ic A Clockwork Grey (IC)

[Thevshi]

Lincoln, Freedom City, New Jersey

Friday October 1, 2021 (10:23 PM)

 

A cool night breeze blew over the dark empty street corner of a rundown section of Lincoln. Along the block there were a few occupied storefronts, an all-night convenience store, a liquor store and a currently closed pawn shop. But the majority of the storefronts were empty and dark. Above many of the storefronts were low-income apartments, several in equally bad shape as the storefronts.

 

Perched on the third story roof of one of the buildings was a small group of teenagers. Nevermore II had been looking into reports of a local street gang that was causing a considerable amount of trouble for the police. Based on the reports, it sounded as if the gang had gotten ahold of a cache of Foundry tech that had been left behind when Talos had established Rurland. Based on the few reports thus far, it sounded as if the gang had at least a few energy weapons and some personal forcefields among the cache. Of course it was always possible that the gang had access to more Foundry tech.

 

Normally this might have been something Charlie continued to investigate on his own, or perhaps brought Callie in to help as well. But recently Headmistress Summers had been encouraging him to try to include the other members of his intermural team from school in some of his investigations. So, he had brought the other members of Grey Team with him tonight.

 

A couple blocks down the street from where the members of Grey Team were gathered was a dilapidated four story tenement building. Many of the windows of the building were broken out and boarded up and graffiti covered much of the first level exterior. From information Charlie had been able to gather, the gang was using the abandoned building as a base of operations.

[Thunder King]

Simon had been quietly observing his new teammates. He'd been told that these were his team of future heroes, and had been asked to help out. He was in cat form, sticking to the shadows. He made sure not to lose his teammates, keeping an eye on them as he snuck around. A little black cat with a white spot on his chest wove in and out of the area. He never lost track of them, and he suspected that some of them would at least have an idea where he was.

 

He knew better than to assume he could take any sort of leadership position, rather, he felt like he would be best suited as a sort of forward scout. After all, Freedom still had a great number of stray cats. What was one more? 

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie made her way over the rooftops, sacrificing a little stealth for more speed, besides most people never looked up even in a city full of cowls! This was always fun and she had to remind herself that this was a serious mission and now just a regular workout routine! As such she took a minute to get her into cowl voice, grinning and bubbly wasn’t very on brand!

 

“Anyone have eyes on the targets? How we want to handle this?” you always needed comms for something like this, everyone was just to good at hiding.

[RocketLord]

It still felt weird actually being the one to take the lead on something. Before Claremont, Charlie would have gone out with Alek on a mission like this, playing the sidekick role and doing what he was told, but now he was the one directing his team mates to take part in everything. A lot had changed in the last year.

 

Like Callie, he was moving across the rooftops, floating or grapple hooking from roof to roof, staying out of sight the entire time.

 

"Buddy system. Make sure you're close to at least one of the others so nobody gets caught alone. Stick to the shadows, scope out the place until we know exactly what we're dealing with. Foundry tech's not gonna be easy." 

 

He into his belt and pulled out his drone and tossed it ahead, letting it fly ahead to scout. 

 

"Cat-Sith, do you have eyes on my drone? Should be just above your position. I'll keep an eye on you while you scout ahead."

 

Charlie paused, just a moment.

 

"Oh, and Nightscale? Codenames." 

 

He didn't even try to suppress the grin at the end.

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As the members of Grey squad moved across the rooftops of the nearby buildings, Cat-Sith moved out ahead in his cat form, dropping down to the street level to dart across the dark street toward the front of the rundown tenement building which lay to the north of where the squad was approaching from. The towering four story building stood dark up above Cat-Sith, the windows and doors at the front all boarded up and covered in graffiti. Some of the upper floor windows were not covered with boards, but were several stories above where Cat-Sith currently was crouched in some shadows.

 

The tenement building sat at the southwest corner of its block, a single story building sitting just to the east of it, a dark, narrow alleyway running between the buildings. Cat-Sith was not picking up much

 

Up in the air above the sidewalk Cat-Sith was on, Nevermore's drone hovered silently, its dark form blending perfectly into the night sky. Through the sensors on the drone, Nevermore was able to get a good look at the front of the building and through some of the windows on the upper floors.

 

A small device had been placed on the exterior of one of the windows on the third floor and it appeared to be some sort of high-tech monitoring device. While some of the windows on the upper floors were boarded up on the inside or otherwise blocked by some obstruction, a few were open, allowing a view in. Most of the rooms the drone could see into were dark and appeared empty save for some furniture or occasional boxes of some kind.

