Shot in the Dark

Trouble seemed to be popping up like weeds in the recent days. It wasn’t too bothersome, mild annoyances that needed a quick pulling to be removed. However, of the weeds one stuck out in particular to Isaac. The weed had a very specific name as well, Detective Harold Grainger. He was a well-respected detective, at least according to his men on the inside. He often got the more important jobs down at the station and he was in line for a promotion to captain. He even had a family, a recent born child. Things were looking up for this particular weed.

It was a shame he had to die, really. Isaac was a criminal and all, but he still understood and valued the police department. They kept some order is this chaotic world, and even in crime order was needed. However, Detective Grainger recently was assigned a particular case that would be Isaac’s bane. He was leading the charge on the weapons being dealt by Chimera, Isaac’s company. He was not close to uncovering the location of the main facility in which they were being transported too, but he was closer than most others, and Isaac was a careful man. He needed Detective Grainger killed, and quickly. The only problem was that another, smaller crime group recently made a public threat to him and he had been placed in protective care.

The safehouse he was going to be protected in was a six-story apartment building, top floor and he’d probably receive some protection from the department. How much? Isaac was unsure. He was a detective with a great deal of pull and respect, and it was known that a price was on his head, a good one, so…it was hard to tell how hard it would actually be to take him out. He wouldn’t waste the chance on him moving or getting more protection, he would send his best to kill the man, Nine. She was free and in the area, and after one call she was on the case.

…

When Nine got the call she let out a sigh of defeat. Not during the call, of course, but after. She did her job and did it well, but it was supposed to be her day off, as rare as they were. She didn’t have much say in the matter, but still, it was a pain in the ass. Thankfully, though, her apartment was close to the safe house and all it took was a quick change and she’d be ready. Her stealth suit was one, her rifle was primed, and her supplies were at the ready. It was around nine or so at night, the perfect time to strike. It’d be dark and easier to move about unhindered, unspotted.

She went to roof, stretching her arms up and then…she’d leap to the next building, beginning to jump from one ledge of a roof to the next. She was still some ways off, a block or two, but her plan was to enter in through the fourth floor and work her way up, using her stealth suit. She couldn’t risk going through the main door and alert any potential protection the detective had.

She really hoped there was no one serious protecting the guy…that was the last thing she needed.

Detective Granger was not unknown to Cebra, having assisted him in previous investigations. It was that sort of tenuous partnership where Cebra could do the more seedy things the detective couldn't, while Granger could provid Cebra information he could not get from police sources. It was a stretch to say they were buddy buddy however when Cebra got wind there might be a hit out on Granger, he couldn't let such a valuable source go unprotected. Cebra was already in the safehouse using the fake ID of Patrick Roberts, as to fit in with the security detail. Cebra was still technically a vigilante and wanted by authorities so this task was dangerous on many ends. Ever the trained soldier Cebra had taken quite a few precautions in order to defend the safehouse.

Motion sensors, camera drones the size of an ant and littered the building they were in, as well as a few buildings surrounding that might have a vantage point over their position. Cebra mostly spent his time in solitude keeping watch as all his security devices were linked to him. Though every once in a while a guard would come by to check on Cebra finding it odd he'd be given permission to go off by himself, but such were orders and a big deal was never made. It was mostly explained away as Cebra being an outside agent contracted by Granger. His clothing different and clearly not part of thr group; The black turtleneck, the combat boots, the cargo pants. Looked more like a spy than security. Cebra had only brief contact with Granger even in the safehouse, thinking it better to not draw attention to the two of them conversing. They kept in contact via communications devices attached to the ear.

Cebra after a while of inactivity decided to take a step outside a back door to have a smoke and fresh air ironically.

