Mr. Dancer had to work fast. Tommy was bleeding out. There wasn't much that he could do to stop these fellows. But with his training as a field medic from his time in the United World Peace Legion he might just be able to save this young man.
The first thing that had to be done was to apply pressure to the wound. Once the blood was unable to pour out of the poor boy's body, he would have a chance of surviving until help arrived. The elderly teacher grabbed his ratty dress shirt's sleeve and tore it off. A tourniquet would allow Tommy the time he needed.
"This will hurt, so I need you to be strong" he told the young man. "The bullet went completely through your leg, so you don't have to worry about that. Unfortunately, you will be in a lot of trouble if we don't get this patched up."
"I understand" Tommy said through gritted teeth. The would-be hero was on the verge of tears, but he held them back by biting his lower lip. He knew that it was important that he stay calm. Panicking would only cause his classmates to lose all faith in the possibility of rescue. Even if he was to pass out, it would be better than making his fellows contemplate the possibility of never seeing their families again.
While the teacher began to wrap his crimson soaked pant leg with the cloth tourniquet Tommy did his best to turn his thoughts to other things. His life had been one full of childhood adventure, so injuries were nothing new. Though, he would have to admit, this was the first time that he had been shot. Oh, the pain was definitely nothing to sneeze at.
It was only by pure luck and happenstance that he was in this position at all. After first period, he had run down to Mr. Dancer's classroom to return the notes that he had borrowed from his buddy Donovan. They had Science together and the teacher had been threatening to have a pop quiz sometime this week.
Since his buddy was better at taking notes, he had asked if he could copy them yesterday. As if by fate, his alarm had failed to go off which led him being nearly late to school and ultimately to this unfortunate series of events to occur.
At the time he thought nothing of his decision to run the notes back to Donovan now instead of just handing them back at lunch, but now he wondered if it would have been better for him to wait. That thought only lasted a moment though, as the guilt of what he was considering rebuked him.
How could he wish what had happened to him on another? Of course, he knew that his decision was his own, but Tommy also knew that he had merely beaten out his buddy who had been prepared to do the same thing. Had he not been there, it would have been Donovan who would be laying here right now with a bullet wound in his leg or worse.
The pressure was starting to work, and the blood flow was decreasing. While he knew that this was only a temporary solution at best, Mr. Dancer couldn't do anything more for the brave, but foolish, teen at the moment. In order for Tommy to get better he would need professional help soon.
"How much longer, Blazer?" the Green Hood asked his subordinate.
"Just about done, boss. All that's left is to enter in the dimensions that you want, and we will be all set." The cold-blooded tech dusted off his hands. There was a satisfied smirk that ever so slightly graced his face. He was pleased that this at least had went off without a hitch.
"That's great to hear, Blazer. Shall we try, say five square city blocks to test this thing out? I can't wait to see what happens when those foolish heroes realize what is about to happen to their precious order." The Green Hood's face sported his own smile. It was clear by the way he was acting, there was a lot more on his mind than a single terrorist act in store for Mitt City.
"You'll never get away with whatever it is you're planning!" one of the girls chimed in with a worried shrill. She immediately lost her nerve and hid her face in shame and fear. Speaking out was dangerous! What had she been thinking? She didn't want to end up like poor Tommy!
"How quaint" the Green Hood remarked with a chuckle. "And here I thought that damsels-in-distress were a dying breed. Looks like we found ourselves a holdout."
The girl that had spoken up cowered in her group of friends and started uttering silent prayers. These terrorists had been merciful thus far, but there was no guarantee that they would remain that way. Especially considering how stressful the situation that they all were in, there was a considerable chance that her words might tip them over the edge.
The leader of the terrorists started walking towards her with his pistol. With each step, he made her heart rate increase exponentially. Surely, he wasn't about to kill her, was he?
"Worried?" the Green Hood asked her when he was only three feet away from her. "You should be." However, in an abrupt about face, he ignored her. Instead of shooting her, like she was sure was going to happen, he simply walked back over to see how his minion was progressing.
It was as if by some strange twist of fate, that the moment the Green Hood turned his back to the door, it flew open with explosive force. The loud noise caused everyone to flinch in surprise. There had been no hint whatsoever that something like this was going to happen. Given the current circumstances, the situation in the classroom had seemed like it required the most attention.
Desperate to maintain control of classroom, the Green Hood spun back around and didn't hesitate to start firing. A hail of bullets flew into the hallway as the supervillain approached the door.
"Never should have come here, hero" he said. His smirk had vanished. Things were so close to being done. With phase two nearly complete, he would know how effective their new weapon was. There was too much at stake for things to end now.
An entire clip of projectiles rained down upon the unsuspecting hero that had dared to interrupt his plan just as it was reaching its climax. The thundering explosions of the pistol only fell silent when it was time for him to change magazines. By then, it was unlikely that anyone under Level A rank could have survived.
After a few seconds of silence, the Green Hood looked out into the hallway to see if the interloper had met their fate or fled in the ensuing chaos. To his surprise, there was no sign that anyone had even been in the hallway, let alone caused the explosion.
"Something smells fishy" he muttered to himself. There was no way that an ordinary door would randomly explode. Something else was going on.
"That would probably be your breath," a new voice said. "Have you ever considered something I like to call a breath mint?"
The Green Hood turned around to face the newcomer. Somehow this hero had managed to get behind him. "Ah, there you are. Aren't you a bit short to be a superhero, little girl?"
"I don't see that it matters much how tall I am" Kyri replied. "I just need to stop you and your buddy. Given your arrogance this shouldn't take too long. Why don't you save us all the trouble of a long, boring fight and just surrender?"
