Super Hero High: Prometheus Rising (IC, Open)

[Firstaria]

Scott shook his head, "Pretty sure the nearest airport to Kildare is at least fifty miles away in Dublin. If they try to get on a train tomorrow then we can cut them off even sooner. Also, this gang is probably going to be disorganised and scattered. More likely and more necessary that we prepare for is that, rather than running, they'll panic and try to fight their way out."
Scott waved his hands slightly and a console appeared in front of him. "What say we put 'John Doe' on the offensive?"

Daniel looked and said " No. Making him react would rush them...but would not train their senses and their stealth. And those are important in such a situation: I would prefer a reaction only after a mistake, so they could realize it and learn from it..."

Daniel though again, and then smiled " What if we put an IA team with their same mission? Nothing big, any super around...but this will force them to rush and will create a general tension. They will have to recover the target alive while stopping the other team from doing it and while everyone is in red alert... "

[Ularn]

Scott gave Daniel a 'the heck are you smoking' kind of look, "How does making them compete against an AI prepare them for tomorrow's mission? Tomorrow's mission isn't a race; what you're suggesting has no relevance to what we're trying to prep them for. As much as it would be nice to teach them stealth, right now we need to teach them how to capture supers who don't want to be caught - supers who'll probably resist them with force, and that's why we should put JD on the offensive. They already blew any hope of stealth when they tried mindreading him and he blocked them out.
"Besides, I can tell you from personal experience, when you change the nature of a mission for totally arbitrary reasons like you're suggesting, it only pisses off the students," Scott remembered his first simulation as a student, where after he'd organised his fellow students to fight off the soldiers sniping at them, the teacher had suddenly appeared in-simulation and announced that for no reason the students would now be teaming up with the enemy AIs to defeat a bunch of anthropomorphic scorpions which suddenly teleported into the student ranks and decimated them in short order. Scott still didn't know what the sim had been meant to teach them, even after he stole a copy of his performance evaluation on it from the teacher's office a few months later. He continued, "Putting a competing team against them won't teach them anything that will be useful tomorrow, whereas making them fight off a super, ideally without killing him, doesn't just make sense, it is also something they're near guaranteed to have to do when we hit Kildare."

[Firstaria]

Daniel smiled " Have you ever did a real mission for someone or a real operation? Tomorrow everything can easily happen, and be prepared for the impossible is part of the training. And personally, I prefer to piss them off in a virtual simulation than losing them in the real situation because they are not ready to act and think fast: You know why military get heavily trained everyday? So that when they go in action their stamina and preparation is higher than the one needed.

This simulation should be way more harder, so they will never underestimate the treat of a failure. Their mission will be in a society that hates supers, trying to catch someone dangerous that will have no issue in killing them. Their failure will also sink this project, showing our failure too...but most important of all, I'm not gonna accept to send people that are not ready to hard action if I risk to lose them. "

[Northern Dominus]

Dominic looked over at Daniel, nodding slightly, "I think Cassie has been keeping track of where the target is, at least the simulation shows her using her powers periodically, and Bramwell has been telepathically looking through the eyes of the target's henchmen to see if he is still there. At least they've done that part right. I think that their knowledge about the target's ability to copy powers makes them hesitant to use them against him, they're worried that he'll get stronger then. I'm not sure why Antonio is different, perhaps his split personality disorder gives him a different view on things."

He looked at a few of the screens around the room, "I don't think any of them has the undivided trust of the others, unfortunately, which is probably part of the problem here. But it is likely that they will learn to trust each other more with time."

Burton simply contemplated the screens while the other two instructors mused about leadership. True that was a concern that would be need to be addressed before the actual mission took place, but there was something else that was nagging him at the moment.

"I'm surprised, actually."
He started, crossing his arms and analyzing the different displays as if they were the latest images from a probe sent to one of Jupiter's moons.

"Since these students are the best the earth has to offer and therefore would theoretically be more accomplished at lateral thinking than most other adults let alone teenagers, I am surprised that not a one has suggested a rather obvious course of action considering the targets' presumed location..."

