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Christina gave a curt nod as the two descended down the ladder. [color=salmon]"You going too, Blake?"[/color] she asked, though the redheaded young man had already made his way over to the tunnel and had one leg in. He looked up at Christina with a determined expression plastered on his face. [color=CC5500]"No shit I'm going in. My best friend [i]and[/i] my girlfriend are in there. Also, like, my other two closest friends. And also...uhh, Patricia's there too, I guess."[/color] Blake took another step into the tunnel as Christina nodded knowingly. [color=salmon]"Alright, Blakey. Good luck in there. Oh! And also. This is very important. You have to make sure that you-"[/color]

Blake was already gone.

Christina sighed. [color=salmon]"He can be such a meathead sometimes."[/color]

[hr]

Blake was descending the ladder into the hidden tunnel as rapidly as he could without descending directly into Rumi's face. As he clambered down the ladder like a chimpanzee, he thought about the situation. He might've been a little hurt that he hadn't been invited on this cool, top-secret mission, but he totally understood why. His powers weren't exactly subtle or suited for an undercover operation, and neither was his personality. Any pain about his exclusion from this secret group was overridden, though, by the pain of his friends being in danger. Tom was the type that was confident in himself and his powers. He wouldn't send an urgent text to Blake without really being in trouble, and Blake couldn't help but be a little worried for his friend. Tom had saved Blake's ass more times than he cared to admit- hell, he had saved his ass just a week ago when they were fighting all the damn Ambleweeds. Blake would be crushed if he wasn't able to reciprocate that when Tom needed [i]him.[/i]

His mind drifted away from Tom to Angelica, worry still gnawing at his mind as he thought about the situation. He'd be sick to his stomach if he was too late to be able to help her. The same went for Brie, William, Patricia- they were his good friends, a second family to him, and he would be damned if he was about to let them get fucked up by this creepy-ass mafia organization. 

Blake's feet hit the ground as he looked around. It was a dark tunnel with a damp, mildew-y scent to it that ran down straight. With no visible light switch, Blake simply conjured a small fireball in his hand, casting some light over the area, and went first, guiding the trio down the corridor. It looked the way it smelled- damp, disgusting, stone walls, like some sort of access tunnel. The corridor ran for a while down to a steel door with a small, flickering lamp above it. Blake put out the fireball and quietly tugged on the door's handle. Locked, of course. Blake quickly noticed the flimsy door handle, though, and he put his fingers up against the doorknob, sparks flying as he did some makeshift Firebird "repair." Before long, the door handle had fallen quietly to the ground, and Blake slowly opened the door, intending to peek through and examine his surroundings. He saw a small shipping facility area with several large crates sitting there, a few armed men sitting about the room, a couple of them smoking in the corner. Just then, out of nowhere, the villain struck.

[i]Cr-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-ak.[/i]

The door creaked, very loudly, and all eyes went to Blake's red head that had appeared in the doorway. He frowned as they slowly lifted their guns. Blake gave an annoyed [color=CC5500]"Shit!"[/color] before casually lobbing a fireball at a guard and slamming the door shut. Luckily for Blake, the room was a shipping area for moonshine, and much to Blake's surprise, he felt a wave of heat hit the steel door as the moonshine exploded. When Blake opened the door a few seconds later, he saw no more crates and all the goons lying, literally smoking, on the ground. Blake blinked. Now he knew how it felt to be Jamie.

Blake walked across the shipping facility, stepping over a few unconscious bodies (possibly soon-to-be cadavers) as he made his way across the room. On the other end of the room were a pair of metal doors with windows, and through said windows Blake could see a large open space layered with doors, guards patrolling the open area, most of them armed to the teeth. So this was the main area of the compound. Blake looked back at his mini-crew. [color=CC5500]"Alright. I'm gonna try and get into the actual mansion itself. You guys look around here. Don't get killed. Sounds like a plan?"[/color] And before they could disagree to Blake's non-plan, Blake barged through the swinging doors and lobbed a few fireballs at the unfortunate guards that were closest to the door. Blake leaped for cover behind what appeared to be several large crates of cocaine as the guards were alerted. The facade of stealth had been dropped, but considering the large open warehouse-like area didn't leave much room for sneaking, the facade was likely to be dropped anyway.

