[hr][hr][i][h1][color=springgreen]Cindy Keagan[/color], [color=darkslateblue]Reed Taylor[/color], [color=fff200]Alice Barrett[/color], vs. The Phantasm, and the Intimidation Unit... .[/h1][sub]Written in collaboration with [@Mr Allen J], & [@Zombiedude101][/sub][/i][hr][hider=Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdjzU0c9YGg[/youtube][/hider][hr] [i][u]Regal Square, Prince Edfield.[/u][/i] Makoto had neglected to completely leave the area when the Phantasm sprayed the area with tear gas. Instead, she threw on a gas-mask that she had on, and dipped behind some chairs while everyone was desperate to leave. Because, she was here for a reason. Not just to stand around and perv on everyone here; she's going to be an extra pair of eyes. When she took her mask off, and stood up, she saw Cindy and the blonde-haired broad teleporting off after the Phantasm - leaving their team mate behind! What kind of teamwork is that?! Makoto is technically siding "with the bad guys," and even she thinks that was dickish. Nonetheless, this would be useful for the Phantasm. "Hey, Phantasm," Makoto said as she pressed her earpiece. "They're hot on your tail." "Acknowledged." The Phantasm said as he continued to warp and teleport after Faith. He has a plan.... [hr] The Saviors were almost right out the door when the Phantasm finally caught up with them and unloaded his UMP on them. He would have devastated his "target" - However one of the Savior bodyguards threw himself in front of Faith to shield her from the bullets. He took the brunt of the bullets, and not even his body-armor could save him from it. He slumped down dead, and all Faith could do was stare at him in shock. This wasn't happening. She knew the risks, but she didn't think it'd end like [i]this[/i]. The Phantasm was about to teleport over to her - to end her suffering. A bullet hit the Phantasm right in the back, and even though the armor shaved off some of the impact, the Phantasm was sent stumbling forward. Feeling bruises form underneath the armor. Another bullet hit the Phantasm, and forced him to teleport away. "... Shit," Cindy said as she aimed the pistol right at the Phantasm. She tilted a bit, and glanced at Faith. "What are you standing there for?! Start running, [i]stupid![/i]" Thank God Alice was able to keep up with the Phantasm. Otherwise this was going to be a nightmare. She wondered where he went, but they have to cover Faith. Cindy had an idea, in fact. She put her hands and glass surrounded Faith with floating pieces of glass that were heated up to the point where they were malleable. She formed a dome around Faith, and then nodded at Alice. "Teleport me in... I have a plan," Cindy nodded at Alice, before reaching for a canister of anti-metahuman gas she had on her. "... It's a risk, but teleport us out on my cue." Alice eyed the glass dome, then nodded, "You got it, just remember I can't go intangible, I can probably outrun him, but catching up to him is probably not good for my health." Nonetheless she grabbed Cindy's shoulder again, moving the world once more. There was a faint puff of displaced air and they were suddenly cosied up to Faith inside the sphere of glass. Faith screamed, before Cindy put up a finger to silence the Savior. "We're covering your ass," Cindy bluntly said. "So, would you shut up and come with me?" Faith nodded, while Cindy kept her hands outstretched. She made sure to stay close to Alice and Faith, so Alice can teleport her out of here on cue. Manipulating the glass dome, she quickly tried to slid away, while reinforcing the glass shield with glass that she grew off her own body. It just floated over to the shield and was added to the collective... and just to make this more difficult, she changed the glass' color to a jet-black near-opaque that made it hard to see through. Because, going off the Phantasm's M.O, he's got a sniper rifle somewhere, and this should cover them long enough. The Phantasm had retreated to the rooftop, and swapped his UMP out for the Intervention. He was quick to aim the sniper at the glass dome... but, he couldn't get a good view of his target. And this was Cindy Keagan he was dealing with, shooting it will only give him away- Oh. [i]Now I get it.