[IC] City of Treaft! (Semi-Private)

[Crossfire]

Smoke popped and filled the air, Reaper hadn't been expecting this, but it was definitely a welcome surprise.

'Thanks for the assist kid' he thought as he spied a better spot to take cover about 10 feet away.

He pulled out his first pistol, flicked the safety off and made a mad dash for the better cover, he fired a few shots into the smoke to draw their attention, the loud pops and bangs reverberating wildly around the room.

From his new piece of cover, he slid his assault rifle down from his back sling and racked the firing bolt. Inhale. Exhale. Go.

With a bellowing war cry he rounded out into the open and unleashed a rain of automatic fire. The rifle clattered wildly in his hands as he started to move closer to the goons. Three were cut down by his initial burst, and just as the fourth was taking aim at him, the gun clicked empty. Thinking fast, Reaper covered the short distance between himself and the man and swung with the butt of his gun, knocking both of their rifles aside. Now unarmed and within arm's reach of one another, both men exchanged blows, Reaper swinging low with a right hook to the ribs, the crook countering with a punch that grazed right along the side and back of his head. He grabbed Reaper by the throat with both hands and squeezed hard. Reaper reacted on instinct, reaching to grab a fistful of the man's shirt and tugging hard, pulling the man closer as he cocked his fist back and brought it around in a vicious haymaker. The blow was spot-on, the man's grip loosened immediately as he fell unconscious, Reaper was spun around by the velocity of his punch and as he was coming back around he yanked his other pistol out of his holster. Without a moment's hesitation, he put two shots into the head of the knocked out thug. The smoke had fully cleared now, and Reaper had lost sight of the 5th gunman.

[King Tai]

Solomon stayed quiet during this all out fight. He knew this whole commotion would involve the same two people he seen before that one night. Reaper, the ruthless vigilante and Agent, the do-gooder. Did they plan to work together again tonight or did they both just happen to be in the same place at the same time? Either way, this had the potential to go south quickly.

When Solomon first reached the place, he noticed a flash and then shortly after, a smoke bomb going off. Of course losing his sight of what was going down, the guns firing was a bit painful to the ears but yet, Solomon could hear some of the crooks getting cut down as well. Sounded like something large was thrown, giving a thud sound while the grunts of 3 men were taken down. Then came the battle cry. Reaper himself. Ugh, the awful noise of the guns blazin' and entering flesh while blood splattered.

Well, that was 3 more dead but...but wait, Solomon could hear footsteps rushing away from Reaper while the struggles of a hand to hand fight scene was taking place. The rushing steps came towards the entrance but on the farther side away from Solomon as the smoke cleared and in the initial area, only the closest heartbeats heard were Agent who was a bit further away, Reaper who was midway between where Solomon and Agent were located and the 5th crook who had his rifle pointing at the back of Reaper. That man took the time to get away so to catch Reaper off guard and to finish him. At least, that's what the man was thinking. Agent was too far away to come after him and even if Solomon was to warn Reaper, the crook would more than likely shoot him before they could do anything about it and...well...Solomon could quietly rush him but he wouldn't make it in time.

For a good while, Solomon has kept himself concealed from public eye when dealing with criminals but if he didn't do anything now, this city was going to lose a hero. Taking a deep inhale, Solomon's faced the direction of the man's side while his attention was towards reapers back and with a quick shout, a single wave of booming sound and vibration hurled over to the target, causing the impact for the man to be pushed off his feet, flying maybe 6-8 feet into a column with enough force to knock the man out and possibly have ringing in his ears and a headache whenever he woke up. He didn't want to kill him but to keep him from killing a person trying to stop a bank robbery. Solomon a little out of hiding, exposing a side of his arm before trying to hide again.

