Issue 1: March of Mephisto

"Everyone remain calm," Dirk said, in a practiced tone. "I'm sure they'll have the problem in hand presently."

Then he leaned over and whispered to Mark, "What do you think's going on?"

Mark pondered and didn't answer.

"We were here to get Scott's inhibitor chip removed. Might they be after us?" he absently pulled his son close, and, quite surprisingly, Scott reached up and balled his fists in Dirk's coat. "Can we trust these people?" he nodded at the rest of the people in the room, particularly at the Asian doctor who was staring intently at Mark.

The coat billowed dramatically as Renegade crossed the threshold of the hospital. Behind him were a group of armed Brotherhood mercenaries. Others were already spread out across the hospital, waiting for his signal. Pressing a button on a remote the quarantine alarm began sounding across the hospital, sealing the building.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Renegades voice rose above the hubbub in the foyer. “As you can see escape is impossible. You will now be in the care of my associates here. Just do as they say and no one gets hurt.” He then turned towards the lead mercenary.

“Spread out through the building. But no killing. We should be in and out before we really need the hostages.” Renegade know that the mercenaries were unlikely to listen to his orders but on the other hand, if his plans worked out, there should be enough people to deal with them.

He grinned and walked over to the lifts. Although sealed due to the lockdown, the doors opened with a wave of his hands. Time for the next part of the plan.

Mark broke his silence.

“No. No I don’t think it’s anything to do with you or your kid. That would be a far more subtle job. Picking you up in the elevator more likely. Or five Enforcers suddenly dropping on you. As for trust, probably not, but they’ve likely got as much to lose.”

He looked round the room.

“But even if they aren’t after you. We should still try and get out. I don’t know what’s caused this alarm but I really don’t like the timing. And the authorities are on the way, so it would be best if we’re going before they arrive.” He knelt down till he was at eye level with Scott, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry Kid, your Dad and I have been in far worse scrapes than this.”

Damn This had to be the hottest primary contact he’d had to date. The guy with the… taser, yes it definitely wasn’t a regular firearm at least, had to have been his contact from the file he’d been passed at the dead drop. Who this other guy on the floor was Richard had no idea but the more urgent priority was the security guards who’d obviously just arrived before him and where also trying to make sense of the scene before getting involved in a confrontation between two armed people. Thinking fast Richard walked calmly over to the side of the security unit’s leader, a sergeant by his rent-a-cop stripes, who looked with relief to Richard as some sort of authority of the Hospital on seeing his Doctors ID.

“Hold on Sergeant, there’s a kid over there.” Richard said, “they’re not about to start shooting if they haven’t already.” As he finished the guy Richard suspected of being his contact had put up his pistol on one of those self evident symbols of meaning no harm and in seconds the other man had been pulled to his feet and had hugged him. Today is just getting weird Richard reflected to himself as the man from the floor put away his gun and pulled out an NYPD badge.

“NYPD, Sorry for the disturbance.” Before turning back to the other man and the child that had taken cover but stayed near what Richard was assuming was his father. The Sergeant turned quizzically and even more confused face to Richard but he’d put away his weapons with him men following suit.

“Ok, I’m sure we don’t want to know and neither of us wants the paperwork of getting involved in a police case, I know I have more than enough already, don’t you sergeant? Things are obviously under control here for now, I’ll stick around and keep an eye on things and talk to the cop. I’ll make sure to mention you and your men’s exemplary reaction time when I talk to the head of medicine later.” Still a little confused the rent-a-cop nodded his thanks at not having to get involved in… whatever this was and herded his men back off down the corridor to the security station near the main elevators on the other side of the tower. Richard headed over to the reception desk to calm the still worried looking nurse behind the desk still trying to keep as much of herself hidden behind her desk as she could with looking too much like she was hiding now that things seemed to have settled back down but she definitely had that edge of being prepared to dive under the desk at a moment’s notice if the two men now cordially talking on the other side of the room looked at her funny.

“It’s ok Nurse… Duval, they seem to have worked it out of their system. Can I have the charts for today’s rounds please?” Reading the nurses name badge and hoping the routine request would help her to relax a little, which it did.

“But doctor where is Dr Teresa? I thought she had the rounds this morning.” She looked confused at Richard as she handed over the charts to him.

