Puppet | [The Gifted]

Chapter 7 - Clash

[ A very special update for all my readers, I have been gone for some time, abandoning the book completely but I have so much to write about for Amber. Her story doesn't end yet so stick around, this book is coming back in April. Thank you for sticking around so far, much appreciated. ]

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The heavy running boots stomping the pavement of the meeting place under the bridge was made by Amber and Izzy as both of them were bringing their own personal handguns as they took cover behind the police car doors, aiming at the fugitives. "This is the Sentinel Services. Get on the ground! Put your hands on your heads, if you flee or resist, we will use deadly force." Agent Turner warned the fugitives using the megaphone speakers.

Both Izzy and Amber looked at each other, lost and wondering why there are one to many fugitives in this place when the last they got was only a family from their information. As they watched the commotion and yelling continue on, a loud thump was made, banging on the doors from where they were and as the door burst open, Thunderbird, Blink and Wyatt stood on the other side.

"Go, go, now!"

The ushering and running only made everyone who was by the other side of the place stand up from their defense post and wondered what was their next step. Amber goes to her dad. She can hear their conversations as she starts to walk closer. "Deploy the weapon sir?"

He nods, which makes them walk away giving the signal. Amber finally reaches her father and calls him out. "You said it's a family. Who was that?" She asked him in an accusing tone. "I don't know, kid. But you need to prepare to start running real soon. They're deploying the weapons." He said to his daughter firmly.

"Do I have to go alone? What kind of training am I even doing if this is gonna get me promoted?" She questions the ability she has and the system she's doing as well. "Trust me, this will get you promoted." He shortly answers before pushing her to go get ready.

"On my signal, you guys are next." Agent Turner says alerting every person standing by for the signal. As they waited on the signal, a beeping and chattering from the mutant movement team made them speak on the strategy and work their way to get into the place and ambush before they escape.

3

2

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"Remote unit to target." Jace commands and that's when they A squad starts running to the target, which was led by Jace. B squad follows behind A squad that was led by Amber, after much consideration of not leaving her alone by Izzy. As they marched their way to catch the mutant fugitives, a static noise from her in ear then cleared, turning out to be Izzy speaking through the in ear. "Bsquad go to the right side, A squad go left, corner them as there's a wall hindering them from leaving." He speaks, coordinating their moves.

From Izzy's orders, Amber signals to move to the right immediately during their first corner and continues to run to where the target is headed. Just as Izzy predicted, they can see the wall and one fugitive caught, as B squad skidded to a stop, they marveled at the power one of the mutants possessed which was a purple portal opening up.

While that was happening, from the other side, Lauren, Andy and Caitlin were screaming for the man who was on the ground, Jace grabbed Reed and Amber who was leading the B squad was the only one walking forward to arrest him but her eyes fixated on a certain person inside the portal.

"Lauren?"

"Amber?"

Before anything could happen, the portal closed and it was just the Sentinel Services teams and one captured fugitive inside the dark abandoned underground parking lot.

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"All right, everybody, listen up." he catches all their attention including Amber and Izzy. "In addition to the Struckers, we're seeking four mutant suspects. Two unidentified males, one female prison escapee and a well known mutant pickpocketer. All are to be considered extremely dangerous. We believe these suspects are working with a national network helping fugitive mutants escape. It's our job to make sure that they don't." He makes a speech and commands to start a nationwide search party.

"So we're gonna search every square inch of this area, all of it... Behind doors, walls, underwater. Just because something doesn't seem possible doesn't mean it didn't happen. You know what you're up against, go do it." He let them off before he called them again to relay one more piece of information.

"As this investigation is more serious and bigger than we thought, I will let Amber, my daughter, handle most of this so whatever she orders, do not defy her orders. You are dismissed."

Jace walks out of the meeting room, he strides with trust and confidence that his daughter was gonna do a good job taking care of the team as he had other businesses to attend. On the other hand, Amber looked dumbfounded, all eyes were on her, expectant of orders to be received. Amber, leading an investigation? What an unimaginable reality. That raised a lot of questions in her ability to lead well and as she descends into her little overthinking galore, Izzy nudges her lightly back to reality. "Well, aren't you gonna give them something to do?" He asked her with an eyebrow raised, his arms slowly falling into a cross, relaxed and awaiting for the girl calmly.

"Oh.." She clears her throat, catching herself back into her professional state, she takes small deep breaths as she scans the room one by one, each of the people she would have to work with until the mutants were found. Then, her eyes travel to the scattered table filled with papers, maps, notes, pins and more lying on the table for her to use. Her brain slowly starts to rack up with ideas, figuring out a solution for all. As an idea churns in her head, she takes the singular red marker pen lying on the table and walks to the whiteboard, scribbling out and writing her ideas down in a very messy fashion.

As all of them watched the girl in front of them work and write, at first, they looked confused, each with frowns on their faces, still unsure where this was going to lead them somehow. That was until she used another marker pen to highlight mutants. Slowly, everyone nodded, looking towards one another, taking in the information with approval. For a first timer like her, the plan seemed solid.

Once she finished writing, she put down the pen and clasped her hands together. "Alright, I just want to put this out here, I really don't know what I'm doing but I'm just trying, so forgive me if there's mistakes, I still have a lot to learn."

They didn't answer back but that was a sign for the girl to continue on with her speech. "As you can see from all those little writings and scribbles, what we are trying to do is catch these fugitives on the run, especially the ones that tore down my school. So, in order to do that, I'm gonna need you guys to use your connections to anyone that has come across the description of the mutants my dad has already given. That's just the first step."

She then starts to walk, slowly gaining confidence in her plan as she continues to speak. "Second, we start to make a portrait of these fugitives. An image to know who we are up against. Just because you have a silly mugshot of them, that doesn't make it all better. Try at least to have a picture of them looking civilian-ish and that could help our search even more than necessary. I'll be deploying two teams from each location they were last seen and I want all of you to take notes of what anyone or whoever said what, anything and all kinds of suspicious activities must be taken note of. This is a big clue to where they might head next."

As all of them took notes of what the girl said, one raised their hands. "Is there a way we can catch them even faster than this? Can we use violence? They're quite the runners." Amber only nodded, taking note of the questions. "I'll get to that in a bit, but thank you for the question. If I do have the answers, I'll keep you posted on it." This made the person nod in understanding before going back to writing again. "This will be just two big steps we need to take. I won't carry on with the other steps unless something changes, which we won't know for sure."

"What can we do then? It's not like we have to continue making rounds around the block now can we?" Izzy speaks up. "You're on standby, if that should help your case Iz." He doesn't protest much but takes it with a small defeated shrug. He didn't like being on standby a lot but it's his job, he has to anyway. "For now, you'll be dismissed. Anything and all updates, I will call you here immediately."

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