Forum Thread

(((aaaaaah i can barely remember what's going on this was so long ago XD))

Derek grinned as he held up a napkin with Trix's phone number.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I got myself a date," he said cheerfully. "And a kiss on the cheek, too." He leaned forward slightly and rested his chin his left hand. In his right, he started entering Trix's contact information into his phone. He wanted to add a picture didn't have one of her, so he put in a temporary placeholder picture of a lion. She said she was a leo, it only seemed fitting.

"Y'know, while I'm at it, let's see how your little guy is doing." Derek pressed his finger onto the screen of his smartphone, searching for a security camera he could take over to check up on the hired assassin. It didn't take him longer than a few seconds, the scene was quite chaotic and easy to locate. He shifted his phone's display to show the footage, adjusting the camera slightly using his powers to give them a better view.

"Well, would you look at that, the guy's doing pretty good so far." He held the screen so that both he and his brother could see it, and tapped the figure of the assassin with his gun held up. "He actually knows what he's doing."

---

Vannister walked slowly down the street, watching the clouds drift lazily across the sky. He breathed in deeply, savoring the crisp calm air. The peaceful silence was shattered by multiple explosions, which made him nearly jump out of his skin. Smoke rose from down the street, near a school bus. The sight agitated the Demon, causing it to tug at its chain. He calmed himself, or at least tried to. After a few seconds of calm thoughts, he moved quickly towards the site of the explosions. He saw a young woman with spiky black carry another girl out of the dust. The second woman was definitely injured, bleeding from her thigh and shoulder. She seemed to also have been hit hard by the blast, possibly some broken bones or even a concussion. His medical mind ran through possible muscle and bone damage, and how he could treat it here. The sound of a gunshot rang out nearby, causing him to freeze. Ahead of him a man stood over two children, his gun leveled at their heads. His other hand held another grenade. He didn't seem to have noticed Vannister yet, shouting at another woman down the street. He moved slowly closer, wondering if he could get the jump on the man and let the kids escape. Not likely. The gunman was very obviously strong, and would most definitely beat the living hell out of him. But if he did nothing the kids would be shot for sure! His fists clenched. He would have to do it if need be. Anyone who would threaten and attack unarmed woman and children deserved the wrath of Genocide. He could feel the Demon shift within him, begging to be set loose. He held it in, waiting for the right moment. He would see what this man had to say first, but should he make any threatening moves he would pay.

---

Trix froze, the black smoke fogging the area. "No..." She murmured in shock as she stared at the two still bodies of her comrades on the ground. Her form was vaguely fuzzy around the edges, as if she were vibrating intensely, but in reality, she was struggling to keep herself from exploding from rage. With an aggressive expression, Trix gently laid the blind girl on the ground. "Dude," She growled, danger lacing her voice as she shifted to the balls of her feet, crouching on the ground. "What is your problem?! Were you dropped on your head as a young child or something?!" Her temper set off like a timed bomb as she started on a loud and obnoxious rant, absolutely spattered with some very colorful and inventive swears, several even in different languages. Trix seemed to be having a bit of trouble keeping her form stable as her features flicked through different ethnicities and races. She proceeded to say some quite awful things about the man's mother before stopping to catch her breath. "And lastly," She said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're just plain rude." She said, turning her nose up in disdain as her form stabilized to that of a blonde Japanese. Than, without a moment of explanation, within the period of less than a second, she shifted into something almost akin to an armored gazelle with metallic wings, launching herself between her prone teammates and the gun barrel, her sharp horns pointed towards the man's midsection and hardened wings extended to shield her comrades in case the gun was fired. Internally, she was screaming bloody murder, hoping she would survive to actually go on a date with that hottie Derek from earlier.

---

Theia continued to hear voices, the female that had moved her. "Ouch... Do something... New clothes... Spit on this..." She felt something ripping her clothes and then something put into her hand. In her confused state she did as she was told and spat on the scrap of cloth in her hand. She gritted her teeth and her bracelet vibrated and became spiky as she focused her mind on it. "Ow!" She growled through clenched teeth as the ringing in her ears began to fade. Her head snapped up and turned towards the sound of a male voice, a voice that made her remember one mugger that almost won.

