It was time. Morgan had to do something and do it now, before he began again. She knew that she coudn't take much more of the pain before she succumbed to the darkness.

Frank approached her, grinning at her as he ripped off the tape again from her mouth.

"Where is he Morgan? I promised Birkshire that I would deliver Cowboy and I intend to. Now where is he and I just might accept that as penance and end your suffering now."

Morgan lifted her head, her eyes beginning to glow as she stared at him. Frank yelled at her to stop, slapping her repeatedly as the rats came out of the shadows, swarming around his feet. Looking down, his eyes wide with terror, he began stomping on as many of them as he could, but they were everywhere. Backing up, he grabbed one off of his back, throwing it against the wall. He looked at Morgan, her eyes still glowing, hatred for him shining brightly in them. Looking down then up, he saw rats chewing at the ropes that tied her, watching as she fell to the floor into the puddle of blood that had formed under her feet. He was screaming now, a rat biting into his ear, one trying to squirm into his shirt. He fell into the table, knocking it over.

Morgan watched the horrible scene unfold, but unable to stop herself or the rats. She slowly came to her feet, her legs barely holding her up from the wounds Frank had inflicted on them as well as her whole body. She looked to the front door and began walking towards it, keeping her mind focused on the rats so that they would not come after her, smelling her own blood. She blocked out Frank's screams, keeping the door in sight when she felt a searing pain go through her right side. Looking down, she saw a hole in the fleshy part of her side, blood dripping from it and knew that she'd been shot and the bullett had gone clean through. Turning, she saw Frank, the gun with the silencer dropping from his hand, his face nothing but bite wounds, making him unrecognizable, half of one ear was gone. It was something she never wanted to see again.

Turning around again, she took a step towards the door and collapsed from pain and blood loss. Calling to the rats, she sent them away, just in case she passed out. She didn't want them gnawing on her. She wasn't sure if they would or not, but she'd never dealt with rats before and knew that they were the worst of the scavengers. As she watched them scurry back to their shadows, she heard movement and grunts coming from where Frank had laid.

~I stood up to him....I did it~, she thought to herself, looking over at him, seeing him laying on his back, his face a bloody mass. That was the last thing she saw when unconsciousness finally took her.

May 22, 2010 9:30 p.m.

The upper floor warehouse was dark. Only the soft of glow of the surveillance officer's screens could be seen. There were no windows facing the street, only a few that allowed the RAID enforcers and agents to view the abandoned brick warehouse where Frank Shepherd was torturing his daughter. Agent Birkshire could hear the whispers behind his back and though he couldn't make out their voices he suspected what they were saying. Many of them were younger, some recently transferred from the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. to fill their need for more agents and they still didn't believe in the sacrifice of one meta-human in order to capture the more dangerous felons. They thought he was cold, callous and cruel, for letting Hunter torture that poor girl, but Blake had weighed and measured the situation and his conscience was clear. Cowboy had to be taken down, but little did the Supervising Agent realize that he was once a Navy Seal and Detective who once put his life on the line for the same very country that Birkshire fought to preserve. The two men, really weren't that different, and under different circumstances the two of them might have even been friends, but times were different and the Riggs Act had to be upheld. Cowboy was a wanted felon and that's all Birkshire knew or cared about.

In all the vacant warehouses that surrounded Frank's torture chamber, RAID enforcers and agents were ready to move. All had been trained to move without need of command. They all had their orders and would execute them as soon as their target or targets were in position.

Shonen walked through the park, all of his little playmates had gone home with their parents. Shonen was wondering why these little units needed the constant care and guidance of these people. Was their programming too basic or incomplete? Shonen was designed to work both along side humans and was programmed to survive and endure a long time on his own, he could even function in the cold of space.

These curious thoughts drifted from the small droid's mind when he saw a young woman sitting among the trees at the edge of the park. She seemed to be very happy to be among the trees and grasses, Shonen watched her from a distance. After a few minutes she got to her feet and walked from the park and down a side street.

Machine looked up at the street sign. Green Street. Shonen murmured to himself.
The young woman walked a little faster as she turned onto Green Street. She appeared to be very interested in a nearby warehouse, some small lights bounced around the window panes from inside the building. The young woman paused at the building, Shonen thought it best to hang back, he watched her with great curiousity.

