The American residence of Lim Jang Hyun was a testament to unfathomable wealth of the man and his corporation. A modern Versailles it sat near the outskirts of the city, a stark contrast to the skyscrapers and concrete jungle with its wide structure and massive lawn.

The house was hardly visible to the Ranger as the gate closed behind him as he made his way down the drive in his Fordasaurus. A large, all black, Ford F650 that had been converted into mobile tactical staging platform. Its size made your average SUV look like a Smartcar, and with the addition of the diamond plated bumpers and grill guard it gave the appearance of an urban assault vehicle which based on what it carried wasn't far from the truth.

After 100-feet the driveway opened into a circle drive large enough to keep a normal sized home and lawn in the middle. The Ranger went right and about half way to the other side turned onto another drive which connected. This one led to a large garage on the side of the house used by the help, security, and all others not worthy of having their cars parked by valets in the other garage where Mr. Jang Hyun's cars were kept. When he reached the garage he pulled wheeled around and backed the monstrous vehicle up to the building, the Fordasaurus may have fit through the garage door but he didn't want to risk it.

He killed the ignition, checked his holsters, and climbed out of the vehicle. When on the ground the Ranger buttoned his suit jacket and made his way inside. He was dressed much fancier than he had in a very long time but there was a wedding there that day and the Ranger had been hired by the groom's father as security. He wasn't the only security, Mr. Jang Hyun as the father of the bride had hired another firm to work security, but Mr. Soo Nyoung wanted to have someone there who was on his payroll. As such he had contacted Blackforest Tactical, his idea being if a firm was used to handling security in active hot zones than it was who he needed and the Ranger needed a job to keep the lights on between his usual work.

The wedding was taking place in the garden and the reception would take place in the main hall and the porch it connected to out back. The Ranger made his way down a long hall toward the entryway. A large room with a hall leading off to opposite ends of the house, a pair of curved stairways leading up to a second floor landing, and a third path between the stairs. The thrid path had a small flight of stairs leading down half a floor and into the main hall. He made his way up one flight of stairs and looked over what could only be called an ostentatiatory. It was large and lavish, but both words were understatements. It was lit by a series of chandeliers the largest of which the Ranger wasn't sure how it was possible to hang from a ceiling. On the floor below there were tables placed in circles radiating out from a circular dance floor in the middle. Across the room from him was a large wall of windows allowing him to see even more tables set up outside on a tiered porch leading down into a garden that had chairs set up with a great tree where the couple would stand. It all seemed very western, possibly just another way to flaunt wealth.

It looked like several members of security were gathering on the porch, likely one last meeting before the guests arrived. The Ranger made his way down to join them.

Chicks wearing the same dress 2014. Flash. One of the professional photographers took yet another photo of the bridesmaids in their soft pink poufs of chiffon. They were doing hair and makeup even though they'd had theirs done professionally earlier. Bonbons. Sparkly jewelry. Personalized monogrammed EVERYTHING. High heels.

Noel'd started this day early. As early as these girls, in fact. But while they had been manicured, massaged, and pampered, Noel had mostly been on her feet.

It was weird, after their earlier photo shoot, to be cooped up in what was technically a bathroom and closet, but considering that they had room enough for several mirrors and cushioned benches, it could have been worse. It may have been a cliché, but the room combo actually was much larger than Noel's rented room.

The job was pretty cushy. It was like a backstage pass to a whole new world.

The bride, herself, was taking a break from it all. Noel hadn't heard her crinoline in almost 10 minutes since she shut herself in the bathroom. Which was why the brunette was knocking now on the door.

"Ma'am?" Or. Well. She was young so that probably wouldn't go over well. Noel cleared her throat and tried again. "Miss? You're missing out on the fun. Your friends are uh-" stuffing their faces. No. Uh. "having a lot of fun." Oh. So lame. Shouldn't Noel have heard a snort of derision or at least a sigh?

