Half-Dragon

OOC: I took a look, but just to be sure: Has anyone asked any questions of MacTaggart about the case or should the heroes just get started?NPC: It was hard to tell under the mask, but it seemed like Ultionis was frowning. "We'll see when we get there. For now-" He let go of Aquarius and shoved him roughly in the direction of the jet. "-let's just focus on getting the prisoner to where he can't do any damage." He looked over at Lodestone. "I assume I don't have to tell you not to let him out of your sight. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I trust those stasis cuffs to do the job alone."H-D

NPC: Ultionis nodded at Mystic. "If we do, I can't talk about it and probably haven't been told." They did. "But like I said, either he goes with me or I go with him. Like it or not, this is our interest, and even you can't think the kidnapping of Danielle Thomas is going to be in your hands completely. I'll tell my superiors we're using your prison facilities. They like to think they're in charge. They'd tell you to think of me as a representative of U.S. interests. I'll tell you to think of me as the guy who let them get away once and isn't gonna let it happen again."H-D

NPC: Once the stasis cuffs were fitted, Ultionis stepped in before Aquarius could be brought to the League jet. "Hold up. As of right now this man is a prisoner of the federal government. Until he's answered our questions, either he goes with me or I go with him. After that, you can put him through whatever you do at your penitentiaries."H-D

NPC: It didn't take long for Ultionis to return and find the last battle still in progress, if you could call it that. The hydrokinetic, Aquarius, looked to be seriously outmatched without his powers, and what remained of the Secret Service (plus actual police) were on the scene. There were cars all around, and it looked like they'd deployed snipers too. There was even one with a megaphone saying "Attention supervillain: We have you surrounded. We are authorized to use lethal force. Cease and desist all hostile or aggressive actions. Further hostile or aggressive actions will be met with lethal force." There was a bunch more about his offenses, this law and that law, nothing Ultionis had time for. He just loaded both pistols with a clip full of tranquilizers, stepped out of his vehicle and got ready to fire at the slightest provocation.H-D

NPC: Ultionis' features were hard to read - his mask covers his whole face - but his body language suggested restrained anger as he wordlessly stepped back into the vehicle and shut the top with the touch of a button. Inside he checked his computer to be sure - yep. The one he tagged with the radiation was nowhere in this state, and there weren'tenough surveillance satellites with the equipment to detect that kind of radiation to do a better sweep. All he could say for certain was: Not in Washington, not in Tibet, not on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Brilliant. He turned the cycle around and headed back to check on the wounded and report a mission failure. With any luck he would have a chance to make up for it once the ransom note came in.H-D

NPC: Ultionis nodded and closed the hatch again, heading off after her. Being that he was the one in a vehicle, it took much less time for him to arrive at the entrance, screeching to a halt, and jump out carrying an assault rifle and with a pair of pistols strapped to his thighs. "As I was saying: Might be easier to open the door than smash through it. I know how to do that."H-D

OOC: ...I could've sworn I'd read that post ^^;; My bad!NPC: Ultionis just shook his head. Now the heroes were getting in his way? Unintentionally, sure, but it was getting irritating. Then again, heroes interfering was nothing new to him - they seemed to object to his methods. Since this was likely to happen again with a ferrokinetic in the way, and he'd left his ceramic-tippped, non-ferrous piercing rounds in the cycle (that's not a joke) he would simply have to switch targets. Lessee... Pyrokinetic: Immune to bullets. Airokinetic: Has the hostage. Dark-matter guy: Already out of the fight, and anyway it might not be safe to shoot him. He sighed. Why must supers make a simple job so darn difficult? Well, at least he was able to observe Typhoon's method of entry through the scope and memorize the details. They'd gone through a lot of trouble to hide that safehouse. Without him the heroes might not have found the entrance in time. Come to that, they still might not if he didn't hurry. His job as a sniper was more or less done. He packed up the rifle (in pieces, for easy transport) and dashed down the stairs to the half-a-billion-dollar piece of hardware he called his ride.The basic idea was a motorcycle, but those dinky things bikers used proved insufficient, so it was scaled up a bit. A lot. Ever seen Final Fantasy Advent Children? Think of the FENRIS motorcycle, only with armor. Lots of armor. In fact there isn't actually a single opening until the top panel slides back to allow entry. The wheels are significantly wider to account for the weight and balance, and threated with titanium and kevlar to keep enemies from simply shooting them. The armor is slightly more durable than the average tank with half the weight - a new alloy, expensive as pure diamonds so even the military could only afford so much. That is, of course, just the defensive capability. With side-mounted 9 mm. gattling guns, armor-piercing rockets, a rotating, top-mounted grenade launcher fitted with specialized ammo, a flamethrower routed through the exhaust pipe and razor-sharp, titanium alloy spikes in the wheels, he felt comfortable taking on any superhuman threat in this baby. Especially since all the above were retractable with the push of a button, turning it from a pod/motorcycle transport vehicle into a hybrid of a tank, a cycle and an armory in under three seconds. There was even a little inscription on the side in latin, which roughly translated to "Though I Ride through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Shall Fear no Evil, for I am Driving a Horse-Sized Mass of **** You!" Poetic.It was in this beast that he drove up to the heroes pursuing the kidnapper, coming to a halt next to two of them. He steps out of the pod-cycle and nods to them. "I don't suppose either of you know how to get in there."OOC: FYI: Those two are Nightwatch and Mystic.H-D

