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"Get down? I don't think so. I don't get down for anyone."

Like lightning, a burst of spikes blew one of the terrorists' heads to pieces.

"I don't do hostage situations, okay? They aren't my style."

Another burst of spikes blasted apart the head of the other terrorist.

"Sorry, but you lose. You lose EVERYTHING."

Zack walked over to the governor while motioning to Raye.

"Raye, I'll help the governor. You and my crew go downstairs and clean up any trash that's threatening anyone."

"Right."

Raye and Co. headed downstairs, while Zack took a seat with the governor.

"Now that that little intrusion is taken care of, I hope you're okay Mr. Governor."

Destruction was the name of the game, it seemed. A path of destruction, that seemed to start from many points and slowly converge, tore through the building. He ran passed dead guards, dead terrorists, sometimes not having a clue what body belonged to which side, proving to him that the chaos and danger was not caused only by a human element.

Not all the terrorists had been killed though. In one hall, several of the terrorist had been encased in ice. One of which had managed to break halfway out, with only his legs still encased in ice, which he chipped away with the butt of his rifle, “Fucking freak kids. First that metal bastard, then an ice bitch, the next one I see is getting a bullet in the head, no hesitati-“ The man suddenly looked up and raised his rifle and fired at Mal.

His arm came up as soon as he saw the man spot him, and he staggered back as the force of the bullets threw him off balance. His shield/battle gauntlet unwrapped itself from his arm, extending the shield down to the floor. It seemed to angle itself so that the bullets were deflected away instead of just impacting against a flat surface. He carefully walked up through the hail of bullets and around the terrorist, where he bashed the terrorist in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious where he slumped over awkwardly, is feet still frozen to floor.

As he moved on, he would notice, here and there, small, reddish- brown things, moving slug like across the floor. There was something profoundly disturbing about them, and once, when he spotted a particularly large one slugging across the ground, he realised why they creeped him out so much. They were made of sand, and they were soaked in blood.

It wasn’t long before he caught up to the chaos.

A huge sand colored beast was trying to squeeze through a door, raving in an almost human voice until he broke through the wall, part of his body coming apart into sand which ran back to his body. When he spoke about dames and “the opposite gender” he realised that the thing was human, or at least had been a human, as he seemed to have left humanity somewhere far behind.

Two of the others were those Valleiy bastards who were a year behind him. He’d wanted desperately to give them the ass kicking they had earned, deserved, and were being seriously deprived of. He’d never done it, of course, because, let’s face it, Wade was built like a truck and they were never separate.

A girl appeared, the “ice bitch” he assumed since her arm was covered in ice armor. With her challenge, one of the three leapt to attack the sand beast, and Jessie Valleiy started teleporting around before grabbing a pipe and swinging it around. The sand creature pulled in more sand from somewhere, and he suddenly realised why the girl and the other guy seemed familiar. He’d seen them in the warehouse, he remembered the girl now; he’d thought she was cute. So this was all on purpose. Someone did something to all of them, created that monster tearing the place up and killing people, and for what purpose? A few days after they’re all released from the Hospital this happens? It couldn’t be a coincidence.

He also knew that with someone as psychotic as whoever had the sand power, and the Valleiy bastards working with him, something definitely had to done to stop them.

He suddenly jerked his back as he felt something crawl across his foot; It was one of the sand slugs, trailing blood along behind it. He bumped a table and a vase of flowers wobbled and fell, breaking and spilling water al over the floor and washing the slug into particles of sand that floated away with the streams of water.

Idea.

He quickly checked the ceiling, and the hall that connected to the one where the battle raged. He found what he needed on the ceiling, and what he really needed a little ways down the hall. He back tracked until he found a body and took it’s gun. He encouraged his metal to hide itself, figuring he should save it for a surprise if needed, and walked around the corner, trying to look bad-ass and confident on the outside, while inside he was praying that this would work.

“Hey! Beach Boy!”

The enraged creature looked at him, as he pointed the gun at it, “Play time is over.” He jerked the gun up and fired a single shot at the sprinkler system. A siren wailed it’s alarm as water spayed down in torrents from the ceiling.

Donni was trying to keep herself geared up for the fight, but she was starting to feel the strain from before. She'd been running all over the building going after the gunmen and now it looked like she'd have to take both of these ones at once.

