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Noelle stood up, "well Amber, if you wait here, I'll just go round up the recruits that are wandering around the place," she said as she headed towards the double doors and started to open them. She sighed lightly and glanced back at Amber, she reminded Noelle of herself when she first joined the agency, young and hoping to make a difference. She hoped that this mission would not be hers and the other recruits last.

A tear crept up unbidden as she stopped, thinking about when that Manangal almost killed her and Seth, that could have easily been our last mission, she thought to herself, not prepared for the tears. She framed her face with her hair and pushed the door open, hoping nobody saw her crying. She always made herself seem strong, her emotions completely unattached to the job. Her brain was what kept her going, not her heart. Although she wished her heart did.

Noelle hoped to god that Ri and Seth were alright, the two were important members of the team. Noelle was preying, something she never did before, but then again, she never actually felt anything before for her teammates, and since Seth joined the team, that had changed. She blinked and wiped her face, making sure nobody actually noticed and walked out of the room, looking for the other people who were meant to be joining the group. God, make sure that my friends make it back alright, she preyed mentally, searching the place for the other recruits.

__________________
"Terrorist jellyfish attack nuclear reactor. Officials calling it the act of a bunch of spineless cowards."

"Swiss police follow blood trail for 12 miles, are shocked to find it leads to a butcher shop."

5:15pm
The Church

“I take it you fired the rifle.” Lucien was now leaning against a wall, the jammer well and truly destroyed, and was examining the doorway into the next room. It was only the distinctive sound of the weapon being fired, and then the sound of approaching footsteps, that had made him look up from trying to get the door open. He wasn’t surprised that the group had all met up- typical, too, just as communications went back on-line now that their signals were active.

The agents had begun to greet each other properly and so the Captain turned back to the doorway, cocking his head to one side as he ran a hand down the smooth wall- the door itself was all but invisible, perfectly camouflaged against the stonework. “There’s always a way of doing this that’s a lot easier than it looks.” He muttered softly to himself, aware that the others had finished their brief welcome to each other and were watching him now. His hand continued to slide across the stones.

“Electronic doors. Do you know how much I hate technology?” His question wasn’t directed at anyone and, in fact, he went on to answer it himself. “It’s pointless. Everything electronic has to have a manual back-up… imagine the power was shut off to this place one day- you wouldn’t be able to get through this door.” Then suddenly his hand found what it had been looking for, a tiny mark in a piece of the stone just to the top right of the door. “In doors like this, the electronic lock often works as a hinge to the manual bolt.” He grinned, reaching to the inside of his lower leg for his knife which, unsheathed, the Captain slid down the crack of the frame. “So…” He grinned and stepped back as the door swung forwards suddenly, barely missing his chest. “… you can get in.”

“Don’t tell your techno geeks that I just did that.” Flashing a quick grin at the others again, Lucien drew his weapon once more and crossed through the newly opened doorway. The room inside, if he was any judge, was the last bit of space on the church grounds- Ri had to be in here.

5:14

Ri gave up on the code. All she'd been able to do was extend the time only by a few minutes.

"Shit."

Juliette frowned at her. Ri apologized. It was when she heard her teammates that she remembered the doors. Scrambling back onto the other pc, she finished her code that unlocked the doors. All that was left to do was to open them. It was too bad she was too drained to even do that. She just hoped they could find the stupid doors itself though.

When she saw them through the cameras, Ri sighed. Finally. She was starting to get dizzy and the fluorescent lights lighting up the white room made her eyes ache. She'd had enough of the place. When the final door opened, Ri was seen by her teammates smiling a little crazily. But then again being locked up in a room by a vampire was reason enough to lose a little composure.

"If you guys would just move a little closer and help us up, we'd appreciate it...Now." Ri immediately pointed at the right most monitor. The countdown was already at four minutes and counting.

