Anna Aikau, Meifeng Zhao, Cindy Keagan. Maxine Diaz, Alice Barrett, Quentin Taylor & Shizuka Takashiro.
Greencrest Heights, White Coast.The moon was out now and only a few shadowy wisps dotted the sky with dark silhouettes. The cool evening air felt good against Anna's skin. It was a nice night for a jog. Wearing a hooded utility jacket over her gray top and cut-off denim shorts, she trotted down the boardwalk at a brisk pace. Upbeat, Celtic fusion music thrummed in her ears as she tried to relax and forget about being relegated to
records clerk.
Her boring, uneventful days felt too long, and they ended with an abundance of pent up energy. Sometimes Anna felt she would explode, if she didn't move around.
Following wherever her feet took her, she jogged through much of the boardwalks. She wandered far, letting fatigue replace her frustration. Before she realized it, she was already well into Greencrest Heights. Her pace slowed as she pulled out her phone--she was ready to call an Uber chauffeur--but impassioned shouting coming from a nearby concert venue. While live music played from different places on the block, a crowd of people had gathered around a single man shouting from atop the concert stage. The dull roar of distant concerts seemed to overshadow this venue, and she would've ignored it were it not for the cheering and fist pumps. It could've been amateur comedy night for all she knew, but her instincts told her otherwise.
"They brand us like criminals. For what? For being born better?" The speaker spat at the ground to emphasize his disgust. "Das bos!" His accent Anna couldn't quite place, but it sounded South African.
"Metas have no true freedom. What is freedom when scaly chaiwalas steal your DNA, collar you, track you,
watch you like some animal? You are criminal in their eyes. Filthy
skollies! To them, we are monsters. But we will show them!"
The speaker raised his hands and from them jumped bright electrical arcs, cutting through the air. Loud cheering rolled through the crowd. Anna knew a pro-Meta rally when she saw one, so she drew closer to the edge, fearing the situation may spiral out of control.
"We will show them that us Meta will take it no longer! We must protect our brothers and sisters! If we do not stand up for ourselves, no one will!"
Another round of aggressive cheers filled the air. There was a subtle tension in the crowd as their numbers grew. A small voice in the back of Anna's mind agreed with him. The mandatory registration of metahumans was a fundamental stripping of constitutional freedoms. The government made promises of increased safety, but It cost many people their civil liberties, and was a surefire way to alienate metahumans as a whole. The country was already sliding down the slippery slope of "National Security". Sometimes Orwell's bleak outlook seemed more optimistic than reality.
Much of those thoughts quickly faded back into their quiet recesses as Anna's senses went on high alert. There was a fine line between a redress of grievances and inciting violence. The longer she stood there the more this "peaceful assembly" started to look like a group of would-be rioters.
"The Allegiance fights for you! They fight for your sons and daughters, so they won't be forced to wear collars! So they won't be treated as
dogs! Komang! Kowmang! It is the responsibility of the people to overthrow an oppressive government...
this Government!" The speaker pointed in the direction of RAVEN headquarters. "Do you want to bow down to corrupt officials who despise you?"
"NO!" The crowd immediately erupted in a unified chorus.
"Do you want to be treated as second-class citizens!"
"NO!" the crowd erupted again.
"Then stand up, and join the Allegiance!"
Wait. The Allegiance?
Shit! Anna had to defuse this situation quickly, if she didn't want a full-blown riot on her hands. She had stood idle for too long; the concert floor held well over fifty people now. She flipped through her phone and typed out a quick message.
>_ To: metaalerts@cc.jointops.net; alerts@ems.dove.com[/code]
[Metahuman protest in progress.
Greencrest Heights, Concert Plaza 4.
Need immediate backup.
The Allegiance is here.]
Meanwhile, in the hall of justice...Max was bored. Of course, this happened very often when landed with a normal desk job and all its paperwork. At least she'd gotten some amount of sleep the night before. She guessed she should be thankful that everything was peaceful even if there was a lot for everyone to deal with in the aftermath of the escaped troublemaker.
She was almost done and just about ready to take a break when her small amount of concentration was broken by a notification.
"Eh?" So much for things being peaceful. Right after the issues the night before? A fucking protest? Well, there wasn't exactly time to think about that. Max stood abruptly, grabbing anything she thought she might need off of her desk. If she'd known something like this was going to happen today, she would have switched into telekinesis. Actually, scrap that, she was pretty shit at it. Regeneration was useful enough as-is.
"Good grief." Meifeng said as she facepalmed. The Allegiance. Those fools. She personally wanted to find the leaders of that organization and shove her boot so far up their ass that they're going to have toes for teeth. She kicked her foot against the table, and managed to push herself back. Her first day back on duty, and she's going to be kicking Allegiance ass. She started to haul ass towards the locker room.
Alice was the first RAVEN agent in the locker room who hadn't already happened to be in there. Not having to cross the intervening space had given her something of a head start on everyone else, and she strapped the armour on with practised ease. She didn't bother with the helmet, she never had. It restricted her peripheral vision too much. She had recognised the callsign in the email address, White Sun, she didn't know why Anna Aikau was in Baybridge, but she had a lot of respect for the woman generally regarded as the pride of RAVEN NYC.
Not wasting any time (well as little as possible) she headed down to the locker rooms. Time to change into the oh so comfortable RAVEN issue armour and prevent some sort of riot from happening.
