Made Men and Mad Men dance under the Pickle Tree

"All in all," Thomas said as he stirred the coffee with a small popsicle. "The human mind does not have free will. In fact, all human beings have is a part of their conscious that is prerecording certain choices. In other words, the choices they choose are not of free will but are of memories that are planted within the conscious." The girl across him, no more than a college freshman, looked puzzled at what he was explaining. "Take for example," Thomas said, picking up the stick and pointing at a man standing at the counter, deciding what he should get. "that man over there, he is trying to decide what coffee he wants. Will he have something new? Something the same? In fact, he will have what suits him." The woman looked back, watching the man as he decided on a plain coffee. "See!" Thomas said, "Based on his memory he has decided." The woman huffed and shook her head. "I don't think so, he made a choice. Meaning he has free will, duh."

It was at 9:00 a.m. that a bus was taken hostage by masked men. They were wearing smiling faces and had armor and weapons that were used by SWAT teams. The men held 18 civilians hostage. 10 were adults, 3 were kids, 4 were elderly, and 1 was a bus driver. By "was" means that he was killed by one of the masked men who wanted to stay the bus. The police surrounded the bus at 9:15 a.m. Later on a store was being robbed. 2 hostages, both elderly. The men were reported to wear masks that smiled and had the same wepondry as the men on the bus. Then there was a man on the 30th floor of a sky scraper ledge, about to jump. This man wore a business suit and didn't wear a mask but was an agent for these masked men. These crimes were spread throughout the corners of the city and the police force were spread thin. Then the next crime. A masked man wearing a suit, unarmed, massacred a coffee shop.

"As I had said before," Otac said, crushing the life out of the girl. "There is no free will. The crimes I have done in this city are because of my torments. This is the reason why my men do the same thing, because they were tormented. And a few surgical procedures." He blasted the shop around him with a mental blast, sending the bodies flying with debri. He walked out of the cloud dust that he created and stood in the middle of the street. "Come come, dance with me under the Pickle Tree." He said as he pushed and tossed cars away from him. He blasted a cop car away from him, tossing it towards a crowd of people.

Mid morning that day John Capore had been shopping at a store when he saw a news report about a hostage situation on a bus.He was trying to decide what course of action to take when 5 armed men wearing masks entered the store.Sensing danger he quickly ducked out of sight.
"Hands where I can see them."Stated 1 of the masked men.The elderly store clerk and long time customer did as told out of fear.2 of the masked men gathered the 2 elderly people together and held them at gunpoint.2 more stood by the door arms at the ready.The 5th masked man went back to the storage closet where John followed him unnoticed by the others.John snuck in while he was closing the door so that he never noticed him.John quickly knocked the masked man out then proceeded to change into his superhero costume.
"Better be more prepared."John said to himself quietly.He then removed the unconscience man's armor and mask and put them on as a disguise then left the storage closet.
1 of the masked men holding the hostages asked him as he approached"Did you place the bomb?"
John nodded then once the masked man turned away he struck both of them at once taking them out.The 2 guarding the door noticed this and aimed their rifles as the 2 hostages ducked for cover.Before they could fire however John blasted them both knocking them out.Forcewave quickly ran outside and got away from the police there as they were coming in.

It was just her luck that the engrossing show had to be cut short by some news bulletin; something about a string of crimes plaguing the city of New York. That, sadly, was extraordinarily common; a lot of crimes being committed, that was. What was odd, however, was what the reports were saying; nearly all of them involved men with some sort of mask on, masks with smiling faces on them. Extremely odd...especially since one of the cases, a man who seemed just about ready to jump off the ledge of a building, didn't seem to involve any sort of mask at all. That didn't mean anything to her, however; he obviously had to be connected in some way, shape, or form, otherwise the TV would not have mentioned him along with all the other things going on right then. What did the news outlets know that they weren't sharing, though? She thought about that and decided that, right then, it wasn't really important at all to wonder about that; she could always figure that out later. Right then, the most important thing to do was to figure out just what she should do about it. On one hand, it seemed pretty serious; if she helped in any way when it came to stopping it, that might get her recognized in the city while she was in her costume. She did not want to be recognized, mostly because that invited villains to come after you, or heroes, or even other renegades; people like her could easily tick off all three groups with ease, just by how she acted. So, after a moment or two of thought, she made up her indecisive mind and got up, heading towards the bedroom. She came out moments later dressed in her usual gear; black cloak, black long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black everything really.

