Participants:
| Scene Title | Columbia 14 |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | It happens years before it was supposed to, but it happens none the less. |
| Date | August 18, 2009 |
The outdoor amphitheater of Columbia University is nearly vacant at this time of the day with classes ongoing and such happening, however there are a splattering of folks mingling about, sitting in the seats, studying or eating lunch, or just chatting with their friend or acquaintance. The stage is empty and the curtain drawn closed.
The count is at 14 now. At least that's what the media is saying. 14 killed at the hands of the evolved serial killer. Melted ones, at least. The actual number of evolved that Samantha Tanner has killed is higher than 14, to be sure. Of course, the media is talking about twin children that she's supposedly killed. Samantha Tanner does not kill children. The man she's tracking now is the one she feels responsible for all of this and she's seen him around here several times talking to a few different folks. Not only is she tracking him, but he's tracking her as well. She's actually been following someone she thinks that has been in contact with him. She's going to shake him down to get the information she needs to finally get her beady little eyes on that asshole and melt his brains right out of his head.
Angry much? Not her.
She has no clue that Teo has been in contact with The Company and that at a word they'll be heading her way. But the guy she wants to talk to has just got up from his seat and is walking up the concrete stairs. She rises from her seat and follows him.
Curt and Veronica were going to pass themselves off as students at the school. Easy enough given their age and appearance. Minea, not quite so able. Weapons and such issued after they were requisitioned and through laborious tracking of Teo's fake credit trail which was knowledgeable that Samantha Tanner was tracking said credit trail as well.
The goal wasn't to take the woman down today, not here. This had been a place that the target had been frequenting and as such, the mark was likely to show as well. They just wanted a visual, get some more intel on her that Laudani hadn't been able to give them. Get a better idea of what the woman could do and how to counter it better than 'shove Curt at her and let her melt Curt.' Cause, like Curt said, it still sucks. "How's it going blue bird" Minea talks into a cellphone that's not really on, just the mics for communication between the three in everyone's ears. "got a spot on her yet?"
The two partners are sitting on a bench as if enjoying a respite from class and a bit of summer sun. Vee is college-casual in a pair of shorts and a tank top — but she wears tennis shoes in case any running's in order. She's got her legs stretched out as if to tan, her head on Curt's shoulder and her eyes covered by dark sunglasses— one might think she was napping but really, she's looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Nothing interesting yet," she says, as if in half-awake conversation to Curt.
Curt sighs slightly and puffs a stray bit of Vee Hair from his face where it keeps blowing lazily. His book bag rests next to him, open, and a book is open across his knees, high lighter flicking through his fingers. "I want you both to know that the last time I was in school mothers were nearly rioting over this new fangled thing called integration of the races, and equally up in arms about public bussing. And no, I haven't found her. This place gives me the creeps." Because it's mostly happy and filled with youth and life.
Samantha is wearing a black cap, with her long hair tucked underneath, otherwise she only wears a black t-shirt with a blue windbreaker and some jeans. Somehow a sketch of her has circulated throughout the media after she offed that SCOUT Captain, then burned his home. She trudges up the concrete stairs after the man in her path, keeping her head tucked low.
For some reason the man cuts across the center of the seats in the amphitheater and stops to talk to someone he obviously recognizes. Samantha stops for a moment and leans against the railing as she watches him. After a moment, she turns and steps up a few extra rows and starts to cut across herself, if only to keep little distance between the two. Once he leaves the theater, they're going to have a few words out back. And then, if he gives her the answers she wants, she'll not cook his heart inside his body.
Or.. maybe she will just for the hell of it.
"Suck it up Lu. Besides, you're not exactly Lily White yourself" Burn, slight burn. But then Minea's attention goes to the black baseball cap. "Black ballcap, cutting across. Windbreaker and jeans. Can you get a visual? I can't tell from here, other than I see blonde hair" Minea brings up the cellphone and snaps off a shot or two of the woman. God bless you Company and your really good technology. "And stop whining Lu before I seriously consider plan B to be plan A. I think you'd look sexy being ladled into a bucket for the healer to fix"
Veronica sits up, stretching, angling her head one way, then the other as if to crick her neck. "Hard to tell. Following." She stands, then reaches out to faux-playfully pull Curt up with her. She begins to head in the same direction as the black ballcap, but not by the same aisle. Shouldering her bag, she glances at Curt. "Looks like her to me," she says quietly, starting to walk just a touch faster. If Tanner is following someone, she doesn't want a pile of melted goo on her watch.
