Location: Michael and Floyd's Condo, San Francisco Time: Early Morning
Paige was infuriated that she had failed to accomplish her goal of murdering Floyd & the girl thus far. It had been a truly irritating thing that had filled her with anger to not have been accomplished yet. Not only that but there were other factors from their lives that challenged their ability to continue surviving and even including those they had eluded contact with the Reaper’s scythe.
Three days had passed since she’d attempted to assassinate the both of them at the hospital in Oakland and now it was time for her to implement the final countermeasure to put an end to their lives. She had a black wig on and was dressed in some typical detective garb. She had two weapons tucked in her rear but otherwise not visible from a frontal view. Banker and Salzaras die today. Paige let a smirk crawl on her face at the thoughts of Floyd & Rita’s bodies riddled with bullets on the ground in a pool of both of those monsters' blood. She’d driven to Floyd’s residence but parked her vehicle a few blocks down. She walked over to the front door and rang the doorbell awaiting an answer. Hopefully, Floyd would come to the door then she’d pop him but if not she was prepared to do whatever it took to find and finish him today. Getting a bit impatient, she knocked a few times and rang the doorbell again.
"Coming!" A loud yet distant shout was heard from the door.
Hurry the fuck up so I can kill you, fucking junkie criminal Paige was roused with anger hearing the sound of someone saying they were coming. The voice didn’t sound like Floyd, but she knew he both consumed & sold many drugs which could explain the altered voice. After a few seconds, Michael opened the door halfway wearing a black t-shirt and basketball shorts.
"What's up?" Unfortunately for her the man that opened the door was not Floyd, one way she was able to tell immediately was that he was far more attractive.
“Oh hello.” Paige dropped the aggressiveness from her voice, wanting to play it safe for now. “I’m looking for an old friend of mine, Floyd Banker. He wouldn't happen to be here, would he?” Paige questioned doing her best not to sound like a cop and adding a tad bit of a flirtatious tone to her speech to give her civilian guise even more authenticity.
"And you are?" The last words trailed some emphasizing a need for an answer. Michael was aware Floyd had his hand in all sorts of activities, so he had to be careful about what he said to who.
Paige’s brow scrunched at the evasiveness she picked up in the tone from this mysterious handsome man’s response. So this guy’s not just eye-candy sitting around Floyd’s house, but he don’t seem like a security guard either. Still I need to play my cards right, let me think about Floyd’s files . “My name’s Lisa.” Paige chimed in with positivity that didn’t fit her character or hatred towards Floyd. She knew Lisa was someone that Floyd had relations with in the past and seeing as they shared the same ethnic appearance decided to pose as her for now. “Look here handsome Floyd knows me, just tell him I stopped by if he’s not here right now I’m visiting and I’d love to catch up with him if I can.” Paige added with a cheeky smile.
"Wait! Lisa? I'm Mike. Michael. Well maybe Floyd never mentioned me, but you're his ex, right?" Of course she was, but why was she all the way out here? "You can chill here for a bit till he gets back. Come on." Michael opened the door up to Paige with a warm smile on his face.
There we go that’s my entry Paige was happy that had worked out. So it seemed this guy was one of Floyd’s friends but perhaps not one tied into his criminal activity. Following Michael into the condo she eyed him up and down with a smile. I don’t think I’ll have too much of a problem letting him live, it’s not as if he can hurt me Paige grinned to herself and took a seat on a couch in the living room. “OH Mike you know Floyd might have mentioned you, truth be told I’m working for a modeling agency now-adays and happened to be talking to Floyd online a bit over the past few weeks, talking about old times, once I got the gig out here I wanted to drop in and surprise him. You know so much is going on in the world nowadays, it makes you re-evaluate your perspective on different things in life, including people & former relationships.” She spoke clearly referencing the altered activity, Lorizilla attack & everything else going on.
"Modeling? Wow. I can definitely see that." He complimented as he walked straight to the coffee table to remove a few odd items that cluttered it. A box of Broken and unbroken light bulbs, a solar powered calculator, and a small tea kettle. There were also a few rechargeable batteries, most having scorch marks. "Let me get this out of the way. I didn't expect company, y'know. What kind of modeling do you do?" He placed most of the things into the box as he spoke.
Paige smiled clearly happy about Mike’s compliment especially since she was taking a liking to him. “Oh thank you, I could say the same about you too, sexy.” Paige decided to let that comment off, wondering how Mike would react. Floyd was on the way back so she didn’t mind having some fun & entertaining herself. She wondered how he’d react especially since she was posing as Floyd’s ex. “Maybe Floyd didn’t tell me about you because he was scared? Ya know that you would take me?'' Paige mused playfully and gave Michael a coy look while briefly seductively licking her lips. A slight chuckle escaped him.
"Maybe." He shrugged, trying to play things cool instead of hot. Lisa wasn't dating Floyd anymore, but engaging with her in the condo the two shared where he could enter at any moment didn't sit well.
“As far as the type of modeling I do nude, it’s what pays the bills and I’ve always been a bit of exhibitionist.” Paige's words captured Michael's full attention. There was a brief silence and his facial expression was marked with intrigue. It couldn't hurt.
"Really?" He said with disingenuine wonder. Prove it.
“Oh you want proof baby.” Paige smirked, she was getting carried away, but she actually found this Michael guy attractive. Plus she was posing as Floyd’s ex not his next so did it really matter if she gave him a strip tease? Hmm naw I might be stirring up trouble I gotta be focused on teasing Floyd’s heart with shells. Paige got up and giggled before sitting back down. “Wow you don’t believe me, I don’t mind sharing but I wanna wait for Floyd if you're his friend sometimes he gets a little jealous even though we’re not together anymore.” Paige stated of course she knew he had something going on with Rita but Lisa wouldn’t have that knowledge so Paige didn’t pretend to either. Michael kept his expression even. He was kind of disappointed.
As they were speaking of Floyd, her heart suddenly skipped a beat or two as she heard knocking on the door. On the other side of the door was Floyd who’d left his key in his room when he left earlier. “Yo Mike open up, I left my key in the room bruh I wasn’t paying attention.” Floyd grumbled he had a bad habit of misplacing things and his keys were a frequent victim of this error. A victim Michael constantly had to tend to. If the keys were a person, Michael and it would have kicked Floyd out a long time ago.
"Coming!" Michael shouted before looking at Paige with . "He has some good timing. We might not have to wait." Michael chuckled as he headed to the door to let Floyd in. "Guess who's here!"
“Hurry up man sometime this year if possible.” Floyd complained even though it was his fault and own irresponsbility that led to him losing his keys in the first place. Paige seemed delighted that Floyd was here and cooed in satisfaction although her mind and thoughts were filled with excitement about realizing her murderous intent towards Floyd.
“Who the hell’s here?” Floyd asked while stepping in, not expecting any company, although he quickly felt a tingling in his head that indicated Robin’s power was manifesting. What the fuck, what’s going onFloyd wondered in fear as his eyes darted across the room before quickly spotting Paige getting up from her chair. “Fuck!! Paige?! You let her in?!”
"Huh? Paige?" Michael turned to the woman with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh don’t blame tall, dark and handsome. I lied about who I was, ya know just like you do all the time.” Paige spoke with malice in her tone as she reached for a gun tucked behind her waist. “Now you die!!!”
Floyd raised his hand and instinctively used his energy powers to unleash an electricity blast on Paige, causing the former cop to wail in pain from the flesh of her abdomen being singed as the blast flung her into the wall behind her with force that caused a loud thud & seemingly knocked her out.
"What the FUCK is happening?!"
“Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!!! Mike, that bitch is the cop I got fired for planting drugs in my car with my dash cam."
"Her?!" Michael pointed at Paige who appeared to be done in. "She's tried to kill… No… No no no no no no. Did we kill a cop in our FUCKING CONDO?!"
Kandahar briefly glanced towards his hand, his own expression crinkling when reminded of the absent fingertip where once a ring had been. A glove hid the stump, but he saw where the tip wilted.
Shir O Khorshed. In retrospect, the words were meaningless now, a psuedo-adoption of a dead and dying culture that was in many respects a world apart from Pashtunwali. But it had been his. The community, everything he had helped to build - he found its loss embodied by his missing fingertip.
Now, who was he? What was he? A shadow. A ghost? No, a vengeful spirit perhaps. Like the rumours spread among the others he'd served with, of mysterious figures that wandered the hills and the mountains, leaving blood and bones in their wake.
Was he even a man, anymore? Not human, not entirely. The term they'd ascribed to those such as him was remarkably sanitised.
Altered. Different. Out of place.
A stranger.
Yes, always a stranger - he'd spent his life as a stranger. In the passes, when his father smuggled arms for the Mujahadeen to fight the Communists. Then, in America - to flee the Taliban as they tore into the withered husk of a nation ruined by war. And once more, when he returned under the American flag as an interpreter for the military, watching as other carrion eaters flocked to the dinner table. Wherever he went, he was a stranger.
So this was, in truth, his natural state - or so it seemed, now he gave it thought. Kandahar's face was ordinary, with no particularly handsome or ugly features that could be ascribed to it. Though a Pashtun, he was sufficiently light-skinned that he could pass among the crowds without standing out. His accent, or specifically his manner of speech, was somewhere between his birthplace and the Sonoran Desert. For all intents and purposes, he was nothing more than another face in the crowd.
Gulbuddin had despised the Russians - the Soviets, as he called them. Despite some arrangements, he had never loaned any trust to their lot - to the slavs. That, Kandahar understood - the old man had known Afghanistan before the Communists had thrown it into war, mourned its lost potential. It was something he could never have forgiven. Kandahar, for all it was worth, could sympathise with that position now more than ever.
For all that he'd known, the slavs were definitely involved in what had happened to the community they'd built, striking after the storm just as the plague took hold. The slavs had taken so much and more, their dogs for hire having chained him in an effort to beat the information out of him.
When that failed, they pumped their poison into him, humiliated him, made him lesser. Withdrawal had been a painful ordeal, a torment of the mind that set in well after he'd clawed his way out of the grave. Even now, he felt the pangs of the opiate's absence - the temptation to fall back into that pit and curl inwards to sleep.
It could not go unanswered. Would not.
He stood outside the building, a rather unassuming looking place that passed for a bar or a private club,with a broad signage. The Dneiper Tears. He'd seen it once, before the slavs had attacked them. It held significance to them, as the bakery had to him. Small wonder they'd congregate here, especially in such troubling times.
As he stepped inside, the obnoxious thrum of some metallic band filled his ears, the singers delivering lyrics in some screeching tone in one of the slav dialects. The body count in here was a little lower than he'd anticipated, but given wider events it was not such a great surprise - the ongoing outbreak of plague had forced varying quarantine measures, restricting movement. Still, it was enough for what he intended.
To make things right, whole again. Or get a start at it, anyhow.
Approaching the bar counter, Kandahar threw an upward nod to the barman who only barely seemed to recognise him - and slapped a crumpled wad of dollar bills on the polished surface, "That one there, there - the whole thing." He jabbed a finger at a suitably hefty-looking bottle.
It took about half a minute, but the man shrugged and did as asked, leaving it and a shot glass in front of him. Another drinker was seated a few stools away, their brow creasing as they tried to get the measure of him.
Tightening his fingers around the neck of the bottle, he realised that his neighbour's face was one he recognised.
The feeling was mutual, by the look of his creasing features and tensing posture, "You-" Kandahar didn't give him any time to react, swinging the bottle against the side of his temple. He felt the shock of it running back up his arm, saw the man crumple against the counter and topple over some stools in a heap behind him.
Like a wasp's nest that had been set alight, the denizens of the room began to stir from whatever they'd been doing, clutching at a corkscrew, pool cue or just throwing up their hands, ready to throw some punishment down on this interloper that had nearly caved their friend's head in.
Once voice barked behind him, "Stupid whoreson, should've stayed at your bakery!", a patron had circled around to the entrance, sliding the lock shut. Good. No exit for them, either. Kandahar didn't give them time to react, throwing the bottle at the closest of the men and charging forward, driving a hard elbow into their jaw before they could swing the pool cue at him. Another, wielding a corkscrew, tried to drive it into his throat from the side but he'd moved just enough that it merely grazed his jacket, giving him a window to shove him into the pool table behind him.
Suddenly, a weight was on his back - a larger man grappling, restraining his arms in an almost vice-like grip and hauling him back, leaving him open to the cue-man, who started raining blow after blow upon him. He felt his own teeth crack, the coppery tang of blood washing over his tongue - and perhaps it was the adrenaline surging through him, or perhaps it was the curse the plague had left behind, but he hadn't felt the corkscrew punture through his ribs as the other man recovered.
Kandahar spat blood into the corkscrew-wielder's face, blinding him for just a second - it gave him a window to drive his knee forward into the cue-man's groin, and slam the back skull against the nose of the big man restraining him, hard enough to break it. That worked enough, giving him a window to pull free - and he threw his weight forward like a man possessed, sending a hard strike for the corkscrew-wielder's temple, then another until he crumpled over and didn't get back up. Cue-man came up once again and got glassed in the eyes for his troubles, which left only one-
Kandahar felt the larger man grasping for him once again, raining more blows down upon his head in a dizzying, white-hot rage. This time, he lost his footing and was forced to the ground, the big man's weight atop and pinning hin down. As they grappled, he could feel the big man clutching for the pistol that he'd kept concealed just beneath his waistline but had been jarred loose in the commotion. With no alternative, he lunged forward and sank his teeth into the man's throat, as hard as he could, and a muffled shriek loosed from his lips.
Kandahar spat a chunk of torn tissue off to one side, snorting as the bigger man rolled off him...
It had taken a few minutes to wash the blood away, giving him time to contemplate and collect his thoughts.
Kandahar's fingers tightened around the faucet, closing it shut. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror one last time, finding almost a stranger staring back at him, then fastened up his jacket to hide the crimson blotch which had formed around the gash in his shirt.
Stupid. Reckless. The big man had almost stolen his pistol from him. Not that it would've mattered, but a gunshot would've drawn undue attention. Slowed him down. And considering the position that the government were taking on his kind, it was not a situation he cared to deal with.
In the front end of the bar, the tang of blood, sweat and piss lingered in the air. And alcohol - in the absence of gasoline, he'd poured whatever flammable spirits he could find across the floor. A few crates and barrels in the backroom, now overturned, had served as ample substitute - and the wooden furniture here would catch quickly enough.
It was time he made his exit, Kandahar decided. He'd made sure his hosts weren't in a position to walk away from what they'd done and had taken what he wanted, payment for services rendered in the form of a dufflebag slung over his shoulder.
With a lighter generously donated by the big man, Kandahar lit the end of a soaked rag that he'd stuffed into a full bottle and tossed it at the wooden counter - peeling out of the building's rear exit just as the smell of smoke begin to reach his nostrils.
Michael, Paige, and Floyd Michael and Floyd's Condo, San Francisco Early Morning Part 2 Bitch!
Floyd couldn’t help but to plant his face into his palm with an audible smack while letting out an irritated groan growl hybrid to audibly demonstrate his immense displeasure of the situation they’d been thrust into now with Paige’s body sprawled against the wall with blood leaking from her abdomen. “Yeah, well, and FORMER cop who got fired for committing a hate crime on camera,” Floyd said pointing out her charges albeit still very clearly frustrated.
Yeah we did, and I’m the one that launched the blast on her, oh my god. I got cuffed by the feds three days ago and now I’ve got a dead officer in the living room . “This isn’t good, not at all fuck” The adrenaline rush that caused him to strike her on impulse was starting to wane and be replaced with rapidly growing fear and anxiety about the implications of what they or rather he just did. “Man I’m so fucked look at her, that ain’t no bullet wound, I’ve never killed a white person before, especially not a white GIRL."
"Fuck." Michael let out once more as he shook his head. He sighed as he took a few steps towards Paige. "She had a gun and you just hit her first. So we're good, right? Shit… Why out of all the fucking powers you have did you have to use the insta-kill one." Michael was taking out his frustration on Floyd.
Floyd just sighed as Michael made a point of his reckless power selection. “I dunno Robin’s danger sense kicked in and she was going for blood, or maybe it’s cause I’m next to you and just thought of your power first.” Floyd didn’t really have a good answer, the truth was it was just a matter of instinct. “Yeah we’re good except for using powers is illegal, and this clearly looks like an altered killed her, we’re too young to go to jail for murder, especially murder of an ex-cop. Man, I’m sorry I just didn’t wanna die or for you to die, she was probably gonna shoot you next think about it! Now what we can’t let anyone find out.”Floyd said, still panicked looking to Michael for direction.
"What?" Michael raised his eyebrows and pointed at Paige again. "Use one of your cataloged powers to get rid of her then. And just so you know, we didn't use our powers in public." He took a few steps away from Paige's body.
Floyd briefly folded the unfolded his arms after pouting. “Man I’m not Hiro Nakamura bruh what do you mean “Get rid of her” I just gave a suggestion, we dig up a hole, pour some gasoline in said hole, toss her in it, toss in a match, then close up the whole.” Floyd finished dictating his plan on getting rid of Paige and ditching any hint of potential legal problems six feet under.
Floyd pressed his thumb & index finger against his chin thinking of what power to use to deal with the Paige situation. That’s when Paige leaped up gun in hand and pulled the trigger shooting Floyd in the chest who yelled, Paige then pulled the trigger again shooting Floyd a second time who stumbled back and collapsed into a table behind him as blood rushed from his wounds and he even coughed some out.
“I told you to get ready to die, I was even nice enough to extend your last few minutes of life. Which just shows that I’m the better of us two as you were quick to kill me had I not been special like you.” Paige grinned as her body regenerated, leaving no trace of injury from Floyd’s power. It seemed she’d forcibly prevented her body from automatically regenerating after getting hit by Floyd’s blast to get the jump on them.
“F..F...fuck….your altered.” Floyd wheezed as he coughed up some more blood while Paige laughed and pointed towards Michael.
“So that leaves the question of you, I overheard you talking while you thought I was dead, and I find much of what you two boys were discussing interesting, you know I do think you're handsome, but I think I have to kill you too, what do you think.” Paige teased Michael as she clenched her gun tight and maintained a firm grip on it as she debated on whether to kill Mike or not... Floyd meanwhile lay on the ground wheezing in pain gasping for breath when a third shot rang out and into Floyd’s neck causing him to collapse as Paige laughed being the shooter.
“And the story of Floyd Banker comes to a well-needed close, hmmm now the question for you. Does your story end here or not, come on, give me a reason why I should or shouldn’t.” Paige had her mind made up but wanted to hear Michael's retorts.