Nine stood, invisible, on the ledge of the building next door to the safehouse. She was using her goggles to get a good look into it, switching between infrared and X-ray to get a peak inside, getting numbers and narrowing down where exactly the detective was. The X-ray goggles, of course, only worked to a point and couldn’t see too far into the building. She at least knew that the detective wasn’t in any of the outer facing rooms, which means he was in a central room or in the basement. Further, with her infrared vision she got a decent count of the guards. Fourteen, plus three more…

She stopped, another was exiting and producing a good amount of heat from their mouth. Smoke break? Probably. Though, something seemed off about this one. She couldn’t quite place it, but she got a weird feeling in her gut about this one. She shook it off for the time being. There was work to be done and she couldn’t waste time getting a better look of some odd fellow. She looked back to the building, searching for a way in, for anything that could be used. The answer came quick enough. A perch by a window. It was slightly ajar, left open by some lazy cop probably. It was the perfect way in, and not too high up either.

It was just what she needed. She took a few steps back, exhaling at the back of the roof she stood on. She moved forward, a well-paced sprint, and then at the ledge she leapt. Her invisible form moving through the air and then…reaching her hands up! She grabbed onto that ledge, yanking herself up. She just made it and no one was the wiser. She rested on the ledge for a moment, sitting down and letting out a breath. With a bit of a huff she hopped down and moved towar-

Before she could even get to the window, she felt the rifle on her back bump against something. Push something. She slowly turned to see nothing, but a moment later she heard it. A loud CRASH! As a flowerpot that was perched up on the ledge collided with the ground.

Shit.

She had no time to lose. She moved to the window, pulling it open and hopping in. Time was a factor now. The whole damn building was about to be a mess with activity, the man had to die now.

Well it certainy didn't take long for a bit of trouble to start, Cebra heard the smashing of potery like a guard dog. In a snap of a second Cebra drew his side arm and spun around with eagle eyed precision aiming his weapon towards the disturbance. Unfortunately he could see nothing from his low place, Three guards burst out the door to join Cebra but were little use. "Granger, problem." Cebra said into his comm device alerting the detective. "What is it?" Granger responds as his hand rests on his own side arm. "Don't know, but get yourself lock down, have the rest of the security start sweeping and change the rotation. I'm going to go check around the premisis." Cebra's sensor net had picked up some slight movement, of course this could all easily be a stray cat or rat. He let the other security scour the ground level while he proceeded up the stairwell.

He moved silently but swift and wary with the shadows, his presence was less than a ghost. That robotic speed making him look the form of a wraith before he stopped at an open window. He looked over the railing and confirmed this was where the pot fell from, with his weapon in hand he crouched down taking cover under the window before peering in. With Cebra's power over metal and ability to heal one might think he'd just burst right in unconcerned with harm. But more than once, infact many a time he has run into those with exotic or anti electronic weaponry. Always better to be safe than sorry. He couldn't see anything at first, but with the help of his S.E.M. program he was able to make out object even in the dark... There was someone there. Cebra took a breath then stood up to the side of the window still behind cover. "Stop right there or I'll shoot!" As he aims his hand gun at the vague figure.

Well, she was in the doghouse now. Someone had found her. Someone fast. Someone beyond the rest of the drabble which protected the detective. They actually got someone competent to babysit. Wasn’t that something? Still…she gave a peak over her shoulder at the man. It was just one person. One person while the rest were busy downstairs, beginning their sweeps. There might be more on this floor but she had time. Time enough to take out him and hide, get closer to her target, and time to get out. She just had to deal with this one.

How hard could it be?

It seemed like he couldn’t properly see her. His eyes were on her, but not directly. So, he could make her out at least. Something beyond a normal person? An empowered person or…something else? Either way, it’d be good to test his metal. See what he could take, how fast he could react, and then go from there. She had the advantage and there was a door right to her left that she could burst into for cover. She wasn’t sure how big it was, but it’d do.

Letting out a breath, she slowly turned but didn’t remove her cloaking. Not yet. She could still get a slight advantage over speed with this, give herself another second to react before he could. She wouldn’t speak, just give the man a moment to further speak or to move. He was still outside the window and it’d give her time. Even if he didn’t speak or move after a few seconds she’d quickly pull forward Vigil and without aiming would fire off a normal sniper shot, aimed right for his shoulder. The force of impact, if it did impact, would send a normal person a good few, at least ten or so, feet back from the window. If this man was more than a normal person and could take weaker bullet fire then it might at least stagger him, if it even did hit.

