Falin' Angels - On Bloodied Wings (RP)

[caios]

Caios took careful aim at the target in front of her. Guiding the weapon in her hand with unnatural agility she focused solely on the task at hand. It would be but a gentle push for someone like her to make the shot. A quick thrust and the white ball took off towards the number 4 ball. It was with no small amount of mirth that Caios watched the colored ball roll towards the side of the table and fall neatly into the hole. Before she could celebrate however she saw the white ball spin slowly but surely into the corner pocket, falling in with a playful bump as if to mock her.

It was official, Caios decided, she sucked at pool. When it came to games to play this one was just not her thing for whatever reason. Oh well, at least she could kill with darts. Both literally and figuratively. Plus it wasn't like there was anyone else to play with in this dive. With a disappointed grunt she set the pool cue on the table and walked back to the bar. When she sat down the bartender set a bottle of whiskey in front of her which she immediately opened and began to drink from quietly.

She hated waiting, it was something vampires had to do way too much of in their unlives.

"Can I get you anything else?" The bartender asked nervously.

Caios looked up at him with piercing blue eyes that completely unnerved the man before saying, "You already called the cops. Right?"

It wasn't a question, the bartender could only nod dumbly in response.

"Then you've done enough for me, thanks." It was hard to say if Caios was being sarcastic at the moment. Surprisingly she reached in to her coat pocket and pulled out a large stack of one hundred dollar bills, setting it on the table in front of the bartender.

"What's this?" the bartender finally managed to blurt out through his shock.

"No, it's not money from the Steel Canyon robbery." Caios answered the silent question, "You can check the serial numbers with the bank if you want. This belongs to a bunch of stupid rich girls who thought it'd be a good idea to join the Carnival. It's a long story, and quite frankly I couldn't care less if you believe me or not."

"But... why are you giving it to me?" The bartender asked.

"You own this dive right?" Caios replied, the bartender once again could only nod dumbly under Caios's gaze, "Then you'll need that to pay for damages."

"What damages?"

As if on cue, the doors to the bar opened wide and the entire room was quickly filled wall to wall with all manner of PPD units and officers, even a couple of mechs. Mixed among them were several Longbow operatives sent in to assist the capture. Every single PPD and Longbow personnel in that bar was surrounding the vampire, and all of them had guns currently pointed at her head.

Caios just continued to drink her whiskey quietly. " 'bout goddammed time you boys showed up here."

"Hold your FIRE!" a strong voice called out. "Nobody make any moves and relax your trigger fingers." From the mass of police a single detective made his way through reaching up to the bar. He took one look at Caios and let go a deep heavy sigh. Reaching for a stool next to her he set his hat down on the bar and sat down.

"Jesus Caios, what the fuck did you people get into this time?" the detective asked.

"And a good evening to you too Detective Lacceter." Caios said, "It's nice to run into you, haven't seen you around much after you got promoted out of your Kings Row beat. Say you remember the time I saved your skinny ass from that Skulls raid? Man those were the days." She was definitely being sarcastic this time.

"Yeah, nice to see you too Fangs." Very few people could call Caios that and get away with it. Lacceter wasn't one of them, but he had done Caios a favor once for someone who could. It was his not so subtle reminder that she owned him one.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Caios shot back, "We both know those videos are total horseshit, so don't you dare try to play it against me."

"Yeah, I figured as much," Detective Lacceter said sourly, "But right now the evidence is pretty damning. Your best bet is to come in, quietly, and let us sort all of this out."

"You know I can't do that. Why do you even ask?" Caios told him.

"You can, you just won't." Lacceter corrected her. "But I'm gonna ask you regardless, cause that's the right way to do things. Caios, we have a warrent for your arrest. If you run you're only gonna make things worse."

"No." Caios said simply.

"Look around you." Lacceter said as he waved to the army of police and Longbow still training their guns at her. "We're not really giving you much choice here. Even if you get out of this building there's a small army of Longbow outside just waiting to take you out."

"I think it's cute how you still think you all can stop me." Caios smiled at him, "But the answer is still no. I'm not running, but I'm sure as hell not turning myself in. Whoever's pulling the strings on this can play the system like a fiddle. I go in and there's no telling if I'm ever coming out. There's way too many people who need me right now for that."

"If you do that there's no way you'll be able to beat the charges against you." the Detective suggested.

"I don't have to beat the charges," Caios shrugged, "I only have to outlive them. Ridiculously easy for me." She looked back at the detective, "This ain't my first rodeo you know."

"Look I'm trying to help you here!"

"If you want to help then find out what the hell's really going on!" Caios interrupted him. "Till then you can do me, and yourself, a favor. Actually two."

"Oh this should be good." Lacceter frowned, "Alright, what are you demands?"

Caios glared at him for a moment before grabbing the whiskey bottle - slowly enough so the men with guns didn't get too nervous - put the cap back on tightly, and handed it over to the detective. "First hold on to this, it's actually pretty good, and I'm hoping we can share a drink once this is all over. If not, well, I'd hate to see such good whiskey go to waste."

"Heh, alright." Lacceter said as he took hold of the bottle, "And what's the second thing?"

Caios just smiled at him for a second before saying, "Get down, stay down, and watch you head. This will all be over in a minute."


Mere moments later a dull explosion heralded Caios's appearance back onto the street and she burst forth from the bar through a rather large hole in the roof and into the air. In her fist she held the battered police mech she had used to literally punch a hole through which to escape. While in midair, the vampire twisted her body, turning sharply in order to toss the ruined mech back down at the street, directly into one of the nearby Longbow Helicopters. The resulting explosion knocked most of the Longbow on the street to ground.

On the other side of the street Caios landed nimbly on top of a two story building, allowing her to duck behind cover to avoid the hail of gunfire Longbow was sending her way.

"Caios of the Guardian Angels!" One of the Longbow Wardens on the street was yelling at her, "You're under arrest under the authority of the Longbow Task Force."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Caios yelled back, immediately she ducked back behind cover and cringed. Actually she had done plenty wrong, just not all that recently, and certainly not what they were accusing her of.

"You're assaulting Police and Longbow Officers!" the Warden reminded her. Alright there was that, but other then that she had done nothing else wrong. Recently.

"Then stop shooting me!" Caios yelled back in frustration.

"We will never stop trying to apprehend you." The Warden shot back. This bothered Caios, not because she particularly cared that they were shooting at her, but because if they continued shooting like mad they were bound to end up hurting some innocent bystander. Caios knew it was part of their training, against a high enough level threat - like herself - Longbow was authorized to used deadly force.

"Alright, you leave me no choice then." Caios told the Warden.

"Finally, I knew you'd listen to reason." The Warden smiled. He was still smiling when Caios suddenly appeared in front of him. It would be some time later before he would realize that the vampire had simply moved from the rooftop to him in the blink of an eye. The last thing he remembered seeing was Caios getting ready to punch him in the face.


A few minutes later Detective Lacceter managed to pull himself out of the wreckage of the bar and onto the street. As he looked up he was momentarily shocked to see the entire force of Longbow operatives had been defeated, laying in all various manner of unconsciousness across the street. Some where even hanging from the lamppost or sticking out of the second story window across the street. One of their helicopters had been blown up, the other had simply been ripped apart.

In the midst of it all Caios stood unphased, with a Longbow rifle in her hand. It had been completely bent out of shape and battered into submission. From the way Caios was holding it by the barrel it wasn't hard to guess she had been using it as a club. The detective let out another sigh realizing he should not have been surprised by this outcome.

Turning around Caios looked back at the detective and merely shrugged at him, "They started it."

"I'm sure that will hold up just great in a courtroom." Lacceter said.

"I don't care." Caios said frowning as she dropped the rifle to the ground, "Frankly I'm sick of all this bullshit. I'm tired of constantly having to dot every fucking 'i' and cross ever fucking 't' just to be allowed to do shit half assed all the time. I'm done playing nice." She looked back at the detective and added, "If you still want to arrest me, go ahead. I'll even do you a solid and knock you out painlessly so you don't get in trouble."

"That's alright." the detective waved his hand, "After this whole mess I don't think anyone will have a hard time believing you got away from me."

"Good. I really didn't want to have to hit you too." Caios smiled, "It was really nice getting to chat, we should do this again. Only bring less guns next time." She knelt slightly before suddenly leaping into the air, and just like that she was gone.


Sometime later Caios was sitting on the edge of the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Steel Canyon. She was listening in through the radio she had taken off the Longbow Warden. Predictably, things were bad. They were going after everyone, even bringing in reinforcements from all over the city and Rogue Isles. Most recently they tried to take James from the University, but that was over half an hour ago, before she came to Steel Canyon herself. He'd be long gone by now, as were most everyone they had tried to apprehend so far.

Fortunately they had not yet managed to capture anyone. Good.

Caios took out her cell phone in order to try and setup some form of contact. The normal communication lines were out, they were jamming all known Guardian Angels channels. However they couldn't jam everything.

"Pfft, amateurs." Caios activated a few custom built apps on her phone and was soon able to hack into a completely separate satellite network. She knew this network was secure, not to mention completely untraceable, particularly since the satellite she was connecting to didn't officially exist.

She was gonna owe Hammond big time after this one.

She quickly began trying to see who she could connect to. They would have to go somewhere outside the normal networks to avoid being jammed so it would probably take a while. To her surprise she found a waiting message in a private network she barely even remembered.

<< NOT DEAD YET. FIND ME AT HERA'S VACATION SPOT. BRING CLOTHES. WTF IS GOING ON? -MES. >>

Caios frowned for a moment, thinking 'Who the hell is Hera?' It was probably something she should have known, or at least known what she was referring to, but she was never one for codes. Subtlety was never her strong skill. Also, why the hell did she need to bring clothes?