Even the goggles strapped around her face were black, or at least, the straps of them and such were; the goggle lenses themselves were like glass. Even the ninja garb around her head was black, even though it was typically dark blue when ninjas were wearing them. As she passed by the TV on the way to a conveniently open window, she caught a glimpse of some hero doing something about the situation at the store; that was good. She didn't hesitate a moment longer, and she was soon off; it was tiring, running along the rooftops, but her speed helped her do it quickly. It wasn't too long before she reached a rooftop overlooking the bus, now surrounded by a large group of police officers. She watched the bus carefully, while at the same time fully embracing her senses. She could hear some of the men talking, maybe 2 or 3; the report on the TV had mentioned not knowing how many there were, but that was probably a lie just to get people more interested in the story. That was when her enhanced sight saw a pair of boots, or shoes, just barely visible, inside of the bus, standing in the aisle; surely they wouldn't have their prisoners be doing that, so she counted them as two of the masked men, especially since she had determined the ones talking were not right by the two men who owned the boots/shoes she saw.

"Alright then. A little tricky, but nothing I can't handle." she told herself, committing the locations she thought the men were at to memory before she got off the rooftop, just out of sight from the cops. She took a large breath, and the next instant she was running with all the speed she could muster; before they could stop her, she had broken the perimeter of the cops and arrived at the door to the bus. She had timed her arrival perfectly; the two near the front of the bus were not paying attention to the door right then, which she had ascertained while she ran towards the door. A few bullets later and the glass was out, easily allowing her access. Obviously, that alerted the two men near the front, and indeed everyone in the bus. She had her two pistols drawn already as she ascended up the steps; four of the men had their guns pointed at hostages, and she couldn't see the fifth. She saw one just about to open his mouth, and as he did so, she pointed one gun at his head and fired. Quickly, much too fast for a normal human, she fired with her second gun at one of the other men. Two more shots were fired then, with the result being that the men dropped like flies before they could shoot their hostages. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dakka turned and was about to ask one of the hostages, the only child to be held at gunpoint just now, if she was okay before the sound of a bullet whizzed through the air. She let her instincts guide her as she dropped to the ground, spun around as she fell, and fired in the direction of the noise with both her guns; they dug themselves inside the man, one being absorbed by the bulletproof vest he wore while the other found its mark in his head, at the same time the bullet skimmed right above her right shoulder, injuring it just a bit in the process as it went. She had gotten a bit injured, but the people in the bus were safe.

Otac laughed as he watched the car near the crowd, the screaming like an orchestra. He held his arms out and laughed harder but his laughter ceased as he got a call. The car stopped in mid air with a thought and he reached into his coat pocket. He took out a smart phone and answered it. "Yes?" He asked as he looked at the crowd of people, their faces priceless. He jumped as he heard the news about his robberies. "What?!" He asked as he turned away, the car falling as he focused on his bad news. A man in the Empire state building looking out of a window was watching the action ensue with his binoculars. "The men at the store and the bus were neutralized by supers. Not sure about the man on the ledge though." He picked up the sniper scope and aimed down the scope, the cellphone still in his ear. He whispered. "I can take the woman out from here just give me the-"

"No, I will do this myself." Otac said as he hung up. He walked to the area where the bus heist was. As soon as he arrived, the glass on the buildings surrounding the buss heist were shattered, crashing down on the ground. Otac had his back arched, his fists closed, anger rising. He held his hand up, the bus lifting from where it was. He shifted and tilted the buss so it was facing him and held his other hand out. He wagged his finger and said. "No superhero will ruin my plans." He said, hiding a secret from her. He tossed the bus aside like it was paper, the buss tumbling down the street.

Jason and Lilian were hiding in an alley near the bus heist, and watched as two Supers dispatched Otac's gunmen. "You know.", said Lilian,"You can join the fun while it still lasting.", she said. "Why? It looks like everything is undercontrol from here.", Jason said at the same time as the bus is tossed aside and landed near the alley they were hiding in. "Okay, nevermind.", Jason said as his exo-skeleton appear and readied for battle,"Go up in the fire escape and get a away from here.", Jason ordered. "Yeah, sure.", Lilian said,"I've been waiting to see Retaliate on T.V. for a while.", she said as she went up the fire escape.

