[hr][h1][color=DimGray]Sam Clarke[/color][/h1] [hr] When Sam heard the first gunshot, his head snapped back towards the fair so hard that his vision blurred. In the distance, he could see a man with a metal rake and a gas mask standing atop a picnic table; the Fiends. Highly dangerous, highly aggressive, drug-injected maniacs, known to act with extreme irrationality. Use weaponized amphetamines mixed with a highly-toxic mutagen to infect opponents. [i]I'll take them over the Skulls any day,[/i] Sam thought. He looked back at Fiona. "Get down," he said to Fiona "Stay out of sight. Do not leave cover. Got it?" he turned and looked down at Anastasia. She was cut (hopefully not with the syringe) but she seemed fine. As he helped her up, his body began to fade into thin air. In his left hand was his suppressed Glock, and he made a mental note of where his knife was. Not that he'd need it; these fuckers didn't know what they were dealing with. "Whatever you do," he said to Anesthesia, only his head still visible "Do not get stuck with that green shit. Now let's go to work. Take out any direct civilian threats and direct civilians away from the area. Let's see if you're KINGFISHER material." His head vanished and he walked out of the alley. "KINGFISHER ALBATROSS, this is KINGFISHER CORMORANT. I'm going in, repeat, I'm going in. Permission to use lethal force?" There was a bit of static at the end of the comm line. Then an old, hard-sounding voice spoke in his ear. "KINGFISHER CORMORANT, this is KINGFISHER ALBATROSS. Permission granted. Fuck them up." Sam smiled. [b]"Roger that. Going dark, ALBATROSS. Over!" [/b] --- (direct you back to the music from earlier in the page) In the middle of the chaos, six people sat on their knees, surrounded by fiends. Their hands were up and their eyes looked down as the lead Fiend shouted orders at them. A mother covered her young boy's eyes. The leader of the group of Fiends wore a sweat-stained wifebeater and jeans that nearly sagged to his thighs, along with a Borderlands-style gas mask. He shook an AK-47 in the air. "Empty your pockets! I want everything on the ground!" the people complied, throwing phones and wallets into a heap in front of the man barking orders. The leader gestured to one of his cronies and they crouched to the ground. They rummaged through wallets and purses, tossing worthless things to the side and making a pile of money, credit cards, and condoms to his right. "You!" the gunman shouted at a middle-aged man wearing a blue suit. The man's eyes widened in fear. "Stand up!" The man struggled to his feet "Up faster! Let's go I haven't got all day!" he stood at attention. "Good. Now gimme yer watch." The man clumsily unlatched his Rolex and tossed it into the leader's grubby hands. The leader looked down at the watch, gazing at his reflection in the glass. Then he shoved it in the pocket of his pants. "And the cufflinks. Them too." The man tossed the diamond cufflinks at the leader's feet. One or two of the Fiends giggled. "Now take yer jacket off." Laughter from the crowd. The man took it off and sat it down. "And yer pants." The man looked around embarassed, and opened his mouth to speak. The leader shoved the barrel of the AK in his face "Did I ask you to speak, you fucking shitbag?!" the leader roared "Take your fucking pants off!" The man undid his suspenders and dropped his pants to the ground. A young child in the pile in the middle started weeping. "Good, now y-" the leader was cut short as he felt something hit him in the back like a punch. He gasped and looked down at his shirt; a red stain was beginning to form just under his heart. Just behind him, a voice spoke from thin air. "I eat dirt like your for breakfast." The leader gasped as the invisible knife twisted. Then he fell to the ground. The Fiends all looked at where their dead leader laid perplexed. Then one of them had their legs taken out from under them. One by one they died helplessly, some flailing aimlessly with their blades and firing their guns haphazardly into the thin air. In a matter of seconds, twelve Fiends lay broken and defeated on the ground, some dead, some with broken limbs. Behind the businessman, the voice spoke once more. "Pull your pants up and run home." The man shrieked and pulled them back up to waist level. He ran off into the crowd, his suspenders trailing behind him like tails and his hands holding up his pants. Sam appeared momentarily, just long enough to gaze down at the boy who was weeping and let the people know