GoldenMasquerade

Dr. Lore straightened out her coat on her shoulders before taking off her red headband and stuffing it in her coat pocket. She didn't have a change of clothes, which for the moment was suiting her fine. With what little knowledge of what they were up against, plain clothes didn't seem like the best thing to wear. Besides, it wasn't as though her white coat was a unique pattern or stood out greatly.

Then, indescision struck: "..." And she shrugged the coat off before folding it once and resting it in the crook of her left arm. Most likely, a plain white business shirt, black tie, white pants and black dress shoes looked a little more ordinary out on the city streets. Her coat would be back on once the investigating began.

She kept quiet and hung behind with the others. There was no telling what would happen from here, so the doctor kept mentally prepared. "..."

"I don't need a cover per se." Dr. Lore admitted, holding up her make-up case. "Unless someone has better costume make-up to cover my markings, I'll be fine." Covers weren't neccesarily her thing, but she knew the drill pretty much. She stood up and quickly started applying said flesh-colored make-up to her face, painting over her spots. "Don't let me hold you guys up, I'm ready when you are."

Just one so far:

Dr. Lore
Brute SS/Invuln (dinged Jun 08)

The eyebrow had to go up now. This kid worked for Crey? True, there were child heroes and villains, but would Crey employ a young boy? Perhaps, if there was more to him than on the surface. However, he was well spoken and sounded well enformed. Dr. Lore lowered her eyebrow and smiled a little.

"True, that's a lot of 'ifs' but we do need somewhere to start. We'll need more information on Sedadyne to see if they have Crey connections at all, or had some in the past. If so, by all means, see what you can do." She looked up at Drago as he stood. "Well, you can count me in."

The findings caused Dr. Lore to take a seat as well, numbed by shock. The scenarios of who these people were and what their ultimate goal with these anti-meta weapons made her feel weak in the legs. She had to sit or she'd collapse. Listening to Drago's story helped calm her by distracting her thoughts, though what he was saying didn't help much. When he finished, she confirmed her findings.

But now what... She didn't feel there was a direction to go in. Who were these people? Why were they doing this? Why regenerators of all types? None of these questions were physically asked; they didn't need to be.

She had the presence of mind to send her findings to Manning. There was no equipment present to fully study the anti-venom further herself. It was best to let Crey handle it for now.

"..."

[ QUOTE ]
"So, Harbinger, do you have any theories of why you were in this matter at all?"

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The demon turned irritatedly in Stahlhund's direction, hearing the derision clearly evident. He started low, but his voice gradually rose in volume and flames started to flicker across his skin as he roared.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dr. Lore growled at the stalker with distaste.

"Don't [tick] him off, teapot! Can you compute that some things in life happen for no reason?"

[ QUOTE ]
"Actually," Drago pulled a small black cylinder from his belt, the thing resembling half a test tube crafted of carbon, "of that I have a sample. Well, not the exact thing, but something close at least."

[/ QUOTE ]
As she accepted the vile, a small "How...?" escaped her lips before she cut herself off and started with another question. "And I take it this was analyzed already? If not, I can process it... perferably in another location..."

She switched her attention to Harbinger as he offered to have his blood examined. Unhooking her first aid kit from her belt she walked closer towards the demon, popping out a tiny syringe incased in a glass tube.

"Yes, I better take a blood sample here to see if anything else is in your system we should know about. I'll see what I can do about those bullet wounds too. Have a seat and hold your arm out."

Going into multi-tasking mode, she held the vile of venom out to the nearest person: the little boy, Millions. "Can you hold onto this for me, please?" she asked with a pleasant smile. Then, she pulled the syringe out of its case and gently poked it into Harbinger's arm. After drawing blood, she inserted the needle into her medicom and started running an analysis. Hopefully, a name for the drugs in his system that caused his blind rampage would show up in the results... if the database had it...

Another nod was given to Daemon and she tried not to raise a questionable eyebrow seeing the kid named Millions, but gave him a nod as well. She was a sucker for kids, but kept that fact very well hidden.

Listening to Drago's findings was troubling to her. Both her eyebrows went up upon the mention of Sedadyne. Of course she had heard of them, but the company kept under the radar after their infamous SNAFU. But no idea came to mind of how a small pharmaceutical company was fitting into this puzzle.

Missing regenerators, suspicious Crey-like characters, and now Sedadyne? Was there a connection to these pieces? There still wasn't a clear picture. More pieces would have to be put in place first, and the good doctor found one place to start.

"Perhaps if we looked at the anti-meta venom in the bullets Harbinger was shot with we could find another clue."

"So none of this is going to be reported?" Dr. Lore raised an eyebrow. "Interesting..." Sure, the appartment could easily look like a multi-villain break in... and Manning's offer simply a Crey publicity stunt (which to Dr. Lore's knowledge is something rarely done). But what if someone decided to put two and two together and follow them? She looked out the broken window and remembered the guilty party they were after had done just that.

