"Hm." Baalial nodded at the summary in comment, dragging the growling briefcase back to himself in order to pull a laptop from the obviously tooth-rimmed carrier.
"Yes, I can see a few things that would accomplish that here." the demon scowled as he went over a few documents, "Though I do wonder what happened to Hotaka. Trapping his kind has never been an easy task."
"I think I know where I am." Ryuu threw in with calm tone, "But it'd be a bad idea to wake me right now."
"Right." smirked Baalial, closing and stowing the laptop once more, "So tell me, what does your mind make of this odd coincidence?"
"Not sure yet." Hotaka shrugged, "The guy didn't smell human, but other than that I didn't find anything odd about him."
"Hm." the lawyer remarked, considering, "Me neither."
Noting Vendetta's questioning expression, Baalial went on to explain, "The man who hired us called himself V as well. And with the whole V for vendetta thing...well, it's just kind of odd."
"Yeah," Hotaka nodded, "you wouldn't happen to have any plans of sending yourself back in time to hire us anytime soon, would you?"
"Why do you say that?" the demon questioned with a quizzical expression, "If it had been Toy, I could've told from his soul."
"Hm, guess so." Ryuu answered, "It's just that the guy smelled like a machine. I know, I know, it's far-fetched and all."
"Let's leave it be for now, we have a job to do." suggested the demonic lawyer, turning to Vendetta again, "So the resistance fighters are losing their open war, hm? And what is your present strategy...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Keep up the great work everyone, I'm loving this so far and you all have me hooked. Sorry if I'm intruding but I wanted to let you all know how much I'm enjoying the story so far))
Member of the Hyperion Force
((You're fine - it's always nice to see that a story has readers, especially one done by multiple authors. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC: *waves to the peanut gallery* *throws a rotten tomato at them*
BIC: "Sure I can, Caleb," Vendetta said as he turned back to the computer. "It's not like the Masters of Mayhem own the world after all. I've identified no less than twenty different satellites keeping an eye on things down here."
An image came up on screen showing every orbiting satellite around Earth as a point of blue or red light. Some of the lights were dimmer than the rest, perhaps to indicate that the signal was poor.
"I keep a couple of backdoors on several military satellites from different countries in case I ever need to use them. Ever since Elitest dedicated several Warburg nukes to take down any orbital objects owned by metahumans that he had killed, I've had to make due with other sources," said Vendetta as he finished typing in some code.
One of the lights blinked brightly and a subset of the screen shifted to a view of the outskirts of Paragon City where the satellite was currently looking. A smaller box popped up above that window, asking for the desired coordinates.
"Just type in the latitude and longitude of where you want to look," Vendetta said as he stepped back. "I'll leave you to that."
Small Toy moved up next to Psycho, perhaps to offer some emotional support, perhaps to keep him from damaging anything if he saw something too upsetting.
"Currently our plan amounts to guirella warfare," Vendetta said as he walked over to Baalial and Hokata. "And the resistance isn't losing, yet, but it's only a matter of time. I keep telling them we can't fight the Masters head on, but they never listen."
"They've almost gotten to the point where they don't even clue us in on their plans any more," Combat Toy grumbled as it moved over to stand with Vendetta. "We may not be an official part of the resistance, but we often coordinated in the past. Nowadays it's an effort just to take shelter in a safe house for a couple of days."
"I've been hitting military targets whenever possible," Vendetta said, overriding Combat Toy with a look. "Power plants, factories, barrackses, whatever I can get into, practically. I've been making myself into as big a thorn as I can and jabbing myself into the sides of the Masters as often as possible. Hopefully the Masters just tie up more of their resources searching for me instead of the real threat, the main resistance. It helps that I leave a calling card."
With a quick gesture, Vendetta snapped his hand up, a golden card appearing between two fingers. He passed it over to Hokata, a self satisfied expression radiating from his body posture.
The card read: You've just been owned, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Vendetta.
Short name, quality [censored] kicking.
"If you couldn't tell, I borrowed a bit from the old LMOUSVEV card."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Psycho13 plugged the coordinates into the computer and waited for the image to come up. It didn't take long.
The Masters of Mayhem, or whoever they were, had obviously noted the kind of thorn the Brutal Warriors had been to the prior regime.
He could tell, because he was looking at the tops of a few blasted pillars barely jutting out of the surface of the Atlantic. Pillars that should have been topped with a modified derrick and the base of operations for the Brutal Warriors Order.
Psycho13 stared at the image. It wasn't that he was waiting for comprehension, it was just that he was trying to "file" the new data accordingly. It felt exactly like...
Like when he and Rage's brother died...
He input some random coordinates and walked away from the screen. It was a lot more difficult to walk all of a sudden. He lurched his way to where he had been working on his new weapons and slumped down.
