Burning Treads, The Demon of Los Angeles!(open)

A nasty heatwave had been plaguing the greater Los Angeles area in recent weeks and was showing no signs of cooling down. To add to this, a wave of crime had began to roll through the city as well. The calls to local police describing piles of charred corpses was beginning to become old new to the ever vigilant ears of the LA PD. In recent months reports would come in about robberies, murders, and all manner of ill advised criminal activity. That wasn’t the strange part, hell it was pretty much your average day for the Los Angeles police department. No the strange part was that every time the police would arrive on the scene all they would be met with was the scene of an out right massacre.

Someone was getting the drop on the shady residents of LA and was handing out a very grim form of justice. Vigilantes were all to common especially in an every changing world were heroes and villains literally roamed the streets almost undetected, but never in all there time, did the boys in blue from the LAPD witness a purging quite like this. It had started relatively small time but it soon became apparent that someone was out there hunting down the gangs of LA, the only question was…Who?

Downtown a rowdy bar was nearing its closing time, and the eccentric blonde bar owner found herself in her “office” counting the nights intake. Running a bar was no different from running an arcade, at least not to Penny. After writing down the total earnings for the night, Penny separated the stack in half, placing one half in a small lock box and taking the rest with her back out to the main area where her staff was feverishly clamoring to clean the place up. Penny approached her staff one by one and gave them each a little bit of the stack of money till it was all gone and then shooed them out the door for the night.

With a small thud Penny closed the door and locked it from the inside. She leaned against it for a brief moment and let out a sigh before heading back to her office. Once she was in her little fortress of solitude, Penny would make her way to a table in the back where she’d retrieve a small police transponder. Penny would clip the small device to her belt and place a single ear bud in her ear so she could listen in on the LAPD dispatch calls.

After exiting the bar through the rear entrance, Penny would mount the motorcycle she left parked in the back alley. With a turn of the ignition the beastly bike would roar to life. While Penny may have pulled out of the alley listening in on police conversations, she had different intentions tonight. She wasn’t listening in hopes of beating the cops to the punch or anything like that, rather she was listening and hoping that they wouldn’t be heading her way, for tonight she was going to the docks where she knew a local gang was running a human trafficking ring out of.

Hearing nothing but good news, Penny let a small smirk creep onto her face underneath her helmet before giving the throttle a quick flick of the wrist, sending her bike racing down the streets.

Traffic was light as usual for this time of night and Penny was thankful as it allowed her to make good time in reaching the docks. The only problem now was remembering the intel she had received and hoping it wasn’t a set up. The pitch black bike slowly crept along as Penney kept an eye out for the warehouse in question. Eventually the young woman would hear rather vulgar shouting over the low hum of her bikes engine, she was close enough now. Turning the bike off and stashing it behind a stack of crates, the young blonde would stealthily sneak over to the side of the warehouse where she could get a better look inside. All she had to do was wait for the right moment before “dropping” in.

“Gotcha you filthy shit bags.” she’d mumble to herself as she looked on. Hopefully everything would go off without a hitch….If only.

The Demonic Dire found himself returning a favor one of his employers.
He was sitting in a dark room in the back of a casino, his employer was sitting behind a big wooden desk with various weapons and stacks of money. He was your typical contractor.
He was referred by one of his other members of the mercenary group.
Well, they didn't really like him because he played hero too much...
That's life though.

He found it kind of cliche to do a deal when there's a huge crime wave. Seems pretty easy to get caught with cops ready to pounce at the tip of a hat.
He remembered hearing on the news about someone brutally taking down the local gangs and leaving them to send a message or something.
All he could hear from his employer was "Blah, blah, blah. Precious cargo. You owe me. Blah blah blah. Free of charge. Blah."
"So, I'm in. Is what you're saying?"
"Yes, or we'll find some way to kill you."
"Alright... I'm down I guess... What's the cargo?" He asked with a simple curiosity.
"Don't worry about that and get to the docks."
"Docks? Gotcha." He said as he teleported out.

