The Absconders: Issue 7

Welcome!!

This is the SEVENTH issue of our new Marvel Fanon-Made storyline called The Absconders. To read the previous issue, click here. This storyline is Role-played and made by a certain number of experienced RPers. These are our RPers, and their OCs:

• TheSuperiorOne - Trey Soniak (Earth-2025)
• Thecryingwolf3553 - Eliana Rosenheim (Earth-2025)
• PyroHunter16 - Haruto Higashikata (Earth-2025)
• Infamoussnake - Dominic Bernedicci (Earth-2025)

If you want to join this RP, please ask in the comments and you will need most of our approvals to RP in here. Also, you need to have a Marvel OC (Original Character) submitted to deviantART OR this wiki and must share it with us so we know who we are RPing with. Disclaimer: Any real-life or fictional brands are used in as a parody. None of us are actually sponsored, nor do we care to be sponsored. Now let us begin the RP and enjoy :)

Key:

• Normal writing is the dialogue between the characters.
• Italic writing is a special writing type for characters with second personalities or long distance dialogue (telepathy or calls).
• Bold and italic writing are the actions that characters do.
• Writing in between the *asterisk* means that the character is talking in their heads.

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The next day

A groggy Antonia woke up in the clearing which was turned into a slightly burning, wet, and windy crater, she noticed it was colder as when she looked down, she Realized, she was naked.

Antonia *What the f-ck happened last night!?* She then started walking through the forest, seeing other dead ninja, burnt up, frozen, smashed with rocks, many hints of elements used, soon as she sneakily made her way back to Urban areas she found a cardboard box, and used it to hide as she went to the Absconders tunnel, she quickly exited the box for the eye scan and finger print and was trying to quickly get back in the box.

Micah was leaving as he sees the door slide open and see the box covering Antonia. He is shocked as he turns around.

Micah: Antoina?! What are you doing??? He isn't looking at her

She accidentally dropped it out of surprise, and picked it back up.

Antonia: Calm down! Let me explain! She was a bit red from embarrassment.

Micah: God, Antonia, go to your room, get some clothes then explain! Under his helmet he was red but she couldn't tell.

She did so, wanting to try and forget it. She got into new clothes and went back to Micah.

Antonia: Ninjas.

Micah: He sits on the couch on the main room and puts his feet up. Ninjas? Why the hell are ninjas after you?

Antonia: Well my mom was a member of the Kurokage clan, apparently she had Elemental Chi, ever watched Avatar or Naruto, she can do stuff like that, why they're after me, I don't know...

Micah: Damn. You need to actually hide from them. If you can.

Antonia: Should I stop going out, Hell even my dad might be looking for me...

Micah: Can't really restrict you from going out... Maybe find and confront your mother?

Antonia: Ehhhhh...She....Died...

Micah: Oh... I'm so sorry.. If there's anything you need help with, contact me.

Antonia: Thanks... She smiled.

Meanwhile in Anaheim, California 

Later at 1:54am, the city was still bustling through. Lights lit up the buildings and storefronts around everyone and people were out from nightclubs and bars, drunk and partying in the streets. Down the street of Chrysler Road, there was a tall building at the end of the street, where a man was seen entering it. A little later, inside of the building, in a room there stood those assassins who had the same outfits of the ones that Trey met and fought. There stood 3 assassins with a silver symbol on their back. The rest of them, which were 10 of them had bronze on their back. They all stood in a giant circle as if they were waiting for something. After a few minutes, a dark portal opened and out came Limit who landed on the ground with his katana in his hand. 

The area inside the building where Limit was transported.

Limit: Alright, let's d- He looks up from his landing and looks around quickly, then looking at the portal. Warp? What the hell?! Suddenly Warp just disappears and Limit stands up looking around. 

Silver Assassin #1: Welcome Jacen. He steps forward with a smile. 

Limit: Who are you and what do you want... He stands up holding his katana in a reverse grip, and squatting a little, ready to move. 

Silver Assassin #1: Nothing. You just have be wiped so our plans can continue. I presume you remember the Endo Superhuman Centre being blown up... He smirks and Limit tightens his grip around his katana.

Limit: Was it you guys? You almost killed me... 

Silver Assassin #1: Yes it was. And you and your friends, or did you forget?

Limit: Doesn't really matter to me. 

Silver Assassin #1: Interesting. Warp said you'd be an narcissist. 

Limit: Warp betraying me by trying to kill me a second time. That fucking prick will get it... 

Silver Assassin #1: Yea... No. He holds up his hand and in the room, lots of concrete blocks from the walls and ceilings break off and launch towards Limit as shrapnel. 

Limit holds out his hand as his palm glows and the shrapnel flying towards him transmutes into flower petals. The ones that come from behind his back transmute into balloons. The Silver Assassin looks confused as he uses both hands to make concrete below them turn into a giant hands and grab him, beginning to crush him. After about 10 seconds, the side of the concrete hand turns into salt and Limit jumps out, bolting at the Silver Assassin at high speeds. This is when another Silver Assassin steps in front of the one that Limit is dashing to and he holds out his hands, releasing a pressure wave of visible chi at him, sending him backwards. 

Silver Assassin #2 (Chi): You're not going anywhere.

This is when suddenly a bronze assassin with an axe holds the axe behind his own body and it extends a little and he uses his speed and to swing the axe over his head and downward at Limit. Before it can slash him, Limit turns around to his left and slashes upward at the bronze assassin, cutting him and the axe in a diagonal direction. The cut was fast and clean, as the assassin's guts come out of his body, which makes the other assassins go into action launching themselves at Limit. A bronze assassin stays back to jump in the air and hang from the ceiling using wood and launch wooden trunks at Limit to subdue and crush him.

Limit: Hm! He quickly slashes at the wooden trunks slicing them, and runs at an assassin running towards him. Before the assassin can use her weapon, Limit punches her in the stomach and grabs her stomach, then pushes her to the ground and bolts to the left. A little piece of her stomach caves in as it turned into salt. 

Silver Assassin #3: Stop resisting... She vomits out a glowing energy and it spreads along the ground very fast as the energy transforms into clones of herself. They dart at Limit from all directions and since she has dual mini blades they all swing and whatnot at Limit. He dodges most attacks but gets slashed by a few and he spins around slicing 2 clones in half as they explode in energy. He lights his sword on fire and he speeds through the clones slashing them all and flash stepping behind the main girl, thrusting the sword into her, but he misses and impales her leg. He takes out the sword, spins and slices her arm off, then a chunk of her waist out, which makes her scream and holler in pain as she falls to the ground.

Limit: You shouldn't have messed with me... He takes a look at the second assassin with chi surrounding his hands and Limit dashes at him, but the bronze assassins run after him using her powers. A bronze assassin with an arrow stays back with the wooden assassin and launches some arrows and wooden projectiles at Limit. He rolls his eyes and holds out a hand behind him while slightly looking at the incoming wooden projectiles and arrows and they transmute into large metal fists that land on the ground, landing out 3 bronze members. 

Chi Assassin (Silver): Come! Fool! He readies himself as Limit jumps in the air, does a couple of spins to build momentum and starts falling at the assassin with the katana above his head ready to slash. As he lands the silver assassin uses the chi around his hands and uses the back of his hand to slightly deflect the downwards slash at him, so that the impact reaches the ground. The force of the swing literally sends a shock-wave through the ground which causes it to explode under him.

Chi Assassin (Silver): *Tch, all the force behind his slash... Impressive strength...* All the metal and concrete in the ground fly up in the air from the explosion and the silver assassin spins and kicks Limit very hard in the stomach, sending him back into a metal fist. Limit opens his eyes and looks up to see a bronze assassin flipping over the metal fist about to land on him but he breathes a huge breath of fire up at him, burning the assassin completely. When Limit looks forward he sees the Silver Assassin standing and holding his glowing hand in Limit's direction and a concrete-metal mini dragon beside him.

Limit: *He used his power to use all the debris to form that?* The silver assassin smirks and pushes his hand forward a little which sends the mini dragon flying towards Limit. He leaves his sword on the ground and bolts towards the dragon and when it reaches him, time seems to slow as he uses his speed to place his hand, which lit on fire, on the dragon's nose and sends intense radiation and fire through the dragon, causing it to explode from the inside. Time seems to quicken again as the assassins don't understand what happened since to them it looked like the dragon was about to hit Limit, but it just exploded.

Silver Assassin #1: Wha- Limit slams his hands on the ground which causes the ground to transform into a lot of fists which get sent at high speeds towards the silver assassins. Limit then turns and faces the rest of the bronze assassins which he just knees one in the stomach coming at him, then using their little rapier to parry the other melee attacks of other assassins and impale them with the rapier in lethal places. He then spins to parry another attack and throw the rapier away, impaling an assassin in the stomach with his bare hands. Limit simply makes a disgusted face, and takes out his fingers (which only made it through) and knees the assassin in the jaw, breaking it. He bolts past the two assassins launching projectiles from the air and he slices to grab his sword, simply throwing his sword at the wooden assassin, slicing their stomach clean open. The other assassin is surprised then looks back at Limit which is right below him and he grabs his leg, pulls him down and breaks it, and falls back to the ground, with the assassin under him. 

Arrow Assassin (Bronze): W-Warp! Plan N! Limit then transmutes his neck into water, grabs an arrow from him and throws it at the incoming silver assassins who dodged his previous attack. The two silver assassins run at him and Limit runs at them as it gets intense, but Limit jumps and punches a ball of fire at them which cause them to split up. He simply then lands in front of the fireball he made and waves his arms around himself to spontaneously expand the flames to burn the two assassins and incinerate them. 

