ic Namazu The Savior.

[Tiffany Korta]

Dancia looked at the object trying to judge the weight of the object by sight, on thing was certain if she tried to move it the roof would probably come crashing down. She flew over to the object and look to see if she could brace it to by them a little more time.

 

“I’m going to try and move this but it probably going to bring the roof down. I’ll buy us as much time as we can but I need you to make sure that the field is clear. Get our new friend there to give me two sharp ultrasonic burst when it clear. And please hurry.â€

[Avenger Assembled]

The field overhead was clear of civilians - which was good, because the ceiling began caving in the moment Triakosia moved the earthquake generator. Together, the heroes made a mad dash outward as ceiling fragments came raining down, then whole beams in a deep structural collapse that would have easily crushed them to ribbons as they lingered. They burst out through the security door they'd left, back onto the field, just in time to catch the screaming of the crowd as what must have looked like another aftershock made the baseball diamond crack and groan, the artificial surface splitting into fragments and displaying the broken mechanisms within! But luckily no one was hurt; the bulletproof Triakosia having shrugged off a fist-sized rock that had broken against her spine, and they had a clear path up away from the field if they took the nearby security stairs. 

 

Which was good; because they were no longer alone! Zipping back and forth amid the wounded in the stands were at least two dozen flying robots, the size and shape of soccer balls with arms, some acting as nurses, some scanning the area (one flew down and passed a beam of light directly over the heroes before asking solicitously in Japanese "Are you wounded?"), others zipping around overhead on some errand or another. Hovering in the middle of the stadium was an armored figure none of them recognized, for all that his green and gold armor radiated power and hummed with the sound of energized working electronics. He resumed his speech as they arrived, evidently having been caught unawares by the subsidence inside the stadium. 

 

"<-just a small subsidence! Everything will be all right, my people!>" he was telling them, his magnified voice reaching every corner of the stadium as those not busy with the wounded watched the armored figure speak. "<Like Kashima, the thunder god of old, I pledge that I will protect Sapporo with all I have. Never again!>" The logo of Namazu Technologies was clearly visible on the chest-plate of the suit; as it was on several of the closest helper drones. 

[Vahnyu]

"Roger that. Be careful, Triakosia." As soon as Kingsnake, with the help of Net Fly, Triakosia, and Grimalkin, was done inspecting the machine and the area around, Net Fly, at the behest of Triakosia, got ready to move out. Soon, the superheroine created the necessary opening, he grabbed whatever he could and made for the exit, and back to the surface. He breathed a sigh of relief when Triakosia emerged unscathed, right behind them. "Well... that could have gone a whole lot worse. Is everyone all right?"

 

A few moments later, Net Fly witnessed the armored hero hovering in the air, proclaiming protection for the people of Sapporo. He could not make a lick of sense out of what this guy was saying, but then he noticed the Namazu Technologies logo on him, and his curiosity was piqued. "This guy... he's from the same company that made that ultrasonic generator we found down bellow... is he threatening the people? Can anyone understand what he's saying?" Net Fly felt his hands clench unconsciously, but the lack of panic from the citizens puzzled him, and the robots seemed to be aiding in the relief efforts, at the armored figure's behest at that. What's going on?...

Edited April 14, 2015 by Vahnyu

[N/A]

Kingsnake replied in English to Net-Fly. "I don't know if they made the device or not. Not yet."

Crowds. Cameras. Daylight. Worst possible situation. Everything I try to avoid. Maybe I can squeeze out a silver lining.

Kingsnake walked up to the nearest police officer, knelt down, and gently placed the janitor to rest on what was left of the ground. He addressed the crowd, repeating every statement, first in Japanese, then in English.

He pointed to the device Triakosia lifted from the rubble. "EARTHQUAKE MACHINE. THEY TRIED TO BLOW IT UP AFTER." Then he held his hand out to the side, presenting the corpse. "THEY MURDERED HIM. TRIED TO FRAME HIM. BEAT HIM WITH HIS OWN HAMMER." He reached into the tote bag for a fistful of shredded Yen, then opened his fist, letting the scraps fall to the ground. "MONEY LEFT WITH THE BODY. QUAKE WOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE BODY, HIDDEN THE WOUNDS, LEFT ONLY THIS."

He reached into the bag again, taking out the palm-print. "KILLER'S HANDPRINT, LEFT IN THE BLOOD OF AN INNOCENT MAN." He dropped it back in the bag, and then dropped the bag at the cop's feet. "EVIDENCE. THINGS THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE."