OOC: So that's why he hasn't responded! I had Ultionis shooting at Aquarius here. Any chance you could fill in on that? If not, I could just switch targets. Which villains are neither immune to bullets nor holding a valuable hostage?And yes, I do try to avoid full-OOC posts, but this seemed unavoidable.H-D

NPC: Ultionis seemed to figure the same way as Mystic, after finally making the trip to where he could get a clear shot anywhere on the battlefield (that involved running down a building, getting on his motorcycle and driving to another building, which he then had to run up because he was faster than the elevator). But rather than try to contact them, he went for a shortcut and loaded another stun round to fire at Aquarius. Thankfully he'd already made all the necessary adjustments on his way here, so now it was just a matter of waiting for him to present an opportunity while he was fighting Lodestone, and...BANG!OOC: He knows he doesn't have to yell that, but no one can hear him over the gun It's a loud gun.H-D

OOC: Should be noted that that was a stun round, so he wouldn't have died from it... maybe fallen to his death, but not died of the impact. He reduced the power on the gun just for that.NPC: Ultionis considered, for a moment, switching to one of the alternate vision modes of the scope - infrared, maybe - but the cloud was too hot for thermal vision and too dense for the other attempts. If it kept up that way, he would no longer be able to shoot at them. Just as well. Let them think he's lost them, or given up. The one holding Danielle was still marked with harmless radiation that, through just the right filter, would glow straight through three yards of solid concrete. A simple satellite hookup from the on-board computer on his ride and he would follow them straight home. After that, a simple hostage rescue from a hostile base of unknown layout with four, maybe five supervillains crawling around inside. Okay, scratch that; even he wouldn't have an easy time with that one. But at least he knew the objective here.H-D

NPC: Ultionis was getting tired of this. He had just about neutralized that threat, and now it got worse because of- Wait. He zoomed in his scope a bit. That wrist - the pyro was favoring it clearly. The metal cap of the fire hydrant had hit it dead-on, enough power to shatter an average human wrist, and it seemed not to have gone through or anything. His earlier bullet had passed clean through the fiery form. Did that mean it was now inactive? That he could turn it on and off? That he could now be hurt? Perfect. He loaded another stun round and took aim quickly. No fancy stuff here: Target was moving at measured speed, figure out where he'll be when and shoot him. Child's play. Slight adjustments for power, precision, account for gravity and wind speed/direction, aim and...BANG!H-D

