Masks 2

"Not much. Just wonderin' what a pretty lass is doin' still stuck at this place - figure you'd have a couple dozen dates lined up or something by now, aye?"

She gives the lamest grin-and-wink. Her charm is dialed up to ten, but it IS kinda clumsy considering how much of a rollercoaster the night's been.

Esen chuckles and gives Finn a look over.

"Maybe, maybe not. But I'm sure someone who stands out from a crowd like you gets a lot of admirers."

She returns the wink and takes a big gulp of champagne, putting the glass down on the bar and then wiping her mouth with the back of her glove.

"Usually too busy makin' an ass outtae myself tae get admirers, honestly. Mostly fights n' shoutin' matches." She takes another swig of whiskey. Goddamn, this woman is a bottomless pit.

"What's yer powerset? I'm a wizert, as I think I mentioned. Figure it's worth sharin', aye?"

Esen counts off on her fingers

"I run fast, can take a hit better than normal people can, and I'm pretty fucking solid in a fight. Oh yeah, and I have this"

She makes her hookshot shimmer slightly in the air as it lazily loops around her.

"Can you turn ANYTHING into a cookie?"

Sam looked around anxiously.

"Yes! Potentially!" Chef Marco said back.

"Oh, I'd love your number, yeah." Zil is a bit less discreet and a lot more clumsy. Everyone here and the cool stuff they've done makes her feel a little out of her league, and Cadence is most certainly also out of her league, but whatever! She's got nothing to lose. With a smile, Zil hands hers over!
"Anyone even know when this...this stuff is starting? Or will we just be receiving random Omnicorp related tasks?

Finn flashes a smile! "Nice! Classic shite, but with a new twist. Lotsa stuff ye can do with a powerset like tha', too - slingshottin', mobility tricks, alla that. Nothin' but respect, honestly, lass. I've just got some arbitrary set o' spells I can cast tha' some other basterts figured out an' taught me, n' now I gotta figure out how tae use them all smart-like. Been learnin' from the demon? Lass knows how to swing a blade around an' make it better wit' magic, which is pretty nice, if ye ask me. Got tae get better established before I can do anything real impressive, but I'm workin' at it."

She gives a faux-absentminded look as she continues, accenting the coming humble-brag "Haven't done so much so far, just helped tae stop a genocide o' wizerts bein' done by a millenia-old magic-vampire who slew the majority o' em. Got tae keep it up if I'm ev'r gonna be at the Demon's level, but it's a start, aye." A half-smirk-half-grin crosses her face.

Across the pool, Salamandra had approached the Red Reaper and taken up position on a nearby lounge chair.

"So...back in the game, huh?" Salamandra asked him.

"Yep," the Red Reaper replied, sipping his umbrella drink as he lounged back, watching the pool from behind his mask.

"You know, I was always a fan of your work. There's a bit of art to such tactical precision..." Salamandra told him. "Plus, your suit? Bit edgy, but I could dig it."

"All right," the Red Reaper said, obliviously.

"What's your favorite type of gun? Any ammunition recommendations?" she asked him.

He glanced at her.

"I use what I can get. Can't get picky," he shrugged, still oblivious.

Salamandra sighed and got up, walking off to chat with Valance.

Esen makes the silvery tendril disappear.

"Damn, I only blew up a server room at the top of a corporate security tower. Must be hard work, stopping wizard genocide."

Meanwhile Raven was off at a table with Nick and the Demon.

"Okay so... I think... Darkmagic... Like... Breaks the laws of magic. I don't know, the theory was clearer in my head before I hit the bottle this hard, I'll tell you guys about it later. Anyway, did you know there's a portal to this really weird dimension in Emily's backyard that is inhabited by frost giants? And you cant walk in it unless you have sufficient protection against absolute freezing cold or you'd die instantly. There's like a city at the bottom of a mountain, which has a tower thats shooting magic up into the sky causing a weird magic vortex thing. Wanna see?"

And thus did the three, drunken wizards fuck off on an adventure filled with BAD IDEAS and REGRET.

"Oh man oh man oh man."

Sam digs through his pockets, thinking.

"... Didn't bring anything cheap... wUzi is one of a kind..."

He stopped, then grinned. He pulled a grenade out of a belt pouch, setting it on the table casually like it wasn't an explosive.

"How about THIS? I can't say I ate a gun, but it'll be a damned good claim to say I ate a hand grenade."

"Magnifico!" he said, transforming it into a giant chocolate egg with a simple touch. "And there we go!"

"OH THIS IS BETTER THAN A COOKIE"

Sam stood on top of a chair, holding it up.

"HEY YA'LL, I'M GONNA EAT A GRENADE!"

