“Remind me again how you got such a good arm?” Phact sighed, one hand covering her face as she watched the youma they had been dealing with turn to dust after contact with the bright pink bat. The Senshi was smiling with a touch of humor as the night wind blew the dust into a small spiral then away. “Because if a human had been hit by that, they would be doing concussion protocol.”
Stepping forward, Phact reached a hand out and patted the woman on the shoulder. “I think you are starting to really get the hang of…” But her words cut off as that ever fateful feeling of the hair standing up on the back of her neck stopped her.
They had come out of the normal patrolling areas when Sabine had suggested trying to work out their attacks a bit more. The senshi of tactics had a good thought so, Phact figured the warehouse area around her cousin’s gym wouldn’t be so bad. It seemed pretty dead at night anyway.
But now, as she dropped her hand, she wondered if this was the cause. “Sabine, Kastra, you sense that as well?” She gazed back towards the other women. Nega signatures. A pair of them if she sensed right. And not that far from here. “Since when do they hunt in teams?” Phact asked, gazing at all three of them, concern clear on her face. “I don’t like it…”
---
“Hey I’ve been swinging this thing for a while. I’m pretty sure I could give someone a concussion -without- the power up.” Ginger grinned broadly, draping the bat across her shoulders in what was becoming a go to pose. Easy to swing from, and not too uncomfortable. Her own expression dropped to a frown as the uneasy sensation washed over her, and she tightened her grip on the handle with a soft creak of the wrap over the wood. “...Since now I guess. Are we up for another inning or do you want to back off?”
She glanced to the others with a frown, still new, which made it slightly more difficult to judge the intensity if only for lack of reference.
---
Kastra opened her eyes from where she had been standing, focusing on what had been an interesting, albeit a quick and simple battle.
She had felt the signatures before Phact had mentioned them, she nodding once before looking in the direction that she felt the energy from.
“it is not the first time i had heard of this. Phact, we must go quickly. Agents do not pull punches, and if they are here, there is more than a simple youma battle going down.” she eyed Imperatrix, knowing that the new senshi had yet to come up against an agent.
“this will be a new lesson for our Slugger here. Be ready, these guys don't dust as easy”
---
Sabine was thrilled that things seemed to be going so well with the group of them, the fact that they were all able to impart some level of guidance to Imperatrix meant that the newest senshi among them was growing quite quickly and quite well into her role as their hammer. To that end she viewed Kastra as their shield, her ability to calm as good as armor in her mind. Phact was the pinion point - her powers were a good distraction which allowed either Kastra or Imperatrix to move into position. Which left her.
To that end, Sabine was loathe to take any credit, but she knew her power was useful at getting the girls into position to set up attacks or pull out of combat and regroup. She supposed she’d take the tactician role, since her powers supported it the best. All the same, after the dusting of the youma and the comments tossed around, she smiled. “Phact, I’m pretty sure she’d take off someone’s head with that thing - concussions are the least of their-”
Much like Phact, she too paused in mid thought, turning her gaze in the general direction of the sensation of not one, but two, chaos signatures. Lower level ones if she had to guess - basic. She’d foughten enough of them by now to have a good feel for them.
“To be fair, we’re traveling in a pack and that’s unusual for us too,” she commented dryly, remembering numerous patrols she’d taken on her own. Sure, she’d called Phact on a few but their schedules hadn’t always synced up properly and thus she’d done more than her fair share of solo jaunts.
“But Kastra is right, if there are two of them that means that something seriously no good is going down. If they’re starting to patrol in groups we might need to spread the word around and warn others - nothing would ruin someone’s night like getting boxed in with nowhere to go.” She hissed a bit.
“Alright, let’s move out, sooner is better than later.”
And with that, she was moving toward the source of the signature - not daring to hope that this might all just be a simple meet and greet between officers.
