Super Hero High: Prometheus Rising (IC, Open)

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Sarah nodded at Kora, understanding that the girl did not have enough control over her powers to make a good example or a demonstration, and then simply headed towards the simulation room, knowing that the next class was going to begin soon. Noticing the time, Sarah hastened her pace in order to arrive at the class in time. It was not a class she wanted to miss, after all. In the end, she ended up arriving only slightly after Dominic, and once there she entered the pod.

Once she was inside the simulation, Sarah waited until Dominic entered and explained the situation. Afterwards, she simply stood by, appraising her pistol and recalling what Aaron had taught them in regards to them. She didn't have the need for weaponry, as she could create it from shadows, even if they were only as strong as the material the shadow was covering. In the end, however, she decided to grab a knife, if only to be sure.

---

After practicing his Vector Manipulation with his coin for another while, Raymond decided that it was finally time to head over to Dominic's class in the simulation room. He had no hurry getting there, but he didn't exactly want to miss the class either, though he certainly wouldn't be pissed or dissappointed if he did. Regardless, he arrived at the class, although as one of the 'stragglers', and quickly entered one of the remaining free pods in order to access the simulation.

As soon as he was inside, he looked around at the complete whiteness of the room, feeling somewhat uneasy. However, this soon stopped since Dominic entered the simulation and began explaining the situation to the students. Once the briefing was done, Raymond walked over to the rack and examined the available weapons.

"Perfect..." He muttered once he noticed a few throwing knives. He took them, having learned how to use them in combination with his Vector Manipulation for combat purposes, and then waited for someone else to make a plan. He wasn't much of a leader, or at least, didn't want to be.

[Kershya]

Bramwell and Makoto"He is definately at the listed location. He has nine 'thugs' as he is calling them working for him. Does anybody have any suggestions for how to take them out efficiently? Until a suggestion is made, I will have to assume we will take advantage of a blind-spot along one wall in the back. Since I can see a door there and no windows on that wall, we could reason it leads to back rooms that would have emergency exits we could use to enter," Bramwell said calmly. Bramwell was having problems taking the program seriously because it was so close to being real that he was able to spot the minute details that were off. Despite the realistically detailed crows that were at nests, fledglings were not hiding outside of the nests, and instead stood in plain sight from the nest. It seemed this was not meant to be an accurate representation of crow behavior.

Antonio then look at his belt, seeing the small smoke ball-like spheres Shade usually make, some makes a large shadowy mist used in stealth and escape, while others give a burst of concentrated emotion that Shade has absorb, all color coded, purple smoke bombs, red concentrated anger, green concentrated fear, and blue concentrated sorrow, all that absorbed emotion has to be released one way or the other. He then replace the gun with two rattan sticks used in eskrima. He then notice some orange smoke balls.

'What's this? This looks new.' Antonio thought as he carefully watch one of the orange spheres.

'Concentrated pain, be careful where you throw that.' Shade replied.

"I can't teleport through the shadows, since I need to know what the place looks like, and it's likely I don't have a fighting chance, but I can incapacitated them with these." Antonio said as he pulls out the orange, green, and blue smoke balls, "The smoke will only last for five seconds usually, but anyone who touch the orange smoke will get a heavy dose of concentrated pain, green's concentrated fear, and blue's concentrated sorrow. Unfortunately, the feeling would last for one minute in order for Shade to make more of these out of the emotions he absorbed." He then look at the west and notice how realistic the simulation is, and a few minute errors.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Good, we at least know what we can throw through the door before storming the place," Bramwell said. "I can see a plan forming. We could enter the back rooms and have the best defensive powers and Antonio stack up on the door. Standing behind nearby buildings would be the others. When we proceed to provide a decent distraction, the back-stabbers could then move in for the offensive while the rest are distracted."

"Would you mind if I were to have a few to telekinetically throw through the door?" Makoto asked. Makoto wanted to know because, if so, she could use the exact same information Bramwell is gathering due to the telepathic link, and so she could use the sights of the very thugs at the bar to know exactly when they would not be looking.

