((ooc: Continuation of The Rising))

The Ranger was on his way home from a gym near his home, he was riding in his 1969 Dodge Charger that is painted up like the General Lee. Normally he would just take his Hayabusa out but it had been a while since he had a good drive in the General so he decided to take that out today. About ten blocks away he receives a call, from USSOCOM. Answering the phone he pulls over and parks. "Howdy, it's been a while since I have had the pleasure of receiving a call from yall."

"This is Brigadier-General Tom Ryan, there is a situation. It seems Ivan Lukasavich has been making his way north from Florida. We suspect he is after you, he destroyed Fort Benning and one of our intelligence officers at Fort Bragg was killed. Apparently he fell from an aircraft. Since leaving Fort Bragg Norad has been tracking him, he apparently has landed in the Bronx not far from where you yourself live."

The Ranger held the phone listening silently and with the pause indicating the general had finished he began to speak, "Copy that sir, I guess he wants another beating."

"There is one more thing Ranger, according to reports from Benning he has some kind of power. We have yet to gain reliable intel on this power but we know with it he destroyed the base, so be careful."

"Copy that, over and out." The Ranger hung up his phone. If Ivan has a power now than I will defiantly need help this time, I just hope that Flynn and I are enough to take him. He dialed the number Flynn had given him back when they last prepared to take down Ivan. He would need to explain the situation to Flynn and have him meet him in the parking lot of the gym he had just left.

The two heroes arrived to meet up with Ranger. The gym parking lot was fairly full, it being the middle of the day. Hyde and Wraith looked a little out of place. Surely their outfits were a tad different from the outfits from the gym patrons. two brunettes gaped openly at them as they hustled themselves, their gym bags, and their huge water bottles inside. Flynn figured they wouldn't have long before the cops were called.

Looking about, he finally spied Michael walking over toward their position. He waved at the army man and when Ranger closed the distance; he swept his arm out to indicate Wraith. "This is another hero that has offered to help. His name is Wraith. He and I just got finished helping a friend of his battle a villain up on Wall Street when you called. Wraith, this is Ranger he's the buddy I told you about that has the past ties with Ivan."

After the pleasantries are exchanged, Hyde looks over to Ranger and awaits his thoughts on what next to do.

This had to be one of the wierdest situation Wraith had ever put himself in. How in the world he had been talked into walking into a gym in broad daylight while wearing his costume was beside him. The whole idea behind Wraith was to establish some sort of mystery and intrigue. No one really got a good look at him unless a fist was coming at their face but now a whole gym full of people had just seen him.

As Hyde made the introductions, Wraith stood with his arms crossed over his chest weighing the man in front of him. Ranger, as Hyde called him, seemed to be relatively fit and at home in the gym. His hair was cut a little long for Wraith's taste but it seemed to suit the other man.

"A pleasure I'm sure." Wraith said somewhat dryly, "Hyde filled me in on your Ivan the Terrible wannabe. Anything else you care to share?"

Hanging up the phone after his briefing of Hyde he slid it back into his pocket. It would be a little while before he arrived so he would use this time to see what resources he had available. He drove back to the parking lot of the gym and climbed out of the driver's side window, the doors are welded shut just like on the rel General. After he pulled himself out he walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk, inside of which was a large attache case. He unlocked and opened the case, then surveyed the contents. He had both of his modified 9mm's inside as well as a S&W 500, a little less than he normally carries in the case but he had taken the others in to clean them.

This not being the place to pull out his guns he merely took the holsters for his pistols and knife and wrapped them in his jacket which was also in the trunk and tossed it into the passenger seat for later. Looking up he saw in the distance two oddly dressed fellows, he assumed it was Hyde and perhaps someone he brought with him. He closed the trunk and began to walk closer to the pair, as he approached he could make out it was in fact Hyde and he was waving at him. When he made it to where Hyde and the other stood he gave a leisurely salute. Following which Hyde introduced him to the stranger, who like Hyde was dressed in some kind of superhero costume.

"Howdy Wraith."

"Hyde filled me in on your Ivan the Terrible wannabe. Anything else you care to share?"

His tone changes to a much more serious one, "Ivan Lukasavich, as Hyde most likely told you, is a Russian terrorist who wants to reinstate the Soviet Union and destroy the United States and NATO. As I have now twice, and Hyde once, foiled his plans he apparently seeks to have me eliminated. According to the United States Special Operations Command he has been making his way north from Florida leaving a wake of destruction. The thing is, he seems to have come into possession of some kind of power, there is no intel available on it but it was enough to give Fort Benning one heck of a remodeling. NATO has since tracked him here, to the Bronx. I am assuming he knows where I live and is watching it, knowing him it is probably rigged to kill me or something now. That being said, the current situation is still a large collection of unknowns wrapped around a terrorist's desire to see me killed."