Limit: They actually thought... He gets up, and the whole place is a huge mess. He turns around and walks to his sword on the floor, and picks it up. Warp... That traitor... Suddenly a dark smoke surrounds him. WARP! He suddenly slashes around his own body so fast and so many times that it creates many afterimages, but none of the slash can hit Warp, so the surrounding smoke suddenly teleports him at this location. 

Where Limit was transported. This area is located in Arizona.

Warp: You actually defeated them... So here is something you can't escape... As Limit lands on the ground, he looks up to see a nuclear bomb counting down from 48 seconds. He gets up quickly and turns to Warp. See you later... His body then disappears. 

Limit: Aw crap... He turns to look at the small nuclear bomb in front of him as his expression grows worried...

At the Cent- Oh, nvm

Eliana leaves the Tunnel base through the old train car as the rocks clear out for her. She conjures herself a bicycle and takes it for a ride around the city. Once she's done, she heads back to the base, absorbing the energies of the bike and entering the base again, as it is now 3 pm. She enters the main room, but hears some noise of something rustling around. She notices a figure looking through their stuff in the drawers, making her gasp.

Eliana: Hey! What the Hell are you doing in here?!

The figure's appearance.

Figure: Hm. You, you're Gemstone, of the Absconders. Am I correct??

Eliana: Yes... Who are you?

Figure: I am Myron. And I have been looking for you.

Eliana: What? Why?

Myron: To help you train.

Eliana: I don't need any help, thank you very much. So would you please leave, otherwise the others would find out you're here, and they won't spare you.

Myron: He sighs, looking down. I guess you deserve to know everything before you can trust me. I am a Mutant, a time traveller. I have travelled to the future to help you train your Transmogrification abilities, as I am the best suited to help you.

Eliana: How?

Myron: Back in my timeline, I was partners with Clio, she was your ancestor. Clio was also a Mutant, her powers were energy manipulation, same as yours.

Eliana: You know my ancestor? And you've travelled to the future? Woah... How exactly did you know Clio?

Myron: We were lovers... He said this, and though his face was covered, his voice seemed upset.

Eliana: Wait, you're my...?

Myron: No, no. Clio and I never had any children together. She focused on other things, she craved power, I craved knowledge. Eventually she married another and had heirs.

Eliana: Oh... So why do you want to help me then?

Myron: I was still very much friends with Clio. In fact I helped her train and rise to the title of...Sorceress Supreme.

Eliana: Sorceress Supreme? What's that?

Myron: A title given to one person, who holds the greatest magical power on Earth at the time.

Eliana: My ancestor was that?

Myron: Indeed she was. Clio was the greatest mage I will ever know.

Eliana: Whoa...

Myron: And I hope to make you the next. To continue her legacy.

Eliana: If you don't mind me asking, what's with the frightening appearance? It's kind of scaring me...no offense.

Myron: It is okay, I wear this to hide my body, as the distortions and displacement of time travel, as well as the scars of battle, have left me deformed and damaged. My true appearance would have scared you off, which was not my intention.

Eliana: And how did you get in here?

Myron: When you left I suspended the base out of time, to leave it open, then entered it. I am glad to be in the presence of dear Clio's kin, I have been searching time for her descendant, one that holds her energy powers.

Eliana: Clio's kin... I knew I heard that name somewhere, you're the one who sent those wizards after me! You tried to kill me!

Myron: Kill you? No, you have it wrong. I sent them to find out if you were really Clio's descendant, they told me about your energy powers, Destruction, Creation, Protection, they didn't see you use Psychic though, but it was already more than enough evidence.

Eliana: Oh, but that's a strange way to get me to show my powers...

Myron: But it worked.

Eliana: Hm... So how will you train me?

Myron: We can meet up every day and night in your chambers for practice.

Eliana: Twice a day? That's too much.

Myron: Clio trained at sunrise and sunset every day for seven years before she could be even considered a worthy mage. How long do you think it took her to become Sorceress Supreme?

Eliana: Yes but I don't want to be Sorceress Supreme. I just want to be able to protect those without the ability to protect themselves, and to beat up assholes.

Myron: And you will. As Sorceress Supreme. Training starts tomorrow. Farewell. He suddenly disappears, as Eliana is left behind, worried.

The next day... 

It is January 22nd, at 11:23am. Limit is seen driving along the streets of Quartzsite, Arizona. This is a city near the border of Arizona and California. He has his katana laying in the passenger seat as he's driving at nearly 100mph or 160 kph. He is in deep thought as the radio or anything isn't on and he's just driving down the highway on his way back to California. 

Limit: *There has to be a reason he wanted to kill me... Same reason those assassins tried to kill everyone in the Centre. What is the purpose...* He sighs *F*ck that traitor Warp too... Trying to kill me? He doesn't even know the full extent of my powers, which is why I'm here right now...* 

Flashback to a day ago... 

It is now 2:01am and it is pitch-black in the desert that he currently is in. All he can see is the faint glow of the numbers of the nuclear bomb about to go off.

Limit: Oh crap... He frowns as he's laying on the ground staring at the small nuclear bomb. Where the f*ck did Warp find a n- He gets up He can teleport... Doesn't matter. He looks around as it's too far to even escape from a nuclear blast. Okay, Nuclear powers Jacen. I SHOULD be able to handle this blast... Maybe I can absorb it like I absorb radiation... Only on a bigger scale. And with fire. Should be easy for you Jacen. You got this. He cautiously goes to the nuclear bomb and kneels in front of it on one knee. Come on Jacen. He places his hands on it as the timer reaches the ten second mark.

Limit breathes deeply as it reaches 5. He grips the bomb as it counts down.... 4, 3, 2. And at 1, Limit begins to pull and absorb excess radiation from the nuclear bomb. As it detonates, it creates a huge explosion, which blows off his clothes and incinerates his katana. The explosion is huge as it explodes in a typical dome fashion, but as it expands it turns into a mushroom explosion but then stops expanding suddenly. This explosion fills the night sky as it would be a very cool spectacle from the sky. Inside of the nuclear blast, Limit is seen screaming as all of the nuclear energy and fire is absorbing into him at a high rate. This was extremely painful on his body due to all the rushing and bursting energy on his already injured and torn up body. On the outside of the explosion, it's seen to begin shrinking and absorbing into a small spot which is Limit. All of the fire and energy shrink at a faster rate and that's when after 10 seconds the explosion gets completely pulled in and absorbed by Limit. The aftermath of the blast is a huge crater and smoke coming from the crater, with the soil all red from the flames. The huge boulders next to him were decimated as well and now it's just an empty space with surround rocks around the crater burned as well. He fell in the center, as his body couldn't take anymore pain and he laid on the ground for a long time, before getting up and transmuting his injuries away. 

From the smokey crater, Limit is seen walking from it angrily, and as he reaches the edge of the crater, you can see red energy mixed with flames around his hands. He reaches down and taps the ground as his previous clothes transmute back onto the ground. He then puts the clothes on and as he steps on the non-effected ground, it melts under his feet, like his feet is lava, but it's due to the very increased temperature of his body. As he's walking away from the crater, he looks very evil as his eyes are glowing red from energy. 

Limit: You can't kill ME, Warp... He keeps walking as the ground still is melting under each footstep he takes. He looks at his hands and shoots intense and huge flames out of his hands and into the night sky, lighting it up some more. Oh, almost forgot. He grabs lots of rocks from all over the ground and holds them, transmuting them into his new katana. It is made of a stronger and sturdier material than before and it is secretly engraved for his own pleasure. Better... Now.. He also made a holster from a bunch of rocks and holstered the sword and put it on his waist. Time to find Warp, and kill him. He stops his hands and eyes from glowing with energy he cracks his neck and whole body. 

Limit's Katana

After an hour he finally gets to a road and sees a car passing by, he holds up his finger in a gun type of way and shoots a flaming needle at the driver. It instantly goes through the window, the driver's head, then through the other window. He goes to the car and drags the driver out, throwing him on the floor. He gets in and keeps driving. 

Back to the present... 

He finishes thinking of that flashback and stops, to decide where to turn. He reads the directions on the side of the road and turns the correct way, finally about to enter California. 

Limit: Now, where should I go eat first when I get back to L.A? He doesn't have his phone either, so he leans back in his seat going back into deep thought.

January 22nd, Outside of L.A.

Haruto was riding his Harley Davidson to the spot where he first met Giorno to get some peace and quiet. After he parked, he watched the sun set before the armored man who had attacked him previously appeared holding a scythe. He pressed the button on his belt four times and held his scythe above him as his belt announced "Sloth Grave." Before Haruto could react, the man swung his scythe, now charged with light blue energy, and cut Haruto in half. A portal appeared between the two halves, pulling both the man and Haruto's bisected body into it before disappearing. As they floated through a wormhole, Haruto's body stitched itself back together right before he hit the surface of a barren planet.

Man: Surprise mother f--er. Lemme give you a sneak peak of your future.

Haruto: Is this really necessary...?

Man: Don't want you to be surprised when you get the full deck. Follow me. He began walking towards the pillar of light in the distance, Haruto following him seeing that there was no other choice, really.

Haruto: What's over here?

Man: The Arcana. The creators of the Tarot buckles. They walked up to a circular table that was surrounded by seven titanic humanoids. They don't respond unless you have the full deck.

Haruto: So... this is where I get my new powers?

Man: Once you have the full deck, yes.

