Jack was bored at this point. He'd been observing and listening to the dockworkers for who knows how long in the unused crane he was hiding in. At this point he just considered leaving this position and going somewhere else further down the dock to see if he would have more luck there. Jack contemplated for a moment and decided to slip out of the window of the crane's pilot seat. He momentarily slowed down his fall to the yard below with some vibrant multicolored flames that sprouted in an almost protective shell around his well kept white pants and his high quality boots.

Thereafter Jack heard something particularly unusual. It sounded like a low humming alongside a spark of flames. Jack readied a baseball sized orb of multicolored energy in his grey bandaged hands before turning to his potenial threat. What he saw seemed to be far from a threat though despite his caution, 2 young hero looking figures near his age. The gentleman gave off an opaque golden aura while the young lady gave off an bright blue transparent aura. Jack snuffed out some of the energy in his baseball sized energy ball, reducing it to the size of a marble in which he held between his fingers.

Jack was curious about these two potenial allies. He made sure the hood that was hiding some of his hair accept for his bangs was up along with his bandage mask that was hiding his face.

Shari took pictures of the guages, and a sample of whatever was causing the pressure inside the former vacuum furnace. She was letting the pressure equalize when she heard the door being unlocked. She loosened the large wing nuts that held the door shut and quietly swung the bolts out of the notches. Shari waited, pistols drawn, using the furnace for cover.

(Edited for spelling)

To anyone who looked he was just a homeless man in an alley bundled up. Some might even spot the black tattoos that seem to move and shift on their own. Others would notice the strange material of the black hoodie he had on or the way he kept looking at the docks. The man was unknown in more ways then one. This was a hunt a stake out as some might say. For the alien predator it was a hunt and the prey was the poisoners the drug dealers who are killing the innocent inhabitants of Titan City, his home, it must be protected. His head snapped up as a wave of energy went through him, being a lifeform that feeds on energy of any kind the blast caught his attention. Choices continue the hunt or investigate... instinct to find energy fought with the remains of the human mind that wanted revenge.

He rose up and started heading in the direction of the energy wave he felt. He was no longer mindless hunter, he knew now the prey have figured out his weaknesses. There could be someone harmed by what ever caused that energy blast.
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Flux reached down and petted Bucky. "Well my little hero you're a brave one. Anyone else these fools would be a threat, me not so much. Lets find someone to take care of them shall we, I think this is Black Rose turf. They wouldn't like some wannabe thugs operating in their turf, and in this hood it be swifter justice then what a badge would do." She looked around for the most likely location of a group of Black Rose members. Figuring it be near the docks she headed in that direction. Figuring Bucky would be like any cat and do his own thing.

Enigma frowned under his mask to that issue ''If it isn't Pyreband receiving the Chaser drugs....then it's probably the Black Roses, or an villain of some sort that I will likely have no knowledge of'' he muttered in slight apprehension.

Enigma perked himself back up not too long after ''This should be fine. Whomever this third party is we should be able to give them a thrashing....'' he mentioned, determined. [i]''Hmmm....she is another unique magic user apparently....heh I like her already''[/i] he thought to himself as he analyzed Gold-Fire's female companion briefly before saying ''Cool powers. Glad to know I am not the only one with unique magic powers...''

There were many kinds of predators, most come down to two tactics. Ambush or Stalk, there was a possibility that the energy he felt was a form of a trap. So he went with caution acting like the homeless man he appeared as. The hoodie up covering his head hunched over walk moving as if he wasn't paying attention. That of course was false given his silicon cell makup was more fluid than the carbon lifeforms of earth. He didn't need eyes to detect movement, his skin picks up more than just temperature. So when he got near the warehouse he acted like he was seeking a place to bunker down for the night.

Here amongst the steel-framed buildings Colton's newly acquired electro-reception was heightened. From his vantage there were 3 men were walking between the buildings looking for something.

He didn't need his 6th sense to see the thugs were strapped- they reached for their pistols before checking anything. This behaviour certainly made Colton apprehensive. The one who didn't reach for a piece made him second guess his whole plan. Especially after he actively pinged his immediate area & noticed the bionics in his bio-electric pattern. This cause him great concern- especially when he decided to get involved further.

Had he been paying attention to the children he'd have seen their movements across the field as decidedly unnatural. Unfortunately he wasn't- he was mesmerized by the energy patterns in the thugs' pistol's batteries. As he watched them their electric field grew brighter and brighter.

She was just about to settle back down and try and sense more information when she heard footsteps. Nothing in this area was quite what it seemed, but this felt like an opportunity. Whoever was coming, she was almost sure they had noticed the Dagger's probing. Keeping her back against the warehouse she slid towards the corner of the building. Stepping softly around the corner, she saw a hooded figure. He showed all the signs of being an unfortunate Normal looking for shelter. It was time to find out for sure.

