Falin' Angels - On Bloodied Wings (RP)

[Warp Factor]

Michael Bateman
Location: a creepy old house

I am all too accustomed to places like this. People like this. The scenario plays out in my mind over and over, my creeping into the building, the youth enjoying their malt beverages and doing what young people do. Whatever that is. Of course, tonight will end very differently from the playback in my mind. Fortunately.

I could sense the presence of a killer in this abandoned old house. I have an affinity for such people, doubtless due to my unique background. I feel drawn to them. I grip the axe tightly in my fingers; ordinarily I might choose to bring my energy axe, for the stun setting. For a man like this one, though, I feel that I owe it to him to use my original weapon. Perhaps he will realize and understand that even a weapon once used for murder can be repurposed as a tool to protect the innocent. Perhaps that will make some difference. Or perhaps that is a convenient fiction to make me more comfortable with this violence. Either way, the original axe will do. Sometimes you really do just need to stick with the classics.

I lurch through the doorway into the musty living room of the house and glance about, searching for my target. Four young people in the room, enjoying pizza and inexpensive beer. I wrinkle what remains of my nose behind the mask at the smell of overcooked pork; I will not judge others' consumption of animals for food, but it is not something I could bring myself to do. Memories of the taste of flesh are still vivid in my mind. I do not care to relive them, fictional as they may be. The unreality of my past is a comfort, but a cold one at that. The youth stare up at me, as fearful as expected. I must appear to them to be like something out of a nightmare. Or a terrible midnight film. Is there a difference to them?

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of boots clambering down the stairs to my left. My target. With a gravelly cry he throws himself at me, all 200 pounds of flannel-covered unwashed meat crashing into me as his knife penetrates my flesh. I do not care. I pull away, yanking the knife from his sweaty grasp and pushing him back against the bannister with my free hand. He smashes through the old, dry wood and catches himself on the side of the stairs, trying to pull himself back to his feet, but he is too slow. I raise my axe and catch him across the side of his head with the flat side of the blade. He goes down like a load of bricks, a massive bruise already beginning to form on the flesh of his temple. I reach down and slip my arm underneath him, then sling him up onto my shoulder and turn to leave. The two young women are screaming now, and the two men are on their feet with fists raised, but I understand that they do not wish to fight me. They never do. I should say something to calm them, to assure them that there is nothing to fear. I do my best to clear my throat and force something reassuring out.

"Acchh... hcchhhhh.... mmmrrrhhcchhh.... don't drive drunk. Good night." Yes. That will suffice. The youth have stopped screaming now. I turn and make my way to the front door, villain in tow, with what I am certain are awestruck and inspired eyes at my back.

"MICHAEL BATEMAN! THIS IS LONGBOW! DROP THE BODY AND THE WEAPON AND SURRENDER OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON!"

Oh, no. Spotlights in my eyes, I can't see. I drop the unconscious maniac and take a step forward, away from him. I raise my other arm to shield my eyes, I cannot see properly....

"HE'S RAISING A WEAPON! BAG HIM AND TAG HIM, BOYS!"

Gunshots. Pain. I feel those sapper guns on me, and I have difficulty standing upright. I do my best to move away from the unconscious body behind me, to draw their fire away from the subdued criminal. The pain does not bother me overly much, but I must not allow him to be caught in the line of fire. Speaking of which... Longbow use flamethrowers. What savage monster allows these people to use flamethrowers? I feel the heat of their flames, and that is the last thing I feel before sinking into oblivion.

Hours later....

<<WAS SHOT BY LONGBOW. GOT BETTER. BURNED FAVORITE SHIRT. I AM MAD. EN ROUTE TO CAVE. - MB>>

[shadewing]

--A cave in Perez Park--

She had arrived at the cave everyone was meeting in thanks to both Angelina and Caios. Her arm still needed attention, so after giving a quick "Hello" to everyone else she found a nice corner to sit down by and began to bandage her arm up.

All of a sudden there was a flash, which caused Shade to jump, and then Warp Factor appeared, saying something about being caught up on the moon. "You were on the MOON? Seriously? You just missed everything that happened!" Shade called out, trying to sound as non-accusing as possible.

---Later---

"Thanks again for the help, Caios." Shadewing said as she finished bandaging her arm, "Never thought Longbow would stoop so low as to try and kill off the people defending this place, how stupid can they be?"

She paced around the caverns for a bit. her arm was still sore, so she had her arms crossed, partly to support her injured arm, and partly because on the inside she was angry and wanted to beat the crap out of whoever set this whole thing up. "Then again...You did say they were set up by that politician guy, right?"