NPC: Ultionis didn't even bother cursing. Supers, be they hero or villain, always seemed to have some kind of luck. Sometimes very good, sometimes very bad, but never in the middle. But neither good luck nor an ice shield would help against an armor-penetrating round that could go through a tank and out the other end in one shot... unfortunately the ice villain was no longer a serious priority (no more so than usual, anyway). Tactically advantageous as it might be to remove the weakened member of the team now and spare the trouble later, those others were providing covering fire that was decimating those agents. His first thought was to remove the one the science officer viewing the scene had told him was made of anti-matter via radio contact just before he set up. Unfortunately again, he knew what might happen if he ran a charge of electricity through anti-matter. He'd once used an anti-matter explosive - the actual payload was no larger than his thumbnail, and a tiny electric charge had caused it to annihilate a fortress the size of Fort Knox. He did not want to think what would happen if he seriously damaged the anti-matter man. That left the pyrokinetic, or plasma judging by the damage he'd wrought earlier - that wasn't fire. But bullets didn't work, he was out of extinguishers and the R&D boys hadn't figured out how to make cryo grenades into sniper rounds yet. That left only one option. The foam should by now have hardened and sealed completely, making it very difficult to simply wash off, so in theory he could do more good than harm if he took very careful aim at that fire hydrant, shot the top off at just the right angle (a trick he'd learned only by trial and error) and let loose a torrent of water all over the guy made of fire. Adjust power, aim, compensate for external factors- he moved, recalculate, and...BANG!H-D

OOC: Thanks.NPC: Jona glanced over at Magneta and nodded apologetically. "Sorry, used to briefing detectives. Not a lot of women sign up for the job, and maybe half those make it through training. Anyway, Eisling's favorite hangouts are all in the same district. Head down to Soho and look for any bar that's still standing or that's been rebuilt. I know with your superpowers this probably shouldn't be a big deal, but watch yourselves anyway. Ever since the war, those bars are a haven for criminals. No prizes for guessing just how popular heroes are. You might even see some familiar faces, if you're the type to go around busting basic robberies."She closed the file on Dylan Eisling and extended it to the heroes assembled. "Here. Might be useful. Should tell you anything we know about him, not that that's as much as we'd like. If you need anything else or have any other questions, now's the time to ask. Otherwise, dismissed."H-D

OOC: Sorry, I don't think I caught Surge's post. It seems to have gotten lost in the flood these last few pages. Anyone mind linking it if you know where it is? Come to think of it, there are others with him, I think.NPC: Ultionis finally had his sniper rifle back in position - after the bugs found him last time he'd had to relocate to the next rooftop. Luckily it was only a four-meter jump with a backpack full of heavy paramilitary equipment. He was now set up and ready to serve... except that one who now had the girl was several hundred feet in the air. It seemed he could be hurt, but it would drop her to the ground. Unacceptible. But he did have one trick he could use: The rifle was equipped to 'paint' a target for easy identification with an invisible laser (invisible to humans - if they could see into the infrared spectrum, maybe that'd be different) and he had long since found this useful for tracking targets to safehouses. Using a computer installed in his cycle he would be able to track them across the state. In the meantime, since it was perfectly clear they weren't planning to harm her (yet) he shifted his sights to someone he could shoot: Aquarius. The only one he recognized from previous intelligence briefings, the others were probably new or low-profile villains up to now. This one wasn't made of water or able to heal himself instantly or something. This one could get shot with an anti-tank round and die. But... he might be more useful alive. Reconsidering this, Ultionis selected a different round from his pack. The new one was more like a powerful stun dart; it would adhere to Aquarius' body and run a few hundred volts through it, rated to render most superhumans lacking enhanced durability unconscious. He knows because he checked. Load the new round, adjust power so it hits without going straight through the body, account for different weight, wind direction and strength, distance, et cetera and...BANG!H-D

Ultionis: Between fully-body armor and built-in goggles (not like blast goggles, more like small, almond-shaped lenses over his eyes) there was no purchase for the bees - their stings wouldn't go through kevlar, to say nothing of the titanium alloy. That said, they were really screwing up his shot. Rather than try ineffectually to swat at them, he withdrew something from a pouch at his belt and started running off across the rooftop, allowing the insects to follow, cursing all the while. How the heck did she even know where he was? And since when were there this many bees this close? Bah, no time to question it... He was fast - faster even than a swarm of bugs - and once he managed to outdistance them enough he dropped what he'd been holding in his hand: A blue and white grenade with a snowflake insignia. And no pin.This time there was no gunshot, but there was a different kind of bang - like a firecracker mixed with a river snap-freezing. He skidded to a halt and turned to see if any of the insects remained.H-D

