Well, the Broker wasn't wrong. Defenses seemed sparse at best, and just two guards were out front. He couldn't imagine many more would remain inside... now, that said, he did prefer having quiet when he was thinking, so being asked three stupid questions in a row was very distracting indeed.

'Sofia, Thunderbolt, be patient,' he whispered. 'Heartless, I do not carry tranquiliser darts, because those are not as convenient as fiction depicts them without the Tinker tech to back them up. I could just shoot him in the head to knock him out, but that wouldn't be fantastically quiet, even with a suppressor... then again, neither is tasing a person to the ground, and unless somebody happens to have a tranquiliser dart designed by a Tinker and a blowgun to fire it out of, the headshot is probably the best option.' That said, he drew his weapon and transformed the gun to its FN P90 form, complete with suppressor - he wasn't so foolish as to disclude something like that, though alas, Matrix hadn't been able to fit them onto the larger weapons too. Maybe if he had the Tinker create some drones...

'Heartless, take out the man on the right. I'll deal with the one on the left. Tie them both up quickly once that's done.' Without another word, Raymond scoped in.

Left soldier, head. Unconsciousness via concussion, no permanent damage. Minimise chance for bullet to enter the building. If he zoomed out enough, he could still keep the other soldier in sight, and could therefore fire as Heartless tased the man. Simple enough... and if that worked out, then the rest of the raid ought to go down like clockwork, in-and-out in very short order.

---

Nodding her head as she listened dutifully, she took in the further explanation of the, well, decoys, before she composed herself. As the senior hero began briefing them Evelyn's expression quickly became serious. Imperceptibly, her mind turned to how they might deal with the villains. She found herself having to intentionally dial back the urge to analyze and deconstruct the hypothetical ne'er dowells in her mind's eye.

As if to indicate her rushing mind, the faint, shimmering light of her projection roiled off of her for a moment before receding back 'into' her form and then, unseen, into the ground. Once Decoy had finished explaining, she nodded, still looking rather serious, before she glanced in Alessa's direction. She was the team leader after all.

Evelyn figured that she would play second or third fiddle, so to speak, regardless of the plan or exact nature of the mission. Silently though, she hoped that she might get a chance to take a proper bite out of crime.

At the thought, unseen, her projection's shadow bristled.

Turning to regard Lillian, Evelyn felt the dangerous edge slipping, before finally she smiled a bit. Anyone who had been paying close attention would have noticed the shift, but Evelyn seemed almost entirely unaware.

Man, Lillian was pretty adorab—"Woah!" She took a step back and, instinctively, her projection's shimmering 'shadow' rose from the floor and seemed to wrap around her. It manifested into what appeared to be some kind of cement wall with spindly legs propping it up in front of Evelyn, before it vanished. Blushing a bit, Embarassed she'd allowed herself to be so startled by the incredibly lifelike T-Rex that Lillian's device had created, Evelyn swallowed hard and then laughed awkwardly.

Maybe she was strung a bit too tightly....

"Eheh, sorry, um. That startled me." she said before shifting her attention to Ira as she explained her new invention. Smiling wider, eyes almost sparkling she held a hand out to Ira. "Can I see it?" She was pretty pleased and given that the two had spent quite a few sessions for her to explain her power to Ira the friendliness made sense.

"I can take it on a test run this mission and give you back a report as to its effectiveness!" Clearing a throat—whether given the bracelet or not, in which case she would don it if handed to her—she glanced at Alessa before speaking up.

"With this device I should be able to scout even better than normal too. So I can give a general building layout as well as the amount of guards maybe. Though...Tiger Lily, you can probably tell how many people there are using your strong nose. That'd probably be more efficient actually."

She glanced at Alessa again, "How do you think we should handle it Alessa?"

---

---

This time he had come prepared. He didn't ask for a weapon when they were already on site, no he already had a handgun, rubber bullets loaded, and one or two sets of rounds at his belt.
Beyond that he had two 2.5 foot long wooden rods at either side of his waist. He was certainly armed much better than before and while he wasn't a martial artist, his voice and commands could make anyone hesitate for just long enough for him to get a small advantage. Plus, the fact that he could use it repeatedly, the effect compounding, meant that each time he used it, the effect would be stronger than the last. Each time he commanded someone to hesitate, stand down, or anything else, they would consider it for a bit longer, which would give him time for a strike or a shot.

