192 Bad Idea

Have you ever had an idea that you went through with even though you knew it was a bad idea? That was kind of how Laz was feeling as he walked up the stairs. Sure, he didn't want to leave those girls stranded down here. It wasn't like he was going to be able to call the police to tell them that the mayor's son had a hidden room under his house in which he kept girls prisoner, right? No sane person would believe that. As such, Laz knew he was the only chance these girls had of being freed. But there was a far more important reason he did it.

Leona had asked him to.

We've all been there. When that girl who has a place in your heart ask you for something, you do your damnest to make her request come true. It's just the way it is. Obviously those request didn't normally include mortal danger, but there is always the exception.

There is also the fact that Leona was in the dark about the situation at the compound since Laz didn't tell her. If he had, she would have never made that request. But that would have haunted her for a long time to come.

Science calls it survivors guilt and it will haunt you for the rest of your life. Laz wasn't about to strap that problem on to her. Instead, he was going to do everything in his power to make it happen for her.

Even if it was a really bad idea.

Sighing to himself, Laz finally reached the actual basement of the house. It was a finished living area that had cinema style seating and looked like it could seat a lot of people. On top of that, there was a large screen and various refreshment areas including a fridge and a mini bar. Laz noticed that the door he just walked out from seemed to blend into the wall when it closed. It was almost like if you didn't know where it was and how to open it, you wouldn't even know it was a door.

'I suppose when you want to hide something, this is the way to do it.' Laz could only marvel at the hidden door. After all, it was clear this was a rather rich persons house. And which rich person didn't have a few things to hide.

Despite the rather cozy setting, Laz spread his sense around and found the next staircase leading upward. There wasn't anything for him to do down here anyway. His real target was one floor above.

...

The security and government agents were still waiting around and relaxing. Although they were in position, there was no sign of the incoming threat. As was the generally accepted norm, they would be hearing from the gate first before anything happened. Since the gate was quiet and nothing else was happening within the compound, they didn't feel it necessary to be totally alert. Even Agent Wallace was sitting down and having a drink while they waited for an update while chatting with Brian.

The only person who seemed nervous the entire time was Fred who was doing his best to not pace.

Noticing this, Brian couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes. He is a rather unpleasant fellow." Despite Brian's age being much younger, he treated agent Wallace as though they were on the same level, something that annoyed the agent to no end. Of course, since he needed Brian, he wasn't about to let that show.

"I don't know why I agreed to you using him."

"As I said agent, a good trap requires good bait." Although Brian kept spewing this line that he knew was shit, the agent would always believe it. Brian spared no effort to use what he knew the agent would believe and understand since that was a good way to control him. Watching the agent do just what he wanted with few questions only to advance his own career while believe every lie he was told? Brian couldn't help but wonder how such an idiot would have been put in charge of this position. The man knew nothing about the infected types and the Blessed which is what Brian started calling himself after he had seen the term online somewhere.

As such, Brian felt that the good agent was nothing more than a puppet for him to control.

As everyone was mired in their own thoughts and obviously feeling that this whole situation was over kill, no one noticed when a door opened up near the stair case and a young, pale man dressed in a security uniform walked out. Well, no one except for Fred who would have jumped at the sound of a pin drop.

He was actually the first one to recognize Laz. But instead of being able to say anything, he just froze up and wasn't able to move. Mostly because Laz was standing right next to him.

Not one guard turned around to the sound of the door opening and closing since people had been moving in and out of the room all day for various reasons. Not even agent Wallace or Brian noticed at first as they were busy doing their own things. Only Fred saw the pale face with the bright blue eyes that looked directly back at him.

Why would anyone even think that the one they had been sent to capture would come up from the basement? They were still 'focused' on the front door.

Seeing this situation, Laz didn't know whether to laugh or just be thankful that he wasn't greeted by by a hail of bullets as soon as he walked through the door. As it was, he noticed Fred for the first time since walking in.

"Oh? I was looking for you..."

Since his goal was to blow things up, why not start with one of the causes of this mess. Seeing Fred here, he knew for a fact that he had been involved in this whole incident and Laz couldn't help but want to remove one of the roots of the problem.

Laz extended a finger out right towards Fred's frozen face that was still trying to call for help and ended up touching him right in the forehead. Then with a slight bit of energy, Laz drew forth the black fire. Like a lit match hitting gasoline, Fred's entire head caught fire, the black flames quickly spreading downward. Just before His his vocal cords liquefied, Fred let out a heart wrenching scream, alerting everyone in the room.

