Star Cruiser en route to Earth…"I can't…I…this can't be happening." Tears were brimming in Techsmith's eyes, her shakily-spoken words obscured by the placement of her trembling hands over her quivering lips as she laid her eyes on Starbolt, her helmet retracted around her neck to expose the emotion in her face. After being delicately pulled from the void of space by one of Nocturne's colonies, he lay in the Star Cruiser with eyes half open as it made its way back to Earth. The team had gathered around, looking down on their fallen leader, sans Red Cross, who stood before a chair in the jet's eight-seating cabin, binding Anarchy to his seat with DSA Drone handcuffs present on the ship. It was as if Starbolt's beaten body was emanating sorrow. Techsmith's response was right out in the open, giving Gunk a visual shorthand for the emotions this sort of event invites in the real world that he could compare to his own slowly swelling sense of grief. Though he'd internally already come to a

Suzy hesitated as she stepped up to Gunk and Thomas' dorm. She must have tried at least three times before she finally managed to build up the nerve to knock on the metal door. From the other side, she could hear the muffled sound of smooth jazz music being played. She took a deep breath as she heard the footsteps around the door. It opened to reveal Thomas looking as perpetually dissatisfied as ever. He sighed as Suzy gripped her elbow in agitation before gesturing for her to enter. The dorm was entirely undecorated. The naked walls provided some stark contrasts to the many First Age superhero posters that covered Kon and Andrew's dorm, or the wall of sketches for random inventions that Lizzy kept on her side of the dorm they shared. The windows were shut with curtains drawn, for obvious reasons, and the floor was in impeccable condition. He turned down the stereo system on his side of the room before she spoke."You like music?" Suzy tried to summon an air of curiosity, a la Lizzy.

Starbolt's communicator buzzed in his belt as he blasted away with Techsmith on his six. By now, the Nazi-bot force was wearing thin, making it easier for him to take a call, but also meaning that what remained of the enemy force was concentrating on its opposition. As such, the two were surrounded by the sounds of explosions that made it difficult for them to hear each other. Seeing that Techsmith had things covered and feeling his bodily energy running a bit low, his hands took a break from firing bolts to pull the communicator out. Upon seeing the caller's picture on the holographic screen and hearing the cheerful voice on the other end of the line, Starbolt couldn't help but smile."Hello?" Techsmith managed to catch his smile that came at the start of his answering of the comm, and took interest in whatever he was talking about, despite not being able to hear a word. The audio quality of the communicator was crystal clear in Starbolt and his caller's ears, however. "What's up? Th

The sound that came with the falling of rain on concrete ceilings that night could not conceal the disturbing laughter. The woman held her bag to her pulsing chest, panting heavily as her hair ran over her eyes. Every few seconds, she'd look back to see her four pursuers, clad in black jackets, giggling manically, one with a steel pipe in his hand. She dodged the litter strewn across the alleyway as she desperately tried to escape. It was all for naught, she realised, as the next turn led her to a brick wall. Despair filled her as she turned to see she was cornered. The thugs laughed, their prey in their possession. They approached her slowly, and tears brimmed over her eyes while she lowered into a ball, as her fate became clear."Why'd you run, lady?" One the thugs said menacingly. "Now we gotta play rough with you." Suddenly, a silhouette dropped down between the brutish thugs and the cowering woman, making a splash in the sheet of rainwater on the ground. With square blue lights i

Tokyo Metro Police Station…Hikaru stared deeply at his mug of steaming, swirling coffee. As he stood in the still-rain-soaked rooftop of the Tokyo Metro office, with the sound of car motors running ominously below him and the smell of exhaust rising up into his nose, he thought back to his experience last night. Though his armour did well to protect him, his bones still ached. It had been years since he'd been so active, and his body had forgotten the strain that came after a day's superheroics. He'd received the news of what had occurred in Kanagawa in the morning, including the loss of the manuscript and how entire squads of Sentry Drones had been slain by an unknown assailant. Without a shadow of doubt, he knew that Akuma's Servants had summoned an Oni that caused this all. The thought alone tore him apart, but the knowledge that the ability for him to stop it was beyond him compounded the matter and only rubbed salt in the gaping wound he suffered a day earlier when his case was