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael had been thinking for a while about how best to do this, which wasn't exactly helped by the rest bickering about setting stuff on fire. Setting things on fire was stupid. "Well, if they don't actually know there's anything going on, we could always send the oldest-looking of us into the pub to start a fight and keep the gang in there and distracted."

[Ularn]

Scott scowled at Daniel, raising an accusing finger at the other teacher,"Hey, you know what? Fuck you! I was the one who wrote Operation: Buffy. I spent three months killing Vampires in Transylvania. I am a god-damn second lieutenant in the Black Watch, so don't talk to me about what real soldiers do, all right poster boy?
"Now, this sim should be harder, and believe me that as soon as its over I'm throwing the mission team straight back in and ramping up the difficulty, and we're going to keep running it over and over again until we run out of time or I'm satisfied they're ready for tomorrow. I get that you want to train these kids for every eventuality, but given that we have only..." he glanced at a clock on one of the many hovering screens, "...sixteen hours, thirty-three minutes until we have to have everyone loaded up aboard that shuttle, I suggest that for the moment we limit ourselves to scenarios which are actually within the realm of possibility for tomorrow, like angry supers trying to prevent themselves being captured, rather than having a silly little race against an AI team for no. fucking. reason!"
Scott took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down, wondering at the same time how someone with Mercury's reputation could be so dense. Yes, the students needed to be able to adapt, but putting that training into them at this late hour with ridiculous and arbitrary rules and challenges was a completely stupid way of doing it when the more straightforward solution, which was also far more relevant to tomorrow's training, was to have them face off against an angry superhuman. Having them try to beat an AI to the capture was a nice idea, but it was also entirely pointless if they ended up in Kildare tomorrow with no experience of what the mission would actually involve; bringing down enemies who would be trying to stop them doing that with lethal force.
Scott turned to Burton and asked in a marginally calmer tone, "Why? What are they missing,"

OOC: Operation: Buffy was the mission to Kabul in the previous thread where the students, together with the combined forces of many world militaries, won their first major victory against the vampires and was basically considered the turning point in the war. Given Mercury is apparently a great war hero, he probably fought in it.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Two thirds of pure water is hydrogen. I and Bramwell happen to keep water around at all times. While I have trouble moving large objects, given how long this 'team' has been 'planning', I have had the time to seperate molecules into their basic atoms. I can control a small amount of gas, however much more focus it may require in comparison to solids or even liquids. The hydrogen explosion was my suggestion, for I wanted to get practice in setting-up and, through that, controlling pyrotechnics in an area where a well controlled explosion would be needed to prevent casualties while in an area where consequences are not going to kill somebody. Since the group considers the goal of this being to complete the scenario rather than practice, I shall set aside my will for the sake of the group," Makoto said in a flat and detached monotone. Through the telepathic link, they were saying more than what was being heard. They settled that Makoto would not use telekinesis until the flanking begins so as to hopefully prevent him from trying to imitate her telekinesis.

"Okay, then you shall help me with the distraction. Since Tara would rather not have Antonio provide a smoke screen, then that element shall be dropped from the plan. If I may ask , what would you consider Antonio to do since you have not provided a role for him?" Bramwell said in an oddly emotionless manner. He could tell the idea of group dynamics involving Tara and himself would be quite difficult since they were diametrically opposed despite both being in the hero dorms---something which Bramwell was starting to consider to be purely a dorm designation.

"This assumes they put honor before reason. By that, I mean that they would honor my presence by only engaging me in a fist-fight when they have fine pistols and a person with superpowers. Unfortunately kevlar vests do fail from time to time, and it is just a vest rather than the body armor I would traditionally wear. From the various times I had to rely upon regeneration, I know it takes time for me to regenerate, and I would like to think that the programmers put enough attention into the A.I. so that they do not just keep firing into the bloody mess that was previously my body as though this is 1997 again. On another note, you have not assigned anything to Rachael yet, Tara," Bramwell said in his still detached voice.