And, apparently, the "Sandman was gunning for her. If you could call it a man, she didn't know what this guy was supposed to look like before, but right now, he looked like something out of a bad horror movie. Before she could think of how she was supposed to handle this, though, someone from somewhere behind her went running at him and pretty much kept him occupied. Someone else went after him as well, but they couldn't all get distracted by one guy when they had the other two maniacs running loose.

Donni got her iced arm ready to swing as she took charged at the two brothers. She still wasn't totally sure how much they could do, but she'd find out now.

"Sweet, reinforcements." Josh said looking at a guy shooting a sprinkler, probably in hopes of getting the sandman wet. " Hell yeah, time to kick ass." he said as Donni charged the brothers.

He instantly charged( which was actually was him flying just above the ground parallel with it.) the one teleporting around the room, because he figured that he had the best chance with that one, since Josh was fast and could use Air to make him faster, and hit him head on just before he could teleport out of the way, and they both went flying, for Josh literary and for Jessie, not so much.


Josh rubbed his neck once he got up, because he hit the man with a headbutt, well, a flying one. " You bored, well, come and get me." Josh yelled at Jessie. He remembered both of the brothers names once he hit him.

Jessie took the headbutt roughly, and flew through the air from the momentum. But his body's natural reflex's took over and he teleported randomly, and ended up right over head of the pale haired boy. Lead pipe still in hand he felt gravity take over, and since he was a bit disorientated not knowing exactly where he was, he knew he'd probally land hard. Jessie's plan was to stay out of range, his old philosophy of "gotta catch me to hit me."

Wade on the other hand lifted his left arm to block the ice strike, he could stop small caliber bullets and live, he could stop a bit of ice as well. As he did so he saw the flying boy head butt Jessie, who teleported back over the head of the pale haired kid. Wade knew the fun had just begun, and yelled to pump things up.

"YEEEEEEEEEHAW!"

Strangely enough, it was his injuries that saved him. When the sand demon blinded him with a handful of sand, he stepped back reflexively, but his left leg collapsed under him and he fell to the ground, only dimly aware of the close brush of the demon's claws through the cloud of sand.

Blind and desperate, Brennan tried something he'd never done before. Spreading his arms out and in the general direction of the creature, Brennan tried to shoot a separate ray from each finger instead of one from each hand. The bolts of gravitic force were smaller than usual, but he could hit more of the sand creature at a time, creating a kind of barrier that looked like bars of a jail cell made out of a shadow shaped like lightning. Even though it looked like it wouldn't stop the sand, the ten thin rays, much like the electrically charged set of bars they resembled, were actually arcing toward the particles as they reached the rays, throwing them away from the small space that contained the prone form of Brennan and a bit of empty air.

The only good thing to come from this was that it kept the wall of sand from drowning him.

The bad thing was, with that many rays, there was no way Brennan could keep them from arcing to each other. He could barely keep two rays apart, let alone ten. There was a series of pops like fireworks to mark the small explosions where his rays collided. They did little other than give Brennan some new small burns and cause him to hit his head on the floor, dazing him for a moment. Luckily, the small fires that had started in Brennan's (now ruined) clothes were put out by the timely activation of the sprinkler system. Still, he would have to add a few more burns to his list of injuries. On top of that, the sand in his eyes was still making it difficult to see.

Donni's ice club shattered from Wade's hit, but her arm would have probably been broken if it wasn't there and the hit still knocked her a bit off balance. While he started hollering, she scrambled awkwardly to put some distance between them and think. No way in hell, could she muscle with this guy, he was huge to start with and now it looked like he was just a monster. She'd have to trip him up a bit before she tried anything. She didn't want to think of what he'd do if he actually got his hands on her...

Okay, we'll see if this works.

She started concentrating again, mostly on the ground under his feet. Whether it would freeze him there or just make it slick, she couldn't be sure, but either one beat the alternative. She was also readying her ice armor, mostly in the arms so she could have some kind of weapon again.

There was a lot of moisture around- she couldn't see what was going on, but she could hear the sprinklers going off down in the halls. She wasn't sure if her range went that far, but if she could get a hold of it and get it here...