[/i] They were trying to bait the Phantasm into teleporting into the dome. Well, they'll get their wish... The Phantasm briefly put down the rifle, and then grabbed a grenade - they weren't his style, but he took a cue from the Hound and brought some. He pulled the pin, holding it for a second, before he was thrust through the air towards the dome. Finally appearing inside, he was ready; he just threw the grenade at the trio - before teleporting out. "Oh shit, Alice!" Cindy shouted. "Get us-" Cindy finished her sentence outside of the dome, and Alice threw herself on top of the Saviour girl as soon as they materialised, even though she had already begun to vomit. Glass peppered the walls behind them as the sphere shattered, shrapnel splinters careering off in all directions. She felt a sharp pain under her arm as one wormed it's way through a weak point in the armour, but Faith seemed unharmed, except for emptying her guts onto the floor, and Alice's uniform... and Cindy's suit. She almost cringed, but she knew that the Phantasm had to be around here somewhere. Screw it. They'll have to make a run for it. Glass was being launched in all directions, and Cindy caught the glass that was close to her. Her vest was damaged a bit, but she'll live. Faith was running for it, and Cindy and Alice were following behind her to the best of their ability- The Phantasm had appeared in front of the two, and before either of them could react, the Phantasm threw a punch right towards Alice, while reaching for a pistol on his belt. Alice blurred, literally, the punch thrown moved through the space where her head had been, but she was already within his guard, throwing an elbow around and towards his throat. Her move was so unexpected that she actually felt an impact before his form phased out once more and she tumbled forward, rolling into a crouch and pulling her pistol from it's holster. They both had drawn their pistols at the same time, aiming it at each other right as the Phantasm turned tangible again. The Phantasm was tempted to just shoot Alice and get on with it... But, he has to make this [i]flashy[/i]. He looked at Faith running away. The Phantasm teleported again, this time behind Alice, and quickly fired a shot at Faith. The bullet cut through the air instantaneously and hit her right in the heel with deadly accuracy. Faith cried out as she fell forward and hit the ground. The Phantasm touched a button on the side of his helmet.... "... Send in Bonecrusher." Hey, they wanted to make this flashy. The Phantasm knew that the Bonecrusher would make a bigger scene than he could. Alice's bullet passed through the space her target had once occupied, and she looked around wildly to spot him with a hand against his head. It was all the delay she needed to move, swinging her gun around as she appeared behind him to fire a trio of shots. Two went wild, but the third clipped the corner of his helmet, snapping his head backwards. She could have left right now, taken Faith and disappeared to a safe house two miles away, but if she did that she had no idea what the Phantasm might do to her cohorts. A portal opened up in front of the Phantasm and all he had to do was turn intangible as the roaring sound of an oversized motorcycle cut through the air - followed by the Bonecrusher's brutal-looking custom-made motorcycle came flying out towards Cindy and Alice. With the Bonecrusher on top of it, fully merged with all sorts of machinery beforehand. He was ready for war. Alice swore and vanished as the massive machine stormed through the space previously occupied by her body. If it had hit her then there wouldn't have been much left to teleport, let alone to swear. The newcomer was massive, an enormous figure with strange machinery and blades apparently a part of his body. She reappeared next to Cindy, "Whatever that thing is, he is not a friendly. And I seriously doubt I have the kind of firepower to deal with him." The motorcycle came to a skidding stop - ending up sideways as Bonecrusher shut it off, and stepped off. He took steps towards Alice and Cindy and a massive, custom-made, blade came out of his mechanical wrist as Cindy immediately recognized him. "... That's the thing that went on a rampage after Meifeng in Singapore." Cindy said. "And I think we're going to need the heavy duty shit here." She still had that canister of containment foam at her waist. It might be the only thing that could stop (or slow down) Bonecrusher. She grabbed it, and looked at it. Alice backed up as the monster approached, "I can distract him but he hits me once and I'm done, unless you think a fall will kill him?" "Well, at this point, I'd try anything," Cindy said, but she was wondering why this brute was taking so damn long. Then it hit her. "... Where's the Phantasm?!" She asked as she looked behind herself, and saw that the assassin was gone. "Aw damn it!" She hissed to herself. At this moment, Bonecrusher went all out into a sprint, with his blade at his side, he swung it hard as he could towards the two. Cindy ducked down, and quickly rolled the containment foam at his feet as she quickly crawled to her feet and broke off into a sprint. "Alice, shoot it!" Alice had simply vanished as the blade cut through the point she'd been standing, she reappeared a few feet to the left, and drew a bead on the skittering canister. It took her the entire magazine but her final bullet hit the dancing cylinder. Containment foam began to spray uncontrollably, swiftly enveloping the lower