Then he turned and walked up to the armored man, and didn't stop until they were close enough to kiss. This time, he half-spoke, half-growled, only in Japanese, perfect Japanese, barely loud enough for the man to hear. "Freedom City. More crime and natural disasters than any other city in the world. More superheroes than any other city in the world. Thousands of Freedom citizens in the audience. The architects of this atrocity must have known there would be a few of us here. That's just simple math. So why disrupt their own plans with our presence? Didn't they trust you to handle your own debut?"

Edited April 15, 2015 by ShaenTheBrain

[Heritage]

Grim zipped out of the room as quickly as she could once Tria removed the device; she hoped there wouldn't be too much effect above ground, because those people has already suffered enough. She was very happy to see the damage remained limited to the field. The tiny pixie swatted at one of the globular robots as it tried to aid her. As the mysterious figure resumed its speech, she buzzed over to Net Fly, landed on his shoulder and leaned her tiny head closer to whisper into his ear, as her small voice would be easily lost in all the ambient noise.

 

"He's saying the new collapse was just a small subsidence, and that he will protect 'his people' like the thunder god Kashima. He will protect Sapporo with all he has, and never again will such a horrible thing happen...which of course if he or his friends were responsible for it, they pretty much can promise." She sighed and rubbed her face with tiny hands. "But Mr Black and White is right; we can't assume anything just yet. I have to check on someone; be right back."

 

And with that, she zoomed off to find Gretchen; a quick shift of her vision to the red rubber band she'd conjured showed she hadn't moved too far from her previous position. Dropping a few feet away, she resumed her full size and joined her assistant, who was still hard at work with the two local EMTs, though they'd been joined by a few other citizens who were in good enough shape to help. The young retail veteran looked like she was exhausted but full of purpose.

 

"Hey! How go the relief efforts?"

 

Gretchen jumped at the sound, but was visibly relieved to see her boss, and laid a firm grip on her shoulder. "Oh, thank God you're back! We need bandages, blankets, stretchers, splints-"

 

"I can't do metal, but I can do cloth and bamboo."

 

"Bamboo would be awesome. What else, what else...ooh, can you make water? Or rubbing alcohol? Oh, and needle and thread, for stitches?"

 

"Maybe...probably. I can at least do like pure grain alcohol and rain water in bottles or barrels, that's for sure. Clear an area, and I'll get to work."

 

Turning back towards the other heroes, she conjured up a large sign that read, "MAKING ADDITIONAL EMERGENCY SUPPLIES. COME AND GET ME WHEN YOU NEED ME!"

 

Grimalkin cracked her knuckles and rolled the tension out her shoulders as she got ready to begin conjuring on a massive scale; she'd have to provide instructions for the proper waste disposal of all this glamour when this was all over. Before she got started, she turned back to Gretchen. "So the guy in the metal monkey suit; when did he show up?"

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Triakosia continued to fly upwards trying to put some distance between herself and the crowd in case this thing held any more surprises. High in the air above the stadium she took a few seconds to take stock of everything. Her instinct as both a hero and more importantly as a  journalist told her that Namazu appearance was very suspect and something that needed further investigation.

 

But first to deal with this object.

 

 

She flew down outside the stadium and put the object down in a clear spot in the surrounding parking lot. Gently placing the object down she took a few second to take pictures of the object from all directions on her cell at high speed before anyone could notice. That done she waited for the authorities come near the object so she could find out what they knew about everything going on.

[Vahnyu]

Net Fly felt Grimalkin's weight on his shoulder, as the tiny heroine landed on it. It felt as if a can of cola was balancing on Net Fly's shoulder, which made him instictively tense and worried, before realising that the heroine was balancing just perfectly on her own. As she whispered to him what she had heard, he nodded his head and replied, in as low a tone as he could muster. "True, being guarded is good and all, but I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt." Grim left to check up on Gretchen, while Net Fly witnessed Triakosia do the same, flying in the air and waitting for a few moments.

 

Letting down everything he had salvaged, he tried to contact his step-father. He took out his phone and dialed his number from the registry, but it was to no avail; it seemed that the signal reception was horrendeously bad. He flew above the stadium, trying to get better reception, but even though he managed to call Greg's phone, he could not connect with it. "... dammit, Greg... Where are you?..." he said to no one in particular, when Grimalkin's sign flared up, catching his attention. Flying back, he got next to Triakosia, who was waiting by the salvaged machinery.