She pulls herself out of the memory as the woman that had so kindly pulled her out of harms way, started spouting accusations and very derogatory words in English and several other languages. I don't think she likes him... Theia's eyes widened under her silver bandana as the woman changed her shape many times over, and then leapt forwards as what felt like an animal with metal wings. How? What? She was then convinced she'd been knocked out and this was one of her strange dreams. But the throbbing in her head, and the damp warmth coming from her leg and shoulder reminded her otherwise.

Jaden, as swiftly as he could muster, changed out his current magazine with that of an explosive detonation charge with a sticky component, then fired the explosive-detonator in hand-at the leg of Trix mid-tackle. "The specifications of the charge," Jaden reviewed passively, "are so lightweight yet destructive and adhesive that I should be getting what I need out of this group." Jaden swaps his magazine, yet again with his standard-issued ammunition before backing toward the side of the neighboring building's wall. "Clairvoyance would not even discover that charge." He then lights another cigarette-Yhultha, his brand of choice. "Either that sniper will kill them all and I get what I need out of him, or I will get the information out of this allied unit; at least one side loses this battle."

(comment: How far away is Trix from this guy? He seemingly has fast reflexes, so I would assume a bullet may travel a bit faster than anything.)

---

"Trix you bloody fool!" Vannister shouted in his mind. What was she thinking?! She was going to get those two killed! A burning sensation flared in the soles of his feet, spreading quickly upwards. Flames leapt across his skin, turning his skin to tough black hide. It flared across his body, as he dropped to his knees in pain. A cry of agony burst out of his mouth, quickly being twisted into an animalistic roar. The transformation was complete.

Genocide stared at the little man with his soulless black eyes. He should die. He deserved to die. His eyes quickly shifted to the two on the ground. For some reason, he no longer cared about them, or their safety. He wanted the man's blood. His tongues burst forth, writhing wildly. With a cry of pure hate, he plunged the into the asphalt round the man, forming a sort of organic cage. Another tendril clamped itself onto the man's gun hand, effectively disabling that weapon. "YoU mEsSeD wItH tHe wRoNg PeOpLe MoRtAl..." He growled, his mangled voice that of many rather than one, in a strange chorus like sound.

---

Lyric walked away from his school. He was yelled again for sleeping in time of class, listening to music and not doing homework. 'Like I care' He smiled and decided to go to base. He didn't want to listen to anyone today but old abandoned school had many classrooms and hopefully there won't be any emergency. He knew it will take sometime to get to school, but he had his MP3, so there will be no problems. Also there is pack of abandoned dogs on the way and he had bought food for them, it was in his backpack right now.

[I can't remember either, Death...so we're in the same boat. XD]

----"Watch parents die. Watch house burn. Get saved by some random superhero. Sleep. Have nightmares. Wake up. Get yoghurt."

----"This is absurd."

----What the bloody h*ll was she doing? Matilda slowly set down her cup as her common sense kicked back in. "Get a grip on yourself!" A scowl settled on her face, and she shoved away from the table with a loud rattle. Ignoring the admonishing looks she received from the other customers, she stormed out the place.
----She was scared, yes. She was confused and lost and wanted to go home and curl up in her bed and pretend none of this ever happened. She wanted to feel her mother tuck her in bed even though she hadn't done that in years. She wanted to sleep, sleep everything off, including the gnawing, internal ache of using her powers. Better yet...
----Matilda glanced down at her callused hands. So plain. So ordinary. Yet not. Ordinary, normal, perfectly and utterly boring. Would it be so petulant to wish that she was that? That she wasn't born like this, to have pure, lethal energy on speed dial around the clock? A part of her wanted to say no. But in the deepest roots of her DNA, a steady thrum echoed yes, yes, yes.

----You owe the world. The world does not owe you.