+++
5:15

Raven was holding in his hissing when he saw the agents enter the hallway to the computer room. He'd remained clinging to the ceiling when he heard Jaques' cry. His companion was dead. For real. And the silver that blasted woman had sprayed on him still stung.

For now, he'd decided to let the agents do all the work. As soon as they got Ri out, he'd just take her and run. He needed to find Damian as well.

+++
5:17

Damian was frowning at his pocket watch. The building should have burned by now. Why was is delayed?

Sighing at the unreliability of his computer Damian pondered on what might have happened. It was impossible to counter all his work with just a few minutes. Even three hours would have been too short. He concluded then that Ri had figured out how to extend the time at least. Damian smiled, she really was such a smart girl.

Relaxing now, Damian watched the cops still circling the church. Stupid humans didn't even think to check elsewhere. Aah well...It works in our favor. Right, agents?

Jaques' death earlier had made him sad but he was more interested in what Raven was doing. Was the child dead too inside that dark place?

__________________

5:17
The Church

Kundiman's head still reeled a little with everything that's happened so far. The vampire was wrestling and then writhing on the floor one minute the next thing she knew, Izumi had arrived and the door to where Ri was swung open.

She shrugged. She liked things this way. Things happened to her advantage without her really lifting a finger. She helped Seth up and walked towards the room with Captain Lucy leading the way and Izumi the bloodthirsty covering the rear.

She smiled. That sounded somewhat funnily epic. She rushed to where Ri was, almost unconscious on the floor. "You're alive! How dare you get kidnapped-"

"We've to go. Now. Church blows up in four minutes." Ri said weakly, looking over at another woman beside her. "That's my mom."

"Honey you should mention important warnings like that earlier. Hi mom." Kundiman said as she stood and took stock of her agents. "Captain, you carry mom. Seth and I will help Ri. Izumi please lead the way out. If the vampire comes you're the most capable of dealing with it." she smiled and looked over at captain Lucy. "After you of course. Let's move it." She bent down to Ri, helping her up.

They began moving at a slow but steady pace. The wails of the siren was almost defeaning. She wondered if the police were really after them considering the neighborhood was more than a little hostile. Maybe the police were after something else. If they weren't, she wondered what story she could make again.

She looked down at herself. She looked beautiful like she always did but perhaps the police men needed more skin to be more nice to her? She was considering the merits of retaining the blouse when her phone began ringing.
As a force of habit she grabbed it and flipped it open without thinking. "Hello. Val Singan-"

"Why the hell aren't you answering your phone?" Came the angry voice of Nick. He seemed to be driving and he sounded extremely agitated.

"Oh Nick, you know how I love making you wait." she said sarcastically. "We found Ri and Seth. They're doing fairly well but bomb's gonna explode in three or two minutes. We're trying to escape but the police are around. I need you to drive here and get us out immediately. Maybe come in in a fire truck or an ambulance."

"Where the hell am I supposed to get-"

"I don't know but I know you're really capable. Go Nick, you can do it. There are medic costumes I'm sure with Noelle. Bye! Get here fast." she hung up, finally clearing the underground level.

__________________

...some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them...

5:17:00pm
The Church


The elder of the two women half-across his shoulder, the Captain followed his fellow agents up into the main body of the Church. A sound stopped his progression suddenly and, lowering Ri’s mother gently onto the floor, he looked up at the still locked doorway behind which a low banging noise was echoing. The others were instantly alert, just in case the vampire had returned, possibly with reinforcements, but Lucien was Sensible, the kind with a capital S. It was a major character flaw on his part; it did not make you popular, or liked, or emotional, or that good to be in a relationship with and it certainly didn’t make you (the most unfair part in his own mind) right all the time, but the one thing it did do was make him definite, certain even about everything, and that was almost the same as being right.

He frowned, examining the doorway for a moment before his hand folded into probably the only pocket of his coat that he hadn’t yet delved into, and withdrew a series of small cloth patches, approximately the same colour as is associated with the sky in a child’s painting. “Someone else take her.” He pointed down at Ri’s mother, moving through the agents and slapping one of the patches on each of their shoulders.

