Old Faces (Closed, Invite only)

Phoenix sat atop a large skyscraper, a police radio frequency over his Talon dog tags played aloud. Leaning back on his arms, he took in a deep breath. "Looks like tonight is gunna be peaceful and quiet." he said letting out a relieved exhale. Looking up at the sky, it seemed some thick clouds were forming. It was going to rain. "great" the young hero sighed looking down at the city below him. Suddenly he heard over the police frequency a group of 4 meta humans were attacking a bank. "gotta stay busy" he thought as he made his way down to the street levels. He was in full Phoenix gear prepared for anything. "400 Broadway Avenue!" the voice boomed.

Turning on the afterburners, Phoenix hit full speed running through traffic. Leaping over taxis and pedestrians alike, he was almost at the scene. Once he arrived, the police were in a fire fight with the super powered criminals. "These guys aren't big guns, I've never seen them before." Phoenix thought to himself. Suddenly one of the metas exposed his gift of telekinesis. Lifting a large number of police cars and officers with his mind. Dashing full speed at the meta human, Phoenix barreled through the man with half strength. The man went flying into a wall and Phoenix was quickly in front of the man with his forearm pressed tightly to the thug's windpipe.

"What is going on here, and who are you rookies?" he asked in a low tone looking the man directly in the eye. "I...I wont tell you anything Phoenix!" he shouted. The police were now moving in on the bank to try and stop the thugs from their massacre. Suddenly a flash of light went off from inside the bank and a the front wall was blown to pieces. The force of the explosion sent Phoenix back, still standing. There were two marks where his feet had skidded from the blast. Covering his face with his arms from the dust from the blast, he looked through squinted eyes as 3 other criminals stepped forward. The one in the middle created a small orb of energy in his hand, and closed his hand to fist, creating an explosion. "To answer your question Phoenix, we are "The Wrecking Crew" and this is our debut." The three villains stepped towards Phoenix. "What do I do?" the hero thought to himself, creating a white fire around himself. He felt a presence behind him, and looked over his shoulder. A smile formed across the Talon's face. "Well, well." he said through a wide grin.

Gauntlet quietly slid through the window in the back of the bank, not wanting any of the other super humans to notice is presence quiet yet. From inside the office air duct he had climbed through he could see 4 metas crowding around Phoenix, who was of course in his classic battle ready position, flame all around him. Gauntlet seeing the predicament Phoenix had gotten himself into jumped down into the office from the top of the air duct, landing behind Phoenix's shoulder. "Well, Well, Well, boys what have we here?" Gauntlet looked to his right, standing next to Phoenix facing the other 4 meta villains.

"Andrew, I leave you alone for a few weeks and you get yourself into this kind of situation? I thought you'd learned from our mistakes."
Gauntlet smiled at Phoenix, standing next to him. Gauntlet looked at his hand forming a glow of white hot energy, "Well buddy... Old habits die hard" Gauntlet said with a grin as he fired his first beam of energy at the Meta standing in the middle, this sent the meta skidding across the floor, his chest smoking where the heat of Gauntlet's energy beam had singed him. He pulled his bow-staff off of his back and spun it in front of him, he grinned at Phoenix and then glared back at the meta villains he stood before.

He tested his second target by attempting to make contact with the side of the meta's head using his bow-staff as his weapon. The meta in question rolled out of the way to avoid Gauntlet's swing and bounced back onto his feet. "Well, well, you boys aren't amateurs." Gauntlet began to run at the previous meta who dodged his attack, but faked at the last moment, he spun around, round house kicking one of the other 2 metas in the head, he followed it up with a hot disc of white energy from his one of his gauntlets, throwing the meta back into the wall, pinning him by the top of his shoulder, the meta yelled in pain "AAHG!"
Gauntlet spun around, "Come on ass holes! Who's up next?" Gauntlet said with a smile

Lucifer was wandering around New York, as he often did when he was bored. In a way, it was like he was subconsciously patrolling the city. He could really use some excitement, something that would make this night just a little bit better. "I guess this night is just going to be another bore, you disappoint me yet again, New York." said Lucifer to himself through a sigh. But just as Lucifer said that, he heard a explosion. "Oh New York, you devil." he said with a smile while pointing at the sky. He quickly put on his mask and ran towards the direction of the explosion, but he was in no rush. Knowing New York, there would definitely be other supers at the scene, it was like an unwritten rule.

When he got to the bank, his hypothesis was proven correct: there were other supers there. One of them was a rising star in his own right, he was known as Phoenix, fancy meeting him here. All he really knew was that he was a fire manipulator with his own team. The other guy there must have been apart of his team, a team that was becoming quite popular. It looked like they had everything under control, but they could use one more guy. He then said "Let all hell break loose.", his sword appeared in his right hand in a fiery blaze. "I guess I might as well put on a show and knock out these last two guys."

