The pillar to Heaven built in Hell

Sam her arms trembled when she was finally able to put the celling and its occupants safely to the ground. Even though these people were used to far more impressive feats of strength, they all looked in awe of what she’d just accomplished. All were silent until a single person began to applaud. He, or she (Sam couldn’t say), was quickly joined by others. Before long the majority of the crowd was clapping their hands while the people on the roof left to search for the loved ones. Even the little kid who she got out came to thank her in person.

Sam blushed, unsure what to say or do. While she had received public thanks for her actions before, it had never been on such a scale. Usually it was just a couple of people. She wasn’t even sure if she deserved their praises. She had only done what anyone else would have done too. Plus, hadn’t she been here, the building might never have been attacked in the first place.

All of this noise combined with her own confusion made that she didn’t get everything her enhanced hearing picked up. It was unmistakably Jeannie’s voice, mentioning something about the docks. Sam figures that was where the trail had lead them.
The docks were spread over a large area, searching it all to find two persons would take its time, even for her. She’d best be on her way right away. There was still a big pile of debris behind her, but the fire fighters seemed to have it under control now. With no people in any immediate danger, there wasn’t much she could do around here any more.
Sam told the young boy she was only doing her job, gave the crowd a polite nod and took off.

Once she was out of reach, she contacted Jeannie and Cebra. If either of them answered, she’d be able to pinpoint their exact location and save her the trouble of having to look for them.

“I’m on my way,” she told the both of them as she flew over a sleeping city. “Where are you now?”

Cebra could hear Jeannie clearly but he didn't respond to her. A mix of anger, focus and a slight worry Sam might try and stop him from finding his prey and forcing out an explanation. For a moment the thought of knocking Jeannie out and leaving her for Sam to find while he went on passed his mind. Surely she'd be a lot more safe from harm, also keeping both Sam and Cebra's conscience clean. There was something holding him back from doing this action though, a feeling making him uneasy and shameful. He couldn't do that, he couldn't deceive people who so freely trusted him.

"Jeannie... Yeah. I suppose we should let her know where we're going."

Finally arriving at the Oceanside some time later Cebra climbs up one of the warehouses and scans over the entire yard. The EM trail leads to oil tanker docked near the end of the yard. There were still a few workers around likely night crew or security workers. Avoiding them wouldn't be too difficult as long as they remained stealthy. Cebra looks down and waves to Jeannie signaling her to climb up and join him. He puts his finger over his lips and makes a shushing noise as he points to the ship where the trail leads. In a low voice he whispers to Jeannie.

"Whoever or whatever blew up the apartment complex, they're in there."

jeannie quietly follows himok let's get them she looks over at the boatit's was pirates then

It remained silent for a while during which Sam found herself hovering somewhere above the harbour district.  When she picked up Jeannie’s short and cryptic response about the criminals being ‘pirates’, Sam was able to pinpoint their location. She only lost a fraction of a second wondering why a bunch of pirates would blow-up a flat complex before setting course to her new destination.

Even though she knew every second counted, she didn’t dare giving it her all out of fear her approach might alert anyone of her arrival and potentially spoil whatever Cebra had already planned. Regardless, she arrived at her destination not much later.

Even with the street lights working, she couldn’t spot Jeannie and Cebra down below. Given the stealthy nature of their mission, this was hardly surprising. For this reason, she refrained from descending and having a closer look as it might draw unwanted attention. Instead she focused on her surroundings to see if there was anything she could spot from up here.
Warehouses and boats dominated most of the landscape. Because Jeannie had dropped pirates, Sam left the warehouses alone for the time being and began checking on the boats. Being this high up, and outside her X-ray range, there was little she could learn from this apart from the lights burning on only two ships. From one of them she could hear the voices from a handful of people outside, the other was wrapped in silence.

It had to be one of those two, but which one would an assassin prefer? The silent one like you saw in the films, or the one with the activity going on outside in the hope he could blend in? She had to be certain before going down, landing on the wrong ship could cause quite the commotion.

“Cebra, Jeannie, which ship is he on?” she asked, praying the two hadn’t already moved in on their own.