"It's obvious that footage of us robbing banks is fake, but the problem is going to be proving it to everyone else, right?" She asked. She was still mad, but she wasn't going to let her feelings get the better of her, "Alright then, I'll help try and find a way to clear our names. Who else is coming?"

[caios]

"Dammit Bateman, put a shirt on!" Caios swore as the exposed, and still burnt, chest of Micheal Bateman seemed to glare in her direction. "I get that you were set on fire and all, but come on, there are children present." Caios waved in the direction of the Irken as she said this. Everyone knew that the green alien wasn't a kid, much less human, but he liked to think he could convince everyone of that, and Caios had found it easier just to let him believe his delusions. Besides in this case it made for convenient joke fodder.

Caios didn't actually care about the level of Bateman's undress due to his unfortunate encounter with a flamethrower. What bothered her was the scent of still burning flesh that came off horror flick cliche which assaulted her supernatural senses. Eventually they managed to hand him some of the left over clothing that Stern had no use for. Though seeing Bateman trying to wear a shirt obviously two sizes too small, not to mention the lovely flower arangement on it, was rather comical. It's no wonder he wound up hiding in a dark corner of the cave after a while.

Not long after, Maggie finally made it to the cave. Caios was secretly relieved to see she was alright. Not that she ever really doubted it, of course. She knew all too well how powerful Warp Factor was and there was no way even the best Longbow operatives would have been able to take her out. Even so Caios had not heard from her in a while since she had been spending her 'alone time' on the far side of the moon, or where ever.

It was one of those things Caios just couldn't relate to, for all the crazy things she'd done in her life, she was in the end a very down to earth woman, and like to keep things that way. Then again she'd never really tried going off world; not voluntarily at least.

Only once Caios made sure that everyone was safe inside the cave, and Shadewing's wound was being properly tended to, that she began gathering everyone together.

"We can't wait any longer." Caios said agreeing with what the others had mentioned already, "It's time to move, now. So here's what I got."

"We'll need two groups. Most of you should be on the first group, and your job is intel. The intel crew will need to be looking for two things. First, what the fuck is really going on? There's more to this mess then White and his Longbow cronies. Clearly White had some kind hand in the frame job so that's a good place to start. Second, we need evidence. We need to prove all these trumped up charges are nothing but bullshit. We need to be able to show those videos are fake."

"The second group, our job will be Havoc," Caios continued, then paused for a moment as she shook her head slightly, "I'll be honest here, I'm hoping the second group is just me. Cause the road I'm traveling is not going to be good for anyone. I'm not going to stop you but just know if you do this there's no going back.

"I'm talking dark side shit here. Our job will be to make a lot of noise and do all the bad shit they're already accusing us of when we need to do it. That means we'll start by breaking out Ghostveil, Fenix, and any other Angels Longbow's got caged up. But we're not just talking a breakout here. We're going to be loud and visible, we're going to be quite literally a target. Not just for Longbow, or the Cops, but for every fucking hunter, merc, and misguided hero that wants to take us down. We want people to keep their attention on us, so that way we can keep the heat off the Intel group. Probably won't let us keep our hero badges once all this is done."

Caios took a deep (admittedly useless) sigh as she looked around the room, "Think hard about where you need to go. Right now intel is most important. Most of us should try to go that route, but at the same time the more noise the havoc group can make the easier it will be for the intel folks to move. And that brings me to one last special task," Her gaze fell upon the completely normal human woman, "Ms. Brennan was it? I'd like for you to go back to your client. Being her lawyer and all it shouldn't be a problem. Ask her if she would like to leave her prison." There was a slight pause as she made sure the meaning behind her words sunk in. "While you're at it see if you can ask any of the other Angels who turned themselves into the cops the same thing. I'm guessing most of them won't want to add fuel to the fire, which is probably for the best, but I'd like to make sure we know how many of our people we'll need to bust out as well."

"As for everyone else," Caios added as she looked over the rest of the Angels in the cave, "Make up your minds quickly cause I'm leaving in ten minutes, and the havoc train is going with me."

[shadewing]

Shade nodded, "Yeah. I'm going with the intel group. I won't be much help in a fight the way things are now, anyway..."

"Okay. I'll follow whoever else is coming. Just tell me what to look for and I'll do it."

She looked over in Caios' general direction, "Caios, and anyone else going: Good luck. Hopefully we'll see each other again soon."

[Hollowpoint Heroism]

From a darkened corner of the meeting cave, a figure watched the conversation pour forth, focused eyes gazing from beneath a dark hood, rifle sitting comfortably across his chest. He'd made his way to the meeting location shortly after his TV spectacle, utilizing the extensive cavern system that ran under Perez Park to enter the underground about three quarters of a mile away from the actual entrance indicated.