[Northern Dominus]

"Two thirds of pure water is hydrogen. Me and Bramwell happen to keep water around at all times. While I have trouble moving large objects, given how long this 'team' has been 'planning', I have had the time to seperate molecules into their basic atoms. I can control a small amount of gas, however much more focus it may require in comparison to solids or even liquids. The hydrogen explosion was my suggestion, for I wanted to get practice in setting-up and, through that, controlling pyrotechnics in an area where a well controlled explosion would be needed to prevent casualties while in an area where consequences are not going to kill somebody. Since the group considers the goal of this being to complete the scenario rather than practice, I shall set aside my will for the sake of the group," Makoto said in a flat and detached monotone. Through the telepathic link, they were saying more than what was being heard. They settled that Makoto would not use telekinesis until the flanking begins so as to hopefully prevent him from trying to imitate her telekinesis.

"Okay, then you shall help me with the distraction. Since Tara-sama would rather not have Antonio provide a smoke screen, then that element shall be dropped from the plan. If I may ask , what would you consider Antonio to do since you have not provided a role for him, whether it be ?" Bramwell said in an oddly emotionless manner. He could tell the idea of group dynamics involving Tara and himself would be quite difficult since they were diametrically opposed despite both being in the hero dorms---something which Bramwell was starting to consider to be purely a dorm designation.

"This assumes they put honor before reason. By that, I mean that they would honor my presence by only engaging me in a fist-right when they have perfectly fine pistols and a person with superpowers. Unfortunately kevlar vests do fail from time to time, and it is just a vest rather than the full-body armor I would traditionally wear. From the various times I had to rely upon regeneration, I know it takes time for me to regenerate, and I would like to think that the programmers put enough attention into the A.I. so that they do not just keep firing into the bloody mess that was previously my body as though this is 1997 again. On another note, you have not assigned anything to Rachael yet, Tara-sama," Bramwell said in his still detached voice.

In the simulated control room Burton pointed at the display highlighting the teams continued planning, shaking the finger idly as he spoke to Dominic and Daniel

"Bramwell is onto an effective course of action. Confusion is a valuable asset, especially in cases where force potential hostile force strength isn't a known quantity."

The arm returned to it's crossed position and Burton sighed. Clearly something was severely wrong with Bramwells plan.
"But...he's overcomplicating it, thinking too outside of the box and is getting defensive about it. It's a pub, people are drinking. Distractions are easy enough to create under those circumstances."

[Mighty Asgard]

"Would you please stop trying to interfere with my class?" Dominic said to Scott and Daniel, looking slightly annoyed. "Part of what I want to find out with this simulation is how the students would approach an enemy in an entrenched position, which is why I want the target to remain in the pub." He glanced over at Burton, who seemed to believe that there were civilians in the pub, "there are no other people than the target and his thugs in the pub. The information I've been given suggests that Kildare is all but abandoned, so I built the simulation based on that."

"Perhaps we should try to make the students hurry a little though," he continued, stroking his chin, "this should do it."


Meanwhile, in the pub, John Doe assembled all his thugs in the main room. He was telling them that someone was trying to mess with him, and that anyone who messed with him had to die. Three of the thugs were going to go out and sweep the area, and kill anyone they found. The rest were going to take up positions near the windows and shoot anything that moved. Before sending them off he threatened that anyone who didn't follow his orders would have to deal with the Midget, which visibly scared several of the thugs.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Well, this is interesting. We have a problem everybody. John Doe has decided to tell everybody about the plan. Tara is not the only one who wants me dead appearently. Three thugs are sweeping the area with shoot-on-sight and shoot-to-kill orders, though my telepathy will mean they will not get the drop on us. The six others are taking up positions at the windows. Considering how he said that anybody who did not follow his orders would have to deal with the 'Midget' I think it would be a good idea to put a few extra less-than-lethal rounds into him since the others are terrified of him. I think this is going to require some more thought, as the outside three are going to change things up," Bramwell said. He was still emotionally neutral, and was continuing to pay attention to all of the perspectives. He was checking to see if the patrol had any patterns of movement that he could exploit.

