Superhero RPG

[Demon Lord Gira]

Tenmus didn't accept the script, not by her own hands. Instead, Heng stood up and took the papers and held them for Tenmus to look over. The mayor of Los Diamantes scoured the speech carefully, eyeing each and every line, every word, down to the smallest letter. Heng couldn't make out the expression on Tenmus's face, but she didn't seem to be getting angrier, which was all Heng could hope for.

"This speech is fine, yes." Tenmus finally said, as Heng handed the papers back to Jonathan. Her hands never left the connected sleeves position they were in, and a light smile began to crop up on her face. "You are free to go and deliver the news, Jonathan. I ask a lot of you, but only because I know you can deliver. One less headache to address is something I always look forward to."

"I-if you'll excuse me as well..." Heng began to say, which brought Tenmus's attention fully back onto her.

"Feel free to as well, Heng, but if Lind is open, can you send her here in your place? I always like having a pair of hands to help me with."

Heng nodded. Thank goodness she had also been allowed to leave. Anything to be out of the way if something bad were to happen, and Heng's stomach was still uneasy, that at any moment things were going to blow up, and being at ground zero when Tenmus flipped... She hated it so much.

___________________________

The tone in Marina's voice took Alice by surprise. She hadn't heard of her being like this, but... with how clear the situation was becoming, she could hardly blame her. And if anyone could find a cure to this, it would have to be Heng. She felt sorry for Marina and for Franklin. The fact that GenTech was supposedly behind this rang alarm bells in her mind. It wasn't just the weapons to Viola they were being connected to now. It was something worse, experimentation gone wrong and turning innocent people into monsters.

Just like what had befallen Pient. To her parents. No, she wouldn't allow it to happen again, not by fell magic or by science. Her time in this world had taught her that while so many things were different, some never changed, for better or for the far worse. The same fate would not befall Los Diamantes.

"Marina, you have my word for what it is worth." She finally told her. "I'll take both of you to Heng, and she will find a way to fix this. I promise you that."

"Heng?... Right, Doctor Helper." Celine had to think for a moment before she made the connection. "Yeah, I heard she's something of a miracle worker, but Father Pius cannot stand her being mentioned. Alice, I'll make sure you guys get there with as little hassle as possible. I have a few tricks to ensure that."

"That would be very appreciated, Celine..." Alice said. While she had her own small handful of spells, none of them were capable of hiding what Franklin was now from observers, and it was a decent distance from the University to the Clinic. "Anything to hide our presence would be appreciated."

"Sure, give me like, one minute, and I can make all three of you look inconspicuous." Celine said. Neither Alice nor Celine noticed the shadows that were creeping forward from beneath Sierram the shadows slowly inching toward Franklin, waiting for the right moment to strike...

[Corzak The Mighty]

Dhriti anxiously made her way to the address on the business card Gerard had handed her, walking down the well-worn sidewalk. Large chunks of concrete had long crumbled way, with massive cracks being gashed into the structure, leaving the walkway crooked and uneven. Potholes adorned the pavement of the nearby street, with visible cracks from neglect filling the landscape. Children could be seen running about in the street, playing basketball using cheap hoops or makeshift baskets. Dogs ran amok in the street, some travelling in miniature packs. Shady individuals sat outside of run-down homes, drinking beers in yards filled with scrap and garbage.

Dhriti tried not to judge - it wasn't like she was exactly the most affluent person either - but could this "Ramon" guy have chosen a worse neighborhood to make himself at home? Dhriti knew should could handle herself, but that didn't help ease her discomfort walking this neighborhood's streets. She didn't feel like she belonged here - and given the looks some of the residents gave her, they knew she didn't either.

Eventually, she came to a small house, one that was much better kept that its surroundings. 130 Brookeville lane... this was the place on the card. Dhriti took a deep breath. Hopefully Ramon was a lot pleasant than she feared he'd be. Dhriti extended a hand and knocked on the door before waiting for a response from within.

The response was quick and decisive. "Come in," a gruff voice called from inside the old building. "Door's unlocked."

Dhriti shrugged before stepping inside, pushing open the old wooden door. The pungent scent of fresh coffee immediately struck Dhriti's nostrils; the scent was rejuvenating, but overwhelming in its strength. The first thing she saw was a small dining room table cluttered with mounds upon mounds of paperwork, pencils, pens, and manila folders. A pot of freshly made coffee sat in a nearby coffeemaker, while a mug sat on the table besides a large, scruffy man in a white shirt and an overcoat. Initially, from the position of the man's body, it merely looked like he had long, tangled hair, but as the figure raised his head, it quickly became apparent there was more to him than met the eye - what looked like long tangled locks from the top quickly revealed itself to be a boar-like face and snout, greying in the coloration of its fur. A pair of thick, horn-rimmed glasses sat above the figure's porcine snout, as his dark brown eyes studied Dhriti intently.

"Hmmm, you don't look like a client I've had before," the boar-headed man stated, tilting his head curiously before taking a sip of his coffee. "What's your name, miss?"

Dhriti let out a cough in surprise, before regaining her composure. Gerard had warned her, but she had to admit, she still wasn't ready for his appearance. "D-Dhriti, sir. Gerard sent me here. He said you'd be able to help me out. You're Ramon, right?"

"Gerard, eh?" the man said with a nod to Dhriti. "Must've given you my business card. You can call me Ramon, though my official name is 'Razorback'. Helps sell the PI angle a bit better." The porcine man chuckled, before extending a hand in front of him to the chair across his table. "Take a seat."

Dhriti nodded, before pulling out the chair and sitting down across from the burly, boar-headed humanoid. Pushing aside some of the documents in front of him and taking off his glasses, Ramon asked his vistor, "How can I help you, Ms. Dhriti?"

"I think something's going on with GenTech," Dhriti replied to the man, before producing her bag of evidence for Ramon to look at, along with showing him the images she had saved to her phone. "That explosion that occurred... nothing adds up. They say it's an accident, but the damage I saw doesn't look like any explosion I've ever seen. It almost looked like something tore its way out of the facility."

Ramon leaned in, taking a closer look at the piece of metal and the images on Dhriti's phone. "Are you positive these are from GenTech's facility?"

"100%, sir," dhriti affirmed. "I was there last night, right before that Callous asshole attacked."

Ramon's eyes narrowed intensely at the images and the sample, as if running through every scenario that could have caused this sort of damage. "Hmm... I suspect you're right. This damage is more consistent with some sort of focused, direct force rather than an explosion. But whatever caused this damage was inhumanly strong... perhaps even superhumanly strong."

Dhriti's eyes lit up. "So you'll take the case?"

Ramon nodded. "Of course. If this truly is a conspiracy, this could be the biggest break of the decade. Though I'd recommend we both keep a low profile - last thing you or I need is to paint a target on our backs. GenTech has a lot of power here in Los Diamantes."

"I understand," Dhriti nodded, when suddenly a piercing wail erupted from her phone flashing an emergency alert on the screen.

ALERT: SITUATION AT DIAMOND RING UNIVERSITY. EMERGENCY PERSONNEL HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO THE AREA. ALL CIVILIANS ARE ADVISED TO LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY.

"Ah shit," Dhriti cursed aloud. "I better go check that out."

Ramon grumbled. "I am tempted to as well, but my body isn't what it used to be." His eyes looked back up to Dhriti. "Go on, Invincible Fortress. Do your work."

Dhriti seemed visibly taken aback by this comment. "What... h-how did you-"

"Just a little skill of mine," Ramon chuckled, tapping his temple with his index finger. "Now go. I'll take care of this. Payment will be handled once this is dealt with."

Dhriti offered Ramon a bow. "Thank you! I'll keep in touch!" She quickly hustled out the door, as Ramon offered the girl a wave. As the door closed behind her, Ramon chuckled, going back to work examining the materials she gave him. His brow furrowed. If her theory was right... GenTech no doubt had something horrid in the works... but what?
_______________________________________________________________________
As Max and his co-workers worked laboriously under the sweltering sun, laboring to repair the damage to the streets they were working on, the sudden shrill screech of a dozen emergency alerts filled the air of the worksite. As if on cue, every worker at once pulled out their phones to check what the alert was about, before being greeted by the disturbing words scrawled before them:

ALERT: SITUATION AT DIAMOND RING UNIVERSITY. EMERGENCY PERSONNEL HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO THE AREA. ALL CIVILIANS ARE ADVISED TO LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY.

Discussion immediately sprung up across the construction site from concerned workers - some discussing the rammifications of this in general, others worried of friends and family who were on campus that day. Max instead studied the alert curiously, eyeing his surroundings for his supervisor. Something like this was surely a big deal. He would need to investigate what was going on to preve-

"HEY! What are you layabouts doing?!" The supervisor shouted, hands clutched angrily against his lovehandles. "Get back to work!"

Max walked up to his supervisor, taking off his hard hat. "Sir, I need to take the rest of the day off. I have family at Diamond Ring University and i'm worried for their safety."

"Bullshit! you're just looking for an excuse to skip work!" The supervisor shouted angrily in Max's face. "Now get your ass back on the line or you're FIRED!"

