Bertók paid the man's wry jokes no heed, if he did it would basically be a distraction from the task at hand. However, he had to focus on the fact that the man easily could cause this entire building to crash to the ground and that in this regard he was not kidding. He would have liked to have asked what they had tried to do earlier, but time was short and he had to deal with the hand he was dealt. He eyed the orb the man produced and rolled toward him. As quickly and carefully as he could, Bertók aligned his mirror so that it caught not only the ball, but the man in the background so that he could replicate both objects. The goal was to have the orbs cancel each other out and then use the clone of the man as a way of keeping him busy.

The orbs collided as expected, causing a minor explosion at an equal distance between both parties. As his clone stepped out of the mirror, the super smiled as his eyes lit up.

"Now there's a power!" he exclaimed excitedly "How'd you get that one?!" He produced three orbs of explosive energy in his hand, their light throwing an eerie glow on his face. "Come on, you can tell me"

Seeing this as an opportunity to strike, Abi twitched her finger to move one of the metal plates in the wall. Before she could do anything however, the super immediately threw an orb at the plate, effectively destroying it in an explosion.

"Wait your turn" he hissed at her, "You, you're powerful, but I can tell you don't really know what you're doing." He turned his attention back to the clone and Mirroirs "Now, let's see what else you can do"

Austin keyed his mic. "You know," he began. "I could put a really gruesome end to this. All I have to do is make a barrier through him, and he'll split in half. But I don't think it would make for good publicity..." It occurred to him that the six of them were essentially the face of a top-secret organization, and the secret was bound to get out the more they acted. They could easily be painted as something horrible if they did things that were, well, horrible. "Command, I'm awaiting your orders."

"The same way you received yours," Bertók replied, his expression unchanging. "Unfortunately for you, that's all I can do."

His concentration unbroken, he stepped to the right of the clone and angled the mirror to catch the mutant again, creating a second clone, this one holding the orbs in its hands just as the mutant was when his reflection was captured. He had his first clone move forward and approach the man, with the second one behind to provide support. Then, as the first began its charge, Bertók ran to the left and angled his mirror sideways so that he caught both clones and the original in it.

Natalie watched in utter amazement as this clearly insane man continued to jeer the group. Could he not see that he was in no position to be playing games? The girl watched as Miroirs intercepted one of his attacks, creating a replica of the man in the process. Magnesia followed up with an assault of her own, but it was swiftly and nonchalantly quelled. Natalie, who had been planning to attack as well, now restrained herself. It seemed as if taking the direct approach would be fruitless, if not tremendously dangerous, so a bit of subtlety was unfortunately in order. She didn't want to tip her hand just yet, but it really burned her that the four of them were having to tiptoe around what should have been a one-sided smack down. At the very least, Bertók was doing a good job of keeping their opponent occupied with his growing army. The girl took the opportunity to think of a strategy, but before she could conceive a viable plan, her thoughts were interrupted. It was Austin.

"You know, I could put a really gruesome end to this. All I have to do is make a barrier through him, and he'll split in half. But I don't think it would make for good publicity… Command, I'm awaiting your orders."

Natalie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had stayed quiet before, but she wouldn't keep her grievances to herself this time. She activated her own microphone.

"Don't make the same mistake that you did with the mutant back in Manhattan. This guy is nuts, and he wouldn't have any qualms about blowing us and himself sky high. And in case you've forgotten, we've been ordered to quote unquote neutralize any super humans we find. We don't have time for moral dilemmas, so if you can really finish this now, do it."

Even as she spoke, Natalie backed away from Austin. If he could do as he claimed, she didn't want to be anywhere near him.

Austin sighed. "I'm a monster and I hate it." Without another word he created a wall going through the enemy.

“Oh, well… I, uh, I’m flattered, really,” Tailin stammered as a red tint invaded her face. She pulled her hand away to brush back a lock of hair and instantly regretted having done so. This prince really was quite the charmer. First she had been caught off guard by the surprisingly high quality of his English, and then his gentlemanly manner. Not only that, but she wasn’t entirely certain that he hadn’t just asked for her hand in marriage. There were stranger customs out there, after all. Eager to dispel the perceived awkwardness of the situation, she added with as silly a tone as she could muster: “But I think we should date first.”

