Log:Wasp Venom, Scene 25

Wasp Venom 2013/10/24 	 Bee Regan Silver Spider

25

Bee is missing her forcefield belt when she meets Regan for her appointment. As a matter of fact, quite a bit of her equipment looks a little worse for wear.

"I came to report that Miss Adamini is wearing contact lenses to make her eyes appear golden. I assume this means she has not been sipping honey for some time but I have no idea of the time frames or metabolic processes involved or how she can access your mind without using the honey. I have severed my relationship with Miss Case and advised her to leave the city, it remains to be seen whether she took this advice." Regan delivers her report in a flat staccato monotone.

Bee blinks at the sudden burst of information. "Hello, Regan," She says after a quick moment. "Would you care to sit down?"

Regan looks resentfully at the offered chair but eventually perches on the edge of it, folding her hands in her lap.

Bee says, "The honey clears out of the system in only twelve hours. Without it, she can't read my memories from a distance but we rendered that moot some time ago. I saw Star Girl's report so am a bit up to date on who is involved if not how. This, however, is a total mystery to me." She reaches in a drawer and pulls out a photo. "I found this picture in the hotel room Silver Spider attacked. It was sitting face down on a dresser with a big nail on top of it."

The photo is a frame from Interface's video of Sato. On the top of it, somebody has drawn two eyes with a '4' between them"

Regan looks at the photo but makes no move to touch it, instead tilting her head to get a clearer view then shakes her head. "This could be a threat by Penetrator against Diamant four, this could be a threat by Penetrator against Adamini, in which case I don't understand the numeral, maybe she has four days, maybe it's a countdown." She shrugs. "Adamini is in Star Guard, she is pathological. If she interpreted this as a threat she has not shared that with her captors."

Bee says, "I'm pretty sure that the writing is 'an eye for an eye', not a countdown, and considering where I found it I'm pretty sure the target was Adamani, but I don't know what he's threatening to *do*."

Regan shrugs. "I have no idea. It bewilders me why he would threaten to do it rather than just do it. I have no idea why, having received this threat, Adamini did not at once decamp. I don't understand why she didn't do that as soon as we recovered Sato. I don't understand Adamini's motivation, I don't understand Penetreeder's I don't understand Rewind's. " She shrugs. "I also have no idea what I am supposed to do with this information. I can't stop Penetrator. I can't find him, I can't catch him."

Bee says, "Who can?"

Regan shrugs. "I don't know, maybe there's a powerful mentalist who can find him. Maybe the Diamont clones have the powers to stop him. Maybe Froth has the power to stop him since he is Diamont prime. All I know is that I can't and even if I could I would have no crime to charge him with if I found him, so it would be a pathetic instance of one meta beating up another instead of behaving like adults."

Bee nods, "You sound frustrated. I know the feeling ... recently."

"Frustrated." Regan repeats the word. "Sato was inserted into Zu illegally, so as far as the Zu authorities are concerned, she can't have been kidnapped because she was never there. Sato is not going to bring a criminal complain, HIVE are not going to bring a criminal complaint. So the one actual serious crime I know has been committed is never going to be prosecuted. Apart from that what have Adamini and cohorts done? Up until Rewind started issuing bomb threats they were in the clear. Even if we catch Rewind we still won't have anything to charge Adamini with unless we luck onto some proof that she coordinated or colluded in the bomb threats. In the meantime, I spend two ours every day combing through the gym and my apartment on my hands and knees with bug detectors because some moron, who could at any point plant a bomb in my home and whom I would be defenseless against if he did. Has decided I'm his pet fixation. And even if I catch him there is nothing I can do."

Regan says, "Because he actually hasn't done anything illegal, in fact if he wanted to get stroppy he could charge me with assault."

Regan says, "Oh, and even if we could charge Adamini all she has to do now is say. 'The Creep did it all' and she will walk."

Bee nods slowly, "From what I've seen of his file, I don't think you need to worry about Penetreerder going to the police about anything. And *I* could plant a bomb in your home. Any teleporter could."

Regan says, "Thank you, I am greatly reassured."

