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May 16, 2012: With heroes making their teams, three villains were convinced to make their own. Nightshade- a faulty clone of Dean Frost- has joined forces with Timor, Garret Franklin, and Victor Graham. The three have assembled in an abandoned Forester Enterprise chemical plant where they were organizing an attack on the Hero Society Headquarters. Yet as the conversation began to spiral their plans have shifted from simply attacking the headquarters. They plan now to attack all of the heroes in their homes. They plan to, but the Horsemen with their newly filled roster plan to stop the evil clone and his allies.

The thermal vision showed four warm bodies going to four different areas of the warehouse shortly after the Horsemen arrived. It was their first official mission together as a complete team. Andrea, who had been growing increasingly bitter and sulky since being rescued from the Wax Man, or maybe since Katerina had been added to the team it was hard to tell, seemed to be actually in a good mood for once. Which really meant trading sarcastic jokes with Sam until they got close to the location and it was time to focus. Katrina had been mostly quiet. She was nervous. In part because it was her first outing with the other three. Sam and Andrea may not have been part of the team for much longer than she, but they both had other connection to the Horsemen that she did not. Before Owen, she had never heard of them. It somehow made her place on the team feel more...tenuous. The other part was how Owen treated her, often avoiding her altogether when he could, avoiding eye contact when he couldn't. Always holding back, always restraining himself around her, and the odd time she got a glimpse of the Owen he was hiding he'd quickly catch himself and make an excuse to leave. Sam was well...Sam. He seemed to exist to give Owen a hard time. And that left Owen trying to keep his somewhat dysfunctional team (family) together.

The four of them had a brief discussion in hushed voices before agreeing to split up. If they stuck together it may have been safer but, they would have likely caught one of the men while the other three escaped.

Owen took the Overseer's Officer. He assumed that the red/orange blob on the thermal vision that had headed there was Nightshade. Fully alert with his telekinetic shield active he carefully made his way up the stairs. Thermal vision or no, Owen wasn't foolish enough to think himself safe just because he couldn't see anyone besides whoever was in the Overseer's office. Clearly, the figure was expecting an attack. Their form was huddled just inside the door ready to strike whoever was unfortunate enough to enter. So Owen opted not to enter. Instead, he gripped the man with his telekinetic powers and attempted to pull him through the wall.

As the only one on the team who couldn't fall to his death, Sam took the catwalks. If he was somehow thrown over the edge he could simply teleport back. With a pop, he appeared on the catwalk and quickly scanned the area. It didn't take long for him to spot the oddly dressed fellow. Thank Christ Owen had better sense than to wear a mask ripped off from a movie. "A Guy Fawkes mask? Seriously? You can do better than that!" Sam taunted the man. As soon as he turned to face him, Sam teleported behind him and went in for a neck chop.

Internally Andrea grumbled about being sent to the boiler room. It was hot and gross. Deeper down she was thrilled to finally be doing a mission after Owen's imposed horsemen training. She had her gun loaded with tranquillizer darts, though she would have much rather had her crossbow in her hands, and was invisible of course. Oddly, when she rounded the corner she found her target standing in the middle of the room as if waiting for her. Andrea had been expecting a game of cat and mouse, not to just stumble upon them. With a shrug, she raised the pistol but froze when she saw who it was standing in the middle of the room.

Katrina cautiously made her way through the stainless steel cylinders full of unknown liquid. She gave up on the thermal vision relatively quickly, switching back to normal. The bubbling vats made it impossible to navigate with it on. Her eyes swept back and forth and she peered around each cylinder as she approached it. In her left hand, she held a roll of cloth, ready to unfurl and attack with at any sign of movement. She hadn't really considered bring extra cloth with her before. Unless going up against The Streaker there would always be some available to turn against their wearer. However, she could see the advantage of doing so, at least when explained by Owen.

It was easy to ignore the sudden pain in his hand. He was used to the mind link. Owen was no telepath, but it wasn't difficult to know what was running through Nightshade's mind when their eyes met. He had seen that look many times during his years as a Horseman. Nightshade lunged forward, but Owen was prepared for that. He didn't dodge or grapple with the man. Instead, with a wave of his hand, he used his telekentic forced to throw Nightshade against the ceiling and hold him there. Before he could make any demands to know or utter any threats an unexpected sharp pain bloomed in the back of his shoulder as if some invisible force slashed him. It was the result of the mind link, and while he couldn't tell which of them had been injured, his mind went straight to Kat. Then it happened. Blind panic came coursing through the link, and Owen lost his hold on Nightshade.

