Tobias Marshal was following his partner, Phil Dunwhich, down the hall. Both were clad in swat gear, as they should be, as they are part of a larger team that was currently clearing out an old apartment building that housed a group of white supremacists. They had received a tip that they were going to carry out an attack on a local minority church. Not willing to take a risk, SWAT was called in. The building was quickly surrounded and after a quick fire fight at the immediate entrances, they had to clear each room and floor. Since it was such a large building they had to split off into two's as one of the suspects they took told them that there was a bomb somewhere inside. Time was of the essence hence splitting into two's to cover more ground faster.

Walking down the halls, the two came to a door to the left. Tobias posted by the door while Phil readied. On both nodded to the other that they were ready, Phil tried the door and opened it and entered with his MP5 at the ready as he entered. The room had seen better days as there was grim all over the walls and floor. The ceiling looked like it was starting to collapse in the corner. The only furniture in the room was the half rotted remains of a mattress, the spring wire frame clearly visible through the material. The immediate room clear, Phil turned to the only doorway, it's door had been broken off and laying on the floor beside it, and made his way to it. On reaching the doorway Phil could see that it led to an empty closet. Relaxing slightly, Phil left and told Tobias that the room was clear when a man bursts from the room knocking Phil forward. The man was too close for Tobias to accurately shoot the man without hitting his partner and elected to grab the man in a bear hug as his focus was still on Phil. Phil had quickly got up and made his way to the attacker. Tobias felt the man was about to jump up and use Tobias to brace himself to kick Phil as he came up. So Tobias dropped him and he fell to the floor hitting it hard stunning himself. Tobias quickly put a knee to the man's back pinning him to the floor as he pulled his cuffs out and secured the man.

"This is blue three, we got a suspect in custody," Phil said into his radio as he came to Tobias.

"Copy blue three, red two just found the explosives. Continue your sweep for any stragglers," control replied.

"Will do, blue three out," Phil replied.

Tobias got the man to his knees now that his hands were cuffed behind his back and got a look at him. Tobias had to laugh once he saw the man. He was completely shaved bald and had a tattoo of a swastika.

"You really went all out on the skinhead thing didn't you," Tobias goaded him.

"Fuck you man!" he shout back as he struggled against his binds. "Let me go! You know we gotta get rid of those filthy people from stealing our jobs and killing our kids. If we don't do anything to stop these leeches, how will?"

Tobias' lip quivered in anger, "Sure, and you're so nice and squeaky clean and live in the ritzy part of town. This is just your summer home right?" he prodded gesturing around the filthy hallway.

"Fuck you pig!" he shouted back.

"He's obviously gone to Harvard," Phil said with a laugh.

"Definitely a Pulitzer winner here," Tobias quipped as he got up. "Let's get the rest these assholes rounded up," he told Phil.

Several minutes later they cleared the floor having found two woman that the group had kidnapped and were using for sex. The women were rushed to the waiting ambulance to be treated for the abuse they suffered. At the end of the operation a total of eighteen had been taken into custody, seven of those were shot when the SWAT teams breached the building and two of them were killed from the firefight.

After the debriefing and following mountain of paperwork, Tobias and Phil had taken to a bar after work to celebrate their largely successful day.

"So," Phil started after taking a drink of his beer, "Are you sure that this'll be your last day on the force? I gotta tell you, I'm going to miss having you with me," he told Tobias as they clinked their glasses together.

"You're going to have to find someone else to watch your back when you forget to check behind the doors," he replied with a smirk.

Phil laughed at that, "Well, I had to give you something to do. So. What's this part-time.."

"Full-time job now," Tobias corrected.

Phil nodded, "..Full-time job that you have that you can't still work with me and the guys for?"

Tobias stared at his drink for a moment before shaking his head dismissively, "Sorry, I can't tell you since I'm not allowed to tell anyone, but I swear I can make a difference workin' in it," he told him.

Phil snuffed his nose at that, "Yeah well, just be sure to look me up once in awhile," Phil told him while holding up his glass for another toast to which Tobias answered in kind. "Now, lets get you the mother of all hangovers for tomorrow so you can realise the mistake you've made in leaving the force."