From where he watched now, the specifics of the plan flowed past his ears. A brief consideration crossed his mind that of all people in the cave, Caios would be able to pick up his scent, she'd pegged him like that before. However, this mattered little to him. Especially at this moment.

Split up and attack from two angles? Solid plan. As was freeing the incarcerated Guardian Angels. Longbow and Donald White had taken liberties with the freedoms of his his compatriots, and the Shadowstormm wasn't about to let it continue.

With a gentle hum, his cloaking device shut off, revealing the towering man in the hood and skull mask to the rest of the group that hadn't yet picked up his presence. With a hand clutching the grip of his multi-purpose assault rifle, another resting on the end of the stock, the mean-looking firearm glinting menacingly in the prevailing light. He nodded sharply to the vampire, luminous eyes narrowing sharply,

"Part of being a Guardian Angel means you don't have to take on the world yourself, C. You mark the targets, I'll pull the trigger. I'm don playing nice with that pudgy fuck. If Donald White wants to fight dirty? Well, we'll give him more than enough Longbow blood to wash his hands 'clean'."

[gothicshark]

The Irken with a cocksure grin stood up, proudly announced, “I’m intelligent”, and goose-stepped in a happy proud way to the Intel group he was followed by his pet robot who was eating a strawberry Sunday.

Malkavian who was working quietly on the Irken’s fold up base and space ship let out a long sigh and changed in to a male and with an elegant British or what is commonly called in England a ‘Northern’ accent, “I don’t have much choice in this one. Sadly they are tracking my quantum signature, I can make a dampener but with these tools it would take some time to do it.” Malkavian then held out a standard screwdriver and advanced elections tool kit. “So unless someone has a Laser or sonic screw driver then I am going with Caios… which in some ways seems most appropriate any way” Malkavian then switched to a female form wearing a combat uniform which was a combo of red’s and gold’s.

“Anyway I have been waiting for a good reason to wear my Combat Armor.” She said as she walked over to Caios.

[ZombieSareini]

Shadowglider stands slightly apart from the others in the cave, musing on the day she had had so far. Waking up to find she was wanted by Longbow had not been the best start to the day, and after that there had been a few hours of desperate fleeing from the authorities, who in a moment of extreme bad sport had decided to send Quantums after her and Bob. She had briefly considered just quitting the city and seeing how far she could get - even Longbow couldn't track her that well if she was teleporting all over the place, right? - but as she kept up with the news reports and saw what was happening she found she couldn't bring herself to just bug out and leave the others to their fate.

~And you keep telling me you don't care about people...~ Bob had commented.

-Shut up, Bob, or I'll turn us both in just to spite you,- she had shot back, even if she didn't quite mean it.

He was right, of course, which made it worse. Bekki really just couldn't justify leaving her teammates and friends to their fate, even if that meant throwing herself into the fire with this whole "wanted by half the city" crap. Sometimes, you just had to make a stand.

When the messages from the other surviving Angels had started coming in, Bekki had made her own way to the cave as well, with only a slight detour to grab some supplies of her own and inadvertantly explode a police cruiser when its occupants had tried to intercept her. Hopefully she hadn't killed the cops who were driving, but really, they shouldn't have driven straight at her like some demented game of Paragon Chicken. Not when she could shapeshift and blast them from above, at any rate.

Now, though, she was irritated. She had already been banished to a far side of the cavern when she had finally gotten there by their resident vampire, just because she had wanted a cigarette to calm down after the day she'd had, but when Bateman had lumbered in, half-naked and still healing from second and third-degree burns all over his torso, he had taken the time to try to lecture her about the dangers of smoking. At which point Bekki had just given up altogether, and just sat down and waited for a plan to come together. And maybe sulking just a little.

They were discussing the plan now. Two teams - one to get to the bottom of this whole clusterfuck, and the other to serve as visible distractions and break out the ones already captured. Bekki closed her eyes.

-So, which path are we going down?- She didn't really need to close her eyes to talk with her symbiote, but it made things earlier for her to concentrate, if nothing else.

~Both options are reasonable,~ Bob replied, as annoyingly sensible as ever. ~The question is, do you think you have the patience to sit back and let others investigate this?~

-Are you saying I'm impatient?-

~Of course you are. You're impatient, impulsive and short-tempered at the best of times. You're also a lot braver than you like to pretend you are, and you know what's right, even if you don't act like you do. We wouldn't have remained bonded if you weren't, Rebecca.~

Bekki sighs. -Just imagine what we'd be doing if you hadn't helped me with those Vahzilok... Well, actually, let's not, because we'd both be dead. I guess we're in agreement then?-

~Indeed. Time to make a stand, Rebecca.~

Bekki steps forward, out of her "Smoker's Corner". "Count me in on the Havok team then," she says, shrugging. "I'm not too good at the investigation stuff anyway, and no way you're going off alone, Caios. You don't get to have all the fun."