Bee grins. "You're welcome, but you get my point. We all have powers and abilities that work against us better than than others. That's why we work together."

"The point I am attempting however clumsily to make is that I am in a state of perpetual uncertainty and no small degree of personal risk because I agreed to do a favour for your company and to facilitate the illegal operations that seem to be standard to the running of your business." Regan does not smile. "I know there are people out there who can do this, the knowledge that there is an unstable psychotic in the city with every reason to use his powers to harm myself or Candrika is somewhat more immediate. And while it might be easy for you at some remove to insist that there is no difference it certainly seems to me as though there is."

Silver Spider walks in, carrying a fruit basket. "Hi, guys! I brought a fruit basket. Whoa. Bad scene?" She lopes across the room casually.

Bee starts at Silver Spider's entrance. "Um ....hello?" she says. "Have we met?"

Regan turns toward the door. "Oh, hello Spider. SI was just explaining to Bee, that we are no closer to having a charge to pin on Adamini, no closer to finding Penetrator. On the plus side we have provoked Rewind into making bomb threats. But we're no closer to finding him either. Hardcase apparently has some information on that but since she's been lying about it and taking my money for the past two weeks I don't want her help and I don't see any reason to believe a word she might say at this point."

Regan says, "As far as I can tell she's as likely to tip off Rewind as help us find him"

Regan says, "Bee, this is Silver Spider, the one who brought Adamini in to Star Guard"

Silver Spider shakes her head. "No. I just came to deliver you a fruit basket since I was the one who stuffed your Telepath in a starguard cell." She says icily. "You have a half-dozen. You can't go to a hotel in a foreign country under an assumed name using corporate funds that weren't legitimately budgeted by the head office in that corporate state. That's embezzlement. And fraud. If she had done it under her real name, it wouldn't be embezzlement or fraud. But, ten to fifteen. Twenty if it's prosecuted right. The Colonial Bay corporate office would have to approve that. Just make sure all your paperwork is in order on this side of the ocean." She shrugs. "I'm mad. Real mad. Because this rogue telepath will be out sometime before she shuffles off this mortal coil. Now, if you can prove she was involved with the Diamont Clones, that would be useful, as that would be maintaining a private army, which is totally illegal."

Silver Spider says, "Not to mention an act of war, which would mean trial in a military court. And believe me. You do not want to be tried in a United States Military court."

Bee sets aside her copy of the picture that Silver Spider left at the hotel. "Do we really want to escalate things that far?" she asks. "War sounds a bit extreme."

Silver Spider raises an eyebrow. "Look. I don't normally get involved in this sort of secret stuff. I fight street crime until some tells me to get off my behind. But...and I stress this. But...you can't just let a bunch of clones designed for military purposes enter another country to look for someone. That's an act of war. Was Creep killed here? Or in South Africa?"

Silver Spider says, "If Creep was killed here, then that's criminally negligent homicide. Depraved indifference to human life. Fifteen to twenty."

Regan nods. "Alternatively a competent defense attorney will get her off if she pays the money back. We have no proof the clones are an army, that they're an army subject to Adamini's command, that they're in the US, that they came here with hostile intent against these United States. In order to interpret this as a military action you can't just assert they're an army, by the same logic I am a weapon of war, or Gemeini is."

Silver Spider says, "Your only chance is to try Adamini in World Court."

Silver Spider taps Regan on the shoulder. "Any foreign government operative who attempts to engage in a police action in a country where they have no jurisdiction is committing an act of war, the same way you and I effectively did when we fought the twins in Germany. We just didn't get arrested.

Silver Spider says, "And we were lucky the fight was in a place where all the cameras were disabled first."

Bee says, "So..... the American team that rescued Miss Sato were terrorists? You sound like a lawyer."

Regan rubs her forehead. "The Diamont clones aren't government representatives, they're vigilantes, and yes, the team that rescued Sato could be arrested and tried for terrorism and it would not be an easy charge to defend."

Silver Spider raises an eyeslit. "It's unfortunate. You have to split a lot of hairs when you've been working this sort of life as long as I have. You have to look at intent and result, as well as facts."

