The New FORCE Ops [IC: 8]: The World of Shadows

[kenseido]

Archer

Danny nods back to Dovetail and Warshade. He didn't know what to expect when Ethan told him Danny would be joining Force Ops. He is a stranger to them, untested and unproven. An unknown unknown.

Danny really didn't want to ruffle feathers or make waves. He is the new guy, which can be tough enough; but after losing a member, it is natural for some of them to think he is here to replace their fallen comrade. As far as Danny knew, that isn't the case. Ethan was just waiting for the right time, for Danny to be ready. The timing was just happenstance.

He didn't really know what to say to any of them. He remembered when his Dad died, how everyone wanted to comfort him - to be the one who made him feel better. They would deliver platitudes and fumble over words looking for the right thing to say, the thing that would snap him out of his depression. They all looked like morons doing it. Some of them even tried to make him guilty that he didn't feel better after they "tried." Looking back, it was pretty funny. Back then, not so much.

"Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." He couldn't remember who said it originally, but his Mom quoted it often. For now, he would practice it. When they are ready, he will talk with them about anything they want. For now, he will respect their space.

[catsi563]

Vindicator


Eva walked in to the Anders building feeling a little like a stranger. She hadnt had a chance to actualy speak with Ethan in over a month between her work, and his mysterious absences. As it stood her status as a member of this team was shakey since as far as she knew she wasnt formaly invited as a member, and with K-9s death and the leaving of several of the older members left her in a state of flux. A state not attributable to the temporal jaunt to the future she'd taken.

shaking her head she stepped into a bathroom where she slipped into the suit and sealed it leaving the headpiece down. As she did she glared at a couple of office bunnies who were gawking at her in the restroom giving them a "what?" look before leaving and joining the team in the conference room.

She looked over at Liz and smiled warmly, she really liked the young lady with the alien energy being living symbioticaly within her. It was fascinating to an extreme, Add in that she was perfectly charming and far more outgoing then Eva was. In fact Eva envied Liz and felt a little inadquate around her, since Liz was able to act and interact with no hesitation with others while Eva had to stumble and bumble around.

She was about to announce her presence to the rest of the team when she tripped and fell flat on her face spilling the warm cup of coffee all over the floor as she face planted.

"Sorry, sorry; oh my god what the heck?" she grumbled as she got back up and took a seat near Liz.

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

SEE? YOU'RE BETTER THAN HER AT AT LEAST ONE THING

Huh?

WALKING

Liz snickered before she caught herself and coughed to try to cover it. Great. Thanks. Now she thinks I'm laughing at her.

"You OK Eva? You gotta watch out for those..." Liz looked over where she fell and saw nothing. "umm... floor tiles."

[catsi563]

Vindicator

"Huh? oh yes yes, I'm fine thanks." Eva replied as she cleaned the little bit of coffee she had on her suit off. "Brain goes off on its own sometimes, forgets to deal with the here and now." she shrugged casually.

"We havent had a chance to talk lately, How are you doing?"

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

"Oh you know. Trying to stay busy." And not go insane. Liz didn't mention that all her projects had flopped recently. It was embarrassing enough telling Jason about them. She guessed it was due to lack of purpose. Just trying to do something to keep yourself occupied wasn't a good way to do good work. "It's been weird being off for an entire month so I'm glad we're getting back to work."

[Jalinth]

Lina "Aurora" Howe
HP: 1 LP: 1
Condition: Okay

K-9's death had hit Lina, but not as hard as the others. As consequence of reacting to emergencies alongside Zalman, this hadn't been the first time the young woman had lost a new teammate on their first mission together. Sure her master (lord never let Zalman know she used that title, even in her head! Hard enough to get him to accept teacher) had done what he could to shield her from it but when you had to deal with a demon lord trying to destroy the world ones ability to coddle is much reduced. It still hurt to see anyone die, especially someone who was fighting the good fight, but experience gave her the tools to deal with it. This was the life she had chosen and she accepted the bad along with the good. She just dreaded the time it wasn't an almost stranger who fell.

Not wanting to get herself or anyone else killed had been the main reason Lina had made such an effort to follow orders during the mission. She knew she'd slipped up a couple times, but for the most part Lina was comforted by the fact it hadn't been her foolishness that had gotten anyone killed. Now if only she had any skills with healing magic and maybe she could have made a real difference out there.

All thoughts about the past were banished as her targets came into view. With the veterans of FORCE Ops taking some much needed rest, Lina had been keeping herself busy doing patrol work. A quick scan of the area showed there were no bystanders nearby. Perfect. A pair of muggers didn't really warrant the full show, but it was so rare she had the chance to. She wasn't going to let the opportunity slip by.