Alice nodded at Max, before clipping the comms system against her ear and vanishing from the room with a faint pop, reappearing at an upper floor window of the HQ. She could see Greencrest across the river, it wasn't far, but might be pushing her limits if she jumped the whole way in one shot. She shouldn't really go alone, but she didn't feel comfortable leaving Aikau alone out there before the rest of the RAVEN agents arrived.
The viewing deck was empty once more, only the faint influx of air betraying the fact that someone had stood there mere seconds before.
It didn't take Max long to get ready, since she assumed there was a rush and changed as quickly as she could. Though, in the end, it just left her waiting for the others who were also being sent out as backup--the orders had been clear about not heading out alone.
"Hey," Shizuka called out to the brownie from behind her. "Seems like we're the faster ones." Unlike Max, he had forgone the armor for a simple stealth suit (the black RAVEN insignia on the left side of his chest pretty much blended into his equally dark suit, which wasn't easy to make out without closer inspection). Instead of the trusty CheyTec he would normally use he went for the lighter AR-30 this time, stowed in a long package in a black bag on his back. Well, he was going to be a mere lookout for the team, not a hitman.
Max turned to look over her shoulder, nodding slightly to Shizuka. "Hey. Yeah, seems like everyone else is taking their sweet time. And there I was thinking I had to rush." She shrugged slightly. "I'm assuming you're all geared up for shooting some he- I mean, recon?"
"This time I'll just be watching your backs; hopefully I don't need to blow anyone's head off," Shizuka replied, his voice somewhat grim. "I came back here to demand for a long break from work,
not getting more unnecessary paperwork."
"Good to know someone trustworthy has our backs... Hopefully it won't come down to a fight, though," Max shrugged. Crowd control would hopefully be the extent of their job. Though in the past Max would've liked a good fight, not so much anymore when she wasn't annoyed. "Seems you've come back at exactly the wrong time to get a break. A lot of shit's gone down since last night. I hope this'll be the last of it." Then it would be back to paperwork, but at least there'd be less of it.
Shizuka raised an eyebrow when Max thought of him as someone 'trustworthy', especially when they barely knew each other and only met two days ago. After seven long years working with RAVEN, he still couldn't quite understand this whole 'cop trust' thing.
He could only sigh at her comment about bad timing - it wasn't just that, but he knew that there were some
issues that would require his presence to get them done and over with...
Around this time, Meifeng came out of the locker room wearing her standard issue, RAVEN armor. She's worn it so much that it was like a second layer of skin to her. She came out to see Shizuka and Maxine talking; she had no idea who the latter was, but she can certainly change that. "Hey, looks like we're going to be on the same mission." Meifeng said to Maxine. "Haven't quite caught your name... I'm
Meifeng." She greeted.
"Max," Max responded with a slight shrug. "Nice to meet you."
Shizuka looked up when Meifeng came up to them. "Hi Mei," was all he said to her. He didn't know what Cindy had talked to her about... and he didn't have anything worth saying to her, anyway.
"Yo, Shizu!" Meifeng greeted Shizuka with a smile. "I see that you're enjoying this sniper job of yours."
"Yeah, I guess you can say that - it's what I've always wanted to do after all," Shizuka returned the greeting, leaning his back against the wall; he had held his tongue about how it was similar to Cindy's passion for flying. He was pretty sure that everyone who was at the meeting yesterday could already feel the tension sparking off between those two girls.
He couldn't say the same to Meifeng, that she was also enjoying her field of work... because truthfully speaking, that would be rubbing salt into the wound. Otherwise, she wouldn't need to go on a long
disappearance after the Beast incident. He thought of making a passing comment about her feat in Prague but closed his mouth again, and simply shook his head without another word.
At that moment, Quentin rounded the corner donning RAVEN's standard uniform, complete with body armour, sans the helmet - which he was holding underarm. With the other, he jabbed out a hand for
Phantom to shake, "Shizu, it's been a while." Slung over his shoulder was the trademark Remington 870, a stack of shells tucked neatly into the pouches of his gear.
Shizuka straightened up at the sight of Quentin - to most of the RAVENs, he was pretty much a senior figure here. He ignored the extended hand and chose to give the older man a friendly punch to his shoulder. "Sure is. Heard that you've been away on a road trip or something."
The punch caught Quentin off guard a little bit, though that only served to prompt a chuckle from him. "Yeah, somethin' like that. You folks in Baybridge been taking care of my brother?"
"About tha--- Well, speaking of the devil," Shizuka cut himself off in mid-sentence, distracted by yet another entrance of someone.
Charging into the scene was Cindy, who was wearing the standard DOVE uniform - a nice pinstriped black suit with the DOVE insignia on her breast - except she had body armor on, and replaced her heels with boots. "Alright, it's an Allegiance protest - you're gonna need a DOVE or two to quell the situation," Cindy started off, but she left the words hanging in the air like she was going to say something else. "
But, if something pops off, make
sure that you're using taser rounds, and that we peacefully detain the targets."
Cindy adjusted her glasses.
"
Last thing that RAVEN needs to do is add fuel to the whole pro-meta fire by killing them." Cindy continued to explain.
