MadGremlin

Sting settled in for a rest, up in his room. It had been a long hard day and it was time to pack it in for a while.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

“Sir, we have Abrahms on the roof, do you want to move on him?” The assistant asked.

Agent Becker shook his head. “You kids really need to learn to wait until the time is right. Abrahms is not our target. However, give me a disguised agent walk-by while he is up there and let’s see how he reacts.”

Becker zoomed in the view of Abrahms slightly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The agent strolled by the Two-six and looked up at Abrahms, just like a normal pedestrian would look at a hero up on a roof.

“I f%$#ing hate magic!” Sting watched Mystic march back toward his office. “Yeah, next time you have your ‘friends’ over the back door it is.”

He walked up to his room grumbling about the day’s events.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A knock came on the door of the room Becker was sitting in. “Come in.”

“Here you are sir, this case just arrived for you.” The agent said and then turned and left.

Becker looked at the shining black case. He undid the two locks, disabled the four special traps, and then unhooked the secret lock. He opened the case to reveal a long, but disassembled rifle. As he picked up the parts and started carefully cleaning and assembling them he said; “Been a while my dear. It has been while since I was out in the field, but now it’s time to take you out again.”

He smiled as he finished assembling the rifle and looked through the electronic scope. “Yes my friend Sting, either you join us or I splatter what little brains you have all over Kings Row.” He set the rifle down and carefully started loading the clips.

“Armor piercing for Sting, Rough Justice, and Abrahms, and hollow points for Newton and Mystic Inferno.” He said, cleaning each large round as he loaded them.

In the temporary Crey observation post Agent Becker looked questioningly. “No power, no force field, but these readings don’t make any sense and we can’t hear a damn thing from in there.” He keyed his microphone. “Are you guys sure all of this equipment is working? None of these readings make any sense!”

The response came through the speaker. “Sir, we have no idea. We suspect there may be some otherworldly force at work.”

Becker sat back and rubbed his temples. “Great, just what I need...”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sting watched the magical light show until it completed. “Great, now we have targets at least.” He growled and grabbed a radio off a nearby table. “Newton...ah crap, this thing isn’t working either!”

He stepped forward. “Ok, give us you best ‘we’re going to defeat you’ speech, but make it quick so we can get on to us making you into hamburger.” Sting said defiantly.

Sting was relaxing and having a bit to eat when the lights went out. “&#$*, I thought we had a generator!” He moved quietly out of his chair, using his motion sensing antennae to find any trouble, as he was sure this was some sort of assault. His compound eyes detected movement in the shadows around him, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything. Whomever was there was incorporeal or very, very good at stealth.

The movements in the shadows were very disconcerting for Sting as he jumped at every one of them. At the point he was about to start sending bursts of spines around himself he heard Mystic speak up.

[ QUOTE ]
“Hello? Is anyone out there?”

[/ QUOTE ]

“What the %$*& is going on this time?” Sting growled, still trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that he kept seeing. “If I ever catch whoever that is hiding I’m going to do very unpleasant things to them!” He said, as much to the room as to Mystic.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“Sir, we just had a power loss of some sort in the building; all of the lights just went out at once. We are getting some odd energy readings as well.” The voice came through the speaker. Agent Becker activated a couple screens and saw both the physical building, with lights off, and the energy readings.

“Interesting. Let’s keep an eye on this.” He said.

The room had cleared and Special Operative Henry Becker was alone. The others were watching monitors in other rooms, testing the high-altitude drones, and setting up the walk-by schedule.

He unlocked his briefcase and pulled out a small memory stick. Connecting it to the computer he started accessing the data. After several pass codes and verification steps he opened the highly classified file.

Hive Queen

A picture of what looked like a human/bee hybrid dominated the screen. She had a segmented body, but with slightly human looking appendages (though still chitin covered). Her head was large, with big compound eyes and antennae, along with a mouth surrounded by pincers. He skin was a chitnous material similar to Sting’s but lighter in color. She also had spines, similar to those employed by Sting. On her back was a set of insectoid wings.

“Well little lady, I think it is time to show you to the public. A little demonstration on Mr. Sting seems appropriate.” He smiled as he picked up his phone. He punched a code to encode his transmission.

“Dr. Lawrence? This is Special Operative Henry Becker. Yes, nice to finally get to talk directly to you as well sir. I’d like to put Hive Queen on alert status. If we can get this Poison Sting alone I would like fast response so we can use her to bring him in.”