Flynn took it all in. This was going to be worse than he first thought. If they were going up against Ivan then they were definitely going to need some sort of plan. As enraged as Ivan surely was, there was no way he could have cut the destructive swath like he had done and seen no ramifications unless he had some sort of help, some ace up his sleeve. Flynn only hoped it wasn't something that would be the death of his friends.

"We need to find out more. we need recon and planning. If Ivan is coming for you guns blazing then he surely has something he feels gives him the edge. Guns did not do it last time. He's upped the ante with some sort of power. We should not believe that this is his only card. I suggest you have anyone else in your building evacuated and Wraith, I need to know exactly what it is you can do. You can see me when I'm invisible. How is that? Will it let you see in the walls of Ranger's building? how far can you 'see' that way? It could help immensely in finding hiding Russians."

Flynn could have gone on explaining tactics and asking questions about capabilities. There was never a thing such as over planning an operation in his mind. his was Ranger's Op though. He bowed out the lead before he got too carried away. He did move the group off to the alley away from the gym, so people wouldn't gawk at himself and Wraith. The last thing they would need were the Feds to show up to arrest a group of mutants.

Wraith turned to glance at Hyde with a slightly bemused expression on his face the man suddenly asked for details about his abilities. It made sense that the other two would need to have some idea about what he could do but there was also no way he would go so far as to reveal his powers completely. Even though thesse two men were good guys they were not yet members of the X-Men.

"I've got a range of about 100 yards when I'm pushing it to the max but I'm more comfortable at 40 or 50." Wraith replied, deciding to give up all the information about his sonar power while keeping his sound blasts as an ace in the hole should he need it for some reason, "It can penetrate wood, drywall, and plaster if I focus but concrete and metal stop it completely. I can only make out exact facial features from about 10 or 15 yards away but I can recognize body language from the full 100 yards. That's how I make most of my IDs and recognizing and reading body language is kind of an extra skill I've picked up along the way."

Lifting one hand, Wraith tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment before he remember one very important fact that he had failed to mention. "When I get angry or when my adrenaline starts pumping in battle the frequency of my sonar changes slightly. It resonates with the human eye making ghostly shapes and shadowy wraiths appear at the edge of someone's vision. They can be quite distracting if you're not expecting them. As soon as I calm down the wraiths dissapear, but during the fight anyone in range of my sonar is gonna be seeing them."

He listened to Hyde size up his understanding of the situation and then to Wraith, who until that point he had no idea what his power might be. It was an interesting power, and here it may prove exceptionally useful.

"Nice ability Wraith, could prove very useful here. Especially in the information gathering. Now to be fair I will tell you mine. My power is called by the Department of Defense 'Reactive Enhancement.' The power causes, when needed, one of my abilities to increase. My strength and speed can raise to Olympic levels and a little beyond, my night vision can increase dramatically, and other associated things are enhanced. All of which are muscle related in origin. The problem is that only one thing can be enhanced, and sometimes if one goes on I may not be able to switch to another no matter how badly I want to."

He motions for them to follow and begins to walk and talk towards his car. "Okay, in case they are listening from a distance this has to be said on the move until we relocate to a safe area. First off, Hyde there is no one else in the building, it is actually a house. Two stories with the garage pointing out behind and windows to the front on both levels. The buildings around mine may have people so those need to be cleared out since they are merely a few feet between the buildings and mine on either side. My thoughts are to have Wraith pass by the building in a dark tinted car, like a police cruiser, and use his sonar to look inside. Now you will notice several spots you cannot see through, those would be my hidden armories in the building, they are lead lined and steel reinforced."

He approaches his car but continues past it as he isn't finished. "After that is accomplished a sweep of the street should be done, the buildings are a max of four stories and many hiding places exist. That information can be used by Hyde to evacuate people, set up distractions or traps for our Ruskii friends, and or take a few out." This having been covered he walks back to his car, the Charger painted up like the General Lee and pulls his jacket out of the passenger seat. He straps on the holsters and reaches down to slide his knife from a strap against his right leg and slides it into it's holder. He then makes his way to the trunk and pops it open. He reaches in and pulls out his 9mm's and slides them into his holsters.

"The bulk of my arsenal is in my house, I am limited to thirty of both tranq and live shots. Also my car is undoubtedly known by them so another must be procured." He closes the case and then the trunk and scans the lot for potential cars, hopefully his friends have no problem with his ends justifying means view. It is only one cruiser we need and only for a short time, this is obviously outweighed by the fact lives will be saved.

Flynn listened to Ranger's plan. He didn't want to have to go steal a car. an early stolen car report could mean the cops might come into the neighborhood where Ivan was waiting for Ranger and that might cause the terrorist to jump the gun on his plans. Of course a guy on a motorcycle in street clothes...

