Keeping up with the action was nothing for Mike, but he opted to stay towards the back so he could intervene should something go wrong as they attempted to take down the woman who at the moment seemed like the force behind all of this. In the moment he wasn't presently a driving force to defeat her and switched roles as a support instead. He raised his head to watch how the scene would play out.

Natalie wasn't sure how to respond to Ramon. She doubted anything she could dish out would be able to catch the super's attention before it was scattered by the wind. Fortunately, Abigail offered an alternative. Natalie simply needed to keep Richter out of harm's way. She scanned around for any more approaching enemies, and who should she see but Explodeo emerging from the collapsing bunker.

"Son of a b****. I knew it." She grumbled. Fortunately, Austin and Bertók seemed to have noticed his presence. Hopefully, they had things under control. Still, better safe than sorry. Natalie kept an eye on the enraged super, preparing to keep him at bay in case he attempted to target Ramon.

The science behind her flight was quite incomprehensible to her, but Abigail's ability to fly had become second nature to her after she had learned how to manipulate herself within the magnetic field produced by the Earth. She flew in acrobatic circles and mocking spirals, as she dodged powerful columns of gale-force winds blown in her direction. The wind woman did not see Tailin coming, all of her attention focused on Abigail, and within a moment the girl made contact with the woman's spine.

There was a sickening crack, followed by a shocked shriek of pain emanated by the woman as her eyes rolled in the back of her head. Abigail shuddered, almost as if she could feel what the woman had gone through, and then flew after her, catching her with a groan before she landed onto the ground. A plume of sand rose from the ground at their sudden descent to the earth. Abigail was fine, though the woman had been knocked unconscious.

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Seeing the clone, Explodeo smiled twistedly, a deranged look in his eyes as he got onto one knee and fired the rocket. Likewise, the glass clone responded in turn and fired its own rocket launcher. Eerily, Expoleo began to laugh, as his eyes and his fists glowed bright yellow. Before anything further could be said or done, the missiles glowed yellow and exploded violently. As they were exploded so closely after they were fired, the rocket ruptured a few meters in front of the clone and Bertok, Austin, and the prince. Meanwhile Explodeo's own rocket exploded in front of himself.

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The explosion violently rocked the vicinity like a minor bomb. The supercharged rockets momentarily blinded the team with a brilliant white light, sending a wave of wind, sand and debris flying in all directions. Slowly the sand settled, revealing Explodeo standing perfectly still with his eyes glowing yellow, and waiting for the next move.

Austin didn't even flinch at the explosion of the rockets, and was now only a few meters away from the foe. He created a wall-like barrier directly in front of himself and Bertok before trying again to convince Explodeo to give up, this time using his verbal suggestions abilities. "You're a prideful man, are you not? Why don't you give up and forget about whatever pointless goal your employers have? You could have a nice life anywhere in the world. Think about it. There's simply too many of us. Your wind-controlling ally isn't in the best position. With her done for we can simply reverse your rockets back at you. Why would you choose to fight? Your position is actually pitiable." Knife in hand, he continued walking ever-closer to the super.

As fist met spine, Tailin's perception of time began to slow. She gazed, motionless, as the woman that she had just paralyzed for life if not killed fell lifelessly towards the ground, only to be caught by Abigail and escorted gently to the ground below. It felt surreal. The sea of red that had clouded the girl's vision receded as she realized with horror that for the first time in her life, she had intentionally caused irreparable harm to a human being. Tears formed in her eyes and an awkward smile broke her expression as she thought of how furious Mister Suzuki would be were he to find out. The man had spent years teaching Tailin a respect for life and the discipline necessary to control the destructive forces that were ingrained in her genetic makeup. Yet in the moment of truth, she had thrown it all away, choosing instead to give in to her anger. A wave of nausea washed over her like the sickeningly warm desert wind as she reached to activate her communicator.

"Uhm, Ramon?", she spoke softly, foregoing the use of code names. "Could you let me down now? Please?"