Sting handed over the vials to Newton. “Yeah, Blue Steel is a jack-hole. He used to lecture me all the time. Tell him that I send hugs and kisses when you see him.” Sting grinned.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Operative Henry Becker looked over the glowing computer screen. He clicked through files, each detailing information on the current roster of the Twenty-sixth precinct.

Newton’s Apple

Power Source
Unknown mutation – may have been born with it.

Powers
Control of gravity, including protective gravity bubbles and the ability to use gravity to teleport people and objects. Flight, teleportation.

Skills/Training
None of significance known.

Summary
Very powerful offensive and defensive capabilities, but is a soft target if attacked directly. Seems to be a key piece to provide support and evacuation for members of the team at the 26th. Very versatile.

Mystic Inferno

Power Source
Magic – not known if this is natural, learned, or from an artifact.

Powers
Significant offensive use of fire. Flight.

Skills/Training

Former university professor. Modest tactical and leadership skills. May have unknown magical skills.

Summary

Leader of this odd group of heroes. Powerful magical fire abilities. Solid commander, even if his tactics and planning leave something to be desired. A relatively soft target if attacked directly, but can cause massive damage through his use of fire.

Abrahms

Power Source

Mutagenic DNA manipulation, only member of second group of test subject to survive military experimentation. Believed to be due to his own dormant mutant genes, which are no longer dormant.

Powers

Incredibly Fast. Highly Resistant to Physical, Energy, Elemental damage. Jump incredible distance. Energy Manipulation that allows his heightened strength to be incredibly focused and directed through his Fists. Accelerated healing and recovery.

Skills/Training

A trained leader in small unit tactics. Demolitions expert, master of several hand-to-hand combat styles.

Summary

Military on temporary assignment with the 26th. Very dangerous and well trained.


Rough Justice

Power Source

Powers are result of an accident in a Superdyne production facility.

Powers

Incredibly resistant to physical damage. Unbelievable strength above that of even most super strong heroes.

Skills/Training

None of significance known.

Summary

Former gang member, now with a vigilante mentality. Very aggressive and deals harshly with any who cross him. Very volatile and dangerous, especially up close.

Elisa

Power Source

Unknown. Potentially a mutant or other dimensional being.

Powers

Ultra-high tech weaponry. Expert with most weapons. Highly developed dexterity.

Skills/Training

Unknown – expect some type of military training. Has some kind of high-tech contact that is currently an unknown entity. Known to ‘borrow’ supplies from the Council.

Summary

Very dangerous long-ranged combatant. Versatile abilities and works well both alone or in a team.

Poison Sting

Power Source
Scientific forced mutation by addition of a variety of insect DNA.

Powers
Resistant chitin skin. Poisonous spines used to slash, stab, and even thrown. Leap tremendous distances.

Skills/Training

Survival – can survive most harsh environments and eat almost anything organic for sustenance. Has minimal knowledge of chemistry and other sciences.

Summary

Strong, fast, and dangerous. Has shown a wanton disregard for the lives of his enemies. Borderline psychotic and quick to anger.


((OOC NOTE: I have left out those who I haven’t seen posting in a while. If anyone comes back I can always add him or her to the dossier.))

[ QUOTE ]
“Are we sure we want to do that,” Newton asked. “I mean, we look professional once, they’ll expect us to do that all the time.” He flashed a quick grin at Sting.

[/ QUOTE ]

As usual, despite Sting trying to be all tough and cool, Newton forces him to give a little smile.
"Heh, yeah. We'll rub a little dirt on them before we take them to the lab."

[ QUOTE ]
“Another typical day in the Two-Six, no?”

[/ QUOTE ]

“Ain’t that the truth.” Sting replied. “Shouldn’t we be able to send this stuff downtown to a crime lab or something? You know, like they do on TV in all of those stupid CSI shows. There should be some ‘hot chick’ science genius downtown to figure out that critical piece of information that we are missing.” Sting chuckled sarcastically.

Sting stood up and thought for a moment, then went to where some of the medical supplies were kept. He grabbed a couple tubes that were normally used for drawing blood – the kind without anticoagulant in them. We came back down to the holding cell and popped the tops off.

“These should be the most sterile things we have and will seal up pretty well.” He said as he scooped ‘goop’ into the tubes and pressed the tops back on. Washing the excess goop off he set them in a Styrofoam holder.

“Almost looks professional.” He said as he admired his work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

((OOC: /start narrator voice
Meanwhile, down the street from the Two-Six…
/end narrator voice))

The Crey ‘watcher’ team had found a convenient building down the block from the 26th. With the high-tech gear they had they didn’t need to be all that close to keep a careful watch on the place.