[Kershya]

Bramwell and Makoto"Would you mind if I were to have a few to telekinetically throw through the door?" Makoto asked. Makoto wanted to know because, if so, she could use the exact same information Bramwell is gathering due to the telepathic link, and so she could use the sights of the very thugs at the bar to know exactly when they would not be looking.

"Sure." Antonio said as he give a few orange, green, and blue smoke balls. "Be careful not to put too much pressure though. It might burst prematurely."

[Corrian]

(I think I just had to confuse myself by coincidentally doing 2 names that started with C. I did the same thing with A's by accident. I occasionally get mixed up)
"Okay" Caitlin said simply to the teachers answer to her question. It was pretty much the exact type of response she expected. Of course he worded it different then she expected, but his general explanation was exactly what she had expected it would be. It all seemed reasonable to her and logically possible. Obviously.

Caitlin looked at the weapon rack, and first picked up a very thin, but quite long sword. She examined it, and liked the relative lightness of it. It was even lighter then her wooden practice swords. But it hit her that it probably wasn't that useful over all. It was so small that some of the men might not act very affected by it, and they only have a small leaking hole in them. It wouldn't chop a mans head off or decapitate them. Not that she really cared. But after she thought about it some more, she decided to stick with it because it was light, and if she had to resort to using the sword before the criminals decided to surrender, a jab of the sword in the leg or the arm might give enough of a message across to surrender. And she figured she'd probably always take a gun along with her, one along the lines of what she was carrying now, but real. If she could, she'd avoid lethal force as much as possible.

After listening to Bramwell, who seemed to sort of take leadership...which was fine with her, she chimed in. "I could phase through a wall of the building real quick, confusing the hell out of the thugs, hopefully distracting them, and then phase back out. Then I say something along the lines of "Go, they are distracted" in my head, and Bramwell picks it up in my mind, then gives the queue to everyone else to go in and take them out. After we throw some stuff in first of course. Then, after you guys all go in, I actually join in the fight by coming back in. Maybe just charging in and catching them off guard will be enough to send them a message to surrender" She said, swinging her sword around in front of her as she spoke, making sure she was ready.

(Cassie)
As Bramwell mentioned he saw where the man was through his telepathic ability, and that he had 9 thugs, she glanced at the information packet, just to see who they were up against. Suddenly she started to look distant, as if she had suddenly got lost in a memory. That wasn't the case, but since nobody really knew her ability, it may look like it. After a few seconds, she came back to reality and confirmed what Bramwell said with a nod. At first the people who knew that her ability was a weak form of precognition might think she had seen the future and confirmed the location, but then if they knew her that well, they'd know that her precognition abilities was more of a curse then any use at all. So they might just get confused.

"I will just cover people or something. I'm not much use with a weapon or with any of my powers. I haven't had a whole lot of combat training, and my powers aren't fighting powers. So I may be kinda useless with the fight itself" she said, sighing. "I could help with convincing the main bad guy to surrender though, with all the firepower pointed at him and people with powers" She suggested, shrugging. It had just hit her that maybe she shouldn't of come along at all, since how much she jumped and seemed to panic when gunshots fired off. She had improved from her first gun lesson, but she still seemed timid and jumpy around guns, for whatever known reason. Only she knew the reasoning why she was afraid of guns.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"What we need is to move with lightning pace. When smoke starts filling the place, all hell is going to break loose. Caitlin, your ability would come in handy with flanking. The door is off to the right of the wall in question. If you were to enter through the left of that at the bar counter, it would add to the chaos they would experience and maybe force a quick surrender,"

"Just in case the simulation keeps track of it, be ready to run should a fire start, or else that counter is going to be an inferno," Makoto said as she eyed the pellets. "If you are afraid of bullets, would you be willing to help observe the situation at a distance?"

"Once hell breaks loose on the inside, I will not be able to do as much, but you could act as the all-seeing eye that would allow me to retain some amount of situational awareness once the fighting begins. Your precognition should also be of use, as there is the chance it would allow us to forsee fatal errors in advance and divert away from them." Bramwell said in a complimentary manner. Bramwell liked the thought of having a spotter and seer on the team.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Seeing that most others were offering their help to pull off the plan, Sarah decided that it was about time that she tried to add in her own contributions, and so, she spoke up, addressing Bramwell, who seemed to have taken up the leadership of the group.

