[FP] Marcia Funebre

Buildings, cars, people, all of them passed by so quickly that they seemed to be constant lines of different colors. Lights seemed to bend and dance at her sides in a crazy motion. She changed the gear and the motorcycle thrust forward at higher speed.

Tiananmen Square.

The roaring of the motorcycle engine died away as the figure dressed completely in black slowed down to a stop. Her head turned to watch over the place where, if everything went right, history would be written once again. No proclamations, no protests this time. A single kill, here, where massacres had taken place and the course of the war would change.

Getting off her Kawasaki, Alexandra Leigh took off her black helmet and put it aside. A simple smile appeared on her face as her eyes scanned over the square and the mausoleum partially hidden by mist. Brown eyes shot up, following the snapping sound of dozens of red flags against the wind.

Icy drops hit her face as she did so and Alexandra welcomed the cooling sensation the rain was offering. Her blood was boiling and adrenaline pumped trough her system like every time before a kill. But none of the lives she had taken until now gave her the pleasure this particular assassination would.

Target: Zhang Xiao, Chinese President.

His deeds were known across the globe. During the Haywire plague he had done anything possible to get mutants out of his country. Some were dropped at borders and told not to come back… Some disappeared without trace… With the climate changing, China started to suffer from famine and wanted their mutants back from the Russians who had offered shelter.

China needed to be taught a hard lesson. You don’t mess with mutants.

Gloved hands turned into fists as she closed her eyes, focusing on her secondary mutation. Molecular sense. She stretched the area from her own body up to seven meters then pulled it back repeatedly, just like playing with a rubber band. Finally keeping the molecular sense activated but close to her body, she opened her eyes. No longer were they the warm brown color she was given at birth, but a faintly glowing dark green.

Her fingers reached for the hood underneath the leather jacket she was wearing zipped up till chest level. Underneath it, another zip-up sports jacked and a matching black tank top. Now, with the upper half of her face hidden, including glowing green eyes, the figure clad in black moved silently.

