ic Star-Crossed? (IC)

[Poncho]

Once he finished yelling, Michael was back to his actual job in this situation; finding and rescuing people. He took a handful of people with him, grabbing them under their arms and around their waists to heft them up; it was a matter of proper leverage, not his maximum strength, so he was very careful to hook his arms carefully into belts and have people grab him tight as he lifted off the roof and slowly floated down to the ground exceptionally patiently, not wanting to jostle anyone unexpectedly. This wasn't going to be his only trip, so he needed to be efficient as he traveled. He was also intentionally avoiding taking them towards the big brawl between the Elf, the suit of armor, and the orange guy on the ground; he deposited them on the other side of the building before returning towards the top to keep moving through the building.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

La Puma was pushing herself hard, having to cover her mouth in certain section to avoid inhaling the smoke. There was enough common sense and school teaching for such a situation to deal with. Of course, it was easier said than done as her eyes were watering, having to rely on hearing to see her way through the building as it was burning down around her. If she wasn't careful, Carmen would have some singed hair to deal with.

 

"This way, follow me!" Carmen shouted out to the people that she had found, helping and lifting up anyone that needed help, "Is there anyone that needs help!?"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Somehow Explodo managed to dance away from Predator's solid hit, not appearing injured in the least. Cartwheeling away from the armored hero, he picked up some rubble from the hole Star Khan had blasted in the pavement as he went, coming back up to face Predator with a smile on his face. "Oh, guilty as charged. In town for a job, but got bored waiting for the client to make up their mind. Figured Freedom City was a great opportunity to face off against some so-called heroes, so far, not disappointing." He said before one of the pieces of rubble in his hand began to glow and he threw it at Predator.

 

The armored hero managed to dodge the glowing projectile, which flew past her, heading down the street. Star Khan suddenly flew down into the path of the rubble, allowing it to strike him, causing an explosion that blasted out the windows of some parked cars, but otherwise did not endanger anyone else.

 

The smoke cleared and Star Khan stood there, looking unhurt, but annoyed. "I grow tired of you" He stated as he flew towards the villain, swinging a gauntleted fist at him, but this time Explodo ducked under the swing, again moving a short distance away.

"Have to do better than that."

[Spacefurry]

Predator

 

She snarled as she dodged the glowing fragment of pavement. Her suit was already recording and transmitting everything back to her lab back at the tower for later review. But Predator already had an idea of what she was up against.

‘Able to charge objects with explosive potential. Source of power, unknown. Limitation of charging capacity, unknown. Continuing observations.

She added to the recording.

 

Predator turned and lunged again. She twisted mid lunge, her thrusters ignited for a fraction of a moment. An armored boot sweeping out, aiming for the middle of Explodo’s back.

[Poncho]

Michael really wanted to go down and help fight against the weird explody guy, possibly helping The Elf and Battle Cat, but he was busy! He was about to yell out some information he had gathered as he watched from above, seeing weaknesses or vulnerabilities in the weird explody guy's fighting, but he couldn't! He was lifting up collapsing rubble, grabbing people out of rubble, protecting them from fire or falling as he carried them out, opening and leaving through windows to get people out of the building as he put them down on the opposite side of the building from the crazy orange guy and then went back to rescuing more people. He had to do what was right, even if it wasn't exactly what he wanted to do.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Eyes's watering, Puma was having a tough time of it as she lifted a beam over a trapped resident. It was the third floor now, gritting her teeth as she lifted it directly off, "Can you walk? Alright, go ahead and go... NOW!!!" Puma let out as she brushed the beam off to the side, having to take a knee for a few moments. Even superhuman endurance couldn't deal with something like smoke inhalation for long, steeling resolve to continue on and press forward. There were paths to be made, people to save. Whatever was happening outside would have to wait for now, only having to hope that Michael was having a better time of things in their current situation. If she wanted to have an actual date with him, she'd have to survive all this, and she wasn't going to give up without a good and proper fight as she shielded her face from rising family.

 

"This floors clear, has to be..." she says before making for the 4th floor. The middle most floor.

[Electra]

Sirens were wailing in the distance, signs that emergency responders were not far off, but before even the first trucks arrived, a scraggy-looking tree near the building yawned open and discharged yet another superhero. Fleur de Joie was in her trademark mask and cowl, but she was clearly wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt underneath it. She took a moment to survey the scene, from the student heroes evacuating the building to the strange battle unfolding with Explodo, to the fiery building itself, surrounded by civilians, before making a tactical decision. "Right," she murmured. "Fire first, then people-wrangling."

