Undercity Manhunt [IC]

[Azuth65]

October 25th

10:30pm

The lights sitting atop the police vehicles and ambulance flashed lazily in the autumn night, bathing the area in blue and red lights. Hanging from a street light a few yards away, Silver Spider watched the police work, combing the scene for any evidence. I wish you the best of luck, that storm drain looks like the city has cleaned it out since May, she observed.

She flipped back to the top of the light and covered the short distance by way of swinging from web lines. She landed lightly on the roof of a police car and asked the uniformed man, "Is there anything I can do to help officer?".

[Vahnyu]

The hero Net Fly was flying way above the clouds, his dark uniform being almost indistinct from the black of the night, occasionally lowering his altitude, getting closer to the ground, in order to see if there was any trouble happening at the area he was currently in. He had already checked most of Kingston, North End and Hanover, and now, he was turning towards the West End, for a final round, before retiring for the day.

It was proving to be a relatively quiet day(or night, as it were), with only a few incidents occuring, and most of them were already taken care of by other heroes. Net Fly managed to stop a few robbers on their gateaway car, but other than that, nothing big had happened yet. Not that he terribly minded the lack of excitement. He understood perfectly well that every little bit helped. "Now, let's see... what does this corner hold..."

[horngeek]

Vector walked up to the police cordon, blinking a little as she looked at the crimescene. Geez... this has been a pretty slow night overall, but now there's... what, a murder scene? Must be, otherwise they wouldn't put this much effort into figuring out the scene. ...note to self. Get a better knowledge of crime-scene investigation work than memories of CSI.

She headed towards Silver Spider and the police officer. "Same question, I think... anything I could do to help at this point, officer?"

[Azuth65]

GM

The officer, a young man in a Freedom City Police Department jacket turned looked up at the women on the car he had been standing with his back to. "As a matter of fact, yes. We've got a blood trail and claw marks leading from the body and down into that manhole," he said pointing. "We've already called in the STAR unit but if you want to head down first, we aren't going to stop you."

Silver Spider cocked her head to one side, "Is there anything we should be aware of? I assume you believe the culprit is a meta-human, given you're calling in the Super-human Tactics and Regulation squad."

The cop nodded, "Don't let yourself be captured. Every victim of this maniac has had... bites," he looked visibly disgusted as he spoke, "taken from them. The bite marks match up with the approximate radius of make-up of a human mouth. Also, all previous victims had some unidentified toxin in their blood."

[Vahnyu]

Net Fly hovered a few feet above the crime scene and he listened at the officer's descriptions. At first, seeing that two heroes had apparently arrived at the scene, he thought that he should leave the work on them, instead of getting on their way. The two women certainly seemed capable of tackling any foe, and between the two of them, they could easily watch each other's back, which is always a good idea. However, the more he heard, the more worried he became.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly descended near the two superheroines, and introduced himself. "Well, this just sounds like real trouble. Hello, I'm Net Fly. I'm sorry, I was gonna leave this case to the two of you, but from what the officer said, I think even a battalion of superheroes would have trouble dealing with the culprit. That being the case, I'd like to lend a hand, if you don't mind me."

[Quinn]

There was a lamppost that Net Fly passed as he was lowering down, and for a second the hero's body obscured the top of it. Once he had landed, the metal edifice seemed somewhat larger - until the individual in the black costume with the beaked mask shifted slightly. Perched atop the cap of the lamp, Crow did indeed look like a hunting bird come to seek their prey. The group of heroes and the officer in question felt a piercing gaze trail over them as that solid iron mask tracked back and forth.

Morgan resisted the urge to smile. He knew crafting those runes into the mask would be a good idea. He'd picked up everything, of course - been keeping tabs on that biting assailant since the second attack. The problem was a distinct lack of evidence at each scene, not even enough to follow. Bites did scream vampires, though - and there were records of them having shown up in Freedom before. Prior preparation paid off there, too - he'd nicked some cloves and vials from the Parkhurst supply for his pockets weeks ago in case of just such an eventuality.