"sir, with all due respect-"

"Fuck your respect, Max!" The supervisor shouted back, throwing his clipboard on the ground. "I'm tired of putting up your useless, slacker ass! Half the time you're here, you're off in la-la land not even doing your fucking job, or you're half asleep! You're a useless fucking twat, Lombardo, and if I didn't have to put up with the union, I would have canned you months ago! Now get back to work!"

Max let out an angry growl in response to the supervisor's words. Clenching his fists tightly, he let his anger overcome and, in a single motion, struck the chubby man straight in the jaw, knocking him out in a single blow.

The construction site immediately fell silent, as all eyes fell onto Max in shock and surprise. He looked around as he felt his rage begin to leave his body. He let out a distressed sigh, before he said aloud, "You all have the rest of the day off."

Not bothering to see how his fellow workers reacted, Max ran off the construction site and into the shadows, as he once more became engulfed in shadow...
_______________________________________________________________________
Aileen smirked as she read the message Callous had sent to her. A little brother and ties to the good doctor? Oh, this truly was precious...

Ok. I'll check out the doctor myself. I suspected something was up there.

Taking a big stretch, Aileen shut off her music and pulled out the tissues in her nose. It was time to make a little visit to Doctor Helper...

[Breakdown]

Cliffton yelled out in surprise as he was blindsided by an unknown attacker. Before he could regain his senses, the attacker had begun putting him in an arm lock to prevent him from drawing his weapon and retaliation. Grunting as he felt the sharp pain in his shoulder from the maneuver, Cliffton gritted his teeth and dropped his weapon. He waved his now free hand in the hopes of signaling the woman that he has accepted defeat. However as he did so, Cliffton's labored panting became a sinister chuckle. He slowly turned his head to look at Blind as best he could while still in her grasp.

"You're too late, sweetheart" He grinned, his tone rife with malic.

=======================================================================================================================================================================

"Damn right you will" Marina thought to herself as Alice agreed to take them to Heng, tightly grabbing Franklin's hand in the process while maintaining firm eye contact with Alice. Franklin still looked hesitant to follow Alice and Celine, and his eyes darted between the two nervously. He'd heard of Dr. Heng as well, but the thought never crossed his mind to seek help from her during this whole ordeal. Perhaps this was for the better, as without Marina, Alice or Celine to act as a medium for communication, his horrific appearance and inability to make sounds beyond roars and gurgles could easily be seen by the good doctor as some hideous monster attacking the clinic. Once this was all over, he wanted to tell Marina how much he appreciated and loved her. She'd always come through for him and he'd thanked her countless times before, but she really went above and beyond this time. He remembered the conversation they had in their apartment before leaving for GenTech

"Where would you be without me?" he recalled her saying sarcastically.

He didn't know where he'd be, and he hoped he'd never have to find out. The only place he wanted to be was by her side, and she proved time and time again that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else but his. Almost completely forgetting Sierra was present, he craned his muscular neck to look at her as she still stared at him in complete shock and disbelief at what he'd become. He tried his best to smile with half a face left, exposing his razor-sharp teeth and trying to look as un-threatening as possible. Sierra understood the sentiment but winced regardless.

"You've uh..got some pretty gnarly chompers there, Frankie!" Sierra said through a forced smile, trying to bring some lightheartedness to the situation. She stepped closer to Marina and took a look at the present company: they had a pretty rag-tag group of folks here to undertake this mission to un-monsterfy Franklin. She trusted both Marina's intuition and Alice's word; after all, she WAS a hero, so it was only natural Alice would offer to help.

"Alright! So we gonna get this show on the road or wha-" Sierra was cut-off mid speech by the roar of gunfire from a hall that intersected the one they were standing in. Sierra was hit twice in the chest and once in the abdomen by 5.56mm rifle ammo, leaving bloody holes in her clothing and causing her to drop to the ground. Marina was also hit with stray bullets, but the projectiles harmlessly flattened against her skin even without the presence of her scales, but she was still completely caught off guard by the sudden attack and raised her arms to shield herself. Franklin shrieked as he received the brunt of the incoming fire, bullets tearing through him and shearing off chunks of flesh. He spun around to see 6 armed individuals wearing tactical gear and some sort of exoskeletons crouched at the end of the hallway firing at him with a wide variety of different weapons. Right as he opened his mouth to roar, one of the men armed with an anti-materiel rifle took aim and shot Franklin. The anti-tank cartridge slammed into his upper chest, punching a fist-sized hole through him right where his heart would be, and exiting the other side. Franklin's roar of anger turned to one of whimpering agony as blood violently sprayed from the horrific wound, showering Marina, Alice and Celine.

A follow-up shot to the abdomen yielded similar injuries, but also lifted Franklin off his feet and sent him skidding across the ground flailing. Franklin thrashed in a growing pool of his own blood, vomiting up crimson gore as the squad continued to fire while simultaneously approaching him. Bullets tore through him effortlessly, bits of flesh flying off his perforated body as his movements grew weaker and weaker. After a few more seconds of thrashing, Franklin lay motionless on the ground. Marina regained her senses and looked in horror at the scene in front of her: Sierra lay dying on the ground from several gunshot wounds, and Franklin....was nearly shot to pieces. She screamed at the top of her lungs, screamed in pain, anger and anguish so intensely that her voice threatened to rupture the ear drums of those present. This couldn't be happening to her, not when she was so close to fixing everything and putting hers and Franklin's lives back on track! She curled her fingers and looked at her blood-soaked hands in horror, when Sierra coughing caught her attention. She ran over to her friend and put her arm around Sierra's shoulder as she looked at her wounds. The gunshots had penetrated deep, and she was bleeding profusely. Marina panicked and tried her best to calm Sierra down as she struggled to think of a way to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, she heard one of the men bark an order to the others.

"Target 1 is down. Focus fire on Target 2!" he barked, clearly some sort of leader given what appeared to be rank insignias on his uniform. Before she could hazard a guess at who "target 2 was", she found herself under fire from the soldiers, who unleashed a storm of lead on her. She used herself as a shield to protect Sierra, knowing full well that Sierra, Alice and Celine would see this and realize she wasn't just a normal girl. She didn't care anymore; in this moment, all that secrecy stuff could go to hell. Her best friend was literally dying in front of her, and she wasn't about to lose another one she cared about. Marina gritted her teeth and winced as armor-piercing projectiles peppered her, punching holes in her hoodie before flattening against her skin. The combination of the stress of the situation and the fact that those present had already likely seen her withstand more firepower than humanly possible, Marina decided that she might as well put all her cards on the table. She knew that try as she might, this day would come sooner or later, and she gritted her teeth as the changes began. Her skin hardened into blue-silver scales and fins sprouted from her forearms as well as poking out from her calves through her sweatpants. Thin, semi-transparent webbing began to form between her fingers and toes, and her nails lengthened into 2 inch long black claws. Finally, red horizontal lines formed on her neck and torso before splitting open into palpitating gills. No doubt Sierra had witnessed the change, and possibly even the others present had as well.

This wasn't how she wanted Sierra to find about her true form, not while she lay dying in a pool of her own blood. However explanations would have to come later; right now she had to get Sierra out of there and then fight off these gunmen in order to assess Franklin's condition. She still felt his presence, but it was growing weaker and weaker: he was dying.

"No!!! Please God, don't let him die!! I can't lose him now, not when we were so close!!!!" she prayed in her mind. She never thought of herself as a religious person, however her people had a pantheon of different gods, and her parents had given her and her brother a basic overview of Merfolk religious beliefs. If these gods really did exist, she hoped they'd hear her prayer. Marina picked Sierra up while still using herself as a shield and ran towards Alice and Celine. Suddenly, an anti-tank round hit her square in the center of her back and sent her sprawling to the ground and dropping Sierra.

"Gah, FUCK!!!" she cried out. Marina looked up at Alice through intermittent winces and flinching from sustained gunfire.

"Alice you have to get Sierra out of here!!! Please!!!!!" she begged as buckshot pellets from a shotgun hit her in the back of the head and made her grunt in discomfort. Kruger watched as this girl, this seemingly average woman was withstanding an absurd amount of firepower, the same that had dropped her man like a sack of bricks.

"No shit...she's a goddamn Super??" Kruger thought to himself as his men continued to fire. Looks like this Op was going to be a bust from the get-go after all. Even had they captured this fish girl, the fact that she was a Super would have been completely unexpected and likely resulted in casualties for his men. He didn't know what she was fully capable of, but given that she could eat this amount of lead without a scratch meant that she wasn't going to go down easy.

[HayesAJones]

Blind paled beneath her cowl as she looked up at the mercenary's mocking words, watching Sierra and the creature from the hallway- seemingly pacified, at least until it was ravaged by gunfire- fall with grievous, if not fatal, injuries. He was right. She had been too slow.

"No," she whispered to herself in dread before driving an elbow into Cliffton's temple, dropping him like a sack of rocks. As she stepped over his slumped form, she drew two sidepieces and discharged one straight down, pinning his firing arm underneath a globule of cement-like foam. She leveled the other at the group of gunmen, firing a pepper spray capsule into their midst. Gunshots were replaced by hacking coughs as the angry orange, eye-burning gas billowed up among the GenTech agents.

Holstering her firearms, Blind approached Marina and, swirling her cape from her shoulders, offered it towards Sierra.