“She does, but I got in early this morning and apparently she was running late on something and asked if I could make a start on things for her. I owe her a favour and said I’d take care of things till she turned up.” Nurse Duval looked more reassured now that at least something happening this morning seemed to be making sense. Then the alarm went off and fear blossomed on her face again as she whispered “Quarantine”.

The man from the floor, apparently a cop, walked briskly up to the desk followed half a pace behind by Richard’s contact and asked what the alarm was of the nurse.

“It’s the Quarantine alarm,” came the whispered reply from the nurse “The hospital is under lockdown. Something must have gone wrong in the labs.”

“Quarantine my foot.” Muttered Richard’s contact.

“You’re probably right sir, Dr Daniels, as at least one of you is a cop would you like to accompany me to the security station to find out what is really going on?” Richard held out his hand to the NYPD officer first then to the man Richard had come to think of as his contact. As he shook the hand of the second man he said the code phrase that had been included in his contact briefing “You know those cigars will kill you one day, you can’t build up a Resistance to them.”

“Nurse Duval, please stay here and try to calm any of the patients that are concerned by the alarms.” Richard requested of the nurse behind the reception desk before turning to lead the two men down the corridor with the kid trailing behind close to the cop. The two talked briefly between themselves once they were a little away from anyone else in the room allowing them a degree of privacy. Richard only caught snatches of the conversation, enough to piece together that the Cop was here with his son to get the chip out so he could live like a real human being not chained like the PHMA wanted them all. He had to agree with the older man that this would certainly not be anything to do with their being here, that didn’t mean they weren’t here for Richard and his contact. But thinking that line through it didn’t make sense either, it wouldn’t make sense for them to give either Resistance man warning by setting off the alarm. It would be more likely that they would trip it silently to seal the exits after they had a grab team already in place to make their move. No this, this must be something else entirely. In the mean time though he'd leave it to his contact as to whether they could break cover in front of the cop or keep his cover intact. He'd rather not mention who he really was to any unknowns yet and a convincing belief on the part of the cop that he was who he claimed to be could be more convincing than the ID pinned to his jacket but there was no way to quiz his contact about this guy and whether or not to drop the cover role without giving away that it was a cover.

Meanwhile one floor above.

Jennifer whirled around like a trapped animal when the security lockdown went off.

Nononononono let me out, I have to get out.

She didn’t like to be trapped in a building, especially in a hospital she just got discovered as not normal by some doctors. She quickly managed to sneak into the staircase she looked up and down wondering which way would be best. Up would mean she would probably have to get off the roof somehow and there the problem that her flying was not yet safe. But going down meant maybe running into trouble.

“Fine down it is, can’t be worse than falling down a roof.”

She walked slowly down the stairs keeping an eye in both directions. So far she seemed to be safe.

So, the Asian boy was his contact after all.

“You’ll be surprised what I can build a Resistance to.” Mark replied. It wasn’t the exact reply phrase, but it was close enough for this work. He got a slight suspicious look, but seemed to accept it.

Once out in the corridor they Mark began whispering to his contact.

“I don’t know what job you’d planned, but unless its apocalyptical it’s off, ok. Only a matter of time before at least the cops arrive, never mind anyone else.”

“Don’t worry, I want to get out of here too,” the Asian replied. “But I though you…”

“Hold on!” Mark stuck his arms out stopping both Dirk and the Asian. There were three men heading towards them down the corridor. Mark could see the tell-tale signs of hidden weapons in their clothing. The Asian appeared to have noticed it too, maybe even before Mark had. Dirk was more concerned with Scott at the moment.

The two groups locked eyes for a second, Mark reached out and pushed Scott behind the three of them. There was a sudden motion as the thugs went for their weapons. Mark took a glance at his two new companions.

‘Well this should be interesting, let’s see how they do.’

Dirk walked the hallways with Scott in tow, following Mark and the doctor whom he was increasingly doubtful actually was a doctor. Not only because of the things Mark was whispering to him--had he actually caught the word "Resistance" in there?--but also because of the way the man carried himself and was careful to observe the world around him.

Dirk was just about to speak up when three other men came around the corridor in front of them, and Mark stopped them. There was a deadlock for a brief moment as each party sized the other up. The only movement was Scott, who clearly wanted to join in on the hostile standoff before Mark--still the same old Mark--gently but firmly directed him to stay behind them again.