---
Phact nodded towards Kastra and Sabine. “It’s another inning and they are bringing out some better pitchers.” The senshi of doves offered, as Sabine took off and she glanced at Kasta. “Be ready to cast your magic at a moment’s notice. We don’t know if they will be agents who attack first or talk first. If the former, we need you to put us at an advantage. We will make sure you have the cover and the time you need.”
“Imperatrix, be ready to come out swinging if one slips by.” And with that, Phact eyed them both and gave the nod to follow their planner. Sabine was good, if not still a big eager for moving ahead with things. Ever since she had taken up studying, and was clearly following her father’s line of work, Phact had noticed she thought more before acting….normally.
But her eyes were great at picking up little details the senshi of doves missed.
“Sabine!” Phact finally called out to the young woman ahead. “Don’t charge ahead alone! We don’t know what we are up against yet…” She did not want to find any of them ganged up on.
Especially not when she blinked and realized the signatures were gone. “Girls, pick up the pace. Either they took off or…” Something wasn’t right.
“Sabine! See anything?”
---
“Yeah, and you’re not going to like it!” Sabine called over her shoulder to Phact as she milled around what could only be described as a crime scene. Clucking her tongue she moved very carefully around the two splayed out bodies of the relatively large men who lay in a crumpled heap in front of what she could only describe as a small storage shed. Well not small, the shed had to be at least 15x20, if she had to guess. There was a broken lock and bolt cutters discarded nearby, and the door had been roughly shoved down, but Sabine had a good guess as to the status of the two men.
“We have at least two dead…” She said when the rest of them caught up to her. “I’m pretty sure we don’t have to guess the cause.” She added, avoiding the bodies as she moved to the large roll up door of the shed, so very thankful for gloves before she dropped down to grab the handle and pull the door up and open, having already seen that the door had not been locked shut with the latch. As the door rattled up and into it’s place in the roof Sabine stared into the dark shed, frowning as she squinted into the dark.
She unslung the backpack she kept with her and reaching into it pulled out a large maglite that she kept with her. It was good for lighting up dark places and sometimes that helped on patrol. When she clicked it on, she scanned it along the dark interior of the shed, only to freeze and gasp - almost dropping the light in the process.
“Oh...my… god,” She stared, at the pile upon pile of duffle bags, garbage bags, and other containers that all contained either cash, some sort of illegal substance, or paraphernalia.
“What would the Negaverse want with… this?” She wondered aloud, staring agape and a sight that would have made a DEA agent’s head spin.
---
Hearing the shout from ahead, she cursed under her breath, she catching up to Sabine not long after Phact.
Seeing the bodies, Kastra gasped, going to her knee beside them, actually taking the time to look them over before looking to Sabine.
“These bastards. No regard for life, normal or senshi.” she growled and looked into the darkness beyond. So many things, it was a wonder they had even tried to obtain it.
“there is no way that two agents alone could have handled all of that. Also, it does not seem to have been touched, does it?” She blinked and rise from her area, crossing over to Sabine.
“not even the Negaverse would simply leave what they set out to get”
---
“Whattttt the helllll….” Imperiatrix breathed out softly as she caught a look at the situation over the other's shoulders. Her immediate thought was ‘burn it’ or something to that extent, but then, the follow up thought was the chaos that might be wrought by burning some of this stuff anywhere with places for the smoke to drift unchecked. Nope, they had enough issues tonight. And dead bodies. Her lip curled back slightly as she moved to avoid them, trying not to think about why they were here or what might have happened to them.
“Well… unless they’re playing vigilante… my guess would be something startled them… or it’s a trap. Maybe a frame up. If they called the cops knowing we were moving in? We could have some trouble, and I don’t know that I want to find out what arsenal item they go for first. Also I might have a good swing on me, but Batgirl here isn’t going to hold up against a police wagon, and while I might be down with trashing an engine block, I’d rather not trash the cops for responding to a call like this one.”
Fingers… fingers she might be ok with giving a more than proverbial smacking if they got caught in a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ scenario, but two empty, deceptively peaceful looking bodies were enough for now. She’d have a lot to process later, but right now… she just tried not to look directly at the bodies, keeping her eyes moving, and her grip on the bat firm, fingers tracing up and down the shaft in a way she’d have dared anyone to joke about, searching for hints of a weak point that might be developing.