"If there is any material that can withstand bullets around here, I could use that to help protect myself and others." She stated. Then, believing that she might need to explain things to others, she spoke up again. "I have the power of Umbrakinesis. The shadows I control take on the properties of the materials they were covering. Thus if I use shadows that were projected over something strong enough to withstand bullets I can use that for defense." She explained.

"I could also help with any injuries that are sustained during the battle."

---

Raymond, too, saw how everyone began adding in their own bits of information in order to make the plan as flawless as possible. Even though he didn't like being forced to team up with others, he knew this was important, so he decided that he might as well try to help make it better. Thus, he spoke up.

"Given my power, if I could somehow get a clear vision of everything that's happening inside the building, I could easily wreak havoc from a distance with these." He said, showing his throwing knives as he finished the sentence. "It won't work with bullets, though. Mostly because they're too damn fast."

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"If we had three inches of water seperating us from the enemies, then any weapons of a higher caliber than a pistol or sub-machine gun would shatter and become of no threat within that space. We'd need eight feet of water to keep us safe from pistol caliber ammunition, but their first thought will be to use their highest caliber weapons on us anyway, so we should be fine if we have a three-inch shield of water between us and them," Makoto said.

"Good idea. We probably have time to get enough water for that idea to work. Could you make that idea work Sarah? If not, we will still need a medic to go along with the breaching team due to that team drawing their fire and the possibility of the target taking damage. Raymond, I like your thinking. Throwing knives will add fuel to the flames. Once we have organized who will be on the breaching team, surveillance team, and flanking team, we could reasonably take them down quickly. The most important target to take down is John due to his power absorption capabilities. We need him either too confused to do any harm or down so that the rest can be dispatched without worry. Once we have agreed to a plan, we can choose our teams and get into position to unleash hell," Bramwell said.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Sarah nodded at Bramwell and Makoto as they spoke, and replied when they finished. "I should be able to make three-inch thick water shields if I can find any water around. It takes a bit more concentration to hold the shadows together but I should be able to do it. We don't need a large quantity of water either." Sarah explained. Then, afterwards, she decided to speak up again.

"Also, if the main goal is to take John away, then I could be able to make him come to us by controlling his blood, but that would mean that I would no longer be able to act as a medic for as long as I'm controlling John. I'm not entirely sure if I can pull something like that off, either." She stated, hoping that her input would be useful.

---

Raymond listened to what Bramwell said, and spoke once Sarah was done. "Or, if we only need him alive, but not in pristine condition, I could easily leave him out of combat, and Sarah could keep him alive or something if he takes too much damage." He suggested. "Or, since my power only works on existing forces, if Tyler gives John a little push or something like that, I could probably get him out of the fray. But then again he might use the same power on me or himself afterwards."

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Hmm, the instructions do not say for him to be brought to the highway in pristine condition. I am sure less-than-lethal injuries would be fine so long as he does not die, lose the function of any apendages, or suffer traumatic brain injuries. For future reference, the thighs should be the best place to hit him with lethal force as he will not likely die from penetrating trauma there. In terms of the blood control idea, we should keep that in-mind. I can see potential for a plan where we have him storm-out the back door, and have an ambush ready there should the others show concern. There, we could divide teams into observers, ambushers, and marshalls. The upside would be that we could have the biggest threat out of play before a fight even breaks out, but the downside would be that they could head there, and notice something's wrong when one guy get's mowed down after exiting the back door, which could lead to them flanking us should our observation fail us. Still, the blood plan is a good option." Bramwell said.

[Camicon]

It took me a little while to find the fighting sticks that I had outside of the simulator. Once I did, I listened to the conversation for a moment, and then joined in.

"This John person emulates powers, correct? And we need to make sure he arrives at the drop point alive, no? Well, it's pretty straightforward then.

