Michael lay quietly on a roof with his weapon, a customized post conversion clone of an old marksman rifle. Though outwardly it appeared to be a Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle with its 18 inch match barrel and elevated top rail with the variable power optic mounted, it had one critical difference; this one was chambered in .300 Blackout.

He lay in position on the roof in a small run down neighborhood, still populated by people, that had little to no police presence. Someone was hiding here, and Michael was planning to flatline them quietly and leave without disturbing the locals. He had studied the individual enough to know that they would arrive at an address some time during the hours of darkness. He sat two hundred meters away, and had a getaway car staged under a tarp. His plan was to put a shot in the brain stem and leave.

Chicago, a landmark city with a diverse range of social classes and a contrast between the thriving inner city and the rotting outer suburbs awaiting renovations and restructuring. With the state having let go of many gun control laws, the private citizens had armed up and defied the old criminal chokehold that once gripped the population. The shot-spotter never left, as it was still hailed by many as a way to discourage irresponsible behavior with firearms. This system could detect gunfire around the city and automatically notify the authorities with a dot on a map. On some days, it could get the police with a street of the point of origin, and others it could get the police within a meter.

Michael had subsonic ammunition racked into his rifle, but the system had detected silenced weapons before. He could take absolutely no chance, and knew that once he fired his first shot, he had five minutes to be gone. He glanced around while keeping a specific point in view.

Meanwhile, Lani looked around in all the other directions and made sure that nothing would compromise their position. She was lightly equipped, being that she didn’t really expect to get into much firefighting during this mission. She simply had her USP9 in a plastic holster sitting just below her belt. She wore athletic figure hugging pants with reinforced knees, and a dark red hoodie under her low profile plate carrier.

Beyond the basics, Lani was what was officially titled an Enhanced Individual of Power. Having stumbled into a power crystal that chose her, she was given an immense amount of strength and speed. The crystal also gave her something else, as it was the second half of the same crystal that gave Michael the same capability.

The little known fact about two people being enhanced by the same crystal, is that the second person would have an insight into the mind of the first one. Lani had seen into Michael, not knowing who he was. Before being put in place with him as his housekeeper, Lani had a couple months of training in martial arts, firearms handling and some introductory level lessons in tactics.

Michael, having been enhanced many years prior while serving in the United States Army, he had much more time and experience to hone his craft of hunting, killing, fighting and causing problems for bad people. During his time, however, he hadn’t encountered any other Enhanced Individuals of Power. For the longest, he believed he was the only one until a brutal attack nearly succeeded in killing him. One where two enhanced men had tried to follow him home, it was only because he was the superior killer that he prevailed and made it home where he collapsed and was treated back to health by Lani, who had been keeping it a secret until that time that she was also enhanced.

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The existence of enhanced individuals became public knowledge when others who had stumbled upon power crystals that had not been met by government agents shortly afterwards had decided to use their newfound capabilities for the purposes of terrorism. Others simply didn’t care about fighting or doing good or bad to anybody. These folks typically found jobs in warehouses or mundane labor that could make benefit from how strong they were. Then you have people like Michael, the type of person who could never put the gun down even years after he hung up his uniform.

Michael knew that the world was a horrible place, but he also knew that sitting on the sidelines wasn’t an option for him. Not as long as other individuals with this great power he had were out there willing to hurt others for the show of force simply to exert some kind of dominance over others. Having retired from his time in the army, he set about wrecking life for horrible people such as pedophiles, rapists, drug distributors, terrorists and others who did disgusting things to other people.

Lani only knew what little she read about the world in her orphanage years ago, as well as how much she cared for Michael. Michael was not on a path of self destruction, but Lani had seen him get so focused that he forgot to care for his own well being. She knew that he had seen horrors, and had been through some life traumas in his years, but he held it together much more of the time than most people with issues like his. Having had to patch him up after his first time fighting against enhanced enemies, there was one thing she was grateful she never had to put up with. Michael treated her with respect. It took a couple displays of her proficiency with violence, and for him to realize that he couldn’t fight alone anymore, for the big brother to accept that the little sister wasn’t some damsel.

Michael focused through the scope, a light had just come on in the house he was watching. After a few more minutes, the door opened. His window was about to present itself, but he was interrupted by a grabbing sensation on his leg.

“Michael, we got a creep in that house across the street.” Lani said whispering urgently.

“Now?” Michael muttered, knowing that he had to take this shot.

“He’s in the room with her,” Lani started frantically barking through her whispers. Her teeth clenched, “He’s grabbing her!”

The target stepped onto the front porch. Michael fired a single shot. It landed in the targets neck. Michael turned to Lani and nodded, “go,” he said softly, knowing what would happen now that he had effectively unleashed an animal.

As Michael got back on glass to observe his target fall, Lani leapt from her spot to the yard across the street. A second movement got her to the window. Michael fired one more shot into the targets head to ensure that it stayed dead. He had four minutes and fifty seconds to get gone.