ic Protection Detail

[Raveled]

Crowd Control kept her mouth shut, and after STAR showed up to to take her off safely the Congressman was put in the back of his own vehicle and and it moved off into the streets, a police escort helping them cut through traffic with flashing lights and side-riders. Changeling had peeled off to keep an eye on Crowd Control but Cannonade and Blue Jay were seated in the back of the car with Walsh. "They're taking me to Freedom Hall," he grumbled. "I have the best security system in the city, I don't need superheroes protecting me." He glanced at the heroes. "No offense. But I don't need coddling."

He did a double-take on Blue Jay. "You look familiar, young lady. Have we met before? Maybe your parents worked on one of my campaigns?"

The archer shook her head and sunk even further into her hoodie. She didn't even dare speak in front of the Representative.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Raveled

[trollthumper]

Cannonade watched as Crowd Control got hauled off. With STAR on the scene, odds were she wouldn't pull that kind of puppet show again before they could get the nullifiers on her - but he still wanted to make absolutely sure. If somebody paid enough to get someone of her skill set to try and bump off Walsh, odds were they weren't going to just wash their hands of this - and odds were, they might have hired more than one assassin.

"I'd ask if you'd think there's anyone who wants to kill you," he said to the representative, "but I'm guessing I'd get a long list out of that. So... anyone who's been particularly loud about it lately? Or, on the other hand of that, anyone been particularly quiet about it lately?"

[Raveled]

"You'd have to ask the head of my security," Walsh said, shrugging. "Or my secretary. What I knew is that today I was supposed to talk to the people, and then meet up with Chloe and Lana for a fundraising dinner. A visit by a psychic assassin wasn’t on my schedule.†He examined Blue Jay closely. "Are you absolutely sure that we haven't met before, young lady?"

"Entirely sure," the archer said, speaking the absolute truth and lying through her teeth. "I've never even seen you in the flesh."

The congressman frowned and opened his mouth, when the car suddenly lurched. They were stopped at a streetlight, and as the group looked out the window they could see the people, and the police escort, and the street itself. And they could watch it going up.

Blue Jay felt the weird weightlessness she associated with elevators and plane rides, but only for a moment. The car stopped hard, maybe ten feet below the level of the street, in a loamy cavern with plenty of room on all sides. That wad all Blue Jay managed to take in before the hole closed up and the cave went dark.

[trollthumper]

"They had to have some way in," said Cannonade. He felt like he was stating the obvious, but detective work wasn't exactly his strong suit - especially when it came to thinking like an assassin. "Could have bribed someone, could have bugged your office... could have busted out the weird stuff, like psychic observation, I guess. What --" 

 

Before Cannonade could finish his thought, he felt the lurch, and watched as the world disappeared above him. He tried to take in the cave as well, but then it all went dark. "Of course," he said. He went for the door, taking care not to break anything. Odds are whoever had dragged them underground was going to try to tackle the car - if they'd opened up the ground, then there was a chance they could bring it crashing down on them. He wanted to be out there to keep the bigger boulders off - or to serve as a clearer target. 

[Raveled]

Cannonade climbed out of the vehicle just as the driver flicked on the headlights. The car was sitting almost smack in the middle of a large, empty space, rock curving up to the roof all around them. The lights only managed to light the area very dimly though, and Blue Jay, with her mask, caught sight of the figure first. “Over there!†She pointed and climbed out opposite of Cannonade, the heroes flanking the car and now looking at the threatening figure; not a very threatening one, normally, a slim man with messy black hair, dirty jeans and a heavy apron, and thick goggles over his eyes. He was messing around with, of all things, a camcoder on a tripod.

He looked up when Jay called out and smiled, a bright point in a grimey face. “Oh, you have no idea. I am going to be famous.†He gestured with one hand and the ground started shaking; the dirty man frowned and stamped his foot against the dirt. “C’mon, get up here!†He gestured again, more dramatically, and the ground split as a dozen roughly-humanoid, hulking figures rose from the rock. Their faces shifted and ground as glowing orange eyes opened up. “Go, my servants,†the grimey figure shouted. “Go forth and prove the power of Tectonic Hate!â€

[Raveled]

"More of the same," Blue Jay sniffed dismissively, nocking an arrow with practiced speed. "Someone's already made a run at Walsh today. You don't get to retry it." She loosed her arrow, aiming to hit the be-goggled figure square between his eyes, but one of the rock-figures stepped between him and took the blow. The creature's head snapped back and no one was more surprised than Blue Jay when it collapsed into a pile of rocks.

"You... you dirtheads!" the villain shrieked. "I'm going to bury you. Bury you!" He thrust his hands forward and a rolling wave moved through the floor, crashing into the car and making it buck and roll. Blue Jay tried to ride the pitching roof, but she was thrown to the ground. She rolled as she hit, though, and came up little more than dusty.

[trollthumper]

In all honesty, Cannonade should have wondered who would want Walsh so dead that they hire not one, but two assassins with powers. But he was not thinking on that matter. He was thinking on how clown shoes this all seemed. Was this really the best name an angry earth manipulator could come up with? Was this really how elite, top-tier assassins held up under a few idle taunts?

 

"Looks like this ain't your strength," he said, bringing his arms wide. "I'd encourage you to stick to something you're good at... like pounding sand." It took a lot of effort to focus a shockwave like the one he could produce in closed quarters without potentially bringing the roof down on all their heads. Fortunately, he'd had some practice. As his hands collided, the wave of force washed over Tectonic Hate and his stony minions, colliding with the power of a sledgehammer.