[Worm-verse RP] Grand Super Villians IC

[Madwand]

Mini-interlude 1.x (The upbeat tycoon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKy__QJ1zbA))

“The city is not going to be condemned.”

Alan Buckley was drumming his fingers on the antique mahogany desk. Two stacks of letters, sorted into read and unread, laid on it. The letters arrived daily from white-shoe law firms, governors’ mansions, the biggest hedge funds, vacation homes with proper names on engraved stationery: “The Manse, Rhode Island” or “Coral House, Bermuda.” and Washington’s offices.

“Mr Roland, I appreciate your concern over my finance. I understand that individuals with your particular skill set demand millions. But don’t presume that I wish to pour money down the drain or waste your talents on desolate ruins. “

His interlocutor acknowledged his mistake with simple nod. Laconic to a fault. He was man that inevitably end up being described as “grizzled war-criminal”, but in reality he was far more. Trump, tactician and terrorist, Roland was barely past thirty, but still managed to survive over ten years of combat in worsts parts of the world, serving desperate Middle-eastern princes, Western power’s deniable black-ops and recently, African warlords.

Alan, retired Wall Streeter, was old, smart, white, pedigreed and never punched a man in his life - almost perfect opposite if you wouldn't count the smart part. His spoke with voice both pleasant and cultured, but he was hiding frustrations. Learned and reflexive pessimism irked him. It was so.. Ingrained in people those days. He couldn’t understand it.

He was born in 1950, his parents Yale educated, his father well-regarded financier, and everything got better for twenty years for his family. Then, after the late sixties, he went to Yale, almost unaffected by parahuman craziness. He got a good job on Wall Street in the seventies, plus small loan of million dollars from his father, then he hit the stock boom in eighties. Nineties, with Endbringer and liberals over-regulating markets - because of Thinker paranoia- were downer, all right, but he was shrewd enough to invest in construction of bunkers and other necessary infrastructure like rebuilding of America’s industrial plants in wake of Leviathan, changing his millions into billions. His story has been one of incredible, unrelenting progress for sixty-one years.

He couldn't understand this new generation, living in world of wonder and opportunity and yet so grim and cynical about everything. There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin, he remembered quote from Ben Franklin’s autobiography.

“But I suppose you would like to know the context of your job, very well. I recently began acquiring real estate properties and other assets in Brockton Bay. I don’t want it for short-term speculation, even if I may simply sell them after decision to rebuild Brockton Bay goes public.

No, no. You see, I think that our current zeitgeist is wrong on every count. Everyday new, more powerful capes are emerging. There was first third generation trigger event. Sooner or later, Protectorate will defeat the Endbringers. Five, ten or twenty year, it doesn't matter. When Leviathan will fall, the shipping business will come back. Bay will again become center of commerce and prosperous city.

And I will. Own. It. All.

“I get it, sir.” mercenary responded. He didn’t look bored by speech, his eyes alert.. predatory. “I am guessing my role is to make sure that, in the meantime, your shiny vision is not ruined by villains. Sir.”

“Yes, exactly. I want you to put together a team.” said Alan Buckley “to do the things that heroes legally aren't allowed to do. This needs to be a group of capes that have no ties to the Protectorate or the PRT and is capable of cleaning the city by any means necessary.”

“I could organize it, sir. If you are willing to fork money for African capes to discreetly move into USA. I have few old pals who wouldn't mind change of pace and climate.

“I agree.” financier noded “One more thing, mr Roland. I insist on and expect minimal collateral.“

Alan was, after all, making the world better place for all. Few death villains were very small price to pay for it.

ARC 1 - BREAK

Brockton Bay, Wednesday 31.08.2011, 10:37 AM

As the summer came to its end, the Brockton Bay regained surface appearances of first world city. Life went on, people moved back, slums were shrinking with every day and electricity was slowly restored throughout city.

Small convoy moved easily in the morning traffic. Police car, behind it SWAT armored car, prisoner transport and another police car at the rear.

Anna Ryker

The eyes were driving Anna insane. She could feel new one rippling beneath her skin, ready to burst open between shoulder blades.

Four other eyes, two on left hand and arm, one on left side of her head and on one high on right thigh, were less of a problem. Those were uncovered, circular holes cut in fabric of her prison clothes.

But the new one, she couldn’t reach or tell anyone about it. She was handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded. They had sedated her, but it was wearing off quickly.

She was awake and aware of coming violence. She was about to find herself in the eye of the storm.

Exhilarate, Caliber, Miasma, Menagerie, Autarch, Backlight

The convoy reached ambush point. Villains united around Exhilarate were in positions. They had advantages of preparation and parahuman powers.

Everything was going as planned.

Stolen bulldozer drove out from left street with surprising speed. It hit SWAT van, pushing it into side of the building. Even though armoured car was not completely crushed, anyone inside will have hard time getting out.

The driver of prison car showed off his skills and reflexes, stopping car inches before hitting bulldozer blocking the road.

EDIT OOC
I provided basis of the workable plan, as I was saying, smash and grab - quite literally. You need to decide who was driving the bulldozer[1] and go! go! go!

ETA of first response - 3 to 5 minutes.

[1] yes - crushing SWAT van in style is enough to activate Backlight's power.:smallamused:

[Writtensanity]

Backlight:

"Ladies and gentlemen," I said from inside the cockpit of the bulldozer, "let's get ready to rrrrruuuumble." I rolled the R enough that it sounded like is was a 70's wrestling match and kicked open the door to my left. The iridescent glow hummed around my leg as it broke the lock and let me out. My powers had kicked on half-way through the crash, giving me enough core strength to take the jolt of impact casually.

As I jumped out of the vehicle I grabbed my baseball bat from behind me. The sword was at home, we were playing a smash and grab, not a cut and slice. I tossed it out in front of me and leapt out to grab it out of the air. I defied physics to snatch it at ten feet up and tucked myself into a roll. I spun twice before I clashed my bat against the top of the armoured car. The clang rang inside as I pulled myself to full height.

I was standing on top of the car with my bat in one hand when I shoved my other into my pocket and pulled out the small handgun I was carrying. It wasn't the kind of **** that clibre could make but it looked the part and that was all that mattered. The glow of my power was muted by the afternoon sun as I levelled the weapon toward the tinted window of the prison car.

It was going to try to back away from the situation, but taking care of that wasn't my job. My job was making sure that the front of the convoy stopped. "Look," I said to the man behind the tinted glass, "let her go and we won't have a problem. How about we get what we want and we let All State take care of the construction accident?"

[DukeGod]

Autarch covered his mouth with the half mask made popular by ninja imagery. Together with his helm it basically concealed all of his face. It wasn't really part of the costume but Miasma made it really useful to have around. He might decide to keep it

He summons a spear and moves towards the prison car.

"Someone really should keep an eye on those SWAT"

[GameOfChampions]

As soon as the bulldozer crashes into the armored SWAT car I dart forward and start to run towards the wreck and the van. As I run I start to exude my fog and direct it to the right to cover the road and the cop car that had been in front of the armored SWAT car. I also crouch down as I run while surrounded by a foot or two of fog to hopefully avoid bullets fired at me. As I run I see Backlight jump on top of the van and start to negotiate with them.

I heft the sledgehammer I'd bought only hours before as I run and call out to Backlight "They need to make up their mind now we don't have a lot of time!" As I get to the Van he hefts the hammer in preparation of smashing open the window with, hopefully a couple good swings and also stops to exude fog towards the cop car and street and instead start to push the fog I'm exuding towards the police car behind the van and the cop car behind it.

I'm having Miasma put fog banks up to sever the cop cars in the front and back from us and to hopefully hamper anyone who shows up

[n0ble]

Calibre surveyed the chaos from the roof of a building that was squarely in the middle. Not too far left or right. Getaway car stationed in parking complex below him. Cops were below too. He hadn't really decided what do about the real law enforcement in the city. Many of them were friends from another lifetime. As much as he'd tried to burn away any empathy that was left there was still more left than he cared to admit. Rubber Bullets. Check

The one normal gun he brought was out and pointed directly at the Swat van. Forty four magnum. Only thing that will retain any bite at this distance while still being accurate enough Misasma's mist was cover the right and he wasn't about to use either of the new guns unless the situation demanded it. He listened, and heard Autarch above the noise. Hunkering down onto one knee, resting the magnum on the top of the roofs concrete rim. His eyes were loosely fixed on the SWAT van while also covering the sky and surrounding area. Typical response time is three-five minutes. Someone will be arriving soon.


I've italicized Calibre's thoughts.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie was sitting in the driver's seat of a get-away van a few cars away on the side of the road, looking into his laptop. Said laptop showed the view of his macaw's video camera, and that video camera was currently observing the scene, as the macaw itself methodically turned it's head back and forth, back and forth. Horace himself was in full, green bedecked costume, and with a noticeably blank expression.

In the van were his Caucasian Shepherd and Schnauzer, alongside his boa constrictor loosely tangled around his neck. The Shepherd was for protective purposes, the Schnauzer sentimental, and the constrictor for style. His Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Geese, and single Doberman were accompanying the main group (alongside his macaw). He barely noticed the blood mist, only enough to turn on the windshield wipers.

Almost (but not quite) sighing at the attempt at diplomacy, he almost absently sent the geese to divebomb the prison car window with poop while honking menacingly, if that was even possible. The plant-like Pit Bulls and Rottweilers growled menacingly while approaching the vehicle, while the Doberman started moving to the SWAT car. After letting off their load, the largest Goose landed on the windshield with a surprising amount of force, flapping it's wings like a maniac and honking like it was nineteen-ninty-nine.

Perched on a lamppost and surveying the situation, the macaw pressed it's recorder, blaring "Only the good die young.". Diplomacy was fine and dandy, Menagerie could concede, but intimidation made it far more potent. Superheroes weren't the only ones that could play good cop, bad cop, after all.

[Writtensanity]

"Min, that's just gross," I sneered to the getaway car as the geese started assaulting the car. So much for diplomacy. I hopped off of the roof of the squadcar, floating down and landing like a feather instead of a man. "Miasma, we're fine. They aren't gonna last five minutes," I said as I walked over to the car that had been behind. It had yet to move and Miasma's fog would make sure that it didn't, you didn't wanna drive through the fog that came out of a parahuman.

I started tapping my bat along the hood of the car in behind the geese and rounded my way around to the driver's side. "Open the back door, let her out."

[3SecondCultist]

The eyes are everywhere.

Anna isn't sure how long she can resist the scream perching at the base of her throat. As the medication begins to wear off, the iron-cast pain of her seventh eye as it threatens to open. Her own vision isn't compromised, as she comes to with a blurry start. Guards, fluoresent lights, batons. Still in prison then. But why is everything rumbling?

It takes her nearly a minute to put everything together. The transfer - the Number Man had told her she'd be moved to a special facility. He hadn't said anything when she brought up her mutations, only to 'count herself lucky' it wasn't worse. The guards are giving the red and black pupils with unease, and Anna can't exactly blame them. They're hideous. Ever since the first one emerged yesterday, it's all she can do not to scratch and claw at her own skin until they disappear entirely.

Of course, she know she won't do that. Her power would have informed her if she planned on doing any harm to herself.

The world of blood seeps into the cracks of her skull as Anna's consciousness settles into being. Something is coming, and very soon. It's already begun, in fact. Her power fills in the gaps between her present and the harsh, brutish future of the world. There will be violence on this road: severe injury, and maybe even death. It's still hard to differentiate the degrees. But Anna has the utmost confidence that before too long, she'll be able to make the most of her power.

And then I can finally get what I want.

[sean_hyer]

An old, beat up pickup - as innocuous as they come - slewed sideways to skid to a halt just behind the rear car in the convoy, and another cape climbed steadily out.

It was all Exhilarate could do to keep from rolling his eyes behind the mask. This wasn't a group of superheroes. This was a barely cohesive gang of lunatics with powers. And him, trying to hold it all together.

At least some things were going right. Backlight had been spotless with his arrival, crashing right where he was meant to. Caliber was up high to provide cover. Miasma was blanketing the area in fog. Autarch and Backlight, with support from Menagerie's animals, were intimidating the guards of the van. And now, with my arrival, that van was trapped between a wrecked SWAT van, a bulldozer, and another truck.

And then, there were the things that hadn't been in the plan. Like the 70s music rolling across the block, the fact that the prison van's windows had acquired a spattering of bird crap, or the spastic goose honking madly and trying to swim through its front windscreen. Truly terrifying.

Well, so long as they didn't end up slapped with a label like 'the Rabid Geese', he guessed he could live with that. Pulling a loudspeaker from the seat of the van, he turned to address the convoy. It was one of those gimmicky ones that distorted voices coming through it. Probably more 'corny' than effective as an intimidation tactic, but every little helps.

"Police convoy! You are surrounded! We do not - I repeat, do not - want to hurt you. Release the prisoner and this can end peacefully!"

[Madwand]

Caliber

Ex-cop chose perfect vantage point. He saw crash and rest of convoy reacting, the police car following prison-transport swayed wildly to the right, almost hitting hydrant. The leading car spun almost 180 degrees with audible tires’ screech and stopped. Both turned on sirens,

The skies and roofs around him were clear. Miasma’s fog was filling the street below, forming two red walls as it expanded toward cop’s vehicles. Caliber focused on SWAT van’s roof hatch, making sure that boys in black don’t try something funny that way.

No surprises here.

James “Bloody” Ax

James needed a drink. It was not like he was alcoholic, he just needed it stand his f*cked up life.

He had rough five years behind, starting for his discharge from active duty, after few accidents in Africa.. not his fault really. Peacekeeping is messy job. Joining the force, but series of allegations about brutality toward suspects put him here, in the dullest assignments brass could think of.

Prison convoy. F*ck it. Why couldn’t he get a job he liked?

That’s why he was almost happy when his convoy was attacked by freaks. Capes.
He yanked hand brake, almost flipping the car and burning the rubber. He waited as fog engulfed the street, taking all information in, observing.

Planning his move.

Backlight, Menagerie, Autarch, Miasma, Caliber

Backlight power kicked in. He effortlessly defied physics as he jumped and twisted in air.

Prison car’ driver proved second time that his reflexes were damn good. He had hands in air before villain pointed gun at him, never mention the speech. Cop in passenger seat was slower on the uptake, but he too decided that going against glowing cape may be his last mistake in life and raised his hands.

Bless the common sense.

Autarch approached few steps before mass of fog, lance in hand.

Miasma had to admit that movement involving crunching down and carrying hefty sledgehammer could be called many names, but “running” wasn’t one of them. Other came to a mind, like “awkward hopping”, but regardless of what jokes Backlight was going to make, it provided more than enough time to engulf both police cars in blood fog. Miasma forced the fog out of the general area of prison car, so when he approached it looked like two gigantic arcs, archangel of slaughter’ bloody wings, sprouted out from his back.

Driver twitched when monstrous geese dive-bombed windshield, shoot glance toward approaching villains, monstrosities encircling car, blood fog and cracks that plant-bird left on glass. He hesitated..

Exhilarate swiftly regained control of situation, as his distorted voice boomed from speakers, carried by Miasma’ fog, over police sirens.


"Police convoy! You are surrounded! We do not - I repeat, do not - want to hurt you. Release the prisoner and this can end peacefully!"

Driver slowly reached and opened the doors as Backlight commanded, somehow calmed by announcement.

“Yy, I’ll just tell the guys in back, so they don’t do anything stupid”. He again slowly moved, opened small window between the cargo area and the driver's cabin.

“Eric, Marty, listen up. Capes are knocking and politely asking for the parcel. You know the drill, don’t play heroes, they don’t pay us enough for that ****.” He turned toward Backlight “We’re cool man, right?”

It paid off to be diplomatic, after all.

James “Bloody” Ax

He could literally smell and taste the blood. Bloody fog, how f*cked it was?

For a moment, James entertained the thought of emptying full magazine in the back of glowing cape. Standing on roof in the middle of armed convoy like that..

But, no, fu*ker could probably dodge all bullets with his bull***** moves. Roland wouldn’t approve. There were things you just don’t do when hunting parahumans.

Ax really wished that he brought grenades.

“Control, we are under parahumans’ attack, I repeat under parahuman’ attack, send backup..” his partner reported, drilled instincts taking over. The boys from other car are probably doing the same. Procedures.**** the procedures.

Ex-SEAL run for it, through blood-hot fog, taking gamble that it was not some-kind skin-eating acid. It wasn’t. The punks treat it too casually to be lethal. He didn’t see more than two steps ahead, but he couldn't miss the crushed SWAT van.

Ax crawled under armored car, squeezing, using bulldozer blade as cover, he reached planned point. He quickly counted two, three pair of legs, one that belonged to blood-fog and other that glowed. There were monsters too, but he ignored them. Third one was master, probably, so kill him and they won’t be problem.

Cocksure mother****er, three, four capes and good half-dozen dog monsters and they don’t even bother to put guard on police cars. Let’s see how they will do without legs. James grinned to that thought and aimed his Glock 37.

Exhilarate and Menagerie

Fog drifted, forming red wall, cutting Exhilarate and Menagerie direct line of sight. The shaking view from lamppost provided by camera carried by macaw was only thing that kept him informed. Situation looked good so far.

Anna

“Eric, Marty, listen up. Capes are knocking and politely asking for the parcel. You know the drill, don’t play heroes, they don’t pay us enough for that ****.” Anna barely heard the voice from outside.

If only the eyes were not distracting her and she could feel the full mosaic of coming futures!

New eye bursted open, it’s blind red-black gaze...

Backlight, Menagerie, Autarch, Miasma, Calibre

Backlight’s power almost saved him, bullet carved white-hot line of pain on sole of his feet, but other one missed completely as he jumped.

Third shattered Miasma’s left ankle, fourth went right through his right feet. He screamed only once, before passing from shock as his head meet the hard road. Nimbus of blood covered him, not all of it fog.

Autarch reacted, but too slow. Only his lance saved him from toppling over when his calf’ muscle was almost torn clean of bone by .45 caliber cartridge.

Caliber, Menagerie and Backlight could not even see from where the shooter fired, but the chaos of next second was painfully clear.

The prison car driver decide to use his reflexes and was about to drive back, clearly choosing uncertain fog over being in the middle of gun-and-capes fights.

Caliber noticed first - the SWAT team reacted too. Shotgun, probably, blow out deformed lock on the back doors. Few good kicks and six to ten more people will join the fray.

OOC/TL;DR

[To sum up - Miasma is out of action, lost both feet and is profoundly bleeding plus unconscious. Something needs to be done or you’ll have first fatality.

Autarch barely can hold himself on his feets, using lance as a crouch and probably will bleed to death too if no medical attention is given to him.

Caliber, Exhilarate and Menagerie don’t know from where the bullets were fired.

Backlight is lightly wounded, his power and awesome entry saved him from being first fatality and he can move almost as fast as without injury. However, he probably wouldn’t want to enter the surrounding blood-sapping fog.

He also have few second to stop the sympathetic and fast driver, because he is only one that can reach van [/I]or he can get the crazed ex-military cop with drinking problem, PTSD and history of war crimes in Africa before he enters fog back again. Choices, choices.

EDIT: Exhilarate can take car of prison van. Going after crazy cop would require to squeeze in the space below truck, which eliminate most of Backlight mobility, but.. you could think cool stunt/risk it to get to that crazy cop. It's your decision what to do. :smallsmile:

SWAT team is less than minute from joining the fun. Yes, they do have grenades.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie's eye twitched.

That was his equivalent of being very, very angry. He wasn't exactly the emotional type, but he occasionally made exceptions when his long-term investments were being comprimised. He had used far too much effort getting into this group to have it all dashed away in a moment of their carelessness.

He focused in on his laptop, since he no longer had the slightest visibility from the wind-shield. The macaw continued the steady, methodical head turning, but he focused on one thing; the location of the injuries. There were advantages to being unemotional, and one was the capacity to think things through. Why target the legs and feet? If they were hoping for non-lethal, they would of targeted someplace with fewer arteries; was it availability?

If it was availability, then the main options were either that they were crouched somewhere in the mist and wanted to be sure of their aim, or they were underneath the truck. He didn't have the faintest clue which, but he had to do something before his assets were permanently depreciated.

After drawing the doberman away from the SWAT car, he directed it to gently grip Miasma's shoulder in his teeth, quickly dragging him into his own mist. He was one of the biggest assets on the team, and he was also the most injured. In the effort to have him being dragged into the mist actually matter, he positioned all five dogs not currently defending him to the side of the car, and proceeded to have them push, as hard as possible, all at once, repeating to a rhythm as needed. They were big, strong dogs in the first place, and twice as strong as normal, not to mention acting as a unit and unconcerned with fatigue. If it didn't tip the darn thing over, it would certainly rock it a very fair deal.

To complete the general idea, he had the geese, all three of them, slam into the wind-shield, at exactly the same time, with all their force, and then repeat the action as needed, honking like they had some sort of bird rabies. If they got in, they would be blindly groping for the drivers eyes and anything they could grab onto (including hair, ears, and likewise), and then be doing their very best to drag him out into the mist, bleeding out.

This all happened almost simultaneously, as the macaw continued to methodically scan the scene (switching the song to Shake your booty), and Menagerie almost cared.

[n0ble]

HIs eyes narrowed as he saw Miasma go down. Heard the gunshots. Not standard police fire. Glock? Possibly. John quickly grabbed the radio he had planted next to him. Exhilarate had the other one. He ducked down, speaking as quietly as he could "Be advised, more hostiles exiting the van. At least one is armed with a shotgun but it'd be safe to assume they all are. Miasma is down. Autarch is hurt. Possibly immobile. Whatever did it was using bullets that are not standard issue for police. I'll cover you. There is also a possible third party at play. Will radio when I know more." He immediately holstered his Magnum, exchanging it for pistol he'd just finished two days ago. It was grey in colour, the light that emanated from it was a dark purple. Patterned on Exhilarate's healing, the gun would over heal someone to a crippling degree, even if they weren't injured. Shoot a man in the leg and suddenly he'd have five extra tibias all growing out at odd angles. It was a good thing this one was chambered for forty four millimetres as well. It'd have to be to get through their SWAT-grade kevlar. Better than using rubber bullets.

Calibre assumed the same position as he had before.

As the men exited the vehicle, John picked his shots carefully, aiming for their joints and centre mass. Not out a sense of concern. Concern had left when they seemed to be more mercenaries than police. Police wouldn't blow the door to a vehicle open like that. No. It was out of a sense of pragmatism. Kevlar was usually stretched thinnest around joints.

This wasn't a movie. No fancy head shots. Disrupt their coherency. Scatter them. Pick them off one by one after that. Numbers were the only thing that had over this group. Numbers and a sense of unity. Both would change shortly.

[sean_hyer]

"Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed." - Serenity

One disadvantage of Miasma's mist is that it hampers our team's vision as well as it does whoever we happen to be fighting. So faced with the blood-red wall of fog, I could only hope things were going well. It was a simple plan. Fear, intimidation, offer a way out.

The first indication I had that things were not going to plan were the gunshots, followed by a pained cry. Gunshots meant that someone had decided to fight, rather than doing the smart thing. And just that - that one brave, 'heroic' person - had just signed a whole handful of death warrants.

So. Main objective. The prison van. Odds are, they try to run. Bulldozer in front of them means that they want to get out by reversing. That means they end up coming here, to me. So by that logic, I ought to just stand here and wait. On the other hand, now that fighting had started it wasn't going to stop. Which meant that the three parahumans in the thick of things were presently going to wind up in a fight with a dozen-odd trained police officers (the SWAT team was probably a little the worse for wear from being hit by a bulldozer, but not likely out of the fight).

I made a split second decision. In the end, I had to trust them to handle themselves. It would be a tough fight, but they ought to pull through. I would wait here for the van. And then a voice from the radio at my belt reshuffled my priorities. Autarch and Miasma were down already, shot by an unknown third party. They needed me.

Whirling, I ran into the mist. Directly in front of me was the rear police car of the convoy; the two officers that had been in it crouched by their doors aiming their guns into the fog. As I approached, one of them saw me and shouted a warning, and they both spun and opened fire. And yes, I am bulletproof. But... I don't know if you've ever played paintball? A paintball gun firing at you at point blank range won't break the skin, or do any real damage. It will still hurt.

Still, it was a familiar pain. So I just stood there and took it, rocked back slightly by the bullets, until the firing stopped. Pasting a familiar fake smile on my face, and rolling my head on my shoulders, I started moving forwards again - slower now, to give them time to run. I could see the fear in them. Fear of me was in their eyes, just as it had been in the eyes of countless looters in a similar situation. Confronted by a foe you couldn't hurt, one that was implacably advancing.

But these weren't petty thieves out for a quick buck. These were cops in the line of duty. They wouldn't split to save their own skins. So as I walked closer, I started speaking. "Brave of you. But futile. I don't want to kill you. I just want what I came for. Now get out of my way."

This was the tipping point. They could see weakness in that sentence, could stand and fight despite the uselessness. I kept the smile on my face, even as my thoughts spun a wild prayer. Please please please run. I do NOT want to start my career as a cape by killing cops.

[Writtensanity]

There was time to be fancy, and then there was the present. Miasma was out, Autarch was possibly donw, things had gone from unorganized to a disaster as soon as we'd started this mission.

I'd pulled out of the way of the first shot and got my foot just out of the line of fire, but the send shot proved too much for me. I didn't quite predict where it would end up and it skinned through the heel of my boot, skinning along my heel as I leapt into the air. It burned into my skin and taught me an important lesson, I needed to be careful with bullets.

Exhilerate seemed like he had the actal aquisition under control so I got to switch my attention to the unknown that had shot Miasma. I liked that kid and I didn't want people handing out bullets without me dishing out punishment in return.

I checked the go-pro that I was wearing during the fight before I leapt over the fog that miasma had spread across the battlefield and landed as close to the third party as I could. I pulled the bat back and lined it up with the man's head. "BATTER UP!" I screamed as I swung forward.

[DukeGod]

Autarch curses in his mind as it becomes all but impossible to stand. He had never really been shot, his time fighting was as a non-combatant and as such very rarely did the bullets go in his direction

Still, it'd be foolish to think him disarmed

"TO ME!" he yells in command voice, taking cover behind the car. His minions come to him proptly, missing their left arms. It left them with only one to really do anything, but also made them (relatively) more useful than the one-legged ones. They all carried cheap knives and guns. Whatever weapons they had when he found them. He'd have to find one of those weapons dealers that sold stuff to african warlords with child soldiers one of these days and take away the man's stock...

He points at them and them towards the shooting direction

Go that way. Injure anyone dressed in a cop or SWAT outfit."

He then turns towards the last one

"Enter the mist, slice yourself as many times as you can. Try not to die"

[Madwand]

Backlight

Backlight jumped over crashed cars, into the red-blood mist. He planted one foot on crawler’s blade, spun in air, one hand briefly landing on SWAT van’s mask and in fluid motion like soccer’ sliding tackle - only on the asphalt - found himself facing dumbfounded shooter under armored car.

Villain twisted and jabbed baseball bat straight into the cop’s face. The loud crack and flying teeth signaled that he won’t make any more problems.

Autarch, Menagerie, Caliber

Menagerie dogs coordinated together like fingers that made a fist. Horace launched them in the side of prison van, but car was already moving, escaping into the fog. The three geese, still on windshields, moved with it outside camera view.

Doberman quickly took Miasma into his fog.

Autarch commanded his one-armed minions. They moved toward the SWAT van, just in time to create living shield. Armored doors swung open and split second later machine-guns fire swept everything facing back of the armored truck.

It was a massacre. Autarch was left with only one minion on the battlefield. Said minions was in fog, harming himself to heal Miasma. The dogs-monsters lined also were in the firing arc, half of them death or wounded.

Caliber

Caliber waited. He knew that SWAT team planned to clean the way, then follow with quick move into positions to get better angles, use their numbers and concentrated firepower to kill all of his team-mates.

He also knew that they didn’t know that he was there. On his side was element of surprise and better position. Normally, it would be counterbalanced by SWAT armor and superior firepower, but Caliber had prepared something special.

He shot first officer as they tried to get out. He could see hundreds of bone needles tearing out of leg as the bullet hit above the knee. SWAT team showed the courage and loyalty - next two out of van dragged their fallen colleague back inside the car.

It seemed that Caliber’s terror weapon passed the field-test. It bought enough time for a team to finish the job.

Exhilarate


He may only create the illusion of invincibility, but he was good at it, practiced it every time when he defended his territory. Cops exchanged one glance and broke into run.

Sometimes prayers were answered. Even those made by villains.


Prison car crashed into abandoned police car in front of him. He barely could see in fog, but the sound of opening doors was unmistakable. The driver decided to run. Few steps forward and he could see why - Menagerie birds finally crashed through armored glass.

Miasma

The pain in Miasma legs only seemed to be getting worse. The train of thought started again. Blood surrounded him. His skin growing back, the bone re-forming, muscles knitting themselves. It was excruciatingly slow, but he healed. Someone was bleeding inside the fog, few steps away from him. The Menagerie’ monstrous doberman held him by the shoulder.

Anna

She could feel short break in violence. Two minutes. Then she could feel the fastest heroes of Brockton Bay swooping out of the sky and engaging in the fight, lasers and force-fields against her rescuers diminished ranks.

[Bobbybobby99]

One Pit Bull dead, one Rottweiler with a useless lower right leg, another Rottweiler with a knife-like streak on it's back. The dead Pit Bull had become such on a permanent basis, but the Rottweilers could (and hopefully would) recover. Using their not inconsiderable might, he had the mostly able bodied two aid the lesser two; the Pit Bull dragged it's dead compatriot in his general direction, while the Rottweilers supported each other in hobbling to his direction. Given the very sharp crack of bone he had just heard, he could be fairly confident that the assailant had been disarmed, and the SWAT team seemed otherwise occupied.

That made his dogs unneeded for the moment, and in danger of further degradation to their numbers; thus, they would simply wait until needed in an area where they weren't open to potshots. He would have to replace the dead one, but he wouldn't be replacing any more (though he was likely to 'stock up' anyways). So, relying on his vague sense of positioning for the abominations, he opened his door and had them pull themselves inside. That included the dead one; he already knew what a tinker could do with one of his 'pets', and he wasn't taking any chances.

Giving the slightest of frowns and glancing at his guard dogs, he apathetically, yet negatively, knew that he would likely have to send them out, leaving himself mostly defenseless aside from his snake. That was part of the advantage of concealment, of course, but it still left him rather worried. Speaking of worries, he noted both that he would have to clean the van out again, or rather requisition one of Autarch's men to do so, and that time was passing. The particular passing of time in the song "Shake your booty" and the clock... they would have to be quick, unless they wanted to face certain heroic factions.

Horace was not a fan of the superheroic community, for very practical reasons; namely, they didn't pay as well as crime, and they had a noted habit of interfering with said crime. They had a very good response time, unfortunately, which meant that they really ought to respond to said responce time by getting out of the frying pan. With his geese blindly groping and not meeting any resistance, he was reasonably certain the driver was no longer driving, so he 'recalled' them as well, using his directional sense, and having them land on top of the van in case they needed to respond quickly.

The macaw... he left it precisely where it was, surveying given that he had absolutely no desire to have blood all over the high-end yet fairly cheap video camera. He already had haemoglobin making a mess of his upholstery just from opening the door. It was also, currently, the only way he could see, and thus respond. While it may be unhealthy for the injured dogs to face combat, he had four perfectly healthy ones, and it was a simplicity to 'release the hounds'. He also kept the Doberman guarding Miasma, just in case.

The one change he did make was to have the macaw click the recorder once more, with the "Bohemian rhapsody" playing. Perhaps that would annoy the people who had killed his biggest pit bull, the inconsiderates.

[Writtensanity]

*CRUNCH* at least that was as far as my sound effects went. White teeth mixed with blood as the man reeled back from a baseball at to the face. I pulled my bat ut from the bottom of the car and flicked the blood off of it and spun the bat around in my hand to spray the blood around.

Gunshots rang out across the battlefield and two voices I didn't know screamed. Then dogs yelped and there was silence. The squat team was in on the fight. Calibre shot from the rooftops and the strangest bone-related sound I've even heard followed the gunshot. That must have been his new gun, yikes.

Above me, the music changed. "Now this is more like it!" I yelled as the guitars started, "this is a soundtrack!" Without a ton of options I turned to look to the front of the Prison car. The driver had abandoned it which meant one thing... I wanted a new ride.

I sprinted across the battlefield and jumped into the open door. After brushing some glass off of the seat I slipped into it and looked over the dashboard. I could just drive away with a new swatteam and the cape we were bringing with us in tow, but I thought our team was getting a little big already.

I banged against the partition without opening it, "So unless you guys wanna go for a ride, I'd recommend dropping the guns and getting out of the car. If you hold up your hands we don't need to brutally mutate anyone."

[n0ble]

As the officer went down, John placed two more shots at the centre masses of the two men who tried to rescue him. Might as well fully cripple the team. Regardless of the success he saw Backlight drift into the prison van. He couldn't hear what was going on but hoped that the cape wasn't going to steal the van. Stuff like that was the exact opposite of nondescript. Almost as bad as the music that was blaring from the parrot. Wouldn't make for a clean getaway.

Shame that no capes showed up, he would've loved to have used the bronze gun on them. Or the grey one. Besides he really needed to field-test the new instruments he'd been developing...

The thought of a getaway snapped across his brain again. With the SWAT team down and the van more or less secured, he left through the door he'd propped open on top of the building. Down the top floor of the parking garage, checking to see that everything was under control, he radioed Exhilarate. "Prison van looks more or less secure. In route to getaway vehicle. Will have it ready on the right side of the road. It's a white van. Expecting you, Autarch, Miasma, Backlight and the precog. Radio if you need more fire support or backup. SWAT team shouldn't pose a problem anymore."

He kept the mask on as he entered into the van and drove it into the freeway. No point in revealing his face to anyone. Especially not this group. He kept the grey pistol unholstered, in the seat next him. Could be useful if they needed to induce panic to get away. Almost lazily, he drove the van out of the parking complex and into the road.

[GameOfChampions]

I moan groggily as I come into consciousness and then bite my lip to stop myself from screaming as the pain of my healing limbs hits me. I look around confused, the last thing I remember was getting shot and then smashing my head against the ground as I fell. 'Someone must have dragged me in here... but why am I healing?' I look around and notice Menagerie's mutant dog and the man, that must have been under Autarch's control, slicing himself not to far away. 'Damn they must have saved me, didn't expect that...'

I pull myself into a sitting position in the fog and take a look at my foot that had the hole through it though it was starting to heal, I test it but have to stifle a cry as it collapses under me. Instead I crawl to the edge of the fog and look out to see what had happened since I passed out. I see the man who'd shot me slumped down under the crash site and hear the crash of the SWAT transport truck against something. I glimpse Backlight jumping over the fog bank but ignore that for the moment.

I start to emanate my fog and direct it towards the bulldozer crash site and the unconscious shooter under it, hoping that there are some bleeding people in the wreck as well. After I start to do that I pull out BB gun and wait for the fog to cover the shooter so I can sense him and peg him with a couple shots to make him start to bleed a little more then he already is. As this starts to happen I sit up and call out to the dog and man behind me in the fog. "You should both go back to your masters now. Keep them safe for me, I can't thank them if they die."

I'm just honestly waiting until I'm healed enough to hobble away to the getaway van.

[DukeGod]

"I'm gonna need some help moving around. Leg's bleeding, don't wanna put my weight on it"

[Bobbybobby99]

Seeing that Miasma was fairly healed up by his words (no thanks to that driver, selfish fellow that he was), and having the camera pick up the touching, but ridiculously sentimental thought, Menagerie siezed the Doberman's reins. He directed the dog to Autarch's side, as a support for the injured fellow. Discussions about a healing gun with Calibre would have to ensue, given the disastrous shooting. Very deliberately, he then had the dog monster crouch down, delicately maneuvering in between the injured mans' legs and rising again as an impromptu mount, assuming no resistance. It gripped his hand with it's teeth, positioned so his injured leg wouldn't drag across the ground, and then rapidly galloped to the van, through the blood. Relying on his direction sense, he once again quickly opened the door and had the 'pet' and the mounted teammate alike swiftly step inside.

Ever so slightly frowning once more at the blood stains (he would have to find a dedicated fabric cleaner), his face once again posed in an apathetic expression, before shutting the door, hard. The blood fog would be weakening to the fellow, but they would have to get out of dodge rather quickly. After the Doberman dropped the man off in the back corner, he took command of the macaw, having it carefully shut the camera lense and then quickly fly over. The geese then also arrayed by the door, before he opened it as rapidly as possible to let both them and the macaw inside.

Closing his laptop and putting it to the side, he turned on his wind-shield wipers to maximum power, and waited for everyone else to finish up. It was high-time to get out of dodge.

[sean_hyer]

Through the mist, I could just make out an acrobatic figure vaulting in through the door of the prison van moments after the driver abandoned it. Backlight, almost certainly. I started to run towards it. From the radio, everyone was fine (more or less), and I was the last one they were waiting on. Hitching a ride seemed like a fine plan, even if I did just end up clinging to the bumper.

As it turned out, I didn't have to. As I neared the van, the rear doors unlatched and swung open. I froze in place for a second, and then a pair of scared looking cops jumped out. I might not have approved of his methodology, but right now I was just grateful it had worked. Thank you, Backlight.

Resuming my advance towards the vehicle, I walked up to the two cops, who had frozen at the sight of me. Inside the van sat our target, hands cuffed to the bench she sat on. Returning my gaze to the pair in front of me, I said in my most serious voice, pointing at the prisoner: "Keys." Then I jerked my thumb to the side in a clear gesture. "Then run."

Moments later, a set of handcuff keys lay in my outstretched palm, and the pair was vanishing into the mist. Using the hood of the police car as a makeshift step, I quickly hauled myself into the rear of the van and swung the doors shut behind me. Banging on the partition between me and the driver, I hollered "It's Exhilarate. Get this crate moving!"

