It took about twenty minutes. Quicker than usual, but she felt calmer tonight than she generally did in this position - sitting behind her rifle, barrel bi-pod holding firm, stock shunted steadfast into her shoulder. Her legs were splayed forward, and she was leaning against a break she'd set up. Her eye was down the scope, and from her position she had a good vision through the skylight on the open door at the opposite side of the warehouse. The first half of the meet-up was already there - and they'd already given a surreptitious wave to the Quintain they knew was watching before walking over - presumably, Cassie was guessing since she didn't have a direct line of sight - to beside the gas tank. [i]Where the hell does Locke find these people.[/i] Cassie thought, and then it occurred to her that the poor bastard didn't realize that the shot was for the tank, or that he was going to be vaporized alongside the target. Cassie swore. She didn't want to kill him if he wasn't the target. [i]Fuck you, Locke. Fuck you. If it wasn't for Jo...[/i]

Twenty minutes. In, out, in, out. Deep breathing coupled with closing her eyes - counter-intuitive for a sniper, but necessary - and a trained meditation to clear her mind. Force it blank, push utter calm on yourself. Force the world to slow down for a moment, and it actually will. Twenty minutes. Cassie opened her eyes and looked down the scope again. She could feel it coming, a sluggishness in her movements and a strange blurry fuzz to the world, movement leaving trails. The blur that preceded the utter clarity. The target walked in, shaved head, briefcase, tight-fitting suit. Cassie inhaled. The target walked across the warehouse, to the side with the 'buyer' and the gas tank. Quintain exhaled. The world almost stopped, and she could see the path of her bullet, the explosion from the end of the barrel. The glass shattering, raining onto the floor, and the shot bouncing off the steel support beam back toward the warehouse wall, landing square in the center of the gas tank and setting the whole thing off with explosive decompression, the gas lighting off a bodyguard's cigarette and pushing ferociously through the warehouse, incinerating the target, the bodyguards, Locke's buyer - but leaving the briefcase.

She squeezed the trigger, and it all happened. A few seconds and the lives of four men were extinguished, the fire bursting out the other side of the warehouse, throwing off the closed door, and lashing out into the night toward the sea before collapsing in on itself, exhausted, spent. Cassie wrenched her eye from the scope as it did so, avoiding the brightness of the flames. She paused for a second, listening to the night air, still and dead. A single siren, but not coming toward her. Locke's money went far. She stood, stretching her legs and clicking her back, prepared to pack everything away and head home, Jo safe for another day. Then her phone buzzed.
[b]Perhaps you should have hired a babysitter?[/b]
[i]The dance.[/i] Cassie thought, horror washing over her. A second hand gripped her, wrapped tightly around her throat, stifling her frightened whimper. [i][u]Jo.[/i][/u]

It took ten minutes to get from the docks to the school, taking every shortcut she knew, exploiting Kilbride's winding passages and fake dead-ends. Down an alleyway and over the wall - harder with a rifle than it was when she did this as Cassie - and then through the lobby of a closed building, in one side and out the other. Down the street, over a fence, through a recreational park. The school was one block over, she was close, she just needed to - [i]to what? Storm in there and get yourself shot before you can lift your rifle?[/i] Dammit. She was right. There was an office block across from the school, with a good sight on one side into the gymnasium where the dance was being held. Set up there, use the open floor plan to scan back and forth. Go mobile, follow Jo's escape, keep her covered. If they wanted money, then let Jo give it to them and walk out safe. She was smart enough to give them what they wanted. Cassie had made sure of that. 

It was a good plan. Cassie was on the third floor, looking down on the dance through the upper windows, and her scope was on Jo and her date. There was a guard beside them, but another one holding a bag and shouting. So they [i]were[/i] robbing them. Good. That was safe. Or as safe as the situation could be. Then Cassie heard something. A revving, some shots, a yell. And then a car came through one of the walls, and the guard nearest Jo grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into him, holding his SMG to her side and shouting as students screamed and the other guard dropped the bag. [i]Get the fuck off of my sister[/i] thought Cassie, and then squeezed her trigger. The man flopped instantly like a ragdoll, a fresh hole clean through his temple, gun clattering to the floor, and Jo out of his grip. She dropped to the floor immediately, pulling her date down beside her by the sleeve. [i]Good girl.[/i] Cassie thought, smiling slightly from behind the sight of her rifle. [i]Now find an exit. Someone's looking out for you.[/i] They started crawling, and Cassie started looking for guns pointed at them. No guarantee she could hit a moving target, not without bringing on her Focus - but her heart was racing, and her mind was frantic with panic and worry for Jo. At the very least, she thought, high-caliber shots through the windows would be enough to make the assailants reconsider their actions. Or dive for cover.

They tried the the door, first. Locked, obviously, and Cassie had to shoot a guard standing nearby, about to bring the butt of his gun down on Jo's spine. Jo screamed as the shot rang through the air and the man fell back yelling, hand no more than viscera, and Cassie felt a fresh pang of fear strike through her. She remembered the night her parents died, what Jo had done out of pain and distress, a lack of control condemning them both. She knew Jo was receiving 'training', but she had no idea what that meant. Jo was stressed and agitating her further could set her off, and the other students didn't have Cassie's Focus to slow down imminent death to be avoided. Jo had to be out quickly - not just for her sake, but for the sake of maybe a hundred young lives. Cassie swore again, noticing her voice was thick and shaky. She quickly moved her sights down from Jo and shot out a lower window. There. Immediate escape route. [i]Take it, girl. Come on.[/i]

Jo took it. She heard the shot and then the glass shattering, and realized the significance. Whoever was watching her - her own personal guardian angel - was watching out for more than just angry men with itchy trigger fingers. She seized the arm of her date - the boy was pale as a sheet and shaking, adrenaline obviously wearing off and paralyzing shock and terror settling in to replace it - and pulled him and herself toward the window. There was another shot as Cassie punched a hole through the shoulder of another guard with his sights on Jo, and as she leapt through the window into the open night she realized it was higher than initially thought. The landing was going to hurt - and she braced herself for the impact, date yelling beside her. Then the world closed up and got dark, and she felt the ground appear beneath her, but no pain. She opened her eyes to see metal receding, unfolding, a plane sheet of steel that had cocooned her flattening to let her out again. She didn't question it. Taking the boy's hand, they stole away into the dark. Cassie smiled, breathing heavy, a few tears down her cheeks. That was a hell of a thing to see, but she was glad that Jo's powers had saved her, rather than repeating the last incident.