Curt snorts, "Tell me about it. Why do you think I opted for military service? I still had people thinking slanted eyes meant I was a Jap spy in league with Nazis when I went to middle school." He makes a rude noise. "You think I look sexy no matter what the context, so your opinion doesn't count." he counters, turning to scan the crowd for- "Got her. Not sure from here." He oafs as he's pulled. He stuffs the book back in the bag and then shoulders it, "Flanking." he says into the mic, moving apart from Vee a little as if they were going to different places. Rule One of being Curt, don't stand to close to your partner.
Being former military has given Tanner a keen sense of 'some shit isn't right here.' It's nothing more than a hunch that hunkers deep down in her gut. She stops suddenly and looks around. Her blue eyes scan around the area. She's started to worry that perhaps she's getting overly paranoid. Her eyes give off a brief yellow glow before she squelches it and she moves towards the man.
Lunch time is nearly over and students are starting to vacate the theater, heading towards the exit which might help Tanner with her plan as she moves towards the man, her eyes flickering another brief glow. "Hey." she says to him, as he turns around to look at her. Now, whether he's been warned to watch his back or not, somehow he knew who she was as his eyes go wide and makes a run for it. "Shit," she says to herself as she runs after him. She doesn't want to torch him yet, she needs answer, but it doesn't take long for her to catch up to him, pushing him over a row of seats. The crowd that was starting to leave, stop and begin to watch the incident.
Shit. This could get bad. "See her eyes? That's her. Careful of her eyes. Some kind of heat, but not fire. Rememeber that" and much like others who are starting to gather, Minea does too though she hangs around the periphery. The cellphone has been switched to video with a few deft fingers pressing buttons. Capture what she can of the incident. "Be prepared to stop her, if we need to"
Curt just nods his head and starts around the long way, trying to look like a college student on his way to class. He wasn't kidding about flanking. He fishes in his book bag with one hand as he hurries. "Got her." he says into the mic, "Ballcap is our girl."
"Not good. We may need to de-escalate. Try to tranq, but be prepared to shoot — too many people around that can get hurt," Veronica murmurs, one hand in her messenger bag already preparing the tranq gun she keeps in there. She nods toward the front of the crowd that's gathering. Her other hand is in her back pocket, ready to pull out the badge there and tell the students to get away, if it looks like things are going to go badly.
"You know I'm looking for, don't you? Little shit." she says as she grabs him by the shirt and jerks him up. The man flails as she drags him up, eyes glowing. "I-I don't know wh-what you mean?" Scared shitless, this one is. She gives his shirt a shake. "I'll boil your brain from the inside out if you don't fucking talk to me right now. What's his name and where do I find him?"
There are kids on the phone now calling for campus security. For now it looks like a fight between two students, or perhaps a lover's spat as they can't hear what she's saying. She places a hand near the base of his throat and presses in hard and he starts to scream.
A tall guy with a letterman's jacket on steps down towards her. "Hey, let him go." Samantha glances up at him and her eyes glow. It only takes a few moments, as he reaches up and clutches at his throat. Those behind him can see his neck turning a bright red, then black as she cooks his larnyx and he falls over. That's when the screaming starts. The man in her arms is just about her size, yet she jerks him up. Those who remained at near the bottom of the ampitheater start to look back now as the rest begin to file their way out, trampling over each other to get out.
From her angle at first, Minea can't see whats happening to the jock. She's got plenty of people in front of her of varying sizes, all jsotling to get a view of what's happening. The campus security being called, she can hear that and even she herself is dialing in the number that's plastered everywhere on the campus. "Hi, there's some kind of commotion out on the amphitheatre. There's some woman and she's.. I think she's trying to beat up some guy. It's not a lovers spat" Up on her toes she goes then back down as she hangs up on the line. "Lu, Sawyer? What the situation. I can't see from back here. Going to fall back a bit"
From across the amphitheatre, a group of students are released from finals. A blond carrying a green and white helmet pinned aganst her side and her bag spinns her keys in the other hand, sharing a laugh with a fellow classmate. Oblivious to the ongoings across from them.
