Forum Thread

Ldeya deftly caught the device between her fingers.

"Nice, have fun."

She waved a hand and climbed out of the basement, continuing drinking her stolen soda.

---

At some point, someone- probably one of the Task Force 1 members- had handed her a flask of some indiscernable alcohol. She honestly didn't care. After that monster of a week, she'd take anything she could get.

She sighed, as she stepped out of the building for the first time in two weeks.

Sue stretched lazily, yawning.

She really needed a day off.

Oh well. Days off were for people who didn't lead the world's largest collection of super-powered individuals.

---

In the short time it had took for Ldeya and Shieta to get Xuanji on the task, Hui Xin has found, and arranged for two, modified ambulances to be used, getting them painted and secured with tinted windows and special locks. She had skipped on the bulletproof glass, after all, who would shoot a truck with innocent civilians in it? She herself proably would, but that was not the point

Checking over the trucks, she smirked. They looked perfect. Time for the costumes. Naturally, Huixin was already prepared, having a costume section specifically for this reason. Various sizes of ambulance personnel’s outfits were hung neatly in the shared dressing room, and she picked several sizes out thoughtfully, as she planned on who should carry out the kidnapping. Oh boy, these games were fun~

Xuanji turned back to her monitors, shutting off the game software and opening the live feed of the city’s traffic system. Typing quickly and then highlighting a few areas, uploaded the map image and sent it to Huixin’s phone.

The girl put on a different headset and connected it to her fourth monitor, and opening the communication system she had set up for the Mafia a few years back, opened up Huixin’s contact and turned on the mic settings.

“Hey boss, can you hear me?” Xuanji asked, hopefully, if the system didn’t malfunction then Huixin’s phone that had been redesigned by the girl, should have received a live message.

“Hey boss, can you hear me?”

Her phone dinged as Xuanji’s message popped up on her screen, complete with the map

“Yeah I sure can, what’s up?”

“I hear Ldeya chose Town Square?”

Ldeya disposed of the soda can in a trash can on her way to Elantine Tower.

As she strolled through the Tower's front doors, she smirked. Elantine Tower was a high end establishment overlooking Town Square, serving as both the clock tower and a hotel for the occasional esteemed guest. You didn't just have to have money to get a reservation, you needed connections as well.

Fortunately, the Mafia was lacking in neither.

Once before, she'd sauntered in, irresistibly beautiful and charming. It was a beautiful assassination, a knife to the throat right in the middle of a dance. And how fun and exciting it was to casually exit, hands in pockets, as the bullets flew and missed.