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Predator landed a solid hit on the costumed villain, causing him to grunt in pain as he staggered backward slightly. But then he recovered, looking at her with a slight grin. "Good hit, but let's see if you can take another blast?" He then tossed another glowing object at the ground a short distance in front of Predator. But as it exploded, Star Khan moved in front of the armored hero, blocking the explosion, which rippled around the two, damaging the pavement and some nearby parked cars.

 

As the flame and smoke cleared, Explodo was standing there, apparently unharmed by his own explosions, but his smile dropped as he saw the two armored figures both appearing to be uninjured as well. Star Khan stood back upright, a scowl on his face as he flew towards the costumed criminal.

"Enough!" He yelled as he managed to connect with a right hook with an audible *WHAM* as Explodo was sent flying backward half a block before slamming into the back of a parked van with a loud *THUD* and the falling to the pavement unconscious.

[Poncho]

Michael was just getting to the fourth floor when he happened to glance out and see Fleur De Joie- one of the most powerful metahumans on the planet and a member of the Freedom League and basically one of the coolest people on the planet- appear in the middle of this brawl. And then he saw the Elf guy punch the guy in Orange so hard he knocked him into a van and KO'd him. And that meant he didn't get to fight crime with Fleur De Joie. Not that he was in her league for 'crime fighting' anyway though, so maybe this was for the best that he was rescuing people instead of fighting the Orange guy or whatever was going on with the Elf- maybe he was a new member of the Freedom League? Or a new Hero? It's not like Michael knew-.

 

He was back to focusing on saving people quickly though, as his brain caught up with what he still needed to do.

 

"Okay! Everyone whose left, please follow me, we're meeting Puma on the next floor and we'll get everyone out safely! Orderly lines please, as long as you stay close I'll keep you safe from any fire; remember to stay low to avoid the smoke!"

[Spacefurry]

Predator

 

Predator had stepped back after her kick connected in expectation of Explodo’s counter attack. She braced for the explosion but Star Khan interceded, the force of the blast split around them.

 

Before she could attack again, the foreigner close down the villain and delivered a tremendous blow that sent the man soaring into a parked vehicle.

 

On one of her screens an indicator had marked the arrival of one of the League members. One Fleur de Joie.

Another professional hero on the scene was appreciative. First though…

 

Predator approached the prone form of the arsonist carefully. She crouched and checked his vitals before standing and surveying the situation. As she did, she opened a comm line to emergency services again.

”This is Predator, suspect in arson has been apprehended, please sent available units.”

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

"Be quiet kid... we're almost there," Puma spoke in a strained tone, exerting herself as managed to ascend kick down a door. In her arms was a young girl roughly the age of ten, having had to smash her way through from one room to another to avoid a potential backdraft. The yellows over her outfit were covered with soot, unnoticeable on her black fur as she kept the kids face nestled against her, shielding them from the flames. Sirens could be heard coming quickly, people shouting out orders. The fire department was coming, and the fighting seemed to die down outside.

 

Soon, Puma would see people being escorted down to the floor she was on, calling out to him, "Micheal. Everyone's out, I got the last one here."

[Electra]

Fleur walked up to the building, a path clearing through the little crowd ahead of her despite her generally unassuming stature. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and suddenly plants were everywhere. Thin tendrils of vines climbed over the walls and slid through doorframes and windows like a sped-up image of nature reclaiming an abandoned building. The vines dodged around people and seemed to be avoiding anywhere that would actually set them on fire, but in moments the endangered structure was completely blanketed. Another few moments and flowers began growing from the vines, each one a bright red trumpet of a blossom that somehow poured water from the stamen in a soft but endless flow.

 

In less than a minute the fires throughout the building were fully extinguished. The flowers ran dry one by one, and finally Fleur turned to the crowd and the heroes protecting it. "Is everyone all right?"

[Thevshi]

Paradigm

 

As Fleur de Joie went immediately into action to identify the locations of the fire and set to work extinguishing it, the two Claremont students finished evacuating the building, not having to worry about taking anyone out to the front now that Explodo had been dealt with. The fire had been completely extinguished by the time the first police, fire department and EMT personnel began arriving on the scene, with news crews not far behind.

