When the FBI agents in the hospital guises wheeled DiVine into a small area of the corridor that separated recovery from the operating rooms they switched him for the cadaver. The doctors then carried on with the fake DiVine while the original was covered, toe tagged and escorted back the way they had come by two R.A.I.D. agents disguised as hospital staff.



Jameson was just starting to really get into his role when he received a call from Henkel informing that they were to abort the charade and contain the meta-humans that were still in the hospital. "They're on to us!" Henkel informed his partner, "DiVine is being loaded into the ambulance as we speak and under cover R.A.I.D. agents have detained a meta-human in the parking lot and are currently in pursuit of another suspect. I want you to assist in capturing three known meta's that are currently still in the hospital. We are currently locking down the intensive care ward to contain suspected meta-human, Angela Martin. Still at large are Doctor Paul Carson and a Jeb Corvus, both seem to be, " Henkel couldn't remember the term and had to ask Birkshire what he had called them, "oh yeah, 'moleculars'. Do you know what that means?"



"It means we need to break out the plasma guns." Answered Jameson.

Henkel looked over to Birkshire again for confirmation and he wasn't surprised that Jameson was on the ball. What is partner lacked in the investigative department he made up for with his tactical knowledge. "That'll work, Jameson. Happy hunting."

Jameson happily tore off his lavender scrubs which he had been wearing over his dress shirt and pants, then informed his team of the situation. One of the agents uncovered a table in the corner of the room and what had appeared to be medical instruments were in fact an array of plasma pistols and rifles and googles that would allow the agents to see in a wide range, from thermal to electromagnetic.

Henkel shot back the last of his cold coffee and grimaced while Birkshire leaned back his seat, tenting his fingers with a 'I told you so', expression on his face. He had suspected from the beginning the plan did not have a very high percent chance of success, but it had got DiVine out of the hospital and en-route to one of their detention centres, but they weren't out of the woods yet.

Birkshire received a call from his agents in the ambulance informing him that DiVine had been prepped and was ready for travel. He stood up, fixed his suit and proceeded out the door turning at the last minute to offer his colleague at a quick, "Good luck."

Outside the hospital by the loading docks, two agents carried the unconscious Siege into the armoured transport and placed her on a table that locked her body in place with several curved metal bands, like an open sarcophagus. They had not yet discovered her comm-link, but once she was secure one of the agents began to check her over for wires using a hand held scanner.

While Yelena and Cassius considered their next move, Henkel's agents were already ensuring that the only two exits out of the intensive care ward were locked tight. The west and south doorways were guarded and several agents armed with conventional weapons, were advancing through the only door to the burn unit and flooding into the hallway just outside the corridor that lead to the burn unit rooms.



While Agent Jameson and his group were still combing the upper floors, Wraith materialized behind a half drawn curtain just behind Cassius, so that he would not appear on any cameras. He called over to the intern who he was pretty sure now was the meta that the agents were after, "Don't turn around, it's better that they don't suspect I'm here. I can't confirm this but I suspect that there may be cameras watching this room. Right now, there are about a dozen F.B.I. agents readying themselves to burst down the corridor just outside of this room, that gives you about five minutes to come up with a plan. I didn't see any plasma weapons on them, but that's probably the least of your worries right now. The only way that you're going to get out of here is through them, so either one of you wouldn't happen to have any abilities that could kill the lights by chance?"

"Oh, the name's Wraith by the way."

As the agents began to slowly close in, the heroes had little choice to fight there way through them. There were no other exits, and the only windows were on the east side of the ward. Strong as Toril was, he didn't think he'd have much luck trying to bash through a wall so he would help his fellow meta-humans escape or die trying. He wondered where Jeb was, now that was a guy who could come in real handy given their present situation.

"Shit," Zoe swore, immediately destroying the connections in Siege's communication devices. She had no idea where the deaf-blind kid had gone and could only hope he was as capable as everyone seemed to think he was. "They've got Siege," her voice hissed through all of the communication devices. As she spoke, a presence appeared just behind Cassius , very nearly startling him though he managed to remain still.

"Don't turn around, it's better that they don't suspect I'm here. I can't confirm this but I suspect that there may be cameras watching this room. Right now, there are about a dozen F.B.I. agents readying themselves to burst down the corridor just outside of this room, that gives you about five minutes to come up with a plan. I didn't see any plasma weapons on them, but that's probably the least of your worries right now. The only way that you're going to get out of here is through them, so either one of you wouldn't happen to have any abilities that could kill the lights by chance?" A grin spread across Cassius' face as the meta finished speaking.