A technician made a few last adjustments to a bank of video monitors. “There you go sir, all ready. We have hidden remote cameras viewing all angles of the building, plus some high altitude drones deployed to move around as necessary. When they don’t have that damn force field up we should be able to get a good handle on their conversations.”

Special Operative Henry Becker nodded as he looked at his watch. “Four hours and twenty-seven minutes set-up time – I’m impressed! I want around the clock observation with all entries and exits recorded. We need to know patterns, who is present, and who else might be interacting with them. Also I want an undercover walk-by twice a day.”

He moved over to a computer. “Did we get the files for the known heroes loaded?” He asked.

“Yes sir,” The technician replied, “they should all be there for the heroes we know to be present. We will get any other hero files necessary as we identify others.”

[ QUOTE ]
“Great,” Newton said. “Sounds like a B-movie. Figures that we the B-grade heroes get that.” He floated up over the desk. “I’d like to see the lizard. Do we know if it’s a science project or a dimensional creature? What do we know about it?”

[/ QUOTE ]

“This way.” Sting took Newton down to the cell where the creature had been deposited. "We know they are tough, and can spit green junk that can temporarily blind and burns like heck."

Sting opened the door and stood there, shocked. “What the…” Where the creature had been dumped was nothing but a puddle of green goop. “Well looks like they break down after a short time.” He said as he knelt down to look at the puddle.

“It’s too bad we can’t keep a science geek in this place for more than a day or two. Be nice to have someone that could analyze this stuff. I have some lab experience, but wouldn’t know where to start on this gunk.”

[ QUOTE ]
“What, you mean cleaning does trip your trigger?” Newton asked. He took a swig of Dew. “So, lizards in the sewers. What do we know?”

[/ QUOTE ]

"Well last I checked we had one of the lizard thingies in a holding cell. And from what I have heard from an 'unnamed source' there are lots of people and things clearing out of the sewers in our general location."

Sting looked around at the few remaining heroes who had stuck it out at the 2-6. "Looks like we are at ground zero of the invasion of the lizard men."

Sting listened in as the static-filled com signals came through. He had cleaned up the wreckage from the earlier battle and had started to fiddle with the software running the com systems.

“Man this stuff is beyond me.” He complained, even though he did figure a way to patch the phone system through the communicators.

The phone rang and Sting shrugged and answered. “Twenty-sixth, Poison Sting here, whadya want?”

There was a moment of silence, then. “It’s Harold, I got some information for you.” A man whispered on the other end.

Sting sat up, a bit surprised. “Ok Harold, let’s have it, and speak up.”

“Well, the records show that there have been a large number of factions – Skulls, Vahz, Clocks, and such – moving out of the sewers in Kings Row. Especially right around the Twenty-sixth! Our intelligence suggests that something is going on in those sewers but they don’t’ know what.”

“Well Harold, that is good to know. You got anything else?” Sting asked.

Harold, on a pay phone in the Hollows, looked down at a new piece of information picked up from a mole in Crey. It described Poison Sting as ‘lost asset’ scheduled for recovery.

“No…nothing else.” Harold said quietly.

“Ok, thanks Harold. You stay out of trouble now, you hear.” Sting said with a bit of threat to his voice.

Harold hung up the phone and looked down at the intelligence report from the Crey mole. “Yeah, you too you piece of $&%#. Hope you have fun dancing with Crey.” He said with a chuckle to his voice as he lit the papers on fire and let them scatter in the wind.

Finally the crew returned and he saw Mystic out front talking to a large man. Sting stepped out to greet them. “What took you guys so long? I was beginning to get bored.”

After cleaning up the place and himself Sting settled in and fired up the main radio. He listened in to what he could about the battle – he figured the strange van must be boosting and retransmitting the signal as the small units probably would not reach from Strigga to the mainland.

He hated not being where the action was, but it was his turn to sit and wait. He was no electronics genius, but he did find a way to pipe the broadcast through the building PA system and did so. He busied himself cleaning up and making sure there were no more clock parts in the building.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Meanwhile, somewhere in a Crey Laboratory…)

Once the scientist left the room the manager clicked on a hidden link in the program description, entered a passcode, and started to read.

He nodded. “Ah yes, I thought I recognized this project.”

After several minutes of studying the classified data he picked up the phone and dialed an extension. “Hello sir, this is Henry Becker down in Asset Recovery, I think we have a use for patient 2 from X11G. Yes, we may have found patient 3. I am reviewing the information now and I will provide an update when I receive confirmation. I’ve got a watcher team on it and will wait for the right time to activate patient 2. Yes sir, I will go out into the field personally for this one.”

He hung up the phone and looked down at the file. “Well, well Mr. Sting let’s see what you have going for you.”