"Wraith, you go and do your scans. I assume you have normal clothes hidden away somewhere. Ranger will meet you after you're done. You can call us and give us the situation. I'll be ready a few blocks away to go in invisible and get whoever you think are non combatants out of the line of fire. You and Ranger can work on scouts they have set up after I get the people out."

Hyde brought his hand to his chin, rubbing it as he sometimes did while thinking. He looked across the way and saw a bar. He really wanted a few sips of a hard blend right now, but he wouldn't let it show in front of these two professionals. He just hoped he wouldn't start getting the shakes before this started.

"We don't need a car." Wraith confirmed with a slight nod, "Street clothes, motorcycle, and helmet will take care of it. My sonar covers 360 degrees so I don't have to be looking at the buildings in question. They'll never even know I'm checking things out."

His mind was working overtime. Thankfully he could keep his helmet on, even during a fight and thus protection his identity. Some riding gloves would make sure that there were no finger prints if he were to touch anything.

"What sort of communicators are you using?" He spoke up again, turning his attenion back over to Ranger, "If you've got government equipment I assume you've got some ear buds and such. Things that would fit under a helmet and let me communicator without it being obvious to anything watching?"

Wraith was used to working alone most of the time. Today had even been the first time he'd worked with Sam but as he worked more and more with the X-Men it would become easier to work with others as well. Flynn, or Hyde and Ranger seemed like men that were at least somewhat professional and that was all he needed.

"Okay, if you have a motorcycle to use that would work better. And as far as communicators go I am working with civilian technology." He pulls out his G1 and a wireless headpiece then sets them on top of the trunk. "All of my good toys happen to be in my place."

He turns to look east, "The house is fourteen blocks straight east, not a hard place to miss as it has the Texas flag flyin' on top at the same height as the US flag. I will wait four or so blocks down south, and will be hoofin' it down there so my car doesn't draw attention." He looks down at the orange car with the rebel flag on top. "It isn't exactly very subtle and I don't want Ruskii or civilian attention."

Knowing Ivan the whole street will be on watch but not much beyond that as he will not deem it necessary. He probably thinks I don't know about him being here or if so only know that he is in the city, NORAD has been kicked into high gear since 9/11 and I doubt he knows about that. This means moving around four or five blocks away should be clear, and hopefully between Wraith and Hyde all of Ivans traps can be handled

((OOC: Building floor plan. Blue are weapon caches, red are C-4, and yellow are blasting caps rigged to gasoline. I figured it might help. Also the front door points north the garage south.))

"I've got nothing but a cell phone," Flynn said to Wraith. "How about you Ranger? a bud would be nice for me to have in my ear. Won't be able to answer while invisible but I can hear things thru it."Flynn turned back to Wraith. "I'm not on as good a terms with the military as Ranger is I'm afraid. The thought of his military days was a painful one; but he wasn't showing it.

After a nod to the others and whatever else they had to say about the plan, Hyde went invisible and separated from the others. After Wraith headed off, Hyde pulled his flask out and took a few chugs. The bitter liquor burned his throat on the way down; and it helped dull the memories of the team going down.

After a quick invisible resupply at the bar across the street, found a spot in the back of the alley outside ad changed into his civvies. Visible once again, Flynn hailed a taxi to get him closer to the building in question. He set his phone on Vibrate and put his blue tooth in his ear. Upon arrival he changed back into his alter ego and went invisible, awaiting a phone call as he made his way closer to Ranger's dwelling.

"Civilian technology it is then." Wraith said with a quick nod as he slipped a card out of his belt that had only a 10 digit phone number on it. It was a pre-paid cell phone that he always purchased more minutes for with cash which meant that it was also untracable. No reason to reveal his real identity until he was sure how much he could trust these two. "Call in ten minutes. I'll either be in the middle of the sweep or I'll have completed it. We'll meet back up after that."

***

Black sneakers, blue jeans, gray t-shirt, and a black leather jacket led up to a pitch black helmet with darkened visor and crimson flame detail work. Thin light weight gloves covered his hands as the man kicked the starter on his cycle and then headed down the street to make his pass in front of the building.

"I assume we all have three way calling." Wraith said over the line as soon as the connection was made between all of them, "I'm a few blocks away. I'm going to keep my speed fast enough to not arouse suspicion but slow enough for me to take a good look. A few glances toward the opposite side of the street should make it look like I'm searching for an address while my sonar takes a close look at the building."

For the next few minutes he was silent as his vehicle moved down the street. Turning his head toward the other side, Wraith made a showing of looking for that elusive address a friend had given him but underneath the helmet his eyes were closed in concentration. Not only was his sonar monitoring all around him for traffice, he was pushing it farther and farther into the apropriate building to find just how many bad guys were currently inside.

