Kasoh

Having no qualms about bringing backup, On her way, Darkgloom picked up two patrols of skulls, adding six more guns. "Just stay back and shoot them. Its not difficult, but I'm sure you'll all fail miserably at it."

Walking into the hall, She took a few scant seconds to watch the heroes lay the minions to waste. Just another reason not to have any, huge medical expenses. She noted Josiah's alert gaze and blew him a kiss.

Under her breath, Darkgloom muttered,"Klaatu Verata Ni...no...Fithos Lusec Wecos Vino...that's not it either...hell with it,"

Pointing her finger, Emily Darkgloom shouted, "Ominous Latin Chanting!"

A cloud of darkness formed around Josiah, making it terribly hard to see straight, the cloud emenated for several feet, catching Warpshroud in its edges.

The willoy woman charged forward, hiding her body behind her shield as she slammed into Warpshroud with its surface.

Two Skulls were dropped by Warpshroud's claws, while one who was just out of reach fired his assault rifle into the massive armored form.

"Billy! Get the Q gun!" One of them shouted.

One of the Skulls fired a pistol at Warpshroud, slowly backing away. Finally, he managed to break away, attempting to sprint down the hall to their stash of Quantum array weapons.

Bounding through the air like a leaping cat, Quex went after the runner, taking him to the ground with a well placed tackle. Freeing her sword, she reached back to stab the Skull when he ran further into an intersection.

Quex followed, grabbing the hoodlum by the collar and throwing him back towards the others, just as more assault rifle fire opened up, sending Quex retreating back.

---

Emily Darkgloom was watching two Skulls poorly play cards when she heard the weapon fire. Another intrusion? PPD or Heroes...Only one way to find out.

"Stay on guard. Prep the killzones."

In no real hurry, Darkgloom walked towards the sound of fighting. If whoever was attacking got through the Skulls no big deal, they weren't her henches.

Some people have this already, but here it is,

The warehouse is large, essentially a long hallway with a few dead end forks and a T intersection leading to two ‘end rooms’. The large square room with crates (Left) and the two-part oblong room that resembles a large loading area (right).

My interpretation has the group in one of the dead end hallways, Is this about right?

The warehouse is mined, They sense movement and can be remote detonated. Any kind of optical stealth combined with slow (or superfast) movement will be able to bypass them, or they can be disarmed by someone reasonably proficient with explosives. Or a tough character can just take it in the face. The mines are fewer in the hallway, but loaded at doorways, and the left room that Radialcrush Horton is in.

Radialcrush is a Bone Daddy EB. Dark Blast/Dark Melee

Emily Darkgloom is a DM/SD/Soul ‘Buzzsaw’ AV. Her single target attack chain is unreal and proc-tacular. Her shield doesn't deflect things so much as absorb them. She enjoys tricking people into sticking an arm into the shield then trying to slice the limb off. She is the Right room, checking on something. She'll investigate if the fighting gets loud, so as soon as a Skull fires a gun.

The defensive positions are metal crates stacked so as to provide a small window to whichever direction they are supposed to be watching Two Skulls with assault rifles and Cryo Freeze Rays are in each position. there are patrols of three men patrolling, a total of 25 Skulls not including Horton and Darkgloom.

As soon as she appeared in the warehouse, Quex drew her sword and looked for threats. Seeing that Warpshroud had succeeded in finding a good spot to insert them from, Quex moved slowly away from the Warshade, trying to find Skulls laying in wait.

Quex stopped before she strayed to far, reminding herself about Josiah. Instead she crouched behind a crate and kept watch while the others finished zapping in.

Kasoh and Irene entered the apartment and rushed to the living room. The small apartment was in shambles. A large high definition television was tossed over and several large objects that had no real place being in a Skull’s apartment were puncturing holes in walls.

Laying in a boneless heap in the middle of a broken coffee table was a young man. Blonde hair, gaunt build. Kasoh put away his scalpel and pulled out his medical scanner. As Irene approached the one eyed doctor put an arm on her and held her back.

“He’s dead. Don’t touch him.”

Kasoh crouched down next to the body and ran the device over it. While it whirred and clicked its analyses Kasoh slowly inspected the body.

“Mustard, this is Onnoroc at 478 West Wilson st, Apartment 421. Got a dead body here. Male, late twenties, will attempt to ID. Likely its Tenpenny. Need a forensics team and the city coroner.”

“Roger that. Will contact.”

Kasoh’s medical scanner beeped and he read the readout then prodded the body in several places. He looked up at the FBI agent, “It was someone with Gravity powers. Every bone in his body is crushed, and powerful enough to emit a Singularity.”

“Family, most likely. They supply the Skulls with ‘dyne, Tenpenny was an ambitious runner. The Skulls were never sophisticated enough to smuggle girls out of the country. It had to be someone with access to the docks. We need the name of his Family contact.”

