Tag: @Cuccoruler@TheDarkTemplar@ArkmageddonCat@smarty0114@Liocalset@Airalin

Jack took out a pistol and quickly examined it then loaded it and then hid it underneath his long t-shirt before he made his way up the stairs to where Cole, Jessica, Eva, and Car-Tali were discussing their next course of action. He had a composed expression as he approached the group and listened in on the conversation for a few minutes before finally replying, " well that's all fine and dandy but tracking the wardens search route patterns aren't going to be easy. Now Cole, I'm sure Ace has told you about how I am not too fond of the DMA."

Suddenly, Jack quickly wrapped his left arm around Cole and placed him into a chokehold and pointed the previously hidden pistol at Cole's head. His expression was now cold, stern, and showed killing intent, he had made it clear that he was not messing around as he had a tight grip on Cole's neck so he couldn't break free of Jack.

Jack cocked the as he continued, "So why have you brought Wardens into my house? And I better get a good and honest answer or I'll blow your brains out all over the floor." He glanced around at the rest of the group that was present, giving a silent warning to stay where they were. Ace had told Jack about the former Wardens a few weeks after arriving with the group and he had been meaning to ask Cole this for a while now and now was a good time as any to do so.

Cole wasn't as afraid as he was angry, still he'd rather not end up with a bullet in his head so as he stood there with Jack's arm around his neck Cole answered calmly, "Car-tali is wanted by the DMA, plus he helped us get Jessica back so that should be reason enough to trust him", Cole struggled for a moment to see if Jack had any intention of letting him go at the moment. The fact that he was still in a headlock afterwards proved that was not the case. "The same thing with John, in fact he's partially responsible for stopping a Warden from coming after us", Cole's veins began to turn black but he made sure not to drain Jack unless he was absolutely certain he had to. "So if you're satisfied, mind getting the FUCK OFF OF ME!", with having to plan the liberation of the city, the assassination of Mallory, and Ace's health all on his mind Cole was getting frustrated. Things were getting hectic again and the last thing he needed right now was a gun up to his head.

---

The sound of gunfire echoed through the shooting range as Pariah practiced her marksmanship. First with single shots, each hitting their mark but only after a considerable amount of time was spent looking down sights. Next was three round burst which resulted in only two of the three rounds hitting the target and by a close margin. Lastly came full auto, at this point Pariah had become frustrated with herself, "Two out of three, not fucking good enough!". She selected the an M4X rifle and looked down its iron sight. Being left handed she had to use her cyber eye which she still was not accustomed too. "Just keep practicing, it'll come back to you eventually", that's what she had been told but at so far it looked as if she was a novic once more. She squeezed the trigger and the rifle unleashed a barrage of bullets most of which missing her mark. Pariah became enraged, slamming the rifle onto the table and firing a concentrated smoke shot at the target. The target was, to put it best, vaporized, as not a single piece of it remained. Once she had calmed down Pariah stared at her hands, her right hand with smoke enveloping it entirely and the left with nothing at all. When they amputated her left arm her ability to shoot smoke from her left arm was taken away as well. Tears began to well up in her eyes but she would not let them escape, Pariah slammed her fists onto the metal table and walked out of the shooting range.

Mallory awaited her outside, ever since Pariah was back on her feet Mallory began to personally oversee her recovery and training. "That was sloppy, what happened?", she asked with a disappointed look in her eye. Pariah, all too focused on her hands, simply replied, "I'm not what I used to be"

"But you will be that person again, in time your skills will come back to you. You simply need to get accustomed to your prosthetics", the moment Mallory said "prosthetics" Pariah became enraged. She clenched her fists so tight that the smoke forming in her hand barely managed to escape. Mallory took note of this before she spoke, "Once you are your old self again you can bring te ones who did this to you to justice". Pariah had to try hard to calm herself, the feelings she felt were so intense she didn't know how to convey them without destroying this entire facility. The ones who killed her, they took everything from her; whatever memories she once had, her skills and talents, her powers, and her body. Pariah truly died that day in the blacksite. This Pariah, this being that stood here now, was a entirely different person. She was basically reborn and now she had no purpose other than to find the ones who did this to her.

"Pariah? Pariah!", Mallory called out as she tried to bring her Warden back from deep thought. Pariah twitched as she realized how long she'd been standing there thinking of all this. "What were you saying?", she asked semi-embarrassed.

"Hmph, I was saying that we should move onto hand-to-hand combat. With your left arm being incapable of using your power you should focus more on combat incase you're disarmed in the field"

"Yeah, let's do that. Hopefully later I can analyze the Intel from the blacksite. I'm hoping it could help me for when I go after the insurgents"

"You are not going after them alone, I cannot risk losing you again. Which is why you will go with your assigned partner when is time. But that's a topic for another time, you still have not perfected your training and we have a few more hours before your allotted break"

Car-tali went to Cole to tell them about the info. "Hey Cole could you get everyone we need to make a plan into the meeting room norre found something and I think I know how to get there." once everyone was there Car-tali told them what Noore told him." Norre said that Mallory is in the Dma HQ I don't know how long she will be there so we have to come up with something fast. As soon as he finished Jack came in and put Cole in a hold.

(Ignore comment)

Jack noticed the veins on Cole's neck start to turn blackish and he decided to release him. "Alright... Alright... No need to get your panties in a knot. Look the gun is loaded with blanks." Jack pointed the gun at the floor and fired. The area he had aimed at revealed no bullet hole, only a small, empty cartridge. "See? Now put that power of yours away before you hurt someone." Jack replied, his voice was deep and coarse. Nobody could resist his gift not even Cole; he could make anyone do anything with just a single word or command and one couldn't help but obey.