"Miss?" Noel checked her watch. "I've got a meeting soon if you could just step out to meet my substitute... Miss?" She jiggled the locked door. It was just a simple bathroom lock. It took a coin to turn and unlock the door from this side and once she had, Noel regretted letting the kid out of her sight.

The bathroom wasn't empty, but it was mostly unoccupied. The wedding dress had enough structure to sit upright without a body in it.

The bride? Her bare feet were the only things Noel could see past the hinged, frosted window that faced the upper level walkway. She'd wriggled almost all the way out there, still in her petticoat. Impressive given the width of that window. This was her best escape attempt yet.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Noel caught the young miss by the ankles and with the help of a bridesmaid or two hauled the bride back indoors.

The bridesmaids were all over it. Cold feet. She just needed to see her handsome, rich groom to know she was doing the right thing. How could she give up all this? Have a bonbon. Yadda, yadda. Noel'd heard the same thing all day. It didn't make the kid any less flighty last time.

"She's a runner." Noel advised her replacement on her way out. "Seriously. Don't let her out of your sight." The memormancer was going to grab a bite to eat and hit up the joint meeting to find out if they wanted her back here or somewhere else.

Back down the stairs and into the ostentatiatory, which looked even larger and more grand from the ground floor. Crossing to the doors to the back the Ranger had to dodge a small army of men and women darting this way and that carrying plates, utensils, and assorted other table accessories.

Before he could open the door the Ranger head his name and turned to see a man he recognized as one of his employers people. A tall Korean man with the type of build you would expect on the soldiers they place at the 38th parallel. The man's name escaped the Ranger so a head nod and, "Howdy," sufficed.

"Ah, yes. Howdy." The man began, with almost no hint of an accent, the greeting momentarily distracting him. "Mr. Hunter, the young groom will arrive soon. He has been told of your contracted services, he has never been one to make the job of his bodyguards easy. Not that it would be a problem for you, and hopefully not today especially." He checked his watch. "So much to do. Good-day Mr. Hunter." And he strode off drawing a phone from his breast pocket.

So Park Soo Nyoung is one of those rich kids. Fantastic.

The Ranger opened the door and stepped out onto the patio. As he approached the gathering of security he caught the tail end of some instructions regarding where some of them were to stand. Pretty standard stuff, openings and elevation. As he finished the speaker turned to the Ranger, "The father's guy?"

"Yeah, Michael Hunter from Blackforest."

"Right..."He gave the Ranger a once over before tossing him a radio and bluetooth earpiece, "We've got this covered, but since you're here we might as well work together."

The Ranger fixed the radio at his waist under his jacket and put put on the ear piece. The man had a much better reaction than most had when another contractor was brought in to do part of your job. "Works fer me."

The kimchi wasn't half bad. Not at all what she expected, but not bad either. Noel tucked in to a sub-like sandwich and a side of the fermented side dish. She was going to need her strength to keep up

> "Yeah, Michael Hunter from Blackforest."

"Mmmf!" Noel waved the other guy over, her mouth too full to really say anything before she'd finished. She chewed like the wind and washed her bite down with a swig of Diet Coke.

He probably hadn't seen her since he was busy playing macho with the men-folk. Noel waited until he had his earpiece in before she hit her button to broadcast.

"Hey, Blackforest, take a seat. You're blocking the view." The brunette kicked out the only other chair at her table toward the newcomer latecomer. Most of the others were standing, but Noel was sitting and eating. Well, more like scarfing. It was her lunch break and she intended to use it.

The meeting went on. It was good to know where the reliable people were being placed. And of course, it was good to scope out the contractor between bites of sandwich. Once she'd finished and all the preliminaries were taken care of, Noel offered her freshly napkin-ed hand.

"Noel. I'm on bride duty. You the groom guy?"

"Hey, Blackforest, take a seat. You're blocking the view."

