No.4707
>An explosion rocks a barren rocky field as a monstrous being walks across it, menacingly laughing as it causes destruction, its voice sounding odd - as if run through a filter with itself. As the monster finishes laughing, a woman appears in the field, running towards the creature acrobatically, making sure to cartwheel and flip several times before jumping up and kicking the creature.
“Take that!”
>Standing on a hill overlooking the dueling pair, a hooded figure gestures towards the ground where the monster fell down.
“Not so fast, American Ranger! You may be strong, but you have no answer to this! Sacred Staff, make my monster grow!”
>The figure holds a staff and holds in the air, a black energy coursing out from the staff and hitting the ground where the monster was, causing the ground to shake and crack, the dust from which obscures the area enough for the monster to grow to a giant size, dwarfing the surroundings.
>Struggling to keep her balance for a moment, the blonde woman, American Ranger, steps back and does an acrobatic backflip, landing and looking upwards.
“That’s a big mama jama. . .”
>American Ranger shifts her pose to one more suited for fighting. . .
“Wait! American Ranger, don’t forget-”
>American Ranger brings up a hand to the side of her head, as if activating a communicator in her ear.
“Of course, you’re right, Chancy! How do you beat a giant?”
>American Ranger brings her hand down, positioning her arms so they’re in a cross, her next line overlaying with the disembodied voice.
“-with another giant, of course! Lady Liberty, grant me strength!”
>American Ranger begins to flash with a bright light, each time the light dies down revealing her to be larger and larger - until she stands at a similar size to the monster.
“You may be powerful, Baron, but you’ll never win, because you don’t understand. . .”
>American Ranger winds up her fist.
“. . .responsibility!”
>American Ranger’s fist fires forward, hitting the monster across the jaw.
No.4708
>>4707>Date: November 10th, 2017>Location: Tomorrow Arena, Philadelphia
>The Tomorrow Arena takes up a prominent location within the city of Philadelphia, having once been a football stadium, the arena has more recently been purchased by the Tomorrow Corporation and converted into a state of the art concert arena - a purpose that it serves regularly, at a price.
>As a new cold November night descends on the city, the Arena serves its purpose once more, this time for a colourful female J-Rock band, its frontwoman being a small Japanese woman with black hair that has been dyed with several stripes of different colours.
>In the rafters of the arena, above the band and the cheering crowd, a pair of people have nestled themselves within a small little alcove where they can watch over the main room of the arena.“I ain’t seein’ why we need to be ‘ere.”
“Boss’s got good intel saying it’s gonna get attacked by some anti-Meta losers, and local law enforcement doesn’t care, seems pretty simple to me.”
“The band’s made up of us?”
“Pretty famously so.”
“Oh. Never much cared for Asian stuff.”
“Let me guess, you like the blues.”
“Yeah.”
>The man sighs and chuckles.“Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re a fake Cajun, Raine. . . hang on. . .”
>The man follows a line with his finger, ending on what looks like a security guard.“. . .he wasn’t there earlier, and his shirt’s all messed up like he put it on in a hurry - think he’s really part of security?”
>The woman pulls the goggles on her head over her eyes and adjusts a ring on them, zooming in on the man.“Ain’t ever seen a more obvious fake.”
>Changing her angle, the woman jumps down into the venue below, her tongue extending out of her mouth and hooking onto part of the gantry above, causing the woman to swing around and land on the side of it, sticking to it with her hands and feet.
>Still keeping her hunched posture, the woman starts crawling along the side of the gantry - remaining suspended above the crowd through a combination of her adhesive strength and wrapping around the bars of the structure.
>Remaining in the original perch, the man sighs, unclipping the bow from his back and nocking an arrow onto the string.“Cover you? Sure, of course I can, no need to ask. . .”
>Tracking the woman’s movements, the man adjusts his aim from her, to the man from before, noticing that the man is slowly taking a gun from his belt. Doing some quick calculations in his head, the man aims the bow at the “security guard”.“
Khara. . . sorry, Raine.”
>The man pulls back on the bow, the arrow within it glowing with a pink energy as he does, and releases it in the direction of the “security guard”, the trail of the arrow being obvious as it leaves a brief afterimage.
>As the arrow hits the guard, it explodes in an impressive burst of energy, sending the arena into chaos. No.4709
>>4708>The gantry at the top of the arena shakes in response to the explosion, with several sections falling down loose - including the one the woman was holding onto.