[snowdog]

Angelia listened quietly as the others spoke, before stepping forward “I know it's really not my place to stick my nose in here...but I've been through what they're doing to you all. I can't just sit back and watch it happening again to someone else. Besides “the green mutant said with a bit of a rueful grin “it's not like I still don't have an apartment in Port Oakes. Honestly though, I'm not really trained for finding out information-but I'm not wanted. For now anyway.”

She smirked “once that longbow squad wakes up in a day or so , that's going to change probably, but for now, I'd probably be more useful with the Intel group, because I can move around openly.” She looked thoughtful “Also, maybe it was because I knew them..but the PPD may be sympathetic. There were two officers that tried to intervene when Longbow was going to give Shade a beat down, then looked the other way , and lent us a first aid kit.”


From across the cavern there was a rough chuckle “some of them yeah, but some, well Badgers are two types-ones that want to protect their homes and families, and ones that like having a shiny badge that they can use to wave around to compensate for other areas they may be...ill equipped one could say.” Dr Schrodinger's cybernetic arm reflected the dim light of the cavern. “I've broke people out of jails probably tougher than the ones you have here. I may be a scientist, but I can chomp with the best of em, count me in on the Havoc team."

Her tail swished back and forth as she pulled her data glasses back down, checking something “Only thing is I gotta be at Portal Corp in...35 hours, 11 minutes, if we want to have any hope of getting your Dr Schrodinger back.”

[snowdog]

((since everyone else is tied up, asked Maemir if she needed a hand ^.^ ))

Independence Port

She sat on the roof, kicking at the moss. She didn't understand what was going on in the city anymore. Her producer kept pushing her to do a swimsuit photo shoot, she had friends who had disappeared, some on the run, some , killed, by Longbow of all people! True, they were the type of folks to get cross for just about any reason, she remembered their fury when she was offered dual citizenship in the Etolie Isles and even more anger when she took it. Yeah, Recluse was kinda mean-but there were a lot of good people there, people who helped her in her short life before she came to Paragon city. And they liked her music too, wasn't fair to not let them hear it also. Kelly sighed, nothing really was fair anymore.

She'd almost left entirely, part of the settlement she'd gotten with Crey was that they'd pay for her education, just as long as it wasn't in paragon city. Problem was, while legally an adult....she was less than seven years old. The law was still fuzzy in some areas on created beings like her.

She stood up, her little hooves on the edge of the building as the sheep hybrid gazed out over the water. Oh well, no sense worrying about things she couldn't' control, all that gets is ulcers. She started to turn back towards the door when something in the distance caught her eye. Red and white, flashes and firing, and chasing someone? Longbow was after someone it looked like, she couldn't tell from here. Without thinking she stepped off of the roof, falling for just a moment before climbing like a rocket. Someone was in trouble, if it was longbow, she might help them...if it was one of her friends though..she wasn't sure what she'd do. A soft glow formed around her as Kelly Lamb flew towards the confrontation.

[The Cheshire Cat]

"What they call 'magic' these days is really nothing of the sort. A more accurate term would be 'thaumaturgical science'. The term 'magic' implies a force that cannot be understood, one that follows no consistent set of rules and allows for impossible feats. This is not the sort of thing that modern mages practice; the rules they follow are often even stricter than the rules of physics and thermodynamics. The fact that they are able to violate the rules of the latter two does not mean that those feats are 'impossible'; it simply means that the rules of science have not yet been updated to reflect the effects of eldritch energies. 'Magic' is nothing more than the manipulation of energies unaccounted for by modern science. Nictus energy could be manipulated in a similar fashion... provided one had the appropriate magical background to make the connection..."

Abyssal Corona was interrupted from her reverie by the sound of conversation outside of her cell.
"...when has Longbow had jurisdiction in municipal cases?" came the voice of one of the guards.
"You haven't been keeping up with the news, sergeant. The Guardian Angels have been classified as terrorists given their recent actions in evading custody. This has become a national security issue." she didn't recognize the other voice; though given the conversation she assumed it was a Longbow officer.
"Well, this is highly unusual, but I suppose you do have clearance. To be honest you guys are probably better equipped for holding a super than we are here; all we usually keep in here are gangbangers and drunks. Good luck with her."
"Don't worry sergeant. We'll get her to talk."
"Getting her to talk isn't the problem," the sergeant said, "it's getting her to stop."