----And it was right. She could feel it. Matilda blinked, reality flooding back into her eyes and draining away the flickering images. She hadn't known where her feet had been leading her, but apparently it very much agreed with her crazy inner voice. In front of her stood Trix's apartment building. The glimmer of an idea flashed in her mind's eye teasingly. "I'm either insane or delirious." Nonetheless, the corner of her lips twitched upwards as the idea puffed out, like a tulip beginning to bloom. With speed that she'd never believed her frail physique could have managed, she vaulted up the fire escape her feet hardly touching the rungs.
----Her bag was once more disheveled as knowing hands slipped in and out, loosening knots and freeing the clothes from their constraints. In a rush with newly charged adrenaline firing up her veins, the fourteen year old abruptly found herself snapped up in her tunic and trousers. The aurora cloak was crisply folded and set aside, as was the mask. The contents of her bag were adjusted slightly, bits and bobs thrown in and whatnot. Once her feet were curled up nicely in her boots, her indigo eyes took one last sweep of the apartment as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder, the other hand rifling through her jean pocket to produce her phone.
----"Oh, sh**," Mattie cursed under her breath, her foot halting mid-tap. She didn't know Trix's number. Frustration and helplessness bubbled up inside her, and she reigned in back in lest something burst aflame in the apartment. She didn't have the money to pay for any damages; h*ll, not even enough money to get her through the day.

----Resisting the urge to collapse into a puddle of emotional schist herself, she took short, rapid breaths in hopes that the carbon dioxide being eradicated from her system would help calm her down. Her eyelids fluttered shut in protest, subconsciously searching for a link. Something connected to Trix. Involuntarily, Mattie reached out and grasped the edge of the couch. Then her eye sparked open.

----"Trix?" Mattie's voice felt so far away, even to her. Perhaps because it was far away. "Trix. Can you hear me? Am I dropping in at the wrong time?" Desperation dripped off her words. God, she was just so terrified. Another section of her brain was whirring away, attempting to zero in on...what? She didn't know. She released her firm grasp on reality, instead seeking out with her senses. She frankly hadn't a clue on what her brain was doing. "Trix? Please, I don't kno-" An audible cry rose from Mattie's lips as she mentally slammed into a barrier - formed by what, she didn't know either - and bounced off. The link frayed and panic enveloped her in an icy bear hug. The panic was definitely triggered by something logical, a half-conscious part of Mattie noted, but apparently once again, she didn't know what exactly did.

---

Ethan had left the base of operations earlier that morning to obtain some ice from the local supermarkets. Since the vials on his belt were quite large, he needed a great quantity of ice to fill them. Thus, so that the locals didn't get suspicious of him, he would go to a number of different stores to collect the ice.

Ethan didn't mind the city the Squad were located in at the moment, though he did wish it would snow a little more, or at least hail. Sometimes it would rain, but there was rarely enough to attempt to transform into ice. The city itself was quite large. Ethan still didn't know his way around.

As Ethan neared the end of his journey back to the headquarters, he heard gunfire. He knew instantly where it had came from. The Squad wouldn't have been so reckless to fire a gun for everyone to hear, so this meant that something was wrong. It was probably a surprise attack. The team would have been unprepared, some of them were likely injured, or worse. Ethan had to be careful, so he quickly dashed into one of the alleyways next to the old school building.

Ethan grabbed the mask he used to hide his identity from the inside pocket of his hoodie. He assumed that there were intruders at the base, meaning that he couldn't allow them to see him without a mask. Ethan placed the mask over his eyes, if fit perfectly. Reaching his hands around the back of his head, he tied the string of the mask so that it would remain in place. The mask itself was a light blue masquerade mask with dark blue spirals covering the surface. Ethan fell in love with it the moment he lay his eyes upon it; since then, he's always used the mask to hide who he was.

Ethan smiled as he thought to himself, "I go to get ice, and the entire place goes to hell..." Ethan hurried around the school to the others. Once he reached one of the old school buses, he could see remnants of smoke in the air...

The Black Assassin

How uncivilized...

The trained killed wasn't very faced by the rant of one of the freaks. Once the woman was actually done insulting his mother and spitting out nonsense that simply couldn't all be legit words, the man suppressed the urge to ask whether she was done. Not that he would've had time to open his mouth anyway as the girl suddenly transformed into some kind of an ungodly monster. Nothing new there, she was a freak after all.

However, the assassin hadn't expected her to be so fast. Rookie mistake.

The man kept his ground as the creature launched itself between him and his unmoving hostages. As if that wasn't bad enough, another monstrous creature appeared seemingly out of nowhere and effectively trapped him and took a hold of his gun hand. He should've noticed the additional freak earlier. Another rookie mistake.

Everything had been going so great, where did it all go so wrong?

Although the assassin wasn't helpless yet. Far from it. The second monster might have gotten his gun hand but he still had the other one and he just so happened to have that grenade he still had in it. He barely managed to keep the cocky smirk from his face as he pulled the safety pin from the grenade with his teeth with a swift movement and shoved the grenade into the creature's mouth.

