Unity, survival and generally not getting killed.

"Psh. I'm wearing a white coat, not a badge." Shauna said to Cromwell, turned off the light show and landed. She put a wrapped Christmas box on the ground, and slid it to Valerie. It contained all the essentials to get through a couple of weeks of cold weather, as well as a nice thick wool sweater.  

"Look... I can tell you think life as a metahuman is rough. It is, and I'd never say it was otherwise. but you're not the only one out there. Believe me, being a kid hero was no fairly tale either. It messed me up, and it took me a long time to get over it. Our tall Kpop Santa Girl? Escaped from metahuman slavers about a year and a half ago. Now she's striving to be onf the the greatest heroes I've met."  Shauna paused a moment to think what else to say to Valerie. "I've got some seltzer water too, for settling your stomach." She offered. "Now, would you please relax a moment so I can take a better look at both of you in person? My name's Shauna Masters, by the way. I'm a doctor now. Introducing yourselves is considered polite."

Shauna then remember about Xiao going after an unexpected guest during dinner. "On a side note, do either of you know that mole kid that stole some stuff from our gathering? It would be helpful if he didn't burrow with so much ruins about. Might cause a-" She was cut off when she  heard the rumbling then eventually the surfacing of That Mole Kid. Seeing the people gathered, the strange creature quickly scrambled to hide behind Val, sensing she was one of "them" A reject, a smelly hole dwelling survivor.

Dragon Girl followed Mole Kid to the ruins, not too far from where Shauna and the others were due to the doctor's unmistakable light. Xiao flew as she followed Mole Kid, and eventually landed, slowly getting into the collapsed buildings, noticing it marked off with yellow tape as extremely dangerous. She wrapped her wings around her like a cloak, relaxing the muscles to make it appear like a cape.

"No... stop following me! leave me alone!" He said, quite frightened. Compared to the ladies, Mole Kid was some kind of small, fat, pudgy adolescent, whose metahuman DNA unfortunately gave him a face only his mother could love. Probably.

"Please! I wasn't going to do anything! If you wanted food or clothing I would've given you some." Xiao did bring some food and some winter stuff too. She came halfway towards Mole Kid and set it down, then backed up. Even in the dark her unnatural grey eyes shone through, speaking of a greater heritage beyond humanity.

"N-no... you're lying... lying... look at you! You're not one of us! You're pretty and popular and and... tall... and can fly... and came with... with the humans... not like us... ugly... hated... smelly...dirty! and lives in the ground." He sniffed, quick to categorize Valerie as part of the "smelly and dirty" crowd. Still, he was quickly to scamper over, sniff the food and aid, then snatch it up, then right back to behind Valerie. He smiled, if one could understand the smile of someone with... that kind of face. He gobbled down the food and resumed his whimpering.

"No! It's nothing like that! I... I... They don't... they don't know me either." Xiao said, protesting his statement, though partially, it was true. Xiao was always trying to be good, to have things go her way, thinking if she tried hard enough people would like her. And wasn't that what was happening, pandering to humans during their season of kindness?

"Xiao, stop. You remember how hard it is when you started. Give them time. If they want to reach out, they will." Shauna patted Xiao on her tall shoulder. Dragon Girl didn't think to realize that metahuman DNA didn't make everyone as hideous as they were made out to be. A silence fell over the gathering, save for Mole Kid's chittering.

Slowly, somewhat cautiously Valerie lowered her hands seeming to think that it would be okay to since well, they weren't going to arrest her. Good day to be a criminal then. She was somewhat reluctant to introduce herself to them. The thought crossed her mind again of using her flash power to distract them briefly whilst making another bolt for it.
Yet she couldn't do that, not until she had drunk some of the water that would supposedly settle her stomach.

She found herself reluctant to trust a medical professional, especially after all the stories of Metahumans being the subject of many a medical experiment. "Is that what you think? That I can't talk about how rough life is? Your so pious and moral do you enjoy feeling superior?" Valerie was offended since she hadn't mentioned life being rough until the good doctor brought it up. Everybody had it rough and everyone should have been able to talk about their rough lives."And you. Your just a merc..."

The arrival of the mole kid interrupted her mid sentence. Now even a cursory glance at the mole boy revealed that he wasn't pretty to look at, unlike the Doctor or Dragon Girl. The arrival of Dragon Girl caused some alarm in Valerie, she was brave yes, but foolish enough to pick a fight with three other people. Nope.

