Flamelord — Roleplayer Guild

Hostage Rescue
Collab betwen @Flamelord and @Mercenary Lord, with a rogue appearance by @Old Amsterdam

David was invisible and intangible, and nearly overshot the carnival grounds at the speed he was going. Instead, he dipped and plunged through the wall of one of the old attractions, still standing strong after so many months of disuse.

He saw a man trotting across the room, which looked like some kind of abandoned food court. Naturally he followed the guy, who led him across the fairgrounds to...a hall of mirrors? It was creepy as shit to see no reflection in the mirrors. He'd never liked these places. They felt haunted.

Then smiled. Or well, he would have smiled if he could have. He reached back with a "mental" fist and slammed it into the mirror in front of him. He hissed out an audible groan sound as he did so. The glass shattered and fell to the ground with an eerie tinkling.

Understandably, Finch had sent out guards to make sure the cops didn't show up with an army while he was waiting for the ransom time limit to expire. Actually to be honest they were more like the advance warning system, since he didn't hold any hopes that they would be successful in stopping anything. You couldn't expect too much from mundane help in a city like this. 

"Gaa! What the fuck!" The poor guard spun around as he heard the sound of breaking glass, holding on to his weapons ready to shoot. He was quick to look around the area to make sure that no one was there, and he would not be pleased with anyone he found. It was unlikely that he would though, and the guard muttered to himself as he moved on. A mirror breaking in a place like this? It might be bad luck, but if no one was around then it was probably a coincidence

Everything was going according to David's lack of a plan. He punched another mirror, cracking it as well. Then he growled audibly, his voice echoing through the chamber with a threatening rumble.

He floated forward, passing through the man before him. Looked like some kind of hired help: the officer's at the station had shown a picture of the "Finch" guy, and this man wasn't him. Phantom trailed a hand down the man's back. WHO IS YOUR MASTER. WHO BROUGHT YOU TO MY ABODE. The voice came from him, but it sounded as if it came from everywhere.

With David intensifying his act the guard's will crumbled very rapidly as he spun around, jumping and otherwise becoming much more twitchy. Upon feeling the hands on his back he would spin around, firing off several shots at the most likely intangible, invisible, and otherwise bulletproof man. "Fucking fuck man," the guard yelled, clearly panicking"Where are you?"

After a moment he went for a radio on his belt, the means by which he would remain in contact with his boss and the other guards. Understandably the radio chatter had picked up with the gunfire, people wondering if they were under attack. "There's some kind of fucking ghost man, it's breaking mirrors and shit all around me! This place is haunted dude!"

That earned a calm and rational response, as Finch dealt with his subordinates stupidity. Unlike them he could see the big picture, or so he liked to think. At the very least he was smart enough to put together the information here. "It's not a ghost," he replied with an inaudible sigh. "It's probably an Epic. You think it's just pure coincidence that this place became haunted after I delivered our ransom note, and not before?"

"Well what do we do boss?" the man practically yelled back. A good question, and one that Finch was working on as the guard paced anxiously through the mirror maze. Things could be going better, that was for sure.

Time Until Police Arrive: 20 Minutes

Damn, he'd been found out. Back in the day, when he was first manifesting, it had been a lot easier to convince people he was an evil spirit. Nowadays, everyone just assumed epics were the cause of everything. Ah well. 

He punched the terrified man he'd been following, grabbing the radio as the man fell. "Finch. Finch...wren, sparrow, crow. Where should I go?" Each sentence was punctuated by a horrifyingly-shuddering breath. "Let's...chat...friend."

David really got a little to into his ghostly persona sometimes. Couldn't help it. 

"Gah!" The guard stumbled when it, slamming into one of the walls where the mirror had already been broken by something or other. It saved stuff from breaking further at least, though that didn't matter as much in a place like this. Th radio was left to hover and the gun clattered away, rendering him unable to use it even if it hadn't done anything in the first place. 

He was left to scrabble away, still freaked out even if it was an Epic that was doing this and not a genuine ghost. "O-Other side of the maze," he stuttered. The maze would probably not be a deterrent though, since it didn't seem like the Epic was willing to play along with it. But that wasn't his problem, he just wanted to come out in one piece

Time Until Police Arrive: 18 Minutes

Other end of the maze, huh? David floated upward, glancing down the hall of mirrors. He could see that for normal people, it would be a real bitch to get through. He didn't really have that problem, of course. Still, it paid to be wary. The last time he had blundered into a firefight without caution, he'd gotten a giant hole blown through his phantasmal chest.

A screeching noise outside drew his attention briefly. He phased through the wall of the building just in time to see Ernie launch a wave of fire across the fairgrounds. "Dude!" David called. "Why--"

"Kenny said to do it," Ernie said. His confusing, high-tech leg harness clicked as he turned to face the now-visible Phantom. "Plus this place is old, anyway. Nothing really worth saving. 

"Where is Kenny?" David asked. By now people were moving against the Epic flamelauncher. Finch's hired guys, probably.

