ic Go-Time(IC)

[Ari]

GM

 

12.45 PM, 1st of May, 2014, Liberty Park, Liberty Perk

 

The harsh winter hadn't yet given up its hold on the west Atlantic. There were still occasional snowfalls, and the air was chillier than any mid-spring noon had any right to be. The clouds reigned over Freedom City.

 

Still, that made things like steaming-hot coffee all the better. One of the reasons Mega Howell had been invited to the busy coffee shop. The other was the man who had invited her there, Freedom City's Director of the American Elite Government Intervention Service, Stewart Bonham. 

 

His chair tipped back downright perilously, a mug filled with one of the shop's better blends in hand, and gazing at the bustling streets and busy park like a born sovereign, the handsome, cheerful Chief Administrator was nobody's idea of a secret agent. Dressed in a snug blue sweater and scuffed jeans with a Blades baseball cap over his curly brown hair, he looked more like a off-duty athlete than a government spy and soldier.

 

"It's great to see the people you're fighting for, Velocity, catch a glimpse of the lives that need saving. Gives you some perspective, you know?" tossing back a mouthful of the rich liquid, he savored the taste with closed eyes. "That, and it's safer. People see us talkin...well, they won't think it's business."

 

Regarding a passing schnauzer on a leash, and the old woman coaxing it along the cold sidewalk, Stewart added "You didn't have to come, so I'm encouraged you did. Tell me," he glanced up at the famed speedster and superheroine across the table from him, his normally bright blue eyes crinkling a little against the sun blazing between the clouds "If I told you 'AEGIS needs your help with a doomsday cult'...what would you say?" 

Edited May 5, 2014 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

Today had begun the same as most days did for Megan Howell over the last six months: waking up early to get Lawrence off to the Nicholson School, and then either spending time at the dance studio, having some free time with Robert, zipping around the city and the Eastern seaboard as Velocity to battle supercriminals, or some combination of all three.  Today she had only spent time at the dance studio before coming to this lunchtime coffee meeting with Bonham.

 

The carefree behavior of AEGIS Chief Administrator in Freedom City did not phase Megan, as she had known him for several years now.  Years ago, when she had still been in high school and just starting out as Velocity, it would have been fair to say Megan had a bit of a crush on Bonham.  But that was long behind her now, especially when one counted the six "years" she and Robert had spent outside the normal flow of time raising Lawrence before they brought him back into the normal timestream.

 

"Oh, I get plenty of opportunity to see the people I am helping."  The speedster replied with a grin to Bonham's comment about getting some perspective.  "After all, I can run down to Miami and back before your coffee gets a degree colder." 

 

She then got a bit more serious as Bonham got to the point of this coffee meeting.  "I'd say that cults are not exactly my area of expertise, but that I would be willing to help however you think I could."

[Ari]

GM

 

The AEGIS administrator smiled gratefully "That's what I was hoping for."

 

Taking out a small booklet from his jeans pocket, Bonham flipped to a page near the end and tossed it to Velocity. On the page was an insignia of five hands joined in a ring, followed by the name 'Church of the Neverending'. A mass of tiny script in what looked like code took up the rest of the page.

 

"They're based in New Jersey. And they're the worst kind of crazy." His jaw setting a little, the veteran agent remained casually perched as if he hadn't a care in the world. "They think their space-god will take them to paradise after the rest of the world is destroyed, because everyone not in the church is secretly controlled by demons. And that causing destruction and havoc among us will make said space-god get here all the faster."

 

Taking a lingering sip, watching seagulls trace the sky, Bonham added quietly "We know they have something big and bad behind their leaders. No idea if it's a demon, a super, or just some crazy rumor. And, to make things even more fun, they might be getting their hands on a dirty bomb." Putting his cup on the table as his chair's front legs hit the ground, he finished grimly "We have to stop them, and we have some ideas of where to start, but unless we hit each lead as fast as or" he gave Megan a flash of his earlier cheerful grin "faster than humanly possible, we risk just tipping them off and driving them underground. Since you're so agreeable, I'll tell you where we've pinned down-"

 

*~Dirty Haaaary, Dirty Haaaary/ Dirty Haaaaryyyy/ I'm quick on the draw!~* sang his cell phone, breaking him off mid-sentence with a furious gleam in his eye. "STAR. Maddicks too. One sec." Taking the phone out of his pocket, he flipped it open "What is it, Bully? Got another cat in...are you kidding? Fine, fine, I'll take care of it, but you'll pay for this, Maddicks. I promise. Love you too, bye."

