"Personally, I think she might not have been surprised by her own strength," commented Apex. "But rather by the fact that it<em>didn't</em>suffice. Maybe she expected him to go down in one hit."<br/><br/>Severance rewinds the video to that particular part. "Hmm. Possible. But we can't be sure, her face is like a mask. Maybe it even<em>is</em>a mask." He brings it back to the 'Shades' writing. "Either way, here's what we<em>do</em>know. 'Shades' is a criminal organization that appeared in New Sorea even before the boom began, when it had just been finished. They have two - now three - members that we know about, as well as an alleged 'Leader' who coordinates them. The known members are<em>Lamia</em>,<em>Fated</em>and now this one whom we will, for now, call 'Shades 3' until we find out her name."<br/><br/>Pictures appear of two other female metahumans. The first, labeled<em>Lamia</em>, is an obvious case for the old Chimaera-classification. She looks like an extraordinarily beautiful, nude woman of Asian descent - from her waist up. Below, she is very much monstrous - her waist joins with the neck of a body that seems<em>very</em>female. Or at least, it's upper half is that of a human female, though the size of a very large horse or even a car, with oversized human arms that end in long, sharp claws. The lower half reminds one more of a lioness or a similiar animal, though its hips are more of a mix of a human woman's and those of a lioness, with the tail of a scorpion. A monstrous head, shaped like a mix of a beautiful woman and a lioness, sprouts from the neck of this monstrous body, also taking the place that the human part's genitals would have, its sharp teeth dripping with the same poison that drips from her tail. She wears no costume - in fact, she wears no<em>clothing</em>at all. The monstrous parts of her body have no fur and are instead covered by extremely fine, small green scales that seem to be made of emeralds.<br/><br/>The other one, labeled<em>Fated</em>, is another beautiful woman (seems to be a theme with this organisation) decked out in extremely formfitting and thin, elaborate golden armor that shows off her perfect body shape. Since it covers her from head to toe, her ethnicity cannot be determined. Her arms and legs have heavier armoring and she is seen leisurely walking towards an opponent, apparently unconcerned about attacks.<br/><br/>"Fated is the first member of Shades we found out about," explained Severance. "She is a Variable-Type - specifically, she can take on whichever powers are best for fighting her opponent, though she is limited to the enemies power levels - meaning that while her potential may be higher than anyone else's, she only gets enough power to be their equal. And she can only chose one catalyst for her power at a time. By itself, that would already be quite the problem.<em>But</em>she also draws herself and her chosen opponent into a pocket dimension from which they can only leave once one of them has won the battle, enforcing a fair duel. She also has some general physical enhancements - she's stronger, faster and tougher than even a top-athlete. Exercise extreme caution and try to take her out before she can draw any of you into one of her 'Fated Duels'."<br/><br/>He turns to point at Lamia. "Lamia here is more straight-forward. Enhanced strength, speed and toughness, extremely sharp senses, the second-strongest regeneration in and around New Sorea, as well as an extremely potent, paralytic poison. She's also a cannibal<em>and</em>has severe anger management issues. If you fight her, try to stay out of close combat unless you are immune to poisons and<strong>do not</strong>target the human part of her body - I've tried that already. It may be fully functional, but it's just a decoy. Her core, including her brain, is<em>somewhere</em>in her lower body. And not in her monstrous head, either. I cut that one off as well. In fact, I once severed all of her limbs and the human part and she regrew them within a minute."<br/><br/>He sits down on a chair and calls up some numbers. "The only thing we know about the leader of Shades is that he or she is supposed to be a genius - probably a perception-type with enhanced intelligence. So far, he or she has not appeared in person." A new picture shows up on the big screen, a map of New Sorea and the surrounding country-side with several red dots spread across it, accompanied by dates. "The dots mark any appearance by Lamia or Fated, as well as any crimescene in which we think that Shades was involved. All in all, we have nine confirmed and thirteen suspected cases. They range from simple theft to torture and murder. To this day, they have limited themselves to attacking other criminal organizations and taking over their trades. Any confrontations with the few superheroes we've had until now ended, at most, with broken bones on the side of the heroes. Never any lasting damage, much less death."<br/><br/>"So they're playing nice? Why? So we won't come after them and instead focus on the other villain groups?" asks Apex. She seems markedly unconcerned about the whole situation and the violence on the screen does not seem to have touched her much. "Either way, boss, I need to get going. It's almost time."<br/><br/>Severance looks at her, then at a nearby clock. "Oh, right. You better get going, then. I'm sure the team can finish the rest of the briefing without you. I'll send you a recording to work through."<br/><br/>Apex nods and quickly bids goodbye to the others before leaving. Severance picks up where he left off. "For now, the rule's as follows: If you run into any of these three,<em>do not</em>engage unless civilians are in danger<em>or</em>you have explicit orders to fight them. Otherwise, break off and flee as quickly as you can."<br/><br/>Standing up, he adds: "Now, I have to go to interview a potential new member for the team. Or rather, I need to convince the parents to allow their son to join us. If you have any questions, suggestions or requests of any kind, please tell me now. Otherwise, I would like the three of you to simply get aquainted, work through your powers and Apex' - hers is rather easy to work with - and figure out how to best work together. Then, get to sleep. We'll have a busy day tomorrow."