with signs of greying hair, mechanically engaged in his mid-morning routine coffee preparation. Whole bean coffee poured into a grinder, spilling a few beans across the counter in the process. He adjusted the grinder to fine setting and then unlatched the portafilter from the high-end espresso machine. A deep bellowing yawn escaped his lips. He barely sleeps anymore. While he packed the fine ground coffee into the portafilter, careful of matching it perfectly with the max fill line, he practiced his own lines mentally for a press conference at noon.

“The Sapien flu is...Epidemic...damn...” More coffee before all that, Thomas thought. Sliding a glass mug beneath the espresso machine and beginning to brew it. The pressure as a leading expert on infectious disease in a time such as these fell hard on strong shoulders.

Meanwhile, as Dr. Cabello slowly meandered his way to the fridge for milk to froth, silent steps entered the large kitchen from the hallway. His massive frame showing through a black hoodie and cargo joggers, prim knit running shoes making a stop several feet from the unaware doctor. From behind a balaclava, scarlet optics peered and a voiced boomed with heavy bass.

“I didn't take you for a macchiato man.”

The doctor spun around on his heels, catching eyes with the assailant who pointed a standard Glock dead at his chest. Thomas’ composure was noted, adrenaline coursing but unpanicked and focused.

“My wife got me off the Maxwell House pot...this is more ‘cultured’ and now I cannot drink drip. I’d ask you if you wanted a cup if you weren't pointing a gun at me.” He quipped.

“I’d pass anyway Doctor. But your hospitality is appreciated.” Replied the Grim Ghost, who spoke honestly. The gun did not move, his muscles relaxed.

“If you are gonna rob me, go ahead...I got decent home owner’s insurance. Just get the hell out of my house!” Thomas’ eyebrows lifted, his voice stern. Pointing his finger towards the door as he exclaimed.

“I will be gone before your wife and daughters get home; this is my gift to you. Marine. Only your death would serve a greater purpose.”

“Hmmph.” Thomas expelled from his chest. “So you’re a hitman or something? You certainly dressed the part. Nice shoes by the way.”

“Why don’t you finish making your coffee, enjoy it, and then we can finish this.” The Fatal Phantom was growing impatient. Aware also of how ridiculously he looked according to his meticulous standards. But it was all for the rouse.

“The frother is in this cabinet...I am gonna reach for it now.” Thomas motioned without waiting for a response.

Katsuro seemed to chuckle quietly for a moment. “Go ahead...but you won’t find the Walther there. You are welcome to try one of the steak knives but I would advise against it.”

Bastard, the Doctor internalized. “So you are a pro? Figures...just my luck.” He yanked the frother from another drawer along his side and slammed it shut. “I am not the kind of guy to beg for my life, I won’t give you the satisfaction... just don’t touch my family.”

“You have my word.”

A moment later....

Thomas’ head shook from side to side, almost smiling. Eyes watering. He took a long sip, not out of hesitation but enjoyment. Raising his head upwards, taking in a deep breath, his eyes closed. “It's damn delicious.” Immediately, he seemed to mouth the names of his loved ones, coupled with a goodbye.

“Excellent.”

Six gunshots echoed throughout the house, two intentionally hitting the cabinets, one into the wall to reinforce the notion of haste, nervousness, and lacking method. Thomas lurched over his countertop, bled out quickly, without much suffering, and shot in the back as if unawares.

Tenjin tossed the gun on the floor, another’s palm and fingerprints etched into a natural oiled glove. Making his way towards the body, stepping in blood purposefully, he grabbed the coffee mug from the counter, making it a point to dump its remaining contents into a used mug from the sink. Slowly he began to make his way towards the back-sliding door, tracking gore over the carpet on his way.

__________________________

_______

Washington D.C....

Fifteen Minutes Later...

Apartment of Dominic Cooke...

A struggle began as quickly as it happened, as Tenjin easily overpowered a man into a dirty torn recliner. Striking the Digital Decimator several times, to no avail, as the shinobi pressed the glass mug into the lips of this Dominic and forced a large amount of blue liquid down his throat by immediately muffling his mouth and nose with his large gloved hand.

Gasping for air as his face was released. “Who are you?! Get off me!”

Tenjin responded. “I am no one. But you, a coward behind a screen...will give your life to my organization's cause.”

“What are you talk...talk...ing...” Suddenly, his face contorted with agony, clutching his own throat as Katsuro released him and began to concern himself with other matters inside the apartment.

Katsuro heard him flail about, trying to muster words which only morphed into screams as he fell out of the recliner and prone onto the floor however this did not dissuade him from opening a journal. Tenjin scanned through several pages, mentally noting patterns in the style of writing such as starting points, crossing ‘T’s, shapes of vowels, and the differences between lowercase constants. Looking at the directions of the smudge marks from ink on the small finger, he concluded Dominic had been left-handed. Tearing a page from the journal, he began to copy, with astounding accuracy, a note.

“Vaccines are the Mark of the Beast. This is punishment for our sins. Cabello won’t be the first.”

These three sentences were meticulously repeated over thirty times on a single page and then it was thrown at the feet of Dominic, who had gone still and breathless.

Pulling the hoodie off his Herculean frame, covered in a breathable plastic skin to not impose his own skin cells, he likewise discarded the attire including the blood-stained shoes across the disgusting abode. He had collected them the night prior as his victim slept in a drunken stint.

Briefly making his way towards the laptop, Dominic’s social media accounts already opened and logged in he scanned the most recent posts and need not add his own manufacturing.

Dominic was released from prison three weeks prior and was prone to far-right conspiracy theories, a proponent against vaccinations and associations with radical separatists, encouraged violent protests, but most importantly to the mission, had a history of death threats in group messages against Cabello himself.

Their deaths would incite a rift between the populace, fueled on both sides by the Political Chapter of the Church of Omega in due time.

Engaging his modular Vibranium Armor, utilizing the latest in flat space technology, he cloaked himself in sable segments across his form. Drudging across garbage and soiled clothing on the floor, the shattered glass mug next to the recliner and walking over a corpse, he made his way to a shadow clad wall. The mission, on his part, was complete yet he pressed a mechanism on his helm.

“Mastermind. It’s finished. First responders are at the Doctor’s residence and I’ll notify my men on the ground to alert the authorities in regard to Cooke. It will be on the news this afternoon if leaked urgently.”

He paused, eyes like scarlet stars peered around the room before continuing. Incredibly irritated and now, blood lusted. “The importance of this mission required my expertise in the matter...however, I am still very displeased. Next operation, regardless, I’m exterminating a cape....and I have thoughts on who that could be.”

With that, he walked several paces forward, the wall shifted. and the shadows swallowed him like a gigantic draconic maw.

Leaving without a trace.

"No, this is not a joke, Eric."

"Donovan, this is ridiculous. It's political suicide. It flies in the face of conventional thought, of all evidence..."

"And? You owe me, Grimmler. You funked up that deal with the Superhero Surveillance bill, so now you either get out there, or the end of your life in politics will be the absolute least of your concerns. Now do it, or I will end your life. Political and otherwise."

"..."

"Okay."

From the steps of the Capitol Building, Eric Grimmler cleared his throat, reviewing the notes handed to him by Donovan Glost on his way down. The blonde "lobbyist" had always had a loose temper, but recently it seemed he was unraveling. Even he couldn't threaten a US Senator with impunity, but the way he did it, the tone he took, and the menace in his posture...

Something had changed, and Eric Grimmler did not want to risk his life to find out what.

He cleared his throat, approached the podium, and began.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for gathering here today, despite the opposition, despite the fact that others would have you hold your tongue and grovel at their feet for their permission to be here.

Thank you for having the pride and decency as Americans to honor this great man, who has devoted his life to the American people. Doctor Cabello was a knowledgeable, talented, caring, and methodical practitioner of medicine. As a scholar and researcher, he was unparalleled, and as a friend there was none more loyal.

We often spoke of infectious diseases he was researching. It was a topic that fascinated us both. He of course would like me to take this moment to say that the most important thing to do in this situation is to remain calm. The worst thing we could do at this point in time is shut down the livelihood of countless families who depend on their next paychecks to make it through the month. This "Sapien Flu" as it is being termed by the hacks in the media, primarily affects mutants and metahumans.

The genetic material of mutants is inherently unstable, and if we do not act quickly, this disease will begin to manifest itself in humans as well. In fact, it may already be too late. Just as the avian flu and swine flu pandemics began in animals of different species than our own, this "Sapien Flu", a manufactured term by those who would divert attention from the origin of this disease, began in mutants and must be contained in them before it spreads to humans. Time is critical. We must ACT NOW!"

Donovan Glost watched the broadcast from Action 6 News and its so-called "error". An utterly tactless play. Exactly what he would expect from peons without a strong hand to guide them.

This was followed closely by coverage of a sufficiently excited and passionate Eric Grimmler, sowing the seeds of misinformation early, now that the resident pathologist on infectious diseases was otherwise indisposed. It was coming together. Sloppily, perhaps, but coming together.

Still, something was bothering him. Frederich's encounter with the consciousness that he could not pin down, that had no thought, no intent, only presence. This was not something that troubled Glost at first. After all, mutants, metahumans, and even demons came with exotic and confounding abilities both. Only after ruminating on the interruption did it dawn on him what had unsettled him so.

It entered the library. The Hall of All Things, the supposedly impenetrable safe haven for those of the Omega, infiltrated as easily as a paper hen house. Now that may be an issue...

"Frederich, we have CCTV covering the outside of the church, don't we?"

"Of course, Mr. Glost. The church is home to many artifacts of our forebearers. These priceless treasures, crafted from the finest and rarest of metals and gems—"

"I want everything pulled from the hours you felt that thing in the library and the twelve hours before and after. Have someone comb over the footage and point out any unfamiliar faces, then have them familiarize themselves with those faces. Gather the footage from any other cameras in the area as well, private, public, government or doorbell camera. I want to know everyone and everything that so much as made a cameo within three blocks of this place. I'll review it after I'm done meeting with the Head Speaker."

"As you wish, Mr. Glost."

Donovan Glost retreated to review his duties with the Head Speaker for the Children of Omega's Final Word, his mind burning with curiosity over their recent intruder.

Well, my little fly on the wall, let us see how well you evade the web.

Gothic City, Knightfall Emergency Care Center

Ashley walked hastily towards the blood bank, unknown to her that the man delivering blood donations to her facility were in fact those who worked for Ada who was working to spread the virus throughout the United States at the moment. She didn’t know that the blood was about to infect everyone in the hospital. She didn’t know.

Scanning her badge against the digital lock on the door it beeps before opening. There was a man sitting at a computer, Ricky, he was in charge of the blood bank. “Hey Ricky, I know this is sudden, but we have a delivery from The Red Cross.”

Ricky’s head tilted to the side a bit in confusion, just as she was when she first heard of it. “We didn’t put an order.”

“Apparently they’re just giving blood to medical facilities.”

“Oh… uh sure ok.” He stood up and walked over to show where to store the blood.

But before the man could follow, a blurred figure tackled the man down to the ground. Ashley, startled, looked to see it was none other than Honor girl who was wrestling on the ground with the man. “What’s the meaning of this?!”

“Ugh.” Honor Girl pinned the man to the ground, smashing her fist into his face. “He’s-” Another hit. “A-” another one. “Terrorist!” BAM last hit, man was knocked out. Standing up before pulling out her phone showing her a news article from earlier this morning stating that the Red Cross was attacked. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they came to the facility where the doctor is spreading news that cities need to shut down to stop the spread of the virus.”

Ashley’s eyes widened, there were more people outside of the facility in the back. She turned her head, ready to alert security. “Oh uh, our little Ninja took care of the others outside,” Nicole said as she cuffed the man. “We also called the 52nd. They should be here any minute to pick up these men.”

Pulling out her tablet she looked at the security cameras outside and could see it was none other than So-so in her uniform standing outside and cuffing the men. “I see. Well, thank you for your assistance.” Before she could say anything else, her phone went off. “Do not distribute that blood.” She spoke out to Ricky before placing her phone against her ear.

“Dr. Knightfall, this is Dr. Razo over at University Hospital in New Jersey, we have a young adult female who is positive for CR-833 but is otherwise healthy. No known previous medical problems. She needs a higher level of care than we can give her here. We need to transfer her to your facility. She’s tachycardic, diaphoretic, coughing, shortness of breath, and is losing control of her super abilities.”

“Super abilities? Is this a known person with abilities?”

“She’s part of the Selebrities group, Catalina Liafador.”

A Liafador. Several things ran through her mind at once. She didn’t know how to react. She could feel her chest tighten with her mixed emotions. Catalina didn’t have the best history, but more recent years would show her actually trying to turn her life away from the chaos she would create and instead stop chaos from happening around the world. She wasn’t known for her kindness and people skill but one who was actually trying to do better. She was also the guardian for So-so… even though she hadn’t been home since her first arrival in Gothic. But most of all, she was in need of her help. Her help.

“Dr. Knightfall?”

“Y-yes, I’m sorry, of course, we will take the patient. Have her come by Angel MedFlight. It’ll be the fastest way. We’ll be ready for her. I’m going to transfer you to my charge nurse to get things set up. Please send any radiology reports and blood work that you’ve done for her so far. If there’s a sedative that you can find to work, give it to her, I don’t need her crashing the plane by accidentally summoning lightning.”

“Understood, thank you Dr. Knightfall.”

Hanging up the phone she looked over to her CVnU counterpart. “Please take this man outside to be med with the 52nd. I’ll have security watch over there. Thank you for your help.”

With a grunt, Honor Girl managed to get the man over her shoulder. “No problem.”

“Are you ok Ricky?” She asked the man who was slowly getting up off the ground, still shocked at what happened.

“Y-eah, I’m good.”

“If you excuse me, I have to get ready for a transferred patient.” Walking out of the blood bank she began to dial another number. “Dr. Dickerson, it’s Knightfall, we are having a super-powered patient coming to the ICU who is CR-833 positive from University Hospital in New Jersey. We have some time before she gets here but we need a room ready for her and all hands on deck who are not already occupied with a patient. I want Cytokines infusions ready for the moment she gets here. Yes, yes that means we have to do a central line on her. It’s Catalina Liafador. Yes, the one with the movie coming out from Selebrties.” She paused, rolling her eyes at the unprofessional comments being made as she held her phone out just a bit from his suddenly excited voice. “Dr. Dickerson, do I have to remind you that she’s a patient who has CR-833? Ok, good. I have to check on some outstanding labs but I’ll be there as soon as the patient arrives.” She shut her phone off as she rushed down to her lab.

Private Labs

Ashely began quickly going through the several tests results she had cooking for the last several hours regarding CR-833. There were so many types of vaccines that could be made to try and battle this virus. She had to test several different possibilities for each of them.

