Hellhound directed one of her monstrosities in the general direction of Vista, Gallant, and Kid Win. Vista responded quickest to the incoming threat, by stretching the the distance between the not-dog and her teammates. Kid win and Gallant both followed up with an initial volley of their tinker weaponry at the dog. Gallant's shot sailed high of the mark, while Kid's blast struck the oncoming beast in the left forelimb.

Kid's mouth turned upwards very slightly at the impact. His satisfaction was instantly replaced by annoyance and a healthy dose of fear as the dog kept charging as if nothing at all happened. He quickly hopped onto his hoverboard and put 30 feet between himself and the ground. As the dog closed the artificial distance, Vista compressed the space to her right, stepping through it along with Gallant just in time for the dog to miss its attempted bite. It dug its claws into the ground to brake and reorient itself for another lunge. As soon as its hind legs left the ground, Vista relaxed her power and allowed the space to expand to its original volume.

Meanwhile the dog that Hellhound had been riding had been charging straight at Aegis. Aegis for his part had taken up a wide fighting stance, both hands held out in front of him as if he intended to somehow catch the multiple thousands of pounds of feral force headed straight for him. A weird facial expression that lay somewhere between 'terrified' and 'giddy with anticipation' adorned his face as his back foot started to bounce a bit in anticipation.

As Hellhound got within a few yards of him, she gave a hard yank and a shout, and the charging beast changed targets, going after Clockblocker.

"Damn," Clockblocker said to himself as he went airborne. Crown noticed the white costume gaining altitude out of the corner of his eye, and chanced a quick glance that way. Wait...I thought Aegis was the one with flight? The fuck?Hellhound dug her heel into the dog's side, and gave another barely discernable command, and the beast jumped, ascending much faster than Clockblocker had anticipated, and caught him in its maw. The dog angled itself such that it slammed the cape now trapped in its mouth into the ground on the way down; the impact leaving a solid crack in the pavement. When Clockblocker continued to fight after that kind of a blow, wailing on the snout of the monster with reckless abandon, Crown put two and two together. They switched costumes.

Crown turned his attention back to the slightly more pressing matter of the third monster intent on turning him into a chew toy. Crown took a quick step to the side and loosed a blast at the dog's open mouth. It clamped its jaw shut with a yelp, but retaliated by sweeping its head in a wide arc, catching him and knocking him airborne. The initial blow didn't hurt nearly as much as the landing; he sailed through the air for a solid couple of yards, and ended up landing square on his back before the momentum carried him through another few tumbles. Hellhound gave another order, and that dog began charging back towards its master to help keep Aegis pinned to the ground.

Crown took a second to roll back onto his hands and knees. Despite trying to brace for it, he still had the wind knocked out of him on impact. As he started to get up on one foot, he became aware of an unusually loud buzzing sound that seemed to be coming from everywhere. He picked his head up.

Oh fuck that shit right in its asshole with a rusty piece of rebar.

Absolutely blanketing the combatants was what must have been literal tons of insects. Wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, horseflies, and other assorted nasty flying insects had poured out from seemingly everywhere, and began working in concert to bite and sting as many times as they could, while some of the smaller flies simply worked to crawl as hard as they could into any exposed orifices. Ears, nostrils, mouth, eyes; if you could presumably enter the human body through it, the insects were trying their damndest to do so.

Had Clockblocker been wearing his normal costume, he wouldn't be having nearly as much trouble as he currently was. His normal costume had absolutely no exposed skin anywhere, whereas Aegis's costume had left the chin, mouth and nose exposed. As such, he was busy wildly flailing at the relentless swarm enveloping him with little success. For every insect he froze, it seemed two more would land on him. As the insects started making their way behind into his nostrils and even behind his eyes, he played his last card and froze himself.

Gallant and Vista had continued to dodge the monstrous dog currently harassing them through repeated stretching and compression of space, and Gallant had managed to land enough calming shots on the beast to slow it down considerably. Kid had opted to gain even more altitude to try and escape the biblical plague; unfortunately this made any shots that he was about to take that much harder to make.