"Baby?" he said softly, "do I have a light-killing ability?" Immediately, Killswitch's silent touch plunged the hospital into pitch blackness with only the hum of the emergency power supplies that kept people alive providing evidence of electricity in the place. Keeping his back to Wraith, Cassius quickly undid the bandages around his leg and, as he straightened, slipped a small handgun out from under his shirt and held in front of himself. "Sounds like you can handle yourself, dude," he said before turning to Yelena and flashing her an excited flick of his eyebrows. He then abruptly jumped up onto the bed, punched a tile from the lowered ceiling out, and quickly leaped up to grab hold of the ledge and nimbly swing himself up into the hole. He then peeked his head out and looked to Yelena with a wide grin. "Time to fly, dudette!" he said, "you wanna take the high road or the low road?"
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Ducking in some bushes, Shawn cursed himself for screwing up royally. Peeking surreptitiously out, he saw the figure that he now recognized as Fay drop to the ground and immediately become swarmed by the onslaught that had suddenly come their way. Gritting his teeth, determined not to let his stupidity cost anyone their life or their freedom, Shawn waited until they had busied themselves securing her to something when he shot out of the bushes. Though he saw only the figures straightening stiffly and stumbling in shock, he was fairly certain of their expressions of horror as the apparently demon rushed straight for them out of absolutely nowhere.

Moving directly for the first one he saw, Shawn thrust a hard punch into the man's gut, letting him double over before he slapped his hand over the agent's face and released his poison. Shawn couldn't hear his screams, but he could feel the tense writhing of his pain as the man's skin bubbled and melted away beneath Shawn's toxic grip before he let him drop to the ground, unconscious, his face burned to the bone in some places. The agents reacted quickly however and Shawn took a hard punch to the side of the head before he managed to dodge around towards Fay's head. Grossly outnumbered, two agents blocked his path while two others hurried to usher Siege away.

Moving with shocking speed, Shawn shot his hands out like two vipers, clasping the agents' throats and eating away until their struggling ceased. He then moved to step over their lifeless bodies, sickening, cauterized holes gaping in their throats and exposed to their comrades. More agents closed in on him, however, and another managed to blind-side him straight in the jaw and just barely missed him with a plasma ray when he rolled instinctively onto his stomach. Leaping forward, he shot back to his feet and whirled around, scanning the four . . . five . . . six silhouettes that stood with weapons raised, heat already building within them. Immediately, Shawn darted off in the direction he thought they had taken Fay, but was cut off by another shot from a plasma gun that nearly took off his nose. In this split second, two agents wrapped their powerful arms around Shawn's entire torso and throat while a third rushed up and slugged him straight across the face.

Shawn's world shook, his strange vision quivering and shuddering as he struggled to keep his wits about him. The taste of blood began to fill his mouth, a hot stickiness already pouring freely from his nose. His eyes fluttering, the deaf-blind young man thrust his arms backwards and began eating away at one of his capture's lower abdomen, barely finding his intestines when the man finally let go. He then immediately kicked forward as hard as he could, finding the third agent's crotch just as Shawn thrust his freed arm towards the other presence and found the second agent's face. Without thinking, he dug his fingers into the man's eye sockets and in a manner of split seconds blinded him and released himself.

Dropping to the ground, weary and in pain, Shawn's blurred and shaking vision found the third agent in a fetal position not far from him. Dropping his heal hard into the man's face, he felt a satisfying little crunch about where the agent's nose should have been before he took off once more back around the building along the path he and Siege had taken. By now, he was stumbling, pain further blurring his already shaken vision such that he felt it was useless. Shutting off his powers , Shawn tore the hospital clothes off of himself and ran along in his normal clothes, blood already staining his shirt, his hands waving the air around him "watching" for obstacles. His head pounded from the hard punches and his gait swayed as he pushed himself to go further.

Finally, his consciousness beginning to quickly falter and chip away, Shawn ran straight into the ambulance they had driven to the hospital with a very loud clang, the reverberations of which even reached his own skin. The impact was all his injured body could take and he immediately bounced off and collapsed onto the small patch of pavement between the vehicle and the hospital grounds. Spitting blood from his swelling lip, he barely managed to pull himself to his feet, the throbbing in his head now engulfing his body. Running his hands along the smooth surface, Shawn slipped around to the back, finding the handle and leaning heavily against one to open the other. He then crawled inside and only barely managed to pull it shut when his body gave out and he collapsed unconscious on the floor of the ambulance.