NPC: Ultionis saw the events unfold - better than he'd thought. Things actually worked out almost like he'd thought they would. Still, no time to gloat. This threat might not have been entirely neutralized (it's hard to be sure what superhumans can do) and still searching for him (a black-and-dark-blue speck three blocks away against a still-rising cloud of black smoke) but another was rapidly appearing: The bug-girl was threatening the President's daughter. Priority one was in danger. That meant the use of a one-time trinket R&D had just brought out. After adjusting the setting on the rifle and inserting the new ammunition (this time the only one he had) he did some quick calculations of exact area of effect using the scope on the gun. Wait for opportune moment and...BANG!Unlike before, this one did not hit the ground and explode. The gunshot propelled a spike that embedded itself in the ground not far behind Ms. Insect (he didn't know her actual name) and promptly opened up at the top, revealing a small, blue, glowing thing that pulsed for just a moment before giving off its payload: A small, controlled emmission of high-voltage electricity jumped out at everything within exactly one meter, including the insects. Of course with the girl so close he had to sacrifice some effectiveness for the safety margin - Ms. Insect was almost out of range. Almost. Odds were good she'd survive, but unscathed? Not so much. If nothing else it'd give her cause to start running. Flying. Whatever.H-D

NPC: Thankfully this time he was only going for the nearby buildings - the range of this rifle being what it was, Ultionis was a good three blocks away. Isn't modern technology grand? But no time to pat himself on the back: There was exactly one of these bullets left, and the pyrokinetic was off the ground - too far for the foam to reach, and he wasn't solid enough for the impact itself to do any damage. There were other weapons he could resort to, of course, but none would work at this distance except the rifle, and that- Hmm...From here it looked like that pyro was right above the jet of water. The substance in the bullet expanded and hardened on contact with air, if he aimed and timed this just perfectly he should be able to fire a round right into the jet and have it carry the foam up to the villain before it expanded or hardened properly. Plus what got out to the sides would seal the leak, but not fast enough to stop the rising foam. All conjecture, rather vague at this point, but hey, not like he had any better ideas. He took careful aim, waited until the pyro was busy attacking a random building and...BANG!H-D

NPC: Ultionis jumped back, pulling the gun with him at the last possible moment, and cursed again. Luckily he had thought to do that before anything hit - Plasma beams: Very fast. Noted. He loaded another red round (the second of three) and relocated to somewhere he could get a clear shot without the big, smoky crater in the side of the building getting in his way. If nothing else, it would be hard to see his dark blue-and-black armor against the smoke... harder than it already was at this distance. So essentially impossible to anyone without superhuman vision or some kind of telescope. Another round, but this time aimed more carefully. The pyrokinetic had put himself close to the fire hydrant, but he'd leave soon enough. They didn't often like water, especially this one he'd wager. He had to act now. This next round would not only cover him in foam, but also plug up the hydrant so he couldn't rely on the same trick twice. Ultionis was trained to fight superhumans; you don't survive long that way without learning to think on your feet.BANG!H-D

NPC: Ultionis cursed. There went plan A. Now he was going to have to use one of those 'special ammunition' bullets the R&D boys had cooked up. He didn't really mind usually, an incendiary or explosive clip could save his life, but this one was a bit... gimmicky. Still, what works works, so he loaded up another round into his rifle, this one bright red and white to keep him from confusing it with the rest. That was because this one, on impact, would explode and release an oxygen-suppressant foam similar to what firefighters used, but designed to expand much faster. Soon the stuff would be all over a three meter radius of the impact point, which if Ultionis' aim was true (it always was) would be right at the pyrokinetic's feet.Adjust for added weight of compressed foam, wind, distance, gravity and...BANG!H-D