"Shit!" Veronica growls, the big jock blocking her aim, just as she brought up the tranq gun. "Get out of here!" she yells to the other college kids. The jock is on the ground — dying, God, what a way to die, Veronica thinks — and she aims again for Tanner with her tranq gun when someone yells "GUN!" and tackles her from behind. Her wrist hits a bench, and the tranq gun drops from her grasp, a few feet away. "Get her, Lu!" Sawyer hisses, then reverse-headbutts the man on top of her. "HomeSec, asshole, let me up!"
Curt is making his way through the crowd from a different angle when the sudden surge of bodies hits him. He grunts and stands his ground, pushing and shoving, "Fucking kids!" he snarls into the coms as he tries to get himself free of the press of human bodies. Sadly, super strength is not his Evo ability.
The assassin glances up at the commotion she's caused and she decides to just fuck it and run. But not before melting the asshole in her hands as she gives him all she has as she lets him fall to the ground. The seats flare up around him and the metal of the frames spark and smoke from the microwave radiation she emits from her eyes.
She bursts out into the aisle and sprints down towards the stages, baseball-sliding across it until she scampers up unto her feet and pushes her way behind the curtain.
Behind the curtain, there's an exit to the back which she heads right for, but not before turning back and flaring up the curtain to try and stop or slow down those who might be pursuing her.
She pushes herself out that door and onto a sidewalk, where she bolts down towards the school main to try and get herself lost in the crowd as her cap flies off, letting her hair down as she runs as fast as her legs will carry her, pushing past anyone who gets in her way.
"Runner runner, out the back, go around, i'm in pursuit" MInea's dropping all pretenses now, badge dug out and clipped to her waist and the tranq gun out. Len had wanted her taken down that way. "Lu, Sawyer, fall in" And the other agent is off, not having to deal with the mess of kids and following that mane of golden hair in the sun. "Homeland Security! Tanner! Stop where you are!" Fuck, bag and fucking tag in public. Fabulous. Thank you Laudani, couldn't trail her to some other place other than a school full of kids?
Veronica's back on her feet, managing not to kick her assailant-slash-good-samaritan in the balls for taking her down. She recovers the tranq gun, though her shooting hand is useless, broken — luckily she's almost ambidexterous but loses a little bit of her good aim with her left. She heads down an aisle, breaking into a long-strided run, going around the stage and to the other side of the building.
Curt quickly grows tired of trying to push through the crowd. Instead he picks the biggest guy he can find and drops him with an elbow to the face, "Get out of my goddamned way!" he snarls fiercly enough that everyone, seeing the downed linebacker, quickly makes a hole. "Fucking college. You kids need a role model." and then he's off, dropping the bag but pulling it's content's out. His other hand pulls the gun from the base of his spine, "No, I want her alive." he says to himself, imidating Len's accent and voice, "I have plans. She could be useful. That's an order soldier. Fuck it. I'm putting itching powder in his hat." his feet slapslapslap on the ground as he tries to cut through the building after the girl.
That was quick. Someone's tried to set her up. She's not being taken down by frickin' Homeland Security. She turns to look behind her as she runs seeing Minea a good distance back. She cuts across the lawn and heads for a larger body of students. She's not entirely sure how many of them Homeland pricks are after her, but if she can get enough kids around her, there's not too much they can do. One boy sees the badge in pursuit and tries to tackle Samantha, only to have head punted as he draws short. The kid's nose bursts forth like a red paintball, blood pouring from it onto the grass, his neck snaps from the force of the blow as his head whips around, and still Samantha doesn't miss a beat as she can already feel the agent closing in on her.
She runs straight towards the blond with the bike helmet, when around the corner comes two security guards. What the hell do they have? Tazers? It doesn't take her long to put them down. Her aim is not right on as she's running for her life, but they are done with third degree burns, one to a leg and the other to the shoulder, which in turn spares that particular blond, as Samantha continues to run onward.
God Damnit. "Civilians are interfering. One death" She knows that particular angle of a neck. If he's not dead, he will be. Miena's in hot pursuit, She's already mentally tabulating who all is being injured, hurt. She can't get a good bead on the woman with the tranq gun and she's reluctant to shoot in the crowd, even with the tranq. "Tanner, Stop now or I WILL SHOOT!" GOd Damnit Lu, where are you so I can shoot you.