The creature that Jonah had become in his madness had very little time to relay the information of what it was seeing to the secondary, at least at the time, intelligent personality before all hell broke loose with its body. Its claws had missed the other, not counting on the male falling, yet it didn't matter as water began to flood down from the...the creature wanted to think the heavens, yet it was only the ceiling. Its claw was the first to go, being long, thin, and sharp. The tips of the fingers clump, starting to fall towards the floor as weight and gravity overcome control over the individual grains, shortening the fingers even as the helm covering its face begins to fall away, as well. The horns were no longer pointed and he was no longer a light tan, turning a darker brown, his eyes closing to prevent sand from entering them, mouth opening, however, his cry of rage bursting the sand outward in a bubble.

"NO! We're falling apart! Stupid, stupid creature."

His head whips from side to side for a moment, the sand clearing away from his hair...when he'd begun to fall apart, he'd been forced to become flesh and blood inside the suit of sand instead of actually a part of it, lest he turn to a mushy pile of sand along with the rest. His once spiked blue locks fall and cling to his face, his entire body starting to shrink once more. The double jointed legs fall apart under him, unable to support his newly soaked weight, sending the once-raging, crazed young man to his back in the forming mire. Even the giant plug of sand that had been forming starts to clump, though the doors and debris keep it mostly formed. It would hold nothing in, however, for it would fall over if pushed hard enough, the corpse once held rigid in the middle falling out into the floor.

The young man, fully nude, for he had never decided to put any clothes on, nor could he have, thrashes in the sand, trying to dig himself out to the top of it as more and more water pours from the roof. The sand that had once been part of him washes from his frame, flesh being scraped by it now that he no longer controlled it fully. Its weight threatened to drown him, though once one arm had been pulled free, he used it to snatch the other out, lifting his upper torso free of the sand. It hurt like hell, akin to lying in sandpaper, though he'd never done that...it was the closest situation he could think of. He was the Sandman...this shouldn't be happening to him. The beast in his brain berates him for not thinking deep enough into his plan, Jonah's head whipping from side to side again as his eyes open, screaming seemingly at nothing for a moment.

"I didn't think far enough into the plan?! You should have fucking helped me think, then, you useless asshole! We're a fucking team! You're part of me, damn you, and if I get hurt, so do you!"

Clouds of moisture fly from his lips as the water runs down his face, eyes wide and frantic as he pulls himself higher out of the sand. His head turns from one side to the other, first off looking over the male in the floor in front of him. The boy had done some weird stuff that he didn't quite understand...and he didn't seem to want to join with his plan with the brothers. This could pose a problem, but he had a more pressing issue at the moment, at least in his mind...he was naked. At least he had nothing to be ashamed of, he thought, head turning quickly enough for his neck to crack, his eyes narrowed to keep the water from them, spotting the half-sunk corpse. Turning on his heels in the sand, he makes as quick a mad dash as he can across the top of it, his mind already straining to move the wet mass to give him a free space in front of the swaying wall of sand. Somewhere in his head a vessel bursts from the strain, twin streams of crimson fluid snaking from his nostrils. Apparently even self-made demons had limits, the wet sand forming a depression just wide enough for him to stand in to get a bit of cover.

His hands snatch at the corpse's clothing, first snatching the large boots off of his feet, then snatching off his pants after fiddling with them. His hands work as quickly as they can, pulling the pants on after giving a quick flick to get the wet sand out as best he can. He buttons them, yet still has trouble holding them up until he pulls the belt as far as he can. It didn't always pay to be so small, picking up the boots and tossing them out into the open. He knew the gun was empty, that much at least registering in the back of his brain, but he needed to get his shirt off, tugging and pulling at it as he ducked in the cavity, that way he could keep anyone on the other side of the half-formed plug from taking potshots at him...though he still had the weird kid on the floor to worry about. The others would likely concentrate on the Valleiy brothers for the moment, Jonah cursing like a sailor as he works, then speaking a bit louder.

"Stupid stupid idiot. Didn't think, never think...kill them all later...get out for now...get out and...and...and WHAT?!"