Shawn's eyes seemed to light the entire seat he sat in as their bright green glow reflected off of the window in front of him. He saw only the various colors of different temperatures that passed by them on the road. Quietly he scanned every building, every crevice and shifted his focus to look through every wall. Finally, something caught his eye in a warehouse not far from the safe house itself. A flurry of warm movement pulsed within it for barely a second before the activity seemed to scatter into tiny little . . . particles . . . small animals maybe? . . . that took off into the corners of the warehouse and out into the night. Two figures remained though, both laying on the floor, their temperatures slightly warmer than those of the metas sitting around him. Likely they were two just two bums hunkering down in the shelter of an abandoned warehouse but the activity had struck him as odd.

"Hey," he said causing the others to turn towards him. His eyes were still focused on the building however and he spoke again, without bothering to sign. "Wait a second . . . " The vehicle's slowing to a stop and a quick glance around himself told Shawn that he had their attention and he spoke again, his brow furrowed as he focused in on the two figures on the floor. "That's kinda weird," he said, pointing to the figures and waggling three fingers in front of his face in the sign for "weird."

"What's weird?" Seizure asked, typing on his device. There was a pause in which Shawn merely read the message and stared quietly back at the warehouse, peeking through each wall. He opened his mouth and raised his hands to speak once more when a slight movement caught his eye again and he shifted his focus there. His glowing eyes widened as he raised his eyebrows, now taking in this new set of white figures.

"People," said Shawn, signing at the same time. "Two people on the floor. Lots of others all around. All over the place."

In the back, Kekoa slowly lifted a large water bottle from between his feet and set it in his lap as he looked to Yelena in bewilderment. He hadn't spent a lot of time around deaf people and didn't quite grasp what he had said, but the reaction it got from Ayana told him it wasn't good. Her dark eyes went large for a moment as her attention snapped back to the warehouse not far from them. She then furrowed her brow in confusion as she began to concentrate on her own.

"Are you sure?" she asked dumbly, momentarily forgetting that Shawn was still deaf despite his powers, but quickly turned to the others. "He said there's people all over the place over there but . . . I don't see it and . . . well, I should be able to detect them from this distance, but I don't detect anyone but the two he mentioned were lying on the floor. They . . . " she paused, concentrating again, "there's definitely two people in there. They're both hurt, one of them is extremely angry but the other . . . it's hard to tell . . . I don't think they are going to be conscious much longer . . . " Seizure raised a hand to her temple in an attempt to focus her mind, "it's definitely a man and a woman. Do you think it's them?"

"I don't see anyone," said Kekoa, looking out his window in the back of the car, "course I can't see through walls like our blind friend . . . "

Seizure looked to the others, wondering where they wanted to move with this one.

May 22, 2010. 9:32pm

Totem had maintained the heightened sense of smell he borrowed from brother bear. He asked that someone roll down a window and sniffed the air deeply. "There are many other people around." He confirmed, "How many I can't tell, but I can smell the girl, Morgan. Her scent is in the air. This is the place."

The Haida man then noted the worried expressions around him. "So what's wrong?" He asked, curious of their apprehension. "We should get in there before that psycho kills the girl. What's the hold up, Cowboy?"

Frank rises slowly off of the floor, his face throbbing and stinging. He looks around for the damned rats, not seeing any. Wiping his face with his hand, he feels nothing but wetness, looking down at his hand he sees that it's covered in blood. Feeling his ear, his eyes turn hard as ice when he feels that half of it's gone.

Bellowing, he picks up the the board with nails, looking for Morgan. Seeing her laying about 25 feet from the door, he slowly walks towards her.

Morgan slowly comes to, her whole body in agonizing pain. She gives a small moan of pain as she tries to rise to her hands and knees, the floor slick with her blood.

"You bitch....you whore.........damn you and your demonic eyes!!!! Look at what your demons did to me!!!"

Kicking her in the side, lifting her off of the floor, he yells again.

"LOOK AT ME!!!!"

Morgan looks up at him, most of his face looking like chopped meat, the blood dripping off of what was his chin. His eyes are completely insane now, no logic whatsoever. He kicked her again, not knowing that a green eyed boy outside and an african american girl could see what was happening.

"I'm done playing with you, Morgan. Either tell me where Cowboy is and confess or I will send you to hell!!!"

Morgan looked up at him, smiling.

"Then send me to hell, Father. I will never tell you where Cowboy is nor will I confess to anything."

Frank raises the board, bringing it down onto her back, the nails sticking into her skin. She screams as he yanks the board free, raising it again.

