Rumpelstiltskin

IC: (NPC - Spectral)Moving as quietly as his alias implied, Spectral ducked into the mouth of the alleyway and checked to see if he was being followed. A foolish thought, considering he was invisible, but you could never be too careful. Anyone slinking along an alley in the middle of the night was bound to be up to trouble, whether they held a valid League ID or not.It had taken nearly half the day to get results back from the fingerprints found in Gabriel Lapointe's apartment, but those results had led Spectral to a Hungarian mercenary who just happened to be in the vicinity of Paris, according to some of Spectral's contacts. He supposed he owed Aquarius for teaching him how to ferret out information from the criminal underground; it seemed that there were always some criminals who were more than willing to tell everything they knew to a Hero, so long as that Hero turned a blind eye to their own meager crimes. And through the proper channels, it hadn't been too hard to arrange a meeting with that mercenary, either.Spectral turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks; well, perhaps dead better described the man lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the alleyway. Shimmering into visibility almost subconsciously, Spectral rushed over to the body, dropping down onto his knees to check for a pulse. No such luck; the man's pallid skin was still and cold to the touch. Frowning as he pulled his glove back on, Spectral studied the corpse. He didn't need his medical degree to determine that the enormous gash in the man's chest had been the cause of death; he had probably died of a severed artery before a punctured lung could have done him in. And there was only one weapon he knew of that could make a wound like that..."Le Gardien," he growled as he stood up."Consorting with criminals?" a mechanized voice said from farther down the alley. An armored figure stepped into view, the clinking of his armor far quieter than Spectral would have believed possible. The murder weapon, an enormous greatsword that couldn't be lifted without SuperHuman strength, was sheathed across Le Gardien's back."Your face is familiar," the vigilante continued in his native French. "You work for the League?""Oui," Spectral replied sourly, stepping around the pool of blood to confront the armored figure. "And if you know that, you should have a good idea of just how upset I am that you killed this man."Le Gardien folded his arms and tilted his head in a manner that gave Spectral the impression that he was raising his eyebrow. "This man was a mercenary, wanted in six different countries for more crimes than I'd care to count. I merely put him out of business...permanently.""What you did was murder my only lead in a kidnapping investigation!" Spectral snapped back, turning around to glare at the dead body like it had been his fault. "How the h*** am I supposed to find Gabriel Lapointe now?"The clank of metal on pavement was the only indication Spectral had that Le Gardien had moved, but it was enough for him to instinctively turn intangible. He spun through the Solo Hero's arm and whipped out his telescopic staff, flicking it out to its full length and assuming a defensive position behind Le Gardien. To his credit, Le Gardien merely turned around nonchalantly, acting like he had never intended to slam Spectral into the wall by his collar."What did you say about Gabriel Lapointe?" Le Gardien asked quietly."He's been kidnapped," Spectral answered, lowering his staff and cocking his head to one side. "You know him?"Now it was Le Gardien's turn to glare at the dead man behind him. After a very long pause, he responded. "Yes. He's an old friend; a retired Hero I was quite fond of. A man with many enemies."That explained a lot. "Perhaps you can help me find him.""You and your League's code of honor will only get in my way," Le Gardien replied absently. "I'll handle this from here."Spectral had to keep himself from smacking the man in the back of his helmet. "And exactly what authority do you have to order me around?"Once again, Le Gardien surprised him with the speed and grace only years of practice could produce, especially bogged down in a suit of armor. In one smooth motion he had drawn that impossibly large sword, spun on on heel, and pointed the weapon at Spectral's head. Only by remaining intangible had Spectral managed not to flinch."Listen to me, pretty boy," Le Gardien hissed. "You'll stay out of my way, or you will regret it. Do you understand me?"Spectral was flabbergasted. Pretty boy? He'd always heard it said that he was the most attractive member of the New York Four, but he'd never believed it. He'd seen women literally swoon over Loadstone and Aquarius, and Mechanic's bad-boy looks combined with his sincere nature put him in the same league of cute as a litter of puppies. But pretty boy? Now that was just uncalled for.Flashing Le Gardien a smirk that held about as much mirth as a dog's snarl, Spectral threw back his own insults. "I know you think you're God's gift to France, old man, but I've got news for you." The way the Frenchman's back stiffened at being called an old man was very satisfying. "Your version of justice is nearly two hundred years out of date. Personally, I would think that threatening a member of the world's largest organization of SuperHeroes would be one of the quickest ways for you to get your metallic keister tossed in a jail cell for however much longer you plan on living, but clearly with all your brawn you don't have brains enough to think in those terms."And trust me, if we can keep someone like Alakazam from escaping for nearly ten years, we can certainly find a place to stick you."Le Gardien's chest heaved with a particularly aggressive sigh, but he sheathed his sword nonetheless. "Perhaps a...truce...is in order," he said reluctantly, each word sounding like it had been pulled from him. "If we keep each other informed, we can cover twice as much ground as we could on our own."Spectral relaxed his stance somewhat. "I'd settle for you not murdering any suspects I manage to get my hands on, but I'll keep you in the loop if you tell me if you find anything.""Done," Le Gardien said, turning and stalking off down the alley without so much as a look back. The man was not a people person, that was for sure, but Spectral had just gotten more cooperation from the legendary Frenchman than anyone in the League had managed to since the organization's founding. He couldn't help but wonder, just who was this Gabriel Lapointe?