Crown stood up amidst the myriad stinging insects. Fuck this nonsense. He concentrated and let off a sharp radial burst to eliminate all the insects within a few feet of him, before focusing on maintaining a small aura of plasma to dissuade any other insects from harassing him further. He turned to look over to where Hellhound was keeping Aegis pinned. Despite the sheer size disparity between them, Aegis had managed to gain just a bit of ground against the dogs holding him down; he'd managed to maneuver both feet onto the ground, as well as worm most of his torso out of the dog's mouth.

Hellhound turned to give a new order to the beast that had been chasing Vista and Gallant through constantly warping space. Crown took that opportunity. He dropped one hand down to his side, and forced.This bitch needs to sit the fuck down, he thought to himself as he felt for the reserve pool within his power. Feeling out the connection once again, he drew on it as hard as he could started amassing a ball of plasma, focusing on building charge rather than heat.I want to be thorough, he thought, dissatisfied with the size of the projectile. He felt through his power for the reservoir he'd dipped into before, and drew upon it as much as it would allow. I wanna make sure she sits the fuck down after all.

He reared his hand back as if getting ready to throw a baseball, and took a quick hop towards Hellhound. I've no idea if this actually does any more damage, but it feels like it might, he thought as he lined up the throw.

When the bolt left his hand, it was roughly the size of a basketball, crackling loudly as it sailed towards its target. It travelled quickly; far more quickly than most others that he'd thrown prior, crackling loudly along it's course. Despite residual intoxication, the ball of ionized air impacted Hellhound right at the base of her skull, followed by a loud 'ZZZT' sound that could have almost come from a cartoon. Hellhound's entire body spasmed for a brief moment, before she slid off her mutant dog in an unconscious heap.

And stay the fuck down, he thought to himself. All feelings of victory that he felt at that moment were quickly squashed when he heard the dogs' roars double in intensity. Goddammit. Of course it's not that simple, he thought as the two dogs who were content to merely pin Aegis now fought to rip him apart as best they could. Crown cringed as he thought he heard one of Aegis's forearms snap. Gallant turned his attention away from the massive hound charging at him and Vista to take a few opportune shots at the dogs treating Aegis like a human chew toy. The blue calming bolts managed to have enough of an effect for Aegis to free himself from the enraged pair of canines, and he took the opportunity to get airborne.

The buzzing of the veritable plague surrounding them grew in intensity, redoubling their efforts against the wards. Gallant's costume's defenses were beginning to be overwhelmed, and Vista was quickly starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of bugs trying to sting and bite her. This is starting to get annoying. Someone is controlling those bugs, and they need to be taught that that shit ain't cool, Crown thought as he made the decision to run straight into the black smoke spewing out of the front of the bank, spreading his arms as he maintained a small aura to kill as many bugs on the way as he could.

That was so fucking dumb, he thought to himself as he felt the prongs of a taser forcing current through his neck.

The darkness was nigh-absolute. Crown couldn't see his own hands; he couldn't even see it when he concentrated to strengthen the aura around his left hand to add a bright flame to act as a torch. He even noticed the sound of his footsteps significantly diminished inside the black smoke. Crown was beginning to question how wise that earlier decision was when he felt something jam into his neck and shock him.

He fought to stay upright as the current ran through his body causing his limbs to spasm. Instead of trying to bring an arm up to blast the opponent shocking him, he focused instead on the two prongs and the current between them. Tapping into his own plasma, he concentrated and shoved as much charge as he could into the positive terminal. He gritted his teeth as the current tripled in intensity briefly before it stopped all together, as if a circuit had shorted. The muted popping sound told him that the taser's cell had been completely fried.

Crown stood up straight, and began to turn in the direction that he felt the prongs come from, still completely blinded by the perfectly opaque smoke. Grue's shit it really getting annoy-

*SMACK*

Crown reeled as he felt a fist collide with his head, slightly behind his left ear. He staggered away from the blow, thankful that he was still somehow upright. Fucking ow, a little higher and further back and I would have been snoring, he thought, right as he felt his right foot quickly cramp and turn inward. Crown fell to his side.

