Date: Friday morning - August 16, 2024

  The large presentation room at the research facility on New Eden Medical’s campus was packed. Research staff looking forward to talking about their organization’s latest development. Medical students and academic researchers planning to enter the field at a facility of prestige in the city of Brightmark were interested in the soon-to-be-revealed breakthrough. Reporters seeking to share the details of the conference to their readers or listeners. Security personnel were lined up towards the back of the room, eyes kept locked onto the doors.

  Outside New Eden, Captain Mark Snyder was moving about with Detective Serena Knight. The two were organizing a perimeter of Brightmark police officers around the medical center. The department knew the Syndicate was likely to try and make another attempt to claim the Neurorate.

  “We’re in position outside,” Captain Snyder said into his earpiece.

  “How about our eyes in the sky?” Detective Knight asked on her own.

  Omega Woman was hovering above New Eden; she was high enough that she couldn’t be seen from the ground, but she had a good aerial view of the facility and surrounding buildings. Red Phoenix was hovering alongside her, maintaining the same altitude.

  “Everything’s looking clear from up here,” Omega Woman replied to the detective.

  “How are things looking from our vantage points on the ground?” Red Phoenix asked.

  “All good over here. I’m a block away,” Blur replied.

  “I’m looking at what may be facilities for storage behind the main facility from up here,” Red Diamond said.

  On the rooftop across from the rear of New Eden, Red Diamond glanced up as she saw someone descending from the sky. It was a woman in a familiar purple and silver suit: Violet Sparrow, the Syndicate member with bird-based powers. Red Diamond brought her index finger to her earpiece.

  “Violet Sparrow spotted, 7 o’clock,” Red Diamond said.

  Violet Sparrow landed from her flight, and a security guard outside the warehouse she had to enter glanced over to spot her.

  “Hey! This is private property. You’re trespassing-” the guard said before Violet Sparrow leapt forward to deliver a roundhouse kick that quickly knocked him down.

  “Comm check, come in,” said a voice of presumably another security guard from the walkie talkie on the downed guard’s hip. Violet Sparrow picked it up as she used her enhanced strength to move the guard out of sight.

  “All clear on my side, over,” Violet Sparrow replied into the walkie talkie, mimicking the voice of the man she knocked out. Among her bird-based powers were the vocal mimicry of a lyrebird. They were a kind of bird with the most advanced set of vocal cords in the world, capable of mimicking a wide range of sounds. Other birds, car alarms, musical instruments, human voices among other things-lyrebirds were capable of mimicking them. In her own experience, such power was ideal for infiltration.

  Slipping into the nearby storage warehouse by flying through an open window, Violet Sparrow looked around. The building was full of display cases full of various medicines, and the room was kept at a cool temperature to keep them preserved. She moved until she found what she was looking for. A specialized medical briefcase containing vials of a green liquid, almost 130 by her count. As Violet Sparrow attempted to reach for it, she felt a strong gust behind her and quickly turned around to see Blur and Red Diamond looking toward her.

  “You might want to rethink trying to take that case,” Blur said.

  Omega Woman and Red Phoenix soon sped into the room a second later, stopping behind Blur and Red Diamond.

  “This is Violet Sparrow! New Eden was being watched by Omega Woman and a few of her friends: Blur, Red Diamond, Red Phoenix. I need backup now!” Violet Sparrow exclaimed into her earpiece.

  A moment passed before some more Syndicate supervillains appeared. Technomancer arrived via a teleportation spell. Accompanying him were Bulldozer, Shadow Stranger, and Power Thief. Shadow Stranger held up her hands and the room began to blacken. A haze of shadow fell around the storage warehouse.

  Omega Woman’s eyes began glowing with light to peer through the darkness. Red Phoenix lit a hand aflame to add some more light to the room. Red Diamond moved forward until she felt a strong punch strike her cheek. She knew it had to be Bulldozer; Red Diamond had fought her twice before, after all. Red Diamond retaliated with her own punch, only to not hit anything in the dark haze; she couldn’t even see Bulldozer.

  Nearby, Blur felt herself get lifted off the ground. She couldn’t see the hand, but she recognized the feeling. Her powers were being copied by Power Thief; she recalled a strange feeling from the last time he copied her abilities. After about a minute, Blur was dropped to the floor. Though Blur got up quickly, she couldn’t see Power Thief in the darkness.