>As she falls, the woman kicks herself off the falling metal, throwing out her tongue again to grab the metal before jerking her head to throw it off to the side, the momentum being enough to cause it to ram itself into the wall - cracks forming up and down it around the impact point.While the act itself leads to no harm, it does cause further chaos as the crowd starts to panic, their path being somewhat guided by the efforts of the security team to evacuate them out.
>As the dust settles, the woman lands on the stage in front of the performing act, settling herself into a crouched and hunched posture. As her tongue finishes fully retracting, she gives the act a small wave.“Bonsoir, mes amis. . .”
>With the dust settled, more men, these ones clearly not members of security but still armed nonetheless, start to filter through the new hole created from the explosion, and the woman tilts her head.“. . .time for yous to run.”
>The woman leaps up into the air in the direction of the militia, grabbing the one leading the pack with her tongue and pulling him up to her fast enough to position him below herself before kicking him back towards the other with enough force to cause an audible crack as hits another - leaving both crumpled on the ground as their comrades aim their weapons up at the woman.
>With a smug “heh”, the woman swings around, landing in the middle of the men and kicking one in the head, his neck breaking with a crack.
>Still in his perch, the man with the bow tries to get a clear shot at any of the militiamen, but brings the bow down as he fails to.“Hey Khalid, things don’t look too great, huh?”
>The man, Khalid, jumps a little as he’s joined by another man who balances on the edge of the spot precariously.“No public names when we’re out on a mission, remember Trace?”
“Oh, right. . . right. . . still, things don’t look too great, right?”
“You could say that. . .”
>From another entrance, more armed men start filtering in the room.“Great. . . think you can. . .”
>Trace touches Khalid, and the man finds himself on the stage.“. . .get me down there. . . thanks, I need you to go check on the band, if you could.”
“Sure thing.”
>Trace gives Khalid a little mock salute then disappears in a burst of bright blue energy, several “afterimages” appearing in the direction he was going.
>Throwing his bow to the side, Khalid takes out a set of cards from his belt and fans them out as the militia starts to gather around him.“Now, gentlemen, shall we dance?”
No.4710
>>4709>With a grin, Khalid charges up one of the cards with the same energy as the arrow and throws it at one of the militiamen, the card exploding on impact.
>Anticipating the next move from the men, Khalid does a spin, firing off several cards as he does, each one hitting a different man, all while ducking to avoid the first volley of firing from the men’s guns.
>As soon as the volley ends, Khalid runs forward, jumping up into the air to kick one of the militiamen and use him as a stepping stone to get further up, from where he can fire off more cards, hitting all of the ones except the one he kicked - who he quietly finishes off with a throwing knife from his belt.
>Dusting himself off quickly, Khalid looks around to see if any reinforcements have arrived, only for the woman to land right in front of him with a thud.“And you call me a showoff. . .”
>Khalid shrugs.“What can I say? I’m a performer.”
>Looking up at the stands, the pair see that they’re empty.“Ain’t got no audience though.”
“My heart weeps. . . I wonder how Trace is doing. . .”
>As Khalid finishes his sentence, the ground in front of the pair bursts open, and Trace’s body flies up into the air, travelling faster than the dust and debris from the newly created hole.“Trace!”
>Khalid goes to rush forward, but is beaten by the woman as she leaps into the air, intercepting the other man and landing down in the stands, where she carefully places him down, quickly checking his pulse.“He’s breathin’, just a lil’ beaten up!”
>Khalid breathes a sigh of relief before rushing over to grab his bow, aiming at the newly created hole. No.4711
>>4710>From the hole, a blonde woman suddenly emerges, leaping into the air with an impressive amount of speed - especially considering the size of the sword she holds in her hands.
>A blank expression on her face, the woman lands on the ground in front of Khalid, casually surveying the area for a moment before being hit point blank by a charged arrow, the shockwave of which causes the entire room to shake and kicks up enough debris and dust to completely obscure the woman.
>Lowering his bow, Khalid carefully nocks another arrow onto it, but starts running around the dust cloud, hoping to make it to Raine and Trace, only to be stopped by an arm suddenly emerging from the dust - the collision being much like when someone hits a bar or beam.
>Stunned for a moment, Khalid falls to the ground and the woman steps forward out of the dust, standing over the man with the same blank expression - and no indication of having taken any damage from the arrow.“. . .you’re tough, good to know. . .”
>Khalid looks over in the direction of Raine and Trace, nudging his head to indicate that they should leave.“. . .wouldn’t expect one of us to be working with nutjobs like those though.”
>Khalid moves back a little bit, drawing the woman’s attention towards the bodies of the fallen militiamen.“Unless they’re not friends?”
>The woman steps forward, following Khalid, staring down at him with a blank expression, then raises her sword.“. . .not much of a talker, huh. . . I would’ve liked a talker. . .”
