The Goal of Limitless Energy, a Limitless Army

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.

Clay had been careless getting so close to slick like that; it appeared the man was getting desperate as he swung his staff around wildly at him. He was able to dodge the swing Slick took at his throat quite easily; however, he hadn’t taken into account how parts of the floor had been covered with oil simply because Slick had been standing on them. Clay’s shoes happened to be covered in it, so when the staff came back around for a second swing his dodge caused him to slip and fall. Slick took advantage quickly, as Clayton would have and aimed to smash his throat with an end of his quarter staff. He rolled out of the way on instinct as Slick brought the staff crashing down. It shattered part of the floor next to his head, Clay didn’t want to think about what might had happened had he not managed to push himself out of the way as he rolled further before pushing himself back up on to his feet.

The bullets flew past Hurricane and impacted into the walls of the museum. Elaine made her jump across the room, but the trajectory of the gale force winds complicated her jump. Dangerous winds blew her back several feet, and sent her hat flying across the room. The jump fell very short of her desired destination and left Elaine staring at the bulkhead of the dome.

A sharp pain shot through Elaine's head causing her to drop her pistol on the ground. She crawled a few feet towards the door, grabbing the sides of her head in agony. "You're going to..." She began a threat. "Ow." She put her hand back to grab her lasso and pointed a finger pun towards Hurricane. The hand holding the lasso dropped to the ground as Elaine tried to regain composure.

With his sight regained, and composure back, he was in peak condition with two opponents, once again. Slick had almost severely injured or killed the Janitor, but he slipped away. He was no normal schmuck on the day shift. That he knew. Alice was keeping her distance, but triggering those shadow attacks. That had to stop.

In the distance, Rush came walking. His eyes grew wide as he saw his brother fighting the shadowed creatures. "Slick!" Rush yelled, pulling out two pistols and running towards him, not knowing who to shoot first. He pumped adrenaline through his veins to make him run at peak performance, as if he was being chased by a rabid dog. He looked for any sign of movement from the civilians, if anyone budged he would let his pistols unload on them.

Slick spun his head towards his brother. "KILL THE GIRL WITH THE BANDANA! AND THAT JANITOR!!" He screeched. He spun his quarterstaff around defensively, as the shadows once again sprung up at Slick. He skillfully twirled his blade around, batting them away. His breakdance style combat made him very difficult to hit directly, the attack on his wrist slipped off as if it never made contact at all. He was a slippery sucker and he knew it. He was having trouble combating the source, which stood a safe distance away. He had no range, not anymore.

Another attack came from behind Slick, he hurled himself into the air to make sure that the blow pushed him more than hit him with a severe blow. The blow landed on the back of his head and he fell forward face-first to the ground, smashing his face on the tile flooring. Though he secreted oil to break his fall into a slippery mess, the impact hurt nonetheless. Blood trailed from his nose and mixed in with the oil, as he dropped his quarterstaff.

"SLICK!!" As Rush was in close range of the battle now, he cared not who caused the shadow strikes, whether it was the janitor or the masked girl. He quickly got a glimpse of the girl with the mask covering. He separated the two pistols from each other, firing 6 shots out of each one barrel as rapidly as his body would permit him to do it. Six at the girl, and six at the Janitor.

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MEANWHILE...

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Hurricane lowered himself from the air, and placed his feet on the ground. He walked towards Elaine casually. He knew all about heroes, who wanted to protect the people. To serve 'justice', but all justice is, is a matter of perspective. Perspective that needed to be changed. If, that is, she was a metahuman. All he has seen was her use of a gun.

"What is it you want here, girl? The Clockwork? What purpose could you possibly desire it for? It matters little, for only we have the codes, not you. Nonetheless, we do not have to be enemies. I need to know your purpose here."

Hurricane outstretched his hands, aiming his extended fingers towards the sky. A small pillar of wind levitated the pistol Elaine dropped into the air, and brought the weapon to his fingers. He grasped it by the barrel, not the pistol grip. To show he meant no harm, for now.

