G.U.N.

Sphinx stared at The Black Knight waiting for his response to her riddle. She was greatly disappointed when someone else jumped the gun with their own answer though. And an incorrect one (though close) at that. Sphinx sighed and looked to her side at the winged man. Was he chuckling about this? Perhaps this would put an end to it.

"You are most fortunate for your healing abilities. They will make up for your lack of thought. The answer I was looking for was shoes."

Right after she revealed the answer, the curse lashed out at Nathaniel. An invisible spear cut through him, though only making flesh wounds this time. Sphinx had that much control over her curses at least, though the curse had to be released once it began.

"Perhaps next time you will let someone else handle their own riddle, hm?"

Nina raised an eyebrow as a silvery gentlemen leaped at the humongous hero, peppering him with hits before returning to the group. She almost giggled at their ineffectiveness before she rolled her neck and strode forward, pulling her staff out and giving it an experimental spin. Once she was far enough forward to denote that she was next, she looked back at the modest collection of heroes and smiled brightly. ''Alright big guy.'' she said brightly, stretching her legs out a bit. ''You ready?''

With one expert jump, she launched herself through the air. quickly closing the gap between her and her mentor. If all ended well, she would hit him directly in the stomach and send the pair flying.

((OOC: Sorry for the delay, but for those who have posted with Pain I will be splitting the topic in half. I'll make Pain's topic with his recruits later tonight, but this topic is purely for BK and his recruits.))

The masked man simply acknowledged her introduction with a nod. This 'Sphinx' was a peculiar one, but his first impressions were rather good. She came off as brilliant and headstrong; her personality reminded him of an old apprentice of his. However it was the riddle challenge that sold him. In their brief meeting she had already challenged him twice, but he shrugged it off and actually found it amusing. The Black Knight always enjoyed a good challenge, especially when it was one of wits.

William only racked his brain for a brief moment before he came to a conclusion, but he held his tongue and showed respect to the other young man signing up with Sphinx. The Black Knight smirked from beneath his mask in response to the young man's cocky laughter. "Pick one name, or I'll pick it for you.." William paused, staring this 'Malus Rex' down in a brief moment of silence before proceeding to chuckle at the young smoker.

The young man took a blind stab at the riddle, he was sharper than he looks. "Close." William stated quietly, but was likely not heard. The young man then proceeded with his introduction, but his powers were a little surprising. Given his rough outward appearance and cocky attitude, he wouldn't suspect a power like that on him; however looks are deceiving.

"Interesting.. 'Rex'.. If you can use these abilities properly, it'd be extremely beneficial to our forces." The Black Knight stated confidently before Sphinx responded to 'Rex's" introduction and attempt at the riddle. Instead of interfering, the masked hero chose to watch on with curiosity. A brief display of both their abilities, though perhaps not intentional, it was just what he wanted, and just what he instructed.

"You could always give another riddle." The Knight calmly stated as he gently waved his hand. He mustered up a masked smile as his glowing white eyes darted between his two new ambitious recruits, it was an honor to have them here. William only hoped they understood the risks of fighting for him; if not they'd find out the hard way..

At the man’s sarcasm, Tony just let out another laugh. Sarcasm was something he always found endlessly funny. “Thanks, that’s all I wanted!” he said before joining whatever line that was there. He took that time to examine the three other recruits who were there. One thing that he did notice was that all three of them possessed something he did not, which was wings. He did feel a bit left out with the fact they all had wings and he did not, but in the end it didn’t bother him. It just made him a bit of a special snowflake.

There was a familiar face within all the recruits though. The one he had met in some store a while back, when he was trying to get himself a drink or something. He definitely remembered her face. He was going to bring it up, but thought maybe he’d wait a bit. Just to see if she was actually the girl he met when they were building hopping.

The Sphinx lady interested him, and her riddle did too. He had heard of sphinxes before, and knew them as mythical creatures of the past. His friend who was obsessed had told him once about ancient Egypt, and their beliefs in this creature. He concentrated to figure the riddle out, for he was never the type of guy who was that great at worded riddles, unless it had something to do with math. What he really wanted to know was what would happen if the riddle was answered wrong, for from what he remembered, the person who answered wrongly got eaten, or something like that.

Great enough for him, the guy whom Tony believed had wings like a magpie attempted to answer the riddle. He couldn’t help but snicker quietly behind his gas mask. Then, he got his answer for what happened to people when they answered the Sphinx’s riddle wrong. At that, he took a small step away from them both, because wow, did he not want to get involved. Seeing as the other girl was not speaking, and the fact he didn’t really want to go last, he decided to say something.

He laughed before he began his introduction, “Well, uh, my name’s Gastly and as you can see,” he paused to motion to the other three recruits, then to himself, “I am not a flyer.” he let out a laugh, then continued, “I can sorta turn myself into a gaseous form, you know, like air and stuff. I dunno, I don’t wanna waste too much energy on nothing, cause I need it for running away like a true fighter.” he laughed again and moved to brush some hair out of his face. “But I dare ya to throw me a punch. That’d be fun.” As he said that, he looked towards the rest of the recruits. It was an open offer to hit a lanky dude. That was always fun.

Tony watched as Nathaniel rolled up his sleeve and did whatever magic he did. He was a little shocked that his wings just vanished, but hey, expect the unexpected, right? As he watched, he let out a low, impressed whistle. Healing was always something quite interesting, he found. Not only that, it could save you from, well, dying, so that was always a plus. He turned his head at the mention of Sphinx asking another riddle, that would be fun, surely.

Then, he turned to look back at the healer with the magpie wings as he was tapped on the shoulder. “‘Course!” he stated proudly, grinning behind that gasmask of his. “Don’t worry though, if you do ‘harm my scrawny form’,” he said this with those air quotation marks, “It’s on you, and you’re a healer.” he let out another laugh, he was sure he wasn’t going to get hurt. It was highly unlikely, after all. Of course, watching the man exhale that cigarette smoke made him want to pull out his own and take a drag. Too bad he didn’t even have a cigarette with him in the first place. Or a lighter.

“I dare ya, hit me with your best shot.”

Suddenly Sphinx felt all eyes on her again. She always wondered what it would have been like if she were born human. Maybe people wouldn't stare as much. Then again, the riddle thing attracted enough attention on its own. Sphinx decided to make people wait on her a little longer so she could stretch out and get more comfortable. Her resemblence to a great cat continued as she pawed at the ground to find the most comfortable way to lie down. She folded her front legs over each other, then sighed and answered her requests.

"Mankind always takes too much pleasure in tempting the beasts of this world. I will give you one more riddle today. My strength is best left to true threats. Unlike some of my... cousins... I do not take pleasure in harming your kind."

Sphinx went silent for a moment before returning to her trance. This time her riddle didn't seem to be aimed at any one person.


When her riddle was complete, she dropped her trance and looked straight at The Black Knight. "And then perhaps I can give you a more personal query. When can we be finished with this test of yours? I've rested long enough."