"My, aren't we cocky?" he said. His smirk returned in full force. If this brat was the only thing that the Alliance could spare, then they were surely stretched thin. He had apparently struck at the perfect moment.
"Banter-filled fight it is, I guess" Kyri pretended to sigh out of boredom.
Internally however, she was freaking out. When she had used the improvised explosives that she had made from ammonia and cleaning solvent, the last thing that she had expected was for the enemy to start shooting the second the door was breached. She had barely managed to dodge out of the way before the bullets had started their deadly arches.
With the enemy clearly advancing on her, Kyri had rushed to find a way to hide from their attack. To her relief, she noticed figured out the solution rather quickly. The water fountain near the door allowed her to get a proverbial leg up on the competition. After that it was only a matter of unhooking the cover to the air vent and sneaking into the room while everyone's attention was on the gun toting maniac.
"Look, kid, I admire your spunk, I really do. But your little invisibility trick won't work in a gun fight" The Green Hood pointed out the obvious lack of planning. "If you promise not to cause trouble, I'll even let you live. Just sit down and be a good little tyke while we finish up."
While he hated all of the so-called superheroes with a burning passion, this little girl was clearly not up to snuff. There was no reason to deal with her right way. Better to just convince her that they weren't going to hurt her and get back to work. Once the machine finished its job the problem would handle itself.
"You honestly expect me to believe that?" Kyri asked. "You shot that poor boy right there and you tried to shoot me a dozen times. Why should I trust a word you say, Robbie?"
"Well, let's just say that you don't have much of a choice, kid. You are being held at gunpoint after all." His gun aimed at her forehead made a pretty convincing argument in favor of his point.
Here we go, I hope this works! Kyri thought to herself.
"Oh, please, you think that I'm scared of your little peashooter. Please," she scoffed at the notion, "you couldn't hit me if your life depended on it. After all, you have to be able to see me first. Now that you know my power set, you should see why this will be over in a matter of a blink of an eye."
"I don't have to hit you. You are the one trying to keep these people safe after all. All I have to do is just shoot one of them every minute until you surrender. Try again" he countered.
"You don't think I can just stop you from hitting them?" Kyri bluffed. "Invisibility is just one of my many powers."
"A multi, eh? First time meeting one" Blazer said. The cold-blooded brigand was still hard at work typing in the dimensions. He hadn't even bothered to turn around when addressing their latest setback. "Aren't you a rare breed? If you really are one of them, then we might have to add thirty more seconds to the estimated time of deployment."
"Deployment?" Kyri said. It took her a moment to notice that the Green Hood's henchman was hard at work inputting data into a machine that appeared to be a large, metallic egg with three legs. The machine had undergone a spray paint job and was emerald and silver.
"Oh, so you don't even know what we're doing, do you?" Blazer said. The assistant's tone showed that he was disappointed by the prospect of having to deal with such an amateur.
"All I have to do is stop you, so why should I care?" she replied, deflecting the pointed barb.
"Suit yourself" Blazer said with a shrug. The disinterested henchman went back to typing.
"We seem to have gotten off track" the Green Hood pointed out. "You were about to sit down and be a good little tyke. Remember?"
"Don't patronize me" Kyri rebuked the pompous supervillain. "It was you who was supposed be surrendering. Don't make me break a sweat, you wouldn't like me when I am angry."
Instead of continuing the pointless banter, The Green Hood pulled the trigger to his gun. With no warning there wasn't anything that Kyri could do to counter. It was over in an instant.
To the Green Hood's shock, he realized that the superheroine was still standing. Adding to his surprise, there wasn't even a single blemish on her. Even though he had fired his pistol at point-blank range, he had either missed or she had stopped the bullet from harming her.
"How can this be?" he demanded. There was no way that he could possibly have missed at this close of range. "What did you do?"
For her part, Kyri was surprised she was still alive. When the Green Hood had decided to shoot her, she didn't have time to react. Simply put, she hadn't done anything to stop him. The bullet had legitimately missed her and flown right out the open window behind her, leaving no trace of its existence.
Of course, she was not going to admit that. If the bad guys thought that she could stop their bullets, then perhaps they wouldn't bother using their guns.
"Is that all you've got? Pretty pathetic if you ask me" she remarked with faux confidence. "Are you ready to surrender?"
"One missed shot will not deter me" the Green Hood replied. His trigger finger went into overdrive.
Damn it! Kyri swore to herself, realizing her stupidity. It was one thing to bluff her way out of a test, but she should have figured it out by now that this guy was not going to be willing to take her word for things. Bullets were now flying right at her and there was no time for her to move.
"I have you now!" the Green Hood cried, with a gleeful smirk on his face.
Yet, try as he might, the supervillain's second attempt to kill Kyri did just about as much damage as the first. To the slack jawed audience, it looked like Kyri had somehow stopped six bullets from even reaching her without even moving.
"That's impossible!" the hardened criminal remarked in disbelief. How had half-a-dozen shots missed their mark? he was not a bad shot at all. Something was wrong.
"Looks like I was right." Kyri allowed her own smirk to arrive to triumphant cheers. After this second round of shots, she had figured out what had happened, though luckily, for her, no one else had.
"I may not be able to hit you, but the rest of these people are still fair game. See if you can try and stop me, kid. You can't be everywhere at once!" The Green Hood swore, planning bloody vengeance.
Eyes darting back and forth, he found his next target. The gun's barrel swiveled to fire its fatal payload. Death had come today, and she was thirsty for a sacrifice. She would get one, no matter what the cost.