ic Ounce of Prevention [IC]

[The Sailor]

Riverside District, Pier 4, US Navy Warehouse
September 14, 2015, 0720 HRS, Eastern Daylight Time

A mix of FCPD, US Navy NCIS, and Coast Guard officers were milling about, some looking dumbfounded and others tripping over jurisdictions. An area of Pier 4's floor was cordoned off by security tape, but a combination of the MPs trampling over the scene, The FCPD's being shuffled about by the nose, and the fact that whatever happened happened well before the crack of dawn had caused the scene start to go cold.

The back of the pier warehouse was open, enough to accommodate a small ship used for moving cargo around that the Navy used. As well as there was already several crates stacked, and seemingly untouched.

"So, when is the cape arriving? Not that we haven't gone over this area with a fine-toothed comb." One of the NCIS investigators said, his arms crossed.

"We're hearing there's two inbound, one the Navy asked for specifically, and someone that is being called in. Not sure which is comin' first." One of the MPs mentioned, before telling a FCPD officer to keep back from the cordon.

There was a couple of FCPD detectives talking to some of the NCIS investigators, going over their notes, and actually showing some coordination. Something was knitting together.

What was noticeable is within the milling group of investigators, was an Admiral... one in charge of the fleet in this part of the Atlantic... and he didn't look happy.

Edited September 16, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

- Gretchen! Gretchen, wake up! -

 

Buried deep under a pile of covers, the young barista blindly flailed a hand out in search of her bedside alarm, but instead she merely managed to sock the boy in bed next to her right in the face.

 

"Ow! What the hell, G!"

 

One corner of the coverlet rose up, and a small bleary-eyed face emerged and peered at the handsome African-American lad beside her. "I want to say....Tycho?"

 

- Gretchen, wake up, it's important! -

 

The drowsy sidekick sat up suddenly, threw out her arms, closed her eyes and yelled up at the ceiling. "I AM awake, boss! I'm just punching a naked guy. Like I sometimes do."

 

"Yes, it's Tycho, and who the hell are you talking to?"

 

- I only got like half of that; who are you punching naked? -

 

Shaking her head, Gretchen took half the covers with her as she stumbled towards the bathroom. "Too many voices. I need a shower and five shots of espresso."

 

- - -

 

Ten minutes later, the leather-clad figure known as Shrike was flying towards the river; what made it particularly interesting was how she managed to drink her espresso out of a travel mug while doing so.

 

- So we got a hit on the site? -

 

- Yes! That new layout you came up with is finally generating some traffic! -

 

- So explain to me why Grimalkin's website got a hit, and Grimalkin isn't actually showing up. -

 

- Dude, I totally would, but we've got that city inspector coming in, and then I have to go right to class right after. -

 

- Well, then. No worries. I hear and I obey. -

 

- You RULE, Gretch! -

 

-Yes. Yes, I do. -

 

Still incongruously drinking out of her travel mug, the masked figure gently alighted on the ground next to what she could only assume were the appropriate human authority figures; they were all wearing hats. Looking up at them (as she frequently had to, even in her three inch heels), she raised the mug to her lips and dramatically intoned, "Gentlemen, I greet you. How may the Shrike be of assistance to you?"

Edited May 25, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM

The Admiral grunted. Shrike picks up on the name above his ribbon-bars. Adm. G. Thompson.

"Admiral Thompson, Naval Intelligence." He said, holding out his hand. "Attache to the Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet. Seems you beat the sea asset I called in by a few."

"It seems we got a pretty bad situation, I know Grimalkin from some work together in the past, it seems she's busy and called in one of her new charges? Getting into the training business she is?" He said with a smile. There was a faint scar over an eye, although no obvious signs of further damage. "To be honest, we trade off who owes who from time to time."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass

There was a bubbling from the water in the Dock inside the pier warehouse. Followed by someone breaking the surface. She could have been a diver except for the fact her dive vest was red with a blue sailor collar and her wetsuit was a navy blue and white combination of sections, and she wasn't using a scuba tank. She tossed a couple large black air tanks on to the dock, that land with a clang. "One moment, Admiral! Let me get out of the water here..." She said, her voice was a little odd... high... kicking off of the cement on one side of the dock and in a leap lands on the dock, picking up the two air tanks that probably weigh 125 pounds each like they were nothing. She sets them over next to the NCIS investigators before walking over to Shrike and the Adimiral. Standing somewhat in between Attention and At-Ease. Resisting her former military response to someone of rank. "Name's Torpedo Lass." She said to Shrike, smiling, pulling her dive vest down a bit. "Was checking out these two air tanks. They still got some gas but they don't contain Oxygen. One has helium in it."