"I've got three... no four areas that come back as dead zones. Those must be the caches you talked about. There are some strange devices scattered through the house but I'd have to get closer to identify exactly what they are.[/b] He spoke up as soon as his sonar registered what was going on, "Looks like you've got a lot of friends Ranger. I see about 5... 6 on the ground floor and another 4 on the second floor. Oh, and there are two up on the roof. One man with binocs and one with a rifle and scope."

"I only have the one headpiece, so take it as your need for ones is greater." Saying this he grabs the headpiece and tosses it to Hyde.

"Call in ten minutes. I'll either be in the middle of the sweep or I'll have completed it. We'll meet back up after that." The Ranger then reache out and took the card with the number on it and entered it into his phone for later.

"Well, good luck yall." He salutes before turning and jogging off towards his destination, his eyes peeled for anyone that was acting suspicious or on rooftops. It took him a little while to arrive, he was never a fan of larger cities as you have to wait for the stupid thing to let you walk regardless of if there is any traffic. And when he arrived he checked his phone, one more minute.

Moving into an alley he pulled out his pistol that was under his left arm. He had to make sure that at least this gun would work properly, and to accomplish this he gave it a semi-thorough look over. And indeed it appeared to be in working order. During this quick check the last minute elapsed and he took out his phone and called both Hyde and Wraith.

When Wraith had described what action he would take the Ranger merely responded with, "Alright, sounds good.," and ten waited on the line as Wraith carried out his task. While this was happening the Ranger kept a lookout in his area to insure no Ruskiis were on any advance scouting mission.

When Wraith began again on the phone, the Ranger ducked back into the alley to insure he was unheard by anyone. "Yeah, and it seems they are throwing a house party without me. How rude. Okay, I do have four caches. Hopefully they are not compromised but they will need to be checked to see if they contain those strange devices you saw."

For a moment he pauses, thinking on what Ivan could be up to. Strange devices, men in the house and on top of it... "I think the devices are Composition-4 plastic explosives and either the men inside are the ones that just planted it and are finishing up or they are Ivan's acceptable losses who know nothing of the bombs but are there to guard them in case of a surprise entrance by me. Alright, now just continue down the street a few blocks. I am willing to bet they are holed up a little ways down the street."

"Oh, and there are two up on the roof. One man with binocs and one with a rifle and scope."

Flynn heard the tale of the tape and gave it a few thoughts as Ranger mentioned explosives and acceptable losses. "OK I got the two on the roof. As soon as I do that I'll get back out of sight and contact you both. I don't have any particular explosives training other than basic c4 use so if disarming any explosives are more complicated than than I suggest retreating and calling in the proper people to handle that particular problem. Give me fifteen minutes while Wraith's looking around for anyone else nearby. Hyde out, Radio Silence SOP engaged."

Hyde promptly vanished from sight and moved out of the darkness of the alleyway and out across the street. HE felt pretty safe as long as he could find a way up to the top of the building without alerting anyone. Even moving invisible and silent, opening doors that did perhaps squeak would alert the ears, and the door moving through some sort of 'ghostly' means would alert eyes. Luckily the four shots of alcohol were helping steady his nerves. Dealing with Ranger made him feel better, like he was with his unit again. It also mad him a bundle of nerves, like he was getting ready to watch his unit die again. He kept moving forward when he hit the sidewalk.

It was then that the KAPOW sounded from the rooftop. The bullet just grazed Hyde as the infrared scope wasn't giving off the resolution that would have been needed for a proper kill shot. Ivan had prepared well for this encounter Hyde thought as he faded out of consciousness and into visibility. It was only dumb luck that the parked car his limp body rolled under protected him from a proper kill shot on the roof. Of course as soon as information was relayed back and forth with Ivan, odds were strong that someone would be coming out of the house to collect the super hero prize.

"Plastic explosives? Your friends really know how to throw a party." Wraith commented dryly as he began to move down the street away from the house. As soon as Hyde spoke up to say that he would move in to take out the two on the roof Wraith extended his sonar to monitor the other man's progress. It was kind of nice to be able to see the invisible man when no one else could.

KAPOW

Scratch the no one else seeing... apparently someone had come prepared and had been able to get a shot off. Wraith's sonar image suddenly cleared up as he watched Hyde shimmer into view and then collapse behind a parked car.

"Man down!"[/B] Wraith barked as he suddenly turned into an alley way and came to a suddenly stop. "Hyde's hit! He's behind cover at the moment but the shooter has got to know he hit someone pretty good."

Turning the bike around in the alley Wraith paused, waiting to hear if Ranger had a thought on how things should be handle. This was the other man's party after all but there was no way that Wraith was going to let a friend get killed for no reason. "I can get down there and get him clear." Wraith said coldly, his adrenaline beginning to surge as he waited, poised on the bike, "You got a better plan?"