half of the creature, though it immobilized him at least for the moment. Bonecrusher let out a loud yell as he raised his hand up into the air, and slammed it down into the containment foam - the impact of his blow was enough to crack the hardening containment foam. Another earpiercing blow had cracked further. Alice had meanwhile reloaded, and emptied another magazine in the monstrosity's direction. She could hardly miss, despite her shaking hands, and every bullet struck home, though he shrugged them off as she would so much confetti. "We'd need a bazooka to kill this thing... The Bonecrusher activated a mechanism in his arm... one that seemingly caused it to rev up like a motorcycle as light flames flew off it. Gears grinding was enough to empower Bonecrusher with enough strength to break free. "Ooookay," Cindy said. "Jesus Christ, that's the first time I've ever seen the containment foam break!" Before the Bonecrusher could continue, he received a message from the Phantasm. "... Kill Faith." Nodding his head, the beast's barely visible lips curled upwards as the Bonecrusher ran full speed towards them - with full intention of crushing them if they get in the way. But, his goal was to go kill Faith real quickly. "Move!" Cindy grabbed onto Alice's arm and hoped that Alice wasn't going to freeze up. Alice had never seen anything like it, the scariest metahuman she'd ever seen had been the guy who'd tried to burn her alive, and that was just because he had been psychotic. This was something else entirely, a veritable mountain of flesh and machinery that had deicded that she was simply another obstacle to be crushed. It was only the sudden grip on her arm that shocked her out of her stupor. Bonecrusher shattered the paving slabs the two had been standing on a second later. They were now stood on the building above and behind the Bonecrusher, "that foam did nothing, but..." She paused a moment, flashing back how close she had come to death once more, "I've got an idea to slow him down..." "Well, that makes one of us," Cindy said. "I need you to keep his attention off me." Nodding her head, Cindy briefly wondered; why the hell isn't she in RAVEN? She keeps getting into shit that should be reserved for the fighters. Maybe she'll apply for RAVEN... Yeeeeeah, no. This city needs a DOVE, and that DOVE is Cindy. No matter what, she'll be here for the long haul. "I have an idea." Cindy said as she pulled the stray glass chunks from the area around her, and formed them into balls the size of basketballs. None of her glass weaponry would do anything but tickle him... well, maybe she could cut some of those damn wires, but that would keep his attention better. The freshly formed glass orbs floated around Cindy, before she launched each of them at Bonecrusher. While they were coming up with their plan, Bonecrusher had elected to ignore them because they weren't packing enough firepower to even put a dent in him. Instead, he was going after Faith as the Phantasm told him. He saw a trail of blood lead around a corner, he did a massive leap around the corner... where the trail of blood came to a stop. He raised an eyebrow. A glass orb then hit him right in the back of the head. It did absolutely nothing to Bonecrusher other than sting him a little. He whipped his head around, only to meet another glass orb hitting him in the face. It did nothing but spray glass all over the place (A little bit of it got in the mask). He was more annoyed than anything. Alice appeared on his back, entwining her fingers in the cables that sprouted from his shoulders. "Let's go for a walk." The sudden vacuum sucked in litter and rubble across the floor. [hr] God it hurt, Alice could teleport two people, but this guy was nearly as big as two, pushing her to her limits, she could feel her senses screaming as she tried to push higher. Eventually she knew that taking him any further would guarantee ashing. So with the added mass she only managed a mile. That said, a mile is a long way to fall. The sudden appearance of the Bonecrusher up into the sky was not very pleasant. It was surprising to say the least - and all he could do was yell... and swipe at Alice uselessly... before he hit the ground. His heavy frame creating a shockwave as the kinetic force utterly destroyed most of the machinery that comprised him. He was bleeding... but still alive. He pushed himself to his feet a few moments later, loudly groaning as he realized his machinery was now useless. The mechanics around his arm simply dropped off, as the Bonecrusher grabbed onto a spare blade he had. Faith had most likely gotten away. Forcing himself to his feet, he was still dangerous without his metal as he was still strong enough to contend with the most powerful super-system types. Oozing blood, he continued his march. Alice reappeared beside Cindy, swaying with exhaustion. She