Kasoh nodded, “Probably the guy who killed him. Consigliere. I’ll check his pockets. Try his computer first.”

“I’ve searched a crime scene before Onnoroc.”

Kasoh grunted, and took his scalpel out to check under the body for traps before he turned it over. Irene walked into the next room.

---

Quex tilted her head at Dreg. He could read minds, or something very close to that. "Can you locate the smug one inside? Its probably the boss or Darkgloom. Tell Warpshroud if you do."

She meandered back to the van where Josiah looked put out. This...would be difficult.

"Sorry." She said, then her brow furrowed as she paused again, "It was...joke. A joke. Teasing. Blowing up is bad...so don't get blown up."

Shrugging, Quex added, "English...is not my first language. My jokes...not funny sometimes."

Quex frowned at Josiah. Then she looked back at the warehouse. "I have something to do."

She reached into her hip pouch and produced a Cell phone blue-tooth headset. She also produced a small beat up black box and turned it on. She pressed a few buttons then turned on the cell phone head set.

Pulling her own Two-Six earpiece off, she handed it to Josiah and put on the older piece of equipment with much difficulty. She idly wished Kasoh was there to put it on for her. The black box then went back into her pouch.

"Getting boomed because you were impatient is not good impression, so don't. Use this until you get your own."

Quex put her hand to to her headset, fiddling with it, "Dreg, Quex. By the SWAT Captain."

His skull mask propped over his blonde hair, allowing someone close enough to see his baggy eyes and darting glances, Jack Horton paced along the upper ledge of a large warehouse floor overlooking the three Skulls he had laying trip mines, “No, no! Further apart, if the entire field blows up when one goes off, it’s useless!”

He began pacing again shaking his head, “If I’m going down, I’m sure as **** going to take an army of those PPD slobs with me.”

Leaning casually across the hand guard, Emily Darkgloom watched Horton pace. She obviously wasn’t a member of the Skulls, her strapped leather outfit was a dark purple and had a very fancy magical design etched into it. She had short black hair, and dark sunglasses. A large black circle was attached to her arm, though it appeared to have no thickness, or any reflective properties--it looked like a hole attatched to a single point.

“Its not the PPD you have to worry about Crush. I can kill them all day long. It’s the heroes they’re probably calling as you bury your head.”

“Can’t you take care of them? Didn’t you say you were the best?”

“The best you can afford Crush. You turned his place into a fortress and are ready to go out like some movie gangster when you should be hightailing it. Cops don’t like it when you snatch kids.”

Horton growled in frustration as he waved his arms, “I didn’t have anything to do with that! Are the pigs going to listen to that? No. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!”

“Pay a woman to fight off the cops and super heroes for him. Right.” She pushed herself off the rail and floated across the room to the Skulls just finishing laying the tripmines at the entrance of the room.

“You and you, check all the doors again.”

Now *I* feel irresponsible...

Sounds like Rebel was planning a stealth+TP entry. I don't think waiting for his move is unreasonable.

Quex watched Josiah fluster himself. Kasoh did that, saying things that could be taken many ways. He did so intentionally and without regret. He called it their...'thing'. She often hit him for it because it was the wrong place or time. So far, Josiah appeared to just be nervous, like a warrior before his first battle. She could understand, Quex still felt ill at ease before engaging a capable foe.

Telling Josiah that probably wouldn't help. She would have to be the strong one who kept the unblooded from slipping on their own swords.

Joy.

She tried to answer his question. "Where I come from, a child has to go out alone and kill one of the clan's enemies before they can be a warrior."

Quex paused, "I've been told many times that is no longer done. So, we will not be warriors. Hunters then. Stay close, flank our prey, corner it, and kill it."

Another pause, "Arrest it, that is."

The building manager was a squat rotund man who jangled the keys in his fat grip incessantly. Some people were like that. Give them a small responsibility and some shiny hardware and they thought they were something. He’d done it himself a time or two, but this man took it to a level that Kasoh could appreciate and at the same time be filled with violent impatience.

If it bothered Irene, it didn’t show. She was hard to read. Kasoh had met plenty of Twi’leks, Tortuga, Wookies, or other alien species and he didn’t have as hard a time reading them as he did her. Well, she was human, just with a peculiar mutation. Perhaps that was the problem, he was thinking of her as alien. She was socialized as a human. Probably, she had stonewalled some of his probing questions.

“This is it.” The building manager said, pointing out the door before he began to unlock it.

Kasoh stepped up to the door, putting his right side to the door. Curling his right arm in front of his face, he drew a scalpel in his left, while Irene pulled out a revolver.

Irene gave him one warning, which surprised Kasoh, “Tenpenny, Federal Agents! Surrender peacefully!”