Haruto: Now what...?

Man: Go home, kid. The man charged up another "Sloth Grave," slashing him in half and sending Haruto back to Earth as the portal pulled his two halves through a wormhole. He's gone now.

Arcana Fiamma: So that's the next candidate...? The red-colored titan opened his crimson eyes, the lines all over his body taking on a mahogany glow.

Man: Indeed so.

Arcana Acqua: He is awfully young... A feminine voice rung from the blue-color titan, brilliant cobalt eyes opening while the lines on her body glowed navy.

Arcana Vento: Better than nothing, right? The green titan spoke with a light-hearted, masculine voice as his emerald eyes awakened and a pale green glow was emitted from the lines on his own body

Arcana Terra: Perhaps he will turn out different from the original... A mature, feminine voice spoke from an orange body as she opened her yellow eyes and her body's designs began to glow in a burnt orange.

Arcana Ombra: Hopefully, there's nothing too bad with this one... The dark colored titan opened his onyx eyes and looked at his hands, seeing the purple glow in his designs while his tone sounded ominous.

Arcana Luce: I don't think he's that bad. The brightly-colored titan spoke in a cheerful, endearing voice befitting a loving mother as her iridescent eyes beamed with a sort of love as her body's designs lit up in gold.

Shin Arcana: He will be an excellent warrior. With our training and our assistant's training. The grey titan spoke in a manner matching that of a stern father, looking at the man who had brought Haruto to them Isn't that right? Origin?

Origin: Sure. As long as the power doesn't drive him bat s-it insane! He began to chuckle to himself in an unstable manner, removing the cartridge from his belt and pressing the button on it to take off his armor.

After travelling through the wormhole, Haruto was returned to his bike gasping heavily as he looked around, confused and slightly scared by what just happened.

Haruto: Yare yare daze... That's my future...? *Am I sure I want this...?* He looked at his buckle solemnly before putting it away and heading home to sleep for the night.

January 23rd, 2026

Haruto was riding to their tunnel base, now named the Sanctum after all the current members of the Absconders had a meeting and debated over a name for their new headquarters. While still on the streets, he came across a crowd gathered around a body hanging from ropes between two buildings. He parked his bike on the side of the street and approached someone in the crowd.

Haruto: Excuse me, what's going on here?

Office Woman: There's a dead body hanging up there! She pointed at the body, then turned away crying. Haruto looked up and saw the body was severely torn up, its internal organs hanging out of its body.

Haruto: Who would do such a thing...? He then notices the body is wearing something akin to a superhero outfit, complete with a personalized symbol and a mask to hide their identity *Wait, this person's wearing... a superhero outfit? Maybe? Was a superpowered murdered? What for? Is someone making an example out of this...?* Haruto backed away after taking several photos of the body, using the World untransformed to take pictures without having to worry about people blocking his view. After getting the pictures, he put his phone and buckle away, then got back on his bike and drove to the Sanctum. He used his "garage" entrance and parked his bike there before heading into the main room to talk to everyone.

Eliana: This is sick. Who would do something like this? Was it that villain we fought, Trey? Spoil?

Trey: I don't know anything about Spoil. All I know he's trying to find the agency that creates symbiotes. It could've been him, but maybe not. I don't understand why he would've killed someone. He looks around at the pictures looking stumped.

Haruto: Anyone notice this person's wearing some kind of costume? He zooms in whatever detail he can pick up on the corpse's outfit, the personal symbol stitched onto the back of the outfit Looks like some kind of wanna be superhero if you ask me. Maybe he or she had superpowers?

Eliana: Poor kid, didn't deserve such a death for wanting to help people. But why would a new, unknown hero be killed in such a...dynamic way?

Alyna: Could've been a personal problem. She says this while carrying a huge stack of papers from her room to the garbage in the main room. It was random and on the street. Who's to say it wasn't personal?

Antonia came in wearing her costume, panting a whole lot, and was scratched up.

Antonia: Guys, assassins, now, not just ninjas, they're sending messages...Oh God...

Trey: What? Did you encounter someone? He turns to Antonia

Antonia: Four, four crapbaskets....

Haruto: What did they look like?

Antonia: All of them wore hoods, like some kind of AC reunion.

Eliana: It's them again.

Thad: Who?

Eliana: The Seven Virtues. The guys that blew up the Centre. They also wore hoods.

Alyna: Sounds like a group who should be doing good things. Not horrible murders...

Trey: Well, we don't know their purpose, so we should stay on alert... Wait, idea. Should we lure them out?

He looks around the room for agreement

Trey: Look, if they killed some superhero, it could be personal, or to make a statement. We don't know that, maybe we should try to do some superheroing more publicly, and see if they get drawn out.

Alyna: I don't know...

Trey: What do you all think?

Eliana: That's crazy. You want to attract a company of assassins? You may have killed some before, but we haven't seen what they're capable of. They managed to blow up the Centre! And they got away. I've fought people like that, and they don't go down easy. She exchanges looks with Thad.

Antonia: I think it's worth a go, hell I can be the bait... Exchanges looks with everyone and sighs Look, I believe we can do this, as in we're a team, not like anyone will LEAVE the others in the dirt right? Notices a change in demeanor of Eliana and the other first three Look right now even ninjas are after me, and as long they're close to me when I'm in the Virtues' crossfire, then if I survive, but experience a damn fatal blow, then let the Virtues shoot their strongest gun...

Alyna: No Toni. You're not going to sacrifice yourself. We're not even sure how strong the actual Virtues are.

Trey: Yea, our best bet is for Toni to attract the lower tier ones she fought before. After that, maybe Eli or me could read their minds to find out what they know. It-

Alyna: -Feels too risky! She looks at Trey We don't know who's going to come.

Trey: Yea...

Eliana: By the looks of it there's Silver ones, and Bronze ones. I'm assuming the Silver ones are higher ranked. And we can presume there's Gold ones too.

Antonia: Guys, I'll be real, there were three bronze ones, and one silver, I was able to kill a bronze, wound the other two, and was able to punch a silver in the face, had to run...

Trey: Yea, no. I faced off against a few more bronze and a silver. I had to run as well. But Haruto did save me with his power. If there are Gold ones, then we'll all be fucked, if it's any stronger than us. We could hopefully take a Gold one, but there would be no time to run.

Eliana: The strange thing is they all seemed to have superpowers.

Trey: Yea, for some reason. I didn't think assassins used powers like that, just weapons...

Eliana: You know, since they're a company, maybe we should ask their clients for information about them? People who've hired them before.

Trey: Where could we possibly find these clients?

Haruto: Are we sure that this group even has clients...? For all we know, they could be operating independently and they're self-funded somehow.

Eliana: It's worth a shot to look around for something.

Trey: So where do we start?

Eliana: Thad and I can go and collect info from people's minds, and see if anyone knows about the Seven Virtues.

Thad: You're dragging me into this?

Eliana: Weren't you already dragged into this when they tried to blow you up in the Centre with us?

Thad: Fine. Crime Lords are the best bet for Seven Virtues clients, I can find out some stuff from them.

Eliana: Good. I can also ask Myron if he knows anything. Oh, that's the new teacher guy I told you about.

Thad: About him, I'll be joining you in your next lesson with him.

Eliana: What? No. Why?

Thad: Because this guy sounds like a creep. Just looking out for you.

Eliana: Ugh, fine. Anyway, we can go and meet back here in a couple hours, guys. Eliana and Thad leave the base and return a couple hours later to discuss their findings. Hey guys. Thad and I visited some crime bosses, business men and other bastards, we found some stuff out about the Seven Virtues.

Thad: Yeah, they're definitely a company, they get hired by people to kill others. They hire the lesser assassins, the ones without any colours on them for killing regular people who owe them money and stuff. They all have super powers, apparently.

Eliana: They get paid a lot, a hundred thousand is the maximum for a regular assassin or two. Sometimes those Bronze guys are hired for a million each. They're really some high tier killers.

Thad: The Bronze guys are like soldiers it seems, special guys for killing high status characters.

Eliana: And our theory was correct, there's regular, Bronze, Silver and Gold assassins. The Gold and Silver are not for hire it seems. None of the clients know anything else, just that to contact them you need to have connections, and a crap tonne of money, They're very picky it seems.

Thad: It also seems that they carry different weapons too, along with their powers, and the higher ranked they are, the stronger their powers. That's all we collected. It was hard to get anything out of them without using mind control.

Alyna: Great information. I think we should leave it alone for a little while. We don't want any suspicious of us knowing these things to be eventually found out.

Trey: Yea, if we're going to go superheroing, we've gotta watch our backs. And if anything happens to us, we've gotta try to send a text or signal or something for help.

Antonia: Speaking of anything happening, could someone make me a new costume/suit, cuz this is always being torn up, and once, I pretty much became like the opening to Terminator. She gestured to the tears, rips, and missing parts of her current costume.

Eliana: Design one. I can make it for you. Just think one up in your head and I can conjure it.

Antonia: Okay. She takes out a note pad and gets a ball pen and for five minutes it took her to design it, she gave it to Eliana, it was a tight body suit under it with Kevlar and Titanium tri-weaves. The main outfit has a navy blue kevlar vest with a small white skull on it, an orange jacket with white hood that even has a description on it saying: "Can you put durable materials in it and make it easy to move in?", navy blue cargo pants with kevlar weave, some more armor (Thigh guards, shin guards, and gloves) and finally a stylized skull helmet mask, she even put some futuristic pistols for fun Is it too complicated?

