High Tech on Low Tide [IC]

[Azuth65]

September 18, 11:45pm

Silver Spider hung in the shelter of a darkened corner under a warehouse's overhang. Lightning flashed off in the distance, occasionally followed by a low rumble of thunder several seconds later. Tearing her eyes away from the sky she returned to watching the neighboring warehouse where she'd tracked an irregularity in a shipment out of her family's company. The night had been a long, dull one and she was spending half her time clinging to the wall out of easy sight contemplating incorporating some sort of night-vision goggles and binoculars into her mask.

Just as she beginning to think maybe the pickup time listed in the email had been wrong, she saw an unmarked white straight truck drive up and back into the loading dock. Well, looks like the show's about to begin, she thought as two men in well tailored suits that would have hidden the shoulder holsters their guns sat in if they'd made even the slightest effort.

[Thunder King]

Voltage was following a paper trail. Well, a data trail. Some suspicious looking thefts here and there lead him to believe that something major was going down. He just didn't know what. He'd followed it to this warehouse, assuming the trail would finally start giving answers.

The storm's flashes didn't bother him, Voltage had no fear of lightning. He did, however use the clouds as cover. His dark costume was perfect cover.

He hovered above them, hoping they wouldn't see him gazing down at the warehouse. He observed their guns as his keen mind began to formulate a plan.

[Azuth65]

Walking towards the beige doorway next to the dock, one of the men could be heard grumbling loudly to his companion, "Come on Vinny, how come we gotta do this? These damned boxes are heavy and I know we got a bunch of guys sitting around doing nothing back at the club."

Vinny turned and eyed his cohort, "Because, Al, the Boss said for us to bring him the crates and no witnesses. It's easier to move some of the Owens shipment ourselves than get anyone else to do it."

The comments caught Jennifer's attention, especially when her company's name was mentioned. Waiting for the pair to enter the building, Silver Spider swung down from a line of web and crept over to the blind side of the truck.

[Thunder King]

Voltage spotted the other hero swing down, and inwardly sighed. He was glad to have assistance in this situation. Allied heroes were never a bad thing in his eyes. Sometimes really bad situations turned out only mostly bad because someone else was there to help.

He flew up and over so that they wouldn't see him, and then sent a very tiny spark towards her to make his presence known. He raised his hands up in a friendly gesture to let her know he was there to help.

He did hope that she wouldn't turn and attack him, sometimes, heroes did that when they didn't know who the other was. He hoped she was smart enough to know the difference.

[Azuth65]

Silver Spider had just finished creeping up the side of the truck and was listening through the gap between the loading dock and the truck itself, only hearing a few grunts of effort and the thud of hard plastic cases being impacted. The tiny spark in the corner of her eye caused her to look up and spot the young man floating not far above her. Her thoughts raced through her head but she came quickly to the conclusion that if he was an enemy, he'd wasted a perfectly good chance to zap-cook her. Either he's here for the same thing I am, in which case I need to fire our cyber-security adviser if he found out the same way I did, or he wants to chat before throwing down. Either way, the top of a truck is a bad place for that, she reasoned.

Timing it just right to avoid being noticed, the athletic genius leaped from truck, shot a line of webbing onto the corner of the roof and swung up and onto the roof with hardly a sound. Once away from the vehicle she silently waved other person down.

[Thunder King]

Voltage floated downward until he could see her eye to eye. He gave her a quick look over. Obvious spider theme, web powers of some sort. Her natural agility lent itself to stealth, likely. Definitely an asset in this situation. "Hello, my name is Voltage." He said, smiling politely and nodding. "I found a previous theft earlier, and the data trail lead me here. Can I assume something similar?"

He glanced back at the building. Full of thugs, illegal goods, and who knew what else. Caution was ideal here.

[Azuth65]

Though she did not show it, partly due to the mask covering her face and partly due to controlled body language, she was relieved that Voltage was coming from an outside paper trail. "Something similar indeed," Silver replied. Holding out a hand, she took a step closer, "Nice to meet you, I go by Silver Spider." She eyed his costume, she noticed the apparent circuitry pattern running across the entirety of black material. He certainly knows how to make a handsome costume. I wonder if his flight and that spark were from well hidden aspects of the suit or his own powers, she considered from behind her mask.

Nodding towards a grim covered skylight she commented, "Not sure if you heard what those bozos were moving but they've managed to get their hands on some prototype technology Owens Enterprises had developed for the Department of Defense. I don't know what exactly they have but the possibilities range from high end body armor to something like a laser hand grenade."

[Thunder King]

He shook her hand and turned towards the building. "That matches the nature of the previous thefts. Whoever these guys are, they definitely have some dangerous tech. If we let any of that tech slip away now, they'll be far more dangerous against whatever they're stealing it for. I don't plan on giving them that chance. Shall we go free them of that burden?" He asked.

[Azuth65]

"Indeed. Think we should drop in through the skylight, the front door, or make them come to us by stealing their truck?" Silver Spider asked, looking over her shoulder at the small sliver of truck still visible from their current position on the rooftop.

Returning her attention to Voltage she clasped her hands behind her back, vaguely wishing she had made her costume's pants with pockets. "Aside from what they're in the process of loading, I didn't see them carrying anything heavier than a couple of revolvers."

[Thunder King]

"I say the skylight. We should be able to drop at least one apiece before they even realize we've hit them. Of course, if they do react in time they're likely to have a good shot at us. Maybe I should drop in from the skylight and you should take the front door. If I blast that skylight wide open and drop in, they won't even notice you coming in through the door. What do you say?"