"You tested it by breathing it in? What if it was something dangerous?"

Torpedo Lass smirked. "I doubt they'd be using anything else. Helium makes sense mixing with Oxygen for deep dives, and compresses easier than Oxygen. Then again the other tank being pure Carbon Dioxide makes me scratch my head. Coughed out that." She said as her voice sounded more normal. "Of course as a water breather, air is air."

The Admiral quirked his eyebrow. A couple NCIS investigators walk over to Shrike and Torpedo Lass. The Admiral spoke up. "Okay... questions? Might want to discuss this out of earshot of the civilian and unauthorized crew and officers here... There is a empty office behind us we can use. We can talk on the way over. Needless to say what we talk about doesn't leave your lips."

Torpedo Lass gulped.

[Heritage]

Shike stiffly shook the admiral's hand, having never really mastered the art of the handshake; she knew too hard or too soft was bad, but had yet to find a happy medium.

 

"It's an honor to meet you, sir; Grimalkin spoke of you with respect."

 

Wait, what? Where did that come from? Guess it was best to roll with it.

When the odd aquatic woman arrived, Gretchen was slightly put off; how do you think of things to say to complete strangers? Her boss made it look so easy.

 

"I am the Shrike. Good to be working with you."

 

Uck, whatever! Thankfully the presence of clues, a problem to sort out, put her in more familiar ground. She cocked her head to one side, somewhat bird-like as always, and considered the CO2 tank for a few moments.

 

"Maybe for propulsion, but maneuverability would be poor with just the tank. To put out fires or to suffocate...seems unlikely. On the fringe side, maybe a CO2 breather? Alien or plant-based lifeforms could conceivably breath it In and exhale oxygen."

 

At the mention of privacy, the young sidekick mutely nodded as she locked her travel mug onto her belt and floated after the admiral, about six inches off the ground. The extra elevation helped her feel less like a little kid playing dress up.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

TL

Torpedo Lass did seem more the girl now as she softened up. "There is a possibility of the CO2 being used to fill a rubber boat of some kind, but that leaves the helium, that tank was practically empty." She said, starting to get self-concious about how she was dripping wet still. "And I'm hoping I'm not dripping on anyone, the curse of a diver, if you will."

Blushing she scratched her head, her darkish purple hair was obviously not a dye job. Now in the slightly darker lighting of the warehouse, her eyes seemed to put off a phosphorescent blue-green glow, like the wake behind a ship. She starts letting out the air from her dive vest. "I can't shake the suspicion that this is more down to earth thievery. I mean, would aliens use regular air tanks? In fact the heads on those tanks looked mil-spec."

"Except for the damage on the inside of the socket on that head... It seems something managed to remove those tanks. The cracking suggests some kinetic force."

"Hey... Don't ask the water breather how she knows how air tanks are connected... let's just say I've swam with SCUBA divers carrying a spare tank enough to know an emergency and what'll defeat the engineering of said heads. I trained to maintain them and get licensed anyways. Better safe than sorry."

She looked at Shrike's hovering. "Natural or Technology? S... sorry if I'm prying, I'm just curious about the other heroes here... I've still got about 60 some odd years I'm still catching up on."

Edited September 19, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Shrike smirked as she looked down at the ground rolling past her feet. "Neither. It's magic." She made an 'ooh' face and wriggled her gloved fingers in the air. "Still a work in progress, but it's coming along." Then she waved a hand TL's general direction. "So were you born under the sea or did you move there later?"

Edited September 20, 2015 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass

"Well, I was sort of a victim of an industrial accident. I was 7 at the time. Got swept out to sea by a riptide into some weird plume of chemicals off the coast. It also ate through the innertube I was sitting in eventually. Wasn't long before I was treading water with no hope of getting to land before my stamina ran out. Went under, gulped some of the weird stuff and bang."

"People just weren't responsible with the environment in 1926, aye?"

She smirked. "Next thing you know I can lift cars like nothing, swim faster than a fighter jet and oh... breathe water. Wasn't for the fact that my pressure tolerances make me almost bulletproof, I'd hate the fact I sink in water. Bit troublesome when I want to stay in one spot vertically while not moving."