Ramon lowered the girl to the ground after she had decimated the other super with only one hit. He had heard that Pantheon was full of strong people but it was something else seeing it in person. Shenanigan even looked a bit sick after she had realized what had happened. "You okay friend?" He started to walk towards her in case she threw up or something until the explosion occurred near the Prince. Ramon's heart dropped, a thousand questions raced through his mind at once. All he could do for now was secure the body of Ms. Tornado Alley and make his way over for evac.

Explodeo's face fell as he saw that he had not even scratched Austin, neither did he bring harm to Bertok, nor the prince. Everything he tried had failed, and now the force field super approached him with a knife and some attempt at a twisted expression on his face. Honestly, he was not afraid of the knife or the super, but he was greatly disheartened by everything that had happened: the base had been destroyed; the other super who had been hired for their operation was taken out; and they had the prince under their protection. There was simply too many of them for him to handle alone.

"Fine," he said gruffly while falling to his knees and putting his hands up behind his head, "I surrender"

The whirring blades of helicopters could be heard as they approached from the desert horizon. The sun hung low in the sky, as beginning of the day's end came to the Middle Eastern desert. They kicked up dirt and sand as military personnel hopped from the helicopter to secure the wind woman, and explodeo. They injected them with a syringe before putting them in handcuffs.

Meanwhile from the second helicopter, Delphi leaned out from the door, the wind whipping her hair about until the blades stopped rotating once it landed on the ground. She stepped out of the helicopter and walked towards the group with her hands behind her back.

"Hello, your majesty" she said with a curt nod to the prince, "Your security is our utmost priority, and we will ensure that you are protected until you return to your kingdom. Please enter the helicopter, and we will join you shortly."

The prince nodded and quickly jogged to the helicopter that Delphi had exited, where more military personnel waited with loaded guns.

"Great job Pantheon" she said with little emotion "You've proved yourself more or less stable for such sensitive missions," she turned to Ramon, "Ramon, you will find that your belongings have been relocated to Olympus, where the rest of the team lives. Keep up the teamwork."

She walked back to the helicopter, and hopped inside. While she had not explicitly stated it, she expected the rest of the team to follow her, so that they could depart for home.

Natalie's eyes widened as Explodeo acquiesced. It was an uncharacteristically sane decision for him. The girl sighed, all pressing threats finally subdued. She felt a wave of relief wash over her as the helicopters landed and the enemy supers were taken into custody, suddenly realizing how tired the whole ordeal had left her. Still, Natalie couldn't helped but be irked by the nonchalance with which Delphi addressed them. The entire team could easily have been killed, some even resorting to killing people themselves. Was a bit of concern too much to ask? The girl cast a derisive glare her way, but had little energy to bicker and quickly complied, joining their handler on the aircraft. As she boarded the chopper, she took one last look at the supers they had just defeated. There were so many questions, she only hoped they would be able to provide some answers.

Ramon glanced at the other super who had handed himself over, he was the one who caused the base to implode in on itself and then he just hands himself over? A little bit of an anti-climax if you asked him, probably something for him to keep an eye on. All in all, his first mission on the team wasn't so bad. It definitely wasn't the next-generation of legendary superheroes that he was thinking they were gonna be but they were still a work in progress. He climbed aboard the helicopter following the rest of the team and just waited to leave the desert and all the crumpled excuse for a base behind.

Mike leisurely took a stroll to the helicopter behind his other fellow supers contrasting with how intense the mission was along with the scenery. He wasn't phased by the abrupt ending the mission had. Honestly Mike just wanted to return back to whatever the place had been named. Olympus, was it? He played his part, all aspects of the mission were accomplished and it seemed their powers blended at a satisfactory level so far since there were no major casualties. He was covered in sand from earlier, but he was starting to get used to the suit itself regardless. He boarded the aircraft, only peeking back at the ruined environment slightly.

Austin let out a deep breath as the mission ended. To him, it was a relief that he didn't have to kill anyone. Hopefully his verbal suggestion abilities could be used to end most conflicts. "Superhero's shouldn't kill," He thought to himself as he boarded the helicopter and looked towards Abi. "You did good today, at least in my opinion. We should do something to celebrate."

"Yeah, I'm... fine," Tailin said, more to reassure herself than to answer Ramon. "Thanks."