[1Hawkeyes]

Agent watched as bullets flew out of the clouds of smoke and into the open, not really hitting anyone. Now the fire from the guards moved from Agent to Reaper's area and while she felt relieved, she was also terrified. Why didn't she wear any kind of armor? Why didn't she bring more ranged weapons? Even if she didn't use real guns, couldn't she have brought a BB gun or a taser? Realizing it was much too late too change anything, she popped from cover in time to watch Reaper's fist fight. She wanted to hop in, but her eyes were busy searching for the last gunman.

Finally, she found the gunman who readied himself to shoot Reaper in the back. Coward! she screamed internally, readying herself to launch into the gunman and take him down. Just as she was about to jump, a shout burst through the air. Agent stumbled and covered her left ear. She quickly looked around, almost afraid of the loud and powerful shout that knocked down the guard. Her ear was recovering sound when she caught the disappearing figure of whoever had screamed. She couldn't conclude why they would be hiding, unless they were part of some rival gang and did not want to be spotted. Agent sped behind the column and grabbed the man by his sweater, angered and confused. "Who's side are you on?" she asked, voice betraying some of her fears. Hey, it sounded good in the movies, so why did it sound so awkward when she said it?

She cleared her throat and repeated herself, voice now stronger, "Let me make it simple- you're with us or them." All of the assault guards were taken down, but there were still about thirty men robbing the bank, armed with pistols and possibly worse. Then after they took them out they would have to fight a woman who shot fire out of her hands! Agent had no time to put her life and Reaper's in anymore danger than they already were. If this man was going to help them, she could apologize later. If he wasn't going to help, she wouldn't leave any room to be sorry later.

[Crossfire]

@King Tai@1Hawkeyes

Reaper spun wildly upon hearing the shout and just caught a glimpse of the final thug flying into the pillar. He saw Agent rush over to wear it originated from and confronting some guy in a hoodie. While keeping both of them firmly within sight, Reaper began walking around, pulling spare clips from the belts of the men he'd killed. He picked up one of the fallen rifles and quickly inspected it. Military grade, but made with sub-par parts, as if they were somehow complete knockoffs of the real thing. Curious.

Realizing that Agent and the hooded guy still hadn't moved an inch, he walked over and interjected to the conversation.
"Ain't no 'us' but all the same kid, the girl asked you a question."

[King Tai]

Solomon stood still behind the column hoping they didn't see him but the rushing steps coming behind him proved that he was now going to have to come clean, especially when she grabbed onto him. He didn't want to fight them. In fact, he just wanted to do some good. He raised his hands up to show he was not armed and responded to Agent. Her initial questions sounded a little shaky, like she's never interrogated anyone before but, Solomon was going to comply.

With a bit of a Caribbean accent, he spoke "Okay okay...calm down darlin, calm down. I'm just a meat man doing civil service..." He responded before Reaper came over wanting Solomon to answer the question. With a sigh, Solomon answered again. "Look Mon...if I was on their side, I woulda attack you instead of them...." Looking at them both. "I'm on your side....I know you two...I seen you both before...I'm like you but on the down low..." He admitted. "I mean this the thanks I get for keepin that crook from shooting you from behind?" He asked Reaper and Agent. "But from what I hear from here...your real fight is about to begin..." Mentioning he could hear the commotions of the other armed men further in the bank. Possibly hearing his shout.

@1Hawkeyes@Crossfire

[1Hawkeyes]

Agent's brow furrowed a bit at Reaper's nitpicking of her words. She didn't mean "us" as in him and her, she meant us as in... well, the good guys. She was glad part of her cheeks were covered by her domino styled black mask because if they weren't, anyone would easily be able to see she was blushing from embarrassment. At least he didn't seem too upset, even if he might have been offended by Agent's novice mistake.

"You've seen us before?" Agent asked, gently placing the man down on the floor. She supposed it didn't seem too outlandish to see her on the television, but what about Reaper? "Wait, you've been following us?"