Not exactly the first thing the Ranger thought he'd hear over the radio. His eyed were then drawn to a chair being kicked out by woman with impressivly long brunette hair. A raised eyebrow and then he went over to the chair and took a seat, resisting the urge to prop his boots up on the table as the meeting continued. He looked over at the woman sitting at the table with him inhaling a sandwich. Likely the woman assigned to the bride, aka the busiest person so far today.

The man who'd been speaking earlied continued. Laying out the last details of the plan for the day. The Ranger made mental notes of where security was being placed. For the most part it lined up with how he would position people and the only thing that seemed to be missing was someone on a rifle just in case. Perhaps the Ranger just prepares for far worse situations than most, even weddings.

Eventually the meeting was over and those gathered broke to go about their prescribed tasks. The woman offered her hand, "Noel. I'm on bride duty. You the groom guy?"

The Ranger reached out and shook her hand, "Michael, and yeah he's mine once he gets here, which should be..." He trailed off, the groom had arrived. He had made his way out onto the patio and was yelling something in Korean which prompted him and his groomsmen to laugh. A moment later a voice came over the radio.

"Guests are arriving, look alive people."

Standing up the Ranger subtly shifted a holster on his back with his elbow. His guns were in 3-point holsters and were in no danger of popping out, his holster for his tomahawk on the other hand was necessarily more loose. Knives are for children. "I hear the brides a runner an' the groom's a knucklehead. So at least it won't be borin'."

Ha! On a whim, Noel winked at Michael who was no longer a stranger. Normally, she wouldn't dare for fear that the recipient would take it the wrong way, but his southern charm was disarming. Didn't hillbillies all flirt with each other anyway? That's why they were all interbred? "Then Lord willing, I won't see you again until we're at the alter."

Since the meeting was over the brunette cleaned up her mess and went back to work.

Only. What she went back to wasn't a happy gaggle of pink chiffon she was expecting.

Her first indication that something was wrong was that her replacement was slumped against the door outside the bridal party's holding room. The guard looked exhausted. Noel hit the radio before she even got there. "We've got bridal suite drama. Checking it out now."

As she got closer, that's when Noel heard it.

Singing.

"You okay?" The memorymancer put her hand under the guard's chin and lifted her face toward Noel's. The guard was... asleep? Or comatose. Noel helped the guard slide down to a seated position.

Noel shook her head, feeling the first tinge of drowsiness now. She hit her radio again. "Mutant in proximity. Sleep inducing song at best guess. Going in."

Should she stuff her fingers in her ears and hum? No. She would need her hands. Noel grabbed up the closest thing she could, some napkins from one of their food deliveries and made do. She started humming the Star Spangled Banner. It was the first thing that came to mind.

She pulled her weapon but kept it by her leg so that she wouldn't scare those inside.

The bridesmaids were all sleeping as were the photographers. No. Wait. Actually... Noel counted the piles of pink chiffon and there was definitely one missing. Surprise, surprise. No bride.

"Missing one bridesmaid and the bride."

The Ranger's eyebrows went up slightly at the wink. He gave her a smile back, "Here's hopin'." With that the Ranger turned and approached the groom's party. From what he understood there was no need to introduce himself to the man, all that would accomplish is give the man a chance to make life difficult.

Instead he just followed the party as they were ushered back inside and led to a room with pool tables and alcohol to wait for the wedding to start. There the Ranger stood by the door a keen eye out for danger and an ear on the occasional radio chatter. It wasn't much, just periodic updates on who was where, who had arrived, and updates on checks... Or it should have been. Noel's voice came over the radio, bridal suite drama. The Ranger didn't think much of it until shortly there after she spoke again. Mutant involvement. Not knowing if the other firm was just vanilla or not the Ranger elected to lend an assist.