His teleporting must've been getting more accurate, because he landed right outside the warehouse.
He stepped in to see the other "guards" standing, guarding the way they were moving the cargo.
"Hey there, fellas! Now I wanna know what the hell is so important that it needs a bunch of armed guards and a demon to protect!"
Then he saw what was being moved.
People.
Living, breathing people.
Dire's breath faltered for a moment.
"Oh... I see."
Dire never liked being in situations like these.
It was a battle between morality and contract.
He didn't care to murder and steal.
But this... This was a bit too much.
If it were only men, he would stand by.
Yet, they had women and children as well.
He made a decision that he would not let this happen.
He would play along for now though.
"So, you boys come here often?
To which they gave no response.
"The hell? Aren't we supposed to have a coworker relationship here?"
Still no answer.
"Fine... Maybe I'll go talk to the precious cargo..."

He walked over to the people walking in lines and couldn't understand how- better yet: why they had this many people.
He walked up to a lady that was walking.
"Hey, beautiful! I'm sure you've looked WAAAY better. I might just take you for myself!" He said as they walked by one of the guards.
Then as he was out of earshot he said, "I'm gonna get you guys out of here."
Then he walked back to survey the area, just to be sure no one was peeping in on his heroic rescue.

Conner Ericsson had seen all the news reports... The butchering of the mobs and cartels in the streets, at least in his mind, wasn't anything to scoff at. In fact, it was frightening. What if the wrong person got caught in the line of sights? Was he supposed to ignore the notion of innocent people being burned alive and left for the police to find? He couldn't allow such a thing. Not in his city. Standing on the roof of the Ericsson building he cherished so heavily, dressed in his dark blue costume with the lightning-bolt patterns, he listened out through his earpiece, which was linked to police radio. Whoever this lunatic was, he'd catch them in the act. Preferably, before anyone else had to die.

However, his mission was interrupted by a police report. Something about an illegal trade going on down by the docks... Well, taking down illegal mob activity was kinda his thing, so he couldn't exactly ignore it. Especially when he didn't know how long the police would be to responding to it. "Well... The maniac charring human beings can wait, hopefully. It's showtime..." With that, he slipped on his mask, bolts and sparks shooting from his hands and feet as he propelled himself from the rooftop, shooting through the sky like a streak of lightning.

As Voltage landed at the docks, he made damned sure he'd be stealthy enough for this kind of operation. He calmed his powers so that the neon lighting on his uniform burned at a very dim rate, and so that not as many would notice him.  He had landed on top of a cargo crate, which was set next to two stacked ones. This provided excellent cover, and he remained practically unseen as he peeked around at the rest of the trade going on. It was heavily guarded, and as he looked closer at everything, he couldn't help but notice human beings being unloaded from the crates in question.

"They're trading... People?" He murmured to himself quietly. He couldn't help but notice the hooded guy with the katana. He'd probably be his biggest obstacle, but he'd have to cross that bridge when he came to it. He peeked below him, noticing the crate door wide open, and a guard resting just in the doorway. He walked to the other side of the crate... Doors open on that side, too. He smirked, dropping down to the ground silently. He slowly sneaked up behind the guard, putting him in a headlock that covered his mouth. He then pressed a hand to his chest, giving him just enough of a shock to leave him unconscious. Kneeling, he patted his shoulder. "Sleep well, big guy."

Once he felt as if it was a good opportunity, he ran across the road to the other side of what seemed like a city of crates. Luckily, none of the guards seemed to notice him. It was here that he was able to sneak closer to the people they were unloading, watching and listening to every detail. Well, he could easily run in, guns blazing... But other than that, he had no real plan for how he was going to free these guys. "Should've stayed at the building and done paperwork..." He mumbled. Suddenly, there was a voice behind him. "Wha...? H-Hey!!!"

Voltage turned his head sharply, seeing a guard, wide-eyed, fumbling with his weapon.  He couldn't help but sigh. Well, he was at the point of no return, and his cover was blown. At this point, it was looking like he had no other choice than to go in guns blazing. The neon lights on his costume went bright once more, and he lifted both hands to the guard, jagged spears of electricity shooting out to tag him in the chest and send him into the water. At this point, almost all guards  turned towards the commotion, guns at the ready. "Alright... Time to see how good my bullet-dodging game has gotten!"

He shot up from the cover of the crates, the guards almost immediately opening fire on him. He circled above them, dodging the bullets and firing lightning down at them with excellent accuracy, sending two into a fit of spasms , their weapons bouncing off the concrete. "C'mon, aim! This is Stormtrooper-level, guys!" Voltage taunted,  secretly worried about how long he could keep this up. Hopefully, some form of backup wasn't far behind...

