The Goal of Limitless Energy, a Limitless Army

Clayton was taken by surprise when the man began to fire randomly into the crowd as he fought for control of his weapon. He quickly jumped into a fighting stance hoping to avoid any bullets that may be fired his way, when suddenly a huge black wall appeared in front of him and from the sound of it deflected a few bullets meant for him. Immediately after the wall fell the young girl to his left made some sort of awkward arm movement as the same black gooey substance rose in a wave around her.
A wave sent the wave at rushing at Slick.

It would appear he had a guardian angel in this 14 year old girl.

Pain shot into Elaine's stomach as her plan faltered and ended with Slick's knee in her gut. She fell to the ground under Slick's gaze and looked up to see the tar like substance shooting towards him. This situation would be bad for Elaine if not for the shadowy bolt hurling towards Slick, giving Elaine hope for escape.

Elaine shot onto her feet and rolled to get a hold of the rope that she tied around the staff and move as far as the six foot rope would allot her away from Slick.

Slick was busy with Elaine, and these shadows. They were growing quite tiresome by the moment. He noticed the rope tied around his staff, as he slicked his hand around it, secreting an oil that allowed himself to wriggle the rope free from his staff.

A girl shot her hand up towards the sky out of the corner of his eye. Elaine got up and started to flee, and his senses told him something was off. He turned around and there was a large wall of the shadow energy hurdling towards him. He slapped his quarterstaff against the ground, and ran towards it, sticking the staff into the ground. The staff caught against the ground, and flung his body into the air. He used an extra push of strength when he reached his peak height to pole vault clear over the shadow blast.

He nimbly landed on his feet, and glared at Alice. He raised the pistol from his opposite hand and began firing shots while running towards her with the Quarterstaff in his opposite hand.

Alice hissed in anger as he vaulted over the wave, he was a slippery one, that's for sure. He then started to head towards her, shooting with one hand, the other held his staff. Alice quickly raised her hand and summoned another wall, blocking the bullets. She then once again thre her hands out, pushing the wall outwards towards slick. As it rushed towards him, "Run!" she yelled to the civilians, erecting a long wall that produced a clear path to the door. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, this was literally the most she had ever used her powers before and she was tiring fast. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was surprised she was doing so well, but that was secondary to her current task... surviving.

Now it was Clayton’s turn to play guardian angel, “Get out of the way, kid!” he shouted as he stepped in front of the girl, who, powerful as she was, was still just a child, twirling his mop in anticipation. Slick had poll vaulted over this once, what was to stop him from doing it a second time? Clayton began to run; he was going to pole vault himself over and, hopefully, meet the man in mid-air.

He sincerely hoped Slick didn’t have any more bullets left.

The wall of shadow rose up as Slick vaulted over it. That meant he was busy at the moment, giving Elaine the time she needed to follow the other three men. Yells of excitement leaped up from behind her, and pole vaulting janitors lunged through the air to protect weird shadow conjuring Asian girls. This seemed like a good time to go after the others.

She wrapped her lasso up and bolted through the door to where the other three disappeared. Wits needed to stay sharp so she could anticipate any kind of ambush that would await an Asian cowgirl in a museum of technology.

Slick stopped firing shots at Alice after noticing the wall barrier. But it definitely confirmed she was the source of the shadows. She shouted for the Civilians to run, and one made a break for the door. Nobody was going anywhere, he was going to make sure of that.

He holstered the gun to his waist and prepared for another pole vault over the wall of dark energy. He pulled the pistol back out and aimed the gun at the civilian, running for the door, firing a single shot over the second wall Alice had created to protect the Civillians. The bullet pierced her back, and she fell to the ground motionless. The rest of the Civilians were too scared to budge a muscle. They all laid flat on the floor.

To meet him half way was... the Janitor with a Mop?! While in mid-air, he grasped the quarterstaff at the very end of the weapon, and thrusted the long polearm aimed at the Janitor's gut with one hand, while firing two shots with the pistol.

Hopefully landing nimbly on his feet, he would thrust the long polearm again aimed at Alice's face to stop her trifling. He was too busy to warn Hurricane that the second girl was running off following his trail.

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Meanwhile: Hurricane, Snoot, and Rush are heading towards the Clockwork in the large mueseum, if Elaine wished to engage them.

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"Slick ain't responding. I think he's havin' trouble with the hostages. He never has trouble, one might be a 'hero'... It's the only thing that would explain it." Rush said. "I think I should go after him."

Hurricane knew it as well. If Slick was beaten, not only would they lose the hostages, but they might lose Slick. A valuable member of their operations. If these 'heroes' called the police after his defeat, he'd be apprehended. Even if they got the Clockwork, they'd lose Slick. That couldn't happen.

"Go back and make sure he doesn't fail us. I won't let that jeopardize the mission. I'd send Snoot, but he's needed to unlock any security up ahead. Make SURE they are all there. Tell me if anything is going wrong. We may need to abandon the mission."