“A-anyway, we’re almost at the exit,” she declared, stepping ahead and looking at the map generated by her IRIS device. “It should be right a-”

“Pantheon, we’ve got more bad guys closing in. I’m gonna try and keep our exit clear for as long as I can.”

Tailin was cut off by an unexpected communication. The voice was less familiar to her, so she assumed that the newest addition to the team had been sent to guard the entrance. The code name that appeared in the bottom-right corner of her map confirmed it. It sounded like their escape route was in danger of being compromised, and the superheroine certainly could not allow that. “You stay here,” she instructed her charge firmly. Something about Ramon’s message had jolted her out of her moroseness, and for the first time she became aware of the gravity of their situation. Perhaps BertOk’s reprimand had begun to sink in. Without so much as another word, Tailin dashed down the remaining length of hallway and up the long flight of stairs that lead to the base entrance.

Upon her arrival she could not help but be simultaneously worried and impressed. The massive doors to the complex had been torn from their hinges, and the entire place was riddled with bullets. Mike and Ramon were standing near the gaping hole that lead outside, seemingly concerned with what was outside. “Wow, you guys sure made a mess of things”, she stated bluntly, approaching her peers. “What’s going on now?”

Ramon's mind raced with solutions as he thought of some way out of the situation he was in. One one hand, he could totally go out there and kick some a**. On the other hand, they might spot him a mile away and riddle him with bullets. He really shouldn't be thinking about his well-being when other people's lives are at stake anyway.

"Mike, I'm gonna see if I can-" Ramon wasn't able to finish his thought before Tailin came dashing out of the exit and posing a question to the two supers standing in the burning desert. "We got another squad of troopers poking their noses around here, if we don't get out of here soon their might be more than we can handle ourselves. Where's the prince?"

Time seemed to slow as the forcefield crackled to life, the electrons in the air fizzling as they linked together forming a translucent wall of energy. In reality this sequence of events happened in only a blink of an eye; his abilities, like the others in Pantheon, were a true marvel of science. Only Talin would have been able to dodge in time as the shield formed around Austin. The smug expression on the explosion super's face told them that he was not expecting his imminent demise. Nevertheless, he would never know that he was in danger, for just as the shield was about to make contact with his body, Austin was suddenly racked by a sharp and debilitating pain in his head. So intense was the pain, he collapsed to the ground as if he had been stabbed in the back of his head.

"AUSTIN!" yelled Abi, forgetting that they were to refer to each other by their aliases as she ran to her brother's side.

"What the-" spoke the super terrorist with a questioning expression on his face. He was unsure of what he had just witnessed, leaving him distracted as the clones rushed towards him, though only for a moment. He let the first clone get close to him and then placed his hand onto the chest of the glass automaton. His hands glowed yellow, like the orbs he wielded, and the glass automaton exploded violently in a shower of shards.

The second clone had thrown the orbs he wielded in his hands at the terrorist, but he caught them in his hands with a sly smile and threw them back at the clone. They detonated in a fiery explosion causing the second clone to shatter. He crossed his arms and smiled at the group, though his smiled faded as he realized that all the metal around them rattled. He looked about himself, preparing for whatever was going to be thrown at him like the time before. Their radios crackled as the polarity around them fluctuated violently, playing with the frequency.

Abi, emotionally distraught, shook her brother willing him to wake up. While the magnetic distortion was her doing, Abi was completely unaware that her powers were being manifested through her emotional turmoil. All she wanted to know was that her brother was fine.
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The men stayed their ground, training their guns on the group in the distance at the entrance of their base. One of the men opened the door to the jeep and elegantly, out stepped a woman with long flowing sleeves and baggy pants. Unlike the rest of the group, she was clearly not of Arabic descent. They did not shout at her as they spoke to each other in Arabic, rather they seemed almost afraid. Mike, with his supersonic hearing, would have noted that woman had a British accent. However, before any of them moved into action, the woman took off from the ground.

She hovered in the desert sun, her body casting a shadow on the ground. Twirling around with her hands extended on either side of the body, the team realized that wind was beginning to pick up around them. It grew more and more intense, whipping up sand and debris until a small tornado had formed below the woman. She stopped spinning and pushed her arms in the direction of the team, the tornado ripping through the sand and rapidly making its way towards the group.