[Nakarisaune]

Maisie hadn't really been doing much - she was kinda confused by the others' plans, especially as they kept changing their mind. She'd been keeping quiet, and trying to find the auras of the people. If she squinted really hard, she could see the auras from quite far away, but to really notice them, there needed to be a change in their emotions. A sudden flash of yellow caught her eye. "They know something's up."

[Camicon]

"Bramwell," I said, in a fake sugary voice, as if Bramwell was mentally deficient, "This is the last time I'm going to say it. Myself, Cassie, Caitlin and Tyler are going to circle around the back. Everyone else is going to stay here, and collectively plan the frontal attack." I stressed that word in hopes that Bramwell wouldn't take complete control and plan something absolutely crazy. Hopefully some of the other people would shoot his more insane ideas down. "I do not care how you plan this attack, I only care that you inform myself, Cassie, Caitlin, and Tyler about the exact details of the plan, in exactly nine minutes. Are we clear about this? Do you understand what it is I'm asking of you now? Good. Now, before you start planning this attack, I want the two of you, Bramwell and Makoto, to stop talking to each other telepathically. If you have something to say, then share it with the rest of the team. Despite what you may think, Bramwell, I don't want to kill you," I corrected him, "I just abhor stupidity."

When Bramwell informed everyone about the change in activity, my blood ran icy-cold.

"Alright, so they're moving. Everyone, stick to what I've said. Cassie, Caitlin, Tyler, circle around back. Bramwell, you're going to use your telepathy to make sure that they avoid the three searchers by a wide margin. You're also going to use it to guide me towards them. Nothing's changed people, I've just got a bit of a detour to make." I pulled the Taser gun and it's holster off of my belt, and tossed it to Cassie. "You might need an extra one. Don't be shy about how many you shoot."

"Give me a direction Bramwell."

[Ularn]

Scott nodded apologetically, "Sorry Dom. Wasn't meaning to tell you how to do you job, just sorta forgot it was your lesson as well as a training sim. I think after you're done though I'm going to put the mission team through a few more programs - likely I'll end up keeping them here until lights out. Probably give them some more aggressive enemies and maybe toss in a few civvies too for the sake of mixing it up."

[Altruistic Paladins]

"As much as it is nice to listen to what I think may be sarcasm, I would ask that you do not insult the stupid since they have far better short-term memory than I have, or rather I do not have. I have seen the memory of what exactly you said from somebody else's perspective, and I must apologize for my failure to notice the key-words 'everyone else' the first time you said it."

"On a different topic, I must say that I and Makoto are a hive-mind. we can not stop talking telepathically with eachother due to it being a telepathic link. We are a hive mind and are incapable of not being so. We share all sensory data. My eyes are Makoto's eyes and Makoto's eyes are my eyes. To act as though we can stop would be ignorant, but ignorance can be temporary. Stupidity is forever. The only way could start sharing everything that goes between us would be if I were to establish pernament telepathic links with everyone. We would have all thoughts and sensory information shared with eachother. You would never be able to lie to the other people in the telepathic link. Your persona would mean nothing to the others, as your shadow will be doing all of the talking. Secrets would never exist. I know you would not want to be a part of any collective where I am involved as this scenario alone demonstrates. Simply put, you asked us to stop thinking, to which we ask if you have ever tried."

"Back to things of actual relevance. The place is due North, but we shall head west due to reasons of not wanting the innocent to get cut down by the patrol's line of sight catching us. For the ignorants' information, it is due in that direction," Bramwell said as he pointed in a direction while still speaking in a bland monotone. He and Makoto were mentally fileing-off a check-list from the ICD-10.

"1.Callous unconcern for the feelings of others: positive.
2.Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations: positive.
3.Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them: negative.
4.Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence: positive.
5.Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment: unknown.
6.Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society: unknown."