"This will protect her," she explains hurriedly. "It hardens on impact."

Her bodysuit had the same property, so she angled herself between Sierra and the gunmen, broadening the shield Marina's tough scales created.

"I'll cover you, so please hurry," she urged Alice. Theoretically, she was bullet-resistance, but she would rather stress test it as little as possible.

[Demon Lord Gira]

It all happened so fast, Alice couldn't begin to process what was happening, not at first.

Bullets tore through Franklin and Sierra, yet bounced off of Marina. Marina was no longer human but instead was a fish person, a mermaid. Someone else had stepped in to try and protect them. And now, Sierra was being given to her to protect, to take back to Heng's clinic for care. So many things were happening, so many events crashing into one another into a cacophony of disasters. She had been too slow to get them out of here, and now any chance of getting Franklin to safety, to Heng, was shot as well. Who were these people, trying to shoot them down? What was their purpose here, and who were they working under? She had to push these questions into the back of her mind as she took hold of Sierra.

"Stay with me, Sierra. I'm getting you to safety." Alice held her in her hands and began to run away from the area. If only she were more experienced in healing magic, but that was something neither she or Celine had experience in. The best she could do was lower Sierra's body temperature just enough to slow the rate of blood flow and slow down the rate she bled out. Heng's clinic was a while off, but perhaps she could get there in time... So many questions flooded into her mind, so many things she wanted answers to, but she had to put them on hold...

--------

"The abomination is weakened." The voice hissed in Kala's mind. "But more sinners have appeared. Those who would harm the innocent shall pay."

Kala couldn't resist the voice. Not with all the blood that was intoxicating to her senses. The blood from the monster, the blood from the human, the blood that was everywhere, it overwhelmed her senses. All she could smell, all she could taste, all she could feel was blood, and she relished it.

"Yes."

-----------

"I'll help get Franklin out of he-"

Celine was cut off as she saw the floor surge upward, shadows and blood swirling as one. The form of Bloodless, masked and cloaked, rose before the armed men as they recovered from the effects of the gas, gas which seemed to have little effect on Bloodless. Her claws sharpened, and she stabbed forward as one of the armed men. Her hand punched clean through his stomach and out the back, and as she pulled her hand back out, he fell limp to the ground.

Celine cursed under her breath. She had hoped the girl had gone back home with her brother, but this must have lured her in like a wolf among lambs. A thought struck her. The kid... WHere was the kid in all of this?

Bullets fired into Bloodless, but they bounced off. Bloodsoaked eyes locked onto their next target, and Bloodless tore the man's head off his body and hurled it at the nearest man, while she herself charged a third gunner, claws glistening with blood...

[Breakdown]

Marina was surprised when she noticed the gunmen had stopped shooting, following the sound of some kind of explosive going off. Getting up and turning around, she saw that they had been totally obscured by some kind of orange gas. Before she could process what was going on, her finned ears perked up as she heard someone approaching, and she spun around to see if they were friend or foe. She was startled by the appearance of what appeared to be a woman wearing some highly advanced suit or armor complete with a cape. She had no idea what to make of it, and she never saw anything like it outside of some science fiction movies she watched with Franklin. Marina watched cautiously as the stranger offered her cloak, claiming that it had some sort of bullet-resistant properties that would be able to protect Sierra from further harm. Given the gravity of the situation, Marina wasn't about to grill with the stranger regarding who she was or why she was here, and she snatched the cloak from Blind's hand and draped it over Sierra. Sierra moaned in pain and coughed up a spattering of blood, causing Marina to kneel beside her and put her hand on Sierra's shoulder. From the look of Sierra's injuries, the internal bleeding caused by the gunshot wounds was worsening, and she didn't know if Sierra would even make it to a hospital or even Heng's. She wasn't ready to lose another one she cared about, not after losing her brother. Not after watching the love of her life get shot to death in front of her, right as she was going to get him help.

"Stay with me girlie! You're gonna be okay! Everything's going to be fine! These people are going to get you some help!" assured Marina.

Sierra slowly turned and looked at Marina's webbed hand, then at the gills on her neck that opened and closed every time she took a breath. Through Sierra's pained expression, Marina could make out a look of disbelief. Sierra couldn't believe her best friend was hiding something this big from her, the fact that this whole time she wasn't even human. In retrospect, a lot of things about Marina suddenly made sense: Her affinity for the sea and swimming, her childhood obsession with mermaids, her dad's protective and sometimes overbearing attitude, the list went on. It would also explain why she was excelling in Marine Bio: if anyone would know about fish and the ocean, it would be a literal mermaid. Alice's approach to take Sierra away caught Marina's attention, and she nodded at Alice to get Sierra out of here and tend to her wounds. Marina's ears perked up again as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and hydraulic hissing: the mercenaries were closing in, likely to make sure Franklin was dead and to take her on next. She looked around and there were plenty of places she could try and ambush the mercenaries from, and she was confident she had the raw strength to overpower them. Alternatively, she could try and take them head on, but there was one problem: she wasn't a fighter, and the closest thing to a fight she's been in was breaking the arm of a would-be bully who attempted to hit her. These guys were likely trained killers and a huge step-up from a snobby high school cheerleader. Still, she had to try; she owed it to Sierra and to Franklin to make these bastards pay. Marina turned and faced the billowing smoke with a steely-eyed look, before cracking her neck and squaring her shoulders.

"Alright you motherfuckers. Here I am. Come get me." She thought to herself.

==================================================================================================================================================================

The gas shrouded the mercenaries and made them momentarily cease fire, the sound of gunfire ending with the clinking of empty brass casings hitting the ground. The standard-issue gas mask and goggles prevented the more damaging effects of the gas, however visibility was still very limited. Kruger motioned for his men to follow his lead as they slowly moved forward, eyeing their surroundings carefully; this was the perfect moment for an ambush. Up ahead, Franklin's hulking, perforated body lay curled on the ground in a pool of blood. Kruger was almost disappointed that this thing went down so easy; with how much the top brass hyped up its abilities, he was expecting it to put up a much better fight. Alas, the thrill of the hunt was not to be had here, and he'd simply earned another easy paycheck. He poked the body with the barrel of his rifle to check for a response, and when none came, continued forward towards the edge of the gas cloud. As the cloud became thinner, the silhouette of someone standing firm in the middle of the hall came into view, and they tightened their grip on their weapons, finger on the trigger. Soon, the clearing gas revealed the silhouette to be their secondary target. Almost immediately, the men raised their weapons to fire, and Marina lunged forward with her fingers curled and ready to claw the mercenaries to death. However before either of them had the chance to inflict any kind of damage to the other, the shadows suddenly came to life and Kruger's men found themselves under attack by an unknown entity.

"What the fuck??" yelled Kruger as in the blink of an eye, two of his men had been killed before they could even react to the new threat.

With all their training, weapons and equipment, they stood no chance against this umbral entity that made quick work of them, slaughtering them like animals. Torrance backed up while continuing to fire from his customized Mossberg M500 pump-action shotgun at Bloodless, nearly tripping over Franklin's body. Then suddenly, Franklin's eyes sprang open, both now glowing a fiery orange as The Beast took complete control, and it was angry. With a lightning-fast motion, The Beast seized Torrance by the ankle, startling the mercenary and causing him to drop his weapon. Franklin stood back up and swung the mercenary into a concrete pillar, producing a sickening crunch as Torrance was killed on impact. The force of the impact was so great, that Torrance's body had nearly been folded in half against the column. The Beast roared aloud, blood dripping from the numerous gunshot wounds it had received, as well as its nose and mouth before identifying its next target. The man who had just been hit by the severed head thrown by Bloodless barely had time to look up at The Beast when it lashed out with its razor-sharp claws, cutting clean through the operator's armor, clothing and entire abdomen. The mercenary looked down with his hands curled around his stomach as his innards spilled to the ground with a sickening slopping sound. He vomited blood and looked back up at The Beast, only to be greeted by a fist that smashed into his masked and goggled face hard enough to make his head explode in a shower of gore.



Marina looked on and gasped with excitement as she saw Franklin rise to his feet. He was alive after all!! Her heart began to race, as now the possibility of getting him to Heng for help was once again on the table. She watched as he swung Torrance into a column and broke the man nearly in half in doing so. She winced at the brutality, but at the same time she felt no sympathy for these murderers; not one bit. Hell, she was even half-tempted to root for the umbral entity that had attacked them first. As far as she was concerned, they all deserved to die for what they did to Franklin and Sierra. From the corner of her eye, she spotted the one who she assumed was the leader or commander. She'd seen him earlier, with the distinct markings on his vest and exoskeleton denoting rank. She was going to make this asshole suffer, since he was the one who gave the order to open fire. Without wasting another moment, Marina sprinted towards the leader of the mercenaries at blistering speeds. Meanwhile Kruger was stunned; he wasn't expecting the mission to go downhill so fast. So many unexpected variables had popped up one after the other that were now resulting in the deaths of his men. He couldn't believe that this..thing...survived getting mutilated by heavy gunfire, or that now some shadow monster was killing his men. Just what the fuck was even going on anymore?? He stumbled around with his weapon lowered, watching as one by one his men were killed either by the monster or the shadow entity. Suddenly, he was rattled by something ramming into him at high speeds, and he cried out as he found himself crashing through a wall and into a wooden desk. He groaned as he struggled to regain his senses after being hit by what felt like a semi-truck. He blinked his eyes and through his blurred vision, could see his secondary target on top of him with her fist raised and ready to bring it down on him.