Sam let out a string of curses he'd learnt from his criminal days. It felt like he had karate chopped a brick wall, not a person. Luckily Andera wasn't around to hear his foul language. There wasn't much time to nurse his hand, which might or might not be broken, as his danger intuition kicked in. He didn't know what was coming, but he knew where he was wasn't the place to be standing. With a pop he teleported to the ground, standing directly below stone skin, just as Garret fired his beams at him. The intent was to regroup and come up with a plan, but the plan to plan was immediately disrupted. The sudden burning pain in his shoulder wasn't much of a distraction. Sam was used to it from the mind link, and it was a superficial wound. Whoever had been hit would be fine. What came next was a distraction though. Sheer terror and panic came bleeding through the link with such force that for a moment Sam forgot completely about what was happening.

"You're supposed to be dead." Andrea blurted out, forgetting herself for the moment. She still held the gun pointed at the Waxman, but her hand was shaking and she found herself unable to pull the trigger. Everything that had happened came rushing back so powerfully that she hardly noticed the throbbing in her hand or the pain in her shoulder. "They promised me you were dead!" Andrea shouted, somewhere between anger and panic. She had never seen the Waxman's body. She had only Sam and Owen's word. Were they wrong or had they lied to her?

Katrina's hand started throbbing like she'd smashed it somehow. They had done some training with the mind link of course, but it was still off-putting. It was during this momentary distraction that Victor decided to strike. It was too late for Katrina to react. A flash of movement from the corner of her eye, but he was already on top of her and sharp claws dug into her shoulder before she could effectively dodge. Kat grunted in pain and whirled around with an arm outstretched to use the male's clothes against him, only she found herself frozen there, an overwhelming sense of fear and panic flooding her as Victor vanished into the maze of equipment once more.

Unlike Sam, Owen didn't have a moral dilemma about going to the aid of the others. He didn't really have a choice in the matter. The terror flooding through the mind link vanished, along with his awareness of the others, but it was too late. Owen looked up to see Nightshade flying towards him a split second before the male collided against him. The wall gave in behind Owen, sending him tumbling backwards with Nightshade on top of him. He sought to turn the situation to his advantage by using his telekinesis to flip their positions so that when they hit the ground it would be Nightshade on the bottom. Unfortunately, Owen didn't know about his flight ability, just that he hit like a truck.

Luckily for the rest of the team, Sam had a little experience with emotions run amuck in the bond. Alright, a lot of experience. He closed the mind link and with it, the sensation of terror vanished with it. Something had seriously frightened Andrea, yet she hadn't been injured. That didn't mean she wasn't about to be injured before he cut off the link. Going meant risking Mr. Guy Fawke getting away. Sam could feel his spidey sense tingling which meant he'd be located. Maybe he could end this fight quickly and go help Andrea, he surmised while loosening his sword and teleporting back up to the catwalk. It wasn't behind Guy Fawkes this time, but a mere few feet in front of him. With a thrust of his sword, Sam went for the right eye. Stone skin didn't apply to eyes, right? He was about to find out.

Andrea ran. There was no room for thought, there was no decision made. As soon as the words came out of his mouth about finishing his masterpiece she ran. Blind panic wasn't much better than paralyzing fear, but at least it would keep her alive for a few more seconds. Wax hit the ground behind her and hardened while Andrea ducked behind one of the long cylinders in the room. She had been expecting a game of cat and mouse, but she hadn't expected to be the mouse. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she did her best to hold back a sob. Should she run for the door or stay hidden?


The overwhelming fear ended as suddenly as it had started, but it still left Katrina a bit disorientated. The severing of the mind link didn't stop her heart from racing or the shaky feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins. By the time she managed to look for her attacker, he had already hidden again. Being hunted was never a pleasant feeling. but it was ten times worse when still recovering from the flood of emotions coming through the mind link. It was something she'd more practice with Kat concluded, but she did have one saving grace. Being hunted was something she had lots of experience with. Though she could heal her shoulder, she didn't. It was time for Katrina to set a trap of her own. In this way, perhaps the issue with the mind link would help, for if Claws had heightened senses, something she was willing to put a decent amount of money on at the moment, she would certainly smell afraid. Then she put on a little show of being more injured than she really was, holding her shoulder as if she couldn't really move it, and looking around the room in a much more frantic way than she had originally. What would the team think of her making herself bait? As predicted, he went for her back, but Kat was ready for him this time. His claws hardly scratched her before the cloth of her suit sprang to life, wrapping around his hand and arm before attempting to throw him overhead.

