City of Angels

Participants:

adam_icon.gif ash_icon.gif huruma_icon.gif kaylee_icon.gif sabrina_icon.gif sam_icon.gif

Also Featuring:

amman_icon.gif

Scene Title City of Angels
Synopsis After the successful murder of Paula Gramble, Adam Monroe and his team head to Reseda, Los Angeles, to take out Company founder Susan Amman.
Date September 7, 2009

Reseda Courthouse — Los Angeles, CA


It's evening now, while the courthouse isn't empty, it's certainly devoid of the life that the daytime brings. Only the strangling DAs looking to make their bones and some courthouse guards stick around for this sort of thing. Meanwhile, Adam sits on the front of the courthouse steps like a bill. He seems relaxed and comfortable, despite the violence that's about to occur here. In fact, he's so comfortable that he's eating himself an apple as he waits for the telltale signs of heels coming down the steps towards him.

She really shouldn't be here. Even though Sabrina looks the part in her skirt, suit jacket, heels, and strict bun, she feels the most out of place. Her face is pale and she's spent the better part of getting there staying close to Kaylee in a hovering almost mother-hen sort of way. It's probably annoying. "You mentioned once you liked volunteering, right? I'm going to volunteer you right now. I know Mister Monroe has probably given you instructions or some sort of something to do while this happens but the last time things didn't happen according to plan. We should make sure no one gets in the way. That the collateral damage is kept low. Protect the people this whole display is supposed to, the ones that don't realize the word company even gets capitalized." Even though they're off to the side a bit near a bench and the street, she keeps her eyes on Adam. She's nervous. So nervous. "And if it gets bad, you should stay behind me." So she can…talk the dangers away. Or something. "Or run. Are you a fast runner?"

Sam leans up against the railing on the right side of the steps, facing the courthouse. Same old suit, a pair of Tom Ford aviator sunglasses over his eyes and, since no tip to LA is complete without one, a foil-wrapped churro in his hand. He gnaws on the sugary stick while peoplewatching, using his old skills from time in the Marshals to avoid sticking out. It's the City of Angels, after all. Weirder things out at night than a guy in sunglasses with a churro.

Ash stands to the side of the stairs, leaning back against the wall. The man is actually dressed up a bit compared to normal. He's got on a black dress shirt and a pair of khaki slacks rather than his normal clothing. He's got his thick arms crossed over his chest as he rests there, looking simply like he's waiting for someone to come out and looking a bit impatient too, a long suffering look on the man's features. He's muttering to himself about something or another as well.

Blue eyes watch Adam on the steps, fingers play with a new necklace given to her by the man. Barely heard is that Kaylee is humming a bit, just some popular top forty song. Her eyes are a bit distance, a finger lifts and flicks and a man looks suddenly like he forgot something and goes back the other way… So it's not surprisingly that the humming stops and Kaylee glances at Sabrina. "What?" She gives the smaller woman an amused smirk. "You don't remember…. oh wait.. that's right you were staring at the computer. I'll be just fine Sabrina. Your better off standing behind me." She reassuring the woman. Of course, Kaylee looks a little out of place, next to the other woman, with her blonde hair pulled into a braid, a brand new Disneyland t-shirt and jeans. Her hand lifts again and a woman turns back the way she came, in her way she's doing her part.

Huruma drew the short straw when it came to who gets to infiltrate this time around; Sam and Ash got the chance with the first, and so the second falls to her. Get into the building while it is still bustling with bodies and buzzing with noise, stay inside and simply make sure that the target exits the right door. This is fixed on her part largely by mentally coercing some convicts to go nuts and throw things through windows, incidentally spill her coffee down the stairs where the custodian needs to close things to clean it- easy stuff, really.

The tall African is now milling around where a bathroom hallway meets the lobby, taking a pause just around the corner in wait for the person they came for, waiting for the final exit; she has looked like she belonged there all afternoon- straight-backed and wearing a sharp pinstripe suit, the skirt cut at her knees and the shirt underneath a brilliant crimson. Her eyes are brown, and unusually deceptive when it comes to showing her own emotions. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

During the day, the concrete steps of the Reseda courthouse radiate sweltering waves of heat and cause the air to bend and ripple. At night, when the sun has sunken behind Los Angeles' cityscape, the cement retains only some of its warmth and reflects the distant glow of fluorescent bulbs, casting the street outside in a pale half-light that dilutes colour and sharpens edges. Only a few cars remain in the adjacent parking lot; almost all the courthouse's employees have checked out for the evening, and those who have chosen to linger after hours are also the type to stay until dawn is creeping through the leaves in the trees and illuminating the office windows on the second floor.