Stuffing it back into his pocket the AEGIS agent shook his head furiously "Got a cat up a tree a couple blocks around the corner, on Liberty Street. That damned Maddicks..."

 

He smiled awkwardly at Velocity "Look, you're faster, could you...you know, take care of it? Please?"

[Thevshi]

Megan listened closely as Bonham began explaining a bit about this "Church of the Neverending," not particularly liking what she was hearing.  She was particularly bothered by the report that they might be getting a hold of a dirty bomb.  But before Bonham could finish with his briefing, he was interrupted by his phone.

 

Like most heroes that had operated in Freedom City for any significant amount of time, Megan had had a few run ins with Captain "Bulldog" Maddicks, which could often been tense given his gruff nature and desire to be in charge of situations involving superpowered villains.  But the speedster could not help but smile slightly when Bonham hung up and explained what the call had been about. 

 

"Here I thought cats in trees was more a fire department issue."  She stated with a grin.  "I also thought I had pretty much moved past cats in trees once I graduated high school.  BUT, I suppose I can take care of this for you.  Shouldn't take more than a moment."

[Ari]

GM

 

"It's one of those jokes that's gone on too long. Every time some Freedonian or tourist asks a STAR officer about a cat in a tree, they call us to deal with it. I think the ol' captain's trying to say something about my people." Bonham shrugged as Velocity vanished into a blur whipping through the busy streets of Freedom, racing to the scene of cat-tastrophe!

 

Taking another sip, the AEGIS agent suddenly looked a little whistful. "At least two friends haven't changed..."

 

---

 

Even in a city as used to the strange, the unknown and the incomprehensible, tree-bound felines still got a startling level of attention from normally even-keeled citizens. It could be they just represented that oft-elusive real-world other people sometimes seemed to live in, where problems were just a little less outlandish.

 

Whatever the case, Velocity didn't need her super-science goggles to see the small cluster of people around a splendid ash tree in a mini-park. Most of them were trying to coax the brainless thing, a black-and-white calico shivering and mewing pitifully on an upper branch, down to their arms, while a few stood back and enjoyed the joke playing out before them.

 

At the sudden blast of wind that followed her, the small crowd turned, started, and let loose a weak but heartfelt cheer, eagerly making way for America's Speedster to do her thing!

[Thevshi]

Velocity took in the scene in the blink of an eye, already noting what all was going on around her by the time the gathered crowd had spotted here.  Flashing a wide smile, she gave a small wave.  "Good day everyone, just stay back, this should only take a moment."  She said, before she was moving again in a blur of yellow.

 

A fraction of a second later, she had run up the tree and out onto the branch, reaching down to slow and carefully (something she was still able to do faster than most people could even see) get the cat free from its grip on the tree.  The speedster had had her fair share of helping cats in trees, and in particular one specific cat in Kingston back during her High School years, so she was familiar with how to go about this (and very mindful that the cat’s first instinct once it realized it was no longer gripping the tree would be to try and grip whatever else it could, such as her arm!)

[Ari]

GM

 

The street had been fairly quiet when Velocity arrived, with only a few passing cars(that slowed down noticeably when they passed the mini-park) driving sedately along.

 

Practically the moment Megan began gently dislodging the shivering, wide-eyed bundle of fur, however, the roar of an engine started. An eyeblink later a black car swung around the corner, one of the rear windows opening to let out a cold gray tube. For a second, Velocity could have sworn she saw eyes flashing inside, looking down the barrel...

 

The roar of gunfire echoed up and down the street. The shooter, invisible in the dark interior, swiveling the rifle back and forth at the helpless crowd!

 

It was a massacre.