Every head turned toward's Fred's direction as his cry died out and he fell to the floor. In mere seconds, he was reduced to nothing more than a puddle of human fluid while shock took everyone by surprise.

Seeing everyone stare at him stoned faced, Laz just gentle raised his hand and waved while saying.

"Hello."

Brian and agent Wallace were the first ones to react.

"FIRE!"

"SHOOT HIM!"

It's a good time to note that the current set up of people included two factions. One was the security that work that on a normal basis. The other group, while having been arranged through connections thanks to Brian, were regular police swat that were aloud to be a part of this thanks to Brian using Wallace's federal position. With the swat members there was also the few federal agents that Wallace was able to bring with them. Although the swat and federal agents were better trained, there were far more of the security guards.

Needless to say, when Brian and agent Wallace yelled out their orders, agent Wallace's group responded first. The guns that had originally been pointed at the front door was suddenly aimed at Laz as they opened first, only to see Laz disappear like a mirage before them. Using his superhuman speed, even the most well trained among the group had trouble keeping up with his speed. It also didn't help that they were using tranquilizer darts which fired at a much slower speed than a regular bullet.

Laz easily dodged the slow bullets and made his way to those who were closest to him. Since these people were just normal people and also weren't criminals, Laz didn't go all out against them. Even if they were stronger than a regular person, they were still normal humans. There was no reason to unleash a massacre on these people just doing their jobs. As such, he easily dispatched the ones he came in contact with with nothing more than a quick hit to the gut, relying on his martial arts training to take them down in a quick and mostly painless method.

His choice of moving into close quarters combat caused those firing at him to be at a loss since they could no longer keep firing without hitting their allies. Both agent Wallace and Brian saw the problem but only Brian, having expected this, reacted.

"Fall back. Stop shooting. Turn on the cameras."

The first two orders made sense, the last one didn't. But then again, only he knew who he was talking to.

"Well now, look what we have here. A rabid dog just itching to start killing. The people will not be afraid of you, you filthy creature. They will not be intimidated nor oppressed by you or your kind. You will not have your way. The people of this United States will stand up and rise against you and all of those like you who wish to take over this great nation of ours and turn it into your playground," Brian said while striding forward in a heroic manner.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Laz was genuinely confused as to what the hell Brian was doing. But Brian didn't plan to explain and instead, just continued on with his rant.

"This playing stupid act will not confused people anymore. We have seen you for what you are. Murders, invaders, rapists, kidnappers. I'm not even sure you're human anymore. But you creatures will not do as you wish. We will rise up to stop you!" As Brian continued his monologue, he continued to step forward while releasing a strange light from around him. It was a blindingly glaring white that seemed to coat the room in a strange glow, reflecting off the wood and stone fixtures that adorned the classic southern style home.

If people were watching Brian from outside of the light's blinding edge, they couldn't help but think that Brian was actually some sort of figured who was made up of only light, like some sort of holy deity.

And that's exactly what was happening.

Brian had set up HD camera's at various places around the house and was streaming the feed out. The feed was actually boosted thanks to a certain lab that he had made a deal with when he had contacted them before, causing the stream to go out to more people who then started sharing it with others. And that's not even mentioning the ones who were recording it to be shared later.

The entire thing was a set up.

...

In the main office of the Global Sciences building, Jesse was watching the stream without showing any emotion what so ever. Next to him were various members of the company along with several members of Congress. They were all sitting in a conference room while this fight was playing out on a live stream.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I know that there has been some doubt in the past, however we now have a chance to to show you just how dangerous these creatures are to our democracy and it's citizens. We were lucky to have been contacted by the person you see now to be evaluated. And I must say, his blood in completely clean from this or any other sort of virus. This young man is amazingly healthy, even by our standards. Not only that, but he was able to get in contact with the federal agent to assigned to head the new anti-infected division and they set up a trap for one of the most dangerous infected we have seen. This man on the screen was personally responsible for the deaths of over 50 gang members and the destruction of their warehouse. You might say to yourselves, 'well, isn't that a good thing?' If so, then I ask you. If he can do this against armed gangsters, what's to stop him from robbing a bank, or destroying a school? Maybe this one won't, but what about the others? Time will only tell, but do you want to leave something like this up to chance?" As Jesse's words spread out over the room, several of the congressmen and women could help but engage in whispers. Although they were mostly still reserved, he could tell that he had set the fuse. All that was left was to wait for the fireworks.

Turning back towards to monitor, Jesse couldn't help but whisper to himself,

"Time for the real show to begin."