• Live attenuated vaccines: which contain whole bacteria or viruses which have been “weakened” so that they create a protective immune response but do not cause disease in healthy people.
• Inactivated vaccines: that contain whole bacteria or viruses which have been killed, or small parts of bacteria or viruses, such as proteins or sugars, which cannot cause disease. There are several different types of inactivated vaccine which are explained below.
• A Whole Killed: vaccine that contains whole killed viruses.
• Subunit vaccines which do not contain any whole bacteria or viruses at all.
• Toxoid vaccines: Some bacteria release toxins (poisonous proteins) when they attack the body. The immune system recognizes these toxins in the same way that it recognizes polysaccharides or proteins on the surface of the bacteria. Some vaccines are made with inactivated versions of these toxins. They are called ‘toxoids’ because they look like toxins but are not poisonous. They trigger a strong immune response.
• Conjugate vaccines: In the early days of polysaccharide vaccines (made using sugars from the surface of bacteria), it was found that they did not work well in babies and young children. Researchers discovered that they worked much better if the polysaccharide was attached (conjugated) to something else that they knew created a strong immune response. In most conjugate vaccines, the polysaccharide is attached to diphtheria or tetanus toxoid protein. The immune system recognizes these proteins very easily and this helps to generate a stronger immune response to the polysaccharide.
• Recombinant vaccines: made using bacterial or yeast cells to manufacture the vaccine. A small piece of DNA is taken from the virus or bacterium against which we want to protect. This is inserted into other cells to make them produce large quantities of active ingredients for the vaccine (usually just a single protein or sugar).

More than ever she had to work harder to try and find a way to make a vaccine. A way to stabilize a vaccine that will be safe for people and be effective in treating sickly patients. One by one she began looking over test results. Frustration washed over here again and again and again. Nothing was sticking with this virus. Nothing was showing even the slightest possible way. One would think that, like the flu, an Inactivated vaccine would be the type of vaccine that would work. But the problem was that this virus couldn’t be killed without completely destroying it and making it with a live strand of the virus would do more harm than good. But then...

“Wait…” she whispered as she looked at the results again. It was no way a vaccine itself, but she could clearly see a change in the levels of CR-833. The Recombinant… She looked at the results again and again and again and again. This was it, this was the type of vaccine she needed to crate! But common bacteria used for these vaccines weren’t going to work for this. She needed a strong bacteria, a bacteria that wasn’t found just anywhere. She sat at her computer, typing away. She needed rare bacteria, one’s that were actually resistant to antibiotics. The more resistant the stronger it could be for using in this vaccine. Not MRSA, not mycobacterium tuberculosis… it was then a light went off in her head.

But before she could do anything, her phone went off. The patient was here. Good lord how long was she in her lab for? Getting up she grabbed her phone as she began putting her gear on.

“Nicole? I need you and So-so to do something for me.” She grabbed her white jacket and rushed out of her lab. “I need you two to find someone for me. I don’t think you’ll have a problem finding her, you sort of know her. She goes by Belladonna.”

“BELLADONNA?!”

Her voice screeched through the phone.

“I need her brought here. I believe she might be the key to making a vaccine. I don’t think she’ll come if you ask nicely, so I need you to do what you can to get her here. Make sure to take some sedatives and full-face gas masks for yourselves. Please be careful.”

Hanging up the phone she walked outside to see the Angel MedFlight in full gear getting the patient off the flight. The patient wasn’t in her heroic uniform but rather a blue medical gown with an oxygen mask over her face. She looked dazed but it could have been from the fever, she was also diaphoretic and looked to already be dehydrated. Or in simple terms, she looked like sh!t.

“Here’s the medical report they sent with the patient.” the critical care flight nurse gave her the papers.

“Thank you.” She walked right next to the gurney as she reached down and gently grasped her wrist with her fingers, trying to feel for her plus. It was fast, about 120. They began to bring the patient into the building. “Ms. Liafador, my name is Doctor Knightfall. We are going to do everything we can to help you, ok? I need you to please cooperate with me and my staff. We are going to give you the best care we can.” As they entered the ICU Dr. Dickerson and other nursing staff stood ready. “I need her sedated for the central line.”

“Will sedatives work on her doctor?” One nurse asked.

“I’m not sure, but we have to try.” Ashely spoke as she began gloving up, getting ready for the procedure. "Please restrain the patient. I can't have her moving for this." She walked up to Catalina, gently placing her hand upon her arm to try and give her some comfort. "Catalina, I need to place a central line that goes into your neck. It's going to give you medication that I believe may help you. But I need you to remain calm. We are going to restrain your limbs to prevent any sudden outbursts due to the virus making your abilities unpredictable, ok?"

She flatlined 3 times in transport, the longest being 3 seconds. Her transport medics took note of her failing condition and noted several symptoms that weren't in-line with Sapien Flu symptoms. Severe cramping and periodic convulsions

It was almost cyclic, first the cramping, then a flatline, followed by quick and violent convulsions. For the small periods in between was shortness of breath and excessive coughing. Then repeat. Each time it felt as if someone did a hard reset on her body.

"Catalina, I need to place a central line that goes into your neck. It's going to give you medication that I believe may help you. But I need you to remain calm. We are going to restrain your limbs to prevent any sudden outbursts due to the virus making your abilities unpredictable, ok?"

The doctor called out, but Cat shook her head in protest; she didn't want medicine; she wanted the same courtesy she afforded to Ashley. "Just...kill..me..." She gasped weakly, reaching out for whatever sharp device she could find, or she thought she was reaching out; when in actuality, she'd lost control of the movement of her hands.

Internally, the Virus actively killed off what made Cat mortal, but her Divine makeup kept her very much alive. None of them knew it, but they were literally watching die. Ashley restrained her limbs, and head with restraints. Pain personified in her crimson eyes and her pulsating veins. "M....ri" she called out her daughter's name but it was clouded in a hoarse wail. Not long after, the medicine that shouldn't have worked succeeded in knocking Cat out. But it wouldn't last long.

@xxbelladonnaxx@black_fairy@perdidacardenal

Ashley Knightfall Penthouse

"Belladonna?!" It was the last words before Nicole hung up the phone with Ashley as she looked over at her distant cousin, So-so. Or Ca’ra? Sophia? It’s complicated with the girl. But the two overall got along. She didn’t talk much, but man could she fight. They trained together a few times. Of course, it always resulted in Nicole flat on the ground with So-so standing with that smug grin on her face. The two worked pretty well together. But now it was going to be put to the test.

“Ashley?” The Knightfall/Liafador legacy asked.

“Yeah… she needs us to go on a mission for her.” The two had just changed out of their uniforms and now they were going to have to change back.

“Mission?”

“Yeah… she uh… she needs us to hunt down Belladonna.”Ashley had a run in with her during the war in Valor City. Only it seemed in the end good lost and evil still overran it. But on the bright side she did save a kid. “She thinks she holds the cure to the Sapian flu. I THINK she’s in Gothic” She flipped the tv on and synched it with her phone and showed a Google satellite feed of Gothic City map. “She’s an eco-terrorist who likes plants way more than people and she controls plants. Like… she can make giant vines come out of the ground and hold you down and make the air toxic… she’s actually super powerful I don’t know how she hasn’t overthrown Gothic city if I’m going to be perfectly honest.” She gave a nervous chuckle only to get a blank stare out of So-so. “Right, so uh, I believe she would be in areas where her plants can thrive. So like… the park, abandon warehouses where she can keep her plants… maybe some underground thing I’m not too sure. I’m really not that great of a detective you’re gonna have to use your ninja skills to find her cause I’m already out of ideas.”

“Here.” So-so stood up and pointed at the screen.

Squinting in eyes, Nicole saw it was none other than the abandoned botanical garden that Gothic attempted to create back in the mid 2000s. But the toxic pollution in the air made it difficult for the garden to really flourish. Instead of taking this as a sign that things needed to change in the city, they simply shut down the garden even after many protested it to stay open.She clicked on the picture to show a current picture of it. Glass building that was broken but still a beauty to look upon. “The Gothic City Botanical Garden!” She stood up as she picked up her phone and tucked it away. “That’s a perfect start!”

The moment Nicole’s phone un-synched with the TV the news came on with a live video of Catalina Liafador fainting in the middle of a car chase. So-so’s body visibly stiffened as she held her breath. “Selebrity member and daughter of the passed Ziccarra Liafador, Catalina Liafador, fainted during a car chase in New York City. Sources say that she was tested positive for Sapian Flu and was transferred via jet to Gothic Cities Knightfall Emergency Care Center and is now under the care of Millionaire Doctor Ashley Knightfall. The current status of Catalina is unknown but-” Nicole shut the TV off.

“Hey!” So-so glared at Nicole, taking a hostile step forward. The Knightfall held her arm out to her cousin as if it was going to stop her from getting the remote.

“Look, I know you’re worried about Catalina, but why do you think Ashley wants us to get Belladonna? To see if a vaccine can be made with her. She could help Catalina. You can’t help her at the hospital and you could get sick just getting near that place. This mission can possibly save her life. This is the most help you can offer her.”

So-so’s mind began to run with thoughts. She felt guilty. She wanted to see Catalina. She wanted to call Mari. She wanted to go back home. She wanted to leave. But Nicole was right. The best thing she could do was get Belladonna and have her help make a vaccine to help Catalina. “Ok, but I have to call Mari.”

“So-”

“No, she’s my cousin too and I need to tell her.” Nicole only nod her head and handed a phone over to her. So-so didn’t have a cellphone but she memorized everyone’s phone number, including Mari. She dialed the number and as the phone rang she began to wonder what she would even say. But it went right to voice mail. So-so signed as she looked over at Nicole who was walking away to give her cousin some privacy. “@Mari... it’s So-so.” There was silence for a moment as she was trying to figure out what to say. “Catalina is here in Gothic. I’m here in Gothic. I can’t see her, but I’m going to help. I’m going to try and save her. I’m…” her voice gave away to a very faint cracked. She had seen what the virus was doing to people. She heard Ashley speak about the virus. She didn’t want what was happening to people who were sick to happen to Catalina. And guilt was beginning to weigh on her the more she spoke. “Sorry for leaving. I needed to know about me. You know...” She would hope she would understand about wanting to know about your past. Find out who you were. After all, it’s what lead her to finding her birth mom. “If you don’t hate me, I want to come back. Be careful. Don’t smoke. It’s bad. I miss-” before she could finish the phone beeped indicating that the message machine was done recording and sent the message to Mari. She looked at annoyance at the phone as she wiped a single tear from her eye before tossing the phone to the couch.

She hated emotions. Emotions were bad. That's what she was taught. Emotions got in the way of missions. Emotions only made things difficult. Feeling nothing. Feeling emptiness was the ideal life for an assassin. But... So-so wasn't an assassin anymore. She was trying to be good. But emotions still didn't feel good.

“You ok?” Nicole came from around the corner dressed in her Honor Girl outfit.

“I will after we get Belladonna.” She walked off to get ready for the most important mission in her life right now.

Few mins later Abandon Botanical Gardens

The duo that Nicole dubbed The Gothic Saint’s. Oh boy, this was going to be a looooong night for So-so. The duo rode on Nicole’s Honor Bike because she refused to let So-so steal a car. They both were equipped the best they could to handle someone like Belladonna. Nicole only had a single run-in with her so her knowledge over all with the Green Queen was limited. But she felt a bit more confident with So-so by her side. Not much longer, the two were at the Botanical Gardens… or what was left of it. The two got off the bike as the two Knightfalls stood side by side.

“So… what’s the plan?”

So-so pulled out a grapple gun. “I scale building and get a vantage point. You go in and look. If we find her we can get her from ground and above.” With that, she shot her gun at the already fractured glass building and was pulled up.

“Riiiiight. No problem. I’ll just walk up to Bella and go like ‘Hey guuuurl so like there’s a virus killing everyone and I know you hate people but I totally think you should help us save the world.” Nicole mumbled to herself as she carefully walked into the garden. It was… kinda pretty amazing. The plants had taken over whatever was left behind. Draped elegantly through the fractured ceiling glass. She swore the air in here looked clearer than the air outside. There was even some wildlife inside. Birds could be heard chirping and the buzzing of bees flying around the flowers that had grown inside were found. There was no way she wouldn't be here… right?

Gothic City Botanical Gardens

"There, There my lovelies," Aspen coddled her carnivorous planets while teasing them with the remains of a dismembered body. She personally didn't kill them; rather, she attracted them to the Garden with the tantalizing smell of her Marijuana Mist, her plants finished them off.

The Plants spoke to her, and they told her to remain in "Plant Form" because of some virus infecting the population--Served them right. For years, she preached the horrors of Global Warming and how the Polar Icecaps' melting would release ancient virus' long thought to be extinct. They didn't listen, and now they were scrambling to find a vaccine. What she considered to be laughable was that they thought she was going to help. Why else would they enter the botanical gardens?

@isei_knightfall First a man, one she'd never seen before, she held off her attack plants in an attempt to see what his motives were; however, not long after he arrived, @honor_girl and an unknown woman arrived.

She remembered Honor Girl from the attack on Valor City; that little brat managed to force her into a retreat. They employed tactics that would see them get the drop, but how could you surprise a woman that talked to plants.

From the top of a massive sequoia, the Marijuana Mistress descended entangled in vines littered with thorns.

"How arrogant are you humans to believe that I would willingly help you?" She scoffed, eying the two of them with disgust but very much aware of the third on top.

"And how stupid of all of you to believe that I would stay HERE on my own accord."

She knew confusion was to follow, but as good as hunters as they thought they were, they'd failed to make out the Agents of the Order that'd strategically been watching the garden since before their arrival.

"Not only have you foolishly endangered yourself, but now you've endangered me too."

No sooner than she finished her statement, several smoke canisters were lobbed into the botanical gardens filling the entire containment with dense black smoke.

Belle was the Order's trap; as long as they knew where she was, they could pick off anyone trying to craft a vaccine. 5 of them entered from the front wearing heat signature goggles, while 5 more entered from the back. Gunfire erupts from seemingly every direction, but the Chloroplast Queen wrapped herself in a massive rosebud before ascending to the top of the Garden.

They'd provided her with a diversion to escape the Order's surveillance, breaking through the roof, she sought to fling So-So into the greenhouse using her vines so she could make an escape.

@catalina_liafador:

Ashley’s eyes looked over at the monitor she was connected to and could see her vitals falling. Blood pressure dropping, heart rate spiking to compensate and she had agonal respiration. Sh!t sh!t sh!t sh!t… she was going to lose her. “Get the pads on her!” Ashley demanded

"Just...kill..me..." She could see her veins pulsating, her eyes turning red. This wasn’t looking good. Not at all. Even if the girls find Belladonna it wouldn’t matter… Catalina was going down and fast. “M....ri”

“Sorry Ms. Liafador, but you’re not going to die without a fight.” Ashley got the area sterilized with drapes as she got her own gown on. The nurses slapped the Defibrillation pads on her as she watched Catalina drift off from the sedatives. “Alright, let’s go!” Ashley quickly pulled up the catheter for the subclavian central line after pulling on her sterilized gloves. She got the needle ready to feed in the line as she palpated along her clavicle before she felt it. She grabbed her needle and began to carefully but swiftly insert the needle into her neck. Injecting a small amount of saline into the body before pulling back to show blood. She was in the large vein that ran directly to the heart. Using the catheter she began to slip it through the opening of the back of the syringe and began to guild it through. The catheter had to make it all the way to the heart.

Dr. Dickerson was using an ultrasound to help guild Knightfall as the two of them watched the screen. The catheter was slowly being threaded through and soon enough… “Got it!” Dr. Dickerson smiled as he reached out to the nurse for a bag of fluids and a bag of Cytokines as he hooked them up to the triple lumen catheter so they could be administered at the same time. Ashley didn’t know if it would help, but she would be damned if she didn’t try.

