Those With Power

[Wadling]

Felix, following Angel's orders, started making his way towards the building. He decided to head right and cut through some alley ways and buildings to flank around and sneak up from behind. He caught a few glances from passers-by because of his mask, but he made sure to say good morning to anyone who looked apprehensive. When he heard Arlean's unsteady voice over his headset he decided to chip in.

"Hey, why don't you use your powers and try and keep yourself calm?" He said with apparent concern "Just try not to think about the fact that you're being lead by a drunk Spaniard."

[Thunder]

"Probably the first time I haven't been slagged for being the drunk one" said Thorsten, catching up to Felix. "I'll stick with you, seeing as Angel seems to have forgotten about me"

[Mattbot]

"Jealousy, is not becoming my friend."

Angel overheard Gish on the com, he could’ve sworn she had arrived with them and kicked himself for beginning without her. “I hear you Gish. Once the third and forth floors have been cleared and you have a safe path to them, try and reach me, Ryan and Arlaen, there may be casualties that need your help.” Angel lead Ryan and Arlaen through a small café to his left. Maybe it wasn’t such a smart idea to have the two most notably nervous members leading the strike. He got a small snicker inside at Felix’s drunken Spaniard comment and then attempted to calm down Arlaen.

“Do not worry señorita, I promise no harm comes to you. Besides I‘ve done this so many times, scaling buildings has become second nature to me.” Borracho gave her a smile before ducking by the café windows. He quickly scanned the windows for crooks, with five men on each floor he imagined that they would be spread out pretty thin so as to guard all four sides. At the most there would be two on each floor that could pose a threat to them as they climbed.

“Alright guys, it seems clear, just a small dash across this street and we‘ll be fine.” Angel marked out a large well covered spot between two long pillars that stretched up the length of the building, he leaped through an already broken window and sprant across the small two way street covered in debris from the firefight. In the space of a few seconds he had crossed the street and buried himself out of sight between the pillars, Arlaen and Ryan in close pursuit.

To Angels relief none of the cops up the street had noticed their actions, he figured they were all keeping their heads well down or were too busy focusing on the upper floors. None of those inside had noticed Angels run and if any of them caught Ryan and Arlaen he was sure that Springer would deal with them.

[Killing_Time]

Villa scanned the rooftops. Strange. No police snipers? No helicopters? This seemed out of place.
She got in position and looked and the second and third floor. "Might as well go and paint the town red," she said, and focused on the second storey window and locked on a target. She studied the windows and believed she counted 5.
She's have to work quickly and ensure her shots wouldn't be too noticeable. "Tell Marc he's got a new man on second floor. Tell him he's got a bullet wound to hide." A faint sshnap was heard as she aimed and hit for the target's head, right below the edge of a black beanie he wore.

[Aval]

"Right, so once I'm in, what then?" Asked Ryan in a hushed whisper, despite being well beyond the hearing range of any hostiles.

[Mattbot]

Angel was just able to make out the small buzz of a silenced shell sweeping overhead resulting in a satisfying thump, he recognized it as a shot from a rifle. “qué demonios!? Springer, did someone spot us? have they been dealt with?”

Ryan ducked beneath Angel inside the sanctity of the pillars. "Right, so once I'm in, what then?" Angel directed his attention back down to Arlaen and Ryan.

“Once we‘ve reached the forth floor, you will sneak in through a window and make your way to the hostage group, Marc will create a diversion that should safely remove any chance of you being caught. Once in amongst them put your ears on mute and turn your mike up to full volume, you may be able to give us any sufficient information that may come in handy to us as we pull this rescue off. Also, try and keep the headset out of sight, don‘t want them catching onto our presence just yet.”

Angel paused and pulled a large spike like piece of steel from his belt which he hastily attached to a long strand of wire. “If you can pick out the most likely of the criminals to pull a trigger, try and make sure he chooses to grab you should they ever try using hostages as shields. I wouldn‘t worry about your clothes, I imagine you should blend in well enough with the other hostages.”

[Aval]

"And the rest of the plan?"

[Mattbot]

“It will all become clear soon enough, trust me” Angel tapped his nose twice before latching the steel spike onto his rifle.

[kronosdragon]

Arlean mumbled softly as she ran across the street behind Angel.