"I'll drink to that," Tobias said as he drank.

"You're going to have to," Phil laughed, drinking his own.

They sat at their table for another hour after which the went their separate ways.

On reaching home, Tobias tossed his keys on the table and locked the door before walking into his living room and turned on the TV to watch the news. As he listened to the news in the background. With a sigh, he wiped his face with his hands before he looked at the bracelet on his left wrist. There was a reason for his being vague. In his new job, that was part time up till now, he is a super hero, one of the developed.

His code-name is Dragon and part of a team called Valiant, a mid-level super hero team composed of himself and three other people. Copy Cat, Halt and Reflect, and Evangel.

Compared to his teammates, he was rather embarrassed on how he developed his powers. He didn't get hit with radiation or took some kind of chemical. He wasn't part of a super soldier program and he wasn't brilliant creating awesome technology. And he certainly didn't develop powers through surviving any tragic event. No, he developed powers through a small act of kindness. More specifically, he saved the life of a dragonfly. As it turned out, the spirit of all dragonflies took notice of him when he idly picked up a dragonfly when it stunned itself by hitting a cart by the entrance of a grocery store he was walking out of one day and set it in a safe place for it to recover.

Later that evening the spirit came to him telling him that she was touched by his kindness and humility as she told him that most would walk on without notice. And to show her appreciation to him, she bestowed the spiritual armor of the dragonfly to him. The armor was mostly black in color with metallic green accents where the light reflected off it. It hugged his body like a second skin and had smooth chitness design giving it an insect-like look and covered his entire body including his head. The helmet sort of reminded him of those old Kamen Rider shows he used to watch. The armor also came with weapons in the form of a pair of throwing knives. The armor couldn't allow him to fly, which confused him, but it enhanced his speed, reflexes, and strength to just beyond human levels.

Tobias smiled to himself as he looked at the bracelet which was how it looked when his armor was in its dormant state. He hadn't been able to remove it since he received it but didn't really want to anyways. He had put this gift to good use using it to fight super villains as well as the more standard criminals. He liked it and there seemed to be a lot less paperwork. A quick look at his clock on the TV told him that he should head for bed. While he didn't expect there to be a world crisis event, it still paid to be well rested as his experience in the SWAT unit showed him that exhaustion was as much a lethal enemy on the job as any bad guy with a gun. He shut everything down and headed for bed and was asleep minutes after his head hit the pillow.

The next morning Tobias was up and going through his morning routine and had gone out the door at his usual time and driving off to work. With one change. Instead of driving to the police station, he headed into the opposite direction heading to the headquarters for Valiant. After getting out of his car he headed for the building. On reaching the door he was met by a girl with long blond hair done up in a pony tail who looked to be seventeen years old.

"Good morning Dragon," she said to him with a cheerful smile.

Tobias smiled back, "Morning, Copy Cat," he answered using her code name in return as they both walked through the door.

Copy Cat was the team's resident tech head. She would often try to copy powers and other technology she comes across using technology she built herself. Her uniform consisted of a blue hairband that she wore that had a functional set of cybernetic cat ears that would twitch and turn to the slightest sound. A sleeveless blue shirt that seemed to be made of a glassy material with a circuit pattern instead of real fabric. Her fingerless gloves and cargo pants seemed to be made out of the same blue glassy material. The only exception to this was her goggles, although they had a glassy blue frame, which had orange colored lenses. To cap off her uniform, she carried a small satchel that was her first invention as well as her pride and joy. It had the same blue glassy look to it as well and had dimensional technology built into it. This allowed her to put pretty much anything she wanted to, regardless of size, into it. She got the idea from an old cartoon where a character would pull out an anvil that was twice the size of the character and copied it for her own use. She even included some sort of warping technology into it so the object would compact as it was it was put into her satchel. He had to laugh once, and was thankful it was harmless to humans, when she once shoved a villain into it when we had no other means of transporting him safely to a holding cell. The reason she looks seventeen is because of her first, and only, foray into bio-mechanical suits. Back when she was twenty-one she had seen a TV show where a character was wearing a suit that made them look like a completely different, and smaller, person. She then tried to replicate the effect by creating a bio-mechanical suit that looked like herself from when she was seventeen. Unfortunately, it seemed that she made a mistake and locked herself in the suit. Because of the way she designed it, simply trying to rip it wouldn't work. Even though she is a full-fledged adult she still, at times, acted like she was seventeen. In any case, she was an invaluable member to the team.