"I'm Valerie." She said eventually breaking the long silence. "Been living on the New York streets for about two years now." Which was far too long in her opinion. She glanced at the Mole boy and whispered. "Whatever you did undo it." Her stomach still felt too uncomfortable to run, for her to dash for safety she would need to blind them then bolt for the nearest possible exit.

"Well, this is starting to turn into a bit of a gathering now, isn't it? I'm Cromwell by the way." He takes a bow towards the general assembly of people around.

"As for being a merc, I use the job to fill the time between development contracts and my personal projects, it might mean I occasionally do bad things but I don't think it makes me a bad person in the grand scheme of things."

He takes a step back and turns his gold-eyed gaze back over the group as a whole, thinking on how his day started out and where it has subsequently gone to and decided it was far more interesting and fulfilling in comparison to what he originally thought it was going to turn out like. He turns to the package that Shauna had slid to Val and picks it up, he then holds it out to Val, "I think we should continue this conversation in a more... civil environ, Shauna has a point about these unstable ruins. If nothing else, we can return to the building that I found you and your friends in, they are probably worried about their leader and feeling a little lost without you don't you think?" He turns to the side and gestures to the two ladies, "And I am quite sure travelling in such fine company is probably much safer than on your own after the debacle back there, most of the authority figures in the area are probably on high alert at the moment, wouldn't you two say?" Quirking an eyebrow with a devilish smirk.

Lastly, he turns to the mole kid, "I think your ability more than makes up for your appearance, I know a few meta-friendly mining companies that would more than love to have someone like you working for them, and they would pay you top dollar." He realizes how forward that sounded and adds, "Only if you were so inclined of course." A particular point clicks in, "I do believe you are the last one in need of an introduction, may I ask your name?"

The minutes go by and the cold crept into the ruins. Sniveling and chittering, Mole Kid had only one response to Val's and Cromwell's inquiries. those things on his face twitched. "Hnn? Hnn? What? I am...  Mole Kid! No, no work! no dollars! Mole Kid owes nobody nothing! I demand a sandwich!" He said rather nonsensically, Then he swipes Valerie's sweater out of Cromwell's hands and dives right back into the earth, gone just like that.

"That was unexpected... But Cromwell is right, this site we're in is dangerous. It's weakened and slated for demolition, and nobody's getting far just living in these ruins." Shauna affirms.

"So... please, calm down, I'm not saying that anyone's story is tougher or sadder or anything... When did your powers start manifesting? and where's your family? We just want to help, Valerie. If you want we can find you a place to stay and a temp job in the rebuilt New York. You'll be around our kind, if you don't mind having a quiet life. It's better than just trying to live out another year in these ruins, which are gonna be built over soon anyway."  Shauna mixes a couple of seltzer tablets into a water jug. She drinks a little first to show it's harmless, and hands it to her to soothe her stomach ache.

"So... are you gonna give us a try Val, or are you gonna go join Mole Kid in his hidey hole? It's up to you." Shauna asked. Xiao looked at the Mole tunnel with amusement.

"Where is mole kid going?" Xiao asked.

Shauna scanned the tunnel and came across Mole Kid's hideout with her supervision. It was a dark, dank little hovel filled with an assortment of... nasty things.

"You... don't want to know." She said simply. Xiao simply nodded, being the type to listen to her elders.

In the minutes it would take Valerie to decide, the seltzer to calm her stomach, and start going with them or flee, tremors would start shaking the dangerous ruins that were very clearly marked dangerous.

Valerie looked hurt the moment Cromwell mentioned her friends. The friends she had abandoned in her Metahuman concerned based flight from the camp. Friends which never knew their leader was a Metahuman, would they even want their friend back? She ignored the mole kid as he bolted for safety, some survived by being cowards, forced to become the animals that others believed them to be.

"It's no worse than the rest of the city this way." Valerie argued, though she knew the ruins could kill as easily as they could save someone. "There is still much to be found among the rubble, food but sometimes weapons." As for a place to say that was something that really should be discussed with her friends, that is, if they still wanted to be her friends as they just discovered that Valerie was a Metahuman.