 

Well, it would be, if America's Favorite Speedster didn't put a stop to it! The bullets soaring for the crowd were easy to track, but getting everyone out of the way was still easier said than done.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

Megan had been a bit busy, even at superspeed, when the car had started to roar down the street and the gunfire erupted. But she had spotted the gun just as it came out and fired, and could see the bullets as they sped toward the startled crowd.

While many heroes with a slight bit of warning could intervene in some way, many would have a difficult time reacting after the gun had already fired. But not Velocity. It was not even a blink of an eye before she was down the tree on the ground once more, moving in a yellow blur as she sped to intercept each of the bullets rocketing toward a bystander, snatching them out of the air as she went.

The sound of the gunfire was still echoing down the street when Velocity skidded to a halt to one side of the crowd, all the bullets clutched in one hand, and the cat held in the other.

[Ari]

GM

 

For a dangerous second, the car slowed enough for Velocity to dimly make out the stunned faces of the pair inside...and then the driver apparently found where the right pedal was, and the car exploded down the road, the gunman vanishing back inside and rolling up the window as fast as he could!

 

Around her, the crowd were also frozen, blinking in shock at the superheroine with a fistful of a bullets and the echoes of gunfire ringing in their ears. After a second one of them caught sight of the kitty shivering and wide-eyed in her other hand, and raised an excited cheer "Great job, Velocity!" the rounded young man hollered, glancing uncertainly at the others, who quickly took up the cry and clapped enthusiastically at what they knew must have been a phenomenal display of superhuman prowess. A few of the older ones had even caught a vague glimpse of the superheroine in motion!

 

Once the shock had worn off, the young man added nervously "Uh...do you know why that happened? And what it was?" as the car raced desperately for the corner.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

"Someone up to no good."  Velocity replied quickly to one of the bystanders as the car began speeding away.  "But I am going to find out exactly."  The speedster added, quickly handing off the cat.  "Everyone, please remain calm and do not leave the area.  The police are likely going to need statements once I stop these gunmen."

 

With that, the speedster was off in a blur of yellow, easily weaving through some oncoming traffic to catch up with the car speeding away.  With some bullets already in one hand, the speedster sent them flying at the car's ties at supersonic speed, small *CRACKS* echoing down the street as the projectiles broke the sound barrier. 

 

 

Velocity's accuracy was perfect, and bullets hit the tires with tremendous force, bursting the ties and sending the car kidding to a halt.  The yellow clad speedster skidded to a halt in front of the car, peering inside at the occupants.

 

"So, you can do this the hard way, and likely need medical attention.  Or you can choose the easy way."  She called out.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ari]

GM

With a four-part wail of escaping air followed by a hideous screech of tortured metal, the speeding car swerved and groaned to a halt.

The driver was a rough-hewn man in his early fifties, with the cold eyes and relaxed posture of someone used to being in bad situations. At a guess, a professional getaway-car man.

The gunman, by contrast, was a slight and unprepossessing man only a year or two older than Velocity, the compact, dark-metal rifle clutched beside his head in lean gloved hands shining like new.

Both stared at their captor in a second's silence, before digesting what had just happened(the shock of losing their tires and crashing to the road enough to baffle anyone), and things began to happen. Quickly raising his hands and securing them on top of his head, the driver hollered "You got me, cape! I'll go quietly! It was him, it was his idea!"

For his part, the gunman's only reply was to grip the small amulet at his neck and start muttering Latin under his breath, staring into space dumbly.

"You gotta take him away, Jenni Rocket!" went on the driver desperately "He threatened me! Told me I'd be next if I didn't get him to that safehouse!"

Edited May 27, 2014 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

Velocity watched the reactions of the two occupants of the vehicle.  While she did not completely believe the driver's story, he at least appeared willing to cooperate now that he was caught.  The man with the gun however...

 

"Alright, get out and get on the ground while I sort this out then."  She called out to the driver as her gaze fixed on the gunman (though her goggles continued to bring in images from all around her).

 

"This is your last chance.  Put the gun down and get out with your hands on your head or I will get you out after your unconscious."  She called out to the gunman, one hand pulling out a handful of steel ball bearings from a belt pouch.

 

[Ari]

GM

 

"-Serpensis Sancti-...O-okay."