As the two walked through the lobby they bantered to one another when Halt and Reflect came walking out of the gym with a towel his shoulders.

"Hey Halt," Copy Cat greeted him as they passed.

"Morning Cat," he replied as he headed off to his room for a shower.

Halt and Reflect, or Halt as most people called him had no real uniform, usually sticking with a simple pair of jeans and a muscle shirt. His powers allowed him to stop energy before it hits him and bounce it back to it origin point. He was well fit and would often brag about his physique.

Tobias and Copy Cat were soon in the central control room which had a conference table with chairs around it as well as computers and TV screens that lined the walls. The TV's were set to various news channels, the computers were analysing police radio bands for possible super villain attacks or just regular criminals that were too well equipped for the regular police force. The two sat down at their separate computers and went through the logs to review potential new comers, both heroes and villains coming to the city.

"So where's Evangel?" Tobias asked.

Evangel didn't have a uniform per say but he always wore white clothing that seemed to make him look like an aristocrat from the last century. He also wore an incredably long white scarf that was wrapped loosely several times around his shoulders and the ends still fell to his waist. He carried a pair of swords at all times. If they weren't in his hands they were in sheaths that covered only the blades edge. No one in Valiant had ever seen him eat or drink and despite a few times the had camera's trained on him out of curiosity, they never saw him sleep either. His swords, so far, could cut through anything. Tobias thought that he was a speed booster as he was always able to block what ever came at him or moved out of the way just in time to avoid injury.

"He went on his vacation two days ago," Copy Cat answered.

"Oh," Tobias replied.

For three days each month, Evangel would disappear. They didn't know where he went and just considered it his vacation as he was always on duty otherwise.

Just then an alert sounded and Tobias flicked on the police radio.

"Send back-up, we have a mob here at the mall. Confirmed developed involvement. I repeat, a developed is instigating a riot! It's.." there was a female voice that cut off the officer and then the signal went dead.

Tobias switched off the speaker, Copy Cat had already got up and was heading to the door, Tobias ran after her. They ran to the roof where Halt was waiting, still soaking wet from his shower but otherwise dressed and ready.

Copy Cat pulled out a cube, a teleportation device, from her satchel and placed it on the ground between the three. The sides slid out providing a stable platform while the top raised up until it was just above everyone. Everyone stared at the erected post as it activated. From the team's perspective it looked like a cross fade you see on TV shows. One second, they were on the roof of their headquarters, and the next they were on the roof of the parking lot of the mall where the mob/riot was happening.

Not wasting any time Tobias willed his armor to activate and he was immediately clad from head to toe in chitiness armor and followed his team members to the mall's skylight to peer in for a look. What they saw was a mix of controlled chaos. The men were running around smashing storefront windows and raiding them of valuables. The women were alternating between fighting each other and bowing in one direction.

"Oh shit," Copy Cat swore as she saw who it was and went fishing in her satchel pulling out a pair of goggles and headphones and handing them to Halt. "It's Princess," she stated with distaste.

Princess is a woman who was so named because she had an obsession of looking like a princess. She dressed like one, more specifically like a Disney princess. She was a dangerous developed because her body produced an aura that drew everyone who looked at her to her. Even her voice had a hypnotic effect which made it very hard to fight her on her own. She would often go into large crowds before turning on her power to create an instant army of people to warship and do her bidding. Last year, she almost took over the city including half the team as well as other local heroes. It was thanks to Evangel, who seemed to be immune, and Copy Cat who had her gadgets to filter out the effects of Princess' powers. Tobias didn't have his armor active at the time she got him. Copy Cat was able to make enough earphone and goggles for all the heroes while Evangel ran interference. After Princess was defeated, all the heroes were embarrassed to realise that they were fighting with cat ears on their head.