"Hi! My name is Ana. This isn't a good place, a safe place, for anyone to try and rest. I can call some people who could help. They have a van, so you could be somewhere warm and dry to sleep in a bit." She reached down into her boot and pulled out a cell phone. That speech had to look legit.

Then, she waited

Shaking the hazy state brought on by his powers, Colton noticed fainter lights on each of the men. These electric fields were faint and weak like his own cellphone. He stopped a moment and focused on those. They too began to glow in the same mesmerizing way as the thugs pistols- but instead of stopping short of some critical threshold as the pistols shielding allowed, they grew ever brighter.

Colton focused on all 3 lights and tried for the first time to control the ambient energy his powers used. Instead of powering the devices he focused on a void like thought and shunted that power into the ever hungry void. The lights began to dim, growing fainter and fainter. At last- a few moments later they were passing the next door and the lights grew completely dark.

Almost simultaneously the 3 devices alerted their owners to their empty supplies with an audible beep and tone. Being Millennials they all instinctively reached for their phones. Colton recognized an opportunity when he saw one. He dropped down landing on the 2 nervous Black Rose members being sure to knock them out as he hit them. The 3rd- a heavily modified man in a neat black suit, turned around slowly.

Colton squared up to him and kicked him squarely in the jaw. The man's head turned with the force and his knees buckled a bit- but he turned back to Colton smiling, spitting the blood from his mouth. Then to Colton's enhanced senses the augmentations throughout his body began to glow in earnest. He stood up straight, and the subtle sound of servos and motors could be heard as his body moved.

Colton stepped back nervously and centered himself. He looked back towards where he last saw the children but he lost them somewhere along the line. He was beginning to feel inept but before he could settle on any emotion the thug started throwing punches. Colton did his best to dodge the man- but he moved with superhuman speed and precision. Left hook, right hook, jab, jab, jab. Colton dodged most of them but was waylaid by an uppercut.

Colton found himself flying again. He hit the wall of the warehouse, causing the whole building to shudder. He fell to the ground and already the augmented Black Rose member was upon him again. This time he was carrying his pistol, spinning it around his trigger finger, and whistling in a tone not completely human. Colton placed the song as a bubblegum pop tune he'd happily turn off if he had control over the radio. Unfortunately this radio was aiming to bash his skull in.

Colton stood up straight and found his ribs were a bit tender. He decided to use that and played his injuries up a bit. He immediately doubled over and pinged the area with his electroperception. He was surrounded by metal objects, but only one of them was loose enough and within reach for him to grab. He hoped it was heavy enough to do the job.

The Augmented Black Rose stood above him, momentarily taking the time to decide how to end his prey. Eventually he decided on the pistol, deftly stopping its spin and pointing it right at Colton. "First day huh, chump?" he says to Colton, "Tough luck- you met a real thorn today! Too bad you aren't even a real cape. Woulda been nice to brag about taking one down to da' Boss. But you're less than nothin'- an' my gang is everythin'."

Being only a few feet away Colton could see the signals rushing around the mans nervous system- and his adrenaline was kicking into overdrive. The motes of light almost slowed to a crawl and he could identify the signal leaving his brain heading towards that trigger finger. Even with the cyborgs enhanced reaction time Colton moved faster- not by much but just enough. Colton rolled as the thugs finger pulled the trigger, and as he did reached for a metal pipe he identified earlier. The laser beam shot past right where Colton's face was, now where his shoulder was, and he took a bit of the blast off-center. He spun with the force, and his shirt and flesh underneath burned where it was exposed. The air smelled of ozone and burnt meat.

Taking every bit of his freerunning training- he moved so fluidly even the cyborg wasn't sure what was going on. As he grabbed the pipe Colton popped up and charged the cyborg. He hit him right across his forearm- and even then he could hear the servos compensating for the impact. The Cyborg grunted and pushed Colton back before grabbing his arm, and dropping his pistol. Colton knew the man was enhanced- but he was still clothed in the flesh of a man. He was sure he could hold the cyborg off- but he wasn't sure he could beat him, much less stop those kids from being hurt.
He dug down deep and put his insecurities away- maybe to review them another time, maybe to forget about them entirely- either way they had no place here in the field.

Colton continued his own onslaught while pushing the cyborg away from the pistol. The Cyborg was taking his punishment but he wouldn't go down. He stood up every single time Colton brought him to his knees and that metal pipe wasn't going to hold up to much more of this punishment.

Colton attempted to throw the pipe at the cyborg with his full strength while he was on his knees and find a suitable replacement. He knew soon enough the other Black Roses would hear the commotion and be along quickly. He threw the pipe imagining it flying end over end to smack the cyborg in his face- but in reality it just to his hand. He shook it- and it remained. Like a balloon to a wall after you passed along enough static electricity to it.