"I'll keep that in mind..." Shizuka gave Cindy a curt nod. "...And keep my finger off the trigger." After all, it's a win-win situation for everyone: DOVE could settle this in the most peaceful way without breaking too much sweat - also, to save some face after the party incident - and he didn't need to do anything else to add extra workload on top of his (near-finished) trip report and the
retarded troublemaking escapee case.
"Up until they decide to use lethal force against
us," Cindy was quick to answer. "Then ya'll can do whatever the hell ya'll want." She shrugged. "If everything goes correctly, then it shouldn't even have to come to that."
"Let's hope they're all smart enough to just go home quietly and not make any more stupid fuss..." Shizuka muttered, shifting the rifle bag on his back. "Anyway, I'll head out first. Later." He turned to leave, giving the rest a quick wave before disappearing around the corner.
Tossing Shizuka an upwards nod, Quentin's gaze shifted over to Maxine - a face he'd never met before. Brow arched, he spoke up with a quizzical tone, "I don't think we've met before."
"No, we haven't," Max responded after a moment. "I only finished training a few months back. I'm Max." She'd stopped giving out her full name after some people insisted on calling her Maxine.
"Two Max's? That'll be confusing," he remarked, before shaking his head.
Max shrugged. "I'm sure we'll figure something out."
Quentin nodded in agreement, "Yeah, probably. I'm Quentin, by the way. Maybe you're familiar with my brother? Reed Taylor?"
"Nice to meet you Quentin," Max looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think I have seen him around, I recognise the name. I haven't actually talked to him."
"That doesn't surprise me, though you'll probably run into him on a case sooner or later. You been with RAVEN long?" He asked, brow arched. From a glance, she looked young - around the same age that Meifeng had been when she'd first joined up with RAVEN.
Max nodded, before answering his question. "I've been with RAVEN just over two years, including training. So not long at all."
Quentin had guessed right. "Well, it's good to know who I'll be working with. Good to meet you, Max."
"It's good that ya'll are getting friendly." Cindy added as she adjusted her glasses. "But, it's time we get a move on, let's go."
Meifeng nodded, before she followed after Cindy as she lead everyone out of the room.
Concert Plaza 4, Greencrest Heights.Having sent out the alert to HQ, Anna was sure command center was going to sortie a "welcoming party". In the mean time, she pulled up the hood of her jacket to obscure her face, and with her phone out, proceeded to livestream footage of the protest to RAVEN command. She blended in just fine with the half dozen other people recording the speech--presumably for their youtube channel.
The impassioned speaker had already won the hearts and minds of the crowd. and with many of them texting, tweeting, and streaming the event, more and more metahumans were starting to arrive from other venues and join the crowd. The Blackfall Effect was already in full swing.
A girl from the crowd, climbed onto stage. She had a standard issue collar clasped around her neck. The speaker helped her up. "Look at this kif sister! She ready to remove that neck shackle, ja?" The girl looked terrified, but determined. She nodded to the charismatic emcee. "So tell your brothers and sisters, why they have you collared? I don't see any hand-cuffs." He leaned the mic towards her.
For a moment the girl seemed to shrink back, but recovered and timidly began, "They said I was too dangerous and couldn't walk around without it."
"And why did they think that? Have you done anything wrong?"
The girl shook her head.
"Did you hurt anyone?"
"No" Again, she shook her head.
"They still make you wear it?"
"Yes."
They whispered into each other's ears for a moment, before he continued.
"This is a perfect example of the overreaching and unjust laws. Julie has never committed a crime in her life. She is a student like many of you. But they treat her like this because she's... "dangerous"?"
The high-pitched inflection in his tone perfectly expressed his disbelief. A soft round of booing circulated through the concert pit.
"Nah. Nah. I think not." He shook his head. "Tell Cezanne: You have any mean to harm these nice people here?" He inclined his head toward the crowd.
So the speaker’s name was Cezanne? Anna didn't recall any name like that in the Allegiance dossiers. Perhaps he was new.
The girl, Julie, made a face Anna couldn't quite make out at a distance, something between a frown and a childish smirk. Two of the Cezanne's cohorts moved in, one from each side of the stage as a blue arc of crackling energy surged into the collar. Instantly, the collar popped off Julie's neck and fell uselessly to the ground. Two of the Allegiance members then hoisted her up onto their shoulders, catching her off-guard.
"That is the first step towards freedom. Now show us what you can do!"
Julie struggled for a moment with suddenly being put on the spot, but then started to hum a soothing lullaby. No matter how breathy or soft her voice seemed, the sound was incredibly intense, as if coming from every direction at max volume.
Alice arrived in time for that awful, intense sound to begin resonate in the air. It wasn't that it was particularly unpleasant, it was that it appeared to key itself into every sense without asking permission. She plugged the ear that wasn't occupied by the communicator and moved over to the edge of the rooftop she was now on. It was higher than the house had been last night, but she resisted the vertigo that plucked treacherously at her.
"Shortcut on site, I don't want to get too close, I think it's best if DOVE get's their shot before they think RAVEN is here to shoot first and ask questions later."
She couldn't see White Sun, not that she'd expected to, but she needed to use her head and start trying to locate the other agent.
As the crowd began to cheer, thinking the girl's power was somehow completely benign. Anna knew better and covered her ears. RAVEN wouldn't have put a collar on a civilian like her unless she was somehow a danger to herself or others.
Flower petals began to rain down from above--bizarre in that they seemed to fall from out of thin air. Startled, Anna maneuvered to catch one with her sleeve, but it passed right through her arm.
