Thriller The Reckoning

(Made in collaboration with @Mitth_Fisto and @DarkLordoftheFins )

IC: Jane, Kawin Muthurangu
Enterprise, Nevada

Jane's smile deepened, the young girl had to be the other target. Maybe she was tipping her hand but, she kept her smile. Nothing was wrong, even though she was surrounded by time travelers. She set her gun in her lap finger just above trigger guard though the safety hadn't been set.

"Well, I don't suppose I could get a cup of coffee before I get riddled with bullets?" She gave a light chuckle. "Though I might be your best option to put an end to this nightmare."

"I wish it would be that easy." Angel said and smiled, pushing over a bottle of water. "Cafe closed a week ago or so. We can offer lukewarm bottled water." She said and she was more calm than a woman her age should be. More calm than Chad actually who looked at her and wordlessly kept his gun holstered. He was probably concentrating on blocking Jane's power.

Being guided out was either said than done. He wasn't really resisting on purpose but, "You know I have to set the braces to stand, to be able to walk with canes at all? Did you know you were working for him now? In this? Did you know, it's the Jumpers brother? Behind it all. Plague, this meeting? Alpha. Did you know." he had meant to keep it straight. Keep it simple. He couldn't keep the tears from his eyes and the wavering hurt from his voice. "Did I give it up for nothing?" he simply asked as he stared at her. Asking that question that never should be asked. Could not be asked.

Jane let out a breath putting her pistol in the holster. There was a part of her cold heart that warmed just a little. She picked up the bottle of lukewarm water unscrewing the top with one hand. Her other stayed close to her gun.

"When I started...I didn't I still don't know officially. I had my suspicions. A mysterious 'Natural' that's what they call us." She gestured to herself, Kawin and Chad along that side of the bar. "Look it was a job, is a job. And I do my job you know this. The world could be ending and I still do my job. Except when it comes to you." She gave Kawin a look, it wasn't the cold eyes of a predator it was something else. "My orders were to kill you three years ago, they were to bring you in now. But, yet again it seems you've made that difficult for me." Her gaze swept around the table keeping a wary eye on the others.

"That's good, because the world is ending." Angel remarked. She gave Chad a look and gestured him to calm down. Her gestures still seemed strangely mature for a girl her age.

"And I know all the Chosen who rule the future. No woman who fits your description among them. Actually we got only two naturals left and you ain't one of them."

Chad nodded. "Angel, maybe we give the two a minute. She can't run away with him and she can't kill Kawin." He nodded to Kawin seeing if he was in agreement.

Sighing a bit in relief as she put away the gun he reached forward and took a napkin to dab away the unsightly tears. Then again even Captain Picard had shed a manly tear now and again, only he didn't feel so manly. Just small.

Kawin nodded to Chad. A moment would be good. "Make sure the new girl gets the vaccine." he said in way of getting some space and agreeing to it.

Jane almost rolled her eyes at the prophecy the little girl spouted. Of course there was no place for her. There was never any place for her in any future. Fate just couldn't stand her. The natural that was never supposed to exist. The girl that was never supposed to survive. She had a snark on her tongue for Kawin but, she held it back. His glassy eyed look was not one ready to receive some ribbing.

"I heard TARC went down. I had nothing to do with I assure you."

Chad took the little girl by her hand and Angel looked at Kawin for a long moment before she raised from her seat and accompanied the other two outside.

"So you know where the battle took place?" Chad asked her with a sigh. Angle nodded.

"A motel. The battle took place nearby in a motel complex." She said. "That is what they tell each other over campfires at least."

Inside Kawin and Jane were left alone.

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto @DarkLordoftheFins

 

combined with Fins

Anna Talbott
Mansfield Retreat, Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Anna still felt her heart pounding as she stood outside. She felt her blood rush through her body and automatically the world around her slowed down. It slowed down to a degree where she was almost sure she had stopped time entirely.

Think. Think.

How could she find the headquarters of Alpha and his men? How could she ... a girl with no training and access to anything find a base hidden even by Laura and her people?

Suddenly she knew. It just pushed into her mind as if the thought was violently implanted.

The Gifts. The one thing she had nobody else had was a Gift. She was not the only one with a Gift. There were more Gifted. One especially who might be able to help.

She got her mobile out and went through the names programmed into it. Steve Alden. She smiled and pressed the dial key.

"Hello Anna." The voice of Steve replied.

"Are you still with the President?" She asked.

"No, I am on my way to him. Lost him in Vegas. But we will catch up before ... they attack."

They attack? Of course. They were beheading the American Government to spread chaos and death even further.

"Steven. I need to know." She simply said, not necessary to tell him what. If he knew he knew exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Anna, not a good idea. I saw ... it won't be as easy as you might imagine. I mean ... he will be there ..."

"Steven, I count on it." She replied and closed her eyes. "Tell me, just tell me where they are."

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Iteration

 

July 2003, Sahara, Southern Mali

The girl cried and the sun dried her tears and turned them to salt before they could end their journey down her face.

Death had come to her tribe and death introduced itself through her. She had seen them die and nobody believed her. So she had went to the desert to cry and hide her despair from the rest of her people. All she had found was more death and now below the sand dune she had sat down on, she saw the burned remains of a camp. It had been burned to the ground. Bodies still smoking were scattered around it. The foreigners had left them alone, but when the girl had seen the ball of fire the night before she had known more had died. She had heard screams, not in the air, but in her head.