She turned her direction back to Jack's gun and studied it's design from where she stood. It was certainly the oddest looking gun she had seen and took note that it looked...

Is it steam powered? Interesting.... Wait a minute...

Dr. Lore tried not to jump to conclusions, but the first thought of a criminal organization that used steam-powered devices sent a small chill through her spine. But she kept quiet, hoping that maybe Drago could make sense of it.

Dr. Lore gave Drago a single nod as he introduced himself.

"Well, some of us took Manning's offer for Arachnos's best interest. Apparently, more than a few of the disapearing regenerators were Destined Ones. As for what happened here, there was a battle that couldn't be helped. Some evidence was preserved..."

She stopped when he mentioned Jack and the man who sailed through the window after the spiderling. There was no answer for his query, and she watched as after a while he disapeared before speaking again.

"If there was, it won't happen now..." she answered through a smirk. "Anyway, we've found some contributing evidence in our investigation, nothing conclusive yet..." A brief reminder that Jack took over her safe cracking made her head swivel back in his direction. "Oh, right... Hey, Jack, what was in the safe?"

While she had pounced for it like a cat for a mouse, the spiderling managed to slip away in the last second towards the ceiling via spinerettes. Doc had to catch it; what if it found something they haven't yet and dismantled it? Like another security camera? Before she could super-jump up to it and smash it, another person came to the door.

[ QUOTE ]
"Ah, the loudmouth from the bar." was Drago's comment upon stepping into the apartment through the still-open door, the Arachnos-armored man surveying the surroundings for effect, "What a mess. You guys sure did a number on this place. Mind telling us why...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

She froze for a brief, stunned second, poised to jump. A chill ran down her back at the sight of the Crab Spider, but wore off after a brief bit of reasoning.

It's not a guy in a Crey-like suit... In the least he's not here to attack us...

Straightening her back, regaining composure and disreguarding the spiderling on the ceiling she cleared her throat.

"I think before we say anything, maybe you should tell us why [u]you're[u] here..."

She browsed a bit through the laptop for any five digit numbers, and wasn't finding anything that could pass for a secret code. She took a look through the journal and surveilance pictures to see if there was anything of note. True, these guys Blight Carver were watching were wearing black suits similar to Crey but something seemed... wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe it was Crey, maybe it wasn't... Jumping to conclusions wasn't the safest thing to do in this case.

"I say once we find everything, we go talk to the witnesses in Port Oakes. There's no one alive that could tell us..." Then her attention was caught on the Spiderling that wandered in. The obvious question came to mind until she remembered what the little spies did to non-Arachnos security equipment. "CRAP!" she suddenly blirted, running for the thing to grab it.

"The numbers are 1, 2, 3 and 4." Dr. Lore answered Jack. "But the combination is five digits, so there's a lot of posibilities." She lastely tried 44321 before letting Jack take over. Before she could respond to Rose, Jack did about ripping open the safe. True, they didn't want to damage anything valuable. Besides, ripping open digital safes was overall a bad idea.

Then, an idea came to mind.

"Hey, Rose," she called back into the front room, getting up and walking there. "Lemme look at that laptop. The combo might be in it somewhere."

Dr. Lore pondered the combination of the safe while listening to the others in the front room. The safe didn't look high tech like the ones she had at home, so she wondered if the safe would lock permanantly if she put in the wrong code too many times. Figuring she was overthinking herself, she started putting in possible codes anyway.

11234... 22341... 14432...

"He lives in the Rogue Isles; of course he'd think guys following him in suits are Crey. Just like anyone in the States with that same situation would think it's the CIA, FBI or something of that nature. Just 'cause these guys were in suits doesn't neccesarily make them Crey. There are other possibilities.

"Speaking of which, there's another lead I think we should follow. According to Manning's paperwork, there's two witnesses to the abductions and they were shot at with some strange ammunition. They were taken to the hospital in Port Oakes; I could give them a call to check on them. Maybe they'd be up for an interview..."

32341... 42321... 22431...

The first few codes weren't working, but she wasn't giving up. Punching and prying the thing open was an absolute last resort. And since this day was going so well, there was a high chance there was nothing in the safe at all. Still, unguarded safe in an empty appartment broken in by villains, the inevitable had to happen.

"Hey, anybody out there good at Codebreaker? There's a safe in here..."

((Edited for codes... I don't think any of them are right, though... oh well XP))

So far, so good. No one else in the appartment as far as the good doctor could tell. Her search took her to the kitchen where she started with the lower cabnets. The third to the left yielded a safe.

"Hullo." she instinctively greeted it with a smile. Anything could be in it, but with the owner gone it looked mostly up for grabs. Her hand dipped into a pants pocket for her make-up case, which she squeezed open for the powder blush. Using the tiny brush available to her, she twirled the tip with the naked color and blew in front of the keys.

