The Hand You're Dealt (Cebra)

Ah the city of Sin. Kah-Lin liked this place. People really showed their true colors. The mission this time was one of the easier ones she'd gotten in a long time. Who was she to argue with 20 million? Kill some scumbag running for congress with sexual assault allegations. If she actually paid taxes she would probably be pretty pissed that these kind of people decide where money goes. She stretched in her king sized bed atop a a hotel she chose at random. She made it a habit to not have habits. Never staying at the same hotel twice in one city. This was going to be a quick one. Robert Taft was the target. His wife of course back in the nations capital. This couldn't get much less difficult if she tried.

As she rolled out of bed wearing nothing but a pair of underwear she stretched and yawned. Her pocket dimension of smoke armed to the teeth with weapons. She was contemplating just slitting his throat and disappearing. Poisoning his drink. A blast to his skull. Of course there was that big goof of a guard he always had with him. She was almost positive he was a metahuman. She scouted the night before and didn't see a single weapon on the guy. Assuming he was just a typical super strength would be stupid. He could have telekinesis and an ego problem for all she knew. No one worked out that much that was confident in their abilities in her opinion. Be it in a brawl or in a bed. She smiled to herself. Turning on the TV, she noticed that new cult The Saved were causing chaos on the strip yelling about their god. "Yea. I'm sure your god is a huge fan of black jack and hookers." she scoffed dressing in her combat suit before touching it and letting it turn to smoke under a sundress. She grabbed a pack of cigarettes to keep lighting so the smoke wouldn't come across conspicuous. Plus she could carry her whole arsenal.

As she stepped into the casino some guy grabbed her rear, her sunglasses almost fogging up with rage as she turned. The Tick scanned the man up and down.
"That's a filthy habit for such a cutie."
The man was a nobody 40k in debt and going through a divorce.
"No wonder she left you." Ido smiled and walked away.
The man behind her getting absolutely destroyed by his friends and frankly himself.

Her target was insight. With how smoky this room was it was like taking candy from a baby.
Walking up to the blackjack table she sat down next to her target. "Deal me in please, I'm kind of new at this."
"Well well look at you."
She didn't even look in his direction.
He light a cigar.
"Hard to get. I like that."
She still didn't pay him any mind.

She got 200$ worth of chips and bet the table minimum.  She was dealt in and right off the bat. Black jack.
The Tick was counting cards for her. She truly didn't care for gambling. "Beginners luck!" the man said inhaling his cigar.
"Now"
The big card always with him took a quick bathroom break.
As he inhaled she clenched one fist and the smoke in his lungs stayed put.
He grabbed his chest and tried to gasp for air. The smoke not letting him breathe.
He tried to mutter out a help but she just yelled someone call 9-1-1!

The man would be dead soon, the guard returning and trying to give CPR to what was essentially a dead man. A minute or so later. It was a corpse. The mission was complete. Of course this fucking cult had to come in. "Ladies and Gentlemen! All of your chips!" Ido rolled over a table and hightailed it behind the group of incoming men. Down the hallway she quickly went into the women's restroom. She tapped her sundress and it disappeared. Appearing was a combat suit, as well as a mask coming up and covering her face to her eyes. She tossed the sunglasses. She already had colored contacts in. She quickly tied her back and let wrings of smoke circle her arms before dashing out and sliding into the back of the legs of a guard, as he turned she vanished. "What the fuck." she snapped his neck and grabbed his gun. She leaned over a banister and fired a round into the skull of one of the cult members pouring in. "One of the Lieutenants should be in Vegas we're warming the place up for him!" another shouted before her second shot took him out and and all out gunfight broke out,

"Dammit there's like 40 of them." she said preparing a plan to get the fuck out and take a few with her.

Of the more rare organizations Cebra was familiar with, cultists were by far the most nonsensical in his opinion. Not for the purpose of accumulating wealth, building an empire or anything sustaining do they exist. But as some broken branch of religion or spiritualism steeped in odd and sometimes criminal rituals. For this reason Cebra had been investigating this radicalized group that have taken a public face. Over months he had carefully inserted himself into the cult remaining a low level grunt. By his sleuthing and deductive skills he managed to work out the structure and resources of the group.

He had planned for a week now on how to murder the leader of this sect and all of the groups top members, doing it silently and carefully as to make it look like an accident. He had planned to use a quick dissipating neuro toxin on the leader when he was in the bathroom taking his diabetes medication. The rest of the members he would deal with in the parking lot, he had a strong sedative in gas form ready in their vehicle. Knock them out and then stuff them in white van he had waiting, dump the bodies in a still wet concrete foundation near by. It was all lined up and perfect... Then this.