It didn't matter, at least they could communicate now. She sent back a reply to that text, as well as sending the same text message to any of the Angels she could think of:

<< GOT SECURE LINE. SAFE TO TALK. TEXT ONLY. SAFER THAT WAY. MUST MEET UP. WTF IS HERA? -C >>

[ZombieSareini]

((A collaboration with Fenix, this is))

The Longbow Task Force given the job of bringing in the Guardian Angels were not having a good day. Of all their attempts to arrest members so far, none had been successful, and several had incurred casualties. But at that point, the small team of officers in Atlas Park were wishing they had been one of the less successful teams rather than the one they were on.

“Sarge... this doesn’t seem right,” one of the team said to his commander.

“We have our orders, Ross,” his Sargent replied, although if he was honest he didn’t feel very comfortable with this himself. “We’re to bring in all active members of the Guardian Angels.”

“Yeah, but Sarge... she’s just a kid.”

The team were watching their target in a park. The target, dressed in a school uniform, a pink and purple striped scarf and a pair of earmuffs, was playing on the swings and singing a song about Barbies. At that point, almost the entire team would rather have been on the team sent to bring in the vampire. Or possibly just jumped into Lusca’s tentacle range and hoped for the best.

The team leader stood up, took a deep breath, and steeled himself for what he was going to do. Maybe things would work out alright in the end, he thought. Maybe the kid would have nothing to do with all this and they could get her into foster care or something. “Move in,” he ordered.

***

Imagika stopped swinging when she saw the Longbow officers coming towards her, and jumped off the swing in mid-air to land in front of them. She smiled brightly at them. “Hi there!” she chirped. “Have you come to play with me?”

“Um, no Miss... Imagika,” the one who looked like he was in charge said. He looked serious, and maybe a little sad. “You need to come with us now.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to ask you some questions about things you and your... teammates have been doing.”

“Oh, I’m good at answering questions! Why?”

“Because... your teammates have been doing bad things.”

Imagika frowned. “No they haven’t,” she told the Longbow team. “Only the bad people do bad things. Mr. Fenix and Mr. James and Miss Caios and Miss Maggie and Schrodi who I love to give hugs to and... Miss Stern are good people.” She giggled. “You’re silly.”

The serious-looking Longbow officer sighed. “Now, don’t be difficult,” he told her. “You need to come with us, or...” He gestured to the other members of the team, “we’ll have to make you come with us. Do you understand?”

Now Imagika scowled at the Longbow team. “I’m not to go with anyone who wants to make me go with them,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking like the world’s angriest seven-year-old. “I don’t think you’re good people at all. I think you’re bad people dressed up as Longbow!”

The Longbow team had just enough time to consider raising their weapons before a trio of glowing pink figures appeared around them and started to power up attacks of their own. And then the world seemed to go very, very strange. And pink.

***

There was a ‘pop’, and Imagika appeared in the Guardian Angels base, surrounded in a pink bubble and completely unharmed. The bubble faded away and she started to skip down the corridor, not noticing at first that only the emergency lights were on, and even they were flickering.

“Hel-lo?” she called out, peering into a few rooms as she passed them. “Are we playing hide-and-seek? I’m good at that game, I’ll find you all!”

“Hello?” a digitized voice called back from the main computer room. “Who’s that- Oh, great. Of all the people to make it back here, it has to be the little imaginary girl...”

Imagika grinned. “Mr Fenix! I’m gonna find you!” She ran down the corridors into the computer room, where she found a holographic image of Fenix standing in front of the data servers and working frantically on an equally holographic keyboard. Imagika watched him for a few moments. “What’cha doing?”

“I’m trying to encrypt our databanks before the Longbow forensic computing team get through the last of my firewalls,” Fenix told her absently. “Not to mention keeping them occupied with a few virus spikes of my own, trying to trace back those videos to their sources and decode them to try and find out what’s going on and- Hey, don’t do that!” Imagika was waving her hand through his torso and giggling.

“Why?”

“Because it hurts.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Imagika went to try to hug Fenix, but stopped as she remembered he was essentially not there. The she remembered why she was there. “Bad Longbow men tried to kidnap me!”

“They’ve been trying to grab us all morning, kid,” Fenix told her. “They’ve got us on some trumped-up charges and until we get to the bottom of them we’re all on the run. You’d better make yourself scarce until you hear from one of us.”

“What does that mean?”

“...you have to go play hide-and-seek and one of us will find you.”

“Oh. Okay!” Imagika turned to leave, but something stopped her. “Are you going to hide too?”

“I can’t,” Fenix told her. “They cut the T1 lines to the base, as well as most of the power. I can’t get out of here unless I get those lines back up soon. But I’m damn well not going to make it easy for them to get me, even if they do get in here.”

“Are you going to hide in the computer?”

“Yeah, and encrypt so many viiri around me that they won’t know what hit them.”

“But... what if they take the computer with them and take it apart? Won’t they find you?”

The two of them, imaginary friend given form and holographic machine ghost, thought about that in silence for a few moments. Then suddenly Fenix stopped what he was doing, the holographic keyboard vanishing without a sound. Imagika squeeled, impressed.

“Okay kid, here’s what we’re going to do. I need you to find me a laptop from one of the offices, and a USB drive. Can you do that?”

Imagika nodded. “I can do that! Uhh... what’s a yooo-ess-bee drive?”

Fenix sighed. This was going to be a long ten minutes.

[snowdog]

Delta flight 231, PAR to ATL

Rachelle hated flying. Oh she didn't mind it when she was the one doing the flying, either in a piper cub in the Alaskan bush, or flying herself. But the security theater that went with boarding a commercial aircraft anymore really grated on her. True, she could have flashed her FBSA ID card, which technically said she was a law enforcement officer, but that would attract attention. And looking at the new broadcast on the tiny screen in the seat back in front of her, that would probably not be a good thing. They were after everyone, her included probably. If she hadn't booked the early flight out of Paragon City to go down to Atlanta to meet with CDC reps about the research she was supposed to be doing for them with the federal grant..they'd have probably arrested her too. Or tried to. Whoever was behind it, knew enough about them that she wasn't one of the ones shown in the fake videos committing crimes. Especially since for the last few months she's been in a half dozen conferences across the country, one international conference, and a trip to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony. Not that she got one, but it was still nice to be nominated, plus Sweden was lovely that time of year.

No, they wanted her for 'questioning'. Not that she could tell them much, she'd spent the last six months at least either in her lab, in the field, or in front of committees, all with lots of witnesses. Still, she was certain that there would be someone waiting for her when the plane touched down in Atlanta, and once in custody, it would be a matter of time until things got worse. She felt her ears pop as the plane started to begin its decent towards the Atlanta area. It was a typical Georgia late summer day, the clouds heavy with moisture, the promise of a drenching storm. She could work with that, but not from her seat. The fasten seat belt sign was still out, but they were descending through twenty thousand feet, she didn't have much time she thought as she made her way back to the aft lavatory. She'd never tried something like this, oh she'd manipulated weather on this large a scale before...but that was when under the mental domination of Pangs. Now? She'd have to do it herself..without alerting or endangering the flight. She braced herself against the bathroom door, hands out in front of her, eyes closed...feeling the air currents, the electrical charges in the clouds....



Gate B23, Hartsfield Airport Atlanta

The uniformed Longbow squad drew a large amount of attention. Flight 231 was eighty miles out, due on the ground in less than 20 minutes, and all they knew is there was a person on board wanted for questioning about a super powered terrorist spree in Paragon City. So they weren't taking any chances, part of the terminal having been evacuated. The Atlanta police captain in charge of the airport police force was in the middle of a shouting match with the longbow commander when the terminal suddenly shook, the sky outside going from a threatening overcast, to ominous black, lighting crashing down around the area. Lightning warning lights went red as the ground crews scrambled indoors, the airport having put the system in after losing several ground crew during a storm.

“what do those red lights mean?

The police captain just shrugged, looking out at the now howling winds, rain coming down in sheets “it means we're closed.”

“what do you mean closed? WE have a suspect to arrest!”

“I mean closed. No one's gonna be landing here for a while, and depending on their fuel...”

Flight 231

There was an audible groan from the passengers when the captain came on the PA as Snowdog left the lavatory. Bad weather rolled in suddenly, not unexpected for Georgia this time of year..but with their fuel state, they were diverting to their alternate, where they would refuel and continue onto Atlanta when the weather cleared. She just nodded to the flight attendant as he went down the aisle in the bouncing aircraft as they turned off towards the southwest towards Dothan Alabama. Not where she wanted to be..but she could work with that. One thing at a time.

[evilbenfranklin]

Dr. Stern awoke to two sensations: The first being a quiet but insistent buzzing from the PDA clutched against her chest, and the other ...was someone licking her foot?

"This one's a fine specimen, boys... the Doc will be very pleased. What kind of Eidolon d'you think she'll get added to?" The voice was muffled, as if coming from behind a mask of some sort.

"Hmm... Luminous, I suspect. I finally recognize her. She's that one Longbow and the cops are lookin' for." A quiet chuckle, "Pity for them we found her first. Think the Doc will mind if we have a little fun first?"

"Nah. Get the rope in case she comes to."

At that, her eyes snapped open and her hand flung outward, a wave of accelerated particles flashing to blue-white as it swept toward the Mortificator and his randy Reaper pal, knocking them off their feet. She rolled to her own, balancing on the balls of her feet as she gave them a feral grin, putting her fists up before her. "Norm'ly, I'd just give you what-for wi' me powers, lads, but I've 'ad a verra bad fookin' day. A verra bad day indeed... and Mum always told me that it's nice t'share."

