Wing City Highway

John seemed slightly disappointed with the being as he made his choice, but John could no more force his will on someone even if he wanted too. And there were moments he really wish he could to help prevent things from happening. Though he had to at least respect the creature's move even if he didn't agree with it. But shockingly enough he felt the the angelic presence in the beast as John himself was embedded with power much like it.

"I will thank you for standing down, but I'm afraid I can not let you devour any more innocent people like the one you took recently. While you may have to eat to survive and humans have wronged you there are those that need not be swept up by this hunger." He said, hunger holding two meaning as he spoke of the wolf's diet and his vengeance. "And while you might believe there is no helping you I am afraid I'm going to have to disagree with that."

John continued his kneel as he wished to remain on the wolf's level and show that he was concerned for him. To show the being that there was someone that cared for him. As foreign and strange that might be for many to accept, John honestly believed in forgiveness and second chances.

"Do not leave, my friend." he said. "Please come with me and I will find a way for you. To help and heal you. I will be by your side and accept you into my family." John smiled and it seemed warmth and love radiated from it. "Lord knows it's plenty big enough, but there is always more room." He laughed.

John reached behind his head and pulled on his ponytail slightly. A little mannerism of his ever since he grew the damn thing. He reached out his hand once more to the wolf. "Come follow me." he said. "The energy in you...the energy you feel I can help you with as well. Angelic energy is something I am familiar with. So please come with me and I'll help you."

Satanity stopped while he was trotting. He listened to the mans words and only laughed bitterly once more, "And once again you speak of an equality that does not exist. We cannot satiate their hunger for our brethren and are looked upon as beasts, and by your gods whims my life would be forfeit to satiate their hunger."

He looked back towards the night and shook his head, "Show me man can carry compassion for my kind, even as I am now. That more than just a.. blessed being, can care for what is true. All creatures are intelligent, to one degree or a next."

He smiled at the thought, "And many of us require that red meat to survive. It is the cycle of life." He glance back towards John one last time, "The only thing that makes them better is their tools. I have a feeling we shall meet again. Hopefully on better terms." Satanity turned away and took off into the night. Quickly, him, and his energy, would be gone into the shadows. Off to hidden shallows at the wing city lake to clean up, and to some sanctuary for rest.

cool! I do the same sometimes, but there are moments I think...hmm I should throw this around. But what you saw of John is how I always picture him on how he deals with things. Wants to first talk things out with the bad guy if he can.

-

Riley and several other Invictus soldiers sat in the back of an armored truck speeding down the highway towards Fort Veritas. The truck itself flanked by several NPA vehicles and a lone Seraphim Carrier. It was clear that they were protecting something important. Someone, in this case.

Jacob Haley, terrorist, murder, fugitive, and shell of his former self still carrying delusions of grandeur around like an ID. He looked towards Riley and the other men and women. They were all quiet, only the sounds of their breath could be heard save for the rustling of the cuffs Jacob were that kept him chained to the vehicle.

"I take it you blokes don't like appearing Human." Jacob said, "I guess that makes sense. Why ruin the mood by actually pretending to be anything but cold, unfeeling killers."

The irony was lost on the young Englishman, as always.

"Where you all from?" He asked, "I'm from London." Jacob told the group, "Nice place. The birds are fine. But, the girls here in Wing City? Pretty fuckable." Jacob continued, "Like, that one chick, the one who kept only wearing purple with the foul mouth and nice tits. I'd do things to her mouth that-..."

Jacob was cut short when Riley punched him in the face, knocking the young man unconscious.

"Why'd you do that?" A soldier asked Riley, "I dated Mary in high school. Not a fan of pricks like this one talking about her like that." Riley answered.

A convoy was not going to go across Wing City without a special event.

That special event was explosions.

There was a small, black object in the middle of the lane that the Seraphin Carrier rolled down, no bigger than a mouse. It would begin beeping, then blinking rapidly as it approached. When it rolled over it, it would begin it all.

Boom, went the bass. A group of shadowy figures watched patiently, waiting.

A figure, high up atop one of the buildings overlooking the stretch of highway where the explosion had just taken place, lay firmly against the butt of a sniping rifle with a calm, professional attitude. His weapon was silenced, and a magnification scope gave him a good view of the terrain below and the vehicles about to ruin it.

He had chosen his position so that behind him, the stairway exit tot he roof at least stopped his head from sticking out like a sore thumb should anyone look up; plus, it could always be used as cover should any fire go his way.

