BantlingBee

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

I'm still here, sorry. The cold turned into a pretty severe sinus infection, so I haven't had a whole lot of energy lately. Also the meds make me tired and only semi-literate.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

Also, @BantlingBee, you still with us?

@Mr Allen J

I'm here. I've been exhausted lately due to writing my master's thesis, starting a new job, and a rather nasty cold. But I'm still here! I'll hopefully be able to get something up either tomorrow or the next day.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

On Christmas Eve, Jan would probably be hiding in the kitchen at some one of her father's relative's houses, trying to avoid the prying questions of "So, how's your love life?" or "What exactly is it that you do for a living." She has become adept at excusing herself from these kinds of conversations, but has found that refusing to engage is even better than attempting to disengage.

The kitchen is great, because there are both animals and food. However, at about 4pm, her dad's brother finds her and starts trying to talk politics with her. He's anti-vax for religious reasons, and also an annoyingly close talker with oppressive halitosis. Jan excuses herself once again, finally finding her mother who hands her a very large glass of some kind of potent cocktail while sporting an expression that reads, "You need this more than I do." Jan drinks it quickly enough to cause her other relatives to murmur about her 'drinking problem' for the next year or so, and then finally joins her extended family around the dinner table.

Christmas Day is a lot more pleasant, as it's just her immediate family. They have a small dinner and open presents. It is otherwise uneventful.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around. I'll be hopefully contributing in next day and a half, Monday at the latest. I just stared a new job, plus with the holidays and finals, it's been a bit crazy for me. But I'm here, and I'm still committed.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

@Mr Allen JSounds like fun!

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

---

Sonya Mayfield, & Jan Sawyer.

---

Just as Dana's information stated, they found themselves in the Iron District, stalking a certain target.

Sonya perched herself on one of the rooftops, and pulled out some binoculars (She swiped them from Henry while he wasn't looking), looking down at the street below. An Asian man with hair cut very short, not particularly tall, but Sonya could see the bulk he built from up here. She almost whistled. He was wearing a black sweater, and some jeans, as he walked down the rainy streets holding an umbrella. The other arm was holding some groceries he got from the local corner store. Sonya caught his face on the binoculars, and scanned it. She looked it up on the databases, and the name Chul Jun came up.... As one of the known REAPERS they got off their databases. Poor bastard.

Sonya pressed her earpiece. "How's it looking from down here? He's our REAPER." Sonya said to Jan. "Bastard went to get some groceries like it's nothing. It should be easy work for a rookie like you. Just go arrest him. Don't worry, I got your back. It's a sniper's job."

Jan nodded from her seat in the NEST car, though she didn't quite know why--it wasn't like Sonya could hear that. "Roger." she said, swiftly parking the vehicle on the side of the street. Their target was in sight, but he seemed relatively oblivious to her presence. Just getting groceries in the middle of the day? Jan had to suppress her natural suspicion and her curiosity as she grabbed her sidearm.

She pointed the glock at the man. "NEST agents," she said, in a voice slightly louder than intended. "Put your hands above your head and freeze...or I'll shoot." She had cover from behind the door of her vehicle, in case he had a weapon. She trusted Sonya, of course, but having an additional barrier between her and a potentially dangerous criminal, especially one that looked like he could snap her like a twig, was never a bad idea.

The man stopped, and peeked over his shoulder at her.

"Make sure that he drops the bag - not put it down - drop it." Sonya warned as her eyes narrowed. "I got a bad feeling about that bag."

"Drop the bag," Jan commanded to the man.

The man didn't move. He looked at Jan for a moment from over his shoulder. Tightening his grip around the bag subtly, like he was trying to reach around.

"You deaf or something? Drop the bag and put your hands up!"

The man dropped the bag, but quickly pulled a glowing green syringe out of his sleeve, poised to jam it in his wrist.

"He's got Mutagen!" Sonya warned. She quickly pulled the trigger, and a taser dart came out of her sniper. It hit him right in the neck, and before he could shoot himself up with it, he started convulsing. He dropped the glowing syringe as he stumbled backwards.

Jan moved forward, kicking the syringe away as she struggled to restrain the man.

While he was regaining himself, the REAPER started struggling, lashing out against her with his fists in some attempt to get free.