It was something he'd thought on after dealing with Noble briefly during their first mission. He hadn't thought to use his power that way, but he was going to start. Though, admittedly, he wasn't sure if he'd get a chance this mission and he also wasn't sure it would be good if he did. After all, his power took time to be properly useful and he didn't really have much at all in the way of combat training, so it might be better to wait till he had time to invest in lessons.

These things aside, he tapped a code into his tranceiver, and swiftly got several responses, making him smile. The getaway cars were in position, along with the armed civilians should they need back up or a distraction.

Keeping his eyes on the door, he let the others figure out their entrance. He really couldn't believe how low the security was here. Honestly, it seemed...well, too good to be true. As a result, he was a bit tense, for he was just waiting for something to go wrong.

---

---

Raising an eyebrow slightly, then shrugging as the woman departed, Jake's eyes drifted over to the suit clad man, before shifting back to the woman briefly before his attention was laid properly on the man with the suit. He had to admit, that potential client was pretty smokin', though it didn't mean much in the long run. It wasn't as if he could hold down a proper relationship what with the difficulties his power caused him....

Casting that out of mind just as swiftly as it had entered, Jake listened as the man, a Gabriel apparently, spoke up.

'No last name,' he thought, his expression remaining largely blank, unreadable, just like about ninety percent of his body language. Of course, if one did read into his body language and expression they'd just think he was relaxed all the time, or perhaps that he didn't care.

This, as well as the 'distance' between him and his emotions meant that any charm that Gabriel had, was largely lost on him. He understood that other people would react to it, but he just didn't feel the charisma.

His request seemed a bit, over the top? It was a pretty major job. It had him a bit skeptical to begin with, especially considering how thick the guy was laying on the charm. Then he set down the suitcase and revealed the money.

Jake took a step forwards, expression unchanged, and reached out for the money. Halfway through the action he stopped and met this Gabriel's eyes. “Might I take a look,” he asked, sounding only the slightest bit curious. It was so slight in fact that he almost sounded, and looked, uninterested.

This also meant that he didn't seem suspicious in the least, even though he was. This was a lot of money to be offering, and apparently it was just the tip of the iceberg. Weird how both the jobs today seemed...suspicious.

He wondered if someone was trying to scam or frame them somehow.

Aside from the PRT, did they even have competitors that might do that? Maybe enemies? Villains?

It was hard to say, but nonetheless...he didn't like this. He didn't like accepting payment without being able to do a background check or something on their 'clients'. It bothered him like few things could.

He liked being in the know.

Heartless smirked under his mask and shrugged. "I said or something. Obviously you have an "or something" in mind." He said as Headhunter transformed his weapon into a P90 with an equipped suppressor. 'Heartless, take out the man on the right. I'll deal with the one on the left. Tie them both up quickly once that's done.' Heartless gave a thumbs up and sunk into the ground, a shadowy pool forming as he disappeared. The pool then began to move, darting from shadow to shadow while avoiding the guards gaze.

Heartless slinked into the shadow of the guard on the right, crawling up the wall slightly so he wouldn't have to emerge from the ground. He waited for just the right moment when the guard leaned just a little bit backwards, Heartless emerged from the torso up with a taser in hand. All it took was two seconds, the taser flicked on with a buzz and dug into the guard's neck. He collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes, now it was all up to Headhunter.

---

Jason listened to Heartless, Sophia, and Headhunter and watched as the plan was constructed.

"Guess we should get ready," Jason whispered to Sophia, sliding out the open window of their vehicle.

He'd move in synch with Heartless, approaching closer to the side of the building from further out. He'd be much slower, but would hopefully be in position to help tie up the two guards and begin helping the others get inside.

He'd have to suggest trying to go from above. He could lift everyone up higher if there was a way in that way. It seemed like the better option, in his mind.

At the sight of the taser going off, Jason moved forward quickly, peeking around the corner of the building for any roaming patrols they hadn't seen.

Assuming everything went well up front he'd move in to help remove the bodies. He'd be able to carry them off easy enough.

If it didn't go well, he'd hopefully be in a position to get the jump on anyone else. Single opponent could be silenced, but more and he'd have to try and knock them out with a surprise attack to keep things from going too loud and alerting every guard in the area.

Nifty... pressing each of the buttons in order, she was treated to various three-dimensional images of herself, in costume and with her face obscured by glaring light - first the basic pose as described by Decoy, then pointing a finger out in one direction as she seemed to steady herself (though closer inspection suggested it was actually a walk forward she'd been engaging in), and finally with her hands splayed, fingers seeming ready to send out beams of light on a dime. Like a badass, if she had to describe it.