“Armed police don’t take long to decide who to shoot and who not to…” He paused, scanning the group to check each of them had a clear display of the patch on each shoulder or upper arm. At the same time, the Captain reached back into the pocket and pulled out a black baseball cap ‘UN:SO’ was printed in silver block capitals above the peak. “… but they should at least notice these. We go through that door and just keep walking, don’t even stop for them- especially if they ask. We get out and get at least two streets away as quickly as possible.”

Finally, perhaps even as an after-thought, Lucien continued in his family curse of keeping his head in a crisis and flicked the leather cover of his belt-badge open. It clearly showed his shield, rank, name and several other pieces of information- if anyone could stop him in time to read it. That done, the Captain stepped to the door and pushed hard, it would open a lot easier from this side, and stepped through. He had done everything in less than thirty seconds.

5:18:15pm
Church Courtyard

“Bomb in the Church- we got about a minute to get as far away as possible. Someone take those two. NOW.” In his element as he stepped into the low light, Lucien had already started barking orders as flashes of recognition of his cap and the blue insignia spread over the police comms. For his own part, he was stood between the church doors and the rest of the team, pointlessly protective, but ensuring they were all through the doors before he moved away himself. Around him, the standard officers were ducking behind any cover they could fine- everything seemed to be moving ins low motion as it always did at times like this. From his crouching stance some 300yards away, Hawker looked at his watch

5:19:30

“Just over a minute everyone.” His voice was low into the mic of his ear-piece. "Brace yourselves."

5:20

Damian heard the blast behind him. Smiling at the smell of fire, he headed down the road. The cafe was only a couple minutes away if he used his vampire speed, but the moment seemed to call for leisure and so, walking at a human pace, Damian thought of what Gabriel's reaction would be. His family was gone now.

Distracted by his thoughts and pleasure in knowing the despair he'd set on Gabriel, Damian didn't notice the two men seated outside the cafe as he took a seat on the opposite end of the outdoor tables.

+++
Ri was having a hard time hearing things. The bang from earlier made her world strangely silent and that did not bode well for her hearing. The dizziness from earlier had already made her stupidly not block her ears and now the loss of hearing was making her head hurt.

At least, Juliette didn't seem to be affected. Seth was doing whatever, checking her pulse and stuff. She was only sleeping. How she slept through that noise, Ri would never know.

Turning away from her would-have-been grave, Ri saw from the corner of her eye a flash of movement.

+++
Raven was confused and angry. Why did things happen this way? was all he kept thinking. Where the hell is Damian?

The blast from earlier had hurt his ears and his skin. Clutching at his bleeding arm, Raven headed for the only place he knew Damian just might be -the Cafe. Every time, Damian felt satisfied or bored, he always went there. And since he wasn't anywhere on the church grounds...since he was the one that most likely planned the explosion and must have been satisfied by it, Damian was surely there.

Raven wanted an explanation. He didn't like things were happening so quickly.

__________________

Nicky crashed into the doors and started gathering the people from the office. There was a mixture of old and new faces around him. He didn't particularly like the fact that there were too many changes too often considering that he preferred to run his own branch tightly. The bonds of friendship and trust were often built up rather slowly but a strong bond was worth its time in investment.

He gathered all the new faces with some obviously surprised figures and discerned at least a couple of new faces among the small crowd. He gave a questioning to Mark and Noelle and eyed the new people.

"New recruits" was all Mark had to say. Noelle merely nodded in agreement.

"Listen, we can all talk later but I need everyone to get into the ambulance just outside so we can pick up Kundiman, Seth, and Ri. Quickly people we don't have a lot of time and we don't want drawing people's attention more than possible."

