Info: The Second City. The Windy City. Chicago, one of the most famous (if not infamous) cities in the United States of America. It is a town brimming with culture, a town famous for its nightlife, and a town famously riddled with crime and corruption. The coming of the Gifted thirteen years ago did not completely warp the city's culture (as it did New York's); however, there is much talk of Gifted Chicago natives being drafted into either the police force or the city's gangs. And though the town has not been the scene of many super battles as of yet, some fear that is going to be the next "hot spot" in the struggle between the Namidian Wave and society's defenders.

In addition, for the past three years, many of the city's criminals have tangled with "The Ghost of Chicago," a mysterious Gifted woman who spends her days and nights protecting the innocent. No one has yet managed to pin the Ghost's identity down, but a handful of people do not believe the widespread rumors that she is a violent spirit of vengeance. Instead, they feel she is a Gifted who can be turned to "their side." Can she? As of yet, no one but the Ghost herself knows!
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 22:20, Tue 19 May 2015.

Anyone in the know, knew that Megadyne was a subsidiary of a shell company of a corporation owned by the Yakuza and that the Yakuza were one of the last holing out against a new, rising power in Chicago. What everyone did know was that "dark eyes were watching." Any criminals apprehended these days said the same thing and seemed more terrified than usual of the organized groups. Fewer freelancers operated in town, the gangs stuck to their turfs, and even the big organizations were moving in response to something bigger. In a world of predators, the signs of a super-predator being present were obvious.

The territory this group controlled was hard to nail down, you had to look for certain inactivities. Where did buildings suddenly experience a sharp drop in crime? A sharp drop followed by an increase back to normal levels but, if you looked closely, nothing important or valuable was being lost? The puzzle was complex but there. You also had to look for the innocuous crimes where nothing seemed to have gone missing and the victims often did not report. These were the signs of a war being fought by the titans of the shadows for control of the shadows.

Deep in the dead of night, an office building was being burglarized. Four men in black outfits and wearing strange, black, buglike headsets with large, black lenses and headphones covering their ears were moving through the warren of cubicles towards the offices of the President and CEO of Megadyne Industries. They never spoke but used hand signals and subvocal microphones for communication and moved with the precision and speed of ex-military.

Inside the office, Nobu Yukinori and three of his bodyguards were holed up. They had pistols and tantos at the ready. two men took up covered firing positions while a third guarded the rear and the fourth flanked the door and slapped a charge against the lock. He rolled away and prepped his weapon. No need to cover his ears when the door blew as his earphones canceled out the sound. The two with a bead on the door each fired their M302 and sent a canister of tear gas into the room. Each did a silent twenty count and then one-two men entered the room. Their goggles immediately detected the smoke and switched to infrared, low-light, UV and a few other spectrums before settling in infrared. Ratta-tat-tat Ratta-tat-tat and two of the guards went down. Nobu had just fit a mask over his own face and drew a bead on the squad leader as he entered the room. Nobu smiled even as the third bodyguard shifted and pointed his pistol at the back of his former boss's head and pulled the trigger. Nobu fell ignominiously.

The squad leader approached the JApanese gentleman, "Mr. Takiyama, Schwartze Augen has upheld our deal. You are now the boss of the Chicago Yakuza. We expect 13% each quarter and absolute loyalty or you will be the next one replaced. As you requested in the deal with Mr. Sievold, two squads of Shwartze Augen Guard are at your disposal. We are Squad Lemmings and they are Squad Annie Lennox." He set a pair of cellphones on the table. One was a SatPhone with a single button on the console.

The cold night in the heart of the country was like any other to Alex.  Crime had died down a little over the past month.  To her, it seemed criminals knew she was out there and feared what would happen if they tempted fate.  She knew her home would never be clean of all crime so Alex still went out every night to keep up her new job.  Most of her night was uneventful, citizen kept walking, keeping their hands to themselves.