The biggest problem we face is limiting our initial attack just the right amount. Too little and he could end up dead. Too much, and we could end up dead. Thing is, as far as I'm aware, I can heal virtually any injury. It still hurts, and the pain can still drop me, but it can't kill me. If I could engage the John character one-on-one, then the rest of you wouldn't need to hold back on the offensive. If a knife goes awry and hits him in the neck, if he gets some shrapnel through the stomach, then he'll heal up soon enough with no ill effects. A little dizzy if he loses too much blood, but that's about it. And while he can emulate powers, he can't emulate learned skills. Unless he's an expert in some form of martial art or another, he won't be able to hold his own against me. If I was sitting around the back with two other people with some form of combat training or experience, it would be easy enough to take down his cronies if they all come flooding out the back, which they won't in any case.

Thugs are purely opportunists. They strike when they have the advantage of numbers and firepower. The second the tide of the battle turns any one with half a brain turns tail, and the only ones with half a brain are the leaders of the groups. John is a leader of thugs. We could engage them through the front, let them think they have the upper hand, then throw in whomever they've been holding back. John and a couple others will try to run out the back, but the rest will continue to fight. When John comes out the back I could engage him, a couple others could engage anyone else with him. Once we're done subduing them, if the battle out front is still going on, we take them from behind.

As long as the people engaging in the frontal attack stay at range, we minimize our chances of injury and maximize our chances of getting John to the drop point in one piece."

[Mighty Asgard]

Suddenly John Doe disappeared from Bramwell's telepathic searches, becoming effectively invisible to him. The nine thugs at the bar were still easily detectable though, and reading their minds would confirm that Doe was also still there, although very upset all of a sudden. If he checked their minds to see what kinds of weapons they had he would see that they only had small caliber pistols.

"Or, since my power only works on existing forces, if Tyler gives John a little push or something like that, I could probably get him out of the fray. But then again he might use the same power on me or himself afterwards."

"I don't think I can give him a small push," Tyler said, "I don't know how to limit my powers very well, and I'd probably end up crushing him instead. I could provide a distraction though, make a lot of noise and smash down a wall or two to get their attention, and then the rest of you could strike."

"But we don't know the extent of this guy's power. He may be able to copy all of our powers at once, or just one at a time. We should try to figure that out somehow, otherwise we'd be going in blind."

[Kershya]

"Do we even have the routes planned? If we're lucky, we could fool him into running towards the extraction point." Antonio asked.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"What?! I can not read John's thoughts or senses. Unless this is a glitch or something meant to teach me a lesson, I think this means he is aware of our presence and has somehow precluded me from his thoughts; but he has not told the others and is upset. If he were fully aware of our presence, would not he tell the others of my presence? For preparedness's sake, we need to assume he is fully aware that we are comming, but not of how, when, or where. In the initial confusion, we may want to take the nine thugs out first so we can focus our efforts on him. On a different note, the watershield plan is no longer viable. I just read from their thoughts that they are using pistols, so we would need eight feet of water to keep us safe from that," Bramwell said

"As to your suggestion, I think we should get melee fighters to join the breaching team. I agree to your suggestion that the ranged attackers out in the front should launch the attack. Given ten seconds to fully take in that situation, they will be too distracted when we go in through the back rooms and back walls. Tyler, I agree that it would be helpful to know the exact extent of his powers. There is a problem in what would be so if his powers were active instead of passive. If he has to choose to emulate a power, then there is little chance of being able to do that without the rest noticing unless we can get him out of there. Then again, he is upset enough that maybe the blood control could be staged well enough that we could have him storm out the back door and not draw suspicion. I'll keep listening to the others thoughts to see if I can learn the specifics of how his mimicry works. Antonio, you bring up a good point. 'To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.' Since I trust Sun Tzu, we should figure out the route to the highway and make it look undefended, and let an ambush be prepared should our target flee in that direction," Bramwell said.

[Camicon]

"Hold on a minute. Bramwell, you were reading his thoughts, and now you can't. We know that John can emulate powers. We have to assume that by using telepathy on him he's managed to appropriate the power at a level equal to your own. You can read thoughts with your telepathy, so we have to assume that John can do the same. Before we make any plans we need to find some way to shield our thoughts from being read. Is there any way to do that?"