“Get me the CDC.” Ashley couldn’t ignore the different symptoms that she could see Catalina experiencing. It was much different than what the other positive patients were showing. “Dr. Dickerson I think the patient can benefit from some more sedatives and acetaminophen. What do you think?” She ripped off her sterile gown and threw it in the contamination bin.

“Of course, Nurse-!” Doctor Dickerson began placing verbal orders on the patient.

Grasping the phone from the nurse she took in a sharp breath, looking at Cat’s vitals. “Yes? Hello, my name is Doctor Ashley Knightfall, I’m over at the Knightfall Emergency Care Clinic in Gothic City. I need to report unusual symptoms for the CR-833 in a super-powered patient. Actually… a divine patient…” This was bad, very bad. It couldn't be that the virus was... no... it couldn't... right?

Daytonville--Birth of the Dayton Defenders

"So let me see if I understand this correctly. Zeon killed me; you brought me back? And now I have a High chance of dying again." Chance questioned with her hands forced across her chest.

Mari nodded; she wanted to say sorry, but it'd ultimately amount to nothing. Despite not having confirmed cases of the Sapien Flu (The Flu is on Gato Island, which is isolated), Daytonville took action by shutting down its borders, flights to and from the Island were canceled, and for the time being, ferries between Islands was canceled.

"Who the fork is that?" Chance asked, pointing in the Platinum Assassin's direction, seemingly in a trance on the other side of the room. "That's Lethal Weapon X or Cassia. We went to the Academy with each other. We also go to Daytonville High together. She's apparently homeless. So I'm letting her stay here for a while."

"Holy shit, her name's Lethal Weapon. I totally thought Quiver was a badass name, but lethal weapon is so much cooler." Chance responded; she was about to fire off into one of her trademarked rants, but Cassia closed the distance and put her finger inside Chance's mouth. Chance spit out the girl's finger, her eyes spelled confusion, but before anything else could manifest, Mari Interrupted.

"Ah yeah, I forgot to mention she's a bit eccentric. and a little psychotic." The last bit caused Chance to move closer to Mari, who was undoubtedly the stronger of the three. "Why is she in your house" Chance whispered. The two cousins exchanged heated, hushed commentary until X turned up a breaking news report.

“Selebrity member and daughter of the passed Ziccarra Liafador, Catalina Liafador, fainted during a car chase in New York City. Sources say that she was tested positive for Sapian Flu and was transferred via jet to Gothic Cities Knightfall Emergency Care Center and is now under the care of Millionaire Doctor Ashley Knightfall. We will keep you up to date on this breaking news coverage

Mari's heart sunk. "Oh no, no, no, no, no," She murmured frantically. The last time she saw her mother, Mari defiantly entered the Multiverse. Guilt eclipsed her heart, pushing away from the table, Mari prepared to teleport out, that is, until she was stopped by Chance.

"Hey kid, you're not thinking about going to her, are you? You can't. You'll get sick yourself." First, there was anger, but she couldn't be angry at Chance, not for something she chose to do. Chance was right, but that's when a light-bulb went off in her head. This is what happened to Earth-833. The Sapien Flu, it killed them all. But their flu wasn't anything like the one plaguing this world. "I-I disobeyed my mom. I went into the multiverse with Samson Starr against her wishes. I knew I shouldn't have, but I did it anyway. In that Universe, the people were zombies or something like that."

Why don't you just heal her?

X's off-hand comment seemed to resound with Chance as she concurred. "It doesn't work like that. My Mom is weak to magic; I may end up killing her. Besides, I haven't learned how to heal others, just myself."

I keep it juicy juicy, I eat that lunch, She keep that booty booty, she keep that plump, That natural beauty beauty, yeah, yeah, If you could see it from the front, wait 'til you see it from the back, back, back, back, back.

The two cousins paused for a moment to look over at X, who'd cut on youtube while the two talked. Chance looked in X's direction and pointed for her to put the remote down.

"This doesn't make any sense. This Virus was human-made; if it were going to turn everyone into Zombies, then why hasn't it done it already?"

Chance didn't know; she only wanted to keep her cousin safe. But her concern was all she could really offer. "Mari..." Chance said, placing her hand on her cousin's shoulder, that is, until they were interrupted again.

When you walk away, you don't hear me say "Please, oh baby, don't go."

Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go

Chance eyed X again, but the Platinum Assassin thew up her hands in protest. "It was my phone. Apparently, I missed a call."

The message was from So-So, no, not So-So; it was from Ca'ra Knightfall. Ca'ra was the daughter of Isadora Lebeau. (Knightfall/Liafador) Mari's mother, Catalina, took in Ca'ra, and without warning, the young assassin abandoned them, now she was claiming she wanted to help. "Who is it?" Chance asked. "It's no one."

I know that person!"

X shouted from the back. Chance shook before finally saying what she needed to her cousin. "When I left home, I got into a huge argument with my mom. I said horrible things to her. I never got the chance to apologize. I don't want you to go, mostly because that means I'll be stuck here with her." Once again, the two cousins paused as they glanced back at the unhinged X. "But I know I can't stop you, so go to her."

Mari stepped away from Chance and nodded, throwing her hands up; a dark aura came over he- "Are we sure she's not going to try and kill me?" Chance interrupted before Mari had the opportunity to disappear. "Cassia...don't you lay a hand on my cousin here."

Or finger, or bladeninjastarpistolorwhateverotherdeviceyoumighthave

In one fell swoop, Mari was gone. She needed to take the samples found in the multiverse to Ashley and visit her mother.

"Ummm, where do you think you're going," Chance asked, watching as X placed on a custom.

"Well, Luck, The Horny Goddess is gone. Which means no one is protecting Daytonville."

X's accurate assessment of Catalina and the situation in Daytonville brought a curious brow to Chance's face.

"But first, I have to go visit my brother. Or he'll get mad."

Chance's head shook in confusion. "You have a brother? shouldn't you bring him here?" Chance asked, removing her own Red Cardinal uniform prepared to go with X.

"I'm pretty sure desecrating a grave is a capital offense here in Daytonville. Otherwise, I would have" X's response cause Chance to massage her temples; this girl was batshit crazy. But SHE was going out with her. Even still, Chance understood, she too lost her brother.

"He wasn't my real brother. Just a kid that looked up to me in the program," The boy had been sent on a suicide mission somewhere in South Africa, such as the way of the Lethal Weapon program. She didn't get close to people, it was easier when they died; the last person she could fully remember caring about was Albert back in the Academy.

"How did your brother die?" Chance asked curiously.

"My mother sent him to his death."

And with that Lethal Weapon and Quiver took to the streets of Daytonville in Catalina's absence.

@ada_guillaume:

◈◈ Hotel ◈◈

In the chandelier-lit hallway, bullets rolled down a tiled floor, glinting alongside shards of broken lamps and shattered glass. Yet as gunmen groaned out the black sea of unconsciousness, Sig emerged from the shifting folds of spacetime. Eyes of molten iron passed over the criminals struggling at his feet, and the deep thrum of his rocky voice drowned out the chorus of pain and confusion escaping them.

"Who sent you?", Sig asked, the gravitas behind his words reverberating in their chests. Yet as they met his eyes, they held their tongues in defiance. Stepping forward, the Blacksteel Spartan opened one of the pouches - a geometric anomaly - on his utility belt and reached inside, tossing out what the gunmen mistook for a landmine. Panic swarmed their hearts into a clamoring choir and the sweat ran cold down their spines. Easing down to a knee, Sig seized the nearest gunman by the throat, a cold glimmer running down his metal arm as he dragged his victim's head towards the faux landmine.

Shoving the man's face into it, the seconds ticked away, yet no explosion tore the air asunder. Instead, a tide of fine electromagnetic fields washed over the gunman's brain, sparking neural induction at maddening voxel densities and unleashing Fenris - a hypnagogic beast, a craftily constructed probing program - on his mind. Lulling him into a slumber, Fenris lanced through the gunman's mind, raiding its halls for his most sacred memories and deepest secrets, and replacing them with frightening apparitions of the terrors that most haunted them. One by one, Sig fed the minds of the wounded gunmen to Fenris, playing the role of silent spectator as the monstrous program extracted information from their brains, overwriting everything in its wake as it eroded their neural pathways.

A single gunman remained, and a steely resistance climbed out his throat as the Blacksteel Spartan gripped the back of his head.

"You'll never stop them, man. They've got their hands on so many triggers, you won't know where the shots are coming from".

Slowly, a small smile played on Sig's lips and his eyes narrowed in amusement, "Don't worry, son. When it's time to pull the trigger, I'll be the only one with a gun".

Under the ivory glow of chandelier light, the seconds swept by, and the last of the gunmen was at the mercy of Fenris as it devoured his memories. Minds engulfed by chaos and disorder, their neural pathways mangled and butchered, the gunmen lay helpless on the cold tiles, vegetables with neither sense nor thought. And as it had before, the fabric of spacetime folded, and the Blacksteel Spartan vanished from sight, returning to his safehouse to sift through the madness of the minds he'd acquired.

The Deities of the Omega, the heads of all the Church's covert interests, had met and deemed the blood supply of Gothic and New York to be a worthy target of their efforts. For Glost, the target seemed a rather mundane one. Why target a product that could be found in literally anyone at any given time in any geographical setting?

Still. He was not one to rock the boat without significant personal gain or significant progress toward his goals, so he sent the Silicon Edge mercenaries into Gothic, had them sign up for guard duty around the city, sans pay, all in supposed support of the Children of Omega's overall mission.

Gothic was in no position to reject assistance, particularly since the Silicon Edge Mercenary Corps. retained supplies from their failed Mars mission, ones that ensured they were protected from CR-833 so long as they topped up their oxygen supplies. This meant the mercenary company could act in place of traditional police forces who were obviously underequipped to handle the hazardous environment forced upon them.

So it came to be that small pockets of soldiers and machines were shuttled in to key areas of threat throughout Gothic, dissuading criminal activity near hospitals and aid stations. The incident at Knightfall Emergency Care Center was an embarrassing slip up on their part, but the local heroes picked up the slack where they left off.

And it was the movements of those same heroes that certain members of the Silicon Edge were sent to observe. For the Children of Omega, this virus represented a boon that could be manipulated to their advantage. The chaos of a a pandemic would breed nothing if not opportunity. The deaths of leaders, the discontent of a population forced to comply with authoritarian measures, these things brought about instability.

A quick cure would bring nothing. Less than nothing if not manufactured in their own labs.

Glost watched from afar as reports of Gothic's heroes began to manifest on his screen. Many set up around the hospitals, wary of the newcomers in heavy armor and mechanical exoskeletons, but the ones that interested him were the pair @honor_girl: closing in on the old botanical gardens, a loner @isei_knightfall joining them. Tapping into the remote monitoring systems set up by the mercenaries, Glost focused in on the interaction, listened as a villain @xxbelladonnaxx:there taunted them with a cure they would never extract from her. It was enough. Such a threat had to be acted on.

He contacted the sleeper cell he'd implanted in the Silicon Edge, a trio of soldiers loyal to the Children of Omega above all others.

"Matsuda. Botanical Gardens. Take your unit in. No uniforms, no survivors."

"Understood."

Wordlessly, the three men of the RE:SIN Soldier unit slipped from their patrol pattern, circling through an alley and dumping their uniforms for later retrieval. In their place, they donned a much more covert synthetic vibranium armor, provided courtesy of the Children of Omega. Attired in much more suitable wear and unrecognizable to their allies, the trio slinked along Gothic's dimly lit streets, searching for the means to exterminate whatever pests they might find in the gardens.

The first step was simple enough. The three stole a pickup truck en route to the gardens. A relatively sturdy thing, but old. Prone to malfunction. This gave Matsuda an idea. Reacting to the firing neurons mirrored in his own mind, Cyrus Lerner, RE:SIN Unit 2, swerved off the road and into one of Gothic's many dingy gas stations.

There they filled the truck up with gasoline. Not just the tank, but a good portion of the truck’s bed as well. It sloshed and spilled as they pulled away, but the attendant at the station knew better than to question a heavily armed gang rampaging through Gothic.

Plus, they paid in cash.

The idea was for Matsuda to speed the truck into the botanical gardens, leaping out before the pickup impacted, whereupon Jason Cairn, RE:SIN 3 (the unit’s explosive expert), would open fire with an incendiary grenade launcher, igniting the truck and its contents in an attempt to engulf the entire building in flames, prompting those inside to make a quick exit.

Meanwhile, RE:SIN 2, the unit’s marksman, would be set up on a nearby rooftop. From there he would make sure nothing escaped from the rear exits while RE:SIN 1 and 3 did much the same, killing anyone and anything fleeing through the front entrance.

A fine plan in theory, but it was all meaningless if the truck never made it through the doors. Kellan stared at the entrance until the thoughts manifested in the minds of his allies, and so his own.

Unit 3, Ready
Unit 2, Ready

Unit 1, Ready. Accelerating.
Five seconds to impact.
Four...
Three...

@isei_knightfall: @xxbelladonnaxx: @humansfirst: @

Oh this was bad. This was bad this was bad this was bad this was bad this was bad this was bad THIS WAS REALLY BAD!

That’s all that went through Nicole’s mind as Belladonna spoke to them. This was a trap! Crap! She should have thought that! Why didn’t So-so think of that!? She was the ninja! And who was this other guy here!? Before Nicole could open her mouth to speak, black smoke filled the area. Thankfully she wore her full mask, so her thermal lenses kicked it as well as the filter in her mask. Not today Satan!

“SO-SO!” Was all that Nicole could get out before gunfire began raining upon her.

So-so, who was on the top, saw the smoke go off and heard the gunfire begin. Before she could leap into action, Belladonna broke through the greenhouse and was attempting an escape. It wasn’t the clash of Bella that knocked So-so over, but rather her veins that caught her ankle. But it would be foolish to assume that would stop her from obtaining her objective. Using one hand she pulled her blade and sliced into the vines to cut herself free and with her other hand she used her MAG rope to shoot and pierce a line into the bud in which Bella hid in. Before she began pulling herself up she grasped a tracer and flung it onto the rosebud, just in case. She didn’t want to leave Nicole, but she had a mission to complete.

Honor Girl dove behind cover as gunshots were coming from all around. “HEY YOU GUYS MIND? I’M TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD HERE!” The teen screamed as she looked around for something, anything to help. A large vine along the ceiling was seen above where a couple of men were standing. Using her grapple she shot it at the vine and all the strength she could muster, pulled and the glass ceiling fell with the large vine, crushing two of the men. But not without her getting a gunshot into her shoulder. She grunted. Her suit protected her from basic bullets but high caliber rounds used by masked military grade equipment? Yeah… no…

She didn’t know what was going on with the other men but before she could even check, a massive explosion came from the front. Right where Nicole was facing. She wrapped herself around her cape as the flames came to engulf her. Her cape was fire resistant, but the force of the explosion caused her body to be shot out of the other side of the building. Her body flew out about ten feet before slamming hard against the pavement. She groaned in pain. Crap… that hurt… like… a lot. She got herself up from the ground and saw the entire place engulfed in fire. Her ears were ringing as she remembered… her left shoulder was shot.

“Ni-ol”

A voice rang into her ear piece but it was staticky, probably cause of the explosion. “So?” She asked trying to look around. “You ok?”

“sKsKdonna- SkSktrac-KsKsk”

A tracer? She pulled out her tracker to find that there was indeed a tracer! It was Belladonna! She needed to follow- ouch, shoot… the shoulder. Nvm that can be taken care of another time.