As the shadows moved in to attack, Rush.... well, he rushed in, yelling his brother's name. Slick instantly yelled out who to target... aka Alice and the Janitor who's name she still did not know. The shadows hit Slick, one of them smashing him to the ground. As this was happening, Alice spotted the guns and redirected the shadows into a wall, leaving Slick alone for now. As she upheld the wall, she spotted the mop near her feet, kicking it over to the janitor, "Knock 'im out!" she yelled. Alice, by nature, was a pacifist... but even she knew that wasn't going to work here. With that, she readied herself to whatever would come next, despite shaking from the exertion of using her powers. She felt nauseus and tired, it showed too, Alice was pale with beads of sweat running down her face and she looked like she was about to faint.

"KILL THE GIRL WITH THE BANDANA! AND THAT JANITOR!!"

He heard slick yell as he looked up to see another man rushing in, this one with guns. This day just kept getting better and better.

“Oh great, he has a boyfriend. I’m crushed.” Clayton said to himself sarcastically before the bullets began to fly. He dived out of the way of the bullets and towards Slick out of reflex as the middle schooler returned to her role of guardian angel. “Knock ‘im out!” she commanded, as she kicked the mop over to him. The mop slid almost perfectly into his hand, he grasped it and stood up. He cracked his neck as he lifted the mop up above his head and brought it down in slashing motion, the impact on Slick’s head broke the mop, but it probably wouldn’t kill him. After that he turned to the new challenger, “Okay, put the guns down. Fight me like a man. Anybody can shoot somebody.” He called out, quoting his favorite buddy cop movie.

"My purposes?" She wobbled her legs up. "My purposes are to take you down." Stability returned to her joints, giving her enough strength to relinquish her finger pistol and let it hover over the holstered pistol she usually reserved for her left hand. Gale winds would knock her lasso away from him, and the bullets would...

An idea popped into her head. She quick drew her offhand pistol and held it in her right hand, firing three shots. She positioned the first bullet three feet to the right, the next bullet directly at Hurricane, and the last one three feet to the left. Hopefully with the barrage of bullets, one would find a home to hinder Hurricane.

Slick was temporarily knocked out of commission by the janitor with the mop, a non-effective weapon, which broke on his striking his head. Alice was blocking the bullets with a wall of shadow energy, while the janitor taunted him. Rush ignored the man challenge and aimed both pistols at him, firing holes into whatever was in his general area, but hopefully, him.

He dropped two clips to the ground and reloaded two magazine clips that were fixed on his waist in a split-seconds movement. He was heading towards Alice, to engage her directly. If Clayton ducked for cover again, he'd fix his aim on her, firing rapidly even if she was holding up a barrier.


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MEANWHILE...

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A blunt reply came, she had no purpose other than to defeat him. Darn heroes, always putting their nose in other people's business. It wasn't even logical for a hero to be so aggressive to a passive person such as himself. He prepared himself when she made her statement, as she pulled out her pistol with quickdraw speed. He launched himself into the air, as bullets streamed towards him. The further distance he was, the more difficult it would be to land a precise hit.

He thrust forth his hands, concentrating on a heavy gust of wind, as the bullets streamed. Unknown to him however she positioned the bullets trajectory to fly directly at him if he did so. He wasn't capable of analyzing the situation so fast. One bullet skimmed his right arm and a second pierced his right shoulder. Hurricane flew back further away from the woman in agony, which quickly boiled to anger. The fool was probably just a normal human with a gun. "Man"-made weapons would not conquer this day. Never.

Hurricane now knew the tactic, and knew how to overcome it. Wind energy filled the entirety of the large room, up to the ceiling, swaying the entire room in a large whirlwind. The walls were being stripped of their wallpaper, and objects started to get caught up in the storm. By the second, the winds velocity grew. Soon it would be a full blown tornado, with Hurricane at the eye of the storm.