This presented a problem for Sonya since she couldn't fire another dart with Jan struggling. That'd be a rookie mistake. Instead, she swung the sniper over her shoulder, and grabbed her sidearm. She jumped down, and put her fingers on her earpiece in mid-air, "Just taze him!" Sonya said. Tasing him was the best way to handle this situation.

Jan followed the advice, and pulled out her taser. She had been attempting to handcuff the target, but the force of his convulsions was enough to knock her slightly off balance. She engaged the device, and the wires shot from the device, hitting the man squarely in the back. He convulsed again, and Jan finally managed to pull out a pair of handcuffs. She trembled slightly as she put them around his wrists, maintaining a positioning of her knee on his back. "Is the area clear?" she asked into her headpiece as she struggled to bring the man to his feet.

"Excellent! You did well, honey." Sonya assured, she quickly did a scan of the area around her, before she jumped across the street. "Area's clear... well, pretty clear." There weren't too many people out. They were probably scared of all the attacks, and the rain. She stepped over to Jan and the captured REAPER. "Just get him in the car, I'll have a look at his things." The first thing she looked at was the bag full of groceries... he was a tad bit hesitant to drop it - which meant there's something in there that he doesn't want NEST finding. Of course, if he didn't want NEST finding it, then he was better off leaving it at home.

Jan nodded, still feeling slightly dizzy. Getting used to this would take time. The man, however, seemed more compliant as she led him into the backseat of the car. She locked the vehicle and stood outside, simultaneously surveying the scene and keeping an eye on the REAPER.

The bag of groceries contained some rather... random things. Some meats, some vegatables, but it seemed like he was stuffing food into a bag rather than buying stuff he needed. She opened the bag a little bit, and went through it's contents... where she found a small black case. She raised her blonde eyebrows as she grabbed it and opened it up. Surprisingly... there was only a few more syringes full of Mutagen inside. "... Why couldn't have it been a bomb or something?" She asked no one in particular. She put her fingers on the commpiece and said, "Coast is clear. Heading back to the car now." She put her pistol in it's holster and went back towards the car.

"Roger that.

Right when they made to the car, that reminded Sonya. "Grue, we captured the REAPER Chul Jun. He was trying to smuggle some mutagen... where, I don't know. Probably should have tailed him."

"It's fine. Every REAPER we arrest means there's one less member of the Hands to worry about." Dana said through the comms. "Bring him back to headquarters. Good work, RAVENS."

"Right back at ya'!" Sonya said as she slid into the passenger side seat of the car. There was a reason why Sonya couldn't own or drive a car. She was such a bad driver that they barred her from it. "Alright, head back-"

"Oh wait, I have something to report," Dana quickly said. "The leader of the Changeling Unit, Luis, or Bloodsucker, has been encountered."

"Oh?" Sonya said.

"He was... going after Trevor, before one of the Dreadnaughts stopped him from killing Trevor. Agent Olin was on the scene soon after and chased him off."

"Oh, that's not good." Sonya said, dead serious. "Do they know about what Tr- Panacea did during the raid?"

"Talking to Trevor, and it doesn't seem like it." Dana said. "He only went after Trevor because he saw him walking out of headquarters."

"I hope the lad is okay." Sonya said. "That means they're watching us."

"They really want Heartbreaker back." Dana said. "Alright, Grue out."

"What's going on at HQ?" Jan asked. She was both curious and trying to make conversation. Her heart was still racing slightly, and she thought something else might calm her down.

"Nothing that I can tell is going on at Headquarters, just a little incident with one of our... associates, yeah." Sonya answered, unsure of what to say really since the conversation with Dana over the comms summed it up pretty well.

"Oh..." Jan let the silence hang in the air. She wasn't sure exactly who this Trevor/Panacea person was, and she was curious. However, she was starting to get the feeling that she'd asked enough questions for now. She was comfortable with silence, but often felt obligated to keep talking since most people weren't. But, if Sonya had said her piece, then she also wanted to respect the other woman's privacy. "Didn't mean to pry or anything..." she said mildly, looking around the city streets as she drove back to Headquarters. It was odd how quiet everything was. The streets were all but desolate. She knew that the rain was driving them away. "Thanks for all your help." She finally said, smiling warmly at Sonya.

"Of course, of course!" Sonya said, returning the smile. "It's what Agents do - well, least not the Agents who are assholes - but we're wearing down those Hands of Science." She chuckled a bit. "Soon, we won't even need to worry about getting the Chairmen, because they'll have no worker bees soon enough!"

