Chapter 13: Pray For Me

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

post here when chapter 12 is full, and hopefully I will be back by the time this thread is full!

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei was growing annoyed as a hand slipped beneath the table and closer to the chair, drifting towards the pistol in his waist band. He had no intention of letting Bambi or any of them walk away from this if nothing else was gained. He imagined Sharon would catch on and start shooting if he shot first.

"You've thrown piping hot coffee on me, made me chase you from London to Florida, and all you have to say is 'no idea'?"

He sighed and leaned back, carefully bringing the pistol out of his waistband to his lap, keeping it hidden beneath the table.

"What am I going to do with you, Ms. Engel? If you'd simply done as I asked we could have avoided all of this."

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

'Avoided all this' was seldom a good thing to hear. It meant the deal had an unnessicary problem that was now being corrected. And often, the person being addressed was that problem.

Peter's patience was at an end with this guy. He started his charging as he moved, the humming building, his skin starting to glow. He had been leaning back in the chair and now he made the fairly simple motion of raising his legs, which brought him forward. As his feet came up Peter put them to the side of the table. He didn't know how heavy it was and that was going to be a factor. If it was really heavy, he was about to throw himself backwards out of his chair. If not he was going to be sending it away from himself (and towards Alexei) with about as much force as he could muster.

As the black dye started to crumble out of his white hair from the gathering electrical energy around him, Peter slammed his legs straight against the table's edge.

The whole motion had taken less than a second.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei sprang up and pointed the manala pistol at Peter, surprise betraying his eyes before recognition began to show.

"What the fuck? You fucking lying snake! I knew I'd seen you from somewhere...you're Dinari's dog!"

Allmart was supposed to be on their side. What was this? He held back from firing but kept the pistol pointed.

"We graciously let you fools have a part of Cuba, and this is how you repay our fucking generosity? Does Dinari know about this?"

He ground his teeth but didn't want to shoot Peter just yet. He didn't even know if shooting him would work.

"Don't do this...the truce in Cuba will be over!"

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

"Graciously?" Peter stood, his little table trick failed, and spread his hands, palms towards Alexei, the blue haze surrounding him shimmering now. The hum was becoming a crackle, his hair turned almost completely white now, the black dye blasted away into dust. His glasses slipped down his nose, showing his red eyes. The air snapped as lightning danced between the fingers on Peter's hands, turning his gloves into polyester goo.

"Funny, I seem to remember doing all of the work. Unless, of course, you were there insighting the rebels I wasn't." Peter shook his hands a little, letting junk that remained of his gloves run off his skin. "If you guys had had the initative to take Cuba for yourself you would've done it before then. Instead you try to poach off of me and mine." Peter smiled and laughed, "Do you have... any idea, how very mad that makes me?"

Hopefully Aubrey would take Bambi and run. He didn't want the woman closeby for this. He had the field in place, he was as guarded as he was going to get. At this point he was more of a distraction than anything else. If he kept Alexei's attention on himself that was good. If he got shot at by the sniper... well that was bad but not alot of other choices right now.

"Are you really a killer, Alexei?" Peter asked, tilting his head, still grinning, "Because I don't think you are. Not a good one anyway or your boss would've had you do the deeds that needed doing. Instead, I did it." He pointed a thumb at his own chest. "Killer, born and raised, you pinko ruskie. But all that aside, I ain't done nothing yet, have I? Let me tell you a little story:

I was just spending the day with a friend when I find out some russian is worried about some numbers or other at Global Bank. Well see now that makes me wonder because I know some russians, don't I. Well, I'd better make sure it isn't the ones I know because their our partners, aren't they? But then I found out our parnters aren't playing entirely fair. Oh, shame, I think to myself, that now I've got to make sure they start playing by the rules."

Peter's right hand was hanging at his side, the lightning swirling around his fingers and gathering, the blue shimmer becoming a blue light he held in the palm of his hand.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei did his best to remain calm.

"I may not have fancy little tricks like you, but I guess I'm a killer just the same. Dinari rolled over and begged for the scraps of Cuba we gave him because he knew he wouldn't stand a chance against us. Who do you think killed Antonio Morales? Who do you think has been keeping the manalists the fuck out and an eye on the fucking rebels? Now you turn around and try to fuck us?"

Alexei shook his head, disgust in his eyes.

"This will mean war. Now die you son of a bitch!"

With that Alexei aimed the manala pistol at Peter and fired three times.

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Oh hell he was kinda right.

