Out of luck and out of time

"Today the CEO of the Claret research and Development Institute, Connor Rose Claret, was outed by an unknown source as the vigilante Red. An order was given for all operations within the CRDI head quarters to be shut down immediately and assets seized. The vigilante has been recorded being the leader of a team who have killed metahuman villians as well as cost millions in collateral damage. Red first surfaced in the city of..."

Connor waved his hand and the holographic screen disappeared from above his desk as he rested his elbows on its surface holding his head in despair. "Everything about me, you and Noah has been leaked all over the internet. Any and everything we have ever done. What I have done."

"damn it." Nicole cursed out loud, stuffing her cell phone in her pocket. "they arrested Hix, he's a god damn war hero and almost lost his life for these damn people!" Crossing her arms she leaned against a wall and gnashed her teeth in anger. "They even knew about AIVAS, the invasion of privacy charges we'll get will be phenomenal but that is the least of our issues. Every gangster, war monger, monster and villian we've ever crossed paths with are going to come and kill us."

Opening a drawer, Connor pulled out two files and tossed them onto the desk. "Inside you'll find new identities, over seas bank accounts and reliable allies that will help you start over. Grab Noah and get the hell out of here."

"And what the hell will you do? Go down with the ship?" Nicole walked furiously to the table and slammed her hand on top of the documents in anger. "We're in this together. Partners. Remember? Our terms, OUR rules. What ever it takes to save the people."

"I started this, when my family and their friends were murdered because they believed in a peaceful future lead by technology, art, and innovation. It started with me and will end with me. Please go, i don't want any more of my families blood on my hand." Connor stood up and pulled his equip out of his pocket. He then peered out the window as the sun began to set behind Chicago's buildings. In the glass was his reflection which was soon joined by Nicole approaching from behind.

"Damn it." She exclaimed, "You don't get to do that. Take us in when we were at our lowest, turn us from vengeance and direct our rage into something productive, something GOOD."

The door to the office opened and in walked Noah, "William finished deactivating AIVAS but we left the security network up. The police will be coming soon to get us." Noah spotted the folders on the table and knew what they were for immediately.

"Connor, i'd be a dead man if it wasn't for you. Elizabeth would have become a weapon of mass destruction and the world would probably be a whole lot worse. I owe you my life and I swore i'd stand by your side." Noah paused, pulling out his equip which illuminated with a blue hue "You know i've stayed true to that. I've followed you to a whole other dimension once and battled metahumans far more powerful than me but came out on top because i had you two by my side. We are always stronger together than apart."

"We are here for you, until the end." Nicole added, pulling her equip out as well which illuminated violet.

"Thank you, my friends...no my family." Connor turned to face his comrades, his equip illuminated Red. "We need to get to the lab, its the safest place. The police are the least of our worries, the enemy will be coming for us."

"Enemy? Whose the enemy?" Noah asked, watching Connor as he started walking towards the office door. "Everybody."

While Connor was busy having his meeting, a pair of eyes watched his building from a park bench across the street. Hanging down into those eyes, was a mess of long brown hair, and hidden in them was a coldness that most humans were not capable of. These were of course the eyes of the Assassin Raikou, and they were hungry for a new job. Though this may very well be one of his last, Raikou was determined to go out with a bang. Sipping on a warm lemon tea he had picked up from a coffee shop down the road, Alex watched carefully for his targets. He had read, and reread, the dossier on these renegades, and their faces were now etched into his brain. Reaching into the pocket of his plain gray hoodie, he retrieved his cellphone, and slide the touch screen into the on position. This phone had only one number stored into it, and would be destroyed immediately after this job was over. Dialing the number, the meta held the phone to his ear. On the third ring, a deep, stern voice answered the phone.

"Qu'Est-ce que c'est?" (What is it?)

Alex paused for a moment, legitimately taken by surprise. What in gods name had Connor, or Red as he liked to call himself, done to upset the French? In his nearly four and a half years on the job, Raikou had taken on maybe two contracts with french employers. In these types of matters it was usually the Russians or Germans who wanted a CEO taken out. But the French? Well, this would be interesting.

"C'est votre dernière chance de revenir en arrière, êtes-vous sûr que vous voulez que je passe par ce problème?" (This is your last chance to back out, are you sure you want me to go through with this?)

Raikou asked, pulling off his French flawlessly. Being so like Italian, Raikou had fallen easily into the language, and absorbed it like a sponge.

