The X: Hunted - Chapter 12

One Way Out Arc 1

Ursula, Farra, and Officer Antoine moved to a different area to try out her magical powers, now knowing they were within her once again. The room was ten meters wide and twenty meters long, made almost entirely out of concrete. Closer to them, not aligned in the middle, were five metal tables with walls attached to and in between each of them. "Welcome to our gun range." Said the analyst, "This is where Interpol train themselves with different types of firearms, having been perfectly designed for such. It can also be perfect for testing magical projectiles or what other offensive attacks you might have at your disposal." With a little thin box in her hand, she clicked a button, and five solid objects popped out. They were roughly shaped like the silhouette of a person. "These are your targets. Try and hit them so we can gauge that aspect of your abilities. We'll be filming it via that security camera over there." She pointed behind her to the top right corner of the wall, where there was a standard camera attached to the space, peering out at the area in front of it.

Ursula stepped closer to the middle table, staring at the target. She turned her body (her right facing outward) to a seventy degree angle, still looking ahead, and held out her arm. She put her thumb over her ring and little fingers, only keeping the remaining two pointing out forward. After closing her eyes, she muttered a spell from the elden language, swung her hand in a circular motion, and finally shot her limb further up by a firm inch. Soon, she could feel a modicum of energy leave her body and through her fingers. Farra and Antoine could see what she had done. A rotating sphere of magenta colored sparks flew towards the target, bursting wide upon impact. The two observers were somewhat surprised. While the blast did not completely destroy the target itself, there was a light char to the front, which indicated some high heat to the projectile.

The analyst stroked her chin with intrigue and typed the new information into her tablet to pair with the newly captured footage. She asked the sorcereress, "What spell was that, exactly?" Ursula answered, "An incapacitation sphere: intended to bring a foe to an unconscious state. It's one of the basic offensive attack spells." Farra was now very much engrossed, "And what are the other attack based ones?" The older woman smirked, saying, "Quite a number. More alongside everything else."

* * *

It was now at the pitch blackness of midnight, when Alex and his friends decided to remain awake during such a dead and tiresome hour, feeling better than they did previously in the day. Even though he would likely be needed pretty soon enough, Finnick continued in the fun with them. Having their fill of physical activity, they sat down in one of the upstairs screening rooms that was unoccupied, and began viewing a movie ("A Knight's Tale") about a man who lies about his lack of nobility become a famous knight and jouster, while winning the love of a beautiful lady and beating a stuck-up champion. The film itself was recommended by the Interpol officer; saying it to be a "childhood favorite". He set the film's audible language to English and the subtitles (on-screen text) to German. Two hours later, it was over. Most of them found it both humorous and heartwarming. Rick, out of them all, was mesmerized by moving pictures that had taken place, seeing a bit of himself in the main lead, William. The young man had actually teared up by the happy end, causing Rein to smile when seeing it and rubbing his shoulder comionately.

After all of that was done, they grew tired and prepared to go to bed. They made their way to the bedroom and were saying goodnight to Finnick when they were met with a surprise at the door. There was a five-foot, balding old man in a suit, standing outside the door. Bergsten straightened up and said, "What a pleasure to see you here, sir. What can I do for you?" His wrinkles showed further as he squinted at him, speaking with a gruff French accent, "I came down here to oversee the planning. You weren't in the conference room, so I came looking for you." He looked at the others, "At least you're all together, so I don't have to run around all damn night 'til morning. Come on!" Finnick shook his head, seeming used to occurrences like this, turning to the dêmons, mouthing out "My boss," referring to the man now leading them downstairs.

When they made it to the conference room, a restrained version of what was seen and heard before could be noticed: arguments on how things should be done. Not everyone was on board with the ideas that were being ed around. A woman with short red hair, in a dark blue suit, stood up, looking at her boss, her co-worker, and the dêmons. She said, with what appeared to be an Irish tongue, "Mister Pettét. Good to see you've returned with all important persons." Her eyes then darted around them, as if something was out of order, "Where's the witch?" Finnick came closer, now right next to his superior, "She's being studied by Miss Vira-- I've also learned that she responds better to 'sorcereress', just saying, Maira." She rolled her eyes a tad, "Whatever. The assets are here and ready for assignment. That's what matters." Finnick nodded and then looked around, "I assume Grual is here?" As soon as it was said, the goblin made his presence known once again, raising his hand high up, "Yeppa!" The officer went forward, getting on his tippy-toes, and saw the little creature in a chair, legs on the table. Grual said, "I'm so stealthy that you can't see me!" He paused for a second and proceeded to laugh at his own joke. He heard no other smiles or laughter, so he straightened up, saying, "Yeah, I'm here, and ready for this bullshit. So let's get it started!" Officer Maira shook her head, "Not yet. We must go over the plan. Or the half-arsed, scrambled mess that is our current plan." One man- younger than her- said aloud, "Hey. It's not our fault your plan has to have so many one to three out of ten chance scenarios that could end in compromisation." He turned to Pettét, "Sir. We're not trying to be difficult. It's just that these really are crazy ideas she and her underlings have cooked up." The old man raised a thinning brow, "What kind of 'crazy ideas'?"

"For starters, she and her underlings want Suzuki to try and escape from wherever they'll hold him, and steal information directly from Gargoyle. That would mean he would have to be very close and probably even break into a safe or some kind of secure place the main target would be hiding that sort of stuff. When you take all of that and pair it with Suzuki being the least important to them, that could lead to disaster." Maira made a dismissive wave of her hand, saying, "No more endangerment than already discussed. The asset is capable enough to do this. Besides, he could use his lightning, or whatever power they said he had." He smirked, glad that she slipped up (even by a little bit), "Then you should know that those abilities are not working, so it seems. Unless he also needs some bible to get them back, he has no means of defense."

"Why does this- honestly- small amount of risk bother you so much?" The man hesitated, but grimly said, "I don't want to kill an actual kid, or even three kids, possibly. Because, frankly, I can't live with that." Alex piped up, declaring, "I'm okay with that." Cutting through the silence brought by this, he turned to Finnick, "You were right. I have been in a lot of danger-- A LOT. This wouldn't be too different. I don't like it, but plenty has already happened that I really didn't like. We need to prove this guy to be the dickhead that he is, and we're gonna do it. So, tell me what we have to do, and I'll be prepared." Maira gave a knowing and thankful nod, taking hold of her tablet, and seeing full attention on her and Alex. She exhaled, saying, "Okay. Let's begin."