Penny kept the window at the top of the warehouse propped open with her left hand. She remained high up on her perch with her crystal blue eyes scanning the layout of the ground level. The warehouse itself was relatively wide open. It housed a few semis that were no doubt going to be used to transport the ‘cargo’ and then of course there were the large containers of people that lined the walls and entrance. If Penny was going to eliminate these low lives she’d have to be extra careful not to roast any of the innocent people.

The young blonde cracked her neck as she prepared to make her grand entrance. She caught herself swaying forward ready to take a leap of faith, but quickly caught herself when she noticed a man that clearly looked out of place. At first Penny assumed that he was the one in charge, but the erratic behavior on display quickly quashed those thoughts. “The hell does he think he’s doing? He’ll get caught for sure.” Penny began to grinned her teeth together as she added on more individual to the list of people she was going to be saving tonight.

Penny once again was ready to make her grand entrance until her concentration was drawn towards the front of the warehouse. One of the guards was fumbling with his gun like the simple minded fool that he was. Penny thought this was because the man carrying the katana had been found out, but to the young bar owners surprise another individual had shown up. *chingada suerte, just how popular is this fucking warehouse?* she thought to her self angrily. The once quiet warehouse soon erupted in gunfire. Each of the armed goons more concerned with killing some would-be hero over the well being of the cargo they were formerly in the process of moving.

Penny’s grip tightened around the metal frame of the warehouse window causing it to cave in under the force of her titanic grip. The window pain couldn’t help but shatter and rain down on a few of the goons below. A loud groan of anger escaped from Penny’s mouth, why couldn’t things ever be easy?

With a deep breath Penny leapt from her perch and plummeted down to the ground below. Her body hit the pavement below with enough force to produce a small crater and kick up a decent size cloud of smoke. Some of the gunfire ceased for just a moment as the goons turned their attention to the plume of smoke now subsiding in the center of the warehouse.

A bright orange hue would overtake the cloud of smoke and was soon followed by the sound of a sinister growling noise. The goons immediately turned their guns on the cloud of smoke, but it was to late. A blur of black leather erupted from the cloud and lashed out at the nearest thug. A flaming skeletal hand would take hold of the thugs head and in the blink of an eye it burst into flames causing the thug to drop to the floor with a sickening thud. Penny’s hollow gaze then turned to her next target, bullets continued to rip and tear though her jacket while having little effect on her charred flaming corpse. “Die!”

Dire was getting ready to make his glorious emancipation when he heard guns going off.
"The hell?!" He said as he saw some kinds of blue lightning.
"Come on, shithead. We've got a metahuman in the facility! Let's go!"
As the guy was walking away, Dire shot him.
"Sorry, but I got drafted to team meta."
He turned around to see 5 guards poised and ready to fire.
"Well, shit..."
He teleported up above them with his two flaming katanas drawn.
He began to tear through them with his inhuman speed.
He dispatched four and the last one fled.
"Not so fast..." He said as he picked up a rifle from one of the guards.
He took aim and fired right before he got out of the doorway, connecting with his leg.
He decided bleeding out would be a nice punishment for this guy, so he turned his attention to the people.
"Hey, everyone! Stay here, okay? The heroes and I got you! Just... Don't leave until the fighting is done, okay?"
He then began running to help the electro guy.


He ran to the scene of importance with his katanas drawn. He was about to start ripping through people, but he saw everyone staring at... A ball of smoke. He didn't know what it-
"Holy shit."
He saw the flaming skeleton char-grill the guy and yell "Die!"
Dire spun his katanas around as to make a blue fire ring around him and laughed.
"Time to meet Team Kick Your Ass, motherfuckers!!!!"
He said this as he began to slice through some of the guards in a hypnotizing blue dance.
His red cloak and red eyes showing frequently in the blue flames.

Voltage continued flying up above, dodging bullets when he noticed the hooded guy drawing a gun, and popping a bullet in one of the thugs. His eyes widened... So, he was on his side? In plain view, in front of all these people? He was confused, but he carried on with what he was doing, not planning on losing his concentration over this new information. Swooping down, he dropped behind two thugs, who had their guns aimed at his new ally, who was in the middle of his fancy sword-dance.