As the van started to roll, I dropped myself easily down onto the bench next to our target, smiling kindly and working the keys into the locks of her cuffs. "Name's Exhilarate. We're the rescue Cauldron promised."

[3SecondCultist]

"In less than two minutes, there will be nobody to rescue me." Anna's voice is smaller than she anticipated it would be. She's barely spoken in over six years, so her words are hard and scratchy as they emerge from her throat. The man standing in front of her will be the first to die - an accident, as the girl with the energy blasts hits a little too hard. Another follows. The rest are merely badly wounded in a futile escape attempt. This is all so wrong. She's about to trade the frying pan for the fire.

Her eyes meet those of the cape wearing the half-face sun mask. He's Cauldron, apparently. The Number Man told her that was the name of the organization he worked for, although he hadn't answered any of her other questions on the matter. This one doesn't appear to be bothered by the plethora of eyes on her body, which means he's either unfazed by the paranormal, or he's already been warned on the specifics of her powers. That's more than I know, anyways. Anna realizes that either way, she needs to trust him. This whole situation is going to get a lot worse, and very soon.

"You need to drive. Right now. They're coming for all of us..."

[n0ble]

As soon as he heard Exhilarate bellow to get moving, John began driving. Idiots. Each vehicle, especially the prison van is probably bugged. "This is Calibre. I'm leaving. Miasma will need recovery. You are closer to his position.Trash the prison van if thats the one your taking. Probably bugged. Reconvene in your territory. I'll contact you." He wasn't about to go and risk his life for someone he barely knew. Let alone a cape. Besides, there was so much more he needed to do. Too much business left to attend to.

As he finished his statement, John turned the radio down to a low volume before driving the truck away from the road. He maintained a fast, yet even pace, like someone in a hurry who was being mindful of the speed limit. As he got farther away from the convoy, he took an exit off the main road into a side street before stopping and getting into the back of the windowless van. He peeled off his holster, jacket, khakis, guns and radio, depositing them all in a Good Life fitness bag. He wrapped the guns in the pants and jacket so they would press against the bag. The radio was turned off. He exchanged his uniform for a grey hoodie, blue wool toque, and sweatpants. The one remaining piece of his uniform was the black crew neck t-shirt underneath the hoodie. And a six inch long knife in his belt, covered by the hoodie.

He left the van. Too easy a target and too similar to the one Menagerie was using. He didn't want to risk someone being on the lookout for the van on the off chance that they spotted Menagerie's. The chances were low, but it was a chance that John didn't want to take, despite the creeps capabilities when it came to remaining unseen. He locked the van from the inside, exiting it and leaving the keys in the glove compartment as he left. John began the long trek back to Exhilarates territory on foot, confident that no one was looking for a man in sweatpants and a hoodie. The weight of the Good Life bag felt nice on his shoulder.

[Bobbybobby99]

Horace had been waiting, on the off chance that another asset would need assistance, but upon hearing the radio (only now paying much attention), he rapidly disembarked (particularly since it sounded so frantic). A high speed swerve, and then a high speed but not too high speed movement out of there. He continued at this pace for perhaps a minute, before swiftly entering some of the residential districts, in an effort to confuse. Left, Right, Left, Left, Forward, Right.

One hidden aspect of Miasma's power was that it changed the van color to red by the staining of the blood, at least to a cursory glance, contrary to it's normal paleness. Right, Left. Just slow enough that coppers wouldn't think to themselves that they needed to pull him over, not that there were many cops watching. At the two minute mark, he was a very confusing ways away; if someone was tracking that they undoubtably had a very solid headache.

Assuming he wasn't intercepted, he then proceeded to go on a deeply bendy path to Exhilerate's territory, in order to reconvene. Left, Right, Sideways, U-turn, Right, Left, Right, Right...

[Writtensanity]

"Oh cool, it's you! Hey girl in the back of the car, welcome to the team. I'm Backlight and I'm stealing prison van!" I drumme the dash for a second before checking that everything was good and ready to go. "Thank god you are an automatic," I said under my breath as I pressed down the pedal. We started to go forward and then I caught a form in the rear view mirror, nobody had grabbed Miasma. What a bunch of allies.

I pulled up to the literally bloody idiot and slammed the partition before opening it. "Grab Miasm- holy **** you have a lot of eyes young lady," I said as I caught the blood red eyes blinking all over the woman. Jesus murphy she needed a lot of sunglasses, or multiple paper bags. It didn't matter, I was used to seeing the weird capes on the internet. I shut the partition and waited for Exhilerate's knocked to tell me that we'd grabbed Miasma.

"Everybody loves a car chase!" I shouted as I squealed the tires before taking off down the street. Thank god most people had cleared out once they heard gunshots. I hit a steady pace and opened the parition again, "Please hold onto the handrails, and where the hell should we drop this thing off? Until the dust settles it makes us a pretty obvious target for capes."

[DukeGod]

"Just stop somewhere you can change into the getaway car. Better if we can also find someone who I can order to drive it the prison one around

You need to learn how to drive a manual car. Barbarian yankees..."

Autarch looks around the car for a first aid kit. He was pretty sure Menagerie would keep one around. Oh, nice, there was one in the glove deparment. Fishing out bandages and the like, Octavian sees what he can do to stop the bleeding

[GameOfChampions]

I watch warily as the prison van pulled up beside me, unsure what was going on until Exhilarate hopped out of the back to drag me into the back of the van with him, and the lady I assumed we were breaking out, or kidnapping. "Thanks guys. I hope you were worth it lady, my feet hurt like a bitch now!"

Ignoring her for a moment I look around the van and start thinking out loud. "I need to get patched up fast or I'll someone to pretty much carry me while we escape. Unless there are some crutches here i need to regenerate the holes in my feet."

I raise my voice to yell to Backlight. "HEY BACKLIGHT YOU UP FOR CARRYING ME? I'LL BE YOUR NUMBER 1 FAN." I turn back to the others "Assuming she-" I gesture at the women in the back with us, "-doesn't have any healing powers at least."

[3SecondCultist]

Anna simply states at the other figure - Blacklight - as he curses, diverting her attention from Exhilarate. And there's... Miasma. Strange names for capes. Then again, in the days before NYSP, she'd only heard of big-leaguers. The Protectorate. The Triumvirate. And the international capes, of course. She knew that there would be more, but there had to be a lot of them for those poor men to take such drastic monikers.

"No healing, sorry." The pain threatens to tear her apart from the inside. "I've been... seeing things. There is a team of superheroes. They come here. You die." Even as she speaks the words aloud, Anna realizes they're no longer true. The violence she predicted has not come to pass.

I... I did that, didn't I? Something deep in her, an instinct or an impulse, seems to chime in agreement, and all seven of her eyes suddenly twitch in unison. She chuckles under her breath, as all of the implications begin to wash over the cracks in her mind.

"Take your next left," she growls through the agony at the man in the driver's seat. "If you go right, they find you. They fight you."

[Madwand]

Miasma, Autarch, Caliber, Menagerie, Backlight


Blood fog sprung forth across street like hungry serpent. It engulfed armored van, blocking the line of sight of SWAT team inside.

Backlight crossed from one wall of fog to another barely touching the ground on his way.

Eerie calm, pause after sudden burst of violence, gave villains time to complete the plan.

Miasma

Miasma aimed his bb-gun guided by his new, six sense. He fired, but the fallen body was shielded by wheels and bulldozer’ blade. He didn’t sense new wounds, but now had two bleeding men inside his fog.

The pain receded, subdued.

His foot still had a gaping hole in the place of it where bullet had hit, rapidly filling with what looked like a big blood clot. He still couldn't walk, but few minutes should fix even that.

Autarch and Menagerie

Autarch left the battlefield, carried away on the back of large plant-dog. His wound was bleeding badly, but as soon as he reached the Menagerie getaway car he got his hands on first aid kit. His half-remembered mandatory first-aid training for job in embassy came handy as he bandaged his wound.

Autarch knew that he needed medical attention, the damaged muscles, blood loss, risk of infection - all of it was not something that he could ignore. Wasn’t there a doctor among Exhilarate “henchmen” that could assist him?


Menagerie driven off, his fears unfunded - no one stopped him and no police in sight the whole convoluted road into Exhilarate territory.

Caliber

He had lot of time to think on his way to villains territory. No one paid any special attention to him as he walked through the city. The weight of the Good Life bag felt nice on his shoulder and ideas for improvements in accuracy of his atypical weapons occupied his mind.

Exhilarate, Anna, Backlight, Miasma

Exhalite quickly freed Anna. When Backlight manoeuvred the van as close as possible to place where Miasma was last time seen, he hopped out of the back to drag fallen group member into the back of the van with Anna.

"Everybody loves a car chase!" Backlight shouted as he picked up speed. Heroes and police gravely disappointed - no-one seemed to chase them. It could be that armed forces decided discretion was the better part of valour and didn’t try to attack unknow number of villains with unknown abilities.

[sean_hyer]

It was a bit of a drive back to my turf. Time enough to at least try to do something for Miasma. I shot a quick glance at our rescuee - this might freak her out a little. Ah well. We had some freaky powers in our group; she'd have to get used to it eventually.

"Hit me," I told Miasma, slowly working a knife into the inside of my wrist (and trying to hide a grimace of pain). It'd be difficult to give myself many wounds, but I could help him heal a little, and I was in no danger from cutting myself - which was more than I could say about Autarch's flunkys. Hopefully he'd be able to walk unaided by the time we made it back.

In the meantime, time to try to work out what to do now. Cauldron hadn't given me much information. Turning back to the prisoner, I asked "So, did you have a name, miss...?"

[n0ble]

John stalked through Exhilarate's territory, eventually leaving it entirely, instead making his what had been his family's home. Now it was just his home. All three floors of it.

He entered the building and took the stairs down. Electricity still hadn't been restored. The front door was as secure as he could make it, with a chain and two sliding bar locks on the door. Entering the basement, he threw the bag onto a wireframe bed, bedecked with what could generously be called a mattress. The wall opposite had two windows, both propped open to allow for clean air and light. Underneath the smaller of the two was a desk with a flashlight, ammo clips of all sorts and his instruments. The leftmost wall had a closet and dresser. It was in the closet where he stored his uniform, in a nondescript brown suitcase. His dresser was for civilian clothing. The right wall had several handguns hanging from it, each equipped with a trigger guard and chamber-blocker. Only he had the key to them. He hung the grey and gold gun alongside them, securing them in the same fashion.

The only other feature of the room that stood out were several boards, with pictures of the various capes in Brockton Bay. They were organized according to groups and by hierarchy, with names and powers listed underneath.

He hadn't been upstairs since they'd gone missing.

If they weren't back at the meeting point they would be soon. A debrief would presumably follow, as well as getting to know the pre-cog. Questions would undoubtably be raised as to what the group's next goal was, what they wanted to do. How to heal Miasma and Autarch after they'd been hurt. He'd been thinking about that for a while. Injuries They needed some expedited form of healing. A gun patterned on Exhilarate would be difficult, but not impossible to make. More difficult to upkeep than anything else. A better alternative would be something based around Miasma's healing. Something that could be applied to the group as a whole. He'd need to run more tests. There was also the matter of the gold gun. Potential S-class threat on a stick. If it works on humans.

He spent some time resting on the mattress before unpacking and re-donning his uniform. John exited via the backdoor, being careful to make sure he wasn't noticed. He took the gold and grey guns with him, without trigger guards or chamber blockers. As his feet touched the driveway to the left of his house, he started walking to the meet point, eventually arriving as the others did.

[GameOfChampions]

Watching Exhilarate slice open his wrist, I wince seeing the effort he's putting into it "Well if you're sure...". I shuffle back to the back of the van, to make sure I don't cover the new women with blood, and start to push my fog over Exhilarate. I try not to cover him to much but it's hard to control the quantity of the fog when I'm creating it, so unfortunately we both get some more blood on us.

My power starts to take effect almost immediately after the fog covers his gushing wrist, the hole in my foot started to close up, the muscle knitting together, veins threading themselves through the new flesh and reconnecting with the ends of the old ones, and finally skin slowly growing over the wound. I watch fascinated because I've rarely been able to watch my regeneration in this much detail 'God Damn that stings but I'll never get tired of watching this, It's still hard to think of myself as a cape but when I see this it doesn't seem so difficult to see myself like that.'

I wait for my ankle and foot to finish their regeneration and then stand up with a grunt, I flex my feet and everything seems fine so I stop the fog and pull out some wet-naps from one of the pockets on my cargo pants. I grab a couple and start to wipe myself off and toss the pack to Exhilarate to he can do the same. "Thanks man. That really helped." I say with a smile as I toss him the wet-naps.

I then look over at the women across from us, unsure what to make of her yet. She doesn't seem to bad, a little lost but who isn't when they just get their powers and she's apparently only just gotten them very recently. Not really knowing where to start I just sit back and let Exhilarate do the talking, 'He's the team leader or whatever so he can catch her up to speed'. I just sit there listening and hoping we get their soon so I can steal Backlight and Exhilarates shower to rinse off.

[3SecondCultist]

A loud bang. A sudden silence. A body on the ground.

The vision pushes against the dam that is Anna's fractured consciousness, threatening to overwhelm her. This one is clearer than the others have been, and she can feel the sniper's bullet tear through her abdomen to rip through the other side, leaving her bleeding. Except it's not her face she sees in the red reflection on the street, but a man's. A black mask is clutched in his hands, and it falls to the ground uselessly. She closes all of her eyes all at once to absorb the shock. Is this what it's going to be like from now on? Just ride it out: lean into the skid. Wintry drives with her father come back to her, when she sat at the back and saw nothing other than the falling flakes. But her dad... he could see everything. At least, that's what he told her. Then, she would tell Jonathan the same thing. A wry smile twists her features.

Stretching her back, she extends her hand to grip Exhilarate's injured one. She saw his knife cut long before he performed the deed, so it doesn't shock her as much as it should, but the other man - Miasma - is slowly being healed, which elicits a raised eyebrow. "The name's Anna. Anna Ryker. You may have heard of me." She doesn't elaborate on the details: if they haven't heard of her, they will soon. Technically, she's still wanted in the state of New York, and although she suspects Cauldron will make the arrest records go away, those trials were still very public.

It's strange, thinking back on it now. The past six years of solitude have given her some clarity, even if they lacked the chance for companionship. Looking around the transport van as it makes its way away from the scene and towards safe haven, Anna comes to the conclusion that she wants that companionship again. Certainly not here, not with these people. There's only one thought that burns through her brain, sitting and watching out the window at the passing streets of Brockton Bay.

Jonathan.

[n0ble]

He met the others at the designated location just as the pre-cog finished her brief introduction. Ryker? The name certainly rang a bell. The murder-couple husband and wife. He'd seen it on the news back when he'd just started the job. In another lifetime, it'd been a point of pride for him that it was police that brought her in, not capes. He hadn't followed the proceedings all that much, but it was clear even to John that they'd needed someone to pin the murders on. Now? Now he didn't much care one way or the other who she was. Her appearance... irked him. Freak The thought slid across his brain as he took in the eyes covering her body. He waited for the others to introduce themselves before curlty offering his cape name "Calibre."

His eyes moved from Ryker to Exhilarate, "We should get inside. Too exposed out here." before his eyes swivelled to Miasma, "I have more tests I need to run. I'm going to develop a delivery system for your contingent healing abilities." With that John sharply turned on his heal and began to walk towards the building they'd designated as their discussion venue. He had agreed to work alongside Exhilarate. Not for him. It was by and large a budding relationship of convenience. At least thats how he saw it.

He had the gold and grey guns at his hips, and the magnum on his right leg. All of them were chambered with forty four calibre rounds.

[Bobbybobby99]

For all of his twists and turns, Menagerie was still driving in one of the most efficient ways possible while still twisting and turning, and so arrived a scant few minutes after the rest of the 'team'. He pulled in to find them standing outside, which even within their claimed territory was so irrational he could barely believe it. In all likelyhood they assosiated the area with positive memories of safety, and then by the Halo Effect they progressively improved opinion of it, until they felt invincible. Driving up to them, he opened the door, having each of his individual abominations parade out in marching formation. If they had to break her out of prison, the new member was likely rather powerful, perhaps more-so (directly) than him.

A glance. Eyes. It was terribly unlikely that she was anything other than a thinker, given the motif; a potent one, most likely. Who knew; he would give the impression he had already found out without directly confirming it, and then ask Autarch for information in the guise of clarification later. He had a certain understanding of autonomy, as of the moment; he would not have it comprimised, and having horrifying mutants act deliberately as his puppets was excellent intimidation. He slowly walked out, flashed an insincere smile at the woman, and noted that he also ought to acquire a few more snakes, in addition to the more standard. Thinking in terms of fear, they were dreadfully effective. Making a note, he called out "You should really find him some medical aid; I'm certain there are doctors for more immediate treatment. Oh, and call me Menagerie." He himself also walked into the old, formerly unused building, alongside his pets; he lacked the energy to drive elsewhere for the night.

[GameOfChampions]

I roll my eyes as everyone passes by, judging or trying to intimidate the new girl. I glance over at her, "Don't worry you'll get used to all the drama queens around here. They aren't to bad at all, though some are more talkative then others. Come on in and I'm sure we'll be able to find some bolt cutters or something for those handcuffs."

I gesture at the warehouse with my head before hopping out the back of the van and head up into the warehouse where I spend a quick five minutes cleaning up before joining the others for planning out our next step. I head over to Caliber and just start chating about what kind of tests he'd need to do and when we'll do them, I also ask if he could grab me a couple extra things for me next time he went to grab supplies for his work. 'I really need to expand my options, some stuff like the Sting grenades I'm hoping Caliber can find would be helpful. I should also get a real gun and try and find a better nonlethal gun then my bb gun, it's just not cutting it with this crowd.'

[n0ble]

John was standing next to a couch when Miasma came to talk to him. He was slowly going over the room, planning potential improvements that could be made when the kid interrupted his thought process. It wasn't like this place was going to be HQ anyways. Despite how off-putting his power was, John at least had to respect his dislike for the PRT. So he listened to Miasma's questions and tried to answer them as honestly as possible.

"I'm not sure how long the tests will take, but we can do so of them after business here is concluded. The bio-reccorder I used for Menegerie should work." He paused, sitting down on old wooden chair next to a desk. "In terms of weaponry I've been meaning to talk with everyone about that. I have two ideas pertaining to you. With the data I gather from you I'm hoping to design some sort of projectile device that will impart your healing to someone else whenever they're in your mist. Think of it like a dart gun. It'll ensure that even if we start bleeding, we'll all be healing each other. Naturally it'd only last for a certain amount of time, but it's less costly than a gun based on Exhilarate's power. If slightly less effective. The second" he took off his jacket, laying over he back of the chair "is a gun designed to cause immense bloodshed. The theory would be that once the bullet hits someone, it'd drain the blood from them, like a fountain or a geyser. I'm not sure if I can get enough information for this one just by running tests on you, but if I were to make it you'd be the one to get it." John punctuated his statement by standing up, taking some ammo out of one of the jacket pockets. He fiddled with the clip, taking bullets out, rolling them around in his hand and putting them back in.

"If you want non-lethal any gun should do, you just need to use rubber bullets. Sting grenades are pretty common in the American Penal system, so they should be easy to get. I can provide you with a handgun and some rubber nine millimetres if you want. Though if your looking to replace your bb gun a shotgun might be a better idea. It'd shoot rubber pellets about the same size as that" he gestures to the gun at Miasma's hip, "Except there'd be more and they'd have much more force upon impact. "

[DukeGod]

Relatively confident in the treatment he put on himself, at least enough to walk around, Autarch steps out, still using his lance to support weight

" 'elo, Miss Ryker. I'm Autarch, or, Octavian if ya prefer it."

He too starts making his way to the HQ

"Oi, Exhilarate? yew'ave a doctor among yahr staff, aye? I think I require 'is services"

[Writtensanity]

I didn't know if it was morning at this point in the day, all I knew was that I wanted cereal, and it was what I was going to get. I'd spent the better part of the day trying to make something out of the video that I had from my go-pro and Menagerie's parrot. The issue was that Miasma wasn't exactly good for television. Half the battlefield was fog and aside from a few good shots, I didn't have much more than a .gif of action. I'd been trying but impossible was impossible sometimes.

The new girl was sitting at the table. She was weird in the way that she didn't talk, also in the fact that she had a million eyes that opened at random times, and that she spoke like she was being shivved. I wasn't about to judge, though; we were villains. It was just part of our character.

Everworking I pulled out my phone and started to search the internet for ways to make our lair more villainous. I'd decided that I needed to speak to someone about automated turret guns that could never shoot one another, as well as the acid shower, but those were tinker jobs. The rest could be found on Amazon, everything could be found on Amazon.

"Hey Eyes," I said after I'd been looking for a second, "do you know a place where I could buy an alligator for cheap?"

She responded with silence and half a glance. Oh, joy. Thank god we'd just risked our necks to save this bundle of personality. Between her and Exhilarate, I was starting to think that Cauldron shoved a stick up your ass to give you powers.

"Thanks," I said after we'd established that we weren't talking. Whatever, cereal, that was the plan.

[sean_hyer]

Exhilarate steps up to Autarch, offering an arm to lean on if he needs it. Honestly, he doesn't expect him to take it, but it's polite to offer.

"That I do. Just follow me, and I'll see you there, get you patched up a bit better."

[Bobbybobby99]

Horace, having had his injured pets go into their resting room in the headquarters, was delicately watering the lilies, white arrowheads, and mandevillas he had placed in strategic positions. The orchids he had placed upon a windowsill, alongside a few sundews and a single pointsetta that he displayed more prominently around Christmas. His face remained close to blank, but tending to his plants gave him a ghost of a smile, and a certain contentment that made him a tad less apathetic. He would need to raid a pound later, but it would be wise to space out his actions; the capes would unfortunately be on high alert, and his abominations were reduced.

Having carefully tended to the plants that needed tending, he sat down with a certain degree of grace, the snake still coiled around his shoulders. It rarely left his body, as a precaution, since it could crush, or at least strangle, most mundane threats. Caution in all things. He was his own greatest asset, after all, and depreciation was entirely too serious. He couldn't afford a mistake, a mishap; one of them was sufficient to turn him to little better than ashes. In any case, having sat down, he directed his scarlet macaw (larger than the one he used for vision) to the oatmeal packets, had it fill a cup of water, put it in the microwave, and then had it add the oatmeal. It was excellent practice of fine-control, and he was half-exhausted.

He looked at the eye woman. Dangerous. None the less in reach of a lash by the boa constrictor. Safe. He directed the Macaw to fetch the Wall Street Journal from the door. Reading. It opened the microwave, carefully bringing over the oatmeal. He sunk slightly in his chair, starting reading the news, and began eating the oatmeal, deliberately not adding any sugar. Sugar was for the weak. He was not weak.

[Madwand]

Villainous gathering

Exhilarate controlled area south of the Trainyard, west of Boardwalk. It was mostly residential district. It centred around star-shaped green patch, a makeshift campsite sprung after Leviathan attacks. Now, with a lot of houses gutted or wrecked by Endbringer weaves and Shatter-bird scream, it was place where people gathered to help each other. Villains controled that camp and the surrounding houses. More and more as new parahumans joined Exhilarate and territory under their protection grew.

Villains gathered in one of abandoned buildings. It was time to discuss plans, and their heist and welcome new teammate.

Exhilarate, Autarch

The emergency room of a high-volume hospital or clinic can be one of the busiest and most chaotic environments in all of healthcare.ER doctors and trauma surgeons, like Dr.Royce, short women in her late thirties, were therefore one of most organized and disciplined.Her neat and tidy apartment reflected that training. Exhilarate convinced her while back that she should work for him, help him with wounded in his territory in exchange for some unmentioned favour.

She administered antibiotics and anaesthetics, performed back-room operation on Autarch's wounded leg. She gave it serious consideration, shook her head.

"I can't do much more. He won't bleed to dead and we probably won't need amputation, but if he wants to run or even walk without cane he will need serious reconstructive surgery in hospital and months of rehabilitation Exhilarate.

Backlight

Explosion. His Twitter fallowing almost doubled in last ten minutes. He quickly checked, the traffic was coming mostly from Parahumans Online. Someone posted link in thread about their heist. First photos already were on site. One, panoramic view of bloodbath left by Miasma' fog and the scene and second, which looked like one of paramedics send someone shoot of mutated, mangled leg of anonymous SWAT officer hit by bullet from Caliber weapon.

It seems that the reactions were far from positive, there is no such thing as bad publicity, right?


Please, continue the discussion:smallsmile:

[sean_hyer]

I suck in a breath between clenched teeth. The injury wasn't as bad as the one Miasma had taken, so I had allowed myself to be cautiously optimistic. No such luck.

Something very like what Autarch was hearing now was my ostensible reason for 'triggering', and had robbed my life of meaning for years. If he's anything like me, this must suck.

What to do? What to say? I try to think back to what I would have wanted to hear, but I can't. Thinking back hurts. ****. If I knew the guy better, I'd offer a hug. But I don't. **** it all. I don't even know if he has a family he'll have to explain the wound to.

So I just sit there and watch him, in awkward silence, waiting to see how he'll react.

[DukeGod]

Autarch too nods in grim acceptance after the doctor explains

"Guess I'll be off the frontlines and stick to using minions for now. Will probably need a cane, and then I think I'll see what I can do to get that surgery and rehabilitation"

[3SecondCultist]

"Bullet to the midsection. That's how you die." Anna finds everything coming out at whisper pitch, although the words are clearly directed at the gentleman with the guns who introduced himself as Calibre. Somehow, she suspects it's not coincidence that her power showed her his death, and he just so happens to be a member of the team that sprung her. He's a... mechanic? They're called Tinkers, right? There's still so much to learn, so Anna sits down and is as quiet as possible following her little outburst. The context of the feeling, the imprint of the man's death have clarified. There's a skirmish, somewhere not far from here, in few hours. There are others involved, lesser bloodshed.

"You have incoming," she says not long after she hears the doctor's diagnosis of the Brit's leg. "I don't know exactly where, but there will be a fight in this neighborhood very soon. Today. You're going to be the first to die." She points at Tinker talking with Miasma. The words should be more apologetic, but she figures that if these visions are going to be a regular occurrence, then it's a waste of breath to say sorry every time one of these men die. She has a distinct feeling it'll be happening fairly often.

Getting to her feet and stretching properly, Anna walks towards one of the windows. The feeling of the sun on her skin is wonderful, and yet she feels cold. The eyes in her flesh swivel and spin in a mad dance of prophecy. There is something else, but she isn't comfortable enough yet in her sight for it to have solidified into anything intelligible.

[n0ble]

It took him a second to realize that the women, Ryker, was pointing at him. Straight to the point. She does not mince words. Good. John had little time for pointless conversation. He turned his body and gaze away from Miasma, fixing the pre-cog with a look halfway between a glare and more quizzical expression. None of them knew exactly what kind of pre-cog she was. Could be she was making it up. Could be she was right. Either way she was still a pre-cog so her words carried weight. "How and who?"

[GameOfChampions]

I glance at Calibre as Anna gives her... prophecy? I wasn't entirely sure what was up with her power but it seemed like she could see the future to some degree 'Well it seems that she'll be useful as hell but goddamn that was some bad news. We need a game plan or something. At least Calibre is keeping his cool.'

I run my hands through my hair and sigh "Man we can't catch a break can we. So someone is either hunting for us or some other group of villains are moving in on the area, either way we need to get a game plan and some people, or creatures," I nod to Menagerie "on look out. I really can't express how much I would like to not get shot again..."

[3SecondCultist]

Anna turns and listens to the two men plan. Futilely. Her vision is already set. The pieces are moving. "I don't know if they're villains. The woman who kills you, she's got a shapeshifting gun." She pauses, checking back on the feeling around the pain. "This only happens if we stay and fight. Nobody gets hurt if you go to ground, flee this place."

[GameOfChampions]

I shrug "Really not to opposed to this, running and living is always preferable to getting shot and dying. I know I have a place and I'm sure some others have places as well. We could split up and have one or two people at each place, or all go to one place. There are problems with both options, one group could be caught out or if we stick together then we could all be easier to find."

I gesture around at the other people around "I don't mind offering my place to lay low at for either all of us or just a couple."

[n0ble]

"Miss Militia and the Protectorate." John could only think of one female cape in the general Brockton Bay area with a shapeshifting gun. Unless the Protectorate was brining someone else in, which was another worry in and of itself. Either way it was time to get somewhere and regroup in an area where he could ask the important questions. Like how the Protectorate came to the conclusion that lethal force was aloud. And how they'd have been able to track them down so quickly post-job. Either way it was time to go.

"We're in no shape to fight right now. We need to leave. Take Menegerie's van if possible, assuming we all fit. Prison truck is probably bugged and how they'd find us." He could curse out Backlight for bringing the truck later. Priorities demanded that they leave the area.

[Bobbybobby99]

Horace silently put down his oatmeal and his spoon, blinking twice. He remained silent for a moment, thinking. It was the prison van, of course; how dreadul. He was growing to like this area, and the plants were unlikely to be tended to in his absence. His pets... he could gather them swiftly enough. Assuming that the woman wasn't lying, of course. That was always a possibility. He spoke up upon mention of his van, given how infeasible it was, deliberately honeying his words to soften the message. His voice rang out, clear and high pitched.

"I'm afraid that going in my van will be quite impossible. I will have to transfer the 19 'pets' I keep here in that van, alongside most of my plants. Thus, there will, unfortunately, be a severe lack of room for anyone else. I remain able to accommodate Autarch, but the other... 5 of you will have to do otherwise. I hear walking is efficient this time of year."

[n0ble]

Figures. From what little he knew of Menagerie, John didn't like him much. It wasn't a large leap, given his general dislike of parahumans. But something about how the creep placed his mongrel's lives over those of John and well...frankly at this point he could give a dam about the others with the prospect of his death looming. It was selfish, but he didn't survive getting stabbed through the shoulder and an endbringer attack just to be killed by someone wearing a flag on their face. Sticking with the group was rooted in a sense of pragmatism more than any notion of camaraderie. In that sense, Menagerie was just as pragmatic, surrounding himself with things he could control. The difference was that John sought no control over the others. That was Exhilarate's job.

Dam prison van. He briefly considered using the vehicle as a distraction. Have Autarch make someone drive it away. It might cause the Protectorate forces to pursue the van if it was bugged. Or Menagerie could use his power, assuming it worked on humans. John quickly discarded the plan. Stick to simple ideas. Nothing too complex.

He gave a slight nod, barely enough to acknowledge what Menagerie said. "We should go then. Now if possible"

[GameOfChampions]

My brow furrows as Menagerie shoots down the idea "Could you at least squeeze in Anna? Her face is known and those eyes are hard to hide in public. It may even be easier to take her and we can help Autarch ourselves."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie, upon hearing the last bit, glanced at the girl (who was evidently some sort of soothsayer) and then at his oatmeal. He spoke, precise as ever "Certainly, given consent. In any case, we must now take our leave. Haste may make waste, but it is always tempting to remain undecided when one has effectively reached a decision, and one must resist that urge. " Having sat long enough after an ominous forwarning, and leaving his oatmeal on the table, his actions' and the macaws' were suddenly sychronized as if in the ballet, and 11 dogs (the Rottweilers were still a bit slow, but had mostly healed) came rushing out of their room. The geese flew in, alongside the other macaw, his snake hissed as he wrapped a scarf around it, a very large cat slunk in, and an iguana marched to the room.

As soon as they reached it, they each grabbed a single potted plant, of varying size, and either dragged or carried it to the van. Menagerie himself opened the door, and then picked up one of the mandevillas himself. It took two trips, by the assorted flora-fauna, but they eventually crammed both themselves and the plants into the van. The drivers seat itself was using the cupholders for sundews, and a spider plant was in the leg room of the passenger seat, but was otherwise unoccupied. Menagerie strode back inside, and gestured at the Girl of Many Eyes and Many Ominous Predictions. Capital letters included, of course.

[Writtensanity]

"Oh joy," I said as I started to pack my things, "I've been a villain for a whole ten days and Miss Militia is coming after me. I heard she's nice, bakes cookies for people and all of that." Of course I wasn't talking to anyone outside of myself. Between tiwtter and looking up equipment I had spent all of my time over the past day working. Now I needed to pack everything up, it was **** like this that made me use a kindle.

My phone buzzed again. I had left the twitter on 'Notification for directed tweets' so I could feel good about myself every time it went off. Most of my activity had been jabbing at people who tried to dissuade me from a life of villainy.

JackBombastic:@Backlight should be using his powers to help out! Brockton bay is bad enough!

Funky Kitten: **** you @Backlight

Str8M898What the hell did @Backlight do to the street? Slasher movie ****.

I had really liked that last one. The tweets were sometimes annoying but the key was that people were learning our names. If we seemed a little bigger than we were, then we would have street cred. Street Cred meant people wanted to see the PRT take us on, not kill us. You can only kill a villain once, but you can boost the cities morale a million times by beating him.

I stopped winding wires and picked up my phone. I needed to send something out.

Backlight: Hey @BrocktonPRT, have you guys cleaned up the street yet? I wanna take a walk without getting shot.

I picked up my short sword and shoved it into the sports bag. Most of my posessions were going to slip into there. I'd carry the baseball bat becuase it matched the outfit, and I'd carry the gun becuase I was more scared than I would admit. I could dodge bullets, not rocket launchers.

[GameOfChampions]

I strip off my bloody shirt and pants and throw on some spare clothes I had lying around, then I pack up my mask, jacket, and bloody clothes along with a couple other odds and ends I had lying around in a duffle bag I kept at Exhilarates. I toss the bag over my shoulder and gestures at Backlight, Caliber and Exhilarate "Well I'm heading to my place, you are all welcome to come over to my place. I'm gonna grab some beers on the way there and if you guys want we can have a couple drinks and ride this thing out."

I wait a second to see who, if anyone, will join me and head outdoors to start the walk back to my place. When I hit the streets outside I just act casual and walk casually, blending with the crowds. 'I'm really not down to get shot again so lets hope that my identity hasn't been leaked somehow.'

[sean_hyer]

I had to fight to keep from rolling my eyes when I saw the reactions of the rest of my team. Preparing to cut and run, to go hide out somewhere else. I mean, for Autarch (with his injury) and our newest recruit it was fair enough. But for the rest of us? Secret identities exist for a reason.

As soon as the others had left in their mad scramble, I got moving. Half a minute to throw on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and to set my mask on a table, and I was just another average Joe, ready to blend into the throng.

But now what? Thinking about it, I really wanted to see how the protectorate arrived. Would they come in hot? Would we have started the fight? Were they coming at all? The problem with that was, even out of costume, being alone in the villains HQ would raise a bunch of questions I didn't want to answer. Watching the building through binoculars or something would be even worse.

Well. I had a keg of confiscated rotgut, a deck of cards, and the ability to sober up in an instant. An hour or so until the heroes showed up. Time to grab a few unsavory candidates and start a poker game.

[3SecondCultist]

Anna watches with seven pupils as the cape with the walking petting zoo escorts her to the van. As she does, she ruminates over the deaths of the SWAT member and the other man at the scene that occurred not long after their departure. Perhaps that's why this PRT has issued a kill order on them? She hasn't spoken up on the matter, largely because she's been very interested in the reactions of these men to warnings of imminent doom. What was the old saying? The best way to know a man is to hold him over a volcano's edge? It's a shame she doesn't have any nearby, but this will do in a pinch.

Wordlessly, she carefully moves the plant away from her seat before getting comfortable in the van. At least, as comfortable as one can be, listening to the myriad sounds of the animals not far behind her head. They make her uneasy. She looks over at Menagerie.

"Where to?"

[n0ble]

John quickly exchanged his uniform for the street clothing he'd worn earlier. It had been his plan to originally leave much in the same way he'd left the van, in street clothing. "Sure. We could run some tests at your place if you have an area suitable for it." One gun, radio,the mask , jacket and black khakis all went into the bag. He kept the magnum on his hip, holstered under the hoodie, and gave the gold one to Backlight. He wasn't sure of the gun's properties and it made sense to divide them up to a certain extent. What good are the things I've created if I get taken out. It wasn't unusual for people to go armed, especially since the Slaughterhouse Nine had hit Brockton Bay. He gave a curt nod to Miasma before opening the door and stepping outside, duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie blinked thrice when the Ominous Girl moved the spider plant; his spider plant, it was one of his profilic off-shooters, she could hurt it, it was his, but he internally shook it off. Cooperation was the name of the game, after all, and thinkers were much less effective on their own. Hearing the girl ask a question of 'where to' (she hadn't asked where to put the spider plant, that was a certainty), he replied "We will be going to my personal house, and you'll be staying on the couch until further notice, unless you prefer a deleterious alternative. I'll likely go out to a pound to replenish my numbers after you cease to sense danger." After seeing that her seat-belt was in place, he began driving, once again going on a rather circuitous path, before suddenly stopping. He spoke, voice perfectly blank of emotion "In addition, if you're still wearing your undoubtably traceable prison clothes, I am going to be rather disagreeable. If you currently doing so, change. Immediately."

[DukeGod]

Autarch curses and quickly removes most of the most cape-aspects of his outfit, handing them out to a one-armed minion for hiding

"I'll get somewhere far, into someone else's territory maybe and call 911, say I get mugged. ****, I won't be on the systems. That's gonna get questions asked"

[Madwand]

Miasma, Autarch, Caliber, Menagerie, Backlight, Anna

Villains quickly left their meeting place. Autarch briefly considered “legal” ways of getting medical help, but his exposed tattoos could be easily identified, his hand displayed clearly the white swan tattoo. It was authentic, fact yet unmentioned to his group, which means he was in database - Simurgh victims were carefully recorded. Last but not least, living witnesses, police drivers seen him fall and bleed, so all hospitals probably were alerted and watched for gunshot wounds to the legs.