As the Mortificator got to his feet, she lunged toward him, a blur of pale skin, sable hair and flashing blue eyes. Grabbing his head, she yanked it down to meet her knee, then curled her right arm into his gut in a series of quick, hard rabbit punches before bodily tossing him against a tree before turning to face the Reaper.

Eyeing the knife in his hand, she smirked and started to hum the opening verse of a certain Blue Oyster Cult song, flicking her fingers in a 'come get some' gesture. He darted forward to slash, her arm blocking then catching his, twisting it around. His knife fell to the ground to the sound of a grown man screaming as his shoulder dislocated. Kicking him to the ground, she picked up the knife, balanced it on a finger for a moment, and looked at her prey. "You know, I really ought t'fookin' castrate you for getting fresh like you did."

Eyes popping wide, the Reaper shook his head violently and tried to scoot away on his butt, winding up against a rock with a whimper. "But instead, I'll just let you pass a warnin' to the rest of you lot." She kneeled down before him, lightly took his chin in her hand, and purred, "This be MY fookin' patch o'th' woods, mate. Nobody comes in unless they're one of me mates. Cops or Candy-Canes come sniffin', someone comes in t'let me know. Anyone else..." In one swift motion, she stood, her hand whipping down to plant the knife mere millimeters from the Reaper's reproductive area, earning another whimper from him, "An' they get t'eat their bollocks for breakfast. You get me?"

As he nodded vigorously, she pointed back down the path, nodding in the Mortificator's direction. "Go. An' take tha' sad sack o'shite with you."

As he scrambled to get away, she scooped up her purloined PDA, and thumbed the NEW MESSAGE icon.

<< GOT SECURE LINE. SAFE TO TALK. TEXT ONLY. SAFER THAT WAY. MUST MEET UP. WTF IS HERA? -C >>

Clucking her tongue as she glanced around for a particular rock, she tapped out a reply:

<< PEREZ. CAVE WHERE JEWEL OF HERA KEEPS ENDING UP. CURRENTLY EMPTY, BULLIED LOCALS INTO HELPING SECURE AREA. NEED CLOTHES B/C RUNNING NEAR C VELOCITY IS BAD FOR NATURAL FABRICS. ALSO, ANGRY WELSH WOMAN NEEDS FOOD BADLY. BURNED TOO MUCH PWR ESCAPING. -MES >>

Absently tapping SEND, she found the rock she was looking for, and palmed a particular nook. With one glance back at the forest, which had gotten considerably quieter over the last few minutes, she stepped into the cave, shutting it behind her.

[drjackwolfe]

((As you all know, I don't really write anymore, feel free to play with Jack's resources and reactions as needed. And no I have no idea what the logo should look like. ))

“What do you mean no?” The Longbow Warden asked the ball the pole that had popped out of the center of the gate. He was sure he’d seen that exact design in a somewhere, maybe in a movie, but he couldn’t quite place it. He had to admit I was a hell of a gate, located in the manufacturing district of King’s Row the imposing 17 foot tall impervium doors gleamed in the late summer sun, a stylized “W” over a wolf’s paw logo was 'painted', he thought, on the gate's center line. The gate sealed a tunnel that led into low block house at the center 5 acre lot, the lot itself was surrounded by 15 foot walls. The walls too appeared to be impervium, and none of his team could find a single seam, almost as if the wall, gate, tunnel and all, were grown onto the lot. He couldn’t help but wonder what went on inside the complex that someone spent that much money for just a wall.

“Look lady, I have a warrant for Dr. Wolfe’s arrest and to search the premises and I …”

<I am not a ‘lady’ I am the Wolfetec Karen MKVII AI, based on an optical processor array developed by Dr. Wolfe and as I told you sir, He is off planet and not available>

“Off planet…right.”

<Dr. Wolfe is completely capable of extra solar travel young man, you really should become famailer with the Longbow Powers Database, next you'll be saying that Ascendant can't ...>

The woman, no AI droned on, who'd ever heard of an AI that actually engaged in prattling, meaningless, long winded small talk?

"Ok, whatever, we're still coming in and conducting the search."

<I cannot allow that>

The annoyed Warden's eyes hardened "Cannot allow? Look lady I'm not asking, open the gate or we will."

<I'm sorry, I cannot do that, you do not have the security clearance to be admitted without an escort into this facility. Since Dr. Wolfe is the only one authorized to escort you and he is off planet, clearly you are not getting in, further more your tone and the actions of your troops indicate you have become a threat. Please leave the area, before I am forced to remove you. Be warned use of deadly force in defense of this facility is authorized.>

"Authorized by wh....." The Warden never finished his thought the ball on a stick simply melted back into the gate. "Ok lady, we're coming in..............." sections of the wall seemed to flow as nanotech Wolfepaks created turret blisters at regular intervals along the wall, a gentle growl from behind the walls became a roar as a half a dozen lupine figures gracefully leaped over the walls and surrounded his troops. A seventh appeared at the top of the tunnel gates, its saphire optical sensors glinting.

10 feet high at the shoulders the Fernis Class battle bots paced back and forth in the street and sized up their prey. Each of the formidable wolf like forms moved in tandem with the pack, never opening a hole for escape; their impervium reactive armors glittering like diamonds as they deployed weapons bods from their great bodies. Beyond the walls the low blockhouse of the lab was suddenly covered in what appeared to be the same energy pattern was the War Walls. The Warden rubbed the bridge of his nose at the appearance of this resistance and muttered "great, just fuckin' great. Wonder how long he can keep that shield up" Then it got worse.

"Boss, the robot's are broadcasting an IFF" The warden's tech specialist projected into his head, "I thought that Agency was a rumor, a lie told to scare bad little spys ."

"Clearly not" the warden thought as the gate morphed one more time, not a ball, but a kind face of an attractive middle aged women. <You gentleman need to return to your idiot masters now and tell them that Dr. Jack Wolfe is off limits this time. He won't be playing this game again. >

"Alright lady, you win for now, but someone runs that....agency" he said gesturing at the battle bots "Someone has got enough pull to make you open those gates. We'll figure it out."

<Well good luck with finding that someone , and have a nice day.>

The bots tracked his troops as they left The Row, driving home the point that they'd been the ones to blink in this standoff. Anger radiated off the them as they entered Independence Port "Boss, we gonna let that old man do that to us? I mean who hell is he working for."

"You want to know what really bugs me Reilly?" the warden
asked "It's not getting stood down by a god-dammed if polite AI and her 'Voltron' wannabe bots; that "factory" screams 'out of control super villain lair' and no one seems to care. Let's not forget the fact that Wolfe just blew us off the entire justice system, if that's not saying "I think I'm above the law" then nothing does. Maybe this "White" guy is right."

At LaGrange point 393, the perfect gravitational balance point between Pluto and Chiron, Jack was working on an solar defense and observation satellite when he became aware of grievous act of law breaking.

<Jack..>

"Karen, what have I told you about breaking the law? 'Specally these big important ones?"

<Jack the fact that we can hold a real-time conversation at 13 light hours clearly means you don't have a proper understanding of the big important laws. Anyway the Longbow types just left, I don't think they are happy.>

"Don't expect they would be"

<What are you going to Jack? It's not as if you can declare yourself a sovereign nation and just ignore US legal system.>

"Actually I considered that, but we'd have to move everything to the island permanently, that would be a huge pain in the ass. There's no tape of me pulling one of these stunts, be too easy to disprove, so I'll just publically pull out. Leave the Angels. Put on a big public display of contrition, that sorta PR bullshit."

<What? but Jack, you can't that would be..>

"Relax Karen, I'll pull out, maybe get the Legends back on track. The 'clean' angels kin come with us, that's give em cover and someplace ta land. Shouldn't be to a problem, hell it'll probably be a PR windfall and great cover for the rest of em.

"Caios, Rok, a few others, well they gotta go their own way. On paper at least, the Agency knows more than a few things about covert operations and funding. I mean look at what they've done for me. Now let me get back to work."

<Yes Jack>

"Karen, one last thing, throw whoever this "White" guy's opponent is a fund raiser, big one, then buy all the tables. Maybe make him a commercial too, you know "Paid for by Heroes against White" or somethin', no way that asshole is winning that senate seat."

[snowdog]

((thanks Jack, think I'll take you up on that offer.))


Dothan Municipal Airport, Dothan Alabama

She wasn't the only one that had gotten off the plane at Dothan. Being that in this part of the south, to go anywhere meant changing planes in Atlanta, the diversion put a good number of passengers closer to their final destination, or some of them there Rachelle thought, watching the US Army Warrant Officers standing in line in front of her at the Hertz rent a car counter. They had reservations, down in this part of the country for duty at Ft Rucker. She, and several other refugees from flight 231 did not. And from the looks of things, there weren't that many cars available for walk up customers like herself. Excusing herself , she got out of the line, stepping out of the terminal into the warm Alabama evening. Should have thought of this earlier she thought as she pulled out her cell phone. These things were supposed to be encrypted Jack said, guess it was time to find out, and just how much trouble she was in.

The phone picked up after a single ring, there was a buzz on the line, for a moment she thought she had dialed a fax machine number by mistake and was about to hang up when a voice cut in “Dr Kincaid?”

“yes?”

“Stand by, voice print authentication....” she waited , glancing around a bit nervously, hoping than with the footage of Longbow forces being manhandled like a Jr high football team paired in a scrimmage with the NFL that her picture wouldn't be shown. She was a bit distinctive, maybe she needed to find a drug store and get some hair dye before she got much further.