Now he had to wait. He didn't want to reveal his presence too early, after all.

The explosions brought the convoy to a sudden stop, much of it beginning to collapse and take down a few of the vehicles in front. "What happened?" Riley asked, "Are we being attacked or is it just more Wing City bullshit?" He asked the group, "I'll get in touch with the NPA." A female soldier said, putting a hand to her right ear.

"This is Alpha 2, Pack 1, what's going?" The woman asked, "I think we're being attacked, stay inside the vehicle while we do a quick scan." A voice answered over the communication channel.

"We're staying put." She said, the NPA agents outside of the truck taking positions around the highway scanning rooftops for snipers, searching for incoming aircraft, and stopping cars.

"There could be more explosives, scan under the bridge." An agent ordered, several of the NPA officers placing device down on the bridge. "Starting in a few seconds. We'll know how dead we are in a minute." One of them joked, much to the dismay of his comrades.

A normal, uneventful, cold as shit ride home. That was all this was supposed to be.

So why the hell was he now on his back, body burning in pain, and his bike on the side of the highway, the engine revving continuously, probably going to blow out in a few moments.

Rick groaned as he rolled onto his stomach, getting his knees under him before looking around. He wasn't the only commuter that had crashed.

The hell is going on?

Cassidy had no idea what had just happened. One moment she and her sister were singing a song playing on the radio and then there was a loud noise. Everything turned into a jumble of images and noise. Oh God, the noise. There was roaring in Cassidy's ears and everything hurt.

The white sedan was upside down on the highway. There was glass and twisted metal everywhere she looked. There was a puddle of blood, too.

"Oh God... Bailey? Bailey!" Cassidy screamed. She couldn't see her sister. There was only blood. Blood everywhere.

"Help! Someone help! Please, oh God my sister!" Cassidy yelled out.

Something alerted all the agents in the area that were working with Iso. A man's voice, accent standard, city American. It was commanding.

"Remember, Godrage, you're covering Iso. She's going to lead them out and you're going to pick them off. Do your best to clear the Carrier first. The Invictus are tough. Be careful."

The rest of the teams received various orders. There were thirty other agents apart from Iso and Godrage. That was all they needed.

Iso stepped off the roof, and in a blur, vanished as she fell. She was then seen landing atop the carrier, drawing out a long sword that had not been apparent before. She reached to stick it in the top of the vehicle and open it like a can.

A black sedan screeched to a halt on the highway just behind the NPA vehicle as the explosion went off, its rear end spinning out slightly and hitting the lane divider in the centre. "Oh, bullshit." the elderly female driver cursed, her voice more resignedly peeved than shocked or angry. "Sometimes I can't believe this fucking city."

Catherine threw her car into gear and hit the accelerator, turning about to start driving back the way she'd come, only to find the road totally blocked by a small pileup. "Really?" Hitting the switch on her window she stuck her head out to yell, "Get your hunks of junk out of the god damn road before you get us all killed, assholes!"

Being dressed down in such a manner by a woman in her fifties - even if it was a sharply dressed and snarky-sounding woman - probably wasn't the proudest moment of the drivers behind her, but it didn't change the fact that they weren't moving any time soon. "Christ almighty..." Catherine muttered to herself, throwing her door open and grabbing the gun she kept in her passenger seat before stepping out onto the road.

"Can't you fuckers wait till after god damn rush hour?" she shouted off in the direction of the attack angrily.

Things seemed to be picking up fast. The traffic had stopped, the crowds were panicking and getting out of their cars, and it looked like there were already injured civilians. Still, it couldn't be helped. They had chosen to do it during a high-traffic time, after all. Now they had no choice but to see it through, while Godrage planned to keep as many innocents alive as he could. A reputation to be upheld was not a reputation taken likely, and his reputation for avoiding unneeded collateral was becoming legendary.

"Ready," he simply said, knowing that the others would hear him through his ear-mounted communicator. The moment someone got out of that carrier, he would be ready to shoot them right in their CBM.

The sword digging through the top of the transport was a bit unsettling at first, Jacob, who was waking up after taking a haymaker, wasn't really enjoying the ssight. "What the fuck?" The Englishman shouted, pressing his chained body against the inside of the vehicle.