She never thought she’d need a bat budget, but she thought she might start decorating a spare just in case. Maybe a couple.
“What do you think, Boss Lady?” She asked, looking for critique of her theory.
Where had those signatures gone though? Did they do that? That was creepy. Had they just powered down to watch? Maybe they were the cops. That would be one hell of a set up. DIY Frame ups by … Nah. Not Martha Stewart. Elizabeth Bathory and whoever started the murder spree in Salem, but she couldn’t remember who now, though the chatter in her mind about decoratively gilding pressing stones and tying festive ribbons to the gallows and ropes were sort of terrible-funny.
--
Sabine had been right. Phact didn’t like what she walked in on at all. The bodies made her stop cold in her tracks as Kastra walked forward. Silently, she waited until Kastra gave any indication about the two lives...and then she felt her eyes close. “Their starseeds…” Phact hissed out, stepping up to them just as the garage door slid open.
“Holy…” Her eyes shot open larger than she thought she could ever do. “s**t…Sabine, Kastra get back.” Phact called out as she gazed down at the edge of the storage shed. “We don’t know if they had it hooked up to a trap or…” She left it at that now sure if she saw a trip wire or anything else that a physical body could set off. “We are dealing with something now far above our element…” Phact began to hiss. She could take on two agents. Drugs? Cash? Lord knew what else. This was outside of her comfort zone.
Eyes going back to the two bodies, the elder senshi knelt down, looking for some sign of ID. “They have been picked clean as well. Everything. ID. Wallets. Phones…” Phact sighed, rocking back onto her heels before standing again. Biting her lip, she listened closely as Imperatrix spoke now. As Kastra made her wonder. And then as Sabine shown her light.
“Stay powered up.” Phact finally said, looking to all three women. Her voice was careful, clearly considering all the options. “As long as we are in these forms, they can’t discover who we are as humans. It’s safer for us like this...especially…” Now her eyes scanned the surrounding areas. “If anyone is out there watching. Kastra is right. If they weren’t finished here, chances are someone or something is still in the area. Do not let your guard down...because I cannot believe they are killing drug lords just to be nice…”
Not with what she was looking at.
“Do any of you have a phone on you? I think it is time we made an anonymous phone call to the cops and left a tip.” Phact glanced between the three. “Once we have, let’s stay in the area just to make sure what Imperatrix said doesn’t come to pass. If the cops are dirty, at least then we can keep this from just slipping through the cracks and back out into the streets. But they have the means to disarm any traps or explosives that may not been in our vision….and if we are around, chances are the agents won’t try to…” Her eyes went back to the bodies. “Add to their body count…”
It didn’t sit well with her. Kneeling back down, she put a gloved hand to the throat of the body closest to her and shook her head. “I was told that orders were to avoid body massing at any cost. To see this...either orders have changed or we have rogue agents on our hands. If it’s the later…” Phact’s eyes shot up and looked at the other three. “Then we need to be ready for anything...because they won’t play by the rules of the others…”
---
Sabine frowned, taking a step back from the open shed quickly, eyes instantly going to the ground and then around the door, but so far, it didn’t seem like it was trapped, but then again, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t know what to look for if someone had trapped it. All her reading on the subject of tactics was pretty light on traps - and she wasn’t about to go searching the internet and get put on some sort of watchlist.
Still she kept her light trained on the interior of the shed, not wanting to drop it just yet. “If they are playing vigilante that’s not uncommon, I’ve run into more than one that preyed on drug dealers and the like - though if there’s some order about limiting bodies… I’m not sure it’s being followed because she had no qualms killing the man we ran into.”
The whole incident still caused a hot flash of guilt in Sabine, mainly because she had let the woman kill the man who had tried to shoot her. Had almost helped really, as she’d knocked his only means of defense away out of a desire to see noone get hurt. But that was a thought for another time.
