Those With Power

[Wadling]

Felix heard the smash above him, hoping it was part of the plan. He stuck his arm out to check his watch, as he did so a single shard of glass from the upper floor windows fell and sliced a neat wound on the back of his right hand. Startled by the pain, Felix drew his arm back and felt his elbow collide with something hard behind him. He turned to see a chubby man, stumbling backwards after Felix's elbow had struck his body armour. The man was drawing a pistol, fumbling slightly with it.

Thinking on his feet, Felix grabbed the gun with one hand and pulled the man towards him. He then punched the man's wrist, causing the gun to clatter to the floor. Felix then wrapped his left arm around the man's neck and used his right arm to hold it tightly in place and compensate for the man's struggling. Felix then kicked the man's legs from under him and lowered him to the floor slowly. By the time he laid him on the floor he was unconscious.

"G'night, Chubsie" Felix let out a relieved laugh "Might want to keep a lower profile there, Zappy. I think this guy saw you."

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen listened to the prattle going on in the headset as Angel landed next to her.

"Alright, my turn I'm supposing?"

[Killing_Time]

The bats kept coming at her rifle and in the end she threw it away to get the bats to follow it and be less close to her. "ANGEL!" She roared into her headset. "You better give a good explanation if you want to avoid I draw my own weapons!" The bats were leaving the rifle and she felt very compelled to draw her pistols at them. "Very bad move, Marc," she hissed to herself.
She stepped over to the other side of the roof where the rifle now lied; covered in bat guano and, to her surprise, it appeared the barrel had been stuffed too.

In sheer rage she threw it onto the ground far below. What could she do now?

[sgt_Angua]

Gish stared at the scene of chaos. She was too far away to identify the small black winged animals, but they seemed to be swarming around the building.

“Angel, I’m outside the ring of police,” Gish said into the headset. “I haven’t tried yet, but I doubt they would let me through. Just tell me when I’m needed. I’ll try to find another way into the building until then.”

[Aval]

Taking advantage of the commotion and the obscuring fog of flying rodent corpse, Ryan joined the fray of hostages, some of whom were screaming and many had abandoned the position they had been instructed into on the floor. Ryan counted five yelling men covered in tiny assailants and assumed them to be his captors. He had no way to tell which was the leader. That was untill- BANG

The remaining of Marc's bats dissipated revealing a tall, well built man dressed in black with a beanie and mask hiding his features. He did not look happy, and was holding a riotgun which had just been discharged into the ceiling. This man seemed to be the one Ryan needed to be close to.

"Can everyone please CALM. The FUCK. DOWN." people did. Probably something to do with the way that important words were punctuated with a blast from the riotgun at the fleing bats.

"Get back on the floor. All of you."

Captives returned to their original positions. Ryan hesitated.

"That includes you, Dorothy." pressing the gun to his back

Ryan got onto the ground pronto.

[Mattbot]

“That's correct, let's go” Angel slurred as he began rescaling the walls. He took a quick glance into the second floor to see how the situation had progressed, Marc seemed to have the situation under control, those that had survived the attack were held down securely by Marcs men. Once up on the third floor, Angel hopped onto the ledge outside a window. None of the men inside seemed alerted by the noise from downstairs, he assumed that they thought it was another policeman in the open that had provoked the gunshots.

Angel counted five men, two sat at a small desk playing cards and chatting idly while another two patrolled the walls, the last man was near the back of the room trying to barge a door down, screaming loudly at it. Beside him was a bloodied yet breathing woman curled up in a ball. Angel imagined any other innocents on this level were locked up behind that door. Angel drew out his two glocks and removed the safety turning to Arlaen and nodding.

Kicking the window in, Angel leaped forward instantly turning to the men at the desk, time seemed to slow down around him as the world felt far lighter. Without thinking he lined up his shots at their backs and squeezed the triggers, two small darts propelled into the men knocking them out nearly instantly. With them down Angel turned to the man on the far side of the room who had just kicked in the door revealing a group of seven men and women. The large brute of a man readied his XM8 on them, he was so full of rage he had failed to notice the two break through the glass. Before he could squeeze the trigger several darts had hit the back of his neck. The man struggled at first dropping his gun as he lost the feeling in his arms, two seconds later he was down.

