Ellis Richardson was enjoying his lunch when his squad was called to action again. It was shortly before noon, and he'd been taking a quick break. Waiting on emergency calls was pretty chill, but they had to be ready to move at any time.
He ran through the hallways until he reached Barron. The rest of the squad was almost ready to go. The sergeant swiftly ran over the necessary information.
"Villain attack from the sounds of it. 9-7-2. Doesn't seem to be anyone we've seen before. Grab your rayguns and be ready. They're sending in all available hands, including Lieutenant Galvan and Colonel Castillo. Now move!"
"Sir!" The officers followed him as they ran through the streets. Other squads were behind them, their footsteps echoing throughout the city. Anyone using the streets moved to the side so the military contingent could move through with little issue. The site wasn't too far from military HQ, so everyone was probably aware of what was happening. Even as he ran, Ellis could hear screams.
The temperature dropped as they continued on, and some kind of whitish film seemed to cover a block below them. They ran down a staircase, with Barron slowing down as they approached the bottom. A woman was shivering in fear at the bottom of the stairwell, tears in her eyes. She looked up, hope in her eyes.
Ellis steeled himself. They had to protect her. They had to protect everyone.
"I hate this circus," O'Neil grumbled beside him. Ellis smiled wryly. O'Neil hadn't believed in these Miracles at first, but the evidence had quickly piled up so now he just complained about having to deal with them.
Barron stepped forward slightly, tapping the ground with his foot while everyone waited for his signal.
"Careful," he said. "Ground's slippery." When Ellis took a closer look at it, it almost looked like the ground was covered in ice. But how would that even work? He shook the questions out of his head. Bad traction ground. Move carefully. That was all that mattered.
It was moments like this he missed Larsen and her quick detailed thinking. But the time for those thoughts was gone. Barron signaled and the squad moved forward.
They moved slowly, getting into formation around a pair in the middle of the street. Both women from the looks of it. One stood in front, large pieces of something sprouting from her arms like shields. The other was in back, focusing on a wall of whatever was on the ground. It slowly moved up, now about waist-height. Beside them, a couple people looked like they were trapped on the ground. Blood pooled around one of them, and the stench hardened Ellis' resolve.
"Stand down!" Colonel Castillo called from the level above. "You have five seconds before we shoot."
"Go ahead." The woman with the shield arms closed her eyes for a moment, and the plates expanded until they completely obscured the two from Ellis' view.
"Have a bite of this," the other woman said with a laugh. Ellis frowned, waiting for her to do something.
Five seconds passed.
"Fire at will!" Castillo yelled. Raygun fire peppered the two, most hitting the shield. Ellis couldn't see how many actually hit home.
"Move to surround them," Barron commanded. Ellis and the others tried to respond, but with a jolt of panic, he realized their feet were trapped. A thick layer of what looked like ice had trapped them in place.
Ellis grunted, trying to pull himself free, but the ice was continuing to creep up his legs. When it touched his ankles, he shuddered at the pain. How could he get out of this?
O'Neil shot at his own foot, hoping the raygun's heat would melt him free. Ellis copied him, but the ice was forming faster than they could melt it, and if they weren't careful they would injure themselves.
"Dammit," West muttered. "They've got us."
"Move, officers!" Castillo bellowed, glaring down at them.
"No good Colonel," Barron called back. "We're stuck. How many of you are mobile?"
"Looks like half, but they're mostly where they can't hit," Galvan replied. "We need to rearrange our formation entirely."
Ellis swallowed a string of curses. That wouldn't get them out of this. He aimed his raygun again and shot at the shield. Of course, it didn't do anything. What else could he do?
The shield parted, and one of the trapped civilians was pushed through, a ring of ice around their neck. Fear contorted their face, and tears were freezing on their cheeks.
"He...lp..."
Ellis barely heard the whisper. It twisted his heart far more than any scream he'd ever heard.
"Let them go!" Galvan yelled.
"Nah." The reply was punctuated by laughter. The ice spread along the civilian's neck, covering their chin and chest. The could only watch helplessly as the life left them.
"Dammit!" O'Neil let loose a string of raygun shots through the gap in the shield. Cries of pain sounded, and another civilian was pushed through. Raygun burns peppered her upper body, which froze O'Neil in his tracks.
"Why?" Ellis muttered, frantically trying to think of a way out. A way to protect everyone. But none came to him. Other officers were rearranging themselves to hit the pair of Miracle-using murderers, but the pair seemed to be done.
"Well, I think that's enough of an introduction, hey Shell?" The voice seemed to belong to the one manipulating the ice.
"Sure."
"Great. We're Team Chaos, everybody! Nice to meet you all. Ready, Ferry?"
"Ready!" A new woman appeared in front of them in a burst of light. "I'm Ferry! Military, Ferry. Ferry, Military. And behind me we've got Cold Snap and Shell. Nice to meet you all."
No one was really taking in her words. They aimed their rayguns and let off a shower of beams, but before they could hit, Ferry, Shell and Cold Snap all vanished with another burst of light.
All that was left were dead civilians and the white ground.
A few minutes later, the Legion arrived. Prime came in a simple mask and costume, and slowly took in the scene. Most of the military had left, leaving Barron's squad to do cleanup.
"Paris?" Prime asked, looking around with a pained expression on his face.
"No," O'Neil spat at him. "You're late, Legion punk. Some new freaks we'd never seen before. And now people are dead."
"I can see that!" Prime said, whirling around like he was going to punch someone. Instead, he slammed his fist into a wall.
Ellis stepped back, then realized that Prime was almost weeping.
"I'm sorry. I wish I'd been here. I wish I'd been able to do something." The whispers were probably for the dead. Ellis had gone through something similar during his early military days. Everyone did.
When you weren't in time to save someone. Even though it was your job. O'Neil kept his mouth shut, probably because he understood that Prime was just as angry at himself as anyone else was. The officers just went back to chipping the ice off the walls and ground, waiting for someone to come back to retrieve the bodies.
Ellis fell into thought as he worked. Even if the Legion and military were at odds, shouldn't there be a way for the two of them to communicate? If a situation like this happened again - no, when it happened - the military could call in the Legion. Maybe their unique powers would save someone.
There was pride in being a military officer. But that pride was nothing compared to the need to protect the people of Arx Nubibus.
