Tinderspark watched The Walking Shadow and Hicks go off into their own little group, and Wolf keeping an eye on the building.
He settled down on a nearby bench and sighed. "Boy. I thought that when I came to earth things would be different, turns out it's just as crummy as back home."
He tilted his head back and watched the clouds roll by.
"Looks like rain's coming...I hate rain."
Wolf glanced around sharply.
"'Came to Earth'? Where are you from then?" he asked, caution in his words. Anyone who knew Vanguard would probably know Wolf, as if the Redding wasn't enough evidence needed.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
 |
Tinderspark looked around at Wolf.
"Huh?...Oh, it's a planet called Alpiious. Couple of light years away. What about you? From Earth?"
Wolf nodded, turning back to sight on the building.
"Yup...Spent the last five years or so fighting Rikti, too." He glanced back, just for a second. "So excuse me for not being a hundred percent happy with aliens who don't put human lives first..."
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
Vanguard. If only they were taught the true nature of the 'alien' threat they faced. I could see this becoming an argument. I didn't care, and turned back to await Hick's instructions - going my own way would only get me kicked out of the city; well they would try. I liked being in the good books of the law for the time being, made my life a little easier.
"You think you're the only planet that's had to fight them? We didn't even have half of the technology you have here on earth."
Suddenly, the front doors of the bank burst open, pouring out the panicked men and women who had been held hostage. "Don't shoot, please don't shoot" they begged, scuttling out from the hazard zone. Lieutenant Hicks acted quickly, giving the order to inspect each hostage and hold them for question. "Count them, count the hostages" yelled Hicks, "these crooks are likely to try and escape in this crowd! I want SWAT inside that building like yesterday, search every room, every floor, ceiling and wall. Shadow, go with them! Wolf, Tinkers, with me!"
Wolf slammed back the hammer on the Redding, but didn't charge forward. He kept an eye on the hostages warily, just in case, and waited to follow on to support the PPD units that made the initial rush. They had their job, and his was to support them.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
The doors burst open. I felt the fear. After hearing Hick's command, I looked to the front of the building - the doors were open still. I stepped back into the shadow of the building behind me, and stepped forward out into the lobby of the bank, fists clenched ready for a fight; but there was no-one here. I waited for the SWAT, the building was surrounded, and I wasn't invincible. I wasn't going to let these guys out.
The 6 man SWAT team moved into the lobby with precision. I was impressed, they knew their stuff. I stepped out so they could see me, and began to give them their commands,
"You two secure the lobby here, no-one leaves through the door. By all means let people in to check the vault, but no-one out until I say. The rest of us will do a quick sweep of the vault, check everyone is out and then move onto a systematic sweep of the building floor by floor. You'll be on point, and will do a standard room clearance on each room - but with one difference. Open the door a fraction and I'll be in first ready to counter any superpowered threat. Please don't shoot me, it hurts. We need to be thorough, but we also need to be fast. Mark each room we clear and lock the doors as we exit. Ok, move out on me"
10 minutes later. Nothing. We had found nothing. Noone. There was one room left. The team was stacked up on the door, front man with his hand on the handle. I gave him the nod. He opened the door a fraction, waited a second and flung it open. The rest of the team performed a perfect room entry to find only me and an empty office.
"Dammit. Where'd they get out? The guys outside better have checked those 'hostages' carefully. Lets get back down to the lobby and see what was taken. This doesn't feel right"
Tinderspark ducked behind a vehicle and began to count the hostages "1-2-3-4...5-6-7...8..." He counted 20 in total. "There's 20! How many was there when all this started?"
Wolf spun, powering up his armour. If needs be, he could attempt to lock down anyone who was trying to make a break for it.
Failing that, there were other ways...
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
I returned to the lobby, there was a couple of officers that had been let in. I walked up to the 2 SWAT officers I had put on the door.
"Who are these people, and tell me no-one has gone out"
"Forensics sir, and noone has been let out"
"Good. Radio Hicks and get someone with thermal imaging in here pronto, we might have some invisible perps. Hell, if they are, they could of slipped out with the hostages and got away clean. As pyro's they would have left a massive heat trail, so we need someone who can detect that. I'll be in the vault. Still noone goes out, understood?"
"Yes sir, will radio in now"
As the call came in, Hicks realised the brilliance of the idea. "Switch to thermal vision!" he yelled. "Thermal goggles, now! We mustn't loose these people!" Somebody handed Hicks thermal goggles and as soon as he slipped them on, he could see something was wrong. Stood directly in front of him were two thermal hot figures, carrying something. But with thermal vision switched off, it was just empty air. On closer inspection however, Hicks noticed raindrops were either bouncing off the empty space or sizzling into steam. As the realization slowly hit home, his heart began to race and fear crept in. "Okay, please don't kill me, you got what you came for!"