Show time.

~~~

Molecules of water swirled around her in a slow dance. She felt them clinging on her clothes, in her hair, on her face. For someone who possessed no extra-sense it wasn’t a disturbing sensation, for the molecule manipulator known as Circe… it was a pain in the neck.

Her molecular sense dressed her like a second skin, a much more sensitive skin. Silence ruled her mind now as she pushed it away from her body, away from the shadows she was lurking in and next to the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Her sense, it was like a sphere where molecules no longer kept secrets, where nothing and no one could hide. Under the control of the molecule manipulator, it turned flat and slowly started to move.

Faintly glowing eyes moved along with it, her mind completely focused on her mutation. If there was something there, invisible to human senses, sooner or later the molecular scan would find it.

It have been two days since the whole square had been put under surveillance to spot any appearance of the Chinese President. None was seen, which leaded the assassins to believe their suspicions about mutants being hired as body guards. First option, a mutant with the gift of invisibility. And since none of their normal senses picked up an invisible president, it was time to use other means.

Eyes searched carefully trough the mist to make sure that every thing that her molecular sense picked up was visible. Turning around the corners, the scanning area widened a bit more to cover the stairs then began the slow scan. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Just the usual molecules that lingered in the air and an annoying number of water molecules.

And then, another sort of nothing. Alexandra flinched as she reached another portion of the stairs. Besides the usual molecules, a big, black nothing, which meant it was something far more complex than her mind could recognize. The corner of her lip rose slightly as she let her molecular scan to go forward. Seconds later, among water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and such, stood a black nothingness shaped in the form and size of a human. A female. Her eyes had checked several times the spot. Nothing seemed to be there. “Got you.”

Her whisper was lost in the wind. The molecular manipulator reached for her communicator, her eyes and molecular sense still focused on the unknown hidden female on the stairs. “I picked up something on the stairs.”

It was cold, lonely, and wet. All things that made standing outside all evening alone rather unpleasant. There was always an air of tension, even in the routine procedures. She hadn't gotten complacent, far from it. This job had to be bad for her blood pressure. Staying up late every night, waiting for people to jump out of shadows with knives every second of the day, suspecting every face in every crowd: it all was very stressful for her nerves. She could never truly relax, and it was very tiring.

Working with Sara did put her at ease. The woman always seemed so confident and so sure of herself, that it made the young illusionist feel better about the whole thing. She could never do this job by herself.

Katrina's eyes shifted to the cat woman across the square, then back to the group of invisible men making their sojourn across the open expanse, then the swept across the expanse itself. She peered into each shadow in turn, looking for anything suspicious, the let her gaze slide back to Sara to begin the visual sweep again.

Sara did a great job of blending in even without being invisible. Currently she was bartering with one of the lonely street vendors that had dared to come out on this rainy night. Likely the vendor figured that if even a few tourists came to the square, there might be a few dollars to make when all the competition was tucked into their warm beds. Then Were signaled to her, using her invisible tail that only the illusionist that had disguised it could discern.

That meant trouble. Sara gave a short, but very deliberate glance at one of the flag poles. Katrina glanced up it, but could see nothing as hard as she squinted against the dark and the drizzle. She trusted Sara's senses, though. If she said someone was there that even Katrina couldn't see, then someone was.

She would have replied immediately, but something else caught her attention at that very moment. A motorcycle roared out on the road, then cut out suddenly as the engine was killed at the edge of the square. Katrina might not have ever noticed it if she hadn't been so on edge, or if the square hadn't been quite so deserted, or if the rider of the bike hadn't been dressed the way she was.

Her attire helped her blend into the shadows, but it also marked her intentions fairly clearly. She certainly wasn't dressed for sightseeing. Katrina watched to see what she would do. She did seem interesting in seeing the square, or more specifically going over every square inch of the square. She almost seemed to be hunting for something.

Sara, we've got another suspicious character over here. Dressed in all black. You see her? Went her illusionary whisper to the lioness.

The woman she was watching balled her fists. Katrina saw a flash of green, like the growing green lantern eyes of a hunting cat. A moment later the disappeared beneath a hood. It was a moment too late. The woman was a mutant, and covering her eyes may have hidden her glowing irises, but it also revealed something. The woman didn't need to use normal vision to see where she was going.

She was moving again, this time without her normal vision. She wasn't moving by feel, taste, or hearing. Smell was a possibility, but not a likely one; she wasn't sniffing in any case. Either she had some kind of vision that allowed her to see through her own hood, or she had some sense with which Katrina was unfamiliar. Deduction: her invisibility and that of the president was compromised. Probably.

At least the woman found her before she found the president. As the mysterious woman got closer, she resumed her own surveillance of the square, checking for other possible accomplices. She finally got close enough to notice the shadow of Katrina, or whatever it was she could sense and she reacted by telling someone about it. There was definitely an accomplice then. And the invisibility was definitely not going to work against this woman.