Oh no.... Whether they were illusory constructs or some kind of hallucination, Anna didn't know-in fact, she didn't
want to know--but the situation just went from bad to worse in only a few seconds.
One of the metas at the edge of the gathering flipped a park bench. His face was red and he roared incoherently. The effect seemed to spread quickly after that. One after another, someone within the crowd would fly into a rage and start tearing up the scene. Anna thought it would turn into an all-out brawl, but no harm seemed to be directed to any of the other metas just property--at least for now.
But when a few passerbys strolled down the sidewalk, completely unaware of their surroundings and idly chit-chatting, Anna's heart jumped. One of them was wearing the jersey for the Silver Hills boarding school, an institution well-known for its "conservative values" and anti-metahuman sentiments. They couldn't have picked a worse time to come here.
Anna staggered her way through the sea of people despite still reeling from what seemed like a group hallucination. She had to protect those kids, she thought. Just as she was about to wriggle free of the crowd, one of the crazed rioters began sprinting towards the unsuspecting trio of students.
Desperate MeasuresPulling up some distance away from the Allegiance protest was a large RAVEN APC with a foam cannon mounted on top of it. It was a stressful ride, especially when Meifeng wanted to play "X Gon' Give It to Ya" on the way there and started an argument about it.
They arrived out of sight, mostly because they didn't want to startle them and incite a fight. Which, after the whole shitstorm at the party, was the
last thing anyone wanted.
Though, no one could have said they wanted to fight.
Cindy was the first to step out, her finger went to her earpiece as she gave orders, "Okay, the first thing we're going to do is find Agent White Sun, then we're going to quell the situation. Got it?"
"Loud n' clear,
Green Bird." Meifeng said near sarcastically.
"Understood as crystal." Quentin added, pulling out another taser slug and pushing it into the magazine tube of his Remington 870.
"Got it," Max spoke, checking a last time to make sure she had all the necessary equipment.
"Already in position," Shizuka confirmed via the comm. He did a quick scout around the area before the rest of the squad had arrived - and there was a hotel in the vicinity that could give him a perfect, unobscured view of the open concert stage and the people below while hiding him from their sight in the blanket of the night. Lying prone on the floor of the rooftop, he watched the rally through the scope of the AR-30. "Just a quick update that the protesters are now over a hundred... and a riot is already breaking out among themselves."
"Alright Phantom, keep us updated." Quentin said, an inkling of disconcertion in his tone.
"Shit." Cindy answered. That just makes things a lot harder. "We
might have to use taser darts for this time."
"Good." Cindy said as she rolled her eyes and pulled out a megaphone out of the vehicle. "
I'm going to sit back here, and wait for the all clear..." She looked at them, and then raised an eyebrow. "What are you all waitin' there for staring at each other? Get to it!"
Shizuka scanned through the crowd for someone who fit the description of a RAVEN named 'Anna Aikau' to no avail. It wasn't going to be easy to search for someone at night - more so that he knew little to nothing about the said agent. "By the way, has anyone tried to contact White Sun - who informed us about this illegal gathering?"
"Not yet, but I'll get in contact with her now." Cindy answered, she pressed her earpiece, and then... remembered that she had messaged HQ's email account as opposed to using her comms. Which most likely meant that she didn't have an earpiece on her - and if she did, she would be in trouble. Which means they're going have to do this another way. Cindy pulled out her cellphone, and quickly went to her contacts list. She remembered White Sun's email address off the top of her head.
>_To: aaikau@ravencc.gov
Agent White Sun, RAVENS are in the area, tell us your exact location so we can extract
you.
"Alright, sent her an email now." Cindy said over the comms. "Just get into position while she replies."
Alice's reply came back swiftly, "That may not be an option Green Bird, I've got three bystanders in a potentially hazardous situation, no visual on White Sun."
"Damn it." Cindy hissed into comms. "Alright, looks like we're going to have to take some direct action...." She groaned. "RAVENs get together and extract the three bystanders at once."
"Shit."
Alice couldn't carry three people, but she didn't have time to stand and debate the vagaries of her ability with the DOVE agent. She had to act.
"No time!"
The three students would probably have been surprised by the muffled thump that heralded Alice's arrival, or they would have been if they'd had time to process what was happening. Instead two of them only briefly experienced the sensation of a hand clamping onto their shoulders before they experienced the sensation of projectile vomiting.
Alice didn't hang around to wait for them to recover, or to explain, disappearing immediately. She'd misjudged, the other student wasn't here, and stood ten feet away, looking around confusedly for their friends. Where was the meta?
That internal question was answered by her own experience of a hand clamping onto her shoulder and spinning her like a top. He opened his mouth to warn the other metas, and Alice teleported to the first thing she could see, or at least in the first direction she looked that wasn't his young, unshaven face. They ended up above the water, and Alice, more prepared for the sudden change of scenery, took advantage of his shock to knee him in the groin as they fell.
He let go, and she vanished again, landing awkwardly on dry land once more, stumbling before she found her feet.
Anna was taken aback for a moment. She hadn't reached the kids in time, but someone else did--and a teleporter at that.
So the cavalry has arrived, hunh? They seemed to have been taken care of, but there was no telling where the meta went or the agent. She scanned the road and sidewalk for them with no success, but she instantly noticed one of the students had been left behind; he had stumbled to the ground and was obviously confused. Anna dashed to him.