“Voice print verified, this is Mr Green in Wolfetech legal, how can we help you?”

“I'm in-”

“don't say where you are, we know your location-however while this is supposed to be a secure line, there have been attempted intrusions.”

“which would explain why I can't get into the network.”

“Correct Doctor. Longbow forces are attempting to enter your base as we speak, we've filed an injunction however it may be several hours until it is heard. Our closest transport is a Lear 35 in Atlanta that could get you in a few hours as soon as the airspace there opens, there seems to be a massive storm cell in the Atlanta metro area.”

She blushed a bit at that “uh, that was kinda me.”

there was a pause on the other end of the line “there are reports of several tornadoes in north Georgia Doctor-”

“look that cell was building to do that anyway-i just triggered it earlier. Probably less damage than there would have been if it had been allowed to grow for a couple more hours.”

“perhaps, I am not a meteorologist , but I am a lawyer. I would advise not to mess with any more building thunderstorms until we get all this sorted out.”
She grimaced but nodded “alright. Whats the status of the others?”

“we have no reports of any one in custody or injured as of yet. However charges are growing.”

looking up at the CNN footage of Caios waltzing through a Longbow strike team, and pictures of the damage to Paragon University where Stern Impact streaked past light speed, literally...”I can believe it.”


“also, Mr Wolfe has left the Guardian Angels-”

“WHAT? He's not just leaving us out here to-”

“Calm down Doctor. He left the group as a strategic move, his name will be easiest to clear being he is off planet-once that is done he can provide a safe haven for the rest you. Mister Wolfe does NOT abandon anyone.”

She calmed down a bit, she could see the logic in it yet still..” OK, what do you recommend I do?”

“staying in place is not an option I am afraid. Your name was on the manifest for flight 213, and it was noted that you left the plane in Dothan. There was a longbow team in Atlanta, however they can not fly out and it's a five hour driv-standby please.”

Rachelle stayed on the line, trying to listen in, fortunately these lines didn't have the cheesy hold music like many companies did. She heard muffled talking on the other end , and some cursing “Dr? We show you as multi-engine rated, have you ever flown a Cessna 310?”

“uh, I'm not checked out in one but yes-”

“good. Because Longbow passed along the fact that you can manipulate the weather to the TSA in Atlanta-and now they're putting a warrant out on you.”

“Great...dammed if I do and dammed if I don't. Why did you ask if I can fly a 310?”

“Because Wolftech just bought one that was for sale. Wiregrass Aviation, on the other side of the airport. Insurance should be-there, it's covered, and they're pulling it out of the hangar to fuel it now. Get over there and get out of Alabama.”

[Hollowpoint Heroism]

A few days later...

The Red Mane Armory, Talos Island. 1154 hrs.

The day had been relatively quiet. A few customers here and there, a few interested parties poking their head in to see what the new store had to offer. He'd also done a few repairs and refits as well.

Though nothing much of anything had really occured in regard to Adrian De'Havaland, proving that his concept of laying low had been rather effective...and immensely troubling. The news had been listing off more and more Guardian Angels apparently involved in various criminal deeds of which he knew that so many wouldn't even consider. Everything from extortion and theft to armed robbery and murder...and it got worse.

It was days like this that he cursed his poor fortune. God help him, he wanted to stand up, wanted to fight. Every name sullied was a knife in the chest for him. Deep down he knew that while he could do little to help, it wasn't in his nature to let others fight his battles for him. He slumped forward, palming at his face with both hands, one metal, the other natural, sighing with a weight of morosity that only he could shoulder.

A jingle of the bell attached to the front door of his shop caused him to swiftly lift his head from his palms and blink, watching as five men in red and white came tromping through the front door, weapons slung across their chests as the the Sergeant turned to him, reading off a sheet of paper which he had previously plucked from his belt,

"De'Half-land, Adrian?"

"De'HAVALAND. Where the hell did you learn to read?"

The Longbow Sergeant, a Sergeant Donovan by his tag frowned sharply and nodded "Right. Mr De'Havaland, we're here on behalf of Captain Sp.."

"Spangler, right? Yeah, heard about him on the news. Him and that Congressional hopeful White are one some kinda witch hunt. A very SPECIFIC witch hunt, so I hear."

Again, Sergeant Donovan frowned. Clearly this man was either being purposefully difficult, or was in a really foul mood to begin with.

"Yes, Mr. De'Half-"

"HAVA-LAND. It ain't that hard, Sergeant. Really."

Sergeant Donovan was clearly flustered now, while Adrian made with a sly grin as one of the green-horns in the squad chuckled to himself.

"FINE. Listen, We're here to ask you some questions in regard to your departure from the United States two years ago and the connection it might have with the disappearance of a certain Vigilante."

Adrian blinked at that, his face turning to an expression of confusion "There's...lots of vigilante types around Paragon, Sergeant. Which one are you referring to? And what makes you think I might be linked to one by taking a bit of time out to travel?"

"The vigilante we're referring is known as the Shadowstormm. He's wanted for questioning."

Adrian nodded, "Aaah"ing in realisation. "Yeah, yeah, I know 'im."

Sergeant Donovan blinked at that, stepping toward the counter as a hefty growl from a German Shepard followed. Kaiser didn't like that movment. Not. One. Bit.

The shopkeep playing dumb turned to his pet and made calming gesture, smiling with mock appology...which was conveniently mistaken as an ACTUAL appology to Donovan.

"Sorry. Typical German Shepard instinct. Good, loyal dogs, but somewhat distrusting of...strangers. Yeah, I know him. Read alot of articles about him in the paper. Real mean sort. Had a penchant for shitting up badguys, right?"

The Longbow Sergeant nodded heavily and spoke, one of his lackeys trying the tough act. Adrian sized him up, a simple glance putting the brat back in his place. His eyes spoke of significantly more experience than this whelp, that alone was a terrifying prospect enough.

"He's considered to be an..."

"The guy's missing, Sergeant. Don't you read the papers? He was rurmored to be operating in Europe for a long time before he just...dropped off the map. No news, no info. Some folks are saying he's dead, others just don't know..."

Adrian, currently sitting behind the counter folds his arms and shoots the Longbow grunt a sharp gaze "Fact of the matter is, I think that doesn't really matter much to you. Does it?"

Sergeant Donovan blinked, glancing around at his squad before responding

"What...I have no..."

"Don't lie to me. You came down here with the intention of trying to bully a confession outta me with this Gestapo act. Sorry, ain't happenin'. All you got are a vague pair of dates and potentially, if you can pinpoint WHEN the Shadowstormm went missing, a list of several THOUSAND people who exited the country that day on God-only-knows how many different flights. Even if you narrow it down to one, that's still a lot of foot-work considering the several hundred passengers you gotta check through."

Adrian De'Havaland, the man behind the Shadowstormm's mask sat back on his stool, folding his arms and sighing as he continued,

"Y'seem like a good soldier, Sergeant...but you ain't much for detective work. Might want to get some facts under your belt before you leave the office next time."

A dumbfounded Longbow Sergeant AND the no-bullshit shop owner both sit there, staring at one another a moment before Sergeant Donovan gestures to his squad, heading toward the door

"Th...thankyou for your time, sir. If you have any information, please..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll call Longbow. Bye."

Amidst the tromp of of hefty boots and red-white uniforms stands a single delivery man, no older than his early twenties going by the scrap of a beard on his chin. He makes sure to avoid the crowd of burly Longbow-types, the owner of the Red Mane Armory limping to the door as the young fellow pulls his hat off, stepping inside the store as he runs a hand through his orange hair and comments "Real hot out there today..."

Adrian simply nodded, acknowledging with a grunt as the lad drags a hefty metal crate into the shop front and holds up a digital signature reader. "I got a package here for an Adrian...De...Half-land?"

Adrian frowned, signing for his package and supplying a thumb print,

"De'Havaland. You're the second person to get my surname wrong today."

"Err..sorry."

"Its fine."

With a nod, he handed back the signature reader and smiled, the young fellow returning to his truck and eventually burbling away in a cloud of exhaust. Adrian looked over the crate, considering it for a long moment before tugging an eleqouently scripted letter from the lid and reading it over...then re-reading it again, just to make sure.

He gazed at the case, almost peering through the metallic lid to its contents within.

This letter, this crate, its contents. They all carried the potential to rewrite his current fate. He needed time. Time to think. Time to reflect.

With a grunt, Adrian dragged the case out of view, whistling to Kaiser who quickly departed his bed and came front and center, his owner slipping on a pair of dark sunglasses before nodding,

"C'mon, boy. We're goin' for a walk. Its lunchtime as it is...and I need to do some thinkin'..."

With that, he hung an "Out to lunch, be back by 1300" sign on the door of the Red Mane Armory, and headed for the northen-most tip of Talos Island. He needed to speak to some phantoms of the past...and hopefully garner some guidance.

[snowdog]

Pocket D

Xenolizard paced worriedly. It had been a hectic night. Shed' hooked back up with Rhonda for a night on the town, who was back in Paragon City for the first time in months after spending time in Japan. Polekitty had needed a break from worrying about her missing little brother, so Amy took it on herself to get her out on the town for an evening. Well out to Pocket D at least, the two of them tended to stand out in most nightclubs in paragon, with Rhonda's fur and her own lizard skin and wings. It was a bartender that had clued them in on what was happening back in Paragon. It was totally insane she thought. Hell, the sword was called the 'blade of justice' for crying out loud, it was semi sentient, and couldn't even be manifest unless it was for a righteous cause-if she had tried cutting open a bank vault with it-it would disappear and all she'd get was a sore hand.