"Amatuer psychology is fun. Thank you World Health Organization. Three-out-of-six would be a confirmed diagnosis if an actual psychologist was filling this out rather than us idiots," Makoto thought.

[Firstaria]

"Would you please stop trying to interfere with my class?" Dominic said to Scott and Daniel, looking slightly annoyed. "Part of what I want to find out with this simulation is how the students would approach an enemy in an entrenched position, which is why I want the target to remain in the pub." He glanced over at Burton, who seemed to believe that there were civilians in the pub, "there are no other people than the target and his thugs in the pub. The information I've been given suggests that Kildare is all but abandoned, so I built the simulation based on that."

"Perhaps we should try to make the students hurry a little though," he continued, stroking his chin, "this should do it."

Daniel looked really sorry " My mistake, was not my intention to interfere with your methods. My concern was only on the student preparation to this. "

[Northern Dominus]

"Would you please stop trying to interfere with my class?" Dominic said to Scott and Daniel, looking slightly annoyed. "Part of what I want to find out with this simulation is how the students would approach an enemy in an entrenched position, which is why I want the target to remain in the pub." He glanced over at Burton, who seemed to believe that there were civilians in the pub, "there are no other people than the target and his thugs in the pub. The information I've been given suggests that Kildare is all but abandoned, so I built the simulation based on that."

"Perhaps we should try to make the students hurry a little though," he continued, stroking his chin, "this should do it."


Meanwhile, in the pub, John Doe assembled all his thugs in the main room. He was telling them that someone was trying to mess with him, and that anyone who messed with him had to die. Three of the thugs were going to go out and sweep the area, and kill anyone they found. The rest were going to take up positions near the windows and shoot anything that moved. Before sending them off he threatened that anyone who didn't follow his orders would have to deal with the Midget, which visibly scared several of the thugs.

Burton squinted at one of the screens. He was pretty sure he wasn't seeing things but just to be sure he gestured at the screen he based his opinion on

"You might want to re-check your display algorithms then, because the overhead bar angle is showing a few patrons in the establishment.

It doesn't seem to matter anyway, at this rate they seem more intent on arguing amongst themselves and jockeying for position. Apparently the notion of a kill-on-sight order to hostiles isn't compelling to some students.
After this simulation I would be willing to take on some of this group who aren't already in my Force Application class. Perhaps regular introduction to crisis situations will forestall that notion to bicker. Which reminds me, Mr. Kerr I have yet to have you in for observation during one of our class sessions, surely your Hero Theory classes would benefit from observing the reactions of students under stress who have taken..."

Burton was stopped in mid-sentence by Bramwell ear-bashing Tara. As Bramwell was currently enrolled in Force Applications and had gotten the lecture from Burton time and again about such activities, this didn't sit well.

"I hate to butt in Mr. Moreno, but Bramwell needs a verbal clip to the ear, and with your permission I'd like to give it to him over the comms system."

[Mighty Asgard]

The three thugs out on patrol were not exactly professional in their methods, since none of them were simulated as having military training. Rather than having any sort of method or rationality to their search they just randomly walked the streets near the pub, weapons out and trigger fingers itching. Getting past them without being spotted wouldn't be easy.

Tyler
Tyler listened up when Bramwell had something useful to say for once. If he was correct then some people had went out to search for them, probably because Bramwell had gone ahead and let the target know that someone was after him by messing around in his head. Not that it really mattered whose fault it was, the patrol would have to be dealt with if they were going to be able to grab the target and get out safely. It didn't really raise his opinion of Bramwell that almost immediately after sharing some important information he went back to talking about useless bullshit, something about him and his creepy friend being a hive-mind. It seemed like he really loved the sound of his own voice.

Apparently Tara was planning to take on the patrol on her own, which really didn't sit right with Tyler. Sure, he had seen her fight and knew that with her skills and her powers three regular thugs should be little trouble, but it still felt wrong to let her go out alone against them.

"Are you sure about taking them on alone?" he asked her, "I could come along to help."

