Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[SirNitram]

"Comply." NeXT's voice communicated through their ears. "Trying to fight this thing here has a greater than 40% chance of civilian casualties, and a 100% chance of damage to property."

NeXT tried broadcasting to the bot. "This is Networked eXtelligence Technoentity, NeXT, in service of Ultima. Requesting you stand down to minimum self-defense routines while I provide authentication codes. Will you comply?"

[LadyTevar]

Bureau of MetaHuman Affairs! Say the Bureau of MetaHuman Affairs, because Ultima is not the federal name! Jerri warned Heidi as soon as Mark25 identified themselves as Ultima, which was just the name the media made up for them. Get out your badge before you get off the bike, so you can hold it up to the robot and ID yourself CLEARLY.

"Ok, ok, stop yelling in my head," Heidi muttered under the sound of the sirens, sliding her hand carefully to the beltpouch that carried the slim leather wallet that held badge and ID card. "Mark, keep that shield up, I'm dismounting so he can see me better," she informed her partner, before slowly getting off the back of the bike and stepping to the edge of the shield.

He's protecting the civilians from us... do you see?
"protecting, or getting hostages?" Heidi answered under her breath, before slowly holding up her hand, the badge and ID card visible. "Bureau of MetaHuman Affairs, US Federal Agents Gemini and MARCUS! Marcus."

She gave the robot a moment to look over the badge and ID, leaving them open and her hands away from her belt. With Jerri coaching, Heidi continued to speak to the huge robot. "While we appreciate your assistance with the capture of these metahumans, amongst others, our superiors would like a chance to debrief you."

If the robot was more human, Heidi would throw in a bribe... but what do you bribe a robot with? A case of nuts & bolts, like out of a BugsBunny cartoon? Legitimacy, that's what! Say this: "At this moment, you are not attached to any local, county, state or federal jurisdictions, and thus could be seen as a vigilante. Our superiors would like to change that. You need only allow us to escort you to the nearest Bureau office."

[Charon]

Inferno turned the last corner, from here it was a straight shot to the bank. They were almost there. "Gemini, keep it talking. We're almost there. Don't do anything to piss this thing off any more or there's gonna be casualties." Inferno glanced back at the others in the van. "When we get there, don't do anything sudden, but if this does start getting bad our first priority is getting the civilians out of the area."

[Hotfoot]

Mark 25 broadcast over the radio. "Subject is being....difficult. Approach with caution and badges high." He dismounted from the bike, but not to surrender. Using his wireless protocols, he broadcast a secure packet with relevant law enforcement data with all the proper identifying tags to Alpha, not aggressively, but on an open broadcast.

"We are with Ultima, and above your jurisdiction. Any attempt to attack, restrain, or interfere with our duties will result in charges being filed and appropriate measures being taken. My barriers will remain in place to protect myself and my fellow agents from any attack. You will comply, you will stand down, and you will come with us. You have no jurisdiction and are attached to no local police department. Your law enforcement database is out of date. We are willing to talk, but your options degrade with the use of force."

[rhoenix]

With a screeching of the tires, Templar arrived. He immediate shut the motorcycle off, dismounted, and removed his helmet. In the time taken to do that, he could gather from everyone's surface thoughts pretty much how this was going. Now that he could see the mech, well, he could understand why.

Withdrawing his badge, he held up his badge in his left hand, raising both hands as he walked directly toward the mech with slow, measured steps. If he were more awake, he would probably think this was a bit...foolhardy - however, it seemed like an excellent idea at the time. He spoke with a loud, clear voice borne of having spoken with authority before. "I am Special Agent codename Templar with the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, otherwise known as 'Ultima.' We appreciate your assistance in apprehending the metahuman suspects involved with robbing that bank, and request that you accompany us to be debriefed about your experiences. Please stand down so that we may discuss the above matters."

He continued walking until he was thirty feet away from the mech, and stopped, staring right at the mech, with both of his hands still held up. This was the best way he could think of to establish to the mech (assuming it was sapient; he never could tell with machines) that their intent was not hostile, but friendly.