Exhilarate

It was his territory. He won’t back down, and he need to know what PRT next move will be. Organizing poker game in makeshift camp was surprisingly easy. People here have little entertainments and some really needed strong drink.

Which would explain why keg of confiscated rotgut and cards got him so much attention. Less than hour later Exhilarate found himself in center of improvised, unplanned and chaotic party.

Then Protectorate arrived with SWAT and police. More than dozen police cars, armored vans, three PRT’s cars with confinement foams cannons and six heroes. Miss Militia wasn’t present in the colorful group of parahumans, but if Anna was right she would be holding back, operating more as a sniper. Probably with other SWAT snipers.

Exhilarate observed as Protectorate secured abandoned prison van - probably expecting a trap - police rounded up witnesses, talked to people nearby and tried to put a good face on the situation.

Villain knew that people in his territory were less than happy with Brockton Bay authorities.

“We were promised electricity last week!”

“And more food? My children..”

“F*ck the Police! Where were you when Exhilarate defended us?”

That last one was stupid. Young and apparently angry man, not one of Exhilarate henchmen, was quickly surrounded, cuffed and taken into police car. Few others, mostly too drunk from improvised party, were also taken under pretext of “drunk and disorderly”. Exhilarate suspected that police will squeeze them for information.

In the end heroes and police retreated, finding nothing of substance.

Backlight

He kept finger on social media pulse. Police and PRT asked for commentary quickly started spinning version of events. Villains brutality, recently triggered and traumatised parahumans, zero mention of their call for non-violent resolution. All deaths - five of them, which means that two more people besides Autarch minions gunned by SWAT kicked the bucket - were painted as villain's fault. All the common key-words and platitudes necessary to make Backlight and his group as a despicable villains of the story and elicit sympathy for the authorities.

It seems that no-one noticed or mentioned to spin doctors that Backlight had recordings of action, sufficient to prove some details wrong…

Exhilarate

Villain' phone displayed message from one of patrolling henchmen, just twenty minutes after last police car left.

“Boss, we have parahuman problem, north, corner of Third and Woodbury Ave.”

[GameOfChampions]

I was walking along, joking around with Exhilarate and talking shop with Caliber about what tests would need to be done, when I felt my phone buzz in one of my pockets. I fish it out and it turns out to be a message from Exhilarate who just forwarded along a text that I assume he just got himself. I sigh when I read it 'Ugh we're almost there...'

I put the phone away and poke the other two on the shoulder "Hey guys Exhilarate says there is parahuman trouble near our territory so we should probably head back, though I think when all this dies down we should hang out and relax. Caliber I do promise we'll get around to your tests soon." As I say that I stealthily grab my mask from my bag and tuck it into my waistband under my shirt so I could grab it when the need arose. I also grab my BB gun and tuck that into one of my pockets as well. After I have the stuff I immediately need I turn around and start a brisk jog back to where we had just come.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie, hearing his phone vibrate at the message, checked it and swiftly spoke to Ominous Girl (having just reached their destination) "According to a message I just received, there appears to be a disturbance around the territory of the group to which we (I assume you are now a member) protect. I don't suppose you have any ominous forwarnings about imminent death if we choose to aid in that affair?". After speaking, he had one of his dogs carefully arrange one of the older Mandevillas right next to the window, while placing a few Sundews next to the Venus Flytraps and the Butterworts with the macaw. Given the number of plants that were present before he brought in another house worth, it was looking a bit like a tropical forest.

[sean_hyer]

Well, the PRT certainly knows it was my group that pulled the attack. And they're not happy. That was a larger response than I expected. We'll have to lie low for a while.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, distracting me from my musings. Oh, naturally. As soon as I decide to try to keep things quiet.

With a sigh, I forwarded the information to the rest of the team, before calling the man who had sent the message. I'd really like more information. What kind of problem? A challenge? An attack? Another volunteer?

[Writtensanity]

Lies, lies were the key to a lot of things as long as the bad guys were using them, but now? Now I was the one who had a way to prove them wrong. The video wasn't the best and was a little more chaotic than we wanted it to be, but there was a key.

The Go-Pro I was wearing showed VERY prominently that we were trying to get a confused woman out of a prison van, and that we'd tried to go non-violent first. As villains we didn't need to go non-violent, but the Swat teams were supposed to try. Whatever the man who I'd hit with a baseball bat had done, it wasn't good for their team.

I sat in the starbucks and uploaded the video. Within half an hour I was adding the captions and sending out the tweet.

Backlight: Hey @BrocktonPRT and @BrocktonPolice, how come I don't remember shooting first? Good guys aren't supposed to lie.

I uploaded the link to youtube and parahumans.net. There was a good chance it would get some steam there. Long as the conversation was around us it didn't matter.



"Good afternoon," I said as I got back to the hideout. I thought I was the first one back, but it looked like Exhilerate had never left. He did his usual greeting and focused on whatever he was focused on, his cell phone.

I sat down at the table across from him and looked at him, "I give up," I said after a time. He didn't react to it. "I can't find Cauldron on the internet." I said. This time he turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know who they are," I explained, "but I know that they are the one's hiring us for **** like getting Anna. Wanna do some explaining or do I need to ask other capes what they know?"

[n0ble]

John nodded at Miasma. He took the grey gun out of his backpack and put it in the holster that the forty-four had originally been in. The forty four was in hand. "Let's go." It wasn't nervousness he was feeling as they moved to where the activity was happening. A sort of restlessness. Like a horse in a starting gate. Anticipation. All of his instruments were turned on, some on his belt, some in his bag. Time to see if his designs held up against parahumans.

[DukeGod]

Autarch texts the group as he makes his way to the problem. He wasn't in prime fighting condition but he could try to do something

[Can't really fight but I'll see what I can do there. If you're in need of any immediate help find one of my one-armed minions and give them the password "Unladen White Bird", they'll obey your orders as if they were mine for the following 5 minutes]

[3SecondCultist]

"Hm." Anna pauses, contemplating the vision of the future she's been given. "The odds are in your favor if you take the initiative. Make sure the others go armed, the violence is a lot less severe that way."

[Madwand]

Exhilarate

“It’s the jap, boss” Kevin, Exhilarate remembered the name of called henchman “Three of them, him, f*ck I don’t know.. they look for something”

Kabuki Mono, duplicator, who can spawn dozens of independent copies, and won’t get down as long as one of them is alive. Exhilarate knew that he was one of contender to Lung’ former territory and clashed with the Pure in recent weeks.

It seems that Kabuki Mono wanted to pay you neighborly visit, because otherwise there would be at least ten or twenty armed clones..

Scene 1: Neighborly visit

Three identical men, dressed in flamboyant clothing, combining colors of yellow and blue. They were armed with honest to god katanas and Wakizashi, piece and part of samurai’ armor, only the breastplates were replaced by modern kevlar vests. Their belts sported collection of grenades and guns.

“What up, Exhilarate, Backlight?” all three of them showed his pearly whites in slasher grins.

After few tense moments of making sure that it’s not an ambush, which was greatly helped by Anna power and words, villains started negotiations.

“I come to talk business. And I bring gifts!” the clone standing to the left pass you small package. Villains found at least half-kilo of cocaine inside.

“Word on the street is that all former Merchants and other pushers left your territory and that you're planning to set your own distribution. See, I have that supplier..”

Negotiation’s time, but you can turn it into fight, if you want to. Rumours about which K-M talks are floating around, because of Autarch propensity to cripple and turn into obedient minions all thugs in Exhilarate territory. They got the clue and now avoid your domain like fire. Hence, no drug dealers - and no drugs. Huge vacuum in criminal economy that was bound to get noticed.

Social Wars: Villains’ New Hope

Backlight: Hey @BrocktonPRT and @BrocktonPolice, how come I don't remember shooting first? Good guys aren't supposed to lie.

@realT: yeah, @BrocktonPRT and @BrocktonPolice just roll over and give them what they want every time!

@DarkRavenVillainess: Blacklight, you're a hero! Fight the lies of Protectorate.

Backlight footage stirred quite a s*itstorm over social media and forums. Parahumans Online got thread to discuss the new gang and their attack. It was quickly becoming unmanageable.. and full of speculations.

topic: Backlight, Bloodbath & Beyond
In: Boards ► America ► Brockton Bay ►

…...

Scene two: The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Few hours after dealing with unexpected villain visit, they again sat to discuss next move. Minions for Autarch, his battle wound, Protectorate aggressive response and the fact that they were now recognizable power block in Bay criminal underworld.. and the next visit from villains may not be as diplomatic as Kabuki Mono’s.

: I see no reason why we can’t have two scenes open in IC thread and no reason to stop your discussion of your plans/next move.:smallsmile:

[Writtensanity]

Social Media Stuff:

I wasn't the kind to back down from attention. It was what we needed if we were going to have a barrier from the protectorate. There was a cery thin point where the damage we did could be written off for the bonus points that the PRT got for kicking our asses. If we did too much damage or became hated, then it was a kill order. If we were popular without being too catstrophic, than beating us was better for morale than killing us. That was the theory anyway and I was sticking to it.

The issue came up when I wanted to lash out at people. For every nice thing that was said (Though I did keep tweeting that I shouldn't be called hero) there were dozens of people who hated my ass. With the current popularity I needed to make it seem like the hate didn't get to me, or any of us. It was just part of playing the villain. That being said I needed to talk to the group to see if we had a solid reason for being a villain. I didn't have a good reason, but the best villains were sympathetic ones.

It was the same thing as avoiding a kill order. There was a fine line between sympathetic and a god damn hypocrite. I'd need to ask the group about this.

Just add a conversation with me to your IC post if you wanna weigh in on this. I feel like y'all are getting to know Backlight so I'm not too sore bout you controllling him.

Scene 1:

"Kabuki!" I said holding out a hand to one of the many similar men as the group handed us the cocaine. "Gotta say I'm glad it was you at the door, a lot of villains in the area have no idea how to make an interesting name for themselves out here."

From there, for a few moments, it was idle chit chat back and forth about Kabuki, I kept it about him. We were new in town and mystery was our greatest advantage at the moment. Once we had gotten past just saying hello I pulled out my cell phone. "Mind if I give you my number? I'm of the opinion that collaberation is how you get ahead in this world. Might be an interesting thing to try. Not asking anything big, but keeping co-ordinated makes sure we aren't stepping on one another's toes."


Scene 2:

"All right before we get talking too much about our next move," I started as I joined everyone at the villainous table, "we need to have a quick discussion about how we decide our moves. Exhilerate, I love ya, but we can't always be waiting for you to get a job request from-" I paused, "whoever gives you job requests." My conversation with exhilerate about his mysterious 'Cauldron' had been pretty much non-existant. It would stay between us for now. That being said, we were all villains, so I wasn't sure how many secrets I was okay with him having.

"My idea would be a democracy. If we have an idea for a job we vote on whether we take it. There are six of us so we would lean toward avoiding a job if four say no." It wasn't a perfect system, but it would keep this whole arrangement from being a dictatorship before one of us was recognized as leader.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie.

Scene 1.

Menagerie had gone in his van (which had been quite heavily cleaned), two blocks away, and had his scarlet macaw (a touch larger than his mixed breed) at the scene. Since it was all about communication there, he was using a great deal of his fine control manipulating the vocal cords of the macaw in a very precise way in order to speak, alongside seeing through the standard camera. He was well aware that the croaking, forced macaw voice, lacking even a semblance of emotion, was rather intimidating, and that was precisely what he preferred. Purposefully having the macaw glance at the drugs, he had it speak, even more painful sounding than normal, "A gOoD gIfT InDeEd, KaBuKi. A dIsTaStEfUl PrAcTiCe, HoWeVeR; dRuG dEaLiNg, ThAt Is. ShOrT tErM bEnIiFiTs, LoNg TeRm ReSeNtMeNt FrOm CoMmUnItY. oH wElL. sPeAkInG oThErWiSe, I cOnCuR tHaT SoMe PaRtNeRsHiP wOuLd bE aDvIsAbLe.

Two blocks away in the opposite direction, at the same time, he was very carefully having three of his mobile dogs and his other macaw sneak into someone's backyard, then into that person's doghouse, and then quickly clamp down on the German Shepherd inside. One holding the mouth down to keep it from barking, another holding it by the left leg, the other holding by the right, they quickly crawled through a hole in the fence, and dragged it through the streets. They soon reached the van itself, the confused and in pain canine struggling to no avail, where Menagerie opened the door, face even more blank than usual, and casually let it inside. Casually, too casually, he leaned over, and scratched behind the ear, as roots sprung out, and the whimpers quieted. He really was getting better at multitasking.

Scene 2.

Menagerie made a very slight sound, before pausing, and deliberately speaking up as honeyed as ever, "I dare say that number would be correctly spoken as seven, if our newest addition is comfortable enough to be given voice in executive decisions. Given Exhilerate's utterly undisputed position as leader, it seems sensible that he be given three votes; thus, there would be nine votes total, and thus clear cut action. Indecision is the bane of everything efficient, after all."

[Writtensanity]

"Oh ****, you're here," I said as I sat up properly in the chair. I was looking at Eyes, but I didn't quite know what to call her left so I let her remain as 'you' for the time being. I sighed before speaking to make it seem like I was making a hard decision. "Not to act out of line," I said, "but calling someone an undisputed leader at this point is jumping the gun a bit. I mean-" I made a dismisive motion with my hand. "Wanna know what? It's just that I have a problem with authority, thought that was a shared trait in villains."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie.

Scene 2.

In reply, Menagerie spoke, swiftly and with a touch of irritation, "Some degree of higher leadership is inevitably needed; this fine country of ours uses a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, and even that's woefully fraught with politics. My dear, fine fellows, we require someone who can cast the deciding vote, or who has fair authority over split decisions. It might as well be the one who controls this fine territory, if that's quite fine with you." He paused, made a gesture at the man they were speaking of, and resumed "Besides, it would still be a democracy, simply one with unequal representation, if you're so concerned about that sort of thing."

[GameOfChampions]

Scene 1:

I shifted uncomfortably, I'd only gotten here a few minutes before the meeting with Kabuki started but I already wasn't to thrilled with what he was talking about. I didn't like the idea of pushing drugs to the people here but at the end of the day we needed a steady income and had no way to achieve that immediately. 'One day I'll be able to run my own territory differently but for right now I'll just need to bite my tongue and deal with it.'

Even if I was willing to accept this for the time being I had no clue about how this worked so for right now I stood silently at the back of the group just keeping one eye the surroundings to make sure we were't jumped and one eye on the three in front of us. trusted the others to be able to handle this meeting without any of my input.

Scene 2:

I look incredulously at Menagerie and snort "Like hell. I don't think Exhilarate gets three votes. Yes he is our leader but I think that should apply more while we are in the field and dealing with his territory, since it is his, but if we are deciding what jobs to risk ourselves doing then no I don't think he should have three times as much say as one of us. If we went with your idea then it would be literally impossible to veto a job he wanted since we wouldn't have enough votes left to reach seven with the six of us remaining. Screw your "unequal representation" I don't want someone else to essentially be able to decide what I risk my life for. We should just use Backlights idea, it's simple and doesn't require the deciding vote that you pointed out, just a majority to make an idea pass or fail."

[DukeGod]

Scene 2

Octavian seats with his legs crossed, a cane over them. It seemed like he practiced sitting that way. But then again he was big on posturing

Inwardly he's gleeful. This proposal was more in-line with what he had in mind when he first joined the team.

"I'll agree that offering a whole 3 votes to Exhilarate is a bit too much. I say, we let him have one vote and half, for tiebreaking purposes, on the events that one member chooses to void their own vote or is incapable of voting."

[Bobbybobby99]

Scene 2.

Menagerie very deliberately tightened his grip on his glass of water, and spoke once more, with ringing clarity "Even though three votes sounds like quite a bit, it only means that we might proceed on a 3 by 7 vote in favor; hardly as unreasonable as it might seem. If you insist, at very least we should implement Autarch's suggestion." His newest dog growled slightly upon the word insist, and Menagerie made a careless motion of quieting him.

[n0ble]

Calibre

Scene 1

John had arrived with Miasma. He didn't like the replicator one bit, a natural extension of his hatred for the parahuman community. It was also compounded by his distaste for the drug trade. His time as a cop had resulted in many examples of why he didn't want to get involved. He'd seen what street drugs could do. Families torn apart. People begging, homeless, just for a dime bag of the stuff. John wasn't in it to put civilians through hell. He was in it to put capes through hell. Make them better. He tightened his grip on the magnum in anger. Underneath his mask, his right eye twitched almost imperceptibly in irritation. No. No drugs. Besides, it left a paper trail.

He very nearly exploded when Backlight pulled out his cell phone and asked for the freaks number. Purposefully giving away information like that was a bad idea. Even so, it occurred to John that if he spoke now things would decidedly get violent. He wasn't nearly prepared for that, so he bit his tongue. It could always be brought up at some sort of meeting later on.

And his eye twitched just a little bit more prominently.

Scene 2

John quietly fumed as the rest of the capes discussed the merits of voting. All this was pointless. They should be planning a job so that they didn't have to rely on scum like Kabuki Mono to get money. Standing on their own was more important than relying on a rival. "Backlights system makes sense. Seven people, seven votes. Everyone votes. No ties." The way he phrased it didn't leave much room for discussion. He wasn't an underling. He was an associate. And that meant Exhilarate, despite whatever position he claimed, did not get to order him around or decide things for him.

[3SecondCultist]

Scene 2

Anna listens to the squabbling men, immediately bored of this conversation. Why can't they do anything productive? She rolls her eyes at the idea of 'democracy'. What a joke. In a world where the Protectorate capes run around wielding god-like powers, any idea of democracy is little more than a fiction. Her own sixth sight could very well be proof of that.

"This is a waste of time. Give Exhilarate the tiebreaker, and call it a day." As Anna speaks, the pupils of her eyes open and close. None of them have fallen prey to her predictions yet, which is good. She has no doubt that she'll need them at some point, although the idea of one of them dying in a skirmish to establish the boundaries of her control was tempting. Nevertheless, giving herself a vote in this farce is a good first step.

"I'd personally relish the opportunity for a chance to speak up without resorting to theatrics. That you can all speak openly about this is really refreshing, actually. I didn't hear much on the inside, but from what I know of villainous cape crews, they're generally not all that accommodating." It's the longest any of the crew has heard her speak, and it's so far the only time Anna has mentioned her past.

[sean_hyer]

Scene 1

My gut reaction is to throw the drugs to the ground, but I quickly suppress it. No sense starting a fight.

And actually, is that the right call? We're going to need to get money somehow. Is selling drugs, running dogfights, and all the other things that the other gangs do to generate cash really any worse than robbing a bank, or whatever we would have ended up doing for income? No. And it's safer. And it's a constant flow, not just one big haul. And if we're the ones doing the distributing, we can be careful. Try to limit damage.

I realise I've already made my mind up as more arguments along those lines flow through my head. Drugs are distasteful and dangerous. But this is too good a chance to pass up.

I know some in my group will disagree. Menagerie is already voicing his concerns, in front of the salesman, with a ridiculously naive argument. Resentment from the community? Hah! Has this guy studied history? Look at the prohibition, as the first example to come to mind. People don't resent being allowed access to stuff, they resent being denied it. Plus, it's not like any druggies here would have a hard time getting the stuff. Walk a few miles and you're back in no mans land with the Merchants.

Smiling cheerfully at the duplicator, I nod at the bag of powder in my hand. "Uncut, I trust?" I don't know much about drugs. Never done them, myself. No idea what prices to set, what manufacturing process to use. Well. No time to learn like the present. I bet Autarch's servants will tell me what I need to know.

But even now, I know that this bag in my hand is a princely gift.

"Many thanks to you. If there's anything I can offer you in return, name it."



Scene 2

I almost can't believe my ears. Except, of course, I can. Backlight chafes under authority. Well, most all villains do. If we were heroes, we would have joined the protectorate. Menagerie defends me, surprisingly, but the rest are discontent.

Normally, in a gang, the leader is leader by virtue of his strength. Lung. Kaiser. Coil. Not for the first time, I find myself wishing that the power I had asked for were something more. That I could settle this dispute quickly and finally. But I can't. Okay, I could probably take on anyone here in a fight, but not more than one at a time.

But still, I wished I could. This was MY turf. When they had come here, they had agreed to play by MY rules. And now here they were, trying to implement a democracy. Seven votes, so there would be no ties. And all my position as leader would do, is let me break those nonexistent ties.

I schooled my face to neutrality. Compromise. "How about this. For jobs outside my turf, we'll do as you suggest, and vote evenly. Anyone can suggest ideas and plans, and we'll all choose whether or not to go with them. But for this place? For decisions involving my people? What I say, goes. Fair?"


"I give up,", Backlight led. I ignored him."I can't find Cauldron on the internet.".

Now this was a problem. Could be a big one. What did he know?

I looked over at him, quirking one eyebrow, an invitation to say more.

"I don't know who they are, but I know that they are the one's hiring us for **** like getting Anna. Wanna do some explaining or do I need to ask other capes what they know?"

It's all I can do to keep my face steady, not sigh in relief and give anything away. He doesn't know anything. But I can't clam up, or he could cause a lot of damage. What I have to do, is I have to make Cauldron seem boring.

I stared at him a moment longer, composing myself, before breaking out into a grin.

"Really? That's it? And here you had me thinking it was something serious." The relieved smile is real.. Nothing to see through. And while I may be bad at lying outright, I am good at making words lie for me. Telling the truth, or at least part of the truth, but phrased in a way to mislead the listener. Like right now.
"They're an undercover pro-parahuman group. A couple of them know me, but I'm not a member. Couldn't find them if I wanted to, since they have to keep themselves hidden. Think... like E88, only with capes and normals instead of whites and.. everyone else. They found Anna, and she needed help, but they weren't in a position to give it themselves. So they dropped me a line, and I said I'd deal with it. Win win."

[3SecondCultist]

Scene 2

"Could I speak with you in private?" Anna speaks up at Exhilarate once he's said his piece. She steps away from the group, making sure no humans or animals are in earshot before opening her mouth to talk a second time.

"If you force them to accept your authority here, they'll fight back later. I see violence erupting in that room if you don't back down and concede on this. I'm telling you this as a courtesy, because you saved me when I needed saving. I cast my vote the way I did because I felt the bloodshed that this would cause if we're divided." Her eyes meet the man's with serious concern. "You can't just tell them you're in charge. You need to show them."

"I think you know you're outgunned here, Exhilarate. I know I'm new to your crew, but you were contracted to free me for a reason. Let me help you."

[n0ble]

Scene 1

John's eyes momentarily widened at Exhilarate's offer. He would need to speak to him about this later. It was weak to offer things in return for a gift. It also came with another problem. As long as there were drugs being sold, John wouldn't be here. From what he saw of the cape's territory, it's populace was good people. He wasn't going to ruin their lives. They didn't deserve the hardships that came with addiction. Maybe it was just that he was too empathetic. Such feelings would have to be purged if he was going to achieve his goals. That being said, there was deeper, more buried parts of him that, try as he might, couldn't shake the feeling of empathy. In his mind, a parahuman warlord dealing drugs to a group of people ran a bit too close to home for John. It reminded him of the Redeemers and how they'd f***** his life. Turned him into a freak like Kabuki Mono. There were other ways to get money than by ruining civilian's lives.

Scene 2

He tried slow down his heartbeat after Exhilarate's speech. Focus. Slow. Calm. What he offers is good. "You should not have accepted the drugs." His words hung in the air, as much a challenge as a response to what Exhilarate said. He didn't want to issue an ultimatum. Those were a tricky business and things could very well get violent if he did. Even if part of him imagined a bullet ploughing through his skull, John had to admit he wasn't ready to take on anyone in the room. At least not in a situation with so many variables. "It makes us look weak, accepting handouts and offering unnecessary concessions."

John would address the personal problem he had with the drugs later, in private with Exhilarate. Something told John that he'd be willing, at least in part to concede to not selling drugs. After all, his tinker gear was simple enough that it could be used by anyone. And that included other cape crews.

[Bobbybobby99]

Scene 2.

Menagerie waited until Exhilerate and Ominous Girl were out of the room, and crisply spoke once more "Now that that is settled, we can speak of other subjects, including, yes, the drugs. " His plant-snake hissed and shifted on his shoulders upon the word settled, his new dog softly growled, and he paused a moment, before continuing "I see no reason to reject something that can create that much funding, and the perception of weakness can be a strength. We must, if successful, be percieved as potent enough to not challange alone, but not so potent that our enemies band together to defeat us. Looking weak, in that situation, was a strength."

[Madwand]

Scene 1: Neighborly visit

Kabuki shook Backlight’ extended hand.

“Style and money, Backlight. Cape’ life all about it, if you ask me. Glad to meet someone who agree. Sure, we should exchange the numbers, if we are going to do business together” he said “ I even have an idea. I have that underground ring, a cage fight without p*ssyfooting, true weapons, blood and broken bones. People love it. If you want to we could organize the match, you and me. We can split the money afterward. “

Duplicatior pulled cellphone, simultaneously second Kabuki Mono addressed macaw.

“F*ck me, it speaks! Hello there, parrot! Tell me, are like, twelve or something? People love their drugs, they wander into asian territory to get them, it how I get to know of your problem with supplies, figured that for every one client that goes to me, there are three or four that go elsewhere. “

And the third faced Exhilarate with a smile.

“Exhilarate, the best quality you’ll get in this town. Try it. “ He grinned with winning smile “You’re very kind. Maybe we can go to place when we can sit and talk about details without standing on the street? Or do you need to consult Bloodbath and Cowboy here, they look kind of pissed right now? Racist a bit, maybe? Hi, boys.” he waved hand in Miasma and Caliber’ direction.

Exhilarate got a tons of experience while dealing with people, by sheer quantity of disputes, crimes and negotiations he needed for running the territory. His enchanted memory helped and he got quite good at recognizing manipulations.He knew that Kabuki Mono is acting carelessly, but he was smarter than he looked , probed for weakness and testing his authority and control over other parahumans.

Social Wars: Protectorate strikes back part 1

Over next few hours Backlight got flooded by questions, most a variation on “what are your powers? “. The social crowd and cape geeks were the most interested in the monsters and bio-weapon, asking if he really got bio-tinker on team.

@scriptunasp “Do you recruit henchmen? I would like to join the cool kids”

@DaveIE “Backlight, could your bio-tinker heal? I have sick sister, she have cancer..”

@BobLongmire “Do you have any conscience? The police officer you’ve killed had a family!”

Ah, yes that. It seems that Protectorate and police decided to ignore Backlight’ video and instead chose to play a “sympathy for the family” card.

Bastards.

Scene two: The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Please, continue. It’s interesting:smallsmile:. I only want to point out that Exhilarate have a bit of leverage - he is organizer of protection scheme, so he hold the money, he got henchmen on his payroll and the territory’ inhabitants see him as “their” parahuman. In other words, you can’t run this territory without him, and every one of your characters know it. Plus, for nOble character, it’s Exhilarate who have money for next inventions. Just saying.

[n0ble]

Scene 1

If only you knew. If Kabuki Mono thought he was racist towards Asians he had the completely wrong idea. He'd never admit it, especially because he was one, but if John had racist tendencies towards anything it was parahumans. That being said, he barely heard the replicator's quip. He didn't really identify himself by Calibre. He was John Wellick. Besides, he was too busy focusing on the nine millimetre in the third copy's belt. The sight was slightly bent. Reduction in accuracy would naturally follow.

John blinked slowly and cocked his head, moving his eyes up from Kabuki Mono's gun to his eyes. In a flat, monotone voice, he said Your gun. The aim is off by about four inches. With such a high quality product you couldn't buy a better gun?Curious." Something about how inaccurate the gun was made John unreasonably angry, more so than the replicator's proximity to him. No excuse for poor craftsmanship.

Scene 2

"It's not. We do need to stay under the radar. Make gradual gains. But if we are weak it will be like blood in a shark tank for other groups. Offering someone anything in return for a payday is a losing situation." He folded his arms across his chest and envisioned a bullet going through Menagerie's brain. The forty four calibre round wound collapse his lung. He choke on his own fluids, but not before seeing John stand over him and put a bullet in his-

John snapped out of the fantasy as a new idea slid across his brain. "I need to run some tests on you. Range extender for your control over those things" He inclined his head toward Menagerie's snake and pit bull. "And we need to test this." He withdrew the gold gun from its holster and placed it on the table. "See if it works on humans"

[Bobbybobby99]

Scene 1.

While he heard the reply and had the newest 'pet' firmly secured, Menagerie began driving in an almost circular way, ending up about two blocks away in an opposing direction relativ eto the meeting place. With his macaw scanning the area earlier, it had seen a wounded deer on the side of the road; wounded, not dead. He had to strain the edges of his reach to get his dogs and macaw to it, seeing indirectly that it was relatively stable, and then had them drag it to his van. It was a large deer, but it was unconscious, so there was minimal resistance. He wouldn't be able to transform it until tomorrow or so after changing the dog just then, but he would secure it at his home until then.

Simultaneously, after a pregnant pause on the Macaw's part, he carefully spoke through it. The garbled crows gained a sinister edge, as he said "I Am MeNaGeRiE. I kNoW nOtHiNg, FoR I kNoW eVeRyThInG. cAreFuL wHeRe YoU tReAd, LeSt YoU fInD yOuRsElVeS iN qUiCkSaNd. I aM oLd AnD I aM yOuNg. YoU aRe YoUnG." He had the macaw pause once more, continuing in a lighter tone "BeSiDeS, I wOuLd HaTe To HaVe To Be UnHoSpItAbLe. YoU aRe A gUeSt, AfTeR aLl, AnD iT cOuLd bE gOoD tO dIvErSiFy. WhAt ArE yOu'Re LoNg TeRm IdEaS fOr FiLlInG tHiS mArKeT gAp, If YoU dOn'T mInD mY aSkInG?

Scene 2.

Menagerie gave a deliberately careless shrug, not particularly liking the gleam in the other's eye, before speaking again in an apathetic tone "Point. Yet hindsight remains, as always, twenty twenty, and we cannot change the past. In terms of testing, do as you will. I, of course, have no objections."

[GameOfChampions]

Scene 1

I snort and have a small laugh at Kabuki's accusation but I just roll my eyes and ignore him. Seeing how this meeting has started to play out I shrug and wave to the others with a smile "I'll see you guys later. Be safe." With that I nudge Caliber and gesture back away from the meeting "Do you want to go and do your testing now while they wrap this up and we can meet up with everyone afterwards?"

Scene 2

I was fine with Exhilarate having the tie beaker and control over his territory. That was fair since it was his long before we all joined together, all I wanted was an equal say for the possibly deadly missions that we will all be dealing with citywide and as a group. I quickly turn my attention to the discussions at hand "Personally I'm not a fan of selling drugs to these people but at the need of the day it's not my call." I look at Exhilarate and shrug "They're your people and it's your territory so do as you please but I'd rather not get involved with the selling or acquiring of the supply."

Changing my train of thought I start to try to formulate my vague ideas for a job into words "If we're considering jobs then how bout hiring ourselves out to another group in the city, either parahuman or non-parahuman like corporate or political, for a job? We could use it as an opportunity to showcase ourselves and our power to the Bay and get a nice paycheck out of it hopefully, we might be able to get something out of the job as well and we just won't mention it to our employers."

[Writtensanity]

Scene 1:

I laughed at his suggestion of a cage match. "Have you seen my face? I need to keep as pretty as I can so I don't need to wash it in makeup. Maybe once we've established ourselves more in the bay."

The rest of the groups comments were almost moving toward conflict; they were mocking the other villain. That wasn't how we should have been playing it, but they would do what they would. The point I needed to make was that Kabuki and I could work with one another. Even if I meant I played PR for the entire group, I'd keep us from throwing ourselves into the maw of Brockton Bay too soon.


Scene 2:

As much as I wished I did, I didn't have any ideas about what we should do next. All I did for this part of the conversation was point out that we could work with Exhilarate having his tiebreaker in his territory. He wanted to be reasonable, which meant that I should be as well.


Social Trek: The Wrath of Blogs

Henchmen? No. Not yet. There were too many people who could be under cover. Once we were a bigger operation, we could be a full gang, but for now, we were Parahumans only. There wasn't need to tweet about that; I just needed to tell people that we weren't shopping. That policeman had a family? Probably, but Autarch had legs, and you didn't see people bitching out the PRT.

And then I hit the tweet about the healing gun. For a second, I looked at my phone and just wanted to type something out. Something dismissive, something fearsome, something mocking. After a second, I closed the tweet and put down my phone. We could help... couldn't we? I mean we shouldn't have helped and we never would, but we could make a gun that could heal. It was within our power.

I swollowed ash. My throat was as dry as the morning I woke up after the crash. That woman was sick, and we were just going to stand by and- Why was I even thinking about that? We were villains, we took over people and animals, I was fine with selling drugs and everything. Exhilarate saw me as the person who didn't have any morals; because I didn't. We were here to rule Brockton Bay, Backlight was going to.

Everett West? Well, he was going to keep thinking about that girl's sister. Maybe that was enough twitter for the day.


@Backlight: Let's do an AMA tomorrow, but tonight is villainous planning (Devil Emoji)

[n0ble]

Scene 1

John gave a curt nod to Miasma before following him. He took his eyes off the third replicator but not before saying "If you ever need real hardware, ask Backlight. Might be able to fix something up for you." If word hadn't gotten out that Exhilarate had a tinker it would soon. There were certainly ways to use that knowledge. He ignored what the creep said in return, as his mind had already turned to what sort of tests he'd need to run to create the two new guns he wanted to develop.

Scene 2

Content with his pronouncement, John waited.He had nothing to contribute towards jobs as of the moment, though what Miasma had said sounded appealing. For now, however, he listened to the others, content to wait.

[Bobbybobby99]

Scene 2.

Menagerie spoke, voice blank as ever "I have ideas, but we need to increase our overall power before we do the more ambitious ideas. As is, I concur with Miasma's idea in certain fashions, but it would be rather demeaning to simply hire ourselves out as if common mercenaries. I suggest we rob a few places; go to a weak territory, cut off a few arms, and take all the silverware, in essence. Better yet, kill off a gang of villainous capes and claim their land for our own, then extract enormous protection fees. "

[sean_hyer]

Scene One: Menagerie at least sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Even if the voice from the parrot was grating on my nerves. And Backlight looked to be getting along famously with the duplicator. I wanted them with me for whatever discussion we were about to have.

The man's invitation could be a trap, of course. I remembered Anna's warning. Maybe he'd attack if we left ourselves too weak? Still, as Miasma and Caliber made to leave, I didn't stop them.

"Not at all."
Gesturing to Backlight, and raising an arm for the parrot, I turn back to the duplicator.
"I'm sure you had someplace specific in mind. Lead on."


Scene Two (Outside with Anna): Unless I was reading the situation wrong, violence wasn't about to erupt in that room. My compromise wasn't popular, but it should do for now. No-one would start a fight out of the blue, not unless they were sure they had support. Which meant... what, exactly?

Three thoughts flashed through my mind. The first, that our newest recruit's power was unreliable, and she was just flat wrong. The second, that she was trying to bluff me into backing down. The third, that she was trying to twist things until I felt that I had to depend on her.

I didn't like any of those choices.

Well, there was also the fact that she was a new cape. Might have no idea how to use her power. I'd work with that for now, rather than assuming the worst of a teammate.

"I don't know the specifics of your power. Violence between who?"


Later (speaking with John): Caliber wasn't happy. That was easy to tell. I even had a pretty good guess as to why; my handling of the drug situation. Which was a bit of a sticky wicket. Having a tinker on your team is a big deal. They're the most wanted capes in town. Any group will take one in a heartbeat. And if it came down to it, I'd rather have Caliber on my team than have the extra income from drugs. On the other hand, I couldn't back down easily. Couldn't let him make me do whatever he wanted by threatening to leave. Where would that end?

I tried to keep these conflicting worries off my face as I stepped into his room, closing the door softly behind me. "You wanted to speak to me?"

[3SecondCultist]

Scene 2

Even as the vision of violence fades, Anna's face falls into a confused frown. "That's... strange. The fight no longer occurs in my mind." Such a sudden change has happened before, but usually after her own intervention. Maybe her taking Exhilarate out into the hall changed this future? It's doubtful, but that only raises more questions.

"I can feel violence before it occurs. Suicides, murders, deaths, injuries of all kinds. It's stronger, more detailed where I am, but... I think I can feel farther than that. Take right now, for instance. I could have sworn that Caliber and Blacklight were going to try and stage a coup. Caliber shoots you, and Backlight snaps Menagerie's neck before he can react. And before, I saw this woman with the Protectorate - Miss Militia? - kill Caliber due to the deaths when you rescued me. I saw those before they happened, too. One of the SWAT men died on the scene, as did one of Autarch's fanatics." She isn't sure if 'fanatics' is the right word. Nobody's really taken the time to explain all that much to her, but he appears to be some kind of 'Master' cape.

Shaking her head at the ambient pain, Anna does her best to focus. "But now, there's nothing. No violence. Maybe they changed their minds? Or maybe they were never going to do it in the first place. God, it hurts. All of the time, it hurts. But I do want to help you, Exhilarate. You're my best chance. I just need some time, to figure all of this out." It's been a long day.

Honestly, her prediction was as much me thinking that there was going to be serious blowback from Exhilarate's proclamation. I misread that, which led to a kind of false positive on her power. :smallredface:

[n0ble]

Later

John waited a moment, letting Exhilarate's words hang in the air. He was a brute cape of some sort. Enhanced durability, some sort of contingent healing. He wasn't going to back down from this discussion, so John's usual bluntness wouldn't work. He had to try something different.