 

"It's a good thing we managed to save it." He told her. Pointing at the machine she got out, he said "That thing's like your standard ultrasonic generator, but much, much larger. I wouldn't be too surprised if it was the causation behind the eartquake; a regular ultrasonic generator packs enough punch to break down miniscule particles. Still, even so, I can't help but feel like there's something off about it. I mean, all things considered, it was too easy, finding the machine down there, and even the jury-rigged self-destruct mechanism felt too... rushed? obvious? amateurish? I dunno... I could be wrong but... something just smells fishy to me."

[Avenger Assembled]

Flying outside revealed an apocalypse to Triakosia - the sheer extent of the earthquake was far worse than she'd thought. Sapporo was slumped, from suburb to suburb, with buildings smashed or tottering, and fires were burning all across the city. There were a pitiful few emergency personnel on the scene at the stadium; mostly those who must have already been working security, but it looked like it was going to be a long time before anyone came to pick up the machine. 

 

Net-Fly saw the same thing once he was out of the protective bubble of the dome - a disaster worse than anything he'd seen in his young life. Just when he was beginning to really worry about his stepfather, he caught sight of Greg down below, still in the company of the investor he'd been trying to woo back before this nightmare had begun. Greg saw him and waved, but didn't call to him amidst the crowd of wounded. Which made sense - the city needed Net-Fly more than it needed Serge right now. Cell service was working, at least, even if almost everything else seemed to be down right now. 

 

Grimalkin's abilities made her a god, or at least incredibly popular, and she soon found herself swamped by needy people. It wasn't long before Gretchen's primary duties began to center around making lines and keeping people organized as they came to the magical heroine for succor! This wasn't like disasters she'd lived through in Freedom City; outside of the small group she'd joined up with early on, it didn't seem as though that there were any superhumans here to help the city. That was odd; Japan had superheroes aplenty, but where were they now? 

 

As he approached the armored figure, who had landed to speak to the police as well, Kingsnake noticed that he could detect nothing inside the armor. It wasn't as if the armor was empty, as even the machinery was silent - just that it was shielded heavily against any leaks in sound or other sensory weaknesses. "Yes, we were fortunate, weren't we!" For his part, the armored figure seemed to enjoy the limelight, his voice booming across the stadium's warped floor. "As dreadful as this was, Kashima must have been watching over us to make sure this was no worse than it was. It was fitting indeed that I took his sacred name." 

 

Kashima took off with a roar of jet boots, leaving behind the feeling something was going on - and the distinct, unmistakable aroma of human blood. The police had listened to Kingsnake, even dispatching a few officers to investigate his story, but it was clear for now their attention was focused on disaster relief. And soon, under the watchful eye of Namazu Technologies' robots and their armored leader, so was almost everyone else...

[N/A]

Kingsnake didn't have eyes anymore.  But that didn't stop him from glaring hatefully at Kashima as his emerald armor carried him into the sky, glaring so hard he was tempted to feel his mask to make sure he hadn't burned any holes in it.

He's clueless, too wrapped up in the mythology he's trying to build.  Or he's mocking us.  Mocking all this blood and death.  Either one's a good enough excuse to punch the smug smile right I can't help but assume is hiding under that helmet right off his face.

He didn't need to move his head to look around like sighted people.  His echolocation and enhanced smell let him glance all around him.  I can't juggle cars or create blankets out of thin air.  I'm useless here.  But elsewhere...

Between the blinks of forty-thousand eyes, Kingsnake slipped away.

[Tiffany Korta]

Taking back into the air Triakosia hovered concentrating her senses for the closest source of people in need of help, the more she used them the more refined they seemed to be becoming.. Sounding out a possible source of danger she took off towards the source.

 

As she did she began to draft a report back to the office about the disaster, as a journalist she should have been back at the stadium interviewing victim and trying to find out about this mysterious Namazu. But her duty to protect and help other people as much as she enjoyed her journalism being a superhero came first.

She spent the rest of the day helping disaster teams rescue people and put out the various fires that had sprung up, making a note of everything to possibly use in an article about the whole thing. With her enhanced endurance constitution she worked long into the night and through to the next day not feeling the fatigue that many around her were beginning to feel.

[Heritage]

After working with Gretchen for about an hour, Grim finally remembered to call her brother; it took a while to get through, but eventually she reached him. Ben, Sarah and the kids were all thankfully okay, but they'd been evacuated to a nearby elementary school and didn't know when they'd be able to go home. They'd grabbed their emergency kits and the visitors' bags, and were currently occupying roughly twenty square feet of a gymnasium, which they were sharing with dozens of local families.

 

Ben was happy to hear his little sister and her friend were safe, and proud to hear about their aid efforts; he encouraged them both to stay and help out as long as they could, and promised there would be a cot or sleeping bag waiting for them.