that a NEST agent had saved them. Then he vanished again. [hr][h1][color=Yellow]Claire Sparks[/color][/h1][hr] As Claire bit into her chimichanga, she was rushed from behind and driven to the ground. She cried out and rolled around to see a shirtless man covered in tattoos standing above her, a gas mask painted like a clown head shrouding his face. In one hand he held a rusty. He panted like a mad dog as he drove his knee into Claire's abdomen and punched her in the face. His belt was already undone and he unzipped his pants ravenously. Claire shrieked and kicked at him wildly, trying to get the man off of her. Soon another joined the fray and kicked her in the head with his boot. She rolled over and was able to struggle away from the first attacker, but the second on pinned her to the ground. She felt a hand uncomfortably close to her waist, and the second Fiend began punching her in the ribs from above. "GIVE...ME...YOUR..." She twisted out of the second Fiend's grip and, as she struggled to her knees, grabbed both men by the wrists. Claire gritted her teeth as 50,000 volts of electricity shot from her hands into their bodies. They writhed and spasmed as bolts of light arced up their arms and into their chests. As she let them go, steam escaped her grip. They both fell to the ground, incapacitated, but probably not dead. There were burn marks on their wrists. Claire shook her hands and shouted "fuck!" Both of her palms were burnt. Claire looked down at her feet. [i]Fuck. They destroyed my chimichanga.[/i] Looking around, Claire decided that it would be better to not draw too much attention to herself. She grabbed her skateboard and, stepping on it, began to ride towards a nearby alley which pointed towards home. As she reached the edge, a Fiend ran out with a garden rake raised above his head murderously. Claire stopped, held out her hand, and blasted an arc of electricity into the man's chest. He staggered as if he'd been shot and hunched over, holding his chest. As she rode past him, she couldn't help but stop and poke fun. "Stop being a fucking baby," she said "It won't kill you." The man lunged for her again, though he was so intoxicated that he missed her entirely and smashed the head of the rake against the brick wall. Claire shot him again, this time between the legs. He roared and fell over, his legs together and his hands at the...spot of impact. Claire laughed and kicked him in the ribs. Then she walked back off down the alley, her skateboard now under her right arm. [hr][h1][color=forestgreen]Eva Chilver[/color][/h1][hr] As Eva sat at the bench, watching a sparrow flutter through the air, all Hell decided to break loose. As the shouts began, Eva dove to the ground, smacking her head against the dirt. She covered her head with her hands and wriggled underneath the table, trying to look as inconspicuous. Once she was under the table, the smell of fresh-cut grass grazed her nostrils. The blades grew higher, concealing her. Orion crawled under as well and sat crouched, his head sticking out from under the bench seat. Every one of his muscles were tensed and he growled menacingly. The grass grew to conceal him as well. A few people ran by, but no one bothered the picnic table until a long-haired, shirtless man in a plain grey mask climbed to the top of the table and began to shout, waving his arms around in the air. In one hand was a Colt 1911, and in the other a copy of the Holy Bible. "ARMAGEDDON IS NEAR, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" he shouted, waving the gun in the air "DO NOT DESPAIR! I AM THE WAY, I AM THE LIFE, I AM YOUR SAVIOR! FOLLOW ME, AND I WILL LEAD YOU TO PARADISE!" Eva grumbled, but didn't speak out. "THIS WORLD IS CRUEL AND DIRTY, MY BROTHERS, BUT WE CAN BRUSH THE DIRT FROM OUR SANDALS AND BE FREE! COME WITH ME, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, AND WE SHALL DRINK THE MILK OF PURITY IN MY FATHER'S GARDEN OF PARADISE!" Eva was growing angrier, but she dared not come out of her hiding place. Luckily, though, a tree nearby decided to do her a favor. As the mad man opened his mouth to speak once more, the branch of a tree whipped around and smacked him in the face, sending him flying off of the picnic table and into a trash can. He staggered to his feet, his crazed eyes filling with fear, and he shot the tree three times, as if that would somehow damage it. Then he ran off into the crowd, the bible raised above his head, still shouting "BE FREE WITH ME, BROTHERS AND SISTERS! I AM YOUR SAVIOR!"