Angels eardrum was suddenly filled with the loud yells of Springer "ANGEL! you better give a good explanation if you want to avoid I draw my own weapons!". He left the frightened hostages up to Arlaen as he turned his attention to the disgruntled Villa, he was tempted to cut her off the channel after her brief sniping stunt but thought it fair to give her one more chance at following commands, after all it was still her first job as a part of a team. “Ok Villa” Ignoring her demand for an explanation “You can either assist Ian and Felix in the lobby or you can provide backup with the hostage situation. But if you do choose to help us up there, Don’t make a move until I say so!”. Angel had the deep feeling he was going regret doing this.

He focused back on the wanderer to make sure she had the situation under control, pistols at the ready.

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen immediately hurried over to the group of men and women. She induced the feeling of calm in them, keeping them quiet and in an almost dreamlike state. She quickly looked over them, checking for injuries, keeping her power in effect until they were deeply in their state of calm. She looked back at Angel.

"Everyone over here is fine. I'm going to go check on the girl over there."

She cautiously approached the woman lying on the floor. It was clear she had been abused. Arlaen felt an intense sadness begin to intrude on her mind. She was too busy using her power on the 7 in the next room to take control of it. She worked normally, but bit her lip in both frustration and discomfort as her skin crawled almost painfully. She knelt beside the woman, who seemed not to notice her until she touched the side of her face, but by that point, Arlaen had calmed her just as she had calmed the others.

Arlaen clenched her fists as the skin on her forearms sprouted sharp metal blades, bristling out dangerously. She looked sadly over her shoulders at the rising spines atop them, and she quickly withdrew her hands from the woman on the floor as her fingertips melded into long, sickle-shaped blades. She growled softly to herself, but continued concentrating on the captives, keeping them under her control.

"This woman needs medical attention as soon as possible," she said in a firm voice. She stood up, the longest metal spines at her elbows hitting the desk, leaving long gashes on it's polished surface.

"Damn it..."

She mumbled to herself as she examined the blades, clearly frustrated. She turned her gaze to Angel.

"Well? Where do we head next?"

[Mattbot]

The other two thugs on the level had vanished from Angels view, he hurried over to the staircase to make sure none of them had fled upstairs to call for backup. As he reached the stairs he picked up a faint yet distinct breathing pattern which would have gone unnoticed to most people from beside him. Once again time slowed down around him, Angel flung himself to the side of the breathing but was clobbered over the head by a small metallic desk chair. Angel fell forward into the fist of the breather who sent him flat down into the ground.

The blows only mildly annoyed Angel, what really hit him was the surprise that these two thugs had pulled the drop on him and that the man wielding the chair had alluded his notice. The two of them proceeded to kick Angel in the stomach a good amount of times before the smaller of the two fell to the floor, a look of terror on his face as tears swept down his now pale face. The larger man turned to the Wanderer who was staring right at his partner. Angel noticed the strained expression on her face and figured she didn’t have enough energy to control the other man as well as everyone else on the floor.

Without hesitation he swept the mans legs out from beneath him, before he could pick himself up and react, Salvador had lunged onto him and begun repeatedly punching him in the face. In response the thug tried clasping one of the throwing blades from Angels belts but was swiftly stabbed in the neck with a sleeping dart.

Angel rose to his feet and nodded his thanks to the Arlaen. He noticed the large spines that now bristled up her arms, he quickly responded to her question “We should try reaching Ryan as soon as possible, I figure whoever’s running this job is on that floor… Are you alright Wanderer?” He asked concerned by her current state.

[kronosdragon]

Arlean, satisfied that the man at her feet was disabled, released her hold on him, and a few of the captives who had fallen asleep. She looked at Angel.

"Don't worry about me," she said softly. "This just happens when I'm overwhelmed..."

She looked down at her hands, then looked back to him.

"We should get moving. I'm warning you now, if something happens to me and I should get out of control, get everyone to safety until I come back to my senses, understand? I'm not safe to be around, and if I get angry in this state, the rage will take over, no matter how much I will it not to do so."

She gave him a hard stare.

[Mattbot]

He fully understood what she meant, Angel had read what her capabilities were and was fully prepared for the situation. “Bien entonces, lets move!”