 

Much relieved, the two young women (well, one of them was young) went back to work; Grim shared her contact info with Tria and Fly (no sign of the Man in Black and White, but he looked like a loner), and then they worked until they were almost ready to pass out.

 

After much coaxing (exhaustion helped), the fae finally managed to convince Gretchen to climb into her transdimensional Vault, where the poor thing instantly fell asleep on the soft pine needle floor, wrapped in one of the conjured emergency blankets. Grim then shrunk down to pixie size and flew off towards the evacuation center, practically falling out of the air several times due to fatigue.

 

The next day dawned with stiff necks and impressive bed hair as the various Epsteins arose from their makeshift beds for a late breakfast of kosher MREs; yes, Ben the worrywart was exactly the kind of guy you wanted to have around after a natural disaster. As Lynn rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she suddenly realized she'd mistakenly left Gretchen in the Vault all night; horrified, she ran into the nearest bathroom and drew a circle in the air, and was greatly relieved to see her assistant was not only fine and still asleep, but actually enjoyed a better night's rest than anyone else!

 

After breakfast, everyone washed up with sanitary wipes, and Lynn and Gretchen got ready to head back out into rubble to make a difference.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage

[Avenger Assembled]

By the next morning, the true extent of the devastation has become obvious. On the night of April 3, Sapporo was hit by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake with an epicenter located almost directly under the city. Even with Japanese architecture, built as it is to survive earthquakes, the damage to the city is appalling - at least five thousand people are dead, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, homeless, or missing. It's the deadliest earthquake in Japan in the 21st century, though luckily there was no serious tsunami from this primarily ground-focused quake. But as the heroes look out over a city where smoke still rises and sirens still echo, it's hard to feel very lucky. 

-

Kingsnake found a company quite literally in ruins; the Namazu company's central headquarters having been seriously damaged by the earthquake. Uniformed security personnel and a handful of first responders from the city were doing their best to dig out an entire building in the complex that appeared to have been among the city's deadliest collapses. A concrete roof came down intact on a lower level full of scientists working on Special Projects, killing dozens of top scientists working there. It was hard to tell what alarms were live and what weren't; or what cameras were actually being watched and which weren't. Despite all that, it was easy to make his way onto the complex. He could hear, and smell, a few of those helper robots, but they seemed to be busy doing disaster relief from what he could determine. Making his way by feel and smell, he was able to make his way right into the executive offices in a partially evacuated building. 

Where he found a clue - or close to it. He could smell the murderer - right there in the empty office of the company's president, Ken Namazu himself. And there in the corner, in what turned out to be cardboard, was a model that felt exactly like the outline of the Kashima suit he'd detected in the stadium. He found the scent of blood as well, tracing it to an office mini-fridge that still held several containers of what felt and smelled like partially filled human blood bags. 

-

Broken headquarters or not, Namazu was everywhere that night and in the day that followed; helper robots uncovering the fallen and delivering aid, Kashima himself flying around and using what seemed to be advanced sensors and great strength to dig people out, delivering medical aid and even food (with the roads outside of the city largely too damaged to use) to the scared, wounded people of Sapporo. Grimalkin found herself with several robots watching every move as she became a center for supplying aid herself, the hovering little machines both helping (by bringing supplies to her so her work could go faster) and sometimes slowing her down by taking the time to scan every new object she produced. She and Gretchen were working harder than they ever had in their lives; but as the day wound down hundreds of people had food, clothing, and shelter thanks to them. 
- 

The Freedom League Auxilary arrived early in the morning to help clear debris and otherwise do disaster relief, helping evacuate the stranded Freedomians in particular. It was good to have them there; especially since so few Japanese heroes seemed to have arrived on the scene. But even they didn't stay long, disappearing back to Freedom City after just a few hours with promises from Gabriel to return as soon as they could. 

Where _were_ the rest of Japan's superheroes? It looked as if the little group from the stadium were the only heroes in the city; minus the ever-present, ever-courteous Kashima. The authorities had taken the hints sent their way by the Freedom City heroes, but from the look of things they were far too backed up with rescue work to be able to investigate much right now. 

- 

Net-Fly found that this was primarily a dumb machine - in more ways than one. But he was able, with the help of a jury-rigged Japanese-English translator, to find some interesting things. This had indeed started out as a Namazu machine; a powerful ultrasonic generator programmed to produce deep vibrations in structural material for demolitions purposes. Someone had programmed it beyond its limits, setting it to vibrate itself to pieces, and then rigged a charge to detonate afterwards and melt the device down. It was only good luck the charge had misfired, probably from the effects of the vibration. He was able to find that a remote signal had activated the machine; but he'd have to rig up more sensors around the ruined city if he wanted to track down the source of the signal. 

