Catch Me Now

Acetone

"Well, aren't you gonna get out your guns, get ready to negotiate me?" the man's voice chuckled. The Boss stepped forward and reached out, the hand that wasn't leaning on his cane for support grabbing onto Spike's shoulder and gently pulling him back.

"Can I ask you what you're doing here, sir?" he questioned, his voice steady though his thoughts were frantic. How did Spike know this girl? What did she mean to him? Did he know the man, too? And how the [b]hell[/b] did he get through the building's security without alerting the system?

Ed turned, Jules following him to get to the gun cage. Right now, both the Boss and Spike stood in the man's line of fire, Spike the only one with a weapon and neither of them with either a Kevlar vest, nor a utility vest. Basically, they were shit out of luck.

Raf and Ben immediately drew their weapons, aiming them at the brain stem and slowly moving to stand in front of Spike and the Boss.

"Oh, well, thank you for asking, Officer. Of course, you aren't an officer anymore, isn't that right? I seem to remember a young man taking that from you a couple of years ago." Michelangelo slowly came to life, his brain registering just where he was and what he needed to do as he pulled his own weapon from its holster and aimed it for the subject.

Greg took those words in, slowly nodding his head. "Yes, he certainly did. Seems like you know who I am, I suppose I don't need to introduce myself?" he pressed, inching forward with a step of his cane.

The man laughed. "No, Greg Parker. You don't need to introduce yourself. But rest assured, this isn't just about you. It's about your team... Aww. How nice it must be to all be back together at the same time, isn't it?" Jules and Ed were behind Spike and the Boss, shields and vests in hand. Resting the shields to the floor, Jules took that opportunity to give Winnie a glance, silently requesting that she call in Teams Two and Three.

Winnie slowly moved her chair, nodding to Jules and trying to quietly send out a distress call to each member of the teams. "Oh no, no, no," the subject disagreed, aiming his weapon and firing just above Winnie's head. A yelp left her mouth as she ducked, her eyes going wide with terror. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ed would have taken the shot then and there, as would every member of his Team, but the coward knew what he was doing - he was hidden behind the girl. Her head was directly in Ed's line of fire, and there was no way he could kill the subject without losing the hostage right with him.

"I'm going to find a better vantage," he whispered to Jules, smoothly and carefully moving himself to somewhere where he could gain a better shot.

"Who are you, sir? What is your name?" Greg tried again, his heart racing. He knew this was more than personal; he could feel it.

"Two years ago, my brother needed me. He needed my help with a great task, something much larger than himself. He was ready to get revenge for what had been done to him. Granted, I'd never quite let my talents reach the outside world... But Mark, he convinced me to help him. He wanted to make this perfect." Greg nodded, Jules stepping slowly beside him. Now, with every member in a vest and Raf and Ben manning the shields, they were ready to face this man head-on. With no backup on its way, it was up to them to save this girl.

--

I stared at the team of police officers in front of me. They were watching me, watching my captor, more guns than I was willing to count pointed in my direction. I knew the man had made no secret of just how well he was keeping me in their line of fire, but all I could think about was the look in Mike's eyes when he saw me. My body trembled, my gaze still locked on him. Somehow, knowing it was him and his team trying to get me away from this man, rather than any other set of officers on the force, reassured me. I felt safe, in the weirdest way. I knew there was so much he wanted to say, but it was his boss who was doing the talking. His boss who managed the task of getting into a psychopath's head.

I tried not to move against the man's grip. "Who was your brother?" the mostly bald, kind looking, plain clothed officer prodded. I felt a tightening of the man's fingers around my hair. I winced.

"He was a mastermind. He was brilliant. And when he died, he died with purpose. But it was you... You! That took that success from us!" the man suddenly began jabbing the gun at Mike. My heart fell to my feet. This really was about him. Michelangelo Scarlatti, what the hell did you do?

"How did I do that, sir?" Mike questioned through clenched teeth. I could hear the difficulty with which he spoke the word 'sir', trying not to shoot him before hearing the answer.

"Why... You figured out my bombs. Almost...all of them... You, you bypassed the mercury switches, you fr-froze them. Acetone, Officer Scarlatti? What made you come up with that?" the man's voice began to waver, as if he was losing control. The fear inside of me grew.

"Acetone..." Mike mumbled quietly, thoughts passing through his eyes until they widened in understanding. "I used Acetone when we diffused the 911 Bomber's devices." A second of time ticked by before it seemed to click in everyone's minds - but I was still left clueless, and afraid.

"Marcus Faber," the man who'd been talking before spoke clearly, "Was that his name? Was your brother Marcus Faber?"

"Yes, of course he was. Did you think he built all those bombs by himself?" the man spat, a vicious, seething anger suddenly taking over his voice. "I worked for months coming up with the perfect way to take down this pretentious city. My brother had some juvenile point to prove, but...watching the fear in people's eyes, that was the real gem. And then... Then you idiots failed to find my work. You failed to discover me, to tell the world who had put that kind of fear in millions of people!"

"You left us no way to find you, Mr. Faber, how were we to tell the world anything if you had hidden yourself so well?" I wasn't sure what angle this man was playing, but it seemed to bring a different air to the man's voice - he was becoming angrier still with every moment, but he'd managed to come back to a level of control. He was power hungry, it seemed, and the way the officer was feeding that brought him back to Earth. All I could feel was the tight vest around my belly and the muzzle pressed to my skull; and the warm gaze of Michelangelo - though in his eyes now was a fear and concern and anger that I couldn't bring myself to understand.

"It doesn't matter anymore, Parker. Officer Scarlatti, here, well... now I'm going to take something precious from him. He took my explosions from me, now I take his heart away from him."