"Faites-le." (Do it.)

After that, there was a click, and the other end of the line went dead. Satisfied with that, Alex discharged a small amount of electrical energy into the phone. Enough to send sparks flying, and completely eradicate whatever information was stored on it, but not enough to draw a massive amount of attention to himself. Now was his least favorite part, the waiting game.

It seemed, however, there was someone watching over him. Not only did his targets exit moments after hanging up the phone, but they all exited together, in one group. It was if they wanted to be picked off. It didn't concern Raikou, however, if they lacked the common sense to fear for their lives. It just made his paycheck that much easier to cash. Pointing his index finger at the group, and raising his thumb as if using it like a sight on the gun, he paused on the group momentarily.

"Au revoir, au diable la foudre" (Goodbye, from the lightning devil)

He muttered to himself, before firing off a large mass of lightning at the group. From his finger he had released enough power to easily level a building, aiming it right at the group. There would be causalities for sure, but, he did want to go out with a bang.

Windows shattered, metal beams super heated to molten levels ruining their integrity, and innocent people were fried. In only a few minutes CRDI became a practically condemned. Connor head spun as he opened his eyes to look at the disaster which was once his office. It was obvious that they were the targets. He spotted Noah also recovering, and saw that somebody had deployed a bubble shield. His heart sank when he looked to to find Violet standing outside the bubble, frozen in her last position which was that of a pushing movement. She had pushed the two away while deploying a bubble shield for them, giving the shield just enough time to engage and protect the two from the blast. Her clothes, body and hair were all now a ashy grey as a sudden gust of wind from the outside caused her to collapse into nothingness. The only thing remaining was the power source to her equip, glowing violet on the ground where Nicole once stood.

"No!" Connor called out, tears welling up in his eyes as he slammed his fist against the ground. A white light engulfing his body as his suit equipped itself on him and he fastened the device on his belt. "Get up NOW!" He called out in anger, as Noah shook off the shock and came to the same realization as Connor. Tapping the equip, Noah was engulfed in light as well and when it went out he was within his suit.

The magnitude of that attack was grand, unlike anything Connor had ever encountered. It was a miracle the bubble shield held up like it did. 'The trajectory of the attack.' Connor charged into what remained of his office, burning marks indicating a general reference to where the blast came from and his HUD calculated a more precise location. Tapping the equip again as he jumped out the window, he had the 'Guilty Light'. Its barrel rapidly heated as he prepared to discharge a pin-point laser beam at his target, Raikou. Everyone was running from him, and he wasn't running. "Damn you!"
Releasing the trigger, the laser shot out from the canon directly at Raikou. Behind Red was blue, in his hand a bubble shield device prepared for the counter. No plan, no care in the world, just one thing on their minds. Revenge.

Raikou smirked, continuing to sit contently on his bench. He sipped from his drink as he watched the scene unfold in front of him, a small laugh emanating from the back of his throat. He really would miss big, flashy jobs like this, but the thing pulling him out of the work was much better. At least in his eyes, that is. He was, however, less than pleased when he saw two of them were still alive, and one of them looked very, very angry.

"Aw, did I kill her? Did you like her?"

Raikou called out with a giant laugh. Crossing one leg over the other in an incredibly relaxed pose, he watched as the man in red, who was apparently named Connors, pulled out a very impressive looking gun. However, this gun was nothing special to Raikou, the man who had the moniker 'The Lightning Devil'. Setting his drink down, and turning his neck to the side to crack it, he watches with mild enthusiasm as the gun was charging up, and headed right for him. With the cockiest grin on his face, he snapped his fingers, creating a small ball of highly condensed lightning right in front of himself, in the path of the beam. The lightning would meet the beam, and send off a giant shockwave of lightning around the area near Raikou, which the devil would absorb, using the large bright explosion as a distraction, to shoot off a wall of lightning towards the two remaining heroes.

'He is powerful' Noah thought to himself, blocking the Guilty lights beam with a ball of lightning which sent out a shock wave which knocked the heroes down to the ground hard. Recovering as quickly as possible, Noah saw the wall of electricity heading towards them. He quickly activated the bubble shield he had in hand  which covered both him and Connor who was just getting his own bearings. When the wall collided with the shield sparks flew and energy split until the device malfunctioned.