His words came out in a flat, even tone, carrying none of the angry undertone they had previously: "When I was younger, I was assigned as a beat cop to a routine investigation. One of Empire Eighty Eight's crank houses. No parahuman arrests, but a bunch of tweekers. My job was to get people into the cars and vans for transport. There was this woman,clearly a junkie. As my partner put the cuffs on her she wouldn't stop crying. Kept blubbering even after we'd gotten her into the van. Eventually we settled her down for transport and asked her what she was crying about. We found a crib. Turned out she'd forgotten to feed her kid which had resulted in it starving to death. She'd been high too much." He stopped, not for emphasis or drama, but more so to recollect his thoughts. He hadn't dwelled on the memory for a while and thinking about it now mad him mad. Even so he tried to control the tone of his voice, but for all the effort he put in some anger managed to reach into what he said next. "That's what your selling if you use the powder. And I won't be a part of it."

His piece said, John got up and left for the door. If Exhilarate wanted to talk to him he could now, but John had said what he wanted to. The anger from before was back. Maybe he could fix that by shooting holes in someone.

[GameOfChampions]

I shrug as Menagerie spoke his piece, he did have some fair points. "I'm not opposed to that and I think we should expand sooner rather then later but I think it would be better if we had some capital before we do that, preferably a large amount. We need supplies, money for possible bribes or hospital fees, and I'd prefer to have a way to invest in our new territory immediatly after we take it to hopefully attract henchmen and quash any ill feelings. I would be up to rob someplace ourselves, it is preferable then hiring ourselves out, but what would we rob in the city? Most places don't carry a lot of cash or supplies and the few that do like the various gangs and the PRT are heavily guarded. We do also need to keep in mind that while it is demeaning to hire ourselves out we are new to the scene, like it or not the various factions in the city don't care about us anyway so letting ourselves get hired and payed doesn't really change much. We are at the bottom of the barrel in this city."

[Bobbybobby99]

Scene 2.

Menagerie, mostly blank but with a slight frown (power was involved, after all), replied in an airy sort of way "Heavily guarded is a matter of perspective, really. The ideal situation would be one in which we can acquire a few brutes from those gangs; this would easily increase our overall force and reduce theirs. If they are sufficiently savage, the action would even be commendable, by more moral standards. We are not entirely certain my power works on mankind, but it likely does, and if not, we are not incapable of simply killing the abductee. Besides... It would be an excellent chance for us to test out a few of those guns of yours, Calibre."

[n0ble]

Scene 2

This was what he had been waiting for. At least more or less. Conflict with parahumans. Putting them through the hell that he'd suffered to make them better. The same sense of anticipation that he'd felt earlier shivered its way through his body. As he spoke, he felt a little bit less angry. Instead he felt hungry, a sort of yearning for more. "I would suggest independents. People like Trainwreck, Circus, Chariot and Wetware. Also possibly a smaller group like the Trigger Chasers that we could capture in one strike. With them we would have a disposable force with which to seize territory and or funds from other groups stash houses. Which is to say nothing of any money they already have and things that we could sell." he stopped for a moment and looked down at the gold gun on the table. "If that doesn't work we can use your power to control them, though I see no reason why it shouldn't affect humans." he looked up and nodded at Autarch. "It means we don't have to run the risk of pissing off multiple criminal organizations by appropriating their muscle. And stops the independents from joining with anyone other than us."

[Madwand]

Scene 1: Neighborly visit

Kabuki, the one who was facing Backlight, laughed.

“Yeah, sure. But your bio-tinker can’t fix it? ”

Second measured Caliber with sharp gaze.

“You can tell by watching from here.. Ah, f*cking gun tinker! It explains a lot. “ he said, ignoring the substance of Caliber remarks.

Third Kabuki Mono answered Menagerie.

“Fill it with sweet, sweet drugs, duh, parrot boy. “

And then he nodded and considered Exhilarate’s words.

“We are on your territory. Some discreet bar maybe? “ he suggested.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The restaurant is almost as specious as devoid of clients. It’s part of Exhilarate territory where electricity was restored, but it still suffered like other businesses in this part of the town. Exhilarate had saved it from armed robbers some weeks ago, so owner was paying his protection moneys. The empty backroom with two tables filled with cigarette smoke. All three Kabuki Mono smoked, but they refused alcohol, on the ground that money and booze didn’t mix well.

“I can sell you coke, weed, crack, heroin, magic mushrooms, MDMA, but coke is something I have in limitless supply. I have good contact to spic' cartels people operating from New York. “ He winked. “The more bulk you buy, the more leeway you have with price, but it will still cost you, because you have somebody coming to you, on your terms, asking only cash and taking the risk of long supply chain through States. So, the math is simple…”



Truth to be told, math here is far from simple. Sociology and economics of organized crime may be fascinating topics, but I really don’t have time to study details right now. However, we don’t need to calculate it precisely:smallwink:. I would say that your income from protection is around 50 000 per month given the size of your territory, ambiguous as it is. So, completely saturating the market with drugs would give you double of it, something around 100000 a month, after the cost of distribution ect. I can be totally wrong, but its not that important... in this article (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/your-friendly-neighborhood-drug-dealer/360560/) I found that big East cost cannabis dealer got personally income from $24,000 to $32,000 per month after all his other costs are covered, so I think eyeballing your profit as 4 times that is not unreasonable.

Scene 2

Curiouser and curiouser:smallamused: Carry on. Ps. 3SecondCultist, please, zero OOC comments on Anna's visions, as we discussed.

[DukeGod]

Scene 2
"Don't worry about the Merchants as a criminal organization. I yet plan to disappear with them all. As soon as I can walk and fight properly again I'll be back on periodic strikes until they're all under control"

[Writtensanity]

"Woah woah woah, are we talking about controlling a bunch of capes? Do we wanna end up like the Azn Bad Boys? Jesus Murphy you can't just take people's minds and thin the other people in the city are't going to stop us. As much as I hate to say it Miasma's right, we're the bottom right now and getting hired is the best bet. Hell we got hired to save Eyes."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie, surprisingly, actually began drumming his fingers, and his frown increased. His voice was increasingly airy and detatched, as he spoke "The ideal goal, my dear colleague, is for us to amass sufficient power sufficiently quickly that they have no time to react in such a way before we have had enough gains that doing so would be overly costly. If we target brutes, and possibly movers or changers, depending on how all this works, we will easily become quite impossible to stop. From testing, it seems my pets are roughly twice as potent as from before the transformation. If it works similarly upon brutes... well, we simply have to test it. At very least, we should wait for some slight against us, and retaliate by stealing their men. Of course, this is a time where we must rely upon that wondrous invention you have so insisted on, known as democracy. So far... three for, one against? My my, that sounds interesting."

[GameOfChampions]

"Yes the idea is to amass power but the second we start taking over people we'll have every other group on us so fast we wouldn't know what hit us. Also you have no idea how your power will work on capes, you could take over a physical brute like cape and find their power doesn't work because it took some sort of control on their part. I'd rather we didn't start a war over a desire to start some experimentation...

"There is no way to amass enough people your way because we can't take on any of the larger groups right now which is what we would need to do to gain the kind of power you're talking about, enough to make others leave us alone. The only people who want to attack other groups are you and Caliber, and Caliber said he wanted to focus on independents while I believe you want to focus on groups with brutes and the like. While Backlight and myself are up to hiring ourselves out for a job. We still need Exhilarate, Anna, and Autarch to vote on what they want."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie came very, very close to smiling, though it looked painful and misplaced even in that brief moment. He lightly and rapidly returned "Why, you're right. Perhaps I simply assumed that Autarch was already decided, since he expressed agreement with picking apart the Merchants, or that Exhilerate would approve of a plan which could so dramatically increase our and his overall power, or that our dear newly freed inmate might realize that her own power makes it quite difficult for others to attack us? Surely you haven't forgotten earlier today, in which she predicted a confrontation with Miss Millita and our own imminent demises, so narrowly averted. Did you think it strange, that the protectorate is already using lethal force? We need not worry an increased response from them when they're already quite literally pulling out the big guns, and, Backlight, this could easily be good publicity. You're the expert in that regard, but think of the headline "New Villanous Group Takes Out Dangerous Criminals, Anonymous Donation Made to Charity". Do not be hasty in disregarding this idea, and do not underestimate the cowardice of men; the other groups wouldn't gang up against us, they would ally with us. "

[GameOfChampions]

"What's that saying about assuming? It makes an ass out of you and me? Either way there is no way to know that the Protectorate have allowed lethal measures against us, all we know is that one person on our team died in that hypothetical fight. If the Protectorate had a kill order already then I imagine more of us would have kicked the bucket in that. The capes of Brockton Bay do not bow down to pressure Menegerie. If we become a thorn in their side then they will strike back, look at what happened to the ABB when they became a nuisence and everyone banded together to fight off the Nine when they showed up with some success instead of running or hiding. They won't be cowed by us taking a few capes."

[3SecondCultist]

Scene 2

"The death of Caliber at the hands of Miss Militia was no accident." Anna is almost entirely sure of this fact. As she speaks, all seven of her eyes bore into those of Exhilarate. She's felt what will happen in a moment, when Caliber gets up to leave the room. "Furthermore, I can assure you that his death would have only sparked more bloodshed." To the leader of the team, it's obvious what Anna really means by this, although nobody else would have been able to grasp the significance of it.

"If we're voting on the matter, you can put me down as wanting to stay under the radar for the time being. While there is an argument to be made for momentum, the same could be said for overplaying our hand." Looking around the table, the woman smiles. She's just come up with a name for herself, although perhaps now is not the best time to unveil it. There are important matters still to settle. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but as of yet, nobody in Brockton Bay, or even the world at large, is aware of my powers. I can see this whole city. Feel its suffering, drink in its pain. Everything here bleeds. As long as I am on your side, you will never be ambushed, or assassinated. I will always see them coming. But nobody outside this room needs to know that. By moving forward on other groups now, we risk giving up any advantages. Besides myself, it's obvious from our Tinker friend here that some of our crew require extensive time in order to be battle-ready. Why deny ourselves the preparation?"

Far be it for her to take a speaking role now, but with what she can sense from the future, if she doesn't speak now, it could all fall apart. She can't risk spelling out what Exhilarate plans to do, not here. That could very well cause a civil war before this cadre of villains gets any traction. Not exactly the most fruitful of outcomes. She can't guess at Cauldron's motives for inserting her into Brockton Bay in this way, and yet she can't help but think their intention wouldn't have been for her to be a part of the vicious feud that will certainly erupt from Caliber's death. "The bottom line is this: what do we think we can get away with now, without risking any more attention? Today, you launched an attack on an armored prison convoy to save me. Two men died on the scene. Somehow, the Protectorate forces followed us back to Exhilarate's territory. So, while we certainly do not have a kill order active on us, there's a good chance that any further high-profile operations will result in retaliation that we aren't ready to deal with yet. We should build up our strength, insinuate ourselves into the existing systems of power, and only then, when we're confident that we can win, should we strike."

[Writtensanity]

"Boom, thank you Eyes. I like you," I smiled at her and she didn't return the favor, oh well. I looked to Managerie. "I get that you wanna play big, we aren't here to be small time villains. We are here to be super villains and I respect that, but we've been villains for literally a day. We can't be talking about toppling enitre gangs and taking on the city of Brockton Bay. Miasma brought up the Azn Bad Boys and they weren't doing mind control **** to the rest of the villains in the Bay. We can't **** with everyone like that, we JUST made our first thing that is close to an ally."

[n0ble]

Scene 2

The initial enthusiasm that John felt died away as it became clear that people wouldn't want to go after capes right away. He wasn't angry at everyone else's decisions, more disappointed. If they were going to do anything together they needed to be together, on the same page. And that clearly wasn't happening right now. All this talk is dumb. He rose from the table. "You know where I stand. I'm going to start working on the exsanguination gun for Miasma. I may need to run some more tests later, but for now I have a solid basis." He turned to Exhilarate "I want to talk later. In private. Come find me when you've actually decided what the next job is. I'll be in the workshop till then."

With that John scooped up the gun on the table and walked down a flight of stairs to the workshop he had in the building. It was in it's preliminary stages, so calling it a workshop was a bit much, but it had potential. There was a pin-up board for designs, with a table and the objects he needed to make ammo underneath. Naturally, there was also the gun he needed to work on, a nine millimetre. It was quiet down in the shop. No chattering capes to disrupt things.A welcome reprieve. He walked over to the table, sat down and started field stripping the gun. There was a lot of work to do.

[DukeGod]

"If we are to take our time, I'd say it is important to strengthen this territory. Clearly the Protectorate isn't afraid to just waltz in, neither is Kabuki" Octavian had heard at length about the occurence earlier. He'd never take drugs himself but if the weaklings that he protected wished to do so he'd let them.

[Madwand]

Scene 2

Exhilarate closed the negotiations with Kabuki Mono. He didn’t argue and the meeting ended without further discussions. The day was long and full of adrenaline, stress and fighting. Everyone except their leader was tired or already left. They agreed to resume planning tomorrow.

Villains didn’t suspect what kind of s*it will hit the fan tomorrow.

Mini-interlude 2.x (Repentant villain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWCLT7kccY))

“It was the point when I knew that I can’t go with it. When they started to talk about Menagerie testing his powers on humans, turning capes into slaves.. I know, I rationalized away Autarch, because he seemed to have a code of honor, of sort, using his power only on thugs and murderers. But they wouldn't listen to me. I am not strong enough to force them or forbid them from using their powers. I could see the slippery slope, we would all end up dead, Birdcaged or even worse, we would succeed thanks to Anna’s power and turned into second Slaughterhouse 9.

I don’t want to be part of this. I don’t want to push drugs, murder and brainwash.

“ Truth.” Kid Win announced, eyes on tinker-tech gadget “all of it.”

Heroes assembled in room visibly relaxed, except from Weld, who didn’t have human facial expression and tells. Director of the PRT East-North-East, Emily Piggot, also seemed to be tense, sceptical. Gabriel Keating, man known as villain Exhilarate observed sun setting through the window of director’ office.

“You alluded to the power of Anna Ryker, but we still don’t know what it is.” Piggot said.

“She is a precog, she said that she can feel violence before it occurs. Suicides, murders, deaths, injuries of all kinds. “ Gabriel quoted from memory “She said it was more detailed the closer she was, but she claimed that she can sense through whole city and that we will never be ambushed as long as she is with the group.”

Tension returned, doubled.

“Truth.” confirmed Kid Win.

“F*ck.” Assault said.

“That's Thinker 9, at minimum.” Miss Militia said, worry in her voice “depending on details, but she had seen that we have authorization for use of lethal force against bio-tinker.”

“I will inform PRT HQ immediately and request daily counter-precog checks from Hunch and others. We could possibly get reinforcements, but I don’t think they have precog to spare.” Piggot said.

“And the rest of your team?”

Exhilarate described and explained all former teammates' powers and capabilities. Kid Win again confirmed Gabriel’s honesty.

“So it’s gun tinker and master cape creating enchanted mutants, not one powerful bio-tinker as we were afraid.” Piggot summed up. “Still, we will need to take care of Menagerie. He may need to wait between using his power, but give him few months and we have class A on our hands. Possible S-class if his creations can multiply. If his power work on humans and capes and could be augmented further by tinker, he is too dangerous to ignore.”

“That will be complicated, if Anna’s power is what he claim it is.” Miss Militia said, her expression worried.

“On the bright side.” Assault cut it “PRT will cut deal with you, Gabriel. You’ll get a new costume, a new identity in other city, you'll start fresh.”

“Will we?” Piggot asked.

“You know better than anyone that after last Behemoth attack we can’t be choosers. He didn’t kill anyone, turned himself in, protected his people risking his life for months after Leviathan, he clearly isn’t psycho and he just gave us tons of intel.” Assault said.

“I have more.” Gabriel Keating interjected, head turned to him. “As I said, I cut deal with Kabuki Mono and first drugs will be delivered tonight, 3 A.M. We set up the meeting and we both don’t sleep. And it will be on his territory, so Anna possibly wouldn't see if Protectorate intervene, possibly she would be asleep. We can set the trap with containment foam and non-painful powers like Clockblocker’s and take a lot of drugs from the streets.”

“Break the forming alliance between your group and Kabuki Mono” said Weld “I like it.”

ARC 2 - BETRAYAL


Backlight

It was three a.m and all villains were safe and asleep. But there was a phone on Backlight’ nightstand and it was ringing. Something was happening in the villains world. Everett West answered it, half-awake, but aware enough to know that it was his cape’ identity that was called in the middle of the night.

“Backlight.”

“What the **** is happening, Light? “ Kabuki Mono screamed, jolting Backlight to full awareness in instant ”three of me just get f*cking foamed by f*cking PRT and half of the heroes in the f*cking city and your Exhilarate just stood there. F*ck, did you sold me, you co*ksuckers? Did you?!

[Writtensanity]

I sat up, sleep was almost dripping from my eyes as I snapped from 'asleep and annoyed' to 'awake and pissed. Gears were turning in my head, but they weren't saying much of anything I was too tired for that bull****. "Woah woah woah," I said to Kabuki on the other end of the phone, "can we just think about what I would have to ****ing gain from working with the PRT? They ain't gonna let me go, it would look too bad on them and," I let the phone hang a bit in my hand, the gears were working toward something solid now. Exhilarate had been with them, that meant. Nah, he wasn't the kind of guy who would backstab, he wasn't ambitious or cowardly enough.

"****, I don't know," I said, "look I get nothing from smoking a couple of your clones and knocking drugs off of the street. It's a headache for you and a ****ing loss of cash for both of us. I'm going to text you a location. Meet me there to talk about this, or don't if you don't trust me. Meet you there in two hours." I held back a yawn so I could get across how important this is, "I'm rallying the troops and if Exhilarate is doing something fishy..." I hung up the phone. I didn't have time to think about what I was going to do to that bastard. It wasn't only that he crossed me, it was that I needed to teach anyone who crossed me a lesson.

The phone calls began.

[Madwand]

Two hours later seven Kabuki Mono's duplicates showed in designated place. Backlight could tell that he (they?) calmed down, but no-one needed Anna' power to see very real possibility of violence. Every clone was packing at least two gun and two grenades on his belt and they were tense, battle-ready.

"So? Where is Exhilarate? I was thinking it might be a sting with some f*king FBI' illusionist or other smack, but then your boss would be here, wouldn’t he?

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie's eye twitched.

It had been doing so for the last several minutes, and even someone with very few emotions and who was very good at concealing them when he did feel them couldn't stop.

Betrayal is a disconcerting thing when you happen to be on the recieving end, after all. He had been planning on gaining the man's trust, solidifying the team a bit, and then arranging a coup, and the fact that he had been foiled was... annoying. He had honestly felt a few pangs of fury before settling on irritated and annoyed; few things could rile him up like stolen power. Ideally he would be working to seize leadership, but at the moment it was looking like they were actually settling on democracy.

No matter. The important thing for the moment was preventing an all out gang war, which would help precisely nobody and reduce his power base even more. Holding a heat lamp to a bucket with a rat inside to the man's chest and having it burrow into his innards was a secondary concern. Or perhaps tying him to a tree and having sharpened bamboo grow into him, he hadn't quite decided. He had stopped by his house on the way to see if he could convert the deer yet, and then proceeded to the meeting place.

He was treating this as a likely battle, which meant that he was bringing along seven dogs, three geese, one deer, a boa constrictor, and his larger macaw. The deer and the macaw were both in plain sight, the standard two hounds and a snake were guarding the car, and the geese and dogs were right out of sight. While the geese were on the tops of nearby buildings, the dogs were around assorted nearby corners; far enough to be out of sight and line of fire, close enough to get there in a few moments if things went violent.

Menagerie, interacting through the proxy of the macaw, put all his concentration into speaking fairly normally, an easier task with the larger one. It was perched upon an antler of the deer, regally posed and having it's camera as normal. "That TraItor has No plAce amoNg us, nOw. We reAlise you maY be sUspicious, and You haVe a rigHt to bE, but yoU are nOt aloNe in yOur ouTrage. We arE a new gRoup, as you kNow, and wE were FooliSh to truSt him; he wAs made lEader because tHis terrItory was fiRst claimEd by him, nO morE. To be bLunt, he was aN *******, anD he had uS both foOled." Normally he disdained the use of disagreeable language, but in this case it would lend credibility. To aid in the appearance, he ruffled the birds feathers (which were more or less leaves, but that wasn't really consequential), and had it flutter slightly. He resumed "We undersTand if you Do noT wish to cOnsideR furTher relatioNs, but wE have no wiSh to be anTagonIstic. If you tRuly wisH to air yOur grievanCes, tracK doWn that ****er and Kill hIm sloWly and pAinfullY. I recComenD cuttIng ofF his LimBs one By one, repeatEdly."

[n0ble]

John cracked his neck as Backlights voice crackled over his phone. While the others had left, he'd stayed in the shop, working on the bleeder rounds. It had been a long night, but he'd made some progress. Still, more test would be needed. Prior to Backlight's call his jaw had been set in a firm line of concentration. Upon hearing the news that Exhilarate had betrayed them, a slight tugging occurred at the edges of Johns mouth. Finally. Maybe now he could actually test his weapons out on some real targets. If it led to war with the replicator then so much the better, they'd crush him too. No. John would crush him.

He re-donned his uniform for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, keeping both tinker guns on his waste and a .44 calibre magnum on his ankle. He left the building and, slowly with no great rush, made his way to the meeting spot. Upon reaching it two hours later he looked at the armaments of the clones. It said a lot about John's power that he was more irked buy the technical flaws in the guns. Some were too flashy, with a nice silver chrome covering the outside, while others had sights even more inaccurate then the replicator's last gun. He stood silently while the others spoke, flanking them. The idleness made the anger return.

All of our strengths and weaknesses revealed. Damn Despite his anger, John's voice was almost eerily calm and measured as he spoke. It wasn't fear that was gripping him. Moreso a heightened state of things. He hadn't felt this good since he built the grey gun. "At this point he's betrayed all of us. No reason for getting mad at each other when the real target is out there. Put out a reward for him. Not just in this city. But in every city. Alive, not dead. Then you can use him in your fight ring or sell him or whatever. Frankly I don't care as long as we get a piece of him. And that we hurry up and go after him. He's probably skipping town as we speak." It was clear that he was speaking to both Kabuki Mono and Backlight. A terrible thought passed through John's brain as he spoke. He would need test subjects for his guns at some point or another. Why not use one that could be re-usable? And a cape no less. Yes. That would work.

[GameOfChampions]

I fumble around my nightstand as I hear the phone start to go off, groaning I finally find and answer my phone. Five minutes of Backlight explaining later I hang up and start running around my room trying to get my gear on and everything. As I trip over myself trying to pull on my pants my mind whirs 'I can't believe Exhilarate would do this to us! I guess I shouldn't be to surprised, he had his morals and it seemed that as our band grew he became less comfortable with how some things were being or going to be handled. Hell I have some reserves about how we're handling things but this is to much, I'm not going to be able to stop anyone. Backlight's on the warpath and I can imagine that Menagerie and Caliber will be as well.' I sigh mentally 'There's no saving him now if the group gets their hands on him, I just hope he had the good sense to leave the city.'

I finally get all my gear together after scrambling around like mad and I leave the house at a quick jog, trying to catch up with the group at the meeting place Backlight had texted me. I finally get to the site and I see Backlight there unsurprisingly with some others of the group, but what is really surprising is the amount of firepower the Kabuki's brought. I guess they were really riled up after earlier, which wasn't surprising, but it did mean that we had to be careful. I nod respectfully to the Kabuki's, trying to convey respect to them, while also giving a wave and short hello to the group.

I listen for a bit but it seems that everyone has this well in hand, in a low voice to let the group know "I'm going to scout out the area, I'm sure we're safe but I'd rather be safe then sorry and we don't need anything to set off the Kabuki's. They're on edge as it is." I then raise my voice to talk to the Kabuki's "If you'll excuse me I'm going to check the perimeter, if you want then one of you can join me for the scouting."

When scouting around Miasma will form a small fog bank around himself, not to big or anything but enough to cause some confusion hopefully, say 15 foot radius.

[DukeGod]

Autarch had shown in force. Cane in one hand, spear on the other, all the thugs he controlled armed with their pistols and machetes or whatever weapon they thought looked scary he guessed.

"I'd much rather we just killed him. No point in keeping people alive, but I guess the worst threat he had is already used. Outing us all. Just don't give him chance to escape. Don't bother with making it look like a fair fight if you put 'im on the ring. Strip him off his legs at least"

[Madwand]

Kabuki Mono listened to the conversation. It was clear that he was impatient. If he was concerned with Menagerie dogs he didn't show any of it.

"Your traitor, your problem. I want my drugs back or 50k in cash, whatever you prefer. Preferably right now, but I am willing to play ball one last time and give you 48 hours to collect the money or get the drugs back. I can't say where my duplicates are, because they were sedated, but I am guessing PRT building. I guess that sunny-f*ck-face is there too."


Miasma

He walked inside the blood-fog, a scarlet wall quickly surrounded meeting place. He run into second problem - he was sure that no-one else in close vicinity bleed, but his fog blocked his sight..


@GameofChampions Remember that you can't dispel fog and after created it doesn't move with you, so running with 15 feet around will create a long trail. Plus, you know,limited visibility.

@DukeGod, you have one last thug with you. You'll need to get out of territory to "recruit" more criminals.

[Writtensanity]

"So you want us to get back the drugs that you lost to the PRT?" I asked, "that's a big ask man." I was about to play the best plan I'd thought of in a while. For the first time in forever I'd dropped the insanity and manic happiness, I was the businessman my father had been training me to be. "I have a way that we can something better, and a nice little vacation. We ransom our criminal activity for say," I acted like I was thinking of the number off of the top of my head, "two weeks against Exhilarate and your clones." The plan sounded like nothing to start with.

"At worst," I said "they don't give us **** and everything keeps on as normal. The PRT looks like a bunch of asshats who care more about one villain than two weeks of safety. Points for us." I wanted to rest my hand on my bat, but I wasn't carrying it for a reason, I had to look open. "At best we get everything, and we prove to everyone else in the city that the PRT is willing to buckle to us." I smirked at Kabuki, it was a little too dark to see if he was impressed, "Win-win right? Let's make this an opportunity instead of doing exactly what they want us to do." I placed the emphasis so he got it, the PRT wanted to stop us from happening, that's why they targeted Kabuki instead of the hideout.

[Madwand]

"You've got a pair on you, Backlight. It's why I liked you." Kabuki Mono stressed word "liked". "But it's not a negotiation. You want peace between us and don't want your reputation in Bay go to sh*t, so you'll make sure I get refund on what your boss sold to PRT and police. Don't care about clones, I'll get them back in few day."

Consider it part of today's update. Kabuki is not concerned about clones, but he really wants money or drugs back.

[n0ble]

He's not going to back down. Good. It was easy to imagine a bullet going through each of there heads in a perfect order. They'd fall like dominos, one after the other after the other. Then he'd moved on to the rest of them, the Pure, Urchins, Protectorate, he'd kill them al-

John snapped out of his reprieve. War it is then. He wasn't going to kowtow to the replicator. They had numbers, even on him. Plus the longer a series of conflicts with the replicator went, the longer he'd have time to develop countermeasures.

He stayed quiet while the others talked. The group knew where he stood if it came down to violence and co-operating with the freaks in front of him.

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie hadn't much been expecting Kabuki to take that deal, however pleasant it might have been. He had signed his own death warrant, if he was that uncompromising.

While he traditionally only equipped his Macaws with cameras, it wasn't that hard to get something cheap and strap each of the geese with one. It also hadn't been terribly hard to acquire some rudimentary triggered explosives, and strap those to the geese. It was almost boringly easy; so long as this meeting didn't descend into violence (or even if it did) he would have the geese follow the duplicator discretely, him tailing a ways away. He would inevitably either walk back to his home base, or take a car there; from then, it was a simple matter to have the geese carefully undo the explosives from each other's backs. They would set them at assorted points, he would activate them via remote, Kabuki would die.

As is, he now only needed to have the rest leave the situation peacefully; grenades are deadly, however incompetent and vice-ridden their wielder. That may seem hypocritical on the later part, as Menagerie understood the concept of Avarice, in the way that one understands breathing. That was failing to see that even the slowest nitwit could recognize the virtues of not hyperventilating. He thus spoke, carefully manipulating the macaw "I see thAt you arE unwillInG to compRimise, so We have noThing moRe to disCuss. We will haVe the mOneY two dAys froM now, or soMe peopLe-" He made a show of having the plant-like macaw glance significantly in his team's direction, in such a fashion that it would be read quite differently by his team and Kabuki himself, before continuing "Will nO longEr be amonG us. Of that, I caN assurE."

[3SecondCultist]

In the earpieces of the villains, they can hear Anna's voice crackle. "Alright, wrap it up gents. Kabuki is about to blow, and a combat now will ensue in casualties. Caliber and Blacklight, leave the area now. Everyone else follow suit. We might kill him, but we lose valuable manpower in doing so."

[GameOfChampions]

I hear Anna's warning and try to keep calm, this is not what we needed right now. I make my way back to the meeting quickly and nod to the others and then jerk my head back the way we'd come. "Well I imagine you guys have already covered everything already so we should probably take our leave, we'll try to sort things out as quickly as possible Kubuki's."

I then quickly make my way back the way I came while keeping an eye on the Kabuki's, ready to dive for cover any second.

[n0ble]

The pre cogs words left John disappointed. Even if they took out the replicators duplicates John would be dead. Situation untenable. Under the mask, his features softened considerably. He felt very tired all of a sudden. He said, in agreement with what the Kabukis said with a curt nod, "Forty eight hours? Done." He backed away from the duplicates, not taking his eyes off. It was at that moment that John became acutely aware of the potential fire lanes and cover that he could use should Kabuki Mono make good on what Ryker had said. He backed away to a safe distance, slowly.

[Writtensanity]

Backlight didn't say anything, he'd offered Kabuki the interesting option and the man had said no. In the end there as nothing else that he could do.

He added Kabuki to the mental burn list and walked away. There was a new territory for them to take over, and he had an idea of the overly demanding idiot they would take it from. When they got back to a safe place he would suggest a war of attrition. Kabuki would fall eventually.

[Madwand]

Meeting with Kabuki Mono.

Anna's warning convinced villains to terminate the meeting with Kabuki. Both sides didn't reach any compromise or developed shared plan of action.

Angry Birds

Menagerie had two geese armed with bombs fallow after seven clones. The bombing plot got complicated quickly - the targeted group split into three with two, two and three duplicates respectively; all three units moved to different gataway cars.

Let's see how it goes:smallamused:

Meet'n'scheme

Villains gathered, this time at Anna's beckoning, to plot revenge against their former leader and possibly war against their almost ally.

[Bobbybobby99]

Angry birds.

Looking distinctly apathetic, and having recovered from his eye twitching irritation, Menagerie followed in his van, thankful that he had at least outfitted the third goose with a camera, even if he couldn't acquire a third bomb on short notice. Each bird tailed an individual car, his eyes flicking back and forth rapidly across the screen in order to keep up. Once/If each car ended up more than six blocks away from another total, he followed the two which seemed to be heading towards Kabuki's overall territory. If all the cars ended up more than six blocks away from each other, he once again had the geese follow the one that appeared to be going towards Kabuki's territory.

Before having a goose depart from chasing a car (and aiming for red lights), he had his macaw swiftly fly out to that car's location. From some distance above, he then had that macaw drop a very, very cheap smartphone in one of the most durable cases he could find, directly on top of said car. If it turned out that the car he followed to their territory wasn't the right one, all he had to do was use one of the basic apps and 'find his phone'. Tracking devices might be hard to find, but people often forgot that they carried something similar in their pocket, and being resourceful was one of the better traits a person could have.

[3SecondCultist]

Anna sips on her tea. It's dark and bitter, an English breakfast blend they had lying around in one of the cupboards. It tastes terrible, even by her standards. And still, it manages to calm her nerves. There's quite a bit to discuss, and she and Blacklight will need to provide at least a few of the answers. He's downstairs now, and she can see the possible future of him stabbing himself should anyone unwanted try to storm their group's meeting.

It took nearly all of her concentration to suppress her powers long enough to find a cheap motel inside the boundaries of Exhilarate's territory. The old headquarters was out of the question, since apparently their erstwhile leader had turned coat. So, she'd asked her new teammates to come without costumes. With this much heat on their villainous identities, this way is safer.

She stares down at the piece of paper, which has a list of headings, each of which has an alotted amount of space beneath it. The first heading is 'Exhilarate', followed by 'Kabuki', 'Territory', 'Income', and 'Headquarters'. She'll destroy the list when she's through with it. Anna looks over at the comm receiver on the cheap motel desk, waiting for her teammates to announce their arrival over their channel. Any undeclared attempts at entry from the door will result in her trying to flee.

OOC: open invitation to post, make sure to sign off on the comms first.

[GameOfChampions]

I look up from my phone to make sure I had the right address, it wouldn't do to go knocking on some randoms door, and then tap my comm "Hey Anna It's Ryan, I'm here so don't freak out." I heft the bag with all my Miasma gear and throw it over my shoulder as I wait for Anna unlock the door and let me in. I toss the bag beside a chair that I flop into 'Ugh I can't believe everything's come to this, our villain group in a seedy motel room and we owe fifty thousand to another villain... not what I imagined when I joined up.' I put my head in my hands and let out a loud groan.

After my groan I straighten up and crack my neck, ready to get down to business "OK Anna do you have any new info? I was planning on going through the territory in the morning to collect some cash from the people, we can just tell them that Exhilarate is the one that is asking and we're just the bagman. We also need to figure out what to do about this Exhilarate issue..."

[3SecondCultist]

Opening the door to let Ryan in, Anna frowns at the young man's bad posture, but says nothing. He's going to hurt his back, lying around the way he's doing. Wordlessly, she offers him a cup of tea, gesturing at the cheap white plastic kettle plugged into the outlet on the counter-top.

As he begins to speak, the pre-cog shakes her head slowly. "There is no imminent violence here. For the time being, at least, we're all safe from lethal measures. For the first time since I was sprung out yesterday, none of our crew are in any bodily danger." There's more to it than that, of course, but she figures she'll wait until everyone's here before saying anything. On the subject of Exhilarate, however, she points to the pen and paper in her own lap. "It's on my list of discussion points."

[n0ble]

"Calibre, incoming." John said as he took the elevator up, alone. He wasn't about to go and share who he was with any of these capes. He hadn't told Exhilarate, which had turned out to be smart given the current circumstances. He didn't need the pre cog knowing his name. He had a duffel bag holding his uniform, guns, ammo and blueprints. It had also been smart to take those with him. It didn't take a genius to realize that their current headquarters was as compromised as there former leader.

As he went to the door Ryker had told him about and was let in he dropped the duffel bag on a chair with a dull thud. John looked from Ryker to Miasma then back to Ryker again. "So. War."

[DukeGod]

Octavian arrives at the motel, glaring a bit hard at the receptionist and waits to announce himself on the comm to when he was at the door

"Octavian. Autarch"

And then he delivers three banging knocks to the door. Once it's open he enters and ignores any seats, leaning against a wall arms crossed instead

His costume wasn't with him. He had just ordered his last thug to take it and where to go hide. He'd check later to see if the fool had been caught, changing costumes was hardly a nuisance in the overall picture

So, he was in mostly casual clothing. Jeans, combat boots, and a t-shirt with a cartoon-y Alexandria drawn in a position that he's sure would make her want to kill the artist were she aware of the shirt's existence

[3SecondCultist]

As everyone who's coming enters the room, Anna calls for Blacklight on his burner again. He's been keeping watch around the corner, as per their conversation earlier, and he's the last one to come upstairs and find a seat.

"We're all here. Now, I called this meeting for several reasons. First and foremost, however, is to decide what direction we want to take as a group." She takes a moment to think about her next words, as much to carefully phrase it as for dramatic effect. Just like at the last meeting, it's fallen to her to speak, although she has chosen to do so reluctantly. Nobody else but Blacklight has shown all that much initiative in trying to bring the team together, so here she is. "As you're all aware, Exhilarate has betrayed us, abandoned his own territory for unknown reasons, and turned coat to the PRT. No doubt he's working through the finer points of a deal to be relocated to another city to join a team of heroes - that's standard practice for them. We've been left to pick up the pieces. What's worse, the timing of the betrayal has thrown a serious wrench into our dealings with Kabuki-Mono, to the point where it's uncertain that we'll be able to salvage a working relationship with him."

"All of this leaves us in a rather precarious position: we don't have a headquarters, we're absent a leader, the PRT will be closing in on us, and we have a 48 hour window before we're at war with another cape. Any move we make now could have serious repercussions on us. Now, I've spoken with Blacklight here about some of this, and we've reached an accord that we hope you all agree with. Blacklight wants to reach out to the PRT, to get them to make a similar deal to the one offered to Kabuki: we get Exhilarate back, and in exchange, we give them a full two week's truce, during which time we don't start any fights with heroes or make any moves against Brockton Bay as a whole. We make this offer public, and stress to them that we are very interested in a ceasefire that will protect the citizens of our territory, not to mention the city at large. That way, even if they refuse it's a public relations disaster for them."

Anna continues with her pitch. She's built up enough momentum, but she needs to make sure she's got all of them on board with this. A unified team is the best way to handle these sorts of crises. She flashes back to Paul, before. They had evaded the authorities for so long because they worked well together, despite everything. She shudders inwardly at the involuntary image of a bloody girl being buried in furloughs of dirt. Stay focused, Anna. She looks around the room, meeting everyone's eyes. "I had something to add to that idea: I think we should all appoint Blacklight to be the team's de facto leader. Now, I've got nothing wrong with the way we've been running things. Everyone should absolutely have a say, and I like the option of us having roughly equal power in decision making. But as far as the outside world is concerned, Blacklight should be the one running the show. He's already got something of a following, and it will give his testimony to the PRT more weight - they're more likely to deal with him if they think he's the man in charge."