Owen had a very different idea in mind. One second he was riding Nightshade towards the ground and the next he was shooting up into the sky, only to be thrown back down to the Earth. It was very disorientating, and if Owen had less experience he would have likely been in trouble. Unfortunately for Nightshade, Owen was very experienced. As he rocketed towards the ground he latched onto Nightshade with his telekinesis, pulling Nightshade down and himself upwards. He would attempt to counter any attempt by Nightshade to grab him as they passed midair, and with luck, the additional downward force would prevent Nightshade from stopping himself from hitting the ground.


Sam did the only thing he could do. He quickly raised his free hand and used his forearm as a cushion between his skull and Guy Fawkes. Pain exploded in the sacrificial limb, but it was a lot better than having his skull cracked open by rock head. Guy Fawkes 2. Sam 0. He had an idea of what would come next, or at least what he would do if he had laser eyes and quickly teleported away before he could get a face full of said laser. "I just sharpened that sword." He complained before teleporting to another random spot on the catwalks before Guy Fawkes could shoot at him. Wasn't there some cosmic rule that if you had ranged attacks you had to be physically vulnerable? It was time to even things up. "Don't move." Sam told Gay Fawkes before popping out of the room without further explanation. Not 10 seconds later he reappeared in the room with a length of cloth stretched between his hands. Sam took a second to orientate himself and locate Guy Fawkes before poofing behind and slightly above the masked man. His goal? Land on his shoulders and wrap the blindfold around his eyes.



Wide-eyed and trembling, Andrea stood with her back to some machine, a move both her teachers would have likely agreed was a stupid move at best since it limited the number of directions she could run. However, when one was terrified, it meant whatever they were afraid of couldn't come up behind them. Competing thoughts tripped over themselves in her mind, but one managed to stand out over the rest. How she was a failure. That she was supposed to be making up for her parents' mistakes and proving to Owen she could be a Horseman and instead here she was cowering in the corner. Then another thought echoed in her mind, her dad's voice this time. That she could teach stones and give mules lessons in how to be stubborn. God be damned if she was going to let the Waxman beat her twice. Her heart felt like it was beating in her throat when the Waxman came around the corner, wax dripping from his fingers to harden on the floor. She was no less afraid than she had been a moment ago, but it was out of pure stubbornness that she attacked by sending a forcefield flying towards the Waxman.



There was a brief moment where Katrina was rather satisfied with herself. Her stalker had been successfully brought out in the open, now it was just a matter of wrapping him up like a Christmas present for the authorities. As she prepared to finish off her assault, an unknown liquid fell on him and his shirt started to steam and melt away. "s**t." She echoed Victor. Who the hell left something like that just laying on a table. This place should definitely be reported to OSHA. First she used his quickly disintegrating clothing to pull him away from where the liquid fell so that he wasn't laying in a puddle of the stuff. Then she started soaking up what she could off of skin, though it was a bit of a challenge since the cloth disintegrated as she did so. There was a pop and Kat glanced over to see Sam.

"I need a blindfold."

"A.... what?" She asked, though to be fair most of her concentration was going towards Victor. It was a strange feeling having the material she was working with crumble into nothing as it soaked up the acid.

"A blindfold."

"Why....nevermind." Better to not ask questions she didn't want the answer to. She used her powers to separate a length from the tensor bandage she had brought and held it out to Sam. As soon as he grabbed it, he popped out of the room leaving her alone with Victor. What she was about to do, the others would very likely consider idiotic, but she didn't spend long thinking about it. She hastily made her way to Victor and attempted to put a hand on him to heal him. "Don't move, I can heal you."

Owen grimaced slightly at the 'superhero pose'. How many young would-be heroes how blown out their knee attempting the iconic and cliche move? Given that his opponent quickly stood up after, rather than rolling around in pain with a shattered knee, he concluded he had some sort of durability power. Hopefully not on the same level as Olympia or things were about to become interesting. Force choking didn't work particularly well on someone who could fly, so Owen went for plan B. He used his telekinetic force to push downward on Nightshade in the hopes that his telekinetics was stronger than Nightshade's flight, and the pressure would be enough to cause him to pass out despite his durability. After all, his chest still needed to be able to expand for him to breathe.