Finally she ended crying, forced herself up and felt the burning sensation of the hot sand between her feet. Then there was a sound. A moaning, a begging. Turning around slowly she saw the man who had crawled towards her. He was burned, his body had been bathed in fire. But he was alive.

 

IC: Kawin and Jane - A Combo Post
Diner in the middle of the desert.

The other three left them alone inside, and Jane had spouted her assurances that she had nothing to do with the attack. The attack which to him was just hours ago after repeating himself into a mini-coma. "We lost a lot of people, to an artificial sadist." he simply said in response as he reached up, lifted and dropped his glasses as he rubbed his face.

"I woke up with a mission from the dead to find you. Because you might help and now, we both are slated to be dead again. Nearly makes me wish to meet you by that nuke again with those trigger happy FBI standing about waiting to kill us as we saved them." He latched onto that, a memory, a shared experience before he had really lost anything beyond his old dead end life. Actually it made him wonder what had ever happened to that cute little girl and his inappropriate friend, he had always meant to stay in touch, but. . .life had been so hard. So many crisis' needed taken care of, training needed to be done. Surgeries to get to the point where he could stand again and shuffle step with polio canes. He had really let that old life slip away, along with the people that really had been there for his birth into the new one.

"What do you want to do?" he simply asked.

Jane sat back a little as the others left her and Kawin alone. It was almost like the front seats of her uncle's mustang again. Except she wasn't bleeding from a bullet wound and a knife slash, and Kawin could still walk back then. His mentioning of the bomb in New York must have brought back these memories. It felt like it'd been ages since that time, since before gifted existed, since before she found out about her own giftedness.

"It was a simpler time, back then. Before the world found out about time bending wizards." She let out a breath looking up at the ceiling. "We need to put a stop to this madness. And it starts with me bringing you in."

"How exactly does that work?" He simply asked as stopped avoiding it and simply looked at her.

"Easy." She said meeting his gaze. He looked older, older than the three years they'd been apart. "I take you to our little base, alone."

"If this is the plan you had before you came here, I think I just got a warning that it fails." he stated flatly as he looked at her. "So unless you have something else? A better plan that doesn't see us dead and the world turned to ash?"

"We don't have the forces to storm the place, unless LEGO makes a come back we don't have the power to try and break that mountain. Besides with another godlike in play we can't really try. Only other option is for me to waltz back there empty handed which will jeopardize everything. What other options do we have?" She lowered her head just a little not breaking eye contact. "Got a nuke handy?"

Laughing a little he nodded at the last bit, "Sorry, they confiscated the last one." he said with a grin as a thought occurred to him, "Although I do know a guy near a very important football." he added with a more serious note.

"Care to explain?" She asked tilting her head, slightly intrigued he knew someone up high enough to get the launch codes. "With everything else going on, and destruction wreaked across the country you sure your ball carrier is still running?"

"To be honest, I don't know. But I can give a call to the Vice President and if that doesn't work, well, I know a young girl that looks to be on track to be Sebastian two point Oh. She also owes me one, or five, honestly I lost track of how many times I died before the coma on the day of her awakening." he said with a bit of a grin.

"Does that mean I still owe you what...three?" She asked nonchalantly thought she was hiding her shock at having another LEGO on the field. At least it was on her side this time. "If you can get them up here in the next six to eight hours that might...might give us a chance."

Laughing he shoot his head at her as he dried away the last of his tears, happy that the emotions of this meeting were finally something other than doom-gloom-or betrayal. "How about we call it just one big one now. Even if you didn't take this job for me in the first place it doesn't seem payments going to matter in a year one way or another."

Fishing for his one he responded to the last. "President is already in the area, but so long as it isn't too close to where he is I am sure we can get something rolling. As to the other. I would be surprised if it takes her more than five minutes if I called it that radical a situation. . .do you have coordinates for me to relay? These people are always so touchy on such things."

"Dear lord, glad to have one of those on our side." Jane replied with a bit of a wan smile. "I can get you close, old military instillation built into a mountain. You got a phone...more importantly you got service. I can point it out on a map."

"Satellite phone. Not sure if it has a map feature. Really should probably hand it to a child, they always seem to be so much better with these infernal apps." he mutters as he tries to see if the sat phone or his phone either work that way or at all.

Jane watched him fiddle with the device looking to pull up a map on it. She'd worked with these things before, sometimes the only way to contact the client in the middle of the desert or the jungle.

"Let me take a look." She reached over her hand brushing against his. It was incidental they were just reaching for the same thing. With just a quick glance to him, a slight smirk on her face maybe it wasn't so incidental. "There we go." She said as a map came up on the screen. Whether it was Kawin or herself that brought it up she was unsure. Working the device she got it to the point she needed the Black Rock Desert. "There, they are right there." she said pointing it out and leaving up the coordinates. "Think your secret weapon can use that?"

Humming to himself he nodded, somewhat distant as his body became taunt at that brush, at that moment. "W-well. We shall, we shall just see then." Women, he still was falling apart like Barkley at a recital trying to talk to one when something like this happened. You would think he would be over what had happened to him from his wife, but he was still, what was the American term? Gun shy? Trying to brush it aside he focused on his phone calls he now needed to make.

Jane couldn't help her laugh when she saw him tense up. They had been through one of the worse nights in both their lives and he was freezing up from a little contact.