As for the present, Princess was still building her power base in the mall and the mob of hypnotised hostages was still relatively small. Without further adieu, Copy Cat pulled a blue hula hoop out of her satchel and placed it on the skylight. The hoop sank into the skylight and after a flash, the glass inside the hula hoop disappeared. Tobias jumped down the hole first as he pulled out his throwing knives, making sure he held the pointed ends in his palms so he wouldn't hurt anyone more than he had to.

"Stop this Princess, before we have to," Tobias told her as Copy Cat and Halt landed behind him.

The woman gave them a dirty look but seemed largely disinterested before adding a scowl in Copy Cats direction. "Everyone," she called out. Everyone turned to her. "Please remove these unsightly peasants' heads from their bodies, your princess commands it," she told them with a gesture in the heroes direction. The crowed of people were instantly on them.

Tobias ducked as a man swung at him with a machete pilfered from a nearby sporting goods store while blocking a mop a janitor swung down at him. Tobias grabbed the mop and yanked on it pulling the janitor towards him off his feet and thrusts his fist into the janitors' stomach. He doubled over and was, for the moment, out of the fight. The man with the machete swung at him again while he block the strike with the flat of his knife while kicking another in the chest as he ran up to him. In one swift motion, Tobias wrapped his arm around and grabbed the machete away from the man and flung it up where it stuck in the ceiling. Tobias then grabbed the man and pulled him over his shoulders and threw him into a rushing crowd of people knocking them over like bowling pins. With his immediate area clear for the moment he spared a glance over to his team mates. Copy Cat had already pulled out an energy rifle with 'crowd control' written on the side and was firing at the mob when they got too close to her. Those hit by her rifle straight on were knocked to the floor while others that were grazed were sent spinning before hitting the floor. Halt had his own rifle, courtesy of Copy Cat he was sure, and was shooting it while physically knocking back the ones that made it past his shooting.

"Copy Cat," he called out as he kicked another back.

"What?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the mob of people trying to rush her.

"Go and take Princess and we'll cover you!" he told her.

"Kay," she shouted back as she kicked the legs out from under a woman that managed to get close. Copy cat fired a few more times before turning around and running towards Princess who was starting to look nervous.

On seeing Copy Cat running towards her Princess pulled two large men she kept as her guards in front of her as she grabbed some jewellery from the pile she had everyone collect for her and began to make a brake for it. Copy Cat ran after her firing her rifle as she went. She hesitated when she saw a police officer approach her and hit the floor as he shot at her. She fired back low hitting his legs, the officer spun head over heels before landing on his back in a daze. Copy Cat didn't waste any time and continued on. She eventually caught up with Princess who had ran into a dead end and was trying to open the locked door.

Hallway was empty so Copy Cat put her rifle away in her satchel but she held the bag in front of her in a taunting motion.

"Get away from me, your princess commands it," Princess cried in fear.

"Not going to happen Princess," Copy Cat replied as she swung her bag in front of her menacingly, "You've been a naughty little princess and you need a time out. Now, since I haven't had time to figure out a way to nullify your powers for transport, you're going to have to take a ride in the bag," she told her.

Princess screamed, "No please, I'll be good, I promise," she pleaded.

Copy Cat just shook her head like a parent disciplining a child, "We tried that last time remember? You tried to escape so now you have to get in the bag," she told her almost condesendly as she stepped closer.

Princess tried her best to back away as much as she could into the corner as she cried until in one swift motion Copy Cat swung the satchel over Princess' head and pushed it down. It was almost comical, in a scary sort of way, to see Princess' legs kicking from the opening of the bag until Copy Cat grabbed a foot and pushed them the rest of the way in and made her way back to her team mates where they had gone from fighting the crowd to helping them as they returned to normal now being out of sight and sound of Princess. Fortunately, most of the injuries were limited to bumps bruises and minor cuts. Some from team Valiant but most from Princess' doing. The worst was an old woman who'd broken her hip.