[General Havoc]

The extremely visible guns on the two weapon arms the robot sported tracked Gemini as she dismounted from the motorcycle. The robot took no immediate notice of what the cyborg driving the motorcycle wished to say. Its visual scanners were reading the badge and ID card that the female was holding up. Configuration was correct, ID codes were sequenced properly at least, though the robot had no means of identifying if these were authentic ID badges or clever forgeries. The likelyhood of the latter was, however, remote.

The robot did not respond immediately to Agent Gemini's offer, but instead turned back to face the Cyborg.

"Bureau of Metahuman Affairs agents are not above Law Enforcement jurisdiction," stated the robot directly. "That metahuman," it gestured towards the flier now laying unconscious on the ground, having been tazed into submission, "will be detained by law enforcement personnel as a material witness in this altercation. Bureau of Metahuman Affairs charter grants Authority over metahuman activities within the territories subject to federal regulation of the United States Government."

Its gunports clicked open and shut several times.

"Omnicorp Sentinel 1-Class Unit XC-001 Alpha is not a Metahuman. Your jurisdiction over this unit's affairs is unrecognized."

The robot paused for a moment, as though considering the situation further. Radio transmissions from an uncertain source gave it pause, though it did not respond in kind immediately, as did the arrival of another self-described Ultima agent. The robot now rated the odds of these metahumans NOT being affiliated with the BMA as negligeable, even without a precise credentials check.

"For what purpose does the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs request," the emphasis was clearly deliberate, "the presence of this unit for debriefing? Pending authorization check, your authority over the affairs of larceny suspects Ultima 1, Doe 1, Doe 2, Doe 3, and Doe 4 is... provisionally recognized. State your intentions."

[LadyTevar]

"With your cooperation," Heidi started, haring the van pull up, "the subjects will be taken into custody by the other agents while we continue speaking." Slowly, she lowered her hand, and folded the billfold with care, now that the robot had recognized Ultima's jurisdictional rights.
Just be careful. If he hits you with more than just the non-lethal...
"Stop worrying sis," Heidi hissed under her breath before speaking again to the Omnicorp unit. "As a sign of trust, I am going to step out of this forcefield, and close the distance between us so I don't have to shout. Acceptable?"

Heidi was expecting a loud chorus of 'fuck no it's not' from the rest of Omega team.

[rhoenix]

Without missing a beat, Templar answered immediately; as if the entire process of facing down a multi-ton warmech and convincing it of his authority was something he normally did at 90 minutes until lunchtime. His voice rang with the same self-assured authority as before.

"The Bureau of Metahuman Affairs recently became aware of the situation of the artificial intelligence Omnicorp Sentinel 1-Class Unit XC-001 Alpha, colloquially known as "Alpha," and considering the situation and behavior of said entity, we wish to extend our thanks for assisting us with our duties, and ask if said entity colloquially named Alpha would like to discuss further dealings with the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs. Ultimately, we would like to explore the possibility of employment of said entity Alpha in the same or similar efforts."

He made a noticeable pause as he looked at the other metahumans the mech had referred to, and decided some blunt diplomacy was in order. "As for larceny suspects you referred to as suspects Doe 1 through 4, we would offer assistance bringing said suspects into custody and processing at our field office. The metahuman you referred to as Ultima 1, whom we know as codename Starfighter is a new recruit to our specific team working within the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, and has instantly received the consequences for acting without the knowledge or backup of his said team. We will be further disciplining him as required."

[General Havoc]

The robot seemed to take a moment to consider the possibilities.

"Proceed at will," it finally said, sliding its gunports closed on its lethal weapons, though not on its splatterguns, taser, or other non-lethal devices, not that it was immediately apparent which one was which.

[LadyTevar]

Jerri had to wonder if Templar was reading her mind. So far, he'd been saying exactly what she wanted Heidi to say. Why don't you call Templar a bit closer, act as Agents who've actually worked together before this?

Heidi, who had taken a couple steps towards Alpha, looked back to Templar. "Would you like to join me, Agent Templar, since you're stealing all my lines?"

