GCG: Issue #1 - Super Street Sweeping

[The_GrinningMan]

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Oceanside City. It is one of the oldest cities in the United States, and boasts a beautiful culture all its own. From the soaring towers of glass and steel that compose the financial district, to the water canals and vine covered bistros of the historic district, to the salty air of the expansive wharves and docks, and the quiet suburbs that sprawl out in every direction, Oceanside is a city rich with it’s own mystique and history.

Near the outskirts of the city. Down a remote road at the edge of the bayou that boarders the historical district, stands the headquarters for the new team of Oceanside’s protectors. The mansion of the Gulf Coast Guardians. Though perhaps mansion is a bit of an over statement. The complex was a highschool back in the sixties before the fall of the Gladiators, and was converted into a hippie commune following the defeat of Aeon Blitz. In the nineteen eighties it was turned into an asylum, and in the nineties it became a national guard depot.

Now it has been granted to the Gulf Coast Guardians to serve as their headquarters and base of operations. Several of the old rooms have been converted into proper, if barren, bedrooms, and a central command room has been installed in the building complete with computers that are only ten years or so out of date. The main lobby is nice, with an artificial waterfall and potted plants, but is otherwise mostly empty like the majority of the building. There is a helipad on the roof, and a large garage that serves as the building’s motor-pool, though it is also currently empty save for a twenty two year old re-purposed army APC.

It is clear to the new team of super heroes as they arrive at the mansion for the first time, that although the government is backing them, their funding is far below what one might expect for a city’s primary super team.

[Glitchy]

Tatyana checked the address she had saved in her phone as she stood in front of the 'mansion', confirming tat this was indeed the place she had been told to go to. Stuffing the phone in the back pocket of her jeans she adjusts the backpack containing everything she owns that was slung over one shoulder and sighs, "Khorosho der'mo," she curses in Russian as she looks up at the unimpressive building, Welcome to the big leagues," her words carry a thick Russian accent and she shakes her head, wondering just what she has gotten herself into, Ah well. There's nothing for me in Skyline. May as well see how this plays out," she thinks, and her hand strays to the chain of her pocket watch as she makes her way up the front walk and strides up the stairs to the front door.

Taking a deep breath she considers knocking, but decides that would be silly. This was her home now, so she grabs the handle and pulls the door open. Poking her head through she looks around at the lobby and gives a soft whistle, "Bigger than I thought it would be," she muses stepping inside. Seeing the artificial waterfall she walks over to it and runs a hand beneath the water, a little smile parting her lips, "Zdorovo," she says aloud, a little surprised by the way her voice echos in the mostly empty lobby. Looking around she calls out, "Zdravstvuyte? Hello? Is anyone here?" she calls in both Russian and English.

[Lord of Gifts]

Sophia stepped out of a taxi by the entrance to the base, tracking the movement of her armour on her phone. While it would have been easier to simply wear the armour, she decided against showing up to her first meeting with her new team in full combat gear. Don't want to give the wrong impression. So instead she wore jeans and a white silk blouse, while a friend transported the armour in a rented van.

She paid the driver and confidently strode through the front door. Seeing a girl perhaps a few years younger than herself stood by an artificial waterfall in the centre of the lobby, she thought back to the files that she had read. Sophia glanced around and took in the lobby before speaking. 'Well, it's certainly spacious enough, but this isn't quite what I imagined when I was promised a mansion. Little disappointing given how much I'd built it up in my head.' She walked over to the girl and offered her hand. 'You must be White Rabbit. I'm Artemis, but feel free to call me Sophia.' She grinned. 'Guess there's no well-stocked wine cellar then, but please tell me they've at least got a coffee machine.'

[Eotyrannus]

Just as the other two arrive, a shimmering haze of energies apparates on the other side of the road behind them. A few seconds later, a figure drops down- brilliant lime and lilac flares from his body, wearing a long-sleeved and slightly loose costume with similar- if stylised- patterns on the chest. A simple white domino mask covers his eyes, as well as a large paper map he appears to be reading as he looks at his location.

He enters the room, map half-folded. "Hi, he says, is this..." He looks up at the mansion for a moment, awestruck. "Holy hell, wait til the Matchmakers hear I've got a better base than them... Oh! Sorry," he adds, "got distracted."

He thinks back to the files he read earlier as he finishes tucking the map into a pocket. Fortunately, his memory is better than his social skills. "So you must be White Rabbit?" he asks, looking towards the smaller of the two ladies. "And you are... definitely Artemis," he says, looking at the statuesque stunner before him and trying not to stare. "I'm Checkmate, or just Liam if anyone else has a public identity."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Whoosh!

Led by a blur of white and pink, a banner of rainbow-colored light zipped into the lobby. It zipped erratically about the room (depositing a suitcase in an out-of-the-way corner at one point), before shooting off through one of the doors further into the building. An outside observer might notice that, briefly, a flash of multicolored light shone in several of the windows throughout the "mansion". Just as the trail of light in the lobby was starting to fade, it came shooting back in (from a different entry entirely than it had exited from), and resolved into the small, lithe form of Streamer.

She was wearing her costume, a white leotard emblazoned with her sigil, a light pink skirt, and an Olympic gold medal. She had been a little bit debating if it made more sense to go in costume or in civvies for this meeting, and had finally settled on the former because...well, yeah, she'd have loved to say there was some highly insightful reason for it but really what it boiled down to was that costumes were fun. She had, however, left her hair its natural pale blond color today. That just seemed appropriate.

"Hey guys!" she greeted the group that had already arrived, with a big smile and a sort of not-quite-breathless excitement. She was super-excited to meet her new team. And yes, she had absolutely been up until like two AM last night with her siblings going over the dossiers she had received, discussing possible tactics the team could employ (or, well, more precisely, listening to her siblings discuss possible tactics the team could employ while she contributed by basically just eagerly gabbing about all the awesome stuff everyone could do), looking up reports of the heroes on-line, and...honestly, just gushing about the whole thing.

"I'm Kelly. Err, Streamer, but, I mean, Kelly," she introduced herself, kinda tripping over her words in her excitement. Fortunately she quickly covered for any awkwardness in perhaps the most efficient manner known to man or alien life alike. "I brought pizza!" She was, in fact, carrying a stack of eight boxes of pizza, which after a quick second scan of the room to confirm there wasn't like a table or desk anywhere, she set down on the raised edge around the waterfall. Both she and Gerard had appetites that were as superhuman as any of their physical augmentations, and her Dad was no slouch either. Not knowing which of her new teammates might have been similarly, uh, "blessed", she had followed the "better to have leftovers than people left hungry" protocol. Also more pizzas meant more chances that everyone's topping preferences would be represented in at least one.

"So glad to meet you all! This is gonna so fun!"

[CandyLaser]

Somewhere in low Earth orbit...

Zenith was in free-fall, spinning wildly as she wrestled with the malfunctioning satellite. Something had triggered its thrusters and sent it spiralling out of control, careening toward the ISS. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem - but the satellite itself was a vital climate monitoring device, so she had to ensure that it was returned to its proper orbit in one piece. She'd already matched course with it (more difficult than it seemed, since its randomly-firing thrusters combined with its rotation to make it move erratically). Now, she had it in her hands, and she carefully spun it until she found the misfiring thruster. Once she got eyes on it, the problem was obvious - from the way the metal had torn, it looked like a micrometeorite impact had split the thruster nozzle. She could guess at the likely chain of events - the satellite's automated stationkeeping thrusters had fired to perform ordinary orbital corrections. But with the thruster nozzle cracked, the thrust hadn't been properly directed, knocking the satellite further off course. And then it tried to right itself again, and it only made the problem worse, until it ended up with the satellite heading toward the ISS at some ten klicks per second.

She risked a look away from the satellite long enough to get sight of the space station. For a moment Zenith's eyes glowed gold as her vision adjusted, letting her see not just the station, but even the astronauts at the windows. No doubt to them she was little more than a blip on the radar and an especially bright star, but that their current speed that was still way too close. She grimaced, and turned her attention back to the out-of-control satellite.

Once again, her eyes flared as beams of golden light shot out. A brilliant blue spark on the satellite's thruster marked her target, the crack formed by the meteorite impact sealed up as she welded it shut. Then she started the process of righting the satellite's path. This was a delicate task, and her eyes narrowed in concentration as she slowly pushed against the satellite, slowing its headlong rush toward the ISS. Her cape wrapped around her as her momentum pushed her back, and while she couldn't hear it (what with her being in space), she could feel the satellite's frame straining as she applied more force. Again, she risked a look back - and this time, she didn't need her super-senses to spot the point of light that was the ISS.

Steadily, she increased the pressure, pushing harder, slowing the satellite even more. They slowed, more and more, as she began to hear the urgent radio messages coming off the ISS. "7 klicks... 6... 5... They're slowing... 4... 3... It's going to be close... 2... 1..." The satellite's thrusters kept firing in short bursts, and with Zenith right in the way it was hard for her to hold on as the machine struggled to escape. She couldn't look back - not now - so she focused solely on stopping the satellite before it was too late. She heard someone on the ISS radio gasp, and a choked-off scream.

And then she came to a halt.

Zenith spun the satellite in place, making sure its thrusters weren't pointed anywhere dangerous as she held onto it with one hand. She looked back over her shoulder, and saw that she was only a few meters from the ISS, looking through one of its observation windows at a wide-eyed and slack-jawed astronaut. Zenith smiled, broadly, and gave the stunned spacefarer a thumbs-up before flying off, carrying the satellite with her. As she left, she heard the ISS crew burst into cheers on the radio as they reported what had happened.

She had scarcely wrestled the satellite back into place when she heard another radio message - this one, an alarm she'd set herself, broadcasting on a mostly unused frequency. "10 AM," it said. "Meet new team at Gulf Coast Guardians HQ."

Darn, she thought. I'm going to be late.

Oceanside City

People across the city were treated to a somewhat unfamiliar sight: a superhero, soaring effortlessly through the air. As far as she knew, none of the locals could fly, although she hadn't had time to do more than glance at the introductory materials and dossiers that she'd been given. She'd been running around nonstop since her parents... left. Zenith knew she needed to relax and take time to recover, to take care of herself, but there was simply too much to do. She was hoping that joining this team would give her a chance not only to make the world a better place, but also to reconnect with people in general.

She couldn't help but smile as she dropped lower, causing people to point and wave as she passed. She passed over the whole city once, getting the lay of the land a bit, before doubling back and flying toward her new base of operations. She dropped out of the sky in a dramatic dive, pulling up at the last minute before drifting the last few inches down to earth. She pushed what doubts and fears she had out of her head and grinned as she walked through the door. "Good morning, everyone!" she said, cheerily. "I'm Zenith, and... don't tell me! You must be White Rabbit, and you're obviously Checkmate, and you're Artemis. Right? And that makes you Streamer." As she greeted each of her new teammates, she offered them a handshake and met their eyes in turn. "I can't wait to get started working with all of you." Like Streamer, Zenith was in full costume, resplendent in blue, white and gold. "Oh, pizza! Good thinking! Thanks!"