Fifty-fifty, there'd be fingerprints.

She peeked her head in the door to see the room undisturbed, save for the window, after the explosion. The stray thought of "now why the hell didn't I think of that" left her face beet red and resting in the palm of her hand as she sighed shakily.

Genuine embarassment.

She turned and helped the person she pulled with her back up to his feet. "Sorry, Jack." she muttered. "Real lady like of me."

As the shock of the earlier terror began to wear off, she stepped back into the room to help with the investigation. There was one potential lead in the paperwork Manning gave earlier: the "interesting case" in the Port Oakes hopsital, but first thing was first: see if there were anymore suprises in the appartment to be safe.

She wasn't sneaky about it (why bother now), but she checked the other rooms to see if anyone or anything else was going to jump on them as well.

Before Dr. Lore could swing her foot at the stranger's body, the electricity began to intensify. She recognized it: several cyborgs in her hospitals would spark with red lighting bolts before...

"RUN!" she yelled, charging back for the door. Her hands instinctively grabbed the person closest to the door to pull them with her to safety.

Being tied down from the dark tendrills had frozen Dr. Lore in place as she tried to fight them off. But when he fell, she stood up and managed to shout "Don't kill him" when the runes formed.

She already had a bad day at work, and one guy they can press for information on what the hell was going on was being difficult. With a frustrated growl, she started to march toward the slumped body, runes or no runes.

Permitting, she was going to give this son of a [witch] a swift kick in the gut to at least aleve the frustration.

Dr. Lore joined the group on the helicopter, and stayed quiet to catch up on the paperwork Manning gave her. She took note that witnesses to the last abduction were admitted to the Port Oakes hospital. This was probably the case "of interest" she was told about earlier.

As soon as the chopper touched down, Dr. Lore jumped out with the others, smirking at the startled Marcone before making her way inside the hotel.

"Chances are, if he thinks he's being hunted he might have left the room already. That doesn't mean we can't search the place for clues... or for whoever was after him."

Dr. Lore looked over the message on her phone, and nodded. Hunting instincts started to kick in. Chances are he left, but there should have been something in the area to find for clues.

"Then let's hurry." she proposed, turning to the group. "Let's meet at this address by the fastest means of travel you have."

Presumptious little teapot, isn't he? Dr. Lore kept her thought to herself as she stood from her seat. There was no need yet for a leader, she felt, just facts.

"Mr. Manning, we'll need numbers and names to get started. Exactly how many regeneraters have gone missing, and are there any names of note?"

Dr. Lore raised an eyebrow at the new contractor taking a seat near the mastermind, but nodded. She only had a chance to hold up her letter did what looked like a robot decloak in the room. She felt a brief moment of suprise, and then uncertainy. Was she supposed to say something? Was someone else supposed to say something? The receptionist spoke up first.

"Don't tell me," she sighed slightly, "for Gregory Manning? Take a seat, he'll be with you shortly." Dr. Lore thought that the poor woman muttered "there's so many", but left it alone. But since Operative Stahlhund introduced himself, there was no point in everyone being strangers.

"So it looks like a lot of us are going to be needed for this 'contract.' I'm Dr. Lore."

--Grandville, Recluse's Citadel--

Walking out of the meeting room with a passive hand waived at the sharkman behind her, Dr. Lore moved straight towards the lift for downstairs. Hunched from a long day of work with eyes narrowed in frustration, the doors couldn't close fast enough behind her to take her downstairs. As she felt the platform drop slightly then desend to the ground floor, she counted off on her fingers to three before flinging her hands above her and screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU! STUPID SHARK AND YOUR STUPID FACE AND YOUR STUPID SMART&#$% REMARKS! I HATE YOOOOU!" She silenced her howling before the doors opened to the elevator hall and she lumbered out, drained after releasing her anger. She then proceeded to talk to herself: "Well, I got the rest of the day off..."

Dr. Lore straightened her white trenchcoat on her shoulders in habit as she walked outside the citadel and let her eyes wander to the giant Lord Recluse statue before her. It was hard to believe that it had been two years since she came here to choose her patron, but if she had a way to see how much aggrivation her choice brought her maybe she would have changed her mind. But working for the shark wasn't so bad...

"..."

But she couldn't think of a bright side at the moment, and just headed for the ferry. The letter she recieved from Crey Industries provided a "good laugh" when she first read it, but now that she was off work she started thinking. Disapearing regenerators were a slight concern, esspecially if they were her Lord Recluse's destined ones. If enough of them disapeared, he would get involved in the investigation. It would be nice to have information on-hand for him in that instance.

On the other hand, she didn't want to make it look like she was jumping ship and abandoning her proud organization. There were enough examples of what happened if one abandoned Arachnos. But she was high enough on the Arachnos food chain where the punnishment wouldn't be severe, or by some miracle she wouldn't be punnished at all.

