'Hello," she said as she shook his hand "My name Amathyst."
"Dragan," he replied happily. As he observed her flawless figure and wonderfully sized breast he could not help but smile. Of course, most every figure in Paragon city was perfect, since super heroes are always in top physical condition. However, there was something special about Amathyst. Perhaps it was those powerful eyes peaking over the mysterious purple veil. Maybe it was the artistry in her hairstyle, or maybe the way her skin looked inside her sleeveless purple blouse. Dragan could not tell what was different about Amathyst, but he promised himself he would take time to investigate. The thought alone made him feel warm inside.
"Shadow, why didn't you tell me she was so lovely?" Dragan flirted in the most charming voice he could muster.
"She fights as well as she looks." Shadow's Claw replied. He met Amathyst by chance in Perez Park and he liked her immediately. Certainly, she was the most beautiful hero he had ever seen. However, she was also one of the best fighters. Therefore, when Dragan asked him if there was anyone else worthy to join the team, Amathyst was the first word out of his mouth. Shadow's Claw knew that although the beauty of her body made him feel alive, it would be the swinging of her sword that would keep him that way.
"Thank you both," Amathyst said with a smile. "But before you two go on with your praise you need to know that I will only join this team if my friend can join too."
"Sure!" Dragan replied, "If she looks half as good as you do, we'll be in business."
"Oh well I think HE looks even better than I do!" she laughed. "His name is Sayber, my boyfriend."
Dragan laughed at his own embarrassment as cut his eyes at his demon friend, Shadow's claw. "Shadow knew all along," he thought to himself. "Oh well, no matter what, this is going to be an interesting team," he consoled himself.
"I'll invite, Sayber at once," said Dragan. "Amathyst, welcome to the team!"
It was not long before all eight heroes had assembled in the meeting room across the street of Perez Park's main entrance. Dragan was the team leader. He wore a burgundy and brown metal suit, which gave him great protection from enemy attacks. Electric claws produced by the suit were his means of attack. The second in command and close friend of Dragan was Eclypse. He wore a blue and white cyber suit designed to generate power for his powerful rifle.
Shadow's Claw was once an ordinary man who had been possessed by a powerful demon known as Shadow Mane. Now free of his evil master, the claw possessed a dark black skin, which protected and healed him. It also produced the death dealing claws for which he was named. Frost Mourne, a lovely blue-skinned female hero, has the power to control Ice. She could easily freeze whole groups of enemies making them helpless.
Blue Electra, a short cute female hero, possessed the ability to fire bolts of electricity through the air. Lord Freyr was a god who had the ability to heal the wounds of heroes and to increase the accuracy of their attacks. The tall red haired god from Normandy could also stop villains in their tracks, draining their life force.
Amathyst and Sayber were both sword-welding heroes. Sayber possessed super reflects making him all but impossible to hit. Amathyst's offensive skill with the sword was balanced by super tough skin, which made her almost invincible. Attacks that would devastate another hero would merely knock her down.
The eight mingled in the meeting room briefly, before Dragan presented the specifics of the mission. Shadow's Claw knew most of the heroes there. He was good friends with Dragan and Eclypse having done two missions with them previously. He had also met Frost Mourne, of whom he was rather fond. Since he was once the servant of a Hell Bourne demon, Shadows Claw could really appreciate any woman that could keep him cool. He was closest however, to Lord Freyr and Amathyst. He was very happy to be in their company again.
Amathyst knew Freyr well and she spent most of her time with him as well as with Shadow and of course Sayber. Sayber was a hero's hero, strong, confident, fearless, and in Amathyst's opinion very cute. To Sayber, Amathyst was all a man could ever want. She was smart, brave, powerful and drop dead gorgeous! Not to mention the fact that he loved her; he reminded himself as he mingled, that he was the luckiest man alive.
Soon the social fun was over, and the time for the real fun had arrived. Dragan briefed the team on the specifics of the mission. His contact, Hank Griffin a former news reporter, gave Dragan the mission. Now Dragan played the tape that contained the mission briefing.
"Hordes of Circle of Thorn minions and bosses are gathering in the center of Pere:z Park." Griffin said. "They also have kidnapped people in record numbers, apparently to perform some type of special ritual, which has never been done in the past. We want you to penetrate Perez to this point." He said as a marked map of Perez flashed over the screen. "Find out what type of ritual they are performing and stop them. Be very careful! The Circle of Thorns has become more organized than they ever have been. Thus, you will notice changes in the way that they fight. If they are allowed to complete the ritual who knows, what the consequences will be! Good Luck."