Kruger quickly rolled out of the way, causing Marina's fist to smash into the tile floor and crack it. Springing to his feet with the assistance of his exoskeleton's thrusters, Kruger raised his rifle to his hip and pulled the trigger. Click. Out of ammo. Without skipping a beat, Kruger threw the empty weapon to the ground and unsheathed a wicked serrated combat knife from his vest, raising it and adopting a fighting stance.

"You're way out of your league here, little girl. I'm gonna make fish filet out of you" Kruger sneered and gave her a cocky smirk. In response she grew even more agitated and snarled, exposing her pointed, shark-like teeth. She raised her fists in kind and prepared to throw down with the mercenary leader.

[CamtheGodzillafan]

Screams could be heard, the scent of blood and death filled the air, the SKC had arrived and began their attack, multiple smaller known heroes rushed to stop them, in hopes of some glory, but were no match for the SKC's Nova guns. But one hero in particular wasn't attacking them, but their boss. After a short fight Cosminios lifted the hero up with a single hand on his head. "You, monster!" shouted the hero. "Am I a monster, or is it a the government that you support, no matter, neither are related to my main goal," said the voice of Frank Grand "You will never see what people like you have caused, but I will give you a hint, they will all die if they oppose me!" All of a sudden, blood exploded onto Frank and the ground, and the now headless hero dropped to the ground. "Continue the march, boys, get some important politician to ransom!" Said the cosmic villain.. "Yes sir!" they all shouted back. And began their march forwards, someone needed to stop them, or else more people would just die, and the city could collapse under Cosminios' power.

[MinorBone Good]

Jonathan grinned and put the papers back into his suitcase. Thank god he didn't have to spend a moment here. If there was one thing he hated the most out of being this persona of Jonathan, was these stupid meetings. They took up too much time, and he had to maintain his façade to just a few people. It was so dull. He much preferred a crowd. At least then some could have some smiles on their faces when he preformed. "Well, it was a pleasure, Tenmus. Hopefully that headache of yours will go away soon!" He exclaimed with joy. He shut the suitcase and made a beeline for the door.

"Oh, and have a wonderful day!" He winked at the two and closed the door after him. After greeting a few other people on his way out, he headed back to his car. He pulled out the secret phone within his shoe, he looked through any of the new notifications on the Ectoparasite site. He clicked on the most recent one, seeing it was asking to meet at Quatermain park. Seemed simple enough. Been quite a bit since anyone has asked to meet in person. Usually they would send in details and a drop-off location to keep their identity. And this request had nothing. How mysterious. Jonathan mulled on the request for a minute, deciding if he really wanted to accept.

He started to type up a reply.

Request Accepted! See you soon! >:)

After responding, he checked the site for anymore requests. None really caught his attention, besides the one thanking him for his last job. He put the phone back into his shoe and headed on home. Well, maybe he could stop by the Walkers' for a quick snack. After several moments, he was stopped by a reconstruction guard, and looked out the window. Right, this section was closed off due to one of the recent battles. He turned to see none other than Spencer, already cussing up a storm replacing parts of the road.

"Hey'ya Spency! How are ya!"

Spencer physically cringed and turned to face the bane of his existence. "H-Hey, boss!" He forced a fake smile, though it was fairly obvious. He wasn't a damn actor.

"Doing good work, I presume!" Jonathan shouted back. "Sorry about the mess, don't worry though. One of these days I'll let you get you your time off!" Jonathan laughed. Spencer scowled, turning away from Jonathan's car and began to work again, gritting his teeth. He only turned back see Jonathan's car start to drive off in the other direction.

"FUCKIN' PRICK!" Spencer nearly threw one of his tools against the brick wall nearby. Some of his nearby coworkers gave nervous glances at each other before returning to their work. It took a few moments to calm down, before an alert sounded off in his pocket. He pulled out his phone to see a text message from a news app that there was some sort of monster attacking the college. Spencer's heart sunk. One, for the people that were possibly injured, but also for the fact he probably had to clean up another mess.

"Fuck this. I'm going on my lunch break."

[Spuro]

After finishing up her morning routine, Kyra emerged from the washroom to be greeted by the purring Vixen that rubbed against her ankles. Picking up the cat and cuddling it against her chest, she made her way over to the nearby table where she had left her phone.

Sure enough, a new message from The Fly was waiting for her.

"I have a job if you're interested. High risk, but it could help in stopping whatever GenTech unleashed. <>8<>"

Kyra smiled, and began to text out a reply.

You bet I’m interested. What have you got for me? -^^,--,~

She put her phone down and began to fish through her cupboard for oatmeal, when suddenly a terrible wail began to emit from her phone, causing her to just about jump out of her socks! Wheeling around, Kyra raced back to her phone to see an emergency alter on the screen.

ALERT: SITUATION AT DIAMOND RING UNIVERSITY. EMERGENCY PERSONNEL HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO THE AREA. ALL CIVILIANS ARE ADVISED TO LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY.

“Fuck me…” Kyra sighed. “No rest for the Fox, huh?” She began to type another quick reply to The Fly.

Emergency alert at the University. I’ll keep in touch! -^^,--,~

Kyra then raced for her gear and costume, dressing as quickly as she could while her cat looked on with keen interest from the corner. It would be a bit of a run to the University, but nothing Foxtrot couldn’t manage.

[HayesAJones]

Blind staggered as Bloodless and the beast-that-was-formerly-Franklin began to tear through the mercenaries, spraying blood, torn tissue, and bits of bone in all directions. Oh God. They were killing them. Slaughtering people, bad people who would do the same, but people nonetheless.

To try and distract herself from becoming sick inside her cowl, the costumed woman fell back to Celine.

"Is anyone else at risk?" she asked the priestess, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt. "We need to clear this area before it become a- becomes more of a bloodbath."

[Demon Lord Gira]

As Jonathan left the room, Heng was quick to pack her things up and give Tenmus a nod. "I'll be back in for the full day tomorrow, but I just need to finish some stuff for tonight. I almost have the design for the tree for the amusement park finished and ready to show you."

"Right, the decorative tree." Tenmus's face scrunched up at the thought. "I had nearly forgotten that. Carry on, then."

Heng stepped out of the office area and toward the elevator. She tapped the down arrow and the elevator began its descent. Once she was out of sight, Tenmus let out pained sigh and looked back out the windows. She was getting too old for this, for all of this. She could feel her mental state tear and tug away at her with every new issue that developed, and her patience and temper were not getting any better. She only hoped those who worked under her didn't hate or despise her and understood why she was the way she was. Were only he still here, if only she hadn't lost so much to them, lost her hope, her dreams, her friends...

"Lady Tenmus, I-I have news to report!" Goldman's voice brought Tenmus's mind back to the present. She turned to see the large rotund man stagger his way down the stairs like a party drunkard, nearly tripping over himself as he ran to her. "It's terrible, it's unprecidented, it's-"

"What is it, Goldman?" Tenmus snapped, cutting off his frantic gibbering. "Just tell me what is going on, and if it's more money being siphoned from your account-"

"It's Diamond RIng University! A monster has been spotted there!"

Silence filled the office space. The few technicians and workers present saw Tenmus's face twitch and redden, and they brought their hands over their ears to protect them from what was about to happen.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THERE IS A MONSTER AT THE UNIVERSITY?!"

____________________________________

Alice carried Sierra through the halls as fast as her legs could move. There was no way she could get to the clinic in time, now with how Sierra was bleeding out. The bullets ran deep and she had no doubt they had done considerable internal damage. She rounded a corner...

And ran face first into Seisshia, she was nearly knocked back by the smaller woman. "A-alice?! Why are... Are you evacuating people? I hear gunshots."

"I need to get this student medical attention, and fast." Alice quickly explained to her. "She got shot and she's dying."

Seisshia took a closer look at the student, and a soft gasp formed from her mouth. "That's Sierra, Marina's friend... She was caught up in this? Give her to me, I can take care of her. I can help her."

Alice wasn't given time to respond as Seisshia took the wounded girl into her hands. She was about to ask what she could possibly do, when she saw Seisshia's hands begin to glow. It was a soft, golden hue that flowed into Sierra. Before Alice's eyes, the wounds began to close, and the bullets that had remained lodged within were pushed out. The bleeding stopped, and within several moments, Sierra's injuries were no more. Alice could barely believe what she had witnessed. She knew healing magic was a thing back in her world, but magic this potent, this fast, was reserved for the most learned of wizards and clerics. What would have taken her old ally Sulis hours to mend had taken Seishia half a minute.

Just... how had... Who was...

Seisshia's hands stopped glowing, and she faltered in her step. Alice stepped forward to catch Sierra from her hands, and Seisshia leaned against the wall. "That... takes so much out of me. I need to catch my breath for a moment. Alice, get Sierra to the medical ward and tell them to give her a blood transfusion. She has lost a lot of blood, and though I can mend the physical wounds, I cannot replace what blood she's lost to now. There's no other students in this part of the building, but I'll keep searching just in case..."