  A laser blast came down diagonally seemingly from thin air, but Omega Woman dodged it. The younger heroes were confused, but Omega Woman knew what was going on.

  “Technomancer’s cloaking himself and his allies with an invisibility spell while Shadow Stranger is darkening the room! I’ve seen him do this before,” Omega Woman said to her companions.

  “This is Red Phoenix if you can hear me, Captain Snyder. Violet Sparrow and a few of her Syndicate friends are here in the storage warehouse toward the rear of New Eden,” Red Phoenix said into his earpiece. Omega Woman moved toward Red Diamond.

  “Can you create a crystalline sphere? I have a plan,” Omega Woman said. Red Diamond nodded and did as instructed. A red crystalline sphere formed as she held up her hands, lifting the sphere above her head. Omega Woman’s hand glowed with light and she held it up near the sphere. Red Diamond, Blur, and Red Phoenix closed their eyes as the light reflected in all directions around the room.

  Technomancer faded into existence, the cloaking spell abruptly ending as he tried to cover his eyes from the reflected light. At the same time, the spell faded from Power Thief, Violet Sparrow, Bulldozer, and Shadow Stranger. Spotting Shadow Stranger within the dark haze, Omega Woman flew toward her at super speed. Before Shadow Stranger could attempt to fade into the shadows to escape, Omega Woman got out of her fast flight and released a dual beam of light from her hands. Shadow Stranger got hit by the concentrated beams of light, which caused her to lose her concentration.

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  The dark haze faded in mere seconds without Shadow Stranger being able to maintain it. Once the room was lit up, Omega Woman fired another light blast at her dark-powered foe. The darkness emanating around Shadow Stranger’s body dissipated. Reduced to her human form of Sasha Ambrose, Shadow Stranger soon fell unconscious. Red Diamond used her powers to break apart the red crystalline sphere now that it was no longer needed.

  Blur spotted Violet Sparrow heading back to the briefcase with the vials of Neurorate she was trying to pick up earlier. She ran forward at super speed-only to get knocked off-course by something just as fast. Rolling on the floor from the hit, Blur knew Power Thief still retained the speed he had copied from her earlier. As Power Thief ran forward to follow up with another attack, Blur began to get up and held up her hand without thinking about it. Lightning erupted from Blur’s fingertips before she even realized what was happening.

  The lightning hit Power Thief in the middle of his running dash. He was hit by it with sufficient force to send him flying across the room until he hit the wall. Power Thief tried to get up, but soon lost consciousness. Blur was surprised and incredibly confused, wondering what just happened. Blur quickly pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind as she dashed in Violet Sparrow’s direction, seeing her pick up the briefcase with the Neurorate in it.

  Violet Sparrow saw Blur running her way and barely managed to get off the ground in time. She saw Technomancer getting into a ranged battle against Omega Woman, casting magic lightning as she dodged and retaliated with her own beams of light. Thinking quickly, Violet Sparrow threw the case over to the sorcerer. Technomancer cast a levitation spell to keep the case suspended midair. Red Phoenix, spotting the case, began flying over to it.

  Bulldozer leapt from the ground and tried to tackle Red Phoenix out of the air. The latter stopped mid-flight and extended his leg out for a strong push kick. Bulldozer got knocked out of her attempted tackle and fell to the floor. Red Phoenix flew over to the levitating suitcase and grabbed the handle of it. Technomancer glanced over and attempted to release a blast of magic lightning; before Technomancer could follow through with his intention, Blur released another burst of lightning from her hand that struck him.

  Detective Knight and half a dozen police officers began running into the storage warehouse. They moved to where Shadow Stranger and Power Thief were knocked out, beginning to put the handcuffs on both supervillains. As they did, Bulldozer spotted the detective and picked up a large crate. When she threw it, Red Diamond formed a red crystalline barrier between the oncoming box and Detective Knight. Breaking the barrier down, Red Diamond proceeded to begin releasing crystal shard projectiles.

  Bulldozer brushed off the damage from most of the crystal projectiles due to her tough skin. However, one of them managed to lodge itself into her shoulder to deliver a superficial wound. Pulling the red crystal out, Bulldozer stomped the ground hard enough to make the entire room shake, causing the medicines stored in the cabinets to begin shaking in their vials and the outer glass to begin cracking. Red Diamond wound up falling backwards, unable to keep her balance. Bulldozer, crystal shard in hand, rushed forward with her running charge.

