Log:Powerless in Chinatown, Scene 7

Powerless in Chinatown 2021/03/12

Chen Dark Horse Kid Tengu Lennox Nara Union Another Man's Army Microwave II 	 Silkworm II 7

Nearly a week has passed since One Man Army, Microwave and Silkworm (in her cocoon) were attacked and deprived of their powers. Precision has declared that she can do no more for Silkworm, and the coccon has been taken to the hospital to see if Western medicine can help at all. Things in Chinatown remain tense, and Lee's metas still travel round in groups, but no more has been seen of the attacks, yet. It is a cold day, even for Februrary (yes, this is time-shifted).

The heroes have managed to lure out an agent of their mysterious adversary (Chen pretended to be One Man Army to prompt an investigation). They caught him - as it turned out, the man who had planted the cameras in the alley and in some other places in Chinatown - and persuaded him to talk, in exchange for his being allowed to go free with his reputation with Rent-a-Goon unmarred. As a lowly hired goon he didn't not know terribly much, but he told the heroes certain things of import, such as that he has also installed cameras outside Steel's Gym and where he met the intermediate who hired him: a house in Upper East Side, where his teleporter watch should take its user.

The heroes entered the house and defeated some fifteen instancces (by the end of the fight) of 'Another Man's Army'. The heroes examined his tech (establishing that the ego-sapping gun is Earth tech, if bizarre, and that the teleporters cannot be backtraced). The prisoner(?s) was reluctant to talk, but the hint that the heroes might hand him over to Dread for questioning seems to have him on the verge of cracking... 

Chen pulls an unconscious instance of AMA tp the side and starts to remove the gray armor suit. "This," she remarks, "Is like the reverse of opening up a crab."

The nearest conscious instance says, "What are you doing?!"

Chen grins, "Taking the armor. Like I implied, with a crab you want the meat and don't care what happens to the shell. Well, since you guys almost started a triad war where I live, I'm after the armor and don't care what happens to the meat. Cause, if you tell me the safe way to remove the armor the meat might end up in better shape."

Dark Horse watches Chen closely. He doesn't want to stop her gambit, exactly. But he isn't entirely sure if she'd follow through on her threat.

KT plays the consummate student watching Dark Horse & Chen work over the case in their own unique ways. He can sense the merit in both fairly easily.

Chen is actually finding the armour can be removed fairly simply, with an unconscious target. The conscious instances look worried. The closest lunges forward to touch the one Chen is peeling.

Nara does not very well comprehend and does not try to intervene or interpose or intercede or do anything requiring the word inter.

The unconscious instance vanishes, as, interestingly, does his armour and even weapon, though that's some distance from him now.

Dark Horse takes a look at one of the instances of AMA. "So...before she...well, tries to kill the lot of you...or we turn you over to Dread and the like, who...may try to kill the lot of you...perhaps you'd like to say how you stole people's powers, exactly? I don't really want to see you lot get badly hurt. I really don't."

Meanwhile, Union is in the middle of the room. She pulls out her PDA and starts pressing buttons, "Let's see...contacts...search...D...R...E...A..."

Between Chen, Lennox and Dark Horse, the guy finally seems to have had enough. "Ok. I give. I'll tell you what I know. I can't tell you about how the powers were taken, though: I've never seen that."

KT leaps to the ceiling and prepares to throw himself at any other copies who might try to get .... froggy.

Lennox mmms. "Good. First step: if this isn't all of you, get all of you here."

"This is all of me," AMA says. "I brought all of me here for the fight!"

Dark Horse nods. "Okay...so, tell us what you know, then. Like...who are you working with? And you must know something about hte power transfer process, because...well, you had powers transferred TO you."

Lennox nods. "That turns out not to be true, you are going to have some serious problems later on in life; I don't think social security covers depowered multiples very well. Next --" He nods towards Dark Horse's question.

Nara seems engrossed by the armoured form of one unconscious, carefully and thoroughly examining its intricacies.