Special Agent Henkel watched his monitor intently while he relayed the movements of Yelena and Cassius and had become curious of a strange air current that seemed to move a curtain near by the young man. He was replaying a recording of the scene on a separate screen when everything in the surveillance room was diverted to their back-up batteries.

"Son of a bitch!" Screamed Agent Henkel when the power went out. All their micro-camera's sacrificed night vision for their size and so they were literally in the dark. He quickly contacted the anti-meta FBI team that was closing in on the burn unit room, "Proceed with caution, I repeat, proceed with caution. There may be a third meta in the room." Henkel then switched channels and contacted Jameson. "Where are you?"



Agent Jameson and his team had switched to night vision and were making their way along a hallway as quick as possible while still randomly checking rooms along the way in the hopes of stumbling across one of the meta-humans. "Fifth floor, performing a random sweep." Informed Jameson.

"We have a situation down here. Get those plasma weapons to the burn unit as quick as possible." Ordered Henkel.

"We'll be there in five minutes." Jameson estimated.

"Five minutes! This will be over in three minutes! Move your ass!"

Jameson double timed it to the stairwell, but he doubted they would be able to make it in time. He figured they wouldn't arrive in the vicinity of the intensive care ward until after the shit hit the fan but they would at least be able to reinforce the perimeter of the ward.



Toril emerged from behind the curtain, his eyes glowing with a soft blue aura that accompanied the use of his specialized vision that allowed him to see without any need for light. He stood aside the bed and under the opening that Cassius made in the ceiling and motioned with his arms that he would assist Yelena up.

"I'll close up behind you." He told her, then just to make sure she wasn't going to try anything heroic he added, "Somebody has to slow them down. Now if you can turn invisible and slip through cracks I'll gladly trade places with you, but if not I suggest you follow your friend."

Toril scanned the room quickly, searching for exits as he talked then he smiled confidently like the star quarterback about to throw for the win, "So what's it going to be?"

Things were falling apart faster than a snowball melted as it made a dash for the gates of hell. Yelena was listening to everything in her communicator that Zoe was saying. Seige….had been captured. And then….the mysterious voice behind her. The small hairs on the back of her neck raised in warning, but there was something about the voice that made her stay exactly where she was as instructed.

What the hell were they going to do? She and Cassius were trapped like rats in a very large cage. Thankfully, the lights went out and instantly her eyes glowed a soft gold color allowing her to see more than she could with normal vision. As Cassius quickly made his way into the ceiling, she looked back at the body the voice came to. When she first spun around she was fully expecting to see a face, but all she saw was a broad chest. It took a few seconds for her eyes to travel upwards to reach the face the body and voice belonged to. Blinking at the golden haired God that stood before her, Yelena quickly snapped out of her stupor and looked up to where Cassius waited.

Again she seemed to weigh her options and all of them pointed to the exit Cassius had ready to go. If there was one thing Yelena hated it was turning tail and running away, but there was no other choice this time. Finally muttering something under her breath in her native Russian, Yelena nodded as she reached up to take Cassius’ extended hand.

“We can’t go up. Unless you can scale outside of building. We must go down and meet up with others.”

With Toril’s help, which Yelena felt as though she wasn’t much trouble for the large man to lift, she slipped into the ceiling with Cassius. Just before Toril closed up the ceiling tile, she peered down upon him.

“Not safe for you here now. Not safe for any of us here now. Meet us downstairs. We leave quickly.”

Toril merely nodded his head as he quickly closed up the ceiling tile. In the meantime, Yelena was quickly relaying all she could to Zoe and the others as she followed Cassius trying to escape the madness that had quickly erupted in the hospital.

“On our way out. We’ll meet up as soon as we can with you. We’re headed down now. Others working with us. You won’t be able to miss who they are when you see them.”

Thankfully Cassius was quite the wizard at leading Yelena through the hospital inner sanctum. And thanks to Zoe killing the lights, it made it easier for her and Cassius to quickly find the elevator shaft they jumped onto the roof of it after it passed by and. Quickly slithering their way into the contraption through the emergency escape hatch in the roof, Cassius relayed what they were doing to Zoe. As Cassius dropped into the elevator and extended his arms to help Yelena, the shape shifter changed forms and when she dropped down next to him, she was nothing like the doctor she had portrayed in the hospital before. She had long, stringy hair, dark circled eyes and was wearing a couple of different tank tops, hip rider jeans, hiking boots, several different chains and bracelets as well as some strange tattoos on her arms.



