ic Dangerous Dockside Dealings

[EternalPhoenix]

The Docks. The Waterfront. Freedom City. May 20, 2020. 2 AM.

 

Another night in Freedom City. Another arms deal on the docks. And another gaggle of goons who thought some fancy weapons could help them take on capes and the Mob. Dixie Clements knew they were a big bag of idiots, with the full cognitive power of a box of rocks. Or was it a sack of hammers? Whatever the idiom, they had money. She had fancy guns. This wasn't complicated. She was a blue eyed blonde in cowboy boots, blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and a lovely brown cowboy hat. Her trademark revolvers were strung all over her body. As the leader of the goons (Dixie thought his name was...Jonesy? Maybe? Tch, like it mattered.) said something extremely stereotypical (and his goons leered at her excellent figure), her thought dwelled on her partner Reiko Hinomoto. Reiko's features and black hair betrayed her Japanese origins. Today, she was dressed in the latest in red and black motorcycle chic. She was totally unarmed, leaning in relaxed fashion against her motorcycle. Oh, right. Jonesy was finished speaking. What did he say? Guns, right. Dixie jerked her thumb at the box her motorcycle (in front of Reiko's) had on its (now disconnected) trailer. "Guns. Money please." Jonesy waved a hand, and a goon brought the usual briefcase full of cash. She popped it open, flipped through briefly, and nodded. "Pleasure doing business with you, sunshine." Another deal done, time to get the heck out of here. Freedom City had this problem with superheroes always busting this stuff up, you see.

[Azuth65]

Selena had been surprised at the call from Ajasoro earlier in the afternoon, inviting the magnetokinetic and former squad mate out to grab a meal and catch up as their school years draw to a close.  That and a trusted hand in dealing with some arms dealers who had managed to acquire a shipment of Daka crystals and, in all likelihood, had by now incorporate them into especially deadly weapons.

 

Which of course lead to Gauss and White Lioness crouched on a rooftop several warehouses down from the deal in progress.  "So, how do you want to play this?  Bust in now and try to recover the weapons or trail the blonde and her partner in hopes they lead us back to the rest of the trove?"

[Tiffany Korta]

White Lioness

It seemed that when she wasn’t at school she was down at the docks, it almost made her pine for all the ceremonies she had to attend back home. Still she had to stop any potential smuggling of Daka crystals and this group seem to have a connection to such things. With a smile at her fellow students words she considered the options at hand, she wasn’t an expert but she had picked up some tactical knowledge. The benefit of a Claremont education it seemed.

 

“Personally I’d sneak around the back and start taking them out in the darkness, maybe we could work from that. How do you feel about playing the decoy on this one?” her voice had a note of amusement at the suggestion.

[Exaccus]

Facs had his ears to the ground on these kinds of things, the docks, whilst not a part of southside proper was one of his regular patrol grounds, though since he'd somewhat regretfully given up his bike after moving out on his own he'd been forced to take to the streets, skies and seas by assimilating himself into them and traveling on "muscle power".

 

He'd danced invisably on the wind for a while watching the illicit arms deal (completely unaware of his former class mate.) until he'd confirmed the act, guns were shown, money was exchanged and that was all he needed to act.

 

he wasn't as fast to change as he once had been, but with his decreased speed came increased depth, quite literally in this case, sinking his immaterial hands into the water and drawing on the strength of the ever in motion ocean he transformed again, this time from air to water, in the past he would've struggled to keep himself in even a vaguely humanoid form but now his outline was crisp and clean, even as transparent as it was and he rose into the air on a twisting spout of water, rising over the meeting before him with menacing mien.

 

"Good evening folks, Lovely night for an illegal arms deal i must say, now if you don't mind surrendering to the due course of justice and so on...." he rolled his hand on his wrist with a slight sloshing sound.

 

He didn't honestly expect them to go for it but it was always worth a shot right?