"Pirates?... No I dont think so, there's no piracy in Washington I'm aware of. But there's a good chance that ship is owned by Orion or one of their subsidiaries. I dont know what we're going to find inside but to be sure it will be dangerous. Let's be quiet about this, no need to attract any security forces. We go in, we find who's responsible and we force the information we need out."

Cebra looks at Jeannie and nods giving the go ahead. Cebra leaps down first much more quietly than on the stadium. The shorter fall causing less impact doesn't alert any of the workers. Cebra stealthily moves behind a shipping container darting his eyes around keeping track of the guards. There's no way on to the ship, Cebra takes a running leap and hits the ship. Thanks to his metal manipulation ability he digs his hands into the steel of the ship by melting his fingers through. He climbs up to the deck peeking over to make sure no one is close by. The deck is relatively clear, everyone is likely inside the ship right now after that attack. Cebra was itching for some payback, he'd make sure to make an example of the assailant. Something Orion would not be able to ignore, maybe flaying them open like fish or removing their limbs. One thing was for sure, there will be blood.

oh really, huh I thought pirates went where ever they wanted. she goes to follow him but gets stuck, watching him do some fun thingy to get up the ship umm I can't do that how do I get up?

Sam didn’t get an answer. Was she at the wrong place? No, she was certain she had heard Jeannie say something about pirates. And those meant water. This had been the only harbour Cebra and Jeannie could have gotten to under their own power while she’d been busy with the burning building. They had to be here so why weren’t they answering?

It couldn’t have been the distance, she had successfully communicated with others over far greater distances this was. This meant they were either deliberately not answering her call or something had kept them from receiving it in the first place. Her aunt had once told her that only powerful magic was capable of blocking her. Could Orion have a wizard at their disposal? It seemed unlikely. Everything up until now had been technology, advanced or otherwise.

Deliberately not answering than?  But why? They knew she was coming and would need their directions to find them. Or had they heard her but were unable to answer the call? Her end of the line was secure, but theirs wasn’t. What if there was someone else within hearing distance? Someone who wasn’t allowed to hear the conversation? That could explain their silence.

She sighted. All this guessing was getting her nowhere. All it did was distract her from the task at hand. For whatever reason, they weren’t answering so she needed to find them on her own.

She closed her eyes and listened. There wasn’t any need for her to do so, her hearing and sight didn’t affect each other. Yet for some reason she believed she was able to hear more with her eyes closed. So she closed her eyes off from the rest of the world and listened.

There was the myriad of sounds one was expected the hear in a harbour: the soft sounds of the water hitting the wharfs, the humming of engines operating at low power, a couple of dockworkers returning from a late shift and so on. Nothing of those helped her in any way. She filtered them out and moved on to the next, hoping to find something unusual.

There was something. It was so faint she’d almost missed it. She couldn’t label it right away? The best she could describe it was the hissing of something hot melting though metal. And it came from one of those boats. A boat seemed an odd place to her to be melting metal. It was at least worth looking in to.

She started her descend, trying to avoid the lights as best as she could in order hide her presence for as long as possible. If it was a false alarm, she didn’t want to scare the people down there. If it wasn’t… Well they’d already blown up a building today, she wasn’t keen on them noticing her before she was ready to confront them.

while pondering how to climb up the boat, Jeannie hears samhuh sammie is in my head again? oh, it's this one she points at the boat. mr. cyborg say it's not pirates they don't come here apparently.

where trying to get on but I'm stuck, I can't make metal squishy to grab like him. huh maybe if i can find a rope

Hearing Jeannie’s voice was a relief. It meant she was safe. They were safe, she corrected herself. Cebra had to be their too somewhere.

Jeannie’s voice cam from near the ship where she had picked up that strange hissing sound. Their doing, no doubt. It also meant she was flying to the correct ship.

“I’m heading your direction as we speak,” she told the blond girl. “I’ll be there shortly. What’s the plan?”

It was an all too familiar feeling, the pure venom coursing through Cebra's vein. This is the entire reason Cebra chose to be the vigilante many despised and few understood. Criminals will go to any length for their goal, and so Cebra must fight the same way. Fear, intimidation, murder, torture, theft and a slew of other morally reprehensible acts. These were part of Cebra's arsenal for there can be no mercy in war.