"Really? Now?!" Colton says raging at his own burgeoning abilities. Colton noticed the man wasn't moving quite as deftly as before, and was leaning a bit in his next flurry of attacks. Colton successfully evaded his blundering attacks, and leaned into his clearly injured side looking for any opening he could. Then it occurred to him...

His burnt shoulder was killing him, his ribs were probably fractured, and he was bleeding profusely from the mouth. He thought he might have bit his tongue. He was in just about as bad of shape as the cyborg was and he had been doing much of the beating by this point. He dropped to one knee mirroring the cyborg's own battle damaged stance- the cyborg looked to him and smiled. "Maybe you ain't nothin' after all- but you sure ain't gonna beat me." he laughed.

"No, I think you're right. I've been doing this completely wrong." Colton said, rolling backwards towards the pistol. The cyborgs eyes grew wide in terror as Colton pointed the weapon at him. "All wrong- right? I think I'll just take a page from you and we'll see just how wrong I've been all along huh?" Colton says as a sense of rage rolls over him. The air literally crackles as he moves.

The Cyborg stands once more to face Colton saying, "But you're- you're... a wanna-be cape! You're a hero! Take me in! You win fair and square! Com'on man I won't cause you no more troubles!"
Colton could feel the tension in the air- and realized those kids were still out there and there were probably more of his ilk out there- equally as powerful- equally as dangerous. "Sorry pal- tough luck. I'm already late to work," Colton says leveling the pistol to the Cyborgs head and pulling the trigger.

The cyborg's face burns and cracks revealing a partially metal skull beneath then falls over face first with a sickening squish.

Colton dragged the body to a scrap pile, and then took his unconscious friends and dragged them into the shadows.

He opened up his mind again trying to take in all his electroreception could give to search for the children again. He spotted them just at the edges of his perception, and began working his way to them again.

Unknown tilts his head then the tattoos fades and wounds, bruises and the result was an image of a man beaten to an inch of his death. Just left alive long enough to bleed out, that would have been his fate when another life also on the edge of death joined the two becoming one. The wounded flesh reformed back into the healthy man from before complete with the tattoos. "The greater entity of Titan City draws resources like any entity. Where those resources are easier to get to there is productivity, general good health of life. Ironport is not drawing enough of the vital resources it needs to be productive, economical stress causes loss jobs, hardship, anger, the predators and poisoners come here for easier prey. They supplement poisons that induce a small amount of pleasure, or temporary power to the population. feeding their desire to have an escape at the same time causing firther degeneration and sickness in this part of the greater entity of Titan City."

"Extra time it is." Shari moved forward to the corner of the shelf, then took careful aim at the head of one of the goons. She squeezed off one round without exposing more than her head and right arm, and sent the solid steel projectile at supersonic speeds towards the head of that goon. That crack was the only sound the weapon made, but the electromagnetic pulse that had sent it on its way could easily be heard as a pulse of static over a wide, if seldom used, radio frequency band...

Jack winced in disgust and uneasiness at the new smell in the air. He smelt that before when he got his powers. The mysterious crystal that powered the portal was piping hot to the touch when he ripped it out of it's magical power socket. It felt like his entire body was on fire when one of the shards embedded itself into his chest after the crystal exploded and he could of swore a sickening smell was permeating the air.

Those noxious fumes were from human flesh being cooked by plasma or fire. [i]''The Black Roses has laser guns that can produce that disgusting smell so it's very much possible they could be here as well. Although judging by it this definitely confirms that Pyreband isn't the only hostile party we have to be looking out for here''[/i] he mused to himself. He readied another multicolored baseball sized of aura energy and closed his fist around it to hide it from view.

He spoke back to Gold-Fire in a rare cautious, serious tone for him ''Yeah, I think that we might have more to deal with here too. That smell in the air....it's burning flesh but also smells...charred. Judging by the lack of activity that I could hear Pyreband hasn't even arrived yet so another gang with access to either the chaser drugs, Black Rose guns, or some other type of plasma or fire powered weaponary might have just killed someone around here. Those radio waves your talking about might be of some concern too...''

The men raised their guns to the stranger "Who... who are you!!!" one of them stuttered while trying to hold up an intimidating demeanor, the stranger chuckled and simply stated "I am a madman...." the stranger started walking to them as calmly as he was "....and I have something that you want my friend... something you can't possibly live without...." the men franticly started firing their weapons into the looming figure but to there surprise the lasers merely pass through him at this moment a chuckle can be heard right beside Blindstrike

Most of the wild shots hit the empty boxes, vaporizing and igniting the cardboard. There was some smoke, but the main problem would be that there was now more light in this area. Noting the effect her first shot had, Shari nudged the selector lever on the side of her pistol down into burst fire mode. She sent a burst of four more slugs, aiming somewhat lower so that as the recoil pulled the pistol back up, the slugs would come out on trajectories that should impact in a line along the wounded cyborg's torso. Without waiting to see ho effective this was, she moved, back behind the end of the line of more solid crates that made a low wall pointing out towards the goons...

