Chapter 14: Shootout.

The elevator climbed the dozens of floors up the tower, while I formulated the next bit of our plan.

"Hana, did you disable the cameras?" I asked.

The tower was littered with cameras, here, there, everywhere. Every corner, every lamp and post. Lindermann was no slouch when it came to security and intelligence.

Neither were the company.

Given that they had Molly Walker, the clairvoyant, I even suspect they know we are coming.

"Done. The cameras are offline." Hana answered after a moment.

"How many guards?" I asked.

"On the 24th floor? Two. One of them is a company agent. The other, I don't know. Looks Indian."

"Yes. That's Dr. Mohinder Suresh. He must be researching a cure for the Shanti Virus about now." I explained.

"But we destroyed the virus?" Ted said, confused.

"We destroyed the bioweapon strain. The regular strain of the virus is still extant. Though that one affects only people with powers."

"Doesn't that mean we are in danger?" Parkman asked.

"Are going to french kiss the infected patient, Parkman?" I replied.

"No?"

"Then you're not on danger." I said.

The elevator closed in on the 24th floor and I pulled out my laser pistol.

"Alright guys. Three steps to freedom. We're in for a fight, so put on your mean faces." I said, alerting them, "Hana, any of them in the corridors?"

Hana youched the elevator touchpad and closed her eyes.

"No. Wait! One of them just left the room. He's coming towards the elevator. His gun is out. He knows we're coming!" She exclaimed.

"Well, Ted, you know what to do." I said, nodding at him.

"Sure thing, boss." He said, his hands setting alight with heated radiation.

The elevator dinged and I activated my forcefield, as the doors opened, revealing an empty hallway.

"Wait wha-"

Bang!

Hana fell to the floor with a thud, her head cracked and splattered onto the floor.

Fuck!

"Where is he? Wher-"

Bang!

Ted stumbled back, falling headless onto the floor.

"Parkman! Stay in the goddamn elevator!" I shouted, closing the elevator behind me, when another shot rang out.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

I looked around frantically, only to spot nothing.

Was it Claude? Did he switch sides?

No. That was absurd. He was through with the company. There was no way he was doing that.

Then what else could it be?

Bang!

A bullet collided with my forcefield, stopping mid air.

I turned to the direction of the bullet and saw nothing.

This is trippy!

I ran in the direction of the bullet and turned the corner at full speed.

Nothing.

No sounds of footsteps, no people.

Nothing.

How is this happening?!

Bang!

Another bullet hit the forcefield, once more from behind.

"Dammit! Where are yo-"

That was when it clicked.

I was in an illusion. Blinded through and through in all my senses.

And I remembered the one character who jad that ability, a fat woman who worked for the company. She was the reason I chose to invade the HQ today instead of tomorrow.

It was because tomorrow, she was supposed to arrive at the hotel, with Niki's technopathic son, Micah in tow. The election was in two days, and Lindermann wanted it rigged using Micah's ability to talk to machines.

He wanted to create a landslide victory for Nathan Petrelli, his puppet candidate.

But that didn't explain how she was here today. This was not how the story is supposed to progress.

Unless....I had changed it somehow.

I closed my eyes ignoring the bullets let loose at me and tried to remember what happened during the election rigging plot.

Lindermann approached Niki with a job offer for her son.

If Micah helped him rig the election, then he would give them enough money to never work a day in their lives.

Niki refused of course. She had already repayed the debt to Lindermann and had no obligation left to do anything for him.

Lindermann was obviously-

Wait a second. Yes, that's it! She paid her debt to Lindermann by returning the 2 million dollars. That was what got her an extra day or two before Lindermann kidnapped Micah from her.

But in this timeline, I had stolen the 2 million dollars.

Niki or rather Jessica, her alternate personality, probably took off to hunt me down, and recover her money, leaving Micah alone at home, easy pickings for Lindermann.

That was why Micah and the illusion woman were already here. They'd probably been here the whole week already!

This was a pickle. How am I supposed to fight that which I cant even see, or hear or feel. In the show, the woman had even possessed the ability to create disorienting mazes that were inescapable, looping a person around and round, stuck in the same physical location.

This meant there was only one way to clear this level.

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Either she dies or I die.

Thinking harder, I remembered a quirk of her ability.

From what I know, she needs to actively select who the illusion applies to.