But that wasn't the point. It was meant to distract a foe so that you could make an escape, or sneak up on them. Speaking of which, Lillian - and her dinosaur hologram, no less, good Lord that was scary to see even knowing it was a hologram, something Evelyn clearly agreed upon judging by her suddenly manifesting her projection as a sort of spidery wall for a moment - had just made a number of suggestions on how she could contribute, including the option for her to sneak into the building... yes, maybe... but was she the best option? She wasn't sure. She'd need to consider her teammate's powers a bit... have a plan, consider what she was going to say next at the same time…

As she thought about it, the conversation continued without her. Ira suggested that she could help Lillian scout with her goggles, and furthermore that she’d come up with a way of improving Evelyn’s power, letting her transport to Ira’s location immediately, and perhaps improving the range the projection could stretch over to boot. That was right, it could detect people, couldn’t it? Yes, that might be useful… Lyn certainly seemed happy with the device, suggesting that she too could act as a scout in her own right. Alright, yeah, that would definitely be handy.

'Those are all great suggestions, guys,' Alessa agreed with a smile. 'Especially you, Ira; good job on the new tech. Maybe it’d give Lyn a good escape option if she gets caught out, too. As far as scouting the place out before heading inside goes- and I can't imagine why we wouldn't want that- all of those options could be useful. Full coverage, or something along those lines? Maybe if it's locked from the inside, you could sneak in and unlock it from the inside for us, Lily?’ She glanced over to the dinosaur-esque shapeshifter with a grin, and then put a bit of humour in her tone: ‘I wouldn’t necessarily suggest transforming unless you’re seen, but if you have to, right?

‘That said,' she continued, stroking her chin in thought and glancing to the most elaborate member of the group, 'if it's an external lock, Elliot could also transform it into a toy and remove it, or indeed just transform any doors themselves if that’s an option. Not to mention... well, I assume we'll want to remove the contraband eventually, and I can't help but think turning as much of it as possible into toys would be superbly useful in that regard, in addition to anything else that might be important.

'Now, as far as scouting for Capes specifically goes, I believe Evelyn would have a handle on that. Lyn,' she asked, turning to Tulpa, 'do you think you’d be able to stretch the projection across an entire warehouse for a good period of time with Ira’s new upgrade?' If she could pull that off, it'd be incredible for figuring out enemy movements on a dime, never mind the power itself drawing from any other Parahumans in the area once it manifested physically.

And as for Ira… scouting was useful, but by no means the most deliberate use of her abilities. 'Ira, do you think you'd be able to hit the warehouse with a power-nulling field?' she proposed after a bit more pondering. 'Not immediately, of course, but if we happen to meet any villainous parahumans in there, it might be beneficial to put us all on more even footing, at least until we can hit them with personal-scale nullifiers.'

Yes, it was all coming together nicely. If everything went as planned, the raid ought to go down like clockwork, with or without other Capes there.

The Adventures Of Wisp Creep

The cheering died down and Patriarch addressed the crowd again. "I'm happy you were all here to see our family grow bigger. Do what you can to help our family keep growing, until eventually the entire city is one happy family. The Rockers-" There was a clear amount of distaste as Patriarch said the name of the only gang in the city that wasn't currently under his control. "-seem to have acquired a stranger, though we know very little about it. Keep your eyes open and be careful." Patriarch gazed at the crowd and it seemed as though his eyes, hidden beneath his mask, were staring everywhere at once. Then he stepped down and went back into his limousine along with his entourage of Parahumans and newly recruited family members. It seemed the event was over. The assembled crowd would talk and mill around for a bit before dispersing. When the crowd vanished the police officers around the perimeter would leave as well. What an exciting night...

Bladedancer

Everissa's breath was even and measured as she jogged. With no work today she was exercising to keep in shape, a necessity for being a hero of any sort. The shurikens in a pouch at her side bounced unevenly, but they were a comforting presences, for more than one reason. Though she wasn't actively 'hero-ing' right now she still couldn't bear to be without a blade of some kind, and being alone on her run meant she was always at risk for something happening to her, especially where she lived. Everissa turned down an alleyway and her footsteps came to a crawl as she heard arguing ahead.

A large angry looking man was standing outside a taxi glaring the driver who was holding a gun, not quite pointed at him. A black body-bag on the ground beside the taxi. They seemed to be arguing about the bag, which Everissa noted was moving slightly. Was there someone inside? Everissa opened her pouch, stuck a shuriken in the wooden door next to her and approached the men with a shuriken in her hand, not visible to the two men. The man outside started as he saw her and said angrily, "Just keep your trap shut and get out of here, or else the Community will come for you."