"The hell!?" Natalie cried as Austin suddenly collapsed. She tried to make sense of what had happened as Abigail rushed to his side. A pang of concern was quickly replaced by fear as the girl realized that only she and Bertók were still fighting their opponent. Couldn't Abigail understand that the best thing she could do for Austin was incapacitate the enemy? Before Natalie could even try to think of a course of action, she felt the room shaking. The compound's stability must've been more compromised than she thought. She couldn't afford to stand back any longer. Taking what she had observed about their opponents powers, she quickly formed a plan.

At Natalie's bidding, the salt she was carrying floated out of its containers and hovered in the air for a moment before solidifying into dozens of small shards, spaced far enough apart that an explosion wouldn't hit more than a few.

"Blow this up, a******." She muttered as she sent the crystals hurtling toward the super.

"With pleasure" smirked the super as he manifested another of his orbs and threw it at one of the shards causing it to explode. It was then however, that he realized his dilemma. He threw another orb, and then another, but the work was considerably slow; even if he summoned multiple orbs, there were too many for him to deal with as they rapidly approached. All he could do now, was merely cross his arms in front of his face as the salt crystals flew at him.

Like snow, they coalesced on his hands and arms, through Natalie's manipulation they pried his arms apart from each other so that they extended them to either side. His hands glowed red hot as he tried to melt the salt covering his hands.

Whatever Tailin had been planning to answer Ramon, the words all but evaporated as her jaw dropped in awe of what she was witnessing. A stupefied “Whooaaaaaahhh…” was all she could manage as the strange woman flew into the sky and began forming a tornado of her own will, the swirling sand and wind merging in a hypnotizing display of the brute force of nature. And to think that it was the work of a single person, floating high above her destructive creation. Incredible. As soon as the massive tower of wind began making its way towards Tailin and her team, however, the superheroine was back on her feet and ready for action. Finally, she was going to have the chance to fight another super with her team. Not only that, but this super could fly and control the wind. Definitely more frightening than her last opponent. What more was there to ask for? High on the prospect of the upcoming conflict, she broke into a grin that her allies might have found a little bit unsettling were they not preoccupied with their current situation. This was going to be fun.

“Hey, Belmont,” she said, nodding to Ramon. “You control the earth, right? Want to make us a stairway to heaven?”

Bertók's concentration was broken when every single clone was destroyed in that split second. He wasn't sure how they were going to do this anymore. To make matters worse, one of the members was incapacitated and the other was goign through mental trauma because of that. He watched as Natalie's salt held him back and quickly thought of how to take advantage of the situation. He couldn't clone the superhuman because he was already caught in that position and he wasn't sure he would be able to move him. Turning to Abigail, he realized that she would have to do.

He placed his mirror in her direction and caught her within it. The clone stepped out and Bertók hoped that he could do something with it as he sent it at the superhuman. Perhaps her powers could come from the clone, but he wasn't completely sure.

As the pain subsided Austin's mind began to race. There must be a God, he thought. After all, how would physics know that his target was a human? Physics-wise there's nothing that separates a human from any other object. He knew he could crack matter with his powers because there are billions of particles in every square inch of space, yet his abilities still worked on open air. Something was stopping him from using his powers on living creatures. He lay on the ground contemplating this until he felt Abi shake him.

Knowing his sister, she probably wasn't keeping her powers in check. A plan began to form in his mind. If he made it appear that his life hung in the balance, Abigail's powers would likely cave in the whole place. He had never tested the extent to which his barriers could protect him, but now was a life-or-death situation, and any comic book character's abilities were strong enough to survive that sort of thing anyway. Silently he created a barrier around Abigail and his self.

Ramon was slowly losing his nerve as things started to complicate themselves further one after the other, first not only were there more mercenaries but a super among them of all things. She began to create a tornado of the surrounding sand, flying towards the base and the prince. The Woman in question looked unlike the canon fodder soldiers they had been fighting against this whole time. Ramon wondered if she'd been communicating with the other super that had been causing havoc this whole time, he brushed it off though seeing as how the team had been engaging him the whole time and hadn't said anything about him talking to someone.

Tailin snapped him out of his detective-like mode with her question, he turned and saw the grin that she was sporting. He found it a bit funny how calm she was. "Yeah, something close to that. This might get pretty crazy." Ramon stuck his hands in the sand for probably the 10th time that day, seconds later steps molded themselves out of the surrounding sand upwards and across towards the group of mercenaries. "Ladies first?"