This marriage was the glue for a lucrative business venture for his client, so not only was the groom's safety a priorty but there being a bride was important. The groom looked fine, just fooling around with his friends. The Ranger stepped out into the hall, there was security from the other firm standing outside the door. He met the guard's eyes and spoke over the radio, "On my way t' back ya up." He'd let his accent identify him, no need to waste words while everyone was trying to communicate at once. The guard nodded and his hand slid up subtly, ready to draw if somethign happned, as he opened the door and slid into the room with the groom's party.

Across the house the Ranger moved, the size a blessing and a curse. He could avoid congestion from people but had a large distance to cover. Thankfully he could move faster than any ordinary security guard. As he moved he dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of foam hearing protection. Likely wouldn't help to much against a sleep inducing song, but better than no protection and looked better than just sticking bullets in his ears like they used to do in his army days.

When the Ranger could hear singing he drew the Sig he carried on his right side and held it at a low ready. "Shut the gate. Don' let anyone leave."

Couldn't one job be easy. Just one.

The Ranger stepped into the room Noel was in. The singing hit like a physcial blow despite the foam ear plug on one side and radio on the other and with it came a wave of drowsiness. In response his power kicked in boosting his lungs' vital capacity allowing him to take in more oxygen to combat the sleepiness. "We gotta stop that singin'."

> "On my way t' back ya up."

There was some chatter about who would then take over for Michael. It threw Noel's song out of whack and she had focus on starting a new one.

'This is the song that never ends...'

Checking the immediate area and finding it clear, the memorymancer decided to keep her eyes on the only two places someone might hide. It meant she had to stay mid room and leave her back to the door, though. Not ideal. The two places to hide behind closed doors: the "water closet" (AKA toilet) and a small, wood paneled window-less sauna.

Yeah. The bathroom had a sauna.

'It goes on and on, my friends...'

The WC had window. The bride had tried to jump through it earlier. So logically, if the singing was ongoing, the culprit was probably stuck hiding in the sauna.

'Some people started singin' it, not knowing what it was...'

Noel hummed to herself as she checked the pulse of the nearest melted pink pouf of a bridesmaid. She was alive. Noel would assume they were all alive then, just not conscious.

>"We gotta stop that singin'."

He was here, then. Noel kept her eyes on both doors in front of her.

"Water closet has a window. I'll open the sauna door, you sweep?" It was weird having to run this kind of thing over the radio when usually she'd be able to just say it.

Now where was she in her song?

'And they'll continue singin' it forever, just because this is the song that never ends...'

"Water closet has a window. I'll open the sauna door, you sweep?"

The Ranger nodded, "Copy that." Moving into position near the door he brought his gun to a compressed ready. Despite the increased volume of oxygen his power was availing to him the feelings of drowsiness were creeping upon him. He rolled his head and shifted his shoulders to help him stay awake.

They had to be fast or they'd end up like the others laying around the room asleep. "Open it."

When the door opened the Ranger stormed in, punching out his pistol as he crossed into the sauna. It wasn't large enough for normal room clearing procedure and only had one person on the far side singing. No longer muffled by the door the song hit the Ranger like a wall and it was all he could do to keep awake.

Shooting the singer would be an easy way to stop it, but the gunshot may start a panic with the arrived guests. No telling how well the walls of the sauna muffled noise. Not to mention the singer may be useful for information later.

The Ranger took a gamble. Hoping the mansion was large enough and had thick enough walls to muffle the noise he shot the singer in the leg. A scream of pain interrupting the singing.

Noel stood behind the door and pulled it toward herself giving Michael unobstructed view of the sauna and herself some cover. She was dragging. Missing moments in time from long blinks. Then BLAM. Nothing like a gun shot to spike your adrenaline.

Noel was around the door, weapon sweeping, in an instant. If she hadn't been trained for it, she wouldn't have been able to rely so wholly on her body's responses.

The bridesmaid's face was white and stretched with pain. The very bottom of the hem of her dress splattered with a fine red mist and below that, there was a less than neat wound in the leg. Judging from the splatter behind her, it was a through and through. She had no weapon. Noel pointed her gun up toward the ceiling and eased the safety back on.

