8 Chapter 8: This Means War

After staking out the local area for a couple nights, Jack had nothing. So he just spent his days working, maybe texting Lyn every now and then, and then patrolling on foot at night.

Whatever drove his powers was also starting to get restless, due to him keeping it bottled up while he waited for the time to counter attack.

'Wait just a little longer there. You'll catch bigger fish with more patience.'

It seemingly acknowledged his words and settled down a little, much to his surprise. Was this thing sentient? That was something he had never looked into before, but he might just have to later.

He assumed the other teams had nothing too, as he had no contact from Skylar at all the past few days. Suddenly, he had an idea, and he texted it to Skylar.

"Would you be able to get the specifics on which quirks each kid had? Surely they'll prioritize the one with the best quirk, or with the most utility."

She didn't disagree, and the only reason she hadn't done so before is because one area in particular already had the largest protection, so it was inefficient to also have him in that area. But deciding it wouldn't do any harm to at least tell him, she texted him the address it was centered around.

Assuming it was centered around the house of the kid with the best quirk, Jack paid attention to address and was stunned. A heavy feeling grew in his heart, and he had a feeling today was gonna be the day shit hit the fan, and it was about to hit hard.

And so he sprinted, the urgency only rising. Only to be halted by glass shattering behind him, in the house he was just watching. "Oh god damn it all!" In a rage, Jack transformed into the Ghost Rider and jumped up into the broken window, to see an assassin stretching it's arm around the kid, who was trying to electrocute them to no avail.

'So they made the suit insulated to counter the electricity. Good thing they thought I was dead, because they probably didn't bother countering this.'

Unwrapping the chain from around himself, he whipped it at the attacker's arm, wrapping it around and burning their arm. The suit held out for now, but it was probably hot as hell under it and soon it would be burned through to the flesh.

He knew it was a kid deep down, and it honestly sickened him to have to hurt them, but he had to prioritize saving the kids that weren't already gone.

Thinning their arm, it snapped back from the kid and through the loop of the chain, as they stretched their leg out for a kick.

Dodging to the side, Jack grabbed the leg and pulled, but instead of getting dragged along they just extended it more. Instead of giving up, he just pulled again and again, until their stretching had reached it's limit.

Their leg nearly snapped like an overstretched rubberband, as he finally flung them over to himself, planted his fist into their face full force, and broke the helmet while crashing them through the floor.

Through the hole in the floor, he could see their face through the busted helmet. It was a girl, a beautiful one at that. She could have had an amazing future, and just like this it was all taken away by someone.

Not wanting to be delayed anymore, Jack leapt out of the window while whistling, and landed on top of the Hell Cycle while riding towards his initial destination, Lyn's house.

As he moved, he received another text from Skylar.

"Several places got attacked at once, including the address from earlier. Head to these one's listed, they're the least defended."

Frustrating him to no end, Jack couldn't help but notice Lyn's house wasn't listed. 'I know she doesn't know, but does she really expect me to leave Lyn alone while I go to save other people?'

Between a rock and a hard place, Jack really had no choice other than to prioritize saving the other children, and just hope that they could hold out long enough for him to arrive.

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Lyn was running up the stairwell of the apartment with Jackie in tow, the plan being to meetup on the roof with Skylar and let her take her sister to safety.

Below, the door to the stairwell which she had locked blew off it's hinges as the assassin walked in and casually looked up, before walking slowly after them like it was a terminator.

Jackie almost tripped and fell, before Lyn just swept her up and carried her the rest of the way up the steps. They didn't use the elevator because they had already disabled it before the attack started. The elevator crashing into the first floor is actually the signal that started the attack.

As she burst out of the door, Lyn looked around the roof in a hurry before gasping. On the wall next to her, was Skylar, with light cuts covering her body, and part of her leotard torn. Her arms were pinned against the wall by two swords stabbing through them, blood slowly dripping down them.

"Duck!"

Doing as she said without thinking, Lyn nearly went deaf at the bang of a gun going off right behind her, the bullet whizzing past Skylar's head, making her flinch. Quickly setting her sister down from this crouched position, Lyn swept her leg behind her.

The enemy jumped over it and grabbed her leg, dragging her around and swinging her up before smacking her into the wall. Jackie trembled as her sister screamed in pain, looking at the villain.

He wore a carbon fiber battle suit, a more advanced looking version of what the assassins wore. It was all black with red streaks, bulking out to cover the vital areas, and leaving a thinner material to cover the joints.

His helmet was completely different, a black skull with the eyes a reflective white glass, making him look more than a little terrifying, especially to such a young girl.

Lyn, bleeding from her head, pulled her gun out from her pants only for her hand to get shot by the assassin, who had already pulled out his with his open hand. "Gotta admit, you have guts. Hopefully it carries over to your sister over there. Would make for an interesting tool."

Hearing her sister be called a tool, Lyn tried to move again in a rage before being punched in the face and knocked out. Skylar tried to free herself from the swords, despite the extreme pain it was causing her.

