ic Searching for Vanguard

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...

 

"Ouch you are one hell of a..." screamed the invisible man before clamping his mouth shut. 

 

The floor resounded with a horrible clump as Blackpool appeared on the floor, deeply unconscious to all apparent effects. 

 

"I've had it with you, you little guttersnipe!" he finished, yelling at Jasmine. Through the words of anger, she could sense his words just slurring slightly. 

 

"You can give me back that, for starters, I'm done getting shot in the backside..." he complained. There was a slight shuffle, and then a sideways lunge of the man, taking Jasmine from an unexpected angle - as invisible hands made a grab for the gun he lost...

[Thevshi]

Dee smirked slightly at Smith's comments to Cruxberry.  "I do have a name you know."  She stated before she turned back to the damaged power system when Cruxberry indicated it would be good to try to get the power back on.

 

"Alright then, let's give this a go."  The young woman pulled open a side of the counsel in front of her and began looking for the best means of getting around the damage caused by the sabotage.  Spotting the best likely means of getting around the damage, she begins making the necessary adjustments, pulling some wires from one location to another while removing a couple altogether.  After several long moments of work, she finishes up and moves over to the reset switch.  "Well, let's hope that was good enough."

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine eyes turned immediately to the now visible Blackpool for a second, which meant the grab for the gun caught her by surprise. However, she managed to pull back and out of the grip keeping the weapon in her possession as she assessed her options. It didn't take long for her to decide the best course however.

 

Ducking down she scooped up Blackpool, he was heavy, but that didn't matter, adrenaline pushed her to her feet as she held him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. She braced herself with her load keeping her hand wrapped around his torso, got her footing stable then pushed off and forward like a gun had been shot down the hallway away from the invisible assailant. She had to push to keep herself steady with the unbalancing weight but she managed a good speed if not one that was quite a bit slower then normally possible. Fighting was tempting, but also incredibly risky. A thoroughly invisible opponent was not something she was prepared to deal with, even if she had slowed him down, her objective wasn't to beat him, it was to save Blackpool, and fighting in the dark when she could be getting away was not the way to do that. Hopefully she could find some help before he caught up, or she lost her wind, because as she spoke the weight bore down and slowed her pace even as she continued to barrel away.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I'll get you ya little..." shouted the invisible man behind Jasmine as her legs strained to put the distance between them. 

 

"You may have saved the old man's backside this time, but I'll get him. And I'll get you, too! I never forget a face!" he shouted. 

 

The game was up. The lights flickered back into action, illuminating the entire ministry with a pale orange emergency light. As they flickered into action, sirens started up. 

 

"Gah! I'm outta here!" he yelled at Jasmine's fleeing form. "Until next time...!"

 

His footsteps could just be heard over the sirens, as he sprinted the opposite direction. 

 

Meanwhile...

 

Cruxberry permitted himself a small grin as the lights flickered on and the sirens burst into life. 

 

"That will do very nicely" he said, before calling into his radio. 

 

"Security, initiate a maximum lockdown. Repeat, maximum lockdown. Nobody leaves or enters. Start full sweep protocol" he said, efficiently as always. 

 

Smith's face remained stony, although his hand gripped the enormous briefcase harder and he kept his gun up. 

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine ran down the cooridor and managed to get near the front when the lights suddenly turned on, this made her stop and nearly tumble because she overbalanced with the extra weight. Pulling the goggles down from over her eyes she started looking for, well anybody. Pulling herself against the wall she started huffing heavily as the strain bore down on her and she leaned forward a hand on her knee as she looked around. Not that it mattered, if the invisible man came back around, she wouldn't see him coming, but she couldn't keep going at least, not without seriously pulling something.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Stop right there! Put the man down, and your hands up!"

 

Government agents. Two of them. Grey suits, ties, communicators to the ear and guns to the hand. They both had that indeterminate middle age, where the body was still strong and experience had been accrued. Perhaps they were not the crack shot Jasmine was, but they knew how to fire a gun, that was for sure. And it looked like they were in no mood to hesitate. 

 

"All units. Blackpool and guest found in block C, by room 110" said the first agent, speaking into his mic without taking his eyes of Jasmine. 

 

"Put down the weapon, slowly, on the floor" he continued, directing his command to Jasmine. 

 

"And then you can tell us why you are carrying our top scientist, unconscious, on your back..." he added. 

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine looked up for a second, her heart beat slowing as the crash from the adrenaline set in. Her eyes looked up and locked on the person. She didn't put her hands up.

