Disclaimer: I don't own.

:}

Jade flew home, scanning the ocean in a vain hope of finding the lifeboats, maybe bringing the crew to some kind of justice. 'It's been too long. Only fifteen miles, in the amount of time it took for me to be alerted, not to mention the added time it took the coastguard to show up, they could well be on shore by now. Still, it only took the coast guard about half an hour to find the ship, and I was already there, so…'

'Look, there is someone else scanning the skys." Koval alerted her.

Jade's eyes snapped to where the somehow flying lion was pointing with it's massive claw, and saw a costumed man hovering over the ocean, flying in what may well have been a search pattern. "Okay, we don't know why he's here, and while it's suspicious, cause I don't think I know this clown, it's not illegal to just fly about."

'Just think your responses.' The lion scolded her. 'We don't wish our prey to sense us until we're almost on top. Makes for a shorter chase, and a quicker meal.'

The figure, in a dark costume with a skull and crossbones embalm on his chest, didn't seem to notice the Black Dahlia until she was almost on top of him. "Um, didn't really expect to meet anyone up here." She commented.

"Huh!" The startled man yelped, looking up to see her slightly above him, and just out of his peripheral vision. "The Black Dahlia, huh? Guessing you're out here cause of… Yea, not letting you take me in." His hands glowed with some kind of energy, and her shields leapt up in time to deflect the pulse of glowing green energy before it struck her.

'I think this one desires a fight.' Koval informed her.

Jade, for her part, wasn't thinking about what her companion was saying, focusing instead on the man's attacks. 'Pressing what advantage he thinks he has, tossing his whatever towards me at a quick rate, trying to batter his way past my defenses. Aggression as a tactic isn't always a bad way to go, but I have my armor, my body armor, and my shields, and this guy isn't really doing much of anything. Still, gotta figure a counter, and I'm thinking I wanna take this jerk alive, so…'

Jade weighed her options, and decided to start small, not wishing to harm this man. Taking him alive was her goal, and the first part would be lowering herself down to nearer the ocean, so a fall wouldn't be lethal. 'The water, maybe the Fae aren't possessing it so much, but I know how to manipulate it, so this jerk isn't drowning any time soon.'

Winds roared, swirling around her mysterious opponent, pulling him down towards the ocean below. "Not that easy, bitch." He sneered, even as he tried to shoot upwards. "I know your powers are elemental, limited. I've studied you, and know how limited you really are. I have nothing to worry about up here in the clouds."

Jade's first impulse was to burn him out of the sky. Memories of a glowing firing range burned in her minds eye, and the energy started to build up in her stomach. 'Alive.' Koval reminded her. 'You've plenty of options to bring this man low. Even if you limit yourself to elemental attacks.'

Jade shifted her magics, feeling the energy moving from one part of her body to another. 'Okay, first I let him know that he's not nearly as safe as he thinks up here among the clouds. Second, I show him I have other options…' The spells flowed through her, hands dancing as she wrote symbols in the air, calling the power of her magic to focus.

Seconds later, she was ready. Her body shot upwards, again trying to get above her foe. 'Okay, clouds are a bit distant, which reduces his ability to play hide and seek. Wouldn't help, cause I can feel through the air now. Still…' Her smile grew wide. "Dude, you seem to forget what clouds bring…"

The lightning flashed from her hand, covering the distance in an instant. His reflexes were good, and he shifted, trying to dodge out of the way of the far to accurate attack before the bolt hit, electrocuting him and slamming him downward in an instant. But Jade wasn't limiting herself to just frying his skin a little, as a second later the sound-wave hit, functionally a tide all it's own, and it pushed him downward, tumbling head over heals as he tried to find his balance, some way of determining which was was up before he hit the water far below.

The man managed to recover well above the ocean, his body still convulsing as he tried to right himself. He managed to glare up at Jade, thinking about his next move. 'God, he's still functional. Wasn't expecting him to be knocked down, but the look on his face tells me he isn't that effected.'

'He's still strong, conscious and able to fight. However, he's also reevaluating you.' Koval warned her. 'He had no idea you could hit that hard. Imagine if you didn't hold back.'

