[quote][sub]
HERO Three
East Flank, Castleburg
Nearby: Backup [@Zoey Boey], Fallout [@Aku the Samurai], Wiseman [@Blizz]
[/sub][/quote]
[indent][indent]As Fallout and Wiseman swapped places, Magician also emerged from his hidey-hole office as well. [color=SlateBlue]”Wrapping up here?”[/color] he asked with a coy smirk, as he pulled a card- what appeared to be the Ten of Diamonds to the attentive, albeit with strange markings inscribed all over it- from his coat pocket, twirling it within his fingers like one of those fidget spinners. [color=SlateBlue]”Oh, joy. Well, take care of yourselves, heroes,”[/color] he said as the card flashed before exploding into smoke, smoke that promptly enveloped Magician. By the time it cleared, he had vanished into thin air, like Batman, if Batman were a lame card-wielding British code enforcement officer.

Dr. Reininger also emerged from her office, catching the tail end of Magician's little disappearing act. "You can take a seat there. I just need to run and use the rest-"

It was at that moment that the lights went out. 

The psychologist looked around nervously in the dark for a moment, wary of some type of attack, before sighing. "Well, I suppose it might be difficult to conduct an examination with no lights. Hopefully I can navigate my way out of here and back without them," she said disappointedly, walking over to the door. Yet as soon as the psychologist touched the handle that led out of the small waiting room area, her body jolted like it had been hit with a thousand volts of electricity, before she then crinkled on the floor in a ball.

The "electric door handle" had been one of ALISA's innovations, and served as a security measure and, more often, as a tool for pranking unsuspecting heroes. It obviously had not been enabled that door when the heroes came in, which meant that either ALISA was fully going rogue, or somebody else was calling the shots here.

That answer would come a moment later, as the TV- which prior to the lights going out, had been playing some mundane episode of [i]The Bachelor[/i] in the background- flickered back to life, the glow of the screen serving as the only illumination in the lobby, which due to the setting sun had very little natural light filtering in through the windows. The TV screen was now displaying what appeared to be somebody else's computer screen, which had a number of open tabs that were being pulled on and off the screen so quickly it was hard to keep track of. Somebody was showing their work here.

A voice came in through the TV speakers. It sounded like a female voice, perhaps, though it was under so many layers of voice modification that it was really hard to tell. [color=MediumPurple]"Apologies for the intrusion. I simply need to keep you contained in order to prevent you from interfering with my plans. And also from escaping the range of the signal blocker. Please remain seated."[/color] The person behind the screen chuckled. [color=MediumPurple]"Hey, but at least I got you out of therapy, right? That should count for something."[/color]

Indeed, it did seem as though the person speaking through the television was telling the truth, as Wiseman's signals were being interfered with. Somebody had set up some type of signal jamming device within the vicinity of HERO Three that was preventing the technology-based hero from communicating with anybody via technology. Whoever this somebody was clearly knew about Wiseman's interference in the other concurrently-running HERO operations, and was attempting to cut them off and buy time for whoever their allies were to attack without technological help. Whoever this person was, though, remained a mystery. Even if Wiseman had a way of using a signal-based device to try and trace the source of the intruder, he would've just found himself on the receiving end of an annoying number of computer viruses and pop-up ads for male enhancement pills.

The question remained, where was this device?

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While the roof of HERO One was equipped with a number of both security measures as well as landing and launching spots for numerous means of cross-city aerial transportation, the roof of HERO Three was mostly barren and hardly stuck out from the rest of the East Flank skyscape, barring a singular helipad that allowed for occasional aerial landings on the smaller HERO base. Generally, not many people landed on top of HERO Three, outside of the periodic flying hero that didn't even need the pad to begin with. This evening, though, the helipad [i]was[/i] occupied by a single helicopter that was all jet-black, barring for a red spider logo spray-painted on the side. Standing on the roof were four men, dressed in all black body armor, though each was wearing a distinctive red beret, mask, and armband with the same spider logo as on their method of transportation. The men were standing around a cylindrical device, about 4 feet in height, that had a little satellite dish of some sort perched on top. 

After a few moments of silence, one of the men spoke. "This is getting boring. Guard the little wi-fi router thingy. We got guys stationed all across the city and this is what we get assigned to do?"

One of the other men glared at him. "Pipe down, Rodriguez. This 'router thing' is important. It's a signal jammer. Keeps the heroes from communicating with the guy inside."

"Why don't we just shoot the guy inside?"

"The other half of our squad is going inside right now to shoot him. Do you pay attention to anything?"

"Well, why aren't we with them?"

The senior grunt hung his head. "To guard the motherfucking device. How stupid are you?"

"I'm just saying," the other grunt said disappointedly. "We should be helping them kill the hero. What's going to happen? A pigeon craps on the device? The wind blows it off the roof? A sneaky hero jumps over the edge like Spiderman? Come on." 

"Hey, you never know," the senior shot back. "Now, guns out. We got a job to do, and if you want to see this through, stay alert." [/indent][/indent]