"I- uh, I. Thank you, Seisshia." Alice continued to move on, thankful her task was now simpler. She knew where the medical ward was, and it would only take a minute to get there. She could do this, she could get Sierra out of the woods. She sent a telepathic message back to Celine, "Seisshia is ensuring all the students in this building are evacuated. Sierra's wounds have been closed and she should make it."

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

Celine felt physically sick. It had been a long time since she had witnessed carnage on this level, and for her it was not long enough. Bloodless was a violent machine of destruction and death, and Franklin, no, the beast she sensed had taken control over that body, was no different. Both primordial warmachines which only knew how to kill, kill, and kill some more. If it was only one of them, she could probably handle them, but with both of them as they were, and the mercenaries still very much in play, getting involved was suicide. At one point in her life, Celine would have been more than glad to jump into the fray, but that was not the her that was here today. Those were days she wished she could long forget, and this was a grim reminder as to why.

Alice's message came through right as the other woman tried to talk to her. Celine turned to the newcomer. "This building's been largely evacuated of students." She told her. "But we can't let this spread any further..."

-----------

The stage had been set for her. A banquet of those who deserved punishment, who deserved death for what they were, for what they had done.

And they thought they could hurt her, with those firearms? Beneath her mask, Kala grinned. Such resistance only enforced their judgement. Surely, no one would miss these lowly maggots.

Though the gunfire did the form of Bloodless twist and dash through like a rabid predator. One mercenary had his death brought to him before he even realized it, a hand that had gripped around his neck and crushed it into a broken mess of bone and flesh. She whirled on her heels, and slashed her claws down at another who had been so foolish as to try and come close to her with a shotgun. Her claws cut through the gun right as it fired, and Kala's eyes widened as she felt her hand get blasted backward, and she felt pain come from it. It had done no damage, but the force of the blast had gone through her natural defenses.

That... was not what she was used to. And it offended her, the fact that a lowly thug, a no life, would cause her to feel pain.

With her other hand she lurched forward as the man dropped his ruined shotgun and grabbed his skull. Her nails dug deep through bone and brain matter, but she was not content to just pry his head off. She stamped her foot down, and twisted her body, lifting the man clear off his feet as she bolted forward, toward the original reason she had been drawn here...

Toward the abomination, the monster that was also tearing through these thugs. What she had at first sensed within the thing was dormant, replaced by animalistic fury and rage, the true nature of the beast. And she was going to put it down.

The Beast had just splattered a man before Bloodless slammed her own victim into the side of its head. The man in her grasp was crushed and killed within that moment, but Bloodless's hand kept moving, grabbing onto The Beast's own head. With all of her strength, she slammed him face first into the wall of the building, causing the concrete to crack and crumble from the impact. Kala raised her other hand high, and prepared to slash down The Beast's spine, to sever and cripple it on the spot...

[Breakdown]

As Brody was scrolling through more data his various softwares had extracted, he received a text notification from Foxtrot on his modified cellphone. Taking the device off his desk, he opened it and read her message about going to DRU to investigate the incident that was going on there. He already had Blind there to ensure Marina's safety, and sending Foxtrot there with an exceedingly dangerous Super present would pose an unnecessary risk on Foxtrot's life. Besides, he needed her for the monumental task of breaking into the GenTech building. Brody quickly began typing up a reply:

"Hold off on going to DRU. I have an agent on-site acting on my behalf. I need you for the aforementioned job: We're going to infiltrate GenTech and acquire a formula to stop whatever GenTech unleashed. Anything else we pick up on the way will be valuable evidence to leverage against them. Will give more details soon. <>8<>"

Brody hit the send arrow and watched as the message was marked as delivered. With that done, he closed the flip-phone and placed it back on his desk before switching monitors to one of his eavesdropping programs that listened in on police and emergency service radio chatter. There was frequent mention of a "monster" which seemed to confirm that Franklin was in fact present, as well as reports of heavy gunfire inside the campus. These were likely the mercenaries GenTech had dispatched to try and kill Franklin and silence Marina, as he anticipated. However he had no idea what was actually going on inside the building, only that there was some clash going on between GenTech's mercs and Franklin. He hoped Blind was successful in reaching Marina, and that both of them were unharmed. He was half tempted to suit up for the first time in years and go to DRU himself to ensure that both Blind, Marina, and possibly Franklin if he was stable, made it out alive. However he didn't want to play his hand too early, and trusted that Blind would be able to accomplish her mission.

=========================================================================================================================================================================

The Beast was blindsided by Bloodless, and soon found its face smashed into a concrete wall that crumbled apart from the impact. The monster snarled with rancor as it slowly turned around right as Kala brought her hand down to strike its back. The abomination grabbed Kala's hand at the wrist and applied crushing, vice-like pressure to its grip as it took a brief moment to examine its attacker. Its enhanced senses picked up a battery of unusual scents and energies emanating from the being. This was no helpless meatbag like the armed humans it had just slaughtered, from her strength to the fact that her arm wasn't immediately turned to pulp in its grasp seemed to indicate that this being was something more. The energies she emitted were both utterly alien yet tantalizing, and thus it presented an opportunity for The Beast to advance its own evolution: whatever abilities this female possessed, it wanted for itself. The flesh around the creature's jaws began to ripple and pulsate, producing a sickening grumbling sound before its jaws tore themselves apart and unhinged like a snake. The creature's mouth opened almost 180 degrees before lunging forward and biting down on Kala's shoulder with incredible force. The beast grabbed Kala's other arm to restrain her and began to chew and gnaw at her in an attempt to reach soft tissue so it could begin the assimilation process.

==========================================================================================================================================================================

Kruger eyed Marina cautiously as he slowly began to circle her, and Marina returned his gaze with one of snarling fury as she kept her fists raised in front of her. Kruger suddenly made a mock lunge, causing Marina to flinch and gave Kruger an opportunity to attack. With the aid of his exoskeleton's thrusters, he quickly closed the gap between himself and his enemy. Kruger delivered a brain-rattling elbow strike to the side of Marina's head before following up with a stab to the abdomen with his knife. However, Kruger found the knife unable to penetrate even with the strength-assisting servos of his exoskeleton. In fact, Marina barely even seemed to react to the attempt at stabbing her. He expected as much; if she could withstand anti-tank rounds, a little butter knife wasn't going to do anything to her. Marina quickly recovered from the elbow strike and used both hands to push Kruger away from her, so hard in fact that the mercenary felt the ceramic plate in his body armor shatter as he went flying across the room. Kruger finally came to a stop when he crashed into a wall on the opposite end of the room and put a huge web of cracks in it. His exoskeleton's battery unit and his own helmet had absorbed most of the impact, but it still rattled him none the less. Marina did not relent in her attack, and dashed at Kruger as the mercenary recovered from being sent flying into a wall. She pulled her arm back to deliver a punch directly into Kruger's face, but the mercenary was able to react fast enough to grab her incoming fist in his hand. The servos in his exoskeleton whined and hissed as they struggled to hold back Marina's fist backed by her superhuman strength and were quickly beginning to falter. Kruger gritted his teeth as he balled his free hand into a fist and delivered a jarring uppercut to Marina's chin, sending her stumbling back clutching her jaw.

Kruger seized this moment and ran at Marina, who looked up in time to see Kruger's fist smash into her nose, causing her to cry out in pain before being sent her stumbling back. Kruger dropped to one knee and extended his leg out in a sweeping motion, knocking Marina off her feet and sending her sprawling on the ground with a loud thud. Kruger jumped on top of her and planted a knee firmly on her chest and began to punch her in the head repeatedly, each successive blow causing a bigger and bigger crack to form on the ground beneath Marina's head. She managed to seize one of his wrists, but the other brought a fist down on her face with tremendous impact. Kruger proceeded to tear his wrist free from her grasp and resume punching her repeatedly. In a last-ditch attempt to get him off, Marina sank her claws into Kruger's leg above the knee where his kneepad didn't cover. She heard the sound of flesh squelching as she pushed her claws deeper into his flesh until she felt them scraping bone. Kruger yelled out in pain as Marina's claws sank into him, and then let out a scream of wide-eyed agony when she ripped them out of his leg. Now was her chance; gathering her strength, she forced him off of her and stumbled to her feet. She wasn't going to win this fight, not in a head-on confrontation anyway: while she was certainly stronger and tougher than Kruger, the mercenary was quicker and the more skilled fighter. Her head aching from the repeated strikes, she staggered out of the room as she began to formulate a plan as Kruger rolled on the ground in pain, clutching his leg. She remembered earlier that she considered ambushing the mercenaries before deciding to fight them head on, and determined that this stratagem might actually work for her here. If she couldn't defeat Kruger in hand to hand, she could potentially outwit and outplay him.

[Spuro]

As Foxtrot was preparing to open the door to her balcony, her phone buzzed in one of her many pockets. She removed it to glance at the new message.