The close proximity of the shot made Noel's ears ring and buzz. It took a couple radio transmissions before Noel could make out what was said.

>>"Was that gunfire?"
>>"Bridal suite, do you copy?"

"Reading you..." Noel shook her head as if that would clear the cobwebs. Man, that power was a doozy. She tried her best to sound more awake this time. "Singer in custody. Bride still MIA."

"She's worth a lot of money, you know." The singer's voice wasn't half as lovely as it had been before, now that she was straining to speak through the pain. "We could split my take." There was a bit of a hiss as the former bridesmaid shifted her position to try to gauge her captor's feelings on the matter.

Whatever.

Noel glanced back at the limp figures in the bridal holding room. Some snored away. Only a few seemed to be stirring now that the singing had stopped. "Some of these ladies are waking up." Which meant they were on a timer if they wanted to avoid mass bridal party hysteria.

And of course... Noel went and ripped open the bathroom door. The dress was there, standing empty just as it had before. The window was open.

Did the bride go alone? Or have help?

The singing stopped and the Ranger's ears rang. The walls in the sauna did nothing to help the noise level of a gunshot in such a confined space. The singer appeared more preoccupied with the new hole in their leg to put enough effort into singing. Threat clearly managed the Ranger brought his pistol to a close ready, muzzle pointed down, and turned to face Noel rounding into the sauna.

The Ranger watched their six until Noel turned again. He could faintly hear the woman behind him speaking and there was chatter over the radio. The walls didn't muffle the sound completely. The security staff recognized the report of the shot, but it seemed the guests just thought it a loud door slam or some other innocent noise. Good. When Noel made her way out to the bathroom the Ranger turned and addressed the singer.

He quickly tore strips off her dress. Improvised bandage, wrist and ankle bindings, and a gag. That way she would stay put while additional security made their way over, hopefully not bleed out, and would be unable to exercise her power.

Any future attempts of the singer to act neutralized the Ranger followed Noel to the bathroom. Dress, open window, no bride.

Quick judgement, there was no way the Ranger was fitting through the window as it was. It wasn't wide enough nor did it open enough for him to clear sideways.

Easy solution: remove the window. "Stand back."

Reaching out the Ranger gripped the bottom of the raised window with his right hand. A moment to brace, and he pulled. The window was not cheap, normally they are structural weaknesses with regard to security and this was still true here, but the level of security from these windows versus your normal home window was staggering. The Ranger continued to pull and the seams of his jacket started popping as his upper body expanded as his strength increased until the window panes popped out and the metal frame along the bottom of the glass came with them.

He tossed the glass back behind him, it hit the wall and broke. Bullet resistant glass doesn't exactly shatter as such. "No word from the perimeter that anyone left before lockdown or any attempts after. They're likely still here somewhere. Probably looking for a hole in security."

The Ranger climbed out the now large enough opening where the window was.

He hulked the window out of the frame. No. Out of the wall. It took Noel a few blinks to get past that one. "Seems like there shoulda been an easier way..." She spared a glance for the shattered pile of glass. It was mostly in the toilet room... and in the wedding dress.

Cue bridal party hysteria. Nobody sleeps through a gunshot, a wall demolition and, glass breaking.

She shook her head and hefted herself out the window hole in the wall and onto the ledge next to Ranger to survey the scene.

The roofs of the clustered villas and gazebos made for easy jumps that even a bride in her stiff undergarments could make. Well, most of them.

A soft feminine cry had Noel turning toward the roof behind them, the best path toward the parking lot and certain bridal freedom. Except that she'd run out of roof and tried to hop to a fake palm tree that would in theory, have helped her span the jump to the sprawling garage.

There was movement on the garage roof that wasn't quite right. Noel squinted against the setting light of the sun. "Tell me those aren't ninjas." Were they living in a cliche?

