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Team Argos Book 1:

The Unveiling Chapter 3:

Team Argos Forms

By Jear77

Team Argos

As the heroes appeared in Argos' room, they all were disorientated for a moment due to the sudden shift in locales.

A moment after arrival, Mirror collapsed in a heap before even Shockwave could move. She struggled to get the globe off her head. Shockwave dashed over to her and helped her remove it. Gasping for air she said "Thank you"

Looking at her he saw that she was swollen, and beneath her fur, bruised. "What happened?"

"Traveling through the Maze like that had all the punches that missed me while I was phased actually solidly hit me. I think that his duplicates are somehow connected to the Maze and when I taken through it, the blows they delivered to me while I was partially phased were able to hit me even though they had dissipated in 'reality' as I was taken through the Maze."

Argos' rushed over to her with speed that belied his large size, having a stim-pen hypo in his hand and asked "Are you allergic to these?" She shook her head 'no,' closing her eyes and turning her head so he could administer the medication. Pressing it into her neck, he said "I had no idea how interconnected his powers were to the Maze. Are you going to be all right?"

No sooner did the hypo's medicine enter her bloodstream did some of the swelling go down. Breathing a sigh of relief, she said, "Yeah, but in the future if you do that, we need to make sure that their powers aren't Maze based or have protection if they are." Slowly breathing for the next few minutes, much of the swelling went down. With Shockwave's help and some difficulty she got up. He supported her to help her sit down at the desk.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tom really looked at her now he asked, "Aren't you..."

Mirror finished wryly, "The Masked Magician." Removing her mask, putting it down on the desk next to her, holding out her hand she said, "Akhela Paris, and you are?"

Undoing his mask he said "Tom Hawking," gesturing towards X-Zorb he says "That's Art Barrett." Art sheepishly took off his mask, asking Tom

"How'd you know it was me?" "I lived with you a few weeks, you silly bear," stepping up to him and swatting him playfully. "It'd be kinda hard not to know, even with you in that getup," eyeing the bear's prominent bulge appreciatively, stepping back to him, squeezing the bear's cock and rubbing it through the material discreetly so no one would notice.

"You've been working out, though, haven't you?"

"No." Art coughed, barely keeping his voice under control. "This," Art said gesturing at his body "is a side effect of the chemical explosion and breathing in the fumes. Along with strength, one of my powers is growth. I assume that your speed is the same."

Tom said, "Yeah. It started a few weeks after the explosion."

Art confirmed, "It was the same with me."

The portly Minotaur in their midst cleared his throat "I'm your host, Matt Parthos, Argos if you prefer. Welcome. But pardon the mess." Matt said a bit self-consciously.

Mirror murmured, "'Welcome to my parlor,' said the spider to the fly"

Art said, "I know you didn't do much except pull us out, but thanks for the rescue before the cops arrived. I didn't want to get caught by the MegaCorp rent-a-cops."

Mirror said, "He did a lot more than you might think. He gave us the key to winning."

Art looking confused, asked "What did he do?"

Mirror said, "He showed me the pressure points to hit and the order to do so. Thankfully I have a good memory. Multi-taur knew what was happening the moment I started. He tried everything to stop me but couldn't grasp me."

Argos confirmed, "I did, but onto other matters. There's no time for that now. Who knows how long you can be gone before others miss you, and I want to get you back as soon as possible. Sorry about pulling you out like that, without warning you what I was exactly going to do and how I was going to do it, but there really wasn't time. I knew MegaCorps rent-a-cops were there. As far as why I knew what was going on, it has to do with my powers. I see through everywhere at once through the Maze though I can really only completely focus on one thing at one time. The only places I can't are those that are D-locked, and if I tried I probably could. I can transport things through it. I didn't know until today, literally just now that I could transport people through the Maze. I hadn't tried. I also can read and influence thoughts to some extent."

Tom asked, getting angry "You manipulated all of our thoughts to get us to do this?"

Matt shook his head saying, "No. My control isn't that complete; the best I can do is implant a suggestion- a weak one at that." Holding up his hand to forestall the inevitable question. "As far as the next question goes, no I didn't. Some of you only developed your powers within the last few weeks. Others have been doing this their entire life. What you did, up to the point of working with your powers was on you; I only implanted the suggestion to act now. I'm all too grateful that you did as I suggested."