'Imagine if he realized I was just repositioning him.' Jade thought back before she called upon the darkest memories she had, emotions of loss and fear and hurt, and balled them all up before slamming the mans mind with all of them at once, overwhelming him in the pain and sense of rejection. Sensory impulses overloaded as he experienced his own version of those rejections, loss and hurt and isolation, and his mind partially shut down. Stunned, he could no longer hold himself in the air, and started to fall.

Jade reached out and the water caught him, pushing him to the surface and floating him there until she could finish him off. A simple spell of sleep put him under and out of pain, and Jade had won. 'That was quick.' She thought, even as she called upon the spirits to help lift him from the water, least one of the large predators who might be hunting this part of the ocean decide to take a taste, and the Black Dahlia carried her opponent back to land, and if she was lucky, some answers.

Jade took the time to check, see if she could find the fleeing sailors who'd just abandoned the girls to their fate. Moments of rage mixed with the desire to get this prisoner back to the shore, and police custody. After sending Koval out to see if he could find the sailors, she flew as quickly as she could back to Los Angeles, and maybe some answers.

"Okay, shore patrol, lets see who this jerk is." She told the first police officer she found, a harbor patrol boat in Los Angeles harbor.

"Okay, let me check… Damn, Harbinger." The look on the harbor patrolman's face shifted. "You caught Harbinger. He's… This guy is majorly wanted. We…" The police officer stumbled over his own words.

"Guys a threat?" Jade asked.

"Gonna be all over the police news, that's for sure." The officer told her. "Lets start the process. Need to contact LA Justice, cause no way in hell we have the resources to hold this guy. Lets get him in their hands, and let the police who work with them start the process of arresting him. Like I said, guy did a LOT of crime."

"Okay, lets make sure he doesn't wake up for a while." Jade told the police officer before weaving another spell to paralyze his mind.

The Black Dahlia then stayed the uncomfortably long half hour before two members of LA Justice showed up to take Harbinger away. Neither were people Jade had met, thought she'd heard of both Shadowweaver and Forcebond. The two were distantly professional, no small talk, just taking the unconscious Harbanger into custody. "Think we might be able to question them?" Dahlia asked.

"Maybe, but what're you hoping to learn?" Weaver asked back.

"Just, why was he out here, over the ocean?" The mystic hero said. "Um, closer, like maybe two to three miles out at most. Just, out there, over the ocean."

"Five miles, about." The harbor patrol corrected her.

"Easy." Forcebond said. Male, with a solid build and a sour expression permanently etched on his face, his gray costume matched his colorless persona. "This guy is an enforcer for several crime syndicates, and hes probably been sent to eliminate the crew of that freighter you saved." A pause. "Yea, we've heard by now. Nice work, by the way. Ultrabro was right, you are potent. Anyways, our sources told us he might have been sent to kill them, cause the sailors, they'd just cost the syndicate millions, and that's just the freighter. They should have just dumped the women, and sailed into port. Of course, not sure, cause they could have been using coded radio communications, so maybe they followed orders, and were gonna be scapegoated. Either way, this guy, he's killed loads of people already, so no possibility of a deal for him. Most likely, he'll be professional, and stay quiet."

"Still, good job stopping him." Shadowweaver added. Medium height for a women, she dressed in a costume that seemed to be made of overlapping shadows, thought close up it was obviously a clever blend of overlapping diaphanous materials.

"THEY WENT OUT TO SEA!" Jade screamed as she rushed to the phone, leaving two confused heroes in her wake. Moments later, the work phone of V rang, and Jade counted seconds before the woman answered. "Misses V, the crew, if they suspected the syndicate would want them dead, then they sailed out to sea. Most modern lifeboats can stay afloat for days, or longer. Good engine, and they'd be making a run towards…. San Francisco? I don't know. Just, they went out to sea to avoid being killed."

"Okay, tell the harbor patrol, who will tell the coast guard." Holly said patiently. "Then, come back and report in person. You've done your job. Sides, I think you've earned a little reward, so head back in and see what we have waiting for you."

Jade sighed. "Okay, will do." She hung up the phone and looked to the two LA Justice members. "I'm heading back to base, I guess. Any chance you guys could give me a number, in case my familiar finds them? He's usually pretty good at that chiz."

"We'll put Techfire on the case." Forcebond said, then he carried the unconscious criminal away.