And the reward: ten thousand dollars?! Fish food! There was far more than that sitting in a Swiss bank account for her! Then again, one more upgrade to the humble abode's security system would be nice...

As soon as she reached the ferry docks, she paused to look at the horizon. Where to go? What to do? Oddly enough, there was nothing pressing in her schedule. Except for an "interesting case" at the Port Oakes facility, there were no rounds at any hospitals for her to make. There were no labs for her to take a shift in. There were no "money makers" in the Protector that called out to her.

So this is it, she thought, I'm going to the Crey offices in Nerva because I have nothing else to do...

She tied back her long black hair, showing off more of her cheetah spot tattooes along the sides of her face and boarded the ferry for the Nerva Isles.

"May the Arbiters have a little compassion," she muttered to herself, "I have the feeling I'm jumping the frying pan straight into the fire..."

--Nerva, Crey Industries--

As she walked in the door, she again straightened her jacket and started towards the receptionist desk. The sight of an Assault Bot caught her eye and earned a startled "whoa", as Dr. Lore took a couple steps back for safety. Upon reaching the desk, she presented the letter.

"I'm here to see Gregory Manning."

The girl at the counter skimmed the note before nodding. "Yes, yes, he has an appointment right now. Can you take a seat please?"

"Okay..." It wasn't like the good doctor to get nervous but sharing a waiting room with a mastermind and her "pet" on standby was a little... akward. Still, she took a seat on the other side of the room, looking over the letter again.

So, I'm not the only one... At least I'm not diving into the fire alone...

((Note: Dr. Lore is a Super Strength/Invulnerability Brute. She's also a medical doctor, so she has healing equipment and can rez, but for the sake of the rp I'll only have one rez handy. She's also a degree in genetics, so scientific mumbo-jumbo is easy for her to understand. She's a brute, but she's more brains than brawn. Thought I'd mention it.)

I'm Not Okay in my pants (My Chemical Romance)

U and Ur Hand in my pants (Pink)

Welcome To The Black Parade in my pants (MCR again)

Strange Boy in my pants (Kerli)

I've always thought that those slits on the "long upper lip" served as a way of creating sound for speech. Not sure about an actual mouth, but that "lip" looks like the closest thing...

Star Strider Force
Name: Dr. Lore
Global Contact: @Golden Masquerade
Reporting on Assignment: Strategic Positions Investigations
Level of Alien Threat: Medium

Location: Spider City, Grandville
Time: 13:24

Report Details: Locating new points of interest for anticipation of Rikti attacks, seeking faster responce times from medical teleporters for emergancy purposes

Analysis of Current Situation: Security Marshal Mayhem is still suprised as ever of continuous Rikti invasions in Grandville, but has been putting in continuous measures to minimize damage and minimize invasions themselves. The rest of security seems to be left to the Destined Ones as our own hardened troops run for cover at the first siren. And these morons survived basic training?

I took it upon myself to look for a position where a spy satellite can be placed and pick up communication signals from Rikti bombers, this way we can track early when they are coming and better prepare the Destined Ones as well as other members of Star Striders for incoming invasions. It is all we can do, as the conduit for the invasion portals is all the way in Paragon City. You're on your own, heroes.

I'm also searching for new places to put medical beacons to increase responce time to the medical teleporters. As much as I love seeing low level "power level" beggars being slaughtered for wandering into zones too trecharous for them to handle, my Lord Recluse did not have them brought here to be trampled by alien invaders. It's best to just keep them out of the fighting, so I'm implementing a "safety net" in the Grandville infirmary to keep the lower level fighters out of danger. I'm still trying to find a way to get said safety net off the ground so Star Strider fighters don't get caught in it. What can I say, I'm not much of a sheppard.

Overall, new beacons are still being put in place and I am expecting upgrades for my medical equipment so that I can still act as a field medic for invasions. While locating clear positions just outside the Tangle is the easy part, getting permission to have them placed there is where the operation is starting to fall short. My Lord Recluse isn't crazy about placing "random becons and unauthorized mechinations" in his pet project. (While in all technicality, the Skyweb is nothing BUT "random beacons and unauthorized mechinations", but personally I don't think he wants to spend money on items that are just going to get knocked off should one of Statesman's task forces come in AGAIN. Oh, that would suck, a Statesman Task Force at the same time as a Rikti Invasion... why did I type that.... crap... delete button is stuck...)

Will continue to update as progress is made.

Suggestion of Action: I technically can't do anything to the Skyweb without Lord Recluse's permission, so the satellite beacons are going to have to be placed along the guard wall where there will be a clear reception, but not clear enough. I also don't have approval for more emergancy medical teleporter beacons yet, I expect to get them soon, esspecially for the "safety net". Again, will update with progress.