< Excrement! Blast shield down. Helmet camera on record. > Shari's helmet computer was just sophisticated enough to ignore the profanity, sliding a solid panel underneath the mirrored visor that she had been looking through, and projecting the view of the camera onto the panel. She'd never actually seen one of Black Rose's exploding laser pistols before this.

As the pistol cleared the shelves full of burning boxes, it detonated, about five feet above where her head had been when she'd let off that last burst. The nearby wall caught fire. Burning cardboard was scattered and the shelving unit toppled over. The door to the vacuum furnace slammed fully open, cracking the relief valve as it bounced back. The concussion cracked several of the crates, and ignited one of them, but her armor protected Shari.

For the benefit of the goons, she shifted back to English. "I thought those frakking things were a suburban legend! You oughta get your money back!" Adding the authentic Terran profanity, she hoped, would reduce the odds of them figuring out who she was if they didn't already know.

She looked over at the fusion power plant and the capacitor bank. The latter had been slammed back into the wall, and was leaking the mineral oil she'd used for insulation between the plates. The power plant, still on standby since charging the capacitor bank, was venting steam through a crack in the housing. Neither seemed worth salvaging under fire. With the goons apparently in a good position to see all the official doors, Shari opted to make her own; drawing and activating her vibroblade and cutting a quick hole in a nearby, non-burning wall. For a moment, as she ducked through the hole, she presented a clear target, silhouetted against the light from outside...

Stryker stood on top of a warehouse wearing jeans and an orange jacket finishing up the last of an energy drink and readying himself for his first patrol in Titan City. Having been in the city for about a week now, he'd gotten to know some of the sights and his anxiousness for action had increased with each passing day. He was itching for a good fight, and from what he had heard about Ironport, that was the place to find it.

In the distance, he heard the sound of a laser fire off in the distance.

Stryker grinned, crushed his empty can, and threw it behind him. His body then became electrical energy and he began traveling through the power lines above Ironport until he reached the spot where he heard the sound. He exited the cable but there was nothing to be found. There were signs of battle but nobody in sight. He sensed a electricity surging in small rapid pulses. He followed the energy to a scrap pile. In the pile was a broken cyborg with sparks occasionally flying out of it's bare robotic skull.

Stryker frowns.
"Damn, too late."

He noticed a group of goons running towards the shipping yard and hears the sound of continuous laser fire in that direction. They didn't notice him as they were too preoccupied with whatever they were doing.

"That could be interesting"

He enters the power lines once again and heads toward the shipping yard to beat them to the punch.

As he neared the shipping yard, Stryker could see flashes of laserfire and smell the burning flesh. He rushed through the power lines to get to the heart of the action until a group of figures moving toward the shipping yard caught his attention. At first glance it seemed like a horde of homeless in tattered clothing, but with a second glance he was able to spot skeletons, ghosts and zombies.

"That can't be good."

Another group of undead appeared and began attacking the other. Without a second thought, Stryker burst from the power line still in his electrical form and shot out a huge blast of electricity into the horde. The blast broke some of the skeletons apart, but the rest of them remained in tact. Stryker then charged at them, shooting small blasts of lightning, taking out as many as he could one by one.

"Now this is a tailored suit, it would help if you don't mess it up alright." Anyone of could recognize the voice would instantly know who it was, the cocky rich albino, Samual Kruger, and he was giving the man standing behind the counter of the dry cleaners a tough time. "I'll be back to get the suit in a few hours." He tied his snow white dreadlocks up into a small pony tail that was shaved on the sides.

The old man behind the counter nodded and took the suit to the back as Kruger simply had on a black and gold track suit with an open jacket and white T shirt, a gold chain draped across his neck, as he made his way down the street, cell phone in hand.

While in the midst of texting someone, he could hear commotion, enough to make him raise his head and look around, smelling everything from soot, to blood from different people. "What the hell is that...eh I don't have much better to do.."

He stripped down to just his pants and shoes, letting out a grunt as large reptilian wings burst from his back and a single flap propelled him 30 feet into the air, and he flapped off to the direction of the noise, appearing atop a building directly atop the wear house.

Kruger had his arms crossed while his wings pulled back into his flesh. His body taking a rest as he let his feet dangle over the edge as he watched them ALL like a hawk. "This is getting interesting...SOMEONE HURRY UP AND BREAK SOMEONE!" He shouted loud enough for them to hear.

"Ummm, none of the above," Shari answered the unknown person. "But the guys in there are definitely of the 'Shoot first' school. Even if they cant hit much, they might get lucky." She put her knife back in the sheathe and started moving past him, when she saw several figures shambling around the corner of the next building. "That doesn't look good, either..."