Floyd getting shot let alone dying had caused Michael to actually freeze. It was that fast. From arguing with him to watching him lay in a pool of his own blood. His eyes landed on Paige as he tried to maintain an ounce of composure. He sighed and shook his head before raising his hands as if to surrender before electricity shot from his palms and into Paige's chest. She screamed in agony but found herself unable to squeeze the trigger. The effect of Michael's attack was different as Paige's body jerked and shook in place instead of being thrown back. Smoke began to rise from her body as Michael hit her with a continuous stream of electricity. The rounds left in the magazine of her pistol primed and exploded, blowing off both her hands. Michael stopped his attack when Paige ceased her screaming and fell back, her body stiff from her muscles locking up.
"That's why you should have." Michael taunted as he stepped over her body. He knew she could possibly get back up, but she didn't have a weapon to fire. But what the hell was he supposed to do now. Continuing to put her down wasn't going to last very long. And then there was Floyd. Dead.
“AAAAAAH”! Screaming left from Floyd who’s eyes shot open and suddenly he coughed up blood. The dead or rather not dead anymore altered black man shot upwards as his wounds closed up and his body regenerated. Being exposed to Paige he absorbed her ability narrowly before she loaded several bullets into his body. While the pain from getting shot up was immense he noticed this power not only allowed him to regenerate but also made it so the pain he received subsided far quicker than normal. “Holy shit I’m alive! I regenerated, just like Claire!” Floyd exclaimed with a child-like excitement that had thus far only manifested three times prior when he initially figured out his power, when he got flight and when he got Mike’s power.
“You….copied me...what the fuck.” Paige grunted her body still tense from Michael's attack as her body began to regenerate from the damage she’d sustained.
"Yeah that's his thing. He copies powers and didn't fucking die… luckily, fuck." Michael's heart was racing right now.
Why won’t he lose, why won’t he die, it’s always something even before these damn powers Paige groaned internally finally starting to see she was no match to take down Floyd. Floyd lunged forward shooting an electric blast at the back of her head causing her to scream in pain as the attack overwhelmed her again rendering her unconscious.
“Crazy bitch, fuck I’m alive but so is she, what do we do?! We can’t kill her, literally ah man this is ruining my just got regeneration vibe.” Floyd complained ecstatic that he acquired one of his favorite powers, and was still alive but still stressed about the situation with Paige which had grown worse.
"Tie her up. That's what we're gonna do." Michael said right off the bat. He walked out of the room. "You both can't kill each other, so maybe you can both hash whatever bullshit out. That or we call the cops. Don't you have a restraining order on her or something?" Michael asked loudly as he dug into one of the kitchen drawers for a spare cord.
“Hash out the bullshit?! Are you serious, this bastard put my sister in the hospital! He took advantage of her addiction to painkillers and sold her oxycontin with fentanyl in it! As we speak she’s laying in a hospital bed fighting for her life after an overdose. She’s been in a coma for the past two months and I’ve been trying to make sure that at least he leaves the earth before her!” Paige barked back bitterly, finally offering up an explanation as to why she was fueled with hatred towards Floyd and why she’d been trying to ruin him in so many ways since her sister’s overdose.
“What?! This is about some other bitch?” Floyd said flabbergasted not even monitoring his disrespectful tone. “Look it ain’t my fault if she almost croaked on the pills, she’s a junkie, she woulda found drugs with or without me,'' Floyd said while keeping an eye on Paige whose body was finished regenerating. “Hurry up Mike she healed again, we need to tie her up now before we figure out if we call the cops on her.” Floyd retorted as he awaited Mike’s return from the kitchen.
"This is some irony… You came to kill Floyd, but made him immortal." Michael re-entered the living room with two black extension cords. He looked between the two of them, wondering how he got pulled into this shit. "You can't kill him now, so what's the plan now? You should be with your sister instead of trying to kill this guy. It won't fix a thing. You'll just be in prison… and I'm guessing you don't age so if you serve life..." Michael shrugged as he approached Paige. She would know what he meant.
“Ah man, why I don’t age either?! I mean I’m not trying to die, but...I’ve seen enough stories about staying young while everyone you care about gets older around you.” Floyd was struck with the harsh reality of this power and had a clear understanding of being careful what you wish for. Floyd hit Paige with a quick burst of electricity beforehand to allow Mike to tie her up with no struggle.
“That’s funny you're going to call the cops on me?! I am the cops! Good luck, I’ll say you kidnapped me, raped me, whatever I have to, as long as it ruins your lives!” Paige spat back showing that she was going to remain hostile towards them no matter what! “You almost killed my sister! I won’t stop until you feel the same pain I feel, how would you feel Mike if someone sold your siblings drugs that put them in a coma and the dealer was walking around living life!” Paige yelled towards Mike.
"I'd want to fuck them up… But then what? The coma's not gone, and even if your sister recovers, you're in prison or at best on the run. You can't even kill him anymore… You two might be the last people on the planet. Think about that." Michael answered. "Call the cops, Floyd. She isn't gonna be reasonable."
“The last two people...on...earth” The words Mike spoke stung Paige, she realized that becoming here & granting her ability to her enemy she’d made him eternal. “No..No..I didn’t know!” Paige responded distraught at the gift she gave Floyd.
“Thanks, Paigey! I wasn’t expecting to pick up this trick, but I really like it. There’s actually a few people who want my head on a stick, so honestly, I should thank you. I feel a little bad about calling the cops but nah you just shot me and tried to shoot my homie.” Floyd decided as he took out his phone to contact the authorities.
“Hold on boys, don't call the crime catchers.” Another voice entered the fray causing Floyd to say huh before his cell phone flew out his hand and hit the floor. Floyd jumped up summoning electrical energy in his right hand before he himself was hoisted into the air and flung across the room crashing into a table that collapsed. From nowhere a woman materialized from thin air with a devious grin on her face, it was the same woman from the news that had rampaged through San Francisco, Lori Martinez. “Ah I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation you all were having and I believe I have a solution that will satisfy all parties,” Adora spoke calmly & confidently before using her powers to fling Michael through the air away from the tied up Paige as she her-self flew over to Paige and smiled before addressing the boys. “Do you mind if I take this gal off your hands?”
Michael recovered from hitting the wall and aimed his hand out to fire a beam of light at Adora's face to blind her and maybe even burn the fuck out of her corneas.
"Fuck no! Floyd let's get her!"
“Yo, that’s the bitch who fucked up the city and stepped on everyone making shit hard for all of us,” Floyd yelled out in realization upon seeing who Lori was, while Adora screamed out at the photonic assault Michael unleashed on her. Floyd sprung into action and launched a stream of fire at Adora eliciting another scream from her & Paige. “Oooh Double Hit! That’s more points!!!!” Floyd shot back at Michael excitedly.
Adora shot back a blast of electricity into Floyd, hurtling him across the room, then unleashed a telekinetic wave towards Michael. The malicious killer followed it up by unleashing a brutal sonic scream, unleashing a destructive concussive wave that also targeted Michael, Floyd, and Paige’s eardrums to cause them immense pain. Paige let out a blood-curdling scream being the closest one to Adora, while Michael and Floyd joined the chorus of audio assault victims as blood poured from their ears.
Michael gritted his teeth, now kneeling in one knee and clasping his hands over his ears. She seemed to have just as many powers as Floyd or possibly more, but Michael wasn't going to just give up. With one hand he fired a continuous stream of electricity at Adora.
“Thank you, darling, but I’ve got other matters to attend to.” Adora opened her palm and allowed the continuous stream of electricity to be drawn into her. She hummed victoriously whilst simultaneously feeling her own power & stamina rising from absorbing Michael’s electricity. Floyd rose up to rejoin the fight only to scream in pain.
“Oh, my gahhh!!!!” Floyd couldn’t even finish talking as the pain was so intense, Adora using her command over nerves as a weapon against him. She’d lowered his resistance to pain to almost nothing, whilst causing him to feel like several pins & needles were being pushed into his skin violently. “As for you big boy.” Adora temporarily dialed up Michael's sensitivity to pain while slowing down his reaction speed via nerves and used her heat vision to send a blast directly at his chest.
“What the hell do you want with me!!!” Paige roared, still tied up, as Adora easily ripped the chord open and placed her hand around Paige’s neck unleashing her power on her. Paige screamed out in pain as Adora drained her rapidly before releasing her grip. “DELICIOUS!” Adora exclaimed excitedly while Paige fell to the ground weakly.
“What...did you do to me…” She remarked struggling to speak as Adora used TK to levitate her then twisted her hand effortlessly, snapping Paige’s neck killing the now powerless altered. Releasing her invisible hold, the lifeless body of the former cop hit the floor of the condo with a thud and she also neutralized the effects of her nerve powers on the boys. “See, was that so bad I helped you guys out, luckily, really VERY luckily for you two I already have electric powers so I don’t need a second or third helping.” Adora laughed as she faded away from visibility, phased through the ceiling & flew away.
Floyd was sprawled out on the ground exhausted from the scuffle with Adora and healing from the damage she’d dealt him. “Holy shit...she’s strong as fuck...fuck...oh my god...bro...Paige...she’s actually dead...I think that Lori bitch stole her powers.” Fuck she only saw me using Mike’s power otherwise she might have done the same to me too..oh shit
Michael lay unconscious with a scorched chest leaned up against the wall shallowly breathing.
Floyd rushed over to Michael and started shaking him. “Mike Mike Mike! Wake up! Are you okay, stay with me! That Lori chick, she killed Paige, like really killed her, somehow she took her power and she killed her forreal.” Floyd communicated with his roommate after going to shake him awake to explain how the situation with the vengeful former cop in the living room concluded.
Collab Between The Man Emperor and Chulance Setting Things Right
Jace was ready to get this over with, they had the targets the two meth dealers, and he had Sanzhar tag along for this mission it would be simple. He planned on being able to handle most of the assassination but wanted Sanzhar as back-up, plus if Adam was watching h wanted it to be known that there would be real trouble if they messed with them further. The two dealers seemed to be parked outside of a bar periodically coming outside for multiple smoke breaks indicating that they were doing that in tandem with copious drinking outside for stress. Jace had slipped on his Shade mask & gear.
After about an hour stake-out, the two somewhat drunk dealers left the bar and got in their car starting it up. "Huh well watching what they do ain't making me feel any worst about what we gotta do." Jace retorted referring to the fact they'd monitored them consuming alcohol before driving. As the meth dealers swerved out the parking lot Jace put his foot on the gas to pull out as well and start following, hoping to get them to an area that was isolated. "Alright we can't make any moves till we're on a more open road, but maybe if we get somewhere kinda empty you can metal spike there tires and I can run up and take care of them in seconds."
"Okay." Sanzhar nodded sheepishly, peering towards the car that they were following. "Never have I thought that doing something as noble as saving a life would eventually lead to me participating in the ending of two of them."
He still wasn't okay with this, but at the very least, Sanzhar wasn't going to be the one dealing the mortal blows. He'll just spike the tires and look away...
Yes. That's right.
Look away.
"Right... I can do it. Spike the tires. You go out and go in. Then it's done."
“Thanks for tagging a-long and I’m sorry about this. I mean I do “Work” like this but it don’t feel good passing this burden to others I’m just glad they fit my usual target MO.” Jace wasn’t happy about being manipulated into killing, but he’d done his research & spoke to his connects to confirm they were prolific meth dealers who’d been rising in their success with the border closures making it harder for cartels to traffic other drugs that couldn’t be made as easily in the states.
“Okay I think we’re about to get somewhere ah wait there making a friggin detour.” Jace groaned as the two inebriated men pulled into a shady motel parking lot and both hurried out the door with a briefcase in hand. Jace paused for a moment but slouched back in the car.
“It’s a fairly empty motel, but this ain’t the place, we need to get somewhere with almost nobody around, here take this.” Jace reached into the glove compartment of his newly purchased black charger and handed Sanzhar a mask.
A mask. Right. Sanzhar needed to conceal his identity as he aided in this assassination. "Thanks..." He took the mask from Jace's hand. "So... we'll wait for them in the dark, yes?"
"Yes but not in this hotel anyone could be looking from any direction." Jace pointed this out he wanted this done right in a way they couldn't be implicated. "But there taking a long time, what do you think was in that bag, maybe there in here making a dael at this shtty mote." Jace pondered.
"Drugs, maybe a million in cash." Sanzhar shrugged. "You know, I wouldn't mind if I... uh, take the drug money. Would have been from ill begotten sources, but I'd use it for... good stuff."
Sanzhar wasn't even sure what he would do with a million. Maybe leave this country and head for Russia or China. Anywhere that these laws against the Altered won't reach him.
"Well... I think they're working it out." Sanzhar continued on. "Or they're debating just how much was promised. Typical dealings in the dark, yeah."
Jace couldn’t help but crack a grin at Sanzhar’s comments, maybe this guy wasn’t all too different from him after all. “Well the way I see it taking out people like this is doing the community a service, and I’m not getting a paycheck, so I usually “Seize” the “rewards” as my “compensation”. Shit if I don’t only other person that’s gonna get it is they criminal friends when they find the bodies or th cops who can be just as dirty sometimes.” Jace said explaining his mantra and basically justification for taking drug cash from the violent dealers he killed.
“Although a million In cash your watching way too many movies or you must be planning for us to take on drug-lords instead of street dealers. You see this run down motel, the car there driving and the bar there drinking at, they don’t got no million in cash,” Jace couldn’t help but laugh at Sanzhar’s innocence not knowing the logistics about illicit dealing & the real financial figures associated with them not the ones in movies. “These guys are pushing meth which ain’t that expensive, the most money we’re running into with these boys is 10-30 thousand, maybe 40.” Jace concluded based off his past experience & knowledge of the meth dealing game.
“I can tell you haven’t been around this type of stuff or known people in it. Your a lucky man, me on the other hand I haven’t been as fortunate. I was born & raised around this type of shit, had people in my family slanging dope my whole life, I can remember times in my childhood as early as five or six being around drugs, guns & stacks of cash.” Jace said reminiscing on his damaged childhood that came from being raised impoverished around people willing to do anything to escape their conditions.
"Oh, God." Sanzhar looked at Jace with surprise. "That's awful. I mean, yeah, that's terrible. I am indeed lucky. I was like... five when my family left Kazakhstan due to religious persecution by the government. I didn't get to experience the horrible side of life. The worst thing I got are groupmates that don't pull their own weight in projects."
Reclining back against the seat, Sanzhar observed the car of the drug dealers. "Well... I think they're taking their sweet ass time."
"Hahaha yeah don't worry though the psychological damage of all. that has long since been confronted." Jace explained not wanting to delve too much into the anguish such an upbringing had on a young mind. "Everyone's different you had people who didn't pull their weight and I saw people dying, and had to lay on the floor and avoid stray bullets while doing my home-work." Jace reflected on everything he went through to be successful.
Jace noticed the door they were watching was opening the dealers coming out, then both turned around and went back inside as they were called back in. Jace groaned and rolled his eyes. “I hate drug dealers, I swear whenever there inside they take so long.” Jace sighed and slumped in the chair it seems the dealers had forgotten something.
"Maybe they got tipped off." Sanzhar shrugged in a moment of cynicism. "And we're going to get peppered with machine gun fire, which, for your information, I can't really stop since I need to see what I'm using to metal bend it..."
Nothing happened, though. Not yet, anyway. "This is getting a little banal. Maybe they just kill each other because they can't agree on who gets how much."
“Yeah that would be a miracle right about now, but.”
“Get out the fucking car motherfuckers! I’m tired of playing games! The fact that I even had to come out here is proof of that, but I want my god damn money now!!!” A woman’s voice was heard screaming from behind the car Jace & Sanzhar where in. Jace grunted in anger figuring out that something outside of the plan was about to go down.
“Okay maybe she wasn’t talking to us…when she said get out the car…” Right as Jace said that the car to the left of them caught on fire and went up in flames. Jace’s eyes widened as the woman barked out another command.
“GET OUT THE FUCKING CAR NOW OR IM GOING TO LIGHT YOU GUYS ON FIRE NOW!!!!!! FIVE, FOUR, THREEE!!!!!!!!!, TWO!!!!!!!”
"Alright, fine!" Sanzhar pushed himself out of the car, getting away from the metal coffin of a fiery death just as the countdown went down to one.
"Another Altered?" Sanzhar whispered to Jace even as the thought of going up in flames crossed his mind. "That's... unfortunate."
“Hey Hey Hey Hey STOP!” Jace said rolling out the car at the same time as Sanzhar. A column of flame surged past the vehicle nearly enveloping the car but just barely missing. A hispanic woman was standing there with literal fir gathered around her hands. “Yeah I think we can safely assume it’s another altered.” Jace retorted to Sanzhar in a hushed tone.
“What the fuck are you two whispering about?”! Rita bellowed upset, it seemed she emerged from a BMW that was parked not too far away from her with a black man sitting in the drives seat texting on his phone. Rita commanded all the attention to herself shooting a fire ball past Sanzhar lighting a car to the right of him on fire. “I’m done playing games, I’m about ready to burn all of you fuckrs to the ground over my money, give me the 50 grand now or I’ll burn you all alive! You people think this is a game passing the money back & forth between you all, Rob & Nate, you think I’m stupid huh?!”
Jace was utterly confused, Adam had sent them to go after two meth dealers whom he claimed he owed money too, but now this mysterious woman had showed up wielding flames asking him 7 Sanzhar for the money. He gave Sanzhar a confused look and dared to whisper to him again. “What the hell is she talking about? 50 grand, why is she targeting us?”
"Oh, come now, let's talk about this civilly. You have the wrong people, lady." Sanzhar replied, putting one of his arms to the air, his attention locked towards one of the other cars that was parked in there. If only it was closer, he'd be able to tear off a tiny bit and use it to bludgeon this fire woman's fiery temper at the face, but that just can't happen now.
He didn't get to answer Jace's question, as Sanzhar had a good guess why they were being targeted.
"I believe you're looking for those guys that went in that motel." He motioned towards the place. "They had a suitcase, suspicious, yes? I wish I had that kind of money, but alas, I have none to give."
“Civilly…….I willl BURN YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!! DONT YOU EVER RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME ABOUT MY MONEY AGAIN!!!!” Rita screamed instantly using her powers over flame to launch a medium strength blast of fire at Sanzhar’s leg , true to her word making sure the attack was aimed close to his privates without actually touching them, a warning shot to show she was both unhinged & yet very serious about getting her hands on her money.
Fuck this ain’t going good, you can’t talk to someone that mad and tell them you don’t have shit even if you don’t have shit that’s how you get killed quick Jace winced seeing Riya’s rage, and also Sanzhar’s attempts to talk down someone who thought they stole 50 grand from them. Jace used his powers to increase his strength and stepped forward. “Look.”