Star Khan was watching the arrival of all the first responders and the growing crowd of people that began to appear now that the fighting was done. He looked over to Predator after she had checked on Explodo and the police came over to secure the villain. "I apologize if I dealt with that villain too quickly. It seemed the longer he was able to continue throwing those explosively charged items the more likely it was that others would get harmed."

 

He looked over as Golden Star and La Puma Negra came over after finishing evacuating the building, the two receiving many thanks from the people they had helped as Fleur came over towards the group asking if everyone was alright. But before anyone could answer, a voice called out from the sky.

 

"Kinarr."

 

Flying down toward the group was a humanoid female with dark orange skin and long black and purple hair. She was dressed in a white and black costume with golden yellow trim and a long black cape trailing behind her.

 

"Amara." Replied the young Star Khan, a smile coming to his face as he watched the young woman as she lightly landed a short distance from the group.

 

The newcomer carried herself with calm confidence that was impossible to miss. She glanced over at Stesha, "Fleur de Joie," she said in greeting with a small nod of her head, before looking to Predator, Golden Star and La Puma Negra as well, giving them a small smile and another nod.

 

She then looked back up at the much taller Star Kahn. "Are you done? I have been chasing you through two sectors trying to catch up to you to ask you to stop all this before something happened that might endanger the peace you are seeking with the Republic, or someone decides this is the perfect opportunity to eliminate the new Star Khan."

[Poncho]

"If that's the last one, let's get out of here, before things get worse." but then that was proven unneccesary as Fleur de Joie suddenly brought the flames under control in a moment. This really was the difference between where Michael was and where a member of the Freedom League was. It was pretty staggering just what he'd seen in the last few mminutes. But he kept a hold on Carmen as they left the building, smiling and waving.

 

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. Make sure to thank all the other heroes as well when they get done talking, we wouldn't have been able to help so effectively if they weren't handling that guy." he was quick to get towards where the other heroes were meeting up, and then someone came down from the sky and he inclined his head as he looked at the new person, and then the elf guy. Who was an alien apparently, not an elf. 

 

He was about to say something to the assembly of heroes, which would have probably been some variation of 'what the heck is going on exactly?', but he realized he was definitely well out of his league here and as a junior hero at best, he had no rights to be demanding answers from people who were so far above him- including a member of the Freedom League-, so he settled for a less petulant sounding question.

 

"Sorry, M'am, but are you a Praetorian?" he asked the second alien. How did he know what a Praetorian was? Lawrence had mentioned them once and Michael never had forgotten, and if some person had shown up from space acting like a space superhero, it sounded like they might be a Praetorian. Then he turned to the Elf Guy- Kinarr- to talk next. "And Sir, I don't exactly know who you are, but thank you for your help."

 

There. That was polite, right? He was obviously grateful to Fleur and the Cat Lady too, but he didn't even think he could talk to Fleur- it'd be a bit like trying to talk to Patrick Mahomes- and he was pretty sure the Cat Lady was another Earth Hero. It was the other two he knew nothing about.

[Spacefurry]

Predator

 

Predator watched as Fleur not only stabilized the building, but managed to extinguish the majority of the fires. Crews would have to go over it to catch any lingering embers but this would make their job much easier.

 

At his apology she shook her head.

“No need to apologize. A speedy capture assured less potential for civilian involvement. Your aid is appreciated.”

 

She stood guard over Explodo until police arrived to take him into custody, making arrangements for the audio/visual files to be sent to them as needed. Once done with them, Predator rejoins the others. The new arrival triggering a new set of pop-ups on her internal monitors.

 

“Paradigm, if I am correct. Welcome back to Earth.”

The armored hero nodded to the arrival.

“I think I can assure you; that as long as you are on Earth or with in its stellar influence, its heroes will do everything in their power to ensure your safety.”

 

“I believe Miss de Joie will second that measure.”

She nods to the other woman.

“I am sorry we have not been formally introduced.”

She looks at the two young heroes.

“And I’m afraid I have no records of you two on file yet.”

Reaching up, a hiss of air is audible as the helmet disengages. Predator removes the helmet to reveal her vixen nature.

“You may call me Predator while on duty.”

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

It was a rather sudden event in which the flames seemed to be extinguish through some sort of power unknown to them. There wasn't anyone new that she could sense. True, the smoke had rendered a good amount of her senses rendered mute, having to rely on much of her other super heightened ones. Thus, began the much easier process of escorting the civilians if she could call them, out of the building. A task which meant that both Michael and her would have to do with a decent amount of effort.