She wasn't able to get through to anyone else, and was waiting in the entrance way from Pocket D while Polekitty stepped outside to check to see if it was clear, and to talk to someone who could help. The two of them (and the sword) had come up with a plan over several cops of coffee to erase the buzz of the nights effects from them-Rhonda's metabolism accelerating pheromones helped a lot as well. She glanced a worried eye on the doorway to Kings Row, hoped everything was going OK on Polekitty's end..

PPD Headquarters

Rhonda sat on the edge of the roof of the PPD headquarters building. Not that she was distrustful of cell phones, but the less folks that could listen in the better. There was a click from behind her, and a familiar voice “you know I still get nervous when you sit on the edge like that, even though you can fly.”

She just smiled as she got up, moving away from it a bit “I know daddy, glad you came.”

Detective Randal Evans just smiled tiredly, hugging his daughter “things are a madhouse right now, Longbow going in heavy handedly is just making things worse for everyone, your friends in the Angels included.” he sighed, running a hand through his graying hair “Lacceter told me about the attempt to bring Caios in. He thinks if longbow had let him just go talk to her without them like he wanted, she might have come in to clear her name. The way things went however...” he just shook his head “I almost feel sorry for Longbow. Almost."

“so you don't believe they did it?”

“Heck hon, I've had most of them in my house for dinner. I can usually tell if folks are decent or not, that's half the job of police work” he said with a sigh, sitting down on the edge of a AC unit. “it could be a Nemesis plot, duplicates from Praetoria or some other parallel earth, mind control, heck some rogue folks in Crey framed you for breaking into their labs not too long ago.”

“ah remember that daddy” she said, frowning a bit. The Countess had managed to weasel her way out of that one, throwing lackeys under the bus to take the fall.

He nodded, that had caused a bit of stress for himself at the department as well “thing is, they're not helping their case by running. But then...longbow is unusually aggressive for some reason. So I can understand it. I mentioned your idea to the chief, and she agrees. If Amy turns herself into the PPD, she stays in PPD custody. I read her FBSA file, it doesn't sound like she's capable of doing what she's accused of. Same goes for any other Guardian Angels that we can get to before Longbow.”

“Longbow ain't gonna like it.”

He stood up, offering his hand to his daughter, helping her to her feet “Franky, ah don't give a damn what Longbow likes at this point. We could have sent a couple detectives down to talk to them, and probably gotten a bunch of them to come in quietly to get this cleared up. Now..” he shrugged.

She nodded, pulling out her cell phone “where do you want her to go?”

Randy thought for a moment “tell her to just meet us here up on the roof. There's Longbow down around the building on the ground level, they'd probably try to jump her. Hate to have any more of those idiots hurt due to their own stupidity. We do this quiet, she'll be safe in custody before they know. Just make sure she comes in from this side, so they won't see her over on the helipad on the other side of the building.”





Amy was getting worried-it had been a while, when her phone suddenly buzzed with a text message
<X-ppd thumbs up. On roof, come in high away from chopper. Dad will do paperwork. PK>

Well that was good at least. She HAD to clear her name, the sword was most distressed at being accused of such crimes. Spreading her wings before even stepping through the portal, she started beating them for altitude as soon as she saw the light of the morning sky over Kings Row. She was no where as fast as some of the faster fliers in Paragon City, Kelly or Jack for example, but in seconds she was over the tops of the buildings, leaving the ground far behind her. Thousand feet or so should be good enough she thought as she leveled off, heading towards Police Headquarters. There, she could see two figures on the roof on the other side of the building from the helipad, Polekitty and her father. Might as well get moving, at least this would all be over soon.


THOOOM!

Randy's first reaction on the shot was to push his daughter down towards the roof, a fathers natural instinct, pulling his own weapon. There was a scream, then several more. He remembered glancing at the them on a lower ledge of the building in shock...there was no mention of Longbow putting forces there, much less sniper teams. He remembered Rhonda screaming , diving off of the roof, trying to reach the fluttering figure before it impacted the ground, but it was too far...he remembered his own roar of rage into his radio, reporting shots fired, requesting backup as he leapt down onto the snipers, his cowboy boots smashing into the face of the spotter, his 1911 pressed against the shooters head , screaming hands on your head, down now! And worst.. he remembered the sound as Xenolizard hit the ground.

[The Cheshire Cat]

"Guardian Angels: An insiders view of the superpowered subculture and its effects on society at large" read the display. "Meet the author, Dr. Ellen Timmit. 2:00 PM today!"

The book signing went well, but Ellen was glad that the tour was nearing its end. It wasn't that she resented public speaking, but travelling around the country promoting her book was a much more demanding schedule than teaching ever was.

She was speaking with her publicist, Julie, when the team of Longbow agents approached her.

"Ms. Ellen Timmit?" Their leader said in an authoritative tone. He seemed to be trying to give off the impression that he was a much larger person than he was, which was silly given Ellen's own diminutive stature.
"Doctor." Ellen said.
"Excuse me?"
"Doctor Ellen Timmit. It says so on all the signs around here, dear."
The Longbow officer was not amused by her correction.
"We're here to place-"
"Yes, place me under arrest for the robbery of the first bank of Paragon or whatever such nonsense they've been going on about on the news. I do WATCH the news, officer." Ellen cut him off. "And I suppose the fact that I was provably out of the city at the time of the supposed robbery won't do much to dissuade you either. After all, you have your orders, yes?" She put out her wrists. "Cuff me, then. I'm not going to resist arrest and give you a real crime to charge me with on top of the fake one. Do me a favour and escort me out the back way though, will you? I do have my reputation to consider what with the book launch."
The longbow unit looked a bit unsure about what to do at this point. Every other attempt they'd made to bring in a member of the supergroup known as the Guardian Angels had resulted in a badly injured squad and an escaped fugitive. They seemed genuinely unprepared for what to do in the event that one of them actually gave themselves up.

The Officer said nothing and pulled out a pair of handcuffs which he slapped on the woman's wrists. As they escorted her out, Ellen turned to her publicist. "Julie, be a dear and handle things in my absence, will you?" Julie nodded back at Ellen, a gesture more meaningful than the longbow unit realized.

When longbow had cleared out, Julie reached into her pocket and pulled out a smartphone. She thumbed through the most recent messages, mostly related to the book tour, and found the messages that Ellen had told her about before Longbow had arrived.

<<REZ. CAVE WHERE JEWEL OF HERA KEEPS ENDING UP. CURRENTLY EMPTY, BULLIED LOCALS INTO HELPING SECURE AREA. NEED CLOTHES B/C RUNNING NEAR C VELOCITY IS BAD FOR NATURAL FABRICS. ALSO, ANGRY WELSH WOMAN NEEDS FOOD BADLY. BURNED TOO MUCH PWR ESCAPING. -MES>>

She switched over to the calender application and moved a few things around until she was able to free up time for the meeting. She then tabbed back into the message and typed out a quick reply.

<<Former member Firanima will not be able to make the meeting due to police incarceration. I am her publicist and attorney Julie Brennan and will be representing her in this clandestine meeting. Will bring clothes and food. Hope green is your colour, Mes -Julie>>

[killswitch]

"And so Leroy Brown, better known as Sledge is the first Guardian Angel to be apprehended successfully at the Youth
Center in Kings Row this afternoon. Some Guardian Angels have turned themselves in but the overwhelming majority
remain at large."

Siren Cobalt Domino froze the image of the news cast on the frame of the two screaming children, clawing at the officers while their somber father is taken away. Her single eye quivering with empathy for the man known as Sledge. No one in the room could see her face as it was turned to the big screen, but each one of her men had worked with her long enough to know exactly what was going through her head.

A few minutes of working in near silence later, and an officer braved a report. "Peregrine Unit reports success on squelching their Warden target, madam." Siren turned swiftly, her eye full of rage but her robotic voice remaining that cool monotone. "And what of the injured Psi at the college?"

"Critical condition."

"Director Pearl will not like that. He wants the Angels to be cop killers." She checked her watch. "Soon she will be transfered to another ward where she will be killed by his men. Infiltrate the hospital and ensure that does not happen. Identify Pearl's agents and eliminate them. Be as discreet as you can, but the mission priority is the assurance that that cop remains alive."

She stalked over to a large group of intel operatives looking over numerous views of various parts of the city.

"How is Operation Sharpshooter progressing?" The lead operative took his headset off and stood, "Pearl has units
shadowing all the PPD units as they move to make their arrests. Their cover is that of back up for the PPD officers. We don't believe any of the actual arresting PPD are part of Pearl's unit, and intercepting communiques show that they mission is to soley gather intelligence, not to engage. Our men are in position."

"When the Angels appear back on the grid, strike all the units simutaneously. Those are your standing orders. It will blind Pearl only momentarily but a Rogue Malta Unit as an opposing force will serve as a fitting distraction, allowing the Angels to move without the Puppetmaster pulling the strings. Hopefully it is a big enough window for them to do what needs to be done" She nodded and squeezed her officer's shoulder before walking to the youngest man in the room's console, the dance-pop bleeding from his headphones as he works feverishly.

"How's the video analysis coming along, Delta."

"Tough so far, but the nights young. I gave up trying to debunk the heroes themselves, trying to isolate witness but most of them are either dead already or are ghosts, sleepers."

"And what do you have on White's money?"

The young operative tossed his headset uncermioniously down to his keyboard, rubbing his eyes. "We just finished the hardcopies of White's backers' personell files, as you asked. It's pretty heavy read, just about all those guys have some criminal connections."