“Woah Woah Woah” Rita spewed a blast of fir that singed Jace’s right foot and started a fire -infront of him. “Where are you stepping to! You need to step to that car y’all hopped out of, and give me the fucking money, the little gig is up. All of you motherfuckers work for Adam, see I beens following you PUTAS for the past few hours, and you guys been following Adam’s other guys making sure all ya little deals with MY METH by the way go good, so you tell me one more fucking lie after I been following you myself for the past three hours and I will BURN ALL THE SKIN off your bones, now where is the FUCKING MONEY!"
Jace groaned realizing that if Rita had been following them while they were following the dealers, she thought they were all together. He hoped Sanzhar would be able to figure out why Rita had bunched them all together, and wished they’d attacked the dealers earlier because it least Rita wouldn’t be trying to melt them.
"Adam, the one who blackmailed us into killing a bunch of dealers in exchange for us not being exposed as being Altered?" Sanzhar frowned, seemingly not minding that a ball of fire had been shot a little too close to him for comfort. He then whispered to Jace, "She must have thought we were a convoy. That's unfortunate."
All Jace wanted to do was get his hands on the footage Adam had of them, when it clicked in his head who they were facing. “Yo…yo…this ain’t good…I know this chick she’s Rita Salzaras, her & her brother are the head of the Salzaras Cartel, the most powerful cartel in the United States & Mexico, after the energy plague closed the border they are the only cartel whose been able to smuggle drugs into the country... rumor is by using altered…..there’s probably several hundred armed men in this area alone that’ll come after us if we make a move on her, our families will be kidnapped, and burned alive, chopped into pieces, fed to sharks or piranhas….” Jace started rambling straining to whisper about the various misdeeds & misfortune going against a super cartel would cause.
“You got something to say buddy enough I said stop talking now die.” Rita raised hr and and unleashed a massive torrent of flame towards Jace who pushed Sanzhar away using his strength to toss Sanzhar in the air over four different cars onto the back of a parked pick-up truck as Jace’s entire body was engulfed in flames.
The black guy came running out the car putting his phone in his pocket. He was wearing a regular black face-mask but other than hat had no protection. “Rita!!!!!! You just set some else on fire!!! Didn’t we talk about this in couple’s therapy, you can’t just go burning people up!!! My money, you fucked up MY money, I told you not to set people on fire over MY money unless they attack us first.” Floyd yelled towards Rita, upset about this situation. He was pissed that Rita had been convinced to loan money to meth dealers in the first place, but he didn’t want to be tied into multiple super powered murders.
“Baby I’m sorry, but I had to kill him he wouldn’t shut up. Look I didn’t burn the funny looking man over there that got thrown into the truck.” Rita pointed towards Sanzhar whom had been flung into a car, causing Floyd to rush over to the guy who’d been thrown into the bed of a pick-up, Floyd pulling out a gun and pointing it at Sanzhar.
“Hey Hey Hey! Don’t move, you crooked nose dusty clothes wearing bitch. You see my girl gotta temper, now I’m a lil more patient, all we wants to know is where the money is, really it’s MY money, just tell us where the money is and we won’t kill you.” Right as Floyd said that Rita screamed a Jace emerged from the fire blast and charged Rita tackling her and throwing her across the parking lot flinging her into door of the BMW. Jace then pulled out his own gun and opened fire on the motel room the meth dealers were in, intending to get rid of everyone so him & Sanzhar could escape alive.
"Ah, shut it, I have no idea what you're talking about..." Sanzhar shook his head. His body ached as he had been thrown with quite a bit of force towards the bed of the pickup truck, but other than that, he'd be fine.
"But, okay, I surrender." Sanzhar raised both of his hands to the air, seemingly giving up in the face of the mundane weapon.
But he didn't. Both of his hands clenched into fists, and invisible forces, for the lack of a better world, shook the pistol with such violence that its components just came apart.
"And for the record." Sanzhar stood up, patting down his clothes as the crunched up remains of the pistol merged into a sphere of metal floating on his hand. "My clothes are not dusty. I am very tidy." Any sudden move on Floyd's part would be met by the crunched up sphere of metal, which would be, without the shadow of a doubt, a painful affair. Sanzhar slowly backed away, keeping his eyes trained on the other man as Jace opened fire.
Every moment brought him closer to the brink.
“Bruh where the fuck is my money!!!!!!!” Floyd was raising his voice towards Sanzhar, and starting to see why Rita had set the other guy on fire. He hated when people lied to him, and from the intel him & Rita had received the money they were looking for was in the area and these guys had it. After all he’d been the driver following Jace & Sanzhar who were following Rob & Nate.
“Gaaah” Floyd yelped as it seemed some unseen force had crushed his weapon, or rather dismantled it causing his eyes to widen. Oh shit this little runt has powers! Floyd mentally rolled his eyes as it seemed this situation was getting more difficult by the second, just like his girl these guys seemed to have powers as well, he was up against Magneto and his girl had got flung across the parking lot by Hercules.
“You bastard, you think you can just still my money because you got fucking super powers!!!” Floyd yelled as the sound of gun-shots going off came from inside the cheap motel room followed by Nate & Rob running outside the room yelling “WE GOT IT!”
“YO!!!!! YOU GOT WHAT?!!!!!” Floyd screamed as Jace rushed over to Floyd slamming him into the ground. “Stay down motherfucker” As Rita rose up gathering flames Jace tore off part o the trunk of the SUV and flung it into Rita knocking her into the ground with a loud thud. He then raised his own gun and opened fire on Nate & Rob. The two dealers were gunned down with a quickness their bullet riddled bodies hitting the ground whilst also dropping a bag now full of money. Floyd meanwhile had tapped into Jace’s power dramatically raising his strength. & durability rising up he grabbed Jace kneed him in the guts and tossed him across the parking lot sending Jace flying through the window of a motel room causing screams to be heard from the occupants.
“That’s for Rita you stupid motherfucker!!!” Floyd yelled then turned to Sanzhar firing a blast of electricity at the metal sphere he’d summoned knocking it away, then launching a second blast of electricity Into Sanzhar’s chest before running over to the gunned down dealers to retrieve the bag of money.
"Sutka blyat." Sanzhar was now lying down on the ground, recovering from the shock of electricity that had been shot at him. It hurt quite a lot, even more than getting going towards the back of a pick up truck. "Wow, that... hurts..."
Groaning, he stood up, he watched as Floyd ran towards the gunned down dealers in a quest for stolen money. "When will these faaaaaaaaaahking idiots realize that we're not carrying any damn money?" Getting hit by all that electricity was truly a shock. It was like a taser, but amplified twice over and all over everything. This won't be the most pleasant of days.
"I hate everything, I hate my life, I hate this place, I hate this city, arrrgh! Damn it." Jace was in there, and he could not in good conscience leave him. Sanzhar could jump in the car now and drive away, but he won't. Not without the Shade. Spotting several pipes lying around, Sanzhar picked them up, bending them into metallic restraints just as he had done with the trashbin a day or so ago. With chilling precision, pipes-turned-cuffs snaked towards Floyd, intent on knocking him down unto the ground before entrapping his wrists. Capture, and then dig the metals into the concrete. Same old trick, it should work... It's supposed to!
Upon learning the truth of the financial situation with Rita and her cash plus her family this evening he’d been upset. So much so that he almost regretted saving her from the assassins coming after them at the hospital, but he still had a soft spot for her in his heart.
“LETS GOO!!!! PAYDAY! FinallyI had to go through ALL OF this SHIT to get MY MONEY back.” Floyd yelled out louder then he should have, but what everyone didn’t know except for Rita apparently was that this was his money! He wasn’t a meth dealer, he was just trying to get back his own money which had been taken from him at all costs. The fact that there was more in the bag then when he lost it was cherry & icing on top of the situation.
Right as he was getting ready to leave he was hit from behind. “Umph” Floyd was furious at the metallic attack from behind, moving metal struck him from behind planting his face into the ground causing him to loose his grip on the bag. The same metal that had been used to whack him from behind had formed into cuffs around his wrists which had dug into the ground. “Oh my fucking god… enough of this!!!!!”
Floyd screamed summoning microwave energy which caused the metallic cuffs to melt right when Jace had emerged from the motel room having to knock the two people inside of out to avoid them calling the cops, but by now the sounds of sirens were approaching. He’d came out just in time to see Floyd melting the cuffs. “What fucking power…does this guy have.”
“The power to get my damn money.” Floyd yelled as he caused a motorcycle to zoom forward and ram into Jace’s back locking him to the ground while also flying into the air then flying back down slamming into Jace’s back causing an audible crack to be heard from the super strong body slam. “Get your own damn money you fucking thieves.” Floyd yelled out as he flew over to the bag of money grabbing it, then flew over to Rita, and the BMW. He slung his unconscious girl over his shoulder, picked up the BMW with his other hand before turning invisible and flying away with the cash, car, and girl.
Jace winced and groaned in pain getting up from being kneed in the back by Floyd coming from the sky, grabbing onto the front of a car to help himself up to his feet. He heard a big sonic boom in the sky that was Floyd’s flight breaking the sound barrier. Seeing the two dead dealers, and money gone he yelled out for Sanzhar and jumped in the car, getting on the passenger side and placing the in the middle. “Come on we gotta go, I can’t drive, my back is killing me, fuck…we gotta go!!!”
"Okay, okay!" Sanzhar rushed towards the driver's seat and placed his hands on the wheel. He breathed deeply as he hadn't drove in a while, but he'll manage. He pressed down on the accelerator and hightailed out of the place, leaving the carnage and chaos behind. "That looks terrible." Sanzhar said, glancing towards Jace. "Are you gonna be alright? If not I'll have to get you to the hospital... or anywhere else with medical professionals."
Pausing for but a moment, Sanzhar picked up on the conversation, going towards a different topic. "That guy from earlier? He had multiple powers. Electric generation, superstrength, invisibility, and flight. At least those are what he showed off. And... who else got more than one power? Lorizilla."
Jace fumbled through his pocket for a packet and pulled it out. Inside were some over the counter pain meds, nothing too serious or narcotic. He popped them out of the plastic coating container and downed three of them.
He diverted the focus of his strength powers to increasing the potency of these OTC medications to make their pain nullifying aspect far stronger then usual, whilst releasing the hold on his amplified strength & durability. “Yeah but I don’t think it’s wise we go to the hospital now, also what we just did is risky but we won’t get caught. Don’t make a habit of doing what I just did, in case you ever wanna tag-along on more Shade missions. The gun I used to kill those dealers is a “Ghost” gun meaning it’s un-registered, so the police can’t trace the shell casings. “ Jace explained and the pain in his voice had lessoned from him using his powers to raise the potency of the medication to combat the pain in his back from the attack Floyd used against him.
“Oh yeah your damn right, I mean I noticed it that guy was damn powerful, no wonder the Salzaras sister is hooking up with him. Anyway what do you think, could that guy be Lorizilla, if he can shape-shift then he could be. Then Lorizilla killed thousands of people, I doubt she’d let us live two strangers nor would she care about a bag of drug money someone as strong as her could probably rob the Federal Reserve. Let’s go back to the safehouse & finish this business with Adam. I..I…think maybe we should try to find that guy, the one who said Rita Salzaras was his girlfriend. It’s the only lead on altered with multiple powers, plus right now the Salzaras Cartel is responsible for all the drugs entering the United States If we were able to stop them…then until the border re-opened we’d stop all the drugs from entering the country.”
"I would like to some more backup in that case..." Sanzhar said, turning around a corner. "There are just two of us, after all. But yeah, let's go back..."
"There are many movements that started with but one person, hell I've been Shade all by myself since my powers emerged." Jace retorted but the pain his back indicated that Sanzhar had a noteworthy point about needing back up. Before long they were back at the safe-house, and Jace had reached out to Adam in the manner requested.
"Hello yes the deed is done, I'd like you to hold to your end of the bargain to avoid further conflict between us...but...that won't be necessary if you are a man of your word... mhmmm... okay... what..." The tone in Jace's voice completely flipped as if he was hearing some unwelcome news and before long the phone was slammed shut, luckily his strength levels were regular when he did so. He stormed into the living room where Sanzhar was and gasped. "It looks as if our worst fears have come to life, Adam is refusing to part with the youtube account & footage acquired, he claims there is one more job for us to "complete", the murder of a detective, the one in charge of his prosecution for money laundering & insider trading to the tune of 48 million." Jace didn't even bother bringing up how the slimey rascal offered financial compensation on top of the footage for this "last" request because murdering meth dealers was one thing, but he wasn't going to kill a detective for simply doing his job going after crooks like him.
Sanzhar visibly scowled at the news. "By every rusted iron screw that has been jammed into my brain..." The metal bender sat down, tapping the table with his index finger as the realization that he would sooner or later be prosecuted by the government for using powers in public. Never had he wanted to wake up from a nightmare. But this was real.
"I don't... I don't know how to answer this." Sanzhar let out a heavy sigh. "Detectives are something else. I've got detective friends too. This is... I can't."
Sanzhar took another pause. "If only there's a way to trace the slimy bastard's call so that we can hit him in the face... or something. Otherwise we are boned."
Jace could only shake his head, that’s what he got for trusting a crook to keep his word. Then again he knew some shady characters that were still honorable, after all he had to dip and dab on the dark side sometimes with the work he was doing. “I’ve got a connection the one that was able to relay the intel that no official agency had managed to get any footage of our real identities using our powers.” Jace murmured bringing up Anya, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to go to the Russians with this.
He’d brought up the blackmail to Anya, but he was sure she figured he wouldn’t trade his life for the lives of strangers. Of course in the initial instance the targets Adam had sent him where people he had no hang-ups with killing. “I don’t got no detective friends, and I can’t say I’m a fan of the cops either, but I’m not killing a detective either. There’s people who support Shade, and resonate with what he stands for, no mercy towards bastards who resort to violence towards innocents to peddle dope on the streets, unfortunately or rather fortunately I’m right there with you on not killing any detectives.” Jace sighed.
He figured Sanzhar was facing similar thoughts as him, how life would be upon getting their identities revealed and facing prosecution for using their powers. “You know we’re not just gonna get in trouble for using our powers in public, we fled the police & the national guard after we killed the monster, and we didn’t kill any of them but I’m sure we put a few of them in the hospital with our escape tactics, then again your not half as screwed as me if or rather when I get charged with the murders of all those dirtbags I killed wearing this shade mask.”
Suddenly the front door swung open and Adam’s body came flying through and landed on the oval table next to them with a loud thud. “Ah fuck…oh no…Shade?! The metal guy! Hey Hey Hey! Look we can work something out please!!!”
Adam hurriedly tried to get up only for a jolt of electricity to fly into his abdomen causing his body to tense up while he yelled out in pain. None other then Floyd Banker flew into the safe house still wearing the same clothes he had during their encounter at the motel. “Delivery for Shade & the dusty metal man who fucked up one of my favorite glocks.” Floyd retorted as he landed on the carpet, Jace jumped up at the sight of the multi powered man they traded blows with while Floyd raised his arms defensively.
“Hold your horses Superman, I brought you a present, the guy I just tossed in here and tasered is a mutual problem for all of us, Adam Levely, the one whose blackmailing you guys, and tried to steal my money among other things like get us all to kill each other at that motel , AND was in the process of trying to strike a deal with the cops in exchange for turning in the footage of you & metal man, how about it can you guys here me out and see if we can all come to terms once the all the facts are out in the open regarding what this bastard did?” Floyd questioned trying to see if he could get Jace & Sanzhar to listen to him despite his damaging entry into the warehouse. "Oh..." Sanzhar nodded slowly, his gaze towards Adam quiet and true. He then looked back at Floyd, a tired expression on his face. "I am not dusty... Ehem. Anyway, about this... thing."
The 'dusty metal man' leaned back on his seat, stretching his rather tired spine. "So you're uh... someone with multiple powers, just like the Lorizilla, and... your girlfriend is the heiress of the Salzaras Cartel? Ah, what a surprise. A pleasant one, nonetheless. I'm all ears. Not so sure about... Shade."
Floyd just shook his head at Sanzhar running his mouth describing things about him in-front of someone that excelled at blackmailing people including altered. "Yeah why don't you just tell Adam here my date of birth, addrss & social security too damn it “ He responded somewhat irate with the metal man, mentioning that he had multiple powers & had relations with Rita Salzaras.
“I don’t know jack shit about Lorizilla god damn it, I’ve never met her and I don’t want to unless it’s to send her to hell.” Floyd snapped back at Sanzhar more aggressive then he intended, causing Jace to get up shoving Floyd into a counter with force.
“Hey listen motherfucker, you better watch your god damn tone I don’t give a fuck how many powers you have, don’t talk to my friend like that, you broke into my damn house, with some guy you claim is the Adam I’m looking for & you conventinely know I’m shade huh.”
“Wh…haat your Shade, you look so different In person, golly I’m so damn drunk I won’t even remember this tomorrow, look about what I said with the agent earlier I was just pulling ya leg, then you slammed the phone on me I tried to call ya back and tell you the truth but you were pissed, then this nutcase snatched me from my house saying he followed me from the Red Roof Inn where you gunned those two fuckers down, I’m sorry I had to get yer help like I did, but wow Jace Williams you are exactly what this city needs, I-“
“You spineless lying fuck!!!” Jace grabbed Adam and slammed him into the table breaking the table, instantly using his powers to raise his strength. In the corner of his eye he’d noticed something and ripped Adam’s shirt off revealing a police informant wire. Blood in his eyes Jace lifted Adam up from the smashed table before smashing him into the floor then stepping on his right arm breaking it. As he raised his foot to step on Adam’s neck surely killing him in a fit of rage Floyd sprung into action raising his own strength to around Jace’s and tackling the irate vigilante into a counter top, the two of them going straight through it.
“I’ going to kill him, he is wearing a wire, fuck Im gonna kill you too you brought him to my house!!!!!!!!” Thanks to Jace’s strength raising power Floyd formed flames that where bright blue with a white-is hue and unleashed the super hot flames on Jace point blank In conjunction with a blast of electricity causing Jace enough pain to both scream out In agony & stop his mindless rage-out.
“God damn it you done now Hulk, I told you he was trying to tell on you when I got here but you were all like ooh ooh don’t raise your voice at my friends, how can I trust you blah blah. Before I picked him up I used my electricity to disable the wire, and I planted a hidden camera on him when I first noticed him at the motel.” Floyd took out one of his cell-phones, and went to an app that connected to the hidden camera. The footage was crystal clear & allowed him, Jace & Sanzhar to hear Adam speaking to a CIA Agent named Flint Walker claiming he had the secret identity of Shade & an accomplice. Adam claimed that Shade & his accomplice had forced him to launder money & insider trade it or be murdered by him & the Salzaras Cartel. He even claimed that the two dealers he’d blackmailed them to kill were his close friends who agreed to accompany him to testify against Shade, his accomplice & the Salzaras Cartel In the morning.