Don't forget Mark25... Marcus.
"Agent Marcus, would you mind checking on Agent Starfighter? He has a lot to answer for once he gets back to headquarters...."

[Charon]

Employment? Was he out of his fucking mind? None the less saying it in front of dozens of civilians? Oh Christ the media was gonna have a field day with that one. Templar was speaking out of turn now, for one thing this wasn't about employment, for two Templar didn't have the ability to make this about employment. Inferno got out of the van and got up to Gemini as she finished speaking. "No, if anyone is going out there as a sign of trust it's the person who can get shot a lot and survive, which would be me."

Inferno paused as the machine closed some of it's gun turrets down. "For now lets just get the civilians and perps out of here." Inferno waved Legion, Mike and Sunrise to help him carry the perps out and to start moving civilians.

"Unit Alpha, this is Agent Inferno of Ultima, Team Omega. We are going to be moving the perps now and doing crowd control." Inferno paused, stepping out into the open. "I'm afraid to say that the reason we're here is not for employment purposes, but because you are the only Omnicorp robot we have encountered that is not trying to kill civilians and we want to know why." Inferno smiled some. "We would appreciate if you came of your own free will, but I will point out that since the Omni incident last year, all Omnicorp technology is under the jurisdiction of Ultima, and so we can do this by protocol if we have to." That's it, play to the crowd as much as you do the enemy. And now you hoped it was as smart as you hoped it was. "Unit Alpha, civilians are dying and if you come with us we might be able to figure out a way to stop it."

[Dark Silver]

Legion slid out of the van as it came to a stop, his sunglasses already on, and as Templar spoke out of turn, appeared to be attempting to take the spotlight, and Agent Gemini was putting herself on the line.....

At least Inferno seemed to be taking the lead. He was special Attache', he wasn't truly with the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, just here on a cross-agency junket of sorts. He still had his full credentials for his agency, and figured now would be a good time to just follow the lead.

Though, from what he'd seen so far....Team Omega would need a lot of teamwork...

Legion looked towards Mike and Sunrise, "Shall we gentlemen? Escort the civilians out of any potential threat circle. Minimum force, coerce as possible."

With that, Legion walked towards one of the crowds, holding up his billfold, the one which held his NSA badge and credentials. The microchip implanted on the credential card broadcasted a low level carrier that held a encrypted form of his credentials - one utilizing a standardized government encryption. "Ladies and Gentlemen, We am Special Agent Legion, please move away from the area - you may be in danger here. We thank in you advance for co-operating with myself and our colleages."

[Comrade Tortoise]

The crowd had formed a bit Semi-circle around the Alpha and the fight. WIth Legion taking up the middle, Sunrise moved off to the right side and took his badge from left Fanny Pack

"Ladies and Gentlemen I am Agent Sunrise. I need you to clear the area, if this gets ugly you are all in danger here and we do not want that to happen. It would be much easier on everyone if you cooperate" he said, making sure his badge was held out and his voice as firm, and authoritative as possible.

[Agent Fisher]

Mike watched Sunrise and Legion move to push the crowd back, walking to the left. Lacking a badge, Mike started waving the crowd back. "Federal agents, move back, give us room." He ordered, making the crowd move back.

As he was directing the crowd back, he spotted their backup. "Backup's here, I'll help get the perps loaded." He said into the comm. He moved towards the way they came, waving the containment truck forward, directing them where to park. As the men in the truck exited, Mike walked to the suspects, helping one off the ground and directing them to the truck, helping get them loaded into containment cells.

[Hotfoot]

Marcus. The name rolled around in his head, it was a nice gesture, he supposed, but he wasn't sure how he felt about it. Regardless, he made his way to Starfighter, moving deliberately but not making sudden moves. There was no need to set this thing off, not here, not with civilians. In fact, the fact that there were civilians here was one of the few reasons he was showing restraint. This was Omni-Corp technology, it should be knocked out and scrapped, and what useful data it has can be pulled from the slag.