The Longbow officers escorted her out in cuffs towards their waiting chopper. Just as quickly as they arrived, they were gone again. It would be several days before the officers at the PPD station discovered that the transfer orders were forged, and the address of the longbow prison led to a location that didn't exist. Corona looked around at her new captors, noting the weapons that several of them were armed with.

"You have quantum array guns." she said, "you aren't really Longbow, are you?"
"No." the officer responded, his tone flat and matter-of-fact, "we aren't."

*****************************************

Julie nodded at the instructions Caios gave her. She was planning to make contact with the other imprisoned Angels anyway, if only to advise them against taking court-appointed attorneys. Public defenders were unreliable enough to begin with, but in cases like these where a deeply entrenched conspiracy existed to attack at every avenue, it would be all too easy for their enemies to assign them with "representation" that had no interest in their clients interests. If nothing else, it would allow her the opportunity to gather information under the guise of contacting her clients; a conspiracy is only as foolproof as the people involved, and in Julie's experienced, people were far from foolproof.

She was certain that they would have given themselves away in their questioning of their prisoners - perhaps they might have been careful enough so that each individual Angel would not be able to unravel their identity, but there would be a common thread to their questions beyond the basic "Where are the other Angels hiding?" The key was to find the systemic trend buried within the individual interrogations. White was the figurehead; she trusted in the Angel's ability to defeat him both through force and public relations. Without unmasking his supporters, however, they would be free to try the same thing again with whatever corrupt politician followed in White's footsteps.

[evilbenfranklin]

Stern Impact tilted her head and mused, "Well... much as I'm apt to give Longbow an' White a bit of what-for, I'm likely more suited to intel. Without Fenix, you'll need someone who's good with computers and tech to get us past anything we can't sneak past. Besides," she smiled a bit lopsidedly, nodding to Caios, "I 'appen to like being a teacher, an' I'd like to go back to that when this is all done."

Face still streaked with tears, Delta Rae stepped over to Caios' side of the room. Giving the vampire a look that did not speak to mental stability, she murmured quietly, "Them sorry sons'a'bitches shot Natalya. Maybe killed her. Fuck 'em and th' horses they rode in on. Ah'm with you."

"As am I," echoed a distorted voice from near the mouth of the cave. A tallish fellow in a grey suit with a dark grey, red-lined opera cloak over his shoulders stepped out of the shadows. The reason for the distortion became apparent as the mask under his fedora came into view, dark goggles covering his eyes. "I've been watching. I've seen setups like this before, and I know how THEY think." He turned his head to Caios, offering a gloved hand. "Name's Mr. Conspiracy. You can just think of me as your friendly neighborhood invisible gun-bunny, or 'Frank' for short. If you want my help, I'll do my best. If not, then I'll go, and I was never here. Either way, I'm not too concerned about living on the lighter side of the streets." A brief, but telling pause, then his mask speaker clicked on again. "There's no place for me there any longer."

[gothicshark]

There are a few heroes that Malta Framed, and set Longbow after, who have been ignored the reasons have been varied and ironic. However, mostly these heroes where the second string or even the third string members of the Guardian Angels they had warrants, but Longbow had basically ignored them while chasing the big fish, after all the roster for the Angels was fairly large. This left room for a few bounty hunters to try to cash in on the small fry’s.


Though she had only been in Paragon City for two months, Marhiel Martog formerly from Praetoria had gotten her Heroes License and certified Warrants for several members of the Guardian Angels who were still at large. She felt the easiest way to get in close to her evil twin was to capture the villain teammates who were still at large.

Marhiel sat in a Diner with a Pastrami Rubin while making a list based on the warrants.

“ let’s see” she was thinking while writing “Arch Villains in order James Walker, Caios, Warp Factor, Michael Bateman, and Fenix defiantly too dangerous to try and solo” She wrote down all these names in the don’t touch group, as she kept going though the list marking individuals too hard to solo or too fast to catch. She came up with a list of targets who seemed fairly easy to find and capture, she was a little shocked that longbow was going about this the hard way, since the small fry’s where all rather easy.

She started to eat her sandwich with a look of ecstasy as if she has not had a sandwich this good in years, which she had not.

((More to come))

[caios]

A secret military intelligence installation somewhere in the United States

There are many reasons to become a General in the army. Beyond the obvious, there are several perks, fringe benefits, and general assumptions that all tend to work in your favor in military life once you attain such a lofty rank. For example, it's a fair assumption that when you're a 4-Star General currently on vacation, you can rest assured that you won't get woken up at 2 o'clock in the morning for anything less then the end of the world.

He wasn't seeing four ugly people on horseback, so naturally he was rather pissed about the current situation.

