Chapter #4

The large double-decker bus rolled into the streets of downtown Limerick. The sight was all too horrific to view. Houses and buildings were ablaze, cars scattered everywhere. Three fire hydrants had exploded and other then the sound of car alarms, there was silence in the streets. Martin looked up to see a large truck lodged into the side of The New England Skyscraper. The bus came to a slow stop.

“We stop here,” Donovan readjusted his coat and began walking toward the bus doors.

They stepped out onto the paved street, looking around warily for any signs of danger. Donovan and the three other officers drew their guns.

“Plume, stay at the bus, will you?” Cedar nodded to her. She huffed and roughly leaned against the side of the bus, aggravated.

The small group crept slowly down the long, quiet road. Suddenly there was loud clanging and a scruffy, disorganized man stumbled out of one of the banks, holding a couple of bags of cash.

“Freeze!” Donovan and Guilzini raised their guns as Tracey stood next to them, ready for anyone else who was planning to come out.

“Put the bags on the ground and…” Draco’s voice trailed off as they looked at the strange robber.

He was drenched in some sort of purple liquid, dripping out of his sleeves and creating a large pudding where he stood.

“Ha! You can’t stop us, moron!” the hunched man cackled to them.

“I count only one, pal. Where are your buds?” Donovan shouted at the creepy man.

The man gave an evil grin. Without warning, the ground next to the man began opening. A large hole formed as the ground shook violently. A larger man began to crawl out of the hole, just as the hole began closing. Finally, as the large man got to his feet, the hole fully closed. He wore a large t-shirt and baggy pants, making himself very rough on appearance.

Two more men walked out of the bank, one dressed in black, balancing a knife by the tip of his finger. The other wore a grey vest and, instead of holding, his arm had morphed into a large tommy gun.

John clenched his fists, causing them to burn blue flames as he saw the man with the tommy gun arm. It’s him…

Suddenly a large car came flying from around the corner and crashed into the side of a building across the street. A laugh came from around the same corner and a man appeared, grinning happily for the destruction he had caused. 

Finally, two more men came walking up to the other five from behind. One wearing a very shady hat and sunglasses, smirked at the group at the other end of the street. The other man, who was completely engulfed in flames, cracked his knuckles and glared down the road at the group of people. 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Draco stared at the seven men.

The man in the shady hat and pinstriped suit stepped forward, “Welcome ladies and gentlemen.”

Henry’s eyes widened in fear, and everyone around him recognized the voice too.

“The fun is about to begin!” he looked up and noticed the group of people and frowned, “This is all they send? The police really need to work on sending more of their force. Ah well,” he smirked, “You’ll have to do.”

“Place you’re weapons on the ground and hands behind your head. You are under arrest for the destruction of community property,” Cedar ordered, gun still raised.

“Ha! You think you can stop us?!” the man laughed aloud. 

BAM!

The man’s hat flew off, a large hole in the center.

“I’m not warning you again,” Donovan smirked as he reloaded his gun.

The man became enraged. His eyes began to glow a bright teal and he raised his hand, palm facing directly at Donovan. Cedar’s body suddenly glowed the same color and the gun in his hand began pointing toward him. Donovan struggled as hard as he could to get free of the telekinesis, but he lost control of his hands, which began pointing the gun at his himself. 

“Stop this!” a flash of lightning struck the telekinetic man in the chest, knocking him off his feet.

The other seven men stood in awe as Henry shrugged off the static he created.

“How the bloody ‘ell did he do that?!” one of the men broke the silence with his thick british accent.

The pinstriped man stood up slowly and dusted off his clothes, ‘I though I took care of those damn survivors.”

“You had the doctors try to experiment on us?!” Tracey gasped.

“Ofcourse I did! It doesn’t matter now, I guess,” he brushed off his hat and smirked at the group, “We’ll just take care of you ourselves.”

Draco took Donovan’s place, gun raised as Cedar sat on the ground, sweating nervously from what happened to him.

Aaron stepped forward, “Bring it on! It’s a good day to die anyway.”

Roger quickly stood next to him, “I’ve already died. I can do it again if I must!”

John joined them, anger built in his eyes, “I shall revenge my brother this day,” Catherine followed, “And I shall help.”

One by one, each person joined in.

Martin hesitated before stepping forward, shaking his head, “This isn’t going to be good.”

“Ha! You fools don’t have a chance! Hugo! Take them out!” the pinstripe man ordered angrily.

The man with the new British accent stepped forward, smirking, “My pleaser.”

He raised his hands and one of the cars nearby shuddered. It lifted off the ground and zoomed through the air, heading straight for the group of people. Aaron stepped forward and, just as the car was about to hit him, he raised his hands to it. The car suddenly lost all of it’s momentum, slowly lifting off the ground and flying over the group of people. Aaron guided it with his hand and let it crash back on the ground behind them. He turned back to look at Hugo, “That all you got?”

Hugo stood in shock. How could he do that? 