He picked up Starfighter, merging that barrier with his own. One quick touch to the adhesive compound and he knew there was little he could do here in the field. "Hothead." He muttered the phrase loud enough for the blaster to hear, if he was still awake. He carried the limp form effortlessly back to the van the team had come in, all the while still transmitting his identification code.

[B4UTRUST]

There were usually two main types of people involved in situations like this. Those who were genuinely in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up in everything. And the gawkers. The same ones who creeped along at two miles an hour past car wrecks, just to say they had seen it. The worst ones were the camera fiends who insisted on trying to take pictures of other peoples misfortune, misery and pain.

Camera flashes went off on digital cameras and camera phones. Tourists with video cameras were trying to record every last second of what could very likely be their last few precious moments on Earth. Whether they realized it or not.

Those likely to run and flee in terror had long since done that when the slaughterbot showed up. Omnicorp was still too fresh a memory for a lot of people to be an attraction. Some were simply trapped there by the press of bodies trying to get closer to the action. Especially once Ultima showed up.

Of course once news of Ultima and the slaughterbot got around, the sounds of approaching news choppers was in the distance.

When Sunrise came out though. That changed things. Maybe it was the innocence of the child, or the scream of the mother. Perhaps it was Sunrise's choice in words when informing them of their imminent danger. Nobody would probably ever narrow it down. But when a bunch of feds start flashing badges and gearing up to handle a multiton deathmachine people sometimes get the hint and flee. Of course this is never as organized a thing as people would think. Probably more injuries and accidents are caused by such mass panics than prevented.

It started something like this:
"Mommy, look! A ninja turtle," came the innocent observation from the young boy. This was followed by a scream as the lady realized her precious offspring was trying to push his way through the crowd towards said turtle.
"Billy, get away from there!"

The crowd realized that this was about to get a lot weirder and dangerous than they were really all that comfortable with. The panic ensured.

-----------------

Ultima Motorpool


"Jeez, Templar just tore out of here on a new bike."
"$50 says it don't come back."
"Shiiiiiiiiit. Sucker's bet. No dice. Lets make it interesting. $50 says he only brings back the handlebars."
"Alright, I'll take it. My money's on less than that making it back."
"You got yourself a bet..."

[Dark Silver]

Panic.

That was all Legion needed, humans began running about, screaming and hollering. He had hoped Mark would help him with the Sunrise would handle the criminals, but it never could go down so easy.

Fortunatly, Legion had done this before.

With a thought, he erected a forcewall, 10x10 (the limit of his power), hopefully to start diverting people away from the scene, even as he shouted at the Omnicorp Mech - "Omnicorp Sentinel 1-Class Unit XC-001 Alpha, by order of the National Security Agency, Department of Metahuman Affairs, you will stand down, and fall back to Bureau of Metahuman Affairs Headquarters in Chicago, to undergo debriefing and possible refit." He flashed his badge with it's transmitting credentials to the Mech, it's systems should have the basics credentials encryption in it's system and be able to verify his orders remotely - still, he let the Mech both get the carrier and see his credentials and badge.

Just after, he started working on calming the crowd down....unfortunatly it was beyond his means. His forcefield was to limited, and the crowd was already panicing, and he was silently cursing Sunrise. But instead he was talking into his comm just loud enough to be heard over the din of people, "Mark25, Gordon, Heidi, divert to riot control, minimal force application don't hurt these people unless you absolutely have to. Sunrise, back off and start rounding up the perps." He then switch comm frequencies and called in a code with Chicago PD concerning the stampeding humans.

Seriously, this team would have to go through a lot of basic training in negotiation and tactics...not to mention dealing with the public....unless they wanted this to be a regular scene.

He just hopped the big mech actually listened to a NSA agent....

[Charon]

Inferno let out a few choice words as the crowd started to panic, and just as the helicopters were showing up too. No wonder Ultima only got bad press. Legion seemed to have the panic problem as well in hand as he could so Inferno left him to it, though he remembered something then.