A black-and-white cruiser on patrol rolls down the street, its headlights turned low, and — probably for lack of looking — finds nothing amiss except for a coyote rummaging noisily around in an overturned garbage can on the opposite curb. Its occupants ignore it, choosing to leave the policing of animals to animal control, and with a slow, languid turn of the vehicle's wheel, disappear around the corner.

It's around this time that the front doors swing open and the sound of heels on the pavement begin drifting down the steps. A middle-aged woman comes into view a few moments later, conservatively dressed in contrasting shades of gray and black, her silvery hair pinned back into a prim bun at the top of her head. Adam will recognize Susan Amman's waspish silhouette, but the two security guards flanking her are strangers to him. "Tallest woman I've ever seen," she's saying to the man on her left, her voice low and scratchy in spite of its cheerful tone. Exhaustion has begun to set in, and though her eyes are still bright, the dark bags beneath them are more pronounced than ever. "Do you suppose she had it tailored specially? I don't imagine most stores carry clothes in her size—"

Adam hears the voice and recognizes it instantly. A smile languid smile slides across his lips as he hears her and continues to eat the apple. He's counting steps and waiting for her to hit the middle. She's got guards, unfortunate, but these things happen. Once she's at the selected destination, he stands and stretches leisurely, his arms in the air and then when his arms fall to his sides, he slowly turns himself around and faces the woman and her small entourage. He doesn't reach for a gun or a taser or anything else. It may take her a moment to notice he is there, but he has no doubt she'll stop once she does see him. Meanwhile, he takes another crunchy bite of his apple with, what one might describe, as a demonic smile on his features.

"I saw enough." Sabrina replies to Kaylee with her voice going tight there at the end. More than enough. As Adam stands she moves to place herself just a bit in front of Kaylee on the diagonal from Adam and the approaching three targets on the stairs. She glances back over her shoulder to look at the younger blonde, "I know you're talented and I know you're self-sufficient. But some things you shouldn't have to see." Or be a part of is the unspoken part of that sentence.

Sam glances up as he hears people come out of the doors up the stairs from where he sits, then shakes his head and goes back to watching the street, like naw, that's not who I was looking for. Another big bite out of his churro and there's not a whole lot left. Those things are good. After checking his watch he chucks the remains of the fried stick into a trash can across the sidewalk from him, then pulls out his phone like he's got loads of text messages to check.

Ash arches a slow brow as time drags on and no one emerges, the large man getting quite impatient indeed. He lets a slow grin spread over his lips as he thinks about the coming conflict and he straightens up from his slouching position. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out the bronze knuckles, tarnished on purpose so that they don't glitter, a simple matte green and bronze from the tarnishing. They're slipped onto the fingers of his right hand as he glances to the steps, noticing the woman and the two guys coming down the stairs. His eyes glance over to Adam to check his reaction to the group, noting it he grins a touch and he pushes away from the wall, though he stays where he's at. He could jump straight up onto the steps from where he's at, so there's no need to get into position onr anything, he's already ready to support the boss man, his hand held to his side and out of sight just in case.

Kaylee actually has to keep herself from laughing a hand comes up to stifle it, but the young woman lets Sabrina do her thing. "You.. are amazing.. you know that." she notes with amusement. Not like Kaylee can't do her thing from where she's at if the pair get attacked or make the assistant run for her life if need be. But she does lean where she can see the action anyhow, head tilted to the side. She watches with a small little smirk on her lips.

While it is in the air, yes- many times, Huruma needs to order a great many things especially for someone in her size. Good high heels are hell to find in a size usually reserved for men's aisles.

The echo at the lobby doors precedes Huruma's exit of it; she uses one hand on either side to push the doors open just a few seconds after they've shut behind the pair of guards. The click of heels on the concrete stairs comes with the looming shadow of her at the top, which is unsettling in itself when the shadows are as long as sidewalks. The mashed light, however, mostly grants her a silhouette as she comes out of the doors virtually on Amman's heels.

Adam is correct in the assumption that Susan will stop when she sees him. One hand goes out, her wedding ring glinting in the half-light, and closes thin fingers around her escort's arm. Her eyes move from the blond over her shoulder to Ash and then Sam before finally settling on Huruma, uncertain. Her brow crinkles. Crow's feet appear. There's a moment of hesitation as her grip on the security guard's arm tightens and she exhales a raspy command under her breath, though the words themselves are indecipherable.