The taxi driver looked back at her before shaking his head and driving off. Everissa took a deep breath and spoke, "What's in the bag?" She was nervous, her fingers running loosely over the edges of the shuriken she held at her side.

The man snarled at her, "Get lost girly." He hefted the bag under one arm and began walking off. Everissa frowned and said more firmly.

"I said what's in the bag!" She took a few steps after him and stopped as he turned around and glared at her. He roughly dropped the bag and cracked his knuckles. He was at least a good foot taller than her and had muscles to match. In just about any kind of fight Everissa would lose normally. But she wasn't normal.

"Fuck I'm in a hurry but I could break some bones real fast." He said with a leer as he swaggered towards her. Everissa smiled and her hand flicked upward, sending the hidden shuriken towards the man's face. She'd never had any sort of practice throwing blades before, but ever since she'd triggered the skills came naturally so the weapon flew with frightening speed. Her target flinched backwards and raised his hand in defense, letting out a yelp of pain. "The fuck is this!" He said angrily and removed the blade tossing it to the ground before looking back at Everissa.

Or where she was anyway. In the moment his gaze had been shifting from the shuriken he'd tossed to the ground she had teleported to it, grabbing the weapon carefully and planning her next move. She didn't want to kill him, just knock him out or inflict enough damage to make him leave. So the next thing the thug felt was a sudden kick his ankle followed by a smashing force applied to opposite side of his head. The unexpected combination of events caused him to crash to the ground. Whether it was the blow to the head from behind or his violent collision to the ground her victim didn't get back up.

Everissa stood there for a moment, trembling from the adrenaline still rushing through her, waiting. After a good twenty seconds she turned around and quickly moved over to open the body bag to be met with a fist flying out. Still energized from her short fight, Everissa blinked backwards to the shuriken she'd planted earlier, also checking to make sure the baddie was still down. "Hey I'm here to help." She called out, surprised by the sudden attack. The blonde women in the bag shucked her entrapment away and crawled backwards to lean against the closest wall. In doing so Everissa observed she had a poorly bandaged wound on her left thigh. Everissa approached slowly and stopped around 5 feet away, sitting down and holding her palms up. "I'm just here to help, what's your name?" Everissa asked softly.

"A-Alice." came the shaky reply.

Everissa smiled and continued speaking, "I'm Everissa, I don't live very far from here and I have a first aid kit that I could use to fix up your leg. Or I can just give you some money and make sure you get back to wherever you live safely." Everissa stayed where she was and continued being very passive as Artemis seemed terrified of everything.

Alice swallowed nervously and her eyes darted all over the place before finally fixating on Everissa as she seemed to think it over. "P-please?"

Everissa stood up and offered Alice a hand up. Everissa cautiously wrapped an arm around Alice to support her and the two of them slowly made their way back to Everissa's apartment.

While even Elliot could agree that unpacking a new toy involved a certain degree of wonder and excitement, the time for such trivialities had come to a close. The advent of Decoy's real explanation galvanized the oft-alienated antihero to stow the hologram projector on his person and tent his fingers before his face. Suffused by a look of acute attentiveness, the Margrave absorbed every liquid ounce of information the Wards' mission control could excrete. He told of a rally the heroes' foes would be attending, and his the Margrave's mind span with images of boldly crashing the party, but in the end it turned out the junior justiculars' task would be to undertake a drug bust while the garrison was thinned. Already he could picture all the different things he might want to toyify and take with him on such a venture. ”This mission is suitable,” he concluded with a curt nod of his head and a cross of his arms in an X across his chest.

Contrary to his resolute demeanor, he jumped in sudden surprise at the fearsome dinosaur that seemingly sprang out of nowhere. No unfortunate and illogical phobia of prehistoric beasts plagued him, of course, but any kind of abrupt movement in his vicinity surely made being startled justifiable. Neither was he alone in his momentary terror; judging by her reaction, Evelyn felt just as taken aback as he. He delivered to the group's newest and flightiest member an admonishing glance. Rather than notice him, the girl proceeded instead to just bubble about her capabilities, her enthusiasm such that her entire body jittered like a puppy's. The sight of it made Elliot cringe, and he deigned to look away. Any serious planning, his face said, would have to be done independently of Lillian. Next to speak was Ira, but she had nothing to say that concerned the exemplary yet woefully undercut talents of the Margrave. She and Tulpa reoriented their focus on the young tinker's new gizmo, and while the latter made an effort to draw herself back into the big picture, she made it clear that the amplifier had very nearly monopolized her focus. It fell, then, to Alessa to get everyone in line.