When Phact asked for phones she looked back over her shoulder. “I have my senshi phone but that’s it. I don’t carry my civilian cell phone when I patrol.” She said with a frown. “Only place I could store it is my bag and if that got stolen they’d be able to find out who I was and… yeah.” She frowned a bit at that. Granted, they’d have to get through her passcode on the phone but still - that wasn’t so hard to do if you were patient and willing to try and guess.
“Anybody else?” She asked, looking around at the others as she finally dropped her light.
---
“Well apparently no one put me on the family plan for magical phones yet so…” Ginger offered, patting around. “I bought one of those cheap a** bricks with buttons… you know the trac phones that tv always says are hard to trace? Yeah I got one of those. Will that work?”
She did hope they were hard to trace, if not impossible. The bat was one thing, but she’d even paid cash for the damn phone. It felt a little ridiculous, but if she got tied to this … mess? That was too much even for her. “Great. So they think they’re batman. I swear to god if one one them tries to start quoting that ‘hero we deserve’ speech I am belting them in the face on principle. They give me enough ew-factor already, I do not need to add Batman complex to the grody. And no you don’t get to make fun, the bat is totally different. Besides. I’d be Poison Ivy. She’s way more awesome. Also a fellow ginger.”
She was babbling a little. Maybe more than she cared to admit, and definitely trying to keep her eyes off the body. “What the hell do you even say?” She asked, eyeing the phone as she pulled it out, as though it might turn into something else and try and bite her. “Oh hey I was kinda taking a walk at night and found two bodies an entire shed full of probably-drugs?”
It was… more or less accurate, but it was hard to imagine someone on the other end taking it seriously.
“My binge watching netflix did not cover this scenario.”
----
Kastra remained where she was. Not moving for the most part as to not draw attention to herself or the others in her group. She took in a deep, calming, breath, her eyes closing as she listened to the flurry of voices around her. It was like the sounds of waves, she taking each voice in turn as she calmed her racing heart of the fear the dared to grow in her. To allow it to take control would do her and them no good at all.
She glanced up at the three gathered, her eyes turning to Imperatrix and offering a sad smile. “Give them the address. Tell them there are bodies. The rest they will find when they get here. By that time we will be out of sight and we will see what happens from that point on. If all goes well, the agents will remain gone and we will have to deal with finding them ourselves.”
She rose to her feet, crossing the distance to the new Senshi, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Test number one. You can do this.”
---
What God, Goddess, or powerful being had put Kastra and her calming abilities into their lives, Phact didn’t know but silently thanked them as the woman seemed to present them with the calm, collected, and in truth, the best route of action. A slow exhale and the senshi of doves gave a nod to Kastra.
“She’s right. Imperatrix, you got this.” It was amazing how Kastra could make her body even feel at peace with her calm words and actions. But then her eyes turned to Sabine. “Next time one of us runs into Arthur, we should ask him about her senshi phone. I don’t know if I trust any of the other cats…” With a half eye roll, and half shrug, Phact turned her eyes back to Imperatrix and gave the nod.
“They won’t be able to find us by human means and any traces we left behind won’t be able to ID. We will be fine.”
Taking a deep breath, Phact turned back to gaze at the bodies. It really didn’t sit well with her. She needed to talk to Kairatos again. Gev was out of the question...he would kill her if he saw her. If they were killing again...killing without reason...what else would they do?
The last time she had seen the Negaverse take starseeds had been the subway incident. They had never discovered who...or why...they were doing so but it was done very much in secret until the train had turned into a youma. Biting her lip, Phact spoke...trying to think. “Sabine, do you remember the death total on the youma subway incident last year? Did they ever find a connection between those who had passed?”