The guard to her right lowers his hand to the pistol he keeps at his side and squeezes its grip. Whatever she whispered, it didn't involve asking them to unholster their weapons — at least not yet. As Susan returns her attention to Adam on the stairs, she lifts her chin, peering down at him from behind a veil of thick lashes plastered with too much drugstore mascara. "What do you want?" she demands.

Adam chuckles a bit at the question, finishing his apple and dropping the core upon the steps haphazardly as a careless litterbug. He thinks about the question and says, "What do any of us want, Susan?" he questions, "A nice house, a picket fence, a couple of rugrats.." but, of course, that is a lie, "The kind of life you could build if you had thirty years, but I don't need to tell you that, yeah?" his head tilts to the side a moment, "You've had plenty of time to revel in your time. Time you took from me." he pauses, "I want thirty years and the knife taken out of my back. Think you could do that, Susan?" and with that he begins to casually and uncaringly reach into his jacket. For his gun, no less.

"You're likely being sarcastic, but no I'm really not." Sabrina replies to Kaylee, though now her eyes are on Adam on the stairs. "Whatever happens you need to stay back. That woman can make people do things. Make you use…you know." She doesn't like talking about powers. When Adam reaches into his jacket she lets out a hiss of breath. "This is not going to be good."

Sam keeps calm, like nothing's going on. Doesn't even go for his gun. Just sits and waits to see what Adam does, how the woman responds. With three former Level 5 residents and a former field agent present, it'd be hard for her not to see that she's surrounded. Times like these people do the weirdest things. Rather than watching Susan, though, Sam keeps his attention moving between her guards and his fellow terrorists.

Ash looks over to the body guards standing with Susan, the man's eyes narrowing as thier hands go down towards the guns. Ash turns towards them, still not climbing onto the steps, but he curls his fingers, popping them as he readies himself for a bit of action if need be. He tilts his head to either side, popping his neck as well as he stares up at those men, eyeing them, not her. He'll let Adam deal with his revenge. "I would take the hand off the gun buddy, if you want to keep that hand intact and useable for the rest of your life." His words dead pan, no emotion in them as he watches the men's hands.

"Ooooh.." Kaylee says softly, studying the woman on the stairs. Then she quips lightly, with a grin, " So she's kind of like me?" That thought makes her eyes brighten a bit and then a bit jealous since the woman has probably had years to be perfect at it. Watching the action she gives a bored little sigh.

Behind the trio between herself and Adam, Huruma stands in stoic silence, hands splayed at her sides, eyes on the security rather than the back of Susan's skull. She not only watches them, but has since put out her feelers to all three, skirting around the edges of three puddles of emotions and yet to move other than her coming outside moments ago.

The guard with his hand on the gun gives Ash a pointed look shot down an aquiline nose. His fingers do not so much as twitch. He doesn't say anything, either, his lips thinning out into a flat, unimpressed line.

Susan, on the other hand, has no qualms about speaking up. Her voice echoes staccato in the stillness. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about," she tells Adam, and beneath the blustery anger is what appears to be genuine confusion, her eyes narrowing as frail shoulders draw back and her body language becomes more guarded still. "I haven't taken anything from you."

Adam pulls out his gun casually and lets it fall to his side. He had actually expected to get shot before this, but he supposes he'll make do. He watches Susan quietly and then replies, "You all did." he says gently, but no less determined, "Kaito locked me up and threw away the key and not one of you attempted to help." he says, "I created it. All of it. And you all stole it from me and turned it into the monstrosity it is. And for that, Susan, you owe me."

Why hasn't he shot her yet? Sabrina squints at the scene on the stairs then murmurs to Kaylee, "Whatever happens, keep your distance, do you understand me? Mister Monroe shouldn't be her focus here." And then her heels are clip-clopping as she hurries towards the scene and up the stairs. "Perhaps I could be of some assistance." She says as she nears, taking care to keep her hands (empty) in plain sight. "…with the explanations. Mister Monroe." she keeps her voice smooth and professional in spite of the way her heart is racing. She even gives Susan a smile. It's faint but it's there. Look at me! Not the man with the gun. And the years of fighting experience.

