Why had she taken this way home? Why had she insisted on the scenic route through town instead of taking the bus? The weather, Alexa would blame it forever, if she lived. It had to be her luck. She had been simply strolling along when out of nowhere a man had grabbed her. It didn't take long for her to realize that cops were chasing him and now she was acting as his body shield. It didn't help that he had placed a loaded gun to her head.

She had been too shocked to react. She had been lost in her own world, when the man had grabbed her. Now it was too late to react. She wanted to scream and hit the man behind her, yet she worried that any movement would freak her captor and then he might accidentally shoot her.

He whisked her inside the opera building. It was virtually empty at this time and she knew that it would be for most of the week. Repairs were being made and if there would be one victim it would be her. Not that that cheered her up, it worried her and scared her. Everything happened to her, first the vampire attack and now this. How did she manage to get herself into these things? Because it couldn't just happen.

She suddenly yelped as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her long hair. "Shut up!" The voice was rough and dangerously close. She wanted to snap back at him, yet she restrained herself. It wasn't her fault that he had pulled her hair. He did have a gun though.

He shoved her through double doors and towards the stage. Where was he going to take her. Finally reaching the destination her shoved her behind the curtains and against the far wall. She slid down the to floor and watched him, her eyes worried. She fingered a strand of her raven colored hair before tucking it behind her ear.

"What the fuck do you mean he's got a hostage!?" Adam practically shouted it into the walkie-talkie as he shrugged into the standard issue body armor one of the uniforms passed him. "Jesus. Jesus H Christ. Uniforms. Wouldn't know a secure perimeter if you established one up their ass." He slammed the talkie down as he finished securing the straps.

His partner, Miles, glanced at him. "What happened?" he asked in his slow, low-key way.

"Some girl bopped right into the middle of this mess," Adam hissed. Congratulations, he said silently to the idiots who hadn't kept his pe-rim-eter fucking secured, you just let the situation escalate from a deranged gun waver to a deranged hostage taker. Good fucking job. "What's the ETA on the negotiator?"

Miles conferred briefly with dispatch. "Unknown. They're having a spot of trouble at an office building downtown that's, quote, using up a lot of resources."

Adam considered that for a moment. "Fuck."

Nodding, Miles offered a laconic, "Yep." He waited a moment. "Want the bullhorn?"

"This isn't my fucking forte," Adam muttered under his breath, his nerves owing to the amount of obscenities he was using. "Yeah. Shit. Gimme the horn." He cleared his throat as Miles passed it to him. "THIS IS THE POLICE," he announced, wondering what the hell he was supposed to add. "WE WANT A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION HERE."

Alexa was slowly coming to her senses. Yes she was conscious but the shock was now starting to wear off. She eyed the man that had taken her hostage and wondered if she could get herself out of this mess. As she eyed the gun warily, she knew that if she did anything it would have to be quick, yet at this moment she wasn't quite convinced that her motor skills were up to par. She would simply have to wait longer and be meek, put a sense of trust into them. Perhaps she would call her parents after all this, it was time that they made up. Especially since her life seemed to always be on the line.

Her head snapped up as she heard a projected sound, yet he kidnapper only sneered. He muttered to himself and Alexa wanted to sigh. Of course the person who would keep her hostage would also be crazy. She simply had to hope that he wasn't trigger happy, because that would be... well it wouldn't be good.

It wasn't like they were moving, then again she couldn't blame him. Did the police honestly think that he was going to walk out of here, when he had the upper hand? She had to admit that he was at least that smart.

Adam clicked the megaphone off when there was no response. Well, at least the guy didn't answer with bullets, so he supposed that was something. "Miles, I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing here," he told his partner, crossing his arms over his chest. It was unusual for Adam to admit not having prowess in anything. Of course, it wasn't every day that what he wasn't proficient in might result in someone dying.

Miles looked at him. Shrugged. "Don't make him angry."

Adam looked back. "Thank-you, Miles, I never would have figured that out on my own."

His partner shrugged again and popped a piece of gum into his mouth. "Glad I could help."

"Call dispatch again. Tell them we have a freaking situation here and we could use some freaking backup."

"Your wish is my command."

Adam picked the megaphone up again. "Shut up, smartass." He wondered if he was supposed to go in if the hostage taker refused to communicate... "THIS IS THE POLICE... AGAIN. WE JUST WANT TO TALK. WILL YOU TALK WITH US?"

Alexa sighed. She was bored. Unusual as they may have sounded, she was in a life threatening situation and she was utterly and most profusely bored. She had a life to get back to and stuff to do. School was starting in a little over a week and she had to get prepared. She couldn't do this if stuff kept interrupting. Annoyance played briefly across her face before it vanished. She had to concentrate on the man that had taken her hostage, if she got distracted, nothing could come of it.

She heard the police again, she frowned thoughtfully. "Get up." She stood up, she had no reason to disobey a man with a gun. "Go to the front." She walked dutifully and carefully to not scare the man. She got to the front, just behind the wooden double doors. "Open it just a crack and ask them what they want." Alexa looked at him her eyes uncertain. when she hesitated, the man's eyes narrowed and pointed the gun more fully at her. Getting the meaning of the gesture, she opened the door just a bit. "What do you want?"