After that, Lady Luck was born.
~~~~~~~
Liyue was perched delicately on the windowsill of her room, a purple butterfly floating around her absently and purple roses crawling up the sides of the window.

She looked with wide eyes at the clouds passing above.

---

“Yes boss, I’ve sent over the file of live feed of human activity in the town currently, what else would you like me to do? Hack the traffic lights or something?”

Xuanji asked, her hands already flying across her keyboard, typing furiously. Although most of the time she wasn’t very serious, when it came to her job, she was alike to a different person.

---

“Thank you dear. Send a copy to Ldeya, will you?”

Hearing Xuanji’s suggestion, she chuckled softly

“It would be lovely if you could. Make the red light longer on fifth Avenue. It’ll help Ldeya stir up more chaos. More crowd. More panic. And more chaos~ But clear Sixth Avenue for when we need to make our escape.”

Aleksandr was actually having a really good day.

He woke up, drank a cup of water, then downed a few cups of coffee.

He read a few chapters of his book, and leisurely made his way to his office, humming.

For a tactician for the mafia, he was rather laid back.

He sighed, as he sauntered into his office, fishing his phone out of his pockets, as he opened his laptop, eye on the hooded figure trained on by the security cameras he had access to.

To: Bossman. Clocked in. Anything you need done? Also, the Head of the ESA is on her way.

---

She hated this place.

The ESA, she meant. Not the alleyway she was strollingndown at the moment.

She shut her eyes., pausing for a moment.

The Mafia.

The Mafia.

Her. That meant she'd be seeing her.

She hoped.

There wasn't much she remembered, but... her.

---

“Hi there, Aleksandr, and yeah. Right on time actually”

“You already know they’re coming. Mind helping me prepare the troops? Even if they do find us, I want to make sure it’s hell for them to get rid of us. I want everyone on alert, get them ready to defend themselves. Get them weapons too. I’d rather be safe than sorry with all the powers us special abilities users have.”

She quickly types this out to Aleksandr, before returning back to Xuanji, waiting for the child to reply.

To The bossman : Ability nullifying?

He sighed, one hand on his phone, the other typing out orders to the main comes.

field agents, make sure you have ability suppressors if needed. Main force, Get the rifles and ability suppressing bullets. Blockade the side entrances. The Head of the ESA is on ber way.

---

Knowing her….she probably wouldn’t bring reinforcements along. It was likely going to be her, and her alone.

Huixin didn’t bother telling anyone that, though. After all, she could be wrong and it was better safe than sorry.

And she was pretty darn powerful. There wasn’t a need for backup when you had abilities like hers.

To Aleks: “Yeah. Please do. Ldeya’s out and safe, I’m not too worried about her, Shieta’s down with Xuanji, they will be fine. Check on Saeng-i and Liyue for me? I haven’t heard from them yet”

She stared out at the window, eyeing the main entrance warily, lost in thought as she swiped through the live map from Xuanji, waiting for a response and secretly hoping that she’d at least be able to see her

He paused.

Then he typed out a message.

to the bossman: are you getting involved?

His gaze flickered to his computer, frowning slightly, as he flicked through the list of ESA agents.

Some of them would be distracted by the other events of today.

To everyone: High alert. I estimate 15 minutes. How are the blockages coming along?

---

Huixin stared down at the message that had blocked her tracking of the live map. She frowned, typed out a reply, before deleting it to create a new one

Aleks:

Not this time, I think we can handle

“Yes. I’ll be around, she’s a danger to our little mafia family, isn’t she? We’ll need all hands on deck…plus I’m the boss, I should probably be there”

She stared blankly at the message she had just sent, silently praying that Ophelia’s permits hadn’t been approved yet. Maybe they would be able to have a decent conversation….without her mafia getting hurt. Or….or…her getting hurt.

Huixin sighed, distracting herself with the little live map again.

She was such a pain to deal with. Huixin just couldn’t discern how she felt towards the leader of the ESA.

Ophelia paused, staring up at the warehouse doors.

This was the third to last location on her map.

She checked her comms.

A notification had come through mere minutes ago.

Forms approved. You are authorized to use lethal force against the enemies of the agency.

She smiled faintly.

What perfect timing.

---

to the bossman: understood. Anything else I should know?

He simultaneously typed on his computer.

to all: Secure the blockades, we have some time. Also, find out whoever let loose the info on our base and warehouses. Now.

He paused again.

To Liyue: Where are you, kid?

To Saeng-i: Where are you?"

---

The intercepted message soon popped up in bright red on Huixin’s phone.

“ESA Leader fully authorised to use abilities, Boss”

Huixin groans, her heart rate picking up ever so slightly.

Walking over to the intercoms, she spoke, voice ringing cold and clear throughout the base

“Lethal force has been authorised. She will come soon. All of you, the moment she uses them…you aim to kill.”

Huixin felt her heart drop even as she gave the order, an unexplainable pain coursing through her body.

But….family came first….right? Huixin closed her eyes and made a silent prayer that she wouldn’t use her powers. Even if she was more than capable of defending herself……it wasn’t worth risking it. Losing her.

