Warp Strike

Eight years ago, in a dingy flat in London... Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Tank turned his head to the side. With the sound of the angry street outside assaulting his mind into an awakened state, Tank let out a sigh, and ran a hand over his face and up into his hair. At the same time, another hand traced across his chest, with a smirk, he turned to face the body attached to said hand, a woman, around the same age as the eighteen year old, perhaps slightly older. Dark brown hair cascaded over her lithe shoulders ending halfway down her back, hazel eyes peered out between a gap in the curtain of hair, towards the large blonde haired man next to her.

"Mornin'..." Tank yawned as he spoke, he hated mornings, always had, but there were always things that made them that bit better, well, one thing anyway. The woman in the bed simply smiled, then crawled out from under the covers. Tank grinned as he watched her walk across the room, tilted his head as she neared the end of the bed, then laughed. The dark haired woman had grabbed the quilt on the bed, ripped it off and stood there laughing at Tank.

"Y'know tha' doesn't work, Pix... I can't feel the cold." The man smirked, then grunted as the woman threw herself at him. "Gerroff! We've got a job t'do today" Pix pouted "Well... yeah. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun first... Clear your mind..." she grinned, her eyes going a solid black. Tank laughed and pushes his mouth to hers "Fine."

Five hours later, a group of individuals was stood outside of a large building, with fairly old architecture, though still in good condition. Lichen grew over certain areas on it, though the building's name was still illuminated in the early evening dusk. The main of the building was old facia, underneath however, there was a different story. The building was one of the more well developed safe houses in the city. In recent years with the rise of meta-humans, the city had taken greater precautions in their methods for keeping valuable objects safe. State of the art security systems, automated weapons, force fields, and laser grids were all that stood between 'The Gang's' biggest heist and their ticket out of the low runs.

The group stood looking at one another, Pix, the woman from earlier, Tank, a very large muscular individual, with blonde hair down to his shoulders and a pair of goggles stuck on his face, Jack, a rather thin, malnourished looking individual with lank black hair to his jaw bone, Force, a rather bubbly looking young man, with a shock of red hair held back in a short pony tail, shaved on the sides, Goal, an individual who was covered from head to foot, except for the trouser leg of his right leg, which was cut short, and Mime, an individual wearing the same as the others, except for a porcelain mime's mask on his face, all stood outside the building wearing black combat gear.

Hurriedly the group took point outside the door. After a quick analysis, Pix spoke up "We've got a triple lock system, and an alarm set to go as soon as the door goes past a certain point if the code isn't put it." she glanced across the group. Tank gave a nod, and within a second, he was gone, leaving just a pile of clothes behind.

"You believe him about not being able to 'port his clothes with him... Or do you think he just likes being naked?" Mime scoffed. The group snorted "Pix would know." Goal grinned, until a fist made contact with his arm, the now stark-nude Tank stood there "Gerrin' an' gimme me clothes back." The group rushed past, Pix shoving Tank's clothes into his arms as she ran past.

"Ok, the vault is located four rooms to the back... We should face limited security... From the staff roster, they've only got three guys on call tonight" Force looked up from a PDA after finishing his sentence. With a collective nod, they began to wander through.

"Pix" Tank closed the gap, pulling his shirt back on, he spoke in a hushed whisper. "What?" Pix answered without looking over her shoulder, apparently focussed on the job. "I wa' thinkin'.... After this... y'wanna just gerrout o'England? Go somewhere away from it... Settle down." The woman stopped, then looked up at Tank "...You serious?" The man nodded "Yeah... I mean I-"

"Guys, we found it." Jack waved over at them from a room on the north side of the building.

Pix searched her lover's face for the completion of the sentence, but shook her head and jogged over to the others.

"Ok, what we got?" The woman slid down to the floor next to the large metal door, It was at least three feet thick, several different electronic key pads were flashing for input, as well as a physical key hole. She looked at it a few minutes, then opened up a staff roster and began pouring over the pages. Goal stood at the door, a sack of marbles in his right hand, bouncing them up and down, while Force bounced up and down on the balls of his feet excitedly, the kid couldn't have been more than fifteen years old.

"Hurry it up, Pix!" He squeaked.