Adam lowered the megaphone as a young girl, obviously the hostage, opened the door to the opera house or theater, or whatever the hell it was, and asked him what he wanted. Well, gee, genius, he thought to the hostage-taker, who was obviously the one having her ask the question, didn't I just say I wanted to talk? Still, his green eyes were calm and level as they focused first on the girl, then flicked around her, trying to see into the building through the cracked door.

"Like I said, we just want to talk to him." Adam nodded towards the girl. "Is there anything he wants? Something we can maybe do for him so we can end this without anybody getting hurt?" If he was lucky, the detective figured, he might have an asset in the girl. She might be able to tell him if there was more than one gunman, what sort of gun he had (far as Adam knew, it was some sort of rifle and maybe a handgun), if he was, in fact, bonkers.

Useful stuff.

Alexa could tell that the police officer, the one with the megaphone wasn't impressed. She was only the messenger, she wasn't the one asking the stupid questions, she was simply repeating, after all the man at her back had a gun. She hesitated momentarily, before allowing the door to close.

She turned slowly to her kidnapper, because he had in fact kidnapped her. "He wants to know if there is anything he can get you, that will hopefully end this in a peaceful manner." She didn't quite remember what the police had said, being shocked and all.

She knew that her hostage taker was thinking it over. He finally made up his mind. "I want a car and no one to follow me as I leave." She nodded her head. It wasn't original, though she knew that he wanted to get away from here as fast as possible, without someone tracking him.

She turned back towards the door, opening it again a crack. "He wants a car and once he has it, he wants no one to follow him."

(OOC: take control of the hostage taker, whenever you want. I'm not very good with him. You might have ideas that I haven't thought about.)

It was, Adam thought to himself, not a particularly creative request. Or, for that matter, a particularly feasible one. Yeah, let's give the crazy maniac with a rifle a car so he can drive off to locations unknown and shoot people. Of course, if he drove to, say, Toronto then the Toronto PD could deal with it and he could go home and maybe catch the game...

He sighed a little wistfully at the thought, then snapped back to the situation at hand. And wished desperately for someone who knew what they were doing. As in, had actual training, not using what they'd learned in a single three-hour course at the Academy and cobbled together from bits of television shows.

"Look... is there any way he will accept a cell phone from us so we can talk directly?" he asked the girl, who seemed remarkably calm considering the situation. "That way nobody gets confused here." Quickly, Adam added, "You can tell him I'll work on the car, OK? I'll have too..." he ad-libbed freely, "confirm it with my supervisors."

OOC: Risk said he'd like to play the HT, if you don't mind.

"Fuck. They're coming. Coming, those fucking bastards. Not gonna get... not close, no."

Barry Stroughter paced behind the girl, gesturing wildly and randomly with his gun, an expensive 30-30 deer hunting rifle that his father had left him when he'd died a month ago. "Bitch!" he shouted at her as she relayed the cop's questions to him. "Working for them, bitch, think I don't know," he mumbled under his breath, before visibly calming himself down. She couldn't be one of them. How'd they've known where he'd be, sent her? Not possible. Not possible, not even for them.

Car, car, he needed a fucking car. He'd get out of her. Go south, into America and keep going. Mexico. Fuck, yeah, he'd go to Mexico. They couldn't follow him into all that sun. "Make 'em get my fucking car!" he screamed at her, losing his temper again, raising the rifle as if he were about to hit her with it.

No, no, no. Barry dropped the gun back down to waist level. "I want the car. Tell 'em I want a car. No bugs!"

Alexa glanced at her kidnapper nervously, this was going from bad to worst, she simply wanted to go back to her apartment and soak in a warm bath. She'd have a bubble bath with perhaps some oil and light nice smelling candles with some soothing music. She wished she was out of here right now. She wanted that bath, yet despite her desires she tried to stay calm, going into fits of hysteria wouldn't help anybody.

She pushed the door open a little more, her eyes wide and brow furrowed. "I don't think he wants to talk, he wants a car with no bugs and I suggest you give it to him." She wanted simply to be left alone, she didn't want to be here. How did she always get herself into these situations? She wanted to curl up into a corner and simply stay there for hours and cry. Why did she take the long way home? "Just give him the damn car."

Adam winced. Through the earpiece he'd been given by one of the tech guys, he could hear the hostage taker's shouting. It was muffled still, but their handheld dish amplifier could pick it up. "Shit." The whole situation sucked out loud. "Miles, what's the status on the negotiator and backup?"

Miles lifted an eyebrow, knowing the inquiry was more in blind hope than actual curiosity. "Still hunkered down. ETA unavailable."

The tall detective scowled and cursed some more. "Shit. Shit. Fuck." He ran one of his enormous hands through his hair. "You got a vest on?"

Miles nodded. "Yep."

"We're going to go in," Adam said heavily, hoping to hell he was doing the right thing. "Got no way to negotiate and a hostage taker who's deteriorating by the fucking second," he continued, though it was unclear if he was speaking for Miles's benefit or to convince himself. "Grab some uniforms too."

Looking back at the girl, Adam felt an unfamiliar tightness in his chest. Anxiety. He hoped to hell he was doing what he was supposed to do, but he didn't have any fucking idea. He did know there was no goddamn way he could give the taker a car.