[Eotyrannus]

The kinetic crusader jumped as Streamer arrived, surprised by feeling something get from the edge of his awareness all the way to him in less than half a second. Zenith entered as he grinned, embarrassed at his surprise "Hi," he greeted, before looking towards the gifts brought by Streamer. "...Zenith's got us all introduced, you are now my favourite person for the pizza, let's eat!"

Hopping with a little burst of energy, he immediately picked out the pizza with as many toppings as possible on it, not needing to read the box to find his favourite variety when he had better senses. "I'm calling dibs on this one," he stated jokingly. "I'll need bribing with more pizza if you want it back."

[Glitchy]

Tatyana turned in surprise when Artemis walked into the lobby and gave the statuesque woman a smile as she approached, "Da," she replies when asked if she is White Rabbit, "Please call me Tatyana," she offers her real name to be polite and reaches out to take the offered hand. That's when Checkmate entered and she turned to look at him, unable to stop herself from giggling a little at his reaction to seeing the mansion, "It is nice huh? MidKnight's HQ was an abandoned subway station. I guess I'm moving up in the world net?" she grins and extends her hand to him, ready to make a proper introduction when the flash of light that was Streamer blew in through the door. Tatyana blinks and watches it disappear deeper into the mansion and then reappear beside them a moment later and it takes her a moment to fully register what had happened, "Vau..." she breaths softly, a little stunned. Of course she knew Streamer was a speedster, but reading about it and seeing it were very different things.

She shakes her head to gather her wits again and nods, "Please, call me Tatyana," she looked from Liam to Kelly, realize both of them had come in uniform and suddenly she felt a little embarrassed wearing just a black T-shirt and jeans. She reached for her pocket watch, thinking maybe she should put up the glamour that served as her costume, but felt it would be awkward to suddenly change now. Her feeling of discomfort only got worse when Zenith arrives in all her glory, fully resplendent in her signature costume that Tatyana had seen so many times in the news. Feeling suddenly very small and inadequate Tatyana lets the others take the reigns of the conversation and she slides toward the back of the group, literally fading into the background as she instinctively becomes intangible without even realizing it. She only notices when she reaches for a slice of simple cheese pizza and her hand passes through it.

Blushing she drops her intangibility and grabs the pizza, stuffing her mouth so she wont have to talk and looking around at her new teammates, "YA dumayu, chto u menya nad golovoy..." she whispers softly before swallowing and taking a deep breath as Zenith came over with an outstretched hand, "Tatyana. A pleasure to meet you...Zenith," she hesitates a bit, only then realize the flying powerhouse hadn't given them her real name.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly joined in exchanging handshakes, greeting Zenith with, "Hey hey!" Her exuberant cheer didn't falter one iota. Of course, she knew what had happened to Zenith's parents. She remembered seeing the news; her entire family had been in absolute shock when they heard that such heroes as Mr. Magnificent and Polymath had been...well, not killed, quite, but nonetheless lost. But no way was she going to show the paragon any pity.

"Gonna be honest, kinda can't believe we landed you on this team! Like, wow." Let's be clear here, Kelly suffered from no shortage of self-confidence. Her drive to prove herself as just as good a hero as the rest of her family in no way stemmed from any doubt that she could do just that, given the opportunity. Even so. The Albions were solidly city-scale heroes. Yeah, the city under their direct protection was about as low-crime as it got. And it wasn't like they didn't operate outside of Simi on occasion. If something was going on in their range and no one else was dealing with it, it wasn't like they'd just ignore it because it was a mile outside of their city limits or something. They hit LA semi-regularly, and had done some crime fighting elsewhere in California and even a bit in Nevada and Arizona. Collectively, they could operate on the state scale, no problem. Kelly figured the others on the team in basically the same ballpark, based on their dossiers and her supplemental research.

But Zenith was a planet-scale hero. Getting someone like her on a team meant to focus on a single city was a huge win, without question.

Kelly grinned at Liam, snagging a couple slices of pizza of her own from different boxes. "So what's the plan here?" she asked the group at large. "Do you think they're gonna give us a briefing or something? Or maybe that's not in the budget?" she half-joked. The base definitely could have used a homier touch, by her mind. And, like, maybe a bit of actual furniture. But there was a lot of space, and she was aces with that. (Her Dad's voice kinda popped into the back of her head saying that such a large building with so many potential points of access would be difficult to defend in the event of a siege, but she ignored his decades of military experience in favor of "anyone laying siege to a superhero base is silly and also probably doomed"). "Ooh! We should go exploring! Like, see the city, and stuff!" And let them see us, she supposed. Never too early to start building up street cred.

[Lord of Gifts]

'Well, you guys sure know how to make an entrance', Sophia said, looking down at her street clothes and considering how she had simply walked through the door to an audience of one. 'I feel somewhat underdressed now.'
At the mention of exploring, she nodded over at Kelly. 'Now that is an idea I can get behind. A city should know its protectors. Plus, it's good to show them that we don't mean any harm. By my understanding, Oceanside City hasn't exactly had a great history with supers.' A momentary pause, as she reached over for pizza. 'But not just yet. We really should wait to see if there will be a briefing. Don't wanna deny some suit types the opportunity to tell us what to do. Besides, I'm not budging an inch until I'm through eating.' She smiled. 'Thanks for the pizza by the way Kelly. I'm liking you already.'

[CandyLaser]

Zenith was a bit surprised to find that everyone was throwing around their real names so cavalierly. Her parents had drilled the notion that protecting one's identity was paramount into her, but of course she was aware that not everyone thought of things the way she did. For a moment, she looked blankly at the team, while she pondered... and then she relented. After Tatyana introduced herself, Zenith introduced herself by her first name."You can call me Veronica," she said. "I didn't realize we were sharing first names just yet. Please, don't spread that around. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm looking forward to working with you."


"Gonna be honest, kinda can't believe we landed you on this team! Like, wow."

"Thanks. I'm glad to be here. My parents always said they got more done working together than apart." Despite her best efforts, she couldn't quite hide the pang of sorrow she felt at the mention of her parents.


'Well, you guys sure know how to make an entrance', Sophia said, looking down at her street clothes and considering how she had simply walked through the door to an audience of one. 'I feel somewhat underdressed now.'

"I came from work, so to speak - there was this runaway satellite. Everything's fine now. She smiled sheepishly as she spoke, not wanting to make a big deal of it. "Let's eat - and if it makes you uncomfortable to have some of us in costume, I can change. If we're going out on the town to explore, I should probably wear something a bit less.. conspicuous."

[Eotyrannus]

Liam slung his backpack off his shoulder as he stuffed his face. "I think it's that- hrlf rf rs jrst- just have open identities anyway," he commented through a mouthful of pizza. "In my case, it's pretty hard to stay anonymous when you go charging through a train tossing drivers around in the name of heroics- brfre yr'v rvn- even got to the superpower bit yet."

He nodded at the comments on going in civvies. "Yeah, it's probably going to be a good idea to get a good look around before we actually get anything done," he agreed. "As well as listen to anything else our bosses have for us." At this point, he picked up another slice and resumed his normal full-speed eating while his part of the conversation lulled.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Sure thing!" Kelly answered with a smile. The astute would notice she was already on her fourth slice. I'm not saying Kelly will routinely eat two slices of pizza a post. Granted, she's a speedster, so I'm not saying she won't...

"Oh that does bring up an important question though. Anyone else actually keep their civilian identities secret? I, um, don't." Was that obvious? That was probably obvious. Still, just to be clear, she supposed.

Kelly couldn't help but crack up a little at the whole, "There was a runaway satellite. Everything's fine now." bit. God this was going to be so cool! "Well, I guess that depends. We could change to civvies if we want to kinda get a lay of the land without drawing attention, or all go in costume if we want to like make a big 'The Heroes Are Here!' statement or whatever. ...Not that we couldn't do both consecutively, I suppose. I mean, when we're ready. I do agree it's probably good to wait and see if any suits show up." And as far as the 'eat first' plan went...well, her support for that went entirely without saying.

[CandyLaser]

Zenith helped herself to a slice of pizza as well - cheese and pepporoni, nothing fancy. "I think if we're going to explore the city, we should do it out of costume. We'll eventually want to set up a roster with patrol schedules and 'on-call' times, and we'll want to patrol in uniform. But going out in force and in costume now - it's probably too soon. It's like, a cop walking a beat is fine, but a bunch of cops wandering around the neighborhood is a sign of trouble." She ate her slice quickly, and then looked around for a napkin or paper towel. "Hold on. Let me grab a few things." In the blink of an eye, she was gone - not as fast as Streamer, but fast enough. A few seconds passed, and then she was back, with a roll of paper towels, some plastic plates and cutlery, and she'd changed her clothes, switching from her costume to a simple outfit of a white T-shirt and jeans. If she noticed that she was keeping the same rough color scheme out of costume as she did in it, it wasn't clear. She'd also changed her hair, from the loose style she preferred in costume to a messy ponytail. "There we go. Oh, hold on. We need chairs." There was another blur, and this time when she was back she had a half-dozen metal folding chairs with her. "I saw these coming in - they were up on the roof, for some reason. They're seen better days, but they'll do for now. Are we all planning on living here? I can help people move."

[Lord of Gifts]

Sophia raised an eyebrow at the satellite line. Ok, that was pretty impressive. Just what you get for dealing with serious supers, she decided. The dossier had given a rough outline of Zenith's capabilities, but first hand anecdotes were always more personal.

'You needn't change on my account. My armour is just a tad imposing, y'know. Inspiring or intimidating depending on your perspective, but I wanted to seem more human for my new friends.' She paused before adding 'Guess I could've bought a nice new dress though.'

She paused and wolfed down pizza while she listened to the conversation on secret identities and a potential trip to the city. After a little thought she interjected with a perspective of her own. 'No secret identity for me. I rather like the attention to be honest. Plus, I don't have to go to the trouble of hiding things this way. On the other hand, I don't show my face in public that much, and the old hat and sunglasses trick work surprisingly well, so I can mostly move around unnoticed when I want to. Perfectly willing to keep your secret though. I appreciate a lot of people are more private than I am.' She smiled sweetly at Zenith. Best to encourage trust among the team. In her experience, people tended to work better together when they knew that their comrades had their back.

'As for going into the city, I'm very much in the do both camp. Get to know the place in our civies first, then go out in costume and give them a spectacle. Whichever we do though, I feel there's no need to look for any restaurants just yet.'

[Glitchy]

Tatyana continues to munch on her first slice of pizza while the others talk. She was never a very heavy eater, and since her powers came from her pocket watch, they didn't require her to eat more.

When the discussion turns to secret identities Tatyana hesitates a moment before interjecting, "I do try to maintain my anonymity. I do not think the public would react well if they knew...who I really am," she admits a little sheepishly. She doubted the general populace would be thrilled to have a protector who was the daughter of a mass murderer.

"If we do go out to explore the city I would agree that we should do so as civilians first," she finishes her slice of pizza and wipes her hands with a napkin, "Spasibo," she thanks Kelly for the food, "I think it would give us a better understanding of the situation we are walking into as this city's protectors."