"Guess we're all going boom then."

---

Rhiannon "Ricky" Anderson | Aviator

To say that Ricky was panicking was an understatement. A trained killer had two of his unconscious team mates hostage and Trix and Vannister had gone on a rampage. Not to mention the guy who had shot Johnny earlier was still around, possibly just making everything worse. She didn't even know what the strange guy wanted and if he was in league with the guy Daniel had sent after them or not.

In the middle of it all, two defenseless lads lay on the ground, with no idea what the heck was going on around them. Ricky couldn't see how they could get out of that unscratched, or even alive.

"No no no no no..." Ricky chanted under her breath as she started running towards the heart of the utter chaos. She had no idea what she would do once she reached the catastrophe currently happening but she sure as heck wasn't going to do nothing.

As if sensing Ricky's distraught state, very sudden gusts of wind varying in strength started blowing through the area and increasing in number. The woman herself didn't seem to realize this.

---

Daniel Fausto | Red Puppeteer

Daniel raised an eyebrow as Derek showed off the napkin with a phone number. "I wasn't gone that long, was I?" The question was more for himself than for his little brother, Daniel couldn't really understand how Derek could've possibly charmed himself a date while he was having a teeny tiny phone conversation. However, as his brother seemed rather pleased with himself and his achievement, the information of how he had managed such a feat wasn't exactly important to Daniel.

As his brother searched a security camera to find their hired problem solver, Daniel took a quick bite of his froyo before leaning in slightly as his brother found what he was looking for and held his phone so they could both see what was going on on the screen. The feared Red Puppeteer munched on froyo while watching as his employee had the situation under control but was then subdued by something that seemed like a winged gazelle covered in metal and a rather angry looking Genocide. "Hm... That's new..." Daniel commented as he observed the strange metal animal, while ignoring how the assassin seemed to stuff something into Genocide's mouth.


((Might be a totally sucky post or might not, can't even tell that right now. Need sleep.))

---

Trix tumbled over her teammates, her large metallic wings enfolding the two males like steel cocoons -surprisingly soft and supple on the inside- as she skidded to a stop where the assassin had been standing just a moment before. Her eyes widened as the assassin spoke, shoving something into genocide's mouth. In a moment, her form reverted into a more bipedal version of her metal gazelle form, staggering back a moment from the weight of her comrades, as well as the sudden gusts of wind catching her steely fur. "Crap! He said something about 'going boom'!" She shouted to Ricky, recoiling as she ripped her wing-pods away, tossing them to Ricky and her other teammates in a swift movement. She had no idea what would explode or how long she had, within a range of 6-8 seconds, but she wanted to make sure her teammates would be alright. She curled in on herself, compressing her body into a small gray-colored orb as the pods stretched to wrap around her teammates, like bubbles of steel. She hoped that the pods would reach their destination before the explosion did, and reinforced her compressed form, almost akin to a semi-solid cephalopod, and silently prayed for the safety of her teammates.

---

Morrigan checked into her hotel room, relaxing as she sunk into the soft material of the comfy bed. She scanned the room, from the sandy colored walls to the sea-blue curtains, her gaze finally settling on her suitcase. He would've loved the curtains. She shook her head as she unpacked her laptop, suppressing the melancholy memories of her past. Right now, she had something to do, and boy, was it important. She knew he was still residing in the city, but she still needed to find out where specifically. If she had learned anything from her time as "Thavma," she knew he'd be sure to cover his tracks. She booted up her laptop, opening up google maps and pulling up the local newsfeed.

---

Jaden watched on as the dance of despair between the assassin's grenade and the foolish children neared a climax. "They're right about a boom," as he fingers the detonator.

---

Shouts, exclamations and the smell of fear, sweat and the rich tang of adrenaline filling the air... and a statement about going boom.

And then his barely-conscious senses were slightly muffled as a thing covered him and the body beside him.

With a suppressed cry, Allen snapped out of his stupor as the events went back to him in a split-second. His adrenaline-boosted reflexes registered the meaning of the phrase 'going boom' and the quickly-closing gap between the ground and the thing that was starting to enclose him and Jonathan.

With a cry of "Everybody hold your breath!", he threw his left arm out slightly and mustered all of his strength in a burst of power.