"....."

She leaned over and put Blackpool down gently. She also put the gun down on the ground. Her face was neutral, but her slowing heart beat started to quicken.

"...."

She didn't raise her hands, in fact she didn't rise at all, she put a knee under herself. Her heartbeat increasing, her eyes intent. Her hands were still down.

"....."
Taking a breath she bolted from her spot and put herself right into the first security guards reach turned slightly to block the other, but too close to use a gun,

"Where were you two three minutes ago!"

She had her hand on the mans wrist and a finger in his face,

"Your lead scientist was almost kidnapped by a man who came in here with little more than a slightly modified dart gun! A man who is currently escaping! No matter that they man was invisible, the so called guard you had stationed was on the floor before either of us could blink, and never mind the electricity. I've visited colleges with better security force and reaction time. No, this goes beyond incompetence, this is sheer sloth of a government appointed building which has grown lax in it's own personal so much so that a freshly graduated doctorate student is better able to the jobs of it's trained security personal."
She threw down his wrist,

"You should both put those things away before you hurt someone, I'm not going anywhere, and the culprit is likely gone. So stop wasting everyone's time, and get Professor Blackpool to the infirmary so we can flush the drug from his system and hopefully determine if there were any long term side effects. I'll go to whatever place you wish for whatever investigation you wish to conduct, but my colleague's health takes priority."

Edited October 14, 2013 by Aoiroo

[Supercape]

GM

 

Meanwhile...

 

Cruxberry pressed his receiver hard into his ear, attending to the agent's message. 

 

"Heads up! We have a possible suspect!" he said to Young Brittania, Dee, and Smith - who had presumably heard the same message but betrayed not a whisper of emotion on his resolutely stiff face. 

 

"Someone trying to make off with professor Blackpool...I don't know if you have heard of him, a damned genius biochemist, one of our top assets. You best believe we make sure he is guarded well. In the wrong hands, what he could do..." he shook his head, briefly contemplating the nightmare. 

 

"Lets go. First day on the job and you look like you belong here already!" he said to the two heroines, before waving his gun and heading them off to...

 

The corridor outside Blackpool's office. 

 

"The whole place is on lockdown ma'am. Nobody is getting in or out. Including you" replied the Agent, not taking his eye off the woman and keeping his gun trained on her. 

 

"You can tell it all to the agents when they arrive..." he explained as Jasmine leapt forward to grab the man. 

 

".,.and if you pull that trick again, I will fire ma'am!" said the shocked agent. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Agnus was smart enough that she knew when to keep quiet and let people get on with their job. In the brief moment’s between the power coming back on and report of what happened gettin out she took the chance to introduce herself.

“Hi there I’m Young Britannia, I guess the costume gives it away, and it seems that currently I’m the sole member of Vanguard 2.0.†she gave Cruxberry a pointed look.

“Though that only until I find out what happened to Lucy and Dderwen.†a smile crossed her face as she realised something

 

“I guess that technically makes me in charge right now.â€

Edited October 15, 2013 by TiffanyKorta

[Thevshi]

Dee gave a small smile as she managed to restore power (at least for the moment), not really mindful of Cruxberry's own small grin.  When Young Britannia introduced herself, Dee gave a small nod.  "Dee Farrington, and actually, I signed on a little over half a hour ago, so you're not alone."  She stated, before adding, "not that I have any desire to be in charge of anything."

 

As the report about Professor Blackpool came over the radio, Dee started off after Cruxberry as he began to lead them towards the scene.  "I have already had the chance to look over some of the Ministry's files on the Vanguard members."  Dee stated to Young Britannia as they went.  "But not much of use in them.  It seems that one of our first priorities will be to try to get access to The Haven, to see what clues might be there."

[Tiffany Korta]

Agnus couldn’t help but give a little smile as they made their way quickly to see who was the focus of this attack.

“Well you're in luck Dee I’ve use to visit the Haven all the time with Lucy, so the systems should know me. Plus it helps that I’m a teleporter, should be able to get us all inside no worries.â€

 

Cause she’d always had Lucy to help get her past the security systems and Lucy wasn’t exactly the easiest to get technical details from. Plus she suspected that Champion never really liked her.

[Thevshi]

"I've been to the Haven once myself."  Dee commented, her tone rather neutral as they continued on their way towards the site of the disturbance reported by the Ministry security.  "But I remember the layout well enough, unfortunately I did not have any chance to study the security systems during that visit."