"It's not my life that I'm worried about..."

She flattened herself against the wall, panting softly from the burst of movement. She heard a silenced shell overhead and felt her heart speed up.

"Why did she shoot?!"

[Varthonai]

A bat hanging from the rafters above was startled awake at the sound of Springer's shot, unfolding its wings and tilting its head downward. Bat vision wasn't the best in the world, but it was sufficient for Marc's purposes. Death spread rapidly from the cells around the man's head wound to the rest of the cells in his body until Marc's control set in at last.

Damn it all, Marc thought, as the corpse turned itself over and got back to its feet, she shot him through the head, she ACTUALLY shot him through the HEAD... damn it, merde, putain, putain de merde! Memories are scrambled beyond belief... if his friends ask him anything about his friends or family, or even what his part in the robbery's supposed to be, we'll be found out...

A large chunk of skull had been blown out from the back of the robber's head as the bullet exited, skin and brain still clinging to it. Marc picked it up and slapped it back into place. The stickiness of the blood and mangled neurons and the pressure of the beanie against his head would hold it in place for the rest of the mission.

Probably.

Marc pressed it in again nervously and told the new corpse to make a habit of checking its head every thirty seconds or so. More complex instructions would be virtually impossible, but for this situation it should suffice.

***

Marc's ambassador picked up its head and hurried after Ian and Felix. "Tell Mademoiselle 'Springer' to aim away from the head in the future," he hissed at Ian. "They'll die just as quickly if she hits them near the top of the spine, and they'll only last a few minutes more if she hits them in the heart, tu sais? I'll overextend the limits of my concentration too quickly if I have to focus on a half-dozen massive head trauma victims at once. Corpses with intact brains will be of far more use. If she absolutely must waste human lives, she could at least be EFFICIENT about it."

[Wadling]

"They're already popping heads up there?" Felix asked, tossing some change to homeless man and his dog and quickening his pace "Well we might want to speed up then, we can't get in on the action from the other side of a building."

[Mattbot]

“My best guess would be that one of the guards caught a glimpse of us nearing the building and she had to stop him from warning the others up there.” At least that’s what Angel hoped, he was also wondering whether Marc had the situation under control, without any easy way to contact him co ordination would be a bit of a struggle.

Angel aimed his rifle up towards the top of the building and launched the spike into a gargoyle at the very top. Once the spike had buried its way in, a series of hooks and smaller spike flicked out of it, wedging the piece of metal securely in place. “Ok guys, only two of us will be able to go up at a time. Ryan, I‘ll take you up first.” Angel attached a small clip from the back of the rifle to both of them and hoisted Ryan onto his back. Once ha had messed around with the rifle, made sure they were both secure and checked the path he’d have to climb, Angel hit a retract button on the gun. The wire suddenly began recoiling at the end of the gun as Angel felt it pulling them upwards slowly. He pressed his feet against the wall to help ease the rifles strain and began to walk upwards keeping low beneath the pillars and gargoyles that lined the buildings walls.

They were above the second floor in a matter of seconds.

(Squeeeee Aval)

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen watched with a pained expression as the two went up the building. She stayed in the shadows, keeping an eye on her surroundings. She didn't want to expose the group. She only hoped that Springer knew what she was doing.

Arlaen warily watched the police barricade. It was eerily quiet on the street, aside from the murmuring of policemen and medics. The howl of a distant siren echoed from elsewhere in the city. Arlaen leaned against the wall, trying to calm her shot nerves. She could feel her skin crawling uncomfortably.

If things keep on as they are, I may not be able to stay calm enough...Particularly if I get taken by surprise and can't control my emotions fast enough to prevent the transformation...At that point, I won't be able to warn the others to stay out of the way...

She sighed and brought herself into a state of calm.

It isn't going to happen. I can't allow it in public, like last time...

A brief flash of memory distracted her from her thoughts. A newspaper headline quickly flew through her mind, too quickly for her to read, but she knew well enough what it said.

I can't allow it.

She brought her focus back to the task at hand and waited patiently for Angel to come retrieve her.

[Aval]

"I'm not going to lie Angel. I am pretty shitless right now."

