ic Star Meets Star (IC)

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

Michael smiled and had the good nature to look at least a little embarassed at being complimented that way. He didn't think his contributions were anything to write home about, but he was willing to take them on for now and wasn't going to get into a back and forth over who had been the most helpful; sometimes you had to just take the compliments.

 

"Thank you, Shooting, Officer Morris." he offered a little wave. 

 

"As for who owns this...well, I'm not sure. But it seems like it might not be someone whose fully on the 'up and up', so to speak, if they were willing to hire dangerous mercenaries to get it back; ones that won't even say who hired them. My assumption is people like that are quite expensive to purchase."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice gave Golden Star an encouraging pat on the back at his thanks. She genuinely meant it when she had said he had done well.

 

She too shrugged helplessly at the question of who the owner of the axe was, chuckling as Golden Star mentioned that it was probably expensive to hire super mercenaries. "I dunno, given how many supers there are in Freedom I'm sure the wages for mercs have been pushed down due to competition. Pretty sure there are more of them than supermarket cashiers."

 

Officer Morris grinned slightly, "It gets pretty expensive once you get past the supers whose power is to be strong enough to tear a phone book in half." He shook his head amusedly. "Well, we'll get a couple pictures of the axe. You can feel free to strike heroic poses with it, chances are we'll have the proper owner turning up within a quarter hour of the pictures entering our systems. Somehow they always know."

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Ah...no...I don't really want to touch that thing again." Michael said seriously, looking at the axe in concern. "It's...no. I don't like that thing. I would be careful with it." he mumbled. He was clearly uncomfortable about the idea of even touching that thing again, much less striking any kind of pose with it. "I'd put it in a case somewhere and definitely make sure it's not touched. I really don't want to deal with it anymore if I don't have to."

He looked at Shooting Star, who hadn't touched the Axe and offered a little shrug. He couldn't really explain it better than that, and he definitely didn't seem to suggest she should touch it and find out.

"Er...you can, if you want to. I'm okay." he said finally, controlling his composure a little. Maybe he was overreacting? Or maybe he was just mentally weak, and Shooting Star wouldn't have issues with it.

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice wasn't going to second guess Golden Star's opinion on the obviously abnormal axe. If he thought people shouldn't touch it then she would follow that. "I'm alright, I trust your opinion. No one touches the axe unnecessarily."

 

Officer Morris nodded, waving over one of the people taking pictures of the scene. "Was there anything else that we might need to know? Also we're you wanting to hang around in case the real owner shows up or did you want to be on your way?"

 

Alice didn't particularly mind. If she had been alone she would hang around, but this was specifically a patrol with Golden Star as a mentor, so she turned to him. "What do you think, hang around or head back to the patrol?"

Edited November 17 by Kaede Kimura

[Poncho]

(Golden Star Post)

 

Michael was quite for a moment to think about it; he was always willing to stop and think about what he thought would be the correct thing to do, and he was willing to use his super-speed enhanced brain power to consider his options. He put more brain power and thinking into this then you would expect, considering his options before responding.

 

"...To tell the truth, while it may be more appropriate to return to patrol, as there's always new issues going on, I feel like in this case we're not really finished this investigation." he finally decided. "At the very least, even if we assume that all of this is on the up and up and our criminal bounty hunters, so to speak, were overstating this man's dark side, I don't think there's anything wrong with personally making sure that the axe gets back to his hands for certain; I think that's the right thing to do, to be honest. We can always continue our patrol after being assured that the axe has been returned to it's rightful owner."

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

So decided the pair of heroes waited while pictures were taken of the axe and the rest of the crime scene. Rage and Ruin were loaded into the back of a cruiser while Officer Morris made small talk.

 

Just under a quarter of an hour later a sleek black sedan with a stylized wolf's head painted on the side doors rounded the corner. Just below the logo was written 'WOLF TECHNOLOGY'. The car stopped just before the police cordon and a harried looking young woman in a lightly rumpled white dress shirt, black pencil skirt and low heels stepped out. She adjusted her glasses for a moment before beginning to speak animatedly to the police at the edge of the scene, pointing repeatedly to her phone. After a few moments the officers let her approach the heroes.

 

"Hi," She sounded slightly out of breath as she spoke, "I'm Marianne, with Wolf Tech. How did you two find the axe? Wait, superhero business, shouldn't ask. Uhm, thank you for your service to the city." She looks nervous to be talking to a pair of superheroes, especially since the pair of Stars stand over a head taller than her even with her heels.

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

Michael was sort of surprised at such a normal looking person coming to pick up the axe. But maybe that also wasn't that weird, why would the boss have shown up first off? Clearly he'd have someone to go get it for him. But Wolf Tech? That was a bit weird to him as well; given the runes and the way the axe just...felt, he had been expecting some kind of magic, not technology. He needed to learn to temper his expectations, or at least not make assumptions.