He couldn't think. Something was wrong, his hand coming up to his face, wiping away the moisture, but also noting that the water was tinged pink...he was bleeding. This was an odd turn of events. His head felt too light for his body, the world spinning around him, his head pounding like an overactive child's bass drum. The demon, which was merely a fabrication of a sick mind, really a second part of Jonah, continues to berate the main personality, cursing him as he struggles to think. Get out of the depression...that much was assured, climbing back on top of the sand, his gait off. He felt like hell, looked it, most likely. He wasn't dying, but he had burnt more energy than he'd originally had, his body compensating for that by shutting down slowly, his vision hazy...even superhumans had that one weak word in it...human. He was only human...and it angered him. He didn't make it far enough to get out of the sand mire, however, knees giving out three feet from the edge. The strain on his brain and body was too much now that he was human again. Regardless of how it had ended, whenever he'd turned human again, had it been in home or here, the same would have happened.

His body pitches forward, splashing up a pile of water and sand, arms still pulling him forward, however. It was no good, though...he was a sitting duck like this. All he could do was turn his face to keep it from burying into the sand, feeling his body being scraped raw once more. Sand in the crotch of his pants, sand in his armpits...it was getting everywhere. His throat ached, but he had enough breath left in him at the moment for one call, though only enough for a few words.

"WADE! Jessie!"

Jessie landed in a small pile soggy sand with an hefty thump, his rather long raven hair beginning to plaster to himself as the sprinklers took full effect throughout the hall, and heard his big brother yell and a small explosion ripped through the air as well. The party had definitely hit full swing, and adrenaline started to pump through his veins as his mind began to think at an alarming rate for the would be drop out. Time seemed to stand near still as he saw shattered ice plume into a cloud from down the hall, as well as the individual water droplets from the sprinklers fell in slow motion. His hand clenched around the makeshift weapon that was the lead pipe as he saw a small figure moving in the peripheral of his vision.

He heard his and his brother's name uttered in a disembodied echoish voice, another side effect of the pure excitement rush he was experiencing, and he let his new "superpower" come to play. His eyes turned to the source of the sound, and saw that it was Sandman himself. His perception still like molasses he felt the teleportation take effect, as if he had jumped onto the back of a train, and as he blinked his eyes as his very atoms were yanked at incomprehensible speeds toward his destination right next to Jonah.

The pulling sensation stopped almost as soon as it began as he felt his feet touching solid ground once more. He completed the action of the human blink, and the world once more continued at normal speed like his shellshock experience had never happened. For all that Jessie knew someone had hit the slow-mo button on accident before hitting the play button again. That was all forgotten fairly quickly as he looked to his left to see Sandman sprawled out on the floor in a growing pile of water dirtied by the gruituous amount of sand in the hallway. Jessie himself was now in a catchers position couched over the young man like some perverse guardian angel, an angel that had a few screws loose in his head as well as a hard-on for mindless violence not to mention enough energy to make the energize bunny jealous. Jessie was curious to why Sandman was in such a pitiful state, and why he had yelled him and his brothers name. Just as he began to speak a massive thud was heard behind him, which Jessie knew to be his brother from the sound of his boots. Jessie could have swore the impact made Jonah leap an inch of the ground, but it was most likely imagination.

"Yo boss, you alright?"
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Wade saw the young woman scramble away, then the sprinklers came on, and finally he heard his name yelled along with Jessie's. Needless to saw he cooked an eyebrow to this, which only rose further as he saw the air around him beginning to resemble delightful snowy frost alongside the small puddle of water at his feet rapidly freezing to steel toed boots he happened to have on. Strange, but after today's events it ranked very low on the extraordinary scale of surprises. What did surprise him was the fact that Sandman looked out of commission, and had apparently called out for help. Obviously his presence was needed, and he was on his way very shortly seeing as the Jonah was only 20ft away down the hall.

An audible series of cracks and snaps were heard as Wade ripped and tore his foot from the growing ice prison beneath him, something that he wouldn't have been able to do without the superstrength he now had. He might have had a very tough time even then if he had waited any longer, as the ice was spreading at unnatural rates, compliments of the ice girl, who was between him and his destination. He tore his other foot out of the frozen floor and began to charge to Sandman. A rhino or 18 wheeler would be a better description to the behemoth that was charging down the hall, a 6 and a half foot/300lbs young man ripped with muscles that was named Wade.