The two of them began scaling the staircase as Angel contacted Ian and Felix. “Alright muchachos, Its time to dance. If you can‘t take them all down, try and force them out the entrance into the sight of the police. I won‘t think any less of you as men.” he taunted in a near impossible to understand slur.

[Killing_Time]

“Ok Villa.
You can either assist Ian and Felix in the lobby or you can provide backup with the hostage situation. But if you do choose to help us up there, Don’t make a move until I say so!”

Villa thought her possibilities through. She thought herself too dangerous for the lobby, she was not in a good mood for it. She could end up harming her colleagues which would be unfortunate. Besides, when they were done there the police would come on closer. Wouldn't really help the team as a whole and she didn't mind if they would be kept anonymous for a bit longer. "So fourth floor if I'm correct?" she said as she walked towards the gap between herself and the Orion building.

[Wadling]

Felix looked over at where Thortsen had disappeared and back at Marc's ambassador. He decided to make his own way around the first floor, after moving Chubsie's body out of sight he took his pistol and walked through the door.

"I'm on the move" Felix said into his headset, then turning to Marc's zombie "See you soon, Frankenstein."

He moved cautiously down a short hallway to his left and saw a door with a men's toilet sign on it. He pushed it open to find a stocky man standing in front of a urinal. He raised the pistol and thumbed back the hammer, making an empowering click, the stocky man tensed and Felix noticed the slight trickling sound stop abruptly.

"Alright" Felix tried to make himself sound tougher than he was "Hands in the air and turn around. No wait, put it away first, then put your hands in the air and turn around."

The man did so, Felix motioned for the man to walk out of the door and head towards the exit where the zombie was standing. When they stepped outside Felix turned on the safety of the pistol, turned it around and lunged at the back of the man's head with the butt of the pistol. There was a hollow thud and the man collapsed. Felix got to work on moving that body as well.

"Well, that's two incapacitated so far" He said proudly

[Thunder]

(Let's ignore my earlier statement about moving up the stairs. Matt says it's bad for continuity)

"Whaddid he say?"

"He says he wants some good 'ol...he wants us to engage"

Thorsten advanced cautiously, wary of sentries. There was always a chance of the terrorists having sense enough to watch their backs.

He reached a large pair of double doors, and he was fairly certain this was the main foyer. They were slightly ajar, and he peered inside.

Nine heavily armed terrorists were arrayed around the room, and each one of them was packing something that could seriously ruin his day.

He glanced behind him and noticed Felix was no longer with him. Nyeh.

He thought about what he was going to do for a few seconds, before he kicked down the door and advanced.

Nine pairs of eyes swiveled to look at him, and it was not a pleasant sight. They saw a figure in a suit striding towards them, surrounded by blue lightning. Light fixtures blew out as he walked past them, the bulbs simply melting in their sockets. Lightning arced to everything around him, send pieces of paper flying around his ankles, and knocking out all electrical objects near him. His hands held at his sides seemed to be made of blue flames, the veins burning almost white as the electricity crackled through them.

The terrorists, fair play to them, barely hesitated before bringing up their weapons and loosing a hail of bullets at him. He simply grinned, stopped, and threw his arm up in front of his face. The bullets hit the magnetic field produced by the electricity, and bounced off it, ricocheting in all directions.

In this time, their jaws dropped in disbelief, their weapons went click, and he had time to rob a cheesy one-liner from a movie.

"My turn."

He shot his hand forward, lightning flashing from his fingers and striking one of them in the chest. The man was thrown backwards, the new hole in his abdomen instantly cauterized by the intense heat. He sliced his other hand sideways, whipping a man to his right into the ground, his skull shattering from the impact.

He started moving again, heading for the group that was frantically reloading and screaming into their headsets.

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen follow Angel up the stairs, releasing her hold on the captives one by one as they fell asleep, her power growing weaker with distance anyway. She spread her power out ahead of them, searching for feelings from another person.

"I'm getting mixed emotions from up ahead, no telling how many are up there. Be prepared."

[Wadling]

Felix heard the sounds of commotion coming from inside the building, fearing for Thorsten's safety he made his way towards the sounds of guns and screams. He entered the room and upon seeing the situation, immediately took cover behind a stone reception desk.

