"We've both overcome adversity on our own.  Imagine what we can do together."  Helena said with a smile as she cuddled up against Lucas.

"We both have great potential, Helena," Lucas said as he held her close to him. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can do together. And things are only going to get better."

"I'm going to hold you to that, Lucas." Helena said with a smile, feeling very comfortable in his arms.  "Of course I could just hold you in general."

Helena reached for a piece of fruit from the breakfast tray and offered it up to Lucas.

"Being held by you and holding you is nice in my mind," Lucas replied with a smile as he accepted the piece of fruit offered by Helena.

"Good answer." Helena teased as she fed the fruit to Lucas.  She plucked up another piece and once more offered it up to him, though she did so with her teeth this time.

Lucas smiled as the fruit was offered in a "toothy" way. Bringing himself closer to Helena, he began to nibble slowly, until he reached her delicious lips, accepting the sweet tasty morsel from the equally delicious femme fatale.

Helena smiled and took several minutes to seize Lucas' lips with her own.  Breakfast could be put on hold for a bit as she enjoyed the closeness of the man who had come to mean so much to her.

"Mmm.  As much as I'd love to keep you confined to this bed, and me, for the rest of the day, I suppose that we do have some work to do."  Helena said with just a hint of sadness.  For once she wasn't terribly anxious to go out and prowl the rooftops for trouble, but she couldn't just do nothing but smother Lucas with affection.

Of course, once Builder had been beaten down, things would be different.

Lucas nodded as he slowly...reluctantly...released her.

"Well...it's a good thing we can both change at a moment's notice, isn't it?" he replied. "But you're right...there does seem to be a lot on our plate, and I anxiously look forward to the day when the plate will be clean, so that we can concentrate on....other things."

"Mmm.  Other things..." Helena purred one last time.  There would be time to explore those 'Other things' later.  "Shall I meet you on the roof?"

Lucas smiled at that, then gave Helena a kiss on the cheek.

"See you soon. Don't keep me waiting too long, beautiful."

After slowly releasing himself from her and getting dressed, he went down to the lobby. Thanking the desk clerk for a pleasant stay, he then went outside and into a side alley. Once again putting his hand over his heart, he summoned his armor.

Spreading his draconic wings, he took to the air, and positioned himself on the rooftop, looking like a gargoyle overlooking the city.

Helena was smiling as Lucas left the room, but once he was gone she grew more serious.  There was some fighting to be done and she was still feeling a little spent from the previous night.  She'd spent too much time as Mirage.

Closing her eyes in concentration, Helena called upon what energy she had to effect her change into Mirage.  She felt the familiar tingling in her legs and it brought a pained smile to her face.  It was goodbye to the damaged and crippled Helena and hello to the much more physical Mirage.

Mirage appeared on the rooftop, clad in her familiar slinky dress and wide brimmed hat.  She looked like she hadn't a care in the world.

"REady to go, handsome?"

Dragon Fist turned to greet the now-appearing Mirage.

"Yes I am," he replied. "We seemed to have some pretty decent prospects in the slums, so maybe we should start there and work our way up."

"I've enjoyed the slums.  There's never been an end to the trouble that can be found." Mirage said with a slightly predatory smile.  It was unfortunate that crime continued to be a problem in the bad parts of the city but that just meant that when Mirage had the urge to beat people up, which happened quite often, she only had to spend a little time in the slums to find her action.

"Shall we go and roust some bars, then?  Maybe put a little pressure on a few informants?  I could also check with NPA and see if they've heard anything."

"Turning up the pressure will hopefully yield The Builder..." Dragon Fist replied. "As for the NPA, go ahead and check with them. We need all the help we can get on this in order to clear Jack."

"I'll go check with the NPA and you can do some checking on your end and then we can meet up later to go over what we've found.  How does that sound?"

Dragon Fist nodded.

"That sounds like a good plan, Mirage." he said to her as he prepared to take to the air.

"Let me know if you need anything, all right?"

"I will." Mirage said.  "You be careful yourself.  I don't want you getting hurt because I tired you out last night.  I'll see you in a bit."

She wrapped herself up in her trademark crimson smoke and vanished from the rooftop.

--> To NPA HQ

Dragon Fist nodded as his teammate and love left his sight in a mist of red. He then extended his wings, and took off for familiar parts before beginning the ongoing search for The Builder.