He took a leap in stride, his new raw strenght converting into his calves sent him sailing clear over the ice witch and landing with a huge thud right next to his crouching brother and Johan.
Wade knew the odds were drastically going against the trio, and the consequences of "losing" this "battle" ranged from severe legal punishment to painful unnatural death. Those didn't sound too good for him, so he picked up the small for of Jonah with one arm and slung him over his shoulder in a fireman carry position, before at Jessie. The brothers nodded, and Wade looked over at the opposite wall, outside though a window. It was only a two story drop, and he was a freakin superhero now, not to mention Jessie was also.

Wade kicked a giant hole into the wall, sending debris everywhere and a waft of fresh Denver air into the building. A few birds chirped as Wade lept off and out with Johan on one shoulder, and Jessie suddenly disappearing from his brothers side, apparently teleporting outside. The Valleiy brothers and their sandy partner seemed to have lived to fight another day as they fled.

"Ugh, I hate villains who have superpowers." Josh muttered as Jessie teleported after he was hit. Then the 'Sandman' was suddenly, all wet. The beast had just fallen apart into a person. " Oh my Lord, he was actually a person." Josh said quietly. Then Jessie teleported over the Sandman once he was called by him. Apparently they were in league. Then Josh heard cracking, and looked over to see Wade, breaking Donni's ice prison, and then jumping clear over her, and landing next to Jessie.

"Damn." Josh said, amazed at Wade's jump. Then Wade picked the Sandman up, kicked a hole in the wall and jumped outside. Apparently, Jessie just teleported outside, and was waiting for Wade to come down. "Awww, they're getting away. Come on Robin to the Batmobile we go. Sorry, I've just always wanted to say that." he said to Donni.

Malcolm watched the sand fall apart with a great deal of satisfaction. He’d only expected the water to make him soggy, soft, slow. Of course, something of this sort was ideal, but he’d never thought it would actually happen. When a boy feel out of the collapsing sand pile his grin was almost feral, “Now that is something easily handled.” The boy was naked, and he would allow him to have his dignity before he went and kicked the living hell out of the murderous little bastard, which he was going to get even harder since he stole the clothes from a corpse he was responsible for.

When the sandless-wonder tried to get up and Mal noticed the blood running down from his nose before he collapsed, crying out for aid from the Valleiy brothers, into a huge pile of what was rapidly becoming quicksand.

“Holy shit. I killed him.”

But that turned out not to be the case, as he could see him move when Wade picked him up, kicked out a wall, leaped out and started running.

Malcolm ran for the hole in the wall, but by the time he made it there, the Valleiy brothers and the kid were way to far away for him to run after them. He still had the gun though. He raised it and sighted, carefully aiming. The sand guy was the main target, he was the murder he was the one who should be put out of the worlds misery. He’d killed who knew how many. He had no doubt in his mind that once he’d dried out, he’d be back in psycho-killer-demon-mode. He couldn’t do it. He could not take a life, not yet, not in the back of retreating foes. In the heat of battle, sure, but not like this. He Let the gun fall from his hands and we wiped at the water in his eyes. He had no idea how long the sprinkler would continue to drench everything, but there was still more to do here.

Also, the drenching water would increase the ice girls power exponentially, he figured it would at least, and as long as they were on the same side, that was a very, very good thing.

Donni had to laugh at the joke, adding, "more like the X-Jet for some of us. But, yeah, we're gonna have to keep track of those two. But, I'm wondering if we need to figure out what's going on here. This building was attacked before any of them showed up..."

Now that she had a chance to calm down, she was trying to look at the whole situation. They had those three on the loose. Licking their wounds, but still loose and they would only be more trouble if left alone. And she knew damn well the police wouldn't be able to handle them. On the other hand, the situation here still looked bad here and she wasn't sure if anyone else had shown up.

She was starting to wonder again why she even got involved.

Something else dawned on her. "And now that I remember it, where's that other kid that got into it wih them?"

His ears heard the words from Jessie's mouth, but his brain processed nothing. Connections in his brain popped and fizzled, his head pounding with all the force of cannonballs battering a ship. His eyes even seemed to pulse with the power of his heartbeat, his face half-buried in sand. Energy...he needed more energy. He hadn't accounted for the water or the massive burn of energy that controlling all that sand had taken on his body. Once he'd been forced to return to his human form, the energy drain had hit him like a delayed bomb. His body responded, yes, but only for a short time, his fingers twitching from time to time as more water poured down upon his prone form, the sucking sensation of all that sand pulling him down barely registering over the pounding of Wade's footsteps.

