Justice Avengers: A Black Day in Hub City

Press Conference

Hisako dropped the binoculars in sheer shock. She just had a first row view of an assassination. Funny, she figured she'd watch someone die at some point, that reality came with the job, but she never thought it would be the first day... some things you can't train for she guessed. Karima's shouting and the radio snapped her out of it, barely, just enough for her to move, get out of the cruiser and glance at her partner. The veteran was as scared as she was... well, perhaps less. If she hadn't been terrified too she'd find it funny. What she saw too was the trenchcoated man, a possible perpetrator and way too suspicious not to follow. By the time she fully realized what she was doing, she was already running towards the building, gun clutched in hands.

Silvermane dropped The Squid's ears, giving Terra a sideways glance. This was oddly sudden. Why did a cape want to do business with him, anyway? The fuck was a cape even doing at this meeting?? He shrugged, figuring it wasn't all that important.

"Eh, what the hell. We're done here." He motioned a hand for Yelena to follow him. "C'mon, Yelena." He called over his shoulder to Wilson as they left. "Hey, Wilson! You really should come by once in a while. We'll teach your Boy Wonder how to play cards."

Morgan

Morgan Lefay noticed that Terra had convinced silvermane and she decided it was the time to make her move aswell.

"I would like to discuss this outside, if you don't mind. Privacy is a luxury you can't never have enough" she said while she walked towards the exit, expecting that both Ivy and Two face would follow her.

edited 8th Oct '14 5:01:06 PM by RPGLegend

Terra nodded and followed LeFay to the exit, expecting Silvermane and Yelena to follow her.

Two Face followed her out.    Good, let's make this quick, we've got shit to do.   

"And who's this following us?" he asked, glancing behind him. "She involved in our business?"

Lefay

"She is Tara, my apprentice and my most loyal ally. Some ignorants would say that She was lucky to find me, but actually in all my years on this planet I could tell you without doubt that I am the one that is lucky of having someone like her at my side." The witch bragged about Tara.

edited 8th Oct '14 9:44:59 PM by RPGLegend

With the third mook hooked, Lobo opted to simply toss the man off of the roof and let gravity deal with him.

With the Maggia mooks taken care of, Lobo hopped back on his 'hog and began the process of figuring out just where Harm had run off to.

Will’s expression darkened. He had had just about enough of surprises. Whoever the man in front of him was, Will was going to find out in a dark warehouse where no one could interrupt them.

Will rushed forward, his arm transforming into Vita in an instant. He stepped up on the chair, Anima jutting out hilt-first enough to expose a healthy amount of blade, and balanced his front foot on the edge of the desk while he swung his arm to connect the blade with Vandal’s neck. If it connected, it would pass harmlessly through, only giving Vandal the sensation of having his head cut off. In Will’s experience, that was more than enough to render someone unconscious.

If Slade felt anything when the Indian woman revealed Bucky's predicament, it didn't show. "If there is one single injury on him, I will hang your bodies from this city's tallest skyscraper." He spoke with the calm and cold tone of a businessman as he walked towards the van, entering it. When he saw Bucky in his groggy state, he swatted any hands away, grasping his chin and forcing him to look at him. "What did you give him?" Almost expecting them to ask why, he turned to the nearest agent. "The answer will tell me how many of you I'll kill."

The meeting over, Garfield now moved over the rooftops, more agile than he seemed. Despite that, he could only move so fast without his suit so he hadn't actually gone that far. For now, the criminal simply moved through the city.

"Good." Waller said, snatching the folder from Anarky's grubby little mits. "We're here." Somewhere along the trip, the helicopter had entered a secret entrance, because they were now inside an indoors landing pad, black-suited agents littering the area. The papers in the folder had grabbed Anarky's attention at the right time.

"Update on the agents?" She asked a dark-skinned agent whose eyes were locked to a tablet as she stepped out of the helicopter.

"Deathstroke and Winter Soldier are on their way. We are waiting for Bullseye and Chesire to leave the Maggia meeting. Firefly is being followed as we speak. Roscharch and Deadshot are awaiting inside."