>>>>>>>>>To Dragon And Tiger>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Cirandon hotel was host to a very exclusive party. It was the sixty-third birthday of Michael Worthington, wealthy industrialist. The party was filled with the rich and powerful of Weston, sipping champagne, making business deals, exchanging gossip, and admiring the 'scenery' Michael had provided.

The sounds of revelry were suddenly interrupted by a loud gunshot shattering an ice sculpture. Ten men in black suits had entered the room, they were all armed with either guns or obvious para-powers and several of them appeared to have metal pieces infused into their bodies.

One man stepped forward, he had long black hair tied into a ponytail and his handsome face was marred by a scar on his right cheek. In one hand he held a desert eagle, the other was glowing with some kind of energy.

"Hello there folks, we'll have you back to your expensive drinks and exciting gossip in just a moment. As soon as we've relieved you of your possessions. We're the Lavish Legion, I'm sure you've heard of us and know just what will happen to those that don't cooperate, so please gather over by the buffett as my men relieve you of your wallets and jewelry." His voice had a refined quality to it and though he spoke calmly and politely it had an edge to it, an unspoken threat.

Little by little, the bullets begin to vanish from the guns and their clips only to be replaced with blanks.  One by one, the badguys get tiny tracers added to their pockets.  Nothing very fancy.  Just the kind commercially available.  Like this: https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-1...assive-logger-14.gif  Mits hasn't been equipped by a high-tech hero with the kind of super-tech tracers that are too tiny for normal detection.

And of course, Mits has already called the cops about the two incidents.  She's silly that way.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:55, Thu 11 Apr 2019.

The thugs begin herding the party goers into a corner, oblivious to Mittens' meddling. One man, well built and in his early thirties begins to follow the others and then rushes the leader, going for his gun. Instead of grappling with the man the leader plunges his glowing fist through the would be heroes chest, his bloody hand coming out the man's back. The rich man coughs blood and then crumples to the floor as the leader pulls his hand free. Several of the women in attendance scream.

"Let that be a lesson to anyone thinking about being a hero. To us your lives have no value and we would just as soon rob and kill you than just rob you. So if you want to make it out alive you'll do as your told and don't even think of calling the cops or we'll just kill you all before we make our escape."

Wraith had initially been here to spy on the rich people because he heard somewhere that power corrupts. But then these robbers show up. He might have forgiven something like robbing rich people and just let Mittens handle it with the tracers she planted. But they had to go and punch someone through the chest when a simple knockout would have sufficed. Under the mask, Maverick narrows his eyes.

Wraith immediately gets to looking for what manner of escape vehicle these people have. A boat? A flying vehicle? Either way, he sneaks off towards what must be the escape vehicle, secretly hoping these guys don't have someone with teleport powers.

Maverick can find no vehicle that seems obviously like a getaway vehicle. It's possible they have some kind of power based exit, or it could just be hard to tell. There are a LOT of cars in the lot, and surrounding area, many of which are designed to go fast.

A very inconspicuous portal about the size of a beer coaster appears near the rich dude with the hole in his chest.  It's angled down, so that one would have to be lying on their back to see up through it.  An especially keen ear might hear a woman's voice coming from that direction saying nervously, "Please tell me you can s-save this guy?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:45, Fri 12 Apr 2019.

As tempted as he is to set every last car ablaze just to slow down the criminals' escape, Wraith just isn't a vandal. And let's be honest. Some of those cars are just downright beautiful.

His mind distracts him with what punishment will be appropriate for punching a hole in someone's chest; Perhaps remove one of his legs? Perhaps remove the offending hand? But he calms himself like he was taught to do. There is nothing he can do for the dead man and punishment can wait until the bad guys are caught. Proper order and all that.

Speaking of proper order, Wraith decides action now is a bad idea while hostages are still a thing. He is grateful to the dead man for one thing: He sacrificed himself to make it clear to the others not to try and play hero. Maverick still feels like that is all he is doing too, but he also wants to play in a way that leaves him still alive. The point is that the man's death meant something. Now the other civilians will not act and thus, will survive.

For now, the best idea Wraith has is to follow these guys until they have vacated the premises. But he does put his hands on his large daggers in case another civilian might be in danger, ready to put himself (and his daggers) in the way if any more villains attack.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:36, Fri 12 Apr 2019.