When the moon was highest in the sky, something unexpected did come to Alex's attention.  Not to far from her current location there had been a disturbance at a local office.  When arriving at the location it appeared to have been broken into.  Just as she came up to the door shots rang out from somewhere inside.  This night is proving to be more than normal thought Alex as she let herself pass through the front door as if it wasn't there.  Upon entering she soon found the source of the break in.  The room was filled with smoke that was slowly dissipating and the smell of blood was in the air.  Four men in strange looking gear, gear that seemed to advanced for a normal burglary, stood in-front of one man.  Alex couldn't quite here what they were saying but distinctly heard the word "Yakuza".  The Japanese mafia?, Alex thought, what is going on here?

In her ghostly way, she floated over to the strange men, what ever was going on here had to stop.  Hovering next to one the armored men she grabbed his gun and ripped it from his hands.  Alex lifted her hand and shot the man with a blast of energy, sending him reeling across the room.  She dropped the gun and glided over to next closest one and sent him to the ground with an energy blast to his legs.  "Drop your weapons and cease this violent disturbance." Ghost said in her eerily calm voice. "I will give you a chance to turn yourselves in for you crimes today."
Alex faced herself towards the civilian, "I would contact the police now."

Not combat yet, I don't think. Talk first, yeah?

The Japanese gentleman standing behind the desk holding the proverbial smoking gun and a tanto looked down at his former boss, whom he had just shot, then smirks at the voice.

---

Behind the scenes, Laura frowned as the life signs of two of Team Lemmings spiked and she immediately reviewed their Ghould feeds through multiple spectrums but came up with relatively little except a few abnormalities. She triggered a band of the comms system and said calmly, "We have an unidentified Gifted at Location 23 X-ray/Lima. Engaging in exploratory combat." She then flipped a switch which caused a module in the two men's suits to inject a dose of adrenaline into their thighs.

---

One of the Ghouls swiveled and the barrel of his weapon scanned the room as his partner did the same. The second man hit in the legs used a wall to leverage himself up with a grunt then trained his rifle as well. The first man, rifle-less, stood and drew his pistol. Each man's visor was scanning through a variety of methods to "see" and finally settled on a triangulating echolocation system that used the small amounts of materialization Ghost would need to do to maintain her position and stability. After all, no material meant no friction and no friction meant immobile.

The pistol wielder stepped forward, "Unknown Gifted assailant, I am sure that you are used to beating up gang bangers and pickpockets with relative impunity, but if you continue to engage in this activity, we will be forced to put you down with extreme prejudice. We are NOT cutpurses and thugs." As he finished speaking, all three rifles shifted and pointed directly at her. Through a combination of echolocation, audible tracking, ambient heat signatures, and even some pheromone detection, they had a precise location on her and even an idea of how to hurt her. After all, to affect the tangible world requires one to be tangible if even for a second.

---

Far below, in a non-descript white van sat a woman who frowned at the video feed Laura was sending him on her own Ghoul Helmet. Vivianne Sommers had been a Ghoul for five years before her own abilities awakened and she was promoted to lieutenant just last year, and she did not appreciate this brat hording in on her first mission after officer's training. Her armor was bright red and her codename was Lady Crimson. All Schwartze Augen Lieutenants had color codenames. She flexed her shoulders and felt her augmented physical power and prowess as glanced down at her uncovered hands which were covered in a laticeork of chemical burns.

Ghost snorted audibly and very theatrically at the man's offer, "No, I think you are much worse and in need of a lesson, Mister." She shifted her sight to the erstwhile citizen she had come to the rescue of to see an obvious Yakuza thug with his own weapons staring at her like she was a dragon straight out of legends, "Baka?" The armed men surrounding Ghost were still holding still awaiting orders or an aggressive move from the Gifted girl. The tableau was like something straight out of a manga.

And it was broken by the most obviously stereotypical of event. A floor below, the cleaning crew had just arrived and a man had switched on a vacuum which had not been emptied properly at the last job and was clogged badly. The man stared at the machine as it whined higher and higher and finally fumbled for the switch just as the machine's bag suddenly exploded with a loud bang. 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. 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 again. <aqua>"You shouldn't have done that."</b> 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. Laura reacted first, as was her duty, "Unknown Gifted appears to be invisible across all spectrum but registers on audio and olfactory sensors. Visual data from first engagement: suspected immateriality. Suggestion, gas."