"You stitched me up in the front seat of a mustang." She said moving closer to him. "I would think a little hand touching would be nothing for you lady killer." She was teasing him, the fate of the world was on the line and she was teasing him. She gave him his space to make the calls though she would give a smirk everytime she caught his eye. When she wasn't playing with him, she kept her eyes out looking for threats or others of the militia coming to find her.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422 , @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Layola's Diner, Enterprise
and
Beach, Santa Monica


Jane saw nothing but the two girls and Chad outside. Chad was talking intensely to the older one while the little girl played with a ball she had found. Everything else was dead quiet, like a teaser of how the world would one day look like. An empty town in desert.

Kawin dialed Anna's number on the satellite phone and waited for her to take up.


Looking out at the empty beach at night, the wind in her hair Steven sighed into her ear. "Okay. I ... don't think there is any stopping this. Anna, I don't know how this is going to end. But please ... if Alpha shows up there slow time and run." He was silent for a moment and another call came in. "You better take that one. It is Kawin. He knows where you gotta go. Goodbye Anna." His voice revealed he did not expect to ever see her again.

Tag: @Mitth_Fisto, @galactic-vagabond422, @RachelTyrell

 

July 2003, Madiq Village, Southern Mali

Anwi had been a good healer for as long as the girl could remember. But she had not been able to do what Karim the elder had done for the man the girl had found outside their camp. He had just touched him and it seemed months of healing were done in a day. It had been necessary, this miracle.

The man had been burned so badly, he had been hardly recognizable. Now he was sitting in his bed with the soft skin of a baby, his blonde hair and steel-blue eyes and smiled at her when she entered the tent. He was surprisingly not Arab, as the others of his camp had been. No there sat a blonde man in his thirties. A man who looked like he had never had a more severe burn than a sunburn probably. "Salim Maleikum." He greeted Ayshe. "Maleikum salam." She replied in her own dialect and her eyes turned to the ground.

The man sat up and after a long moment of silence he smiled at her. "They say I owe you my life." He said and nodded. "My gratitude. I am Simon." The girl smiled and bowed her head. "Allah guided my hands and eyes. You must be one of his favourites as you have needed two miracles to survive."

The man nodded. "Miracles seem to be his gift nowadays. I heard this place is full of them. Is that true?" He asked politely.

The girl looked at him and wondered how he had found out. Should she tell him? About old Tariq now turning back time? About Karim the younger shifting between two places without moving a foot? Obviously he knew already.

"It is. But are we blessed or are we cursed?" She asked him and knew he had no answer. To her surprise he had.

"We are chosen." He said and Ayshe looked up. Of course they were. She sat down at his bed and listened ...

 

IC: Jane
Enterprise, Nevada

Jane looked away letting the man make his call in peace. He didn't need her teasing him. There was nothing, and no one for miles around. It was eerie strange. She'd spent much time in the desert but, there it felt different. You were always aware that somewhere out there there were people, civilization. Now with the virus spreading like wildfire the chances of anyone being left alive after this was minimal. They needed to stop this and their best chance it seemed like was on the other end of that phone call.

This wasn't the place for her, fighting for the fate of the world. This wasn't her, she wasn't a hero, she was the money loving villain, the second to the big bad that went out and killed everyone in their path. Though life was not a movie, not a story written out before you. You wrote your own and no matter what you could never write yourself into a corner. There was always a way out.

Maybe that was what Paul was offering at her Uncle's grave site. A way out of her bloody violent short life. Though he threw her right back into it, maintaining her cover he said. Came in use this time, gave her an in into what was going on, added another trained gun that would survive the assault on TARC. They were still outnumbered and outgunned but, they could still make this work as long as this other LEGO was all they were cracked up to be.

She excused herself moving towards the window to listen in on the conversation Chad and the older woman were having, while not leaving Kawin unprotected. There might not be anything out there now. But, she knew better than anyone, one moment your back is clear, the next it is being cut open by a teleporting madman with a knife.

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Maria Liang
Hong Kong, Repulse Bay



"If you could choose what superpower would you wanna have, little one?"
"Oh that is simple. Flying!"
"Dying? Did you say dying?"
"No Daddy. No. I said flying."
"The little one wants to die. Heard her? Haha. But you got that power, little butterfly. You totally got that power."
"No, I said flying ..."
"Dying ... you are dying ... dying dying dying ..."



Maria snapped up and gasped. She was inside a small house boat, she could see that right away. Sebastian was sitting with his back to her at a stove. She wanted to grab her gun, but it wasn't there. A violent cough shook her. Calmly Sebastian turned.

"Next to the bed. I put it there after you faded out." He pointed to the gun and Maria managed to fight down the cough, but not the pain.

"I dreamt of my father. Didn't do that in a long time." She said. He smiled indifferently and nodded.

"Guess there is a last time for everything, hm? Sebastian?" She slowly sat up. She war lying on a bed as if she was ill. She was. But not yet ready to give in to it. Swinging her legs out of the bed she sat at it's edge.

"Are you not afraid to catch it? To infect yourself?" She asked him. He shook his head.

"For some reason I am immune. Guess I just can no longer be effected by mundane things like ... life." He raised his brows and sighed. Then he allowed himself from a cowering position to transit into a sitting one.

"How practical. I have questions." She simply said.