Now Dirk was not the shoot-first-ask-questions-later type. In fact, he was somewhat less so than he had ever been, now that he had matured, seen the world, became a parent, and had time to learn the implications of that kind of behavior.

But when he saw weapons, and that they were pointed anywhere vaguely in the direction of his son--not to mention his former mentor whom he had lost once already and certainly wasn't going to lose again--in addition to an innocent civilian (well, innocent until proven guilty, anyway)--Dirk Rogers tended to see, well, red....

The wall of red energy went up first: instant, semi-transparent, and impenetrable. When the blasts that hit it weren't actually bullets, as expected, but laser blasts, Dirk looked at Mark in horror, remembering that he had seen these weapons before. Mark only nodded.

The Brotherhood.

Dirk had no compunction, then, nor did he waste any time, in throwing the wall forward as hard as he could, knocking the three mercenaries to the ground. The energy field fizzled out on impact, but it had done its work. The three men didn't get up.

There wasn't time for more congratulations other than a "Yeah!" from Scott, however, before they heard even more footsteps around the corner.

Jennifer was just about to open the door when a red wall of energy passed in the corridor.

“Great there I am I don’t wanna get involved and I’m on the best way to get involved.” She muttered.

Jennifer considered not going out but she was starting to get annoyed of this whole situation. She went into the hallway and saw the two people she never wanted to see again. On one end of the corridor were three guys knocked out on the floor and on the other side a doctor (if he really is one), a old dude and the beard didn’t stop her from recognising him, the dude who dared to replace her and a kid.

“My day can’t get any worse can it? I really had to run you after all those years?”

Jennifer looked disbelieving at the two men she knew so well, it was amazing that seeing them made her powers nearly uncontrollable. She seriously considered letting them stand right there and leave. She didn’t even know if they recognized her, after all this time.

"We've got company," Mark was saying, turning around. And there were reinforcements coming up the corridor where Dirk had taken care of the three mercenaries. They were going to be surrounded very quickly if they didn't hurry.

And into all of this chaos stepped a ghost.

Perhaps it was a family thing, Dirk mused. The Wilsons just could not die. It seemed laughable, now, to have ever believed otherwise. He actually almost did laugh, a little inanely. Maybe Dirk was jaded by already having one friend return from the dead today.

Or maybe, instead, those were tears bubbling up inside him.

"Jennifer?"

“You’ll be surprised what I can build a resistance to.” Richard scrutinised his contact even more closely for a moment or two, It wasn’t quite right but it was close enough that right now it didn’t matter, especially with whatever else was going the hell on here as it was.

Once out in the corridor his contact, he’d heard the other man call him Mark so that was as good a name as any for now till they had time for proper introductions, walked closer to Richard’s side and talked quietly to him. “I don’t know what job you’d planned, but unless its apocalyptical it’s off, ok. Only a matter of time before at least the cops arrive, never mind anyone else.”

This seemed a little strange it was Mark or his cell leader at least who had called in Richard and the AL for help, it wasn’t Richard’s plan at all. “Don’t worry, I want to get out of here too,” Richard countered “…but I thought you…”

“Hold on!” Mark interrupted Richards confusion as the three men walked round the corner, three armed men with hidden weapons. A sign that they shouldn’t be here if ever there was one. Mark seemed to have noticed the weapons at the same instant as Richard did, maybe a second after, but it was the cop, Dirk, that acted first as the weapons came out from under coats the backs of the men’s waist bands. Red energy flared to life in a wall across the corridor blocking the way of the men. Dirks look of triumph turned to horror as the laser fire hit the energy shield, Brotherhood laser fire.. Dirk threw his hands forward and the wall of energy blasted the three men back down the corridor felling all three to the triumphant cry of “Yeah!” from the little kid behind Dirk.

But before any of them could really enjoy Dirk’s victory the sound of more men pounding down the corridor drawn toward the sounds of the fight, then a door half way down the side of the corridor opened and one of the most beautiful brunettes that Richard had seen stepped out from the stairwell beyond. Looking to the two men beside him she seemed to recognise them and scowled “My day can’t get any worse can it? I really had to run you after all those years?” she demanded of the air around her while the pounding of booted feet grew louder in the corridor behind them. Mark and Dirk seemed to be a good mix of stunned and confused just standing there for precious seconds they didn't have, the boy pulling on his father’s hand in some concern.