“When doors open, play along and keep head down.”

It was all she had time to say as the elevator dropped to the first floor. Seconds before the doors opened up, Yelena turned and covered Cassius’ body with hers and began kissing him and moving her body provocatively over his. Cassius was a bit surprised at first but he realized quickly what was happening and began playing along. Kissing Yelena back, he let his hands slide up the back of her back, under her shirts. The doors opened and several agents were waiting with guns drawn.

“FREEZE!”

Yelena quickly broke the kiss then turned to glare at the agents.

“What the hell? Haven’t you guys ever seen people making out before? I didn’t realize it was a crime to get our groove on in an elevator. Cm’on baby… let the stiffs get their jollies.”

Turning around once more, she began kissing Cassius as though the agents weren’t even there.

“Miss…out of the elevator now.”

When the agent reached out and touched Yelena’s shoulder, she quickly snapped her arm around and swung at the agent.

“Hey! Don’t touch me! Pervert! Pedophile! I’m calling the freakin’ cops! HELP! I’ve been assaulted! HELP! Somebody!”

Another agent looked at the one who had touched the woman.

“Great. You’ve found a teenager with a serious attitude. Way to go. We’re going to have to sit on her and listen to her lip until they let her go.”

Glancing at his fellow agents, the one hesitated a moment then finally stepped aside and indicated for the teens to leave.

“Shut up! Just…go…get the hell out of here and go have sex in some other public place. We’re trying to work here.”

Yelena stopped yelling then and glared at the agent again.

“Asshole…..”

Before the agent could say anything, Yelena grabbed a hold of Cassius’ hand and jerked him out of the elevator, pulling him along behind her. She walked a few feet then turned and flipped the agents off before she turned and started laughing as she and Cassius ran away from the agents and to the closest exit they could find. Not knowing exactly where they were in conjunction to the ambulance, Yelena quickly got on the comm. with Zoe.

“We’re out of the cage but not home free yet..”

As they walked along, Yelena and Cassius glanced around to try and figure out where the ambulance was but they saw several armed agents rushing towards the hospital so they just kept moving the way they were headed. As they came up to the street sign, Cassius relayed their position.

“Yo, dudette, we’re on Arcade Avenue. How ironic is that?”

Yelena looked around again and tried to figure out how to get back to the ambulance.

“Which way should we go?”

After Toril closed up the ceiling tile he quickly ran over to the corner of the room where there was small sealed door. He drove his fists into the drywall around its edges so that he could get a better hold of it and with all his strength bent it open revealing a passage way large enough for a man to crawl into. He has seen them before, a service tunnel so that electricians could get behind the scenes quickly and efficiently, it would make a good decoy.

When the agents burst into the room, Toril made sure they saw him bending down and looking into the tunnel as if watching the others escape. Then just as the armed men aimed their flash light mounted assault rifles at him and told him to "Freeze!", he vanished before their eyes.

"He's invisible!" Screamed one of the agents as he opened fire and literally hit nothing but air, as Wraith had assumed his elemental form. Bullets punctured the wall where his form had been crouched before the hole in the wall.

"Watch your fire!" Hollered another agent, then all hell seem to break loose as a cyclone of wind began to swirl around the room with such force that the agents had to put their weight against it to move.

Every once in a while the agents could see a dim blue halo of a large muscular figure moving about the room. Appearing in the corner, on the floor, on the ceiling and then it appeared right in front of an agent and as it moved toward and through him he was struck by strong gust of wind that knocked him off his feet and into the wall.

The agents were confused and panic was beginning to set in as they realized they had no way to fight this meta-human. A big man appeared in the air for a split second and drove his fist across an agents jaw and before he hit the ground Toril had vanished once more.

"Everyone one clear out!" Shouted a veteran R.A.I.D. agent who had thrown in with the FBI, and just then the big man appeared and then vanished once again after throwing a kick that knocked another man out of the room.

The agents didn't care if the man giving the orders was R.A.I.D., he seemed to know what he was doing and they needed to get out of the room. When they cleared out, the R.A.I.D. veteran called to the surveillance room and ordered that they turn on the sprinklers in BU300. Agent Henkel, was curious what was going on but as he was out of ideas he acknowledged the other R.A.I.D. agents to follow the order.