"Don't worry, Iron Man!" Felix shouted over the sound and waving his pistol above his head "I've got your back- SHIT!"

A bullet hit Felix's pistol, sending it flying out of his hand, but not before letting loose a bullet which headed straight for Thorsten. Somehow, to Felix's amazement, the bullet deflected away from him and instead embedded itself in a gunman's foot, who toppled over in pain and hit his head painfully on the marble floor. Felix quickly popped his head out before ducking down again, he noticed two very dead looking people around Thorsten.

"What the-" Felix shouted "I thought we weren't killing anybody!"

[Thunder]

Thorsten looked around to Felix "They're not dead yet"

Although his words did ring a little bell in his head. What was he doing?

He aimed for a fourth gunman, and sent him flying, but not with as much fury as his first attack.

The fifth had opened fire on him again, and by this time he was close enough to clap him on the temples, frying his brain and knocking him out cold for a bit.

[Varthonai]

"Not dead yet?" grunted Marc's head, gazing at the two still forms on the ground intensely. "My power begs to differ, Monsieur Thorsten."

The two bodies that Ian had slain twitched, turned over, and began to pull themselves upright, shouldering their old weapons and aiming them at new targets.

[Mattbot]

The commotion from inside the Orion building was beginning to draw attention. The sudden swarm of bats that swept through the building and lightning emitting from the lower floors had civilians flocking to the site with cameras and phones. News crews began reappearing around the building reporting from both streets and air. On street level the police force was beginning to load out for assault the building, armored helicopters and vans were on their way to the scene.

Angel took a quick glance at the gathering attention outside, the team was losing time rapidly. He quickly addressed the team over com “Guy‘s, once you‘ve secured your section, clear out of the building. From the looks of it, the police will be bursting in any second now and I don‘t think they‘d take kindly to our presence.” He swirled around the top of the staircase and pressed himself up against a wall, around the corner he could make out the sounds of the remaining crooks.

Who Angel assumed to be the leader of this operation was screaming down his headset demanding status updates from his team, Salvador could hear the fear in this mans voice. He took a quick gaze around the corner. Although he had only stuck his head around for a split second he had the image perfectly imprinted in his memory. He counted a large crowd of nineteen workers surrounded by three armed men, at the back was the large man with the headset, his face obscured by a beanie and balaclava. Further behind him was the large metallic door to the safe, still locked securely but covered in dents and scratches. A smaller man with a large beard and sunglasses was busy sticking various explosives to it. Apart from him, all of them seemed to be focused intently on the boss, beneath him was Ryan, keeping his head on the ground like the other hostages.

Borracho turned back to Arlaen who was now beside him, her blades still portruding through her flesh. He nodded her around the corner.

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen nodded back and disappeared into the shadows. She looked on from a distance. Four men stood between them and the hostages, with Ryan blending in well. She counted how many total she would need to control, and what different emotions she would have to induce.

For the terrorists, depression and fear. For the hostages...I'll calm them down to the point where they fall asleep, just like those below us. I'll deal with them first, so I can concentrate on the thugs...

She kept a low profile and brushed her consciousness with those of the hostages. She gave them a deep sense of calm, until one by one, they began to fall into deep slumber, their muscles frozen in their positions even in sleep. She didn't bother with Ryan. She then turned her attention to the terrorists.

Three of them were watching the hostages and the windows, while the fourth was yelling commands into his mic. Arlaen immediately threw wave after wave of depression, sadness and fear at them, the three guards dropping like flies on the floor, weeping and shaking violently. But the fourth man seemed unaffected. He turned and looked at his men.

"What are you blubbering about? Get the fuck up!"

His men didn't respond. They were immobilized. Arlaen tried to figure out why he wasn't affected, and when she focused only on him, she understood why.

He was majorly unstable, and couldn't even understand his own feelings. He looked around, searching. He was completely aware of what he was doing, and Arlaen could only come to one conclusion.

A sociopath...

She tapped her communicator to all channels, whispering her message.

"Listen guys, this man is highly dangerous and will not hesitate to kill. He's a sociopath, I can't control his emotions. We need to take him down quickly..."