“Jennifer?” Mark almost whispered but it carried throughout the corridor clearly almost like a prayer.

Glancing behind them Richard gave them both a good shove in the small of their backs propelling them on down the corridor and past the girl, “Get moving Miss, there’s some people coming and they don’t seem mighty friendly.” Richard meanwhile grabbed the fire extinguisher by the stairwell door and pulled the pin from it and he hurled it back down the corridor as two men came round the corner behind them brandishing the same laser weapons as the three from before. He reached out with his mind and squeezed the release handles sending off showers of white powder and co2 gas that filled the corridor as the two men started firing the laser beams being harmlessly diffused through the particle cloud between the attackers and the group making even the unluckiest shots that did connect feel like nothing more than the sun on your skin on a hot summers day. Their weapons nullified Richard threw himself down the corridor and into the white fog filling the corridor and out of sight of the others.

Inside the cloud he moved in toward the men first grabbing the lead man's pistol arm and twisting it back on its self making him drop the gun to the floor and cry out in pain, the drop caused the cloud to flash around them as the pistol discharged. The second man reached in with a quickly drawn knife to try and take advantage of Richards attack on the first man. Richard felt the man’s wave of emotion as he thrust forward to stab him, he quickly threw his weight off to the right pulling the lead man round and into the blade of his comrade causing the lead man to cry out again and then slump down to the ground in a sobbing heap pulling the second mans knife down with him. Richard quickly rolled and recovered his feet slipping into the cloud of white keeping out of reach of the flailing of the second man through the billowing cloud as he tried to catch Richard, who dropped down and swiped the feet out from under the man making him fall hard and then Richard was on him pinning the man with a knee in the middle of the back and striking him in the nerve cluster at the base of the neck causing an wave of pain that overwhelmed the man's ability to resist as unconsciousness overtook him. Richard quickly patted him down pocketing the man’s pistol, a spare magazine and the man’s wallet, he then went over to the other still sobbing man and pulled the knife from the wound low on the man’s back, close to if not penetrating the man’s kidneys. Richard knelt down next to the man’s ear as he briskly patted the man down adding a second magazine, the man’s wallet and a radio to his pocket as he whispered in the man’s ear “Wrong side, Cabron” and punched him hard in the side of the head knocking the man unconscious . Richard picked up the lead man’s laser pistol he side both the pistols into the back of his trousers and slipped the magazines into an inside pocket on each side of the lab coat and stepped back out into the clear air further down the corridor to follow the rest of the group who were still standing there looking ready to attack whoever came out of the cloud of white smoke.

Richard brushed some flakes of white powder from his lab coat as he looked up at the group with a shrug, “They had an allergic reaction I’m afraid, they’ll have to sleep it off. Time to get to the bottom of this.” He said as he walked through them, white dust settling on the two still figures now visible on the floor behind, in the direction of the security booth at the end of the corridor that had been suspiciously quiet throughout the last couple of fights. The noise of which should have woken the dead at this range and that should certainly have brought the security guards, they had seen only quarter of an hour before, running to find out what all the commotion was about.

Even though the doctor shoved Mark and Dirk closer to her, she back away from them. She didn’t want to be close to them. For a matter of fact she didn’t even wanted to be here. When the doctor dude took the fire extinguisher Jennifer became a little nervous, but he used it far away from her.

“What's going on here? Why the lock down?” She asked ignoring Mark and Dirk.

Normally Mark would had made a wry comment about the Asian’s performance, or complimented him on a good day. But now he just stood agape, whispering the name of the ghost who had returned after all these years. Despite the fact she was older, Mark could still recognise her.

“Jennifer.”

He was no longer paying attention to what was going on around him, not even noticing what she was saying. Eventually he just gave in.

Mark leapt forward and embraced Jennifer in a tight hug, a couple of tears rolling down his face.

“I’ve missed you Jenny,” he mumbled. Mark didn’t notice that Jennifer wasn’t returning the hug.

Jennifer gasped, she had expected everything but not this, a bone crushing hug. She wanted so badly to push him away and yell at him but somehow she couldn’t do it. She petted his back.

“Um, yeah. Let go please.” She actually sounded nearly friendly.

