- 7 -

- Newsworthy -

After the dramatic title sequence came to an end, the music fading into the background, the screen changed from the title into a man sitting behind a highly polished desk. The man's skin was clearly tanned, and his hair was cut into a short buzz cut. He was wearing a dark blue suit jacket, with a white shirt and dark red tie at his neck. Below him on the screen, a box spun into existence with his name on it, reading 'Orlando Mettel'.

"Hi, I'm Orlando Mettel, and welcome to the Daily Planet News Network." Orlando said, flashing whiter-than-white teeth. "Now, as I'm sure you know, this is not our normal broadcasting time. However, an emergency in uptown Metropolis needs to be brought to the attention of the residents of this city. Of course, the Daily Planet is here for just this purpose." He flashed his smile again as a picture appeared in the upper right of TV screens everywhere, showing a picture of uptown Metropolis.

"What started as a simple attempt to steal from the Metropolis Central Bank, a foolish notion to begin with…" he chuckled to himself as he leant with one arm on his desk. "…the situation has now spiralled into a spectacle no-one was expecting. We know go to Derek Roberts, who is live on scene right now; Derek?" the picture in the top right faded into a live screen, with a main stood in the centre, before expanding to fill the screen completely. Derek Roberts was a stocky short individual, and he was sporting a brown suit, white shirt and yellow tie.

"Orlando." He said, speaking into a microphone sporting the Daily Planet News Network's logo and holding his tie down with his other hand. "I'm on the roof of Cervantine Electronics, a mere block away from the bank, where moments ago the potential bank thief was confronted by some sort of special tactical team. I'm not sure exactly what team it is, but I can say that they entered the area in plain helicopters. I can't get any closer because of a police cordon, but from what I can see, I don't want to."

"The confrontation between the team and the criminal has apparently come to an end and we have the news chopper on site now."

The picture changed from Derek, to a shaking picture showing the scene from the front of the bank. It showed a crater, a number of cracks running through the road, and a number of individual's lying on the floor in various places. One of them was stumbling towards another as the chopper circled around, zooming on them as it did. "I don't know what happened here, we've just arrived on scene, but it seems as though the tactical team has been all but wiped out. As you can see, devastation runs through…wait, what the hell is that!?" the voice said as something burst from the front of the bank and suddenly leaped towards them.

"Swing out the way!" the voice said as the helicopter veered to no avail as a humungous figure slammed into its side and a hand the size of a dustbin lid covered the camera lens before it cut out to static.

"Take the fliers and chase after him." Matt said as he pulled himself to his feet. Joanne nodded in replied and rolled to a sitting position before standing up by leaning on the car. "He's powerful, be careful."

"Of course." Joanne replied, moving over to Scarlett and rousing her quickly. With the help of the ones they awakened, Matt and Joanne had all the team, except Leon, on their feet; shaky but active. "It seems he didn't hit us very hard on purpose." Joanne said as she pulled Sora to her feet.

"Still hit like a train though." Lianne said, rubbing her head.

"True enough. Anyway I need Launi, Sora, Mira and Scarlett to come with me; we're going to chase after him from the air." As she spoke, Joanne stepped up into the air and stayed there, hovering about a foot off the floor. The others nodded and each in turn activated their flying abilities.

Scarlett looked at Joanne and then did the same thing, stepping up about a foot into the air and then stood on something solid that couldn't be seen, Launi's body rippled and she completely transformed into an eagle, Mira stared at Launi for a second before she copied her, although she became a bald eagle, and Sora reached into one of her webbing pouches and withdrew one of her cards.

"3 of Spades!" she called out and threw the card down in front of her. Immediately the card grew in size equal to a surfboard and gained a slight edge. Sora hopped up onto it and it lifted off the ground to hover in the air on an unseen propulsion system. "Let's go." She said with her hands on her hips.

"Follow me." Joanne said and with a slight lean forward she shot off down the road before pulling up into the air and heading in the direction Cal had jumped before. Immediately in pursuit was Launi the eagle, followed by Scarlett flying in the same way Joanne was, then Sora on her flying card, then Mira followed last in line in her own eagle form.

"What are we going to do?" Cross said, rubbing his own head as Matt sat on the bonnet of one of the police cars.

"Joanne will probably send a signal when she finds him…" Matt started uncertainly, getting stronger with each word. "But for now…" he stopped at the sound of helicopter blades and the remaining Risers looked up to see a helicopter round the corner of a building. "Damn, we'll need to get rid of that camera." Matt said, indicating the logo on the side.

"How do we do that?" Hana said, stumbling over to Matt. "We can't exactly shoot it out of the air.

"No, we'll have to…" Matt stopped talking as a window of the bank exploded and Leon jumped through, supersized to beyond human standards.

Leon bounded out of the building and immediately leaped into the air, heading straight towards the helicopter. The vehicle swung away to get out of his range, but he was too quick as he slammed into its side and crushed the camera with one massive hand. He then drew his fist back before deciding against it and pushing off the helicopter, pushing it further away, and landing with a crash on a police car, crushing it near flat.