This time her whispers went to the president and his men. Her rudimentary Mandarin whispers would reach only the ears of the five invisible men about half way across the square. She didn't even have to move her lips to communicate her message: Danger. Two or more. One by Mao can see me.

If possible, Katrina wanted to avoid a violent confrontation. Hopefully the president could slip away unharmed while she and Sara kept these possible attackers busy. She believed what she taught her students back at Pax Academy, that peaceful resistance was better than violence. If possible, she wanted to avoid any bloodshed today. For her first trick, she'd offer up a distraction. The woman may not be looking at her with her eyes, but she had other senses as well.

A voice whispered so quietly in the mysterious woman's ears that she might as well have been thinking the words herself. The voice was female, but it was not Katrina's own; it was a bit more husky and lower pitched than her own. It also carried a slight Chinese accent. It said, Welcome visitor. You seem to be looking for something. Can I help you with anything?

If the woman looked up with her normal vision, she would see a slight ripple in the black night and then a woman stepping forward from where Katrina had been standing. The woman was Katrina's height and build, but her face was Chinese. She looked about 30 and her hair had electric blue streaks through the black. She was dressed in slinky black pants and a pale blue top with a short sleeves and a plunging neckline. Silver bangles encircled her wrists and another pair adorned her ears. She probably would have looked relatively fashionable if she hadn't been soaking wet.

The woman with the blue streaked hair didn't seem to mind being wet. She smiled warmly and sincerely at the newcomer and she held out her arms in a welcoming gesture. Her lips hadn't moved when she had spoken, if the black-clad woman looked up before the words finished whispering themselves into her ears.

(Appears from month long disappearance. Very sorry for the vanishment. I know the FP is closed now, hope its still okay to post.)

If there was one thing that frustrated Shade, it was the stake-out. For over forty-eight hours the group had stalked this place with almost nothing to show for it. From what little intelligence they had, the assassins knew the president was going to have to be moved tonight. However, the problem was there was no president. With the only suspicious events being the random distrurbances in the air molecules that Circe was picking up and random appearances of shadows that were not visible. The group could only conclude that the guardians of the president were going with the whole keep-the-president-invisible scheme. Although the plan was not entirely foul;-proof, it did make things a lot more complicated for the trio. The president was now an invisible mouse being hunted by three hungry cats. The cats just had to make sure the mouse didn't have any booty-traps waiting for them.

The rain storm tonight made things a lot harder for the invisible mutant for the rain became Shade's own little coat that showed off his exact location. So instead, tonight Shade was below the square, searching through the underground network of tunnels that ran beneath the square. The shadow mutant could feel the moment was shadows across the pavement of the square above him. Unable to see if the shadows were visible or not, Shade was having to relay the 'sightings' of the moving shadows to Citrce and Arielle above him. At the mention of a possible target of the stairs of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, Shade reached out with his shadow sense, trying to feel a viable shadow that might be from a human figure.

"Roger, I got it too. It could be our guy." Then suddenly, a blur in Shade's teleporting ability directly above him. Someone, or thing, had just moved through a darkened shadow. The object suck out like a sour thumb.

"Another just above me. I'm going to check it out." Shade said as he teleporting into the spot just as the object exited the dark shadow. Shade blinked onto the floor of the square. The rain immediately began to hit his cloak casting his shape to any observent eyes. He had every intention of seeing someone waling away, directing in front of him. However, nothing. Very odd. Although, odder was the fact that he could feel the shadow trailing behind them as the invisible object moved, but he couldn't see it.

"What in the world..." Shade said out of bewilderment. However, it was too strange of a case to let it go.

" I think I got him. I'm taking it down." The shadow mutant spoke into his comlink before materializing a dagger in his hand. A blink later and the rain began to fall once again into the spot Shade had once been. Like a hawk diving at its prey, Shade had jumped above the light. His body came into view as he entered the light, his knife poised ready to strike at where the object should be that was casting the invisible shadow.

(Okay, correct me if I'm wrong but your power just seems different to the eyes, ears, ...etc. In reality the shadow is still there so I feel it, right? Let me know and I'll change my post accordingly.)

>>>“I can see past your tricks. A sneaky little illusionist you are…”

So those glowing green eyes could sense her despite her visual tricks. That was helpful to know, actually. A moment later Sara had appeared behind the woman, calling her Alexandra. Very well, Sara could keep her busy while she continued to keep an eye on the president's group and the mysterious visitor atop the flag pole as well as kept an eye out for any other members of the team the glowing green eyed woman had been talking to.

Since you two seem to know each other, I'll let you play with this one, went her message to the puma woman. See if you can do something about that communicator of hers. It could be a hindrance to have her chatting with other members of her team.

With that, Katrina slid off the steps around a statue and headed off toward the center of the square. Her attentions were divided between the president, the area above him where someone still hid up one of the flag poles, and her pretend blue haired psychic that was still standing calmly next to the woman she assumed was an assassin. She was tempted to show the creepy eyed woman that illusions weren't all just tricks of light, but it wasn't really important to teach that lesson right this second, especially since the less the woman understood the better she'd off she'd be later if she had to help Sara out.