This is all certainly a lot more talky than he'd expected. Heck, he's almost getting bored. Certainly regretting having tossed his churro without actually finishing it. Then Sabrina is walking over to stand right by the guy most likely to get shot a half-dozen times and his attention returns to the situation at hand, expression hardening. Damn it, Sabrina!

…is what Sam does.

Ash can't help but blink as he looks over to Adam as he speaks to Susan. The knowledge that Adam helped create the whole thing seems to be new to him, or perhaps something he just hadn't picked up on before now, but now, so clearly stated it plainly surprises him. His eyes flicker a few times as he blinks, but he doesn't let that stop him from arching a brow at the guard that doesn't seem impressed. He'll have to talk to Adam later, but now is not the time. Instead he just rolls his shoulders a little bit and peers at the men, only for his head to swing around as Sabrina totally disrupts what is going on. Ash shakes his head, but doesn't seem concerned for the woman's safety, the only one he really seems intent on is Adam, after all, he signs the paychecks ;)

Kaylee's jaw drops as Sabrina starts moving, "Sabrina.. Hey.. No.. Get back here." She hisses fiercely, trying to make a grab for the woman and misses. Shit shit… The blonde telepath takes a few steps forward….. Well, now what. She chews her lip and glances between Adam and Sabrina, fidgeting slightly.

Huruma allows her head to tilt just enough to look curious, when she senses the confusion under Susan's initial affronted mood. And perhaps out of wanting to see what happens, she attempts to slip in some butterflies to the stomachs of the two guards, the tweaking of more nervousness fluttering up into their cores.

"Bullshit," Susan barks. "You left us." Whatever she was about to say next is cut off by Sabrina's rapidly approaching footsteps and then the sound of her voice, though neither has quite the placating effect she might be hoping for. This said, that the elder of the two woman fails to return the younger's smile likely has more to do with the gun in Adam's hand than any wrongdoing on Sabrina's part. Susan eyes her cagily and then, after a long and tentative pause, expels a short burst of breath through her nostrils. It might be a snort, it might be a sigh. Impossible to tell.

The security guards, meanwhile, have freed their weapons from their holsters in the time it took for Adam to draw his. One squares the muzzle of his pistol with Ash's chest. The other points his at Adam's head, aim wavering.

Adam arches a brow, "I left you? I didn't have much choice being dragged off to level 5." and then Sabrina enters the picture. He doesn't seem to know what to make of this. She bitched about the trip, about the mission, about coming to the courthouse in the first place and now here she is, trying to get into the middle of matters. He looks at her for a moment, then back towards Susan. Apparently, he's willing to see how this plays out. He even glances towards the man holding the gun on him. And…winks at him.

"You know that's not going to do much to him except perhaps provoke his people into making a stupid move that instigates violence before you have to give any answers." Sabrina keeps up her professional chatter, eyes on Susan because it's way, way less terrifying than looking at guns that are leveled right near her. "-If- Mister Monroe has bad information, now would be your time to inform him of it. Keeping in mind that one of the people nearby is a living lie detector—don't bother trying to pinpoint which one, his range is quite good. Now, Mister Monroe is neither stupid nor looking merely to cause bloodshed else this would've been over and done with the moment you stepped outside. Perhaps before." There's a slight nod to indicate Huruma, the tall, fashionable woman behind the trio. "I hope you also would be willing to avoid such a display on the courthouse steps."

Attention moving to the guards with their guns out, Sam shakes his head, "That's a mistake, boys." He doesn't extrapolate. Whether it's just a mistake to think that they can kill Adam with a bullet or a mistake to continue to aim a gun at Ash when he's specifically told them that he would brutalize them if they did not. Then Sabrina starts talking and he glances from her to Susan. Well, here's where whatever's going to happen happens.

Ash looks up at the man that has a gun leveled at his chest, and Ash barks a loud laugh. "Hope you're very fast on that trigger buddy, cause you'll have to hit me a few times before I can get to you if you want to live after pulling the trigger once." He smirks at the man, utterly confident in his ability to take the man, even though he has a gun pointed at his chest. He shifts from foot to foot slowly, his attention utterly upon the man before him, though he is listening to what's going on between Adam and Susan, he just doesn't really care. Adam will do what he wants. He glances past the men to Sam, flashing him a feral sort of grin. The man has seen what he can do, and dissaproves of it in fact. He looks back to the bodyguards, the man lifting his brows at them questioningly.

Inching forward a bit more, Kaylee is technically still staying back. She can't exactly sit back and let Sabrina get herself killed. She watches the guards and almost wishes she was closer. It would be so easy to convince them to put the weapons away. She sighs softly and sits on a bench… "This blows." She murmurs softly to herself.