[The_GrinningMan]

The team's conversation is interrupted by a low rumbling sound coming from the artificial waterfall and a small triangle of metal slowly pushes out from behind the water, causing the waterfall to split down the middle and flow off to either side. Behind the rushing water is the metal door of an elevator, and with a soft ding it slides open to reveal a man in a black suit and tie. He is of average height and build, with brown eyes and black hair. Everything about him seems unremarkable and easily forgettable, which seems to be the point. He steps out of the elevator onto a narrow metal bridge that has extended over the basin of the waterfall and smiles brightly, "Well, I'm glad to see you're all getting to know each other," he helps himself to a slice of pizza and nods approvingly, My name is Agent Johnson. I'm from the General Enhanced Analysis Response Service. I'll be your liaison with the government," he pauses to eat more pizza, "Mph, thash really good," he mumbles with his mouth full, and he turns back toward the elevator. Halfway there he looks back and waves for the team to follow, "If you would please come with me to central command. The mayor has made a request for your first mission," he informs them absently, apparently still more interested in the pizza as he boards the elevator and waits for the team to join him.

It isn't too surprising that the government sent a G.E.A.R.S. agent to oversee the team. Or at least to oversee the budget. After all, G.E.A.R.S. was the government's non-powered agency in charge of cleaning up after the superhuman, supernatural, extraterrestrial, and ultra-terrestrial so some amount of sanity might prevail in the world. It's agents were outmatched by even low level super villains, but they did a bang up job fighting Scorpion and the International Crime Syndicate. They had at least some affiliation with most of the major super teams in the United States.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly had been about to ask what Tatyana meant by "who she really was", but fortunately the GEARhead (as she and her siblings affectionately referred to members of the Service) made his entrance before her curiosity landed her in a potentially-uncomfortable situation. "Sweet! Secret elevator!" she said with a laugh, because secret elevators were cool and that was pretty much the end of that.

"Good to meet you, Agent!" she said after he introduced himself. "Yay first mission!" she cheered in a just slightly sing-song voice, hastily inhaling two more slices of pizza and then hopping into the elevator. "We have a central command? Nice!"

[Glitchy]

Tatyana is as surprised as anyone when the secret elevator is revealed and the agent makes his entrance. She grins at Kelly's reaction and nods, "Ochen' kruto," she agrees, "Very cool," stepping up onto the bridge she walks across to the elevator and steps in beside her teammate, "A request from the mayor? Must be something important if he's making a personal request of us on our first day," she comments. While she waits for the others she looks at the elevator's control panel to see how many floors this mansion actually has, curioous about what other secrets it might hold.

[The_GrinningMan]

Once the whole team has stepped into the elevator Agent Johnson presses the bottom of the two buttons on the control panel and the doors slide shut and the elevator stats to descend. There is a sleight tremble to the car and a low rumble as the elevator drops, descending lower and lower for what feels like a very long time. When it finally comes to a stop there is a soft ding and the doors slide open reveal a large circular room beyond.

Unlike the rest of the mansion, the command center is not empty. The middle of the room is dominated by a conference table with a screen set flat in it’s center displaying a map of Oceanside City. Six office chairs have been set around the table, and a second, larger screen hangs from the ceiling at one end of the table also displaying the digital map. The far wall across from the elevator is dominated by a server cage with wires spidering out of it to a number of computer consoles set around the room with little flashing lights and smaller, independent screens. The walls are steel and lack decoration except for a team portrait of the late Gladiators. The floor is also steel with a large GCG etched into it just beneath the conference table.

Agent Johnson moves to the table and picks up a remote as he gestures to the chairs, ”Take a seat,” he suggests as he hits a button and brings up a picture of the Oceanside cityscape on the hanging monitor, ”As you are all no doubt aware, Oceanside has been without a dedicated team of protectors since the fall of Aeon Blitz. There have been a few solo heroes who have attempted to clean up the city, but most of them have either been on the low end of the power scale or non-super heroes with gadgets or martial arts training,” he hits a button and the screen begins to flip through dossiers of over a dozen heroes, ”Justicar, deceased. Lasso Lass, deceased. The Gyroscopic Duo, deceased. The Bugler, retired. Rottoscope, MIA. The Flying Squirrel, deceased,” Agent Johnson lists off the names of the first few but the list goes on, ”Needless to say none of them were successful.

Tapping another button the hero dossiers vanish and are replaced by three new files showing three very unsavory looking people, ”The primary reason for their failures are the three major street gangs that hold control of Oceanside’s streets,” he points toward the picture of a scrawny, rat-faced man in biker goggles with a mohawk. He is dressed like a punk from the 80’s, ”The first are the Diggers led by this man, Reggie Whichikk. Reports say he’s a tunneler with claws, a nasty bite and the ability to control rodent swarms. His bite also inflicts a lesser form of lycanthropy, so most of his lieutenants are wererodents. The Diggers control historic district and are based out of a series of drainage tunnels that are no longer in use.”

Agent Johnson moves to point to the next picture. It shows an extremely heavyset bald man with sharp fangs and a pair of reading glasses tied to his head. He is dressed in a pinstripe suit, ”The next gang are the Brokers led by this man,” Agent Johnson continues, ”James Northstrum, AKA Big Boss. He’s a powerhouse with the capacity to lift up to twenty tons. He has limited invulnerability and an appetite for human flesh. The Brokers control the financial district and are notorious for bank robberies and kidnapping,” Johnson gives the team a grim look, ”Their victims are rarely found.”

Finally Agent Johnson points to the final picture of a young woman with long neon blue hair, dozens of silver earrings and brilliant green eyes. She is dressed in a mesh outfit in the shape of an evening gown but almost completely see through. Only a string bikini protects her modesty, ”The final gang are the Sea Devils run by this woman. Miss Katarina van Struben AKA Sea Witch. She’s a sorceress with a knack for water based magic. The Sea Devils control the docks and extort the incoming ships for protection money, while also stealing anything of value they want,” Agent Johnson turns to face the group, leaving the images of the three gang leaders on the screen.

”The mayor has requested that you make it your first mission to clean up the streets of Oceanside City and rid it of these three gangs. If you take down their leaders, the gangs will lose their power and should be easily mopped up by OCPD,” he puts the monitor remote down, ”Any questions?”

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate frowned, thinking for a moment. "We'll have to figure out which ones we can't afford teaming-up," he commented. "If some heroic upstarts come storming through and take out a gang just as strong as they are? They're going to catch on real quick, and I doubt they'll refuse an alliance of convenience with us lot breathing down their neck."

He pointed up at Sea Witch. "I think it's going to be her," he stated. "She has money, she has magic, and both of those are force multipliers. I doubt we'll see a were-rat Big Boss any time soon, and Big Boss doesn't look like he can impart his super-strength either- but Sea Witch can give them money, and maybe do some... magic thing too. So we need to focus on her."

[Glitchy]

Tatyana takes a seat at the conference table when asked to and she leans back, watching the presentation quietly with a very serious look on her face. When Agent Johnson finishes she mimes spitting on the floor, a disgusted look on her face, "lokhi! Damn gangs!" she looks about ready to go after all of them on her own, one hand on her pocket watch and the other clenched in a white knuckled fist. She is actually about to stand up from the table when Liam speaks up, giving his opinion of the matter.

Frowning Tatyana considers the matter before speaking, "Why don't we hit them all at once?" she asks looking around at the rest of the team and points to each as she explains her thinking, "Artemis and Checkmate can handle the rat man easily. Rodent swarms are no use if they can't move, and his bite wont get through Artemis's armor. Zenith can take out Big Boss, there's no way his strength can match her's in a straight up fight, and she's more invulnerable than him to by the sound of it. Streamer and I can handle the fish bitch. Between the two of use she'll literally never see what hit her," she gives Kelly a grin and then looks back to her team, Am I wrong? We aren't the same martial artists and low power supers these idiots are used to dealing with. They'll underestimate us, let their guards down, and this way none of them have the opportunity to figure out what is happening," she leans back in her chair. She wasn't a tactician. There was a good chance she was over looking something. But it seemed like a solid plan to her.

[Lord of Gifts]

As the elevator rumbled to the bottom, Sophia strode out into the command room and took a seat at the conference table. 'Nice to have a decent place to work from', she commented. As Agent Johnson reeled off the names of attempted protectors of the city, she pondered just how many had failed in their new task. But it comforted her to know they were all relatively low tier heroes, who generally worked alone. As tragic as their death's were, the Guardians seemed stronger, and had the distinct advantage of been a full team. It seemed to her that they had a real shot at succeeding.

She listened intently while the main gangs were detailed, and studied the pictures on the screen. When Johnson finished and asked for questions, she chipped in with a few. 'I've never fought a wererat before. What can we expect from them? Besides the leaders and the Diggers lieutenants, have any of the gangs been known to associate with other superhumans? Also, what's the relationship and power balance between the gangs like? Obviously we aim to deal with all of them, quickly, but I doubt that we can take them all out at once. Perhaps we should consider what effect the destruction of one gang would have on the others, and use that to decide which we should target first.' She considers the other points for a minute before continuing. 'My first impression, is that Liam's right. Sea Witch sounds like she could do more to help the others if she was desperate, so we should look towards her first. Maybe I'm overestimating them though. If their conventional forces are relatively weak, then maybe we can get away with hitting them all at once.'

[CandyLaser]

Zenith heard the faint sounds of the elevator as it started - the ultrasonic whine of the motors in the shaft and the low rumble it made as it rose. She was on her feet and watching when the doors opened, having put herself between the doors and the rest of the team. She wasn't in a fighting stance, or anything, but nevertheless she was wary. Upon seeing that it was Agent Johnson, she relaxed. Paranoid much? she thought.

It felt a bit strange, riding down the elevator in street clothes, but she thought it would have been more awkward to vanish again while she changed. As the elevator descended, she felt herself slipping back into "work mode." It was how she spent most of her time, these days, and in its own way it was as familiar and comforting as her costume. She opted not to sit down when invited, instead focusing all her attention on the dossiers that Agent Johnson was displaying on the screen. The former heroes were mostly unknown to her; her parents had drilled her on the major players of the metahuman world, but street-level unpowered types tended to escape their notice. The gang leaders, on the other hand, she at least knew by name. For her mother, remembering all 1686 enhanced beings on the planet was child's play, and Zenith had a measure of her gifts.

Let's find out if Zenith remembers anything salient about the gangs and their leaders. Expertise (Crime): [roll0] This includes the +5 modifier for Eidetic Memory.

The conversation sooned turned to tactics. Zenith listened, while she stared at the images on screen, fixing them in her memory. Without looking away, she spoke. "You're both right. If we do this piecemeal, they'll scatter. They'll go to ground and it'll be a devil of a time rooting them out. So it's best done quickly - three blitzes, taking out the people on top, as quick as we can manage. But we shouldn't split up either. First of all, we need to learn to work together and support each other. Second, if we hit each gang with overwhelming force, we're more likely to shatter them completely. I say we spend a bit of time doing legwork - finding out where the leaders are and feeling out their defenses. Then we hit them all, one after the other. Streamer and I can carry everyone from one site to the next. That way, we nail one of them, lay them out, and move on right away, before the other gangs have time to react. Best to do it during the day, too, so everyone sees that there are new heroes in town." At the completion of her little speech, Zenith turned around to face the others, her arms folded across her chest. "Sound good?"

