ic The Building Blocks of Life

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

Alloy reached over and grabbed Glamazon by the hair.  Attempting to bring her face first into her knees.  The muscular teen reached out with a single hand and prevented contact.  As much as Alloy strained she couldn't force the blow.  Pushing away she growled under her beth.  "Careful, brats ain't just tough to knock around.  They might got some punch in them too."

The rest of the scientist in the lab had no plans on waiting around for the elevator.  Taking Cassandra's advice they ran for the emergency staircase.  It would be quite a trek as the stair doors only opened from one side.  On the way up someone apparently hit an alarm.  As a siren and flashing red lights began flashing all over the lab.  All the while a red dot appeared on Dr. Kirsch's torso.

Not that it was easy to tell with the flashing alarm lights.

[RobRX]

"I thought I said to stop." Cho said, before realizing she was being completely ignored. So much for that whole thing of trying to speak to someone rather than punch them. So, smashing it was now. "Allright, you asked for it." Running up to Alloy, Cho clenched her fist and threw a punch at the robot's gleaming, hitting it squarely in it's metallic jaw. With a loud clanging sound, the robot's head reeled back, now dented.

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

Dr. Kirsch steps forward laughing maniacally.  "Of course I know what I've done.  I've freed a majestic creature from a hack.  Derns wasn't fit to.  Grant will pay for not placing me as head of this team.  But before then.  Derns will pay.  His work taken from him before his eyes.  Now, be a good woman and run along now."  Kirsch called out to Cassandra tauntingly.  Taking another step forward, he bent down to speak to the three headed dragon "Come with me to greatn-"

*BOOM*

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot filled the air.  "I think not."  Derns called out popping out from behind a set of desks.  

Dr. Kirsch clutched his shoulder after falling backwards onto the ground.   Screaming in pain.  "Aaargh.!  You arse!  How dare you?  How dare you?!  I'll kill you."  Blood dripped from the good doctor's hand as he applied pressure to the wound site.  Using a free hand he pulled out a small disc shaped device.  The disc lit up and then nothing happened.

At least until the bioengineered weapon flew out of its prison.  Roaring and screeching as it flew around the lab.  "Argh.  Alloy, Coppertop.  We have  knockout the brats and let's go back to the lab.  If any of you even think of stopping us.  I'll order this creature to destroy the floor above us.  Their lives are on your hands!"

[RobRX]

"Tch! Fine! Then we'll just have to keep the whole building from crashing down!" Boldly declared Cho at the collapsed Doctor Kirsch. She figured that, possibly, the three of them might be enough to sustain the building, albeit temporarily.

[Brown Dynamite]

Glamazon moves with a haze of speed.  Cho, gods bless her, was in the way.  So Thaelia couldn't strike all three thieves at once.  She could technically strike Coppertop and Alloy at the same time.   But she reasoned it would be cutting it close as far as ground zero went.  The silver chromed Alloy was on questionable ground.  The threat for the people above still rang in her head.  Smiling at the challenge Cho presented for the two of them.  Strength wise it wasn't a problem.  But that was a whole lot of surface area to hope fell neatly.  A lot of lives to take responsibility for.

"We will simply defeat you before you can order the beast to do anything."  Glamazon sounded sure of her declaration.  Even when she slammed both fists together with enough force to cause a sonic boom that just barely avoided catching Rampart in her line of fire she looked sure.  But, it was dangerous for sure.  Alloy's head once more bounced as the assault had visible effect.

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

"Ah Shaddup.  Damn Brats."  Coppertop turned around his hands glowing in a familiar effulgent blue hue.  Sticking his palm out he released a concentrated beam of electricity towards Rampart's back.  Only this one didn't seek to burn and sear.  The current ran through Cho's body with the intention of tasing her.

"Alloy, you gonna keep letting these kids show ya what fer?  Cuz the bossman ain't gonna wait all day.  We got the dragon.  Stop yer playing and knock 'em out.  Or I get most of the pay for doing most of the work"  Coppertop teased his comrade.  Clearly no love lost there.  While it was true that Alloy had taken some heavy blows.  

She remained standing and Coppertp was as fresh as a daisy.  Not to mention the kaiju flying overhead.  To sum up.  The situation was not good.