Eliana: A little. I'll be right back. She left to absorb some objects then returned. She then generated Emerald energy which wrapped around Antonia, before forming into her costume. That should work.

Antonia: Crap, you work past expectations. Feels something in her jacket's chest area, and then she pulled out the two futuristic pistols Aw how sweet of you!

After a while Antonia was in the computer room with Alyna, sharing stories.

Antonia: Anyway that was my dad. Notices something on cam, and with was Taskmaster searching places for her and sighed That's him...

Alyna: What're you going to do about it then? She stood back looking curious

Antonia: Nothing yet... She looks at another screen and sees some Hivemind soldiers, an entire platoon in fact, are skulking around the remains of The Centre Wait those are the aliens, it's almost been a month without them here in Cali... She sounds a bit worried.

Alyna: Why are they here? And around the Centre? She backed up We should go

Antonia: Just the two of us Alyna, last time I talked about the aliens to the others they were a bit uneasy. She stated as she put her Skull helmet on.

Alyna: Alright that's fine. I'm probably going to need a superhero costume. But whatever. Let's go. Lead the way.

Later That Day

Eliana was in her room in the Sanctum (sh*t name tbh guys :/) with Myron, doing her second training session. The first involved nothing more than Eliana asking questions about Clio and other timelines Myron has visited so nothing much got done, so this session Myron wanted some training to happen, Thad had also joined, but he stood against the wall in the corner watching them.

Myron: Now, Eliana, I am going to teach you about your temper. I travelled back to when you unleashed your Destruction Magic upon the city, and destroyed many buildings and-

Eliana: Please- don't mention that. I don't want to be associated with that event. It's in the past now.

Myron: The past is the present depending on perspective. And I'm not trying to bring back hostile memories, I want to tell you how to control your anger.

Eliana: Forget it, I don't need further counselling on this matter. Suppress my anger because it is harmful type stuff.

Myron: No, no, that's not at all what I teach. I want you to use your anger when fighting.

Eliana: What?

Myron: Yes, when you are angry, it is good, anger brings out the power in us to do what our minds truly want.

Eliana: Anger is blinding.

Myron: If you don't know how to use it. Don't let your emotions control you, let them guide you. Your Destruction Magic is brought out by rage, and fueled by the power of life itself. It drains the energies of living beings and turns them into a force of great strength and passion, not destruction, which Clio failed to understand. Renaming them to Ruby was a step in the right direction away from her.

Eliana: I understand, all this time I was too afraid to use Ruby fearing it was only for murder and torment, I guess I was using it wrong. But what was so wrong about Clio?

Myron: She craved power, and so only saw her gifts as weapons. It is far more than that. I couldn't show her, but I can show you.

Eliana: Is that why she left you? For someone more powerful, who craved power as well?

Myron: Yes. Your ancestor.

Eliana: But you helped her become Sorceress Supreme. And she left you for someone more powerful?

Myron: As there are things you would rather not discuss, I do not wish to discuss further in this matter. Now let us move on, I hear you have trouble with finding sources of energy.

Eliana: Um, yeah. Sometimes.

Myron: Then I present you this. He takes out from his pocket a weird bronze broach, wrapped in cloth which he unfolds then hands to Eliana. It is a broach, Clio's Broach. I gifted it to her and she enchanted it into a device to absorb energy from the surroundings up to a kilometre's radius.

Clio's Broach, except it is bronze.

Eliana: Whoa. This belonged to Clio?

Myron: Yes, it did. I took it from her after her death. She would have wanted you to have it.

Eliana: O-oh, okay. How does it work?

Myron: If you mean how to use it, you press down on that button on the side of it, then it absorbs the energy into it, and it knows how much you need and does'nt over drain anything. It also stores extra energy inside it if your capacity is maxed out. If you meant how it works, then I can't help you there. It is powerful magic that only Clio could've done. It also enhances energy output, and makes input 100% efficient so you are receiving and expelling all the energy you desire. Keep it on you, because simply carrying it gives you stronger powers. Don't lose it, it can be damaged but not destroyed.

Eliana: Wow, thank you so much! This is awesome.

Myron: I'm glad you're pleased with it. Now it is time to put you to the test.

Eliana: Okay, so press the button right?

Myron: No, not here. You'll test it during a fight.

Eliana: Oh, okay, what fight? Against you?

Myron: You wish, Eliana. He holds one arm up and snaps his finger, as a cold shiver is sent down their spines and a rattling roar is heard from a large distance away.

Thad: What on Earth was that?

Myron: I suspended a creature out of time and just unleashed it.

Eliana: What?! Why?!

Myron: So you can fight it. It's a demon. Hurry, before it kills too many people!

Eliana: You're crazy! She puts the broach in her pocket then runs out with Thad, out of the base and towards the source of the roar.

Meanwhile at the remains of The Centre.

Antonia and Alyna hid in some boxes, as they saw multiple Hivemind soldiers looking for something, and they saw him, Ruinator, with the two alien bounty hunters, Swift-Knife and Deadeye, if you are not sure who these three are, read the Dark Days side-story. The three started talking.

Deadeye: So much for his heroism, ammirite?

Swift-Knife: Earthly subject known as "meme" detected, humorous on four levels...haha.

Ruinator: Have you two found anything yet?

Deadeye: Nothing, these soldiers of yours are more fool, than function when sent to search, pity for that scout ship which was lost, Vanquish's friend destroyed it though. Shame...

Ruinator: For shame indeed.

Swift-Knife: What will we do if a hero finds us?

Ruinator: Lord Dread is entering his transformation, the less obstacles the better...

A hivemind grunt ran towards the three, sending almost beeping like sounds.

Ruinator: You found a sample? The grunt shows the remains of some dead nanites, Ruinator then scans it and remade the camera Dom made on that day, and saw the recording, and inspected the camera as well Hm, Lord Dread is right, no more real Vanquish, just the boy wearing him and using his name...

Antonia took some quick photos and then a video when they started talking, and then she turned to Alyna.

Antonia: This guy has a look of Megatron and the voice of the announcer from a video game...We need to take care of them, now...

Alyna: Okay, you go first. She readies herself

Suddenly all Grunts beeped, then shouted as they took out weapons, and the three were being cautious. Antonia suddenly jumped out the box and by instinct shot out jets of flames staggering some, but decided to switch to pistols as she fired them incapacitating one of them, Ruinator tried to shoot at her, but then she dodged it by flipping over it.

Antonia: Alyna, maybe it's time for a splash?! She shouted as she was basically fighting grunts, Swift-Knife and Deadeye at the same time.

Alyna jumps from the box and spins while generating water and sending columns of dense water at both Knife and Deadeye, pushing them back away from Antonia. She lands and dashes towards the Hivemind soliders, with water forming in her hand. She holds out her hand to make the water into a large shield, blocking the projectiles they were firing. She skids to a stop next to the soliders, and puts down her shield, quickly striking a solider 4 times, knocking them out. A solider tries to run up behind her and she slightly looks back and kicks the solider in the stomach, then grabbing it's head and jumping to knee the solider in the face, breaking it's nose and jaw.

Swift-Knife decided to take Antonia as his fight, they were seen jumping and trading blows, Antonia through pistol whipping, Swift-Knife through slashes. Ruinator, gave ghe camera to a Hivemind soldier.

Ruinator: Take it, the nanites in this are strong... The Grunt nodded, running off.

Deadeye recovered as he approached Alyna spinning his guns, as he holsters the, and threw his hat revealing it had a circular saw blade in the brim turning it into a death machine flying towards Alyna, as he was making her dance with his guns and her dodging the death hat.

Alyna: This hat goes on it's own? She gets slashes a couple times as she falls to the ground. She looks back up and does a backflip off the ground then keeps stepping back, then bolting away from the projectiles. When she gets a good enough distance away, she makes water swirl around her right hand then inside her palm forms a golden trident. She smirks as she then bolts right back at him, swinging the trident at blinding speeds, fending off the fast saw hat and eventually smashing it beneath her. She spun and uses water to block the projectiles coming at her. The trident then turns back into water but she slams the water in the terrain beneath her, making it turn into steam and spreading across the area. She runs around stealthily, with Deadeye not knowing where she is.

Suddenly Alyna transmutes a golden rapier out of water and times her attack right, and lines it up. She then shoots her arm out, with the rapier in her hand and the tip of the rapier suddenly extends like a needle, but it shoots out and pierces Deadeye in the waist and Swift-Knife in the leg. The rapier shoots into the rubble after that and the steam clears to see the two enemies standing still, impaled by the extended rapier. She turns the rapier into water again, and dashes at Deadeye, beating on him, with lots of quick punches until he passes out.

Alyna: Get him Toni! That's when Toni goes in for her attack...

An Apartment Building

In LA this time, Jason Roy was in an apartment. He was stabbing himself with a kitchen knife in his bedroom, cutting his own throat. He was screaming as he did it, blood everywhere, he stabbed so much that he decapitated himself. He lay dead for a few seconds before he roared and his back bent backwards, his head and neck tethering together and reattaching as the tendons and skin regrows then he sits up and roars again, which turns into a scream.

Jason: Ah, screw you. You just won't let me die, won't you? A loud roar shakes the room Damn, what's with the attitude? The same demonic roar is heard. That wasn't you, what the Hell was that? His senses flash, as his eyes flash yellow then fade to normal. It's a f*cking demon. A big one. He gets up from the blood puddle on his bed and looks out the window to see a large monster tearing apart the city down below. Haha, let's go kill this one. Show who's the bigger demon, ey? He opens the window and dives out, landing on the ground hard, breaking his knees but they heal almost instantly as he straightens up to look at the demon. How far in Hell did they reach to pull you out?

