Date: Wednesday morning - August 7, 2024

  Morning had arrived at the Supreme Allies headquarters. Fox had not contacted the team yet since Omega Woman came back. It had been two days since her return. Fox being that late with contacting the team was unusual. Despite this, she knew he would reach out sooner or later and decided to take some advantage of the time back along with Blue Angel.

  For the past couple days since coming back, she wasn’t Omega Woman; just Ashley Kaplan. She sat up on the bed and gently patted the shoulder of the man sleeping near her. The world at large knew the name Blue Angel, but Ashley knew the man beneath the armor: Marcus Moore.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead,” Ashley said with a chuckle and a hint of flirtation as she put her hand on his exposed shoulder and gently shook him. Marcus stirred before opening his eyes and sitting up on the bed. Ashley stood up, the blanket slipping away as she did.

  “Did you sleep well, sweetie?” Marcus asked as he stood up and began walking over to the discarded leg armor of the Blue Angel suit.

  “Sleep wasn’t the first thing on my mind last night, honey,” Ashley replied with a grin as she slipped on the lower half of her bodysuit, boots, and her belt. “But to answer you though, I sure did.”

  The two continued suiting up; Omega Woman put on the upper half of her bodysuit, then slipped on her bracelets and gloves. She followed with the upper torso armor and Marcus stepped behind her to attach her cape. After giving him an appreciative smile, she completed the process with her blue domino mask. Marcus put on the outer layer of the Blue Angel chestplate which had the metallic wings attached. Omega Woman gave Marcus a quick peck on the cheek before heading out of the room while he put on his helmet.

  The two made their way to the central room where the rest of the team were pouring in. Seraphim, Warrior Wolf, Phantom Archer, Bright Shadow, Riptide, Starfall, and Mister Mystic were all present. Omega Woman and Blue Angel briefly waved to each of them. The large video screen on the wall began to ring with an oncoming call. Blue Angel answered it and VALOR’s director, Colonel Alexander Fox, appeared onscreen.

  “Supreme Allies, apologies for leaving you guys hanging. I would have reached out sooner. After some recent catastrophic events, I needed to make sure I could even recover enough footage to bring to your attention,” Fox began.

  “What happened?” Omega Woman asked. Images began to appear on the screen of what was likely a VALOR base-was being the key word. The compound was heavily damaged-walls smashed, debris scattered, the surrounding ground resembling a small crater. Many of the trees outside the crater were toppled over and broken, some even looking like they were burnt. Omega Woman’s eyes narrowed beneath her mask.

  “Any idea who could have done this much damage, Colonel?” Blue Angel asked before Omega Woman could.

  “My people were able to recover some footage, but even this is not much to go on,” Fox said as a video clip appeared on the screen.

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  The footage appeared to be shot within the base’s interior, wherein multiple VALOR agents raised and fired their rifles at some intruder-a woman. Though she was moving too quickly for the footage to catch, the few glimpses of her from the back and sides showed her in dark red armor with salmon-colored accents around the upper torso, shoulder pads, and abdomen. Her gloves and spiked bracelets on her forearms, as well as her knee pads, matched the color scheme of her upper body armor; this armor stood out against what appeared to be a black spandex long-sleeved turtleneck shirt on her upper body, and adorning her legs were black cargo pants boots of matching color. Though the woman’s blonde hair could be seen a few times in the footage when she stopped appearing to move around at super speed, her face had yet to be caught in the view of the camera. The black cape adorning her back went down behind her knees and there appeared to be small white ‘blades’ which seemed to resemble fangs pointing down along the upper portions around her shoulders, but not much more beyond that.

  The woman in the footage was too hard for the camera to keep track of. Omega Woman made note of the intruder’s speed-she was incredibly fast. The rifle shots from the VALOR agents did no damage to her, which demonstrated a high degree of durability. The woman then reached to a wall behind her, digging her fingers into it before casually ripping out a large chunk and swinging it forward to send multiple VALOR agents flying across the room until they hit the opposite walls with clear bone-breaking impact. Whoever this woman was, she made it clear she was a genuine threat.

  “I don’t recognize this woman, Colonel. Either way, the team and I are going to make it our priority to find her,” Omega Woman promised.

  “Thanks, Omega Woman. Best of luck to you and the team,” Fox said before ending his video call. Omega Woman turned to look around at the rest of the group.

  “Everyone will need to be careful,” Omega Woman said, gesturing at the images sent by Fox. “Whoever attacked a VALOR base to bring this level of destruction single-handedly, we can’t take them lightly.”

  The team all nodded affirmatively. Blue Angel walked over to the computer to run a scan on the images of the area surrounding the fallen VALOR base. A couple seconds later, a set of latitude and longitude coordinates appeared on the screen with a location.

  “Great work. Let’s go!” Omega Woman said. The team moved closer together as Mister Mystic enveloped the group in a golden aura. In the span of the second, the golden light flashed; the Supreme Allies headquarters was now empty.

  BRIGHTMARK NEWS REPORT:

  August 7, 2024

  11:00 AM

  “Good morning to everyone watching from home or online, this is Victor Vex reporting live for Brightmark News,” Victor began.

  “Our latest top story is a follow-up to the recent arrest of a known supervillain-Power Thief-two days ago off the coast of Brightmark. While we are still receiving details, we learned the VALOR transport ship taking Power Thief and the Syndicate personnel working with him has been attacked. The ship was on its way to the Shadow Citadel Penitentiary,” Victor continued. Photos appeared on the screen behind victor of the vessel, which was heavily devastated with dents in several places and large holes that appeared to have been made by immense force.

  “The ship was found cast ashore on a beach with dozens of VALOR personnel dead or critically injured. Power Thief and the Syndicate personnel being held aboard were nowhere to be seen in the wreckage, which means they are likely still at large. However, VALOR has not provided any details to Brightmark News or other news outlets regarding who was responsible for the attack or Power Thief’s extraction following it,” Victor continued. At that moment, Victor held up his index finger to his right ear, listening to something on his earpiece before facing toward the camera again.

  “This just in: a media spokesperson for VALOR has just reached out to inform me a base belonging to the agency has also been attacked with similar levels of destruction to the prison transport ship. I have not been provided further details. It is entirely possible the same party could be responsible for both incidents, but this is mainly light speculation. Brightmark News will update this story when we have more,” Victor concluded.