Cebra was so focused and angry he had forgotten Jeannie might not be able to keep up with him climbing the ship. Cebra had stealthily made his way past shipping containers and a few inept guards into the ship. He molded a hand gun and a long sword out of metal from a wall in the ship. His first goal was to make sure the ship could not leave, he thought to head towards the bridge and destroy it completely. He could hear some guards around the corner approaching, Cebra backed up only to hear three more people coming from behind him around another corner. He ducked into a room that seemed to be crew quarters and watched as the guards passed by.

In the darkness of the small room there comes a shifting noise, Cebra took notice instantly turning and aiming his hand gun. In the cot behind him lay a woman, it was hard to make out but from her clothing and things next to her cot she was a guard or perhaps just crew. Her eyes fluttered slightly before slowly opening. Cebra stood over her as she woke silently holding the gun to her face and making a hush gesture with his finger on his lips. The woman quickly came to realize her situation, her face clearly frightened and fully alert she did not move an inch. After the other guards footsteps couldn't be heard Cebra turned the light on keeping his aim fixed on her.

"Who runs this operation? Who is in charge? You have five seconds before I put a round in your skull."

jeannie wondering about finding a window to climb in though. she finds a rope and toss it in the window and climbs up stumbling though she tumbles in landing in the cot with the woman.

ouchis rough landing, oh helloshe smiles at the lady, she then turns around looking at the gun yikes! she sticks her hands up

oh it's you, watch where you are pointing that thing!you big meanie your not supposed to leave your partner behind haven't you ever watched a cop show
she sticks her tongue out at him, then turns to the woman
hey have you seen pirates with rockets? they blew up his house and where trying to find them

When she didn’t get an answer from Jeannie or Cebra, Sam landed under the cover of darkness behind a container on the wharf and looked around. The container shielded her from the orange light coming from a nearby lamping post, making it hard for her to see. Yet even with this little amount of light, it was obvious to her Jeannie and Cebra had already moved on without her.

It didn’t take much guessing to know where they’d went. The only place they could have on to was the boat. Captiously Sam moved closer. All this sneaking around wasn’t her strongest point, she preferred to operate in the light, not moving around in shadows like a thief. she peaked around the corner of the container and even in the dim light she could see a pattern of holes in the ship’s hull. What little she knew about boats was enough to know this couldn’t be the result of normal ship actions. This was where the both of them must have gotten on board.

Following them in their footsteps was easy, a combination of super speed, flight and using her enhanced hearing to locate the people on the deck. When she knew they were walking away from her, she made her move. Mere moments later she found herself on board, hidden behind a container on the deck.

So far so good. She switched to her X-ray vision and checked the containers surrounding her. There wasn’t anyone hiding behind them. She sighted, that would have been too easy. The only other option was they’d gone inside. The problem was the ship was too big for her to see all at once. She’d have to move from one part of the ship to the next in order to do so. If she was fast enough, she should be able to pull it off. Especially because there were enough large objects on the deck for her to hide behind. Using the same method as before, she went on to the next shelter.

Too late she noticed her cape had hit a screwdriver laying on the hawsers, knocking it off. In Slow motion she saw the object falling. It was too late for her to move back and catch it. The clashing sound of metal hitting metal carried a long way in the night.

Sam held her breath. What had she done?

Cebra looked at Jeannie with a look expressing surprise yet some frustration at her clumsy entrance. He quickly checks the doorway as to make sure that no security guards were alerted by her loud crashing. How does someone claiming to be an assassin or rather bounty hunter go around stumbling everywhere like that? One such thought occured to him. The woman just laid there even more confused and frightened. Cebra kept the gun trained on her despite Jeannie entering the room in that loud display.

"Jeannie... please move out of the way."

Before Jeannie can move the young woman with quite a burst of speed and precision wraps her legs around Jeannie and grabs a combat knife from the desk near her. She raises the knife to Jeannie's throat really close.

"Drop the gun dude, drop it or I'll slit her throat wide open."

Cebra's aim tightens as he glares at the woman hard. he was somewhat sure Jeannie could heal herself but wasn't completely sure of her powers. Frankly Cebra didn't know much about Sam or Jeannie's capabilities, something he should have talked about in detail with them. He wasn't about to gamble Jeannie's life though and slowly starts to lower his gun. On the other side of the ship there's a commotion going on. Two security guards react to the sound of something falling.

