"Oh, the thanks aren't due where I'm concerned BODICIA, I was totally ogling her" Nick responds to the AIs comment in an offhand and completely unembarrassed way before waiting to hear whatever Mary might have to say.
"Really, a couple of things." Mary looks around at the others. "Firstly, I know we're wound up. We're angry about one of our own being taken. If we are to get out of this with her and our selves intact though, then we have to stick to what we need. No excesses of vengeance, no bloodbaths, no disintegrations. Once we know where she is, we go in, we get her and we move on. As much damage as is required to get the job done cleanly and quietly. That includes our ancilliary targets too. Righteous indignation will just get us into deeper trouble and cause questions we don't want to be raised. You all have what it takes in you to be that professional. Time to step up."
She looks around, to check everyone's at least paid attention. "Which leads onto the other thing. The plan we've got, itself, is sound. What I don't want to see is anyone running off half-cocked. You get word, pass it on. You find her, you call the rest in. In this place, at this time, individual heroics will be more trouble than they are worth. Doesn't matter if you think you can handle it. Get support." Mary is quite pointedly not looking at Richard at this point.
"Bottom line, if we keep our heads, don't start running wild, and keep this thing by the numbers, it'll come off as smooth as silk. Nobody gets left behind. Nobody is being the scapegoat today. We're quite capable of doing this without that kind of sacrifice."
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Richard, having returned part-way through Zorielle's call, had managed to recover much of his composure, and listened to Mary's words carefully, nodding, smirking to himself when she mentioned 'righteous indignation', and actually chuckled when she stomped on any egotism he might possess about his own capabilities. He addressed Mary plainly, as if she had made it clear she was talking directly to him, well aware that he was the greatest unknown of all of them - to his knowledge he had never actually fought side-by-side with the Unity Vigil before, and those few members who knew anything about his abilities had only observed them during the Requiem War nearly two years previously.
"My dear, I think you can trust me to avoid unnecessary risks. Yes, I'm a bit of a lone gunman. Yes, I'm aware that I'm more than capable of succeeding with the sorts of individual heroics you quite rightly deplore in this circumstance. No, I'm not an idiot. No, I'm not going to do anything foolish... and even though the current deployment pattern has me acting alone, as I do best, I will have direct support, in the form of the lovely BODICIA, without whom I would feel quite lost, I assure you. I think you can safely trust that she will keep an eye on me."
He paused, taking a deep breath. "And since we're all being so candid about things, I'd just like to point out that I've rarely worked beside a team as dedicated and professional as this one. It honours me to have been selected to help. If it will help you to get an idea of my capabilities, so that you can make best use of me, then I'll tell you what I can." He bowed his head deferentially to Mary. "I may not be a soldier, and I may not be one of the 'gang', but if BODICIA says that you're in charge here, then you're in charge here."
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
Starborn smiles "This is pretty much my first real mission with the Vigil...most I'm usually onjust to lend a hand, so I appreciate being requested for this.
"A question though, not that I intend to but if we stumble into unnecessary trouble while on our own, wouldn't it become more of a problem if all of us get involved? Calling everyone to help would draw a lot of attention, and it might be better just to high tail it to safety than make a scene."
Tigergirl/Yoko Hatori - Full time hero
Kiyarii Kade - Model and part time hero
Mileena Lim - Alien Demon Bat Sorceress or rather Hotel property owner
Starborn/Klair Elwin - Full time hero and Journalist
((Tenatively penciling in the mission to happen on IRC tonight from 8ish, so if people are free could you let me know via PM? Details will be forwarded to you of how to connect. *Pokes FFM*))
(( That's good for me. Anyone who doesn't have my IRC server login info, please PM me as I'd rather not post it on a public readable forum! ))
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
(( Although the mission didn't go as planned last night on IRC, we got some bits and pieces done of the scattered party members.
First up: 'Nightschild', who with the right connections and friends makes a lot of headway.
}--------(o)--------{
Upon arrival, Nick Nightschild went off to make some phone calls in private.
Seeing as he had some calls to make that might not sit too well with the more goody-two-shoes members of the party.
First he called some contacts within the Family, in St. Martial. As he waited on them to get back to him, he called some old acquaintances within Ghost Widows Club.
It took a while, in which Nick did some poking and prodding of his own, but eventually the Family came through for him. He got sketchy descriptions of the ones that beat up Liberty Girl, but more a detailed description of the one who carried her off.
That description reminded Nick of someone hes met before, one that has a violent history with Liberty Girl. Bambi Delight is to Nicks knowledge a close friend of his friend Rosalin Thorne.
Nick made the call, and Rosa was all to happy to talk about Bambi and Liberty Girl.
Rosa was able to tell Nick in full the details (though without the conversations) that are described in this story thread.
[u]To give a brief explanation of the situation as Nick knows it:[u]
Liberty Girl was the pupil of a heroin Columbia.
Bambi Delight was the stage partner of a Lulu.
Columbia and Lulu were lovers.
Liberty Girl had a big crush on Columbia.
In 2006, Lulu was murdered, and all fingers pointed to Bambi.
A few days later, Columbia disappeared from Warburg where she responded to a fake distress call apparently issued by Liberty Girl, who was in Sirens Call at the time so couldnt have.
Liberty Girl blames Bambi for Columbias disappearance/death and goes after her with a vengeance.
Bambi claims innocence, and Rosa (who is friends with both Bambi and Libby) believes Bambi to be.
(Yes, thats the brief version)
Back to the relevance in this investigation:
Rosa reveals that the 2 women that beat Liberty Girl to a pulp are:
Scorned (formerly known as Lulu, believed dead.)