There was lab data on Sting, pictures of him during various stages of his transformation. Surveillance photographs from his escape showing him killing two men and then escaping into the dense jungle. Then there were some more recent pictures of him, beating up thugs, and entering the 26th.

His powers, strengths, weaknesses, and abilities were listed along with the standard Crey numbers to go along with these.

Finally there was the psychological profile and hero/criminal record. Henry nodded as he looked at it. “Borderline psychopath, antisocial, short temper, violent, rude, crude, and doesn’t play well with others.” He laughed as he added the last few. “You are one messed up head-case there bug-boy. Taking you in, or at least ending your career, is going to be cake unless the idiots at the 26th get in the way. I can’t fathom why they wouldn’t want to be rid of you!”

Apartment: 501
Name: War Club, a.k.a. Johnny Spiritfeather
Current Location: Just arrived
Storyteller: MadGremlin
Summary: Native American who can command spirits. Big, jet-black skin, carries an ancient club.

((OOC: Good to know.../rubs hands together evilly ))

((OOC: "Van-shaped Tardis"?? ROFL!))

“We found one.” The scientist’s ID tag indicated his name was Greg, and he was part of Crey’s ‘Project Asset Recovery’ team. He tossed an old file, along with a recent report, on the manager’s desk.

The manager in his black suit turned in his chair and looked at the information, spreading it out on his large oak desk. His non-mechanical hand drummed slowly as he read.

“Special project, ID # SA – 3598 – X11G – 05. Hmmm, the ‘SA’ designation would be South America, and if I remember correctly the X11G series dealt with forced mutation by DNA and chemical infusions to unknowing terminal patients. Let’s check this one out.”

A quick check of the records in the Crey computer database indicated that this was indeed a lab in South America that had lured specially screened, terminal cancer patients with the promise of a possible cure.

“Says here they used a variety of insect DNA to see if the bodies would both survive the transformation and reject the cancer. This was run under the VariBio Pharmaceuticals subsidiary.” The screen showed various test results, pictures, and other information. Finally he found a summary.

“Not a very big sample size, but they had very stringent entry requirements. Wow, a 3% survival rate on this early a study is amazing.” The manager frowned. “Of the three survivors, one was put down, status on the second is classified, and the last one was listed as a lost asset.”

The scientist Greg spoke up again. “Yes, those responsible at the lab were forced into early retirement.” He stated, using some Crey jargon for being either killed or complete mindwipe.

The manager looked up. “It seems that many of the projects we see in asset recovery have had those unfortunate issues. So what did we find? I am assuming one of those lost assets has shown himself?”

“We have been tracking several insect-like heroes in Paragon for a while now, in conjunction with our search for lost assets – both for this project and others. Honestly we didn’t really think that we would ever find any of them as patient one was so broken and crazed that he was disposed of. But we took notice when this ‘Poison Sting’ as he calls himself was assigned to the twenty sixth precinct with some other heroes. Here is the report on that project.”

He dropped a thin file on the desk. “We don’t really have access to any information on that project, nor what influence other divisions have applied to get certain heroes assigned to the 26th.”

The manager nodded. “Yes I’ve heard of the city project to help clean up Kings Row. PR department even dropped some money into the city coffers to get it started.”

The scientist continued; “Anyway, previously we had simply considered this Poison Sting a psychopath who was likely to end up dead or in the Zig himself. We picked up a DNA sample that he left at a fight scene and found a match. He is a missing Crey asset. All of that, plus a review of his powers and a psychological evaluation are in the report.”

“Excellent. I want team W-02 to be assigned to watch the asset and the 26th, I want confirmation on this – double and triple check that DNA match. Alert assault and capture team AC-04 that we may have a mission soon. Give them a copy of the pertinent information. I want to go over this report in some detail. And get me information on the other heroes assigned or involved with the 26th.”

"Guys, I hate to miss out on the fun, but someone better stay around here. You know, clean up and look after the dump." Sting said. He grabbed a snack out of the fridge and sat down at the desk to relax for a bit.

((OOC: I know this is out of character for Sting, but I am out of town this weekend and don't want to hold stuff up. So Sting is parked at the two-six. If anything exciting happens there someone can feel free to write him for me.))

Sting laughed at the dog/cat reference.

"Don't get me wrong RJ, I don't like her bossin' me around either, but at least now we know when an army of Council attack us, why they are there."