Siren's gaze softened on the young operative, "As I would expect anyone anti-hero would be. I think the Angels would be more interested in those faces that are not on the grid."

"Right, yeah. I stacked those faces with no names on the top for ya. You really think one of them is Pearl?"

"I do Delta."

"But why would he expose himself so easily? I mean, Malta has a hundreds of sleeper agents in the goverment already, at least a dozen sleepers in the senate already, why does Pearl have such a hardon to court this guy?"

"It's true we hold the leash of the American goverment as well as many other superpowers, however," she leaned over his shoulder, watching as "Fenix" groped the bank teller as he held her from behind, his other hand grabbing fistfuls of cash. "Holding the leash and controlling the dog are two different things. America is very pro-hero, and if suddenly a third of the senators decided to create a law banning heroes, it would be very out of character. Questions would be asked, people would be exposed." Her eye squints as she taps a few keys, Delta nods.

"But, if suddenly an empassioned genuinely anti-hero politician gets to be a senator riding the tail of a hero crime spree, suddenly everyone is justified to outlaw heroes."

"Correct." Siren pecks a few buttons on his keyboard, zooming in on the screen.

"So Pearl isn't just pissed about being embarassed by the Angels, this is all apart of something bigger."

"Precisely." Her mono-tone voice purred out. Her eye was centered on a handful of pixels on the screen. "What is that man holding?"

Delta snapped back out of his retrospective, typing a few commands. "I dunno lets see. Enhancing...."

Through the chaos of the robbery, through the window, across the street, behind a passing bus, in the reflection of a storefront, a handful of pixels were taking the shape of a...

"Looks like a cameraphone, Madam." Delta say up now, excited. "I can pull his face, get a name if he's on the grid." Siren pulled back to give him the space to type. "Everyone's on the grid," he muttered as the thin, pimply face of the phone-man was displayed on screen while thousands of photos were super-imposed on it. Not just mugshots, drivers licenses, student IDs. "And the winner is...." The database pinged, they had a name.

"Daniel Fairbanks. Looks like he lives in Galaxy."

"Put that name and address in the file with Mr.White's backers. I'm giving it all to the Angels, let them decide their own course."

"Printing it out now, Madam."

Siren beckoned to the mountain of a man standing in the shadows, "Omega." Omega was no tech officer, or intel operative. He was a commando, and was Siren's most trusted agent. When something needed to be done, it was him that did it. "Take the file containing Mr. Fairbanks information, as well as the information of White's backers to the Angels, and deliver it personally to their hands. Take no more than 3 men as back up, and be friendly." A cold finger stretches up and touches his cheek. "Smile."

"What makes you think they will trust us?"

"They won't, but since you will be the first people they have seen that have not tried to arrest them, hopefully they will not try to kill you."

"And if they do try to kill us?"

"Make sure they do not succeed, but do not engage with lethality. Just make sure they get the file."

"How do I find them?"

Siren finally sat down in her center chair, breathing a ragged breath.

"They will find you."

[snowdog]

Paragon Police Department headquarters conference room

It was an ugly mood in the room. Both the longbow shooter and spotter where there, the latter having been tended to for his broken nose by paramedics, the sniper still sporting a rather large bruise on the side of his head from where Detective Evan's .45 slammed up against it. They weren't in cuffs, but from the mood of the Paragon Police that was only a matter of time. Longbow on the other hand wanted charges pressed against Polekitty for assault. Twenty seven of their officers were in the Zig undergoing decontamination, the prison the only place that had a large enough stock of the tomato juice formula used to cleanse the slightly radioactive skunkish pheromones Rhonda used offensively.

“Not going to happen” DA Jackson Brown said as he shook his head “and I'll tell you why. If you REALLY want me to press charges against a young woman who saw her friend brutally murdered by a rogue paramilitary force, murdered while she was on her way to surrender herself to the police for bogus charges put forth by those same paramilitary thugs”

“WE object to you referring to Longbow that way!”


“if the shoe fits...you act like thugs. Polekitty flew down and was attempting first aid when one of your goons hit her from behind , literally dragging her away from Xenolizard by her hair-”

“It was for her own safety! The Guardian Angels are terrorists!”

“-I am talking here Captain. Whether they are terrorists are not will be decided by a court of law, not by an assassins bullet. But after reviewing the tapes, yes we have everything on tape, I will not be charging Miss Evans in this matter.”

“this is a federal matter! She was in contact with a member of the Guardian Angels-that makes her a person of interest.”

“yes, about that” Brown said with a bit of a sneer “tell me Captain, where are you from?”

“what does that have to do with anything? I am German-”

“German. Your assassin is Russian, and the spotter is Italian. The people of this country would not tolerate such behavior from our own sworn peace officers. But you're not , your a multinational paramilitary force deciding who lives and dies on our streets. You made yourselves judge, jury and executioner. I don't know how they do things, in your countries, but here...” he motioned to the two accused “Stand up and put your hands behind your backs” he said, as PPD officers moved in.

“YOU CAN'T DO THAT!”

The room was close to violence. Being that the people in the room were all law enforcement officers in theory was a bad thing thought the Chief as she stepped into the room, PPD and Longbow on opposite sides of the table. Even more so that the murderous rage was directed at each other. And here she was about to put more gasoline on the fire. But then, it was a bonfire of Longbow's own making. “actually, we can. I just got off the phone with Special Agent Saul Dalton of the FBI. He has talked to his boss, and they agree that this is a local matter for city and state agencies.” she said, as the cuffs locked on the two accused.

The Captain just glowered “this isn't over” he said, as he and the other Longbow troops filed out.

“no..it probably isn't.'




Crowne Memorial hospital, Kings Row

Polekitty was still damp. they had gotten most of the blood off of her, seems she wasn't the first fur bearing patient they've had, though in Paragon that wasn't a surprise. the dress was ruined though. They'd made her come here after the fight to be checked out, though other than scrapes and bruises on her fists from assorted Longbow skulls, she was fine, physically. Seeing your friend shot with a Barret .50 sniper rifle...then falling over a thousand feet to the pavement on the other hand...that left scars that couldn't be seen on a CAT Scan. She looked at the short little red dress, darker stains of Amy's blood dried on it now, the dress in a plastic bag. The PPD would probably want that as evidence, there were a couple officers outside of the room making sure she had some privacy. There was a knock on the door, and a hand poked through, holding a pair of jeans and a t shirt “ah'm back pumpkin, got ya some clothes.”

“you can come in daddy” she said, sniffling a bit. He did, handing her the clothes, his eyes looking a bit red himself, and limping just a bit. Her eyes got a bit wide “What happened to your leg?”

he just shrugged, reaching up to tug the curtain around the bed closed a bit to give her some privacy to change out of the hospital gown “These boots ain't' made for jumping off buildings I guess. Just twisted my ankle a bit when I landed, it'll be OK. Fortunately had a couple of idiots to break mah fall.”

Her face got a bit darker at the mention of the two snipers as she stepped out from behind the curtain, the Kelly Lamb concert t shirt a bit big on her. “probably better you dealt with those two than if ah had..”

Randy smiled grimly “heard from the chief on the way back here-DA's prosecuting them both. Murder. Longbows squealing a fit about it, but she basically told them to go pound sand.”


It wasn't much, but better than letting your friends killers walk free. Which she half expected before long anyway to be honest, but at least they were trying “good” was all she said. She looked towards the bag with it's bloody dress again and lost it, she'd been strong up until then, she had to be but now..she sunk to the floor, sobbing, clutching the plastic bag

He ignored the angry pain from his leg as he knelt down, holding her in his arms like he did when she was little as she sobbed “why daddy? She trusted me! I told her it would be safe!”

“i dunno baby” he said, damn what folks said about you shouldn't cry in front of your children. Sometimes it couldn't be helped. “I dunno. But I'm gonna find out.”

[snowdog]

Wiregrass Aviation, Dothan Alabama

The Manager of the FBO was close to turning cartwheels. With the economy it had been tough times in general aviation, the sudden buyer for the 310 that they'd been trying to sell for months would definitely help them make payroll this month. He didn't even ask too many questions on why the plane needed to be delivered so fast, just happy that his bank had reported yes the money had been deposited. Snowdog was a bit more nervous though as she looked over the aircraft. She had maybe half a dozen hours in a 310, fortunately plenty in other Cessna types, and they did tend to be laid out the same. At least this one had a modern garmin gps nav system. It was a good looking aircraft though, only 500 hours on the right engine, 600 on the left, and with a full fuel load easily make 1000 miles from here. Wolfetech was paying for the fuel too so she had them top it off, not sure where the mysterious Mister Green would advise her to go.

She was finishing her preflight , as comfortable as she was going to be with this whole crazy day when her phone rang. Smiling at the pump jockey topping off her tip tanks she stepped back into the hangar to answer it “hello?

“Dr Kincaid, this is Miss White, we have a problem.”

“don't we always” she muttered “what is it?”

“Dothan PD are on the lookout for the taxi you took from the terminal to the FBO, you were seen getting into the cab. Once they find him and find where you were dropped off at they'll be there shortly. Also Military Police units from Fort Rucker are en route as well.”

“Day just gets better and better...well they might not find the driver for a while.”

“...you didn't do anything to him did you?”

She chuckled “no, just gave him five hundred dollars cash to take my bags to the hotel I was supposed to check into in Atlanta. Told him didn't want to give Delta another chance to lose them. He should be halfway to the state line by now.”

