Standing in front of one of the computer banks, brow furrowed in concentration was Fusebox. The young mutant had been stood like this for at least 10 minutes now, tapping into the computer systems that still worked, frantically searching. She was tired, more than tired. The prior night and day since the first attacks had been spent trawling through the city, assisting when and where she could.
She had a more important purpose in mind though. More personal, perhaps... her best friend Ellie Stoneberg was in the city at the time of the attack, and she hadn't been able to contact her. Worry and fear gripped at her stomach and heart as she flicked through the list of reported casualties and injuries.
"Dammit, she's just not here... switch to list of Jane Does brought into hospital." Hannah said out aloud to the computer, which soon complied.
"Two thousand Jane Does reported in medical facilities, the list is truncated. Wish to expand the list?" BODICIA, the AI governing Unity Tower and the Vigilants within reported.
"...DAMMIT!" Hannah screamed in fustration, slamming her fists down on the back of a chair. "... where are you, Ellie?" she said on a breath, closing her eyes.
The Warshade known as Tiger Dark, Eloise to her friends, entered the room. "We'll find her Hannah, don't worry. She's tough, she'll be OK..." she said, trying to reassure the young woman.
Moving over to her, she rested a soft hand on Hannah's shoulder. "I've searched all her usual places, but with all the smoke, I'm afraid I've not been able to get her scent..."
Eloise looks up at the computer banks, trying to decipher the information flowing across the screens. "Are the tower sensors online? Maybe you can pick up her energy signature on them?" she asked, a hopeful note in her voice.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Hannah shook her head. "The sensor array is working at reduced capacity due to the shields, and most of its operations are being taken up by working out where next attack points are..." With a sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair. "How've things been outside?"
Eloise sighed, "It's pretty bad. Those bastards are killing anyone and everyone that moves. A lot of heroes are going down and with the mediport system stressed and overloading... Well, I've been porting out as many as I can but..." She shakes her head.
She moved over to one of the windows and looked out. The scene greeting her was not one she liked seeing. "If only my charging crystal was ready; I'd be able to do more. As it is..."
She looks down at her hands, "I'd last about 5 minutes out there unless I can get a full charge..."
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
"Why not get it from the Rikti?" Hannah asked, heading over towards the window. "Desperate times, after all..." she said quietly, before blinking as she looked down out of the window. "Umm... Eloise, is that your boyfriend carrying a member of the Void Hunters?" she said with some confusion.
Officer Michael Preston, aka Storm Sapphire hopped over the wreckage and ran towards the Tower. His brown hair had matted to his forehead with sweat and blood in places, his PPD Awakened uniform torn in places. In his arms he was carrying the limp form of a woman clad in the void stalker uniform, her mask off and pale yellow hair spilling down her arm, dyed red with blood in places. Behind him was a group of four skulls, two carrying one and another keeping watch behind them.
Bursting in through the doors thanks to his security clearance, he called out. "I need some medical assitance here!"
Eloise gaped in surprise, "What the hell!? I'm going down there Hannah..."
With that, she rushed from the room, running quickly down the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator. A few moments later she arrived in the lobby and rushed to Storm Sapphire's side. Medics were also arriving, some moving to assist the wounded Skull gang members, and 2 moving to take the unmoving void hunter from him.
"Mike!" She asked, worry in her voice, "Are you alright? What's going on? You rescued a void hunter?"
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Hannah nodded to Eloise and made her way back, drifting past the medical bays and workshops, just wandering.
Downstairs in the lobby, Mike nodded tiredly, sagging a little once the woman was lifted out of his arms. There was the familiar taint of quantum residue on him from a blast of a Quantum Array. "Yeah... I'm okay, I could do with some rest though." he yawned, before nodding to one of the Skulls. "You go with your friend... and thanks. I owe you."
The Skulls member smiled and came over to shake his hand. "I owed you one, so let's call it even." he said before heading off to see his friend.
Eloise fussed around her boyfriend worriedly, "She shot you, didn't she? She shot you with that foul weapon of hers, and you STILL helped her. I don't know whether to kiss you, or lecture you!"
Eloise tried to feign a cross expression, but with all the worry of the last few hours, she didn't have the heart. Throwing her arms around Mike and giving him a hug and a gentle kiss, she said, "I'm so proud of you, love."
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Mike shook his head, though still readily accepted the kiss and the hug, pulling Eloise close. "No, she didn't. That was someone else... they've been dealt with." He said simply, before looking at the medical officers taking the Void Stalker away.
"I found her clawing her way through some rubble, there was a bus trapped underneath from where one of the support beams on a bridge gave way... no survivors inside after I and some of the Skulls with me helped out but... we got ambushed by a group of shocktroopers. She took some pretty heavy blasts." Mike said with a sigh, resting his forehead against his girlfriends.
In another part of the tower, Kanae - Warrior Seraphim - finally found herself released from the ministrations of maintenance. Her internal diagnostics showed green across the board, and though her physical fatigue was gone.. she still felt unpleasantly weary.
Stepping outside the workshop she found herself almost running face-first into Fusebox.
"Oh, hey.". Kanae grinned as usual, though for once it felt very out of place.
Albert Zimmerman cursed silently before exlaiming "These are not suitable working conditions!" as a panel exploded beside him. He grumbled and went to repair what he could "I thought exploding pannels only happened on Star Trek".