She adjusted the goggles on her head. "And before you ask, I've not been around for some of the time that's passed from then. Long story, and with the situation here, we probably don't have all the time in the world for conversation."

"Not that it disqualifies any after this is resolved..."

[The Sailor]

GM

The Admiral led the two women into the empty office, it had a large tablet-like computer for a desk table, as well as a large-screen monitor behind him. He closed the shades and turned on the system.

"What do you know about the UN treaty in regards to the weaponization of space, ladies?"

Torpedo Lass scratched her head as The Admiral continued.

"The Space Weaponization Treaty prevents the use of space to place nuclear weapon armed satellites, or other armaments. Thing is there is one loophole."

He pulls up an image.

"This, is Project Titan's Fall. It was designed in the height of the cold war in the 1980s. Built by NATO as a last resort against a supervillain if he managed to take down enough superheroes to be considered unstoppable by conventional means otherwise. It uses long tungsten rods, about as long as a compact car, that are released and allowed to fall to earth, which slam into the target with brutal force. Like a very large meteor. Depending on the round it could even do an airburst, taking out several city blocks from the force of re-entry."

He adjusted his uniform. "We have reason to believe the control server which is the only computer that could interface with it via a wireless protocol was stolen. The control computer was stored here to eventually send a de-orbit command to the satellite, causing it to sling-shot into deep space using earth's gravity. Thing is the crates stolen also had various discontinued weapons from the past 30 years of testing. Luckily just conventional gear, but still a threat if it got into criminal hands. We've been watching all sea routes, so far no unusual traffic has been by this particular pier. Of course most of our navigational buoys with sonar trackers ignore anything smaller than a large speedboat. That and the FAA hasn't had any anomalous aircraft in the vicinity of the city. That leaves a ground escape. And with this theft happening at the height of rush hour..."

He pulled up a map of Freedom City and it's current traffic flow and a computer prediction of what routes would be the most efficient. "It would be difficult to get very far."

He pulled up a red blinking icon on an island south and west of Lonely Point's peninsula.

"That's odd... there's no roads there... that blinking is a beacon attached to some amphibious operation body-armor we had in a crate, one of the ones that were stolen... triggers on immersion for immediate SAR when it's integrated flotation device inflates... Thing is the only thing picking up on that right now is this..." He pulls out a smart-phone looking device, encased in a international orange rubber-like cover. "Take this emergency beacon reciever, I got a feeling we should investigate that. I think some answers may lie at that island."

"I know that the Chief here..." He looks over to Torpedo Lass "...can jump over there with her ability to leap long distances, and your ability to fly can get you there in no time. Although with needing to keep this under wraps, we could set up a civilian helicopter to get in close, and you two can get there however you like by jumping/flying out without having anything stick out with the common air traffic here. That and have a very short lead-time to getting there if the thieves spot you."

Edited September 23, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Shrike nodded as the Admiral explained the nature of the weapon. "'Rods from God'; they had those in Mass Effect 2. Didn't think we had them in real life, but it makes sense." She peered at the blinking red light. "They could either taken a boat or flown. Or tunneled, I guess." She held up one side of her cloak. "My Cloak of Mystery allows me to turn invisible, but it won't stop me from appearing on radar if they've got that. Hopefully at the speeds I travel at, I'll have landed before they pick up anything."

 

Then she stood there for a while with her head cocked to one side, as she sort of stared at the Admiral for several seconds before she finally spoke again. "So all this super-secret military gear they made off with...any idea as to what they got? Besides the keys to the killsat, that is. It would be nice if we had an idea of what we were flying into before they sonic disrupt us to death."

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

TL

Torpedo Lass picked up a tablet with the manifest, looking at it. "10 Amphibious counter-Piracy armors, 10 hybrid blue-green laser rifles, the keys, as you called it, 5 integrated flightsuits, 1 portable radar unit, 1 prototype..."

Torpedo Lass paused. "Rail Cannon." She said, putting down the tablet.

She looked over to the Admiral. "I think I'm with Shrike on this, we'll have to move quickly. I can get on to the scene first, and scout. underwater my speeds are hard to adapt to. Shrike and I can time our arrivals where I strike first if hostility breaks out, otherwise, I can have a short period of time to look over the area before her arrival."

