Chris watched the girl move forward, a bit of shock still reeling through his body at the scene before her suggestion clicked in his mind. "Y-yeah..." he muttered, sending his two mini-me's to check around the building before a series of crashes overrode the sounds of the civilians.
Outside his minions could see a body hitting the pavement from the second floor, and what looked like smoke from further down the street coming their direction.
"We've got incoming.... Something? And I think the person doing this is upstairs..."
Something incoming? And something upstairs?! This wasn't exactly a good thing, at least if whatever was coming and the thing upstairs were related. In this city, that was a potential thing in her mind. She wasn't numb to the scene and wanted to help, but she'd seen far worse, much worse even in the past. Nothing much could compare to an Endbringer attack, and walking about its aftermath. All the bodies and such littered about....even your own corpse. It almost made her shiver thinking about it, but focusing on the task at hand was keeping her head on straight.
Having potentially no time to waste depending on how things went, Phantom sprung into action. Avoiding stepping on the bodies and still living people in the bar, she ran for the stairs. Her Mover ability made it easier to get about the obstacles, allowing her to move herself about with the aim of getting to the second floor. If she could, then maybe....just maybe she could catch the perpetrator in range.
'Come on! I have to get up there fast! Phantom thought to herself as she ran, drops of sweat forming on her forehead.
Chris, meanwhile, hesitated. Torn between investigating that odd smoke and helping that girl as she dashed towards the, well it seemed like the more immediate problem?
He really wasn't cut out for fighting...
He set off after her towards the stairs, bringing one of his familiars with him, cautiously.
Upstairs was, arguably, a larger disaster than downstairs. There was blood, and a lot of it, and standing in the midst of it all was a woman in a white leotard with blue lines, a white and blue striped bandana covering her face. As she turned to look at the Intruders, they saw a white eye mask surrounded strikingly vibrant blue eyes against blond hair, and that the blue line separated to flow around her ribs.
"Leave." The command was softly spoken, but there was a noticeable edge to the otherwise fluid voice.
Initializing: Field Deployed
Considering the situation, Phantom felt sure this scene was not a total misunderstanding, though chances were always there as her mentor had noted in the past. However, being asked to leave in a soft and fluid, yet sharp-edged, voice was also a warning bell that rang off in her head about both the opponent and the situation. Something had gone down, maybe as a string of things having gone down, and this was the only lead she had right now.
She could not pass that up, so immediately after the individual spoke to her she deployed her field. 100 meters around.
Target Selected: "Clumping" Process Initiated
If she could just get this individual within her field, she would start "clumping" them right away. Inhibit them, maybe stop their powers if....well, this person had blown off the front of this bar and such all themselves anywho. Better safe than sorry, and it seemed the person here did not want to talk either based on first impressions.
Chris stayed back, unsure what to do and unwilling to take the initiative.
With a flick of her wrist, the woman sent a wall of air across the room, solidly impacting against the duo.
"Leave or die.""Eh, new guy. If i die here, don't worry bout' it. I'll....well, i'll be back." The target was within her field. The clumping process had begun. It was time.
Initialize: "Clumping" Selected Target
She focused her power entirely on "clumping" this strange woman as quickly as she could, just before she burst forward toward the woman at top speed. That burst of wind had hit them solidly, and with minimal effort to generate it so it seemed, she herself barely able to stay on her feet as a result and hold steady. If that power could be reduced, she could...yes, she could do something. If that power was clumped enough, if she could get in a blow, that might help her get in a blow. Death threats? She felt they were genuine, but....dying was one thing she already knew about. Personally.
She had no idea if she'd "respawn" again as it were, but she had reassured the new guy simply out of habit....to try to make things sound ok even if they got bad. If she died for good here, she would die swinging at least.....trying to stop an outright murderer. Not that certain thoughts weren't trying to already press their way into her head as she did all of this..
Chris, at this point, was wishing he had abilities better suited for combat...
The woman's face furrowed ever so slightly at the odd clumps of moisture building on her before she projected a whirl of wind centered on her skin moving out, the edges whistling as a piece of Phantom's bodysuit turned red from a shallow cut.
"You dare attempt to stand in my way?" the woman asked disdainfully, her a raised eyebrow, picking up a handgun from the body at her feet.