- 

On the night of April 4, the Prime Minister of Japan arrived at Sapporo Airport, landing by helicopter on the only intact runaway. Kashima was there to greet him and act as bodyguard as the Prime Minister made an annoucement on live television just moments after landing. The Prime Minister was an old man, the son of a World War II veteran, and looked even older as he spoke. 

"...and as great as this tragedy is, darker clouds still hang over our beloved nation. We have learned that unknown meta-science devices were used to cause this horrific tragedy. This was the worst act of metahuman terrorism in our nation's history! In light of these events, I have asked our meta-population, and foreign metahumans alike such as the Freedom League, to remain outside Sapporo until repairs are completed - the better to avoid retaliation, to guard our people, and to avoid distraction during the hunt for these monsters. Many of our finest heroes will be in Tokyo and other large cities, guarding against other attacks. Kashima, also known as Ken Namazu, the head of Sapporo's largest company, will be leading the relief efforts here. We will endure today - together!" 

Edited April 28, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Vahnyu]

April the 3rd

After separating from Triakosia, Net Fly flew down, towards the machine. After examining it closely, he activated his Net-Dive Harness, a barely visible circlet-looking device installed in his mask, that allowed him to interface with computers. He found no such luck doing that, and though he wanted to give the machine a more thorough look, he decided to join the relief efforts once more, at least until things looked like they'd settled down. Grimalkin asked him and Triakosia to exchange their contact infos, which Serge thought was a good idea, seeing as they'd need to work together for the next few days.

Seeing Greg alive had at least been a weight off his shoulders, and the young hero even caught sight of Takanori, who'd joined up with the relief effort. The middle-aged japanese businessman looked sweaty, with dirt and dust covering his back and hands. He'd taken out his expensive suit, and rolled up the sleeves of his collared shirt, and despite his somewhat plump demeanor, Takanori had thrown himself completely into helping the injured, with nary a sign of protest. A few hours later, Net Fly excused himself once more, and, after taking the machine they'd salvaged with him, went to his hotel room.

April the 4th

During the morning, Serge ate a quick breakfast, and talked with Greg about what had happened the day before. He let Greg scour the net for any news, while he took out all of his tools that he kept handy around, and started tinkering with the machine, taking it appart in some places, while fixing others. The language barrier was proving too difficult for him to overcome, so he'd build an automated translator, for crossreferrencing his findings. Nothing so sofisticated as to provide a perfect translation, but it was more than just a simple interpreter, using multiple online dictionaries, crossreferrencing data, identifying phrases, etc. His brow furrowed further and further, as he uncovered more info from the machine's specs; a poorly placed charge, that misfired because whoever programmed it didn't account for super-vibration they'd rigged the machine to perform. Ughhh... this is sooo stupid... Whoever tampered with this, knew enough of what they was doing to cause some serious damage, but frakk-all about either the underlying workings of the machine or how to properly cover their tracks. This is amateur work, through and through. He realised that a remote signal had activated the machine, which made sense, as whoever was responsible for it probably didn't want to be too close when it hit the fan.

He was none too happy to find out the full extent of the damage caused by the earthquake, either, but lying in wait didn't sit too well with Serge, who instead decided to spend the remainning hours of searching info for Namazu Technologies, and for Kashima as well, until the night, when the Japanese Prime Minister made his announcement.

[Tiffany Korta]

Finally forcing herself to take a break from the many hours spent helping out Dancia filed her story about her experiences over this last day or so. Her story was about the little miracles of those that survived despite the odds and the bravery and heroism of the rescue services to make those miracles happen. She’d left her own actions to a few brief mentions of a hero in blue and yellow who helped the rescues out, in fact she’d avoided talking to any press about her actions allowing others to decide on the value of her actions.

With the Prime Minister's statement she figured now was a good time to focus on the why of all this, she didn’t want get people actually saving people in trouble for working with her, so as she finished the welcoming coffee she listened for the distinctive ultrasonic sounds of the cowl that they’d met at the Stadium a day ago.

[Heritage]

Older generations were frequently dismissive of millennials; they called them self-involved, cynical and overly-dependant on their parents, among other things. Watching her young employee Gretchen, a conjured hardhat on her head, working her ass off for hours with no compensation, Lynn realized how wrong they were; this girl, normally so snarky and flippant, had a core of inner strength that not even the changeling had suspected was there, and it made her pixie heart swell with pride. Not one complaint, no eye-rolling, just quiet commitment and even the occasional fleeting shared smile.

 

We are Freedom.