The demon that was attacking the city.

The 5 metre tall demon roars at him loudly, and civilians use this as a distraction to escape the area, some leaving their cars behind. Jason, who is wearing a grey-white trench coat with midnight purple clothing underneath, stares at the demon's sharp teeth, impressed.

Jason: Nice set of fangs you got there. I guess you're not sentient. He pulls out two pistols from his trenchcoat and twirls them. Nah... He throws the guns away chuckling, then the monster swings its two right arms at Jason, but he blocks it with one arm. Suddenly Jason's eyes become pitch black, his blond hair gets dark roots, he grows a demonic smile with fangs and sharp nails, and his skin turns pale. Jason clenches one fist, then punches the demon in the gut, sending the heavy monster flying back onto the ground, crushing a car and blowing it up, though this doesn't affect it. Jason then dashes towards the demon and jumps over the demon, stomping down onto its chest and breaking its ribs. The demon roars then smacks Jason away with three arms and uses the forth to push himself off the ground. Jason lands rolling on the concrete then steadies himself. He then goes up to the demon and to a nearby double-decker bus, then with one hand, effortlessly flips the entire bus ontop of the demon, pinning it down temporarily. He walks away across the street away from the demon, when Eliana and Thad turn up, as the sun begins to set into night.

Eliana: There it is, that's the demon!

Jason: What? I'm not the f*cking demon, it's over there, idiot!

Eliana: Huh. She sees the demon pinned by the bus. Oh... Then who are you?

Jason: Who are you?

Thad: No time for introductions, guys. He gestures towards the demon, which gets up, sliding the bus off itself with its multiple arms. That's a real God damn demon!

Jason: No sh*t. Are you guys here to stop it? Superheroes?

Eliana: Kinda, yeah. The demon slices the bus in half and throws one half at them, as Thad rushes to drag Eliana away. Regardless, Jason jumps up and drop kicks it, leaving a huge dent in it and kicking it away from them. Wow. You're strong.

Jason: Yeah. You guys going to do anything?

Thad runs at the demon and spinning heel kicks it, using TK to enhance the force of the kick, which snaps the giant demon's leg, causing it to collapse, but it holds itself up with one arm acting as a leg. Thad then grabs its other leg, but let's go in pain after a few seconds.

Thad: God damn, that skin is hot!

Eliana: Myron really did drag this thing out of Hell.

Thad: Eliana don't touch it, I can deal with it. He pulls out his gun and shoots out the monster's eyes, causing it to flail its arms in rage, taking out a nearby building and causing the building to collapse ontop of it, but the rubble slides around Thad because of his powers. That should buy us some time. Let's let the police take care of it.

Jason: That thing's not dead yet.

Eliana: Yeah, besides this is my mission. I should kill it myself.

Jason: Good luck with that.

Eliana: Who are you anyway? You look a little...

Jason: Yeah. I'm here to kill this demon as well. Yeah I look like one to you, but don't judge me.

Eliana: Okay then...crap its free! The demon breaks out of the rubble and roars, then charges at the three of them. Eliana takes out the broach then clicks the switch button, making the metal flower on its center spin really fast, then suddenly red, blue, green and purple energies are sucked into it from the surroundings, vibrating the air and destroying small objects. Eliana begins glowing as she un-clicks the button, stopping the drain. She then looks at the demon, and punches the air between them, sending a concentrated blast of Ruby plasma at the demon, blasting onto its chest and knocking it over. It gets up with a sizzling wound open on its chest. That worked!

Jason: Still not dead. I got this. Blood Rain. After saying the incantation with a demonic voice, he breathes out while looking up, and a blood red mist floats out of his mouth up to the clouds in the night sky and causes them to rain blood. The rain, upon touching Jason's skin, boosts him, as he growls and runs at the beast and jumps to dodge its punches. Jason then lands behind the demon, grabbing one of its arms mid-air, and tearing it off. He then beats the demon with its own arm then tosses it to the side. Jason climbs the roaring demon's back as it tries to grab him with its third arm but misses; Jason then holds his hand up into a fist as blood from the rains drips down it, then punches straight into the demon's spin, as everyone hears a large crack, and the demon screeches, falling to the ground. Jason rides it down then jumps off, landing in front of its body near its head.

Eliana: Damn, you're pretty strong.

Jason: What? Oh, yeah, I am.

The demon moves again and grabs Jason, opening its mouth to bite him, but Eliana reacts by generating a large sword in a flash of green light, shooting it out and into the demon's mouth, stabbing it in the throat and out the back of its nape. The lifeless hand drops Jason, as he pulls himself out, then kicks the sword handle to twist the demon's neck.

Jason: Ah, f*ck you.

Eliana: You okay?

Jason: Never and always. He holds a hand out to the demon, as it fades away and disintegrates into darkness and absorbs into Jason, his irises glow yellow then fade into full black, then returns back to blue eyes, as does his body returns to a human form. Done and done.

Thad: What the Hell was that?

Jason: I absorbed the demon's soul.

Eliana: How?

Jason: That's my powers...I have a demonic soul, gives me powers of a demon. Why am I explaining myself to you?

Eliana: You seem pretty powerful, taking that demon down. Say, I'm in a superhero group-

Thad: Eliana, no.

Eliana: Don't worry, we might need him.

Thad: The man just ate a demon.

Jason: And it tasted sour. Now what were you saying?

Eliana: I am in a group of superheroes. We fight crime for fun, helping people along the way. You seem pretty powerful, and I assume you're not a villain, are you willing to join?

Jason: Am I willing to join a superhero group... Maybe. Sh*t gets boring a lot, might be fun.

Thad: You're going a little fast with this...

Eliana: We're just going to question him. We'll let him join if the others agree. What's the worst that can happen? We save more people if we expand our team.

Thad: Fine.

Eliana: So...you in?

Jason: Sure.

Eliana: Awesome. But I need to have some words with Myron about this first... The three head back to the main tunnel base together to introduce Jason to the Absconders.

Back to Alyna and Antonia.

They had beaten Deadeye and Swift-Knife as they slid towards the feet of Ruinator, and he scoffs.

Ruinator: Your abilities seem useful, join Lord Dread, enter the Hivemind and you will be spared...

Antonia: Alyna?

Alyna: Why would we? Your intentions don't seem very trustworthy. We're not joining you.

Ruinator: Powers we have, technology, but if you say so, your end wnt be swi--- Antonia fired a shot literally between his eyes, but he just got cut off from what he was gonna say, he grunts a bit and chargest at them with two swords, Antonia tried flipping then doing a drop kick, but she jst ended up bouncing off of him, he then tries to stab Alyna, and she notices his sword fighting is Medival in nature, as she ended up avoiding it.

Alyna: You're not killing me. She dodged the charge of the sword, then used her left hand to grab the blade, then uses her right elbow to slam down on the blade and snap it in half, leaving half of the blade in her left hand. She then spins 360 and uses the blade in her left hand to impale Ruinator in the chest, then moves the blade around slowly up through his chest as she stares right into his eyes. Farewell...

He growls as purple blood bled from his mouth, Ruinator was then about to shoot her with his fusion cannon, but Antonia shot it causing a big smoke cloud all they heard were metallic foot steps running off.

Antonia: Crap, they ran away, She looks at some Hivemind grunts groaning on the ground Looks like we can take these guys to the others for interrogation.

Alyna: Alright. She looks at her hand as its bleeding from gripping the blade of the sword. She casts some magic to heal it but her blood suddenly glows as it floats up and seeps back into her hand as the cut remains open. She uses her other hand to heal the cut on her hand. *How come my blood did that?* She thinks about it as she looks back at Antonia and goes to take a guy back to the base.

Somewhere in L.A.

Haruto and Giorno had just finished obtaining a few more cards, now finally at 17 cards each. As they walked down the streets, Haruto noticed the man with the buckle lurking in the shadows.

Haruto: Giorno, think you can use the World?

Giorno: I've been practicing, but I've only gotten up to 3 seconds.

Haruto: Better than nothing. Get it ready.

Origin: *Something's off. I sense another presence like mine...* Haruto! Use the Hanged Man after the World! He called out to Haruto before transforming into his Sin Origin armor. After everyone froze time, Haruto quickly used the Hanged Man. Doing so caused his body to glow two colors: his left side colored cyan while the right glowed orange. His body then split in half as his armor began to manifest, changing to match the two halves. His right half wore an orange bodysuit with silver armor and cyan highlights while his left half wore a cyan bodysuit with silver armor and orange highlights. Good!

Haruto (Orange): The hell is this?! Suddenly, his body froze in time due to the World not currently equipped.

Haruto (Cyan): This is awfully concerning... This Haruto spoke in a meek tone before he froze in time.

Giorno: Haruto?! What happened?! Giorno took the three seconds of movement he had in frozen time to run in front of Haruto, freezing up right in front of him in a defensive stance. *Dammit, I can't move anymore...!*

Origin: Where are you?! He called out in the frozen time. A man in a silver business suit holding a game-pad-like device walked towards the two. Who the hell are you?!

Business Suit: The second to obtain the World. He held up the game-pad device before attaching it to an armor-like plate on his waist that was secured by a buckle You didn't think you were the only one, did you?

Origin: You're the one after me... Aren't you named... Cronus?