~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: You know, I think I can hardly be faulted for not knowing the exact outcome of the use of certain military weapons in very specific scenarios, especially considering the fact that my genre of expertise is fantasy, where a crossbow is about as complicated as it gets. That being said, I do try to keep things as accurate to life as possible, and I appreciate that humans would not survive the blast. Once you throw in armor-skinned creatures that have many components of shark anatomy, however, things become a bit tricky to envision accurately. Shark-men, not Man-sharks, implies that their interior physiology is based much more on the shark side of things, in which case they could withstand depths of far more than 33 ft. and higher atmospheric pressures. Thick skin helps hold things together, as well; at worst, I can see them having a serious case of decompression sickness, which they thankfully did not survive long enough to suffer.Keeping in mind that we are dealing with creatures and scenarios not found commonly in the real world, I am more than happy to invoke the fiction portion of science fiction. The man who thought it wise to use explosive weapons in an enclosed space has made no arguments against my defense, save saying that he had expected no less. Considering that your scientific assertions place the attack squarely in the realm of one-hit godmodding, I think we should just drop the subject and move on. One way or another, the Sharkmen are now dead, and whether you consider the last few posts and just how they were killed relevant or not is entirely up to you. :)Now, I did have an NPC post I've been meaning to write, and I may attempt to edit it in. Given my recent track record, however, I don't consider it likely.~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: *taps chin thoughtfully* Sharkmen are designed to withstand the pressures of being underwater? 33 ft. of water is double the entire atmosphere's pressure. That's why they survived? I'm pretty sure we were all but certain he was dead, yeah. I always thought he had a spot in the Hall, but not having anything of his I'm not sure what they would have put there to remember him...Actually, funny that you should mention that. I've been recently working on a general layout/map of the mansion/base (something you'd think we'd have after five years), and came up with an idea for the location of the Hall. Since everyone's constantly running around the mansion and the base, yet no one has ever even mentioned the Hall in passing, I was wondering if it couldn't be it's own stand-alone structure out in the gardens behind the mansion. It would be a more tranquil, meditative place then in the heart of the hustle and bustle of Headquarters.IC: (Loadstone)Amidst the chaos of the fight, Loadstone stepped as close to the front of the group of Heroes as possible, and raised a gloved hand. Careful not to hit X-Calibur, who was hacking apart another unfortunate hybrid, and attempting to spare Epsilon from the worst of the attack, the electromagnetic SuperHero let loose a dozen streams of electricity that danced and crackled along the tunnel like lightning. The blast was pure devastation: Sharkmen shuddered and collapsed, light panels exploded from the ceiling in a cloud of sparks, and laser blasters charred and smoked when the lightning touched them.When Loadstone stopped, the group was left in both darkness and silence. Whether any Sharkmen had survived was yet to be seen, but Loadstone had ended most of the threat...~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: Pretty much, yeah; it's supposedly an abandoned mine, though the Coalition has rigged it with stuff like electric lights. If you're worried about the blast of the grenades being forced back toward the Heroes, Skyra could whip up a shield to protect them. If it's the structural integrity of the tunnel itself, either the Coalition reinforced it or the tunnel is now weakened and going to collapse if we don't knock it off.If it's none of the above, then feel free to ignore my hastily-made excuses. ~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: Sorry guys, the server shut me out last night or I'd have answered some of these already: I once demonstrated that the shielding used to protect Heroes from unhealthy G-forces also keeps the jets watertight and able to withstand water pressure (at least to a certain degree). If they can safely make the transition from airplane to submarine, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to land on water. Actually, that was expressly the purpose that I created Sharkmen for. They're nothing more than expendable grunts; in no way do they count as characters or NPCs, just hunks of muscle you can pound the crud out of. It gets tedious restrictively fighting characters all the time, and Lupines just aren't designed to take the kind of beating our charries can dole out. :PFor the unfamiliar, Sharkmen are seven-foot-tall hybrids of a Great White Shark and a human, with thick, blueish-gray skin, dorsal fins, and shark-like heads. They have the physique of human bodybuilders, and their skin is thick enough to act like a sort of armor. They breathe through their skin, not with gills or lungs, which has proven to be one of the only major flaws in their design. Also, from here on out, they're going to be outfitted with adapted Technax Armada blasters; they're using prototypes now, but they'll become standard issue after this plot.@Kahi - I was actually going to suggest that the SCU be a division of the SOIB, which would make Pandora an Assistant Director, but I suppose an international team does have its perks.IC: (Loadstone)Loadstone flung his arms out as soon as Ultionis called to him, a field of magnetic energy cutting off the corridor and shielding the group from any shrapnel headed their way.The Sharkmen were still pushing toward the group, and the grenades easily soared into the cluster of hybrids. The Sharkmen in front had only enough time to turn around with a gurgling growl before the grenades exploded violently, metal shards tearing savagely at the Sharkmen. Shrapnel flew up and down the tunnel, ricocheting harmlessly off of Loadstone's shield but affecting most if not all of the Sharkmen present.For those who were tallying, at least a half-dozen Sharkmen were killed by the blast, while about as many that were still living sported numerous deep red gashes across their bodies. Pain only enraged them, it seemed, as the survivors threw themselves at the Heroes in a frenzy, blasters forgotten in a savage melee. Behind them, a small handful of Sharkmen who had survived the blast unscathed fired laser bolts at the Heroes.It was one of these Sharkmen that Epsilon punched; the blow was like punching a brick wall. The creature grunted and took a step back to steady itself, then responded by backhanding Epsilon toward the same wall he had just come from.~ Rumpelstiltskin