"I can answer them, but there is nowhere to report it back to. Laura is dead. The others are preparing." He looked at her.

"So you know the questions, why don't you just give me the answers?" Maria asked and actually picked up her gun. Incredible how heavy it weighed in her hands.

Sebastian was silent. For a long moment he just looked at her. Then he nodded.

"Alpha stole the virus and set it free. I think he went back in time. Yes I think, that means I do not know ... because like the woman I have the ability from I cannot see the Gifted. Next question: No I can't go back and stop him. That was the point. He went back to where I could do nothing. My range of powers are limited to the timeframe after the second reactor went up, who gave me my power." He looked at her. Maria shook her head. "Third question: Yes younger going to die. Actually there is no scenario in which you get cured by a miracle. There are versions of this where you never get infected though. Those versions usually began by you never meeting me." He looked at her. "Those are the most common question. Oh and I got a bottle of water next to your bed, I know your throats feels dry and sore."

Maria stared at him for a long moment.
"Must be so boring to be you." She laughed.

"Oh you got no idea." He smiled back.

"One is missing." Maria said and looked at him.

"You will all die. All except a few of which most will starve to death and kill each other, before a remainder of humanity is all that is left. In ten years the reign of Alpha and his chosen will end abruptly and these artifacts of humanity will also vanish."

Maria frowned. "How?"

"I kill them." Sebastian answered and this was a different smile. It looked almost as if he fought his tears. He turned to the soup over the stove and put some of it into a bowl. He handed it over to Maria, who did not accept it right away.

"Why?" She looked at him and put the gun aside.

"I need the silence." He answered and gave her the hint of the sadest smile she had ever seen. She accepted the bowl, coughed and saw a drip of blood fall into the yellow curry soup. She looked up at Sebastian, but he was already getting out of the boat and stood outside watching the burning harbor. She began to eat, indeed feeling hunger now.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

August 2003, Madiq Village, Southern Mali

Fire! Fire everywhere! Anwi stumbled through the sands on fire screaming pain and collapsing in the center of the village. Then the deafening sound from the skies and explosions ripped apart another house. From the smoke a large black helicopter appeared like an ancient monster coming to consume them all ...

She opened her eyes and gasped from the intensity of the vision. He hands touched the warm sand and tears ran to her eyes. "What have you seen?" Simon sat behind her. Only Allah knew for how long. "Death." She whispered. Simon nodded. "They will come to take the blessing from your people. Have you seen our death?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I can't see our fate. I am blind to it." She said almost apologizing. Simon smiled at her. "That is because we make our own fate." He whispered and came closer. It was almost inappropriate how close he came. "Get the others who have been blessed. As many as will follow you."

She looked at him. "What about the village?"

Simon closed his eyes in regret. "It is lost. You have seen it."

 

A combined with RachelTyrell !

IC: Kawin Muthurangu & Anna Talbott
The Call.

Trying to put the awkward situation out of his mind he found himself once more falling into customer service mode when it came to making a phone call. An old occupational hazard. His voice was light, mildly cheery as he finally heard the sound of the tell-tale click of someone answering the phone. "Good Afternoon Anna, this is Kawin. We have a bit of a situation with reality and I was wondering if you might be available to help out?"

Anna did as she was told and picked up the call from the unknown number. It was Kawin.

"More than happy. But I was actually looking for a vaccine I was told ... you might know where to find it. So what is your current crisis? We have so many I could not guess."

Vaccine, right. Had to save the world on three fronts. "Base should have some by now, the man you killed should have the cure in his blood. Make sure you are inoculated before showing up and feel free to break the speed laws and be done in less than a minute." Putting a hand to his head he readjusted his glasses.

"As for my situation, looks like the Presidents in trouble, discovered a nest of bad guys, and Alpha is in town. Now I am hoping to get a nuke to take care of the second problem, but that leaves us with the President and Alpha. Alpha, he is kinda like you, over powered control that can end most of us and likely behind the virus killing everyone. So Dark Mirror Universe version, actually I think he might have a beard." Sighing he waited for her process what he had just shared.

"He doesn't. Also he has very different powers than I have." Anna shivered at the thought of him. "Listen, maybe we got some blood of an immune, but correct me if I am wrong ... not a Doctor ... that is not a vaccine. We can probably make one from it, but that takes time. I think we cannot nuke the villains. We gotta get the vaccine out of there. Probably best with the scientist who are making it? Then we can nuke them. So can you tell me where I find them?"

"Our guys are working on the vaccine as we speak, reverse processing and isolating it before mass production can start. Your right. That takes time, but we don't need their scientists necessarily, we need whatever samples and data they have. If you can grab a scientist or take one of us with you who has been trained somewhat on these things, if you can extend your effect to someone else go in and grab everything we need, get it back to our guys as we then nuke it before they know what happened would be ideal." Sighing he looked back at where their source was obviously trying to eavesdrop at the window. "That would still leave the first problem of the President of this country." Lowering his voice he continued, "Granted he isn't mine, but we are obligated to try. And Alpha is a problem we will have to face."

Anna looked out to the Pacific Ocean in front of her.

"Listen. I get the vaccine. Just tell me where and when the nuke drops and I will be in and out within a second." She sighed. "But you need to take care of the Potus, at least until I can catch up."

Alpha she did not mention. They would not hunt the man, he would hunt them. She knew that the second she saw him.

"So where is it? I will get there right away."