Alice heard the stick snap and nodded, that should keep Slick down for a while. With that done, she returned her focus to the shield, focusing on keeping it solid. She heard... no, felt the bullets slam into the shield, Alice winced as they impacted, she was struggling hard to keep up and the constant stream of bullets wasn't helping. She heard the hail of bullets stop for a moment, maybe he was out of bullets! But the stream soon reassumed, this time, directed at her. She winced and looked over at the janitor, "So what are we gonna do?" she asked, her voice straining to get to audible levels. She was getting really tired now and may not last much longer... she found that she had trouble keeping constructs up and she was straining at her limit now.

By the sound of the gunshots he could tell the man did not accept his challenge. Clayton was in a rough spot, he had no idea how he was going to beat this guy now. He looked over to Alice who in turn looked over to him, she didn’t look good. In fact, she looked terrible. Clay thought she might pass out soon and if she did, they were certainly both dead. She asked what they should do next, Clay simply shrugged. He wasn’t sure but he had to do something and it was clear he had to do it quickly.

He picked up the end of the mop and wiped the grease off his shoes and then reached up and removed his wig and aviators, he had no idea how the damn things stayed on through all that, but they could only get in the way now. He didn’t care who saw him now either. He also ripped off the fake mustache; he didn’t want to die wearing that damn thing. He picked up Slicks staff and frantically wiped it with the mop as well. Clayton was preparing to pole vault over Alice’s shadows once again. "Run!" he instructed the girl as he dashed past her. He would launch himself directly at the sound of the gun fire and hopefully, crash right into Rush, knocking him over.

Red splatters of blood flung from Hurricane’s shoulder, bringing a smile to her jaws. Swirling winds picked up around the room, echoing violently. Debris collided with the walls and stands that once stood adorned with relics of technological ingenuity.

Elaine needed to think quickly if she wanted to survive this onslaught. As the winds begun picking up, Elaine tied her rope around her waist and anchored it to an exhibit rail that stood firmly mounted in the floor. A piece of shrapnel flew through the air to collide with Elaine. Knocked to the floor, Elaine felt the winds picking up as she lifted into the air. She was suspended in the air, aiming her pistol towards the eye of the storm. She unloaded six bullets in the same pattern as before. Firing into blowing winds were not new to Elaine, but this kind of trajectory correction seemed ridiculous. Two bullets went to the right, three to the middle, and one to the left. I hope this works.

Rush kept emptying magazines on that wall of energy. In half a seconds time, he dropped two magazines to the floor and slapped his pistols against his waist, reloading them instantly. Pole vaulting over the shield was Clayton, and Rush had two fresh magazines he just reloaded.

He pumped adrenaline through his veins, and his pupils dilated, then constricted. His focus was stronger than before. "Got ya!!"

He raised the two pistols up in the air and fired both pistols so rapidly, they appeared to be automatics for a brief second. The gunshots rang through the room almost loud enough to cause ear damage.


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MEANWHILE

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Hurricane was no fool, and he read the girl like a book. Precisely as before, she unloaded six bullets in different locations, hoping that his manipulation of the trajectories would push the bullets into himself. As the whirlwind picked up, Elaine became a blurred shadow in the distance, and finally not viewable at all. She knew where he was, in the eye of the storm. And he had been prepared for her to shoot at him.

Though he couldn't physically see her, he saw the flash of the gunpower exiting the barrel of her gun, and knew where she was. He was prepared for this moment. He quickly reacted and shook a clawed hand violently to control the winds, pushing the bullets up and over his head. They all clanged against the wall of the museum. He then aimed the pistol he had previously picked up off the ground that belonged to Elaine, at the direction that she was firing from, and emptied the entire clip at her before dropping the gun to the floor.