There was laughter on the other end of the line “oh that's perfect, that should buy you some time Doctor Kincaid. Still, the Army unit-stand by.” there was another pause while the lawyer checked whatever intel that Jack's organization had, probably better than the CIA's. “ they've got an Apache helicopter in the group coming to the airport, probably knowing you can fly under your own power, and going to use the targeting systems to search for you. I strongly recommend you be out of there asap.”


“fine with that, but where the heck am I going?”


“Round Rock Texas. There's a subsidiary of Wolfetech there, we will have a car waiting on the ramp in Austin. Also...well, there has been a bit of bad news. One of your teammates has been killed.”

A chill went down Rachelle's spine, and she gripped the phone tighter “who? How?”

“Details are still coming in, but it appears it was Amy Richardson, aka Xenolizard. The Longbow team that shot her are currently in PPD Custody and-hang on-looks like the PPD is filing charges against them.” there was a sigh on the other end of the line “this is definitely getting messy. Rachelle, get going now!”

she was in shock, but nodded, hanging up the phone and forcing a smile at the ground crew as she stepped out of the hangar. In the distance she could hear the sound of sirens and the whop whop of rotor blades “That was my company, I need to get this plane delivered sooner than we thought. Thanks for your help” she said as she climbed in.

they stepped back, one hanging around with a fire extinguisher. She ran down the checklist faster than she was comfortable with, holding up a finger and twirling it as she hit the starter for the number one engine. The big Continental kicked over and fired, as soon as the oil pressure was up she lit off number two, as the ground guy pulled the chocks out. Had to play it by the book, and not attract attention she thought, as she flashing strobes of the AH 64 came into view in the distance “Dothan tower, this is November six eight five requesting clearance to depart, over.”

“Six eight five, you are cleared to runway 27, hold at threshold for military traffic, over.”

“Rodger hold at 27 for traffic.” Great , just great she thought as she taxied out, slipping on a pair of sunglasses and a cheap 'peanut capital of the world' baseball cap she bought in the airport gift shop, tucking as much of her long white hair under it as she could. She stopped short of the runway where she was supposed to , trying not to look too nervous.


Warlord 88

The young CW2 in the front seat was excited, this was better than the average training missions he'd been flying since he began his Apache training. He kept the targeting system on the nose of the helicopter sweeping around, as if he could see this terrorist suspect they were after. The pilot in the back seat was more relaxed, he knew exactly who they were looking for-and that she'd probably been long gone by now. Chief Warrant officer 4 Zack Kowalski, who in his other job was known as Knight Raider five six. Director Pearl had contacted him personally, and arranged to get the military assets for this operation. Yet, even with that , she had simply gotten off a plane and disappeared. There were reports of her getting into a taxi and heading east, but things were still sketchy. He sighed, shifting a bit in his seat as he came in to the airport. He was getting too old for this, both the Army and Malta. He glanced around as they came in over the runway, there was a blue and white 310 waiting there for him to clear. Nice looking plane he thought, then frowned a bit at the pilot..he'd seen her somewhere before, but couldn't put his finger on it..


November six eight five.

It was cold in the plane, her own powers lowering the temperature a bit, which normally in an Alabama afternoon wouldn't be a bad thing. She tried to appear relaxed, this is where the army did their flight training, so it wasn't like she hadn't seen hundreds of attack helicopters, really...she let out a breath as it touched down and turned off the runway, almost jumping as the tower's broadcast came into her headphones.

“Six eight five, you are cleared for takeoff, winds from the west at 12 knots.”

“Rodger...say whats all the commotion about?”

“heck if I know, seems they're looking for some terrorist suspect or something, landed and left in a cab from what I heard.”

Saying a silent prayer for the cab driver she turned onto the runway “gee, hope they catch them. Six eight five, departing.” Advancing the throttles to the firewall, the Cessna accelerated like a scalded dog, leaping into the air.

[ZombieSareini]

The Jumpz internet cafe in Talos Island was only moderately busy for the time of day, but none of its customers paid very much attention to the man in the baseball cap and heavy coat who had just come in, even if he was holding his left arm strangely as he moved. The man went straight for the counter, where the disinterested cashier was flicking through a magazine.

“I need to use one of your computers,” the man said. He glanced around for a moment, then pointed at the table in the far corner of the cafe, furthest away from the door and windows. “That one, please.”

“How long do you want to use the computer for?” the cashier asked, almost parrot-like. “It’s $5 for an hour, and-” He stopped suddenly, and looked up at the man. His eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment.

“I’ll be using it for as long as I need to,” the man told him. “And you won’t be bothering me by asking if I want a drink, or something to eat, or anything like that. You’re going to leave me alone to use my computer in peace until I’m done.”

The cashier nodded, slowly and almost as though he was sleepwalking. “Yes... I’ll leave you alone...” he muttered, before turning back to his magazine and staring at it blankly.

James sat down at the computer and nearly collapsed. His arm was throbbing painfully, and he was still feeling lightheaded. Manipulating someone’s mind like that - even if the mind in question belonged to someone who felt like they huffed paint through middle school - had taken a lot more out of him than he had expected it to. He must have lost more blood than he’d realized, and of course the awkward job he’d had to do in sewing it up, pouring half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on it and bandaging it one-handed hadn’t helped much. He knew he should have just found some gang-banger or Freak and just transferred some of their bio-energy to him to knit everything back together, but he was scared that even doing that would have Longbow zeroing in on him. For all he knew, they were trying to track them by power signatures now, and his biokinesis would likely light up any tracking devices like a Christmas tree.

So he was left doing things the hard way.

He started logging in - or trying - to his e-mail accounts. The ones directly connected to the Guardian Angels were down, which was pretty much what he had expected, but he still had a couple of personal e-mail accounts that he had kept around mainly our of nostalgia and a lack of interest in closing them down at the time. Now they might be his only way of contacting any of his team who were still out in the field or on the run like him. James also opened another web window, this one to check on the latest news for CNN, PNN and even FOX (who if nothing else could be relied on to report the salicious details of whatever was going on). The PNN news ticker at the top of the page was reporting that two of the Guardian Angels had been taken into custody without incident - clicking on that link showed him that Sledge and Firanima had both given themselves up without a fight. Good for them, he thought. With the way Longbow were handling things, he didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt in these takedowns, and if that meant people going quietly, then so be it. Of the others... Caios was on the run like him, as was Stern Impact, and... Imagika? James couldn’t help but laugh as he read the brief paragraph about the Angels’ imaginary girl taking down a Longbow squad and escaping. There had been a disturbance at Portal Corp, which could have meant anything but could well have involved Schrodi... There was no word on any of the others other than a brief listing of who was still out there, so James had to assume that no-one else had been caught or “engaged” yet.

A ping from the computer caught his attention. His personal-but-anonymous e-mail account, the one that Fenix had helped him set up for, well, situations just like this, was indicating an urgent message. Three of them, in fact.

<< NOT DEAD YET. FIND ME AT HERA’S VACATION SPOT. BRING CLOTHES. WTF IS GOING ON? -MES >>

<< GOT SECURE LINE. SAFE TO TALK TEXT ONLY. SAFER THAT WAY. MUST MEET UP. WTF IS HERA? -C >>

<< PEREZ. CAVE WHERE JEWEL OF HERA KEEPS ENDING UP. CURRENTLY EMPTY, BULLIED LOCALS INTO HELPING SECURE AREA. NEED CLOTHES B/C RUNNING NEAR C VELOCITY IS BAD FOR NATURAL FABRICS. ALSO, ANGRY WELSH WOMAN NEEDS FOOD BADLY. BURNED TOO MUCH POWER ESCAPING. -MES >>

Stern and Caios, it had to be. James was just about to type his own reply, telling them he was okay and would meet up with them as soon as he could, when something on the news ticker caught his attention. He clicked through to it... and found himself watching footage, apparently shot from a helicopter, of the roof of the police HQ in Kings Row. On the roof, people were running about and screaming, one of them was jumping down onto a ledge and proceeding to beat the crap out of... a sniper, from the look of the rifle by his side, while the other was trying to dive to save something as if fell from the sky to the ground below.

Ice in his stomach, James read the story attached to the footage. He couldn’t bring himself to turn on the audio. The world seemed to fall away for a while.

After a long few minutes of thought, James slowly - the numbness in his left arm preventing him from doing anything but typing one-handed - started a message on the same channel that Caios and Stern were using.

<< WILL GET TO HERA WHEN I CAN. MIGHT BE LATE, THINK I HAVE SOME THINGS TO DO FIRST. XENOLIZARD DEAD. LONGBOW SNIPERS. ELLEN AND SLEDGE IN CUSTODY. -J >>

James then got up to leave, but stopped, looking back at the computer for a moment. Then, his fist glowing with telekinetic energy, he punched through first the screen, then the base unit. Sparks flew everywhere, and suddenly all eyes were on him, including the cashier’s. James looked at him steadily.

“Bill Longbow for the damages,” he told him coldly. “They’re going to be paying for a lot by the end of this."

[ghostveil]

"And in our top story tonight, violence at Salamanca University. Authorities attempted to arrest senior student Danielle Veil for links to the rogue group, The Guardian Angels. Sam Whitford is here live at Salamanca University. Sam?"

The camera switches to a well dressed man with graying hair slicked back with too much hair gel. He adjusts his tie with his left hand, holding a microphone in his right, and then dramatically turns his head to face the camera. His voice is clear, but there is a darker tone in it tonight, as if he was attempting to convey a sense of forboding.