"Sure, I know that," says AMA. "They took me to this warehouse where there was this big weird machine. Had to lie down on a bed, and then this light passed over me... several techies work working the machine. But don't ask me how all that worked!"

"Oooh- what do you think happens if one of the multiples gets... you know. Maimed?" KT asks Lennox curiously. "Does it 'balance out'? Or are you down a whole arm?" He waves around a stump to illustrate his point.

Conscious instances of AMA begin hurriedly absorbing any unconscious one they can, before Lennox gets too experimental.

Lennox glances sideways at the absorptions and says, "You know that just might make it worse. Anyhow. Location of the warehouse, how these guys got in contact with you, how you get a hold of them. Chop chop," he adds, aware of the vicious double entendre.

Dark Horse nods in agreement with Lennox's questions.

"They recruited me, ok? From Rent-a-Goon. Long-term contract, I wasn't going to say no. And then they asked me if I'd volunteer to get superpowers! So I said yes to that too! I mean, risky, but that that's a big step up in this business, right? Anyway, they swore it wasn't like the dangerous experiments like VIPER did back in the day... More testing these days, you know? As for getting hold of them - I come here for instructions, this is my contact point. They're kind of cagey about who's at the top of the organisation."

Dark Horse nods again. "But you know where the warehouse is, presumably? I mean...if it's a big machine, they're not moving it quickly."

KT listens and memorizes everything he can for later.

AMA nods. "They blindfolded me when they took me there, but I know the town well, so I figured it out. It's in the Industrial District, on the side near Route 9. You can hear the traffic. Between that and the turns they took, they weren't at clever at hiding it as they thought."

Dark Horse nods again slowly. "So...who are they? Do you know? What's their general plan?"

AMA says, "The organisation's called SCALLOP. It probably stands for something, but don't ask me what. They use a shell sign sometimes, though. And they haven't told me about the big plans. All I know is that the next step is to take more powers from the metas in Chinatown. They gave me this power so I could help with that."

Lennox stares at the mook for a minute. "Dark Horse, you got Starguard's number? Let's drop him in there for now. When we get their tech, we can pull One Man Army's power out of him and get it back where it belongs."

Union says, "Why Chinatown? There are metas all over Colonial Bay."

AMA sighs. "I should have known it was too good to last."

Chen interjects, "No. No calls. They have Microwaves's power as well, remember. Assume anything wireless will be overheard.

Dark Horse shrugs, "Well, I know a researcher there. I called her earlier. I'm not sure she has enough pull to keep people.

AMA shrugs to Union. "Those were the orders, that's all I know."

Dark Horse shakes his head, "This is outside of SG's jurisdiction by a wide berth. It makes more sense to drop him off with the PD."

Chen tells Union, "That might be it. There are metas ALL over the city. Lee's metas are numerous and concentrated in Chinatown."

Lennox glances at Chen. "TechInt is inferior to HumInt, but I get your point." He adds about Chinatown, "You always grab power from bad guys first. The good guys aren't usually going go complain."

Chen says, "If you'd like an unofficial dark site to hold onto him for a while I know a place."

Lennox hmms again, lips twistedbas he stares down at AMA. "Oh. How long ago they infuse you?" He glances at Dark Horse and Chen. "Nah. I've always hated keeping prisoners. Not the cops, either. Isn't there a national force? Prime or something?"

"Um, three days ago now, I think? Yes, three days."

Dark Horse chuckles. "Why would this be something the feds were interested in?"

Lennox's head turns towards Dark Horse. "I thought supercrime was automatically a federal thing here."

AMA falls into bemused silence while the heroes discuss what to do with him.

Dark Horse shakes his head. "Nope. Not automatically. Though sometimes local law enforcement does need to call in fed resources, since they dont' have the facilities to hold people necessarily."

"You can put me up in a nice hotel, if you like," says AMA. "I promise I won't try to escape. No? Well, it was worth a try."

Lennox rolls his eyes. "Stupid," he mutters at the info from Dark Horse.