The young man's dark, shy eyes met Velocity's for a brief instant...and then dropped, along with both of the things clutched tightly in his hands, followed by the heavy *clunk* and softer *kllik-ting* as they hit the floor.

 

For an instant, the older driver looked downright relieved, until he realized what that smaller, jangling tinkle had been from. Megan saw his eyes widen, his head begin to turn, the word "Y-" start to form. Then a dull boom, and quickly, even by her standards, the car and its contents vanished before her eyes.

 

A shuddering crash of metal, a sharp, decisive report, and shattering glass mingled with a howl of fear and pain resounded behind her, .

 

The car had somehow smashed itself against the stolid brick storefront behind her, the hood crumpled and smoking from the savage impact, a bright, wet splash on the back window surrounding a neat circular hole. With a bang the driver's door burst open, the man himself crashing out onto the pavement holding a badly cut arm against his chest, blood dripping down his face from a gash on his forehead, the other hand holding something that slipped from his fingers and skittered a few feet away on the cement sidewalk, glittering mockingly in the sun.

 

Cursing under his breath the driver scrambled awkwardly for the shining thing "I'll get ya...stupid kid...told him, "Just whisper it", looney ****...cat's pill breaks, then the gas..." his hand stretched out, fingers working for the trim little cylinder.

[Thevshi]

Velocity blinked slightly as the car seemed to vanish in front of her and then crash into a wall behind her without seemingly moving.  The speedster was moving at once, zipping over to the car in a blur of yellow, so when the driver staggered out of the car, dropping some small cylinder, she reacted in an instant.

 

The driver had likely hardly had time to register where she was before Velocity had moved over and collected the cylinder and then moved a short distance away.

 

"Okay, just what is going on here?  Who are you and what is this?"  She asked, holding the cylinder out in front of her as she studied carefully in a blink of an eye, before taking another moment to carefully consider  the back of the car to hope to gain some idea of what might have happened to the gunman.

[Ari]

GM

 

"Wha-..aw, damnit!" snarled the driver as the pill vanished and Velocity flickered into place well away from the maimed man. Retreating until he was huddled against the wall, the driver answered sullenly "Dunno. It's got sleeping gas or...somethin' in it, but that's all I was told. Kid" he jerked his quickly reddening head at the slumping figure Megan dimly perceived in the ruined car's backseat "was Josiah, from some cult out west, called my agency and threw money at us between babbling sessions about the "Glorious Flame" until we took him on. I was just supposed to drive us past the park, get us around the corner drop him off with somebody else, then break that pill."

 

"That's all I have, I guess. Might as well wait for the ambulance." Sighing deeply, he fell silent and calmly observed the middle distance.

 

The car was a wreck. The left-hand passenger door window had shivered to pieces, all fallen outside, revealing its tan, bloody, crumpled and clue-ridden interior. A dull gleam under the driver's seat quickly became a gun case, the floor around the dead man's feet shone with the golden gleam of brass casings, making the black-and-silver necklace Josiah had dropped moments ago stand out all the more. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity frowned slightly as she listened to the injured driver's story, quickly taking in more details of the crash and the car as she did thanks to the 360 degree view her goggles provided her, along with magnification as well. 

 

"Well, I don't think I believe you."  She said to the driver as she moved with a quick blur once more, snatching up the piece of paper she had spotted near the gun case and the stopping back where she had started once more.  "Just moments ago you were saying you were threatened by your passenger and were supposed to take him to some safehouse.  Now you say he paid your 'agency,' and you were only supposed to drive him around the corner to where he would meet up with someone else.  So, what is really going on, and what is your roll in this?"

[Ari]

"Isn't it a law or somethin',"  the driver was looking even groggier than before, the shock and blood loss beginning to take their swift toll, "that I don't...have to say an'thing? If...it'll 'criminate meee. You...I'm gonna wait for my lawyer b'fore I say another word..."

 

Slumping even further against the bricks, his ragged breaths getting more regular, the former getaway driver fell unconscious. The car smouldered calmly behind him.

 

The bit of paper was mostly illegible. It was ripped and scuffed, a mass of crinkles after being rolled and unrolled countless times. But just enough remained of the minute letters and numbers to make out 418 88th Ave., a residential area in West End that used to be one of Freedom's larger emigrant centers. The famous core from which the troubled district had grown.