Jan laughed, "Well, I have a feeling they'll be plenty of work for us in the meantime." They had just arrived at Headquarters, and the rain had let up somewhat. Jan stopped the car. "So what do we do with this guy?"

"Just take 'em back to headquarters, and toss him in a cell. Same with do with most of the REAPERS we bag." Sonya said.

"Sounds good,"

_____________________

Jan lead the man to one of the many unoccupied cells as soon as they got inside. Her first REAPER. She smiled a bit to herself. Although the mission hadn't gone quite as smoothly as she might have hoped, she felt a little bit of pride at what she had accomplished. Now, there was just a seemingly endless stack of paperwork.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

NO U

Edit: Because I am a jerk and like to pretend that it's 2005 again...

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

@Spoopy ScaryHaha. Hey man, I was just working with what I had. Blame UrbanEvolution.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

@UrbanEvolution If you format it like this:

Is much like the feels,
collabs come and go in waves.
My chins quiver.

it's a haiku.

Verthaven: Days of Rain ☔ [COMPLETED]

---

Sonya Mayfield, & Jan Sawyer.

---

Whelp! While Maxi and Henry are working out their little difference, Sonya figured that she should, ah, find something else to do. She probably could have walked Trevor home, but the sonny-boy has everything under control. After all, he's been in this city longer than Sonya has. She was walking down the halls of the headquarters, and figured that she'd contact their little voice with a computer. Naturally, her fingers went to her earpiece, and she said, "Grue! What's going on in Verthaven that I can help with?"

"You can call me Dana." Dana answered.

"I like the name Grue more - but that isn't important." Sonya said.

Dana groaned before saying, "The rest of RAVEN is out on a mission at the moment...." She trailed off, looking through some files on her computer-screen. "Staking out some more members of the Hands of Science... Hey, by the way." She trailed off "There's a new member of RAVEN, January Sawyer. Just joined the Task Force now."

"Oh! Sounds delightful!" Sonya said. "Where is she? I'd like to have a word with her."

"She's with I&I, so she's in that part of the building." Dana started off. "Desk 263."

"Good, I'll be right there!" Sonya said.

"... Just take it easy on her. She's pretty new. To NEST I mean."

---

It was a short trip through the building to go from the firing range to the Intelligence and Information branch involving lots of elevators and climbing! Sonya managed to arrive there. Now, she needs to find Desk 263... She was at desk 219. God damn it. It took even more time for Sonya to find Jan's specific desk. However, the moment the amphibian arrived, she hopped right over to Jan's desk, and put her hands down on it (Getting a little bit of her mucus on it). She gave Jan a smile.

"Hello there! You January Sawyer!?" Sonya asked. "I hope so, because that means that the team's eyes were wrong. Anyways, I am Sonya Mayfield, darling. I came here to meet our newest RAVEN!"

Jan looked up from her desk at the strange sound of Sonya's hands plashing onto her desk. She jumped slightly, having previously been staring at the contents of the cardboard box of supplies she had brought from home. There was now a sticky residue on her desk, and she raised her eyebrows slightly at the mess.

"Yeah...Jan's fine," she finally replied, looking up at the woman and trying to offer a convincing smile.

"Jan? Jan's great." Sonya started off, nodding her head. "Well, welcome to the team. I bet that you're just about ready to fight those dastardly Hands! Have you met the rest of RAVEN? Leon? Henry? Max? Quentin?"

"Um no...I don't think so..." Jan trailed off, trying to keep her voice both audible and calm enough for Sonya to hear. "There was just a woman at HR that told me where to put my stuff." She shrugged, "actually, they haven't told me a whole lot about what's going on."

"You're one of those I&I chaps anyway. You probably looked at their files!" Sonya said, snickering a little bit. "Well, if you need a few pointers, I'm here for you. I'm a ten-year NEST Agent, and heavily experienced sniper - with over three-hundred confirmed kills - I can help ya' with just about anything."

Jan smiled in response, "Thanks. Ten years, huh? That's a long time. Where you military before this?" Sonya seemed nice, a bit overenthusiastic, but nice.

"Well," Sonya's eyes drifted over to the side for a moment. "No. I was with a gang a while back. Was young and stupid... Eh, heard of Mendel and that crisis?"

"A bit, nothing real specific though." Jan admitted.