As Jason watched Lilian leaved, he walked out of the alley to gain the attention of the guy that tossed the bus. 'Okay, I think I can give the other guys enough time to get the passengers out while I buy them some time.', Jason thoughted as he formed spikes on his forearms to really get Otac's attention as he walks towards him.

After the incident at the store and barely gotten away from the police, Forcewave took a quick moment to decide what course of action to take next.He checked his watch real quick."Well I got plenty of time.Might as well see what I can do about either of those other incidents.The one on the bus seems like a greater priority.Probably the only one I can do anything about."As he headed towards the bus old memories came to mind brought up by the thought of a suicidal.

It wasn't hard to figure out where he was going.He heard the commotion from blocks away.He spotted a man standing in the middle of the street and knew instantly he was the one responsible.

Great...it seemed like the guy behind everything had the ability to just move things around with his mind; that wasn't really something that she was relishing fighting against, especially by herself. Most importantly, however, was the fact that she was currently tumbling through the air, just the same as the bus was. It was difficult, extremely difficult, to maneuver while in the air like that, especially when in the air in the bus; she got banged up a lot during the process, though not too badly; again, it wasn't as if her reaction time was dreadful at all. The bus eventually landed near some sort of alley, and ignoring the protest her muscles gave as she did so, Dakka stood back up.

Being tossed about was not healthy for the 12 year old's health; then again, doing stuff like what she was doing right then wasn't either. She glanced around at the normal people and was glad to see that most of them hadn't gotten extremely injured; a lot were already fleeing the bus, wanting to get away from it as soon as possible. Dakka noticed that one of the kids seemed to have gotten injured and, as much as she wanted to rush back into the fight, she couldn't; her nicer side seemed to show itself whenever it came to other kids. Dakka was thus compelled to help the other girl out of the bus, and she watched as the girl went to join her parents; with that done, Dakka turned towards the action.

"Telekinesis! That's almost like cheating when it comes to a fight!" Dakka complained, though mostly to herself; she was too far from the others now on the scene for them to hear her. Interesting that two others would show up right when she needed help; if the man just standing there looking angry was the source of this, it meant that she alone wouldn't have been a threat to him. He could probably stop bullets with a single thought, unless he was surprised by them, or there were too many.

"Yo, Spike! Bad guy's over there." she called out to the man with spikes on his arm while pointing at Otac with both of her guns; the man probably didn't need the info, but any little distraction towards the villain was helpful. With the obvious stated, Dakka opened fire on Otac, making sure not to hit the other two who seemed to be on her side, at least when it came to stopping the villain.

Jason was still walking towards Otac when a young girl calling out to him and warning him. Jason paid no mind to her, until his danger sense kick in as a barrage of bullets sore through the air, some of which has slightly grazed him but were deflected by his armor, but were targeted at Otac by the girl. Jason took the chance to picked up an empty Honda Civic and threw it at Otac as a distraction, and charged at him. 'Okay, when he's tries to destroy the car in mid-air, I'll burst through the car and get him off guard by surprise.', Jason thoughted as he enlarged the spikes on his arms to help slice through the car.

He grinned under his grin mask as he watched the girl escape the bus. 'Good,' he thought as he took out a pen and held it up, a light flash coming from the pin touching the light. He put the pen away and straightened his jacket, placing his hands in his pocket. He thus began to examine the area. Civilian population was either on the sidewalks, in the buildings, or have already evacuated the area. The other hero, Spike as the girl called out, he had already noticed him walking by. He processed all the possibilities that could happen and selected the accurate ones in which would either give him victory or escape. All he needed to do, though, was distract them long enough for the other plan.

He watched the bullets project towards him but didn't move an inch. The bullets slowed down as they approached him and floated in mid air. The bullets turned around and charged back to their source, the girl. He heard the car thrown at him. The car stopped in mid air and was torn in half but he didn't expect the hero to go through the car. A bullet charged by and hit the hero in the foot, the force enough to push the hero sideways and past Otac. He looked behind him, towards a sky scraper, his sniper sitting on the 30th floor now. The sniper looked out of his scope and held his thumb up, showing that he had his boss's back. Otac took out his pen again and shown it in the light. The sniper picked up his rifle and left his post as ordered.

