HF RPG 2.5

IC: Sapphire

^{Location: Trying to Escape}

This had been a mistake. All of this had been one huge mistake. Sapphire got up on her feet and began running away, ducking into an alleyway.

IC: Timothy Gyro - Subway

"Sorry to interrupt the investigation and all," he said to the gathered Heroes. "They got away. Guess we're back to looking now."

He continued on his way out of the subway. He'd completely forgotten about the evidence on his person, or his lead. His mind was entirely on being alone and how he'd screwed up.

IC: Cobra Shard - Gathering of Heroes

"Yeah, I'll be fine. This looks worse than it feels," he said cheerfully, pointing at the cracks.

IC: Blink - Near Gathering of Heroes

Blink poked her head out of the subway tunnel and made a quick hand gesture to call "Rotor" over. She ducked back in, hoping he'd seen it and no-one else had.

IC: Flynn Flames

I cheered up a bit knowing that Cobra was okay. After the suffering he went through on his previous mission here, I wanted to be sure this one went well for him.

"That's great, do you know how we could get Gyro out of his mood?"

IC: Timothy Gyro - Friend Corner

He jumped a little, but hurried over and out of sight with his investigation companion. It didn't seem to occur to him she might be hiding from the Heroes; he figured that she might be undercover or something. He said to her, "The murderer got away. Augh, if I was just a bit faster, but the crowds and the stupid train..."

He stopped himself from punching the wall again, and instead turned back to her. "Hopefully someone else will sort that guy out on the other end of the line or something. What's the plan now? We don't have a dang sniper to grill for info or anything!"

His eyes went wide, hand going for his bag. "Except the thing he gave us, right? Hope it's got something good on there, else we're back to square one."

IC: Cobra Shard - Antropolis Hero Gang

Shard shrugged. "Maybe we give him a birthday cake? That oughta work..."

IC: Blink - With "Rotor"

"Yeah," she leaned in to see the tablet Sodden Heap had given them. "Do you think you can work it from here or are we gonna need a terminal or something?"

IC Kat:

I righted myself, returning my feet to the ground and dusting myself off as the other bot ran off.

"Well, I don't think they'll be causing anymore trouble today. Zib, did we get an ID on our blue blur?"

IC: Flynn Flames

"Cake might be a bit too much right now ..."

I watched as Gyro dashed off, which was somewhat infuriating since he  was a key witness to the assassin. 

"... or we can just let him disappear, guess he needs his alone time"

IC: Timothy Gyro - With Blink

"Uh, I don't think so. Lemme just..." He flicked it on, and fiddled with it to try and find some useful information.

EDIT: Aw jeez I forgot to do a Zib post D:

IC: Zib - Hero Factory

"We certainly did, Scarlet. That was Sapphire, a speedy Villain known for petty crimes like vandalism and traffic disruption."

IC Kathrine Scarlet:

"Jeez Zib, call me Kat, Scarlet sounds so... Cold."

"This Sapphire, she have an address?"

GM IC: Antropolis Team.

As Nex, Bulk, and their respective companions finally caught up with the rest of the group, Gyro and Blink combed through the files on the dead sailor's datapad. It contained, just as he'd said, a complete record of his negotiations with the mysterious pirates: a series of anonymous messages, as well as several payments of digital currency from obscure temporary accounts, in addition to transmission snippets and other miscellaneous data. 

While there was little identifying information, a closer look at some of the files would reveal that the majority of them had been routed through communications satellites in systems neighbouring the outer colonies. Specifically, those near the fringe world of Mekron. Given the information that Nex's team had uncovered about pirates active in that sector of space, it was too much to be coincidence.

There was something else of note, though. The communications between the deceased crewman and the pirates went back over a month. This was no hastily-planned heist. The people behind this were organised, well-funded, and patient. 

In other words, they were very dangerous. 

IC: Captor

^{Location: Mekron}

Captor arrived at the scene behind Stormer. He quickly gauged the situation, noticing to his surprise and anger that Night Stalker was at the scene. Their last encounter had gone over somewhat poorly. This time would be different. Quickly cloaking himself, he made his way around the conflict zone, keeping his distance from the towering villain. Last time they'd fought it had become quite clear that Night Stalker possessed some kind of radar, which had allowed him to bypass Captor's cloak. 

Not this time. This time Captor had been upgraded. This time the Radar would do nothing to help Night Stalker pick up his presence. And so, having moved out of Night Stalker's field of view, Captor broke into a sprint, launching himself at his enemy with his jaws wide open, his fangs primed to tear up Night Stalker's hide faster than he could call out to his metaphorical mother.