As she muttered the last word, the man's head snapped around in her direction. He couldn't see her in the shadows, but he had heard her.

"Alright! Come on out! I know you're in here! Show yourself!" the man demanded, looking around for the source of the voice.

Arlaen knew better than to stay hidden. If she did, he may begin killing the hostages. She looked Angel dead in the eye and nodded before standing and striding out of the shadows. Her hair went from black to bright silver, her eyes flashing to their normal bright color. The blades on her arms and shoulders glinted in the light of the sun filtering in through the glass windows. The man looked her up and down, a stern glare on his face. He raised his gun and pointed it at her chest.

"Drop your weapons."

Arlaen shook her head, and in a calm voice said, "I can't."

To prove it to him and keep from provoking him, she tugged on one of the blades sticking out from her left elbow, wincing as the sharp edge bit into her fingers, making them bleed.

"See? They don't come off."

The man blinked for a moment, then scowled.

"So, you're a mutant, then?"

He cocked the primer on the pistol.

"All the more reason for me to kill you."

He fired a round at her, but in that instant, she raised her arm and swiveled down onto one knee, deflecting the bullet on her blades and sending it through the wall above his head. She glared at him from behind the jagged titanium peaks. He turned and looked at the hole in the wall just past his head, then looked back at her.

"Hmph. Not bad."

He cocked the primer again.

"Not bad at all."

Arlaen watched him as he began to circle around her.

"So tell me, how many more of you are there? There's no way you disabled all of my men above and below us alone. Where are the others? Why don't you tell me?"

He gave her a sly smirk, but she remained quiet. His smirk turned into a frown.

"Is that so?"

Arlaen watched him carefully as he circled her. She kept herself ready in case he came at her.

[Varthonai]

[Why does everyone keep calling them "terrorists"? Their motivation does not appear to be founded upon or even related to political extremism.]

Marc had withdrawn his bats the moment the riot gun came out; the spray of bullets that it fired had taken down half a dozen bats in one shot, and could potentially have taken out most of the remaining forces with time. The remains of the downed fliers had fallen to the floor, motionless; Marc had seen no more use for them, and had thought it best to break off his telepathic link to them.

He was beginning to regret that decision now, though. The few remaining healthy bats in the building were picking up the faint sounds of Arlaen's distress call.

Sociophobe? What on earth is she talking ab--oh, Marc thought, suddenly realizing that she had probably meant to say sociopath. Empathic abilities didn't necessarily make you an expert with psychological lingo, it seemed... but this was no time to nitpick. The situation on the fourth floor was rapidly souring. The time for subtlety was long gone.

Marc's two freshest reanimates each aimed a submachine gun at one of their former friends' kneecaps and let loose a hailstorm of bullets; two guards fell down screaming. Marc's ambassador placed its severed head on the ground and walked forward to take away the weapons that the two new fallen guards had possessed, a six-shooter and a one-handed submachine gun that Marc supposed might be an Uzi.

Only two guards remained standing, both of them firing madly at Ian while Ian simply grinned. Marc's ambassador aimed a weapon at each of them and fired at their hands, destroying one guard's gun and the other guard's hand in a spray of blood and nerve endings and metal.

"Stand down," Marc's severed head called. "And if either of you have a first-aid kit, I'd suggest you see to your friends."

"What the fuck is that?" screamed the guard whose hand Marc had ruined, pointing wildly with his only remaining finger at the talking head. "What the hell are you?"

Marc's ambassador clubbed the bawling guard viciously across the back with the Uzi.

"Whoa, hey," said Felix, looking uncomfortable, "maybe we should calm down a--"

"Did you not hear the Wanderer?!" demanded Marc. "Dammit, I KNEW this team-up could end badly, but I never suspected I'd have to cover for everyone on our very first mission. I'll be fine handling ces gars-là on my own; you two need to head to the fourth floor. Try to stop your first mission from becoming your first great failure, vous me comprenez?"

The sole remaining uninjured guard looked at Marc's ambassador's head with terror as one of the reanimated criminals picked up the head and turned it to face him. "As for you," said Marc, menacingly, "if you have no medical training to assist me in helping to keep your friends alive, I suggest you head outside and surrender to the police. If you come out with your hands up, they probably won't shoot you on sight... and even if they do, I can assure you it won't be nearly as bad as what I'LL do if you force me to spend my own resources monitoring you."