"I cannot make a decision not without discussing it with my family." She answered firmly, there would be no negotiating until they had discussed it. Family didn't turn on family nor abandon them, family isn't decided by blood but who stands beside you in your darkest days.
"Your going to come back to my house and we will talk it over there with my friends." She explained to them. "I would rather die than live in luxury while they scrounged out a meaningless poverty stricken existence on the edge of society." What kind of friend would she be if she abandoned those who took her in when she had nothing but the few clothes on her back? Could she even manage to live with herself if she decided to accept their offer and leave them all behind? She doubted it, either they would all go and find a place to stay or they wouldn't. They needed to stick together.
Shivering Valerie knew that she would need to lead this band of assorted Metahumans and Heroes to the home which they stole, to the place where they kept all their stolen stuff. Heroes tended not to be too pleased about people nicking stuff, but hey... Desperate measures right? Can't expect someone to follow the laws when they are starving and the lawmen aren't there to prevent crime.

Seeing the shivering Valerie, Cromwell removed his coat and placed it on her shoulders in the place of the sweater that had been taken, "I'm not in dire need of it," he says with a smirk, "I have preferred the cold far more than all the overly warm places I have ever been in my travels." Now wearing only his street clothes, he gestures out towards the nearby streets, "Lead on whenever you're ready, I don't know these streets well enough to get to where we're going without needing to get back to a major street or some of my navigational gear handy." He stands by and waits patiently, possibly for the first time in his life considering his more loner nature, for someone to take the reigns.

"Thank goodness. Let's go to your friends then." Xiao said in relief.

"Yeah. I never got to try that moist chocolate cake." Shauna also agreed, somewhat at ease that they were done with this drama.

But, the evening was not meant to be peaceful forever. The tremors increased in intensity, and dust and rubble began to fall inside the ruins they were in. Mole kid popped out of the ground, whimpering in fear over something.

"Noo! Mole Kid did nothing wrong! It wasn't my fault! Not mine! NOT MINE! THEY MADE ME DO IT AHAHAHAAHA!" Mole Kid ran away  from the scene on all fours, no one seemed as fast today as he did fleeing with his proverbial tail between his legs. The two heroes present quickly lead everyone outside.

A large, black cube, highlighted with eerie green lines of energy smashed its way through the rubble. One side of the cube slid down, and four tall, lanky humanoid robots made of dark metal power up. They begin marching out of the cube in perfect cadence, and it shuts. the cube thrums with energy and activity, while the metal men raised their weapons in unison towards the metahumans. Powering up, they unleash powerful red beams.

"What are those?!" Xiao exclaimed, never having seen the robots before. Shauna stood in front of the group, generating a powerful field that causes the heat rays to bend and deflect into the direction of the rubble. A giant slab of concrete falls down on one of them.

"...Cromwell, get Valerie out of here. Xiao and I will take care of this. Go! Go now! Xiao, take them out!!" Shauna's tactical training kicks in, evacuating the less experienced metahumans. She matches those Heat Rays with her own, far more powerful emerald laser beams shooting out of her eyes, shearing through them like a knife through butter.

Xiao takes the fight up close and personal, ducking right below a heat ray and delivering a blow for great justice to its head, wiping it clean off the shoulder. Xiao picks up the other by the neck, and after several seconds of effort snaps him in two at the base of its spine, and tosses them away...

Shauna and Xiao looked at each other, and at their foes. "Too easy?" Shauna asked, a brief lull falling over the battle field. The Cube thrummed with energy once more, and so did the defeated robots.

"Too easy." Xiao responded. The one crushed by the slab was slowly crawled out from under it, while the one Shauna lasered in half was piecing itself back together. They were re assembling quickly and efficiently, just as Xiao was pounding the headless one's body into the ground.

The robot tossed Cromwell and Valerie's way began powering up too; missing its heat ray and lower body, it nonetheless crawls after the young metas, and tried to grab onto their ankles with its skeletal hands. The rather frail looking frames betrayed an unholy strength.

