Heroes: Eve of Destiny

[B4UTRUST]

Millenium City
July 4th, 2010

"...and with great pleasure I welcome Senator John Sherman to help us commemorate the unveiling of this monument to those who fell protecting us."

Applause.

"Thank you, thank you Mayor Biselle. Thank you everyone. It is my esteemed honor to be here this day. This day that has been celebrated by this great country since its founding. This beautiful day. We remember not only our origins but those who came before us and sacrificed so that we may stand here today. And on this spot we pay hommage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

"Almost twenty years ago the heros of our world laid down their lives to protect it. To protect us. Then almost a decade ago we called upon our heros to sacrifice themselves on the altar of freedom again, defending us from terrorism. And we laid down our lives with them.

"From the ashes of these tragedies we have grown again, stronger. From the ashes of destruction we built Milennium City, a beacon of hope in a world of darkness.

"We are here today to dedicate this monument to their memory."

Drapes are pulled back revealing a stature depicting a generic superhero soaring into the sky. A gold plaque adorns the base which has the names of the fallen heros inscribed upon it. Applause errupted from the assembled. Flashes exploded from the press cameras.

"Needless deaths like theirs shouldn't happen. We shouldn't need to be here to remember them. This is why we need harsher punishments for these so-called super villians."

The senator slammed his fist down on the podieum to emphasize his point. His mouth opened to continue his speech when the sky abruptly darkened.A wind picked up, blowing up dust and leaves. Thunder crashed as lightning arc from the sky, striking down to the earth. A single bolt of lightning struck right in the center of the presentation, drawn to the metal statue. The sound of metal rending sounded as the statue fell, blasted in two. Tendrils of smoke rose from the heated metal as the smell of burnt ozone filled the air. Lightning flashed again, blinding in its intensity.

When peoples' sight returned the senator was laying unconscious at the feet of several individuals in costume. One in a black outfit with a sytlized lightning bolt running down the center came to the forefront and grabbed the mic from the podium.
"My fellow Americans... this is what your government offers you! Your rights and privacy gone, more rules, more regulations more restrictions on your freedom. Your so-called superheroes are nothing but the dogs of a tyrannical regime. You are being repressed by your own government. You ar-"

A gunshot whined across the distance and struck the podium next to the speaker. Another figure stepped into the light carrying a high-powered rifle.
"Actually, we'll be taking the senator if you don't mind. He's worth more alive then dead."
"And who the hell might you be?"
"Doesn't matter. We were here first and we intend to keep the senator for our own uses."
"See, that doesn't quite work. He must be sacrificed for the cause. To show the government, the world that we will not tolerate this any longer!"
"Yeah, about that... I'm thinking no. Nothing personal mind you, just business."

Another gunshot rang out as both sides leapt into the fray. Bolts of lightning sizzled through the air and blazing fires erupted from nothing, given shape and life by the strange villian who controlled them. Benches, cameras, anything that wasn't nailed down was picked up and hurled about with the powers of the mind. All the while a few vetern reporters kept the cameras rolling, capturing every minute of the savage battle.

Almost twenty minutes into the clash the Ultima Bureau made their appearance to deal with the situation. The two opposing villianous forces agreed to a temporary cease-fire to deal with the common threat. What should have amounted to a clean-up operation after the two groups took each other out turned into a two-on-one superpowered brawl. The Bureau's hands were quite full...

----------
Elsewhere in Millennium City
The Binary Corp. Building

An explosion rocked the foundation. The lights flickered then dimmed into darkness as the power failed. Emergancy lights flared to life, illuminating hallways and offices in a pale red hue. A man, dressed in tattered leathers and a torn tshirt entered the building, his frazzled orange mowhawk barely visable through the smoke that billowed around him. Behind him nine more men followed him into the building, each as garishly dressed as their leader.

Dispite their punkish looks they moved with certainty and determination, taking out security cameras with small calibur rounds as they advanced through the building. A handful of security guards confronted them in the stairwell between the second and third floor. They were reduced to quivering husks, their eyes wide in terror at some unseen horror that only they experianced.

A silent alarm alerted authorities to the situation. They requested the aid of the Ultima Bureau when it became apparent they were dealing with superpowered villians. The Ultima Bureau, however was involved in more important matters and was unable to assist. The men inside had begun taking hostages, threatening, in their words, to kill them, or worse. They demanded safe passage but made no demands for money. It seemed there was something more important that they had came for.

The police, unable to deal with the threat and having only a limited number of supers on their force, were forced to call in the aid of independents. A call for help went out over the television and radio across every station. Millennium City was under attack...