“So now were all on the same page, Adam is a slimy bastard who tried to get as many of us to kill each other at the motel earlier & tell on the survivors preferably Shade & your metal-bender friend. Lucky for you guys I got rid of the footage he had of you, and the only back-up is on his spare phone which I have right here unlocked, consider it a gift so you can perform the final deletion yourself, I see your temper and don’t want you to think I’m trying to pull an Adam on you.” Floyd finished, reaching in his pocket and pulling out the spare phone Adam had the footage on, the same one he’d been using to manage the whole blackmail operation towards Jace & Sanzhar.
"That cheeky bastard..." Sanzhar crossed his arms. He had just watched as Jace... uh... smashed Adam into the floor. He seemed to not mind this moment of cruelty. One could even say that he liked to see their blackmailer be dunked on repeatedly.
"Hm, you delete it." Sanzhar motioned at Jace. "You're the... more important one here."
Jace proceeded as planned and destroyed the final copy of the blackmail footage Adam had of his & Sanzhar’s true identities. Then searched the device & logged in youtube account to confirm that all other traces of It were removed. “IT’s done we’re in the clear.” Jace said to his new friend Sanzhar explaining the blackmail footage was gone. “Now the only thing that remains is Adam himself, who while he does know our true identities doesn’t have any proof.”
“Right but he’s tried to make it out that Shade’s trying to wipe out him & his cohorts trying to expose you, even though the truth is the two people you killed today were vicious meth dealers & thieves, they were used as pawns in Adam’s disgusting tactics to secure his own freedom from his current criminal charges he’s facing. Even without proof this Agent Walker is a real CIA agent, and just by passing along your real identities he might not be able to gain much leverage or any at all, but the CIA will still investigate you two, and I get your whole gig killing murdering drug dealers, but your black & altered, so the CIA will want you gone. The most logical thing to do in this instance would be kill Adam & thus completely solve the problem, but I’m not much of a killer myself. Not to say I’ve never taken a life, but only when I really have to I don’t have it in me to just kill that.” Floyd admitted not having it in him to kill Adam, whom he had no real malice to but brought up what he thought was the best & safest course of action to Jace & Sanzhar to avoid any negative consequences from sparing Adam even after deleting the footage.
"Fortunately... someone does what needs to be done." Sanzhar nodded. He clearly wasn't referring to himself, but to his newfound comrade.
"Still. Congratulations for conveniently having these charges on you right when you saw us." He prodded at Adam with a metal rod. "I'd prefer to have you castrated, though."
Adam had come to towards the end of the conversation and was whimpering. “Please I just didn’t want to go to prison, you kept your end of the bargain, we can still both go our separate ways, the footage is gone, please spare me!”
“Enough.” Jace muttered and walked over to Adam with a gem look on his face. Albeit weak adrenaline coursed through Adam who stumbled to get up only for Jace to raise his strength and deliver a fatal jab through his neck, causing blood to spurt. Adam’s eyes were wide in shock as blood relentlessly flowed from his body and he fell to the ground seconds later just a corpse. “I won’t let this slimy bastard running his mouth be the thing that ruins me & Sanzhar’s lives not after going through all of this, and even being forced to take the lives of others for our freedom’s sake, even if those others were selling poison to others for profit.” Jace finished clearly not happy with having to kill Adam who although was a nasty man didn’t fit his MO as a violent criminal, still he was evil and had indirectly caused the deaths of others using Jace and probably many others.
“Shit yeah I knew I was making the right choice not to get on your bad side, anyway Shade and you too Sanzhar who’s not dusty, I came here bringing gifts not just out the kinds of my heart, but I have a proposition to offer. I want you two to join the Network. It’s an organization I’ve started in the past week made of altered with different abilities & roles in life from pilots to private investigators. My or well our immediate goal is to both keep altered from being ensured in the government’s invasive blood testing registration system & seize control of the black market primarily from the Salzaras Cartel, which makes me dating Rita Salzaras, the sister of Hector Salzaras the actual leader of the Salzaras very resourceful & important. The President & his administration have very horrible plans for altered in the near future, the first ability I copied is the power to see glimpses of the future mainly in my dreams, & the current future for our kind & what the President intends to do with us is why I’ve started the network. Join me please, if we can control the black market, we can eliminate certain crimes from not only being profitable but their existence entirely like kidnapping, human trafficking, murder for hire & even remove the most deadly of illegal drugs from our communities, plus we’ll be able to provide revenue for the innocent altered who are stripped off their jobs and any means to generate money, I support your mission Shade, but the truth is crime will always exist, but together we can erase the worst crime & take control of crime in this country all together at least preventing innocent lives from being lost in the crossfire of vicious immoral criminals in pursuit of the almighty dollar, what do you guys say?” Floyd said finishing his proposition about the Network to Jace & Sanzhar.
"So... we now have an underground resistance? Interesting." Sanzhar pondered, seemingly not taking notice of the warm corpse in the room. He had seen worse.
Sanzhar was now interested though. There was now organized resistance against the terrible laws that the federal government cooked up, one that is probably isn't affiliated with the infamous Reaper. "So, how many people are in this network? Colour me interested, but I'm mostly concerned if I'll have to consort with the likes of Reaper. You know who."
Jace pondered Floyd’s question, he’d only met him today and it had resulted in his back being injured. But he’d since learned that Adam had orchestrated things behind the scenes to set up the fight & the money he was attempting to confiscate from the meth dealers was in-fact Floyd’s legitimate money stolen by Adam himself. “In light of everything you’ve said & the nature of this Network I am comfortable with joining. As you know and stand Shade’s mission is the elimination of violent criminals, but truthfully I only planned and figure I had the means to even do this in the state of California at most, but with what your suggesting could actually make my vision a reality in the whole country of America.”
“Well In a way I guess we’re on the same side as Reaper by technicality in that the Network is an organized underground resistance to the Forrester Administration, but we are not partnered with his resistance nor do I co-sign the harming & murdering of innocent people, I didn’t even have it in me to kill Adam..Levely.” Floyd admitted but wasn’t proud, he felt as a leader he should have the guts to murder somone who wanted to blackmail not only innocent people, but innocent Altered turning them into his own personal killing machine, one of the very principles the Network stood against. "As for our numbers that are not many but are growing, with you two included we have between ten to 20 members but I’ve only started this movement in the past week.” “This lifestyle we are being forced into living by virtue of just being altered in a world where we are feared, and rightly so with the likes of Lorizilla & other murderous altered like her will harden your heart, I admit your reluctance to kill incessantly is one of the main reasons I’m agreeing to join you and your operation to seize control of the black market.
"Well, I honestly got nothing to do, so I'm also in." Sanzhar shrugged in turn. "I'm also a journalist, so... There's that. But... short of leaving this country, there is going to be no escape from this deep crapshow we're all in. So that's my piece. Consider us members now."
“Perfect! Oh, by the way one of the things I’m doing is selling fake Altered ID’s.” Floyd pulled out his wallet and took out his driver license which showed his altered status as negative. “Thanks to me having a graphic design company and one of the members of the Network’s ability we’ve been able to create fake scannable Altered ID’s that pass government checks, so if your caught at a checkpoint and provide this it’ll provide proof that your not altered. The going price for these is anywhere from $2500 to $7000 depending on how bad you need to hide that your altered, but for members I can help you get them for $1500 each.”
“Consider it done we need them, it’s not a matter of choice.” Jace reached in his pocket taking out a wad of cash, and counted out 30 hundred dollar bills handing them too Floyd. “Like I said were in, that’s for me and my journalist friend. How soon can we get those?” Jace wasn’t one to spend money quickly, but this was basically a get out of jail free ticket from the harsh anti altered laws, and after everything him & Sanzhar went through with Adam’s blackmail tactics he was eager to get it.
“I can get them to you in 24 hours so by tomorrow latest, just send me a picture of your license’s to this burner phone.” Floyd took out a business card for a random coffee shop that had the burner phone number scribbled on the bottom and handed it to Jace. “As for Adam I’m sure you have ways to get rid of the body, but you killed him so I don’t mind flying him away from here, Rita…has plenty of ways to get rid of bodies.” Floyd said the last part while shuddering a bit, showing that while he claimed her as his girlfriend he disapproved of her more violent & ultra criminalistic tendencies.
“I’m sure she has better traits that led to your union.” Sanzhar shrugged at Floyd. “Alright. I’ll... have to go home. The Adam situation has been dealt with so I don’t have a reason to be hiding...”
"Tell me, Lysander. Why are we going through these tight corners and dark alleys? The stench, the filth, I cannot bear witness to such disgusting spectacles!"
Lysander simply shrugged off the annoyed comments of the dragon that he created. They kept ringing into his mind, what with their psychic connection, and to be honest, it was getting a little distracting to him. Sometimes he would accidentally bump into another pedestrian in the sidewalk, much to the other person's consternation.
He can't focus. Not when Shenron was constantly complaining about the planet. The only time Shenron quieted down was when he was studying. Otherwise, he talked and talked and...
Lysander scowled, making a turn towards a particularly grubby alley. "Shush, Shenron, my head is getting painful from your constant complaints. It's like a metal screw is being jammed into my brain!"
Shenron's psychic bond reverberated with his echoing baritone. "But you have yet to explain unto my ignorant self why you always choose these... dangerous routes. You are aware of the nature of this city's denizens, yes?"
"Uh, yeah?" Lysander replied. "Because I'm one of the denizens of this city, as you placed it? I'm going through there because I'm... uh, I don't want anyone to know I'm Altered."
"Right, forgive me. But you know what I mean."
Lysander chuckled. His creation... pet, whatever it was, had much to learn.
He was about to take another turn when a smell entered his nostrils. Something distinct from the stench of the garbage piled up as high as towers in this alley. It was...
Was that smoke and fire?
"Fire and smoke, a sure sign that destruction has been wrought unto some segment of civilization."
"Right, we're connected. I think we should go-"
He froze. He had, in his constant mindscaping, unwittingly strolled right beside the building from which the smell of flame wafted out, and he had set his eyes upon this... man. He had just come out of the rear entrance without so much as a hurried gait, no less!
"I don't like him, he exudes... super-ill."
Ignoring Shenron, Lysander slowly backed up. "Good... afternoon, sir. I... uh, I definitely didn't see you come out of that door-"
"Damn it, you fool!"
Fool indeed. He had just confessed that he saw it.
Time: Afternoon Location: San Francisco, Liberty HQ Interaction:
Jonah was reeling from the obstacle they were facing. What started off as fear of a white altered had become both better & worst in the past three days. Whilst he had concluded that they weren’t about to face a slew of people like him that mattered manifesting powers, instead they were left facing a much more sinister plan. As Tommy had predicted Oakland had been engulfed in gang violence, a kind of which they’d never seen before.
After dealing with Tommy, reports started pouring in of bank robberies, jewelry store heists, shops being extorted & the culprits being abnormally strong & highly resistant to traditional gunfire just like Shade. Except they weren’t Shade, as in not as powerful as him but still the threat wasn’t one to be ignored.
Boost was the real culprit behind this sudden surge in enhanced gangsters that plagued the town. It was a synthetic drug that seemed to grant people temporary abilities. The powers derived from this power granting formula included increased strength, durability & reflexes. Aside from that it also had the effect of raising the potency of or like the namesake “Boosting” the powers of regular Altered. Right now along with hunting Lori, finding the source of Boost production & halting it was one of his & Liberty’s main priorities.
While it was clear that this Boost substance originated from somewhere in the Bay Area, it had spread to neighboring stats. Reports were pouring in of incidents with thugs terrorizing their community under the effects of boost, as well as regular altered criminals getting their hands on it to facilitate their crimes with more impunity than before.
“Sir” Patricia called out, Jonah looked up to see his assistant peaking her head through the door. Jonah nodded and waived his hand to let her in. She was truly one of the few people who he felt entirely had his back in the grim situation they were facing. The nation was in a state of duress, and many in the military worried that if these antics continued destabalizing the country from within they’d be perceived as weak on an international scale & potentially open to attack from their enemies who might want to take advantage of this chaos that was tearing this democratic powerhouse apart.
“What’s going on Patricia? Any news about figuring out the source of Boost, or more on Lori’s whereabous? Hell even some news on Shade or Marcus at this point would be a godsend, we’re in the middle of a war on our own turf and right now it feels like we’re starting to loose this battle.” Jonah admitted to her something he wouldn’t normally tell his subordinates. But Patricia was one he trusted, and these circumstances weren’t exactly atypical of what the director was used to dealing with.
“It’s Co-Director Bates, she wishes to have a meeting with you it’s in regards to Boost & some intel she’s managed to obtain from the military, “ Patricia answered to her clearly stressed out director. “Don’ be so hard on yourself Director Hanes, the events that are transpiring are not entirely under your control and being in a state of duress will not help to solve this situation. Forgive me for speaking out of term sir.” Patricia added at the end not wanting to seem as though se was directing the director.
“No your fine, I probably needed that right now. Send in Bates, I’d like to her what she has to say.” Jonah concluded, at this point any news would be good to hear a bout the situation & a potential resolution.
Patricia departed, and within the next ten minutes Chloe Bates was sitting in his office. She was the co-director of Liberty, but she’d been operating on the other side of country since he’d first arrived in California to investigate the Salzaras Cartel & their recruitment of Altered humans to aid them with trafficking narcotics over the closed US Borders. Chloe took a seat on the opposite end of his desk and placed a slightly thick yellow folder on top of it. Jonah reached for it and opened it starting to flip through the files & read the intel Chloe had presented.
“So as you can see Director Hanes, the US Military has voiced interest in this Boost formula. They believe that if were able to confiscate it at the source, it’ll prove to be an invaluable tool against the current altered threat & give our soldiers including the national guard that’s been deployed a necessary edge against the circumstances were facing. The Forrester Corporation has communicated to me, that they were in the process of working on a drug with similar functions last year known as Project Krypton, but that there lead scientist Lester Hines as well as three other high ranking scientists o the project ended up departing after a series of unreasonable differences.” Chloe continued speaking to Jonah on all the details they had about the situation & how the military wanted to proceed with this information.
“I see, the most pertinent danger of this substance is not the abilities for lack of better word that it grants, but the fact that it can enhance the already dangerous altered populace that we’re fighting to control. The Military & Forresters getting their hands on it & mass producing it, could be the nail in the coffin that makes opposing altered terrorist forces such as those led by Reaper, an edge against us in neutralyzing the threat across the nation, at the same time I can understand the concept. T’s no different then how we’ve incorporated altered humans among our ranks, and from what I’ve heard how certain branches of the military have refused to revoke membership/participation of soldiers who are discovered to have abilities. From a field report I read, one such soldier played a vital role in almost derailing Lori Martinez’s rampage on San Francisco a few days ago.” Jonah said in reference to Sergeant Gonzalez & his teleportation antics, which the navy had tried to use in conjunction with the national guard first responders to nullify the threat.
“Correct we just wanted your input before we move forward with this operation, we’ve yet to get any samples. But we have managed to nab three verified Boost users, two in California and one in Utah. Of course we haven’t yet been able to speak, and then there’s the matter of there pesky “Rights”. The emergency altered act which gives us less restrictions on tactics we can use against the enemy, don’t apply to them as they are not truly altered but simply regular humans using what amounts to the pinnacle of performance enhancing drugs to aid their crimes. Plus from what I’ve read, the crimes we’ve nabbed those three on aren’t anything majorly serious like murder, but more so petty theft & extortion.”
“Still they were seen using abilities correct? That’s under our jusidication, go ahead and put in an order to get them a transportation to Tartarus. From there they won’t have any communication with the outside world to derail our investigation & we can drill into them to get what we need to locate any source of Boost, I’ve got my own lead out here in the bay that I’m about to carry out.” Jonah did indeed have his own missions o carry out, he was still worried about Agent Fields who was still recovering after the confrontation with Tommy a few days ago. The blows she’d suffer from combatting him were serious and she was still recovering in, some medical professionals had even suggested that it was a miracle that she was making a full recovry or any recovery at all.
“Understood, I thought you might say that, I believe either way we go, we need to surpress any sort of information about this Boost from reaching the public. As far as the energy plague itself there’s been an uptick in cases, and there’s worry that a new variant is starting to manifest, right as were o the cusps of rushing to develop a vaccine. Which in theory will not only help with stopping the plague itself, but could potentially help halt any new cases of minorities becoming altered humans.” Chloe finished her statement to the head director, effectively communicating her stance on everything that was going on and how they should handle it.
After a few more minutes the meeting was adjourned, and both directors went their separate ways. Chloe went along to place the command to have the three suspects they had detained who’d used boost to enhance their criminal activities to the Tartarus Compound for further more unhinged investigation tactics, as well as communicating to the Military & Forrester Corporation that if they were able to seize any samples of boost, that Director Hanes had given the okay to begin efforts to both study it’s properties as well as try to replicate it for their own usage if possible.
Jonah tucked the files in his briefcase and left the office, instructing Patricia to handle communications while he was out. He simply told her he had a lead he was going to follow himself, and didn’t require any back-up. As he got into his Jeep & started the car he took out the files that Chloe gave him and glanced through them once more. “Lester Hines huh, I thought I recognized that name. That same scientist was reportedly in communication with SFPD in regards to a similar subject a few days ago, an officer Dean Rivers was the one in charge of that investigation and. He actually went through with it. If there’s anyone whose going to have any information about this, and Project Krypton it’s that guy and I have a hunch that he knows more about this whole situation then he’s letting on.”
Starting up his car, he mad his way out of the Liberty office parking garage. He was a man on a mission, to combat the various rising threats to national security that lately had left him pacing around the office in search of an answer to the many many problems he was facing. Worst of all was the fact that he was getting berated for his actions on all fronts, including the home one. He’d come to find out his wife had begun to develop sympathies towards the altered populace, going so far as to claim that one had “saved her life”. Although he’d grilled her he hadn’t been able to get her to confess to what exactly she mean by that.
But, what he did know was that meant she was all ears to her friend dawn & the Altered lives matter movement. The last thing he needed as a director was his own wife getting involved with that situation, but he’d reached out to his father who offered to help him with the situation. Jonah put those thoughts out of his mind as he reached a red light. He couldn’t allow issues from his home life to creep & seep into his professional one. When it came to family matters & problems, those needed to be handled by family. For now his primary lead and the target he was going towards was the man of the hour himself, Lester Hines.
Floyd Banker
Time: Afternoon Location: San Francisco, The Condo Interaction: @FunnyGuy Michael Hayes
Floyd was shook from the events that had transpired this morning. Paige making her way into their home armed and ready to silence him. Working with Rita had culminated into so many problems, that he’d been thinking of cutting her off. The whole debacle with Adam Levely & Shade that had taken place a few days ago was just another reason, aside from the fact that his warehouse was wiped out.
