((Part 1 of a Collab Post between Kalas, Letter Bee, and WatermelonTango))

[i]18:23pm Walt Disney Concert Hall, Downtown, Los Angeles[/i]

Finding the Mayor was easy. All Aster had to do was follow the trail of guards, who he routinely dispatched one-by-one. He also made sure to convert their corpses into hard-light matter, which he then used to replenish the energy expended whilst creating his earlier explosive lance. He eventually came to a small room, no bigger than your average dining room. Inside he found the Johanssen family, protected by a single guardsmen. The guard fired shots at him as soon as they realized that Aster wasn't a guard but he was far too slow to prevent him from converting the bullets into hard-light and turning them on the shooter. The Mayor himself had cowered as his head of security perished, whilst his wife shielded her children's eyes to the slaughter. 

"What the hell are you?!" The Mayor yelled, clearly distraught at the events that had taken place.

[b]"Come now, Mr. Mayor. I think we both know the answer to that question."[/b] Aster replied coolly, he was beginning to enjoy the maleficent persona he had created for himself.

"W-Well, what do you want then?" He asked, still staring back and forth between the body and Aster.

[b]"I think you know that one too. Mr. Mayor, you're coming with me."[/b] With that, his wife and kids began to shout their protests. Even the Mayor took up a defensive stance. Aster, however, remained still. There's an easy way to deal with this. He raised his right hand and pointed it towards the recently deceased guard. He was simply a corpse now, which meant he could be converted. It took less than a minute, but by the time he was done, the body looked like a frosted glass mannequin. The Johanssen family were in visible shock. The Mayor looked on in disgust whilst his two children only wailed in their mother's arms. 

[b]"How about we make a deal?"[/b] Aster said, before asserting control over the converted corpse. He forced it to move, as if the man had just been revived from the dead. The corpse sat up, resulting in more screams and the Mayor moving his family to the other side of the room. But it was no use. There was only one exit to this room and Aster currently stood in front of it. He made the guard stand up, it's movements precise and robotic. He then controlled it so that the corpse began walking towards the terror-stricken family. With his left hand, Aster generated more hard-light from random objects that made up the room. He contorted the matter this time, bending and shaping it into something that resembled a rope. He then forced the construct to constrict itself around the Mayor, binding his arms at his side and his legs together. He had made sure to space the rope evenly surrounding the man's body so that he could move him away from his loved ones. All the while, he kept the corpse moving slowly towards the wife and kids.

"S-S-Stop this! What are you doing?! Are you insane?!" The Mayor struggled against his binds but he couldn't over come them. 

[b]"That corpse has enough hard-light mass to be able to bludgeon your family to death, Mr Mayor. You have a choice to make. One choice will save the lives of your wife and kids, the other...well, you'll have a front row seat."[/b] The three of them were in hysterics by now, screaming and desperately trying to scramble away from the on coming corpse. Aster quickly constructed a cage-like barrier to prevent their escape. 

"You don't have to do this, we can work some thing out!" Pleaded the Mayor, desperately fighting against his restraints.

[b]"That's what I'm trying to do already, Mr. Mayor. Either you come with me now, or you watch your family die. It's a simple choice to make."[/b] Aster forced the corpse to move faster now, causing the Mayor to call out to his family. His wife had practically frozen in despair, her kids were trying to break the barrier that held them. The corpse had reached the cage by now and began to raise a clenched fist. More screams and cries filled the room, but none of it phased Aster. After bringing the guard's fist up above his head, he was just about to swing down when the Mayor cried out.

"ALRIGHT!" He yelled. "I'll do it. I'll come with you. J-Just let my family go! Please!" Tears streaked down his face, his breathing was heavily laboured and he'd stopped fighting against the rope construct.

[b]"Excellent."[/b] It was all he said before dispelling all of his hard-light constructs. The Mayor collapsed to the ground, physically exhausted. His wife had broken down into a fit of uncontrolled bawling. Her children huddled around their mother, equally as distraught. Aster strode over to where the Mayor was lying unconscious on the floor and grabbed his arm to pull him up over his shoulder. [b]"Time to go."[/b]

[center]____________________[/center]

This was a disaster. She was tracking a madman, a person who was cold and ruthless and had already taken the lives of hundreds of people since she first laid eyes on him. The only thing Pam had going for her was that this man was easy to track, what with all of the blood stains. The thing that really creeped her out was the lack of bodies. What would you need to do to a human body to make it disappear like that? The more she went the more and more inadequate she felt, but she couldn't turn back. Not now. She followed the trail to an open doorway, and it was then that she finally got her first good look at him. She lifted her gun, but it was only then that she noticed the family in the corner and the unconscious man over the meta's shoulders. This couldn't have ended worse.

"Freeze! Hands where I can see them!" Pam cried as she had the gun pointed to his back. If this guy didn't have hostages the bullets would have already left the barrel, but it was clear that the situation just got a lot more complicated.