Dark Horse shrugs, "Here's the thing. He likely would be charged with something. Let's turn him over to the CBPD. They can call in fed resources if needed. While that's being processed, we move quickly to the location by Route 9.

Lennox nods. "Sounds like a plan, Lennox says to DH. "And you," he says to AMA, "get yourself unduplicated."

AMA nods. "Only reason I hadn't was that you guys were in the way." In a few seconds there is just the one, conscious, AMA left.

The tranq and ego-sapping guns remain; the blasters and armour are down to one copy.

Dark Horse places a call to the PD about the situation here, so that the authorities can come here and sort things out. He then says to the singular villain now, "Where'd you get the gear? All supplied to you by your employer?"

Chen tells the one remaining guy, "Lose the shell."

AMA nods. "Yeah, that's all from SCALLOP. Cool stuff."

AMA reluctantly removes the armour.

Dark Horse takes a deep breath. "I've never heard of theses guys, SCALLOP. That says to me that they're probably new. Trying to get a foothold. Or they're someone else with a new name." He chuckles. "It would be amusing if it's a literal shell organization for say...VENOM, or something. Does VENOM like puns? I don't think it's their style."

Lennox nods. "Good,? he says in approval to the unarmoring. "No idea, he says to Dark Horse, "but the most poisonous thing in the world lives in a shell. By the way," he adds to AMA, "no crap with the police. I find you escape, or tried to, there's nowhere on this planet you can hide."

The police show up and take AMA into custody.

As the police leave with AMA, Union says, "So. On to find that warehouse?"

Chen morphs into a typical stray cat. Not the pampered sleek look of Smokey. This is a feral cat, a mouser, lean and hungry. "Anyone got a non wireless means of communicating?"

Dark Horse chuckles. "Talking? Hand signals?"

Chen sits and lifts front paws. "Difficult."

"Yeah," agrees Lennox. "C'mon, my car is still just up the street. Promise I'll drive more sedately."

Dark Horse shrugs, "That's my options, aside from my radio." He nods to Lennox. "I call shotgun."

Union says, "I do. If you're all willing, I can link us mentally."

Chen says, "Count me in. I'm figuring on advance scouting."

Union reaches out mentally to everyone.

"Sure," agrees Lennox. "Just don't dig too deep."

Union says, "No digging, just talking."

Dark Horse allows the link as well.

 Union says, "That covers communications. How do we want to move in?"

 Chen says, "Let me go ahead and case the place."

 Dark Horse says, "Let's park well away from it, and approach on foot. Chen can scout ahead, but I don't want a situation where she's without backup if a firefight starts.""

Chen runs ahead as mungy moggie and listens when close to the unit wyhile looking for an entry point big enough for a kitten.

Lennox nods in agreement, swinging in to a parking spot a bit -- at least 200m or so -- down the road.

 Chen says, "What's the worst that can happen? They kill me. Been there. Done that."

 Dark Horse says, "They kill you. Then they get away via teleportation."

Chen can easily enough find a way under the outer chain-link fence where it looks like some other small animal has dug at some point. The warehouse itself seems rather better sealed, unfortunately: even a kitten might have difficulty squeezing its way in.

Method acting for the win. Chen/Moggie assumes cameras and leaps on a wing blow scrap of paper on the approach, batting it around for a few moments before seemingly losing interest.

Union speaks her mantra to change into less-conspicuous clothing.

Dark Horse makes it over the chain link fence, he thinks without being spotted, though exterior cameras make it harder to advance further without being noticed. Chen makes it up to the building as an innocent-looking kitten, where she can definitely discern several human voices inside, though what exactly they're saying is a bit muffled. The don't sound like they've raised an alarm, at least, though.

Lennox thinks through the link, << That chain link buried? >>

 Dark Horse says, "Didn't look like it."

 Dark Horse says, "I can't get much closer without being on camera, it looks like."

Chen seeks for a hole or gap. Any hole or gap. If she finds one she goops, becoming effectively unsolid, and seeps in through it. Once inside if not detected she takes on the appearance of an empty discarded beer can.