"Well, I rolled with one of the gangs for a little bit with my wifey... before I got my ass kicked by agents and thrown into a cell. When I turned eighteen, they told me that they'd let me out if I agree to join them." Sonya said. "So, in short; no, I wasn't with military." Her tongue flopped out of her mouth for a moment.

Jan looked at Sonya, trying to determine if she'd offended her or not. She hadn't meant to bring up old wounds, but she figured that if the amphibian had been bothered, she wouldn't have said anything about her past. "Oh...sorry," Jan finally said, blushing slightly, "I didn't mean to pry or anything."

"Oh, what? No, no, no." Sonya shook her head with her eyes closed, before opening them with that same stupid grin on her face. "I'm glad that happened. I finally stopped being a little troublemaker and dedicated myself to improving society! And became a kickass agent while I was at it."

Jan chuckled a little bit. "Well it's good you see it that way." She paused for a moment, surveying Sonya. "So what are these other members of RAVEN like?" Jan had always found herself oddly comfortable around chatty, boisterous types, and Sonya seemed to fit that description at first impression.

"Gladly!" Sonya started off, and briefly thought about where to begin. She could start with Maria! Or Henry! Might as well start with good ol' Maxi. "Team leader, and defacto Director of this particular branch is Maximilian. He's a real hardened man, and one of the best and brightest of NEST. We wouldn't have won half our fights without him, or his Echo... Though, I think that we have been pushing him just a little." A little doesn't cover it.

"Adam, you definitely would have heard of him. He's an old man, but, he, in his hayday, was one of the best NEST Agents, and served as a mentor. Then there's Henry... when you see him, you'll know exactly who he is. Because he's this huuuuge-ass lizard person. Just like how I'm a frog girl!" She put her hands up, and showed off her long fingers with bulbous tips, and retracted the webbing in between her fingers for a moment. "He's my partner. A spotter - because, have you seen him shoot? You'll swear he's been aiming with parkinsons! Then there's my wife, Maria! Again you can't miss her. Well, if she's disguised you might, but when you see her true form, you'll probably be weirded out far worse than ever before. Because she's made of ink!"

Jan laughed.

"Then there's Leon... The All-Seer... We swear he's drunk half the time - we only keep him around because his power too useful to give away." Sonya stood straight up, and extended a finger. Standing valiantly. "That's the sacrifice we have to make! After all. Quentin, I haven't talked to him that much. Nice guy, he's kinda quiet and all that. Though, a competent member of RAVEN - unlike Leon. Helena, she's kind of a stick in the mud, but she's fast. She can basically teleport! And she keeps a cool head in the field. We also have Daphne Hope, a little bit of a weirdo. I like to call her our plant weirdo! She's a member of I&I, and helps us find threats with her plant powers so we don't get murdered. Though, she likes to give everyone goofy nicknames." She started laughing.

"Nikki, she's a nice little gal that got into NEST the same way that I have. Though, she has one of the scariest powers I've seen; bugs! Swarms of 'em! I hope she stays on our side. Then we have Savanah, she's a cat Metahuman like me and Henry. Haven't seen much of her, but she's quite charming. And last but not least, our eyes: the two mission controls over RAVEN. Dana Alcott, and Elias Winzer! Dana is like the nicest mission control ever, though I feel like we take her for granted sometimes... even though she's one of the strongest Agents. Eli, he's more of Henry's personal mission control, but damn he's good."

Sonya's tongue flopped out of her mouth again. "And that's all of 'em. We're like one big family! Any questions?"

"Um...no, not really," Jan said, her head spinning a bit from all the information. She was fairly confident that she would remember next to none of that information, but it was good to have some idea of who was who.

"Great, then!" Sonya said. "You should get familar with them! Lovely group of people, and they could save your life."

Jan nodded "That's certainly true, though I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending in the field. I mean, I'd like to, of course...but..." she trailled off. "I'm not sure how much help I'd be, especially since I don't know much about the current state of things."

"Oh coooooome on, you're I&I. You should know everything!" Sonya started laughing. Well, this is unexpected. They put her in RAVEN, and didn't even tell her a thing! They were probably going to make Max do it - but he's busy punching Henry, so Sonya will have to do. "Okay, do you at least know about the Hands or the Changelings?"

