The Curtain Call

[Drayson]

Drayson watched the breach from the cameras the tactical team wore built into their featureless visors, hiding their faces behind a bullet proof mask. Things seemed to go well at first; the team approached and scoped the scene. They chose their points of entry well, and formed stacks ready to surge through the doors. Speed and aggression was what would win the day without any casualties on either side; the faster they could breach and close with those within, the less time the criminals would have to ready weapons, to formulate violent responses.

Gas canisters went through the windows, then doors were taken off their hinges by thermic cutting charges. Bright flashes of intense red heat that turned the doors to charred pieces falling to the floor, away from melted hinges.

A gust of wind, tear gas from the colour of it. The source seemed evident as the gas canisters, still spewing their noxious irritants, came surging out of the building as the doors came down, as if roiling ahead of a strong wind. Flashbangs flew in and detonated, and then the officers were through.

The first team in, four men with SMGs, were just starting to bark commands when they were thrown into the walls hard enough that Drayson could hear teeth crack against teeth and wood splinter against their armoured backs.

In the middle of the room stood two men; one was their primary target. Vladimir, with a hand outstretched and seemingly at the epicenter of the commotion.

A second team, four more tactical officers stormed into the room next, flashing dazzlers mounted to their weapons. Painfully bright lasers were aimed at Vladimir and Yuri, the flashes meant to blind and confuse their targets, all the while barking for the two men to get on the ground.

[Yuri Obrechennyy]

Yuri had hardly finished speaking to Mudak when all kinds of chickens came home to hit the fan. He wasn't sure what happened first. There was an itchy sulfur smell and then Mudak drew in about three fucktons of the power and blew everything around him to shit. Yuri found himself at the edge of it, staggering as he held onto a rotting wood shelf just to keep from getting tossed around like a hot chick on X at a rave.

Then FLASH.

BANG.

Bright lights, deafening noise. Fuck beans!
He lost complete control of the power and suddenly didn't know up from down. Then while his ears still rang, voices, yelling at him.

"Uh..."
Purple clouded his vision. He took one half-step forward -- up, down, maybe? -- and struck against that same wooden shelf. Hard. The leg buckled and the entire unit with its load of sugar came crashing down in Yuri's direction. Something hit his head and that's the last thing he remembered.

[Vladimir]

More men came in. They yelled from the safety of their riot gear. "Get down! Drop you weapons!"

Vlad had no weapons, at least none they could see, and he was not about to drop them. But the flash bang had startled Vlad from the power within. He couldn't immediately grab it again. It slipped and slithered away like it was a slimey little snake.

Moments, minutes, he didn't know what had passed before he'd grabbed the power inside. But since they had yet to move, he assumed only a matter of moments, that felt like forever had passed.

Vlad grabbed the first man with a rope of air and smashed him into the second. Their riot gear dulled the impact, but they were both stunned and the one Vlad did not have fell to the ground.

As Vlad was swinging his hammer made of flesh and bone at the third of the four coming in. The target pulled the trigger of his gun but the hammer had crunched into him, his aim went wide.

Vlad made to the four man who was almost laughing in fear behind his visor, laughing? Fear? Something Vlad was missing. But Vlad only knew the target in front of him. He completely missed the red laser dot that was aimed at his head. By the time Vlad was aware of the situation it was too late. The bullet pierced his head and there was nothing left...


Edited by Vladimir, Jun 9 2014, 08:20 AM.

[Drayson]

The events that transpired in the raid would be questioned and analyzed exhaustively in the coming days. Eight tactical officers had been cast about like rag dolls by something, and no one had seen a thing. Most of those men would later put in their resignations; there were some things even the human mind couldn't understand or cope with.

As the second team rushed inside, Drayson climbed out of the squad car he had been riding in and moved to follow, signaling for his other officers to fan out, and ordering paramedic teams to move up and prepare to receive the casualities, of which there were far more then he had hoped.

Drayson had gambled; he had no full understanding of what these people were capable of. He hadn't even been certain of his suspicions. If he had been wrong, they would still have bagged a drug lab and it's leader. And if he had been right...well, right had turned out to be very costly.

Tear gas hadn't been as effective as he had hoped. The flash bangs had faired better, but the tactical officers hadn't been aggressive enough to seize the opening they were given. They had expected Vladimir to drop to the earth and surrender, not hold his feet and lash out with invisible...something.

The dazzlers had done better, but even then the peddler had fought through and struck the officers down.

Drayson entered the room as the last of the tactical officers had a breakdown; the man stood laughing hysterically as one of his comrades fell to the floor. Drayson's decision had been made for him the moment his first team had been cast down.

His pistol was already in hand when he came in the room, and it was levelled on Vladimir, the red dot of the laser-sight fixed on Vladimir's head. The trigger was pulled before Vladimir could be ready to strike again, and the drug-maker dropped to the earth, dead as any mortal man.

The paramedics came in afterwards, and Yuri was eventually bundled off to the Guardian for treatment and processing; the man was an accomplice, after all, and would be held for questioning and charges. Of course, a search of the lab had found nothing but sugar, the few readied pills identical to those that had been found making the rounds on the streets. Yet people were certain they worked. Chemical analysis, blood tests of users, all pointed to them being simple pills of sugar. And yet there could be no denying the effects.

There were answers to the questions that only Yuri could answer now that Vladimir was dead, but with the death of that one, Drayson's involvement with the case ended. It would be handed over to the usual channels; detectives and police officers would question and process Yuri when the man awoke. Medical staff would start the uncomfortable process of weaning the man off his wide arrange of narcotics addictions. Modern medicine would help, but could only do so much. It was going to be an unpleasant few weeks for Yuri. Weeks that would eventually be spent in a mundane cell, awaiting charges. Whatever those turned out to be.