When they heard nothing from the other side, Kasoh pushed the door open and immediately smelled a corpse.

Quex smirked as Josiah loaded up on gear. "You going to grab a bow and stay low tech with me?"

She thumbed the Vanguard Sword's hidden switch and the bright monomolecular blade shimmered into existence. Holding it in her left hand, and her family blade in her right, she tried a few swipes and dual bladed blocks.

She clashed the two together and the metal sword sizzled and glowed faintly purple. Quex was somehow satisfied with that result and stowed both weapons.

"I am ready." She declared.


----

The drive had been short and silent. Kasoh stared sullenly out the window at the passing buildings of Kings Row. When Agent Mackenzie pulled the black Buick up to the building, she got out of the vehicle, her tail twitching as she waited while Kasoh pulled himself out of the large car.

“Tenpenny lives on the fourth floor.”

Kasoh looked up the building, reaching into his pocket. “We expect him to be home?”

“Last anyone saw him was that burger joint an hour before the kidnapping. I think he’s our guy and he’ll be wherever the girl is. There might not be anything in his place. I pray Tenpenny and Horton are in cahoots and the girl is over there. Otherwise we’ll have to beat Melissa’s location out of Horton.”

Kasoh opened the door for Irene, “That’s not quite how it works, Special Agent Mackenzie. You know that.”

When she didn’t bother to reply, Kasoh raised an eyebrow and followed her inside.

With the information they had, Quex wasn't too sure how her swordplay would stack up against the brute's shield. But she couldn't admit that, "Of course. Will you go after The Skull boss?"

Quex reached into a belt pouch and retrieved a gray metal device that looked like a sword pommel. It was a Vanguard Sword and she looked between the hi-tech sword and her traditional family blade. Which one was better against magic?

The SWAT Captain pointed Josiah to the mobile armory, it had a variety of weapons for gun specialists.

I have been considering bolding important words or phrases in the story heavy posts, but it seemed rather meta gaming.

Kasoh watched the others go trying to hide the disappointment on his face. When he could no longer sit still while his best…acquaintances went off to battle, he turned to the FBI agent, “So, Irene, just you and me, eh?”

The response to his eyebrow raising dialogue was terse, “Its Special Agent Mackenzie.” The feline woman replied, gesturing to the door.

Kasoh picked up his bag of spirits and made wide sweeping gesture with his arms as he moved out. “You know, don’t be intimidated by my rather impressive book of degrees, I’m actually tough enough to fight some Skulls and a random Etoile thug.”

“According to Simms, you’re a barely functioning addict who just happens to be brilliant. I’ll need brilliant more than they need chemically induced strength.”

“That is a gross mischaracterization of my abilities…” Kasoh’s indignant ranting could be overheard the entire trip out to Agent Mackenzie’s waiting Buick.

Its an unspecified time during 'The Summer'.

The Swat Captain was looking at floorplan when Warpshroud approached. The tall blond man ran his hand through his short cropped hair, “That’s me. Captain Hammer, PPD SWAT. You the Hero Strike Team I requested?”

Quex took the teleport, appearing next to Warpshroud, looking at the building and the retinue of surrounding PPD officers. She didn’t wander far, but the Amazonian brunette kept a hand on her sword while noting the positions of snipers gauging the solidity of the perimeter.

Simms looked up at Josiah and it was his years as a police officer that kept the annoyance off his face. He did not consider himself an impatient man, police officers could be listed amongst the most patient people in the world.

Still, his own memories being a young recruit were not repressed or otherwise, so rather than be short with the young man, Simms gestured for Josiah to be at ease.

"Relax Goode. You're on the Warehouse strike team. You're from the Metahuman forces right? So you've got some kind of super powers. Make sure Quex doesn't violate anyone's rights after the fight's over. Her definition of justice is a little...savage."

"Not quite, Warpshroud." Simms looked around the room, checked his watch and nodded at the Fed. She nodded back, and he spoke, “The 2-6 has been tasked with assisting in case, and we will not disappoint. Bringing that girl to her parents is more important to me than most of your lives."

Quex and Simms gave Kasoh a pointed look. Simms shook it off and continued, "The Special Agent will brief you.”

Simms stepped back from the podium, allowing the cat woman in the suit to approach. She grabbed the projector remote and brought up three pictures. Simms stepped out.

The suit was not nearly as bad as Kasoh made it out to be, though it was not from Seville Row by any means. The Agent was short, a little over five feet and looked very thin. Still, there was an air about her that implied she cared not a whit what other people thought. Evidence of extreme self confidance, or an inherited cat behavior—the score was still out.