The cramp vanished almost as quickly as it's onset had occurred, and for a second Crown thought he heard a yelp of pain. Fuck this, he thought, digging into his reserve once more, and flaring his aura in a powerful short range burst around him. Or, at least it felt powerful. It should have been brighter than that, he thought, standing back up. His eyes registered a small strobe flash that seemed to indicate that the darkness had also possibly dampened the propagation of the plasma burst. Don't have that much left, he thought to himself, starting to feel exhaustion setting in as his reserve felt nearly depleted. At least it bought me some breathing room. Now to put it to good use.

Crown reached out in the direction he'd been punched from, and felt the shoulder of his second assailant, who was currently recoiling from the plasma burst. From what Crown could tell, the guy was wearing a thick leather jacket that would probably be a bit difficult to burn through with any kind of speed. I could definitely cut through it, but not before Grue punches me in the goddamn head again. Or was Grue holding the taser? Regardless, he opted for a different approach.

Crown released the shoulder, and ducked down low. He quickly stepped into the second man, and rammed his shoulder into the man's stomach in the process, before securing a grip around his opponent's legs, below the hips. Bringing his other leg into position, he drove upwards with his legs, trying to lift who he thought might be Grue as high in the air as he could. The ground hits a lot harder than you do buddy, he thought, beginning the slamming motion.

His opponent was skilled enough to react, wrapping his legs around Crown's waist and reaching around Crown's head to secure a guillotine choke. He then torqued his body to drag Crown off balance, and rob the slam of much of its potential power, now merely having to contend with the work that gravity would do. The middle of his back hit the ground at the same time as Crown's head, and both combatants were briefly stunned.

Crown's mask had cracked on the impact, about a half inch above his right eye, and the broken material had given him a couple of solid cuts in that area. Fighting to escape the choke with one hand, he raised up on his feet to try and drive his other shoulder into his prone opponent's throat, concentrating the aura around that shoulder, and his own throat. The protective leather his opponent wore was starting to melt a bit, but not nearly as quickly as it should have.

The prone opponent released his grip slightly and unhooked his legs. He brought one foot towards the inside of Crown's left knee, and kicked outward, while chopping down on the outside of Crown's right thigh with the other, and rolled. Now underneath his opponent, Crown lost all leverage. His opponent secured a new chokehold, and this time Crown had no real way to fight back. He dug once more into what was left of his reserve, but the resulting wave barely bought him a fraction of a second's reprieve.

As he felt himself slipping, the much more volatile source flared. I could still kill them. The thought came unbidden from the back of his mind, as he briefly considered tapping into that other source. Along with everyone one else still in the room, he countered with the more rational part of his mind in the few seconds he had left. I fucking lost. Plain as day.

I deserved to lose this one.

-

Impulse anxiously watched the clock ticking, staring intensely at it as if he could will time to flow a bit faster. He would not be described as a patient person on a normal day; at that moment he resembled someone who'd downed 7 shots of espresso not 20 minutes earlier. He desperately wanted the job to start, if for no other reason than that he'd be able to distract himself from thinking too deeply about what exactly he was doing.

A small little electronic jingle from Antares's phone mad Impulse jump a tad.

"Thank god, there's the green light," Impulse said, one hand shooting out to open the door.

"NO! YOU TAKE THAT BACK YOU MISERABLE CRETIN!" Antares shouted, looking at his phone.

Impulse paused, one foot already outside the vehicle. "The fuck was that about?" he inquired.

"This fucking asshole has the gall to insinuate that I've stolen some nobody's look from three months ago, when the image he's commenting on is actually well over a year old, and I've simply reposted it as a throwback. I must now unleash a salvo of barbs targeting his intelligence and lineage in retribution, otherwise my reputation may never recover!"

Impulse stared. Why the fuckdid I expect anything better out of the dude who insists that shaving cream is a mandatory item on a mission? He looked back at the clock, which stubbornly read 12:05 as if to spite him in particular. He sighed heavily, with nothing but the sounds of Antares furiously typing a response and Chimera gnawing on a bone to pass the time. Its shit like this that makes you appreciate just how long a minute actually is. Holy ballsack.

