ic Late Night Out

[R. Bluefish]

The two heroes' words certainly had the desired effect on the unfortunate Cole, who turned as pale as a sheet. "Understand! I understand!" he said. "I'll go straight from now on, I swear! I've had it with trying to get away with anything in this city!"

 

With a whumph, Echo was standing behind him, enclosing him in a triangle of superheroes. "Good thinkin', Cole," she said cheerfully. "Making an enemy of a dead guy's a pretty bad idea. Ever see Night of the Living Dead? No? How about Diary of the Dead? Well, don't see that one, it's crap. You'd actually be better off with 28 Weeks Later. Not 28 Days Later, that's also crap. Point is," she raised a proclamatory finger, "don't try and do any more crimes, or you'll have to watch Diary of the Dead. Or something like that."

 

She stepped back and peered over Phantasmo's shoulder at the address in his hand. "Huh. That must be the factory where ol' Cole's employers are waiting for him." Her mask shifted slightly, as though she were grinning underneath it. "Who wants to go ruin their day?"

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo set the man down and nodded. "Right! Good to hear, duckie! Stay here and wait for the police, won't you? Ta." 

 

He then turned to Echo gave her a Grin. With a capital G. "Dooooh...that sounds like fun INDEED, young-Echo-my-girl!  A plan would probably be a good idea, however. What say you, duckie?" He asked Shrike, conjuring up a small coin and rotating it across his fingers. 

 

"What wise wisdom do you have to provide to our strategy?" 

[Heritage]

 Shrike cocked her head to one side and looked thoughtful. "Two criminals are waiting at an abandoned factory, expecting a van to show up filled with stolen parts." She looked back towards they way they'd come in. "We could borrow the van and try to Trojan horse our way in. Gain the element of surprise." Then she sighed. "Really wish I hadn't let the air out of those tires now."

 

Then she turned back to her two impromptu teammates and shrugged. "Just one suggestion. I'm open to any others."

[R. Bluefish]

Echo looked at the door they'd come through. "Using the van to sneak in sounds like a laugh, at least. No one in history has ever done anything that clever." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "'Course, there is the matter of the tires. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Anybody know where we could find an air compressor? Reinflating tires isn't one of my powers."

 

She glanced at the two of them. "If we don't feel like getting fancy like that, we could always just get in the old fashioned way. Which is, in this case, teleportation. Neither of you look like the hefty type, so I should be able to whumph you all over the place. Unless one of you weighs more than, say, two bills or so." And thankfully, it looked like she had gotten a couple of the more svelte heroes in FC. "If we want, I could also just 'port us inside on the sly. One at a time, naturally."

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo laughs dryly. It's an oddly high-pitched, raspy sound that isn't that unpleasant to listen to. "No need to trouble yourself, duckie - I'm also blessed with a bit of the old Now-you-see-me-now-you-don't." 

 

The zombie pauses. "Though I admit my range is somewhat...limited. Your 'porting may be a bit more industrial, my dear, so I'm up for whatever you suggest. What do you think, young-lady-my-Shrike?" He asks the other young heroine in the room, still rotating the coin across his gloved fingers. 

[Heritage]

"I hardly weigh a thing," Shrike admitted. She eyed the group critically. "How exactly does this work? If it involves the most awkward and creepy group hug ever, let's just get it over with as fast as possible." Then she cocked her head and peered at their informant. "What do we do with Cole Harkness and the others? Tie them up and leave them here, or drop them off somewhere first?"

[R. Bluefish]

"I'm always up for creepy group hugs," said Echo jokingly, waggling her eyebrows even though no one could see the motion through her mask. "But nah, whoever I'm taking with me just needs to be touching me at the time." She paused, then added, "er, and when I say 'touching,' I mean, like, hand-on-shoulder touching. 'Course, it's pretty short-range, so we'll need to actually go there before I can get us inside. I, uh, probably should have mentioned that first. But hey, it'll save us from having to jimmy a window, right?"

 

Casually, she shot a glance at the Cole and the unconscious heap of thugs. "As for them...eh, I'm fine with just tying 'em up and dropping the coppers a tip, but if the two of you have another way you'd rather go about it I'm flex. I know my approach is a bit on the lazy side."

[Heritage]

Gretchen frowned thoughtfully. "Okay." She held up her ring. "This thing can lift up to three tons, so I could pick you both up and just fly over to the meet spot, and then we can teleport inside dramatically." Then she looked over her shoulders at their captives and shrugged. "As for them...let's secure them here and call it in. We could put them in the van, and I can force all the doors shut. They'll need the Jaws of Life to get them out."

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo tutted. "Young people..." he snorted before conjuring a length of scarves from his hands. "Always wanting to do things the complicated way, eh, duckie?"

 

The zombie handed the scarves to Gretchen, then conjured up another length and handed it to Echo. "Bit less difficult and dangerous than forcing them into a van, yes? Start tying, if you please, duckie, and we should have these bastards bound for the constabulary in no time." 