'So that's what those grey beams did.' The thought flashed through Sam's mind before the present situation demanded his attention. The flailing Guy Fawkes sent them both over the railing. Sam didn't wait for the concrete floor below to rush up to meet them but roughly shoved stone skin away mid-air before teleporting himself back to safety on the catwalk. He figured the fall wouldn't kill Guy Fawkes, but hopefully, it would slow him down enough for Sam to apprehend him.

Normally Andrea would have pressed the advantage she had gained when the Waxman went flying into the wall, following up it with a quick attack of some kind. Instead, she stood frozen in shock as the Waxman was replaced by Owen. Then she growled in anger. Anger at herself mostly, though that realization wouldn't come until later. Frustration at dealing with all these illusionists. The idea that Timor wasn't exactly an illusionist wouldn't occur until later either, or why he had turned into Owen. Andrea let her invisibility fall away and ran towards Owen. It probably wasn't the best strategy, but she was young, rash, pissed off and seriously wishing she had something more lethal on her than the gear Owen let her bring. Using her smaller stature to her advantage, Andrea went for a sliding kick at the last second in an effort to bring the not Owen down. If successful she'd attempt to jump on him and get a few rage fueled punches in. If not, well she'd run at him anyway and go for a gut shot.

Katrina quickly backed away before Victor's clawed hand could fully close around her neck, leaving four bleeding wounds on the left side of her neck and one on the right. Her heart might be soft, but her reflexes were quick and Victor could be sure she wouldn't make the same mistake twice. She might not tell Owen and the others about her attempt to save Victor from the acid though. "So much for combat etiquette." She commented to her opponent, though he'd probably laugh at her for believing in such. Her left hand reached up to touch her bloodied neck and almost in an instant her skin knitted itself back together as if the wounds had never been there...minus all of the blood of course. Not as efficient as the male she faced healing abilities, but that they could both heal was bound to make things more interesting. She let the roll of cloth she had brought with unravel, holding one end while the other fell to the floor and waited for Victor to make his next move. When he did the cloth would lash out and attempt to grab his wrists. Her goal? To force both his arms behind his back and tie them there.

Owen used his telekinesis to shift the trajectory of the rocks just enough to cause them to miss him. Instead, they pierced the warehouse behind, which after the giant hole he and Nightshade had put in the wall, seemed relatively minor damage. With is opponent unconscious, Owen entered the build via said hole, using his telekinesis to levitate himself inside, all while activating the comms. He knew Sam needing to disconnect would be a possibility and prepared for it. "Nightshade's down, what's your status?"

"I'm healing a male with stone skin and petrifying laser eyes. Nergal is fighting a regen in the acid vats room." Came a too familiar female voice into his ear.

"Aethon?" Silence followed. Owen tried again. "Aethon!"

"I've got mine beat, help the others."

Owen had a feeling that wasn't entirely true or she wouldn't have taken to long to answer. He headed to Sam anyway. Regens were a b***h to deal with.





That's not good. Several curses ran through Sam's mind as he popped down to where Garret lay and quickly examined him. You'd think Stone Skin here would be a little more durable. He had no choice but to go to Kat for help once more. Last he saw her opponent was burning in acid, so she should be done right? Wrong. He popped into the next room just in time to witness Katrina receive four gouges to her stomach. Sam was grateful he had removed the Mind Link. Evidently, she had healed Sabertooth here a little too well. To her credit, Katrina quickly used the cloth around Victor's wrists to pull his arms around as if he was in a straight jacket. Generally speaking, people's triceps were much weaker than anything, and it was the easiest way to bind them. Sam, on the other hand, took the moment in order to teleport into a dropkick, coming down on Victor's head.

"That won't-" Sam grabbed Katerina and teleported them both to the catwalk room. Victor would be set free before he even really had time to struggle. "-help." Would she ever get used to teleportation, she thought to herself, bending over slightly as her brain tried to process the sudden shifting of the world around her. Or maybe it was the claw marks in her stomach. She would have to revisit the material composition of their costumes after this. While they would stop bullets and knives, it hadn't stopped Victor's claws. Then again, without the reinforced material he might have succeeded in disembowelling her. "He's a regen." She finished explaining, one hand going to the wound.