[Cynical Cat]

David Grey lowered his sunglasses to take a better look at the brunette walking down the sidewalk. "Damn," he said softly. There was hot and then there was on fire. The view was definitely an advantage to eating at cafes with a patio. He raised his glass and took a sip of coke. Sometimes, life was good.

His phone went off. Work. Damn. He flipped it open. "Grey here."

"Grey we're up to our necks in shit. Two different teams of metas decided to crash the dedication."

"I fucking told you to have a team on premises. That dedication was magnet for every freak, publicity hound, megalomaniac, politic loon, and old fashioned terrorist in the fucking country."

"I heard you the first time Grey. We've got teams on it. Someone's also decided to take down the Binary Corp Building. All our active teams are busy."

"Right, my day off's cancelled. I'm on it."

"Some independents may show up."

"Got it." He dropped a pair of twenties on the table and signalled to the waitress while rising into the air. "Blackheart out."

He took his earpiece of of his pocket and fitted it on as he flew through the air. "I hate working in civies."

[frigidmagi]

Tobin croached a stall in the bathroom cursing as he changed. There had to be a better way to go about this crap, there really did. Lucky he taken to wearing Dad's old boots just about everywhere, expect dates (there were limits after all right?) and this time he had the old Kevlar Armor in his backpack. But well... How the fuck had the old guys done this shit in a phone booth for crying out loud?

It seemed to take forever but he was finally dressed with his clothes jammed firmly in his pack, he was gonna have to hide it. Jamming his gloves on and ensuring his mask was on firmly he shoved himself out of the window and dropped to the alley, getting into the buildin with the shooting wouldn't be a problem, if he hurried.

He did so hustling into the building from the back through a window into a small room. Okay... Now what did he do?

Seeing a computer and a power outlet, Blast decided to charge up before anything else, he crawled over to the outlet and jammed his finger into the socket.

[Dark Silver]

The explosion at the Binary Building echoed through the shining streets of Millenium City, and singled the assault on the facility.

Above the city, surronded by the blue glow of his life support field, Saibot watched with disinterest. Of course someone would make a daring attack on some high tech facility when most of the attention was drawn to the dedication ceremony for the memorial.

Humnity, in ways almost as bad as the meta-human scum which infested the planet. Without a word, he changed his flight path, moving towards the Binary building, a trail of blue energy dispersing in his wake.

Moments later, he landed before the Binary Building, the glow remaining around his form, as he drew his Dragon Saber, the curve underside of the blade resting on his shoulder as he prepared himself.

The next few moments would either be a workout...or a slaughter. All in all, it would be a bloody way start the day....

[Cynical Cat]

A glowing man landed in front of the Binary Building. Hopefully an independent, but right now he didn't even have a description on the bad guys. Well this is why they paid him the big bucks and gave him the nice health plan. It would be nice if the latter actually did shit but tell him his condition was advancing after a couple hours worth of painful tests.

He slowed and approached, remaing a half dozen meters in the air. "Ultima Teams! Identify yourself!" He didn't look like much at the moment, just a guy in dark slacks, a shirt, and a coat but those were the breaks.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot chuckled, the sound was meanacing and gruff, as the saber blade tapped on his shoulder. The man in slacks was apart of the Goverment's Metahuman project...one of the Ultima Bureau..

"They won't care who your apart of," the voice was gravily in it's depth, "They will only understand one thing..."

Saibot turned to Grey as he hovered, the question pointed directly at him, "Would you like me to show you what that is?"

[Cynical Cat]

Fucking independent amateur assholes. Did they watch to many lone-wolf-macho-rogue-cop action movies or was it something else that made them think they were the coolest, baddest motherfucker to ever to walk the face of the planet. Did they really think amateur antics was a match for the Fed sinking millions of dollars worth of training into each agent.

Blackheart descended. "Clear the wax out of your ears. I'm Ultima Teams and I'm taking charge of this scene. Now identify yourself or stay the hell out of the way when I'm breaking heads and taking names."

[Dark Silver]

"Do you honestly think I give a fuck about you and your Ultima Teams? Or about anyone in that building?"

Saibot laughed, his swordarm slashing in the air before him, as yellow lines appeared in the blade's wake, segements of energy which took the shape of arrows.

"The name is Saibot....kind of out of uniform aren't you?."

The energy shafts stayed hovering in the air, infront of Saibot, as he looked over the hovering man. This would be interesting, to say the least.

[Cynical Cat]

"You're wasting my time with your grandstanding. There are lives at fucking stake and you want to play tough guy. There are fucking hostage takers on the inside and you want to threaten a Federal Agent? Amateur fucking assholes. Either get with the solution, get the fuck out of my way, or get flattened."

Blackheart floated past towards the door. "Either way make up your mind fast. The people inside don't have time for this shit."