(Men of Iron:  Str 6 Spd 2 Dur 7 Fs 5 Heat Ray Weapon 8 Regen 10)

(Half-Man of Iron: Str 5 Spd 2 Dur 6 Fs 5 Regen 10)

Valerie accepted the coat, sliding her arms into it despite almost completely disappearing inside of it as it was far too big for her. She probably could quite comfortably use it as a blanket or a rug. She rolled her eyes at their comments, like there would be chocolate cake available here. Yes, it was tasty however sadly the cake happened to be nothing but empty calories. Valerie would much rather have a soup or something actually filling. Not that she was hungry right now, her stomach began to feel a little better, less painful and unsettled. She could move a t a decent pace, though it still felt uncomfortable enough for her to know that she should never attempt running whilst in this state. It might make the discomfort worse.

The robots which had caused the mole to flee in terror also filled Valerie with fear. "Hunters!" She yelled throwing off Cromwell's coat, raising her right hand before unleashing a flash at them. The bright, searing white light failed to effect Valerie, it never did effect her. Her power would be distinctly counter productive if it effected her as much as her enemies. Here, it also had the nasty habit of effecting her allies too and against machines... Well it happened to be completely ineffective.

Valerie's mind ran through a simple instinctive process, taking in information from her eyes and ears her brain came to the conclusion that fighting her would not result in survival. She therefore went for the only remaining option, flight. She turned and ran as fast as she could away from the robots. She did not want to find out if she could harm them or not, she didn't want to get close enough to them to discover the answer.
Just run, get out, get away, regroup with her friends then try to survive another night in the New York ruins. It may have been cowardly to run away from a fight, however strategically withdrawing wasn't. Retreating to live and fight another day, matter far more than fighting and never seeing another day. She had survived this long, she could survive longer. Besides, the more powerful heroes could deal with them, she would just get in the way.

It would not be the first fight that she had fled from, she regretted leaving those fights yet friends chose to sacrifice themselves for the good of the group. It hurt to leave someone beyond, however these were not her friends, she could abandon them to fight on. Fighting a battle which she most likely would be slain, could only dishonour the sacrifices of her fallen friends.
Living to fight another day, that was all that mattered.

Upon watching the carnage inflicted upon the, what were these robotics called? Valerie called them Hunters, Cromwell decided he was probably undergeared for his day as it was. After watching Valerie blast at the half destroyed thing before them, he took a run at it and delivered a bone-shattering soccer kick to what approximated for it's head, bone-shattering didn't seem to cut it, but he did send it crashing into a nearby wall with enough force to seemingly stun it for a short period. Turning around to find Valerie fleeing away from the fight, Cromwell quickly pulled out his cell phone and tossed it in the direction of Xiao, "I'll give it a call when I catch up to her and make sure she's safe, I'm useless here without my armour anyways!" With that, he turned around, scooped up his coat and chased after Valerie.

She only had a slight head start, so it wasn't long before he caught up to her. Upon reaching her, he simply rushed up behind her, lifts her into his arms and wraps her up in the coat she had discarded so readily while still on the run, "You know, at this rate you're going to give yourself an ulcer with all this stressing out and running around you're doing today eh? You're going to make the Doc angry" With that he just smiles and keeps on running, "Just point me in the directions I need to go and take it easy ok?"

Shauna resolves the conflict by blasting the Cube directly, melting the whole thing down and causing it to completely deactivate without exploding... because that's a terrible feature. Without their power source, the robots' reanimation protocols were shut down, and Xiao's beatings stuck this time, when they were turned into scrap metal.

Shauna scanned the area around for a few minutes, and told Xiao that it was just an isolated case. The Dragon Girl nodded and crushed the last robot's head. The two heroes went off and returned to the aid camp. If they spotted their two new acquaintances, they'd tell them it was not a big a threat as they initially thought.

"Just an isolated cache of Necrodium's war machines. Must have survived the battle for New York and deactivated.... until Mole Kid must have activated them." Shauna explained. They landed right outside and walked back waited at the camp. Dragon Girl wiped off robot blood off her Christmas costume, while returning Cromwell's mobile device when they got back.

Valerie, disliked being picked up so struggle violently against Cromwell, kicking, twisting as well as punching. She possessed no intention of being carried anywhere so put up a determined resistance against her larger, stronger opponent. Despite being exhausted not to mention half starved she still gave a good account of herself, it would become abundantly clear that Valerie intended to keep fighting his grip till he released her from it.
"Let me go!" She yelled, trying to land a blow on his chin from her fists. Her struggles slowed eventually as exhaustion began to take hold as the adrenaline died down, they however did not cease. If Valerie had been able to, she would of bitten him.