Somewhere, distantly, Dirk was aware that the not-doctor (Mark's "contact," whatever that meant!) had just saved all their lives, taking down the latest fireteam of mercenary Brotherhood thugs. He was also marginally more aware of his son tugging on his coat to get his attention, but it still could not be said that Dirk was a model of control and focus right now.

Mark was crying! Dirk wasn't far away from it, either, as the hug between Mark and Jennifer broke and he pushed his way into it, gripping her tightly, like he had that first day they met 13 years ago.

"Holy cow, Jennifer, I can't believe you're back." He pulled back to get a good look at her, grinning widely and trying (and failing) not to cry. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Jennifer looked rather confused. They were both crying, she wasn’t too happy to see them either but she wouldn’t cry that she was seeing them. She might go along and kind of team up with them to get out of the hospital but as soon they were out she would not even bother to say goodbye to them.

“Yeah I’m back for a long time now. Can someone explain me what’s going on here? I’m not even sure I wanna know who you are.” She looked at the Asian guy. When her eyes met the little boy’s one, she started smiling. “But I would love to know who this little man is.”

Jennifer liked kids, they were truthful and not faking anything.

Dirk looked expectantly down at his son, who required no prompting to reply, "I'm Scott, Miss Jenny," and shook her hand politely.

Jennifer half-laughed. "How do you know who I am?"

"Seen Dad's pictures," he replied simply, which made Dirk blush red to his ears. "You're in them, too," he told Mark, "only I didn't recognize you with the gray beard."

Dirk wasn't sure weather to blush redder or laugh.

"Aaaaaand on that note," he blurted out awkwardly, "I think we have a Brotherhood situation to take care of, so let's go." He took his son's hand and led the way to the stairs.

Mark laughed at Scott’s innocent comment, more-so than was probably necessary. Then realised that he and Dirk were walking away.

“Hey, where are you going? The elevators are over there.”

“But aren’t the elevators out with the quarantine?” asked Dirk slightly confused.

“Yes,” Mark grinned, “But I can get them working again. Or if you fancy it you could just jump down the stairs. That would be quicker!” Mark chuckled. He felt ten years younger. Actually, no, that would make him 64. He felt much better than that, as he hadn’t felt since he’d been a proper superhero. Not that he’d ever mention that little fact to Dirk. There was a little reputation to uphold.

Mark forcefully opened the doors of the elevator, followed by the roof hatch and climbed out, planting a little device on the elevator cable. The rest of the group entered the lift and looked up.

“Ok, this lift won’t go under its own power. However, there is a manual brake level up here. So everyone hold on and hope the brakes don’t wear out. Everybody ready? 3… 2… 1!” Mark pressed a button on his watch and the small explosive on the cable detonated, snapping the cable. He released the break and the elevator started dropping. Before it started picking up excessive speed Mark began applying the brakes and kept the descent controlled, albeit noisy and with sparky flying everywhere.

The elevator landed with a greater bump than normal, but before anyone could recover Mark was already back in the car and opening the doors. The rest staggered out, some better than others, glad to be back on solid ground. Dirk walked over to the end of the corridor and opened the door to the main lobby, then paused.

“More Brotherhood. And they’ve got hostages!”

“Get down Dirk,” Mark reached up and pulled Dirk back behind the door. “We can’t go rushing in there. We need some kind of plan.” Dirk looked at Mark agog, not believing what he was hearing. But then Mark had been acting differently since Jennifer had appeared. Less grouchy, more… happy. Even his voice had lost a little of its harshness. Mark opened the door slightly, taking in the scene. There was a large group of civilians in the centre of the lobby, surrounded by a group of Brotherhood guards. Other Brotherhood mercenary’s patrolled the upper and lower levels of the lobby, but inexpertly. Crucially there were lots of blind spots, and no one seemed to be keeping tabs on each other.

“Ok, here’s the plan. Shame we don’t have a speedster. Someone to disarm the guards before they can shoot.”

“Dad, I could..” Scott began.

“No. Don’t even think about it,” replied Dirk. Scott looked crushed.

“New Kid,” Mark addressed the Asian, “Sorry, but I don’t know your name.”

“Umm, it’s Richard,” replied the Asian with a bit of reluctance.