She looked over to Shrilke. "Neat trick with the cloak by the way." She said.

When the Admiral nodded, TL headed out for the dock gesturing for Shrike to follow. Shrike could see TL's vest was being adjusted for her weight as it seemed to breathe in and out in it's fine-tuning as TL used a dial to get things just right.

"Okay... It's a few miles off to that beach, if you know your speed... I can get there going about 2500 MPH, and with how my supercavitation works, it's no biggie. They don't got sonar." She said, adjusting her suit a little. "Didn't think I'd be getting wet again."

She stretched at the dock's edge. "Meet ya there?"

Then she gets a thought, looking at a crate with what looked like a blackish-green mass of rubber. "Wait... What's that?"

One of the warehouse techs who know about what is stored there pulled out his tablet and scanned the barcode. "Looks like a inflatable boat, 8-man, scheduled to be decomissioned and recycled."

"Permission to give it one more mission?"

The guy shrugged. "It's goin' in the trash anyways, why not."

It took a moment, but after finding a spare air tank nearby she started getting it inflated. "I got an idea Shrike. They got a radar thing... but if we keep to the water we're ok. Knowing them they're watching the air. I can tow you... it'd be slower, but this boat could take it. If you drape that cloak in the front, you think it could impart some of it's invisibility so you could hide under it? I can pull this along from below. All I need is a rope. That and after looking at that map there might be ways to keep hidden up to just about arriving."

[Heritage]

At the mention of 'Rail Cannon', Shrike's eyes went a little wide and she sent little mental whimper back to Lynn.

 

- Uh, boss? Have you ever had to deal with a rail cannon? -

 

- Yeah, they're super-bad. Not like the movie, obviously. Why? -

 

- Oh, no reason. -

 

- Holy crap, do you need my help? I can kill this health inspector and hide the body! -

 

- No, it's fine. We've got our top fish lady working on this. -

 

- Uh...okay. Well, scream in terror if you get in too deep. -

 

- You can pretty much count on it. -

 

She blinked her eyes a few times, then came back to the here and now, and responded to TL's question. "As in, can I make the whole raft invisible? if that's what you mean, then no. It just works for the wearer, though I'm working on passengers for the future."

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

"Well then we'll have to rely on speed and clever positioning. I've swam in the area, I know of some trees and stuff I can use, although the last few hundred feet things'll turn break-neck." She said, tying a rope to the front of the boat before jumping into the water. When she bobbed up she gestured to the boat. "Your chariot has arrived."

She grinned. "Once we resolve this, maybe I could whip up a good old-fashioned fish fry for us? I know of some ways to turn even using caveman grade grilling to pretty good effect."

The Admiral cleared his throat. "Just take care of things first, Chief."

Mary pouted. "Right... Mission first, after all."

She waited for Shrike to step into the boat and she started at first to gently swim, but it felt like the rubber boat had a good outboard on it as the two made their way out into the river and only faster when towed into the bay as they started making their way around the peninsula between them and their spot to investigate. There was something odd suddenly the two mariners see in the sky. Smoke. A small trail.

Torpedo Lass looked up before swimming over to the boat and gently bringing her cargo to a stop. "Umm... that can't be normal. That smoke's black... like it's being fueled by some sort of oil."

"Judgement call here... You can fly, right? Maybe we can park the boat here and you can head over by air from here and I can jump off on your vector... I think I can make a dry landing on the shoreline on that island on the map. Whatcha think? We got no other game plan than get there and investigate. Without tipping our hand."

[Heritage]

Gretchen was not a fan of boats; she learned this along time ago growing up in Portland, where the damn things were pretty much everywhere. it wasn't that she got seasick so much as feeling a complete lack of control on the water, the sense that the sea didn't give a rat's ass about you or your fragile little body. But she's agreed to be a part of this mission, so she said nothing as she climbed into the stupid rubber dingy that felt about as durable as a rubber duckie. Her face was taut with strain as they traveled out to sea and the peninsula rapidly approached.

 

In a weird way, the black smoke, though ominous as hell, came as something of a relief; it was another problem to be teased at, and it meant a chance to get out of the pool floatie. "Yeah, i can fly." Then Shrike lifted up her hood, and a silver shimmer spread over her, erasing first her head and shoulders and then drifting down over her entire body. "Let's hope they don't see us coming," she said, her voice floating eerily in the air.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass held on to the back of the boat and pushed it over to a rock with a outcropping just good enough to tie to. Then climbing on to the dark olive green boat she crouched. "I think they'll have no time to act... there's something to be said about a decisive first move. Meet ya there and watch my back..."