Blake lit a few fireballs, lobbing some more, before jumping behind another pile of illicit substances, no doubt. [color=CC5500]"Don't worry, guys,"[/color] Blake muttered. [color=CC5500]"I'm coming. Just hold on. One moment and I'll be there."[/color] He smiled as he lit two more fireballs. [color=CC5500]"One moment and they're gonna regret ever laying a finger on my friends."[/color]

[@canaryrose] [@Scarifar]
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As Grace fell to her knees in submission, she looked over at the other girl, Angelica. Grace had sensed that Angelica was quite reasonable from their limited interactions thus far, and so when she started moving closer towards Vinnie, instead of away, Grace decided that she definitely needed to do a better job on this "first impressions" thing, because Angie was either clearly insane or attempting suicide by crazy mafioso. However, Grace was surprised to see that somehow Vinnie wasn't shooting.  Instead, he seemed to be weakening, his gun hand dropping to his side, his body quivering like the mobster was crying. 

Grace deduced that she had some type of suppression-based ability, able to inflict some sort of emotional trauma on targeted people. A very useful power indeed. And it was working! 

At least, it was working until Grace realized Vinnie was not crying, not at all. He was laughing. The sick bastard was somehow [i]laughing[/i] through this, his body heaving as he began to audibly chuckle, his voice echoing through the hallway, like some ugly Italian version of the Joker. And now his gun hand was coming up...oh no...

Grace tried to muster up some more power to open a portal, to do anything, but she was too late as a loud [b]BANG![/b] resonated out from the pistol, the bullet streaking through the air. The shot was luckily not intended to be fatal, instead piercing Angelica's right thigh, slashing it across the side. Grace winced at the sight of the blood, forgetting everything as she got off her knees, running over to Angelica and kneeling by her side. [color=DarkOrchid]"Shit...hang in there, OK?"[/color] she whispered to Angelica, looking up at Vinnie defiantly. 

[color=gray]"A lot of gusto to use that power on me. I don't like mind games. Not one fucking bit. And you know what I do to people who play mind games on me?"[/color] Vinnie lifted the gun, the weapon aimed at Angelica's forehead. [color=gray]"I blow them to fucking bits."[/color]

Grace concentrated as Vinnie aimed at Angelica again. She would have only one opportunity to do this, so she'd have to make it count. As Vinnie squeezed the trigger, Grace opened a small portal in front of Grace's head. the bullet whizzing into the portal instead of turning Angie's forehead to mush. As Vinnie stared, confused, at the glowing purple portal where there [i]should[/i] have been blood and gore, a second, even smaller portal the size of a mitten opened up in front of Vinnie's chest, the bullet launching out of the small portal and piercing directly through Vinnie's chest. As both portals closed soon after, Vinnie staggered back, blood splattering over his nice shirt and the nice carpet as he clutched at his chest wound, surprised. Grace pulled Angelica back, hoping she hadn't lost too much blood. She began to shrug off her nice jacket (it would be ruined, but she didn't care) as she looked over at Tom urgently. [color=DarkOrchid]"T-Tom...kick his ass,"[/color] Grace said confidently to her ally as she prepared to wrap the jacket around Angie's wound. She ignored the fact that her right hand was stone gray, her veins purple, her skin on said hand flaky. She could get that fixed later.

Meanwhile, Vinnie was livid. The hole in his chest already healing, he found his bearings and began to lift his gun again. [color=gray]"I should have killed you bitches the moment I laid eyes on you,"[/color] he muttered as he raised his weapon, prepared to take action once again.

[@KaijuBaragon][@Amethyst][@canaryrose]

[hr][hr]

Meanwhile, back over at the trapdoor entrance, Christina waved as she saw Zee get out of the car. [color=salmon]"Nice seeing you, Zee!"[/color] she said with a joyful wave as the deathly mutant got out of the car. [color=salmon]"Thank you for coming. We need every hand we can get. And is that Joseph in there?"[/color] She raised an eyebrow. [color=salmon]"Well, I suppose he's another pair of hands, even if he is drunk. Listen, here's the situation."[/color]

[color=salmon]"Blake, Rumi, and Jamie went down there already. They've been down there for, what, five minutes or so? Hopefully, they're OK. That tunnel should lead over to their base. Once you're there, find everybody and get out. Be careful, too, don't let them catch you, because I think their morals are definitely off at this point. I've called Division X, and they should be here in..."[/color] Christina glanced at her watch. [color=salmon]"Ten minutes tops? We'll launch a split push on the actual manor and through the trap door at that time. Director Powers'll also be on his way back, and I'm going to assume he wants a bit of vengeance."[/color] Christina smiled at the thought, before getting serious again. [color=salmon]"Be careful. The people in there...are no joke."[/color] She gave Zee a pat on the back. [color=salmon]"They're counting you, buddy. Go give them hell."[/color]

Little did she know how seriously Zee was going to take that phrase. 

[@Shard][@Rabidporcupine]
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