IC: Var Vilandris

^{Location: Eclipse Station - Tier 3}

"Alright R4, I'm going to ask you this one last time. Where did you put my saber?" The R4 unit beeped with a clear tone of distress. "What do you mean you 'lost' it? You don't just lose things, I know you! Where did you put my saber?!" At first staying silent and shaking somewhat stressedly, R4 finally relented, beeping defeatedly and opening a compartment in his chassis, turning out the crushed remains of what had once been Var's sword.

Before, Var would surely have flown into a fit of rage, shouting at and perhaps even hitting R4 for ruining her most prised possession. Perhaps she would even have considered more severe punishment for her astromech. But now... she was different. Mellowed out. Calmer. She picked up her weapon's remains, inspecting it from every angle. "What am I going to do now? Should I get a blaster? They're not a very civilised weapon..."

Wrenching apart the crunched crystal compartment, she found to her relief that the red crystal was still intact. Tough little things they were. Had to be, to handle the intense energy output of these weapons. She held it in the palm of her hand. She remembered the first time she'd held this crystal. Back then, it had been sky blue. And thus the same went for her sword back then. Quite the knightly weapon it had been.

And then she had changed. At her turn to the darkness, the crystal had refused to work for her. So she had dominated it with her will, turning the sky blue into blood red, corrupting the crystal with her malice. But now once more she was different. No longer was she bound so greatly to the dark side. No longer was her devotion to the darkness of the cosmic force so strong. Keeping her crystal like this, in this corrupted and dominated state, no longer felt... appropriate.

Stretching her mind out to the crystal for the first time in years, her mind touched upon a bleeding wound in the cosmic force, a crystal dominated by malice and chained to a dark willpower. She asserted her power onto it, but this time not unto the crystal itself, but the darkness that surrounded it, slowly but surely unravelling the cloak of thorns that rent the crystal, until the wound was laid bare. Then, with care she had not exhibited since her youth, she mended the wound, ceasing the crystal's bleeding and disrupting its red colour.

Finally, she opened her eyes to behold a white crystal lying in the palm of her hand. "Welcome back."

IC: Nathaniel Zib - Hero Factory

"We have a mailing address from past arrests, but those can be less than helpful. Why?"

~

IC: Timothy Gyro - With Blink

He pointed to the region near Mekron. "Looks like we got somewhere to start looking outta this, at least. I don't like the look of it, though. Do you think we've got enough backup?"

The last part was more to himself- this was just some investigator, after all. She probably wouldn't even be going off-planet to investigate, most likely. It occurred to him that he hadn't even thought to ask who she worked for, but it was pretty apparent she wasn't working for whoever stole the ship. He doubted anyone that was working for the thieves would need to find the ship first, for one thing.

IC Kat:

"I need a fine sent to that address for the property damage, should all be recorded in my helmet cams."

IC: Nathaniel Zib - Hero Factory

"It's already been sent through for processing. Good work remembering standard Hero Factory procedure, though. You must be doing well under your new team leader."

~

IC: Mona Silphi - Hero Factory, Forensics Department

The search was not entirely fruitful. In the shortened report she sent to Zib, who in turn forwarded it to Flames, there wasn't much that could help. The parts were a very generic brand, easily found and easily acquired. It seemed whoever mangled this robot corpse had some vague idea of how to do so, though it was not an incredibly masterful operation. It seemed like it was fairly limited, and would only work for so long, with so many questions.

~

IC: Ken Render and Mara Quiver - Guarding the Police Station

It was awkwardly quiet. Maybe this really wasn't a ruse. Render chewed a piece of wire thoughtfully as Quiver tried to disappear into the ground by sheer force of will.

"Welp. No sirens, no alerts, no nothin'. Guess ol' Stormer might've been right after all." He plucked the wire from his mouth to briefly gesture towards where the others had run off to. "How's it goin'? Over yet?"

"N-N-Nuh-No."

"Huh." He replaced the wire. The silence settled once more.

~

IC: Dorothy Quark, Eloise Thumper, and Wilbur Flood - Quark Qruiser

"I told you both to settle down back there," Quark snapped.

They had been flying for a while now. The trip would have been a lot shorter, of course, were it not for a particular incident regarding Thumper getting too hands-on with describing her match, which ultimately resulted in her accidentally breaking the navigation system and a good third of the control panel of the ship. Thankfully, Quark was used to making those kinds of repairs and the damaged parts weren't remarkably important anyway, but it did mean that she had to reduce their speed to allow her to plot a course based on the stars and planets around them. This was not a task for the inexperienced, but, again thankfully, Quark was anything but inexperienced. She figured she could rig up a simple fix when they arrived; Thumper had made a sizeable dent, but it could be banged out and fiddled with, especially if Render was around to help. That Hero could rig up an interstellar transmission radio from a broom and a Hero Factory action figure if he had enough duct tape.

