[2E] Freedom City Iron Age (IC)

[badpenny]

Nighthawk

"Blood sacrifice. Can't get it out of my hair." Nighthawk didn't want to talk about it. The choice he had made had changed him. He was darker--ghoulish even. The actual sacrifice he'd made in the name of justice was himself.

"So, we're together again. How has it been out there for you?"

[FuzzyBoots]

Pretty Deadly
HP: 2
Status: Fine

Aika grinned widely. "Naw, I save that for storming drug-llord factories. This is more my working uniform." She twirled, causing the skirt to flare up, demonstrating that yes, the rest of the uniform was camouflage as well. "Easier to move in, y'know?" She glanced down. "Ah, two more of our merry band, huh? That's everyone but Enforcer. So, based on what they're doing with the door, I'm guessing inside." Inwardly, Aika made a bemused moue. Wait... date? Eh, she's probably just being fancy. She dropped down to beside Gun Girl and Nighthawk.
"Skylark's up on the roof. No sign of Enforcer. Guess we're meeting inside?" She glanced at the open door, then back to Nighthawk with a quizzical look. "New haircut?"

[badpenny]

Nighthawk

Nighthawk pulls open the back door and enters. He scans the interior with his Eldritch Eyes.

Notice (1d20+12=22) Darkvision

[baixiwei]

Gun Girl

Alice shrugs noncomitally in response to Nighthawk's question. "I'm still out of jail. Think some old enemies of mine might be back in town. Nothing I can't handle." The words sound forced, but Alice does her best not to show her concern - Nighthawk doesn't seem like the sympathetic type.

She waves to Pretty Deadly and smiles at Skylark as they arrive, remaining outside watching the street as Nighthawk checks the interior of the building. From old instinct she scans the rooftops and windows to make sure their presence hasn't been observed.

[Gilliam]

Nighthawk

The first thing that you notice as you enter the former restaurant is that it has been trashed, tags adorn the inside walls with a pride of place given to the same gang tag that was on the back door. Remains of meals litter some of the tables and the floor and are several days old considering their condition.

Feeling a tingle your new blood senses alert you to the presense of another person inside the building, even though the darkness is as daylight to you you cannot see anybody from where you are standing but you are very certain that there is someone there.

Gun Girl

Outside it is silent, even the faint sounds of vehicles seem almost another world away.

[badpenny]

Nighthawk

"Someone's inside," Nighthawk told the others. He'd already made a racket opening the door, so there was little call for stealth now.

He doesn't have Tracking, so he'll have to go exploring.

[FuzzyBoots]

Pretty Deadly
HP: 2
Status: Fine

Aika rolled her eyes at Nighthawk's lack of response and mouthed "killjoy" to Gun Girl and Skylark before unholstering her stun gun and proceeding behind Nighthawk, checking a different part of the building, padding surprisingly silently given her flamboyant garb.

OOC: Taking 10 on Stealth for 21 since we're not under a lot of stress at the moment. Search of... 17, I guess if I Take 10 there too?

[Ysariel]

Skylark
Condition: Normal / HP: 1

Skylark blinked as she realised she'd just been flashed. The Falcon's protege shook her head. "Checking out the place sounds like a good idea," she agreed. "It was shut down under suspicious circumstances after all."

Hopping down after Pretty Deadly, Skylark shrugged at the comment. Nighthawk was hardly the sociable type, after all. "Glad to see you're fine," she nodded at Gun Girl, waving her into the building. "You go check things out, I'll stand guard here."

Posting from phone

[baixiwei]

Gun Girl

Gun Girl smiles at Skylark, then follows the others into the building in a ready stance. She stays near the door and draws her gun, ready to back up Nighthawk and Pretty. Surely stealth is superfluous as whoever's here must have noticed their presence.

[Gilliam]

Dennys

As you enter the restaurant a woman's voice calls out from a booth running on the side of the room.

"Finally, it took you long enough. Come on in and take a seat, those wannabes gangsters won't be back any time soon" she says with an exasperated tone in her voice. "The lights do work, do you mind"

"My pleasure" an amused male voice responds from the other side of the room and with a click the lights flicker on revealing a trashed room. By the booth is a dark haired woman wearing a black jumpsuit with a large gun strapped to her leg, she is just over 5 and a half feet in height and is now resting on one of the tables.

Gun Girl recognises her from the roof top

On the other side of the room is a nearly 6 foot tall man wearing the latest designer clothes complete with trench coat and surprisingly sunglasses even though it is nighttime, a half smile is on his lips as he observes you all. "Don't worry we don't bite" he says with a voice that is almost lyrical.

Nighthawk recognises the man from the cultists hideout and Pretty Deadly recognises him as well as Rick Van Danski.

OOC
Will give people a chance to respond if you want to otherwise I will jump into the explanation.

[Ysariel]

Skylark
Condition: Normal / HP: 1

Skylark has her sword out in a flash; she keeps it collapsed, though. The mask hides her expression as she sizes up the two strangers. "Who are you guys?" she asks the obvious question from her position by the door. A pause, followed by: "and how'd you know we'd be here tonight?"

