Ren wakes up from one of his stress-induced nightmares to an explosion rocking the entire city. The windows rattle, the floor shakes, and things fall off the shelves. Rushing out to his window, he sees a fireball rising up from the top of the Star of Pacifica, painting the night sky red. It's certainly not the kind of signal he'd been expecting.
He scrambles to his gear and starts putting on his costume, shortly thereafter making his way out the door and towards the scene of the explosion.
Sirens wail throughout the city and the streets fill with the rumbling of trucks as the National Guard mobilizes to the scene. Ren looks down at the square in front of the Star of Pacifica and sees the entire area cordoned off by black armoured SUVs and men in black combat fatigues patrolling, armed with assault rifles and SMGs. At the main entrance, men in suits oversee the area, talking into their small in-ear radios to guide the flow of patrols.
It has the look of an official government operation, but it's far from it. There's no agency involved, only the very same people he'd been seeing throughout his vigilante career: IPMC International. None of them have identifying emblems on their outfits, but from Ren's vantage point, he has the perfect angle on the SUVs, the IPMC emblem painted on each rooftop.
A light flashing in the corner of his vision draws his attention to the sky, where two helicopters were circling the skyscraper. He sees the familiar trail of green and blue streak across the sky as Aura arrives at the scene. Next, he hears the rumble of more heavily armoured cars and sees a hulking man emerge from an SUV at the square, heading in through the main entrance with a group of well-armed men.
The explosion happens around midway up the Star of Pacifica, creating a hole that stretches across five floors. A rain of paper flows down the south side of the building, and occasionally some rubble or a piece of furniture falls down from the opening. From the lack of smoke, it appears that whatever fire may have been started has already been extinguished by the top-of-the-line sprinkler system.
A fluttering noise from behind draws Ren's attention away from the skyscraper. He sees Icarus standing quietly in place at the far end of the roof, folding in his wings. Ren notices that he's on edge, as he has already lowered into a combat stance by the time his mind manages to identify the figure.
"Whoa there. Easy, I'm not here to fight. Not you, not them," Icarus says, glancing up at the Star of Pacifica. "I'm here to observe."
"Why?" Ren demand, slowly shifting out from the ready stance as the angel-winged man has shown himself as no threat.
"Because this will lead to nothing significant. Whatever happens here tonight won't bring Barrier back, or end up with Reissman losing his cause. If he's jailed, he'll buy a way out. If he dies, he'll become a martyr for groups we don't want to meddle with. I want to observe what happens, because I need to know what the next step needs to be."
"Barrier?" Ren question, a hint of confusion in his voice.
"You met Barrier at the meeting. He was captured and tortured. I tried to recover him from the detainment facility the government's been building. I managed to get him out during New Dawn's assault on the place, but Barrier died a few hours later." Icarus has a striking lack of emotion in his voice.
"Which side are you on?" Ren ask.
"My own. I wish to see coexistence and acceptance, but none of this will lead to it. Neither the government's Reissman-influenced way, nor the New Dawn's way. We all need to take a stand, and I believe your place is to go over there and see this path to the end, even if no solution will be revealed. If things go right, I have a lead on something. If things go wrong, pressure must be placed from the outside," Icarus says, continuing to look over Ren's shoulder. "There are more of us out there. The United States isn't the only place where the power can thrive."
Ren turns away and prepares, It's time for him to make his move.
Ren look up to the circling helicopters, seeing the pattern in their movement. The spotlights rotate slowly, scanning the nearby streets while the crew probably talks to the ground personnel. He notice another helicopter in the distance, rushing towards the skyscraper at great speed. The circling black helicopters immediately shift to meet the new arrival, and he can see that the third one is painted white and blue. The closer it gets, the clearer the news channel logo on the side becomes. Ren smirks and takes his chance to slip in.
His feet leave the rooftop from where he has been observing the scene. The wind chills his skin as he soar high over the square. His flight reaches its pinnacle, and he starts guiding his motion to land on the skyscraper's roof.