However, she had to concentrate. This was not assisted by her two teammates in the back. At first they were apologetic and quiet- it hadn't been entirely Thumper's fault, she'd slipped on some of Flood's slime mid-demonstration, so both Heroes were feeling responsible- but after Quark had begrudgingly told them she knew it was an accident to stop them looking so darn mopey, they had started to perk up. And chat very animatedly; apparently Thumper had gotten Flood started on a new species of eel they had brought into the aquarium this morning. The fact it could shoot lasers from its eyes (Thumper had asked, and the lasers were of the laser pointer variety rather than laser guns) was a point of shared absolute excitement for the two.

"Sorry, Quark," both Heroes replied, and lowered their voices. This didn't help much in Thumper's case, but it meant their conversation would simmer down to a murmur for at least five or ten minutes.

Quark let out a long, disgruntled sigh, and kept scanning the way ahead for the Penne Nebula.

IC: Andrea Plume

^{Location: Spraypainting her dropship}

An energetic lass danced to the music in her headphones as she sprayed vivid patterns onto the hull of her ship. Andrea was putting her finishing touches on the paintjob of her ship after a month of struggling to get it just right. But finally, she stood there by its side, proudly observing the wing and cloud patterns she had so masterfully managed to put on her ship. Turning off the headphones and taking them off, she pressed the button on her helmet to send a comm to her friend and protégé, Kat Scarlet.

"Kat, you've got to come see this, I've just finished painting the hull my ship and I think you're going to like what I-" Andrea paused when she heard the characteristic sounds of mission control on the other end. "Er, are you on the line with someone?"

IC: Flynn Flames

I checked the information I got back from Zib, from the information returned it seemed my trip to the dock had been fruitless. I felt sad that my efforts had led to nothing. Not only that but whoever we were hunting had claimed at least two lives already. This had gotten pretty dark.

"So, what do we do next?"

IC Kat:

"Thanks, Zib. I'll-"

"Uh, hey Plume. Just finished a case."

OOC: Sorry for the delay. Finals suck.

IC: Wilhelm Gorn- Mekron

Gorn quickly attempted to thrust his blade into Corroder's claw, still intent on rendering the acid sprayers unusable.

GM IC: Corroder - Mekron City Brawl. 

The green-hued villain recoiled with a hiss, her left acid blaster partially perforated by Gorn's energised blade. One of the melee claws had been sliced completely off, and the acid tanks inside had been punctured, causing the caustic liquid within to spurt freely from the smoking opening.

It splashed in sizzling puddles across the ground, and Corroder flung the damaged weapon in Gorn's direction, hoping some of the contents would splash him. 

IC: Blink - With "Rotor"

"Yeah we should have enough guys," Blink replied doubtfully. "Mekron's not exactly down the road though. We'll have to take the ship..."

IC: Cobra Shard - Antropolis Hero Gang

"We could call Nex and see what he got. Or I suppose we could head back to the Starwhale's dock and search it ourselves. We know it was compromised somehow from Mister Explodey Head Guy, so I'd bet there are some villain-ish clues laying about in there somewhere."

IC: Andrea Plume

^{Location: Her dropship}

"Oh really? Way to go, Kat! I'm sure I'd love to hear about it!" Andrea looked up into the sky. "Where are you right now?"

IC: Timothy Gyro - With Blink

He snorted a laugh. "Well, we ain't walkin' there, are we?"

OOC: Pretty sure we're already with Nex Ryl, everyone except Gyro has grouped up.

IC: Flynn Flames, Antropolis group.

Nodding at Cobra, I turned to Nex.

"So have you figured anything out from this info?"

OOC: Must have missed where Nex actually arrived. 

IC: Cobra Shard - Antropolis Hero Gang

"Ah, didn't see ya there, Nex," Cobra said as Flames addressed the Alpha Hero. 

IC: Blink - With "Rotor"

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!" Blink began walking back towards where the villain spaceship was parked.

IC: Timothy Gyro - Slightly Confused But Only Slightly

He glanced over his shoulder as he followed this stranger. "Uh, shouldn't we get the others first?"