But then her cellphone rang. “Ugh- y-eah?”

“Nicole” It was Ashely.“Your monitor is stating you’re bleeding out.”

“Uhhhhhhh maybe, it’s fine, I’m fine and So-so is totally fine lookIgottagojustkeepsavinglivesokbye!” She dropped her phone and the moment she bent down to grab it, a sniper bullet went over her head. “OHSHEET” She screamed as she scrambled behind some planters sitting in a cement pot. She needed to get out of here but she didn’t know how. This sucked, this sucked so bad. Just then, three out of the five men from the order came out of the flames and went on the attack to those who attacked the garden. This was waaaaaaaay more chaotic than she thought it was going to be! She needed help!

@isei_knightfall: @xxbelladonnaxx: @humansfirst: @honor_girl:

◈◈ Safehouse ◈◈

Returned to the cold isolation of his underground safehouse, Sig met eyes with Safemind and an iron command rolled out his throat, "I've acquired the memories of those hotel gunmen. Have the computers open Fenris and organize their memories in a chronologically ordered visual medium".

The low rumble of authority filled her ears like brewing thunder, dragging the android to a valley where the pitch of Sig's voice was indistinguishable from law, from power. Safemind knew better than to question his demands.

"Alright", she sighed, abandoning her current research of the Sapien Flu in favor of this new task, "By the way", she paused, steering her amber gaze from the monitors blinking before her, "Gothic City's in turmoil".

"Isn't it always?", Sig remarked, the corners of his mouth twitching with subtle amusement.

"Well.. yeah sure", she conceded, her steel shoulders shrugging in defeat, her eyes watching him retrieve Fenris' hardware from one of his pouches, "But that's not what I meant. Look", she insisted, drawing the Blacksteel Spartan's attention to satellite imagery of the chaos engulfing the Gothic City Botanical Garden. As the carnage unfolded before his eyes, Sig rolled his neck to a low crack and turned away.

"I'll handle it".

"You will?", Safemind probed, watching Sig arm himself with the Blacksteel Bow, an exotic, high-performance compound bow loaded with arrows of total annihilation.

"Yeah".

◈◈ Gothic City Botanical Garden ◈◈

Armed with Gothic's spacetime coordinates, Sig lanced out the thin air, teleporting onto a wretched rooftop overlooking a city flogged by crime. A distance away from the site crowded with RE:SIN soldiers, the Blacksteel Spartan sighted the sacred glow of the quantum information flickering in their souls, like flames dancing for his eyes and his only. In the ticks between seconds, he'd identified them all. As black as volcanic rock, his was a bow that buried his foes in apocalyptic ash. Layers of molecular vibranium springs comprised its limbs and bowstring, storing and amplifying elastic potential energy to be unleashed all at once as kinetic destruction.

And its vibranium broadhead arrows were engineered to leave nothing in their wake. A sea of nanites flowed in each arrowhead, crackling with electromagnetic sorcery that nulled the charge of atoms and molecules, banishing the forces that bound matter and disintegrating it into an inert gust of electrons, protons and neutrons. And so, eyeing the souls the RE:SIN soldiers from afar, the Blacksteel Spartan took aim, steadying his breath and icing his heart. He nocked, anchored, relaxed - and teleported.

Warping a foot from his targets, Sig released a shower of arrows that thundered for their skulls, speeding through a relativistic race to erase his foes' heads from the depths of existence. Again and again, Sig teleported, tunneling through spacetime, each arrow surging towards every RE:SIN soldier eons before their neurons could fire, their murderous shrill promising annihilation at the subatomic level.

Impact.

The truck careened into the botanical garden, exploding in a shower of flames and shrapnel as Cairn unleashed an incendiary grenade to detonate their battering ram. From the roof on the opposing side of the gardens Matsuda and Cairn could hear Lerner picking at the stragglers inside with his rifle.

Matsuda riddled the now burning area with bullets as Cairn prepared to dispose of any rats that came scurrying out.

Before their plan could come to fruition, there came a sudden pain, followed immediately by void.

Lerner was gone. There wasn't time to mourn. Not even time to react. Matsuda's eye only just met the gleam of an arrow already in flight, saw its crystalline head pierce skull.

The connection between the three melted away as their very essence scattered in the wind, not even dust remaining of them. The arrows, fired from point blank range and designed specially to overcome resistance of any conventional sort, found their mark effortlessly.

Matsuda's right eye was the first point to decompose into subatomic dust, but the rest of him would come soon after. It took all his strength, borrowed and naturally possessed, to turn toward the one who killed them, and even then he only caught a glimpse. A glimpse of a shadow gripping a night-black bow in a steel laden fist.

He did not curse him. Did not resent him. His only thought at the end was to pass on the image of his killer. A waste. Those he could commune with were already gone, and his consciousness was fast fading.

Yet, as Kellan's eye met with the glowing gaze of the one who had slain him and his comrades, his expression conveyed a dim acknowledgment of the man who had ended them. He opened his mouth to say something, but before the words could escape, he faded into nothingness.

In a span of seconds, the RE:SIN unit had been dispatched. Reduced to less than ether, their only legacy a burning building and a fine dust, scattered in the wind.

@isei_knightfall: @xxbelladonnaxx: @iron-warden@honor_girl

Gothic City- Knightfall Emergency Care Center

Without warning, a portal opened in the medical center's lobby, releasing Mari from its mouth. Unsure if the Liafador teen was friend or foe, patients and staff alike ran in fear.

Not long after she made her entrance, the hospital's security guards took point training their weapons on her.

"Whoa! I came to see my mother. I also have a package to deliver to Dr. Ashley Nighton."

The Security Guards were a bit perplexed, "You mean Dr.Knightfall?" one of them called back, forcing the teen to duck her head just a bit to make out the true name on the other side of the window. 'Damn, it sure says Knightfall, where the heck did I get Nighton from' She, thought before acknowledging with a head nod.

"Dr. Knightfall is in with a patient right now. And we're not allowing visitors on account of the virus. Turn around and exit the premises now!" The screamed back. That's when it all made sense. She understood why her mother hated the Daytonville police with a passion. These fools watched her step through a portal and somehow still felt the situation was in their control—the Nerve.

"Yeah, I wasn't really asking. Neco Rosales!"Mari screamed, summoning a spell that forced the security guards to sleep. "Omigoshhe'sgottagun," She mocked as she stepped over their slumbering bodies. She placed a wind spell over herself; the wind veil would act as a negation shield for the virus. She'd contracted a form of the virus from Earth 833 when she entered the multiverse with Samson Starr. Luckily enough, she could purify herself in her void, but the virus she contracted and the one plaguing her world were two different strains. That's why she was here.

As she stalked the halls aimlessly, freezing anyone who questioned her credentials, she could hear the urgency in a couple of voices down the hall. 'Mom,' She thought, making off in that direction. But did she really want to see her mom like this?

No, she didn't, but this wasn't just about her mom. This was about the entire world. She took a huge breath, but as she did so, all the lights in the hospital seemingly cut out. 'Did I do this' She thought, realizing her powers could be fluttering out of control with her unchecked emotions.

'It's ok...she's fine...she's fine.' Mari told herself, pressing her back against a wall trying to regain her composure. Sliding to a seated position, she cupped her hands over her eyes, trying to bring down her heart-rate. Her eyelids involuntarily shuddered. Blink.

Blink

It was a split second, maybe even less, but she saw someone. Perhaps I heard them too. What did they say? She didn't know. "I just want my..." She started to call out for her mother but was touched by the staff that'd been watching her seemingly unravel for a couple of minutes. She'd nearly pushed the woman back with her TK blast. "Excuse me, Miss, but Y=Mx+b."

'What did she say.' Mari thought this was just like at the Academy. Only then, she was sure her powers went haywire because of Chaos, but this. This felt like something completely different. Someone completely different. "MOM!" Mari screamed as the nurse's trying to remove her from the restricted access area. "No! I have to get to my mom." scaring the nurses away with her unpredictable Telekinetic Push.

I'm still here baby...

It was faint and full of static, but her mother's voice cut through all the haze and chaos to pull settle her mind—another deep breath. Pushing through the door, she saw her mother sprawled out on the table, with doctors trying to bring her lifeless body back.

She'd forgotten what she came for; all she could do was a bang and scream on the other side of the glass window. Her mom was dead.

Without any outside intereference, the heist on the blood bank was a success. Yin Wei came to pick up the insider-patient they planted which was slated for release on that day to draw the attention of the remaining staff, while some of the other members used the handover to lift the hospital of most of their bloody burden. The operation was obducted without the use of any powers or needed tools. Therefore, it could easily be duplicated so long as the teams stick to the plan.

**comm intermission from one of the science branches**

"The upload was successful. Ready for world wide engangement at disclosed locations when necessary. We were also able to analyze the footage of the anomaly at the First Church of Omega. It would seem as if a Biker clad in black attire and pale hair passed and seemed to drop something off on standby only to return an hour later and retrieve it again"

Yin scratched his head in confusion as he made his way out of the hospital together with the voluntary accomplice while the other members went out the backdoor. On their way through the halls, one of the TV's in a patient's room had the news channel running. Apparently there was a commotion across the city as some Van's were running amok.

"Was it just a sightseer who was keen on viewing the Citadel in person? No... one must always expect a worst case scenario. In this case, most likely espionage of some nigh untraceable sorts."Yin thought to himself near the exit of the hospital

**comm from Yin to ???**

"Trace my steps and rendezvous with my location in about ten minutes if you can. I'm going to check something out"

Helping the frail woman in a wheelchair put her jacket back on, he smiled at her and asked her if she could do him one more favour, to accompany him to a nearby site. Thinking she was furthering a benevolently higher cause, she happily agreed. On their way through the city a crowd of people seemed to be panicked by the ongoings of a nearby event.

Arriving at the scene, Yin helped the lady out of her chair to escort her up the building for her to fulfill what he had requested of her. The crowd that was in a panic before subsided and what was left were bystanders partially equipped with mobile phones filming the events. Reaching the rooftop, Yin help her onto the ledge he was now standing at as he was intently staring at the wreckage.

**comm intermission**

"A similar signature from the anomaly seems to have arrived in your vicinity. Be cautious your excellency."

Recognizing some of @humansfirst 's signature RE:Sin's soldiers barraging the crashed building from different nearby locations, together with the arrival of the anomaly, Yin began to realise what was about to transpire.

"Can i have your phone for a second?"he inquired with a smile as she fraily took it out of her jacket's pocket and into his open, glove clothed hand

The soldiers were abruptly dealt with guided by flashes of light. Yin tried to use his unnatural ability (see power / weaknesses section) to enhance his vision momentarily. Sure enough, the assailant (@iron-warden) seemed to resemble the description. Although he tried to truly show her the cause she was a part of from the rooftops, like a flip of the lightswitch, the actions of the teleporter changed the course of her life forever. Since the RE:Sin units were a part of the organisation, Yin had to come up with an on-the-spot plan to at least ensure some intel on the attacker.

"Do you see those flames?"he asked as he pointed at them while looking at her with snake-like eyes and the expression of fear in hers"This is the fire representing our souls." slowly easing his support off of her as she was about to fall together like a house of cards "God sometimes requires us to make a leap of faith..."he took a step back off of the ledge and endedthe sentence with the last words she would likely ever hear"... and to you... I am that God!"he said as he gently nudged her off the four-story building

The footage of this was recorded while he purposfully wobbled the phone and muted the audio to make it seem as if she fell as a cause of @iron-warden's disruption. The sensationalist onlookers weren't able to film the actual push itself, only the aftermath left from the sound of her death throes together with the impact of her fall which surely even that person would hear.

While she struggled to gain balance and later fell, Yin Wei made his swift descent to the abandoned wheelchair that had been left unattended behind the crowd. Undoing his technological guise, he reprogrammed it to act as a deadly suffocation device. He tagged a singled out crowd member from behind with the maleable mask as it slowly made it's way to blind and suffocate him. He stumbled to the forefront of the mass yearning for help and diverting their attention. Yin Wei placed the mobile phone next to the corpse of the woman and left the recorded video on repeat, showing a glimpse of the supposed killer. Meanwhile the man had suffocated while people callled for an ambulance and the police.

**Ten minutes have past, comm from @tenjin to Yin Wei**

T.:"I'm in proximity together with the requested arsenal."

Y.:"Perfect. I'll try and garner attention. Be on the lookout for our bogeyman and intervene at your leisure."

**comm has ended**

"I saw who did it!" he proclaimed as he pointed towards the last location he saw the man teleport to "A man started to attack some officers stationed on those rooftops" he wheeled towards the gory scene of the victims demise "Her phone is lying beside her, maybe she filmed what happend!?"

One of the observers picked up the phone and covered her mouth as the film that was left on repeat seemed to show the woman falling due to the disruption causing her to go off balance. The teleporting perpetrator was partially shown on screen. She sent the footage to herself and some friends, and then nature took it's course. In a short while, the shared amount would multiply exponentially and it would make the local, and then national news. The CoO naturally had their hands in some of the media's presence so a few channels would also report on the three now deceased RE:Sin soldiers who were given AI generated faces and identities and labled as "Veteran heroes" who died in their line of duty protecting the citizens from "Bio-Terrorists" such as a person seen leaving the scene and the social media dubbed "Flicker-Killer".

While he passed the shocked mass, Yin Wei took off his gloves and slightly touched a few members of the crowd with his death-addered hands. They started to feel the intoxicating numbness as their nervous system was slowly being shut down. Doing so, Yin Wei personally endagered himself to find out more about the unknown man and maybe give his backup a window of opportunity.

**Comm Yin Wei to secretary branches**

"Have voluntaries without any familial ties executed in time-intervals across the globe and tie them to the anomaly if things go array here."

Waving in the general direction he had last seen the man, Yin Wei firmly stood out from a now hysterical mob which feared that the sapien-flu may be the cause. Almost with excitement he awaited the "Polo" to his "Marco".

@black_fairy:

The moment Ashley hung up with the CDC she turned to look over at her patient to find her vitals still dropping. They were giving her everything. Dopamine, Epinephrine, sodium bicarbonate, nitroglycerin, and nothing was working. She was losing her. And then… Just then, the flatline. Every doctor most hated sound. The sound that kicks in the adrenaline and causes doctors to think faster than a speedster. We had to. She could see Dr. Dickerson administered more medications as a nurse began doing compressions. Before she could go back into the ICU room her tablet began going off, it was Nicole’s vitals. She was injured, gunshot wound? Belladonna didn’t use guns. She called Nicole but was cut off fairly quickly and hung up. This was not going well. This entire thing was falling apart.

But for one specific girl, her world was about to fall apart. The lights went out but only for a few moments as backup generators kicked in. This day was just getting better by the second. Knightfall turned to go back into the room but it was in that moment she heard the heart-wrenching cries of a daughter watching her mother die before her eyes.

Her head turned as she watched the young woman push her nurse away with an invisible force. This was the daughter of Catalina Liafador. How did she get in here? What a stupid question. She’s a Liafador. What was her name? Sofia mentioned her rather frequently. Ah, yes. “Mari.” Dr. Knightfall spoke as she carefully approached the girl who was pounding on the glass, screaming, watching her mother being declared dead. “My name is Dr. Knightfall. Please, you don’t need to see this.” Her voice was calm in the middle of this tempest of a storm. But you could hear the sincerity in her voice. She would gently try to pull the teen’s eyes away from her deceased mother and to her instead. “I’m so sorry Mari. We tried everything. Please, come with me. Let the nurses clean her up. You can come see her in a few minutes if you want, I promise.” Even with the deadly pandemic running through the world, she didn’t have the strength to tell a girl who just lost her mother to get out.