Huruma watches the two nameless men with most of her visible attention; she is listening to the conversation going around, though keeps the nervousness in the two guards at a noticeable level. When Sabrina nods to her, the dark woman cannot help but pull back the corner of her lips. Though she does not have a weapon out, the threat of her grows bit by bit as she sways on her feet, inching closer to start closing the gap.

Susan makes a gesture with her hand, fingertips curled inward, and the security guards lower their weapons, arms growing somewhat slack beneath their pristine courthouse uniforms. The man whose pistol had been trained on Ash's chest refuses to shift his stare or redirect his attention toward Sam or even Huruma. A tic jumps at the corner of his mouth. "You don't even know what fast is," he snarls in a voice much softer than the expression he wears on his face. "You little shit."

Susan finally releases her grip on the man's hand and, arm falling away. "This is the first I've heard of it," she tells Sabrina. "Man disappears without so much as a fucking good bye. What else was I supposed to think?" Her eyes dart from the blonde to Adam and flicker briefly across Kaylee in the peripheral. "Are you responsible for what happened to Harry and Paula, too? Christ, Adam— Kaito never said anything!"

Adam considers this for a few moments, he even lifts the gun to his temple as if putting himself in an oddly dangerous position helps him think. He knows that's not true. Daniel and Angela knew he was there, so did Arthur. But they were always central players. Did Paula say anything? And then it dawns on him, did Paula even know why she died? He frowns.

It's important to note that guilt is not really a feeling Adam has. Regret, certainly, one can always consider the road not traveled, but guilt suggests some sort of imperfection. But if Paula didn't know, then perhaps regret is the best way to consider his emotion. But what if she's lying. And he looks up for a moment and says calmly, "Kaylee." calling out to the blonde, "See if she's telling the truth." he says.

"From there." Sabrina adds with a very, very quick look to Kaylee before turning her attention back to Susan. As much as she would like to look at Adam, perhaps to express some disapproval since she always seems to, she keeps her blue eyes on the older woman. "Whether you knew about Mister Monroe or not, surely it is no surprise to you that people used to disappear in such a fashion. Or that should those people regain their freedom, they may have certain questions or issues they need to work through." She has no problem implying Adam is imperfect! "This will be easier if you don't lie. For everyone. Especially your husband."

As Sabrina repeatedly makes her Diplomacy checks to parley with the hobgoblins, Sam actually gives her a somewhat proud look. Only for a moment, though. No matter what happens, it's only too obvious that there are several people here who want bloodshed. Sam makes fists, then extends his fingers and wiggles them, shaking out his jacket, waiting for that shoe to drop.

Hunched over, head reaching on the palm of her hand, Kaylee look a bit bored when Adam suddenly calls her name. She actually blinks, did he just….. The young woman hops to her feet, looking a touch brighter. She tries not to hurry over to his side, of course her brightly colored T-shirt and all probably makes her look like a teenager. But if there is any doubt she's one of Adam's, the necklace she wears should leave little doubt. She moves up until she's within range of the woman. Blue eyes are intense, a small smile on her face. She's rather polite as she says, "Hello… I'm just going to have a little look see." But ever as she speak, her ability is kicking in her mind reaching for the older woman's looking for the truth to her words.

Ash eyes the man with the gun on his chest, and at the man's statement Ash chuckles, offering the man a wink. "You go ahead and think that." He turns his attention on what's going on with Adam and Susan, eyeing them curiously. His head tilts to the side slowly as there seems to be some kind of revelation he missed out on going down. He lifts his hand, scratching at his scalp a bit as Sabrina seems to actually be doing some good in the situation. He gets bored though and ends up turning his attention back to the man in front of him, making quick little movements, as if egging the man with the gun on, repeatedly twitching and looking like he's about to jump forwards.

Huruma allows her eyes to rest between Susan and Adam, giving the latter a look that seems to already back up the confusion that she feels coming off of Susan. Her hands then lift slightly with a twitch of shadow, and the two guards will feel a wash of calm flood over them like a cool breeze. Simmer down, hotheads. If anyone is going to fire, she is at least going to try and make sure that it is her own people to do so first.