Worry about it later! Peter spun to his side, moving away from the girls and the windows as energy bullets flew through the air. Alexei had shot sooner than he'd hoped he would. Not evil guy monologe or anything. Of course, Peter'd just done the evil guy monologe... hard to know who the "villain" was in this deal.

The burning in his flesh was a familiar one. The first shot had him before he could move, the second scrapped him, and the third he'd evaded. Still left him with a hole and a half in the side of his torso but he wasn't dead.

As he turned Peter brought up his right hand. The room went white in the flash that followed. A lance of blinding light jumped out of Peter's palm towards the Russian, a man made lightning bolt carrying ten thousand volts of American pissed off attitude. God he'd wanted to fry one of these Russians for weeks!

Field in place there was no way Alexei could out manuver him. He was faster and stronger than any human like this. But the man did still have a gun to make use of... He needed to pull this off. The electric energy he was throwing out should mess up the cellphones so if Alexei never got back to Russia, nobody'd know nothing about this.

Oh and Bambi kinda needed to live so they could catch the ruskies with their little crime thingy too.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei adjusted his aim and squeezed off another shot at Peter before the lightning hit him, making him scream as his clothes started to burn. His eyes widened as he fell to his knees. The gun slipped from his grip as he fell face down on the floor, the back of his shirt and blazer had burned away almost entirely, revealing his serpent tattoo and the number sequence.

He was thankfully still alive, even concious, but he discovered to his dismay that he couldn't move.

[Sharon Anderson]

Sharon noted Alexei reaching for his gun and trained her sniper rifle on the guy instead of Bambi. She didn't have a clear shot, but if Alexei shot for Bambi she could take out the punk. She was dumbfounded, however, as she begun to note a blue tint to his skin.

Then he tossed a table up and though it didn't effect Alexei, she lost her shot. At least, the only time she would've shot as she realized, like Alexei, it wasn't some street punk. Peter "Levitas" Barak?! The guard of Dinari, the man whose goal was to resurrect America?!

Oh that Russian was so getting a pounding. That is, if he survived this. She had read countless newspaper reports on Peter. There was no way in hell she was going to shoot that guy now, even if he wasn't some Genetech alteration she wouldn't.

She worried for a second, Alexei had given her name. But it wasn't her real name, so her worry disappeared for the moment as she weighed the situation. She was highly tempted to pack up and head home, but she had been promised money.

Not to mention, she really wanted a chance to punch Alexei for all this trouble. While she decided on a course of action, Peter fried Alexei. She checked him with her scope before taking aim at Peter. He was still alive.

With her gun pointed just to the left of his head, she fired. She was pretty sure even if she fired at his body mass it wouldn't effect him since she had live rounds. With any luck, he'd decide it was too dangerous to stick around.

Or he'd simply come after her, but she figured she could be long gone before then.

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi's habit to shift her gaze allowed her to catch the movement of Alexei's hand. Her mind, however, focused on his words which caused an anger to raise in her. He'd caused her much more trouble than she had him! As she opened her mouth to state so, she felt a warmth beside her.

She turned her gaze just as Peter kicked the table out. Surprised by the sudden motion, she jumped up, her chair falling backwards. She looked toward Aubrey with worry, who seemed zoned out.

Aww man, was she having a bad reaction to Peter's sudden hum of electricity? It was possible. Remembering the sniper, she quickly hunched beside Aubrey. She was too caught up in the events between Alexei and Peter to worry about the shortness of her skirt now.

So Alexei's organization had been bending All Mart? No wonder Peter had taken an interest in Bambi's story. His words after she had thanked him flowed up from her memory. "Entirely self interest, I assure you..." He hadn't been joking.

The whole thing was a bit confusing to her, she'd definitely be pondering on it for a few weeks. Her mind was racing, but her body knew danger when the room flashed white from the electricity Peter was tossing at Alexei. She barely registered the other people screaming and fleeing from the cafe as it was a bit focused on the bolts of stray electricity.

Especially the one that seemed to be favouring her direction. She probably would've screamed, but instead she just fell backwards in shock as it struck her in the chest. Ahaha, shock, she made a pun!

She was ready for the pain, figuring she was going to fry like she saw Alexei do out of the corner of her eye. It never came, just that same warmth slowly spreading throughout her chest. She looked down, her skin was fine but the top of her shirt appeared as if it'd been burned off.

Thankfully, there was just enough to still keep her breasts covered. Well, this is one pair of clothing I don't think's getting returned... She'd have to find the name of the women and pay her back for the clothing with rads.