For reasons that she could not pinpoint in her current state, there, standing in the middle of the desert, this victory, this hard-won moment, had about it an unmistakable air of defeat. Trailing behind Ramon as they made their way to the choppers, she could do nothing but stare vacantly at the ground as allied military personnel dealt with the aftermath of the battle. Somehow, she had imagined that her first team mission would play out differently. Her mind had concocted a scenario of brilliant success, one in which the baddies were easily captured and she and her new friends celebrated as heroes. But that was nothing like the gritty reality staring her in the face. The fact of the matter was that she was weak. Unimaginably weak. All it took to bring her down was a super whose powers matched up favourably against her own. Yet in her weakness, she had almost killed someone. She had been a hair’s breadth from willingly taking a life. The superheroes on tv never did that. They were always calm and in control, even when facing seemingly insurmountable odds. The bad guys always ended up in handcuffs with a chance at redemption. But not this time. She had failed. She had lost control. This was reality, and reality had turned into a scary, scary place. And to make matters worse…



...she had sand in her suit.

~EPISODE END~

It was slightly over a week before Pantheon was sent on their next mission. Delphi had more or less left the team to their own devices, though they were not permitted to leave Olympus. Word had spread of the kidnapping of prince Mohammad, though details of the event remained hush-hush. Online forums speculated about the resurgence of superheroes, but the American Government was tight-lipped when faced by the ever inquisitive reporters. For now, it seemed, Pantheon was to be a secret movement. Nevertheless, the time of reprieve was well-warranted, many of them finding the exertion of their abilities in such a small amount of time quite exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally.

Now, they flew through the sky, rain and wind pelted the a black military class jet as it flew through the stormy weather, seeming like a lone bird in a sea of darkness. Wind buffeted the jet, shaking it brusquely while the members of Pantheon sat on either side of the narrow jet, trying to divert their attention from the perilous flight. Fortunately, the jet was outfitted with a touch screen table that ran along most of the length of the jet, granting them access to the internet, among other services. A quick chirping alerted them of an incoming message, and shortly afterwards the table's screen went black producing a hologram of Delphi in the center.

"Pantheon, you will be reaching your target destination shortly," she said in her usual business-like manner, as a satellite image of a hurricane approaching a set of islands showed up to her right, "Typhoon Laurel has lowered from category five to category four, however there will be a significant amount of damage done by this storm. The Indonesian Military, and the United Nations will be on the ground helping most of the civilians. Largely, they will be in charge of evacuating the high-risk landfall areas." The image zoomed in on the city of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia.

Your task will be to ensure that all civilians have been evacuated from their city, and to ensure the safety of those you do find in the high-risk areas. Additionally, you are tasked with minimizing the damage caused by the impending storm surge. Good luck."

The hologram disappeared and the screens returned to normal, resuming where they had left off. It was quite apparent that the gravity of the situation was very heavy, and yet, exhilarating for some of them.

"Pantheon, the target has been reached," spoke the pilot over the intercom "Prepare for landing." They could feel the pressure within the aircraft begin to shift as it spiralled towards the ground, the wheels screeching as it touched the tarmac.

"Alright, Pantheon" spoke Abigail confidently "Let's do this!" she said while getting up. The door to the jet opened with a hiss, and they were immediately greeted with screeching wind and whipping rain from the hurricane.

Bertók, glad they wouldn't have to deal with any supers this time around, followed Abigail immediately and hopped from the plane with confidence, as he felt very useful in this situation, believing his supportive abilities would be helpful in defending as opposed to fighting. In the week following that peculiar incident in the bunker, he found himself possessed by fresh energy thanks to the time off. He had hoped that his fellow compatriot Tailin also was filled with it as well after she hopefully reflected on the last mission.

Austin stepped out of the helicopter and created a barrier above his head to block the rain. "I double as a fully functional umbrella," He declared. "If we can find a place with a strong magnetic field, I could theoretically use my umbrella powers to protect the city. I know our orders are to evacuate the citizens, but if they're all safe I don't think anyone will complain. What do you think, Abi?" He knudged his sister with his elbow.