But that was nowhere near the end of their troubles, as Solomon pointed out. Many of the men robbing the bank noticed the fight, whether it be because of Solomon's scream, the gunshots, or the grenades. Several of them were shouting at the woman in the orange jumpsuit. She turned around, momentarily ceasing her flame barrage on the vault door. She shouted to them, indistinguishable to Agent and Reaper, "Keep taking all you can! I'll take care of these idiots." The robbers nodded and continued to fill their bags with money.

"You two!" she shouted to two much more heavily armored than the previous guards, "Guard the front door and make sure none of them get past. Go through the back exit so they won't see you."

The guards, who looked much more like steroid-filled juggernauts, nodded and made their way to the back, ready to get out. The flame woman chuckled and looked back at the vigilantes in front. For the most part, she was hidden by the cracked door leading to the vault room. The woman shook her head. This was going to be much too easy. One had no powers, the other had no ranged attacks, and the last could only yell at her. Was she supposed to be afraid?

The woman walked out of the vault room and headed to the front where the three were. "Well," she said, holding her hands up mockingly, "I'm ready for you to take me away." She let a sly smirk form on her lips. If anyone were to make any sort of movement to her, flames would fly out of her palms immediately.

[Crossfire]

@1Hawkeyes@King Tai

Reaper reacted by snatching out one of his pistols and unloading three quick pops in her direction. A flash of flame shot up in immediate response, rendering his bullets useless as they were redirected or melted entirely by her powers.

"Damn it" he said, diving down behind a column for cover to avoid the rush of fire.

"Alright kid, you wanna be a team, fine, I'll keep her busy. I don't have a ton of ammo though, so whatever you're gonna do, make it fast!"

[King Tai]

@1Hawkeyes@Crossfire

Solomon started to wonder if Agent was going to put him down. It was already embarrassing as it is by how she was holding him. "Yes I seen you before...mostly hear you both causing a ruckus. I saw what happened last time when you two save that girl from that group. I heard it several blocks away and rushed over to see what was going on and heard you both out. I was hiding. And you two clearly didn't need my help. So...this is the 2nd time I've come over to see you two together. And from the sound out it, you two we need all the help you can get." he mentioned.

"I'm....eh...Speaker? Shout? Sound...wave? I'm, still workin on the hero name but anyway...I'm on your side..."

hearing the way while she came up, she looked too cocky and strong. And from the small of something burning, difficult to get pass. They weren't going to come out of this unscathed. Yes, usually Solomon dealt with people with no powers but how were they going to fair with her.

Solomon cringed from the loud pops of his gun but that was when his eyes widened from the flames immediately rushing towards them. Solomon flipped out of the way and dove to the side to notice a mop bucket with a mop in it and smirked. Looked like he found his weapon. he started to unscrew the stick from the "mop hair" part to have use of an improvised bo staff. He was behind a column as well, waiting for the right moment to come in with a full on sonic scream.

[1Hawkeyes]

Agent watched as the intense heat coming from Flame, the woman, melted Reaper's bullets. If Reaper couldn't reach the woman, how would Agent? There wasn't much time to think. Flame pressed her hands forward once more, sending waves of fire to the group. Agent rolled to the side, away from the fire. She noticed the bodies of guards still splayed on the floor. They didn't seem to be wearing any kind of fireproof gear. Flame seemed to have no regard for their wellbeing. This didn't sit well with Agent.

Agent searched for the men and eventually found two slumped together on the floor. It was hard to tell if they were dead from Reaper's bullets or knocked out from her fists, but she knew she had to do something. Agent stood and sprinted across Flame's range. More fire spewed from the woman's hand as Agent managed to scoop up the two men over her shoulders.

"Trying to be the heroes?" Flame cackled, sending more flames and fire. Too busy chasing Agent's trail, Flame forgot about Reaper and Sound EFX. She assumed both men were armed with guns and would therefore be useless in stopping her. Flame laughed aloud at the thought.