Wraith hovered high above Cowboy's hummer, safe from any harm or discovery so long as he remained non-corporeal. His vision in his dematerialized form, saw into a world illuminated by energy and with it not much escaped his eyes. He could not see through walls, however, and there was no movement outside of any of the buildings to alert the old super-hero of the RAID ambush. He figured this had to be the place, by the length of their pause and Wraith could hardly believe, how close they were to the base, he figured that the hummer's engine had barely warmed up for the distance it had traveled. Being so close to the hide out, Toril was worried that if the others made a scene and attracted the police that they might bring unwanted attention to the base. It was well hidden, but if a search was warranted the resistance could be in jeopardy. The best thing they could do was to bust in there and kill that psycho, quickly and silently. He was almost tempted to go in himself, but this wasn't his fight, this was a personal matter for Cowboy and he would respect his right to dealing with the bastard as he saw fit.

Watching the scene, Shawn's glowing eyes went wide and he turned to the others, frantic, at least for him.

"He's hitting her!" he exclaimed, first doing the sign of a fist hitting his index finger, then demonstrating the action the man was performing to make sure he was understood. "The man's hitting the girl with something... a board I think," he said, demonstrating one more time. Shawn looked to the driver, the Cowboy who smelled of rage. He didn't like waiting for orders like he was some kind of subordinate, but at the same time, he knew there were figures lurking around the warehouse and in the world of metas, large numbers of others weren't necessarily a good sign.

Tim's grip on the steering wheel tightened as he looked to the warehouse, then over the hood of the Hummer. There in the street was a manhole, Tim's eyes narrowed as he inched the Hummer forward and to the right, then stopped. "Totem, when I tells ya climb ovr tha console har and git behind tha wheel. Ya count ta a hundrud, then git tha hell outa har. Ya don' go back ta tha base. I needs ya ta lead whoever's watchin' the wurhouse on a wild goose chase. Me an Morgan 'll meet ya all back at tha base. Will ya do that pardnar?"

Without waiting for a relpy, Tim closed his eyes and concentrated ..... slowing time down....he then unbuckled his seat belt, lifted the shot gun from between the seat and the console "Now Totem" he said as he opened the door to the hummer. He climbed out and walked quickly over to the manhole, prying the cover off Tim quickly climbed down a few rungs of the ladder and slipped the manhole cove back. Tim then brought time back to normal. He quickly turned round and crawled through a drain pipe under the street towards the warehouse after about one hundred feet a dim light shone through the top of the storm drain. Looking up a square brick and mortar shaft with rusty metal ladder rungs along one side, about six foot square Tim saw the metal grate of the French drain in the warehouse floor. Slowly Tim climbed the rungs, of the shaft and quietly pushed on the grate. ..............The grate grungingly losened as Tim lifted it. Once the grate was free, he slid it across the floor. He scarmbled out of the drain and rolled across the floor coming to a kneeling position and swinging the shotgun in a 360* arch, looking around cautiously. Seeing Frank standing over Morgan, Tim took aim. Just as Frank turned to investigate the sound of the grate scraping across the floor, Tim said "FREEZE scumbag!...... Oh ya scumbag .... Ya hav tha right ta remain silent. Anythin' ya say kin an' will be used 'gainst ya in a court a law. Ya hav tha right ta talk ta an attorney, an' ta hav an attorney present durin' any questionin'. Ifin' ya can't affurd a lawyar, one 'll be providad fur ya at governmn't expense. Know do ya understan' these har rights as I've 'plained em ta ya? ....... Ya alsa got tha right ta got fur me blow yur head clean off and send ya raght directly ta hell."" Frank stared in disbelief as confusion crossed his bloodied and mutilated face. Then Frank made a fatal mistake, he raised the board with the nails to strike Morgan again. "That'll be tha last thang yu'll do on this har earth. Go an' meet El Diablo." Tim fired two rounds from the shotgun, striking Frank in the chest, propelling him back about a foot, the military / law enforcement "shedder" loads fragmented when the small explosive rounds penetrated their target. Tim stood and ran over to Morgan, knelt down and felt her pulse. It was weak but there, Tim reached down and lifted Morgan, placing her across his shoulder, then reached down and picked up the shotgun by the slide, jerked the slide ejecting a shell casing and sliding another round into the chamber, then shifted his grip to the butt near the trigger ..... Tim stood back up, looked at the French drain and mutterd "Damn" as he looked around for another way out. ................ Tim glanced over at Frank lying in a pool of blood.

TAKING AT A SHOT AT THIS TIPH
Cowboy was standing near Frank, still gripping the shotgun looking for a way out. As his eyes searched the gloomy warehouse for a proper exit Tim heard a strange metallic sound, two flash bang grenades rolled across the floor a few feet from where he was standing. RAID was making it's move.

The grenades went off, smoke and light filled the room, RAID officers flooded the area a half second after the devices went off. They moved swiftly, two by two there were a dozen officers in heavy gear. They spread out as much as possible they moved at Cowboy, two of them moved near Morgan, another two moved in close to try to get a look at Frank.