As the water cascaded down and mixed into the vortex of high winds, Toril became all too aware of what was about to happen. Being partnered with Surge on many occasions he had learned a lot about electricity and the effect it had on his kind. Water made him especially vulnerable in closed spaces and so he flew as quickly as possible for the rooms air vent knowing he had to shake every molecule of water before the R.A.I.D. agent completed his plan. The veteran set his plasma rifle for a wide spread, reached around the corner of the doorway and fired. The entire room came alive with a bright flash and the plasma electricity spread through the room like hundreds of glowing spiders.

Toril just made it out before the burst, a close call but it was needed to ensure that the others got away safely. While Yelena and Cassius made there way into the elevator shaft the other agents were inspecting the service tunnel and Henkel was ordering them to the opposite end of the hospital to head off the decoy that Wraith had set up.

Wraith found his way out of the hospital and flying quickly above it he was not concerned with anyone being able to spot his faint blue aura. After one pass of the surrounding area, he spotted Cassius. It wasn't difficult as he was quite distinct to the strange world revealed by his vision and the kid had a rare purple tinted aura.

Toril landed behind a clump of trees nearby Cassius and some bimbo that it seemed like he had just picked up. He wondered where the intern was? He hoped she didn't get left behind because he sure as hell didn't want to go back into that hospital.

He called to Cassius with a 'PSSSSST', sound. Toril considered asking if the kid wanted to "buy a golden 'AN'", but he was probably too young to get the joke. When he got Cassius' attention, Toril stepped out of the shadows and asked about the blonde haired woman to ensure that she was okay. He then asked the typical questions, like "Why were they strolling down the street while the F.B.I and R.A.I.D. were looking for them?"

Tim gave a quick glance at Takisha, grinned and said "Hol' on ta yur ass Smokie." He then slammed the throttle forward and the assault vehicle leaped forward over the top of a parke3d sedan, crashing through the exterior wall of the garage, sliding sideways then proceeding towards the ambulances and the armoured R.A.I.D vehicle. "Ya think ya could drive that thar amblance thar "Smoke"? " Tim asked his passanger. "I reckon we gonna have a parcel a comp'ny in a spell. Some ain't gonna be to happy ta see us, an uthers will."

Tim then slid up next to the ambulance they had brought, spoke into the secure comlink of the assault vehicle "Mother Hen .... Mother Hen ...... Outlaw here ..... our hen house is here wrangle up all the chicks. I'll git tha Sheriff's attention, I reckon. " Tashika climbed out and into the driving compartment of the Heroe's Ambulance.

Tim then spun the assault vehicle around and and crashed it through the emergency room doors, slamming on the brakes and coming to a halt inches from the receptioist's desk. He placed it in reverse, spoke to the onboard computer 'Shield up ....... cameras on ....... weapons sytem armed.' That oughta get sum attention I reckon."

Zoe quickly gave Cassius and Yelena directions on how to get back to the ambulance and they started heading the way Zoe was guiding them. Yelena was taken by surprise when the man stepped out from behind the bushes. At first she took on a defensive stance and was ready to exchange blows if need be, but when she recognized the handsome features of the Adonis like man, she knew who it was and relaxed her stance slightly. As he asked where the blonde woman was Cassius lazily draped his arm around Yelena’s shoulders and pointed at Toril then she saw the smirk he put on his face.

“Dude….you gotta stop scaring the hell outta us like that. My girl here isn’t in the best of moods right now. She just might open up a can of whoop ass on you. You’d give her a run for her money, no doubt, but she has a few tricks up her sleeve.”

Looking down at Yelena, Cassius winked.

“Right, baby?”

Yelena furrowed her brow and shook her head.

“Now isn’t the time for games. We have to get the hell outta here. Now.”

Looking over at Toril, she sighed heavily.

“Don’t worry about the blonde. She’s fine and safe from those assholes. For now”

About that time she heard Tim’s voice on the comm. unit and knew Cassius was hearing it as well. They exchanged glances then heard a crash followed by the sound of screams and yelling. Knowing they were out of time, Yelena nodded then looked over at Toril. Using her own accented voice but keeping her current disguise in place, she looked over at Toril again.

“We must go. Now. Before authorities realize they have been fooled. Come. We get you out of here with us.”

Without waiting to see if the tall man was coming with them, she and Cassius started heading a little quicker, but refraining from running, towards the direction the ambulance was located. When they got there they could see the destruction Tim had caused to the hospital with the assault vehicle.

“Noy je taut….”

