Book 2: Chapter 48: The Raid (pt.2) (1/2)
SPEAR Team Alpha flitted from alley to alley beneath the cover of night and a great deal of cosmic bullshit. A warped cloud of ethereal, shifting darkness followed them, as obvious to those within as obscuring to those without. It flowed out of Haze, Alpha team's infiltration specialist, forming a flowing shroud that interfered with sight, sound, and scent. It bamboozled the senses of those looking inward, while enhancing that of those looking outward. The shroud would remain, even in combat, forcing enemies to move in close.
Each of the four teams had their own infiltration specialist, with an upgrade to match, chosen from the broad and highly developed arsenal available only to law enforcement. Concealment was not their only advantage. Every member of a SPEAR Team used the highest tier of upgrades available, and each was specialized to fill a specific role, while also being useful in direct combat.
Rapunzel, Cornelius' second-in-command, was a capture specialist. She could manipulate her own hair, growing it into extreme lengths and cording itself to form ropes as strong as steel. It acted as an extra limb, giving her full tactile feeling while simultaneously being immune to pain. Any that was lost could simply be regrown in an instant. Her upper limit was based only on her ability to produce keratin, and she carried combat supplements to resupply herself.
Michelangelo was the team's shield. His upgrade allowed him to create flat panes of energy, about four feet across, that reflected whatever struck them. Individually they were fragile compared to most barriers, breaking quickly under sustained gunfire, but he could layer up to ten of them at a time. They also worked on just about anything, and perfectly redirected any projectile back at the sender. Assault rifles could break the barrier, but the wielder would just as often perforate himself first. Force was matched with force, often breaking the bones of melee combatants as they suffered from the backlash of their own strength. It was an incredibly versatile upgrade, and Michelangelo performed his duties well.
Lynx was the team's striker, and her chosen alias perfectly matched her upgrade. With slitted eyes, sharp claws, a whip-like tail, and digitigrade legs, hers was the final evolution of the popular civilian feline model. Rather than the flowing, lithe grace that the weaker upgrade granted, Lynx's form matched that of a big cat. Her muscles nearly matched Gregoir's in size and tone, and her running speed surpassed even Cornelius' own. Her reflexes bordered on the absurd, and she had a twenty foot vertical leap. But she was no more resistant to bullets than your average lion, and her sheer bulk made it impossible to have the same agility that Cornelius could bring to bear. She relied entirely on the SPEAR Team's admittedly formidable armor for defense.
Cornelius, of course, used Twice-Born. He was twice the man that he was before the upgrade. Twice as strong and fast and coordinated. Twice as effective. He was the team's leader, and a jack of all trades. He was whatever the squad needed him to be. At this very moment, he was the scout. Lynx had better night vision than he, but with the aid of his helmet's sensors, the difference became irrelevant. He was smaller than her and more flexible.
He also didn't weigh three hundred pounds.
His very body was altered by cosmic energy. His tissues were simply better than a normal human's. His muscles, his skin, his cells, all changed at a fundamental level. It had been a uniquely disorienting existence for the first few days after the upgrade, though it had all been worth it. This, he thought to himself as he swept the street for observers, was what he was born to do.
They reached their designated checkpoint, less than a hundred meters of street and parking lot separating his squad from the gym doors. This close, he could make out the cameras lining the outside of the building. He had no doubt that people were watching the feeds closely, but Haze had shielded them well. It would take direct observation from an equally powerful upgrade to pierce Haze's shroud, and that kind of security at a mere gymnasium would be deemed suspicious.
There was no movement from within. A series of lights popped up in his HUD, signaling that his fellow squads were in place. Still, no response from the gym.
They were in the clear.
He waited, as Charlie squad's infiltration specialist scanned the building's contents and shared them with his fellow SPEAR teams. One by one, red outlines appeared on Cornelius' HUD. A purple sheen appeared over the floor of the gym, signifying that it was shielded from their senses and sensors. Air intakes on the side of his helmet opened up and tasted the air. Presumably, Andros Bartholomew was inside this building. His ability to produce airborne toxins was well known to Cornelius, and he had passed along the warning. His equipment would keep track of the air, and hopefully trace its origin to the terrorist himself.
The various smudges of red eventually faded into person-shape. Twenty-two enemies inside. The gym was closed, the civilians had gone home. Twenty-two terrorists and gangster scum. That was more than they'd expected. This safehouse was presumed to be housing the elites, given the presence of the enemy Natural, but they hadn't had the time to confirm that suspicion. The risk of losing track of them again was too high, but Cornelius hated rushed operations.
Nonetheless, this was the hand he'd been dealt. He hoped High Command knew what they were doing. He trusted his Captain implicitly, but Gable obeyed a higher power, and the Chief of Police was a political animal. But Cornelius was allowing himself to get distracted. He shook off his doubts.