He offered no resistance when grabbed by the larger male, his body mostly limp as it lay over his shoulder, blood flowing freely from his nostrils. His world was hell at the moment...it spun around him like some insane top, his head pounding louder and louder. He had put too much strain on himself too soon...any sane individual would have seen the fact that such a meteoric rise in ability would have just as drastic a fall when one overestimates one's abilities. Jonah wasn't quite sane, however, and had never considered that and had now paid for it. He had lost all his sand, the ability to move, and likely some respect for himself on some base level. His head drops to one side, letting things flow as they would...he had no control and that...that was the ultimate blow for the small young man at the moment. Control was his life...and it had slipped away.

The kick against the wall that Wade gave made the small form on his shoulders flop just a bit, his arms hanging limp aside from the occasional twitch of his hands and fingers. His eyes close, lank hair of blue away from his pale face at the moment, dripping with the water that had coated them all. Had they stayed, they likely would have been at a great disadvantage compared to the ice bitch, who Jonah would have likely targeted first had he the ability. Think better...that was all he could think at the moment. Plan and learn, his mind said. Learn from your mistakes...that was what he had to do. Upon Wade's impact with the ground, he again swayed somewhat lifelessly, the only evidence that he even was still living being the ragged breaths he took. His body was conserving its energy for only the necessities for now...his lungs, his heart, things of that nature. It would take some time for his energy to recharge and in that time...he would review...and he would plan.

"True, but we should leave that to the police, to sort out what happened.I think we should leave it to the police with these kinds of situations, I mean we should just deal with the supervillians, and whoever get in our way doing that. Yes, I agree that we should keep tabs on those three. We also should keep in contact with each other, just to exchange information and tell each other our findings. Here's my phone number.Oh wait, that Zack kid crushed it." Josh replied to Donni. This presented a new problem for him, how keep in touch with Donni. He decided just to give her his email, and all his chat user names, and his address."Other kid? Hmm, I do remember him. Trying to help I think.He must be somewhere in here, I didn't see someone leave, beside from the trio." Josh replied to Donni's question

The Valleiy's left the capital building in a cloud of smoke from the sudden slam on the gas by Wade. The pick-up truck plowed trough a small police barricade and took a few rounds to the side, luckily none punctured a valuable tire. Meanwhile Jessie's job was to keep Sandman at least breathing until they were out of the heat, which he was doing to the best of his limited abilities in the bed of the truck hanging on for dear life as the truck flew down the roads.

"Why couldn't have just left his ass?"
"Jessie, if he made it out alive, he'd be on our ass live white on rice. Do you really want that dumbass?"
"Well...no. But damn, it was fun while it lasted."

Jessie wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, nor did he have any formal or informal lessons in healthcare, that compounded with the fact Wade had only said to keep him alive meant to Jessie to keep him awake. So he sang, sing he did with a reckless smile on his face as his head of hair was wildly thrown about in the wind from the speeding vehicle. All Wade could do was roll his eyes and slam the pedal even more as he heard the old song their mom used to sing to them before she was incarcerated.

"Nick nack paddy wack give a dog a bone! This old man came rolling home!...."

The ride was finally done, after what seems like so many hours. She hadn't flatlined, but she had not waken up, nor shone any signs of such. They'd rushed her into the emergency ward, the surgery immediately after. Will was forced to stay in the waiting room.

She was out, into her own room, in a few hours. Will went in there, and puleld up a chair. He took her hand, and shut his eyes, falling asleep immediately.

He woke up, around noon. His hand was still in hers, and she was still asleep. Slowly he unravelled it, and looked around, spacing...

...Until he felt a small nudge on his sleeve. His head turned to Johanna. He ees were open, slightly, and she was smiling a little, and it was her hand on his sleeve.

Immediately he smiled, and jumped to his feet. His arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly, his face burried in her lucious blonde hair. He felt tears stinging in his eyes. He never wanted to let go...




Then, the next day, she was released. She was stil extremely weak, but he helped her down to his car. They came up to the apartment, and he found a newspaper on his doorstep, and he picked it up. He opened the door, and let Johanna in, coming in after her.