Yelena knew they had very little time left before the feds would swarm the area. Sprinting to the back of the ambulance, she threw the doors open and quickly ushered Cassius into the back and looked back for the man who had helped them escape from the feds.

As Yelena turned to look for Wraith a gust of wind tossed the unruly locks of her present form and then sitting next to Cassius appeared the large blonde haired man.

"Hey kid," He said to Cassius, "Y'know I've never ridden in one things when I wasn't all shot up." Wraith winked then introduced himself extending a hand, "The name's Toril, it just seem's strange to go by Wraith without my mask."

He looked over at the young girl who had for a moment spoke with a broken Russian accent which lead to some suspicion but he kept it to himself. In a very relaxed manner, befitting of one about to embark on a tour of the country-side he asked enthusiastically, "So where are we going?"

Then looking down on the floor at the bloodied and beaten boy looked around to see if anyone else besides him has medical experience.

As the wind rushed by Yelena, she gasped softly. Blinking when she saw the form of the blond haired man appear in the rig next to Cassius, she furrowed her brow, said something under her breath in her native language then quickly ushered herself into the back of the rig as well and closed the doors.

“Let’s go!”

Seeing Shawn on the floor of the rig and obvious signs of a physical confrontation, Yelena quickly knelt down next to the poor young man and assessed his condition the best she could while relaying to Tim they were loaded up.

“Rodeo up, Cowboy. We’re headed out now. Get your ass out of there as well.”

Furrowing her brows, Yelena didn’t know where to begin. She was no medical professional nor was she much of a good field medic. As she tried to assess Shawn’s condition, Yelena returned to her normal look after a split second of her true, blue form. Finally turning her head to look up at Toril, she looked to him for some kind of help and answer his questions.



“We are going away from here. Leaving city all together. Is only safe thing for us to do now.”

There was no doubt she was deeply concerned for the young mans well being. The look on her face was nothing short of imploring and the look in her eyes spoke volumes as to how far out of her element she truly was right now.

“I am Yelena. This is Cassius and this poor young man is Shawn. Thank you for help back at hospital. But….why were you there? I not believe in coincidences. And please tell me you can help Shawn.”

Yelena's transformation answered Toril's suspicions and when she cast him a worried look his casual demeanor turned serious and he sprang into action.

"Excuse me please." He said to Yelena as he brushed past her, tripped the locks on the gurney beneath the boy and lifted his weight and that of the bed to waist height in one smooth, casual motion. He made sure the wheels were locked and immediately began to access the boys condition. He checked his vitals and utilized instruments in the ambulance to examine his autonomic functions; looking into his throat and flashing a light in his eyes.

"Multiple contusions, possible concussion." Relayed Toril then noting the curiousity in Yelena's expression he clarified why he knew his way around a patient, "I was in my first year of interning when I decided to change my career path to genetics and I've been in a few scuffles."

He checked the boys neck, running his fingers along the spine, "Seems fine, but I have some bad news. I'm afraid he's going to be permanently blind." Toril had a bit of a chuckle at his own joke but then realizing that it was a bad time for humour humbly apologized, "Sorry about that I have a seriously bad habit of making inappropriate jokes in tense situations. You're friend is going to be fine and in my expert opinion I would say that he is unconscious from over using his 'metabilities'. He should be awake in a few hours."

Toril raised the safety bar on the bed so that Shawn couldn't fall out and sat back down next to Cassius. "A friend of mine gave me the drop on your associate, DiVine. He thought I might be able to be of some assistance.", he explained as he removed his latex gloves.

Yelena stepped aside, as best she could, to allow Toril to do what he needed to do for Shawn. Keeping a very close eye on what the big man did, she braced herself by using a handle in the ceiling of the rig so she wouldn’t fall as the ambulance took turns at a rather quick rate of speed and the brakes were pressed from time to time. As she watched Toril assess Shawn, she furrowed her brows when he cracked his joke.

“Is not time for jokes. And he was already blind. Give me gauze so I can clean wounds, please.”

As Toril handed the alcohol and gauze bandages to Yelena before he sat down, the shape shifter moved so she could work on Shawn without having to reach awkwardly. Using a gentle touch and great care, she began to clean the scrapes and cuts, making sure she didn’t apply too much pressure and open a wound any more than she had to.

Keeping some of her attention on Toril, she listened to what he was saying to Cassius. Glancing over her shoulder at the young man, she exchanged another look with him then looked over at Toril before she worked on Shawn again.