Tim was looking at eight heavily armed men near him, the laser guides of their various automatic weapons danced across Cowboy's clothes in the smoky room as they moved to close the gap..

DO NOT MOVE...We are in control, place your weapon on the floor and kick it away. Do not do anything stupid we will fire.

Nearby agent Birkshire watched the scene, he had more agents with him.

Sir, there are more metas outside. Now is the time sir. An agent informed Mr. Birkshire.
I know... Birkshire said.
Beta team, you are go. Birkshire spoke quietly.

Outside another group of RAID men moved swiftly and quietly between the buildings, eight men in all. The group moved two by two they hugged the side of the building as they neared the Hummer and it's occupants.

Morgan, though weak, was conscious and tried to smile at Tim as he checked her pulse. Her whole body hurt and she was still losing blood. She couldn't stop the whimper of pain when Tim picked her up gently and put her over his shoulder.

When she heard the agent speak, she whispered to Tim to put her down. As he did, she saw two more agents approach her and decided to use not only her abilities but her womanly devices as well.

Looking up at the two young agents, she didn't have to try to look the part of a beaten woman.

"You were out there the whole time, weren't you? Why didn't you help me? Why did you let him do this to me? How could you just stay there and know what he was doing to me?"

She saw the two sets of eyes through their masks look at each other, shame and regret shining in them.

"What if I'd been your sister? Would you still have just watched simply because your commander told you to? So tired........I'm so tired."

She closed her eyes, putting her face as close to the floor as she could, so that they wouldn't see the faint glow from beneath her eyelids. Concentrating, she called to the rats again, having them run into the room, scurrying up agents' legs, onto their backs, gnawing on their masks. She opened her eyes, watching the men lose their concentration on her and Tim, fighting to get the rats off of themselves.

She looked up at Tim, her eyes flickering, losing her concentration.

"Now would be a good time to whatever it is you're going to do, Tim. I can't keep control of them too much longer and when I lose control they will go for the blood they smell. My blood."

Tim would see Morgan jerk, a gun shot echoing in the building. Another hole was in Morgan's side, just above the first one, the bullett going through and hitting one of the agent's in the lower leg. Frank was standing, barely, his pistol pointed at Morgan.

"The demon has to die, just like her baby brother and mother had to."

He points the gun higher, aiming for her head, then looks up at Tim, the knowledge that he's going to die in his cold, insane eyes.

"Can't keep your women safe, can you Cowboy? And the ironic thing is, I tortured this little bitch of a whore to get her to confess.........and to find out where you were."

He laughs, maniacally, waving the gun at Morgan.

"All of those little holes in her, nails in a board. The bloody welts all over her body, razor strap. My....how she screamed........but she wouldn't tell me where you were, said she'd die first. Stubborn, pig-headed demon's whore. But, she'll die now."

Raising the gun, he got ready to pull the trigger when rats ran up his body, instantly going for the hand holding the gun and the holes in his chest. He started firing randomly, hitting agent's in their bullett proof vests as he went down, covered in rats.

Morgan, her gaze on her father, could no longer keep it up and turning to Tim she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry, Tim.........I'm sorry. Go....leave me here.......they can't do worse to me then he did."

As Tim left the Hummer, Yelena looked all around. Somethng just didn’t….feel right about it all. Nothing happened to make her think this way…it was more a gut feeling than anything. Like…being in a forest and the only sound you hear is the sound of your own feet walking. No birds. No small animal scurries. Nothing but….quiet emptiness. As Totem took over driving the Hummer, Yelena kept an eye out form the back seat where she and Shawn sat. Reaching over, she typed in a quick message to Shawn.

We alone?

Shawn wasn’t sure at first what Yelena meant but instead of trying to ask her what she meant, he decided to take a look around with his second sight. If nothing else, he’d learned to trust Yelena’s instincts and right now, he wasn’t about to second guess the shape shifters motives.

And it was a good thing he didn’t. As his strange sight picked up on the operatives slowly closing in on the Hummer, he signed as quickly as he spoke.

”Lots of movement coming at us! Looks like men with big guns!”

Yelena reached down under the seat and withdrew a fully-automatic rifle and spare clip as she uttered something in her native Russian that didn’t sound good at all. Looking in the mirror at Totem, she quickly barked out orders to the on board computer and the unsuspecting Native.

”It was trap!! Abbey! Full protective armor! Weapons hot! Auto pilot engage! Find way into warehouse! Hatch open!

Totem, let go of steering wheel and hang on!”

The on board computer beeped then responded in that sweet, feminine voice.