Suddenly, the assassin snapped his head around, reached behind him and ripped one of the swords out of Skylar's arm. Swinging it precisely, he knocked three shurikens out of the air, locking his eyes onto Ninja Warrior who had just scaled the building after saving his own target.

Taking a single instant to analyze the situation, Ninja Warrior went from worried, to pissed, doubling his speed as he blurred across the rooftop. "Learn some gender equality asshole, and take me on too!"

The assassin stepped away from the wall in order to have a proper fight in the open with the hero. Using his speed as an advantage, Ninja Warrior spun around in a whirlwind, attacking from all angles with his sword.

Meanwhile, the assassin just stood and pivoted in his one spot, accurately tracking and deflecting every single attack with minimal movement. Noticing a familiarity, he put two and two together.

"You're the one that trained those kids, aren't you!" If he could see under that mask, the grin would sicken him.

"I can't believe you already figured out what we were doing, good job. Good job indeed. Yeah, those kids are my cute little pupils. They even absorbed all my habits too. Including my nasty habit of sneak attacks."

Immediately picking up on the hint, he turned around and threw a shuriken at the approaching rock, thrown by the student assassin who had just gone up the stairwell.

The rock exploded midair before it reached him, but there was no time to celebrated as a sword was driven through the back of his leg, into his foot, and into the concrete. "Gah, that's a really sharp sword. Mind getting me one of those?"

Leaning back, the assassin took the moment in. "Oh it's been a while since I got to beat the wisecrack out of somebody. Lets see how long you take."

With that, the assassin began to pummel Ninja Warrior's face. He tried to block, but with his biggest asset of mobility neutralized, he could only resolve himself to be a punching bag.

The entire time, he kept trying to talk, only to spur the assassin on more, as blood began to cover the floor, and Ninja Warriors face was more blood and bruise than normal skin.

Soon though, he realized the ploy. "Oh my god, you actually want me to keep beating you don't you? To buy time? Well sorry to say, if you're waiting for the Ghost Rider, he's already dead."

All three of them, including the slowly regaining consciousness Lyn, snapped to attention at that. "Yeah, my buddy back there blew his head to pieces after getting the drop on him. I got to watch the whole thing, and lemme tell you I have never appreciated that helmet's slow mo function more."

Clenching his fist tightly around his sword, Ninja Warrior jerked his body in an attempt to stab him, ignoring the sword stabbed through his leg flaring pain throughout his body.

This only gave the assassin a hearty laugh, as he punched the poor hero even harder. By this point, the fight had almost been drained out of Skylar, and Lyn was in no condition to be moving.

"Ya know, it's odd seeing you care so much, since you only realized now that he's dead. I mean, he died days ago." With that, Skylar's head shot up and she beamed. "Then who was I texting earlier today, huh?" This also meant it was Ninja Warrior's turn to chuckle, no matter how much it hurt.

He only laughed louder, as the low rumble of a motorcycle slowly came into earshot. On the roof of a high apartment building in New York City. Realization slowly dawned on the assassin, as he placed his hand to his helmet. "EVAC, NOW! We're coming in hot!"

"Oh you're so fucked now!" Ripping his sword out of Ninja Warrior's leg, the assassin booked it across the roof as fast as he could, running like an Olympic athlete chasing that world record. The child assassin made to grab Jackie, but Skylar with renewed vigor, ripped the other sword out with her free arm and cut at him.

"You're getting her over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged!" While running, the assassin whipped out his gun and shot a couple times at Skylar, one of the hits sending her tumbling backwards. Now, the roar was louder, and glass shattering could be heard.

Suddenly, the Hell Cycle shot up above the roof, and Ghost Rider angled it down to get a good look.

Within an instant he surveyed the roof. Ninja Warrior, his leg stabbed through and face tenderized. Lyn, hand injured and head heavily damaged. And Skyler, bleeding on the ground in unknown condition.

The flames on his head and bike roared loader and higher than ever before, as he twisted the throttle and blasted fire out of the exhaust, to boost him down onto the roof chasing after the assassin.

"It's dangerous to go alone, take this!" As Jack drove by, Ninja Warrior handed him his sword, which he never let go of. Holding the sword low as he drove, it caught on fire with his pure rage.

Right in front of the two assassins, black smoke appeared which they hurriedly ran to, with Jackie in tow. All of a sudden, out of the smoke shot a bone spear which impaled Jack through the ribs.

This did not slow him down a single bit, nor did he flinch. Another through his collar bone. And another which he cut in half.

Soon, the two assassins made it through right as he closed in. As the mist slowly began to shrink, Jack tilted his bike into a frontward wheelie, and kicked off of it with his full strength, launching himself right into the smoke.

And he landed himself between four enemies. The two assassins, and two newcomers. A man in a purple wizard's robe, and a man in a neat suit with a grey vest, red tie, and a giant metal collar around his neck, his head covered in that black mist showing only yellow eyes.

Faced with this situation, after everything he had seen, Jack only had one thing to say. "You're all dead."