When she was done, she tossed the used gauze into the small trash can and was just placing the alcohol back in the overhead compartment when the ambulance took a sharp turn causing her to lose her balance and fall towards Toril. If it hadn’t been for the large man’s quick reflexes she would have ended up in his lap but as it was, he was able to grab a hold of her waist with both hands and help her maintain her balance.

Yelena was so shocked that she dropped the alcohol and quickly grabbed a hold of Toril’s hands to remove them from touching her and she took a small step back. She would have taken another step but the gurney Shawn was resting on stopped her from moving any further. Seeing the look on Toril’s face, she merely looked away then moved to sit down on Cassius’ other side and look away from both men as they sat staring at her for a moment longer.

Finally Cassius broke the awkward silence between all of them as he looked to Toril.

“So….Dude….who is this….friend of yours and how did he know what we were planning? Sounds really fishy to me. And by fishy, I don’t mean that in a good way. Catch my drift, dude?”

Toril was very thankful for Cassius' intervention. He didn't quite know what to make of the shape-shifters reaction and until the young man's question he had been frozen on the spot by the bright flashing warning signals she threw off.

"Y'know I do, 'catch your drift'." Answered Toril, "I honestly don't know why Beacon was so interested in DiVine, I guess we'll never know."

"You're going to have to elaborate, dude. I mean, like as far as I know beacon is part of breakfast." Said Cassius.

Toril laughed and described to those of the group who were unaware of Beacon what exactly the organization was and his association with it. He told them that a while back, probably when some of them were still in diapers he use to do some work for them. "Like super-hero, stuff." Cassius had paraphrased and Toril had responded, "Yes, super-hero stuff."

"We... I mean, I thought we were going to change the world for the better, but it turned out Beacon was becoming part of the problem. I hadn't spoken to my old friend Surge for years then he just fell back into my life about a month ago. He had use for my talents and I obliged him, then after he dropped this DiVine thing in my lap with very little information. That's all I know. He always contacts me, so I just have to wait to hear from him and I'm a little anxious. My face is all over the R.A.I.D. cameras." He then looked directly at Cassius before he continued, "That's the disadvantage of not wearing a mask. Maybe you might think you look like a goof, but at least your identity is safe. I'm hoping Beacon can make the video disappear, if they haven't taken care of that already, they have that kind of power."

Toril leaned back against the wall of the ambulance and sighed, then he looked over to Cassius again, "So what's your power?"

"So what's your power?"

At this, Cassius grinned broadly, leaning back in his seat and stretching his arms above his head. "My power?" he repeated, "uuuh... dashing good looks and irresistible charm." When Toril simply looked back at him a little bewildered, he clarified, his arms still resting behind his head. "I'm just a regular ole' human, dude. No like, cool meta shit. Just another dangerous radical." There was a pause in which Cassius took out a cigarette and lighter and began glancing around for a window he could open. Finding none, the corners of his mouth tilted ever so slightly downward and he stuck the cigarette behind one ear, sticking the lighter back in his pocket. "To like . . . elucidate . . . or whatever," Cassius went on, "I'm part of an underground railroad type thing. Like, a safe-place for metas, ya dig? We like, work for change and equality and all that shit. Not real popular right now but like, ya know how it is, right dude?" He elbowed Toril in the arm and grinned again. "So like . . . you disappear and reappear right behind other dudes?" asked Cassius, looking up at Toril, "that's cool. Ya do anything else awesome?"


Meanwhile, Shawn stirred on the gurney, the slightest of whimpers barely escaping his faintly parted lips. Squeezing his still-closed eyes against the pounding that throbbed against his head, Shawn's first instinct was to silently sniff the air. The rumbling that vibrated through his body told him the vehicle was in motion and the scents were all familiar save for one. A faint smell of blood still lingered in his nose, but the metallic taste in his mouth was no longer so potent.

As the fog cleared around his consciousness, the horrible sinking shot through his body as the memory of Fay's capture stabbed back into him. While he knew his fight had done no good, he had to know she was at least alive. Slowly, his hands began to move over the gurney, feeling out the bars that kept him from rolling out and the surface he lay upon.

"Ah!" Cassius exclaimed, "the ninja dude awakens!"

His body aching, Shawn pulled himself carefully to a sitting position, the top of the ambulance ticking his hair as his head brushed just barely past it. His bag. His bag should still be at least roughly where he left it. Head down, his eyes finally opened to slits, Shawn slid off of the gurney and immediately stumbled into the back doors as the vehicle took a harsh turn. For a moment, Shawn didn't move, the horrendous pounding in his head now at the bursting point. Immediately, Yelena jumped up to help him, placing a gentle hand on arm and shoulder which he barely resisted shaking off.

