The Rise of a Legend: Delta Squad (Illya Vanko, Sim, John Capore, Grayson Cole)

Illya sat in huddled in her cover, attempting to contain that power that was clawing its way through her mental barriers, screaming for Illya to let them out to further protect her from any potential harm. Necrodium's Blessing, as what Illya called her powers, was for some reason hellbent on protecting Illya from any kind of harm, without any regard for humans who would die in its presence. But despite how much she didn't want it to, Illya's powers began to leak more and more, eventually coming to the point that it brightened up the entire street in a blue light. Without volition, Illya's stood up and faced her attacker, her powers taking over as they desired to defend her from everything that could potentially give her harm, and this threat was an immediate one. With her powers now in control, Illya was now the one banging on the borders of her mind, trying to stop herself before she killed someone. However, Illya's feeble attempts were in vain, her arms beginning to move of their own accord, pointing towards the sniper as a torrent of Aether began to form a tornado of light around her. Defeated by her own weakness, Illya mentally fell to her knees and could only watch in dismay as she continued to beg to herself.

Please don't do this, you will destroy everything! Please stop! Please! Illya begged, trying to appeal to the sympathy of her son's final gift and curse. However, her powers weren't compassionate, they didn't care whether or not what they did was wrong. They didn't care if they destroyed lives and tortured the unworthy with its divine presence. All it cared about was its duty, it was the will of the world, and its duty was to protect the Ley Line that it was stationed to guard. At the moment, the sniper was attempted to puncture Illya's barrier, but to no avail, as the bullets merely melted before meeting her. However, the threat was still there, and despite no more harm possible, her powers could not let it go. So without even a moments hesitation, the Aether erupted into a massive flash, and only destruction came as a result. NO!

On top of his perch, the sniper couldn't determine whether or not his attacks were even working. He knew that his initial ambush had worked, but it seemed like the girl that he was firing at was somehow defending herself from the attacks that she was receiving, her body covered in some sort of pale blue light. As his shots continued, he decided that he should attempt only a few more shots before changing his position, otherwise he would be attacked by the rest of the girl's team. But as his prepared his next shot, a feeling of heat and lack of air hit him, it was as if the air had suddenly become thinner. To his surprise, through his scope the girl had suddenly stood up and actually pointed at him. Seeing this as an opportunity to take his final shot, the sniper took aim. The next instant, his eyes were repelled by a blinding light, and next he couldn't help but feel cold. The intense heat of Illya's Aether was hot enough to eat away the man's nerves before he could even begin feeling it. After the final third instant, not even over the course of a second, an explosion took the entire building, causing it to burst from Illya's combined might. As the building crumbled, any sort of debris that would have hit Illya merely melted as it approached her Aether barrier. Inside Illya knew that the man deserved his death, but it didn't stop her from feeling bad about it, and for all she knew, she could have attacked someone else. But in the lightest side, Illya could try and contain herself now that the danger had passed. But as she attempted to regain control, her powers held a firm grip, and to Illya's surprise, she began moving to another location.

No no no no no no no no!

Sim used her power to cauterize her wound and keep her from losing any more blood. She would have to get help in retrieving the bullet. Shame washed over her as she thought of one of her teammates seeing her scarred back. It wasn't a priority right now though. She had to get somewhere safer than against the side of a building. She hoped her teammates would do their part in covering her and the child. As she neared the top of the building, one of her teammates did take care of the danger immediately at hand, but in a fashion that was more horrifying than revealing her mutilation to a teammate. An entire building crumbled to the ground at the hands of Illya's raw power. To someone like Sim, who was sensitive to magic, to have it in such a raw form was like an assault on her senses. "No!" She instinctively cried out as the building crumbled. This mission seemed to be falling apart like the building. She had already let at least one person die. What the hell was a pacifist doing taking charge of a combat mission? She quickly scrambled up the building and sprinted to Forcewave. The bullet in her back was painful, but she had endured much worse pain. She acted like nothing was wrong, hopefully her comrade wouldn't even notice. "You said you had energy powers, so I'm putting you in charge of the infant. Taking out snipers is your secondary priority, protect the child at all costs." She didn't wait for any reply or portest as she quickly turned. Luckily, in the dim light, the blood stained into her black clothing didn't show much. "I have to help Illya." Was all she said as she jumped over the lip of the building's roof back down the fire escape. "