Still at least they’d managed to get together the funds needed to purchase TAP, and now he was the legal owner of Taste of Paradise. Another good thing right now was that Lionel hadn’t reared hi ugly head around & popped into the premises as of late since his purchase. But right now the metal skinned thug was the least of his worries, Lori Martinez had personally become a problem for him & not just with the Network. She’d intruded the premises of this home just like Paige had, but with far more power & if not for the belief that she already had the same powers as him or Mike he believed she would have come after them as well to drain them as she’d done Paige.
He’d dragged the body of the now truly lifeless ex officer up to the attic, they’d need to get rid of her and fast. He was still worried that she may have alerted others or at least one party of her intent to “Visit” his home. The only thing that made him feel somewhat comfortable with the situation was the possibility the maybe she indeed didn’t tell anyone she was gonna swing by his condo as she’d come loaded & ready to blast his brains out.
He went into the kitchen area and sat down at the table in-front of his plate. As he started to dig into his food he turned to look at Mike who was conscious again after the confrontation with Lori. “Mike we’ve got to do something, as for Paige her body’s up there in the attic. She’s really dead, it seems that Lori chick can take powers like not copy them but really take them. That explains how she was able to do everything that took place during the attack downtown. First off I was thinking of grabbing Lori’s body and flying over to the ocean and dumping it. I think we have a better chance not getting in trouble going that route then going digging & trying to bury her ourselves anywhere around here. Two, I think Lori is a problem that me and you should try to handle man. I think she didn’t try to take our powers, because as far as she knew we both had electricity which she already seemed to have. But she’s wrong about both of us neither of us have that power, it’s just something we can do with our abilities. Plus we don’t even know how she found Paige at our spot, whether she was following her or had some type of power to track her. I think we should try to get stronger, get a better grasp on our powers and then…kill her ourselves.” Floyd concluded to his roomate, he wasn’t trying to take the government’s side. However Lori posed a threat to altered not only because she could take powrs, but because her actions were sure to result in more anti altered behavior & measures if she wasn’t stopped.
Time: Afternoon Location: Floyd and Michael's Condo, San Francisco Interaction: @Chulance Floyd
While groaning and getting on both feet, Michael couldn't help but think about what had happened with Lori. He couldn't even fight the woman who had appeared in their apartment. The worst part for him was that he thought she actually enjoyed the whole thing. Three days and all I can do is emit energy in its various forms… and survive laser beams to the chest. His shirt and chest were still scorched from where he was hit, but his skin only seemed to have first-degree burns if anything.
He wasn't sure if it was because the attack wasn't very powerful or he had done something to defend himself without realizing but it was a blessing he didn't end up dead.
Floyd reentering the torn-up loving room and speaking on how they needed to stop Adora was something he didn't want to talk about now.
"Just shut up about it. We can't beat her… Shit, we'd be better off joining her, to be honest. In less than five minutes, she killed the unkillable cop while also fighting us off…" He hated being negative but he had to be, at least he thought he had to be. He walked to his room and returned shortly with a navy blue shirt and black gym shorts. I" think I'm going to head to the gym or something, then get to cleaning this shit up. You can just dump body in the ocean Just get it out of here." Michael headed for the door.
Time: Afternoon Location: San Francisco, The Condo Interaction: @FunnyGuy Michael Hayes
Floyd relented he didn’t want to pester Mike about going after Lori, after all they had just got their asses handed to them by her. Aside from wiping her out being a major benefit to the Network, he was truly concerned about just how she stumbled into their residence. In his mind the ideal scenario was that Paige herself was a beacon to Martinez & whom she’d actually been following. As she’d seemed disinterested in their abilities he was almost able to make this work in his mind, a sort of real life head-cannon to explain the events that had just transpired in the living room hours ago.
“Alright my bad I didn’t mean to piss you off, but as for joining her I know your just pissed right now saying shit like that. That bitch is a monster, as for the unkillable clearly she’s killable”. Which means I’m still killable huh, well makes sense I don’t think there’s anybody that really can’t die. But I ain’t Claire Bennet, I’m not finna make attempts to see what does or don’t work. Floyd briefly amused himself with those fleeting thoughts of a character he found to be truly Annoying from one of his favorite tv shows who had a similar power to the one Paige had wielded.
“Anyway that’s a bet I’ll dump her ass out in the blue, we need her gone. And hey don’t beat yourself up too bad, the important thing is we’re both still alive right. There’s so much going on now the world’s literally going apeshit, and as for us I’m sure we’ll get stronger ourselves, we just need to really get a grip on these powers we have. Oh before you go I got you something.” Floyd fetched his wallet from his pocket, and whipped out an altered ID. Walking over to Michael he handed it to him with a smile. It was a copy of Michael’s driver license generated with Amalia’s powers but it had his altered status as negative, and by power it stated N/A.
“I figured you might want one of these, I’m charging for em, but I’ll let you slide with the homie/roommate discount of free, means you don’t have to worry about check-points there scannable and everything.” Floyd added letting Mike know the doctored ID’s produced by Amalia’s power were safe to use & hand to officers or soldiers at a checkpoint & would even scan.
“Anyway be safe bro.” Floyd concluded before turning to head upstairs to the attic. He wanted to get Paige’s lifeless corpse out of their house as soon as possible. The one good thing about the way she’d been killed was there was no signs of blunt trauma, but their own tussle with her in the living room had messed it up.
Reaper had taken Olivia elsewhere after her father's failed missio in saving her and the soldiers deaths it had caused. After the suicidal shoot-out with the failed rescue officers Reaper had transported himself, Olivia & the goons to a new location. He had one of the goons turn Olivia's phone off and go to another discreet location with it, while taking Olivia elsewhere to a with just himself, her & two of the remaining goons.
In the midst of their travels, they ended up switching vehicles with Reaper "convincing" a pedestrian to give them an SUV, walk home & not report it to the police until 3 days later. The new location wasn't a dingy warehouse, it was a mansion in a gated community although Reaper had used his powers to engulf Olivia in blackness on the way to the new destination. Upon arrival he had the guards escort her inside this time less rough and of course without hand-cuffs. Once they were seated in the living room Reaper himself had taken a seat a table where he had his goons sit Olivia. "Well Well Well it seems like you saved yourself after all, now I must admit the thought had occured to me during the ride to simply siphon your mind of the knowledge but let's just say this will be much easier to use you in person rather then comb through your thoughts. As part of the team you will not be rough handled anymore and may actually enjoy quite the nice lifestyle if you co-operate." Reaper spoke in a soothing voice to Olivia, almost caring despite the fact that he'd effectively kidnapped her.
She’d barely slept. The torture Olivia had to endure, although realistically speaking, not for long, had taken its toll on her. Her chest was on fire and she was sure she had a few broken ribs, maybe a burst blood vessel from the discoloration. She was fed, sure, and she was also given water to drink, but there were times where Olivia wished she was dead.
But that was then. Now, while not entirely put out of her misery, she felt a tinge better. Olivia sat in a room with her kidnappers in an unknown location, and wherever they were, it looked a lot nicer than where she was previously being held. She listened as Reaper spoke, her face expressionless until it was her turn to respond.
“How do you plan on getting us to DC? I can maybe get my hands on his laptop from here, but that’s as much as I can do.”
"Hmmm that does pose quite the interesting question. Right now my plans are to use my abilities to acquire us a private flight, however I am the process of seeking individuals with powers that allow for the transportation of people." Reaper explained showing technology was the plan if powers weren't an option, but if they were then of course things would be different. It was awkward at first being around this woman he almost killed when ransom wasn't payed, but she'd proved her worth. THus he spard her and while some might feel that it was mistake, showing unplanned kindness to enemies was a power move that could have benefits at least that's what Greene and the 48 laws said.
Simply nodding, the young woman turned away from Reaper. She had thoughts popping up in her mind about escaping, calling her mother and getting as far away from San Francisco as possible, and she was trying her damnedest to push said thoughts out of her head. Not that the idea was completely unappealing to her, but going that route would surely result in her death. Besides, she wanted revenge against her father for abandoning her and leaving her for dead.
"Well, at this point it's only a matter of waiting to get there then... If you find your person, we may go straight to his office. Avoiding him altogether will make him think I'm dead, unless you'd like to send that message.”
"Don't be so nervous Olivia, our thoughts are fluid and for that matter private. Although I am keen on listening in to them, I won't punish you for every little straw though that flutters through your mind. After all desiring to escape captivity is only natural, as well as thoughts about acting on that desire." Reaper said in a soothing voice albeit probably no doubt unnerving & down-right creepy to Olivia considering her situation.
To be kidnapped by someone who could read your very thoughts did seem to be something out of a horror flick. “I am in favor of gong directly to the office so that we may obtain the information I most desire. It’s well past the time to leverage your life as a bargaining chip with your father, the last time it nearly ended with your own death and the deaths of his men. The past is just that merely the past, now we march onwards towards the future. Once I get what I want I’ll have no need to hold you hostage anymore, unless you want my help to exact revenge on your father at that point otherwise you’ll most likely be free to go after that.” Reaper spoke matter of factly, he wanted to motivate & encourage Olivia.
Hope was a powerful emotion & useful tool against captives. Reaper found it effective against her as well, knowing that she could be truly free by co-operating against a “loving” father who left her for dead in the first place. “That’s my first, final & only offer. Work with me to get the intel I require and your life will be yours to lie again.” Reaper said truthfully, he didn’t bother going on a spill about not telling the cops after being released. He was sure she probably would, but he didn’t fear the police.
With a sigh, Olivia nodded, her glance angled downward as she avoided looking directly at Reaper. "We will visit his office...maybe then my father will learn the meaning of the word loyalty..." The hint of bitterness was evident in her tone, though that was a result of not just one, but a multitude of feelings and emotions threatening to pour out all at once.
You'll most likely be free to go...
The thought stuck to her. Even though Reaper hadn't necessarily found a way to get them to Washington just yet, Olivia was thinking of possible back-up plans. Yes, she had access to her father's laptop, but she wanted more in case the current plan took a turn for the worse. She wanted to guarantee her own survival, even if it meant trading her father's life for her own. He had, after all, done the same with her and his job; a gamble no person in their right mind would take against one of their children.
But that would come soon enough. At the moment, Olivia needed to rest as she didn't even have the energy to come up with a solid plan.
"Can you show me where the upstairs bathroom is? I'm thinking it's about time to change out of these clothes.”
Reaper made no comment in response to Olivia’s own about loyalty, allowing her anger towards hr father to simmer. That was a natural weapon he could utilize against the head of the CIA without having to use any machinations of his power whats-ever. He was very well versed in the functioning of the mind & how to manipulate it even without his altered ability.
“Of course Olivia right this way.” Reaper motioned for her to follow and led her to the upstairs bathroom, a woman emerged from around the corner and stood near the door. She was of asian and black descent and had a calm smile on her fac.
“Hello I am Malina, I am part of Reaper’s team, I will be your company throughout the residence, but don’t worry I will not follow you into the bathroom.” Malina said in a cheerful tone that didn’t fit, even though Reaper was leaving Olivia alone and was monitoring her mental signal throughout th mansion, he still had somone else from his team stand close by. And unlike Reaper Olivia had no idea what powers Malina had at her disposal to prevent her from trying to accelerate her departure from Reaper’s captivity.
She was relieved to hear Reaper's response agreeing to her request. Aside from some caked on blood she had wiped from her face with the back of her hand, Olivia still very much looked like she had gone to hell and come back multiple times. She followed him upstairs quietly, for a moment wondering what level of privacy she'd be afforded at this point. That question, however, was soon answered.
"I'm Olivia," she responded neutrally, mostly out of habit. But of course Malina would know, probably. Initially, she was disappointed to see the woman there, but then she was glad to know she would be able to bathe without the company of an additional pair of eyes. Though a little more unsettling than that was the fact that Reaper had unrestricted access to her mind, and that violation of privacy was on a completely different level.
Once inside, Olivia closed the door and locked it, turning around to lean against it momentarily. She looked around the bathroom, wondering whether this place would become her permanent home for the foreseeable future, but she supposed time would tell. After about a minute, Olivia walked over to the bathtub. She sat on the edge to prepare her bath, pouring a wash into the mix with a strong scent. Once that was done, she slipped out of her ruined clothes and into the tub, the bruises throughout her body a painful reminder of what she'd endured. Despite all that, Olivia managed to relax herself long enough to fall asleep in the bath.
Time: Afternoon Location: Floyd and Michael's Condo, San Francisco Interaction: @Chulance Floyd, @Damo021 Nyssa, and @Xandrya Michele
Hmmm… Michael stared at the ID card for a moment. It looked real enough. He knew his way around the checkpoints, but this was a good 'just in case' item to have in his possession. He slipped the ID into his wallet.
"Thanks and you too." Michael said as he exited the apartment and headed to his car. He sighed feeling he needed some kind of win. Anything.
When finally taking a seat in his car, Michael started it up and sent a few text messages. One to Nyssa stating Count me in on that elevated position. I can definitely do it.. And then he texted Michele, maybe she would be cool to hang with later. Hey 😁! You doing anything tonight?
And with that, he drove off, hopefully towards some better vibes.
Collab Between The Man Emperor and Chulance Revelations Interactions/Relations: Everyone
Karma Coltrane sighed as she looked around at her surroundings. Staring out the window of the Uber she was in, she always thought if she’d come to California she’d be more happy. But the reason for this visit was hardly social, especially considering she was in San Francisco days after the infamous Lorzilla event had taken place. There was a fear in the atmosphere among the citizens, as if any moment that monster would return stomping through the streets slaughtering innocents. That of course had a rebound effect of causing an uptick in dislike & discrimination towards altered humans, but considering what happened in this city even she could hardly blame them.
Still this was important to her, perhaps the most important thing to ever happen to her. At least that’s how her brother had felt, and while she’d been mostly dismissive of him, the fact that he was dead added validity to the things he was saying. A single tear rolled down her eye as she remembered her brother’s infectious smile, but she quickly brushed her eyelids dry. The despair & sadness gnawing at the very depth of her soul literally eating it apart had to be quelled. There was only one thing that would be able to satiate this emptiness in her being, and time wasn’t it. She had just flown in to San Francisco this morning, on an flight that was mostly empty. The energy plague had caused all international flights out of the country to be temporarily ceased, but she hadn’t expected domestic flight to be as empty as it was.
Then again considering she was heading to somewhere that just experienced the most horrific mass murder in modern American history it made sense. To say that the event was damaging to the tourism industry would be an under-statement. She only had a small suitcase, and a backpack with her, having packed very light for this spur of the moment trip. Before long she reached her destination, tipped her driver a $20 bill and hopped out the car taking her belongings with her. “Well here goes nothing, I wonder if Sanzhie remembers me.” Karma spoke aloud to herself as she rolled her suitcase along the ground walking over to the front door of his house and then rung the door bell. I hope he’s here, I probably should have said something before I just came here, but if everything Trent said was true then I can’t even risk talking about this on the phone
The door swung open, showing a sleepy eyed Sanzhar still on his bed robes. He had his glasses on, and got a cup of steaming coffee on his hand. "Hello... Uh... Wait, give me a moment... You're... Karma, yeah? What... what are you doing in these parts?"
Really, what was the sister of his friend doing in this cesspool of a city? She knew better than to come here... unless if she was in here for something crucial.
Karma allowed a slight smile to come across her face upon being greeted by Sanzhar. Although she’d never spoken about it or even confessed it to anyone including her brother she’d always had a crush on him. She was surprised that this repressed feelings came flooding back upon being face to face with him. More so because of the dire pertinent nature of this visit, which was hardly of a primarily social nature.
Still she’d been wallowing in hennesey & crown filled depression the past six weeks, so any positive feelings she experienced right now we’re strong. “Yeah it’s me, I was wondering if you’d even remember me Sanzhie.” She said finding herself speaking with a much more positive tone then she’d thought possible considering the circumstances. “Sorry to just pop in on you like this I promise I wouldn’t show if it wasn’t for well…everything going on.” Her voice trailed off finally matching the reality of everything she was going through. “Look it’s Trent, my brother…he’s….he’s…” A brief pause as a painful lump formed in her throat before clearing her throat. “He’s dead…..and…..and your the only person I feel safe talking too about it.” She finally finished her voice heavy and full of pain from having to speak of her brother’s demise.
Sanzhar's eyes flickered. The taint of shock and grief crept into his features, but he still kept his composure, somehow.
"I'm... sorry. You should come in... tell me more." Sanzhar stepped off from the entrance and motioned with his hand towards the living room.
Sanzhar knew that being a herald of truth was a dangerous task. Every journalist like himself knew the risks of trying to unearth conspiracies and lies. Many have priced the ultimate price in their efforts to broadcast what is true and fair to the world.
Karma noticed that Sanzhar didn’t broke into tears or anything of the sort. He handled the news far better then she had, but then again that was to be expected as Trent had been her blood brother.
“Thank you so much Sanzhie.” At this point using the nickname she had for him was a habit, one she didn’t even think about it as she stepped into Sanzhar’s home bringing along her suitcase as well.
Karma followed him into the living room & took a seat. Finally able to pull her somewhat heavy backpack off and set it down. Pulling the zipper to the side she unearthed Trent’s laptop as well as some printed files that she’d sorted through & organized.
“Again I’m so sorry to bring this to you, I just didn’t know where else to go. But if at any point you….you want me to leave just tell me please.” Karma spoke practically pleading, honesty was something she was craving. “I….didn’t take him serious.” A few sniffles interrupted her before she resumed. “I wish I believed him, maybe if I did he wouldn’t be gone. He…was investigating…the election Sanzhie, he said the Forrester’s cheated, he said they know more then there letting on about everything going on with altered humans.”
"Election fraud?" Sanzhar took some of the papers that Karma had with her, skimming over their contents. They were filled with notes and evidence, pointers towards the notion that the Forrester Administration had cheated in order to get into position.
"One Forrester is the president and the other is the CEO of a giant corporation... it would make sense in hindsight..." Sanzhar frowned as he kept reading. "I... see. Trent had always wanted to uncover the truth. And when he got too close, the bastards had him killed. Damn it."
Running his hand over his hair, Sanzhar continued. "As for the Altered Humans... When the mere public usage of powers can get you arrested, that's already pointing towards something more sinister."
At this point, he was speaking from experience. "I'll have to tell some friends about this... Thanks, Karma."
“I…I…don’t know if you should, but I know you’re not a dumb man. But please be careful this is still the president we’re talking about.” Karma replied pleading with Sanzhar whilst looking into his eyes. His mention of “telling friends” had elicited feelings of worry from Karma, as her brother had told few people yet still ended up dead.
“That’s not all Sanzhie my brother…just like me he got turned into an altered by the plague.” Karma went on not even paying attention to the fact that she herself had not very subtly admitted to being an altered human. “His power allowed him to “see” the history of objects he touched, for him that was the perfect power.”
