[h2]Alessa Heather: PRT Headquarters[/h2]
...God damn it.

She'd woken up so refreshed, after the downs and ups of last night. She was so glad to have a clear head, so ready to get to training for their next bout of heroics. And then Dean just [i]left.[/i] God [i]damn[/i] it. God [i]DAMN IT,[/i] Dean. At least Collin's power loss was an unforeseen tragedy; Dean's upping stakes like that was just... almost selfish, she wanted to say. For once, she was partway inclined to agree with Margrave's assessment, that when things got tough, you couldn't just abandon your responsibilities, else what state would the world fall into?

But, she reminded herself, not everybody was as obsessed with heroics as she was. She'd never describe Dean as wearing "a mask of audacity and ego", and indeed he hadn't given off that impression at any point... they were all human, and alas, not every human had what it took to do what the Protectorate did.

Having said that, she now needed to pick a new second-in-command. An inconvenience, but ultimately not a crippling blow: her previous assessments stood, and with Dean gone, that left Ira as the next most viable candidate for second. As Elliot and Lyn both began their run, Alessa first walked over to Ira, running alongside her if she took off on that physical task as she talked.

'So, Ira,' she began, as congenially as possible, 'Dean's gone. That's a shame, and I hope he changes his mind at some point and returns to us, but like Protean says, we need to move on from it relatively quickly. That said, I need a new second in command by the end of the day, and I think you'd do a good job of it. You're calm, you're a good thinker, you can create tech that everybody benefits from, not least that [i]amazing[/i] power nullification device... I can't tell you how much I appreciate your development of that, by the way,' she said hurriedly, gushing a little with admiration. 'I know you'll do a great job of helping Collin out with something similar, and just... it's great, it's amazing, thank you so so much. Aaanyway, I'd do a more formal interview sort of thing like I did with Dean, but now's obviously a bad time for that. What do you think, are you up to the task?'

[hr]
[h2]Raymond Haywood: Highway Robbery[/h2]
And like that, Love Craft was out of commission permanently. Or, probably permanently. What a pity. At least everyone else had more than a fighting chance. And why, what a surprise, both the heroes - Crop Duster and Morales, if he recalled - were just [i]begging[/i] to get themselves shot through the head and killed... really, all the remaining mooks were, if he though about it, simply pick them off and... no, hang on, that was not a good plan. He wasn't doing regular work anymore, he needed to leave targets alive. But given the nature of the ex-commando causing his overconfidence, he felt it was a good idea to... ah, Arsenal had him in check for the moment. Best to take out Noble, then; the Captain would hold for a couple of seconds.

[i]No target on Noble.[/i]

...wait, what? She was right there, in the open, he was sure she was! He could- no, no, that was the overconfidence doing its thing again. And if she wasn't there, then there was a... he could see him... no, the chances that Morales wasn't where he appeared to be were similar. Headhunter quickly moved to a kneeling position, leaving the M16 in place on the ground and drawing his FN P90 instead, scoping in once again to try and target Morales.

[i]Target Captain Morales-[/i]

As it happened, Morales was approaching from Headhunter's eight o'clock. And it was a damn good thing the angle wasn't any greater, because the jerk round to that distance was extremely jarring in itself. And how'd he get there, anyway? It was like he'd teleported, or been elsewhere all along, or... but no matter; he was in view now, armour and all, and almost certainly able to be dealt with quite readily. A quick movement of his right shin, and now Raymond was facing the Captain almost directly.

[i]Target Captain Morales. Aim for the skull. Graze and/or deflect off without breaking bone, induce concussion and unconsciousness. Permanent brain damage is undesirable. Shoot. Change point of skull to target, similar result, manage targeting to prevent permanent brain damage. Shoot. Change point of skull to target, similar result, manage targeting to prevent permanent brain damage. Shoot.[/i]

Unscoping to admire his handiwork more effectively, Headhunter decided now would be a good time to contact the other Jacks. Activating his earpiece to talk to them, he uttered 'The Captain and Crop Duster you're fighting aren't real. Morales is down, and I can't get a bead on Noble. Somebody grab the target soon, we need to leave ASAP.'