Fallen Star (formerly known as Columbia, MIA, and assumed brainwashed in some way.)
Both wear an outfit similar to Bambis, but for better descriptions Happy_Dan will have to provide
iirc, Lulus brunette instead of blond.
As said, Bambi took Liberty Girl to Rosa, where she was nurtured back to health, and plotting of getting Lulu and Columbia back was going on. Lulu to prove Bambis innocence and Columbia to return a hero to Paragon and a friend to Liberty Girl.
Sadly, a few days earlier, the safe house was hit by Badmen and Liberty Girl was abducted.
Bambi and Rosa were still nursing their wounds and bruises, under the protection of some of Jan Boas best men within a circle of (already proven inadequate) friendly Skull gang territory.
The Badmen consisted of an unusual mix of Carnival of Shadows, Circle of Thorns and Crey.
Armed with this information, Nick made an other call to his friends at the GW Fan Club, hoping such a pairing would not go unnoticed. Naughty boy that he is, he even offered to send the UV group after a target the GW-FC want to but politically cant go after, if material support is given in the retrieval of Liberty Girl.
Time to see what the others have turned up, once we can plot that out
))
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Arachidamia started asking questions in the right places. Bars. Picking up information about an odd brawl in Port Oakes, the veteran hero travelled from Nerva to Port Oakes to investigate further, looking about the Skulls territory (and feeling several sets of eyes on her) before going into a local tavern to ask some questions on the brawl.
Those questions drew the attention of Boa Personell Services, and their leader Jan Boa in particular, and Arachidamia was escorted to the Euromarket, and taken up to see the half-snake woman.
Probing each others intent, the pair began to haggle about business and trade information. When assured that Damia wasn't after the 50k bounty put on Liberty Girl alive by Arachnos (which caused Jan to step up security), and returned to Paragon City, they began to haggle in earnest.
(And also many a Salmissra joke and quote.)
Wishing to have things resolved before she starts to go into molting proper, Jan began a trade of information and items, and informed Arachidamia that the three groups that were behind the attack may be lead by a member of the Carnival of Shadows who, from her intelligence reports, keeps court in St. Martial.
As they were about to conclude business, a flurry of activity happened in the main office, when some of Jan's agents positively ID'd Starborn along with a group of unknown people working together in the Isles. Knowing her to be a member of the Unity Vigil, Jan warned Arachidamia from going after Liberty Girl if they were here, and grumbled about wanting Port Oakes to relative peace.
If that involves the dark haired bounty huntress taking down the trio of forces that have stopped fighting each other, so be it.
Before Mary left, another call got Jan even more agitated, as she found out about visitors to the place Bambi and Rosa were holed up in.
Port Oakes was getting too crowded.
EPIC Plot recap!
Arachidamia went looking for information, and found herself in the Euromarket, where she cut a deal with Jan and got directed towards Nerva again. Nightschild and Shadowe were sent that way along with Rosa and Bambi, Jan's men returned to base.
The other UV members tracked down Anti-Tech and brought him down. Arachidamia got in contact with BODICIA en route, who directs those four to the location that everyone else is going to.
They meet up, encounter heavy resistance outside. Nick, along with Rosa and Ryan, use stealth to sneak in and get to Liberty Girl. The others fight their way through, and then Shadowe and Starborn hold off the foes from the exit and act as big targets while Damia and the team head through to find the leaders of the group and break their morale. With swords and other sharp stabby things.
Team 1 (Nick, Ryan, Rosa) reach Liberty Girl, Rosa drags back someone for Nick to use to heal Liberty Girl up to the point where she can move under her own power, and start to make their way to team 2.
Team 2 break up the leadership and generally carve, punch, freeze and burn their way down the middle. Team 1 and 2 meet up, and then begin their exit to meet with team 3. Damia calls in BODICIA, the Unity Wing arrives in stealth mode.
Bambi and Rosa are dropped off on the Isles, the UV members fly back to Rolando Island where they are congratulated by Zorielle.
Anti-Tech is brought into custody, Liberty Girl put on the naughty step with lectures to look forward to.
The cover story is that Linda did get beaten up, but was nursed back to health by some friendly villains. Arachnos found out she was there, put a bounty to make good on the opportunity. She was able to arrest Anti-Tech (Who was knocked senseless by the other UV'ers and thus didn't know) and brought him to the boarder, where the UV picked them up.
This post was brought to you in collaboration with Zortel (ie: she wrote most of it )
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
After around 10 minutes, BODICIA turned in her chair and smiled brightly.
"Well Mary, was that what you had in mind for the briefing?" She asked the warrior. "I must admit I noticed some flaws in my performance, but some of us here do not go to acting classes." She said, shooting a glance in Ryan's direction.
"Not saying a word, BODICIA!" Ryan replied.
"Smart man. Anyway, I was expecting that little call from Zorielle. Not quite in content, but expecting the jist of it none the less. Thank you all for not ogling her. I am looking at you, Nick." The gynoid stated, before looking around the cabin.
"A little deception was necessary so no unwanted things got blurted out to our glorious leader, and thusly, now the call has been made, I transfer the facade of leadership I had over to our most senior member."
Pausing thoughtfully, she hastened to add "In authority, that is. Mary was the one who brought up the idea I could not suggest, and is actually ranked as joint third position in the Unity Vigil, along with all senior members. Only Tessa and Zorielle rank higher."
"As for our two unjoined members, it is up to you to heed her words. Anything you wish to add, Mary?"
SUPPORT - IT'S NOT JUST A GROUPING OF ATs
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More Than a Game
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