"Penny, you're currently our only free man." She said over the communicator. "Find and take out as many snipers as you can, as quickly as you can. Do whatever you have to do. I'd say stealth went out the window when a building got blown up." She made her way down the fire escape, much quicker without having to carry the baby, and ran back to Illya. She stood a short distance away, just out of range of the dangerous aether surrounding her. Standing so close to it, it was akin to a flash of light to sight, or a deafening roar to hearing. Blue lightning crackled around Sim. She was the only other magicly inclined member, so it fell on her to try to help Illya get her powers under control. That was how she justified it anyway, the truth is she just didn't want to see anyone else die and her own safety wasn't a concern. Of course, Sim wasn't actually sure she could do anything. She was barely a century old, her powers weren't developed. They may be more intricate, but there was no way she could cancel her out with raw power. She didn't think she could convert it to anything harmless either, Sim could change the nature of elements, but this wasn't a natural part of the world. This was pure magic, and it denied Sim control of it. Sim had no idea what she could do, but she would try something. She yelled out at Illya as the blue lighting around her grew in intensity. At least she could make herself seem capable. "Illya, stop! You've got to get a hold of your self!" She walked slowly towards the girl, trying to still the voice in her that quietly wondered if she would never see her home again. "Be strong now. No one else has to die today. We can protect everyone. I need your help."

Grayson was waiting for a response when suddenly there was a explosion that shook the building. "The Hell was that?", Grayson said to himself when the tremor finally stops. His attention was drawn back to his communicator where Sim began giving him orders and filling him in on what happened just earlier, "Wait, how did a building got-?", Grayson was interrupted when a bullet had just barely passed his head through a now broken window. Grayson instinctively took cover inside a work closet to avoid any more bullets that might hit him. He stayed in there for about ten seconds before running out of the closet and ran back to the area where he first took out the sniper he was assigned to while avoiding bullets that was very close on it's mark.

Once he got the area, he quickly went towards the office that he hid the sniper's equipment and shut the door. He went inside the office and found the rifle and the other equipments of the sniper. Grayson was slowly moving towards the equipments when he notice a small black device with it's lights blinking on and off. Picking up the device, Grayson discovered that it was a communication device and hesitantly turn it on to see what message was on it, "-mies in south base. I repeat, enemies in south base.", a broadcast was being sent out to every sniper at each base. Grayson grumbled to himself at the message as now all the snipers will be expecting him now when he have to deal with them. Grayson began thinking a way to get out of the bank while avoiding the snipers that could kill him at any moment. He can't just shrink and ran all the way to the first floor because his speed is greatly hindered and will took much of his time. He continue to pondered until he noticed something on the only desk in the office. Walking up to it, Grayson reached out and grabbed the paper crane that was sitting on the desk next to a family picture. He look intensly at the crane when a horrible idea came into his mind. 'I am such an idiot.', Grayson thoughted to himself as he walked towards a filing cabinet and pulled out a sheet of paper from confidential information on it. Grayson ignored the information and began folding it into a paper air-plane. With the plane in his hand, Grayson turned to the door that was across the window where the sniper was shooting at him from and took in a deep breath as he rushed through the door. A bullet had just whizzed past him that could have killed him in an instant, but it left the window across the door shattered into pieces which gave Grayson a very small relief as he jumped through the window with the paper air-plane in between his thumb and index finger in both hands. With him out of the window, Grayson shrank to his maximum size and cling onto the air-plane to dear life with his heart racing as if it was about to explode with his eyes shut close when the plane has finally picked up on the air current and began gliding past Sim and Illya. Grayson slowly began opening his eyes when he didn't hit the ground yet and could now see a blinding light radiating from Illya with Sim trying to talk to her. 'Did Illya cause the explosion?', Grayson thoughted to himself when the air-plane has finally lost altitude and began slowing down while the bottom is being scraped along the asphalt road. He got off of the plane and grew back to his normal size. At first his attention was drawn towards Illya and Sim and was about to go up to them until he remembered why he jumped out of the third floor, 'I'm sure Sim can handle Illya by herself.', Grayson thoughted to himself as he began running across the streets to get to the other snipers locations.