"Atten-Hut!" a Junior Office called out as the General entered the Defense Intelligence Center outpost, "General on deck!"

The General gave a quick salute to the entire room more out of reflex then anything else before walking up to a Major who appeared to be in charge of local operations.

"Son, you have 15 seconds to explain why I'm standing here and not in a beach house in Hawaii before you get assigned to pealing potatoes in Diego Garcia for the next five years." The general stared him down with enough intensity to make the battle hardened Major quiver.

"Yes, General Hammond, sir. Sorry sir. Won't happen again, sir!" the Major called out like a recruit at boot camp.

"Can it Major." the General growled, "I asked for an explanation not an apology."

"Of course sir," The Major began, "Yesterday two aircraft came down in one of our training facilities in Georgia. Fort Benning. One civilian was recovered. Shortly after the base experience two hostile actions against it. One Longbow, they were held off at the gates. The other was a covert insertion team sent to kill the civilian. The base commander reports, with the help of Wolftech agents on the scene, that they were able to capture the covert operatives. They identified them as Malta, sir."

"Malta?" General Hammond bellowed, "What the blue hells would Malta want with a civilian."

"The civilian in question, sir, is codename Snowdog." the Major explained, "Member of the meta human group the Guardian Angels."

"Angels huh?" the General frowned, "Shit, this just got alot more interesting. Doesn't explain why I'm here though, especially if you're telling me the Malta team was captured already."

"The situation itself wasn't why you were contacted sir." The Major continued, "But the attack on the base caused a red flag which resulted in a level 2 security sweep. That's when we found irregularities in Sat-Black 8-24-13 Delta-Alpha"

"A Black Satellite?" Hammond said, "You shouldn't be looking into anything when it comes to that thing, son. As far as the world is conserved that sucker doesn't exist, and we'd like to keep it that way so our deep black-ops boys don't get the light shined on them."

"Understood sir," the Major said, "But that's just it, one of the data streams was not using standard encryption protocols. It took tech way longer then it should have to crack it. That's when we found this." The Major handed over a black envelope with the words 'TOP SECRET OMEGA' printed on it in large red letters.

Immediately the General took the folder and began reading through its contents. He grumbled loudly as he talked, "Shoulda known she'd end up doing something like this."

"Sir?" the Major ventured.

"From now on as far as your concerned consider these people as key operational assets in need." The General ordered before immediately adding a second, much shorter order in the same breath, "Marker."

Holding out his hand a highlight marker was suddenly placed there by one of the junior officers nearby. Hammond immediately used it to circle one of the lines on the page in front of him. He then handed the open folder back to the Major as he continued, "I need a connection to that line immediately. Keep it is secure, best make it a callback." He turned and began walking towards a nearby terminal. "And I need everything we got on the current situation with all superpowered individuals marked Guardian Angels. Call Benning, get an immediate status update."

Somewhere over Paragon City

Caios was leaping through the air, though at speeds and heights normally associated with powered flight, heading towards her first target. Everyone at the cave meeting had quickly dispersed themselves among the two teams as per her suggestion. Including the last minute arrival of Mr. Conspiracy. It had taken more time to sort out the torrent of doubt and accusations focused on the new comer who suddenly showed up at was was supposed to be a secret meeting of a group of people still very much being hunted, very likely by people like him. Ok granted, most of the doubts and accusations were from Caios herself, which all things considered she still felt was justified. However, after some heated debates back and forth, everyone ultimately decided that they needed as much help as they could get. Caios didn't trust the man yet, but then that was pretty much par for the course with her.

She had made it clear to everyone not to return to the cave afterward, they would find a new secret location to meetup if they had to. Until then it was just too dangerous, they had to assume that place was compromised. She even told them not to use the secure line for text messages until absolutely necessary. Not that she expected Longbow would have found them there, that would require skills they've just never been able to muster. But clearly they had help, and it was those people she was more concerned with trying to evade.

Caios's cell phone suddenly chirped to indicate an incoming text message. Curious, Caios stopped moving, landing on the end of a metal ledge, to see what that was about.

As she looked it up she realized this message wasn't from any of the others. There wasn't anything in it, just a phone number. What concerned her was she was receiving this particular text from the military intelligence satellite she had hacked into to provide all of the Angels a secure comm line. This could be a big problem if someone was able to use it against them.

She had no choice in the matter, she couldn't risk ignoring this one. With trepidation she called the number she had received.

There was no ring, the other end picked up the instant it connected.

"State your codename." a voice on the other end of the line said. Interesting, but in the end there was only one name she was going to give to anyone right now.

"Caios." She said frowning.