"Well yeah but Lieutenant" came a whispering voice, with an accent laced with a Southern drawl. "You've got a whole buncha cases against us. It just ain't nice to be chasing us around town, hmm? What d'you say, you go'on an' leave us alone now. Else all these innocent people here... they go, tick, tick, tick... BOOM!" Even in the pounding rain, the sound of ecstatic laughter could be heard ringing through the crowd. Two sets of footprints could be seen strolling away towards the parked police cruisers.
Even when surrounded by police, the two robbers were calm and collected, confident in their escape plan, enjoying every moment of it. Lieutenant Hicks may sometimes come across a little overwhelmed by the supernatural and like everyone else, he may be afraid, but he wasn't a coward. He turned to his team of heroes and silently signaled for them to attack, goggles on, towards the police vehicles.
Tinderspark tapped Wolf on the shoulder and quietly signalled to go around the invisible figures and surprise them.
"Yeah, y'know what?" Wolf muttered, drawing himself up and letting the Redding hang idly. Instead, he raised his right fist, the now humming powerfist coated in ice. "Freeze!"
A beam of thermo-negative energy pulsed from the gauntlet aimed at the ground in front of the retreating thugs. If it hit them, their legs would most likely be coated in a heavy layer of ice, pyros or not. And, failing that, the ground around them would form a pane of glass like ice, slippery enough to skid even a tank off of.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
The ground temperature dropped suddenly and the concrete froze up with a layer of ice. "Now that weren't a very nice thing to do t'me" said one of the thugs, as their stealth cloak fell, revealing their suited appearances. "I did warn you, but you had to, you just had to go on and ruin everything, for everyone. Tut. Tut. Tut. Death toll's on you ice boy" he said, his southern drawl adding a patronizing edge to his words. The two quickly jumped into a nearby police cruiser. A palm emerged from the passenger window and in a massive pulse of heat, the road cleared of it's ice. Somehow, the thugs managed to start the engines and the wheels spun wildly, shooting the robbers down the road. A rumbling noise could be heard from behind. The hostages were shaking uncontrollably, their skins began to glow a bright hot red as though about to explode. The surrounding officers now grew nervous, overwhelmed with trepidation. They withdrew their firearms and slowly backed away. Lieutenant Hicks was speechless. This operation was quickly turning into disaster.
I turned as I heard the screech of tires. I saw the cloud of smoke and steam rising gently into the air, an unfair parody of the chaos that was occuring. When I saw the officers drawing their weapons as some of the hostages fell to their knees, my heart skipped a beat. This was not good. This was definetly not good. What the hell was going on?
"You lot, stop them!" Wolf yelled, shouldering the Redding and raising both hands at the cluster of quivering hostages. The air temperature plummeted, to that of an alpine mountain. Wolf began running scans as fast as he could, trying to guage what could be done. If needs be, he could lower the temperature enough to freeze them all, just enough to put them into semi-hibernation and keep them 'on ice' so to speak, without risking too much damage.
So long as he could contain them, they might have a chance.
If not, there would be two pyros at large with the Hunters Mark on them until they were taken down...
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
Tinderspark jumped up and started running for the stolen cruiser. He called back at Wolf, "You idiot!".
He heated his palm up and tried to get a grasp on the car, but only managed to grab the licence plate.
He heard gasps behind him and turned around to see the hostages glowing. "Oh sh*t..."
The sudden drop in temperature cooled the hostages and slowly, they stopped shaking. One by one they fell unconscious. Paramedics rushed to their aid, not forgetting to thank the man who had acted quickly to help.
"After that cruiser!" yelled the lieutenant, jumping into a nearby car. The bank robbers didn't wait to find out what had happened to the hero who latched onto their number plates, they zoomed off recklessly into the Independence Port tunnel. Twelve police cars took chase, radioing to other precincts to set up roadblocks.
As I watched the events unfold outside, my mind raced to keep up.
"Curfew is over" I announced as I pushed open the door. In a blink of an eye I was picking up the thermal goggles that the Lieutenant had dropped. Another blink and I was flicking between the shadows following the police cars and the thermal trail of the perps.
As soon as the hostages were in the hands of the Medical squad, Wolf was airborne, jetting after the stolen car.
He landed solidly on a building along the road from them, kneeling and bringing the redding up to slam into his shoulder.
"Chew on this, you -"
The digusted curse was lost over the rifles crack, high powered shots aimed at the vehicles wheels and bonnet. Even as the lost shot flew, Wolf was airborne, keeping on the move like any good sniper.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
Tinderspark's feet were dragging along the road at high speed, he pulled them up onto the bumper and soldered his free hand onto the back of the car.
He looked back at the wall of police cruisers following the criminals.
Shots rung out from the top of a nearby building. He squinted and saw Wolf with his rifle. He yelled to Wolf, "Stop shooting you maniac!" but his cries were drowned out by the car's engine
Wolf waited, getting on one knee in cover behind a car, sighting down the Reddings scope and keeping a lookout on the building, watching for any more obvious movement or things out of whack. This was Hick's gig, and he wasn't about to crash in on it. Besides, he always had been the shot taker, not the caller.