NPC: So the President's daughter shows signs of superhuman abilities and these villain punks seemed to honestly believe they could kidnap her without facing some kind of anti-supervillain force. Cute. Of course, since there were so many of them (control had expected one or two within a few months, but this many was outside predictions) plain-clothes wouldn't cut it; Donovan Lock, ex-military with a list of accomplishments longer than his sniper rifle (at least, that's what people were allowed to know) had to vanish for a while to put on some armor. He felt a bit stupid with the code-name - he wasn't a superhero, for crying out loud - but Ultionis was far better equipped to handle the situation, with kevlar-and-titanium-alloy body armor and a few specialized tricks up his sleeve if the thugs thought to look up.But hopefully he wouldn't need it. The aforementioned sniper rifle was out - a custom weapon rated to go clean through tank armor in one shot, with specialized ammo for just such occasions as this - and he was on top of a building three blocks away from the action. He would've preferred farther, but time constraints were a pain. Now he just had to sight down on the pyrokinetic (he wasn't entirely sure what all the others could do, but one appeared to deflect bullets before they even hit and another was made of bugs - this one might die if sniped in the head) and wait for the exact opportune moment...BANG!H-D

NPC: "More or less," Jona agreed. "You track him down, see what he knows and why anyone would steal his case file. He probably has enemies. Aside from us, that is. Normally I'd do this one myself, but if that speedster shows up there'll be nothing I can do."H-D

NPC: "Way ahead of you, I'm afraid," Jona interrupted. "All were accused of the same thing - kidnapping and murder - all pleaded innocent, said they'd been framed - just like every other crook in New York - and all were convicted. Other than that, nothing I-"At that point there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a reply, an officer opened the door, waving a file. "Chief! We got something." He tossed the file on her table. "Another file was stolen - they didn't find out right away because it was in a room halfway across the building. This one's different. It's Eisling, ma'am."Chief MacTaggart's eyes widened and she opened the file immediately. "Well, talk about timing. Looks like we've got something for you, boys." She showed the heroes gathered a picture of a scruffy-looking, caucasian man with muddy brown hair and a squint. "Meet Dylan Eisling. Suspected thief, mugger, arsonist, kidnapper and murderer. I say suspected because we've never once been able to pin anything on him. Never even went to court - before we could get a warrant, the witnesses change their stories, evidence gets tampered with, you name it. We've known someone was protecting him for years, but Internal Affairs dragged their feet. Seems our mystery thief was as interested in him as we are."How do you boys feel about a little footwork?"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------At about that moment, in a darkened room somewhere in the city, Dylan Eisling all but fell against a brick wall, supported only by a hand pressed against his chest. The hand belonged to a figure in skintight clothing much like the outfits worn by heroes and villains alike, showing a muscular, athletic figure, but no details could be seen in the darkness. "Talk." The figure's voice grated with anger.The suspect glared, trying to hide his terror. "I got nothing to say to yOof!" The last part was interrupted by a heavy blow to the gut. He coughed and tried again. "You can just... just go back to your League or whatever and tell'em I didn't do noth-""Wrong answer." Suddenly Dylan found himself tossed forward to land across a table nearby. Just as he was about to object, though, the same hand that had held his chest before now gripped his arm, and another came flying down at his hand- CRACK! Dylan Eisling screamed, but was cut off as the figure tossed him back up against the wall and held a hand up to his throat, allowing just enough air to breathe. "You have a lot more bones to break. Start talking."The terrified man nodded mutely. The hand on his throat loosened enough for him to talk, and he whimpered pathetically. "O-okay... Every now and then a guy comes to me, says he's from the DA's office. Says his name's Eliott. I do some jobs for him - my gang and I, we grab some guy and make him vanish. We never get arrested for nothin'. That's all I know, I swear!" If he thought the pain would stop because he talked, he was sadly mistaken, as another blow to the gut informed him, followed by a left hook right to the jaw. Eisling fell to the ground in a heap.The figure stood over Eisling. "What are you more afraid of: Prison or me?" Unable to speak, Eisling gestured at the shadowed figure emphatically. "The police will know I took your file. They'll find you. When they do, you plead guilty." Apparently Eisling was one hundred per cent behind the idea of a thick, concrete wall between himself and the man who had just broken his hand. He nodded vehemently. The figure turned to leave, but paused. "And not one word of our little talk to them, understand?" Another terrified nod. The man seemed satisfied.There was a brief rush of air and the man vanished in a streak of black.H-D