After a few moments of sitting there with a stare of blank depression, he picked up one of the blades and got back to work making up the handles. His face twitched a little as he worked.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Sensing Psycho's distress, Small Toy set a thick roll of duct tape on a rickety table next to the hero and then went over to stand with its master.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"Duly noted." Hotaka smiled generously in his glance at the card, "So hitting targets of opportunity, hm? Not a bad idea, unless the enemy's production can outstrip your destruction."
"Quite true." Baalial nodded, pulling a manila folder from his briefcase and handing it to Vendetta, "Intelligence. From our client. Uncannily thorough, practically up to the minute. Give you any ideas...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Sorry it took me a while to post. :P))
Giving the old lab a quick glance over, Lithanika turned to the old woman as she had finished giving her the speech. Brushing a loose strand of hair back, she nodded.
"My world was much like yours. Devastated by destruction, whilst I stood idly by and watched. Not again." She tightened her hands into fists.
"Lithanika, exiled soldier of the Legacy, at your service."
Edit: Fudge. I pressed enter by accident. 
Sybil nodded at the group. "Good. It is time we rescue Windsong then." She gestured toward the large computer in the corner. Stevie Power stepped out of his place in the circle and began to type. "Ordinarily, we need every higher power meta-human on hand at all times. This keeps us from launching any major attack on the Masters without weeks of preparation, weeks we don't have. That is why you are valuable to our cause. And never before have we been able to spare our own to locate their bases. Not until now."
A rough map of Perez Park came up on the large screen, with a red dot pulsing in the center. A small side bar came up beside it, showing a picture of a man in what was best described as a blue and black ninja costume. His fists were glowing bright red, and a dead hero was laying at his feet. The quality of the picture was about as low as a security camera, which is likely what took this shot.
"This is the man who controls that section of Paragon City. His name is Apex Twin. We can get you into Perez Park, and now that we have Windsong's location inside it, near the base via teleporters, but you will have to find her, and Apex on your own."
Stevie keyed in another command, and a beacon shone down onto each of the heroes and the tug of a teleport was felt. All they had to do was accept it.
Stevie stepped into one that appeared next to the computer and disappeared.
The Obsidian Arrow glanced at the others, then did the same.
The two reappeared in Perez Park in front of a stone door. At first, nothing seemed different. There were still trees and everything but... It was too quiet.
There were no villains nearby. No Lost, Hellions, Skulls, or Clockwork. They had all cleared out it seemed. The silence was almsot unnerving. Arrow closed his eyes for a moment to ready himself while he waited for the others.
---------------------
The Ruby Blade knelt over the spot where a little more than an hour ago, the disturbances had begun. Whoever caused them was long gone, but they were still easily tracked.
Subtle shifts of garbage, debris, and dirt led the assassin to Atlas Park. He grimaced, knowing this meant the Resistance had already "acquired" them.
Likely they were already in their main base. Little could be done about that. The last year had been dedicated to finding it, but so far even Techno-Tyrant couldn't get a energy lock on it, nor Blightlord life signs. Also, neither were willing to work together on the problem, so tenuous was the alliance between the Masters' leaders.
Blade put those thoughts from his mind. They were not important. What was important was that he report to Blightlord and give his findings.
The assassin activated the teleporter on his belt and vanished.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Soul Striker once again listened intently once again, and found he was back to his old self when he heard the name, "windsong". Windsong...hey, was that the really cute chick back when I first came here? Hmm, save a damsel in distress, the hero gets the reward of love! Heck yes! Excited, Soul Striker shouted, "Let's go!" And entered the beam of light.
After a few moments, Soul Striker looked around to see his new surroundings. All that could really describe it was: Eerie. Nothing was normal, even for Perez Park's standards. Yet, that had not phased Soul Striker, as he was once again caught up in his delusions of love and glory. Looking towards Obsidian Arrow, he gave the man a playful slap on the back, "You ready to kick some [censored] man? I sure know I'm ready, heck, I'm PUMPED. Villains BEware!" Soul Striker was once again lost in the moment, as he started to bob and weave as if he were already in combat. Although it seemed to be just a show, (And for the most part WAS,) this pre-battle stance seemed to help him for when the combat really started, as he felt he could dodge blows more easily if he did so. (Weaving)
Cortianna gave Soul Striker a faintly amused grin as she heard his thoughts before floating through the portal herself.
Perez sounded pretty empty to ears, but, while a great deal quieter then previous, was a rumble of thought impulses from living creatures both great and small. The cacophony was familiar to the teen, and hard won experience let her allow the bulk of the noise wash around here as she expanded her telepathy. A subtle wave washed the distance of her mind's range, informing the subconscious minds of everything that looked in her direction that she wasn't there.
