Backlash (IC)

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Coiled Lightning looked down at the suddenly empty box he was holding, then shrugged and tossed it to the side, so much for that plan. "It turns out you were right, Something DID go wrong. Your boy Slice screwed up, brought some unwanted heat" he said pointing at Liquify on the ground. "I think he's going to be a problem for you and your boss." He reached behind his back and pulled out his whip, activating his whip. "And me. I'm going to be a problem, too. Now quietly put up your hands and step away from the car."

[gankun]

Liquify felt the box getting lifted and was wondering why Coiled Lightning was moving so slow. After hearing him struggle to get the box into the air it clicked. The box now weighed far more than before. With the creaking of the bottom, Liquify gulped as the box gave out. After splashing all over the ground he reformed his shape while rubbing his head. "Oww. So much for that plan." Liquify then puffed out his chest and entered a fighting stance. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'd suggest you back down."

 

Liquify also took the time to observe his surroundings. He didn't get to see their mystery man until now nor the Volvo from the back of the van.

[Thevshi]

The man looked down at the "water" that spilled out of the box, a look of surprise on his face as that water reformed into a humanoid form.  He then looked back to Coiled Lightning as the other hero drew and activated his electrical whip.  The main raised his hands up into the air at about shoulder height.  "Well, I certainly do not want any trouble."  He stated, as he stepped slowly away from the Volvo.

 

Now that he was out of the box, Liquify took in his surroundings.  There was nothing particularly suspicious about the man Coiled Lightning had apparently been taking with, or the Volvo parked there either, other than they were at the place marked on the getaway driver's map.  In fact, the way the man was dressed he could easily fit in with most of the professors at FCU.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Charlie moved up to the Volvo and checked inside to see if the man had a partner, then turned back to him. 

 

"So who are you and what exactly brings you out to a dark overpass at night?" he asked, "Looking to speak with a man named Slice, who was just caught doing a little breaking and entering. What were you intending to do after knowingly receiving stolen goods?"

 

He looked the man over. Respectable looking and suprisingly cooperative, not what he'd expect to be involved in this sort of criminal dealings.

[gankun]

Liquify thought hard to see if he had seen the man before. The professor look could have meant he could be some famous researcher. "I'd speak up. It's better you speak now unless you'd rather go straight to the police. We want some answers. " Liquify asked while moving closer to the man.

 

Why would a guy like this be involved with stolen technology from Slice.

[Thevshi]

Charlie found the Volvo empty of any other people. The backseats were folded down, to provide more room in the back, but otherwise it was empty of any cargo as well, clearly anticipating a fair amount to be delivered by Slice and his men.

The man stood off to one side, his hands still up at shoulder height and a neutral expression on his face. "I am afraid I have no intentions of answering any questions until I am handed over to the police and have been allowed to contact my legal counsel." He replied calmly as the two heroes began pressing for some answers.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

"Are you going to come quietly, then," asked Coiled Lightning motioning toward the van. "As we escort you to the station? Or are we going to have to restrain you?" He was disappointed that the man was going to be smart rather than spill more names, but he wasn't going to threaten him for information. The police should still be able to get more information out of him than they'd get out of Slice and his goons.

 

He looked to Liquify, "We should take both vehicles, there might be some more evidence in the Volvo."

[gankun]

"Sounds good." Liquify turned back to the man. "Don't think about pulling anything." Liquify moved beside the Volvo to see if he could get any useful information from inside. Well, this didn't go as planned. Maybe I can find a name inside the glove compartment. Maybe a briefcase or something.

[Thevshi]

The man gave a small smile as he shook his head. "No, I have no intention of causing any problems while we make our way to the police." He stated, as he waited calmly for the two heroes to instruct him on where they wanted him to be.

Looking through the glove box of the Volvo, Liquify found a number of objects inside. There were several CDs of classical music, the vehicle's user manual, and the vehicle's registration and insurance card. According to the paperwork, the vehicle was owned by one Charles Malone. The rest of the area around the driver and front passenger’s seats was neat and empty of any other clutter.

[gankun]

"It's pretty empty in here," Liquify noting the absence of any useful evidence. The best he found the car's registration info. "Mr. Malone I take it?" Liquify turned back to the others.

"I guess I can drive him to the station in this car. You got the van? Or do you wanna trade?"

 

Something still didn't feel right about all of this. They had nothing on this guy. Should they even be arresting him? What did he do, stand in the wrong place at the wrong time? But still... He seemed a bit too compliant about all of this. He figured the type of guys to do work with criminals to be ones with a short temper or attitude problems.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

"That's fine, just keep an eye on him, even if he seems cooperative now.", agreed Coiled Lightning, "I'll stay close behind you so I can see if there's trouble." He nodded to the man from the volvo, "We'll see if your friend Slice has anything to say about you, or if he's paid enough to keep his mouth shut."

 

He returned to the van and closed it up again, turned it around and waited for Liquify and the car.

[Thevshi]

Charles Malone, if he was indeed Charles Malone, did not reply question about his identity, but did climb into the passenger seat of the Volvo with no objection as Liquify sat behind the wheel. Soon the two heroes had their small convey heading off back towards downtown Freedom City, making their way back toward the tech company that Slice and his men had attempted to rob. Malone remained silent the entire trip, just calmly staring out the windows at the city lights.

By the time they reached the tech company, the police were still finishing up at the scene. There was no sign of Slice or his men that had been knocked out there, and for a moment the police had drawn their weapons at the approach of the two vehicles, relaxing when Coiled Lightning identified himself. They did seem a little annoyed that the two heroes had driven the getaway van to meet the contact, and a bit more so that they had brought the suspect and his vehicle back with them.