A blast of fire scorched the ground inches away from Aaron’s feet. The man covered in fire laughed. “Let’s see you counter that, big shot!”

John’s eyes widened in disbelief at the man’s voice, “KENNY?!”

“Oh…you survived brother…” Kenny gave a blank look. But then he quickly came to and threw a ball of fire at John.

John quickly dodged it and began to burn in a blue flame, “Kenny! What are you doing?!”

“Oh like you care! It’s like you’re gone already!” Kenny hurled another orange flame at John, who dodged it once more.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” John yelled back at him.

“Ah you wouldn’t understand. Just go back to being dead!” Kenny roared, hurling a large fireball at John.

John shot his own fireball and the two collided, sparks flying everywhere.

“Enough!” Tracey shouted, as she sent a large gust of wind at Kenny, knocking him to the ground.

“Err, Grundman! Mencelli! Get rid of them!” the man in the pinstriped suit roared.

The dusty man and the man balancing the knife stepped forward. 

“Let’s bring on the pain,” Rick Grundman’s hand began to be covered in rocks.

“I’ll end their misery,” Mencelli sneered. He gently tossed the knife in the air and caught it in between his index and middle finger. Luey then threw the knife fiercely at Marié. As the knife came at her, she took a step back and her hand touched a street lamp post. Metal suddenly crawled acrossed her and encased her body. The knife clanked against her arm and fell to the ground. 

As Luey stared in awe, Grundman mad his move, “Enough with toying around!” he jumped off the ground and came back down, driving his rock-covered fist into the ground. The earth beneath him cracked and large tremors began shaking the ground.

“He’s cr-r-r-reating earthquakes!” Aaron yelled out, falling down from the ground trembling.

“Not if I can help it,” Harold’s hands began to freeze over.

As the ground began to crack under the tremors, Harold blasted ice over the cracks, freezing them solid. Luey chucked another knife directly at Maxwell. Harold tried to block it by creating a sheet of ice in front of him, but the knife was thrown hard enough that it smashed the ice. Harold covered his eyes from the blast but lost balance and fell backwards onto the ground.

The tremors started up again and Roger Verlin looked around before rushing down the street toward Grundman, dodging the knives flying past him.

“Someone’s got to give him a distraction!” Donovan turned to Draco and smirked.

“You’ve got it boss!” Guilzini jumped up, drawing his two handguns.

As Verlin continued running, Draco came out from behind a car, guns raised. He began shooting at each knife Mencelli would throw, knocking them out of the way in mid-air. Mencelli noticed this challenge, switched targets and began throwing knives at Guilzini. But with every angle Luey tossed his knife, Draco was a step ahead, shooting each one out of the way.

“Ranzford! Get rid of the gunner!” the pinstripe suited man yelled.

The man with the tommy gun for a hand chuckled as he walked forward, reloading the gun, “Move outta the way, Mencelli!”

Mencelli tossed one last knife at Guilzini. Draco tried to shoot it down but there was a sudden click! His eyes grew wide in fear. His handguns were empty! The knife whistled through the air and slashed across his left arm.

He winced in pain and looked up to see Mencelli grin and then leap out of the way as Ranzford stepped forward.

“Heeeeres Jerry!” Ranzford laughed, pointing his gun hand at Draco.

“Oh s**t,” Guilzini mumbled. He swiftly jumped behind a car as the bullets began to fly. 

Glass fell all around Draco as Ranzford continued to shoot as the car, “Can’t hide forever little man!”

Meanwhile, Verlin continued rushing toward Grundman. Grundman shot up another earth spike from the ground at him, but Verlin rapidly duplicated. One of the Verlin’s recieved the hit and dissolved, while the real Verlin continued his run.

Grundman gritted his teeth and twisted his rock fist in the ground. Tere was a large wave that shuddered through the ground that tripped Roger, falling face first into the hard cement.

Off to the side, Clare clenched her fist, “This has to stop.” Her eyes began to shine bright blue and then, without warning, she disappeared. Henry jumped back as everyone began looking around for her. She then re-appeared right in front of Rick Grundman and smiled, “Good morning!” She then swiftly punched him across the face, knocking him to the ground. She then disappeared and reappeared just above Ranzford and kicked him right in the jaw, making him fly back onto the ground.

Suddenly there was a huge wave of energy that blasted through the entire street. It knocked everyone off their feet, sending them flying. Glass shattered from every building as the pinstriped man glowed in a mysterious teal color.

As it began to calm down, the man went back to his normal color, “There! That shut things up!”

Sirens were activated from the other side of the street.

“Hmm, what timing,” the man frowned, “The police finally decide to arrive.”

“Boss! We got it all!” Flanders sneered, hauling bags of money out of another store.

“Excellent,” the pinstriped man laughed. There was a sudden small shifting sound near a large pile of ruble. The man walked over to see Cedar barely conscious, struggling to get up, “You never give up, do you?” He chuckled to himself before turning away, “Tell your buddies…Seth Zarian is back,” and he began walking away.

Donovan growled under his breath before blacking out.

~