 Lizzy says, "I could hop over the fence easily enough, but there's those pesky cameras Dark Horse mentioned."

Lennox lets his eyes roam over the building. << DH, pick a camera you want out and point me to it. >>

 Dark Horse says, "How are you going to knock it out? Shooting it?"

 Lennox says, "Ayup. Nice and quiet-like."

Chen sneaks in and finds rather more people than she was expecting inside. A lot more. Most of them are in the familiar dark grey armour. Luckily, they seem not to notice Chen, One man who is not, however, does notice Chen, and shoots some silklike substance from his hands at the intruder who us just becoming a can...

 Dark Horse scans around to pick out a camera that will allow him to approach closer to the building. << The one on the southwest corner. >>

The man who apparently has Sikworm's powers shouts, "You were right! The kitten is the shapeshifter! I got it! Wait, not, I ain't got it..." Mid-shift, Chen manages to squirm her way out of the silken bonds before they tighten about her.

Inside the warehouse are several /dozen/ people in dark grey armour, most of them looking suspiciously like more of Another Man's Army. They were clearly being very quiet, as if expecting trouble. Not in armour is also the man who just attacked Chen. This is looking suspiciously like a serious ambush, thwarted only by Chen being so fluid...

 Chen says, "It's an ambush. Two or three dozen AMA in armor with weapons and a Silkworm guy. I've been made. They were expecting us."

<LINK> Lizzy says, "Can you get out ok?"

<LINK> Chen says, "Sure. No problem."

Chen thinks .oO(Okay, that's a lie. We'll have to see.)

<LINK> Dark Horse says, "Hmm. Target the people who aren't duplicates. We can probably take them."

<LINK> Lizzy says, "With several dozen more shooting at us?"

<LINK> Lizzy says, "Chen Get out of there. We'll figure something else out when you're safe."

<LINK> Chen says, "That's my plan."

<LINK> Chen says, "Listen up. In case I'm delayed. The AMA clones have standard blasters. There is one with a ego drain weapon and one tranq pistol guy. They aren't AMA clones. And Silkworm guy."

Chen is slithering back out under the cargo doors.

Dark Horse breaks into a run toward the building, but not directly toward the door that Chen is coming out of. His hope is that the cameras aren't being monitored closely at the moment, and he tries to get underneath where the camera is.

Lennox sighs. "So much for trusting people." He jogs forward, exchanging his pistol for his sub machine gun, keeping ready for any breakout. Problem is, the enemy is probably going to teleport out.

"You idiot, you ruined the ambush, silk-for-brains!" exclaim a dozen or so instances of AMA at once. Then some of them shoot the doors off, and others surge out of the gaping hole left. Half a dozen aim their guns at Chen, ready to fire as soon as she stops squirming enough they can hit her. A couple spot Lennox approaching, and fire on him. A couple likewise spot Dark Horse, now they're outside the building, and fire on him. Still more have failed to find a target yet. Teleporting away does not seem to be on theuur minds, yet!

Dark Horse chuckles as he avoids the incoming fire, "Well...I'm guessing this guy knows more than he let on."

The car Lennox was hiding behind before he ran gets a hole blown through it.

The agents who aren't AMA are still inside.

The other shot against Lennox by chance hit a fence post, bringing down a section of the chain link fence!

The agents remain inside the warehouse for now, likely unable to get past all the AMA instances!

Microwave II, alas, was monitoring Dark Horse's stealthy approach on the cameras, and decided to take him out before he caught anyone by surprise. She straight through the warehouse wall, hoping to catch him by surprise!

The microwaves destroy the side of the warehouse, but Dark Horse somehow anticipates the attack and isn't there!

Well, that's convenient of them. Lennox puts a burst into one of the AMA, still advancing on the downed section of fence.

The armoured AMA instance is knocked over.

Lizzy needs to get a lot closer to be help. So she runs, flat out, for the warehouse, over the downed section of chain link, and as close to the side as she can get.