Cole sighed before letting his veins return to their normal color, "Dont worry about the Warden, we won't be staying long anyway. The plan right now is to get the remaining gifted out of the city, once we do that those willing will come back with us for when we face the Wardens. Once we take back the city we move on Mallory, we'll need the help of both the survivors and the MRF for this as I'm sure that she'll be heavily guarded". Cole may have been looking at Jack but he was addressing the present group. This wasn't going to be like last time, the blacksite was a single area, they'd soon be fighting a battle across the entire island. The risk was much higher and it was possible some of them wouldn't make it out alive.

Jack listened in on Cole's plan to taking back Manhattan before replying, " I know of some old, under ground tunnels that run in and out of the city. The DMA don't know about them as far as I know so they should give you some cover. As for Mallory you should just give up on trying to take her down. The Wardens that protect her are way out of your league. I only met them once but remember that one of the Wardens with her had the eyes of the devil, that could make you see the thing you feared the most. Trust me when I say this Cole; you have no chance against Mallory and you're best off just saving what Gifted you can and leaving the island for good."

"We can't just leave her alive, she'll simply send the other Wardens after us. It won't matter how many we kill she'll just create more and send them our way. Each time we fight back the DMA will spin a story to make us out to be monsters. Whether we kill her or let her live doesn't matter, either way the humans will always hate us"

"I know that.... I know that better than anyone else here! But you guys aren't the first to think that they may have a chance against Mallory. Want to know what happened to them? Dead. Every last one of them are dead and in the ground. Now yes you guys are strong but you are heavily out numbered and out gunned. And if by some sort of extreme luck or divine intervention, that you some how manage to kill Mallory; you sure as hell won't make it out alive. You'll most likely die where you stand. Then afterwards you'll be called and remembered as hysterics and terrorists, Mallory will be mourned by the humans, then the DMA will find a replacement for Mallory, and then the cycle of the creation of Wardens and the murder of Gifted will continue. Your efforts and your lives would be lost and no progress would be made".

" Umm If the EX-warden could impose here, we're already practically branded as terrorists and we are making a plan now to make sure that we get out alive. I can't speak for everyone here but getting to Mallory is not going to be where I stop. As Cole said the first step is to take Manhattan and then prevent the from creating wardens, and make some breathing room. And killing Mallory may not be necessary, I might have a way to get rid of Mallory without harming her?"

There was a lot to think about, while Jack was right about Mallory being too high-risk of a target to go alone, Cole couldn't just leave her where she was."As much as I hate to admit it, taking back Manhattan migh not be the best choice. It'd be safer to just get the survivi out of there and wait for things to cool down. Once we do that then we should go to the MRF, they'll give us cover when we attack her location. Car-tali, you said you have a way to take out Mallory. How?"

"Well if we try to expose her, like you said the dma could spin it any way they want. However if we get her terminated then we don't get blamed. If we get to the central server I can relay the information that Mallory has to someone so they can broadcast it. Either Mallory is condemned by her superiors or by the general public or both doesn't matter."

"And I'm going to assume that the person to get this info out into the open is that DMA girl you shoved into the cellar, correct? What makes you think she'll help a bunch of Gifted terrorists and a few EX-DMA agents exploit Mallory for the monster she really is?" Jack was still unsure of the group, the feeling of the group under estimating the DMA still lingered in his mind as he heard Car-Tali explain his idea to Cole.

"She'll have to help us, the last thing she wants to do is anger a group of 'metahuman terrorists'. Either way I'm not leaving the decision to me alone, everyone's lives are on the line here. We put it to a vote, those for killing her and those in favor of exposing her"

Cia listened carefully to their plans from the side. She got out of her embrace with John. "Ummm, I vote for exposing her, and I think it may be better to give this information to someone other than our hostage. Have you considered Cinia Pacifica? She trusts the Gifted and even vouches for them, and so far none of the facts she has spoken of have been wrong." Cia added as she motioned to the TV. "I've actually met her before, she used to help out a lot at the orphanage and get stories from the children there Cinia trusts us." Cia added.

The fact that Cia had met Cinia was indeed true, Cia had met many people who she helped out at the orphanage and Cinia was one of the most helpful and caring of all the people who helped her. Cia was showing alot more emotion now, and this was the most she had spoken to the group in weeks, it was easy to see that Cia was feeling better now. Cia also looked towards John every now and then hoping that he would back her up in this. Cia didn't exactly want to go out into the field again and risk getting carried away and mutilating someone else. However she had no problem with playing politics.

John listened to Cia as she spoke, quickly looking away from her any time she looked at him...though he had no idea why. In the end, he found himself agreeing with her idea, though he felt it was a bit...small. "I also vote to expose Mallory," John started, then glanced at Cia before continuing. "But, I don't think giving this information to just one person is gonna cut it...not unless Cinia can override other channels. We should dump the files anywhere we can; News stations, internet blogs, social networking sites, the local Newspaper...whatever..." He continued, then looked at Cia. "...Wait...can Cinia hijack other channels?"

In truth, John wasn't sure about what effect exposing Mallory would have on the population...after all, Callahan had the populace brainwashed pretty deep. They'd need to find some pretty dark shit in those files for this to have a good chance of working...and, actually, files on the Warden Program might do the trick. If that didn't work, then maybe a count of the non-Gifted kills made by agents might add some effect...because that number would be surprisingly high, what with protective parents and...'accidents'. The DMA could practically cover up any death as the death of a Gifted and get away with it, although the public would most likely care less if the deaths were mostly Gifted supporters. This whole plan seemed to be quite the tricky ordeal...or maybe John was just overthinking it all?