"I know a little bit about the Hands. As far as the Changelings...they're either kidnapping infants or have a poor understanding of literary allusions, if I'm not mistaken."

"Alright, lemme start from the top." Sonya took in a deep breath. "Hands of Science were uncovered experimenting on people about a month ago, and our former director, Miranda Caryl, was making deals on the side with both those assholes. Which is a change from the sex scandals that those horny bastards get into - but that's neither here nor there, really. Fast forward a few weeks, and we get our hands - hehe - on a Changeling, Mark Emerson, after he took the baby of the esteemed leader of I&I Lihua. Thanks to him, we get information on the Changelings in Verthaven, and launch an attack on them. We took out the mooks, but once we got to the leaders, the Hands just dropped a superweapon on us. It literally came out of nowhere. Fortunately, we managed to capture it while the leaders of the Unit disappeared." Sonya explained. "That's when we formed RAVEN - Oh, I feel like one of those wikipedia articles now!"

Jan laughed, "Well, that's probably an accurate assessment. Thanks for filling me in. I hope I didn't take you away from any important work."

"But there's more!" Sonya explained. "And don't worry. If I was doing anything important... I'd be doing it - well, always ready to help another Agent."

"Oh?

"Now, as I was saying, we formed RAVEN, and we followed the worker bees all the way to their Headquarters. Which we raided the following night after employing a little chemical warfare and hacking. It was a bit of a pain in the ass, and Max and Henry got their asses kicked, but we managed to take out a major Hands operation and captured hundreds of scientists and REAPERS, and liberated many, many, more people. Along with bagging those Changelings that got away. Finally helping our shitty reputation a bit. Oh yeah, and we knocked over a few smaller labs, but that isn't important.." Sonya explained. "And here we are, chasing after the top brass of the Hands. So far we have absolutely no god damn clue where the hell they went! They might be in Nigeria by now." Sonya started laughing.

"And that's that."

Jan furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, "So what's with that man on the news? The one who claims to be a member of a mercenary group? Do you know anything about that?"

"Oh, them?" Sonya raised an eyebrow, and that cheery smile turned flat. "To level with ya', I don't quite know myself. They were hired by high-comannd during the whole Fiends shitstorm, and they helped out a bit before they told us they vanished. Eh, I don't know why they hired them, instead of calling in people like me. I don't trust mercenary types to begin with - because they got no conviction, no honour. Only in it for the money. You catch my drift?"

"Oh absolutely. I didn't exactly get good vibes from whomever they were interviewing, and he certainly didn't seem to think highly of NEST."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. RAVEN will get results, and bring an end to those bastards at the Hands." Sonya shrugged. "Push comes to shove, and Maxi gives the order, I'll put one between the bugger's eyes before he ever figures out what's going on." Sonya shrugged again. Well, she hoped it didn't come down to a fight, but she doesn't exactly trust the Dreads not one bit. Something didn't add up to the whole "hiring mercenaries" thing, so she was going to be on guard. But that's, again, neither here nor there. "Now, speaking of getting results," Sonya started off, facing Jan and giving her a smile. "... You need some experience, obviously - and I'm just the person to help you!"

"H-help me? With what?" Jan said, uncertain, but trying not to be rude to Sonya.

"Get your feet wet, of course!" Sonya said. "Look, I like you, but all that training isn't going to do jacksquat if you never put it to good use. So, maybe we can go find a mission, for the two of us! There's lots of stuff going on in this mad, mad, city - so it shouldn't be a challenge."

"Well...alright," Jan conceeded, still a bit overwhelmed by the day's sudden turn of events. Sonya did have a point. "So where too?" She asked amicably, standing up.

"Good ask the Grue! Oh yeah, that's Dana, in case you didn't catch that." Sonya said, before she pressed her earpiece. "Dana! I'm with our rookie January, and I'm wondering if there's a job out there for us. Maybe the REAPERS are setting orphanages on fire? Or maybe the Changelings are stealing cand-"

"I have intel that there's REAPER activity in the Iron District." Dana started off. "A couple suspected REAPERS."

"Oh that's not good." Sonya said. "Think me and Jan can handle it?"

"Of course."

"Alright then, that settles it." Sonya turned back to Jan. "Found us a little job, just some REAPER knuckleheads up to no good, you ready?"

Jan laughed, "Sounds good." She didn't think she would have had much of a choice, even if she had said no. But this would be good for her. Right?