A World of Heroes

All right. That changed the equation somewhat...but only somewhat. There were a total of eight windows, after all...

Doppler radioed this change to the SWAT leader. The second-story windows were more or less out of the question, then. That left the four on the third story.

The first SWAT element, Red Team, entered the anteroom quietly and met up with Doppler, who signaled to them the rough locations of the people on the first floor before he exited the room. One of the SWAT men brought out a fiber-optic camera, known to the officers as an opti-wand, and stuck the nose under the gap in the door; for the first time in the siege the police had video surveillance of the lobby itself. Another officer busied himself with silently wiring up the door with a miniature brick of plastic explosive on the lock and several smaller pieces on the hinges. They were wired to a handheld trigger.

Now Doppler was back in the alleyway with the second SWAT element, Blue Team. He looked up at the third story. There were the windows, which would take several minutes to breach quietly. Or there was the big corner carved out of the building by some helpful superhero. Well, that was an easy choice.

Blue Team set up their ladder to reach all the way to the carved-out corner, making very sure that it could not be seen from the inside. Doppler was the first to climb it, turning himself invisible as he did so. Once inside, he lowered himself to the floor and checked out the third story corridors.

edited 9th May '11 12:05:20 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

"Hiding in the shadows is not the way of a true champion of justice!" Anima pointed her Dream Rod at Fogata. "Now, unhand that girl (who I totally have never met before) this instant, fiend, or face the supremely ungroovy consequences!"

Romana simply stared starry-eyed at her friend. "She's... So cool!"

"You have got to be kidding," Fogata rolled her eyes, "You don't remember I overheard your conversation before? I know you're a super! And if you think that acting like that in front of everyone is actually heroic, you need to have your head examined! ¡Idiota!"

The two stared at her, apparently speechless. Fogata let out a sigh. "I'm trying to help you people," she said, "But you need to listen to me, and not rush in like that. I know what I'm talking about."

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

"Huh? B-but... This is how heroes are supposed to act, you rogue!" Anima touched down beside Romana. "Isn't that right, Ro?"

"Darn tooting!" Her friend offered her a wink and a thumbs up. "Just like in the comics, Ly- Um, Anima! You're totally bodacious!"

"Ahah..." the fashion distaster turned to Fogata. "Speak swiftly, hoodlum, lest thee feel the power of mine enchanted Dream Rod!"

"A true hero?" Fogata snorted, "A true hero saves lives. How were you going to save lives if the police caught and arrested you?"

She didn't even wait for an answer. "This isn't comics. This is real life. You came this close to causing all those people to die. Caring more about appearances than lives...well then, enough of that."

Fogata paused, letting the words sink in before continuing, "A real hero would fight to stop you...do you want me to show you what that means?"

edited 9th May '11 12:35:03 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

"Hey, I... I am too a real hero!" Anima pouted. "I've saved a whole buncha people so far! I mean, I know I'm not in the big leagues yet, and I've never had the chance to, like, try and punch out Galactus or something, but... Um..."

She pointed her wand at Fogata once again. "What would you know about being a real hero, anyways? You don't even have a costume!"

Fogata wanted to punch something, but refrained from doing so. "Look, you may be a hero," she conceded, "But you can't charge in like that. Fighting smart is better than fighting hard...and you're not much of a hero if you don't realize it."

She shifted, realizing that this was not going to go anywhere fast. The best thing she could do is permanently take these girls away from the scene, and leave the rest to the other heroes. She could always find out about what happened later.

"Why don't we go somewhere and talk about it?" Fogata suggested, realizing she might as well give up the truth, "I guess I can tell you about what I've done as a super, and you can do the same."

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

"Um... Go somewhere... With you? Uh... Let me think about that for a moment." Anima responded, before huddling up with Romana.

"Um... Can we trust her?" she whispered to her friend. "She... Doesn't look like the villainous type, but... That just makes me more suspicious. You shouldn't judge by appearances, after all."

"Hmmm... How's about we follow her for now..." Romana propped back her glasses and smirked. "...And if she turns out to be a villain, you can beat the snot outta her! I mean, you're hella strong and all, I think you could take her."

"Um... Alright!" She turned back to Fogata, and raised her voice again (despite the fact that her 'whispering' was perfectly audible). "Let's... Go then! For justice!" With that, she flashed a winning smile and gave a thumbs up.