Dominic
"Don't worry about it," Dominic said to Daniel and Scott, cracking a slight smile, "I understand that you just want to help the students."

Burton pointed out that there were actually patrons at the bar, which confused Dominic, because he had specifically set up the simulation to not include civilians. When he looked closer he saw that it was actually a few of the thugs who were drinking, but dressed in regular clothes and with no weapons visible they looked like ordinary people. Apparently the simulation engine had decided that it was more realistic if they drank, because he hadn't put that in. He'd have to ask the tech guys about that, because he hadn't heard that the engine could put things in on its own, unless that behavior was included in one of the archetypes he'd used for the thugs. He'd probably just missed some setting somewhere, after only a month with the system some mistakes would inevitably happen.

Then Burton asked permission to tell Bramwell to stop talking too much, apparently having had problems with that during his classes as well. "I need to observe how the students act on their own, without direction, to know if they are fit to go along on missions," Dominic answered. "You can talk with him right after they are done with the task though."

[Ularn]

"Might take you up on that offer some time," Scott said to Burton, referring to sitting in on the other teacher's class, "After this lesson though, I'm definitely keeping the mission team behind for an ear-bending and then some more sims. Given the option, I'd keep them here all night but I guess we're still gonna need them reasonably fresh tomorrow. I'll arrange for the cafeteria to send food across around lunch and dinner time and we can go over the sim results while we eat."

[Corrian]

As usual, Caitlin and Cassie mostly kept quiet while the bickering and pointless chit chat occurred, from in their opinion, the both of them at times. Caitlin felt like almost just telling them to shut up and for them to just move, but decided against it. "I agree with Tara. I'll go with Tara, Cassie, and Tyler through the back" Caitlin said, and Cassie nodded in agreement. It seemed like a good way to go about it to them, instead of risking an explosion. Caitlin secretly hoped that they wouldn't all be working together during the mission, because they'd probably all die then with how they planned. Not that going in as groups of 2 or 3 was great either, because that might be dangerous. But it might be better for stealth purposes. She'd much rather small groups as well. Cassie wasn't going, so it didn't matter for her.

When it was announced the plans were changed because it was clear John Doe knew they were coming, Cassie gasped. She had noticed that, and was just about ready to say something, but Bramwell had spoken first. Caitlin seemed to remain calm, though she was a little nervous. The men clearly knew they were here now, and a couple were sent out to find them. Since she had seen one of the men that John Doe told to look for them in her image, she decided to see where that guy went since she had an image of them. This ability was quickly growing on her.

"They are wandering around, but they don't seem to be very organized. At least from my understanding" Cassie said, snapping back into reality. It could suck at times that her ability required her to go in some sort of trance to actually see what she was supposed to, especially if she was trying to do it in the middle of them possibly being shot at or something.

Cassie was cut off guard by what was thrown at her, and it clanked to the ground. She let out a curse word at herself, and reached down and picked it up. She was about to protest about what Tara said, when she realized that she probably was the better option to carry it, since Caitlin had a sword and a Taser gun of her own. She couldn't entirely recall what Tyler had claimed for himself

She looked to Tara, and said, "They are wandering the streets outside the pub in a very disorderly fashion, so you might be able to pick one off at a time, if you use stealth methods". She then looked to Tyler, and was going to speak up, when Caitlin butted in. "She seems to have super strength and can regenerate, Tyler, she should be fine" She said. She really doubted the guards would have any means of decapitating her, testing that ability of her powers. They didn't seem to have any way to do that.

When Bramwell started talking about a bunch of unimportant things right as it was announced they were spotted, Caitlin just mentally laughed. For whatever reason, the line from Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly popped into her head that he said to Jayne. The line "Jayne, your mouth is talking. You might want to work on that". She felt bad for thinking about it, and mentally laughing as well, but it was what had hit her mind at the time. Likely just because it wasn't really much of anything relevant to be talking about at the current time, so being the nerd she was, that was what had came to her mind.