"Alright, I'll send the co-ordinates to you now. Once I verify the Nuke the I will let know asap. Maybe the Oracle has something to help us with this as well." He muttered as he waited a beat just enjoying the silence of a phone line with the rest of the world on hold as it were. "Anna, I'm so sorry I dragged you into this mess, but I'm glad you're here." he simply said as way of a farewell, one he wasn't sure he would get to give again.

"Kawin, from what I see everybody is about to die. Everybody. At least you gave me a chance to stop this. I cannot say I feel like I am ... perfect for this. But someone has to try, right?"

Anna sighed and closed her eyes. "Send me the coordinates. Good luck." She did not know what else to say.

"I'm sorry Anna. You never should have had to be in this position like me and the others. We tried to prevent it. I'm sorry Anna, Good Luck." Kawin spoke softly. He waited a few moments to make sure she had nothing else to say before he would hang up and get to work on that second call.

TAG: @DarkLordoftheFins , @RachelTyrell , @galactic-vagabond422

 

Matt Andrews
Motel

Matt recognized the steps as Gates as the man entered the room in which Matt had been going through reports.

"Sir, evac might be a problem." Gates said and sighed. He still felt uncomfortable about reporting to Matt but slowly adjusted to the reality of his career being basically over and him ... for once ... serving his Courtney instead of his own career.

"What is the problem?" Matt asked rubbing the palm of his head.

"We have a team outside quarantine, but considering we are amidst the quarantine zone and had contact with infected we need to go into quarantine once we leave the area. 72 hours. Which means you would need to hand over control to Speaker Walken. Which is a problem, as he ... seems to be infected." Gates swallowed.

"It reached D.C.?" Matt simply asked. Gates nodded, absolutely aware this might have been at least partly his responsibility.

"Who else?" Matt asked and now turned fully to Gates.

"We had over two thousand people calling in ill this morning. Yet, the number raises constantly. We have to assume most of the Pentagon and White House have been exposed and considering the infection rate of this ... virus ..."

Matt nodded. The worst case scenario had come and way earlier than he had hoped for. The Governemnt would soon have to fight to be operational at all.

"There is another thing. A man from TARC with an unspeakable name is trying to get hold of you over the Vice Presidents number." Gates was obviously uncomfortable with this too.

"Put Kawin through." Matt simply said and leaned back taking the satellite phone.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Mitth_Fisto

 

Anna Talbott
Mansfield Retreat, Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Anna received the coordinates and slowed down time instinctively. Kawin had said he was sorry. She was not. If she was honest, she was angry now. Angry Laura Changte and her had fought earlier today about a man's life when she had now agreed to kill hundreds through a nuclear warhead. All of them as guilty as he was. She was angry these monsters had released the virus. She was angry she was so badly prepared and untrained. She was angry with so many things.

She walked down the street and looked out for something to drive. A motorcycle would be perfect. Because a motorcycle was getting through the cars now standing everywhere as she had slowed them down to a degree they were almost frozen.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Anna Talbott
Mansfield Retreat, Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Anna received the coordinates and slowed down time instinctively. Kawin had said he was sorry. She was not. If she was honest, she was angry now. Angry Laura Changte and her had fought earlier today about a man's life when she had now agreed to kill hundreds through a nuclear warhead. All of them as guilty as he was. She was angry these monsters had released the virus. She was angry she was so badly prepared and untrained. She was angry with so many things.

She walked down the street and looked out for something to drive. A motorcycle would be perfect. Because a motorcycle was getting through the cars now standing everywhere as she had slowed them down to a degree they were almost frozen.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Kawin Muthurangu
The Call. The Second.

Raising a thumbs up to Jane he set to dialing in a second number. He would restate what he already had to the others as soon as whomever was on the other end transferred his call to the U.S. President of A. Or however this basic war prime minister liked to be called.

The satellite phone connected through the silence and Kawin had to wrack his brain, again, for authentication codes. A short diddy really. "Mr. President. We have found the source of the disease and enemy Gifted camp on U.S. soil and I implore you to send a bunker buster Nuke to the incoming coordinates. We will have a gifted infiltrate and extract any possible cure moments before the strike to minimized evacuation if you give us a time table. Also sir, your position is about to be over-run by the LEGO level escapee from prison. We will try to get to you in time." It felt like verbal diarrhea, but he had to get it out there. Quickly, clearly. Then wait.

He prayed this worked.

TAG: @LordTroepfchen , @galactic-vagabond422

 

Matt Andrews
Motel

Matt listened to Kawin. So they had a target. They knew where to hit them.

"This is President Andrews. I will try my best to arrange accordingly." He looked at Gates. Then he sighed.

"You refer to Alpha." He then simply said. He knew the report on how the man had basically wiped out an army at Antville. So it had been him all along.

The Reckoning He had promised it to Ayshe. The reports told him about that one too. So this was the Reckoning. A virus and a group of artificially created Gifted. The man had made good on his promise.

Matt pushed his glasses up and massaged his eyebrows. His eyes were closed. His mind was racing.

Going into quarantine meant leaving the US Governemnt with a shaky command structure at best and probably a nuclear strike would be impossible.

If this was meant to work he had to stay here and order the strike. So they would have to defend themselves. "Get here as fast as possible, please. But first send me the coordinates of the target and the contact info of our agent." He sighed. "I will arrange accordingly."