"She went after the Finch guy. She's hopped up on Garfield's senses, so she heard that guy you spooked."

Phantom cursed and turned back to the house. Fucking Kenny. They had no idea what this guy could do, and she just rushed inside like an idiot. He phased back into the hall of mirrors just in time to see Kenny hurl a tennis ball into one of the walls. The ball bounced off five mirrors and head-shotted one of the men who had been shooting at her. "Kenny!" He shouted, now fully visible as a ghostly, cloak-clad phantasm. She waved at him and caught the tennis ball, which had somehow rebounded right back into her hand.

So much for stealth. With Ernie and Vince outside, and Kenny inside, his hope to resolve things stealthily vaporized. This had the potential to get bad really quickly.

Things were rapidly flying out of control, if Finch was willing to allow himself to use a particular phrase such as that in fitting with his bird nature. Not only did he have some ghost ruining his maze, but there were also some Epics outside who had decided that the best way to stop him would be to torch the fairground and leave the rest to sort itself out.

From the room he was currently in, Finch sighed as he rubbed his forehead. Why couldn't things just stay simple for once?

After a moment the radio crackled back to life, this time hopefully directed to the Epics currently assaulting his base of operations. "I would be careful with all that fire if I were you. It would be very tragic if the Mayor was burned alive by the very people supposedly trying to save him. But I guess he is just a politician. They come a dime a dozen these days." 

There, hopefully that got them to cool it a bit and give his people more of a chance. He could hope at the very least.

His men swung into action, responding to th frontal assault in the best way that they knew how. assault rifles and other such weaponry opened fire on any targets that could be spotted, while more men moved towards the known confrontations and away from Finch himself. There would be stiff resistance now, even if they had been expecting a police assault and not a team of Epics. 

The maze would not be much better. Sure, it was easy for someone who could become intangible and fly through walls, but for the more mundane not only would they have to deal with the maze and the guards moving through it, but there were traps as well that took advantage of the mirror structure. False floors, blades in the spaces between mirrors, someone had definitely invested time in rigging this place to be a problem for a mundane force. Whether it worked against Epics, well, that remained to be seen.

Time Until Police Arrive: 15 Minutes

"Sir, the helo is in the air. We've got reports of Epic involvement. Possibly a turf war," a voice reported over the special line for PART for situations like this.

"Proceed with caution. Get the helo in there first," the Captain replied after a moments deliberation 

Kenny stopped, ducking behind cover. "Fucker has a point," she said slowly. "Ernie!" she shouted into the radio. "Precision strikes now. Don't fry the mayor, we don't have mayor insurance!"

"Right," came the grunted reply, and a crackle of lightning seared across the outside. The accompanying thundercrack rocked the house of mirrors, and Kenny stumbled briefly before catching herself. She dropped the tennis ball and dove out of cover, seeking to reach another wall.

"Shit!" she hissed, as a floor plate gave out beneath her. She twisted perfectly in the air and snagged the lip of the pit with one hand, tennis ball in the other. She hurled it into the air, caught her other hand on the edge, and heaved herself to safety. Then the ball landed on her head and balanced there without a quiver. David would have shaken his head in amazement: her physical control was maddeningly beautiful.

Those mirrors were going to be a problem. They hid things that could hurt Kenny. He was safe, but she wasn't. He had an idea. "Kenny, throw the ball and get out of here!" he hissed to her, invisible at her side. 

She cocked an eyebrow, then threw it forward, bolting over the pit toward the entrance. David concentrated on the ball, on what he needed it to do. It accelerated suddenly, propelled by the full force of a single human body. Instead of being limited to the force he could naturally generate, it was as if all possible energy of his body was poured into one point behind the ball.

It slammed into a mirror with a crunch, a crack, and a shatter. Then into the next one, and the next one, and the next, fragmenting each mirror as it passed through. Falling shards of glass could possibly trigger other traps. One by one, the mirrors fell, shattered by his will, and the fragmenting tennis ball.

He let the ball drop and whooshed forward, finding the man who could only be Finch. He looked...fairly unremarkable. Standard villain with standard villain fedora. "BEGONE FROM MY HOME, INTERLOPERS." He bellowed, pleased with how his voice rumbled across the building.

Finch took some small pleasure in convincing the assaulting group to do as he suggested, and reducing their attacks from flagrant destruction of everything to more targeted blows. At the very least it bought him time as his men fought it out with them.

Not to say that his men were doing well, of course. They were giving it their best but they were simply outclassed in a situation like this. But they all knew that the police weren't far away, which served as something of an incentive to provide a more firm resistance. If they still had the hostage then they could at least negotiate their escape, right?

Unfortunately he had not anticipated all the powers in play, like the tennis ball that suddenly smashed straight through the room he was in, leaving two decent sized holes much too close for comfort. It certainly got the adrenaline pumping as he scrabbled to sit up, just in time to present a good impression for what came next in this daring adventure. 