 

In the evening, the pair returned to the shelter for the second seder; it was traditional for Jews not living in Israel to celebrate holidays two days in a row, and Ben insisted that this might be the most important seder his family would ever share. Substitutions would have to be made, for like the Jews of Egypt they had to flee from danger with short notice; paper plates for china, plastic cups for wine glasses and so on. Sarah had managed to grab a box of matzo and ten year old Cara saved a bottle of kosher wine.

 

They set up their improvised seder table in a corner of the gym, and invited any of their neighbors to join them if they chose; none of the Japanese citizens had seen a seder, and they followed the rituals of the haggadah with respectful awe. When it came time to drop the ten drops of wine on their plates, one for the blood of the Egyptians spilled during each of the ten plagues, Ben added something new.

 

"And this is for the blood of the people of Sapporo, tragically spilled on this holiest of days."

 

He poured a great quantity of wine on his plate, and the others followed suit; as the deep red spread over the stark white, all who were present were visibly moved.

 

After the seder meal was over and Sarah had passed out all the rest of the matzo to their curious neighbors, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the Prime Minister speak on the digital scoreboard, with Lynn providing translation for the other Epsteins and Gretchen. When it was over, her young assistant scowled.

 

"I call shenanigans."

 

 "I call bull####; if this guy Kashima was in any way involved with the quake, that's like putting the Mafia in charge of a crime scene."

 

"Pretty much, yeah."

 

Lynn pulled out her phone and called Serge. "I don't care what the PM says, I'm not leaving; if need be, I'll make myself look like a local and keep at it."

 

"Me, too; except for the part about turning Japanese, I can't do that." She smiled faintly. "So that's what that song is about..."

 

Lynn smiled at Gretchen's little joke, then Serge picked up. "Hey dude, it's Lynn; are you seeing this bs on TV? I smell massive cover-up."

 

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage

[Vahnyu]

"Can you believe this guy?" Gregory asked his stepson, Serge, after the PM had finished his speech. "Putting your and your friends' efforts aside, the Freedom League sends its heroes to give a valuable helping hand, and this is how they thank them? By slapping them in the face?"

Serge considered it, for a while, initially just as ticked off as Greg. But then, he thought better about it. "It is what it is. It makes sense that they wouldn't want help from outsiders, I'm still here, and even if I get involved, it shouldn't affect international diplomatic relationships, much, seeing as I'm an independant agent, or something." Legalwise, this would be a grey area, that much he understood.

"Point. The Japanese are very proud like that. Sometimes stubbornly so."

"Aren't we all?" Serge quipped. Greg laughed at the young hero, as Serge answered his call. "Hey, Lynn, what's up? Wha? Cover up?" Serge hmmm'd as he thought about it a bit. "Maybe... but I doubt it's that simple..."

"Listen, I kept myself busy today, and found some interesting things along the way. Remember the earthquake machine, right?... Yeah, of course, stupid question, sorry. Anyways, I took it with me to the hotel room, and took it appart, did some tinkering here and there. This thing was remote-controlled, meaning that whoever set it up didn't want it to go off on its own. But more importantly, the guy who tinkered with the ultrasonic generator wasn't very thorough in his work. He - or they - tried to cover up the source of the earthquake by setting up a charge to melt the USG away after the fact, but they did a shoddy job at that, miscalculating the effect of point-blank vibrations."

"... Well, that was half of my day. The other half, I went through the Internet, did some digging on Namazu, the man and the company alike. To be frank, nothing jumped at me, neither as particularly damning, nor as exonarating, for that matter. The company deals with High-Tech meta-science, unsurprisingly, though its roots are old. Millenia-old. The worst I could find about the company was WWII related, some far-right leanings, whitewashing the more unsavory bits of Japanese involvement in WWII via education. Yeah, standard nationalistic/ultranationalistic stuff, you could say; morally questionable, but nothing illegal so far. As for Ken Namazu himself, he was the epicenter of attention until a few years back, wherein our Kashima dropped from the face of the planet, or the face of media, as it where."

After he was done recounting his findings, Serge asked Lynn "Have you spoken with Triakosia yet? What are you two planning to do now? Personally, I think I'll stick around for a while, see where this tangled thread is going... What about the other dude? Guy in black and white... he a Freedomite, or a local?"