Lucifer ran towards the last two guys and aimed slashes of black fire at their chests, they were close to each other, so his next move would be easy to execute, plus they were already a little beat up, courtesy of The Talons. They screamed while trying to put out the fire. He then jumped in between them, kicked one right in the jaw to knock him out and hit the other with the hilt of his katana on his temple. When they fell to the ground, he put the flames out. He let out a huge breath of relief and said "Well, I think the cops can handle the rest." He looked at Phoenix and his friend. "I've heard much about you and it's nice to finally meet you. The name's Morning Star." he said while holding out his hand waiting for both of them to shake it.

He had been thinking about it for a while now... He wanted to get more involved with the protection of this horrible yet beautiful place. And what better way than to join one of the best crime-fighting syndicates in America, this might be his only chance. He wasn't going to ask to join, he would let Phoenix judge and ask him.

Phoenix and Kal had the scene all handled when a mysterious young hero appeared on the scene. Watching the fellow fire manipulator fight brought a surprised look to Phoenix's face. Morning Star's combat style was very close to Andrew's, and it seemed his powers were close too. "Hm.." Andrew wondered, crossing his arms, and looking to Kal for an approval. "Well this guys know's what he's doing." Phoenix said through a grin towards his friend Gauntlet. The once cloudy sky had began to open up and rain started to pour from the heavens. Steam formed around Phoenix because of his white fire surrounding him. Closing his eyes, the hero made the fire turn from white to regular fire. Next, the fire vanished. "Good work...I'm sorry what is your name?" Andrew said, extending his arm for a handshake to the hero. The villains while powerful, were unexperienced and the 3 heroes had no problem taking them out. "I didn't get to do much here today. Thanks for the steals gents." he said in a joking manner. "Either way, the superhuman thugs aren't hurting anyone anymore, so I guess mission accomplished."

Pulling Gauntlet's dog tags out of his jacket, he threw them towards the old Talon. "You're reinstated Kal" Looking over at Morning Star, he pulled out an extra pair of dog tags. "This is my last pair of these." he said handing them to the helper. "I don't know much about you, but I know you risked your life for us. It's a pleasure to meet you as well." he said. "I run the Talons and was wondering if you would like to be a part of it. You seemed to have a good sense of your power and they're similar to mine." Andrew said creating, then extinguishing a white fireball. "Anyways I got a few more things to do tonight, you 2 wana tag along an help?" he asked as he turned towards the destroyed city of New York. "From the looks of this place, I'm gunna need all the help I can get."

Gauntlet caught the dog tags in his hand, grinning as he looked down at the sleek metallic surface of his new tags. Talon #002 - Gauntlet was engraved on the dog tags, along with the Talon symbol on the back, the swooping hawk within the circle. Gauntlet smiled up and Phoenix "Well, show me to my room and I'll be on my way." He paused, "But you're right, we've got some crime to fight and some ass to kick". He clipped his bow-staff to his back, the 6 foot long metal rod glistened in the light from the moon as he walked out of the front door of the building.
Gauntlet turned to face Phoenix, "You take the streets, I'll take the high ground and see what I can find for us." he said as he spun around to face the adjacent building. Gauntlet began a sprint towards the wall of the building in front of him, taking the bow-staff from his back as he ran. Only feet from the building Gauntlet took his bow-staff and twisted, turning it into two 3 foot rods in each hand. A running jump propelled him half way up the second floor on the outside of the building as he shoved the rods into the brick surface, using them like ice picks to scale the side of the building quickly. Reaching the top of the 7 story building he flipped himself onto the roof with precision as he rolled to the side and continued his run to the next building. "Come on boys! We've got skulls to crack!" Gauntlet yelled with a laugh as he ran ahead of his heroic counter-parts. He felt the wind in his hair as he ran from rooftop to rooftop Gauntlet was back.

Luckily, Phoenix did just as Lucifer wanted, what an impressive series of events. And what a kind guy and it seemed as if he had a purpose in life, it was interesting. Joining this team was a little contradictory to Lucifer's earlier beliefs, but people change. Lucifer looked at the dog tags Phoenix had in his hands and smiled, though they wouldn't be able to see it because of his demonic mask. He took them out of his hands and said "You can't really see it, but I'm smiling." he said with a slight laugh. He put the dog tags across his neck, beginning his membership of this incredible team. The fact that he offered him membership means that he either saw something in Lucifer or was desperate... possibly a mix of both. While they talked, the other guy, whose named seemed to be Kal, ran off to fight more crime. "I guess we should get moving, the night is still young." he said while starting to cruise at a speed of 50mph. It wasn't anything impressive, but he just had to catch up to Kal.

"For someone so enthusiastic, he sure is slow." Lucifer said with to Phoenix, who was jogging by his side. He was making jokes in all good fun, trying to find a sense of familiarity with his new comrade. They were looking for crime, but Lucifer was a little doubtful that there wouldn't be any crime tonight, Lucifer didn't know why, but New York was surprisingly quiet for once. "So, tell me more about the Talons. What are some of the benefits? What are some key rules that I should follow?" he wanted to know more about this group, while also finding out more about Phoenix.