"Seconded." was the toneless addition to Net Fly's offer for assistance. It had been a quiet patrol anyhow. "Crow. It's a pleasure."

[horngeek]

Vector smiled as the two other superheroes showed up, the blue-costumed woman looking both of the newcomers over. "Sure. We could always use more help- I'm Vector, by the way.

We should probably have an idea of what we can all do, if we want to be able to work together in a fight. I'll go first- my power's vector manipulation, hence the name. What it works out to... I can pretty much do the stuff most big strong superheroes do- move massive objects, I can ignore large amounts of damage, and I can leap long distances. Also, I can direct anything like toxins, lethal radiation or gases away from my body, so no breathing appratus needed unless there's no oxygen in the area."

[Azuth65]

The arachnid themed hero turned to the others, nodding at each, "I go by Silver Spider. As for what I can do, mostly my abilities lie in mobility, clinging to walls and ceilings, and shooting webs. I can also MacGuyver some surprises if given enough time to work."

Jennifer didn't feel like explaining the graviton altering aspects of her powers, figuring the end results would be quicker to state than going into the details about how she alters gravitons around her body for the nearly forty foot leaps she can make.

[Vahnyu]

"A very reasonable idea, Vector." Net Fly nodded in agreement, and listened carefully as the two heroines explained their powers. When they were done, he took the turn to explain his power-set. "My body can vibrate in high frequencies, which enhances my speed, strenght, and toughness, as well as allows me to fly or stick on surfaces. Furthermore, my powers also act as a battery for my suit, which creates a loop feedback of strengthening my powers back, and also allows me to harness them in the form of sonic blasts." He punctuated that part, by indicating both his blue gauntlets, which were slightly bulkier than the rest of his suit, and the megaphone in his chest. "Finally, I can give a hand to Silver Spider in making stuff on the spot, at least if it involves computers or technology in some way."

[Quinn]

"Crow. I'm not seen."

The young man lightly hopped down from the lamppost. Before his boots had even touched the ground, he just...wasn't there. Perhaps a little dust might have been kicked up, or there might have been a breeze from his passage - but until he spoke from right behind Vector, there were literally no indications that the young hero had been even near the area.

"Also exceptionally good at psychology." He said in a very low, and intimidating tone. If anyone whipped around in surprise, they would have seen him standing quite relaxed behind Vector - arms crossed and a small smile creasing the face visible under the mask.

Mucho eerie. Heeheehee. He had to resist the urge to do a tiny little dance - that went off perfectly!

[Azuth65]

GM

The officer listened as the four heroes explained their powers and abilities, his eyes bugging a bit at Crow's demonstration of teleportation. After a minute he nodded towards a partially open manhole, "This way."

As the heroes approached, several things became apparent. First were the claw marks in the cast iron cover, in a roughly hand shaped pattern where it had been lifted and pushed out of the way. The second was that stamped into the iron of the lid was the notice that the tunnel this lead down to was a storm drain, not the main sewage system. The officer turned back to the heroes, "The blood trail leads down there. Good luck and good hunting."

[Vahnyu]

"The blood trail leads down there. Good luck and good hunting."

"Right you are, officer. Thank you for your assistance." Net Fly thanked the man in blue. He couldn't help but feel the static electricity build as the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Turning at the other heroes gathered, the young man inquired. "So, what do you think? Perhaps we should make a formation, in order to proceed? The officer mentioned something about a toxin in the victims, right?..." The young hero commented, as he considered the team's options. "... hmmm... Vector, you said something about directing foreign agents away from your body, right? In that case, you should take point, as you stand the biggest chance against any nasty surprise our quarry may have. Me and Silver Spider can provide support as your wingmen, and Crow can follow us while hiding in the shadows. I'm sure you could take our foe by surprise, while we keep it occupied. Any thoughts?"

[horngeek]

Vector's eyes widened a bit as Crow turned up right behind her, but she didn't start or anything like that. She nodded as Net Fly spoke. "That'd probably be best, yeah."