stared in disbelief at the inexorable advance of the Bonecrusher. "Are you fucking kidding me?" "Ugh," Cindy said. "Let's ignore him for now... he's a distraction at best." The gunfire behind Cindy only confirmed that. "All Agents! The Intimidation Unit are on the field!" Cindy was alerted via the communication system, and shook her head. "We have eyes on the Phantasm, he is going after the MIP!" "Alice," Cindy grabbed her hand and looked her square in the eye with determination. "You know what to do." [hr] As the fight raged on behind her, Faith had been fighting a battle of her own as she desperately pulled herself along the ground towards what she thought might've been an exit. As she crawled around yet another corner, she tried to regain her footing, using a wall to regain her balance, but the anti-metahuman representative barely restrained a scream as the agony snaked upwards from her heel and collapsed against the same wall. "Freaks... fucking freaks..." She whimpered, as all seemed lost, only... "Faith Avalos?" A voice asked, catching her focus; it belonged to a man wearing a jacket, a DOVE badge clipped to his belt, his fingers fingers tightly clutching onto a pistol. Faith looked up, as she was bleeding out to see that DOVE. Most of DOVES were useless sympathizers, or the freaks that put her in this situation in the first place. "No... no... get away from me....." She groaned as she lost more blood. The DOVE in question was none other than Reed Taylor; who's gaze shifted towards her wounded heel, then the thin trail of blood that followed her. He could still hear the fighting in the distance and knew that they were far from safe, whatever angle you looked at it. "Look, I'm on your side, so just work with me here..." His tone was sharp and to the point. She.silently listened to Reed... she was busy bleeding out "F-fine..." She groaned. Nodding, he quickly took a knee beside her and quickly ran his palm over the injured foot until he was able to stem the flow of blood, at least for the time being - but that was only half of the problem. One quick glance at the woman's foot and anyone would've realised that she wouldn't have been able to put any weight on it, let alone walking any time soon. After a moment's pause, Reed opted for the quick solution. "Gonna have to get you out of here, just hold on." Lifting Faith's relatively small frame over his shoulders, Reed drew her up into a fireman's carry position and moved away, determined to keep her in one piece. He could only hope that Cindy and Alice would keep the bastards held off. [hr] While Bonecrusher was keeping those two busy... that teleporter was going to be a pain in the ass, and it was better that she was busy fighting Bonecrusher than the Phantasm himself. Warping on top of the building, the Phantasm quickly noticed that RAVEN and the police were here... charging in heavily armed in some bid to kill the Phantasm. However, they were just playing into the Family's hands. All they were doing was throwing fuel to the flames. If he wasn't wearing a helmet, the world could see the Phantasm smirking wide. His hand drifted towards his earpiece, and he ordered. "Julia, initiate phase two of our plan." "Gladly..." Julia playfully said as she switched comms. "Zenith, would you kindly?" On cue... various blue portals opened up around the coliseum, and black armored paramilitary soldiers came came charging out, opening fire on the police and RAVEN with a barrage of bullets. Firefights spread like wild-fire. The Phantasm grinned as all he could hear was the sound of bullets... but the problem was that they utterly negated his enhanced hearing. No matter.... The Phantasm teleported again... towards the MIP. [hr] Thanks to Alice, the pair were able to quickly catch up with the MIP. Fortunately, the police were locking down the area. Unfortunately, the Intimidation Unit was tearing the place up - and to Cindy, that practically meant that the Phantasm had all the cover in the world. She was personally wondering why he didn't just do that in the first place - but, fuck it. They got bigger fish to fry rather than worry about what motives a crazy assassin could have. Appearing on the rooftop, Cindy knew down, and saw the MIP Representatives making a break for it. Carter running on all fours, with Lucia at his side. Cindy was personally wondering how long it could take to clear the area - but, pretty damn long if you ran under the threat of getting shot at with all these hired goons running around. "Alright, Alice, you know the drill-" Cindy pointed down towards Carter and Lucia. But, at that exact moment, the Phantasm made his appearance, teleporting across buildings to catch up with the MIP. "Damn it!" Cindy said... as she gathered glass from around herself. "Alice, cut that bastard off, I have an idea!" Alice dropped her helmet onto the floor, cramming her fifth