Canon Battle Post
"You are not run of the mill criminals, you are much worse and in need of a lesson, Mister. You are murderers, I would be no better than you if I let you walk."
At that Ghost let her body become intangible, she then lifted herself up into the ceiling. The armored men released a good some of bullets into the spot Ghost was heard last. This is going to be tricky if they knew where I was, Ghost pondered, Gonna have to try something better. When she came down she was behind one of the men still with a rifle, with hands up in-front of her chest. In a quick second she came back to the physical plane and grabbed the mans shoulders, in attempts to drag him into a wall. Much to Ghost surprise the man reacted lightning fast and grabbed her arm tightly. Before she could react she was hurled over the man and thrown to the ground. Alex let out a grown as all the air left her chest and her arm began to be twisted by the now blatant combat trained man.
"Unknown gifted Unknown Gifted appears to be invisible across all spectrum but registers on audio and olfactory sensors. Visual data from first engagement informs that gifted can switch in and out of the physical plane. Suggestion, gas." Recited the man placing a foot on Alex's arm. She was a bit unused to people being able to detect her but she had noticed the odd helmets the men wore and suspected some kind of advanced technology. Her head raced and her breathing quickened, Alex was flustered. They could fight her, they knew where she was, they were better than her.
'If they even knick me I'm dead...' They had all the odds in their favor.
Just as Alex started to lose her cool something happened that startled them all. A floor below a janitor was going through his normal routine, not even noticing the fight happening a floor above. However when he turned on his old bag vacuum it started to make strange noises, like it was choking.
"What the heck?" Questioned the man. He knelt down to the running machine to inspect what was going wrong, as he did the vacuum exploded in ball of dust and debris. The sound would not have normally traveled through the floor up into the former CEO's office, except that windows were open to allow breezes in. The loud pop caused Yukinori to jump, which caused him to squeeze the trigger, which fired a round off at the squad leader.
Yukinori had only a second to posses a look that was complete shock transforming into fear when a three round burst center torso sent him out of the window through which the unfortunate noise had sealed his doom. When the bang went off the man holding her arm loosened his grip; Ghost took her chance to fade out, she held her arm as she picked herself up off the ground.
"You shouldn't have done that." Ghost's combat training was all self-taught so her reactions were a second behind the others as she hurled a blast of energy at the Ghoul firing the rifle which sent him clattering against the wall as he dropped his weapon. The rest of the team only responded by entering exploratory combat.
Two of the men standing fired: one send a pair of 9m pistol rounds into what should have been her center mass while the rifle send a three round burst into what should have been her right shoulder in an attempt to disable her attack parameters. Each man registered the rounds impacting the wall behind Ghost and grunted. Laura and Lady Crimson also registered the information. Alex let the bullets fly through her as she calmed herself down,
'You need to focus or they will get the better of you.' She looked down and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. When she opened her eyes she saw a round metal ball at her feet, she cocked her head to the side and sighed; the ball exploded and the ground beneath her feet vanished.
Ghost fell through the hole, catching herself on the way down; she floated onto the floor not covered by ceiling. Alex looked up at the hole as one of the men gazed back at her muttering something into his helmet. Her eyes followed the new hole down to were she could have landed when she saw the feet of a man. The unknowing janitor had been crushed by the sudden collapse of the ceiling, with no time to escape. The helmet disappeared even as Ghost sent a blast of energy up at it. She mentally chided herself for that. It had been a foolish move and she knew that she paid for each blast with her own physical energy. She'd exhaust herself firing in a rage like that. She stood and looked with sadness at the slain civilian as she simmered with anger and frustration alike; now innocents were getting killed, these men were going to pay. So far, the men she was fighting were proving their word; they were faster, stronger, and better trained than the low rent criminals she had been rounding up on the streets. She wasn't going to be able to depend on the skills she had developed so far and these men had obviously tangled with Gifteds before. Still, a plan formed in her mind as she moved into a warren of cubicles.
