The mercenary's confession went about as well as to be expected, the metahumans present very quickly began to buzz with commentary involving both the raid on a STRIKE base and a poisoning of Lost Haven. There was definitely talk among the group of arresting the mercenary on the spot, which was unsurprising. Actively confessing to attempted mass murder did not typically go over well with anyone, even more so to a group of goody-two shoes metahumans. What did surprise the merc was Iron Knight’s remark about the confession.
Trent’s eyebrow raised, his jaw dropped half-open with a small bit of shock from Iron Knight’s willingness to gloss over this criminal offense. All that talk before when recruiting him, and now Iron Knight was not going to do anything about War-Pulses’ violent actions? While he would not be the first one complaining that someone has his back, he certainly did not expect that STRIKE’s whipping boy would be the first one to come to his defense, albeit in a roundabout way.
Of course, not everyone was okay with just ignoring the threat that was War-Pulse and one was more than ready to speak her mind.
"WHAT?!" Boom practically screamed. "You want to talk about terrorists? There's one right in front of you. I knew you were a shitty hero but you can't possibly be this comfortable working with a man who tried to kill us all."
"Boom! Don't-" Harvey attempted to ebb Laura's rage. He soon found her talking over him, her anger all the more apparent. "How about you use your damn brain for a second, T. He poisoned the city's water supply. If that had worked, he'd have killed everyone we ever cared about. Brook, Eric, Mom and Dad? They'd all be dead. Six feet under along with millions of other people; men, women and children, all dead all so he could make a couple of bucks. Doesn't that sound wrong to you? Doesn't that go against your precious moral code, at least a little bit?" Laura turned on her heels and shoved an incriminating finger into Trent's face. "You are just as bad as the people we're going after. You tried to inact genocide on a bunch of civilians. And you have the nerve to come back to my city after what you tried to do? Fuck you."
Boom disappeared in a flash of blue light. "You've got to be kidding me." Thunderbolt moaned. He turned to the rest of the team and placed his hand on the back of his head. "She'll be back. I think."
When Boom got in his face with her outrage, he surprisingly did not fire back with his usual witty retorts. He did not threaten her, he did not snarl or beat his chest with the signature machismo and bravado he was known for, he barely even had a reaction at all. Instead, he let her vent, his face staying completely blank as she screamed at him for what he had done. He folded his arms, his face only responding to her accusations with a small frown, though it bore no ill will towards the young speedster as she verbally tore into him. She was right, after all, he was a bad person. A potential mass murderer only prevented by the interference from four other terrorists, there was nothing he could do to deny that now. He remained stoic until she left, though his body seemed noticeably heavier, his face drooping in regret as she sped off.
This sparked more argument of course, as the group still seemed divided on his actions, whether to persecute him now or later. It was not until Icon stepped in before they began to really pay attention.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Icon said, hoping to reign the situation in a bit. “I’m not sure if you understand the stakes we’re facing, but we need to get serious and get our act together, otherwise none of this will matter. So, maybe we should stop cracking jokes and fighting amongst ourselves, and figure out a plan to stop Pax Metahuman and bring down those domes. Or have you all forgotten what we’re supposed to be fighting for? There are people out there who’s lives are in danger, and we owe it to them to get out there and put this threat down, once and for all.”
“I know nobody wants to even listen to me right now, but Big Blue’s right,” War-Pulse added to the hero’s speech.
“You got way bigger problems than what I’ve done. If any of you want to take a swing at me, we can have it out after we take care of your current crisis. But right now it’s only going to help give Doctor Diplodoc the time he needs to finish his plan, and nobody here wants that. So I’d suggest we work on a plan to finish these metahuman bastards once and for all.” Iron Knight was more than ready to oblige the mercenary’s brash notion of planning, quickly detracting any further argument by dividing the teams into two groups. with the Raptor Pack, a man in black known as Vigilante, and Arachne, going after the doctor, while the big guns handle his metahuman muscle. Generally, it was a relatively safe plan, Icon alone probably held enough power in his pinky to wipe out half the enforcers all his own, let alone the whole squad. Yet something did not sit well with the veteran merc, the plan seemed sound on paper, but the scrunched face of War-Pulse made it very clear he had some doubts as he attempted to step in and put forward his questions.
Of course, before he could bring his concerns to light, the man known as Vigilante objected about his role, beginning to hatch a different plan.
“Whatsisname…” he shook his hand gesturing toward War-Pulse “…Effigy. You’ve got a guy who can replicate the powers and form of pretty much anyone he tangles with and as far as I can tell you’ve loaded up the team to deal with these types with our biggest guns. I don’t want Icon… or for that matter Zippy and Bippy here…” he gestured at the speedsters, “…getting anywhere near that guy.”
“So here’s what I suggest... We’ve got ourselves speedsters. Why don’t we use them? I weigh about 77 kil—“ he checked himself, remembering they use the imperial measurement in this country, “170 pounds. We get my team in position, this big fella over here jets me in to take down that one guy.” The Vigilante pointed at Thunderbolt. “Shouldn’t take me more than 5 or 10 minutes. You start on the other 3, he runs me back to Team Menagerie and then returns to the fray with your mob, and whaddaya know after this is all sorted out we’re not going to have a guy in lock-up who can turn into somebody who can benchpress a building or outrun a fighter jet.”
“Because at the moment, best case scenario, all I can see happening is 2 War-Pulses smacking the hell out of each other and doing untold collateral damage.”
“Oh come on!” The merc protested, pushing off of the wall.
“I’m not completely destructive, I can show friggin restraint!” “Name one recent conflict where you didn’t leave a crater.” Warden’s voice came from the device on the floor
“Helping or hurting, Warden?!?” “Just stating the facts.” The broker said,
“But on the matter, it does not make sense to transport Vigilante to both places. Utilizing the speedster Boom and Thunderbolt as mobile transport rather than keep them on the offensive seems like a massive waste of a resource. As remarkable as Vigilante is, trying to put him in both situations simultaneously can make for number of problems.” “Not to mention this...Diplodoc guy.” War-Pulse added.
“We got no intel on him, as far as anyone has said to me, we don’t know what he is capable of or what tricks he keeps on him. We know he is a metahuman, and for all we know the guy is stronger than any of us. Believe me when I say any radical leader keeps most of their best weapons to themselves before supplying their forces, I’ve worked for enough bastards to know what they’re capable of. Judging by the circumstances I reckon that the Doc won’t be an exception. We’re putting all our strongest guys on one team, all our eggs in one basket without really taking into account that this guy is -and I really can't believe I have to stress this- a mutated dinosaur scientist.” “Which means that if War-Pulse is right, we may not be dividing our forces properly. If Doctor Diplodoc is stronger than anticipated or has some unaccounted for tricks, our team tasked with assaulting his compound may not have what it takes to deliver.” “Exactly, the Powerbombs are all knocking heads when the Beast Boys really needs help.” War-Pulse said.
“We should spread out guns a little bit, divide and conquer. Hell, I almost took on the four assholes on my own, and they only put me down because the sorceress got in my head. We don’t need every big gun out running distraction, just enough to pre-occupy the enforcers while the other team does the real work. You want my advice, put Vigilante on our team and send Icon to hit Doctor Diplodick. It’ll be good publicity for the boy in blue, rally the city, and pretty much assures that the A-Team will be able to bag and tag the scientist as well as shut down the infection. As for Vigilante....he’ll be the secret weapon against Effigy. How can he replicate powers if the man he is facing doesn’t have any? Y’know...unless the dark brooding one shoots eye lasers or farts black holes.”