"Now you know what I know," Dragan encouraged.
"That's not very much," Freyr, joked to Shadow. "Uh that's not very much to go on is it," Freyr now said openly to the team.
"What's to know?" Eclypse answered, "We kick some C.O.T. ass!"
"I am looking forward to the penetration part myself." Sayber joked. He stood at attention. "I'm ready to penetrate, sir!"
The team all laughed and prepared for the mission.
Perez Park was one of the worst zones of all of Paragon City. The park was known for its beautiful pond located in the center of the zone. Rolling hills shaped the landscape in the three main clearings of the park. However, the park was truly dominated by two large wooded areas; it was the Perez forest that made the park a menace to heroes. The trees within the forest formed a canopy that was too thick to fly or jump through. It was full of twisting and turning passageways, none of which had ever been mapped. Worst of all, thick groups of enemies hid in every nook and cranny of the forest, making free movement impossible. The only way to move through woods was to fight ones way through the woods.
Two police drones protected the meeting room, where the heroes had gathered. Yet, the second they walked out the door they would be vulnerable. The main entrance to Perez was just across the street, but the heroes knew they would still have to face at least one group of Hellions before they entered it. The Hellions were little more than a simple street gang. Many of the minions armed themselves with bats or switchblades, but a few of the more important members had super powers.
As the heroes exited the meeting room, they immediately heard one of the Hellions signature battle cries...
"Let's kill the freaks!" the one power-welding member of the Hellion group cried out. He was the leader of a group of 17 Hellions. The Hellions all pulled out some sort of gun, except the leader who threw his arms in the air and summoned fire from his hands. Frost Mourne however froze the entire group before any of their weapons could be of any use.
"Damn, she got all of them!" Dragan exclaimed as he ran toward the defenseless enemies.
"Yeah," said Eclypse, "I almost feel sorry for them." Although the Hellions were immobilized, they would not stay that way for long. Sayber, Amathyst and Shadow's Claw quickly took out the flame-throwing boss, while the two blasters, Blue Electra and Eclypse, took down the minions. The team was able to defeat all 17 Hellions before one of them could escape Frost's Icy prison.
Once they crossed the main entrance they found another group of Hellions, this one would put up much more of a fight. Unlike the first group, these Hellions had not yet noticed the team of heroes. The group of 23 Hellions consisted of 18 minions, two bosses, each with the power to shoot fire, and three Hellion lieutenants, two armed with powerful shotguns, the other with a machine gun. Frost began the heroes attack by freezing 13 of the 18 minions and one of the shotgun using lieutenants, who had the title of Fallen Buckshot. Lord Freyr followed with an attack that slowly weakened all the Hellions that Frost Mourne had frozen. Immediately the remaining Hellions ran toward Frost. The two bosses ran toward her and caused their hands to burn as they prepared for their most deadly attack.
Before they could unleash their fire attacks, Sayber and Amathyst met the two bosses. The Sayber slashed one boss, Amathyst the other; immediately the two Hellions turned their attention away from Frost. Both of the Hellion bosses realized they had a much more personal threat. Amathyst's foe fired flame from his very hands, igniting the skin of the beautiful hero. She paused as she felt the pain of his assault. However, her determination was unaffected; it would take much, much more than this to stop her. She hacked and slashed the Hellion mercilessly as he too continued his fiery assault. The struggle seemed to last forever, though in reality only seconds had gone by. The Hellion grunted and fell to the ground as Amathyst stood above him, her flesh still ablaze. She was victorious!
The Hellion boss that faced Sayber fired flame from his hands at the sword-welding hero. Although he was less than three feet away from the boss, Sayber was able to dodge the attack and counter it by slashing the Hellion. Enraged the Hellion boss thrust both his arms in Sayber's direction. He was determined not to miss Sayber again. The hero's super reflexes allowed him to redirect the boss's arms with his sword, causing the evil flames to miss yet again. Again, Sayber repaid the boss's attack with a slash from his sword. The Hellion screamed more from frustration than from pain, although he was hurt badly. Desperate, He jumped toward Sayber. He was willing to take another blow, just to deliver some form of damage to Sayber. Sayber stabbed the Hellion, finishing him; but not before the flaming hands of the boss set him ablaze. Sayber was hurt, but he would live.
