The Mall's blueprints were spread across the table, and the time for planning commenced. Most of the people in charge that day were not officers; they were agents. After all, with the number of terrorist scale attacks in recent months, how could they be expected to sit idly by?
They had to act swiftly, as the longer the situation ran, the more unprecedented accidents or events might occur. Using the blueprints, they had made some rough guesses about where to enter without alerting the hostages or their captors. They will enter from the roof, and from there they will sort out the entire fiasco.
Getting on the roof was easy for these special agents; they simply climbed up the walls and set up on the roof before breaching quietly. The inside of the mall was bright but eerily quiet except for the sound of distant footsteps. The agents dispersed into teams and snaked across the place, from west to east, from north to south. They hid behind anything; they clung to ceilings as they traversed. Eventually, they regrouped back at the roof and began the second round of planning as they decided what to do with the information. They confirmed that all the hostages were being held at the major store and that no other groups outside of it were present. They also noted the fact that they were wearing bomb vests, which meant they planned to die there.
When they finally decided on what the next course of action was, they sent the message to the persons in charge and waited for confirmation. The confirmation came moments later, and as it did, they all zipped back into the mall.
The D-class were none the wiser, except they were. To be on death row, one must be absurdly insane or extremely down on one's luck. The D-class this time was a mix with some serial murderers who really wanted to kill the hostages, and some leaders of gangs, outside of New York. They were not complete psychos, so they had agreed on one thing: they didnt want to die. They managed to bring the rowdy killers to submission with difficulty as they were armed, but in the end, they managed. They set up barricades with the hostages and hid behind them.
The gang leaders didn't expect the police to sit idly by, so they were preparing to handle the police inside. They would have turned themselves in normally, but they didn't think a group with the power they had would be as dumb as not to put in any countermeasures.
The agents were already near and observing the cruel defenses set up; some less resilient agents flinched a little.
"WE KNOW YOU ARE THERE!" A rough voice screamed out; they didn't actually know they were there, they just screamed it out at intervals in case they really were there.
The agents were confused about what to do now: should they come out, or should they continue their plan, which in all senses of the word was risky.
The silence was deafening.
"WE KNOW YOU ARE THERE." There it was again, this time the agents didnt sit quietly and pretty, they responded and changed plans.
"We are here," one of the agents at the far side of the stack responded.
"Good, before anything, we just want to clarify that we are being forced to do this." The rough voice wasted no time in getting to the point.
"Who forced you?" It became quiet for a moment.
"We don't know, all we know is that they had a weird logo and were wearing all black." When those words came out, the D-class, the other agents eyed each other before whispering conversations broke out.
"Also, we were commanded to ask for a black shadow thing that is bloodthirsty, and also to inform you of a really powerful bomb being here." The conversations were hushed for a few seconds before they resumed, this time louder. The agents all had an idea of the shadow that the D-class were talking about.
One of the agents quickly transmitted to the outside, and the once calm outside quickly turned into a chaotic mess, as this just got confirmed to be a ploy from that tri-speared group. The one in command quickly reported higher up the chain, and that call made its way to the stressed Fury.
"WHAT! MOTHEFUXER" Fury was livid, he didnt usually get ticked off to easily, but hearing devastating news twice really left no other emotion other than aggressiveness. The group Fury was starting to hate as much as Hydra had just shown up again and is demanding 280 with the lives of thousands at risk, and not only did he not have 280 as it was currently making its way to kill people, the girl with superpowers was also out and could be doing anything right now.
Fury aggressively pushed a button. He summoned Natasha and Clint.
"Extremely bad news, for 1 we need to find the shadow monster codenamed Slaughter. Clint, you go find slaughter and lead a good number of agents full to the brim with weapons and light sources. We suspect that the also escaped Aletheia is cooperating with the slaughter. As for you, Natasha, the damn group has appeared again, and I need you to go there and pull off a heist." Fury had more emotion than usual; he even made hand gestures.
He slid both of them a file with unknown contents.
"Clint, you may leave. Natasha, stay. I have something else to give you." Fury grabbed a different file and gave it to her.
She left without opening the file.
"Its moment like this that remind me goose was not so bad." He put a cigarette in his mouth and puffed. He was lost in thought and forgot to light it, so nothing came out.
[Alethia]
She had been running for a while now, and she finally saw the city. She was tired, as a weak reality bender, with an equally weak physique; she couldn't hold on much longer. 280 after chasing her finally broke off and went to the nearest human, she took this chance and sped off really far.
280 left to his own devices quickly started its culling. Due to the sun, it was forced to lurk in the shadows until someone got close enough to snatch them up and brutalize them. After 280 were killed, it would switch to a different dark area and wait for another victim. The civilians who saw what was happening freaked out and called 911 as they ran, dripping a yellowish liquid.
Aletheia was now far gone; she had disabled her cloaking and was now resting beside a building. While she was doing that, she was also looking through her system.
[Mission: keep 280 out of any group's hands for 1 hour
Status: Completed]
[Rewards allocated...]
[You received the library]
[Note: The library is missing 99% of the knowledge kept there; to regain it, conditions must be met, and additionally, anyone can enter it as well as be banned from it, including you.]
[You received an enhancement]
[Note: to receive the enhancement, just say it in your mind]
"How unappealing," She muttered out with the few breaths she had. She stood up and started slowly making her way deeper into the small city.
To an oblivious looker, she looked like a child who ran away from home, with disheveled hair and a wobbly walk. Her small stature, far from the average of an adult, made it easy to assume. Some citizens simply ignored her while others glanced at her for a moment before they continued on their way. She was not oblivious to the stares, as even in her pre-rebirth state, she had been mistaken for a kid, but she didn't feel like doing anything about it; she was too tired to even make the anger aggression.
It was starting to look like a storm was approaching as she walked down the street, and a huge cluster of clouds was preceding her. The clouds were striding in as any purposeful storm would.
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That's the end of this chapter
1408 words
The next chapter should come out really soon. By the way her name is not Aletheia it was the name she gave to SHEILD, and the 280 arc will end very soon as well, ushering the start of the foundation and its exploits across the omniverse.