Since when were we a team? (Invite Only)

Smoke was stinging her eyes and causing tears to form but she was not moving from the bomb. She had to get it out of there encase the fire hit it - which she doubted - or this guy had a back up. Scar was far from thinking this was over. Tugging up her shirt she used it to cover her mouth and her nose, breathing in and out very slowly. Smoke naturally came with fire but this was artificial smoke, chemically made to sting your eyes and blur the world around you. Carefully she began to gather up the bomb and stood up at the same time the ceiling exploded. Scar swore and pushed the knife through the belt loops so she had another hand free to feel her way around the room. That was when the flash of colour caught her attention and she was hurtling through the air. Instead of catching her on the stomach he'd hit her on her hip bone. The force of it cracked the wall and she pushed herself up very slowly. She'd suffered worse though Pain was going to kill her for not moving quick enough.

Get up Scarlie, Faith's voice echoed and she pushed herself to her feet. The left side of her body had gone into shock and so the pain hadn't yet set in. While Scar had begun to blink back the stars, the bomb she had managed to throw in the opposite direction to the hit. It bounced off the wall at the same time Scar did and came to stop by Sul's feet. Spitting out a bit of blood Scar drew four blades.

"Now that was cowardly," she scolded and held the tip of one blade in her fingers before throwing it. Blue fire erupted down the blades as they flew towards Mimic in quick succession giving her time to create a blast of fire that cleared most of the smoke in the room apart from around the edges. After the fire circled the room Scar directed the ribbon directly on top of the male who was attacking them in a flurry of molten hot flame.

Mimic's grenade caused the ceiling to collapse on top of him. Hundreds of pounds of concrete slammed against his rock hard outer shell. At most, it made him raise his shoulders as he was buried in debris. He wanted to fling his arms wildly and throw the debris off, but it might hurt Scarlet. He could hear the commotion but felt helpless to intervene, blinded by the smoke. If he were alone, he would feel no regret about attacking wildly into the fog. However with Scarlet there, he couldn't risk that. His team skills weren't exactly fully developed. But he knew for a certainty, that Scarlet and Mimic were going at it. He was just left out of the equation.

He could hear Scarlet grunt in pain as she hit the wall near him. A bomb slid near his feet but he couldn't see it for the fog. Scarlet's fire circled around the room, clearing the fog up and then attacking Mimic. With regained sight he instantly wanted to react, taking a quick step towards the two facing off against each other. His foot kicked the bomb by his feet. Picking it up, the villain could no longer access it. He was just unsure if crushing the bomb would detonate it, or disable it. At the minimum, he had to keep it away from Mimic.

Not wanting to ask Scarlet while she was clearly busy, he had to make a decision for himself. The bomb stayed with him for now. He'd try to fight Mimic with one arm. He made sure he had a death grip on the bomb before running in to engage Mimic. Blitzing into the fray, he looked like a professional Football player. Pinning the bomb against his side, he moved in to try and swipe at Mimic with an outstretched hand. He physically seemed weak enough to easily knock out, if you could get past his gadgets.

The objective in total was a failure, she held onto the bomb during the attack. His calve muscles relaxed, as the effects wore off from his temporary speed boost. He couldn't use that for a while now. There was no way he could manually activate that bomb unless he'd gotten it back. Taking a step forward, he saw movement from the girl who he thought he had seen spit blood from his attack. Freezing in his tracks, he saw her reveal her weapon.

"Alright, my skills against yours" he thought. She was pretty accurate, that much was made evident. But his fighting skills have been honed after years of training in so many forms of martial arts he was certain he could counter them. Four blades came streaming towards him, slight movements to the left or right sent the blades streaming past him. His hand sprang up and grabbed the last blade she threw by the handle.

Flames started to burst through the room, his heat vision goggles were going crazy as a result. He triggered the sensor to remove the effects, reverting them to normal. Grabbing his energy baton, he needed to get defensive fast. Hunkering over, he directed the energy shield and activated it as quickly as he could. The flames were intense as they poured over the shield. It couldn't withstand the pressure much more, as it started giving out. Flames trickled around and melted the energy shield within his hands. The scorching metal caused him to drop it fast, clutching his hand by the wrist. But the attack was over. His suit had suffered minor burns, but it was better than the full blast.

With a quick flick of the wrist he sent one of her daggers streaming back at her at his full strength. With Sul storming in at him he had to call this a total loss. Aiming his wrist-launcher cables in the air, he fired to clasp the opening in the roof. The cables stuck, giving a tug and pulling his body up rapidly. On his way up he dropped two flash grenades from his belt and closed his eyes to avoid getting his retinas damaged by the blast. Though, he was the only one that knew what it was going to do. A loud screech burst as they hit the ground enough to almost rupture a human eardrum. A burst of white light emitted from them enough to temporarily blind a human for days. Hence, why he kept his eyes shut. Once his cables reached the surface of the roof, he climbed up on the roof and tried to make a get-away.

A burst of white light permeated the whole room, blinding Sul temporarily. Though he knew where Mimic was, when he swiped his arm he was no longer there. It was all the time Mimic needed to make his escape to the rooftops. Sul had the bomb though, but he didn't know that Scarlet had disabled it. Sul thought to give pursuit of his opponent but quickly glanced at Scarlet first to make sure she was okay. Her resistance to tolerating such potent attacks must not have been as high as his. His eyebrows raised in sympathy as he saw her eyes forcing tears to fight the damage done to them, eyelids clenched shut.