The men in the room had been moving of course. The small room was a bad idea and they had all made a break for the warren of cubicles outside the office and disappeared into the maze. The downed man once again stood but appeared to be wobbly and moved into Ghost to make a swing at her torso. 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. She knew that she registered as invisible only visually. She watched the man close and finally reacted to the trained soldiers by letting the man's strike pass through her then forming a shield around her fist and striking him in the chest. The man staggered back and went clink-clink. Wait, men didn't go "clink." She looked down just in time to see a small oblong object before it detonated. Ghost did not have time to get a shield under her and fell through the resulting hole even though all the kinetic force of the blast passed through her.

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. In the office below, she looked up at a very shocked looking janitor and a vacuum now laying under a pile of rubble. He couldn't see her of course but was staring up at the hole wide-eyed. The man who had dropped the grenade looked down; he snapped a shot with his rifle and the janitor fell bleeding.

Far away, Laura grunted as the man's sensor sweeps registered the unknown Gifted, "Witness terminated. Assailant still active. 67% probability of immateriality. Force of blow to chest plate exceeded normal human capacity, combat augmentation present." The helmet disappeared even as Ghost sent a blast of energy up at it. She mentally chided herself for that. It had been a desperate move and she knew that she paid for each blast with her own physical energy. She'd exhaust herself firing in a panic like that. She stood and looked in anger and sadness at the slain civilian and moved to the office door and looked out through the smoked glass. 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 and she moved through the door and into a different but identical 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! The two men lay unconscious and she moved to one and checked the helmet quickly, materializing briefly to do so, and found it secured in place. She felt the panic rising in her guts about being caught like this but calmed her self and drew the man's knife to cut away the strap and remove the helmet. The soldier was just a boy! She quickly dematerialized again and made a run for it.

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. She shrieked and hugged the helmet to her belly 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."

She scrambled to her feet and backed away. The woman moved faster than anything Ghost had ever seen and sent a rain of blows through her insubstantial form and even made a grab or two at the shape of the insubstantial helmet. Ghost threw a panicked blast of energy from her mouth alongside a shout of rage but the woman ducked lightning fast and closed again. Ghost threw a couple of punches and blocked a few blows with shields trying to fend the attack off, then suddenly recovered her head and just walked through the woman like her namesake and ran a few short steps before another spray of the viscous chemical hit the ground around her and she went plummeting through another floor. It had to be some kind of record. THe woman in red landed next to her again and sent a kick through her skull, unnerving even if she was undamaged and Ghost flinched. The woman chuckled, "I'll figure you out yet, sweetie." Suddenly, the woman cocked her head to the side like she was listening...

"Ma'am, Yukinori-san's untimely end has alerted the officials. CPD inbound; ETA 2 minutes."

The woman in red looked down at Ghost again and made an annoyed 'tsk'ing 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~!" So saying, the woman thrust her hands palms out at Ghost and more of the olive green liquid burst from her skin much as Ghost's own energy blasts did and bathed the area she sat in, sending her down yet another story. The woman did not appear again. Getting out of the pool without materializing was a bit of a trick though as to walk, you need friction and friction required things to rub against. Still, as the next floor dissolved she formed a shield over her and used it like a shelf to pull herself up onto as her energy seemed to be able to interact with her even when insubstantial. She then floated it over to some "dry' ground and made her way slowly down passed the CPD cops in riot gear ascending the stairs.

The combat had been a harsh lesson for Ghost in her own inexperience. What a protracted fight would mean was beyond her, but the cops had saved her this time. Her encounter with real criminals had rattled her burgeoning confidence badly. It could not stop her grinning like a madwoman though as the adrenaline surged like waves and the experience settled into her brain like a warm blanket. She had been on the back foot the almost the entire time. All in all, she had not fared badly at all. He abilities were quite powerful and strongly defensive. Her offense was a bit of a problem, though. She still clutched her prize against her, protected by the insubstantiality she had spread over it, too. What it could tell her, only time would tell. Whether she would be at the docks tomorrow, that was a matter for further thought.

This message was deleted by the player at 01:26, Sun 24 May 2015.