He looked at Gates. "I need the football." He referred to the nuclear activating suitcase they had with them. "I also need a verifying second on this line in fifteen minutes. We won't be able to use any predetermined target, so make sure the Airforce has an armed F-117 online and in air to Nevada right now. We go to Defcon 1." He was shaking his head. No President before him had ever used a nuclear weapon on US soil. Was that what he would be remembered for?

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Kawin Muthurangu
The Call. The Second.

Nodding he gave the customary words, trite though they felt. "Yes sir." "Yes." "I will send the data immediately sir."

The sad thing was, there was not much else to say. Everything was laid out, the option he was putting forward was there. It came down to the President simply accepting what he was given and choosing. Kill those killing you, or show mercy and let them live and be the new face of the human race. Only thing was, there wasn't much hope. Not when you have time travelers already telling you what happened.

One way or another the bomb was dropped. An epitaph of excess force against one of the few enemies that would ever, could ever call for such a thing. Lowering his phone he sent the information, it felt so heavy. Every key he dialed in was another dozen men and women he was sending to die. On the other hand, it might just be the same for how many he was saving, those that might not be psychopaths.

As soon as the information was sent, the deed was done, he sat back and simply sighed. "So this is how the world dies again."

TAG: @LordTroepfchen , @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Jane
Enterprise, Nevada

Jane had remained at the window looking over her shoulder from time to time just to make sure that everything was fine. She was giving Kawin space, space he needed to make the calls to all the important people he seemed to just have on speed dial. She caught bits and pieces of things. The new LEGO was on her way and a nuke now had coordinates to strike. Now all they needed to do was slip into the base get the antidote and get out before hell rained from above. Not that she was being flippant about the power of the atom. She'd been on the receiving end of that particular weapon of mass destruction. Both of them had. She'd rather not suffer through that again and she was sure Kawin didn't either. Seeing that he was done she moved back towards him sitting on the opposite bench from him.

"So you doing ok? That couldn't have been easy."

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Layola's Diner, Enterprise, Nevada
and Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Chad and both girls came back into the diner and Chad walked over to Kawin and Jane.

"So we got two options of moving forward. We go and protect the Potus or we go and back up Anna at Black Rock and God knows she can use back-up. So I have two questions. What should we do? A d considering we know how it ends ..." He pointed at "Angel" and the little girl. "Shouldn't we do the opposite?"

Chad shrugged. "I for my part should be where Alpha is, because for all his fantastic powers ... I can take those away from him and that leaves him as a simple human. Humans can be shot." Chad shrugged. "Also I think personally it is a bad idea to get you near radiation. Kills slowly you know?" He sighed to Kawin.

Tag: @galactic-vagabond422, @Mitth_Fisto




Mojave Desert, Nevada

The Kawasaki was a little heavier than she was used to, but it was fast and nimble and once Anna got used to it the machine made it easy for her to navigate around the obstacles of a frozen world.

She made it out of L.A. and was on her way to Barstow when she realized the world had not only slowed ... it had stopped entirely. While she was speeding up, as if she had absorbed the kinetic might ... as if she had stolen it.

Of course a motor still needed Gas and she had to resume time to get that. When she did her phone rang. It was Laura's number. Calling her.

TAG: @RachelTyrell


Black Rock Installation

Taylor had watched Laura Changte die through the satellite he had linked into. He was surprised by how much of the old Shadow Network infrastructure was still intact. He skipped channel and saw the Motel complex the President was hiding in. He saw how a secure connection was build up and the Washington contacts said the Defense Minister was dragged into the White House. "They are activating the Cerberus Protocol. A nuclear strike." He turned to Malcolm and the man sighed. "Let's hope Alpha delivers on his promise. To late not to trust him I assume." Malcolm replied in his natural cool voice.

Taylor smirked. "Yeah, whatever trust is." He replied and leaned back. "Prepare your men."

Tag: Nobody

 

Anna Talbott
Somewhere in Nevada

She stopped tanking her bike right away and fumbled the phone out of her jacket. Laura! Anna picked up the phone. Had Laura survived? Had she really made it?

"I finally figured it out. Took me a while." The voice was male and spoke with a British accent.

"Alpha." She said and looked around as if a call indicated he was nearby.

"You know where you were conceived? Where your parents made you?" He asked and she blinked. What did this have to do with anything?

"Africa. My parents did charity work for the Red Cross." He Dad had told her several time about how romantic this had been, so she had figured this one out long ago.

"Mali. To be precise. I remember them. We considered killing them, but decided these American charity tourists were harmless and murdering them would draw too much attention to our camp." Alpha smiled, she could hear it.

Anna was confused. "What does that have to do with anything?" She asked.

"It has to do with everything, Anna. You and I ... our power ... we were both born in Mali." Alpha whispered.

Anna blinked and wiped sweat from her eyebrows. "You mean ..."

"Our powers come from a rare isotope only found in a certain region in Mali. You are of the first generation of Gifted. The last of us. You and me. We are all they have not killed. And now they send you to your death."

Anna breathed through. "One of us will die. That much is certain." She replied and probably did not sound as badass as she hoped to. Alpha laughed at her.

"I have been trained to kill long before you were born. I have killed all my life. But I have never killed one of my kind. I don't want to. Think about it. You don't have to die. You can have a vaccine and ... just imagine what you would be to a world without them." Alpha laughed.