The Wards' leader took all that the others spitballed and put it together in a passable fashion, even being so courteous as to remember her team's resident chosen one. When mentioned, Elliot turned himself so as to be side-facing and looked at the others from the corner of his eyes. ”How right you are. The applications of my unassuming yet indefatigable power are infinitesimal.” He scrunched up his eyebrows, reading back what he'd just said in his mind. ”I mean...just 'infinite'. Though to say it's 'just' anything is, naturally, an understatement borne of boundless modesty!”

With that out of the way, he returned to pondering what items he might need to procure for this mission. Gun, bricks, more caltrops, gas grenades...car? Couldn't hurt.

---

… If his power was enough to make the whole city his family, then… then he had to be dealt with. And then he…

Oh. They knew of her. She didn’t even bother trying to think of how they knew that, she wouldn’t find an answer. It was with a cold shiver that she realized… there was only the Community and the Rockers left, huh? … And there was no way the Rockers would win, was there? Creep kept herself silent, merely frowning under her blindfold. As far as she could tell, they hadn’t seen her. But, they were wary of her. She didn’t want to give them any opportunity to collect her.

Creep turned and walked. Silent, as usual, keeping herself from walking into people, but simply walked away. Her ability to see around her scouted for even the slightest indication that someone was following her, and probably resulted in several false positives that she then made sure to lose. With the assumption that she’d not be followed or tracked down, she’d then take a very long, very convoluted detour to hopefully get people to stop following her, JUST IN CASE someone was able to track her from the rally.

… But then she’d head to meet Shatterpoint again. Either at the base or if she had someplace where it was determined that they’d meet. She had something… she wanted to talk to him about, besides the whole reporting what she had seen thing.

@Eklispe

---

"So that's it then? Attach the device and activate the tracking?"

"You got it," the salesman behind the counter replied with a smile, leaning forward on the glass top with his arms. Genevieve looked over at the small piece of equipment before she nodded.

"I'll take it."

"Great!"

The salesman, whose name was Jim according to his tag, proceeded to ring up the tracking device before placing it in a bag. "That'll be 54.99."

Genevieve gave the man a certain look as she fetched her card from within her wallet. The item was slightly overpriced given that apparently, the technology had been out for some time, but she didn't complain. She had the money for it and being able to carry out her revenge at whatever cost was definitely worth it.

"Pleasure doing business!" Jim said, handing back her card alongside the receipt. Genevieve smiled at him before walking out of the small store. She was about to head home and so some more work.

The female twin was sitting on Judah's guest bed, bored from sitting and waiting around all damn day. She wanted to start something, go somewhere, do anything to get back at the Community. They trashed her life's work, dammit! That's just not something you do! Nevermind her clothes and everything else, this was personal now.

The Community would feel her wrath within time, at least, that's what the twins h-- vrrrrrrt. vrrrrrrt. vrrrrrrt.

Gaia grabbed her phone and answered it, listening to the voice on the other line speak. "Hello?"

"Ay yo mayn, it's Chilly Willy! I got yo' number from some clown mayn, and I need to ask you of a favor, mayn!" Dammit Retcon. Really just gonna drop off her number to this weirdo? Ugh, whatever. It was something to do.

The two talked on the phone for a few minutes, hashing out the details of the job while Gaia wrote it all down. She occasionally wrote down the word 'mayn' only because he spoke it a lot and it occasionally seemed like it was needed. It really wasn't, though. "... and that's it mayn! Think y'can do it and be my mayn?!" Chilly asked, his dialect clearly coming out over the phone.

"Yeah, I think we can do it. You'll hopefully know when it's done."

"A'ight mayn! See ya' around!" Click.

Gaia walked downstairs and looked around for Judah, her notebook open with the details of the job she was told about. "Did his accent annoy you? Because it annoyed me definitely." "Oh hush you. You had an accent when we were with mom and dad." "Don't talk about that."

Decoy silently observed his Wards as they discussed the nature of the mission, as well as potential scouting and entry methods. The hologram couldn't show the pride that the real Decoy felt over the situation. Even Elliott was playing nice for the moment, if in his own self aggrandizing way. Once there had been a small lull in the conversation, Decoy decided to jump in once more. "You will have several hours to work on the fine details, Wards. It's only 4:52 and that rally isn't until later this night. Might I recommend getting in some practice with your new gear?"

