Chapter 7.

We chose to walk the last five hundred meters, since none of us were too interested on getting ambushed and maybe even killed, so we walked. I could hear the gunshots ringing out in the air when we were several blocks away and for a moment, I worried about the civilians around here. But quickly I realized we were in the eastern part of Brownell City, and whoever lived here knew how to take care of themselves.

I walked in the middle of our little group. As I looked around at the others, I could see their telltale signs of nervousness. Shocking were cramping and spreading out his fingers in a rhythmic pattern, readying himself to release shocks, while Poof were walking in a way I could only describe as low. Back ached down and legs bent, he looked ready to take a tackle without moving an inch, and he would need it if things got real hairy. He finally described his power to me before we headed out, and he apparently needed to stand still for about three seconds before he could actually teleport. When he told me I finally understood why he so rarely moved during fights, preferring to stay in his smoke and thus preparing to teleport away at need.

Finally, I took a long, good look at Takeover. She was varying between looking around wearily and closing her eyes to see if she could feel anyone near us. Her hands aimed towards her tool belt, the same one that Poof wore, so she could pull out one of Foldups weapons. I had asked them about what they had in there exactly, but after Foldup started rabbling about the different specs I had tuned out. I did, on the other hand, know they had the minimized version of the Herobuster, pepper spray and a small but very powerful taser, charged by Shocking himself.

“Takeover,” I said as we stopped, putting my arm on her shoulder” could you tell me why White Light are aiming for The Tigers, and why now?”

“White Light has actually been aiming to flush The Tigers out of the east part for a long time, but our actions have actually accelerated their plans. From what I’ve gathered, Purifier thinks we’re part of The Tigers and have caught on to their plan to take over the area, so he decided to act right away.” She said as she scrunched up her face “If someone innocent actually gets hurt by this I’ll feel guilty. It’s my fault that this happened, so I’ll take responsibility.”

I looked away from her, training my eyes on the apartment’s windows. I quickly accepted the fact that if Alexa were to attempt to give herself up, I’d probably stop her, maybe even take her place. From what I’d seen the last few weeks, she had a chance in life, unlike me. I was not sure anymore how I was alive, and why I felt better than ever – the doctors always told me I would get sick very quickly if I forgot my meds, but after almost three weeks of not taking them I was still fine, and I was currently stronger than I was before.

“You guys ready to go in? I’m already charged and ready to run in, so just tell me when it’s time takeover, I’ll put the first guy on the ground!”

Takeover looked straight at the apartments and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Alright. Savage, you go in first, Shocking following up with me third. Poof, you stay near the windows so we can run back to you if we need to get out real quick.” She let her breath out, and took another one, this more shallow.

“Let’s go.”

***

As I bust through the front doors of the apartment, I quickly realized it was empty and made my way up the stairs. Once I’d walked up the first set of stairs, I saw a body. A small tiger on his chest marked him as a member of The Tiger, and while gravely injured he was still barely breathing. His face was badly burned, and the only reason I could even identify him as a member of the tiger was because of the fact that his clothes were burned off as well.

We continued up the stairs and the whole way I saw bullet holes in the walls and in the floor, and because of the shoddy drywall walls the bullets had gone straight through, into the apartments. As we walked past a door looking more banged up then the others and with a suspicious amount of holes around it, Takeover put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

“They’re in here. I can feel several people wanting to either attack or surrender, so I suppose one side is winning. Guessing from how this looks, I’d say that it’s White Light.

We’ll go in there and watch how it plays out, since I think there’s a room between us and them.”

I gave her a quick grunt and walked to the side of the door. I could feel myself tensing up, preparing to fight, and I could feel the usual excitement, the feeling of pleasure slowly creeping into my mind. I slowly opened the door, barely able to stop my arms from shaking with anticipation, and walked into the room. She had been right, and we walked into a hallway with an empty doorway up ahead. I could smell cleaning materials in the air, and after sneaking a peek into the next room I realized we’d hit a meth lab.

The room was filled with equipment and the smell of ammonia was heavy – some people in the corner were wearing hazmat suits and I’d assume they were the cooks, and they were joined by other people, presumably the other members of The Tigers. Standing around them were a collection of skinheads wearing dirty white hoodies and jeans, probably their gang colours – and in front of The Tigers members two other men were standing, one talking silently towards the members and the other standing around looking threatening. It only took me a moment to realize the man looking threatening was the same guy I’d fought some weeks ago, the one with fire attacks, and if he was here, he’d probably be protecting something important, which made me believe the other man was Purifier himself.