"But we want to know your thoughts on the matter. This should be something we all decide on as a team."

Brockton was a mess since Leviathan attacked. Burner houses were as common as burner phones in the flooded part of the city. The address Anna sent him had taken Backlight to that part of town. He was carrying everything he owned.

There weren't a lot of places in Brockton that he would have felt safe at the moment. Exhilarate had known everything when he'd turned. Maybe honor among thieves had been too much to expect. Either way, the one place in Brockton that was safe, was anywhere with Anna.

At least if he assumed she was too smart to jump to the PRT now.

A broken lock on the door and the smell of rotting wood were what met Backlight when he got to the address. He had a cause and a will to get revenge on both parties involved, he just needed a person with a good plan.

Precogs were good for plans.

"Sit down anywhere, I suppose." Anna's voice was quiet, although it carried farther than usual in the strange acoustics of flooded drywall and peeling plastic. She had situated herself in a ratty chair in what used to be somebody's living room, no doubt loathing the draft. There was no working electricity, so the long shadows of the fading day plunge most of the empty spaces into darkness, but there's enough natural light to at least see each other. Anna shivered. She'd need to find better accommodation than this.

"Sorry for being cryptic, but you never know who's listening in. And I guess we're all a bit on edge, now." She opened her mouth to speak further, but didn't do so immediately. "You almost died today, you know. If you had pressed the meeting with Kabuki any further, you would have." Although Anna suspected that under more normal circumstances, the intransigent little duplicator wouldn't be that much of a problem, today it was everything. He could break the team... or make it stronger than it was before.

Which brought her to here, to Blacklight. To schemes hatched in the growing dark.

"Cryptic's fine, and yeah you mentioned the dying thing." If nothing else, Backlight's tone covered the 'on edge' part of the equation. He ended up in a chair that was 'almost' across from her. He was sitting in a lot more of he dying light than she was. He tried to smile, seem friendly: he wasn't in the mood.

"So are we on the same page about killing Exhilarate and getting Kabuki's territory?" He asked. There wasn't a point in pleasantries, betrayal left a bad taste in he mouth. Plans first.

Blunt, but to the point. Anna appreciated that about Blacklight, at least. Although she hadn't really gotten to know anyone on the team, she felt as though she could come to actually enjoy this man's company. He didn't seem to savor the prospect of killing, which was a comfort. It wasn't exactly high on her list of priorities either, and yet it needed to be done.

"Yes." Better to reply in kind, than to elaborate on the reasoning. They both knew why they're meeting here tonight. "Exhilarate needs to die, but the PRT aren't exactly going to hand him back over to us for nothing. We need leverage of some sort."

"What do you think of what I suggested to Kabuki? We leverage two weeks of activity for his sorry ass. It's a PR checkmate if nothing else. Plus, it only costs us, what, 50-70k? That's less than a bribe would be."

Anna found herself nodding slowly. "That could certainly work. It's a win-win for us, since we either get Exhilarate, or two weeks without the heroes on our backs. That's more time we can work out how to deal with Kabuki."

She pondered it for another moment. "Of course, the heroes could just ignore all of that in favor of hunting us down. They presumably know our power-sets now, they might very well see as too big a threat to deal with."

Well then they're just being d*cks about it," Backlight said. There wasn't a better argument than that, most of their villainy assumed that the PRT was willing to play cops and robbers. "We might need to cut back on Autarch's possessions now that they know they aren't just lackeys," Backlight shrugged. It wasn't time for solid plans.

"On the note of Kabuki I think we only need us two for a war of attrition on him. I can buzz clones as long as you make sure I'm gonna win the fight."

Her frown deepened at the idea of her fellow cape not having an answer to the addressed problem. Still, it wasn't exactly the most likely course of action. "I agree, cutting back on the Class-A tactics will help in that area."

On the matter of Kabuki, however, things were a bit less complicated. She nodded once at the idea of a war against the independent. "I think that would work best if things were quiet with the PRT. If you go in alone, we can claim plausible deniability. Make it look like another cape, or just a vigilante. That is, assuming any truce we broker is with all of Brockton Bay, and not just the PRT."

"Honestly, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I would wanna keep the truce if we make it." Backlight liked to think he had some honour left, even if only compared to Exhilarate. "Two weeks of prepping for Kabuki isn't too bad. It's not like he is going to be monumentally more on edge two weeks from now."

"But yeah, even after the truce the deniability is good, gang warfare is messy."

"Keep in mind, Kabuki will be ready to fight two days from now, if we don't return what's owed to him. I believe you can take him out if you're careful, but I think there are other ways in which our crew can help us. Take Caliber, for instance. From what I know, he could help you to build a couple of weapons to fight Kabuki." She paused for a moment. 48 hours wasn't exactly a long time. "And if I were to help you, I think that could be fruitful. Menagerie can also keep the pressure on with his creations."

"So you're thinking strike before we get Exhilarate, go behind the PRT's backs or -" Backlight dropped the sentence as his train of thought went elsewhere. "There's a time limit on both things, which sucks."

Backlight bit the inside of his lip and drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. He didn't want to go behind the PRT, but they needed to make both moves. Could he risk making Kabuki more of a threat to keep good on his word? Even then, that was assuming the PRT were willing to play ball.

"Which is move important for the team?" he asked after one of the longest silences in his life. The team part was important. He wanted Exhilarate, he wanted the PR move. Anna knew that much. That being said, he was learning enough about the game to know the territory might mean more than twitter followers.

Blacklight's question was a sound one, and it took Anna equally long to respond. "Striking before we offer any sort of deal for Exhilarate could be a huge mistake, if the PRT asks us to stop fighting Kabuki. We'd effectively be tying ourselves down and waiting for him to bring the fight to us. That's a losing strategy. By the same token, going back on any deal we make with them will be bad for us - they might never sit down at the table with us again." Anna thought back on their options.

"Either we hold off until after our next meeting to deal with Kabuki... or we find him within the next 48 hours and eliminate him when he's not expecting us."

"48 hours is not a lot of time to kill a lot of Kabuki," Backlight pointed out, "we know his clones cost him something, or he wouldn't be pusses about losing them, but-" he cut himself off because the point is made. "If we war over time we can kill one, maybe two, clones in quick strikes and just bleed him out until he's desperate."

"I'd lean toward waiting for the PRT's answer, but then again, I'm no precog."

"If that's what you think is best," Anna replied, "then I will defer to you on the matter. We will reach out to the PRT immediately, then? You should know that my power offers no aid in this area. It is only triggered by violence, and the pain that it causes."

The thinker pursed her lips pensively. "That's... that's not the only reason I invited you to talk. I wanted to ask if you wanted to step up to be the team leader. To be clear, I think a democratic model will work with this group of capes - they seem to play along fairly well. This would be more for the purposes of outside perception. You're in the media, and I think having our leader in a discussion with the PRT makes them all that much more likely to deal with us."

"Call the team first," Backlight said, "get them to meet and we can discuss this a little further. Once we find a place, I'll keep watch. If something looks up, I'll stab myself. That should give us fair enough warning, right?" Backlight asked. It would at least give them a couple hours notice on a PRT raid. "We get people here one at a time, make sure they're on our side."

"We'll talk to the PRT through the Parahumans forum, let the news reach them organically, news stations should learn about this just as they do. Makes it harder on them."

Once he's laid out his idea, Backlight held out a hand to Anna. "Let's get this train moving again."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie, perhaps a touch paranoid after the recent betrayal, was not physically present in the room, instead having sent a Macaw. He had it wait outside of the door after Backlight came in, subtly keeping it just a crack open when he opened it, and then having it slip in once Anna once again began talking. It stuck to the shadows of the room, and rapidly hopped up on one of the chairs behind them. If it worked as intended, everyone but Ominous Girl wouldn't know how how it had gotten in, and not knowing was an intimidating prospect. After dealing with Kabuki, he could use a destressor.

He had been tempted to just cut his losses and go independent, but, as they often said, keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. They were 'friends', but they could easily become enemies, and it would be better to have them working with him than against him. A bit of intimidation would work wonders.

He finagled the Macaw's vocal cords, attempting to have it sound fairly normal and having the voice speak up quite loudly and suddenly. If any of them were startled, well, that was a bonus. Speaking, it said, "I appRove. BackLiGht has, sO far, bEen QuiTe relIable, and hE is sOmethIng of the puBlic facE of thE tEam. The pLaN sounDs reaSonabLe. "

[GameOfChampions]

I just shrug, I wasn't too surprised since Backlight seemed like the obvious choice of everyone, he had been here the longest after Exhilarate, he was easy going and friendly with the group, and he had local support through his social media. 'Though whether he will be able to hold everyone together and keep us from killing each other is something else entirely...' I can't help but have my eyes nervously flicker over to the Macaw preening on the back of the chair, I always felt a little worried that one day he would just decide we were more use to him as his plant zombies.

"Ya I'm sure Backlight will fit the bill as our leader. Should we really be playing hardball with the PRT right now, I mean we're backing them into corner with this deal and we already have the issue with Kabuki so maybe we shouldn't be so aggressive with our deal to the PRT. Could we send a minion of some sort or pay some random citizen through Autarch's minion to deliver a letter? So do we want to try and appease Kabuki for now then?"

[DukeGod]

"Backing then into a corner? You're severely underestimating the Protectorate. Would this be like a good punch to the face? Yeah but they can tank a good number of those. I'll agree on both decisions."

Octavian goes from the wall closer to the team. He seems like he positively wants to loom

"A for Kabuki, I'd agree with giving him drugs back, his own or someone else's but probably not with giving him any actual hard cash. We're probably gonna need as much of the latter as we can get."

[n0ble]

"Sure" Despite how annoying John found Backlight, he did have certain social capabilities which John himself severely lacked. Besides someone with a face that public could act as a lightning rod and bring all the unnecessary attention down on himself. Which suited John Just fine. There was also the matter of Kabuki Mono.

John had been thinking of ways to deal with him ever since the group had encountered the seven dupes at the meet point. He already had an idea for an anti-master class gun. Something like a shared pain weapon would do. He didn't really know or even care how Autarch or Menegerie would react to his idea, but He could hazard a guess about the latter. The freak seemed to relish exercising his power. His display in front of Ryker seemed ample evidence for that. John's eyes were momentarily drawn to the swan tattoo on Autarchs hand. With a quick blink he was back to focusing on the blueprint that he'd spread out on the table. He wasn't going to have anything to do with a Simurgh survivor if he could avoid it. "Giving the replicator his drugs will have meant that we just wasted effort to re-set the status-quo. If we take him out then we can establish a reputation and consolidate territory. Theres potential we could inherit his operations and expand revenue as well." he stands up from the desk, the blueprint still on it, and turns to Ryker "Are you planning on making this offer to the PRT within the next forty eight hours?"


He might have reserved a nigh-unlimited amount of hatred for the PRT. If he could blame anyone for his current situation, John could probably find a way to blame them. But right now? At this time? He really wanted to shoot Kabuki Mono is his creepy masked face.

[3SecondCultist]

"Well then," Anna says as she turns to Everett. "It looks like it's a unanimous vote! All of us here are equals, but if anyone else asks, you're the boss."

She felt the transformation of the bird a little while ago, so it's hardly a surprise when Menagerie uses it as a mouthpiece. That doesn't make it less disconcerting, but she suspects that the cape is doing it for effect, so she doesn't engage. Taking her own seat, the pre-cog peruses the list of items still to cover, and smiles when she recognizes that they're actually ahead of schedule. She sits out and lets the others talk, until Caliber shoots the conversation directly back to her. "We were planning on reaching out immediately. The sooner we get the PRT to the table, the better - we don't know when they're going to be moving Exhilarate, and once that's done, it'll be that much harder to convince them to let us have him back."

"Which brings us to the replicator," she continues. "He's a problem, but he's also an opportunity. How we deal with him now is going to tell the rest of Brockton Bay who we are, and how we operate. Do we give him back what we have and hope that he doesn't retaliate? Or do we strike as soon as we can, while his guard is still down? My vote is for the latter, if it matters. If Autarch and Menagerie keep the pressure on him, wear him down, it should be easy for Miasma and Blacklight to take him out if I'm coordinating everything."

[n0ble]

"I favour the latter as well. I have a blueprint for an anti master gun based on yours" he stops and looks first at Ryker, then in the direction of the parrot's voice "and your powers. Shared pain. Shoot one duplicate and then all feel the pain. Autarch and Menegerie can attack his dealers, turn his infrastructure into our infrastructure.It would gut his finances if he's unable to get product out. Plus, If we have more funding it means I can mass produce the anti-master gun, equip everyone with one. Possible Autarch's people as well." He stops for a second and runs some numbers. "It would cost twenty-four thousand for one. If i start running tests now I can start building one as soon as we acquire funds for it. Nevermind that I'd like to capture one of his duplicates to run tests on as well. The right move would be to find the original and have either of you-" his gaze doesn't shift from the area the parrot's in, but its clear he's talking to Autarch as well."-take him over. From there it'd be a simple matter of using him to govern the territory we appropriated."

"That being said, if we do go to war with the replicator, those two events are at odds with each other. We should give the Protectorate a time frame within which to answer us. That way the truce isn't immediately in effect and we won't have to deal with them and Kabuki Mono "

[Writtensanity]

"Well then, unexpected circumstances are always interesting," I tried to play coy by holding in my smile but, frankly I was **** at it. I hadn't come to Brockton to be a sidekick, and this betrayal had just sped things up, as annoying as it was. "Anna's right, we all have a vote, but I'll take care of the PR stuff. I basically was anyway."

I pulled out the sheet with my plans on it that I'd written during my time on watch. It wasn't much, but it was more for my memory than anything. "So, first things first. We have two events with time limits. Kabuki's drugs or money, and the PRT bribe thing. Both of them are important but only one of them gets us shot. We SHOULD be able to get the money before two days are up, so we might just need to do that. I would love to do drugs, but I wouldn't know where to get 50K of coke to give to our supplier."

"I know it sucks needing to back down like that, but we can't go to the PRT with an offer like peace and then go behind their backs. I like this move because it's a PR checkmate, but us lying here would blow it up in our face. We can't be at war when we offer the PRT a deal, and we can't GO to war if they accept. If we want to get Exhilarate back to sell him or whatever, we would need make sure that's our priority."

"The flip side is that we could just not care about him, let him go on his merry way and start killing Kabuki now. The guy's an ass for trying to strong arm us like this, but I don't think he's betrayal levels of ass."

"I vote for paying Kabuki, and then offering the PRT a deal. If nothing else it will put Kabuki's guard down."

[3SecondCultist]

"Alright," says Anna with only a little bit of a sigh. "I know when I'm outvoted. Besides, pragmatism can sometimes work just as well as aggression." She honestly doesn't mind finding a way to appease Kabuki until they're able to get the drop on him. As she speaks, she meets Caliber's eyes behind his mask, and hopes that he agrees. At the very least, he's smart enough to know that more time will allow him to perfect his designs.

"If we're all resolved that we want to pay Kabuki, that brings up a different problem." She puts down the piece of paper so that others can see it. "We don't have all of the drugs in question, and we certainly don't have the money. How do we propose to come up with $50,000 in... 45 hours?"

[n0ble]

This whole democracy thing was really starting to get on John's nerves. Then again, it was easy to tell that everyone else wanted to avoid conflict between the group and other parahumans. Just one more difference between him and them. But fine. He could stomach it for now. Ryker looking at him through John off guard, if only for a moment. And yet, try as he might to shake the feeling, he couldn't help but think they were operating on the same wavelength in terms of thought. Makes sense. She's a murderer. Allegedly. Guess I am too. Except not allegedly.

"Hitting major dealers wont't work. We'd make more enemies than friends that way and would run the risk of pissing on someone else's doorstep. We can handle Kabuki Mono right now. We can't afford a war on two fronts. Specially if one of those fronts is a group like the Pure. We're going to have to raise the money within the territory we have. Squeeze people. Exhilarate must have seen something in this place. Or maybe it was such a crappy place to rule from that he was the only one who'd take it. Either way we can always rent our services out as well. But then we're at the mercy of another group as well as the replicator, both in terms of jobs and if we mess it up. And thats if anyone is willing to hire us."

[GameOfChampions]

"I'll volunteer to go through the territory in the morning to get the money from our people, we can tell them that Exhilarate is demending it from them since they won't know he's gone yet. Then if we get Exhilarate back we can sell him and hopefully find out if he has a stash of money saved up from this place. If we can't we could always offer to do a job for Kabuki as payment? Instead of hiring ourselves out to someone else for the money to pay Kabuki we could promise to do a job for him on the house to make up however much we're short. We could send one of Autarchs guys in the morning to see if that would work for him. If not then we're back to the drawing board to make up whatever money we couldn't get from the territory."

[Madwand]

Angry Birds

Menagerie’s preparedness could astound. Macaw flew, waited for red light, aimed and dropped durable smartphone perfectly. Unfortunately and inevitably, the phone hit the ground shortly after, when Kabuki’ car turned left. Only good thing about it is that none of Kabuki clones noticed anything suspicious.


Dropping phone, unattached on top of a car ..low friction and speed is not your friend:smalltongue:. You still have option to fallow Kabuki 1 to 3 cars. But every post is another chance that one of clones notices your mutated birds.


Cauldron Man
(Anna only, after the planning session is over)

She was alone, the debate slash planning session over.

Suddenly, the room split, intersected by portal. Sharply dressed man stepped out and before Anna could register something more than white walls of other room, portal disappeared.

“Anna. I believe we need to talk. Number Man said The unforeseen complications resulting from Exhilarate’ desertion left you more exposed than planned. Tell me about rest of villains. Do you think you can control them?”

[Bobbybobby99]

Angry birds.

Actually frowning, ever so slightly, Menagerie went blank for a moment more, before setting the Macaw to pick up the phone after the car had left. Deciding to become slightly more... brutal, he maintained his reach on two of the cars heading in the general direction of Kabuki's territory. Proceedingly, and with a note of distaste at the bluntness of the action, he had the two macaws with bombs wait for red lights once more. He wasn't going to be dropping a cell phone, on these. With a note of almost pleasantry, he had the macaws directly drop the bombs on the cars themselves, pressing the timer button right when they hit and having the macaws dropping the bombs fly away as quickly as possible, so they would only have minimal shrapnel wounds. They were undoubtably armored, but those bombs could take out buildings; cars were splatters on the ground, and even if they dodged they would still caught in the blast.

The uncivilized fellow had indicated that every clone lost was something that he had to 'regrow' from, and every bit they diminished his forces by was a bonus. The fellow had foiled his initial plans, but this was a satisfactory attrition victory, and one which gave him a pleasant sort of feeling.

Meeting.

The Macaw sat perched on the back of a chair, looking blankly, before rolling it's head and crooning. It had been silent in the discussion so far, after initial input, but that was primarily so that he wouldn't seem to dominate discussion. It said, the sound slightly less strangled (he was getting better at this), "I mAy have kIllEd a Few of KaBukI's cloNe's todAy, I adMit, but tHe act WilL not bE traCed to uS and wE maY stiLl proCeeD peaceFully. DeMandIng thAt monEy, and pHrasiNg it As a dEmanD, wiLl not bE goOd for GoodwIll. WhiLe CalibEr's tAlenTs dOes not lEan thaT way, he Will lIkeLy deVelop a hEaLing gUn in the fuTure, perHap's by stUdyiNg the reGeneRation of mY pets. OffEr bIg payErs firSt acEss to it afTer deveLoPment, anD they wIll love Us, rathEr than dEspisE us. ActuAlly, ofFer priOrity accEss to fUture heaLing guns to the gEneraL populaCe; peopLe will beG to pAy us. This doEs reQuire that yOu, CalibEr, put mOre miLitary proJects on holD, but yOu wilL have moRe than eNougH funding FoR yoUr projEcts."

[3SecondCultist]

The Meeting

Anna nods at all of Miasma's suggestions. They're all sound ideas, and potential solutions that serve the overall aim of appeasing Kabuki until they're in a position to strike. She senses that Caliber's silence means he's at least somewhat on board with the plan as it's been laid out.

"I agree with Miasma. If nothing else, we could hire our some of our muscle, use that to get a better sense of his territory and infrastructure. Octavian, would that work for you?" Meanwhile, Anna looks at Blacklight. She knows that the sooner they reach out to the PRT, the better, but she trusts him to handle that end on his own.

"Menagerie," she says, addressing the master cape's bird impassively, "tell us more about your encounter with Kabuki earlier. I'm sure the rest of the group would like to know the extent of your operation." Of course, she was aware of the attack about a minute and a half before it occurred. His revealing it here, right now, is more perfect than any investigation she could have engineered.


Cauldron (Wo)man

"That is a very good question," Omen says without looking up from the dregs of her tea mug. Her 'supervillain' act was bound to get their attention sooner rather than later. But she was hoping to deal with him under better circumstances.

"I don't know if you'd say I control anyone in the group yet. I have Blacklight's ear, and since you were probably watching us somehow, you know that he was just voted in as our de facto leader unanimously. It's a start. And of course, you know what Menagerie's done. It's been helpful, allowing him to wreck Blacklight's carefully laid plans - and it makes my intervention all that much more needed. Once this 'war' with Kabuki is over, my team will be more cohesive than ever, and receptive to my guidance."

When she does look at the man standing in front of her, it's with the eye at the base of her neck, red-black pupil swiveling to meet his gaze. "But you didn't come here to ask me questions you already have the answers to. What is it you really want to know?"

[Madwand]

Angry Birds

Two geese plants their bombs almost simultaneously. The tuds were audible this time as heavy pipes dropped on cars. The geese pushed on timers, giving them seconds to escape.

But it was second for two Kabuki's from two cars to get out and take on scene, the bombs, the flying monstrous birds

"What the fu-"

Boom! Two clouds of high-velocity shrapnels and smoke. Four dead clones. Menagerie lost the visual, cameras strapped to birds took damage, but both of his mutants survived. The wings of one were too damaged to flight for at least hour, but action was success.

[Writtensanity]

"Wait, what the ****?" I asked, I made sure the slam the table. I was a new leader and suddenly I was dealing with this sort of bull****, great. Maybe this was why Exhilarate was a dumbass. Either way, I had to get out with it. "Do you really think it won't be 'traced back to us'?" I added the airquotes. "If I asked someone for 50,000 and then two cars blew up, I MIGHT think it was the person who owed me money. I've watched the GODFATHER you stupid parrot. EVERYONE HAS."

"All right, so the idea of hiring ourselves out to Kabuki is pretty much out the window, and working with the PRT before we go to ****ing war might be as well. Joy. Dandy. Glad we had time for this conversation before you brought that up mate. Not like we're on a timeline."

[n0ble]

John smiled under his mask. He couldn't help it. Finally. Some action. The thought immediately turned cold in his head as soon as it crossed his mind. His smile dropped into a grumpy line. Not that anyone could see it under the balaclava, but it looked like a very bothered man who'd tried his best to smile. And failed. He hadn't been able to make the anti-master gun yet. Menegerie's impulsiveness had cost him the time to make a gun that was sure to put Kabuki Mono through his paces. And that made John very angry. He looked at the macaw with a flat, inscrutable gaze. John was silent. Completely and utterly silent. Change of plans. You die first.

He blinked, then withdrew his gaze down to the duffel bag at his feet. As the previous thought crossed his mind, he got a little bit happier. The fantasy of a bullet ploughing through Menegerie's brain returned. The instrument. Maybe he could get some sort of traceable data from the tools he had.Then he could track down Menegerie. And then Kabuki Mono. Either or would suffice at this point.

He picked up the Mini-mind scanner he'd made and began to fiddle with it as if it were broken and in need of correction.

[3SecondCultist]

Right at that moment, Anna's eyes open. A third one over her left shoulder. She can see a man, gunned to death in cold blood. And the face of a man she's seen sketched in their old headquarters: Kabuki Mono. Everything's still on track, then.

"Scratch all of that. Kabuki's attacking soon. Not here, and not us. The restaurant where he met Exhilarate." She has a vague idea of the address, and gives it to the best of her ability. "If Blacklight and Caliber go, and follow my instructions, there will be no casualties." She pauses, and looks back at the bird with a flinty gaze.

"At least you came clean about it. But that doesn't mean Blacklight is wrong. You made a decision for the crew, without asking us first. I guess the real question is: how much do you want to be a part of this team?"

[n0ble]

John immediately looked up from the device in his hand at Ryker. He tossed it into the open duffel bag. It was still on and recording. He then turned to backlight while rising from the chair he was in. He withdrew a magnum from the bag and tossed it to backlight. " Chambered for forty caliber rounds, shout eat through the kevlar he as if you squeeze off a shot.How good is your aim?" Taking a car battery and jumper cables to Menegerie's genitals would have to wait. The promise of parahuman conflict was just too good an opportunity to pass up. "They won't go down without a fight. Are you registering any of them committing suicide Ryker? It'd be nice if we could take one alive, but if they're packing grenades then I doubt we can."

[Writtensanity]

"Thanks," I said to Calibre as he tossed me the gun. He at least seemed like he was on my side. Why was it so hard to tell? We'd all agreed to be a ****ing team and- I shook the thought away, there wasn't a point to bitching about it. There was work to do.

"All right," I said, "if we're gonna dance, let's dance."

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie was a bit blank at the accusing looks, but made a note that even if he continued working with them, he was most certainly never meeting them in person. Particularly the one in the baclava... Killshot? Cavalier? Ah, Calibre. He had a very pleasant almost-chuckle at his timing, though.

Well, he had decided to keep with the team... but why? They were practically more liability than asset, now that their precise powers had been revealed; Anna, perhaps, remained vital. If she could sense danger (not that any of her predictions seemed to be coming true, mind), then that was rather handy. Beyond that, he had almost no chance of sieving the territory for himself if they were all working against him.

The macaw made a gesture of shrugging with it's wings, which was surpassingly awkward, and said "Do nOt expeCt me To oPeratE as A uniT. I wiLl conTinuE lEndinG my resouRces, so lOng as yoU continuE to Do the sAme. TherE was, oF cOurse, a cHancE thAt I woulD be dIscoverEd, buT the riSk was cAlculatEd. If yOu no lOngEr wisH for mE to contriBute, well," the macaw almost bowed, before it's head popped up and you could just tell that it was smiling somehow, "You nEed Me morE thAn I neeD you."

[n0ble]

John barely heard the Macaw's flimsy justifications. He'd heard enough from Menegerie and would deal with him appropriately later. Besides, he could barely hear anything from all the blood pounding in his ears. Instead he turned to the duffel bag at his feet and took out what he needed. Junior had been allergic. Bees. Glenda had managed to snag some epi-pens that John had taken after they disappeared. The adrenaline would help. Both epipens went into his left pocket. I lieu of a real second wind an artificial one would suffice. Next was a trench knife. Six inch blade, handle that was a knuckle duster, and small nub on the bottom for smashing into people's skulls. That went in sheath on his belt, on the same side as his back covered by his jacket. He offered another one to backlight. Next were two guns that were almost a replica of the ones he'd given backlight. Using either of the specialist weapons would be risky. The overt-healing gun could be used against them, and one based on Menegerie's power... well he really didn't want to give the freak more power in light of what had just happened. Both the guns went into holsters on his hip, also covered by his jacket. The mask went into his pocket. He'd put it and the jacket with ammo pounches on again on the way there.

Now that he was more or less ready, John turned to the group as a whole and then looked at Backlight. He nodded at him before heading to the door, duffel bag in tow.

[GameOfChampions]

My jaw just drops as Menegerie drops this bomb on us 'What the hell! I knew that this guy wasn't exactly a team player' I have a little mental snort at my own understatement 'but this was just ridiculous, he's useful but when does he stop being useful and start harming us.' As the group burst out in anger I just rub my eyes. I was too tired to start getting into this right now and the day was only just starting, I could deal with my annoyance at Menagerie later.

"OK well it seems like you guys have your thing to do and I assume out resident masters will be adding to their forces? I'm still going to go try to squeeze some money out of the people, I'll tell them that Exhilarate is the one demanding this from them since they won't know that he's gone yet and it will probably be better received if they think he is asking them. I'm also going to try and reach out to that arms-dealer Roland after because if we're going to war, personally I could use some new toys." I had a short list of things I could use and I was sure there were a few others that wanted some black market bits and bobs.

I glance over at Anna as well "Also I know you'll be busy with these two" I gesture to Caliber and Backlight as they get ready to go "but if you could keep an eye on me I'd be grateful. I don't want to get ambushed or caught off guard by a clone or the PRT."

[3SecondCultist]

Anna puts away the notebook for now. It is no longer time for words, but action. "I'll do my best to ensure your survival," she says in the direction of Miasma. After a moment, she turns towards Menagerie's bird.

"That applies to all of you. Menagerie, your attack on Kabuki has put us all at risk, but you're still a part of this team. You're right - you're too valuable for us to just cut you loose, but next time, just please try to keep us in the loop?" She pauses. "Did you get any intel as to where Kabuki was driving when you attacked him?" Of course, she's already seen the attack, but the bird's reply will be telling as to whether Menagerie is in a cooperative mood after being verbally attacked by the group.

[Bobbybobby99]

The macaw flutters slightly, preening a leaf-like wing feather, before responding "Certainly, certAinly. He was goiNg to hIs own teRritorY, in thrEe sepEratE cArs; I wasN't exacTly cArryiNg a mAp, AnNa, but I coulD easiLy retrAcE my stePs, meTaphOrically spEakinG. I wilL atTempT to keeP yOu bettEr InforMed in the fuTure, sinCe thiS has cAuseD such... DisTress. On oTher mAttErs; PerhaPs you miSsed my sEconDary sugGestioN, MiasMa, but I reCcomend oNce mOre thAt you pHraSe it suCh that pEople that paY big rEcieVe priOritY witH regArds to aNy heaLing gUns our... fRiend proDuceS. It wiLl proDuCe apPreciAtion, ratHer than rEsentMenT."

[Writtensanity]

"Menagerie," I said as I twirled the gun that Calibre had given me, "can you please stop making that ****ing bird talk for you? I mean, I get that it might be your thing but come on. Polly wants to ****ing shut up at some point. You have a mouth-" I stopped my rant. There wasn't a point in this. "Just show up next time when I text you, sound good?" I turned the gun to the bird and pulled the trigger. Vines and feathers flew out from the previous perch of the bird. There was quiet in the room partly from everyone dealing with the noise of a gunshot.

"God damn," I said, "this thing is loud. Are bullets for this expensive?" I waved the gun at Calibre, "wanna know what? I don't care. That was super cathartic. I'm relaxed as hell now. Let's go shoot some Kabukis!" I clapped at the end of it. If everything went well I could get a drink from the bartender there too.

[3SecondCultist]

Frowning at Blacklight - she'll probably have to explain the gunshot to the super in the morning - Anna gets on the comm to hail Menagerie. He has an earpiece too, and the range of his power means he'll be able to hear her over the radio waves. Everyone else left in the room will be able to hear her as well, whether through proximity or over the team link.

"Listen, this will work better if we can take one of the Kabukis alive. My power has confirmed six are dead, but I'll need your firepower on the scene in order to take a prisoner. Will you be willing to assist on this? I only need to take one alive."

[Writtensanity]

"Sorry, just got given this gun, totally missed the wall behind your bird!" I shouted so that Menagerie could hopefully hear it over Anna's call.

[Bobbybobby99]

Oh, and he was supposed to be the unstable fellow in the group. Speaking calmly but with a tinge of annoyance (just a tinge, mind) over the communications, he plainly replied.

"I'm just certain that you were, oh dear and respected leader. Just so you know, Miasma, with regards to the funds you're acquiring, I'll be requesting an additional allocation of 3,000 dollars to purchase two more scarlet macaws, in addition to covering emotional distress. If not, then one of you is going to be wearing that camera, and I'll be acquiring an appropriate costume. Since I thankfully have a second one, even if my mixed breed's brain is on the wall, I will in fact be capable of coming to assist with the standard assortment. Oh, and Backlight? You might want to wear contacts, I won't judge. Signing off, call me when something important happens."

[Writtensanity]

"You know, we are villains, you can just walk into the pet store and ask to poke the thing. Not like it's going to be the worst thing you've done. As for the emotional distress, I'll make sure you get you a nice bottle of vodka from behind the bar when you join us tonight. It'll probably be on the house though. I'll look into the contacts thanks, glasses never did work on me."

[GameOfChampions]

I don't know where Menegerie is at all so I can't roll my eyes at him before responding in any kind of way and just buzz into the comes to answer dryly. "Ya no. First off I don't think you're one to talk about emotional distress after your little stunt. Either way everyone will get a sixth of it because we all have gear we want, I want a whole crate load of non-lethal grenades, to get and everyone can buy what they want with their share."

[n0ble]

John stopped as he heard the gun go off. He spoke so that everyone could hear him, whether by earpiece or by virtue of being in the same room. "Its not a toy, so don't treat it like one. As for money everyone splits evenly. No compromising. Same principal with what I build. I make it, and while I'm open to discussion, I decide. And as of right now a healing gun is too expensive and time consuming to even entertain the idea of making. Now if we're all done measuring d*cks, let's go. Theres actual work to be done."

[Madwand]

Cauldron (Wo)man
(Anna’s only)

“I know everything I need.” Number Man said in flat tone, neither confirming nor denying that he know all that Anna just told him.

“First things first, I come with warning. The PRT is just now debating what additional firepower will be sent to Brockton Bay, to deal with both you and the Butcher. “ he said “ and we both know that with your history, you’ll end up Birdcage if they catch you. “

“I asked about the others, because you’ll need parahuman bodyguards. Not only now, but in Endbringers’ fights too. So make sure they will have reasons to come with you, when call comes.”

Power and freedom in return for using her power against indestructible abominations . Anna’s deal with the devil.

Blood Money
(Miasma)

Exhilarate territory was just poor. It wasn’t just because it was mostly a refugee camp living off government supplies. Even before Leviathan and S-9 it belonged to Merchants. The scraps that other gangs found unworthy their effort.

And Exhilarate killed almost all illegal activities too. Pimps and prostitutes were first to go. Then robbery and theft, fences moved out with them. When Autarch joined the crew - drugs too vanished as dealers and former Merchants fled from terrifying master cape. Miasma remembered braking few arms when they evicted the last of loan sharks. The profits opportunities in criminal underworld gone.

Miasma knocked on all the protected businesses doors. He collected any money he could. Most didn’t have any on short notice, but all in all he collected around 30 000 dollars. Less than Exhilarate could squeeze in month, but considering the circumstances nothing to sneer at.

Kabuki Mono Must Die

Something moved in the darkness. It was shortly after nightfall, and all was set up. Anna deducted from her visions that Kabuki will split his six clones in two groups, one attacking front and second using back alley to sneak into restaurant.

Six Kabuki Mono with all of his standard gear, but two of them carried Molotovs.

Seventh person descended from the sky. She landed in a crouch, bare feet on the cool asphalt. Black bodysuit and white cape and mask. Zora, teenage Alexandria package of middling power and leader of Urchins.

Surprise!:smallbiggrin:

[3SecondCultist]

Cauldron (Wo)man

As the rest of her team is out - giving her regular updates, as Omen has requested - she listens to the bespectacled man speak his piece. Well, isn't that interesting. By the time he's done, the second kettle is on. Wordlessly, she offers him a cup.

"I guess that means you aren't out to supply me with any parahuman bodyguards of your own?" she asks the Number Man with a smirk. She's relatively new to the cape scene, but as far as she knows, being clairvoyant is fairly valuable. He'd want to protect his asset. "The crew I have is sufficient for the time being and will grow in strength, but it's built on shaky foundations. At the very least, if you know of any villains in the Brockton Bay area who might be amenable to an alliance, that would be appreciated."

She doesn't mention the cost. The deal has already been struck, and she knows what she owes to this man and the people behind him. To Cauldron.

[GameOfChampions]

Blood Money

I heft the nondescript backpack that I was using to carry the money, and the distinctive parts of my costume that I had taken off after getting the money, over my shoulder as I walk back to the groups temporary headquarters. 'This place has just been getting worse and worse since the Leviathan attack. If we're here to stay we really need to start building up some capital in here.' The sight of dozens of families cramped into tiny shacks in the refugee camp wasn't an encouraging sight, the territory had seen some better days. As I thought about what I could do to start trying to get this place back on its legs again I'm struck by an idea. I heft the bag once more, feeling the weight of the pack filled with thousands of dollars. I stop for a second then make up my mind and quickly change directions, speed walking towards my house, instead of the motel with a small grin on my face.

As soon as I'm in the house I count out three grand of the money and put it in a ziploc bag before duck-taping it to the back of my toilet tank. 'If I'm going to do this behind the groups back I'll need to hide this. After I have some free time I'll grab this and head back to the businesses in our territory and start to invest the cash.' Considering how our group had been fighting lately it also couldn't hurt to have some assets outside of them that they didn't know about. 'I'll have some assets to fall back on, a way to pick up the territory, and, if we take over Kabuki's drug trade, a way to launder the dirty money.' I leave the house feeling pretty good and start back to the motel.

I head back to the motel to meet up with the others, and after a quick look around to make sure I wasn't followed, give Anna a heads up and head into the room. I spend some time splitting up the money, I separate all the money into stacks of 4.5k "OK we each get just shy of 5k. Spend it on what you want but I'm going to reach out to Roland and try to set up a meeting to buy some gear, anyone is welcome to join me or if your busy then you can give me your cash and I'll try to buy whatever is on your list."

Later

It had been a few hours since I had let out word to Roland that I was looking to buy some gear from him and I was waiting to hear back from him, I had sent word through a few people I knew could reach him and gave them the number of a burner phone that he could reach me at. I was hoping he would reach out to me soon since this gear could be a big help with our Kabuki problem.

[Writtensanity]

What if it didn’t work? What if suddenly I was a splatter on the ground? I shook the thought away and took a deep breath. I guessed that the risk was what kept ‘falling off of a building’ as something strong enough to activate my power. At least I was doing it pretty far from the action tonight, Kabuki wouldn’t find my twisted body on the floor. All I needed was for this to go well, and then I could get working.