Beck had finished his homework, worked on his car, and spoke to the three Northridge girls who'd chosen to hang out with him that day. 'Odd, normally, any knowledge they had on cars was incidental at best. That one, she knew her way around cars. If stereotypes are true, then maybe she was more Jade's type…' He chuckled to himself. 'Of course they're not true, cause I've known several girls who are hella gay, and they span the spectrum on how much or different then expected they run. No, Jade understands electronics, but only cause the school insisted she learn. And Tori, sweet fem Tori, she's so much the girl next door… Yea.' His cell phone beeped, letting him know he'd gotten a text.

The handsome actors face darkened as he read the text, a simple numerical sequence that he knew meant check his other cell, the untraceable one, and respond. A quick walk brought him into his trailer, and access to the secured website where he checked his instructions. He typed "On my way" before rushing out towards a corner where a Camper RV would meet him. He barely had time to toss some excuse to the girls before he was gone.

'Showtime.' He thought. 'Smugglers were bringing girls into the country, and tried to dump the ship to avoid prosecution. Someone sent Harbinger to kill the smugglers before they got to shore, and Dahlia beat the bad guy. Only, V wants me to check a couple of places out. Places she thinks the bad guys might try to meet up with the smugglers, cause for whatever reason, they want them dead, and V wants to know why. Okay, Steel Copper flys fast, possibly faster the Dahlia, so I'm the man for the job. Just, lets get going.'

The camper arrived a few minutes after Beck did, saving him from explaining to any girls who might wander by what he was doing. Inside, his armor was hanging on a rack, allowing him to change as the camper slowly drove through the city. "Takeoff in ten minutes." The driver warned Beck.

"I'm already ready." Beck sighed. "Gotta talk to them about maybe some kind of chameleon circuits in this thing, make it easier for me to just take off."

"Dream on." The driver told him. "Stealth tech like that would be sweet, but it's way beyond what we can do right now."

"Tell the tech boys to work on it, cause I wanna be able to fly off from wherever, and not some chosen point." Beck pushed, but not to hard. Soon, they were where he needed to be, out of sight to the general public, and if a few homeless people or junkies saw him fly off, at least they had no idea abut the Camper, cause they had tech enough to rotate the license plates. It was now a different RV.

Beck soared up in the air, enjoying the freedom flying offered him, all the while letting the armors internal navigation systems plot him a rout to his destination. 'Betting I could sneak up on them too if I had a chameleon system. Man, you'd think the people who designed this armor would have watched a little SciFi. Think of how useful it'd be to be able to get close without being spotted. You need that to catch the bad guys sometimes.'

'I wonder, where did they send Robbie…. Er, Achilles Junior. Damn it, Beck, even when thinking, use the code name, just like improve. That way, you don't ever accidentally call them by the wrong name.' The chiding was brief as Beck reached a top speed of almost four hundred miles per hour. 'Rob's not nearly as fast as I am, but I'm thinking he has him some tricks to get places quickly, so…' His mind turned to the place he'd been told to check, a smugglers cove south of Los Angeles where the traffickers might be held up waiting for someone to come get them. 'Harbinger's down, but the syndicate has to have a backup, or V wouldn't have sent me, so…'

He got his answer a short time later as he approached the sight, and saw something that chilled his blood. The cove wasn't being used for the smugglers. Instead, what looked like teens out for some fun had set up camp at the beach, enjoying the late afternoon sun, when Warcrime had shown up with his heavy weapons and taken them all hostage.

"V, we have us a problem. No sign of the lifeboat, but I can't go check the secondary sites yet." Beck reported over his encrypted radio. "Warcrime has decided to set up here, and I need to save what looks like a good twenty plus teens before he decides his targets won't show, and just kills them. Just glad he hasn't killed anyone yet."

"V is bust." Control informed him. "We'll fill her in later. Warcrime probably wants hostages in case the police wander by. Your job is to somehow save them, disable Warcrime, and report back. The secondary site isn't nearly as important."

"Rodger that." Beck said. "Um, how do I approach without being seen?"

His answer was the boredom the criminal was feeling as he pointed his Gatling style mini-gun at the kids and demanded the prettiest of the girls start stripping for him. Beck landed as close to the scene as he could without being heard, and snuck forward as the girls did as they were told, swimwear falling to reveal naked flesh while carving psychological scars that would linger for months or longer, assuming the girls survived.