Antares's other phone buzzed as the actual greenlight signal came in at exactly 12:06:31. Antares checked it, and opened his door while haphazardly tossing his personal phone in the back of the van.

"Ow. That nearly hit me in the eye you prick," said Chimera, shifting down to a more suitable form for his task in the operation.

"Terribly sorry there chum," came the not-at-all convincing apology, as Antares stepped out of the vehicle, looking towards the telephone poles.

Antares walked down the block, following what looked to be the main power line feeding power to this particular block. He stopped at one of the poles which appeared to be slightly older than the others, with a bit of fungus having taken near the base. Hmmmm, lets try something here, he thought, squatting down on one knee. He pretended to retie his shoe for a few seconds, making sure no one was in the immediate vicinity. We're doing this at midday specifically because nobody is home at this time, but it never hurts to double check.

He held his hand over the fungus and drew upon his power. He'd noticed his power was finnicky at times with what it considered to be a valid target of entropic acceleration. It certainly didn't work too well on people or animals (he'd tried to age them a bit at one point), nor did it work on healthy plants. However, it seemed to work just fine on dead or rotting plant matter, as well as fungi. He focused and watched as the wood was subjected to decades of decay over the course of a minute.

Antares stopped and stood up to get out of the way as he heard the pole give a couple of sharp creaking sounds, and the wood warped. Walking to the other side, he braced against the pole, and began to shove towards the newly weakened side. As the pole began to fall, Antares started sprinting out of the way, not wanting to risk becoming the new shortest route to ground.

The pole fell, and most of the cables were severed in at least one place as a result. It'll have to do, he thought to himself, turning around. Now I just freewheel it outta here and ~nobody will knoooow~.
He sent a quick text to Faultline.

-

Impulse felt his phone buzz.

-Power down. Patrol between Kent Ct and Cedar Ln. Any civs likely plainclothed detail. Nonlethal only.-

Impulse grimaced slightly, while he fished out a handful of sedative pellets he'd 'borrowed' from Artificer last night. Guess I'm putting everyone to sleep to be sure then. Worst case scenario, I knock out an actual civilian, and they wake up 30 minutes later wondering what the fuck happened. No big deal.

He took off sticking to the backyards and pseudo-forested plots of land. The blur wouldn't be terribly visible from the sidewalks, and so long as I keep quiet, nobody should be able to react to the surprise throat hugs. He reached the boundary of his lookout responsibility, and was about to turn around when a couple began to round the corner. The woman was pushing a stroller.

Oh come the fuck on. Why you gotta make my life difficult?

He forced himself to calm down, and isolated two pellets, and moved up to a bush behind the shed of the second house on the street. He waited for the couple to move closer to his position.

He heard the baby in the stroller cry.

Fuck me, they have their fucking kid with them too, he mentally moaned. Can an infant handle sedatives? Like will that fuck the kid up later in life, or outright kill him? Should probably ask Petyr...no wait fuck can't do that right now; head in the game, head in the game. Take out mom and dad first, worry about the kid later….and…..now.

He kicked off, sprinting straight at a spot just behind his intended victims. By the time either one processed the fact that there was movement in their peripheral vision, Impulse had already stopped barely a foot behind them, and reached around to jam a pellet against each of their mouths. He fought to muffle their voices as they slipped into unconsciousness. He reluctantly fished out another pellet.

Sorry kid, but it's for your own-you cheeky motherfuckers.

Impulse peered inside the stroller to find not an infant, but a doll, along with a camcorder and a small tape recorder, which promptly produced another crying noise. He dragged both adults as quickly as he could to the bush he was waiting in, before going back for the stroller. That, he grabbed and took a running start at his maximum speed, stopping to hurl it as hard as he could into the pseudo-forested area behind the house.

Assholes, making me think about moral dilemmas n shit, he griped before heading back onto his patrol route.

Chimera manifested a pair of human-esque hands in order to read the text that had been sent to him.