That particular blonde gives a scream as the two guards come running out of nowhere and then suddenly they're down. The helmet tossed down and she and her classmates suddenly descend onto the Security Guards.
Veronica comes around the building, frowning as she sees the downed guards. "Call 9-1-1 and stay away from her at all costs," she yells over her shoulder at a stricken-looking man, probably a professor. "Tell them… shit, I think 3 dead, 2 wounded so far." She turns to look for her partner. "What's her range, Dahl, we know that?" she says into the mic.
Curt is ignoring the yammering, the background noise. This is exactly why he volunteered for the Company. Why he let them run all their tests on him for two decades, why he's honed his training, to put down monsters like this. He hurtles a cowering woman as if she wasn't there and his shoulder hits the exit door, blowing it open and off of one of it's hinges. He looks at the chaos, the madness, and curses under his breath. He pulls his back up peice and raises it over his head, "EVERYBODY DOWN!" and then he fires three rounds into the wall of the building behind him. So that the bullets don't just go up and then come down randomly. The crack of three shots, the bellow, hopefully that'll either get people out of his way or force them to suck face with the concrete, either way he'll call it a win. His eyes continue to scan for the target, the gun going back into it's place.
Fatigue is battling adrenaline at this point and Samantha is starting to tired, as fatigue is starting to gain ground. She runs into the quad as the students hear the shots and fall to the ground in fear, having no idea what the hell is going on. There is no way out here, and it takes her half a second to realize that.
She runs around behind a girl, probably a freshman who screams with Sam wraps her arm around her throat and back up against a tree. "Come closer and I'll snap this girl's neck like a fuckin' twig!" she threatens. With those she's killed today, there should be no doubt she'd do it. Her eyes glow as she scans the quad for the agent or agents who were on her tail. She already makes Minea as she gets closer, so her eyes fall on her, though she knows that the agent is just a little too far out of her range. "Everyone on the ground or I start melting you." Her eyes find someone already trying to leave and soon his body is a charred mess on the ground, leaving her fourth dead body on this campus today. That's enough evidence for the remaing teens, perhaps a couple dozen or so who faceplant themselves on the ground, amidst crying and shrieking.
Minea pauses, Curt's getting close, and that's good. That's actually what the woman wants him to do. So Minea stays put, pauses where she is with her gun up. "Stop it Tanner! Let the girl go and stop what you're doing. Don't make this hard on you and take innocent lives. These people haven't done anything" Her gun up, badge visible, she edges forward but stays just barely inside the womans outer range. "Lu! Plan B"
Probably outside Tanner's range, or where she hopes she is outside the woman's range, Veronica crouches near a planter, aiming her tranq gun in her left hand. Too many people to use the real gun — especially with the wrong hand. Her right hand is held up against her shoulder, trying to keep the swelling to a minimum. She begins to pull the trigger when she hears Minea in her ear. Plan B. Get Curt close, shoot Curt. "Just be sure she doesn't fry you before you're close enough to boomerang on her," she warns her partner, speaking quietly into the mic. "I've got a tranq on her — I'll try to hit her if it looks like she's about to fry you, but my shooting with the wrong hand in the wind with a dart gun - not the best reliability." Bullets move faster, take less wind resistance, stay more on path.
Curt calls over his shoulder, "Fuck plan B!" he eyes Tanner and continues to advance on her, fearlessly. The closer he gets, a small smile starts to cross his lips. "Any wound I get will bounce to the hostage." he points out, since you know, the hostage is between them and therefore closer then Tanner. "Samantha Tanner." he says louder, so the woman can hear him. He continues to advance, "Did you know I was nineteen before I had killed my twentieth human being?" he asks in a blase detached manner. "It's true. Admitedly they were soldiers, had it coming, war and all." he keeps talking, keeping her attention on him.
"You're burning me!" the girl shrieks as Sam holds the girl in front of her like a shield. Sam is sweating profusely, and the glistening of her skin is searing into the girl's clothing and her own skin. Samantha is taking on a glow of her own now as she scream. "I said stay the fuck back."