IC: Blink - With "Rotor"

"Right, I'll give 'em a call..." Blink pulled out a rather old looking flip-phone and dialed the other members of the villain gang (excluding Rotor, who of course was already with her). "Hey guys, we've got somethin'. Looks like some goons in the Mekron sector are behind the Starwhale's disappearing trick. They were workin' with one of the crewman; it was an inside job. But the best part is: they'd been plannin' this whole thing for a while, which means whatever it is the Starwhale's got, it's gotta be goood."

IC: Timothy Gyro - With Blink

He had a weird feeling about this. Why would an investigator be worried about whatever was on the ship being good? He... supposed that his companion could have just not known and was excited about going after something more interesting than scrap metal or whatever. He was kind of pumped about that himself. He relaxed a little.

~

IC: XPlode - With Whipcrack

"Very good work," he said with a smile. "Whipcrack and I have uncovered some information of our own. It seems the cargo of the ship includes some interesting weaponry. Do you have any specific coordinates for us to follow?"

IC Kat:

I looked at my surroundings, "uh.... Western edge of the city, why?"

IC Jade:

"...whoops."

She fired at Corroder directly. A short, four shot burst of laser fire streaked toward the villain.

IC: Wilhelm Gorn- Mekron

Gorn swung his shield, swatting the claw in mid air before returning the shield to it's default position. The impact flung the weapon far off to the side, away from the pair. Nevertheless, a small amount of acid managed to find it's way past the shield, and began eating holes in Gorn's armor.

IC: Jason Ferro- Antropolis

Having joined the rest of the heroes in the subway, Ferro noticed Gyro leave the group and duck into a subway tunnel. He thought nothing of it, assuming that Gyro just wanted to be alone after failing to catch the evil railing-icer. Ferro understood, and decided to simply wait with the others until he received new orders.

IC: Andrea Plume

^{Location: Her dropship}

"Can you come over? There's something I want to show you."

IC: Var Vilandris

^{Location: Eclipse Station - Tier 3}

Having gathered her things, Var now exited her private little hideout and began to make her way through the massive station. She had a very particular destination in mind.

IC Kat:

"Can do, on my way."

I blasted away, headed back toward the Factory.

IC: Blink - With "Rotor"

"Uhh... not sure if there were any... hold a sec, I'll check again." She turned to "Rotor". "Were there any coordinates we could follow in that thingamajig? I didn't see any."

OOC: We'll probably need Roman to tell us if they're in there. I reread the post of what the datapad contained and it looks like the pirates were pretty careful to keep stuff like that out of Sodden Heap's hands.

OOC: The information you guys have should give a pretty good indication as to what system the pirates are operating out of, that's it. Although, it shouldn't be too hard to narrow it down to a specific planet once you get there.

GM IC: Corroder - Mekron City Brawl. 

Corroder, hissing with unbridled rage, was about to strike out at Gorn with her remaining weapon when a volley of laser blasts thudded into her chest. She dropped with barely a sound, taken completely by surprise. 

IC: Wilhelm Gorn- Mekron

Though Gorn had been doing just fine on his own, Jade's help was appreciated nonetheless. He quickly retrieved a pair of hero cuffs and approached the motionless villain. Upon activation, the bonds immediately began to seek out Corroder's wrists.

GM IC: Corroder - Mekron City Brawl.

Injured as she was, there was little Corroder could do to avoid being cuffed. 

IC Jade Riley:

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you never ignore air support."

She looked back with a grin, only for it to fall away as she remembered there was no one in her ship to appreciate her quip.

So being, she began to set the ship down so they could transport the acid spewing villain.

IC: Wilhelm Gorn- Mekron

After removing Corroder's meteor blaster and remaining claw, Gorn turned to see Jade's ship descending to the street, most likely to transport Corroder back to the police station. He lifted up injured villain, an easy task now that she was disarmed, and began making his way over to where Jade was about to land.

IC: Timothy Gyro - With Blink

"Sorta," he said. "It's got a general area on it. We might be able to figure it out from there. Smaller place to search, at least."

GM IC: Corroder/Black Phantom - Mekron City.

Although they'd stripped her of her weapons, the heroes had failed to notice a simple communications device secured to Corroder's wrist. So as Gorn carried her towards the dropship, she managed to reach across the cuffs and press one of the buttons, transmitting a pre-written message to a pre-determined contact.

Across the city, the recipient stared down at the message: Captured by heroes. 

Scowling, Black Phantom rose to his feet, thanked the beings he'd been conversing with, and started weaving his way back towards where he'd parked the ship. He'd been prepared for this eventuality, of course, although he'd hoped that Corroder and Night Stalker would've lasted longer in distracting the heroes. Perhaps if Kavok hadn't abandoned the group, things might have played out a little differently. 

Regardless, Black Phantom had his orders.