Ryan did not like hieghts; he tried not to think about it, which seemed to make it worse. One stray glance would send him squriming.

[Thunder]

"Springer!" Thorsten hissed into his microphone. "Marc's ambassador told me to say that if you shoot them in the head, they'll be of less use to him. He recommends aiming for the top of the spine."

He hurried forwards, turning the second corner to reach the rear of the building. He scanned the area for sentries, and finding none, he moved over to an emergency escape door.

"Alarm will sound when door opens" read Felix. "And there's not outisde access. Hm. That could be a...what are you doing?"

"Shush."

Thorsten clicked his fingers, and a single bolt of electricity arced from his hand to a fuse box, which sparked slightly before the light above the door flickered off.

"Ok, that should take out the alarm. Now to get this thing open..."

He began to rub his hands together very quickly, and a dim glow of electricity could be see between his fingers. He continued this process for about a minute, before placing his left hand on one side of the door, clicking the fingers on his right hand and flicking his left sideways. The door swung open.

"How did you...?"

"Static. Technically, I grabbed the bolt and moved it sideways."

"And what's with clicking the fingers?"

"It looks cooler."

[Killing_Time]

"One man down, 4 to go on this one. No one has seen you, I'm just ensuring the police gets less inmates." Sshnap, the rifle hissed, after she heard the new instructions, and aimed to save the brains.
"Might teach their mastermind a lesson or two about organisation" Villa aimed again, working faster as she worried the other guys would get alarmed. Sshnap. He fell. They saw. They Covered. "Shit. Marc, can you do any work with the two remaining guys in there?" Villa left her focus on the second floor and looked through the scope to see if there was any reaction from the third floor.

[Mattbot]

“insertar fomentar respuesta aquí, Ryan” Angel responded with a heart warming chuckle before hoisting Ryan onto the forth floor ledge, the ledge was wide enough to allow easy access across the wall. Angel began hurrying Ryan across to the closest open window making sure that he kept well against the wall. Angel turned to the distant building which Villa was residing in as he overheard the com chat, the decision to trust her with a stealthy job coming back to bite him in the ass.

“maldita sea, what are you doing Springer, I told you to only shoot when it was a necessity.” Angel whispered down his headset trying to keep quite enough to go unheard. He had no idea what he was complaining about anymore, he knew casualties were inevitable with her on the team and knew that these men were probably more evil than innocent but Angel had hoped that she may have at least tried the stealth approach before succumbing to bloodlust.

Angel looked around for any sign of Marc, he needed to get this mission underway before those on the forth floor became aware of the predicament downstairs. Just above him and Ryan hung a dark grey starved looking bat, it silently peered at the two of them. Angel prayed to god that this was one of Marcs scouts and began making hand signals towards it pointing towards the room containing the hostages. He turned back to the roof where Springer lay and considered shooting her with a tranquilizer. His mind turned back to Marc, perhaps he'd be capable of obscuring her view.

Angel began whispering off mike to the bat. "Hate to give you more work Marc but is there anything you can do which will prevent Springer from firing?"

[Polo]

In a square room, devoid of any sort of common furniture sat a dark willow desk. Behind it was a mildly big window, which just so happened to be on the 50th floor of a rather ominous building, looking out onto the city of hope. The room was supposedly an office, but it had the appearance of a modern apartment with slightly dull colours than the conventional white walls and wooden laminate flooring. Parallel and opposite to the desk was a pair of dark willow doors, which happened to open out into a maze of corridors. It was quite literally a maze, hence the handing of a map in the foyer was mandatory, as requested by the highest authority of the establishment.

Steven Grey who just happened to be the highest authority, jumped up in the middle of the square and void office. He was out of breathe, and for a good reason too. “300 sit ups, not too bad” he said him self in-between the breaths “especially for 10 minutes”. Despite this somewhat excessive amount to work out on, he wasn't by appearance a very muscular man. He appeared lanky, and very much skinny. No different from the average man. It's this fact that people have been lead to assume he maintains powers of mind-control, using it to manipulate the brainwaves to disguise what he really looked like.

He walked over to his willow desk and sat down on the chair perched behind. As he sat down he swung his arms up into the air into a stretch, where a massive crack came from him correcting his shoulder, which had possibly become loose during the work-out.