The new faces looked harried as he and Noelle ordered quick changes and preparation for the infirmary as well as tools that the team would have needed to assist Kundiman's group. He took Noelle aside and spoke to her softly.

"Listen I know you're worried about Seth. I can see it with the way you interact with him. I don't know about Izumi, but I still possess regenerative abilities from the mermaid incident. If push comes to shove you only need to extract some of my blood."

Noelle looked away passively to the street ahead. "Do you think they're alright?"

Nicky nodded and squeezed her arm gently, "I'm sure they are, but we have to hurry."

In a few minutes everyone was assembled and ready to go.

"I'll take the ambulance, take the company van Mark. When we get there we have to minimize residue and traces of the agency. Everyone let's go."

They were off ...

Noelle sat beside Nicky, looking out of the window, her conversation with Nicky still replaying in her head. He knew how I felt about Seth, she thought as she double checked the medical supplies, making sure they had them just in case they needed them.

She wanted to say something, break the tension in the ambulance, but she didn't know what to say. She twiddled her fingers together and sighed audibly, watching the buildings pass. Everyone else would be oblivious to the goings on, and well, sometimes she wished that she could live a normal life, have kids and so on.

But that was out of the question, being the team's pathologist cross doctor along with Seth. Since she had met him, she had crushed on him, but she tried to dismiss it. Until the manangal incident, when she almost lost him. She didn't know what to do if she ever did, that man was one of the few reasons she was still alive, and she owed him a lot.

__________________
"Terrorist jellyfish attack nuclear reactor. Officials calling it the act of a bunch of spineless cowards."

"Swiss police follow blood trail for 12 miles, are shocked to find it leads to a butcher shop."

5:23

They were enveloped into the police's arms as soon as they cleared the doorway. They all run like hell away from the building until it had finally exploded.

Her ears were still ringing but she was happy to have come out unscathed and still beautiful. She thanked all the policemen profusely and acted like the damsel in distress that she was. Seth and other people who knew first aid was concentrating on the injured people. She took note that Lucien was already smoothing things over with them.

She frowned at him. She almost batted Lucien's hands away if he weren't so damned persistent earlier. He stuck the make shift patch on her arm. As if the police people are gonna believe it on her. As far as things go, she'd just pretend to be a freakin victim and not the rescuer. She played the victim great anyway. As she was doing now.

They had ran out of the room with her assisting Ri and Seth. Seth was struggling with his own injuries when the captain handed him Ri's mother. Smart mve captain. She sghd but let it slide because she understood that they all needed him somehow to get all those police people to not arrest them.

She frowned. She did all those thins well before too. She'd just have to be grateful someone else was doing it for her. What wre the police doing here anyway? They were usually the people that came after al the action, not during. And this neighborhood was bad because the police doesn't come here often enough and suddenly they were around. Swarming like, well, bees. And people from this neighborhood didn't call the police. From her experience they never wanted to be involved. Who on Earth called them now? She swung a look at the captain, entertaining the idea that perhaps it was him who alerted the police. It doesn't matter. Either way they were getting out of this.

Paramedics were on their way apparently. She frowned at the coming sound. That better be from the agency's.

__________________

...some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them...

Noelle looked at Nicky as they pulled up outside the church, jumping out from the ambulance and carrying a medical bag over her shoulder, briefly flashing a card to the police officers and walking over to Kundiman.

"Oh Jesus, are you guys alright?" she asked worriedly, searching around for signs of Ri and Seth, "we came as soon as we could, is everyone alive?"

She looked worried as she ordered the new recruits to check that everyone was accounted for and she patched them up as best as she could, given the resources she had. She went into her bag, "damn, I'm missing the micropore, Nicky! Do you have any?" she called over to him as she searched through her bag to make sure she hadn't missed it.

__________________
"Terrorist jellyfish attack nuclear reactor. Officials calling it the act of a bunch of spineless cowards."

"Swiss police follow blood trail for 12 miles, are shocked to find it leads to a butcher shop."