Log:ACRO - Stage 5, Scene 3

ACRO - Stage 5 2015/03/26 	 Carpenter Jennifer Timewarp Paragon Showdown Porter Cheshire 3

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

Jennifer(#2331POXeACcF?)

Jennifer is wearing a thick and slightly quilted sturdy long sleeved white silk blouse. There's a circular black cloth patch on each upper arm of the blouse with a gylph embroidered in gold thread on the patches. A thick pleated and flared black silk skirt covers from her waist to her ankles, Around her waist is a red silk cord, knotted in front with the free ends hanging down to knee height. Each end of the silk cord has five ornate knots tied into it.

Her hands are bare and uncovered. She has long pale blonde hair pulled back into a loose pony-tail, a face that that is attactive without being beautiful, and pale blue eyes. Her build is slim and athletic. Her movements almost feline in smoothness. She has the appearence of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. Her skin is tanned, with maybe just a hint of nordic ancestry visible although her eyes have an almost oriental tilt and the pupils of her eyes are oval rather than circular.

Cheshire(#2471PeCcF?)

A petite teenaged girl, barely 5' tall, fair skinned. Her most striking feature is her hair. Pink on the right, brown on the left, irregular length, varying from shoulder to midback, gathered in a loose pony tail at the nape of her neck. Her eyes are similarly mismatched, one green, one blue. Which is which seems to change from time to time, between blinks of her eyelids.

She's wearing a mid-thigh length pink waistcoat/blouse of sorts, with white lace lining and lapels, over a black corset/leotard like top, low-slung black pants with a black leather belt, and knee-high side-buttoned white leather high-heeled boots. Black gloves complete the ensemble.

She's carrying a pink and white lace parasol with a black handle and ribbing.

(or see: http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/z330/alicesara/Characters/cheshire_zpsa20927dd.jpg)

Third(#1641POeACcF?)

She's a tall, young woman in her mid twenties with deathly pale white skin and straight chestnut colored hair. The hair tumbles down to mid-shoulder blade, and loose with long side bangs parted to the right. Her lips are ashen, and her eyes are hazel with green flecks. Her eyes look a little sunken with vaguely lavender hue eyelids. She stands at about 6 feet tall, with a well-toned athletic build. While she looks like someone who keeps in shape, her deathly pallor makes her appear unhealthy.

Currently, she's wearing a black peacoat that reaches down to mid-thigh, black leggings, and brown leather lace-up knee-high boots. A long, deep red cotton jersey scarf is wrapped loosely twice around her neck, the ends left hanging long and billowing.

A 2-inch widebrown leather wrist cuff sits on her right wrist embossed with a stylized lightning bolt. Wrapped several times around the outside of the wrist cuff is a black rawhide strip. The strip is threaded through the center of a 5 yen coin centered in the middle of the cuff. Around her neck is a circular pendant with many pieces of polished onyx and mother-of-pearl are arranged inside the silver frame in a complicated mosaic on a thin silver chain. While the chain looks relatively new, the pendant does not.

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

Showdown(#657PeACcF?)

This man standing here is dressed in a forest green armored suit, the plates thin and trimmed with gold around them that faintly glow on occasion. The design starts with a pair of armored boots that go up to the knees in black, gold colored spurs attached to the heel and an instep on the boots themselves. Both spurs have a simple disc shape for the end of them and a curved upwards design to not interfere with running. A gold line along the front and back separate the boot's ankles from the calf and travel up either the front or back. Each step causes a clear clinking sound from the shifting of the spur. The gold line travels up the middle and back of the thighs separating armored plates up to his waist, where a black belt encircles him. The belt has small gold eyelits decorating around the entirely of it and a solid red stone on a gold mount in the center of the waist.

Going further up, a lot of the torso and arms is obscured by a poncho made of some sort of material that seems to be pretty light. The coloring to the poncho is a black color with a green design in gold along the borders. The poncho is securely kept somehow around his neck and more often than not, it seems to move with the slightest wind or just when he needs it to the most. When the poncho is not in the way, the chest is obviously armored a bit strategically with a divided breastplate over the upper chest and the lower chest simply covered by whatever the clothlike green material is with the darker green being the obvious armored plating. The gold lines travel up from where they stopped on the belt, going around the chest pieces and the shoulder armor before travelling to black elbow pads lined with gold and down to a pair of gold gauntlets over the back of his hands. On his left hand is a large stone on the back that often seems to glow faintly.

Lastly, the helmet is covered by a black wide-brimmed and flat cowboy style hat. Said hat has no visible means to keep it in place, but no amount of wind seems to move it at all. The thin helmet is designed in the darker green of the armor with gold lining the grey mouth plate covering his nose and mouth area. Those gold lines run across the faceplate, giving a grill feeling before tapering to a red tinted visor over the eyes. Both eyes can be seen through the material which is shaped as a rough winged shape over the area that is further lined with the material. It's pretty distinctive that this individual at least some sort of super hero.

Sirens fill the air as multiple police cars move through the streets to park outside a dry cleaning business in Chinatown. Detective Carpenter climbs out of his car, and a couple of uniformed officer get out of another. There are already several officers nearby, and the building has been taped off. The lights from the cars reflect off the walls of the street.

Timewarp is drawn to Chinatown by the sirens. Might be nothing needing metas, but it's not like it's going to take more than a couple of seconds to check it out! In costume, she appears before Det. Carpenter, as a face she recognises. "What's treating?"

Carpenter walks up to the lead uniformed officer, who is a young blond woman. "What are we dealing with?" She says to him, "Two dead bodies inside, suspected meta involvement, based on the scene." Carpenter nods to the officer and then says to Timewarp, "Could use some meta help, potentially."

Paragon notices the sirens as she leaps overhead on patrol. Her head tracks the incident while she lands gracefully without looking. She changes her direction so her body aligns with her head, then leaps down to the police officers on the scene. "Greetings, Officers! May I be of assistance?" she asks as she snaps off a cub scout salute.

Jennifer was already in Chinatown. Back from Undermoon, she was browsing in the Ming Street Market and enjoying a snack of dumplings and sauce. Really she's just letting herself be seen by the likes of One Man Army and Smiling Johnny. Letting the fractions in Chinatown's Triads know she's still around and keeping a loose eye on affairs. Naturally the commotion at the dry cleaning establishment draws her attention and she makes her way over to discover what is happening.

Showdown had been patrolling. The fact that his motocross career had kept him travelling and taking online courses all month was just a bit irritating. Now he was back to the city and simply 'bouncing' along. And well, from the air, all those sirens are pretty noticeable for him. The armored cowboy pulls his body in, spins, and pushes off a green pulse to head for the ground. Once he reaches the rooftop level, he flips to descend slowly. The armored head turns both ways before he angles his descent towards Paragon and Timewarp. "Heya, something going on over here?"

Timewarp asks the woman, "Any vils still on the scene, or what? And how come you think metas are involved?"

There's a FLASHTHWUMP of displaced air, time, space, and Porter near Paragon. With the Porter displacing the other things to appear here. He blinks twice, looks to Paragon, then to the police officers, and then... "Wow... Lots of folks showed up..."

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

Timewarp says "hey" to the gathering heroes.

Jennifer stays slightly in the background. She's retired and if the younger heroes, heck she doesn't even recognise them, can handle it she be just as happy to stay out. And if it's a bit much for them, well then she'll take a hand.

Carpenter blinks at all of the descending metas and he lets out a long breath, "Wow. Okay...fine. I might be able to use all the help. But...this is an active crime scene. Do NOT touch anything without wearing gloves. And if you spot something of interest, let either me or an officer know, so it can be catalogued and bagged. Clear?"

Showdown turns his head, moving a bit almost like he's reading to get out of the way until he sees it's Porter. Then he just looks at Porter, then to Paragon, before he does a metallic face palm. "Porter's now a 'porter, huh?" He looks to the officers. "Sounds clear to me. Do you have an idea as to what happened?"

Carpenter shakes his head, "Not yet. Going to take a look. C'mon inside." He motions to the officers to let the metas past the tape. He makes a point of pointing out Jennifer as part of the group. Apparently he recognized her. He heads into the building, carefully opening the door.

Timewarp goes with the detective, glad her costume has gloves!

Paragon follows Carpenter's pointing finger to Jennifer, and her eyes dim slightly. She glances to Porter wordlessly as some sort of communication goes on, then steps forward to follow the detective.

Paragon waves to Showdown. "He's been one for as long as I've known him," she says with forced cheerfulness.

"Don't touch anything. Yell if we see something. Got..." Porter starts to answer, but Carpenter's walking away already, "...it..." Then he shrugs at Showdown. "Just sorta worked out that way. No relation." He steps after Para after Carpenter after ...whatever Carpenter's following.

The inside of the establishment looks like a localized hurricane ripped through just the lower floor. There is debris strewn everywhere...clothing that was being dry cleaned is all lying about. The presses have been ripped apart. The cash register is literally in several small pieces, having been ripped apart by some great force. There are two dead bodies in the back room, both outlined already. One is an older man, and the other a young woman, both of Chinese descent.

Jennifer trails along last, careful to avoid disturbing the scene with the swishing of her thick pleated skirt.

Carpenter lets out a long, low whistle. "Holy..." He furrows his brow as he looks around, trying to piece together what happened.

Timewarp says, "What a mess! I could search the place for clues really fast of course but I if I can't move things I can't go through all the debris..."

Carpenter shakes his head, "The placement of the debris is a clue in and of itself." He points out a policeman taking pictures, "That way we can try to perhaps create some kind of sim to figure out what kind of force could do this."

Paragon's eyes flicker to a cold blue glow as she scans through the area. "I can see if anything of interest lies beneath the debris without touching it while you look through the accessible stuff?" Paragon suggests as she starts looking about.

Jennifer bends to look at a fragment of the cash register, trying to estimate the waepon type, if any, used to render it to pieces.

Timewarp nods. "Yeah, that's what I figured."

Showdown moves over to look at what's left of the cash register. "Well, whoever did this could be pretty strong. Seems a bit odd, though. Why kill them if they can just rip apart a cash register like this?" Raising his hand, his suit's yellow lines turn gold before starting to shine a bit brighter and shine lights around. He looks to Jennifer, then shrugs and hums.

Timewarp says, "Maybe the power's not so precise, I guess?"

The Forensics specialist comes in to take a look at the bodies, starting his investigation.

"That... might be a bit worse if it's not. Huh..." Showdown looks from where the cash register's remaints are, then to where it should be as well as the positioning of the bodies. "The other is, why rip down all the clothing?"

Paragon walks through the scene slowly, being careful not to disturb any of the debris. She eventually stops by the bodies, her eyes dimming slightly. "I'm afraid I don't see anything, Detective. Just more debris. And a few receipts under there," she points to some debris near the bodies." She looksover the body's injuries, checking for broken bones and other signs of injury. A lodged bullet. Fragments. Anything.

Porter glances at the bodies. Once. Frowning, he then looks pretty much everywhere BUT the bodies. Which leaves him looking at all the bits and pieces of... stuff that used to not be in bits and pieces. "Yeah. Why blow everything to bits?"

Carpenter shakes his head, "Two different things, I think. Whatever can rip apart a register would shred the clothing. Only the cltohing isn't damaged. Just blown about."

Timewarp doesn't know what else to do, so she just goes looking for anything that might look like a clue, at high speed, but without touching anything. Perhaps she'll find something small that people might miss will all this obvious destruction.

"What about the bodies? Any identities on who they are, or who owns this place?" Showdown asks. He rubs his armored chin. "Oddly... you know, none of the clothing's damaged... but all the machinery is? Technopath, maybe?"

"Was this...an execution?" Paragon asks in a disturbed tone as she looks to the Detective. "There's plasma burn marks to the back of the head of both victims."

Carpenter nods, "It's the owner, and his daughter who helped to run the place. According to the initial report I saw."

Porter shudders at that idea. "Couldn't've just been for money, right? The register's toasted, and you'd think they'd go for a bank or something..."

"The money may have been secondary," Paragon murmurs as she takes a knee near the body of the daughter without touching anything. She looks so Porter doesn't have to. "Perhaps it was done as a warning. Were there any past reports of trouble at this store that are on police record?" she asks the detective with a glance.

Jennifer stands, "Doesn't look like a weapon was used. I think there are actually finger holes in this piece of the register."

The detective shakes his head, "No, no such reports. Though..." He snaps his fingers and points to the officer in charge, "Can you check the camera feeds from the street from when this happened? After getting a guess from the forensic scientist?" She nods in return, "Of course, sir. I'll work on getting the feed from the city data managers."

Showdown carefully moves over to the presses to take a look at them. "Hm... let me check the presses, see if there's more there. If we're dealing with someone with super-strength, it might narrow it down a bit."

There do appear to be similar holes in the destroyed presses.

"Finger holes?" Paragon murmurs. "If Corona weren't in custody, I would think of her." She looks over to Porter. "Have you ever heard of a villain that has a plasma touch like Corona? Or blasts." She looks back down at the bodies and mutters to herself, "...did the criminal use their finger to make those holes...?"

The scientist gives an estimated time of death to the officer in charge. Three hours ago. She then takes that information and starts to go through camera footage, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Carpenter nods, "So, we have someone with super strength. Someone with a plasma blaster or related powers. And...someone with wind powers, maybe?"

"Same thing over here." Showdown says after checking as many as he can without moving them. "I'm not sure on the wind powers."

Porter starts to open his mouth at mention of burnt finger holes, and nods with Para. "Yeah, was thinking the same thing. But can't be Corona. Hmm..." Now he starts a dangerous task: thinking.

Jennifer says, "She ought to still be in jail. There was a freelance meta operating in Chinatown a few years back called Radium. This bears some simularities with her work."

"Tim Lee's got a bunch of people working for him, too." Porter pops up with a thought, finally. "After he helped break them out in China. Some of them are super strong. Maybe it's a local Chinatown thing?" He looks to Para. "Like a warning or extortion or something, like you said."

The officer comes back over to Carpenter with a datapad, "I think I found our culprits. But it doesn't make much sense." She shows him the video, and he holds it so the heroes can see what's going on in it. Several young Chinese men enter the establishment. The time stamp is just over three hours ago. There's no sound on the recording, but some flashes of light appear inside the building. Only three minutes later, the young men leave the building, closing hte door behidn them.

Carpenter tries to zoom in a bit, only the picture gets more pixelated. He sighs. "It never works like it does in the movies. Seriously."

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

"When was the crime called in, Detective?" Paragon asks as she watches the video.

Timewarp watches the video, trying to see if there's anyone in the video who might be taking picture on their PDA or any such. There might be more video out there if it can be tracked down!

"... and you just said a couple of hours... I doubt we could comb the area that quick no matter how quick any of us are." Showdown looks at the video, considering. "About what age would you say they are?"

Carpenter rubs his chin, "I think I recognize a couple of these guys. They work for Pride. But...this really doesn't make sense. They don't have powers."

Timewarp says, "I guess either they do now or someone with powers is trying to frame them?"

"Pride? Isn't he one of the Triad leaders or something? I'm not overly familiar with Chinatown." Showdown says.

Jennifer nods to Showdown, "Yes, that's correct. One of two Triad leaders in Chinatown. The other is Tim Lee." She pauses for a moment, "I think it might be an idea to go have a word with Smiling Johnny."

Paragon rises up to her feet and looks around again. "Usually Pride's people use weapons from ACRO. But they had one meta who could move very fast. Perhaps like a whirlwind. Perhaps he and a few men armored with ACRO lasers that could make holes the size of fingers?" she rubs the helm of her chin. "Hmm. Doesn't sound right."

Carpenter shakes his head, "As far as I know, the only powered enforcers that Pride uses are folks like Scorpi-Mech. This is different, somehow." He taps the screen again, "Something doesn't feel right."

"Need a ride over? I'm sure you can take care of yourself, but having backup might help." Showdown says, then he looks considerate before looking to Paragon. "I've got something similiar in what I can do. I can put off a pulse of heat off from my hands. It's not that far fetched, but these guys... not sure if tech could duplicate that. Let alone the strength to do it, unless they're cyborgs or something."

"This happened three hours ago. Was the incident reported around that time? Or were they able to do all this without being heard or noticed until later?" Paragon asks curiously as she steps back to Porter's side. Her head pans to Showdown as he mentions cyborgs. "That is always a possibility. Cybernetics can do some incredible things these days," comments the cyborg.

Carpenter shakes his head, "It was called in about an hour ago. The people in this section of town tend to 'not see anything'."

Jennifer steps back out and ducks under the police tape to cross over to the crowd. There's always a crowd. She looks for one of Tim Lee's. Probably a OMA clone. To whom she puts the question, "The dry cleaners. One of yours or one of Pride's?"

Showdown follows Jennifer back out, stopping to keep an eye out a bit, as well as to scan the crowd. He's looking to see if he sees any of the young men from the video as well just in case. He's definitely got to get his studies back under control and learn some helpful things one of these days. Or figure out how to see energies with his gauntlet maybe. Might be an idea for him in the future.

Sure enough, there's one of One Man Army's duplicates in the crowd. He smiles slightly to Jennifer, "I have no idea what you're talking about. But if I did, I'd probably say 'neither'."

The man looks...pretty average. Button-down shirt. Slacks. Black hair that's nicely trimmed.

Porter watches the video, even when it zooms into ManeCrift-style pixelation. Still, he stares a little harder.

Jennifer nods to OMA. "That's a dangerous place to be in a town like this. Thanks. You might want to warn your people to be careful until the killers are taken down. It sounds like a push against a standout rather than a hit against your side but... it's ugly."

Paragon steps outside with the others to scan the crowd for anyone with weapons with her X-ray vision. She comments to Jennifer, "Are you working with Tim Lee's men?"

The non-descript man nods to Jennifer, "It always is ugly when things like this happen."

Jennifer looks at Paragon, "No. I'm working against whoever killed the owner and his daughter. If that means talking to Tim Lee's people I will. I'll also pass on a warning in the hope it might just stop someone else suffering the same fate." Jennifer looks pretty disgusted at the suggestion she's working with Tim Lee.

"This happened and will continue to happen while you make deals with criminal organizations like the Triads." Paragon's eyes drift over the crowd and narrow slightly. "This is the security you've bought through compromise," she says as she picks out some people in the crowd.

The non-descript man says to Jennifer and Paragon, "I suspect that you might be asking the wrong questions. You are looking for a 'metahuman' who could do such things, yes?" He takes a deep breath. "The Kirin has started again."

Showdown looks to the officer in charge and Carpenter. "Can we have a print of that video?" Looking to Jennifer, Showdown asks the important question. "Do you have a means to contact Pride? Our only current lead is that it appears three of his..." He pauses, then looks towards Jennifer and Paragon, then to the non-descript man. "The what?"

Carpenter nods to Showdown, "I can provide you with a copy of the video. As long as you promise not to release it ot the media."

Showdown looks back to the officer. "Not a problem. I'd probably need something to hold it in, or a printed picture if you can do that. I don't exactly keep a PDA for hero work here."

Jennifer turns on Paragon. "Whwn I was younger and rasher I felt the same way. I was going to come in here and root out the corruption. Someone wiser sat me down and explained in short words what that would mean. What would you do? Start a war in Chinatown that would see the bodies piled up in hundreds? I'm not happy with the situation. I'd be a lot less happy with open warfare raging on the streets here."

The One Man Army duplicate sighs quietly at Showdown's question about the Kirin and he says, "I won't go into too much detail. But if you have a business that requires superhuman fighters...and you have a shortage of said fighters, what do you do to fill the shortfall?"

"You listened to the wrong person. A hundred of bodies at once, or hundreds over a spread out amount of indefinite time. You just chose the slower route," Paragon states. She looks to Porter. "Have you heard of the Kirin?"

Carpenter speaks up. "The Kirin was a metahuman fight club. Broken up a few years ago by a few heroes, including Dark Horse and Random Factor, while the latter was head of Starguard Gamma."

"This isn't like those old video games, bad movies, and the like where they're holding some tournament just to get some super-powered fighter?" Showdown looks considerate, then turns to Carpenter. "Was it pay to get into?"

Carpenter shakes his head, "No idea about how to get in. Dark Horse would know, though. He went undercover in the Kirin, from what I remember hearing."

Paragon asks, "What would a metahuman fight club have to do with the drycleaners?" She glances at Porter. "Wasn't there a fight club being run by Spartan? And some other group in the industrial area?" She's loath to mention her very brief almost ex.

Carpenter narrows his eyes, "As the man said, if there's a lack of super-powered fighters, what would you do to get more?" He considers it for a moment, "Hire outsiders? Manufacture your own?"

One Man Army just nods sagely and disappears into the crowd, backing his way out of the conversation. Apparently his job was done here.

Paragon folds her arms over her chestplate. "Hire from BAD. Outsource mercenaries. There's a number of groups that provide such services," she rattles off ideas to Carpenter. "There's a meta drug on the streets of Harrisburg that grants limited, short-term meta abilities. It's spread to other parts of the city."

Carpenter nods. "That would explain why these guys are known normal humans...and might have done that." He points back at the shop. "If they took a drug to give them powers for a short time, they could easily do what we saw. The problem is proving it."

"We'd need to find a supplier of the drug and get samples, at a guess, to find out what traces are left." Showdown looks considerate.

"One of the men that went in was a metahuman Porter and I encountered," Paragon relays as she mentally communicates with Porter. "He was working with Pride's people at the time. He was fast, tough, and hit like a mac truck when he got up to speed."

Carpenter says, "If he worked for Pride, he likely isn't a meta. At least not all the time. Drug-enchanced maybe."

"And they were trying to take a 'dose' of something to Pride," Paragon adds. "Perhaps a TGE, like XL or XS?"

"Something's not adding up." Showdown says.

Timewarp says, "Huh.. you'd think Pride would want his own metas anyway, since Lee has them...."

Jennifer says, "Yes. But why kill the owner of a dry cleaners?"

"But we just got told it was neither Triad responsible..." Showdown huhs. "Maybe we need to look at another angle than the obvious one."

Timewarp says, "Could it even have been an accident? If they're not used to their powers.... But no, I guess they left too calmly for that."

"The wounds on the back of the skulls look to purposely done," Paragon responds.

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.