The feeling of warmth vanished as Rex entered the bank. It seemed the oracle from the Veil was on the money. Quite literally so. The spell Rex had used was an answer to a pray to lead him to wherever he was needed most. It just so happened to match up with what the oracle had said: "Problem at a bank downtown. Probably magical. Bring backup."

It was a little frustrating dealing with precognitive powers, particularly spells. Not all mystics had the same levels of aptitude or skill and the one who'd given Rex the heads-up was vague as typical. That's why he'd opted for his own method of double-checking.

Well, everything seemed to be in order for the moment. That meant nothing, of course, merely that he has some time to prepare, unless whatever was going to happen was quiet.

He would've brought backup but...well, again, he didn't place a lot of wait on this particular oracle. She tended to be wrong a lot. Besides, Rex had been accumulating quote a bit of experience with mystical threats and he felt like he could handle whatever was thrown at him. His Sword of the Spirit tended to stop most magical shenanigans cold.

Rex parked himself on a bench inside the bank. Now it was time to wait and see what was about to--

WHABOOMM!!!!!

An explosion rocked the building as as a wall collapsed. Instantly people began screaming and running for the exits, those who weren't struck by rubble or shock at the suddeness of the collapse. The runners were held up quickly though because at each entrance to the bank, the doors were blocked by shiny humanoid figures that glimmered like diamonds. When a woman tried to push past one, she discovered their skin was as sharp as a diamond, too.

Rex rocketed to his feet and slipped on a leather glove he'd enchanted, ready to take battle to the diamond creatures, when a trio entered through the collapsed wall.

A man of average height and build, bald, but with a silver band around hid head, set with....more diamonds? He wore an outfit of black and purple with a sleek silvery-white cape billowing behind him in the settling dust. The glinting across his costume suggested the white accents had metallic or gemstone pieces attached. "Alright, everyone get down! We're here for the vault - stay out of our way and nobody gets hurt!"

Flanking him were two women. A stout, squarely built woman in what looked like a red leather jumpsuit and badly dyed-red hair and a chain with a single large red gem on it harrumphed. "I really hope some of you try to get in our way!" she said wistfully.

A tall, willowy woman with deep crow's feet and a scowl that looked etched in stone stepped lightly over the rubble with a dismissive upturn of her nose. She wore a simple grey dress and went barefoot. An electric blue scarf was draped around her neck in a way that suggested it was purely fashionable and of no practical use at all. She tapped the floor with a tall metal staff, which had a gently glowing blue gem on top of it. "Control yourself, Firestone, you can have fun later," she said with the air of someone who'd said this a hundred times before.

Firestone just rolled her eyes and began stalking toward the back. "Fine, let's get on with it then," she said.

The tall woman gave the man a look and then followed after her.

The man just rubbed his hands together and looked out over the crowd of people who were settling down to the ground, under the watchful....heads of a couple diamond people. "It's time to play the quiet game, people," he said. "Any if anyone loses, well, game over. Forever."

He grinned wickedly and mimed smashing something with his hand. On cue, a diamond person lifted an arm and crushed a marble bust of some important person.

"Any questions?"

”Oh ho! What a day!” he was running errands for Serena and then he was going to bring doughnuts to the girls at Hexes and later that evening a quite picnic with Elizabeth in the park. Oh what a time to be alive! Such wonderful people! So full of hope! If he knew it wasn’t curse he would have thought ‘She’ had blessed him.

The wind rushed around the demigod as he flew through the air... well he wasn’t flying more of in a constant state of being thrown. Gripping his club he looked on to the horizon of the city soaking in the scene. It was beautiful. Mankind had come so far, their towers even surpassed the clouds. Glorious.

His train of thought was lost as the rushing of the air in his ears was deafened by an explosion somewhere. Hercules changed his trajectory and landed on a roof top nearby with minimal impact. While he searched for the source of the explosion. He leapt to another roof top. Nothing. What was near here? Business, stores where they sell precious stones. ”Oh ho?” Hercules grinned as he noticed a hole in the wall where a wall should be. It just so happened to be big enough for the giant to enter.

He leapt from the roof top and landed near the building in the street slowly assessing the situation for any more danger before he entered. The doughnuts and errands would have to wait. A Hero was needed this day!

A hero is the last thing anyone needs right now, Rex thought.

Rex was down on the ground, just like everyone else. Three people, at least one with the ability to explode walls. Whether that was a bomb or a power or a spell, it didn't really matter. Not to mention the the diamond people that seemed to obey the man in purple's command. Those things reminded him of Hercules in the worst ways. Still, if that was all the man could do, Rex thought he could handle the man.

If he were alone, that is. It wasn't just him though. Too many civilians around and more than a few were choking back sounds of distress. One woman, only a scant dozen feet away from him, looked like she was about to fail in holding back hysteria. Rex opened his mouth and as slightly and quietly as he could, his words barely audible, spoke scripture. "Neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth...

All potential sound from the woman's mouth ceased and her eyes opened wide in panic until Rex caught her eye and put a finger to his lips.

It was an action that did not go unnoticed.

"What have we here?" the caped man said as he started strolling over. Two of the diamond things accompanied him. Two more guarded the hole in the wall and every door to the room had one. It looked like there were eight in total.

"Doing some sign language, huh?" the man said, coming to a halt in front of Rex, giving Rex a good view of the man's scuffed black boots. Rex flattened his ungloved hand to the floor and didn't say anything. "Sign language is still talking and I said be quiet!" he continued, regardless of whatever sense he wasn't making. "Guess I'm gonna have to make an example of you. Such a pity."

It sounded like he was grinning. He was certainly enjoying this. Rex could tell that much even though he couldn't see from his angle. Then a diamond person stepped closer. Rex immediately began channeling magical power into his glove, causing tiny words etched into the leather to gently glow with golden light. He was only going to get one shot at this.