She wanted to look over her shoulder, but recognized the urge for what it was--a tell--and surpressed it. It had been some time since Brenda Cassidy had run a con, ever since she had been dumped in the states actually, but the old habits came back quick.
Shaking the feeling off, the 5' 2" brunette reminded herself that she had been a better pickpocket than con man. Best not to rely on her ability to look innocent while telling a lie. Her blue eyes darted across the lobby of the Tonne Hall building and she spotted the door her contact had instructed her towards quite easily.
Adjusting the pieces of the 'villainous' costume she wore--decked out in the tight red and black with visciously spiked gauntlets, she idly wondered if it would fool anybody. Not that she was a paragon of virtue, but it seemed a little...overcompensatory. She took another moment to check the status of her force field generator the high tech device that generated an energy field that deflected most attacks. When combined with her clawed fighting style, she called herself Saigh--What the Guards used to call her back in Ireland.
Satisfied with her equipment, she stepped downstairs, seeing a singular man waiting in the room. Her information didn't include a contact name, but she walked up and extended her hand, "Top of the morning, I'm Saigh."
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
The rather plain and unassuming man in the monitor room nodded at her as she entered, and shook her hand when she extended it. "Welcome to Tonne Hall." He said. "I'm Lear, or rather, Operative Lear. I'll be our source within Arachnos for the duration of the project. Did you have any trouble getting here...?"
He was standing near one of the walls, but there were several chairs arranged in a semi-oval facing the northern wall, which was in fact a giant floor-to-ceiling monitor. The controls were ingeniusly hidden in plain sight, being a computer on a desk behind the chairs. Any officials snooping around down here were meant to see a records and temporary storage room, and that was what they would see unless they walked in during a video conference.
"Always a nice to have an inside man", Saigh said as she leaned against the wall next to him. It gave her a better view of the door.
"As for getting here, it was easier than I expected. A few stamps on the passport, one carry on, a cloaking field and late night landing and boom. Of course, given how often they meander over to our backyard, I shouldn't be surprised."
As she talked, she tried to cross her arms, and caught her sleeve on one of the spiked gauntlets, putting a long scratch in the uniform and drawing a thin line of blood. "Ah hell. I hate these things."
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
Outside the Tonne Hall, if there were any sensors operating capable of detecting an invisible person (as there quite possibly were, given that this was the Isles and that Stalker-class villains were common here), they would undoubtably be beeping, flashing alarms, throwing up message boxes with big red text or whatever their favored method of alerting people to having found something was. For there was indeed just such a person present, specifically flying along at about twice head height. From her path, it was obvious she was heading directly for the Hall.
And so she was, landing neatly in front of the building's main entrance and looking up at it, absently running one hand through what little of her dull orange hair wasn't tied back into two ponytails. As she then moved to go inside, the fact that the two swords strapped to the back of her black leather trenchcoat (that'd lost its sleeves at some point, apparently by force) stayed in their sheaths was possibly a clue to her intentions here. If they'd been violent, surely she would have drawn those blades. Unless they were merely for decoration, and her true method of attack was something entirely different? Hard to tell.
Either way, she would, barring someone stopping her, proceed inside and have a look around. Eventually she'd end up going down to the basement where the others were. Chances were she wouldn't get anything like that far though, as a cursory search through any number of public villain databases would identify her as one Bladed Mirage, though most of those files would note she rarely used that name herself, instead preferring to go by her real name of Ildela. If they possessed the equipment (or magic, or mutant powers, etc) necessary to detect the odd energy patterns in the air around her, they'd easily be able to confirm her identity as said villain.
(( Let the games begin! ))
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
(( See, this is why I was reluctant to join this thread. *sigh* ))
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((For clarification, this is an Open RP. I tried editting the title, but the editor won't allow me.))
The Etoile Isles Tourist Guide was written by a private group of like-minded individuals who traveled the world, from place to place, writing oh-so-useful little books and pamphlets for the prospective tourist, filled with helpful tips and information. The Etoile Isles Tourist Guide contained all the information a person would need in order to visit, tour about, and go home satisfied, refreshed and relaxed. And for a time, this guide even actually existed. However, it had been pre-arranged before being written to vanish off the shelves after only a year, with only seventy five thousand copies ever being produced and distributed.
The Rogue Isles Survival Guide was written by a private group of like-minded civilians, scientists and licensed meta-humans who lived under the domain of Lord Recluse in secrecy, studying the people, locales, and happenings of it for an extended period of time. It contained information on the quality of life, the standard of living, daily occurrences and events, a wide variety of statistical reports, and information that would have made Lord Recluse very upset had he ever known it was going to be internationally published. There was also a “Limited Edition Hardback” version of the Guide, which contained…secrets. These versions of the guide generally only found their ways into the hands of Longbow, the U.S. military, some Hero Groups, a few intelligence agencies, independent mercenary companies such as Wyvern, and Nemesis. (Duh)
In fact, the Etoile Isles Tourist Guide and the Rogue Isles Survival Guide projects had always been one and the same, one using the other as a cover operation. The project was based out of the Tonne Hall building, housing a large number of residents, (all of them members of the project) and located at -1430.8, 3.9, -1306.8 in Cap Au Diable. All members of the operation had been specially cleared and given a work-over treatment in terms of paperwork. All checks on any residents within Tonne Hall would reveal that they were legitimate citizens of the Rogue Isles, and all licensed meta-humans were in fact licensed threats, to be treated as any member of Lord Recluse’s “Destined Ones.” As mentioned above, there were two separate groups living in Tonne Hall: Undercover civilians, and licensed meta-humans. The civilians would simply “live,” traveling from zone to zone of the Isles every week to experience the life of the average pedestrian. The meta-human group would, when called, participate in espionage, urban pacification, and general response to any “occurrences” whenever they were available or inclined to do so, and were compensated for their work. A scientific group conducted most of the technical aspects of the project, researching and providing information for the other two groups.
Prominent members of the operation included:
Rick Davies (D.A.T.A. Researcher, retired technological hero)
Susan Davies (E.L.I.T.E. Researcher, government liason)
Rebecca Brinell (S.E.R.A.P.H. Researcher, general study)
Antonio Nash (G.I.F.T. Researcher, ex-department of defense analysis expert)
Gregor Richardson (M.A.G.I. Researcher, professional mystic)
It should be noted that the above were never actually on-site at Tonne Hall, as that would have been too large a security risk. They did, however, maintain 24/7 contact via a live monitor station that had been established in the basement.
And, of course, nobody can claim that ANY of the heroes or gifted civilians who were a part of the operation do not deserve mention. It also goes without saying that there were many encounters with the local super-human populace, the "Rogues" of the Etoile Isles...
***
New Haven, Cap Au Diable, Etoile Isles
It had been a week since the group of undercover civilians had moved into Tonne Tower, and their portion of the project was already underway. The first of many potential groups of heroes arrived that day, all of whom had been directed to meet in the monitor room for a brief initiation session. The lobby was currently empty, with the elevators to the upper hallways and the rooms therein silent. A door marked “employees only” led down to the basement.
There, Operative Lear, a hero working undercover within Arachnos patiently awaited the arrival of the rest of the group. He was out of uniform for now, just in case, standing 6’1 and wearing a plain gray t-shirt and a pair of khakis, with neatly combed black hair and a surprisingly soft face. He looked uneasy, not used to being seen without his face-concealing helmet, and wished that the rest would get here quickly so he could get back into his gear as quickly as possible.