"Leon, are you alright."

"I don't need your sympathy, Riverstadt, that bastard just hit harder than I was expecting; where are the others?" Leon replied, shrinking down to about 7 feet.

"I've sent the fliers after him, they'll find him faster than us on the ground."

"Damn you, I'm not letting him get away with that!" Leon said as he grew in size again and started off in the direction the others had flown. "I'll deal with him."

As Matt started forward to stop him, Leon leaped away and started after the other half of the group. "Leon, damn it!" Matt called, but with no avail.

Back with the flying group, Joanne had formed them into an extended line to get a better view of the rooftops they were covering. Much sooner than she was expecting, there was a loud cry and Launi the eagle swept out of formation and was headed towards a roof covered in blue vents.

Joanne indicated for the team to follow, and as they did, Joanne saw Cal sitting on one of the vents staring at his hands as if they were the most interesting thing on the planet. As they approached, his head jerked up and he turned just in time to have Launi smash into him, now a fully grown brown bear; claws and all. There was a second where nothing happened, and then Launi the bear was thrown off the building like she was made of paper. She wasn't worried though as she transformed back into an eagle and took to the air again.

By this time, Joanne had reached him and with outstretched arms she created two forces either side of him and slammed them together. Cal didn't as much as flinch this time, instead he slammed his elbows out and countered the force with the sheer strength of his arms. Joanne was caught off guard by this and swerved out of the way as a length of piping flew in her direction.

Her attack and given enough time for the others to appear on Joanne's command, they surrounded him while trying to look as threatening as possible. "Looks like you were taking it too easy back there; we're still ready to take you down." Joanne said, readying forces in her hand.

"I don't think you guys know when to give up." Cal said, looking up at Joanne. "I was being kind back there so I didn't end up killing you, but don't think I'll do that a second time."

"Come on, hoody, you look like a bit of a wimp to me." Launi said, her voice coming from monkey that was clinging to an aerial.

"Enough of this farce, come at me or I'll leave in a way that you cannot follow me." Cal said, clenching his fists visibly.

"Mira." Joanne said, crossing her arms and looking across at the dragon band girl.

"I'm sorry, Joanne, it seems it doesn't work on him." She replied sheepishly, her voice coming from German shepherd sat on its haunches on the edge of the building.

"Damn, guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned wa…" she didn't finish her sentence as Cal appeared directly in front of her, close enough that he was standing on the force keeping her afloat.

Without a word he punched her in the gut with enough force to wind her and to make her bend over forwards with pain. When she did that, Cal slammed his elbow into the back of her head. This knocked her clean out, meaning the force holding them both in the air disappeared and they both suddenly plummeted towards the ground.

"Damn." Cal said as he fell past the edge of the building.

The others leaped into action, Scarlett sliding to the position Joanne had been in and reached out of hand in their direction. Joanne hit something solid and came to a stop as Cal passed by it and continued his fast descent towards the street below. Launi and Mira had both shot after Cal himself and when they were within in reach, Launi changed into jet-powered spear and shot towards him while Mira changed into a long chain and quickly spun herself around Cal, trapping him.

Cal flexed momentarily but stopped and looked at the chain with a thoughtful expression. "If I break this, would you die?" he asked.

Mira's voice appeared from the chain "I wouldn't know, ask Launi, it's her power." She said, giving Cal something to think about.

He didn't have long before Launi shot into his chest, above Mira the chain, and stopped dead. They were still falling fast but Launi's attack had failed so she turned into a red balloon and started floating up. Mira decided that following suite would be the best idea just as she saw Sora raise one of her cards in the air.

"10 of Diamonds!" she shouted and the card morphed into a beam of light that shot down and slammed into Cal's chest.

Cal called out as the clothes on his chest were blown to pieces, leaving his body unharmed though, and he was sent faster towards the ground. "Only managed to do this once, hopefully I can do it again before I hit the ground." He muttered as he spun around and straightened his body out.

The Risers looked on as he plummeted, no doubt hoping the impact would render him immobile, but gasped as he suddenly slowed and stopped in mid-air. Slowly he rotated, so that he was upright, and then wobbled slightly before straightening his legs and spreading his arms as though he was keeping balance on a thin beam. Cal then looked up at the girls above him and slowly started to rise.

"Is there anything this guy can't do!?" Scarlett cried as Cal sped up and suddenly appeared way above them in the sky.

"Whoops, too far. I'll need to practice more." Cal said before steadying himself and looking down at his opponents. "I'll finish you quickly and get the hell out of here."

"You're mine!" a roar called out and a figure the size of a bus appeared from above them, clearing having jumped off one of the taller buildings, and crashed into Cal, sending them both cascading towards the vent-covered roof.

Without stopping, the two of them crashed into the roof and it was unable to take the impact as they crashed through it and into the room below. They weren't done there though, as the floor below was smashed completely and they crashed down even further. They were halfway down before they came to a stop with Cal trapped beneath the giant Leon; who was readying to attack.