“Hold off on going to DRU. I have an agent on-site acting on my behalf. I need you for the aforementioned job: We're going to infiltrate GenTech and acquire a formula to stop whatever GenTech unleashed. Anything else we pick up on the way will be valuable evidence to leverage against them. Will give more details soon. <>8<>"

Foxtrot’s lips pressed tight together as she considered The Fly’s words. If they had someone on-site already, at least someone was there to help the students on campus. It also stood to reason that whatever was going on there involved GenTech as well. Acquiring the formula could very well save more lives in the future than if she ran off to the University to help.

Biting her lip, Foxtrot relented and stepped away from the balcony. She began to write a response to The Fly.

Okay. Need me to prepare anything while I wait on the details? -^^,—,~

[HayesAJones]

"Then check the perimeter," Blind told Celine, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Keep anyone from wandering in. I'll... clean up. Stop any of the chaos from leaking out."

The costumed woman activated her camouflage, blending into the murk of dust and gunsmoke that had filled the air. The limbed blur began drifting away from Celine.

"Call if you need help," the hero's modulated voice echoed. "I'll be around."

Strafing the battlefield, Blind put eyes on the gunmen who had survived the carnage wrought by Bloodless and the creature, ensuring that none of them were following the injured civilian and her escorts first, then moving in on one who raised his firearm in support of Kruger, trying to put a round in Marina's chest to further tip the odds out of her favor. Instead, he put a hole in the ground, an unseen force knocking his barrel down. He soon followed it, a nonlethal shock ripping through his body and tensing his muscles into taut uselessness. Before he could recover, his gun was kicked away by a foggy leg and his arm was fastened to the ground with an oversized steel staple.

"Stay put," a deep, warbled voice told him before retreating, moving onto the next hired gun...

[Demon Lord Gira]

It didn't take long for Alice to reach the medical ward of the college campus. To her relief, it wasn't evacuated, as there were still several nurses tending to students who had been caught in the stampede to evacuate. Some had light bruises and scratches from being pushed and brushed into, while others had more severe cuts, scrapes and gashes. One student, a pale young man with short black hair and light yellow eyes, had an arm that hung limply by his side, and the bruise that resembled a shoe mark on the elbow told Alice he had likely been pushed down and trampled and his arm broken from being stepped on. Alice tried to avert his gaze and the sight of the broken arm, and instead walked forward, toward a nurse who approached her.

"Puppeteer!" The nurse gasped. "Why are... what happened to this student? She's so pale and-"

"She was shot." Alice quickly told her. She walked over to a bed that was not taken and laid Sierra down on it. "Seissia tried to help her, but she needs a blood transfusion. Otherwise she can't make it, and we're too far from Heng's clinic for me to get there in time. I know I am asking a lot, but please save her."

The nurse bit her lower lip, and a few others looked over at the girl on the medical bed. "We're not used to dealing with problems of this calibur, but we can try. Mary, Cela, Crea, help me with her."

Alice watched as all the nurses who weren't preoccupied with another patient came over to help Sierra. Alice felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She had done everything she could do, and had brought Sierra to safety as Marina had wanted. The rest was in the hands of fate and the nurses who would try their best.

She turned, and looked over the rest of the patients. They looked at her, and Alice felt their hopes and expectations. She took a deep breath, and steeled herself.

"The situation is under control." She told them. "The cause of this incident is being handled, and once it is resolved and no further possibility of harm is established, it will be safe to leave."

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

Celine nodded to the armored woman. She didn't know who this was, but they knew what they were doing. They were experienced and kept a level head. "I'll do just that." She said, before she left the area to continue searching around through the rest of the building.

She felt uneasy, leaving Kala to fight Franklin and Marina to fight the mercenary leader, but someone needed to make sure no one else would intervene. If a student were to wander in by accident, there was a very real chance they could be seriously harmed or killed, and Celine couldn't bear the thought of any more lives being taken in this day. Seisshia had apparently helped evacuate the building of everyone present, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She could only hope things truly did deescalate from here...

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

Kala was nowhere to be seen.

Vinnie had no clue where he had ended up. He had lost sight of Kala as she had darted toward the building, and in his attempt to chase after her, he had been swallowed up by a sea of fleeing students and carried through the crowd. With the crowd dispersing and fleeing in several different directions, Vinnie couldn't recognize any of the landmarks around him. He heard gunfire in the distance, but he couldn't tell from which direction.

"K-Kala.... KALA!" He began to call out, the sun nearly at its zenith in the sky. "Kala, where are you?!"

He saw no one else around, the crowd was long gone with any students that were fleeing long out of sight. Heng was going to kill him when she found out what had happened. He was supposed to keep Kala by his side at all times, and not only had he lost her, he had no idea what she was doing. Was she in a bloodlust killing off students who were trying to escape? Was she fighting whatever had set off the alarm in the first place? Was she laying broken and dying somewhere, weakly calling for him? Was she being captured by the security of the campus and turned over to Tenmus?

He grabbed at his hair and looked around"This isn't funny, Kala! I need you right now! Kala!"

He stopped. He thought he saw something, a flash of white out of the corner of his eyes. He turned, but saw something move on past a corner of one of the campus buildings. Had that been a bit of Kala's shorts he had seen? He thought it looked like that... He began to run in that direction, hoping beyond hope it was actually Kala...

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

Pain. Not just the brief moment of discomfort she had felt from the shotgun blast, but actual pain shot through Bloodless's body as the fangs of The Beast tore into her shoulder. They ripped through her toughened flesh and muscle like a railroad spike and cut into her bone. She felt as if her shoulder was about to be crushed beneath the force of the bite, and with her other arm pinned down, she was vulnerable to this thing.

For as long as she had been in Los Diamantes, never had she faced someone or something like this. Petty thugs, robbers, rapists, the occasional superpowered villain, she had fought those, and only once or twice had she received such pain. Once had been when an entire building had been rigged with explosives and blown up on her as a trap, and while she had survived that, she had been left in a crippled broken state for several days afterward from the debris crushing her. The other had been from a black flaming blade that had been plunged into her gut and set her ablaze. That too she had come back from, but it had taken time and had nearly reduced her to tears from the pain she felt.

This, this was similar, the pain this thing was causing from biting into her, she hated it. She had never wanted to feel pain like that ever again, and she was now. It boiled her blood, the blood of the voice in her head.

The sentence was death.

Bloodless curled her legs up so her knees dug into her chest, and kicked out into the monster's gut. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of The Beast's lungs, and it let go of her shoulder and arm as it recoiled from the strike. Bloodless planted both of her hands onto the ground, and kicked out once again with both feet, this time into The Beast's lower jaw, rattling its brain and staggering it back. She used the momentum of the kick to launch herself off her hands and back onto her feet. She saw she was bleeding from the bite wound on her shoulder, but she could bare the pain for now.

She darted in, clawed hands at the ready, as she prepared to stab her hands straight through The Beast's left shoulder, to return the same pain it had given to her...

[Breakdown]

The Beast's reaction was sluggish due to being interrupted mid-assimilation, and Kala's hands sank into its shoulder with a wet crunch as blood spurted from the wound. The monstrosity roared in pain as blood continued to trickle from the wound, however retaliation was imminent. The wound where Kala's hands were lodged began to glow a fiery orange; dim at first but quickly turned bright and scorching hot. This phenomenon continued down the entire left arm before intensifying at the creature's balled fist, which it then thrusted forward directly into Kala's abdomen. The impact released a miniature explosion of radioactive energy that, along with the sheer kinetic force, sent Kala flying through several walls and hit the ground hard enough to carve a several inch deep trench in the ground before she finally came to a stop. The area where the blow had landed glowed like flickering embers and whisps of smoke rose from the area of impact that burned Kala's skin. The abomination roared in triumph as the wound on its shoulder as well as the gunshots throughout its body began to ripple and bubble, producing a sound akin to a stomach grumbling as strands of flesh slowly began to reach out and connect to one another, slowly sealing the wounds. Soon, the rest of the creature's body began to undergo the same rippling and bubbling effect; its skin hardening into thick, reptilian scales like one would find on a crocodile or large lizard. This natural armor spread across the creature's legs, shoulders and back as well as some parts of its misshapen face. This served to destroy the last of Franklin's visage, what little remained recognizable about his face replaced with writhing, mutated flesh like the rest of his body. This rapid physical transformation was a stress-induced response to the trauma the monster had received. In order to become more resistant to projectile weapons as well as melee attacks, it required thicker skin. Drawing upon the DNA of the lizard it had eaten before, the monster determined that the traits of this organism would offer the best defenses.

The creature's left arm began to glow bright orange again, but with even more searing intensity to the point where the moisture in the air began to sizzle and its flesh began to steam. The monster's fist became encased in raging, flame-like energy that violently lashed out with short tendrils. Adopting a stance like a pitcher would throw a baseball, the energy in the creature's hand intensified to where it now produced a loud crackling and humming before it swung its arm forward. The energy left the creature's hand and coalesced into what looked like a raging, miniature sun as it flew forward towards the hole Kala had made in the wall when she had been sent flying through. The moisture in the air around the projectile immediately vaporized, producing a high-pitched shriek as it flew at Kala packing enough explosive energy to annihilate the entire room she was in.

===============================================================================

Kruger loudly groaned in pain as he continued to roll around on the ground, clutching his wounded leg and applying as much pressure to it as he could.

"You fucking CUNT!" Kruger screamed as the lingering agony stung and tore at the puncture wounds Marina's claws had inflicted.