Regardless, as soon as the shot was fired she’d slam her shoulder into the door and roll into the next room, hopefully not being interrupted by any method the man may try and do to stop her. The sound of the bullet leaving Vigil, of course, would be loud enough for the entire building…probably the entire block to hear. Stealth had failed but her job was still far from over.

The bullet hit it's mark alright as Cebra seemingly stumbles backwards, but that stumble was just a natural reaction to being shot at in the human part of his brain. The sniper round was frozen in stasis an inch away from Cebra caught by his saxon energy shielding. He instantly regained his composure and fired three rounds off at the fleeing figure though all fell short of their mark. Over the radio there was a sudden flood of chatter "SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED! IT'S COMING FROM THE HIGHER FLOORS! SECURE THE HALLWAY AND STAIRWELLS ON THE EAST SIDE!." The security was on point and moved in squad formations quickly to their locations with weapons drawn. A lot of SMG's and hand guns along with flashbang grenades, nothing military grade but an effective defence against would be assassins.

Cebra leaped inside and began to pursue his target more aggresively with less concern now for his safety, he knew the assailant was using standard rounds which to Cebra might as well be nerf darts. Still wary that the attacker could have other things up their sleeves he's on full alert and his S.E.M. activated. His eyes turned red as he walked forward quickly with deadly intent, aiming his weapon with one hand looking like a real robot. He catches sight of the distortion made by the invisible assailant and quickly fires off four rounds in their direction, and make no mistake thought they miss those were intended as head shots. "Granger it's an assassin, they have some cloaking ability. I'm in pursuit now on the third floor."

The problem with shots directed at one point of the body, regardless of being kill shots or not, was that you only needed to dodge in one direction. And so she did, she rolled forward, pulling her rifle out again though a bullet wouldn’t exit the chamber this time. A powerful beam of energy would cut through the air and be aimed right for the chest of the man, though with a sudden swing of her arms she’d aim to carve downward in a diagonal, trying to follow wherever the man might dodge to. Regardless of whether or not the beam cut through the man it most certainly cut through the walls, leaving a burning smell in the air.

“Sorry, soldier, this is all just business.” She’d call out, getting ready to move again.

If she was lucky, that would at least buy her some time to get moving again. Like the hallway, this room had a window and Nine would dart towards it, rifle still in hand, though with her free hand it’d be digging through her satchel bag, searching for something. If uninterrupted she’d leap through the air and try to burst through the window and out into the cold of the night.

If she made through the window without stall she’d pull out the hook round from her bag and shove it into her rifle, aiming it upward towards the building. As she fell she fired the shot upward, the hook connecting to the roof of the building. She’d swing through the air, running along the flat wall of the building and slowly ascending upward at angle, all the while keeping an eye on the window she jumped out of. The sniper shot she had fired at the man had not damaged the man. Whatever she was dealing with was not human and she expected to see him again really soon.

"AGH FUCK!" Might have been the last thing she heard from Cebra before fleeng out the window. Not quite expecting that level of firepower from an assassin caught Cebra off guard, that beam caught him right in the side of the face. The sizzling and crackling of seered flesh was the first thing Cebra noticed, his own flesh. The bottom half of his jaw ached and burned, which was odd because it was gone. He steadily dripped blood onto the floor and fell to one knee. Though he would regenerate he still felt the pain of his wound, it was becoming a little more dull as the nanobots slightly dulled his pain. It was not nearly enough to stop Cebra though as he quickly got back up and grasped his gun. She got some distance on him but not enough for Cebra to lose track as he began to sprint after her.

He was a little late to stop her from making it to the next window but Cebra was back in hot pursuit. His S.E.M. now kept track of the Assassins movements carefully, she wouldn't so easily hit Cebra a third time unless there was some brand new weapon she deployed. The other security teams though highly skilled didn't stand much of a chance with this killer on the scene. Cebra saw an opportunity to fire off a few rounds at her aiming for her legs with less discriminate aim. He was just trying to immobilize her at this point. The security teams also had trouble keeping up with the two super human beings effectively leaving them alone.