---
Sabine nodded. “Yeah, we leave the scene as we found it, I mean, maybe crack the door a little, we have to give them probable cause otherwise they’d have to get a warrant to search the shed and that won’t help us any.” She said making a face. “It’s be nice if we had a cowboy on the force but if they search without probable cause it won’t stand up in court. I mean this case will probably be cold anyway but…”
She stopped herself, shaking her head. “Never mind, sorry, ignore me.” She said, giving the other girls a smile as she pulled the door down to about half way, leaving just enough open for it to be obvious what was in there if someone shone a light in - which would obviously happen if they left the lock and bolt cutters where they were.
“Now when you make the call they’re going to ask you to stay on the line until the cops come, obviously we can’t do that.” She said with a thin lipped frown. “So, my suggestion is to stay on the line, leave the call running, wipe any prints you might have on the phone from your human form on one of our longer clothed fuku’s and then leave it near the bodies.” She said with a nod. “It’ll lead the cops straight to them.”
Stepping fully away from the shed she gave Phact another small frown and a shake of her head. “Nothing that I can recall, at least no obvious connections. All of the deaths seemed pretty random from what I can remember.” She added with a bit of a sigh. “It was a horrible tragedy though, that many dead.”
It made her blood run cold just thinking about it.
---
“Right. No pressure then…” Ginger grimaced. Death totals, subways, whoever the hell Arthur was… nope. Nooooooo pressure. She stepped a step or two away, scanning the area for any signs of movement, in case someone else had gotten the same idea first, or someone else stumbled over them, and punched in the numbers with her thumb, rubbing the handle of her bat like a good luck charm as she waited for someone to pick up.
She certainly didn’t have to engage any acting skills to sound concerned to the voice that answered as she did her best to relay the information, doing her best to dodge any more probing questions, though she did think her “s**t my battery is almost dead!” line was a pretty good one to get off the line. And it wasn’t far off either, she’d been far too distracted to charge it, and she hit the end call button with the intensity someone might use to disarm a bomb, chirping “Oops!” At no one as she did so.
“OK they’re called. I don’t know how seriously they’ll take it but I think they’ll send at least one car…so keep your ears out. If they think I’m joking I doubt they’ll run the sirens until they figure out I’m not just mistaking a couple of passed out drunks for bodies. I mean for all they know it’s some frat house doing pledges tonight or something.”
Not the best example but the one that came to mind. “Also I hope that this magic disguise stuff works on fingerprints too because it is crazy hard to wipe fingerprints off something you have to hold.” She added, trying to scrub the phone off with the sash around her waist.
---
Kastra gave a nod as Imperatrix did as she was instructed. It was a very well made call, and, even though she could tell the other was stressed, she kept her wits about her. “I am proud.” She whispered to the other as she stepped back, looking for a place where they all could hide and be safe while still watching for the police.
“We would do good to hide away from here but within eyesight. Above the garage will not do...and…” She glanced around, looking for any other building with a low enough roof. She still had not gotten the hang of the fabled high jump.
“We had best move fast, we do not want them to even catch wind that we are near. It is likely they will think us the ones responsible.” She glanced to Phact and Sabine, waiting to follow their lead.
---
Phact gave Imperatrix and nod and a smile. “I haven’t been arrested yet in nearly four years?” She started to count to herself. “And some of those times I’m pretty sure I have been caught on camera doing things that could land me in jail…” Phact shrugged a moment but turned to Sabine.
“Do me a favor.” She motioned to the young woman and looked down at the two bodies near them again. “Can you pull the records of people who have ‘died’ around here? Sneaking onto your father’s computer or even if we can get to public records. I have a…” Her eyes went to the metal door. “Sneaking idea these aren’t the first two bodies…”
One thing was sure. The negaverse didn’t do mass attacks at random or for no good reason. There was always something and it was normally organized to...some degree. Even if unexpected things happened. These were agents acting… “The subway was the first massive killing spree I knew of where the targets all lost their starseeds. Before that...it was energy and battle wounds. But that was the last one until now…”
“Anyway, come on. Time for us to slip away before anyone else come sneaking around and reports four strange women standing around.” Turning, she moved away from the bodies and walked passed the other three. “Let’s head for the buildings over there.” Phact pointed glancing towards a couple of warehouses just a block over. “I don’t see any stairs so they won’t go looking for someone on the roof. We will wait it out just to make sure no chaos shows up or anything goes wrong. After that, we can call it a night?”