Decoy gestured towards the holographic projection disks the Wards each now held in their hands. "Practice throwing and sliding them, to get an idea of how you can disperse them in the field best. Study the different settings so that you can optimize them in a given situation. In due time, the mission will become your priority. For the moment, preparation is key, yes? I imagine that you, Margrave, will want to prepare your own equipment. And of course since this will be an official mission, instead of you all running off unprepared like last time, a squad of PRT troopers will be accompanying you. Messiah, the squad is ostensibly under your command, but their captain has the right to usurp control at any time he feels your judgment is compromised."

The hologram waves its hand, allowing a new projection to fill the room. This one was of an armored assault vehicle, along with four soldiers. The Wards would recognize these men and women if they had a keen eye around headquarters. "The schematics to the warehouse as we understand it have been uploaded to your holo-communication modules. If you have any further questions, please ask me now. Otherwise, you had some time to kill."

---

---

Blam! Zzzorp! The gunshot and the taser went off simultaneously, incapacitating both front door guards without any troubles. The man Headhunter shot fell over bleeding and unconscious, but he wouldn't suffer any permanent damage. Headhunter's power made certain of that. Meanwhile the one getting tazed by Heartless convulsed and struggled for a couple seconds, but also lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Their guns tumbled off to the side, unattended. It wouldn't have taken Heartless and Thunderbolt more than a minute to tie them up well. There were even all these abandoned train cars and storage containers to hide the men. Really, the whole thing was terribly convenient.

It seemed that within only a moment, all outside guard forces had been dealt with. Were there any more inside? Possibly, but there wasn't any way to know that until they got in. That should be fairly easy enough to do. They were right in front of the front door, after all! Of course if they fancied a more subtle approach, the Jacks could take the roof and enter through the skylights, dark and dramatic like Batman. Or they could circle round the back where the trains would have connected to the platform to load passengers and cargo. Really it was up to them.

---

---

"I think that we should definitely take up her offer," G4M3R announced to his team. "After all, what kind of heroes can ignore a cry for help? But I digress, we have a new potential client. Mr. Gabriel..." The Minutemen's leader gave pause, noting how odd it was that this man hadn't provided a last name. "We've certainly encountered the Rockers before. You could say that we're the reason they're on the run and it's what made our name, haha!" Yeah, he was definitely proud of that accomplishment, even if it was a bit exaggerated.

"I would love to target them, especially since we... Have unfinished business." Ah, now he was referring to how they'd failed to locate Wisp. It was clear this particular difficulty did not rest well in his mind. "In any case, the whole city is full of villains and criminal activity, and we have to take it out where we can find it. Why do you want us to focus on a relative group of nobodies so badly?"

The guard collapsed to the ground hard, he was definitely gonna be feeling that in the morning. Heartless chuckled lightly, tying the guy up quickly and efficiently. "Toss em into the train cars and make sure they're nice and secure. It would be really embarrassing if they ran in and started shooting at us in the middle of the heist." He said to Thunderbolt as he gagged his victim to make sure they wouldn't scream. As he got up and brushed off his pants of any dust he gave a thumbs up to Headhunter and everyone else, motioning for them to come to the front door. When they got there he would start talking.

"Alright, I'm gonna go scout up top real quick. When I get back we can talk entry." With that being said he sunk into the wall of the warehouse, crawling up to the roof to peek through the skylights. He tried his best to make sure he wasn't illuminated by the moon and looked through the window, showing as little of his head as possible.

---

Lillian jumped up at the end of Decoy's talk, moving towards the door before stopping with her hand on the knob.

"Oh. Sorry. I got ahead of myself. I was going to just head straight to training before we even decided we were done talking here!" she mused aloud. But she didn't let go of the door, one would easily notice. Or... We can go now and talk tactics down there, right?" She asked towards Decoy and Alessa, excitement very easily seen across her face.

---

---

Jason quickly picked up the two guards, dragging then towards a train car nearby. Dropping them in, a little roughly, he shut the door. He wasn't sure if there was a hatch or another door he was missing, but he was working on the belief that this was the only easily accessible door.

Taking the handle, he applied his power to it and punched it as hard as he could. The metal bent, making the normal access to open the car useless.

Walking back to the others, he inspected his hands. He'd have some ugly bruising from the metal, but he was fairly certain nothing was broken.

Being last to arrive, given he'd taken it upon himself to take care of the bodies, he listened to Heartless before the man took off.