"Good evening Brenda. I'm standing here in front of the Occult Studies Building here at Salamanca University, where just hours ago the police and members of the Longbow paramilitary group had a standoff against twenty-five year old Danielle Veil. Danielle, perhaps better known as the former hero Ghostveil, was a senior in her final semester here at Salamanca. She was wanted for quetioning by the authorities for her connections to the rogue heroes known as The Guardian Angels. When police approached the suspect, she resisted arrest, and what ensued was a terrifying standoff.

Authorities say that she used "magical powers" to mentally harm the police who came to arrest her. She then fled out of the Occult Studies building, where a force of the Paragon Police Department and Longbow were waiting to take her in. A student managed to capture what happened next on camera. Channel 5 has this footage, and we are the first to bring it to you. Be advised that some of the footage we are about to show you..."

He gave a long, dramatic pause for effect, and then continued in an overly dark tone. "...may be disturbing."

The shot switches to low resolution, shaky camera footage, which comes in clear enough to show the events of the standoff. The camera focuses on stained glass window on the second floor of the Occult Studies Building. The window shatters as a Paragon Police Department officer is thrown from the building, landing in the grass below. Inky blackness spills from the window as a black winged woman emerges, floating down slowly and ominously. Her eyes are covered by a strip of cloth wrapped in chains, as are her arms, chest, and neck. Her face is shielded from view by a black lace veil. Underneath the chains she wears an almost random mixture of black lace, leather and metal. Her skin is pale, ghostly white, matched by the ghostly aura emanating from her hands.

The assembled police officers and Longbow members raise their weapons to the descending woman. The police sergeant speaks in a slightly muffled, electronically amplified voice through his megaphone. The sergeant's nervousness is more than evident in his voice.

"Ms. Veil, land on the ground and please come quietly, or else we will take you in by force." A few of the officer's hands are visibly shaking, obviously terrified of the angelic vision descending from above. The Longbow officers remain mostly unshaken.

The angelic figure surveys the crowd. Her voice is a ghostly echo, as if it were not completely there. She speaks a word that is both simple and terrifying at once. "No."

She raises her hand, and the camera is enveloped in darkness. Shouts of confusion erupt from the gathered law enforcement. Moments later the sounds of gunfire rattle randomly, police pistols and Longbow assault rifles both. From the din of gunshots erupts a horrifying, unearthly wail, joined by shrieks and roars of numerous monsters unseen. The gunfire stops abruptly, and is replaced by terrified screams.

The noise continues unabated for several seconds, joined by the heavy breathing of the student cameraman, who seems to remain unharmed by whatever is assaulting the police and Longbow. Just as suddenly as it began, the darkness dissipates, along with the monstrous sounds, revealing a scene of law enforcement officials lying on the ground, physically unharmed, but many of whom, police and Longbow alike, are left sobbing pathetically. Of Danielle Veil, there is no sign.

The camera switches back to Sam Whitford, who adjust his collar nervously. "As you can see, the suspect escaped the scene. Although none of the officers sustained physical injuries, many are being treated at the Paragon Psychiatric Center. Additionally, two students were accidentally wounded by gunfire from the police and Longbow, although neither are in critical condition. Authorities are still on the lookout for Ms. Veil, and are searching for any information which could lead to her capture." The camera switches to an unflattering photo of Danielle Veil taken at least several years ago. "If you see Danielle Veil, notify the authorities immediately. Be advised that Danielle is extremely dangerous, do not approach her under any circumstances. Back to you in the studio, Brenda."

The TV clicks off abruptly. The police sergeant sits at his desk, holding his head in his hands, gazing down at two photos on his desk. On the left, a picture of a woman with pale skin and ghostly white hair in a torn and ragged dress, covered in chains and wearing a black blindfold. On the right, a picture of the angelic figure from the news report. "Are we even sure these are the same person?" The Longbow Captain nods once.

"We're positive. Notice the chains on both, they match. And what physical details we can see indicate that both of these are pictures of Danielle Veil, or 'Ghostveil'."

The sergeant shakes his head, his hands trembling. "She was like the god-damned Angel of Death out there. I've never seen anything so terrifying in my entire life." He looks up to the Longbow Captain.

"So now you know how dangerous these Guardian Angel people are."

[caios]

Caios wasn't much of a food shopper. Not normal food anyway. Normally food shopping for her is more a questions of 'who' rather then 'what'. So trying to decide between apples and oranges, literally in this case, was just not something she was accustomed to.

In the end she decided to grab a bunch of the kiwi fruits, mostly because she liked the name. She also made sure to grab a ton of protein bars, some bread, even a block of cheese, plus some soda to wash it all down with. That would all have to do, she decided.

Shopping for the extra clothes had been much easier. She simply went into a thrift store and picked out whatever random assortment of clothing she laid eyes on. It wasn't perfect but it didn't need to be.

It had occurred to her that as a fugitive going around shopping like this was not the most sensible thing. But it just didn't matter to her. If she ran around like a headless chicken everytime someone accused her of something awful she'd never get anything done. She wasn't running, she had made that clear, she wasn't about to start acting like a criminal. She just wasn't going to turn herself in either.

Of course this wasn't without it's drawbacks.

"FREEZE YOU TERRORIST!" came gruff voice next to her. It was quickly followed by the sound of a cocking gun.

Caios turned her head slowly to look at, not a police officer, or a Longbow operative, but a normal person with a big gun pointed right at her. He had a weathered look and a gruff accent, it was obvious he had experience shooting that gun before.

"Go away," Caios simply shrugged, "you're bothering me."

"Not when there's bound to be a big reward for your capture." the man smiled, "You're big news out there, and that spells big ass bounty." So he was a bounty hunter. Made sense, Caios thought, though it added yet another wrinkle to the situation, but fortunately past experience had taught Caios that most bounty hunters are more a nuisance then an actual threat.

The bounty hunter thrust his pistol in Caios's direction as he added, "Now you're coming with me."

"Out of curiosity, what in the hell makes you think I'm going to do that?" Caios was looking at the other man like he was an idiot, which was pretty much true in this case.

"This gun here makes me think that you'll do whatever I say." The bounty hunter replied, Caios just rolled her eyes as she realized he was being serious, "Now get moving or I will shoot you."

"Seriously? A gun? That's it?" Caios said, "Why do people think that just having a gun makes you invincible? For fuck's sake it's just a gun." As if to prove her point Caios reached out and snatched the gun from the man's hand so quickly the bounty hunter didn't even notice her moving until she held up his own gun in front of him. "And I'm not the sort of person you can fuck with. Do yourself a favor and get out of my fucking sight."

"y- yes ma'am, what ever you say ma'am." the bounty hunter, now deflated and terrified, stammered out with his hands raised in the air suddenly.

"Stop calling me ma'am." Caios told him, "And put your hands down you look like an idiot."

"Yes ma- ... I mean yes, sure, I'll do that." the bounty hunter managed to put his hands back down as he stepped backwards. Caios merely shoo'd him away before he turned around and began running for his life.

Caios let loose a heavy and useless sigh as she turned back at the man behind the cash register, "So what do I owe you?"

"That'll be $28." He said casually.

"You know you're pretty calm about this whole thing." Caios mentioned as she handed over the two 20's.

"This is Paragon." the man simply shrugged, Caios had to admit he had a point. As he handed her his changed he added, "Plus I used to live in the Row, moved out only last year."

"Ah that explains it." Caios nodded as she took her change.

"You do realize I'm gonna have to call the cops to let them know you were here right?" The man added as Caios grabbed the grocery bags.

"Please do, don't want you getting in trouble on my account." Caios smiled at him, after a moment's thought she handed the change back to the cashier and added, "In fact when they get here give them a few doughnuts from the bakery, and tell them I said hello."

"Will do, you have a nice day." the man behind the register nodded back professionally as he took the change back.

Caios quickly made her way to Parez Park from there, taking several detours to make sure she wasn't being followed. She was about to cross into the hazard zone when she heard a beep from her cell phone. She pulled it out to read the messages, more replies, that's good, hopefully people would be meeting up in Parez soon. Then she came across something unexpected.

<< WILL GET TO HERA WHEN I CAN. MIGHT BE LATE, THINK I HAVE SOME THINGS TO DO FIRST. XENOLIZARD DEAD. LONGBOW SNIPERS. ELLEN AND SLEDGE IN CUSTODY. -J >>

Xenolizard was dead? By Longbow's hand no less.

A dark shadow seem to spread across Caios's features as she read the message. She put the phone away and began making her way into Parez Park. She landed not far from the cave, deciding to walk the rest of the way there.

It was then that a small group Circle of Thorn mages decided to get in her way.

"This one," The lead mage declared with a cruel smile and evil eyes glowing in green eldritch flames, "She has power within her, power we can use."

Caios looked up at the made for a moment, only a moment. Normally she'd enjoy playing with them, verbally berating them even as she beat them up, after all she's always hated mages, these one's in particular. But this time that didn't happen. Instead there was a sound of a sickening crunch and pop.

The other mages only saw their cabal leader's head exploding in a shower of blood and brain matter, a small gout of dark green flame erupted from his neck as the magical energies he once contained escaped from the vessel. Only after he collapsed to the ground did the other mages notice the blood on the fist of the woman standing in front of them, or the clear look of rage that filled her eyes.

Without another word the rest of the mages ran like mad. Caios ignored them, instead bending down to wipe the blood from her hand on the dead mage's robe. Once done she picked up her purchases and walked to the cave door. She left the body where it lay. It would serve as a warning to the other denizens of the park to stay away from the area.

She entered the cave that Stern had mentioned, closing the door behind her. As she moved deeper into the winding cave she called out to whoever was inside.

"Food and Clothes are here!" Caios yelled, "If you don't like what I brought that's too bad. We got bigger problems. This war just got its first casualty."