With a loud clang, he land on a grated walkway and rush to hop over a railing and onto the rooftop itself. The hatch near the middle of the roof stands out, thanks to being marked with a large yellow frame. Ren rush over to it, slipping in through the hatch just as one of the helicopters turns around and a spotlight illuminates the corner of the roof. The corridors are empty. Eerily so.
He make his way from floor to floor, finding most of the building completely deserted. It actually makes no sense to him just how empty the building is, when the outside is crawling with heavily armed people. He expected at least a few patrols on the upper floors, but there's nothing.
While walking along one of the top floor corridors, he notice damage on the wall. A bullethole, then a scorch mark on the floor with a small flash-bang husk nearby, then a human-sized dent in the wall.
He must be getting close. With some fresh urgency in his steps, he hurries down the corridor to find a way to the penthouse.
"Icarus!" Ren hear a shout come down the corridor. He rush ahead to find out where it came from, only to hear a loud shattering of glass.
Ren come around a corner into a large open-plan office with several figures tied into a brawl near the far windows. The glass has shattered across two panes of the full-wall windows, and he sees a massive man standing by the opening, wearing a suit and a helmet with a slightly elongated forehead and some kind of short, tusk-like stubs coming out of its front.
The brawl gets thrown to the side in one sudden motion, and he watch as Icarus emerges from this bundle of people, rushing past the large man and diving straight out the window. There's a moment of confusion as the people Icarus had been fighting tried to regroup. Then one of them catches a glimpse of Ren.
"Hey, there's another one over there!"
"This one is mine! Keep watch on the flying one!" the large man shouts, giving Ren just enough time to recognize him: Ferris Bernard.
The mammoth of a man takes action, his tusk-equipped helmet pointed straight at Ren as he charges right through an unfortunate office desk. There's plenty of time and room to get away, and Ren jumps up just as the charging man reaches him, rolling straight over his form and evading the brunt of it. Instead of running through Ren, he runs through the wall behind Ren and crashes into another office space.
Behind him, Ren hear the crunch of glass and glance back. Icarus stands at the window, his white extended wings shimmering with reflected light, in his hands a slightly worse-for-wear-looking Crimson Caracal. The guards jump into action and rush them, but both of Ren's fellow vigilantes are quick to get into the fight. Icarus does look his way in the midst of the chaos, offering a nod and a smile to him.
"Hey Lucid, I hope you have your will in order," Ferris calls out to Ren while scrambling through the hole he made in the wall. "Because you're not going to be walking out of here!"
He then rushes at Ren again.
With a loud crash, the large man stumbles through another wall. Yet he keeps on steaming ahead, making a large sweep and smashing through the same wall in a different place, rushing straight for Ren. Instead of outright evading or using his momentum to take him down right away, Ren places himself in front of one of the round concrete pillars. With a last-second jump, he get out of the way and let Ferris crash straight into the pillar. A loud clang sounds through the office as he smashes through the concrete and hits the large steel I-beam inside.
"So, what should I call you now that you're officially a supervillain?" Ren call out. "Battering Ram?"
While Ferris stands up and fixes his helmet, he lets out a chuckle in the midst of his grunts. "Mammoth! I'm Mammoth!"
He then charges Ren again.
Ren keeps bouncing around, trying to keep himself mobile while offering a fair defence and occasional counter-attacks. The Mammoth goes with him for a while, swinging into the air or crashing through furniture as he chases him. Then an errant swing actually glances off Ren, throwing him off-balance just enough to bring him toppling over instead of finishing a vault over a desk.
The massive man grabs Ren's leg and swings him straight through a wall.
The Mammoth rushes at him again, but Ren sees a sudden red streak in his vision as Caracal comes into frame. She runs full-tilt diagonally to intercept the huge man chasing Ren around, then launches herself up into the air and drop-kicks Ferris in the back of the head. Both of them continue the diagonal momentum and topple over into a pile of broken office furniture.
"Go! You need to help Dawn and Nightreaver! We'll keep acting as a distraction!" Caracal shouts as she reveals a set of blades from her knuckles and slashes down at the Mammoth.
Ren see Icarus handling the other guards just fine, and rush out of the offices. Once again, he's on his way up.