He proceeds to, in fact, eat that grenade.

Finn brushes aside the praise, appearing humble but also putting out her MAX CONFIDENCE. "Eh, not really - ye shoot a fella few times while an old lady beats on him, ye stab him a few times, yer cat eats him alive. I just played a wee part, aye? Nae anythin' super special. Honestly, I'd be more interested in yer story - sounds like a good one."

Annnnd she gets hit by a wave of dizziness and nausea. Oh no. Her alcohol is catching up to her. She's not in vomit mode, but she needs to get going. She writes down her number for Aura on a napkin and passes it over.

"Think I ought tae get goin, but - call sometime if yer feelin' like a crossover, aye?"

She gives a wink and a smirk.

In the background of that scene, Blackstar is horfing a whole chocolate grenade.

Esen takes the number and returns the wink.

"Sure, I'll show ya what the big city's like."

And so the night progressed! People had drinks, private talks, and interacted merrily. Eventually, the sun began to rise along with everybody's level of general intoxication!

Not long after, everybody went to bed in their various rooms. Later that day, once everybody was up, Nocturne gave one final speech. He stated that people would be contacting them all to help them in building their dream security skills (to protect their identity in the future), and that said meetings will also have the purpose of teaching them a variety of skills for evading Omnicorp surveillance.

Finally, he announced that there had PREVIOUSLY been a rather monumental threat to reality running around named Torilyr. He was a Fae that had apparently gained extraordinary levels of power in some weird experiment, but that had also made him a destabilizing force on reality. If he'd continued to exist and use his powers, he would've torn apart the entire dimension. Fortunately, the Raven had left the party last night and met up with an anonymous ally, teaming up to destroy Torilyr in Algeria. Nocturne WOULD have had the Raven explain things further, but he was currently MIA. He'd apparently run off while drunk with the Demon and Nick Urias.

Yeeeeeuuuuup.

Anyway, Torilyr was very likely no longer a problem, but his information was given to everybody in case he'd somehow survived. He could apparently cause massive explosions, had telekinesis, could summon massive spikes, could shapeshift into just about anything from an elephant to a cloud of vapor, created an aura of corruption that killed simple life and warped the landscape in an evergrowing radius around him as he used his powers, and could also probably alter reality in many other ways that weren't entirely understood. If anybody DID happen to see him, it'd be wise to call in backup ASAP. He was probably dead, but was also poorly understood, so Nocturne thought it best to explain the situation as best he could. He showed an image of Torilyr in case anybody would find it useful. The guy was native to the North American Fae (who were INCREDIBLY hostile to humanity), but not much was known of his actual life.

He didn't really have much more information than that, so there wasn't much else to say. He wished he had something more, there.

Before they left, Emily gave them all very simple pagers that were apparently HEAVILY encrypted. All they'd do is send a signal to Switzerland signifying some kind of emergency. More complex communicators sending text or voice were too dangerous with Omnicorp control of American signals, so this was the best they could do. Ideally, after sending the signal, the person in the state of emergency would need to get to safety and sleep to get into contact with Prism. If that was impossible, then five signals could be sent in quick succession to signify a major emergency where sleep was impossible. Help would then be sent as quickly as possible, though the pagers didn't have trackers or anything, so the effectiveness of that help without communication would be limited.

If there was nothing else, Nocturne ended the meeting and Emily began taking people home!

Little did they know that the Wrath of Fishgirl would be bringing them back together soon enough...

(Basically? You're all going to go home, do a few things, have a one week timeskip, and then Fishgirl crossover will begin. It'll be optional, so lemme know if you don't want to take part for whatever reason. Get hype!)

Edge of the Permian Sea, Texas
August 6th, 2050

On a cliff overlooking the edge of the Permian Sea, a number of quiet, smooth-running dropships flew in to land carrying a number of passengers. They all arrived in quick succession, some coming with multiple passengers but most only carrying one. This had been a poorly organized and rushed job to meet a rather wild threat, and many weren't asleep at opportune times...

First to arrive was Coyote, carried in from nearby New Mexico.

Then came a transport carrying Jim "Loneblade" Russell, Sam's sword-wielding edgelord brother from Houston. He wore his usual blue and white textro attire with gunmetal grey accents. He was adorned in many knives, and also carried a katana across his back.

Then came Cadence and Zil on separate transports from California, followed closely by Lady Light who had flown there as quickly as she could. Another transport came bearing Nimue and the Demon as well, also from California. Lady Light was dressed in her usual armored white and gold suit with her golden facemask, and the Demon was clad in her hulking red and black body armor, snarling demon mask obscuring her face. She was outfitted in a number of guns, but had no visible swords despite her skill in their use.