More pictures came in, presumably from Xuanji. Wrong location…but there were only two other places the ESA leader could go. And Huixin had a sinking feeling the next one would be Ophelia’s lucky strike.

Typing out a quick message to Aleksandr, she replied
“You probably heard me, Aleks. Have a small team of no more than four working on identifying the rat. Burn that sh!thead in acid once you find them. I despise traitors. All others to be on standby to defend us.”

To the Bossman: got it. I'll take care of torture when I have time. Got a date tonight. Given I don't die.

He checked his watch.

To the Bossman: Should I download the database onto a separate hard drive, then wipe the servers?

---

"How... annoying."

She murmured, stepping out of the warehouse.

With a flick of her wrist, the warehouse crumpled into itself, turning into little more than a baseball-sized ball of metal.

"Next up..."

---

Xuanji sent the pictures off to Huizin, and worked away, plugging in different USB cable and drives into her separate laptop that ran on a different IP address, well, her own personal address that is. It was on a completely different private server, that was opened only from a drive she had access to.

Typing in her user, password, and answers to the authentication, Xuanji turned on her server, opened a vpn to run her network and logged onto the ESA website, since she found a way to bypass their security servers protocols and firewalls, this was how she had access to their cameras, data, servers, files and so many more.

Opening an application through the website browser, Xuanji successfully set up her second monitor that screen shared the footage of the road system of the town, along with traffic light timings and road closures etc. Inputting a code she had set up years ago, one that she used ever since she started hacking the ESA system, the traffic lights on Fifth Avenue were changed to one minute intervals from their original fifty seconds. Then she set up a passcode system with her self made app and blocked off the attempts that the ESA may make to correct the system times.

Of course, Xuanji would like to have her own fun, therefore she turned off the traffic lights at the second, fourth and eighth Avenues and closed off a few roads, but left a clear road from Sixth Avenue all the way to their base free, when Boss gave the signal, or sent a message, she had full access to the security system and could close off all the red lights on the route if needed.

Unplugging on USB drive and reconnecting it to a different monitor, Xuanji sent over a copy of the live map feed to Ldeya.

“Boss, everything’s ready, tell me when you need me to close off roads, I’ll tell you which roads are free and where the agency cars are when the operation begins. Everything is set up for action. I’ll fly some drones in for recon if you need? Or something more explosive i can drop from them perhaps?”

Damn, this was going to be fun, perhaps more so than video games.

Asper, Cassius, and Ostium were at ease in a common room of the Mafia HQ, playing a game of Monopoly.

"HAH! You've landed on my Boardwalk!" Asper cackled maniacally, "Thats $600 you have to pay Oz!"

"Sure I've got the money right here, give me a quick sec" Ostium replied with a suspicious amount of calm for having to pay such a hefty fine. Soon enough, Ostium produced the money and handed it to Asper

"Huh?" Asper said with confusion, "I could have sworn you had less than $500-"

"Ostium's been summoning more money from another Monopoly set" Cassius quickly interjected.

"CASSIUS," Ostium jokingly groaned, "I thought I had given you some if you were quiet about it!"

"YOU CHEAT" Asper quickly yelled.

But before this argument could escalate, Ostium's pager went off; he quickly proceeded to take it out of his pocket and look at it.

"Hmm, government officials outside the base. Executive Ldeya and Member Xuanji preparing to confront threat-Cmon gang! Y'know we can't let those two have all the fun."

All three nodded in silent agreement and proceeded to equip themselves. Asper dropped two glistening silver katanas out from her coat sleeves and donned a black robe, resembling the Grim Reaper themselves. Cassius put on his helmet and summoned a massive chain tied into a noose, echoing the medieval hangmen of centuries past. Ostium looked at the other two before covering his face with a mask that bore the visage of a jackal's cackling maw. Once the three assassins were ready, Ostium quickly created a portal to the main entrance of the base and addressed his two allies one last time before all three jumped though.

"IT'S HUNTING SEASON!"

Aleks: “Naturally. I’ll inform Xuanji too, but wipe the servers. Leave nothing left…well, maybe you could leave them a nice little taunt as a joke. If you have the time”

Huixin’s eyes landed on the second message first, her mind focusing on the one that screamed ‘work’.

Aleks: “You? On a date? Well I never, but please go enjoy it. I’m sure the rat would thank you for one extra day that he breathes”

“Ready? Good job, Xuanji. This information is more important for Ldeya, so just update me when you tell her something yeah? Our standby ambulances should come around ten minutes after someone- anyone calls for help. I’ve made some calls and most medical staff will be busy, giving you the perfect time to deceive them. And drones are good, send four out.”

“Bombs? That’s a little too grand for how. But throw smoke bombs. Smoke bombs are an excellent distraction. Means the enemy can’t find us~”

“Oh, and Xuanji? Back up and wipe everything you don’t need right now. I’m not leaving anything for them to take. The ESA and their little government rulers will probably be trying to attack us, too. Send them a Trojan horse.”