"I'll keep the regen busy. I need you to heal Guy Fawkes over there...I totally didn't push him over the railing." Sam popped out of the room, but popped back before Kat had even begun to look for 'Guy Fawkes'. "Stone skin and laser eyes that turn things into stone." He added, popping back out before she could even open her mouth.

"Nightshade's down, what's your status?"

"I'm healing a male with stone skin and petrifying laser eyes. Nergal is fighting a regen in the acid vats room." She threw in the bit about Sam, thinking he'd have his hands full.

"Alright 'Guy Fawkes," Katerina began with a small sigh, as she used her powers to heal her wounded stomach. "Hopefully you are a little more grateful than your friend." At least the stone blindfold wrapped around his head ought to give her enough time to react if he did try to attack her. Kat knelt down behind the groaning man's head, just as she had with Andera, and began to heal him. It wasn't that she had to touch someone's head to use her powers, but that people tended to fail wildly and uncontrollably during the process if repairing muscles or nerves were involved. Experience taught her above the head was the best place to stand in order to avoid getting injured. For Garret, it would feel like he was suddenly dunked in an ice bath as Katrina's power delved into his body to heal his injuries. One might ask why she didn't bind him with her cloth powers before healing him and the answer was simple. She was worried the movement might kill him, and death was something Katerina could not heal.

"Alright bub," Sam did his best Wolverine impression after teleporting back into the room with Victor for the third time now. "New dance partners." Was there such thing as a regen with stone skin, Sam wondered idly while he snatched up the ribbon of cloth Kat had left behind. He was going to need that to deal with a regen. His use was going to be a little bit different than Kat's though. Where she had tried to keep her distance from Victor, Sam ran straight for him. If Victor hadn't managed to remove the cloth wrapped around his wrists, the trick he pulled with Kat clearly wouldn't work here. He heard Owen on the comms, but it was too late for him to respond now. With those four-inch long claws, tying Victor up wouldn't be an option, but Sam would use the rope to deflect and trip up Victor.





Andrea was far too blinded by her rage to notice the knife. She was far too focused on causing as much pain and damage to Timor to notice him reaching down. Luckily for Andrea, and unfortunately for Timor, the Horsemen recently acquired a Nemakinesis. She felt a sharp pain in her ribs, but the alterations to her costume prevented her skin from getting pierced. Either way, it succeeded in getting Andrea to roll off of Timor. Even without being punctured by the knife, it was still pretty painful to have something sharp and pointy jammed into your ribs. Andrea stood, breathing hard as the real Owen's voice crackled in her ear. "I'm not afraid of you." She mumbled angrily to herself while she stared down at Timor. Owen shouted her code name into her ear. She tapped the button to open up her mic. "I've got mine beat, help the others." Andrea fired another psionic force field at not Owen.

Kat took the secondary precaution of binding Garret's arms. She didn't know if his stone skin meant he also had super strength. For some reason, strength and durability always seemed to come together, but Sam hadn't mentioned it and Kat ended up not needing to fight him. Even if he could rip the bindings off, at least it would buy her a few extra moments to react if he changed his mind about co-operating with her.

Andrea was already charging up another shot as the first hit Timor. Luck for him that he fell to the floor, as it flew overhead and hit the wall. Breathing hard, she looked down on him. She wanted to jump on him and beat the s**t out of him, unconscious or not. Instead, she let out an angry sort of growl as she moved over to him to restrain him. She wasn't exactly gentle about it as she rolled him over, and pulled his hands behind his back, clasping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. But it would have to be good enough.

Sam was careful to keep those claws away from him. He turned those claws aside while slowly backpedalling. It would seem like a losing battle. After all, even if Sam could get a hit in, what could he really do to a regen? Then, with a pop, Sam vanished. Appearing behind Victor, he expected a swift counter-attack. Teleporting behind someone was hardly inspired after all. But he was already dropping down for a leg sweep in an attempt to put Victor on his a** for a moment. Really Sam was just trying to keep him busy. But as they fought a horrid sound of wrenching metal would be heard. The kind of sound that made it difficult to not cringe in pain. A sheet of metal, evidently siding from the warehouse, went flying towards Victor. Sam quickly teleported out of the way. With luck, Owen would be successful in restraining Victor by wrapping him up in the sheet of metal, using his telekinesis.