“My name is Special Agent Irene Mackenzie with the FBI’s Metahuman Affairs Division, I’ve done hero work under Razerclaw. I’ve been called in to lead the investigation on this case, as this kind of child kidnapping is my specialty.”

“We don’t have much time so I’ll try to be brief.” Irene used the remote to bring up a picture of a young girl, dressed in a sundress. At first pass, she wasn’t at identifiable as human, for she had large cat like ears poking through her reddish hair and large green eyes with a vertical iris. She was holding a rag doll and smiling brightly, which revealed sharp incisors.

“This is Melissa Gabriel age 8. She was kidnapped forty five minutes ago on her way home from dance class. PPD was notified who notified the Bureau.”

“She was grabbed by two young men, late teens/early twenties, both Caucasian and dressed in gang colors—Skulls.”

“They were in a white Ford Econoline van, local plates, reported stolen the night before. The van was stolen from an address in Kings Row, deep in Skull territory, and through quick response on an AMBER alert tip, we found it fifteen minutes ago in Skyway. Someone tried to sink it in the aqueducts.”

“The PPD and groups of heroes are searching Skyway as we speak. It’s unlikely they will find anything. In 75% of cases, children abducted by strangers are killed inside of three hours. Current Evidence and my own experience lead me to believe that outcome is not going to happen here, but taking that kind of risk is unacceptable.”

“There have been no demands from the kidnappers and Melissa’s parents have no criminal connections, are not crime fighters, and are not affluent. It’s likely she was kidnapped because of her feline mutation. If the kidnappers can get her out of the country, she’ll bring about a quarter of a million dollars.”

“PPD from Kings Row are investigating the area where the van was stolen, and have given us two leads.”

Irene switched to a mugshot of a barrel chested man with a hook in his nose from being improperly set, “Jack ‘Radialcrush’ Horton is a Skull Bone Daddy pretty high up in their ‘Dyne distribution network. It was in his territory the van was stolen. He’s currently in major lockdown in a warehouse in the Garment District. The PPD have the warehouse surrounded, but so far they have repelled both SWAT teams and the PPD Mech Suit Team. Reports from survivors indicate the presence of Emily Darkgloom, a thug from the Rogue Isles with melee based netherworld powers. We don’t have a picture of her. I want the bulk of you to travel to the warehouse, bring them in, and find out what Horton knows.”

The next slide was a wiry man with sunken eyes. His arms were heavily tattooed with a Skull motif, “Other lead is William ‘Grimsnap’ Tenpenny, a Grave Digger with ambition. He’s a runner and was seen an hour before the kidnapping at a nearby Up Up and Away burger. He lives in High Park. Cyclops here” She pointed to Kasoh, “and I will investigate that location.”

“Everyone make sure to get a radio and keep it on, its likely we won’t be back here until after this situation has been resolved and I’ll need to order on the fly.”

"So far. We're all old hats here." Kasoh said, looking up from his tech device, he waved at Abbie, "Hi Abbie."

"I'm Dr. Kasoh Onnoroc--call me Kasoh, or Doc, or...whatever. That's Quex in the back, she's mean."

The warrior woman snorted, but didn't correct him.

"That's Warpshroud." He pointed to Abbie.

"Now, the update. We were called in for a briefing. That woman in the suit? She's a Fed of some sort--or just has a really bad tailor."

The cat-woman looked over at Kasoh and frowned, then ignored him, pulling out a flash drive and began loading some images.

Kasoh ticked a few points off, not really noticing that his pendantic tone of voice could be considered arrogant, or condesending, "Under an hour ago, there was a kidnapping in Steel Canyon. Eight year old girl, White Ford Van. Eyewitness news reports that they were low level gangers, Channel Six says Skulls, Channel 12 says Hellions, and Cable 34 says Nemesis, but 34 blames everything on Nemesis. Obviously, we are going to get some kind of mission pertaining to the effort."

"How am I doing Simms?" He called out.

Quex walked up and slapped Kasoh on the back of the head with her spiked metal gauntlet, "This is serious." she muttered before walking back to hold up the wall.

Rubbing the back of his head, Kasoh examined his fingers which came back smeared with a little blood, "See? Mean."

Simms stopped his conversation with the cat-woman in the suit to give Goode a once over.

"You're my new wunderkind rookie right? Goode?"

Without waiting for confirmation he waved at a seat, "Paperwork later, have a seat get ready for the briefing. Onnoroc! Make your overeducated *** useful and update the boy!"

Kasoh rolled his eye and made a 'come hither' motion at Goode without looking up from his data tablet.

The Demon problem was about six to eight months ago, its been a month or two since the Ziggursky terrorist incident.

Yes. PPD personnel with Hero experience are encouraged to use their expertise to assist with the Two-Six mission statement...

Or is it Heroes with PPD experience...

Or something...

Anyway, yes. Feel free.