Agent managed to get the men behind a pillar across from Solomon's cover, but part of her suit had burned. She cursed at herself, knowing it would cost her money she didn't have to repair the bullet-resistant suit. She looked down to the men she had put behind cover and checked their pulses. It was hard to tell through her gloves, but she concluded they were both alive.

"Where did you all hide?" Flame called. "Oh, I know, let's play a little game!" The woman clapped her hands together in a small explosion of flames. She slowly placed her hand over her eyes and pointed. "Eenie, meenie..." her hand slowly went from pillar to pillar until her aim finally rested on the one Solomon chose to hide behind. Without opening her eyes, fire blasted to the pillar, melting it down. Even from about thirty feet away Agent could barely handle the heat.

[Crossfire]

@1Hawkeyes@King Tai

Reaper was out of options. Even without the woman actively blocking his attempts to shoot her, it seemed as though she radiated enough heat to neutralize his weapons. Reaper did a very quick count of what he had on hand. One pistol was empty, the other had 3 rounds left. Most of the spare clips he had grabbed from the fallen goons were incompatible with his weapons, only two, holding 30 rounds each, would fit his rifle. He had 4 shells still loaded in his shotgun, but no spares, and no grenades left.

The woman was spewing a concentrated stream of flame into one of the support columns, the one Solomon was trapped behind, Agent wasn't far off, he had to do something, anything to break her focus, and quickly, before she scorched the kids to ashes.

'This better work' he thought as he loaded in the first rifle magazine and clicked the gun into full-auto. The ceiling of the bank curved upwards into a great glass dome. He didn't seriously think a sudden shower of glass would stop her, but it was worth a shot, he angled out from cover, aimed up at the dome, and opened fire.

RATATATATATAT

The shards of glass rained down into the center of the room, none really large enough to cause damage, but hopefully enough to distract Flame.

[King Tai]

Okay, Solomon had to admit....the bitch was crazy. Usually he never called women out their name since it's un-hero-like but she deserved it. Peeking a few times, Solomon held the mop stick noticing Agent moving some men and unable to get close to Flame. Hell, even Reaper is having trouble hitting her with the bullets he's firing melting before it even hits. This was getting worse by the second. He kept his eyes on Agent for a moment to be sure she was okay.

Solomon needed to do something. He was hyping himself up to just dart out there and fight. Agent can't get close, bullets didn't work but....what about his ultra sonic screams. You couldn't burn that. nor block it unless you had special earplugs or earphones and you need to get close to damage his throat or close his mouth to stop it. Yes, that was what he was going to do. He joined these two to be of help and what better way than to-

While in the middle of thinking, the column was looking like a candle melting in fast forward motion, not taking the time to try and counter when Flame's attention was on Agent. This was officially a disaster on his end. No more cover. No time to think. Do or die! Seeing the malicious, sadistic, mischievous smirk on Flame's face said it all. This woman was going to turn them into filet mignon and have fun while doing it. Staring into her eyes as if she was a predator hunting it's prey, Solomon froze for a moment but that was until the firing of Reaper's gun snapped Solomon out of it as it began raining glass. And oh yeah, just as quick as that happened, Solomon quickly rushed away from the column and went to get into a better position to attack Flame with his ability. Solomon owed Reaper for the distraction and now, he was ready to find a way to counter attack.

@1Hawkeyes@Crossfire

[1Hawkeyes]

@Crossfire @King Tai

Agent began to shiver in anticipation for her next move. Much of Flame's security was in relative safety, but now Flame's attack was focused on the pillar Simon hid behind. The cogs in her head spun and ground against each other, but she couldn't figure out how to get Solomon out of his predicament. Damn it! she shouted internally, Why did he have to follow us?

Then Reaper shot off his retaliation. To Agent's surprise, his bullets did not fly towards Flame, but to the glass ceiling. Everything seemed to stand still in the moments the crystal rain took to fall to the ground.