Just then another code blue broke out in another section of the ICU. Dr. Dickerson could be seen instructing the team to go tend to the patient while he was helping a nurse with supplies. All the staff had that tired look in their eyes. Even with the gowns, mask, and face shield, you could still see the heavy bags under their eyes, carrying this burden with them. She needed to find a cure and a vaccine. “What is that?” Ashley asked, noticing Mari was cradling something in her hands.

Gothic City...

Tenjin's Loft...

Seconds After D.C. Incident...

Emerging from the abyss of a large wall, clad in emerald silk wallpaper, the Grim Ghost navigated through an eclectic mix of Victorian décor, futuristic devices, and electronic screens. Robotic arms descending from the ceiling doffed his armor and items, carrying them away into compartments in the walls themselves. His jet-black nanofiber bodysuit glittered as wiring reflected in the dim neon lights. Taking residence in a hypermodern reclining chair, its armrests scrolled with code on mounted black screens. A datajack cable summoned from his wrist autonomously snaked upward and connects to the chair’s interface. The wall behind him seemed to blossom into an interactive display of aqua and cool white hues layered with logographs. Speakers begin to sound in a feminine voice.

Operator: Activating Shroud Class systems test.

Mending damaged files/// One moment....

Completed.

Biological functions/// passed inspection.

All features synchronized.

Cyberoptics/// passed inspection.

Full access.

Auto calibration enabled.

Spatial optimization enabled.

Integrated Targeting online.

Cleared for Maximum Efficiency.

Completing scheduled maintenance, the datajack was retracted swiftly, fingers composed of manufactured flesh, carbon fiber and steel clutched the chair’s arms and lifted himself from the chair as hydraulics hissed and adjusted him into a standing position autonomously. Although his bionics were stable, his emotions quite the opposite, as hot-headed as when he had left the American capital. Violence was encoded, but a haphazard assassination even by design seemed to eat at his pride. The Grim Ghost’s honor was paramount and he wished to remedy it.

Katsuro would get the chance in due time.

----------------------------------

Church of Omega Auxiliary Warehouse...

Katsuro lifted a vial from its white cryonic case which expelled a cold mist upwards, his onyx fingers rotating the glass in a twisting motion as coils of frigid fog rolled off his hand. He pondered not the strangely luminescent fluid, but the nature of his sense of touch as carbon fiber layers and advanced techno-organic circuitry that granted him the sensation. Drawing a deep breath through a metallic mandible, he replaced the vial carefully and dismissed such notions as musings of base humanism. Leaving him to resemble nothing more than a somber reflection of life encased in a machine, his own person iron maiden.

That same hand shut the case, various locking mechanisms shifted into place in a whirl of metal around its rim. Adorned atop of the lid, an assortment of warning labels most prominently a skull and crossbones on a yellow shield and the word “HAZARDOUS” stretching across its length at the bottom.

“Master” a voice sounded from behind him, adjusting his herculean frame just enough to peer over his plated and coiled shoulder; saying nothing, merely a crimson stare.

The Exoarmored Re:Sin soldier continued somewhat hastily “An update: ETA on Mastermind’s location twelve minutes, we are rolling out now. We will await your orders onsite.”

Tenjin did not respond and dismissed the soldier with a fleeting hand motion.

The Renegade Reaper distanced himself slightly from the masses of personnel at his disposal, who carried away the last cryonic case and made his way towards a sullied window. Gazing out into the cityscape, towers of concrete spattered by sparse turning foliage, and listened to the sounds of six-wheeled military vehicles exited through the bay doors. Unconsciously, his right hand pressed those very same fingertips against the glass of the window as he pondered the unknown.

The short-lived serenity of his sole presence disturbed by the sound of shattering.

----------------------------------

Gothic City Botanical Gardens...

Twelve Minutes Later...

@warlock360@isei_knightfall@xxbelladonnaxx@iron-warden@honor_girl@humansfirst

Matte black military transport vehicles came to a halt on a side street, deploying specialized soldiers into the alleyway in coordinated unison. Three squads of these heavily armored Re:Sin soldiers, armed with futuristic hardware, stalked cautiously in separate paths up towards the main street. Taking positions, all squads synchronized themselves into three leads mounting their weapons along the hood of civilian vehicles, against lamp posts and other solid surfaces in the vicinity whilst the other six maintained formation in crouching positions behind them in a line. Their locations flanking Yin Wei several meters to his left while the other two squads were staggered equal distance on his right.

Courtesy of the rigorous handiwork of the men and women in the Science Branch of the Church of Omega. Their assault rifles, boarding in size to conventional light machine guns, pulsed with streams of bright blue energy in transparent blocks along the frames. Reflecting this azure hue against the grey-black armor that engulfed them. Almost in a rhythmic fashion, their weapons primed as they disengaged safeties, taking aim at any foe who exited the lush gardens doors within firing range. Yet their primary target, who had disintegrated three of their comrades in an instant, was monitored closely and they awaited to strike in swift revenge.

However, the Botanical Gardens and those who occupied it would be dealt with in kind. The hysteria of crowds wailing was the orchestra readied to be taken into a crescendo at a moment’s notice.

Meanwhile, behind Xin Wei, on the very rooftop his ally had set the entire operation in motion, the Algorithm of Assassination emerged from a long shadow as if it were the waves of a sea. Walking into this plane, shadowy wisps poured off his body like wreathing serpents as he neared the edge and scarlet eyes focused on his surroundings. Scanning objects rapidly in his field of vision. His large hands curled into fists as a tattered cowl concealed his helm in darkness, though not his optics.

Moving his hand to the commlink attached to his helm he contacted Xin simply "Prepared to intercept all targets as necessary."

Immediately after, the aforementioned internal interface announced.

Operator: All systems primed.

Bioelectrical Sensory Technology Online.

Velocity Tracking & Tactical Geometry enabled.

Terminate.

At this moment, the Ninpo Nightmare awaited whatever was to come.

Victims aren't we all?

@isei_knightfall: @xxbelladonnaxx: @honor_girl: @humansfirst: @warlock360: @tenjin:

◈◈ Battleground ◈◈

Time swept through the seams of reality, carrying the subatomic ash of Sig's slain foes to the murky depths of oblivion. But as the Blacksteel Spartan vanished from sight, wading through spacetime as he teleported from rooftop to rooftop, a voice pitched by panic and confusion reached his earpiece - Safemind's.

"Why is the media calling you the Flicker Killer!? Why is there footage of you massacring veteran officers!?", she barked across an encrypted channel, sparking a furrowing storm on Sig's brow.

"You're not making any sense, I killed RE:SIN soldiers, nothing veteran about them", he countered, crouching in the cool shadow of a nearby chimney.

"That's not what I'm seeing, Sig", Safemind insisted.

"Then install a new pair of eyes because that's not what happened", Sig paused, "I'm being set up".

"By whom? We just got to this planet, no one even knows who we are!", she reminded, the alarm in her voice rising in prominence.

"I intend to find out".

The court of public opinion was one the Blacksteel Spartan gave no credence to, for he was no savior of the innocent, only a punisher of the wicked, more cold of blood than honorable of heart. What portrait the media painted of him was of no concern, only that an enemy fresh and unknown had spawned to attack him from the shadows.

"I saw who did it!"

A voice echoed from afar, straining to rise above the chaotic choir of a raucous mob. Peeking past the aged edge of the chimney, Sig glimpsed at a man pale of skin and frail of body inciting a pack of wolves into a howl, his finger pointing towards the rooftop upon which annihilation had been sprung.

Suspicious.

Shackled by the limits of the human condition, the eyes of the common man would have caught nothing of his attack on the RE:SIN soldiers. And yet, in the street below, amidst those who lived in a city devoid of warmth and laden with crime, a man of barbed hair clamored on a wheelchair, like a heart scrambling to heat the dead flesh of Gothic, claiming to have seen what no mortal man could in too convenient a moment.

A liar.

Dragging his cold, metal hand to his waist, the Blacksteel Spartan reached into the anomalous pouches of his utility belt, retrieving a duo of science both exotic and frightening - a Stasis Gun and Fenris. By decree of the second law of thermodynamics, entropy marches in one direction of time and one only. And in systems isolated and closed, chaos increases over time, the number of possible internally ordered states rising like a tide, drowning the brain and dragging its ability to organize memory into one direction - backwards. Harnessed by the core of the Stasis Gun, it enabled a grim possibility.

Yet as Sig glued his gaze to the man, the mechanical roar of arriving reinforcements rippled through the air. It didn't matter.

He would kill them all.

Between the short streams of time flowing between seconds, the Blacksteel Spartan aimed the Stasis Gun at his wheelchair-bound foe - and fired.

A massless beam of energy tunneled out the barrel, racing towards his target's skull at the speed of light with but a single purpose behind its glow; to cage his foe's brain in a timeless void and strip it bare of all entropy. No perception of time, no brain activity, only nothing for the ticks of two seconds. Teleporting to the street below, Sig swung the faux landmine within which Fenris lurked, its hard metal edge threatening to slam into the side of his target's skull as the thrum of electromagnetic fields would drown out the sickening crunch of broken bone. Neural induction would flare at voxel densities thought impossible, and Fenris would ravage the pits of its target's brain, uprooting the information stored in its neural tissues before the final second of stasis raced them by.

Be the effort a grim failure or a sparkling success, the Blacksteel Spartan vanished from sight, retreating into the folds of spacetime and teleporting to each RE:SIN squad with a Bio-Bomb. The cell is a living computer, DNA its programming language, and the nanites swirling inside each Bio-Bomb, synthetic viruses that reprogram cells by warping DNA sequences. Each Bio-Bomb would erupt, and each nanite - smaller than the large molecules blocked by gas filters - would to slip past the guarded gates of each soldier's helmet, ease into their bodies like a demon's whisper, and threaten to flood their brains with hostage chemicals, locking their bodies in a vicious paralysis, and in a sweeping second, make statues of every RE:SIN soldier who dared thunder into battle against the Blacksteel Spartan.

Yet as Sig teleported from here to there, his left eye sighted the deathly glimmer of the abhorrent quantum information sloshing to and fro in a soul truly foul.

Tenjin, the Genshokage.

When terror flogged the mind and broke the spirit, Tenjin was its whip. His way of the sword was rivaled by few and exceeded by none. And although the ancient battlefield belonged to the blade, in times modern - now - it belonged to the bullet.

Armed with the Vindicator, a shotgun engineered to butcher and maim the most monstrous of metahumans, Sig hung back in the shadows and nary a second afterwards, teleported into range, the air disturbed by the shifting folds of space-time. Shotgun shouldered as he flashed into sight a foot before the Genshokage, Sig fired, and a wave of interkinetic steel flechettes roared towards his foe, as if Tenjin had been stripped bare and left in the heart of a hailstorm.

Each round starved after Tenjin's molecules, daring to convert potential energy into kinetic energy and incite the molecules of both flesh and armor into instability, sparking a chain reaction that would swallow the Genshokage whole, make a high explosive of every single one of his molecules, and leave ashes black and crackling as relics of his existence.

@xxbelladonnaxx

Destroyed Catholicon Lyn’s Big Grin, Gothic City

“$2500canIget$2500forthissinglerollofdoubleplytoiletpaper$2500? No? Going once… going twice… SOLD SINGLE ROLE OF DOUBLE PLY TOILET PAPER TO… SamStarrisnumber1!” She yelled out to no one in particular. She was sitting alone in front of her computer looking at the local GBay, which was like Ebay but strictly for Gothic city and neighboring cities. Lyn has been making bank the last several days selling items during the panic of the worldwide Sapian flu pandemic.

Since the start of all of this Lyn had been going around all over Gothic and neighboring cities and buying out all of the paper goods, hand sanitizer, cleaners that got rid of 99.99999% of germs and virus and even hand soap. She had nowhere to store it so she came to the old Catholicon, had her goons clean it up and TA-DA here we are! Now she’s running a thriving business! Nothing could stop her now!

But before she could check out the other bids, one of her goons came up to her. “Erm, Lyn, we got a hit on your friend. She’s kinda being ganged up on by a lot of people with guns and stuff.”

“My Salad Queen?” She gasped in shock as she jumped up from where she was sitting. “Sorry ladies and gents, I have to get running BUT Larry-you’renameislarryright?”

“I-it’s Hank.”

“HANK here will continue the auction in the meantime.” She patted him on the back as she waved at a bunch of her henchmen. “I need yall to seal off the sewage entrances within a mile radius and place explosives on them so if someone tries to open them, they EXPLODE!” she laughed as she threw her arms in the air while tossing paper confetti at the same time. Her goons simply nod their head and began going about their work.

“You.” She pointed at another goon. “You’re coming with me, grab some awesome explosives and lets go!”

Ever since their fateful meeting all those years ago in Expendaville Lyn had always found Aspen rather intriguing. In fact, she had attempted to speak with Aspen several times in the past, especially when they were both in Valor City blowing it up together but for some reason, Bella Bell never wanted anything to do with her. So she kept her distance… but also kept tabs on her, just in case she ever changed her mind and wanted to have a sleepover so they could watch romantic comedies together, braid each other's hair, talk about boys and girls and eat pizza and do each other nails. It would have been so super fun and amazing. But alas… it never did happen.

BUT NOW! Now she was about to save her friend who didn't know she was her friend... yet.

The two marched through the sewers, which were nothing but a crazy maze in Gothic. So many buildings have blown up over the years that they’ve collapsed on the sewers themselves. Dead ends and sinkholes were littered in the sewer systems of Gothic. But spending so much time down here, Lyn had it all memorized and stored up in her noggin!

Just then, the entire ground shook. Holy crap what was going on out there!?

She pushed up the sewer opening just a bit as her eyes looked out to see utter chaos at the botanical garden. There were flames, explosions, gunfire, arrows? People yelling. What the actual hell was going on? Just then, her eyes caught onto a rosebud not too far off. IT WAS HER! “PSSSST! PSSSSST! SALAD QUEEN!” she yelled in her ‘whisper’ voice before waving her arms around trying to get her attention while everyone else was busy fighting each other. “Common! Let’s get out of here!” She would wait for Bella Bell to come in with her and the moment she did (if she did), Lyn would close the lid and have her goon begin to close it with a torch and attach the explosives to it.

The now infamous "Flicker-Killer" beckoned Yin's call and didn't seem to hesitate to take action. A bit suprised by the mans cold reaction, he could do nothing but take the full force of the attack. His un-natural ability allowed him to see the infrared spectrum and sense @iron-warden pulling out an object out of seemingly nothingness. A feat that shouldn't be possible, but this is after all someone who has the means to teleport. A flash of light is the last thing Yin-Wei sees before going completely dark. Two seconds suspended in time is equal to an eternity... to someone who can remember it.

"I guess I'm home..."

He did not speak these words and yet they existed. In the mere two seconds that his cerebral being was annulled and declared non-existent, the consciousness elsewhere has awoken and began to exist again due to the nature of that realm. A miniscule timespan, but enough to insert himself into reality again before the window of opportunity runs out.

"Clone #3 is showing enhanced brainwave activity! This is a major breakthrough!"