Taking the lollipop out of her mouth for a second, Waller looked down at Anarky. "We want to see you use your mouth, Lonnie. See how good you are with words- convince those fellas to join the task force. Which one of our... prospective workers do you want to convince first?"

It took a moment for Karima to follow Hisako. "DON'T GO AFTER HIM—" She yelled out, but Hisako was already inside the building, red brick stairs leading her to the rooftop. Once she walked out of the stairs and into the roof, she immediately spotted the sniper's nest the perp had been using, complete with the murder weapon, a flask of whiskey and—

Before she could fully assess what was in there, a bandaged hand came in from stage right, trying to karate chop her in the neck with enough strength to silence her for some time.

"What are your intentions?" Yelena asked Terra, bluntly.

Savage didn't have time to react- as soon as Vita passed through his neck, he grippd it, gurgling as if blood was splurting out of his mouth, his eyes darting around wildly... until he stopped doing that, clasping his hands and staring at Will with an extremely bored expression. "I suspect that is what you expected me to do?" He asked, before reaching for a pen, only for his hand to pass through it. "I'm not exactly here, you know. Of course, doesn't mean I can't do this." He snapped his fingers, and the armrests of the chair Will was using snapped into life, gripping his wrist as it tried to force him to sit down. "Please, I just want to talk. What's with young people today and not talking? "

"A simple sedative. It should wear off in fifteen minutes. Which gives us plenty of time to do this." The Indian woman nodded, as the van suddenly stopped, one of the agents removing a bean bag gun from the back of the seat and stepping out of the van. At that exact moment, Garfield Lynns soared above them, and without faltering, the agent pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger, a round disk silently flying out of the cannon, trying to attach itself to Garfield's back and deliver a shock powerful enough to bring him down.

Not interested enough in what the agent was doing, Deathstroke gripped Bucky by the chin, tapping on his cheek rhythmically as he muttered to him. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The constant repeating of the word timed to the finger tapping was a technique Slade devised to 'take' the attention of someone under heavy medication, to get them out of their mostly-asleep state to a more awake state.

Anarky looked around for a bit, taking in the looks of ARGUS' HQ -if that's where they were-. Then he seemed to muse for a bit. Waller seemed to be in a rush to assemble her team. But then, if she wanted to have it ready before the Crime War started, she didn't have much time.

Then he smiled (unnoticed under his mask.) He had made up his mind. There was one profile in particular that had intrigued him.

"Deadshot" he responded.

At that moment he began a losing battle with an animated chair, Will closed his eyes and consigned himself to this latest of humiliations.

When he opened his eyes again, the glamour disguising his face throbbed and faded, painting his three-pronged scar across his face in hues of burgundy and crimson scar tissue. He lurched backwards, sending him and the chair clattering to the ground. His swollen, monstrous fingers spread wider as his sword forcefully ejected from his arm, quickly orienting itself into a spin. It navigated the small space of the office by curving upward in a diagonal slant through Vandal’s incorporeal form and the top half of a desk lamp, before swinging back around down in order to plant itself straight down through both the chair and the occupant, splitting the bulk of the chair but unable to do Harm.

The sword left Harm untouched as he wrenched himself free and rolled backwards amidst the squirming splinters of the shattered chair, his glasses skittering away into the shadow of a potted plant. He braced his hand against the ground before getting to his feet and taking note of the armrest still clinging to his forearm. He made eye contact with Vandal’s proxy and smashed the armrest against the office wall, flexing his fingers as they shrank to normal size and let the shell-shocked piece of timber fall away. He used the same hand to unbind his ponytail and let his hair fall past his shoulders.

“Fine. Harm is listening.” He said, with a tone so deep and black one could glimpse the shimmering lures of anglerfish. “While we are being polite, don’t do that ever again. Please.” A small fire surged up around the sword embedded amongst the remains of the chair, embers chasing after any writhing bits of furniture and consuming them with purpose. The flickers reflected in Anima’s blade with the intermittent sunset sheen of an undersea vent, or a burning village.

The gun had its intended effect, downing Garfield quickly but its momentum just carried him further onto the roof he had been aiming for.

