"One hundred twenty-three. That's how many people are estimated to have perished at that meta incident this morning," Gabe stated solemnly.
"Damn it, man!" Etienne slammed his fist into his other hand, "The meta incident I stopped my first night back didn't have any casualties. Is it normal for it to be this extreme?"
Gabe paused for a moment, "No…no, that's not normal. But it's not exactly unheard of either. That situation is outside our purview, though; the heroes arrived within 2 minutes of it happening and weren't able to do anything. We should focus on this mission and try to prevent any more loss of life today."
Etienne nodded his head slowly, "You're kind of cold today, aren't you, Gabe?"
Gabe ignored the statement, "What do you see down there?"
Etienne grabbed a pair of binoculars stuffed into his pants. He looked from the rooftop of an adjacent building down at the run-down GoGo's Girls club. There were wooden boards over the windows and the velvet ropes welcoming guests into the building were brown and stained.
Etienne paced around the rooftop, "It looks terrible. Remind me who I'm going against again."
The clicks of keyboards being tapped filled Etienne's ears as Gabe spoke, "There's not an official name for them as far as I can tell. However, the internal files refer to them as 'The Others'. Long story short, they're GoGo's hitters — metahuman hitters — and since they don't have their leader, they've opted for violence."
Etienne stared at the door hanging off the hinges, "The door is practically wide open. No hero has gone in there and cleared them out?"
"Everybody available is too scared, and everybody strong enough is too busy, so the INHO assigned this to the heroes for hire."
Etienne rolled his eyes, "How gracious of them. Do we know what they can do?"
"There are only two for us to worry about: Nafeez Al-Sahib, the leader and Big Country, the muscle. Nafeez amps people's physical stats, making them five times stronger and Big Country can absorb kinetic energy."
Etienne pulled down a pair of tinted snow goggles that sat on his forehead. He looked down at his oversized cowl neck hoodies, the sleeves so long they covered his hands. He pulled up the crossover on the front of the hoodie over his nose, and he threw the hood over his head.
"Wait," Gabe called out, "Are the goggles really necessary?"
Etienne paused for a moment, before flatly responding, "Absolutely."
Etienne reached on the ground next to him and grabbed a shuriken. He cocked his arm back and threw it hard directly at the door. Etienne shielded his eyes as he watched it rocket toward the club.
In an instant, Etienne switched places with the shuriken and he now stood in front of the club. He looked back at the rooftop he was just standing on before taking a step into the club.
As he put one foot in, a glass bottle came flying toward his head.
A masculine voice yelled from the back, "Get out!"
Etienne sauntered into the building, hands in his pockets."Who threw the bottle? Was it Nafeez or was it—"
Before Etienne could finish his thought, a gigantic, hulking man grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall. The man's index finger and thumb more than covered Etienne's neck.
"This one must be Big Country," Etienne thought to himself.
He struggled against Big Country's arm for a second. After a few seconds of flailing, he pushed upward on Big Country's elbow and snapped his arm.
The humongous man screamed out in pain and clutched his arm.
Etienne pulled out a shuriken and leisurely threw out toward a thug in ripped jeans.
The thug pointed his gun at it, but before he could shoot, the shuriken disappeared.
Etienne slid on the ground and got behind him, and he promptly drove his knee into the thug's back.
A man in steampunk goggles ran up to Etienne and attempted to stab him. Etienne caught his wrist and tried to disable him. The man tossed the knife in the air and caught it with his opposite hand, reversing his grip. He attempted to stab Etienne again, first high then low.
Both were deflected, and instead of attempting another, he fell to the ground and began to scoot backward.
The man screamed out, "Please don't hurt me!" He covered his face and cowered.
Etienne pointed to the door, and the man scrambled away.
"What was his problem?" Etienne asked the man with his feet up at the bar. The man's silk dress shirt was completely open and he peered at Etienne behind his designer shades.
"Oh, Allan? He can see into the future. Guess he didn't like what he saw."
The man spoke with a thick northwestern accent. He took one of the larger alcohol bottles and chucked it at Etienne.
Etienne caught it with ease and shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not much of a drinker, thank you though."
He walked up to the man slowly, but was hugged tightly by Big Country from behind.
The man began to walk towards them.
"You asked who I am, right? I'm Nafeez Al-Sahib, one of GoGo's executives.
Etienne spit on the ground, "You're no executive. If you were, you would know who I am."
"I know who you are, Ninjaboy. And I've been tasked with dealing with you," Nafeez held his fist up and it emanated with heat, causing the air to shimmer, "Whoever briefed you must not have told you that I can only give the strongest buffs to myself."
"No, they did not," Etienne sighed.
As Nafeez approached Etienne, he stopped suddenly. He began to look around the room and put his hand down.
And as if a realization exploded into his brain, Nafeez's eyes got wide and he began to run toward the back.
He called out, "Knock him out and drop him, Big. We need to go now!"
Etienne wrestled his way free of the giant and he stood still, closing his eyes. Big Country shrugged his shoulders and ran to the back with Nafeez.
Etienne put his hand on the ground. It shook ever so slightly. In the distance, there was a sound like continuous sonic booms.
"No way…it can't be," Etienne thought to himself.
Gabe screamed into the mic, "Get out of there now, Eti! It's Chef Tim, he's using that railgun again!"
Immediately, Etienne threw a shuriken out of the front door and switched places with it, landing in the middle of the street.
The building was obliterated by a giant blue laser beam, and after only a second or two, the once bustling club was nothing more than rubble.
Etienne looked up at where the shot came from, and there stood Chef Tim and GoGo. They stood in the exact spot he previously jumped from and they both stared at him.
GoGo winked before putting one hand on Chef Tim's shoulder and snapping with the other.
They both vanished.
Etienne stood in the street silently for a long time, still looking up at the spot they stood in.
"It seems like everywhere you go, GoGo follows."
Etienne walked away from the scene as police sirens blared in the distance.
"He and his crew aren't very strong, but they're smart and cautious. I can see why they lasted this long," Etienne stated.
"You need a mission that has nothing to do with GoGo. You've been dealing with him since you got back."
"Did your man crack the laptop?" Etienne asked, "Now would be a good time to resume my search for them."
"No, he said he needs at least one more week. Just come on back to the house, I got another mission set up for you already."