Rush nodded, and walked off. If Elaine was going to walk towards Hurricane, she'd bump into Rush first, unless she was sneaky.

As expected, Slick vaulted over, but then, he shot at a civilian, causing the rest to give up. She growled again, this guy was frustrating. As he leaped towards her, a guy told her to get out of the way. It was the... janitor!? For a second, she thought he might actually be able to help, but Slick then slammed the staff into his gut, and to finish it off, he shot at him. Alice tried to see if the janitor was fine, but found Slick's staff rushing towards her face. She raised her arms instinctively, with it, a thin shield that Slick would probably smash through.

The staff caught Clayton in the gut; he coughed in pain as he twisted his makeshift staff sideways and used it to push his opponent's downward. With that he flipped forward over slick as slick fired two shots at him, the shots missed, but one did graze his side, if only barely. As he flipped past Slick he extended both legs into his back, hoping to knock him down while pushing off him to land safety.

That didn’t happen.

Slick was just too, well, slick. He slipped off the man and the ground seemed to rush up to meet him. Luckily he hit the ground tumbling, taking minimal damage. If this guy’s friends were as skilled as he was, Clayton wanted no part of them. When he did land he heard the odd clunk of plastic hit the ground behind him… it was a spray bottle of bleach, in all the excitement he had forgotten it was hanging out of his pocket. When he went into disguise he tended to go all out. Clayton had an idea, “fuck this guy” he whispered to himself as he picked up the bottle.

He was in pain but he moved as quickly as he could, quickly as he could towards slick in the girl, he had to do something before this guy hurt the kid.
“You wish you didn’t do that.” He announced as he arrived behind Slick holding up the bottle, gripping it tightly.
If slick turns around Clay is going to spray the bottle as quickly as possible into Slick’s eyes as many times as he can spray.

Elaine tried slowed her pace to keep quietly through the exhibits along the way. Footsteps echoed from across the room, but they echoed in loneliness. No, the guy she wanted wouldn't go back alone. The guy she wanted was above going back to clean up. She planned on striking swiftly and incapacitating the weaker looking one first. Then, she would square off against the one calling the shots.

Elaine crept silently along the wall, while using her bandanna to clean off some of the grease Slick left on it. After a few yards of creeping, Elaine tied the bandanna over her mouth and moved towards the door that lead to the next room of the museum. Once The single man left sight, Elaine would launch her attack against Hurricane and Snoot with her lasso and gun in hand.

The accursed Janitor seemed relatively skilled, as he tangled with Slick in the air. The kick in the air was softened by the slippery substance covering Slick's body. Landing a physical blow on him was near impossible. The kick made him result in a tumble, and sprung to his feet. He thrusted the quarterstaff forward at Alice, his main goal the entire time, breaking her small energy barrier and knocking her own arms against her face.

The janitor taunted him from behind, but when he spun around a spray of bleach was waiting for him. He recoiled before the second spray, and screamed in pain. He raised his gun and emptied the clip, firing two blind shots where he thought the janitor was. He secreted rapidly oil to wash the bleach out of his eyes, as it was dripping off his face. Out of bullets, he tossed the gun to the side and grasped his face with one hand, while holding onto his quarterstaff with the other. Momentarily, he'd drain the bleach from his eyes.

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ELSEWHERE

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Rush walked past Elaine, who snuck past him successfully. He was briskly walking to check up on his brother. He would be there very shortly. In the room up ahead, Hurricane and Snoot were dealing with the old man who locked up the Clockwork. Hurricane watched as Snoot was trying his methods first.

"Tell us the code!" He pistol whipped the old man before pointing the gun in his face. The poor old man's head was split open, but he wouldn't say a word. "Fine, have it your way..." Snoot fired a shot at the old man, and then walked over to the terminal to enter the codes. He placed his hands on it, and traced its memories.

He could view everything in the entire room from the Terminal's perspective for the past two weeks. He rifled through the memories, and came across the old man, entering the code. "5 2 7 1 1 3" Snoot mentally memorized, before scanning across more recent memories, including the terminal watching Snoot kill the Old guard. The terminal could see a 360 of the room, and Snoot saw an intruder, Elaine.

He took his hands off the terminal. "Someone else is here." he looked at the location he saw Elaine was at, but it was a several seconds ago, she was gone. She couldn't have subdued Rush that fast, unless she was really strong... Snoot hid behind a counter and placed his gun over the edge, darting his eyes, looking for the masked girl he saw earlier.

Hurricane wasn't the same type of mutant. He was more... aggressive. Hurricane was surrounded by a large gust of wind, and he levitated into the air, rotating on the watch for any movement.