Working to keep enough power going for the non-essential lighting and systems through out the tower.
"No, don't even think about it, we're not THAT fit for combat and much more useful in here" he tried to reason with his Warshade companion inside him. "No, it won't help calling me chicken either!"
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Fusebox looked up and blinked. "Hey Kanae, you finally out of the bed, eh?" she said, before smiling. "Good to see you back on your feet."
There was still a fair bit of worry in Hannah's expression, making the teenager look much older than normal. "Mike's down in the lobby, just brought a bunch of Skulls and a Void Hunter in. I think Eloise is currently breaking his ribs in a hug... no, that was when Lyn and Lance met up last night on the balcony."
Eloise held Mike tight, worry in her voice. "I'm just glad you're safe. It's horrible out there... So many dead, Ellie is missing... I've tried to help where I can, but without my crystal I just don't have the power to fight... Unless..."
Eloise looks away for a moment, thinking about what Hannah had said a few minutes before, then she released Mike and steps back so she can see him properly. "Hannah suggested... I take what I need, from the Rikti..."
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Mike looked to Eloise. "How do you feel about that, love?" he asked, stroking her forearm.
Another blast of energy hit the building, the shields outside crackling and surging, causing the lights to dimm once more.
Kanae stretched, reflex act more than anything.
"Mmm, up and working again, heh. Hopefully turning in like that won't become a habit, I think I broke some personal record in stress-related damage over time."
There was a moment of pause, uncertainity how exactly to react. She settled for a nod.
"They're all fine, I hope? And you for that matter?"
Hannah chuckled a little. "Try not to break any more records like that." she said, before grumbling as the lights dimmed. "I better get Mom to head down and check the generators later."
Looking to Kanae, she sighed, rubbing her eyes with her hands. "Mike seems roughed up but okay, Eloise is fine... it's just that my friend Ellie has been missing since the attack yesterday, not heard a word from her or found anything on records. As for myself? I'm knacked, sweaty and hungry."
In the med-bay, a piece of monitoring equipment previously beeping away slowly as it monitored the heartrate of the patient it was attached too, started to wail loudly.
A medic rushed over, hurriedly checking the readings, before turning and yelling, "Get a crash team here, stat!"
Immediately, a team of medics rushed over, one of them grabbing an emergency cart with its myriad of life support gear, and they got to work. One started work on CPR whilst another prepped the her equipment.
The whine of capacitors filled the air as she slipped the paddles onto his chest, "Clear!" she called, and the others moved back as a jolt of high voltage electricity surged through the unmoving body. The heart monitor beeped. Once, twice, then returned to its single tone.
"Again!" Called a doctor.
"Clear!" came the reply, and another jolt surged through the body. The heart monitor continued it's single tone.
Franticle the medics continued to work on the hero, sending more shocks into the fallen heroes body and injecting adrenaline directly to his heart, but eventually, they stopped.
The doctor, a young man not long qualified, cursed and threw his stethoscope into the crash cart. "Dammit, how many more are we gonne lose!"
A nurse reached out and touched him lightly on the knee. "You did all you could Doctor Connors, he was just... Too badly wounded."
Doctor Connors nodded and sighed, then picked up the patients chart. "I'm going to call it. Time of death, 08:47 hours."
Scribbling notes down onto the pad, he placed it back on the foot of the bed and walked away. On the bed, the badly burned body of the hero once known as Bowfire lay still; at peace.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Eloise looked up at the flickering lights, an odd look on her face, "I think... I'm not going to have any choice. If I want to help protect you, my friends, everyone who needs it. I'm... going to have to kill again..."
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
"It's not just you who has to, Eloise. I've had to, though I don't like doing it, it's us or them. And seeing as they came here and picked the fight with -us-, I'd rather it was them." Mike said, squeezing her hand gently. "I need to grab an hours rest, get some food in me, get a new uniform... then if you want, we'll go back out."
Current Time - Day 2 of the Rikti Invasion.
Rising thirty one stories above Skyway City stood the massive skyscraper, at the top of the building mounted on each side being the Unity Vigil crest. Energy flickered around the building as the shield generators underneath pumped out a powerful field to protect those inside.
Not that it protected it completely however. Inside, the refugees and workers tensed inwards as each plasma blast from the Rikti ships his the building, causing a shudder to run through the tower and non-essential lightning to flicker and dim.
Keeping watch inside the building and looking out from the lobby were men and women clad in the black and white armour of the Unity Vigil, white sleeveless trenchcoats over it with the crest emblazoned on their chest. They weren't that good convesrationalists for those refugees who tried to speak to them, mostly due to not even being human. They were able to provide basic information for the people asking though, and in one tense moment where a group of Rikti forced the doors open, they let loose with several volleys of fire, aided by internal defence systems, to drive them out.
Statione down in the large, open plan cafeteria was Jessica Kade, a blonde girl known for her extremely cheerful personality, more than slight eccentricness and excellent cooking, which helped those seeking shelter or simply rest from the battle.
Standing on the balcony overlooking the lobby, clad in white armour was a seldome seen heroine, Xortel. Zorielle Rolando's wife had left her children in the charge of two of the sentient gynoids they had created to oversee operations in Unity Tower whilst Zorielle helped co-ordinate efforts between the authorities and various hero groups.
The sun began to rise on the city, as the war on the world entered its first full day.
SUPPORT - IT'S NOT JUST A GROUPING OF ATs
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