Act I: Where It All Went Wrong Who: The Blue Team; Operative Stonewall, Agent Xray, and Mr. Eliot Anderson Where: Chicago, not far from the DMS Maximum Security Prison When: Afternoon; Saturday June 27th What: When everything went wrong. Warnings: NPC Death.
“Okay, okay, but guys -- guys! How about this?”
The familiar voice over the radio made him sigh, and Tim Evans, Blue Team Operative Leader, Alpha-Class Metahuman, and semi-professional worrywort, rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“From the windooooooooooooooow to the STOOOOOOOOONEWALL!”
The sound of Paul’s voice, loud enough to hear even without the earpiece, echoed down the street along with the crash of what Tim imagined was the sound of a six-foot-tall rookie Operative made of slate hitting the pavement.
“You jumped from a window to tackle someone, didn’t you?”
“Yup!”
“Did you kill him?”
“Nah, bro. It was that giant purple guy. Barely managed to knock him out.”
“Good boy. Don’t do it again.”
It had been a fairly typical mission. Protect the convoy, get it to the prison. An APEX attack had been expected -- Hell, he figured they’d have been more surprised if there hadn’t been any attack -- but it’d been lackluster, small, and they were wrapping up the loose ends now, the team scattered down the block where the brief fight had taken them. They were almost at the prison, almost done.
It’d almost been too easy, as if Anderson was…
“ATTENTION FIELD TEAM BLUE! ATTENTION! ALPHA CLASS METAHUMAN CODENAME ZENITH HAS ENTERED THE FIELD! ATTENTION FIELD TEAM BLUE! ATTENTION! ALPHA CLASS METAHUMAN CODENAME ZENITH HAS ENTERED THE FIELD!”
...trying to pull a fast one.
Tim cursed under his breath as he turned to run back toward the convoy -- rookie mistake, letting them get separated. He’d gotten cocky, gotten sloppy. This was his fault, his mess, and now Anderson was going to swoop in and release the prisoners if he didn’t get back there to clean it up.
“Blue Team! Regroup!” he shouted over the headset, the all too familiar blue glow of plasma wrapping around his hands. “Xray, Lima, Hotel; try to get a bead on him and take him down before he can start shielding! Shadow, Mirror; give the Agents cover! Stonewall, Miss America, on either side of the convoy -- do not let him open those doors!”
He stumbled as a wave of telekinetic force blew down the block -- Anderson, taking flight above the street and already picking up parked cars to hurl at the team -- and he reached for a button on his belt, glad to hear the beep that told him he’d switched comm channels.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Miss Hall,” he said, voice softer, even as he hurled a bolt of plasma at the APEX leader, “but I was wondering if you’ve seen this stunning, beautiful, wonderful girl who for some reason agreed to marry me in the near future? Because, you see--” a grunt, as he threw another bolt, only to have Anderson send it flying off into the sky harmlessly “--I have a terrorist to zap, and I think I need a boost if I’m going to--” a third bolt, blasting a thrown car off course from hitting one of his teammates “--bring him to justice and all that.”
A prison convoy escort. Just another night in Chicago. Lucy Hall, Beta-class metahuman, second in command of the Blue Team. and all-around soother for said worrywort, had just been inadvertently encouraging Stonewall. She knew she shouldn’t, shouldn’t laugh, shouldn’t respond, but they had almost reached their destination. Missions was always serious, of coursed. Fraught with tension over the danger that each posed. The attack they had been expecting had finished practically before it began, and it couldn’t hurt to have a little levity, right?
The shout filled their comms answered that question in a heartbeat: this is why you can’t have nice things.
From her position at the rear of the convoy, Lucy paused, sparing a split second to attempt to put eyes on each team member in turn as Tim called them out. Her gaze lingered a touch longer on the man himself, drawing to the electric blue blaze tinting the night around the area. They’d long since stopped outwardly worrying in moments like this -- no time, not the place, he was just another teammate while on a mission, though he was their leader. But, as always, she filed away the unspoken ‘no, not now, not him’ thought as quickly as it popped up. This was what they were here for.
