"One of the potential hostages escaped their prison immediately." 4Sight said, his voice tense. Wordlessly and without looking, he reached out and grabbed the strand Presidio had extended to him. He didn't say it, but he needed the protection right now.
"The other hostage is still in their's, Dart. If you can safely take care of that, please do. Four feet from the center of the roof, towards us." He paused to breath, sounding out of breath.
"The para-er-cape who just fled has found someone else, she's watching intently but it's unclear whether she's friend or foe. She just took a phone call." A few wires rose off the building, a good distance behind the Final Guard and Junior Guard now. They moved very slowly, weaving together to form a very hard to penetrate wall. Then it stopped, seeming content to bar them from retreating.
Dart's hand was shaking, and so she formed them into fists. Every single muscle in her body wanted to attack, to do something. Then, at
4Sight's permission, she relaxed finally.
"Try to hit important looking wires with it once we're a bit closer." She said to Calvin ball, while glancing back at her squad member.
Looking away now, Dart lowered her center of gravity slightly, her knees bending. Dart mumbled a small 'thank you', and then the concrete cracked beneath her feet. At least, it would have, if she was standing there anymore, but instead she seemed to have been thrown at tremendous speeds. She collided with the wire mesh trying to trap someone within, but they didn't eviscerate her. Instead they slowed her momentarily before they exploded, the wires folding in on themselves. Loosely, they fell to the side as Dart landed hard on the roof, before they limply fell off the roof.
The young cape offered a hand, but the once hostage somehow disappeared. Dart glanced around momentarily, and sighed, before walking to the edge of the roof. She stepped off in a crouch, and almost immediately hit the ground in front of the Junior Guard. A burst of wind rushed past them upon her arrival, and a small smile crossed her face.
Tense moments passed as they listened to SWAT speak to Spindle, the feed on screen nowhere near live, and constantly stuttering. The audio was better, but still delayed. Matthew turned around, retreated a bit. he stood off to one side of Penelope while facing the opposite direction and spoke to Penelope. He knew John could still hear him, but it changed the context of the conversation.
"There's something about this. It could be a distraction, but—" He didn't want to say he'd been working off that assumption for the last thirty minutes, because it'd be an insult to John's intelligence. The pause he let hang her was uncharacteristic, but not planned.
"We should consider other possibilities as well. She is acting like she has a full house. Maybe the distraction is we assume she has the right card, but she has to know we can't fold." Matthew seemed deep in thought, his emotions an absolute mess. That was rare for him too.
"I truly don't know what the last card could be." He said, just quiet enough that John wouldn't be able to hear and he wasn't lying.
How did Sandra rate this as no threat? He thought, hands curled into fists, gaze steady on the door.
The Shaker
Still, Spindle didn't make a move against the approaching forces. Briefly she glanced down to where Enki when they started running, and seemed to concentrate momentarily; However, when they disappeared she turned back to SWAT.
"Since these negotiations are going so well, I have a personal request. No matter what I ask you to do, the performance will be empty in your eyes. So my request is made for me, not you. Kneel, Judah." Her voice was different now, before being more playful, sometimes annoyed, but friendly, more than anything else. Now it was ice cold.
She didn't even mention the lie, instead the conversation was to be a mastless ship at sea. Momentarily, Spindle tried to extend the metaphor in her head, but she knew next to nothing about sailing. A breath escaped her lips, a small sigh as she watched him. Her head was feeling fuzzy, and although Gemini hadn't mentioned that, he also had never experienced his own power first hand.
"One's experience is one's own" She thought, her humor in it as personal as the experience it spoke of.
"My name is Madison. It'll be over soon, but I have to watch, I'm kind of integral." The young woman replied, gesturing as she spoke towards the Spindle situation. Without waiting for a response, she walked past Enki. At the point she was closest to them, she raised her arm without pausing and reached out her hand slowly. It didn't touch anything. Nothing occurred. She continued walking until she reached the corner. Clipped to the back of her belt was a pair of binoculars, barely visible under the thick jacket. She reached back and tugged lightly to remove them, before raising them to her eyes. Her other hand gripped the brick corner of the wall, knuckles slowly whitening as the seconds passed. After a few moments she took out her phone, flipping it open before the vibration had fully become audible.
"Tell them. Yes, I told them I wouldn't. They're kids, they'll just be grateful. Just a text. Oh and disconnect the call." Madison's voice was slightly muffled by the mask, but she was still enunciating well enough for the person on the other line. She flipped the phone to close it with inertia alone before turning to Enki briefly.
"What's your name?" She asked, her eyes wrinkling slightly as if she were smiling.
The Fallen
The TrapAs Transcendent was sent flying down the street a stream of fire chased after him before he crashed into a building. The others continued to fight, but it seemed that Rend had the upper hand against the ice golem with her superior speed.
Moments later, as Transcendent was pulling his way out of the wreckage, a large lizard man reached out to grab one of the tendrils before moving to slam his spiked fist into his face. Even with Transcendent’s power already affecting him from the contact, he hit the Fallen hard enough to rip the tendril he was holding from the rest of the form as he flew backwards before flying up along the side of the building. He bounced off of the building and rocketed towards Edith, his tendrils flying behind him as a black ichor splattered the ground.
The dino moved, much slower than it had been moving earlier as it took up a defensive position.
Red Eye
The BankPercy and Vanish didn't start talking again for at least a block, watching their surroundings closely. Occasionally, Percy would check his phone as if he were expecting a message. On the third time, he turned on the ringer and left it.
"Were the clever remarks you, or your power?""It's always me.""You dodged the question.""Kind of. I'm very good at that.""Clever remarks or dodging questions?""Considering I haven't answered the question still, I'd say both.""We're on a tangent.""Not really, I just brought it back to the question.""Which you still. Haven't. Answered.""Yup.""Are you being difficult because you're—Um. . . Shell shocked?"Percy paused at that, seeming to seriously consider it. At the silence Vanish glanced over at him, and he shook his head. Not a negation, not quite.
"My power came up with the quips, trying to force him off guard. Early, you understand, my power is testing. Prodding, guessing wrong on purpose a lot of the time, but—"His phone dinged once, that solid note creating a silence between them. Percy glanced down at his phone, and then looked down the alley behind them. Vanish tilted her head slightly and Percy glanced over at her. He nodded at the unspoken question. They started sprinting down the alley.
Exiled
Not with a bang...For a moment everything went still. The air didn't move, the capes were continuing their last actions, and even the tanks weren't moving at the moment.
And then the world exploded.
Ana, jumping high into the air, was rocketed from the blast wave as Mastar opened fire on the tank she had just jumped from. She riser higher and higher, moving away from the fight, and at the apex of her flight she could see something massive on the horizon.
Another tank that she could tell, given how large it looked from this distance, was absolutely
massive.
And then she plummeted towards the ground.
Back at the tanks, Manifold's device activated in the midst of the explosion. While Mastar watched the destruction, the blinding light suddenly darkened. In seconds it was nothing, the blackest black she had ever seen before and growing larger, quickly overtaking the tank and expanding towards her. She had no time to think, only run, as the crackle of energy deafened the area.
Outside, the independent speedster was caught unawares by the shockwave as he exited his breaker form, the barrier barely stopping any of the force, and found himself flung into the truck with enough force to dent the door. The truck itself, partially from his impact and partially from the shockwave, rocked into two wheels before rolling over. Before it could crush the speedster under it, he was roughly pulled away and thrown by Manifold.
Who promptly disappeared under the wreckage that used to be the truck.
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