[Heritage]

Lynn listened as Serge relayed what he'd find; mostly it would be considered 'circumstantial evidence' if you tried to pin it on Namazu, if even that, so they definitely didn't have a smoking gun. "I haven't talked to her yet, but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon; 'Lynn Epstein' was planning to stay for a whole week, so that's what my return ticket says." She looked over at Gretchen, who was helping to clean up after the seder, and her voice got low and a bit menacing. "I'm gonna stay as long as it takes to find out what happened, and they can't really find me if I don't want to be found." Then her tone brightened a bit. "I don't think Mr. Black and White is a local, though I could be wrong; the way he got all up in Kashima's face really seemed pretty New Jersey to me."

 

She rubbed her face, feeling the fatigue of the day setting in. "I don't know how to reach him, do you? I mean, I could always put a giant billboard on top of a building, but then they'd kinda know we're still here. You're a smart guy, can you think of anything?"

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage

[Vahnyu]

"Well, it's good to hear you're sticking around as well, Lynn. I may talk a big game about being a big boy and going at it on my own, but I'd really rather not!" Serge replied, with a smidge of exaggeration in his tone. "But seriously, thanks for your help back there, especially with the shelters. You did a great thing there, and there's a lot of blog articles being posted about it, both english and japanese, singing your praises. So that's why, I'll be glad to once again work together with you and Triakosia. You rock, you two!" Serge said to the superheroine, and he meant every word. Fighting alongside others during an invasion tended to foster great camaderie, especially between hereos who share their identities.

Nevertheless, Serge couldn't stiffle a laugh when Lynn talked about Mr. Black and White. "Hahaha. Yes, I see your point." When she asked him if he could find a way to reach him, Serge let a sigh out. "Honestly? I'm stumped. It's not like I got a picture of him, and searching the net for guys wearing black and white tights returns many unrelated results, and many of them not entirely safe for working enviroments, if I'm being too frank here. Though, if you ask me, he seemed pretty driven, when he was investigating the tremor machine, and when he went face to face with Kashima. You ask me, guys like that don't let up, once they start something. If we keep looking into this incident, we're bound to cross paths again. Or, well..." sitting back, Serge relaxed in his chair. "...that's the feeling I get."

"So, anyways..." with that done, he took a deep breath, as if making his mind up. "it's getting late, and you sound exhausted. Think I'll stop bothering you for now, let you catch some zzz's, ok? I'll try looking into our friend in black a bit more, but no promises there. Unless an emergency occurs in the meantime, call me tomorrow when you've rested a bit. Goodnight Lynn."

[Tiffany Korta]

Hovering over the city Dancia had to admit a certain amount of admiration for the cowl, as well as some frustration, he managed to somehow evade her senses and despite several sweeps of the city she couldn’t find where he’d gone. It didn’t help that she’d stopped a few time to help in trouble, but she couldn’t see people suffer is she could help.

She activated her comm system, a gift from the League, and told it to contact Grimalkin and Net Fly after getting there contact details during the last emergency they’d attended.

“This is Triakosia here. I’m not planning to leave unless I’m asked and  I think we should look into what caused this earthquakes. Where best to meet you both?”

[Heritage]

Lynn was under a blanket on a sleeping pad in the gym, getting ready to catch some shuteye, when her phone softly hummed; holding it up, she recognized the caller. "Oh great, guess I'm not off the clock yet." Wrapping the blanket around herself, she padded over to a dark corner of the gym so as not to disturb any of the other evacuees. "Hey Tria, how goes it? Technically I think we have been asked, but I'm choosing to ignore that suggestion, due to both emotional investment and paranoia; in the movies, the cops always want the detective to drop the case when he's getting too close to the truth, am I right?" 

 

She utterly failed to suppress a cough before continuing. "Uh, did you want to meet right now? I mean I can, but I've been at it all day and my brains a bit fuzzy. Also any leads on Mr. Black and White? I'd really like his input on this whole thing." 

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage

[Vahnyu]

Serge was lying sitting on his bed, covered with a blanket up to his stomach. It was a western type bed, four legs as is standard for the bed frame, and a matress of medium softness. The hotels that operated deep in the city favored this type of bed over the traditional futons, which were more commonplace on the motels found in the outskirts of cities, near specific touristic attractions such as shinto and buddhist shrines, natural hot springs, etc. On his lap rested his laptop, and he was surfing the net, even this late in the night, for any possible clue as to who the masked hero in black and white was. He was getting nowhere, of course, as he'd expected as much, but it still frustrated him a lot. The late of the hour wasn't helping things either, as fatigue had finally started catching up with him.

It was at that point, that Triakosia called, and he answered. "Hey, Triakosia, Net Fly here, what's up?" Hearing that Dancia was staying for the forseeable future, Serge smiled in acknowledgment. "Good to hear, Triakosia. Grimalkin and I are of the same mind, more or less."