She waited a moment to give Shrike some lead-time, then she lept with her best judgement on distance heading towards the scene in a calculated arc... during the hangtime she let the air out of her vest in case if she hit water, she didn't want it to pop. When she looked back at where she's about to land though she realized she should have been paying attention a little better. She careens right into what looked like a damaged TV-screen in pattern, flickering in and out of existence, but it still was there. She also discovered how she was lucky it was the gasbag of a blimp. The skin of it was a cloaking device! The smoke was coming from it's rear, and as she looked around cradled in an invisible airbag, she saw what looked like a suit of sealed, carbon fiber plated armor, being held up in the water by a military camo green air bladder girdling the chest under the arms like a ring.

She hops off on to the beach.

"Seems I've found that armor the Admiral was talking about..." She said.

[Heritage]

Shrike floated over to the suit of armor, still invisible. "Hold on, we've got a body in there; I can move it without having to touch it." She held out her Ring, and directed most of its power over towards the inert form, using only a fraction of it to keep her hovering in the air. She envisioned a large pair of gentle hands wrapping around the body, and gingerly raised it up and floated it over towards the beach, carefully depositing it some ten yards away from Torpedo Lass.

 

Then the young heroine reappeared, landing with a soft crunch on the beach, her head cocked to one side as she eyed the body. "Do you think they'd rig it to blow, or am I being too paranoid?"

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Mary walked over. "Think there's someone in that suit?" She said, looking at the situation.

She walked over and after looking for trip-wires, she carefully put her fingers on the throat of the suit. Then she hears a low moan. "This one is injured. I got a pulse." She said, looking at his legs. "Seems his right leg is busted. We might wanna immobilize that."

She looked at Shrike. "To be honest, theif, terrorist, or not... gotta hel..."

She suddenly jerked back after what sounded like a bee went by Shrike! what it was, was a rifle round bouncing off of Torpedo Lass' forehead, at least knocking her back into the blimp. It came from the forest some distance from the beach, and it looks like whatever is covering them, is man-made, as there was a shifting pattern in the woods, fading back. She didn't look injured, but even for someone with as hard a head as Torpedo Lass... that had to ring the bell!

Edited October 11, 2015 by Sailor

[Heritage]

Gretchen stood with her hands on her hips, lips pursed in thought. "Hmm. Well, I've had a bit of first aid training; is there a kit back in the dingy? I could-" Once the bullet dropped Torpedo Lass, Shrike instinctively dropped into a crouch, her heart racing. No, not guns; she wasn't ready for guns yet! But then she forced herself to move and scuttle over to the fallen heroine, whom she saw was largely unaffected by the hit. "Wow; you really are tough."

 

But thanks to the Three Gifts, so was Gretchen, as she still had to remind herself. She gently placed a hand on TL's arm and whispered with a touch of irony, "You wait here and take a load off; I'm going to see if there's anyone I can shoot with my Cracker Jack ring." And then she went invisible and took to the air, keeping low to the ground as she raced for the treeline.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM
"CRUD! That sailor-girl's nugget must be made of Titanium!" A man said, hidden under a camoflauge poncho that seemed to create a ghilli suit-like covering on it matching the pattern of the forest they were hidden in. Seeing Gretchen disappear, as well as Torpedo Lass' head suprisingly look un-affected by the rifle shot, things started to become worrying. "We shoulda used the higher caliber rounds."

"Calm it... I think you spooked off the other girl... and that girl next to Leeroy back there is out cold. That NSA plant we beat up and tossed overboard will be great for bait to keep her from helping her invisible friend."

"Think we should move? That girl that disappeared looked like she was lookin' around!"

A third individual in what looked like an advanced black flightsuit, with a visored helmet covering her face was stalking behind the group in the shadows. "Shut it, both of you. Already lost precious time because of your incompetence. Follow me." She said with a very direct tone, military even.

The three faded into the shadows, their marvelous technological camoflauge gear for now hiding their position.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Sailor

[Heritage]

So even though she couldn't see them, Gretchen was finally able to track down the three voices and float behind them, doing everything in her power to stay quiet; she held her breath as long as possible, then sipped tiny gulps of air. She practically swam through the foliage, arms at her sides to avoid as moving as many branches as she could. She went over Grim's advice on shadowing bad guys in her head.