"If bullets don't work, why would glass?" Flame laughed, surrounding herself in a dome of fire. The heat in the room intensified, nearly suffocating anyone inside. Luckily the broken ceiling allowed for more heat to escape and more oxygen to enter. Flame allowed the walls of her personal dome to fall, leaving only the top. If one looked closely, they could see the drops of glass turning from a clear solid into a sticky liquid. This liquid glass fell onto Flame. The woman tried to wipe this off as it fell around her eyes, mouth, and nose. "This won't stop me!" she shouted, smearing the glass across her face.

[Crossfire]

@1Hawkeyes@King Tai

"No, but this will" Reaper growled as he slammed his final magazine into the rifle. He centered his aim straight on Flame's outstretched arm and pulled the trigger, unleashing a stream of bullets in a tight pattern that, even if it didn't take her out, would at least slow her down. As the gun clicked empty, he slid it around to his back and snatched up his fallen shotgun, racked in a load and slowly started to close in.

"Now kid!" he shouted.

[King Tai]

@1Hawkeyes@Crossfire

After the lovely weather of falling glass rained down on Flame, Solomon was circling around the mad woman, who turned up the heat a bit more, making it a little hard to breathe at first until the opened ceiling helped to ease the troubles that was brought on by the super heat. Solomon groaned a little from the loud shots he fired that distracted Flame enough where Solomon could get out of her field of vision.

This was it. he needed to make this count. This was the only way he felt they could end this and fearing that he'd deafen her had to be pushed to the back of his mind. he signaled for his teammates to close their ears as he gave a deep inhale. Aiming at Flame, Solomon let loose a blast of ultra sonic sound towards Flame. Solomon continued with this scream for a until the very moment she was incapacitated, taking a step closer towards her in hopes that this was finish her.

[1Hawkeyes]

@King Tai @Crossfire

Flame continued to consume more oxygen as she intensified her burst of flame. She hoped that the heat of the fire would somehow evaporate the glass off of her face. This didn't work very well, only making the liquid gas more viscous and watery. The intense fire managed to melt the bullets, but not as well as before. The bullets hit her, immediately leaving welts on her skin. They had lost their power and toughness after going through the fire. This let some of the fire around Flame fall, but not completely.

Agent barely managed to catch Solomon's signal. She quickly covered her ears as best as she could. Then he unleashed his shout.

At the sonic sound, Flame dropped to her knees and covered her ears. The sound was unbearable. In a desperate attempt to drown out the shout, Flame began to scream. Nothing seemed to stop the pain from Solomon's shout. Finally, the fire completely fell. This was their chance! Agent exploded into an awkward sprint, her ears still covered by her hands. Within feet of the villain, she sprung, uncovering her ears and tackling Flame. It was quite terrible seeing the glass harden over the woman's face, to see the welts swell up on her skin, after all, wasn't Flame still human?

Flame did not struggle against the superhuman at all. Actually, she wasn't conscious at all. Agent did her best to get some of the glass away from Flame's vital points- her eyes, nose, and mouth- but some pieces hardened too quickly. Picking up the villain, Agent stood and walked over to both Reaper and Solomon. As if on cue, sirens could be heard from blocks away, at least by Solomon.

[Crossfire]

@1Hawkeyes@King Tai

"That'd be my cue to leave." Reaper stated simply as the sirens grew closer. He took one last look around, making sure he hadn't left anything of his behind except the spent bullet casings.

Heading out through the back door, he took a moment and (after unloading them) stashed both the shotgun and rifle in a nearby dumpster. Garbage collection wouldn't be for another few days, so they'd be safe there until he could swing back around and collect them. he'd have to leave the van behind too until the cops cleared out of the area a few hours from now. He zipped up his jacket to hide the infamous skull emblazoned on his shirt and walked off down the street, just another face in the crowd.