"Masks on." Riley ordered, his team reaching below their seats. Almost simultaneously they were putting on gasmasks. They didn't know if their attackers were going to be using tear gas or any kind of poisons. They had to be prepared for both. "Don't I get one?" Jacob asked, a soldier forcing a mask over the young man's face.

"Prepare for flashes." One of the soldiers told the others, the group aiming their weapons with one hand at the roof. Their free hands went to the foreheads of the soldiers on their lefts.

"Be ready to head out of the back. Driver, cover us when we move." Riley ordered.

The top of the vehicle would open up, then flip off onto the road with a clatter. The woman, half her face covered by a cowl, the rest of her in slick, light body armor, looked down on them with pale blue eyes, sword in hand, red hair framing her face. Then, just like that, she disappeared.

"Now's your chance, Godrage. They're in clear view."

The girl landed on the ground with hardly a sound, waiting for the driver to step out from his seat. She was ordered to kill, but if she could avoid it...

Rick managed to get to his feet slowly, peeling the helmet on his head off. His back burned and his right leg felt like it'd been struck by a baseball bat several times. He looked at the helmet in his hands, there were scratches and gouges where it had made contact with the asphalt.

With a sigh he tossed it over his shoulder and took a step towards the source of the explosion.

He got a few feet before something slid into his ankles causing him to tumble over back onto the road.

Rick's landing was softer than it should have been when a body hit asphalt. A body was laying beneath him. It was a pale skinned woman with fiery red hair and pale blue eyes.

Dead, pale blue eyes.

It was the body of Bailey O'Reilly, Cassidy's sister. There was nothing but a torso. The woman's body had been crushed beneath a white sedan. Saving the woman was beyond possible. Bailey stared up at the sky with her mouth hung agape in a pool of congealing blood.

"Bailey, oh God, Bailey! Someone help, please! I c-can't move! Please," Cassidy cried from inside the wreckage of the white car.

Cursing under her breath, Catherine began to move away from the ensuing confrontation and towards one of the nearby wrecks that had caught the worst of the blast. She grimaced at the sight of the dead girl crushed under the vehicle, muttering something about wearing seatbelts. The older woman glanced at Rick.

"Get up," she instructed curtly, "You're alright. Keep moving before you aren't."

Then she moved onto the interior of the sedan. The vehicle was upside down and the doors were jammed shut. Thankfully, the back window remained easily accessible, since the weight of the vehicle had tilted it forwards onto its hood. Catherine moved around to the car's rear and waved a hand over the device on her wrist. The omni-tool flickered into action, holographic display lighting up as she adjusted a few settings on it before hauling herself up towards the window.

From there she surveyed the damage. There was just one more occupant of the vehicle, trapped upside down in her seat by her seat belt. "Hold tight, kid. We'll get you out of there before this gets any worse."

That was a promise she knew she couldn't keep in full. Things tended to escalate pretty quickly around here. But still, hopefully she could live up to the first half of the promise.

Returning to the ground, she gestured at Rick again. "I'm going to need your help. Get up. Try not to look at what you landed on. You can freak out later, right now I need you running on focused adrenaline."

"Negative," he replied, holding steady to his trigger. "I can't quite get them in my range. The moment I have a shot, I will take it."

He kept surveying the area, especially his own flanks. He didn't honestly expect that they could have possibly known about the ambush, but there was certainly no harm in taking quick glances to make sure everything was running smoothly without a nasty surprise on the way.

Below, he could see some sort of rescue operation taking place - a figure that had climbed up against an overturned vehicle, presumably to find a trapped passenger. In a way, he felt bad for them, but he would never allow such thoughts get in the way of the task at hand.

(disregard)

"Drop the weapon?" An NPA agent yelled at Iso, he and a few others creeping up behind the woman. "We have backup en route. You won't get too far before we get you, just give up now." The officer commanded, assault rifle kept on the woman as he crept just a little close to close the distance and make sure if he fired a shot it would hit.

The others on the street took cover, searched the rooftops for snipers or attended to the wounded. They weren't as much of a fighting force as they could be until backup arrived. With the traffic stopped on both sides of the highway, the only backup that could show up was by air. Their attackers would see that coming and aircraft being shot down over a highway was bad for the people down below.

Within the truck armored truck, which was now similar in looks to a sardine can, the Invictus soldiers began to remove Jacob's cuffs. Two of the soldiers moving to the back doors to push them open when given the signal.