 

Puma would watch as the little girl went back to her mother and father who had managed to be brought to safety as well, staring off towards them for a few moments before the touch of Michael's hand to her own was felt. Sense of smell returning, she could smell the arrival of Fleur, a sort of flowery like smell, and the alien. Then, the scent of another individual that was faintly as well alien to her was there as well and what seemed like some sort of vulpine dog. That would be answered soon enough as it was some sort of fox person in the robotic suit, raising a brow as she kept silent to her newfound boyfriend and his questioning.

[Electra]

Fleur looked over the crowd of evacuated civilians, finding some of them badly shaken but no one who looked immediately in need of medical attention. The firefighters and EMTs were already setting up a perimeter and beginning to sort people by households and families, so it seemed likely that between them, the Red Cross and the Freedom League's Disaster Recovery liaisons, everyone would get the help they needed in fairly short order.

 

She turned her attention to the conversation at hand, giving Predator a small nod. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said cordially. To the newcomer she offered a small smile. "Paradigm," she greeted. "This is... a whole thing, really. Do you need any help?" The situation Megan had described on the phone had been... confusing, at best, and straight out of a dime romance at worst, but since when had any of their lives been even close to normal?

[Thevshi]

Paradigm

 

Paradigm looked over to Fleur as the League member came over and asked if she needed assistance. "Thank you Fleur de Joie, but I believe things may be under control." She then focused back on the young Star Khan.

 

Meanwhile, Kinarr's face had become more serious at Paradigm's mild admonishment but as Michael came over to ask her if she was Praetorian and the thanked the Zultasian, a smile returned as he turned to Michael, placing one hand on the teen's shoulder. "Of course young hero, I am certain if there had not been citizens in danger you would have joined the battle as well. I am Kinarr Khan, the new Star Khan and ruler of the Stellar Khanate." He said before releasing Michael's shoulder.

 
Kinarr then looked over at Paradigm as he added. "My young friend, this is not just a Praetorian, but Paradigm, the leader of the Praetorians, and former Praetor of the ancient Delaztri Empire two thousand cycles ago."

 

"That was a long time ago, and the Delaztri Empire is long gone." Paradigm replied as she turned and gave Michael a small smile. "Yes, I am Amara Val-Ren, and as Kinarr said, I am also known as Paradigm."

 

The young Naram then looked over to Predator as the other hero removed her helmet. "Thank you Predator, it is very rare for me to travel to your world." She replied before focusing back on Kinarr. "But, you still have not answered my question. Are you ready to return to CoVic Station, so that you can join your ambassador in finalizing the peace agreement you requested? Or are we going to continue wondering through the quadrant while you look to try to achieve something you feel you need in order to prove yourself to me?"

 

The young Star Khan looked down at Paradigm a moment, a slightly frustrated look on his face. "Amara…" he began, pausing a moment, before continuing, "what I said when I proposed in the council chamber is true. Since your return during the Incursion, you have accomplished great deeds of valor, and accounts of your service to the Delaztri two thousand cycles ago have also continued to reemerge. I realized after you left the council chamber that who was I to ask for your hand in marriage. What had I done that even begins to compare?"

 

"Kinarr, you are focused too heavily on what I have done, but do not seem to be asking why." Paradigm replied calmly. "When I first sought to join the Praetorians two millennium ago, I will admit, I was caught up in the idea of joining my older brother in facing the enemies of the empire. But it was not long after I joined that he and the other Praetorians made me realize that why we served was far more important than any individual thing we might do. That continues to be my guiding principle in leading the Praetorians today, we do what we do in order to provide the citizens of the Republic and other Coalition worlds with the opportunity to live as peaceful and prosperous a life as possible."

 

"The peace you are seeking with the Republic and Coalition worlds has the potential to achieve that on a scale that I am not certain I could achieve in another decacycle, if not longer. And not just for the Republic and Coalition, but the citizens of the Stellar Khanate as well. And you are making that possible simply by choosing a different path than your father, by going against so many of your advisors and those put in power by your father."

 

A surprised look came to Kinarr's face as he was silent for a moment. "I…I had not considered that."

[Poncho]

"It's nice to meet you, Lord Star Khan. And...Miss Paradigm. I would really like to talk to talk to you as well..." He offered a smile to both of them. Then the talking really started and Michael was quickly left behind. He had no idea what was going on and there seemed to be a lot of information and conversations that he had sort of just accidentally wandered into, and it involved a lot of words and old history and there seemed to be some kind of weird space thing going on. He didn't know anything about space!