[Thevshi]

"Well, I am not the police, so I do not have to wait till you have a lawyer present to ask you questions."  Velocity replied to the driver's comments.  Of course, he was right that he did not have to answer her questions or incriminate himself, but she did not confirm that.  But in the end, it seemed not to matter at all, as he fell unconscious.

 

After noting the address on the piece of paper, the yellow clad speedster prepared to wait for the police to arrive to hand the scene and the driver over to them.  That was always the part that seemed to take so long to her.

[Ari]

GM

 

Sirens had started to wail in the distance only a few minutes after the crash, and it took only a (relatively) short time for Freedom's Finest to make their appearance. Soon after their arrival, the area was taped off and waiting for the tow truck to arrive. Loading the driver into an ambulance, with two grim-faced officers riding inside, was soon done; while the corpse in the back seat took a little doing to get out, it at least gave incontrovertible proof of the manner of death by way of a softball-sized hole though the neck. The gun, gun case and three wallets stashed in the glove compartment packed with varying false IDs were taken in as evidence. The detectives asked Velocity for her statement, requesting the bullets she'd caught.

 

The officers were polite but firm about their wanting the crime scene clear of non-police. "It's not that we don't want your help, Velocity," Det. Mandel explained, pushing his hat a little further over his red hair to keep off the chill "but we've got our rules, and one of them is not letting civilians around crime scenes. We'd never have caught this guy without you, miss, and thanks for that, but we gotta do our part of the job now." Nodding and smiling politely, the officer marched over to the car to get rubbings of the tires and check for the car's serial number.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2014 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

The police had actually made a rather quick response time. Still slow from Velocity's perspective, but better than average for the police.

The speedster quickly got them pointed in the right direction of what was going on. She was also an old hand at dealing with them by now, giving her statement and handing over evidence she had collected. "Oh, no worries, I would probably just be in the way anyway." Velocity replied as the police wanted her clear of the crime scene as they went about their work.

"Besides, I have somewhere else to be, have a tip on where they were headed." She noted with a grin as she handed over the piece of paper with the address. "I'll see you all when you catch up there."

And with that, she was gone in a yellow blur.

[Ari]

GM

 

The scrap of random paper found on the floor of a much-used getaway car led Velocity to a surprisingly well-appointed part of West End, a block due west of the City Center and part of the Historic Series, buildings and streets remarkable for their part in Freedom's history and preserved for the edification of tourists and future generations. 

 

In this case, the building was a red-brick mass of apartment complexes in a style that hadn't been used much since the turn of the last century. The walls had been artfully spread with grime and weathered with painstaking care, with the result of making the place both out-of-time and distinctly gloomy. A plaque outside on the manicured front lawn explained that 88th St. was "...where the first communities of late European immigrants were formed, and which formed the nucleus for West End's expansion as families made their home in Freedom..."

 

At about the time Velocity pulled up to take momentary stock of the situation, a sudden explosion boomed, a high window shattered and a cloud of chemical smoke billowed out of it! Screams and other sounds of chaos rang out!

 

Oddly enough, only one tenth-floor window had broken, and only it gave any sign that anything was wrong.

[Thevshi]

Velocity quickly zeroed in on the upper floor window that had been blown out and had smoke billowing forth.  Yeah, that figures.  She thought to herself at the unlikely coincidence that there would be an isolated explosion at the location she had uncovered at the scene of the other incident. 

 

More likely than not, the explosion had been designed to eliminate any evidence that could help track whomever was behind all this, but she still had to investigate, just to be sure.

 

In a blur of motion, the speedster was running up the side of the building towards the blasted out window.  Once she reached that floor, she quickly vibrated the molecules of her body, rendering her intangible, allowing her to pass through the wall and into the room beyond, where she immediately began scanning the area.

[Ari]

GM

 

As she passed through the apartment building, Velocity saw people flit by as if they and the building were the ones with super-speed. Many of them were leading or carrying children or hauling bundles or blankets as they fled.