Inferno looked to Legion. "You get out of there too Legion, you're not in a contact suit and if these people accidentally touch your skin we'll have a riot on our hands rather than a panic." Inferno cursed himself for being an idiot, he should have given orders and not worried about if he had the proper authority. He figured the giant monstrous turtle would have had the sense and the experience with humans that he so often waved around to keep out of the crowd.

Inferno turned back to Alpha. "Do not get involved trying to help or this will only get worse than it already is."

[Comrade Tortoise]

The Ninja Turtle thing he got all the time. Kids were great, they didnt care he was a giant turtle. They thought he was cool and wanted to get his authograph. It was the parents, overprotective soccer moms that were the problem.

When the woman screamed and started a panic... somehow... he only had one thought

Are you shitting me? I was only kidding about the Angurius thing

He did as he was told. Backed off and trotted toward the perps. He grabbed and handcuffed the one who liked bludgeoning things first. Hoisted the man over his shell, and trotted to the Patty Wagon

[SirNitram]

Al, hovering in the net, was cursing. The crowd had turned mob. If things continued as they were going, it would go riot. He didn't want to find out the Omnimech's response to that. Hell, he didn't think his new, earstwhile team would be good to be there.

The screaming flow of data from the cameras rushed by his mind as he plotted a course out of the bank, including the best case for repairs from the mech. "Pathway assigned. Reccomendation: Disengage and RTB." NeXT spoke in the ears and tranmission unit of those he was trying to guide.

[Dark Silver]

Legion had not forgotten his secondary powers, considering he lived with it every day of his life for the past 54 years, he knew exactly what would happen.

And this was partly why he had erected the shimmering, partly transparent wall of willpower.

"Affirmative," he called back into the comm, having switched back to the Ultima channel after he got his copy from the CPD and units were enroute.

"NeXT," he said, falling back slowly, trying to make sure he came into as little contact as possible, using his force fields to gently divert people around him. "Clear a route for the police cruisers and riot-control squad approaching. Omega Team, finish getting the criminals and our hothead and start falling back to HQ as per NeXT's suggestion."

He oddly enough, left himself out of the equation, making his way towards Alpha as best he could.

[LadyTevar]

One scream was all it took to turn the situation from containable into clusterfuck. Gemini, with their focus on Alpha, didn't even see what caused the panic, but the resutls were obvious as both Inferno and Legion gave conflicting orders, and NeXT chattered away in her earbud.

It was enough to give them both a headache. What should we do?
"Grab the metas and vacate," Heidi answered aloud, suiting actions to words as she rushed over to where two of the meta were glued in place. With a ripple of muscle, she pulled the first one free, then the other, hoisting them both over her shoulders like sacks of flour as she stalked back to the van. "If either one of you two bozos gives me an excuse, I will throw you through a wall before I put you in the van," Heidi warned them, and the casual way she was able to carry two grown men lent weight to her threat.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Sunrise heard the riot control command over his earbud. This was not a riot, it was a chaotic and disorderly crowd dispersal. If the riot squad got called in, it would compress the panicked throng. This could cause crushings, and the one thing you dont want to do is constrict a bunch of people fleeing for their lives. The fight part of the flight or flight response kicks in.

"Legion, or NeXT, call off the riot squads. This is a panic, you dont restrict a panicked mob. It will cause a riot, or a restricted stampede. It's like shouting fire in the theater, hundreds of people will be crushed to death! Regular cops good, riot cops with tear gas, blockades, and riot shields bad."

[Dark Silver]

Legion narrowed his eyes at the turtle talking through the earbud, but resisted saying anything. As it was, he had a few things to tell the turtle back at HQ, he wasn't going to take the one who started this messes suggestion.

"Negative, The police have been informed of the situation, they understand what's going on, the riot-team is only there for backup in case. Now would everyone get in the vehicles and return to base. Consider it an order if you have to."

[LadyTevar]

"I'm going, I'm going." Heidi bitched over the radio, tossing the two metahumans ungently into the back of the van before stalking over and sitting down on the back of Mark25's motorcycle. Soon as he came back, she was ready to go.