-House number is 15. Should be two guards + mom + girl inside. Neutralize NONLETHALLY. Open back door when you're done.-

Chimera dropped the phone, then thought for a second on what the most useful combination would be. I want to get over to the house quickly, but I probably don't want to be on the ground. Let's go for a pidgeon body for flight….and a scorpion tail with some mixture of wasp and mosquito venom as a narcotic/paralytic. His body began to morph into the much smaller form, and he took to the air.

He took the opportunity to take a few laps around the house to try and see if he could scout out any information ahead of time. Mom seems to be in the living room, on the phone with someone….curtains drawn around the south-facing windows….HEY theres Dinah in the corner room….there's a really short guard...and all the other curtains are drawn...ok time t-OI FUCK OFF.

Another larger pidgeon had taken umbridge to Chimera's presence in it's territory, and was squaking at him loudly as he tried to land on the roof. Chimera tried to move away and give the rival pidgeon some room, but it kept harassing him.

Fine, you wanna play that way? I can play that way.

Chimera gained some altitude, and the other pidgeon returned to land on the roof. After climbing another couple dozen or so feet, Chimera pulled a half roll to the best of his ability, and began diving straight at his pesky avian foe. Annoyed, it took off to meet him. Chimera quickly swerved to one side, and drove his stinger straight into the other bird's chest. Within seconds, it dropped back onto the roof with a thud.

YEAH BITCH, WHO'S THE ALPHA MALE NOW?

With his place on the roof no longer contested, he began shifting his body into something that could more easily work its way into a house. A mouse body should do the trick, he thought. From his vantage point on the roof he briefly swapped out wasp venom for eagle vision. He could see Newter across the street dragging two unconscious people behind a tree, as well as Faultline doing...something...to the parked cars. His angle wasn't good enough to tell exactlywhat she was doing. However, he could see that the car she was currently crouched behind contained at least 3 more unconscious guards.

Well doesn't look like too much to worry about on their end, he mused, putting back the knockout venom and scampering down towards the gutter.

He found his way inside the house through a hole in the wall just behind the garage. Judging by the mousetrap there along with it's unfortunate occupant, much of the infiltration work had already been done for him. Convenient, he thought as he made his way through the small tunnel inside the walls of the house. He exited near what he assumed to be the kitchen, and crept towards the stairs.

It took him longer than he would have liked to get up the flight of stairs, but stealth was more important than speed at this stage. He waited just out of sight for the approaching guard on the upper floor to pass him. Following him closely, he waited for the guard to get to the end of the hall and turn the corner. He struck each ankle once, and waited for the venom to take effect. Thanks to the mosquito's natural narcotic properties, the guard didn't feel either sting. He took about three more steps and reached out to brace himself against the wall, before ultimately falling forward. He landed with a mild thud.

Chimera acted quickly, sprinting over to the man's neck, and stinging him right where his larynx should be. The man drew breath to try and shout for help, but he couldn't manage more than a low buzz from his vocal cords. Chimera scurried over and stung him once in each hand for good measure.

"Jerry! You all good up there?"

SHIT. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCKING SHIT PLAN B.

Chimera abandoned the scorpion tail, and settled for fangs instead to house the venom, before hiding just outside the view of the stairwell. He morphed his body into something larger, settling on a housecat. He waited for the other guard to round the corner to check on his downed mate before sprinting down the stairwell.

Upon reaching the bottom and turning back towards the back door, he morphed again, settling for a werewolf-like form, something capable of opening he back door. He threw it open and stepped outside, out of sight of anyone still inside the house.

-

Antares was watching the back door when he saw the werewolf like form of Chimera exit. He dialed Impulse.

"Word to big bird. The monster has the cookies. I repeat, the monster has the cookies."

"...The fuck does that mean?" came the reply.

"IT MEANS THE DOOR'S OPEN NUMBNUTS; GRAB THE KID AND LET'S BAIL. And hit anyone in there with some of those pellets you stole to be safe."

Impulse turned on his heel and took off towards the Alcott's house. He stopped right next to Chimera.

"Situation?"

Chimera did his best not to jump. "One down, one more plus the mom still up. Kids in the room all the way on the right from the stairwell."