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Stick with the current plan, except outsiders will attack first and breachers will attack ten seconds afterward. I do not want this plan to be compromised by me accidentally revealing it in a message, as he still has to search for minds in a way I doubt he would be familiar. I have never dealt with other telepaths before. I do not know if not being able to read other telepathic minds is something done unwittingly as a byproduct of being a telepath or if it is an active ability. If is passive, then he should not be able to read my mind because we'd be on an equal footing in terms of passive abilities. However, there may be a distinct problem soon in that he may notice us because we are a large group of people in an otherwise abandoned town. Should he look for us, he will notice us. Right now, I do not know if he is emulating my abilities or if he is running purely on instinct and training right now, and is thus cutting any thoughts to increase reaction times. Since I myself still don't know the full extent of my active abilities, I doubt he will know his if he is emulating my abilities; and I have only learned my abilities through practice over the years. He is going to be at a distinct disadvantage due to it. Move in, and stick witht he " Bramwell thought in a telepathic message to the group. The telepathic link probably would keep Makoto's mind shielded as well.

[Camicon]

*snip*

"Damn it, no! You can read minds like a book from what I've seen. We need to assume that John will be able to do the same. If he knows what we have planned we will fail. There is absolutely no point in launching an offensive under such conditions. There are a million ways this could go wrong. We need to figure things out before we go rushing in. If he gets away, then we won't find him, and the entire mission will be a bust. This may be a simulation right now, but in a few days it's going to be reality for some of us. We need to treat this like it's a real life-or-death scenario. If we try to engage him right now, some of us will be hurt. Some of us will probably die.

What we need is to either limit or disable John's new telepathic powers. You're the resident telepath. Try something. If it doesn't work, then try something else. Until we're able to make a plan without the potential of John discovering it seconds later, or until he and his thugs make a move, we need to stay put."

[Ularn]

After sending off an email with Rachael's information on Roxanne to the mission planners aboard HMS Ocean, Scott left his office and took the lift down to the hangar level. Although the deck was sealed to students unless they were due to be embarking on a shuttle, staff had ready access to it.
The station had a complement of two shuttles, each representing the pinnacle of human aerospace engineering. At just over thirty metres, each silver arrowhead was shorter than the Space Shuttle, and lighter in spite of the twin VTOL jet engines currently concealed beneath retractable heat shields on the wings, enabling the craft to hover while in atmosphere and even land on and take off from aircraft carriers. Although they were most commonly used to ferry students and supplies to and from the station, they were also designed to be used as dropships and to provide close air support to staff and students while they were on "field trips". To that end, both shuttles could be equipped with an array of bombs and missiles. A machine gun was mounted below the cockpit and two more could be fired from the doors by the passengers. They also had extensive ECM suites along with decoys and jammers to fend off missiles or any other unfriendly interference.
As Scott entered the hangar, crews of technicians were busy loading racks of missiles and belts of ammunition into the shuttle in Bay 2, while coiling tubes fed fuel into the various engines used for atmospheric and exoatmospheric flight. No-one expected that the machine guns, let alone the missiles, would be used. Tomorrow's mission was meant to liberate Kildare, not level it, but Scott had instructed that the shuttle be given its full weapons loadout. It was partly just in case, but mainly Scott expected that, if the weapons would be used at all, it would be for intimidation value. A rogue superhuman might not treat a group of students as a significant threat, but a volley of high calibre bullets over their heads might make them more receptive to the idea of surrender.
The shuttle was pointed away from Scott towards the hangar bay doors. He nipped around the massive engine exhaust and ducked under the wing to the hatch at the front, apologising briefly to a technician as he almost tripped over a coil of cables which ended up sprawled all over the hangar floor. The tech scowled at him then stooped to gather up the cable again as Scott climbed the gantry into the shuttle's hatch.
As he entered the passenger compartment Scott was hit by an immense feeling of deja vu. It looked almost identical to how it had done when he boarded it on the way to Kabul at the onset of Operation: Buffy almost a year ago. In each seat sat a small bundle. The body armour was the same, and there was the same radio sets and same canteen filled with energy drink to keep the students hydrated and energised in spite of extended power usage. However, in place of the pistols Scott and his classmates had been issued for Buffy, the equipment here included a taser and several batteries. The combat fatigues were different as well. For Buffy the students had all been using camouflage gear borrowed from the US Army. Now though, The School had its own uniform, using the same multi-purpose camouflage pattern as the US but with the school crest sewn into each upper arm where the unit insignia would normally be. Besides that, a tape on the left breast with the student's surname and initial and one on the right reading "Academy for the Empowered" there were no other markings; nothing to show nationality or rank. The teachers' uniforms featured a single star on the rank tab in the middle of the chest but other than that there was nothing to distinguish one student or staff member from another.
The familiarity disturbed Scott a little. More than a dozen students died in Kabul, when they had been better prepared than this and with the combined efforts of half the world's armies acting in support. Their foe in this case was probably less formidable than the three vampires they'd fought in Operation: Buffy but this time they had only a single solitary day to prepare and would be supported by only a company of British soldiers. Added to that, the students tomorrow would be trying to take their enemy alive if at all possible, which was a damn sight harder than just incinerating them.
He walked down the aisles of seats, stopping at each one to check the armour and taser pistols. Everything was brand new; the camo gear was still in its plastic wrapper and there were no problems with any of it. Scott had not expected there to be but he also felt a responsibility to do everything he could to give his students the best chance possible when they dropped into Kildare.
As he left the hangar, Scott wondered how many more simulator hours he could possibly cram in while still allowing the students enough sleep for tomorrow. It would be an early start.