[badpenny]

Nighthawk

Nighthawk folded his arms across his chest. He wasn't surprised, not really. Whoever this guy was, he'd found Nighthawk once before. It was a little annoying that he was playing along, and blindly at that. Perhaps that made it worse.

"I'm sure they'll tell us," Nighthawk replied to Skylark. "I can hear their egos from across the room."

[FuzzyBoots]

Pretty Deadly
HP: 2
Status: Fine

Hearing the sounds of conversation, Pretty Deadly followed them to find the rest of the team confronting two people, one of them very familiar.
"The dark broody one over their is Rick Van Danski, famous rock star and occasional mysterious recluse," she said, giving Rick the gimlet eye, "Your fans miss you, Ricky boy, and I've been wanting to have a few words with you about using me as a catspaw, paying me for a meeting and then dropping me in the middle of... your enemies we might suppose?" She turned to the others in the team.
"Ricky here met me on a rooftop and told me to meet him at that warehouse. I'm guessing the rest of you also got invitation to this... this snipe hunt."

OOC: ^_^ Yes, that's not really what he said, but that's what she remembers him as having said.

And I tried to find a Japanese equivalent to the "snipe hunt", but failed.

[Gilliam]

Dennys

"I'm sure they'll tell us," Nighthawk replied to Skylark after her rapid couple of questions. "I can hear their egos from across the room."

"And here I thought you were the nice boy" the woman replies with a hint of a genuine smile on her lips.

"The dark broody one over their is Rick Van Danski, famous rock star and occasional mysterious recluse," Pretty Deadly said, giving Rick the gimlet eye, "Your fans miss you, Ricky boy, and I've been wanting to have a few words with you about using me as a catspaw, paying me for a meeting and then dropping me in the middle of... your enemies we might suppose?"

Pretty Deadly turned to the others in the team. "Ricky here met me on a rooftop and told me to meet him at that warehouse. I'm guessing the rest of you also got invitation to this... this snipe hunt."

"Oh a fan" Rick says as he straightens up "I didn't think to bring any signed photos but if you have a lp cover or a poster I could sign it or maybe your top ..." His voice trails off as he notices the dirty look from his partner.

Waiting a couple of seconds in case Rick started talking again the woman continues

"They are fair questions and you all deserve some answers." as she looks at everybody "Firstly my name is Kismet and I am a member of ForceOps, "Ricky" here helps us and calls it a business expense. ForceOps was founded by Archer whom I assume you have all heard off and we are trying to protect and bring justice to this city until the Moore Act gets tossed in the bin."

"One of Archer's sources mention a number of names of individuals who had a similar outlook to us and were trying to make a difference"

"Wait a minute Kismet are you saying that this is one of Weird Mag .." Rick interrupts until another look from Kismet shuts him up.

"As you are probably aware there is a lot going wrong in this city no matter what City Hall or the media say and ForceOps can't be everywhere. We tracked down most of the names our source suggested though I see one of them isn't here tonight and" looking directly at Skylark "I don't recall you being on the list, unless .. hmm ... you were perhaps the fledgling. There were a couple of names that we couldn't put bodies to but our source is never wrong just vague. Anyway we knew META was a problem but we had other things we were dealing with that meant META ranked down our list so, I don't make any apologies but we pointed you in the direction to destroy the distribution site."

"You all did a lot better than we ever expected and we never thought that RIOT would show up yet you gave them their biggest hiding that I can recall" and you all can detect the admiration in Kismet's voice as she continues "As to how we knew you would be here tonight lets call it a trade secret"

"Trade secret my ass. I guess that this is from our source but this would be the fourth night in a row that we have spent all night waiting in this dump for these heroes to turn up" Rick volunteers, ignoring the look from Kismet "and I have had to cancel a number of shows too though singing you to sleep almost makes up for it."

With a slight sigh as though she has heard this many times before, Kismet continues "While it is not always obvious we found that working as a group especially in this modern Freedom City increased our chances of survival and I or ForceOps would like you all to continue. This place here could be a good base if you don't have one as the previous squatters are still running out of town" and you sense that Kismet is not looking at Rick at all,

"Also there are a couple of places that have stockpiles of META and if you can destroy it, I know that a lot of people would be a lot happier once that drug is gone for good. Now I am sure that you have questions"

You all are aware that Archer was the formerly known as Arrow and was the sidekick of Bowman. Back in 1978 Bowman entered combat drunk with Arrow and caused a very humiliating public defeat of the crime fighting duo. After that Arrow operated solo until he took the name Archer in 1980 and started waging a one man war on crime using lethal force. The Bowman disgrace and actions of Archer were used as examples of why costumed heroes should be outlawed by Moore during his election campaign. It is fair to say that Archer is number 1 on the City's Most Wanted List.

[badpenny]

Nighthawk

"And we intend to continue," Nighthawk stated simply, as if he didn't need Kismet's or Force Ops' approval to do so.

He looked around at the interior of the Denny's. "I'd like something a little more remote. Hiding in plain sight is one thing, but what's to stop other squatters attempting entry, or the place being sold for development right out from under us?" He shook his head once. "Not for me."

There weren't enough ways to enter unobserved--way too many potential eyes on the property, he mused.