 

"But as for teleporting straight in, given that there is always the possibility that someone else may have gained access to the Haven and overridden the prior security controls, the system might not recognize you any longer.  So before we teleport into the middle of a defense system set on lethal protocols, we might want to try enter normally first to at least give us an idea of what to expect if we do have to resort to teleporting in."

Edited October 16, 2013 by Thevshi

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine just turned past the man and walked towards the wall.

"If it's alright,"
She leaned down

"I'm gonna check on the professor,"
Putting her fingers on his neck to check his pulse before pulling out a small box from her pocket, which she held up clearly to the men agents,

"First aid kit, it wasn't confiscated at the front. Though there may be a few extras things."
She clicked it open and pulled out a folded up stetascope, as well as a temple thermometer and checked some very basic vital signs, mostly breathing, heartbeat and tempature. Nothing that indicated he was in real danger.

[Tiffany Korta]

Agnus probably knew more about beating the Haven’s security system than anyone, Lucy wasn’t one to follow any kind of protocol and tended to just bypass the security. But then again it had been a while since they last visited Haven.

“I would have thought that if someone had entered the Haven we’d probably know about it, but I suppose caution wouldn’t hurt in this manner.â€

It wasn’t long before there little group entered the place where the kidnapping took place and Agnus took a few second’s to asses the situation. She gestured for the two Agent’s two lower their weapons, she hoped that she excluded command right now.

 

“Does anyone want to tell me what went down here?â€

[Thevshi]

Dee smirked slightly at Young Britannia's comment about expecting them to know if someone had entered the Haven.  "Well, considering no one seems to know what happened to the members of Vanguard, I would say it is not a stretch to suspect that someone could have gained access to their secret headquarters without anyone being the wiser."

 

As the group reached the scene of the of the security incident that was called in, the young woman held back, allowing Young Britannia to take the lead in figuring out what was going on.  For the moment, she saw this as just a distraction from what she was really here for, helping to look for the missing members of Vanguard so she could get access to Headcase’s notes.

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine looked up to see the new people addressing and seeing to her surprise Young Britiannia accompanied by another woman in much more casual wear then the norm in this building. Looking up at the lowered gun she supposed that they had at least a decent amount of authority. Made sense. Putting her hand on the wall she looked at them,

"What happened here was that I was found carrying an unconcious Professor Blackpool and thus was held at gunpoint by these two agents. What happened in his office and later down the hallway was that in the confusion of the power outage, a man with full concealment of himself and anything he touches to both the visible and thermal spectrum knocked out the single guard at Blackpool's door and attempted to kidnap him. He was kind enough to verbally announce his presence and with some difficulty I managed to acquire his small dart pistol,"
She motioned to the weapon on the floor,

"And hit him with no less then two of the sedatives the assailant had previously used to incompitate both the agent and Blackpool which rendered him off guard enough to remove Blackpool who he had been carrying off under his invisibility from his person allowing me to both see and retrieve him before making a hasty exit from his vacinity."
She looked at the agents,

"I am quite peeved at this turn of events and would like to point out that even though I have no solid proof of my claim nor a description of the captor, that I was invited here personally by Blackpool so unless he planned to arrange his own kidnapping then my presence in this case is just a coincidence, a lucky one at that considering how ill-equip the personal were for this instance."

Edited October 17, 2013 by Aoiroo

[Tiffany Korta]

With a little shrug Agnus gave an apologetic look towards Jasmine.

“I’m afraid that guards are guards wherever you go, trust me I’ve seen a few. Then again you need a few to do the heavy lifting...†she looked the two agent’s mustering up all her commanding presence

“Well go on then we have a invisible enemy running round this place. He can’t of got far mobilize everything to see if we can find him.†only after she said all that did she look toward Cruxberry for confirmation.

“Luckily they do have more capable agent’s on staff, like that woman I meet in Whitby. What was her name? Ah yes Aaliyah, can I have her on staff too?â€

Without waiting for an answer she knelt down beside the Professor placing her now brightly glowing hands over him.

 

“This should help him recover from the sedatives quickly, maybe he knows what's going on.â€

[Supercape]

GM

 

Young Brittania's light flowed into Blackpool, and within seconds Blackpools eyes fluttered open. 

 

"Wha..Where...Who..." he mumbled, still disorientated and drowsy but at least awake, as the drug oozed from his veins. 

 

He paused for a moment and took stock of the situation, putting his hands to his temples and pressing gently. 