Looking into Susan Amman's mind is like trying to detangle a web of poison ivy and thorn with only a rusty pair of garden shears. She's had decades to reinforce her mental barricades and develop a resistance to telepaths; at first, there's nothing for Kaylee to do except scratch at her surface, but after a few persistent moments of pushing the barrier begins to soften, allowing for a strange sort of osmosis to occur. Susan's voice slips in through Kaylee's ears even though the silver-haired woman's lips aren't moving, and envelops her senses entirely.

You can't trust that man, it says. He's a monster. The only reason he's keeping you around is so he has someone to stroke his ego. As soon as he gets bored, you'll find yourself face down in a ditch with a lead bullet in that pretty little head of yours. Ask him about the Shanti virus, girl. Ask him what really happened on November 2nd, 1977. Did he ever tell you why Kaito Nakamura locked him away for all those years?

As Kaylee concentrates on those barriers, her hands curl into fists, making it apparent it's a bit of a battle. There is a sense of triumph when the barrier splits and her consciousness spills in… But it's not what she expected. There is a sharp inhale from her as the woman speaks to her mentally. When her mind pulls from Susan's , Kaylee stumbles back a step or two as if trying to put distances between them. Blue eyes stare at the older woman, wide with shock. "She knew.. She knew." It's all she says to Adam before she glares at the woman. "What did you do to me?!?" Kaylee knows something was up… She heard the words, a little twitch in her stomach makes her back away more.

Ah, well, that makes it all better. Really, all this doubt for Adam is just so uncharacteristic of him. And frankly, this shows why. "Good show." he says to Susan, then lifts his gun and begins to fire in her direction and the two men next to her. While Sabrina and Kaylee aren't technically in the line of fire, it'd probably be best for both of them to move out of the way.

Sabrina does move out of the way, if only to try to shield Kaylee from Susan and the gunfire. She even puts her hand up to Susan in a regular old 'stop' motion like that can somehow ward off what's happening to the girl. "Get back, get BACK!" she shouts to Kaylee, keeping herself between the young woman and the violence that's about to erupt.

Ah. Well. That's it, then. "Sabrina, get Miss…" Kaylee never told him her last name. Damn! "…Miss Kaylee out of here." Not that Sabrina needs any help on that account. Rather than moving to get himself out of the line of fire, Sam holds out both hands, his jacket folding in, picking up and ultimately presenting him with his Glock 22. Then the left sleeve of his jacket starts to fall apart into individual strips of silk which flatten out and come together in a vaguely oar-like shape along his left arm. He holds the 'shield' up and starts moving up toward the guards, giving himself and Ash some cover fire from under the 'shield' as he approaches. To the guard that was pissing off Ash earlier, he calls out, "I wouldn't want to be you, sir! Mister Williams does things to the bodies of those he kills. Terrible things. Sexual things!"

Ash blinks as the gunfire starts up so abruptly, his eyes narrowing as he looks at the man that was threatening him and pissing him off with that gun. His left hand darts to his back, and he slips out the combat knife from beneath his shirt that he loves so much, moving forwards under the cover of Sam's shield, a nod of thanks to the man. Then Ash leaps up onto the stairs with a hard flex of his legs, jumping right into the midst of the body guards, his body ready to unleash violence amidst them. He comes down in a crouch and then pushes forwards towards the man that has had the gun trained on him. Yeah, Ash is so getting his ass shot today.

It is probably best to move now, isn't it? Huruma can hear a bullet crashing past the glass of the door on her right, and so she promptly sidesteps to her left in order to make a getaway onto the staircase instead. Even in a hurry, in heels, she somehow makes it seem like a hop skip and jump of effort to descend the batch of stairs below and come to a clipping stroll to the sidewalk at the bottom. 'She knew' is enough for her. Have at it, Adam.

In the movies, firefights are choreographed to perfection; everyone moves with razorlike precision and the bullets go exactly where they need to at speeds the camera can follow. In real life, neither the audience nor the participants are afforded no such luxuries. Susan's throat explodes in a fountain of blood and she hits the cement clutching at her throat with one hand, the other thrust out to soften her fall. It doesn't work. Her elbow crumples under her weight and sends her rolling sideways down the steps instead.

The guard who had been standing to her left squeezes off two shots at Adam, and in the confusion both go wide. The first punches through Sabrina's shoulder and exits the other side. The second enters through her ribs and is deflected downward with an audible crack before impacting itself in the fleshy tissue of her liver. He goes down in the next moment, felled by one of the bullets fired from Sam's Glock, and if that doesn't kill him then the force of his head connecting with the steps almost certainly does, his skull split like a broken watermelon oozing seeds and pulp.