"Hm? Phil go check that out."

"Fuck you, you go look."

"Just go you little sissy."

"You afraid?"

"Dude I've seen horror movies, you go check, I hear a scream then I go check then whatever hideous monster made that sound kills me. But instead I'mma just go and inform the boss while that thing chews your corpse."

"... Dude you... You're an ass... I'm gonna go check just to show you what a dumb ass idea that was. Probably just a rat."

The guards moves closer to Where Sam is flashing his light around in the dark.

"Helloooo"

He mutters.

oh sorry, hey that tickles stop that Jeannie is surprised when the woman grabs her and pulls a knife on her.don't do that I like not having my throat open that might hurt, besides you don't want blood all over the places then we'd have to clean up.

mr. cyborg shoot this crazy lady of something, it's not Thanksgiving and Jeannie isn't a turkey she thinks on how to get out of this mess. oh, what would her puppies do?

she grabs and bites the knife lady's hand

(Jeannie's like Wolverine and Deadpool pretty much unkillable, of course, she'd prefer avoiding stuff cause it still hurts but she always bounces back eventually )

Sam uttered an inaudible curse when the guards moved near. So much for fortune favouring Fort tonight. One sound from either of them was enough to have all heel break loose; the last thing she needed right now. Dashing away wasn’t an option either. Getting past them wouldn’t be an issue, but they might get suspicious if they didn’t find anything for even rats leave trails.

Incapacitate them then. It would still souse suspicion if they didn’t report back in due time, but it was preferable to having the fuss start right away. She still needed to find Jeannie and Cebra, after all.

Patiently Sam waited until the guard came a bit closer.  That they believed in those horror film clichés made her part all the easier; like a predictable monster in the dark she’d be able to take care of them independently. But where those monsters relied on strength and stealth, she had a few other tricks up her sleeve to.

She waited until the guard’s flash-light was within an inch of discovering her before making her move. At super speed she dashed forwards. Everything around her seemed to move a lot slower until the point where it nearly stood still. With one hand she grabbed the guard’s wrist, making it impossible to shine the flash-light directly at her. The other she used to exert pressure at just the right point. Thanks to a combination of her medical knowledge and her strength it was a piece of cake to knock him unconscious before he latterly had time to dash his eyelids. When he sank down, she caught him in order to gently lay him down.

That was one, now for the other.

“Dude, what did I tell you, there’s nothing here,” she spoke, using her vocal abilities to imitate the guards’ voice. “You can check for yourself if you want to.”

She prayed the guard would take the bait and come here so she could give him the same treatment. Once he was out of the picture, she could continue with her search.

Cebra knows that if he starts shooting the guards will be alerted to his presence, that would eliminate the element of surprise he'd worked to obtain. After this it might be a good idea to drill Jeannie on the finer points of stealth if they survived. His aim was fixed on a small gap on the right side of Jeannie's head where he could target a bit of the woman arm and hand. No, it wasn't worth the risk this time. Not to mention Cebra still felt awful about Francine and wouldn't put Jeannie in that kind of danger. He lowered his gun and placed it on the floor gently.

"You win, just dont... Dont hurt her."

The woman slowly inches forward making sure not to take her eyes off Cebra or the knife from Jeannie's neck. She picks the gun up and aims at Cebra. She starts yelling out loud.

"SOUND THE ALARM, INTRUDERS ON THE SHIP!"

In a few seconds the whole ships security system goes off, sirens and red lights everywhere as security guards scramble about the ship. A group of six guards enters the room where Cebra and Jeannie are. The two of them are taken prisoner and hands tied. The ship is now being swept from end to end.

"No shit genius I was just messing with you.

The guard starts to walk over to where his companions voice is coming from, flashing his light around but not really paying any attention to where it is pointed. He closes in completely unaware that the other guard has been rendered unconscious by Sam. Just as he's about to turn a corner another three guards appear from the door behind the guard.

"Hey get Phil and move your ass to the engine room, we're doing a sweep of the ship. Security breach happened."

"Fuck you serious? Finally some action! YEAH!"

"Take it easy Mathew it's probably nothing. Hey Phil come on get out here, what's taking so long?!"