"What would I be? Hm? A tyrant? A monster?" Anna grew angry that the man thought watching the world die would be tempting for her.

"A God." He replied. She could hear he actually believed it. "Better rule in hell than serve in heaven they say."

"Actually I am totally addicted to Instagram, so I am afraid I will have to save civilization, sorry." She replied and there was a long silence on the other line. M

"Good luck with that." Alpha replied and killed the line.

Anna put her mobile away again and lowered her head. He really wanted the world to end to rule the ruins of it. Madness. The man had lost his mind.

She could not shake the feeling the attack would not surprise him though. He knew what was coming.

It did not change a thing. She had to get the vaccine. Even if it cost her innocence, life and soul ... she had to do this or Laura and everybody else had died for nothing.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

ooc: Combined with Fin

 

IC: Kawin Muthurangu
Diner, Nevada.

Jane moved back towards him sitting on the opposite bench from him as soon as the calls were done.

"So you doing ok? That couldn't have been easy." she simply asked. It was surprising and a little startling to be honest. Was he doing okay? He had just survived most of his business friends and associates being killed not even a day ago, he had just called for a nuclear strike - something he still had occasional nightmares about, he was sending someone that was a girl, not a woman, a girl to perform a split second infiltration and extraction before a nuclear warhead hit on her soon to be position.

"No." he simply said, and then was saved by the ding of the door as the others returned. Saving him from having to delve into the depth and pain of that monosyllable.

Chad and both girls came back into the diner and Chad walked over to Kawin and Jane.

"So we got two options of moving forward. We go and protect the Potus or we go and back up Anna at Black Rock and God knows she can use back-up. So I have two questions. What should we do? A d considering we know how it ends ..." He pointed at "Angel" and the little girl. "Shouldn't we do the opposite?"

Chad shrugged. "I for my part should be where Alpha is, because for all his fantastic powers ... I can take those away from him and that leaves him as a simple human. Humans can be shot." Chad shrugged. "Also I think personally it is a bad idea to get you near radiation. Kills slowly you know?" He sighed to Kawin.

Leaning back he closed his eyes. "Sounds like we should face Alpha." he simply stated to the ceiling. "I've died five times I think from a nuclear blast already, I think, what's once more? He's not really my President anyway." Rolling his head down he knew his own thought was a bad one, a somewhat suicidal one. "Jane? Angel?" he left it to them. He really didn't care where he was going or tasked with at this point. He would leave it to the majority, this was a democracy for at least a day longer. Let them decide it. Let fate be made by those that lived it.

Tag: @galactic-vagabond422, @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Jane
Enterprise, Nevada

Jane wanted to reach out a hand to put in on his shoulder, to do something to reassure him. However Chad interrupted, with the two ladies in tow. The options were simple. Do what they could to protect the president, well current president, or do what little they can to help their godlike gifted complete their mission before the whole area gets blasted to hell. Chad was leaning towards going to the base or where Alpha would be. She was dubious if he'd even get the chance to activate his power. These were gods they were dealing with, they could alter reality however they wished. She doubted if Chad had the capability to overcome that kind of power.

"Someone want to fill me in on 'How this all ends?'" she said with finger quotes. "I just slowdown time I don't see the future." She looked to the little girl, the one with the power of the outsiders. "I know I'm going to die just need to know we we see the end of this before it happens." She lets out a breath shaking her head. Here she was playing the hero...that really didn't suit her. Though it wasn't like she had much choice. "For what it's worth I think making sure these psychopaths die is more important than who is running the country."

TAG: @Mitth_Fisto @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Layola's Diner, Enterprise, Nevada


Chad nodded to Angel to answer Jane's question about the end. "She can't see it, she is coming from it." Angel lowered her eyes as if this was something to be afraid of. Then she finally talked.

"Yes, I am from the future. So all of this is ... history to me. Regrettably this history is mostly oral retelling over campfire. So ... we don't know for sure. But here, today the final battle takes place. In the future it will be considered the last battle, the great conflict that decided the fate of the world." Angel looked at Jane. "The victors call it that. That is not you. You lost. The man you call Alpha won. Alpha and a bunch of those psychopaths who ... took over what was left of the world." She gave a bitter smirk. "Which wasn't much."

She allowed a moment of silence.

Angel looked at Kawin. "He was there. Anna was there, too. Never heard of the rest of you. The President was dead by the end of the conflict, too. The Government was so ridden by the Black Doctor they never managed to establish a working Government again." She sighed and folded her arms. "As I said before, the vaccine is what counts for me. Also killing those psychos. It will make a difference. The President ... probably not as much. But I am not much use in combat. So I suggest I actually go to the President and warn him. You go and ... save the world." Angel looked at them.

Chad finally sighed. "I'd say the votes are strongly in favor of going with Anna after the vaccine. So be it." He looked at the others and finally his gaze stopped with Angel. "You warn the President to get the hell out of Nevada. We gotta get going." He took out his gun and checked it, before nodding to the three cars outside.

Tag: @galactic-vagabond422, @Mitth-Fisto




Black Rock, Mojave Desert, Nevada

Street Blocks (and there were quite a few) and military patrols did not stop her or even slow her down. Nothing could keep Anna from arriving on top of
this Düne looking down at ... Black Rock.

If you can slow time it makes it impossible to be spotted. You can move between a camera taking two frames and vanish from sight before someone ever turns his head.