Reddish-brown; I think it's reflecting the sky in that shot.I've always been incredibly fascinated by the layering of shapes in your avatar.~ Rumpelstiltskin

I can't help but think that melon has a leaf mustache...~ Rumpelstiltskin

IC: (Loadstone)The Sharkmen reeled as Ultionis opened fire on them, one toppling with a bullet lodged in its eye while the others clutched at where bullets were lodged in their armor-thick skin. Shoving roughly past its injured comrades, one Sharkman lifted a metallic cylinder and aimed it at Ultionis. The weapon was crude and bulky - it consisted of two metallic chambers connected to the sides of a longer barrel, with several tubes arcing around it - but with the glowing orange panels along the sides, it seemed uncannily similar to the blasters the Technax Armada had used.The laser bolt that discharged from the cobbled-together blaster was anything but crude, however. And as the Sharkman took aim for another shot, two more of the hybrids revealed matching firearms...~ Rumpelstiltskin

You look like a Sherlock Holmes wannabe.~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: Gotta love how annoyingly cryptic that is. OOC: That's a good question. The League operates globally; it's been often said that they have a base in every major city in the world, and with the number of SuperHeroes out on patrol or fighting crime, it's never very hard to find them. Their official headquarters is a large underground complex in Queens, New York City, situated under the mansion of Jonathan Blue, the retired Hero Mentor. Though the exact location of any League base is never publicly released, from what I can tell Mentor's identity is public knowledge, and enough people have theorized that he kept some form of secret lair on his estate that it's a well-promoted theory that's where the League headquarters is.As for any other bases closer to your location, there has been much debate over what constitutes a 'major city' and how extensive each 'base' is. I've been operating under the assumption that the League has seven "Main Branches" in the US, with much smaller bases scattered in between. The main branches would be:League Headquarters, New York City, New YorkTampa Bureau, Tampa, FloridaUnnamed Base, Chicago, IllinoisUnnamed Base, Houston, TexasUnnamed Base, Denver, ColoradoLeague Gallery of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CaliforniaUnnamed Base, Seattle, WashingtonSince Tennessee seems to be near-equidistant from the first four of these (the closest being Chicago), I would say that they would most likely have a small base of operations somewhere in Nashville. Nothing too fancy; it'd probably be the personal lair of a local Hero that got converted into a space that a group could use as a hideout.Hope this is more helpful than confusing. EDIT: Gah, I work on this post for two hours, and Kumata sneaks in at the last minute to steal my thunder. Oh well. :lol:IC: (Loadstone)As Magneta's concentration began to fail, a yellow barrier of energy appeared underneath the rapidly descending barricade. Sugar Rush gritted her teeth and groaned; there was no way she could hold this sort of weight for any length of time. Using the last fragments of her willpower, she created a curtain of energy that swept the two closest Heroes, in this case X-Calibur and Skyra, through the gap before she let go of the shield. The metallic barrier met the floor with a rumble, then all was silent.Loadstone slammed his fist against the slab of lead with a snarl, electricity sparking harmlessly off its surface. They had come into this with manpower enough to tip the odds in their favor; now, the team was effectively split in half. The glow of the overhead lights seemed incredibly cold, now.There was not much time to deal with the loss of the other Heroes, however. Farther down the tunnel, lights flickered to life as hulking figures tripped the sensors beneath them. Even at this distance, their bluish-gray skin and oddly shaped heads marked them as Sharkmen, and a sizable group of them at that.OOC: Sugar Rush, Magneta, Mystic, and Nil have been left behind. I figured I should toss Sugar Rush in with the inactive charries in the off chance that one of them becomes active again; that way, they've got someone for interaction.~ Rumpelstiltskin