Thankfully, she didn't strike any major blood vessels or arteries, otherwise merely applying pressure to the wound wouldn't be enough to prevent him from bleeding out. Reaching into a pocket on his waist containing basic first-aid equipment, he unwrapped a roll of gauze and tightly wrapped it around his leg. He gritted his teeth and growled in pain as he tied the gauze into a knot. Then he took a pen-like object containing a clear yellow liquid and flicked the cap off with his thumb, revealing a hypodermic needle underneath. Kruger gritted his teeth again as he jammed the object into his right flank and pressed button on the other end of the device. The device immediately began to inject the yellow fluid into Kruger's body, creating a burning sensation that hurt almost as much as the wounds at first, but quickly died down while simultaneously numbing the pain in his leg. Soon, the other effects of this substance would begin to manifest, and Kruger felt a rush of adrenaline and increasing rage. His face twisted into a snarl as he began to sweat and pant, his pupils shrank and he balled his hands into fists before slamming them on the ground hard enough to shatter the tile floor. Almost as if the wound on his leg was no longer there, Kruger stood up and yelled in animalistic fury.

"RAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!" he yelled.

"I'M GONNA SKULLFUCK YOU CUNT. I'M GONNA RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!" he bellowed as he kicked down the wooden door to the room and dashed out into the hall.

He panted through his teeth as he looked around for where Marina went, his eyes erratically darting from place to place as he stomped down the hall. He heard the sound of something just around the corner roughly 15 feet ahead of him, like liquid trickling onto the floor and hastily jogged over to investigate. This area had been spared from the creature's rampage, so the likelihood that it was damage caused by the monster's actions was low. Once he rounded the corner and looked to his right, he came across one of the campus bathrooms and saw that the water fountain had been ripped off the wall, resulting in broken pipes that leaked water onto the ground. The puddle was considerable in size and was quickly flowing down the hall and pooling in the thresholds of some of the doors, including a supply closet directly opposite to the restrooms. He looked around for the cause of the damage, but a cursory observation yielded no answers and his anger began to increase to violent levels. He lashed out at the wall where the fountain had been removed and cracked it with his fist before screaming in rage.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE, BITCH!!" he said.

Suddenly, the sound of movement behind him caught his attention and he spun around to determine its source. Before his eyes had time to focus on any one thing, the closet door flew open and his face was met with the once missing water fountain being swung like a bat. The blow was devastating: his nose broke on impact and gushed blood. Several of his teeth were knocked out instantly, and his vision blurred and momentarily turned black. Kruger fell to the ground on his back, clutching his broken nose and rolling onto his stomach as Marina ran up to him still wielding the fountain as a weapon. She screamed, channeling all her rage and anger into another crippling strike to Kruger's back that severely damaged his exoskeleton's battery unit and making him cry out in pain. She swung again, this time causing sparks to fly out of the battery unit followed by the sound of something breaking inside Kruger's body. She swung again and again, totally blinded by her unbridled fury as all her pent-up anger raged like an ocean storm. She raised the fountain over her head, and prepared to bring it down onto the mercenary when she suddenly stopped and stared at her enemy. Kruger lay on the ground broken and beaten; his exoskeleton's battery unit had been all but destroyed thus rendering it useless. The temptation to finish this piece of shit was almost irresistible as she wasn't even using her full strength, but her rational side slowly began to re-assert itself: Sierra needed her help, and most of all Franklin needed her help. Her Franklin, the one she loved more than anything in this world. She took a moment to catch her breath, her gills flaring as she did so before tossing the crumpled fountain aside with a loud clank. Suddenly, there was the sound of a monstrous roar coming from where she saw Franklin last, and she quickly turned her head in its direction. She looked down at her feet, then at Kruger's broken form which occasionally twitched and produced a pained groan.

"Yeah you take a minute, asshole" she muttered before running off in the direction of the sounds.

[Corzak The Mighty]

The stomp of iron boots upon concrete echoed beneath Cocytus' stride as the ebon-clad knight leapt from one building to another, traversing the concrete jungles of the lower districts with frightening speed. His great weight and strength left dents beneath his feet when he would land - evidence of his presence in the area. The knight of punishment's sapphire eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for Diamond Ring University. Even after all this time traveling this hellscape, this desolate labyrinth of buildings, he could not help but feel overwhelmed by its sheer size and scale. There was something to be said about the ironic majesty of mankind's works and the existential horror such grandeur brought with it. In an attempt to make themselves larger than life, men made themselves smaller and less significant than ever, trapped in a prison of their own creation. No gods, no faith, no salvation... only humanity and the evils such a collective brings with it. Heroes, super or not, had to step into the darkness unhindered and take the reins as beacons of hope in a world with none.

Through the labyrinthine spiral of buildings, however, Cocytus spied something disturbing - near a side alley, maybe a block or two away from him, the knight of punishment spied a woman being harassed. She was surrounded by three men - presumably punks of some kind - who quickly seized the advantage of both size and numbers they had over her, and attempted to drag her into the alley. Cocytus slid to a stop, watching as this event unfolded. His gaze briefly looked in the direction of Diamond ring University, and back towards the situation in the alley, before he conjured his barbed chains into his hands. Someone else would need to be the hero for the university.

It was time for him to bring hope to one without any.
_________________________________________________________________
It did not take long for Aileen to make her way to Heng's clinic, pulling up to the quiet office and parking in the back. Aileen took off her sunglasses, placing them in her purse in her passenger seat, before she felt a sudden sharp pain that radiated across the sides of her head, through her temples on either side, and radiating into her eye sockets. Aileen reflexively grasped her head, letting out a groan of pain as she did so. Goddammit... the pain meds Callous had given her had worn off, and she forgot to bring her next dose with her. Guess this was gonna be as real of a reaction as these stupid physicians were going to get from her.

Quickly stepping out of and locking her car, Aileen made her way into the clinic, staggering up to the receptionist's desk.

"I... um... I'm not feeling so good," Aileen said in a weary tone. "M-my head hurts... really badly."

Despite the intense pain, Aileen kept her eyes and ears peeled for any unusual sights and sounds. She'd need to be ready to conjure a thoughtform at a moment's notice to investigate the area...

[Demon Lord Gira]

"You mean to tell me, that there is a monstrous abomination that is attacking the university, and there are already gunmen who are not under my authority causing further mayhem in that area?!"

Goldman weakly nodded. His ears still throbbed from Tenmus's earlier screech, but he knew Tenmus was not about to let him leave anytime soon. He had ruffled her feathers with this announcement, but she was going to figure out sooner rather than later, and it was best to just let her know the moment he had learned of it than to suffer her wrath later.

"Yes, I came down to inform you as soon as Alan told me." Goldman carefully explained. "We don't know who these gunmen are, but apparently Bloodless has also been sighted in the area with that creature. Alan is sending in a squad to handle the situation as we speak."

"He better." Tenmus hissed as she looked away. Goldman could see the veins throbbing on the woman's forehead. "One thing after another, and it's always getting worse! Tell Alan to order his men to capture both that creature and Bloodless if possible. I need to make them an example of what I am fighting against, and what I am protecting this city from. And capture and interrogate any of these rogue gunmen you find."

"Un-understood." Goldman ran back up toward the stairs, and Tenmus leaned her head against a wall. It wasn't even halfway through the day, and her head was already hurting. Why now, why all of this now?

________________

If Aileen had been hoping the person up in the receptionist's desk was Heng, she would be disappointed. It was Lind instead, cradling the black dragon toy in her hands as she turned to face Aileen. An eyebrow was raised as she put the toy down. She did not recognize this woman. Her appearance was not one of those listed in Heng's database. So it was unlikely she was anything more than an ordinary woman. Lind's eyes closed to a halfway point. How mundane, especially after such a cute specimen in Cider.

"Head pains, is it? Follow me to one of the back rooms."

Lind stood, and the nurse gestured for Aileen to follow her to an already opened door...

____________________

Vinnie ran around the corner. He had seen that, a white glimpse that matched what Kala had been wearing. It had to be her, it just had to!

"Kala, there you-"

The young boy rounded the corner, and was greeted with nothing. An empty space in the emptying campus grounds. Vinnie's heart sank. There was no one here. He could have sworn...

He desperately looked around. "KALA!" He shouted. Still nothing. "KALA! WHERE ARE YOU!" Yet again, nothing. But he felt as if he was being watched, that eyes were observing him from somewhere.

He heard something, the click of a heel against the ground. He turned, and saw someone by a campus dorm looking back at him, but it wasn't Kala. It was a tall woman with long brown hair with black streaks that ran down the full length of her hair. She wore a large white and red and black dress, and her eyes were tinted yellow with red hue within. She had a hand up to her mouth, and a tin smile could be seen behind her hand. The look she gave Vinnie, one of confusion and interest, rubbed him the wrong way. Why did she look so interested in him? Was it because he was a kid on campus? Or that he was here at all?

"Hmmm? Are you lost?"

The voice came from his side. Vinnie turned and saw a new woman approach him, one with short blonde hair like Kala's but with several dolls floating around her. The white and blue dress she had on and the dolls were something he recognized in an instant.