"My name's Anna, I'm with RAVEN. I need to get you out of here
now!"
The boy turned to her, still in shock. "Wait... what's going on? Where are my friends?"
"They're safe, but we need to leave immediately." She urged him up to his feet, and locked her grip around his arm and began to sprint with this kid in toe.
She was about to respond to the text she'd just gotten, but was interrupted. One of the nearby metas began to shapeshift, and their rapid growth into a gangling creature flung a trash bin in there direction, hitting Anna squarely in the back. As she toppled over, she let go of the kid's arm so he wouldn't fall with her. The regret for that decision was immediate.
She hit her head on the edge a nearby signpost, rolled and fell flat on her back. The fall knocked the air from her chest and sucked in a painful breath. The bleeding from her forehead ran into her right eye and she could taste iron. Looking back, the shapeshifter--who now looked more like a lithe giant with long, thin limbs and odd bony spurs ripping through its clothes--was heading towards their way. Anna fumbled inside her jacket pocket, drew her taser gun, and levelled it at the approaching Meta. Her finger rested on the trigger as she took aim.
A bright blue bolt of lightning tore a line through the ground between her the giant. The speaker, Cézanne, had stepped in on her behalf. The giant stopped abruptly, surprised by the sudden flash.
"My friend..." Holding up both hands, he began to talk the giant down. "We're here to have a good time, nah?"
The meta, on the other hand, clearly had little or no sense of self-awareness. Whatever Julie's song was doing was affecting people's mind. But very slowly the light of reason, though dim, began to flicker in the giant's eyes, as if slowly awoken.
" No need to scare this nice RAVEN lady." He jerked his head at Anna.
How the
hell did this guy identify her as a RAVEN agent? Anna was floored. She wasn't in uniform and she certainly didn't speak loud enough to the kid to be heard over the roar of the crowd.
The shapeshifter's expression turned dark. Its lips curled into a snarl, when it heard she was an Agent, and took a couple steps forward.
"You angry, nah? You have every right to be. No, you
should be angry! They are the ones responsible for all of our struggles."
The giant stepped closer again.
What the hell is this guy doing? She thought.
Is he trying to save me or get me killed? Either way, this asshole is blocking my shot.Cézanne continued, stressing almost every word. "But. If we
act like animals. We only justify. Their belief-" He pointed an accusing finger at Anna. "-that we
are."
On that note, the shapeshifter huffed; and with a disgruntled look on his face, began to shrink down to his normal size.
"Come! You and me broeta, we enjoy the rest of this show while it lasts, ja?" Cézanne swung a friendly arm around the meta's neck and started back towards the gathering.
In the chaos of the last few moments it seemed that Alice had managed to take care of the situation without getting together with the other RAVENs, though there was no sign of the teleporter anywhere. Max found the exact spot after everything was just about cleared up. "Situation averted. Everyone seems to be safe for now. Shortcut seems to have taken care of most of it," Max spoke into the coms, before turning to look at two who had been attacked by the meta. The boy seemed fine, but the other person seemed like she'd been hit. She was holding a taser... Maybe...
Riding in on a miniature tidal wave, Meifeng and Cindy approached the scene - holding hands in a non-romantic way (It was the safest way for Meifeng to transfer her water-walking ability to Cindy). Meifeng came to a stop before Anna and the kids, Cindy was the first to hop off. She ran up to the kids.
"Is everything okay?" Cindy answered them. "Thank God that you kids are okay."
"Look.... You kids gotta clear the area; we gotta quell this situation before an outright riot spawns out of this." Cindy said. She turned towards Anna, before speaking into her comms, "We gotta end this now, it's gonna end in violence - that goes without sayin' at this point - but we gotta at least try to peacefully resolve this first."
Cindy nodded her head. "Phantom, do you have a bead on the singing girl? Because she's our first target if things don't chill." She asked.
"That's easy, Birdy," Shizuka replied in a bored tone, zooming the telescopic sight into his 'targets'. "She's still on the stage wedged between the two brutes who had zapped her collar just now."
"Counterpoint, Rogue Wave, Shortcut, and Mimic, with me, get into position. Get the Meta-Suppressant gas ready. That sound solve the situation in a few seconds."
"Counterpoint, in position. " Quentin echoed, as he moved up beside them, a hand on one of the canisters. Something told him this wasn't going to be a good day.
It had taken Alice a moment to reorient herself after she'd dunked the Metahuman in the water, and then she'd had to take a moment to throw him a life-preserver. It wouldn't do for him to drown thanks to her defensive action. Now she was back with the rest of RAVEN. There were two canisters of the Meta-suppressant gas clipped to her belt, though she resisted the urge to remove one and prepare it. This situation was already south, let alone going there, and she didn't want to be the spark that finally ignited it fully.
"Shortcut ready."
"Mimic also ready," Max responded, as she moved her belt slightly so that the canisters of gas she carried were in closer reach. The gun she had on her was already loaded with non-lethal rounds. At least she'd be able to take a few hits if she needed to if this came down to an all out fight. She wasn't regretting sticking to regeneration.
This was going to end horribly. Cindy wished that she could try to prepare with her glass powers, but that would sure as hell be begging for a fight. Even though, no matter
what she says to them, they won't listen. At least... Cindy reached down to her hip, and realized that she had a glock. Armed with taser rounds. It should work... offensively. Defense-wise, she's gonna have to use those feet of hers.