Nine felt a searing pain run across her leg as the bullets her new android friend fired at her. She was lucky her danger sense was screaming at her, yelling at her to dodge this way and that, directing her away from the oncoming attacks. It wasn’t perfect, as the searing pain reminded her, but it was good enough to make the potentially crippling shot just a brief pain which would fade by week’s end. She couldn’t really wait to fire back, she was ascending up the flights of the building, hoping that she’d have some time to get to the top before her pursuer. He didn’t look that agile or have any means to follow her up. A potential breather?

As soon as she made it to the roof her goggles were down, heatseeking on. She watched the people below move about frantically. The security seemed to be hurried, searching rooms and making their way further and further up. But with her goggles she spotted what she needed. Four heat signs in a single room in the middle of the building. Unmoving. Or rather, not moving all that much compared to others. They were on lockdown, keeping a room secure. How far down was that? Two stories? That was about twenty feet or so? There was no clear way to identify which was which though, and her X-rays would only be able to see the room directly below her. She’d have to take a guess or just…swing widely and hope to get him.

She darted to the center of the roof, right over where she found those heat signs. She pointed her rifle down and reached a hand behind her back, pulling out another smoke grenade. She gave another quick look around, making sure that strange man had not followed her so far.

Cebra would not give up so easily, though he fell behind her a bit hopefully the leg wound would slow her enough. Cebra made a run for the window and as he passed by a rusted pipe, grabbed it and melted it away in a second forging the lump of metal into two daggers. He had some distance to close on the assassin and made a huge leap to the next buildings wall burying his blades in the wall with ease. He started to make some ground on the assassin climbing upwards, that was until his blade struck a loose brick and Cebra lost his hold and fell. He managed to catch his other blade into the wall and stop his fall but that loss in ground would give her plenty of time. Inside Granger sat in the secured room feeling the anxiety now that things had picked up, there was no one dead yet so that was a relief at least. He thought Cebra must be doing his job well then knowing he was in pursuit. It was strange to be helpless as he was, usually being the kind of detective that never was shy with confrontation. His fingers tapped away on a solid metal desk unaware of the imminent threat.

There was a flash of bright white light, one that her assailant might be able to recognize. Vigil's powerful blast of energy cut through the stone and foundation of the building like it was nothing. There was a crack of stone and wood and in an instant, like lightning, the beam cut into the detective. The scorching feeling would start in his shoulder, singing through like a heated knife through butter. It slumped to the floor, but he would never have time to properly react as the beam soon found its way the man's head, tearing into it. It popped like a balloon, the mist of blood quickly evaporated by the beam's powerful energy.

Above, Nine saw the target slump to the floor, first with her X-rays and then she checked through the clear hole which had been made. The job was done. The man was dead and all she needed to do now was to escape. With a small breath, leaving her with some ease, she looked around. Maybe her assailant was there and just failed to stop her? Or perhaps he was still working his way up? Either way, for the moment, she was in the clear and there was nothing else to block her exit. She just had to do as she always did...get out, get home, get away from this place. Maybe this would be enough to actually earn her a place among the ascended Valiants?

This was getting to be bothersome.

Regardless, there would be time to think on that later. She would begin towards the opposite end of the building. She flashed her camo, making sure it was still active, slumping her rifle over her shoulder. She moved silently and through a stem of smoke which left through a steel chimney, hopefully blotting her out further. Her exit was quiet, barely a sound to each step she took. Stealthy as ever, cautious and careful.

He heard it over the radio, the panic and sudden violent and visceral splatter of human flesh. Cebra stopped his climb for a moment at a loss for words and action, he'd failed. Another person died because he wasn't good enough to save them... Again. The depression gripped his throat and clouded his mind like a smoke bomb had gone off in his conscience, but it cleared rather fast as did this entire moment. It cleared when a single though pierced through the doubt and smoke... Kill her by any means. The only thing left after all of this was murder, he was fixated on her. For as long as she breathed now Cebra would hunt this assassin tirelessly. With a great deal of speed he climbed the rest of the height and jumped high up when he reached the ledge landing further. She must be making her escape now, but she left a little trail. The wounds in her leg left small blood drops.