[Glitchy]

Tatyana frowns a little at the notion that she needs to be carried. She could fly. Yeah maybe not as fast as Zenith, and she certainly couldn't move as fast as Streamer, but she could still fly, and she could stop time and jump her way across the city a couple of blocks at a time if she wanted to.

"Alright," she allows, not thrilled that her plan had been rejected and not too happy that Zenith seemed to be taking charge, "But there's one problem with your plan. If I'm not mistaken, you flew in here today in full costume and buzzed the entire city when you did," she glances at Kelly, And I doubt you were any more subtle running through the streets," she looks back to Veronica, "Do you really think none of these gangs saw you? My bet would be that they know, at the very least, that one of the most powerful supers on the planet is in Oceanside already. If they haven't already gone to ground than they certainly have their guard up and are watching for you," she folds her arms across her chest, "I think the chance for scouting them out unnoticed has already past us by. We need to hit them now, before they a fully prepared, and that means hitting them all at once," Tatyana looks to the other for support, "If we take the time to hit them one by one, by the time we get to the third one they will be dug in and ready for us if they aren't already."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Slick!" Kelly said brightly as she surveyed the command center. She followed along, taking a seat as offered. The roll of fallen heroes dampened even her seemingly-perpetual good mood. It was one thing, knowing Oceanside City had a lot of crime and that none of solo heroes who had tried had been successful in cleaning up the streets. It was another thing entirely to see just how many people had tried and failed. And the price that so many had paid for that failure.

When the bad guys were introduced, Kelly pulled out her phone. A bit of rainbow light fluttered around her, making her skin and hair and clothes gleam like mother-of-pearl, relying on her super-speed to both pull up and review her notes while still paying attention to the briefing.

Kelly didn't have a memory like Zenith. What she did have was a deep personal interest in supers in general, loads of connections, and enough curiosity to clear out three crazy old ladies' houses and an entire Broadway stage. After a few years dealing with journalists, she knew what questions to ask and how to ask them, and while the Albions were primarily a local phenomenon, they were still national celebrities. It didn't take much for Kelly to get journalists and reporters to give her information.

Or other people for that matter. Kelly loved to travel with her super-speed. She'd visited cities throughout the U.S. and in several other countries, seeing the sights, chatting up a storm with the locals, and often meeting any current or former heroes who protected the locale. She was friendly, fun, pretty, and despite her family's reputation, she still came off as relatively non-threatening. Long story short, she had no trouble getting people to talk to her.

Even bad guys. Because that was the other thing Kelly had: time to prepare.

This whole Gulf Coast Guardians deal hadn't happened in an instant, after all. There had been discussion, negotiations, vetting. That meant prep time. Give a speedster time to prepare, and you've given them all the time in the world. This wasn't Kelly's first visit to Oceanside. She'd been here several times over the past couple weeks, talking to people. The prisons were good for this. Get into a room with some goon or another who had been brought in, be nice, show some sympathy. Don't ask any direct questions, just get them talking. Let it be their choice. It was astonishing how much information they'd let slip once you had established a rapport.

End of the day? It was extremely possible that Kelly had walked in here with more information on these organizations and their leaders on her phone than G.E.A.R.S. had in its entire database. Once she had all the information pulled up and organized, if it looked like there was more than what they already had, she'd offer her phone to Agent Johnson. "Here, um, can you put that up on the screen?"

Well Informed checks:
The Diggers: [roll0].
Reggie Whichikk: [roll1].
The Brokers: [roll2].
Big Boss: [roll3].
The Sea Devils: [roll4].
Sea Witch: [roll5].

"I'm with Zenith on this," she said. Kelly was confident, but she wasn't overconfident. The attack of the Black Mask on her home when she was eight had left her with a healthy caution regarding supervillains. She also kinda got some vibes from this whole situation. It reminded her of her Mom and Dad's old stories of how they first started fighting the Arms Dealer. Going solo against an entrenched supervillain with a lot of minions hadn't worked for them. "Fast, coordinated attacks with overwhelming force. If we're misjudging the threat they present, being all together gives us the flexibility to deal with it and the raw fighting power to punch through. If not, awesome, we wipe them out in somewhere comfortably under an hour and then like, I dunno, go to the beach or something. Although that means we'll need to track them all down first, be fairly sure of their immediate locations so we can go one to the next."

[Eotyrannus]

"Okay, so we seem to be reaching something like a consensus, right?" asked Checkmate, before he moved over to the table to lay out his idea. "Hang on... There we go..." A few moments later, he'd unfolded the map in his pocket and started scribbling on it with a pen. "This is our planning sheet now, we can plan on this. Maps are cheap anyway."

He drew three grimacing faces- one with buck teeth, one with enormous angry eyebrows and one with long hair. "I think you can guess who's who. So we want to hit everyone at once, right? And we want to get Sea Witch first." He started a line above her, and lead it over to the Were-Rat. "And we'll want to go for him next..." A scattering of dots around him. "...Because he's probably going to have a bigger, better-informed gang. And the fact he's in tunnels will mean he'll be better able to set up choke points and stuff if we leave him too long." Then the line led over to the last villain left. "Once those two are mopped up, we'll go for Big Boss- toughest on a technicality, but ultimately least able to prepare compared to the others."

He looked up, and set the pen on the table for others to modify the plan with. "So what do you think?"

[Lord of Gifts]

'Brilliant artwork Liam', Sophia commented, her voice only moderately sarcastic.

'I agree with that plan in general. They likely know about at least Zenith and possibly Streamer, so it would be unwise to assume they are completely unprepared, but if we act quickly, then we should catch them off guard with our strength and numbers. Legwork to locate all the important figures and try to mitigate any nasty surprises, then strike immediately. If one of them slips through the net, we settle for destroying their power base in the moment and go back to hunt for them after dealing with the others.' At the sound of a text, she fished her phone out of a pocket and checked her messages. 'My armor is here, so I'm ready to go.'
Almost as an afterthought, she added 'Team roles and tactics are also an important point. I propose that once we hit the scene, White Rabbit and Checkmate work to isolate the boss from support and help Streamer to disable the minions, while myself and Zenith focus on the boss.'

[CandyLaser]

"I like it. Agent Johnson? Your thoughts? If you've been working here, you probably know the city better than most of us. In fact, you might even have an idea where these gang leaders spend their time. For that matter, what are the local underworld politics like? If we start hitting one gang, will the others move to help? I think it's wise to have a backup plan, in case the first assault fails."

[Glitchy]

Tatyana couldn't believe it. No one seemed to be listening to her o even acknowledging her plan! They were just agreeing with Zenith! Miss perfect superhero! It felt like she was being ignored! Liam even seemed to think the team was all in agreement, even though she obviously wasn't agreeing to this overwhelming force plan. It was stupid and it risked letting one or more of the gang leaders get away! Tatyana was not going to let that happen.

Seeing no other choice Tatyana steps back from the table, letting the other gather around Liam's map as she fades into her insubstantial form and flies up through the ceiling. She doubted they would notice she had left, at least for a little while, and she would use the time to enact her own plan. When she reaches the lobby she enacts her glamour costume, skin and hair turning white as rabbit ears flop from her head. She pulls out her pocket watch and swings it from it's chain. Time freezes around her and she heads off in the direction of the historical district. Each time she reaches the end of her range, she stops time again and continues, moving through the city. To an onlooker, she would seem to vanish and reappear a block away, effectively teleporting.

She was looking for old drainage tunnels, since that's where Agent Johnson had said the Diggers made their base.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly did indeed notice as Tatyana stepped back and shifted into incorporeal form. I mean, it wasn't exactly something you just ignore, right? "What's-" she began to ask, but too late as Tatyana had flown straight through the ceiling. "...Okay, that was cool. Um, I'll go see what's up," she said, heading back for the elevator.

Some speedsters could do some sort of weird thing where they vibrated their molecules really fast to phase through objects, or something. Kelly had never quite understood how that worked. Regardless, she wasn't one of them, and she wasn't sure if there was a more direct route up. Limiting access to a single elevator had its disadvantages vis-a-vis limited escape routes if the elevator was cut off, but it also restricted entry to a single, easily controllable point. She could have just asked, of course, but she wasn't actually in a super rush. She hadn't even considered that Tatyana was planning to go off on her own. Plus side, it meant a window for anyone else who wanted to come along to do so rather than the classic whoosh-speedster-gone technique.

[The_GrinningMan]

Zenith doesn't remember much about these villains. She knows they are minor players with petty ambitions of wealth and power. None of them have ever risen above street level crimes, so they have never been the target of top tier super heroes, and were well beneath the notice of her parents. Of the three she knows that Sea Witch is the most well known, having worked briefly as an underling of the super villain Psycho Stingray before he was captured and imprisoned in New Atlantis six years ago.

Streamer is able to discover quite a bit more about these villains through her research. None of them are heavy hitters or major players in the super community. They are small time super villains with petty ambitions of wealth and power. She knows that Reggie Whichikk was a construction worker before volunteering for a scientific study on enhancing the human senses. He gained his powers when the lab rats in the study escaped and he was bitten. He was the only survivor of the incident. He formed the Diggers a year later from a bunch of addicts, homeless and drifters, and took control of the historical district drug trade, setting up his headquarters in the abandoned drainage canals and maintenance tunnels under the city.

James Northstrum was a CPA for fifteen years before his powers manifested. What triggered them is still a mystery, but it is suspected he indulged in experimental steroid abuse. The onset of his strength and invulnerability gave him a god complex and he went mad. He killed and ate the other members of his firm before going on to establish The Brokers as a mocking parody of the financial firms he once worked for. He maintains a charade of high class civility, while indulging in his base desires of theft, murder and cannibalism. It is widely rumored that the majority of his gang follow him out of fear rather than loyalty. Big Boss's headquarters is supposedly in the presidential suit of an abandoned hotel in the financial district.

Katarina van Struben is a German immigrant who learned magic from her grandmother. Rumors claim her grandmother was a member of Hitler's occult research division during world war II. When Katarina turned fifteen she joined the entourage of super villain Psycho Stingray when he attempted to conquer New Atlantis. The popular belief was that she was also his lover at the time. When Psycho Stingray was defeated and captured six years ago, Katarina disappeared. She surfaced in Oceanside City only three years ago as Sea Witch, leading her gang in a takeover of the docks. No one knows where her base is, but it is believed to be somewhere underwater. The Sea Devils are fiercely loyal to their leader to an almost cult-like degree.

Agent Johnson listens to the team making their plans with a bit of a smile until Zenith asks him his opinion, "The three leaders are not exactly on friendly terms from what I've been able to determine. Big Boss and Reggie are moderately civil to each other. I think the Diggers sell drugs and kidnapped victims to the Brokers on occasion, but I doubt either would rush to the other's aid. Sea Witch seems to hate them both. I think she considers herself a higher class of villain and both she and her gang refuse to associate with the other two," The G.E.A.R.S. agent explains. He glances at Liam's map and clears his thoat, tapping the screen set into the center of the conference table and quickly copying everything Liam had written on to the digital map of the city, It's a touch screen," he gives a false whisper, "Might be a little more efficient," he shrugs and steps back.