Karma briefly paused & winced still finding it painful to bring up Trent. “He saw a vision of a woman touch a voting machine inside a booth, and then votes started rapidly pouring in for Forrester. He also heard a voice in the background telling her to hurry up & do her thing but make it look good.” Karma started to get quiet before speaking again. “Lots of the stuff Trent was saying about this story just didn’t make any sense to me, to be honest I thought he was so obsessive he was loosing his mind. That means two years ago the Forrester’s used an altered human to hijack the election, which means the plague that started 3 months ago isn’t the source of all the powers. This is bigger then election fraud Sanzhie, I spoke to him on fictive a few hours before he was found dead. He sounded distressed and said they were coming for him, that it’s all about the storm & that it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” She looked down and pouted.
“He hadn’t slept in days, and had been talking my head off about all of this. I got mad at him, told him to stop being crazy and get some rest.” A few tears formed in her eye which she quickly brushed followed by another sniffle. “The next morning I got a call that he was found dead with no injuries not even a single scratch, like someone just snapped their fingers and took his life away.”
"You too?" Sanzhar nodded. "So, there are more of us in this club, then." He went on to take an earth ball from the jar placed in the center of the table and etched the globe on it with just his metal bending abilities.
Sanzhar listened on, hearing about how Trent had clairvoyant abilities. "Being able to see the past and future isn't the craziest thing I've heard of, considering... what has happened in the last few weeks. I suspect that they also used an Altered in killing him. It's the only explanation..."
There was still the matter of the storm, being the supposed source of abilities, having not yet passed by the time this supposed technosorceress fudged up the voting machines. "Surveying this critically... I believe that the Storm itself was, in fact, probably the power experiment that went haywire and spread across the nation. That explains how Trent saw someone with abilities before it even happened..." Sanzhar trailed off. The Network would have to learn about this new development. And, eventually, the world.
Karma’s eyes widened when she saw Sanzhar using his power. It made that background crush she’d had on him all these years sprout up even further in attraction. That wasn’t even including the fact that when it came to her brother’s situation which was so dear to her, he was the only one she trusted.
Hell Sanzhar was the only person besides her that Trent trusted to have the details of this investigation passed along to after death. “Wow sometimes seeing other people’s makes me feel like mine is less fun, but I’m basically able to control bodies, people’s biology.” Karma addd pointing at Sanzhar causing a small pimple to appear then start growing before vanishing completely.
She giggled a little bit about her demonstration of power but the humor in her mood fell away as quickly as it came. “So now we don’t know what to believe really, we’ve been made to believe this plague was the source of all this altered occurrences. But if my brother’s late vision is true about an altered playing a hand in fixing the election then that’s not the case. Ya know no telling what events in history have been tampered with due to powers. Or perhaps this storm has caused a massive bloom in the altered populace to such an extent that it couldn’t help but be uncovered not to mention everyone having a camera on their cell phones nowadays. “ I can’t lie Sanzhie dosen’t this scare you? I mean I’ve started to feel bad about unloading all of this on you, whether Trent wanted or not, and whether or not I felt alone with this burden. My brother’s gone, if we meddle in these waters isn’t it possible the same thing might happen to us.” Karma questioned Sanzhar intently with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Oh, no, it's fine." Sanzhar replied, crossing his arms. "I have... gone through some things too. Can't say I am shocked."
He continued to fidget, albeit awkwardly. "I think I know what to do with this. We have to dig deeper... and then show it not just to the American public, but to the world."
Karma almost wanted to roll her eyes it was if Sanzhar didn't really understand what she was saying, either that or he'd been through things that she couldn't imagine since becoming altered. "Well I wouldn't use the word fine, I wouldn't forgive myself if you wound up in a ditch over this and I brought it to your doorstep literally." Karma retorted as the whole scenario started to feel more overwhelming by the minute. "With the plague most of my classes are online now but I rented an airbnb out here because it was hard to wake up everyday in the apartment I shared with Trent now that he's not there plus as scared as I am I...I...want to avenge my brother...bring his killer or killers to justice." Karma concluded noting that despite her immense fear she wanted nothing more then whoever murdered her brother to have to face justice. Show it to the whole world huh, Sanzhie you're something...
As soon as Karma had left, Sanzhar proceeded towards the phone to contact Jace, and in extension, Floyd. He used codewords that would, at the surface, seem to be simply an innocent message, but in reality, they were an important call for something, something that couldn't be discussed in the airwaves.
It seemed as if her life lately was one giant mess as Michele currently lay face down on the ground with her arms placed on either side of her head. Officers dressed in all black with rifles aimed at their now dead target stepped over and around her as they quickly pushed forward. They had shot the Altered who'd had a hostage in his grasp, a young woman trembling and crying as she pleaded for he life. Michele just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her, like every other individual in the hospital lobby, was ordered to get down moments before all hell broke loose and bullets started flying. As it turns out, the man took out his frustrations on a nurse when she kept telling him there was nothing more they could do for his brother, and in turn, he demanded that every doctor and nurse required for a life-saving procedure tended to his brother. But in the end, both siblings simply ended up dead. Michele was questioned by police regarding the incident once they verified her driver's license, and soon after that, she was let go.
During her walk home, she received a text message from Michael. Nah, I have no plans. Why, what's up?
Time: Late Evening Location: Downtown San Francisco Interaction:
Two Days Prior Adora was ready to make her move, her new ability from the LAPD officer had proved invaluable to her plans. The ability to hear a needle in a hay-stick or the words of one person whispering amongst a crowd of loud people was her meal ticket to power just as she’d predicted.
Her usage of the power was to gather intel, to acquire information she’d otherwise have no way of obtaining, While the woman she targeted for this power had used her gifts to enforce the law, Adora had much more sinister plans in mind for the power’s usage. The current person she was going after was Saiyu Kazamoto, an interesting individual. A woman who was in a relationship with Jason Koravil.
Apparently from what she’d managed to overhear Koravil was a therapist with a legitimate practice, who was hosting evening altered support group meeting therapy. In which people with abilities gathered to discuss the impact these powers had on their lives, and their continued progression in society. He’d started this interesting practice six weeks ago, and some visitors had taken the idea back with them to other states. Although it originated from California, which was music to her ears.
Altered support groups sounded like a very valuable niche she could utilize for her own purposes and she was already in the process of doing further research online. On both the clear & darkest sides of it’s existence for intel about more support groups elsewhere in the country hoping to drop in. After all she was an altered individual and she did need support, of course the support she wanted the group might not want to give to her.
She had taken the appearance of a random African American woman she’d ran into on the streets. Lori Martinez was not the guise she wanted to be under while in attendance of this support group. After all in the wake of Lori’s giant murderous rampage it would only serve to draw immediate negative attention to take that form. She’d made her way to Koravil’s practice this very evening where the support group was being held. Upon entering the room she saw it was a. Fairly well lit room that screamed open thought clinical setting. There was a small table with refreshments and iced tea for visitors to indulge in.
However she didn’t find herself with much of an appetite, for food anyway. Saiyu her main target was already getting set up, greeting the altered who’d dared to come out to the meeting for support.
“Yes please I’m glad you made it, oh no Koravil isn’t here tonight he’s away on business matters. Oh yes the refreshments are for everyone.” Saiyu spoke with a bright & cheerful tone to those that asked her questions here & there as they got settled. Adora made her way over to Saiyu to introduce herself, going for a handshake, but getting a hug instead. After the embrace ended Saiyu welcomed her.
“I’m glad you could make it here, your new as well, there’s two others that are new today. Although the group today isn’t that large as you can see it’s only a few people. That’s to be expected with everything going on, not to mention the curfew we’re technically in violation of or at least will be once an hour of this meeting passes by.” Saiyu noted, she knew there were altered who were in fear of these new laws. Of course this wasn’t a revolutionary meeting, this was a support group. Still her & Jason had been making arrangements with a kind bus driver who’s sympathized to their plight & offered free rides to & from the group. It felt safer that way to utilize public transportation to get altered back to their destinations after the hours of curfew, rather then risk altered using their own means of private transportation & getting hemmed up at check-points which were far more inquiring about people’s whereabouts & genetic status at night.
“Thank you so much, you know it was hard for me to come out here. With everything going on in the country, the way people speak about us. But there’s just no one I can speak to this about in my personal life, I can’t risk the details of what I am making it’s way through my circle.” Adora said in a timid voice that was unlike her true demeanor. She wanted the person she was pretending to be to have the opposite personality of how she regularly acted. Honestly she was starting to develop a love for performance, pretending to be so many different people, maybe being an actress was in her future.
“I understand, and so does everyone who comes to these. Most of us can’t speak to others in our lives about this. We have to hide it from everyone our family, our parents, our co-workers, for some of us even our lovers.” Saiyu let the last part stretch-out with an air of sadness about the situation many altered humans now found themselves in. The Lorizilla incident had only served to make things worst & draw more criticism to their very existence. Their species as a whole was seen as a burden & even worst to many a definite threat to the existence of this nation’s safety.
Adora took a seat in one of the many metallic fold-up chairs set up around in a circle in the center of the room. After Saiyu spoke to a few more people & refreshments were passed around Saiyu took the center to kick-start the meeting.
“Hello and welcome to everyone who came here to this altered support group. I want everyone to know that this is a safe space, where your able to discuss any & every facet of your lives and what becoming altered has done to you. I ask that the things we speak about here to stay here, I believe it is essential to the longevity & security of the group. We have a private bus-driver who is offering rides homes for those who are wary of using their own means of private transportation after the hours of curfew, but we also offer first rides before curfew ends for those who do not want to take that risk which is understandable. I want to be clear this is not a gathering of people to protest or fight against the government’s oppression. To be very clear I do not support the government’s actions & find the laws they are passing against us as a whole detestable. These measures being implemented will not be on the right side of history, still the meaning of this if for people like us to congregate and be able to share any & everything about how they feel about this situation.” Saiyu continued
She was very welcoming & seemed to put the people at ease. Like the front Adora put up, it seemed others in attendance of the meeting were nervous about coming here. In the back of some minds was the lingering feeling that this might possibly be a trap of some sorts. After all the laws of the land were clear about what altered could & could’t do. The Emergency altered act passed by the Forrester Administration hadn’t shied away on it’s more discriminatory details.
Soon the meeting was going along perfectly, and it was better then Adora could have hoped for. The people in attendance or rather altered voiced their growing concerns about the future of living as altered In America, some even going as far as to say they planned to leave the country as soon as America’s borders re-opened to escape what they perceived to be grotesque violations of personal freedom. Saiyu had arranged the chairs so that people where in a circle & everyone went around introducing themselves, their powers & the basic faces of their lives like occupation.
It seemed this group was a lucky one, in the sense that no one was part of an occupation that had outright banned altered involvement like law enforcement or the medical field. Under the name of Jasmine she’d spun a story of being a security guard with super hearing. As one man a karate instructor was speaking about his powers of nerve manipulation & how they’d actually helped him in his field which was combat oriented Adora decided now was the time to finally interrupt.
She made an ahem noise and stood up from her chair gathering the attention of everyone in the circle. Although Saiyu quickly spoke up to intervene. “Excuse me miss Jasmine not to be rude, but here we like to allow everyone to speak in order and wait until the metaphysical mic is passed before allowing others to speak. It makes the flow of these support meetings go properly and lets everyone feel as though what there saying is important, ya know let’s them be heard. I’m sure you didn’t mean any harm by just jumping in I simply wanted to let you know.” Saiyu responded calmly and with a kindness that was mostly foreign to Adora even on a good day.
“Oh my apologies, it’s just that I believe that my time here has come to an end.” Adora stated as a smile came across her lips.
“Oh I see the curfew is coming within the next 20 minutes, you want me to contact Jeff to arrange a ride back to your place I’m assuming. You did say you didn’t drive, as I’m sure most of us here didn’t in light of the laws that Forrester so graciously passed.” Saiyu’s sarcasm elicted some laughs from others in the room. They said laughter was the best medication next to time which was something that could be said to heal all wounds. Making light of the situation they were in wasn’t something that generally made altered happy. But here in this safe space, this group now at ease being around others like the facing similar plights it allowed the comedic commentary to not be received so harshly.
“Oh no I have my own ride,- infant I believe all of you will be coming with me in a sense.” Adora’s smirk grew and caused some confusion in Saiyu, while two of the others in this group of six including Adora started o grow uneasy with her words & the tone of her voic.
“What are you saying Jasmine, I do believe everyone here is enjoying themselves, and correct me if I’m wrong, but no one else is ready to leave yet. With Jeff’s bus there’s almost a near guarantee that we won’t run. Into any trouble going home.”
“Oh but that’s just it Saiyu, nobody’s going home, except for me. I must say this was a pleasant meeting, and although I personally didn’t indulge in any of the refreshments except the iced tea, quite splendid if I may say so myself, all things must come to an end, including my tenure here and you guys’s existence.” Adora said and sprung forward unleashing an electrical arc onto Saiyu who screamed in pain as she was struck by the electiric attack.
Instantly the other four altered jumped up, including the karate instructor. “You bastard!” The instructor cried out, but Adora lunged forward flying tackling the instructor. The two tumbled to the ground as she managed to tackle the martial arts teacher out of his chair. Using her base power she drained him o his ow powers and very life essence itself. The man cried out in agony as she drained him with her powers.
One of the altered woman sprung into action, summoning the shadows to her aid. Tendrils of shadows sprung forth to wrap around Adora to restrain her, who responded by sending forth electrical surges that flowed through the shadows until they struck the woman who’d summoned them. The shadow manipulating woman cried out as she was struck down by the same power Adora had used on Saiyu who was now bleeding & slumped against a chair trying to recover from her electrifying experience.
The remaining two altered both went to try their hats at using their own powers to bring down Adora’s sudden & violent assault of the meeting. One shot forth a stream of ice, while the other caused spiked vines to emerge from the ground beneath Adora and strike her. She screamed in pain as the vines tore at her, but managed to use her flight to avoid the beam of ice.
“Enough” Adora roared as electricity surged from her body in all directions striking both the plant & ice user, while Saiyu herself was breathing heavily and leaning against a wall. “You..you monster….you come after your own kind..just to take.” The group leader struggled to speak beneath pained breaths.
Adora tested one of her new powers dipping into the shadows, and emerging behind the ice user grabbing him draining him painfully, before using TK to break the arms of the plant user, as she cried out in pain ADora flew forward tackling her into one of the metal chairs from the meeting. Adora gathered electricity in her fists and pummeled the plant user with a series of brutal punches before grabbing hr neck and draining her. As she finished Adora licked her lips turning to Saiyu who leaning against the wall and began walking out of the meeting room.
“I…must call…Koravill.” Saiyu muttered to herself as she got outside the room and took out her cell phone to call her partner, and let him know what was going on. Quickly going to her speed dial contacts she mashed down on 4 and awaited as her phone began ringing.
“Hello” Jason’s voice was o the other line, and quickly he became recepveitve to the fact hat Saiyu had erratic breathing and sounded like she was in pain.” “Saiyu what’s going on?! Areyou okay, did the cops raid the meeting”
“N..No..not cops…big girl…Lori she’s.” As Saiyu was speaking, suddenly Adora had plants burst through the wall and wrap around Saiyu who screamed out as the pants lurched her back through the newly smashed wall and dragged her over. Saiyu reached for the phone only for Adora to use TK to bring it over to her ear.
“Hello, Saiyu can’t talk right now she’s preoccupied.” Adora said sinisterly, eliciting an angry response from Jason. “You…your the bitch from the news! NO! Don’t touch her, or I sweaer.”
“Goodbye, hope you guys aren’t ending things on bad terms.” ADora hung up the phone and slammed it o the ground then stepped on it a couple times before kicking it saide into a wall, the weakened Saiyu tried to focus her power on Adora to cause her to be overwhelmed only for Adora to unleasha. Powerful electric blast to Saiyu rendering her unconscious. “That was a close one.”
ADora muttered to herself walking over to Saiyu and leaned down placing her hand on Saiyu’s forehead. Using her power caused Saiyu to scream & cry out in agony as Adora fully drained her of hr life. “Delicious.”
One Day Prior Chloe was on edge about this meeting, but that couldn’t be helped considering the nature of who she was meeting. Or at least the nature she assumed this person had based off the prior actiosn she’d witnessed or attributed with her creation. She was sitting in an office building of private attorney and waiting for someone.
Finally a woman entered and Chloe raised an eyebrow. The woman who entered was now who she was expecting. An auburn haired Indian woman dressed in traditional doctor’s garb white coat & all. She was also able to notice a name-tag on her that said the name Nira Muhaney on it that was also an indication that this wasn’t the person she was waiting to see.
“Umm are you in the right office ma’am?” Chloe asked with a raised brow causing the woman to laugh.
“Ma’am you are a visitor within this complex, and your asking if I I”M the right person?” Nira responded with a heavy dose of sarcasm and a response that made Chloe feel a bit stupid as Nira stated aloud what she’d essentially just done. “I am the person you are expecting tho ma’am follow me into the office.” Nira finished elicting some confusion from Chloe who followed her into the office making sure her weapon was within reach.
As they entered the office Nira’s form changed to that of Lori Martinez almost causing Chloe to draw her weapon but she kept her cool.
“So I take it you thought about what we discussed? About the Collective, I’ve done my own research on you people, so there’s no need to lie? As I stated in my message, I don’t want to be your enemy far from it”
“Yeah, tell that to people of San Francisco, Lori if that’s who you even really are, with the little appearance shifting show you put on you could be anybody.” Chloe retorted as she folded her arms.
“Quite the perceptive one aren’t you, I guess you wouldn’t be able to proceed as far as you have in life and become head of homeland security if you weren’t.” Adora responded cheeky although it seemed Chloe had little patience for her antics.
“Let’s say your right, and your little research panned out correctly. How do I know your not gonna screw me over, your not exactly the most trustworthy individual after all.” Chloe responded unfolding her arms and finally taking a seat. While she was in no way, shape, or form fully trusted this woman she believed her as far as the fact that she needed her & wanted to partner with her.
“Because your still alive right now, and there’s no one else around. You witnessed the news coverage correct, so if you think that gun tucked in your waist can stop me then your a fool, and I don’t believe you to be a fool. Part of you had to at least somewhat believe my words and invitation to join forces or else you wouldn’t have shown up here alone, or well relatively alone a least.”
“Fine you have a point, but if you cross me with anything you said, then I won’t be coming at you alone, I’ll have the full force of homeland security & Liberty behind me. And you may have some others quaking in your boots because a couple hallow rounds can’t kill you, but your not invincible far from it, everything dies out here, especially things that are alone.”
