Fester drew a bead on the center figure as the three men exited the office. "Boss– we have acquisition..."
He smiled as he heard the very faint, "very well."
Even as he aimed, Fester could feel the change. Milo, or the man he'd assumed was Milo stood up and pointed directly at him. Fester felt rather than saw the stream of energy heading his way. He tried to process all the images at once– but he couldn't. The man in the middle's features had taken on a bird-like quality and lightning seemed to spark through his eyes.
"Ambush!" He radioed to the others, or tried to. But the others already knew it was an ambush. Then the bolt hit him.
From his vantage point in the van, Bash shook his head. "Damn keebs all of ‘em," he muttered as he fired up his drones. As they came on line, he had a good view of the stranded motorist. He thought of taking him out in one easy shot– until he realized that the man was eye to eye with the drone's camera... and the drone was still on the roof.
The motorist smiled right before he shot the remote at point blank range.
Rodney swore as he witnessed the two mages attack. "They've got a fourth with them," he radioed in a panic. "Freeze, Boot– the marshal's are yours, keep them busy-- I'll take care of the shaman as soon as I've dealt with the ‘motorist.'
"Well," a strange voice answered over the open channel. "I seem to have been upgraded from ‘Keeb' to ‘Motorist.' I'm flattered really, but the title I like most-- is flight instructor..."
Rodney's eyes narrowed as he watched the motorist call out to a wind elemental. The last thing he heard over the radio was, "Binky... teach the man to fly..."
Whisper was trying to keep a mental count of the players on the field but it was getting hard. He could make out the T-bird shaman and one of the marshals, but he'd lost sight of the second one. It was a good bet the sniper was out– but he wasn't counting on it. Cockroaches were resilient and this whole lot seemed akin to them.
The two men who were at the phone booth were gone– either moving in or running away, and his buddy Binky, the wind elemental was teaching the mage all about take offs and landings. That left the rigger, who was pissed at him personally and the elemental he'd seen in the parking lot, the two goons and... the second marshal.
Whisper froze as he heard a hammer cocked behind him. "Hold it right there."
‘That would be Marshal number two,' he thought to himself as he raised his hands in surrender.
He could sense the man behind him– but more importantly, he could sense the rigger drawing a bead on the Marshal.
"It's never fraggin' easy," he sighed to himself as he stood casting a barrier spell between himself and the Marshal and a second between the Marshal and ‘Bash'.
The Marshal fired a second before Bash did– but there was enough time between shots for him to realize that he should be dead.
Whisper looked at him an nodded. The Marshal thought for a moment then hit the deck a moment before Whisper released the energy he'd been gathering in a simple but deadly spell. The rigger was dead before he hit the ground.
"Stay with me," he told the Marshal. "There are still at least two more... "
The man nodded sharply, having decided that Whisper was on his side.
"Good man."
"Patrick?" Case called into the radio. He'd heard the gunfire and the groan– but nothing from his partner. "Patrick?"
"If Patrick is the other Marshal– he's safe, but a little shaken up. You've got at least two men on foot, they were near the phone booth when this whole frag-up began... there's an elemental over here, but he hasn't moved yet."
Case looked over towards the van and then back at Jonathan. The man had access to the reserved frequencies and the encryption system they were using. This was either very good or very bad.
Jonathan pointed upwards towards the mage who had just been launched skyward again.
Case nodded.
"Copy that," he finally answered.
Whisper allowed himself a sigh of relief as the other Marshal answered. Those two words were good enough for him. Not that it wouldn't mean a full background check– but at least they wouldn't shoot first. As long as he didn't give them reason.
He looked at the elemental as it stood watching Binky play with the mage. He sensed an odd amusement and then– it vanished.
‘So– you weren't his... but whose?'
The thought was cut short as the last two soldiers made their presence known.
Whisper's shoulders sagged as he heard someone rack their shotgun.
"Why do you people always announce your presence like that?" he asked in and exasperated voice. "It couldn't just be ‘freeze' or ‘hold it right there'... no its got to be ‘ka-klack.'"
He turned, scratched his temple and smiled, carefully putting himself between the shooters and ‘Patrick'.
The two of them sneered at Whisper for a full second before the saw the look in his eyes. Whisper said nothing, but instead lashed out at them magically, knocking them off their feet. He moved with the energy, almost as if he was fighting them from a distance. When one brought his gun up, Whisper made a blocking gesture and the gun was pushed away from its intended targets. One simple striking motion and one of the gunmen went down.
"Live or die, I don't care," Whisper told the second one.
He looked at his partner, then at Whisper and dropped his gun.
Once the situation was secured, Whisper turned over his gun and pulled out his ID.
Sometimes– it was very good to be ex-military.