[Corrian]

All this planning was making Cassie's head hurt. It was hard for her to keep up with everyone's explanations of ideas, and it was hard for her to keep track in general. She wasn't used to big groups of people making plans, especially to invade, even if fake, a place full of armed thugs. Her plans always used to involve small things, and nothing of this scale, with so many people eying each other and so on. She knew that, despite the people being bad, if they 'killed' them, she'd feel guilty and bad. At least, knowing that she might do that with actual real people one day. She already had enough guilt over events that occurred in her life by her own hand, and she didn't want to make things worse on herself.

"I am afraid of bullets, yeah. I had a bad experience with guns when I was younger" Cassie said, and the real truth, 'younger' meant a few months ago. "I don't believe Caitlin is very afraid, though" She added, and Caitlin nodded. "I could try....." She said in response to observing the situation from a distance, not entirely sure how well she'd do at that or not.

She frowned at what Bramwell said. "The problem is, my precognition abilities aren't controllable yet. It's just a curse. It's what gave me those cluster headaches. The quick flashes of future images just come at me at random, out of nowhere, and usually come so fast they don't make any sense anyway. So it won't be much use" She said, sighing and feeling slightly like a let down to the group because she couldn't control her ability.

"Though....." She hesitated for a bit. "I did discover during the last 2 weeks a new ability that I didn't know I had, and after some research, I found out it's called Clairvoyant Detection. It's perfectly controllable for me, at least so far. If I see, say, the picture of John Doe, I can think about that picture, and sort of go into a trance and see their exact location. It's sort of like an out-of-body experience, and I can either automatically know where they are for some reason, or I see an address that indicates where it is. I could use it on any of you here, because I've seen your faces" She said, then added:

"But don't worry, I am very cautious with how I use the ability. I hate invading peoples privacy, which is why I never plan to see other peoples futures if I can ever control my ability better, unless they ask me to." She added. She then added to the first thing she said. "For when we get out of here, you get a better description of the Clairvoyant Detection by googling it or whatever. It will probably take you to Molly Walkers Wikia page, a character from Heroes, since the fictional character seems to be the only person who ever had that kind of ability in anything, or at least named like that" She said, just shrugging at the last part. Again, she surprised herself with how clearly she was speaking about everything, since she was usually so shy.

(Caitlin)
Caitlin on the other hand could follow everything 'better'. She wasn't the greatest with all of it either, but was better then Cassie. "Sounds good to me" She said, agreeing on the fact that she would be good with flanking. She could confuse them, and attack them all at the same time. Once she was safe of course. Though, she was still curious about trying the whole phasing thing, and having the 'bullets' go through her instead. She didn't entirely know if it'd work without going through bigger objects like walls, but she could try, and didn't see any exact reason why it wouldn't.

