The voice carried over the summer breeze was irresistible, the most enticing song they had ever heard, and they obediently marched towards it hand in hand, drawn ever closer to the source. This was Storm's power, the power to make anyone who heard his voice do his bidding. He could control vast numbers of people at once if he so desired, but tonight...tonight he only needed the child.
His real target was a teenage boy by the name of Cedar, someone he'd been trying to manipulate for years in the hopes of regaining his old glory, but Cedar was slippery, and had the right powers to allow him to resist the siren's call. So Storm had a new plan. Rather than go directly for Cedar, he would be taking hostages, most of them young. He knew the boy wasn't the type of person who could sit by quietly while children suffered, if only because he would worry about the safety of his own younger siblings. Sooner or later, his true target would come out of the woodwork. After all, the other young 'heroes' really nothing more than kids playing dress up, didn't know diddly squat about the powerful man spreading his power.
Cedar himself had watched the dazed pair walking down the dark alley. He had headphones on, music up loud, purposely blocking out the song he knew was there, the song that broke through between the songs on his phone. He had a backpack, both straps broken, clutched in his hand, filled with what you could call that night's grocery shopping. The little girl, he guessed she was about eight or ten, seemed perfectly normal. Brown hair, purple dress, some crayons stuffed in what he figured was a bum bag around her waist. The teenage boy was clearly a super. A mutant or metahuman. Silver skin, long, purple hair, athletic build, and a faint glow around him that Cedar saw cover every superhuman. A glow that apparently no-one else really saw. If he wasn't hypnotised, Cedar guessed the boy could have taken care of things himself, but as things were he would need rescuing.
When the two drew close enough to see Storm's face, for him to reach out to grab them, two sharp claps rang out across the alleyway, and suddenly the voice was no longer as beautiful or hypnotising. The two victims blinked in confusion as the hold over their minds faded away. He grabbed for the child, but both of them reared back, the teenager throwing an arm out in front of her protectively. He threw his other hand out in front, towards their attacker, and looked horrified when nothing happened. It wasn't just Storm's powers that clap had stopped, it was the teenager's as well. "Stay back!" He warned the man. It didn't sound very threatening with his slight stutter and overly polite sounding British accent. Storm sprinted forward, and the teenager pushed the child fully behind him and threw his arms up to shield his face.
Storm went right past them and swung for a fourth figure half-crouched behind a dumpster. With a yelp, Cedar threw his bag out to catch the punch and scrambled out of the way. While Cedar was strong, and experienced in fair and controlled fights, the kind you might experience in professional sporting circles, this was unlikely to be the same. The man was well over six feet tall, muscular and, well, a grown adult, which against the nervous 16 year old was a definite advantage.
"I was wondering when you'd show yourself." The man mused, looming over the child who shifted to a battle ready position. Kickboxing stance, he figured from the looks of it. Storm aimed high, hoping to get the kid to duck low, manipulate his balance. Cedar's stance, however, seemed very solid. His fight classes had clearly done him well. He couldn't evade forever though.
Every other hit Cedar got in was blocked, and every other block he attempted was broken through with ease. Storm's speed was greater than his own, and even without his powers to aid him he was confident, striking hard, fast and sure. One particular hit to Cedar's ribs generated an unpleasant crack and grating sound, and had him falling to his knees. Still, he didn't let up. Once he had the boy down, he continued to strike, showing no mercy as he curled up to protect himself. In the background, through his shield of his own limbs, Cedar saw the girl. The teenage boy was gone, and she was crouched down, drawing something on the grotty ground with her crayons. He wondered why she hadn't run, until he saw her give some kind of hand signal. That was when he saw her lift the item she had drawn from the ground itself, and heard a battle cry from the teenager. And suddenly, Storm was no longer attacking him, but fighting off a weak assault from the other teen. He was holding something he must have dug out from one of the dumpsters. Cedar passed out before he could see the girl use the taser she'd drawn to take the villain down.
When Hex and Crayon were sure the villain wasn't getting up again, they hurried over to the fallen teenager, rolling him onto his back to take a look at his injuries. Definitely a broken bone or two, and his left shoulder had dislocated. Lots of cuts and bruises. Hex opened his communicator, ready to call for backup and transport. He didn't know his powers had returned the moment the boy had lost consciousness, and didn't know if the boy was the cause or if the man was, but if it was the boy it looked like he'd done something in order to save them. Knowing, however, that this boy had just been involved in a fight with a definite super, and could have been a super himself, he thought maybe it would be safer to have Luca look at him before sending him to a normal hospital.
((Fun fact, because Crayon's powers are entirely down to the crayons she possesses, Cedar's power-nullifying ability doesn't work on her. He can't stop inanimate objects from being powerful, and also won't be able to register Crayon as a super. Non-human supers, like Shadow Weaver/Tarquin Soul also wouldn't have the super glow he sees around them either. For those who don't know, Cedar, also known as The Censor, can cancel out powers by clapping twice. If he claps again, gets too far away, enough time passes or he loses consciousness, the effect ends. Crayon belongs to my friend.))