 

"Young Brittania...I know you. Thank you for coming to my rescue" he said, clearly oblivious to Jasmines herculean efforts in saving him. He had, after all been unconscious during the aforesaid heroics. 

 

"I was in my office, and...Duke. James Duke! It must have been him!"

 

He tried to stand up, but was too woozy. He settled with an undignified sitting against the wall. 

 

"Mister Invisible. That's what he call's himself now. My laboratory assistant, nearly as clever as me, he was, just a little unhinged. Stumbled across a way to turn himself invisible, and as a side effect made him completely psychotic. He has been on the run for years...."

 

"Why did he want me, now? after all these years?"

 

Cruxberry sheathed his gun. 

 

"This is no coincidence" said the old man in his military style voice. "Vanguard vanish, we start recruiting a new team, we might finally penetrate the Haven....and the Duke turns up trying to kidnap our number one scientist..." his eyes flashed briefly at Jasmine. 

 

"Or potentially our two best scientists. Yes, I heard who Blackpool was trying to recruit. And your resume is pretty impressive, just as good as Blackpool's in my opinion..." he said, addressing Jasmine with admiration in his voice despite his stiffness. 

 

"This place is in Lockdown. We need to get Duke alive. Interrogate him..."

 

"Pfft. Fat chance. Duke practically built the security systems in the Ministry. How do you think he shut this place down?" snorted Blackpool, his voice still blurred from the Dukes sedative drug. 

[Thevshi]

Dee could not help but smirk as Blackpool and Cruxberry discussed this James Duke, someone else whom had hurt by the Ministry's desire to create powers.  But she pushed aside the angry and defiant thoughts that were associated with that issue, they would not be particularly constructive at the present.

 

Instead, she turned towards the nearby Smith.  "Well, while this lot considers the invisible intruder, I should probably get started on looking for a way to deal with the Haven issue.  What does the Ministry have in terms of blueprints or schematics for the Haven or its defense systems?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

Smiths face barely moved. "Extensive files of course" he replied. 

 

A brief flicker of musculature around his mouth,

 

"Its chief engineer was a man named James Duke" he said. Even his impassive nature could not resist the irony. 

 

Cruxberry groaned a sigh. 

 

"Be that as it may. Yes, Duke knows the Haven better than anybody. He was our chief engineer. A physicist to match our biochemist, Blackpool. Quite a team, they where. But we still have skilled men, and we still have blue prints. Extensive blueprints. You are most welcome to them. We have been studying them in our attempts to penetrate the Haven. However, it seems that Crab...Headcase, that is, was perhaps more clever, or paranoid, than we had anticipated. He made modifications, and brain wiped whoever made the modifications. The Haven has defense systems in place that where not on the blueprints..."

 

He coughed, a trace of embarresment. Crab/Headcase had clearly been a huge asset to the Ministry, possibly the biggest, bigger than even Champion, the public face of the Vanguard. But he had been somewhat paranoid too. 

 

"That said, the basic structure of the Haven should be intact. And its location. It remains, as you know, directly underneath the Thames...."

 

And this of course was the problem. No explosives could be used to penetrate it. Any miscalculation and the entrance hall would flood, endangering the crew that worked to crack the Haven. All those years ago, Duke and Crab had calculated well...

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine didn't take any offense to the assumption, she did however take a look around. Instead she very calmly looked at Cruxberry,

"So, I'd like to get this straight with you, first off, you had a previous engineer, who went insane with power,"
She counted this on her fingers,
"Who designed your entire system, said person has been gone for years, and you didn't see fit to alter your system so that it wouldn't be wide open to this crazy person. Then you let a singular member of your team make modifications to the hideout without your knowledge."

Turning towards Cruxberry she looked him in the eye,

"I'm surprise this building is still standing, or more example, why is it still standing. An engineer could of easily collapsed the building to smuggle him out. So I have a question, what else is happening here? You guys are scrabbling after an invisible man, where are you pulling the resources from to do this, what more do you have to lose at this juncture, since now would be the time for the enemy to strike."

[Thevshi]

Dee could not help but let out a little laugh as Smith mentioned this Duke was also the one who designed the Haven.  "That bloody well figures."  She commented.  "Well, if Duke has gotten free, then we have at least one idea where he might go."  Assuming he is able to get around whatever surprises Crab added.

 

The young woman then glanced over as the woman who Cruxberry apparently had some admiration for, though there appeared to be little in the way of reciprocation.  Dee could not help but smirk slightly at the woman's comments, though her logic was a bit flawed in at least one respect.