Fire feeds on oxygen in the air. In the absence of oxygen, fire cannot exist and fire cannot live.

The warning didn't give the people that much time to take in breaths before, with a "whoomf", all the oxygen from the air in a 100-meter radius was propelled outward, effectively expelling the ability to breathe as well as the grenade's ability to explode in that area. The explosive emitted a slight pop as it disintegrated in the monster's mouth.

For half a minute, everybody in the radius of the air-less area went bug-eyed as they sucked in ineffective breaths, until Allan took control of his actions and redistributed the displaced oxygen. With audible gasps, everybody went weak in the knees as the air-deprivation was quickly remedied.

Chuckling loudly, Allan stated, "Now that's what I call 'leaving people breathless'!"

---

(Just to let you know, unless this assassin was using a grenade from WW1, the grenade would have no problem exploding in a vacuum. Most modern grenades have a chemical trigger these days. You should probably have asked before telling us what our characters did, even if it wasn't a big control. Just a heads up before Finhawk gets on.)

Genocide felt the small metal object flu down his throat. His jaws instinctively snapped shut, just missing the caged mans hand, and severing his tongues in the process. He reared back, black ooze leaking from between his teeth. Something clicked in his chest, giving him just enough time for the thought of, "God dammit Genocide!" to cross his mind, before his torso exploded. Luckily for the others, his chest muffled the blast and shrapnel. Unluckily for them, it threw bits of Genocide sludge everywhere. He fell backwards, flailing wildly. His claws just missed taking Trix's head off, carving deep scratches in the street. Black blood pored from his disintegrated chest, which was currently just scraps of meant clinging to the bones. His eyes closed, pain and fury flooding his mind. He couldn't keep them open...

The eyes of the demon snapped open, blood red light pouring from them. Slowly, it rose, a look of absolute hate burning outward. Though its body was mangled and torn, it seemed not to effect it in the slightest. It stared down at the assassin, who still stood in a ring of writhing tongues. "Leave now." It growled. "Or face your eternal judgement."

---

(Oh I'm sorry. I was kinda into the notion that a turn-based roleplay like this is in a structure where the action of the roleplayer before you affects whatever action you may take in the future. I guess I was thinking that this roleplay was a free-flowing universe where everybody is entitled to write whatever they wished to happen and to not be restricted to a plot ONE PERSON thinks is right. I guess Finhawk might have failed to tell us beforehand that we were following a SET PLOT. So unless you knew of the future events that would happen, what I did was valid in all senses of the word. Sorry if what I'm saying is wrong. But that is what I understand.)

---

(The role of a good GM is to have a basic idea as to where they want the story to go and to gently guide the players through the RP world to achieve the goal, or in this case perhaps get the bad guy. All good RPs have a basic plot idea... Those that don't quite often (in my experiences) die and are short lived.)

Theia forces herself to sit up and felt a very large odd looking thing near the male figure who was threatening the group. She "watched" the creature get it's chest blown open, and felt something warm and very gross feeling hit her cheek and shirt. Ew... Okay... Gross... She had dealt with blood before, but this felt different. To her horror, the thing got back up off the pavement and then threatened the attacker. What in this world have I gotten myself into? She wondered as her senses cleared more and more with the passing seconds.

She forced herself to sit up, gritting her teeth as the throbbing at the back of her head intensified. I'm not going to be much help laying down... She thought to herself as she used her good arm and leg to post on and stand up. Her bracelet seemed to melt off of her wrist and float next to her hand in a liquid-like sphere. She dug her toes into the dirt below her slightly to get a better reading of the movement of the thing and the attacker.

((So it seems like people resulted in ignoring someplayers's post. We could've just went with the idea that Allan's plan failed and the grenade went off. However, since people already went with the ignoring option, it would just be too much of a hassle to start changing the approach now. I posted stuff and things in the OOC thread, I hope someplayers saw it and didn't interpret it as a personal attack. Hopefully I didn't offend him and he'll be back to RPing with us. :]))

---

The Black Assassin

The hired killer was rather pleasantly surprised by the fact that the monster's body was enough to contain most of the blast and he could still keep on breathing quite unscratched. However, he wasn't as pleasantly surprised when the inhuman creature merely got up after getting its stomach blasted to smithereens. What did he have to do to kill this darned thing? The monster's cringe-worthy threat wasn't amusing either.