The scientists quickly gather in jubilation as they help the newborn soul out of it's pod. The clone, still naked and covered in conservational liquids, started to stumble towards one of the mainframe computers. Taken aback by the clone's inherit intelligence, one of the the staff tries to put his coat around the unphased naked body.

"Wh- ... What are you doing?"still typing down formulas and seemingly analyzing some form of raw data he answered without losing focus"Dr. Han go back to work. I have something to take care of"

A sudden sense of dread overcame the staff as they realized that one of the clone's who held Yin Wei's complete genetic makeup also somehow inherited his memories and personality. The scientist turned to check on the main body's vital signs through one of the monitors overseeing the operation, only to find Yin Wei in either a vegetative state or completelty catatonic. How could this be?

Due to the fact that there seemed to be a fatality, the before mentioned volunteers around the world without familial standing would now be executed in time intervals, under the ruse of it being the "Flicker-Killer". Every individual who participated in the heist from before was being observed and studied for world-wide re-enactment. The multiple anomalies in Yin Wei's proximity finally showed up on the wavelength field, giving him a clue on how to deal with the grey haired action hero.

**comm Yin Wei (Clone #3) to @tenjin**

"The equipment that was handed to you also included some special flashlights that you can attatch to your weapons. Set them to this frequency and be sure that at least one person is shining it on the bastard. It will cancel out his teleportation wavelengths when he next attempts it, making the action null and void... Oh and you can mention the deaths that are going to be on his head, maybe it'll put a halt to him if YOU can't."

The Bichromatic force, counter-propagating bichromatic frequency waves that would be interfereing with the wavelengths of @iron-warden's teleportation.

"I had only planned for a simple heist, and now I've ended up in something personal."

News reports and social media would show how the hysteric crowd would scatter after a man in a wheelchair was fired upon by the feared murderer currenty running rampant in Gothic city. A helpless man, now seemingly murdered on video with a shot and what seemed to be a mine. A martyr for the Church of Omega to further their influence of the gullible masses.

"I'd love to tell the Myth that the operation already was a success because we procured those blood samples... But who can resist a good dog fight?" he thought to himself as he put on the clothes that had been placed on a chair for him

@ashley_knightfall:

“I’m so sorry Mari. We tried everything. Please, come with me. Let the nurses clean her up. You can come see her in a few minutes if you want, I promise.”

Dr. Knightfall, She recognized her from the news reports; she was the one operating on her mother. Mari could hear the concern in her voice, but as the Doctor tried to pull the teen away from the glass, Mari pulled away; instead, she places her back against the glass sliding to the floor with her shirt covering her face. What was she going to do now? She searched for years to find her birth mother, that feeling when she succeeded couldn't be replicated. They had growing pains, partly because Cat was an asshole, but So was Mari. When they weren't arguing with one another, the mother-daughter duo completed each other, but what now? Did she return to her adoptive parents? (NO! because her asshole mother killed them lmao) Her eyeliner smeared across her shirt, which made her cry more because she could already hear her mother screaming at her for ruining another blouse.

"T-this?" She'd forgotten the vial. "It's the virus..." Mari replied, presenting the vial to Dr.Knightfall. "We found it on Earth 833, Samson Starr and I." She had to pause. It was a harsh reminder of her defiance; that was the last time she saw her mother alive. "This is the same Virus; only it's worse it turned that universe into zombie-like monsters. Samson dubbed it CR-833A."

No sooner that she dropped the revelation and ear-splitting scream, Mari's head whip around to see that her previously dead mother rose. The Dead Prize Fighter had her teeth deep within the shoulder of Dr. Dickerson.

"MOM!" Mari screamed, banging against the glass, but as she looked at the evil incarnate in its eyes, she could see her mother wasn't present. This was it, what happened on Earth 833. Her mother was the cause!?

Cat dropped the doctor on the ground, his blood gushing like a geyser from his neck. "No!" Mari screamed, but she only succeeded in drawing the attention of the Deceased Goddess. "Get back!" Mari screamed, diving away from the wall as Cat's divine lightning shattered the wall that separates them.

"Get your people out of here! I'll distract her!" Mari called out, and then there was another growl. Dr. Dickerson was turning. 'It work's that fast?!' she lamented Internally before turning to Ashley. "Make it fast!" Mari opened a portal behind the esteemed Dr. before pushing her through it with a TK push, which would port her back to the lobby.

Cat lunge into the room, clawing at the Black Fairy, but Mari fell back into a portal, which positioned her on the opposite side with Dr. Dickerson. His transformation wasn't complete; she had to do something; she couldn't just that quick her dead mother was right in her face. "Ani Tempest," She barely made out as the Divine Fighter and infected Dr. Dickerson froze in place.

"I'm so sorry for everything," She huffed, allowing her TK pressure to build to finish off the abomination before she could reanimate. Maybe it was guilt, but she hesitated. Catalina reanimated with just enough reach to knock Mari to the floor.

From the lifeless fingertips of the Prize Fighter came divine lightning but the quick-thinking teen was able to send it through a portal of darkness, and reopen it behind Dr.Dickerson. The moment it made contact with his already dehydrated body, he disintegrated into dust. She had to do the same for her mother. Mari extended her hands outward channeling the Chaos Spectrum, perhaps the threat of annihilation forced the dead goddess to reconsider, because in a flash she teleported from the hospital. 'No!' Mari thought getting up to survey the area. Cat at the hospital was bad, but Cat in the world was a catastrophe. "I failed..."

'What the actual fork' Aspen thought as the Garden's immediately erupts with gunfire and well regular fire. For whatever reason, she was in the middle of a gang war. It started with the Order, but it certainly didn't end with them as most of them were dead the moment the car exploded. There were various other factions, none she recognized a few of them weren't exactly native to Gothic City, but she didn't stay to get a business card. Thanks to the annoying little assassin girl, she'd got tagged by a sniper. Had she been in human form, the shot would've been fatal, but her plant make-up immediately went to healing the wounded torso. The wound itself didn't hurt that much; what was ailing her as she gradually tried to crawl away was the dense smoke blanketing the area. It handicapped her breathing, making her escape harder. But nothing hurt more than listening to her 'children' scream in agony as they burned to death. She was going to make them pay.

All of them.

“PSSSST! PSSSSST! SALAD QUEEN!”

A voice called out from not to far, the Salad Queen nickname was given to her by only one person that person being "Lyn..." She called out weakly, making a detour towards her unlikely savior. She didn't consider Lyn a friend, especially not after getting her arrested in Expendaville, but this damn sure made up for it. Aspen crawled into the sewer at Lyn's suggestion, propping herself up just long enough to hug the crazed killer. "I'm so sorry for always being such a bitch to you," She lamented while being held up by Lyn's goon.

"It's strange. The Order clearly wants me alive. To make a cure, but someone tried to kill me. Turf War?" She thought, but quickly dimissed the notion. Then there were the wonder brats, how'd they find her. "When we get back to your place, I'll need a couple of your goons. I'm going hunting. Tonight. I'm going to avenge my babies"

@laughlyn

@iron-warden

Tenjin’s scarlet optics recorded bountiful data in but a few violent seconds, his extraordinary perception of time and movement allowing him to assess the ghastly situation in great detail. Countless duels and wars across the world had made him cold, hollow, and detached. These were not his comrades, these were not his men. Let them all die. They became mere fodder utilized to calculate the scope of abilities possessed by his targets. He found one thing conclusive, this Iron Warden would prove to be a worthy foe.

He witnessed as Sig teleported multiple times, a blur to most warriors, and dispatched death to not only an entire platoon of soldiers but to the mastermind Xin. However, this was of little consequence. Xin was just as deathless as the Digital Decimator, albeit for other reasons.

The Extraterrestrial Executioner wielded weaponry Katsuro had never seen; exotic arms that dealt death faster than the speed of human thought in ways beyond the Grim Ghost’s scientific understanding. This mattered not, in the end. Tenjin found similarities between his own style of combat and the Blacksteel Spartan- displacement and destruction. To assail foes with the unknown; from where, what angle and what with? Although their methodology was analogous and overwhelming to most, this pairing of aggressive styles would serve the Church of Omega well.

Before they would meet, Sig’s left eye gazed upwards towards the statuesque shinobi, meeting the serpent-like gaze of the Genshokage and would not find surprise nor fear.

Only a calculated rage.

It was then, that the foes if only for a microsecond, would meet face to face as the Otherwordly Onslaught appeared before the Almighty Assassin. Sig seemed to make even Katsuro small, dwarfing him in pure mass and maintaining a height advantage. The Vindicator aimed directly and in close proximity to his chest, Tenjin’s eyes narrowed just as he was to be engulfed in the breath of the catastrophic shotgun. Yet, Iron Warden came to him, into his company of umbral dominion.

Immediately, Katsuro was completely ensnared by his own wisps of shadows pouring off his body, as the barrel of the Vindicator became bright with ignition. A wave of flechettes tore through the astral matter that now composed the Grim Ghost, or rather, replaced him, a silent ghoulish howl stretched across the manifestations face and its own atoms caused a concussive cone behind it which annihilated the cement in a “V” formation.

Concrete dust, dark ash, and smoke billowed from the rooftop in the wind as the roof began to buckle from being ripped open like the maw of Hell.

Above this, several meters to the right of center, Katsuro soared in a corkscrew acrobatic motion, trails of obsidian matter dragging behind him like tattered ribbons. As his quick rotation finished the end of its revolution, Tenjin unholstered a large hand cannon from his hip, as his nearly omnidirectional vision caught sight of Iron Warden, he fired.

The GILGAMESH class firearm unleashed a plasma bolt not at his foe, but inside the tear in the concrete at a mild angle. The cylinder of the revolver spun, like a turbine redirecting kinetic force into successive shots causing the hand cannon to unleash a volley of its total payload of six bolts close to simultaneously. Total body awareness and the most subtle of micromovements in the wrist allowed for the bolts to attack the support wall beneath linearly. In consequence, the wall would explode with the kinetic force of six standard-issue M67 grenades across its surface, causing an avalanche of concrete, metal framing, and glass to descend on what remaining civilians looked on in those sparse seconds between a stand-off and a showdown. However, if Iron Warden was overtaken by the outward explosion, the secondary effect of the plasma bolts hitting the solid surface of the wall likewise released by a secondary but likewise equal in magnitude electromagnetic pulse that stretched across the building.

But, Tenjin was not foolish enough to believe the Bionic Beast would be taken down so lightly. Thus, overtaken by a Shadow portal whilst still in mid-air, Katsuro vanished and reappeared on the adjacent building, inside a small rooftop garden surrounding by dozens of bonsaied maples, spruce and cherry blossoms. Shadows still caressing his obsidian armor, lingering like phantom flames, his metallic mandible deconstructed in a series of retractions and transformations opening to view his visage of the lower half of his face. A fleshless skull fused with silver cybernetic surface wiring. His breath, although the ambient air in Gothic was quite pleasant, was visible as if it was released in the depths of a polar winter. Swirling upwards, in strange esoteric shapes reminiscent of the damned.

Quickly tossing a capsule into his mouth, with a crunch, an intense euphoria set over the Sinister Shinobi. His muscles swelled beneath his ebon armor and his perception of time and movement slowed even more considerable; designed by Akira Overdrive himself, he increased his physical stats threefold and prepared for retaliation.

Drawing his nidochi, a vibranium japanese greatsword, with a single hand from the scabbard on his back, his mandible reassembled in a hideous display of techno-organic mastery. A short draconic hiss echoed in the air as the blade was pointed at a steep angle at the concrete. He received the communication from Xin, echoing in his ears which each syllable stretched and sluggish. Such scientific advice and overwatch would prove helpful in this battle...

...but The Corpse Merchant had just begun.

@tenjin:

◈◈ Ruins ◈◈

The battle tore the streets of Gothic asunder, engulfing the asphalt of roads and concrete of buildings in the hooded vale of death. And no cloud was darker, for death was the end of a dream, a cycle. Yet when one Sun sets, another must rise in its place, and the cycle begins anew. The Genshokage had roamed the world for millennia, making mass graves of battlefields and marching ahead of the bloody mist that rolled to wherever he strode. He was the first Sun. But as he and Sig did battle under a sky grey and overcast, in a city wretched and damned, the Genshokage would set, and the Blacksteel Spartan would rise.

With a sorcery spawned from shadows and mutant gifts, Tenjin had evaded annihilation, countering his foe as a sea of destruction drowned the building in smoldering waves. The roar of a handgun cracked the air, and plasma bolt after plasma bolt thundered out its barrel. Flaming concrete, heated metal and molten glass flared in a blast of terrifying elemental force. But with nary a flash of anti-teleportation waves steered towards him, Sig vanished from the explosive hail of debris and superheated plasma. Lurking in the shadows of an alleyway as heat and smoke hissed through the air, the Blacksteel Spartan felt the sharp sting of his nerve endings in protest.

Pain swarmed through him, but the wealth of durability afforded by the organic metal webbing throughout his body was a shield matched by few. Right eye burned to ash, blood leaking and steaming from wounds graphic and deep, his flesh - were it not for the depth of structural strength in his body - would be hanging from his waist like a gown and his life would have been forfeited. But he endured.

Sweeping his gaze across the wall, Sig sighted Tenjin's soul in a rooftop garden, and his eye glinted with the cold regard of a wolf on the hunt. As rays of light slanted in to disturb the darkness draping the alleyway, the Blacksteel Spartan teleported, racing through a tunnel in spacetime as he armed himself with Nano X. A ray-gun engineered to briefly disable the X-Gene, it was the bane of mutant-hood. The cell produces electromagnetic fields, the DNA within influences the exact makeup of the fields themselves, and those same fields carry the information of the exact DNA lurking in its core.

And as the Blacksteel Spartan flickered into the garden, a foot behind the sword-arm of death itself, he aimed and a beam of electromagnetic sorcery bolted out Nano X's barrel, the fragrant air shrilling in protest as it flashed towards Tenjin's back at the speed of light, threatening to shut down the electromagnetic fields of the Genshokage's X-Gene and render him temporarily powerless. And yet, it was an attack that wrestled with uncertainty. Was Tenjin even mutant? And if so, what abilities did he owe to his X-Gene? Was it little more than a wasted effort based on a grain of information that named much of the world's metahumans as mutants?

Sig didn't and couldn't know. It was little more than a chance he was willing to take.

But as the dreadful brute warped out the reach of a foe equal parts warrior and frightening apparition, the threat of Nano X dared lead death's cold fingers up the Genshokage's spine. For in shutting down his X-Gene, it dared annul the marriage between Tenjin and the Shadow Realm, snuffing his harrowing teleportation and making a mortal of a once deathless foe.

Yet as the Blacksteel Spartan strode out the seams of reality on the street below, he eyed the rooftop garden, scowling a storm as his left eye searched the Genshokage's soul for a dim in its foul glimmer. For when he'd fired Nano X a mere moment ago, he had deployed another weapon alongside it, cast a sole nanite into the air, within which the Meta-Virus awaited an invasion of the Genshokage's body from the oxygen flowing into his lungs. Forged with a tough outer protein shell, the Meta-Virus would spark a whirlwind of auto-immune responses, whispering into the immune system's ear and deceiving it into taking up arms against the body.