“Ok, Richard. You look like you can remain unseen if needed. The two of us are going to sneak around and take out as many of the patrolling guards as we can. There’s a dispensary just behind us if we want to stalk up on some silent tools for the job. I’m sure there is something in there that can put those fanatics to sleep.”

“Dirk, Jenny, I need you two to pair up here. The moment those thugs in the middle begin getting suspicious or spot something array, Dirk, leap into the middle of the hostages and cover them with a force field. The moment he has he that field up Jenny, blast them.”

Mark then turned to the youngest member. “And Scott…”

“Yes?”, the youngster exclaimed excited.

“I need you to stay here and keep down,” before the boy could look crestfallen Mark continued, “and keep an eye on all those Brotherhood mercs. If you see one leaving or making a break for it, let us know.” He paused. “It’s times like this I’d give my right arm for a telepath. Silent communication is so much more useful.”

Once Dirk got over the shock of seeing Mark transformed--was even prepared to reopen questions as to whether this was indeed Mark!--and absorbed his plan, which was sound--was this really his Mark Wilson?--he crouched down until his eyes were level with his son's.

Scott was already rolling his.

"I know, Dad, keep my head down and out of sight," he sighed, despondently.

"And? What did Mr. Mark say?"

"Oh!" Scott brightened a little at that. "I'm supposed to watch the bad guys!"

"That's right. And if we have any...trouble, you know how to get home from here? Check on your brother and sister?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. Love you, kiddo." Dirk kissed the top of Scott's head and stood up.

"Love you, too, Dad." Which was a bit of a surprise. Scott was usually strongly averse to displays of affection. Jennifer just had that effect on people, apparently: bringing out the best in everyone.

He stepped up beside her with a smile. He didn't glance to her, instead focusing on keeping his eye on the hostages, but he made a grab for her hand and squeezed it. She took her hand back almost immediately, but when she looked at him, he was able to mouth "I'm glad you're back."

She didn't reply. Which was fine. It had to be stressful, such a meeting.

"Okay," he said, his voice very low and in Planning Mode. "I can create a field from here, but it'd be much stronger and better if I'm in the middle of it. So give me time to run over in the midst of them before you, aha, 'open fire'." He grinned widely at her, half-expecting her to haul off and whack him, as she always used to, for his notoriously atrocious puns.

Jennifer looked at him. This was all very confusing. She always expected them to be mad that she wasn’t dead. But here they were all happy and smiling. She didn’t do it on purpose but she learned the best way of keeping people away is to have so hot skin that they can’t touch you.

“You would be surprised what I can do when I open fire nowadays. Your forcefield better be strong.” She grinned, while small flames actually started to appear around her. This was actually turning out into fun, and she had to admit Scott was a really cute kid. It was a wonder he was having Dirk as a father. She wondered why he had kept pictures of her. She couldn’t recall any pictures of them together.

“You will have a moment to run into the middle of your field, so go on create your field and don’t blow us up please.” She didn’t look at him, since the shock of meeting them again started go and the anger came.

Richard smiled at Marks assumption that he could stay unseen, unseen wasn't the objective here it was to pull the Brotherhood goons away from the hostages until Dirk and this new girl could ensure their safety.
"Mark I have a slight adjustment to the plan... I am after all a doctor, or as near as looks it. let me serve as a distraction as a loose hostage that they 'missed' wandering the halls they'll move to secure me pulling them out of position where you can take them down without a treat to the hostages. In the meantime Dirk and Ms.... Jenny can take care of the minimal number left over as we come in to distract from the other side of the foyer." While he said this Richard picked up a chart from the nurses station they where crouching behind and flipped it open palming several scalpels and small hypodermic syringes from the medical trolley next to it sucking some air into the syringes.

“Good plan. But try and look a little panicky. There’s a quarantine on after all!” Mark grinned and slid into the dispensary, digging out two injection guns and rummaging through the bottles for something suitable to load them. A few moments later he emerged and nodded to Richard, who began walking looking hurried and harassed and just in view of one of the guards.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a general call of alarm, but instead the guard who spotted Richard just called over the three nearby guards and followed. Obviously they have no proper training. thought Mark, but at least it played into their plans for now. Following the path Richard was taking Mark moved through a side door to get ahead a wait in ambush. For a few tense seconds nothing happened then Richard walked past. A few moments later the Brotherhood followed, passing Mark as they yelled at Richard to stop.