It was an old and simple trick she made, but it still demanded that she not instigate things, and abnormally disciplined minds tended to see through the message before she got too close.
A light touch on the minds of her current allies kept both them aware of where she was, and her of the state of there minds.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
"Well, he's oddly enthusiastic..." Jake muttered, walking forward nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets. Giving a slight wave to Sybil, he stepped into the light to find himself in Perez Park, supposedly the bane for the newer heroes. Jake would've assumed that the Sewers would've taken that title, but it seemed as if the heroes loved those. Jake shrugged; capes? You can't figure them.
He glanced around at everyone around him, registering for the first time that Cortianna was... well... Cortianna, a psychic looking to get out of Arachnos and who Arachnos really didn't like having around. Jake chuckled and tapped on her shoulder, asking her to please refrain from reading his thoughts, and explaining that it was a bit of a sore spot for him. Otherwise not interactinv with his allies, he began to distance himself away from the group a bit, if only by a few feet or so.
"As long as I get some action," Lithanika played with a spine in her hand, "A rescue mission is fine." Feeling the tug of the teleport working on her, she took a deep breath and accepted it, reappearing almost instantly next to her new teammates.
Looking around, she wrinkled her nose. In her time, Paragon City had long been crushed under the heels of the Good Man, but she had still walked the ruins of the once powerful city, marveling its rich and devastating history. She kicked a stone beside her feet, and sniffed the air.
It's quiet. I don't like it, she thought.
"So, where are we going?" Lithanika asked.
"In," said Stevie as he placed a hand on the stone door. It slid aside, revealing a dark cave. "Keep alert. They developed better stealth generators recently."
Obsidian nodded, drawing his bow and nocking an arrow as he followed the other hero inside. As the others stepped in, a soft beep signaled they had been noticed.
Stevie groaned and readied himself for a fight. Arrow nodded and did the same as they ventured in further. Apparently they would have to fight their way through here.
The sudden sound of teleporters filled the room as a dozen Mayhem soldiers appeared, brandishing their maces. "You are under arrest," announced the lead one. "Come quietly, and your execution will be swift."
As a flying kick from Stevie knocked the soldier away, Arrow turned and fired his grenade-tipped arrow at one, knocking the two beside him away as well.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
"Perfect..." Jake muttered, pulling six, very small, devices out of his trenchcoat and throwing them on the ground, almost immediately teleporting six robots into the room. He ordered them to attack the front-most soldiers, hoping to clear a way deeper into the base so a quick escape could be possible. As for himself, Jake threw up forcefields around his minions, neglecting to do the same to his allies, as it would most likely alter their aim. His bots; however, made adjustments, and could fire just as easily as if the shields weren't even there. The results was a robot, seemingly aiming at a random spot on the wall, but the laser bending and hitting the soldier. Jake grinned. It would be a while before they figured out how to counter this.
Finishing wrapping the tape around what he figured would be the handles of his new weapons, Psycho13 stopped and gazed at his reflection in the blade. One clear, deep blue eye stared back at him.
Sure, there was a chance his brother and friends had escaped. Sure, they could be back in Kingdale, forgetting that they had ever been more than human. It was possible.
Not probable.
Matt would've urged them to fight. James would have been one of the first to dive headlong into whatever it was that was attacking them and thrash as many troops as possible. They probably would've crashed the vessel on purpose, just to kill him.
Considering his friends, jsut about the only survivor could have been Bioserj, and only because he probably wouldn't have been on the derrick at the time. Of course, even he would likely have been slaughtered in the "purges" that swept the Rogues.
"Why hasn't this [censored] hit me yet?" Psycho13 muttered, "I've lost some of the closest friends and family a guy can have... Why am I so calm?"
He slid the blades into his rigger's belt and stood. He nodded to Small Toy and muttered a "thank you." Then, he approached Vendetta and Hotaka.
"Guys," he whispered, "I'm restless... When do we get out there and get some killing done?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Soul Striker followed Stevie excitedly into the cave. When the soldiers came in, Soul Striker only grinned, cracking his knuckles, he made a "come here" gesture, while tapping a few buttons on his left arm, which caused a glowing aura to emit from his suit. When the soldiers didn't come, he decided to take the aggressive path, stepping back a few steps, he started to run, and leapt towards the back of the mob, and attempted a sweeping kick on the nearest soldier, sarcastically he said, "Yea, I'll surrender...but first, let's spar a bit!"
The moment the metas stepped into Perez they were not alone. A presence within the forest felt their life, their motives, their power. This thing flew swiftly through the shadows of the forest until the group of unlikely partners were in sight. One, a boy between 16-18 by the looks of it, was closest and so the presence moved into the shadow he cast, keeping pace to see their plans.