"I believe this falls under that ancient right of 'finders keepers, losers weepers,' actually," Finch replied with a light smile as he looked around for the source of the voice. "Since we both know you're not actually a ghost that conveniently decided to show up now rather than back when I was setting up shop here. That and this place closed because of financial troubles, not tragedy. Unless the dead have gotten lazy and are really off their game recently." 

That said, he prepared himself for whatever invisible blow might follow. He didn't know all that this guy could do, so his best chance was to stay on his guard and be ready for anything. He was not about to go down quite that easily. "so, are you planning to talk me into arresting myself, or what?" Finch just needed to stall and buy time

Time Until Police Arrive: 10 Minutes, Heli in 5

David hesitated. Technically, he could just hit the guy. It was possible. But on the other hand, they still didn't know where the mayor was. Did this guy have a backup plan? If he went down, would they kill the mayor? Probably. That sounded like a thing villains did. Shit.

"WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE?" He asked. It was really all he could do to buy time. Garfield was their best chance at finding the mayor, since he had the super-senses, so David had to buy some time. "THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE."

Well then, it seemed that the ghost routine would not be dropped. That was unfortunate, but it was probably intentional. He did know the guy did something with energy or motion or velocity, if the thing with the tennis ball was any indication. He'd need to be careful about that, and his hand dropped to grab one of the rolls of glass in his pocket as he rose to his feet.

"You know why I'm here," he answered, continuing to hold that calm as best he could. "I'm here to make myself a lot of money, or end up with a dead mayor. Preferably the former but I'd be willing to accept the latter. Either way it sends a message."

As for the mayor himself, well, Garfield would soon begin to pinpoint his location. He was in the basement of the mirror house, strapped down to a table as one might expect. Of course the more worrying part of that would be the 'waterfall' style storage of glass mirrors, rigged up to fall when the storage device was opened and poised right above the mayor, so he would end up in a couple bits if it activated.

Well, what was a cliche villain without a cliche death trap? 

To Vince, the bullets appeared to be swimming through water. They would kill him if they hit, like being slowly pushed into a razor sharp knife. Still, it was easy for him to dodge the danger, while lightning lanced past him to hit others. Garfield had gifted him the sensory improvement, so he was looking for the Mayor.

Kenny had exited the house of mirrors, screaming that David would take care of it. Made sense, the man was invisible and invincible. Let him handle the dangerous Epic with superpowers.

"Don't let them under the house!" He heard one of the men yell. "Finch'd kill us if we let them get the mayor!"

Naturally Vince moved to immediately get under the house of mirrors. He dodged the bullets and pushed forward, relying on Ernie to provide cover fire. Garfield sat in the car with David's body, all his power transferred to others.

Vince ducked down into the underbelly, sliding through a hole in the carnival supports. There was a little door down there: a basement? Behind him he heard shouting, and he turned abruptly, just in time to dodge the bullets flying toward him. He moved backward slowly, tentatively working his way to the door. Then in the span of seconds, he brute-forced the lock and slipped inside.

The mayor lay within, strapped to a table and gagged callously. The mayor's wide-eyed stare fixed on Vince in panic, and he "mmmmph"d against the gag. Vince looked up to see a series of mirrors descending upon the mayor in slow motion.

That wasn't good. He ripped the gag of the man's mouth, and broke him free of the restraints. They really had not been built to withstand enhanced strength. It took less than a second to free the man and get him out of harm's way. Vince keyed his mic and almost shouted. "I'VE GOT HIM! MAYOR'S SAFE!"

---

It was the words David had been waiting for. "BEGONE," he said, and sent a punch of psychic energy down toward Finch's head.

Before the punch could make contact, Phantom found himself become David again, waking up with a jerk.

Anyone attempting to move would find themselves stuck, frozen except for their eyes and their minds. Powers wouldn't activate and they were alone with their worst thoughts running through their minds.

 Consider this a favor, Finch. We'll be seeing you soon. Take your leave while you can.

Only Finch would hear this message from a mysterious male voice, and only he would have the chance to escape. Attempting anything but straight escape would result in terrible mental pain.

Finch's confidence lasted approximately until the radio went off again, informing him that the mayor had already been rescued and his bargaining chip had just vanished into thin air. He took the opportunity to curse fate for spiting his plans, which he figured was definitely fair in this regard. One Epic he was prepared for, but a team of them with bullshit abilities like Mister Untouchable (Who could still touch things himself apparently) here? He was fairly certain no one could be prepared for that.

He braced himself to be hit, and to go to jail for this. He'd break out sooner or later, he was sure of it. Might as well save his appearance. 

Yet he was taken off guard by the guy suddenly vanishing, and everyone outside freezing. "What?" He asked to himself as he looked around, pausing as a voice appeared inside his head claiming that this was a favor of some kind. He didn't know who it was, and didn't know what they would want in return, but at this point he was not going to complain. it was his best choice to get out. 

"Don't have to tell me twice," he muttered to no one in particular as he took his leave of the room, the building, and the premise. He'd made his point and gotten away scot free. Time to make sure the cops didn't hunt him down and the prepare for the next step.
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