ic Interceptors: Look What You Made Me Do

[angrydurf]

With the team gone an eerie silence settled over the suddenly too large, open, and vulnerable dojo.  The children were fitful in their beds the tension in the household penetrating their slumber though not yet waking them.  Gina wheeled herself silently around the kitchen completing the tasks left unfinished by the evening's interruptions with a quiet efficiency that belied the worry etching her face.  Jill was left to monitor the security systems with VINCE looking for signs of anything out of the ordinary Talyas final advice ringing in her ears, "When they know we've come for them there's no telling what he might do, don't let him draw you out, and be ready for anything."

 

Dimitri sat in the control room at freedom hall monitoring the police and military bands for anything unusual fortunate that he'd been left behind from the rest of the league's mission to free a small town in Vermont from Glaciers grasp when Talyas call for aid reached him.  The usual dispatch and report of the police bands suddenly shifted as an evacuation was called for a West End neighborhood, a 'Gas Leak' but no chatter on the utilities and the order sent from some office of public safety the league had no ties to or information about.  All too convenient.

 

Across town Klara sat in a parkside cafe sipping her tea when Talyas request to be on alert reached her, perhaps it was for the best after all her wife had been called into the embassy tonight, it seemed date night was destined for interruption this week.  She had just finished her cuppa when a caravan of firetrucks blazed past heading east sirens screaming into the night.  

 

Ace hunched forward over his desk phone pressed to his ear, "Those were supposed to have burned up over the pacific after the invasion."  he sighed very nearly sounding his age as he hung up the phone and stood pulling on his coat and hat with a disgusted glance at the phone before he stormed out of the office shouting orders to the staff.

[Avenger Assembled]

Dimitri took out his watch and set it on the computer monitor in front of him, the reassuring tic-tic-tic of its internal mechanisms providing a backdrop to the work he had to do. Five minutes. 

One minute to call the emergency responders in the West End and find no result. One minute to consider calling the Freedom League - and to reject it, when he considered his friends' business in the hands of his allies. One minute to consider calling the emergency responders outside the West End - and then reject that too, when he considered the deaths that would result. A minute to remember who he fought, and to make sure he was ready to fight them. A minute to compose the apology note that would explain he'd been called away from monitor duty for personal business. 

 

Tick 

 

When time was up, Comrade Frost gathered up his watch and pulled up the hood of his parka - and then a cloud of boiling mist was pouring out of Freedom Hall, tumbling through the sky towards the West End as fast as he could go! A close inspection might have revealed two red, glowing eyes in the midst of the cloud. A predator was on the hunt tonight.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

There was always a little disappointment when they had to cancel a date, even now each date still felt like the very first, but it was something they'd both agreed on when Klara had decided to come out of retirement. Besides she was happy that Tracy was still important enough at her age to be called upon at a moments notice.

 

The sirens pulled her out of her thoughts and without really thinking about it she was on her feet and moving to catch up with the fire truck. Whilst she'd been told that her bracelet should be able to fly as well as teleport she'd never been able to get them to quiet work. Something for another time, and when a crisis wasn't happening, so instead she used her knowledge of the city and some teleport to instead grab onto the side of the fire engine. She waved through the window at the Firefighters inside.

 

"I hope you don't mind me hitching a life, I believe we're travelling to the same destination."

[Gizmo]

Ellie paced back and forth across her brother's living room, trying to balance burning off nervous energy with remaining quiet enough to avoid waking her nieces and nephew. There hadn't been much debate over who should stay behind to watch over them, not given the protective nature of her powers. Leaving her there without backup had been a point of more contention but she'd stubbornly insisted; the team needed all the muscle they could muster if they were going to catch their creepy antagonist off-guard and shut him down quickly and between her mother and Vince she wasn't exactly alone. Besides, Talya's friends should have been on their way by then in theory, all of them experienced and capable.

 

That didn't make the near silence of the apartment any less unnerving, nor the thought that a mind controller could theoretically send anyone to attack them. Vince wasn't even providing his usual commentary to go along with the displayed security feeds, 'lost in thought' as he devoted most of his processing power to things other than making conversation. The young medic ran a hand through her hair and let out a soft sigh, trying not think about what she would do if any of the people on their way had fallen under the Major's control because that line of thought clearly went nowhere pleasant.

[Avenger Assembled]

Comrade Frost paused for a moment on a rooftop near the dojo, first verifying that the Major wasn't doing anything so declasse as simply overwhelming the place's defenses with wave after wave of mind-controlled thralls. That wasn't quite the former British intelligence agent's style - but Dimitri knew better than anyone how much a man's outlook could change after a few decades. When he saw no such horde assaulting the facility, he simply cast himself into fog and ice again before reforming on the dojo's roof and heading for the roof access. At the door, he thought to himself briefly, remembering the security cameras pointed at him and for a moment wishing he had access to the Faretti family's dark inheritance that spared them from cameras. "Hello!" he called out loud. "I am not mind-controlled slave!" he went on as he opened the door into the rest of the dojo. 

[angrydurf]

The Fire Fighters seemed more than happy to have a little super heroic backup as they sped into the West End, "More the Merrier."  one replied as they whipped down the streets sirens blazing.  Pulling up about three blocks short of the Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship the search and rescue truck disgorged its passengers who quickly began establishing a perimeter along with the uniformed officers of the FCPD.  The Fireman who had spoken to Klara as she hitched a ride nodded down the street, "Gas leak, three hundred block."  he informed her with a small shrug, "We're in a holding pattern during evac."  he explained though it clearly pained him not to be able to do more, "Down to the gas company to get it closed off."  he shrugged uncomfortably not risking saying aloud the consequence of them not managing to.

 

At the Dojo a uniformed officer pounded on the door shouting, "We have reports of a gas leak we need you to evacuate immediately."  as he peered directly into a camera no beat cop should have been able to make out in the shadows of the streetlights.  He waved on another duo of cops calling out to them, "I got this one."  before turning back to the door, "Mr. Espadas your family is in danger."  he shouted pointedly as he waited for a response from within.

 

As Comrade Frost descended from the roof a bleary eyed Eden emerged from her room a slightly oversized watch on one wrist with an art deco casing like some sort of kids meal toy emitting a dull blueish glow from a tiny video screen, "Are you stealing our chocolate again?"  she asked as a faint but familiar voice buzzed across the wristwatch vidcom, "Eden Sweetie I REALLY need to talk to your auntie or grandma."

 

Across town the Danger-Mobile climbed up the wall as it sped into the jammed tunnel into downtown before launching skyward, "Never did like that commute anyway."  Ace murmured his own video watch muted for the moment, "Benson, I need you to call out the motor pool, we're doing the Marakesh Gambit."  

 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

It didn't take much for Klara to work out that the leak was connected to whatever was going down to at the Dojo. But if those involved were ruthless enough to actually cause a leak then she needed to at least check the place out. Plus she didn't want to put at risk any of the brave firefighters, or any of the emergency services, at any risk from whatever was going down here.

 

"Maybe you could show me where the valves are so I can help speed things along a little?" she suggested with a smile "Being outside the system I don't have to follow all the rules."

 

Technically she was working at the embassy and had some Diplomatic immunity, though she really didn't want to test how far it went.