  As Red Diamond began to get up to recover from the tremor that knocked her down a moment ago, Bulldozer was bearing down on her now. Bulldozer thrust the red crystal forward like a dagger. However, Bulldozer’s attack did not hit its intended target. Red Phoenix got between the Red Diamond and Bulldozer faster than either woman would have been able to see him coming. Bulldozer’s eyes noticed the red crystalline shard had partially punctured Red Phoenix’s forearm before it broke against him.

  “Oh fuck-” Bulldozer began to utter before receiving a strong, fire-enhanced punch to her solar plexus from Red Phoenix.

  The attack sent Bulldozer flying across the room until she landed on her back. Bulldozer tried to sit up, but to no avail as she closed her eyes. Once she was down, Red Phoenix turned around and held out his hand for Red Diamond. Taking his hand, she let Red Phoenix pull her up.

  “You okay?” Red Phoenix asked her.

  “Yeah, but I’m more worried about that,” Red Diamond said, gesturing to the red crystal puncturing Red Phoenix’s forearm. Realizing where she was looking, Red Phoenix pulled out the red crystal and dropped it to the floor as the open wound healed in seconds.

  “Hey, I know you can come back from anything, and thank you for saving me. One thing though, please promise me you’ll be more careful,” Red Diamond said. Red Phoenix took a moment to consider her words. He knew Red Diamond was only coming from a place of concern, and it was never a bad thing to be reminded that even he wasn’t invincible.

  “I promise. Thank you,” Red Phoenix said, smiling at Red Diamond and receiving one in return from her.

  On the other side of the room, Omega Woman released a beam of light and Blur sent out another bolt of lightning as well. Both energy attacks hit Technomancer at the same time. The armored sorcerer fell to the ground, Violet Sparrow flying over to him.

  “The mission is a bust. We’re leaving,” Technomancer said to Violet Sparrow before teleporting both of them away with a spell. Once they were gone, Red Phoenix picked up the briefcase containing the Neurorate and handed it to Detective Knight. She opened the case to count the samples inside.

  “All samples accounted for. Great work, everyone,” Detective Knight said.

  VALOR prison transport trucks arrived through the rear gate of New Eden after the fighting was done. Shadow Stranger, Power Thief, and Bulldozer were collected and put into separate trucks each. Near the outside of the storage warehouse, Detective Knight was gathered with Omega Woman and the other three heroes. Captain Snyder approached to join the five of them as well.

  “Thank you all for helping us secure the Neurorate from the Syndicate-again,” Detective Knight said.

  “Hey, we’re happy to help,” Blur replied.

  “By the way, that was a cool trick with the lightning back there. Since when could you do that?” Red Diamond asked.

  “It just happened, I guess,” Blur answered with a shrug of her shoulders.

  As the chatter continued, Omega Woman spotted Red Phoenix looking up into the sky, his brow furrowed. Wondering what was getting that reaction out of him, Omega Woman turned around to look up. She immediately understood, as did Blur, Red Diamond, along with the police and VALOR personnel present. Hovering above the facility was their answer: Lady of Wrath.

  BRIGHTMARK NEWS REPORT:

  August 16, 2024

  11:30 AM

  “Good morning, this is Victor Vex reporting live from Brightmark News,” Victor began.

  “New Eden Medical is holding a press conference today to announce a new medicine developed by their research department called Neurorate,” Victor said as footage of the press conference began to play on the screen behind him.

  “At the same time the press conference was going on, the Syndicate attempted to steal the Neurorate. Footage has been shared with Brightmark News of the Brightmark police department and VALOR arriving to meet Omega Woman, Blur, Red Diamond and Red Phoenix. The four heroes have defeated three supervillains who were connected to the attempted heist: Shadow Stranger, Power Thief, and Bulldozer,” Victor continued. Before he could speak again, Victor brought his index finger up to his earpiece and looked off to his right at someone speaking outside the camera’s view before nodding in response to what he was hearing.

  “This just in: Brightmark News has received live updates on our social media page from citizens in proximity to New Eden Medical. It appears Lady of Wrath has arrived on the scene after whatever took place inside the storage warehouse,” Victor said as pictures and footage of the supervillainess appeared behind him.

  “We do not know what is about to happen next, but Brightmark News will be keeping an eye on these events as they unfold,” Victor concluded.