He had no intentions of leaving.

With his gun hand free once again, the assassin didn't waste his breath by giving the mindless beast a reply. He merely lifted the gun to point it at the thing's head and squeezed the trigger.

(("Squeezed" which means you can prevent him from taking the shot or manage to dodge it or take it but not have it be lethal or whatever you wish to do.))

---

Rhiannon "Ricky" Anderson | Aviator

Ricky was getting close to reaching the conflict when she heard Trix's warning. It didn't sound good. However, at least the female in question hadn't gone completely 'mindless rage monster' like Genocide had and their team mate's safety was still a concern of hers. The wind calmed down a notch as Ricky crouched down beside her two comrades were being enveloped in some strange metallic looking substance. Ricky didn't really want to know what it was.

However, there was still the case of something 'going boom'. They were far from being out of the woods yet. It turned out the thing going boom was Genocide. How that had happened was beyond the blonde woman and she didn't know whether to be relieved or worried when the very angry beast got up and in the assassin's face like nothing had happened.

((Busy and stressed with school and other IRL things for about the rest of the week. Expect lousy replies like this until I have some time to even breathe.))

---

(I'm simply going to assume that Theia hasn't been counted as a "Teammate" and therefore isn't encased in the metallic case.)

Theia felt as though time itself slowed down in that instant as several metallic-like things began encasing some of the other people around her. She felt the wind begin to die down and "saw" a gun being raised and pointed at the creature who had been blown open. She reached out with one hand aimed at the pistol and in that instant crushed it. Every opening and orifice was collapsed. Any hope of firing it, any hope of pulling the trigger any further was destroyed. I don't want any more bloodshed today... She had her fill of death for the day having failed to save someone who was killed with a fancy stone blade.

(And I apologize for my less than lengthy post. Working on a college essay that's supposed to be 5 pages long is challenging and time consuming...)

When the explosion went off, the baseball-sized pearl-like orb that was Trix was rocketed away from the muffled explosion. She had really expected it to be much larger, but she supposed Genocide must've muffled the blow. The shapeshifter found herself rolling at the feet of one of her teammates, or at least that's what she hoped. She couldn't very well see anything from inside of the spherical shell of hers. She rocked backwards, trying to unfurl herself, but it currently didn't seem to be working. "Figures." she thought, displeased at her incapability. It wasn't often that she had a "malfunction" with her abilities, and it was much less amusing now, being in the situation that she was in. She was feeling awfully tired, and the effort of keeping the detached metallic bits of her body in existence caused said metallic bits to more or less begin evaporating. She remained in her smooth -and decently toasty- black sphere of exhaustion as she slipped into a sleepy state of unconsciousness, too tired from her recent bout of shapechanging to care what happened next.

(Sorry for the short post, I've got a ton of homework. I kinda feel like Trix has done enough, so I'm taking her out of commission for now. I'll probably have time to post more after this battle's done I guess.)

---

Ethan had originally thought the gunfire had come from inside the school, but now after hearing an explosion, he realised that it all originated outside the school, almost along the main road.

Ethan now began to worry a little more than he initially had. Gunfire, smoke grenades, explosions; something bad was happening. He needed to help the rest of his team as quickly as possible.

On his dash towards the rest of his team, a spherical object suddenly appeared from ahead and rolled to a stop at Ethan's feet. He was a little hesitant at first, unsure of what the object was; whether it was a trap or something else. It didn't sense anything bad about it, but just to be on the safe side, Ethan threw it onto the field on the opposite side of the road.

As he neared the rest of his team, Ethan caught sight of blood and gore in the surrounding area. Immediately, the worse case scenario crossed his mind; someone was caught in a blast and has gotten seriously injured.

In order to be prepared for anything, Ethan hastily popped the caps off the vials attached to his belt. By carefully manoeuvring his left arm, he was able to manipulate the chunks of ice in one of the vials and guide the ice towards his hand. The ice began to swirl and rotate around his left hand and wrist, so close to his skin, but never touching. He had shaped the ice into the pointed shards; they weren't as large as tennis balls, but not as small as bullets.

Ethan was in a hurry, thus he moved forward down the round and finally saw the squad in sight. He was just in time to see a gun held by an unknown figure cripple to bits...