Cebra picked up his pace immensely, using the implants in his legs to amplify his speed across the roof. He leaped up with a mechanical precision and came straight down the chimney landing with a jarring crash and explosion of ash that filled the air like a smoke bomb. His reflexes and reactions are tight and sharp as his eyes pierce the ash cloud seeing the figure of the assassin not but a few feet ahead of him. "THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" he shouts in anger before grabbing her shoulder and whipping her into a fragile brick wall causing a few to crumble.

Her danger sense had kicked in right before she was grabbed. It wasn't a motion threatening enough to dodge from, so she let herself get pulled and tossed to the wall which she harmlessly caught herself on. Boy. Did this freak look pissed. He was really getting his panties in a twist over losing. It was almost comical how quickly this society's warriors, their heroes, fell into despair and acted like big children. Tantruming, raging, uncontrollable children. It was honestly quite pathetic.

She stared at the man for a few moments with a rather blank, unimpressed expression. She far from amused by his question, though not annoyed or angered by it. Just bored. Then she cracked a cocky little smirk, a sort of amusement now coming to her. She casually shrugged her shoulder, "Ah...so that's the kind of hero you are. So quick to believe things have gone wrong, have you? Didn't think with all my technology that I couldn't fake a few radio calls, huh? Or maybe you checked yourself and saw that my target was really put down? Or maybe you haven't and he's bleeding out and needs someone fast and capable to treat him? Or maybe he's completely fine?" She shook her head, "You're not a hero who saves people, you're a hero who just goes after a villain because you think you lost. The 'Oh, I messed up and now I need to take it out on the bad guy.' don't even try and talk it out. Don't even try and understand the reason. So, go on. Try and hit me instead of trying to save the man down there. Be the violent hero instead of the true hero." This was, of course, all a bloody lie. A goad to get him off of her. Her target was dead, she didn't have means to hack radio waves, and there was nothing that could be done to save the man. He was dead.

Of course, if he didn't back off or didn't seem as though he was going to, she had been slowly raising her rifle, aiming it towards him, but keeping it at her side so it wouldn't be directly obvious that she was. And if he moved to attack? She'd pull the trigger, releasing another blazing beam of energy that could cut through steel. She was using a lot of those. Was that three now? She'd have to be careful if she kept using them like this.

Cebra's rage seemingly settled though that was a lie, he just let it burn more silently as his cold stare fell on her apathetic gaze "... You must be pretty desperate to try and feed me that bullshit, or think I'm fucking stupid. And whether he's dead or alive you're coming with me, unless you'd prefer to die here too." Cebra's S.E.M. was active and picked up the assassin raising her rifle immediately, but he was ready this time. He would use his cybernetically enhanced agility and SEM prediction to move in close and dodge any attempts to shoot him. His first goal was to disarm her as that rifle was still a harsh weapon. He would try and get close to grab and shift the barrel away from him and follow it with an elbow to her face. Though he did have a strong desire to just outright kill her he decided to try and do things properly, at least how Granger might have liked it.

Nine let out a simple sigh. This guy was a pathetic excuse for a hero, "Not even gonna try and see if he can be saved, how cruel of you. I wonder if his last thoughts right now are of where you are and why you aren't coming to save him." She teased, hoping to throw him off a bit, and just barely recovering from the elbow strike. Her danger sense was ringing like crazy, but thankfully he wasn't too hard to read on his own. She wasn't sure how many more strikes she could dodge though. In the meantime, however, she'd have to rely on other tactics rather than just Vigil. She was way to close to get a good shot in as her previous attempt just showed.

She attempted to sidestep the man, following through with her dodge and pulling her rifle with her. In the same motion, there would be a glint of silver as a knife was pulled from its sheath on her chest gear. She would move it across in a sweeping motion up his chest and try to drag the tip along the man's face, not enough for a serious wound, but hopefully enough to cause him to flinch back. What she needed at this moment was space, to get him away from her so she could focus on a getaway. Her job was done, she didn't need to be here anymore, let alone fight some stupid empowered.

...she also needed to invest into some better gear if she was going to keep fighting fiends like this.