 

He started tying up a henchman. "You know - being of the undead persuasion, if you don't want to teleport  my heavy carcass - " he snorted a bit at his own pun - "around, I can be moved in pieces. Divvy the weight amongst yourselves." he told the girls as he worked.

 

As he finished up, he dusted his hands off and looked at the younger heroines expectantly. "Well?" 

[R. Bluefish]

Echo looked at the scarf in her hand, stretching it slightly to test its strength. She nodded, impressed. Useful! "Well, that'll work." She blurred, zipping around Harkness and the unconscious thugs, and when her form stilled again they had all been securely bound with colorful scarves. "You totally took those out of your sleeves, by the way. I saw you," she added, dusting off her hands.

 

"Okay, so found the guys, check. Hit the guys, check," she said, ticking items off on her fingers. "Talked to the the guys, check, tied the guys up, check. Hit the guys the guys were working for - whoops, no check. Everybody ready to hit the sky?"

 

---------

 

The three heroes arrived at the abandoned factory, descending from the sky. They landed on the rooftop, and the moment her feet touched the ground, Echo staggered away to brace herself against one of the towering smokestacks. "I...hate flying..." she managed, pressing a hand to her forehead. You'd think running up walls and somersaulting over buildings would mean I don't get airsick, but nooo.

 

Nearby, a massive set of dusty and time-stained windows revealed a glimpse of the factory's interior. Inside, it was mostly dark, but flickering lights could be seen in the middle of the factory floor. Either there was a night watchman who didn't get the memo, or somebody was indeed up to no good.

[Heritage]

The flight over had been surprisingly smooth, all things considered; Gretchen's control of her TK was quite precise, and her two 'partners' basically felt like giant invisible hands were holding them in placeas the masked heroine swiftly flew them over the city to their destination and deposited them gently on the roof.

 

"Teleportation is for wimps," joked the Shrike with a wry grin. Peering over at the building in question, she nodded. "Looks like this is the place." Then she turned to Echo and cocked her head to one side. "How familiar do you need to be with a location to t-port into it safely? I've seen enough Star Trek to know how dangerous transporter accidents can be."

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo took a moment to compose himself. Normally he was fine levitating or even flying - heck, one of his powers WAS levitation - but he still felt like it had been a month before he could talk again.

 

"Well done, Duckie!" he said, clapping Shrike on the shoulder with a gloved hand. "As for me - Sorry, know the question wasn't directed at me, but I am a teleporter myself, you know - It helps if I can look where I'm going, eh? Not vital, but you know...otherwise I could "Now you see me now you don't" into a wall, and that's a real hassle to get free of."

 

The zombie shuddered theatrically. "Whoof. One time I wound up stuck inside a brick wall for three hours. Wasn't too bad - had a nice little sleep, and wasn't too hard for me to bash my way out, but still. Not something I'd like to repeat, duckie, not at all."

 

[R. Bluefish]

Echo managed to regain her composure enough to walk over to one of the windows and peer inside, cupping her eyes with her hands against the glass. "Eh, depends," she said absentmindedly to Shrike. "My 'porting is short-range enough that it's not much good for getting places fast - I've got my feets for that. Even then I try not to pop blind into places I don't know well, or I might...well yeah, end up in a wall," she said, with a sidelong glance at Phantasmo. "And I'm not, you know, a zombie, so I figure best case scenario they'd be cleaning me up with a wet-vac if that happened."

 

With a whumph, she was suddenly standing beside the Shrike. "And that, ladies and germs, is why I try to only 'port to places I can see. And since some foolish person seems to have installed windows in this building - really, when will they learn - we'll be inside before you can say..." she reached out and rested one hand on Shrike's shoulder.

 

Whumph.

 

"...boo," finished Echo. They now stood on one of the high rafters that crisscrossed the inner roof of the factory. As Phantasmo appeared beside them in a puff of smoke, Echo raised a finger to her lips and pointed silently down. Most of the abandoned factory lay in deep shadow - but far below, amid the shadowy shapes of disused machinery and equipment, there were lights. Lights, and voices.

 

As they strained their ears to hear, they could just make out one of them - a woman's voice, raised in anger. "...been here by now! What was the point of hiring you useless clowns if you can't even make good on your end?"

 

Another voice could be heard stammering protests, but was swiftly cut off by a third voice, this one a man's. "Don't try excuses. We give 'em ten more minutes. They aren't here by then? We're going to get upset."

[Heritage]

So here were the two 'nutjobs' who hired Cole and his moronic buddies, as well as mook who stayed behind. Time to do a little recon. Gretch mimed lifting up her hood, pointed at the ground, and then pointed at her eyes, and then waved her fingers outward, attempting to indicate scouting.

 

She then lifted up her hood, rendering her invisible, and then floated down to the floor before creeping forward to get a better lay of the land.

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo nodded and waited for Gretchen to do her thing. He turned to Echo. They had some time to kill before the Recon was done, so...might as well shoot the sh*t, as the kids say.

 

"So!...you one of the new blood, then?" He asks her. "Been doing this long?"

 

He conjures a coin and rotates it around his fingers as he talks. Small Talk isn't one of his strong suits, but he's giving it the old college try.