-never really had any appeal. Same urban decay as a lot of formerly manufacturing-focused cities in America with a tech billionaire taking advantage of the cheep land and tax incentives to build things that the locals didn't want or need. Alva's like Lex Luthor without the idealism that prompted me to try working with him. But at the same time he's not an imminent threat to the world, just a utility drain who would make the world a measurably better place if he took a dive out of his office window one day.
Someone you wouldn't mourn, but not worth the effort of dealing with yourself. The
pettiest level of villain. Neatly sums up the jackass.
I see flashes of blue in the building below me as Alan fights someone.
"On site."
So, how many people she she gotten so far?
"Evacuate the Alva Technologies building. We've got a plan."
"Sir."
Definitely something OL's better at.
I fly down, scanning the building for people and-. And use a crumbler construct to break through the force field that someone put up when they got attacked, presumably as part of a disaster contingency plan that was implemented without any actual thought. Or maybe they're just testing it, I don't know. Okay, I've got no idea who Ms. Carlyle is targetting, but there are quite a few corpses in there and the internal walls aren't all that thick. People are trying to flee, but it looks like the ones on the upper floors they don't know where they can go that won't just result in them getting shot.
...So they have a forcefield around the building if it's attacked. Logical enough. Not dropping it when it turns out the attack is from inside?
Sloppy.
…
Obvious problem with that is that they're all people voluntarily working for Lex-but-worse. So no super fast filaments transitioning them to the nearest open space as I could for people I liked or respected. Instead, I tear an opening down the side of the building furthest from the stairs and generate a grav-chute construct.
Come on, OL, they can't
all be involved in Alva's bullshit.
Then I extend construct signs into the building, pointing to the new evacuation-
Alan smashes the floor that Ms. Caryle was standing on and as she shifts back into smoke uses a fan construct in an attempt to push her out of the building. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like her smoke works like that, and he's forced to transition-dodge as she regains her footing.
Well, good to see he's learned a few
new tricks.
-route, which I immediately change to route them around the crazed gunwoman on the floor she's on and the ones immediately above and below her.
Alan barricades the way back up but Ms. Carlyle doesn't bother trying to go that was, instead-
That suggests her target (or nearest targets) are headed down.
Filament and move!
-taking a shot at an office worker I just about get out of the way in time.
Hmm... Guess he has some kind of
skeleton in his closet...
Ring, research their background. Just because they don't deserve to die, that doesn't mean that they don't have something coming to them.
Compliance.
Heh. Alva might find himself needing to recruit some fresh personnel. Either Avenger kills them, or they get arrested when whatever she's avenging gets outed by OL.
People are starting to use my chute, dropping at near-terminal velocity and then halting safely at ground level. And they're doing that stupid thing of landing and not getting out of the way that always irritates me. Okay, add an impeller construct to give them a shove at the bottom, good. Police are starting to arrive, and they're-. They're building a barricade of cars to keep the rubberneckers away from the superhuman fight. Camera phones are already being raised.
<facepalms> Okay, at that point, just
let them die. It'll raise the average intelligence of the Human race a point or two.
I practice restraint and don't wipe their memories.
Alan sends a straitjacket construct at Ms. Carlyle, but she walks through it as if it weren't even there-
Bet he's getting a little frustrated at her untouchability...
"Alan, try putting runes on the construct."
-as she keeps shooting. Not at everyone -I watch as two people sheltering in a cubical are completely ignored as she walks past them- but at a great many people. Alan's throwing up barriers and deploying riot shields from his subspace pocket in an attempt to weaken the bullets but they're still-
Definitely sounds like she's being driven to clean house. Hope OL's keeping notes on who she's trying to shoot. The Dakota City Police might be in for a
busy few days after this.
Transition that one!
-bullets. Even without a demonic enhancement they'll punch through flesh easily enough, as my right shoulder will confirm.
Understandable, since they're apparently .45 caliber. That's no
small round.
Some of the people on the street are trying to get as far away from the building as they can. Too many have moved to what I can see them telling themselves is a 'safe distance' against a teleporter with possessed guns and decided that now is the time to take advantage of being inside the cordon and watch the super fight. And/or film it. If I weren't-
Change the signs again as there's a better route.
At least
some of the idiots have a working sense of self-preservation. As for the rest... I hope the Youtube views are worth the risk of
dying...
-focusing on the fight-. Aren't there places where they have
anti-rubbernecker barriers for car crashes? We need one of those.
"Youbetcha."
Seriously, I hope some of the cops are going in and
dragging their asses away...
The next time Ms. Carlyle fires, her shot is intercepted by a construct shield bearing the blue lantern sigil. The bullet punches through the shield just as easily as before. Is the sigil even-?
The bullet hits a computer monitor and gets embedded in the plastic.
Oh-ho, the shield was just a blind for the solid object, eh? Now I'm picturing dozens of tendrils holding sturdy objects in her way...
Ah, these two. This is really the first time we've
actually seen them in the field together, isn't it?
He boxes her in, blue sigil glaring from each side of the construct packing crate, sides slamming together and trapping her within! She actually stops, blindfolded face staring at the glowing walls hold holding her in. And unlike he would have done right after returning to active duty, Alan remembers to keep back just in case she pulls something. Ms. Carlyle taps the butt of the gun in her right hand against the interior of the box, achieving nothing.
Never assumed just because they're pinned down, that they're
defeated. He
has learned.
Reroute the signs again, and this part of the building is mostly cleared. I start removing the chute construct so that it can't get damaged by a wayward bullet in case she breaks out.
Being careful to keep a wall… Well, an interior partition, between him and her, Alan creates an Alan construct in front of her.
Yeah, I wouldn't call anything in an office environment a
wall... Not unless it's
actual concrete...
"Miss? What's this all about?"
Her head turns slightly, and she realises that she's to tightly compressed to raise her guns. So she reverses them, poking them under her arms and firing at the rear of the construct trapping her. Fractures appear as the first rounds punch through, cracks for the second and she doesn't bother firing again, red mist pouring out and allowing her to walk through the otherwise-solid construct. She raises her guns at-
Crafty. Or desperate. A pity Alan didn't think to immediately reform the construct around her as she misted out.
DODGE!
-me, the shot passing through the open-plan office and exiting the building through the window, passing over my right shoulder. With Alan's sterling example in mind I create orange construct disks with the orange sigil on them and fire them into the path of the bullet. The first is smashed asunder, the second gets cracked and the third catches the bullet. Present for Batman.
Yoink!
"Alright, if that's what you want."
Alan's boxed her in again, beams running through the interior of the crate forcing her to point her guns upwards.
Even smarter. Especially if he keeps the upper part reinforced so she can't shoot her way through again.
"Two important things Paul taught me. The first one is, everyone's got a reason that makes sense to them, and you can't understand them unless you understand how they think about things. You're doing all this because of what happened to your boyfriend? Seems to me that a good cop like him wouldn't be on board with you going on a killing spree. The other important thing he taught me-"
His constructs glow brilliantly.
Appealing to her humanity? Good plan, but she's not the one on charge...
"Is how to use a ring to make someone feel an emotion. Because it seems to me that what you're short on is hope."
There's a blue flash, and Ms. Carlyle shudders inside her construct prison.
Oooh, nice! And this is why Alan is so damn
good.
And then she points both barrels at her head and pulls the triggers.
...Well, shit. Unless Alan can stop the bullets, she's
gone.
And ohohohooo, we get to see Alan in action? Niiice.