After them, a transport came in from Cuba bearing inquisitive ol' Theraea fresh from her vacation.

Then Hackerman showed up from Detroit with his brand new drone...

And finally, a transport came in carrying Aura, Nocturne, and La Chat. Nocturne had gotten dressed in one of his heavier armor suits during the flight. Like his normal suits, it was vantablack with a featureless face and a rather voidlike appearance. He carried swords for this one, just in case. La Chat was more lightly-clad in one of her armored stealth suits, and was armed only with her claws for the occasion. She could do a lot with her claws.

After the transports dropped each of them off, they took off again trying to find more heroes to bring in. Once Nocturne arrived, though, it was clear that his would be the last one.

"Thank you all for coming," he told them. "I just received word that our flight is likely to be the last one coming in for at least a few hours. Emily also finished analyzing the intelligence gathered from the video feeds out of Rainwalk on our way here. Three things are clear:

One: The hero known as Siren has returned, and for whatever reason she seems to be leading the group that has taken over Rainwalk. She is responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths at the Rainwalk Sirens Stadium, and is likely responsible for many more. It's unknown why she is doing this, but she needs to be stopped.

Two: During her attack on the stadium, she demonstrated the ability to open a portal to some other dimension via human sacrifice, bringing in strange creatures which she commands. Using these, she was able to drive the Omnicorp out of the city. Ordinarily I wouldn't complain about the Omnicorp getting kicked to the curb, but 'human sacrifice' and 'weird Lovecraftian portals' gives me a bad feeling.

Three: It's believed that she's working towards something. Most of the video we got was distorted with some kind of psionic interference, but Emily is really insistent that we don't have much time before something really bad happens. If she was able to conquer a city with a few hundred sacrificial victims, she'd probably be able to conquer the Earth with the people inside Rainwalk. We need to move fast."

He looked towards the single remaining transport, then looked back to the group.

"Before we leave, any questions?"

Loneblade, hearing that, walked right by him and went to sit on the dropship. He was ready.

Ken brought his drone. A pristine sculpture gliding noiselessly besides him. 

He also brought a suitcase of firearms and a separate suitcase of hacking and drone-maintenance equipment. He wore the highest-end armor he could beg for - definitely protects against bullets but tridents and magic? Who knows. He felt like he was going on vacation. A vacation to...DEATH...

Theraea... looked like she was actually on vacation, since she was literally wearing a tacky floral-print shirt that she'd apparently fabricated to fit on her giant moth body. She wasn't in Cuba on business, that's for sure. She was loaded up with her usual equipment, the mysterious and esoteric technology of the Weavers. For once, it seemed like she would probably need all of it.

"Okay, um, do we know anything about these dimensional portals? If those are how all of this is happening, I'm going to need to get those closed or diverted or something. I'm not much of a fighter, but portals I can, um, probably help deal with."

Esen steps off of the transport ship wearing a borrowed suit of Nocturne's light stealth armor. She stretches and flexes her joints, still getting used to the fit, and cracks her back.

"So, we get rid of Siren and it's all over right? We going in from the air then?"

Nocturne looked to Theraea.

"Nothing more than what I told you. This JUST happened, and we need to act fast. I'm sure you'll get an up close look at them once we're in town."

He then looked to Esen.

"I have no idea if getting rid of Siren will fix this, or what Siren's status is. Intelligence is pretty limited on this one, since all we have to go off is broken video footage."

He climbed onto the transport and started to take a seat.

"We can talk here. We need to get moving."

Theraea climbs aboard! She's ready for this shit.

I mean, she probably isn't, but that's fine.

This specific dumbass was in the same giant jacket and jeans everyone saw her in like a week ago. As comic book nonsense tended to go. This time she had a motorcycle helmet on, and she was uhh... I mean, god, she actually didn't look any different aside from the helmet thing. Same amount of knives on the belt, same duffle bag of weapons (an abundance of trusty old guns, knives, bow, and a sword), same stupid surfboard under her arm. Did she just live like this? The hoverbike with the bag with camping gear hanging off of it implied... Maybe.

The news was troubling, and Coyote was real still through it, until it was time to move. Did a quick head count- goddamn, that part of her life huh? Where none of the old guard was- OH THANK FUCK. "Demon." One. One single other person who was here last time. NICE. "We were worried about mind control last time, right? Anything we can do at this point to prep?"

She left her bike and camping shit on the cliff, and... Actually, she grabbed the snacks out of her camping bag and threw them in the Weapon Duffle, before hopping into the ship so they could move. Might be a long trip. Snacks were a powerful, powerful tool in these team-ups. They were not ready for this shit oh god oh GOD.