Inhaling, Cindy clutched her megaphone tightly.
"Make sure that you're using nonlethal rounds until it's permitted." Cindy said, nodding her head. She exhaled. "Alright, time to move on."'
They started moving, with Cindy ahead of the entire group. She held the megaphone in hand, and every step she took, she got closer to the loud chattering of these idiots. To Cindy... The Allegiance was no different from the Pure. Both groups were just racist cultists. Only problem was that they were causing
problems.
Even though she was right behind them, they didn't pay her any mind - probably didn't even notice her. Because she was wearing armor with the DOVE symbol on it, they would be all over her. But, with her team of RAVENS at her side, she didn't have much to worry about.
After one deep breath, Cindy raised the megaphone to her lips.
"Attention! Attention, please!" Cindy shouted into the megaphone. Which made everyone turn around and face her. They started getting even more excited as they saw a DOVE. She continued with.
"This isn't the way to gain true equality - all you're doing is perpetuating this cycle of violence." Cindy started off. "Look around you, do you think that attacking people on the street for having a different ideology is sending the right message? You're going to make the situation worse for yourselves, and the peaceful Metahumans by showing the world that Metahumans
are dangerous and savage as they seem!"
Cézanne took the stage again. His comrades escorted the singing girl Julie off-stage. He tapped the mic. "You heard dat klak, right? They will make it worse for us because we say and do things they don't like. They tuning us grief!" He countered with a mocking tone. The crowd's attention snapped back to him and they booed in agreement. Even some of the rioting ones stopped to hear him.
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident, hey? That all men are created equal, hey?" He spit viciously at the ground. His words dripped with disgust and his gestures matched with much fanfare, taking an aggressive stance and directing all of his hatred at the DOVE agent.
"Where is
our equality? When we are treated no different than Jews in Hitler's Germany. No different than das blacks in King's time. We don't even get the luxury of "separate, but equal'.
You took that away from us."
Cézanne turned to the crowd. "What happens when a government is too corrupt to protect its own, hm? When they oppress their own citizens? What do people do?"
As if on cue, one member in the crowd shouted "revolution" and the rest quickly joined in, until the word spread like wildfire. All of them were chanting in rhythm:
RE-VO-LU-TION!
RE-VO-LU-TION!
RE-VO-LU-TION!Cézanne cast a knowing look at the agents waiting on standby; he wore a defiant grin, like he had just won some great victory. "Viva la Revolución!" He zapped the mic with a small crackle of energy and casually threw it behind him. He spread out his arms, as if to say
Come get me.
This worried Cindy. This bastard was riling up a crowd. This wasn't unexpected, which is why Cindy had the RAVENS get ready in the first place. If they carpet the area in gas, and containment foam, they can take everyone out without even having to lift a finger.
"
Who is actually oppressing you? DOVE is doing everything in it's power to protect you from the likes of the Pure, along with providing each and every Metahuman with the care they need. While also integrating Metahumans into society!"
The chanting didn't stop, only growing louder and louder, trying to drown out the sounds of the megaphone. The tense atmosphere had reached its boiling point, and this once peaceful assembly was one step away from being an angry mob.
Cindy sighed - her words couldn't reach these people. They were too high off their own words. In any case, Cindy didn't want the ringleader getting away. It was likely he was just another loon imitating the big bads of the Allegiance - but it only takes one man to change things for the worse.
Luis and the Devil taught her that.
"Alright, then! Under the orders of DOVE, you all are to immediately disperse at once!" Cindy shouted into the megaphone... She knew that she was setting things off here, but, honestly, there wasn't much more she could do (Other than stand there with a thumb up her ass).
Cezanne and his small crew melded into the crowded and joined in the angry chanting. But their expressions seemed to say they knew what was coming, and embraced it.
Her fingers went to her earpiece. "On my signal, throw as many gas canisters as possible, and bring in the APC with the heavy duty foamer." She ordered her fellow RAVENS as she put a gas mask on, and then her hand went to her pistol as she took steps back.
Suddenly, a gas canister flew into the crowd from the street and exploded in a cloud of thick glittering red smoke over the heads of the rioters.
"What the hell?!" Cindy loudly said as she watched. All the protesters went crazy, and she exploded in anger. She made sure to aim her pistol at them, and take steps back. She pressed her earpiece and barked, "
Who threw that!? I want names!"
"God-dammit.." Quentin grunted, head snapping around to look for whoever might've thrown the damned thing, before he turned back towards the crowd, his shotgun still pointed downwards. Realising they had little time to lose, he quickly snapped his own mask on over his face.
Shizuka cringed at the chorus of shouts and static noise coming from his earpiece. He resisted the temptation to shift his sight away from the singing girl to the source of ruckus on the other side of the stage area; Cindy's order was clear - he had to keep his eyes glued to 'Siren'. "What the hell's going on down there?"
Max had been in the process of preparing her own gas canisters when someone threw one into the crowd from the
street. What the hell? She turned her head slightly to see if she could notice who'd thrown it. No luck.
The crowd went absolutely wild, superpowers, objects, and everything else, went flying in all directions. The crowd absolutely went on a rampage, and they needed to be stopped at all costs. Cindy was the target for many of them. Her kelvar vest received a fireball - she yelped in pain as her armor was burnt. She retaliated by firing a few taser darts into the crowd.