---
Sabine had to admit that Imperatrix could go into improv acting if this whole senshi thing fell through. She was sure a car was already on the way. She had been scanning for a place for them to hide when Phact asked her favor, and Sabine nodded.
“There is probably something in public record. Though, if they are still ongoing investigations I won’t find much.” She said making a face. “Though, I could call the local precinct and see what I can get, say that I’m working on a school project.”
Not that she was sure she’d get far, better to try public record where she could find it.
When Phact directed them toward the warehouse though she smiled, taking up the rear just in case.
---
“Shame the cats are assholes, I bet you could get a cat loose in a police station and no one would double take unless they were powered.” Imperatrix suggested, unceremoniously dropping the burner phone on the ground and giving it a slightly sarcastic wave goodbye. “And even then what do you do? Shout “Hey that cat is smart and can talk and is totally reading those files? Cause that won’t get you an shrink eval at all, right? Also I am… unreasonably hungry. Like probably an unhealthy coping mechanism hungry but I also ate a light dinner and there was boxing today and I kicked a** and -now I’m hungry’ so someone’s coming with me for a delicious artery destroying cheap as hell meal or something. Unless you know someplace else that's actually open at this hour. And I need to go to the sports store tomorrow because I’m gonna prep a spare bat.”
Definitely babbling, but -there were actual bodies-.
“Yeah let’s camp out, see what happens. Also… other than the police reports? Maybe we should hit the obits?”
---
Kastra did not waste any time in moving toward the buildings in the distance. She knew more than most what could happen if they were seen.
Glancing back at the others, she held out a welcoming hand for Imperatrix. “this will be hard, but we have your back, my friend. Come with me, if my aura has the same effect on you as it does Phact, it will do you well.”
---
“Kastra...my friend, that could be take in so many different ways.” Phact sighed with a long smile as she glanced towards the senshi of meditation. Shaking her head slowly, she led the way up to the roof tops with a long jump. Sabine she knew could make it without and problem. She wasn’t sure if the height was just outside of Kastra and Imperatrix range or not so she stood ready to catch if need be.
“Imperatrix does have a good idea. Sabine, if you can do the police records, the obituaries would be the next place. As long as they don’t just go on and on about who was left behind. I think my cousin took the award on that one when their grandfather died. I think they had to put in people all the way back several generations. It was like reading the Bible…” Shaking it off though, Phact held up a hand after the three of them slipped behind the roof edge. It was then she heard the siren.
Nodding, she glanced towards Imperatrix and gave her a reassuring nod. “You did good.” Phact spoke softly as the sound seemed to grow. Clearly it was only one car but it didn’t stay that way for long. The girls watched on as the first car became two became a fleet. Both Crime Scene and the drug team were called in and seemed to multiple the longer they were there. Both men were declared dead and taken away for autopsy. Sadly, the true cause of death would never be reported.
Silently, the senshi found herself whispering a prayer for both of them. Whatever fate they found their souls in, she wished it was better than this.
It was not until only the last remaining police vehicles were pulling out, their lights and sirens now silent in the night, that the aura smacked Phact in the back of the head like a bat.
Jerking around as fast as she could, the senshi looked in shock at the agent that stood on the far end of the roof. A woman, close to the four of them in age and dressed in head to toe black and green stood with a twisted smile on her face. She was watching them, eyeing them all as she started to laugh.
It was a painful laugh, clearly twisted by whatever darkness was within her but worst of all, it was clear she was enjoying herself.
“You think it was that simple?” She finally smirked, holding up a white envelope between two fingers. “That we would let you just get away with ruining what we worked so hard to gather. Well, I have news for you White Moon Bitches…” With a flick of her wrist, the agent sent the envelope flying towards before stepping back and dropping off the roof line. But her voice carried back.