Anna could be pretty sure she had not been seen yet, when she arrived at her final watching spot. Black Rock. Neither was the facility much to look at nor was it exceptionally black. It were buildings that looked abandoned. An old army base of something. The sheer amount of trucks now here seemed to indicate there was more though. Underground. The base had to be underground.

Soldiers patrolled the perimeter. Cars and vans arrived, weapons were loaded. It was rather obvious they prepared to move.

Then the message of the current President arrived on her phone. Two hours until the nuclear strike. The part Laura had not prepared her for began. The waiting ...

TAG: @RachelTyrell

 

IC: Kawin Muthurangu
Layola's Diner, Enterprise - Nevada

Chad and mostly had a good bit to say, answering Jane's question and sorting abilities. Not that he really understood Angels all that well, and this was by and large taken on faith and graffiti. When it finally came down to the others points of view on the situation Kawin was feeling halfway ready. For what he couldn't say, just ready. To win, lose, live or die. He was ready.

Angel looked at Kawin. "He was there. Anna was there, too. Never heard of the rest of you. The President was dead by the end of the conflict, too. The Government was so ridden by the Black Doctor they never managed to establish a working Government again." She sighed and folded her arms. "As I said before, the vaccine is what counts for me. Also killing those psychos. It will make a difference. The President ... probably not as much. But I am not much use in combat. So I suggest I actually go to the President and warn him. You go and ... save the world." Angel looked at them.

Chad finally sighed. "I'd say the votes are strongly in favor of going with Anna after the vaccine. So be it." He looked at the others and finally his gaze stopped with Angel. "You warn the President to get the hell out of Nevada. We gotta get going." He took out his gun and checked it, before nodding to the three cars outside.

Kawin sighed at this. "I already spoke with the President. He knows and is ordering up that nuke. So Angel I would say take a look but protect yourself if you want, I know where we are going is no place for younger you and destruction we will have rained down here was made on choices from Jane that predate your input." he left it at that. They were about to make the newest nuclear test site partly below ground in the first time since the cold wars. That one in New York, that didn't count. It doesn't count if only one other person remembers it happening, remembers the light, the heat and that burning tingle before it all began again.

Shaking his head to clear those haunting cobwebs he drummed the table lightly with his fingertips.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422 , @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Sebastian Klein and Maria Liang
Repulse Bay, Hong Kong Island

Maria was weak on her legs as she stepped next to Sebastian. He turned towards her and smiled down at her. Then she did something she had not expected and certainly he had not. She kissed him. A tender, simple kiss ... not passionate but full of caring affection.

The kiss did not last, as he legs gave in and gently he put her on the simple bed in the room. It was hot, but that wasn't the reason she sweat.

Sebastian took a chair and sat next to her.

"I sprayed Graffiti at some walls and hoped to change the world, now I can change it by snipping my fingers and want nothing more than people leaving me alone. I am the living example of people not knowing what they truly want, am I?"

"You still spray Graffiti." Maria smiled.

"True."

"Why?" Maria asked and tried to focus her gaze.

"Old habits, I guess."

Maria shook her head. "Nonsense. You have put thought into the one in London. Prepared. It was a warning." Maria raised her brows. "One could argue it was the last thing someone who wanted to be left alone would do. Quite the contrary. It was a nod to all of us ... I am still there."

Sebastian looked at her and shook his head. "Not for all of you. It was message to one man."

"Who?"

"Don't you know?" He asked.

"The one behind this. This isn't an accidential flu. It was released?"

Sebastian came back to her and smiled. "If your mind is that quick under fever I don't wanna know what you can do when healthy."

"What was the message?"

"It was: I know what you are doing."

"Why did you gave him that message? Will you go after him?" Maria hoped the answer would be yes.

"Maria, I don't go after anyone."

"Why? He must be ... stopped ..."

"You missed that chance three years ago." Sebastian smiled. "He obtained it three years ago."

Maria looked at him and did not know what was more shocking, how easily he said it or that he knew this and done nothing to stop him.

"Why did you not save us ..."

"There is no saving you. All you can do is change the point in time when you cease to exist." Sebastian looked at her. "I see you die, you all die. All the time."

Maria did not fully understand his words, but could imagine these things were hard to communicate. "When will I die?"

Sebastian smiled one of his favourite sad and tortured smiles. "Thirty minutes."

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Anna Talbott
Black Rock Facility

So this was it. A bunch of warehouses in the desert and a hidden underground base. If she would have had to imagine a villains liar this was probably it.

Anna realized she probably needed a plan, but that was nothing she felt she was able to do. Plan? She had no experience at all with ... what was this? An assault? A raid? An extraction? She was not even sure of the right term for this kind of "operation".

So what was left was brute force. She controlled her powers now much better, so doors and soldiers would hopefully not be a problem, except for those who could counter her abilities somehow. With a bit of luck there was none of those around. Also Alpha had seemed immune to her power for unknown reasons. She also had to hope he wasn't here or she would be able to avoid him. Her mission was getting the vaccine somewhere down there in the complex and leave before the bomb dropped. How long would she wait? Five minutes? Three? She decided five would be a save bet, also not allowing any of the soldiers from around here to escape the blast radius.

Anna Talbott had three days ago been an Instagram influencer with aspirations to become a model and the deep down knowledge she was to small for
the job. Now she was about to kill single handedly a terrorist organization.

What a week.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins