Log:Powerless in Chinatown, Scene 10

Powerless in Chinatown 2021/04/02 	 Chen Dark Horse Kid Tengu Lennox Another Man's Army Microwave II 	 Silkworm II

10

It's afternoon in what's left of a warehouse in the Industrial Park, one February day less than a week after the attack on One Man Army. The heroes have stripped Another Man's Army of One Man Army's powers, and accepted his surrender. Those with Silkworm and Microwave's powers are still unconscious nearby. The various weapons are also in the heroes' hands. 

Chen says, "So does anyone know how to use that freaky power stealing weapon?"

Lennox glances over at it from where he's interrogating ex-AMA. "I could probably figure it out," he comments. "But definitely make sure we know which is which."

Chen says, "Well, we need to take back Microwave's and Silkworms powers and return all three stolen powers back to the rightful owners."

KT continues picking up weapons from the defeated villians, being sure to secure a couple of the fancier weapons for Felix to dismantle to see if there's anything of note for #CodeDark to integrate into their field kits. Not that KT has a field kit- but he could!

He loops the guns onto a long spindly finger, hanging them by the trigger guards.

He responds as if he were nearby despite the distance. "I'm sure we could figure it out given enough time, but we should probably hurry." KT says, agreeing with Chen.

Dark Horse says to Lennox. "Please...no more broken bones. Please." He looks to AMA, "Let's try this again, before...someone gets hurt agian, shall we? Please tell us everything you can about your operation here."

Ex-AMA says, "I've told you all I know, really! I only lied about the warehouse and about none of me being there. The only contact I've had with SCALLOP are the other people in this warehouse!"

KT finishes the task at hand and returns to watch Dark Horse & Lennox play Good Cop / Relatively Good Merc with interest.

Following through on a threat goes a long way in Abraxxian culture- so while the others are agast, KT instead finds a respectable trait. That reminds him to stop threatening to eat carjacker's brains.

Lennox straightens up, looking down at the thug whose right radius and ulna are both broken. "Tell you what," he says. "I will leave you to it, now that he knows the penalty for being caught out in a provable lie. I show courtesy to my captives, but only until they try to get me killed."

Lennox then goes over to the technical side, to examine the power-stealing gun.

Dark Horse nods slowly to Lennox, and looks back to AMA, "You know more than that. How are the powers transferred. EXACTLY. And how many people have you actually stolen powers from?"

"Me? None. And as far as I know only three people have had their powers removed. The plan was that we'd be used as muscle to capture more people and capture more powers."

Lennox takes a couple of careful minutes with the weapon, then asks, "Anybody got a marker?"

KT shakes his head. "Sorry. Left it in my /other/ suit." He answers.

Dark Horse shakes his head, "I carry a ballpoint at all times. But not a marker."

"Well this is a warehouse. Or it ... it was. Maybe I can find something. You guys talk really loud so I can still hear you." KT offers, sounding like a heavily invested student finding out they may need to miss a lab assignment.

Lennox grimaces. "Ballpoint will have to work." He takes the throw from Dark Horse and carefully notes 'OMA' on the first barrel, then goes over to the unconscious ones. "Which is which?"

The prisoner is obviously trying to cooperare. "He has Silkworm's powers - and she has Microwave's." He points.

Lennox looks coldly at the thug, then turns his eyes towards Dark Horse for confirmation.

Dark Horse nods, "Sounds right to me, based on what we saw."

Dark Horse looks to AMA, "How are hte powers transferred to a target?"

"With that gun. As far as I can tell, it's set it to the right setting, put it up against the person to get the powers and pull the trigger!"

Lennox's gaze returns to the thug, and nods once. He heads over to Microwave II, rotates the barrel to an empty chamber, and proceeds to zap the girl until the chamber is glowing.

The process takes about 7 seconds.

Dark Horse nods again. "Who's your contact wiht SCALLOP?"

"Well, these guys. The tall one seems to rank highest, I guess?"

Dark Horse rubs his eyes. "Names. Contact information. That kind of thing? How do you get in touch with them?"

"Like I said before, at the house. Or this warehouse, but mostly the house. And his name is Jim. Or that's what he told me."

KT pops off to find a permanent marker in the area that looks like it could be an office.

Lennox labels the new one 'Microwave', then clicks the chambers over two, to leave an empty one in between #2 and #3. Silkworm II gets zapped.

In about 9 seconds this tube is filled too.

KT finds what he's looking for- taking the whole mug of pens, and using the opportunity to slip one of these crazy EGO guns into a newly emptied body cavity in his abdomen.

A short time later he bounds up and over- using his raptor like feet to grasp a perch, offering the mug to Lennox.

"Take your pick. One of these has to be the one you're looking for." KT says to Lennox, shaking the mug.

Dark Horse looks to Lennox, "I...guess we should return the powers ot hte original owners. It'll save Silkworm's life too, probably."

Chen (first) spots that Agent 1 ("Jim") has come around, and, though his armour has been removed, seems to be trying to reach for something under his underclothes.

Chen turns to 'Jim' and wags a finger, "Stop that. Or I'll let Lennox snap both your arms." If he doesn't stop, will attempt to grab him.

Lennox looks up at Kid Tengu, and gives the shapeshifter a single nod. "See," he says as he pokes through the cup, looking for something he can use to label the tube directly, "you can do this if you have a little space. The one with extra spaces in front of it is the first one, the one immediately next to that is the second, and every other one after that is in order. OMA, Microwave, Silkworm.? He touches each tube individually, then glances towards where Chen is moving towards the agent.

Jim makes a quick grab for whatever it is...

Chen says, "This guy was reaching for something under his clothes. Some brave person want to find out what it was?"

Chen is holding his wrists and his arms well out from Jim's body. Having four arms means being forearmed.

Jim groans at his failure. Or maybe in worry he's about to be drawn and quartered.

KT memorizes the order Lennox gives before watching Chen.

"I can help pat him down while Lennox labels these." KT offers, hopping down and moving to pat down 'Jim' the Agent.

Chen says, "Thanks. I'm not doing it. Not searching a guy under his clothes."

Lennox labels the third 'Silkworm', then retrieves one of the heavy blaster rifles, handing the power-siphon weapon over to DH. "Something goes south, you get this back to them. OMA, Microwave, Silkworm. Remember that."

Dark Horse nods, noting which is which. "Got it."

Dark Horse takes the pen back as well, pocketing it.

KT finds the gadget stuck to Jim's skin with the button on it, without accidentally pressing the button during the patdown.

KT pulls back the hand with the gadget stuck to one of many long spindly fingers he used to search the man. He's got a funny smile on his face- one of amusement, mostly because gendered species are so funny, but it probably doesn't look quite right considering.

"So what's this thing do?" KT asks Agent Jim.

Chen says, "That looks like the gadget they used to teleport out from the alley."

Dark Horse raises a brow. "Is that an...implanted teleporter? Or just stuck to him?"

The man declines to answer. But Chen is right - though this one isn't hidden under the watch like the other.

Lennox steps over after giving ex-AMA a quelling look. "Woulnt be to the house. Where," and here he'a addressing Agent Jim, "does this jump to?"

"Oooh- that last ride was kind of fun." KT says as his fingers return to normal- well that is to say, more crow like talons. So normal fo rhtis shape.

He looks to Jim for an answer, but looks totally willing to press the button.

"Your Mom's bedroom," replies Jim.

"Oh- really? That's some teleporter." KT says so drolly you you might think he beleives it.

He shifts into a copy of Jim and just smiles. "I wonder what Mama says when I come home looking like this?"

Dark Horse blinks, and winces as Jim talks back to the guy who broke another man's arm here. In Jim's presence.

Chen looks to KT, "Piggyback?"

"I thought you'd never ask." KT replies cheerfully, loosing the Agent's top layer for Chen to assume.

Jim sneers at KT. "Try it and find out."

Chen shifts to the garment and slithers onto KT.

Lennox sighs. "Always they start with insults. For clarification, though, my mother did not have a bedroom." He glances towards DH, then shrugs. "Thing is," he says, "we have no reason to hurt you. Your employer will, after we confess to them you talked."

"This ha sbeen such a fun case. I never get to teleport anywhere." KT says to Chen before getting into character. He clears his throat and says, "Try it and find out." He sounds exactly like Jim.

"Oh- there it is." He purrs. "Ok anything else?" KT asks, looking to Dark Horse & Lennox.

"I've got your back." Chen-jacket say, as she lays draped over KT-Jim's back.

"You'll regret it," says Jim.

Dark Horse nods as the others get set to teleport. "We need a way to communicate. Or at least some kind of tracker? Give us a call when you arrive?"

Lennox shrugs. "Pure recon. Go stealth immediately, get out. Your only job is to get out and call us so we can find out where you are."

Lennox looks scornfully at 'Jim'. "Ive been told that a lot. I haven't yet."

"I usually pack light. So I didn't exactly bring a tracker." KT admits. "But I can do the rest." He sounds confident enough.

Chen says, "I have a SGG comm. You can try calling Starguard and ask them to track us."

Sirens indicate that police and ambulance are arriving.

"Ooh- sounds like that's our cue. I'll bet our male criminal here wouldn't stay to see who's callin'." KT says in Jim's rough demeanor and then pushes the button.

Lennox nods to Chen. "Right. We'll head towards Chinatown to drop the powers off."

Dark Horse nods. "We'll need to make sure these yahoos get arrested, though. So, we'll have to talk to the cops, however briefly."

Chen and KT appear in what seems to be a pitch black closet, or some such. At least, pitch black till the laser gun or whatever overhead starts firing...

Chen says, "Ouch. We should get out of here."

Chen says, "Kt, can you take out that door?"

Chen morphs to form a protective barrier to shield KT from the overhead laser, and takes a swich as it as well.

Chen put a lot of feeling in that strike. She's protective another.

The laser gun is damaged, but not yet broken...

"Yes- yes we should." KT says as his eyes adapt to the darkness. He is quite impressed how tough Chen is. Despite this he turns and bolts for the door he sees over there. "How are you holding up?" He asks as he runs over vertical surfaces and other strange angles in an attempt to make them harder to hit as they escape.

"I think so." He says, bulking up and stretching his arms out towards the door.

The door clangs when stuck, but doesn't open.

Chen says, "I can take another hit from the laser. Maybe two. I'k locking myself in this shape so even if I go out you'll have protection from it. But I'm guessing there's a reception waiting, so stay aware of tha once out through the door."

"Ok that might be a problem." KT says, not yet panicking. But he doesn't like what Chen said. This might not be as much fun as he was originally thinking.

Kid Tengu bulks up as much as he can and makes another attempt, using that fight or flighgt panick that is truthfully starting to creep in to empower his attempt.

Lennox waits a few moments, watching Union and Sam go out to handle the cops, then calls up Starguard. "Hi, this is Lennox Hardigan. I was just with, uh, I don't know how you lot put it, Agent Chen, I guess. Used an enemy teleport device to jump to what we hope is their base. Can you get a lock on her for me, give me a location?"

The door creaks, giving a bit, but is still not open.

Chen remains in the shape she is, fixed in that shape until she intentionally shifts again. But bulks up muscle at the cost of some thickness of hardened skin. Reaching up she slams the laser mount with a solid fast strike.

The 'laser', or whatever kind of beam weapon it actually is, breaks, its crystalline core shattering.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, the police are rounding up the villains and taking the heroes' statements.

Chen says, "Hopefully that takes some of the time pressure off us. You know, this is fun. First really decent challenge since the Overlord."

Chen hyper-ventilates, forcing her body to recover faster.

Kid Tengu calms down a bit at the sound of something breaking inside the weapon and Chen's devil may care attitude certainly helps.

"Oh, so we're still having a good time? Good." KT says with a smirk. He holds to give Chen a moment to catch her breath.

Kid Tengu calms down a bit at the sound of something breaking inside the weapon and Chen's devil may care attitude certainly helps.

"Oh, so we're still having a good time? Good." KT says with a smirk. He holds to give Chen a moment to catch her breath.

"I bet the guys on the other side of the door are freaking out." KT says with a chuckle.

Kid Tengu resumes pushing ont he door to break out.

That time the door does nothing but to clang again.

Chen morphs back to humun form. "Work together on the door?" she asks, reaching out to slam a fict as a likely hinge point.

Chen morphs back to humun form. "Work together on the door?" she asks, reaching out to slam a fist at a likely hinge point.

The door hinges give just a little more...

Chen reaches out again to slam another fist at a likely hinge point.

Kid Tengu nods and follows suit.

Kid Tengu realizes its dark and says, "This door is toast with us working it over together."

Finally the door is knocked off its hinges, landing with a huge CLANG on the floor of what looks like some kind of lab. Though there's a lack of people in white coats: instead there are 8 security guards with blasters pointed at the heroes.

Chen chuckles, "Yep. If we," she pauses as KT finishes the job of opening the door, now we have knocked it open I'm going to Capt A shield using it."

Chen tries to buy KT and herself an extra second or two to react. She shouts, "DON'T MOVE!" at the top of her voice even as the solid door is clanging on the floor.

Kid Tengu grins at Chen after taking stock of their opposition. "That. Is. So. Arid." He says sounding pretty excited to see that.

He turns back, plotting to shoot one of these guys with their own weaponry. That's always quite funny- then he remembers the surprise he tucked away in his abdomen.

He puts a hand to his stomach as he rolls to the side to take cover.

He isn't quite fast enough since they were waiting for them.

He grits his teeth and shakes the tingling limb.

"I've got your back." He says to Chen.

Chen changes to Martial Mode. Grabs the door and does a shield slam into the most compact group of armed agents.

The two strucks agents and sent flying and are stunned, though their body armour prevents injury.

Chen laughs as she swats a pair of agents, and wrecks a good amount of lab equipment. "Oops. Hope that wasn't expensive."

Kid Tengu dips out of cover, and fires towards the opposite row of guards to keep them all from firing on Chen.

He considers his tingling limb and suspects that while it wasn't fun for him it may be quite a bit more devestating than the weapon he's pilfered.

The guards who fire on Chen all miss, but one hits KT.

That one clearly was much more than a grazed extrusion. KT winces visibly.

"OK. So those hurt a whole lot more than I thought." KT says, trying to shake it off.

Chen says, "You okay, KT?"

"I'm fine. I'm tougher than some Goons with decent dental." KT says, shifting the damaged cells inward and refreshing his armored carapace look.

Chen tells KT, "use cover and snipe. I'll keep them busy. She morphs to martial fighting form, and starts moving to extraordinary speed, darting around and between the agents as she strikes out at one.

Dark Horse checks his PDA, just to see if any calls come through. "Anyone get anything yet?"

Chen slides in, strikes the recoving agent with an elbow to the side of the head and moves on toward the next before the now unclonsious agent hits the floor.

Kid Tengu takes on an alien-like, sinewy form. Long and ungainly. His legs look so much longer than they need to be that watching him move is almost taxing in itself.

"Better than they're going to be." He says as long talons grow from his spiny fingers as he hunches over to fit out of the door.

A long tail that would make Geiger proud begins lengthening behind him. It bifurcates at teh tip into two sharps spikes. When he whips it back and forth it cuts the air before clacking loudly.

He climbs up to the ceiling before clattering out overhead.

He goes straight for the nearest guard within his reach- which unfortunately for that poor guy, is pretty long.

Chen says, "Temple spirits abide, KT. I don't where that shape came from but it's enough to scare me."

"Its these meatsalads who should be scared, not you." KT hisses angrily. Pulling the Guard too him menacingly as he gets a good look at him, revealing a mouth far too wide for his head full of needle like teeth.

He squeezes him like a a rotten tomato- not trying to kill but certainly incapacitate and add to the horror of his display.

The man flexes agains tthe force before suddenly sagging as KT's strength overwhewlms him.

"No, I understand she may not have checked in lately," Lennox replies with visible patience to the person on the other end of the line. "I am asking you if you have a way to track her right at this instant."

Chen thinks it might be worth another try, this time with feeling and shift to a suitably terrifing form. She lets the tiger shape come forth and ROARS. Then gives the agents a brief chance to throw down their weapons.

Chen follows up with a snarling, "DROP YOUR WEAPONS."

Kid Tengu stays in character and he doesn't look very forgiving. He roars from the ceiling, cocks his arm back and tries to line up a shot wher ehe can hit the most number of guards, then he goes bowling for guards.

Then he gives them a chance.

"You heard her! Otherwise its DINNER TIME and I'm counting 4 brains a piece!" He snarls.

He tries not to chide himself- he literally said he was going to stop threatening to eat people's brains.

That's enough to take the fight out of the security guards. Their leader drops his weapon and orders the other to follow suit, which they do.

KT drops to the ground and begins searching through one of the downed guard's pockets for a cellphone to call the others.

Chen tries her PDA GPS, and if there's a signal, sends the GPS co-ords to the others left behind.

THe PDA KT locates is locked. Chen does get through - the GPS coordinates indicating a Downtown location.

Seeing the lock KT shifts into a copy of the man before him and tries the fingerprint scanner or retina scanner too. "All of you up against the wall." KT says lifting a hand and pointed a monsterous arm toward a releatvely benign looking location in the room.

Chen collects the weapons and puts the broken door on top of them, figuring no agent will be able to lift it. Then grins, changes back to Chen, and turns to KT. Her arms lifts and her hand swells and showns a pigmented '' on the palm. "Give me five."

KT grows an arm for the occasion and smacks a thunderous five!

"You won't get away with it!" says the leader of the men as they're lined up against the wall. "This city is full of heroes! They'll catch you, count on it. They're probably on the way already."

Specifically, the GPS signal indicates that Chen is in the Snipe Building.

Chen nods, "Stangely enough, we're already here. So, if you claim to be on the side of light and happiness, how come a teleport device taken from a goon brought us here?"

"I don't think that's your line." KT says to the leader, clearly confused. "We're the good guys here. You guys are attacking metahumans."

He regards the man for a moment. "Also- we're shapeshifters. So... we kind of already did get away with it, didn't we?" He mumbles with a hint of superiority that could only come from royalty or some other highborn caste.

"Hey lady, if you are a lady, don't ask me. But we're Snipe Security. Look at our ID if you don't believe me," says the guy. "You're the people who broke in."

Chen says, "You mean broke out. Of a very nasty death trap. So I'm not too inclined to accept your word for anything. Other heroes and police will be here soon."

"THat they will. We called as soon as the alarm went off."

Kid Tengu shifts into Agent Jim, throwing the locked phone down onto its owner. He's oddly careful not to break it.

"And who is this guy?" He asks the Leader, keeping his voice menacing.

The leader frowns. "What's that to you?"

Lennox pauses to check his PDA as a message comes in, then his eyebrows go up. "Well, let's go see." He heads for his car, waving to the officers and saying, "Hot pursuit situation. I'll be down later."

"Well- lots. But better question is... if we're in as much trouble as you say, what's to keep me running my tongue through your skull and just lapping up the information myself? Then I could just /be/ you. Then I know the answer and I walk out of here after telling them how horrible it was an how I was the /only/ survivor besides whoever she thinks looks the most filling." He snarls turning back into the monster. "Ah... so much more comfortable in my own skin." He says, dramatizing stretching out luxuriously.

Chen strools over and sits on the corner of a lab bench, "Look guys, seeing one brain slurp in a lifetime is enough, know what I mean. And Kull here, like to play that game. So do me a favor and talk."

The guy backs away, and ends up pressed against the wall again. "So much for your claim to be heroes!" he says.

"No one said heroes. We said you were attacking Metahumans. In our neighborhood. We followed the trail to you. You tried ot kill us. My people say that means you volunteer for dinner." KT says, whipping his tails back and forth.

"Shit don't hurt me! I've a wife and family! Look, I'll tell you what you want to know! His name's Jim something. Henson? No, Hendry, that's it. He works for one of the companies in the building, that's all!"

Union goes with Lennox.

Chen says, "Is this his lab?"

He shakes his head. "No, he's with Snipe Logistics I think - 14th floor!"

"Mmmm... pity." KT says as if he were disappointed. "But I guess that makes us even. Hug your family tight tonight, Human." He adds as he leans in real close and takes a deep, dramatic sniff to memorize his scent.

"But if you're playing us... I'll be back for you and your little morsels. So don't hold out, Sweetmeat." He says in a terrifyingly sweet voice after Chen's follow-up question. He nods with satisfaction as more information is proffered.

Chen says, "So who's lab is this?"

Vroom vroom. On the way, Lennox calls Chen back.

Chen answers her PDA, pulling out of her abdomen, "Hi. On your way?"

"This is one of TransTech's labs," says the security man, surprised you broke in if you didn't know that. :)

Chen points to the head guy, "Do you know what's on the other side of the door that used to be there?" she points to the doorway.

He shakes his head. "It's supposed to be some sort of high-security locker for TransTech."

"Yes, and I have the others with me," replies Lennox. "You are downtown? A security company?"

Chen points at the guy, "Stand up and come with me." She walks back into the death cell.

He comes, with some trepidation.

Hands the PDA to KT, "Lennox is on the line."

Chen points outy a few things. "No other exit. If you look up you'll see the remains of a anti-armor laser we managed to break just before it killed us. Does this look like the kind of setup the good guys would have?"

KT takes it and shifts his voice to something a little less 'eat your brains'.

"TransTech labs to be specific. Some kind of high security locker." KT repeats, using the man's voice who said it.

He looks up, sceptically. "I guess that *could* have been a laser? But if so I guess that it must be for their research?"

Lennox is silent for a moment, and then says, "Huh. I am putting you on speaker." He does so, then says, "Tell us everything that happened, as it happened."

Chen says, "There's none so blind as those who will not see. This is a classic death trap and in your business as a surecity operative you edarn well know it. Go sit down and thnik about who you're working for and which side you're on by association."

He bristles. "I said it could be a laser. But forgive me if I don't take the word of an intruder over that of a business in a building I'm protecting! We'll see what TransTech and the police have to say."