He tapped both of them on the shoulder. "Surprise!" As they turned, he delivered a swift uppercut to the first one's jaw, his fists charged with electricity. He heard the buzz underneath the sound of the guy's jaw popping out of place, the second one lifting his gun only to be disarmed and socked across the face with the same electric-punch. He remained standing, Voltage delivering a second electric-punch, before bringing his knee up into his sternum to send him down for good.

A guard beside him aimed his weapon, Voltage lifting an arm and giving him a good zap without even looking his way. He fell backwards, a stream of bullets missing by miles and shooting into the sky. Once he was done, he walked towards the hooded guy, planning on helping him with his own fight before he heard something next to him that made him stop in his tracks.

"Die!"

He looked over slowly, just in time to watch the corpse of what used to be a man with a perfectly intact face crumple to the ground. Looking upon the figure responsible, he gritted his teeth. A flaming skeleton... Well, he had a fairly certain guess about who was burning people alive in the streets. However, that confrontation could wait. As the thugs sprayed her down with bullets to no avail, he curled his arms around himself tightly, grunting as he swung both to his sides suddenly and released a huge wave of electrical energy, knocking all of them down like dominoes.

He glared at her, fists clenched. Although, his glare would go unnoticed through his mask which obscured everything. "Figured I'd take the hastle of barbecuing all of these guys off your hands." He spat his words with a rather unfriendly tone to his voice, glancing over his shoulder at the other guy. He lifted his hand in a thumbs-up. "You good, ninja dude?"

Penny’s slow advance towards the nearest thug came to an abrupt halt as a blue electrical blast dropped all the thugs in the nearby area. Her skeletal hand clenched tightly into a fist as anger mounted within her. These thugs deserved way worse, and at least her method didn’t put any of the innocent people in danger. The man responsible for dropping the thugs even had the audacity to act like he had done such a good thing. Then there was that attitude, no matter how subtle it was or not, Penny picked up on in. The man’s words were met with the menacing hollow stare of Penny’s skull as she turned her gaze to him.

“Not good enough. These animals deserve much worse. And your little stunt could have hurt the innocents.” There was a moment of silence between the speedster and Penny. The young blonde then turned her attention to the remaining thugs that continued to gather about the warehouse. Some even went so far as to grab some of the people they were trying to move and used them as human shields. It was the type of thing Penny had come to expect from scum like this, but it still irked her all the same.

“Ok Mr. Lightning. What are you going to do now?” She let out a small grunt of anger as she stared the remaining thugs down. Her hands were tied in this situation. All the options she had available were all but useless here. The thugs were just out of range for her to even attempt generating a flame near them, add on the fact they now were using the people as hostages. As much as Penny would hate to admit it to herself, she was definitely going to need to team up with these two random strangers if they were going to have any chance of rescuing everyone.

Penny raised her hands up and reverted to her normal state. She shot the speedster and the man with the sword a cautious glance and then began to walk forward. “Alright assholes you win! I give up. Just don’t hurt these people. If you’re looking to shoot something….I’m right here!”

Many of the thugs exchanged a worrying glance with one another. Not quite sure what the blonde woman’s intention was especially after they had witnessed what she could actually do. They refused to heed her plea and in fact clung to their meat shields even tighter, but now instead of having their guns pointed at the innocent women, they were now drawn on the once flaming skeleton. Penny looked slightly over her shoulder back to the two men, hopefully they’d see an opportunity to separate the thugs from the hostages.

It seems like Dire was the only one NOT ready for the huge jolt of lightning that Mr. Zaps decided to explode with.
His ears were ringing a bit and he was temporarily blinded. He heard something that sounded sort of like: "You good, ninja dude?"
Dire began blinking his vision back as he said, "Why does everyone think I'm a ninja? Two flaming swords with a cloak, I've never seen a ninja like that."