Cronus: Correct, Origin. He held up a cartridge and inserted it into the slot on his new belt. A red button next to the slot for the cartridge was pressed, causing him to begin his transformation as the belt announced "Cronus" and a clock began to count down. As it did, black armor segments attached themselves while it counted down. Once the clock hit "midnight," the armor fully materialized and formed a black trench coat similar to Origin's pale-blue coat, though it had a pale-green interior lining. A single, pale green horn extended from Cronus's helmet as the clock shattered and the armor gained pale green energy flowing throughout it.

Haruto (Both): What is this...?

Origin: I'll give you both a fighting chance. He reached into his coat and pulled out two injectors. After walking up to both Haruto's, he gave the two an injection to the neck, allowing them to move within the frozen time. Get the Star Slasher, you're gonna have to share it in this form. Though I would like to say... He gave Giorno the same injection as he did Haruto, allowing Giorno to equip his usual Strength armor The Hanged Man's abilities are very interesting. But I wouldn't rely on it for too long. It'll break up your sanity if you stay like that for a long time.

Haruto (Orange): Understood. He held out his hand and summoned the Star Slasher, putting it in blade mode.

Haruto (Cyan): I'll find another way around him then.

Origin: Here, you can borrow this. Origin summoned an ancient longsword that was still in excellent fighting condition despite the age. It won't break on you, trust me. He handed the sword to the cyan-armored Haruto, who thanked him kindly

Giorno: I'll do what I do best... He punched his fists together, ready to fight.

Cronus: Foolish. He pressed the two buttons on the face of the belt he wore, causing it to announce "Pause" as a clock began to slow down to nothing. Both Haruto's and Giorno froze again, this time completely unaware. They won't be able to fight like this. He removed the buckle of his belt, pressing the button that was on his right side and placing it to his wrist so that it formed an armored gauntlet, with a double-barreled laser gun extending over his knuckles.

Origin: It's the best I had. He grabbed the Star Slasher and the longsword from the dual Haruto's, switching the former to gun mode as he ran at Cronus.

Cronus: Hm, hm... He fired the laser gun on his wrist at Giorno, the explosion freezing in time after leaving the barrel. Then he pressed the button on the back of his gauntlet and rotated it around before pushing it in. The laser gun's barrels collapsed into the armor as a chainsaw-like blade extended from the other end.

Origin: Don't ignore me, dammit! He slashed at Cronus with his sword, who blocked with the arm blade.

Cronus: I'm only dealing with nuisances. Like you. You're in my way. He switched back to the laser gun and blasted Origin, knocking him back a bit. While Origin was distracted, Cronus snuck up behind the two Haruto's and slashed at them both with the arm blade, the damage being frozen in time.

Origin: Damn you...

Cronus: Your turn. Though you require a much stronger attack... He removed the pad from his gauntlet and placed it back on his belt in its proper orientation, pressing the button on the left once to charge his next attack. A projection of a clock appeared beneath his feet as he got in a kicking stance.

Origin: Like hell I'll let you kick my ass! He threw his weapons to the side, then pressed the button on his belt twice. It announced "Gluttony Bite" as orange energy charged around his feet.

Cronus: Eat this!! He pressed the left button once more, causing his belt to announce "Critical Reaping." The two ran at each other, Cronus's clock projection following him. Cronus stopped and performed a reverse roundhouse kick, the clock hands moving with his foot as it struck midnight and collided with Origin's kick, which was in an attempt to counter Cronus's.

Origin: Sucks you can only use one foot for this. Have another bite of Gluttony! He jumped up and used his other leg to knee Cronus in the mask, breaking into it and destroying half of its visor. He used his other foot to push off and roll back. Time began to flow once more as Cronus lost his concentration and his belt automatically began to restore the flow of time with a simple "Resume."

Cronus: You're the Origin for a reason... He grumbled as he held the broken portion of his mask.

Origin: Damn right. With a swipe of his hand, time resumed its flow fully. The effects of Cronus's attacks kicked in, blasting Giorno backwards while both Haruto flew forward from the force of Cronus's slash.

Giorno: I was able to move in the frozen time though... What the hell happened?

Haruto: Don't tell me... Both Haruto's switched into the Star armor simultaneously, bringing them back together as one They froze time within frozen time...?

Origin: When you get to be as powerful as us, it's possible. He shrugged it off as a common occurrence, more focused on Cronus's next move.

Cronus: Are these the next two on their way to the World?

Origin: Indeed. The Arcana find Haruto promising, though they've yet to see the other one.

Haruto: How did you get my name...?

Origin: Not important. Anyways, I'll see you all around. He charged another Sloth Grave and dove into the portal generated by it, disappearing without a trace as the portal closed behind him.

Cronus: That guy... You didn't see anything. He waved his hand at Giorno and Haruto before disappearing, like nothing had happened.

Haruto: We need to head back...

Giorno: Yeah... Need healing?

Haruto: I'll take care of it later, let's get back to the base. Haruto walked towards the parking lot where he had parked his motorcycle, Giorno following suit. They removed their armors in an alley on the way there to avoid revealing their identities.

Back at the Absconders Tunnel.

As everyone hung out just talking, Antonia and Alyna came back with five Hivemind soldiers, all with buckets covering their heads to prevent them from seeing anything.

Antonia: Guys! We found these and three others at the remains of the Centre!

Alyna: Yea. We don't know what they were doing but it looked heavily suspicious.

Trey walks over to them as he stares at the soldiers in surprise

Trey: These look like the guys that fought Dominic when he was here. And these are the reason he absconded from us...

Eliana: She approaches the grunt and removes the bucket, looking at its face These bastards drove Dominic away...

Thad: They don't look like much. And he wanted to fight these guys alone? What were they doing back at the Centre? Probably trying to look for anything relating to Dominic. Wonder how long this mess he brought starts affecting us badly. And why would you bring it here? In your new secret base? Don't they have trackers?

Eliana: Micah set up a signal jammer, and I have Amethyst protection around the base.

Omega Grunt 56: Foolish Magic bearer, we don't need strength in physicality in total, all we require is data and preparation, I sense you want to know what Vanquish is afraid of, what drove him away, and what's keeping him from coming back hm?

Thad: We don't need to hear this.

Eliana: Yes, we do. Tell us.

Omega Grunt 56: Our new master, Head Lord Dread, he has came to this planet before, ever since what you call BCE, unfortunately the Vanquish host known as Brotok pushed him into one of your volcanoes, there he laid dormant until 2018, he grew hatred, enough to plan. The moment he found out it was just the host in charge, he grew estatic, wanting what you all call a rematch, so he prepared, he manipulated one of the other Head Lords, break Vanquish, through Wicked. Our first attack had no affect on him, barely though, but thanks to your telepathic friend it helped us unleash Wicked, to the point his irrationality paradoxed to his willpower, he thought sacrifice was in play, that the nanites being purged is still an option. We will kill him, everywhere he's been, even this city. And Dread, he takes a new name...Chernabog.

Eliana grabs the grunt, her eyes glowing purple with red pupils.

Eliana: You're not going to do anything. She punches the grunt in its face hard enough to shatter its skull and break its neck.

The other grunts whimpered in fear.

Antonia: Hm, way to set the pecking order...

Eliana: Just, get these f*cks out of here. She sits down on the sofa, sighing.

Jason: Am I interrupting something? I can come back later?

Eliana: No. Stay, just, tell us your powers, Jason?

Jason: Yes. Um, they're demon related, I have a demonic magic art called Devilry, I can shapeshift into shadow animals, swap skins with people, I'm strong? Oh, and I'm immortal.

Eliana: Immortal?

Jason: Yeah. I can't die.

Eliana: That must suck.

Jason: Eh, only had it for several months, haven't been craving death in that time period.

Eliana: Oh okay. How did you get..."it"?

Jason: It's actually a long story. But to break it down, I met some kid in college who was supposedly possessed by a demon, I teased him, demon possessed me instead, demon is trapped inside me, bonded souls, a bit romantic if I put it like that. The demon can't free himself from me, I learnt how to control it, and now I'm here. I hunt supernatural threats to f*ck with it, hilarious at times.

Eliana: That's...okay, how old are you again?

Jason: 22. Is there an age limit or...

Eliana: No, what do you guys think? Mind having this guy on our team?

Trey: Sure! As long as he doesn't drag us down. He smiled then thought By the way, being possessed must suck, someone always inside of your head, knowing that you're never alone.

Alyna: Oh well. She grabbed all the soldiers by their legs and created a water rope that tied all their legs together as she dragged them Go ahead and join us. We don't really have a specific leader to this group, so anything goes. Also it'd be useful to have an immortal on the team. She continues to drag them out of the base and when she does, she forms a long icicle in her hand, and with a serious face she stabs the soldiers one by one in vital places, killing them. After that she freezes all the bodies in an ice dome and shatters it, as it turns into snow, flying away with the air. She re-enters as she stands by the sofa, returning to the conversation.

Jason: Well, it's more of a pain for the demon. Being in my head, and I'm in control most of the time, I annoy him. It's quite funny, people think of it, and me, as a monster, so I just go along with that stereotype to screw with him. The only way I get kicks, to be honest.

Eliana: That's a little messed up. Have you tried getting rid of it?

Jason: I can't. He's bound to me, and won't leave because he's stuck in the astral plane, and the only way he gets to fully influence events in our reality is by haunting someone, or possessing someone. He haunted that poor boy from Egypt at first, and possessed me permanently instead. He wants to use my body to get revenge on something, I don't know what, but I'm strong enough to stay in control. At least I get abilities by channeling his demonic powers through my body.