Therefore, she couldn't be on a floor above or below. She had to be here, on this floor.

And if that was true then the solution was simple.

Blitzkrieg!

I waited a moment, looking around for the next shot to hit, in an almost zen sort of peace.

She was good at illusions, but not perfect. She would definitely leave some trace.

Bang!

Suddenly a bullet crashed against my side.

There.

I turned with blinding speed, flipping off the forcefield and strafed the hallway with my laser pistol, setting it on fire, and finally heard soft muffled footfalls, running away from the fire, as her illusion weakened under stress.

There we go. One corridor clear. Immediately I turned the way and rounded the corner, strafing it completely as I passed through.

I heard two more footsteps now, more audible, as I flipped the forcefield back on.

I jumped into the final corridor, feeling the floor for heat. None.

This was the real corridor, not maze-like illusion.

Instantly, two bullets hit my forcefield, from a low angle.

"Ducking on the floor are we?" I snarked, as I traced the bullets path, letting loose another volley.

This time there was a scream. A woman's scream.

A hip appeared, bleeding floating mid air as the illusion dissipated slowly, revealing the two miscreants.

The fat woman, lay dead on the floor, while the other agent, a tall man, leaned out from behind a decorative flower pot.

"There you are." I said, menacingly, flipping my forcefield back on as the agent emptied his clip into it.

"Don't bother reloading." I said, flipping off the forcefield, to shoot, when suddenly he shot me once more, hitting me in the shoulder.

I stumbled back, doubling over in pain, and my shot missed him, shattering the window behind him.

Motherfucker!

"You kept a bullet in the chamber! It was feint." I cried, my forcefield humming back to power.

"Of course it was you troglodyte." The man said, towering over me, as he reloaded his gun, "I'm a damn soldier, unlike you. Don't underestimate me."

"Tch!" I cried, trying to stand back up, hugging the wall.

He came closer, leveling the pistol at my head.

"Let's see how many shots your little toy can take." He mocked, as he began to empty another clip into the forcefield.

"Pretty durable huh?" I said, trying to distract him, as I stood back up, trying to run.

"Oh don't even bother. You won't escape." The man chuckled, looting his accomplice's body for more ammo, as I hobbled away.

I could have shot him right there but who knew if this was also a feint to get me to lower my shields. No I won't take that risk.

But now, I had a plan.

Acting sick, I fell to the floor, the laser gun beneath my torso, hidden, but aimed at his foot.

He walked up to me again, and began to empty the clip into the forcefield, as I lowered the field intensity, making it appear as it of was shaking beneath the burden.

With a look of horror on my face, I looked up at him, pleading eyes.

"Please. We can talk...you don't have to do this. I- I'll join your side. I have a lot of other inventions you can use. Please...please don't kill me!"

I shifted slightly, aiming the gun a little lower, inconspicuously.

"You invented these? That is something, ain't it?" He said, still condescending, as he reloaded the gun for the final time.

"But we can always reverse engineer all of it back at our lab. We don't really need you." He said, and pulled back the slider on his pistol.

Just as I heard the clack of his hammer cocking, I undid the forcefield, shooting his leg off.

(A/N : When the hammer is being cocked back, the gun can't shoot, even with a bullet in the chamber. Hence the timing chosen by the MC.)

Being the trained agent he was though, he immediately shot back at me.

But I was ready.

Pushing off the wall, I rolled out his gun's way, the shot clipping my side.

Crack!

I heard a rib break. Maybe two.

"Better than being dead." I muttered flipping the forcefield back on, expecting a counterattack.

But none came.

I turned to the man, who was now laying on the ground bleeding, face covered in dirt and soil.

Over him, stood Parkman, holding what remained of a decorative pot, one of the many lining the corridors here.

"Parkman!" I shouted happily.

Never have I been this happy to see the fat cop.

"Oh, I could kiss you right now!" I shouted.

"Please don't. I have a wife." He shot back in good humor, a smile adorning his face for the first time since the day we met at the FBI safehouse.

He extended a hand to pull me up.

"Look at that smile. Big sulk no more, eh?" I said, grabbing his hand, and stood back up with some difficulty.

"I never m-...Hana! And Ted!" He realised, as he made to rush to them.

I held him back though.

"Don't. I saw them die. There's no saving them now. We have a mission, Parkman. Let's complete that first."

He thought for a moment before nodding.

"Let's do it." He replied.

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