Tom said, "We are too, as the rent-a-cop idiots at MegaCorp can't seem to get anything right..." looking at his fellow teammates he said "But we almost got our asses handed to us today."

"Which is why we need to increase our numbers." Art said.

"I agree," said Argos. Tom said, "But in order to do that we need a name. Since Argos here was the one who brought us all together, why don't we name ourselves 'Team Argos?' All in favor?"

They all agreed.

Techno-Tarantula

Meanwhile, as the anthro spider lay in a hospital bed surrounded with various specialized monitoring equipment, coils of blue electricity arced out from the spider and hit the equipment, the walls, and the lights which flash brightly, sparking, half breaking, half melting the bulbs, then fade to dark. The arcs traveled through the walls and ceiling disrupting and burning out monitoring equipment, lights, and computer stations as it traveled throughout the hospital. The hospital's surge protectors were no match for the electrical arcs, which melted the protective circuitry as if it weren't there. Within moments the whole hospital is darkened, save for the battery-operated lights and the glow of exit signs.

Because the lights are burnt out, the backup generator doesn't seem to work. Once the hospital's maintenance crew realized what was going on, they rushed to change out lights, and change out damaged life-saving and monitoring equipment. The computer stations would have to wait. Patient's lives were at stake.

Arcing through the grid it takes a seemingly random pattern around town. Simultaneously, across town in the vat of ink at the factory where the spider fell in started arcing too. In moments, it too was out trying to meet up with the arcs. As the electrical arcs spread, they started fires. Some buildings with best in fire-suppression systems around were able to detect the cause and counteract the arcs. Others fires were short-lived because of the few firefighter Minotaurs able to immerse themselves in the Maze. The few fires that lasted longer were due to being D-locked, in non-residential or in other areas unlikely to spread. But those too were taken care of.

Team Argos

"But we can't bring everyone here." Akhela said, looking a lot more hale. It seemed the stim worked its magic. "That much activity through the Maze into one of MegaCorp's buildings would certainly bring the unwanted scrutiny of investigation. We would be found out eventually. Not to mention this room isn't big enough for everyone."

Argos pondered a moment saying, "That bears some thought. May I move you for a moment?" He asked Akhela.

She nodded and said, rising "I think I'm strong enough to stand." As she stood, she almost lost her balance. Before she could blink Tom was there holding her.

"Easy now, girl. You might not be as strong as you might think," Tom said. "Get me to the wall. Leaning against it will give me more stability than standing on my own two legs." While Tom helped her to the wall, Matt sat down and asked them what they thought they needed. They decided wherever they ended up needed to be:

• Roomy. You could fit several hundred anthros in it, training facilities, barracks, classrooms, etc.

• Obscure. No one had seen or heard about it since the breaking

• Uninhabited. It was built but never used

• Hidden: it hadn't been seen for years

• Inaccessible to those without Powers

• Sealed off

Art brought up several possibilities. Each was rejected until the last due to MegaCorp influence or possibility surveillance. Finally, an old, undiscovered disaster shelter at the North Pole shelter before the world's breaking that could house several hundred anthros, untouched because of the fact the entrance had been sealed due to an avalanche. "I know just the team we need, but it'll take some setup. In the interim, I need you to live your lives as if nothing's amiss. Mirror, are you strong enough to use mirror travel?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'll let you get home on your own. There's a mirror that should be big enough in the bathroom." Nodding, she reattached the globe over her head, stepped into the bathroom and disappeared into Mirror World.

As soon as she left, turning to Tom and Art, he said, "Now, I'd be blind not to see what's going on between you two. I'm going to give a piece of advice. Work it out. Get involved or don't. I don't care one way or the other. But don't get distracted while facing a villain. Now get!" Matt gestured and shunted them both through the Maze back to Art's place.

Together they said, "We need to talk."

Shockwave & X-Zorb

Tom and Art sat down on the couch silently sitting there for a few minutes before Tom began, "I never really did properly thank you for saving my life a few weeks ago. Not only did you save my life, but also gave me a place to stay. You were a perfect gentleman. You made me feel at ease. I doubt I would have feel so with many other people."

"Thank you," Art said. "I know I'm an ordinary bear... or at least was: average in all aspects. I didn't think anyone could be attracted to me as ordinary as I am. That really meant more than you know hearing it from you.

