Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[LadyTevar]

"Ok, Heidi... what would you do. Tell me, and I'll do it."

Separate the two cars blocking the road, first. They're holding up all traffic.

Jerri walked over to the two cars, already damaged from their crash. Without looking at the two drivers arguing, she bend and grabbed one of the cars just behind the right front tire where a jack would go and lifted, trusting Inferno had reprogrammed the hologram properly. Otherwise, this wasn't going to work at all.

If this works, you should be able to drag the car over by the fire hydrant. Let the asshole get a ticket for blocking it.

[Comrade Tortoise]

(Sorry, been out of town)

Sunrise surveyed the area and noticed the success of the hologram. Excellent, he thought before hearing Legion's orders

"Yes sir. Not an issue. If you need an obstruction to evac destroyed or moved let me know"

[Charon]

The Mechagodzilla served to distract Godzilla for a time, but eventually the beast caught up to the Mechanized creature and realized that it was a fake. The precious minutes that the distraction had bought them gave the team time to evacuate the area where Godzilla seemed to be coming towards.

Godzilla seemed to have little actual interest in the town he was passing through. Homes and businesses and cars were smashed flat by the beast but it was simply by virtue of Godzilla being Godzilla rather than any intent at destruction. The team worked hard at limiting the damage where they could. At the end of the scenario, Godzilla was walking into the distance and there was a path of destruction where he had walked through, but the loss of life was at a minimum.

Inferno's voice came up over the speaker system. "Good job. You figured out that you were up against a force that you could not only not stop but whom trying to stop only caused more damage. As members of Ultima our job, despite what you might think, is not to bring down and bring in the bad guys. Our job is to protect the civilians. Hit the showers team, we're done here."

Inferno leaned back in his chair and nodded to himself. Pleased at the results. The contentment didn't last however, he had to go see his boss about the latest supposed addition to his team.

[Agent Fisher]

Mike smiled as the simulation ended, straightening up right. "Well that was fun." He said tired, still somewhat drained from using his most powerful blast then a number of lower powered blasts to open doors or in some cases remove them.

[LadyTevar]

Jerri also sat down for a moment. With the simulation reacting as if she was Heidi, the only real problem was having Heidi muttering inside her head about how she could do better. At least Jerri could finish her part of the day now, and hand it over to Heidi at the usual time.

So, you were right all along, the task was to get the people out.
Jerri could say a few things right now, but she didn't want the team, Legion especially, to overhear. "Yes."
Not going to say I Told You So?
"No point."

[Dark Silver]

For now, the simulation was over.

And only in two tries.

"You did good everyone," he said after simulation was shut down, "Good job on the distraction NeXT."

Legion walked over towards Heidi...or was it Jerry right now, and not crouching, spoke softly, "Agent Gemini, you did well today. You followed orders, and when placed on evac duty, helped get those people out in a timely manner."

[LadyTevar]

It was Jerri, the smaller, more delicate looking one. She looked up at Legion and gave a small smile. "Thank you, Agent Legion." She looked down to his hand, to see if the gloves were on, then held out hers. "A hand up, please? Heidi's the one that throws cars for fun, I'm not used to doing it, even in a hologram."

[SirNitram]

NeXT's silvery avatar formed into place. "My thanks, agent. I must admit something akin to the emotion apprehension had me before the hologram came online. I was unsure if the simulator could replicate that use of my powers."

[Charon]

Inferno made his way back down into the training room and prepared himself for someone to take a swing at him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna make any of you do that again."

[Agent Fisher]

Mike smiled at Jerri's request, walking over and stretching an arm down at her, looking over at Inferno. "Good. Next time we do a training mission, make it something fun." As he helped Jerri to her feet, he looked to the team. "Well, I burned off some energy, and have the munchies again." Mike looked back to Inferno. "So do you want to do the post mission run down now, or wait a while?"

[Dark Silver]

Legion nodded to both NeXT and Jerri, "We think we earned some respite....." Legion said, looking to Inferno as he entered the training room. He took Jerri's hand, and helped her up, mindful that no flesh was exposed first for her to accidently touch.