"There should be a back loading dock we can enter through, or this here door," Jason continued from where Heartless had left off."Your call. Also, S, I could toss you up onto the roof if you think you could ignore it and drop in on them when we're ready. Bit of a surprise, eh? I wouldn't mind going through the front door myself. Maybe get them from several angles to finish this quickly. Seems like a good idea to me."

As Gaia descended the stairs, Axel looked up from a tennis ball he was playing with and almost grinned. He immediately bounded over to her and attempted to lick her face. Out of the two new visiters Axel had met, the one with the long hair seemed to enjoy his company more. The other was more reserved and didn't pet him nearly enough.

From the basement, though the door was closed, repeated dull thuds and the jingle of a chain could be heard. Passionate emotions eminated toward the top of the stairs. Anger, pain and rage. Though it had been a few days since their run in with The Community, Judah was still dealing with Troll's powers. She had pulled out the baggage Judah had tried so hard to bury and avoid. He was not very good with dealing with it and his only avenue of release was through physical activity. Notibly, beating the tar out of his punching bag. Axel wisely avoided Judah when he got like this.

A few minutes went by. Then there was a pause in the noise. The air started to feel more calm. Gaia would hear footsteps as Judah ascended the stairs to the main floor. The door opened revealing Judah drenched in sweat with his workout clothes. The Nike logo could be seen on most of his outfit, including his gloves. He nodded toward Gaia as Axel gave a friendly bark, Judah smiled and made his way over to the garage to store his gloves. When he returned he opened up the fridge and took out two snapples. Mango and strawberry. "Take your pick," he offered to Gaia.

---

---

Gabriel smiled at Gamer and replied, "They have done myself and my associates an incredible disservice. We would not come to you if we did not believe you and your elite team were up to the task." At his mention of the team being "elite", Damien couldn't contain himself and burst out laughing in their mind, "HAHAHAHAHA!! GOOD ONE GABE!."

He smiled broadly revealing rows of the whitest teeth you'd ever seen, "If you do this for us, you will be handsomely rewarded. Even more then what I'm offering now. I promise." Even though it almost seemed impossible, Gabriel's grin grew even wider. Then Outsider asked to take a look at the money with a mildly interested expression. Gabriel replied, "By all means." He said bowing slightly.

Outsider would find the money to be the real deal. Nothing was off about it.

The Adventures Of Wisp Creep

Creep would have the night to brood over what she'd discovered peacefully enough, although whether that was a result of her paranoia or merely the original result was impossible to say. Regardless of what she did to pass the time in the morning Shatterpoint would be at the same place early in the morning, a few Rockers were in the area making sure no one else showed up to disrupt it. Though they weren't aware of exactly what they were doing there, they also didn't care too much as long as they had a job to do.





Sofia gave a little fist-pump in a way that seemed to say go team as well going a quite _"woo." when the two baddies fell and were subsequently incarcerated in one of the train cars. Sofia shrugged upon hearing Thunderbird's suggestion, "I don't think I can run around by myself very well. I'm probably better off keeping hanging onto someone. You could give me a piggyback ride and I could keep you safe from everything!" Sofia said cheerily and she raised her arms and stretched her fingers as if she was trying to grab onto his shoulders. It was unclear if she was joking, but it might be a good idea regardless. Certainly Thunderbird seemed to think so as he came over and indeed let her got on his shoulders, much to her delight. Sofia did another fist-pump as though leading an imaginary army, "Onward, you can ignore everything! Or anything you tell me to anyway."

"Hey buddy!" Gaia began petting on the dog that bounded over to her as she bent over, hugging the pup and scratching his back. Axel was there for her through this, and even though Dunn didn't show it, he still appreciated the company. It was clear to the two that this was a very good boy. Probably one of the goodest boys Gaia had ever met.

The twin looked up at Judah when he entered the room, watching as he left for a second and returned, offering a snapple to Gaia. "No thanks. I think I'll be okay," Gaia said as she walked over to the counter, placing down the notebook she had and sliding it over to Judah. "I did get this, though."

Basically, mayn, there's this whole warehouse operation owned by a small rival gang to me known as "the Highlanders", whatever that's supposed to mean. They've got a stack of money and merch, if you catch my drift, mayn, and they're holed up in a shipping warehouse on the western outskirts of Denver. A mayn with a nasal problem told one of my boys that the operation has a small bit of intel about that one gang, the Communion I think, and how they were looking to purchase some of the merch, mayn. I can get you a floor plan if you're in needs of it, mayn, but I trust that the team that busted my job would be able to break the one of a rival gang.