[King Tai]

@1Hawkeyes@Crossfire

Solomon at least hoped this was enough to bring her down. Seeing the woman drop and cover her ears to the blast of sound, he stopped and watched as Agent went to tackle Flame to the ground. Solomon's face expression changed the moment he could hear the sirens coming. there were some ways away but they were getting louder when Agent walked over with the limped body of Flame. They did it! team work seemingly paid off as Solomon wanted to cheer but was cut short by Reapers statement.

Tilting his head by his actions, Solomon spoke up. "Hey um...nice work?" Watching the older man leaving while turning to Agent. "Should we leave too? I don't want the cops thinking we caused problems..."

[1Hawkeyes]

@Crossfire @King Tai

"Uh," Agent muttered, unsure what to do. She doubted the cops would be able to do much if Flame regained consciousness. Then again, with all of the dead bodies and damage around, what would stop the authorities from pinning everything on the two remaining vigilantes? "We should get out of here," Agent finally decided, dropping Flame to the ground. She looked around what remained of the bank. With all of the damage and some of the money stolen, what good had they actually done? Would it have been better for them to have remained in the shadows while the gang proceeded with the robbery? Agent shook her head. No. Although they weren't able to stop a majority of the crime that took place, they were able to stop Flame. Who knew what kind of trouble she could have caused if they just let her go?

Secretly, Agent was glad that Reaper had already made his mistake. She wouldn't put it past him to take the opportunity to land the killing blow on Flame. The young woman looked down at the unconscious villain. What stopped her from taking Flame's life? If she just killed her now, they wouldn't have to worry about Flame in the future, just like Reaper said about other wrong-doers. It would be so easy to press her boot against Flame's head and... Agent shook her head. What stopped her from taking Flame's life was her morals, her strong belief in "right" and "wrong." Her belief that people could change. She hoped she wouldn't regret sparing Flame later on. She hoped that one day Flame would return, not as a villain, but as a vigilante. Or maybe Flame would return as a law-abiding citizen and conceal her powers from the rest of the world. Agent began to get caught in her own thoughts for a moment, until the dozens of emergency personnel sirens came towards the scene.

"Yeah, let's get out of here!" Agent asserted again, bringing herself back into the real world. She made her exit through the back of the bank. She wasn't sure Solomon would catch up to her, nor did she necessarily want him to. She needed to get away from the bank and so did he if they wanted to avoid getting in trouble.

Once she felt she was far enough, Agent sat in an isolated alleyway and took off her mask. She looked down at it and began to wonder. Why was she even a vigilante? At this point she began to question how much good she actually did. She questioned how much she even made a difference. If the bad guys were just going to keep coming back, why should she keep fighting? At the end of the day she wasn't as cold as Reaper. She couldn't end a life as easily as he could. Sure she could rough up a few people here and there, but to actually take someone's life? But could Reaper always kill without a second thought? Maybe a long time ago he was like her. Maybe something pushed him to kill his first victim. Maybe he killed out of necessity before becoming a vigilante. Or maybe he was born a heartless killer. Regardless, Agent knew she wasn't a killer. At times she even had trouble killing insects that found themselves wondering her home. They didn't mean to intrude on her, they were just looking for food. But if Agent wasn't making a difference then why did she do this? Why become a vigilante?

A tear ran down the young woman's cheek as she continued to question herself and the amount of good she was actually doing. "Hey," she began, her voice just loud enough to let out a soft echoing in the empty alley, "If you can hear me, thank you. If you want to keep doing good and come out of the shadows meet me on the corner of West and Smith Avenue tomorrow night." She had no idea if Solomon's hearing was actually good enough to hear her, especially since she had no idea where he was, but it was worth a shot.

With that, Agent replaced her mask over her face and returned home, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

~~~~~~

The next night, Agent stood in uniform on the corner she mentioned to Solomon the night before. She realized much too late that in her message she forgot to add a time to meet. He said something before about being some sort of butcher, so waited until all of the local meat markets closed to wait outside. If he wanted to meet he would show up eventually. If he didn't show up by about one in the morning, she would continue her patrols like normal.