After the tense encounter between Flame Skull and Sir. Zaps-A lot, he noticed the flame skull- who was now an attractive blonde woman- held her hands up, surrendering.
"Uh... What the hell are you doing lady? Just shoot through the shields if you can't hit the goons behind him."
He pulled his gun out and took aim, but he stopped.
He saw the remaining guards had guns poised at all the people he had told to stay put.
This one was on him.
"Dammit." He mumbled as he put the gun on the ground and followed suit with the blonde girl.
"Hey, you know your employer? Yeah, he sent me here to help you all!" He shouted across the way.
"He's gonna be REEEAL pissed off at me for helping these heroes, BUT if you all shoot any of his cargo... He's gonna be REEEAL pissed at you! So, let's make a deal..."
He looked to the girl and electro guy, knowing they weren't gonna like this deal if they were to take it.
"You take me, my two unfortunate pals here, and all the hostages to your employer, and let your employer deal with me and these two. I guarantee he'll let me go! My friends? Maybe not."

Just then, his phone rang. Nadia was calling, but of course he didn't tell that to the guards up there.
"Hey, boss! Perfect timing. So, I tried to stop this precious cargo deal and failed. Yeah, me and three heroes. The guards stopped us. Yes, really! They deserve the portion of my cut. No, none of the cargo is gone. So, I can go? Great! What about my friends? No? Well, they aren't really my friends anyway. Okay. Yeah, I'll tell them. Alright, love ya muches. Bye!" He said as he put his phone down and picked his gun up.
"He told me to tell you that I'm free to go, because I'm just a merc, but my friends are going with you so he can knock two heroes off the streets... Anyway..." He turned his attention to Blondie and Electro-Guy.
"Maybe I'll see you all around?" He gave them a mock salute, then teleported out.

Dire appeared on the roof of the same warehouse he was just in. He couldn't believe the stupid mercs believed him!
He peered over the window Penny had broken when she dropped down as the flaming skeleton.
He only briefed a glance, but he saw the guards move in on the two heroes.
"Please just play along..." He mumbled as he saw them, waiting for his opportunity to save everyone.

"Look, I'm just as much a professional as you! I only hurt who I have to-" He began to retort as she spit her own venom at him. Voltage paused as he heard more racing up, this time with innocents held in front of them like shields. Cowardly, but smart... Their hands were tied. If he attacked from here, he'd fry the innocents. If he approached closer, they'd put a bullet in their heads. He was powerless, to put it simply. They all were.

Clearly, the blonde psychopath was just sane enough to realize this, and approached with her hands up in surrender. Truly, there wasn't anything else they could do. No matter how much he hesitated, thinking of a clever way out of this one, there were none. Still, as she approached with her arms up, he remained where he was, unmoved. It was at that moment that the hooded guy began negotiating with them... But it wasn't going to be a deal either Voltage or the blonde liked.

He originally thought, from how many of the goons he sliced up, that he'd be on their side. But no... Here he was, basically turning them all in, with one exception... The boss would let him go. As he teleported away, he clinched his fists, the neon patterns on his suit lighting up as electricity sparked off of his form. "Bastard..." He growled. "He'd better hope I don't see him again."

He took a deep breath, calming his nerves. The electricity soon died down as Voltage turned towards the thugs, doing as she did and raising his arms in surrender. He came into step with her, slowly approaching them as he glanced in her direction. It wasn't the appropriate time for small talk, but he decided to address something she said earlier. "Mr. Lightning? Big, glowing, 'V' on my chest and your name for me is Mr. Lightning?"

The thugs all looked on with mounting suspicion as the merc stopped forward at the same time the blonde woman did. He rambled on about not being involved with the two heroes and that he was free to go. Despite hacking down a few of their own, the thugs somehow came to the conclusion that the guys story checked out and simply let him vanish from sight. That being said, they still had to deal with the once flaming skeleton and the speedster.

As Penny continued forward at an ever cautious pace the remaining would be hero felt that now was the best time to be striking up an argument with her. She felt her teeth grind against each other with enough force that would have ground them to dust if they weren't indestructible. Her head quickly reared to stare at Voltage with a look that could kill. “Are you fucking serious right now? Look I don’t care what you call yourself, there are more pressing matters at hand.”

Her head turned back to face the thugs who had paced forward. It was like a gift delivered by Madeline, if Madeline wasn’t actually a shit goddess. With the few steps the thugs had taken in addition to Penny’s they were no perfectly in range for Penny to make a move. There was a brief flash of orange in Penny’s eyes that was shortly followed by small columns of smoke billowing out from behind the thugs.