Shadow's Claw fired his favorite attack, focus, at the unfrozen Lieutenant. The shadowy hero slashed the air in front of him with such power and "focus" that it created a destructive wave, which flew through the air, slashed the Hellion, and knocked him to the ground. Before the Shotgun carrying, Fallen Buckshot, could rise, twice the scrapper had slashed him. The Hellion fired his gun into the chest of Shadow's Claw. The hero paused as the shock of the attack hit him. The Hellion stood and aimed his gun again. However, the recovered hero slashed the Hellion 2 more times before he could fire. The Buckshot grunted and fell defeated. Shadow's Claw smiled at his victory, just as he felt the sharp pain of a knife in his back. He turned to see a Hellion minion, who this time slashed the hero across his chest with his knife. The Hellion heard a shhlick sound as Shadow's claw extracted his claws again. In three attacks, this minion too grunted in defeat.
Eclypse and Blue Electra joined forces against the machine gun carrying Hellion who held the title, Fallen Gunner. The first shot from Eclypse knocked down the Fallen Gunner. Blue Electra followed with an attacked the shocked the Hellion even as he lay on the ground. As he rose, the two fired again, taking him out. By that time however, two of remaining four minions approached. Dragan had already defeated the other two and was coming to the aid of the blasters.
However, Dragan's help was not needed. Eclypse shot one of the approaching minions and knocked him down. Frost Mourne froze the other minion in his tracks. Lord Freyr attacked the frozen minion with a blast of radiation and defeated him, while Blue Electra made short work of the minion that had been knocked down.
The team paused briefly to rest from the battle and Lord Freyr healed the team. Lord Freyr's heal was just to help lower the heroes' heal time. All heroes healed at a much faster rate than did a regular person. In just a few minutes, the fire burned skin of Amathyst and Sayber returned to normal. Since Shadow's Claw a healing rate that was faster than even most heroes had, his stab and cut wounds disappeared in seconds. The team was pleased with themselves.
"That was pretty good," Dragan commented.
"Yes, Good Job everyone." Blue Electra agreed.
Once everyone had healed, the team continued through the hilly clearing of Perez. Not far from their last battle, they found a group of Clockwork. The clockwork were a race of evil robots who's minions resembled wind up toys, thus the name, Clockwork. The Clockwork were considered a much more dangerous group than the Hellions because minion and boss alike possessed the power to shoot electricity. Nevertheless, the metal bodies of the clockwork were just a vulnerable to the steel of Amathyst and Sayber. The team easily defeated them and entered the wooded area of the park. There they found their prey.
"Finally," Dragan sighed, "The Circle of Thorns!" The Circle of Thorns were magic welding criminals. The bosses and lieutenants, both called Mages, had the power to attack the very minds of their enemies. This first group consisted of only 1 boss, 2 lieutenants, and 12 minions; it was an easy battle for the team.
The next three battles went as expected. The number strength of foes grew each time. By the third battle, nothing was easy. Yet, the team grew closer with each battle. Amathyst, who knew she could count on Shadow, Sayber and Freyr, now found herself back to back with Blue Electra or Frost from time to time. Freyr found himself trusting that Dragan would get there "just in time" should enemies start to close in on him. Shadow's Claw would turn his back foes, confident that Blue Electra would be able to watch his back. This team chemistry and confidence made them hard to beat even by the ever-increasing numbers of Circle of Thorns. After five more battles, the team found themselves deep in the Perez forest, and close to their target destination.
"From what we can tell, if we keep straight on this path we will reach the target area," reported Blue Electra.
"Have you guys noticed anything strange about these C.O.T.'s lately?" Lord Freyr asked the group.
"Yeah," Shadow's Claw answered immediately.
"You mean how many there are?" Eclypse asked.
"No, I mean usually when you find a group of enemies...any group of enemies; they are usually just standing there. They only attack if a hero gets too close to one and they get scared or angry or something. Well, the last two groups especially that last one seemed to be, I don't know, ready for us." Freyr explained
"That last group almost seemed to be searching for us." Shadow's claw added.
"Well, I'm glad this next group isn't looking for us." Frost Mourne said, her voice trembling. The eight heroes focused their attention straight down the path ahead to see a group of more than 50 Circle of Thorn criminals.
"Shit!" Dragan exclaimed. "There are only eight of us!"
"There's no way we can beat them all," said Frost.
"I guess we can fight our way back out of here and get more help," suggested Sayber. The worries of the team were quickly interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps, many footsteps. Someone was coming, fast!
"More heroes?" Shadow's Claw said optimistically.
The eight heroes, now friends, looked in horror as they saw how wrong Shadow's claw was. A group of Circle of Thorns that was even larger than the one they saw in front of them, had found them and was now attacking from behind them! If they ran, they would run straight into another group of fifty or more Circle of Thorns. Their only hope was to stand their ground and fight.