The sound of a shot made her refocus on the situation at hand, her blue eyes darting over to Peter and then Alexei. Would Peter kill the guy? He'd caused her a lot of trouble, but she wouldn't feel right if she didn't say anything.

"Don't fry him to death, we can use him!" She shouted suddenly, not even sure if Alexei was still alive. "Besides, the sniper's still out there!" She had no way of knowing the live round bullets would not be fatal to Peter.

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Peter's snapped around, out of surprise rather than forced motion; manala rounds didn't cause impact force in any significant sense. He tried to raise his right hand but his whole arm was burning from the bones outwards. He managed to curl his arm and saw the blood rolling out of the hole in his hand. Alexei's last shot had hit him square in the palm and judging by the pain that ran up to his shoulder it'd gone through most of his arm as well.

It'd hurt alot worse later on, right now he was still riding the charge from the lightning and the drugs that flooded his system when he used his power. Kept him functional and lucid through pain and maiming. Mostly, right now, he was really, really angry. He hadn't been hurt this bad in a long time.

He could hear Bambi behind him but he wasn't paying her much attention at the moment. True, they could use Alexei, but Peter just wanted to hurt him at the moment. He was thinking something along the lines of a nice maple 4x4 and Alexei's knee joints.

The bullet nearly got him, field or not. At least it felt that way. Something with alot of speed tugged on the energy by his head. He couldn't see the shot, he assumed that his field had deflected the bullet. The electric power swirling around him flared up.

Raising his left hand, Peter turned and unleashed another blast of lightning, larger than the last one. The bolt shattered the window outwards into thousands of shards, following the angle of the shot (as best Peter was able to estimate it's path).

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei groaned and lifted his head somewhat, but still could just barely move. He spotted his pistol that had slid a few feet across the floor. He was still in quite a bit of pain, but he gritted his teeth as he began to crawl across the floor towards it.

[Aubrey 16]

Aubrey had been so caught up in the action, she'd forgotten that it was her job to protect Bambi, as the blinding light fled the room, Aubrey jumped up, toppling over a few chairs, and shielded Bambi from harm as best as she could.

It was definitely time to leave the premises...but there was a sniper outside. She sighed in frustration, but didn't have time to think on the matter any further, which really just frustrated her more. Sniper or not, Bambi needed to get out of harms way. It was Aubrey's mission! And she wouldn't fail!

Grabbing the clumsy woman's wrist, Aubrey proceeded to haul her out the door. She turned her head, just to take one last look at what was going on behind her, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alexei crawling toward his gun. She pushed Bambi toward the door, and turned, grabbing the pistol off the ground and aimed a mighty kick at the Russian's side, she very possibly missed, but didn't care, Peter would take care of him.

Aubrey, pistol in one hand, took Bambi's arm in the other, and hurried her out of the coffee shop, pushing her a little further down the street, before shoving the gun into her hands. "We still have a little ways to go before we find a teleportation booth. I don't need the aid of guns, I'm assuming you know how to use this?" There probably wouldn't be any need for the pistol, but here it was out of Alexei's reach, which made Peter's job easier, and Bambi had protection...just in case.

She ran a hand through her hair, and noticed the ends of her pink locks were singed, looking quickly down at herself, she also saw that her skirt was ruined, and she wasn't going to look to see if there was any other damage to the rest of her impeccable figure at the moment. She took a deep breath. The android was going to pitch a fit...once she had Bambi back at Global Bank HQ.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei groaned as the kick from the creditor turned him from his stomach to his back, causing him to cough as he heard a rib or two crack.

"Knew you were a...fucking...creditor." He rasped, taking off his shades and throwing them at her, knowing it was futile anyway. He slowly sat up, and struggled to his feet, looking over at Peter, and then limped towards the door.

[Sharon Anderson]

Sharon saw the burst of white coming from the window and instantly shoved her gun away, rolling a few times to the side. Hadn't expected that! The lightning hit a few inches to the side of where she had been, bursting into the concrete.

She put an arm up to cover her eyes from the flash. That was it, she was out of here. But she had to check one last time...

Grabbing her gun again, she looked through the scope to see Alexei making his way toward the door. After a moment of thought she fired one last badly aimed shot at Peter before grabbing the Manala gun.

She shoved both into the black bag she had carried them up in as she begun to run toward the door to the rooftop, hoping to make it before Peter fired another bolt her way. Damn, that guy was a monster!