IC: (Loadstone)Even as the last words came from Skyra's mouth, the tunnel began to rumble, a cloud of dust and dirt raining from the ceiling. Just on the outskirts of the pool of light surrounding the group, a large metallic wall began to slide down from the ceiling, threatening to seal off the hallway and prevent them from traveling further into the base."It's...not magnetic," Loadstone announced after attempting to stop the wall's descent. "Magneta?""Lead," she replied absently, brow furrowed in concentration. "There's a massive weight on the top of it," she added. Gears whined as she used her ferrokinetic powers to attempt to hold the barrier up. "I think they have a stone wall ready to slide down if I remove this one; I can't hold it much longer...""Everybody move!" Loadstone shouted, darting for the closing gap in the tunnel and motioning for the others to follow him as quickly as possible.OOC: At Kumata's request, I'm taking the lead with the Michigan Mine plot from here. The goal of this barrier is to separate the active characters from the inactive players; we'll meet back up at some point later on in the base. At this point, unless I'm forgetting anybody, Magneta, Mystic, Nil, and Siren are the ones whose status is in question.~ Rumpelstilstkin

It's not entirely the five years of camaraderie between the RPG's core players that makes joining the game hard, though. TSTW! used to be a much more newbie-friendly game; I remember when everyone welcomed a new player and worked to get them into the current plots. What happened is that over the course of the game, 86 of the 100 people who posted in the RPG either posted nothing more than a profile, posted little more than a dozen times and dropped off, or simply vanished without a trace. Of that number, 50-60 of them were never overly active players to begin with, and the others jump in and out sporadically. With that track record, nobody really goes out of their way for newbies anymore, sad fact that it is. ~ Rumpelstiltskin

Reserved Space for August 2012 Summary Pages 101-104 Posts #4028-4123

Reserved Space for June 2012 Summary Pages 88-98 Posts #3512-3908

OOC: Realistically, to function adequately in the game I would say all you need to know is a basic rundown of how the League and the Coalition operate, which you can find in the opening paragraphs of their respective Wiki pages. My apologies for the Wiki being a bit messy, but real life has been a bit of a hindrance to our working on it.The only other thing I can think of that would be of any import to note to a newbie is that the world is currently one-or-two months past a planet-wide alien robot invasion, so there are still remnants of that here and there and the world is technically still recovering. As for the storyline, I recently summarized the current plotlines for light Laser in this post. If you read from there on, you should be on top of everything current. :)If anyone else has anything to add, feel free to point it out. TSTW!'s infomaster I may be, but incredibly absentminded I am also. :PIC: (Loadstone)"I wouldn't worry too much about electricity," Loadstone said, as volts of it began crackling around his arm. "I can absorb anything lethal to the rest of you.""Better yet," Sugar Rush said, aiming a gloved palm toward the lift. A thin field of yellow energy shimmered atop the lift's floor. "Now no one has to worry about anything," she said smugly. Well, maybe smug was a harsh way to describe it; she was merely exasperated with all of the debating and was satisfied that she had a method of speeding things along.~ Rumpelstiltskin