Bucky made a slight sound of protest at the tapping and speaking, but finally held his head up a bit more on his own, words slurring slightly as he spoke, working on conveying a message to his mentor. "Said...took our new student...put to sleep...possibly gassed the base...might...might have hurt Rose..."

Bullseye smirked at Cheshire. "Whatever you say, babe. Now, this room is starting to fill with the stink of bleeding squids and old guys. I think it's about time we cleared outta here, get stocked up on weapons and what-not. I can't take down the entire mob with a damn toothpick, as fun as it would be to try."

While the group Savage requested was getting outside, Lefay noticed that Yelena wasn't all that convinced. "You will know at it's due time my dear, this isn't the best of places as you might have already guessed" She told her.

Silvermane eyeballed Dent suspiciously, before noticing Poison Ivy and rolling his eyes with a groan, rubbing his temples. Couldn't he go fifteen feet anymore without there being weirdos involved?

"My intentions?" Terra asked Yelena. "I merely want a partnership with him, but if you don't trust me, then feel free to come along as well."

The press conference

The nest was there, all the evidence that she needed, if she could find the perpetrator. Or rather if she could arrest him. She barely dodged the chop of the bandaged man and she pointed her gun at him once she had made some distance and managed to utter "f-freeze! I'm warning you" in panic and adrenaline.

"He knows how to contact me. If that had happened, I would have known." Slade reassured Bucky, turning to glare at the Indian woman. "How did you find us. I'll know if you're lying, so choose your words wisely."

Bucky grimaced at that, but started fumbling a touch drunkenly to try and undo the straps keeping him in his seat, shaking his head. "Heard a group...said...heard someone...Slade, we...they want...want us with them. Need to get away..." There was an obvious fear coming to Bucky's voice, being drugged leaving him a bit less able to hide it, and he was clearly not thrilled at being kept in a van by strange people snatching him off the street.

edited 15th Oct '14 10:17:26 AM by MystyGlyttyr

As the agents rushed out of the van to collect Garfield as soon as possible, the Indian woman simply smiled. "We actually don't know where your base is. We've simply been watching you whenever you're outside of it. We have pictures of a third member of your crew. The rest was simply made on assumptions."

Waller nodded, taking Anarky and the three agents to an interrogation room, where, shackled to the table and unarmed, was a a very angry-looking Floyd Lawton.◊ As the agents took their places behind the one-way mirror, Waller opened the door for Anarky to step in. Floyd's first act upon seeing Anarky was to snicker. "Are you kidding with me." He muttered, especially after seeing the Anarky's mask.

Vandal simply smiled, and then clapped his hands quietly. "Impressive display." He said, leaning forward on his chair and resting his head on his fist. "Really fascinating. Mr. Harm, I'm afraid your friend Mr. White will be unavailable for a while. I just thought you should know... you had some kind of contract going on with him, didn't you? Anyhow, that's all gone for now. You were at the Maggia meeting. You know what's going to happen. How's about... you play a bigger part in it?"

Once Le Fay and her group walked out of the meet, a lone choffeur with a sign saying Le Fay and Friends waited in front of the most expensive-looking limousine any of the six people had ever seen. The choffeur quietly opened the door, motioning for Le Fay and the others to get inside, air-conditioned, cushy-looking seats awaiting for them.

Obviously, there was already someone inside. Drinking a glass of champagne, Vandal Savage awaited for the group on the seat the farthest away from the door. He remained completely silent until everyone was inside and the door closed.

"Who is this man?" Yelena asked, visibly tensing up once she took her seat. "Sir, this may be trap, do not get inside car." She promptly told Silvermane.

Hisako got her first look at the perp: a man covered in bandages wearing a long trenchcoat◊ and sporting a vicious grin. "Alright then." The man said, pulling his trenchcoat back. "Shoot me. Shoot me if you can, cop."

Silvermane eyed it all suspiciously, especially the stranger inside the car itself. He looked so familiar to Silvermane. Like he'd seen the man's face a hundred times. But he couldn't remember from where. Everything about this just felt weird, and just stunk of the world of Capes. Silvermane shrugged, and climbed into the car, sitting next to Yelena.

"Of course it's a trap." Silvermane whispered. "So, we'll have to spring it to find out what's going on."