He realized that he'd been teaming up with a lot of female superheroes lately. Miss Americana, Ironclad, Stormbreaker and now this one. He wasn't exactly complaining, but it was an odd coincidence.

[Azuth65]

Silver nodded her agreement, "Good plan." Before moving to get into position she tapped her right ear through the mask and asked, "Do you have a commlink? Separating without a way to keep in contact is just asking for trouble."

With the plan in place, the silver-clad scientist crept over to the ledge and stepped directly off. With a minor effort of concentration she altered her personal graviton field and instead of falling twenty feet to cement steps, she instead only dropped three inches and was standing on the wall of the building as if it was the ground. Holding still she waited for the sound of shattering glass to signal her to move in.

[Thunder King]

Voltage flew up and over the skylight, watching down below. This was going to suck if he wasn't careful. They could easily turn on him and blast him to kingdom come. But, he had a plan. Shock and awe, really. Blow open the skylight and start frying, then wait for Silver Spider to go in and attack. Luckily, he could teleport if it looked like there would be a chance he would get badly hurt or killed.

He inhaled, and sent a bolt of electricity downward into the glass, shattering it. He lowered himself through the hole it made, descending to the area below through a waterfall of glass, making sure all the glass fell below him while still giving the impression.

His hands crackled with silvery bolts of electricity. He wanted to make a spectacle, well, he did.

[Azuth65]

Shards of glass fell into the warehouse, bouncing off crates and landing on the bare cement floor. As Voltage lowered himself into the building, he saw the two men come running around a wall formed from shelves filled from top to bottom with boxes. He also saw the weapons each carried, they were indeed revolvers as Silver Spider had noted but the way the cylinders glowed with their own light lead the young genius to believe they had some rather abnormal ammunition on hand.

Both men stopped, leveled their weapons and thumbed back the hammers on their snub-nose weapons. The one who had been giving the orders, Vinny, was about to say something when the sound of a door slamming shut boomed through the building, taking their eyes from the flying superhero.

[Thunder King]

Voltage assessed the situation, taking in the various details and components of what was going on. Then, he raised his hand. A bolt of silvery electrical energy screamed through the air, enveloping one of the thugs.

"I'm wary...this looks very odd, neither of them look in charge." He said as his target took the brunt of the blast.

"I'd recommend caution."

[Azuth65]

GM

The mafioso Voltage's bolt of silver lightning struck convulsed for a second before falling limply to the ground, his suit jacket and shirt singed and smoking. His partner wasted no time and pulled the trigger on his pistol, firing a bullet that was giving off light similar to a tracer round towards the flying super. Luckily for Voltage his opponent was a terrible shot and the bullet slammed into the room were instead of punching through it splattered like a paintball round.

Before he could adjust from his mistake though, the second thug found himself wrapped from neck to knees in a sticky glue-like substance. Losing his balance he fell onto his side and as the substance rapidly dried, was unable to roll onto his back. Silver Spider stepped out of the shadows, looking up at the other hero, "Agreed. These two don't seem all that bright. There has to be somebody else around to make sure they don't screw up."

[Thunder King]

Voltage wasted no time firing another electric blast, this time, ensuring his foe was out cold.

"Look at that." He said, coldly. "A convenient witness that can help us. You want to help us right?" He said, tilting his head.

He folded his arms, and didn't actually land, instead floating there and glaring a hole in the thug.

He knew he wasn't scary, but he could at least pretend.

[Azuth65]

Looking up from where he lay, stuck in his webbing straight jacket, the captured thug met Voltage's glare. His voice was deep, resonating, and lacking even a hint of intimidation. "Kid, you have no idea what kind of pain you just signed yourself up for."

Silver Spider sat in a crouch, hanging upside down from the rafters, securing the other tough to the floor in case he was faking the thoroughness of his defeat. She was going to ask what he was going to do, trapped like a fly in her webs when the rolling door back by the loading area was slammed upwards so hard it crumpled in it's track. After that, there was only silence in the warehouse until the still conscious thug starting chuckling. "No idea," he repeated darkly.

[Thunder King]

Voltage decided to try a new trick. In the poorly lit area, foes could come from anywhere, and the thug was clearly of the impression someone was out there somewhere.

He clasped his hands together and concentrated, sending a vibrant silver arc between his outstretched hands. It made a low, electric hum, and the air smelled of ozone.

He poured more energy into the arc, causing it to grow brighter and brighter until it lit up the whole area around them. Once it was sustained, he lowered his hands and gazed around the room.

"I am aware of what I'm doing." He said, showing off his powers just a little bit. "Is your ally truly going to attack two trained and experienced superheroes?"

[Azuth65]

Leaping out from the shadows created by Voltage's improvised light source, a man wearing a black suit of sleek body armor complete with a helmet that obscured half of his face screamed, "You bet I am!" He then threw a small round metal object at Voltage, which exploded on contact.

When the superhero remained standing, albeit in midair, through the dispersing cloud of smoke and fire, the visible portion of the thief's face twisted into a scowl. "Stupid bombs. I'm going to kill the guy... oh wait, I already killed the guy who made these," he said before bursting into maniacal laughter.

[Azuth65]

Silver had to resist the urge to quirk an eyebrow, mostly because her mask would have hidden the gesture. Instead, she quickly raised her arms and took aim, "Well, that doesn't make you sound like a homicidal maniac at all. How 'bout we put you into a nice little web-straight jacket until the men in little white coats get here," she said in the kind of voice reserved for dealing with rabid animals and angry in-laws.

Of course, if she had been intending to garner his rage, she certainly had it. He turned to sneer at her and in doing so saw the blobs of webbing headed his way just in time to deftly dodge over them where they impacted harmlessly into a stack of pallets.