But through one window on the third floor, the drone was able to see through a dark, empty room and into a dimly lit room beyond. From the limited view the drone could get through the doorway between the two rooms, there were a couple of tables set up in the room. The one closest to the door seemed to have a stack of several small plastic bags filled with white powder. There were also a couple weapons visible on the table. The room was occupied, as a number of individuals moved about the room, their shadows cast on the opposite wall or occasionally passing by the doorway before stepping out of view again.

[Nerdzul]

"Code-what?" Luke grinned at Charlie from his hiding spot as he surveyed the scene.

 

Gangsters with supertech, no biggie, at least it wasn't demons this time. Still, this new guys were definitely in need of some ass kicking. You know... keep the streets clean and so on. His eyes peered into the darkness with ease, unfortunately there was little they could catch from so far. Well, better wait for the "reconnaissance team" to be back with the news of what was inside. In fact, the young man had waved a good luck to Simon not long before and for now was content to just observe. 

 

"I can make a bit of a distraction." He offered to Callie, when she asked for strategy, there was a grin on his lips, a devilish one at that. "I mean it will alert them that something is wrong, but we can get them to come out and play on our own terms." Yeah or keep their attention away from the place where they were actually going to attack.  Although admittedly anything he made with his powers won't show on a camera or other surveillance gizmo they might have, so yeah there was that...

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Nerdzul

[RocketLord]

"Right, let's stick to recon first. We don't want them ready, if we can help it," Charlie replied to Luke's offer for Callie.

 

"We got some kind of monitoring device on one of the third floor windows, but everything else seems clear. I can see a group moving around behind another window on the third floor, but I'm not gonna send the RVD in through the window, it'll just tip them off."

 

Moving the drone inside, he instead moved it towards Simon. Charlie honestly wasn't sure if he could hear them while a cat, but he couldn't talk, at least. Moving the drone back to Simon, he did his best to share his plan. So... he tried to make the drone make some movements towards the building, and if Simon found a way in, it would guide him through the floors, to try to get him to head in the direction of the room with the people and weapons. Cat moving inside probably wouldn't cause too much attention, and he could, hopefully, move the drone up near the ceiling and slip inside while they had eyes on Simon.

 

"We should get ready to strike that room. Anybody got eyes on the roof? Anything up there?"

Edited October 15, 2021 by RocketLord

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne

 

Muirne was having a devil of a time. She was wreathed in her shadows, clinging to the wall looking at the building and unable to respond. She could hear her teammates talking over the earpiece but the microphone was off, or muted or something! She groaned in frustration as she jabbed at it with her fingers.

 

Her voice crackled to life as she finally got the microphone working and her frustration showed in her voice as her shadows agitated across her. "Finally! I've been trying for ages! I can make my way up there to look around if you want. Also I can make us invisible, make the entire area dark or just pass through one of the walls or roof to scout. Anything you'd prefer, Nevermore?"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As all of the team finally was able to check in and begin discussing further plans for converging on the suspected location of the street gang, Simon was already up at the front of the building and planning to move further in. Leaping up to a window sill on the second floor, the teenager in cat form was easily able to slip into an opening between some of the boards covering one of the windows and into the dark room beyond. Unfortunately the opening was too small for Nevermore's drone to try to follow.

 

Inside the dark room that appeared to have once been an apartment, Simon was met with the strong odor of mildew and mold. There was some old furniture in the room that had certainly seen much better days, some of it even broken and cast to the side. The room consisted of a living/dining room area with a small kitchen, with all the main appliances missing and half the cabinets broken out. A dark hallway led back to what was likely the rest of the apartment, while over near the kitchen was an opening where the apartment door had once been located, leading into a common hallway beyond.

[RocketLord]

"Cat-Sith's inside, but I can't follow. I'll check the roof. I'd like some cover there if it's clear. Otherwise, let's see what I spot."

 

Charlie wasn't a fan of Simon going at it alone inside the building. Callie, Luke, Muirne... he knew all three. Knew what they could do, knew that they could take care of themselves. Sure, he could probably trust Simon, and he should, buuut... he was still the junior member of the squad. He'd have to look into getting some cat-sized ear pieces from Alek...

 

Unable to follow Simon inside, the drone flew up towards the roof.

[Thunder King]

Cat-Sith

 

Once inside, Simon stuck to the darkest parts of the shadows. He knew his eyes would shine in the dark, so he made sure to stay out of sight. He realized that Nevermore's machine couldn't follow him inside, and knew that was a problem. Charlie seemed like the kind of guy who liked to have a good handle on things, and losing track of Simon would bug him. Ah, well. Simon trusted his abilities.