"Bag," he finally said, pointing towards the back of the ambulance and began inching towards it. Leading Yelena, the deaf-blind boy held his free hand in front of him, brushing against equipment and the gurney itself until his fingertips reached the front wall of the ambulance. Here, he slowly bent, his hand swaying in front of him until he felt the familiar worn canvas and reached inside. Pulling his arm away from Yelena's protective grasp, he extracted the label-maker and paused, wrapping the strap around his wrist. Still facing away from Yelena, he dropped his head a little more, the drop in his stomach hardening and grinding at him like a spiked bolder.

"I screwed up," he signed and spoke quietly, each syllable vibrating cruelly through his throbbing body, "is Fay alright?"

Perched on the roof of a darkened building, Grey stared down the barrel of sniper rifle. It was the kind of borrowed artillery that was about second to a woman in the hitman's mind and he found his gaze occasionally drifting to the sleek weapon, his fingers caressing the trigger. Lying on his stomach, the cool cement pressing hard against his chest, he turned his sharp eyes back down the sight into the window directly across from him. Though he filled his lungs with the cool twilight air, his body was stiff, pressure constantly building as though he were holding his breath.

Like a prey animal, he watched with unblinking patience until the light finally filled the tiny square in front of him, the floral design of the curtains back-lit by the cheap hotel lamps. Hands tightening around the handle, the gun stabilized against his shoulder, Grey's finger settled on the trigger. Still, as though carved from stone, his eyes locked on the illuminated window, unblinking until the figure finally moved in front of it-- a black silhouette nearly filling the light. In a split second, the only movement was that of his finger squeezing the trigger, the only sound that of the muffled spit from the silencer. The bullet cut cleanly through the glass, a small round hole where the figure had just been.

Immediately, Grey jumped to his feet and took off across the room as shouts seeped faintly from the punctured glass. Rifle bobbing in his hand, the hit man crossed the room, stepping nimbly onto the opposite edge and kicking off as he leaped across the twenty-story gap to land silently on the next roof over. Without missing a beat, he scrambled across a helipad towards the other end. With a quick glance at the empty rooftop behind him, Grey stepped up onto the ledge and glanced down before stepping off. Concrete and brick brushed past him, pulling at the stray fly-aways of loose, light brown curls from the short ponytail by the base of his neck.

Landing with a clang onto the top of a fire escape, Grey let his knees collapse and paused again, crouched with the rifle beneath him, listening to the silence above him and the rustling in the apartment beside him. He then scrambled down the black iron stairs, barely escaping into the shadows as a perplexed old woman appeared in the window above him. As he jumped down from the fire escape and ducked into the darkness of a nearby alley, he finally perched against the wall and finally let go of the pressure that had been building within him for over an hour. His face twitched uncontrollably, his head ticking to one side every now and then, barely missing the wall behind him. A string of swears tumbled forth from his lips, some mere mutters while others shouts at dangerous volumes that made him glance around himself. Finally, as the involuntary tics subsided, he clutched the rifle close to him and flipped open a small cell phone from his pocket. The message was a single text to one of the only real numbers in the phone.

"Done."

Toril was surprised to find that Cassius was Human as he seemed to possess a certain ere about him that he associated with Meta's. Powers or not, the kid had guts and Toril respected that, he couldn't count how many times he had seen a meta-human fall because they had become too reliant on their abilities. People like Cassius were a good example to follow, although he had his doubts on just how much of a role model the kid really was.

When Cassius asked about his abilities, Toril instinctively grew silent. Back in the day all the meta-humans had been extremely open with their powers and weaknesses and had paid the ultimate price for their honesty. Organizations like R.A.I.D. took advantage of this knowledge and used it against them, so Toril wasn't too hasty to divulge the extent of his mutations. Of course he really didn't have any reason not to trust anyone in the ambulance so let Cassius know that he was able to control winds and air. "I can generate vortexes, gusts and even manipulate the weather in a localized area." He elaborated and to demonstrate, Cassius suddenly felt the sensation of swirling winds running up along his shirt then his hair was blown straight into the air as if he were sitting on top of a vent. Toril smiled, amused by his own little trick but his lighthearted stunt ceased when Shawn began to stir.

As tension began to mount, it became apparent to Toril that they had lost one of their group and it seemed that she was most likely taken by R.A.I.D.