 

"Ill put in a good word for you." he offered as an after thought.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Exaccus

[EternalPhoenix]

Jonesy and his gaggle of goons declined to the sights and sounds of regular guns being drawn. Jonesy with the assault rifle and the rest with submachine guns. Reiko, not batting an eyelash, started up her bike (it was on the center stand, so it wouldn’t roll away).Dixie was shocked. This was her shocked face. Just so shocked. God, she hated coming to Freedom City. Also, this guy’s literally made of water. What are regular guns going to do? Box of rocks, bag of hammers, either way they were full of stupid. “I mean, I could. But then I wouldn’t be able to teach you an important science lesson. Salt water is an excellent electrical conductor.” Her right hand blurred, coming up with a revolver. She then simply shot Facs. It wasn’t a bullet. This was her Stun Shock Revolver, and despite looking like something out of a Western, what come out of it was nothing less than an electrical arc. Then she took several steps back, about to split this scene.

[Azuth65]

Gauss looked over at her friend and nodded, giving a slight smirk, "It is something I'm pretty good at.  And people really tend to take notice when their motorcycles rip out from under them."

 

Giving White Lioness a minute or so to slip into the shadows, the magnetokinetic stepped forward and off the ledge of the roof, allowing herself a few seconds of free fall before taking off and flying towards the assembled criminals.  As the young man made of water come up from the ocean and caught the eye of every person in attendance, Gauss took the opportunity to grab the pair of bikes and begin mentally hefting them into the air.  "Ladies, gentlemen, and anyone part of the technicolor rainbow in between, I'm going to have to insist everyone stay put.  We have questions, you have answers," she called out to the assembled criminals.  "Also, next person who takes a shot at anyone gets a motorcycle enema."

[Tiffany Korta]

White Lioness

Smiling beneath her mask and giving her ally a nod Àjàṣorò slipped into away and into the shadows, blending into the shadows despite the bright white of her costume. The spirit of the Lion was just as home in the shadows as the light, something she’d been embracing over the last couple of years. Sometime she wondered if she was embracing the spirit or the spirit was embracing her.

 

She slipped down to flank the enemies and make sure they couldn’t cause any more harm, it was so easy for her that she spend the time considering her sense of self. At least when being a hero she didn’t have to worry about representing her home nation, she could just concentrate on punching the bad guys.

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

Dixie twirled her revolver around her finger and slid it back into its holster. “Hey, tell him that.” She finished moving over to Reiko, who was looking at Gauss with an annoyed expression. “I get twitchy when I get threatened with jail. But hey, you’ve got questions? I’ve got answers. Always happy to help catch the real bad guys.” Implying, of course, that she wasn’t one.

 

Reiko was still looking directly at Gauss. “I like that bike. Don’t break it.” ‘Or else’ was not implied, she was just taciturn. And it was a sweet ride. A practically new Japanese sport bike.

[Azuth65]

Gauss and the bikes continued to rise, slower than if she'd just grabbed them one at a time but it was keeping everyone nice and distracted, as well as significantly slower.  "Now, now, I have zero intention of wrecking these gorgeous bikes.  I don't even really care about the arms deal our aquatic friend here mentioned.  Well, not directly at any rate.  See, a little kitty told me that you," she said, gesturing at Dixie, "Had come into possession of a shipment of Daka crystals.  Daka crystals that had been stolen.  I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't know they were stolen but we're going to need them back and the name of you seller."

[Exaccus]

Facsimile refrained from grimmacing as the electricity danced through his watery form and dispersed through his spout into the sea bellow

 

dakana diamonds and the white lioness, seems like this is slightly more serious than he'd originally anticipated....not that someone selling laser bazooka things to street thugs wasn't serious enough.

 

"you know, its the resistance that hurts when you get electricuted, like how the fillament in a lightbulb glows and eventually blows because its a resistor, super conductors, like dakana crystals are great in electronics because they don't impede the flow of electrons at all so they never get damaged by them building up inside them." he stated, a this much at least was a fact, perhaps if she believed her favorite weapon was ineffective it would change her perspective on the matter.

 

"One time special offer for a brainy lady and her friends, ill ask you to surrender a second time before i get to the asskicking."  and with that he drew up even more mass from the ocean bellow, causing his arms to bulge and unwind into no less than 8 thick octopus like tentacles, each about as thick as his own body.