"I think they might've gotten something on the Community, not the Communion, but whether it's useful or not won't be figured out unless we make a choice."

---

Kyoshi remained silent. She had nothing to add to this conversation between her leader and this... Gabriel guy. The rocks around her simply began to rotate around her, avoiding contact with objects as they orbited at a more fluent pace, on a fixed axis, on a fixed path. The teen did, however, look a wall a short distance away. Yeahhh... that was a bit of a mess with the crater in it and such...

Judah shrugged when Gaia declined his offer. He set one on the counter next to Gaia and popped open his mango Snapple. He began reading the notebook as he leaned on the counter taking a sip of his delicious beverage. He glanced at the "real fact" on the lid of his drink as he read aloud, "Mosquitoes are attracted to people who just ate bananas.." He smirked, "I wonder who gets paid to pick these." Then he turned back to the notebook.

When he was finished he turned to Gaia to reply, "It couldn't hurt to check out. Taking off work and being cooped up inside has made Axel and I stir crazy. Isn't that right, boy?" As Judah spoke, Axel jumped with excitement. He ran over to him and pressed his face against Judah's hands as his master scratched him affectionately. He looked back at Gaia saying, "We should contact Zach to meet us at this warehouse."

"Tell him the contact stuff, if you would please. I'm gonna get back in contact with my guy." Gaia asked as she left the kitchen, heading back to her room as she called Chilly Willy back.

"Mayn, do you call back fast."

"Can you still get us that floor plan."

"It's under a red barrel, mayn. Southern side of the buildin'."

"Nice. Check the news later." Click.

Gaia began to prepare her bag, grabbing Carlotta and her typical assortment of stuff, including a flashlight, dental floss, fake gun, a singular flashbang grenade (nabbed from the Community), and a set of brass knuckles (also nabbed from the Community). How useful these items would be, she had no idea, but each one had their uses, that was for sure. The twin put on a generic black hoodie and began to walk out of her room when she heard her brother chime into her head.

"Think we can actually trust Judah, after what that Troll said?" "Yes. Especially since he doesn't mind our presence." "He probably doesn't mind it because you show off your body all the damn time." "Buzzkill." "Don't forget your mask, eye candy." Gaia grabbed her mask as she left her room, speaking back to Dunn while she stepped back out. "Thanks for the reminder, buzzkill."

Judah texted Zach the basic information Gaia had given him. He ended with Meet us at **** a few blocks away from the warehouse ASAP

Then Judah went to his room to change. He donned his uniform from his feet all the way to his shoulders. He took his submachinegun out of the wall safe attaching his silencer. He grabbed a couple of magazines, tear gas canisters and a single flashbang grenade while holstering his sidearm with his free hand. Then Judah slung the MP5 over his shoulder and carried his helmet under his arm. He was ready for this. Anything that could give them a tactical advantage over The Community was worth the risk in Judah's mind. Potential weapons, ammo and cash was just what they needed. His combat boots thudded against the wooden flooring as he made his way back into the kitchen. Seeing Gaia, he asked, "Are we all set?"

If Gaia gave an affirmative Judah would call to Axel, "Come." His loyal companion immediately obeyed, following Judah into the Garage where his mustang was parked. He stored his MP5 in the trunk inside a case as well as his helmet. Then he got into the driver's side as Axel took his spot in the back seat.

Once Gaia climbed in Judah would turn to her and comment, "I hope this contact of yours is reliable. Otherwise, we could just be beating up a bunch of warehouse workers." Judah grimaced at the thought. One time was one too many. They didn't need to revisit that blunder again..

Then he pressed the garage opener and headed out towards their destination under the cover of night. Ever aware of their surroundings Judah decided it would be best to focus on their mission rather then getting sidetracked by the hundreds of potential problems they could help with. It became overwhelming sometimes to an empath. So Judah cut off his power for a little while. "Ah..sweet release," he thought to himself.

After some time, Judah parked at the destination that he had given to Zach. Not but a few blocks from the warehouse in a kind of strip mall looking area. It was lit by various light poles and the many shops that lined the strip. A few of the more shady ones remained open.

While sensing the area with his ability he asked Gaia, "You think Zach will find a ride? I don't even know if he has his license yet...Hahahahahahaha!" Judah laughed for about ten seconds until he finally brought his head to rest on the top of the steering wheel. This was the life. His own team fighting crime to make the city of Denver a better place. They didn't need badges, fancy titles or even public recognition. No. The knowledge that Denver was a little safer, a little more prosperous was all the reward Judah wanted. Not being ordered around was the icing on the cake.