Steven Grey was a very powerful man, often feared by his closest cabinet members. Members who have often referred to him in public interviews as 'someone to be scared of'. This was interesting because despite this representation in the public eye, he was a very easy-going and eccentric person. It was true, however, that he would give into a little bribe or two if it meant him getting a profit from it.

Steven reached over and pressed a button just beside his speaker phone, the one he used for his secretary. The button buzzed, and for about 5 seconds a quiet and faint buzzing could be heard. In the centre of the room a light came down from the ceiling which also buzzed, soon jumping into life and projecting a hologram into the room. The hologram just so happened to be broadcasting a news station.

“Ah good, the news” Steven said to himself “I like the news.” He pushed back off the desk, which forced his chair backwards. He stopped going too far using his feet, which he then threw up onto the table. “This should get interesting” He murmured, before pausing to think, during which he leant forward on his chair to reach for the speaker phone. He spoke towards the phone “Leanne...”

Bzzz...

“Yes, sir?” said a slightly distorted voice on the other end of the phone.

“Could I get a glass of Vodka” he peered up towards the holographic television “I'm watching TV”

[Killing_Time]

“maldita sea, what are you doing Springer, I told you to only shoot when it was a necessity.”
Villa's lips curved slightly. "Trust me Angel, it is a necessity." She had spotted someone on the third floor reaching up to his ear. "So those bastards are well-equipped too. Angel, these guys seem to communicate via headsets." she concluded and aimed for a part of the neck she hoped would not affect the man's throat.

[Polo]

Mr. Steven Grey flicked through the channels on the holographic screen, while clutching his now present vodka-filled glass. Nothing interesting was on, but nevertheless, it's not like he had anything more interesting to do anyway. After all, due to the way he prioritised, he would often get the most important and time consuming aspects brought about by his position out of the way first. And he wasn't really called up to the senate all that often.

He leant back in his chair, taking a gulp of the Vodka. The taste didn't phase him. He sighed, and continued to flick through the channels.

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen heard the other shots and tensed.

So violent...why does everything have to be so violent? I could force them to give up their own lives if there was no other way, but nothing has even happened yet! Why?

She felt a deep sadness rise in her gut, and her skin crawled almost painfully.

Why...?

She felt her skin prickle dangerously and she immediately calmed herself. She looked up at the building, scowling at the rooftop that Springer was sitting upon, having half a mind to go up there herself to make her stop...but she knew she couldn't. She wouldn't. She gazed at the sky with annoyance.

I have seen too much killing in my time. This is not the first time, nor the last time, that I will see it, but to kill in cold blood, without finding an alternative first...it's cruel...it's inhumane...But I guess, sometimes, one must be inhumane to save the lives of thousands...

She sighed and looked up at the building wall, waiting for Angel to come back down for her.

[Wadling]

"Alright then" Felix flicked on his headset and spoke into it "We're in position down here, Angel. Just waiting for your go I guess."

He took a peek through the door, but couldn't see anyone. So instead he just looked around, leaned on a wall and cracked his knuckles. One of his many bad habits.

[Varthonai]

Mark.

One of Springer's two new victims was called Mark, Mark "the Mortician" Paulson. Thirty-six years old. Bloodthirsty. Ambitious. Had a twitchy trigger finger; already wounded a policeman who came too close to the building, blasted one of his arms clean off at the shoulder from a tripod-mounted M60 machine gun. His aim had been slightly off; he'd been aiming for the man's head. Marc felt some irony as he raised the Mortician from the puddle of blood he had lain in.

"Mark! Oh, fuck, oh FUCK," called a terrified voice two rooms away. Marc felt an immediate sense of voice recognition clicking within the Mortician's brain--the voice was that of Marv Paulson, Mark's forty-year old elder brother. Marv "the Medic"... only involved in the gang to try and keep his brother out of trouble as best as he could, giving up his grad school degree and his girlfriend when he was only twenty-five to look after the only member of his family he had left. The Mortician had never had any regrets in his short life, but unintentionally dragging his brother into a den of thieves and murderers came very close...

Sshnap.

A bullet burst out through Marv's neck. A fountain of blood exploded from the exit wound as it severed one of his carotid arteries. Marv was dead before he hit the ground, and "born again" shortly thereafter.