[frigidmagi]

Blast finished charging up from the outlet. As always it made him feel tingly when he drew so much power into himself like that. He decided it was time to scout out the situation, he would have to be careful to keep from making it worst. He eased open the door and began to carefully creep down the hall.

[Dark Silver]

"That's fine by me...I'll take the high road, if you don't mind."

The blue glow intensified around him for a moment, before he flew towards the roof of the building, the energy shafts disappearing for the moment. He'd go through the roof entrance, and work his way down while the Ultima man worked his way up.

And if there wasn't a entrance on the roof, well...he'd make one himself.

[Elheru Aran]

A few blocks downtown, a large hand reached out and clicked an omni-band radio off. An earpiece was carefully placed upon the table.

The camera turns, to the other side of a large van; a fine grille covers most of that side. A keypad receives the code; with a creak, the grille telescopes upwards in the chosen section. A L85A2 equipped with underbarrel 12-gauge Masterkey shotgun is selected.

As the grille telescopes downwards, the camera slides to the side and turns; a trunk is opened, and an armoured vest is swiftly put on, as well as helmet, arm plates, thigh, knee and shin guards. A belt is clipped around the waist; another locked trunk is opened, exposing several thousand dollars' worth of different types of ammo in their proper magazines. The 7.62mm is selected and rapidly inserted into the respective pouches, as are 12-gauge shotgun shells.

The camera turns to the rear doors, which open...

And Anderson ran down the street, shoes thumping on the asphalt, as he cycled the action of his rifle, keeping eyes under the mask locked upon his target, that building down the road...

[Narsil]

Adam crouched down upon the rooftop, his eyes scanning for an entrance desperately. There was only one ventilation shaft, but the spinning fan half-way down didn't look particularly welcoming, and the sunlight prevented him from misting past it. There was also the stairs, but they were guarded, and not even a vampire would last long against a wall of bullets.

[Elheru Aran]

After getting through the fence, with the aid of a small battery-powered saw, Anderson crouched and then dashed to the nearest door. Marked 'Exit Only'; no handle on the outside. He grunted, checked the hinges, then pulled a small coil of C4 from a vest pocket, unrolled and pulled off a length, and slapped it on the door in the approximate position of the inside handle. Sticking a detonator in the explosive, he backed off a careful distance, turned his back and crouched, covering an ear with his free hand and pressed the trigger.

With a loud bang, a chunk of the door disingerated; L85A2 at the ready, he stepped carefully to the door, yanked it open and jumped through, gun at the ready. "Ah fuck, the stairwell? Eh..." he grumbled to himself when he saw the stairs.

Running up, he checked his ear piece, monitoring the superhero channel that he'd bought off Twitch the last week...

[SirNitram]

"Humans. You can't leave them ten minutes before they get in trouble again." This voice was that of Gravitas, a strange metahuman who had shown up only weeks ago. He didn't have a costume. He approached the hostage situation with nothing but a three-peice suit and a pair of thick glasses on his nose. The fabric was living eufiber, but no one knew this here.

The front entrance seemed unlikely. Slowly, adjusting the local gravity around himself slightly, Phil took a leap and began to walk up the side of the building, looking for a likely entrance. "I suppose I might as well get started. I'm sure someone's already onto the 'I'm too badass to save anyone' mentality, and that'll just get people killed." He sighed.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Alex was in his lab when he heard the call for help on all radio frequencies. He knew that CB radio was a good investment.

He was going a study on temperature effects on sex determination in Spotted Turtles. He left that alone and headed downstairs.

He had moved to Millenium Cirty a few weeks ago, leaving the University of Miami to work with the SUNY system. They pay was a bit better, and he could do more good here. At least for the time being.

After he got out of the building, he found a man-hole. Looked around to make sure no one was looking, then opened it up and climbed in. He did of course, close it behind him.

The stench was terrible, but he wouldnt have to deal with it for long. He clicked something in his brain and started to change. It started by him becoming more massive. The structure of every cell in his body changing. His skin turned to armor plated scales, a laterally flattened tail spontaneously generated. His hands and feet became webbed and clawed, he lost all his hair and his mouth and nose fuzed into an elongated crocodilian snout with sharp teeth and a bite force strong enough to crush steel and bite through just about anything.

He closed a valve which sealed off his nostrils. The stench was gone. ANd ran down the sewer, following the reverberating sounds of Supervillian combat at the dedication.

[Agent Fisher]

Niner walked down the street in Millenium City, unconcerned with the figthing going on around him. he was here for a purpose.