"P-puppeteer?" He timidly asked. He looked back to where the first woman had been, but there was nothing there now. He looked back at Puppeteer. "I... I'm looking for my sister, but-"

Alice knelt down beside Vinnie, and placed a hand on his head. "There thee. I heard you crying her name. She's probably out of the campus by now, so I'll get you out of here. Tell me what she looks like, okay? If we can't find her now, I can take you to my orphanage for the day before taking you back to your house."

Vinnie gulped. This... was not how he had expected this to go. Heng was going to kill him for letting things escalate like this.



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

What... had she been it with?

Kala coughed as she sluggishly rose to her feet. Forget the bite, this had hurt so much worse than that. She deeply inhaled, then exhaled, and clenched her fists tight. What had that even been? She had stabbed it, and then a single punch...

Her skin smoldered and burned from where the blow had connected into her stomach. The clothing that had been burned away regrew to cover the area, but that did little to alleviate the pain. She had never faced anything like this before...

"It is too dangerous to let live." The voice within her head hissed. "An evil born of humanity's ignorance and vice. We cannot allow it to li-"

The voice was cut off as Kala saw a fireball be hurled right for her. Her eyes widened, and with no time to think of any other course of action, she braced herself with her hands and arms in front of her face. The nuclear fireball detonated on contact with her, and the entire room was engulfed in atomic flames. Plumes of fire burst through shattered windows, and all within was incinerated in a moment's notice.

All, except for Bloodless. She remained where she stood, but the pain that she had felt in her stomach was now everywhere. Everything burned, her skin bubbled and hissed, and pieces of her had been charred. She wanted to collapse into a heap, to fall asleep and hope to heal off the pain, but that was out of the question. She couldn't give in, or run and hide. Not with this thing on the loose, this threat to everyone here...

This threat to Vinnie.

Her teeth gritted, she charged back the way she had been thrown. Every muscle ached as it was forced beyond where she had pushed it before, but Kala didn't care. She was going to murder this thing, no matter what.

The Beast swung a fist to intercept her, but Kala avoided the strike by swerving her body beneath the punch, and with both her clawed hands swung upward through The Beast's chest and to the base of its neck. Yet where once her claws had cleaved through its hide with ease, now they scratched and bounced off the hardened hide of the monster.

Why was it tougher now that only a few moments before? Was she getting weaker?

"This evil, it is evolving!" The voice screeched. "End it before it can evolve further!"

Keeping her momentum, Bloodless twisted and grabbed The Beast's arm. She twisted her body again, and hurled the monster's frame upward through the ceiling. She leaped up after it, and readied herself to strike the creature in its eyes. Even if the rest of its body was hardened, the eyes were always a weak spot of everything.

[Breakdown]

Cliffton groaned as he regained consciousness, blinking his eyes as the world around him went from black to blurry but visible. He tried to get back up, but something tugged at his arm and prevented him from being able to stand, as though his arm had been glued to the ground. Upon looking down at the arm in question, it was indeed that the limb had been secured to the ground with some form of adhesive.

"The..fuck..is this stuff?" he panted as he tried to pull his arm free.

He wasn't able to muster the strength to free his arm at first, as his body still ached from his scuffle with the mysterious woman from earlier. He tried again to free his arm with a mighty tug, and he could have sworn he felt the substance begin to give when suddenly there was a loud explosion that rocked the building and made him lose his balance. Cliffton frantically looked around as he tried to determine the source of the explosion, when it was followed up by another loud sound like a heavy object being thrown. Cliffton's adrenaline began to surge, and he tugged at the trapped limb with all his strength until finally, the substance broke and his hand was freed. Cliffton clutched his wrist, rubbing it was he gritted his teeth from the sensation of circulation returning to it. Grabbing his pistol off the ground, Cliffton jogged down the hall towards where he last saw his targets, and what he found nauseated him. Looking around, he found the butchered remains of Kruger's men strewn about the hall and inside some of the rooms. To even use the word "butchered" didn't adequately describe the utter massacre that had transpired here. He stepped over the body of one man who had been literally pulled in half at the waist, his frozen expression of horror visible through his blood-spattered goggles. Cliffton gagged and looked away from the carnage as he jogged all the way down to the end of the hall and took a deep breath. God, what had happened here? Kruger's men had specifically armed themselves to deal with whatever this escaped lab-rat was capable of, and yet they were slaughtered like animals regardless. Judging by the spent bullet casings on the ground, it seems that they at least had time to fire their weapons before being killed one by one.

Cliffton pulled out his walkie and attempted to hail Kruger in the hopes that the mercenary leader was still alive, that way he could get an idea of what exactly transpired in these halls.

"Cliffton to Kruger, do you copy?" Cliffton spoke into his walkie in anticipation of a response. After several moments and no response, Cliffton tried again.

"Cliffton to Kruger, come in!!" he urged, raising his voice.

Once again, there was complete silence on the other end. Cliffton swore and decided that the best course now was to just leave the area and report back to Dr. Mills and GenTech. Cliffton rounded the corner and the presence of water on the ground made him slip and fall on his rear with a loud thud. He groaned and sat up, seeing that the hall was flooded water from what appeared to be broken pipe or something of the sort. A closer look revealed something laying in the middle of the hall with a crumpled object laying next to it. The agent shakily stood up and approached the object, quickly revealing itself to be a person clad in what was left of a GenTech Mk. V exoskeleton as well as the black combat uniform worn by Kruger and his men, as well as a stream of blood mixed in with the water. This caused Cliffton to accelerate his approach to a sprint, making sure not to slip again as he ran up to the body and knelt beside it. Turning the body over, he quickly identified it as Kruger by the shaved head and skull tattoo, but his face was almost unrecognizable: his face was swollen and covered in cuts and bruises; and his nose appeared to have been obliterated. Suddenly, Kruger let out a pained groan and limply grabbed Cliffton's arm, which startled Cliffton who was beginning to think the mercenary was dead.

"Kruger! Kruger!" Cliffton said while gently shaking the beaten mercenary. Kruger responded with an incomprehensible mumble as blood trickled from his shattered nose and missing teeth. Cliffton swore out loud: the mission had failed but if Kruger survives, he could be debriefed and shed valuable intel on what happened so the company would know how to proceed. Cliffton proceeded to unlatch and unbuckle Kruger from his exoskeleton to make transporting him out of the area easier. Grabbing the command terminal on the arm-actuator of Kruger's exoskeleton, Cliffton input the self-destruct codes that would ensure that the exoskeletons of the dead mercenaries would be destroyed, thus erasing evidence of GenTech's involvement. Grabbing Kruger by the back of his ballistic vest, Cliffton dragged Kruger down the hall towards a fire exit at the end while taking out his walkie talkie. He was hoping that the other agent who drove him to the campus was still in reception range and would be able to extract them.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Agent Cliffton, mission has failed. I repeat, search and destroy has failed. Several casualties confirmed and one wounded. Need immediate extract!" Cliffton spoke into the walkie talkie. After a few moments, a crackly response came in through the other end and Cliffton sighed with relief.

"Copy that, Cliffton. Meet me in the back of the campus. ETA 3 minutes. Hurry up! The national guard's been called in; looks like all the talk of a monster attacking the campus has the mayor's people pulling out all the stops" warned the agent on the other end. Before Cliffton had time to fully grasp just how bad this situation was becoming, he was startled by the sound of several simultaneous explosions; these must have been the exoskeletons self-destructing. The self-destruct for the Mk.V Exoskeleton was designed to detonate the battery unit, then release a payload of thermite that would disintegrate the exoskeleton as well as any dead operator still wearing it. This protocol was to not only erase GenTech's involvement by destroying any evidence, but also to prevent these exoskeletons from being captured and reverse-engineered by enemies of the company. Cliffton continued to drag Kruger's near-motionless body towards the fire exit as he raced against the clock to escape and report back to GenTech before the National Guard arrived.

==================================================================================================

The beast suddenly found itself flying through an entire building floor before its back hit the ceiling with a loud crash, breaking several ceiling tiles before plummeting back to the ground. It was then that Kala surged up through the hole in the floor with her claws ready to gouge its eyes out. Whip-crack reaction time allowed the abomination to seize Kala's hand by the wrist mere centimeters from its fiery orange eyes. The monster roared in Kala's face, sending strands of bloodied saliva at her as its hand began to glow like hot iron. Steam began to emerge from where it grabbed Kala's wrist with crushing, vice-like grip. This time, there was an added burning pain akin to sticking one's hand in a raging furnace. Grabbing her by the throat with the same burning vice-grip, the creature shrieked and proceeded to throw Kala with enough force to send her flying through the remaining four floors of the building and onto the roof. Wasting no time, the creature crawled its way up the holes in the floors before jumping onto the roof itself, the gravel crunching under its feet as it landed. Hundreds of feet above them, news helicopters buzzed around the campus to capture the entire event on live television.

[HayesAJones]

As Marina rushed towards the sounds of battle- now having moved to the rooftops, it seemed- the costumed woman appeared by her side, a veil of camouflage falling away from her. Now both standing, it was apparent that she was quite a bit shorter and stockier than Marina. If Marina's build indicated a swimmer, then hers suggested a wrestler.

"Are you okay?" the woman grunted out in her low, modulated voice.