Forcewave had been protecting Sim from any possible attack on her while she was busy concentrating on protecting the young infant that they had found in the streets of this city.The baby used by the sniper to try and lure them out into position for him to kill.At least that had failed.None of them had died.Yet anyways.Who knows what may happen next.As he was doing this there was a mighty explosion that could be heard nearby.It seems that Illya had finally acted.There goes the secrecy.This mission was starting to seem impossible to accomplish.Not a good showing for their first efforts.

Sim had finally managed to get back in through the window and into the building.They were in no immediate danger now.That was certainly better than nothing."This isn't working.We need a change of plan." he said to her.At that moment in time she handed the infant over to him so he could take care of it.He supposed he was probably best for doing so he thought as he took the poor baby from her.Still he had little experience when it came to infants.This was the first time he had ever held one in his arms before in his life.And of all things he would have to protect the youngster and himself from threats that could come from anywhere.Those are snipers for you.

Now knowing what to do next he decided to do just that.After sim left he brought forth his power to form a barrier around himself and the infant to protect them both from any incoming bullets that may be fired upon them.He figured that by this point in time those terrorists had found out their exact location and would be converging on them at any moment.He was planning on leaving this bank to find somewhere to else but was worried about the risk of being out in the open.Even with the barrier around them it was still quite the risk.

Trapped inside the reserves of her own mind, Illya could do nothing to stop herself from destroying everything around her with simple displays of her power. The streets were filled with utter destruction as Illya walked past, ripping apart the streets and buildings with vines and searing hot air. It was only a matter of time before she would destroy the entire area by simply being there. Looking left and right, Illya could watch as her body was attempting to find the rest of the snipers, who were all now aware of both her power, and her lack of discretion when it came to executing them. Deep within, Illya was banging on the walls of her mind, trying to stop herself from killing more than she already was. If she didn't find a way to end it soon, she could destroy the homes of hundreds of people.

Please stop... the danger's over! I'm safe now! Please stop!!

But despite her efforts, Illya's body did not stop, continuing to search for those who were apart of her initial attacker's group. Each one of those men was a danger to her, and so long as the danger was still within the area, there was still a risk that she could be harmed. As such, Illya's powers would not allow her to return to her normal mindset. Illya was an important component to the world, and as such, it couldn't allow her to come to harm. Even in normal civil situations, Illya's powers would manifest itself in a violent or desperate manner. Now that she was actually hurt by something, Illya's powers were unleashing themselves onto the surrounding area. If the danger didn't leave, it would potentially trap her inside indefinitely.

With her imminent mass murder, Illya was suddenly confronted by Sim, the only one brave enough to face Illya head on. But as Illya watched, she knew that her body didn't even consider Sim a threat. Her instincts told her that Sim was too kind to hurt her, and even if she did attempt, her power wasn't enough to defeat Illya, who could kill a normal human just by being in their presence. With a force of her will, Illya managed to squeeze out her voice enough so that Sim could hear her, the pain and sadness caused tears to flow from Illya's emotionless face, being unable to do anything to stop her new teammate's imminent death.

"Please... run... I can't stop it!" Illya begged, her voice reaching out to Sim, not coming from her lips, but from her very soul. Illya hoped and pleaded within herself that Sim would listen to her. There was enough blood on her hands, if an innocent such as Sim were to die as well, it would crush her. But "It will kill you too, just let it go... I'm sorry, I can't do anything..."

But as Sim stood there trying to converse and talk sense into Illya, Illya watched as her arm raised up. At first nothing happened, but soon the aether began to form into a ball in the middle of her palm. As it continued to grow, Illya's physical body showed no emotion other than the obvious intent of complete annihilation. Inside Illya couldn't even bare talking, it was clear that her powers were now seeing Sim as a threat too. Without a word said, the aether suddenly erupted from the ball into a massive wave of glowing air, breaking away the earth and burning away the very air itself.

NOOOO!!!