Unfortunatley the boy was a martial artists and as such twisted and weaved so much that the man couldn't keep form with his shadow. When Striker performed a sweep kick, someone seemed to materialize from the ground, standing straight with his arms crossed. It was a man fully adorned in black and green Chaos Leather, a black 'bonehead' mask with green warpaint, and a black cape with a green ornate design. He had large black skulls with green eye sockets and the respective hosts' ribcage on his shoulders along with a fanged black skull on his belt. Where his eyes should have been there was nothing but dark tendrils emerging from the blackness and a ventilator covering the lower half of his face.
He spoke in a voice that seemed to have to seperate entities in it. "Not the best time to appear I suppose...."
Jake jerked his head around to get a better sight of the newcomer, immediately throwing him in a detention field. "Who are you, exactly?" It was more out of reflex than anything else, but upon an inspection of the man's appearance, Jake found himself not regretting it.
Soul Striker jumped back when he saw the new form, and heard,
Jake: Who are you, exactly?
Soul Striker shouted towards Jake, "Shut up, he's in front of me, so I should ask him!" Looking towards the strange figure he said, "Okay, so, who are you supposed to be, Skull Head or somethin buddy? The skulls are long gone, go home." Soul Striker stood up from his previously crouched stance. Soul Striker sounded confident, if anything, as he said, "Look, for all it goes, it doesn't REALLY matter to me who you are, only if you're friend or foe. If your a friend, help me punch these guys out, if not, get out of my way, I have some MoM's to beat down."
Master's of Mayhem...MoM's, hmm, you think I would have noticed that earlier...really, that is an unfortunate villain title isn't it? Heh...mom...
Obsidian whirled around, an arrow trained on the newcomer, just in case. Stevie was busy fighting off two soldiers who continued their attacks.
While the Resistance took some time to question the newcomer, the Masters soldiers used the moment of confusion to regain the offensive. Several blasted enhanced corrosive bursts from their mace tips while others moved in close, swinging hard for crippling shots.
Arrow cried out as one mace cracked him across the back, dropping him to his knees. The archer rolled with the force of the blow and tossed a trip mine behind him. The soldier tried to back away, but it only set the thing off, sending him flying into the air.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Cortianna looked at Jake as he politely asked her to keep her mind to herself. She was impressed with his self-control, most of those she encountered with... aversions... to psychics tended to be much more vocal about it. Not to mention violent.
Shame there was only so much she could do to not listen. To her telepathy, every impulse was like a neighbor with their stereo up too loud. Obvious to hear and next to impossible to block out, if sometimes unintelligible.
<For what ever it is worth, nothing I might gleen from your mind will ever be used against you. Unless, of course, it poses a direct threat to me. I'll be aware of your surface thoughts unless you find a way to shield them. I will not instigate deeper probes into your mind unless asked or the situation demands it.> She told the man before gliding along after the others to the base.
The tripping of the alarm and the rapid deployment of troops brought a faintly impressed expression to the psychic, right before she lashed out with her mind and brought up a sense of unbridled terror in the men, followed by altering the perceptions of one to see his friends as enemies and his enemies as friends.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
"Alright, remind me to ignore the potentially bad guy next time you're in danger, kay?" He shouted the Soul Striker, keeping the newcomer in his little detention field and focusing his attention on the troops, diverting his robots' fire if a hostile happened to site him, specifically.
After hearing Cortianna's response, or rather, receiving it, he cursed slightly under his breath. In addition to the uneasiness that one gets knowing that their thoughts are not their own, he had a personal sore spot to any type of psychic manuever, most probably due to the fact that Arachnos had altered his mind to suit their purposes. Physically shaking the memory from his head, he focused on the fight at hand, deciding that if Soul wanted to speak with the Bonehead, he should let him.
Following the others into the cave, Lithanika grinned in anticipation as Mayhem soldiers materialized. Feeling a rush of pleasure flow through her as metallic spines protruded from her skin. Breaking several off without a thought, she thrust them at the closest enemy closest to her, and charged in immediately afterwards.
"A soldier of the Legacy," she murmured, ducking an incoming blow, "Knows no bounds. Feels no pain. Understands no fear."
Leaping back to the others as the newcomer materialized, Lithanika flexed her body in a Practiced Brawler. "Friend or foe?"
"Can that thing show me a satellite image of a certain point in the middle of the Atlantic?"
Psycho13 was suddenly very concerned. There was no way his friends would have just stood by and let any of this happen. If things had gone the way Vendetta said, though...
That crazy feeling in the stomach a person gets when they know something bad is about to happen hit Psycho13 like a sack of oranges. He pulled himself up and walked slowly toward his newfound allies.
With any luck, V would tell him "no," and he could hold out some vain hope...
But Psycho13 was never really lucky in life.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.