The four men descended the stairs and approached the cubicle farm slowly and in formation. They split naturally into two and moved along the edges of the warren slowly with their rifles leading, the disarmed one had recovered his weapon. Laura, behind the scenes, moved through all four camera feeds and various spectrums trying to locate the assailant as she mentally chided herself. Losing track of the Gifted had been a mistake; her pay would be docked for that. As the left hand pair came abreast of a door, one flanked it and the other covered him from a cubicle across from it just like Ghost had seen in all the movies! As the one opened the door, she stepped out from behind a filing cabinet and sent a blast into the one covering him. The door opener spun and trained his rifle at her but she let the triple tap pass through her then sent a blast into him. It had worked! Looking around her, she spotted the other tag team and made her way for them. Alex drifted over to one of the offices not yet checked and focused her energy into her hands. When the point man turned the tight corner Ghost let out a huge blast that knocked the rifle wielding assailant into the desk of the cubical across the way. His head hit the desk with a loud thud as his body crumpled to the ground with silent moan. His teammate stepped up for a clear line of sight and fired his pistol into the room at a safe distance. All the shots landed in the wall of were Ghost had been, before she moved behind a filing cabinet. The armored man with the pistol stepped through into the room she was in and scanned for her or were she went. To his surprise Ghost floated through the flimsy walls and came around behind him. She let out another big burst of energy to the mans back, this sent him further in the cubical and hunched over an office chair.
Ghost moved forward to see if he was out like his partner; She'd made it two steps when the floor beneath her again disappeared, but this time it seemed to melt away like plastic. She landed in a puddle of something which by the smell would have been quite unpleasant if she hadn't been insubstantial. Standing over her was a woman in a bright red suit like the soldiers' outfits: an officer of some type? Ghost looked around at the floor as it continued to dissolve and guessed the woman was gifted, too. Ghost did not have time to get a shield under her and shrieked as the floor disappeared again and she fell another flight. This was not how she had planned to get downstairs. The red soldier jumped down after her and landed lightly like a cat. Ghost noticed that the woman had gotten a bit of the stuff on her hand moving through the hole and watched it burn the skin there. There were lots of scars,
"The Ghost of Chicago, I presume? Congratulations, Squad Lemmings is one of my own personally trained units. They are quite skilled. Still, they are not likely a match for someone with your particular Gifts."
Alex scrambled to her feet and faded again as the woman approached her. She shot two blasts of energy at the red lady but to her dismay the woman dodged them easily, almost as if it was a joke. And with a chuckle the women shot forward throwing punches at the air Ghost occupied. The two women moved back and forth,
dodging, shooting, punching, flinching. Alex could feel the her own energy growing thinner and thinner as the brawl continued. This was going to be bad if the fight lasted much longer. Out of a fit of exhaustion Ghost materialized to let off a blast of energy and the red lady. The lady in red spun around it and kicked Ghost in the side; the blow connected and Alex was thrown by the force of the impact. The women smiled,
"That's interesting. Don't worry, I'll figure you out soon enough." Alex grabbed her injured side, and watched as the smiling woman bolted forward again. Ghost let herself fade once more, as the last of her energy depleted. The women leg stopped not two inches from her face, as the women made a face and placed her hand on her ear;
"Ma'am, Yukinori-san's untimely end has alerted the officials. CPD inbound; ETA 2 minutes."
With the tsk of her tongue she lowered her leg and stood firmly on the ground. Alex took this chance to stand, still holding her side were she let her guard down, she asked
"Finally going to stop and talk thing out?"
The woman in red looked down at Ghost again and made an annoyed sound,
"Cops, sweetie. I gotta jet, but you enjoy the bath, kay? If you want to talk some more, meet me at Burnham Harbors tomorrow evening, kay? Ta~!"
At that the woman thrust her hands out and an olive green substance shot out of her hands and onto the floor beneath Ghost. Prepared this time she managed to hover above the ground where the floor began eat itself away. The red women ran for the window that led to the back of the building and leapt out. Alex had no intention in following her. She floated out of the building and down to the ground. Police were now there, they had saved her this time yet she couldn't help but think if they showed up sooner things wouldn't have gone down like they did.
As Alex walked away with aches in her side and arm she pondered what happened; for the first time since she started she got her ass handed to her. She used to believe her abilities were quite powerful, but these men she faced were above anything she was prepared for and the woman was in a league all her own. Her encounter with real criminals had rattled her burgeoning confidence badly, and the combat had been a harsh lesson for Ghost in her own inexperience.
"This was not how I expected my day to go," Alex muttered to herself as she made for home to recuperate and think over the crimson woman's proposal.