"Tara's plan sounds good" Caitlin said, accepting her idea. "Not to sound bad though: But despite the fact you can regenerate, what happens when someone who can regenerate gets, say, decapitated? Does that body part creepily regenerate, or do you actually die?" She asked Tara, as if she would know herself. It's not like it was likely she had attempted to decapitate herself to test, or had herself be decapitated at some point. But she was just trying to be real about the whole situation, even if it was just a simulation.

"Hmm, I could be good with being a melee person too, but I think I'd probably be better off flanking, at least at first" She said. Her whole reason for flanking was more to confuse the group then anything, to give everyone an advantage. Though, she also nodded to the concerns about what exactly this John Doe was capable of, like gaining all their abilities at once, or one at a time, or what. Or if the powers he gained from them were even as powerful as the ones the original host of the abilities had.

As if to lighten the current situation, Caitlin smiled. "Maybe there's some special stupid looking helmets we can wear to keep our minds from being read, like in some movies and comics?" She suggested jokingly with a grin. Of course she figured that was likely not possible, but who knows. Not long ago, she'd of said that being like Spiderman, Superman, or any of those superheroes would be impossible, and now it wasn't. So having a helmet to keep people from reading your mind might be possible....if there was any suddenly created for them to wear for this mission.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"I guess I am going to have to say this. I have never met another telepath in my life. For all intensive purposes, the A.I. is going to know how to do everything that has been programmed for telepathy. You never see A.I. meant to act as something that is unfamiliar with something else. You will not see any thugs that are programmed to be inexperienced with how pistols work and yet still try to use them or other such things. A.I. have to know how everything works, the map's layout, and enemy positions, even if they aren't chasing them, because programmers do not how to program an A.I. to be unfamiliar with something, or else the code shall break and a crash shall happen. They can program an A.I. to not do something, but we have never been able to program unfamiliarity because coding at this time just won't allow that to happen. At this point, I can discuss nothing of importance should he be emulating powers. For the time being, I am going to have to ask that no thoughts about the plan be done. The problem he has is that we are now dead-locked. We cannot inform our others of what we intend to do or else the plan will be spoiled. For all intensive purposes, this is mutually assured damage. We are in a scenario where nobody will win without taking casualties because we both know too much. We will both know if the other acts. I am going to have to ask for a temporary self-imposed ignorance. He cannot read my mind, so if form a line and close our eyes, I could still make a plan, however much I had to abandon my old plan. Since he probably knows everything about regeneration since, again, A.I. can not be programmed to be ignorant. I have survived a strafing run from an A-10 Thunderbolt II, declared dead, and declared alive again in an incident I can not name due the secrecy about it. I have survived an eighteen wheeler crashing through a vehicle I was in. I can survive plenty," Bramwell said. By this point, Makoto had disappeared from the conversation for good reason. The two were relying upon a hypothesis Bramwell had that the psychic link made them a hive-mind albeit a small enough one that both parties to it could be sane, and that it may make Makoto passively shielded from thoughts as well.

[Camicon]

"Two weeks ago," I said to Bramwell, "I never thought for even a second that things like Morbus could exist. Yet they do. I'm going to make the safe assumption that this school is in possession of technology and artificial intelligences far beyond what is commercially or militarily available back on Earth. Besides, people having been programming emergent behavior since 2000. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the school had found a way to direct and refine such programing.

Back to what is actually important though, asking everyone to not think about what we are about to do is near about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. But what you said after that: 'He cannot read my mind' is incredibly relevant. Try and extend that ability to cover the rest of us, or even just a couple of us that are going to be playing key roles.

If you can't do that, then we will do this. You make a plan, tell nobody else about it, and then use your telepathy to direct us into positions and actions when it is necessary, and no sooner. If the rest of us are acting in ignorance, and he can't read your mind, then he won't know what's coming any more than we will. Only, you will know what's going on, and that will give us a major advantage. If we think it's confusing, all the better, because if he tries to read our minds it will only muddle his thoughts more. If the plan is somewhat complicated, fantastic, because he won't be able to predict a probable course of events."