Revolver descended further down the staircase, spinning yarn surrounding him like an electron cloud around an atom. They rippled and spun continuously, revolving around the man. I had best be cautious, lives are at stake here... He continued walking down the stairs.

Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.

A van arrived to the cordon and three men got down

Connor: Captain Ford. We were sent by central.

Ford: Good, good.

Connor: what's our situation?

Ford: Hostage situation. We want to check on the second floor. We need eyes on the sky. As well as guns, if things turn out ugly.

Connor: OK, then, sir. We'll move in no time.

the team of snipers moved quickly to the building in front of the bank, and used the elevator. They were quickly in the fourth floor of the building. they decided to nest in one of the unused apartments

Connor (Radio): It's all set up. We await instructions.

Ford: You'll be receiving instructions from Doppler, our man in the inside.

---

Camera scan: there were 18 hostages in the first floor vs three men. The Jackal was there with two of his men. One of them was adjacent to the stairs. Another one was in front of the very same door the camera was coming from, but his back was turned back, so he didn't notice anything. And the last one, the Jackal was in the back of the room, in front of the main door, which was barricaded. He lookied like a bored king in his throne, yet you could notice the anxiety in his eyes. He wanted this to be finished.

edited 9th May '11 2:32:03 PM by juancarlos

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

Doppler had only begun his scan when he noticed Revolver. The cloud of yarn spinning around him instantly identified him as a superhero—perhaps the very one who had made the hole he just came through. As he watched in horror Revolver disappeared around the corner—right down the stairs where the two hostage-takers were standing guard!

His heart going like a jackhammer, Doppler nearly ran to the corner, keeping only the barest attention to keeping quiet. He couldn't shout a warning, that would alert the terrorists, and all he could hope for was that he would reach the other super before the guards were alerted.

edited 9th May '11 2:12:28 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Revolver stopped, for he had heard a scuffling sound nearby. He easily turned around on his heels, spinning 180 degrees to face whoever was following him. The yarn started rippling, getting ready for usage if the enemy proved hostile.

Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.

Doppler turned himself visible and panickedly jerked his thumb over his shoulder: get back here!

"There are guards on the stairwell," he whispered through gritted teeth. "Get back where they can't see you!"

---

Two stories below, SWAT Team Red noted down the positions of all the guards. The explosive charges on the door were summarily reduced—too much ran a risk of killing the man on the other side. Just enough would stun him and still forcibly blast the door open.

The team leader readied his HK69 grenade launcher, loaded with a flashbang. The rest had sting and flash grenades in their hands, tasers and pepper spray ready.

edited 9th May '11 2:25:08 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

"..." Revolver nodded and stepped towards Doppler. "Thanks." The yarn instantly wrapped around his arms, forming a pair of compact gauntlets. "How do you know though?" He whispered back.

Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.

"Infrared and radar scanning, among others," he said, pulling out his yellow registration card with a very shaky hand. "Christ, that was close. I'm Doppler. And I know you can't be an unregistered super, 'cos if you are I'd have to report you and I really don't want to file the extra paperwork, so I must be talking to myself, right?"

Doppler tried to slow down his breathing and force himself to stop trembling. Two steps to disaster...

"Anyway, there's going to be a SWAT team coming through here soon. I think they'll be reasonable about it, but please don't do anything to hinder them."

He raised the radio to his lips again. "Long Rifles, Doppler. Do you have visual on the second floor? There are supposed to be two subjects there, two hostages and possibly some bombs."

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Connor: Sir, we see two men. they have the hostages tied in to chairs and in the center of the room.

Aaaaaaand, they seem to have a detonator on their hands. Probably to blow up the stairs in case someone comes in.

"My life is my own" | If you want to contact me privately, please ask first on the forum.

And Precision got arrested.

"Do you have clear shots on both of them?"

Doppler knew the procedure: shouted warning first, incapacitate if possible, lethal force only as an absolute last resort. But there were only so many ways to deal with a man with a bomb detonator in his hand, and if there was no way to talk them down, then...