"Halt!" Aurora called out as she slowed into a hover in front of the muggers. "I am Aurora, bearer of the Storm Staff Chinook! Your time of flight has come to an end. Surely you can see that fighting will only cause unnecessary suffering? Surrender and neither of us have to waste time with a fight."

The two muggers skidded to a halt as the young woman began her speech. "Oi! Girly! You should go home to your mommy before we teach youse a lesson!" shouted one

Aurora sighed "How are you going to do that? I mean, I can see how you'd think you had a good chance if I was walking, was wearing normal cloths, and didn't have this glowing staff of power in my hand. I'm really not that big so you would beat me no problem... but I'm not walking. I'm wearing really odd clothing, and this staff of power is glowing. Look. I understand the need to look strong in front of the rest of your crowd. I really do! It's just like high school only with more guns and alcohol... well... maybe. Depends what school you went to I guess. Anyway, I get that. It's just what good is getting blasted by my magic going to do for your rep? Coming out second best with a super happens all the time in this town. Why don't you just spare yourself the pain and give up? I tie you up, cops take you away, you do a little time and then you're back out. You can catch up with old friends who are stuck inside, or maybe even do the really smart thing and take some of those jobs for cons courses. Then you can skip this annoying cycle."

"Little girl I only gots one ting ta say ta ya!" Replied the first man, before his arm was grabbed by his companion.

"Uhh.. Larry? She might gots a point there. You remember what happened to Timmy the Toolman after he picked a fight with that Dovetail bird? He's still nots walkin' right and dat straw he eats with don't look like no fun. I remember hearing that this broad works with her."

Larry looked shaken for a moment. "Uhh... yeah. I remember Timmy. You says she works with Dovetail?"

"Dovetail? Oh I know her! What to see what she taught me? It's this neat trick with..."

"Nononono! That's okay. Alright. You talked us into it. We surrender!"

Aurora clapped her hands together and let out a little squee. "You do! Really! Oh that's wonderful! Ok, you just set down those knives and then we can get this whole thing wrapped up nice and fast."

Freedom City, November 25th

Lina rushed into the room when she heard the crash. Seeing that no one was hurt, she slowed her pace and grabbed some coffee of her own. "Morning folks!"

[CelticREI]

H4ck

<Be there in a tick.> he sent back to Liz

"Oh hey Mr. Teag, didn't see you there…"

"Aye aye, piss off." he said as his body became moots of energy and vanished to reappear outside the meeting room.

Walking in he took a seat on Liz's side, Eva on her other side. He sighed, verbally and mentally, as he sat... despite his lack of need for sleep he had given up on meditating and studying during the night so he was mentally exhausted.

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

Liz briefly grasped Jason's hand. < You OK? >

[ClassDunce]

Susan West - Dovetail
HP: 1 Condition: Fine

Susan sipped at a bottle of water while the others made their way to the table, she politely ignored Vindicator's stumble since there was no harm done, but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be where she was right now. She had things to do and problems that needed handled but Dovetail wasn't the right tool for that job. It was surprising how much time and effort keeping up the Dovetail identity took though. For the past month she was beginning to doubt if it was worth the time or effort. Hell maybe Force Ops would be better off without Dovetail.

She looked around at the faces of her teammates and thought briefly of the faces of the ones that had been here, at this very table, at the founding of the team and how they had all left and the circumstances surrounding their leaving. Most of them left bloody and not of their own choosing. Of the originals she was all that was left.

Archer, Vindicator, and Aurora made up half of her team now and she barely knew them from anyone else out on the streets. She knew that a lot of that was her own fault she had the past month to get to know Vindicator and Aurora and she could have taken a few nights to work with Archer before their first mission in fact it would've been the smart play but she just couldn't force herself to do it. Something else had her full attention.

"Alright." She said as she cleared her throat. "We have a new face, I'm sure you've all already made your introductions, and after this meeting we'll likely be on a job. We're going to have to get to know one another while we work, which will either go well or very badly." She shrugged. "Either way we'll have to manage. If any of you have any concerns about anything don't be afraid to bring them to my attention. If you need something cleared up let me know. If you have any problems let me know."

[Tattooedman]

Everyone: The silence that hangs in the air following Dovetail's statement makes it seem that none of those gathered around the table have any problems they'd care to share at the moment.

Before the quiet can carry on any further Vivian comes into the conference room, her laptop under her arm. "Hey sweeites!" She says by way of greeting to all of you. "Ethan's right behind me, he was wrapping up a phone call when I last saw."

