Snippet #2630936

"...For the most part? Yeah, we're all good over here. The nerds are on body cleanup, and the E.C.P.D apparantly don't have anything solid. We're golden over here, no thanks to you."

"..."

"I kept my head down, trust me."

"..."

"Not yet, no. They said they're looking into it. Retracing guns, equipment, all that good stuff. By the looks of it, we'll have our culprits if everything works out.

"Oh, and from all the technical talk I heard, it sounds like it wasn't just an attack. It was a raid!"

"..."

"No...No, I don't know the difference. Something about being covert. By the looks of the stains on the wall, they're not that great at it."

"..."

"I never said there wasn't a mess! I said we were on body cleanup!"

"..."

"I told you! I didn't make a peep. I let the other guys handle it, just like you wanted. Didn't get invovled. Take my word for it."

"..."

"My word is worth more than anything in this building! ...Alright, alright. If anything pops up, I'll be sure that one of the eggheads send the word."

"..."

"...I promise. I won't make any moves unless you guys tell me to. Tru-."

"Get...off!"

Shush! The narks are on the line! ... Nothing! Look, I've got one last casuality to take care of. Maddox, out!

Jericho tapped his ear-piece, before wrestling it from his ear. It skipped across the ground as he tossed it across the pristine tile floors of the Horizon Lab's second floor. Held up within one of the labaratory rooms, Jericho was (honestly) in charge of cleanup duty from the morning's commotion. It fell somewhere in the rules of, 'you make the mess, you clean it.' And boy, did Jericho make a mess. It was shaping up to be a rather drull, pain in the ass. A waste of perfectly good talent. That was until a bit of 'interest' began to crawl across the floor with a gold ball sized hole in its leg. His cleaning was interupted by a call from the 'higher'ups' of the Horizon Foundation, which he believes was handled rather well. That aside...it was back to cleaning.

His gazed dropped downward, staring at the floor. Under Jericho's heel was one of the invaders from the raid, cloaked in black kevlar, stained red from the waist down. He squirmed and writhed, obviously not having much strength left, but still, Jericho lashed downward with a stomp into the man's leg, coaxing out a sharp yelp of pain. The kind that, even thought his face was masked, you had to guess was accompanied by tears. The intruder bit back the pained yells to a seething groan as he groped down at Jericho's boot. All the while, Mr. Jericho Maddox was staring down, his face the same as a person who was scolding their young. One that said, 'I told you so.'

"Okay, I'm going to ask again. Why were you and you buddies here? What were you after?"

"Gah! Don't,,,Ack! A raid! I said...a raid, Horizon's tech!"

"That's old news. I want you to be specific! Why were you here, damnit? Think about your next answer."

[b] "...I can't...They'd know. They'd kill me, I know it!"

"...Fine...I'll just save them the trouble, I guess. "

As Jericho spoke, his hand began to lower down to his hip, flickers of bright orange energy beginning to slowly course. The flickers began to grow in frequency, moving like electricity surging through a circuit. It flowed, and it sparked, and the color grew deeper and deeper, until it was a crimson red. Bit by bit, the energy began to take shape, moving repetatively until it took a solid form; a glock, glowing like neon in Jericho's hand. The intruder stared with fear in his eyes, but before even the slightest thing, beyond stammering out a plea of mercy, the artificial firearm exploded with a blaze from its muzzle. The bright energy exploded, taking a fine bit of the man's head along with it. The bullet wound was a sizzling, burned out hole through his skull, and a new mess on the floor to be cleaned.

----

With the new, limp body slung over his shoulder, Jericho stepped down into the first floor of Horizon Labs. By the looks of it, everything was finally all clear. What was once a mess of blood and bulletholes in the expensive walls, was quickly back to looking like normal. However, the staff was still buzzing about, trying to get things back in order. There were reports to make, new files to create, people to contact, and research to be done. So, what better way to contribute to it all than staying out of the way? Jericho laid the body onto a stretcher, leaving it to be dealt with. All the rest of the corpses were rushed down to the basment, along with the rest of the secrets that the Horizon Foundation wouldn't let Jericho see just yet. Perhaps it was because of rank, or perhaps it was because of parinoia. All Jericho knew was that he wasn't allowed down there, and apparantly an assault on the building wasn't about to change that fact. Instead, Maddox was laying in wait with his ears open, waiting for a target. Waiting for a move that he could.