"'Local Man Saves School from Atomic Bomb'! Hell yes!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the office, a young man sat, with his legs crossed, typing at the computer. Frills laced his jacket, and his shirt- or, really, a blouse. He smiled. He loved his job.
His phone began to ring. He picked it up.
"Yes?" He said.
"Yo, Cim! It's Rhia. Have I got a story for you..."

Brennan knew the exact moment when the energy loss hit him. He felt so drained he could barely keep himself awake. He managed to slowly move his (relatively) uninjured arm to wipe at his eyes, but even that little movement caused shooting agony to race along his still bleeding shoulder, and through his battered head. Dimly, he was aware of the fight happening around him, and he struggled to remain conscious, but he couldn't even move. He had let everyone down. Damon had been right, he wasn't ready for this.

He could hear the monster scream something, but between the pain and the water falling into his ears, he couldn't tell what. Then he heard, or rather felt, the crash from the wall being kicked out. He didn't know who had won, but he knew it was over.

He still couldn't move, he had used up too much energy even before the fighting, and his last desperate defense had drained him far more than any normal person could lose. It was a miracle he was still awake. On top of that, he had lost a lot of blood from the open knife wound, and his heart had been working overtime from his overexertion.

Praying that he wasn't making a terrible mistake, he tried to speak. The first time he tried it, even he couldn't hear it. Then he managed to lift his arm and say two only slightly garbled words.

"Help. Please."

Then he was forced to sink into the release offered by the waiting oblivion of sleep.

On Tk face, it looked to be in shock as the terrorists brains were splattered on the walls. He coughed and took his hand to his neck feeling his pulse. He then sighed and storked back his hair, trying to keep his composure.

"Raye, I'll help the governor. You and my crew go downstairs and clean up any trash that's threatening anyone."

"Right."

Raye and Co. headed downstairs, while Zack took a seat with the governor.

"Now that that little intrusion is taken care of, I hope you're okay Mr. Governor."

TK closed his eyes and fixed his tie. "I would have hope you would have handled that with more civility. But I cannot be picky about how I am rescued can I. But that was still a brash thing you have done. You had best hope that your compatriots act readily to aid of the hostage. I think my single life matters little to the masses that apparently lie beneath.'

"But I again I must thank you, I wish to say I am alright. But that might not be the case of the matter. We are still in a danger zone, and the terrorist can come back at any minute, but I mustin leave until I know that the people are alright."

He got up and picked up the rifle, and the pistol. Throwing the rifle over his back and holding the pistol at in his hand.
"Come on, I'm not willing to let others die for my own personal adventures."

Zack moved downstairs, reuniting with Raye and Co.

"I've rescued the governor. Let's make sure any other civilians are safe and get the hell out of here."

"Right."

Zack and Co. moved downstairs to the previous level, spotting some familiar faces and utter carnage. The place looked even more like a war zone than it had when Zack and his friends had ascended the stairs earlier.

"What the hell happened?"

He recognized people from the party. Donni, the Valleiy brothers, some others. There was also sand everywhere.

"As you can see, while you guys were fighting, WE rescued the governor. Now we're going to go see if there are any hostages being held in the rest of the building. Anyone want to come along, or do you just want to fight and accomplish nothing? The choice is yours."

Donni nodded a bit. She decided to keep her mouth shut about how the cops were taking too much time and had basically just sat there and let them all go insane through the building. She wanted to find that other guy, though, it looked like he went after that "Sandman" character from earlier and didn't come back afterwards...

As she started climbing back down through the hall, she heard some rustling among the debris and a faint voice.

"That you? Hang in there, we're coming!"

As she started to follow the voice, and she spotted an arm somewhere, she heard more voices up ahead. It was a whole group of people she vaugely remembered from somewhere. She figured they were in the same boat as them.

One of them stepped forward and started a whole story about how they saved the governor or some bull crap. Somethingm about the tone she was hearing irked her a bit.

"No kidding," she replied, flatly. "Well, that 'nothing' we were accomplishing was holding off three freakin' monsters that would have probably torn you all to shreds if we weren't dealing with them. And that 'nothing' got this guy nailed. Now, those 'nothings' are on the loose and once they're back on their feet, all hell is going to break loose."