The Genshokage's own cells would be mistaken for pathogens, and a fatal cytokine storm would ravage him from the inside, annihilating every single one of his cells as the Meta-Virus aimed his immune system at his body like the Grim Reaper claiming a soul with a swing of his scythe. And as time swept by, the virus would grow bolder, hijacking the metabolism and protein-producing organelles of cells to multiply without end until Tenjin's body was flooded and fatally corrupted, becoming more virus than Genshokage.

An end cruel and twisted for he whose blade had tasted blood for more than a lifetime.

Earth-6 (Following Our World's at War) Pax Africana

Thee Champion of Earth 6 returned home to see that her National African Army pushed back to separatist without her. However, it was largely due to the Yellow Impurity running distraction that Africa could push back the Separatist. The conflict in the Nu brought visible changes to her Universe, namely the Asian Coalition and Europa.

Instead of a Unified Continents, the people voted to revert to their Pre-War nationalities. It was a choice that would take years to enact, but the young African Leader wasn't sold on the idea of state sovereignty.

"My Queen, Europa, has reported that it plans to relinquish control over lands that once belonged to the Brits, The Germans, The Austrians, and the Italians. Additionally, The Asian Coalition has relinquished control over Japan and India." She could hear her advisor, but Zazie's mind was stuck in the NU.

"My Queen?"

She snapped out, shaking her head at the thought. "The African Union will not relinquish any nation, nor will we entertain talks of lands that were formerly belonging to those nations. We don't need them, We have everything within the union to beself-sufficient" She stood by it. This sentiment allowed her mother to unify Africa and end the 1st Authority War long before the other nations.

"All they're doing is giving the separatist borders to hide within." Though she was speaking her advisor, Zazie's eyes never left her supercomputer. She's snapped various images of the CVnU's heroes and profiled them.

"My Queen, what's this?" Her advisor asked, questioning the unfamiliar faces on the screen. "When I was essentially kidnapped, this was the Universe I was taken too. I left a few of my long-range transponders to monitor. Apparently, whatever happens there affects us all. They have heroes there that invoice the people. It's wild." Zazie reported specifically looking at an image of Samson Starr.

"I was wondering about that, but I was specifically talking about her."

Zazie's eyes shifted to the sleeping blonde she kidnapped as Trinity fought the Calamity Queen. "That's our nuclear deterrent."

Initially, Zazie believed the Ninjan Shell to be a duplicate of the woman that killed her mentor. But further studies showed that while powerful, she didn't have a fraction of the power the Prime Shayla carried.

Call it intuition, but the 20-Year-Old Leader of the African Union knew the other continents would eventually dismantle, and should one of the new nations fall to the Separatist, she now had an equalizer.

"I have to tour the union. Keep an eye on this place and alert me of any changes. With her, or the computer."

1 Month Later-- Euphoria

As she made her rounds through the Union, she was called back to Euphoria (The Capitol) by her advisor with disheartening news. The transponders were picking up news feeds from all over CVnU Earth. Apparently, a virus erupted just a month after the alien invasion. 'These people are just cursed,' She thought initially until she reviewed the catch rate. "It's almost 100%."

Despite the virus being literally a world away, Zazie's interest in the NU began to skyrocket. "What would happen if this virus somehow leaked across the multiverse? An extreme case, but what if? Those Earthlings were ill-equipped to handle the spillage of the alien invasion."

Zazie turned toward her suit as if she were questioning if it were enough actually to warrant intervention. It truthfully didn't, but she didn't believe they could deal with it on their own.

"My Queen, you aren't thinking about returning there, are you?" Zazie's head never left her suit, of course, she did. How many more Extinction Level Threats would they have to live through because their Earth-Counterparts couldn't handle their own enemies. "It's about time we establish who the Authority is."

"My Queen, if you leave. Your Transponders may not be able to get you back.

Oh, I'll be back.

She wasn't entirely sure how, but she was certain the technology in the NU was sufficient enough to build another transponder should she need it. Stepping inside the chamber, her posmium and xanthinium mixed armor formatted around her frame, before slowly humming to life.

"Hi, Mom"

Hello Honey, what's the destination.

Zazie hit a button connected to a transponder she'd dropped in New York, and just like that, she was gone.

CVNU Earth The Goddess vs. Thee Champion (6)

No sooner than the African Queen manifest in the skies over New York, she was met by the brutal might of the Dead Goddess' shield. 'What the hell was that?!' She thought, which was linked with her suit's comms.

It was a combination of Posmium and Xanthinium. The exact make up of your suit.

Plowing through the clouds was Selebrity star Catalina Liafador. "Switch to Defensive Maneuvers" The panels on Zazie's suit augmented sacrificing attack power for improved evasive and defensive tactics.

'She doesn't look good, mom run a scan and build a profile.'

Acknowledged

As Zazie's A. I began its scan, Zazie maneuvered to keep out of range of Catalina's divine lightning. 'She's almost. guaranteed a direct hit from up this high.' Zazie thought dropping in altitude to avoid being directly struck by Cat's electricity. The Undead Liafador followed and was immediately hit by a haymaker though she seemingly at it.

Profile Concluded. It appears as if this person is suffering from that Virus previously reported. She seems to have an advanced strain.

'She seems like a Zombie'

She's not, she isn't looking to feed rather spread the infection.

'Odd. Switch to Offensive Profile.' As she did so, Cat fired another divine lightning bolt; Zazie managed to catch it and send it back hurling to the Goddess. Cat's shield deflected it and sent it hurtling towards the already plagued city below.

'Ohshiiiiii,' she thought before tagging Catalina with a homing tracer.

Zazie the Lightining!

Shifting her attention to the Lightning Bolt, Zazie extended her hands to manipulate the divine energy back in her direction. 'We have to clear the explosion area.' Both Zazie had the same idea as the Great Goddess teleported, forcing Zazie to rapidly descend to escape the shockwave of the Divine energy.

Once it was clear she was out of harm's way, she switched her display screen to track Cat's movement. 'Daytonville? Where's that?

The Outskirts of Daytonville Island: Cadmus' Ship

Cadmus sat in the cockpit of his ship with his chin in his hand as he poured over the data he had collected. This virus that was spreading was unlike anything he had ever seen before, it deteriorative affects deadly and it's reach massive. For days Cadmus had been couped up in his ship preparing his body, gear and mind for the inevitable struggle that was to come; already superhumans battled in the streets turning the streets red with blood.

Tapping his fingers lightly on the armrest of his chair Cadmus would sigh as he leaned back, he had placed his hunt for his elder sister Zeon on hold due to everything that had happened recently. Though he feared that she would take advantage of the situation at hand he also believed that if she did this would be the perfect opportunity to exterminate her once and for all. He only needed one thing.

His Good Cop.

Drifting his hand into his pocket he would pull out his phone and ring Catalina's cell. The latest addition to the Liafador family would admit that he had grown really fond of Catalina in the short time that he had known her, and despite only knowing each other a short time their teamwork had been great, Cadmus had even placed his temporary base of operations close to Daytonville that way they could easily rally when the time came to put Zeon down.

{...z...z..z...} Nothing

He rang again to the same conclusion, his mouth knotted and his brows furrowed upset. She's probably out there dealing with the virus, she is a part of S'elebrity.

Caring behavior was unbeknownst to Cadmus who rarely had anyone to care for death and pain is all he had known in life, it was Cat who had shown him the truth of his blood and his family.

"Voice mail, again." Cadmus finally placed his phone in his pocket after the third call and sighed as he changed the screens on his monitors to a different channel.

At the contents of the screen He began to stare as if the glass just produced a rhinoceros from beyond it's mirror mysteries. Sparks fired in his brain desperately trying to connect the dots and instead just causing a short circuit. A short amount of footage showed his cousin clashing with an armored girl above the streets of New York flared in the Twilight Assassin's retina as he replayed the scene over and over again.

His cousins movements were off, her face pale and his eyes inhuman. "What the hell." Cadmus would start up his ship and slip out of his chair, he was almost certain that this was the virus wreaking havoc on her system but little did he know that Catalina was dead. But what he did know was that she was headed towards Daytonville and while he wasn't a superhero he couldn't allow Cat to hurt or infect any of these people, especially since her daughters lived here. He would get through to her or put her down if necessary, it's what he could see her wanting.

Slipping on his armor Cadmus would grab the Godslayer that rested beside his equipment and strap it to his back sighing as it's familiar power hummed warmly against his spine.

Climbing through the top of his aircraft Cadmus would drown out the piercing cold of the air by placing his Balaclava on his head as the plane shot towards the entrance of the city that Catalina was most likely to appear through. Never one to be disappointed Cadmus would see Catalina's diseased form and the Godslayer would slip into his grip as he brought himself closer to the Divine Goddess

@black_fairy

"T-this? It's the virus… We found it on Earth 833, Samson Starr and I. This is the same Virus; only it's worse it turned that universe into zombie-like monsters. Samson dubbed it CR-833A."

So many questions filled The Knightfall Saint’s head at once as her face hardened with a deep concern of what was to come from this virus. A mutated version of the virus? CR-833’A’? Earth 833? Why was Samson Star traveling to alternate worlds. Why did they drag a virus from an alternate world to this one? That was dangerous! Why did he take a child with him? But most of all, zombies!? What kind of zombies were they? Were they aware of who they were? Were they conscious of the decisions were they making? Were they The Walking Dead zombies on tv or the World War Z zombies? So many questions that needed answering.

She parted her lips to speak as she gently took the now priceless vial from the young teen's hands. This had to be protected at all costs. This was one of the many missing links from the vaccine. Was her previous plan to use Aspen to create a cure still going to work? Before she could utter a single word a male scream pierced through the air as the two women turned their head to look at a Catalina sinking her teeth into-

“TREVOR!” Ashley yelled at the same time Mari screamed. Catalina’s skin was still grey, indicating she was very much not alive. Her eyes were as red as when she was dying and just the way she stood… it wasn’t with the grace of a goddess but rather slouched with an untamed energy, like a… “Zombie?” Dr. Ashley spoke in a softer tone in shock.

The attention was now drawn to them when Mari and Ashley screamed and instincts kicked in as Knightfall was going to grasp the Goddesses daughter, only she dove away at the last minute from a divine lightning strike that sent Knightfall skidding back on the ground. Shards of glass embedded along the front of her body as she groaned in pain. She sat up to see that Mari, like a true hero, stood before the tempest with no fear.

"Get your people out of here! I'll distract her!"

She could see Dr. Dickerson was now convulsing much like Catalina did when she was here. He was turning too. Oh god… two zombies.

"Make it fast!"

“Of course” Ashley stood up, shaking the glass off of her as the rest of the staff were already trying to evacuate the area. “Over here!” She shouted pointing to the portal as nurses, respiratory staff, and anyone else able to walk jumped through. “Wait, the patients!” Ashley was about to go and grab them but with an invisible push from Mari, she was sent flying back into the port and appeared in the lobby.

“Umph!” she fell on her stomach as the vial rolled along the ground. She gasped, quickly pushing herself up and grasping it before looking to the rest of the patients in the lobby. “Security, get these patients to safety NOW!” She barked out as the security guards quickly began gilding the patients to the opposite of the waiting room.

She watched as Cat came into the Lobby like a feral beast, attacking her own daughter along with Dr. Dickerson. A series of attacks later and Dr. Dickerson was evaporated by divine lightning and Catalina teleported out.

“Oh no…” Ashley whispered. A Goddess turned into a zombie was now running around who knows where in the world infecting people.

"I failed..."

She could hear the guilt and shame in the young girl… no… heroes voice. Ashley walked up to her, gently placing her hand upon the teen’s heavy shoulder of guilt. “Mari.” The doctor spoke, her voice soft but stern. “Thank you.” She thanked the young Goddess. “If it wouldn’t have been for you, my fate and the fate of my staff and patients would have turned out to be that of Dr. Dickerson, rest his soul.” She removed her hand before looking down at the vile. “I’m going to work on a vaccine and a cure for your mother and anyone else who becomes infected. If you can find someone who can restrain her and her divine abilities until it’s finished we can have a chance to save her. Sofia and my niece Nicole are out there right now trying to get the cooperation of Belladonna so we can forge a cure. Is there anyone you know who can help restrain and hold your mother until I’m finished?”

The truth was that Ashley wasn’t sure if she could come up with a vaccine or a cure fast enough. But she had to try. She also knew there was going to be another component missing. But she couldn’t figure out what it was, not yet. She couldn't tell until she got the unique bacteria from Aspen. If it worked with the new strand of the virus. But she wouldn't know for sure until the others came with what she needed.

@cadmus_liafador:

Daytonville (Main Island)

Like a banshee, the undead Liafador's wretched scream temporarily dwarfed all other sounds from the main Island. There was a reason the undead goddess specifically didn't look to infect Mari or Dr.Knightfall, even managing to evade the efforts of Earth 6's Champion.

The Virus probed Catalina's mind looking for the best way to spread; it found that on Gato Island with the Mazoi. The Amazonian-like warriors were the best candidates to use as hosts because of their honed battle prowess, and they'd spread the virus across the Earth ruthlessly.

As the undead goddess honed in on Gato Island, a vessel approaching from the rear. Someone else trying to stop it from fulfilling its mission.

Sustaining flight, The Dead Prize Fighter's eyes crackled with pure white divine lightning, a sentiment the clouds around them shared as massive bolts of lightning descended all around them, looking to send the Lightning Crashing into Cadmus' plane.

Extending her hands outward, Cat's Raxius Shield and Black Rose Blade appeared in her hands. She'd spread the infection. Starting with him.

Divebombing toward the city, the fiend sought to lure Cat's cousin into the city.

@xxbelladonnaxx:@perdidacardenal@honor_girl

Yes! She saw her! Lyn squealed with excitement as she moved out the way, allowing Aspen to come into the sewers with her and her goon. Before Lyn could even open her mouth The Queen of Green gave her a hug. While a nice surprise she was still shocked she didn’t in fact try to kill her at this moment, but she returned the hug out of excitement. “Eh I deserved it.” She gave a small chuckle before the two released each other. Lyn began to lead her to her hideout.

“The Order? You’re still with them?” She knew they both worked with (kinda sorta but not really with) The Order during Valor City’s downfall. But as soon as Lyn blew up the university, she left and came to Gothic and stopped answering their phone calls. They were worse than telemarketers! It was no fun sticking around a city that was already destroyed. What else would there be to do? Blow up buildings that were already destroyed??? Sooooooo boring! “They WANT you alive to make a cure?” Lyn figured Bella Bell could be a key component in making a cure. Sure she may have just been a high school science teacher but damn it she had a Masters in science education. She was smart when she wanted to be. “I mean sure you can produce one of the key components of the serum but there are other factors that would play in like… ok if you’re involved that means the vaccine is most likely a bacterial based vaccine and those can become unstable due to hydrolysis and aggregation of protein and carbohydrate molecules so then the vaccine would render useless! So you need to keep it at the perfect temperature that’ll allow the chemicals and the vaccine to be stored without rendering it useless. So you’ll have to create a bacteria that while resistant to heat and cold-” They stopped in front of a large door. “Oh! We’re here!”

The door would open to reveal Lyn’s hideout. It was still a mess from when it was destroyed but there were still areas that one could tell it was once the popular underground hospital, The Catholicon. There were several stacks of items all around the area such as paper products, cleaning products, and hand sanitizer items.

“OK so of course we’re going to avenge your babies.” She began as she began skipping forward a bit with a prideful grin. “My men will happily fight and die for the plant life of Earth!”