 

He did like that the weird elf guy- Star Khan- had complimented him. That felt nice. He wasn't going to risk upsetting that guy. But then the lady was Paradigm. That was the Space Centurion. The strongest person in Space? The strongest person in the Universe? Maybe. That was cool. She was cool. He wanted to learn a lot from her, he had a lot of questions to ask someone who had the same powers as him, but magnified a hundred thousand times; he could learn plenty from other heroes, but sometimes you wanted someone who had powers like you. If she flew in from space, that meant she was incredibly fast, and clearly strong. Enough that the guy who had just defeated the explode-y guy in one hit was being very respectful of her. Did she need a sidekick? Maybe he could intern with her over the summer. Or maybe after highschool? But he was pretty outclassed, so maybe he was too weak. Was this guy trying to become her sidekick too? He seemed more at that level. You know what, the Star Khan guy made sense. He could appreciate putting in the extra effort to make sure people knew you were serious. Michael was on his side, he decided suddenly after thinking it over for a little bit. Wait but he was trying to impress Paradigm. Wait no that wasn't what they were talking about, hold on, pay attention this was important.

 

This was some kind of weird marriage proposal? Did Space Aliens just fly down to random planets and start beating up bad guys to prove they loved each other? Or was this guy weird? He did seem kind of weird but he had done something good and he had been nice to Michael, so who was he to judge. He looked at Carmen. Was he supposed to start punching criminals to impress Carmen? Well he kind of had, hadn't he? Do heroic things to impress the girl. So he'd just left his kingdom to fly down and punch people on Earth to impress Paradigm, a person who had only been on this planet one time? No never mind, this guy was kind of dumb wasn't he. Shouldn't he have been punching crime in space? So he had a good idea but was doing it really dumbly. That's understandable.

Honestly all this space stuff seemed really complicated. He still had homework to do at school and here he was talking to a space emperor, one of the greatest super heroes of all time, and also Paradigm, someone he'd only ever heard of but really wanted to talk with. And the cat lady. Predator? Was she also feeling as completely out of her depth as Michael was? And what about Carmen? He didn't know how they felt but he knew he felt way outsized here; was he really someone who should be here in this moment? He just wanted to go see a movie with Carmen, but he couldn't help but also feel like this was something really important, something he needed to be here for. And it meant he got to talk to Paradigm, maybe. And Fleur De Joie. And a Space Emperor? I mean that was all really cool.

 

Did Paradigm need a sidekick?

Wait, stop.

 

He was going in circles. He stopped his brain. He wasn't cut out for everything that had just been said all at once. Different focus.

 

Golden Star, in his white, red and gold costume absorbed all this information passively from the outside, his face not flinching as the space people talked. He seemed to be taking this fairly well, thinking deeply about it. Then he slowly edged his way over to Fleur De Joie and produced a pen and autograph book from his suit.

 

"...Will you give me an autograph, Miss Fleur? You're one of my personal heroes."

He could deal with the rest of this later.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Carmen's face was increasingly growing into what appeared to be a stupor, not from any injury or being tired from the rescue that they had done, but the growing sense that whatever they were speaking about was going beyond her attention span, completely disorienting the young heroine as she tried to figure out the combination of interstellar politics, policing, and courtship that was transpiring before her and Michael. At least with him, he seemed to have far more knowledge about other heroes and heroines running around the world and Freedom City than she did, who somewhat played it by ear considering her grades during modern hero class had only now improved to a comfortable B. Carmen was sure that maybe he could explain later after this, better than she could understand it at the moment.

 

So, the cat woman was just there, watching what was happening before her before snapping out slightly when Michael wanted to get Fleur's autograph. She'd rub her forehead as she snapped out of her stupor finally, relaxing her shoulders. Did they even have a pen there for any of them to write on?

[Spacefurry]

Predator

 

The passing acknowledgment she had given interstellar politics before now, Predator realized, was woefully lacking. She had been focusing on planet based problems, she hadn’t considered it necessary at the time.

She would have to rectify that when she had the opportunity. Fluer was a League member, perhaps she could help get her the files she would need.

 

For now, Predator did her best to follow along. Talk for diplomacy and marriage proposals were both brought up, but Paradigm’s main objective seemed to be reassuring the new Kahn.