“Precisely why I want and need your help director. I’m glad it seems we’ve been able to come to a resolution, and look forward to a fruitful partnership together.” At Adora’s response the two women shook hands and a devious grin formed on the disguised doctor’s face. Just another key being unlocked that takes me one step closer to realizing the Collective’s goals
Time: Afternoon Location: San Francisco, Coffee Shop Interaction:
Jonah had pulled into a parking lot and pulled the keys out of the ignition. He’d made some calls but had received some troubling news on his way to his destination. Lester Hines wasn’t at home, and hadn’t been spotted in a few days at any of his usual locations. Of course they had him on record going to speak with. SFPD and voice his concerns to some Officer Dean Rivers regarding project krypton and the similarities between it and what was going on with Oakland. That would normally be a red flag, but considering he checked out as someone who legitimately worked on the project and volunteered information to the authorities it made it so he wasn’t exactly a likely suspect.
Still Jonah’s current investigation didn’t rest solely on Hines being the primary suspect to be succesful. That would be great, but in truth there were no solid leads on Boost distribution not to mention original manufacturing. As he was sitting in his car awaiting his order to be finished which he’d made online before pulling in he received a call. Whipping out his phone he saw It was from Nathan Forrester.
“Hello, Forrester what’s going on”
“Hmmm enjoying the success of my life, but sometimes everyone isn’t playing there roles correctly. Today that someone is you Director Hanes.” Nathan replied godly over the phone causing some shivers along Jonah’s back.
“And what exactly is it that you’re talking about?” Jonah replied defensively wondering what he was talking about.
“The woman, Martinez I know you’ve uncovered some information about her, valuable at that. We need to make her a prime target, and bring her into custody immediately. Because this transgression isn’t that large I won’t hold it against you. In-fact I have a weapon that will serve as an essential tool in bringing down someone of her caliber”
“Wait you have a weapon for her?” Jonah replied, while he was on the defensive at first, now he himself was curious about what Nathan meant. What sort of weapon could he have obtained or manufactured to combat Lorizilla working with a biotech company.
“Yes, and your not in a position to be asking the questions are you Hanes? No, so go back to doing your job which is surprisingly enough “doing” and not “asking” things from your superiors, good day,” The phone line ended and Jonah felt a rise of anger briefly.
He didn’t enjoy being bossed around like a simple fool, after all he was a director himself. Still he had stepped out of line with what he’d done in a way, so he could understand Nathan’s frustrations. Just then he received an update that his expresso was done and decided to abandon any thoughts of aggression towards Forrester as he stepped out the car. His wife’s betrayal was starting to get at him, dragging his personal affairs into his professional life. That was something he couldn’t allow not if he wanted to bring down all the altered humans.
Jace Williams
Time: Late Morning Location: Oakland, Downtown Interaction: @The Man Emperor
Jace was out on patrol as Shade, since joining the Network a few days ago there hadn’t been much change in his life. Well except for the fact that he now had others he could work with towards his goals, it turns out him & Floyd had a common enemy in Lionel. The metal skinned gangster with a degree in extortion was also targeting a business Floyd had recently acquired called TAP.
“I’d love to get my hands on him.” Jace thought to himself but he was locked in combat with some other enemies. Two bozos who were particularly stronger then the average thug was suppose to be, they’d already tanked a few blows from his enhanced strength with little more then discomfort.
“What’s the matter Shade? Your lil trick ain’t working on us, you no the only one with gifts around here motherfucker.” The thug replied as he charged forward causing Jace to duck and roll under his punch narrowly avoiding the powerful swing.
I can’t afford to get hit by them, if they ain’t folding over from my blows, no telling what happens if I get hit by one of there’s. Jace decided before whipping out a gun pointing it at the other thug.
“Oh you really think that’s going work? Sum super motherfucker you are, you run into some folks you can’t flick aside and you already running back to guns. Go on shoot me, like it’s going do you any good.” The man barked as Jace pulled the trigger. The thug was blown away, literally as the bullet tore through his chest and blood spewed as he stumbled back and collapsed against a fire hydrant.
“Clyde!?!!!!” The first thug yelled out but it wasn’t long before he joined his friend. He too was peppered by bullets from Jace, who’d focused his strength boost power into his gun rather than himself. He tucked the weapon in his waist and took out his phone to see a coded message from Sanzhar. “Hmm that important huh.” Jace replied as he made his way over to his car, a rental he acquired on a Turn account that belonged to one of his home girls. Hopping into the vehicle he plugged the key into the ignition and sped off. Oakland was infested with gangsters who were demonstrating enhanced strength & durability which had become a massive problem for the police department & even soldiers deployed.
So much so that today he hardly received any resistance from uniformed law enforcement to his attempts to help combat this new threat. Jace forwarded Sanzhar’s message to Floyd, and sent one of his own to Sanzhar.
Time: Afternoon Location: Gustavo's Gym, San Francisco Interaction: @Xandrya Michele
Michael had just finished his third and what was meant to be his last set of bench press when he went to take a look at his phone.
"I can probably fit another set in… shit." It wasn't super strength, but more like a boost in stamina. He normally rested 2 minutes between sets, but he honestly felt like he could cut that time in half. Noticing Michele's reply, he smiled.
Just want to chill. Your place maybe? I got some shit to tell you. He sent out the text and moved back under the bar. Energy manipulation… I think that's what my power is, and if I'm right, there should be way more I can do. But maybe I'm just an emitter… Perhaps he'd delve into absorption. That's if he could even figure it out. These powers shouldn't be no different than his physical training. Pushing your limits and exceeding them over time. Chest day, Leg day, Back… it was not so different if he broke it up in a similar fashion.
Zeke sat alone on the couch, staring up towards the unlit chandelier. It's been a few days since the deadline for the mandatory blood registration passed, and just like any other law abiding citizen, he had gotten himself tested. There wasn't any point in trying to hide it anymore; while the manager that had showed him the incriminating video of his starforging powers had been crushed beneath the rubble, the higher ups had already seen it. And there was also the thing with being charged with crimes for not registering... That would be very inconvenient for someone like him. Zeke basically had no money aside from his savings, anyway.
Bored, Zeke conjured a star on his palm. "I wish something interesting happens today...", he thought.
Something was gonna happen indeed.
Having just received orders to seek out a specific Altered, Anya couldn't help but sigh. She was doing the job regardless because otherwise there would be hell to pay, but the fact that they were getting greedy meant her life was in greater danger now. They had enough Altered to work with, didn't they? Of course as luck would have it, she just happened to be one of the few field operatives on the west coast. She had attempted to explain her side of things, how coming into contact with so many Altered left her in a rather vulnerable spot, but they weren't having it. One icy glare in her direction was the signal for her to shut the hell up and refrain from bringing up the subject again, and she had to obey.
Arriving at the Altered's home a little while later, Anya walked up to the door and knocked hard three times. Jennifer Donovan was not having a good day today.
Zeke, as soon as he heard the trio of knocks echo into the house, quickly got up from the couch. He was, after all, never one to keep a guest waiting, as he is well taught and good mannered. Mostly.
Walking up towards the door, the solar powered Altered opened the doorway I to his home, and lo and behold, out there was a lady. A woman he never met before. Was this one of his brother's disgruntled exes? Probably.
"Ah... how may I help you? I don't... think we've met before..."
"You're right, we haven't... Mr. Salazar, I'm here with a simple proposition," she continued matter-of-factly as she'd already looked over his file and knew who he was despite him not knowing her. "My employer has taken an interest in you and I'm here as the middle man. If you're interested in working with our organization, you will be offered a number of benefits which may or may not," Anya shrugged her shoulders, indicating that Zeke had an option, "result in your continued loyalty. My name is Jennifer Donovan. And don't worry, I'm not with the American government. May I come in?"
"Uh... okay." Zeke nodded at the strange woman and stepped away from the entrance. So she wasn't an ex of his brother, after all, bur an agent of some kind. She wasn't affiliated with the government... that might be a good thing.
Either way, Zeke was a little scared at the moment. What if this was an elaborate ruse?... No, it's not. It can't be...
With a half smile, Anya stepped into his home, allowing a moment for Zeke to close the door behind her. She took that time to quickly look around the living room, noting it was indescribably plain. "I understand your hesitation, Mr. Salazar, but I can assure you no danger will come to you as the result of my actions or those of my superiors. They've looked into your file and asked me to come here to recruit you as your ability piqued their interest. If and only if you agree to work for us, you will be tasked with completing missions varying in complexity. Some easy ones, and some that are not so easy..."
"I see..." Zeke nodded slowly at the woman. His ability was interesting? Well, the ability to produce solar power on a whim was certainly useful for a lot of things, so there's that.
"I can imagine what kind of stuff I will have to do with these stars." Zeke shrugged. "And to be honest, I have nowhere to go into, since my Altered status makes employers... hesitant, despite my skills."
Zeke sighed. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that made use of his power. "Assuming I go in... what manner of... things will I be doing? You have a signed contract or...?"
"Yes, you will sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to engaging in any work with us. Once that's been taken care of, you will be briefed and debriefed before and at the conclusion of every mission. As far as the actual work, that could vary. Something as simple as taking a classified file or something more advanced like befriending a specific individual and getting information out of them." She hesitated for a moment, thinking back to her meeting. "I'm not quite sure what my superiors have in plan for you given your ability, but once I find out, so will you."
"I was thinking of supercharging a solar panel or something." Zeke chuckled in response. "Ah, well... classified files... now that's something a little dangerous. I'm good with making friends, yeah."
Zeke couldn't help but wonder at the phrasing on how 'simple' consisted of taking a classified file from the authorities. That thing is rather dangerous to tread with.
"But... all things considered... I think I'll accept, probably." Zeke shrugged. "But, uh, who are we going to work for, exactly?"
Anya smirked. It had taken him long enough. “I work for the Russian government, and you will be too since you have agreed to work for us. Do you have any concerns at this moment? Or perhaps any questions I can answer for you?"
Zeke gawked a little bit at the revelation that he'd be working for a foreign power. Still better than this country that was going to put him to prison if he so much lets out in public. "The Russ- I see. I assume that my financial situation will be remedied by this... deal, and I shouldn't have to put myself in too much danger, yes?"
It was terribly predictable how money, of course, was always one of the first topics to be discussed without missing beat. Anya simply nodded before providing a response. "Yes, you will be compensated accordingly, though I must warn that some of these missions may get dangerous, especially with everything going on these days out there on the streets. With that said, we won't ask for something from you that's out of your range. Trust me, my superiors understand there are limits.
"Okay." Zeke nodded. To be honest, he was still a little bit hesitant, scared even, but this was the best thing he got. "I understand. When is the first thing?"
"Do you mind if we sit?" Anya motioned towards the couch, sitting on the far right side as she watched Zeke go around. "First things first, you sign the NDA," she went on, reaching into her bag to pull out a file with the blank documentation. "Make sure you read it thoroughly so that we're all on the same page." Anya then handed the documents to Zeke.
"Alright." Zeke was used to reading documents, given that he once did office work. He would read through the contents, nodding as he went. It won't be long before he had signed, and the deal sealed...
"Perfect."
Anya reached for the documents and glanced at them momentarily before putting them away. She then stood up, walking towards the door. "It's been a pleasure, Mr. Salazar. From this moment forward I'll be the point of contact between you and our agency. If you have any questions or concerns, here's how you can contact me," Anya held out a card with her information on it. "Otherwise, I'll be reaching out to you whenever we need your assistance. Do you have anything for me at this time?"
Zeke could only shrug in response. "None at the moment." Taking the card and pushing it into his pockets, he nodded and bid her farewell; for now.
Adora was grateful for her new partnership with Chloe Bates, the co director of Liberty as well as a high ranking member of Department of Homeland Security. It was time to start taking control for “The Collective” & this appearance on the Benny Stein show was a key. Early in the morning Adora had made her appearance on the Benny Stein show to make an announcement. Benny Stein had grown in popularity & was well known for his anti altered beliefs which his platform had become associated with delivering.
Numerous people political, celebrity & otherwise when taking a stance or negative viewpoint towards altered humans aligned themselves with Stein to do so. Adora was no different, and frankly it felt exhilarating to bring more attention to herself rather then her guise as Lori Martinez. After all Adora Zayas wasn’t some unknown individual, she’d built a name for herself as a model, & popular fashion designer. Of course both of those careers paled in comparison to the real estate empire she’d inherited from her husband’s untimely demise.
“As owner of Zayas Properties, I want to do my part in society to help with the tragedy that’s befallen our nation. I wanted to announce this message on your show Stein because your one of the few people that’s taking a stance in this nation against the altered that’s much needed. I won’t go as far as to agree with your statement that they should all be locked away on some island with the key tossed away until scientists figure out a “cure” to purge their powers. That’s too inhumane, but what I can support is the idea that these people are too dangerous to be around the rest of us. As a result Zayas Properties will no longer rent to Altered humans, and will be removing all altered tenants from it’s properties. Any and all rental & apartment complex’s under Zayas properties will have to adhere to these rules effective immediately.” Adora finished saying on the show.
Benny Stein seemed to be listening to her words with a gleam in his eyes, any news that was negative for altered was something he was happy to host on his platform. “I see I see, I can understand your views & wanting to moderate. Especially someone like you who like many in the media & fashion industry rely on & require fans, some of which I’m guessing may be altered.”
“Well I’d have know way to know which if any of my fans are altered humans. However I wouldn’t imagine it to be too far of a stretch of the imagination to assume that some of my fans are altered. To them I say I harbor no personal feelings of ill will towards you, but simply ask that you do what’s good for all of society. There’s been far too many incidents that they have been a-part of since the day the Energy Storm reared its ugly head in our nation’s skies & 10 million lives were brutally lost. This directive doesn’t come from a place of hatred or misunderstanding but rather of dire need to manage an almost unmanageable situation. At the heart of this matter too is that altered are not the prevailing majority in our society, and as such the rules cannot be made to coddle & accommodate them, especially when some of them are living weapons. I ask that other property owners enforce similar measures to provide safety to our tenants & work towards restoring order in this country!"
“So just to play devil’s advocate for a mere moment, what of those who would cry out that your actions are outright discrimination. There will surely be people who protest what your doing with your company, who claim that your actions have led to homeless altered or perhaps even being the catalyst of violent reactions from enraged altered who feel they are unfairly striped of their homes.” Benny replied smoothly, while he shared the opposite views entirely, he still did his job and worked his way around to inquire how his guests felt about their supposed measures or ideas.
“Again accommodations must be made for the majority and it’s as simple as that. Any altered who are displaced by this measure will receive their security deposit back as well as the entirety of this month’s rent even if it’s been partially used. This should allow them the financial means to seek arrangements elsewhere, but seeing as how most of my properties ran by my company are typically in the heart of cities or other congested areas I think I’m only doing my duty as an American citizen & business owner by banning altered humans from dwelling within them. Also I’m volunteering a $5000 reward to any and all information that pertains to any altered humans who attempt to circumvent or ignore these new measures for my property entirely. Lastly I will be working to expand Zayas properties to encompass more apartment complex’s to hopefully further spread these no altered resident measures. I believe the state of California in particular after the murders from the Lori rampage will be quite receptive to this new law.”
Adora responded cooly, seeming to satisfy all of Benny’s questions he posed while playing advocate. The interview continued, but Adora had made her presented the most important thing she wanted to announce.
Present Time
Adora was browsing youtube scrolling down to read comments about what her anti altered rules. It seemed a great many people were in support of what she said, and encouraged many to want to seek out residence at complex’s run by Zayas Properties. With the rising anti altered sentiment in the country, her announcement on the Benny Stein show had raised her popularity. It was a massive & well welcomed ego boost to surf not only youtube but other social media platforms & see that many were labeling her as a socially conscious businesswoman.
After her husband’s death, & inheriting his company she felt like she had something to prove. While she was recognized as the official owner after his passing, there were many even among her peers who felt her inheritance of the company wasn’t earned. In a sense they were right as she was only in charge because her former husband croaked. It amused her to no end to imagine what those naysayers would say or think if they only knew that she herself played a role in her own husband’s death.
Of course Altered Lives Matter had denounced her as a terrible person & someone on the “Wrong side of history”. But commentary from them & others with their views had little effect on her, as well as the rising stock of her company. Some were even saying she paved the way for other property owners to implement similar measures, taking advantage of the emergency altered Act which made it legally possible to evict all altered human residents without much fuss.
She grabbed her credit card & utilized it to chop some powder on her desk in-front of her into a couple lines. This was followed by her getting a glass of rely on ice to take some sips from, whilst inhaling the chopped lines with a quarter of a straw. Suddenly she felt ambushed with. A surge of pain and leaned over dropping her straw. “What the hell:”
For the past few days she’d been undergoing random bouts of pain. Noticeably the less drugs she consumed, the more intense & frequent these experiences were. Causing her to at first deduce these were the effects of her serious drug habit finally becoming more prevalent. Her vision was blinded and suddenly she was hurtling through a memory that wasn’t her own. Thrust into Trent Coltrane’s memories one of her first victims she saw visions of him investigating the Forresters.
“Something isn’t right, this is all beginning to make sense. Or in some ways not make any sense at all.” Trent said to himself as he scrubbed his chin with his index fingers. His investigation was sending him in loops then dead-ins. “But this all has to do with them, I thought I was on to something when I found out they cheated the election. But that was just the tip of the iced-berg, hell the how they pulled it off shattered it alone, but this melts the whole damn thing.” Trent muttered to himself as he stepped forward over some trash and overt a desk to pick up a file.
“The legend of Slain & the Slayers, lessons from Toneri..” As Trent spoke more his voice trailed off, and Adora found herself back in her living room. Or rather she never left physically only venturing into this mysterious vision of one of her victims memories mentally. Beads of sweat rolled down both sides of her face, and she had to brush her hair out of her eyes. Pulling sweat soaked strands off her cheeks she noticed her heart was pounding & her breathing had been heavy.
The vision was such a surreal experience, it was like a live auditory visual experience that she viewed in third & first person simultaneously. To her she viewed the experience from within Trent’s eyes while side by side watching from a third person angle. This wasn’t the first time these visions had occurred, they’d started after her seventh altered victim. Now she lamented in the fact that her ability didn’t just allow her to pull in abilities. Her talents let her pull in memories, personality traits, talents, even other’s life & energy. It seemed these additional Rogue like benefits had come with a troubling & terrifying cost.
“This can’t be happening to me, I keep trying to get something new to quell the side effects, and the new shit comes with it’s own batch of side effects. I’ve got to be careful before I get something that all together clashes with the nature of something I already have, to the point that it causes me to fall apart.” There was real fear in Adora’s voice as she analyzed the situation, she had basically been modifying her genetic structure over and over with her ability by harnessing the traits of other altered. But there was a certain draw to it that made her lust to not only drain altered, but regular people.