"Do you not know who I am, little children?""I don't know. Maybe an escaped clown from the local asylum, or maybe a psycho blonde with an ego trip cause she didn't get to be prom queen," Phantom said, a cocky and cheeky smirk covering her face despite the bleeding, though her power was still even now focused on clumping up her opponent. Any amount of bought time would do,
"You could always enlighten us with your name, oh great one!"She had no idea what was approaching, and this woman seemed very able to cut into her like paper mache. But if she could keep the attention off of the newbie here, maybe she could at least keep him in one piece. Didn't seem to have combat powers himself anyways, based on his actions. Christian herself was standing distinctly closer to the woman than the other guy at least. Not that this was a good thing. But letting this woman go was another potential mistake as well, if she had done this and had any clues as to what was going on.
Mentally she was gritting her teeth at this situation, visibly appeared outwardly with the same cheeky smirk otherwise.
'If you ever face death again, do so with a smile, Christian.'The last words her mentor told her before she left to come here. Heh. Hopefully they wouldn't apply right now, but regardless she wasn't going to settle into those thoughts until it happened.
The air around the woman died down some as the Trump effect began to make headway. In return she raised the handgun and took aim.
"I'm done with you." The words were calm, just as she was. Powers or not, these two-cent heroes wouldn't stop her.
As her finger squeezed the trigger she pointed it past Phantom suddenly, eyes narrowing.
There was a thud from the stairway, before a
body collided with Chris. Instinctually he swapped with his closest familiar, which was on the other side of Phantom, before the man started bleeding all over the floor, a gas mask in shambles over his face.
"Sonika!" a muffled yell came from the other side of the door before another man entered, wearing a two-piece gas mask and lab coat.
Sonika? And who had she shot instead of them that was so dang important to what was going on right now he took greater priority? And who in the hell was this other man who came in with a gas mask and lab coat on his person? Were any of these guys part of the approaching thing that was coming towards them? Were they this woman's lackeys? Regardless, Phantom kept up her clumping effect on this "Sonika", hoping to further impede her movements....especially with that gun in hand too. And that was beyond just trying to stop up her powers at this venture.
"....Ok, what is going on here?" Phantom said aloud as she looked at the situation, wondering just what was going on that had caused this bar to be blown up, and this woman to be here, and this bodycount to happen, and these two guys (one now dead) to be wearing gas masks like this and such. Seriously, this was getting odd and more suspicious beyond just a potential robbery or such gone very, very south or such things.
"You psycho bitch, this means war." The man clenched his fists, moving his mask as he breathed in.
Sonika immediately reacted, moving to create an air barrier before her brow furrowed in anger.
"Release my powers or we all die."At that moment, the man blew out, a noxious smelling green gas pouring forth from his mouth.
So potentially get shot, or all of them more likely to die from potentially whatever this gas was?
'Damn it'In a heartbeat Phantom released the wind user from the effects of her "clumping", instead now directing her efforts at the poison gas guy entirely. A small grimace was on her face as she did it, not wanting to let this killer get loose but also not wanting to get everyone here killed. Herself? That was fine, it....wasn't much of a loss at all. But this newbie didn't deserve to die like this, and not so soon. She was just about ready to let loose a torrent of swears, if it were not for her current focus and the gritted teeth begin that grimace of hers. This was all devolving so fast, not that it was unexpected, it was just that the manner of doing so this time was....frustrating.
In an instant Sonika shot from the room, firing shots at the man that never made it through the green gas, before disappearing from sight.
As the Trump dampening effect began to affect him, he opened his lab coat to display a dozen different odd vials and grenades.
"I'll give you 10 seconds to explain what the fuck you were doing with her on Purge's territory," he growled, slipping a finger around a grenade pin.
This day was just getting longer and longer, wasn't it?
Phantom felt like she could scream at the current state of things. First a woman had cut her with a shallow cut, which even now was bleeding onto her uniform. Bar exploded. Lot of dead and wounded people. And now this, an asshole with a gas mask and vials who was asking a random as hell question with a finger on a grenade pin. She had to speak fast, but even then things might not work out so well.
"Honestly, the building here exploded and we came to investigate Then that asshole attacked us, and now you're here," the independent cape said aloud, keeping in the 10 second timeframe as neatly as she could.
If needed her powers would keep this man from moving as fast. Maybe enough time to stop him from throwing the grenade if he pulled the pin. In fact, that was part of her focus in clumping him. If he tried to pull that pin, he wasn't getting to throw that thing at least. It might, then, be enough of a stall for her to tackle the newbie down. It was only a few stairs, not enough to break a neck or such, but getting out of the main blast radius of a grenade was always an idea at least.
"Consider yourselves lucky, then. Go about your business before you find real trouble."
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