Then I turn to Cassie and lower my voice a little. "If John Doe somehow slips away, then your power will be invaluable in tracking him. As it is though, we already know where he is. It's a good suggestion though." Then to Caitlin, I say: "I'm not exactly sure what would happen if I was decapitated, and I'm not all that eager to find out. If the literature is at all accurate though, then I think my head could either re-attach to my body, or my head would grow a new body while the old body would remain in a coma-like state. And a helmet to protect against mind-reading would be incredibly useful. Maybe check the weapons rack, see if there are any helmets there. We can have someone wear one, and then have Bramwell try and read their mind to test it."

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

When she mentioned that it could be confusing and that it would be helpful if it were, Bramwell got a big smile on his face. Never before had he been granted license to create the overelaborate plans that better resemble Rube Goldberg machines than plans.

"Okay, before I designate the places people will need to be, some general things for people to keep in mind. Tara and Antonio, I need you to keep one eye closed at all times and close them should you hear a hissing sound, and avoid what will be thrown. If you hear a hissing noise, duck for cover. You will hear when the best time to storm in is. Cassie, remain focused on Jefferson Davis and be ready to answer any questions we have. Caitlin, do not play your part of the plan until you do not hear anything and avoid anything that will be thrown. be prepared to close them should you hear a hissing sound, and avoid what will be thrown. I will also need any water we have since liquids will be a danger in there. I shall initiate the plan. Follow me until we reach the point where basic logic would deduce that is your position." Bramwell knew what was happening. As Makoto used her telekinesis to make the desired element Bramwell needed, Bramwell lead them into the blindspot. The place they would enter would be the back rooms. Bramwell would give a nod to people when their positions were correct. Cassie would be positioned a few blocks away from the bar in cover. Caitlin would be at a back room on the far righthand side of the room. The breaching team would be on the far right side of the bar, near the door. Bramwell would be located one-block away from the bar near cover. Makoto would be two blocks away on the route to the highway. When everybody was in position, the opening moves would begin.

[Mighty Asgard]

Tyler looked over at the weapons rack, seeing nothing that even resembled a helmet. "No helmets," he shrugged.

After considering the plan for a few moments he spoke again, "I don't think it would be a good idea for our plan to involve us not knowing anything about what we are going to do, confusion isn't an advantage. And we don't even know that he can't read Bramwell's mind, that is just an assumption at this point. For all we know he might not be able to do anything to any of us, but a plan that relies solely on one person being immune is a gamble with higher risk than reward."

"I think it'd be best if we forced Doe to leave his safe space, make him fight on our terms somewhere where we can more easily control the battlefield. Inside that pub he is in control, he has all his people there and we can't put our full power to bear in such a small space without getting in each other's line of fire. So I suggest that we simply set the pub on fire and force him out into the open."

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"I have to ask that you provide an explanation then. Right now, my explanation could work. Maybe he is imitating my power, and for some reason does not intend to alert the other. If that is so, then the mind shield would have to be passive precisely because I can not do the same to him. If it were active, then I too could join in on the game, which does not happen no matter how often I try. Right now, we would be replacing assumptions with other assumptions. In particular, we would unwittingly adopt the assumption that he would be incapable of copying multiple abilities. If he could do that, then fire would be of no threat to him so long as the pipes are still functioning. He could just use our eyes to direct the water to any fires before they can start. If he is immune, then why would I not be?" Bramwell said.

"Let us focus on the facts at hand. Bramwell can not read his mind no matter how hard or often he may try. John is not giving information to others. He looks upset. He has the ability to copy powers. We know his face and name. We know where he and his back-up are located. Overall, we have little data to work," Makoto said.

[Mighty Asgard]

"If he does not alert the others then he probably doesn't know what's going on, which means that he hasn't noticed any of us," Tyler answered, "maybe he is focusing on using his telepathy to make sure no one can mess with his head any more, since he obviously noticed when Bramwell did it before. There is no guarantee that he can't just fuck over this entire so called plan just by actually going on the offensive with his power and targeting Bramwell. As you said," he gestured at Bramwell, "you've never met another telepath before, so you really have no clue what you're talking about here."

"If we set the place on fire and he somehow copies our powers to put that fire out, then we will at least have learned something more about our foe. If you are wrong about being immune to his power, then the entire plan falls apart."