Drop. Flip. Land. Success.

I leapt back onto the rooftop and started my way to the area above Kabuki. As long as my power was running I moved almost soundlessly, touching down like I was a master of silence. It worked, and was better for it as long as I didn’t have someone looking up. “I’m good to go Anna, clear to get on the roof?” I asked. I was still almost a block away.

“Mhmm,” she responded.

“Look, I gave a couple bucks to people to set up some wireless speakers, need some good audio for the video.”

“You did what?”

“You didn’t see it, means that it’s safe,” I said. She didn’t respond so I kept on going across the rooftops. The last jump was the riskiest, needed to make sure I wasn’t making a commotion. That being said, I had a precog telling me that I pulled it off, so I wasn’t exactly scared making the jump.

I touched back down on the roof and rolled to my duffel bag. I still hadn’t had time to get everything unpacked, so there was camera equipment above the guns, but the guns were there. On top of them there was a set of flares, and my debit card.

On the side of the roof there was a jerry can of gasoline that I’d picked up on the way. Sure, it wasn’t quite as fancy as a Molotov, but it made a bigger boom. I loaded my flare gun and checked my sides. Two pistols, a shotgun, and my bat. The sword was a packed under a lot of things, and I didn’t want to make the noise.

I put my foot on the jerry can and waited in the cool breeze of the night. Voices started, three all the same and all chatting about something that I didn’t bother listening to. I waited for Anna. She told me exactly what I needed to do for the first shock and awe to work. I didn’t need to keep one alive. It would work better that way.

“Five seconds,” she said into my ear.

I pressed the button on my smart phone hooked up to the wireless speakers, equal parts badass and a distraction. It counted down on the screen. I kicked the gasoline and it tipped into the alleyway.

“What the f-“ started, then there was a crash without a bang. The pre-sawed corners of the jerry can split apart and splashed the street with gas. I leaned over the edge of the roof and cracked off a shot from the flare gun. It brought the bang that I’d been missing. The music started up, rock and roll for the soul.

Fire spilled out of the gap between the buildings, scorching my skin with impossible heat. I gritted through it and jumped into the open as soon as the flare had died down. With the shotgun in hand I fire off both loaded shots into the area that Kabuki had been standing in. I couldn’t tell if there was a grunt or not.

My knees slammed into the roof of the building across the way and I turned it into a roll. Fire was still cracking beneath me, and I tossed the shotgun to the side as I grabbed the pistols off of my hip. I had eighteen shots before I needed to reload something, and frankly I was still **** at that.

I started to speak but then stopped myself, Anna hadn’t given me the okay to mock, and we were still three versus one on this side of the building.
“Anna, next?” I asked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAS3TmZm_bU

[n0ble]

John watched as the fire roiled it's way out of the alley with a satisfied look. Not that anyone could tell because of his mask.But even so his moth was in a taut smile under his mask. He turned from the explosion a to the street in front of him, from Backlight soaring over the street to the rooftop above him, where the Kabukis and Zora were. The brute showing up was an unwelcome factor, but if Ryker had predicted any significant violence from her then it would have factored into things. Curious though, that she was here. Regardless, he had another job to do. Kabuki Mono was going to attack the bar and that meant property damage. Innocents. In a lot of ways it'd reminded him of the attack that he'd undergone at the hands of the Redeemers. It sharpened him into focus. John crouched low, behind the trash cans and spilled masonry that also occupied the alley. It was serviceable cover if it came down to it. Espcially the concrete blocks. He took the .44 pistol out of its holster and aimed it at one of the Kabuki Mono's holding a molotov.

He'd been an above average shot while on the force. Most of his groupings had been fairly close together, and he'd been distinctly average when it came to moving targets. He'd been practicing since the Redeemers. Above average became good, average became above average. Given his position in the alleyway opposite the explosion, he was fairly close by. Add in the fact that all the attention was focused on the explosion, and accuracy wouldn't be a pressing concern. The clip had eighteen bullets in it. Six for each of them. He levelled, pulled back the hammer and let loose with six rounds into each of them. Rather than the boom of Backlights shotgun they came out muffled, a byproduct of the silencer he'd attacked. He aimed for kneecaps, elbows, shoulders and arms. Shots that would maim and cripple. Don't want any of them pulling the pin on a grenade. Assuming any of them were still standing afterwards Backlight could provide covering fire from the rooftop while Menagerie's freaks occupied Zora.

Almost silently, John's instrument for brainwaves buzzed away, supplying him with data.

[3SecondCultist]

Kabuki Mono Must Die

"Menagerie, keep the pressure on the new arrival," Anna says over the comm as the others fill her in. "I'm not seeing any violence from her, but I need you to run interference. Use your birds, keep her airborne and out of our hair." She knows the odds of them capturing a live Kabuki clone has just plummeted, but as Caliber takes his first shots at the scene, the visions of the future and the present begin to collide.

"Remember all: taking Kabuki alive is a secondary objective only. If it's the choice between getting out of there safely and taking one of them with you, it's better to just kill them all." As she speaks over the relay, Anna realizes something belatedly. "And code names only, if you would. Anyone with good senses will pick up on our chatter. It's Omen from now on." The name has been on her mind, and she planned on unveiling it at their meeting, but she never got the chance. No matter - it's a moniker she's sure will stick around.

"Blacklight: you're good to engage. Go to town."

I'm assuming that the group is keeping Omen updated, giving her descriptions of the scene so she can reconcile that info with her visions and give everyone better tactical support.

[Bobbybobby99]

Kabuki Mono Must Die.

On the way, Menagerie had, in fact, decided to hold up an exotic pet store at gunpoint, dressed in the green ruffled costume that he so rarely found a chance to present. He had lawfully purchased the prior macaws from the very same store, which was only a bit out of the way, but supposed that had been more out of habit. He had petted the macaw, stuffed it in a classic black bag afterwards, and added in some finches just because, even if he couldn't convert them. Being spiteful, even if he didn't really feel the joy, was quite satisfying on a primal level. He put the black bag in his van, not having need of it, and went on his way.

In the van were the three geese, one or two macaws, seven dogs, a snake, and a beaver. Each goose held a regular pistol, though one rather modified. He had, somewhat spur of the moment, taken an amount of steel, creating a sort of S shape wire, which itself was loosely attached to the gun by more wiring. By taking it's beak and pulling at the S in a particular way, the goose could pull the trigger. Aim was accomplished by strapping a camera onto the (somewhat bulkier) pistol. It was fiddly, but at least somewhat accurate, and quite sufficient for most purposes. Menagerie could be called impulsive on occasion, and socially inept, but he couldn't be called dim-witted.

He reached the location, two blocks away, and remained tuned in. The brute/mover was unexpected, but not unmanageable, and he was quite good enough to harass, even if he preferred larger roles. While the snake and beaver stood huard, the dogs circled around the brutish woman, leaping in at a full pace, deftly dodging and biting and clawing and tearing. They didn't have the armor he was looking to get them, not on so short a notice, but he'd been able to clothe their midsections in bubble-wrap without significantly reducing mobility. There were seven of them, and one of her, which meant that her primary advantage was likely flight.

As far as flight went, the geese circled around the woman (Xora? Zora?), awkwardly shooting at her from three separate angles simultaneously in deliberate openings left by the dogs, so at least one would hit, before the largest threw the modified gun at the second macaw, who continued shooting (very awkwardly reloading from a tiny pouch around it's midsection). The largest goose then proceeded, with all appropriate aim, to let loose a large load of fecal matter in her hair, before dive-bombing and going for the eyes and ears, all while the macaw and two other geese continued shooting, and the seven large dogs were doing their best, supernaturally strong, job of ripping her arms off. All while Menagerie did his best to have them dodge with all capacity, the additional pistol cameras helping in that regard.

He had never denied that he had some pent up aggression.

[Madwand]

Roland

Miasma reached to his contacts, shady criminal fences and waited for an answer. It did come hour later in form of the text.

"Roland concerned. Word on the street, your friends back-stabbed trade partner. And broke unwritten rules about hospitality and meetings. Is it true?"



Cauldron (Wo)man

Number Man politely thanked for tea. He didn't sip it, leaving it on the table.

"About current situation in Brockton Bay. Cauldron lost one of his agents, who provided us with information about Bay' underworld. Since you are here, you'll replace him. When we come asking questions, it's your job to provide the answers." he said. "It would be recommended that you work to become important player in Bay underground and build up the network of contacts. But you already planned something like it."


"As for parahuman bodyguard, nothing is for free." he said "and you're already indebted to Cauldron, Anna. "

Kabuki Mono Must Die

Gasoline splashed on three Kabuki in back-alley. Backlight shoot flare with lighting speed, it landed into middle of clones, but they were already running, showing experience or instinct.

His aura made him visible target in night' darkness. Bullet missed Backlight' head by few inches as he blasted with shotgun into the alley. Kabuki fell, turning to white ash before hitting ground. Only black bulletproof vest remained. Two other were ready for fight, guns in hands, eyes on the roofs. Unconcerned with death of other clone. They moved in eerie coordination, backing out of the alley.

On the front, three Kabuki broke into the run into the building. Calibre chose his moment perfectly, hitting one of Kabuki in back and leg, first shoot stopped by kevlar, but second connected. Kabuki fell face first on the road. Two other turned and answered with their own shoots, too late. John ducked back into alley, unscratched.

Meanagrie mutants arrived on the scene - there was not a chance to hide all the dogs, but the birds attacked Zora. She shoot into the sky, turning and twisting, the dive-boombing geese missed as Zora slammed her fist into pistol-armed geese head, crushing its skull. She turned again and landed feet first on the largest geese, which didn't get a chance to recover and fly away after missing the mark. The bones broke with sick sound.

She simply flown out of reach of dogs, clearly targeting flying and armed mutants.

The pistols had horrible accuracy so far - wings beating to keep birds in the air, jerking moves to pull the trigger, moving, trying to shoot flying cape. All of it compounded with total lack of practice. Menagerie was splitting his attention between ten mutants and several monitors, he barely could track Zora's movement.

[DukeGod]

Kabuki Mono Must Die

Autarch waited nearby, his full costume back. He felt a bit confident at walking now, but knew it'd be stupid to go into a fight with his leg like that. He'd later scout some surgeon and control the man into preparing the whole reconstructive surgery and hopefully it'd all be done covertly.

Still, if they managed to get a clone out he'd instantly go in and disarm the clone thereby gaining control of it just as it suited their purposes. His minion was doing bodyguard duty, awkwarldy crossing one arm over his chest, holding his rather low quality gun

[GameOfChampions]

Roland

The text was concerning, I hadn't expected word of this issue to get out so fast. I start to text out a reply to the arms-dealer.

Tell Roland it's nothing to worry about. Our Ex-leader betrayed us and caused a difficult rift between Kabuki and ourselves that has unfortunately ended in violence. We had wanted to set up a mutually beneficial deal with him but it obviously has not worked out due to our ex-leader. I will personally guarantee that this will not happen with us though.

[3SecondCultist]

Cauldron (Wo)man

So I'm to be an informant. Again, Anna isn't that surprised at that development. Cauldron wouldn't have broken her out in Brockton Bay if they hadn't needed her here. But it is somewhat refreshing for somebody to be honest and direct about the situation. The tea is not worth mentioning, but she sips hers quietly, before making a small face. She let it steep for too long, and it's turned even more acrid than before.

"Very well. I'm glad we had this talk. Out of curiosity, what would it take to get some extra muscle from you? I know I've got something of a tab, but I'm curious about some potential future arrangements."


Kabuki Mono Must Die

As four new eyes appear on Anna's body, she convulses over the cheap furniture. The circular pains radiate outwards, rushing through the muscles at her calves, chest, and lower back. Her vision flickers. That's not good. Practicing a technique her therapist in prison taught her, Anna tries to regulate her body's rhythms through counted breaths in the diaphragm. After a few seconds, she's herself again.

Picking up the mic, she hails the whole team. They all need to hear this if they're going to survive. "Kabuki's going to try to merge his groups together. Caliber, he's coming after you first: get out of the alleyway if you don't want to get blown up. Blacklight, can you cover him? Aim for any Kabuki clones near his position, and shoot to kill if you can. I'm not sure taking them alive is a realistic possibility at this point - focus on disengaging."

"Menagerie, I need you to keep Zora busy just a little bit longer. It's going to cost you, but do you think you can try to take her over? Focus the rest of your birds if you need to. I think it might be worth the effort, and if you don't, we're all screwed. Autarch, I'd hang back for now. Until we get the opening, there's no sense risking you."

"Oh, and you should all steer clear of the restaurant. It's going to go up soon, but it doesn't look like there will be any casualties. We've also got a time limit. The PRT will be on their way: Sere, Fletchette and Adamant, Parian and Vista. You've got... six and a half minutes before they hit the scene. I'm putting on a timer now." As she does so, Omen hopes that her advice will be enough to get them all through this.

[Madwand]

Cauldron (Wo)man

"I prefer to work with quantifiable variables like money. So when you get your gang running and get steady level of income we may talk about selling you vials with our super-power formula for your henchmen. We start around 3 million dollars for useful, but below average powers, like those of Exhilarate. " Number man said, dumping some sugar into his teacup, then downing the entire thing in one draught.

"This remain me." he continued "you'll find on your computer new file with instruction that will let you acess secure account. I am running quite a lot of villainous businesses and protect their money from law enforcement. We may also help you with setting alternative identity and laundering any ill-gotten gains. All with reasonable fee. "


Roland

Miasma waited another half hour before returned text.

"Kid, Roland want to talk to you personally"

And then phone rang.

"Roland." strong voice with just a hint of french accent "Listen carefully, Miasma. I'll meet with you, but you need to be alone and unarmed. My men will pick you up on " and he get you adress and specific hour. "they will drive you to the place of meeting. Take cash with you. I apologize for those precautions, but I need to protect my business. Do you understand?


Sorry, the text messages were from one of your contacts. But you get meeting with Roland, if you risk being taken into his territory without weapons and alone. On the other hand Roland don't know about Anna:smallwink:

[Writtensanity]

"All right all right," I said, "but I don't need to be happy about pulling away from this." I said it more for her benefit than getting anything across. Calibre was part of the team, we were going to keep him safe if we could. Plus, he hadn't given me a sweet gun yet.

The light of the fire probably didn't do much to cover my glow as I moved behind the clones. I did the whole 'jump across the roofs again while trying to get close to Calibre. I could outrun the damn clones and keep covering fire. I landed back on the restaurant before leaping off of it and landing in the proper street. I had to get to my teammate, or at least figure out where he was.

The music kept playing. It might have helped my mood if my orders had been 'Kick ass and chew bubble gum.'

With the two clones out of sight for a moment I ended up taking a breather. There was a middle aged woman in the street, she seemed to have missed the memo of 'Don't stay near places getting firebombed.' I shrugged at her, and she screamed before running away. I guessed that she wasn't a fan. Honestly she wasn't the target demographic either way.

[GameOfChampions]

My mouth goes dry as I answer the phone and listen to Roland set out the parameters of the meeting, this could be dangerous if he decided he didn't want to deal with me anymore he could very well just off me and leave me buried in a shallow grave. 'This could still be useful though and he doesn't know about Anna who could give me some heads up as to how this will go.' I take a breath to steady my nerves before answering, I didn't want my voice to shake as I answer to him. "I understand Roland, I'll be there and I'll see you soon."

As soon as the call ends I start running to the motel that Anna was in, I wasn't to far away and had just been waiting a block or so away from the motel to reach out ot my contact and then later take the call. I get there quickly, just briefly giving Anna a quick heads up before bursting through the door. "Anna I need some help quickly, I'm going to meet up with Roland but he has outlined some possibly dangerous restrictions on the meeting. I would really like to not die while trying to get a couple guns and grenades, do you see anything?" As I wait for an answer I quickly reach out to the others to get an idea of what, if anything, that they wanted and then made plans to try and gather up the money to take to Roland.

Is it fair to assume that I have enough time to grab a short list of what people want and the money before the meeting? Also if anyone who does want anything maybe clarify that in the OOC or something?

[Bobbybobby99]

Menagerie was very close to being frustrated but the lack of plan success, but he supposed that it didn't much matter. Even if he was now down to a single good goose, which he had fly away from the action. The macaws continued trying to shoot, from a very safe distance, even if he evidently needed more practice thereof.

Okay, time to get even more creative.

Focusing on the one task, the largest dog growled, the second largest dog jumped on it's back, the third and fourth largest dogs formed a second pile, and the fifth to seventh did something similar. The second pile had the bottom dog jump to the top of the first, and the third did the same, forming a large dog stack. Normally, such a thing would sway and wave, but that wasn't the case when it was all being precisely controlled by a single source and every dog was supernaturally strong. It was, in essence, a dog pile, except made of sharp teeth and green vines intertwined. This happened very, very fast, when the super powered woman lurked a touch too close to the ground.

The top dog lunged, and the second to top dog did the same, jumping off of the top dog for further total distance. Simultaneously, the third and fourth to top dogs lunged to the upper left and lower right, preventing easy movement, and the regional top dog jumped back on the pile. Dealing with a smaller pile, the dogs awkwardly went back in on their hind legs, the one's then gaining conceivable jumping distance jumping at the brute. With absolutely no regret, they latched on as best as they were able, aided by the primary macaw suddenly blaring the sound of a police siren from it's tiny recorder.

They then proceeded to continue their effort to rip her limb from limb, or preferably incapacitate her long enough that she could be transformed, in the air, clawing (and biting down on where they managed to latch on) with full force, and, if possible, aiming to box her ears and claw out her eyes.

[n0ble]

"Something that shoots fifty cali-" He watched for a split second as Backlight sailed through the air before running full till from the alleyway and around the corner of it. As the grenade's explosion engulfed the alleyway behind him, John paused. "I'm disengaging. PRT in 5 minutes out and right now I'm literally just a man with a gun. Reconvene at prior locale." With that said he took off in dead sprint through the alleyway. He took a series of right and left turns until he deemed himself far enough away from the danger. It left a bad taste in his mouth, running away. If the freak hadn't... He skidded to a halt and caught his breath.Tonight had been a perfect example of why he hated capes.

Menegerie had screwed up the plan. Cost him time to make an anti-master weapon which by all rights could have tipped the balance of the fight in their favour. What's more, they could have engaged the replicator on their terms rather than be engaged. That little bastard was next on his sh!tlist. He made sure he wasn't see as the guns and uniform went into the duffel bag, replaced with street clothing. With that, John began the trek back to the hotel.

Tonight had been a write-off as far as he was concerned. He buzzed Miasma's phone. "Armour-piercing rounds. At least 300. Grenades and a military grade kevlar vest."

[3SecondCultist]

Cauldron (Wo)man

Once again, Omen finds herself appreciating the man's brevity, if not his manners. But she's not really the sort to get hung up on that. When you spend a few years on the inside, it's hard to care about certain elements of social etiquette. She raises one eyebrow imperiously at the prospect of being sold the potential for more superpowered allies. "That does sound promising, if a bit pricey. I suppose I'll have to live up to the task then, won't I?" Raising her teacup in a mocking salute, she finishes off her draught in a way that's not dissimilar to the way her bespectacled acquaintance downed his.

"As for my files, you have my gratitude. The alternative identity will be quite helpful, considering I'm a wanted woman. And the money recycling will also be greatly appreciated, once we have a steady revenue stream. My team and I are working on it now." The group should almost be at the restaurant, to intercept the Kabuki forces on their way there. Omen looks up at him one more time. "But that might not be needed for some time. So unless there's anything else, I imagine you'll know where to find me?" She dismisses the man politely, but firmly. She's going to need to concentrate on this operation.


Kabuki Mono Must Die

Hearing Caliber step out on the fight, Omen sighs. That was not exactly what she intended when she intervened to save his life. She might as well have let him get incinerated, since she's now down one man in the ring. What's more, he's just made the same call as Menagerie: putting his own wishes above those of the group. She resolves herself to have a little chat with the man at the next available opportunity, but says nothing over the comms. He seems like the type who needs a bit of time to cool off anyways. Still, it's better than a dead body.

As the vision of one of the Kabuki getting hit in the leg comes to pass, she grins inwardly. Progress. It's unlikely that they're going to be able to take him alive, but they've dealt the replicator a blow here. She hails the team leader. "Blacklight, I don't know about capture anymore. I'd start thinking about retreat too, in a few minutes. Until then, it looks like you're free to kill the clones in whatever style you choose. Oh, and in a few minutes, when you go into a double backflip, try to line up your shot. It'll work a lot better that way, trust me."

[Madwand]

Kabuki Mono Must Die

Blacklight crossed restaurant roof in two leaps, landing three stories below, on the front street. He darted up the side of the building and slipped into an allay like a bolt of lightning, tackling retreating Calibre and leaping again. The grenade blast throw them forward, but his power must have shielded him, both him and Calibre were unscratched.

Menagerie focused and forced his dogs into truly acrobatic maneuver. Zora was chasing the last goose, which Menagerie used as a bite to force brute to fly lower, but mutant met the same fate as two others.

The first dog tackled Zora mid-air, dead goose still in her hand. Second dog leaped then next and then next. Two each held her arms in powerful jaws, and three added weight on top of her; she was immobilized and, although Menagerie didn’t hear that, she screamed in frustration.

[GameOfChampions]

Roland

After gathering the money and requests from everyone who wanted everything I make my way over to the specified location and wait there, sure enough right on the dot a black Cadillac SUV rolls up and parks beside the sidewalk where I was waiting. The driver rolls down the window "You alone and unarmed?"

I nod slowly, I had kept my costume on and the backpack with the money but left my bat and gun behind with Anna. The driver gestures to the back and unlocks the car before quickly peeling out and driving quickly to some random destination and Roland.

[Bobbybobby99]

The two remaining avians in Menagerie's arsenal (though he would thankfully have another, if everything worked out) settled on the ground nearby the pinned woman (but out of casual reach, should she break free). The macaws, both taking care to avoid an angle where they could easily be head-butted, did their best to peck the cape's eyes out. Either when they managed to, time was running short, or when it became clear that the supernaturally strong beaks wouldn't be enough, the dogs holding her arms began the tedious process of dragging her to the car.

To add fifty pounds of supernatural power to the mix, Menagerie dropped off the beaver guarding him one block away, which swiftly began aiding in the dragging process. With that added, they made swift work of the job, or at least swift enough to avoid the incoming capes, stubbornly and persistently making their way to the van. In his traditional fashion, Menagerie carefully held open the door, staying a fair distance away from the cape. The dogs continued holding the cape down in the van, Menagerie poking her periodically, and driving once more in a convoluted route back to his place of residence. He had been willing to help out in order to get back on the team's good graces, but he had turned off his communications and had fulfilled his assigned task.

[n0ble]

Ow. John stood slowly and shook his head. Part of the balaclava was sticking to his face. Could be sweat. Could be Blood. Fight or flight Johnny-boy. A memory jolts its way through John's psych and leaves as quickly as it came. But for John it felt like forever. For an instant he was back in Sweden, 12 years old all over again. His mom was getting bounced around by the old man, a violent and ill-tempered person if ever there was one. He'd tried to stop him but it didn't amount to much, if anything. She'd left after he'd cut John with a knife, taking her kid with her. The last John had heard he'd been in Sweden when the Simugh had hit. John hadn't spoken to him since leaving but those words before he got cut stuck with him. Fight or flight Johnny-boy.

John blinked once. Twice. Three times in rapid succession, letting out a long exhalation as he did. Helpless. Useless. Powerless. His eyes flicked down to the grey gun, still in his hand. No. Not powerless. Not now, not ever again. It was Caliber who turned to backlight and said, in a flat blank voice "Get up and get ready. I have a sudden urge to perforate some warm bodies before going. Can you get to the rooftop?" He didn't wait for a reply, instead Calibre turned and entrenched himself at the corner of the alleyway. He made sure to stay behind the wall. As soon as backlight made it up the wall to shower them with bullets he would turn out from around the corner and do the same with his over-healing gun. Nothing would remain of them when they were done.

[Writtensanity]

"You know Calibre, I'm liking you more and more." I checked my pistols again before running toward the rooftop. Calibre had been holding the healing gun, my bullets were distractions, not anything major. I ran up the wall. It was funny that I could just do this, just run up and act like walls weren't a big deal. I was like some low-budget special effect. Either way, the point was that I ended up on the roof which I did.

I checked my watch, it hadn't been quite five minutes, it wasn't backflip time yet. I sighed and positioned myself to leap over Kabuki. Maybe I could control myself to only use seven shots, MAYBE. I wasn't counting on it. I figured it was all right, reloading wasn't the end of the world. I took a deep breath, looked out over the part I was going to jump to, and then took the leap while turning over. It wasn't a flip, it was a roll, they were very different.

Rat-ta-ta-ta-ta-tat Kabuki

[Madwand]

Cauldron (Wo)man

“Yes, we know.” Number Man said and nodded “Time is always at at a premium, so we shouldn’t waste it. Thanks for the tea.”

He stepped back into portal that appeared few inches behind him. Split second later portal vanished and Anna was alone again.

Kabuki Mono Must Die

Kabuki Mono hesitated. Then he decided to help Zora. It was a mistake.

Three guns turned, but before duplicator could open the fire Backlight jumped and put bullets through one clone and . Calibre used smoke and surprise to finish second one with over-healing bullets.

Both turned into white ash and only black vests remained.

Third one shoot another of Menagerie birds, but it was too little to help other villain.

Backlight moved on instinct or warned by his power - two Kabuki clones joined the fray. He dodged and rolled out of their firing arc.

In the meantime monsters pulled shouting and resisting teenage cape from the fight.


Menagerie

Putting Zora in his van was trickier than he expected, but with enough time he managed to do it. He couldn't yet use his power and Zora’ invisible force-field surrounded her like armor of incredible hard glass. He will need a way to disable it.


Menagerie don’t have specific brute restraints ready , you’ll need to improvise.


Miasma

Miasma needed to part with his phone and Anna’ earpiece before they allowed him to get into the car. He was seached and checked for other electronic surveillance with some kind of tinker-tech scanner.

Half an hour of uneventful driving, car parked in front of nondescript and abandoned house.

Roland set up his shop in the basement. The space was lit from above by portable lights that were almost blinding. Those lights shone on weapons—hundreds of them hung on the walls, sticking out of the boxes, set on random furniture. Beautiful polished steel and deep, muted blacks. Assault rifles. Handguns. Grenades in dozen varieties. Explosives. Kevlar vest and full body armours.

Half dozen laser pistols, highly illegal and restricted to PRT and USA special forces use. Even two or three that looked like tinker-tech.

Roland - dark skinned man in gray uniform without any distinctions or emblems - sat behind one the tables and listen to masked women, who started speaking in unrecognizable language as soon as Miasma stepped in the basement. Traditional African masks looked out of place, almost grotesque contrast with state of the art tools of war.

There were three other guards, also in gray uniforms, but armed with semi-automatic and in full body-armors.

The woman in witch doctor mask stopped speaking.

“Good to see you Miasma” Roland said “it seems that your story check out with our sources. “Why don’t you just have a look around? Browse a bit. Tell me what suits your fancy"

[Bobbybobby99]

Well, back to one macaw. This had better have been worth it.

Menagerie used the defacto solution of just having the dogs continue to restrain the woman, machinating on how to solve the latest problem. He continued calculating and convolutedly driving, until he settled in a lonely area near his house, almost thankful for the soundproofing of the van.

With a distinctness of thought, he stopped, and slowly turned to the still shouting and struggling woman, barely held back by seven supernatural dogs. The beaver slapped her across the face several times with it's tail, and proceeded to deliberately urinate in her hair. He had thought of a few methods by which the shield could be powered, and was prepared to implement counters to any of them.


His voice was loud enough to be heard, and sharper than a knife, saying "You think that you're something? You're nothing, and your closest ally has abandoned you. You think you have a life? Your life is forfeit; who would ever want such a weak little girl. You'll rail, and you've been resisting all the way, but resistance is futile, my darling. Lower your shield, and this can all by painless... but you can't even do that, can you. You can't even control that much; someone needs her itty bitty little barrier to separate her from the world. Can't even stand up to a little prod, a little push, and it couldn't keep you from my clutches..."

His voice became even sharper, him deliberately adding a sadistic tint, "I wonder if it can stand up to acid? What about fire, or electricity? Will you melt under water, like the ugly witch you are? Do you have any pets? I bet you have pets. I wonder how you would feel, having your eyes peeled open, seeing me cut your little kitty or your little puppy into tiny little pieces and feed it to my Venus flytrap? I could strangle you with their intestines, if you would like? Perhaps I could just suffocate you, half-drown you again and again until you give up. It would just be so painless, giving up? I wonder if you're immune to drugs. Lower the shield, or Fido is going to die a painful death by asphyxiation. The process of changing causes unimaginable pleasure, you know. No more worries, no concerns; just a little touch and it's better than heroin. Lower the shield, or Fido dies!"

While speaking, the beaver continued urinating on her periodically, and slapping her with it's tail. he had retrieved one of the medical kits he had stored under the seat, which he had prepared for emergency situations. Thusly, it included a blowtorch, a vial of very, very potent chemical acid that had been surprisingly easy to obtain, and a taser. If she didn't voluntarily lower the shield, or do so involuntarily as a result of low self esteem, he proceeded to try to light her hair on fire and other body parts, poured the vial of acid on her stomach, and tried to taze her as much as it took. He took a tape of Barney, turned on a strobe light, and played it loudly. He took over the counter painkillers, took a bandaid over her nose, and then dropped copious amounts into the subsequently opened mouth. He did the same with water, and a few drops left-over of the acid. He did whatever it took; whatever it took.

Menagerie was not a very pleasant person.

[Writtensanity]

"You know Kabuki!" I shouted over the sound of cracking gunfire and swearing clones, "you really have an annoying habit of showing up everywhere. Nobody invited more of you to the party," I poked over the cover I'd taken on the roof. Bullets cut the air over my head as I dropped back down and started to reload. I was wasting four shots in each gun, better self control than usual. "I was fine getting six bullet proof vests, but eight? That's just excess man. I only have a team of six right?"

The six number might have been about to change. I'd seen Menagerie drag Zora away. She was either going to become a plant monster, or I would sweet talk her into being my comrade in exchange for not being a plant monster. I wasn't a fan of creepy-McVineface (Nickname needed improvement) getting a brute on his side, but Exhilarate had left a meat shield shaped hole in my heart when he left. Either way I didn't think she would need a vest. Bullets didn't do a whole lot to her.

Calibre fired and I heard something that might have been a Kabuki dying. I wasn't sure, but either way I finally reloaded one of the guns. Success. "You know it didn't need to be like this Kabuki," I said, "this could have been the start or something great, but refusing to accept my olive branch was kind of a **** move."

As soon as I finished talking I had an idea. If I was right I had time to sprint across the building a go back to where I'd shot Kabuki's. Anna didn't scream at me, so I did exactly that. Kabuki had left vests, and Anna had said that he had grenades on him. Just on the edge of the fire, I stole grenades from the ash. The entire process of getting there and back had been less than a minute, but I imagined that Calibre wondered where the hell I was during it. I was back on a safe building, with three grenades in my hand.

"And you know what Kabuki?" I said working on the idea that he remembered where I left the conversation off, "Villainy isn't about being a ****, it's about doing it with style."

I'd never done anything more than two minutes in the future for Anna before, usually we changed the future by following what she said. Either way I finally understood that she didn't mean a gun when she said shot. I leaped off of the roof with grenades in either hand with pulled pins dangling on my fingers. On the first flip I got a good look at the Clones. On the second flip I lined it up so I could bounce the grenades off the sides of two different Kabuki's heads. Talk about doing it with ****ing style.

[GameOfChampions]

I look around the room with awe, this was more weapons and military equipment then I had ever seen in real life or even in movies, and when Roland gave me the go ahead to start browsing around I just gave him a courteous nod because I was so awestruck. If Caliber had been here I think he would have cried out of happiness at all the military hardware here. This was the kind of stuff that had made me excited to join the Cape scene; cool meetings with arms-dealers to buy badass weapons, a powerful team that protects and expands their territory, and sticking it to the PRT. This was a good start at least.

I start to wander the stacks of equipment, looking for the few things that the others had requested and I would then bring them up to where Roland was and put them in a small pile before going back and looking for more. I find the encrypted comm set that Anna had requested, the three hundred rounds of armor piercing rounds and an assault rifle for Caliber, and then a crate of nonlethal grenades for myself and Caliber if he wanted them as well. After I find everything that I and the others had asked I looked around looking for anything that caught my eye or seemed useful. I find a crate of mass produced nine mm Smith and Wesson pistols that I figured would be used one way or another, Caliber could use them for his crafting or Autarch for his minions and I could use a real pistol now that things were getting serious. As I'm taking one last look around I spot something on top of several crates and grin 'Ohhh that could be useful... or just fun.' I jog over and grab the grenade launcher with a few rounds off the crate and heft it up to my shoulder so I can sight down it, 'Damn I bet I look cool!' I tote it back to the front and place it with the other gear at the front.

I glance over the stack to make sure that I had everything I'd needed to get and then turn to Roland "Well thank you for this Roland, it'll be a big help with this Kabuki problem. I know brought enough for everything here but how bout the grenade launcher? I brought some extra but if it's to much then I guess I can part with it." After the deal is sorted out and I'm dropped back off I quickly make my way to the van I had parked nearby to transport the equipment and make my way back to the hideout.

[3SecondCultist]

Cauldron (Wo)man

Anna sits and stares at the wall of the motel for a few moments after the Number Man has gone. Her visions of the future don't plague her now - she has some time to think, which has proven in short supply since she was first broken out of that armoured convoy. But his visit has given her quite a bit to think about.

She reaches for her newly acquired laptop. Time for the next phase of the plan.


Kabuki Mono Must Die

Omen laughs - a mirthless sound - over the comms as Blacklight finishes his maneuver. It's a bit hard for the humour to be spontaneous when you saw the punchline coming. "That should do it, two for the price of one."

Her next vision is very particular, and easily remedied. "Caliber," the thinker says to her fellow villain, "one of the Kabukis near you, the one that survives Blacklight's grenade will try to commit suicide. A nonlethal shot should do it; right now, he's our prime candidate for capture."

"Autarch, are you in position?" She'd like to get the clone under his immediate command if possible, but right now her future sight isn't 100% certain how things will pan out at the restaurant. The battle is theirs, but this could be their only opportunity to learn what they need to take over Kabuki's territory.

[n0ble]

He kept his mouth open as the explosion ripped it's way through the alley, turning back into cover. It made the subsequent ringing in his ears a bit less prominent.

John ignored her laughter even as he holstered the overt-healing gun and withdrew a forty four, shooting the Kabuki clone in the shoulder of the arm that was trying to prime a grenade. He put one more in his elbow for good measure. It felt good. He looked up through the smoke and fire to the rooftop. "We should go for real now. By my count PRT is two and half out. Bring the kevlar and grenades if you've got time." With that said he left through the alleyway taking a right and leaving for the car he'd parked nearby. Everything went into the duffle bag which in turn went into the trunk of the car. Except for the earpiece and a handgun in the glovebox. With that done he started to drive away at an even speed.

[Madwand]

Miasma&Roland

“Obviously. It’s golden standard for USA military. M203, 40 mm.” Roland said “It’s yours for a grand. I have the encrypted comm- links you want - it’s derived from PRT tech, used by Protectorate teams. $4000 and it's a steal."

He methodically calculated the cost, while one of the body-guards helped Miasma to find and put all of Miasma’ orders on table.

"Then crate of guns and two crates of grenades. Twenty guns, $200 each and 100 M84 grenades for $150 each. Let’s say I’ll throw you $1000 in bullets to make it round $20000.

Assault rifle and 300 armor piercing rounds will cost you $3000, but I’ll highly recommend buying more. Those things use up ammunition like mad."



Total: $28000 in cash. You obviously can pay or try to haggle a bit.

Kabuki Mono Must Die

“Olive branch! You f*cking blew up two of my cars! I can get over killing four clones, but those were sweet rides, f*ck you, you glowing c*unt!” Kabuki Mono shouted back, clones trying their best to gun down two villains; Backlight proven himself too-fast and unpredictable with his jumps and Calibre slipped back behind the cover out of sight and line of fire.

Kabuki Mono used momentary break in the fight to throw molotov into restaurant; his goal achieved, two of them sprinted toward corner where mutants and Zora disappeared, clearly wanting to help her...

Then Backlight threw himself out of burning building roof. Two grenades sailed in perfect arcs through air. Two direct hits into two clones heads.

Explosions scattered white ash across the street.

Seeing, feeling demise of two clones, the wounded one tried to reach for grenade. Tried. Calibre, forewarned by Anna with two precise shots ruined his shoulder and elbow.

Kabuki managed only short scream before passing out from pain and blood loss.

Menagerie

Torturing Zora was exercise in frustration. Zora struggled against every movement of mutants holding her, requiring full concentration to restrain her. She screamed in incoherent rage of someone who thought himself invincible until first major defeat and Menagerie monologue only made her rage more apparent.

He tried fire and electricity, but Zora’ force-field protected her from it. First effect he got was from light and sound - she shut her eyes. Giving her painkillers was ineffective for a moment - normal dose seems not to affect her at all, but how high a dose can he risk?

Asphyxiation worked… Zora needed to breath like a normal human. Menagerie discovered at least one weakness.



“Potent Acid” is a stretch. Menagerie is not that crazy prepared. So he don’t have it ready at hand. Also, don't post anything from now on until Saturday, ok? I have few unfinished things to consult and check with the rest of the players, so I have no idea how the rest of the night will go.