energy bar into her mouth. Taking someone as big as the Bonecrusher that high had really taken it out of her, and ideally she'd be taking a break right now. Unfortunately ideal wasn't exactly on the cards. She checked her pistol and spare magazines, "You're going to have to hurry up about it," she sprayed crumbs across the rooftop as she spoke, "He's fasterthan me, so you'll have to be quick." She gave Cindy a nod, and then vanished, reappearing atop a building a hundred feet away to reorient herself, before throwing herself forward through space to meet the Phantasm's trajectory. He phased through her first spray of bullets, returning to solidity just long enough to loose a shot that whipped past her shoulder before she forced him back into his near invulnerable form. She could probably out-pace him, but in a one-on-one fight he had the edge. She was just trying to keep him intangible, that way she couldn't hurt him, but he couldn't hurt anyone else either. Cindy had a few moments before Alice ran out of bullets, or the Phantasm would simply teleport away. She created a giant glass triangle, strong enough to support her weight through glass reinforcing (and knowing how much she weighs, of course), and quickly rode it towards the Phantasm. The Phantasm was merely walking out of the danger, he noticed Cindy rolling up... and narrowed his eyes from under the mask. Upon landing, Cindy did a roll and pointed her gun at the Phantasm, and hoped that this would work.... and instead of teleporting away, the Phantasm turned intangible. Cindy was quick, she broke her arrow-shaped glass pane into thousands of smaller pieces, and peppered the area with them. They were floating around the Phantasm, but whenever he tried to step out, Cindy just moved the field. She grinned. "... What?" Cindy quipped. "Can't teleport when you're a ghostboy?" She asked. It seems her little guesswork was correct after all. She noticed that the Phantasm never turned intangible then teleport. Now, she's got him trapped with quick thinking and teamwork. She hoped that she could find a more efficient way of keeping him contained... but, hey, she has to do what she has to. The Phantasm stared at her, wordlessly as he thought about a way out of this. He couldn't stay intangible forever... there were risks. Nonetheless, he had to think fast. Alice popped back into existence beside Cindy, "that... was a good idea, you got this?" "Yeah, just hurry up," Cindy said, turning towards Alice. "The Intimidation Unit is all over the place." Alice turned, fixing her gaze on the unmissable form of Carter White, running at his side was Lucia Li, and then, a fraction of a second later, Alice as well. She made sure that her RAVEN badge was obvious, she didn't want them to lash out thinking she was the Phantasm. It would be a fine ending, to survive that monstrosity only to be splatted by a startled gorilla. "I can only take one of you at a time, I hope you can look after yourself big man." She clamped a hand onto the petite woman's shoulder, and took her a mile away to a RAVEN safehouse. She leaned against the wall, getting her breath back, she'd have to be careful not to ash, "You're going to have to hold on here, I'll be back with your friend..." Carter nodded his head, and kept running as he awaited the return of the RAVEN. He was glad that Lucia was safe. Though, he could hear the sounds of a motorcycle get louder and louder. He turned his head, and noticed the Bonecrusher rushing towards him on his chopper. Carter quickly picked up the pace as Bonecrusher rushed towards him - but, even with his bestial traits, he was no match for the brute on a motorcycle. The Bonecrusher swiped at Carter with a swing of his blade. Assisted by the momentum of his motor, it cut [i]deep[/i]. Carter let out a yell as he fell to his side, his white fur was stained by his own blood. Bonecrusher came to a skidding stop on his motorcycle, and Carter was desperately crawling away as the Bonecrusher ran over towards him. "I... I... can make it," Carter said as he tried his best to crawl off. "I... I can live, I can- [i]aaaggh![/i]" Bonecrusher had slammed his foot on Carter's back with enough force to cave in his torso. That wasn't all, he raised his blade up into the air, and savagely brought it down on Carter's skull. Slicing clean through it. However, the Bonecrusher knew that enough was enough, and merely elected to step off the gorilla-Metahuman, and walk over to his motorcycle, and get back on. "... Zenith." Bonecrusher said, and a swirling blue portal opened up in front of him, and he sped off inside. [hr] All while Cindy was keeping the Phantasm still, she noticed something. His body... it was fading. Like getting more and more transparent and loosing shape. Like, he was fading out of existence. Cindy kept her attention on the Phantasm. Hoping that he would just fade