[kronosdragon]

(sorry about the mix-up. ^^; couldn't remember if it was sociopath or sociophobe. I finally remembered after taking my psychology final. Edited.)

[Varthonai]

[I kinda thought that it was an in-character mistake to make. You didn't need to edit it.]

[Wadling]

Felix clicked his fingers slowly in a rhythm.

"Boy, boy, crazy boy. Stay cool boy" Felix said in a sing song voice before stopping to stare at Marc "Don't lose your head, Marc. You'd think that having only a stump of a neck would stop you whining but hey, you learn something new every day. Anyways, as much as I just love to agree with you, there's a damsel in distress upstairs, and the only thing in between me and her is three very large flights of stairs"

Felix primed himself, grabbing a revolver from one of Marc's soldiers. "Let's do this!"

[Thunder]

"All right, let's go."

Thorsten relaxed, the lightning around his body quieting and virtually disappearing from his arms. Pieces of paper floated to the ground around them.

"I think I saw a flight of stairs as I passed through back there, let's go that way."

[Killing_Time]

Villa observed the Orion building. She already knew it was far away; farther than she can jump. Yet she still judged the distance. She decided to get going, it sounded as if there was trouble on fourth floor as little miss sunshine couldn’t keep herself out of danger.

She took off, jumped as far as she could without a run-up and landed on the ground, posed so she was ready to run. She was heading towards the Orion Building’s entrance, staying low in order to not being seen by police, who were really the only active shooters. She decided that since the entrance was put in focus she would get in through one of the broken windows which no one probably expected anyone to be mindless enough to crawl out from. She held one of her pistols up in front of her as she jumped to break whatever glass might be in her way.
Upon entering she immediately went low and in position to fire, in case there were any enemies she would miss. She noticed the floor only had two people standing: Marc, busy with giving medical help to a guard lying in a pool of blood and a guard drawing his weapon while hurrying out.
__

The guard Marc had ordered to surrender was shaken but determined. He carried a weapon but the idiots had not noticed it. Dumb idiots… He was drawing his handgun on his way out. He knew this was the end, he was in fact surprised it had lasted this long. He would go out there; he would take them all or die trying. He would be wild and free to the last. He wouldn’t be in jail he wouldn’t – He was interrupted by the loudest noise he would ever hear. His body was stunned as his line of thought was thrown out of his head and onto the wall behind him.
By the window stood Villa, he hand still tingling from the recoil of her pistol. Marc followed her movement as she strode towards the body. She took the handgun from his still warm fingers and threw it at Marc’s reanimated men. “There is enough rounds in here to kill at least ten men. By then he could’ve been lucky enough to reach a corpse with a new firearm and kill even more!” Her voice rose for each word and in her rage she looked down at one of the still conscious guards on the floor. Without hesitation she aimed and shot him, making sure she would damage the brain beyond any use.
She observed what Marc had been doing. “Are you trying to save these men’s lives?” She cocked her head in staged disbelief. “Are you saving their lives so they can sit in jail until the system gets tired of them and sets them free? So they can pick up a gun and finish the job that was interrupted here?!” She shot the man Marc’s ambassador had been tending to. The eerie silence still rang from the shot as she knelt down by the last man alive. He moaned and whimpered in fear and pain and looked at her with big eyes. Ruthlessly she punched the man in the stomach, pulled his shirt up by his hip and drew a handgun hidden by the line of his trousers. “As you can see Marc, this guy,” she paused long enough to hear the guy still whimpering before she cocked the handgun: “…Could’ve killed me or another team member as easily as anyone else could.” She fired the gun and the guard went silent.

Villa was standing up, watching Marc’s ambassador. “Some of these people Angel has collected could’ve died because of you.” She took a step forward and let her voice fall to a menacing tone “I don’t know how much power you have, but I know one thing, Marc: You’re a fucking idiot if you think I’d respect you due to that fact.” Three gunshots went off, the first hitting Marc’s ambassador in the forehead and the other two hitting the previously reanimated guards.
Villa was already heading upstairs as the bodies fell.