As the men fixed their guns on Ghost, Alex's mind raced.  It looked like she was getting more questions than answers.  Out of the corner of her eye Alex noticed blood pooled on the floor from the men who were forgotten.  Alex frowned, "You may not be the run of the mill criminals but you are still murderers," Looking back up at the suits.  Her voice grew, "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 seconds 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 has ability to materialize. Data now informs that gifted can switch in and out of the physical plane." Recited the man placing a foot on Alex's arm.  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 nik 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.

Back up on the floor where the real action took place, 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.  Just as quickly as Ghost, the armed men focused back on the fight and began to move.  The two injured men moved backwards, towards the floors stairs and the two able men lifted their guns at Ghost and let out covering fire, shifting slowly backwards.  The man with them, who had been watching til now, barely dove out of the way of bullets; however he yelled in pain as one off the bullets lodged itself into his shoulder.  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.  Alex simmered with anger and frustration alike, now innocent civilians were getting killed, these men were going to pay.    Ghost ran into the array of cubicals that made up this floor as the four man descended the stairs onto the level she was now on.  With their guns up the scanned to room moving in two groups.  They split taking two rows of tiny offices; one man would walk and keep his eyes on the hallway as the other turned and scanned each cubical they passed.  She would have to take them out at the same time for the other group not to notice.  Alex drifted over to one the offices not yet checked and focused her energy into her hands.  When the 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 back 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 though 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.  Ghost let out many bursts of energy to the mans back, this sent him further in the cubical and hunched over an office chair.  She kept firing at him until he stopped trying to get back up and he surrendered to the ground.  Alex smiled to herself, two down, two to go.

Looking behind her she spotted the other tag team and made her way for them.  Before she could even take a step he foot sank through the floor.  To her amaze the floor below her had began to melt and for the second time that day she fell through to the floor below.  She hit the ground hard, being caught of guard again she had materialized.  This was not how she planned going downstairs.  "Hello sweetie," Said a voice next to her.  Alex look over and her eyes met that of a woman's.  She wore a suit similar to that of the assailants on the floor above, however hers was blood red.  The women walked over to where she had caught Ghost, "The Ghost of Chicago, I presume? Congratulations, Squad Lemmings is one of my own personally trained units. He is one of my most skilled men. Still, my men are not likely a match for someone with your particular Gifts."

Alex scrambled to her feet and fadded 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 kick connected and Alex was thrown to the side.  The women smiled, "That's interesting. Don't worry, I'll figure you out soon enough."  Alex grabbed her side and watch 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.  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 crimson lady laughed and replied "Cops, sweetie. If you want to talk some more, meet me at Burnham Harbors tomorrow evening, kay? But I gotta jet, you enjoy the bath, kay?"  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, she couldn't help but to 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.  These men she faced were above anything she was prepared for and the women was in a whole nother league.  "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.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:04, Sun 24 May 2015.

"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.

Thirty minutes latter and the members of Team Lemmings were sitting in the back of a police van looking at one another grimly. They were trying to decide if they were deadmen or worse. They had each been taken out by a girl and it stung their pride as professionals. They had also been stripped down to their briefs, which wasn't as bad.

So, considering their thoughts, none of them were surprised when a riotous sound was heard then the van they were in shook like the end times were upon them. Each rolled with it as the van tipped and the sounds of gunfire were heard. There was a brief silence then the doors of the van lurched, buckled, and then tore from their hinges. Lady Crimson stood looking at them with the door held over her head. Everyone paused then she tilted her head, "Your gear is in the van over there... the one on fire. Get equipped. You have one minute thirty."

The men scrambled and their boss looked over at the wrecked vehicles and scattered bodies as she wrapped up the situation. She was thinking about the Hero they had encountered earlier and the mess it had made of Schwartze Augen operations in Chicago. The Yakuza were furious and mobilizing; their contact had been lost. She would need to make a call alter and get instructions. She was the type to carry out orders not think up the plan.

She blinked and looked back down as her men climbed into a pair of SUVs and tore off for the base their organization had in the area. They would need to change tactics and she had a date tomorrow.