 

Warping into the room where the smoke billowed out, Megan quickly discovered the problem: the floor was nearly swimming in chemicals giving off an acrid smell, with a large hole melted in the wall of a closet revealing several waist-high tanks marked with variations on the universal symbol for "DANGER". Each of them had shattered, spilling their contents out into the living room. Tributaries of the foul-smelling chemicals led off into the other rooms, burning all it touched.

 

"Hey!" a frantic, young voice yelled from the closet "Hey! Let me outta here! I'm goin' under, help!" A fit of coughing broke up the yell. The smoke inside made it hard to tell what level the acid was at inside, but from what little could be seen of the tanks and how sluggish it moved, it was a lot.

[Thevshi]

It took Velocity only a few moments to take in the scene in the apartment. She had no idea what those chemicals were that were spilling out of the vats, but she was very certain that whatever it was, it was not good. "Just hold on a moment." She called out to the man calling for help.

In the blink of an eye, the speedster began running in a tight circle, in less than a second a small whirlwind had formed, generated by her movements. Moving forward, the whirlwind sucked up the chemicals flowing out of the vats. Moments later, Velocity guided the whirlwind out of the apartment, heading for somewhere safe to deposit the toxic chemicals.

[Ari]

GM

In a tangled cloud of acrid vapors and vicious liquid, the whirlwind swept away the acid to the toxic waste disposal facility on the South River bank. That done, there was nothing else to stop the heroine discovering where the chemical came from, and the link it had to the prisoner.

Zipping into the closet, Velocity saw the answer in a glance. An African-American girl, barely out of her mid-teens at most, was secured to the far wall in a cage of metal and plastic, tubes running from cups suctioned to her hands and cheeks to the melted containers. She was disheveled and wearing the dirty remains of a homemade costume, hoarse with fear and made only a brief cry of joy as Megan rescued her from the cramped prison.

Outside, blinking in the unfamiliar light of day and shivering at the chill, the girl and Velocity were met by a now grim-faced Bonham, wearing his AEGIS uniform and flanked by several agents as he disembarked from an unmarked car. "I heard what happened." Stewart said "Good work. I knew you were right for this. Hey there, kid" he added with a gentle smile to the girl Megan held "you're going to be all right now, we're the good guys. Got a name? Do you know who the people were who captured you?"

Shaking her head and making her long black hair bounce and bob around her face, the girl said weakly "M'Savannah Pensy. Called myself 'Leak', cause...I made that stuff in there, Velocity" she looked up at the heroine with a flinch of shame "They made me make it. I came here, thought a super-gang was hiding out, that I could just go in and bust 'em...'stead they grabbed me and shut me in that closet. They never said anything to me, 'cept if I was ****ing up the formula, for all the good that did 'em. I heard them say 'Majestic' a lot, though. That help?"

As she spoke, Bonham's smile had twitched and wavered. At the last words, it vanished, and the normally blasé Deputy Director was all business. "It gives us a lead, and that's more than we hoped. Thank you, Savannah, we'll get you back to your parents as soon as possible. Velocity," his sharp blue eyes turned to regard the speedster once more "looks like we'll need to get you a task force. This is worse than any of us expected. A near-miss with a bio-agent attack, right here in Freedom? I hope you'll agree that letting word get out would only complicate matters. I'll meet you at City Hall to, ah" for a brief moment his eyes regained their usual gleam "get you shipped to the Pole."

"Wait!" Suddenly jerking free of Velocity's arms, Savannah limped up to Bonham on her disused legs, the blond man subtly reassuring his guards with a wave of his hand as they twitched into readiness and nodding once to the girl. Breathlessly, she demanded "I want in. I can help-!"

"National security, Miss Pensy, is no place for amateurs" replied the Deputy Director coolly "I would rather not have to look Powers in the eye and explain why I let a novice mask get herself killed..." glancing suddenly over her head at Megan, he added thoughtfully, rubbing his rough chin "...but maybe something can be arranged. You might have heard something more. And AEGIS has let Goddamned highschoolers into its ranks...we'll see. For now, home. Officers?"

With Savannah being escorted away, he and his guards turning back to the car, Bonham said over his shoulder to Velocity "Good luck, sweetheart. We'll all need it. Waiting's over, it's go-time now."

END of the First Stage.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Arichamus