Alice felt her hopes shrink as he shrugged, only to stare as he took off the wig, sunglasses, and mustache. The man then proceeded to once again vault over the shadows, yelling at her to run as he did so. She tried to yell at him to stopp but it was already too late, he was over and gunshots rang out, loud enough for Alice to lose focus, the construct was already at it's limit and with that, it collapsed. The shadows quickly returning to normal. Alice found herself blacking out slightly as the wall disappeared, she collapsed as well, falling to the ground. She propped herself up by the forearms, face down still as she ripped off the bandanna, coughing. Her vision was swimming but she could make out the blood on the ground... she shuddered and dry heaved a few times before shuddering and going limp though she managed to evade the small pool of blood and mucus. She coughed a few more times before wiping the blood from her lips and retying the bandanna. She then tried to get up, only managing to prop herself up in sitting position... she obviously wasn't going to be able to rum any time soon.

Clayton made the jump at the very second the gunfire had stopped, “Ha! I’ve got this guy!” He thought, imagine his surprise when Rush took aim and fired rapidly. He suddenly realized how stupid that was. “NO!” Clay gasped and twisted his body around to the right; it turned out bullets were much easier to dodge on the ground, he felt an intense pain as one ripped clear through his left hand. He yelled in pain as he plummeted to the ground, dropping the staff and gripping his hand. He had been shot before but it was never this painful, it was so intense he barely felt the impact against the ground.

He lay on the ground staring up at the ceiling, “No more heroics… If we live through this.” he promised himself. He knew he had to get out of there fast if he wanted to live. Even though his ears were ringing could hear Alice coughing behind him, why hadn’t she run? If Rush decided to get up close and personal to finish him off he was going to spin himself in a breakdance motion similar to what Slick had done earlier, only with a slight variation, on the way up he was going to try to kick him directly in the knee, which, if it hit would drop him almost instantly.

Bullets tore through the raging storm of wind. Elaine could hardly defend herself from the onslaught of bullets that screamed for her. They flew with inaccuracy, but one bullet flew through the side of her wrist. Two more bullets grazed her left hand and left bicep. Swirling winds exacerbated the tears in her flesh.

Elaine mustered up enough force around her to make a last ditch effort to end the tornado. Within the blink of an eye Elaine disappeared from her tethered position and shot at Hurricane, hoping to dislodge him from his lofty position in the eye of the storm. No matter the outcome, Elaine would plummet to the ground with her arm is pretty bad shape and a splitting head ache.

Rush let off on his trigger finger when Clayton hit the floor. The ends of his barrels were smoking from the rapid use. He swiveled his aim from Clayton to Alice, but they were both down. He let out a sigh of relief and lowered his pistols.

"Goddamn Heroes..." was the only thing he could only say. He put one of his pistols in its holster, still keeping one pistol ready incase they tried anything. He ran up to Slick who was on the floor unconscious. He grabbed the front of Slick's shirt and sat him up, checking his head for any severe damage. Rush put his arms under Slick's armpits and dragged him to the wall and positioned him sitting up against it.

Rush walked up closer to Clayton with his pistol lowered. "You're a brave soul, but I ask that you not endanger your life further. I'll permit you to leave with the girl." He flicked his pistol at Alice to indicate who he was talking about, instead of using an index finger.

"We'll still need our hostages, so don't try any heroics. Just let us do our job and get out of here. Clear?"


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MEANWHILE

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Hurricane was preparing himself for another onslaught of bullets, but it never came. Instead Elaine threw herself into the whirlwind to knock Hurricane out of the air. He didn't see it coming, and couldn't react fast enough. He was busy manipulating the storm, and readying himself for when another shot was fired. He was knocked back and immediately stopped the whirlwind, hitting his back against a wall. He gasped for air, for if anything, it injured his bullet wound in his shoulder more than it already was. Instead of falling he caught himself in flight.

Elaine fell to the ground and landed harshly. Hurricane didn't understand the thought process that went through that attack. He lowered himself to the ground and stretched out an arm at Elaine. He summoned a gust of wind energy in a funnel-shaped blast to push her back and pin her against a wall.