As Ash surges up at the remaining security guard, it becomes abruptly and painfully clear why he told him earlier that he didn't know what fast was. There's a blur of motion too fast for human eyes to track, thin wisps of colour trailing behind him in his wake, and he slams into the other man with enough force to send him flying over the railing that Sam had been leaning against earlier.

She's pissed, she doesn't know what this woman did to her.. but she knows it's something. So Kaylee is slow to be moved, a little dazed by the encounter, as Sabrina starts pushing her to move. The young blonde starts to snap at Sabrina when the bullets go into the assistant, the exit wound from her shoulder splattering Kaylee with warm blood. "Sabrina!" She cries out moving to grab the woman if she starts to fall and help her down if need be "Adam! Guys!" She's suddenly scared, her stomach twisting with a sick feeling. This is the last person she expected shot.

The first bullet is enough to knock Sabrina off balance a bit as blood spurts briefly out from the back of her shoulder as it goes right through, probably catching Kaylee with a bit of the spray. The second is far more damaging and the wave of pain hits her before the shock from the first hit has subsided, causing her to fold a hand over her stomach as she doubles over, turning to stumble her way down a couple steps with wide eyes and losing one of her black, patent leather heels in the process. Thankfully, Kaylee is right there so she doesn't completely collapse, putting one hand on the shoulder of the girl and leaning heavily on her. "Run!" She manages, sounding about as pained as someone who has just been shot twice. "Don't think, just run!"

It doesn't take long. Firefights rarely do, particularly at close range. Adam makes his way up the steps, still firing his gun into the body of Susan Ammon. She doesn't get last words. She doesn't get to give him her last declaration of his evilness, she only gets bullets pumped into her body until Adam simply has no more bullets to give. All the rage of his thirty years, of betrayal and now lies and doubt seems to escape with every bullet until he's laying over Susan's body. He looks down at the bullet riddled corpse and says, "If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge."

Ash blinks as the man blurs into that streak of color and displaced air. Ash's face barely has time to spread into the grin at the prospect of a good fight before impact. The moment he saw that color blurring he reacted with lightning fast reflexes, not those of a speedster, but still, very quick. He throws a hand out in a cross body punch, knowing he won't be able to aim for anything particular, so just hoping to get a piece of the guy before whatever happens happens. As the man slams into him Ash loses his footing, the heavy man lifting from the ground. As he begins to tumble away from the fight his arm connects with the other man, hard, smashing into his ribs with brutal force, and the added bite of that brass knuckle. But then Ash is tumbling through the air, the man ending up face down on the concrete, his cheek scraped raw and blood, and of course it's his right cheek rather than his left, which was scarred in the fight in Pinehearst. He lifts his head up, spitting out a wad of blood as he scans for the speedster, his eyes roaming across the fight going on, watching Susan's throat blasting out the back of her neck, the woman crumpling, Sam blasting one of the men away, all of it happening with a horrid speed.

And Ash goes flying. Sam winces at that, but since he has yet to notice what has happened to Sabrina, his head is still a hundred percent in the game. Several years of hunting down evolved with powers more 'useful' than his own have given Sam a pretty creative mind for how to handle situations like this one. The shield on his left arm drops, the silk hanging loose, then Sam himself looks at the other guard and holds up one hand, kung fu style, for the 'bring it' gesture. "One for two, Rainbow Warrior. Fifty percent isn't a bad place to quit. In baseball, at least." Apparently his creative urges suggested 'messy suicide'?

Contrary to the speed with which the rest of them seem to be moving, Huruma is slow- leisurely, to be technical. She catches the first blast as it tears through Susan's throat, turning herself to now pursue the felled Sabrina and poor Kaylee at a trot, the younger now covered in blood from the other woman's wounds. Her senses are up and sharp, catching the blurs of that speedster blazing into Ash and seemingly over the rail. What happens afterward she does not catch, as Huruma is now sweeping overhead of Kaylee and Sabrina- the former only if she did not actually flee.

"…'S Time t'go." Huruma's voice rumbles in their ears as long arms loop downwards to hoist Sabrina into a carry. The husky quality is not missable- though the flare of her nostrils at the smell of coppery blood may be.

Still reeling from the blow, the security guard-slash-speedster whips around to fix Sam with a bleary glare, eyes bloodshot, his center of balance sloping sideways. He's not in much better shape than Ash is, and if he had his head on straight he might think twice before activating his ability again.