She could see several of her men suddenly turn around with confusion. “Wait what?”

“You heard me!” She got up on the table that Hank was still sitting at trying to keep up with GBay. “Bella Bell needs our help to kill some people who hurt her babies and we are going to DESTROY whatever she says to destroy! She points and WE SHOOT! She demands and we BLOW IT THE HELL UP! Do ya hear me?!” She threw her arms in the air with excitement.

“YEAH!” Her goons yelled as she hopped off the table. “They’re ready to do the things Bella Bell.”

@laughlyn: @xxbelladonnaxx

So-so clung onto her line, but the minute the sniper shot his bullet it went clean through her arm and into Belladonna. It must have injured her some tendon or ligaments in her arm because she just couldn’t hold onto the line anymore. She fell and landed with a thud on her back. It was as if a battlefield broke out. One second it was just the two of them and Belladonna the next five men came in and began firing at them, then more men set off an explosion, and then some white-haired man appeared out of thin air and began attacking the men. It was just a lot of things going on that So-so couldn’t keep up with. This was more chaotic than her job in Romania.

But her eyes landed on a figure trying to hide from the bullets and fire. “Nicole…” she murmured as she rushed over to her. There was a moment of peace as a crowd of (as Mari called them) Karens had gathered around the man and began harassing him. Would she harass a man who just obliterated armed men with little to no effort? No, she wouldn’t. And they still had a mission to fulfill. But then she looked down… Nicole was bleeding. “You’re hurt.” She gently began examining the wound.

“Ugh… so you are you.” She motioned to her cousin's forearm.

“I’m fine.”

“So am I.” Before So-so could oppose, Nicole stood up and with her good arm pointed in the distance where a goon was standing outside a sewer opening. “Let’s go say hi.”

The two began running forward and the goon instantly saw the duo coming after him. “OH SH!T!” he began scurrying off, but not fast enough. With just the golden flames of the fire lighting their path So-so unleashed a throwing spoke that lodged itself into the knee of the goon who yelled in pain before falling forward. He struggled to stand but by the time he did, the Gothic Saint’s were already standing before him. “You work for Laughlyn don’t you?” Nicole yelled with So-so standing next to her.

“Wh-whaaaat? Who’s Laughlyn?” He began to sweat under the clown mask he was wearing.

“Where is Belladonna?” So-so took a hostile step forward, shoving the man to the ground with one hand while drawing her blade with the other, and pointing the tip of the blade to his throat.

“Woah! Uh… hey how about we DON’T kill the guy who can tell us where Laughlyn is?” Her voice was with concern as she took a couple of steps forward, placing her hand on So-so’s shoulder.

“I AIN’T SAYIN NUTTIN!” He yelled with his shaky voice.

“Fine.” So-so spoke as she swung her blade across.

Both Nicole and the goon yelled with Nicole pulling her hood over her eyes so she wouldn't see, but as the gust of wind faded away, the clown mask that the man was wearing fell off his face in half. Leaving a fearful looking goon on the ground looking up at the two teens. “SHE TOOK BELLADONNA TO HER HIDEOUT IN THE OLD CATHOLICON BUILDING!” he sang.

“Thank you.” So-so put her blade back as she turned to look at Honor Girl, waiting for her to say something.

Shuffling with her hood and clearing her throat from the scream she just unleashed she gave a sheepish nod of her head. “Uh, yeah, I uh, I know where it is!” She pressed a button to call her Honor Bike. At that moment, sirens for the GCPD and Fire Department began going off in the distance among the chaos.

“Need to leave,” So-so spoke as she knelt down next to the man, ripping her spike out of his knee as he screamed in pain. “Mine.” she held it up to him before tucking it back to where it belonged.

The Honor Bike came up and the two hopped on. “I know a shortcut that doesn’t involve gross sewers.” With that, the two Gothic Saints were back on the hunt.

@black_fairy@catalina_liafador@ashley_knightfall

Los Angeles, California 7am PST

It had been a month since Zoe was freed from the control of Zeon Liafador. A month since Catalina, saved her. It was… needless to say, a difficult experience for the both of them. Zoe still doesn’t know how Cat did it. How she literally pulled her mind free from the clutches of Cardinal Hell. But it was shortly after that the two had sat down and had a very difficult and painful discussion.

The couple had decided, together, that it would be best if they separated. But still remained friends. Zoe’s physical and mental health had been tested against the Liafadors time and time again but this? This was too much. They both knew as long as the two were together, Zoe would always be a target. The young hero knew this when she fell in love with Cat, but… never did she think she would be dragged to literal Hell because of her romantic relationship with Catalina.

She missed her, so much. The feel of her touch, the taste of her lips, falling deep into her gaze, the smell of shrimp-

Her alarm went off on her phone as she groaned, picking it up and turning it off. The hero hadn’t done much with herself, not because of depression or anxiety. She just felt like she needed a break from life for a bit after spending what seemed like years in hell. She still had the nightmares, that’s why she was awake. Sometimes she swears she can hear Zeon’s voice whispering in her dreams. It was hard for her to sleep.

Rising her hand up towards her window the sun's rays lit through in between her fingers and shined against her face as she gave a soft grin. She sat up from her bed, her bare back feeling the warmth of the sun as she stretched her arms above her head, the sheets still hanging along her lap. Letting out a heavy yawn she stood up and began walking to the restroom. “Alexa, turn on the news,” Zoe shouted as she jumped in the shower.

“President Glover has issued no new statement about the Sapian Flu-”

“Ugh change it Alexa!” She didn’t care for President Glover. He was a liar… but then again… what politician wasn’t a liar?

Washing her hair she suddenly heard something she wasn’t expecting.

“The Red Cross doesn’t know who stole the blood donations from their facility. But urge all hospitals and other medical facilities if they received a shipment from them, to not use the blood and instead call your local law enforcers so they can set up to retrieve it. In other news Selebrity hero, Daytonville protector and soon to be star in her first upcoming movie, Catalina Liafador was found to be positive of Sapian Flu after collapsing in the middle of a high-speed chase.”

“WHAT!?” Zoe yelled as she literally jumped out of the shower, her hair still with suds from her shampoo and not caring that the water was currently running off her body and onto her floor.

“It’s stated she’s currently at Gothic City’s Knightfall Emergency Care Center under the direct care of Doctor Ashley Knightfall-”

Before the reporter could finish Zoe had already grabbed her uniform, slipped it on and jumped out her window, and flew in the direction of Gothic City. Oh no… what if she-? No… she couldn’t think of that. Oh god was it going to be bad if she showed up? What if reporters are there? What if they start questioning her? What if Cat gets pissed at her? No! Nonononono. She was going to see Catalina, she was going to check on her and… oh no what about Mari? Does she know? Does she have anyone else? So many thoughts ran through her mind at once. Her heart was racing to the point she could hear her heart in her ears.

The moment she reached Gothic she could see smoke rising from the Knightfall Emergency Care center along with more chaos going on, on the other side of the city. “Oh no, Cat.” She landed on the ground at the entrance of the building and barged in without a second thought as she heated the air as she breathed it in through her nose or mouth to prevent any microorganisms from surviving long enough to make it inside her system.

"Is there anyone you know who can help restrain and hold your mother until I’m finished?”

She couldn't hear what the doctor said, but she marched forward, shoving a security guard away from her. “Mari!” She spotted the teen as she saw her with Doctor Knightfall. Oh no… She walked up to the two. “Mari, are you ok?" Concern spilled from her voice. The look on the daughter of Cat's face and the Knightfall Saint told her what she needed to know. "I came as soon as I heard." Out of breath, she stood as the tears that were building up were now forcefully being held back by the Fire Goddess, waiting for news, any news about Cat.

@catalina_liafador:

The beasts inhuman scream solidified Cadmus' resolve, this thing wasn't his cousin, nor was it a subject of his mercy, The Godslayer hummed brightly in his grip with its golden brilliance shining in the Fall air empowering the Twilight Assassin. A switch turned off in the Assassin as he looked at the monster inhabiting Catalina's body, his posture grew strong, his hand tightened as he observed, his body adapted as he stared. Cadmus' body was the pinnacle of perfection and while he couldn't mimic her abilities his body shifted in strength to allow him to go toe to toe with her. The change wouldn't last forever just until the battle was over and then his body would revert back to its base stats.

His feet clung to the roof of his plane as thunder began to clap with the force of mountains above him, and soon she was right in front of him, eyes glowing white with feral intensity, lightning beginning to shoot from the sky clouding his view of her and turning the infected goddess into a Spectre of Divine Death. His plane weaved through the first few blasts but as expected was struck by one of her bolts which tore through the wing-like paper. Raising his arm Cadmus caught another one of the electric projectiles on the Godslayer and slashed it away redirecting it into the open air.

His plane was going to go down and he knew it couldn't sustain flight any longer.

And so he jumped.

And with the Godslayer he flew.

The Twilight Assassin pushed towards Cat following her to the city, if it was a fight the beast wanted then it would get that fight, but Cadmus couldn't allow the infection to spread even in the slightest which gave him two options: Keep the fight in the air, or Relocate to another area. But before he could do either of those things he first had to get Catalinas' attention on him fully.

As the duo dove towards the city Cadmus' arms would reach his sides as he torpedoed directly besides Cat, and with a shift of his hand the air directly beneath her would turn explosive as the air particles turned into tiny, compact microscopic bombs which blew with enough force to level a building. While the blast was powerful it wasn't meant to harm her which Cadmus knew it wouldn't, his goal was to get her back up. Using the updraft of the explosion combined with the Virus' own downward momentum Cadmus aimed to throw her up, up and away from the city and the people below where he would then cease going down and fly up after her.

Wasting no time Cadmus would instantly go on the offensive, maneuvering in the air as he would on the ground, in less time then an eyeblink the Twilight Assassin's blade would slash through the air toward Cat's head with murderous intent, his wrist twisted shifting the location towards her neck looking to decapitate her with but one strike.

If unsuccessful the Godslayer would split apart from the hilt and lash out towards the infection as if it had a mind of its own, enclosing her in a 360-degree circle with Cadmus once again manipulating the world around him to suit his needs. If the infection looked it would be greeted by a 3-foot long shaft of promethium attempting to puncture it's way through her ribcage and through her heart.

Universe Y *The Second Coming*

The Flower of Carnage watching patiently from the confines of her own plateau from which she was the beginning and end. One Month Ago, The Calamity Queen, and subsequently, an offspring of Nordok removed the final vanguard that prevented the Cocaine Goddess from waging war across the multiverse--It started now.

It was unclear how these events would play out now that someone else sought to impede her quest for conquest, but he would be dealt with in due time.

She was pleased with the work of Ada and The Order. 'The Sapien Flu,' the thought of it nearly caused her to chuckle, especially since it was first concocted she nearly rebuked the idea. But now, coupled with a Goddess, it was a virus that could be used across worlds.

Catalina's thought being the new patient 0 brought a smile to the face of The Eternal Charlatan; the two had a past, as she was directly responsible for all the destructive actions of the Catalan Countess. But Catalina wouldn't be sufficient enough to achieve what Y had in store.

The Death of Maya Liafador proved only to be a roadblock in her eventual plans. There were others, so many others.

While most couldn't see past their own solar system, in the eyes of Y, this was a Multiversal flex toward the Ancient One. The Inorganic Tyrant dealt a card in the battle of New York, which forced Y to show she had a bid on Multiversal Dominance.

Direct Intervention is necessary

And with a command. The Flower of Carnage bloomed.

CvNU- Selebrity

The lobby of Selebrity twist and contort until the universe spits out the Cocaine Goddess in the flesh. 'Do not bow' Y commanded of Ada mentally. "Samson isn't coming," Y called out, commanding Ada to her position with a finger.

"Mister. Starr will..." The receptionist wasn't about to spew her lie. She was too weak-willed to deceive the Charlatan. "You lie." She said, giving the woman an odd look before directing Ada out of the building with a directional head nod.

"Your descent into madness will be fun to watch," Y spoke before following her herald out of the building. As they exited, the receptionist began to choke on her own tongue.

"Before you fix your lips to shower me with praise, don't you're one of the only mortals I find sufferable. Your decision to use Samson Starr smart, but sometimes dear Adaline, you must go on the offensive. Leave one of your men with me. I will take care of what comes next. Locate these two people, and keep tabs on them." Ada nodded and began to walk away before stopping seemingly midstride.

C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer enfin, mais ne vous y trompez pas. Je n'allais jamais m'incliner devant toi.

Ada's words cause a snake-like smirk to slither across the Eden snake's face. "Noted," She replied, realizing the Poetic Assassin wasn't lying.

Alexandria, VA

The weak-willed were like rodents to be preyed on, especially politicians. A little leg play, maybe some side-boob action, and the Flower of Carnage could sink her fangs into any rodent. Thanks to the attack on Catalina Liafador just earlier, and various other oddities throughout the day, President Glover rescheduled his State of the Union. For Y, this meant catching one of the 'Presidential Candidates' at his home. Ada was to meet with Samson to pitch the idea of him making a political move to delay elections--among other things. Because he couldn't be reached, they had to utilize other methods. She literally slithered into his home as a snake, before taking her corporeal form.

She'd unlocked the doors and allowed the Order's henchmen in. They dragged the couple from the bed and bound the wife and child to a chair inside the garage with the car running.

"This is what's going to happen. You're going to fork me. You will do it like you love it. Then...I'm going to fork you.

He didn't appear to understand, that is until the Flower of Carnage removed her plastic appendage. Then he understood exactly.

"Your wife and child's lives depend on it." It was a lie, she needed him dead. Once they finished Y would then kill him, his wife, his child; and the henchmen she brought with her to be discovered.

@cadmus_liafador

He followed, which was anticipated. It forced him to show his 1st ploy, which confirmed that he did care about her reaching the surface. What it didn't expect was the air to combust around it; several explosions erupt as it fell through it, bouncing the carcass back and forth, blowing bits and pieces of flesh from its body. 'RAARK!'

It lashed out as it was seemingly pushed higher up into the air, in an updraft. Dropping small bits of flesh and droplets of blood to the city below--fresh wounds. Cadmus immediately closed the distance between the two of them, sending a strike toward's its head, but with several hours to hone Cat's skill, the Undead Host teleported to insert more distance between the two of them. Thanks to his timely explosions bits and pieces of rotten flesh continue to fall from its body, opening small pockets on the flesh for putrid blood to free flow.

Much like Cat's Black Rose Blade, Cadmus' Godslayer detaches from it's the hilt surrounding the fiend. 'Rarrk!' it wailed causing the skies to shudder above them.

Cadmus' weapon plowed through the infected Cat's ribcage into its heart, opening a putrid wound that'd release the smell of decayed internal organs on impact. It's abysmal bloody stare lashed out toward Cadmus. Like splitting seams in cloth, that section of her chest ripped out sending a huge chunk of rotting flesh to the city below.

'GRK!' On her it's guttural command, Divine Lightning descended upon her body this time improving her physical appearance before seemingly grabbing at nothing.

What she'd actually did was a "TK" Pull in an attempt to Cadmus closer. At the same time, the shards of her Black Rose Blade would petal dance toward him at the least attempting to penetrate his armor so that the poison-tipped shards could begin to deteriorate his battle wit.

Like his, Cat's snake blade could act on its own accord freeing Cat's hands for usage. Teleporting to his left flank she sought to unleash a TK Blast from point-blank range.