 

"John Crab was not really one to care what others thought of his plans, or to let them interfere with them."  Dee commented when Jasmine had finished, the tone of her voice indicating a clear dislike for Crab.  "But in any event, they could hardly have stopped him from making modifications to the Haven if it was being done without their knowledge now could they?"  She then added, raising a questioning eyebrow.

 

Turning back to Smith, she gave a small gesture away from the cluster of people.  "Well, I might as well start looking over those blueprints.  While it is hardly surprising Crab would make modifications, I can at least get a baseline idea of things to go along with my memory of my visit there."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Cruxberry didn't look particularly phased by words. He had been strung by worse than words in his career. 

 

"I don't think that demolishing the ministry is Dukes game plan. Certainly not a good idea if you want to extract a target alive" he said calmly. 

 

"I'm not responsible for the enemies of the ministry. I'm just responsible for managing them. Which is what I'm trying to do. Duke is a danger. But not, I can assure you, our biggest one. Without Vanguard we are quite vulnerable. How can we compete? Ill be honest, Crab was our biggest asset. He may not have been as powerful as Champion, but the man was three steps ahead of everyone. His intelligence, combined with ability to read minds, was a crutch we did perhaps lean on to much..." he conceded. 

 

He turned back to Dee. 

 

"Perhaps Duke is based in the Haven. I would be surprised myself. He may be invisible but he cant get through solid steel as far as I am aware" he smiled. "Look, I'll show you the blue prints..."

 

It was only a short walk for Cruxberry and the three heroines to another room where Cruxberry pulled out the paper blueprints. The Haven was an impressive bit of architecture, built under the Thames, with an underwater docking system and tunnel to the north side of London. It had its own power system, and could it seemed operate for years independently. 

 

As far as could be seen, the three access points were the airlock to the Thames, through which a submersile could enter the Haven, and a tunnel which entered the Ministry's car park. Finally, there appeared to be a teleportation link to Freedom City - although there did not appear to be anyway to operate that except by inside Haven itself. 

[Tiffany Korta]

“Welcome to the UK where make do and mend is a well of life.†Agnus gave Jasmine a little smile.

“Then again the Ministry operates on a budget less than some places Catering costs. I’m Young Britannia by the way, the budget version of Britannia. She’s got the better costume, I’ve got the better hair.â€

She looked over at the two other women and came to a decision, she looked over at Cruxberry and called over.

“Cruxberry I’m going to need a moment, could you wait outside for a minutes?â€

She waited for him to leave a minute before speaking again to Jasmine.

“Look I don’t completely trust the MInistry, they generally do good but they still have there own agenda, but a family friend of mine and a very old allie have gone missing. It looks like Dee has a similar deal going on here. We could use you help if you're willing, especially as you have a outsiders perspective on this whole thing. I can promise you we’ll be doing things with as little Ministry interference as possible.†her brow knitted as a realisation hit.

 

“And it seems somehow I’ve taken charge and thats well that weird. If either of you feel they can do a better job please feel free.â€

[Thevshi]

It was about all Dee could do to keep from cursing out loud as Cruxberry spoke about how valuable Crab had been.  She had to reminder herself once again why she had agreed to this at all.

 

When they moved on to room which held Haven's blueprints, Dee was quickly scanning them, memorizing the details that where there.  While Crab's modifications could make things significantly different, it was good to have at least a baseline idea of what they were looking at.

 

She scoffed slightly at Cruxberry's comment about Duke having a difficult time at getting into the Haven.  "He would not have to walk through solid steel if he has take control of the Haven's systems."  She stated.  "He could just walk in through your own car park."  The young woman gestured towards one of the blueprints before adding.  "But I am not sold on the idea he is using the Haven either, just stating that it is a possibility."

 

Dee was a bit surprised when Young Britannia asked Cruxberry and Smith to step outside for a moment and spoke with Jasmine and her more privately.  Dee listened, but continued scanning through the blueprints, memorizing the details.

 

"Not quite the same deal."  She commented when the costumed heroine mentioned her reason for working with the Ministry.  "Crab was the only member of Vanguard I had any significant contact with, and I really won't be missing him."  She glanced up briefly from the blueprints and added, "I only met Lucy once, but she seemed pretty cool."

 

She then turned back to the blueprints, flipping through them quickly.  "As I told you earlier, I really have no interest in being in charge of anything.  Though, if you ever suggest something particularly stupid, I will be sure to express my opinion on the matter.â€

Edited October 21, 2013 by Thevshi