This is what you get when Iron Man starts impersonating the Human Torch...~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: So, let me get this straight...You introduce a character we all know is Silver, then all but confirm he's not, then show us the real Silver, who turns out to be Darkness in disguise, who then reveals that the guy we thought was Silver in the first place actually was?Dude, I'm impressed. :biggrin:IC: (Loadstone)"Hit the deck!"An energy shield flared up around Sugar Rush and several of the other Heroes in her vicinity as the bomb detonated, the flames and heat flowing harmlessly around the shimmering yellow field. Loadstone and Magneta shielded themselves behind a more metallic shield, though Magneta had to remagnetize Loadstone's magnaboard for him afterwards.After the smoke had cleared, Loadstone stepped up the the gaping hole in the ground. "Looks like we're in," he stated.~ Rumpelstiltskin

Must...have...Gadgeteer's...armor!!!On a more serious note, it's nice to finally see some Meltdown artwork, and I just realized that's Grand Cross' symbol on Gap's chest. Your characters have always had some pretty cool costumes.*eyes drift subconsciously back to Gadgeteer...*~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: All right, here's what I can tell you:A while back (not sure how long in-game), TPTI's character Lady Hexas threatened to nuke a city if she didn't get access to files on "Operation Lockdown" from the UN. Kumata, thelonewander, Tyler Durdan, Ymper Trymon, Toa Korkoa, and TradtheMentalist have tracked down her lair and are currently attempting to infiltrate it. Popping in at this point is probably unlikely, as the group has inside information your character probably wouldn't know about and pretty much no one outside the plot knows the lair's location.Also a while back, the Coalition of Corruption kidnapped Danielle Thomas, the daughter of the President of the United States, Evangeline Thomas. The League has jumped through several hoops tracking her down, and believe that they may have found her location. A team is currently attempting to locate the entrance to a secret Coalition facility in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan. Kumata, Half-Dragon, Ymper Trymon, Toa Korkoa, Chronicler of Ko-Koro, Legolover-361, Zyke the destroyer, Tyler Durden, Overlord Snelly, and myself all have characters present. This is another plot where the location is not common knowledge, so I'm not sure how your character would fit in here either.In Las Vegas, several characters are looking for Transairion's presumed dead PC Silver. Kumata, Ymper Trymon, and Transairion have characters currently battling somewhere in the city. If they're open for interaction, you could stumble across their fight.In New York City, Kumata's mummy Villainess Apep is currently crossing the rooftops near Grand Central Station. Half-Dragon, Kahi, and stargatestaticTH have characters in the vicinity who are headed toward GCS after her. You could possibly join in that plot, as well.Hope this helps. @Kumata: I love Gadgeteer's Deep Sea mode! Where can I get armor like that? :PIC: (Loadstone)"A bit more obvious than the last ones, too," Loadstone said to X-Calibur, nodding. "Magneta and I can sense something metallic just underground here; we think the entrance to the base may be here." He pointed straight down for emphasis. "There must be a way to access it somewhere around here..."~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: Yeah, he does that...I think real life just bites him in the rear a bitOOC: Actually, I think this is the longest time he's gone without disappearing, so I suppose this is long overdue. :shrugs:IC: (Loadstone)As a being possessing sensitive hearing, Loadstone's initial response to the gunfire was to cringe and cover his ears. Granted, he instinctively raised a magnetic shield around both himself and Magneta to protect them, but in such close proximity to the boom of the gun and the crash of bullets against the stones around them, his head was spinning too much to do more.Magneta kept a much more level head. Initially she used her ferrokinetic powers to deflect the bullets, not trusting that they were going to be magnetic like Loadstone. After a moment's thought, however, she simply clamped the end of the machinegun's barrel shut and waited until the built-up pressure blew a hole in the side of the barrel.Loadstone blinked, the sound of gunfire still ringing in his ears. "Thanks for that..."OOC: I'm not sure if anyone else remembers, but thelonewander's character Tragedy was present with Omega and Omega Prime. I haven't forgotten about him, TLW, but I wanted to get Omega off doing something. You're welcome to go with them to stop Apep if you want, or you can keep on and sign up with the League. ~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: All right, if no-one else minds, allow me to get this show on the road...IC: (Loadstone)Loadstone and Magneta confirmed with Nil that the signal was indeed neutralized before releasing the electromagnetic field. It was a relief on both of their parts; maintaining a large net of energy like that could quickly drain one's stamina. Freed from their defensive position, the Heroes split up, combing through the remains of the mining town separately in the hopes of finding the entrance to the base quickly.Loadstone opted for an aerial approach, flying higher over the ruins and utilizing his enhanced eyesight to scan for anything unusual. The Coalition had covered their tracks well enough that little evidence of their presence was left; the charred tree trunk full of the machinery that had been giving off the signal was the only hard evidence that anyone had been present in the past fifty years.Reaching out with magnetic pulses, Loadstone began to sweep the area like sonar, looking for something large and metallic. There was a faint resonance no matter where he aimed the pulses, indicating the mine shaft below. If only he could find...There! Something in one of the ruined houses absorbed the entirety of his magnetic pulse, suggesting a large piece of magnetic material. He swooped down for a better look, and found absolutely nothing. But he could feel something there; this was it."You feel it too?" Magneta asked, coming up behind Loadstone through one of the crumbling stone walls. "There's something massive down th..." As the Heroine took another step forward, she depressed a panel hidden in the ground. With a rumble part of the stone wall gave way, revealing an automated machine gun. It took merely a second to identify the two Heroes before it opened fire...OOC: I imagine that there's a big metallic bunker hatch camouflaged there, for the record. I take it you'll all hear the gunfire...IC: (NPC - Doctor Om)Doctor Om's hand flew over the paper almost faster than the eye could follow, each and every mark on the paper contributing to the image in some way. He used no perspective grids or stick figures to get the depictions correct; they simply flowed from his mind onto the paper. Interestingly, he started from the upper left corner and worked toward the bottom right, drawing and shading as he went.The image quickly resolved itself into the interior of a building, with a large vaulted ceiling and square columns lining the walls. People were unceremoniously added, scattering from something as of yet undrawn. A large electronic display was added, and then an intricately wrapped figure wearing an Egyptian death mask. Bandages writhed around the mummy, seeming to reach out toward passerby. "This is troubling," Doctor Om said as he completed the drawing, frowning at it. "This Villainess was not meant to arrive in New York City until tonight, at which point EnerJon would have intercepted her. Something must have just changed the timeline, because I sense that this is imminent. And she was not supposed to be anywhere near Grand Central Station..."Doctor Om handed the image to Omega while he picked himself up off the floor, dusted off his pants and cape, and returned his drawing kit to his utility belt.~ Rumpelstiltskin