[Geez3r]

Now that some sense had been knocked back into the crowd, Cassandra hung back rather than run up the stairs herself, directing the stragglers and ensuring that everyone was well on their way to ascending the admittedly gargantuan amount of stairs.  Really wish I could fly. admitted Cassandra internally, this would have been much easier if she could have just piled everyone into an elevator and flown them up the shaft.  Now that the civilians were out of harm's way (and out of sight),  Cassandra was free to quite literally flex her muscles, as she smoothly transitioned into her Maxima form, her costume automatically deploying, while tucking her work clothes away.  Before returning to the fray, she made a quick stop to pry open the doors of the elevator, both for use as a quick escape, and second as a way of deflecting questions about how she got there.  Maxima sprinted back to the lab, just in time to see Dr. Kirsch's threat, and the strange device that agitated the kaiju.  As she nears the struggle, she throws up her hands "That's enough.  Let them go." she said to the two other heroes on scene, while the three of them were likely strong enough to hold up the building, that only mattered if it was still in one piece. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"Are you certain, surely we are mighty enough to handle these ruffians?"  Thaelia opined.  Completely unsure where Maxima had come from.  But, if there was one thing Thaelia had learned a while back.  Always know when to defer.  And aside from the awe she had over the much larger woman in their initial woman.  She knew her brain was to be admired as well.

Or at least enough to talk circles around her over some scientific stuff Glamazon herself did not even pretend to understand.  Lowering her fists she looked back between Maxima and the criminals.  Concerned for the possibility of trickery.  But,willy to play it by ear.  "Well...you may retreat fiends."

[RobRX]

"Whoa whoa hold on here, you're serious?" Cho said, still surrounded by glowing orange-red energies and crackles, both from her active powers and for intimidation. She stood there for a moment, before replying. "Uh, rethorical question...look, nevermind, you're actually serious about this?" Cho hesitated for a moment, her gaze shifting to Maxima, Glamazon and then the robots. The energy and crackles dissipated.

"You better have a good reason for this!"

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

"Smart woman.  You made the right choice."  Kirsch called out clutching his shoulder.  Blood dripping down his torso.  "Let's go."  He pushed forward all while clutching his device with the injured hand.  The three headed dragon followed the scientist right out the hole they made.  Seemingly soothed.

"Ta-Ta Girlie.  Next time, I'll break you."  Alloy taunted before slapping away Coppertop's hand and walking out of the hole.  Copper top fired of blast of electric energy at the top of the man made exit once some distance inside.  It quickly began to cave in.  Sealing the way between them through pounds and pounds of dirt.  Likely a task he'd continue all the way through the tunnel.

 

*       *       *

Dr. Derns hadn't said a word after Maxima showed up.  For a guy who had just lost what must have been a highly financed project, he was oddly calm.  Immediately locking the door to the stairs and shutting down elevator access.  The scientist then spent the next few minutes tapping away on a nearby computer.  

"The tracking device I shot into Kirsch just went inactive.  As if it disappeared.  Likely his lab is creating radio interference."  Derns explained finally revealing that he hadn't tried to murder Dr. Kirsch in the midst of the chaos.  "That fraud has been the biggest pain in my ass.  If Grant finds out about this.  My career..."

[Geez3r]

"If a company is willing to contain a gigantic monster like that beneath the city, how dangerous do you think the contents of the other labs are?  I'd wager there's at least one compound or chemical in a lab here that we would much rather never see exposed to the atmosphere." explained Maxima after the villains had made their escape.  "Whoever they are, they had a plan to access the area, to tame the creature and to leave.  That suggests there's another objective, which will give us a chance to stop whatever plan they have put into motion."  she finished as she walked around the room, taking stock of the damage caused. 

"I'm also assuming that you don't make a habit of walking around carrying a gun loaded with a tracking device doctor, so how about you start from the beginning on what is really going on here."

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

Dr. Derns sighed.  "This is all my fault.  You have to understand there is a lot of pressure for results in Grant Conglomerates.  It is dog eat dog.  Every subsidiary, no every lab, is competing for funding.  Anything to make Grant a household name, and of course, build a better future.  Even our associate hiring process is very selective.  Those of us who get our research backed have to fight tooth and nail to hire the best of the best associates.  And The Grant name only accepts quality.

Alexander Kirsh is no doctor.  He doesn't even have a college degree.   But, he was not an ethical youth.  His early experiments were questionable.  No one would hire him.  That was until he forged his credentials.  He mulled about as a researcher for years.  It wasn't until I found an article he published.

Our early work together was phenomenal.  Together we crafted theories based upon the application of Kaiju growth hormone.  Hormone Therapy alone could be advanced fifty years.  Or so I theorized.  We even tracked down the Kaiju bioweapon and I was able to create a hypnogun based on its natural defense mechanisms to capture the creature with minimal risk.  We were to make great strides for mankind.