***

"Marc, Springer says there's two guys on the second floor she missed," said Ian, turning to speak to the ambassador. "She needs you to take care of it. They've ducked for cover, and she can't get at them."

"Grace à Dieu pour cela, as if she hasn't done enough already," Marc grunted. "The two she DID hit are already taken care of. I'm working on the others, but..."

Marc's head went still in mid-sentence as Marc's attention briefly wandered to a bat roosting in place on the fourth floor, picking up Angel's distant request:

Hate to give you more work, Marc, Angel asked, nervously, but is there anything you can do which will prevent Springer from firing?

***

Back in his room in the Princedom, Marc smiled, sipped his tea, and said "Thought you'd never ask, mon ami. And it's about damned time."

***

"...I'm a little preoccupied," finished Marc's ambassador, speaking back to Ian. "But it'll only take a moment."

***

A chorus of humming and fluttering built up around the fourth-floor windows briefly. Several of the robbers looked up curiously, hoping that the police hadn't decided to forget about the hostage situation and come to blast them with a big gun mounted on the side of a helicopter... but then the second-floor guys would have taken them out first, right?

There didn't seem to be anything there. The boss nodded to a couple of his mooks to go and check the windows... and the moment they approached, an unliving horde of bats exploded through every single opening in the walls, the ceilings, and the floors, flying into their faces and occasionally biting or clawing. They in not only through the windows in the sides of the room and the ceiling skylight, but they came up through the staircase from the lower floors as well, a seething mass of hundreds upon hundreds of reanimated flying vermin...

Springer watched the bats with dawning comprehension. So that was the "distraction" he talked about, then...

She heard a muffled squeak from below, then, and looked down. There was a hairy lump of flesh sticking out of her gun barrel, as if someone had tried to jam a small balloon covered with fake fur inside the gun with a ramrod. It squeaked again as she touched it.

"What the--" she caught herself saying aloud, but then a much larger cloud of furry bodies obscured her vision and threw off her coordination. "MARC! What do you think you're doing? Whose side are you on?!"

***

By this point, Mark the Mortician had turned his M60 on his companions and crippled both of them, blasting off three of the four kneecaps they had between them before either of them knew what was going on. Marv, wonderful surgeon that he was, had been granted semi-autonomous leave to patch them both up and stop them from bleeding to death. Marc relieved the Mortician (who had been wearing a hands-free wireless headset to talk to their boss up until that point) of the semi-autonomous duty of keeping in touch with the boss and assuring him that everything on their floor was ok; the boss had bigger things to worry about right now.

Hurm, Marc noticed, looking through the Mortician's head a second time, that's interesting... this job is about more than just money...

He jumped back to his ambassador and quickly told Ian, "You. Thorsten. They're after more than we thought. Let Angel know."

"What? What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but it's more than just money. The poor saps I'm in now only knew that it was something odd, and not much more. But Angel should know. Tell him."

[Mattbot]

Astounded by the sheer amount of bats that spawned from seemingly nowhere, Angel thought to himself that Marc could have taken the entire building by himself with creatures alone. He turned back to Ryan who was pressed as close to the wall as physically possible, eyes wide open staring at the wall of bats that now encircled them. “Ryan, this is it, good luck!” Angel guided him along the ledge and through the window, he waited till he had lost sight of Ryan amongst the sea of bats before sprinting down the ledge, the bats clearing a path for him as he went. He leaped over a small gargoyle which occupied most of the ledge, his feet landing perfectly on the other side.

Picking up his grappling gun which was still lodged into the wall, Angel jumped back off the building falling as safely and quickly as hew could with the grappling guns reverse coil. He landed with a small thud next to Arlaen, his boots taking most of the fall. “It‘s time Wanderer.” Speed was now far more crucial with Ryan amongst the crooks, he wanted to get him out of there as fast as possible.

[Thunder]

Thorsten heard this last and motioned to Felix.

"I'm going to wait inside if that's ok with you", He grinned, and moved inside the building.

The emergency exit was right at the end of a flight of stairs, which he took upwards.

"Angel, I'm inside now. I'm going to keep a low profile for now, but if you need anyone to watch Ryan or Marc's backs, I'm here".