OOC: Sorry, I've been renewing my membership to Procrastinaters-R-Us...IC: (NPC - Doctor Om)As suddenly as he fell into the trance, Doctor Om snapped out of it again, looking around seemingly bewildered. "Paper," he said absently, fumbling around at his belt. He pulled a sizable metal case from the numerous objects hanging there, then proceeded to open it and fold the edges around, producing a small sketch pad with several pencils and pens. The collapsed case served as a makeshift easel of sorts as Doctor Om plopped himself unceremoniously onto the floor and began drawing.~ Rumpelstiltskin

IC: (Loadstone)Sugar Rush had broken off from the others, eyes sweeping the area for anything peculiar. She felt inexplicably drawn to the ruined foundation of what had once been a large building, perhaps because it harbored one of the only trees to be found in the clearing. Had it been anywhere else, it would have looked completely natural, but growing out of the center of a bed of rock had a suspicious air to it.As she approached the tree, a faint buzzing assailed her ears. Frowning, she stepped closer to the tree, and found an egg-sized insect clinging to the tree's bark, rattling its wings over its glowing carapace. A carapace that looked far too metallic...After only a brief moment of hesitation, Sugar Rush raised an arm and shot a blast of energy at the beetle. It exploded with a high-pitched whine, and in the scorched marking on the trunk of the tree, mechanical gears and equipment ground to a halt."I think I just disabled the signal!" she called out to the others...IC: (NPC - Doctor Om)"Perhaps," Doctor Om replied. "I have given much thought to whether or not Hexas was merely a distraction to throw the League off of Danielle Thomas' trail. Only time will tell, but I am certain, however, that Hexas is part of a much larger scheme. As you said, a shark does not merely acquire the technology to build itself a suit of battle armor, nor am I aware of any shark that is naturally that intelligent. I know that we sent inquiries to the Atlanteans over that matter, but I haven't heard what the results were."Assuming Hexas is working for an anonymous benefactor, the question becomes not what Hexas wants with Operation Lockdown, but what that person wants with..."Without warning, Doctor Om froze in mid sentence, arms falling slack at his sides, mouth moving silently, brow deeply furrowed. Almost subconsciously he turned and leaned against a nearby wall, hand reaching up toward his temple in an almost universal display of powers exhibiting a psychic nature. At this point it seemed that he was completely oblivious to everyone and everything around him...OOC: Yeah, I'm finally getting around to that plot I promised you. ~ Rumpelstiltskin