"Verified. Hold while we secure the line." the voice replied immediately. That was odd, however the tell tale electronic clicks and crackles she was hearing was evidence enough she was being connected through some highly secured and encrypted channels.

"You are one serious pain in the ass, you know that bloodsucker." A gruff voice suddenly picked up from the other end of the line.

"Hammond?" Caios blinked, his sudden outburst through the secure line had surprised her.

"I sure ain't your grandpa." General Hammond said, "'specially seeing as you're the older one. Now care to tell me how you managed to get in this whole mess?"

"We're still working on that." Caios shot back, "It's not like we went looking for trouble this time. Someone had a huge wasp's nest up their ass about us and started throwing everything they could our way."

"And you though it'd just be OK to start using our satellite for your own personal texting service?" Hammond retorted.

"Um, look, sorry about that." Caios sounded rather sheepish.

"Sorry??" Hammond exclaimed, "This is a multibillion dollar top secret deep-black military intelligence satellite that you're not even supposed to know exists in the first place, and you just went ahead and broke into its systems like it was nothing. You don't think maybe the U.S. government might have a problem with that?"

"Hey now, It's not like I'm preventing use here." Caios defended herself, "My people were out in the cold, we needed to communicate without being tracked. That just happened to be the best option at the time."

"Normally they'd have your hide for this one, but the situation's gotten interesting." Hammond told her.

"Interesting? Like Chinese Curse Interesting? Whats going on Hammond?" Caios asked.

"Got a friend of yours, code name Snowdog? you know her?" the General asked in that typical military tone that made everything sound like an order.

"Yes, I know her." Caios said tentatively.

"She was down in Georgia when they caught up with her. Shot her down." Hammond explained, "Dont' worry she's fine, resting in the hospital bed in Fort Benning. We're keeping her secure in the meantime. Though that didn't stop them from trying to kill her."

"Them who General?" Caios demanded, she only used his rank on him when she was getting deadly serious.

"Relax, like I said, we're keeping her safe." Hammond said, "She's not the only one, by the way. Got another live one by the name of Astraea. Ran into some Longbow in New York, decided it was best to turn herself in at Fort Hamilton rather then kill everyone apparently. Introduced herself as," there was a rustling of papers from the other end of the line before the General read out loud, "The Lady Astraea Steren, Knight of the Galactic Order of Saint Georg. Made 'em write it down and everything."

"Yeah, that's her." Caios nodded.

"And to answer your previous question." Hammond continued, "Turns out Malta Group is also very interested in you guys. Got a huge wasp's nest up their ass, I believe you said. They were the ones who tried to sneak into Benning, havn't hit Hamilton yet but both places are on alert now. I'd ask what you did to get 'em so riled up, but this is you we're talking about."

"Malta huh. Figures." Caios thought out loud. "I'm guessing you're not happy they tried ghosting a military facility."

"Not even remotely." Hammond said dourly, "Bad enough we had Longbow trying to pull their mess here as well. Unfortunately Malta Group hasn't been officially recognized as a threat yet, meaning we can't act openly against them. A situation like this calls for a dark ops that we can disavow any knowledge off. And it just so happens someone went ahead and setup just such a team in place using military resources."

"You're welcome." Caios smirked. Clearly She and the military now shared similar goals.

"Don't start getting smug there." Hammond retorted, "You're just lucky those Malta boys were stupid enough to attack a military base."

"Yeah, I got it. At least we got a target now." Caios said, "If it's Malta Group they have to be connected with Donald White somehow. I know his little crusade has to be backed by them one way or the other."

"That's what they said." the General agreed, "And our intel boys came up with the same connection. Can't prove any of it of course."

"Wait a sec." Caios said narrowing her eyes as she managed to pick up on one little detail, " 'they said'? Who are you talking about now?"

"Friends of yours actually." Hammond sounded like he was smiling through the line, "Seems some big expensive Lawyers are on your case. One of them came down from Wolftech to help with the Benning attack. They've been trying to contact you but all the normal lines were cut off. And you've always been good at covering your tracks."

"Wolftech?" Caios said. 'Jack' she thought to herself smiling. "What more did the Wolftech lawyers have to say?"

"For the most part just letting you know they're on the case." Hammond said, "They also scrounged up a ton of research, found a nearby Malta cell over in your neck of the woods that might be promising."

"Great." Caios said, "Pass me the intel and I'll make sure we look into it right away."

"Already being sent to your phone." Hammond told her, "And Caios, I'm serious when I said we can't be involved right now. Expect this to be the last time we talk about this till after end mission."

"Understood." Caios said, the line quickly cut off soon after. However there was already an alert on her phone to let her know she had received a data packet. She immediately forwarded the data to Shadewing, Stern, and everyone else on the Intel team.