"Hit the mess hall, take a shower, do whatever you do to relax."

[LadyTevar]

Heidi was looking Mike over out of Jerri's eyes. So.. which hand do we take?
"Thank you both," Jerri answered with a smile, one hand in Legion's, one hand to Mike, letting both men help her to her feet. "I think I can skip my normal trip to the weight-room thanks to this, but a shower does sound nice."
Can Mike come?

Jerri suddenly turned bright red and was avoiding looking in Mike's direction.

[Charon]

Inferno looked at Mike as he spoke and seemed to be about to say something before he glanced to Jerri as she went red and smiled to suppress a laugh.

[SirNitram]

"I am still fresh from my previous downtime. I will monitor globalsat data for any potential hot zones." NeXT's avatar dissolved into motes of light. His consciousness retreated up through the high-latency connections to satellites, travel that made him feel like he was immersed in molasses. Flitting between the satellites, though, was relaxing, even as he prodded those with cameras pointing down into yielding information.

[B4UTRUST]

Apex Pharmecuticals - Lab 1, Chicago, IL
Sunday, April 10th, 2011 - 2231 Local

"Alright, move the group in. Jeez, you'd think that they'd spring for quality test subjects, not these dregs..."

The group in question moved single file through the open doorway into the lab room. They were all dressed in hospital gowns which were easily the cleanest thing on them. The individuals looked haggrad and exhausted both physically and mentally. The light in their eyes was dim. All signs of a harsh life living on the streets.

One of the techs was snapping his fingers at the homeless test subjects.
"Hey, hey you, up here, pay attention now. You all want that $100 don't you? Alright, we're going to give you something to take now. It's a pill. All you have to do is take this pill and let us give you an exam Then you get your money and get to go on your way. Sweet deal, right? Of course it is. Now, we're going to start passing out the pills and some water. I'm sure you can figure out what order to put them in your mouth and swallow."

The tech watched as one of the others passed out the pills and cups of water. The subjects obeyed and injested the pills. A pair of lab techs began examining them a few moments later, checking blood pressure, taking samples, watching for eye dialation, and respitory rate.

The lights began to flicker.
"Oh for fuck's sake, you'd think Apex would get us a decent connection to the power grid. I'm tired of this brownout bullsh-"

The lights went out. The sound of windows shattering was audible, but was drown out by the screams.

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

Ultima Regional Headquarters, Chicago, IL
Monday, April 11th, 2011 - 1427 Local

The orders came through the usual channels and eventually came to a stop at Hawk's desk. Scanning through the file he sighed inwardly and checked team availability charts. Tapping a few commands into the computer system he pulled up location codes.
------------

Hawk's voice sounded over Inferno's comm.
"Agent Inferno, this is Hawk. Hope you're done playing with the simulation, we've got work to do. Report to my office in 20."

[Charon]

"Yes sir." Inferno sighed. "Alright team, take some time to yourselves, but don't get too relaxed." Inferno left the room without another word, stopping by a vending machine to grab a drink before he continued towards Hawk's office. When he got there he tapped on the door as he slowly opened it. "You wanted to see me sir?"

[B4UTRUST]

Hawk looked up as Inferno entered.
"Come in, have a seat."

Hawk glanced at his computer screen for a moment more before looking over at Inferno.
"We've got a situation that your team is being assigned to handle. I'm giving you a heads up and a few hours to prep your team before I give them a full mission brief. I know you guys have been pushing hard in the sims to become more cohesive. I approve, good work.

"Now, here's the situation as it stands. The Apex Pharmaceutical company hit the B.M.A.'s radar a few months back for a few things. The end result of those investigations was a dead end, so we put an agent in undercover. The agent was working with a group of techs and scientists on some data towards developing some sort of new metadrug. He wasn't able to find out where they were getting their data from or how, though he was sure they weren't coming up with it themselves, the work was too advanced.