Cassie was probably the most nervous, because despite them being "Taser" guns, she was afraid of guns in general still. For good reason, but it wasn't a good thing to worry about during a mission. "Let's go" Caitlin chimed in, taking the lead to start heading out back. "If you want to follow Tyler, go ahead. If not, Cassie and I can try our best on our own, and you can go with Tara to take out some of the guards" She said, not caring either way of how he wanted to go about it. Cassie nodded, and began following Caitlin, who stopped part way through getting ready to take off to wait for Tyler's decision. Of course since the thugs were wandering the streets around the pub, it was likely that they'd encounter one of them lurking around the back. Which should be easy enough for the 2 of them to take on, or the 3, depending how many of them actually came.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

As Bramwell and Makoto made their way to the stone-wall they intended to use for the ambush, Bramwell started grasping his head and stumbled, and thus tripped and fell onto his face. During this, he had lost control of his telepathy. He had a small-scale failure to keep others' thoughts out of his own mind. This had happened before during more mundane times before he went into space, but now he was on the ground, holding onto his head as he tried to silence the thoughts of Caitlin away from his mind. He was silent during the time, but was clearly struggling as could be seen on his face. Due to this, he ended up hearing an excript of Caitlin's thoughts. He her thoughts on his tangent that he was trying to work on. It. After thirty seconds, the thoughts were gone, and he just had his and Makoto's to hear. He proceeded to get back up and continue as though nothing had happened. Due to what had happened, he decided to send a telepathic message to Caitlin.

"Caitlin, just so you know. I had lost control of my telepathy just moments ago. Due to this, I had heard a snippet of your thoughts, and beg for your forgiveness. I just want to let you know that this had happened so this is not an issue later. I am sorry for this, and I hope I do not loose control of my telepathy again, though this has happened before. I am sorry. On a slightly lighter note to end this message on, it is nice to know you are a fan of Firefly as well," Bramwell thought in a heavily apologetic tone. Bramwell was very blunt sort of honesty in that he generally will try to say whatever he has to say, whether it is an appropriate time to do so or not. The middle of a training exercise was not exactly the best time for this, and Makoto even tried to interrupt Bramwell to prevent him from sending the telepathic message until after the scenario was finished. Bramwell still managed to get the message in, and so Caitlin would soon be hearing a message that was more likely to distract her from the prospect of not being shot.

[Camicon]

I shoot an irritated glance at Bramwell and Makoto, when the former went on a ridiculous tangent. "Bramwell, in case you hadn't realized, we don't have time for your life story right now. A simple 'I can't, it's a side-effect of my powers' would have sufficed."

"I'll be fine on my own, Tyler. A couple thugs should be easy enough to take out." I leaned a bit closer to him and dropped my voice, so only he would hear. "I'm more concerned about Cassie. You and Caitlin can handle yourselves, which is why I want Cassie with you two." I raised my voice and waved a hand as I jogged off in a slightly different direction from Cassie and Caitlin. "See you three in a few minutes." I shot everyone a jaunty, devil-may-care grin, before rounding a corner and disappearing from view.

Now, on my own, I felt nearly paralyzed by self-doubt. Out of sight, away from the others, I was able to let my bottled emotions run freely through my mind. I still had a minute until I'd contact one of the patrols; plenty of time to have a little melt down and then pick myself up again. I'm a terrible person. All I do now is scream, and yell, and argue. I get so angry, and I can't hold it in. I'm changed. I'm not 'Tara' anymore. I feel like I want to smash my fist through a wall, like I want to scream into those people's ears until they understand the situation. Until they see what I see. Why don't they? Why can't I make them understand? My thoughts ran along that vein for a little while, and with the internal release came some tears, just a few trickling out the corners of my eyes, and a choking cry that caught in my throat. When I heard some rough voices echoing from up ahead, I slammed the door and shut away my emotions again. There'd be time enough to cry later. At least, I thought wryly, those tears will come in handy for what I have planned.