He sighed. Closing his eyes, his began sending out the fail-safe signals again, transmitting and amplifying them. If the button on the detonator was pressed, one of three things might happen. It could be designed to just cut off the safety signal; it could cut off the safety and send a detonation command on the same channel; or it could send a detonation command on the 300MHz-400MHz garage door opener band. Those were the three ways that the bombs could be configured.

By broadcasting a sufficiently strong safety signal, Doppler could fool the receivers on the bombs. It would not matter if the safety signals from the remote controls were cut off. The bombs, listening for the signal, would still hear them from Doppler; they could not distinguish between the originals and Doppler's duplication signals. Similarly, it would not matter if the remotes changed their tune from "safe" to "detonate" on the same radio channel. Doppler was confident that he could override the detonation command by sending a sufficiently strong safety command; his safety signal would in effect drown out the remotes' detonation signal. That left only the possibility that the detonation command would be sent on an entirely different channel. He solved that issue by white-noise jamming everything in the appropriate frequency range, beaming it in a directional cone downwards through the building. If the bombs were attuned to those channels, they would not be able to hear the detonation command over the waves of static.

Maintaining two different very powerful broadcasts was strenuous work; the lights around him seemed to dim as he pulled their emitted light and transformed them into radio waves. There was only one channel he did not jam, the police tactical communications band, which did not overlap with the garage door bands.

"Blue team, come on in," he said. "There's a friendly up here, I'd appreciate it if you didn't shoot or arrest him. I'm vouching."

The four men of Blue Team and the SWAT commander ascended the ladder, one by one, and entered the third floor. At least one of their number had a grenade launcher, loaded with a flashbang. The commander poked the millimetric head of the opti-wand around the corner, giving him a good visual on the two guards and the hostages.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Incubus felt a calm force sweep into the area - the SWAT team, he knew it. Latching on the their thought patterns he ignored the rising panic from the hostages for the moment.

It was easy to spread panic but getting rid of it was somewhat more vexing - thankfully he had experience there. Silently cursing at himself for letting Jackal's super status throw him off he turned his thoughts to the hostages, slowly but surely lowering their panic. At some point in that minute he had started humming "Hush little Baby" but he rather hoped that it hadn't spread to the hostages.

The scene was calm again - now he could think. But he could feel Doppler and the others waiting.

Jackal was the brains here, he'd have to wait before trying anything on him. However, in the spirit of calming, if his friends became "complacent" even sleepy, then that's no fault of his.

Another presence stirred his mind for a moment and Incubus focused on it. Another super, an easy guess. Unregistered too or else he wouldn't be worrying about the SWAT.

Though that could have something to do with the lack of clothes.

edited 9th May '11 7:54:44 PM by StolenByFaeries

"You've got your transmission and your live wire, but your circuit's dead." - Media

"..." Revolver just decided to keep silent after the other hero's proclamation, following Doppler around. You can't incriminate yourself when you don't utter anything that could be used against you.

Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.

Oi! Stretch is the name, yes? Incubus sent his message, keeping one eye on Jackal, Do you want to be of use here?

"You've got your transmission and your live wire, but your circuit's dead." - Media

Two teams ready, thought Doppler, with a slight edge of strain. Keeping up the radio broadcasting and jamming was occupying his attention. SWAT can see all five subjects. Tell me when you're happy and we'll start.

Indeed, both SWAT teams were still and motionless, their earlier nervousness having been replaced by a deep sense of calm.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Hm? That was odd... He could swear he heard some sort of voice. But, no; it couldn't have been anyt—

There it was again. It was...hard to hear at times due to, well, how Stretch was on the inside, but it was there.

'Uh,' he thought back to whoever the mysterious voice belonged to, 'yes, I'd really like to do something. Just so long as no-one get killed. That's why I haven't acted yet. You got somethin' in mind?"

edited 9th May '11 8:34:23 PM by kkhohoho

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

Good Incubus was glad to get the super's attention, Now, in a few minutes the SWAT team is going to come in - they should be able to handle Jackal's non-super friends easily. The problem is the idea that Jackal could try to harm the hostages. I can "hide" you from him while you get the hostages out. One by one - crowds are too much.

You can handle that? We're in the lobby.

Doppler! Hold it a few minutes - I'm working with... someone

"You've got your transmission and your live wire, but your circuit's dead." - Media

Yes, standing to.

Doppler rehearsed the plan in his mind again, and again, while keeping up the jamming.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.