 

"and let me warn you, i've never lost a slapfight." he teased as he wiggled the tip of one of his tentacles in the womans face.

[Tiffany Korta]

White Lioness

With the other distracted, and it unlikely they’d just surrender the crystals, Àjàṣorò began to look around for where the crystal were probably being stored. Keeping to the shadows it was unlikely that anyone would be able to spot her, what with two massive distractions right in front of them.

 

She would have used the suits scanners to find where the crystals were located, but it would have potentially give away her location. Her skills were good but even then it had limits.

[EternalPhoenix]

“Well I’ll be dipped, kiddo. Goodness gracious.” Dixie was still amused instead of surprised. “Those daka crystals were stolen? That’s the last time I trust Sammy the Shark, sure enough.” And then there was Facs with more promises of violence. “Can’t you do something about your associate there? He seems awful eager to beat me up when I’ve done nothing wrong. I can't tell you anything if I'm unconscious.” Like she’d give these gormless idiots (referring to Jonesy and crew) weapons that can punch holes in stone. She didn’t need AEGIS on her ass again. Okay, maybe that was fraud. Well, no. The guns worked…technically. It wasn’t her fault if they were too stupid to figure out how.

 

Reiko just calmly eyed Facs now, and worked her muscles loose a bit. Meanwhile Jonesy and his gaggle of goons were beginning to look very impatient. There was likely only one exchange of words left before they made their move, whatever it was going to be.

[Exaccus]

Regarding reiko with mild interest for all of a second he turned his gaze to the other woman.

 

"Hey now, I announced myself and offered you a chance to surrender and then again after you shot me." He said with a chortle as he leaned forward his hand against the side of his mouth in a faux whisper.

 

"I think you might be projecting on me."

[Azuth65]

Setting the motorcycles on a nearby rooftop, Gauss gave a shrug.  "Honestly, I don't really care if you knew they were stolen or not, I was just offering you a chance to lose a receipt of stolen property charge.  If you were cooperative, I'd set the bikes back down and send you on your merry way out of my town.  Go bother folks in Bedlam or Emerald," the heroine mused.  "And with the items surrendered to the proper authorities, the band of mooks," she continued, thumbing at Dixie's buyers, "Would also avoid a bunch of charges."

 

"Doesn't that sound good for everyone?  The representative from Dakana gets their crystals back, nobody deals with the cops or ATF, and everybody gets to go home instead of jail," she finished, trying to sound reasonable.

[Tiffany Korta]

White Lioness

So as usual they were using crystals as some kind of weapons, it was sad that no one outside of her homeland considered the peaceful applications of Daka crystals. Still she’d need to stop this application before considering further action. She figured that she’d been spotted so she hiss

 

“If I was you all I would just surrender now, before trouble starts.”

 

She then faded back into the shadows ready for when the fighting would start, she might not have the power of the others but she had the same amount of fight in her.

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

The Sack of Hammers gang (an informal name, of course) had finally had enough. Jonesy growled in annoyance and ordered his goons to fill the heroes full of bullets. They’d sort everything out later. Meanwhile. Dixie had been stalling for this exact moment. Roller skates popped out of the bottom of her shoes. Reiko leapt onto her shoulders. Then Dixie grinned. “Motorcycles are replaceable.” Said to Gauss. “That was only a stun gun. Wouldn’t have done any real damage.” Said to Facs. “Bit late on that, honey.” Said to White Lioness.  “Byeeeee.!” Said to all three. She spun around, rocket exhaust shot out the back of her shoes, and she was speeding down the road.

[Azuth65]

Silently, Gauss turned and like a shot was zooming after the cowgirl of weaponcrafting, her cape snapping behind her.  Catching up quickly, the magnetokinetic focused on Dixie's rocketboots and with an effort of will, created a localized magnetic field to hold the duo in place.  Calmly, enjoying watching the rockets still expending fuel but getting them nowhere, Gauss gave a little wave, "I'm afraid you guys can't leave yet.  The party's just getting started and it is such terrible form for a host to duck out like that."