As it happens, he doesn't. One moment, he's breezing toward Sam at top speed, kicking up a backdraft that ruffles Susan's hair and skirt, both of which are matted with blood and chunks of his companion's brain matter. The next, he's sliding in a several different directions in about as many pieces. A sliver of shoulder drops to the steps with a wet sound, followed by a chunk of torso, a piece of his face, and then another, and another. Although it might not be immediately clear what just happened, the glistening outline of spider's web made of wire, slick with blood and held out in front of Sam, provides the others with a solid clue.

Adam stays still for a few moments, not even considering the after effects for the battle. Then he looks around. Two dead security guards and…apparently a wounded Sabrina. As he watches Huruma scoop her up, he lets out a sigh and reaches into his jacket and pulls out what might have become familiar as his syringe case, "She's going to bitch about this one for a while." he shakes his head and makes his way over towards her and already has the needle in his arm. And there we have the advantage of being in Adam's crew. Of course, there's all these moral and ethics question, but no one really dies. He calls out to everyone, "Time to scatter."

"No.. We go too far you can't get help." Kaylee says, but then she's glancing back over her shoulder at the fight. Being wounded Sabrina isn't going to be able to fight her much with hope. The telepath, ignoring the increasing warmth from where Sabrina is leaning, starts making for a safe spot. Of course, then Huruma is suddenly there and she's more then happy to let the much taller woman take the assistant… Sabrina is heavy! "Yeah.. I guess we should." She starts since she tends to listen to her more then the other blonde, glancing back and waiting for Adam, ignoring a sickening twist in her gut. She puts a hand on Huruma's arm to forestall her when she sees the needle.

There's a lot of blood gushing out from underneath Sabrina's hand on her stomach and the only reason she's remaining upright, the absolute only reason, is the rush of adrenaline that comes from wanting to make sure they get away. Even that isn't enough to ward off the pain for long and Huruma picks an excellent time to swoop in as a hero since Sabrina's knees are buckling from the pain and poor Kaylee probably isn't strong enough to support that much dead weight. Almost as soon as her feet leave the ground the blonde gives a strangled, pained cry at the jostling and then goes limp, head hanging back and limbs dangling as she passes out. Liver damage hurts like a bitch and her outfit is pretty much ruined. Her missing shoe remains toppled over on the fifth stair from the sidewalk, toe pointing towards the trail of blood she left behind like some kind of macabre marker.

Ash has his knife in hand as he pushes off from the ground to head towards the stairs. He gets to them, and vaults up into the air to come down hard onto the stairs, just in time to watch the man fall apart onto the stairs. he blinks a few times, looking down at him, then back up to Sam with a grunt. "That was my kill." Is all he offers, nothing more, just a bit of indignation at having -his- guy killed by someone else. The large man reaches behind him, slipping his knife into it's sheath again and then looking around, noticing the wounded. He looks back over to Sam and offers him a simple nod, but it's one of acceptance. He's now killed for the group.

Sam doesn't respond to that except to look down at Ash, which is when he notices what all is going on downstairs. Adam with his familiar kit, Kaylee looking horrified, Sabrina a bloody mess. The kind of sight that can bring back flashbacks to the wrong sort of mind. In a heartbeat he's running down the stairs, ignoring the fact that his dispatching that last guard has left him pretty much covered in human offal, and nearly trips over the shoe. Skidding to a stop he looks back at it and stared dumbfoundedly. Only Sabrina would wear a patent leather pump to a gun fight. He extends a hand and a ribbon of silk snakes out to pick it up, then he continues over toward the others. "Is she…?"

Sabrina practically slips right into that cradle of Huruma's arms, and while they are not slick with blood, hold rather right. Perhaps for more reasons than that. Even when brown, Huruma's intent stare this close is quite bothersome for anyone that sees her looking down at Sabrina like that.

Her chin lifts at Kaylee's touch, and it is not a far cry to say that she bristles at it from several things all at once. Clenching her teeth for a second, Huruma's narrowing eyes move off towards Adam and Sam in turn. "She'll be fine." Her voice remains somewhat strained, eyes turning back down between the two other women.

Adam meets up with the women with the needle in hand. It's now full of yummy Adam blood and for the second time, he searches Sabrina's vein and then injects her with his blood. "There." he says. Then to everyone, "It's done. We'll head to the hotel to recuperate and then it's back to New York." he pauses and says, "Good job." in a sort of distant manner and then starts making his way off.


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