"Shut up, Ginge." she grinned when she found what she was looking for "Hello Barry Winfield." her eyes clouded over, then became solid black. Thick tendrils of dark energy began to form in her hand, then, solidified into a severed hand.

"Ugh... Really Pix, that's the best you could do?" Mine wrinkled his nose. She shrugged "Hey, if it works, it works." standing, the woman slapped the hand onto the DNA identifier, then began to set a code hack going, within thirty seconds the vault door hissed, and began to roll back open.

"Awesome work, love" a hand met Pix's rear as Tank stepped forward pulling the door open.

And then it all went wrong...

Everything they'd been working for, all of that planning, the plans for the future of

The Gang after this last heist, it all just went wrong.

"Freeze!" the door swung open, and inside the safe, was not jewels or money, it was men. Well armed men, armed to the teeth in fact.

"Oh fu-" Tank tackled Pix to the ground as a hail of bullets shot out from the vault. Mime and Goal dropped to the ground, Jack, took a shot to the head and dropped, his body spasaming in the throes of shock before falling still. "I said Freeze!" The man in charge of the group shouted once more. In the front of the building a resounding crash was heard.

"Fuck stic-" before Tank could finish, Pix was up, she had her photo album open, and a construct of dark energy was already solidifying, it was bigger than she'd ever done before. Bones formed, muscle grew over them with organs filling in spaces still visible, thick green skin began to form over it, the thing get growing, buckling the ceiling. It was then that it became apparent to Tank that Pix, had single handedly brought the dinosaurs back from extinction.

"Pix're you fucking mad?!" Tank shouted over the commotion, as a deafening roar erupted from the beast. "You've never gone that big before!" The woman ignored his protests, running into the vault room with the men, she ducked, rolled and kicked, ending up behind the armed men, there, she waved her arms around like an idiot at the thing she had just ripped into creation.

"Shit..." Tank ran towards the room, only to be caught off guard by the things tail, smashing him back down into the wall. Shaking his head, he sat up and regained focus, just to see Pix hit the emergency lock down button inside the safe, trapping herself, the man, and her creation inside with her.

"Pix!" Tank's only answer was the sound of muffled gun shots, and a woman screaming.

"Tank, help!" the voice came from Force, holding a barrier against the door. A man with a large crystal arm, full masked costume, and spandex, with a large G painted across his chest was charging towards the young telekinetic.

As Tank closed the gap in the room, he felt the floor rumble, glancing down, a fist of stone burst through the floor, sending him and half the floor tiles crashing into the ceiling, then down once more. Staggering to his feet, Tank was too late. G had raised his arm, the point of it turning into an immense blade, then piercing the ground. A second later, Force was dead, impaled on a crystalline stalagmite.

Tank roared in rage, then charged at the man, knocking him to the ground.

"I was wondering when I'd get to see your little group fall, Jake" G spat at Tank, the words like venom. Tank raised his arm, and brought his fist crashing down into G's face, only to have his hand go through him, the other man's body now shrivelling into sand. It trickled away, and reformed.

"Where's Mime and Goal?" The blonde haired thief snarled. His answer, was simply a gesture to the side of the room, where a large chunk of earth was embedded into a wall, the unmistakable colouration of blood around its base.

"...You're supposed to be a hero, Gorge..." Tank shook his head, the sensation of defeat creeping across him.

"And you shouldn't even exist, Winter." With that, the man raised his arm, turning it into a blade once more.

Tank charged, tackling the man, air rushed passed them both, screeching, the two fell, and kept falling, no ground reached up to meet them, instead, the icy chill of deep black ocean water lunged up and swallowed them both.

Paragon City, near present day...

"Yeah... Warp Strike." A blonde haired man, in a blue and black spandex outfit stood signing papers in Atlas Park's City Hall. "Alright then... Welcome to Paragon City, Warp Strike." a cheerful individual in a suit smiled from behind the counter. "Aye... Thanks." He forced a smile, then turned to go before looking back over his shoulder. "Any groups of heroes looking for members that y'know of?" "Uhm... I believe one of the more recent was the Global Defense Force... You may want to try there." "Alrigh' cheers, mate." With that, Warp Strike left the city hall, and looked up at the bright blue sky of Paragon City. " 'Least one of us got away, hey Pix." He gave a nod, then jogged off down the steps.