I check that the two fighting sticks are strapped to the back of my belt, hidden from view unless you were too look at my from behind. I didn't intend to let those thugs get behind my anyways. I glance at my reflection in the mirror, mess my hair a little and smudge a bit of dirt across my jaw and forehead. Perfect (I hoped). I peek around the corner just up ahead, and see one of the three thugs at the other end. I duck back behind, counting out the seconds to let him draw a little bit closer. When I figure he's about fifty feet away from me, I stumble out around the corner, clutching myself across the stomach, letting out a high-pitched whine, and intermittently half-shouting some garbled words in French and German. All together, I thought I played the part of a hysterical damsel-in-distress (or, as I hoped the thugs would see me, the perfect target to 'have a little fun with') very well.

[Kershya]

Antonio simply don't know what to do. First he's going to throw the smoke balls, now he doesn't. When he's in his disguise, all of the voices are awake, and they could talk all they want without suffering a headache, since Shade would absorb the pain. And all this waiting and arguing is making them restless. There's usually a general rule to stay quiet during serious moments.

'Enough of this unwanted babbling! We need to catch these thugs!' Frost, the voice of militant security, said. 'Switch those sticks with something more effective, like a gun that shoots a net, or even a regular pistol, and shoot at their knees.'

'Now, now, we don't need to be too hasty here.' Fire, the voice of religious faith, said. 'We need to be hidden, discrete.'

'We should do much more than that.' Water, the voice of scientific reasoning, said. 'We should mess with their heads.'

'No, we should throw enough smoke balls at them to permanently warp their minds!'

'Who said that?' Antonio thought which no one else knows.

"Um, I'm just wondering. What am I going to do? Almost everyone in my head would want to go there and put them on a roller coaster ride of never ending suffering. I would feel bad about it, if it weren't for the fact that Shade would absorb it." Antonio said with a sincere face.

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael was getting seriously frustrated now by all the arguing. Normally she had nothing against it, but right now it was just everyone yelling about why their plan was so awesome. When the incest buddies started talking about their life story, she slipped away with a quietly snarled "Fuck this." Hopefully she could find an abandoned building and a source of water to practice with. The thugs were still in the pub, so she should be able to avoid them.
As she turned a corner, there was a cracking noise and a sudden pain in her head.
A second later, the pod lid opened as Rachael woke up.

[Mighty Asgard]

Tyler
Tyler nodded at Tara, understanding her reasoning. She could handle herself just fine, Cassie would probably need someone to look after her and she was a vital asset if Doe got away and they needed to find him again. And Caitlin probably couldn't use her power to shield others from getting shot, so letting just the two of them go off on their own wouldn't be any good, just a big risk. He still didn't feel good about letting Tara go after the patrol alone, but he knew that he could do more good by helping Cassie and Caitlin.

"Right then, let's go," he said to the two girls. "I suggest that we circle around the pub when we get a few blocks away from it, so we don't have to get within range of the enemies inside to get into position."

Patrol
The thug that first spotted Tara quickly put his gun up in her direction, thinking that someone was trying to attack them, but lowered it again when he saw that it was just some girl. The other two cautiously walked up behind him to see what all the commotion was about. None of them thought that the crying girl looked much like a threat, and they were momentarily uncertain what to do about her. They had their orders, to shoot anyone they met, but they didn't know if that meant literally anyone or just anyone who looked dangerous. After a few moments of deliberation fear was the deciding factor, because none of them wanted to have to deal with the Midget if they disappointed the boss.

One of the thugs raised his gun again and squeezed off a round at the girl.

Dominic
"That's odd," Dominic said, clearly worried, "Rachael was just booted out of the simulation." He turned to his colleagues, "could one of you go out and check on her?"

[Ularn]

"Think one of the thugs just shot her as she decided to bugger off," Scott said, adjusting the angle of a screen currently showing Rachael's "corpse" to show the armed thug standing a little further up the street she'd just turned on to. "Either way, shotgun not it," he added sourly, "I've had enough of her attitude for one morning already,"