 

He would prioritize finding weapons, if he could. He assumed they would look like something that didn't belong. He knew he could handle himself quite well if caught, but he would first try to find weapons, and maybe see where their enemies were.

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As Cat-Sith started stalking further into the building, he moved through the empty apartment and toward the hallway beyond. The hallway stretched left and right, several other old, battered doors lining each side of the hallway in either direction before each branch of the hallway turned towards the back of the building. A short way toward his right, Cat-Sith could make out what appeared to be the entrances of a pair of elevators, though what condition those might be in was likely questionable.

 

As he had been focused to his right, the sound of some footfalls to his left almost startled the teenager. Darting out of the doorway and across the hall to another open doorway into what appeared to have once been a laundry area he peered back out to see two young men come around the corner of the hallway. One was carrying an automatic pistol and shining a flashlight along the hallway, aiming it at the doorway where Cat-Sith had just been standing. Just behind the man was another gang member, carrying a submachine gun.

 

"Common, the motion sensor picked up something entering into the apartment ahead." The man with the pistol stated quietly to the other.

 

"It is probably just another dumb bird." Responded the man with the submachine gun as he followed after the first as they made their way toward the apartment where Cat-Sith had made his entrance into the building.

 

Outside, Nevermore directed his drone up towards the roof of the tenement building. The dirty roof had several old pieces of mechanical equipment located there. There was also a door that lead into a roof access area which was likely connected to one of the main stairwells within the building. There was no sign of any sentries or guards on the roof, however, the drone spotted a device similar to the one it had detected on the front of the building, this one located just above the door leading into the roof access area.

[Nerdzul]

Nightscale kept following the scene from his perch on the rooftop. Truth was the young man was itching for action, but he wasn't exactly proud of his past experience with stealth since he had began his superhero. Dragons weren't know to be subtle after all.  So yeah, better wait until his companions had finished surveying the scene.

 

"So what's going on C- Nevermore? Found a way in?" 

 

It was a shame, if you asked him, that he could not just change into his monstrous form and then tear down the walls or something. But then again, the bad guys had super-tech weapons and it was still the city. So yeah, no indulging of his mythological creatures instincts, for now.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Nerdzul

[RocketLord]

"Maybe. There's no sentries up on the roof, but there's one of those weird devices that was by the door. I'm guessing it's some kind of motion detector or alarm or something. Probably not something we want to trigger."

 

So, then what? The two most obvious paths were blocked, so... he'd have to make a path. Figure out what that thing on the roof was, maybe a way to disable it. 

 

"I'll get closer, stay in touch." 

 

Raising a gauntlet, he sent a line to the building and quickly swung across, activating his grapple claws as soon as he touched it, then slowly began moving up. Maybe he could connect to the device, try to disable it or something like that.

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven
Callie was sorely tempted to follow Charlie up to the roof, but being responsible (for now) she decided to stick with the one less stealthy member of there team.

 

“Next time we go out I’m bringing a kitty cam! At least it’ll make for some interesting footage for my channel.” she grinned to herself before adding

 

“So we good for a two pronged attack? Or you do you need to do the cowl things before it all starts?”

 

She was also a fan of all that cowl like stuff, but not today, she’ll make up for it some other day.

[Nerdzul]

Luke nodded. If they wanted to sneak in without alerting everyone inside they needed to deal with the motion sensor, although, to be honest, that was something that he needed to leave to his more tech-savvy companions, it was a shame, perhaps, but his illusion could only trick the mind and not the machine.

 

"Found something guys? I dunno how long I keep myself from just kicking down door." He joked, although, admittedly the idea was kinda tempting. Not that the idea to burst in the lion's den felt like it was the wisest, though.

 

"Anything we can do to help?" Again he wished he could do something to help, but for now the mission was pretty much in the hands of Nevermore and Cat-Sith, of course Luke could be discrete if he wanted to, but given his track record last year, well, he felt like maybe it was better to let the professionals do their thing, this time at least. "Dunno, a distraction maybe?"

 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Nerdzul

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne

 

Muirne listened in as people talked about the motion sensor. She wasn't sure how those sorts of things worked, and Charlie hadn't responded to her question. After a quick check to make sure her microphone was working she reached out and lightly held onto Luke and Callie's shoulders, pushing her shadows out to wreath first herself and then them, clenching her teeth at the pain.

 

"If it helps, Madame Raven, Nightscale and I are now invisible, and if it's not too heavy I can send the motion sensor to the Schattenwelt."