Quentin fired off one taser slug, then another as the crowd advanced on his side - narrowly avoiding a brick aimed for his head and responding by firing a slug right at the midsection of the meat-slab sized thrower, who soon keeled over and convulsed.
"Fuck it!" Cindy shouted into the comms. "Throw the gas!"
"Rogue Wave moving in." Meifeng said as she rolled in on a tidal wave. She was adjusting her mask, she quickly put it on, and her hand grabbed onto the canister. "Gonna enjoy this, because I got tired of that bastard sucking his own dick." Meifeng snorted into the mic as she summoned water out of her pocket dimension, she was exposed to a brief dryness in her body.
The RAVEN formed the water into an orb, and then put the canister inside of it. She then stretched both hands out, and the orb was at her fingertips. She pulled her hands back, and then shot them forward, and the canister was launched through the air by a splurt of water that sent it flying through the air at the crowd.
As it went through the air, it began to release red gas that caused anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in it to start coughing, before they passed out. That was good enough, but she saw people were closing in on Cindy. Meifeng leaned in, and dove forward like a missile as she rode upon the wave of water. Right as a feline Metahuman was diving at Cindy, Meifeng had valiantly jumped into the air, and swung her leg in a wide arc - nearly spinning her entire body.
A wave of water followed, and hit the Allegiance follower in the side and sent him sprawling backwards in pain.
"Thanks." Cindy said as she took steps back. "Alright, I'm going to leave this to RAVEN, I did all I could." She took off out of the scene.
Meifeng reached towards her hips, and grabbed one of her pistols that were hoisted onto them. "Alright, let's get this over with!"
On cue, the APC that they had arrived in had rolled up on the concert scene. The foam cannon on top fired a stream of a white chemical that blanketed the group in containment foam. Few could dodge the foam, as they were preoccupied with avoiding the red clouds of Meta suppressant gas.
Shizuka knew the squad below were probably too busy with the full-blown riot among the protesters to spare a thought for anything else, which left only him to watch the stage area for them - all by himself. "Hate to add this to your growing trouble list Birdy, but the backstage crew is now trying to get away with
Siren," he muttered into the comm, his finger poised ready on the trigger.
"Hit the Siren with a dart." Cindy ordered from inside the APC. "We
can't let the Allegiance get away with a Meta that strong."
"Roger," Shizuka replied without much enthusiasm - even if it was a non-lethal shot, it didn't change the fact that he was pointing his gun at a little girl that had barely reached adolescence.
He shifted his rifle to the right - the breeze was blowing from his
right - while his scope was still locked onto Siren; it was going to be harder to gauge the course of a lighter taser shot compared to the usual, heavier bullet... and he had to do it in one shot.
He exhaled slowly.
What needs to be done has to be done.He squeezed the trigger and fired the taser round, which cut through the night sky above the heads of the rioting people and hit his target right in the chest. The girl didn't even get a chance to comprehend what just happened to herself as her eyes rolled up to the roof and she crumpled down onto the stage, unconscious. The two men didn't bother to waste another moment and fled the stage area, not wanting to take the risk with the presence of a hidden sniper around.
"Target neutralized," Shizuka spoke into the comm, his tone cold and professional. By then he was already packing the sniper back into the rifle bag. Now all that's left was for one of the agents to go collect that girl before someone from the Allegiance grabbed her...
The whole situation ended as quickly as it started. The clouds of red gas were starting to fade, and the Metahumans were trapped by the containment foam weren't going anywhere. All that the Agents saw before them was unconscious people knocked out by the gas, and the taser darts.
Cindy sighed as she took a few steps forward, and pressed her earpiece.
"... This is Agent Green Bird, we have quelled the situation at the concert four in Greencrest Heights, and we have incapacitated several members of the Allegiance after they began to riot." Cindy started off, professionally stating. "The ringleaders seemed to have gotten away, but we're going to need a few trucks to round up these protesters."
"Understood, Green Bird, there is a van on it's way to your position." The generic mission controller said.
Cindy sighed. "Greenbird out."
Okay, now that all that's settled with, there was a problem. Cindy turned to her group that was gathering before her.
"Do ya'll know where the hell that canister came from?" Cindy asked. "It couldn't have came from one of us, because ya'll were positioned from a totally different direction."
"Eyes were on the crowd, so don't ask me." Quentin shrugged, tugging off his mask for a breath of fresh air.
"I tried to look, but it was too chaotic to notice someone," Max responded to Cindy neutrally with a frown. "It was from the street, that much was obvious, but I didn't see the person who threw it." It was hardly a useful response, but it was one.
"Damn it..." Cindy groaned.
"Hey, wait a second," Meifeng took a few steps forward, and then crossed her arms as an idea popped up in her head. "I fought against these Allegiance dumbasses before, they're all about this revolution bullshit, making themselves look good, and their so-called oppressors look bad."
A quick scan, and Meifeng looked between her entire group. "Would it be that big of a stretch that
somebody got a canister? During, say, a fight and a RAVEN dropped it? And that
somebody decided to chuck it to make us look bad?"