"Last night he went offline. We've waited sixteen hours since his last known status. Higher ups are thinking that something has gone pear-shaped and he's been found. Our sources inside of Apex, however, are drawing blanks and the building he was working in has been sealed off. We've got enough to convince a federal judge to give us a warrant so we're sending a team in. Yours. You're going to be trying to figure out what the hell happened to our man on the inside. That's your primary objective as of this moment. Secondary is retrieval of the drug data and any intel you can get on who was supplying it and what they were doing with it. The warrant goes into effect at 1800 hours local. I want you all in place to knock on the door the second it goes valid. At 1645 hours there will be a pre-op brief in room 612 with more details and intel. We'll get you blueprints and as much inside info as we've got. Brief your team before then, get them some chow and rest and have them ready to hit the scene. It's bad enough they've already had almost an entire day to clean up whatevers going on in there, we can't afford to miss anything important. Your team has the highest concentration of knowledgeable agents for this sort of assignment, making you our best chance.

"Questions?"

[Charon]

Inferno listened carefully. "How much secrecy are we keeping during the operation? And what exactly is that warrant gonna let us get away with? I don't want to end up busting something that we can't pursue later. Furthermore, I'm gonna want everything we've got on Apex, of course."

Inferno paused for a second. "And one last thing. What are we supposed to do with the Omnicorp bot?"

[B4UTRUST]

"At this point I think secrecy is out the window. You're going in with a warrant into a facility that has locked down and sealed off. I don't think you're going to be doing much skulking about in the shadows trying to keep hush hush on this. But use your judgement. Obviously running to the media to tell them Ultima is investigating a new possibly illegal drug operation isn't going to be good.

"Warrant is a straight forward search and seizure, no arrests at this time until we've got further evidence. But that being said, if we can get any sor tof hard data or evidence we'll find a way to make it stick so we can get more."

Hawk paused and considered the third question.
"The Omnicorp bot is being evaluated for possible use by Ultima. It's a problem and a huge PR one at that for the moment until we can get MetaTech to redesign the exterior. However, in this case some of its abilities may be of use. It has some decent forensics and analysis systems from what the lab boys have told me. Plus, along with NeXT it can possibly help you on the tech end of this investigation.

"If you take the thing with you, have motor pool get one of the cargo haulers set up and have that thing transported under cover. Last thing we need right now is some hot shot paparazzi getting a snapshot of Ultima using Omnicorp tech right now. But once you're on sight and out of public view, use it as you need to and see fit. Its your op and your agents. We're looking for results and answers, how they're obtained is your deal.

"Anything else?"

[Charon]

Inferno shook his head. "Nothing comes to mind yet. But I'm sure my team and I will have more for the meeting." Inferno got to his feet then. "Is that all sir?"

[B4UTRUST]

Hawk nodded.
"That's it for now. We'll have more detailed intel for the group brief. Dismissed."

[Charon]

Inferno stepped out of the room and headed back to the training room, where he found everyone still lounging around.

"Congratulations, we've got our second assignment already. Someone upstairs must like us. Apex Pharmaceuticals has been up to some tricky business, and we've lost contact with an undercover agent. We'll be going in with a warrant to find him and some brand new metadrugs. Meeting's at 1645. Any questions?"

[Dark Silver]

Legion looked up as Inferno walked back into the training room a few minutes later. Most of the group was still there, and the older agent nodded as the orders were given.

"I've got nothing," came his reply, as he looked around, "I'll see everyone then.

With that, Legion headed out of the training room, to get a quick shower, something to eat, and a change of clothing before the briefing.

Not necessarily in that order

[Agent Fisher]

Mike had been speaking with the rest of the team, shifting his attention to Inferno.

"Sounds fun." He said. Mike looked back to the team, jerking his head towards Legion. "What he said." With that, Mike turned and headed out of the training room, showering, changing clothes and then returning to the cafeteria to grab food and a table.

[LadyTevar]

Jerri nodded to show she understood, and like the rst of the team she took a break to clean up and rest up.

When time came, she was the first to enter the conference room and take a seat, waiting for the rest of the team to join in.