”Auto pilot engaged. Weapons armed and ready to fire. All armor in place. Hatch now opening.”

Totem would feel the steering wheel start moving on it’s own as a hatch in the roof opened up and the speed of the hummer increased. Just before Yelena jumped up from the seat, she quickly morphed into Tim and yelled once more command.

”Engage full urban assault tactical programming with non fatal shots in three….two….one…ENGAGE”



As Yelena in Tim’s disguise popped up from the hatch, she pulled the automatic rifle up and began to take shots at the operatives closing in on them making sure she fired short or just over their heads to insure she didn’t hit and injure or kill any of them. From the vehicle several explosive devices were deployed as well as laser guided gun fire. She hoped like hell Tim was able to get to Morgan as the Hummer headed straight for the roll up garage door. From inside the Hummer, Yelena heard Abbey giving her fair warning.

"Impact in five...four...three...two...one."

Just as the computer reached the number one, Yelena quickly ducked into the hatch to avoid being injured. Once they were inside the warehouse TIm was to be in, she barked out even more orders.

"Find Tim!"

Jessica had made it back to the safehouse, and entered through the alley entrance, still not noticing the little boy following her. As she went in, she saw that it looked everyone was gone.

Heading through the building, she saw a light coming from Silicone's computer room. Opening the door quietly, she sees a woman sitting there with Sigma, typing away on one of the computers.

Clearing her throat to get their attention, she looks curiously at the woman then at Sigma.

"Who are you and where's Silicone? Sigma, what's going on?"

Jessica had been gone for a little over a month and didn't know yet that Silicone was gone. When Sigma told her, her eyes went black, somehow knowing that there was more to this than he was telling her.

"Let me know the next time you go to her apartment. Maybe I can get something from what few houseplants she had, if their not dead yet."

The impact shook Shawn's entire world as Yelena didn't have a lot of time to give him much warning and he had been too busy looking through the wall to focus on how close they were to it. Once he'd jumped and taken a few deep breaths to steady his heart however, a quick look around told him what had happened. Along with the others, he piled out of the car but hung back, sneaking around the other side of the vehicle and peering through it to get a feel for his surroundings and where everyone was in relation to him. He kept his fiercely glowing eyes down, his feet flat on the ground, his hands on the vehicle, soaking up every vibration of the movements around himself.


Almost as soon as the car had impacted, Ayana leaped out and thrust her hand forward, focusing her mind to send a shower of dust straight into the faces of the nearest RAID enforcers. When she tried get into their minds, however, it was as though she were trying to focus in on a brick wall. At this, Seizure took a step back. She couldn't understand why, but she knew she'd been stripped of her arsenal. She'd have to rely now only on her telekinesis. Her access to the minds around her, at least the ones she would attack, was barred. Taking another step back, she thought briefly about lifting the car just to have something massive to swing around at creatures who would do minimal damage back to it, but quickly realized Shawn had taken refuge behind it.

Ayana sighed as she could hardly blame him. They'd used him for his eyes and now he'd been dropped right in the middle of a fight where he couldn't possibly be of any help. She'd do the best she could to protect him, but right then all she could do was help he had the sense to shut off those tell-tale eyes and maybe be able to put himself off as an innocent human hostage.


Kekoa emerged slowly from the vehicle, a crooked smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. Unscrewing the lid from the water bottle, he moved smoothly around to the front of the Hummer and deftly dumped the water out of the large container. The water splashed onto the floor at his sandals and sank down into the dusty concrete.

"Seems an awful lot of people against just thre--" he paused, looking over at Frank who's twitching and struggling was beginning to slow, "two..." he corrected himself before turning his slanted eyes back to the crowd of RAID enforcers that now seemed to be crawling out of every corner of the warehouse. Shifting a foot around the sinking puddle he'd made, Kekoa assumed a position that now matched the glint in his black eyes-- one poised to fight.

Morgan looked up as the hummer came crashing through the warehouse, scattering agents everywhere. She watched as Shawn, an african american girl and an asian guy got out, then she saw Yelena, or was it? The person looked like Tim, only, Tim was with her. It had to be Yelena.

Looking up at Tim again, she got his attention, her voice weak.

"Go....get them out of here, Tim."

She no longer had control of the rats, but thankfully, when the hummer came crashing through they had scatter into the shadows. The ones that were left were feasting on Frank. She looked over at her father, seeing his body twitching, then finally laying still. His face was gone as were a few fingers. It was something that would give her nightmares, using the animals to kill her own father, seeing the viciousness of them, and she knew then that she would do anything to survive and to make sure that Tim and the others survived. Even kill her own father.