"... Meifeng, for the first time in your life, you're making sense." Cindy said to Meifeng. "That creep running his mouth didn't have half a goddamn clue of what he was talking about," She started off, referring to the entire group this time. "But, if a canister, which RAVEN is
known to employ, flies into the crowd - wouldn't it just look like he's actually right?"
"It wouldn't surprise me, I've seen enough agitator types out there to know there's probably some asshole trying to stir shit up." Quentin complained, running a gloved palm down his face. "Fucking great."
"Yeah..." Meifeng said, scratching the back of her neck. "Only problem is that no one will believe it if we said, 'some random ass dude threw the canister instead of us.'" Meifeng shrugged.
Cindy sighed.
"God damn it. PR bullshit like this just keeps stacking up."
Shizuka was the last to rejoin the squad for the debrief. He could have just driven back to the Headquarters on his own since this conversation about some random canister shit didn't concern him at all; he didn't even know what the hell was going on at the side away from the stage area anyway, other than some red - suppressant - gas floating around near the climax of the situation.
...Whatever. He simply crossed his arms before him and watched the drama unfold from a corner in silence. It had been another long night,
again.
"Anyway," Quentin spoke up as Shizu made his approach, "Phantom, where'd you last see this 'Siren'? You managed to dart her, right?"
"She's sound asleep on the stage." Shizuka shrugged in response.
Quentin nodded, "Alright, can you watch my back whilst I go pick her up?" Despite the deployment of the containment foam, he wasn't up for taking any chances. Time with both NEST and RAVEN had taught him that. And like that, he headed off towards the stage, shotgun still in hand, making sure to keep a wide berth of the unconscious and incapacitated rioters, just in case they tried something. Shizuka nodded curtly, and followed behind the senior agent without another word.
It didn't take long to find the girl; Shizu had hit his mark, though he wasn't interested in making the poor kid suffer. Taking a knee beside her, Quentin first took a moment to gently remove the dart wedged in her chest, before retrieving one of the portable collars clipped onto his gear and quickly clipping it on over the girl's lower left calf. Once he'd felt it click, he then pulled out a pair of cuffs and quickly fastened the girl's wrists together in front of her, just to be sure. With that done, he was certain she was no longer a threat - for now.
Part of him felt sorry for the girl. She'd probably never had an encounter with RAVEN before today, nor had she ever done or even meant hard towards them - but here she was, unconscious at their hands. This wasn't her fault, he knew - but there wasn't any other way. Knowing that people like the Allegiance were out there, willing to manipulate kids who didn't know better into serving their own goals... it disgusted him as much as the Pure did, almost as much as the Hands of Science had disgusted him.
Shizuka could only shook his head at the sight of the girl - part of him tried to reassure himself that it was the only thing he could do to save her from the clutches of those Allegiance bastards, but it just didn't feel right to point a deadly weapon at an innocent, defenseless child. He glanced down at his right hand - with the finger he used to pull the trigger. It was very slight, but the hand was still trembling.
The feeling of having to shoot a person - regardless of who they were - still felt surreal to him. It's a feeling he'd have to get over with one , if he truly want to stay on his job.
But how far would he have to go... at the cost of his sanity, and even giving up his basic morality?
He balled up his right hand into a fist. Now it wasn't the time to mull over this - there were a lot more work to do here.
Help to clean up this damned place, for one.
Bringing a hand up to his comms piece, Quentin shot a question towards Meifeng's way, "Wave, you covering the agitators on your side?"
"Yeah, I'm doing my best here." Meifeng answered, as she knelt down, and applied a pair of plastic handcuffs to the suspects. There were too many people here to give them all handcuffs, or power suppressant collars. They'd have to detain them when the big boys arrive. "They aren't going anywhere."
"Alright," Quentin glanced back towards Shizuka for a moment, before turning back towards the girl, "I'm gonna make sure we get this one out of here. I don't want those assholes coming back to use her as a weapon again." And like that, he knelt down once more and picked up the girl in his arms, heading back towards the others. With some luck, he hoped that DOVE might have been able to pick up a file about her and get her back home. "Just watch the others for me."
"...Eh," Shizuka pulled up another unconscious Metahuman - a teen male - from the ground near the front of the stage roughly (which probably would have hurt if the person had been awake). "I guess babysitting these sleeping beauties is much better than dealing with an angry mob of enraged beasts."
Alice gazed over the scene of carnage, she hadn't had to do much, simply appear at strategic points throughout the demonstrators and drop her gas canisters. The gas and the foam from the APC had made short work of the metahumans, and she'd simply stayed on the outskirts, picking off anyone who tried to make a break for it. She would have gone after whoever had thrown the first canister, but it had come from somewhere out of sight.
She turned to move back to the group of agents, holstering her pistol and running her gloved fingers through her hair. She looked tired, jumping that many times in such a short period of time had taken it out of her, and she was starving.
"I know we've got to sort this out first, but after.. drinks? First round on me?"
With a sigh, Cindy answered, "Yeah, sure, let me just get this shit storm-"
"All Agents!" A female mission controller spoke into the comms. "Please be aware - a Metahuman is going out of control in the Havenfield Market, Lot Twelve, and backup has been immediately requested."
Cindy shook her head.
"Shit... I'm on my way." Cindy answered - except she was utterly exasperated at this point. Things just keep piling up. "Alright, damn it," Cindy started off as she faced the group. "We're going to need to split up - some of us gotta stay behind, some of us gotta go."