[ QUOTE ]
"Um sorry lady, but I work for Mystic and Newton as back up PO. I aint going nowhere to I know who leads. I dont like the Zig and sure as hell dont want a free trip back there." Crossing his arms over his chest, he takes a defient stance as we awaits the answers he seems to need to hear. " Aint that right Sting?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Sting was about to burst into a complaint, but RJ beat him to it. As Sting listened, he finally started to figure the cat lady's 'shopping trip' out.

"So your shopping trip was always going to be a trip to raid Council storage..." Sting nodded a bit. "This actually might have merit. It would have been nice if you had come clean with us to start with - nothing like bringing the freaking wrath of the Council down on us without letting us know." He shook his head. "Damn, and I thought I was going to be a liability to this place."

Sting looked at the map, then up at Elisa. "You really are a piece of work. Lucky RJ and I are such forgiving guys." He chuckled. "Any other little secrets that might cause some group of thugs to come raining down on us? Do you get your armor from the Sky Raiders and steal make-up from the Carnies?"

He turned back to the map. "Ok, I guess once we pull the Boss and Abrahms out, those guards will raise an alarm and cat lady can get in and steal whatever she needs. But it's really up to Newton at this point."

"I'm not letting you go to that scum hole without some backup." Sting said firmly. "Mystic picked a crappy place for a vacation."

Grey area.

Overdone it is freaking annoying.
Used in moderation it is entertaining.
Used sparingly it can be a good way to make a situation very fun/funny.

Unfortunately those terms (overdone, moderation, sparingly) are all subjective. In addition, there will always be someone that doesn't appreciate your humor (or isn't old enough to even know the 70s/80s existed.

"Well if this junk is gonna attract more clocks, lets clear most of it out of here. Just keep the bits we need to study."

Sting started cleaning, throwing parts and pieces into a box.

[ QUOTE ]
“I don’t know, zzince you hazz already told me to ignore you, I do not zzink I will be zzaying. Rough Juzztizz might have rough edgezz, but he at leazz hazzz mannezz.”

[/ QUOTE ]

Sting started to react to the comment, but Zot continued with her dissertation on the clockwork and he decided to actually not make an issue of it.

[ QUOTE ]
“HIE!” Halo interrupted, swooping down to face the armored woman. “Too much the talking! What is done with the Abe Rams?” She looked at the others. “Where is the Abe Rams?”

[/ QUOTE ]

“Yo! If we knew where he was, why the %#$& would we need help finding him? Geez, where the &%*$ do they find these people and why do they send them to us?”

Sting shook his head. “Look, we didn’t really get much of a chance to chat with him while he was trying to kill us! He put Mystic and Abrahms in an electric cage and they were gone.”

Sting wandered over and wrenched off the left arm of the big clock. “This was the same arm that effect came from, if that helps.”

“Hello Zot great to have you along. Now don’t mess with me – if you think RJ is a little rough around the edges, I’m worse, so don’t %#$& with me and we’ll do fine.”

[ QUOTE ]
Newton walked back into the garage, a bundle of robot parts floating behind him. “I think I got all the pieces. The bad news is that they did get into the force field system. I’m no electronics expert, but does the word ‘junk’ mean anything to anyone. I’m sure Ion could fix it, and maybe Coolant, but…” He shook his head. “We’re back to where we were three days ago, Sting.”

He was introduced to Zot and got her and Halo’s hero IDs. “I hope someone has a plan,” he said, looking over at the other heroes.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Well great, we could just put a sign out front that says ‘No robots, gangs, ninja, or zombies allowed’. That should keep them out.” Sting laughed.

“As for a plan, Amadan said we could rebuild this thing, that almost killed us twice, and let it send one of us. Of course since the last time it did that it was based on the electrical cage thing, which when it used it down here did not teleport anyone away. So I’m thinking that plan isn’t going to work.”

Sting looked over at Zot. “So I guess that you are now our tech genius. Any chance you can figure it out? And are you just here for a visit or are you staying?” Sting asked rather abruptly.

“Yeah, like Newton said, people wanting to do us harm in our own house is pretty common. The force field kept them somewhat at bay but looks like it is starting to fail without Ion here to keep it going.”

Sting noticed a half broken gear crawling out from under the car and flicked a handful of spines at it. “And I thought I was the only vermin we had in this place.”

Sting walked over and picked up the parts of the large clock. “So, now that he has been rebuilt and re-defeated, any chance we can still find out where he sent Abrahms and the boss?”

Sting saw the car smash into the big clock, and then just as it recovered from that RJ put on the finishing touches.

"Thanks Newton."

Exhausted himself, he looked around to see if he had hit too many friendlies with spines and to see if any of the new faces were going to act hostile. Seeing nothing right away, he moved over to RJ.

"Nice work there man. I think you done punched his lights out."