In a matter of seconds the thugs had relinquished their control on the innocent people they were using as shields as their shirts and pants erupted in flames. Penny took a few steps back and held her hands out while looking at the speedster. “Welp there you go, you’re so fond of taking care of business. Take care of that.” Penny turned her back to the burning thugs and began making her way towards the other shipping containers to let the human cargo out. When she was done here she’d have to track down that merc. If what he said had any hint of truth to it, then he knew who was in charge of this whole operation and that was information Penny would kill for.

“When I’m done freeing these people I’ll be tracking down that other guy for the information he has. Feel free to tag along, or not, I don’t really care. Just don’t get in my way.” she said grabbing hold of a lock and melting it in her palm.

Dire saw the guards let the shields go, obviously cautious of the two extremely powerful heroes he royally pissed off.
He drew his flaming katanas until he saw another orange flame behind some of the guards.
"Oh for-"
The guards went up in flames, leaving all the cargo and the two heroes only.
Dire sheathed his katanas and pinched the bridge of his nose.
He just lost the one excuse of ducking out.
He nearly left, until he heard a rather threatening statement.
"I'll be tracking down that other guy for the information he has..."
Dire rolled his eyes, "Might as well not let her boil any longer."

He dropped down, doing a stupid looking superhero landing upon hitting the ground.
He landed in between the two heroes.
Great, wonderful place to land...
He was prepared to take a super-sized beating, so might as well do it in style.
"Ya know, guys. I had this under control... You could've just played along for like... Five minutes or so, but NOOOOO! You had to take all the fun for yourselves!"
He looked towards Voltage with a side grin, "I got your name now! Volture! Like... Vulture, but electricity."

Conner just rolled his eyes as she snarled at him for asking the question. It was a valid one. Maybe not very valid, for the situation at hand, but valid, nonetheless. He looked ahead at the guards who continued to threaten the civilians, sighing heavily in knowing that his hands were pretty much tied. He thought both of their hands were tied, until she pulled a trick from her bag that he certainly wasn't expecting.

He narrowed his eyes as he saw the faint towers of smoke rise behind the goons in question, only really visible by the heatwaves they gave off. He flinched as their clothing seemed to suddenly burst into flame, the civilians dropping as they flailed helplessly and screamed. As she basically ordered him to finish the job, he shrugged, raising both index fingers and shocking both men into unconsciousness, the fire snuffing as their backs thudded against the ground.

"Stop, drop, and roll, fellas." He jested at their unconscious bodies, his attention snapping to his left as the ninja landed between them. He blinked, before looking around in confusion. He was just... Watching from a distance? When he could've been getting away? He couldn't say he had ever heard of a backstabbing coward doing that... It was his next words that slightly angered him.

"Fun? You nearly had us taken hostage! Or executed! And just let those bastards threaten innocent people! Who's side are you even on?" He asked, poking his chest harshly. It was after his mini-rant concluded that he realized how his name had been mistaken yet again. He just stared towards the sky in annoyance. "Volture...?
Do I really make myself out to be that corny?" He shook his head. "Look, you two... Voltage.
V-O-L-T-A-G-E." He spelled, pointing at his chest.

Jesus... Did nobody watch the news anymore? Or was it not heroic enough to put the gangs of Los Angeles in their place? Not like it mattered, it wasn't a popularity game, but he would at least expect fellow vigilantes and such to recognize him.

As Penny melted the lock on another shipping container, her gaze shifted back to the space between her and Voltage. The mercenary had reappeared which in the long run saved the champion of Arcadia the hassle of having to hunt him down. She wasn’t initially angry about him ducking out of the fight, after all he was a mercenary and they tended to look out only for themselves. The fact that he thought this was all fun and games though, that ticked Penny off. His words were enough to get under skin to the point that she nearly ripped the container door right off its hinges as she freed the poor people that had been locked inside.

There were a few more containers to go, but Penny couldn’t let the mercenary off the hook. She quickly spun around to face him and with her first step burst into flames and back into her skeletal form. “You think this is funny? You think a hostage situation where innocent lives are at stake is fun and games?” her bony hand clenched into a fist, but she turned away from the man before she did something she’d regret….Like kill him before he could give up the location of the gangs boss.