[Writtensanity]

Scene: The Strength of the Pack


"You know, when you think about it," I said as I rifled through my bag for the flare gun, "when you think about it we're doing the same thing that Exhilarate did here, choosing just-" I stopped, I'd said it all a dozen times to Omen and Miasma before we'd set off for Urchin territory. "The point is that the difference is numbers, one person selling someone out is them being wrong, a group selling one out is just business." I wrapped my fingers around the handle of my flare gun and pulled it out. It had been a long night, it must have been at least five in the morning by now. I was down a pair of speakers and a lot of patience. "Right?" I asked the cape beside me.

"Yeah, Menagerie's going too far," he said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. I didn't think either of us wanted to be here, but we couldn't risk becoming a A class threat this early in our lives. Even with Zora on our side we would end up getting destroyed. This was against the code more than it was against my morals. If we ended up on the wrong side of every cape- well I didn't even want to think about it. That would be a quick way to end the villainous career. The Azn badboys were a common topic on the forums.

I checked my phone more out of habit than actually wanting to know how many people were retweeting my comments about the commotion tonight. There was a quick upload of the video that came from my grenade throw, as well as a statement about us not killing the restaurant. The second part was true, I liked that place.

"You ready for this?" I asked Miasma as I pointed the flare gun to the sky. He nodded and pointed his regular gun toward the same target. I fired light, and he cracked sound. If we were lucky enough, the Urchins were on their way. That being said, we didn't need luck, we knew that the Urchins were coming, Anna had just been mum about whose side they w

[GameOfChampions]

Miasma & Roland

I frowned a bit, maybe I had been a bit to over-zealous with my shopping here, I start looking over the pile of things I'd gathered and then gesture to a few things for Rolands men to take out "Well that's a little too steep for right now, I'll drop the crate of guns and their ammo as well as the second crate of grenades." I look over the remaining things and after doing some mental math realize I was going to be a little short even after adding up my cash, Calibers, Anna's, and a little bit of Backlights he'd given me "In case I saw anything fun". 'Ehh I guess I'll share my grenades with Backlight, I probably was going to anyway.'

I look at Roland in the eye, trying to maintain eye contact as I gesture to the remaining stuff "OK I'll give you fifteen thousand for the lot as well as my promise of a small favor that you can call in at your discretion from me and only me, not my group." I hold out my hand with a polite smile hoping to seal the deal with this.

The Strength of the Pack

"You ready for this?"

I stood beside Backlight fidgeting a little as I stood there waiting for the Urchins to show, I had my new grenade launcher loaded and slung across my back with a sturdy strap and a couple Sting grenades in my cargo pants pockets. I knew that we had to stop Menegerie but it didn't sit to well with me and it was making me antsy 'He's just gone to far this time, he's kidnapped that girl and is trying to essentially give her a fate worse then death. I don't want to get hunted down by every other criminal in the city alongside the heroes, that can wait a good long time for sure.' I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince myself or what but in the end it didn't matter. Menegerie was risking bringing down the wrath of the city on us and we needed to do something about it. Either way I wasn't here to overthink things though I was here to back up Backlight, I go back to scanning around the street watching for the Urchins.

[Madwand]

Miasma & Roland

"Deal."Roland said and shook Miasma hand. "Now, it will take a minute - all I need is honest answer." arms-dealer stressed the word. He then pointed to masked women.

"Her power let her sense, see connections between other parahumans, in manner of speaking. She told me, quote, that you were betrayed by a knight in stained armour and bloodied crown. I get that it was your turncloak ex-leader. But she also said that evil and powerful witch is holding you by invisible strings. That's something I can't figure out. So tell me about the witch and her hold over you, Miasma. "

The Strength of the Pack

Backlight and Miasma delved into the Urchins territory. They were fallowing the graffiti trial around Winslow High, from unimaginative, stylized "U", lines from "Another Brick In The Wall" with depiction of burning school' building to flattering murals of Urchins four teenage parahumans.

They waited just few minutes. Zora' absence set Urchins on edge.

First, twelve teenagers with handguns and knives - all with bandanas covering lower half of the face.
Chariot flew, circling the two villains - he was fast! the young tinker started with home-made armor that let him race around 60 miles per hour - now, after stint in Wards and as a drug pusher - he could easily speed three to four times that.

Next, in one leap from darkness, landed Point-Blank. Tinker-made exoskeleton framing his legs, his upper body covered by Kevlar - seems that Kabuki and he get the same dealer, and Miasma could recall this model from his visit to Roland. He wore white-red chinese demon mask.

Mundane gangers took the step back from him - his power transferred any wound he suffers to those in close range.

The last one - Wallcreeper, changer-girl, who could turn into small bird probably stayed close, using her second form to hide herself.

"Back-light. Bloodbath. What do you want?" Point-blank asked.

[Writtensanity]

"So this is going to sound bad when I start, but let me finish," I said to the crew around me. Anna hadn't told me to run so I at least knew I was safe with these brats for the time being. "One of our former members, Menagerie, has captured Zora and is looking to take her over with Master abilities. If he gets through her shield, he'll have complete control over her until the day she dies." I hoped that statement didn't get me shot, and it didn't seem like it would. "We're going to make sure he doesn't have time to break through it. We don't want him taking over Zora, it's going too far, but there is too much risk in us going in alone. We don't know if we can pull it off in time."

I took half a step away from Point Blank, kid was a lot better armed than I was. "Look, frankly we're here asking for help to make sure that Zora doesn't become a plant zombie. We don't have a ton of time, so are you in or out?"

[Madwand]

The Strength of the Pack

"How do we know it's not a trap? eyes behind the demon mask drilled in Backlight "On the other hand, f*ck. F*ck. Zora's missing and Kabuki went to ground and don't talk to us. So let' make a deal - the slower of you two is all the time two steps from me. Give us insurance and we are in. "

[GameOfChampions]

Miasma & Roland

I look startled at the women for a second, while it was pretty accurate it was also a little unnerving that she had this ability, I lick my lips and take a moment before figuring out how to word it and then start slowly. "Omen does our planning, she can feel the pain of others so she knows if we're gonna feel a lot of it. She's kept us more or less alive so far with the tabs she has kept on us, so it stands to reason that we've already come to rely on her a little more then we probably should..."

The Strength of the Pack

I crack a small grin as I hear that the teens were going to help us out with this, until the caveat about keeping gone of us. I bit my cheek to stop from speaking out abruptly, I insead take a breath and then casually raise my hand "That would be me, Backlight here is the one with the moves and the speed so I guess I'll be sticking to you then. Just a sec." I carefully and with no sudden movements take off the grenade launcher and give it to Backlight "Here just in case you need some more range or some extra omph. Theres a non-lethel in there... you may want to replace it since this doesn't seem like a non-lethal issue right now."

[Madwand]

Miasma&Roland
"Precog." Roland nods "interesting. Thanks for the answer, Miasma. We will transport you back into your territory if there is nothing else you want to ask." he said "Ah, one more thing - here is an contact number, so we can arrange next meeting with so much hassle."

End of scene?

The Strength of the Pack

"Okey" Point-Blank said "what is the plan? Where is Zora?"

The Urchins fallowed Backlight lead. Point Blank kept Miasma close and Chariot was flying above group' heads. Step one accomplished.

[3SecondCultist]

The Strength of the Pack

Both Blacklight and Miasma hear Omen's voice from the almost invisible earpieces they are now wearing. The comm set did not disappoint - it was a worthwhile investment. Omen looks at the screen, watching the signal bounce imperceptibly through a myriad of long-range servers to get to its location. There, she can see the ping bounce off of their locators. It's too bad I didn't ask for GPS. Then again, her power has been a proven and reliable method of tracking her teammates.

Which, funnily enough, is exactly what she has to contribute to the conversation.

"I have Menagerie's location several minutes from now. He's still torturing Zora, which narrows it down considerably." She gives the two capes the block and closest address. "I'll let you know if and when he moves. If the Urchins ask, tell them you've got a tracker on his van, alright?" After what's happened with Exhilarate and the PRT, the last thing she needs is another leak.

[n0ble]

After John left the area he didn't go back to the hotel. Instead he went home and slept. It had been a long night and he needed to rest. After sleeping through most of the day he got to work, going to different drug stores and hardware stores to buy the materials he need for a new gun. It had been agreed on that the others would go to work on Menagerie while he stayed behind and applied the new data he had to a gun. As much as John wanted to be a part of the fight he realized that Backlight and Miasma could take him if it came down to it. Doubly so if they got the Urchins on their side. He didn't know much about them, but they were capes which meant that he didn't like them much on principal. Time would tell if they were going to result in potential future ventures or another Menagerie or Exhilarate.

As he got back home from the last Home Depot, he spread out a piece of paper on the desk in his basement. All design had to start with a blue print. He quickly sketched out a magazine clip, adding little bit and odds and ends that would make up the majority of the design. A self-replciating ammo clip that would never need to be ejected or reloaded with bullets. Unlimited ammo cheat code.With the design done he took one of the pistols off the wall and began applying the design. It felt good to be working again. It almost made up for how sour he was feeling over having to sit this one out. Almost. Hopefully he'd be able to make up for the frustration by killing more Kabukis later.

Until then he'd work away, waiting for any updates as needed from Ryker or the others.

[Madwand]

The Strength of the Pack

Guided by Omen' knowledge, Urchins, Backlight and Miasma arrived almost on Menagerie' doorstep. His house was located west from the villain' territory, in suburban Capitan's Hill, closest to the green park and shielded by trees and fence from prying eyes.

It was earie quite, but for Point Blank repeated question "What is the plan?"

Wallcreeper was sent to scout the premises and get them know about the house plan. She couldn’t get in or localize Menagerie. She reported that house had a kitchen, a living area, a bathroom, a bedroom, a storage room, and a second living area, in terms of important rooms. The only room without extensive shrubbery is storage room, but she can't be certain how many animals are in the house - some may be masked or obscured in between plants.

[GameOfChampions]

I gesture to Point-Blank and his gang members "Well we're going through the front, loud as possible. We'll lead and your crew can support us, be ready for a large number of plant monsters that are tougher then normal. If I understand your power right then it would help me a lot if you could start off with a wound to bleed out in my fog and then transfer it to the first monster you see it would help me immensely. Chariot and Backlight have their own plan that will hopefully intersect with ours if everything works."

Our group makes our way up to the front door, I have my pistol in one hand and my baseball bat in the other, we all gather new the front door and I nod to the others and gesture to wait one second. I take a deep breath take a few steps back for a little running start and rush forward kicking the door open with as much force as I can. As soon as it's open I start to flood the main hallway and landing with my fog as i fire my pistol twice down the hall, trying to make myself heard as much as possible. I then step back and while still flooding hallway and lean partially behind the wall on the outside while pulling out two of my newly bought sting grenades, I pull the pins but hold the handles so they don't go off. I wait, listening for the monsters that were on their way and the second I hear steps or wings flapping I throw the two grenades into the house.'OK let's see how this works...'Then move in once the grenades have safely gone off along with Point Blank and the gang members.

[Bobbybobby99]

He heard the sound of a gun, twice.

He had gone inside some minutes before, and had just knocked the brute unconscious through an excessive amount of over the counter painkillers. He looked at his laptop, tuning into one of his house cameras.

A blood red fog.

Menagerie was not particularly prone to emotional responses, but his face was a portrait of rage. Just a moment, only ever a moment... then he snapped back into a blank expression, looking apathetic as ever, with the exception of a twitch, in his right eye. He swiftly, silently took his laptop, and hurried to [REDACTED], closing the door and locking it. He calmly walked over to a lever on the opposite wall, dodging several succulents, and pulled it.

It began sprinkling, and then raining heavily, in all rooms, as he turned on his automatic watering system. He wasn't certain how that would interact with Miasma's power (because it was Miasma, it was a traitor), but it couldn't be helpful for it, just on basic logistics. It would also almost completely prevent them from setting any fires, while the house was protected from flooding and water damage.

He sat down, next to [REDACTED], and tuned into one of his cameras in the front room. It would be almost impossible for them to get a straight line of sight, given the nigh-forestry of it all, and anything they threw wouldn't get particularly far. Of course, they couldn't actually see into the house, given the liberal amounts of blood fog Miasma was pouring in, not enough to control their force such that it didn't hit something and roll back to them. It would be the sensible thing, to have brought grenades or flamethrowers or something similar, if they knew about the foliage; why not try and clear it out, as the reasoning goes.

He sent a lonely, scampering little Dachshund in their direction, a small thing, and very carefully did not intend to cause any harm. Why, it was just a cute plant-dog; why would they ever hurt it? He didn't even need to use the screen to guide it in their direction, knowing the house and plant layout so well. It was a friendly greeting party, and wouldn't it be such a tragic accident if it set off any preparations they had made? Why, it would be such a party, all the rest of the gang and most likely the Urchins too! Wouldn't that be fun! First, however, it completed a loud motion around the room. Couldn't have it getting chubby!

Menagerie, being very close to a sociopath, was also very good at doublethink.

On a completely unrelated note, his right eye twitched again, and he wondered how Omen sensed accidental harm. After all, she had followed him here, in spite of no harm being done, which implied that her precognition relied on intent to harm, rather than harm itself. With an interestingly forced sort of motion, he went over near the pipe which fed into the sprinklers, and which had such a convenient opening. It was a clever thing, designed so he could easily administer pesticide. He picked up his largest thing of pesticide, stumbled, and poured it fully into the pipe receptacle. He didn't read the label, but he was reasonably certain it caused insects to peacefully fall asleep and harmlessly fall to the floor. Why, universally toxic? Who would think of such a thing?

Thus, from the perspective of the intruders, it had begun raining profusely indoors, and that rain was rather agonizing, when exposed to the eye or mucous membrane. They could hear the little putter patter of feet, and, throwing their grenades, are quite likely to have them bounce back.

[Madwand]

Miasma

"I am not going to bleed for you, Bloodbath" Point Blank said. "Let's get Zora"

Miasma kicked door open and poured in the fog. He noticed tons of plants, but the hallway filled in seconds. Menagerie response was almost instant - the complex sprinkler system came to life and water poured from the ceiling; but Miasma power could fill the space faster than water could diffuse the fog.

Slick blood covered the floor, and Miasma and Point Blank could see three feet around them.

Something moved around them, bumping loudly around the room..


You killed visibility inside the house.

Menagerie

Sprinklers barely slowed the fog, it was spreading throughout Menagerie' house. His cameras provided only 2 or 3 feet of viability into rooms. He couldn’t tell where the Miasma and lone Urchin are right now, so his Dachshund moved through hallway making noise.

He poured canister of pesticide into the pipes of sprinkler system, but his keen mathematical mind told him that between amount of water pumped and layers of fog, it most likely will be to diffuse and ineffective in causing anything more than mild disconfort to parahuman with regeneration like Miasma .

Send me PM with [redacted]. You have no visibility in the fogged rooms.


Backlight

The gangers spread around the house, making sure that Menagerie' won't slip past them and Chariot flew around keeping eye on Urchins.

[GameOfChampions]

I sigh. I guess it was a little much to ask for him to slice himself up for me. As we head in carefully I comm Anna "Hey Omen I'm gonna need you on your toes so to speak for this one. Let me know if you sense any violence incoming so we can pinpoint a rough dire ton and just be ready for it."

I advance into the fog with Point Blank and breathe a little easier. I just feel more comfortable in the fog now, whenever I'm in it I feel a sense of safety? Peace? Something along those lines which was ironic since violence usually occurred in the blood mist. As we advance I give it another shot "OK so you don't need to slice an arm or something but a pinprick or a paper cut will be helpful here and let me keep track of you. You can also transfer it can't you? So if you did that I'd be able to track the thing you transfer it to as well. Win win. Thoughts?"

The mist from the sprinklers wasn't really bothering me that much. I continue on through the mini jungle, pushing my way through as I advance slowly past the landing. I hear the patter of small feet nearly and narrow my eyes as I tighten my grip on the bat and my pistol.

[Writtensanity]

There was enough commotion going on for me to feel safe. Chariot was flying above, looking down at me. He was supposed to be coming inside with me but, well, needless to say he had other plans. As long as he was going to be in the middle of the fight when things went down, I was fine with it.

Anna had told me that I had a few minutes before anything terrific would happen. I was safe to move in, at least as safe as I could be when going in alone. I didn't count the gangers that were going to drop in with me. Zora was in the basement, and we were going to pick her up. I strapped on a pair of goggles that would keep the pesticides out of my eyes, and put a mask on. The gang members with me didn't know my costume yet, they wouldn't know it was abnormal. I didn't feel like drinking lady bug killer though. As long as Anna was on our side, we could make sure nothing deadly happened to our side. At least that was the plan.

I kicked the window that lead to the basement, and it didn't budge. It must have been reinforced. I sighed and pulled my shotgun off of my back. One shot and everything was blasted away. I could hear the hiss of sprinklers, Zora was still supposed to be down here.

Grenades flew into the darkness as I tossed them as a clearing measure. It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to use the launcher, but there wasn't a point to doing something fancy now. I just had to make sure there was nothing plant-y left in the room. "Menagerie," I hissed in the second before the grenades went off, "come out and playyy-ayyyy"

[Madwand]

Menagerie

Shotgun blasted the window. Menagerie couldn’t react in time as grenade after grenade flew into the basement. No one will know what went through his mind in last few seconds - or what last command he tried to get to his monstrous pets.

He died alone amoung scattered and shredded plants, killed by shrapnels, his dreams of power undone by suden and unexpected betrayal.

Miasma & Backlight

Cleaning the house was simple, the mosters' didn't even move without will to command them. Point Blank found Zora, unharmed but sedated, in the basement amidst ruins, destroyed equipment and scattered remains of villain. Menagerie mangled body few feet away . He carried Urchins leader to the open, in front of the house, where all gangers congregated.

"That went quickly" Point Blank said "Thanks, Backlight, Miasma."

[3SecondCultist]

Omen gets up from her seat in the motel room when she hears the blasts over Blacklight's comm. She already knows that he'll have gotten out of there, and that Zora will be alright. More importantly, she recognizes that the master class cape is gone for good. Under different circumstances, she might have felt remorseful for helping orchestrate all of this. But Menagerie was short-sighted, and he was reckless. He couldn't be controlled. At the end of the day, that wasn't somebody she wanted or needed hanging around Brockton Bay.

Reaching for a new cup of orange pekoe, she breathes in the aroma before taking her first sip. This one doesn't seem nearly as bitter as the others that preceded it. The corner of her mouth turns up into a quiet smile. Everything went better than I could have hoped. Now, all that's left is talking to the Urchins. In that matter, she's more than happy to let the two capes on the scene take charge. After all, they have just rescued their leader. She's already asked Blacklight about their expectations towards the other cape group, and trusts him to speak on all of their behalf. After all, if there was going to be trouble, she'd already know about it.

Omen takes a breath, looking out at the window. So many stars. She stands and finishes her tea in silence.

[Writtensanity]

I dropped down into the basement after everything had quieted down. I knew how this ended, at least I'd been told. All they'd had to do was make a big enough distraction and Menagerie wouldn't have anything at the window. All it took was knowing the future. Pretty simple thing in the end.

Chariot flew toward his companion as soon as he knew the coast was clear. He left the basement, but I didn't follow. I'd meet them outside in a minute. For the time being I got over the master's body and put a shot in his head. Insurance.

I didn't know the word for the feeling in the pit of my stomach. It wasn't remorse. It wasn't disappointment. It was something else that I couldn't place. I wasn't in the villain game to kill people I knew while they were in a computer chair. I was in the villain game for back flip grenade snipes. "He's good and down, can we get someone here to take him upstairs? I want the body." Two people came down the stairs. I didn't know whether they were from us or the Urchins, but I guessed it wouldn't matter. I planned on sending his body to the PRT with a paper stapled onto his head. I couldn't decide between writing "Here, have a second one," or "Swapsies?" on the sheet. I'd do it on the fly.

"Nothing personal," I said to the body as they dragged it out of the room. It was half a lie. **** him. He had been personal. If you signed up for a team you didn't try to get the rest of them killed by making everyone angry. ****. I didn't want to lose another person. I was happy with a team of seven. I was going to need to ask twitter for a cape to add to our table, otherwise there would be an empty chair, which was awful.

There would be money and equipment to grab before the night was out, but for now I grabbed a cactus as a trophy. I couldn't keep the Urchins waiting.

OUTSIDE:

"Just doing our part for a safe and enjoyable Brockton." I snickered at the end. I was hilarious when I was tried, "seriously though, don't wanna step on too many toes. I'm a friends kinda guy, not a war kind of guy."

[GameOfChampions]

House

I hear the grenades go off downstairs and then a moment later Backlight comms us to let us know that Menagerie was down and out, I stop abruptly. That had been much faster then I'd thought, I guess a precog on our side does that though. I stop my little journey through the shrubbery and concentrate on the fog, soon it starts to lower and dissipates. The fog leaves behind a huge mess of blood all over the plants and the floor where it mixes with the water on the floor and leaves behind something reminiscent of a horror movie. I look around at the carefully cared for plants around that have now been ruined by my fog and the Urchins that have started moving in now that it was safe. It was sad to think they would no longer be cared for, say what you want about the psychopathic sadist but he cared for his plants and his creatures.

While I was looking through the plants and everything was clearing out I notice a small greenish thing among the plants, I take a closer look and notice it's a small pudgy Dachshund, it wasn't moving at all and probably won't ever again. Feeling sad for it I grab the little guy and tuck him under my arm before heading out with Backlight while scratching his unmoving head 'I wonder if I can just water you?' Already panning on putting him on my window sill at home. I walk out, me covered in blood from head to toe with a little plant monster also covered in blood under my arm, I think I found a new pet.

Outside

Backlight looks exhausted, this was his second fight today so I couldn't be very surprised. I clap him on the back as I join him and the Urchins "You said it Point Blank. We're really glad that you got your leader back safe and sound." I say with a big smile, some of which was real but some of which was very forced. I was conflicted because while I was happy that a, relatively, innocent girl hadn't had her entire being destroyed and pervaded with monstrous vines she had come between us and out teammate which had lead to this fiasco. "It has been a long day though and while I'm sure you don't want to promise anything with your leader still unconscious I think we worked well today and maybe that could be an indication for our future. Would you mind if we maybe called on you in a few days after we sort everything out to discuss possible shared ventures like this in the future?" I quickly grab an old receipt from my pocket and scribble down the number of my burner phone were he could reach me and hand it over "Give me a call sometime, even if you don't want to associate with us as a group we don't need to be enemies. I think even just me and you guys could just have some fun, I could use some light hearted stuff after this." I give a much more meaningful smile, as stressed out as they had been tonight I think the Urchins and I would be a good fit what with the similarities we shared such as age, temperament and villainous outlook.

[Madwand]

Back-light & Miasma

Wallcreeper, still in form of the bird, flew and perched on the Point Blank shoulder. As far as villains could tell, she looked on Zora and was worried. Chariot gathered the gangers around them, they are well visibly relaxed. They probably expected harder and more brutal fight.

"You don't tell." Point Blank responses to Backlight flashing predatory grin. "You blew up Kabuki Mono' favourite car.

"Okey, Bl.. Miasma. Seems like legit idea. We should meet in few days, right? We probably need to go - the grenades were laud, and some neighbour probably already called the cops." Point Blank said.

[Writtensanity]

"We just killed the guy who smoked Kabuki's favorite car," I pointed out. I wasn't in the mood for this kind of thing. If they were in kahoots with Kabuki then we needed to just make sure they weren't also our enemies. I wanted to run recruitment and give Calibre time to actually use his powers. 'Man with a gun' wasn't a very compelling skill.

"Honestly it's way too late for me to even keep track of what's gone on today. All of this bull**** started at around midnight, now we're two big fights, a betrayal, and a planning session later. I would really like to get some time in the sack before I claim to understand what's going on." I said. "That being said. I don't think I need to spell out that Kabuki and I aren't on the best terms right now."

"Right now? I want time off and a drink. If any of you guys wanna talk about working with us I can sneak you booze, not the worst thing I've done."

[Madwand]

Kabuki captured

Autarch did get last living clone captured. He informed Omen where he left bound, disarmed and unconscious Kabuki. He didn't want to add another injury, because clone was in pretty critical state already.

It was last time any of you had contact with Autarch.

Feel free to continue interrogation scene.

Backlight&Miasma

"Right, right." Point Blank said "I can't promise anything, because drugs from Kabuki are like, totally important and how we get our profit. But between you and me" the red-and-white chinese mask didn't hide the ugly and predatory smile "I am ok with cutting out the middlemen, if you catch my drift. And after he left Zora on field, I am sure she will agree. See you around."


END OF ARC 2


Ok, we have 2-3 days of time-skip, without major fights and plot-critical events. Please describe what your character is up to and we will start next arc on Saturday.

[Writtensanity]

I went to sleep way too fast after everything. I didn't want to end up doing anything crazy or saying something I'd regret. I sent the PRT twitter a picture of Menagerie asking if they wanted to trade him for Exhilarate. If I was lucky I would be able to get people riled about them harboring dear leader. A protest or something was on my list of things to do, but I wasn't about to dedicate myself to that when we were at war.

Right now we were running low on people. We down to four with Autarch gone. Better than starting a war or betraying us I guess, but four people wouldn't take over Brockton. We lacked a LOT on our team. We were fine, but without Anna we were incredibly underpowered as a villainous group. We needed allies who were going to have just as much fun as I was with this. Twitter was my first choice, but Parahumans.net was probably the best place to actually do it. I took a sip of my Rockstar and confirmed my account on the website.

New Topic by Cerberi-Backlight

Brockton Villainy.


Hi, some on you might know me from twitter or a couple topics on here. For those of you who don't, here is a reminder:

Link:Doublebackflipgrenade.mp4

That isn't anywhere else yet, and should tell you that this is actually me.

Due to a recent betrayal, unfortunate death, and a quitting it seems like my original method of taking anyone in to the clan isn't working. That being said, for the first time the Cerberi are on the hunt for new Cape members.

Day job got you down? Bored with your life? Feel like you aren't really using your powers? Dislike the PRT? Yes? Maybe? If you answered several of those questions with a Yes then I want to hear from you. Join us as we put a new spin on Brockton villainy. The world is bad enough, might as well have some fun with what's left of it right?

List of Requirements:

Cape Abilities
A twitter account
Willing to meet our group Unarmed.
Not a Cop.
Or a hero.
Any person who has a thing for plants is banned.
Not named Kabuki
Above a 5 but below a 9 on the crazy scale.
A sense of style
A lack of remorse for minor crimes like murder or drug dealing.


If this sounds like you send me a message on here. No cacti allowed.

[n0ble]

John cracked his neck as he finished fine-tuning the new gun. It had taken him three days of on and off work, and at several points he'd needed to go out and buy more materials, but with what would have been Menagerie's funds covering most of the costs he was able to make it the self-replicating magazine. Time would tell as to whether or not it was a more cost effective solution to buying hand guns.

He'd already field tested it on a pimp smacking around one of his whores. Fifteen rounds into his legs later and the gun had shown no signs of stopping in terms of ammo capacity. He'd present it at the next meeting, presumably when the new talent was introduced to everyone at large and not just Backlight. He might've talked too much for John's taste but- well there was no but. He did talk to much. But the mover's deal with Omen had turned him into a wonderful lightning rod other groups could focus on.

Suits me fine.

[3SecondCultist]

Omen puts the van in park. It had taken her some time to carefully clean out the interior of Menagerie's old van. Whatever flora or fauna that was left inside has perished and been tossed out - if twelve years of marriage teaches you anything, it's how to clean up someone else's mess. But since Menagerie is no longer putting the vehicle to any use, she might as well have a way to get around. It's lack of side windows help, and so far nobody's recognized her at the wheel. Just another driver, doing their best to get around in the new Brockton Bay. Getting gas has been pricey, but given the money they've made since Exhilarate, it's still a relative drop in the bucket. Tonight, she'll load up her comms unit inside, so that she can communicate with the rest of the team from anywhere in the city as long as she has somewhere out of the way to park the van. Privacy meets mobility. It's not perfect, but it'll do for now. For now though, she's carrying other cargo.

The car door closes behind her with a click, as she surveys the site. It's the fourth abandoned block she's investigated in the past few days, and it looks depressingly similar to the others. When Leviathan hit, he hit hard. The resulting water and structural damage to the city's grid meant that any buildings left over were likely to be porous and unstable, and therefore unsuited to serving as a new hideout for the Cerberi. They came up with the name together, the morning after, when they met to touch base and make sure everyone was up to speed. She'd waited until almost noon to call the boys; they'd had quite the evening. Caliber was continuing to work on his project, and Blacklight was on recruitment, which suited her fine. That freed her up to try and find somewhere for all of them to rest, and turn it into a proper lair. That's what supervillains did, right? Looking up at the threshold, she tries to remember her old home. Jonathan. The thought of him, standing here, watching her, should fill her with shame. But Omen knows that he can't, not until she's amassed enough power to find him.

Wherever he is, she won't stop until she gets there.

The handgun Caliber have her at her side, Omen pulls open the back door to reveal the trussed up Kabuki clone. Reaching in and grabbing him roughly by the scruff of the neck, she starts to march him inside. This won't be enjoyable, but it'll be necessary. Without Autarch on hand to help, she'll need to rely on her own powers to maximize the cold-blooded torture she's about to inflictc on the replicator. Her eyes never leave him, although she can be reasonably sure that her visions will tip her off if he tries something. That's what the gun is for.

Madwand, my post assumes that Omen found a base within the Cerberi's territory over the next few days. Ideally, I think the group would like to find somewhere relatively out of the way like an abandoned warehouse that's not falling apart to use until we have enough money to build ourselves something better. Hopefully that's alright with you! :smallsmile:

[GameOfChampions]

Wrap Up

I stumble into my bedroom and start peeling off my costume piece by piece before flopping down onto my bed and promptly falling asleep. I had some weird dreams about Backlight getting into a twitter war with Bernie Sanders while I was riding around on Fungus, my new pet/plant, that had grown to the size of my house. I think Menegerie put some weird stuff in the sprinkler water and this was some sort of latent revenge...

Cribs

Either way I woke up the next day ready to go warehouse shopping with Anna. We went through our newly expanded territory and for every one that was relatively nice and fit our needs we must have seen 5 that didn't look fit for even the massive rats and coakroaches living there. However after several hours of cruising around in Menegeries cleaned out van we put together a short list to show the group. I was just hoping that once we finish this war with Kabuki we can spend some cash on a real hideout, preferably one that didn't have vermin living in it and good odds of so much water damage it may as well have taken a tidal wave to the face.

First Blood

As I lay on my couch my mind started to drift, reluctantly I started to think of the future. Mostly I thought about my plan for the local businesses I wanted to enact and then the meeting with the Urchins. While they had been some impressive Capes my mind lingered on their gang, they had attracted a large group but it seemed like they were peddling drugs or breaking knee caps. If I wanted to enact my plan then I didn't need thugs, I needed trustworthy people who could think while I wasn't there and more importantly be trusted. Failing that a trusted lieutenant to watch them. The more I think it about it the more I start to believe that I should start gathering some people. The Cerberi were on the rise and this would let me be ready to immediately start expanding once things settled and we had some money.

I start thinking of trustworthy people... and start coming up blank. Well not a complete blank I guess, there was Ben. However I hadn't talked to him since I got my powers because of what had happened to the rest of our friends. He probably thought I had died in there with the rest of them since I had never reached out to him. I desperately tried to think of someone else but I couldn't think of anyone I'd met as a cape to do it and most of my friends from before my cape life had died in the shelter. Realizing that if I wanted to follow through with my plan I needed him I go to visit him and finally have that meeting I'd been avoiding.

An hour later I was outside his house ready to knock on his door. Steeling myself I knock on his door just like I had a hundred times in the past. Ben himself answers and at first he just looks curious to see who was at his door but then his face soon grows slack and stunned as he sees me. "Ryan? What... how... Huh?"

I grin a little but it fades after a second "I know I'm sorry Ben I should have come to visit after everything settled down but some things... came up. I'm here right now because I need some help. Let's sit down so I can explain."

We sit down in his living room and he starts off by telling me what had happened to him, apparently his parents had managed to get out of the city, just like mine, and he hasn't heard from them yet. He was just waiting for their return while doing some construction work, after he mentioned it I did notice that he was looking far more fit then he had been. After he finishes I take a second to collect myself before I start to explain everything that has happened the last few months. I tell him about my hatred for the PRT, with biterness in my voice, and my independent excapades as well as joining the group and everything we've done since then. Everything up to this point except my suspicions as to my causing our friends deaths. Finally I get around to explaining my plan for the future "I need someone I can trust with this, some parts will be dirty and illegal but I think it could do some good getting the community back on its feet. I would have you as my lieutenant and then find a small handful of people we could trust working under you, not thugs or dealers but people who arent afraid to break the law and have a brain. However I am a villain, this won't be changing and you have to know that the base of anything I do will be connected to that. Please if you can handle that I need you but if not I'll vanish and never contact you again so that I won't put you in danger."

[Writtensanity]

I cracked my knuckles as I got into the warehouse that Anna was using for Kabuki. It wasn't a perfect setup but I'd visited a hardware store before coming in. I was a coupe hundred dollars down but I had some sweet power tools to show for it. I was here to play the host of the hit new gameshow: Can we break Kabuki Mono? I'd put on my mask on the way in, but I was wearing white clothing for effect, I wanted blood to show.

"Morning Kabuki," I said to him as I came up behind him, "you know I really a sorry about this. Tell me, how does your power handle pain to the other versions of you?"

Kabuki spoke to the gag in his mouth.

"Rude," I said after deciding that he told me to go **** myself, "I could find someone if I wanted to."

More murmuring.

"How do you think people are going to react if I pull of your face? I can use the facebook thing to find you on there and tell people to send you sorry messages. I think it would be fun."

The last murmur was closer to a yell.

"Don't worry, that's a last measure. That being said I do need to break this," I snapped his mask in two, "it's not fun if people can't see some of your brave face." I spun away from him and finally made sure that my camera was ready and hooked up. If we were going to stream this- I nodded to Omen in the shadows and I switched everything on, some lighting, the camera, and the small microphone I was wearing.

"Good afternoon everyone who clicked the twitter link. My name is Backlight and welcome to my new gameshow, 'Will Kabuki spill the beans?' The premise is pretty simple, I want Kabuki to tell me everything about himself, and he doesn't wanna tell me, so we're going to get a little bloody." I pointed back to him, "isn't that right Kabuki?"

Muffled yelling into a rag.

"I thought so. Now here's where it gets FUN! We've got a Bitcoin donation box on the right side of the screen, if you give us something over $50 as a donation you get to decide what happens to him next, as long as it won't kill him. I also reserve the right to stay away from anything too icky. I'm cool enough to stream my life, but I have morals."

"Finally please keep the eyes of all children away from the screen and remember, the first three rows are a splaaaaash zone."

I spun on my heel and went up to Kabuki. I spoke into his ear so the camera wasn't listening. "Look, we don't NEED to do this. You start talking now and we can put this allllll behind us. Otherwise," there was a ding behind me, "we just got our first donation"

[Madwand]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Blood-soaked bandages covered clone’s wounds. Morbid paleness of Kabuki Mono’s face contrasted with his intense, insane eyes. The muffled sound wasn’t another heartily “f*ck”, it was laughter. Unhinged, unhealthy, unmistakably mocking laughter.

The first donations rolled in almost instantly. $100 with attached message and youtube link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08jA5IG9ju0):

“Hey, Backlight. Remember how badass Liam Neeson was in "Taken"? I am sending $100 to see it live. Cheers viewers!

The other, negative comments were mostly variations of “Is it a sick joke?”, ‘I can’t believe he is doing it” and “Somebody Call the PRT!”.

Haters gonna hate.

ARC 3 - BLOOD

New Gun

Calibre’s new gun worked perfectly. It allowed him to forget about reloading and just spray bullets all day long. It required hours of maintenance after longer uses, but it required it much less frequently than now useless Menagerie power extending gun.


First Blood

Ben confused but convinced. Miasma could trust his friend and after short time he had six more people answering to him. He recruited six Exhilarate’ henchmen to patrol the territory and report directly to him. Ben bring one of his construction crew buddies, who looked for fast cash, but was ex-military and convict (two years in prison), so he could handle the guns quite well and didn’t ask any questions.


Diplomacy

Urchins showed in force. Three teenage villains steeped into per-arranged meeting place - and they insisted on open space like abandoned parking or Brockton Bay's Trainyards. Zora looked regal and confident in new crispy outfit. Point Blank and Chariot walked two step behind her.

No one could see Wallcreeper, but it was almost certain that she was observing the area from above.

[Writtensanity]

"You read my mind Dark Matter 2424, nice username," I said before I pulled the battery out of the bag. I made sure to nod to Anna before I did anything rash. She was telling me what was okay, and what was going to get him to break, what was going to get him to flinch. When the PRT might come. We were going to be causing pain the entire time we were here. Torture was probably the safest we've ever been.

"You know," I said starting the quote, "we used to outsource this kind of thing," I kept going without really thinking about it. Who hadn't seen Taken at least seven times? I was grabbing a car battery out of my bag as I said it. It wasn't much but I guessed that it would hurt. I wouldn't know, not like I'd ever done it to myself.

"So Kabuki, question one, tell me, can the rest of you feel this?" I put the second cable on his cheek and let it run for a moment. I pulled it off, "so?" nothing. He laughed, that was disappointing.

"God you have no idea of showmanship," I scoffed, "you're gonna have to do more or I'm gonna get annoyed. I have paying viewers." I left the battery on him as I went back to check the screen. There were almost a dozen new donations. Most of them were small, people were being careful, seeing what their 50.00 could buy in terms of suffering.

A stab in the hand. A splatter of blood. A razor along the cheek. Everything got a nod from Anna. Everything was approved. The laughter turned into gasps, and the gasps turned it half of screams. We were making progress.