'We can't win this.' Blue thought as the shield popped, holding just long enough to guard the two heroes from the blast. "Red, think of something fast I'll hold him!" Noah used his powers and pushed a large pile of debris at the assassin.

Meanwhile, Red shook off shock wave he took the brunt of. The Guilty light was to slow to be used effectively against their attacker, who ever he was. Over his intercom Red tried to make contact with William. "Bill, are you in the lab. Bill. Did the H-1 survive the attack. Bill?" There was no answer, unbeknownst to Connor the floor above the lab collapsed killing William as well as incapacitating the H-1.

'The fire hydrants...maybe we can short out his powers.' Connor tapped his equip and in his hand appeared his shock katana, he then started running towards the nearest hydrant, which Noah took notice too as he tried to distract the man by throwing debri at him.

"You pest are really starting to get on my nerves."

Alex said as he stood from his bench, clearly aggravated at how long these two were taking to die. Cracking his neck one more time, he pushed off hard with his feet, leaving sparks where he had once been. Quickly reaching his top speed of twenty-five miles per hour, he made a b-line right for the meta in blue who had been throwing objects at him. Sliding under the first debris, and blowing up the second one with a powerful blast of lightning, incinerating the rubble to near nothingness, Raikou got cocky and took a third rock to his left shoulder, possibly dislocating it, and causing him to spin while moving, disorienting and causing him to take another one to the chest.

Laughing as he picked himself up, he let out a devilish roar, coating himself in a thick coat of lighting 'armor, allowing him to close the rest of the gap between himself and the meta with no incident. Flicking his right hand down towards the ground, he created a large blade of lightning, which he used to slash at the man in blue, though, cutting him with it wasn't his real goal. Sure the man would be able to dodge such an obvious attack, as soon as the blade came near him, Raikou would 'explode' it, sending large shards of lightning in every direction.

The man let our a thunderous roar as his entire body was engulfed by his lightning, and then in his hands he formed a sword of lightning. Noah knew the man could shock and explode what ever he formed, that much he gathered and the assassin wouldn't even be phased. His speed was tremendous as well, he wouldn't be able to out run him. In the corner of his eye sight he could see that Connor was set but that was only part of the plan they were trying to formulate without words.

Noah dodged to the left, using all his power to force push the guy towards the hydrant which Connor had cleared and was ready to set off the charges he placed. if they could short out this guys powers he would be nothing., but until then he was a menace to their survival.

Force. A large amount of force was what Raikou felt as he was about to explode his blade of lightning, sending the blast in the wrong direction of the meta, causing even more damage to what remained of the corporate building. Grunting as his body was flung, and hit the ground rolling, ending up near the red meta, and...a fire hydrant? Raikou just laughs as the fire hydrant blows, sending large amounts of water all over, soaking the battle field and the combatants in water.

Standing to his full height, and laughing uncontrollably, Raikou stares right at the red meta, cocking his head to the side. Lightning crackles over his body, sending sparks everywhere, causing small electrical discharges to happen in the water surrounding him. It was very clear this plan had not worked how the had planned.

"It was a cute idea, really. Trying to douse my powers with water. Were you hoping to short me out maybe? Well, let me tell you something, my abilities have long since surpassed that range of power. I'm not some pyrokinetic who fears water. I embrace it, I use it to my advantage. And you just made the last mistake you ever will."

In a flash, a large amount of lightning begins to discharge from the brown haired meta, sending sparks and large electrical currents through the water, and even into the water exhaling from the hydrant, making it literally rain lightning.

Just as the brown haired assailant began charging the water with electricity Connor was thrown away out of the reach and landed on the hood of a car. Noah had taken action, quickly moving in to save his friend and mentor by using his power to push Red out of danger.  Wincing, he prepared himself as the electricity began to surge threw his body burning his skin, his healing factor attempting to keep up but barely keeping up. Noahs suit disintegrated as he mustered all his strength. If he focused enough he could survive, maybe, but if he could channel just one attack at the assassin then maybe he could kill him or at least mess him up enough for Connor to finish the job. With one final breath he let out all his force ability at the attacker.