If only Kirsch could be satisfied with that knowledge.  I hire outside agents to keep tab on all my researchers.  With corporate espionage you never know who to trust.  It came to my attention Kirsh was planning on selling the research to a secondary agent.  Somewhere in South America, he had promised someone a means to create super soldiers for I assume military use.  I also learned of his fraudulent academic history.  Fired him immediately and swept it under the rug.  Blacklisting him from every reputable company imaginable.

He clearly did not care for that.  Twisting himself out to be some sort of martyr he must have stole my hypno designs before leaving.  And now.  Now, I do not know what his aims are.  But, I let him on to my team.  I didn't screen him thoroughly enough."

[RobRX]

"Whoa whoa, Kaiju...growth hormones?!" Cho shouted out, completely horrified at the thought of what that implied and what it could probably do. And it really didn't sound good. At all! "I-I know I joked about mutated animals and I know I'm no expert on biology but that sounds like a really horrible cocktail of instantaneous monster creation. The kind of thing you inject into lab mice and then they turn into 300 feet tall monsters that breathe atomic fire. Mousezilla! Gigantorodent! King Squeak!"

[Brown Dynamite]

"Did not doctor Cassandra speak of the purpose of the studies earlier?"  Thaelia asked Cho curiously referencing the play by play the sort of got when entering.  She wasn't sure if growth hormones were actually mentioned.  In fact it seemed by the word theorized and the earlier explanation they weren't actually sure of what caused the creature's size.  Which meant Cho's giant mutated animal freak out could be an accurate consequence of their research.

Hopefully a matter of consequence and not one of intention.  Though fighting giant mutated bulls would be the closest she'd ever get to seeing the mythological Minotaur face to face.  So there were some positives to that line of thinking.  And that positive was Minotaur face punching repeatedly for the environment or science.  Well, truthfully, her motivation would be for fun in such an instance.

[Geez3r]

"So this likely means that Kirsch has absconded with the Kaiju to his lab in order to study it, and potentially recreate its innate size in power, only in a mass producible quantity, or to otherwise use the creature to wreak vengeance upon you." summarized Maxima matter-of-factly.  "This also explains how you were able to contain the creature here for so long, you were able to hypnotize it into becoming docile.  However, I'm going to assume that there are either side effects if it is left hypnotized for too long, or the hypnotism wears off after a while, or else you would have never stopped hypnotizing the creature." continued Maxima as she continued her string of deductions.  "Could be useful as a temporary solution however.  But first we need to find out where they're going.  There are only so many places a creature of that size can hide.  We'll need to cross reference that list with a list of Kirsch's known residences & locations, as well as a list of any known associates, especially those with a grudge against Grant Conglomerates."

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

Dr. Derns  stayed silent for a moment.  "I'm sorry I wish I could be of more assistance.  But, I have no idea of his known associates.  The best I could do is triangulate the location and identity of his South American contacts and hope that they have local contacts.  Maybe he left clues were the signal cut off?  This whole catching criminals thing is not part of the career."

Derns admitted inefficiency aside, the scientist did start running the search requested.  Compiling every bit of information he could, Derns tried his hardest to help out.  His pace felt glacial, looking over his shoulder Maxima could at least confirm the efficiency of said work.  "One of the emails was sent from the Wading River.  I can get you withing 5km.  Tracking down who the email belongs to is a more difficult matter."

[RobRX]

"Well, all right then." Cho said, clapping her hands, creating a small draft in the process. "If we got any lead, anything, we'll follow it it. Seems simple, doesn't it? I've been to South America before. Well okay it wasn't that much and it ended pretty messily but that place shouldn't be a problem for me. L-let's just hope we don't have to deal with an army of mutated critters."

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

And follow any leads they did.  Derns was able to track Kirsch's South American contract through three shell companies.  Attached to a pharmaceutical company (that also seemed to be a shell for something else.  But the Biologist could only get so far with his technical know how) the contact a Richard Lemons had a yacht in the North Bay marina.

Making their way to the docks.  The trio noticed it was unusually quiet for a Monday evening.  A quick phone search revealed that the docks had been closed due to a reported collision.  Something about drunken teens jousting on their very expensive boats near the docks.  But, nothing in the area showed signs of boathicular damage so to speak.  

To make matters all the stranger.  There were no signs of emergency personnel, or regular personnel immediately apparent.  It was practically a ghost town.