Carefully moving downstairs, eyes scanning back and forth, I stepped into a hallway that was almost a mirror of the one upstairs, only without an insane Powered in it. There was another guard but a quick blast with the taser sent him sprawling on the floor but not before he could shout “Powered!” to warn his friends. The sound of gunfire ceased as I moved towards the first doorway when suddenly bullets started to burst through the wall, hammering into me. The impacts were enough to slightly drive me back, unbalancing me in the process.

It took me a moment to process the new situation and realised that something was strange. The sounds of gunfire had changed, from the wild firing of pistols, to controlled bursts of staccato automatic fire, pinning me down. And not with some small arms, the bullets had enough power to go through a solid brick wall and still push me back. Without the brick wall, they might have enough power to crack single scales on my armour or even breach the armour with sustained fire.

I side-armed a flash-grenade through the door, only to see it be thrown back within a split-second and detonate next to me. As I was being unprepared, the concussion slightly shook me, but thankfully Galatea had reacted with electric speed, tinting the helm and blocking the sound or I would have been down.

I shook off the concussion, when a blur came at me and a series of solid cracks sounded and I was driven back even further. My immediate reaction was to let loose with a blast of pepper-spray, which had given me great results so far, only to realise that my opponents were not stupid. In the half-second I was able to see Fleetfoot clearly, I saw that he was wearing some sort of gas-mask and eye-protection, reminiscent of swimming goggles. So, there might be a bit of irritation on his skin but not the blinding pain normally delivered to mucous membranes.

My ineffective attack had given him the chance to continue his assault, again forcing me back but not causing any lasting damage while I waited for a chance to tase him. But that chance never came, just when I heard a loud crack and an angry curse, the blur fled back and I stared into four Omegas, all armed with an iconic weapon from days past, well known due to its reliability, ease-of-use and banana-shaped magazine, all making it the favourite weapon of unsavoury types.

Realising that my armour might not be able to protect me, I jumped into the nearest doorway, taking a few hits in the process but getting out of the direct line of fire. In cover, I had a moment to take in the new situation and realised that from the state of my armour, those thugs must be using military-grade armour piercing bullets. And using them in great amounts, judging by the sustained fire into the doorway, keeping me in cover. When the barrage ceased for a moment, I looked out, to see the last of them vanish towards the back of the house, so I scrambled up and gave chase, idly noting the broken baton on the floor, it must have been Fleetfoot’s weapon that had broken on my armour.

When I peered around to corner, trying to locate the missing Omegas, I did not have to wait long to see them. Two of them were taking cover behind a doorway to the outside, one kneeling the other standing and instantly started to unload a barrage, forcing me to jump back into cover. For a short time, they alternated their fire, one keeping me pinned while the other undoubtedly changed his magazine until the fire ceased. Just then, Galatea told me that the jamming that had been in effect the whole time had ceased.

Again, peering around the corner, I only saw an open doorway, causing me to run towards it, chasing after the Omegas. When I reached it and looked out, I froze for a second. Next to an unremarkable panel-van, an Omega was kneeling, this one holding a weapon I had only seen in films. A bulbous head, topping a long tube resting on the man’s shoulder, belching gas and flame behind him, just as I showed myself. It took all my enhanced reflexes and muscles to toss myself sideways, just in time for the world to turn white. My armour protected me from most of the shockwave, but I was stunned for a moment and the rain of bricks falling onto me did not help.

“Metis?! Metis, are you alright?” Anath asked over the newly cleared com-system.

“I think so. What is the situation outside?” I asked, while taking stock of my condition.

“A few on the higher level are still shooting but nobody on the lower level.” she reported.

I bit back a curse, making an educated guess that all relevant personnel had been on the lower levels, allowing them to quickly evacuate if things went south. Pushing myself up, I had to shake off bricks and lots of dust but I felt surprisingly fine for someone who had been shot at with anti-tank weaponry. Mostly because they missed, but that was for another time.

“Offer them help in clearing the building. If they do not want any, we retreat.” I told Anath, while walking towards the stairs. I was pretty sure that the Butcher was gone, but I wanted to verify it. As I walked, I realised that my armour had almost perfectly protected me, only the jumping around I had done might lead to a few bruises.

Upstairs, I saw that the Butcher was gone, but the thugs were still there. The police would have to take care of them, so I asked Anath to pass on the word who told me that they had declined help and were just getting ready to breach.

Downstairs, I had to first disarm an improvised explosive device, which caused me to call Anath again, to pass on the warning. After leaving through the front-door I ran into a few police-officers outside who had just been getting ready to breach. I showed them the disarmed device, telling them to be careful and not blow themselves up. Somehow, that caused the first officer to go white as a sheet and start shaking. while one of his partners spoke into his radio.

Hearing a commotion on the other side of the street, I realised that Anath had stopped the officers there from breaching which had made them rather mad. I walked towards them and saw their demeanor change from angry and upset to afraid. The officer must have told them about the trap behind the door on this side and now they had lost all will to kick open that door to find out if there was another trap behind it.

When I walked up to them, Voltic looked at me in surprise when I realised my armour looked a little worse for wear. There were cracked scales and I was coated in dust, making me a sorry sight. I had no doubt that she had seen all intelligence the League had on my armour, mostly estimations, but they had to have an idea just how tough it was.

She walked towards me and told me in a low voice that she had already called for support, as had the leading police-officer and we should get out of here, before things got problematic. I had no problem with that and collected Anath before telling the officers to take care, eliciting some strange reactions. Well, it was not every day that an ostensible powered villain wished them luck after saving their lives. Normally, I should be the one threatening them, not helping them.

After that comedic exchange, Anath and I hoofed it out there, quickly putting distance between the area and us.

“The escape-vehicles have evaded my tracking.” Galatea announced a few minutes later.

“How?” I asked, slightly annoyed that they got away.

“They drove into the underground parking-garage of the South-Side mall. The cameras down there were not working, probably due to prepared sabotage.” Galatea explained.

That gave me pause.

The Omegas had displayed two distinct levels here. One was normal, maybe slightly sophisticated, street-gang behaviour, ambushing and shooting up a police-squad, using small arms and a tactically sound location. The jamming-device was the only thing not quite fitting into that, but it was not easy to prove the use of it, after the fact. There were no tell-tale traces left behind, no bullets to be found or explosive residue to be analysed.

On the other hand, their get-away was on another level. They had used military-grade weapons and tactics, cleanly extracting the important members of their team before retreating to a planned and prepared location to remove possible tracking, both airborne and using electric tracing. In addition, South-Side Mall was not quite in the problematic part of town, but it was close, making it an obvious choice, but also a good one, they only had to leave the keys in the vans and someone would steal it, breaking the link to them. They could either go into the mall and vanish in the crowd or they had cars stashed in the garage.

But overall, their behaviour made absolutely no sense. If a squad of police-officers died to an ambush, the police would not ease up on them, no, the police would go after them with a literal vengeance. So, what was their plan, their endgame.

There had to be one, I just had to find out what it was. And make sure to be in a position to spoil it.