>The woman brings down the sword, its arc heading straight for Khalid. No.4712
>>4711>Khalid closes his eyes, bracing for impact, only to open them again as the sound of metal hitting metal, the sword that was intended for him having been sent off course after being hit by another sword with a chain attached to it, the owner of which is revealed a few seconds later as a blue-haired woman collides with the blonde woman fist first, having been propelled along the chain - the force of the strike being enough to send the blonde-woman flying back.
>Pulling the sword back to her with the chain, the blue-haired woman rests it on her shoulder for a moment and looks back at Khalid.“Need a hand?”
>Before she can get her answer, the blonde-haired woman starts to move, prompting her to jump in her direction.
>Khalid isn’t left alone for long, however, as a person with white and black hair appears in front of him.“Hey, Raine said you might need a hand?”
“Blink. . . I never thought I’d be glad to see a face so. . . punchable.”
“Rude. My face is cute, beautiful, smart, and handsome. . .”
>Blink reaches down to help lift Khalid up, the two getting a clear view of the fight between the two women.“For the record, Martha was already here, she’s been tracking this group for a while.”
“Great. . .”
>Khalid looks over at the rest of the room, seeing the metal embedded in the wall from earlier.“You think you could get me over to that?”
>Khalid points at the metal.“I think I can bring the building down on our mystery woman with it, it’ll probably be enough to at least keep her trapped, right?”
>Blink looks over at the metal, then at Khalid.“You’ll owe me for this, just because I
can teleport out of them doesn’t mean I
like being in collapsing buildings.”
>Blink grabs Khalid’s shoulder and the pair disappear. No.4713
>>4712>The pair of Meta-Humans reappear on top of the metal, positioned so they don’t need to worry about balancing themselves - unless the metal is shifted.
>Still on (what remains) of the stage, the two women remain evenly matched, prompting Blink to shift their weight a little as Khalid starts charging the metal.“Hey, you’re all good here, right?”
“Unless you’re after me firing it off now, we’re all good, why?”
“Ok then, you stick there for a moment.”
>Blink disappears and reappears behind the blonde woman, kicking down at her leg.“Hi there!”
>The blonde woman looks over her shoulder at Blink, not reacting as their foot connects with the back of her leg.“Jesus! What the fuck are they feeding you?!”
>Blink jumps back avoiding putting weight on their foot from the pain of having kicked something hard, and the blonde woman swings around to try and hit them with her sword.“Shit-”
>Blink disappears, reappearing a few meters away, and the blonde woman starts stepping towards them, only to be knocked over as Martha slams into her from behind.“You always struggled to pay attention. . .”
>Martha notices the woman’s unfocused eyes.“. . .what did he do to you?”
>The blonde woman struggles against Martha, then throws her off, causing her to skid across the stage, using her sword to slow herself down. “Blink, it’s ready!”
>Taking advantage of the brief reprieve, Blink disappears and reappears on top of the metal pole, grabbing Khalid for a moment and disappearing, reappearing again to wrap their arm around the metal before doing the maneuver one last time so that they’re over the woman.“Catch!”
>Before Blink can let go of the metal, a psionic command rings out through the room, paralysing them in the air and causing them to fall to the ground, the metal crashing to the ground by them, still charged up. No.4714
>>4713“Good word, MGE-1-3.”
>Across the room, a tall man in a lab coat stands in a doorway, patting a young girl with red hair, her eyes covered by a small mask.“MGE-2, this operation is officially called off, time to retreat.”
>The blonde woman looks up at the man, then over to Martha, then back to the man.“Unexpected. . . you should just be following the order. . . but I’ll allow it, just this once, you may finish the job, MGE-2.”
>The blonde woman nods, then starts making her way over to Martha, who picks herself up.
>Groaning and rolling over, Blink looks around the room, their vision blurry as their head rings.
>With their head ringing, Blink looks over to see the blonde woman approaching Martha, then rolls over to see the metal bar still charging up.“Wuh. . .”
>With their body screaming at them, Blink starts to try standing up, their new angle allowing them to see the man with the child.“. . .”
>Wincing, Blink holds a hand against the back of their head, bringing it in front of them to see a small pool of blood on their palm, the sight causing something to trigger in them.“N. . . no. . .”
>Not fully stood up yet, Blink disappears from where they were, reappearing right in front of where the child is, collapsing just in front of them and reaching out to touch their shoulder.“S. . . safe. . .”
>Blink and the child disappear.
>As the pair disappear, the metal bar explodes, taking out the room with everyone in it.