As the injured were looked over and treated, the police arrived with a specialised containment unit for Princess. When the police inquired about where the suspect was and Copy Cat simply held up her satchel and swung it slightly while giving them a knowing look with her cheshire grin. Without any further words, or any words for that matter, she walked over to the containment unit in the police van and closed the door, disappearing in the back. After a few minutes a muffled scream could be heard a few seconds later Copy Cat came back out making a show of dusting off her hands.

"So," Tobias urged, "Did she say why she attacked this time?"

"Apparently, she got wind that a store received a shipment of the Snow White re-release from Disney," she told them with an amused look on her face accompanied by a raised eyebrow, "She didn't want to wait or risk not getting a copy so she went on the warpath."

Halt scoffed at that, "She caused a riot because she wanted a movie that everyone has at the back of their closet?" Tobias nodded in agreement.

Copy Cat laughed as she agreed with the others before responding in a mock impression of Princess, "It's a digitally re-mastered blue-ray with over thirty hours of behind the scenes footage and running commentary of the director and lead animator," she said before circling her finger beside her head in the universal indication of crazy. Copy Cat pulled said blur-ray and handful of jewellery out of her satchel and handed them to one of the nearby police officers. "She screamed when I took the blue-ray away from her more than the jewellery. I swear, she's such a child," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Tobias raised an eyebrow at that, "Last week, you set up a complex set of dominos pieces to hit the snooze button on two of your alarm clocks," he chided her.

She responded by sticking her tongue out at him before breaking into a grin.

The trio laughed again before checking with the police for anything further and to ensure they were aware of the containment procedures needed for transporting Princess. Soon enough, they were back on top of the mall roof standing in the same spot were in when they arrived. As Tobias had his armor return to its dormant state Copy Cat pulled out another cube to teleport them back to their headquarters. After setting the coordinates, she programed the cube to self-destruct after it sent them back. Once she set it down it opened up and sent them back home and then began to rust before bursting into flames that burnt away to ashes, the hula hoop device they used to get through the skylight returned the empty space of glass before removing itself from the skylight and self-destructing as well.

On returning to the roof of their headquarters, Copy Cat knelt down to retrieve her device. Halt was already on his way inside and Tobias was about to say something to Copy Cat when he felt a sharp thump hit him in the back immediately followed by a bright light below his eyes.

Tobias looked down to see what caused the flash of light when his sight fell on his shadow. At first he couldn't place it why his shadow looked different until he noticed that the sun was shining through his chest. Perplexed, Tobias looked down at his chest and saw a few wisps of smoke leaving his chest. He reached up with a hand and was surprised to see that he could put his hand into his chest. Tobias then realised that the reason the sun carried through the chest of his shadow was because HE had a hole in his chest. His last thought before he collapsed was: "I thought something like this would hurt." And then his mind fell to darkness as he heard Copy Cat screaming.

Copy Cat looked up as she heard the discharge of energy just in time to see Tobias reaching a hand into the hole in his torso before he collapsed. Copy Cat then screamed out his name, not his code name, and caught him as he fell. She couldn't think, there wasn't any blood and when she tried to cover the hole with her hand, she couldn't quite bring herself to touch the fatal wound. She still screamed.

Halt was on his way back to the exercise room when he heard Copy Cat start screaming. When he turned around he saw that Dragon was on the ground and Copy Cat was screaming over him. Halt then looked up to see a man dressed in traditional Chinese garb standing atop a Chinese dragon with a canon of some sort strapped to his wrist.

"Drake," Halt spat out the man's name. A villain who had the power to create solid objects and illusions. He seemed to have a long-running personal grudge against his teammate Dragon simply because of his code name. Right now that didn't matter to Halt. Drake obviously hit Dragon and Copy Cat had gone into hysterics screaming and sobbing not seeming to notice the man aiming his canon in her direction. Seeing what was going to happen Halt ran and jumped over his team members, grabbing them both and bracing himself as he shielded them with his body. Drake fired his canon and Halt used his power causing the beam of energy to stop inches from hitting his body and reversing back into the canon causing it to explode injuring Drake as some shrapnel carved up his arm and some of his face. Drake fell back with a cry of pain before laughing.