Alice fell back as he hit her, arms smashing and probably nursing her own face... but it was a he'll of a lot better then getting hit in the face with that staff. As she was hit, the walls she had erected fell, the shadows returning to normal. She fell back, straight into a group of civilians who quickly pushed her back as if she had the plague or something. She stumbled forward, nearly faceplanting on the floor before she caught herself. She turned around to glare for a moment, bit they glared back, as if it was all HER fault or something! She sighed, turning back around to see the janitor spraying something into Slick's face and eyes... she wasn't sure what it was... but it hurt. She watched Slick cry out in pain, shooting randomly and clutching his face all the while.

As he stood still, washing the bleach from his eyes, Alice made one last attempt to stop him. She concentrated, clenching her fist and mentally pulling the deactivated photons to Slick, making it seem like he had a wide, circular shadow. She then splayed her hands in a movement that caused the shadows directly under his face to become goo while the ones on the side became solid tendrils. It was a trap to keep him in, not enough space was given for him to vault over and the goo would make it harder for him to move. If he jumped... well, she'd hit him back in. She was shaking from the effort of using her powers, but she continued, directing three tendrils to attack. One was going towards his head, another straight to his solar plexus, and the last... well... let's just say he won't be procreating for a while.

Clay was careful not to celebrate; though he really wanted to he didn’t want to give up his location to the now blinded Slick. He simply stepped to the left with a wide grin as Slick fired two shots at where he was previously standing. Neither shot had come even remotely close, but the graze wound he acquired in his side a few seconds earlier began to sting. It hurt like hell but it wasn’t the first time a bullet had grazed him, he clenched his teeth and got ready to rush Slick.

He was making his way up to Slick to deliver a haymaker, the same knockout punch he’d seen countless boxers deliver when he stopped himself. He stood roughly four feet away while he watched as a large, circular shadow materialized underneath Slick. The shadow took on a gooey, oily look as more tendrils rose from it and looked like they we’re going to hurt him quite a bit more than Clayton could. He couldn’t help but chuckle, which made his gut hurt. He definitely did not want to get hit like that again today.

Unaware and unphased by the danger of the situation, Elaine burst through the opening in a spray of bullets. The first shot soared wildly through the air, but Elaine caught image of her enemy. She pulled her pistol over to gain sight on Hurricane and fired two bullets, as she darted across the room towards the terminal.

She needed to pick up speed to make it through the protective barrier next to the terminal. Is she could get in it would she wouldn't need to worry about the repercussions of the jump, and could plan out her next couple of moves while surveying the equipment.

Bullets flew to provide her with cover form Hurricane, but in her haste she never accounted for the hidden Snoot.

Slick rubbed his face, draining the last bit of bleach out of his eyes. But he had difficulty combating the next onslaught of attacks. He blinked rapidly, trying to dodge the first, but got hit upside the head. The slick of oil secreted from his body absorbed a small amount of the blow, redirecting it to slide right off his skin instead of land harshly. Still recovering from the blinding bleach attack, he swung his quarterstaff and missed the second attack, which hit him directly in the center of the chest.

Unlike the previous blow, or many blows for that matter, it was a pinpoint shot to the chest. Normally, horizontal or vertical blows can slip right off his skin. But a piercing blow could cut right through his skin if sharp enough. It knocked him back, as he winced in pain. A third blow came straight between his legs and he quickly maneuvered his quarterstaff to block it. He whipped his head up to glare at Alice who was several feet away. Instead he went for the closer target, the Janitor.

He twirled his quarterstaff in a offensive flurry and tried to side-swipe the Janitor in the neck, and knock him with enough force to throw him to the ground. If successful he'd try to jab him in the throat with the quarterstaff.



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MEANWHILE

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The door to the Clockwork room flung open, presenting a girl with a firearm. A gunshot fired into the air and Hurricane swiveled around, facing her directly, channeling his powers. She exchanged glances with Hurricane before aiming her pistol. Hurricane outstretched both his hands, raising his fingertips towards the sky, and the wind of the room picked up significantly. As she fired two shots at him, he blew a gust of wind so powerful it changed its trajectory to whiz past him completely.

As she made her path to the terminal, he threw both hands behind his back and hurled them forward, launching a blast of concentrated wind energy in a cyclone-like burst aimed at Eclipse hoping to knock her spiraling backwards across the room. Snoot remained hidden from the combat. He was needed for the code to unlock the room with the Clockwork.

She smiled triumphantly as he was hit in the head, but as that caused the second attack to slightly miss the very vurnable solar plexus. She hissed in frustration, thinking that she probably should have thought that through. She quickly pulled the tentacles back as he glared at her, making sure he couldn't use them to his advantage. Slick then went for the janitor again, jabbing at his throat, but Slick seemed to forget he was still standing in the shadow circle. She directed the tendrils to jab at his wrist and grasp the staff, she had watched the attacks and realized that maybe jabs were the best.... less likely to slip. If the attack worked, the staff would be ripped out of his hand. At the same time, she directed a jab to the back of his head, see if he can block that. If it hit, it should be hard enough to knock Slick out. Alice felt her vision double for a moment, but she blinked it away, continuing to focus on the attack.