"This freak accident changed all that. Changed me in ways you can't imagine. I know you're attracted to me; otherwise you wouldn't have groped me like that. It took all my self-control not to cream my pants right then and there. I've never had a relationship before with anyone. Is it me that you're attracted to or these changes?"

"The comfort I felt with you while you had to help me to go to the bathroom, help me get undressed and hold me up while taking a shower happened before either one of us noticed the changes that happened. Because you didn't say anything, I wasn't going to pursue you. But these changes..." Tom reached over and rubbed the bear's bulge, undoing his pants and zipper, freeing the bear's dick from the pant's confines before he had a chance to object. "These changes, they make me more attracted to you."

Kneeling down, Tom opened his mouth and was about to engulf the swollen member in his mouth when Art said "No. not like this," bringing the wolf back onto the couch next to him "God knows I'm horny enough to do so and would no doubt enjoy your... ministrations, and wouldn't likely last long at that." Standing up and putting his rock-hard dick away and zipping himself up, he continued, "I want to make sure this is real and will last. I don't want to do this until I'm sure. I want to take it slow."

"I don't want to pressure you. I thought you were ready for the next step. Where do we go from here?"

"How about a date?"

Just as Tom was about to nod, Matt broke in both of their consciousness "May I bring you back? There's a... situation."

"We'll pick up this conversation later," Tom said firmly.

Team Argos

Only a few minutes had passed, a half-hour at most after Matt dismissed them, he notices the power outages and arcing electrical currents. "I hate to do this, but there's no choice" he murmured to himself. Closing his eyes he reached out to Akhela, Tom, and Art, he asked, "May I bring you back? There's a... situation?"

Giving their consent, he pulls them through the Maze.

Shockwave asked, "What's the situation?"

Before Matt could answer, Akhela, having been transported in only her magician's only outfit, having taken a shower, and dried off asked, "Can you get my costume?"

Argos said, "I'll do one better, but let me update everyone as to what's going on."

With a motion, Argos brought up the a vid-screen with the news report. The hedgehog reporter on the vid-screen said, "Random power outages are happening throughout the city. Fires are breaking out where the power outages occur. MegaCorp Power officials are trying to figure out what the cause is and stop it from spreading further."

Akhela said "So we're dealing with a Powered with control over electricity."

Argos nodded "It looks like it."

Tom said, "So it looks like we'll have to be outfitted in rubber and have EMP devices."

Art said, "I'm a step ahead of you there. My outfit is part rubber. That's what makes it so stretchy. I don't think I'd be damaged by it anyways, due to my powers."

Akhela asked, "Know where this is coming from?"

Argos shook his head saying, "I've been unable to track down its origin as of yet."

"In either case," Tom said "We need to stop it from getting out of hand. Who knows what damage it could do it left alone."

Argos said, "Since I'm not sturdy enough to go out in the field and help deal with this, I'm going to bring in someone else."

"Who?" Tom asked.

"You'll see."

FyreFoxx

Robin Inari Reynard was a coyote/fox hybrid, more specifically, a kitsune. He was the class clown and the life of the party growing up. He was constantly playing pranks and jokes on his fellow anthros. He always knew where that line was between good fun and injury for the individuals. He did this because he didn't know what else to do. School, while easy for him, bored him endlessly. He didn't apply himself fully, and so only got average grades, though he didn't fail. He could have done better in sports, too, had he applied himself, as he was naturally athletic, being able to do things many people who were truly athletic could not. But his silly antics and lack of focus prevented him from getting anywhere in it. About nine years old he learned of his fire abilities accidentally when he almost burned down the house. The fire was quickly contained. His father, the coyote, wanted nothing to do with him thereafter, thinking him to be a freak. His mother understood, and patiently worked with him to control his powers. In addition to working with him, she enrolled him in martial arts. She had heard rumors about groups forming to deal harshly with those they deemed to be Powered. Combining his ability with fire and the martial arts, he became a force to be reckoned with.

In the last several months he had just moved into town and started classes at the local MegaCorp branch of college and obtained a job at a MegaCorp convenience store. Several times while not at work he stopped robberies in progress, making sure not to use his fire abilities in a visible way. He decided to sew himself a fireproof costume and a mask, his emblem being a fireball and go out to fight crime. He was just about to try it out when he heard a voice not his in his head "FyreFoxx is the perfect name for you. Will you join Team Argos?"

"I will."