Beyond that this mysterious feeling that afflicted her caused her to not only drain people, but hunger for there flesh. What is this, between this & these random flashbacks and headaches I’m starting to get worried. No I will find something to fix this, someone has to have something to fix this Adora’s hands were now shaking causing her to use TK to grasp her glass of crown & two it over chugging the remaining contents. She then almost immediately went into a coughing spree from the angle she downed the alcoholic contents mixed in with the burn and feeling additional pain in her chest.
“Damn it damn it all to hell, I am suppose to become the greatest, the best, this cannot be happening! Not to me!!!!! I won’t let Kareem be right, you won’t be right, you were wrong!!!” Adora screamed out using TK to fling the glass cup against her wall smashing it, becoming infuriated at the mention of her now deceased husband’s name.
Kareem…Kareem…Kareem
Her husband’s name tumbled through her mind, her subconscious crying out at the mention of the name. The emotional pain that surged through her elected surprise from the murderess, was this regret? This tight feeling that overwhelmed her whenever her husband came up unexpectedly, when engaged in interviews she prepared herself accordingly. But when she was off indulging herself in narcotics to purge herself mentally & physically of the turmoil associated with harmful & brutal memories of her past, that was the last place she expected to be filled with sorrow & locked in an aggressive power struggle with regrets from the depths of her inner subconscious.
He was weak, he was not needed. For us to be who our true self, our truest form then his passing was necessary
“What the hell, who was that.” Adora spun around analyzing her surroundings to look for another person, but there was no third party present with her. This elicited further confusion for the killer who stood up rapidly, summoning electricity to her finger tips. This rapid rising combined with summoning another power caused her to stumble forward to her knees as her body was rocked with waves of pain, followed by additional flashes of memories that came from some of the numerous people she’d drained & consumed with her abilities. “Fuck..Fuck..fuck!” Adora muttered under neath her breath as she clenched her jaw & grinder her teeth trying to focus on that feeling to block out & ignore the other pain that spawned in the rest of her mind & body, as well as surprise & choke down the distorted murmurs of a strange vile voice that blurts out random sentiments periodically in the few moments of sobriety Adora experienced before resuming her continuous consumption of a mountain of substances to nullify this roller coaster of emotions & unpleasant unwelcome sensations & feelings.
Time: Late Morning Location: San Francisco, Military Camp Interaction:
Jason was reeling with anger from Saiyu’s death. Along with him was Tenzo, Saiyu’s older brother who had joined him on his escapades to fight for the rights of other Altered humans in the trying times that President Forrester had in effect single handedly created with the harsh rules passed by his administration.
“Perhaps your wrong and she’s still alive, after all she was I mean is a powerful altered herself, any enemy force would want her under their control right.” Tenzo retorted to Jason, practically pleading with himself basically trying to figure out if Saiyu was still alive.
“N..No she’s gone Tenzo I heard it myself on the phone, she’s really gone.” They’d both dropped by Jason’s practice & seen the support meeting room littered with dead bodies. People who showed no signs of life whatsoever, without any indication of blunt trauma. The story had checked out & matched the horrific news that Jason had delivered. When the two were present at the facility Jason seemed to be stifling some tears but otherwise appeared to be quiet. Tenzo on the other hand had water-works that couldn’t be hidden or tamed, and was furious that his sister was murdered by this elusive and dangerous Lori Martinez.
Jason had seized control of a military camp on the outskirts of San Francisco, that would be their new base. Taking over the base had been fairly simple with his powers & those of the rest of the group gathered. Jason had used his telepathic powers on some of the soldiers guarding the front entrance to start things off.
You are under my control now, your orders are simple. Take up arms and murder as many of your fellow soldiers as possible. Do so quickly without mercy, without stopping, slaughter them like the animals they are! Kill as many of them as possible before you yourself are silenced, do not give them a reason for these murders, and if they try to restrain you instead of killing you in retaliation, then kill yourselves, those are my orders
Rapid gunfire & the sound of shots going off filled his ears. From they’re soldiers retaliated being forced to shoot at their supposed comrades in combat, then Jason had his people move in. First there was Clayton who had the power to absorb & harness solar energy, he took on a form that blackened his skin while causing solar energy to swirl around his body continuously at all times. Taking this form he unleashed large focused blasts of solar energy melting the skin off soldiers bodies literally. Then was Malina whose unique power allowed her to manipulate perception, moving like an unseen killer tearing through enemy lines slashing them apart with her already blood soaked blade.
Jason went on the offensive himself, of course he had donned his mask & other gear to protect his identity. He stepped forward unleashing a telekinetic shockwave that flipped over armored vehicles & tanks alike. Using his power he flung soldiers about, while also inducing horrific hallucinations that caused them to continue & resume shooting at each other. He was careful to configure and direct these horrid illusionary images towards other soldiers and not his own people. Another altered within his group named Asia swung her arms unleashing violent powerful winds that sent enemy forces reeling, whilst Felix waved his hand causing guns to jerk out the hands of soldiers & turn on them opening fire by themselves slaughtering their owners. Tenzo grabbed an armored truck converting it into energy and absorbing it. Followed by drawing his blade & slicing through the three soldiers who were manning the now non existent vehicle.
Tenzo spun around and slashed through some bullets that were nearing him as well as Asia & Clayton. “You will not strike my allies.” He yelled out then leapt into the air bursting through a guard tower and slashing through soldiers within while bullets nearing him were converted into energy & absorbed drawing even more strength & durability into him. A massive gust of air slammed into the tower causing it to topple over while Jason used his TK to pull Tenzo out of the collapsing tire and placed him on the roof-top of another building where two snipers were knelt down shooting at the resistance to no avail as both Jason & Felix used their powers to halt the bullets trajectory, reversing them towards others. Tenzo charged forward kicking one of the snipers off the roof to his death, then jammed his blade through the neck of the other one.
Clayton hurled a massive beam of solar energy towards the vehicle center demolishing parked vehicles, and soldiers attempting to flee towards them in hopes of manning them against the unified superhuman force attacking them. The sound of whirring blades was near defeating, but little to deter the forces. Asia used her powers of wind to propel Malina into the air towards the choppers, who tampered with the perception of the pilots causing two choppers to crash into each other. The other two pilots were remained immobile as Asia allowed her to drift inside where she drew her knife stabbing both the pilot & co-pilot, while violent winds sent the other chopper crashing into a convoy of soldiers on the ground killing them.
Felix then focused his power to dismantle the remaining tanks both parked & being currently operated. Jason slung one of the disabled tanks into a parked SUV which two soldiers were ducked behind. “You will all fall to our wrath, for enforcing Forrester’s directives you shall meet a swift and painful end.” He barked as he used his power to choke some nurses in the medical camp, before forming his invisible force into a slashing force which cut through the bodies of others in the infirmary. This was followed by levitating syringes full of sedatives & other drugs, then causing them to surge forward implanting into soldiers in the infirmary causing a painful negative reaction as the conception of drugs being injected into them had lethal results. As two soldiers threw grenades and one threw a flash grenade, he ensured all three projectiles with his power then had Asia unleash. Blast of wind sending them back at the would be attackers with disastrous painful results for the soldiers.
“Backup we need” One soldier ducked off in the corner next to a training facility was attempting to call for help only for the radio he was using to be crushed by unseen force. “What the”
“Thought you were going to get assistance from others.” Jason retorted sadistically as he lifted the soldier into the air and slammed him against the outer walls of the training facility. Then with a motion of his finger he lifted. Combat knife from the soldier’s utility belt and caused it to slide into the soldier’s throat. Blood splurged out of the soldier as Jason released his grip allowing the soldier’s body to hit the ground with a thud. Asia used violent winds to shatter the windows of the. Facility and blow back any soldiers gripping their guns positioned near the windows to open fire through them. Felix caused the men’s gun inside to zoom out of their hands scattering them across the room, while Jason began striking down the disgruntled confused soldiers with telekinetic force blasts.
Clayton unleashed a gargantuan solar blast that demolished the side wall of the facility and Jason caused the remaining vehicles to zoom forward crashing into any remaining soldiers & personnel inside the facility including the hallways. He used his power to levitate himself and propel himself forward through the remains of the facility, listening for thoughts of any soldiers still living. He stumbled on three female soldiers barricaded in a room, and used his power to cause the door to open by itself.
With his mental powers he caused them to drop their guns and undergo intense panic attacks leaving them unfit and able to effectively respond to his intrusion into their room. “Oh what’s the matter, too scared to fight back, no matter I know you all typically rely on your strength in numbers directed towards preferably weak or even harmless targets. Unfortunately neither me or my crew either of the sort.” He used his power to cause the long hair of one of the women to wrap around her neck and constrict choking her with her own strands of hair, while causing one woman to be lifted to the ceiling then slammed into a wall repeatedly drawing blood until she too was dead, then used a crushing force on the last soldier causing the invisible force to push at her from all angles literally and brutally crushing her alive forcing her body to contort in ways it wasn’t suppose to.
Within the next ten minutes the camp was littered with the bodies of dead military operatives, demolished vehicles & some buildings with intense structural damage. Using his powers he relayed a telepathic message to the others that all the enemy forces in the base were now deceased, and did on final telepathic sweep to check for any survivors in the area as well as to see if any had managed to escape. Alright Felix, and Asia help me clean up the rubble from the mashed vehicles & buildings, Tenzo if you still have ample strength you can help as well. Everyone else gather in the recreation area, oh and someone should go ahead and bring in the RV full of food & other supplies we have so we can stock up our new base, everyone has their orders let’s move out. Jason had no remorse for the brutality he’d just lead against the members of the base, in his eyes they’d adhered to the call to the action that Forrester commanded. Thus they were the enemy, these soldiers were a tremendous help to local law enforcement in protecting check-points, providing secured muscle for scientists at the blood testing centers & of course offering up major assistance to police in arresting altered victimized by the U.S Government’s increasingly oppressive directives being issued against his kind.
The time for niceties was long gone, whilst he wasn’t going to go on murderous rampages filled with civilian targets like Lori Martinez, he had no qualms for carrying out organized brutal hits on the armed forces that were directed to enslave & eliminate them. Second chances, forgiveness & mercy were not things that had ay room in his blood thirsty vengeful mind, he’d allowed Justice to take the reins throughout this entire hostile take-over of the base. However with the blood now spilled, he was the one piloting his mind & body again. Still very upset & reeling from Saiyu’s death he felt that he could concoct this aggressive behavior even without Justice right now. Still he was raised on the principle of if something wasn’t broke then it didn’t require fixing. In times of strategic planning & delivering comforting words to the others he would be Jason, but in times of conflict Justice would be in the driver’s seat. This allowed for him to have each of his personalities play the positions that best fit their roles, ad with the untimely passing of the woman he loved he was drifting away from the kind considerate therapist, no now he was just Reaper.
"You didn't see me?" Kandahar's expression crinkled at the asian, Smoke was beginning to slowly trickle out of the exit behind him, the noxious taste of burning liquor close behind it. For his part, he tugged at the dufflebag slung over his shoulderand moved to pace off, the fingers of his gloved hand idly curling inwards and almost threatening to form a fist.
"Then walk away."
"Uh... did you... do that?" Lysander asked, pointing at the burning building. Every instinct told him to simply turn and walk away but he just... couldn't. Whether it was a misbegotten sense of justice, or some kind of psychic change brought in by his newfound bond with his mind forged drake, he could not tell. It was just that he would not walk from this...
"Oh, he definitely did it." Shenron's disembodied voice rang into his mind. "Perhaps I can deal with it-"
"What-"
"I'm itching to punch something in the face, damn it!"
Sparks began flying from the small stuffed dragon hanging from Lysander's backpack. It wanted out.
Kandahar's hand edged closer to their waistline, their gaze expressively shifting at the sight of the compartmentalised fireworks display. "This isn't your business," he insisted.
"Let me at it!" Shenron raged against the psychic restraints that stopped him from simply bursting into existence. "This man, he has committed murder!"
"Sh.. shut up!" Lysander hissed, only to realize that he didn't just think that. He said it. "No, I wasn't talking to-
Too late. Only the slightest lapse of control was needed for Shenron to break free, and he burst forth, a seven foot tall draconian being wreathed in holy flame. Lysander cursed at himself as his own inexperience with his powers had allowed this to happen.
He wanted to run, but he couldn't. Not when his psychic creation had revealed itself.
"Arsonist, you shall not pass!" The dragon hissed at Kandahar. "Not until justice is given!"
Lysander couldn't think, or move. Shenron was indeed a fully sentient being, and though it would take only a direct command for him to bow and withdraw, Lysander was in no state of mind to do so.
Something indiscernible slipped from Kandahar's lips, a curse in a language neither of them were liable to understand. Backpedalling, the Pashtun tugged a pistol loose and blindly squeezed off a few rounds as they forced their way back into the smoking building, blindly making for a flight of stairs.
"What the-" Lysander's voice dropped into a silent gawk as he watched the man run, not away from the burning building, but into it. Was he just scared of crossing the seven feet tall dragon bathed in fire? Or was he Altered as well, and he was... fireproof or something?
That did nothing to deter the drake, which quickly rushed after Kandahar, its sleek and slender draconic form slipping inside.
Lysander knew not of most of his abilities, and to be frank, he was more inclined to call for the fire brigade. And he did. Oddly enough, there was this strange sensation of righteous fury coursing through his mind... as if he was feeling was his creation was feeling. Is this what psychic bonding entailed?
Inside, though, Kandahar found himself chased by the flaming and possessed creature, whose growls emanated through the stairways. Fire did not even since its supposedly flammable form, as it too was perpetually ablaze.
Vaulting over the limp body of one of the bar's patrons, the 'arsonist' made a beeline for the office upstairs, ignoring the flames licking at his back. He burst through the window, scrabbling up the fire exit - one of his arms still smouldering where the growing inferno had charred it.
Yet the dragon roared after him, unrelenting in its pursuit. "Why do you run? Do you fear justice?"
"Th-" A hoarse, rasping cough erupted from Kandahar's blackened face as he reached the rooftop level, tumbling to the floor. The dufflebag spilled out on the floor beside him, and would've been alight if not for him fervently beating out the flames that had threatened to devour its and its contents. Persistent he was though, forcing himself bsck to his feet even as his pursuer closed in.
[man emperor - giving you a window to put some more dialogue from the dragon here if you want]
"That was justice." Kandahar insisted, steering the sight of his pistol towards the mythical entity's serpentine form and squeezing off five more rounds in rapid succession, only stopping when the slide had locked backwards, the magazine emptied. He was backed to the wall, metaphorically speaking - to the edge, literally speaking.
The bullets didn't do anything but lodge themselves into flaming stuffing. Shenron was not a being made from mortal flesh, but a strange, possessed stuffed toy, enlarged and strengthened by whatever mad power bound him with his creator.
"Just say why." The dragon reiterated, his voice almost pleading. "Why did you do it?"
"Because.." Kandahar started, almost hesitant - his features creased firm. For a moment, he glanced towards the edge of the rooftop, peering into the alleyway below, conscious of the approaching sirens as smoke billowed out from the ground level below them. "Because I can. Because it's my right." A sliver of malice emerged for just a moment, the shadow of a bitter, joyless grin. "Because I enjoyed it." Without another word, he took a step off the ledge, careening down into the alleyway below.
"Enjoyed...?" Shenron hissed angrily, and was about to lunge towards Kandahar with a thousand pound bite. He would be disappointed, though, as the man jumped down the ledge and unto the cold concrete below.
"Suicidal bastard..." The dragon grumbled. He moved to check it out, but an irresistible force pulled unto his mind and body. His master calls for him to return. Shenron found himself drawn through the fabric of space, into a realm beyond the material, and back into the measly form he usually had. A small stuffed toy bound to the back of bag.
There, Lysander would sooner turn away from the commotion, as crowds of curious onlookers and teams of firefighters converged around the burning building. Lysander spoke to the authorities and relayed that someone had come out of the building as it burned. Who this was, he probably won't know...
A single beep sounded in the back of the special “limo” that Alexander rode in. It’s was diary black with tinted windows. The back lowered and the door raised high enough to allow his wheelchair in. Alexander looked down at his iPhone.
Turn on the TV, the text read. Alexander called up to Bubba, an African American man who came to the bay as part of one of those semi-professional football teams hoping to be noticed and drafted into the NFL. That call never came. Bubba liked to say, “He got my sorry black butt out of jail.” With all the charm a man from Louisiana can give. Bubba was officially Alexander’s driver five days a week. Outside of the office, he was Alexander’s right hand and A.A. Sponsor. "Turn on the TV," he said. Bubba reached up and flipped a switch a small TV came to life feeding a news report. Right now, the news was feeding Alexander information and perspective that his people could not give living in the midst of the crisis. Right now, his rivals were having a field day with how he was managing the crisis. Afterward, they would come after him for letting law enforcement had too much power.
He got his money shot, him holding a little girl as they loaded people into his official vehicle and rushed a group of injured people to the hospital. It did not hurt that the little girl was black. It was the scene played on all the major news networks and made some of the major papers around the world.
Andrew and his driver drove through the city looking at the damage and repairs. Stopping at places that were in hard-hit, places where resources were needed, places where people lingering, he put up an image of trying to help them. He called and got food and water, and medicines delivered.
In his mind, the term domestic terrorism kept popping up. This was the largest domestic terrorist attack in the US and the most damage San Francisco had seen since “The Big One.” But he could not call it till Homeland Security gave it that label.
Right now he had been fully briefed by his departments and now he was doing spin control.
Pacific Gas and Power had called for mutual aid and over the last couple of days and gas service was starting to get back to normal. The electric grid was up but some damaged buildings were taxing the system. His Police Department was doing its best. Other departments had come in to help curb looting and crime. He had been calling for people to remain calm and to watch out for each other.
An H-S Precision PLR with all the FBI bells and whistles would take care of a fair amount of the crime problem from his suite. One tap, one thud, and one problem solved. But the game at this level is played in a different way. He now had people to do that for him.
Bubba pulled up at a school that was serving as a rescue and relocation center. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other agencies were in the area meeting the basic needs. Until FEMA was set up, he was mostly in charge (His Emergency Manager was actually in charge). He got to be the PR face and make the tough decisions as it was his butt on the line.
He rolled out of the vehicle and waved to the media who had come for the photo op. He had answered a few questions with a message of stay calm and help each other out.
After a few moments and pictures were taken, Bubba picked up his wheelchair carried him across a rubble field to the door of the school.
Alexander got to work. Meeting victims, listening to stories, assessing needs and costs. Mostly being present and standing in the chaos trying to calm it down.
He had placed an emergency order placing a curfew and other emergency orders in place. The bridges into the city were blocked only allowing emergency personnel and supplies into the city. This was being handled by the USCG's Golden Gate Bridge Unit. Search and rescue were being assisted by the Coast Guard, Marines, and the Air Force. The Marine Base was handling securing the southern end of the city, while the air force was patroling and providing cover. The Ports were closed and the Coast Guard kept private boats away from the city.