The roads split, windows all around shattered, and debris of all shapes and sizes blew away from Noah in the direction of the attacker. Noahs final thoughts returned to when life was better, when Elizabeth was alive and they were just hopelessly in love. His mind trailing off to all the things left unfinished, the vampire samurai with an undead army, some evil corporation attempting to develop mass production of meta-humans, and of course the assassin who was killing him. The scale of what they had tried taking on had dawned on him that second, the weight of that responsibility and how he could have done more to help the world if he had only trained a little harder, been a little bit more prepared. Elizabeth gave him a second chance at life, and he had missed the opportunity. Hopefully, Noah thought, that his death would mean Connors survival and that he would over come what has happened and finish what was started. Finish the fight. With that, blackness overcame Noahs mind and his body fell limp, a smoldering black carcass which fell to the broken streets of Chicago.

Recovering from the sudden toss, Connor could only watch as his friend unleashed one final move against the Assassin in order to stop save him. Sliding off the hood of the car, he dropped to his knees, katana still in hand. It was the Black Out all over again. Good people being killed trying to do good things and yet again just as before Connor was helpless to stop it. His family died before and his new family just died in front of him. Was his death in vain? Was the assassin defeated? Red looked to see what the assassins fate was.

Raikou never stopped channeling, he watched as the man's body began to decompose, and his skin became a dark, black, charred mess. Raikou smiled large as the items he had tossed at him simply incinerated in the barrage of lightning that was hailing down on all of them, a deep maniacal laughter escaping his throat. Just as quickly as the barrage had started, it was over, the man laid dead at his feet. For some reason, Alex didn't get the same satisfaction that he usually did. Shrugging, he turned on his heels, and began walking towards Connors.

His walk was slow, methodical, taunting. His footsteps seemed to crackle and spark as he walked across the watery surface, lightning and electricity following his every step. His face was no longer one of enjoyment, it was a stoic face of pity as he looked at the Renegade who called himself Red. Sighing apathetically, he gathered a large amount of electricity in both of his hands while he looked into the 'eyes' of the man who was his target.

"Ya'know, this isn't as much fun as I thought it would be." The meta admitted out loud to Red. "I won't go into detail, but, I don't get the same joy I use to get from my work ya'know, and that's all this was, business."

Taking a few more steps, Alex stops, taking another hard look at Connors before cocking his head to the side in slight confusion. Not confusion at anything Connors had done, but confusion at his own thoughts.

"I'm going to do something very out of character here, I'm going to show you a sign of mercy. And no, not to hurt your pride, but because someone special to me doesn't want me to live this way, I'm sure you can understand that."

Was he being merciful, yes. Was he being considerate and not making jokes about the guys two friends he had just incinerated? Well, he was merciful, not pleasant to be around.

"I'm going to walk away now, I'm going to let you live. I'm going to let you fester your hate, and train your skills, become powerful enough to one day kill me. Or, you can come at me, and I can blast you away without hesitation. The choice is yours, Connors."

'mercy?' Connor thought to himself, broken on the inside and at a lose of words. Attacking crossed his mind, but he really didn't stand a chance. His healing factor was a lot weaker then Noahs' and he barely held up against him. Red was powerless, and mercy was his only way out of this alive. The question Connor really wanted to ask himself though was if he wanted to live after this. He could throw one last defiant punch at the assassin or take this opportunity to live to fight another day. Noah and Nicole both died believing they had saved their friends, and now it was up to Connor if it was in vain or not.

Connor helmet illuminate and disappeared revealing his eyes as he starred back at the man who murdered his comrades. Hate, lose, what ever it was it was obvious that he was broken. The man was going to turn and walk away but Connor knew he had to do something. Everybody he worked with was dead, his company seized, and his lab destroyed. As the guy began to walk away Connor called out to him. "Wait!" He grinded his teeth together in anger, none of this would have happened if it wasn't for who ever leaked the information. The information was only out for a few hours which meant that this assassin was hired BEFORE the information leaked which meant who ever hired him was the person who exposed them.

"Who hired you?" Connor asked, clenching his fists together. "Tell me anything you know about your client. All i need is a clue"

Raikou smiled as he walked, this man sure had wanted a lot of the person who had just spared his life. But, he did at least make it interesting, stating he only need a clue. Well, Raikou could muster up that much humanity, after all, he HAD just killed both of his best friends.

"Au revoir, mon premier miséricorde tuer" (Goodbye, my first mercy kill)

Alex purposely said it in French, laughing a bit as he did so. It was such an easy hint, he was sure even a small child could guess it. But, if he couldn't, well, that wasn't really Raikou's problem. After all, he asked for a hint, not for the solution.