Haruto: Permanently possessed demon? Interesting. Your immortality is very interesting... But hey, he could be a decent addition to the team. I don't mind having him along. Jason, right?

Jason: Yes. Jason Roy.

Eliana: Great! So I guess that's enough votes to get you in. Welcome to the Absconders.

Jason: Awesome.

Eliana: She senses something as her face becomes unfocused. Someone's here... Myron? She gets up to go to her room, Thad following her. She enters and sees Myron standing there. She angrily approaches him. You! You summoned that demon and it attacked innocent people! What kind of test was that?!

Myron: Calm down. No one died.

Eliana: People could've! You put people's lives in danger!

Myron: I didn't plan for anyone to die. If anyone did, I could just rewind time back to this point, pulling you out of time to keep your experiences as a remnant. That way nothing happened in this timeline, but your memories would be from a destroyed timeline. It may be confusing to you, but I see out of time itself, so I understand, which is all that matters.

Eliana: Wha... Oh, okay... Well, I slayed the demon. The Broach works, it's pretty cool.

Myron: Good.

Eliana: So what's our next lesson?

Myron: I don't know. I didn't plan this far. I'm only human.

Eliana: Oh. Sorry.

Myron: Never mind. I'll be back tomorrow for your next lesson. He explodes into ripples, disappearing.

Thad: Do you trust that guy?

Eliana: Not one bit. But what harm could he bring, really.

Thad: 5 metre tall f*cking demons, that's what.

Eliana: At least he knew my ancestor. Just hope he's not evil or anything...

Thad: Can't be sure.

Eliana: Let's head back to the main room. They leave to the main room.

Midnight, same day

Vice, though in the identity of Chloe Hathaway, was in a nightclub in LA, mostly just staying around the sides of the crowd alone. She was drinking an unknown black liquid with a purple tint, glaring at the crowd, and the flashing lights. Two men with pale skin and nervous, sweaty faces approached her.

Man 1: Miss Vice, I've consulted with the DJ, the song will play soon.

Chloe: Good. What are my friends doing?

Man 2: The rest of the Erratics are back at the apartment building. What is it you're planning to do?

Chloe: What ever I feel like doing. This city has bored me enough. The song playing in the club changes, playing Power by Kanye West. Let's see how they react to this. Chloe drops the glass to the floor then pushes them to the side, walking into the crowd at the center of the dance floor. She walks into the middle of them, then clenches her hands, curling her body, as suddenly every in the club stops and starts screaming, grey energy rips out of them and drains into Chloe, as they all drop dead. Her eyes glow whitish grey, and she charges her body with sparkling energy. Chloe then explodes with energy, which is sucked back into the bodies of the people, reviving them all, as they get up, all with pale skin and dead faces, breathing heavily and grunting. She turned them all into energy zombies under her command. Do what you please, spawns.

The seventy energy zombies all run out the doors of the club and into the city, attacking random civilians and exploding themselves to wreck havoc. Chloe walks out with them and looks around.

Chloe: Haha, where's the police now? After several minutes, several cop cars arrive and the officers get out, firing their guns at the zombies. Chloe watches as the zombies blow up near the cops, defeating the forces as their cars are blown up too, so back up arrives in the form of SWAT teams, which take out a few zombies, but the deathly energy in their veins makes the zombies tougher, absolutely tearing apart the SWAT team. Chloe laughs at this. Did I just screw the city over by unleashing these zombies? F*cking awesome. The zombies kneel over and inject energy into the corpses, reviving them too and creating more energy zombies. Oh dear, more zombies. Haha, how will they deal with this?

A couple of zombies suddenly start floating up into the air, as if being picked up, as they squirm and screech. The are lifted to building height then are crushed, then they explode with energy. Chloe is shocked at this and then sees on top of a nearby tall building, a figure. The figure is wearing a cream-white cloak with golden outlines, and has a golden logo on its back; it is an assassin from the Seven Virtues.

Gold Assassin: Your destructive behaviour is at an end, superhuman!

Chloe: Another superhero out to dethrone me? Take your shot.

The Gold Assassin jumps off the building, dropping half the distance to the ground and starts hovering in the air, slowly descending to the ground. He lifts his arms up, as the ground beneath the zombies starts to crack and lift up in chunks, then crumbled, smothering and crushing the zombies then falls to the floor, filling in the crater in the street. He then points at one zombie, and suddenly many zombies around it are attracted to it and all fly at it, squishing each other into a ball and condensing. He finally lands on the ground, sending out a wave of gravity as he touches the street, which blows away objects and knocks all the zombies and Chloe over, he then stomps his foot, creating an earth-quake which shatters the street floor and crushes the zombies' skulls. Chloe avoids this by quickly jumps up before the wave.

Gold Assassin: Is this your army? The remaining zombies run at him, but he clenched his fists, sending out a powerful wave from him which blasts the zombies away. It's weak. You all should just surrender your lives before the Seven, and be done with it painlessly. He walks towards Chloe. Look at my power, the gift of the Seven Virtues, yours does not compare.

Chloe: Weak? How dare you! She charges up her hand with energy and fires many mini bullets of energy at him like an arm cannon, but he runs at her, dodging left and right. Some hit him due to its fast speed, but he brushes it off because he is wearing armour under the cloak. He reaches her then punches her so hard it sounds like all the air around her was sucked into a single point, then she flew back, breaking through the wall of the nightclub. Chloe comes running back out and creates a blade made of energy, then charges at him, slashing him with the blade but he easily dodges it, then pulls a dagger out and slits her wrist, dissipating the blade. She looks down at the bloody wrist, then dashes at him, letting him stab her in the stomach with the blade, then backflips to force the dagger out of his hand. Chloe then explodes into white energy, as the energy piles up to form a face that screams at the assassin, but he raises his hand and crushes the giant head with two chunks of concrete. The Gold Assassin then runs back to create distance between the two, but the energy head explodes again and reforms back into Chloe.

Chloe: Once I kill you, I'll bring your head back to the others, and hang it on my bedroom wall.

Gold Assassin: Your threats are nothing to me but arrogance. He points at her, as two cars go flying at her; Chloe jumps up, as they collide with each other, then lands down on them. She then kicks the air, sending out a crescent shaped energy wave at the assassin, but he flies up to avoid it, then increases the gravity between them to hover towards her fast. He concentrates the gravity around himself into a single point in his palms, then flies at her, palm striking her chest and knocking her to the ground hard, forcing her to throw up blood, but she smiles at this. He continues to strike her, each hit rippling the air around his fists, all shattering her bones. He lifts her up and punches her face, damaging her right eye, then uses gravity to restrain her to the ground.

Chloe: You d*ck... I'll destroy you...

Gold Assassin: Of all the superhumans I've slaughtered, I'll regret killing you the least.

Chloe: Oh but I'm not giving up just yet... The Gold Assassin prepares to strike her critically to kill her, but suddenly Chloe's eyes glow white, then the bodies of all the dead zombies glow white too. The assassin looks around suspicious, then the bodies all blow up in a huge white explosion that engulfs the two. It is seen from far away as the police arrive again but somehow the Gold Assassin survived, and is seen escaping the blast aftermath by the police, injured heavily and his cloak burnt. He scales a building using his gravity manipulation and reaches the top, pressing a button on his gauntlet and speaking into it.

Gold Assassin: Master, Ulfric here... The police arrived, and the superhuman unleashed a powerful explosion, unknown if the superhuman is still alive or not, but I managed to kill the minions. The superhuman was not very dangerous, but its powers were, as seen before. I will be the one to engage and destroy it the next I encounter a similar one. Heading back to base now. He turns it off then jumps around building to building, escaping the area.

The Same Night, about four hours ago

Haruto arrived at Katie's house on his Harley bobber, parking it in the driveway. It was very rare for there to be any rain in California, but it was lightly sprinkling as Haruto got off his bike, covering it with a tarp he had folded up and kept in his backpack. He went up to the door and knocked on it, not waiting long as Katie almost immediately answered.

Katie: Hey Hunter! Sorry to have you come over so late. She invites him into the house, moving aside so he can walk in.

Haruto: It's fine, I didn't have much else to do at home. He removes his shoes and places them next to the door out of habit, removing his motorcycle helmet and laying it on top of his shoes So, what's up?

Katie: Not much, just studying for a couple of tests next week. I'm super hungry though, so let's get something to eat. She closed the door after Haruto, locking it.

Haruto: Why not cook something? He removed his backpack, motorcycle jacket, and gloves, placing them by the couch. You've got some vegetables and stuff, right?

Katie: Yeah. Um, I don't have much, but we can figure something out, right?

Haruto: Of course. Got any rice? He went over to her kitchen and inspected the fridge, taking out some packs of ground meat, some onions, and a couple of eggs.

Katie: Uh... I don't think so, sorry. She rubbed the back of her head nervously, but went over to the kitchen to help out Haruto What were you planning on making?

Haruto: Hamburger steaks, with some rice. He got a cutting board and a kitchen knife, grabbing the onions and finely chopping them up Could you get the breadcrumbs, if you have any?

Katie: Lemme see... She reached into her cupboards and check for breadcrumbs. You're in luck, I have some Panko breadcrumbs. Oh, I also have some spaghetti! Should we make some?

Haruto: Yeah, sure. We can make Napolitan Spaghetti if you have some green peppers and sausage.

Katie: I think I have some... She went through the fridge to check for the ingredients, getting out all they needed. Doesn't that use ketchup as the sauce?