Mark leapt from his hiding place. He thrust the injection guns into the exposed necks of two of the Brotherhood fanatics. Hearing the exclamations of pain the other two turned to face Mark. Who promptly head-butted the nearest one. He turned to the forth but Richard had already taken him down. A few moments passed, then the two Mark had injected crumpled unconscious.

“Round 2?”

"Agreed, time to take out the guards on the upper balcony overlooking the lobby itself. I'm not sure this will work a second or third time but if you can get behind them again I think I might be able to give them another little surprise." Richard replied with a smile warming to this Mark.

Richard and Mark slipped up the stairs in the corner of the lobby and paused at the top of them, before staying just out of view of the two brotherhood guards on lounging on the balcony railing chatting away about the usual bragging rights as most guards do. "Hold on here a sec Marc let me get their attention again." Richard stepped out before Mark could reply straight into line of sight of the guards. A shocked terrified look flashed over his face and he turned to run down the balcony away from the guards who started almost as much as Richard had feigned and then started after him raising their Laser rifles to shoot him down, as the first silent flash flew over his right shoulder Richard threw himself sideways rolling across the corridor to slam his back into the balcony wall cursing the guards for not playing ball and chasing after him while drawing the two laser pistols in one fluid motion as he rolled so as he came to rest against the wall each guard looked down the barrel of his rifle and into the muzzle of one of the two stubby weapons. Faced with something of a Mexican stand-off an idea came to Richard and he reached out with his mind and depressed the magazine release catches on the side of both rifles. The Magazines of the rifles clattered to the corridor floor to the faint sound wounding down sounds of the rifles losing power,
"oops, now where were we, ah yes be good boys and drop the guns."

As their now useless guns dropped to the floor Richard looked over the guards' shoulder and saw Mark again catching up after the sudden change in plan.
"Sorry Mark I had to improvise a little there, would you do the honours" indicating the guards with a wave of one pistol.

Dirk was growing nervous as more and more guards began to disappear. He heard the near-silent oofs! and the thuds! of bodies hitting the floor, but he was listening for it. None of the other guards had noticed, so far, that their numbers were being decimated. And if that was Mark up there on the balcony, Dirk mused, leaning forward to get a look, then surely--

"Hey, you!"

Oh, of course. They saw that.

Dirk flashed Jennifer a warning, apologetic look, but she was already stepping back into the shadows as two of the Brotherhood mercenaries jogged over to him, weapons trained.

Dirk resigned himself and put his hands up. "What is going on here?" he demanded as the guards grabbed him and searched him--rather ineptly--for they only found and relieved him of his gun, not his badge--the Brotherhood had fallen a long way since he'd last tangled with them. They didn't answer, and rudely shoved him in with the rest of the hostages. Few people were distressed, most were merely annoyed: but maybe that was just New York for you.

Dirk was similarly minded. Although annoyed at being so caught, at least he had provided an additional distraction from the dwindling numbers of guards being taken down by Mark and Richard.

And, for that matter, this was where he wanted to be in the first place.

For a moment Jennifer wanted to pull him with her in the shadow and run, but she that this was not the plan and it was silly. He didn’t like her and she shouldn’t get used to him around. Jennifer sighed, this was a pretty big mess she was in. She stayed in the shadow but kept an eye on Dirk and just waited for him to create a force field, even though she was not yet sure how she would open fire. Scott was standing on the other side in the shadows watching his father.

Weird to think of Dirk as a dad.

Dirk was waiting for it.

And presently he heard it.

"Hey...where'd Thompson go?" one of the guards mused.

"And Stanley's gone! What the--"

Just as the last guard Mark took down gave a louder than usual yelp of pain, which put everyone instantly on the alert.

"We're under attack!"

"The hostages! Get them--"

Dirk never did hear what it was the mercenary thugs were going to do with the hostages before he put the dome up: at least a foot thick, colored a nearly opaque neon red, impermeable, airtight, and soundproof. The best defense he could manage, and, though he was pretty sure he could control it at this level, he was presently sweating from the effort.

"Hey--what the...?" someone asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Dirk responded. It could barely be seen, but just beyond the red the world flickered, as Jennifer blanketed the area in flames. "Now please allow me to concentrate, good people, unless you'd prefer that wall of flame as a roof instead?"