She paused, thinking. "How much light should we use? We don't want to alert whatever's down there, but I don't think stumbling around in the dark would be a good way of avoiding attention. For those of us who don't have the best night vision, anyway, and I... probably fall into that category."

[Quinn]

"As much as you need." Crow said flatly. Benefits of the Iron Mask were that regardless of light sources, he had excellent night vision. Complete with heat vision and tracking. He loved it when a tool built from foresight and planning was suddenly incredibly handy - that feeling of vindication gave him a warm and fuzzy sensation. Which, given the weather, was quite welcome.

The teen kneeled by the storm drain, peering down into the darkness. Almost idly, he made a tiny and almost imperceptible hand gesture - the runes on the mask under the hood gleamed . Only for a moment, however - and behind the solid black iron, Crow could see. He peered down into the darkness, and focused his senses like Archer had trained him. Tuning out the world - there was only the dark underground...and here, the dark was his friend.

[Azuth65]

As Crow peered down the hole, he could see several more blood splatters and claw marks in various positions on or around the steel rungs. Further down was a barely flowing river of stagnant water filled with bits of urban detritus and a great many dead leaves and branches carried in by previous rain storms.

Another officer stepped up next to the heroes and the officer with them. After a brief whispered conversation they pulled the flashlights from their belts and handed them to Vector and Netfly. "These will be of more use to you down there than to us up here," the first said.

[Vahnyu]

Net Fly gratefully took the flashlight offered to him by the other officer, and bowed his head as a further sign of gratitude. "Your aid is much appreciated officer. You have our thanks." turning around to the other heroes gathered there, the young man spoke "Alright, everyone. I think we're ready as we'll ever be. Let us be on our way. Crow and Silver Spider, even if we have flashlights, we will be relying on you two to watch our backs." Addressing Vector, Net Fly said. "We will be right behind you, Vector. Keep your eyes open, and your flashlight trained at all times."

Turning to face the path, Net Fly gathered himself and said "Let's do this!"

[horngeek]

Vector smiled as she took the offered flashlight. "Thanks. I'll try to get it back to you in one piece, okay?"

She looked over the edge of the manhole, nodding in response to Net Fly's comment before handing the flashlight to him. "All right... let's go. Shine a light down after me, okay? I don't exactly have a belt to clip the torch onto..."

Then, she started climbing down the ladder, quickly but carefully moving down, watching around her- but having to trust in her powers to keep her safe should she be ambushed. Vector reached the bottom a short time later, and dropped off it...

[Quinn]

The black figure simply faded into the background as the others went down, and soon faded from view entirely. Some would have simply trusted to the innate dark of the subterranean tunnels to keep one cloaked from sight - Crow, for his part, preferred more insurance. The veiling rune worked as well as it always did, doubly so since he upgraded it months ago. Instead of a blurry form, the only markers of his passing might have been an errant footstep, or a hitch in breathing.

At least, if he wasn't really trying to be disciplined about his stealth.

Either way, the heroes likely felt as if they were being watched now and again. Crow followed behind as they wished; moving slowly through the water and cycling through the different visions the mask afforded him - making doubly sure he could spot what was coming. En route, he considered those in front of him somewhat - evaluating slightly. He'd gotten into a comfort zone with the others from Claremont; encountering other heroes was something that didn't happen to him too often.

[Azuth65]

As the four descended into the storm drain, their footsteps echoed eerily around them. Rats and cockroaches skittered away from their flashlights. Every few yards they would come across a few more drops of blood or more claw marks ripped into the concrete, almost like territorial markings.

Silver Spider crawled along the far wall, keeping her eyes and ears primed for any sign of trouble. Before long, the heroes came upon an area where the wall had been completely torn away, the interior lit dimly by a barely functional light, the kind generally used in garages to see under car hoods. As the group approached, they could see a pile of discarded clothing, some stained with long dried blood as well as more chambers beyond.