Penny reverted her form as she walked away from the two men and over to the last container of people. Last thing she wanted to do was scare these already frightened people with the sight of a flaming skeleton. As she reached up for the lock on the door, she flashed a glance over her shoulder. “After I free these people, you’re going to lead us to your boss.”

Her right hand reached up and took hold of the lock. Within seconds the metal and all but turned to slag and dripped onto the floor from Penny’s palm. Carefully and slowly opening the door, the young blonde ushered the people out. Her anger only continued to mount as she looked at the scared faces of the women and children as they exited the crate. Unsurprisingly they all were horrified by the sight of the corpses that lined the warehouse, but were still grateful to be free of their prison.

Penny walked back to the two men, an angry scowl still on her face. “The police will be by soon enough to clean up this mess and get those people taken care of.” she said looking at the speedster. Her blue eyes then fell to the mercenary. “You better think long and hard about what you’re going to say next. Where’s their boss?”

Dire chuckled when the two flared off at him about it being fun. Only for a moment, though. His anger began to well up, except he didn't have to hold it back.
Also, he didn't want to piss off the flaming skeleton.
"You want to talk about ME being reckless? I had the SAFEST plan. You two dumbasses would get captured, they would tie everyone up. SAFELY away from the cargo. I would then sneak on, kill the guards, save you two, and voila. Game Over. You win. But NOOOO we just HAD to start a bunch of fires around the hostages. So don't talk to me about safe, miss I-play-with-fire."

His head turned to Voltage.
"As for YOU, Voltage... I'm on the side that gets these people out of here, not a scratch on them. You escalated the situation to a point where I HAD to duck out. I would say YOU TWO took the riskiest move. Not me."

He looked upon the faces of the people being rallied out by the skeleton lady, who was now back to being blonde.
They looked at him like he was a bigger monster than the people capturing them. Just because the damn heroes got there first...
Dire looked the blonde in the eyes, his red irises burning intensely matching the blue eye's anger.
"Kill me if you feel it necessary, but I have NO information on the boss. I made that shit up to follow the plan that I was trying to execute. I was hired by MY employer who was calling in a favor. So he called in a favor on me. I didn't even know we were transporting people. I figured it was a shit-load of money, but nope. So the ONLY reason I'm even cooperating, is I don't want this job to continue. So we can start there, but understand me. I'm looking forward to dying, the question is are you."
He continued to stare for a single moment more, before blinking and putting on his natural care-free and fun nature.
"Unless you're one of those crazy ones that can't die. I hate those ones. Always come back to bite you in the ass..."

Voltage rolled his eyes as the guy went off. He really had no reason to be so angry. It's not like either he or the skeleton-lady were out of line for chastising him. He genuinely seemed like he had betrayed the both of them. And he was treating the whole scenario like a big joke. Of course, he was determined that he had the safest course of action, and the both of them had just ruined everything. Yeah... Classic case of an arrogant asshole who just can't do wrong. So... Him, basically.

"Well, sorry I can't read minds, pal. Didn't mean to ruin your plan." He crossed his arms. "Believe it or not, guys like us aren't gonna wait for a miracle to save us from these kinda things. You should've expected the fire and the lightening bolts." He added with a shrug. He let out out an audible sigh as he learned the guy had no idea where the kingpin of this operation was, or even who. With this, he immediately started looking around. One of these guards still had to be conscious. At least one.

"Ah, here we are!" He exclaimed, walking over to one of the goons he had recently downed before the ninja dropped in, who was crawling away with a slight groan. He grabbed him by the back of his collar, picking him up to his feet. "Not so fast, buddy... It's interrogation time." He dragged the guy over to a shipping crate, slamming his face into the side of it, likely breaking his nose, as well as some teeth before turning him around, slamming his back into it. As he turned him, two streams of blood trickled from his nose, his lip visibly busted.

He looked back at his uneasy allies, raising a brow. "So... Which one of you plays bad cop?" He looked at her, immediately feeling stupid for even asking that question. He looked back at the goon, who just shook his head and spat at them. "Piss off!" He growled. Voltage pressed two fingers to his neck, giving him a strong jolt. The guy screamed loudly, convulsing in place. "Keep that up, and I'll be doing that pretty often. I'm like a human taser, dude."