The B-Team: Day One

Founding

During their official first day as the defenders of Bathala City, the B-Team is forced to defend the gathered crowd against The Sovereign Citizens of Bathala and their enigmatic leader The Sovereign.

The streamers are up and the music is playing. Let the Bathala City Octocentenary Celebrations begin! It's the first of July, 2025 and the entire city is abuzz with the sights and sounds of partying. The roads have been closed and businesses are either taking the day off or out trying to sell their wares to the crowds, and down Bathala City's main street, the 800th Anniversary Parade is about to begin. At the foot of Vigilant Tower, the courtyard space has been converted into a large stage and concert area where Mayor Isabella Sullivan is preparing to address the crowds flanked by members of the city council, law enforcement and prominent members of the community including Alec Upton and Brainiac of the Vigil.   With a little spare time before the speech begins and the B-team is officially debuted to the public, the various members of the group are able to enjoy the carnival that's been taking place down the main street. Harmony is in attendance with her younger brother; Jacob, and decides to visit the hall of mirrors. Having seen them heading in the direction, Cornelius Walker decides it'd be a fun idea to hide inside and scare the child that he'd never met before. No-one ever claimed Mercy was an intelligent vampire.   Unfortunately for him, a reflection happens to be a useful thing to have inside a hall of mirrors, and Cornelius quickly finds himself extremely disoriented. Unable to tell what constitutes a clear pathway and what is another mirror. He barely manages to position himself to jump out at the boy without walking through a pane of glass. Of course, after all that preparation, Jacob was somewhat less than fazed, and following a brief interaction between Mercy and the Greens, Mercy finally took the plunge through a mirror, cutting his legs and requiring Jacob to escort him outside while Harmony stuck around to warn the owners.   While all this is going on, the carnival is still taking place and after a brief meeting with Arthur and helping a little boy win at whack-a-mole, Rue finds themself running into Frank who's just managed to break the record for the "Test your Strength" machine, firing the little rocket high up into the air. The two exchange pleasantries before being interrupted by the arrival of Blaze who challenges Frank to beat her new record at the same game. He takes up the challenge and unleashes a strike so powerful that the machine is tipped forward and the rocket is launched at an angle through a window in the building opposite.   Having caused all the property damage he wanted to, Frank decides it's time to meet up with the others and both he and Rue say goodbye to Blaze. They find and group up with the others outside the hall of mirrors before the team is accosted by the entrepit reporter Michelle Van Quinn, who begins to question them on their latest activities. The discussion starts to get a little heated as Mercy tries to explain that he doesn't appreciate her sensationalised headlines in his usual foot-in-mouth way, but Harmony is quickly able to diffuse the situation and offers the reporter an exclusive interview in return for more balanced coverage. Quinn explains that she only reports what she deems noteworthy, but would keep their conversation in mind.   At this point, the celebrants are getting ready for the Mayor's big speech and the team begins to make their way to the large overpass bridge near Vigilant Tower, taking a brief detour to find Jacob, having escaped while they were busy with the reporter. Once they've dropped Chaos Lord off with his mum, the team make their way to the bridge, meeting briefly with Kelly, and the doctors Jeremy and Susana Black.   The Mayor eventually makes her way up to the podium, flanked by Brainiac and Blue up on stage, and begins her speech, ready to officially introduce the new team to the city. Unfortunately, she's unable to get more than a few words in before the signal is hijacked and a man in silver power armour wearing a crown and cloak appears on the screens. The man erupts into a tirade about the corruption of the city and how he and his followers will no longer recognise the authority of the city council, and much less the Vigil and Century Group. As the speech ends, he clicks a button and an explosive, hidden inside the support structure of the bridge the heroes and other VIP's are stood in, detonates, causing the structure to collapse.   With that, all Hell breaks loose. The various assembled superheroes attempt to hold the bridge up while the VIP's escape and the crowd below disperses, though they're only partially successful, with five people, including Ghost himself, being crushed as the bridge falls. Meanwhile, a large number of armed thugs disguised as Century agents begin to assault the ground floor of Vigilant tower, taking aim at the heroes and Mayor inside and requiring Blue and Brainiac to play defence. Warp and Pagan try to quell some of the thugs, but the latter is distracted by a woman's scream that could be heard down a nearby alley and goes to investigate.   