NPC: "I spent fifteen minutes explaining that on the phone," Jona muttered, shaking her head. Out loud she continued, "Okay, I'll give you the condensed version: A federal building was broken into by a speedster. We don't know who it was and no identifiable traces were left. Cameras offline, no fingerprints, the works. But the only thing stolen were seven criminal files. There were a hundred more valuable things the thief could've taken, but he or she took files from seven almost completely unrelated crimes. Our investigation has hit a dead end, so we're hoping you've got some way of figuring out a next step. Superhuman dealings are your department, after all."H-D

OOC: Sorry it took me a while to reply here - things tend to jump around the hours I'm asleep. I blame time zones. Anyone who knows me will be familiar with this.NPC: Jona MacTaggart looked up from her paperwork as the League dispatch entered the office. "Ah," she said, straightening up, "good. You're here. Sorry, there's a lot of paperwork with cases like these. If you've never assisted official detective work before, I'm sorry to tell you you'll be required to do some later. Filling out reports of exactly what you saw, what happened, evidence and so forth. We don't advertise it when we're looking for help. Anyway, I assume the League already briefed you on the case?"H-D

NPC: New York Police Chief William Surhoff sighed and rubbed his temples. “So let me see if I’ve got this straight: Someone walked right into a federal office building, knocked out four trained guards, stole files on seven convicted criminals, hit the central security terminal, erased all footage of the entire thing… and the four of you couldn’t even get a good look at him?”The men in front of him shifted nervously. Though the chief of police was a rather short, slightly pudgy man with thinning, black hair and didn’t look very threatening at all, his eyes at that moment could have cut diamonds. Eventually one of them spoke up. “Well, I mean, he was obviously powered. Super-speed. We’re just regular guys, we ain’t trained to handle super-“Surhoff cut him off with a glower. “You’re telling me this guy was wearing colored tights and you still can’t describe him?” Ignoring the stuttered protests that they hadn’t even seen the man, he gestured irritably at the door. “You’re all dismissed. Get outta my office.” The men wasted no time in complying.Jona MacTaggart, the tall, red-haired chief of detectives who had been standing off to the side of the room, chose this moment to speak up. “Well, whoever our mystery thief was, he was good. My best forensics couldn’t find more than footprints, and those are so scuffed they could’ve been anyone’s. No fingerprints, no signs of struggle, no dropped hairs, not even a known MO. Probably knew our methods and wiped all the evidence.”Surhoff’s mood was not brightened by this information. “So what you’re telling me is that we’ve got nothing.” MacTaggart surprised him by shaking her head. “Not exactly nothing. We ran a check on those files. The criminals detailed don’t have any known connection except they were all convicted of the same crimes: Kidnapping and murder. Funny thing is, lots of other crooks have that on their records too, but the thief went for these exact files. Like he already knew what he was looking for. There’s no sign he even looked at the other files.”Surhoff huffed. “What about the victims? What did they have in common?”Jona frowned. “The victims didn’t seem to have anything in common. Age, gender, race, nothing to do with it. Most of them had some kind of federal position – a secretary from the DA’s office, a couple of important political figures – but one was just a college girl, and another was a family man in Brooklyn. We can’t find any solid links.”The chief of police glared at her. “So what you’re telling me is that we’ve got nothing.”She sighed. “We know it was a speedster, one of the guards reported seeing a black blur right before he blacked out. We know he has a motive beyond just a quick buck, or works for someone who does. And we know he had some compunction against killing those guards; they were the last piece of evidence. But other than that, yes, I’m telling you we’ve got nothing. That’s why I’m calling the League for help.”It didn’t seem like William Surhoff could get any more foul-tempered, but he did. “Those costumed freaks? This is a police matter! It was a federal building that got robbed!”Though Nature had seen fit to grant her a gangly, awkward physique, Jona MacTaggart managed the impressive feat of appearing completely cool under Surhoff’s fiery admonitions. “The criminal is a speedster, Bill. Even if we ID him, we’d need a way to actually catch him, and no offense to your boys, but they can’t handle super villains any better than those security guards. Besides, it’s my investigation and I’ve already made the call. We’ve already briefed them on everything so far. Now we just wait and see who answers the call.”OOC: Which, by the way, could be anyone in the League with an investigative bent. Heck, even one of the solo heroes might’ve heard about it. Go on. You know you want to…H-D