White Rabbit's search of the historical district leads her straight to the abandoned drainage canals. They aren't hard to find, large concrete ditches currently empty, which lead into tunnels that run beneath the streets and empty out in the bayou. Most of them look completely abandoned, but she soon finds one where the utility entrance ramp is seemingly guarded by four filthy looking men. They are dressed like homeless people and would have been completely unremarkable if not for the pickaxes and mining helmets they each have.

[Lord of Gifts]

'Gamoto', Sophia muttered under her breath.
'She's gonna get herself killed if she tries to fight them all herself. Maybe they aren't big time villains, but we aren't the first heroes they've seen.'
As Kelly headed towards the elevator, she started moving herself. 'I'll come along. Suit up on the way out. If Tatyana intended to do anything other than attack one of them, then she would have announced it. Need to find her, and be ready to back her up if she lands in trouble.'
Conscious that their plan was rapidly going out of the window, she turned back to the others. 'Are you two coming along. If we find her quickly then maybe this can turn back into the overwhelming force option that was previously on the table. Alternatively, one of you could look for the other gang leaders, so we know where to move on to after the first one.'

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate looked to the others, realising that on of their own had wandered off. "Yeah, she probably is," he responded as he walked over. "Which one has she gone for, though? I don't need to breathe, and my powers still let me move underwater, so if she's trying for Sea Witch like we were planning I'd be best for that." He frowned. "I'd probably be best looking for her wherever, with my powers, but I can't be everywhere at once."

[CandyLaser]

"The rest of us should stick together. Agent Johnson, can you stay here, in case she comes back?" Zenith joined the others in the elevator, talking as she went. "We'll need to get communicators so we can keep tabs on one another, especially if we're going to have teammates haring off on their own... Oh! Does she have a cell phone? Do any of us have her number? Once we get back up topside, I'll change and fly up. I've got good eyes, so if she's still on the surface I can try to spot her that way. As far as I know, she doesn't have any way to breathe underwater, so I don't think she'd head that way. I might be wrong, though, so I suggest we split up. Streamer can take the financial district. Artemis, you can handle the docks. Checkmate, you should go for the historic district. You can go through the walls of the tunnels, right? I'll head up, like I said, and keep an eye out - as long as you're on the surface I'll be able to see you and help if you get in trouble."

She also made a mental note: This elevator is way too slow. We need to get a tunnel to the surface put in.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I-" Kelly began, before realizing she was forgetting something. Zip! As the elevator doors were starting to close, she streamed back over to the table, snagged her phone back, and returned before they had fully closed. "-do have a phone! ...I don't have her number. Mine's (818) 555-3278 though."

"But...she wouldn't actually be attacking them. That's...I mean, that doesn't make sense. She was just saying we should attack them all at once. Go after one of them herself would be, like, the worst of both
plans!" So Kelly was a little naive. What can I say?

"Did she seem a little upset maybe? Maybe she just doesn't like being underground! But she was embarrassed to say so, or something. I'm sure she's just waiting in the lobby!"

Ding. Elevator doors opened. Cue sight gag.

"...Maybe she went to the bathroom?"

Kelly wasn't super-fond of the idea of splitting up to all go investigating the areas where the enemy bases likely were. That seemed like it would potentially alert them and give them time to prepare when they did stage their assault. But fact was, she liked the idea of Tatyana going after them on her own less. Oh, sure, she could probably handle it. Nothing in her research or the GEARS dossiers suggested these guys were particularly big-league. Even so, if they were underestimating their opponents, or there was something they didn't know about in play, or just something went wrong, it could spell a lot of trouble for a lone hero. "Okay, I can do that," she agreed, not without reservation. "You guys have commlinks, by any chance? They might be a more efficient way to stay in touch in the field than phones."

[CandyLaser]

Zenith didn't quite pick up on Streamer's reservations, mainly because she implicitly assumed that she could handle any of the metahuman menaces in the city alone. She had some of her own, though, and they dovetailed with Streamer's unvoiced concerns. "I don't think we should engage all the targets - the point is to find White Rabbit and regroup. Treat it like a patrol, basically. As far as commlinks go, I don't have one yet. After this is done, I should be able to fix that for everyone - my mother built some communicators that worked everywhere, even across parallel worlds. I think there may be some spares around somewhere, but I don't think we can spare the time to look right now. If you need to get in touch with me, I can hear phone signals, too, but it can be tricky to pick out one call from all the others. - there's a lot of radio noise out there. Still, I'll listen in." She abruptly vanished for a few moments after she spoke, only to reappear in costume. She hovered a few feet off the ground, hands on hips, and looked at the rest of the team. Don't worry. We've got this."

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate nodded. "Good plan- I'll search the historic district from in the rocks," he told them. "It won't slow me down." He thought for a moment. "I don't have a phone on me- remind me to pick one up at some point, but we needed to sweep the area anyway, so... I'll see you all once I'm done with that." A blur of energies appeared around him, and he performed a fascimile of a diver dropping themselves out of a boat as he phased out.

Blind, he stretched out his senses, feeling out the area in a third-of-a-kilometre radius. "There we go..." he muttered, finding the direction that looked to be the right way. And if he was wrong- well, the lack of tunnels and whatnot would soon put him in the right direction, wouldn't it?

[Lord of Gifts]

The moment she noticed Tatyana had left, Sophia fired off a message on her phone.
As commlinks were mentioned, she pulled hers out of a pocket. 'I have a commlink', she said, reeling off her preferred frequency for Kelly's benefit as she attached it to her ear.
By the time the elevator doors opened again, her armour was sat in the corner of the lobby. She jogged over and started putting it on. 'Right, the docks. I'm on it.'

[Glitchy]

Tatyana spots the guards, knowing she has the right place. Normally, she would have taken them out, but they weren't who she was after. She wanted their boss. Stopping time, she simply walks past them, only letting time resume when she reaches the entrance to the tunnels. Grinning, as they should be none the wiser, she shifts into her insubstantial form and strides into the headquarters of the Diggers in search of their boss. Nothing they have should be able to harm her in this form, unless they have access to some crazy powers or super science tech she isn't aware of.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Okay, good luck all!" Kelly said, streaming off to the financial district.

[CandyLaser]

As the rest of the team dispersed, Zenith took flight. Even though she was concerned - for White Rabbit, especially, but for the team at large - she couldn't keep herself from breaking into a smile as she soared up, up, and away. There was something pure about flight, and about using her powers the way her parents taught her, and even her fears about the future couldn't dampen the pleasure it brought her. She took up a position over the city, high enough that she could see much of the city. Then she turned her attention to the streets below, beginning with the historic district and the entrances to the drainage tunnels. Her eyes could pick out a person from orbit; resolving details at street level from a thousand feet up was child's play. Methodically, she scanned the city, looking for any sign of her errant teammate.

Using Investigate to search: [roll0] If precise timekeeping matters, with her Quickness it takes roughly 4 minutes for her to search up to 60 square miles; she can search 2 square miles in a round.

[The_GrinningMan]

Tatyana moves slowly through the tunnels, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the Digger boss. She isn't too surprised to find literal hoards of rats scurry around the floors, but her intangible state keeps them from crawling over her legs and feet. The only clear areas seem to be around metal trashcans that blaze with fire, casting amber light and shadows in the tunnels. She doesn't encounter any people until she reaches to first open area where three tunnels join up. That's when she notices two very large men in tattered hoodies hold pickaxes. They pull back their hoods to reveal their half rat faces and she realize they are wererats. A pair of Reggie's lieutenants. She then hears the sound of booted feet which alerts her to more gang members gathering around her. Seems the Diggers knew someone was coming, and now she is surrounded.

[CandyLaser]

This is playing off the post our GM made in the OOC thread.

Zenith, from her elevated position, had no trouble finding the entrances to the tunnels. There were cool patches, near the tunnel mouths, for instance - often a telltale sign of an entrance to an underground area. Oh, and then there was the presence of a ton of gang members, rushing toward the entrance. That was a clue as well.

Not for the first time, Zenith wished she could speak in the radio band, in addition to being able to hear it. The choice was simple: wade into the fray, like her father would, swooping down from on high to take the fight to the Diggers, or hang back, watching to see if her team could handle it, keeping ready in case another crisis arose. That would be her mother's approach.

Mired in indecision, Zenith dithered, and in so doing made the de facto choice to hang back. That would no doubt change if a fight broke out, or if she heard a call for help.

[Glitchy]

Tatyana stops as she sees the were rats and is prepared to take them on if she has to, that is until she realizes she has been surrounded. Looking around at the gathered Diggers she stops herself from manifesting her walking cane, one of her favored weapons,"Chert!" she curses in her head, not expecting the gang to be this well prepared. Still, as long as she remained intangible she wasn't in any real danger, "But I can't confront their boss with all of them surrounding me. This calls for a different tactic," she shudders a little at the thought but resolves to do it anyway. Putting on her best smile she strikes a sultry pose, pushing out her hip and crossing her arms beneath her bosom to draw attention to them, Hey there boys. So who do I talk to about joining up?" she asks in her sweetest voice.

Deception [roll0]

[Glitchy]

Sorry, had to reroll cause I screwed up the first one

Deception: [roll0]

[Lord of Gifts]

Donning her armour, Artemis took off, flying towards the docks.
Hugging the sky, she did her best to stay out of site of both civilians and potential gang members, but it seemed unlikely that she hadn't been spotted at all. Still, once she hit the docks, taking note of graffiti marking the Sea Devils' territory, the gangster milling around didn't seem wise to her presence. However, there was no sign of White Rabbit either, or any commotion.
'She's not here', Artemis muttered into her commlink. 'Any luck on your end Streamer?, she queried, turning around and preparing to head for another target.

[Quellian-dyrae]

A streamer of rainbow light was zipping hither and yon through the financial district, stopping every few instants to scan the area before darting off to the next. She even made a quick perimeter run of the abandoned hotel that Big Boss was rumored to be headquartered in. No sign of Tatyana though. "Nothing," she replied to Sophia. "I guess run by the docks and see if Liam's had any luck?" she asked...or maybe more "suggested", since she started streaming that way pretty much the moment she finished. Kelly wasn't exactly the "waiting" type.

[The_GrinningMan]

The Digger gang look more than a little confused by the words of the White Rabbit. The multitude of normal humans hang back, holding their pickaxes and shovels and looking to the two wererats. The wererats look at each other, neither one appearing to be all that bright, and they look to White Rabbit, one of them leering in a rather lewd manner. Finally one of them speaks, "You want to join the gang? Just who are you? We was expecting some hero types to be dropping by. Word on the street is a couple of big timers are in town," This draws a sharp elbow from the second wererat who obviously thinks the first is talking too much. The second wererat growls, "You can explain yourself to Reggie. He'll decide what to do with you," he states and motions for White Rabbit to proceed them into the tunnel they are guarding.
Checkmate's exploration leads him to the labyrinth of tunnels and drainage canals that run throughout the historic district of the city. It's more difficult to narrow his search down to where the Diggers have made their base. When he does, he finds the tunnels are filled with gang members, all carrying pickaxes and shovels and crowding toward one particular junction where three tunnels connect.