The request for a meeting wasn't met enthusiastically by Lynn, and Serge had to agree. "Yeah, I mean, I could certainly meet you two right now, but unless it's urgent, I could do with a few hours sleep myself; my eyes are burning here."

Edited May 19, 2015 by Vahnyu

[Avenger Assembled]

The first few days of disaster relief were difficult - they had all seen chaos and disaster before in their superheroic careers, but a cataclysm in Freedom City, with its high super-density and the presence of matter manipulators like Dr. Metropolis, was different than a disaster in a place like Sapporo, especially cut off from superheroic aid. Eventually they made contact with Kingsnake, the hero having made his ersatz headquarters in the historic Sapporo Beer Museum, and in a temporarily abandoned office they shared their intelligence about the mysterious Namazu Corporation - a story that grew grimmer by the word. 

"Suggest we enter facilities ourselves and investigate in force," said Kingsnake, his voice a low growl from a shadowy corner near the window. It was dark outside this late in the day, the only lights in the sky being Namazu drones still scouting out the city. "Found a backup facility near Mt. Asahi. Can't breach gates alone," admitted the rough-voiced hero. "Some of you not very subtle - will make investigation easier." He gave a low chuckle, his black and white costume perfectly matching the darkened office in which they met, what generally belonged to the director of the historic site. 

Before the others could answer, though, there was the sound of distant explosions and flashing lights from nearby. Looking out the windows revealed some sort of super-battle going on above the fitness center across the street, something where the armored Kashima (accompanied by swarms of Namazu drones) appeared to be engaged in sudden aerial battle not with a person, but with a figure shaped from the lightning itself. 

"Time to go," commented Kingsnake, cracking open his baton and sliding open the window in preparation for moving into battle - the people around here had lived through enough, amid broken windows and damaged buildings, to have to deal with a full-scale super-battle!

Edited May 13, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Tiffany Korta]

Dancia wasn't offended by the cowl manner, in fact she was found there cowl attitude refreshing, and she was well aware that was a capable blunt force when necessary.

“I’m more than capable of being subtle when the need arises, but in this case...”

She looked up suddenly hearing the sound of battle well before the rest of them, except maybe the cowl, could pick up the sounds of the scuffle.

“Sound like there's trouble afoot, we’re obviously not the only one who stayed here. Shall we see if we can go help?”

Without waiting for a reply she took to the air to got see if you should help in the battle, though she wasn't quite sure for which side yet.

[Vahnyu]

Tracking down Kingsnake was no easy task. True to his namesake, the vigilante in black and white was too slippery by far, leaving scant a trail for Serge to follow. Still, pooling his resources along with Dancia's excellent tracking superpowers, the two of them managed to somehow track the elusive hero, while Lynn was still busy aiding in the relief efforts. Nevertheless, Serge couldn't help but feel that the only reason they managed to track Kingsnake down, was because the hero in question wanted to be found himself.

As the four of them became alerted to the battle that was being waged outside, as they discussed their intel, Kingsnake and Triakosia had already moved on the initiative. Net Fly, for his part, wasn't too far behind, and the costumed hero switched the charges of his Vibro-Suit to <on>. As soon as the low-humming sound of his vibrational sonic powers been converted into energy and feeding directly into the suit rose steadily, Net Fly took flight, and headed towards the commotion. "Let's find out." He replied to Triakosia.

[Heritage]

While Grimalkin disappeared from public view, Lynn Epstein joined her friend Gretchen McDaniels' relief efforts; another pair of hands were always welcome, and her spoken Japanese was really good for someone who claimed she 'just watched a lot of anime growing up'. Thanks to her keen senses, she had an uncanny 'knack' for finding people in the rubble; and sometimes, they were even alive...

 

But at night, an invisible benefactor visited the aid stations and evacuation shelters; needed supplies were always well-stocked and broken items mysteriously replaced. Children found wonderful toys in their backpacks, and their parents found new clothes, neatly folded. Of course, no one said anything, but there were a few secret smiles and murmured thanks to Gurimarukin.

 

Lynn checked in with Serge and Dancia on a regular basis, ready at a moment's notice to drop what she was doing and rejoin the search for the truth behind the attack; when the call finally came, she happily joined the others at the Sapporo factory, eager to get back to work.

 

The puzzle they were putting together with Kingsnake did not look good; whatever Namazu's founder was up to, it looked like there would extremely serious charges involved. But then she was drawn to the window like everybody else.

 

"Well whaddya know; looks like we might have a chance to ask him a few questions!"

 

In a flash, Grim shrunk down to pixie size and took to the air with her fellow Freedonians.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Heritage