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Turning around to the others, I mouthed ‘Purifier’ towards them, pointing into the room. They caught the hint, and I could see Shocking starting to charge up. Takeover was preparing as well as she could, focusing on the people inside the room. Since her power actually worked better if the enemy were surprised or confused, she had planned to shout loudly, but that task had been given to me instead, since you are pretty confused when getting rushed by a screaming grey reptile-man.

My blood ran hot, and when Takeover made eye-contact with me and started counting down silently, the anticipation was almost killing me, my arms shaking and pupils dilating, legs tensing up, preparing to burst through the drywall separating us.

Silently, she mouths out ‘Go’, and I’m going. Crashing through the wall and screaming like a madman takes them by surprise. I go for the fire-man right away when I feel Takeovers power stretch over the room, and they all freeze up for a second, unable to act against their natural instinct of fleeing, amplified by Takeover. As I crash into the man with fire powers, I punch him in his stomach and throw him towards Shocking. The plan was that I’d try to take down Purifier as fast as possible, since I’m fairly resistant towards psychic assaults and I have superhuman strength.

Turning towards Purifier and aiming my right fist towards his face, he swiftly brings up his own arms to block my attack. As I connect I can feel his bones groaning from the force, and his face makes a grimace of pain, a sharp contrast to my own almost manic look.

When I bring my second arm up to continue by attack, he manages to grab me as well, and I realize he also has some enhanced strength and durability. He pulls me in close, and I can feel something blotting out my mind, almost making me forget my purpose here, almost forgetting what we’re supposed to do.

“You’re angry.” He tells me – “Attack them.” I feel my rage building up, my anger towards my allies behind me, but I manage to direct it towards Purifier. My meagre psychic resistance manages to save me from attacking my own allies, but the pure, unbridled rage now focused on him instead. I feel my own face twisting into something almost inhuman, and an animalistic howl escapes my throat as I bear my fists down on Purifier. His face is coloured by surprise, soon to be replaced by pain as I drive my left fist into his stomach, upwards towards his lungs. He weathers the hit and counters with a strong strike towards my own left arm, but it glances off as his entire body contracts in an attempt to breathe.

As he is bent over, I bring both of my hands down on his back, bringing him down to the floor where he cannot run from me. I mount his back and start hitting the back of his head with all my strength, when his right elbow hits me in my face. He stands up, face bloody and obviously winded, but he could still fight – good. Somewhere I hear voices screaming, but I ignore them when he starts reaching into a holster on his right leg as I charge him. Pulling an oversized gun up and aiming it towards me, I feel the bullet burning a hole through my left leg, but I was already in moving towards him. I get him on his back, pinning him towards the ground. As I continue to hit him, I feel things breaking, in both my hands and his face. As I take a second to raise my arms into the air to bring them both down at the same time, I see him taking a ragged breath and then coughing out blood and teeth.

He’s almost unconscious now, but still my anger burns inside me, and I continue. His nose is almost flat and he lacks most of his teeth, when suddenly I get knocked off from my position on top of him. A masked man had attacked me, and he starts running with a girl towards their last masked member. Somewhere deep inside I feel I should know who they are, but I cannot remember. As they disappear in a cloud of smoke, I’m confused.

I turn towards the dirty window and look outside and notice a group of five people approaching the building. Ignoring them, I go inside the apartment again, walking into the hall and walking into the lab. I see a cloud of smoke inside it, and notice it’s empty of people.

I simply stand there for a couple of seconds when I finally feel my mind clear and my anger dissipate, as I remember why I was here, and who I am.

Then I got thrown into a wall.

***

Sorry for being late. Again.

I'm thinking about starting to write in third person, but i actually wanted to ask if the people reading this would take great offense from this. I never really re-read my chapters after I've written them, so i might have grammatical/symmetrical errors (repeating things e.t.c), but i feel a third person omniscient perspective would make the process of worldbuilding easier. I have tons of cool tidbits built up to release somewhere in the text, but the first person perspective limits me too damn much.

Opinions please.