away and stop being a pain in the ass. "[i]I[/i]...." The Phantasm trailed off, honestly surprising Cindy because she had never heard the Phantasm speak. "... I am [i]never[/i] getting trapped in the void again!" Surprising even Cindy, the Phantasm phased back into existence, and just [i]had[/i] to have several pieces of glass inside of him. He let out several coughs - electronically distorted by his helmet, but some of the glass must have screwed with the machinery in his helmet because the voice changer was breaking. Allowing Cindy to kind of hear the Phantasm's voice and it was vaguely [i]feminine[/i]. Caught totally off guard by the Phantasm doing the [i]last[/i] thing she expected, Cindy's eyes shot wide as the Phantasm teleported over to her. Punching her in the face, and wrapping his arms around her. She was completely stunned, and felt the Phantasm lock a power suppressant collar around her neck. Before she could even try to do anything, the Phantasm teleported. Pulling her through the void between worlds where everything was a wispy black smoke and shadows. It was honestly nauseating. She was teleported yet again, before the Phantasm finally stopped, teleporting her to the edge of the very rooftop the Phantasm used to observe the area from afar. She looked into the Phantasm's helmet in fear, before he said, "Zenith." And a portal opened right behind her. The Phantasm shoved her inside, before teleporting inside himself. And with that, the portal snapped closed. Appearing in a dark room, the first thing that Cindy heard was, "... I have recovered [i]the target[/i]" A face in the darkness smirked. "Very good...." Julia's feminine voice purred "... Pull the Intimidation Unit out of the area. We've done enough." And with the assistance of portals, the Intimidation Unit made a quick retreat. Julia walked from the shadows over towards Cindy with a smile on her face. Cindy was confused... what the hell was going on. Fuck it. She was going to shoot her way out of here, she reached for her gun - and what the fuck?! It was gone. The Phantasm might have snatched it. Getting caught off guard yet again, Cindy didn't notice the person stabbing her in the neck with a syringe. She immediately felt weak to her knees, as she fell down. Consciousness was quickly fading. Julia knelt down and looked Cindy in the face. "... I'm going to have a [i]lot[/i] of fun with you." And then Cindy faded into drug-induced unconsciousness. Unable to defend herself from the likes of the Family. [hr] Alice had expected to have a pretty hairy situation when she returned, but she hadn't expected to see what she did. She turned away, face ashen. Carter White, once so powerful and imposing, now looked pathetic, a huddled, bloodstained rag of silver fur discarded on the ground, all of the life gone out of it. She tapped her communicator. "I got Li out, but I was too late for Carter..." There was no response, she tapped again, "Greenbird?" No response, and searching the rooftops turned up only thousands of shards of glass, but no Cindy. Her locator wasn't reading either. She keyed in a new frequency. "Agent MIA..." [hr] Reed had barely managed to pull Faith out of the firefight and carry her to safety, harried by the likes of the Intimidation Unit at their heels. Yet he had managed to get the two of them out of there, in one piece - more or less. A row of BPD cruisers and armoured vans had been waiting for them, weapons at the ready, but after a moment of pause the response teams lowered their arms as a few recognised him from the badge clipped to his belt. Well, that and the fact that he was carrying one of the representatives at the debate on his shoulders. Paramedics at the soon quickly showed up with a stretcher in tow, which Reed carefully set Faith down upon with their aid, before he glanced over his shoulder towards the direction of where he'd last seen Cindy and Alice. Reaching up to his comms piece, he was about to let them know he'd pulled the anti-metahuman debater to safety.... ""Agent MIA..." When he heard Alice's voice seconds before his own. "I've got Faith Avalos... wait, what?" It hit him like a ton of bricks. "MIA?" He asked. "I..." Alice didn't know what to say at first, until her instincts took over. Coldly and mechanically. "Greenbird is MIA, last seen engaging the Phantasm..." [i]No.[/i] Reed's body grew stiff. "Are you sure? Have you searched the area?" Alice resisted the urge to snap back, "no response from her locator, and I can cover this ground faster than anyone, I've got no visual on her..." "Not a trace?" Reed was skeptical of the notion that she had just disappeared in an instant, unless.... They used [i]portals.[/i] The Intimidation Unit had always used portals to deploy, then retreat instantaneously. One extra person wouldn't have been unfeasible. "... They took her back with them." He realised, out loud.