Haruto: Yeah. If you have some, get it out for me, please. He finished chopping the onions, sliding them all into a large mixing bowl. He then got to work on the meat, putting it into the same bowl and cracking an egg into it before adding the breadcrumbs and mixing it all together with his hands. While Haruto made the burger steaks, Katie boiled the spaghetti and cut up the sausage, peppers, and onions as Haruto instructed. The two spent a good hour or so cooking dinner together, moving around and occasionally bumping into each other on accident. Katie set the table while Haruto plated everything and added in some last-minute touches to make their meal extra presentable.

Katie: Oh, this smells so good~! I can't wait to eat it! She took a deep breath, enjoying the aroma of the food they had just prepared.

Haruto: Dinner is served. He walked out of the kitchen with a plate that held the burger steaks, a bowl of spaghetti, another bowl with a salad in it, and another plate of burger steaks. Taking care not to drop anything, he set the bowls and plates on the table before going back over to his backpack to grab something

Katie: Whatcha got there, Hunter? Haruto returned with a bottle of sake and a two-liter bottle of soda.

Haruto: I brought a few drinks over.

Katie: Is that... sake?

Haruto: Yeah, why?

Katie: We're not allowed to drink alcohol... I could get in trouble if that stays in my house...

Haruto: Who said I was gonna keep it here? He set the drinks on the table and grabbed two cups for them. Finally sitting down at the table, he loaded up his plate with spaghetti and a few burger steaks Itadakimasu.

Katie: Y-you weren't planning on getting the two of us drunk, were you...? She put some salad on her plate next to a few burger steaks, repeating Haruto's pre-meal saying before digging in.

Haruto: I'm kinda... used to it. Besides, it's the most diluted bottle I could find at home. Around 15% alcohol by volume.

Katie: That's still a lot... especially for me.

Haruto: I did bring the soda for a reason.

Katie: What did you bring?

Haruto: Some lemon-lime soda.

Katie: I guess I could try a little bit of the sake later...

Haruto: You don't have to if you don't want any. It's fine, honestly.

Katie: But you brought it over. It'd be a shame if we didn't have any of it. Besides, where did you even get this?

Haruto: My parents had it imported from this one place back in Japan. They say it's the best locally-brewed sake they know about, and they're not wrong.

Katie: Alright then... The two ate while discussing their academics, which slowly transitioned into their own personal interests, then crushes, then their preferences in a boy/girlfriend. As the night got late, they decided to open up the sake and try some. Haruto went to grab a set of specific sake cups that were small from his backpack. Katie drank small doses of sake to get accustomed to it, while Haruto drank a cup or two no problem. Their conversation resumed, gradually getting lewder and more intimate with the more sake they consumed. Eventually, it came to be around 1 in the morning, and that's when they decided to clean up. Haruto took care of cleaning the dishes and whatnot because he wasn't as tipsy as Katie was. She went to the bathroom to get ready for bed while Haruto cleaned up the remnants of their dinner.

Haruto: *This was a pretty nice night. I should do this more often...* He thought to himself while listening to music as he dried the now-washed dishes. After putting the dried plates away, he went to use the bathroom, opening the door to see Katie brushing her teeth in a bath towel. O-oh... Sorry, I'll come back later... He turned around, but was pulled in by Katie, who had just finished brushing her teeth.

Katie: No need to be shy, Hunter~ I was just finishing up anyway.

Haruto: R-right... I'll be fine sleeping on the couch, don't worry about me.

Katie: Nonsense! You're my guest, so you get to sleep in the bed.

Haruto: I probably shouldn't have brought the sake...

Katie: Even without the sake, I still would've asked you to sleep in the bed. Besides... She had a blush on her face. Haruto wasn't sure if it was because of the current situation, or because of the sake's effects still acting on her They say alcohol loosens up a person's tongue, right? It makes it easier to ask if...

Haruto: If...?

Katie: If you'd share the bed with me tonight~ Her blush intensified, which Haruto was sure was from her request

Haruto: I-if you insist... But I didn't bring any pajamas or anything, so...

Katie: That's fine, just wear keep your shirt and underwear on~ That'll be enough as is~

Haruto: I think you might've had too much sake earlier...

Katie: You brought the sake, so it's your fault I'm like this, Hunter~ Take responsibility for your actions, you cheeky lil' romantic~ She leaned into his embrace, her blush very intense now

Haruto: You wanna put some clothes on...? He held her close so she wouldn't fall

Katie: Take me to my room, big guy~ Though embarrassed, Haruto carried Katie to her room with a heavy blush, setting her down on the bed as he removed his pants and socks. While he undressed, she put on some underwear and a rather thin nightgown before getting in bed Hey, Hunter...

Haruto: Hm? He folded up his pants and left his socks on the jeans, looking out the window to note the now-pouring rain

Katie: Would you ever consider having a girlfriend?

Haruto: I'd love to one day. But with current circumstances... it's probably not the wisest choice.

Katie: I'm taking that as a yes. If so... would you like... to have me?

Haruto: W-what...? He blushed from her question, turning around to see Katie in her nightgown, cuddling the blanket

Katie: You heard me~ Would you like me to date you one day? She looked into his eyes almost lovingly, which made Haruto blush more

Haruto: I-I mean... you're a really cute girl, and you're really talented, and you're fun to be around and... He trailed off mid-sentence before shaking his head and looking back at her, still blushing. I- Yes. I'd love to date you one day.

Katie: You don't know how happy that makes me feel...~ She closed her eyes and hugged the blankets tighter before she heard the ruffling of the blankets and felt Haruto get in bed

Haruto: It's getting kinda cold... Don't you think that nightgown's a bit too thin...?

Katie: It's perfect~ She let go of the blankets and pulled Haruto closer, cuddling with him before falling asleep with her arms wrapped around her.

Haruto: *I suppose it is... good night, Katie.* He gently kissed her forehead before falling asleep in her arms, wrapping his own around her as they slept the night away

January 31, 2026

Everyone was minding their own business in Los Angeles, until everything with a screen that went online and/or could go across satellites started showing static, but then what can only be described as a demonic robot showed up, Chernabog (To learn more read Absconders: Dark Days). The look of the screen was a cinematic kind, due to Nanites being the device used to film it.

Chernabog: People of Los Angeles, for the last months my kind has came here for Vanquish, one of your heroes, he is here now to fight me, and believe me he will---

The doors of his sanctum came down as Dominic went in.

Dominic: Chernabog! Little piece of crap, I'll rip you to pieces!

Chernabog: Ahhh Vanquish, you've arrived, it will take more than bravado to really do that.

Dominic: Trust me I got more than that! Dominic then goes into Bunker Buster mode lunging at Chernabog, but he simply side steps out of the way, as Dominic created a huge crater. Dominic then turned to Chernabog quickly with a right straight, but he smirked tilting his head to left, and then kicked Dominic away, as he jumped up creating a sword and slashing downward, but Dominic went into speed mode dodging the attack, he ran around the sanctum as Chernabog was firing shots from his finger causing explosions which Dominic barely avoided, he jumped off the wall flying at high speeds, crashing into Chernabog sending him flying to a wall, Chernabog was stuck in it a bit, but got himself out, laughing.

Chernabog: That's the spirit Vanquish! He then made a sword stance, smirking Come on! He then fires a blast of energy which Dominic dodges, Chernabog then flew at Dominic at high speeds, slashing at him, as each slash was grazing Dominic as he dodged, but as Dominic saw an opening, he gave Chernabog several speed punches which hurt Dominic's hands, but then The changed into Tempest mode and grabbed Chernabog, sliding him across the walls, floors, and ceilings. This prompted Chernabog to teleport and then kick Dominic away, but this gave both time to get ranged as Dominic was firing at Chernabog with his arm mounted guns and shoulder mounted missile launchers, while Chernabog was launching energy blasts and then two Destructo discs, which were following Dominic as he destroyed both. He then rammed into Chernabog bringing him to the ground as he turned into Bunker Buster for critical damage, the resulting shock wave was a flash, soon Dominic emerged as he made some smoke and you could notice he was in Assault mode and his left arm was revealed he panted looking at his slightly bruised arm.

Dominic: *Now I could go back to Ellie, this is all over-* He heard a low chuckle of Chernabog, but before he could turn around two beams suddenly cut off his left arm as he shouted in pain, Chernabog emerged with green glowing eyes, his eye on his forehead glowed and shot Dominic up, revealing unarmored parts, as Dominic writhed in pain he was kicked in the gut then lifted by his throat, as he was then stabbed in the abdomen H-How?

Chernabog: Adamantium Vanquish, you can't really break me. He then backhanded him, cracking his helmet, and then punched him destroying his helmet, revealing his face, all bloodied and bruised as he was knocked away from Chernabog by the force of the punch, as he was reduced to crawling, but he grabbed him and stabbed his fingers into the back of his head as he shouted in pain Let's give everybody in L.A a chance to know you...Hmmm Dominic Bernedicci, you found the Vanquish nanites crash land in the woods during a camping trip and it entered a wound in your hand, rich family, son of Dino and Francesca Bernedicci, your father the CEO of Dinomo Industries, and your mother now a senator...Oh here's the interesting part, you had to leave your friends, and the girl you love, who are...very distraught, I'll leave those identities a secret, but it's shame, hey if you're watching this, you know he'll get hurt, badly, and believe me, love him or hate him, this will hurt... Dominic started deteriorating, and lost consciousness as his body was absorbed into Chernabog, and he chuckled, cutting the feed off, ending the broadcast.

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Next: The Absconders: Issue 8