Silver Spider says, "The real issue here is that Zu is a scumbag government and won't hesitate to press the issue. Who do these Diamont clones really work for?"

Regan says, "I don't think they work for anyone any more than you work for anyone, they're vigilantes, they pursue justice by whatever means they have at their disposal, in fact there are tensions between the Diamonts and the new government.""

Bee nods, "Their father, the original Diamant, was recently accused of treason."

Silver Spider facepalms. "I don't even understand this anymore. I just want to stop the bad guys, bring justice to the world, and have a few sandwiches." o O (And rearrange Penetrator's face.)

Regan says, "If Adamini were not as dumb as a bag of hammers we could simply let her go secure in the knowledge that she has been beaten and is better off going far away. Indeed if she weren't so dumb, she would roll on Rewind and enter witness protection."

Bee says, "Okay, lets fixate on that. Why in this mess are bad guys? Everybody?"

Regan says, "Where do I start. Penetrator threatened harm against an innocent person in order to try and convince me not to take the case. But he hasn't actually done anything and I did break his wrist."

Silver Spider shakes her head. "That's my thought at this point. Yeah. Everyone. Diamont Clones. Adamini, the super powered mercenaries who showed up at the door of Regan's gym. Capturing Adamini means nothing, because if Penetrator really wants to rescue her, he can, since we can't catch him. At all."

Bee says, "How much stuff can Penetrator teleport?"

Regan says, "the Diamont clones are technically guilty of wrongful imprisonment and kidnapping. One of them is guilty of murder, the other is guilty of manslaughter, the other four, and Diamont prime and Penetrator and Hardcase and Adamini are all guilty of felony murder"

Silver Spider says, "I don't think he actually teleports. I know he's invisible to my Spider-type senses, which means he's undetectable to virtually everything I know of. It's a complete mess.""

Regan says, "The file says something about him transporting things through the astral plane."

Bee says, "So, either way - invisibility or teleport - has he ever done it to another person?"

Regan says, "Not that I am aware no."

Silver Spider shakes her head. "I don't really care. I want this guy caught somehow before no place is safe. How do you build a base of operations that this guy can't A) Enter, and B) Murder you all in your sleep in?"

Bee says, "I assume with something that blocks the astral plane. I'll have to ask Harlequin about that next time I see him."

Silver Spider says, "A lot of superheroes have secret identities. This guy can not only find them out, but collect them like baseball cards. He is more dangerous than a thousand Doctor Destroyers, because he's a mercenary and the information is effectively for sale to the highest bidder.""

"The short answer is: you don't" Regan observes grimly. "His file says he's some sort of vigilante I don't know how mercenary he is, which begs the question why is he involved at all? WHy are Diamont prime and clones involved in this? What did she do to convince them all? Rewind and hardcase are mercenaries, to a limited extent, Hardcase was utterly unwilling to roll on Rewind despite being offered money."

Bee says, "Regan, didn't you say you kicked Hardcase out of town yesterday?"

Regan says, "Yes, I told her she had six hours to clear the city or face charges of terrorism, exhtortion and kidnapping."

Regan says, "To say that I was less than impressed with the revelation she'd been shielding a nutcase for two weeks while accepting my hospitality and my money would be something of an understatement."

Regan says, "I was, and remain, incandescent."

Silver Spider raises an eyeslit. "That's pissed off for those of us who have different vocabularies."

Regan says, "Yes, very pissed off. I don't know how we find Rewind who would seem to be the more immediate threat. We don;t know what he looks like, who his associates are, or how his powers actually work."

Regan says, "We do know that Hardcase and Rewind are associates so we can perhaps start an investigation in New York city looking at her phone records, arrest records, financial records, identify possible connections and see if any have brought their cell phones down to Colonial Bay in the past few weeks."

Silver Spider nods. "I would hesitate to try and find a guy named Rewind that way, though."

Regan says, "Also we can wonder how he is intending to access bombs. IS he trained in demolitions? Is he a professional criminal with contacts in that direction or does he intend to make copies of past bombs Just as he does with people?"

Regan says, "ok, if it's Pythagorean?"