Rounds whizzed past Cebra's head as he stood beside his cult "brothers". This wasn't part of the plan, it was supposed to be an easy hold up. This woman complicated things especially if she turned her gun on him, his cover would be done. He had to get out of the fire fight and into some safe area with some privacy, he could then change his outfit quick enough and hide his identity. He took cover quickly checking the positions of everyone around him, as everyone was focused on the fire fight Cebra managed to carefully slip away in the chaos and make his way down a large hallway around panicky casino patrons. He made his way avoiding security to a bathroom.

Inside there was a rather scrawny man that seemed to believe hiding in a bathroom stall would be the safest place to hide now. Cebra gazed at him with an awkward arched brow as if to say "Really?" Cebra didn't feeling like explaining his plight so he simply punched the poor fellow knocking him out cold. The clothes were a bit tight of fit but did the job of making him look different than before, hopefully enough to fool his cult companions. He was in a powder blue awful looking business suit with decent looking shoes. Quickly he made his way back to the scene as stealthy as his training and programming had taught him, keeping aware of peoples peripheral vision and moving slowly. He managed to pick up one of the cultists weapons that was dead by his feet.

He wasn't sure exactly what he should do about this. Should he help this woman and possibly give himself away? Or make his exit carefully and maintain anonymity? What virtuous traits he did have came in like instinct in this moment, seeing a cultist trying to flank on the woman's left side around a roulette table. Right before he can take a shot at her Cebra raises the SMG in one hand and fires a burst of rounds, he riddles the cultist spine with led and they drop. Cebra quickly turns to fire a nod at the woman and going back to cover. True given his powers this incursion was easily survivable, but he was more concerned with keeping a low profile.

So it seemed luck would have it Ido had an ally. She usually worked alone, and preferred it that way. The man gave her a nod and had her trust for the time being. She would certainly question him later given the chance. As for now with her back against about 30 of them she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. These damn "Saved". The one her mystery companion blasted got her to spin and pop a shot into the skull of the two men closing in on her.

She saw two more rushing up the stairs and three up the other stair case. They were bottle necking her. She fired another two shots to the right side one in the first man's chest and the seconds leg causing him to fall over on top of his friend and drop is gun. Ido dropped turned around and fired the last shot in the gun she picked up at the other stair case, drilling the first man in his knee, causing the other two to fall over him. She leaped over the guard rail. Slamming her foot on the throat of the throat of the man screaming about his leg, his scream ended quickly while he was choking on his own adam's apple.

She rolled over him and pulled his Shotgun off his back, quick motions would be her friend. She also hadn't used any of her own weapons or ammo. That was helpful. This shotgun had 8 slugs in it as she checked sliding into cover once more, she threw her hand and whipped up some smoke in the room to give more cover she could see fine through the screen but others were both coughing and fumbling through it. One saved stood in front of her, his back turned. He was pointing his AK into the room looking for her more than likely. She whistled in his direction and as he turned she ripped his body practically in half with a slug.

She cocked it, and let out a groan. More smoke whipping up she hopped her alleged companion was fairing well as she stared down the iron sight, ready for whatever would come her way next. They had to be down at least 8 ish by now. If he had done any work maybe half would have been cleared. She wasn't banking on that one though. "Simple contract my ass."

Cebra thought it a pain in the ass to have to feign needing cover from these common full metal jacket rounds flying about, they looked like nothing but .45 rounds anyways. Never the less Cebra maintained the ruse as he shifted and crept from one covered position to another through the exchange of fire. He made it to flank a few of the assailants taking position behind a roulette table, from the corner of his vision he spots someone ducked down behind a slot machine. An old woman holding onto a walker with coins strewn all about her as she cursed a storm. Cebra made a running leap and ended up skidding along the ground to cover behind the next slot machine over. "Ma'am! Gonna need you to hold on to me!" The woman stopped panicking for a moment and looked at Cebra, her wrinkled face twisting into a smile as she looked him over.

Ignoring the womans strange and perverse stare he wrapped his arm around her legs. Her hand was a little more south of the equator than Cebra would like, he got her up piggy backing as he made a sprint for the bar and a mighty leap past a stream of bullets. He landed safely without harming the woman, behind the bar was a service exit down a series of halls which Cebra told the woman to take while he returned to the fight.

Cebra fired off single rounds as he strode quickly and carefully from one cover to the next closing on the cultists, his precision was disturbingly surgical as every shot landed dead center in the skull dropping these people one after the other. He got in close enough to a few of them for melee combat. One cultist tries to get the drop on Cebra snapping to aim at him, but Cebra grabs the gun way too fast. A series of kicks shatters his knee into a reversing collapses his chest and snaps his neck. One cultist tries to fire a round at Cebra's head from the side but he almost predicts where the round is coming from, he dodges with ease before kicking that same walker the old woman was using at the assailant. It knocks him to the floor flat on his back before Cebra jumps up and stomps his skull. Quickly before others can get a bead on him he grabs a machine pistol and gets back to cover, now significantly closer to that woman. "Hey." He checks the ammo count "Don't suppose you know what's going on here?" He feigned.