Beck got closer, close enough to toss a rock at the bad guy if he so chose. 'No idea if my weapons will drop him fast enough, so I need to take out that mini-gun. Just point it away from the kids for a second…' Scanning the beach, he found a good spot, picked up a rock, and tossed it hard enough to make a sound when it hit.

Over the music the villain was playing, to accompany the next part of his improvised entertainment, the sound of a soft impact drew his eyes, and for just one second, the barrel of his weapon. In that moment, Beck fired his armors best shot at disarming the fiend, a laser capable of melting it's way through the firing chamber of the gun, disabling the mans main weapon. Just, not his only weapon. Beck rushed the scoundrel, hoping to take the fight hand to hand before his foe could react. Seconds later, the armored hero was on his back as the highly trained mercenary drew his next weapon.

"So, you're the one who ruined my baby, huh? These kids are gonna pay for your actions, jerk." Warcrime said.

Beck kipped up to his feat and leapt between the man and the kids, absorbing the burst from the automatic pistol. "And that's why I win. If you'd gone after me, maybe you could have killed me before I killed more then a few of the girls. Now, you killed yourself, and all of them." The bad man gloated. Only, Beck hadn't fallen, his armor absorbing the machine pistols burst.

"No, I saved them all." Beck said as he moved, almost impossibly fast, and snagged the weapon in his powered gauntlets grip. The gun crushed, and Beck pushed with his shoulders, hurling the man away from the kids. 'Don't expect the kids to be able to find cover, so move him until they're safe. Take the fight to him, hit him hard, and buy them time. Yea, got to win this, cause those girls, their lives are on my shoulders.'

It was a much shorter fight then Beck expected. The momentary surprise he had from how strong his armor had been bought him barely enough time to slam the mercenary. Only, the merc, his armor wasn't build to withstand the kind of force Beck's armor plus booster rockets could generate. Several blows made it past the experienced villains defenses as he tried to recover from being stunned, more then enough to buy Beck time to bind the bad guy, using a single shot from his built in net grenade launcher. Beck had won. 'Guy wasn't as touch as I thought. Then again, I'd taken away his big guns, so I'm thinking he wasn't ready to deal with the close in combat. Glad I was the one to deal with him, though I'm betting Dahlia could have taken him, and Wildcard, his gun would jam, then he'd slip on the sand…' Beck smiled under his face plate, and called the police. "Um, Kids, get dressed, and stick around. I'm thinking you may need to tell the police what happened here, cause this guy, I'm thinking he's one of the bad one's."

Robbie wasn't sure about this mission, especially for his maiden voyage. 'Barely got to the base, and they helicopter me off to a small air field, and from there, a plane to wherever. Thinking I'm gonna miss out on hanging at Tori's tonight…'

"Achilles, you ready?" The pilot asked.

"Yeppers." The currently massive hero replied. "Um, no place to land…"

"I was told you won't need to." The pilot replied. The small plane flew at about about three hundred miles per hour, faster then most small prop planes, but the speed had been warranted by the task at hand. Robbie was being flown over fifty miles north of Los Angeles to a small inlet south of Oxnard. The plane covered the distance quickly, allowing the muscular hero to get there as fast as humanly possible. "You can fly, right?"

"And glide." Rob replied. "So, I just jump out?" He felt nervous.

"We do an aerial look first, but if we see something…' The pilot hesitated. "Okay, getting a report that Steel Copper fought Warcrime at his spot, so…"

"Warcrime?" Rob wondered.

"Bad guy, mercenary with a mini-gun. Major threat to someone like me." The pilot said. "Okay, normally, we can see whatever we need to with our eyes, so no need for magnification. Still, I have something just in case… Binoculars in the back. Take a scan of that beach area, see if anyone is waiting. Not as likely, cause the other place was a smuggler cove, but we wanna be sure."

"If I see nothing, we go home?" Rob asked, tempted to just avoid seeing anything.

"Yea, but it looks like we don't have that kind of luck." The pilot sighed, somehow seeing something from his place up front. "I had something put in, a camera with zoom, easy enough with modern tech, so it doesn't affect air flow… Never-mind, I see someone hanging out down there, watching, so…"

"He's watching the water, making sure no one slips past…" Rob confirmed. "Okay, do we know if this is just a tourist, or someone bad."