Impulse took off inside the house, slapping a pellet right into the terrified face of Dinah's mother not three feet away from the door. He bolted up the stairs, and deftly ducked under the taser fired by the guard that Chimera had left standing. In the blink of an eye, he'd hit that guard with a sedative as well, and slapped one on the previously incapacitated man lying on the ground, just as Antares had suggested, before turning back towards Dinah's room.

He kicked open the door, and hit Dinah with another sedative before she had time to scream.

-

The drive back to the truck stop was mercifully uneventful. Or, at least to Impulse, somewhat mercifully. There was a bit more traffic trying to leave the city proper than there was on their way into it earlier that morning, but that wasn't all too strange. Certainly there weren't any authorities breathing down their necks. All things considered, the job had actually gone pretty damn smoothly, Impulse thought to himself, while trying desperately to think about something other than Antares's off-key singing, or the snoring kidnapee in the back being presided over by a literal monster. At least Chimera had altered himself to be somewhat fluffier and less threatening, taking the form of a siberian husky, with a snow leopard's tail.

"~VA-CA-TION, ALL I EVER WANT-ED, VA-CA-TION, HAAAVE TO GET AWAY~" Antares belted, shaking Impulse from his thoughts once again.

Oh god this is why I don't fucking do cars.

For all his callous attitude that he wore on a regular basis, Impulse couldn't shake the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he'd crossed a line. I steal money. I steal valuable objects. I don't, or rather didn'tsteal fucking kids.

They arrived at the previous rendezvouz point. Impulse felt a small wave of relief that the other van was in fact still there. Granted, they'd left it alone for a maximum of maybe two and a half hours, but there were no guarantees. Once both vans were parked and free of wayward glances, Impulse, Antares, and Chimera climbed into Faultline's van with Dinah.

"That went just about as well as one could reasonably hope. Good job. The payment should be wired to your accounts by 4 in the afternoon at the latest," Fautline said.

"I figured this would be a question best saved for after the job was done," Antares began, "but I remember hearing that you guys had other members? What happened there?"

Newter tensed slightly, while Gregor responded. "You are correct. Spitfire and Labyrinth were preoccupied with another task that needed to be performed concurrently. Given our success, their absence was no impediment. The same could be said of your team."

It was Impulse's turn to tense a bit. "They cited personal qualms," he said.

Gregor nodded slowly. "That would be detrimental indeed." He glanced at Dinah briefly. "Not that I'd hold it against them."

"...mrghhhh"

All eyes in the crowded van turned towards the slowly waking girl. She blinked twice, then turned several shades paler than would be considered healthy.

"What did you do to Mom?" she asked.

"Relax kid, no one was hurt. Your mom will be worried, but she'll be totally fine," Antares spoke.

Dinah shut her eyes quickly, then opened them. "93.871% chance you're right," she said.

Impulse and Chimera exchanged brief glances of concern with each other.

"...how do you know this, young one?" asked Gregor, in as gentle a voice he could manage.

"I keep seeing the numbers. The chances. I can't stop seeing them, and no one believed me. They didn't really believe me when I said something bad was going to happen to me and now it happened," she said, curling in on herself.

Faultline frowned hard, and muttered something under her breath, but no one quite caught it.

Antares tried once again to reassure the girl. "It won't be all that bad. You're just going to be used to apply political pressure to your uncle is all. It's not like the person who wanted you kidnapped is a pedophile or anything."

What. The fuck. IS WRONG WITH YOU? thought Impulse as he angrily glared at Antares.

Dinah winced. "98.335% chance you're wrong about the first part," she began. She winced again, harder this time. "7.398% chance you're wrong about the second."

-

12:05 PM, Petyr's apartment

Morty was absently flipping through the channels on the TV while Ren cursed at her visor in the other room. He cycled back to the local news station and was about to flip away when it cut to a helicopter shot of Brockton Bay Central Bank, which was currently spewing a thick black smoke. Out front, the local wards had taken up position, joined by….

Morty blinked twice to make sure.

"Petyr!" he called to the tinker currently heating up his lunch.

"Ya," he said, walking into the main room. "What do you need?"

"Remember how you told Gabriel not to do anything stupid?" Morty said, pointing to the screen.