 

"It's nice to meet you Marianne. And yes, I wouldn't want to say more than we were doing patrol when we found the axe, and the people who were apparently hired to steal it." Now that one was a lie; he was pretending that Ruin and Rage weren't hired by the owner, to see if he could get more information.

 

"I don't know how those two could have gotten ahold of the axe, but was their armor also part of the same uh...'arsenal' I guess? as the Axe."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice had also been unsure what to expect waiting for a potential owner of the axe to show, but it was clear that the woman who showed was also somewhat more normal than what she had anticipated. Still, she could roll with it.

 

The superheroine resisted the urge to quirk an eyebrow at Golden Star's lie about how they'd encountered the axe, surprised at the subterfuge by someone who had been so forthright so far. Marianne looked rapt at Golden Star's explanation, short though it was. She shakes her head at the question of the armour being part of a set with the axe. "The axe was a single item purchase. We were planning on studying how it works to look into integration with technological systems but the facility that received it in Emerald City was attacked and it was taken. The armour could have been taken during that heist? But whichever team was working with it doesn't have any crossover with mine." She shrugs helplessly. "I'm glad the people responsible were brought to justice, some of our security staff are still recovering from the event."

 

Alice hummed in thought, "What are you designing that the axe would be a useful reference for? What does it do?"

Edited November 26 by Kaede Kimura

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

Michael frowned. Of course. Two different projects. It wouldn't make any sense otherwise. But he nodded along with the story and was glad that Shooting Star didn't call him out on his selective rearing of the truth. He frowned at the explanation, spotting a break in it, but he waited politely before saying anything, like he was thinking it over, nodding like he understood what Marianne was saying, thinking about it.

 

"If it came from Emerald City, how did it get all the way here?"

[Kaede Kimura]

GM 

 

Marianne looked to Shooting Star as she asked after the reason for acquiring the Axe and it's function. She looks around to double check before leaning in to whisper. "Please don't spread this around, we're nearly at the phase for initial announcements, but the boss still wants it quiet for now. We're designing support equipment for superheroes. My team is working on armaments designed to complement a hero's strengths." She has an almost giddy expression as she talks, "That's what the Axe is supposed to do. From what we've heard, in the 6th century AD a Warlord with superhuman strength commissioned a magic axe that was designed to adapt to the wielder and amplify their strengths and adapt to their needs. It's even supposed to be enchanted so that only one person can use it. We wanted to see what we could learn from it, after all one of the worries we had was how to make our items useful for the largest variety of heroes without them also being picked up by villains. If the axe turns out to be the real article that could do both!" Her voice had raised slowly as she had gotten more into her explanation, and her nerves seemed to relax as she got into it. As she looked between the heroes she seemed to realize, and got a sheepish look on her face. "That was a bit much, wasn't it? Sorry about that, I get a bit passionate about my work."

 

At Golden Star's question she looked slightly confused, before a look if understanding crossed her face and then she switched to pensive. "You're right, if they were going to move it here why didn't they just wait until it was in our lab to take it?"

 

At this Officer Morris, who had approached at some point during her lecture and looked mildly bemused cleared his throat. Marianne jumped with a squeak, before turning to the policeman with a look of horror. "How much did you hear?" She asked weakly.

 

"Nothing which I will be repeating before your employer announces it." He chuckles good naturedly. "I've dealt with ASTRO Labs and such before. I know you egghead can't resist talking about your latest inventions. As to why our thieves would attack in Emerald City rather than here, I have a fairly concise theory." Instead of saying anything he simply gestured broadly to the Stars and the crime scene behind them.

 

Marianne looked closely at the two heroes, then squinted at the tipped van and scorchmarks on the road. She did this for several long moments before turning to the heroes, befuddled. Rather reluctantly she said, "I don't get it."

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Right, I get the idea." he acknowledged Officer Morris. "That's just not what was bothering me." he explained.

 

"They took it all the way from Emerald City to here? Or was it here instead of being in Emerald City? Like, how did it get all the way across the country? That was the part that was bothering me." he explained.

 

"I get that the idea is obviously you want to take it from Emerald City, where there's less active Superheroes currently, but how did they manage to get it all the way across the country? It's not exactly something you can keep hidden, did they drive that van the entire way over?" he asked, poking at it. 

 

To him, that was what he was thinking was the major point of the case, how they'd figure out who stole it. The Thieves from the van clearly didn't carry this thing cross country while being chased by the two in armor, by his logic, this was probably already in the city, but he couldn't understand how or why it was in the city to begin with. The 'boss' stole the axe, then took it back to Freedom, so how had he done that? That was what was rolling over in his mind. The other idea was that it hadn't been stolen at all, but there was no way to prove that either- it was just his best guess. 

 

"...As for your project, in general. I think it does work. The Axe is very...powerful. When I used it. But it seems to have a bit of a violent temper, which is a weird thing to say about an object, but it is what I got from it."