She no sooner gets that out than does Ethan arrive, giving a nod in greeting to those whose eyes meet his as he makes his way towards his usual spot at the head of the table. With an old familarity he picks up the remote to all of the hidden monitors and with the push of one of it's buttons he brings them all out from their hiding places in the wall behind him and within the center of the table all of you sit around. On them are various images of four metamen commiting different robberies and other crimes.

--
the Ace of Spades.

--
the King of Hearts.

--
the Queen of Clubs.

--
the Jack of Diamonds.

"This is the Royals. They're a newer group that's come together in the last year or so and have been selling their services to anyone willing to pay for them; supposedly they've done work for VIPER and even low-end work for Mastermind but they also have started pulling robberies on their own to suppliment their income and that's why we're here this morning." Ethan gestures to the files that Vivian has put in front of everyone while he was talking, inside are copies of the pictures as well as information on the abilities so far demonstrated by the four criminals but there isn't much information about their backgrounds as so far it seems that the Royals haven't been arrested.

"The S.T.A.R. Squad has been tracking the Royals as they've been moving across the country hitting different targets and making off with some pretty big offs and they were able to figure out the Royals' pattern." Ethan smiles a knowing smile as he shares this fact. "Detective Taylor has asked that we work with the S.T.A.R.s in apprehending the Royals when they make their move on the Southside Palace."



In the corner of the screen an image of Al Driogano appears. "Yes, that Driogano."

--
Al Driogano.

"Now you might understand why Taylor wants us involved. He's worried what Driogano, or his people would do in response since Foreshadow had been tearing the 'family' a new one here lately. It seems that Driogano has been shopping for some metaman muscle to have on his payroll and there's a chance they've got some at the Palace since Driogano and his people aren't stupid and if Taylor and the S.T.A.R.s figured out the Royals' pattern then there's a damn good chance Driogano and his people have too and Taylor wants to be sure the S.T.A.R.s don't get in over their heads because Maddicks is too damn stubborn."

Ethan looks around to all of you sitting around the table. "Questions?"

[catsi563]

Vindicator


Eva smiled warmly at Viv and nodded at Ethan as well before pulling on her glasses and studying the files intently. One glance was all she needed before she had committed their contents to memory in their entirety.

With that done she started running the numbers in her head applying heisenbergs uncertainty principle to see if she could accurately predict the groups pattern herself, and where and how they might be able to stop them. She stood up without saying anything and went over to the boardrooms whitebaord where she started jotting down equations and formulae nonstop until she had the answer she was looking for.

Evas science roll 35 try to use the math to predict the groups next target based on their past behaviors and preferences and with some wiggle room for the observation principle just in case the group changes their plans because of the pursuit.

to add in its also to see if theres a bigger picture at work here maybe an employer or the like.

[kenseido]

Archer

Danny looks over the files and occasionally glances up at Vindicator's work on the whiteboard.

"I can hold my own against any of 'em except Jack. Of course, the real wildcard is who else we have to deal with once they show. Driogano's not going to let us cart them off to jail when a real message could be sent to any other would-be thieves."

[Shock]

Warshade
HP: 1 LP: 1

"So we're damage control again?" Liz sounded less than enthused about the mission. This was the second time in the last couple of months they were being thrown in between a pair of scumbag operations. "And we have nothing on who Driogano might have working for him?"

Liz fiddled with her datapad, starting up a chart on possibilities. There were a lot. "And last, when's this happening?"

[Tattooedman]

Vindicator: After spending a few minutes going through your mathematical theory with the facts as you know them you realize that the investigation is correct in their assessment of the Royals’ target. From what you can tell from the time that passed between the robberies it doesn’t seem that there is any other motivation for the robberies aside from pure profit and while the heists are fair well organized there doesn't seem to be any underlying motive to them.



Warshade: “Think of it more like high-powered back up.” Ethan answers.

To your second question he replies. “No idea really, that’s a newer development from what I’ve heard so it could be bunk or not. But it‘s something to keep in mind.”

And finally he answers your last question. “You‘re supposed to be meeting the S.T.A.R.s in an hour for the mission briefing.”

Meanwhile your datapad has come up with a few names of metamen who'd be willing to be employed by Driogano and his people, none of them are very nice so to speak but all are fairly dangerous in their own right.

Black Dragon
Corredor
Eyespy
Mire
Morph
Rumble
Ryder
Voltiac

[Jalinth]

Lina "Aurora" Howe
HP: 1 LP: 1
Condition: Okay

Aurora leaned forward and studied the information presented. She tried to remember if she heard anything about them on the mystic front. They didn't look magical, but that didn't mean anything.

Taking 10 on Arcane Lore.