She was very aware of her lack of weight in the conversation, and so held her peace. The two younger heroes seemed to be of like mind, remaining silent through the exchange. At least until the young man moved to request Fleur’s autograph. Predator found it amusing.

 

She was curious of de Joie’s input, as she regarded the League member.

[Electra]

Fleur listened to the entire exchange between the two spacegoing superbeings with the guarded expression of someone with several opinions that they would not be expressing at this time. She blinked when Golden Star approached her, looking startled for a moment at the request from the student hero, then relaxed her stance enough to chuckle. "Of course," she told him, keeping her voice pitched low so as not to interrupt. In neat, loopy script she wrote "Great work today, thanks for helping Freedom City! -Fleur de Joie," then handed the book and pen back to him.

 

She stepped forward to address the new Star Khan and his intended. "It sounds like the two of you have a lot to consider," she began diplomatically. "I think the first responders here will have an easier time of things if we clear out and let them work. Perhaps you'd enjoy the hospitality of one of the conference rooms at League HQ?"

[Thevshi]

Paradigm

 

Paradigm looked over to Fleur as she suggested they depart the area and possibly head towards the League’s headquarters to continue talking. "Departing the area is certainly a good idea." She began, looking over to Kinarr. "But I believe we may be ready to head back up to the Lighthouse and then return to CoVic Station."

 

The young Star Khan gave a slow nod. "Yes, I believe it would be best to return to CoVic Station."

 

Her communicator then activated with a hologram of Traveller.

 

Quote

"Is everything okay down there Amara? Do you want us to come one down yet?"

 

"Everything is fine Sitara, no need to come down. We will be heading up to the Lighthouse." Paradigm said before looking over to the other gathered heroes. "It has been a pleasure to meet all of you, I am sorry we need to be leaving so soon. But there are rather important matters that would benefit from Kinar'’s involvement."

 

It was then that Fleur's communicator activated as Velocity's voice came through.

 

Quote

"Fleur, we have a bit of a problem. There is someone named Dovox who showed up with a big warship parked a short distance away. He is apparently on his way down to try to kill the new Star Khan."

 

"Dovox." Paradigm repeated, her expression becoming far more serious. She looked up to Fleur as she added. "A would-be sovereign who conquered some former Khanate worlds after the Incursion and has continued to try to take more. We have managed to keep him contained, but not been able to remove him."

 

A scowl came to Kinarr's face as he looked around the area. "Dovox may react with violence if we were to simply depart and he cannot find me." The young Star Khan began. "If we are to face him, we should do so away from the population centers."

 

"I saw an area near the Doomforge just to the north which appeared to be abandoned." Paradigm noted, looking to Fleur.

[Poncho]

"Thank you, Miss Fleur." Michael said respectfully, bending his head down to hide the giant grin on his face.

 

He once more went quiet as Paradigm and the Star Khan talked- interrupted by the members of their own teams- about some sort of space guy who was also here threatening violence, or trying to kill the guy who seemed cool? Well what kind of Hero would he be if he backed down, even if he was completely out of his league. He looked at Carmen apologetically because this was probably going to delay whatever they were doing, but he couldn't just stop.

 

"...Let us help too. I know I'm not anywhere near you all, but I'm sure I can still do something to help! I want to help."

[Spacefurry]

Predator 

 

Fleur’s suggestion to move to the Tower was a good one, but Paradigm’s desire to return to the Lighthouse and move on was perfectly valid.

“An honor to meet you as well.”

Predator had replied politely with a nod.

 

Fleur’s comms unit interrupted pleasantries.

She didn’t recognize the name Dovox, but as Paradigm explained it she understood the seriousness of the situation.

Donning her helmet, it clicked and hissed slightly as it reengaged and sealed itself.

 

Star Kahn was smart and quick to recognize the possibility of collateral damage and suggest moving the potential battlefield somewhere more remote.

At Paradigm’s suggestion, she had Cynthia pull up the map around the Doomforge and nodded.

“That seems like a good location.”

 

Predator regards Golden Star for a moment when he offers to join the group, glancing in La Puma’s direction when he obviously looks to her.

“Very well, but if things get too dangerous you may be asked to retreat.”

She looked at Fleur, realizing she may have over stepped a some line of command, as it were. The other hero was a full-fledged member of the Freedom League and she was only a guest at the Tower.

“Unless you object.”