Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Deafening Shriek

We took a few minutes to talk about how we should go about this. We had a few different plans, none of them seemed like very good ideas. One of them was to make a beeline straight to the newsroom and only deal with the people in there and try and barricade ourselves in. The other two ideas were just as unsettling but they seemed to be our only choices. Take out everyone in the building one by one as a team and most likely they would have started the broadcast by the time we are able to get into the newsroom. The only other option was to do that same thing but split up. None of these plans sounded very ideal.

We had all decided to just try and make a beeline to the newsroom and either take out the people we needed to take out on the way or tell them to run out of the building and hope they don't scream or alert the guards before we are able to barricade ourselves in the room.

Hassam had suggested just letting everyone go which was a good idea. We didn't want to keep them, hostages, we were trying to get people on our side not turn them against us.

"Alastair, release him, he can leave when he wakes up," I said pointing to the unconscious nightguard still being held in place by the shadow.

Alastair nodded and released the man. We are going to have to be convincing about this. I have a bad feeling about this, but it seems like the easiest plan. We didn't have to worry about hostages, aside from the guards in the newsroom, and we can try and prove to people that violence isn't what we want.

"Ready?" I asked, looking around the room. Everyone gave a nod and I took a deep breath. They seemed just as nervous about this plan as I did.

"Alastair, when I open the door you grab the two people in the hallway, stop them from screaming, and then-."

"I got it from there," he nodded.

"Okay good," I took a deep breath and put my hand on the doorknob. I opened it and I let Alastair poke his head out. He gave us a nod and we all walked out. There was a man and woman standing in front of us being held in place by shadow beings, their mouths were being covered. They looked mortified. I don't know if this is going to work.

"Hey,'' Alastair said, giving them a charming smile, "I'm so sorry about this but we didn't want you screaming. We mean you guys no harm. We are going to let you go, but I think it would be safest if you guys left the building in case the guards start shooting at us. Okay?" The people were still staring at us in fear. They are going to scream. This isn't going to work.

"I'm going to let you guys go now, please don't scream, we don't want the guards to come in here and start shooting, a lot of people can get hurt if that happens."

The woman gave a quick nod, but the man was still staring us down. This isn't working. Alastair removed the shadows making them disappear. We all tensed up waiting for them to start screaming, but the man just very quietly whispered back to us. "I saw you two before," he said, addressing me and Hassam. "Thank you. My brother was at the protests, he made it back safely thanks to you," he said to me specifically.

The woman who looked like she was up until this point was still ready to start screaming just stopped and stared at her coworker. She took a deep breath and nodded, "can we do anything to help?"

"Just exit the building as calmly as possible."

"Are you sure?" The man asked. "I know how the equipment works, I can help you get it set up. I mean I'm assuming that's why you're here. To get a message out, right?"

It's too dangerous. I was about to dismiss him anyway when Quinn cut me off. "Actually that would really help us out." I looked back at her and I didn't need to be a mind reader to know what she was thinking. We have passed the point of anything being too dangerous. If we can protect Hassam, we can protect this guy too. Not to mention that we were just hoping that Jean and Marco could figure out how to work the equipment but there was no guarantee they could actually get it working.