While others took Malone and the conscious thugs into custody and began examining the vehicles for clues, other officers took the two heroes statements. "You know, next time, just give us a call and we will come out to the site to take any suspects into custody. We like to have a chance to get photographs of the scene and such." One of the officers suggested during the questioning.

[gankun]

Liquify noted Malone's cooperativeness and silence during the ride back to the scene. With the sight of the police, Liquify gulped, worried about the police reaction when they discovered that the pair acted on their own.

 

"I apologize officers. We didn't want to waste time and let any potential danger to the city escape." Liquify replied to the officer's suggestion. The pair seemed to have caused quite a bit of trouble for the officers with no real gain. This Malone person didn't turn out to be the lead he had hoped for. His gut told him that something bigger was still going on, but there was no evidence to act on. He thought desperately trying to discover a new lead.

[Thevshi]

The officer gave a small nod at Liquify's response. "Yeah, we understand why you took off in the getaway van to head to the rendezvous location. Not ideal, but still worth a shot. I was more talking about when you had everything at the other location under control." He gave a small shrug. "Anyway, probably not too big an issue in this case. I think we have more than enough on this guy as it is."

The officer finished taking Liquify's statement and then thanked him and headed off to continue gathering other evidence. After a Coiled Lightning was done giving his statement as well, Sergeant Turner, the North End precinct FCPD officer that had contacted Coiled Lightning came over to the pair.

"He, good job you two." He stated. "We have a warrant to go search Malone’s house, which is up in Lantern Hill. While he seems harmless enough, given he is associated with Slice and his group, I was wondering if you two wanted to come along just incase?"

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Coiled Lightning gave a embarrassed smile at the criticism the officers gave them. Far too tempting to mess with the crime scenes, he thought, just like he did back on his first case. Next time, I'll play it right, he thought to himself.

 

"Of course, Sergeant." he said to the officer, "I'd like to see what Malone's been doing with all this stuff, and make sure he doesn't have more thugs hiding out back home. Though I imagine if he did he would have brought some along when he came to meet Slice." He looked to Liquify to see if he was up for it.

[gankun]

"You can count me in. I still never found out what all of that stolen gear was for. I figure something pretty big had to be going on if someone like him hired Slice." Liquify turned back to the sergeant. "Is there anything else you can tell us about Malone? He can't be a complete nobody right?". He was holding back his excitement to ride along. This was building into a real case, far more thrilling than fighting with some everyday street thugs. The mystery of it all made the long day so far that much more worth it.

[Thevshi]

"Well, we are still looking into his background." Sergeant Turner replied as he led the two heroes toward a nearby squad car. "He is not coming up as having any criminal record in any databases so far. We should have more information in a hour or so. But given the previous thefts, we did not want to wait in searching his house, in case he has accomplices that could move the other items stolen if we waited too long."

The three climbed into the patrol car and left the scene at the tech company, heading towards the low hills to the west of downtown Freedom City. It was not long before Sergeant Turner pulled up in front of a small, well kept Victorian style home in a nice neighborhood of Lantern Hill. Two other police cars were already present, and as the trio exited the squad car, one of them came over and informed Sergeant Turner that they had observed no activity within the house and not seen anyone enter or leave.

The Sergeant led the two heroes toward the front door, ringing the doorbell and then waiting a few moments for an answer. After ringing and knocking a few more times, he looked over at the two heroes. "Well, seems like no one is home." He withdrew a small evidence bag from a pocket, in which he had Malone's keys, and, using gloves, searched till he found the key to open the front door.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Coiled lightning took out his whip and tried to peer through nearby windows. The police said they'd already looked, but it made him feel better to look himself. It was nerve-wracking going in to buildings like this, even if it was supposed to be empty, there was always the chance someone or something was waiting inside. At least the stolen goods were electronics, it didn't seem like whatever hidden here could be TOO horrific. Never know, though.

 

"Do we just let ourselves in, then?" he asked Turner. "See what clues Malone's left for us."

[gankun]

Liquify followed Coiled Lightning's lead. He analyzed the building for a bit. This was just a house, not some large, sketchy warehouse. Liquify figured even if there was a group waiting for them, there couldn't be too many in there. Plus the building was surrounded. Liquify doubted that Malone would be able to slip something past the two heroes who were on sight. He figured just in case, it might be safer to have him sneak around the back. 

 

Liquify addressed the Sergeant, "Hey sergeant, mind if I slip around the back. You know, just in case. ". f

[Thevshi]

"We have the warrant, so we can legally enter and search the location." Sergeant Turner replied to Coiled Lighting's question. "But once inside, please do not touch or move anything. You see something that looks like some of the stolen merchandise or anything that might be a clue, let us know, but leave it where it is so we can have it photographed in place and properly processed."

He then paused a moment at Liquify's question, before giving a small nod. "Sure thing, I'll call back and let the guys back there know you are coming around." As the watery hero headed back for the rear of the house, the Sergeant called back over his radio, before he, Coiled Lighting and another officer entered through the now open front door.

Beyond the door was a small entryway, with a closet to the right, and a long hallway going in toward the back of the house. Several open doorways led off the hallway along its length.

Liquify reached the back of the house as the officers stationed there had pried open the backdoor. They gave the hero a small nod, as the three entered through the door, arriving in a good sized kitchen that was clean and well organized, a long counter separating the cooking space from a breakfast nook with a small table with four chairs around it.

[ca_lazerdwarf]

As Charlie walked through the doorway, he paused for a moment to listen for any activity inside, then continued in to look around the entryway.

He walked past the closet, pointing at it to the sergeant with a question on his face, but leaving it to the professionals to examine. He continued on down the hallway, to glance inside the first door in the hallway.

Room by room is best, I guess, he thought, but if I was Malone and I was hiding something, I'd definitely have it in the basement. That's where we're going to find the good stuff.