"Just a reminder," I said as I put my knife into the his hand for the second time, this time I gave it a twist. "We're directly recruiting, and I feel like I wanna throw a party. Who wants parties?" There were a couple comments to that. It was an idea. Hm. Maybe. It was a fair idea. We were over a thousand dollars in now. I turned to Anna for the most recent request. She nodded to tell me that it was okay, but it wouldn't break him.

"Sorry about this one Kabuki, I'm channeling my inner bible for this time," I pulled out the electric saw and put it in front of his bottom rib. "Feel like talking?"

[3SecondCultist]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Omen holds the camera steady as Backlight starts his routine. Despite her disgust at the methods they've already had to resort to, she can't help but smile. Backlight has a way of bringing out the best in people. The lights flicker as she watches, but thankfully the tripod is operating on an independent battery, so the camera is steady and doesn't short out. She winces slightly at the replicator's screams, but maintains her resolve. You've suffered through worse.

The shadows conceal her face to a certain extent, but Omen still does her best to maintain her anonymity in the face of the Kabuki. Until he answers Backlight's first proper question, there's no way of knowing whether the rest of them would see (or recognize) her face, and she can't afford them having her public identity on hand. It's not a risk she can afford to take right now.


Diplomacy

Omen brings the van to a stop, five full blocks away from the agreed meeting place at the train tracks. The Urchins will no doubt be on time, and the rest of the team will be forthcoming. Backlight brought his recruit, which should be promising for all parties, and Miasma is bringing a few of his crew in order to convey to the Urchins that we trust them enough to show up in person. Well, most of us anyhow.

She asks the rest of the team to check in over the comms, as they've often done recently. It's a habit of hers to ensure that all of them are able to ensure their survival, and she's gone over the self-mutilation policy should any of the Cerberi be taken non-lethally. That being said, she has a fairly good feeling about this meeting. Still, there's no harm in a little caution. "You guys all good out there?", her voice echoes over the collective earpieces of the group.

[GameOfChampions]

First Blood:

I breathe out a sigh of relief as Ben accepts everything I've said, moving on from our friends that I may or may not have killed. We spend the next several hours collecting a few more people to join us, after we've collected several people I address them "My name is Miasma though you may know me as Bloodbath... I've gathered you here because the Cerberi are expanding and I find a need for people of your skills. We will be expanding our holdings and I need some companions, I'll need you to do some dangerous things at some point but at other I'll also need you to be smart and able to work within the confines of a company, manipulating the system for he Cerberi. However we can address this later, right ow I just need proof of your loyalty and your allegience to me and the Bloodborne!"

I start to form a large fog bank a couple hundred feet long and gesture to it "If you are ready to follow me and be a part of this gang you will need to prove you an handle it... Run through the fog and come out the other side as a Bloodborne, you'll have the chance for advancement and wealth." I gesture to the fog and as each one runs through the bloody fog I give them a hard hug and wipe the blood off their face while saying "You've passed, you are one of now... have fun on the journey." I say the last bit with a wry smile as I think of what I've faced in the last little while.

Later

After the little initiation ceremony I get them all equipped and while Ben his friend join me with going to the meeting. I get the other guys that had been used by Exhilarate back onto the streets to feel for information and start compiling a list of small businesses that could be useful to my scheme in the future.


Diplomacy:

I arrive at the meeting spot and grunt as me, Ben and his friend start to lift some equipment out of the car we arrived in. The Urchins attempt to speak to us as we carry the equipment closer but I grunt at them "Just a sec I need to set this up..." We set down the large speakers and quickly hook them up with a laptop. Finally I straighten up and turn to the Urchins while the two Bloodborne back off a respectful distance, waiting by the van.

I crack my neck and saw with a sense of long suffering weariness "Sorry guys Backlight has decided that he cant go anywhere without his 'theme song' playing... just play along we'll be able to deal with this in a few seconds." I then press the play button on the laptop and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj starts to blast out of all the speakers, the bass shaking the pavement as t plays. After a few seconds Backlight launches himself off the roof of a nearby building landing quickly enabling his power state which lets him float down to the meeting in the style he desired. "Sup"

[Bobbybobby99]

Diplomacy.

Lothair was feeling fidgety. He had just had his meeting with his new leader, of the new team he was on; it was his first time doing anything beyond solo work. It would be fun, he reassured himself; also, money. Exorbitant amounts of money, that he could actually spend, unlike the artwork he had stolen and could only gaze upon. All of the best restaurants, the greatest wine, the most efficient cars...

He was already having slight reservations, given the entrance Backlight had specified, but he took a deep breath, briefly turning homogenous, feeling the world in his hands for half a second, and then solidifying once more. Everything would be fine. Counting the minutes and finding that he had rested sufficiently after his recruiting demonstrations, he entered what he sometimes referred to as his 'passive rhythm'; while it had taken several days practice, he had developed a system where he regularly cycled in an out of his mellow form for half a second every three seconds. He had even mastered it enough that he almost did it when he was sleeping, just as a precaution in case he was poisoned or ambushed. Feeling the innate giddiness that came from having your brain rhythmically meld with your internal organs, he began grinning.

After reporting in, Melio strode in from a nearby corner, looking distinctly out of place in the twenty-first century. His face covered by a psychedelic hockey mask, with pink bell-bottoms and a spiral orange button-up, he would have fit in comfortably in an anti-nuclear weapons protest. His blonde hair flowed long and freely past the mask, and it would have been unsurprising if he started ranting about how the man was oppressing the people, or if he started calling everyone dude. He was precisely on cue with Backlight's landing, and something about his form seemed to ripple every few seconds, though you couldn't quite put your finger on it.

His grin fading slightly behind the mask as the 'music' continues playing, he very distinctly strides over to the laptop, firmly pressing the stop button. The grin came back, and he rippled again.

"Hello there," he said in a voice that left people hazily guessing if he was male or female, continuing, "I'm new. Also, I feel your pain. "

[n0ble]

"Diplomacy"

Idiot. Backlight annoyed him even when he wasn't talking, which was a rare occurrence in and of itself. This was too much. One of the new recruits achieved some modicum of respect from John when he turned off the laptop. And then promptly lost it again when he started rippling. It wasn't helped by his...outfit? Costume? Whatever. There was work to be done and focused on.

He was standing next to Miasma as Backlight touched down.The thugs were a new thing for him. It gave John a very good idea of his own. They'd already worked out that one of the negotiation points would be the exchange of tinker gear between himself and the one called Chariot. It just so happened that john had developed a new type of gun that both they and the Urchins could arm henchmen with. The comparative gains of such an exchange would be great, plus it wasn't like he couldn't build contingencies into the guns if need be. Such actions would help them in the event that things turned sour with the Urchins.

On that note, he'd come with a kevlar vest and two of Kabuki's grenades on his chest. Grey gun in the right holster. He hadn't had time to inspect the assault rifle that Miasma had bought, but John had a good feeling about the armour piercing rounds. He'd also brought the latest addition to his arsenal: the self-reloading gun. Perhaps a demonstration would suffice.

"Calibre reporting in."

[Writtensanity]

Meeting:


"Well that would make everyone wouldn't it?" I asked. I avoided mentioning the person I had just met on the way here. She was going to be the one bringing the real music to the crew. She was gonna bring it up. "Plus, I mean like.... this is the kinda music kids listen to now isn't it? I feel like I'm always one or two years behind the times now. I used to be so in tune with that."

"But this, now this," I said motioning to the group of us together, "is the kind of things that Brockton historians are going to shiver at. Can you imagine the headlines if they figured out we were going to be working together on something? Oh man, talk about owning the news for a day. **** you Miss Militia, 'Tonight's Top Story, ****ing sweet team-up happens'"

I smiled and people seemed to be... temperate. I sighed and sat on top of one of the speakers that Miasma had brought out, "so Urchins, let's talk about US I feel like we've been neglecting our relationship."


You Gotta Fight for the Right:

There was a list on Backlight's desk.

1. Drugs
2. Booze
3. Kick Ass Destructive Party.
4. Repeat
5. Profit?


SHOPPING!

I'd been shopping for the past few days and the boxes were finally arriving into the stores I'd ordered them to. Sure one was the next town over and that was annoying, but I couldn't order too many cool things without people asking questions. As it turned out, my power affected throwing, which was an interesting thing to learn. Guns were good, but I hadn't been that accurate over time.

That being said, I'd needed to make some costume adjustments to make sure I could fit everything I wanted to on my person. The plain leather jacket I'd started with had been modified to have light metal plating in the larger parts. It wouldn't stop a bullet but it would slow it. I was now wearing one of Kabuki's vests with all of the pockets removed. My black jeans had been replaced with a slightly more robust model, and my cheap sunglasses had bulletproof lenses (I couldn't believe those were a thing, but they were)

There were knives in the boots, knives across my chest, guns in their holsters and a sword and shotgun on my back. The newest part of my attire was the tomahawks slotted beside the guns on my hips. I was a better shot with those than I was a bullet, and I got the kind that had a point at the handle in case I really ****ed up.

Finally above those I had a lightweight fireman's axe as another hand to hand weapon. I was sharp.

Now it was just time I spend the afternoon etching 'Backlight' into all of them, and 'From Brockton with Love on the shotgun.'

The only issue I had were brutes.. but the LEET collective hadn't returned my ****ing email yet.

[Let'sGetKraken]

Diplomacy

So this is them, then. Cerberi. They're... less intimidating than I expected.

As she quietly slips into the parking lot, having followed a short distance behind Backlight, she's just in time to watch the charismatic villain make his entrance.

And they have terrible taste in music.

Stopping at the man she presumes to be Calibre's side, Julia stands still as a statue. She knows that to the Urchins, and her new allies, she would look like a featureless doll - unmoving and totally silent. Image is everything, after all - right now, she's an unknown quantity. The more inhuman she could seem from the start, the less work she'd have to do down the road.

The meeting with Backlight had certainly been interesting. Omen. No wonder the PRT couldn't catch them - they could anticipate any violence. Julia could see the low buzzing of the earpieces of her new teammates; of course, Omen was much too valuable to be anywhere near the front lines.

At Calibre's side is a much younger cape in a black and red costume - Miasma. A relatively unknown quantity, but their respective powers seem synergistic. And, of course, his power was suitably terrifying.

And then there's one she doesn't recognize. Another recruit, by the looks of it. I wonder what his superpowers are. A time traveler from the past? Julia couldn't think of another reason for the horrendous outfit.

As Backlight begins speaking, Julia turns her attention to the Urchins. Let's see how this goes, then.

[Madwand]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Backlight's life-stream went viral. He had tens of thousands viewers an more than $5000 in outstanding 'donations'. He may get more cash from it than from any previous job.. shame that Kabuki couldn’t possibly live thrugh all of it.

"Yeah" Kabuki spat the words in pained voice. His voice was harsh from screaming "I still think the cage match would be better, but it seems you have different taste. "

"The show must go on. he looked directly into the camera, addressing the audience as much as Backlight "Other of me can't feel it, we share.. memories, if only those we voluntary.. broadcast. They will remember. I want them to remember, when they get to you, you sick f*cking psychos. "

First Blood

The report about state of business in Cerberi/Bloodborne territory brought unexpected and alarming information. One of the largest locals which paid them protection money - a local supermarket in the south end of their territory - went to the Pure instead. The manager explained Miasma' henchmen that they were pressed into it and he didn't see the alternative, seeing that Cerberi were at war with Kabuki Mono and already had lost an restaurant.

Diplomacy

"Let's talk, Backlight. " Zora said, putting hand on Point Blank's shoulder. The gesture's meaning was clear - He wanted to say something, but she took control of conversation. "and we don't have an relationship. I am not really sure we want one, seeing how you went from cop-killing to torture in less than a week after getting rid of Exhilarate. I would mention killing a teammate, but it seems I can't complain about that one."

[Writtensanity]

"Now now, the cop? The cop had it coming, in the way that accidents happen all the time," I said, she was making accusations, and sure, all of them were reasonable, which was why we could work with them. "Kabuki, Kabuki is a different story? Do you know how that started?"

"A brute walks into the PRT, tells them about all of us. We're none-the-wiser to this betrayal. This same brute needs to meet Kabuki and ****s with him about as much as he ****s with us. Know who Kabuki blamed? Us." I shrugged. "Now, sure that wasn't the way we wanted things to go, but I told him we could work together to **** the brute and the PRT. No Dice. Ultimatum. So we plan to play nice with Kabuki and get the brute back and put HIM on the live stream. Next thing we know Menagerie is killing Kabuki's and ruining nice cars. He's a nasty guy," I point at Zora, "I think you knew him."

"So Kabuki is pissed, we're pissed. He goes to blow up a restaurant and we ain't gonna let that happen. Bullets are shot. We take a short break to save you from the aforementioned Menagerie, During this time we picked ourselves up a Kabuki," I said, "and we are at war with the collective Kabuki. I just skipped the couple steps between 'Brutal fight' and Liam Neason quotes, figured it would save both of us time."

"In short, war is war, I just livestream it."


I felt the crowd out, nobody was smiling, and Dissonance was still terrifying. Sweet. "But you know what the key is? We don't do unreasonable things unless you're unreasonable. We killed Menagerie for trying to take Zora, we tortured Kabuki in the middle of a war that he had a way out of. You know, usual things."

"That being said, perhaps the biggest thing here, with Kabuki out of the picture we could make your middle man for the drugs a little more friendly, maybe even thankful. Hell, you could join us and we could split the drugs like a pretty little pie. I'd say we make it a peace sign with the Pure. Point is, we're the ones with a ladder in Brockton, feel like climbing?"

[3SecondCultist]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Omen powers off the camera and kills the link to the feed as Kabuki starts to finally open up to questioning. At her side, the thinker has a pen and a pad of lined paper, which she's titled 'Kabuki Info' and starts to write down a few bullet points to pass along to the rest of the team. While there's no point in trying to shield anyone from the information at this point, she might as well spare anyone whose loyalties might be tested by watching graphic content when it doesn't need to happen. Besides, it might come in handy later. Flipping it over and ripping out the page of likely questions to ask, she circles the most pertinent ones and numbers them in the suggested order that Backlight pose them to the imprisoned replicator. He gave in exactly when I saw he would; that's promising, at least. Of course, she doesn't want to think about the fact that direct intervention from her might have stopped it sooner. She's unsure of how much damage the image of the Cerberi will suffer for this, so it had better be worth it.

Only once she's sure the feed has been stopped does Omen speak again, as she hands her teammate the list of questions, as well as a map of the city should Backlight need to mark any locations. "Alright. Backlight, would you care to do the honors?" While this clone will be able to relay the answers in time to prevent any kind of immediate fell swoop, he will still be at a distinct disadvantage when they do engage the master cape. The other business with the Urchins needs attending to first, but they should still be able to catch the rest of them relatively unprepared. At the very least, they'll be forewarned and forearmed as to any tactics Kabuki might try to employ next. He should be more forthcoming now.

1) Where is your main base of operations? Please provide a current address, as well as as any strategically relevant details (number of floors, any hidden entrances or safeguards against intruders, passcodes, typical amount of security, etc).

2) What, to your knowledge, is the upper limit of clones you can generate at any given time? Can all of the clones operate independently, or does the 'prime' version of you need to micromanage and direct all of them at the same time?

3) How long is the maximum range at which you can maintain control over your clones? What is the longest known length of time you've been able to maintain control over your clones?

4) Within the boundaries of your territory, do you and the rest of the Kabuki clones use any regular routes to or from your main base? If so, please list the approximate trajectories of these routes.

5) Beyond your known affiliation to the Urchins, are you currently in any other alliances, or planning to enter into any other alliances, with any groups (capes or otherwise) within Brockton Bay or beyond it?

6) Are you in possession of, or are planning to be in possession of, any advanced technologies (cape-made or otherwise)? If so, please specify known models and their estimated capabilities.

7) Do you know of any undergoing or planned operations by the rest of your clones in Brockton Bay, whether against the Cerberi in particular or other groups (capes or otherwise) as a whole?

8) Who are your drug suppliers, and what is the best method of getting into contact with them? Are they a cape? If so, what do you know of their powers? If you have more than one supplier, please list details for all involved parties.

9) Have any of your clones ever broken from your control? Could they, given certain circumstances, be persuaded to operate outside the boundaries of the influence of the 'prime' Kabuki? If so, what are those circumstances?

[Madwand]

Diplomacy

"I am not unreasonable." Zora said, her tone was non-committal, and her face gave nothing away "and I talked to Kabuki too. He said, he wanted his money back, ASAP. It don't strike me as unreasonable. Nor is avoiding fight with PRT - they did killed Crawler and no-one in town want to test if they have more of those bombs on hand."

She floated in air, few inches above the ground, instinctively making herself center of attention, making herself taller than Backlight.

"But you get new recruits and a 'ladder'. She made quotation marks in air, a gesture that reminded villains that she had only sixteen, seventeen? years. "So I am listening, cause Kabuki is not out of the picture, he isn't going to commit seppuku any time soon.. sucker once told me that he is immortal.'

It's part of today update.:smallsmile:

[n0ble]

As John watched the girl hover into the air over all of them, a multitude of emotions ran through John. Anger. Hate. Perhaps a bit too much rage. Yet as it did he felt focused. Sure his heart threatened to beat its way out of his chest but it wasn't fear that governed that. More a heightened sense of things. A very selective focus. John started to step forward in calm, measured steps that left no doubt of how sure he was. He held both his hands up in front on either side of his face as he did. He passed Backlight and didn't even bother looking at him. Instead he locked eyes with the sixteen year old girl hovering before him. Literally thinks she's above me. Above us. Hah.

"Simple. We are prepared to exclusively arm you with my arsenal of guns in exchange for your teammates movement technology. This would presumably include maintenance costs on both of our parts. It is our hope that such a deal would be the first of many in a cooperative relationship". It takes almost all of John's will power to not spit the words out at her. Instead his little speech comes out at at an even, measured tone, as if he couldn't be bothered to have an opinion one way or the other when it came to the Urchins taking the deal he's offering them.

[Writtensanity]

Diplomacy

That was... unexpected, why was Calibre throwing that out there? We hadn't talked about that. We hadn't. I took a deep breath. It was a good deal, cutting right to the end game. I liked it. At least it gave us a way to make progress rather than Zora just being bitchy. WE SAVED HER LIFE. Least she could do was take our side in the Kabuki semantics. Whatever.


Kabuki Mono Must Die

"Well, what do we have here," I said as I looked over the sheet. I started to ask questions with minor threats, and he talked, hoo boy did he talk. Everything we could have wanted. It was fantastic. Once he was done I turned back to Omen.

"Can you get the camera back on? Not the stream." I said, "just gotta get the money shot. The payoff the-" the red light came on and I stopped talking. "Hey everyone, welcome back, sorry we had some business to attend to. Private meetings. Sorry if you missed the live stream. I'm sure someone downloaded that but I wanted it to be exclusive so-"

"Anyway let's get right to it with Kabuki Mono question hour!" I played the theme music from The Dating Game in the background as I sat down beside Kabuki. "Everyone this is Kabuki Mono, let's get him a big round of applause at home!" I'd add that part in post. "How are you doing today Kabuki?"

"Go **** yourself."

"That makes sense!"

"Is this some ****ing joke to you?"

"Most things are Kabuki, most things are. Tell me what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"Go **** you-"

"Isn't a flavor of ice cream, you've had ice cream before... right Kabuki?"

"I'm not going to-"

"I swear to God Kabuki, you have more ribs and I will play them like a ****ing Xylophone." I said in a very 'gameshow host' voice for the threat. He flinched, but I kept going. "So what's your ideal date like Kabuki?"

"Dinner and a ****ing movie, I don't-"

"Boring. Next question. What's your favorite pokemon?"

"Pikachu?"

Now I wasn't sure if it was actually his favorite pokemon, or if he just only knew that one. Either way it was a ****ing cliche. "Wrong answer Kabuki," I said before pulling a knife off of the table and headshotting him with it. "Wrong ****ing answer."

"All right folks, that's been our show today," I said as Kabuki turned into ashes, "tune in some other time when our guest is going to be..." I looked at the paper Omen had given me, "it could very well be Kabuki Mono, he's kinda like that! Goodnight everybody!"

[Madwand]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Questions and Answers

1) Where is your main base of operations? Please provide a current address, as well as as any strategically relevant details (number of floors, any hidden entrances or safeguards against intruders, passcodes, typical amount of security, etc).

We don’t have ‘main base’ as such. I have penthouse on the top floor in.. [he provide the full address, it’s middle of Japanise’ district]. Twelfth floor. It have full security, cameras, motion detectors, reinforce doors and bullet-proof window’ glass. I didn’t pay for all that, it’s old Lung’s suite. On every floor is someone from my gang or their families, plus four professional, ex-military and armed as full time security. The passcodes were already changed. We have two warehouses for drugs and weapons, but We would move them the moment We failed to kill this body. It’s easy to rent a storage in Bay.


2) What, to your knowledge, is the upper limit of clones you can generate at any given time? Can all of the clones operate independently, or does the 'prime' version of you need to micromanage and direct all of them at the same time?

We or I are all equal. Our ‘prime’ is all of us or none, I don’t know. It fluctate from dozen to two dozen plus-minus 2. Never figured out which and when We are going to split or dust, however it never seems to happen close to other people.

3) How long is the maximum range at which you can maintain control over your clones? What is the longest known length of time you've been able to maintain control over your clones?

We can travel as far as we want, but the clones can disappear unexpectedly, so we keep ourself to Brockton Bay. Better be in one place.

4) Within the boundaries of your territory, do you and the rest of the Kabuki clones use any regular routes to or from your main base? If so, please list the approximate trajectories of these routes.

I dunno, we switch those things regularly and since We are moving the warehouses, the routes will change.

5) Beyond your known affiliation to the Urchins, are you currently in any other alliances, or planning to enter into any other alliances, with any groups (capes or otherwise) within Brockton Bay or beyond it?

I prefer to work alone. Most of the capes in Bay are f*cking psychos, the Butcher, the Nazi-Pure, Fallen and you f*ckers. Leet Collective owns me big favour and Roland sells me gear. We contacted a Yakuza once, but they wanted too big cut of our profits. And Twin Serpents Cartel that provide us drugs, they are all controlled by parahumans, right? But doubt they will send some to help me.

6) Are you in possession of, or are planning to be in possession of, any advanced technologies (cape-made or otherwise)? If so, please specify known models and their estimated capabilities.

No, never trust a tinker. But I think We might go to Leets for something special just for you.

7) Do you know of any undergoing or planned operations by the rest of your clones in Brockton Bay, whether against the Cerberi in particular or other groups (capes or otherwise) as a whole?

We are mostly trying to control asians districts, northern end of Bay. Both the Pure and the Teeth are too tough for us. We aren’t stupid to pick a fight there.

8) Who are your drug suppliers, and what is the best method of getting into contact with them? Are they a cape? If so, what do you know of their powers? If you have more than one supplier, please list details for all involved parties.

No idea about capes, never fought them. We have contact number for a burner phone
to set up the meetings - they don’t talk business, if Big Brother can hear and track you. It does change, but I remember the last one [he give you the number], but no idea if Serpents wouldl want to speak with you.

9) Have any of your clones ever broken from your control? Could they, given certain circumstances, be persuaded to operate outside the boundaries of the influence of the 'prime' Kabuki? If so, what are those circumstances?

Yeah, two of me once get under Valefor's control, until We were forced to kill them. Other way, I don’t know. Can you willingly betray yourself?


Another Kabuki bite the dust. Backlight was now an national sensation. Number one topic on parahuman.net and similar forums for two days. Super-villain was talked about in late night shows with morbid humour. PRT director Piggot vowed on camera to 'address the issue' imminently and with 'appropriate level of force'. Chief Direct Costa-Brown told the press that she was 'aware of Cerberi's activity' and will work with Protectorate East-North-East to, again, 'address the issue'.

Diplomacy

'Calibre, right?' Zora asked tinker 'yeah, we would like to trade some gear, if we are going to work together. We would like something non-lethal. Chariot had some lasers guns from Kid Win, but they run out of charge. Do you think you could fix those or build something like that? "

Chariot moved toward Calibre.

'Hi' kid said. 'Seem we will be trading tech, so what do your gang want?'

[n0ble]

John doesnt pay anyone else except Zora any mind. He holds her gaze. "I could. If we are working together. I need to know that first. That being said, if you choose to work with us I should be able to provide you with something akin to what you requested. I can do non-lethal no problem." The thought of working for other people, hell even working with the current group, angered John. Yet for all his anger he managed to keep his expression and voice neutral. All things considered he did a rather exceptional job of keeping himself composed, cool and collected.

He was done talking to the brute cape. Something about the way she hovered over him threatened to make John lose his cool. His eyes flicked away from hers at the sound of the other tinker's words. "I propose we both make a list and come to an agreement in terms of what is feasible. Both in terms of what we can realistically make and what we are realistically comfortable exchanging. Naturally this agreement would include the upkeep of both our technologies."

[Bobbybobby99]

"I'd certainly like some mobility," noted Ameliorate in a chipper tone, as he continued periodically rippling and spoke again, "I mean, I can't exactly fly, even if I can leap, so it would be rather helpful if I, say, had a jetpack, or a hoverboard, or something similar. As a new member, I am fully in favor of an alliance. I'm also fully in favor of pie, long walks on the beach, and regular cancer screenings. Particularly the later and the former. I actually hate the beach, don't know why I added that. Hello again! "

The pink and orange suited cape continued grinning, behind the mask, and continued rippling. You could just barely discern him humming the tune of "I will survive". It was still always, always about image, and it was better if they didn't think he was a threat, than if they did. Acting scatterbrained would help in that regard, alongside the atrocious costume; art was the implementation of perception, after all.

[Let'sGetKraken]

Inwardly, Julia winces at the words of the other new recruit - she has no way of knowing the strategy behind Ameliorate's comments, after all. What is he doing? I don't understand... is he insane, or is there some sort of purpose to his ramblings?

She also desperately wishes she wasn't so new to the team. If she knew these people better, or if her image was already established, Dissonance could chime in or offer suggestions; for now, though, unnerving silence and stillness was probably her best bet.

Pun fully intended :D

[3SecondCultist]

Kabuki Mono Must Talk

Nodding at Backlight, Omen turns off the camera and sighs. "Well, it looks like it was worth it. Are you satisfied?" The words carry no judgment or recrimination in them, and are posed simply as a desire for facts. If this man to whom she's hitched her wagon is truly a sadist, she'd like to know just how far he'd be willing to go. The notepad on her lap is full of point form notes that Kabuki made, and even as the body crumbles into dust once the execution is complete, she turns away to review the information. The wheels start to turn. The fact that all of the Kabukis are primes is not helpful, as are the security measures Kabuki implemented for the warehouses. That means that the Cerberi won't be able to get the drop on him now - not that they really in a place to do that anyhow.

Helping Backlight clean up the mess is the least she can do now. The body is gone, which is helpful, but the blood and viscera are still here. She brought cleaning supplies in her van - bleach and other cleaning products, as well as gloves and scubbers to make sure there are no fingerprints. It's not like they're counting on the authorities finding this place, but sometimes the little things can be the ones that get you, in the end. Besides, she's spent enough time cleaning up human remains to know that it helps her think. Thank you for that, Paul. The assorted tools, she leaves for the Cerberi's leader to assemble and put into inventory. If they're really going to be using this warehouse as a base, they should probably have some sort of armory here, but she doesn't say that out loud. Backlight brought the torture implements on his own, which means they're his to do with what he wills. As Omen wrings the bloody water into one of the buckets, an idea comes to her.

"Backlight, can you get me a map of the Japanese district? I think I know what our next move should be. Once we iron this out, we can call the team together. They're going to want to hear this..."


Diplomacy

"If one of you wouldn't mind," Omen says quietly over the comms to all gathered members of the team, "please tell Zora that Kabuki's version of a 'deal' was hardly reasonable given the circumstances, and that we did not choose to enter into hostilities with him. That choice was made for us by the late Menagerie, who we killed to save Zora's life." Hopefully, that should end the conversation on 'reasonableness', and allow them to move forward into an actually progressive talk that could lead to a partnership. Zora and Chariot seem to be amenable to Caliber's offer, which is a good start.

"As for taking down Kabuki... hold off on telling them the plan until they've at least agreed to our terms of non-aggression and non-interference." It's the very least the Urchins can offer, and she's willing to extend them the same courtesy until Kabuki is out of the way for good. Still, she would much prefer a proper partnership on this. Besides, they're already willing to split Kabuki's territory evenly between the two of them if the Urchins can help with this. Backlight knows the details.

Madwand, I'll send you a PM with some questions about my next plan for dealing with Kabuki. :smallamused:

[Madwand]

Diplomacy
'Yeah, I am not saying no. Everyone can see that five capes are better than one, even if Kabuki can have dozen clones - he is still, like weak. Human. BTW, what those two do?' Zora said pointing at Melio and Dissonance 'but Kabuki - he can be royal pain in the ass. We would want to end him as quickly as possible.

-Today would be great. Not that I expect that's going to happens, just saying. Zora said - Cause Kabuki wasn't, like, chilling last two days. He contacted all gangs in Bay and want that big meeting tomorrow. You're not invited, cause Cerberi are, like, main talking point.

-Jetpack for three laser pistols would be about right - Chariot said to Calibre and Melio.


What is the plan to deal with Kabuki Mono? All players could and should make suggestions, of course:smallamused:. 3SC, I cleared the inbox, send the PM:smallsmile:

GameofChampions (?)

[Bobbybobby99]

Melio cheerfully replied, "Two pistols for the jetpack and not a laser more, and I'm a brutish thinker, or possibly a thinking brute. Regeneration, immense strength, and X-Ray vision without the cancer beams. It's a bit unreliable normally, and either gets more consistent or shuts down when I'm stressed; the former two parts, that is, not the 'everything is transparent' part. I used to be an art thief, actually; steel vaults don't work well with me. Figured this would be better paying. I quite like money, you know."

He was lying through his teeth about being a proper brute, and of his power specifics, of course, but putting on masks was his specialty, and it was best if they didn't know his weak points.

[n0ble]

John cast a quick blank glance back at the new cape before returning his stare to Chariot. "I'm not agreeing to that. Like I said. We'll present lists at an agreed upon time at a later date. Negotiating over tech can take place later now that we've agreed an exchange will take place. Instead we should discuss the parameters and foundations of this working relationship. That and this meeting."

The flying girls news didn't exactly rattle John. On the one had his heartbeat picked up, so much so that he was certain the other new recruit could hear it. But it wasn't a huge acceleration. More of a gradual, even increase that built up. Anticipation? No. It had a bit too much nervousness to it for that. Whatever he felt he'd never felt more alive experiencing it.

He gave a curt nod to the Urchin's tinker before turning his gaze once more to Zora. "Are you attending?" His words don't sound like a threat. In fact for the first time in the conversation John lets a hint of emotion creep into his voice. It helps him identify the feeling thats ratcheting up his heartbeat. It doesn't quite replace the rage he's been carrying around since the Redeemers, not by a long shot, but its certainly notable in that its something different. Curiosity.

[Let'sGetKraken]

While Julia herself doesn't move or even open her mouth, a single whispered word echoes in the air around Zora; if one strained hard enough, they might be able to discern Chariot, Ameliorate, Miasma and even herself blended into a single voice. "Dissonance."

[GameOfChampions]

Bloodborne

I grimace as I hear the news, our grip on our territory was suffering due to this war with Kabuki. We needed to end this quick. I think for a sec before responding to Ben "Ok you can ignore the Pure, they aren't the priority right now. I want you to round up the guys and send them over to watch this address." I give them them the address that Backlight and Omen had gotten from Kabuki during their... session. "Be careful and don't get caught but I want you to tail any of the Kabuki or Kabuki gang members that leave. Keep me posted of anything interesting that happens or if they go to any warehouses."

I pause and grab his shoulder before he leaves "On second thought I want you and your friend Mark to come with me to the Urchin meeting later. You can see everything that's going on and we can look maybe a little more like a gang. Then you can go join the guys watching the tower but I'll need Mark driving and working protection for a friend of mine."

Diplomacy

I clear my voice to catch everyone's attention "Well I have people watching Kabuki's apartment building. They'll be tailing who comes and goes so we may be able to find some kind of hint to his warehouses that way or at the vary least have some idea of his movements."

I pause for a second thinking. "What if... Hmmm. What if we fake an attack on his apartment building or somewhere in his territory to try and spook him. He may feel worried and send some people out to his warehouses and weaken his defenses or maybe vice versa and weaken the warehouses. We may not be able to wrap it all up in a nice neat bow tonight but if we can get his stash then we may be able to bribe the other gangs into just staying out of it."

I look around with a shrug "Thoughts?"

[Madwand]

Bloodborne

The text messages kept Miasma updated. He waited few hours and got something really interesting - one of the Kabuki's gang members left in hurry and by tailing him your henchmen were quite convinced that they know where one of Kabuki's warehouses was located.

Good idea and lucky roll:smallsmile:

Diplomacy

Chariot looked unconvinced by brute and fellow tinker.
"Ok man, we can do it your way. Whatever. I'll do the list of tech I am willing to trade for three blasters and we will start from there."


"Yeah, we were invited. Are you planning to go and steal the show from Kabuki?" Zora answered Calibre, but shoot a quick glance at Backlight when she was asking the question. Then she answered Miasma.

"That could work. I am in favour of taking all the goods out of his hand. But if we are doing it together, we will keep a fair share. "

[GameOfChampions]

Diplomacy

I step back from our discussions for a second to check my phone that had just buzzed, I check and see that one of the new guys in my gang had just sent me something. I quickly read it and then look back at Ben with wide eyes 'This could be a game changer.'. I quickly spit out a few orders to Ben and Mark who had gotten the same messages "Ben I want you to go meet up with the guys at the warehouse, the two still at the building will continue watching the apartment. Mark you go with him but you'll get a call giving you some instructions, please follow them and be courteous."

I grab everyone's attention again with a cough and a gesture "Guys, I sent by Bloodborne to watch Kabuki's apartment a few hours ago and I just got a message from one. We've found the location of one of the warehouses. We should draw up a quick plan for anyone who wants to go and then hit it in an hour or two. This could be more effective then a feint cause it would be an actual threat that could cause him to weaken his personal security to strengthen the remaining warehouses. For all he knows we can find them all and take them out. Everything we gain weakens him and can weaken his influence over the gangs and strengthens ours so he would have to protect them and this would be the perfect opportunity to strike at him either before the meeting or when he is on-route and even weaker. Either way I'll keep an eye on the apartment to see if anything changes after our attack or if the other warehouse becomes known."

[n0ble]

He blinked as "If we pool our resources it should be an easy operation. You'd get a cut of course" He addressed Zora "Sixty for us, forty for you. To compensate for the operational costs of dealing with Menagerie. And for the warehouse's location. Potentially others like it too." They saved her life. Even if she couldn't appear weak in front of the team she led, the gist of the message was pretty easy to convey.

You could have been a thrall for that freak. If I'd been more inclined towards working with him you'd be working for us. A plan was beginning to form in his head about how to take the warehouse. Variables entered and left John's head as he structured something out of the capes present. He'd wait for Zora's answer and anything from Omen before presenting what he thought.

[3SecondCultist]

Diplomacy

Listening to Miasma over the comms, Omen knows it's time to move. If the Urchins were going to instigate a fight, she would have gotten some sign. As it is, her abilities are sorely needed elsewhere. Leaning into the small dashboard, the thinker speaks clearly into the mic. "I'll give you a location for your man, Miasma." She pauses. "And Dissonance. If she's going to be helping us at the meet tomorrow, we should keep her affiliation with us quiet until then." Besides, this will give her w chance to vet this new cape up close.

That done, Omen clambers up to the front of the van, puts it into drive, and makes her way to the location she gave her teammate: a secluded block not too far from the meeting place with the Urchins. They have some ground to cover.


The Raid

"Hello," she says warmly to the man and woman in the mask as they approach. "Omen, but as long as we're in the van or at headquarters, you can just call me Anna." She offers her hand in a firm handshake, which in Mark's case contains $40 as a tip for his chauffeuring her around today. While she's aware of the man's loyalties, a little extra cash never hurt as an incentive. With one hand, she gives him the directions and indicates that he should take the driver's seat, allowing the two capes to sit in the back. In the days since she's taken possession of the van, Omen has converted the back into a long, single bench along one side, with the other built in storage for weapons and her new dashboard. Better to keep these things portable.

"So," she is the first to break the silence as she looks over at the woman in the white mask. Dissonance. Antonym: a musical term for the opposite of harmony. "That was quite the display back there, with the voices. Tell me, how long have you had your gift?"

[Let'sGetKraken]

The Raid

As the meeting wraps up, Dissonance is directed by Backlight to Omen's location. Walking up the van alongside Mark - who looks thoroughly freaked out, to her delight - she ignores Omen's handshake and climbs into the vehicle, moving as little as is possible while doing so.

Anna. It's a pretty name. Nice to match it to a face. Guess you'll be the one keeping me alive.

Ignoring Omen's question, Dissonance speaks in the same sourceless-voicemeld that she used at the meeting. "Can he be trusted?" She tilts her head slightly at the man in the driver's seat as she projects the words into the empty air.

[3SecondCultist]

It's a little spine-tingling to hear one's own voice amalgamated into the choir, but Omen doesn't let it show. She's saber-rattling, think nothing of it. Dissonance didn't answer the question or accept the handshake either, which points to her either having terrible manners, some sort of disorder, or a serious flair for the dramatic. Given her costume, Omen suspects it's the latter. Not that you're in a place to judge.

"If Miasma trusts him, that's good enough for me." She glances up at Mark, who is no doubt within earshot. She doesn't know him well yet, but if the man at the wheel does turn on her, she'll probably be aware of it beforehand. The van turns on its way to its warehouse stakeout, shifting the compartment slightly, but Omen leans into the turn and is otherwise unaffected. "But I'm glad to see that you're not careless. I like the name, by the way." The woman clearly has her guard up, better to start with something innocuous.