Don't attack, even though you reeeeealy want to; gather intel, bide your time, strike when the moment is right.

[The Sailor]

GM

You follow the group for some distance as the forest thickens up, you fear for a moment you lost sight of them until they enter a clearing some distance in, they had what looked like a large multi-person life raft deployed they were using as a tent, with what looked like a tarp made of the same material for camoflauge that made the blimp's skin invisible. You could tell what it was though from the side, but from above... like for satellites... no clue at all.

"The Admiral isn't going to be pleased by these turn of events. He might have to play his hand early."

"I wouldn't talk to much, Kite. Miss Invisible might be listening."

"Whatever, Coyote. You're the one that caused use to loose that helium tank!"

"Shut it Hyena."

They seemed distracted by their group anger over their situation.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Sailor

[Heritage]

During their frequent training sessions, Lynn went over a lot of skills she'd learned over the years that kept her alive; some were tricks from her hero days here in Freedom, others were schemes from her long bounty hunting career with her late husband, and still more were guerrilla tactics she picked up during the War of Martian Independence. She even tossed in a few of her scams from her brief but colorful criminal career. Very few of them would be considered 'fair' by more upstanding heroes, but then Grimalkin had never been known for fighting fair; Lynn had always been a combat pragmatist, and she passed that philosophy along to her young protege.

 

Which was why Gretchen was currently taking a bead on the woman refered to as Kite, crouching invisibly with her ring hand propped up some ten yards from her target.

 

If you encounter a group, always take out the leader first, unless there's a communications guy; then the leader's the second. Take out medics (but don't kill them even if you're at war), clerics, spellcasters or anyone with a fancy hat. Taking out the head just leaves the mooks, who are much easier to spook or interrogate on their own.

 

There was a sudden flash of red light, then Shrike flew to a new position some fifteen yards away before she even saw if she dropped 'Kite'.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM

The blast hits Kite square in the chest, but somehow the suit managed to take the hit... Well some of it was the suit, the rest was Kite herself. She wasn't some ordinary thief. But she gets knocked off balance from the hit, falling over on to the tent/raft as the other two look at the suddenly rocked woman.

"SHE'S HERE!" Kite shouted, but they still don't know from where... Shrike has another opportunity to strike again!

=== Elsewhere, moments ago... ===

Torpedo Lass comes to, but before she could leave to help her friend she hears the man in the armor moan. "I... It's a trap!"

"Whatcha mean, jerk.. your friends are about to have an interesting time."

"They're... no friends of mine. I infiltrated their group to bring down their scheme. I'm NSA."

Torpedo Lass got up and quirked her eyebrow, massaging her forehead. "Well, you're in no real condition to backstab me..." Torpedo lass said getting the man comfortable on shore, disconnecting the two air bladders to the man's flotation device around his waist and with some creativity makes a splint out of them with some cords from the blimp. "This is going to be rough..."

She looked back at the forest when she hears a blast. "I'll help my partner first... then we'll sort you out."

Torpedo Lass runs off into the forest...

[Heritage]

Still attempting to take out the 'head', Gretchen lined up another shot on Kite, determined to drop her and the throw the rest of the team into confusion. She still adopted a pistol stance, crouched on one knee, left hand up, right hand bracing her wrist; it would look a bit silly, if anyone could actually see her.

 

With the female criminal dead in her 'sights', she fired again!  

[The Sailor]

GM

With a reddish crack, the bolt hits it's target square in the chest, and it actually looks like it left a dent in the armor, with some cosmetic damage. It also seems that the hit made sure Kite didn't know where the shot came from and Hyena was too busy being shocked by the sudden turn of fortune once again befalling the team. But Coyote makes her own luck.

 

Standing firm she loads a different round into her rail rifle. "Dodge this, Cape..." What looks like a large shell pops out from the rifle, and quickly, bursting over Shrike's head! Luckily there is a whole bunch of trees and what-not, but if any bit of it gets a good bit of itself on you, it's gonna hurt, as it's high-velocity flechette!!!

 

== Elsewhere ==

Torpedo Lass hears the burst of the round and immediately recognized it. "Grenades? Please be alright Shrike..." She says, deciding to take a leap...