Even though her struggling wasn't doing much to hinder or harm him, Cromwell got the idea and put her down after coming to a stop. "Alright I'll put ya down, just a second, geeze." He quickly looks her over for any outward signs of injury, but finds nothing that'd be visible from just looking, "I was just trying to be helpful, sorry if I upset you." He looks around and listens for any signs of pursuit and instead hears only the silence of the ruins. "I think the fighting might be over though, either that or we've gotten fairly far away." He looks back to Valerie, "I'm still going to do as I was told by the good doctor and keep you safe until you're with your friends again, I apologize for the invasion of personal space earlier, but it's a lot easier to shield a person on the run either having them right in front of you or in your arms, you were small enough that the second one was more practical at the time."

He looks around at the ruins and decides that he is thoroughly lost in them at this point if he were to go by himself and he really didn't want to call attention to the area by calling Malys down on it, but he was going to put her on standby with his armour just in case. Putting his hand to his jaw he calls her up "Hey Malys, yes I'm fine for the most part. No really I am... No I was not directly involved with the fiasco at the relief camp... Holy crap woman I will tell you everything after, when I have more time!" He looks a little frustrated at this point, "Can you please just be in my general vicinity with Stormbringer just in case I need it? Thank you, I will tell you everything when we get back to the airfield." With that he turns to Val, "Sorry you had to hear that, she can be a little... Overprotective at times..." He gestures to the general direction they were heading, "let's get you to your friends, I have clearly annoyed you and I'm sorry for that. Lead on when ready." He reaches for his jaw again, "should probably call my cell and tell those two we're fine eh? I can do that while we're on the move."

Shauna flies back out to the ruins to search for the two, thinking maybe they'd lost their way. Once she finds them she leads the two back to camp, where Valerie's friends were likely waiting for her, chocolate cake, warm pies and alcohol free eggnog for dessert.

Xiao waved at Valerie, inviting her to come over, the Dragon Girl cheerful as always, though changed into a jacket because of the robot goo that got on her costume. "We have lots more here. Please join us!"

Valerie once she had been put back on solid ground, looked mildly disgruntled and began to smooth the creases out of her clothes so that she appeared less ragged. She hated being picked up, as if to prove this point she moved a few steps away, out of what she believed to be easy scooping up range.
"Good don't pick me up." She added, wondering what his face would look like with a black eye or two.

Valerie listened silently as he answered his call, not really too fussed by it. If he was rich enough to have all that, then he could do something about the predicament of everyone here. Valerie shook her head at him slowly as she led the way back to where her gang might be.
She hoped that they would still think of her as a friend even if she was a Meta. They were the only family she had left, the last of her flesh and blood betraying her in  a manner most cruel.

Valerie some days desired vengeance against her for it, yet her Auntie before the treachery took her in when no one else would. For that noble gesture, Valerie found herself unable to undergo any violent action or any form of petty revenge. Yet she knew in her heart that she would never be able to find it within herself to forgive her for it.
There was no forgiveness for what she did.

Along the way back, Cromwell was mildly curious about more than a few things concerning the one one who had started this most interesting day for him. He wanted to ask so many questions, but he wasn't sure where to start or even if he should, letting the inquisitive part of himself get the better of him, "I know it isn't really my place, and I know that I probably shouldn't ask, but why is it that you don't trust anyone? Did someone do something to harm or wrong you in the past because of your... unique status?" He couldn't imagine what he would have done if his parents hadn't been there for him when he first started showing signs of being... different from the average human, or if CSIS had decided to treat their first encounter with him as the terrorist attack they thought it had been instead. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I apologize. But I generally want to help as best I can where I am able and if you and your friends will let me, I would be more than willing to lend whatever aid I can, whether it be just a meal and some new clothes, or a place to live to keep you guys out of the cold."

He looks up at Shauna leading them along, "There are more than enough of us making a place for ourselves out there and as far as I can tell, even with the bad ones out there, we are very good at offsetting the bad apples from spoiling the bunch." When they reach the camp, he looks around and when he sights the dragon girl in her more modest attire he gives her a wave in response to her open invitation, "I'll help you look for your friends in this crowd, I'm not going to leave you on your own, no one should have to walk this world alone and be afraid of what it might do to them, no one."

(Turn skip)