There was a beep from her headset, and his voice filled her head. One last check for any assailants coming from this end, and she was in forward motion, faster than any human was designed to move. Her part in these things ebbed and flowed to meet everyone’s needs. Right now, she knew where to go, even before he said it.
“Near future? Mr. Evans, are you pushing for a date?” she asked, taking a second to clock a target approaching Agent Xray from behind. The man… well, at least she thought it was a man, she wasn’t about to stop and ask right now, the man staggered, rocked back by the speed-enhanced force of her punch before falling. She’d bet dollars to doughnuts he’d get up again, but now Xray had a better bead on him. “I might like that--” a gasp as she dodged a stray blast, “I think you should do it more often.”
The blue glow grew brighter, and then she was there. Lucy slipped behind Tim, knowing that he’d move to shield her if she took up any other position, and touched her bare hands to the back of his neck. With contact, the transfer began immediately. “I’m here, my handsome, smart, amazing fiance.”
“Amazing, that’s a new one…” Tim chuckled, as he felt the extra charge start to pulse through him, letting it build while the team kept the APEX leader distracted. “Give me everything you got, hon. All I need is one clear shot, and we can end this, once and for all.”
Without Anderson, APEX would crumble, and without the organization’s support network, bringing in rogues would become easier than ever. A chance for a little peace, for a little while.
“One clear shot, coming up,” Lucy answered, a chill rolling down her spine. Energy transfer felt like heat moving, leaving her body as fast as possible and her hands growing warmer. The trainer she worked with said it wasn’t true, she wasn’t actually getting colder. It was her mind playing a trick. Somehow, it made it easier for her to do this.
Her eyes kept roving, looking for anything coming their way. There was Anderson, Zenith, who had always been the boogeyman, ever since she could remember. Maybe they had a shot at a world without him. Without APEX. A whole different world.
“Ion, you ready?”
He took slow and steady breaths, remembering all the years of meditation and yoga and tai chi and a thousand other forms of fancy breathing and moving to keep calm, to keep the energy under control. One shot. One clean shot.
“Ready, Amp,” he said softly before switching back to the main comms channel. “Team, keep him busy one more second. Lighting up in… three…” he raised his hand, aiming at Zenith “...two…” he saw Stonewall go flying, thrown by the mad telekinetic, “...one...” Xray narrowly dodged a car thrown her way, ducking around the same corner Stonewall had bounced, “...GET DOWN!”
The flash of light was nearly blinding, but Tim could just barely make out Anderson’s face as he stared down the beam of plasma, and in that moment, if he didn’t know better, he’d swear he saw fear in the monster’s eyes. The only thing between Zenith and the beam was a telekinetic shield, wavering under the force, on the edge of breaking -- so he pushed, put everything he had into it, every nerve on fire with the charge running through him. He could see Anderson wearing out, could see he was going to fall…
But he didn’t see the teleporter, not until she had her arms around APEX’s leader, and with a flash they were both gone.
“God dammit!” Tim hissed, letting the beam dissipate as his arm dropped uselessly at his side. He heard voices over the radio, as the convoy trudged through the last short distance to the prison, telling him the mission was a success, that they’d done good work. But to him it just seemed like another failure, felt… anticlimactic.
As the team regrouped, he looked around, checking on them each in turn. Everyone present, everyone accounted for -- except… Paul. He frowned, looking around again for the rock-clad rookie. And Rios was missing, too, from when he’d last seen her.
“Stonewall, Xray. Report,” he ordered. No response. “I said report! Stonewall! Xray!” Nothing, just the silent streets, civilians having run the second APEX made their first move and not yet back on the scene. “Williams, so help me, if you’re goofing off--”
“Evans.” Alma Rios, Agent Xray, called over the line. Her voice quiet, almost a whisper. “I need backup. I -- call the Lock, get them to get another team over here, or more agents…” She trailed off.
“Why? What’s wrong? Is it Anderson?”
“No, it’s--” A sharp breath. “Oh god. Stop! Stop right there!” A loud CRACK punctuated Xray’s shout, two more following on the heels of the first.
“Rios! Xray! The hell is going…” Tim shook his head. No. No.