Frost & Flames | Soulmate AU 2 |

Nine

Max

My team only has about a day and a half to get comfortable before more agents from headquarters manages to find us. I didn't think we'd get to spend much time here to begin with, but this incredibly short time is less than I would have expected. They storm the C-team's complex in the early morning. It's so early, in fact, that everyone is still sleeping. I wake to shouts down the hall from the few empty bedrooms C-team has in their complex.

"What the hell is going on?" I exclaim, tugging a t-shirt over my head and tugging my sneakers on. I'm still wearing pajama pants.

"I think they found us," Flint replies. The team ended up having to share rooms since there weren't enough for everyone to have their own. "From D.C."

I step out into the hallway outside of the bedroom and am instantly thrown back into real life. Part of me, a small part, sure, wants to go back into the bedroom and lock the door behind me. The rest of me, the parts that designated as someone worthy of being a captain, take over before the thought can even complete itself.

JD appears before us, moving so fast with his super speed that we didn't even see him coming. He's clutching Claus, who he drags a few feet further from the direction of the common area. A streak of blood mars the tan carpeting as they go. I glance down the hall towards the common area and my fears are confirmed: tactical agents sent by someone high up in the League, here to drag us off to who knows where. I'd say they were just going to arrest us and bring us in for questioning, but knowing that Lake was exiled to The Vault without any warning means that all bets are off right now.

"What's wrong with him?" I bark. "Where's he hurt?"

"His stomach," JD replies. "Shot a few times, no exit wounds."

"Flint, help JD bandage him up, okay? I'm gonna go figure this out." I stalk off towards the common floor before he can reply. I'm of no use when it comes to wound care, especially the kind that would be required to help gaping bullet wounds in the stomach. Flint might be able to use his telekinesis to get the bullets out.

Finn's head snaps back when I finally get near the action, and at first I thing she's going to have a wicked case of whiplash before I notice the blood. When she crumbles to the floor I realize she's been shot in the head, dead before she even hit the ground. My stomach turns. Most League agents wouldn't fight to kill. That's the problem with most tactical agents employed by the League: they don't have enhancements. These people have no choice but to shoot with an intent to seriously injure or kill because they have no other defense mechanism. Something about it always felt a little off, because in an organization that relies so heavily on powered individuals who can problem solve and deescalate situations without lethal force, why are we relying on people who are trained to do the exact opposite?

Stephanie, the woman with the blue hair, is momentarily distracted by the fall of her captain. This small pause is enough for one of the tactical agents to grab her and toss her towards a wall. She crashes into it with a disturbing thud and falls, landing on her head. Her neck twisting in a way that doesn't seem possible, and I turn my attention away from her. She likely didn't survive that.

I send a wave of vibration straight into the floor, watching as it cracks and upheaves the men standing on it. C-team is one of the League's teams that don't have many "physically capable" agents on it. "Not physically capable" is the League's nice way of putting the fact that a majority of the agents have powers that don't do well in a fight like this, powers like plant generation in Matt's case or eidetic memory in Stephanie's.