Out on the roof the Ranger could easily see an avenue of egress fit for Mario. Possibly worth pursuing, until a cry could be heard. Wheeling round the Ranger could see the bride had gotten herself stuck on a fake palm tree on her way to the garage.

The Ranger took a few steps before he could see motion silhouetted against the setting sun. "Tell me those aren't ninjas." The figures moved with grace, speed, and great precision across the garage roof. Their arms could be faintly made out, reaching back to hold their swords to keep them quiet.

"You've got t' be kiddin' me." He turned to face Noel, "You get the bride, I'll stall 'em. They're only ninjas." That said he reached under his jacket and drew out an all black tomahawk from across his back with his left hand as he ran across the roof and leapt to the garage. The span wasn't too great, more than someone without a mutation could have ever made.

A sudden challenge by someone who could leap such a distance gave the ninjas a momentary pause. They drew their straight edged swords, some kind of ninjato or similar blade, and ran at the Ranger as he brought his Sig to bare, his left arm, tomahawk in hand, crossed under it in support and fired.

Ninjas, why ninjas. Ninjas aren't even Korean.

Yeah. Only ninjas. Noel huffed in disbelief at the Texan and his tomahawk before she evaluated her path and picked and hopped her way over toward the struggling bride. She was the one actually on the bride detail, after all. She was duty bound to escort the woman to the alter. Hopefully The Ranger could handle a few measly ninja.

A small rip followed by a long tear of cloth put Noel jumping and all but falling down the last roof slope in order to help catch and steady the flailing bride who had caught the trunk of the fake palm tree. Her petticoat wafted gently down from the plastic clutches of the palm drifting like a cloud in the mild early evening.

And that was some seriously racy wedding night underwear that Noel was helping support against the metal trunk of the tree.

"Do not make me go back." The woman let go with one arm in order to swat at Noel which made Noel's supporting role more difficult both from the extra weight and from the swats. "Soo Nyoung is a monster."

It must have been then that she saw the ninja battle going on behind Noel because her eyes grew wide. Her swatting changed to grabbing and the bride pulled Noel close in a fresh bout of panic. "But I will not let Kazuo Abe destroy what my father has built."

"Make up your mind, will you?"

Noel took advantage of the woman's posture to pry her from the tree. Something pelted the arch of the roof behind them which sounded slow moving and heavy. It hit hard enough to make both women jump.

The ninja the Ranger fired on brought his sword down and split the bullet. 125 grains of Gold Dot split and sailed off on either side of the ninja.

”That’ll be a problem.” The Ranger commented before sending three more rounds at the ninja. Again they were sliced cleanly through.

The Ranger holstered his SIG as one of the ninja took a swing at him. He brought the tomahawk up to meet it just in time. Then another ninja swung from the other side. His power giving him speed, the Ranger brought his tomahawk around to meet that sword. He then had to spin back to the ninja with the first sword he’d blocked to stop another strike.

A moment later the ninja who’d sliced his bullets out of the air was in the mix. The Ranger’s power went into maximum effort as he spun around blocking attacks from three ninjas. From time to time he had the chance to strike back. They either blocked or evaded these strikes.

The fight felt like it was dragging on for half an hour to the Ranger but only seconds had passed. Eventually he deflected a strike and his arm came back where he could turn it into a throw.

The tomahawk sank home in the ninja’s chest.

The Ranger rolled away from an incoming stab from one of the other ninjas and retrieved his tomahawk. Tomahawks are the greatest of modern CQB weapons. They have reach, are easy to draw, can be used to hook limbs in a pinch, and they throw so much better than knives. With his right hand the Ranger retrieved the dropped ninjato. He wasn’t trained in sword fighting, but he could knife fight and all he needed to do was keep deflecting until he got another chance to drop one.

Again the Ranger rolled from a strike, coming out of it on his feet. A tomahawk in his left hand a straight sword in his right. The ninjas were fast, but not as fast as the Ranger. He would block with the tomahawk and strike back with the sword.