The docks are quiet. There are a few ships anchored in the bay, tug boats and fighing trawlers at the docks, and a scattering of civilians walking around or fishing off the piers. There are no signs of White Rabbit or the Sea Devils. As Artemis turns to search elsewhere she see smoke rising from the financial district and the distant boom of an explosion.
While observing the tunnels where the Diggers are crowding in, Zenith suddenly hears an explosion from the financial district and can see smoke and debris rising into the air from that direction. She can also pick out the screams of frightened civilians.
In the financial district people stop and stare at the blur left behind by Streamer as she searches the streets. There is no sign of White Rabbit in the area, and everything seems quiet, even around the old hotel that supposedly serves as the main base for the Brokers. However, as she makes to leave, the street is rocked by an explosion a few feet behind her and concrete debris showers down across the street and sidewalk. There are screams from the people on the streets and cars squeal to a stop as the smoke slowly clears. Looking around Streamer can see a group of four men in pinstripe suits on the top of a three story building less than a block away. One of them is lowering a rocket launcher while another works to reload it.

[Quellian-dyrae]

This...complicated things.

On the one hand, this was so, so not part of the plan! Strategically, she should not be engaging the Brokers without backup. It was an unnecessary risk, made doubly so by the fact that they had rocket launchers and precisely zero qualm firing them in a populated area! Kelly began to understand why the other heroes had had so little success taking back the city. Even in this business, you don't expect to be greeted by rocket launchers on your first day.

And to be fair, they were shooting at her. Getting out of the area would minimize the risk of collateral damage. If these guys fired off another rocket, people could be hurt.

...On the flip side, it would not be a great introduction for the city's new superheroes for one to get chased off by a few punks with a bazooka. Also these guys had fired a rocket launcher in a populated area and she was not down with that!

It was a tough question, a difficult decision, balancing the potential threat against the danger to others based on either her staying or leaving and oh who am I kidding she was already up on the roof.

"Belay that. I've got some people acting stupid over here. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm requesting backup, but you know, it probably wouldn't hurt to have someone help me cart them off to jail once I've finished knocking them out."

Kelly was spinning as she spoke, two streamers of purple light whirling around her, smacking the thugs with blow after blow while whipping about to create a veritable wall of purple energy around her, offering protection from any return attack.

Move: Use Whip Swinging to swing up to the roof and land amidst the thugs.

Free: Swap Streaming to Accelerated Defense.

Standard: Cyclone Spin. The thugs all get Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage. If they beat the Dodge save by two degrees, they avoid the attack entirely. Kelly is Deflected at 1d10+20 for the next two rounds.

Current Status: Normal, Deflected (1d10+20, SE).

[CandyLaser]

Oceanside City Financial District

A head-sized chunk of concrete hurtled toward a cowering businessman, flung by the blast. He flinched away from it, realizing in an instant that there was nothing he could do to escape his oncoming death.

But death didn't come.

He looked up, tentatively, and saw Zenith, hovering a foot above the street. In one outstretched hand, she held the jagged piece of concrete, having caught it just before impact. She was glaring up at the rooftop where a swirl of purple light marked Streamer's presence. Zenith squeezed, and the concrete shattered in her grasp, pulverized in a moment. Then she looked back over her shoulder. "I'd get out of here," she said to the cowering civilian. "There might be more rockets coming."

Then Zenith took flight once again. For the moment, she let Streamer handle the thugs, while she dealt with protecting civilians.

Move action to fly to the blast site. Standard action to be edited in later, once some OOC questions are answered.

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis was about to correct Streamer, that she had checked the docks already, as she turned towards the historic district. By process of elimination, White Rabbit must be there. Then there was an explosion, and Streamer came blaring through the comms again.
A strange mixture of dread and anticipation rose in her as she twisted in mid-air, rocketing towards the source of the blast.
'On my way.'

[The_GrinningMan]

The men in pinstripe suits are shocked at how fast Streamer reaches them and they drop the rocket launcher they were trying to reload, "Get her!" one of them shout and all of them reach into their jackets for concealed guns. One of them even manages to get his out before Streamer's volley of attacks slam into him and knock him to the roof. One of the men, in an attempt to avoid getting hit, stumbles backward and tumbles over the edge of the roof, falling three stories down to the concrete sidewalk below with a sickening sound. The other are quickly rendered helpless, two of them unconscious and the last curled up in a ball whimpering his surrender.

[Glitchy]

Tatyana smirks as her little ruse seems to work. At least they were taking her to their leader. If she played this right she might be able to get some valuable intelligence from him before she took him down. She winks at the wererat the had leered at her, determined to play her part and not arouse suspicion as she walks past them into the tunnel they had indicated. She maintains her intangibility just to be safe, and she honestly wasn't sure if the Diggers realized they couldn't touch her in this form. As she proceeds in the direction the wererats point her, she can't help but smile a little. She was actually enjoying this more than she thought she would. Playing this part, infiltrating the enemy, it just felt right. Like this was the part she was meant to play.

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate considers his next actions carefully.

On one hand, White Rabbit probably wasn't here- there wasn't really any reason why he should expect her, to be honest. But from here he could guess at what was going on in the place as a whole, and information is valuable. It would be worth the risk of getting closer and alerting them to watch the nexus.

He moves forwards, and a shockwave of energy passes through the tunnels- from somewhere below them, to be exact. But space is not warped where they stand... visibly, at least. In Checkmate's eyes, the space is controlled by himself already, and all he needs to do is push to fill it with momentum-draining energies. He pushes the energy in one spot right up to the tunnel roof, and quickly moves from below to hover in the solid material just above them- close enough to hear their conversations despite the muffling of the rock. He leaves a radius of about two metres in the rest, to give him enough time to move it if they start getting curious.

With that, he settles in to wait, prepared to move both himself and his fields if they start getting too close.

Checkmate approaches from below, moving carefully, and watching his distance so only the last Draining Aura produces a shockwave in the tunnels to alert them. I use Selective to keep the effects out of the tunnel- if they try to dig where I'm hovering, or dig far enough to reach the energies, I use a free action to remove the effects of Draining Aura in that and nearby spots and a move action (if needs be) to avoid them myself.

[CandyLaser]

As one of the gunman tumbled off the rooftop and hurtled toward the ground, Zenith took flight. She was a blue and gold blur in the air as she zoomed to intercept the falling man. He screamed as he fell - and his screams abruptly changed as she snagged him, a few feet above the ground. Zenith pulled a quick loop in midair to bleed off momentum before depositing him unceremoniously on his backside on the ground, while she hovered nearby. "Stay," she said, forcefully.

I took our GM's remark in the OOC thread as permission to intervene. If that's not what it was, then I'll edit this post accordingly.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly was moving as the guy dodged his way over the edge, and was at the edge of the roof when she saw Zenith swooping in for the catch. She would have felt bad if the guy had gotten hurt too badly. However, since he hadn't, she didn't feel at all insensitive when she called down, after Zenith deposited him on the ground, "Watch your step dude!"

Then her right whip shot out like a serpent's tongue. Or maybe a frog's. It wrapped around the rocket launcher (since they hadn't had time to finish loading it), yanked it up, and smashed it hard into the roof to shatter it. "But, like, seriously," she asked in the general direction of the cowering goon, "what was your play here? Do you guys just like, sit on top of a roof all day with a loaded rocket launcher and take pot shots at anyone with superpowers who happens by? That doesn't seem just vaguely suicidal to you? I could have been going to the bank! You don't know!"

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis jetted over the horizon just in time to catch the end of Streamer's joke, and responded as she touched down on the ground. 'In my experience, if a costumed super is heading towards a bank which doesn't already have a robbery in progress, it's because they're planning to start one. So maybe they were just wanting to trade pointers. The rocket launcher is certainly a good way to get attention.'
She looked around at the scene, and scanned for other threats. 'Am I too late to be of help?'

Rolling Perception to check for other enemies.
1d20+6

[Lord of Gifts]

Seem to be having some trouble with the dice roller. Hopefully it works this time.
[roll0]

[The_GrinningMan]

Most of the Diggers follow the wererats and White Rabbit down the tunnel, leaving only a dozen standing around in the junction. Most seem preoccupied discussing the recent events, and only two turn to look at the tunnel wall when Checkmate moves. They stare for a moment, then seem to lose interest and return to speaking with their companions.

White Rabbit is lead down a wide tunnel to an empty cistern. Here, what was once a large drainage pool is now an empty pit ringed by old park benches and folding chairs. A crude fence made of chicken wire rings the top of the pit, apparently to keep anyone from falling in, or to keep anything from getting out. There are another four were rats in the chamber, along with several dozen normal gang members all cheering and waving around cash as they watch something in the pit. Peeking over the side, White Rabbit can see an exceptionally large wererat dressed in gladiator style armor made of hubcaps, old tires and chains. The beast is easily eight feet tall and built like a mac truck, and he is fighting a pack of six rabid looking dogs and winning.

On the far side of the chamber from the entrance, across the pit from where White Rabbit stands, is a makeshift throne made from an old armchair decorated with exhaust pipes, animal bones and furs. On this throne sits the scrawny figure of Reggie Whichikk, leader of the Diggers. He looks much as he did in his dossier picture, but now Tatyana can clearly see the long, shovel-like claws on his hands and the protruding fangs the poke from his grinning mouth. He looks up from the fight as the hero is led in by her wererat escort, ”Well, well, well,” he speaks in a nasal voice with a bit of a lisp as his tongue catches on his fangs, ”What a pretty pretty prize that has wandered into my den,” he smiles and beckons White Rabbit to approach, ”I heard a rumor there were new supers in town. But I wasn’t expecting them to be so….pleasing,” he gives a snickering laugh and the Diggers who aren’t preoccupied by the fight in the pit laugh with him, ”Have you come here to fight me?” he asks mockingly.

On the roof of the building in the financial district Artemis arrives to find the situation well in hand. Streamer has the one conscious thug too scared to resist, and Zenith has deposited the one who fell on the sidewalk and he seems cowed enough to stay put. The sirens of the approaching police can be heard rapidly drawing closer and its only a few minutes before they arrive on the scene to take the Broker gang enforcers into custody. There are no signs of more Brokers in the area, unless they are not wearing pinstripe suits like these ones and are mixing with the crowd of onlookers trying to see what is happening and take pictures.

The thug cowering on the roof watches Streamer smash the rocket launcher and flinches as bits of it scatter across the roof. Looking up at her he is quick to respond, ”We’s heard there was new supas in town,” he speaks with an over exaggerated Skyline City accent, and Streamer can’t help but wonder if it’s fake, just a part of the gang’s pinstripe mobster theme, ”Big Boss said ta whack yous guys, and what Big Boss says, we do,” he swallows hard, gulping, ”Yous...yous gonna take me to lock-up now? Right?” the goon almost sounds hopeful, and Streamer gets the impression he doesn’t want to go back to his boss and explain how he failed.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Sure, sure," Kelly said softly, even soothingly. "Here, come on, stand up. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," she said, offering him a hand up with a sympathetic smile on her face. If he took it, she'd help him up and give his hand a reassuring squeeze, maintaining the contact for maybe half a second longer than she strictly needed to.