He had been watching as the girl who emerged from the bus fired several shots and the boy with spikes threw a car and attacked from behind it only to be repelled by the man whom he knew to be evil.It was the 2 emissions of light that plagued his mind.He couldn't tell where they came from but they certainly made him alert and suspicious.The moment he saw the 2nd light he fired one of his blasts at full power at him.

Telekinesis. Yes, it was really, really unfair, especially for people like her who relied on projectiles to do any real damage. Now that she thought about it, telekinesis was about the cheapest power anyone could have. They could stop attacks with their mind, even physical attacks, launch attacks towards people, and generally just do a lot of freaky stuff with their minds. Granted, supers in general were pretty freaky, but still. She frowned as she looked at the man; what was she to do? Could he stop something that he was unaware of? That was when the man pulled out some strange device and she saw a light come from it. Just a little later, her bullets were returning to her; all things considered, they were easy to dodge, mostly because she guessed they would be coming back once he stopped them.

Then another thing happened; she heard a bullet whizzing through the air, and it didn't come from the direction of any of the other three supers she could see right then. That meant that someone was helping this man, the villain, or at least she guessed that based on how the bullet had been aimed at Spike. It certainly gave her an idea; yes, long-range would be best against him, to better surprise him. It was a shame that sniper rifles were very difficult for her to handle, because she would really like one right then; if she went very far away and fired a bullet from one of those at the telekinetic man...well then, she doubted he would be able to stop it. Not unless he had some sort of precognition ability as well, or if the bullet was coming from the front. She assessed the situation; the two other people on the scene seemed to be faring well against the man so far, so that left one course of action.

She had to try and hit him from behind. She moved quickly, more quickly than an ordinary person would be able to move, and expanded all her effort on maneuvering around the villain, to get behind him; it wasn't that difficult to do so. Just by avoiding lashing out at him, she tried her best to make sure he kept his attention on Spike and the other guy. Once she was behind him, she again let loose with her bullets, sending them flying towards him again, this time from behind. Would it work? Hopefully it would. Even if it didn't, it was still a better plan than just firing straight at him.

Jason was about to attack Otac until something hit his feet and knocked him sideways from him and missed the villain. "Great, the guy have a freaking sniper.", Jason thought as he picked up the bullet that hit his leg. Jason than slightly noticed the girl with the guns secretly moving behind Otac. Jason took this chance again to attack Otac. Jason formed blades on both of his forearms,"Lets see if your friend help you this time!, Jason yelled as he charged at Otac from the side.

Otac looked around, placing his hand on his chin. 'Oh dear, seems like I'm in a pickle.' He thought as knelt down for a moment. He lifted his hand up and slammed his palm into the concrete, a mental area blast shaking the ground for a moment and then spreading all around him. The concrete broke underneath him, lifting several pieces with thought, and using these giant pieces as shields. He launched several towards the female hero while launching one big one towards the armored suit one in mid charge. However, the blast had hit his rock shield and sent him flying towards a building, a mental blast recovering him for the moment. "That was close. Have any of you tried to use something environmental. That could be fun, right?" He asked as he scratched his chin under his mask.

After having fired Forcewave slowly walked towards the bad guy responsible for all this.It had sent the guy flying backwards but he stopped himself in mid-air.He looked up at the building and saw where the shots had come from.His attacks on the girl seemed to have buried her under wreckage.The armored guy seemed safe however.
Forcewave walked ever so closer to him while keeping watch on both him and his cohort positioned high up the building.He couldn't decide which to attack first.Considering that he was the only one of the heroes present who could launch any sort of counter attack against the sniper he decided that that would be his target and launched attack at him then came to a stop exactly 138 feet from the villain himself.He looked over at the armored hero trying to figure out what he might do next.Not knowing what course of action the guy might take he decided to go ahead and take one of his own.He fired another attack at the guy aiming to defeat him here and now.

"Oh, crap!", Jason yelled as the villain lifted a large piece of rock and slammed it into Jason which caused him to trip and partially buried by the rubbel. Jason saw the villain laying near a building began to crawl out of the mound until he saw the man that sent an attack at the villain and launched another attack at him. This encouraged Jason to get out of the mound and began moving toward where the girl he was and began digging through the wreckage in search for her, but found out that she had disappear from the fight during the attack on the villain, "Well at least you get to live longer.", Jason said as he turned to his 'ally' and prepared to back him up when the villains get backs up.