He wanted to get closer to see if there was something he could do, but he had to remember he had the bomb in hand. "I'm alright Scarlet, but I have the bomb. I have to get it out of here before it detonates. I can't have you put at risk here any longer. I'm... I'm sorry. I'm not used to fighting in a team. I didn't want you to get hurt. I thought I could stop anything he had, and I could. But I couldn't stop him from hurting you. That is my fault." He said bitterly. He wished just for a moment he had the power to absorb others pain, if he could just relieve hers it would somehow redeem himself in his own eyes. Sul looked up to the ceiling, thinking of the only way he knew to disarm the bomb without serious repercussions. He walked to the opening in the ceiling and prepared to leap into the air. If he could get the bomb out of range and smash it, perhaps it would prematurely explode and not harm Scarlet or the structure.

Fleeing to the rooftops, he dove to the streets below. Looking behind him, he made sure the heroes had not followed him before activating his holographic projection suit's program again. The armor flickered and changed shape to a young blonde man with a red hoodie. Had anyone followed him from this point he'd look entirely different than before. Mimic looked for a crowd of people, and noticed a large group up ahead in the busy city. He blended in, and slowly became invisible.

(End for Mimic)

She radiated an extreme warmth as she grasped his arm. Perhaps it was just because it contrasted to the coldness of his own. He had forgotten that she needed to be guided to see until the effects wore off, and stopped briefly. In the end, she was right. She had known the risks, and the risks were overcame with minor damage. It seemed she was the more efficient of the two as well, the bomb was completely disabled. The guilt seemed to be washed away with her words. Dropping the bomb to the floor, he crushed it beneath his heel with relative ease.

"You're right Scarlet. Thank you. Seems you really are a Tough Gal after all." He said with a smile, but forgot that she might not be able to register his facial expressions due to the flash grenade. "Pretty sure we scared that guy off. Doubt he'll be coming back for more, at least for now. That's the impression I get when they run off like that anyway.

Scarlet appeared to be looking around for something, but Sul didn't know what. He lifted up his foot off the bomb incase that was it, and glanced around the general area quickly. "If you need help finding something, I can get it for you. You going to be fine getting home?"

Moving about the area, Sul spotted several of the blades on the ground and was sure to heed the warning not to touch the blade. He wasn't a demon or vampire, but he didn't like taking risks. He never trusted things beyond his understanding when it came to magic or the supernatural. After picking up the blades, he walked over to Scarlet. He hadn't known who Valk was but he assumed it was a close friend of hers due to the fondness he could sense in her voice.

Extending an open hand housing the blades, he made sure they were within visible range if she was just regaining her eyesight. He wasn't sure if she'd be able to find her way home or not once her eyes stopped tearing up. Sul had to remind himself that she just reminded him that she was tougher than she looked. But he wasn't much of a conversationalist. On one hand he thought he'd call it a night. But on the other hand, he didn't want to just leave her here until she had regained her strength. He decided to respond to her previous statement.

"I'm not a demon. I used to look as human as you do. This is just the result of some mutation when I was overseas. But to be truthfully honest, I'm not sure if there even is any human DNA left in me. So I'll be wary of your blades for now." He smirked. He wished he looked normal still. Heck, he missed the hair he had before the mutation. He didn't want to make the conversation all about himself though.

"Are you a mutant as well?"

He was there, sort of. Remembering his battles with demons running into the streets of New York, it was hard to forget those memories. Though clearly, he was only fighting the Prince of Darkness' minions and underlings. He wasn't truly at the source of the issue. He was merely 'crowd control' trying to help those nearby. Her story was fairly interesting, but only provable through her taking a step further in showing him her blood. Sure enough, she was not your average human. Though, at least she looked like one.

"I see. That's... really interesting. I believed in the Underworld and Demons. But to believe there was forces for good as well just didn't seem logical. Not with the world we live in. It seems like mankind has to rely on themselves to ward off the evils we face. I've never seen an Angel. I take it you're the closest thing I've seen to one." His eyes returned to Scarlets after viewing her self inflicted minor wound. "C'mon let's get out of here. Whoever this Valk person is she can't be scarier than me." He said with a smirk.

Once outside, it was a liberating feeling to have saved the monument and stop Mimic with such minor damage to the team. On the other hand, he definitely concluded that he needed more time practicing his 'team coordination' skills. With Sean, they clicked together quite well since their powers were quite contrasting and their opponents were more 'head-on' attacks than subtle. With Mimic, he fought in smoke and flash grenades, fought where he had the upper hand the entire time. It was the only way he could fight the two of them at once.

Scarlet seemed to be fine wandering on her own at this point. He felt okay with letting her part ways here. He knew she was a Tough Gal at heart and could handle herself. She had let him know about the communication device, how even far apart they could always be in contact.

"You too, Scarlet. Don't forget I'll have your back whenever ya need it." he replied. It was a good feeling to know there was more to the Tough Guys. That was what he really wanted to know. He just needed to be more involved in their operations. He needed to be a team player with a role and purpose within the Tough Guys. Which was what he wanted all along. Perhaps he needed to take the initiative in getting that all worked out. He smiled while watching Scarlet walk off. He decided he'd walk back to his place rather than causing more city damage as he did on his entrance. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he headed home.

(END OF TOPIC)