She looked at him, her dark eyes serious, "Honestly, given what I know of the Brokers, I think what would be best is to get you into protective custody. I'll have a word with the police once they get here to try to arrange that, but I don't think they'll go for it just because, you know? Is there anything I could tell them that might help me convince them?" She didn't push hard on the question, but there was just a touch of urgency in her voice.

Persuasion: [roll0]. Reduce by 5 if Attractive doesn't apply.

[The_GrinningMan]

The goon takes Streamer's offered hand and stands up, "Yeah. Protective custody. Sounds good," he nods and starts to smile, only to regin his look of fright when Streamer mentions that the cops might not provide it, No. No, no. I can help, I can tell yous stuff," he seems to rack his brain for something useful to tell the speedster, "I can tell yous where the boss is! Everyone thinks he stays in the penthouse at the Broken Arms, but it ain't true!" the goon is nodding rapidly now and smiling hopefully, "That's just a cover you know, a ruse ta keep the cops busy. His real hideout is on West Green Street. It's an old slaughterhouse, all boarded up," he points in the general direction.

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate watched as Tatanya passed by, then- seeing the activity over- motioned to follow. This time he moved letting shockwaves through the tunnels, keeping the fields small and close to the walls so he could keep track of them.

When he arrived at the cystern, he frowned. The chamber's too wide, he thought. I won't be able to hear anything. He'd just have to cope- taking advantage of his natural sensory range, he stayed far away from the walls, reducing the chance that anything reached the people below.

Worse, he couldn't coordinate with White Rabbit. He could do the next best thing, though. He focused his senses on her- his Spatial Sense was accurate enough to let him feel external features such as faces and weapons (amongst other things he'd long since learned to ignore) as well as things like pulse and tenseness, so he'd be able to monitor them and step in if things turned violent... or, at least, if they turned violent in a way his fellow hero wouldn't appreciate.

Using Spatial Sense, Checkmate rolls Insight at d20+20-1per100ft on both the gangsters and Tatanya whenever the situation changes. He joins in if negotiations break down- he won't act if it's a test (that she's going to succeed anyway). If Tatanya leaves peacefully, he follows her to make sure she doesn't get ambushed, and joins her in the tunnels once he's sure she's not being followed.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly smiled at the goon. "That's great! Perfect, I'm sure they'll see the value in that. Come on,
I'll take you down, talk with the police, you just cooperate with them and they'll keep you safe, okay?" she responded encouragingly, before whisking all the goons down from the roof, one at a time, to where Zenith had deposited the one who fell.

Speed Stunt for the Whisk feature and Power Lifting; DC 22 Acrobatics: [roll0]. Then swinging the goons down, one by one (assuming willing, in the conscious one's case).

[Glitchy]

Looking around at the chaotic scene in the chamber Tatyana suppressed the desire to sneer in disgust. This was awful. A barbaric sub-culture of human and extra-human waste. She glances over the side of the pit to see the fight taking place at the bottom and manages to fake a smile, pretending to enjoy it even as it repulsed her. then she sees Reggie, the leader of this madness, and she can feel herself vibrate with a desire to wipe that smile from his face. She had been considering charming the little weasel and turning his gang into her personal group of informants, but seeing him and hearing him speak was all it took to convince her he needed to be taken down and this gang put to the torch.

When he motions her closer she steels herself and smiles, "Net dorogoy," she responds with a little shake of her head, "I heard the Diggers were the largest gang in Oceanside City, and I wanted to offer my...services," she responds coyly as she comes to stand in front of Reggie's throne. She allows herself to become tangible. It was a risk, but she was fairly confident she could phase out again before anyone there could do anything to her, "I think I could prove a valuable asset to your organization."

Deception to convince Reggie: [roll0]
Percetion to keep an eye on her surroundings: [roll1]

[The_GrinningMan]

It is a trivial matter for Streamer to get all of the Broker thugs down to the street as the police arrive. The OCPD pull up in an armored S.W.A.T. truck and a full team of officers in heavy armor and heavily armed jump out. They seem surprised to see the heroes and the defeated goons already waiting to be taken into custody. While the officer's cuff the criminals and load them into the truck, one separates from the rest and removes their riot helmet to reveal a middle aged woman with short brown hair and a scar across her left eye. She approaches the team, holding her helmet under one arm and brushing fingers through her hair, "You must be the new supers the commissioner said would be arriving. I'm Lieutenant Fiona Dawn, OCPD Special Response," she holds out her hand to the group, "So what do I call all of you?"

Even as Lieutenant Dawn introduces herself, the civilian crowd that has been gathering to watch the incident suddenly close in with phone cameras clicking as they press in toward the heroes. From all directions people begin to shout, "What are your names! Isn't that one Zenith?! I think the speedster is from Simi Valley! Who's the one in armor, she looks cool!! Are they here to stay?! Are they going to go after the Brokers?!" these questions and more, along with countless shouted thank yous and praise rise in a cacophony of noise around the heroes and the police Lieutenant.

Reggie smirks and tilts his head, scratching at his chin as he examines White Rabbit thoughtfully, "Oh really? And just what do you think you can offer me? Besides a few nights of fun," he snickers and looks to one of the wererats standing beside his throne who laughs along with the gang leader. By this point, more and more of the gang members in the room are turning their attention away from the fight in the pit and toward the young woman speaking with their leader. All of them seem to distracted to have noticed the presence now inhabiting the walls of the chamber as Checkmate moves in to observe the exchange.

[CandyLaser]

Zenith watched, ignoring the crowd, as the police loaded the captured criminals into the transport. Or at least, she seemed to ignore the crowd. The truth was, dealing with the populace had always been a challenge for her. Her parents had made it look so easy and effortless, but before their disappearance, she spent most of her time training, and after she spent most of her time circling the globe and putting out fires (literally, in some cases). So now that she had to stay in one place, she wasn't really clear on what to do. So she pretended to ignore them, focusing on the transfer of custody, and when Lietenant Dawn introduced herself Zenith fixed her attention on the officer, rather than the shouting crowds.

"I'm Zenith. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, taking the lieutenant's offered handshake. "We thought we'd help with your gang problem first. In fact, I think we're headed over to the slaughterhouse on West Green Street. That's where the Breakers' boss is hiding. Your officers shouldn't get too close, but when everything settles down we'll want to hand things over to you. Do you have facilities to imprison superhuman detainees?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly looked to Artemis, who she absolutely hadn't completely forgotten had said something to her, no-siree-bob. Absolutely not! Because she's much more attentive than the guy playing her, you know. "Hey,
sorry, was kinda...in the middle. Um, yeah, doesn't look like there's any further threat. Just a few dudes with a rocket launcher. You know how it goes."

As folks started arriving, Kelly took a quick moment to speak to the Lieutenant first. "Glad to meet you, Lieutenant Dawn! Yeah, that's us. Hey, listen, that guy there, he's the one who told us of the Brokers' actual lair. We haven't confirmed it yet, but like Zenith says, we'll be hitting that shortly. He's pretty scared though. If you could put him into protective custody, I'd bet he'd make a good witness against Big Boss. I think he'll testify as long as his safety can be assured, but if he's reticent I'd be happy to talk with him. Oh! Um, here!" she added, handing the lieutenant a business card. "Uh, we're still getting settled in, so we don't have like team contact stuff up yet, but if you need to get in touch in the meantime."

Mom and Dad's Rules for Effective Superheroics #6: Always foster a friendly, professional, and mutually cooperative relationship with local law enforcement.

Then, flitting about with a speedster's characteristic attention span, she approached the crowd, waving to them with a smile on her face. "Hey guys! Consider that a preview of your city's new guardians! More to come for sure!" She didn't get too elaborate - the team hadn't discussed how they wanted to approach their public image at all, and she didn't want to make a decision that important unilaterally.

Mom and Dad's Rule #8: Care what the public thinks. A true hero is an inspiration and a comfort to the people it serves.

Routine Persuasion for 30 as needed.

Also, Mom and Dad's Rules are definitely going to be a thing now. Totally Gibbsing this up.

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis floated over to Lieutenant Dawn, and shook her hand in turn. 'Artemis. I believe my compatriots here have already filled you in on our plan as far as is necessary. There are two more members of the team, but they are elsewhere at the moment, and I'll let them introduce themselves when you meet in person.'
She gracefully turned to the crowd and struck a relatively heroic pose. 'I'm Artemis. Fear not, we are here to stay. It's a rather poor city where someone can fire a rocket launcher in a crowded place without consequence. We're here to make sure that isn't Oceanside City. It is our intention to deal with you're gang problem before long. Now, if you will excuse me, there is business to attend to.'
With that, she turned again and leaned over the other two heroes and whispered. 'Lasts plan's crumbled, so maybe we should make another one now. I vote Zenith at least does recon on the slaughterhouse before we move on it.'

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly spoke quietly as well. No sense letting the crowd know about their little, uh, communication issues. "I mean, Zenith scouting sounds reasonable to me in the general sense. But shouldn't we take a shot at regrouping first? If we head to the historic district now, worst case scenario, White Rabbit's not there either but we regroup with Checkmate, and at least we know Rabbit's probably not soloing an entire group so then we can make a move. Best case, they're both there, we can regroup, take out the Diggers, and proceed with the original plan. It might mean the Brokers have a chance to gather their forces and stuff, but for our purposes that basically just means more of them are there to be arrested in one fell swoop, so it's like, advantage: us."

Kelly was entirely comfortable with the odds of the three of them against the Brokers. Honestly, she wasn't particularly uncomfortable about the odds of White Rabbit and Checkmate against the Diggers. Either one of them alone she was a bit more leery on, just from a "limited options if something goes wrong" standpoint. But the odds weren't her main concern here.

Never Split the Party wasn't one of her parents' rules. Technically neither was Always Stay in Contact. Because it didn't have to be. Dove kept them in constant contact just as a matter of course. If Kelly were honest, the weirdest part so far about being in Oceanside City was not having that constant, gentle little brain-tickle of her sister's telepathic communication just resting in her head. It was so familiar she hadn't even noticed the feeling. Until it was gone.

Back home, if she or any member of her family was ever in trouble, the rest of them could know about it at the speed of thought and move to assist only slightly slower (well, actually, a non-trivial degree faster for her, but whatever). Having two teammates entirely out of contact, not knowing what they were involved in or having any way to check in on them...it kinda unnerved her, no matter how confident she was in their capabilities.

[Glitchy]

Tatyana does her best to ignore the lewd comments the gang leader makes, though she would dearly love to punch him in the mouth. Instead she smirks, "I can give your boys the ability to stroll into any bank vault in the city," she tells him, "I can make them untouchable," she demonstrates by spreading out a small ten foot zone around herself and phasing everyone in it slightly out of sync with the time stream, turning them intangible unless they resist the effect. She only holds it for a moment before dropping the field.


Uses Quintessent Zone out to ten feet granting those within Quintessent Phase for one thirty seconds before dropping the zone.