The girl's screaming is getting louder until she black out from the pain and slumps in Samantha's arms. Sam's feeling hot, flush as she gives a small shudder and struggles to pull the girl upright, but she's mostly dead weight now and Samantha is not going to hold up this girl. Her back against the tree, as leaves begin to fall from above, dead and brittle around the woman and her clothing is burning against her skin, but she doesn't seem to realize it.
She releases the girl, who's dead now, letting her fall to the ground. Then she sees Curt closing in on her and she turns her glowing eyes towards him. "Well, good for you. But I'm not done with my duty. I'm not done killing." Her eyelids lower as her eyes glow brighter and she intends to fry Curt where he stands.
"What the fuck Lu! What the fuck are you doing….. Shit. Sawyer, what is he doing?" Minea's not happy. She's not happy at all. "Fucking loose canon is what you are Lu!" God Damnit she was gonna tell Len this.
"He's not a team player. That's why we're paired up, I think," Veronica says with a grimace. She closes one eye, aiming carefully at Tanner, then adjusts a little to compensate for the breeze she feels on her face. Pressing the trigger, the dart flies free, whistling through the air toward Tanner as she glowers (and glows) at her partner.
Curt just smiles at Samantha, a cold hard look, "Me either." he tells her before he spins his weapon coming out, the barrel spitting fire. Curt has never liked the Company's choice of firearm. So…. law enforcement. And Curt's not in the business of law enforcement. He's in a war. A soldier doesn't carry a pop gun. He carries a weapon. The fully auto machine pistol spouts it's three deadly rounds in it's burst mode, the trio of lead centered on Tanner's face. Curt is not the sort of man who misses.
Whatever is going on with Samantha Tanner, she can no longer contain it. Whether it's the fatigue, or being cornered with no way out or seeing Lu fire off three shots at her, but in that moment, time for her stands still. She lets out a shriek all but explodes right there. The ripple effect of rays as they burst from within her spreads out around her in a fifty food radius. The clothing on her flutters off in charred bits, and the grass at her feet, black and brittle. The tree behind her dries and is engulfed in flames as the first round hits her shoulder.
The circle of radiation spreads out, charring those closest to her, up to those on the outskirts of the blast who are dosed with a large amount of radiation. The second shot hits Sam in the upper rib cage and the third into her bicep as she falls with a slump to the ground.
There is a small simmering of smoke that rises from her nude body as she lies against the burnt ground.
But she's breathing, that much can be seen from those who get a good look at her. Breathing, but she's not going anywhere on her own any time soon.
Curt has a shiney new suntan. He growls and walks over, ignoring the pain of missing the top two layers of his skin and all the hair on his body. His foot snaps down, breaking her knee with a wet crunch before he looks around, searching for… There they are. He plucks up a pair of 'adjusted' swimmers goggles, and places them over her head. Then come handcuffs. When he turns around to stare at the other agents he snarls, "What?" that's about the time he realizes he's naked. "Great."
Nightmare.
Veronica ducked when she saw Tanner go nuclear — "Shit, get back and get down!" she shouts to anyone with a chance of getting away. It's just seconds, and then she looks up. It's a nightmare.
She takes one moment to steady her nerves, and then her cell phone is out. "We need … shit, radiation clean-up, and a van for Tanner, and … we have at least… god, more than a dozen dead." Her voice cracks a little. She gets up and heads over to help her partner. What do you say after that?
"You look like a naked mole rat, Lu," she says, but not without some affection in her voice. He lived.
Duck and turn away. Save the eyesight at least. When it's all over, Minea's not running to Lu, letting her deal with the naked agent save to take off her jacket and toss it at the man. "Fucking perfect Lu" She moves to Tanner, satisfied that the woman is down before her own cellphone is out. It's not company that she calls, but another number instead.
"Laudani? Dahl. She's down. It wasn't pretty and there wasn't anything we could do to stop her. She took a dozen down, maybe more at columbia. Favor filled" and then a click as she looks around and starts walking around to start triage. Much like a blonde and her classmates who are trying to help the wounded.
It's several minutes before emergency services arrive on scene. Agents, students and security guards are tended too. News crews arrive shortly after that. The image of a burning tree will be played on TV for the next few days. As for casualties, the news have dubbed the incident "Columbia 14" for a reason, though in the long run the radiation burst will claim more than the 14 lives that died this day.