From her perch on the very top edge where the War Wall met the ocean, Caios allowed herself a devilish smile. Things were starting to turn around now. Looking up Caios's supernaturally keen eyes easily managed to pierce through the coastal fog to see the offshore Longbow base where they were keeping Ghostveil, and probably several other Guardian Angels, in prison cells. Caios then glanced behind her to see the rest of the Havoc team catching up to her position.

The Angels were on the attack now, and they were about to unleash hell on earth.

With an eager feral grin, Caios leapt into the fog before her.

[gothicshark]

The ‘Ol’Ye Arms’ is a classic Pub near the shipyards of Independence Port. The pub was popular hangout for dockworkers both legal and illegal. One of the nice things about ‘Ol’Ye Arms’ is that it has existed for over two hundred years in more or less the same spot, and it has its own docks where many a ship has berthed, most of them where not so legal.

Tonight however, the ship berthed there was a little odd. It looked more like a cross of a Spaceship and a Pirate ship with a pink and black cat motif.

A pack of alley cats were hanging around the dock, they seemed rather interested in what the woman who was walking down the gangplank was holding. When she reached the bottom of the gangplank, she walked to the pack of hungry and restless cats. “Din Din time sweeties” she said while she started to pour the contents of a new fifty pound bag of expensive cat food all over the dock leaving only a small path clear to walk.

“Racheal, are you feeding the cats again, please be sure I can walk past them. Last time I was nearly mauled to death for walking between cats and their food.” A voice called out from the ship.
“Aye, Aye, Capt’n Bhump, Ahoy, thar be R Keerr p’th t' tra'el tharrr” Racheal replied as she emptied the last of the bag.

“Rach, why do you have to do that, you’re a Harvard graduate.” Bhump said as she walked to the gangplank that led to the dock.
Captain Bhump was a beautiful but rather unusual sight, standing over seven feet tall she was a blend of human and cat - what many people would call a catgirl. However, she was not dressed to impress, she was wearing clothing that was a mishmash of Pirate and Ninja styles with twin Katanas sheathed on her hips.

“Captain, how can I be the first mate of a pirate ship and not speak like a pirate every now and again.” Racheal replied while she was scratching the chin of a little black and grey tabby.

“Well let’s get a few drinks, before we get dinner, and a few drinks,” Bhump said as she did her best to avoid the hundreds of cats on the dock.

Inside the ‘Ol’Ye Arms’ it was exactly what one would expect a pirate pub to look like, with pictures of sailing ships and mementos from every age of ship travel from American history. The lighting was dark with a few muted lamps that gave just enough light to see the bar and the décor by, but not enough to really see the clientele. Said clientele were drinking loudly or having hushed conversations in the corners - the bar seemed to have more dark corners than was technically possible with a rectangle building.
Bhump and Racheal where at the bar eating hot wings, and drinking frosty mugs of Strawberry Margaritas made with rum and tequila.

“rrRach, soo we be needen ter do surthang soon I thunk.” Bhump said with drunken contemplation, “we be haven mmR good life ‘ere B’ ain’t we ‘posed ta be do’en hero’en business wit thar Sup’roup or sumthang?” Bhump Slurred badly, obviously they were both rather drunk.

“Well I have cogitations that the badgers have it out for you glitterbugs” and voice in the darkness called out. “So we can Jibber or we can chomp, but if we chomp you’re going to be scamped.” Marhiel said as she stepped into the light.

“Marrr, Set up yer jib and pull a seat and trink wit us” Bhump said carefully choosing her words so she didn’t slur so bad.

Marhiel shrugged and put her guns in the holster. She knew she had them, and they where the right bait to capture the evil Mariel.
Later that evening the Marhiel put the two unconscious women in locked cells, which were in her small converted studio loft.

---Next part is nearly ready for a volunteer to say sure; I will rescue Bhump and confront Marhiel---

[fenix]

Okay, I'm pretty well spread through the base, but there's still a bit of work to be done.

I know, most likely they'll be watching for the rest of the GA to come and rescue the people who come in.

Well, then. We'll need to help them out, won't me?

Keep the guards off balance?

Exactly.

What're you thinking.

I was thinking that the me in the alarm system could cut it, and instead play something loud and confusing when they bust in.

Good idea. Any suggestions?

How about this? www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKu7fZAv0s

Hah.... That's good, that's good. Shit like that. Make sure it's LOUD, though.

What else should we put up?

Let's see...

I know! If someone other then the Angels try to access a computer, we'll lock it up and display this.



Oh, you bastard. Do it.

Ah, hell yeah. This is going to be one hell of a night.