[CandyLaser]

Zenith stood, hands on hips, and nodded along as she listened intently to her teammates' suggestions. "Good ideas - but I think we should move on the Brokers before Big Boss finds out what's happened. If the rest of the team needs us, we can always break off from the fight. How about this? I'll fly up and scan the slaughterhouse, and then check in on the tunnels too, just to make sure that no one is calling for help. Then I'll send you a signal - say, a quick blast from my eye beams in the direction we need to go." She was concerned over White Rabbit and Checkmate, of course. But if this was all that the Brokers could manage when it came to muscle, she was confident that the team could take out Big Boss in the blink of an eye and then move in on the Diggers. As long as she wasn't hearing or seeing signs of conflict in the historic district, she assumed her new teammates were safe.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly nodded slowly. That...seemed like a reasonable compromise, all things considered. "Yeah,
okay. Let's do it," she said.

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis considered the proposal. 'My main issue is that he might be lying about the slaughterhouse. If we don't check, it could turn out to be a trap, or just a waste of time. This plan seems to obviate those issues, so yeah, I support it.'

[CandyLaser]

"Done." Zenith was not one to waste words when things got serious. She took off, moving in a blur, zooming up over the rooftops and once again focusing her attention on the historic district. She sought out the areas where she'd seen a commotion before, relying on her flawless memory to ensure she was looking in the right place. Then she turned her attention to the slaughterhouse. Her eyes glowed gold as she scanned the streets. Not for the first time, she regretted not mastering her father's trick of using low-powered ultranium radiation to look through solid objects. She'd tried, and managed to improve her control dramatically from where it started. The first time she tried emitting the eyebeams, she nearly blew a hole in the side of the Starlight. Since then, she'd mastered using reduced power to do things like welding or (sometimes) just emitting light, but shifting the wavelengths and modulating the power output still eluded her. After a moment, she pushed those thoughts out of her head and refocused on the task at hand.

Perception! [roll0]. If this is a search, then Investigation! [roll1]

[The_GrinningMan]

Lieutenant Dawn nods to Zenith, "Iron Gate should be more than capable of holding most supers, and it's recently been granted additional funding by the government to improve it's power containment wing. I assume that's because you lot are in town now," she grins, but it quickly turns to a more serious look at the team speaks about their plan to go after Big Boss, "If you're going after Northstrum I'd like my team to go along. We've been after him for almost two years now. We've built a solid case against him but we've never been able to get close enough to put the cuffs on,"" she looks determined, "I have intel on his top enforcers that you might find useful as well," she looks from one hero to the next while her team move the captured Brokers into the truck.

When Zenith flies up to take a look around she focuses in on the historic district but the commotion she saw earlier seems to be over. The drainage canal where she had seen dozens of Diggers before are now empty, and there are no signs of activity. Passing her gaze to the slaughterhouse the team had been told about she easily finds it. At a glance it doesn't look like much. An old building probably built sometime in the seventies, now abandoned and boarded up with a few broken windows. Any casual on looker wouldn't have thought twice about it. But Zenith's keen eyes spot the two men in pin stripe suits on the flat roof sitting at a folding table playing cards. She also notices a white box truck parked at one of the loading docks with the engine running.

Reggie looks interested as four of the Diggers nearest to White Rabbit suddenly become intangible. They look confused and immediately start doing dumb things like trying to hit each other and throwing bottle through each other while laughing. When she drops the zone, one of the Diggers takes a brick to the face and they all laugh and jeer as he lays bleeding on the floor. Reggie laughs as well, "Well that's a neat trick," he comments, eyeing White Rabbit a bit more critically, "Just who are you anyway? You got to be new in town, or I'd have heard of you already," while he talks, a couple of Diggers pick up the injured one and drag him over to the edge of the fighting pit before tossing him in.

[CandyLaser]

Zenith left the decision over whether or not to bring Lieutentant Dawn's team along up to Streamer and Artemis. Before she left the scene, though, she did offer her thoughts: "I don't mind you and your team being there, but if you could handle Northstrum you'd have taken him out already. I'd rather not give up the advantage of surprise, either. How fast can they be on their way? It might be better if we went in first, and your team can pitch in when they get there."

After that, she left, and headed up to do her reconnaissance. That revealed that things had calmed down in the historic district, and that the slaughterhouse was both occupied and (it seemed) not too alert to what had just happened. That was enough for her to signal toward the slaughterhouse with a blast of golden energy.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Streamer gave Lieutenant Dawn a warm smile. "That's great, the more we can work together the better! I do agree with Zenith that it'd probably be best for us to take the lead, just to maximize speed and minimize the threat to your officers. And to the suspects, for that matter, since you know, guns, and all. I think the ideal would be that we move in, neutralize the threat, and you guys swoop in behind us to process the scene, take them into custody,
and catch anyone trying to flee. The info on his enforcers would be super-helpful though!" She had barely said it when Zenith's eye beams lanced across the sky.

"Oh, that's the signal though! Can you tell us real quick? Or could you text or email it to me? My info's on the card."

She'd hold for a few for the Lieutenant's response, but unless she requested she stay there, Kelly would then take off for the slaughterhouse.

Routine Persuasion for 30 as needed.

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis was somewhat wary about Lieutenant Dawn's team accompanying them, but they seemed professional, and it would be nice to have backup. 'I concur. You're certainly professional, but a little more fragile than us. Support is not amiss though, as long as we take point.'
Lances of golden energy were suddenly visible in the distance.
'That's the signal. Info, then move.'

[Glitchy]

Tatyana hesitates for a moment considering how to answer him. She could lie, make up a name and hope he trusts her, but that was risky and there was always the chance he would decide to get rid of her anyway. She wasn't scared of him or his gang, but there was an opportunity here to make some contacts and gain a valuable foothold in the Oceanside underworld. Taking a deep breath she decides this is the one place where her real name would actually be useful, "I am new in town. Just arrived from Skyline. My name is Kevenovich. Perhaps you've heard of my father, Sentry," she watches for a reaction as she brings up her mass murdering super villain father.

[The_GrinningMan]

Lieutenant Dawn looks less than pleased by Zenith's patronizing attitude, "Hold on a second miss. You may be government backed, but you're still in my jurisdiction. Despite your powers and your fancy outfits, you're still just vigilantes with no lawful authority. So I'm the one calling the shots here. You're going to give me twenty minutes to get my people in position, close down the streets and evacuate the civilians before you start a war in the middle of my city!" she turns away from the team and keys her walkie, giving a quick stream or orders to the officers on the other end. She then turns back to the team, "You lot don't even know what you're jumping into. Running off half cocked with no plan and no intel on what you're likely to face," she shakes her head in disgust, "You know when I heard the government were going to be funding a team in Oceanside, I thought they would send professionals. Now, if you want my intel, you'll stay put and listen, or I'll have the three of you brought up on charges of obstruction and interfering with an officer in the course of her duties. Am I clear?"

Reggie raises his eyebrows at Tatyana's revelation, "So, you're the Sentry's daughter?" he actually looks impressed and he smiles, hopping up off his throne, "Well why didn't you say so! It's an honor. Big fan of your father's work," he laughs and it's hard to tell if he's serious or just pandering. He motions toward an exit behind his throne, "Why don't you head on back and talk to Manney, he'll get you settled with us and give you whatever equipment you need. Once you're acclimated, we can discuss a job I think you would be perfect for," he gives White Rabbit a wide smile, then turns back to the gathered Diggers, "Alright you lot! Back to the match!" she shouts, laughing as he returns to his throne.

Passing through the indicated door, White Rabbit finds a short corridor that leads to another, much smaller chamber lined with old school lockers, tables and piles of scrap and junk. As she enters she spots a tall, slender man in a trench coat bent over one of the tables soldering something. Black goggles cover his eyes and as she watches, a long, spider-like mechanical arm extends from under his coat to grab a screwdriver and bring it over to what he is working on. The man seems completely engrossed in his work and doesn't seem to notice when she enters.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly frowned at Lieutenant Dawn's rant. If she were honest, Dawn wasn't coming across as the professional trying to keep a leash on the half-cocked supers. She was coming across as a thin-skinned obstructive bureaucrat whose offended pride was prompting her to make a tactical blunder that could endanger the mission at best or get a lot of people killed at worst.

But of course, she didn't say that. She kept her disdain entirely out of her voice when she replied,
"Lieutenant, I understand that you just want to make sure this all works out well, and I know you guys have lost your fair share of heroes in the past. So don't get me wrong, I totally get why you'd favor the cautious approach. But the thing is, we do have a plan. I know it might not seem like it, but hitting them hard, fast, and with surprise is the best way for a small, powerful unit like ours to neutralize an entrenched opposition. If you let us do it, we can secure their base now, without casualties."

"Now, we can hold here if you want. As you say, this is your jurisdiction, and we're here to help. But if we wait twenty minutes for your guys to get into position, worst case scenario, one of their contacts has already informed them of our presence here and that gives them twenty minutes to clear out. Even failing that, a major police movement will be detected, so they very easily might be able to escape in the interim anyway. And even if that doesn't happen, now we have a lot of your people in harm's way. These guys took a pot shot at me with a rocket launcher just because they saw me on their turf. A swarm of police officers closing in on their main base is going to take at least fire that heavy, and probably worse. And that gets even worse if they did hear we were coming but spent the time fortifying rather than fleeing. Three powerful supers can go up against a prepared - and especially an unprepared - criminal base and clear it without suffering or inflicting casualty. But a full police siege...absent a miracle, some of your people, and some of their people, will die in the fighting, even with us there to protect you."

"It is your call Lieutenant, but please, please let us take the lead here. I promise you won't regret it."

Persuasion: [roll0].

[CandyLaser]

Even from her position up in the air, Zenith heard everything that Lieutenant Dawn had to say - but she ignored it. As far as she was concerned, she was the one in control of the situation. Moreover, she was also a bulletproof, super-strong genius, which made her more capable than just about anyone in town. One day, she might learn not to underestimate those without powers. Today might even be that day.

But right now, she was in motion, heading toward the slaughterhouse where Big Boss supposedly lurked.

[Lord of Gifts]

Artemis went quiet, and carefully considered her options. At best it was a poor strategy, and at worst a deliberate stalling tactic. The captured broker had seemed very worried by the prospect of been held in protective custody by the police. But to be fair, previous heroes hadn't been very successful in the city, and Lieutenant Dawn had likely seen some of them fail. It could just be a heavy-handed attempt at caution.

'My comrade has covered everything I would say. But I would like to emphasise, your plan is very likely to result in deaths, and they aren't on our heads.'

Routine Insight for 16.

[Glitchy]

Tatyana is a little surprised at how quickly Reggie went from questioning her to welcoming her into his gang. Then again, he didn't strike her as the smartest person in Oceanside City. Following his directions she heads into the back room and spots the man working at the table. She raises an eyebrow at the sight of the mechanical spider hand, but shrugs and approaches him, "Izvinite," she clears her throat, "Excuse me. Reggie sent me to speak with Manney. Is that you?" she gives the man a smile, hoping he wasn't going to be another creep like the rest of the diggers seemed to be.

[Eotyrannus]

Checkmate continues to hover in the immaterium within the walls. He frowns as he sees Tatanya move, and floats forwards to follow- he can't risk setting up more area to move, so he keeps his power passive, using only the already-claimed area and hoping it's far enough to get to where Tatanya will be. Perhaps this smaller space will let me get a bit of an earful.