"Now I shall claim the right to truly be called the Dragon," he said as he had the dragon he was riding carry him away.

It was at this moment that Copy cat regained her senses and jumped up as she reached into her satchel and pulled out a missile launcher that was a little too large for a normal person to carry. She had compensated for this by adding support struts and targeted Drake. When she got a lock she fired five missiles. Drake dodged the first two easily and formed a pair of Chinese swords to intercept the next two and had his dragon stop the last with its body to shield him. Copy Cat roared at this and pulled out and energy rifle and began firing haphazardly in Drake's direction. A few minutes later, Drake was out of sight. Copy Cat continued to fire until Halt grabbed the rifle from her. She turned to Halt with tears streaming down her face.

"He killed Dragon," she whispered weakly, her lip trembling.

Halt pulled her to him. He couldn't think of anything to say. And telling her that everything would be okay would just upset her. The short girl sobbed into Halt's chest soaking his shirt with her tears but he held her tight regardless until she pushed him away.

"M-maybe I can save him," she blubbered as she hurried over to Tobias' body, "Help me get him to my workshop. If we can get him there soon enough, maybe I can rig something up and bring him back," she cradled her head in her hands trying to think as she paced back in forth. Not seeing Halt moved, she turned to him, "Come on and help me, I can't carry him myself."

Halt hesitated until Copy Cap screamed at him to help her again. Halt wanted to tell her that there was no use and that Dragon was dead but he could see that Copy Cat was barely holding on. Still, Halt didn't like the thought of leaving Dragon's body out in the open and moved to pick his body up all the while Copy Cat was fretting over him. They went at a careful, but rushed pace, as they descended down into the building until they reached Copy Cat's workshop. As Halt carried Dragon's body in, Copy Cat rushed over to one of her work tables and brushed the projects she was working on off onto the floor, some of the devices fizzled as if to complain which went unnoticed by Copy Cat whose attention was squarely on Tobias that Halt was gently placing on the table.

Copy Cat went to his side and looked at him and was briefly disturbed that his eyes were still open. She closed her eyes to hold back a wave of sadness before opening them again and using her hand to close his. Dozens of thoughts ran through her mind at once as she considered what to do first. She couldn't just leave Tobias laying there with a hole in his chest but she had so many other things to do before that. His brain was already starved of oxygen minutes ago. She had to build something to stop his body from rotting. There was just too many things to do at once for her to decide which to start first. She began to pace again.

"Uh, Copy Cat?" Halt asked drawing her attention.

"What?!" she snapped looking him straight in the eye with a manic look in hers.

"Something's happening to his bracelet," He told her as he gestured down at the trinket as it appeared to grow up Tobias' arm, forming his armor.

"No!" Copy Cat cried out as she grabbed a jig saw and moved dead set on removing the armored clad arm from Tobias' body only to be stopped by Halt who grabbed the tool away from her and held her tightly. Copy Cat struggled against him and kicked at him wherever her heels could reach. Halt grimaced but held fast.

"Let me go," she ordered him as she continued to struggle, "I need to get it off him before.."

"You're not cutting his arm off," Halt told her forcefully, "This isn't like you, you're not thinking straight. How the hell is cutting his arm off going to bring him back?" he asked her trying to get her to see reason.

"Shut up," she shouted back. "The damn armor is magic. If it covers him up then I don't know what will happen and if I can't get it off him then I can't bring him back!" she cried before she finally went limp. She sobbed again, "I don't want to loose him," she cried.

Halt turned her around so he could look her in the eye. Her eyes were red from the crying and her face was slick with her tears as she continued to cry. The armor was now spreading across his chest as it moved down his torso and up to his head.

"For all we know, this is supposed to happen," he offered, although he didn't sound convinced himself. For all he knew, the armor was eating Dragon.

"I hope so," Copy Cat said listlessly, her senses seeming to return to her finally, "Because I won't be able to get it off him without losing him," she said dejectedly with a sniffle as the two watched the armor slowly swallow Tobias' body until it sealed him in completely. Copy Cat turned her head before it finished.