Niner reacehd the officer building that housed the leader of the research team for Project Guardsman. He used his tk to leap onto the roof of the adjacenent building. He walked on the edge, his cloak russeling in the wind. In the distance the sound of explosions could be heard. And there he was, Doctor Kliener. The bastard who had escaped his fury when he was born.

Niner focused. Inside Kliener's head, a small tk bubble formed. It was the size of a pin head. It didnt cause any damage at first, but then once it grew to the size of a basketball, pushing everything around it outward, in the space of about the time it takes to blink, it caused a bit of damage. Niner chuckled to himself and then leaped off the roof and left the office window covered in blood and gray matter behind.

[Narsil]

"Oh fuck it," Adam cursed to himself, pulling out a powerful-yet-outdated automatic pistol, "once more unto the breach."

He kicked the stair door in with ease, a smile spreading to his features as he saw the crushed body of a terrorist pinned to the wall behind it. He turned to the right and fired a few rounds into the surprised terrorist standing there. The vampire glanced down at the still-breathing body and smiled wickedly, snatching the dying man up by the neck with one hand and biting into the jugular. As life left the blood-drained man, Adam cast him to the floor.

"That was lucky, they're not as guarded as I thought."

[Charon]

Mark sat idly on the street, looking like one of the destitute homeless as wave after wave of independants passed by him on their way to the hostage situation. If there was one thing he'd noticed, it was that no one ever seemed to notice the homeless guys, and he used it to his advantage. He'd watched as the other heros had arrived. Dumbasses were going to start killing each other in their quest for glory. But at least they all looked half-way competant. And Saibot was here. No doubt on another Meta hunt, those were a few civilian lives that were going to be lost for certain. With a sigh Mark got to his feet, a quick glance around ensured that no one was in sight and almost immediately the rags he'd been wearing shifted and changed, revealing the symbiote that Mark carried with him.

"Yeah, I know. Patience. We'll try to actually collect a few of these loners into something like a group to keep friendly casualties down." Mark walked casually towards the building, keeping an eye out for any more who would make their way here.

[Agent Fisher]

With his goal complete for this day, Niner headed towards the screams. He was on top of the roofs, running and then leaping to the next. He finally reached the place where the metas where trying to save the hostages.

[Elheru Aran]

Anderson rapidly stepped up to the landing between the third and fourth floors; as he turned to point his rifle up the stairs, he glimpsed a man walking up the wall outside.

That caused him to do a double-take so fast his neck cracked; wincing slightly for less than a second, his foot crashed through the window and his hand darted out, grabbing the surprised Gravitas by the ankle...

[SirNitram]

Anderson rapidly stepped up to the landing between the third and fourth floors; as he turned to point his rifle up the stairs, he glimpsed a man walking up the wall outside.

That caused him to do a double-take so fast his neck cracked; wincing slightly for less than a second, his foot crashed through the window and his hand darted out, grabbing the surprised Gravitas by the ankle...

The shattered glass curved gracefully around the man, deflected by a slight but definate wrinkle in spacetime. When his ankle was grabbed, Gravitas blinked and looked down. His balance didn't seem in jeopardy. "Do you mind?" He asked simply, sizing up the apparently near-Human. "I've got a few more floors to go and you'd be quite heavy."

[Narsil]

Adam dashed down the stairs of the building, wiping the blood from around his mouth with his sleeve. He kept his gun at the ready, his vampirism wasn't nearly as effective in daylight, so he kept himself armed. He kept silent despite his haste, however, moving with only a whisper of a sound, he supposed it was what saved him from being shot when he encountered a rifle armed man gripping the ankle of a wall-walking man outside the window directly at the bottom of this set of steps.

He remained silent, and calm, ready to attack if they proved themselves a threat.

[Elheru Aran]

The shattered glass curved gracefully around the man, deflected by a slight but definate wrinkle in spacetime. When his ankle was grabbed, Gravitas blinked and looked down. His balance didn't seem in jeopardy. "Do you mind?" He asked simply, sizing up the apparently near-Human. "I've got a few more floors to go and you'd be quite heavy."

"Stairs. Easier than... whatever you're doing. Talk about that later. Mission now. Coming or not?" Anderson gestured with the barrel of his rifle towards the top floor stairwell entrance.

[Charon]

Mark watched the spectacle playing out before him. With a sigh his suit began refracting light off of it in a way to give him a limited form of invisibility as he launched himself into the air. A quick tendril snag on the side of the wall a good twenty feet to the left of the broken window pulled him in next to the others, keeping his suit refracted to stay somewhat invisible. It was likely they'd know someone was there, but better something than nothing. Legacies was pretty sure the first person was the new meta in town, as for the other, he didn't know him. But from the sound of it he didn't seem like a threat. He let the reflection fade. "Finally, someone else thinks of working as a team."