"Not a chance!" was all Amaranth heard before Gaz came swooping down from above. "See, ya sad li'l fuck, ya just made a BIG mistake. Ya just killed all the civilians; now bear with me here, your li'l brain might not comprehend this. The civilians are all tha's stopping the heroes from goin' medieval on the villain's ass. Namely, me, going medieval on YOUR ass."
He descended to eye level with Amaranth, having acquired a new coat from seemingly nowhere. He powered up a Gigabolt to a level he had never tested before, and sent it at him full power.
----
Oliver and May began to head after Jason and Curtis, but as they moved a thick green mist descended on them. Oliver was going to ignore it, but May began to cough violently, thick globs of blood coming up. She fell, but Oliver caught her and held her up. His visor got to work scanning the mist and mentioned that without powers, the mist was deadly. Oliver panicked, and tried to escape the mist only to discover that it covered most of the city. Everyone caught in it died quickly.
"Oh no, oh no, fuck."
Oliver nearly gave up, only for a convenient manhole to bust open. Out came Buck with a squad of the Rat Pack in hazmat suits. They held glowing syringes in their hands, and spread out. They injected every living civilian they could, and watched as powers of various sorts set in.
Oliver ran up to Buck, too terrified to identify what was going on.
"Buck, why the hell are you here!?"
"Well's," the simple man began. "we gots word dat da villains were gonna kill everybody wit' no powers, right? So me an' da boys got up all da syringes we could, and now we's giving people powers so's dey can survive da mist. Speaking of which..." He pulled out a syringe and jammed it into May's arm. Her eyes shot open, and the coughing stopped almost instantly. Oliver let her down and she managed to stand back up for a moment before falling on him again.
"Thank you, Buck." Oliver said, incredibly relieved. "But where's Noah? I thought you were watching him."
"Oh!" Buck replied. "He's right here." The brute turned around to show that Noah was strapped to his back, giggling with glee at seeing his father. Oliver nearly screamed from the abstract terror that gripped him.
"Buck, what the fuck did you bring my son here for?!" Oliver shouted. He was about to go scrambling for a second syringe, but stopped and watched. Noah made no signs of coughing, or other symptoms of the infected. He just stared at Oliver with those bright blue eyes.
No, wait. Oliver thought. They're not bright. They're glowing.