The scene in front of us reminded me of the set for an action-movie. A crumbled police-car in the middle of the road, a van with police-markings and two more cars behind it, all getting pelted by a rain of bullets coming out of the corner-house. Behind each car, cowering behind the wheels, police-officers were taking cover from the metal onslaught.
Towards the other side of the road, in true movie-fashion stood the heroine of the scene, Voltic in her Red-blue Heroes’ League-Uniform, protecting the officers backs, by projecting a strange, arcing dome of lightning, apparently using her powers to create a field that slowed and redirected the bullets coming from the houses there, making it impossible to aim.
As we closed in, I got a worrying message from Galatea, our comms were being jammed, making it highly unlikely that anyone on the battlefield before us had been able to get word out.
Suddenly, a blur came from the side guarded by Voltic, streaking towards the officers, only to retreat when the shimmering field flared, lightning arcing all over the place. But the flare had visibly taking strength out of Voltic, but she looked determined to hold the line. I had to admit, she had courage. From the looks of it, Omecron was in the corner-building slowly pushing the cars out of the way so the officers had no cover and could be gunned down. The front car seemed to have been smashed by something large, even if I did not quite see what.
On the other hand, the blur I had seen had to be Fleetfoot, so he was on the other side. Only the Butcher was missing, most likely hiding in one of the houses to reinforce or held back for some other reason.
“Can you block the telekinetic attacks from Omecron, while I go into the other building and clear it?” I asked Anath, openly due to the com-jamming.
“Sure. Time to kick some ass.” Anath said with a viciousness in her voice that hinted at a bright smile on her face and she charged off.
I was hoping that Omecron had the Butcher with him, so neither of them could get to Anath in the open, not without taking a couple of bullets. My hope was, that he was able to phase out for a limited time, so enough bullets would get him, easily. It was one of the explanations I could think of for him hanging back.
As I was running up the the house I wanted to clear, I realised that charging in through the front-door was maybe the dumbest thing possible. If I was putting up an ambush, I would make sure that the front-door was secured with something explosive, something along the lines of a claymore-mine. I was not certain my armour was able to withstand such an impact, so I did not simply kick in the door to see what awaited me on the other side. A short scan told me that the wall was too thick for my sonar to give information about the other side, so making my own door was pretty much out as well. Breaking through some drywall was one thing but if I read my scan correctly, the wall was a double layer of brick, so almost half a meter of brick with some insulation between. So, no way to simply break the wall.
But the windows on the first floor seemed to be a good point of entry and most likely a rather unexpected one.
After taking position below the window I wanted to use, I charged up my Plasma-Cannon and my boots to enhance my jumping, before placing a concussion plasma-shot into the window-opening. The moment it hit, I tossed a flash-grenade after and jumped. The grenade went of a fraction of a second before my head cleared the window sill and I grabbed the ledge to guide me inside.
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My landing was a lot softer than expected, thanks to the friendly cushioning supplied by an Omega-thug. In addition, some two-hundred kilo of armoured and weaponized Metis landing on him had taken him out of the fight, most likely for good. His right arm did not quite look like a human arm should look like and his chest seemed to have taken a beating. Or rather, a single hit.
But I had no time to care much about him, I had a building to clear. After getting up and pulling a taser-pistol I was starting to advance towards the next room, thankfully the Omegas had taken out the doors for ease of movement.
Stepping into the first door-opening, I saw two targets, one aiming outside, the other currently reloading. Time slowed down, as I took aim at the first, pumping electricity into him. Seeing him, up and close, start to twitch and fall over was strangely satisfying, as was the surprised reaction of his partner when he was hit a split-second later. The DNA-treatment had pushed my reflexes truly into superhuman territory. I put zip-ties around their arms and legs after breaking off the triggers of their pistols, before moving on. They might be able to free themselves, but for now, they were out of the battle and I was lacking time.
The next door was towards the hallway, so I stepped out, seeing another gunman and tasing him. Just as I did, I realised that I had failed to secure everything around me and a large knife, or rather, a familiar cleaver, was hacking into my taser, causing it to spark and die.
I had to jump back, dropping my taser in the process, just dodging the ghostly form of the cleaver trying to work his strange effect on me. It took me a split-second to gather myself and think of a plan against the grinning Butcher.
“Not so tough now?” he asked, giggling like a deranged lunatic, suddenly jumping forward to swing at me again.
Thinking fast, I went with a simple test, pointing my hands at him and unloading. One of the flash-capacitors bathed to room in bright light, the blue beams of the taser built into my gloves shone and pepper-spray inundated the immediate area. The flash was a distraction, the taser a hope that he was unable to dodge such a fast attack but my true hope was the pepper-spray. Even if he was able to remain in his mist-form for a few moments, he would hopefully have to breathe. And once he got pepper-spray into his airways, the fight was over.
He must have realised that pointing my hands at him was harbinger of an attack and he tried to evade it. The result was surprising for both of us. The blue beams of my taser went through his nebulous form, but the charge did not. He went from nebulous to solid, flickering between the two states as he screamed as if the hounds of hell were gnawing at his heels. Hearing his scream, a soft voice, somewhere in the back of my head announced, ‘Metis used Thundershock. It is super effective.’
That scream caused him to get a deep inhale of pepper-spray which added another dimension of pain. Moments later, he collapsed and only slight twitches hinted at his continued life.
After a moment, I realised that he probably had not been under cover because of bullets but because of Voltic being his absolute nemesis. If he reacted in such a way to my air-taser on low power, Voltic would have eaten him for breakfast with a stray shot, not even trying to take him out.
I tied him and the guy in the hall up, even as I doubted the effectiveness of binding someone able to phase through solid objects, but maybe it would slow him down. I had no idea how exactly his power worked after all. If I had a little more time, I would have used an electric cable plugged into a wall-socket, or something similar. Judging by what I had seen, that should stop him.
Before continuing on, I picked up my taser-pistol, packing it away and continued, now leading with an open hand, again ready to taser anyone I needed to. Looking around the hallway, the other doors seemed to lead towards the back of the house, something to check later. For now, my mission was to secure the front, making sure that the police-officers outside were not killed.
Heading towards the stairs, I continued my exercise in room-to-room combat, now more careful when it came to checking my surroundings, knowing how lucky I had been with the Butcher. Or maybe, he had targeted my taser, knowing his own weakness. It did not really matter, I had made a huge mistake and should have paid for it. But from time to time, everyone got lucky.
But I did not want to rely on luck for the rest of the day. Lady Luck was known to be fickle after all.