“See you again real soon!” But before they could get the the edge, her aura was gone.
Phact moved forward, her gloved hand carefully picking up the envelope and without thinking, she opened it.
Thankfully, nothing happened but she did pull out two pieces of paper….
The first was a single sheet, white but for two lines written. The top was physical coordinates to a location. The second...their demand.
Reclaim our goods or else…
Then she gazed at the second sheet and Phact’s face went pale.
It was a photo of three people...three every day, normal humans... Tied to chairs and clearly in one of the worst shapes of their lives. Behind them, Phact could see at least one, maybe two bodies. In front of them, the back of a male holding a starseed in his hand...something that was clearly a youma beside him…
“We have a problem…”
----
Sabine laughed at Phact’s humor as there was very little else you could do in this situation. And once the other three were on the roof she joined them in the stake out. All in all the night had felt like a job well done until the agent had appeared.
Sabine had seen monsters before, but this one almost stopped her cold. If there was human empathy in the woman who threw the envelope it was either well hidden or barely present.
She moved to Phact’s side quickly to read the note, but the photo stopped dead and she covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh no…” she barely hissed.
Hostages?!
---
Imperiatrix felt as though things had -tilted- somehow, slid in a somehow almost predictable direction where the talking failed and the people that smiled and calmly told you how you were obliged to consider their world view, equally calmly pulled out their knives and started calmly trying to to carve pieces out of you, muttering platitudes on how your resistance was a failure to tolerate their differences. Why were you making it so difficult, after all, they only wanted to eradicate everything that they didn’t like.
Her jaw set, moving only slightly, lips pursed and her fingers one by one adjusted their grip around the handle of the bat, feeling it over again for weak points. Was it going to hold up? It ought to, maybe, for at least this one more fight, and if it broke she’d improvise with the splintered parts and maybe throw some magic at the situation.
They’d done the right thing, and while they were trying to give their enemies the benefit of the doubt, they’d moved in to not play batman to whatever drug trade existed in this city, but to go full on Bane and take it over.
“Memorize those negas because they’re not gonna look like that any more when I’m done.” She growled, throatily. “Since that’s apparently how they wanna play it.”
She might be sick afterward, she might just comfort eat herself into a stomach ache from hell, she had no idea, but this couldn’t slide.
---
She had spent the stakeout simply sitting, focusing on the energy signatures. It was because of this that she felt that darkness of chaos appear behind them.
She did not turn at first, but when she did, she saw the note come flying toward them. She let her eyes flash toward the agent, making certain to take in what she could of her before she vanished.
“Phact…” She moved forward, looking down at the picture they were given, shaking her head. “we cannot let them get by with this.”
she knew that they would have to free the hostages, but that also left the questions of the drugs and money. They were not the police, this sort of negotiation was more their thing.
“we cannot give them the drugs either. We need to focus on the hostages and alert officials to the demands”
---
Phact took a long, deep breath. Whoever they were dealing with was not just part of the negaverse but she was starting to believe they were downright twisted people. Hostages had been taken before but to her knowledge, they had always been powered sided and taken for a reason….
...that had nothing to do with material gain. This was a new level even for her knowledge.
“Wait...all of you.” Phact finally said, gazing at the photo one more time. She heard them all but something else sat on her mind. “We cannot go rushing into this blind. That’s…” She didn’t want to say it. Saying it admitted to herself that the entire notion that happened almost a year ago was…”foolish.”
Biting her lip, Phact took a moment to gaze at Sabine, her eyes hoping the woman understood the event that stopped her from ‘leaping’ into action. “If we run into this blind, we risk not only our own lives but the lives of those hostages.” Her eyes went back down the paper in her hand. There was no set time. The image gave away as much as they needed: as quickly as possible. But even they had to factor in that with the drugs and money having been taken by the cops, and even with super powers, the four of them could not take on armed escorts…
Then again, that agent hadn’t seemed right in the head.