Rescue operations are quickly underway, with Ghost appearing in his spectral form to assist with rubble clearing while his own body remains crushed under debris. Mercy is able to fly a group of paramedics over to the scene and they're soon joined by Jocelyn Green, using her nursing experience to assist in the effort. Her daughter Harmony meanwhile, spots some sort of ninja with a detonator, ready to cause further explosions. From a distance she's able to summon forth a ball of concrete around the detonator and the man's hand, but a small blast from a hand-held explosive sets him free and she's forced to give chase in the direction of the tower, with Mercy soon following behind once all casualties are in safe hands.   Pagan meanwhile, finds herself rushing into the alley alone and is confronted by a character she hadn't met before calling himself Combat. He reveals that the screaming was simply a recording and quickly throws up a hard-light barrier around the area, trapping the two together. He explains that while he wasn't expecting for her to be the one he fought, that any member of the B-team is fair game to him, refusing to elaborate further. The two engage in a duel, with the spellcaster proving to be a little more than the villain was prepared to deal with, easily resisting both his mundane and few magical implements, and fairly soon the pair are joined by Rue who could hear the scuffle from the street. They telekinetically launch a dumpster at the villain who is barely able to parry it before electing to escape, knowing that the two of them together would prove too great a challenge. In a flash of electrical discharge, he activates a short-range teleport and vanishes, leaving the two heroes alone once again as they begin to make their way to the battle outside the tower.   As Warp continues to mow through thugs while wielding a lamppost, Mercy and Harmony fly overhead in pursuit of Blastcap, catching up to him as he surrounds himself with minions. The two split up, with Harmony dropping down to begin taking care of the thugs, fairly safe in the knowledge that she could easily phase through their bullets, and Mercy swooping down to grab up the supervillain, flying up into the air and dropping him. With no other options and the ground rapidly approaching, Blastcap detonates another explosive, activating his power and allowing him to phase through the ground, disappearing from sight.   As Rue and Pagan quickly make their way to the base of the tower to join the fight, Brainiac implores the group to redirect their efforts to the veritable army that is attempting to breach the tower, leaving her as the primary shield. The team springs into action, each taking on a group of henchmen, with only Harmony taking any serious damage when, having worked out that bullets won't work, a henchman got a lucky hit in with the butt of his rifle and knocked her unconscious. Soon enough, the outside is cleared and Harmony recovered, allowing the group to track the Sovereign's signal back to the top of Vigilant tower using Pagan and Harmony's ability to hear radio signals.   In a moment of breath-taking foolhardiness, Mercy immediately decides to fly up to the roof, seeing the Sovereign himself, flanked by Blastcap, Combat, and a firing line of twenty men, all of whom immediately open fire upon the vampire hero. Unable to withstand such a barrage, Mercy is knocked out of the sky and begins plummeting to the earth. Luckily for him, Rue is able to use their telekinesis to catch him and Pagan is able to heal him, allowing him to relay some useful information about the formation of their enemies.   The team make their way up to the penultimate floor of the tower and begin to prepare for the battle ahead. Pagan summons her familiar to distract their enemies, Harmony prepares something akin to a bowling ball for Rue to slam into them, Mercy prepares his scariest face, and Warp decides to simply take a desk up in the elevator and throw it wildly at the supervillains.   The battle is a chaotic one, with Harmony throwing out smoke and ice to hinder the firing line, while Mercy and Warp take point against the supervillains and Pagan and Rue focus on the mooks. Blastcap is knocked out almost immediately and the Sovereign soon has to remove his helmet because of damage inflicted by Warp, revealing himself to be none other than the second-rate TV personality Maximus Reginald Steel, an infamous bigot and blowhard.   Having identified the greater threat and with no great loyalty to the Sovereign, Combat leaves him to Mercy and Warp, and decides to refocus his efforts on Harmony, Rue and Pagan. He is quickly able to taze Pagan, and shut the door on Harmony, believing her incapacitated by a flashbang, leaving him in the stairwell with Rue with her bowling ball firmly on the outside. Harmony however, is not out yet, and she quickly throws open the door, allowing her and Rue to gang up on the villain until he's forced to teleport away once again. Meanwhile, a lucky hit is enough to drop Warp, and Mercy is left in a melee with the villain. Both of them are bloody and bruised, but the armour-clad villain is unable to win the battle of attrition against the vampire and eventually he falls, having been severely injured by claws and fangs alike.   As the villains are taken away by Century agents, the group are thanked for their service by the mayor and gathered members of the Vigil, but the day is not a complete success. Combat escaped, and several people were in critical condition in the hospital including Ghost. Pagan wonders where the villain was able to obtain the magical artifacts that he'd used against her, worrying about some sort of magical black market in the area, meanwhile Brainiac is forced to have a difficult conversation with Mercy yet again due to the undue force he was caught on camera using against the Sovereign Citizens and the several fresh bite marks across their leader's neck.