"Picture recognition program running…. Aaaaaand we have a match." The pilot banked, moving to bring Rob closer to the beach before letting the hero off. "Man is known as Slaughter, and the name doesn't lie. Guys not subtle, uses whatever guns he may have to kill his way to and from a target, then to get out. Majorly wanted, majorly dangerous, and that man is armed. I see an Ar15, and who knows what else." Glancing back at the hero, the man added "Good luck."

"Righty-o." Rob said, and shifted to as misty as possible, flowing to the edge of the plane, and hovering as he realized that the craft was airtight. Rob solidified, and opened the door enough to slip out and fall.

The plane had slowed down significantly to allow the viewing of the cove, as well as give Achilles Junior an easy jump out of the plane. Rob was able to open the door and jump out, while the pilot pulled the door closed for speed. Both knew the next step for the pilot was finding an air field and waiting, while Achilles did whatever to succeed in bringing in this very dangerous man.

Rob knew he had to achieve some level of stealth, but also he'd be poorly served if he took too long getting down there, so he just glided, as silently as possible, towards the beach and his target. Rob was soon flying at over a hundred miles per hour, like someone in a wing suit, and he shot towards Slaughter and his gun collection. 'Okay, this is happening far faster then expected. Lets start to shift, cause I need to be as diffused as possible until I'm all but on top of him…'

Rob wasn't sure what he'd be doing, other then knowing he had to quickly get to the villain, and neutralize him. The misty form slowed down, held together by magic and the young mans will, as he closed the last of the distance to Slaughter, until he flowed past the bad guy, and found himself shifting around to face the man he'd been sent to take out. They were now maybe fifty feet apart, Rob having been unable to slow down enough and overshot the target, warning the man he had a problem ahead of him.

Slaughter shifted his stance, pulling his gun out, and readying himself for combat. Rob noted something about his opponent as he shifted to move back towards the man, fighting the winds and his own fear as he flowed back to at least touch land. His billowy humanoid form was clearly a massive man in vaporous form, something even Slaughter noticed.

'He pulled out a shotgun, but from his pocket…. This guys a metahuman. He doesn't just find guns, he's got them, someplace, and I need to neutralize his ass and get him back so we can find out how he does it. I.. Yea, this is my fight.'

Slaughter shot the vaporous form, confirming that his shotgun wasn't gonna have much of an effect. 'Okay, hero, what're you supposed to do, gas me?" The bad guy asked, even as he reached into some extra-dimensional pocket and pulled out a gas mask.

'Not just guns.' Rob noted, even as he took advantage of the momentary distraction and shifted to solid. 'water's shallow enough for me to stand and not drown, though I could breath it if I wanted. But the fight is here, and I have to stop the man. Not slowed significantly by hardening my skin, so lets get stoned…'

Robbie rushed the short distance to Slaughter taking three bursts of ammo to his chest, and smarting as the stone chipped with each burst. 'Not gonna die, but I am hurt.' Rob decided. 'Assault rifle ammo isn't as heavy as a strait up rifle, but it hits harder then pistol ammo, and this was three shot bursts, so… Owe.'

Despite the pain, Achilles continued to rush the man, reaching his opponent before the man could swap out to something with even more punch. Maximum human strength, mixed with martial training, and enhanced further by his stone form, struck, grabbing Slaughter and crushing the man in a bear hug. Rob didn't let up for a moment, in case his foe had other tricks. A combat knife was reached for, but the tight grip kept everything under control, and after a good few minutes of less then thrilling struggle, the bear hug smothered Slaughter to the point where the bad guy started to fade.

Robbie was shocked a short time later, after dropping and re-assuming his heroic form to reset his body, that he'd won his first metabattle simply by hugging the man out. After chiding himself for such a lame victory, he stopped and thought another second. 'I won.' It hit him harder. "I WON!"

:}

Someone is pissed that they lost the ship, the cargo, or both. Thinking someone has to find the crew, cause three metahuman mercs, thats a lot of firepower to bring to bear, even if the mercs aren't all the best.

Thoughts? Just a touch of action for us. Also, Robbie won, so, that had to be something.