“We need to take a step back. We know where they are. We know they are…” She glanced down at the youma. “Dangerous and not afraid to fight dirty…” Who else took hostages over this.
Closing her eyes, she stepped forward and turned to look back at them. “Running in means they have the advantage. Where as calling the cops again….” She glanced away. “They aren’t afraid to kill innocent lives. A cop may have a gun but we are dealing with agents of the negaverse. Like us, they have abilities above that of a normal human. Not to mention, we don’t know if they have just the two of them or...more.” If they had upper ranked agents, god help them all.
“None of us want to do this but…” To each one, she held the woman’s eyes and tried to make sure they knew just how much she wanted to rush in and save them. “We need to take a step back and figure out how to do this...and how to make sure we ALL walk away alive.”
“But one thing we can all agree one...they will not get their demands. We don’t negotiate with people who do not value other human life…”
---
“We’re not trained for this,” Sabine said, after it was all said and done. “I agree with Phact, we have to…. We have to come up with a plan.” She turned her gaze to Imperatrix and Kastra, biting her bottom lip as she spoke. “We have to hope that they won’t harm the hostages immediately. There was a lot of stuff in that shed… Even if all four of us canvassed the roughest parts of town alone… It would take us days, if not weeks to amass that much stuff. To be frank I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
The money probably wouldn’t be too hard - but the other stuff? No, she knew most dealers walked around armed, and she had no desire to face down the barrel of a gun again. Not any time soon. Besides, going in blind - going in with no plan - would be the invasion all over again.
“They have the advantage, but we need to turn it against them, we need to figure out a way to make them think we’re giving in - without actually doing so. They didn’t say we all had to be at the drop… so…”
She shrugged. “We’re not negotiators, but I for one refuse to negotiate with terrorists.”
---
“to think things through is always wise. We all know too well what happens when we don't. “ she looked to Sabine and then to Phact, her eyes closed for a moment with memories.
“i do not want the blood of more people on my hands. If we need to plot it will have to be quickly. All of you saw that woman's face. We all know we are on borrowed time.”
Her eyes glanced at Imperatrix, she giving her a nod. “we all need to regroup. Not here, Phact, pick a location and we will follow. We already have a ticking clock.”
---
“I’m with Sabine…” ‘Trix added slowly, her jaw still set. Just based on what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me… the cops don’t have a chance do they? So that leaves us, and that leaves us having to do what they don’t expect us to do. I mean I don’t know what they want with the stuff in that shed, but you’ve kinda told me they don’t put a lot of value on people's lives to begin with, so they’re basically threatening us with something we don’t know they won’t do anyway… hell… that I assume they will do just to prove a point. Especially the one who dropped off the note, Giggles or whatever you want to call her. I mean I want to hear what you think, you’ve been doing this longer, but my gut says hit ‘em and hit ‘em hard while they expect us to wring our hands. I’m just not sure how unless we have an idea where we’re supposed to exchange stuff. I mean… what do we do? Stuff a bag full of flour and monopoly money?”
---
Glancing at the three of them, Phact had her answer to Kastra’s last question. She knew what was nearby and it would let them regroup for a while and think. She also knew where Mathias and Imara had hidden the cameras that had sound to make sure that they weren’t verbally recorded.
“My cousin’s gym isn’t far from here.” Phact spoke calmly. “I have the keys to it as well as alarm code. We can regroup there and think for awhile. If we need to raid the snack bar, I’ll make it up to him for the lashing his girlfriend will give him.” She tried to offer them all a small as she stepped towards the edge of the roof line ready to drop.
“But for now, we regroup, refocus, and come up with the best course of action.” She gazed back at the three of them, “And if anything goes wrong, you all get your tails out of there. I will NOT see any of you fail to the likes of them. We all go in alive, we all come out alive.”
Phact did not wait for a response as she dropped to the ground. Delilah rose and she fished her key ring out from her pant pocket to head towards the gym. “Sorry Mathias.” She whispered into the night as she waited for the others to join her. She just hoped they had stocked up on red bull.
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