A moment later, she was sprinting full speed toward the president and let her blue haired illusion fade into nothingness. Tasers up! Hold them straight up! She yelled silently in Mandarin across the square to the guards surrounding the president. She had seen a shadow which made it look like someone was leaping from one of those flag poles. UP! The guards responded, trusting her direction and raising their electric weapons. Unless that falling threat could change directions mid-air he was about to be zapped.

If he landed within a ten foot radius of the invisible group, he'd also be overcome with an incredible sense of nausea and an unbalanced dizzying feeling that would give his inner ear a workout to try and maintain any sense of balance whatsoever. With the combination of those two senses, even if he landed on his feet he wouldn't be able to keep them very long that close to the president.

The illusionary eyes of the figure Katrina had created for Sara, as her every day discize stared direction at Alexandra. The real eyes, that no one else could really see, just looked like amber orbs stuck in Sara’s eye sockets. She’d continued monitoring the rest of the scene as she notices the movement of Shade flow down. Her body was extra alert now, Just looking for one situation to seem more important than the next.

For now, she knew the effects of Katrina’s illusions. Alexandra was more of the threat. Not many mutants could see through Katrina’s Illusions. Katrina was right in telling her to take out the communications. No communications from Alexandra, and it wasn’t likely that she could tell the others where the president was. If the president was in no danger, than herself and Katrina could just slip away.

Katrina passed Sara, on her way to the rest and Sara said in a not so illusionary tone. “There’s at least two more.” Sara warned Katrina. Not even looking in the illusionist’s direction as she passed. “At least.”

“Back down, Alex.” Sara said calmly. Even in a polite tone with a sigh that might as well of been from boredom. If it wasn’t for the fact her posture was at attention. “I don’t know who’s hired you, but if you need it we can protect you from them.” Sara had already lost Sam on this mission. Did Alexandra know that? Her and Alexandra had their problems but she didn’t want to loose a wonderful child another parent. However, should it come down to it, she would follow directions.

Speaking of directions, Sara slowly stepped closer to Alex, Her vision shifted back for a moment long enough for her to sense the location and movement of the communicator Alex had. Then her vision shifted away so she was relying on the 6th sense again. Just have to get close enough to nab the communicator. Sara thought to herself.

Katrina was still running towards the group of invisible men when the threat from above tumbled from the sky. It was strange watching him fall. In the light she could see him, in the shadows she could not. Quite suddenly he was gone from where she thought he was going to land and appeared instead several feet away, falling into a patch of light then struggling to stand again.

Some part of her defenses must have worked, because he looked to be in less than perfect health. He found his feet again, but not without effort. As she moved swiftly toward him, Katrina tried to piece together what she had seen of his abilities. One, somehow he could sense where her invisible people had been. Two, he could turn invisible sometimes, but didn't seem inclined to do it just now while he was fully exposed under the bright light. Three, he could rapidly perhaps even instantaneously change his location. That was quite the arsenal he had, and perhaps had more tricks up his sleeve. This might be tricky, but perhaps she could distract him.

She had to assume that he could see her, or at least could sense where she was somehow, since he had found the group protecting the president.

Speaking of whom, Split up. Groups of two. Leave quickly, she ordered in silent Mandarin. Even if he could sense invisible people, perhaps he couldn't tell which was the real target. Seeing the trapped look on the amazing vanishing boy's face as he stood in the light and remembering how he disappeared like a smaller shadow swallowed by a bigger shadow when he was in darkness she added for safe measure, Stay in the light.

She, however, was going to stay in the dark for now and cause a distraction. She hadn't gotten a chance to really use her illusion ally before; the glowing eyed wonder had spoiled all her fun. Perhaps the trick would work better on this one, with a few tweaks this time. There was no sense in resorting to new tricks if the old ones were going to work perfectly well.

She picked a spot in another shadow off to one side, close to where the assassin was regaining his balance. She imagined someone standing there, someone who was still choosing to stay invisible except for the electricity that sparked and crackled randomly across his invisible body revealing only his basic shape before it began to collect in his invisible hand. Artificial lightning wasn't too difficult to create. A little light, a little crackling sound, and when it struck...

The illusion lightning arced toward the assassin's leg. If it hit, and Katrina was fairly certain it would since she could change the direction of the lightning with almost no difficulty, the shadowy stalker would get to experience a unique blend of senses in that leg. Pain was one of the senses she had practiced using specifically for this job assignment. He'd feel the sharp pain of every nerve in his leg sending a brief signal of pain and heat for the instant the lightning touched him. Then for a few moment afterward, his muscles would feel like they were quivering or spasming even if they were not. It might make it difficult for him to walk. Oh, and don't forget the sizzling sounds, the faint smell of clothing burning, and the thunderclap. The thunderclap was going to be helluva loud even if the lightning missed him.