"Sunny, you and I will go from the top and peacock." Riley said to one of the female soldiers, "The rest of you move Jacob, use the vehicles stopped on the road for cover from snipers and enemy fire. Link up with the NPA, we'll have air support soon to at least keep us apprised of the situation." Riley continued.

"On three." Sunny said to the team, "One... two..." She began, the group simultaenously moving at a silent three. The back doors shot open, Riley and Sunny climbed upwards out of the truck. They made sure they were obvious targets, "Look for flashes. That'll be our sniper." Riley told his comrade.

The rest of the soldiers moved as soon as Riley and Sunny were out in the open, pushing and pulling Jacob towards several vehicles that had crashed due to the sudden stop in traffic.

The group spotted Catherine and the overturned Sedan, "Looks like they need help." One of the Invictus solders said, "Riley, this is Temple, I'm sending a few guys to go help some civilians. Link up when you get our way and regroup." Temple said, "Pillsbury, Danny, go help them out. We'll keep on going." Temple ordered, two of the male soldiers sprinting away from their comrades to assist the trapped Cassidy.

"If only we got paid extra for this." Pillsbury said as he and Danny moved, "You might get your picture on a wall in a bar at least." Danny responded, "We can only hope it's not put up posthumously, man." Pillsbury said.

"Right on."

Iso turned her head as the NPA agent came closer. A thin, red brow rose at him.

In a flash, she was gone, out of thin air. The next she would appear, she would be behind him, sword slashing in the air to tear at the tendons in his arms, to cause him to drop his gun. She would then disappear again, whether she had landed the hit or not.

She would reappear once more high in the air, free falling, assessing the situation from above. She would not be there for long.

The other agents had swarmed the streets, now, shooting at Invictus and the NPA, trying to down as many as possible.

Rick barely had time to process he had fallen onto a corpse before some old coot was rambling off orders at him. Looking around he found that the entire highway had become chaotic....he even heard gunfire.

Ok, let's take this one step at a time shall we?

First, he decided to not take a nap on someone's dead body, rising to his feet slowly, he turned to face the young woman trapped inside the car and begging for help.

"Uh, right, just stay calm. I'll help you out of there as fast as I can." He nodded to her as he stumbled over to the rear of the vehicle.

He reached for the revolver in it's holster on his waist. "Hey cover your ey-" he stopped mid sentence as his nose caught a familiar odor. A glance over to the driver side of the vehicle confirmed his fear.

Gasoline from the vehicle's fuel tank was spilling out onto the street...and towards the other wrecked vehicles, one of which was already suffering from a fire in the engine compartment.

Well, shit, better make this quick

He decided to forego the gun in favor of removing his shirt. He quickly wrapped the cloth around his hand before he slammed his fist into the rear window as hard as he could, shattering the glass. In a couple of moments he crawled through the window, accessing the inverted interior.

"Is anything broken?" He asked Cassidy as he reached her seat.

As gunfire broke out in the street, Catherine cursed under her breath. She followed Rick's gaze to the trail of gasoline and stepped forwards with a sweep of her arm. The kinetic-manipulation functions of the OmniTool kicked in, and she forced the trail back a few paces, before sweeping a small pile of debris in the way to stem the tide. As the attackers opened fire on the NPA officers, including those moving over to help her and the girl trapped in the car, she raised her own pistol and fired back in retaliation to provide them cover as they moved across towards their small group.

A small kinetic shield from her OmniTool deflected a few bullets that came her way, and despite a bead of sweat running down her forehead, she maintained her calm as she backed away again, then ducked back behind the vehicle.

Cassidy was trying to get her seat belt undone so she could crawl out of the sedan. It was jammed and it made her panic. Tears ran from the corners of her eyes and her heart was pounding like a hummingbird's wings inside her chest. She stopped screaming for a minute.

Cassidy looked at her palms. There was glass embedded into her skin and blood everywhere. She looked at her legs and then her feet.

"Oh God. No, no, no, no, no," said Cassidy. Her ankle was snapped and bone peeked out of her skin. She drew in a lungful of air to scream but it was choked down as a voice came into her ear. Cassidy's panicked eyes looked over Rick as if he were the most beautiful sight to be seen in Wing City.

"I-Im... stuck. Please help me. My sister. Have you seen her? She's pregnant. Oh God I don't know where she is, please... get me out of here," Cassidy cried out as she twisted to grab a hold of whatever she could of the man.